One thing – in this chapter I go into the tetsusaiga's origins and powers a bit, and here the sword does not work the same way it does in the show. Just so you all know I'm not terribly confused, or anything.
I don't own Inuyasha, and enjoy!
YYY
Bitten
By Rio Grande
Chapter 10: Things You Never Knew You Never Knew.
YYY
Kagome never realized just how long her hair had grown until she was forced to pull a comb through it, and experience the pain of ripping through her thick rat's nest of a mane. Still, last time she checked, she was certain her hair wasn't four inches past her shoulders. Sighing, she put her comb by the sink next to a pathetic makeup collection, a collection that consisted of, basically, lip gloss and concealer. Some of which she had owned since high school, and all of which Keiko had forced her to purchase. Probably Kagome was a little behind in the area of cosmetic application, but she had just never found that makeup made her look any prettier. Kagome experimented with placing her hair up in a high pony tail to keep it away from her face, frowning and turning her head from side to side.
'No. Too 90's,' she reflected, letting the hair drop unceremoniously around her shoulders again, and twirling one dark raven strand around her finger distractedly.
"Inuyasha?" she called, exiting her small bathroom and stepping directly into the living room of her humble apartment, where said hanyou and Shippou sat sprawled on the couch. Both were totally dressed for the cold day outside and each was sporting the look of a man who had been ready to go for some time, but had been forced to wait for one slow female. "Do you think my hair's getting too long?"
Inuyasha raised a lazy, incredulous eyebrow at his partner, grabbing a random lock of his white tresses which happened to hang all the way down to his butt, not even feeling the need to voice an answer to that obviously misguided question.
"Oh. Right. Anyway, sorry for making you guys wait! I'll be ready in a second!" she chirped, disappearing once more behind the bathroom door. At this, Inuyasha groaned into his hands and Shippou shook his head, moaning: "But that's what she said an hour ago!"
"Women." Inuyasha added dourly.
Elated over the fact that she and Inuyasha finally had a day off, Kagome had planned a fun outing for the small motley group. An outing that involved eating lots of greasy fast food, movies, shopping, bowling and many other utterly mortal things that Inuyasha and Shippou had never done in their entire lives. The whole idea seemed crazy, but Kagome was determined to make this day devastatingly fun, and Inuyasha and Shippou had no choice but to go along with her.
The door bell rang and Inuyasha unthinkingly got to his feet to answer it, hearing the sink running in the bathroom and not wanting to bother Kagome when she was doing... well, whatever it was she was doing in there.
"Who is it?" he asked belatedly as he undid the locks and swung open the portal.
"It's your mother!" Mrs. Higurashi answered cheerily in reply, just as Inuyasha opened the door all the way and came face to face with the thin, middle aged woman. She was about the same height as Kagome, with cropped black hair and an oval face. She wore a purple cardigan and a long black skirt, a pink canvas bag tucked under her arm. "Oh! Oh my. You're not Kagome!" she pointed out, putting a hand to her face
"Gyah...!" Inuyasha agreed, freezing and letting a look of panic come over him. Quickly he spun around, trying to hide Shippou with his body as he desperately motioned for the little Kistune to create a disguise – any disguise! Any disguise that didn't make him look like a yellow eyed, pawed and tailed demon baby. There was a none too discrete puff of smoke behind the tall hanyou as he slowly turned back to Kagome's mother, smiling a bit too widely while Shippou hurriedly did his thing in the background.
Luckily for Inuyasha, he had long ago acquired a spell that enabled him to appear mortal to all those who were either non-demon, or didn't posses the magical sight, meaning he never needed a costume. This obviously did not apply to Kagome or Shippou, but Inuyasha had previously explained this phenomenon to his female partner who had possessed a magical eye herself for so long (Even before her powers had been fully awakened by the FBI a little over a week ago, via some sedatives and a syringe.) she had never even realized Inuyasha had such a spell upon him. Mrs. Higurashi, on the other hand, saw nothing but a raven haired, violet eyed young man when she looked at Inuyasha now.
However, looking like a demon to the woman suddenly didn't seem as important as looking like a male, as Mrs. Higurashi got a very curious look in her eye.
"Who... are you?" she asked in a carefully pitched voice. She was obviously not accustomed to finding odd men with long hair at her daughter's door when she came to visit, even unannounced as she was now.
"I am... Inuyasha," Inuyasha replied, out of a lack of a better thing to say. He had never encountered a situation like this before, and had no idea what to do.
"And I'm Shippou!" a young, human boy with sparkling green eyes and short red hair added almost a bit too cheerily, hopping in front of Inuyasha and right into Mrs. Higurashi's arms. The woman seemed surprised, but she took her skeptical eye off of Inuyasha none the less.
"Oh! My! I've heard about you! But no one said you were so cute!" Mrs. Higurashi gushed, tapping Shippou on the nose and giggling. Inuyasha let out a relieved breath, glad to have avoided that confrontation.
"Well, aren't you going to invite me in, Inuyasha?" Mrs. Higurashi asked, addressing the hanyou.
"Uh, yeah, right..." Inuyasha said, stepping to the side and realizing by the steely glint in Mrs. Higurashi's eyes that perhaps the confrontation wasn't over yet at all... merely postponed by the presence of an innocent, bubbly little boy. Inuyasha had never been so happy to have Shippou around.
When Kagome finally exited the bathroom, dressed, powdered, washed and brushed, she came upon the sight of her mother sitting on the couch with a human looking Shippou in her lap and Inuyasha at her side, chatting her partner up with a huge grin on her face. She resisted the urge to walk right back into the bathroom and never come out, but knew she couldn't leave Inuyasha in a situation like that. Probably. Well... if she backed away quietly...
"Kagome!" Her mother crooned, noticing her daughter and holding out a hand, gesturing expectantly for Kagome to come forward. "There you are! We were waiting. Come, come sit!"
"H-hey mom..." Kagome greeted pleasantly, slowly drifting towards the couch and sitting hesitantly to the left of her mother.
'Oh shit,' the miko thought, panicked. 'I never told her about Inuyasha. How am I supposed to explain about Inuyasha? She was NEVER supposed to find out about Inuyasha!'
"So, Shippou here tells me Inuyasha has been living with you for a few days now, hm?" Ms. Higurashi said, her tone revealing nothing. Kagome shot a discreet, withering glare at her little charge, and he shrank away in fear.
"Yes. He has. He's... well, he's a co-worker, from the FBI." she said, deciding she could at least divulge that sliver of truthful information.
"Oh really, and are you a secretary like Kagome?" Mrs. Higurashi wanted to know.
"No, I'm a field agent," Inuyasha announced before he could stop himself. Kagome slapped her forehead. Why couldn't he just lie? Why couldn't he have just swallowed his masculine pride and pretended to be a secretary? Not all male secretaries were gay! Not all of them!
"I see, and you and my Kagome have been living together for three days, after just meeting? My, but you move fast." Mrs. Higurashi chuckled, and even though her tone was amicable enough, both Inuyasha and Kagome knew what she really meant – 'Oh, and you've already decided to start sleeping with my innocent daughter, you man-slut?'
"Mom! It's a bit more... complicated." Kagome quickly interjected, wishing more than ever that her mother didn't have a penance for dropping by unexpectedly. It truly caused more trouble than she knew what to do with. 'Of course, if you were a normal daughter, you wouldn't have to worry about the visits because you wouldn't have two demons to hide!' she added bitterly.
