Under the Pale
Autumn Moon
---
Kagome walked slowly up the stairs,
not floating, she didn't feel like floating. People only floated when
they felt lighter than air. She didn't at the moment. Not that
everyday people floated or anything.
She only floated when she
was happy.
Now she was just damn confused about this
situation. Who did this Naraku think he was, and how did he know who
she was? And that she was under a curse, and that all she wanted was
a human body?
She walked through the wall and stood staring in
shook at Inuyasha. He lay sprawled on the floor, belly up, and his
dog-ears twitched. She was confused, how could he be so careless as
to be caught off guard and not be wearing his cloaking spell? She
leaned down franticly and felt for a pulse.
Luckily there was
one. Kagome peered around, how had this happened to him?
He
gaze settled on a lamppost that was knocked to the ground. She
slapped her forehead, leave it to Inuyasha to be a dumb ass and do
the stupidest things you only see in an anime. The boy had hit his
head against a lamp!
She sighed and poked Inuyasha's nose. It
twitched when the familiarity of her rosy smell filled his nose. He
cracked open a golden orb and looked up at her sheepishly,
"Ow?"
"You're so stupid sometimes, Inuyasha,"
she giggled and stood, "what did you do, run into a
lamppost?"
She meant for it to be a joke, but by the way
Inuyasha was blushing, she was pretty sure she'd just hit dead
on.
"Oh my god you didn't!" she giggled then burst
into a fit of laughter, "that is too much, the great Inuyasha,
swayed by a mere lamppost, ha!"
"It isn't funny,
Wench," he growled and turned away.
Kagome ignored his
insult and continued to laugh, "You're right, it's
hilarious!"
Inuyasha growled.
Inuyasha
flopped onto his bed at five and stared at the ceiling, after staring
at it for a long time he finally said, "What was I dreaming
about?"
But the dreams were gone, sent away to the back
of his mind. Forgotten and missed.
Suddenly he felt a rock hit
his head, he shot up in bed and stared around the room, "What
the hell?"
Kagome sat whistling over is bed.
Inuyasha
glared murderously at her, "Why'd you do that bitch?"
"Do
what?" she asked innocently.
"You damn well what I'm
talking about, don't give me the innocence act!"
"Define
innocence," she smiled.
Inuyasha sneered, "Innocence
is a nun working in a condom factory thinking she's making sleeping
bags for rodents, now shut the hell up and tell me why you dropped a
rock on my head?"
"For fun and profit."
"I
hate you."
"I know."
Inuyasha plopped
down on his bed trying to think up a good comeback, it suddenly came
to him in a "vision" and he turned around to yell at her,
only to discover she was gone, "Damn it."
Kagome
took the opportunity of Inuyasha being turned away and floated
through the ceilings to the roof. She'd made her decision, she wanted
to have a human body, even if it was only for five minutes, she
wanted to remember what it felt like to be a human, and not some
floating...thing.
When she reached the roof, Naraku was
already sitting there, sipping tea from a little cup he'd undoubtedly
stolen from the kitchen, which she'd done herself over the
years.
"Ah, Kagome-chan, welcome, sit down and welcome to
my domain."
"This is the roof of a house, Naraku,"
Kagome said dryly.
"Ahem yes, well, I feel like it should
be my pad, wouldn't you say, the chimney can help me relieve myself,
that little roof overhanging the window can be my bed..."
"As
much as I want to hear you're home furnishing, I didn't come here for
that," Kagome said, the dry voice still taunting him.
"Oh
course, Kagome-chan, so have you come to your
decision?"
"Yes."
"And what will it
be?" Naraku said, trying to suppress the evil grin that was
forming at the corners of his cheeks.
Inuyasha
banged through the door of the kitchen, "Kagome where the hell
are you?"
Miroku and Shippou looked up from the newspaper
they'd been reading, well actually they were only reading the
comics.
Shippou squeaked and threw a rolled up sports section
at Inuyasha, he still had the idea planted into his head that
Inuyasha was a peeping tom.
Inuyasha sidestepped and allowed
the newspaper to bang against the wall.
Miroku continued to
read about Garfield and Peanuts and didn't look up, he only sipped
his tea and said smartly, "Wow, Inuyasha, so you decided to
leave the domain of your room? Sango and I have become quite
worried."
"I'm not alone."
Miroku peered
at him from over the edge of Sherman's Lagoon. He sighed and folded
the newspaper neatly, each page lining up perfectly, "Oh course,
you have that imaginary friend of yours, what was it
Kahome?"
"Kagome."
"Yes, that's
right," Miroku sipped his tea and shot a glare at Inuyasha, "I
don't like you worrying Sango the way you are."
Inuyasha
rolled his eyes, "Save it. Kagome is real, you just can't see
her for some reason."
"Whatever," Miroku said,
still glaring at Inuyasha, "at least try to convince Sango that
you're not going crazy over the 'accident' though she refuses to tell
me what it is."
"It's none of your business, you
pervert," Inuyasha growled and left the kitchen in search for
his cousin.
"Wait, Inuyasha!" Miroku came running
out of the kitchen and peered at Inuyasha, "This Kagome, is she
hot?"
Inuyasha bashed him over the head and continued on
his way towards the study, where he was sure Sango would
be.
Kagome looked over the horizon, the sun was
beginning to set, and only the faint red glow could be seen over the
mountains.
"I want to be human."
Naraku
smiled, "But of course you do, dearest Kagome-chan, it's been
your dream for hundreds of years, has it not?"
"I no
longer keep track of time, for I never age, due to my curse, I am not
a day older then when Kikyo gave me the curse."
"Yes,
about Kikyo..."
Kagome's eyes narrowed, "What about
her?"
