Three: Baby One More Time
Tears blurred Kagome's vision as she ran from Hojo's office.
"Kagome, wait!" Hojo called after her. "You're not thinking!"
"You're not thinking!" she shot back childishly over her shoulder.
She was so concentrated on the door that she hardly even noticed when she bumped shoulders with her former hanyō bodyguard.
"Watch it!" he hissed at her. "Wait, where the fuck are ya goin'?"
When she didn't stop, he grabbed her wrist, tugging her to him. The soft gold of Inuyasha's eyes was almost concerned. Coupled with how his puppy ears were pinned flat against his head due to the still blaring alarms, it was almost cute. Kagome glanced longingly at the exit. She had been so close. A macho guy like him would never let her charge into battle unequipped and unfocused as she was.
With a sigh, she turned her best puppy dog eyes on him. "I want to go to the site. I'm so mad I'm going to take out all the demons myself." Her chin dimpled in determination as she glared at Inuyasha, daring him to stop her.
"Fuck yeah!" he said. "What the fuck are ya waiting for, climb on."
Kagome blinked at him. "…You're not going to tell me to stay behind?"
He snorted. "And why the fuck would I do that?"
"Because I'm a girl?"
"You've already kicked my ass. It'd be nice to see someone else get taken down by Strawberry Shortcake, too."
Hojo approached them, looking caught between annoyed and concerned. "Kagome, at least take some armor, maybe even your arrows—"
She climbed onto Inuyasha's offered back, briefly considering flipping Hojo the bird before deciding that the best form of attack in this instance was the cold shoulder.
"You better know where we're going, because there's no way in hell I'm going back and asking Hojo where the site is."
"Keh, I heard where everyone else was headed. I've fought there before."
There was something different in his voice, in how tense he was. Kagome found herself unconsciously trying to soothe him, her hands massaging his shoulder muscles.
"Is it far?"
"Just outside the city. Maybe you've even been there before. Kikyo mighta become someone who'd want you to see it."
Kagome furrowed her brow. Her grandmother rarely ventured far from the shrine, saying it was where she was happiest.
"Where?"
"Where she grew up." And where they broke up, though he didn't want to mention that.
"She grew up on the shrine with Jii-chan."
"Before."
His words were final and they spoke no more while he leaped and flew over the earth, covering a lot more ground than their fellows since there was no traffic in their style of transportation. A few times, Kagome almost asked him about his relationship with Kikyo, but it wasn't like he was her bodyguard anymore, anyway. And aside from that, she didn't care about his unrequited love for her grandma. It had to be unrequited, because Baa-chan always loved Jii-chan and who would ever like Inuyasha anyway?
"We're here," Inuyasha said, unceremoniously dumping her to the ground.
"Ow!" Kagome said, falling on her butt. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't even had the time to reach out and break her fall. Her tailbone was bruised, she just knew it by the way the whole area was numb and vibrating.
Inuyasha was already walking away.
"Hey!" she called out, scrambling to her feet and catching up to him. Feeling a little more than vindictive, she jumped up and tugged on his ear until he bent down to her height, cursing and glaring at her.
"What the fuck, bitch!" Inuyasha attempted to squirm out of her grasp, but that only made her twist.
Kagome didn't let go until she realized that the shiny thing he was holding was a gun.
"What the fuck, Inuyasha!?"
"That's what I said, idiot," he grumbled, massaging his hurting ear. "Look, the swarm's on the outskirts of the property concentrated on the cave. Let's head there."
"Why do you have a gun?"
"Why are you wearing heels to a fuckin' fight?"
"It's not the same!"
With a roll of his eyes and a heavy sigh, he cocked the gun and shot it into the air. Kagome shrieked and backed up, only to stop in her tracks when she saw a rush of golden light leave the gun instead of a bullet.
"This is Tessaiga. It used to be my sword, but a blade ain't exactly the most inconspicuous weapon of choice these days. The SCA converted it for me when I joined up."
Kagome didn't know if it was right for her to be jealous that she had just gotten a notebook of SCA policy and a badge upon joining, but she was regardless.
Just as she opened her mouth to throw back some smart reply, she felt a chill run down her spine.
