"How long have you been there?"
"Just got here." He smiled for a second and turned around, "C'mon, let's get going." Shippo and Sango looked at each other and shrugged. I whispered, "Shippo, I'm gonna go ahead…"
"Ok, it's been nice talking to you." I rushed up to join Inuyasha on his right. "So, you feeling better?"
"Well, I feel good after getting so much sleep." He kept his arms crossed as we walked.
"Well, since you slept in so late, maybe we can get some late night training in…" I had another thought, "I know you said that you didn't want to do any night training, but I figured… I might as well suggest it."
"I don't see why not."
"I'm sorry that I tried to make you… soft. I don't know what I did to you last night… I just don't think what I did was right if I almost put you in an almost sedated state."
"Well… I guess that's a case where I just got too much of a good thing." He grinned in a way that I hadn't seen in a while; it was his challenging grin. "When we get back, I'm not going easy on you. At least the untransformed Tetsusaiga isn't quite as sharp as it can be. It'll be the thing taking it easy on you."
"Race you back!" I suddenly felt like I had to take off. I got on all fours and zigzagged back and forth through the trees. A moment later, I saw a red blur going through the trees. I decided to crank it up and started doing black flips until I got to the campsite. I turned around and saw Inuyasha already standing there, smirking at me.
I started laughing, "I know, you think I'm an idiot…"
"Draw out your sword, stupid!" I quickly reached for it, a little thrown off by this sudden change. I blocked a hit from the Tetsusaiga. He starting coming at me and I could only block the swipes for the first minute or two. It took me a while to get things into perspective. I molded the idea into my head; right now, Inuyasha and I aren't friends.
I started that fire going in my heart and I started fighting back. After I kicked in the burners, we were going at it as the growing crescent moon rose into the sky. We kept going back and forth, but every 10-20 minutes, Inuyasha would throw a curveball and I kept up with it. After a few hours, I decided to flip right over his head and see if he could keep up with it. Then, he used his sword to knock off my balance. I ended up flat on my back. I then kicked the sword out of his hand and reached my own, pointing it at his throat. When he went to go for his sword, I flipped myself back on my feet, not caring that my foot was probably bleeding.
I inhaled, "So, how do I know when you want us to stop?"
"Let's see how far we can go; if either of us can get the other on the ground with their sword at their throat, that's when we stop." He laughed, "I'm not about to go easy. I'm giving it my all!"
"I can tell." We continued going back and forth as the moon rose higher into the sky. The rage I kept lightly burning was keeping me awake and I wasn't the least bit tired. Inuyasha kept pouring it on and I had to match that step for step. A few minutes later, he commented, "Next time spare me the trickery. Doing back flips don't always work to your advantage."
"Figured it was worth a shot…"
"Let's take this downhill a bit, make things more interesting." We headed back through the woods, past the camping site and to the hill that lead us to the river. We continued our swordplay down the hill, shuffling our feet to prevent rolling out of control.
"We end it here, whoever ends up in the river, loses!" He called it. We crossed our swords, not giving each other any lip. We rotated around in a circle, pretty much testing each other's strength. The only difference between us was that I had a bleeding foot that didn't hurt at all. Inuyasha decided to take the next by trying to sweep the leg with the bleeding foot. I fell backwards and took his leg with me. We ended up on our backs, both exhausted from the fight we've kept up for five hours. We both got up, dropping our swords and grabbed each other by the collar, trying to force the other in the ground.
I saw the speed at which the river was flowing, so I figured it was best to drag the both of us into it. I kept a solid stare as I got to my feet and I leaped into the river, dragging Inuyasha with me. The river carried us all the way to the waterfall. I let the waves break over me like it was no big deal; it was quite refreshing.
When I washed ashore, I was just so exhausted that I just lay there, catching my breath. I flipped over, kneeling while I coughed the water out of my lungs. I then let myself fall to the ground and let the exhaustion take off. A moment later, however, I felt something touch my foot. I gasped and rolled over. "Oh," it was Inuyasha, "it's you…"
"Yeah, did you know you were going with your foot cut up?"
"Why? How bad is it?"
"Not that bad… if it were the transformed Tetsusaiga, it would have come clean off." He turned around, placing his hands behind him. "C'mon, I'll take you back." I nodded and jumped his back as he hopped through the woods back to the river. I picked up Sango's sword and we continued our trek back. "So, your foot isn't hurting you at all?"
"No… I just kept going like it was nothing."
"I'd have done the same… I gotta say that fire in your eyes was interesting."