"Complicated?" Mrs. Higurashi questioned, her tone suggesting that she didn't like the adjective of choice here. 'Complicated' suggested there had been 'complications' when they were having sex and now her daughter was pregnant and it had been too 'complex' a situation for Kagome to move to Inuyasha's apartment so he had decided to live with her until the baby was born.
"You see, Inuyasha is friends with Shippou. He's... his uncle, actually," Kagome quickly explained.
"Really?" Mrs. Higurashi asked, looking between Inuyasha and Shippou and trying to find a family resemblance. Noticing none, she cooly continued onwards with her uncharacteristic interrogation. Kagome had never seen her mother like this. "Then why isn't Shippou living with his uncle Inuyasha instead of with you?" she asked.
"Well, see, Shippou's mother doesn't trust Inuyasha," Kagome stated, immediately wishing she hadn't.
"What!" Inuyasha barked, indignant.
"What?" Mrs. Higurashi questioned, sharply.
"What," Shippou added, caving in to peer pressure.
"I mean to say that – Inuyasha works odd hours, and doesn't have time for Shippou! Shippou's mom doesn't trust that Inuyasha can always be there for him! Heck, this is the first day off Inuyasha has had in weeks. He's just been sleeping over occasionally to make Shippou feel better while his mom is getting the operation! You know, a familiar face," Kagome said quickly, the lies coming easier now that she was on a roll.
"Oh. I see," Mrs. Higurashi said with a smile, looking for all the world as though she did. "Well, that's fine then."
Both Inuyasha and Kagome let out simultaneous breaths of relief, trading tired glances. 'That was close.'
"Yes, they both sleep out here on the pull-out couch. As oppose to in my room. With me." Kagome continued, just to make things clear.
"That's nice. Well, I just stopped by for a quick visit. You hadn't called since winter break started and I was worried," Mrs. Higurashi explained, stroking Shippou's head gently as she spoke and causing the little Kistune to acquire an expression closely related to the look a heroin addict gets when he finally gets a fix after weeks of agonizing withdrawal.
"Sorry about that," Kagome said sheepishly. She had been so wrapped up with important FBI stuff, she truly had forgotten about her family. And her friends.
"Well, it's all right. But I was wondering if you had plans for vacation? I know last year you and Kiki went to that lovely ski resort for a week..."
"Oh, no. No plans like that this year," Kagome laughed uneasily, averting her gaze. That had been fun...
"I see. In that case, up to spending a little time with your old Mom? I thought we might like a day out together!" she explained, beaming expectantly.
"Actually I had sort of planned a day with the guys here," Kagome admitted.
"We're going to see a movie!" Shippou, who had never seen a movie in an actual theater, crowed.
"Do you mind if I come? I haven't been to a movie in some time," Mrs. Higurashi said.
"That's fine. It'll be fun! Right guys?" Kagome asked, casting a wary glance at Inuyasha to try and gauge his reaction. He merely shrugged noncommittally, looking neither ecstatic nor disappointed.
"Sure," was all he said.
"Great! I'll call Souta then and we can all head out! Any idea what movie you want to see?" Mrs. Higurashi asked, placing Shippou to the side as she stood to go get the phone.
"Oh Mom, do we have to call Souta?" Kagome whined. She loved her brother for the most part, but lately, since he had hit his teen years, he had been nothing but a pest.
"Souta?" Inuyasha and Shippou asked.
"Her brother!" Mrs. Higurashi supplied from across the room, which was, admittedly, not that far away. "And he's going to come with us! The two of you haven't hung out in ages! Just be glad I'm not inviting grandpa."
"Geez," Kagome sighed, resting her face in her hands and sighing. "This is turning out to be one hell of a day."
OOOOOO
Miroku felt as though he had just stepped into an alternate reality. There were so many things wrong with the situation he found himself in... just so many layers of inherent... wrongness.
Exhaling loudly he ran a hand through his dark brown hair, making a valiant attempt to not let his gaze slide over to the attractive looking woman sitting in the passenger's seat next to him. And to not let her know just how goddamn nervous he was.
Sango, for her part, didn't look at all perturbed. She was just there with her usual impeccable posture, using one hand to lazily stroke her demon cat Kirara in her lap while she gazed out the window calmly, watching the scenery fly by from her seat in Miroku's red Mercedes. She was wearing a light purple dress and had her dark hair down around her shoulders, making her look altogether graceful and at peace. But Miroku knew better. The second danger made an appearance, off would come the dress, up would go the hair, and she would be clad in her black, I-mean-buisness-outfit complete with a long knife strapped to her hip. However, this wasn't what was making Miroku nervous, and confused. In fact, all that was far too normal.
Perhaps that was just it. It was all so NORMAL! He and Sango. Together. In a car. Off on a mission. It was just like the old days, only this time he had not lain eyes on Sango for three years, she was no longer an official member of the demon FBI ... and they were no longer dating... in fact, they were no longer speaking. Sango had said naught but one word to him since they had taken off on their mission that morning, and it had been a dispassionate,'S'ok', in response to Miroku's frantic apology when he almost tripped over himself and onto her whilst being distracted by her rather shapely butt on the way to the car.
'If you told me three years ago that today I would be sitting in a car with Sango, with absolutely nothing to say to her, and she with a practically palpable distaste for my very being... I would have called you crazy,' Miroku reflected wistfully as he turned off of the freeway and drove into the beginnings of a rather upscale neighborhood, complete with grand old mansions, huge lawns and spotless streets. 'I could always talk to Sango, for as long as I can remember she was always there to listen to my ramblings, no matter how inane. And now, I feel as though... '
"I think that's it," Sango said abruptly, her voice snapping Miroku out of his thoughts so violently he quickly slammed on the breaks in the middle of the street. Luckily there were no other cars around, but Sango and Kirara were roughly jarred forward by the quick stop, and both females sent the dashing FBI agent withering glares.
"Uh, sorry!" Miroku apologized for the second time that day. He was starting to wonder if it was such a good idea for Kaede to put the two of them together again as partners... Sure, there was definite proof that in a fight no one worked together better than they did, but he seemed to be a little distracted by Sango's mere presence. "So, this is it?" he asked, to avert Sango's attention from his odd behavior.
Sango sighed and glanced down at the folder in her hands, checking the address on the paper with that of the large, pale blue mansion across the street. The entire house was pushed into shadow by the forest of thick green trees twisting around it like a protective barrier.
"Yes," she affirmed distractedly, undoing her seat belt and swiftly stepping out of the car with Kirara perched primly on her shoulder. Miroku took in one deep breath before following suit.
Both agents were dressed to look like every day civilians, perhaps dignified guests at their potential victim's house. Miroku himself was wearing a pair of khaki's with a dark green button down shirt, and brown loafers. Stashed away on their persons and in their seemingly innocent hand bags and briefcases was a literal arsenal of weapons, Sango's huge boomerang being forced to remain in the trunk. Together they began to walk up the long twisting path to the shadowy door of the mansion, not saying a word or making any eye contact whatsoever the entire time.
Once at the door Sango promptly wrapped on the wooden frame and stood back to wait to be let in. Miroku stood in silence for a moment before suddenly turning to his partner with an elated grin on his face. Sango shrunk away from him, as though intimidated by the sheer width of his grin, which was a sharp contrast to the tight lipped frown she had taken to sporting.
"Hey – we're about to meet THE professor Myouga! That's exciting," Miroku pointed out with an honestly optimistic look on his features. Sango was about to explain that she was not familiar with Professor Myouga's actual teachings when the door swung open abruptly. They hadn't even heard anyone walking towards them.
