AN: Long chapter as a sorry for my long update. This chapter was really fun to write and I hope you guys enjoy it.

Pirate Pash

Chapter 10 – Cowardly Men


She couldn't quite describe herself anymore.

She was a woman, that was for sure. But just how womanly was she? And her hair – was, well black. But it was messy and she couldn't remember the last time she actually tamed the stray hairs. Her outfit was beginning to tear and rip, not to mention the numerous mud stains barely qualified for it to be called an "outfit".

All of these thoughts danced around Kagome's head until she felt a burning sensation on her back.

"Wha - ?" She was already tiring of the way she woke up all the time. The strong sun of the island burned a specific area on her back and she had to force herself to roll over into the shade.

Although it didn't make too much of a difference, Kagome relaxed and tried to ignore the hunger pangs now throbbing in her stomach. She was slightly dehydrated and seriously starving, and she had little energy left in the murderous heat.

It wasn't the starvation that exasperated her, because she was almost used to having no rations for days. It was her frail throat drying out like the pebbles lying near her. She found herself struggling to breathe through her mouth, because her nose was still stuffy from last night...

Kagome's face burned up even more when she recalled last night. 'I can't believe I tried that... what was my problem?'

She coughed suddenly and winced from her position on the ground. She really did look pitiful, curled up and sick on some random beach. It seemed like something had screwed with her once again, because she just realized she was on a different part of the island – alone.

"I've had enough..." The woman wheezed and crawled up, leaning her forehead against her arm to keep from collapsing. The overwhelming throbbing from every angle was becoming unbearable. "I might just die here."

She really believed herself. If she had just placed her head back down right then and fallen asleep, she knew she would've done so and never woken up. Before long the heat would've gotten to her and kept her from recovering. And no one would recognize the fried body on the shore.

She was just a nobody. She was poor, unknown, and connected to pirates. The last point made her irrelevant in every villager's eyes.

The sheer sadness of it all made her cry. She didn't want to be lying here like some lump anymore, and she didn't want to do this. Why did such a heavy responsibility have to be thrown on her shoulders the night her parents died? And now this? God was truly unfair to her.

Kagome sobbed faintly to herself and she watched her tears stain the sand. Even her tears were limited because of the dehydration occurring in her body. "Someone...h-help me..."

Of course, as expected, no one came to her aid. The only sounds that rang in her ears were the ones of seagulls and waves crashing loudly against the jagged rocks.

Waves? Jagged Rocks?

Kagome somehow found the energy to look around and spotted the ocean she failed to notice, shining beautifully in all its glory. The water was crystal blue, and the waves glittered when they hit the shore.

She didn't know why she didn't think of this before! The ocean was cold, and even if it didn't fill her up it would cool her down. She couldn't imagine something nicer than soaking her body in icy cold water...

Shakily, she stood up and toddled over, still a fair distance from the actual water. On the way down, she immediately stripped herself of her clothes, feeling no awkwardness at the moment, and prepared to sink her toes into the Atlantic Ocean.

"Ahhhh..." Kagome sighed when her foot first made contact with the cool liquid. "It feels so good." She picked up some water between her hands and splashed it on her burning face. It cooled down immediately.

Before long, she swam around a deeper area, wearing no more of her constricting rags. Her body had forced itself to let her enjoy this, and she wasn't going to crumble like she did on the beach.

She hummed and splashed some water around, feeling a sense of loneliness. She was missing something. Kagome wanted to splash water on other people, and have them chase after her to do the same. She also wanted her ideal husband to take her swimming, where she would sink his head into the water and they would cackle at it afterwards.

Those were only some of her silent fantasies. She stared down at her pruning fingers, 'Why did I never have any friends? Was I that repulsive? Or boring?'

Deciding the dip was long enough; she swam to shore, but cried out when suddenly something punctured her left ankle. It felt as if a sharp rock had struck her in the shins, but when she hopped to shore on one leg to take a closer look, she saw that she was wrong.

Her injury was a bite of some sort. It was an animal bite from a terribly sharp-toothed fish that had taken a nasty chunk out of her ankle.

Kagome cringed when she saw her flesh disconnected from her foot and the massive blood flow flowing onto the ground. What was she going to do? There were no supplies anywhere, and if she stayed much longer she was going to lose enough blood to faint.

She laid back and held onto her ankle as she made a shriek that cleared the trees of birds. The stabs at her were getting worse and this had to top the list.

Having a huge area of her body eaten off was not something she had wanted to experience.

She closed her eyes and bit her lips, trying to block out at least some of the hurt she was feeling. Everything felt tingly and it stung so bad...

"Who... why, is that Miss Kagome?"

