Chapter Thirty-One
Disclaimer: I own nothing that belongs to Inuyasha's creators.
So...
I am incredibly sorry for this extremely late update. I honestly thought I could keep up with steady, twice a week, uploads but unfortunately I find myself falling behind already. I'm a teacher by profession, and so not only is the beginning of the school year always busy and a little stressful, this year it's particularly so. I'm not trying to make excuses, I just want to ensure my fantastic readers that I'm still here and I will be continuing with this story. Updates might not come as regularily, however, during the school year.
Please bear with me!
A HUGE thank you to: buzzk97, MarshWolffe, bookangel1624, Symone1234, Kagz419, Eris Neve, Wondla Master for your reviews! I am again so sorry I didn't have time to reach out to each of you individually the last couple of chapters! I'm intending on getting back on track and more organized this week so I can make more time for you guys and for this story!
The next morning was no better than the previous night when it came to Inuyasha's silence. To combat the uncomfortable feeling deep in my stomach, I would force conversations with Shippo, Miroku, and Sango in turn, but eventually the conversations would always grow stagnant and the uncomfortable silence resumed. I didn't miss the knowing looks that Sango and Miroku would send to one and other when they thought I wasn't looking.
Inuyasha continued to avoid looking at me all together.
'I don't know what bothers me more, his silence or complete avoidance.' I can't help thinking dryly as we come to stop at midday for a break by a river. Miroku, Sango, Shippo and Kirara sat together as a group in a rocky outcrop, Inuyasha moving off to sit by himself right on the edge of the creek. I currently stood in the middle, equal distances apart from either and looking uncomfortably between Inuyasha and the rest of the group.
'You should just go and get it over with.' Mayumi gently suggests. 'If he's mad at you, give him an opportunity to let it out. He's always been bad for letting things boil until they explode.' She advises, and I can't help admitting that she was right. I had seen it myself time and again. 'Just remember that whatever he says, what happened yesterday with Kikyo wasn't your fault. She was the one that broke the spell, not you. It was her own fault that she was taken by Naraku.'
'Something about that still doesn't add up to me. She must have known what was happening, what breaking the spell would do. Why would someone who wishes Inuyasha dead save him by allowing his enemy become stronger?' I frown deeply at that troubling thought. I keep it to myself, however, knowing it wouldn't be well received as I step cautiously towards the irritable half-demon.
"Inuyasha?" I murmur softly in question, frowning as he visibly stiffens at my voice. "Come on, we need to hash this out sooner or later." I try, starting backwards slightly as he stood abruptly, throwing me a withering glare.
"There ain't nothing to talk about. What's done is done." He mutters coldly to me, and I do my best not to let myself get overemotional. Taking a calming breath, I straighten my back.
There was no way in hell I was letting him walk all over me.
"That's not true and you know it." I reply, my voice firm. He turns away from me once more, his back stiff as I can see his arms tightening against his body from crossing them over his chest. 'What a stubborn ass!' "I'm sorry I acted so rashly yesterday, and I'm even more sorry that Kikyo was taken by Naraku because of it." The words felt bitter in my mouth, knowing that I was lying through my teeth.
I could really care less that she was taken away.
'That's a lie.' Mayumi whispers softly to me. 'You know what would await you in his clutches, and you wouldn't wish that on your worst enemy, let alone Kikyo.'
'What are you? My personal Jiminy Cricket?' I rebuttal sarcastically.
"I know it's not fair, and I know it should be me dealing with the consequences of my actions, not her." I go on, feeling like lead was being continuously dropped into my stomach, making me feel heavier and heavier. "I should have been the one taken, not Kikyo." I can hear Shippo make a noise of protest behind me, gently shushed by Sango.
"What?" Inuyasha's voice is soft, so soft that I almost miss it as he turns slowly, looking down at me with unreadable eyes. His chest rises and falls with a controlled breath, and I take a step back from him, bracing myself for his verbal onslaught.
"We should leave, try to find Naraku's trail. He wouldn't have been able to make it far, we could still save her." I try to give him something to grasp, some hope, as he continues to stare at me. "I promise I won't get in the way this time, and I promise I'll do whatever I have to, to get her back to you." I hated myself as soon as those words fell from my lips.
