Disclaimer: I do not in any way own Inuyasha or anything related to any movies or shows etc. I pretty much own nothing.
In a World of Demons
Chapter 3: Betrayed
"Another failed attempt?" he yelled at his demon servant.
The servant cringed at his master's voice. "I—I'm sorry, milord, b-but the human girl seems to be s-strong…"
That got his master's interest. "Has she used her powers yet?"
"N-no, we… we don't think so."
"Then how does she keep dodging and killing all of our demons!" he yelled.
"The girl has most powerful friends, my lord."
His evil smile tugged at his lips, the smile that always made his servants nervous. "Then we should take her friends out first, shouldn't we?" He eyes locked on the chessboard in front of him. He picked up the white King and began toying with it. "It is just like a game of chess, isn't it? The King is what you need to aim at, though he, or in this case she, is one of the weakest pieces, but is protected the most. So all we need to do is take out all her pawns and other pieces and…"
He did not finish his sentence but his actions spoke loud enough for him. He squeezed the white King that had been in his hand and then opened his hand again, letting the white dust fall to the ground.
Kagome found herself blinking over and over again, looking at the ceiling of her room. She did not want to move because moving meant pain. Last night's events were still blurry to her when she woke up, much like the time before. It was becoming a habit with her, waking up in her own room with cuts and scraps trying to remember the events of the previous night, although she would not call it a good habit.
Looking down at herself she saw all her wounds had been tended to by someone who knew what they were doing. Inuyasha…? But, no, he had not been there, she recalled. There had been the two demons, Manten and Hiten, and Sango and Miroku had showed up and saved her. Something else about them was nagging at her but what?
"Hey, she's awake," she heard Sango's voice say.
Sango had pulled one of her chairs out and placed it next to her bed, which she was now sitting on watching her with concern. Miroku, who had been leaning against her wall, half-asleep, perked up at Sango's words. He offered her a small smile when her gaze fell on him.
"How do you feel?" he asked gently.
Everything Hiten had told her the night before crashed into her mind. Everything he said from beginning to end came back to her, all the things she had thought were there in an instant. She wished it was all gone that he could take it all back. Kagome did not want to know it, but it was true. She had seen them fight and in that instance she found out the whole truth of his words.
"Betrayed," Kagome said flatly. She turned away from Sango to face the wall, not caring that it hurt her to move. She stared at it dully. "I feel betrayed."
"Kagome I—" Sango began.
"No," Kagome interrupted. Her voice was hardly a whisper but was still forcefully. "I don't want to hear any lame excuse. Please… just leave…"
"If you'll just let us explain…" Miroku said as he stood up straight and began to walk toward Kagome.
"I said just LEAVE!" Kagome yelled hoarsely.
She sat up in her bed even though her head pounded and her body protested after doing such. Ignoring it and the stiffness in her legs, she jumped up out of her bed. Miroku hastily put a hand on Sango's back, ushering her out of the room quickly, despite Sango's protests.
"We'll come back at another time," Miroku told her.
Miroku closed the door firmly behind them, drowning out the on-going protests of Sango. Kagome sunk back onto her bed and buried her face into her pillow, wishing everything she had learned in the past few days would go away.
It all made perfect sense, didn't it? Why all her classmates were skittish around her, but Miroku and Sango never were. That was because they had to be around her; they were told to, no, probably ordered to. They never really wanted to be her friend in the first place or wanted to move to her town at all. Everything she knew about them was fake. Everything that they had done together was fake. They weren't really her friends. They just wanted to use her like everyone else in the world, like all the demons that were after her. She did not know them at all.
They hadn't been there a few minutes ago because they were concerned for her, not really. They were concerned that their charge had gotten hurt and they would be in trouble for it. She was just some assignment to them.
Kagome sobbed into the pillow, clutching it tightly in a death grip. Maybe if she fell asleep when she woke up it would have all been a dream. Yeah, that would have been nice. Too bad it wasn't going to happen.
Kagome did not go to school that Monday or Tuesday. Miroku had told her mom that she had gotten jumped when she went out Saturday night so Kagome's mom did not press her to go to school, thinking that she might be suffering internally after being attacker. Well, she was close enough. Kagome guessed the only reason Miroku had told her mom anything was because she probably would have been suspicious concerning all the wounds all over Kagome's body.
Some of the bruises and all the cuts had faded by that Wednesday, but some bruises were too large to go away so quickly. It was amazing to think that all of this had started just one week ago. If she could only go back in time…. She shook her head at the thought. It would not have made her problems go away, it would just have delayed them. She would have had to find out about it some time, it was inevitable.
The school uniform's shirt was long sleeved so it covered all of her injuries on her upper body but the space between her short skirt and her long socks left some bruises to be noticed, but that problem was unavoidable. She sighed inwardly. People would be too busy noticing the long black and blue that went across her left cheek to notice the ones on her legs anyway.
Sango had called her each day, trying to get Kagome to talk to her. Each time Kagome plainly refused to speak, telling her mom to hang up the phone. Kagome's mom complied, giving Sango a bogus excuse of why Kagome could not come to the phone. Kagome just really did not want to talk to either of her "friends" any time soon.
She walked to school that Wednesday morning alone. She was not sure where Sango was, but she did want some space away from her at the moment. Kagome was relieved when she did not meet her at all on the way to school. Another positive thought, instead of gym that day she had double science so she could avoid Sango even longer. As long as she avoided her in the halls, she could pretend she was absorbed in the lesson during class, and then she would not have to talk with her for the whole duration of the day. On that bright note she headed toward her first period class.
