Disclaimer: No, I don't own Inuyasha or Keane's lovely lyrics...
A/N: This chapter begins at about the same time as the other chapter. Let's say Sakana/Kagome had the conversation with Koshi (before Namaru tried to feed her to Inu(sniggles)) at about 11:00 at night, just so we have a time. This chapter takes place then at 11:05 or so, while Koshi and Sakana are busily chatting, in the middle of their conversation, but this chapter tells it from Inuyasha's POV (Point of View) so that that special word, when uttered from Kagome/Sakana's lips, affects Inuyasha...(if I'm speaking gibberish now guys, don't worry, I think it's clear in the text...) but anyway, the rest of the chapter then swiftly speeds up to where I left you guys at a cliffy ((grins) sorry about that, I just HAD to do it) and you get to see the much anticipated MEETING between Inu and Sakana/Kagome...but remember she has amnesia...although she's "drawn" to Inu the rational mind says, "GET OUTTA HERE!" so what would you do in her situation? Hmm? Anyway...as always, drop me a line, I LOVE hearing from you...more on the way, don't worry you won't have to wait long before they meet AGIAN, and next time it WILL be different...(snickers) well, see you, remember to review and tell me how you think it's going...
She's Alive
"When you, when you forget your name
When old faces all look the same
Meet me in the morning when you wake up
Meet me in the morning then you'll wake up…"
He was hungry, again. The hanyou had lived most of his life like that: ravenously hungry. As a half demon he craved meat a lot, Kagome's meals of sugar, like the chocolate that Shippo so craved, had always failed to please him. As a youngster he'd likely have loved them too—the faster metabolism of a young youkai like the little kitsune could use the sugars easily and thrive off them—but as a mostly grown hanyou he was powered on a carnivore's diet. The cravings of a youkai were always driven by their respective animal representation. Inuyasha was a dog demon—but he didn't dream of Kibbles 'N Bits…
The hanyou wandered, after the sun had set, and contemplated the river. It was rather large and fast flowing, and he suspected it rose to about his knees in its deepest regions…it likely had a happy population of minnows and medium sized fish that might just be palatable—for a half dog demon anyway. The humans living along the river probably scoffed at the fish it housed. Why eat such scrawny things when the water itself could provide food in the form of the much more appetizing rice? But Inuyasha wasn't like them—to him the fish were fine, if they were large enough to be worth his time.
After a time, when he'd determined that the roads to and from the village and long the river were empty, the hanyou pressed his way into the shallower edges of the water. It was chilly but he didn't bother acknowledging the shiver that tried to climb up his spine—he was too busy. Plunging his clawed hands into the waters he felt along the bottom…rocks, sand, small smooth stones, and…muck…the muck was what he'd been searching for, minnows probably inhabited the spot, and if there were minnows…
He looked along the length of the river and frowned unhappily. The current was too strong, big fish wouldn't like it. They'd want to hang about in the gentler areas, mingling for sure. And less rocks…they'd want fewer rocks…it just wouldn'tdo a fish any good to be bumped into hard and sharp rocks in a rough current...
("Can I talk to you?")
Inuyasha trekked back out of the river, his movements furtive and quiet. Once out of the water and onto the bank where the trees offered more shadow and protection from spying eyes, the hanyou shook—much like a dog—freeing his long hair and his limbs of the chilled water.
His stomach tightened uncomfortably, broiling with impatient stomach acids.
Inuyasha pursed his lips. Fish weren't big enough. He'd spend more energy fighting the current and seeking good spots for the fishing to take place than he'd get from actually consuming what the river had to offer. He snorted in the moonlight.
