Complete the Circle
Chapter Thirty-One: A Spell Gone Wrong?
"Okay, let's see…" Miroku said, looking at the instructions in the scroll and the star that they had drawn with sake on the ground. "Right. We make a circle with salt around the star. Then I'm supposed to tie the red string around the jade."
"It's a good thing Sango was wearing a jade necklace," Inuyasha grumbled from the middle of the star. "You're such an idiot, Miroku. Can't believe you didn't think ahead of time and get all the ingredients before you called us here."
Miroku just ignored him and tied the string around the jade while Sango and Kagome were making a circle of salt around the star. Shippou held the bottle of pepper anxiously, wondering if the spell was really going to work. If the spell worked, would that mean that Musashino would no longer want him as his "brother"? Would Inuyasha close himself up like he did in the past?
"We're done," Sango announced as they finished the circle of salt.
"All right, then," Miroku said as he dangled the jade from the red string in front of him. He took up his staff in his free hand and held it parallel to the string.
"Shippou, are you ready?" asked Miroku. "Remember, cast the pepper as soon as I'm done chanting the spell."
"Okay," Shippou said, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice. He wasn't going to fail his friends in such an important task as this. Miroku nodded and began the spell.
He chanted in a strange foreign language that sounded like Mandarin, but was slightly different. It sounded more ancient and powerful, yet was slightly mixed with Japanese. No one there knew what Miroku was saying and they all just hoped that Miroku knew what he was doing.
Miroku finished off the chant, and Shippou quickly threw the pepper at Inuyasha, causing them both to sneeze. The ring of salt outside the star started to glow, and then the light faded, seeming to transfer to the star for the star started to glow. Soon, that light faded too, and the piece of jade that Miroku still held in front of him seemed to be pulled towards Inuyasha.
Eventually the jade was pulled so that the string was horizontal and taut, Miroku holding the string tight so that it wouldn't slip out of his hands. A strange mist came out of the jade and surrounded Inuyasha, obscuring him from view. A few minutes later, the jade fell back to its original position and the mist disappeared, leaving everything as it was before. Well… Almost everything.
Inuyasha got down on all fours and started panting like a dog. They all looked in shock as Inuyasha cocked his head slightly to one side and let out a soft whine. Shippou saw Kagome turn to Miroku, something dangerous flashing in her eyes.
"What did you do?!" she all but screamed. Shippou was afraid of her at that moment. What if it was he who had messed up the spell? He watched Kagome nervously as she started yelling at Miroku and telling him to reverse the spell. He didn't notice Inuyasha next to him until Inuyasha nudged him in the chest softly with his head.
Shippou turned to Inuyasha, worried with what he might have done to cause this accident. He saw Inuyasha cock his head to one side again, and Shippou was filled with guilt. Suddenly, Inuyasha winked at him. Shippou blinked in surprise.
"What do you mean you can't reverse it?!" shouted Kagome, near out of her mind with what had just happened.
"There was no antidote in the scroll! This was supposed to work!" Miroku said, trying to keep his voice even. If it weren't for the memories of his past, he would have been running around screaming by now. Maybe not "running around and screaming," but I definitely wouldn't be able to act as calm as I am now. I just turned by best friend into a dog, for crying out loud!
"The spell worked all right," Sango said, watching Inuyasha trying to coax Shippou to play with him. "It's just that none of us considered that his past life may have been a dog."
"Miroku!" Kagome screamed. "Go back to the place where you found the scroll and look for an antidote!"
Miroku mumbled something that shocked Kagome into silence for a moment. But it was only a moment.
"You WHAT?!" she shouted. "How could you—of all the people—and I thought you were smart!"
"What's wrong?" Sango asked, missing what Miroku had just said.
"He got the spell from Jii-chan!" Kagome said, trying to take deep, calming breaths.
"What's wrong with that?" asked Sango, a bit clueless.
"Jii-chan can't even make a proper ward, much less make a spell that actually works!" Kagome said, clenching her fists. "Honestly, Miroku was better off inventing the spell by himself than getting it from Jii-chan."
"I'm sure your grandfather can at least file the spells his has collected correctly," Sango said, trying to comfort Kagome. "I mean, it would only be logical to assume he didn't invent such an ancient spell as this by himself."
"Sango is right," Miroku said, glad that Sango was somewhat helping him. "You should have more faith on your grandfather."
Kagome gave him a shrewd look.
"How long did it take you to find the scroll amidst Jii-chan's other junk?" Kagome said.
"Ah…Herm… That is…" Miroku started, smiling nervously.
"I knew it!" Kagome shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Miroku. "You only found it by digging it out! You don't even know if the spell is genuine!"
"Well it did something, didn't it!" Miroku said, raising his voice.
"Yeah! Turned him into a freak!" Kagome yelled.