"Miss Higurashi, thank you for finally joining us again," the teacher said dryly. That was right, she had not been to science since the first day of school when she really had not made a good impression at all. The teacher seemed like he might have made another smart remark when he noticed the bruise on her cheek. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Kagome mumbled. She quickly arranged her hair so that it covered the left side of her face, but she knew it would not stay there for long. He gave her a partly concerned look and went back to taking attendance.
It seemed the teacher had made some sort of seating arrangement while she was not there and had put her all the way in the back corner, as far away from his desk as possible, probably on purpose. Normally, she might have cared or been offended, but she did not feel at all normal that day.
To her luck or misfortune, she was not sure which yet, Inuyasha sat in the next row over, across from her. She quickly took her seat and immediately began to space out, not paying attention to anything around her.
Inuyasha noticed the bruise on her cheek at once. He frowned, wondering where she could have gotten it from. It obviously had something to do with her being absent for two days prior. Just what happened exactly? When they were into their second period of science, he decided to ask.
"Hey, wench," Inuyasha called. He noticed her wince at his words and he wondered why. He had called her it many times before. Since when did she care?
Kagome grimaced as he called her wench. It brought up too many memories from her latest encounter with the demon world. Wench was what the demon Hiten had called her over and over again
"What?" she asked sharply.
"What did you do to yourself?"
"You think I did this to myself!"
"You know what I mean."
"And what if I don't?"
"Just answer the damn question! You know what? Never mind, I don't care anymore."
"Good, because I didn't feel like telling you anyway."
Silence.
"Where did you get the damn bruise?" Inuyasha exclaimed.
They had been whispering back and forth in furious whispers but Inuyasha had forgotten himself and exclaimed his last question. Kagome felt her cheeks redden with embarrassment as the teacher glared at the two. When the teacher finally went back to dictating his lesson, Kagome whispered to him fiercely, "you are so infuriating!"
"Oh so now we're bringing out the big words…"he stopped himself from saying wench, after seeing how it hurt her last time and added, "…baka."
"Baka's not a big word. You obviously can't reach my level of sophistication," Kagome responded. She flipped her hair back behind her shoulder and sat up straight trying to act sophisticated while pretending to listen to the teacher's lesson. She paused, then decided to stick her tongue out at him, ruining the mature act for a moment, then returning to it.
Inuyasha could not help but feel his lips quiver as they tried to turn into a smile, but he did not want to give her the satisfaction.
"So, what happened?"
"why should I tell you?"
"…Because I'm such a charming guy…?" From the look on her face he continued feigning to be offended, "…no?"
Kagome could not help it; she began to giggle helplessly. He had looked so adorable as he said it….
Inuyasha was not the only one who noticed her laughing; the teacher reeled around to face the girl.
"Miss Higurashi, if you're not going to pay attention, then maybe you shouldn't come back at all," the teacher told her sternly.
Inuyasha watched as the girl was shushed by the teacher and how she meekly returned to paying attention. When she had walked into the room she had seemed so depressed and their were shadows on her face. He was glad he could get her out of that gloomy attitude. He cherished her laugh and her smile as she offered
them to him so freely. No one had ever done that before, especially after knowing what he was. But this girl, she knew, or at least he was pretty sure she did, and yet she still smiled at him and teased him. She was not afraid.
Then he noticed other bruises up and down her legs where her uniform could not cover them. They must have caused her a hell of a lot of pain while getting them. Now thinking about it, he remembered how she winced as she sat down and shifted in her seat. Just how many bruises did she have?
He leaned over in his seat, his hand stretched out in front of him. He tucked her hair behind her ear on the side of the bruise and let his hand cup her cheek gently, careful not to press on the black and blue. He had acted without even realizing what he was doing. Kagome just stared at him with wide eyes.
"How did you get all those bruises?" he asked her softly.
The bell that ended second period rang and all the people in the room, including the teacher, walked out of the classroom. Kagome and Inuyasha hadn't moved an inch. Kagome could feel his warm breath on her skin and a warm feeling spread throughout her, starting in her lower body and rushing throughout the rest of her.
"I've got to go," Kagome said hurriedly, breaking the long silence between them. She stood up and gathered her books, ignoring the pain that came with moving too swiftly. She could feel Inuyasha eyes on her back and all she wanted to do was get out of there as fast as possible.
He watched her rush out of the room, mentally cursing himself. Why was he letting himself get so close to a human anyway? He shouldn't care about any of them, so he shouldn't have cared where the girl got those nasty bruises from. For a few minutes though, he had forgotten himself. He forgot that he was a hanyou and that she was a human girl. A human girl that every demon in town wanted to get their hands on. Getting mixed up with her would get him killed.
Kagome had been able to avoid Miroku and Sango all throughout the morning and the hope that she wouldn't have to see them all day increased. They finally found her in the hallway between fifth and sixth, though, and there was no way she could avoid them any longer. The only way she could get away from them was if she started sprinting down the hallway, and that would make it a little obvious she was dodging them.
"Hey Kagome," Sango said warily as they approached, as if she were a rabid dog about to break loose.
"Hi," was her faint reply. She gritted her teeth. She would at least try to act normal.
"How are you doing?" Miroku ask her, "are you okay?"
