I Was Invincible: Chapter 2

Present day Tokyo, the Higurashi Residence...

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"SIT!!!" Kagome shrieked, a word that by now escaped her lips on pure instinct.

As was expected, a hollow thud echoed from somewhere behind the door, and it seemed that the entire house resonated with it. A mantra of disembodied curses floated through the hallway and to Kagome's ears. For the naked schoolgirl scrunching down in a tub of hot water, it was nearly incoherent over the frantic pounding of her heart.

The knob to the bathroom door stopped turning.

Silence.

"Kagome?" From behind the thin barrier between hallway and bathroom, her mother tapped uneasily on the wooden door. "Are you decent? Inuyasha..."

As if a master puppeteer finally gave a good yank on the invisible strings that piloted Kagome's movements, the young girl stood abruptly. Water streamed down the creamy line of her flesh and thighs before feeding back into the small ocean encapsulated in white porcelain on all sides. Her fists clenched into tight balls at the sides of her body, and her eyebrows dipped down dangerously, practically intersecting on her forehead.

She was still dirty, curse it! Here she was, about to enjoy a nice, long bath and then dog boy came through the time hoop to annoy her yet again. He probably wanted her to return with him already.

'Too bad,' she thought grimly. 'I already told him... two days. I'm not going back yet!'

"Ask him what he wants!" she yelled back, making sure to let the tone show she was infuriated. She made a grab for the towel next to the bathtub, and wrapped it around her waist. As soon as she had done so, she regretted it.

'Gee, thanks, Sota! I owe you one...'

The towel was soaking wet. The little pest hadn't had the piece of mind to replace it with a dry one when he took his bath earlier.

"He.. uh... just a second," her mother responded. There was a muffled exchange of words, things that Kagome couldn't make out, and then a new voice spoke up where her mother's had been just seconds before.

"Um.. Kagome?" It was Inuyasha. The thought of him being so near while she was currently garbed in nothing but used towel made her stomach tighten. Her mind then conjured up the image of her mother in the immediate vicinity as well, and she blushed.

Now was definitely not the time to be thinking about things like that. She was angry, remember?

Without missing a heartbeat, she stole to the door. Her right hand deftly reached out, and turned the lock into place. Kagome gave a sigh of relief, and then answered the hanyou. "Yeah...?"

"We need you to come back. Something's happened."

She didn't like the way he said that. It was ominous, just like the dark gray clouds on the horizon that signaled a storm was approaching. Despite this, she was far too irritated about his intrusion to let her worry show. "So? I don't care, Inuyasha. I have four more tests to make up tomorrow, and dead or alive I'm going to make sure I show up for at least one day of classes!" Kagome glanced down at the tiled floor, and noted the way that she was beginning to create a small but growing pool of water at her feet.

"No!" he replied, his voice rising slightly. "You don't understand! Something... really bad has happened."

"I told you, I don't care! Go home!"

"Idiot...!" he snarled.

Uh-oh. Mrs. Higurashi could sense another fight coming on. This was her chance to get out of the picture - she was beginning to feel like an eavesdropper.

"If you two don't mind, I'll just head back to the kitchen and finish with dinner..." Taking the chance to make her exit, she made a beeline for the stairwell. From her viewpoint, this left an annoyed half-breed youkai with his face nearly pressed to the flat surface of the door, and her aggravated daughter just beyond it. Both were yelling now, and they hadn't even noticed the flustered mother's quick withdrawal from the scene.

"Look, don't be stupid, girl!" Inuyasha shouted, going so far as to bang on the doorframe for good measure. The frame rattled, and from behind the door Kagome paused long enough to draw a breath.

"You're being unfair, Inuyasha! I told you, we had a deal. There is no way I can come back with you now. If I do, I'll flunk out for sure! I'm not even sure I can make it through with just two days, so you should be lucky it's so short in the first place!"

"Baka! Where have your senses gone!? If you don't come back today, then we might as give up altogether!" Inuyasha was growling now, and if Kagome could see him she would be face-to-face with a very terse demi youkai. His jaw was set stubbornly at an angle, and his sharp, dark brow was furrowed tightly. He banged on the door this time, and with more force than he had given the frame. "Get out here! We have to go, now!"

It wasn't the most sensible thing she had ever done. At present, all she was seeing was red. Every possible annoyance and aggravation stemmed from that bull-headed male on the other side of the door.

Striding determinedly forward with one hand clutching the towel to her body, she unlocked the portal and gave the knob a violent twist before swinging the door inward and aside. She was going to sit him... many times. Kagome also wanted to see his face while she did it. Her mouth opened, and she began to form the words that would get him intimately acquainted with the floor once again.

The raven-haired schoolgirl was simply not prepared for the sight that met her eyes when she took that brash course of action. Her mind would instantly regret it a couple of moments later, of course.