"There's something else here," she said, voice hushed without her realizing she had changed it. "It's not far, but in the opposite direction of where you were headed."
Inuyasha sniffed the air before giving her a dubious look. "No there ain't. The action is back by the cave."
"Well excuse me for trusting the abilities of the most powerful priestess in existence over a dog's nose."
"I'd put money on nearly three centuries of battle experience and a heightened sense of smell that can locate youki anywhere within a ten-mile radius over a little girl with more unearned confidence than skill."
"Unearned confidence?" she repeated aghast, hands on her hips. "Need I remind you that I am the highest ranking spiritual combatant in the association and have a higher body count than the next three spiritualists combined?"
He snorted. "Oh, I don't doubt your 'body count'." Before she could retort, he grabbed her wrist and started pulling. "We're going this way."
"Let go of me!"
Some of Kagome's power escaped the tightly coiled knot where it rested inside her and shot down her arm and out through her fingertips, jolting Inuyasha with enough targeted energy to make his flesh burn.
"Ow! That fuckin' hurt, you bitch!"
"You quit back in the office, remember? So you go your way and I'll go mine."
"You? Against so many demons they called in every—single—agent?" he hissed, holding his wounded hand.
"It's a challenge, but I know I'm more than able to rise to it. I don't need you, I don't need Hojo, and I don't need the rest of the agents. I've always been more than enough."
Having made her point, Kagome turned around and walked away.
"You're going the wrong way— Aw, who gives a fuck anyway," he finished in a mumble. Even so, he watched her back until she disappeared through the overgrown wall of shrubs that was the first layer of what he knew to be a large thicket.
A demon's roar sounded in the distance and he felt Tessaiga pulse. That's right, he had a duty. There was no time to spare a thought for stupid girls, whether past or present. And she was going the wrong way, anyhow. Not even an inkling of danger was coming from the direction she'd so stubbornly pursued. Good. That way, she couldn't get herself in any trouble. Even if she did, the bitch was more than capable of handling it on her own, he reminded his conscience. His still stinging skin was proof of that.
Inuyasha rushed to the cave, glad the two of them had separated so he would not have to go back to the wreckage of the house where Kikyo had left him.
O\o/O
Kagome was only a few feet away when she began to question the wisdom of heading off into unknown territory with no more protection than her power which was growing harder and harder to control. At least if she had thought to stop by the shrine and get some damn decent shoes… But there was no use thinking of all the things she should have done. Now, she needed to follow her instincts and destroy the biggest threat she had ever felt before.
She shivered even though there was no breeze and the sun shone bright overhead. The malice, the hatred, the power so great it was almost cruel, all of it had her more on edge than she usually was when entering a fight. It had to be because of stupid Inuyasha. He had to have been lying that he hadn't sensed the evil mass waiting for them. Coward. Fine, let him pick off the easy targets while she took care of the rest.
The shrubbery grew thicker the more she walked, and soon she was afraid she wouldn't be able to find the small trail she had started to follow. Then all at once, it was gone. No vegetation, not even weeds or scraggly patches of yellow grass struggling to survive. There was nothing.
Just the charred remains of what had once been a large house.
It must have been beautiful when it was whole, she thought to herself as she cautiously put pressure on one rotted step with the heel of her shoe. A dream home for a lovely family. Kagome tried to fill her head with thoughts of sunshine and laughter as she carefully picked her way over the threshold, pushing aside the splintered remnants of a door. What the hell had happened here? All she knew for sure was that it was some kind of fiery explosion. Maybe they were rich meth heads or something—
Kagome screamed as something brushed against her face.
"Ohmygods, spiders!"
The entire place was covered in spiderwebs, old and new, and she had walked right into one of them. What little sunlight filtered through the greasy blackened windows illuminated a horror movie set as soon as her eyes adjusted to the dark. Silvery threads hanging from the ceiling, funneling across the floor, creeping across corners. What was perhaps more disturbing was that she saw no prey wrapped in silken cocoons, no arachnids hanging from their work, no evidence of spiders at all apart from the cobwebs themselves.
No life.
Just the menacing, evil pressure that had called her here in the first place.
"Show yourself!" Kagome commanded. The sooner she got this over with, the better. This place was too creepy.
