A Broken Circle

Chapter One: A Likely Story

The breeze settled softly over the fields, cooling the scalding heat of the noonday sun, retreating into the west. Inuyasha had been carefully watching Kaede and Kagome prepare herbs all day, and grew impatient with the entire affair. Sango and Miroku had already escaped the hot sun, and he found himself envying them a bit. With a lazy yawn, he stretched, ambling over to watch the two women prepare some transparent draught, looking particularly disgusting.

Shippou was feverishly digging for something as Kagome crushed some medicinal herd into a tiny glass vial. She looked up with a small smile, wiping the sweat from her forehead. Inuyasha didn't risk looking too long. Something about watching her made him a bit uncomfortable and boundlessly happy at the same time, but he would never admit that such a simple human girl would have such effect on him.

Quickly tiring of watching, he walked a while away; assuring himself that Kagome could take care of herself for a few minutes. The cool forest looked welcoming, inviting him back into the wet darkness. He found himself drawn to it strangely, as he had never before. It beckoned him and, half against his will, his feet began to move.

The leaves glowed an eerie color in the shadow of the encroaching night. A mist gathered around his clawed feet, wrapping them in more uncanny light. It led him along, calling him nearer while a voice in his head screamed futilely against its supernatural power. The smoky mist rose to his face, filling his senses with a far away recognition. He knew what it smelled like- he just didn't want to believe it.

Kikyo…

There was no mistaking it. Earth, grave soil, and a smell not found often elsewhere- the smell of death. Sure enough, there the miko lay, cradled by the gnarled branches of an old tree. He had to admit that she looked beautiful lazing in the late sun, but there was something in the way she looked at him that betrayed her external charms. Her eyes, focused on him alone, remained dark and malicious.

"K-Kikyo?" Her name felt so strange now that he had spoken it for such a long time.

She smiled shallowly, the warmth never touching her eyes. So much that needed to be said aloud floated just beneath the surface, just outside his reach. She looked at him accusingly, but her voice was a coo when at last she spoke.

"Inuyasha… when will you let me rest?"

He looked back defiantly, refusing to lay down and die so she could be satisfied. Still, his voice was forgiving, careful. "Kikyo… not yet… I'm not ready yet…" He turned to go, but the string tying him to her yanked back harshly. It almost physically hurt to take another step.

"Is it the girl?" He could have sworn her voice was choked with tears, if he didn't know that she couldn't feel rejection anymore. He looked back blankly, his emotions canceling each other out. She smirked, losing all former chagrin. "Come, my Inuyasha. I've missed you…"

His body moved to respond to her beckon, though he fought every step.

"Have you so quickly forgotten my kiss? I will remind you…"

Something was wrong, Kagome could feel it racing through her very being. "I'll be back." She whispered more to herself than Kaede. Shippou plunged from beneath the dirt to watch Kagome walk away. She took a moment to examine a newly broken branch, then skulked into the strange forest. She knew where to go as if sharing someone else's consciousness. In a moment she wished she had ignored the feeling.

Kikyo had her arms wrapped around Inuyasha, and likewise, his around her. The two were entwined in a deep kiss. Something shot through her chest and took her breath away. She couldn't handle it again… she collapsed against a near tree, a small sob squeaking from her.

Inuyasha seemed dragged back to reality, stumbling back from Kikyo in horror. Kagome took off running, something guiding her straight away from the scene as easily as it had led her. With fleeter feet than she had ever known before, she bolted back to the village, shedding bothersome shoes and socks along the way.

The hanyou gave his former love a pained look, completely frustrated without really knowing who to be angry at. Breaking her hold, he fled after Kagome. He should have been able to catch her easily, but within moments she had escaped his sight.

She could feet every root, branch and stone that cut deep into her pale feet. But the pain she felt across her feet was nothing to the sharp contractions of her chest that stole away her oxygen.

Small droplets of blood littered the path. The smell of her blood was what tortured him more than anything. He was driven mad by that mere smell. But to know that he was the one hurting her killed him even more.

He let out a long, relieved breath to see her lying facedown on the hillside, though her body was wracked with the effort of stifling her tears.

"Kagome… I…"

"Osuwari!"

A strange kind of relaxation came with being drilled into senselessness in the ground. It was almost his penance anymore, a feeling as if she had exacted a proper revenge for whatever he'd done. She looked at him, her cheeks stained by dirt clinging to her wet tears.

"I… you said… she…" She didn't finish a sentence, but hurt and anger stained every word landing like a whip on him.

"It wasn't my fault!" He said defensively from the ground, her accusation hitting hard.

"Sure it wasn't. Just like the last time." She hissed with an uncharacteristic chill.

He drove himself up against the spell, struggling to rise to her eye level. "Don't you trust me at all?" He demanded icily, but a tinge of desperation tinged the edges of his tone.

"How can I?" Her voice rose to nearly a yell, though she fought the emotion away. A snarling remark came to his lips, but was halted by a sharp slap. "With her around, you can't even think straight!"

"Kagome-" He challenged her with a quiet growl, quickly noting the slap that was beginning to hurt his pride, rather than his face. Before he could explain any further, she stood and stomped off a few steps, looking back only once.

"I'm going home. Don't you dare come after me!"

"Like I'd come after you!"

"Osuwari!" She cried at the top of her voice again. "Go away!"

"Like hell I'll go any-"

"Osuwari!"

"Ow! Would you stop that you bi-"

"Osuwari!"

Her voice faded, leaving nothing more than the blood gleaming on the earth next to him.

Stumbling back into camp, she grabbed her bag quickly. "I have to go." She mumbled to the others gathered around. The bangs shadowing her eyes told them not to question.

"Inuyasha, ye are a fool indeed."