Back again. I'm sorry about the time off. I had a lot of things happen to me over the past few months. I got into a relationship, it ended badly. I've been very sick with flareups of different chronic illnesses, and I'm waiting on an operation to help one of them out a little, and I just recently got Covid, which is seriously kicking me in the nuts right now. I'm struggling right now, but I'm trying to find me again, and part of finding me again is finding these stories again.
I'm so excited for Cami and InuYasha to start actually interacting with each other properly. They are gonna be quite uh... loud and explosive when they do interact with each other.
Before we start reading this lovely chapter, I'm going to direct you towards my other stories if you want to find something else to read while you're waiting for this story to update again. I have three other InuYasha fics on the go: Perfidious, a Bankotsu fic, In The Jaws Of The Wolf, a Koga fic and Miasma, a Naraku fic. I'm going to try and start updating them again when I can, but please be patient. Life is difficult at the moment.
Thank you, and onwards we go!
Catch The Rain
Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet
- Roger Miller
We all walked home in a slog. Everyone was shaken by the events of the night. Not a single person was unaffected, even those that had actual prior knowledge of demons. Not a single person in the little group of people we'd gathered into looked anything but harrowed by fighting off Mistress Centipede.
Rikichi took up the job of making sure everyone was okay as we made our way home. He flitted between us all, asking how we were, keeping the ones that were quiet and scared talking so they were out of their own heads. I didn't appreciate how often he stopped on me to ask how I was doing. It meant that my shaky feeling was plain to see for everyone. A tremble had set into my hands from the moment I had freed InuYasha from the tree. It hadn't subsided yet. I had a feeling it wouldn't for quite some time.
Still, Rikichi could fuck off with his worry. I didn't need anyone's pity, and I told him that in as many words.
That chased him off for a little while but it still didn't stop him from flitting back to me a few minutes later.
Bastard.
The village was close enough, at least, that I didn't have to suffer Rikichi's good intentions for too long. Long enough for them to be annoying, but not long enough for me to seriously consider murder as a viable option.
Our group began to disperse, trickling away to look after their horses and return to their own homes. That left me alone at the edge of the village, after telling Kaede that I wasn't going to head back home just yet. I wasn't quite ready to go home and face casual conversation with anyone. I knew Kaede was a woman that liked to talk when someone seemed upset in any way, shape or form. That was enough to keep me from heading back home with them right away.
I'd wait until they were good and asleep before I crawled home myself.
Kaede probably wasn't so aware of the large cuts on my arm. I doubted she'd let me wander off at all if she knew that I was injured. It was a small mercy that she didn't know for now. She could lecture me about the importance of wounds being treated tomorrow, while she tortured me with balms and ointments that I had probably prepared. I'd crushed every herb under the sun for her in the past few days. I was sure any treatment she would give me would be something I had a hand in preparing.
The village was much quieter than my thoughts as I wandered through it, heading towards the outskirts on the other side, that looked out onto the beautiful flower-filled fields Kaede and I walked through sometimes. Was it just a few hours ago we were sat in those fields picking rabbit giku? It felt like a century had passed since then. How could so much happen in such a short amount of time?
I all but collapsed against the base of a lone tall tree at the edge of the flowery field, staring up at the cloudless sky.
In that moment of silence, as I focused on the brilliant stars above me, my mind really began to run.
What... had happened tonight?
Demons? Magic? I could barely believe it. How could they all actually exist? Where was the logic in that? They were all stories. Things parents told their children to scare them, or keep them entertained. Demons couldn't actually exist. They just couldn't. If they did, they'd exist back home, wouldn't they? You'd see centipedes on the way to work every day, have conversations with demons over morning coffee. That didn't happen. We certainly didn't shoot the shit about mythological creature conquests at the club.
So was this really the past, like I thought it was? Or was I in some sort of crazy alternate dimension? Like some stupid American comic multiverse theory. Was that even possible?
Nothing about this situation was possible. Why was I even asking myself? It wasn't like I would be able to pull any of the answers out of my ass. I was painfully clueless about everything going on right now.
My arms wrapped around my legs, drawing them to my chest. My fingers gripped tightly at the thick hemp of my kosode to try and stop the shaking in them. It was a useless attempt, but an attempt nonetheless.
"Come the fuck on, Cami, you're stronger than this shit. You've shat out scarier things than a bug woman," I coached myself in a whisper, looking up at the sky. It was still so breathtakingly beautiful. Why had we ruined this view back home? Cities had their own beauty, but it was nothing like this. The pure unhindered beauty of nature here succeeded in taking my breath away every time I stopped to admire it here. It made me vow to take more holidays out in the country when I did get home.
That didn't take away the shaking, though.
"Dammit, stop," I hissed, eyes snapping down to my traitorous hands.
They just wouldn't stop.
With a long, heavy breath, I let them loose from my legs and reached up to my sash, fingers curling around the crumpled box still pinned to my hip. They were still there. Good. I had no idea how I would manage to make it through this without that last cigarette. If now wasn't the time to indulge in that last smoke, I didn't know when was.
The immediate rush of nicotine was enough to quiet the trembling. It was enough to calm me just slightly, though there was still a shake to my fingers that I couldn't still.
The abated trembling just left room for my mind to start running more, though. When I wasn't focused on what my body was doing, I could think. The most dangerous thing in the world when you'd just been through something as crazy as I had. I felt the trickling of tears rolling down my cheeks before the sheer force of what I'd just experienced hit me like a freight train.
A strangled sob escaped me.
Oh fuck.
Demons. Demons and magic and shrine maiden powers and fighting. It was all real here. Not even the sort of real that I could try to block out and forget for the sake of my mental health, like love and being paid an actual proper wage. This wasn't something I could just turn a blind eye to. Mistress Centipede had literally crashed into the village in search of whatever she was looking for. There was no way I could avoid demons and stay in a blinkered safe world if they didn't stay away from human communities. I would always be in danger here.