Of course I didn't want to bring her back to him, but if that's what made him happy, if her return fixed our…whatever this was between us-
I gasp when suddenly Inuyasha rushes the few steps towards me, leaning down and throwing me over his shoulder like a caveman. I'm so shocked with his actions that before I could even be aware enough to be indignant at his man-handling, I'm being thrown down gently onto the forest floor with Inuyasha standing over me, a frown on his face and his hands clenched tightly into fists. I could tell we were still near to the others, the sound of the river distant but audible from our place in the middle of the trees. I swallow thickly as I look up into his amber eyes, the look not so unreadable now.
He was mad.
'Here we go…' I think, outwardly wincing as I braced myself.
"You think I would want you in Naraku's clutches any more than I want Kikyo?" Inuyasha asks lowly, his voice barely containing the clear frustration he felt. My throat constricts with emotion as I swallow back the urge to cry.
That wouldn't solve anything right now.
"I put you in a position where you were forced to choose either saving me or saving Kikyo. How could you not hate me for that? I'm the one that attacked the monster, started the entire chain of events." I point out, wondering why I was being so goddamn noble about it. Why the hell was I trying to argue that he should be angry at me?
"And Kikyo was the one that deliberately broke the spell that almost had me absorbed into the bastard and you captured by him too." Inuyasha points out, kneeling down to be eye-level with me. He kept his distance all the same, his face still set in the annoyed frown. "She could have defeated the asshole with a single arrow. She's that powerful, Yua. Yet she didn't. Instead she put us all in danger." He took another controlled breath. "She put you in danger."
"Why would she do that though?" I ask softly, feeling a little more validated by my own doubts when it came to the priestess hearing Inuyasha had them as well.
"I don't know." He answers with honestly, his expression changing to look almost broken. I feel my heart squeezing painfully at the lost look on his face, the look of betrayal and uncertainty. He clearly was worried for her, and it hurt me to see him clearly so distressed. I reach a tentative hand out, stretching it across the gap then to cup his cheek, his surprised amber eyes looking up to me from his dazed thoughts.
"We should go and find her, Inuyasha." I murmur the offer once more, this time feeling genuine as I make it. His eyes widen, but at least this time he looks far more receptive to the idea. "No one deserves to be left in the hands of that asshole." He frowns slightly, reaching up to cup my hand over his cheek.
"That puts you at risk, though." Inuyasha points out, but it's like he's battling with himself rather than with me.
"I'm willing to try. Aren't you?" I ask softly, Inuyasha frowning as he hesitates, before nodding.
Suddenly I can feel the pulse in the air, the same one that I had felt yesterday before Kikyo's appearance. Inuyasha's ears twitch, his body stiffening as he stands quickly, reaching his hand out to pull me up. Without needing to be told I climb onto his back this time, Inuyasha leaping out of the cover of the trees and back to our group. All of us look up to see Kikyo's soul catchers gliding overhead, heading in the northward direction. I swallow thickly in realization.
She was even closer than we thought.
Which meant that Naraku was not too far behind.
"You guys coming?" Inuyasha snaps over his shoulder to the others, Sango, Miroku and Shippo moving to straddle Kirara's back after she transformed.
Without another word we all took off in the direction of the soul catchers, following them overhead through the grassy valley just beyond where we had stopped.
"Look, more gatherers!" Sango calls out from behind as suddenly they started to float above us by the dozens. I frown, feeling Inuyasha's hands tightening their grip under my thighs as we both looked up towards them, his gaze set in a determined glare. I frown as I looked up at them, something not feeling right about the ones that had recently joined. Their signatures felt weird, not quite the same as the three we had begun to follow. Sango suddenly has Kirara leap into the air beside us, both Inuyasha and I watching intently as she draws her sword and cuts through one of the soul catchers, only to reveal one of Naraku's poisonous wasps in disguise.
"What the hell?" I frown, grip tightening on the back of Inuyasha's kimono.
"Look out, it's a trap! Be careful!" Sango's shout is too late, a blinding light overtaking all of us to the point where I have to close my eyes. Suddenly a weightlessness over takes me, my body pulling away from Inuyasha's. My heart races in panic as I try to blinding reach out for him, my hands only catching air.
"INUYASHA!" I can't help screaming out for him, before my word suddenly goes black.
The sound of a smashing bottle wakes me, quickly followed by a yell that I was only too familiar with.
