The time is now a quarter to three. In the night. I went to bed at eight o'clock because I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open, and of course that meant that I had to wake up in the middle of the night.
Oh well. Might as well post a chapter now that I'm awake, right?
Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-yasha. Or Kagome. Or Sango. Or Miroku. Or Shippou. Or Sesshoumaru. Or…
Chapter Six
While Sesshoumaru returned to his castle and his days ran way, playing with Rin and shouting at Jaken (taking equal pleasure in both), the days stretched on and on for Inu-yasha, Kagome and the others. They battled demons and travelled slowly, making their way towards Sesshoumaru's domain. Inu-yasha had after the last time they met the demon lord decided to go into full frontal attack and not avoid him anymore. He had decided to battle his brother once and for all, either killing him or dying himself. But they could not move as fast as Sesshoumaru and they were not sure of the way.
About a week had passed since the last encounter with Sesshoumaru. Kagome was relaxing, thinking that it would be long before she had to meet him again. She was still scared, but she had decided to stop thinking about him for the moment. The mark was useful while they were battling demons, as it enabled her to help Inu-yasha and the others without risking her own life. Before she had always hung in the background, as she did not have the same means to defend herself as her friends. But now she could be in the heat of the battle, and the demons couldn't do anything to her at all.
They had set up camp in a small meadow. Inu-yasha was trying to get a demon who looked a bit like an opossum to talk while the others prepared for the night. Kagome was searching for firewood.
"I'm asking you which way Lord Sesshoumaru's domain is!"
"…Huh?"
Kagome grinned as Inu-yasha grabbed the demon by the neck and shook it, shouting something about it being an imbecile. She walked further away from the camp, looking for dry branches.
Suddenly something dropped down in front of her.
"Hello," said Sesshoumaru. He was hanging upside-down by his knees in a low branch, and he was smiling. "How are you doing?"
She reached back over her shoulder quickly, drawing an arrow from her quiver. Unfortunately she had left her bow back in the meadow, but her arrows were still sharp and could serve as an improvisational weapon. She thrust her arm towards him, but he caught her wrist and squeezed it hard, making her drop the arrow to the ground.
"If you're going to kill me now," she ground out between clenched teeth, "I won't give in without a fight."
"You could just call for Inu-yasha," he suggested, still smiling.
"If I did you'd just run away again. You are a coward." She didn't know why she was doing this, baiting him. Still, he kept on smiling, so she guessed he wasn't really bothered by what she said.
"Well, you know, the reason I keep "running away", as you put it, is that I enjoy the chase so much more than the catch. Killing is easy and fast, but chasing is slow and so much fun. You really should try it sometime…" He caught her other hand as she once again attempted to pierce him with an arrow, now holding both of her hands in his.
"Really, you're making it very difficult to conduct a conversation!" he said, frowning for a second but then regaining his sunny smile. "I kind of like this. I could hang here for the rest of the day. Would you mind that? It would be much more boring without you here to look at."
She growled, kicking out with her foot and connecting with the base of his skull. He winced and finally stopped smiling.
"That would have really hurt if I'd been human. Oh, you are difficult. Most women would be happy over being complimented, but oh no, not little miss Kagome." He suddenly yanked hard on her hands, pulling her close to him, and planted a kiss on her mouth. Then he let her go so quickly she stumbled. When she regained her balance he had jumped down from the tree and was standing in front of her.
"I almost forgot…" he said, reaching his hand into his empty sleeve and bringing out the rosette from her school uniform. "Are you missing this? Because I think I will hold on to it for a while, if you don't mind."
"Pervert," she spat, reaching for another arrow and flinging it towards him. He dodged it with a cheery laugh.
"Oh no, not at all. It's merely a trophy. I won a battle against Inu-yasha – I got a trophy to gloat over. He won a battle over me – he got a Shikon shard. Playing fair. And now I have to go back to my castle, because there is someone there who misses me. I came all the way here just to see you! Feel privileged. Now, I will see you again, but not for some time. Until then, have fun! Because I think that I'm tiring of this chase. If Inu-yasha can't learn to protect you properly then it is no game!"
He ducked her last arrow, and leapt away.
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"Kagooome! Yoo-hoo!" Inu-yasha strode through the wood, dragging the opossum-like creature with him absentmindedly. He was worried – Kagome had only gone to get some firewood and had been gone far too long.
He found her at the base of a tree in a dead faint. He felt her skin and found it to be quite normal, neither pale nor clammy. So why had she fainted? Again.
He picked her up carefully, still holding the little demon thing in his hand. Then he sniffed the air hesitantly. It was faint…but was it Sesshoumaru's scent? Had he been close to Kagome yet again, frightening her into unconsciousness? He sniffed again, trying to decipher the code of his nose. There were so many smells in the forest that made him confused; leaves and earth and bear and owl and…
…wolf.
"Why hello, it's Inu-yasha!" crowed Koga, skidding to a halt right in front of him. "The little puppy out on a picnic. What's with Kagome?" He became serious as he looked at the young girl in Inu-yasha's arms.
"What have you done with her?" he growled, the sparkles that were usually in his eyes going off like light bulbs. Inu-yasha opened his mouth to snap at him but before he could tell Koga to stop being an idiot, someone else did it for him.
"He hasn't done anything to this girl, whoever she is, he just picked her up although I do not know for what purpose, I do not know the way to Lord Sesshoumaru's castle and I haven't even heard of the guy, I do not appreciate being called imbecile by someone who smells like noodles and probably can't even spell his own name, I would like to get back to my dinner please so could you PUT ME DOWN???!!!" Inu-yasha looked down in shock and found the furry opossum-like demon glaring at him angrily. He let it go quickly and watched as it ambled off through the forest, muttering about young delinquents. He turned to Koga whose mouth was hanging open, apparently just as surprised as Inu-yasha himself.