I could have died tonight.
I could have died.
Harsh sobs wracked my body. I hid my face in my hands, holding my cigarette out between two shaking fingers in an attempt not to burn myself. Though that wouldn't be the worst injury I'd gotten tonight. The burning pain of the torn skin on my arm was starting to flare up again as the adrenaline that had been keeping me going since I'd first seen Mistress Centipede seeped from my body.
There was nothing I could do to keep myself safe in this place.
I was lost in a dark and scary place.
When I'd found myself homeless and broke in my teens, I had faced a dark and scary place that I had eventually learned to navigate through. I didn't live a perfectly normal, happy life, but I'd made it, even if it was paycheck to paycheck, with a buttload of struggling along the way. It wasn't ideal, but I'd conquered the dark and scary situations I'd been dealt back then. This was different. This wasn't trying to scrounge for extra money so I could eat for the night. This wasn't bathing at random one-night-stand's houses because my water had been cut off again. I could die here, and picking up extra time on the pole or propositioning guys at bars for a little extra money wasn't going to fix that in the way I'd been able to fix my problems back home.
These were demons, and magical bullshit things that I had no hope of being able to take on my own. I doubted many of them would take to leaving me be if I slept with them. Mistress Centipede certainly hadn't stopped still long enough for me to offer a quick eating out in exchange for her not killing me. Though, with no legs, I had to wonder whether she even had something for me to eat out.
What if another demon came along, and got to me better than Mistress Centipede almost did? Got to me better than InuYasha did.
One tear-soaked hand reached to the torn fabric of my kosode sleeve. I didn't dare touch the torn flesh under that ripped fabric, scared that I'd make the pain flare up even more.
Another bout of wet sobs escaped me, had me curling in on myself, trying to physically hold myself together.
I wanted to go home. I wanted to be back in my apartment, complaining about the lack of heat and food. I wanted the only thing I had to worry about being a dissatisfied man showing up at my door, or my sister dragging me up at stupid o'clock in the morning to talk wedding bullshit that I didn't want to hear. I could deal with human men. I could deal with my human sister. They didn't scare me half as much as this place did, even with Laura's pretty legendary temper when she did get fired up. Two weeks ago, I'd have thought an unhappy man or Laura's temper was the most dangerous thing I could ever come in contact with.
Now I'd rather face down every person I had ever upset than stay here.
"You're gonna bring in something nasty with all that noise."
I jumped half a foot in the air, scrambling back against the trunk of the tree.
The familiar red robes that clung to the body in front of me were weighed down by water, dark and heavy as they swished around InuYasha's body. He was trudging through the flowers, heading directly towards me.
My hand shot up to the wound he'd opened up on my shoulder instinctively, trying to protect it. Bad move. I hissed in pain, flinching back even further against the trunk as the pain wracked through me. "What the fuck are you doing here?!"
My heart was in my throat. I felt like I was choking on it.
He wasn't supposed to come back. He'd dropped into the river, been swept away by the current. That was supposed to be it. He wasn't supposed to be back here. My eyes flickered back towards the village. Could I get back in time? He was fast, but I'd sprinted plenty in my time. I wasn't exactly slow. I wasn't wearing heels, and my ankle was just about healed now. That gave me even more of an edge.
But he was a demon, wasn't he? Did that mean he was faster than me? How much faster? Did I even stand a little bit of a chance in a race against him?
The scuff of his feet padding closer had my eyes snapping back to him.
"That stupid girl has the Sacred Jewel. As far as I'm concerned-" He was close enough that I could see his nose twitching. "You're bleeding."
"I'm-?" Was he for real? He sounded shocked. "Of course I'm fucking bleeding! You gouged a chunk out of me, you bastard!"
His expression twisted and he let out a little scoff as he passed by me. It didn't look like he had any interest in ripping into me again, but his expression wasn't exactly friendly. It was malicious, almost amused as he leered down at me. "Forget the crying. Demons love blood. That'll have them crawling over each other to get to you. Better get yourself back into the village, girl, before they catch wise."
I let out a shaky breath when my head started to swim. I didn't realise I'd held my breath until it had made me dizzy.
If demons were at threat of crawling over themselves to get to me, why wasn't he?
Half-demon, I remembered fuzzily. He was a half-demon. If he was half-demon, then he was also half-human, right? Or at least half something other than demon - something nicer than demon, if he had no interest in taking a bite out of me right now, with my blood apparently perfuming the air enough for him to smell it a good ten feet off. What other creatures existed anyways?
I scrambled to my feet, hissing when I felt something burn my foot.
My cigarette!
It was half burned out when I picked it up, but there was still something left to it. That was better than nothing. I stuck the butt of it between my lips, and clambered to catch up to the half-demon still striding towards the village.
"What are you doing here?" I demanded again. My voice came out a lot stronger this time. I didn't sound like I was about to piss myself any second this time around. It was a small mercy.
When I came level with him, he glanced down at me, and his hand raised to his face, covering his nose with the billowing sleeve of his suikan. "That smells terrible. Put it out."
Put it out? My cigarette? Who was he to demand things from me?
That one demand spared something in me. A frustration that grew and reared its head until it became anger, eating at the shakiness and fear I'd been feeling until now. "Fuck off."
His hand reaching out towards me again had me flinching back hard enough that I toppled over backwards with a yelp, reaching out blindly to grab whatever was close enough to keep me upright. The very person I was trying to escape was the answer to that. My hand fisted in the side of his suikan, jerking at it as I caught myself. He didn't so much as flinch as my weight pulled at his clothes, glaring down at me.