"YUA! Get your ass out of bed, NOW!" My eyes snap open, throwing the blankets from my form quickly as I look around my old room in disbelief. It was the same dull painted walls, an off purple in color due to the stains from my Father's chain smoking in the apartment. The scent of smoke hung heavily in the air, nearly suffocating me as I take in the all too familiar banged up desk across from me. My heart is racing in my chest as I slowly turn my head to look at the wall beside my door, the large crack visible still from where my Father had thrown me against it in a drunken rage.
Was this real? It couldn't be. My Father was dead.
"Didn't you hear me?!" I jump, his voice louder now as I could hear his stumbling steps coming down the small hallway towards my room. Quickly scrambling off of my bed, I manage to stand before he crashes through the door into my room, perpetually drunk. My nose wrinkles as the sour smell of beer and body odor overwhelms me.
This had to be a dream. It just had to be!
"I need you to run to the store and grab me another six pack." He mutters, rubbing his forehead with the heel of his hand. "I've had a long day." I'm still struck by the vividness of this dream, unable to answer him as I stare at the man in shock.
He was exactly as I remembered before the car accident.
What once could have passed as a handsome face was now hallowed out and sunken from malnutrition. Drinking would do that to you, when you felt it became more necessary than eating. Large dark circles were set under each of his blue eyes, a scraggly beard outlining his thin face. Days old clothes hung from his bony frame, further emphasizing to me that if the car accident hadn't killed him, his drinking soon would have.
A painful burning sensation on my right cheek brings me out from my shocked stupor.
Wide-eyed I place my hand on my stinging cheek, looking at my Father's hand that was still poised from striking me.
"Pay attention." He growls lowly. "I've had a long day. Go and get me some beer." He murmurs lowly to me.
That slap had hurt. Should it hurt like that in a dream?
'Then again, Naraku's illusions were just as real.' My eyes snap open wide at that. Mouth tightening into a thin line, I looked up to the man who would be my Father with cold fury.
This wasn't a dream, nor was this reality. It was an illusion.
"Go and get your own fucking beer. Do the family you're going to kill a favor and drink yourself into your own grave." I mutter lowly to him, watching the shocked expression come over his face.
"What did you say to me?" He mutters lowly, his reaction as real as it could get. After all, I had never stood up to him when he had been alive.
"You heard me…Naraku." I murmur lowly in reply, the surprised expression on my Father's face slowly melting into a coy smirk. All around me the scenery melts away, revealing a dark wooded area, roots intertwining every which way below me. The very real Naraku stood in front of me, body completely reformed under his pelt of white fur. "What the hell are you up to now?" I reach for my bow, before my gaze turns slightly panicked, only reaching for air. I look over my shoulder, stomach dropping as I saw my bow missing, before looking down at my hip to see my quiver missing as well.
"There is no need for such measures, Yua." Naraku coos, my gaze frantically searching the area before finally falling on my bow and arrows leaning against the trunk of a nearby tree. "At least, not against me." He adds lowly, his gaze turning towards the outskirts of the clearing. I frown, following his gaze before stilling as I see the familiar figure of Kikyo climbing over the vast root systems, her brown eyes locked coldly on me.
"Kikyo! Inuyasha is looking for you." I frown at her then, breath freezing in my chest as she raises her bow towards me, arrow at the ready. Before I can react she's shot it, and I feel a burning sensation against the side of my face as her arrows just barely grazes against my cheek. A glow erupts from behind me, and I turn just in time to see the ground disappearing right below my very feet. I move to summon my aura to help me levitate over the disappearing ground.
Only to feel nothing.
Cold fear washes over me as I'm suddenly weightless once more, knowing that this, this wasn't a dream. 'Mayumi?!' I cry out, unable to feel her as I fall backwards into the hole. Reaching out in a blind panic, I feel my hand grab onto a hanging root, only just barely managing to catch myself from falling into the bottomless pit. 'MAYUMI?!' I shout desperately this time, the resounding silence almost deafening.
Something was preventing her from communicating with me.
"This spell is one of my favorites." Naraku murmurs from above me, and I look up to see both him and Kikyo standing next to one and other at the edge. They're looking down at me, Kikyo with the same cold expression. "It is called the Illusionary Death." He claims, his voice echoing ominously into the small crater. "The soul is such a fragile thing. Sadness…Fear…Confusion…If even the slightest doubt exists, and is touched by the creepers of this world, that soul will be consumed by the dark." He pauses, and I could almost feel the self-satisfied smirk that I couldn't see below his baboon mask. "That is the fate that shall befall your friends." My gaze sharpens at that, fear gripping me anew.