"That's a bit harsh, Kagome-chan," Sango said, trying to calm her raving friend.
Kagome turned around and was about to say something to Sango when she felt something brush against her leg. It was Inuyasha. His eyes were looking at her with such innocence that she felt even worse than she did before. If the situation were not so dire, she would have said that the expression on his face was rather cute. She bit her lip, her heart twisting to see his transformed thus, and she knew that she had to do whatever it took to get him back again.
"Inuyasha, let's go!" Shippou said to Inuyasha, gesturing for him to come inside the house. Kagome thought that Shippou was sure handling the situation well. At least he wasn't acting as if everything was his fault anymore. As soon as the pair entered the house, Kagome turned to Miroku.
"What are we going to do?" she said tiredly.
"We can always search for an antidote," Miroku said, looking at the shrine's storage room where he had gotten the spell. Kagome nodded her consent.
A few hours later, they had re-entered the house, exhausted and unsuccessful. Shippou, Souta, and Inuyasha had all disappeared off somewhere, and Kagome didn't have to energy to try to explain to a dog mind that this change may be permanent.
"Who's going to call his mother to explain what happened?" asked Sango, noting that it was sunset already. Kagome looked at Miroku while he was busy studying the pattern on the wall.
"Miroku?" suggested Kagome, not feeling that she was really up to calling Inuyasha's mother.
"No," he said firmly. The two girls looked at him in curiosity. Was Miroku trying to worm his way out of his responsibility?
"What did you say?" asked Sango, not sure if she heard right.
"I would rather lie to his mother about what happened than tell her the truth," Miroku said, wiping the sweat off his brow. "You don't know her as well as I do. If anything happened to her baby boy, someone's going to die."
"If you just explain it to her, I'm sure she'll understand," Sango said reasonably, but Miroku shook his head.
"It took her near five hundred years to conceive a child, and now we've just messed her kid up. How do you think she's going to feel?" asked Miroku, trying to calm his nerves. If Inuyasha's mother ever found out, he was as good as dead.
"Well, maybe she'll—" Kagome started, but was cut off by Inuyasha.
"Listen, this has been fun an'all, but I've really got to go home," Inuyasha said perfectly in the human tongue. He wasn't down on all fours anymore, either.
"Huh? Inuyasha?" asked Kagome, stunned that he wasn't a dog anymore. What was going on?
"What?" Inuyasha asked, as if though the events of the day were perfectly normal.
"Why aren't you a dog?" demanded Miroku, equally confused about the entire business.
"Oh, that," Inuyasha replied as if that incident was of no importance. "I was just pretending."
There was a brief silence before…
"WHAT?!" all three of them shouted at him.
"C'mon, you have to admit, it was pretty funny," Inuyasha said, grinning. "You guys were all frantic about nothing."
"Inuyasha…" Kagome said warningly, wanting to beat some sense into him.
"Inu-nii-chan, when is the next time you're coming to help us beat 'Onimusha'?" asked Souta.
"Maybe next weekend," Inuyasha replied. Kagome couldn't take it anymore.
"How can you just act as if nothing has happened?!" she yelled at him. "Do you know how worried I was for you? I thought that you had really become a dog!"
"You needed a smile, Kagome, and later, you'll think back on this and realize how ridiculous and funny this entire thing was," Inuyasha grinned. Kagome couldn't suppress her anger anymore.
"BAKA!!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. She couldn't believe that he had done all of that just for… just for… She ran upstairs to her room and slammed the door shut. She collapsed on the bed. I can't believe how stupid Inuyasha is, she grumbled to herself. Pretending to be a dog… He had me so worried. Then she remembered the "innocent" face she had seen on him when he had first "transformed." How could she have mistaken that twinkle in his eyes for innocence? He was playing with her all along…
But despite the anger and embarrassment Kagome felt because of Inuyasha, she felt a smile tug at the corners of her mouth.
"Stupid Inuyasha," her mouth said, but her heart said otherwise.
Mrs. Hayashi pulled the needle in and out of the cloth she was sewing rhythmically. Suddenly, she heard a word echo through the city.
"BAKA…
baka…
baka…" a female voice had shouted.
Mrs. Hayashi smiled lightly and continued weaving the cloth, reminding herself to add certain patterns to the cloth to better reveal the wearer's beauty. After all, she didn't want the one person that her son was going to marry to look anything less than beautiful when she appeared in front of the other youkai this coming weekend.
He narrowed his eyes dangerously. So the fool was going off with his own foolish plans. It didn't concern him. However…should that idiot do anything to jeopardize his plans, he was going to pay.
"It looks like I'll have to keep a closer watch on him," he mused to himself. Well, if that imbecile's plan worked, it would make his own plan that much easier to carry out.
