The betrayal
Enjoy reading and please review and give me some critiques.
Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all its characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. Only the plot of this story belongs to me. *Leaves house to meet Mrs. Takahashi and talk about ownerships.*
Chapter 2
"KAGOMEEE! Hold out I'll be there soon, whatever it is." He called after the young priestess.
Inuyasha ran as fast as he could, so he could save the girl. He was nearly floating over the ground. When it was for Kagome, for saving the beautiful girl, he would drop anything else, even Kikyou. Just you hold out Kagome. I'm coming. Don't you dare getting hurt or dying on me. I couldn't bear it. The young half-demon was thinking about what could have happened, as he curved around the trees of the forest and jumped over boulders. Could it be just some random demon? No, that's not possible. She had her bow. Even Kagome could defeat a weak demon. Maybe it was Naraku? Or one of his incarnations? But what would they want with Kagome? Maybe they are trying to kill one for one of our group? Please Kagome, be alive.
As he was getting near the sacred tree, he saw Kagome's bow lying there on the ground next to the tree. He went straight to the weapon, only to realize it had been destroyed. It was cut in half. There were other cuts in the tree and in the ground around him. Inuyasha let out a quietly whispered "No", nearly not audible. There was only one person he could think of, that could have done those scars everywhere. Kagura! But if Kagome's not here then Kagura should have got her. Maybe she was still alive. She just had to be. What would Inuyasha do without her? Could he still live on if she died? What would he tell Kagome's family, the only ones from her time who knew about the feudal era? He probably couldn't stand any more suffering than he would already have with her death.
Her scent! Maybe he could find her scent! He stitched his nose into the air sniffing around for Kagome. He sniffed in every single direction he could. There! It was faint, but it was there. She was taken south. And the scent came from the air. So it really was Kagura. He was interrupted in his thoughts, when Sango and Miroku came flying on Kirara's back with Shippou and all of Kagome's stuff. "Inuyasha.", the monk called out. "Where's Kagome?" Sango asked nervously. "I think Kagura took her south. Let's go after them." Inuyasha answered hurriedly. "Right!" Miroku complied. All of them took off south.
While Kagome and Kagura were flying over the great forest, they didn't speak one word. They just weren't in each other's company like that before so it was pretty awkward for both of them. Kagome felt the tense air and it was very discomforting for her. Man, I hate this. I'm in company with other people, but no one knows what to say. I wonder how Kagura feels about this stuff. Does she also feel the tense air? Maybe I should start to talk about the weather? Nah, guess she would give me just some cold answer. Should I ask her about Naraku and why she turned on him? No, she already told me that one. Oh, I've got it. I could ask her where we're headed to. "Umm, Kagura?" she began slowly. "What is it?" she answered coldly and slightly annoyed. "So, where are we going? I mean I know that we're going to Naraku, but where exactly are we going? To another castle?" Kagome gave herself a quiet facepalm, thinking about how stupid that was. "You'll find out when we get there." Kagura answered. Somehow I could have expected an answer like this, Kagome thought to herself.
With that topic 'discussed', they were back to where they were before. At the awkward silence with nobody knowing, what to say. And on top of all, it started to rain. Kagome was getting cold. "Kagura, have you got a blanket or something I can use for protecting myself from the rain?" Kagome said, slightly trembling. "Oh come on, what are you, a coward? These are just a few raindrops nothing more." Kagura answered a little annoyed. Kagome didn't like Kagura's tone towards her. "Well, excuse me for being human and having very keen senses. I don't want to catch a cold up here. And furthermore I don't like how you're talking to me." Kagome said, now clearly annoyed. Kagura got annoyed too, but tried to stay calm. "Ah, fine then. Take this." she said as she took off her top kimono and threw it to Kagome. Kagome looked at the demon completely baffled. "Wait, what are you doing? You can't just take off your clothes in front of other people." she said, still baffled. "Why? We're both women. It's not that bad." Kagome looked away slightly blushing, wrapped the kimono around her and let out a nearly inaudible "Thanks."
As Inuyasha was leaping from treetop to treetop, he started thinking again. Kagome, please hold out. I don't want you to die. You're my shard detector after all. I can't become a full-fledged demon without you. No, that's not it. Who am I lying to? I'm even lying to myself. It's not that I need her as a shard detector. I need her by my side. She's my strength. She's my power. I'm stronger in battle, when I have to protect her. I couldn't defeat Naraku without her. She's precious to me. More than anyone before ever was. Even more than Kikyou. I didn't realize up until now. But I… I truly… I truly lo… He had to smile. So I can't even say it in my thoughts, can I? I'm pathetic.