Sango…Miroku…Shippo…Kirara…Inuyasha…
Suddenly Kikyo lashes out, her finger tips glowing brightly as she sweeps the hand closest to Naraku through his neck. His image falls apart, revealing yet another puppet that she holds firmly in her hand. With a simple flex of her power the puppet disintegrates on contact as I watch on in wide eyed shock. "Naraku seems to fear you." Kikyo states calmly from above, my arms starting to scream in protest from having to hold my own weight. I gasp as I feel my hands slipping down the root. "So he tried to control me with the Sacred Jewel, hoping that I might be turned against you." She informs me coldly.
'Well aren't you?! Because this sure as hell feels like it!' I think angrily, unable to stop the startled shout as I slip down even further, my hands starting to cramp up. Suddenly, some of Kikyo's real soul gatherers float down to me, wrapping around my middle tightly. I blink in surprise, feeling them pulling me upwards until I was eye level with the resurrected priestess. She still looked at me with cold indifference, and I was hardly comforted by the fact that I still hovered over the bottomless pit below me.
It was then that I saw the red glow coming from inside of Kikyo's chest.
"You have a jewel shard." My eyes widen then seeing it, looking from the glow up to her face in disbelief. How could I be sure now that she wasn't working for that bastard? It was the same thing he had done to control Kohaku, and Sango as well before him.
"Surely a priestess who once guarded the Sacred Jewel of Four Souls has not fallen so low as to be controlled by a mere shard." Kikyo states smoothly, her voice confident. She reached upwards, placing her hand over her chest and the red glow from the diseased shard slowly returns to it's purified state. She then reached forward, and I know exactly what she is about to do. I move to shove her away, buy the tails of two of the soul gatherers wraps right around my wrists, stopping me. She callously rips the jewel fragment from around my neck, before I feel the silkiness of the bodies of the soul gatherers being replaced by something harder and less forgiving. Looking down my eyes widen further in disbelief seeing the roots that had shot up from below instead, wrapped around me from ankle to upper thigh. Slowly, as if to emphasis her power over me, the priestess obviously summons the roots to pull me down, her form disappearing into the mist as I'm lowered to the bottom.
'I can't let her get away!' I gasp to myself, frantically trying to reach for my power once more. It was no use, I couldn't even feel a spark as the roots pulled me right down onto the ground, laying me out and slowly enveloping my body. I felt weak, weaker than I had in a long time as my eyes grew heavy, the roots worming their way up to my shoulders. 'I-Inuyasha…please…help…' I can't help thinking in my dazed desperation.
Whether or not the darkness first came from the roots covering my head, or me passing out, I couldn't be sure.
Inuyasha's POV
'The illusion had been so real.' I frown deeply, the encounter still causing shudders to rush down my spine. 'The flames had been so hot, and Kikyo...'
But it hadn't been real, it had all been a lie.
"Kikyo!" The blood was so vivid against the white of her top, so much so that I had found myself moving to embrace her, throwing to the wind any notion I had of reality as I held her in my arms.
Something, though, something didn't feel right as I did.
There had been a reason I had killed her, a reason that meant more to me than she ever did.
Why couldn't I remember what had led to her death?
Closing my eyes I held her tightly to me, basking in the memory of her scent. "I swear I will always protect you." I murmur into her ear, knowing she'd easily be able to hear it over the roaring, hot flames surrounding us. Then, as if struck by a bolt of lightening, I open my eyes to see her.
Mayumi.
"Why are you embracing her like that?" Mayumi asks, her voice filled with a level of hurt that caused my own heart to shudder. "She's the one that killed me, remember?" My breath catches in my throat, the scene around me melting away along with the woman in my arms. A new weight settles there as the scene fades back in, the forest surrounding me and a tree at my back. Looking down in my arms I'm greeted with a horrific sight that I had only revisited in my nightmares.
Mayumi's green eyes looked up at me, filled with fear and pain as blood bloomed through the top of her white kimono. The scent hit me like a freight train, the fingers of my right hand tangling in her silky, reddish-brown hair. The freckles stand out starkly against the paleness of her face, the bloodless causing her to weaken right there in my arms.
"Mayumi…" My voice is broken as I feel like my whole world is tunneling down into that exact moment. I bring her into my chest, my cheek resting against her head as her body shivered against mine wordlessly. Looking over towards her feet, I see it.
Kikyo's arrow.