"Have you ever heard one of those speak in words of more than one syllable before?"
"All I've heard them say was "huh?". I didn't think they were capable of anything else!" answered Inu-yasha, still hardly believing what he had heard. Then he sighed and gave Koga what he hoped wasn't a too unfriendly look.
"Look, do you want to come back to the camp? I could…use your help," he said grudgingly. Koga looked at him for a long time, looking both surprised and suspicious. Then he shrugged and smiled.
"If it helps my mate, of course." He looked at Inu-yasha warily, to see if he would accept the challenge, but the other demon just bit down on his anger and decided to swallow his pride. Right now, he needed Koga.
Back at the camp Sango and Miroku fussed over Kagome while Inu-yasha and Koga sat down for a little man-to-man talk.
"So, Inu-yasha… Why have you suddenly realized that you need me?"
"I…need you to tell me," said Inu-yasha slowly, deciding to let Koga's last jibe pass unmentioned, too, "if you know anything of a demon called Sesshoumaru's whereabouts."
Koga assumed a look of great surprise, raising his eyebrows.
"Well, no, of course. Otherwise I'd be there killing him, wouldn't I?"
"What?" Inu-yasha frowned, then remembered that Koga had sworn to kill his brother for what he had done, too. "Oh… you figured out he's my brother then?"
"Yeah, and it was so hard to figure that out," snorted Koga. "Everyone knows you're brothers. Apparently you're considered the two most fearsome demons in this part of the land, by the humans in any case. I believe the description of Sesshoumaru goes something like this: "A demon terrible and cruel, although bearing a handsome appearance, matched only in strength and brutality by his brother, Inu-yasha, fiercest of demons." Can't understand why, when I can take you down any time." Inu-yasha decided to let that insult pass, too, while he pondered Koga's words. Him, the "fiercest of demons"? He wasn't really that bad, was he?
On the other hand…he'd been pretty ruthless before he met Kikyo, and most of all, before he met Kagome. Maybe the rumours were right, in a way.
"OK, so you have no idea? Not a clue? We could work together on this… or something…"
"Get real," snorted Koga. "But no, I don't know anymore than you do."
Inu-yasha sighed. He had so hoped that Koga might be able to at least give him some hint. Alas, no dice.
"OK, that's just too bad, that you couldn't help us. But I guess we'll see you some other time, as you can't seem to keep your nose out of our business. Until then – bye-bye!"
Koga frowned.
"I'm not leaving yet. I want to see that my mate is alright before I go. I won't leave her. I expect you are pushing her too hard, Inu-yasha. Slave driver!"
"What??" said Inu-yasha disbelievingly, having finally had enough. "Sorry, your mate? Oh, I remember – somehow in your delusional state of mind you seem to have come under the impression that Kagome is your mate. Well, news for you: she isn't! And as far as I know, she has no intention of ever being! So you can just lay off that crap, OK?" He pushed his right fist into his other hand, cracking his knuckles.
"As for me pushing her too hard, well, that's just plain bullshit as well. And as for leaving when you can see she's alright, that means you can go now. She's just woken up."
Koga turned to see Kagome sitting up slowly. Her eyes widened when she saw him, and then narrowed when she saw what pose the two demons were in, standing opposite each other, radiating hostility.
"Oh, for heaven's sake!" she exclaimed, standing up with red spots of anger in her cheeks. "Do you two always have to fight? It's driving me nuts!" She strode over to them, stopping when she was standing a bit in front of them, on equal distance from both. She then proceeded to tell them off soundly.
"Koga, I'm tired of you running to and fro, you're bothering us all and we always get dust all over our clothes! I am not your mate, and if I have to tell you that I'm not one more time I am going to take a leaf from Inu-yasha's book and hit you repetitively where it really hurts! And if you don't stop baiting Inu-yasha with your insults I am going to get really angry – and I won't even tell you what I'll be doing to you then because Shippou is listening!
Inu-yasha, it wouldn't hurt you to be nice to Koga for once in a while, and you don't even have to listen to what he says when he's being so GODDAMN RUDE! And most of all you don't have to be so GODDAMN RUDE yourself! Stop being so freaking jealous, it's driving me absolutely crazy, and stop overreacting to everything Koga says! And if you make one more crack about him having fleas then I will say the special word – oh yes, you know which one I mean – until you go through the centre of the earth!
YOU ARE BOTH SO INCREDIBLY CHILDISH I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE YOU! IF YOU DON'T STOP FIGHTING EACH OTHER I WILL JOIN IN MYSELF TO STOP YOU AND THEN YOU WILL REALLY KNOW WHAT PAIN IS!"
Sango and Miroku watched, smiling, as the two young men shrank away from Kagome, cowering (Inu-yasha with his ears flattened against his head). When she finally stopped to catch her breath they relaxed visibly. Under her glare they then meekly turned towards each other.
"Er…sorry."
"Um, yeah."
"Um, yeah, what?" prompted Kagome.
"Um, sorry," said Inu-yasha.
"Good," snapped Kagome and stomped off towards the campfire that Sango and Miroku had gotten going in her absence.
Koga and Inu-yasha looked away from each other, a bit embarrassed.
"Er… I see she's better now," said Koga. "So… I'll just be leaving, then?"
"Uh, yeah," said Inu-yasha. "Uh… safe journey."
"Um… Thanks."
Without any smart and taunting parting words, the wolf demon left, not even kicking up the usual cloud of dust.
"Whoa. Remind me never to get on her wrong side," whispered Miroku to Sango, and together they giggled for a long while over seeing the two usually so proud and stubborn demons subdued.
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