"Tono-sama, the trace spell is ready," the servant said to him.
"Then let's start," he said, a cold smile crawling up his face.
Kagome nearly leapt with joy when she saw that she had gotten a 96.5% on her test, but Inuyasha had ruined her moment to shine by getting more than a perfect score on the test.
"105%! How is that even possible?" asked Sango as she stole a peek at Inuyasha's paper.
"I just got the bonus right," Inuyasha said, shrugging it off.
" 'Just got the bonus right'! You didn't even miss any of the other problems!" Kagome said, looking at his paper in disbelief.
"This is just a fluke," Inuyasha said, turning his paper over so that no one else would see his score.
"Too bad this is a fluke that happens too often," Miroku sighed, looking at his own paper. "And to think that you didn't even study for this test…" He sighed again. "I got a lower score than you again."
"Oh? What did you get?" asked Kagome, snatching Miroku's paper and looking at it. Her jaw almost fell open.
"100%!" Sango all but shouted. "What are you complaining for?!"
"I got a lower score than Inuyasha again… How embarrassing…" Miroku said, laying his head on his desk.
"How is that embarrassing?" Inuyasha asked, wondering what his friend was talking about.
"Inuyasha wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in our group," Sango explained to him. "Although, I sometimes think that it wasn't all an act…" Kagome and Miroku looked at Sango curiously, wondering what she meant.
"Hmm…" Miroku said, looking at Inuyasha as if he was trying to analyze him.
"What?" Inuyasha said, irritated with Miroku's weird stare.
"You do seem a bit too smart to be Inuyasha's reincarnation," Miroku said, contemplatively.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Inuyasha, annoyed.
"Either he gained some brains in five hundred years, or he really was pretending," Miroku mused out loud.
"Huh?" Inuyasha questioned, wondering what they were talking about. But they all had such pensive expressions on their face that he decided not to question them. He didn't want to interrupt whatever important thoughts they were thinking of just for the sake of his own curiosity.
They were sitting around the same table in the cafeteria, but Kagome's three friends were strangely absent. Miroku started munching on his bag of chips while Sango and Kagome were busy eating their lunch. Inuyasha had finished the entirety of his lunch in the five minutes that it had taken them to get to the cafeteria and was now working on his homework.
"Kagome!"
Kagome turned around and saw her three friends running towards her.
"Kagome! Hojo-kun's birthday is coming up! And he's having a birthday party!" her friend squealed in delight.
"And he's given us all invitations!" her other friend said.
"Here's one for you, Kagome," her third friend said, handing her an envelope. "And one for you, Sango," she said, giving Sango an envelope, too.
"So, Kagome, are you going to go?" asked her three friends in unison.
"Well…" Kagome started, looking at Inuyasha and Miroku.
"Oh, I get it…" one of her friends said. "You don't want to be with Hojo-kun when you have your own boyfriend now, right?"
"Wha-what are you talking about?" asked Kagome, flustered. "It's just that I don't think it's fair that Inu—err, Musashino and Miroku didn't get invitations, too."
"Oh, we got invitations," Inuyasha said, looking up briefly from his homework.
"Huh? Since when?" asked Sango.
"He gave it to us this morning," Miroku replied.
"Are you going?" questioned Sango.
"Yup. We're not allowed to miss a friend's birthday," Inuyasha said, going back to his homework.
"Huh? Friend?" asked Kagome, wondering why she had never noticed all this before.
"We had to do a project together so we all know each other," Miroku supplied the answer for Kagome. "We're not the closest of friends, but we're okay with one another."
"See, Kagome? They're all going, so are you?" her friends asked her again.
"Well…"
"Come on! There'll be dancing and everything! You have to come!" her friends pleaded with her.
"Fine," Kagome sighed in resignation as her friends walked happily off to help Hojo give other people his invitations.
"Aww, man," Inuyasha grumbled. "Dancing."
"Is something wrong with that?" asked Sango. All she got was a growl in reply.
Author's Note: "Onimusha" is a game on PS2, just in case you didn't know. "Tono-sama" is just for "lord," in case you didn't figure it out, but I bet you already knew that, didn't you?
The chapter's a little bit shorter than the previous ones, but I hope that's okay… School's just been giving me a hard time. I'm thinking that the only time that I'll be able to write this story is during the weekends now, so I'll probably update during Saturday or Sunday. Would it be easier for you if I emailed you about any updates? Please give me your opinion. If you want me to email you, please leave your email on the review, or send it to me at celadonserpent@yahoo.com. If you don't give me your email, then I won't contact you and you'll just have to find out about any updates by yourself.
Thanks to all you regular readers! It makes me happy to know that some people are still keeping up with this story, even though it's more than two hundred pages by now. (You guys are amazing to have read so far!)
Love y'all always! Next chapter's for you!