Shikon no Miko
By: Karisutaru-chan
Author's note: I do not own any of the characters in this story and it was written just for fun.
RATED R for language and future adult situations. Reader discretion is advised.
Please send reviews to karisutaruchan@yahoo.com . Thanks! Enjoy!
A/N: Okay, I know it's been forever since I updated, but I've been really busy, plus I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted this chapter to go, so after a million rewrites, I'm finally ready to post it. I know, I know, it's about @#$%^& time. Anyway, I'm glad you've enjoyed my story so far, and I will get better about updating, so without further adieu, on with the story!!!
Chapter 12: I Got It, I Got It!
"What's taking them so fuckin' long!" Inuyasha screamed as he sat impatiently in the clearing while he waited for Kagome and Sesshoumaru to return.
He could have sworn he heard fighting but since Kagome didn't call for him, he figured it was just his imagination. Regardless, he was still not comfortable with Kagome tagging along with Sesshoumaru across the boundary somewhere he couldn't reach her if she needed him. He couldn't believe he was actually letting Sesshoumaru take care of Kagome. If anything happened to her, he would cut off Sesshoumaru's other arm and feed it to him.
"Keh."
Inuyasha rose from his seat on the clearing floor and began to pace back and forth in front of the cave entrance. Ever so often, he would pause and stare at the gateway waiting for Kagome's silhouette to appear. By now, his antics were beginning to annoy even Miroku who was seated not too far from Sango under a tree. Presently, Sango's attention was not focused on Inuyasha's impatience, but rather on the little girl called Rin who was playing a game of tag with Kirara. Her companion, Jaken was off to the side seated beside Sesshoumaru's two-headed Dragon with a most sullen look on his face.
Shippo was also beginning to get irritated by Inuyasha's pacing as it made him nervous, so when Miroku decided to get up and make his way over to Inuyasha, he decided to follow suit.
"They have only been gone ten minutes Inuyasha." Miroku explained, "Please have some patience. You're pacing is even making me nervous."
"Fuck off bozu." Inuyasha retorted as he continued to pace in front of the cave entrance.
"He's just being a big baby 'cause he's jealous that Sesshoumaru is all ALONE with Kagome somewhere he can't reach."
Count on Shippo to push Inuyasha's buttons and push them well. Too bad he was no longer atop his safe perch on Miroku's shoulder; maybe then his head could have avoided an appointment with Inuyasha's fist….maybe.
*WHAM*
"Yakamashii!!"
"Shippo…." Miroku began as he shook his head at the scene before him. "…it is not a good idea to irritate Inuyasha right now. Especially since Kagome-sama is not here to protect you."
Shippo was still nursing the new bump on his head said, "H, Hai." He finally turned to face Inuyasha with his face contorted into the meanest expression he could muster. "Inuyasha, when Kagome gets back, I'm gonna tell her what you did and you're gonna get it!"
"Say what you 'lil brat!!" Inuyasha darted towards Shippo, but he was too quick and literally ran circles around him.
"Hold still you 'lil runt." Inuyasha chased Shippo around the clearing.
"PLUUZZZZZZ" was Shippo's response as he stuck his tongue out and continued running.
Miroku simply put a hand on his head and walked back towards his seat next to Sango. 'At least Shippo is taking his mind off of Kagome-sama.' He said to himself as he sat down under the tree.
* * * * * * *
It was quiet, a little too quiet for her own comfort. Though she had been here before she still did not feel comfortable in this place. Of course, that probably had to due with the fact that she wasn't in pleasant company. As a matter of fact, if she remembered correctly, her current companion tried to kill her in this place once before, and would have succeeded had it not been for the fact that she was holding Tetsuaiga. Consequently, he got what he deserved when Inuyasha hacked his arm off and sent him running with his tail between his legs. Kagome smirked at the memory and decided that if Sesshoumaru tried anything, she could find comfort in the fact that Inuyasha would hack his other arm off, slap him with it and proceed to feed it to him. She was drawn from her pleasant daydream when Sesshoumaru spoke.
"Wench, where is the shard."
Caught off guard, Kagome stumbled to a stop. He was in fact quite a few paces in front of her, so she wasn't sure she heard him say anything at all.
"Huh?"