"How would you like it if you woke up one day to find out you lived in demon infested land?" Kagome asked, annoyed, then paused, thinking that that was what might have happened to her and added hastily, "don't answer that."
To just wake up one day and find out that people she knew weren't really people at all but could be demons. To find out that the gang of boys at school was a gang of demons not humans?
"So are all towns like this or what?" Kagome asked, trying to be conversational, though the conversation couldn't be any weirder.
The two exchanged glance behind her back. Had she forgiven them so easily?
Miroku was the one that answered. "No, there are a lot of towns that don't have any demons at all. They usually go for crowded cities where the number of dead bodies of humans can be great because it wouldn't be as suspiciously. No, these demons are here because they fell a great power here. You, to be exact."
"So I'm responsible for all the demons here. All the people they kill…?" Kagome tried to take in all the information she had just received, including other things she had heard over the past couple of days. The demons were here because of her. So everyone they killed, was dead all because of her.
"Well, yeah—" Miroku began but was interrupted by Sango, who elbowed him in the stomach.
"No! The killing isn't your fault! They'd follow you wherever you would go…" Sango stopped, realizing that what she said had not helped one bit, it only made her feel worse.
Miroku rolled his eyes and he massaged his temples with one hand and spoke sarcastically, "Oh, yes. That's much better then what I said…"
No matter where Kagome went, she would bring death to innocent people because she happened to live in the same town. The demons would follow her no matter what and she would bring ugly death to people just because she gave off energy she could not even control. Demons would inhabit towns near her and kill people for food or torture or whatever they did with people. All because of her. It was her fault.
Miroku and Sango stopped arguing realizing something was wrong. Kagome usually laughed or smiled at their arguments but not this time.
"Kagome?" Sango asked worriedly.
"I have to go now," Kagome said hurriedly.
"But we have class…" Sango saw that she was not even paying attention. "Then I'll go with you."
"No!" Kagome cried out suddenly. A few people turned to stare and Kagome blushed at her outburst. More quietly she said, "please, I'd like to be on my own right now."
She couldn't do it. She could not act normal around them when they had lied to her for so long… but she needed to find out if what the demon had said was true and the only person she could ask was Inuyasha. Funny, how he seemed to be the only one with the answers to all her questions.
Sango was about to protest but Miroku shook his head and led her towards their classroom, leaving Kagome behind. Kagome wandered aimlessly throughout the hallway, lost in thought, until she found herself outside, blinking at the bright sun.
No matter what she couldn't stop thinking about it being her fault. The thought of it made her sick. Every person that was ever found dead or missing, that could have been her fault. Everyone who died… her dad even. At that thought, she felt her knees weaken and Kagome ran into someone, making her stumble slightly.
"Hey, watch where you're going!" she heard a familiar voice snap at her.
"Oh, sorry," she mumbled without looking at who she had bumped into.
When the guy sneered, that was when Kagome looked up. Her breath caught in her throat. Even though the sun was in her face, the silver hair and amber eyes… it was none other than Inuyasha. Inuyasha, the half demon-half human boy, the hanyou, the person who had completely ignored her ninety-nine percent of the time and the other one percent spent insulting her throughout all their years at the same school and, ironically, the person who saved her from either death or kidnapping, possibly both.
When she had talked to him that morning, all that information had escaped her. He was just a boy in class and she had been just a girl, but now, remembering, she felt suddenly nervous around him. It seemed he had forgotten himself too because he went back to doing what he always did when she was around, ignoring her.
He stared back at her for sometime, his amber eyes locked with her brown ones. Then with a 'feh' he walked away and sat himself under a large tree in the shade, facing away from the school. His back was up against the tree, leaning against it.
Kagome walked over hesitantly to stand near him. If he saved her, he wasn't about to hurt her now, right? At least, that's what she hoped.
"Um…" was all she could say.
Of course, all Inuyasha did was ignore her. That's all he'd done since he started going to her school in freshman year, excluding that morning but he had only talked to her because he had wanted something out of it. There was also those times last week when she had talk to him but that was because she wouldn't leave him alone until he did. So, okay, most of the time he ignored her.
She had met Inuyasha in high school, which was a first for her. Most of the new people she met she had met in middle school, but not Inuyasha. Funny how she met everyone in middle school. Then stopping to think about it, maybe it wasn't. They had sent Miroku and Sango, who's to say that they had not sent more from both sides, demon and humans? For a second the thought that Inuyasha could have been sent crossed through her mind. Then she pushed the idea away. If the demons had sent him, he would not have saved her from those other demons.
She started to get angry at him for ignoring her. Inuyasha had always disregarded her along with everyone else. He was a loner, never wanting to talk to anyone. Now knowing that he was a hanyou that made more sense to her. Did he think himself better than the rest of them? Is that why he never got to know anyone? Suddenly she got even angrier with him. Although she was not about to express her anger directly at him—at least not yet for fear of what he would do—she became braver from it.
"Don't you have class?" Kagome asked, while towering over him, her hands on her hips.
He looked up at her, finally acknowledging her presence, and raised one eyebrow. "Don't you?"
Er… good point, Kagome thought silently, but she wasn't about to tell him that.
"Fine," Kagome said, while turning around so fast her short skirt swept around her. She should have known better then to try to talk to him. It was stupid really. He had hardly ever talked to her before, so why should he start now? Why did she even want to talk to him anyway? After all, he was a half demon. But… but he had saved her life and for some reason she thought that maybe… that maybe…
"Oh, forget it," she grumbled, not really meaning to say it out loud, as she started to stomp off.
