Chapter Two
Humiliating Defeat
Author's Note: OMG, I never thought I'd get that many reviews. Thanks for reviewing, everyone! And just so you know, I will TRY to add in some humor (just to lighten the mood a little bit). And though I also don't care for Kikyo very much, she will play a big part in this fic. Don't worry, don't worry, she won't steal Inuyasha—not exactly. But I don't wanna give everything away. Read and review more, please! Thanks again!
Finally, Kagome managed to speak. "I-Inu…yasha…you can't—"
"Can't what?" he challenged, still grinning in triumph. He made a point of lifting his hands up to show the pointed claws and baring his sharp, glistening fangs. Kagome shivered, realizing he could easily kill her the way he'd wanted to the first day they met. "Now," he commanded. "Now, you sit down, Kagome." He pointed to a log and she obediently sat on it, preparing for the worst. He hesitated, almost as if unsure of what to do next with his new freedom. "Well, since you can't make me sit anymore…"
Inuyasha paced back and forth in front of her, thinking. Finally, he turned to face her. He held up one finger, counting off as he spoke. "First off, as I said before, you can't go back to your time until the rest of the jewel is found. You cannot slap or punch me under any circumstances, or bring any bodily harm to me. When I say to do something, you'd better damn well do it. No more helping villagers unless we get a jewel shard out of it or I say so, and you'd better not beg me to. You cannot insult me at any time, unless you want a punishment. And NO MORE of your stupid 'friendships' with people who can't help us—they get in the way of everything." He smirked. "Got all that, wench?" She didn't answer. "GOT IT?!"
"Yes! I've got it!" she snapped, squeezing her eyes tightly shut and looking away from his face. Her hopes and dreams of a life with Inuyasha shattered. How could she have been so stupid? Of course he'd only been as nice to her as he had to keep from being "sat."
"Good. Glad we agree, then," he said, still looking smug. "You won't be helping us any if you don't get some sleep. So get back to bed. You can take a bath some other time. At the moment, your smell isn't so bad…or maybe that's just that I've gotten used to it." He watched on in satisfaction as Kagome turned several shades of red, ranging from claret to scarlet to crimson.
Kagome seethed. How dare he insult her like that! But she couldn't do anything about it. So she stood there, resisting the urge to slap him (especially now that it was forbidden). She could only hope that in the dark, he couldn't see her face was getting warm. But the smug look on his face was too much to bear, so she turned around. "Fine." She walked away from him, slinging her backpack over her back. She needed to change her clothes since the ones she was wearing were sopping wet.
Inuyasha watched her until she was out of sight, then looked back at the prayer beads that had restrained his freedom before. "Feh." He frowned, remembering the defeated look on Kagome's face. Had he hurt her? That really hadn't been his intention…or had it? He thought back on all the times she'd humiliated him by making him eat dirt. He hadn't been used to being someone's inferior. So now that she'd lost her power over him, he realized, he wanted his revenge on her for all of his suffering.
He leaned back against the rock, thinking some more. Before he met Kikyo, when he had no friends, he used to think a lot about everything, but he hadn't thought quite this hard in a while. Maybe it wasn't just that Kagome had disgraced him…maybe it was that he wanted to look strong to her, to be the one she dreamed about, the one she knew could save her. He blinked, shaking his head as if to clear it. No… He felt himself in denial.
NO! He loved Kikyo, not that scrawny weakling brat from the future! Kikyo… Wait, what was that…?
He sniffed the air. "Kikyo?" He turned back to the river and saw Kikyo, not Kagome, staring up at the moon with a smile on her face.
"So, you're free now." It was a statement, not a question.
"Yeah." Then, with a sudden burst of rebellion, he kicked the beads. They landed in the water with a splash, and the river washed them far away, away from him. Suddenly, he felt better. "Kikyo, why don't you come with us?"
"Hm…" The priestess shook her head. "No." At the disappointed look on his face, she elaborated. "Not yet, anyway." She looked over to Kagome, who had come out of the secluded area she'd been dressing in.
Kagome's gray eyes widened at the sight of Kikyo. Kikyo gave her a brief nod, then started walking away.
Inuyasha didn't walk after her even though he badly wanted to. He wondered why. Maybe some part of him felt there was some truth to Kagome's words.
Kagome glared down at Inuyasha, then turned back. "Well, aren't you getting some sleep?" she asked him with a bitter tone.
"Why is it any of your concern, wench?" He followed Kagome back to the others, though, and jumped back into his tree, stretching out on the branch.
Kagome slipped back into her sleeping bag, dignity gone. Now what? Now what would she do…? She let herself fall into a deep sleep…
…and about five hours later was shaken awake by the arrogant half-demon. "Oh, Kagome," he said in that mocking voice she hated. "Time to get up, now!"
