Inuyasha: Mister Niceguy!
A/N: Alright, I'm pretty pissed. I was gonna have this chapter up earlier today (Monday, December 27th if I don't finish this today). I had it FINISHED. Down to my endnotes. All I hadn't done was spellcheck it. Oh and save it. Actually, that's what I was doing. I had the save dialog box open, and was clicking on the directory I keep my fics saved in...
BAM.
OpenOffice just shuts itself down. And I lose my work.
I was very pissed. Now I have to write it over again. So I tried waiting long enough that my being pissed off at losing it the first time didn't make me rush through the rewrite, but if this chapter sucks, well, that's what I'm gonna blame it on.
Disclaimer:I still don't own Inuyasha or anything. I don't own these pants I'm wearing right now either...which is most disturbing.
Chapter 3:
Inuyasha was lying down on a tatami mat. His fire rat haori and the plain white keiko-gi he wore underneath sat in the corner, torn and bloodied, leaving nothing to obstruct the view of the horrific wound on the half demon's back. Kaede had been filled in by the traumatized Kagome, with no small amount of assistance from Shippo. Once Kaede had been brought up to speed, she sent the little fox demon outside with Kirara to wait for Miroku and Sango. Shippo didn't need to see the gruesome sight on Inuyasha's back, or the less than pleasant methods it would take to heal it.
After sending Shippo out of the hut, the elderly priestess got to work preparing herbs and medicines, leaving a teary-eyed Kagome to sit by Inuyasha's side. Once she'd finished her preparations, Kaede sat down at Inuyasha's side opposite Kagome and began cleaning out the wound and applying the medicines, with a serious and focused look in her eye.
Kagome was looking on intently through her tears, silently saying every prayer she could think of. After she sat working for sometime, Kaede stopped and looked up and gave a troubled sigh.
"W-what's wrong, Kaede? What's that look for?"
"It appears that the poison that has afflicted Inuyasha is preventing his accelerated recuperative abilities that his hanyou body gives him. It's also rendering my medicines ineffective," Kaede explained the situation with a grim demeanor. A glance at Kagome's horrified expression let her know that the young miko was about to break down into another bout of tears, so Kaede quickly continued. "Be calm, child, that only means that we must first purge the poison from Inuyasha's body. My powers as a miko will not be enough to purify it, so I will need your help, Kagome." Kaede stood up and grabbed something from the back of the hut, and when she returned she saw that Kagome had regained her composure, and her look of anguish had been replaced by one of focus and determination.
The fact that her abilities were necessary to help Inuyasha forced Kagome to pull herself together and focus everything she had on fulfilling that objective.
'I have to help Inuyasha! I can't keep sitting here blubbering over the situation and doing nothing to help! I HAVE TO HELP INUYASHA!" she mentally commanded herself. With that, she wiped her tears away and when Kaede returned from retrieving whatever she had gotten up for, Kagome gave her a firm nod to indicate that she was ready.
"Good. Now, the infection is deep within the wound, so we will need to use this to act as a conduit for our miko powers, to ensure that we purify and purge all of the poison," the old woman explained as she held out a small dagger.
Kagome's eyes widened and she let out a troubled gasp when she set her eyes on the knife in Kaede's hand. Hesitation had cracked the walls of her resolve, and tears threatened to retake her face.
"I-I can't! I can't hurt Inuyasha!" Tears drew ever closer to returning.
"We must do this, child! It's the only way we can reach all of the wound! Do not worry, Kagome, once we have purged the poison, Inuyasha's body will be able to heal itself again. The knife's damage will be erased, but none of his wounds will heal if we don't purify the poison!"
Kagome didn't like it, but the elder miko had convinced her that they had no other choice. Kagome nodded slowly and took the knife from Kaede.
Kagome secured the blade in her grasp, and held it above the center of Inuyasha's wound. She was working up the nerve to do what she had to do, and kept telling herself that it was the only way. She was a bit startled when she felt Kaede's hands wrap around her own, offering some modicum of comfort and support in the midst of the difficult situation. Kagome returned the gesture with a small smile, drew a deep breath and closed her eyes.
'I'm sorry, Inuyasha...'