There was nothing that could have warned her. No sound, no movement, no feeling. One minute, she was standing in what she guessed had been the foyer, and the next she was on the ground in the middle of the room. Kagome saw her blood pool before she felt the pain.
"A priestess," a voice said. It came from everywhere. "A Higurashi."
Kagome brought herself up to her knees, feeling a burning pain in her shoulder. A quick glance told her she had been pierced through. But there had been no bullet fired, no whistle of an arrow. Throwing out a hand, she blasted a quick shot of her power into the shadows. It did nothing other than briefly illuminate a figure covered in webs with glowing red eyes.
"Stop playing and do your part, little priestess. You might even survive," the voice said. "I'm not here for you."
Kagome kept her eyes trained on the evil red pinpricks, not knowing what else to do. Should she lure him out and kill him? Perhaps he was sensitive to the sun. Try to keep him cornered? It could work to her advantage that he had nowhere to run. Gods, if only her Baa-chan were here. She would give anything for her gentle wisdom, direction, and encouragement.
Something squeezed against her ankle and she was dragged forward across the floor, charred splinters piercing her skin and bleeding her yet again. Then she was face to face with it. The thing. Suddenly she was glad she could only see its eyes. It was like a mummy, withered in its spiderweb wrappings. With its dry, gray skin, she was inappropriately reminded of when Jii-chan had given her that kappa's paw.
"Maybe not," she said, "but I'm here for you." Forcing herself to overcome her disgust, she put a hand around his throat and channeled all her power inside him, not stopping when even his bandages began to light with flames.
The thing parted its sooty lips and smiled, showing her a mouth filled with too-sharp, too-green teeth. It was the last thing she remembered before pink light exploded behind her eyes.
O\o/O
Inuyasha easily cut his way through the mob of demons that had started to stream out of the cave as soon as he approached. But it felt wrong. He knew he was a confident bastard, but wasn't this almost too easy?
It was, he realized as he gutted something that looked like a cross between a snake and an ox. They were coming at him one at a time. Sure, they crowded around and hissed and made it look like they were gonna lunge, but no one made a move until he was done with what was in front of him. They were uncomfortably restrained and organized, like soldiers in a play.
Everything was wrong. He hadn't seen anything like this since…
"Inuyasha!" Sango called from the skies, throwing a boomerang into the crafted chaos. Jumping off her nekomata mount, she easily landed on the ground and pulled out twin daggers, cutting and slicing. "Where's Kagome?"
Oh shit.
"I gotta go. You take care of this." Other agents were already arriving so he didn't feel compelled to help out the slayer-cum-manager.
Even if he didn't have Kagome's scent to follow, he knew exactly where to go. She had been heading for the house. None of the old memories that had tortured him even flitted through his mind as he jumped from tree to tree. All he could think about was Kagome and if she was okay.
"Stupid, stubborn little…"
Inuyasha trailed off as he came to the end of the wood.
The house was different. Shockingly so. It wasn't so much something that could be seen by the eyes but instead felt. Everything was warped. There was an abrupt end to all vegetation in what looked to be a perfect circle around the building. He suddenly remembered hearing how the house had burned for seven days but still stood. At the time, he had not believed it. He had been there and seen the fire and he had known it would be nothing but ruined ash.
But it was there. Damaged and blackened, but there.
A scream broke him out of his reverie and he sprang into action, storming into the house even as he saw it explode in a flash of pink light. It sizzled his skin and he started to scream, too. Even so, he didn't stop, pushing himself forward on failing limbs.
Human limbs.
As suddenly as it started, it stopped. There was no light, no pain. Nothing other than a dark, dusty house. Inuyasha cursed his human eyes and blinked fast, squinting as he tried to force his eyes to adjust.
A whimper he was just barely able to hear beckoned him forward and he rushed across the room. Kagome was curled up on the floor, bleeding.
"Fuck!" he cursed. Inuyasha shook her shoulder as gently as he could, hands shaking with fear. Had he been too late? Oh gods, but this was just like before. The same place, same position…
"Inuyasha?" she whispered.
Her eyes fluttered open and he had never been so glad.
"Can you stand?"
Kagome smiled at him and it was loopy enough for him to know she wasn't all there. That and how pale her skin had gotten told him it was probably an effect of the blood loss.
