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Strangled Time

Chapter 42

Power from a demonic energy lit close by in the wet woods, nearly smothering the pinprick of Toga's aura that Kagome had been locked on to. The surge froze her blood. Halting, Kagome held Saburo back as she assessed, trying not to let the freak out in her gut take over.

"Did you feel that?" She asked in a harsh whisper. Which was stupid. Of course he didn't feel it; Saburo didn't have any supernatural abilities. He was as mundane as they came. But before she could explain just what she had felt, a booming roar cracked across the hillside.

That he would feel.

It was close. So close. Too close!

"Toga!" The priestess screamed into the forest as she took off in a sprint. Whatever had made that sound was nearly on top of him and if she didn't move fast enough—she didn't want to think about what would happen.

Stupid dog! Stupid monsters! Stupid rocks!

Kagome held her bow high as she ran through the wet, slick mud and leaped over hella dangerous boulders. Caressing her skin like a warm, protective embrace, the Phoenix robes allowed her movements to be easy and light. She was so grateful for the freedom they gave her, especially when the young woman ran to the edge of a steep outcropping that had appeared out of nowhere. With a shriek, Kagome hooked a leg and an arm around a tree to keep herself from sliding down the bank. Momentum from her pace swung her around to where she could stabilize her feet back up on somewhat flat ground.

"Toga!?" Kagome yelled again, searching with both her voice and her mind's eye. She wasn't able to see crap in that darkness, but she could make out the rocky slope and what looked like a fresh trail where something had slid down beside her.

"Kagome." Toga said from below her. He sounded hoarse.

Again the monster called out its thunderous roar.

"Toga, wait right there! I'm coming down! Saburo!" She twisted to yell over her shoulder. "Watch out for the cliff!"

Before the young woman could start the treacherous decent down the slippery rocks into the unknown, Toga stopped her. "Do not come down here." He was gasping. Almost panicked. "It is not safe for you. Please, you can shoot them from up there."

Them!? There was more than one!?

"But I can't see them!"

"Ha!" The dog demon bellowed. It was less a laugh, more a shaking battle cry. "You are close. Above me. Follow my voice. Can you find me?"

Kagome searched below her, followed the trail of the mudslide and squinted hard into the dark shadows at the base of the valley. "Is that you? Move your hair!" She instructed. If she could only spot that sliver of silver against the dark of snow and black.

He moved.

There!

"I see you!"

"Good. Kagome, I need you to trust me. Aim one of your oak arrows towards me." Togashimaru was speaking so quickly that Kagome almost didn't understand what he was saying.

Oak arrows?

Oh!

Moryo! They were a type of mountain demon that was extra sensitive to oak!

In a swift movement the young priestess drew forth one of the different arrows that Yuugo had given her and knocked her bow with steady hands. She pulled her string back and, putting all trust in the dog below, aimed it towards the little shock of white that was just slightly lighter than everything else around it.

"Now what!?"

A rustle at her back alerted her to Saburo's arrival. She held still and firm.

"Aim higher!" Toga struggled to shout. She lifted he bow, bringing the chiseled tip slowly higher until she heard him breathe. "There."

Kagome released blind.

A blazing shock of flaming light filled the outcropping, casting harsh winter shadows on rocks and trees. Beside her she heard Saburo lose his breath. Beneath them she saw the monster glow in her blue, radiant purity as the shaft of her arrow flung straight and true into its ribcage.

The thing was large and covered in red hair. There were horns on its head, rocks growing from its shoulders, and it was bleeding heavily from the stump where its arm had been.

Toga had put up a fight, Kagome thought with pride.

Howling with pain, the demon exploded into an exodus of glowing celadon ash.

From beyond it another roar sounded.

This time Kagome was prepared, and in the glowing light of her purity she could see it. She locked onto the second demon as it ran towards Toga, disjointed and bulky. The thing looked like a cross between man and monkey, and it was larger than your average Bigfoot. When it howled its jaw opened wide, too wide, to show off its rows of sharp, pointy teeth.

Kagome's next arrow found his heart well before he made it three more strides, silencing the mindless beast in a beautiful glow of violent sparkles.

The electric ozone scent of purity consumed their rotting earth and hung like a heavy mist in the air near the ground.

"Kagome." Saburo said from where he was hovering over her shoulder. In his shock he had dropped his formality of calling her Miss. "Wow. That was—"

She didn't let him finish.

Before the light could fade and the tang of her power could clear away, Kagome was sliding down the slope of the cliff. It was a controlled fall, using the trees and jutting stones for support. She didn't care about the mud staining her backside. If her outfit was anybit as durable as Inuyasha's, the dirt would dry and flake off without so much as a stain.

"Toga!" She cried on her way down. "Toga, are you okay!?"

The demon's back was pressed up against the stone wall of a little alcove. No wonder she had trouble spotting him. His legs were askew, unable to find a grip on the satin mud. In his hands, dropped to the side, was his tachi, blade red with blood and glittering eerily in the ghost lights of her magic.

She ignored the hairy, twitching arm beside him, because gross.

"Kagome." He breathed with the loosest of smiles. The usually soothing baritone of his voice was a fog.

"We got them." Kagome reassured him. Strong. She edged forward to lay her hands on his shoulders, then his cheeks. He felt too cold. The icy rain wasn't helping. "You're okay now, we killed them. Did they get to you? Are you hurt?"

Lethargically he reached to his left, his hand searching numbly. Saburo must have found a better path down because when he jogged up to them he was out of breath but clean. She didn't pay the human man any mind, didn't react when he jumped away from the mountain spirit's arm like a cat avoiding a cucumber. She couldn't even hear Saburo as he started asking for direction. Kagome's focus was too glued to the thing that was just out of reach of Toga's fingertips.