At first Miroku was confused because it seemed as though there was no one at the door at all, but after a moment of staring into the musty darkness of the inside of the grand house, he heard someone clear their throat and his head snapped downwards.
"Ahem, I'm down here," an old, nasally voice said importantly.
"Oh, hello," said Miroku intelligently, finding to his surprise that the voice came from an impossibly small old man with an odd, wrinkled face and wide round eyes. He was also emanating a demonic aura.
"It's nice to see you, Mr. Kyouzaki." Sango said respectfully, bowing her head as one acquaintance might to another.
"The pleasure is mine," the small man rejoined.
"Wait a second – Kyouzaki? Myoga Kyouzaki? THE Myoga Kyouzaki?" Miroku asked, momentarily shocked.
"The one and only!" Myoga chirped proudly.
"But you're so... .short!" Miroku squawked, looking slightly appalled. This was his scholarly hero? A two foot ball of wrinkles?
For her part, Sango looked as though Miroku and just urinated on a mosaic of the virgin Mary in a 15th century church, mentally slapping her face. Hadn't he read the file? Didn't he know Myouga was a flea demon?
"What of it?" Myouga asked sharply, confirming Sango's worst fears. Usually, the shorter you were, the more sensitive you were about your height. Or in this case, a severe lack thereof. Miroku was having one of his foot in mouth moments – rare but deadly. "You're no giant yourself, sonny," Miroku blinked owlishly, before letting a large smile spread over his features once more. He leaned down and lifted a surprised flea demon professor up effortlessly, stepping through the threshold and into Myouga's lovely home.
"I have so many questions for you! This is going to be great!" Miroku enthused as he disappeared into the house. Sango was left alone on the porch, looking a bit confused.
"Do you have any idea what that was about?" she asked Kirara, while also stepping into the house and locking the door behind her quietly. The small cat demon shook her head negatively, and Sango sighed while her lips turned upward at the corners almost against her will.
OOOOOOOO
"So do you like, take down real bad guys like the FBI agents in the movies do?"
"Sure."
"Do you have lots of cool weapons? Kagome doesn't have lots of cool weapons... but she's not a field agent like you, she's just a dumb secretary, so you must have lots of cool weapons."
"Yep. See my digital watch? If I press the reset button it actually detonates a bomb planted under a yakuza base, just in case they get out of hand and we need to teach them a lesson."
"Awesome! And your car – is it like, bullet proof? Is it a hummer or something?"
"Psh – yeah."
"SWEET!"
To Kagome's relief, Inuyasha seemed to be getting along with her younger brother fabulously. The thirteen year old upstart greatly appealed to Inuyasha's sense of masculine pride since Souta was all but dedicating a new religion to the hanyou now that he knew he was an actual FBI field agent, and hadn't stopped pelting him with dumb questions. If Shippou hadn't been so very distracted by the wonderful attention Mrs. Higurashi was giving him he might have decided that Souta was cramping his style, but as it was he was content to sit in Kagome's mothers arms and let her fuss with his adorable hair. Meanwhile, Kagome and her mother were chatting.
"It's nice that you're getting paid regularly now." Mrs. Higurashi pointed out.
"Yeah, it's really helping me get a jump start on those loans I took out for college," Kagome admitted. "Oh, and this is so cool - now I have my own health insurance plan!"
"I should say so..." Mrs. Higurashi mumbled. Kagome had experienced a hell of a time explaining away the various cuts and scrapes she had developed, attempting to assure her mother that it had nothing at all to do with FBI work, but unable to explain how else she could have ended up so bruised.
"I had an accident at the gym," Had been the first thing to come to mind.
"What? Did the treadmill scratch you? Look at these scrapes..."
"No, I fell down the stair... master."
It hadn't gone over so smoothly and, coupled with Inuyasha's abrupt appearance in her home, Kagome wasn't racking up the trust points very well.
'So what!' part of Kagome argued vehemently. 'I'm a big girl now! Twenty years old and I should be able to do what I want without her permission – even if what I want to do is get ripped to shreds by bloodthirsty demons. It's my choice.' Another part of her was trembling with unbridled shame. How could she lie so badly to her mother? They had always been very close, especially since Kagome's father's death, and she felt as though she as betraying one of her closest friends.
"How's gramps?" she asked, to steer the subject firmly away from her own health.
"He's fine. The doctors say he needs to be using his breathing machine more, but, you know how he is about that. The man thinks he's still a spring chicken," Mrs. Higurashi sighed with exasperation.
"Ha ha, yeah that sounds like Gramps to me..."
"Oh, here we are. Are you excited Shippou?" Mrs. Higurashi asked of the tiny kit disguised as a tiny human in her arms. The group had stopped in front of a cinema near Kagome's apartment. It was small and your feet tended to stick to the popcorn and soda encrusted floors when you sat down, but it would do.
"Yeah! This is my first movie!" Shippou crowed. Mrs. Higurashi found this hard to believe, but was happy for the boy anyway.
"What are we seeing?" asked Souta.
"Well... I wanted to see the new romantic comedy, but since the males now outnumber the females, I've conceded to go see the new Jackie Chan flick," Kagome sighed dramatically.
"Yes!" Inuyasha and Sota cheered in unison, while Shippou cocked his head in confusion.
The quintet shuffled into the theater, Kagome's mother treating everyone, even Inuyasha to whom she dealt a saccharine sweet smile that made his eye twitch oddly. When the lights went down and the sparsely filled room went quiet, Kagome found herself sandwiched between Shippou and Inuyasha, which forced her to listen to Inuyasha's snorts of disdain and comments of how he could do that, easy, as well as Shippou's numerous ohh's and ahh's of wonder.
However, as she looked down the row of seats at her family and friends all enjoying a totally normal movie together, she felt happiness of a breed she hadn't experienced in a while what with the strains of her new lifestyle settle warmly in her stomach. It purred happily and left a dumb grin plastered on her face for the entirety of the (B level, at best.) movie.
OOOOOOO
Back at professor Myouga's house, Sango found herself in a finely decorated sitting room serving tea to the small flea demon and Miroku, who were engaged in such an in depth conversation about the professor's studies that neither had so much as given Sango a second glance in nearly an hour. So far she had been able to gauge that Myouga was a professor of ancient studies at a demon university in Tokyo – but beyond that she was lost.
'This wasn't exactly what I thought I'd be doing when Kaede said she had dire need of me in Tokyo,' Sango thought as she delicately sipped her jasmine tea, Kirara sitting obediently in her lap and eyeing Myouga with no small degree of fascination. The man was truly peculiar, slightly resembling a pale walnut with little tufts of gray hair behind his miniature ears, and a dark brown suit tailored for a three year old.
"- and that's when I met Katsu Takahashi, Inuyasha's father." Myouga said, picking up his own cup of tea.
"You knew Inuyasha's father?" Sango asked, finally finding a tidbit of the conversation she could understand. Inuyasha's old man had been a very powerful political figure in the demon district of Tokyo, which was partially why Inuyasha's brother Sesshomaru was such the business tycoon now. It didn't, however, explain why Sesshomaru was such a complete ass-hole. Mr. Takahashi had married a human woman for God's sake, and he had been a kind man as well, loved by the people. Even Sango, who was not very familiar with Inuyasha himself, new this as a participating member of the demon community. She thought perhaps her own grandfather had met the great demon once.
"Oh yes. I was, well, his best friend and advisor back in the day," Myouga said with no small degree of pride. "Katsu was a great man."
