A Story of Hope

Everto Angelus- What you said makes plenty of sense. Yes, I suppose it was a little awkward. It's just that I've never viewed Sesshoumaru as a particularly evil person, just a bit of a violent one. Therefore I don't mind giving him a bit of a… heart sometimes in my stories. Yet, I know his personality. It's not like I'm going to make Sesshy be like 'Ah! Kagome! Welcome to my castle! Make yourself at home and then I will bring you straight back to Inuyasha!' Sesshoumaru only brought Kagome back NEAR Inuyasha because that's the way he was traveling.
As for him being in the castle- Hey, he's the Lord of the Western Lands. He's got to have on somewhere! And he wasn't buying a slave for Rin's entertainment. I couldn't see him doing that either. Think about it. Rin's got to be about what? Nine? Ten? She's going to need some human female support soon and Sesshy knows it. I think somewhere in chapter 9 or 8 I mentioned that the slave he wanted was a human girl. If I didn't put that in there… Oops. Oh well.

Here's the chapter! Short but sweet this time around.

The next morning things were back to normal. Or at least as normal as they could get with Kagome still blind. The group was back to the search for shards. Inuyasha had insisted that Kagome ride on his back. Of course she did not argue. Shippo was also on the hanyou. Sango was riding Kilala and Miroku was sitting behind her. Little did the demon slayer know it, but he kept on eyeing her butt, his hand slowly moving closer and closer as the seconds went by.
WHACK!
"You PERVERT!"
"But you're mistaken Sango!" Miroku insisted, rubbing the red slap mark on his cheek, "There was merely a bug on you and I went to wipe it off! You didn't have to be so harsh!"
"Yes I did!"
Kagome giggled.
Inuyasha looked back at her. "Oi, what's so funny?"
She shook her head. "Nothing. I probably shouldn't be laughing." Kagome admitted in a low voice, "It's just that every time Miroku gropes Sango, he comes us with another story. They're all believable, but she never believes him."
"Because Sango knows well enough not to trust him." Inuyasha finished. "Yeah." There was a short silence while Miroku continued rubbing his cheek and Sango fumed. "I'd wish you'd known better than to trust my damn brother."
"I did and here I am perfectly safe." Kagome retorted, "You know what? I'm not even going to get into this discussion with you again. You're obviously not mature enough to accept that maybe your brother's not all bad and I'm going to leave it at that." She 'hmphed' and was silent.
Inuyasha scowled. Sesshoumaru was all bad. Couldn't she understand that? I just want to keep her safe. He thought. But how the hell am I supposed to do that when she goes and trusts every damn person she meets!
"I think you made Inuyasha mad." Shippo commented.
"I do too." Kagome agreed.
Glaring, Inuyasha squeezed Kagome's shins just a little too hard.
"Ow!"
The coppery scent of blood drifted past Inuyasha's nose. Eyes widening, he quickly whipped Kagome off his back and onto her feet to eye the damage his had caused. "Damn." Kagome now sported five small, but most likely deep, cuts on each leg where Inuyasha's claws had dug into her. She tentively reached down to touch her wounds, wincing at the contact.
"I am so sorry." Inuyasha said softly, "I didn't mean to do it."
"It's alright." Kagome replied, "I provoked you. I shouldn't have."
"Inuyasha!" Miroku exclaimed, "What did you do!"
The whole group had stopped now.
"He cut me a bit with his claws, that's all." Kagome explained.
Inuyasha led Kagome to a fallen tree and she sat down. "Do you have any of those 'band-aids' in your bag?" he asked.
"Yeah." Kagome replied, pulling her bag off her back and handing it to him. "Do you think you could get them? It would be kind of hard for me…"
Inuyasha nodded, feeling even guiltier than before. As he rummaged through her bag he mentally kicked himself. Idiot! He thought She's irritated you plenty of times while riding on your back. Why'd you have to go and hurt her this time!
He found the band-aids and looked back at Kagome's cuts, wincing. How could he have done something like that to her! Each cut was far enough apart that he'd have to use a band-aid for each. Five on each leg would not look good. Sighing, Inuyasha pulled out a piece of gauze and started dabbing blood off each cut.
"There's two jewel shards coming straight at us." Kagome announced.
"Koga." He growled.
"Yo."
"Hi Koga." Kagome said cheerfully.
"I caught a whiff of your wonderful scent in the area Kagome." The wolf demon told her, "And I decided to come- Mutt face. What the hell happened to her!"
"It was an accident, okay?" Inuyasha retorted.
"You hurt Kagome." The words were said with so much hatred. Inuyasha flinched.
"He didn't mean to do it!" Kagome put in, "He said he was sorry, I forgave him, and now he's helping me!"
Glaring at Inuyasha. Koga stomped over to the priestess and pulled her into his arms. "I could help you better than that guy ever could." He told her seriously.
"Eh…"
"And I promise I'd never hurt you. I think it's time that you came back to the den with me and became my mate."
"Uh…"
"There's no way that Kagome's going with you anywhere!" Inuyasha yelled, jumping up and growling at the wolf.
"Oh yeah?" Koga challenged, "Well she's my woman so it's my responsibility to make sure she's safe! I left her with you to keep her safe because that's what Kagome wanted! Well it seems that she's not safe anymore so I've gotta take her back!"
"Koga!" Kagome called loudly.
"Yes?"
She sighed. "I'm perfectly safe here, I promise." The priestess said calmly. "What Inuyasha did to me was only an accident and I admit it was partially my fault. Inuyasha would never hurt me on purpose. He does everything he can to protect me. How could he hurt me? I know what I'm saying is true. In fact, I'd bet my life on it."
Inuyasha stared at Kagome. He had never known how much she trusted him. She'd bet her life that he wouldn't hurt her on purpose? But what about the times when he turned into an uncontrollable full demon? He had tried to hurt her on purpose during those times before. Who was to say he wouldn't again?
Koga was also surprised. "You- you'd bet your life?" he repeated.
Kagome nodded.
And that's when Koga noticed something. "Kagome, look at me." He instructed frowning.
Slowly, she turned her head towards the sound of his voice. She missed his face and looked over his shoulder. Koga waved a hand in front of her. No response.
"Kagome… You-you're blind…"
"I am." She replied sadly.
Of course Koga instantly blamed Inuyasha. "MUTT FACE! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY KAGOME TO MAKE HER BLIND! YOU'D BETTER GIVE ME THE TRUTH!"
"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! SHE CAME BACK FROM HER OWN TIME LIKE THAT!"
"It's true Koga." Sango added, "Kagome was sick and the medicine her doctor gave her made her go blind. But at least she's healthy."
Koga turned his gaze back to Kagome and then nodded. "Yeah." He agreed, "At least you're healthy."
Kagome blushed.
The wolf turned his attention back to Inuyasha. "I guess I'll leave Kagome here again if she wants to stay so badly." He told Inuyasha seriously, giving Kagome back to him. "But next time I come, I'd better not find out that she's got any more problems. You got that? Okay. See you around Kagome!" And as quickly as he had come, he was gone.
Inuyasha placed Kagome back on the log grumbling things the rest of the group couldn't hear completely. As he continued to clean up and put band-aids on her legs, he thought about what she had said. "In fact, I'd bet my life on it." Kagome would bet her life that he would never hurt her. Smiling, he shook his head.