"I did it!" she said. "I defeated it. Just me. All by myself."
"Uh huh," he grunted, picking her up. "Put your arms around my neck."
She frowned at him but did as he said. "I don't need your help. You're not my guard anymore. And we hate each other, anyway."
"Shut up before I drop ya again."
He'd question her later, he decided as her eyes shut again and she lost consciousness. About who she had fought—or what—and how it had all gone down. But she was hurt and she needed to get out of there. Hell, he needed to get out of there.
"Inuyasha!"
The currently human half-demon nearly did drop the girl at the sound of his name. That hadn't come from her. It wasn't her voice, and she didn't have that kind of hate inside her. Only one person had said his name like that, and it had only been once.
He turned around, not trusting his ears. Then he didn't trust his eyes.
"K-Kikyo?"
She looked just as she had then. Face smudged with ash, her shirt torn ragged at the shoulder and down across her back from a clawed attack. Even her bow and arrows were there in the bag with the fraying strap on the floor. Just in case the sight of his dead former fiancée, who had lived a long and happy life, suddenly in front of him as young and alive as she had been when he saw her last wasn't enough to make him think he had received a nasty blow to the head, a wound opened up in her shoulder and started to gush blood that smelled like dirt and smoke.
"Is that why you did this to me? You tried to kill me so you could be with her?"
His mouth remained open but no sound came out. His brain wasn't up to the task of responding with words. Hell, what the fuck could you say when your dead ex accused you of cheating on her with her granddaughter? Then his brain processed the rest of what she had said.
"Wait, kill you? Kikyo, I didn't try and kill you. I'd never hurt you, I loved you."
She staggered forward a step, face twisted with rage that wounded him as deeply as her arrows once had. Her dark eyes were shining with unshed tears and he felt inexplicably guilty, as though he really had done the things she had accused him of.
"You're a liar! All of you, all the demons do nothing but lie!" Then she stopped, looking almost calm. It was scarier than it had been before. "You became human for her."
It was something they had talked about. Once, just once, when she had asked him to marry her.
It had been the night before they were set to go up against the demons who had been organizing and rebelling. They had just completed their training and been awarded with their badges and weapons. His Tessaiga had been upgraded into a pistol and her arrows had been tweaked so they would always return to her. They had sneaked out long after they were supposed to be sleeping in their dormitories, meeting at the most private and romantic place they could at the moment: the obstacle course.
Kikyo had been sitting in the yokozuwari style, looking pretty and proper even as she leaned against the Spartan wall. Inuyasha joined her, getting as close as he dared, which even after everything they had been through together was still about a foot away.
"So," she said, breaking the silence. "Tomorrow's going to be a big day."
"Yeah."
His stomach was in knots. They had never sneaked off before, Kikyo being too fond of rules and him usually breaking so many that he was forced to spend his after-training time scrubbing floors or something. But now here they were together and he wondered if this time would be the one he mustered up the courage to actually touch her.
"What are you going to do after the war?"
Maybe it was stupid, but Inuyasha had never thought about that. He'd never really thought about the future in general. Every day had always been about the now, about surviving.
He shrugged. "Dunno. Stay on as an agent, I guess."
Her brow furrowed and he instantly knew he had said the wrong thing. "Really? Don't you want a normal life?"
He didn't even know what that would look like. "I like the SCA. I'm good at fighting."
"But what if you didn't have to fight?"
Inuyasha gave her a look. Pointing one clawed finger at his ears, he said, "Hanyō, remember?"
"Well, what if you weren't? What if we used the Shikon?"
"Keh, all the times I tried to steal the jewel from ya and you're gonna hand it to me?" he joked.
But Kikyo nodded. "Yes."
"Wait, huh?"
"Think about it, Inuyasha." She became animated, her cheeks taking on a rosy glow the more she talked in a way he found far too enchanting. "We could use the jewel. Only instead of erasing your human half, we erase your demon half. And then we could be together. We could get married and since the jewel was used for something good it would disappear and I wouldn't have to guard it anymore. We could be happy."
Happy. He had thought they were already happy. "I…"
Kikyo bridged the gap between them and grabbed his hand, holding it between both of hers. Her smile was small and her eyes were almost pleading.
