I Was Invincible: Chapter 3
Present day Tokyo, the Higurashi Residence...
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"Nani!?" Kagome exclaimed incredulously.
There was a tense silence that pervaded the room as it had earlier, but this one was different. It was neither petty nor proud like the previous; it was simply a moment in time in which both human and hanyou stopped to collect their thoughts.
"Inuyasha..." the young miko began slowly, after a few minutes had passed. She shifted on the bed, and then slid in one deft movement to the floor where Inuyasha was sitting. Kagome knelt, and put her hands in her lap. Her eyes drove themselves into the carpet, where her gaze held. "You aren't... you aren't making this up just to get me to go back sooner, are you?"
Now it was his turn to be taken aback. A pair of golden orbs concentrated on the crown of the schoolgirl's dark hair, for it was all he could see while he head was bent like that. "Feh! Don't be stupid. I wouldn't have come to this time if it hadn't been so important. There's no reason to."
At that, Kagome's head rose. Her expression exuded hurt for a moment, but that changed as an indifferent mask concealed the emotion.
That was odd. Even though such a comment was regrettable on the hanyou's part, Kagome usually just became annoyed or angered. This was a change unexpected.
Shaking his head as if to clear it, Inuyasha tore his focus from her and riveted it to the far wall, taking in the designs on the wallpaper.
Kagome remained the same... strangely calm. After a second or two had passed, the dark-haired girl stood and turned away from Inuyasha to straighten the ruffled folds of her pink bedspread.
Although she didn't show it, her emotions were flung into turmoil. Here he had come, bringing news of a possible war among the youkai of his time (the specifics were still muddled on her side of things), and she found she couldn't concentrate on it. The one thing that she could concentrate on was his offhand comment. It had been made so quickly, so casually.
'He doesn't care. He never did. I'm so stupid sometimes... at least he's right about that.' She was her own worse critic, and she knew it. Of course, it was possible that with all of Inuyasha's insults towards over the entire time she had known him it just went to show that he was in fact her own worst critic. It made her angry and sad at the same time...
Bitter, as well... but she was just being too hard on herself again. She had to be. Inuyasha wasn't that caustic anymore, wasn't he?
"Look, Inuyasha," she began, finally getting the nerve to speak while the hanyou continued to stare daggers into one side of her room, "I told you before, and I'm telling you now... I can't go back until all my tests are completed tomorrow."
That broke the spell. A low growl emanated from the son of a dog demon, and he rose to his feet with a blinding speed.
Kagome whirled - she sensed something was wrong in the very way those rough sounds emanated from his chest. As time had passed, she had learned to discern from his many guttural reverberations. Some were annoyed, many were furious, and some were tolerant yet wary. This was a new type of growl, one she hadn't yet encountered. It was directed at her, or at least her rebuttal to join him back in the warring states era.
Inuyasha turned, and for the first time she noticed pain in his eyes. Not a direct pain, the kind that stems from a long-suffering life, but an indirect and even abstract hurt that took root in the fact that she had refused to help them in the past. Refused to help him in the past.
Her world was becoming more and more important to her, at least to him. He was being left behind... he was always being left behind, ignored... but he never actually stopped to consider that she, of all people, would ever be the one to do such a cruel thing.
And to him, even after he thought they shared a mutual understanding, a camaraderie, a...
He would not dare think it. He would not. As he purposely switched his mind off to the thought, he was unaware that the rumble in his throat reached a new pitch.
Kagome was still standing apart from him, and her dark brown eyes were wide with something he hadn't seen in a long time - fear. It was small, a burgeoning speck, but it existed. "In-Inuyasha?" The question was halfhearted, and more so uneasy.
Inuyasha closed his eyes, and forced himself to comply with the codes of normalcy. Both fists clenched at his sides, and he gnashed his teeth, averting his eyes at the same time. Without wasting a second more, he leapt to her window and forced it open. He could not bear to see her see him in such a way, with such a look on her face... he had to leave now. Things were not going the way he had wanted them to, and he had scared Kagome. It was a quick flare of slight fear, but it had been there. Refusing to look at her, he paused on her windowsill long enough to speak. His words came quick, forced, and more muted than normal. "After those tests, go straight through the well. We can't waste anymore time."
Kagome's eyes began to shine faintly, but Inuyasha would never see. He only barely caught his name, whispered regretfully as he hopped through the open window. In a flash of red, he was gone.
Kagome stood there a long time after he had left. She wasn't sure exactly how long, but it was long enough to watch the clouds turn a burnt orange while the sun steadily sunk lower down behind the horizon. A slight breeze stirred her mind into working again and ruffled the curtains; they billowed out and reached for her as if inviting her to come and depart the way Inuyasha had gone.
