A/N: Hello everyone; I present to you; chapter 3! Yay! Well, maybe in this chapter something interesting will finally happen, because so far it's only been talk, talk, talk…yawn. Me thinks it's time for a little action, no? Thank you again to all of my loyal reviewers. I have to tell you that I wrote a lot of this chapter during my rush to finish 4 (yes, count 'em up: 1,2,3,4!) projects. I probably should have been working on my projects, but they were too boring. So if I fail my projects, it is due to my writing obsession…and short attention span… O.O Ooooh, a butterfly!
Disclaimer: Oh, how I long to own that lovable hanyou…but I don't, damn it… (
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Kaede said nothing while InuYasha spoke. If she had any questions as to why InuYasha had used the jewel to become human, she kept them to herself. Kagome had to give the elderly woman credit for that. Not once did she ask InuYasha why he had used the jewel for such a transformation. She seemed to know that InuYasha would not want to explain why he had used the jewel to become human.
The priestess sat quietly, mulling over the information InuYasha had given her. No one made a sound, and all eyes were concentrated in Kaede's direction. When Kaede made a small noise to clear her throat, InuYasha jumped about a foot. The air was tense. Everyone knew that Kaede was InuYasha's only hope.
"…I do not have a clue as to how ye will be able to change back, InuYasha." Kaede finally admitted. InuYasha looked crestfallen. Kagome patted him on the back sympathetically. Miroku sent him a concerned look, and Sango stared blankly at the floor. Outside the group could hear Shippo and Kohaku playing with the village children, blissfully ignorant to the desperate situation inside the hut.
"However," the priestess continued, "I know of someone who could help."
InuYasha's eyes lit up. He looked expectantly towards the woman. Kagome smiled. She always knew she could count on Kaede!
"On a mountain far to the south of here, there lives an enchantress of incredible power. Her powers lay in mind control and body altering. She is known as the Black Witch Tsuichikara. Usually I don't condone her type of dark sorcery, but for this sort of case, I don't think there is any other option. The journey south will be a perilous undertaking, but if anyone can manage it, it is ye."
"Kohaku…" Sango started.
"The boy is welcome to stay here with me, if that suits ye. I'm sure I could find some work for him to do around the village. My herb garden does need a good weeding…" Sango nodded her agreement. "Then it's settled. Tomorrow the five of ye will depart for the south. I'm assuming Shippo is going too?"
"No," InuYasha said quietly.
"Shippo is not going? I don't think he'll be very happy to hear that…"
"I mean no, the five of us will not be going. I'm going alone." InuYasha said firmly. "It's pointless to put you all in danger," he continued, looking at Kagome, Sango and Miroku. "It's my fault that I'm like this, so I'm going to fix it."
"No," Kagome responded, just as firmly. "We're a team. Friends stick together, no matter what! We can't even begin to repay you for what you've done for us. I'm going with you!" She finished passionately.
"As am I," Miroku said, resting his hand on Kagome's shoulder to show his support. "Kagome isn't the only one who is in your debt."
"I'm going too. I can't imagine where Kohaku and I would be without you, InuYasha." Sango said, remembering a time long ago when Naraku had tricked her into doing his bidding. He had convinced her that InuYasha was the evil one. In her confusion and utter grief she had believed him, and she regretted it everyday.
"No! I'm not putting…"
"InuYasha for once in your life will you just shut up and let us help you!" Kagome cut him of before he could object. InuYasha was so stunned at Kagome's out burst that he couldn't find the words to reply. Kagome smiled satisfied. "It's settled then. We're all going: the five of us. And Kirara of coarse!" she said, scratching the small cat demon on Sango's lap under the chin. InuYasha frowned, his delicate brows causing deep creases in his forehead, but he said nothing. He was tired of being a woman, to tired even to argue.
"Then ye should depart as soon as possible. It will do ye no good to dally here. But be warned; the Witch Tsuichikara will not work for free. It is rumoured that she treasures gold above all else. I am sure she will work if you persuade her with something valuable. But I cannot be certain. I apologize that I have no riches in my humble possession."
"You have done more than enough for us already, Lady Kaede." Miroku said with an appreciative smile. "Really, InuYasha," the monk started, rapping the hanyou-turned-woman over the head, teasing. "You must have been very good in your past lives to have friends like us! Thank Lady Kaede properly!"
"Thanks," InuYasha mumbled. He truly was grateful, but he didn't appreciate the monk telling him what to do.
"We should leave tomorrow," Kagome said decisively.
"What," a stunned InuYasha regarded Kagome with a confused and slightly annoyed expression. "Why not now?"
"Because," Kagome said meekly, "I need to make a quick trip home first." The girl prepared to receive the worst, and she got it.
"Like hell!" InuYasha retorted, jumping up. "We aren't waiting for you while you travel through the well! We're leaving NOW, and you're coming too!" The former hanyou walked over and stood, blocking the door.
Kagome sighed. She stood up, shouldering her signature backpack, and walked over to the false woman.