Sango was slightly surprised by this information, but she could tell by a quick glance at Miroku's face that he was not. He had that carefully neutral expression on on that she was so familiar with. Not only had he already known that Myouga and Inuyasha's father had been good friends, he had been waiting for this information to come up.
'What's he doing?...' she wondered, lost.
"Yes, I had heard that you were the man Mr. Takahashi confided in when he was defending the Tokyo territory from the Panther Demon tribe," Miroku said.
"Yes, indeed I was. Unfortunately, those damn panthers just came back after poor Katsu died and tormented his eldest, Sesshomaru, for a time..."
"Well, that's in the past now. Sesshomaru taught them who was boss long ago. But, then, you were also around when Mr. Takahashi had those two infamous swords forged, weren't you?" Miroku pressed in a friendly tone.
"That I was. Why do you ask?" Myouga queried, confused by the switch in topics.
"Well, I actually have an interest in the weapons, or specifically the Tetsusaiga. I do work with Inuyasha now, you know..."
"Ah, of course," Myouga said, nodding in understanding and sitting back in his chair with his steaming cup of tea in hand. He took on a very sage look that Sango decided just made him seem queer. "Is that pup still having difficulties with the blade?"
"Yes..."
"I figured as much," Myouga chortled mockingly. "If he would just swallow his pride and come talk to ME about it he'd be in much better shape, but Inuyasha has never had the confidence in me his father had for some reason..." Myouga trailed off almost angrily.
"Yes, I had heard that you two were not on good terms," Miroku said delicately.
"That hot-headed yahoo thinks that I was disloyal to him in his youth after his mother died. Calls me a 'fair-weather friend'! Wouldn't even look at me when he took my course in college, even though I gave him As! Of all the nerve. If he knew just how faithfully I have served his family..." Myouga grumbled. Sango looked interested in finding out what would make Inuyasha feel this way about the current college professor, but Miroku began to speak again before she had a proper chance.
"Well, you know, as of late the Tetsuaiga has been doing some interesting things. In the past week, in fact, it has fully transformed on two occasions," he admitted.
"What! Really? Has he figured out its secrets then?" Myouga questioned.
"...Not so much," Miroku confessed with a smile.
"How can that be, if he's transformed it?" Sango asked, cocking her head. She was admittedly a bit uninformed about the Tetsusaiga, although she had heard the legend of the powerful blade Mr. Takahashi had forged, as well as its sibling, the Tensaiga that Sesshomaru owned.
"Well, he can only seem to do it when the battles he's in take a turn for the very worst, and not on actual command," Miroku elucidated. "It's progress, but not something he can really understand."
"I see... so Inuyasha is experiencing the correct conditions under which he can utilize the blade properly, but not comprehending just what those conditions are," Myouga mumbled to himself. "How amusing,"
"Well, just what are those conditions?" Miroku asked, point blank.
"I see... so you have come for information for your friend have you? Well, that's fine, it's about time Inuyasha lived up to his heritage. Now, granted, this is just from what Inuyasha's father told me, the full secrets of the Tetsusaiga can only be found with its creator, who has retreated to the mountains of China or some other such nonsense. But Katsu had these two swords created after he met Iyazoi, Inuyasha's mortal mother.
"It was around this time that he became an advocate for human activism, and was especially worried about the welfare of his human wife who was prone to ridicule and violence from the demon community. In the same vein, he wanted his hanyou son to respect human life as well when he came of age."
"How does this connect with the sword?" Miroku asked, unable to see where Myouga was going with this blurb about Mr. Takahashi's political policies.
"I'm getting there," Myouga snapped. It is a well known fact that professors love to talk, and do not take kindly to being interrupted. "As I was saying... Katsu worried about humans. So when he had this sword forged, this Tetsusaiga that could slay a hundred demons in one swing, a sword that would not only keep his hanyou son safe when he was not around to protect him, but would also enable his son to protect his mother, he needed for the power of the sword to be properly channeled. It could do great harm if just anyone could use it, for whatever reasons, even his own child. For he knew that one day Inuyasha would grow to be a very powerful demon.
"So when it was forged, the sword was given triggers. For instance, the trigger to transform it depends on the heart of the wielder,"
"The heart of the wielder? So you mean... Inuyasha has a bad heart?" Sango asked, frowning.
"No, no. Well, I don't think so anyway. What the sword looks for is the heart's reason for fighting. If Inuyasha were fighting just to slay, just to destroy another demon,or even just to practice, it would not transform. Only if he is using it to protect, specifically humans, specifically humans he cares for, would it work. The sword is that powerful, it was Inuyasha's father's wish to give it such strict rules so that it could not be used lightly, nor fall into the wrong hands and be used to cause mass chaos. This isn't the feudal era we're living in after all!"
"Of course," Sango agreed.
But now Miroku was grinning from ear to ear, resting his head on his fist and chuckling lightly. "Humans he cares for, eh?" he said.
"What's so funny?" Sango asked.
"It's just that, the only times the sword has transformed in this past week has been when he's protecting Kagome..."
"Oh," Sango said, her eyes widening in understanding. She too smiled a tiny bit.
"Just who is Kagome?" Myouga wanted to know.
"The FBI's newest miko... she's a little green, but she's got a helluvalot of power." Miroku said.
"Oh, and does Inuyasha have relations with her? Following in his father's footsteps?" Myouga questioned slyly.
"Well, I hadn't been sure he felt anything for her YET... but now..." Miroku explained. "Oh, this is going to make him so mad!" he cackled evilly.
"I think it's nice," Sango said with a shrug.
"And you don't know Inuyasha very well," Miroku quipped in return.
OOOOOO
Kagome pushed herself further into her grandfather's recliner, watching the amusing scene in front of her with a wry smile. She was currently lounging in the living room of her mother's home, at the Higurashi Shrine, observing her younger brother, Shippou and one full grown FBI agent twiddle their fingers madly while leaning forward with an intense look in their eyes as they made it to another level of Sota's favorite game, Dynasty Warriors. Apparently, neither Shippou nor Inuyasha had ever played a video game in their lives, and now they were enjoying playing almost as much as Sota had enjoyed beating them solidly the first few rounds. However, both demons were fast learners and now Sota appeared to be the one who was having to fend for himself against some particularly brutal onslaughts.
So far the day hadn't been as bad as Kagome had though it was going to be. The surprise additions of her mother and brother hadn't completely ruined the outing, and although there had been some close calls where her mother almost found out more than she should have about Kagome's new life, (At one point, during a quick ice cream pit stop after the film, Inuyasha had thoughtlessly mentioned he and Kagome's upcoming mission. 'Mission? What mission?' Mrs. Higurashi had questioned. 'Oh! My... important mission to staples! We're out of printer paper at the office and it's like, a big problem.' Kagome had replied brightly.) and once or twice Inuyasha and Shippou had come close to seeing just how embarrassingly odd her own family was (When she and Sota had fought to see who could press the button for the elevator in the movie theater, Kagome winning narrowly by gnawing on Sota's elbow until he was forced to retract his arm).
"YES!" Shippou crooned, as his player began to randomly spurt out fire balls that forced Sota and Inuyasha's characters to turn tail and run for cover, jerking painfully every time they were hit. "I LOVE that move!" Being such a young, small demon in real life, Shippou was relishing the opportunity to throw around more power than his idol, Inuyasha.
"You brat, stop doing that! You're going to waste all of your energy at this rate," Inuyasha snarled.
"What do you care? You're just jealous of me 'cause I keep frying your butt!" Shippou giggled maniacally.