I gave a shaky breath as I straightened myself up again, waiting a beat to see whether he was going to lash out, or if glaring was my lot. Apparently glaring was my lot. That gave me enough courage to level the guy's shoulder with a punch, reaching up to grab my cigarette from my lips with my injured arm. "What the fuck is wrong with you, huh?!"
"Me?!" He yelled back, his stance widening as his own frustration built.
"No, the other demon that just went for me," I snarked, stomping forwards. I was agitated and tired. I really wanted to just crawl into bed, and this asshole was really testing me. I was far too tired and rattled to deal with some dickhead trying to assert himself over me and dictate what I could do. Fuck him and fuck anyone that thought they could decide what I did for me. "Yes, you, dickhead! You can't just grab whoever the hell you want. What, were you born in the fucking wilds? Learn some damned respect!"
InuYasha wasn't backing down, either. He was content to get into my face and bare his teeth like an animal. "Respect?! Respect would not be stinking up the place with that shit!"
"With what shit? This shit?" I took the last deep inhale from my cigarette and blew the smoke right in his face, grinning smugly when he turned his head away, coughing into his sleeve. He wouldn't out-bitch me if he put everything he had into it. There was no way a little getting into my face would make me back down. "That's not your- oh shit, what are those?"
Letting the butt of my spent cigarette fall to the ground, I reached up to the ears that had caught my attention, pinned down to the top of InuYasha's head, my anger melting away and leaving in its place wonderment.
It was his turn to flinch back now, those dog ears of his pressing closer to his skull before I could touch them. Actual dog ears. He bared his teeth in a growl as I reached, emulating the animal perfectly.
That baring of teeth was enough to halt my reaching entirely. What the Hell was I doing? Just reaching for a guy's ears? Even if they were unusual. Embarrassment flooded through me, hot and sharp, grating at my already extremely thin nerves. What a fucking hypocrite I was. I was literally just yelling at him for reaching for me without any warning.
"Whatever," I grunted, turning on my heel and striding towards Granny Kaede's hut, trying to leave my embarrassment behind along with the demon that had caused it.
I could hear InuYasha's heavy footsteps following behind me.
Fantastic.
I managed to ignore him all the way to Kaede's little hut. It wasn't easy, particularly with him so close behind me that I could hear his frustrated almost-growled breathing, but I tried to keep myself from whirling on him. He hadn't attacked me yet, and had barely even threatened me. I wasn't so sure that it was his intention to attack right now.
I was just aware enough of the villagers to not want to wake any of them up this late as I trod between the huts back towards my home. I'd butt heads with a few of them while I'd been here already. If I made real enemies of everyone here, I wouldn't be able to stay. Kaede couldn't vouch for me forever. I had to concede on that one, at least. No screaming in the dead of night when the neighbourhood was attempting to sleep, especially after a night as exciting as the one we had all dealt with.
Now I just wanted to get home and sleep. I was tired, frustrated, scared, hurt, and so fucking exhausted that I could barely form the thoughts buzzing around in my head.
As I stepped into the familiar hut I was starting to call home now, InuYasha's voice cut through the air. "Kikyo's hut?"
There was that name again. Kikyo. Who the Hell was she? Why was this guy so obsessed with that chick anyway? He had to have said her name like half a dozen times already tonight.
Why did I care?
"Whoever she is. This is Granny's hut. My hut. Now fuck off." No Kikyos here. Just crappy straw beds and more jars than you could shake a stick at. And a few spiders. There was one that I'd come to talk to in the hours that Kaede was out that I'd named Katsu. He was a quiet companion, and very easy to talk to. He just sat up in his corner, on his web. No judgement, no talking back. Funnily enough, the same thoughts I'd had about InuYasha until he'd actually gained the ability to speak.
Katsu was now winning that popularity contest by leaps and bounds. If I had to choose who to save and who to squish with a waraji, I would have to invest in a much bigger waraji. The ones that I now wore were far too small to even hope to crush InuYasha.
"Or I'll use that word and send you down the river again," I threatened half-assedly as the demon stepped forwards.
InuYasha froze, his dark expression, just barely visible in the light, twisting into fear. Yeah, fucking thought so.
Shaking my head, I turned into the hut. If he was so scared of a word, then I didn't have a lot to worry about. I could threaten him with it until I was blue in the face. As long as it kept him from attacking anyone, I was more than happy to threaten it.
Katsu was bumped further up that list of my favourite people when I got a good look at the interior of the hut in the dark, and came to the realisation that my bed had been loaned out to Kagome. Well wasn't that just peachy fucking keen? Kaede had dropped down to second place. Katsu was king now.
Too tired to actually make a fuss tonight, I just laid out on the ground along the stretch of empty flooring at Kaede and Kagome's feet.
I'd tear Kaede a new one for letting out my bed to someone else in the morning. Wincing as I tried to get myself comfortable, I tacked more onto my to-do list. Get Kaede to look at my shoulder before I tear her a new one, then eat my bodyweight in breakfast. Traumatic moments sure had a way of gnawing at your stomach. Mine felt so empty, I was surprised it wasn't grumbling already.
When I woke, I almost wanted to forgive her.
I'd woken mid-morning, by my own accord. It was the first time I had woken up without Kaede shaking me awake since I'd gotten here. Today I had woken up to the sound of the other woman bustling around me. When my eyes eventually cracked open, it was to a light hut; sunlight was filtering in through the unobscured doorway and window. It wasn't the asscrack of dawn, and I wasn't being rudely woken up by someone else.
It was utter bliss
"Cami, finally ye are awake," Granny greeted when I rubbed at my eyes, finally letting myself actually wake up. "Good morning to ye."
