Chapter 21-The bit I ACTUALLY made up! A.k.a , The Shikon No Tama

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Kagome walked slowly along the precipice that separated Inuyasha and her from Sango, Miroku and Shippou.

"I bet Miroku is doing unholy things to Sango now." Kagome said to herself, smiling a bit.

"Naaaah," Inuyasha piped up behind her. "She's stronger than him for and start."

"Plus, Sango would never take that crap from Miroku. No matter HOW much she likes him."

Inuyasha raised his head. "Sango likes Miroku?"

Kagome turned around and threw her hands up in mock exasperation.

"My God Inuyasha! It's the most OBVIOUS thing in the world! How could you NOT have noticed?!"

Inuyasha shrugged his shoulders.

Smiling, Kagome resumed her walking. Inuyasha watched her back as she walked, then stuck his nose up.

Even though Kagome was separated from her friends, she was happy. For one thing, she and Inuyasha hadn't argued at all in the whole two hours they had been together, and also, Kagome was glad to be alone with Inuyasha.

Yes, she decided a while ago that she liked Inuyasha as 'more than a friend', and after the Sango incident and Inuyasha's 'here, use my lap as a pillow' soft side showing, she decided that she was indeed in love with the hanyou. Hence the whole story to the Thunder brothers about how much Inuyasha loved her, and her heart did a double flip when he had grabbed her hand and begged her to stay.

So walking along the edge of a huge, thousand-foot drop wasn't so bad because she had Inuyasha walking behind her.

This little blissful walking carried on until nightfall, where Inuyasha and Kagome came upon the town of Ohara, which is right next to Kyoto (I checked! I have a map of Japan!) . They found an abandoned hotel room, which, of course, was the abandoned Presidential suite.

Inuyasha was sitting on the side of his king-size bed, staring at the floor. Kagome had come out of the shower, smiling, with a fresh, clean school uniform on. As Kagome went to her king-size bed, Inuyasha turned his head to look at her.

"I'm sorry for not protecting you." He suddenly said, causing Kagome to fall on the floor in shock.

"W....wha?" She stammered, getting up from off the floor.

He turned his whole body around to face her. His eyes were strangely serious, and his face looked upset as well.

"I'm sorry for not protecting you against the Thunder brothers. I'm sorry for not protecting you from The Peach Man. I'm sorry I almost killed you when we first met. I'm sorry for being a snob at school. I'm sorry for being rude and I'm sorry for not saving your family from the youkai."

As he said all this, his face got sadder and sadder, Kagome stood there with her mouth open in pure shock, thinking: 'God, he looks cute when he's sad!'

Inuyasha then crawled over the bed, onto the floor and walked over to Kagome. He was scarily taller than Kagome and he loomed over her, his amber eyes unusually soft and calm.

"I'm sorry." He said a final time before his head seemed to lean into Kagome's.

In complete shock and at a loss as to what to do, Kagome squeezed her eyes shut and waited for whatever was going to happen when their faces met.

But, as luck would have it, a big crash sent Inuyasha and Kagome sprawling to the floor. Inuyasha cursed violently and jumped back onto his feet. Kagome, still in shock at Inuyasha's confessions and even more so at his attempt to kiss her, was lying on the floor, her eyes wide open.

A woman's head peered through the shattered window of the room; she was completely white, with long black hair and two dots on her forehead.

"You have it yessssssssss?" She hissed as her arms climbed through the window, followed by another pair of arms, and another pair. Then, a gigantic centipede body came through the window, breaking its frame. The centipede lady slithered her way over to Kagome. Inuyasha leapt at the youkai but she swatted him with the end of her centipede body, throwing him across the room.

Kagome was frozen with fear as she watched the lady getting closer and closer. Suddenly, she broke out of her trance and stood up as fast as she could, getting ready to run.

She wasn't fast enough.

The centipede lady lunged at Kagome grabbing the side of Kagome's waist with her sharp fangs, slicing the flesh.

Inuyasha shook off his dizziness, looking at what had just happened, he saw a small, orange ball fly out of Kagome. It glided through the air as light as a feather, landing inches away from Inuyasha. Centipede Lady extracted her fangs from Kagome and snapped her head in the direction of the tiny ball.

"I knew it!" She cackled. "I knew you had the Ssssshikon no Tama!"

Kagome, who had fallen back onto the floor, curled up in pain, lifted her head to where the jewel had landed, and then she looked at Inuyasha.

He was leaning forward a little, his eyes a wide as headlights, his mouth half open. Kagome saw his amber eyes flick to the youkai, then to the jewel again.