The girl shot her head back and almost cried out in pleasure when she spotted a man running out of the trees and towards her, and it took her only seconds to realize Miroku had found her.

Naked.

She screamed suddenly and tried to hide at least some of her modesty by shielding herself with her hands. But it didn't prove to work because they always found their way back to her ankle.

"Ow...Miroku, please tell me it's not you." She said humorously when he stopped behind her. "I can feel your stare digging into my back..."

Of all the men to run up to help her, she couldn't name a less preferred one. Except maybe Manten or Jio. And Inuyasha.

"Miss Kagome, your ankle..."

"I'm fine," she ground out, her face scrunching up before she muttered, "can you...can you just grab my clothes please?"

"But we should surely clean out that wound before it's infected, and - " He said sincerely, Kagome not hearing any leering in his voice.

"Get my clothes." She demanded this time.

"Of course." Kagome sighed when she heard his feet running over to retrieve her clothes. He came back and helped her into them, and she was astonished to find his eyes didn't stray away once.

"Where's Sango and the others?" She asked when he took a closer look at her injury. The blood had slowed a little, but the tear in tissue and muscle was still pretty bad.

"Hm? Oh, they disappeared the first night." Miroku regarded, his fingers on his chin in thought. "Couldn't find them in the morning. I was thrown into some cave somewhere and it was impossible to get out."

"You too? So everyone got separated on this island?"

"I believe so. Excuse me - " He quickly tore off a tiny strip of her white blouse to get to the job at hand. He wiped away the pieces of sand and applied pressure to her wound.

Kagome screeched when he touched it. It felt as it the whole world came crashing down – onto her ankle.

"I'm sorry, Miss Kagome. But I must carry you now. I'll help you find a place to rest and we'll find the boat." He scooped her up behind her back and knees and toddled over to where he came from.

"How...how do you have so much energy? Did you have food?" She croaked out.

He stared down at her and smiled. "I was blessed. This morning I woke up and I found a small pool of rainwater in a hole in the ground. Not to mention I found you when I heard you scream. There is hope."

Even with this, she could tell he was exhausted and hungry. His hair was tangled and his grip on her was loose. "Miroku, are you sure you're okay?"

He began to walk a little slower now as he grinned. "Do you care about me so much, Miss Kagome? You know, I would definitely consider you much more if it were not for my precious Sango."

"That's not what I - "

She was cut off by something running dangerously close to her backside. And when his hand rubbed against her bottom, she slapped him and instantly both of them fell to the ground in a heap.

Kagome whined because her ankle had smashed into the dirt, and Miroku whined because his cheek was stinging from her slap.


Some time during her long travel on Miroku's back, Kagome's eyes had shut on her and she had fallen asleep, resting her head against his sturdy shoulder. She was surprised he didn't let her down once, because she knew she wasn't a light girl. That and he hadn't eaten for two days.

She opened her eyes and blinked. Judging by the sun, they must have been trudging the forest paths for three hours by now. "Miroku...it's okay. I can walk myself."

"I'm afraid you can't. If you strain that foot anymore you may lose it forever. And you do not want to have us chop that foot off."

She never spoke of it again.

They were still continuing along the road at a good speed when all of a sudden a deep voice rang out ahead of them. Someone else was here. "WHO GOES THERE?"

"We mean no harm. We simply need to cross through this path." Miroku insisted lightly. But Kagome felt him tense up by the feel of his stiff shoulders.

"State your purpose for needing to cross!" Another voice called out. So there was more than one of them? "Do you have rations on you?"

"Unfortunately, no. But I do have an injured woman who needs to be tended to straight away to avoid losing her foot." He spoke truthfully.

Kagome gulped. The soreness had died down somewhat but now she was just worried about what would happen to her foot. If she lost something that important, she would definitely not be able to last long.

"We don't believe you!" The voices, now clear there were more than two, called out. "Come closer so we can see you are telling the truth!"

"Gentlemen, I must object to that." Miroku said and backed up slowly. "If you must see to it I tell the truth, you may walk up to us."

Miroku was clever. She would've walked right into them.

"Don't trust us, huh? Chap?" A man started to laugh a loud laugh. He clapped his large hands together. "Smart guy. I applaud your smarts."

They emerged from the darkness, all five of them, their eyes piercing into the man with the girl on his back. However, their worries disappeared when the men's faces came into clear view.

"Miroku? IS THAT YOU?" The men said at once, and Kagome recognized their faces from the crew on the boat. These were the type of guys that didn't stand out, because there were at least four others on the ship that looked exactly like them.

