Inu-Yasha
A Feudal Fairy Tale
Disclaimer: This episode of Inu-Yasha is of my own
creation. I do not own any portion of Inu-Yasha.
"Inu-Yasha" and all related characters,
names, etc. are ©1998-2003 Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan,
Inc. Inu-Yasha is a trademark of Viz
Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
A Change of Heart
Scroll Five:
Memories
Kagome sighs deeply, as she has been doing a lot of lately. She has been
wondering if her feelings for the ookami youkai Koga are genuine or if they are something she made
up to replace the deep love she had for Inu-Yasha,
who she believed would never truly love her as she loved him. She remembers
well the day she choose to be with Koga and be his
mate...
______
Nearly two weeks ago: Inu-Yasha, Kagome and the rest
of the group are wandering around searching for shards of the Shikon Jewel. All in all, it has been a pretty normal day.
Kagome and the hanyou have gotten into their normal
daily spat, ending with him being 'sat' into the ground and mumbling curses
about worthless wenches. Normally the young woman from the future would just
ignore his mumblings, but just recently she realized how much she actually
loves Inu-Yasha and it hurts her deeply when he calls
her names or questions her usefulness.
Subconsciously, she reaches up and touches the two small Shikon
shards around her neck. After Kikyo stole the large
one she was wearing, they went hunting for more so, at least, Kagome could go
back to her time when she needed to. They had just recently found two in the
head of a large hebi youkai
that Inu-Yasha and Sango
had slain. Amazingly, the inu hanyou
took the shards and gave them to Kagome without question. She was beginning to
feel a little bit of hope that perhaps Inu-Yasha did
fully trust her and, hopefully, did harbor some feelings for her stronger than
just friendship.
Later into that evening, Inu-Yasha, Miroku and Shippô are sitting
around the campfire next to Kaede's hut while Kagome
and Sango are bathing in the nearby hot spring. Since
they were near the old miko's village they decided to
stay there for the night. Inu-Yasha reluctantly
agreed after seeing the pleading look in Kagome's eyes. Kaede
is currently sleeping inside of her hut.
Kirara is standing guard for Sango
and Kagome at the hot spring, mainly keeping her eyes and ears open for a
certain lecherous houshi that always manages to peek
in on them. "So Kagome," the taijiya
begins, "what's going on with you and Inu-Yasha?"
She smiles as the young woman from the future blushes, as she always does when
talking about the hanyou.
"N...Nothing! We...we're just friends Sango. Why do you want to know?" She sinks down a bit
into the warm water, not exactly wanting to talk about Inu-
Yasha at this moment, knowing full well where Sango is trying to lead the conversation.
The young taijiya's smile suddenly becomes very sly.
"You know what I want to know Kagome. I see the way you look at him when
he's not looking at you. You're in love with him and you know it!"
Kagome sinks down even further in the water until just her forehead isn't
submerged. A bunch of bubbles surface in front of her. She comes back up,
blushing even more than when she just submerged herself.
"What was that?" Sango questions, her smile
becoming even slyer, almost Mirokuish. "I
couldn't hear you."
"I...I said that I l...I lo...IloveInu-Yasha!"
she blurts out quickly, going even redder, her face a darker shade of red than Inu-Yasha's haori.
"There you go," the taijiya giggles,
"you admitted it. Now do you feel better?"
Kagome sighs deeply. "Yeah, I guess I do." She suddenly looks
worried. "Do you...do you think that Inu-Yasha
feels the same for me?"
"I think so," Sango smiles, putting a
comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "I see how hard he tries to
protect you all the time and the look in his eyes when you come back from your
time. Yep, he really cares for you, it's just that his
hanyou skull is too thick for him to admit anything.
I know he would probably kill me for saying this, but I think that Inu-Yasha would be a wreck without you around."
"You really think so?" Kagome asks, a
glitter of hope in her blue-gray eyes.
"Yeah," her friend confidently responds.
______
Meanwhile at the campsite, Inu-Yasha
and Miroku are deep into conversation. Normally the hanyou doesn't like talking to the houshi
since his conversations usually steer towards the women who are bathing, but
because he doesn't want him to peek on his Kagome, he takes his punishment.