"We could be so happy together, Inuyasha," she repeated. "All we need to do is make the wish and we can have everything we ever wanted."
He found himself nodding. "Sure. Yeah. Yes. Anything, Kikyo."
With a hushed laugh, she threw herself at him, embracing him so tightly it made him blush. They stayed like that, holding each other and making plans until dawn. It had been the best night of his life.
Inuyasha hadn't thought about that night in years. But here was Kikyo, the same Kikyo that had loved him, inexplicably alive and young and wow, so fucking angry.
"Look," Inuyasha said. "I know this ain't real and all, but I never lied to you, Kikyo. You're the one who betrayed our promise, made the jewel vanish, and left me. You fell in love and had a happy life with someone else. Now you're dead and I don't have time for your bullshit."
"Dead?" Kikyo echoed, the word so quiet he barely heard it. For a moment, she looked confused, but then the anger was back. "More lies. Is that all you can do?"
The longer they lingered, the more his demon nature returned. He was able to smell and hear better. And his senses were telling him some startling things.
Kikyo had no heartbeat. Kikyo was stone cold. Kikyo smelled overwhelmingly of smoke and dirt and, most concerning of all, Kagome's blood. His sight had sharpened as well and he saw a place where the floor had fallen through and there was nothing but dirt. Dirt that had a person-shaped pit complete with arms and legs. Right in the spot where Kikyo had been almost mortally wounded fifty years ago.
Oh fuck. This wasn't a dream.
"Listen, Kikyo, you've been dead for years," he said, trying to edge away from the reanimated woman. "You must feel that things are all wrong. When we were last in this house, you were hurt and you almost died but you recovered and that was fifty years ago. This girl, Kagome, she's your granddaughter. And right now she needs help. She's hurt."
"Shut up!" she screeched, and the earth seemed to shake. Inuyasha turned to run but the doorway had been blocked over with thick ropes of spider silk. He punched out at it but the threads cut into his hand like steel blades. Tessaiga was out of the question as he was still too human to use it. "I was too weak to do it then, but not anymore. I'll—" She paused, fixating on Kagome. "Now I see why you left me. You are using her just as you used me. You seek the jewel, even now."
"What?" he asked. "Kikyo, you destroyed the jewel."
She laughed. "Really? I was a fool once, but no longer. Especially when the proof of your lies is right in front of me."
Kikyo darted out her hand and plunged it into Kagome's side. Kagome's eyes opened and her mouth dropped in a silent gasp of what he knew to be excruciating pain. Inuyasha leaped across the room, fumbling as he pressed a hand to Kagome's wound, desperately trying to stop the bleeding.
"Fuckfuckfuck," he cursed in a panic. "Breathe, Kagome, just breathe and stay with me, okay?"
"I don't know whether to be angry that your involvement with her obviously wasn't just about the jewel or relieved," Kikyo said. She seemed sad as she gazed down at her gory blood-covered hand. With each passing second, her expression grew more detached. "Maybe I saw that good in you. But it is too little, too late. For you and for your whore."
"Gods damn it, Kikyo, do you have any idea what you just did?"
"I took back what is mine." She held her hand up and he saw the blood-slicked orb shine with a light of its own. "Obviously, you never were. Tell me this, whore, how did you manage to steal the jewel from me?"
Kagome was still speechless, choking on every tiny puff of air she could manage. There were tears in her eyes from the effort and Inuyasha pressed her closer, eyes darting around the room for a way out. Cobwebs had covered every surface. He'd have to destroy Kikyo to get them out of there alive, and he didn't know if he could.
"I don't want to hurt you, Kikyo," he said, voice low and slow. "If you are Kikyo, then I know you wouldn't want a helpless girl to die, would you?"
"How did you get the jewel?" Kikyo repeated.
To his surprise, Kagome managed to turn her head. There was a spark of recognition in her eyes but no shock, no fear.
"What jewel, you psycho zombie?" Kagome croaked. "I'm with the SCA. If Inuyasha can't do it, then I'll be the one to take you down, just like I took down your accomplice Onigumo."
Inuyasha and Kikyo both blanched at the name.