"Well, I kept this flame burning in me that allowed me to focus on the fighting. The first minute, I was so taken by surprise that I didn't know how to react."
"You still made up for it, at least."
"So, how'd I do?"
"You have the potential to fight to the death against any enemy. You were willing to keep our fight going for five hours or so; I couldn't tell that you were a princess. They broke the mold when they made you."
I giggled, "yeah, they like to talk…"
"We'll have Miroku take a look at your foot when we get back, which should be about…" he got past the tree line, "now…"
He let me off his back at the campsite. Kagome stood up, "So how'd it go?"
"Really well… just gotta deal with a little injury." I said as I walked inside. I sat down and looked at my foot. There was a large cut through the bottom of my foot as well as the top. I wondered why it didn't hurt. A moment later, Miroku came by with a bandage. Inuyasha watched with his arms crossed. I hissed when he applied the healing herbs. After he wrapped it up, it was fine again. "There we go."
"All right, cool." I smiled, folding my legs. "I gotta say, Inuyasha, that's the biggest work-out I've had in… forever."
"I'm surprised you took that cut like it was nothin'. I figured it would have stopped you."
"Nope… It just didn't seem important." I put a hand to the jewel shard. "I think the jewel shard helped keep me in check. It was letting me keep my rage burning, but it kept it check. I didn't get out of hand or anything; I still can't believe that."
"Well, at least you're getting good use out of it." He crossed his arms. I shrugged, "It's weird… it's like you're either all one thing or all the other. There's no in-between." I lay down and thought aloud, "Sure, I liked seeing your tender side, but too much of it might not be good for you. Your furious side gets me fired up, but outside of training, it just doesn't work for me."
I didn't know what happened; all of a sudden, everything that I felt about Inuyasha got all tangled up together. I couldn't tell one thing from another. I liked both sides of Inuyasha, but for some reason, he just can't be both. I sat up, looking at Inuyasha. He was looking back at me curiously. I looked away, putting a hand to my heart. That same spark wasn't there; that fire of desire wasn't burning within me when I looked at him.
"What's wrong?" He asked. I looked back at him and the emptiness in my heart spread. I shrugged it off, "Just forget it…" I laid down, almost wanting to cry, but I couldn't.
"Are you sure nothing's botherin' ya?" He leaned closer. I looked away, "Inuyasha… I'd really like to be alone tonight." I turned my back, "Just go…"
"If that's what you want," he got up, "good night princess. Training resumes at noon sharp and if you sleep late, I'll come to drag you out!"
I put on a brave act to make up for the emptiness, "I wouldn't have it any other way." He let the flap close behind him and it was just me in the cabin. Now that he was gone, I felt my heart slowly start to break. I didn't know what was wrong with me, but I no longer felt the way I did about Inuyasha. I guess I figured that I could no longer listen to his heart as a tool to calm him down or relax myself. Doing so too often wouldn't be good for him, but I knew that it'd be hard for me to get used to being without. Even though I wished for the feelings I had to come back, I decided it was better not to have them since it was better for Inuyasha.
Inuyasha stepped back outside and sat by the fire. "So, how'd it go?" Kagome asked.
"All things considered, it went really well. I have to say that she's definitely gotten a lot stronger than she was in the beginning. Plus, the jewel shard keeps her in check. She didn't come after me with a vengeance, but she fought with her hardest, the same way I do. She also doesn't tire easily. We were at it for five hours straight." He shrugged, "I was really impressed…"
"Is there something else that's bothering you?"
"Huh, what do you mean?" He looked away.
"Did something else happen between you two?" He scratched his head, "I don't think if it was something I did or what, but she told me that she wanted to be alone. Something just doesn't feel right." He scratched his neck with his foot, "Still, nothing else about today felt right either. First, I'm so tired that I had to keep sleeping, now this." He folded his arms and looked into the fire. Then he looked at the glowing crescent moon and got up.
"Inuyasha…" Kagome called to him.
"I think I want to sleep in that tree tonight. Give myself some time to think." He turned around and sprinted back up the tree and sat on the top set of branches. "Why do I feel like something bad's happened? And why do I feel like I'm the cause of it? After what happened last night, I don't know what to think of her anymore." Feeling somewhat confused and disoriented of the events of the previous day, Inuyasha had trouble getting to sleep.
"Have I really become so hooked on having her that close? How does she did it? These feelings are… so new to me, it's weird." He continued to consider those feelings in his dreams, but sleep didn't come easily… to either of us that night.