"Feh." I'd probably get more out of the river muck than from the fish! And it'd be easier to find! But he felt sick at the thought of the stuff sliding down his throat, rich, wet, cold, and slimy…like swallowing salamanders…he gagged. Once, as a young pup, newly orphaned after his mother's death, he'd actually resorted to eating such things…and minnows too, he recalled. None of them were very appetizing…
("I thought we were talking, Koshi-sama…")
Inuyasha rose to his feet and turned back to the forest, leaping into the branches of the nearest tree, agile as a cat, his balance perfect…watching a few of the leaves flicker in the wind beside him he contemplated raiding an orchard. It was the right time of year for a number of nice fruits to be ready…but that was cheap sugars. If he pigged out on those he'd surely destroy the farmer's crops for the year just to fill his stomach for an hour or two at most. The villagers would starve…
"But what do I care?" he growled to himself aloud…yet inside he knew full well that he did care…damn it! When had he become so soft hearted when it came to humans! But he knew the answer to that question too…
His grip tightened on the branch, his claws digging into the bark. He turned sad eyes toward the full and thick moon in the heavens, fighting his emotions as if they were a demon—but it was a battle he could never win, and he couldn't use Tetsuseiga this time…
("You've gotta stop calling me that…I'm not your superior in any way!")
"Kagome…" he whispered the forbidden name aloud, still staring at the moon. His eyes were moist but he blinked a few times and forced it away. His stomach helped to ease the pain inside by giving him a physical discomfort. Where had he been when she had distracted him? Oh yes, fruit…
No, he couldn't eat fruit. He wasn't concerned for the people—no, that wasn't it!—he was worried about the fact that no matter how much of it he did eat he'd be hungry again in only an hour or so. His body assimilated sugar like a sponge did water. There was no point in eating if the meal provided consisted of fruit—he'd be hungry again even as he swallowed the last bite.
He growled, frustrated, and then, curiously, sniffed the air. What were they eating for dinner inside the village? Surely someone must have something good outside cooking…
Carefully maintaining balance, Inuyasha leaned out, trying to catch the wind better in his nose, letting it whisper its secrets to him more clearly. Raiding the samurais' catch had worked out well enough—why wouldn't working the villagers over a bit for their food be just as good? Although he felt a twinge of guilt try to rise within him he pushed the thought down, focusing on the growling and twisting of his hungry stomach instead. There was a big difference between attacking innocent villagers and attacking arrogant warriors…there were women and children, old toothless men and women, babies…
His ears drooped and his stomach growled…damn it! Who cares about them! They're just humans and I'm hungry! I could do it without killing anyone…
("C'mon,)
Inuyasha leapt from the tree, landed smoothly on the ground. Flawlessly he moved straight toward the river, his toes dipped into it, his calves tightened and prepared to leap to cover the rest of the river in a single bound…
(sit then…")
The rosary beads on his neck suddenly burned into him and Inuyasha winced in surprise. His body had just left the ground; he was over the river's middle, its deepest part…the beads became heavy as stones and the hanyou dropped like a rock toward the water, screeching in shock the whole way.
One gigantic splash later and Inuyasha rose from it, sputtering and furious. He looked around frantically, his ears twittering in every which way, even his nose worked, twitching as he stood, his flesh prickled with goose bumps in the middle of the river. His clawed hands reached up and clasped the beads…
He'd forgotten about them…his anger at the surprise faded swiftly then, even as the water from his plunge into the river continued to drip down his body, wetting his haori. No one but…it couldn't be…her…no, it just wasn't possible…can make the rosary sit me…she was dead. He'd seen her fall…
But no one except Kagome could say that word to make the rosary work…
The dead couldn't talk. If Kagome was dead she couldn't have uttered the hated word…she's still alive!
The hanyou nearly collapsed at the realization. His knees wobbled, his heart sped up as if he were in mortal combat with his brother or Naraku. She's alive! She's alive! She's alive!
The hanyou leapt from the river, instinct driving him now alone. The only thoughts spinning inside him were of Kagome. Where was she? It didn't matter one little bit. He'd find her…now that he knew that she lived and breathedshe couldn't hide from him…he'd held back before, he'd made mistakes, but no more!