"You killed my brother." The youkai said harshly, not taking her eyes off the Shikon no Tama. "My brother, Master Scorpion."

Kagome reflected back to when she had first met Inuyasha. They had indeed been attacked by a scorpion demon. The same bloodthirsty look was on Inuyasha's face and his eyes were once again hard and cruel.

"Aaah, Mistress Centipede." He licked his lips. "Your brother died tragically. He was so easy to kill. Too easy for me."

Mistress Centipede was clearly enraged by this comment and she lunged at Inuyasha, shrieking.

Inuyasha was prepared for this. With one sweep, he ended the life of Mistress Centipede, exactly like the time with the Scorpion.

As pieces of the youkai floated to the ground, Inuyasha stood up, flexing his hand. Kagome quietly stood up, afraid that something bad might happen now. Looking over at Inuyasha, she saw him looking at her, but it wasn't kind and gentle like five minutes ago, it was hard and cruel. Kagome looked at the Shikon no Tama. It was such a small thing; it easily could've been mistaken for a marble. Perfectly round it lie there, beckoning one of them to take it.

Inuyasha lunged and Kagome lunged.

"SIT!" Kagome shouted like her life depended on it, which it probably did. Inuyasha crashed to the floor, spluttering and cursing as much as he could.

Kagome scooped the jewel into her hands as fast as she could. She backed away from him as far as she could go.

Raising his head, Inuyasha looked coldly at Kagome. She was shaking violently, clutching the jewel and with tears in her eyes. Inuyasha suddenly felt a wave of guilt wash over him. Quietly, he stood up to face the trembling girl. He bowed his head in shame.

"Kagome," He whispered. "Keep that thing away from me. I'll try my best to control myself, but I can only go so far." He looked up at her through his silver bangs. All shaking had ceased and she was looking at him defiantly.

"I know how to stop this." She said, and without a word, she rushed out of the room. After staring for a few moments at the space that had Kagome in it, he followed her down the three flights of stairs and into the basement, where the fire for the hot baths was still roaring.

"Those things really don't go out." Inuyasha muttered.

Putting the Shikon no Tama on the edge of the inferno, Kagome walked quickly up to Inuyasha. She stared at him for a while before lifting her hands up to finger the prayer beads hanging around his neck. Slowly, like it was almost an important ritually, Kagome lightly lifted the beads from the bewildered hanyou's neck. She lifted them past his sliver hair, past his soft dog-ears, until they came clean off his head.

Handling it like it was a precious talisman, she walked over to the fire and, picking up the Shikon no Tama, she raised both her hands.

"Now," She said, looking at Inuyasha harshly. "You have a choice, you either chose the Shikon no Tama, or you choose the prayer beads. If you chose the prayer beads, I'll throw the Shikon jewel into the furnace, if you chose the Shikon no Tama, I'll throw the prayer beads into the furnace and you can rip me to shreds if you want to."

Inuyasha stared at one, then the other. He was at a loss. The Shikon no Tama, the jewel he had been after since...before he could remember, was well within his grasp.

But.

Kagome, who had showed infinite patience with him. Who he had tried so hard to protect. Who he had such strong feelings for...and not because she looked like Kikyo. In fact, he had forgotten there was any resemblance.

+ "My name is Kagome!"+ + "Let me show you how it's done."+

+ "You...you look..."+

+Plus, he looks a LOT cuter as a hanyou!+

Inuyasha stared at the task in front of him. Taking in a deep breath, he stepped forward.

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Wooohooo! Cliff-hanger! It's sooo late! I'm looking at my computer clock and it says...11:45pm. Hmmmm.

Thanks for all the reviews! They've really helped me to carry on with the story! You guys are sooo sweet -sniff-

Well, we're coming close to the end of the story. I've been re-reading some of the chapters. Not only am I appalled at my spelling and that I've actually put 'lol' (I'm NOT that kind of typer!), I'm quite pleased at how this story has gone. It's longer than my others and it's a lot better too! My characters have developed nicely! If I enjoy reading my own fic, does that mean it's good? Let's hope so!

As with all my other fics, I am not getting onto the fluffy part. I've had such a fluffy week! Reading the SWEETEST Peter Pan fic, as well as some Harry Potter fluff. I'm SERIOUSLY in the fluff mood. ^.^

Well, until next time. Will Inuyasha choose the Shikon no Tama, or will he chose a life of Hanyou? Will Miroku ever get his big break? Will the author write more original pieces and not bits taken from the comics? And what happened to Kikyo and Naraku?!

Find out next time!

Sakura Clover