They were what she liked to call 'the rugged, bearded types'. The ones Kagome heard of in the tales everyone told her when she was younger, and the ones she imagined whenever she heard the word 'pirate'. Oddly enough, she found these guys probably the sanest aboard.

"Guys! You're alright!" Miroku shuffled forwards and did this manly hand gesture with each of them, before grinning. "You guys all met up?"

Their faces paled immediately and one man scratched his neck. "Miroku...we met up with a few others a while back and they're...they're in fucking trouble."

"Who? Tell me what happened!" He demanded, in such a rush he accidentally dropped her onto the ground. She yelped when her back collided with something hard, but he didn't seem to notice. "Hurry up!"

Kagome picked herself up in time to see Miroku rush forwards. "Are they okay? Why are you men here?"

"We...we met up with Inuyasha, Hiten, Manten, Shippou and a few others a while back. And we were..." He paused to rephrase his words. "we were all looking for the ship when thi- this THING attacked us. I don't know if it was an animal but - "

"It was a youkai!" Another man filled in. "It was half the size of our ship and it had these massive teeth... Inuyasha attacked it right away but was flung back..."

Kagome gulped and crawled back onto her feet. "Is he okay?"

Miroku raised his hand to shut her up and asked in a patient tone. "Where are they? Tell me exactly where they are. Now."

One chunky man looked frightened of the noticeably smaller Miroku, "They're quite far away. We were all fighting it but we had to get away. It was going to kill u - "

He was interrupted by the fifth man. "Oh yea, and that woman was there. What was her name...Sango!"

Miroku was gone before they could mutter another word, the only evidence of his departure was Kagome, who was now leaning against a tree and facing a large group of these guys. She would have run after Miroku had it not been for her leg. "Ummm..."

"We're not going to hurt you." One of them looked disgusted and sat down. He looked more worried about his own health than hers.

The other guy stared at him nervously. "You think Miroku and Inuyasha are going to punish us for this? Running away in battle?"

"Definitely. It's in the code. 'Those who escape battle for cowardly and unmanly reasons will suffer a punishment bestowed upon by the captain." Someone memorized as he also sank onto the ground.

"Shit. Inuyasha's going to have our asses for this. But that youkai was insane. I would've never gone back if you dragged me."

"And if Inuyasha's having his ass kicked, then you know we won't be of much use." The first guy said solemnly before sinking his face into his large hands. This was the most nervous she had ever seen these pirates of Inuyasha.

"Are they okay?" She repeated her question, and her light voice surprised them. Some of them hadn't even realised she was there.

"You? Inuyasha's wench? What are you doing here?" One guy snarled at her, while the others just looked on bored.

She stiffened at their rude comment but didn't back down. "I just wanted to know if they were okay. But I am not his 'wench' or whatever the hell else you guys call me. Inuyasha and I have absolutely nothing going on."

'Then what were you trying to do last night?' Her mind taunted her, and she wanted to hit something.

He sounded disbelieving. "They're injured. But they're all right. Our captain's injuries must be the worst because he's the one striking the most blows to that thing."

"Really? But he should be alive, right?" Why she was asking this was beyond her.

"Girl, you should leave now." One of them came up behind her and stopped. "Staying on this ship will bring no good luck to you at all and what we're looking for isn't something innocent. So run away before you're brought back on board."

'Hey, good idea. Why didn't I think of it earlier?' She gave him a dismayed look.

"Hey, are you fucking crazy? Don't tell her to run! Inuyasha will slaughter us for sure!" His friend yelled at him, shooting an evil glare over at her. "We might get out of this alive now if we just listen to him!"

"Listen to Inuyasha? What does he ever do but scream at us? He doesn't know shit about piracy, or being captain." A guy she hadn't heard speak yet spoke from behind a tree, his arms folded across his chest. "He's just some little slave boy who sucked up to the captain and then killed him off. In my opinion, he's nothing but a filthy backstabber."

Inuyasha was a slave? She never knew that... and he killed his captain? She had never heard of any of these things.

"Hey, shut up! She's here." He motioned towards Kagome, who was still leaning against the same tree. "She might talk."

"Me?" She pointed to herself innocently and then shook her hands in front of her face. It took her a while to realise she was the only 'she' around. "Oh no. I have no reason to tell Inuyasha anything. I told you, I'm just his prisoner... I wouldn't say anything about you guys, ever. I swear it."

"Who cares? We're going to die anyway." One guy said nonchalantly, kicking a branch by his foot into a bush. "Damn."

"Don't be like that." She said quietly, hopping forwards on her right foot and almost tripping. "I'm sure Inuyasha will forgive you guys. I mean, he's not as awful as you guys make him out to be."