Kikyo backed away from them against a wall. Her eyes darted around the room, searching for the monster. "He's here? Naraku is here?"
"That's impossible. We killed Naraku fifty years ago. We killed him here!"
"I know Naraku's dead," Kagome said in a tone of voice that did more than imply she thought the both of them were stupid. "I said Onigumo. That burned up spiderweb guy told me his name before I purified him. I'm really tired and want to leave, so you know what? You're dead, too."
Kagome pointed a finger in Kikyo's direction. Inuyasha waited, but nothing happened.
"What the…" She shook her hand, coughing with the effort. "What did you do to me, you bitch?"
Kikyo glared at her. "I'm sorry, did you think you were really a priestess? You're nothing more than a thieving slut. You were drawing on the power of the jewel. Without it, you are less than nothing."
Kagome looked down at her hand, dirty and sticky with blood. It shook with the effort of keeping it aloft. And now she was starting to feel cold.
"Nothing?" she repeated.
The creature looked at her with disdain from her grandmother's eyes that had always viewed her with love. It cut her to the core.
"The both of you may congratulate yourselves for having come this far. None of the others that attempted to steal the jewel had been so innovative. At least you will die knowing you succeeded at being the best of the worst filth that came after the Shikon."
Inuyasha turned his back on Kikyo, facing the wall and protecting Kagome with his body.
"This sure ain't how I pictured dying," he muttered.
"Then kill her, you moron," Kagome said, her voice even fainter than before. She was fading fast and he could see she was struggling to keep alert.
"Kikyo. At last you came."
Inuyasha turned, stomach clenching with dread.
"I killed you!" he said. "This can't be happening. You're dead, Kikyo's dead. You can't be here."
"You tried," Naraku said. He wore webs as a garment and looked horrifically burned. The sight of him that weak gave him courage. He was mostly Onigumo, and that meant there were a lot more weaknesses to exploit.
Inuyasha jumped forward, temporarily forgetting that he was mostly human as well, and drew Tessaiga, pointing it at him. Kikyo beat him to the punch and Naraku was engulfed in a silvery blue light, again burning him to nothing.
"Meet me in our spot," his voice rustled through the spiderwebs. "Come to me, Kikyo."
Kikyo sneered. "A puppet. Some things never change."
"Naraku has been dead for fifty years," Inuyasha said. It felt like he had taken a trip through the looking glass. Or a fuckin' DeLorean.
"We never should have met again, Inuyasha," Kikyo said, her voice catching. "You should have kept your word."
The obvious pain she was feeling made his heart clench in answer. While their parting had been miserable, it was nowhere near this level of anguish. Kikyo had been calm when she'd broken up with him. There had been no accusations of attempted murder or cheating or trying to take the jewel. She had even recommended him for advancement within the SCA but he had turned it down, wanting to stay in the field.
What had happened to her at the moment of her near-death?
"I will not hold back," Kikyo said, raising her hand that still held the jewel. "You will not be temporarily human. I will destroy your deformed soul itself in its entirety."
"Do it, then!" Inuyasha said. "I haven't lived since the day I lost you. Might as well make it official."
That stayed her hand somewhat and Kikyo looked at him, seeming to reconsider. It was short-lived, however, and he saw the moment her posture changed. She was going to kill him.
An arrow pierced her chest and pink fireworks lit up the room.
Kikyo took a step back and looked down, seeming more amazed at the sight than anything else.
"It doesn't hurt," she said, looking up at him. "Inuyasha, why doesn't it hurt?"
The blood that flowed from the wound was red, but when it dripped down and hit the floor, it turned to dirt.
"I might not have my powers," Kagome said, breathing raggedly as she stumbled into place beside him, "but I can still shoot a fucking arrow."
Kikyo's back hit the webs that had grown across the doorway and they disappeared. Clutching the feathered end of the projectile stuck firmly in her chest, she pulled it out and threw it aside. Giving him one last look that clearly communicated her pain, confusion, fear, and the love he had not seen in so long, Kikyo left. And he would have followed, but Kagome swayed and he caught her.