Before the rage can reignite inside of me, Mayumi shifts in my arms, reaching up with one weak hand to bring my head down so my ear was near her mouth.
"No, not Mayumi…" She whispers weakly, and my head snaps back in confusion.
Gone was Mayumi, and in her place Yua lay in my arms.
If the sight of Mayumi dying in my arms again had caused my world to shake, the sight of Yua fading from life in front of me caused my world to explode in a series of panicked flashing lights.
"What?!" I gasp out, laying her down as I see the blood blooming as it had been on Mayumi through her shirt. "No, no, no…" I murmur in panic, my hands frantically pulling her shirt apart to reveal her binds underneath, all saturated in blood. I press my hands to it, breathing heavily in wide eyed panic as I look up to Yua's deeper green eyes, her face serene.
Too serene.
"Don't you dare do this to me too, Yua! Stay with me!" I feel my chest ready to collapse, her blood saturating my hands. I was shaking with terror, looking down at the wound as I could feel tears burning in my eyes.
I was going to lose her.
Suddenly a cold hand presses against my cheek, her thumb rubbing soothingly over the track that had been left by the single tear that had escaped. I snap my gaze towards her face from the wound, her breathing shallow.
"You know I love you." She whispers weakly to me, and I barely manage to hold back a choked sob at that, the guilt and the grief coming over me like a giant tsunami of emotions. "It's okay that you didn't love me back, Inuyasha. It's okay." She smiles at me faintly, and I'm so choked up that I can hardly even put together enough of a thought to voice. I wanted to deny her claim. It wasn't okay that I let her believe that, she had deserved so much more. Before I can utter a single word, her hand falls from my face, her chest stilling and everything going eerily calm. I blink, stunned, before I was unable to look at her any longer, slamming my eyes shut and turning away, gasping in a shuddering breath.
She had been wrong. I love her so much that I could hardly breathe without her.
My world shifted once more, bringing me back to where I had been holding onto Kikyo. My head snaps back in shock, swallowing thickly as I need a moment to gather my bearings, before pushing the woman away from me.
I needed to find Yua, she was in trouble, I could feel it.
"Where is Yua, Kikyo?!" I demand angrily, her own gaze narrowing at me with hatred.
"So that girl still means more to you than I do?" Kikyo snarls, before her body transforms into something decidedly inhuman. Kikyo's body takes on the form of a tree trunk, her arms and legs dividing into multiple roots that reach out for me. Grabbing Tessaiga I slice through the fake Kikyo without hesitation, my heart hardening against the priestess once more.
With that, reality thankfully came flooding back to me.
After finding and freeing Miroku I finally catch her scent, leaving Miroku to go and find Shippo and Sango as I rushed to find Yua before it was too late. Following the scent till it becomes it's heaviest into a clearing by a ridge, I look around wildly.
"Yua?!" I shout out desperately, still unable to see her.
It's then that a notice a lump of roots near the center of the clearing.
"No…" I trail off, dread sinking into my stomach as I rush forward and start to pull the roots away from her. Once I've uncovered her I let out a sigh of relief to hear and see her breathing. Gently pulling her into my lap, I cup her face in my hand and thankfully feel warmth on her skin. "Come on, wake up, Yua." I frown, gently stroking the backs of my knuckles against her cheek, taking note that the other appeared to have a small scratch on it. I blink when she groans, clearly coming too, her deep green eyes opening and looking up at me blearily.
"I-Inuyasha?" Her voice cracks slightly, her gaze going from dazed to scared in seconds flat. I pull her into my chest protectively, her shaking form clinging to my steady one and seeking out the safety she knew only I could give her. Though I didn't show it, my own emotions were running high from the culmination of the illusion of her death, to the very real possibility that she could have died had I not snapped out of my Kikyo induced haze. Something profound shifted in me, and it was like it all clicked together in my mind, body, and soul.
I knew then that some day I'd make Yua irrevocably mine. My partner in life, my mate.
Because I had fallen for her just as hard as she had for me.
Yua's POV
To say I was happy to wake and see Inuyasha was a wildly underrated statement. I couldn't help myself as I clung to him, shuddering from the residual cold I had felt with the fear before being knocked unconscious.
"Those roots cause some kind of an illusion." Inuyasha's voice rumbles in his chest against my hear, his fingers still working soothingly through my unbound hair. "Seems like you are okay now, though." I hesitate at that, my hand slowly going up to feel around my neck.
