A/N I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters. I just really liked this prompt and I hope everyone else enjoys the idea as much as I do.
He arrived at the edge of the barrier late into the night. She slid off his back and almost stumbled when her feet hit the ground. "Be careful, ya dummy. What the hell happened? It ain't like you were the one doing all the damn running!"
She felt her legs give out. Clearly riding on his back with them up around his waist had left them feeling numb. She tried to stand back up, but her legs didn't want to listen to her. She stretched them out in front of her and tried to wiggle her toes. They finally started moving after a moment, then her legs started tingling. It tickled at first, then it began to hurt. Not terribly painful, but it definitely wasn't pleasant. She looked up to see him glaring down at her.
"Damn, you're completely useless. What the hell is wrong with you?"
She scrunched her face for a moment, "Sorry, Inuyasha. My legs hurt from having them in the same position for so long. It'll pass in a minute. Haven't you ever sat on your legs and gotten the pins and needles feeling from it? They're just a little numb."
"Keh, I ain't weak like you humans. O' course I haven't. I'll wait until you can stand and get inside the fucking barrier. Then I will see you at sunrise in the field for practice." He leapt into a tree above them and watched her. Waiting for her to stand. It only took another minute, and she hissed as the pain swept through her when she stood. His ears pinned themselves to his head as she did, but she was looking away from him.
She half turned, not quite facing him. "Goodnight Inuyasha. I'll see you in the morning."
She entered the barrier, and it bothered him that he couldn't smell her anymore. It bothered him when she disappeared from his sight. He had no idea why, though. Sure, she was going to be his familiar, but that didn't explain why it bothered him so much. He was gonna have to look into this. Maybe he would have to do some research of his own before the ritual. Maybe this was going to be a big mistake on his part. He would have to go to Bokusenō. He was the only person who would be able to answer his questions without being a judgemental prick.
The next morning, Kagome woke before dawn and made breakfast. Even though she had gone to bed before Kaede and Kikyou she still woke before them both. After she made breakfast, she went and got fresh water from the well and cleaned herself up. She felt like she smelled terrible after traipsing through the countryside. Covered in the dust and dirt from the road. But she had enjoyed smelling like Inuyasha. His musk held a certain natural forest-y smell to it. She couldn't quite place it. She figured it was from living in the forest for as long as he had, though.
After cleaning and dressing, she left the hut. Kaede and Kikyou still slept since it was still so early. She arrived at the clearing before he did and began her meditation. When he started approaching, she realized she could sense him. His aura was bright red. It was so clear in her mind's eye. She opened her eyes and looked towards his aura just in time to see him step out from the trees. For a second he looked surprised to find her looking at him, but he said nothing and plopped down in front of her.
"So, witch. Any luck on your progress?"
She hummed a bit, then closed her eyes, looking at his aura. Then she tried to touch it with her own powers. She tentatively reached out with them and just barely grazed his.
"Fuck. What did you do?"
She opened her eyes, and his hair was black as midnight, and his eyes were almost violet. Her eyes widened, "What did I do?!"
He shook his head, "Dammit, witch. Warn a demon before you do that. I can't believe even with your damn powers bound, you purified me that fuckin' easily. How much force did you fucking exert with that little stunt?"
She wasn't sure if he was angry or if she was in trouble, but she thought she should be. "I-I-I barely touched your aura with mine. It was the first time I was able to sense it, and I wanted to reach out to it. Did I hurt you?"
"Keh, as if you could. Wait, you barely fucking touched me? Bullshit!"
Her eyes were wide, "I don't know. I've never seen your aura before. I just wanted to see what it felt like."
He glared daggers at the young woman sitting on the edge of the small stream. Her hands clasped tightly in her own lap. Then a grin overtook his face.
"You're gonna be an amazing familiar after all this is said and done. If you can harness that kind of power while not being able to access your full strength, you will be a worthy ally. Now let's get back to basics. I actually think, since this is the first thing you've successfully managed to achieve, that you might want to focus on your aura. It seems that was one part he couldn't bind. And for the record, you can't, actually, hurt me with that. The most you can do is turn me human. So don't stress out about it. Now, how far back could you sense me?"
She looked down and focused. "It was at least a minute before you walked into the clearing, but I didn't know what it was immediately. I had to wait until you got closer to understand your intentions. I could feel you though, and as you got closer, I knew you weren't here to hurt me. That was when I realized it was you."
"Wait, you could feel my intentions?"
She nodded slightly, unsure how else to explain it. "I mean, I could tell you weren't stalking me like a predator, I didn't feel any negativity around your aura. Is that wrong?"
He shook his head but didn't respond. Her head dropped again. She had done it wrong. Of course she had. A deep breath in and out and she lifted her head again. "What should I have seen?"
His eyes met hers, "Are you kidding me? With your powers bound, you shouldn't have seen me at all. But you did, and even more than that, you could search for my jyaki, and instinctively you knew to do that, without even knowing what you were looking for, I imagine, since you haven't said the word once. So you did amazingly. But you shouldn't be doing that well, unless that monk wasn't as useless as we pegged him for, and he freed a bit more of your powers."