Well, utter bliss until the memories of last night and the stinging pain of my arm began to filter back into my senses. Bliss was not the word I would use to describe the utter shitshow yesterday had become, and the stress that was beginning to mount again when the memories surfaced made that abundantly clear. Bliss wasn't going to be something I felt for a while.
"You sure it's good?" I asked her, groggy and uncomfortable as I stretched out. Shit, my arm hurt, but the popping of my back as I stretched hurt so good. "Looks like a fucking nightmare to me."
She gave a low chuckle.
Did I say I liked her dark humour? I lied.
"Want to tell me why I slept on the bare ground last night?" When she opened her mouth, I raised my uninjured arm, halting her before she even uttered the first word of her explanation. "No no no, don't answer that. It was a trick question. I'm going to yell at you no matter what you say. Save your breath."
I paused for a moment to let the warning sink in before I let loose the frustration plaguing me. "You gave away my bed!"
Kaede returned my frustration with a patient smile. Bitch. "There was some wisdom I heard once in my travels around the country. What was it...? Ah. It is to the benefit of three mon to get up early."
Was she kidding? She had to be. There was no way she had just given me a suck it bitch answer like that. Right?
My mouth flapped as I tried to come up with something to say to that absolutely shite response.
A combination of giggling and an amused grunt behind me dragged my attention away from the shrine maiden smiling smugly to me. My eyes flickered back to Kagome, who was sat at the edge of the raised platform of the hut, her hand raised to her mouth to try and hide the little giggles she was making. It wasn't the sight of her that had my heart stuttering in my chest, though. She was not the only one sat behind me. InuYasha was stretched out along the length of the small hut, lounging with his head in his hand, eyes closed and a small smirk on his lips.
What was he doing here?
"You can shut up," I shot at Kagome, though I kept a wary eye on the demon next to her.
She gave back a guilty little smile and wave of her hands. I sneered back at her.
"Kagome, I think it is time to redress your wound."
Both Kagome and I turned our attention to Kaede as she set a jar down on the ground in front of her. Some form of magical healing potion, I guessed. It wasn't a difficult guess to make. That seemed to be all she had in those jars - just medicine after medicine. Fitting of the village healer, I guess.
InuYasha grunted. "The other one's wounds smell worse."
"The other one?" I bit out. I really didn't like being known as the other one.
"Cami?" The question in her voice was clear - she had no idea that I was injured.
I shrugged with my uninjured shoulder. "The dog gouged a chunk out of me when he was going after Mistress Centipede." I shot another wary look at InuYasha, but his relaxed expression had barely shifted at all. His eyes were closed, so I reached up to loosen both my kosode and nagajuban and let them both slip down over my shoulder. The act bared a breast to Kaede, but I had very little shame about that. The woman had seen me waking up in the morning. She could handle a breast hanging out for the sake of doing some healing. I knew she was the midwife of this village. She'd seen worse than a bare breast in her time.
"Heh, who are you calling a dog?" Inuyasha grumbled.
I opened my mouth to bite out another dig at him, but Kaede's sharp gasp stopped me.
"Cami, ye should have had this treated the moment we got back last night." She shuffled closer so she could take up my arm and examine the wound. It was a nasty thing. I didn't have a lot of experience with healing wounds like this. I'd never been injured enough to need much medical care besides a bandaged ankle or a cold compress. The few scars I had were small things on my hands from my days as a scout. This was something else entirely. The skin of practically my entire bicep was caked in dried brown blood, and the wounds themselves, four long gashes from InuYasha's clawed fingers, were raised and scabbed up. It looked disgusting.
But Kaede's expression wasn't one of worry. I couldn't quite place her expression, but my best guess would be curiosity.
"It is as I thought," she finally said.
"What's as you thought? Don't hold out on me, Granny." I winced as she prodded at the wound, flinching but not managing to get far with her grip tight on my arm. She was strong for an old hag. She had plenty of experience dealing with the younguns trying to wriggle away from her healing up skimmed knees and little cuts. If Kaede didn't want you to get away from her healing, you weren't getting away, whether you were six or twenty-six.
Her gnarled old fingers prodded a little harder at the tears in my flesh.
"Watch it," I hissed, trying hard to keep from flinching away again. The last thing I needed were bruises from her tight grip to add to the list of injuries growing by the day while I was here.
"It is healing much faster than a regular wound would."
"That's healing faster?" I shot back. I had to call bullshit on that. I couldn't see the entirety of the wound from this angle, but what I could see was gnarled and disgusting, caked in dark blood and scabbed up grossly. Just looking at it turned my stomach. That was impressive in and of itself. My stomach had lived through a lot of booze and questionable drunken binge eating. It wasn't weak by any means.
Perhaps it just couldn't handle the sight of its own body torn up.
"Aye, indeed it is," Kaede replied. "I have never seen what is so clearly a deep wound heal to this state so fast."
This bitch was insane. There was nothing about this damn wound that screamed healed.
"I wouldn't call that fast," the abrasive voice of our in-house demon commented.
I grit my teeth, biting back a sharp and painful whimper as Kaede began to clean the wound. "Thank you, InuYasha," I grit out, voice strained with both impatience at his bullshit commentary and the pain Kaede was inducing with her attempts to help heal me up. "For sharing your thoughts. The situation is so much fucking better now we know your opinion."
He shot back a sharp 'keh' in response, but was either too lazy or too smart to add anything else to the conversation.
Good. I wouldn't have been able to hold back any biting responses if I wanted to right now.
By the time Kaede had thick bandages wrapped around my bicep, I was shaking, trying to keep my tears to myself. They were silent, at least, so neither InuYasha or Kagome could have heard them, and Kaede was either too focused to notice, or was a woman with the good grace not to injure me anymore than I already was with a comment that would surely go straight to my ego.