"Kagome!" He patted her cheek stained with blood, dirt, and tears, willing her to open her eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Can't…move…"
"That's what I'm here for, wench." Inuyasha picked her up again, grateful beyond words that she was still alive. "I'll send someone after Kikyo—or whatever that was. A revenant with the jewel is not what we need right now."
"She doesn't have it." Kagome smiled with blue-tinted lips. "No one does."
"How much blood have you lost?"
"Look down. Where she dropped the arrow."
Inuyasha did, stooping down and looking at the arrow that had once been covered in blood but was now smeared with dirt. There was a sparkle at the tip and he poked at it. A shard of what looked like colored glass was stuck to his finger. It took him a second to put it all together, but when he did, he nearly dropped Kagome.
"…Did you break the fucking Shikon?"
She was still smiling, and that gave him hope even as her shallow breathing and cool temperature concerned him.
"Shattered it. Good luck taking over the world now, supervillains."
He groaned and tucked the shard in his pocket, bounding outside.
"Can't even leave you alone for five minutes, can I?"
She was already passed out again.
O\o/O
Everything smelled like her favorite food and Bengay. Kagome knew where she was before she even opened her eyes.
"Is the oden done yet?" she croaked, struggling to sit up.
"Careful! I just finished changing your bandages."
Kagome blinked blearily until her the old woman came into focus. "How'd I get here, Aunt Kaede? The last thing I remember was taking out that creepy mummy demon."
"You've been sleeping for a week." The voice was deep, as gravelly as it was unexpected. "The hag thought you were dead when I brought ya. Almost got my ass purified for good."
"A week!" Kagome tried to get out of the bed only to be gently pushed back down by two pairs of hands. "Sango's gonna be so pissed! I've got interviews, meetings, filming, shows—"
"You've gotta shut up and heal."
"Much as it pains me to say it, Inuyasha is right." Kaede tucked the edges of the quilt around Kagome. "I have never seen anyone as drained as you were survive. And you were injured physically as well. Some would have died just from that."
What happened after she had purified that monster came back to her all at once. "Inuyasha, that thing… It looked like… I know it couldn't have been, but it just looked so much like her." Kagome clutched the blankets tighter to her and brought them all the way up to her chin. She was so cold all of a sudden, and so incredibly sad.
Inuyasha released a breath and sat down on the bed at her feet. "I know. It was…unexpected."
"Baa-chan coming back from the dead is a little more dramatic than just 'unexpected'."
"That thing is not my sister," Kaede said, suddenly fierce. "It is nothing more than animated pain and memories." Her remaining eye shone with certainty and wounded anger. "How dare he. After all these years, to show his despicable face now. And to disturb my sister's rest!"
"She didn't know who I was," Kagome said, wiping away the tears that escaped. "Aunt Kaede, it was horrible! She hated me."
"Sweet girl, you know your grandmother could never hate you," Kaede cooed, smoothing her niece's hair. "She loved you so much in such a special way."
"Sorry to break up the pity party, but we've got more important things to address." The two women glared at the half-demon but he either didn't notice or ignored it. "Naraku isn't dead. The jewel never vanished. Kagome had it inside her fucking body. Thanks to this genius, it's now in a million fuckin' pieces all over the fuckin' world. And Kikyo's back and doesn't remember anything after the night we thought we killed the greatest evil the SCA has ever seen."
After handing Kagome a tissue and giving her one last hug, Kaede rounded on Inuyasha.
"You were there that night, Inuyasha. You tell us why the jewel was in Kagome when it vanished fifty years ago."
"I wasn't there when she did it! Wouldn't you know? You were like her only friend or whatever."
Kaede rolled her eye skyward. "Not a day goes by when I don't thank the gods you and Kikyo broke up. Toxic mother…" The rest of what she said was muffled even to him, but he had a good idea of what it was.
"Baa-chan never talked about her days in the SCA," Kagome said in a small voice. "Not to me. Did she say anything to you, Aunt Kaede? Or maybe to Jii-chan?"
She shook her head. "I'm afraid not, my dear. Kikyo wrote your grandfather and I daily while she was at war, but most of what was going on then was classified and she couldn't share."
"Was anyone else there that night?" Kagome asked Inuyasha.
He took a second to think about it. "Most are dead now. Human spiritualists. And Kikyo was alone when the fire started. I didn't get there until she had found a way out, and by then, it was all over. Naraku was dead, the jewel was gone, and I was single."