He was so lost in his thoughts, that he didn't even hear Miroku calling for him. The monk had now called him for the third time, but he still didn't react and continued to jump through the trees. "Jeez, what's with him? It's like he's deaf." Sango said. "You know how he is when Kagome is in danger. Nothing else counts. The only thing that matters is to save her.", Miroku answered. They made Kirara fly closer to Inuyasha, so that they only had a meter between them. Miroku wanted to say something which he was sure of would make Inuyasha listen. "After all, he is in love with Kagome." He put an extra accent on the word 'love', to provoke Inuyasha. But Inuyasha let out an answer which none of the others would have expected. "You're right." he said. "I am in love with her."
The two humans and the little fox demon on Kirara's back just sat there completely stunned and surprised by what Inuyasha had just said. Miroku was baffled. He had expected the silver-haired half demon to explode, to tell him off and call him names. But he had definitely not expected him to admit his feelings for Kagome. "I'm not dreaming, am I? Inuyasha, what did you just say?" Miroku asked confused. Inuyasha got out of his thoughts and asked as if nothing happened "What is it? Why are the three of you staring at me like that, with your mouths wide open?" "Don't play dumb, Inuyasha. We heard all of it." Sango said. "What? I'm not playing dumb! Ok, could someone tell me what's going on here?" Inuyasha said annoyed. The monk and the demon slayer got even more confused. "So… You don't remember a thing of what you just said?" Sango asked. "What? I didn't say a thing. And when did you even get so close to me?" Inuyasha was now clearly upset. "No one of you is making any sense." Miroku let out a sigh. "Inuyasha, listen. If you've really forgotten what you just said, I think it's better if you don't know what that was." Inuyasha now raised his voice even more. "What? Now you want to keep it a secret? You want to keep a secret from me, what I said? I think it's my concern of what I say and what I do not. So just tell me already." Now Sango spoke up. "Inuyasha, I agree with Miroku. You would probably freak out if you heard those words." Inuyasha started to think again. What could he have said that let those three be so shocked? Did he insult them? No, that couldn't possibly be it. They wouldn't have caused such a commotion. After all he was pretty mean sometimes, even towards Kagome.
The silence was broken brutally when Shippou opened his mouth. "You just admitted that you're in love with Kagome." Those words hit everyone hard. Sango just shook her head. Miroku laid his face into his hand and let out a "Shippou, you're just too insensitive." Inuyasha's feelings were now mixing all together. A shocked feeling, getting slowly overwhelmed by a feeling of anger and sadness. "What? I couldn't have… Did I really… You're lying, aren't you?" He now stopped jumping through the trees and stayed on a branch of a tree. He was trembling all over. "Now let me get this straight. One: I'm absolutely NOT in love with Kagome. She's only a shard detector. Two: Even if I were in love with her I wouldn't tell anyone about it. And three: We should hurry up now. She could die any moment and her scent is getting weaker. And now that it's starting to rain, it will get even harder taking up her scent. So let's just leave that topic aside and LET'S GO!" With that he took off again, still trembling a little.
It was now raining a lot. Kagura and Kagome were still flying and both of them were soaked. "Kagome, we're there in a few minutes." Kagura began. "I'm sorry but either I'll have to tie you up, or you'll have to pretend to be unconscious, so Naraku doesn't suspect a thing." "Pretend to be unconscious in front of Naraku? No, thanks. I'd be too nervous. Just tie me up." Kagome answered. Kagura started to fly lower until they landed on the ground. Kagome took off the kimono Kagura had given to her. It didn't really help much, but it was nice of Kagura to give this to her. When Kagura had it on again, she took out a rope she had with her. She took Kagome's hands behind her back and tied them up at the wrists. Then she fixed Kagome's legs by binding them together above the feet. "Is it alright like this? Or is it too tight?" she said. "Thanks, I'm fine." Kagome answered. "So… Are you ready to face Naraku?" Kagura asked. "I guess so." Kagome answered unsurely. "Ok. Let's go then."