"So Inu- Yasha," Miroku begins, his eyes closed and his head bowed slightly,
"I have been wondering for quite some time about the relationship between
you and Lady Kagome."
"What are you talking about bouzu?" the inu hanyou growls out.
"I think Miroku's wondering how much you care
about Kagome," the small kitsune adds in. He
squeals out in pain as a large clawed fist collides with the top of his head.
"I wasn't talking to you brat!" Inu-Yasha huffs.
He is about to konk him on the head again when Miroku whacks him on the head with his staff. "You
should not be angry with Shippô Inu-Yasha
since he translated what I was trying to ask you."
The hanyou crosses his arms and turns his head to the
side, a small lump forming on the top of his head where Miroku's
staff hit him. "Feh, why are
you so interested in my feelings?" He mentally curses himself after
he finishes his question. 'Oh great! Why did I just
say that?' his mind screams out in anger.
A smile makes its way across the houshi's face.
"So you admit that you harbor some feelings for Lady Kagome?"
Shipp's ears twitch slightly as he hears something coming near. He sniffs the
air and smells Kagome. Inu-Yasha is so bent up in his
conversation with Miroku that he doesn't notice
anything out of the ordinary. 'Good,' the kitsune
thinks, 'maybe he'll admit something and he and Kagome can finally get together
or something!'
"I don't know what you're babbling about bouzu!"
Inu-Yasha spits out. Shipp's smile fades a bit,
fearing what the hanyou in front of him is about to
say. "Kagome is nothing more than a bother, always getting in the way. If
I didn't have to spend all of my time protecting her, we'd probably have more
shards!"
The kitsune slaps himself on
the forehead, thinking, 'baka!'
"You and I both know that is not true Inu-Yasha,"
Miroku calmly responds. "If it were not for Lady
Kagome, then we would have a much more difficult time in finding shards of the
sacred Shikon Jewel. Besides, do you not remember the
last time we faced off with Naraku? If were not for
her and her mystic arrows, we all would have surely perished in Naraku's noxious vapors."
"Alright," the hanyou sighs, "so she
has some uses. Is that supposed to mean that I care for her or something? Because I don't!"
Inu-Yasha and Miroku are so
involved in the conversation that they don't hear the sounds of a young woman
running away nearby in tears, but the small kitsune
does. 'He did it again, he drove her away' he thinks sadly to himself.
The hanyou and the houshi
stare at each other for several moments. Inu- Yasha suddenly sighs very deeply, giving up under Miroku's scrutinizing gaze. "Okay, so maybe I do care
for her a bit, just don't tell anybody alright? That goes double for you Shippô!" he finishes in a growl.
The youkai child face faults. 'If only she stayed for
just a little longer! Kami, Inu-Yasha
is such a baka!'
Just at that moment, Sango appears from the brush to
their left with her little neko pet Kirara on her shoulder. "Ah, that was
refreshing!" she happily states while stretching slightly, oblivious to
the look Miroku is currently giving her. The taijiya looks around the campsite and frowns slightly.
"Hey, where's Kagome? She left the springs a little before me. She should
have already gotten back."
The inu hanyou's blood runs
cold as he realizes that Kagome was probably spying on them and most likely
heard some of the things that he said about her, both the bad and the good. He
stands up and proclaims, "I'll go and find her."
He takes a few steps out when Miroku and Shippô walk in front of him, stopping the hanyou. "I think it would be wise if you were to leave
Lady Kagome alone for the moment," the houshi
calmly states. "You do not need to upset her even more and I believe she
most likely will be going down the well to her own time even though she left
her large yellow bag here."
"Yeah," the kitsune adds in, "so just
don't follow her and let her cool down for the night, okay?"
Sango and Kirara watch them
with confused expressions on their faces. "I wonder what happened,"
she mutters to herself. "Inu-Yasha probably said
something stupid again." The tiny fire neko mews
lightly to her.
Inu-Yasha's left eye twitches in annoyance, but he
knows that the two are right. He grumpily sits back down. He'll just have to
apologize for what he said tomorrow...when nobody else is around.
______
Kagome is running as fast as she can to the well. The tears that are pouring
down her face sting her eyes. 'I...I thought he cared for me...but I was
wrong,' she thinks sadly to herself. 'I...I have to go home. I can't stay here
tonight with him around. It just hurts too much.' She is so engrossed in her
thoughts and running towards the well that she doesn't notice the figure she is
about to run into. She only comes too when she does collide with the person and
fall backwards onto the soft ground.
