I KNOW I KNOW!! It's been a while since I've updated this story, but now I have INSPIRATION! I'm estimating that this thing will last maybe 8-10 chapters total, so let's get going! ^^
Also—when I run out of ideas for this story, I'll just crank out some random one-shots so. . . expect those often ^^;;;;;
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN INUYASHA YOU NUMBSKULLS!! -_-
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Cruel to be Kind
Chp. 4
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Inuyasha dropped through the tree branches of the God tree, coming to rest on the raised, bumpy roots of the ancient tree. He lifted his head in the air and sniffed thoughtfully.
He could still not pick up the scent of that girl.
Growling angrily, the half-demon sprung back into the leafy foliage and into a tree by the side. There was a very small chance that they might come back. Criminals always return to the scene of the crime, he told himself.
By the way, he was still wondering why he was taking the pains to guard the shrine when he could be somewhere in the house, attempting to figure out how the strange device that made little people do stupid things in a box worked.
When he had woken up this morning in Kagome's room, being in that enclosed space for so long had bothered him. A lot.
So the hanyou had leaped from the window into the forest, where he remembered what had happened with the odd girl before.
He knew it was really probably none of his business, but it prickled at him for some odd reason. His instincts told him to guard his new territory, and guard he would.
Inuyasha sighed and settled down in the tree, eyes and ears alert for the slightness signal of an intruder, although his mind had drifted off elsewhere. Why can't I remember? he thought to himself. I just can't remember what happened. . . What happened after my mother died? How did I suddenly get here. . .?
He tried as hard as he could to remember the hole in his life, an empty void longing to be filled, with knowledge and memories and info. He screwed up his face and tried as hard as he could to remember.
Instantly, the searing pain crossed his skull, and he howled in pain. For a few seconds, he couldn't think, and his mind was numb. Again, he was blocked off from what he wanted the most, only this time, he had managed to get a tiny flash before he had stopped.
Red, white, and black. . . A human figure. . . a glowing pink spot. . .
That was all he knew now.
It hurt too much to try thinking about it again. Maybe, if he tried again tomorrow, he could recover more of what'd he lost.
Still dissatisfied, the half-breed settled against the rough wood, still watching, ever alert.
--*--
In her classroom, Sango suddenly flinched and twitched.
"Miroku," she hissed under her breathe, without removing her gaze from the whiteboard, "please remove your hand from my ass before I remove it for you."
Hastily, the young man complied, fearing Sango's almighty wrath.
The young girl spared a second to glare at him before she twitched again.
"Are you okay?" he asked, staring at her concernedly. Sango was usually so calm and collected, the last time he saw her fidget was when her younger brother died.
The two watched as the teacher busted another guy for chucking paper airplanes made of love-notes at Kagome, who was seething and obviously was enjoying the teacher yelling at him.
"About time that nitwit got it comin' to him," Kouga muttered under his breathe, with Ayame nodding mutely in agreement, as the two watched Kagome in fear as she grinned like an evil maniac and stroked her knife.
Home Economics is, most often, not a very good place to chuck notes proclaiming your undying love at a girl who hated you.
Sango twitched once more as the guy walked out to the hall, followed by the teacher's book, which hit him quite soundly in the head.
Turning just barely to Miroku, she whispered tiredly, "He's tried again. He just won't give up."
Miroku stared at her. "Which one?"
"Both." Sango sighed and slumped down in her seat. "That gets very tiring you know," she complained. Resting one of her arms on her desk, she dropped her pencil and leaned forward, holding her forehead with her other hand.
A second later. . .
"PERVEEEEEEEEEEEEERT!!!!" Sango screamed as she knocked the poor boy black n' blue. "That was low, even for you!!" she snarled angrily, kicking Miroku in the side.
"I like to challenge my records, thank you very much," he wheezed.
In three seconds, he joined the other boy outside, who was still yelling love confessions through the wall.
--*--
As soon as the bell rang out for the end of school, and the mad stampede of glorious freedom had subsided, Sango yanked Miroku from his place on the wall and dragged him behind her as she stomped off and out of the school.
"Ow—Sango—OucH!—hey could you—ACK!!*whump*--let go—*bam*F***--me?!"
With a slightly satisfied smirk Sango released her hold on the boy, who promptly picked himself of the ground and rubbed his beaten skull. "Where are we going anyway?" he asked irritatbly.