"Kagome," the old hag spoke up as she let me right myself, bringing my kosode up around my shoulders and wiping the evidence of my pain off my cheeks. "Now it is time I clean your wounds, as well. Come here, child."
It took a few more minutes for me to compose myself enough to turn around and join the others.
"I noticed you're rebuilding the houses wrecked by Mistress Centipede," Kagome said, eyes turned to the open doorway of Kaede's hut, watching the construction going on outside. It sounded like the whole village was out there fixing up the destroyed huts. There was so much to do, but people around here were no strangers to hard work.
It would be grueling work for everyone involved, and I already knew I'd be forcibly involved some way or another, but the village would be rebuilt quickly.
"What a pain," the young girl simpered.
"Pain? Yes," Granny agreed as she finished up her work on the girl's stomach wound. "And just the beginning. Now the Sacred Jewel is back among us, far worse than Mistress Centipede will come to claim it."
Kaede's words didn't surprise me. They worried me, but they didn't surprise me. Both Mistress Centipede and InuYasha had fought with pretty much all they had to get to it last night. Those two couldn't be the only two people in Japan that wanted that jewel, and whatever mystical powers it held. If word got out, or anyone felt the sickening sensation of that thing the way I could - it was making my skin crawl, being so close to it - then there were going to be some nasty faces coming to take a shot at getting their hands on that thing. It wasn't going to be safe here anymore.
"Worse than yesterday?" It was like Kagome couldn't believe that there could be anything worse than what had gone on yesterday.
I wished that her childlike disbelief could bring about her ideas as truth. I wished that yesterday was as bad as this place could get, as bad as any place could get. I knew that wasn't the case, though. I'd seen too much in my life to believe that a fight like that was the worst this place had to offer. So much worse could happen, and so close to that jewel, we were sitting in the firing line.
"And not just demons," Kaede continued, voice grave. "There are humans whose hearts are more evil still, and only the jewel has the power to make real their petty grasping ambitions."
I let out a quiet grunt. That I could believe whole-heartedly. I didn't know anything about the motives of demons, but I could attest to the abject horrors man was capable of. Demons scared me, but the thought of humans - greedy, horrific, terrifying humans - coming after this thing, and knowing that we were the first point of call with that damned trinket in our midst, scared me more than I would ever care to admit.
The silence that settled between us was heavy, each of us caught in thoughts. From reading their expressions, it was clear Kaede's thoughts aligned with mine much closer than Kagome's. The sweet thing had a sad, but now harrowed expression on her face.
She shook herself off quicker than Kaede or I could manage to, and turned her eyes to the fourth member of our little group. "Speaking of petty, what are you still doing here?"
InuYasha turned sharp eyes over his shoulder at us. "I'm waitin' for the jewel."
Once again, this conversation wasn't surprising me. InuYasha's desperation for the jewel yesterday had resulted in personal injury. My arm could attest to the sheer need he had for that thing. He was going to stick around until he had it in his grasp, and if I was reading him right, which I was fairly certain I was, would kill anyone that got in his way.
"So what'st stopping you?" I shot at him. I knew full-well what was stopping him, but I got some sadistic glee in seeing the way his ears twitched and folded down against his head.
Kaede let out an amused noise from the back of her throat. "With the beads around his neck, his threat is diminished."
He was shit-scared of being sent on a one-way trip to Rio with just a single word, and that was stopping him from just sharpening his claws on any of us to get to the jewel. We could speak far quicker than he could pounce on us. He was trying to play the long game. I didn't plan to let my guard down around him any time soon.
"It is perhaps the only way we can allow him so close to the jewel."
His ears couldn't press any flatter against his head if he tried.
"Dogshit's shit out of luck," I crowed, my grin lighting up further when InuYasha's whole body swung around to face me, snarl on his lips. Oh, that frustration was fucking delicious. He looked about ready to pounce at me and tear my throat out. My eyes dared him to do it. I could speak faster than he could fly. I'd send him on that trip to Rio myself.
Kagome came to his rescue, asking a series of questions that hung in the air. "Why do you want the jewel anyway? It seems to me you're strong enough as it is. What power can the jewel give you that you don't already have?"
InuYasha's ears pressed tighter to his head, and he turned away from us with a quiet huff, like he was hiding from the question.
Why did he want the jewel so bad?
"Ah, but he's just half demon," Kaede gave in way of explanation.
The clueless look on Kagome's face told me she didn't understand the severity of that statement. It hit me right away why InuYasha fought so hard last night to get hold of that jewel. It turned my stomach to think that I shared anything in common with the demon man glaring holes in the wall over my shoulder, but I did.
Power, of course. To be a full demon. Half was stronger than any human he or I would ever meet, but it was still half. There was more power in being a full demon, and more opportunities, I bet.
Being half of something led to a life of exclusion.
My life had been a consistent tale of being excluded. To the Japanese, I was too foreign. I looked different; I sometimes spoke different; I played strange games and ate strange foods; I was too foreign. To the foreigners, I was too Japanese. I didn't understand the nuances of colloquialisms; I didn't speak English or Spanish well enough to keep up; I was too Japanese.
If I felt that sort of exclusion for being half, what must it be like for InuYasha, in a place where violence and killing were viable solutions?
I dealt with bullying and exclusion. InuYasha could very easily be killed for being different.
It made sense that he wanted to change. I had wanted to change all my life, as well. What I wouldn't give to be entirely Japanese, or entirely English, or Spanish. Entirely just one thing, so I could fit in the way I had always wanted.
Was the jewel really strong enough to do that?
My eyes slid to Kagome, who held the jewel safe.
Could it do that?
My mouth ran dry, and my teeth sank into my lower lip, just as InuYasha exploded in a fit of anger, punching a hole through the floor. The burst of violence made me jump, teeth sinking harder into the delicate flesh they were already abusing. I tasted blood right away, and my hands flew up to my mouth. "Mother fucker!" The English profanity flowed just as easily as the blood.