"Well you see, in order to give you a human
body, I have to overcome the power of the curse, momentarily.
Therefore, Kikyo's power shines through, and while you're in human
form, you'll look exactly like Kikyo."
"What?"
"Relax,
Kagome-chan, furthermore, you will have to known as Kikyo, whenever
you are a 'human'. And, when Kikyo becomes 'tired', you'll have to do
me a favor."
"What kind of favor?"
"I'm
sure I'll discover that when the time comes, are you ready Kagome...I
mean Kikyo-chan?" Naraku awaited Kagome's response.
Kagome
bit her lip, she defiantly wanted to do this, wanted to be human, so
maybe she'd actually have a chance with Inuyasha, "Yes, I'm
ready."
"Oh and one more thing, Kikyo-chan, no one
can know that you're Kagome, you have to act like Kikyo, can you do
that? If you fail to do so, you'll lose the human body," Naraku
nodded and awaited Kagome's response.
Kagome cringed but
nodded. All she wanted to do was become human again.
Naraku
grinned and engulfed himself in dark blue flame, surrounding him like
a shield, Kagome noted that it looked a lot like Kikyo's flame she
used to put the curse on her.
Naraku took a step closer and
extended a clawed finger, just lightly poking her in the arm. A
piercing pain shot through her and she let out a cry, but no words
left her lips, she screamed her silent scream as she clutched her
arm. Light was encasing her to the point when she was blinded, she
felt her eyes roll back and felt her body changing.
And then
as soon as it started, it stopped and Kagome opened her eyes to see
that Naraku had disappeared, though his evil cackle still hung in the
air.
She stood up and fell to her knees. She looked at her
legs and was surprised to see they were longer and more slender than
her legs were before. She reached out a hand to touch them but gasped
when she saw that her nails were long, unbitten, and they too were
long and slender.
She gulped and reached a hand to grab her
hair. It slipped through her fingers, it was much silkier and longer
then her other hair. Stringier too. She tried standing again and
wondered what else about her changed.
She looked around and
then cursed mentally.
She was on a roof, how the hell was she
going to get down? She started to walk looking for a window when she
tripped over her feet, which had grown tinier, and fell off the three
story roof.
Inuyasha walked outside, not knowing
where else Sango could be, he'd searched the whole house for any
signs for Sango or Kagome, but came up blank.
He sighed,
"Women..."
Suddenly a high-pitched shriek filled the
air and Inuyasha looked up, coming down from the sky was a girl, she
was falling, "What the hell?"
Inuyasha caught the
girl before she hit the ground and stared. She was panting and
grabbing onto him like her life depended on it.
"What the
hell?" Inuyasha repeated.
The girl cracked open an eye
and stared at him. She smiled, but the smile was cold.
He
gasped, "Kagome?"
Kagome paled, 'He can't
already recognize me can he?' She quickly shook her head and
smiled, aware of how cold it must seem, "Kagome? Who is this
Kagome?"
Kagome gasped slightly at how cold and bitter
her own voice sounds, 'I really am Kikyo in this
form...scary!'
Inuyasha blinked and set down Kagome,
"Sorry, I thought you were someone else, who are you
anyway?"
"Well, you certainly waste no time."
"Well
I think I have a right considering that you came crashing from the
sky," Inuyasha shrugged and then awaited her answer, "I'm
Inuyasha by the way."
"Kag...Kikyo, my name is
Kikyo," Kagome quickly caught herself before she let her actual
name slip.
Kikyo. That name sparked something deep within
Inuyasha, but he couldn't remember where he'd heard it before, it was
annoyingly familiar, but he couldn't place his finger on it.
"Oh,
um, so what are you doing all the way out here?" Inuyasha asked,
wanting to start up conversation.
"Oh, I was...I got
lost, yeah," Kagome said, trying to sound carefree but her voice
came out as a cold and uncaring voice. Deep within her she was
screaming 'It's me, Kagome! Damn it!'
"Oh,
well, do you want to come inside, or something, I would think you'd
be shaken after falling from...wherever you came from," Inuyasha
motioned to the front door, offering his hand he led Kagome
inside.
"Thank you," she smiled, but it was the cold
smile again. What was up with this Kikyo lady, Ice Queen or
what?
Inuyasha led her to the living room where he flopped
down on the couch.
"So, where's your room?" Kagome
asked, and slapped herself, now she was sounding like a
hooker.
Inuyasha tensed, he didn't want to tell this girl they
couldn't go into his room because he was worried a girl who could
float and only he could see might do something evil, making him yell
at her.
"Uh, we can't go up there," he said
quietly.
"Oh...why not?"
"Because...um,"
Inuyasha's brain went into overdrive thinking really hard for a good
lie, "There's a cow living up there."
'Oh damn
it, that was so lame, a cow in my room?' Inuyasha mentally kicked
himself.
"Oh," Kagome had to refrain from bursting
out laughing, that was the worst lie she'd ever heard.
Kagome
suddenly felt a weird feeling come over her and felt her legs and
arms growing shorter, and her hair started to grow shorter. She let
out a surprised gasp, she was turning back into Kagome!
She
suddenly stood up, "I have to go now! Bye!"
She
rushed out of the house with Inuyasha yelling after her,
"Wait!"
Kagome jumped high into the air, and went
through the third story wall, she breathed a sigh of relief, Inuyasha
hadn't seen her change, only saw her leave.
After she caught
her breath she floated into their room. She sat on the bed waiting
patiently.
As if on cue, Inuyasha walked through the doorway
to see Kagome, "And where the hell have you
been?"
"Somewhere."
"I hate
you."
Kagome smiled sweetly, "I know."