"You don't have to leave," Inuyasha said gruffly. Not that he cared at all, he told himself, and wanting to make sure she understood that, he continued, "just because I'm here, doesn't mean you have to go. Not that I care or nothing but you can stay… as long as you don't talk at all." He added the last part hastily.
She turned around, smiling brightly and nodded in agreement which made Inuyasha wished he hadn't said anything. He didn't want her to get the wrong idea…
But all Kagome did was lay under the tree to the right of him, giving him enough space that she thought he needed but trying to still be under the tree's shade. She seemed deep in thought and true to her word, or, to be more exact, her… er… nod, she kept silent the entire time. He was almost disappointed that she did not talk. Almost.
They both sat in comfortable silence and Kagome felt more at ease sitting with him then she had in a long time since all the confusion in her life began.
When the bell rang, signaling the end of sixth period, both Inuyasha and Kagome jumped. It had been so silent and peaceful, but the bell had rung and ruined it. Kagome hastily got up and brushed the dirt off her skirt. She began to walk away, then stopped and thought better of it. She walked back to Inuyasha and got on her knees beside him. One arm she had in her lap, while the other hand was in a fist as she clutched it to her chest. He glanced at her but Kagome's bangs covered her eyes. Kagome seemed very focused on the hand in her lap anyway.
"Inuyasha?" she asked quietly.
He raised any eyebrow and waited for her to continue.
She took his silence as an invitation to speak so she went on, hesitantly, all the while fiddling with the hem of her skirt. "I… I still have… a few questions that I need some answers to."
"Feh."
She roughly translated that as a yes, please go on. Now just when could she ask him? Kagome did not want to ask him on school grounds when anyone could be listening. Again she hesitated, then said, "Um… do you remember where I live?"
He gave one sharp nod, not sure where she was going with this.
"Could you… come over? I'd rather be alone when asking them." Realizing that didn't sound quite right she continued hurriedly, "not that I want to be alone with you…" wait that didn't sound right either "…it's just I don't want to talk anywhere where we could be over heard."
"I'll come by tonight," he said curtly.
She gave him a small smile and gave her thanks also. Then she quickly scampered away into the school. Inuyasha watched her go thinking, that girl is a strange one.
It was late that night and Kagome wasn't sure if he was coming. She paced around her room wondering if he was every going to show up. She got angry. He had stood her up! Not that it was a date or anything, but it was still offending. Oh, boy was she going to give him a piece of her mind next time she saw him…
She heard something by her window and someone jumped from outside into her room.
"Eeeeeeek!" Kagome cried out, putting seven full e's into her scream. Finding it was only Inuyasha she yelled at him, "don't do that, you almost gave me a heart attack! Don't you know how to use a door!"
This time the girl wore pants and a long sleeved shirt to cover all her bruises except the one that could not be hidden on her cheek. Obviously, she did not want him to inquire about the injuries like he had that morning and how his questions had led to an awkward situation.
"You said you wanted to talk in private! I figured if I went through the front door, anyone else in the house might get suspicious."
"Is that how you got me into my room last week without being noticed?"
He did not answer so she took that for confirmation.
"I thought you had real question! Now start asking them so I can go home."
"That was one of my real questions!"
They had a staring contest and Inuyasha looked away first. Kagome basked in her glory, while Inuyasha stalked over to her bed and sat down on it. Kagome tried to sort out all the questions she wanted to ask him. She started with one she thought she knew the answer to, but wanted to make sure.
"So are you really a hanyou?" was her first question.
Inuyasha felt oddly disappointed. That was the reason she had been so at ease with him earlier that day. She still did not really know if he was part demon or not and now if he told her she would begin to get nervous around him and would regret asking him over. Then after that, she would never go near him again.
"Yeah, what's it to you?" Inuyasha said coldly.
"Are you a certain type? Are you are dog demon or something? Because inu does mean dog so I thought maybe…" She continued to ramble on but Inuyasha did not hear her.
He fell off the bed. He actually fell off the bed. What was wrong with this girl! Didn't she have the sense to be at least a little afraid of him? He was part demon for god's sake! Although he didn't seem to realize these thought contradicted what he was thinking only moment before.
She towered over him, looking down at him as he lay on the floor. "What's your problem?"
He jumped back onto his feet. No one ever really saw this side of him before, the side that made mistakes. He was always cool and collected, that is when he wasn't angry, which was most of the time. When he did make a mistake he just ignored it but when he made a mistake around this girl he ended up doing things like falling off of beds and nearly falling over.
"Are you an idiot? Why aren't you scared!" He towered over her for a second and she swayed backwards then when she spoke she towered over him, and he was bent backward and so it went back and forth.
"Of what, you? Give me a break."
"Well, why not?"
"You haven't given me a reason why I should be!"
He made a rather comical scary face, while bringing his hands up in a claw fashion and said, "Grrrrr!"
Kagome stared blankly at him for a fraction of a second and then was on her bed, rolling with laughter.
"Hey!" Inuyasha yelled at her, but she continued to roll around, laughing. "HEY!" No response. "Stop it!" Nothing. And now he was beginning to get angrier with every time he yelled at her. "Stop laughing!" Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. "I said…" the laughter continued. "STOP!" He was furious now.
She couldn't stop laughing. He had looked so completely ridiculous and it was so funny. She had not laughed like this since that morning. The entire day what she had learned in the past week had been weighting down on her, but when she was with him… it all seemed to fade for a while. Just long enough to have a good laugh, that is.