"Cami! Are you okay?" Kagome fluttered at my side as I wiped at the blood now coating my chin, only managing to coat my forearms, too.
"What the fuck was that, Dogshit?" I snarled at the demon crouched beside me, glaring at the old bag of bones across the room.
He snarled right back at me, drawn by the insult. "I'm sick of hearing some dried-up witch I just met talk like she knows me." Like that was a good enough reason to scare the ever-loving shit out of me. Fucking asshole.
"So ye don't remember." Kaede stood from her spot, her gathered effects under one arm, and ambled down into the doma. "I thought as much. I'm younger sister to Kikyo, she who bound ye to the tree. Kaede."
There was that name again. Kikyo. But this time, with a connection given by Kaede, with that name came memories from just a few days ago.
Kaede had given me reprieve from the tolls of never-ending herb-grinding, with a request to join her while she tended to her sister's grave on the anniversary of her death. The request had immediately put me on edge. I didn't want to intrude on something like that. That was emotional and shit. I wasn't good with emotional and shit. I barely coped with my own damned emotions.
But I'd been coerced, and with great effort, I followed Kaede up the steps beside her humble home.
Each step made me feel sicker and sicker, and by the time we got to the top, my stomach was rolling, threatening to expel the gloopy okayu I'd shoveled down not a half hour before.
The shrine was small and humble, decorated with shide, and a small bundle of barely wilted flowers. The shrine wasn't much, but it was clearly very well taken care of. Kaede had looked after this place well.
I hung back, by the torii at the top of the stone steps we'd just tracked up, arms crossed over my chest as I watched Kaede replace the wilted flowers with some she had bought up with her. Once the new flowers were in place, she lit a stick of incense with a small flint. The thick smoke coiled in the air, crawling skyward.
"When did she die?"
I didn't know what else to ask, what else to do. If I was here, I wanted to know about the person I was becoming sick to my stomach over.
Kaede raised her hands in prayer and bowed her head. "Fifty-six years ago today."
Fifty-six years ago... That was too soon, even in times like this. Even if she was significantly older than her sister, to die fifty years ago, then she had to have been young. I wouldn't say Kaede was that close to seventy. So fifty years ago, she'd have been a preteen, at best. Her sister couldn't have been that much older. Had she even reached twenty?
A woman cut down far too soon.
A sister cut down too soon...
Would that be what Laura thought?
By now she had to know I was missing. We fought constantly, but I never disappeared for more than a few days when we did fight. It had been, what, a week now? There were so many dark places my mind went that she could use to explain that unusual absence.
Got in with the wrong crowd. Done that before.
ODed somewhere with the wrong person. Done that, too.
Any number of accidents or acts of violence. Done so many of those, I didn't even tell her about them anymore.
Any and all were possibilities, and all were likely. She knew my life, what I did and who I saw. Which one would haunt Laura's mind? Would they all do so?
"What was her name, old crone?" I asked the maiden, eyes on the small shrine that made up her grave, feeling my stomach churn again with dreaded nausea. This sort of place wasn't the place for me, but I needed something to focus on instead of the dark thoughts plaguing my mind. I couldn't stay on the thought of my sister. I couldn't do it to myself.
Kaede paused in her attempts to readjust the shide hanging around the shrine.
There was a long moment of silence, the most tense I had felt Kaede, even with all the annoyance I had been purposefully doling out to her over the past week. I felt bad for asking.
I didn't feel bad about anything.
"Kikyo."
Kikyo. Pretty name, just like her sister's.
I bowed my head to the shrine, and passed my own prayer to her, feeling a little lift in the nausea threatening to swallow me up.
"You're Kaede?" InuYasha questioned, drawing me from my memories. "So you're the brat, huh?"
I sucked gently on my split flesh, eyes flicking back and forth between the demon and maiden. I had guessed pretty early on that Kaede and InuYasha had a history. This confirmed my suspicion but gave me no real answers. What was their connection? What had happened between the two of them? Kaede was clearly wary of Inuyasha, and I wanted to know why. Kaede had balls of steel. InuYasha must have done something awful to have her react like this.
"Fifty years have passed," Kaede returned. "And I have grown old."
InuYasha leaned back, relaxing again as his chin turned upwards, and his eyes slid closed. "If you're this old, Kikyo must be pushing a hundred." He didn't know she died. He had been trapped on that tree for decades, though.
A little smirk curled his lips. "Sure glad I don't gotta worry about being old. At least not for a while."
Ouch. That was a lot of casual for discussing Kaede's lost sister, even if he didn't know she had died. He should assume. How many humans did he know that reached Kaede's age, let alone her older sister's hypothetical age? It couldn't be common to reach that age.
Kaede's voice was sharp in the wake of InuYasha's casual commentary. "Kikyo didn't worry, either. Kikyo died."
My eyes were locked onto InuYasha, watching as his ears twitched and his eyes slid half open. I hadn't seen him look that sad before.
Hadn't Kikyo been the one to seal him to that tree? Why would knowing she died upset him like that? She had basically killed him, and he was upset she died? He certainly hadn't had nice things to say about her yesterday. What was I missing? What history had they had that I didn't know about, that would make him have such a complicated reaction to her death?
I was getting way too invested in the drama of the situation.
"It was on the same day she shot ye with the arrow."
That had an entirely different expression coming to his face. His chin tilted, and smugness radiated from him. "Gee, sorry to hear it," he drawled insincerely. "Not that I really care or nothin'. It's one less thing for me to worry about."
His expressions were shifting so much, his emotions clearly doing the same thing. What had happened between InuYasha and Kikyo?
He stretched out, clearly done with the conversation at hand.