"InuYasha, sit." She said passively. InuYasha yelped as the floor of the hut came rushing up to greet him. Kagome stepped over his paralyzed body. "I'll be really quick!" she called over her shoulder, before taking off at a run. She needed a good head start on InuYasha, who would surely follow her in an attempt to stop her. Though in his new human female body he and Kagome were closely matched in size and strength, he had the advantage of utmost determination to stop her from leaving.
It was completely unfair! InuYasha was always trying to stop her from going home, and without the aid of the beads of subjugation, he would have stopped Kagome many a time. Once again Kagome silently thanked the great wisdom of Kaede. The woman was mystically insightful.
Kagome reached the aging wood of the Bone-eater's well. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder. There wasn't a person in sight. She smiled in satisfaction before leaping into the well. She expected the well to reject her. She didn't have the jewel shards anymore after all. But it didn't. Kagome had never understood the ways of the well, and she was not about to question its strange logic now.
Once on the other side, Kagome found and ascended the ladder she had placed in the well. She exited the familiar shrine, dashing headlong towards the house she shared with her mother, brother, and grandfather. Hastily she threw open the sliding glass doors that led to the kitchen, kicked off her shoes in exchange for slippers, threw her backpack to the floor, and shouted; "I'm home!"
Her grandfather poked his head into the kitchen form the hallway.
"Why, Kagome! You haven't visited in ages!" Kagome closed her eyes to suppress her aggravation.
"I live here, grandpa, I don't visit."
"I know that," her grandfather spoke with a merry tone, "but it's hard to believe that, with you spending more time in the feudal era than here."
"Trust me, I would come here more often if I could." Kagome assured him.
"Was that Kagome's voice I heard?" A familiar voice called from down the hall, followed by the echo of footsteps. Kagome's mother walked into the kitchen. The woman quickly rushed to embrace her daughter. "Oh Kagome, how wonderful to see you! How is InuYasha?" It was impossible for Kagome to answer, because her face was clutched to her mother's bosom. She gently pushed her mother away.
"InuYasha's fine, but he'll be pretty angry if I don't hurry back."
"You can't stay?" Kagome's mom asked, and Kagome shook her head.
"I have to get back quickly, we're about to set off for a very…important mission. I just came to let you know that I'm safe, and that I won't be back again for a while."
Kagome's mother smiled.
"I know that you're safe. InuYasha is a wonderful protector." Kagome blushed. She couldn't tell her mother, but she didn't think InuYasha would be much of a protector in his current state.
"I'll just be a minute, I need to get some things from my room." Kagome headed down the hall and up a flight of stairs. Her room was exactly as she had left it, but she could tell her mother had taken great care in keeping it dusted. A wave of gratitude fell over Kagome. Her mother took such care to make sure Kagome was comfortable during the few times she returned home.
She found the key in the corner of her drawer, where she always left it. Kagome looked for the locked white box that sat on her dresser. She put the key in the keyhole, and turned it gently. She opened the box, hearing its familiar tune as it played her song. No, not her song, her father's song. Tears began to well up in her eyes as they always did. The music box had been the last gift her father had given her, before he had passed away.
Inside the box she kept her most precious mementoes. A lock of hair from her first hair cut. Her first tooth. A Get Well card from her family, given to her in the hospital when she had had her appendix removed. A pressed flower from her father's funeral; an aged picture of her family, her grandfather, herself, her father and her mother, who was holding a baby Sota in her arms. They were standing in front of the Goshinboku tree. It was the last picture they had taken as a family. A few of the more recent items added included a picture of herself and InuYasha, a hairpin given to her on her fifteenth birthday, and a math test that had received an A, which was put in before her excursions down the well. But the item she was searching for was the one buried deepest in the box. She withdrew the gold locket, given to her by her father at her birth. Inscribe on it were the hiragana for her name, Kagome, and the Kanji symbol for love, ai.
Kagome remembered her father well. He had been a tall man with broad shoulders, but he was never overpowering or intimidating in any way. He always had kept his black hair slicked back, except for the few stray hairs that always escaped the hold of his hair gel. His usual attire included dress pants and a tie, but somehow by the end of the day his clothes were always in disarray. He wasn't careless, he just seemed to attract accidents. A coffee stain on his pants, a small rip in his shirt, and then there was the accident. The one that in the end had claimed his life. Tears poured down Kagome's cheeks as she was reminded of her beloved father.
"What are you crying about now!" A harsh yet familiar voice came from her windowsill, snapping Kagome out of her reverie. Kagome hastily slammed the lid of the white box shut and the soft melody stopped abruptly. She wiped the tears from her eyes and turned on InuYasha, who was perched precariously on the windowsill.
"How did you get up here?" she asked, with genuine curiosity. She fastened the locket around her neck for safekeeping. InuYasha wobbled unsteadily, and fell into her room.
"It wasn't easy." He admitted, a tiny frown upon his delicate face. He stood up and walked over to her doorway. "Are you ready to leave yet?" If InuYasha cared at all that she had been crying, he made no acknowledgement.