Inuyasha. He had given her quarter this time, he usually did, but something was wrong and slightly different. The hanyou had been deeply troubled by the problems arising in his own time period, but there had been something else that had rubbed the wrong way between them. She missed him already, and wanted to instantly right what had gone wrong.
But... he had growled at her.
Maybe... maybe she wasn't being the friend she should have to him. The idea of being his friend was nearly ludicrous in the beginning, but she had strove for it and eventually attained it. It had been taxing, but eventually she aware of something much more. The day that that baby of Nark's had entreated upon her to embrace him, that day when news of Kikyo had taken Inuyasha far from the real danger before he realized that it had all been a trap... that was the day she had admitted aloud that she loved Inuyasha.
She had known it all too well before, but to truly say it in front of the bad guys - that kind of took guts and cemented the statement.
Whether or not he loved her, she wasn't sure. Oh, he cared for her alright, although this most recent episode could have said otherwise. She wasn't sure. She just wasn't sure anymore.
Kami, Inuyasha...
Nevermind the tests. Her grandfather would find a suitable disease to explain her absence. After all, it was one thing the old man was good for. Kagome could never really pinpoint the reason as to why the school bought anything he ever offered them as excuses. When she really thought about it, however, it became clear that her grandfather's lapses into random history recitations actually set him up in the position of an expert. Sure he was droll, but when it came right down to it, would you really question the authority of someone on the phone who prattled on and on about the facts and theories of tetanus when it afflicted their poor, defenseless granddaughter (especially one with such a weak immune system, since immune systems are prone to...)? Kagome was sure it was to the point that the school knew him by his sly voice alone. Whoever was that poor, hapless school official that answered absentee calls? It didn't matter. They would assent to whatever daily reason Kagome's grandfather offered them just to get him off the line. Got AIDS? No problem. Count her out for the week. No, wait. Make that a month.
Shaking her head to rid herself of thoughts of her grandfather, Kagome hardened her features and shut the window securely before locking it. The curtains stopped breezing outward and mocking her, and inwardly she was glad. Now all she had to do was pack (ugh), stop downstairs to tell her mom and grandfather about her sudden change of plan, and be off down the well for another swell adventure in ancient Japan.
Gee, life was just peachy.
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Sengoku Jidai, the Bone Eater's Well...
Well, she was here. Still no sign of Inuyasha, or anyone else for that matter. Kagome had secretly held out on the false hope that he was waiting for her, just off to the side. She would emerge from the well, refreshed but still disappointed in their earlier (or, in respects to the time continuum, much later) argument. She would of course extract an apology from him in some form or another, be it a distracted 'Feh' or an apologetic look that was rare and barely lasted but a second. She would then apologize in her own way, most likely just by saying it aloud, and then things would be right again. They would rejoin Miroku, Sango, Shippo and Kirara, and commence on their mission... whether that was about the Shikon no Tama or this brewing war dog-boy spoke of.
The miko's plan went back to the drawing board once she fully realized she was alone. No one was coming, and if she stayed still long enough she could swear she was the only sentient living thing for miles. The birds would sing, the sunlight would heat her face and the butterflies would flit from flower to flower, just as in her time. The well house would be here, though, and there wouldn't be an abundant overgrowth of pallid greenery that spilled and sprawled carelessly over this wild countryside in which she now stood.
Sighing, Kagome hoisted her backpack up and clambered over the stone ridge of the cistern. She would begin her usual trek back to the village as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred back in her time, and if she met anyone (save Inuyasha) along the way, she vowed to appear cool and composed.
As she walked along through the forest path, she became increasingly aware of the vegetation crunching underfoot. Her adrenaline rose, and she couldn't help but to feel on edge. Something was distinctly wrong, there just wasn't the balance in the air as there usually was. She couldn't explain it, didn't want to. It wasn't the feeling she got when she sensed a Shikon shard nearby, it was different.
Ominous. Foreboding.
Shuddering, she continued on her way. The sunlight streaming through the overhead canopy seemed a lot dimmer than before. The woods held a darker element within the complex maze of branches, roots and leaves.
The birds had ceased to sing, she suddenly realized.
'Inuyasha, where are you..?' It was her last thought before she was tackled from behind.
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A/N: So here's chapter three... we're getting somewhere with this people, I swear! I just need to keep going, and going, and going... (think Energizer Bunny here). I'll continue to update randomly, but remember that although there are comic elements in this fic, it's going to get dark pretty fast. Also, as you can tell, there may be lime (and dare I say it..) lemonade further on into the storyline. Waaay further on. Anyways, read on!