Chapter 1
"Idiot," Inuyasha pronounced in his tone, landing from his leap, lightly on the flat, sand-coloured rock outcropping. Metres below him, the humans he'd somehow come to accompany, walked the narrowest cliff path at a slow pace that aggravated the half-demon.
"She could have let me carry her on my back but no! She has to do the nice thing and walk with everyone else!" He let out an exasperated sound, itching to jump down there and have a go at them. Instead he stood, a silhouette against the blazing afternoon sun, the bright red sleeves of his kimono billowing in the sharply cold wind. His silver hair gleamed, and as he listened to the humans' conversation below, his beautiful white dog ears twitched sensitively. His mouth was a grim line as he listened to what Kagome had to say.
Kagome was the girl that dwelled in his thoughts most of the time, whether it be how angry she could make him, or his admiration of her, or his frantic attempts to un-muddle whether he liked her better than Kikyo…
"It is unlike Inuyasha to be that destructive," Sango said doubtfully. "Are you sure he wasn't possessed?"
Kagome gave a derisive laugh. "I think any possessing demon would have trouble finding something in Inuyasha's head to control!"
Miroku, walking ahead of them and watching the path for danger that might lie ahead, stopped and looked back at Sango and Kagome. "I have never known you to sound so annoyed at Inuyasha, Lady Kagome," he commented.
"Too right I'm annoyed! He was more of a brat than Paul!"
"Paul was the boy you had to babysit?" Sango remembered, and Kagome nodded. "He was acting so…so jealous!" That paused her for a moment. "Why would he act jealous of such a little brat?"
Miroku had listened to all of the conversation and had already surmised a possible reason. "Perhaps it is because it reminds him of his childhood. Of the bad parts of it."
Then Kagome felt a sting on her neck. Immediately she raised a hand and slapped the area, and then pasted to her palm was Inuyasha's vassal, Myouga the flea-demon.
"Ah, Kagome," the flea said faintly, with a hint of grumpiness in his voice. "Am I meant to starve from your delicious blood?"
Kagome glared at him and nearly flicked him off the cliff edge, but Miroku intercepted the effort, and Myouga took advantage of that, leaping to the monk's palm. "Ah, thank you, Master Miroku!"
"I suppose you could answer a question for us while you're here, Myouga?" Miroku asked. "How young was Inuyasha when he became an orphan? What did he do after his mother died?"
Myouga began to answer, and the sorry look in his eyes was deep. "I'm afraid he was very young...perhaps six summers? It was a very long time ago! And I'm afraid I didn't often stay with him, since he was quite busy fending off demons that don't like half-demons..."
Kagome stared at the flea, appalled. "Even when he was a kid? You were running away because you were afraid? While he was a kid!"
"It is not as simple as that!" Myouga protested. "Master Inuyasha chose--"
But Inuyasha leapt from the clifftop and landed hard on the path, his brow furrowed, and he was nearly snarling at Myouga. "Stop talking about me!" he shouted.
"Sorry, Inuyasha," Sango said, startled by the ferocity in his tone.
"Sorry, my lord," Myouga mumbled. Inuyasha, his stance still defensive, his shoulders hunched, fought to calm himself, then jerked his head in the direction of which they were meant to walk.
"Let's just get somewhere more open before nightfall," he said curtly.
Kagome kept her eyes lowered, even as Inuyasha glared at her like he blamed her for daring to ask about his earlier life.
"Come on!" he growled and leapt over them to start walking on quickly, his red sleeves billowing with his fast pace.
Kagome, Sango and Miroku kept quiet, exchanging uneasy glances. Myouga was quiet as well, while Shippo, walking at the rear with little Kirara in his arms, gave the little demon cat a nervous glance. He'd been quiet ever since the humans had started talking about Inuyasha as a kid…it'd brought up memories for him as well, both bad memories from just after his father had been killed, and memories that were so lovely that they hurt.
Kirara was subdued as well…the other day her front leg had been hurt and ever since, she'd refused to transform, mewing in pain from the effort of trying, so Shippo and Sango took turns in carrying her.