All of a sudden Sesshoumaru was less than 6 in from her face, bending over so he looked into her eyes.
"I will not ask you again, where is the shard." He stated in a more irritated tone of voice.
It took all of Kagome's will not to yell back at him, but the calmness that was usually present in her voice was noticeably gone.
"Chotto…" she said through gritted teeth, and she began surveying the area for the familiar glow of the Shikon fragment.
"Over there." She finally said as she pointed towards the familiar remains of Sesshoumaru's and Inuyasha's late father. "It looks like it's in your father's armor….."
*SMACK*
"….by…his….shoulder…" Kagome was mid-sentence when Sesshoumaru raised his hand to her cheek so quickly that she did not feel the sting until she was done speaking. As she raised her hand to her bruised cheek, she looked up into Sesshoumaru's eyes with such anger and resentment that it almost took the Demon Lord by surprise. But rather than let her know that her reaction was not expected, Sesshoumaru simply glared back into her eyes with his all too familiar cold, emotionless expression.
"Temme, you will NEVER refer to my father in such a casual manner, as if you know him. No HUMAN will EVER refer to him in that manner." His voice was cool and collected and oh so sadistic. If Kagome had not been so infuriated, she probably would have felt shivers go up and down her spine. Instead, she briefly shut her eyes in order to regain her composure. When she finally opened them, the spark of determination that now shown would have been enough to bowl ten thousand demons over. Kagome slowly walked up to Sesshoumaru until she was slightly past him, facing towards her new destination. Without turning around, Kagome spoke as smoothly and calmly as humanly possible under the intense circumstances.
"I understand that you have the utmost respect for your father and I apologize if I have offended you….that was not my intention. However, for you to raise a hand against me without just cause is not something I can merely overlook. Because of our agreement, retaliation is not an option at the moment, but mark my words, once our agreement has been carried out to the fullest, expect more than harsh words from me."
If her companions had been with her, they would have sworn that was not Kagome speaking, but another, more powerful being speaking through her. Those were not the words of a young, carefree high school student from present day Tokyo, but of a seasoned, powerful warrior from the Sengoku Jedai. Sesshoumaru regarded her words and was slightly surprised to sense a change in her aura. When he turned to look at her retreating form, his suspicions were verified when he noticed a purple glow forming around her as spiritual energy began to flow from her being.
'I've seen this before…' he though to himself '…back at the nest. It's stronger this time.'
As Kagome turned around, for a split second, he noticed her eyes were glowing the same purple glow they did before, however, the phenomenon had completely vanished by the time she completed her action. Surely enough, by the time she fully reversed her positioning, the powerful, spiritual aura was gone as well, and she looked like the fragile, albeit incompetent baggage that his brother carried around with him all the time.
"Are you coming?" she innocently asked, as if the previous confrontation had not taken place. When he did not respond to her question, Kagome decided she would make it to her destination faster without him, so she continued in the direction of the jewel shard and left Sesshoumaru to continue doing whatever the fuck he was doing.
'It seems to only happen when she is emotional about something.' He continued to muse to himself as he watched her walk in the direction of the jewel shard. 'She may not be as worthless as she appears.' With that, Sesshoumaru followed after Kagome to retrieve the final jewel shard.
* * * * * * *
Shippo was now sitting next to Sango and Miroku, nursing the bumps and bruises he received from Inuyasha after he finally caught up with him. And although he was no longer pacing, Inuyasha was still posted in front of the cave entrance awaiting Kagome's return (he could really care less about Sesshoumaru…as a matter of fact, he was hoping that he'd somehow get locked in there and never be able to return to the land of the living).
Suddenly, there was a sudden change in the wind and Inuyasha's senses became alert with dread and disgust. Soon, Sango and Miroku felt the foreboding youki as well, and made ready to welcome their unexpected guest.
"Inuyasha…" Miroku called "I sense…."
"I know….Naraku…" Inuyasha said as a low growl sounded from the back of his throat. 'Damn, we can't even get the fuckin' shard in our hands before Naraku comes running.'
After noticing everyone's tense expressions, Rin picked up Kirara and moved closer to Jaken in the hopes he would protect her from whatever was coming.
"Jaken-sama, what's going on?" Rin turned to Jaken who had an expression on his face suggesting he was even more frightened than she was.
