@Ah, another sumptuous plotline. I'm feeling creative, and at the same time I feel a bit of collage is in order. Some of this may seem a bit cliché, but it's not been done with Inuyasha yet, so here goes. @
The removal of the crystal shards was slightly painful for Kagome and Inuyasha, but hardly an ordeal compared to the past few days, during which they'd been up day and night, regardless, and paid no attention to sun or moon. Now near midnight, after Kagome was checked over and found to be fine, Kaede used some weird incantation to make the Shikon shards extract themselves. With six people in the house Kagome and Inuyasha had no privacy, but still she curled up against him to sleep, Shippou declaring his own little spot on Inuyasha's chest against Kagome's head. Inuyasha made only slight passive attempts to make him leave his burrow in Kagome's hair, but overall he gave up quickly. Kagome had softened him in a way he'd never have though possible.
It was determined that they needn't return to Kagome's time now that things were going so much more smoothly. Rumors of Shikon shards to the South were passing from travelers quite readily, and so the five prepared to travel. But as they got farther from the well, Kagome began to wonder if she'd told her parents she had to leave… or at least that she might leave soon… When had they last seen her, before or after her irrational change in temperament that the Shikon shards had affected. She grew more nervous by the day, and try though she might, it must have become obvious to the others that even though things were good between her and Inuyasha (really good in fact) she wasn't quite herself. About a week after leaving Kaede's house, she began to feel it - a pain that went from her chest back to between her shoulder-blades… right where the sword would have plunged through her. It was nearly unbearable, and even harder to keep from showing. Though it came and went like a headache, she started to sweat and get chills when it was at its worst.
"Kagome, what's wrong?" Inuyasha asked when she was getting chills one warm afternoon. His put his arm around her shoulders and the pain and chills subsided to a faint throb.
"My metabolism must be off, probably from the change in diet. We're out of ramen too now." She said, writing it off to the fact that they'd just run out of food from her world.
Inuyasha grinned, "Yeah, that ra-men stuff is good." A bit dreamier now, his thoughts wandered to dinned. "We should have fish with the rice tonight - I'll go catch some!" He said, bounding off giddily. Funny, Kagome noted. He's been acting so youthful and immature lately…As he left the pain returned, but the chills were gone and she bore it in peace.
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When they reached the village, Kagome came to a decision. Although she had first decided to stay because of how much it meant to Inuyasha, she now felt that she had to return home... She would tell him when they were ot of public sight, so that if he threw a fit it wouldn't be too embarassing. As they walked into the inn where they would be staying (while Miroku assessed the demon exising situation to pay for their stay) Kagome pled to Sango that she needed fresh air.
On her way out to the nearby clearing that she'd spotted, she saw a caravan, stopped dead with a crowd of people hovering near the front. She heard one exclamation before she went on her way,
"Oh no, she's dead!" A mother's anguished cry.
Hurrying, Kagome made her way to the clearing where she sat down and cried,feeling like somehow it was their fault the child died, and knowing that she was about to disrupt the only peace that she had in her life.
"Oh Inuyasha," She said aloud "I'm so sorry..."
"What?" She turned around to find that Inuyasha had followed her faster than she'd expected.
"I... I need to tell you something... and I'm not really sure how to tell you..." Kagome said slowly, watching him grow agitated.
"You want to go back." He said simply.
"I think that I should have told my parents before we left... And it ocurred to me that they may have heard from the hospital.... And I want them to know that I..." Kagome was cut offjst before she could say 'want to marry you' by Inuyasha's gruff reply,
"Fine, so waste all this travelling and when we could find that shard in a few days, let's just turn around and go back, because NOW you think that you should have left your mother a note? Ok, you know what, maybe you should just run home since you care more about them than you do about us."
Suddenly as he spoke the pain returned, sharp and poignant. Rather than let him know, she wanted to go briefly to a physician in her world, find ot why she felt this phantom wound... About to stagger from the pain, tears streaming down her face for more than one reason, she ran off into the woods.
And when she arrived in the woods, she saw another Kagome... with Inuyasha.