Yesterday the land surrounding them had been showing only slight effects from this beating sun, but now the ground was scorching hot. Kagome could feel the heat even through her modern shoes. I do hope we find shade soon, she thought. Inuyasha could hear liquid fire thrumming beneath the rock, but had decided not to tell the humans, figuring they'd get nervous about how they were walking over a path underlaid with a passage of boiling steam, stressed by earthquake activity.
The air feels so tight, Kagome thought nervously, hunching her shoulders as she wheeled her bike along. It bounced noisily along the cliff path. Inuyasha growled and spun on his heel to face her.
"No, don't say it," Kagome warned him. He ignored that warning, "That thing's lousy! Why can't you walk like a normal person!"
"While you're leaping around like Myouga?" she retorted.
His tawny-amber eyes darkened drastically, or maybe it was how the sky had darkened. "Don't compare me to a flea." Then he strode on ahead, his teeth gritted in anger.
"Might be best to be careful," Sango murmured to Kagome, walking close to her for a moment to pass on this warning.
"He has no right to be so grumpy," Kagome retorted. "We did nothing wrong."
"My village had a saying," Sango said quietly. "A hurt heart needs silence and meditation."
Kagome fell silent from what she'd been about to say, and now hung her head and continued walking in silence, thinking. Then she shook her head and turned to Sango, her tone confident. "He'll be fine once he's had something to eat."
Sango suppressed a worried smile.
"C'mon, Inuyasha," Kagome ran to catch up with the quickly striding Inuyasha, trying to keep her deep brown eyes off the way Inuyasha's lanky body rippled with strength, as the wind rounding the cliff's many corners tugged at the hanyou's handsome silver hair. He turned with an arrogant jerk of his head and Kagome refused to let Inuyasha's bad mood reach her again. She made a longer stride to walk beside him then slipped her hand into his, giving him a bright, innocent smile as the hanyou's cheeks went bright red. "What the--?" he blustered.
"How about stopping to have something to eat?" she smiled, stretching her arm to indicate the bag on her shoulder. "This bag's awfully heavy!"
"That's your fault for bringing so much!"
"Either that or deal with you being grumpy at having no ramen," she said impishly. He made a twitching movement that was either assent, agreement or irritation.
"Ahem," Miroku said from behind them. Inuyasha and Kagome jerked their hands free thanks to force of habit. "What?" Inuyasha growled.
"Just figured I should stop you two lovebirds walking off the cliff." Miroku pointed at the edge that Kagome and Inuyasha had been half an inch from walking off.
"Love birds?" Inuyasha blustered.
Miroku gulped, realising that he'd just effectively signed his own death warrant. He won't hurt Kagome! He swiftly thought, crossing to stand behind her.
"Oh no you don't, you lecherous monk!" Inuyasha yelled, sticking out his foot before he could get there safely. Miroku leapt to avoid it, his religious robes billowing with the speed of his effort to escape the angry hanyou.
"Sit!" Kagome yelled, trying not to let too much emotion into her voice, for otherwise Inuyasha would be ten times grumpier than he was already. "You two! Remember the cliff!"
Sango rolled her eyes at Kagome and reached forward, yanking the monk away from Inuyasha. The monk grinned gratefully and took the chance to rub the demon-slayer's backside. This time Sango retaliated by driving his hand into the cliff rock with her knuckles.
"Ow, Sango!" Miroku whimpered.
"Pervert." With that, Sango began walking ahead. "C'mon Kagome."
"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled. "I swear, if you don't take these stupid beads off me, I'll..."
"You'll what?" Miroku asked, jumping to his feet and running ahead, his sandals slapping the scorched ground as he ran.
"Gah!" Inuyasha had no one left to glare at. Miroku had run. Kagome, wheeling her bike, and Sango were walking ahead, and Shippo, sometimes the cleverest, especially when it came to the habits of his travelling companions, had kept walking even through all this confusion.