"K...Kagome?" a deep voice asks. "Is that you?"
The young woman looks up and is mildly surprised to see the ookami
youkai Koga standing before her. Without thinking,
she jumps up into his arms and begins to sob onto his chest.
The ookami is shocked at Kagome's sudden change in
behavior. He is used to his woman always being cheerful and easygoing. Seeing
her like this is quickly making him uncomfortable. He saw the sorrow in her
eyes and both saw and smelt the tears that were spilling from her. He awkwardly
wraps his arms around her. "What's wrong Kagome? What has bothered you so
much?"
Between her ragged breaths, she chokes out, "Inu...Yasha."
"What has that inu-kkoro done to you?" he
growls out. "If he hurt you, I'll make him pay! Nobody messes with my
woman!"
Despite him stating that she's his woman again, the youkai
actually said something somewhat sweet to her. She leans up and gives him a
small kiss on his cheek as a way of saying thanks for being so kind to her and
helping to comfort her...sort of.
Koga, as usual, mistakes her thanking him as a term of affection and he smiles
widely. "Oh Kagome!" he happily begins,
"I just knew that you actually cared for me!" he leans down and
kisses the surprised young woman fully on her lips.
'He...he's kissing me!' her mind screams to her. 'My first
kiss! But...but I wanted it to be with Inu-Yasha...but he doesn't care for me...and this does feel
really good. Maybe, just maybe...' her mind trails off as she begins to
kiss the ookami back, who growls in response and
pulls her closer to him.
Over the next two weeks, Kagome would constantly sneak off to meet up with
Koga. She began to feel like she was falling in love with him and, a few days
ago, allowed him to mark her and they mated, though she will not get pregnant
from it since 'she wasn't in heat,' according to the youkai.
She felt...happy.
______
Just recently though, Kagome began to realize that she might not care about
Koga as much as she thinks and that the feelings she has for Inu-Yasha are still as strong as ever, possibly even
stronger than before. He did apologize to her in private for what he had said
about her, though she was still upset at him at the time and was still shocked
about what happened with her and the ookami so she
didn't pay attention to what he was saying.
Now the hanyou she still loves has run off with Kikyo and Kagome is pretty sure that she was the one who
tossed him into the miko's arms for being with Koga.
And here she is, marked and mated with someone who she isn't so sure of her
true feelings for.
Her deep thoughts are interrupted by a sudden strong gust of wind that knocks
everybody off of their feet. They hear the laughter of a young woman and look
up to see Kagura standing on a thick branch of a tree
in front of them. She waves her large fan and another strong gust of wind hits
them, this time sending the group several feet back. "So it's true,"
she lazily states. "That incompetent half-breed Inu-Yasha
has indeed abandoned your little group."
Kagome's lower lip trembles slightly in hearing the hanyou's
name. "What do you want?" she shouts out.
"It's not what I want," Kagura begins,
"it's what he wants." She moves to the side to reveal a figure
sitting behind her in a white baboon pelt.
"Naraku!" everyone below him hisses.
"Kukuku," the youkai
chuckles in his deep evil voice, "Well now...isn't this interesting?"
To be continued...
______
Translations (in order of appearance):
Bouzu: An insulting name for a monk
Kami: God
______
Author's notes: Sorry for not updating sooner, I had a tiny case of writer's
block (You do get it a lot when writing like three or four stories at the same
time). I wanted to sort of explain how Kagome ended up with Kouga.
It all was just an unfortunate series of bad timings for the poor girl from the
future. This way, not all the blame can be put on her.
Oh yeah, I just watched another episode of Inu-Yasha
on Adult Swim last night and I must say that I am getting very disappointed in
how they make Kikyo out to look so evil. She never
said or did such evil things to Kagome in the manga
in that part (I should know since I was reading through it while watching the
episode). Okay, so maybe Kikyo did sorta drop Kagome over that giant chasm, but she never fell
in and landed on the edge just before Inu-Yasha came
to save her. Ugh, Kikyo is not evil! -- lighthawkdemon
Questions or comments? E-mail me at: lighthawkdemon@yahoo.com