He stared at her straight in the eyes, challenging her. "Little lady, we have every right to say the things we say about our captain. I've been pirating for twenty years now, and I've seen my share of captains come and go. But by far Inuyasha has to be the harshest one."

The others nodded in agreement. "You should have seen him throwing a man overboard once. That's actually not so bad for what he does to some of us."

Another man pointed out, "Oh, and never EVER steal more food than you're given. He hates that the most. That and betrayal to the captain."

Kagome smiled innocently and thanked the gods he never caught her all those times in the act. "What exactly does Inuyasha do to these people?"

"It's not right for a lady to hear, but believe me; you'll see it when it happens. And it's probably going to happen to us soon." He mentioned silently, his head drooping as he remembered everything. "You wouldn't believe it."

"Why don't you guys run away?" She asked, actually finding herself worrying for these guys. "I mean, he can't find you if you all run away and hide."

"He can." A guy fiddled with his fingers. "He has this amazing sense of smell. And he can run incredibly fast. We'd never get away on this island."

"Not to mention if we ran away even more it would definitely mean death for all of us."

Kagome felt her stomach clench. How come she hadn't seen the completely devilish Inuyasha they described? Sure, he had thrown that guy overboard once, but that wasn't that huge of a deal. Was there another side of him she hadn't seen before? "I won't let him do that to you guys."

They all stared at her with confused expressions on their faces. "What do you mean, girl? You'd never be able to tell our captain what to do or not do! And if the crew heard of it they would definitely vote for a new captain."

"Well, I'll still try to do something." She reassured, plopping down onto the ground because she was tired of standing unbalanced. "I want to help."

They sat in silence for a while before another sound was heard. "You know, she's not as bad as everyone says she is." A guy commented to another, and she found herself growling. He must have assumed she couldn't hear him.

"What do they say about me?" She asked curiously, only to receive silence from the five men. "HEY!"


Another bite of the youkai into his upper right shoulder sent his vision for a spin. This creature was quick, agile, and vicious. Harder to fight than any other pirate he'd ever met. And that was saying a lot.

Inuyasha took another swing of his heavy sword only to have it miss. "Shit!" He was too slow because within seconds the huge yellow tail had swung out and batted him into a tree. His back smashed against the wood and he slithered to the ground.

"Inuyasha, are you okay?" Miroku called out from below. He had shown up out of nowhere to help, but his aid wasn't too helpful. Hiten and Manten were already knocked to the side, and Sango was barely holding on with the bruises and scabs covering her body.

'Damn wusses run away before the fight...' He cursed the men who escaped when they spotted this thing. 'I have to show them what it means to run away during battle.'

He snarled and took another lunge at the creature, cringing when another cut tore open on his chest. However, this time it actually showed some results because the youkai got a big gash across his striped face. "NYAAAAAA!!!!"

The youkai was crying in pain now, and Inuyasha seized this opportunity to run forwards with his sword, despite all the scabs tearing at his skin. "SANGO! NOW!"

Sango threw her boomerang immediately and it struck the youkai in the side of the head. It hollered even louder this time and Inuyasha rounded off his sword and flicked his wrists, effectively cutting off the head of the youkai.

The head bounced onto the ground and the body collapsed shortly after it. It created a huge thumping noise as it smashed into the trees and grass below.

How could something that enormous hide on this island so that he couldn't see or smell it?

"Good shot, Sango!" Inuyasha screamed as he gracefully landed onto his feet, but he crumpled down moments later. The youkai had thrown him around like a toy numerous times, and his body was still covered fully with knife-like teeth bites. "Shit..."

"Inuyasha! Are you okay?" Sango scurried over and leaned over him, as well as Miroku. "Let's get him onto the boat, quick. Before it gets dark."

"Good point." Together, the two of them dragged the unconscious Inuyasha, Hiten, and Manten out of the area with Shippou following close behind. He was perfectly unharmed because he had been sitting on a branch for the entire show.

"Oh yea, I found Miss Kagome and the few others that had run away." Miroku pointed out to the woman as he got a better grip on the bodies. "She had a chunk of her ankle bitten off when she took a bath in the ocean."

"Is she alright?" Sango asked worriedly, struggling to pull them because of her own injuries. "She won't lose her foot?"

"No, she was lying on the shore crying and I carried her here. She's fine now, I think."

Sango nodded and headed in the direction Miroku indicated. "That's good."

The continued to walk in silence a bit more before Sango paused. "YOU CARRIED HER HERE NAKED? YOU PERVERT!"

Miroku's eyes widened considerably. "Wait, Sango, it's not what it sounds like..."

