The next morning brought with it a sense of duty. The entire company was up and moving by sunrise—even Kagome. She'd asked Shippo the night before to come wake her when he woke up—a clever ploy, she thought, that would keep Sango from worrying and Miroku from calling off the trip. They had a quick breakfast with Kaede—with no food appearing on Kagome's plate, thankfully—and were out the farmers.
Inuyasha, for the first time in literally weeks, seemed in a fairly good mood. (Or what was a good mood by his standards, anyway.) He wasn't glaring at anything or anyone, and wasn't looking ear-droop depressed, either. He was just...there. He walked along at the head of the group, as always. His hands swung loosely at his side, and he stared ahead with unfocused eyes. When was the last time she'd seen him so thoughtful? Kagome walked up beside him, looking him directly in the face.
Even in his spaced-out condition, Inuyasha noticed. He blinked once or twice, as if something had shaken him awake, and looked at her blankly for a second. Of course, after that second his regular snappy nature came rushing back and he snapped, "What are you looking at, wench?"
"Nothing, nobody," Kagome said with a forced smile, falling back a few steps to walk in time with Sango and Kirara again. "Sheesh, what's gotten into him?" she muttered under her breath. Sango and Miroku shrugged their shoulders.
"I heard that," Inuyasha called sullenly, giving them the barest hint of a glower.
"Curse your hearing, Inuyasha," Kagome laughed with a good-natured scowl, but the hanyou just glared and turned back around, not saying another word. The others took the hint and fell silent too, watching instead as Shippo and Kirara raced along the side of the path, chasing a butterfly.
"Miroku? What's wrong with Inuyasha?"
"Hm? What, Shippo?"
"What's wrong with him? He seems so weird."
A random Styrofoam ramen cup came hurtling down, hitting Shippo square in the head. They all looked up at the half-demon with scolding expressions, and Shippo whined, but Inuyasha just stared blankly back at them, his eyebrows raised innocently. "Sorry," he said sarcastically. "It slipped."
"Inuyasha," Kagome scolded, glaring at him. "What's gotten into you?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" He snapped. "Nothing's wrong with me. What's wrong with you people?"
The rest of the group looked at him for a moment, each with their own individual responses written on their face before, all as one, they decided to disregard his loud mouth and continue setting up camp. Inuyasha sniffed and lay back, looking a bit disappointed that no one had risen to the occasion to argue with him. It was getting much too stiff—he was willing to do almost anything to lighten the mood, to break the silence. Try as he might to ignore it, the off feeling he'd had the night before was only getting stronger. Something was coming. Something was about to happen.
But what good would telling the others do? There was basically no way they could prevent whatever it was as of the moment, as he couldn't even pinpoint what it was. Not to mention the fact that they'd be even less willing to listen to him since he'd been being a jerk all morning. He wasn't really irritated with them...but putting on that familiar façade was easier than actually letting on the fact that he was perturbed, even...dare he say it...worried.
He watched impassively as Kagome and Sango left for a bath in the hot spring. Why was there always a spring close to their camp? He was beginning to see a common denominator in the spots Miroku 'randomly' recommended. That lecher. That impossible, brainless lecher.
"Don't even think about it, houshi," Sango was saying venomously, and Miroku gave her his best innocent humble-monk expression.
"Why, me, Lady Sango? Whatever did I do to make you so mistrustful?"
"What did you do?" Sango repeated disbelievingly, and Kagome and Inuyasha stared at him with her. "What did you do? Gee, I don't know. It might have something to do with the fact that you take every opportunity to turn any situation into a lecherous one!" He was staring at her, with a glazed expression, pretending to listen...or, rather, he was staring at a part of her. Sango's face reddened as she realized what was happening and closed her eyes, swinging her hand back and delivering an almighty smack that echoed about the forest. "SEE! YOU SEE!" She shouted, smacking him again, and Kagome sighed, backing away from them and shaking her head, putting a hand to her temple. Inuyasha felt her frustration, and continued to watch, slightly interested, as Sango beat the pulp out of the defenseless houshi.