It was a second chance…
He reached the open; treeless splays where the villagers had their rice fields, and where they crossed the river on their way to the hot springs. Here, on the opposite bank from the village and the rice fields, the hanyou knelt with his nose kissing the dust, searching through the multitude of scents for the one that he thought he'd never scent alive again…over the last few days after he'd followed the samurais with their wounded to this village he'd thought that he'd caught a tiny whiff of the scent from time to time, but always he'd shrugged it off as impossible—only his remaining guilt made him imagine that scent…her scent…but now he knew that it'd been real, real as the dust beneath his bare feet, real as the churning hunger in his stomach, and as alive as ferocious current in the river.
A whizzing sound reached him, Inuyasha's ear turned toward the sound, puzzled. A moment later he leapt back ward just as a sharp metal tipped arrow planted itself rudely at his feet. If he hadn't moved it'd surely have driven itself deep into his flesh…with a growl he looked up, squinting his fine-tuned amber eyes across the churning waters of the river and into the village's rice fields. The same samurai archer that'd disturbed him when he'd been near the hot springs was already notching another arrow into his bow, preparing to shoot. Behind him, rising out of the mists, two more samurais were materializing.
Inuyasha's gaze narrowed and he snarled below his breath. "Can't stop me you miserable, arrogant jackasses…" as the samurai let loose with another arrow, the hanyou rushed forward and leapt into the air, catapulting fast, and straight up. On his way he slashed at the arrow that was meant to pierce him through the neck, cutting it into nothing more than slivers of bark and wood and metal. On the bank the three samurai gaped in rising fear as the Red Demon landed on their side of the river, his feet leaving deep imprints in the soft sand. They drew their swords and fidgeted nervously, waiting to see what he would do…
The hanyou growled for a moment, taking in their swords in the moonlight, and then he made a sound almost like a bark and charged toward them, the sand splashing up around his feet much like water. Faced with this snarling, growling, amber-eyed Red Demon the samurais paled and turned tail, running as fast as they could for the gates of the village. Inuyasha chased them for only a few seconds before he skidded to a stop and lowered into a crouching position, on his hands and knees, ears pricked and alert…
When the wind whispered through the grasses and the rice fields just perfectly…he lifted his nose again, searching. His amber eyes faded and closed, as if he were falling asleep but inside his mind was working, searching. A moment later and his golden orbs snapped wide open again, and slowly a grin grew over his face, exposing his bright fangs, as white and shiny as the moon overhead. Kagome is in the village…her scent was as clear as daylight when the wind blew, carrying its message to him, whispering in his ears a story of his Kagome, his living Kagome.
He followed the path the samurais had taken a few moments later, cautiously. He tried to be stealthy, rushing through the open spaces that wereexposed to the moonlight. In the shadowy spots he stopped, scenting the wind, and readjusting his course. Finally he found himself in the fields directly outside the village's gates…and somehow they were still open. The samurais must've really been stupid! Didn't they know he was a dangerous demon? Well, a dangerous half demon anyway.
Yet even as he thought this he saw—and heard and smelled as well—that the villagers were fighting. There were cries and threats exchanged. Shouts of protest and support. Anger and fear. Hatred and desperation. They were fighting amongst themselves for some strange reason, and that had delayed their reaction time. Inuyasha shook his head, scowling, and was about to rush forward to scale the village gates—whether they were closed or not—when a strange shadow appeared just outside the walls…Inuyasha took a deep breath inward and recognized the same sweaty samurai pest that'd bothered him just outside the hot springs and….and Kagome?
Shock rooted him to the spot as the samurai let Kagome fall to the ground and disappeared beck into the shelter of the village's walls, pulling the gates shut violently as he did so. The shouting inside the village increased. Inuyasha scowled in the darkness but didn't move, his amber gaze was riveted on Kagome's fragile form…a longing rose within him at her scent—slightly changed as it was now and surrounded not by him and the others of their group, but by weakly mortals—to run up to her and simply hold her in his arms…
…But the villagers had surely set this up as a trap. They must've been keeping Kagome against her will, and now they were using her to bait him. Inuyasha remained where he was, but he shifted his weight uncertainly, longing to run to her, to reach out, to cry her name and tell her everything that'd been stirring inside him over the last week—when he'd thought she was dead and lost to him forever.