"What! Why would I be jealous of you? Every time you pick that same dopey girl character with the mini skirt and the huge ass fans! How could I be jealous of that?"
"Yeah, what's up with always choosing that magical girl?" Sota asked seriously.
"Shut up!" Shippou explained.
In the background Kagome had happily curled up around a book that had been on the top of her extensive winter break reading list right up until she had been recruited to help assassinate a power hungry demon with a god complex, putting the tome aside only when her mother entered the living room with a grin on her face.
"Dinner time!" she announced.
"YEAH!" all of the boys cried, throwing down their equipment and leaping to their feet. In a matter of seconds it was as though they had never even been in the living room at all.
Dinner was a mildly scarring affair for Kagome, as Inuyasha was forced to see just how mentally deranged her family truly was. Her grandfather was there now and talking non-stop, and combined with Sota's incessant questions and ill-timed interjections Kagome was afraid for Inuyasha's delicate grip on sanity. The young woman watched events unfold with a shell shocked expression on her face, like a witness to two oncoming trains charging full speed at each other, instilled with the terrible knowledge there was nothing she could do to save the life of the helpless passengers inside. She had been doing so well!
"So, you're Kagome's new boyfriend, eh?" Grandpa Higurashi asked flatly. All of the color was drained from Kagome's face as, contrastingly, much scarlet was added to Inuyasha's complexion.
"Uh – no. No, see, I'm her coworker," Inuyasha corrected him jerkily. Kagome was thankful that he had at least refrained from saying anything insulting about her in front of her grandfather, as she was sure he would have had anyone else posed that particularly uncomfortable question, seeing how Inuyasha was tactless and crass on his good days. 'What? Me and that useless wannabe agent? Feh, I like my women with a little common sense, thanks,' was how she imagined he would have replied, under normal circumstances.
If only the circumstances had been normal...
"You know, Kagome's last boyfriend was a lot more clean cut than you," the old man continued on, as though he had not so much as acknowledged Inuyasha's last, firm statement.
"Oh?" Inuyasha asked, with actual interest in his tone. Kagome began waving her arms wildly from behind Inuyasha's head, motioning for her grandfather to shut the hell up, but he was suffering from cataracts and hardly noticed. Sota began to giggle uncontrollably into his soup. He loved watching Kagome get terribly embarrassed in front of her friends by his grandpa, it was one of his favorite hobbies. And it happened so frequently.
"Yes... what was his name again? Hobo?" Grandpa Higurashi asked, scrunching up his face as though he was diving deep into the recesses of his mind. Inuyasha made an expression like something was lodged in his throat, when really he was just repressing a particularly gleeful smile. Kagome had never told him about her love life, becoming flustered and angry when he questioned her about her marital status, and here he had the perfect opportunity to finally get a look into her romantic past.
"Hojo, father. He was only Kagome's friend since kindergarten," Mrs. Higurashi supplied with a sigh.
"Right! Well, anyway, he was nice boy! A model citizen! His hair wasn't half as long as yours,"
"What, you got something against long hair?" Inuyasha asked, tugging on his currently raven locks.
"It makes you look like some sort of punk!" Kagome's grandfather informed her partner smartly. Kagome sat frozen in her seat, her eyes distant.
"Feh," Inuyasha replied, folding his arms indolently. "Yeah, well at least I've got hair, unlike some people."
"Inuyasha!" Kagome gasped.
"You little upstart!" her grandfather barked, which was funny, considering he was almost three feet shorter than the hanyou.
"What? It's true. Anyway, I bet this Hojo was a wimp, in any case," Inuyasha stated confidently. "Model citizen? Bah,"
"Whatever happened to him?" Mrs. Higurashi asked, tapping her chin. "You haven't brought him around the house in a long time, Kagome."
"I still hang out with him, we're still friends," Kagome said, regaining some of her composure.
"Gee Kagome, it's been ages since you've had a new boyfriend. It's like Hojo was the only guy who was ever interested in you," Sota pointed out innocently. Or not so innocently, since he was thirteen and new exactly what effect his statement would have on Kagome. He began to chortle loudly as Kagome jumped up from her seat and tried to crawl across the table to throttle her younger brother, murder in her eyes, only to be held back by a mildly amused looking Inuyasha.
"Careful, you'll ruin the food!" he warned.
"What do you know, Sota? You've never had a girlfriend in your life!" Kagome screamed. Why did he have to say that in front of Inuyasha? He probably thought she was some sort of prudish loser now.
"Have, too! I just don't tell you about them!" Sota argued.
"Yeah, well maybe I don't tell you about mine, either!" Kagome rejoined proudly.
"What, your girlfriends? Yeah, I bet you don't,"
Inuyasha snorted rice out of his nose at this, while Kagome attempted to bodily fling herself across the table again.
"I want more soup, please!" Shippou chirped sweetly, smiling up at Mrs. Higurashi.
"Of course, sweetie," she replied, patting his head, becoming selectively deaf to the carnage taking place at the other end of the table.
"Calm down, you crazy kids!" Grandpa Higurashi ordered, pelting his grandchildren with a succession of carrots.
OOOOOOOOO
"Sh, everyone be quiet," Sango ordered, slowly getting to her feet and peering around the large drawing room with narrowed gray eyes.
"What is it Sango?" Miroku asked. It was the first time he had addressed her in a long while – he and Professor Myoga had quickly fallen back into discussing properties of the Tetsusaiga Sango could not understand or bring herself to care about. But Kirara had gotten a nice tummy rub and Sango herself had indulged in Myoga's vast pantry of sweets while waiting for the two of them to calm down.
The operation had been a bit slow going so far, but now the demon hunter was sure she heard something. Like many twigs scratching the roof of Professor Myoga's house, two stories above the trio.
"I hear something... it's above us, possibly on the roof," she said aloud, mostly for Myoga's benefit. Miroku looked upwards and concentrated, before nodding in agreement.
"Yeah, I hear it, too... I'll go check it out. You and Kirara stay with Myoga."
"W-what do you think it is?" Myoga asked tremulously, shrinking behind a now transformed Kirara.
"I don't know, it could just be a bunch of squirrels... but something tells me that's wishful thinking," Sango said, her highly tuned senses all but screaming now as Miroku dashed up the stairs two at a time, a pistol loaded with purified bullets appearing in his hand. From beneath her dress Sango produced a blade that gleamed dangerously in the light. Myoga spotted it and swallowed.
Having reached the third and final floor, Miroku pushed open a window and gracefully swung onto the slanted roof of Myoga's home. Stealthily he crawled along the shingled top of the house, his eyes peeled for signs danger. He didn't need to look too far, or for too long.
Curled around the brick chimney that sprouted out of Myoga's roof was the largest, most sinister looking centipede demon Miroku had ever seen. Her pale purple body and pearly white, mostly human torso were twitching as she scanned the premises for a target, listening carefully. She had two extra sets of arms and her centipede body appeared to be made of some sort of hardened shell. When she heard Miroku approach from behind her head quickly whipped around, ad Miroku was presented with her classically beautiful features and long raven hair, accompanied by lifeless black eyes and razor sharp fangs.
"Myoga...?" she questioned in a voice that echoed oddly in the agent's head. He centered himself so that he wouldn't accidentally slide off of the roof and raised his gun slowly.
"No such luck," he admitted with a smirk. A shot rang out and the demon cried as a bullet pierced through one of her arms, purifying it and making the appendage disintegrate before the demon's horrified eyes.
