Impulsive Behavior
Kagome woke up at noon the next day, embarassed to see the others gathered around her, ready to go. She'd slept so late! Inuyasha was waiting in the doorway, and left when he saw she was awake. Sango asked if Kagome was feeling okay, but Kagome just nodded and sleepily gathered her stuff.
She had no doubt why she was so sleepy. The visitor from last night had worn her out. Kagome bit her lip, as her first impulse was to tell the others. She couldn't. The one she cared about the most...Kagome shook her head. She didn't want anybody dying because of her. So she waved good-bye to Hojo, feeling guilty for having to leave him, and left with the others.
It was a long journey this time. Kagome knew it would take several days to reach their destination. She'd brought her bike and her pack, though, so she was prepared to camp out. However, Inuyasha hadn't spoken a word to her. Was he still upset about yesterday?
"Kagome-chan, are you okay?" Sango walked alongside the girl.
"Of course, Sango-chan! Why?"
"You just slept so late today, and you look like you have something on your mind."
Kagome sighed. She could see Inuyasha's ears moving, no doubt listening for anything unusual. She also knew that he could probably hear every word that was spoken between herself and Sango. Well, she could use this opportunity. She could at least talk about one of her worries. Might as well.
"Actually," Kagome said. "Sango-chan, is Inuyasha mad at me?"
Sango blinked a couple times, "Why would he be mad at you?"
"He hasn't spoken to me since yesterday morning. I get the feeling that he might be avoiding me," Kagome paused. "I got mad at him because he let Hojo-kun wander off. Though it wasn't a big deal. I wasn't even his fault, really."
"I don't see that he'd start ignoring you because of that," Sango said.
Kagome nodded, "You're right. Maybe I'm just imagining things." She looked back up at Inuyasha, whose ears were turned backwards. Kagome knew for sure that he'd heard their conversation. She hoped that would let him know that she wasn't REALLY mad at him. It wasn't even that major of a fight for the two of them.
Kagome jumped a bit when Shippo hopped up on her shoulder. He looked at her face closely, inspecting it. Kagome sweatdropped. "What's wrong, Shippo?"
"Kagome, you slept a lot, but you still have circles under your eyes!" He pointed out as if he had solved a great mystery. It seemed like something of an accusation.
"Ah, Shippo! I just didn't sleep very well."
"Well, you look horrible!"
"Shippo!" Sango interrupted, chastising the young fox-demon.
"It's okay, Sango-chan. I'm sure I do look pretty bad." Kagome wanted to get off the subject. It was skirting too close to what happened last night. Though there was no way any of them could know about that. After all, it had happened out of time.
Kagome stared down at the handlebars in thought. If that visitor had stopped time for everything but Kagome and themself, that meant that Kagome had aged during that time while the others hadn't. She paused to consider how silly this train of thought was, but she continued with it. If, for some reason, the person kept stopping time on her for long enough periods of "non-time", for lack of a better phrase, Kagome could accumulate enough in age when time wasn't moving to actually get older than Sango, or at least catch up to the others in age. Or did it even work that way? Kagome looked up thoughtfully. Maybe she didn't age at all, either. Maybe just her mental capabilities were kept out of time. Though that would still mean that she was aging mentally and emotionally, which was just as important as the physical aspect. So no matter which way you looked at it, Kagome was a bit older in proportion to when she went to bed the night before. She started counting on her fingers. The person had been there for about 10 or 15 minutes, Kagome would say. That would mean that Kagome was about 10 minutes older than she should have been. What if that person visited once a night and did that? That would mean that in...
Kagome stopped to do the math to figure out how long it would take her at that rate to gain an extra year out of time. My, that was difficult math! Just as she was about to reach an answer, she glanced around and noticed the others were stopping and staring at her. She realized that she had stopped in the middle of their travels to do a math problem.
Kagome looked down, properly abashed, "Sorry, guys. Was thinking of something else."
Kagome continued pedalling, hoping the others would continue walking. It seemed that they were curious, but not too worried about the stop. She mentally chided herself. That was not the way to keep questions from coming up! She told herself that she would ask the mysterious person next time she saw them. Then Kagome caught herself, almost repulsed by her thinking. She couldn't WANT to see that person again! Why was she taking this so lightly? That person had...Kagome suppressed a shudder as she remembered the feeling of the body above her, the threatening hand hovering over her cheek.
"Kagome-chan, isn't this a bit exciting?"
She nearly ran into Inuyasha when HE stopped. She stepped backward to avoid the collision and noticed his ears twitching. He was sensing something.
"What is it, Inuyasha?" Miroku asked.
Inuyasha sniffed the air, looking around. Finally, he turned, facing Kagome, his eyes focusing on her.
"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked, surprised. Why was he looking at her if he sensed a demon?
Inuyasha looked at her suspiciously and with a hint of...was that fear in his eyes? He took a step closer to her, looking around the general proximity before looking at her again.
"Inuyasha, you know what Kagome smells like!" Shippo said, breaking the tension.
The mood broken, the others turned and continued walking. Inuyasha stared at Kagome a few seconds longer, then turned, himself, to continue through the forest. Kagome followed after them, feeling nervous. What was that about? She pedaled faster so that she could catch up with Inuyasha.
"Ne, Inuyasha..." she said.
"I'm not mad at you," he said almost instantly.
"What?"
"You think I'm mad at you. I'm not."
