Chapter 5
No one to talk to
Inuyasha hadn't had a good night's sleep since Kagome had disappeared. In fact, he hadn't slept at all. Now, he leaned on Kirara beside a small fire, staring up into the vast heavens above. He tried to look for familiar constellations, but all he saw was Kagome. He finally closed his eyes and tried to settle into a comfortable position. He drifted off to sleep, but only for a short while, as dreams of Kagome filled his head. He couldn't figure out what to do to get rid of the pictures. He had tried everything, except throwing away Kagome's bow and arrows, but that was something he just couldn't bring himself to do. He had tried, but to no avail. Something held him back, some unexplainable force of nature that just wouldn't let him forget Kagome. He couldn't live without something of hers, but every time he looked at the bow, there was a sharp pain in his heart that wouldn't go away until he stopped looking at it.
Kirara shifted slightly beneath him and Inuyasha realized that he was suddenly very sleepy. For the first time in a week or so, his eyes closed and his mind drifted into never land. Dreams filled his sleeping mind with memories of Kagome, both good and bad, reassuring and painful.
When he awoke, he felt refreshed and ready for a new day. Well, technically, the day started badly. He woke up when his head hit the ground, and the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was a pair of huge orange ones staring curiously back. He had screamed in a most non-demon-like manner and scuttled backward, only to find that it was just Kirara. Then, when he went to pack up everything, he had found that much of the stuff he had packed was missing - including the bow and arrows of Kagome's that he had kept. So, if he had been able to focus on something other than that, he would have felt refreshed and ready for a new day.
Now, he sat dejectedly against a tree, staring forlornly up into the sky. Why did it have to be now, the time when he most needed someone to talk to, that no one was there? Well, there was Kirara, but she couldn't say anything back, and Inuyasha wasn't totally sure if she would even understand the whole problem that was on his mind.
Kirara watched from a distance, afraid to approach, lest he scream and run away again. She lay down and put her head on her paws and wrapped her tail around the few things that they had left. She almost wished that he would just say something. What he didn't seem to get was that she felt probably just the same way he did. They had both lost someone that meant a lot, and they were both on the same quest. She whined until he looked over at her. Finally, after he stared at her for awhile, he got up off the ground and walked over to her.
"I'm sorry," he said, and she sensed great sadness in his voice, "Let's go."
Inuyasha picked up what little was left of their supplies and scratched behind Kirara's ears. The fox demon (AN: am I right? E-mail me if I'm not) stood up and waited expectantly. When Inuyasha looked at her in confusion, she turned her head to look briefly behind her.
"You want me to ride?"
Kirara growled in assent. Inuyasha stood there for awhile, lost in thought until she walked back and pushed him gently with her nose. He stumbled forward and blinked rapidly, shaking his head as if to clear it. Then, he seemed to get his bearings and climbed onto Kirara's back. Regularly, he would have refused, considering he could run as fast as Kirara flew, and he had dignity to keep, but he was too tired to get anywhere at all, much less fast, by himself. He settled himself onto the large feline's back and leaned forward until his cheek touched the soft white fur. He was so tired. He smiled gently as he fell asleep, feeling the fur tickle his nose as Kirara leapt into the air and the wind blew it awry.
When he awoke, they were flying over a set of fields. Not like that was unusual, but these were completely brown, with not a glimpse of the green that was usual for this time of year.
"Kirara," he said, sitting up straight, "let's go down and see what's going on."
The demon made a noise that sounded like assent, and they began to descend toward the brown fields. Fighting off sleep, Inuyasha called upon his demon senses to find the demon he figured was responsible for the damage. There was no demon. There wasn't any scent of life either, just dead, rotting flesh. He shuddered, hating the smell of human death. He shoved away the feeling that his flesh was crawling and focussed on the task at hand as Kirara's paws contacted the ground. He slid off her back and looked around.
The place absolutely reeked of blood and death, making Inuyasha gag as his oversensitive nose took in the odors. He began walking into the village, shuddering as the scent of demon mingled with the rest. Searching the place with his eyes, he saw that almost everything was covered in blood. Bones lay here and there, and what looked like human bodies ripped into almost unrecognizable shreds were spread over the entire place.
