Kagome tried to push Inuyasha back to see him better but he didn't allow her. It was obvious that he was in pain but he was also too stubborn to listen to her even in a dangerous situation like that. His breathing was becoming shallower and he started making a strange sharp sound in his throat. Suddenly, his whole hair became black, it was like a wave starting from the top and reaching the end.
"Nee-chan!" Souta pointed at the hanyou with his right hand and the other brought to his mouth to bite his nails. "Do something!" he was on the brink of crying.
"Calm down, Souta…" Kagome said without turning to look at him and again tried to push Inuyasha back. "Come on!"
The hanyou heard her and her brother but their voices seemed too loud and painful for his ears and he tried to ignore them, without even thinking of listening to what they were saying. The whole excitement of trying to tell Kagome how he felt and the attempt to kiss her, then the earthquake had said its word. When the house had stopped shaking he had noticed that he was turning human but thought that he was well enough to hold on.
Then suddenly he felt unbelievable pain in his whole body. It spread everywhere and he felt like something was crushing his chest. That showed that his body was already human and it left only his claws, ears, fangs and eyes to change. The moment his hair turned black and his breathing changed, Kagome knew that things weren't looking good.
The problem was that she had absolutely no idea of what to do, and on top of everything Souta was panicking next to her. As she again tried to calm him down Inuyasha doubled over and started coughing. He couldn't take a proper breath and the sharp sound in his throat worsened. Kagome leaned toward him and removed his hair away from his face only to see him start coughing blood.
"Oh my God!" she startled and pulled away.
As she stood up, frantically looking around for… even she didn't know what, but she just had to do something to help, she saw that the bandages were getting bloody again. For Inuyasha's human body three shots from a gun were something he didn't seem to be able to live through right now. The wounds that the bullets had made on his back and chest were bleeding the most.
Suddenly Kagome's eyes landed on Tetsusaiga. The sword was lying next to Inuyasha. An idea ran through her mind and her eyes widened. She looked at him and saw that his claws were still there. Running to Souta, who had started crying, she grabbed the sword and giving it to him made him go to her bed and stay in the farthest corner. Then she kneeled in front of Inuyasha and placing her hands on his shoulders tried to push him up a little.
"Inuyasha, do you hear me?" she asked but he didn't answer her, and to be honest he couldn't. "Inuyasha, release your demon blood. Don't fight it…" as she was saying he suddenly swing his left hand and pushed her back with a growl.
Not wasting time, Kagome stood up and ran to her brother. She stood on her bed, in front of him, and they both looked at Inuyasha. Although Souta had only heard about the hanyou's demon transformation form his sister, he knew that this was what was going to happen. Kagome had warned him that in this state of transformation Inuyasha was nothing but a mindless beast that wanted to kill and destroy everything on its way.
"Don't worry, Souta, everything is going to be alright." Kagome tried to calm the boy, who she could feel shaking behind her.
Inuyasha didn't stop coughing – it looked like he was going to drown in his own blood. He doubled over so much that his forehead touched the floor. Whenever he managed to take a breath it didn't look like he was taking enough air. Finally he couldn't cough anymore because of the lack of air and only the sharp sound of his tries to breathe could be heard.
Now Kagome was also crying – watching him dying was something that she had never thought she would see. Inuyasha was invincible; she found herself thinking and looked at Souta. She was sounding just like him, but that was the truth. Her hanyou had lived through so many deadly situations since she had met him and she could only imagine how many more he had suffered in his life.
The hanyou made one last attempt to take a breath and fell on his right side, then rolled on his back. His mouth was slightly open, his eyes were wide. Several trickles of blood were visible on his chin and cheeks, and his whole chest was covered with blood. His right arm was on his stomach and the left one on the floor. Souta made a quiet whimpering sound and Kagome hugged him to keep him from watching.
'No…' she thought and cried. 'It was too late… No…' she was ready to go to him and cry her self to unconsciousness but then she was startled from the sharp sound of his claws lengthening.