Slowly, Kagome picked the bottle up. It was light. She gave the pills inside a shake. It was nearly empty.

Her fingers gripped tight around the painkillers.

"Toga. How many of these have you taken?" Words choked, Kagome could hardly recognize the sound of her own voice. Her face felt warm. She'd told him how to use them, hadn't she? Didn't she give him proper warnings before handing off a nearly full bottle of modern medications? Or had she completely forgotten? Had she just assumed that he wouldn't get the side effects like Inuyasha? Kagome couldn't remember. Was this all because of her? She felt strangled when she tried to take in air. Tears were hot on her lashes. "Toga, these painkillers cause drowsiness. You can overdose on them. I—damnit. What have I done?"

The lightest graze of a touch on her arm made the teen flinch.

"I am not dying yet, Kagome." Toga's words were gentle through his stabilizing breaths.

"Bullshit." She countered before she could stop herself. The tears began to fall. Kagome crumpled into him, her hands gripping the fabric of his haori where she cried.

Adrenaline flushed from her blood, replaced with fear, and Kagome found herself to be absolutely terrified of the future. The mountain moryo had come so close. If Kagome had waited to go after Toga, even for just a few minutes, he could have been a goner. He was frail and delicate, and then more than ever Kagome realized that she didn't want him to die. He was growing on her like moss on a stupid tree. He was important to her. The old dog had somehow wriggled his way into that special part of her heart that she reserved for her closest friends and family and he was stuck there.

When he died it was going to sting like all everloving hell.

He was going to die. It was only a matter of time, no matter how hard she fought against it, that much she knew. But if his death was going to be caused by her in some way—by something as crazy as the Bufferin she'd given him in innocence or some other kind of accident… If it was going to be her fault…

Kagome didn't know if she'd be able to live with herself afterwards.

She cried there.

For a long time.

…

"Tssst!" Saburo hissed through his clenched teeth as Kagome wiped an alcohol soaked cotton ball down his arm.

She gave a tired apology and finished cleaning the scrapes he'd collected while running through the dark woods. He'd gotten quite a few and Kagome wondered if that too was her fault. If she'd told him to stay behind he wouldn't have gotten hurt.

Yeah, but if he stayed behind he wouldn't have been there to carry Toga back to camp either.

Kagome slumped.

"He's strong, ya know." Saburo spoke up, not completely misinterpreting her body language. When she turned up to him the blacksmith looked away, his cheeks flushed. "He's fightin' real hard ta see that lady of his. I doubt ten monsters would bring 'im down before he gets ta that. It's that willpower of his keepin' him up. Willpower and you, Miss Kagome."

Briefly and hesitantly the young priestess looked across the way to where Togashimaru had taken up residence on her bedroll. He needed the sleep and she wasn't going to complain about lying on the ground for one night. The rain and snow had yet to really let up, but the mud was beginning to harden from the cold and the earth beneath her picnic tarp was dry.

Beside them, their campfire smoldered. Without someone to turn the spit when they left, the bottom of their little goat had burnt and the top had been exposed to the elements. It wasn't a complete loss, though, and two of the legs were cooked through enough to salvage for dinner. What remained would be left to smoke and if it was at all edible come morning Kagome would pick it apart to take along. If not it would be left to the wolves. She wasn't really worried about it.

Despite how things looked on the surface, they weren't a total mess yet.

Toga was still alive.

"Hold still, okay?" Kagome said when she looked back to the blacksmith. She propped his arm on her knee and took a deep breath before cupping her hands over the deepest of his cuts. "It's been a long time since I've tried this."

Tapping the hotbed of her power was easy, since her aura had yet to completely settle from the night's adventures. Fingertips aglow with eager energy, Kagome slowly set them to touch Saburo and she focused.

Saburo's eyes widened at the contact. "It's warm." He said in awe.

Kagome held it for a few moments longer, channeling the best of Kaede and Kikyou's teachings through her flesh to his. When she pulled away the gash had been reduced to little more than a red welt.

Brushing sweat from her brow, the priestess smiled at her work in triumph.

Saburo stared. Then he turned up to stare at her, eye to eye.

"That was amazing, Miss Kagome. I didn't know ya could heallike that."

Kagome blushed, finger reaching up to rub the space between her lips and her nose. "I'm not really good at it." She admitted sheepishly.

He was close. Kagome could feel his body warmth.

Suddenly uncomfortable, Saburo dropped his gaze back down and itched at the spot where his wound had been. Then he put some distance between them when he asked, "…Why haven't ya done that for th' big guy?"

Kagome swallowed. Her hands fell into her lap.

"Because I'm a priestess. And he's a demon—a full demon." She told him with a sigh, as if that was all he needed to understand the predicament. When he scowled and shook his head she clarified. "Like I said, I'm not good at healing. I don't even know if it's possible for me to heal a full demon like Toga. Demons and purity don't exactly mix, you know? And I don't want to risk anything by testing it out on him. He could turn to ash, just like those other guys. That's what my powers do. He's too hurt; the tiniest touch could be too much of a push."

Saburo finally seemed to get it. He looked over to the sleeping Toga and frowned. "So he's just gotta… heal up on his own? …Do ya really think that'll happen?" He asked it as softly as he could, but it still hurt to hear spoken aloud for the first time.

The smile she gave him felt leagues away.

Kagome didn't let herself cry. She didn't let herself show anymore of her sorrow to that night.

"Yeah." She eventually responded to him, nodding all the while. "I have to believe it."

That was true. If Kagome was going to stand tall and sure by Toga's side, fighting for his life, the priestess had to believe that there was a chance for him to truly heal up and get better.

Even if just under the surface she knew that she was lying to herself.

Chapter End