The Spring of the River
"Hiraikotsu!"
Pottery vases smashed in rhythmic succession as the huge bone spiralled through the air, skimming the pedestals set at even distances apart in a semicircle.
A young woman stood erect, poised and focused at the other end of the yard, her eyes slightly narrowed as she tracked the path of her weapon with a perfectionist's eye. As the boomerang sailed back towards her at the end of its arc, she extended one hand above her head and caught the leather strap, twisting it and snatching the bone out of the air. The stolen momentum transferred to her and she slid back a pace, her body still tense and in perfect form. The dust settled and she straightened, her right arm curled back over her shoulder, the weapon hanging motionless down her back.
She allowed herself the most infinitesimal of smiles as her audience let out a small, dignified bout of applause behind her. She was exhausted, her muscles ached and the trials had seemed almost too much at points, but… she was finished.
And she had triumphed.
She turned briskly on a heel and marched to the platform at the end of the yard, whereupon three figures stood. All were dressed in the uniform of the Exterminators, black bodysuits of youkai-hide armour, strong as iron but supple and malleable. The mandarin collars were trimmed with teal, the colour also of the sashes holding on their beige shoulder-, knee- and belly-guards. From the left collarbone down the left breast twined a sinuous, hook-like pattern embroidered in gold thread. The formal occasion had them in full battle regalia, katana sheathed at their sides, chain-scythes hanging from their belly sashes.
One of the three men stepped forward, a smile on his face. The young woman halted, back ramrod straight, and bowed deeply, stopping with her torso parallel to the ground.
"Commander Tsuyoki," she said formally, not looking up.
"Lieutenant Sango," he returned, his voice austere. "You have performed outstandingly, as always."
A tiny smile flashed across her face before she schooled her features into impassiveness once more, staring sternly at the dirt floor. Her muscles were screaming at her, and a trickle of blood wound its way down her arm from a laceration on her shoulder, but she stayed rigidly in place. All the time in the world for coddling her battered muscles later. Now, she was waiting for the culmination of a lifelong dream.
"We are in agreement, Lieutenant, that you will be given the title of Solitary and rank of Captain." The man tapped her on the shoulder, grinning now, formality cast off like an unwanted shroud.
She straightened, her muscles protesting, but the pain faded when she saw his face, rough and weathered, scarred and severe, split in the largest grin she had seen since the birth of her little brother.
"Sango," he boomed, arms opened wide, beckoning her. Her composure cracked as a grin to match his spread over her face.
She gave a squeal of pure girlish delight as she collided with him, grabbing him about the neck. His arms closed around her in a bear hug as he lifted her clear off the ground and spun.
"Sango, my Amazon!" he laughed as the pair twirled in a circle in the yard. "You earned this, Sango, I've never seen you like you were today! So strong, so focused… nothing would have stopped you, not hell itself!" He laughed and spun her again, his pride nearly bursting out of his chest. His daughter, youngest Solitary ever at just 18.
Sango squeezed him tighter. "Papa…"
Nothing could stop her now.
Miroku swore as the howls started up again, closer this time, and on both sides.
Youkai, no doubt. Natural wolves were extinct, and only their avatars remained. Those avatars were chipped and bound, sure as the sun rose in the east, and chipped youkai were never known for their tendency to ignore spiritually adept persons, such as himself. Especially ones with bounties on their heads, such as himself.
The mountains loomed in front of him, the small and only pass inviting and yet menacing all at once. They would know where he was headed, and wait for him there. Yet he had no choice but to walk into their trap; over the mountain he must go.
Why had he dismissed Hachi? Sometimes he was too compassionate for his own damn good.
Kagome hiccuped as the tears finally dried up. She had curled up in a corner of the hut, cradling her legs to her body, and wailed like a baby for a good five minutes. Omori, preoccupied with his newly restored ability to breathe, had paid no heed to her until now: he crouched down in front of her and placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing lightly.
"Are you alright, Kagome?" he asked, surprisingly gently.
"Yes, sir, I'm f-fine. Just a little overwhelmed," she stuttered, the tears having made her throat somewhat raw and jaw somewhat wobbly.
He patted her head and stood. "There, there, now, all better, see? Come and let us drink that toast." He held a hand out and she grasped it, uncurling her body from the corner. This man was rather like her grandfather, without the eccentricities. Silly, overreacting InuYasha, she thought darkly, completely forgetting her own reservations about their host.