She looked inside herself and tried to see where the binding was. It felt like a dark knot around her soul. She couldn't remove it quite, but she could tell that since he pulled on it, it seemed to be allowing more of her to spill over. It was weird. She couldn't access them, but they were more there than they were just a day ago. But the knot was so tight, it almost felt like it was choking them. They were brighter than she remembered, but it didn't look healthy.
Her eyes rose to meet his and his violet eyes faded back to the brilliant gold, his dark hair went back to its lustrous silver and his ears reappeared on the top of his head in little triangles.
"Inuyasha, I don't think he helped. I think he did something bad. Can you sense my aura? It feels weird. Different, and it's not a good different."
"Keh." he stalked forward and gently placed his clawed hands on the sides of her face and closed his eyes. She felt him probing deep inside her, and it was terrifying and thrilling. His aura filled her body in a way she had never felt before. She dared not close her eyes and focused on the twitching of his ears with every breath she took. They were facing her completely and listening to every sound she made. Then his golden eyes reopened. The look he gave her was not a pleasant one.
"That dumb sonofabitch. He fucking did that?! Yesterday, I could tell they were bound, but it wasn't fucking like that. What a sloppy drunkard. Fine, we need to get this fixed immediately. This is going to end up hurting you. If we don't do this immediately, you ain't gonna last the fucking year to train with me. When a witch loses her aura like that, it can kill her. It's one thing if it's bound safely, but another altogether if it's like that. It feels like the binding is literally strangling you. Fuck. I have to go. I will be back before the full moon for the ritual. You stay here. Don't leave the forest. Keep coming here and meditating. Don't talk to anyone other than your coven. And don't tell them what I said. You hear me?!"
Her eyes were wide. This was going to kill her? That monk who tried to help her had brought her death so much closer. She nodded and fought back tears. It wasn't fair, if it weren't for the monk she would have died as a child, she should be grateful she got to live at all. But she couldn't help but be a little hurt. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She needed to be strong. She could be an amazing familiar. They were going to save her. They had to. It was important. She could do it. She could overcome this.
His hand reappeared on the side of her face and her eyes burst open, "Don't give up yet. We can figure this out. I am gonna go see what I can learn, alright? Just stay close to home. I'll be back as soon as I can. Don't do anything stupid and get yourself killed, alright?"
She gave him her best smile, but knew it was probably weak and watery. He gave her a single nod, pulled his hand away and took off into the forest. He would learn what he could. He wanted to save her. She would be an amazing familiar, and he wanted to make sure she lived to witness it.
Inuyasha was traveling deep into the forest, even at his full speed it was over a day's journey. He needed to get there and find out all he could, so he could return quickly. He had an idea, but he needed to know she would be safe. He had big plans for her. He ran as fast as he could without stopping until deep into the night. After a brief respite, he resumed his journey and arrived in a large clearing before midday.
On one edge of the clearing, was an enormous tree and a large tree trunk that had been broken and worn flat over time. He leapt onto the trunk and sat cross-legged.
"Hey, Bokusenō. I need to talk to ya. Are ya still alive?"
A withered face appeared in the bark, and his deep voice echoed through the forest. "It has been a long time since you have come to me, Inuyasha. What brings you here today?"
A slight smirk spread across his face, "Keh. I needed some information, and I figured you would be the most likely one to have the information. I found a witch that I want to make my familiar, but her powers are bound. I wanted to know how to unbind her powers."
The face stared in quiet contemplation for a moment, "The one who bound her powers is unable to remove the binding?"
Inuyasha shook his head, "He's a drunkard and ended up doing more damage trying to remove them, than leaving them alone would have."
The face stared quietly again, and Inuyasha could feel himself getting antsy. He needed answers. She was in danger. He had no idea how long she would have at this rate.
Kagome on the other hand had found that with her aura and powers now spilling over more, she was able to use her powers. She started working on all the spells she had been trained in, that never seemed to work and was thrilled to find she could easily perform most of them. After helping several plants grow and finding them working beautifully, she started focusing on some other things. There was so much she wanted to try. She had spent the last decade studying and practicing, and it had never worked. She was not giving up this opportunity for anything.
She was able to use her evocation to create little flames in the palm of her hand. Then she started working on her scrying. She was able to see all the way to the monk Mushin, and he was lying down at the table drunk again. Miroku was there and meditating, but didn't seem to notice her. She released the spell almost as soon as she knew it worked. She had so much to keep practicing.
She spent an hour working on all the things she had studied. Then it hit her. A pain she had ever imagined! Her head felt like it was going to split in two. She fell to the ground in the meadow and screamed into the grass. She was too far outside the barrier for her coven to hear her, and there was no one else there to call to. It was excruciating. Her soul seemed to be screaming inside her own body. What had she done? It wasn't like she had done any huge spells. They were all basic. She wrapped her hands around her head and focused on her breathing as best she could. She wasn't screaming anymore, but that was more because she didn't feel like she could speak, let alone scream.
She thought about Inuyasha. Would this kill her? Had she made the worst mistake ever? Thinking about him at least distracted her from the pain. He would be so mad at her. Would he ever forgive her? He wanted her to be his familiar. Even if it was only because she had a lot of power, it was still touching. She had been looking forward to spending time with him and getting to know him. He had been gruff but kind. She was going to die here, and she decided she wanted her last thoughts to be of him.