What kind of sick demon did this? He thought, trying to block the memory of the dozens of men he had killed when transformed into a full demon. As he walked further, the scent of demon and rotting flesh intensified until he could hardly take one step without gagging. The smell seemed to have the same effect on Kirara, who whimpered as they went on. However, no matter how strong the scent, or however far they walked, there was no sign that a demon was even present.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake right beneath where Inuyasha stood. He jumped away just in time as something shot up from under the dirt. Bracing himself, he looked up into the bloodshot eyes of a humanoid demon. Frowning, he stepped back. Right now, he didn't have the heart to attack anything that resembled a human. The demon didn't have second thoughts about attacking him, however, so Inuyasha was sent sprawling across the ground, blood trickling down his face from a cut on his face where the demon had hit him. He spat as dust filled his mouth and rolled away just as the demon attacked again. Wiping his mouth off, he pulled Tessaiga out of its sheath. To his dismay, it didn't transform as he swept it in an arc toward his enemy.
Tossing his useless sword away, Inuyasha leapt toward the grinning demon, unleashing his iron reaver attack toward his adversary. The attack hit, but didn't have too much effect, making only minor scratches in the creature's skin. Inuyasha backed up from the demon, blinking as blood dripped into his eyes from his wound. He saw the demon rushing toward him, but couldn't get his arms to work properly. He felt fire pumping through his veins, but it paralyzed him for the moment. Suddenly, something jumped between him and the oncoming attack. It took only a few moments to process that the thing was Kirara, who was sent flying back into Inuyasha, transforming into a small kitten as she contacted the hanyou.
Inuyasha wiped the blood from his eyes and looked at the small demon that lay motionless at his feet. Blood matted the tiny creature's fur and its eyes gazed imploringly at him. Staring down at the only friend he had right then, something snapped, and there was nothing to hold back the demon inside him. Just as he lost touch with his human side, he realized that Kagome wasn't here to save him this time.
Kirara opened her eyes weakly to see Inuyasha attack the demon, destroying it as soon as the attack connected with its body. Inuyasha turned slightly, so she could just see his face, and his red eyes and the stripes on the sides of his face revealed that he had taken his full demon form. Demon Inuyasha smirked down at the battered body of his demon adversary. He laughed as he watched the dark blood soak through the ground and pool beneath the demon. As he turned further towards Kirara, the fox demon backed away, hindered by her wounds, and cowered beneath him. Inuyasha flexed his claws to attack...
Suddenly, an image of Kagome flashed through Inuyasha's mind. He watched her, seeing her face contort in anger, and her lips shaped into a single word - SIT. The word echoed through his head, and a mere moment later, he opened his eyes and found he was lying sprawled across the ground beside a bemused Kirara. He sat up and shook himself. Suddenly remembering the form of his salvation, he looked around frantically. Was Kagome here? When his eyes found no trace of her presence, he sighed and looked to find his opponent. He found a bloody humanoid body lying nearby in a pool of its own blood. Shuddering, he looked away and saw Tessaiga a little ways away, its point sticking into the ground. He walked over and picked it up, sliding it gently into its sheath. He couldn't remember what had happened, only that he had lost control of himself. Had he been a demon again? If he had, how did he come back? He remembered seeing Kagome in his head, and hearing her voice shout a sit command, but she wasn't here, and the last time he had turned full demon, the sit command hadn't worked. (AN: by the last time, I mean when he turns demon while fighting Sesshoumaru in episode forty or fifty something... considering I haven't seen much past that... Damn the lack of anime in Canada, much less Alberta...)
Kagome, he sighed inwardly and walked over to Kirara. The demon was not injured too badly - the blood just made it look worse. However, it seemed Kirara would be out of commission for a little while. Carrying his small friend cradled in his arms, Inuyasha made his way to the edge of the town where a lone house still stood.
He stood framed in the doorway, the fading sunset sending shafts of golden light around his body as he leaned against the doorframe. His amber eyes wandered over the charred expanse of the village, without seeing it. Rather, he saw the village where Kikyo had lived, where they had first met, where the well lay through which Kagome had come from the future. And a thought slowly crept into his mind and with the last rays of the setting sun, he realized that he would never see it that way again, that he had no one right now to give him courage. No one to talk to.
Please don't kill me if the next chapter isn't up within the next few months, because final exams are coming up, and considering they're provincial achievement... And my summer is going to be very full... but i'm trying!!! And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if ANYONE knows the names and descriptions of Kagome's friends, can they please email them to me as I need them for the next chapter!!!!