"To pay our respects."
"To wh--. . . oh." Miroku sighed and glanced around. "No one's here—can't we go faster?"
"No you numbskull!" Sango snapped, rolling her eyes. "OF COURSE!! NOW LET'S GOD DAMN GO!!"
Miroku stood with wide, tramatized eyes as Sango stomped a few feet off and disappeared, a black-flame aura visible to everyone but here surrounding her and burning the grass quite well.
Wincing, the boy made a mental note to try harder not to get on her bad side, and promptly disappeared.
--*--
Kagome wandered out of the house and around her shrine yard. Her mother told her to find Inuyasha and call him in for dinner, but she had no clue where on earth he'd go during the day.
She decided to go explore the forest for any trace of the silver-haired hot-headed half-demon. She'd wanted to explore the forest again for awhile, and now she had a legitimate cause.
Smiling happily, the girl scrambled over a bush and between and couple trees, heading right behind the Goshinboku, the God tree.
--*--
Inuyasha had smelt Kagome in the yard for a while now, but he didn't budge.
He didn't feel like moving, still pondering over the tiny glimpse of what could be his past that he had recovered earlier that morning.
His ears twitched and he tensed on the branch, as he smelled another two scents in the area. A girl, and a boy. He immediately let out a low, rumbling growl as he recognized one of the scents to be the strange girl that had intruded into forest around the shrine.
Tensing against the tree, the crouched low and then launched himself through the air into another tree, doing so swiftly and softly as the two figures entered the area.
"No one's here?" the male asked the girl softly.
"Coast clear," she whispered back. They both dashed forward to the ancient tree's rising roots, kneeling at the base of the tree. Looking to either side, they hesitated, then folded their hands in prayer.
To whom, he wondered.
At that moment, and loud crack was heard as Kagome stumbled into the area. The first thing she saw was Sango and Miroku, who, still kneeling were now staring at her with large, widened eyes and pale faces.
"Sango. . . Miroku. . .?" Kagome asked incredously. Pushing aside a shrub, she stepped into the area completely, the leaves cracking under her feet echoing in the now silent area. She brushed a couple of emerald leaves out of her hair and continued. "What on earth are you doing here. . .?"
Suddenly, Inuyasha leaped down from his perch up yonder. "You better damn well explain," he growled. "What do you want here? Again?!" he snarled at Sango, who twitched then hastily got to her feet.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome cried. Sango had seen his white dog ears, which she was staring at right now, before her gaze averted to his claws and then away. Sweet Jesus, there was going to be some explaining to do.
"Um. . ." Miroku got to his feet too and stood next to Sango, backs facing the goshinboku. "Who are you?" he asked nervously, laughing weakly when Inuyasha glared venomously at him.
"It doesn't matter who I am," he answered. "It does matter what the hell YOU are doing here!"
Sango was still gaping at the claws and fangs, before she turned wordlessly at at Kagome. "I think we need to talk," she finally said.
--*--
"Okay. . . so. . . who goes first?" Kagome asked when they had all settled down in Kagome's living room. Thankfully, her mother was out shopping, Souta was over at a friend's house, and Grandpa was off in the shrine shop luring unsuspecting travelers into his lair and forcing them to buy useless artifacts.
"Um. . . You?" Miroku tried hopefully. Inuyasha growled at him, the sun glinting off his silver hair and very sharp fangs, making the poor guy sweat and look away quickly.
"Okay. . . Well. . . I found Inuyasha stuck to a tree," Kagome started.
Sango nodded, gesturing for her to continue. "that's obviously not all of it," she said.
"Yeah well . .. anyway, when I first tried to touch the arrow sticking him to the tree, there was this weird barrier, or something around him. And there was this rhyme thing on it too. . ." She closed her eyes and tried to remember what it had said, but she couldn't. "Anyway," she continued. "I touched the barrier again, only the second time it glowed and then disappeared. The same thing happened with the arrow, and Inuyasha woke up and thought I was someone named 'Kikyô' or something like that."
Sango twitched when she said the name 'Kikyô, but she ignored it and continued. "So, Inuyasha is a half dog-demon. And he can't remember his past."
Inuyasha, who was laying across the back of a couch, opened one eye lazily and looked at them. ~They're taking it well. . .~ His mind joked feebly as he closed his eye and resumed his light nap.