He watched, suddenly frozen, as Kagome rose to her feet, shakily, and turned to pound on the gates of the village. He could hear her frantic voice screaming, "No!". And as her fists met with the wood, terror reached him on the wind, "Let me IN!"
What's wrong with her?Then he stilled everything—even his breathing—when she turned round and stared at him. The hanyou didn't need his above-human eyesight to know that she was anything but glad to see him…her eyes were wide, her face blank and pallid. He could not only see her chest moving rapidly, frantically with her terror, but he could hear the breathing and gasping she did. A tremor passed through his heart, what's wrong with her? Why is she terrified of me?
Abruptly Kagome turned and ran, tiny sounds of horror, squeaks of fear, escaping her lips and reaching his ears, making his gut wrench with it…why Kagome? Why would you run from me? In a moment his consternation turned to anger and he growled, leaping straight into action, darting after her through the rice fields…
The girl never stood a chance on foot; she was far too slow. Inuyasha landed directly in front of her some five feet ahead, his ears flattened against his head, his amber gaze narrowed. When she caught sight of him in her path she stopped, panting in terror, and began to back away, perhaps to run in the opposite direction again. Inuyasha pursed his lips—he couldn't have that, she'd just tire herself, and by the look of her pale skin, thin body, and the way she smelled, he knew she was already not in the best of health. Considering the fall she must've survived and the ride in the river he wasn't surprised, it was a miracle that she was alive! Perhaps he was dreaming…
But even as he thought that Kagome turned on her heel and started to run again, back the way she'd come. Little gasps of exhausted panic came from her with each exhalation. Inuyasha darted after her doggedly, cutting her off in a single leap.
With a strangled cry of fear Kagome stopped once more, a hand over her heaving chest, eyes wide and glued to him. He scented a change within her, the animal instinct and adrenaline had abandoned her—now she was going to fight him…fight him? Inuyasha blinked at her, stunned, as she raised one hand to him, palm outward, as if it were a weapon.
"Leave me alone!" she gasped, her voice high and frightened.
Inuyasha growled to himself a moment and then showed her his clawed hands, trying to ease her obvious fear, "Kagome, I don't know what's going on but I wouldn't hurt you and you know it." he met her almond gaze, begging her with his eyes to see him, to recognize him, but there wasn't a flicker of any emotion except terror in her expression. She couldn't be tricking him could she? No, Kagome wouldn't do that; she wasn't like that…
"Please Kagome!" he took a step closer to her, hands outstretched, eyes shimmering with emotion, "I thought you were dead! I thought I'd never see you again!" he felt his knees shaking, his hands blurred in his vision, obscured by the moisture in his eyes. He blinked it frantically away to see her face again, and felt something inside him sink towards his feet and the unforgiving earth when he saw it: she was staring at him as if he weren't even speaking the same language! Despair began to flood the hanyou and his fists clenched into balls of frustration and rage.
"Kagome…" he took another step closer and suddenly Kagome backed away from him, both hands outstretched for protection.
"Stay away!" her voice was trembling, he saw the girl turn her head away from him, as if too scared to watch him anymore.
"I won't hurt you Kagome! I could never hurt you!" he was pleading, but his voice, out of frustration and despair, sounded angry and enraged. Surely she wasn't convinced of his peaceful intentions by such a tone, but the hanyou couldn't give up! This was Kagome! His Kagome…
"Kagome, please talk to me, I won't hurt you!" he forced his voice to become calmer, quieter, and he sank down to all fours to appear less threatening. His actions were rewarded when the girl peeked at him a moment and then blinked her frightened tears away. But she didn't adopt a calmer position, and continued to regard him as a killer, her body shook with fear, her scent was rank with it, and her hands never left their position of protection, trying to cover her face and head.
"Please talk to me…" Inuyasha whispered, staring up at her through his shimmering amber gaze.
The girl parted her lips and hesitantly asked something that stupefied the hanyou, "Who is Kagome?"