"Stupid mortal! You will pay!" she hissed, lashing her tail out so that it made to whip Miroku across the face. He ducked in time and then leapt over her so that he got another shot in her insect body. She screamed terribly once more and then threw herself at Miroku.
She caught the man with a set of arms, making as to bite him with her terribly disfigured mouth. Miroku, panicked now that his hand with the gun was trapped in her surprisingly powerful grip, head butted her. Stunned, she dropped him to the ground, and before he could regain his bearings she let her tail forcibly shove him off the roof, clutching her head and moaning.
"That hurt!" she accused, even as Miroku fell three flights.
"Ah!" he yelled, managing to cling onto a window sill of the second floor, dangling precariously. He looked up in fright, only to see the centipede demon smiling at him from over the edge. With the back of her body still firmly attached to the chimney, she began to slide down the side of the house with a wide grin on her features, her arms outstretched as she tried to grab Miroku. At the prospect of having her strangle him while he hung from he house Miroku let go of the ledge and let himself fall the rest of the way down to the ground.
"Oh my God!" Sango gasped, watching the form of Miroku fly by the window behind old Myoga's head. She frowned deeply and then abruptly turned on her heal, heading for the front door.
"Don't LEAVE me! I'm the one the demon is after!" Myoga called after the woman's retreating form.
"Guard him, Kirara," Sango called back by way of an answer.
Outside, Miroku had fallen in one piece, although he felt he could have landed more gracefully. Massaging his ankle he watched darkly as the centipede demon fully lowered herself onto the ground, moving with unpredictable speed as she caught sight of her pray.
"Die!" she hissed, clicking her teeth. Miroku resisted the urge to recoil in disgust, choosing to spin kick her under the chin instead and then watching happily as her head whipped back in pain.
Of course, his brief gloating period was cut short when the centipede demon's tail found its way around his torso, lifting Miroku off the ground and squeezing him quite hard. Miroku gasped in pain and felt for his gun once more, only to discover that, due to a reflexive motion his hand made when the demon nearly broke both his arms, he had let the pistol drop from his fingers. Frowning to himself, he tried to figure out a new way to wiggle out of his precarious situation, while watching the demon cackle at him from the corner of his eye.
"You're mine now – I don't even care if you're not the target. I want to see you squirm!" the she-demon proclaimed cruelly.
'Figures this is how I'd go... strangled to death by a raging woman.' Miroku thought to himself hollowly.
"Miroku, duck!" Sango's voice rang like a symphony of benevolent angels in Miroku's head, a head that was quickly turning a disturbing shade of blue. He obediently flattened himself along the centipede's body, feeling the tell tail rush of wind that was the Hiraikotsu's entourage, as the large boomerang slashed its way through the demon.
There were some desperate gurgles, accompanied by a few fleshy rips that Miroku was glad he could not see from his current position. He knew what sort of damage Sango's infamous weapon of choice was capable of, and he didn't need to watch to know that the demon bounty hunter had just defeated the centipede woman for him.
Sure enough, the tail that had been on the verge of squishing all of Miroku's internal organs into putty abruptly slackened and the agent was able to roll to the ground, regaining his bearings and then tenderly turning to regard Sango with as much dignity as possible. Behind him the centipede demon had unceremoniously collapsed in a tangle of many limbs, her torso slashed asunder, her blood red mouth open in one last, eternal scream.
Sango lifted her arm up, casually plucking her boomerang she had retrieved from the car out of mid hair with an easy flick of the wrist. She swung it around until it came to rest on her back, dangling from two fingers with an ease Miroku knew belied the true weight of the Hiraikotsu. They made eye contact for a minute, Sango's steely gray eyes briefly showing a flash of the deepest concern, while Miroku's violet orbs indulged in a bit of earnest adoration. As soon as the two agents realized what sort of looks the other was giving them, they quickly changed their tunes. Sango's expression turned cold, and indifferent, while Miroku's became honestly surprised, and perhaps a bit confused.
"Are you all right?" Sango asked in possibly the least interested voice possible.
"Oh, I'm fine," Miroku replied gaily. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"You just fell two stories and were nearly crushed by a demon," Sango explained.
"Oh, right, that," Miroku replied, nodding his head gravely. "Don't worry about it." Sango stared at him flatly, affording him a disbelieving sort of look Miroku was all too familiar with, before purposefully marching over to him and then lightly tapping him on the ribs with no further warning.
"JESUS! What are you trying to do, kill me!" Miroku wheezed as he furiously backed away, turning green. Sango merely raised an eyebrow.
"Fine, fine," Miroku sighed, lowering his head. "I suppose I may have cracked a rib or two..."
"Or three or four, you big dolt. You're out of shape," Sango accused, real worry and annoyance seeping through her indifferent facade.
"And you're incredibly in shape. You've improved since you've been away..." Miroku admitted openly. Sango's cheeks colored slightly and she looked to the side.
"Well, doing nothing but hunting demons for three years on your own will do that to a person," she confessed.
"All alone, really?" Miroku asked, compensating for the distance Sango had created by edging closer to her. She didn't seem to notice, too disturbed by the penetrating look in her partner's eyes. "There was no one else that whole while..?" he pressed, almost urgently.
"No... I ... didn't feel very sociable, for a very long time," she said softly, and Miroku felt that he was watching the barriers fully come down around Sango for the first time since she arrived back. In his excitement, he didn't think over his next few words as carefully as he should have.
"That's a relief, actually. For a while, after you left, I used to lay awake despairing over the idea that maybe there was someone else. Maybe you had left me for another man, using vengeance as an excuse to escape the city, and me..." he confessed, almost jokingly, although there was truth behind his words. Sango stared at him wordlessly for a beat.
"Wait. You thought that directly after experiencing my whole clan's murder I decided it would be an opportune moment to find myself another boyfriend, cheat on you, and then run away into the night with him? You honestly thought I could do that?" she asked, her tone a tad shrill. Miroku looked at her hands that had been clenched into fists at her sides, and mentally gulped. Damn. Him and his big mouth, sometimes...
"No – no of course I didn't really think that. I mean, it wasn't what I thought at first. It's just that, I was really upset... and all of these ideas started making more and more sense once I was left alone to stew for long enough and -" he explained desperately, his voice uncharacteristically frightened.
"Can it, Miroku," Sango said, cutting him off with a brisk flick of her ponytail as she turned on her heal. "We've got a potential victim inside who needs confirmation that his assassin has been taken care of. I don't have time for this," Watching her sashay off with no further adieu made Miroku's blood begin to boil. Honestly. He was getting a bit tired of these outbursts from Sango – it wasn't as though HE was the one who had stopped calling. HE had never left her, HE wasn't the one who broke up their perfectly healthy relationship! So why was she treating him like he had contracted leprosy in her extended absence?
"Wait!" he called after her, jogging forward and ignoring his injuries long enough to grasp her arm firmly.
"Don't, you'll aggravate your ribs-!" Sango started, unable to conceal her concern despite herself.
"There you go again, confusing me!" Miroku growled, running a hand through his hair, and brushing away some sweat that had started to form on his brow. His torso really was aching profusely, but he could ignore it forever if only she would give him a straight answer. "One second it's like you're back to yourself again, worrying about me and being the fantastic partner I know you are – and then the next second you're bipolar Betty, ready to tear my head off! What's wrong? What have I done?"
"I'm not bipolar," Sango argued with a frown, trying to pull her arm away halfheartedly.
"Yes! You are! Why?"
"W-what does it matter anyway?" Sango finally asked in a voice heavily tinged with grief. Her soprano wobbled as she spoke, and her confident expression collapsed in on itself momentarily. "What do you care if I don't like you anymore? It's not as though you could have expected things to just go back to normal when I came back!"