The jewel fragment was gone. That hadn't been an illusion.
"Kikyo took the jewel fragment from me." I murmur softly, leaning back the to look up at him, my eyes no doubt showing just how ashamed I felt. "I'm so sorry." Inuyasha's mouth hardens into a thin line, shaking his head.
"It's not your fault." He murmur softly, slowly helping me to stand. My mouth drops open slightly in shock as I turn look at him wide eyed.
"Not my fault? How isn't it my fault?" I frown, my hand moving up to reflexively fiddle with the fragment, only to stop midway remembering that it wasn't there.
"I'm not worried about the jewel fragment right now. I'm worried about you." Inuyasha snaps, before blinking in surprise at himself, my own expression mirroring his. "And how we get out of here." He quickly adds, wrapping his arm around me as he turns without a further word to leap back up to the ridge I had fallen down from.
The one that Kikyo had basically thrown me from.
Speaking of the bitch, there she stood ever so calmly by the tree as we both landed. I frown deeply, eyes instantly going to her closed fist, knowing without single doubt that the jewel fragment was resting in there.
"Kikyo!" Inuyasha frowns as he moves to stand partially in front of me. Whether to block me from her, or her from me, I couldn't be too sure. His eyes move and lock onto the jewel shards as well when she opens her hand, the glow unmistakeable. "Those are Yua's shards!" I watch as she turns her cold gaze from Inuyasha to me over his shoulder, and suddenly I'm freezing again, my stomach knotting painfully. Without realizing it my breathing grows heavier, but Inuyasha clearly hears it as he turns to look at me with question, his face concerned before he snaps back around angrily towards Kikyo. "What the hell did you do to her?!" When Kikyo says nothing, he growls lowly in his chest. "Answer me."
The viciousness in his voice as he demanded an answer sends goosebumps up my arms.
'H-he's worried about me.' I realize, my legs going numb as I kneel down, unable to hold myself up. 'Inuyasha…he's furious with her.' I swallow thickly, the growls still rumbling low in his chest as he stands protectively between Kikyo and I.
"What's wrong, Inuyasha?" Kikyo goads unwisely. "Tell me, why does it feel like you're unhappy to know I am well?"
"Answer me." Inuyasha demands once again, his body vibrating so hard that I could feel it while standing inches away from him. "What did you do to her?!"
"I tried to kill her, just as I had her predecessor." Kikyo freely admits. "What do you plan to do about it?" She challenges, her face cold and her voice calm and collected. I take in a sharp breath. It was one thing to suspect that was what she had intended to do to me, it was another to hear her blatantly admit to it. Looking up towards Inuyasha I can see his face harden further, though there was still shock hidden discreetly in his amber eyes. "Will you kill me?" She asks, Inuyasha growling lowly as his hands ball tightly into fists.
'He still can't bring himself to stand up to her.' I frown, moving shakily to stand as I got my panic under control. I reach for my powers once again, eyes widening as I felt a tiny spark. 'It's there, but it's so weak.' I frown, my own hands clenching into fists nervously. 'I could hardly go up against her when I'm at my weakest, and she her strongest.'
"Tell me," Kikyo goes on confidently, "when Naraku had you under his spell, what was it that you first thought about?" I don't have to see Inuyasha's face, Kikyo's smirk was enough to tell me exactly what he had seen.
The day that he had killed her.
She laughs cruelly at him, but Inuyasha surprises us both by scoffing at her.
"I saw what you wanted me to see at first, but what I saw after broke Naraku's spell over me." He murmurs lowly, Kikyo's confident facade dropping slightly. "I saw Mayumi…and I saw Yua." He turns slightly, his amber eyes locking on my green ones. My lips part in surprise hearing him, heart racing as I saw the tender look on his face while he regarded me. "Yua brought be back to reality." He turns back to face Kikyo, who now has a nasty snarl on her face. Kikyo turns away, her soul gatherers coming to collect her, lifting her into the air.
"Even if your heart is at the moment misguided, we shall embrace each other together in death some day. It's a day I shall be waiting for." She states ominously, before disappearing beyond the canopy of trees. I swallow thickly, hands shaking as the air remains thick around us. After a few more moments of tense silence, Inuyasha slowly turns towards me.
"Yua, tell me what she did to you." He murmurs lowly as he approaches me till we're nearly nose to nose. I hesitate, hand dismally reaching for the jewel fragment once more.