Kagome had completely forgotten about that. Was he trying to head off an argument or avoid a discussion about something? She decided to just take it for what it was: a reassurance.
"I'm glad," she said. "But just now, what did you sense from me?"
He glanced sideways at her, "Nothing."
"You expect me to believe that?"
He didn't say anything.
"So you just stopped the entire group just because you wanted to turn and give me a weird look, is that it?" She didn't know why she was so angry with him over it. She was just tired of him keeping things to himself like that. Why couldn't he just be honest with her?
Though she was one to talk.
When she didn't get an answer, she muttered, "Baka" to him and pedaled faster to get ahead of him. He let her go.
****
They had set up camp by nightfall. Inuyasha sat against a tree, watching the others. Kagome was studying one of her books, though not very successfully if her befuddled expression was any indication. Sango was cleaning Hiraikotsu, and Shippo was curled up next to Kagome, getting an early start on sleep. Miroku walked over to sit next to Inuyasha.
"So, Inuyasha. What did you feel from Kagome-sama today?" Miroku asked.
Inuyasha scowled, arms crossed. "It was nothing! Forget about it!"
Miroku shook his head, "I felt something, also. Like another presence. Very faint, and only for an instant."
Inuyasha hadn't realized that the monk had also sense something at that time. Since Miroku obviously believed him, Inuyasha nodded. "It's strange."
"Perhaps. I think we should watch her closely. Somebody could be trying to possess her."
Inuyasha nodded again, staring hard at the girl with her book. It was a cruel fate that she should be the carrier of the shards and have to deal with the brunt of the attacks. While strong, she was still the weakest of the group, besides Shippo. Inuyasha couldn't bear to think that somebody might be trying to hurt her without him knowing. Physical attacks, demons he could deal with. Possessions, sorcery...that was something different. His style of fighting did little good against that stuff. If something was happening to Kagome, he could do so little for her.
He shook away those thoughts. Why would she choose that Hojo boy for her boyfriend? That boy could protect her even less than Inuyasha. Was it because she and Inuyasha were fighting all the time that she didn't like him?
Inuyasha's head hurt from the confusing thoughts. He felt jealous of Hojo. He never thought about it before, but after everything that he'd been through with Kagome, he'd gotten the feeling that if ANYBODY were to be her boyfriend...it would be him. In fact, something he rarely dared to admit to himself was that he hoped that someday he could take that role. But did she even like him? As anything more than a "shard-collecting partner"?
From beside him, he heard Miroku chuckling. Inuyasha turned to glare at the monk, who put his hands out. "Inuyasha, you make things seem so complicated. I can hear your brain thinking from here."
Inuyasha growled softly, but Miroku ignored it. "If you like Kagome-sama, but you're not sure if she likes you, just be nice to her. You'll be able to tell by how she responds to you."
"Keh! I don't need advice from a pervert like you!" Inuyasha turned his nose up.
But, still, the monk had a point...
Miroku smiled and stood up to walk over to Sango. Inuyasha had no doubt that the monk's intentions in that regard were less than pure. Inuyasha snorted and leaned his head back against the tree. Be nice to Kagome...he could try it. But if she were going out with that Hojo boy, would it really matter?
Night fell and the group started to go to sleep around the fire. Inuyasha stayed awake, keeping watch for any dangers. It was around the middle of the night when Inuyasha sensed a presence, not far from the camp. It was faint, but it was still a threat. Inuyasha stood slowly. He didn't feel that it was a very strong youkai. It probably wasn't worth it to wake everybody for it, and he didn't sense any other presences around.
Without another thought, Inuyasha ran towards the source of the presence he felt. It wasn't very far. Inuyasha soon reached a cave, nearly invisible in the undergrowth of the forest. It was coming from there. The dog demon entered slowly, careful of any traps. The cave was small, but deep. It had a low ceiling, and the ground was unlevel, making it difficult to find his footing. A small trickle of water made its way down into the cave, which descended into the earth. Inuyasha sniffed a couple times. The closeness of the cave was making it difficult to pinpoint the youkai. He took another few steps into the cave before he realized that the demon had somehow gotten behind him
Turning quickly, Inuyasha looked just in time to see the entrance of the cave disappear as a flurry of rocks fell over it. As the entrance sloped down, several rocks fell back into the cave. Inuyasha dodge one, but was struck by another. He rolled, trapped behind the falling rock, travelling unwillingly deeper into the dark cave. He came to a stop, finally, as he hit a wall, the rock that had knocked him down smashed into him. Inuyasha shoved it aside and tried to get his bearings. The youkai wasn't in the cave anymore. In fact, it was running away from the cave at a fairly quick pace. Snarling, Inuyasha ignored his aching shoulders and back, which had taken a beating in his impact with the wall, and ran toward the cave entrance.
The cavein had been well planned. There weren't even any cracks for him to see through. He could guess that the rocks were layered several rocks deep between him and the entrance. It would take forever to move enough rocks to get him out. And even then, he couldn't guarantee that he could do so without causing another rockslide down the cave. He growled in frustration at being tricked like that before he froze. It all came together.
The youkai had trapped him, then had run away. The youkai was heading for the camp, but it had needed Inuyasha out of the way. And Inuyasha had left with the others still asleep, unaware that anything was coming. Inuyasha balled his hands into fists, his claws digging at his palms. Kagome had the shards on her...and Inuyasha was willing to bet that the damn youkai was heading straight for her.