"Well, actually, yes, I sort of was expecting that - seeing as how I've done nothing but pine for you for the past few years," Miroku stated frankly. Sango looked momentarily taken a back, before she blinked the beginnings of tears away and forged onwards angrily, finally twisting her way out of her ex-boyfriend's needy grasp.
"Well it can't be like that! I'm not the same girl you used to love – too many things have changed. I've changed. When I look at you I don't see a lover, I see a cold memory that makes me think of my family, and everyone I care for who has died," she told him loudly, honestly. Too loudly, too honestly. It made Miroku's heart hurt to hear Sango say these things to him so harshly, but he knew from the undone look in her eye that this was how she honestly felt. This was what she hadn't wanted to show him.
"So unless you're in this for my body over my personality," she continued mercilessly.
"Of course not..." Miroku whispered.
" - Then just drop it. There's nothing here for you, Miroku," she confessed heatedly, gesturing to herself stiffly. "Nothing and no one. Sango is gone. Please, stop making this harder than it already is. I can hardly bear to be in the same city where I was raised with my family, I can't take you trying to bring the past to life for me as well,"
"So you never would have returned, had Kagura not decided to come back to her master?" Miroku asked, staring at his feet, his expression impossible for the severely frazzled Sango to read.
"Probably not. No,"
"I see..." he muttered as Sango turned and continued walking towards Myoga's house. She was furiously gnawing on her bottom lip, trying to regain her composure for the sake of the flea demon waiting inside, knowing full well that if she stopped she would hear Miroku's parting words and then there really would be no hope for her somewhat dry eyes.
"But you haven't changed Sango. The woman I love is still inside you somewhere, and I intend to draw her out, no matter how many times you tell me she's dead,"
OOOOOO
Perched atop a packing crate, Kagura let her fingers glide along the fine fabric of her fresh kimono, newly purchased after her last one had been soiled during a skirmish at the wolf clan's mansion. It was a deep purple that brought out the glow of her crimson eyes, and pouty lips. The wind witch seemed to vibrate color and energy, contrasting greatly against her gloomy surroundings. Tall ceilings, stripped walls, boarded up windows and a vast expanse of concrete floor, and boxes lined up everywhere.
This was why she had enjoyed her stint in Kyoto so much – Naraku had terrible taste in houses and he wasn't much for decorating. Kagura was a creature of comfort – pretty colors, comfortable beds and sheets, designer clothing.
'Not exactly the sorts of habits an acolyte of a supremely evil demon bent on taking over Japan should have...' she admitted, rolling her shoulders and listening to the ominous churning and gurgling sounds emanating from the large room, where demons discretely puttered about, working away. 'But it's not as though any of this was my choice...'
As Kagura thought of her wretched servitude to her master and creator, Naraku, said super demon approached her line of sight. Her back straightened and she sat at attention as he addressed her, his bottomless black eyes glinting even in the darkness.
"So, the Demon FBI proved to be too much for little Kagura to handle?" he asked, smirking up at the wind witch. Her eye twitched subtly, and she shook her head.
"There were many surprises I hadn't prepared myself for..." she explained. She had been avoiding this talk for days. Naraku, dressed in black slacks and a navy blue dress shirt, his wiry black hair a tumbled mass around his shoulders, leaned against a crate and waited to hear her explanation with deceptive patience.
"I was all right when it was just the Wolf prince, his lackeys and that green miko... but then I was interrupted by the half demon Inuyasha and his associates, Agent Miroku and the demon bounty hunter who has been trailing me for years..." she elucidated, pretending to look bored as she inspected her nails, while inside she was pulling at her hair and hoping that her punishment would be light.
"So? You've avoided Sango for a very long time, and Inuyasha is no competition against you, my creation..." Naraku purred, putting an emphasis on creation as though to remind Kagura once more just who she belonged to. Like she needed reminding.
"Well, ordinarily... but he was using that blade of his..."
"The Tetsusaiga?" Naraku's attention was piqued, and he stiffened slightly as he waited for Kagura to elaborate.
"Yes, I thought he was unable to use it... but it was fully transformed when he attacked me with the thing," she stated dryly. "I still have some scarring from it... I never have scars. And he ruined my best robes," she said this with a half pout, delicately peeling away a bit of fabric from her chest to observe the angry welt across her otherwise unblemished chest. Naraku merely raised an eyebrow, more concerned with the fact that the Tetsusaiga was now a factor in his war, and not Kagura's petty injuries and wardrobe dilemmas. Kimonos, why did she wear kimonos anyway?
"So, Inuyasha can finally use the Tetsusaiga... I'll have to see for myself just how well he wields it," Naraku murmured to himself.
"Oh, you can take it from me... he wields it just fine," Kagura chirped. Naraku ignored her, continuing to speak as though he was continuing an internal conversation, with Kagura as the unwilling audience.
"This is not a good development. We still need more pure blood for the shikon jewel... I still need more pure blood. The FBI is up to something, they've been popping up around too many targets too frequently. Just today the centipede woman was shot down at Myoga's house. Things are beginning to move quickly, and I can't afford mistakes like this..." he hissed, starting to pace agitatedly. Kagura winced, much as she really didn't care about Naraku's needs, the bastard had a tendency to make his problems, her problems.
"What are we going to do? Go out in full force? Lay siege to as many targets as possible with our current forces?" Kagura queried.
"No... I think it would be a better idea to get rid of some obstacles first. There are a few key players in this little game who have been standing out lately, and I'd say its time we got rid of them. After that the rest will be cake," Naraku explained darkly. Kagura nodded, instantly understanding who he was talking about.
"It's that miko – you don't like her," she said blandly. Naraku scowled, folding his arms across his muscled chest.
"It's not a matter of liking or not liking. A miko could be a very dangerous thing for us right now. Our plan depends on having anyone like her dead."
"But we've tried..." Kagura reminded him, thinking of Yura and the old spider demon. Those ones had been no push overs, and yet they had somehow been destroyed by the odd, very lucky girl.
"Then we'll just have to try harder, won't we?" Naraku said, a broad smile stretching out across his pasty face. Naraku's features were so pale his lips seemed to almost blend into his features sometimes, a trait Kagura found particularly unattractive and reminiscent of a dead person.
"You have a plan," she stated for him.
"Perhaps. Your elder sister hasn't been seeing a lot of action lately..."
OOOOOO
By the time Kagome was finally able to extract herself and her party from the Higurashi shrine it was past eleven. The downside to this was that she was utterly exhausted and could hardly keep her eyes open driving home, but the perk was that she got to watch Inuyasha carry a practically comatose Shippou everywhere, which was too adorable for words.
Once inside her apartment, Kagome quickly drew down the sheets to Shippou's pull out bed, making room for Inuyasha to gently lay the young demon down. Shippou wrinkled his nose at the loss of contact, before Kagome drew the covers over him once more and he made a little contented murmur before rolling onto his stomach and beginning to softly snore. Kagome stood over him for a minute, a compulsive smile tugging at her lips. Her maternal instincts were being stretched to the maximum, and she had the sudden urge to lay by Shippou and stroke his curly hair all night.
Shaking her head, she turned away and found her partner at the kitchen counter, indulging in a bag of potato chips with a bored expression on his features. Kagome shook her head wryly and approached him.
"Eating again? Didn't you just have a full meal and desert?" she pointed out as she hopped onto a stool next to him, keeping her voice low for Shippou's benefit.