"Kirara," Sango called, "stay close and protect Rin-chan."
Kirara acknowledged Sango's request and hopped out of Rin's arms and transformed into her larger form. She knelt down and allowed Rin to climb onto her back while Jaken mounted the two-headed dragon.
Off in the distance, Inuyasha could see a feather with two people on it.
'So, Naraku isn't commin' after all. That coward sent Kagura to do his dirty work for him. This ain't gonna be no trouble…..' Inuyasha's thoughts were halted when he noticed Kagura's companion, Hakudoshi. Inuyasha recalled before that he could not pierce the his barrier, not even with the red Tetsuaiga. 'Shit, this will be harder than I thought.' Inuyasha turned to his companions.
"Oi, Kagura and that fuckin' brat Hakudoshi are coming."
"What are we going to do Inuyasha?!?" Sango asked. She too remembered their previous battles with the pint-sized terror.
"We won't be able to beat them back. We may just have to settle for keeping them busy until Kagome-sama returns." Miroku suggested.
"Well, whatever we're gonna do, we better do it now."
* * * * * * *
"It's seems they know we're coming." Hakudoshi began with a smirk. "It's no matter, it might be fun to beat them when they know we're coming….ha ha ha ha ha." He said as he chuckled to himself. Kagura simply ignored him and continued to steer towards the clearing where the group gathered ready for combat.
"Kagura, clear a path to the cave entrance." Hakudoshi instructed.
Without a word, Kagura raised her fan and blew blades of wind towards Inuyasha and his companions.
"FUGI NO MAI"
* * * * * * *
Blades of winds pierced through the forest canopy, parting five-hundred-year-old trees, shredding them into firewood. Rin's innocent screams could be heard in the distance and Kirara flew out of range of the attack, making sure no debris came close to hitting Rin. Inuyasha management to dodge the attack and land safely behind Miroku and Sango who were crouched on the ground. The group watched as Kargura and Hakudoshi descended to the ground as they now stood between them and the cave entrance. Hakudoshi stood a few paces in front of Kagura who guarded the entrance to the cave ready to slice anyone who got too close in two.
"My, my Kagura," he began with a smirk, "it's seems that we are now at the front of the line; how nice. It's seems that Kagome girl and Sesshoumaru are missing from your little group, so I believe it is safe to assume that they are retrieving the jewel shard. I think we'll just wait here for them to return. By the way Inuyasha, I must thank you in advance for getting the shard for me…couldn't have done it without you."
"Yakamashii!!!" Inuyasha yelled in response. "Don't think I'm letting you get your grimy lil' hands on that fuckin' shard!!"
"Really….I'd like to see you try and stop me….."
"Inuyasha, don't…." Miroku began, trying to calm him down enough so he would not do something drastic…..
"KAZE NO KIZU!!!"
Too late….Inuyasha'a attack was heading straight for the intruders. Hakudoshi simply smiled and let the power engulf him.
* * * * * * *
The two unlikely companions continued the rest of their journey in silence. They finally reached the top of the remains, and Kagome slowly negotiated the enormous, armored shoulder pads as she made her way towards the jewel shard.
'Hmm, I wonder how it got here? I didn't sense a shard when I was here before.' She mused to herself when she finally held the shard in her hand. 'Oh, well, there's no time to worry about that, I have it now and that's all that matters.'
"I have the shard, we can leave now." But when Kagome turned around, Sesshoumaru was nowhere to be found.
A/N: Translations of Japanese used in this chapter :
bozu – in this sense, it is a derogatory way to say monk
Yakamashii- You shut up
Chotto – a little (okay, time for a crash course in Japanese 101. In Japanese the sentence word order is different from English in that sentences end in a verb. Also, the Japanese tend to be very ambiguous and assume thath in certain situations, the meaning of a sentence is given depending on the context. Basically, the full sentence would be "Chotto matte" or "Wait a minute". Word for word, the translation would be "A little wait". But I decided to use the shortened version of the sentence which would translate to "wait" in English.)
Temme (tem may) – bastard, bitch
Sengoku Jedai – Warring States Era in medieval Japan
Youki (yo key) – youkai (demon) energy
Oi – hey (generally only used by males, but in the series, Kagura uses this word as well)