With that thought, she brought the blade down and into the center of the wound. Inuyasha's body tensed up a little, and he let out a small cry of pain.
Kagome forced herself to ignore the signs of Inuyasha's torment, and focused on her task at hand. She concentrated her miko powers with all of her might, harder than she had ever done before. Her powers exploded and raged like a blazing fire, and almost instantly Kagome expelled the poison from Inuyasha's body.
Kaede's eye shot open at what had happened. Kagome's power had all but overwhelmed her. Quickly recovering from her shock, the old miko looked down at Inuyasha to find the infectious poison gone, and Inuyasha's discolored flesh had returned to it's normal color. Slowly, by demon standards, but amazingly fast by human reckoning, she could see Inuyasha's body working to heal the injuries.
"K-Kagome! Ye did it, child!"
Kagome's eyes shot open immediately, and were filled with confusion.
"What? But...we just started! What do you mean I did it?" she asked.
"It was amazing child! You let out an immense outburst of energy and eradicated the poison before I could even begin to focus my own powers! Look, child! The infection is gone!" Kaede exclaimed pointing to Inuyasha's back.
Kagome pulled the knife out and stared for a second. Her eyes widened as she saw it for herself. Inuyasha was healing! A smile overtook her face and tears of joy began to flow in place of the tears of sadness that had plagued her so much that day. Kagome looked up and launched herself to hug Kaede.
"He's going to be okay! He's really going to be okay!" Kagome couldn't contain the joy and elation she felt.
Kaede smiled and returned the hug briefly, but she quickly pried the excited girl off of her and reached for bandages she had prepared, bandages graciously provided by Kagome's big yellow backpack which had been left in the hut upon the young girl's last return from through the Bone Eater's Well.
"I must clean the wound again and dress it now, Kagome," she stated as she got back to work. Kagome nodded and sat back down at Inuyasha's side and watched as Kaede wrapped the bandages around Inuyasha's body. Once she was through, the old priestess got up to tend to other matters, leaving Kagome to watch over the sleeping hanyou. Kagome thought that the position Inuyasha was in, laying on his stomach wouldn't be very comfortable now that the "operation" was complete, so she gently and gingerly turned him over to lay on his back.
As she was finishing this maneuver, she heard a weak groan, and then a quiet voice.
"Ka...go...me...?"
Kagome jumped slightly at the sound, and looked down to find Inuyasha had awakened.
As had happened so many times that day, Kagome lost control of her emotions. But this time, she was letting her happiness run wild. She wrapped her arms around Inuyasha's neck and held him in a tight hug. She knew that the moment wouldn't last, and that she should be insanely embarrassed at the action, but she didn't care. She knew that Inuyasha would probably say something rude or stupid to ruin the moment, but she didn't care about that, either. All that mattered was that Inuyasha was okay.
"Inuyasha...I'm so glad that you're okay!"
With that, she waited, expecting a rude comment from the hurt hanyou rejecting Kagome's concern. But her expectations were not met. Instead, she felt Inuyasha's arms slowly wrap themselves around Kagome as he returned the hug.
Kagome was shocked, but at the same time she was incredibly happy. But before any other thoughts could run through her mind, they were interrupted by the sound of Inuyasha's voice.
"Ka...gome...thank you..."
And then Inuyasha's strength gave way, and his arms fell back to the tatami mat, and he went back to sleep.
But Kagome was again shocked and confused.
"Did...did Inuyasha just say...thank you..." Kagome sat up, her eyes wide, and tried to comprehend what had just happened.
A/N: And that's that. I think I liked the first ending to this chapter that I thought up, but seeing how it got lost, I'll have to settle for this. sigh Oh well. I've learned the old 'save often' lesson again. Anyway, now that Inuyasha is okay, I can start getting to the fun part of writing about Inuyasha acting all nice and stuff. On another note, I'm really putting these chapters out fast right now, aren't I? Yeah, enjoy that while it lasts, because I won't always be able to keep this up...especially if I lose a whole chapter again...But oh well. Some good did come out of having to rewrite this chapter...this version is a little longer than the first. Hopefully I'll start working to make my chapters longer. Anyway, please feel free to review, if you should so desire.