Kagome turned to look at Inuyasha and the laughter abruptly died on her lips. It was not because he looked so angry… no, that was quite comical too, it was just… what the hell…?
Inuyasha's anger started to fade when the girl's attention turned toward him. She had stopped laughing and was now looking at him with a quizzical, bewildered look on her face. What was she looking at? She tentatively got up off the bed, her footstep light on the carpeted floor, until she stopped right in front of him. His heartbeat sped up as she leaned into him. She stood on her tippytoes and reached a hand up and… pulled at something on the top of his head. Oh, shit.
Kagome tugged at the ears on top of his head. Little, white, adorable ears. Where had they come from? She knew they had not been there before, she'd have definitely remembered something like that. Everyone who ever saw him would remember that. No, these cute ears had just appeared out of nowhere.
"Where'd these come from?" Kagome said softly in wonder, her breath warm on his skin, though she was too preoccupied to notice the effect she was having on him.
These were not the types of questions he had been expecting when he came that night. Inuyasha muttered, "sometimes when I get really angry or am under a lot of stress they just… appear, I don't know why. Then they fade whenever they feel like it."
The girl was way too close, almost embracing him, and she hardly noticed him at all, only his ears. Wasn't she suppose to be afraid of him now that she knew he was a hanyou and not start toying with his dog ears? Her eyes sparkled with delight. Her lips were only inches away from his and he was mesmerized by them and the way the smile played across her face. Her lips parted when a small giggled escaped her and her lips looked so inviting. He was frozen where he was, could not move for fear she would break the contact. He basked in the warmth of her body, only inches from his.
She smiled as she continued to tug and play with his ears, a bright smile on her face. She giggled when she brushed her hand over one of them, causing it to twitch. Kagome tried to go higher on her tiptoes but lost her balance, causing her to fall into Inuyasha. He was quick to catch her, his arms around her waist. Her face was buried in his chest and slowly, very slowly, she looked up to see Inuyasha staring down at her with a certain gleam in his eyes that she couldn't identify. One arm was now wrapped around her waist while he brought the other one up to cup her cheek like he had done that morning in class. His touch was very gently, like before, as it held the side of her face with the bruise. His head lowered, his lips coming closer and closer toward her lips and just when they were hovering over hers…
"Kagome?" her mom called through the door, "are you alright? I heard some yelling and laughing…"
God, her mom must have thought her insane, Kagome in her room yelling and laughing at herself. But she wasn't by herself. Oh, she was very sure of that…
When her mom had spoken they had jumped to opposite sides of the room so fast she was surprised one of them had not knocked something over or tripped on anything. Kagome rushed out of the room to talk to her mom, without looking at Inuyasha, just wanting to be anywhere but with him. She opened the door just enough for her to slid out of the room and then closed it again behind her.
"I'm fine, really very fine actually. Nothing's wrong…"
Okay she was not doing that well with covering up, but she was extremely flustered at the moment. She could tell her cheeks were burning, her whole face probably completely red. Her mom eyed her and the door to her room suspiciously but did not ask again. She walked away and Kagome went down to the kitchen, not yet ready to go back in her own room and face the boy inside it.
Kagome stayed down in the kitchen for a while, waiting for her crimson face to turn back to normal. Inuyasha was still in her room, probably wondering what happened to her. Inuyasha… his cute, little dog ears… then suddenly he had been so close, practically embracing her and his lips…
Kagome shook her head furiously. 'No! Don't think of the dog-boy in her room. Think of anything else but the dog-boy in her room
…
It's not working!'
When she thought she was ready to face him again she went back into her bedroom. Inuyasha was sitting in her open window halfway in, halfway out the window, looking out into the night, his hair blowing in the gentle wind from outside. His long, silver hair…. The moment she came into the room he slowly turned his gaze toward her, his golden eyes fixated on her.
Oh boy, Kagome thought, trying desperately to swallow the feeling that swelled up inside her.
Kagome felt at a loss for words, whatever she had been about to say dying on her lips. Then she noticed something. "Where'd your dog ears go?"
Oh, great, Inuyasha thought, now I'm in a room with a girl who only likes me because of my dog ears.
"I told you they come and go when they feel like it," Inuyasha grumbled, but he didn't put the menacing tone in it like he normally did.
"Oh," Kagome said, slightly puzzled by his new attitude. He had mostly gone back to his normal attitude as though what they did only minutes ago never happened. It was just a mistake, Kagome thought, relieved and oddly disappointed at the same time.
The sullen girl walked over to her bed and sat on it, putting her back to the window that Inuyasha was sitting in. Oh great, now what had he done? But wait, why did it have to be his fault? It was just as much hers for laughing at him in the first place then getting him angry enough that his ears popped up on the top of his head. After that, it was mostly her action that had led up to… the incident.
Silence ensued for a few very long uncomfortable minutes. Inuyasha finally interrupted the quiet saying, "look, just ask your question so that I can go home and get some rest." That was all he needed, some R&R, Rest and Relaxation, though somehow he doubted he was getting any that night.
"Alright," Kagome said nonchalantly, "I meet some…er… people the other day who gave me some information about demons, but I'm not sure if they were lying of not."
She didn't want him to know that she had been captured by the two demons for some reason, maybe because she was embarrassed or did not want him to think she was dumb, so she kept that piece of information to herself.
"What did this person say?"
