Disclaimers: I don't own InuYasha and co. Never have, most likely never will. But what an otaku dream. sigh
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Three Way Mirror
Chapter Six
Impending Doom
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That morning, Miroku was the first to wake. He managed to drag his sluggishly responding body into a sleeping position, and blearily looked around the comfortably cool hut. Sango was next to him--though whether he moved closer to her or she moved closer to him, he didn't know—and there were the shadows of Kouga and Sesshoumaru outside. Shippo, Rin, and Kilalla were curled up in one of the far corners. Kaede still slumbered against a wall, herbs in total disarray around her, as if she had shifted in her sleep and disturbed several piles. InuYasha and Kagome were nestled together, Kagome curled on InuYasha's folded legs with her arms around his middle, and his arms keeping her close to him as he leaned against her. 'Strange,' he thought. 'Where has Jaken gotten—-?'
His thoughts came to a screeching halt as his vision swerved back to InuYasha and Kagome. They were quite far away from the place InuYasha lay dieing last night. The bloody mat had been cleaned, and not too recently. Miroku was suddenly fully awake and standing, making his way outside to confront the two guarding youkai. On his way out, he took to note that InuYasha's wound was completely healed over, without so much as a scar left to tell of his near-death experience. He didn't even notice that the shallow bite mark had scarred, and not anything else.
"Lord Sesshoumaru!" Miroku exclaimed as he left the hut. "Kouga! Did you notice any... thing... strange... last night?" His voice squeaked into a high pitch on the last word of his sentence as he noticed that Kouga was slumped against the wall of the hut, asleep. And there were dark circles under Sesshoumaru's eyes. It hadn't occurred to Miroku that even a lord youkai wore down just as any human. He brushed this aside; there were more pressing matters to attend to. "Lord Sesshoumaru, did you happen to notice anything out of the ordinary last night?"
Sesshoumaru managed to give the monk a tired glace. "InuYasha stopped bleeding. I did not enter. Kagome cleaned up the blood." A thoughtful hand went to Miroku's chin as he pondered this. "What happened?"
"I believe Kagome might have bitten InuYasha..."
There was a breeze that nearly knocked Miroku off his feet. He blinked a few times; those kinds of winds were odd for this month... He was going to ask Sesshoumaru another question, but he discovered the youkai was missing. He hurried inside, where Sesshoumaru was indeed standing, looking at InuYasha. In the corner, Rin grumbled and woke up. She beamed at the sight of Sesshoumaru.
"Lord Sesshoumaru!" she cried happily. Then she saw his expression. "Is something wrong?"
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You foolish girl.
Not this again...
You could have let InuYasha die! Why didn't you?!
You might not get it, but I love InuYasha. I don't want him to die.
He is supposed to come to hell with me! How can he do that if you're keeping him alive?
That's the thing; you don't.
Why you... you will pay for this.
I don't think that'll be any time soon.
We will see.
--
Kagome was abruptly jerked away from InuYasha by her shirt collar. She was immediately awake. Sesshoumaru lifted her clear of the ground by at least three inches. InuYasha, too, snapped awake, and was on his feet.
"What do you think you're doing, Sesshoumaru??" he demanded. "Put her down, now!!"
"Do you really think I would take orders from you, little brother?" Sesshoumaru glared. InuYasha glared right back. "I told her not to. She didn't listen."
"And if she had listened to you, I'd probably be dead by now!" InuYasha barked back, his ears flattening against his head. "Did it ever go through your head that you might be wrong sometimes?!"
"Even if I was wrong, she still disobeyed me."
Kagome had had enough of staying silent now. "So I get punished for saving InuYasha's life?!" she screamed. "Put me down right now!! I'm warning you...!" She kicked and punched and flailed in the air, but Sesshoumaru's grip was like iron. InuYasha growled, and launched to attack Sesshoumaru. The assault was easily avoided.
"You bastard!" InuYasha shouted. "Put Kagome down and let's settle this already!"
Suddenly Kagome shuddered, her entire body going limp. Sesshoumaru watched her out of the corner of his eye, but did not take his attention off InuYasha. Jaken was in an uproar, but didn't think using the Staff of Heads would be a good idea. It might get InuYasha to back off a little, but burning down the hut with himself and Sesshoumaru still inside didn't sound very appealing. Not to mention he'd have to drag Rin out of the blaze. That didn't sound good, either. He considered biting InuYasha, but his head was lumpy enough. That and he didn't want the taste of a half-demon lingering in his mouth.
Everyone's attention went to Kagome. Her shoulders were tensing up, and there was a surge of magical energies swirling around her. Without warning, InuYasha reeled back, clutching the bite mark on his shoulder.
Sesshoumaru let go of Kagome with a painful, involuntary cry. Kagome landed on her knees, her head bowed to hide her eyes.
Kagome stood abruptly, glaring at Sesshoumaru with watery grey eyes. Only, it wasn't Kagome.
"You will pay for your impudence!!" Kagome yelled with Kikyou's voice.
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Ja ne, minna-san.
