Chapter Two: Gathering Storm
The blue vortex swirled around her like a gathering storm in whose eye she took refuge. For a brief moment, she felt the pain in her feet rise to grasp her ankle, then the feel of solid ground.
"Jerk. Lousy…" The same phrases swam through her mind, but not one seemed to quite fit him on this count. She cursed the insufficient amount of derogatory terms there were for a two-timing half youkai. Her vision already blurred colors and shapes with thick tears. Climbing the rope ladder to the top was excruciating with the thousands of tiny cuts on her feet and the remaining burning on her ankle, but she worked through it, her only cause being to get as far away from Inuyasha as humanly possible. She reached up over the well, her hand clinging to the other side, as usual. But now something was different. A sharp pain began to burn in her palm where it touched the gnarled wood of the well. Dropping the aching hand, she struggled out with only one arm.
Dropping to the floor next to the old wooden thing she lifted her hand to her face to examine the sudden injury. Her face contorted in surprise. Her hand was burnt raw pink in the shape of the particular board, except for the completely intact pieces where the surface of the well hadn't touched. She traced the tiny spidering lines of the wood's cracks carefully across her palm. Something strange was happening.
Her first instinct told her to go retrieve Inuyasha to check the place. But she wouldn't dare go crawling back now, so soon. She moved to rise, but the moment her body lifted from the ground, a strange chirping sound trilled in her ears. She struggled, but couldn't command her limbs to block out the noise. What's going on? A voice within her mind had begun the panic routine.
A new pain exploded for a moment at the back of her head and everything faded into blackness… Inuyasha… help…
…
Baka! How could you! She's probably already gone!"Damn it! How did that happen?" A clawed hand roughly traced the sting across his face. Kagome had gotten mad before, but never this mad, never mad enough to actually hit him herself. But he wasn't sure just what triggered it… as opposed to the other times. Way to make himself feel any worse, that is, if it was possible at this point.
Close to their usual camp, he collapsed into a sit, angry with himself, Kikyo and Kagome. With an exasperated moan, he let his head fall into his hands. What now?
"Inuyasha! How could you?" Shippou's voice was shrill, and Inuyasha already steeled himself for the onslaught that came, just as sure as the sun rose, every time she left.
Salvation came in an unlikely form. Miroku's staff deftly landed on Shippou's head. "Hush," he commanded. "Inuyasha, you must retrieve Kagome-sama from her time." His voice rose to speak to Sango a few feet away. "There have been reports of a powerful demon about, perhaps one with a shard of the Shikon no Tama." He folded his arms resolutely, waiting for Inuyasha to obey.
"No way! The wench left on her own, she can come back on her own!" The hanyou snapped insolently.
"Except that she won't." Sango looked away, almost unaware that she had spoken the words aloud.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Inuyasha retorted fiercely.
Sango snapped back into reality fully, after seeming to ponder her answer. "I just mean that she won't come back for a while if you wait for her to feel better. Kagome won't give in that easily. And even when she does come back, she'll be angry with you for not coming to get her. Just go now and get it over with."
With no sufficient rebuttal, Inuyasha was forced to back down, leaving Sango the quietly smug champion again. Miroku interrupted his thoughts again. "Anyway, Inuyasha, you ought to go get her soon… I have a bad feeling…" With that, they disbanded again.
What do they know? I can't go back yet… she'll still be mad… He sulked for another moment, then made to take up his far too often vigil by the well.
That simple well was his ultimate enemy. It was the device that took Kagome away back to her time, and what brought her back to the dangerous world he lived in. Neither of its options made him completely happy, though he was thoroughly miserable when she left this way… He sat defiantly down next to it, refusing to go back. On the side of the well were a few more sporadic, bloody footprints. They shone dark against the brilliant jade of the grass.
Something shook him for a second, some unfounded fear or intimation. But when he reached for its cause, he could find nothing- not a sound in the air or shape in the bushes. All seemed relatively calm. Still, he couldn't shake it until a few full minutes later.
The sun was setting quickly, but he refused to go to sleep. Not until she came back. It was another half hour before he decided to go for her. But if she's expecting an apology, she's out of luck… She should apologize…
Five hundred years passed in a second as he slipped down and through the well. He found himself looking up at a modern era wooden ceiling. He jumped clear out of the well, straight to the wooden steps leading out of the shed. There he halted, sniffing to catch her scent before she could see him do it. But the smell there was not Kagome's. It was painful, burning his throat and nose. He quickly fled the enclosed shack before he inhaled any more. He brushed it off as a bug-killer, like the spray Kagome had brought once. The smell had been horrible enough to keep away any living creature.
He looked west, where the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon. Taking a breath of clean air, he bound up to the house and propelled himself onto her windowsill. Through the open window he looked inside. For a moment, his mind conjured her on the bed as she always was, usually in pajamas, her glittering black hair wet from a long bath. But that illusion faded. Not a trinket was out of place. Her bed was made, but untouched. A few underused schoolbooks lay open on the desk, a reminder of the last time he had come.
With an almost inaudible thud, he landed inside, hoping she was just running long in the bath. Suddenly, a familiar face appeared in the doorway. "Inuyasha nii-san?" Souta stared at him, as if trying to memorize his face again.
"Hey kid." The hanyou gave him a small smirk. "You seen your sister around?"
Souta shook his head, looking concerned. "She hasn't come home yet, do you know where she is?"
For a brief moment he felt guilty about making Kagome's brother worry. So instead of pressing the matter, he shrugged. "She's probably around somewhere. I'll find her." The deadly calm exterior remained, but inside, something was flopping about uncomfortably. Where could she be?
"See you around, kid." He nodded and, with no more time to squander, leapt back into the well.
Kagome, where are you?…