Kaede wasn't though, and she uttered a warning as she fiddled with the old stove. "I wouldn't let my guard down just yet, InuYasha. I now know that Kagome is the reincarnation of my sister."
"That's bullshit," I snorted. Reincarnation? There was no way that was a thing. It was impossible. Demons I could handle. They were just another species. Or I suppose category of species, with clear evidence. Reincarnation? It was a theory. Some stupid bullshit idea people spouted so they'd feel better about the shitty lives they led. Reincarnation didn't exist.
"It isn't just because ye sresemble her," Kaede continued on, clearly ignoring my claim of bullshittery at hand. "The Sacred Jewel was in your body. That alone is proof enough. It's up to ye, now, child, to take over it's protection."
Another little scoff escaped me. "What a load of shit. Have you seen that girl? She couldn't protect a fly."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Kagome fumed, wheeling on me quickly.
I snorted. "What do you think it means? Even busted to fuck, I could floor you quicker than you could scream, and there's no way I'm the scariest thing coming after that jewel. You think you can protect it from someone like me coming after it? Or someone like InuYasha? Or worse?"
She wanted to be angry. I could see the anger in her warring to keep control, but insecurity was taking root, and she was clearly letting it eat at her. Her hands came up to press at her chest and her big eyes turned downwards. The girl was curling in on herself. She was young. She'd probably never had someone lay out the truth that brutally to her before.
I almost felt bad.
I remembered the first time I'd been laid into with that level of harshness. It had stuck with me.
"If you're going to protect it, better learn quick." I pushed myself up, and stepped over the still-lounging InuYasha, casting him a glance when he cracked an eye open to look back up at me as I passed over him. "I'm going for a walk. Don't wait up."
I spent the best part of the day out and about, amongst the people for a short time, soon finding myself with a shadow named Kokichi.
"So whatcha doing?" the boy asked, skipping beside me as I wandered.
I rolled my eyes skyward, trying to find some semblance of strength of will to not just kick the kid away from me. "Trying to have some peace."
"Oh," he replied cheerfully, blissfully ignorant to my hint to get the fuck away from me. "Where are you gonna find that peace?"
"Clearly not here."
"The river's nice and peaceful sometimes. We should try and find it there!"
"Yeah, sure." I could always drown him. That might give me the peace I was after.
The walk down to the river was filled with ridiculous questions, one after the other. None of which I answered. My silence was by no means a deterrent to the tiny child, though. He was content the babble and chatter as we walked. He filled the air with his own voice so I didn't have to. I hated it, but at least I didn't have to participate.
"Oh, look. It's that demon man. Lady Kaede says we shouldn't go near him," Kokichi spoke.
My head raised and a brow arched when I caught sight of InuYasha treading through the edge of the village, not too far in front of us. Huh, what was he doing out? I imagined that he was going to be every bit a shadow to Kagome and her Sacred Jewel as Kokichi was becoming to me and my apparently winning personality. The boy just wasn't going away.
"He's scary."
I snorted, turning my eyes down now to the boy pressing closer to my leg. "You think he's scary?"
Annoying? Absolutely. I was sure that man would be able to find my last nerve and fuck with it better than anyone I'd ever be able to meet. He just gave me that vibe.
Impressive? Also yes. He was strong, and determined. Clearly the sort of person to be wary about if a fight struck up. My burning upper arm was proof enough of that.
But scary? I didn't really see it. Maybe last night, I'd have thought so, but he got on my nerves too much to scare me now.
But I also wasn't a tiny child.
"Uh-huh. Don't you?" Kokichi looked up at me with wide eyes.
"Not even a little bit, kid." Maybe some of that answer was bluster, but he didn't scare me nearly as much as I thought he would.
My eyes slid back to InuYasha, observing his casual gait as he passed in between huts to get to the edge of the village. He was clearly familiar with this place. Familiar enough that he knew the routes. How familiar had he been with Kikyo before she had sealed him to that tree?
Sealed him to the tree... He had been so much better when he was sealed to a tree. He was quieter. Listened to me rant, didn't take a drag when I offered him a smoke. All the things I needed in the moments I sought out quiet company. Now he was awake, loud and angry, and always fucking biting at what I said.
Men. Always perfect until they weren't.
I grunted as I shook Kokichi off my leg. "Alright, it's time you fucked off back to your mom. Off you go."
The boy whined, but he eventually gave up and let me finally have my peace.
I wish I had a fucking cigarette.
The inside of the hut was quiet, well into the night.
I hadn't gotten back until well after dark. Kaede, bless her old bones, had retired to bed already, snoring away, and left out two kosode and barely stuffed pillows for Kagome and I. Kagome was already curled up under one. InuYasha was nowhere in sight. Probably skulking around outside.
I was quick to strip and lay down under the other.
Sleep almost had me when I heard a quiet mutter from the girl laying next to me. "I gotta get back."
The haze of sleep faded away, and my eyes peeled open. I looked up at the ceiling, barely lit by the small fire in the pit in the centre of the room.
She was thinking about home. Our home.
Strained as her quiet voice was by tiredness, she sounded so determined. She would get home.
Would I be able to get home? Kagome wasn't from the sasme place as me. Perhaps the same time, but she had been in Tokyo when she had gotten here. I had been in Yokohama. If she found a way to get back, could I follow? Was there a way for me to get home?
Would I have to get back to Yokohama to find my way home?
How would I do that?
I rolled onto my side, pulling the kosode further up over my bare shoulders. I didn't want to think about it, about any of it. Right now there was no hope for me getting home, unless Kagome found her way home and I could follow.
Sleep didn't come easy that night.