Kagura laid Kagome on her feather to transport her. They got to a little shrine. It was built out of wood. It was clearly visible that this tiny house was old. The wood was already moulding. Kagome looked at the shrine in disbelief. "You want me to believe that this is Naraku's hideout?" she said. She had to hold back her urge to burst out laughing. "Don't be ridiculous. That's the entry hall." Kagura answered and got to the shrine. She had to bend down to get into the door. When the two women got in, a mouse disappeared into a hole in the wall. Kagome examined the room. On the inside, the shrine was completely empty except for a single torch at the wall which was burning. It also was the only thing to keep the room lit. But something about that torch was different. The flame was red with a blue core and it was emitting a violet light.
"So, I guess it's the old trick. You'll pull at the torch and a door in the ground opens, which we jump through to get into the real hideout." Kagome said bored. "Do you even realize what nonsense you're spouting sometimes?" Kagura said annoyed. Not until now Kagome spotted the painting at the wall. It was more of a text than a painting. The light from the torch didn't really reach the painting. The text said a weird thing: "May the blood of a demon merge with the flames and burn the words of revealing." After reading this Kagome was extremely confused. "What's up with that?" she asked. Kagura was in a cold mood again and only said: "Shut up and watch." As she said that she walked to the strange torch and took out her fan. She aligned it towards her left hand. Kagome now got nervous. "Kagura what the heck are you doing? Do you want to hurt your…" But she was interrupted roughly. "I told you to shut up and watch!" Kagura yelled. She barely moved her fan. But as she did, she used her dance of blades. This little dance of blades was just about enough to cut her hand and make it bleed. As if the flame of the torch was responding to the blood, it started to grow. It got bigger and wider and the blue core in the middle of the flame started to spread across the whole flame. It now was as big as Kagura's head. The blue core overpowered the red cloak. The room was flushed in a blue light. Kagura balled her hand to a fist and moved it over the fire. Then she stopped and squeezed her hand. The now completely blue flame slowly went for the blood coming from the hand of the demon woman. It was as if it was being sucked in by that hand. The flame began to fizzle and crackle and sparks flew about. The flame was transmitting itself from the torch to Kagura's hand until the torch was at the point it was when they entered the shrine. The room was lit violet again.
Kagome didn't realize that she had closed her eyes out of fear. As she felt the scene to settle down she opened her eyes. She looked at Kagura. Kagura had her back to Kagome. Then she turned. Kagome gasped as she saw the hand. It was burning with a violet flame. "K…Kagura…your hand." Kagome stuttered. "Yeah. What about it? Do you still don't get it? You read the text, didn't you?" Kagura's tone was calmer than before. "Forget that text, you're hurt. Why did you do that?" Kagome said. She was filled with the desire to help the woman standing in flames. "God dammit. You really are stupid, aren't you?" Kagura had raised her voice again. "I'm perfectly fine. I had to do this to open up the path to Naraku's hideout." She crossed the room, headed for the text at the other wall. "Kagura wait! Why are you burning the painting? The house will burn down." Kagome said confused and worried. "Come on. Are you retarded or something?" Kagura was really pissed. "I'm opening the entrance. Nothing bad will happen. Neither to this house nor to you or me. So stop being so frightened." Kagome wanted to know what was going on. "But…" She began, but was interrupted once again. "Don't 'But' me! My blood is that of a demon so it merged with the flame. The violet torch at the wall. And now I'm burning down the words of revealing. The words which will reveal the secret corridor. In other words: the painting. So do you get it now? I won't explain it again." Then it suddenly dawned on Kagome. She was getting angry now too. "Well excuse me for not being able to figure out a quiz like that the second I see it. You've probably been here a lot already so you know how it works. So get off my back." After that they were both quiet. It was an awkward situation again. After the argument they both didn't know what to say anymore. The air felt thick because of the tension. They were both staring at the burning painting, waiting for it to fully disappear.
"Sorry" Since their first conversation they had when Kagura was wailing about Naraku torturing her, Kagome didn't think that Kagura could manage to surprise her anymore. But she just did. In Kagura's way of talking, Kagome could tell that the demon woman actually was sorry. Kagome knew that there wouldn't be more so she said something too. "I… I'm sorry too." And suddenly all of the tension in the air was gone. Inside, Kagome let out a sigh.
When the painting was gone, they went through the entrance that had appeared. They were travelling a corridor. A dark, green glowing corridor. What Kagome didn't realize is that they were crossing space and time. When they got out of the corridor, they were standing (and floating) in a basement. Kagome was stunned. "No… This couldn't… How? Why are we…? How did Naraku manage to…? WHY?"