Remembering the conversation the previous night, she got up quickly and started putting the sleeping bag away.
Sango, who had also gotten up, was stretching out her arms. She turned around to say something to Kagome, and saw Inuyasha standing right behind her. "Oh, good mor—" she began, but stopped when she noticed the absence of a certain accessory around Inuyasha's neck. "Oh, no…" she groaned.
Inuyasha smirked. "Well, shouldn't you be getting the monk and the kitsune up now?"
Sango looked back down at Kagome, who still appeared to be in a bad mood. She looked back to Inuyasha.
"What?" the dog-demon asked.
Sango reached back and tapped Miroku's sleeping form. "Houshi-sama, you might want to wake up for this…" she whispered.
"What?" Miroku asked sleepily, probably hoping for something else as he looked up. He blinked. "Huh?" Something was different about Inuyasha, but he couldn't put his finger on it… "Oh, no," he sighed.
Inuyasha crossed his arms over his chest. "Get a move on so we can get that Shikon shard by this time tomorrow."
Both the Buddhist monk and the demon slayer quickly started getting their things together so they could get going. Inuyasha was still standing in the same position, looking impatient, when they finished.
Kirara mewed interrogatively at Sango as they started off, and Shippo looked very worried, but no one said a word, as not to disturb Inuyasha. Sango wanted to pull Kagome to the side and ask her about it, or at least whisper to her, but she didn't out of previous experience with Inuyasha's sharp, super-human hearing.
Kagome was behind Inuyasha, her gray eyes down-cast, her face defeated. Obviously, this was the outcome of some sort of fight the two of them had had while their three friends were asleep. The subject wasn't brought up, though, and as they moved along to the next village, no details were given.
The village they entered was small. And wrecked. Huts had been squashed and splintered, charred wood lay all over the place. Inuyasha noted the smell of blood and death…and a demon. Definitely one with a Shikon shard.
He needed more answers than that, though, as he'd learned from Kagome. But his people skills weren't that good. He nodded at Miroku, who by this time knew the drill.
Miroku walked up to two villagers who were loading the corpse of an old man onto a cart. "Excuse me," he said politely.
The villagers immediately went on the defensive. "Huh? Who're you?!"
Miroku was sure to use the tone he usually did with people besides his friends, who knew him better than that. "My group and I…"—he gestured back at the other four—"…were traveling through this area, and we sensed an evil demon around this area. We'd like to meet with your leader to see if we can help out, if it's not too much trouble."
The men seemed to relax a bit. The second one said, "Our leader is in that hut over there." He pointed. "I should warn you, he's been injured in the last attack."
"Thank you." He bowed to the men and motioned to the others. They all proceeded onto the village leader's hut.
The leader's leg had been broken. He wasn't an extremely old man. In his middle ages. He had the look about him of someone who had aged early, and his hair was gray.
Kagome wasn't really paying attention to much of the conversation as she thought about how things would be changing. She could hear Miroku in the background of her thoughts, giving a brief explanation of how they'd come together in search of the Shikon shards, and that they wanted to help them out and save the village as well as obtain the demon's shard of the jewel.
She let her mind wander and wondered what Kikyo had been doing, talking to Inuyasha. She told herself she didn't care, and she shouldn't since Inuyasha wasn't her boyfriend, but she knew she did. And things were gonna get nastier than ever now that this had happened.
Kagome came back to reality when Sango tapped her on the shoulder and tilted her head towards Miroku, who was making the final arrangements with the village leader.
"…so you can stay here tonight. There are two vacant huts that are still of use."
"Thank you kindly, sir," Miroku said, bowing. Then the five of them went on to find the huts and set up everything they needed.
Kagome was sure not to speak to Inuyasha on the way. She, Shippo, and Sango took one hut, and Inuyasha and Miroku took the other.
Finally, with the half-demon out of hearing distance, Sango finally blurted out, "Kagome, what happened?"
Kagome hesitated as she unrolled her futon. "I…" She bit her lip. "He and I got into an argument, and I fell, and the next thing I knew…it…they just…snapped, and he was grinning."
Sango sighed. "He's going to be pushier than ever now."
"I agree." The conversation ended there, and neither girl stated what both knew for sure: out of all of them, Kagome was going to have the worst deal of all.
Yay! There it is! Going on to Chapter Three now, so keep lookin' out for it! I should warn you, Kikyo is probably going to be in the next chapter more, so watch out. Actually KAGOME should watch out, because this is bad news for her. Am I giving too much away? Yes, I'm giving too much away! Read on, read on!