"So what? A hanyou like myself can eat much more than a puny human. Besides, it wasn't as though I was doing a lot of eating at dinner tonight. I was too busy laughing," he admitted with a cruel smirk. "What was the name of your ex again? Hobo?" Kagome scowled darkly as Inuyasha cackled at her, smacking his shoulder with what she deemed as quite a bit of force, and Inuyasha registered as a light tap.
"Shut up. I can't help it that my family's crazy!" she griped.
"Your family? Don't leave yourself out of this, babe. You're just as wacko as the rest of them,"
"Oh, God, it wasn't that bad was it?" Kagome asked, real worry seeping onto her features. "I know my family's a little... odd ball-ish. But... it wasn't so horrible, yes?" Reacting to the bald-faced worry on her face, Inuyasha soberly put down the bag of chips and quickly thought up something placating to say. He hadn't realized that Kagome had actually been concerned about his opinion. Deep down he really didn't like to upset the girl at all, and yet he had a terrible tendency to do so. But he didn't want to make her feel bad about this.
"I didn't mean anything like that ..." he started out, awkwardly. "I mean, I've never really been around a real family like that before. It was... interesting. A group of people with not much in common except for the fact that you all love each other unconditionally. It was... really cool," he admitted so softly Kagome thought she must have misheard him. Inuyasha was actually saying something unbelievably sweet. Whoa.
"Geez, now you're making us sound like we're the perfect family or something," Kagome laughed almost awkwardly, unprepared for the abrupt turnaround in her hypothesis of how Inuyasha viewed her and her relations. To cut through the tension now lingering between herself and the silver haired man she popped a potato chip into her mouth and began crunching away loudly before posing another question. "What about your family though? I mean, you had parents too, even if they're not alive any more... and a brother, Sesshomaru,"
"Kagome, you've seen Sesshomaru. You know he is evil," Inuyasha stated flatly.
"Okay, yes, maybe so... but was he always like that?" she asked, unable to believe that even the cold hearted Sesshomaru could have been as inherently callous as he was now when he was a child.
"Yes," Inuyasha replied in a matter of fact way. "He was much older by the time I was born, and already had all of the prejudices of humans that demons of his rank often harbor working against me. Especially considering my mother replaced his as our father's wife,"
"Wait... he was older? But he looks so young now... how old is he really?" Kagome asked, trying to wipe away Inuyasha's uncharacteristically down trodden look with some lighter banter, while still picking up as much information as she could without scaring him away.
"Kagome, I've told you. Demons don't age the same way humans do. Sesshomaru is a couple centuries old..."
"...Oh, right. Well, I guess you'll be aging pretty well yourself!" she pointed out gaily.
"Yeah, lucky me," he sighed, as though suddenly the prospect of living for practically forever was quite an unappealing idea indeed. Kagome watched him cautiously, twiddling her thumbs and wondering what to do to get him out of his funk. She was sure he was in no mood to go lay down with Shippou on the pullout bed. She herself wasn't particularly tired anymore, even though it was getting to be quite late, and she and Inuyasha had God-knows-what to do early tomorrow. At times like this, there was only one thing to do in order to obtain unconsciousness.
"Hey, do you want to watch some T.V?" Kagome asked abruptly. Inuyasha raised a dark eyebrow.
"Won't it wake up Shippou?" he asked, although the concept obviously sat well with him. He didn't want to spend his time brooding about depressing topics almost as much as Kagome didn't want to watch him brood.
"Not if we watch in my room we won't," she explained, getting up and taking him by the hand. "Come on – we'll watch the discovery channel or something and go right to sleep. We need all of our rest tonight,"
"In ... your room?" Inuyasha repeated, just to make sure he was hearing things correctly. Kagome nodded shortly, turning her head away as she led Inuyasha to her door before she lost her nerve. She had never intended to bring him in here, it felt like a very taboo thing to do with your partner... but... it all seemed really right just then.
"Yeah, I mean, we're only watching some television."
"Okay," Inuyasha replied easily, a small smile forming on his face as he stepped into Kagome's room for the first time since he had all but wrenched her out of bed that first night, dragging her along on a dangerous mission to the demon run apartment where they had met Shippou, and Naraku...
Kagome's bed was queen sized, and adorned in light yellow sheets with pouffy white pillows Inuyasha fantasized about resting his head on. The air smelled vaguely of girly perfume and something else entirely Kagome. There were pictures covering her walls of friends and family, most of them happy ones with many people smiling, waving and giving 'V' signs. Inuyasha felt automatically relaxed the second he entered the small space, plopping down onto her bed while Kagome herself went to switch on her T.V that looked as though it had been purchased some time during the late eighties.
It was as though he had been wrapped in a protective blanket made of all things Kagome, his finely tuned senses singing happily to themselves when she took a seat next to him, glancing at the hanyou shyly while a deep voice on the television droned on about the migrating patterns of Canadian geese. He felt so lackadaisical in fact, that he might have fallen asleep then and there had the prospect of staying awake with one very nervous looking Kagome not seemed quite so appealing.
So instead he casually wrapped an arm around the smaller woman, resting against her headboard and pulling her form closer to his, ignoring the three inches of designated space Kagome had originally given them. Without a care for her personal bubble he nudged her so that her head fell against his chest, stroking her hair lightly to relax her when he felt her form go stiff against him. He had never done anything like this before, never dared to be so tender with anyone, but with Kagome it seemed as though she deserved nothing less.
For her part Kagome was struggling to keep her blush from taking over her entire body, shocked beyond words that Inuyasha would be so caring with her. She had always thought... always assumed... that any affection or attraction she may have felt was purely one sided because the hanyou was far too insensitive to ever really ... do ... anything...
And when he began stroking her long raven locks it became very hard to think of anything at all, and her eyelids gained at least ten pounds. As she began to drift off, the glowing television screen becoming darker and darker, she swore she felt Inuyasha gather her body closer to his until he was practically embracing her, his breath steady against her cheek. Kagome would have said something, but he smelled nice and she honestly didn't mind being coddled, at all.
They drifted off this way, Inuyasha wrapping his strong arms around Kagome's entire form so that she was cradled close to him, nuzzling her face into his neck while he relished the feel of her pressed up against him – feeling her curves for the first time when they weren't in some sort of life threatening situation.
Neither stopped to consider the utter improbability, saneness, or reason behind their actions. It was as though this was the most natural thing they had ever done, and everything else had just been a pretense for the benefit of those around them and the sake of going through the motions. This was where they were supposed to be, all along.
OOOOOOOOO
Author's Notes:
It's occurred to me that considering how long I took to update, this was a poor choice in chapter to make you all wait for. Nothing really exciting happens... it was just sort of a necessary chapter to develop character relationships and thicken the plot. I guess the bit of fluff at the end was nice... I mean, finally, right?
Anyway, if I have any say at all in it there will be at least one more chapter coming out before the end of August. I've been trying really hard to push through any writer's block and just freaking write, because there are still lots of cool parts I want to get to, and I would even love to finish this monster. It's just that I wrote out the whole outline and it was so scary and daunting, I think it stunned me into paralysis.
Thank you everyone for sticking with me, especially those who came around for seconds and thirds in the reviewing department. It really honestly helped. I know I have no right asking for more reviews, considering everyone who is reading this chapter has probably earned this installment ten times over - but hell, I want them anyway.
This chapter was really long, so I hope that compensated for its lack of action. You'll all hear from me again soon, with any luck, but have a great summer until then.
Xoxo
Rio Grande.