Hers and Souta's eyes widened and they saw Inuyasha's fangs become longer, his hair – white, his human ears moved on top of his head, turning into dog ones, and two purple marks appeared on his cheeks. His chest filled with air as he made a deep breath and his eyes started turning red. Suddenly he jumped up and whirled around to face the two humans on the bed.
Kagome and Souta were too startled to react at first and actually were really lucky that the hanyou was feeling a little dizzy and didn't attack them right away. He glared at them and growled. Souta clutched at his sister's shirt and Kagome gulped. How were they supposed to turn him back to his hanyou form? They sure couldn't give him Tetsusaiga just like that…
"Wait a minute!" Kagome exclaimed and wanted to smack her head in the wall for her stupidity. Instead of doing that to herself she did it to the mindless hanyou in front of her. "Inuyasha, sit!" she screamed and he crashed on the floor. She grabbed the sword from Souta, ran to the hanyou and placed it next to him.
The girl kneeled next to him and rolled him on his back. He groaned but didn't open his eyes. The slight opening of his mouth showed her that his fangs were back to normal length, but the disappearance of his purple marks were enough proof that he was in his hanyou form again. Sighing in relief she sat back and relaxed. Seeing that, Souta also calmed down and slid down on the bed.
"That was close…" the girl mumbled and reached with her right hand to remove a few strands of hair from Inuyasha's face.
"Are all demons so scary?" Souta asked a little shakily and Kagome just nodded, not moving her look away from the hanyou. "I don't want to come to the past anymore." the boy stated.
"Finally something clever from you." his sister joked and he stuck his tongue out at her.
It was around nine o'clock in the morning. Inuyasha was soundly snorting on Kagome's bed, his face in her pillow. He was alone in the room, which was already cleaned from the mess that he and the earthquake had made. His back and chest were cleaned from the blood and there wasn't even a scar from the wounds. Only his hair had a little blood but we could forgive Kagome for that, right?
The girl and her brother were downstairs, in the kitchen. They were just finishing cleaning the house. It was pure luck that there were no broken dishes. Kagome sat heavily on a chair by the table and sighed in exhaustion. Souta stretched sleepily and yawned, then sighing he also sat on a chair. His sister looked at him and smiled but he just made a sad expression.
"Alright, Souta." she shook her head. "Don't go to school today. I'll talk with Mama."
"Thanks, Nee-chan!" the boy smiled and stood up. "I'm going to bed now!" he said and was off to his room. Of course he wasn't going to sleep and Kagome knew that – probably he would be playing video games or something.
She sat in the kitchen for a while and just when she was going to go and check on Inuyasha, the prone rang. "This is Kagome Higurashi, hello?" she said sleepily.
"Kagome, dear!" the highly concerned voice of her mother was heard. "Are you alright? How is Souta?"
"Calm down, Mama." the girl said and smiled. "We're alright."
"I was so worried!" the woman exclaimed and sighed in relief. "When we heard about the earthquake and when we couldn't reach you…" listening to her voice, it was obvious that she was barely holding back her tears.
"We had no electricity and phone for a while tonight." Kagome explained and got an idea of how to calm her mother down. "Besides, Inuyasha was with us. You know that he would do anything to protect us."
"Yes, dear, you're right." Mrs. Higurashi said and sighed again. "Where is Souta? Can I hear him?"
"He went to bed… But I can call him…" the girl was about to yell but her mother stopped her.
"No, no, don't bother him." the woman said. "We are coming back this afternoon. Say hi to Inuyasha from us and take care, ok?"
"Ok, bye." Kagome smiled.
"Bye." Mrs. Higurashi said and both hung up the phones.
Happy and relieved that everything was alright, Kagome went upstairs. When she entered her room, she found Inuyasha still asleep. His head and left hand were hanging from the bed and she hurried to push him up. That of course startled him and he woke up. He sat up with a start and hit his head and back in the wall behind him. Busy to groan and to rub the back of his head, he missed to see how Kagome practically jumped on him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Inuyasha!" she cried and buried her face in the crook of his neck.