"He said that there were a lot of demons out there, lurking in the shadows, and some disguised as human. And that there are a lot in this town too, because of me and my power." Kagome told him, adding some of the things Sango and Miroku said to her. She now turned around on her bed, kneeling on it so that she could look at Inuyasha as he talked.
"That's all true."
"And he said that there weren't that many demons left. That their numbers have diminished over the years."
"True, there aren't a lot of full-blooded demons left. They're like a closed society now."
"This…er… person said that there are a lot of people out there who are part demon and don't even know it, is that true?"
"He lied there. Most of the demons are too proud to mate with humans." He looked down at himself and said his next sentence in disgust. "I guess I'm just one of the special ones who gets to be part demon, part human." He continued his voice back to normal. "The demons just die out. They're weaker now since the humans are in power in the world. The few humans that still know about demon existence are like your friends, they hunt them, and their parents hunted them, and their children will hunt them. But the demons do try to disguise themselves as humans, that part is true. But the ones that disguise themselves usual don't mate at all or they mate with other disguised demons. That's how it works. The demons find humans too ignorant to become too involved with. There have been cases where a demon has had a relationship with a human, and then later decides to tell that human what they really are and…"
"And?" Kagome asked, interested.
"The humans just freak. Humans don't like the supernatural." He glanced at her with a funny expression on his face then said, "well most of them don't. When they see it… it scares them. They don't like to know their world is full of demons. They like to think nothing like that every exists or happens."
"So you said demons don't really…mate with humans. Are there many half-demons out there?"
"A few like myself, but not many. There use to be a lot maybe a thousand years ago, that's what I heard anyway, and that's how a lot of the demons died out. Instead of having all demon children they had hanyous and those hanyous married—" he could tell Kagome was having trouble saying mated, "—humans, so then the kid was only a quarter demon, and so it went on and on. So there could be people with demon blood but by now it's microscopic so it doesn't effect them at all."
That's what Hiten must have meant then. He must have been really old because he said he remembered what it use to be like when demons ruled over humans, Kagome thought.
Inuyasha watched the thoughtful look on the girl's face as she stared down at her hands in her lap and then how her lips moved downward in a slight frown. She looked up at him again and her question was soft, as though she was afraid of what the answer might be.
"And… and my…" she was about to say friends but she did not feel as though she could call them friends anymore "…Miroku and Sango… why are they here?"
He looked deep into her eyes and said just as softly, "are you sure you want that answer?" She barely moved her head, but she nodded, so he continued, "just like the demons have started to send people to kidnap you, your frien—" he quickly changed his words, "—those two were sent so that the demons didn't get a hold on you. They're your protectors… unknown protectors, it seems. They were sent to you, just like the demons were sent after you. Them and the demons are from two sides of a war that's raged on for centuries, each trying to win using whatever they can. In this case, you. The humans, your friends, the 'good' side if you want to call it that, who want to keep things as they are with the humans on top, and the demons, the 'bad' side that want to turn humans into fearful creature of their awesome power."
It was just like that line from that movie, she wasn't even sure what movie, but still, that famous line: the truth? You can't handle the truth! The truth in this case was painful. She didn't want to know it. That morning she had tried to overlook it and just be with her "friends" but now…. How could they do this to her? They lied to her for years. If it had been something little they had lied about she wouldn't have cared, but this? This was way too much. She felt tears coming and balled her hands into fists. No she would not cry, especially in front on Inuyasha.
"Who sent them?" Kagome asked, her voice thick with emotion. She wouldn't look at him, but her bangs were covering her eyes anyway, as her head was tilted down toward the floor.
Inuyasha pretended not to notice, since it was obvious she did not want him to. "The 'good guys' that's all I know. If you want to know who sent them, you'll have to ask them yourself."
"So they're here only because I have some sort of power. And they need to protect me so I don't fall in the wrong hands," Kagome spat out in fury, "so what is this power I have? Everyone wants it, and I have no idea even what it is."
Inuyasha shrugged. "Who knows?"
Her head snapped up at this statement, her eyes filled with unshed tears and rage. "Who knows? Who knows? What the hell is that suppose to mean!"
Inuyasha seemed taken back by her outburst but said with irritation in his voice, "well, we won't know until you use it."
"Then how does everyone know that this person with all this power is me? Couldn't it be some other girl?" And if it was Sango and Miroku would probably just pack up and leave to go defend that girl without another thought of Kagome, were her bitter thoughts.
Inuyasha jumped down from the windowsill and stalked over to her. "Now listen here, wench." He saw her winced again like he had when he called her that name that morning and mentally cursed himself for being so harsh and forgetting how it had hurt her. "You're the one with the power here, even if you can't use it yet, even if you never learn how to use it!" He held a hand over her chest and moved it around her front as if he were touching something although he was inches away from actually touching her body, but he seemed to be touching her aura as if he could see it. "You give off power wherever you go. That's why everyone knows it's you. The power is… intoxicating. We demons can feel it out and that's why all the demons flocked toward this town, because they can feel it, even if they don't know the source. We're drawn to you."
Inuyasha finally seemed to realize he was too close to her, leaning into her body from where she sat on the bed. He immediately straightened and went back to the window to sit in it again.
"That's why the demons will be able to find you wherever you go, so it'll be easy for them to find you to kidnap you. But once you learn how to use your powers, you'll be able to draw your power in, so then they wouldn't be able to find you anymore. You'd disappear off our radar."