Suddenly, out of the blue, he felt the oddest sensation and glanced down, almost involuntarily. His eyes met with blurry brown ones and he woke up, watching as Kagome staggered and fell back against the tree, holding one hand to her head and trying to steady herself with the other. Before he had time to think twice about it, Inuyasha was on the ground, steadying her, watching her face carefully for changes.
"Oi, wench, what's wrong?"
The voice was faraway, morphed, as if she were underwater. She heard, indistinctly, Sango and Miroku stop arguing, and Shippo ask what was wrong. Her head was doing that weird spinny thing again, and the world was going topsy-turvy. Similarly to the day in her room, Kagome saw the random figures of her friends—Sango was running at a target, her mouth opening in a battle cry as she hurled Hiraikotsu; Miroku was holding onto his left hand as the windtunnel sucked in dirt and a bunch of little demons that seemed to come from nowhere; Inuyasha hefted Tetsusaiga above his head and unleashed the Backlash Wave at an invisible foe, and Shippo cowered, holding onto Kirara's fur as she transformed.
The broken pieces of a battle spun before her eyes—the barren battlefield, a blood-red setting sun, a crying little girl kneeling beside a lady and a man that were probably her parents. Kagome saw a broken village, set aflame, throwing sparks and the tongues of flame at the black-as-night sky, and Sango, weeping, as she held the dark form of her brother close. Miroku, grim and solemn, paced between several graves, praying. She herself staggered forward, with her arm around Kirara's neck for support, and placed flowers on the graves.
They all looked very serious, very sad. Kagome watched as her detached self collapsed to her knees before the burial mounds and cried, silent tears that shook her shoulders. Her clothes were snagged ad ragged, as were the others', but they didn't seem to notice. They were each caught up in their own visions of grief. Kagome watched, in the scene before her, as Inuyasha came and gruffly put his arms around her, comforting silently. He looked sad, too—his amber eyes dripped with sadness, with regret. Surely he hadn't done all those things?
And then that scene faded, to be replaced with a sad-looking Tsuki, who was smiling sorrowfully, as last time, and was shaking her head of silver-blue hair, watching with doleful eyes. What did Tsuki have to do with all this? Why did Kagome keep seeing her? Kagome willed the images to stop, but they didn't—they only repeated, over and over, like some strange soundless film. Each time they passed by, the images were slightly altered—it was a different village child, a different village, different graves with different flowers. And every time, Kagome and her friends looked more forlorn, wearier, sadder.
'What is all this?' Kagome wondered, watching sadly as the same scenes repeated. She wanted it to stop, but she wasn't sure how to make it; the spinning kept getting faster and faster, until the images and faces blurred together, and it was one long sequence of distorted colors and tears and sadness.
"Kagome...wake up."
Suddenly, the colors stopped and stabilized. Kagome opened her eyes slowly to the forest, to the setting sun and the foliage roof overhead. All of her friends were kneeling, circled around her. She was lying in Sango's lap, but Inuyasha's hands were still on her shoulders. She glanced at him, and he jerked them away, blushing slightly, as if he realized what they'd been doing.
"Are you all right, Kagome-chan?" Sango asked anxiously, and Miroku felt her forehead.
"I'm...okay..." she mumbled, feeling her face heat in disgrace. She hadn't meant to show them signs of weakness! All this was just after effects of the poisoning; it would go away. She had meant to hide it, to not worry them. Why, oh, WHY did she have to faint? For that was what must have happened over the course of her 'visions'.
Inuyasha watched her intently, and a fire was burning in his eyes.
This must've been what Shippo had been wanting to tell him.
He turned abruptly and stomped off, leaving the others behind, puzzled.
Tailz: Hey, everyone! Wow! Look at this—6 chapters, 100 reviews! Go us! Lol! Thank you, Moogle-chan, for all the confidence-boosting, and to everyone for reviewing for me! Love ya, guys!
Sanji: ::Flinches at the mention of Moogle::
Tailz: LOL! Um... I can explain...
B and Star: No you can't!
Tailz: ::Sweat:: Shut up...