"She took the jewel fragment." I answer once again, Inuyasha snarling at me with irritation.
"That's not what I meant!" He insists, eyes narrowed at me. I feel my chest constricting painfully, understanding what he meant.
He wanted to know if Kikyo really had tried to kill me.
"Did Kikyo really try to kill you?!" He shouts at me then as I clam up, and I feel my throat burning with the effort of not bursting into tears. I felt like I was a victim of whiplash. One minute he says that I'm the reason for breaking out of his illusion, and the next he's clearly trying to fish for an answer he wants to hear, rather than the one that Kikyo had honestly given him.
Of course she had just tried to kill me, what the hell did it look like?! Did he think being slowly suffocated by those roots was meant to be a practical joke on her part?!
"You heard what she said!" I snap back at him finally, unable to keep it bottled up. Inuyasha looks at me stunned, before Miroku's voice suddenly breaks the tension from the silence that took over.
"So…uh, are you two finished?" Miroku asks, looking entirely unimpressed as he carried Sango, her weapon, and Shippo on his back. Kirara looked unharmed, standing next to Miroku in her smaller form. Relief floods me at the sight of my friends, turning away from Inuyasha and rushing over to gently pick Shippo up from where he hung over Sango's boomerang. I cradle the boy to my chest, nodding towards Miroku at his question.
"Let's get the fuck out of here." I murmur lowly, ducking my head to rest my cheek against the top of Shippo's head.
"Yua…" Inuyasha hesitates as my gaze snaps to him in warning. Looking defeated, he sighs heavily. "I'll lead the way out." He murmurs, ducking his own head and moving around the group. Miroku follows closely behind with Sango and Kirara, whilst I take the rear at a safe distance with Shippo.
'Kikyo tries to kill me, and he still doesn't want to see what a bad person she really is, tricked by Naraku or not.' I think to myself despairingly, once again swallowing back the tears of hurt that wanted to flow over. 'He had been furious over Kikyo killing Mayumi, to the point he had killed Kikyo in retaliation. Yet with me, all he can do is try to find excuses for Kikyo's behavior.'
If this is the trouble that love brings you, I want nothing to do with it ever again.
Inuyasha's POV
I successfully led the group back to where our journey had begun by the river, a safe distance away from that trap from hell. Night had fallen, and camp was made with little talk. Shippo hadn't awoken from the ordeal, and I couldn't help a worried glance at the small boy as he slept curled into Yua's chest, Yua having fallen asleep with him.
I can't believe Kikyo had almost killed her.
Before I had, had a chance to correct Yua, to let her know that I believed Kikyo was capable of doing what she claimed, she had shut me out. It was easy to tell what she had been thinking, even for someone as dense as I can be.
'She had thought that I was trying to somehow make Kikyo innocent of her claim, when in reality I just wanted to know exactly what had happened. Kikyo hadn't been lying, I could tell that with certainty by her scent and the calm beating of her heart.' I think to myself as I look over the flames of the fire at Yua's sleeping face. Her nose was slightly wrinkled, indicating that she was in the midst of a dream.
Kikyo had tried to kill another woman that I cared about.
Someone I have come to love.
'It's not like I could launch that on Yua right then and there, though.' I frown deeply as I throw a stick with frustration into the fire. 'Then again, how am I supposed to tell her that I love her after everything I've put her through? Why would she believe me?' After the hot embraces fueled by lust, followed by my decidedly uncertain exchanges with her when she just got too real for me, I couldn't blame her for being skeptical.
Was I even being fair to her?
I sigh softly, leaning my head back against the tree I was leaning on, looking through the canopy of leaves to the starry night above. 'With this fight against Naraku, I can't let her be distracted even more than she already is. She could be killed.' I frown deeply, the image from the illusion, the one of her dying in my arms, hitting me with such force that it causes my heart to thud painfully against my rib-cage. I had to tread a careful line from here on out. One that showed Yua I cared for her above Kikyo, above anyone else, but not distracting her from our main goal.
We'd collect the jewel fragments, defeat Naraku, and free all those that he had enslaved.
Then, I could make her mine.
The real question would be, could I wait that long to have her?
Soooooo there ya have it. Again I am so sorry for the late updates, and in advance I'm sorry if the updates become more sporadic than they have been over the summer. I WILL continue to update, though, and I promise that this story WILL be finished!
I do hope to hear from you guys!
T.O.T.
