Jewels are Forever
Summary: "Trade? What kind of trade?" Kaede asked as she eyed her suspiciously. The demon slowly began to sit upright and replied: "The shards for her body. I want life. I will be Kagome and you will have the jewel shards."
Chapter Two: Missing
The fear in Kaede's expression made InuYasha's heart skip a beat. "What?" he demanded. "What is it? What's wrong with her? Talk to me, hag! What do you sense? Magic?"
Kaede nodded, recovering somewhat from the initial shock of the discovery. She tucked the blanket more closely around Kagome and softly stroked her ebony hair. "Strong magic, very strong. And something far worse." She looked into InuYasha's golden pools, holding the usually impatient hanyou's attention better than even the jewel ever did as he waited to hear what had been done to Kagome that could possibly be far worse than magic. Myoga hopped from InuYasha's shoulder to Kagome's, then Kaede's.
"Tell us, Kaede-sama," he said hesitantly, unsure if he really wanted to hear what was coming. "Whatever it is, InuYasha-sama can set it right! D—don't look so frightened!"
A few months ago, Kaede would not have found that in any way reassuring, but things had changed between InuYasha and this girl who was the reincarnation of the woman who had slain him with an enchanted arrow. He still called her "fool" sometimes, swore she was a curse on his very existence, or that he would be glad when he could finally be free of her, but Kaede was not fooled. The hanyou's body spoke volumes right now: Muscles tense, knuckles white on balled fists, ears pricked eagerly forward, eyes wide and full of worry and fear. And that time Kagome had forced him back through the well and left him alone for an entire week…he had almost lost his mind waiting and watching for her return. Kaede knew the beginnings of love when she saw them, and the irony of InuYasha and Kagome's relationship did not escape her either. Kikyou would have called it "closure", events one tragic coming around again for a happing ending.
Well, there would be no happy ending if Myoga's faith in his master's ability to "set it right" what was wrong with Kagome was misplaced. Kaede closed her eyes and sighed heavily. When she reopened them, she said: Her soul is missing."
It took a few moments for that to sink in with InuYasha and Myoga. When they recovered, their protests came out in a tumble of disbelief. "How is that possible?" InuYasha sputtered at the same time Myoga asked: "What kind of demon can steal a young girl's soul?"
Kaede shook her head. "None that I have heard of," she admitted slowly. "I had hoped one of you might have a clue…"
InuYasha racked his brain but it was of no use: He had never heard of a demon that was capable of stealing souls. Not one that was alive anyway. He and Kagome disposed of the toad demon and beyond that one, he was at a loss to think of another. Myoga was not doing and better either.
Kaede sighed heavily once again. "Then we're dealing with a new demon—"
"New or old, makes no difference to me!" InuYasha cracked his knuckles and showed his fangs in a dangerous grin. "They can still die." He nodded towards Kagome's unconscious form. "Watch over her, old hag, and leave the demon slaying to me."
As he stood to depart, Myoga jumped back up his shoulder. "I will accompany you, InuYasha-sama. Kaede-sama, take care of Kagome-san until our return!"
"She hasn't much time," Kaede said grimly. "A human can only survive so long with their soul."
InuYasha knelt down beside Kagome again. Her face was pale, but peaceful and relaxed, as if she was only sleeping. She did not have the look of a dying woman to him, and he had killed enough humans to know what they looked like as they lay dying. True, he had never sat deathwatch for an ailing human, but death is death. Is it not? He resisted the desire to touch her cheek to see if it had grown cold or not. Myoga, for one would certainly misinterpret that gesture, then he would have to listen to the little coward nag him about his supposed affection for Kagome. If anyone had affection for the girl, it was Myoga, not him.
"How long?" he asked Kaede anxiously.
She merely shrugged. "I am not sure, but I don't believe that she can past three days without her soul. You had better hurry."
InuYasha snarled: "Of course we'd better hurry, witch!" He turned to leave once more, and got as far as the door before he paused to glance over his shoulder for one last look at Kagome. The glance lasted only a moment, then he was through the door and gone into the night, headed back toward the forest to find that trail the thief had left by the well. Three days at the most, then Kagome would die. InuYasha repeated that thought to himself several times, trying to imagine questing for the jewel shards without his odd companion. It would just be him and Myoga, then, if one could count the flea who cowered in fear whenever danger loomed near. At least Kagome stayed to fight at his side, nearly as fearless as he was, or perhaps just stubborn.
In his mind he saw her standing on a grassy hill, amidst Yura's web of hair, bow in hand, his cloak around her shoulders, her face set in a look of absolute confidence that she would win that fight. The she had loosed the bow and shattered Yura's nest. Then he saw her facing down Sesshoumaru with the Tetsusaiga clenched tightly in her ivory hands, not caring that the elder brother of InuYasha was a full demon who saw her kind as ants to be trodden underfoot. Her eyes when she had handed him his father's sword…believing beyond question that he would find the key to unlock the power of the Steel Cleaving Fang and destroy his cruel brother.
He flexed his claws, anticipating rending the flesh of the demon who had stolen the shards of the Shikon No Tama…and Kagome's soul with them. Failure was unthinkable: He would find this demon-thief and reclaim the shards, then destroy the creature for daring to harm his—his—Feh! She was nothing to him, just a strange girl who wore the face of the woman who had killed him and taken what was rightfully his. A girl who had bound him to herself with a collar of prayer beads and who humiliated him at will with the command "Oswari!". It hurt when she did that, having his face slammed into the dirt. She pushed him around, always telling him where he should be and when. Ha! Until she needed rescuing! Then it was, "InuYasha, help me! InuYasha, I need you! InuYasha, do something!" As if he was a servant at her beck and call!
"InuYasha-sama," Myoga said in his ear as they flew over the village fields, heading at top speed for the deep shadows of the forest. "I just had a terrible thought: How will we reclaim Kagome's soul and return to her once we've found this demon?"
"It will return to her when the demon dies, of course!" Even as he said this, InuYasha had doubts about that assertion. What if Kagome's soul perished with the demon? No! He would not think like that! If simply killing the demon was not the answer, then he would find the way while he fought the creature. He always did! He did not even finish that thought before he realized it was usually Kagome who did the figuring out. It was her mind that was creative, her eyes that say past the obvious. Well, then, he would simply have to think creatively.
Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Takahashi Rumiko, as well as Ranma ½ and Maison Ikkoku.