The poor beaten body of Manten being dragged by Sango was forgotten as she dragged it hurriedly over logs and jagged rocks in order to get away from the pervert.


Kagome screeched in delight when she saw Sango coming in from the clearing dragging something that looked like, a white youkai? She squinted and saw that it was only Manten. "SANGO!"

"Kagome!" Sango ran over quickly and gave the girl a quick hug, and it wasn't long before Sango fell to her knees. Her body had taken a rough beating during the fight.

"Sango, are you okay? Sango?" She attempted to bend over and pick her up, but Miroku did so for her. "She's badly hurt."

He already had her in his arms as he stroked the unconscious girl's hair. "She's fine. I'll take care of her." He turned around to face the five men who had run away. "As for you guys, who can't live up to the courage of a woman, I'll let you guys be dealt with by the captain when he recovers. I don't have anything to say."

"Miroku, I think I see the ship at three o'clock!" Shippou screamed from above the highest tree. "It's actually not too far from here!"

"Good. We're leaving this shitty island straight away." He motioned to the men, who were all looking down at their feet. "You guys carry Hiten and Manten and help Miss Kagome walk. I'll carry Sango and drag Inuyasha."

He probably did not trust them to drag the captain, and it clearly showed. Miroku was stumbling with a woman in his arms and a heavy man dragged behind him as he walked the fifty-minute route back to the ship.


"What do you mean everyone's already back onto the ship? How?" Miroku asked as they finally reached the ship, only to have a large group of their crew greet them at the front. "Didn't you guys get separated in the overnight?"

"We did. But then we just tied ourselves to each other." A young man pointed out. "The large group of us just magically appeared in different areas every morning. Today we just appeared next to the boat, so we're pretty lucky."

"Yea...lucky..." Miroku grumbled as he handed Inuyasha to the crew to be taken care of. "Bring him to his bed and a warm bucket of water. Don't forget the bandages and the medicine." He passed them the others. "And them too."

Kagome hopped onto the ship, feeling a little more comfortable than on the island. A mud pond would be more comfortable than this hell/winter, no food or drink, insane youkai island.

"Somebody tend to Miss Kagome's foot as well."

Hojo nodded and ran off in a huff to prepare, while Miroku just sauntered off into Sango's room with her still in his arms. Everyone else boarded the ship, including Shippou and the frightened men.

She found a seat in a room and she winced as Hojo took care of her injury, carefully cleaning it with alcohol and wrapping it up with long bandages.

She screamed the entire time, but Hojo didn't seem to notice and continued with his job, humming as he pinned the bandage together. "See, that wasn't so bad."

"I hate you." She mumbled with a half-smile. "But thanks."

"No problem. Kagome, if you ever have any problems don't hesitate in finding me and asking, and if you ever need someone to talk to - " Hojo mumbled shyly, glancing away and a blush highlighting his face. "...to talk to, you can talk to me...Kagome?"

He spun his head around eagerly just in time to see the door slam. Kagome had run out on him when he was still declaring his feelings for her.

Oh well, he'd tell her the next time he cleaned her wounds. He couldn't wait.


Kagome hobbled with her bandaged foot for a bit and before long she found herself standing in front of the captain's doors. She wanted to knock, but didn't want anyone else to see her going to his room.

They'd probably assume she was coming here for another reason...

She came because she wanted to talk to him some more. About what, she didn't know. But a part of her wanted to change him. After all, she would feel so much better if he became a gentler captain.

That and she wanted to see if he was getting better. She wanted to make sure that he didn't remember anything she did to him last night. When she just leaned over and hugged him...he was probably shocked...

Maybe she should go explain...

Yet, there were two parts of Kagome arguing with one another. A part of her wanted for her to continue with her plan, and it told her that he would definitely let her go home to Souta if it worked.

Meanwhile, the other part of her laughed at the first part, telling her that it would never work and he'd probably just rape her and forget about her.

She was distracted from her thoughts when a young man barged out of his room, the door missing her face by an inch. Luckily, she was on the other side, so he did not see her standing there.

The young man was carrying a bucket of supplies, and an angered expression on his face. "Damn it..." He muttered as he stormed away.

"AND DON'T COME NEAR ME AGAIN!!!" Someone hollered from inside the room, and it could have been nobody but Inuyasha himself. Obviously he was awake and angry about something.

Catching the door with one hand, Kagome took a deep breath in before stepping inside his room.


AN: I haven't done a cliffhanger in a while and I thought it would be time for one. That and I lengthened the chapter to make up for my annoying updating habits. : )

Thanks so much to my loving reviewers. I love you guys so much and they really do inspire me, no matter how long you think I take to update. I read every one of them and I really you guys enjoyed this.

Sorena