Kagome shifted nervously on the bed, still uncomfortable after he had been so close to her again. "But why did Miroku or Sango never tell me? If I used my powers and hid myself from the demons, they'd be able to leave." And they'd probably want to, Kagome thought, That way Sango could be closer to her brother and Miroku… well he'd probably just follow her.
"Probably because they were told not to. Because if you found out… we'll let just say, how do you fell right now?"
Betrayed. Angry, no more like furious. Disappointed. Distressed. And Kagome then understood. If she felt like this toward them, they wouldn't be able to do there job. So they just followed her, probably thinking she was a bumbling, ignorant teenage girl, and did what they were told. But if she pushed Miroku and Sango too far away, and worse than that, if they left, then who was going to protect her? She shook her head. She shouldn't be thinking so selfishly. They did not want to be here, so they should just leave. She should just let them go, it didn't matter now.
"Seems to me that they were never really your friends at all. They just had to pretend to be to earn your trust. Really, they're no better then the demons that are after you."
"I think you should leave now," she told him softly, but firmly.
His words were true, and exactly what she was thinking, but for him to say them out loud… it made all his words real and she didn't want them to be. She wanted to go back, back to when she didn't know any of this, back to when there was no such thing as demons, but it wouldn't change anything. Demons would still be after her, and Sango and Miroku would only be here because she needed to be shielded away from the demons.
Inuyasha looked like he wanted to stay and talk with her some more, but he shrugged at her request and jumped out the window, and she meant that literally. She blinked a couple times and went over to the open window sticking her head out it, but he was already gone. Kagome shook her head while shutting her window, thinking how strange a certain demon-boy could be.
Kagome walked to school gloomily. No smiling or humming, no urge to skip and sing out loud. She could not have been more depressed. Of course, that was before she knew who was coming up behind her. Sango and Miroku approached her meekly. After she had left them yesterday between classes, they hadn't seen her again and she had been a little edgy yesterday.
She heard them behind her, but she did not stop or acknowledge them at all. Finally Sango got tried of waiting.
"Hi, Kagome," Sango said nervously.
Kagome shot her a look and kept on walking. Sango was startled by her glare.
"Woah, there Kagome," Sango said, talking to her like she was a wild horse. She did not touch her, sensing that that would end badly but she ran a little ahead of Kagome and stopped in front of her. Kagome tried to go to the left of her, but Sango shifted over and going to the right had similar results. "What's wrong?"
That stopped her short. "What's wrong?" Kagome asked, not believing what she was hearing.
"What happened Kagome? Did someone hurt you?" Miroku asked.
She laughed sharply at that and not in a funny way. She stopped trying to get passed her and Miroku moved to Sango's side so that he could see Kagome's face. She took a step back from them.
"Yeah, someone did," she whispered.
"Who?" Sango asked.
"You did. You… you lied to me… for years. Never told me…" she trailed off then started again. "All those monsters out there and… and I never knew… never knew why you were really here either. He told me to find out what you did on those Saturday nights… and oh, boy did I find out."
No one spoke for a while until Sango uttered her name. "Kagome…"
"I feel so stupid," she whispered, interrupting her, "all those times you came to school Monday morning with those cuts and bruises… all those injuries… and I just believed you when you said they were from playing sports or tripping or something stupid like that. I trusted you. You were my best friend. At least I thought you were but was I just an assignment to you?"
"I think you're overacting a bit Kagome," Sango argued.
"Overacting? Overacting?" Kagome yelled. "Do you know how much information I've received over the past week? Do you know how much I found out what you told me were lies? Founding out the world is not really the place I thought it was… and you knew this the for what, six years? and you never told me! All these questions and new information swirling around in my head…! It's like I'm drowning and I can't… I can't…" Kagome suddenly turned around, shaking her head furiously. Tears began forming in her eyes and her vision blurred. She voice cracked with emotion as she said, "I can't do this right now. I just can't."
So many emotions played in her head. Rage, sorrow, pain, betrayal… she couldn't stand them all. A hand grabbed her arm and she frantically shook it off. She whirled to find Miroku holding onto her. He tried to speak soft words to her like he always did to calm her down, but it was not going to work that time.
"Kagome…" Miroku began.
"GET OFF ME!" Kagome screamed, jerking him off her. She turned back to face both of them, tears streaming down her face at this point. "You don't understand, do you? What it feels like…?" Kagome asked, her voice barely audible. "I hate feeling this way!" She yelled suddenly, then went back to her soft voice, "It's like when you're a kid and you get a new toy, a new toy that everyone else on the block wants to play with, so they all come to you and you think they all want to be your friend so you let them play with your new toy. But then your toy gets broken or someone else gets a better one, and you find yourself all alone, those friends gone, because they were never really friends at all."
"Kagome, that's not what happened, if you'll just let us explain—" Sango started.
Kagome didn't wait for her to finish. "So what happens if I get broken or die? Or it turns out I'm not the girl your looking for? Do you just pack up and leave to go protect that girl, become her 'friend' for a while until the next 'assignment' comes alone?"
Both seemed too stunned to talk. Kagome had never been like this before. She was always so happy and innocent…. Her innocence always made the day brighter when the two knew what really went on in the world.
"Your silence is my answer. God, Inuyasha was right." Kagome laughed short and harshly. "There's a sentence I never thought I'd say."
Kagome ran away from them, crying, running toward her home instead of school. And neither of them made a move to stop her as her hurtful words sunk in. The worst part about it was they were true.
