Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha, I would be rich. I am not rich. Therefore, I do not own Inuyasha.
Hanyou Don't Get Sick
Chapter Two:
Frustration
"Idiot. Moron. Ingrate. Wretch." Kagome's stream of foul-tempered curses hadn't slackened all day and, amazingly enough, she had yet to repeat herself. "Loser. Pig. Freak." Cross-legged on the living room floor, Souta heaved an exaggerated sigh of intolerance as her ceaseless invectives ruined his moment of virtual reality triumph as his character finished pounding his opponent into a twitching lump.
"Neechan," Souta protested imploringly as she paused for breath. "You've been like that ever since you got home last night. Can't you please stop? You can't possibly think up enough insults to fill three entire days."
Kagome nearly snapped back a cocky "Yes, I can" at what she misinterpreted as a challenge before she caught the last of his sentence. "Three days?" she repeated, wary. "And what happens in three days?"
Souta had already started the next round, and he explained distractedly, "Hm? Oh, Inu-no-niichan will come pick you up, just like he always does. He'll probably apologize for something that wasn't his fault, you'll smile and forgive him, and then you'll go back through the well." He cast her one quick glance, his expression clearly stating that he thought the situation was obvious. "Just like he's done every time before."
She bristled at his unwarranted commentary. "Men," she snorted rudely. "Of course you'd take his side and say it wasn't his fault. You don't even know what he did." It wasn't even worth protesting the three-day time limit, even though she thought it only applied to the duration she stayed to take tests. But then again, she mused wonderingly, it was true…He did always come three days later…
"So?" Souta won another set and shot Kagome a speculative look over his boyish, victorious grin. The gleam in his eyes was entirely too mature for a little boy; and with a start, Kagome realized he was growing up. It was hard not to think of him as the same child, trapped in time, as he'd been when she'd first traveled through the well months before.
"What is it that Inuyasha did?"
There was something almost disbelieving in his voice, and Kagome spluttered in instant objection to his obvious conviction that Inuyasha had done no wrong.
But she couldn't think of what he had done that had instigated her wrath.
Nothing but be himself.
"Er, well…" At Souta's knowing smirk, Kagome growled warningly but, seeing no way to win the situation, changed the subject. "Anyway. What are you doing home already? Mama said you'd be gone until tomorrow."
The glance he sent her let her know that he knew full well that she was avoiding admitting that, whatever they had fought over, it hadn't been Inuyasha's fault. "Well, a storm moved in just as we got there, so the bus driver turned around and got us all back to the hotel. He said it was either go home or be stuck there as long as the bad weather did. So Mama decided we'd go later, maybe in the spring." He pouted unhappily but shrugged.
Then asked, "Doesn't he like you?"
"WHAT?!" Kagome's yell had Souta abandoning his game—the battle for his life took precedence over the battle on-screen—and scrambling under the table for protection. Kagome's voice was tight with embarrassment and fury. "What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing! Nothing!" Why was she so touchy? Souta winced as the computer proceeded to maim his character. "I just thought…you just got in a fight with Inu-no-niichan in a hurry, that's all. Usually you stay there a while, first; then you come back in a huff."
Wrong choice of words. Souta cringed, tucking his head under his arms, as Kagome let loose her truly awesome rage. "DOES IT LOOK TO YOU LIKE I'M IN A 'HUFF'?!"
He knew a rhetorical question when he heard one, and wisely kept his mouth shut.
Kagome marched purposefully into the kitchen, intent on bashing around a few pots and pans to improve her mood, but the sight of the cooking implements merely brought on a new height of fury.
"Creep. Fool. Asshole." She flung herself out the kitchen, out the front door. "Oaf. Klutz. Bastard. Dog." Her glare fixed itself on the giant sacred tree in the yard, usually a source of comfort but now just another reminder of a certain gods-cursed hanyou. "Dumb tree," she muttered, angrily kicking a rock at the thick, straight trunk.
"Kagome!" Her grandfather's voice was sharp. He was normally a kind-hearted man, if prone to rambling about the mythical relevance of this artifact or that, but he was an imposing figure when seriously angry. And he was deadly serious when it came to blasphemy against all things holy.
"Bachi ga ataru," he admonished, wagging a threatening finger at her. Kagome knew better than to roll her eyes while he could still see her. She loved her grandfather dearly, but she could only take so much of his superstitions, really. "You be careful of what you show respect around here. The Goshinboku—" he bowed his head respectfully in deference to the massive, ancient tree "—is not to be treated lightly."
She bobbed her head in apology towards her grandfather and sighed. "Yes, Jiichan."
But she wasn't to get off so lightly. He was already babbling about the vindictive powers of the mighty tree that had been around for countless centuries. Kagome half-listened, her mind already wandering to other matters and only barely hearing his dire warning that the sacred tree, if truly offended, might even vent its displeasure at such blatant disregard to polite custom and manners by sending the bachi to someone close to her instead of her directly. A roundabout revenge.
Kagome nodded her head politely. She knew all that already. She had grown up on those shrine grounds, hadn't she? Shrine lore had been her bedtime stories until she was too old for bedtime stories. And even then, even now, her grandfather tried to recite to her those stories at every possible chance.
Kagome was saved by her mother and Souta coming out of the house. "Jiichan!" Souta's young voice carried easily on the still, late autumn air. "We're going shopping! Come on!"
He fixed Kagome with a final stern gaze before turning to accompany his grandson and daughter-in-law to the grocery store. "You apologize," he told her uncompromisingly, indicating the Goshinboku. "You weren't raised to forget your manners."
Kagome waved to her mom, waiting until they were out of sight before scowling. She shot the tree a glance. Not that she didn't believe it had special powers—it figured too prominently in her time travels to be dismissed as mere folklore or irrelevance.
But apologize?
She eyed it skeptically. "No," she decided aloud, "I just don't think so."
Taking the first step away was the hardest.
She could feel it weighing down on her.
Bachi.
Shaking off—attempting to—the odd sensation, Kagome headed back to the house to take a much-anticipated bath. With the rest of the family out, she'd have enough time for a leisurely soak in the tub with her favorite CD in the player before they returned to laugh at her singing along.
She was just past the well house when the door slid open. It was reflex that tore the first scream from her startled lungs as the figure lurched out of the shadows towards her.
It was heart-squeezing fear that had the second shriek out before she realized what her hysterics must be doing to the ears of the limp, convulsion-wracked form of one very sick hanyou who sprawled onto the sun-splashed yard at her feet.
"INUYASHA!!!"
And for the first time, the sound of his name from her lips produced no response whatsoever.
8.2.04
NOTES: So I finished this chapter quickly. Go me!
Gomen nasai! I know I promised to get some InuyashaKagome stuff in this chapter, but in the sincere effort to keep all chapters roughly the same length, it has been postponed until chapter three. I've started that one, and I'll make it so Inuyasha is conscious for at least part of the next installment. Sorry for the dumb cliffhanger, I don't enjoy them…really, I don't. Please believe me. Please.
bachi ga ataru: As far as I know, this has no English translation. It's roughly the same as "you've got it coming", or "what goes around, comes around". It literally means "bachi will hit you"; my dictionary babbles something about 'divine punishment from God'.
So, because Kagome was cursing the sacred tree, it's going to come back and get revenge on her. I made up the part about the revenge being taken on someone she loves, though, because it was essential to the plot. But I'm not sure if the Shinto Kami-sama believes in that sort of punishment…