"Yes, let's get going." She brushed past InuYasha and proceeded down the stairs into the kitchen. InuYasha was on her heels.
"Oh, Kagome, I didn't know you were having guests!" Her mother said, looking with confusion at the strange girl who had just followed Kagome into the kitchen. "I didn't here anyone at the door…"
"InuYasha has never felt the need to use the door, though, has he?" Kagome cut straight to the point, feeling no need to beat around the bush with her mother. Her mother gaped, and her mouth opened and closed, the words not coming. Kagome sighed impatiently. "Yes, InuYasha accidentally turned into a woman and now we have to travel to the far south to negotiate a deal with an evil witch who has a lust for gold but will hopefully be able to change InuYasha back to normal." Kagome finished, all in one breath. If Kagome's explanation had enlightened her at all, the realization did not show on Kagome's mother's face. Kagome hated to brush her mother aside, but she really had to leave. She could see the impatience beginning to show in InuYasha's stance, his womanly hip jutting out in a subconscious gesture of annoyance. "I'm really sorry, Mom, but I have to go!"
Her mother smiled, still utterly confused, but determined not to let the worry show on her face.
"Hurry back dear. And good luck!" She held out the overstuffed backpack to her daughter, and watched as Kagome grabbed the bag, shoved on her shoes and ran out the door, a quick farewell wave over her shoulder. The strange girl in the red haori followed her casually. Kagome's mother sighed. In her time in the feudal era, Kagome had become a woman. Her mother wondered when she would ever see her daughter again. The period of time between Kagome's visits was becoming increasingly longer.
Kagome jogged towards the well, InuYasha trailing her.
"Kagome!" Kagome stopped at the sound of her grandfather calling her name. InuYasha, unable to stop in time, crashed into her, knocking them both down.
"Stupid human feet, got no damn traction…" Kagome heard InuYasha mumble from on top of her.
"Oh, hello," Kagome's grandfather walked over to them from a storage shed, greeting InuYasha with little acknowledgement. "Kagome, I have some things here that may help you on your journey." He held up something that looked oddly like a human heart. "This is the mummified remains of a…"
"Sorry gramps," Kagome interrupted, disentangling herself from InuYasha. "I really have to go!" Without another backwards glance, Kagome dashed towards the well. With a deep breath, she jumped in, InuYasha following right behind her.
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Sango and Miroku waited patiently by the well for the return of Kagome and InuYasha. Shippo was running around, giving chase to Kirara.
"You know Miroku, if we are going to get married, you need to stop having such a perverted mind!" Sango chided, speaking for the first time of the marriage to come.
"Lady Sango, you wound me! I have thoughts only for you." Miroku grinned devilishly. "Unfortunately, my hands and mouth have a mind of their own…" The monk began to lovingly caress Sango's rear. She smacked him hard across the face.
"Something that we will have to change!" she assured him. About to say something more, the demon-slayer was distracted by the glow coming from the well.
"Ah, Lady Kagome and InuYasha return!"
Two female figures appeared in the glowing light that emanated from the well.
"Alright, we're back, let's go!" InuYasha's voice sounded impatient. He and Kagome leapt from the light above the well.
"Welcome back," Sango greeted.
"Kagome!" Shippo bounded towards the girl and leapt onto her, clutching her neck in a fond embrace. The snap of a twig to the east drew all twelve eyes. They smelled the demon before they saw it. Even though four out of six of them did not have sensitive demon noses, they could smell the scent of rotting corpses and the coppery smell of blood that clung to the beast and filled the surrounding area like a miasma.
"Fresh meat!" a long, snake-like demon emerged, hissing.
"Eeewww!" Kagome squealed. The demon was a repulsing mound of dieing black flesh, with a yellow-green puss oozing from places on its body. The demon lunged at Kagome, fangs bared. InuYasha jumped into its path and the demon's fangs ripped an enormous gash down InuYasha's haori, leaving his very full breasts completely exposed. A dazed look of pleasure came over Miroku's face. Sango whacked him over the head with her hiraikotsu, rendering him unconscious.
"Don't turn gay on me, Miroku!" she yelled to his limp form. InuYasha lunged at the demon's tail end, withdrawing his useless tetsusaiga.
"I will protect Kagome!" He hacked futilely at the demon's tail with his dull and rusty blade, but was more of an annoyance to the demon than a threat. With a casual flick of its tail, the demon threw InuYasha against a tree, knocking him unconscious. Kagome sighed.
"I guess it's up to us, Sango!"
"Don't forget me!" Shippo reminded her, angrily.
Sango whistled for Kirara, who took full form.
"Let's do it!"
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A/N: Thank you for reading chapter 3! Please review and feed my vanity. All questions, comments, and critiques are greatly appreciated! I'm going to wait for at least 5 reviews before I even start to write chapter 4! Yes, that is a threat. Please review, because I really want to write more!
Midori