"So," Kagome began, "the only one who can tell us how we got in this mess is my fake grandma who wants to kill us both."
"Pretty much."
They stared at each other, at a standstill.
Kagome sighed. "Great. Just great. Zombies, a legendary enemy, and my first solo world tour. And we only have a single shard of the jewel. Why the heck is it in the bathroom?"
The two of them blinked at her.
"…How did you know where the shard is?" Kaede asked. "I taped it underneath the toilet tank so this one wouldn't get sticky fingers."
"I brought it to ya, didn't I!?"
Kagome shrugged. "I just knew."
"That's comforting. That means not all your power has disappeared."
She quirked a brow. "Of course it hasn't. I'm the strongest I've ever been, Aunt Kaede."
Inuyasha and Kaede shared a look.
"Dear, where did you feel the source of your power before?"
Kagome touched her chest. "Here. Right by my heart."
"And where did Kikyo yank the jewel outta ya?"
She paled with understanding. "Oh. Oh no. No, that can't be right."
"I'm afraid it is, my dear. You are powerless on your own. Other than your jewel-detection abilities, which I suspect are due to the jewel having been a part of you all your life. Even that may fade given time."
"It's not true! I'm just tired. I overdid it. They'll come back, they always do!" Reaching out, Kagome grabbed Inuyasha's hand and shut her eyes tight, reaching deep inside where her powers always were before.
Nothing happened.
"Did you just try and fuckin' turn me human again?"
Her grip on his hand slackened and she opened her eyes, tears filling them again. Inuyasha squeezed her trembling hand gently and she didn't know why, but she continued to keep the contact. Right now, she needed it.
"How could this be?" she asked in a whisper. "Aunt Kaede, how can I not be a priestess?"
The older woman looked like she was about to start crying herself. "I don't have the answer for that, sweet girl. But you are not entirely helpless. You can sense the jewel. No one else is capable of that. No one else is fit to piece it together again."
"That's just gonna make her a target," Inuyasha piped up.
She glared at him. "And you have your guard dog to shield you from harm."
"I can't believe this," Kagome said, holding back a sob. "I d-don't know who I am if I'm not a priestess."
"Maybe it's good the tour is happening now," Kaede soothed. "You'll be working and travelling, and that will take your mind off it some. And it's a good cover for seeking the jewel."
"That's why I signed up to guard you in the first place," Inuyasha thought it helpful to include.
"To make things a little easier," Kaede said, smiling in a way the half-demon noticeably did not like, "I have a little gift for you."
Kaede rustled through the nightstand drawer and pulled out a necklace. With a flick of her wrist, it was tossed to Inuyasha, who didn't dodge fast enough thanks to him still holding Kagome's hand. A flash of light and string of curses later, the necklace was wrapped fast around his neck. The half-demon rose to his feet and tugged at the beads, clawing and even biting at them.
"What the fuck did you do to me, you old hag!?"
"Say the word, Kagome. Bind him."
Inuyasha was so mad he was nearly foaming at the mouth. "Bitch, I swear if you so much as—"
"Sit!"
He came crashing down to the floor with such force the bed rocked.
"I've been waiting years to see that," Kaede said in satisfaction. "I put that together during arts and crafts at miko day camp right when Kikyo began to sneak off to the woods to meet her secret boyfriend. Just in case."
"You bitch, I swear I'll—"
"Sit!" Kagome said again for good measure. "Thanks for the gift, Aunt Kaede. It'll even the playing field enough to make me feel better."
"You better pray Naraku gets to you first, because I'm gonna—"
"Sit! Is the oden ready yet?"
"Just about. Would you like to eat in front of the television like when you were little and had a cold?"
"Yes, please."
The two of them left Inuyasha facedown on the floor and wondering how this job could get any worse.
Note: I am an American, so there was bound to be a firearm in my stories at some point. If Towa can have a fucking lightsaber using only the power of bad writing (and this might be reading into it but also weird lesbian twincest emotions that I can't be the only one picking up on), then Inuyasha can have Tessaigun (also using the power of bad writing but like no lesbian twincest because this isn't that kind of story).