"So that's it," she finished.
Miroku blinked. "It just occurred to me, dear lady, where is the rest of your charming family?"
"Mom's out shopping, Grandpa's in the Shrine store, and Souta is out playing with Kohaku."
Sango flinched jerkily this time, attracting everyone's attention. "D-did you s-say K-kohaku?" she asked unsteadily. Tears were welling up in her eyes, and she had to gnaw on her lip to keep it from quivering.
"Yeah. Why?" Kagome asked curiously.
Shaking her head, she turned away from everyone, even Miroku, and shook her head to clear her mind.
So. . . long. . .
Since. . . he. . . had died. . .
She couldn't let them see her weakness.
They could not know anything.
Sango turned back to them, smiling with fake cheerfulness as she stood up, yanking Miroku up with her, who let out a startled squawk. "Thanks for sharing with us," she grinned with false enthusiasm. "We promise not to tell anyone," she added as Kagome opened her mouth. "C'mon Miroku, let's go!"
With that, she dashed out of the house, dragging Miroku after her again, who let out volleys of 'ows' and other un-mentionable words. ^_~
Kagome and Inuyasha stood there as a piece of paper blew by. "that was. . . interesting. . ." Kagome blinked.
"Yeah. . ." he replied, staring also.
--*--
Sango continued running down the street after she released her death grip on Miroku. The young man panted and hurried to keep up with the heavily sprinting girl, as her eyes unfocused temporarily. She made a sudden sharp turn, cutting Miroku off and almost tripping him as she did so.
"Hey!" he yelled as he regained his balance. "What's up!?"
Sango didn't stop running as she ran with all her might, long legs stretching wide, one foot in front of another. "No time!" she yelled back. "Hurry up!!"
Miroku wheezed and began running again, in desperate attempts to catch up with her, but still failed miserably. He was only too glad as she finally skidded to a halt in front of a house and stared with blank eyes up to its gaping windows.
"What are we. . ."
"Kohaku! Over here!" Souta's voice issued out as his head poked out of a tree house, situated in a firm oak tree in the front yard, they could see over the iron railing.
"I'm coming!!. . . Just gimme a sec!!" Another boy's voice yelled from the ground.
In a few moments, the rope ladder to the tree house swung and then went taut as another little boy scrambled open. He had blackish-brown hair, long and thin body structure and the same dark-colored eyes as Sango.
As she saw the boy, her heart fell with a sickening thump. It was true; he WAS here. She couldn't help but let a few hot tears escape.
Miroku was still jogging in the distance, so she turned back to watching the two boys. She pretended to be interesting in the floral display that grew in front of the small house, but watched out of the corner of her eye as the two stared at her and started whispering together.
"Hey, Kohaku, do you know that girl?"
"I don't think so."
"I think I saw her with my sister before. . . She looks sorta like you!" Souta laughed.
"I dunno. . . she seems kinda familiar though. . ."
Sango jerked her head up and started hurrying away, wiping her eyes dry of tears and sniffing loudly.
It hurt. . . so much. . .
Didn't. . . know her. . .
By the time Miroku had caught up with her, she managed to dry her face and pushed her sorrowful thoughts to the back of her mind.
She didn't need to worry about this right now.
She had a much more important mission to complete.
*~*~*~*~*TBC*~*~*~*~*
Hokay. I'm done for now! No more work! W00t! ^^
Dunno if anyone else wants to bother reading this, but the English version of Rurouni Kenshin manga stocked in the Borders in LA!! And I must say, for a translated version of manga, it has pretty good art. . . blooood. . . *_* muwhahahahaaahaahah. . .
Anyway, I don't know how soon I'll manage to pull out the next chapter. The lil folder I keep with all my files stuffed in it are archived with all sorts of one-shot shit, and I have a crap load of fluffy Miroku/Sango & Inuyasha/Kagome stuff planned out. What can I say, I live for the romance =D
Right now, my internet connection is being shitty, so when I respond to the reviews, I'm gonna do all 7 of them, regardless if I wrote them before. -_- Who gives a fuck anyway? You get thanked twice. That's next chapter. 7 WHOLE REVIEWS!! W00t!! *sarcasm* plus whatever review I may get next chapter.
SO~~~~
Thanks all, review and hopefully I'll update soon ^^
~~PhantomPhire