Inuyasha was standing there, dressed in his usual red haori. He was leaning forward, both hands clutched into tight fists - much as Kagome's had been earlier. His mouth was open too, and the glint of white fang winked in the harsh overhead lights of the bathroom. A stream of this sharp light had fled into the much dimmer hallway, and for a moment he looked lost and confused, blinking blindly and readjusting his vision to accept the new lighting conditions. Kagome stood in the path of this light, a shady figure outlined in the doorway.

As Kagome watched Inuyasha take a few seconds to regain his full vision, she also stood there and watched as his quizzical expression transformed into one of awe. Worst of all, he kept staring, and she was rather hastily reminded of Miroku and even more so her state of dress. Or was that undress?

The play of emotions on his face was both comical and mystifying. He was at first an estranged passerby beholden to the sight of a goddess in his presence. Nearly seconds later, one could surmise he recalled the wrath and dangerous quirks of that particular goddess. Fear of the inevitable and reluctant acceptance replaced wonder and appreciation for the vision he was allowed, if only for a second, to partake in.

Once the spell snapped and Kagome had realized that he was staring, she ground her teeth and slammed the door in his face again. He was left with the unexpected vibrations of the maneuver to slam as eddies onto his shocked features.

"Inuyasha..."

Here it was, the condemning act.

"SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTT! SIT, SIT, SIT, SIIIIT!"

Eventually, the facial bruises would fade. It was the memory that was forever.

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Much, much later, after Kagome had made sure to take a slow and leisurely bath, both hanyou and miko sat in Kagome's bedroom. Inuyasha looked like he has been hit by a truck, and Kagome was still nonplussed from the earlier event.

It had been her fault, in truth... she shouldn't have opened the door with just a towel on. Since when did she listen to him when he was shouting at her like that, anyways? If she hadn't been so angry then, she just might have heeded reason. Still, even though she had been the one to open the door and even been the one to offer him such a view, she knew full well that he had seen her in less before.

It was the principle of the matter, really.

It was late. Her mother had reluctantly called from downstairs after Kagome finished up in the bathroom, bidding them to come grab a bite to eat. One look at Inuyasha's face told her the answer she needed to give at the time. According to his actions, there was simply no time to spare. They both sullenly retreated to Kagome's bedroom from there, each refusing to speak. Kagome had entered the room first, flicked on the light switch, and then stood silently to the side in her pajamas. Inuyasha had trailed behind, but paused beneath her doorframe to suck in a deep rush of air.

Had he been smelling something she couldn't?

Sitting there on the edge of her bed with her legs crossed, she watched Inuyasha sulk on the floor. He was in his classic posture, the one that gave the impression that he would spring to action at any time. It was vaguely reminiscent of a lapdog, only he was posed in such a manner that the bent of the posture gave him the utmost comfort. If Kagome tried to emulate it, she would certainly fail. She summed it up to being a dog demon thing.

"So," she began slowly, hesitant to break the thick silence, "what was so important that you just had to come here before I planned on coming back?"

Inuyasha's white ears pinned back against his skull, but only briefly before they lazily swiveled towards her direction. Even as he did this, he refused to look at her. "Feh."

"Stop being such a baby and tell me what's wrong!"

"A BABY!?" he growled indignantly, "I'm not the childish one here! You're the one who said... that word when I hadn't done anything at all!"

"Oh, so you don't have time to argue, but you suddenly have time to tell me I'm to blame?!"

He grew quiet. His only reply was a gruff snort and a jerk of his head into a direction that didn't include the image of her within it.

Kagome sighed, and then relented. "I... I guess you're right. I shouldn't have sat you for.. for looking.." As soon as she had said it, she turned a bright shade of pink.


That came out so wrong.

Judging by Inuyasha's reaction, he knew it, too. His cheeks burned, but the miko did not see from where she was sitting.

Clearing her throat, Kagome made a frenzied gear shift into another direction entirely. "Um... so.. what was it that's so important?"

Inuyasha drew a deep breath, and gathered himself. He suddenly seemed to Kagome as one surrounded by strangers. He still didn't return his golden gaze towards her, but his head turned slightly towards her voice. In a rough tone bordering on hesitant, he spoke. "There has been an uprising among the other youkai." He didn't exactly elaborate further, so Kagome urged him on.

"And...?" she prodded.

He turned to her now, fully holding her within the dark and quiet depths of his unique eyes. "It concerns your time, and beyond that. There has been a foretelling of it by a youkai prophet."

She froze. It was all she could do as he finished with his last sentences.

"They now know that there is no place for them here and that many or all will cease to exist."

A pause.

"There is talk of war, Kagome."

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A/N: So there it is, Chapter Two. I hope you liked it! As always, let me know if I should just kill it here or keep going. Thanks! :)