Even as he gaped at her, disbelieving, a small whizzing sound reached him, but so shocked was the hanyou that he didn't move in time…he yipped in pain and jumped away from Kagome and the village's wall, gasping. His clawed hands grasped an arrow's shaft that'd embedded itself into his thigh. Blackish blood spilled onto the dusty ground, sharp and pungent to the hanyou's nose: his own scent.
He had no time to reflect on this first attack though, for even as he was coming to terms with the first arrow, a second whirring noise hit his ears. The hanyou leap to dodge the sound, moving still further from the village's wall and Kagome, but the arrow struck him nonetheless—right through his right shoulder. Inuyasha grunted and groaned with the pain, cursing the archer's ancestors back to the beginning. With a quick look to the top of the village wall he saw a young man—without samurai armor—steadily pointing an arrow at him, preparing to fire again.
"You bastard!" Inuyasha hissed at him, "Come down and fight me like a man why don't ya!" he flexed and popped his knuckles to emphasize the challenge.
The archer ignored him, instead he called down to Kagome, "Sakana, run to the gates—I'll kill the Red Demon."
The girl had her back to the village's wall and was staring, wide-eyed and confused, at Inuyasha. She didn't seem to hear the orders, and the boy atop the wall looked down at her, worried. "Sakana?"
When the archer looked away from him Inuyasha dashed forward, ignoring the pain and blood loss from the two arrows. But even as he drew close enough to grab hold of Kagome to spirit her away, the archer had targeted him and let loose a third arrow. This one narrowly missed the hanyou's head, but although it missed its mark it worked well in catching his attention.
Inuyasha stopped and looked desperately to Kagome. I can't leave her! But even as he thought that another arrow tore through the air, and then another. The boy on the walls had been joined by not one, but two more archers. Inuyasha would be stricken down if he remained any longer.
"I'll be back for you Kagome!" he yelled, and then leapt high into the air, avoiding the volley of arrows that were aimed at his heart and head, "I promise!" in one burst of speed he shot away, a dart of red, through the rice fields and toward the distant, shining river, like a snake in the dark.
Sakana watched him go; shivering in fear and…what else was it? She could name the strange emotion that rose in her as she watched the demon leap and run away. Something deep within her stirred, whispering to her, that demon is the key to my past…
"Sakana!" it was Koshi, calling to her from the village walls in desperation, "Are you all right?"
Slowly she nodded, though that gesture was made more to herself than it was to Koshi who couldn't see it. Her eyes were still following the streak of red…it splashed in the distant river, the silver of the water was like the color of his hair…and then it leapt into the darkness of the trees and was gone. Only then did she answer Koshi.
"Yes, I'm okay." But in her mind she thought, I need to get away from here. I should follow that demon…but such a thought was suicide! How could she follow such a creature? And why should she want to? He would only slaughter her or rape her or torture her, or imprison her, right? You're wrong…the small voice inside her whispered, but she ignored it. That made no sense at all…but the voice wouldn't relent. Even as she walked back through the gates and felt Koshi hug her, wrapping his arms about her so tightly her breasts hurt, it still whispered to her things that frightened and intrigued at once…
You don't belong here. You've never belonged here. Koshi's arms are not your place. They aren't what you want. They aren't what you are. They never will be. The demon in red holds your future and your past…find him…follow him…
Endnote: Sorry to announce this, but next time it will be a cliffy again too...(smirks guiltely) I'm sorry, they write themsevles most of the time, and the nicest cut offs areusually cliffies...but I'll tell you that it'll be a much more satisfying cliffy than last chapter's. Hehe...that's all for now, I need to be writing now and not posting, I've fallen behind (many apologies!) my schedule will remain VERY busy over the next week or two...into March...by the end of March though I'm good once more...Phews! Gotta go...hope you enjoyed, write in and tell me key? (winks) THANK YOU to all reviewers...I'm not sure how much longer this story will go, I don't think it'll make 20 (did I say that about "Hanyou's Happy Ending" too? (blush)) but anyway, gotta go write on "Hanyou's" Sequel...