Information Time
Futon - Futons were often made by stuffing fabric with straw. Of course, the richer you were, the nicer materials you could stuff your futon with, but in the poor poor village Kaede resides in, straw was your best bet
Waraji - Sandals made of straw. These guys were really common throughout Japanese history, and are more than likely what the village woman would have been wearing on their feet.
It is to the benefit of three mon to get up early - This is the direct translation of the Japanese version of the early bird gets the worm. Kaede's slightly more dignified way of saying you snooze, you lose, bitch. Kaede is, of course, a classy bitch
Nagajuban - The nagajuban, literally long juban, is the underwear layer - a thin cotton robe worn under the kimono to soak up sweat and dirt from the body so the outer kimono doesn't get as dirty.
Wound healing - It's mentioned in the novel that high spiritual energy actually aids in the healing process. Those with high spiritual energy heal from wounds much quicker than those with low spiritual energy. In the series, Kagome had pretty much healed from Mistress Centipede tearing her side open in just a day. It was very loosely explained in the novel that because Kagome was a reincarnation of Kikyo, she had high spiritual energy and thus healed from her wound very quickly. I think it makes sense to use that concept here. Throughout the series, all of the main human characters are severely injured in some way, and they all get up again and are fighting within days. The longest labeled timeframe for healing is the ten days it took Sango to heal from her wounds from Kohaku at the castle. Sango has spiritual energy, and does use it to be able to sense demons, but she canonically has much weaker spiritual energy than Miroku and Kagome, so it makes sense that she takes longer to heal than they do, while still healing at a much faster rate than regular humans would. Cami has very strong spiritual energy - strong enough to interfere with Kikyo's sealing arrow - so I'm implementing the fast healing thing here, even if Cami doesn't really agree with that diagnosis yet
Feeling the jewel - While seeing the jewel in the series is pinned on just Kagome and Kikyo, probably because of Kikyo's long history being so close to it, it's canonically pretty common to feel the presence of it. Both Miroku and Sango have commented on being able to feel the presence of the jewel shards to small extents throughout the anime. So, while physically seeing the shards is a power exclusive to Kikyo's reincarnation line, I'd say that anyone with strong spiritual energy can feel the jewel and its power
InuYasha's ears - Was anyone else disappointed that InuYasha's ears weren't more telling of his emotions in the series? They moved occasionally, but barely actually showed off his emotions the way animal ears often do - particularly dog ears. Dog ears are so expressive. Don't you worry, people, ask and ye shall receive. I intend to make his ears very expressive in this story
Trip to Rio - What is Bee babbling about? Well, I'm sure many of you have heard of that silly idea that if you just keep digging down through the Earth, you'll pop out in Australia? Well, the antipode of Tokyo is just off the coast of Brazil. Not quite at Rio de Janeiro, but pretty damn close. Random things you know. If I were to dig, or be sat through the centre of the Earth, I'd end up off the coast of New Zealand. Cool, huh? Where's your antipode?
Doma - The doma is the earthen level of old Japanese houses, the ground level, where the heating usually is, and where most things, like food, are usually stored.
Shide - Shide are paper streamers often used by Priests, Priestesses and shrine maidens in Shinto religion. They're often used in purification and rituals, and decorate shrines. I don't recall seeing a lot of them in InuYasha, but I do distinctly remember seeing them wrapped around the Sacred Tree in Kagome's time.
Review Corner
LadyAmazon - Thank you for another review! I tried it, didn't enjoy how slow it was, and passed it up to rewatch One Piece from the beginning (wish me luck) . I'll get back to YashaHime when I have a little more patience for a slow plot in such a short series
Episode Two: Seekers of the Sacred Jewel
This one was a really fun chapter to write. Seeing Cami go from InuYasha is so quiet and perfect to InuYasha's fucking mouth needs to be sewn shut before I throttle him is so perfect. These two are going to be such passionate lovers when they get to that point.
So I finished InuYasha and moved onto Yashahime, and I have to say I'm not all that impressed. I like the characters. Moroha is the cutest little thing in the world and I want to squish her forever, but the plot is pretty garbage. I'm halfway through the season and there's no clear plot yet. What's that about? I will watch through it eventually, but not right now. I don't have the patience to sit through good characters but crappy plot for the sake of finishing a series right now. Maybe the second half has an amazing plot, and I'm just being too hard on it, but I honestly feel like the fourteen episodes I've watched could have really been condensed into like... three or four episodes and it would have still made sense. The pacing is so slow and tedious, without the length that the original InuYasha series boasted to assure me that actual plot is happening.
Anyway, less disliking YashaHime, and more talking about our babes. I already really love writing InuYasha and Cami together. They're both so hotheaded, but have surprising moments of quiet and acceptance, which neither have shown just yet, but give it time. Their story is going to be an amazing one to write, and I am so pumped to write it. Though we are still way off romance yet. I think they'd both bite my head off if I suggested romance to either of them right now. I most certainly don't want my head bitten off.
Writing the latter half of this chapter was difficult. My poor laptop is an old bird, and she doesn't like handling fanfic docs over about 7000 words. Any more than that and she starts lagging as I type and struggling to save. It can get a bit worrying when I've written a huge chunk of a scene, go to save, and the window goes white and I freak out over possibly losing a few thousand words. But we chugged on, and she's holding out. No scenes were lost in the writing of this chapter, at least!
I really liked the idea of Cami being seduced by the idea of the jewel, too. She's a strong-willed person, but she's easily influenced by what she wants. Like InuYasha, she wants to belong. Even if she's hotheaded and will claim that she hates people and will always hate people, she just wants to belong and feel accepted by people instead of judged or isolated or worse. The jewel has the potential to do that, and Cami wants that so much. Of course she's going to be seduced by the idea of it. Who wouldn't?
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I had a lot of fun writing it. Hopefully it wont take too long to get a new chapter written up for you!