The hanyou was too dizzy to understand what was happening and that gave Kagome enough time to start crying even more. When he finally came back to his senses he could feel the wetness from her tears on his shoulder. At first he didn't know what to do – he just couldn't remember to have done something worth crying. Well, Kagome could cry for almost everything and he agreed with that, but that made his task even more difficult.
"Kagome…" he started quietly but was cut off when she tightened her hold on him. He didn't speak again, just held his hands up and wrapped them around her.
Finally, about ten minutes later, she stopped crying and only her quiet hiccupping could be heard. Inuyasha had already gathered his thoughts and had remembered what had happened with them the previous night – the smell of blood on him helped him. There was just one problem – he remembered the earthquake but after that his memories were like cut off with a knife.
He frowned and tried to think of what could have happened. Suddenly his eyes widened and he stiffened – after the earthquake he was in pain from his wounds, he dropped Tetsusaiga, Kagome was yelling something at him, Souta was crying… 'Inuyasha, release your demon blood. Don't fight it…' he remembered hearing her. Then there was nothing, his next memories were from this morning with Kagome.
A growl rose in his throat and grabbing the girl in his arms for her shoulders, he pushed her back. She was startled from his reaction and gave him a quiet shriek. She even expected to see him transformed to full demon form and shut her eyes tightly, waiting for whatever was going to happen.
"Kagome!" Inuyasha shook her hard to make her open her eyes. "Look at me, Kagome." he demanded and she complied. "I transformed, didn't I?" she just started at him with wide and teary eyes. "Didn't I?" he rose his voice and she nodded, a few tears slipping from her eyes.
"That was the only way, Inuyasha…" the girl cried. "I'm sor…"
"Where is Souta?" he asked, not letting her finish. "Is he ok? Did I do something to you?" so many questions were confusing her and more tears fell from her eyes. "Kagome!" the hanyou demanded but when her shoulders started shaking with held back sobs he seemed to understand what he was doing to her. "I'm sorry, Kagome…" he said a little breathlessly and hugged her tightly.
"You did nothing, Inuyasha…" she cried in his chest.
The two stayed in each other's arms for a while. When they parted Inuyasha got something like an 'embarrassment fit' and didn't even dare to look at Kagome. She rolled her eyes and made him take a bath. Being the stubborn idiot he is, Inuyasha stayed in the bathroom until afternoon when his clothes were finally dry. It was definitely a day for rolling her eyes and they were starting to hurt.
Just when the hanyou was exiting the bathroom, Kagome's mother and grandfather entered the house. Kagome had already talked with her brother not to tell about the last night's adventures but Inuyasha just couldn't help but feel guilty about what he could have done to Mrs. Higurashi's children.
"What's wrong with him, honey?" the woman asked her daughter while they were packing the girl's bag in the kitchen.
"He just misses the other side." Kagome answered and shoved a cup of ramen in the bag.
"Oh, but he knows that this is his home too, right?" Mrs. Higurashi said that more like a statement and she did that loud enough for Inuyasha to hear her.
"Yes, he knows that, Mama." the girl smiled and the packing was done.
Inuyasha helped Kagome get out of the well and placed the large yellow bag on the grass. Although she had thought that once on the other side he would start acting like usually – snappy, egoistic and so on, she was wrong. The hanyou sighed and sat down, leaning his back on the well.
"Aren't we going?" Kagome asked, deciding not to bother him by asking what was wrong with him. "I mean, the others must be…"
"You go." Inuyasha said indifferently.
Kagome sighed and taking her bag, walked toward the trees. By the look he gave her she knew that he actually wanted her to stay but she wasn't going to tolerate such behavior. He should learn to say what he had in mind and she was going to make sure he did that. After making just a few steps, there was a rustling of clothes behind her and someone took her bag.
"So, you're coming?" she smiled at the hanyou, who was still a little grumpy but there definitely was hope.
"Humph." was his only answer and they walked toward the village.
TBC