"I don't understand," Sango whispered, "she was fine around us yesterday. A little uncomfortable, yes, but…"
Then the last things Kagome said before running came back to her.
"Sango?" Miroku inquired, worriedly, as he saw a dark expression come onto Sango's face.
She hardly heard Miroku when he called her. Sango had only had one thing on her mind.
"Inuyasha," she said in a growled whisper.
"Sango," Miroku called warningly.
Sango, however, did not listen and stormed into the school to find Inuyasha. She spotted him within moments. It really was not hard to spot the silver hair through the crowd.
"INUYASHA!" Sang yelled at him.
Miroku winced. That girl was going to get herself killed very soon if she kept acting like that. Inuyasha might only be half demon but he was still stronger then a lot of full-blooded demons were.
Inuyasha turned around and waited for the fiery girl to catch up to him, with an sullen Miroku trailing behind her. When she finally caught up, he spoke first.
"What do you want?" he asked, annoyed.
"What did you tell Kagome?" Sango snapped at him.
"Everything."
"Everything…?"
"Everything you weren't willing to tell her. About you and the monk, and I use that term very loosely, about herself… everything."
"No, you told her we lied to her and we weren't her friends!"
"Well, you didn't tell her, isn't that as good as lying? I only told her the truth, that you were just sent her to look after her because of her powers. After that she came to her own conclusions, even though I had the same ones."
"You told her to follow us. She almost got herself killed and—"
"Woah, wait! I never told her to follow you, I only told her to ask you what you actually did those Saturday nights," Inuyasha told her while his head was yelling That little idiot followed them! That's where she got all those bruises. " I've seen you, out there fighting the demons. And she wanted to know. She had, no, still has a right to know why you guys are really here."
Sango shook her head furiously. "No! This is your fault! If it hadn't been for you—"
He lost it and began to yell at the girl. "Then she would have never known the truth. She would have been raped and kidnapped by a bunch of demon. Some protection you are to her when you aren't even there. Sure you keep tabs on her when she's in school, but who the hell is going to hurt her in a school with a thousand fucking people to witness it? Anything I'm leaving out?"
"No, you twisted her mind—" Sango said, though she knew she was losing her argument.
"I didn't do anything! Don't play the game 'toss all the blame on Inuyasha'." He realized he was yelling and they were beginning to have an audience. He continued in a fierce whisper. "Yeah, it must be his fault because he has demon blood in him. I'm fucking tired of it. I only told her what she wanted to know." He paused then added roughly, "It's more than you ever did."
Sango opened her mouth and closed it over and over again, but no sound would come out. She must have looked like a fish on dry land. He made her so furious and yet, he was right. They had never told her after so many years… it was only right that she thought the worst of her and Miroku at the moment.
"Think about that before you go see her again," Inuyasha spat out before turning and walking away.
Sango clenched and unclenched her fists at her sides. She began to tremble with rage. Even worse, she felt she might start to cry. No, she had to keep hold of her rage. As long as she was angry, the tears would not come. She wanted to be angry at Inuyasha, and she was, but she was also angry at herself. Her best friend had told Sango she had felt betrayed by her and now the words sank in. She had betrayed her best friend in a way. She was a traitor.
She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she whipped around prepared to beat down anyone who came near her. Instead she found herself looking up at Miroku. He held one of her hands by the wrist up in the air, the hand she had just been about to punch him with and the other was still on her shoulder. He also had a strange look on his face. She glared fiercely at him waiting for him to say anything, like that they had lost their closest friend's trust, that she had a been a fool to yell at Inuyasha, or anything along those lines. What she had not expected was what he did.
He let go of Sango's wrist and shoulder and enveloped her in his arms. She buried her face in his chest, her hands fisted into his shirt. She felt warm tears start to spill out of her eyes as Miroku brought her closer.
How could they have been so stupid? Why hadn't they ever just told her what was going on? But part of Sango knew why. She never wanted Kagome to know, partially because of the fear of how Kagome would hate them for it, like how she was reacting right now, and partially because Sango never wanted Kagome to find out what really went on in the town. How there were demons that killed just for the pleasure of killing…. She never wanted to have to see the loss of innocence that would befall on her just like she had seen it happen to others. It was not the same with her. When she had grown up, she had known since she was little and had grown up with the knowledge that demons existed, but when it was just forced upon someone… they would either ignore it, accept it, which was most unlikely, or most commonly, it would break them.
She had seen girls and boys alike taken into mental institutions after witnessing the horrible things demons could do. She had met one normal, perky girl, much like Kagome, who had seen everyone in her family die by the hands of demons, and the demons had only done it for fun to see the girl's reaction. She had turned insane. She was now ranting somewhere in an institutions, tied down to a bed so she would not start clawing at herself and pulling out her own hair. Call her selfish, but she never, ever wanted to see something like that happen to Kagome. If Kagome started to try to take control of her powers, more and more demons would know of her existence and then everyone around her would be in constant danger because everyone around her, her mother and brother to start, were weak and could be used as bait or used to threaten her.
"Sango?" Miroku whispered to her softly.
"Hmm?" Sango asked, not removing her face from his shirt.
"I think it's time we go make amends with a friend," Miroku said.
Sango nodded, still clutching to his shirt, as if for dear life.
A/N: Wow, I was a little hard on Sango and Miroku in this chapter. Sorry 'bout that. I just really wanted to get across what Kagome was feeling.