Omori led her over to the surprisingly undisturbed sake bowls and handed her one after she had seated herself. She accepted with a smile and lifted it to him in acknowledgement.
"To the safety of the village," she said, and tipped the bowl back.
Glug.
Uh-oh…
She had misjudged the size and shape, miscalculating the speed at which the sake would flow, and ended up with an enormous swig instead of the demure sip she had planned. The alcohol burned her throat and she coughed and spluttered, setting the now empty bowl down on the tatami. The sting passed up into her nose and she sneezed, shaking her head as it began to spin.
The bowl, filled again, was pressed back into her hands.
"Another toast, to the downfall of the Sphere!"
Well, she had to drink to that, she thought muzzily.
Gulp.
Out of the corner of her eye, she thought that she caught the hint of a triumphant leer on Omori's face, before it blurred and she felt reality slip away from her.
The last clear thing that she could remember before she dissolved into giggling oblivion was that the sake had tasted strange.
Stupid wench.
I'm brooding, something I'm very good at. Had a lot of practice. This little bout is spoiled by the fact that I keep sneezing every few breaths. Stupid incense; I could barely smell a thing in there.
I lean back against the trunk of the tree, high in its branches. Stupid human. Stupid wench. Stupid everything.
I sigh. Even I know I'm being childish, but I can't help it sometimes. What else am I going to be, when they expect the worst of me? Even that girl.
She's so fucking naive. She doesn't know what that headman meant, the insult behind his polite chit chat. Whatever he said to me about being controlled by her, he thinks the opposite. He thinks that she's mine: my little whore. Keh. Yeah right. Humans are too much trouble for anything like that.
I slump, my head falling forward. No, hanyou, don't think that, don't think of her, no matter what you do.
Too late. Oh shit.
All those times that she smiled at me, touched my cheek and told me she understood… when I held her and buried my face in her long, black hair … the first time … when she told me that she had a way out…
My chest aches.
I wish I knew how to grieve properly. I wish that I'd been taught. She deserves that, at least.
The moon is smaller than it was last night, and suddenly it hits me. New moon. In about three days.
We've got to get out of here, hospitality or not. I jump out the tree and head off to fetch the wench.
Wait. I know that scent.
I sniff the air…
Oh, fuck!
Everything was hilariously funny. Kagome felt her head spinning as she dissolved into giggles again.
The world was colourful and filled with light. Rainbows sparkled around her head and she snatched at them, unfazed when she toppled to the ground, breathless and giddy.
Omori watched her with a small smile on his face. She was far gone enough, he decided.
"Kagome."
She turned to him with glazed, wide eyes. "I think I'll drink sake more often," she slurred, rolling over onto her stomach and pushing herself up with her elbows. The tie on her school shirt had come undone, and he could see her breasts pressing together through the gap.
"That would be a good idea," he fairly purred, reaching out with a hand to touch her cheek. Her eyes widened even more, hazy attention sharpening for an instant.
"What are you doing?"
He smiled again, eyes dark, and his hand moved into her hair. "The sake made you feel good, but I want to make you feel even better."
She blinked. "Really?"
"Mm-hmm," he nearly groaned in response as she sat up, pulling her legs forward and under her. The skirt, tiny enough to begin with, rode up, baring her underwear.
She giggled and put her hands on his shoulders. "You look like my grandpa, you know."
Well. If that was not a mood killer… he scowled and gave her a little push; her balance was shot and she fell backwards. He was on her in an instant.
"Stop talking," he growled, hands already busy with her clothing.
FUCK!
I bound through the village, trying not to notice the corpses around the village. Why, why, why did I go so far to have my little pity-party?
That wench better not be fucking dead, or I'll…well… I'm not sure.
Not that I care about her or anything. But that chip has to be in that brain somewhere, and until I figure out where, it's in my best interests to keep her alive.
The headman's hut still has a light on. Which can only be good… right? I burst through the shoji---
---WHAT THE FUCK!?
I grab him and pull him off her with a roar. My blood is thundering in my ears as I slam him up against the wall and proceed to snarl in his face, red haze over my sight.
Only one thing stops me from killing him.
He's already dead.
Well. That's… disturbing. A shudder goes down my spine as I drop him; he's still warm. He's only about ten seconds worth of cadaver.
I turn to the girl. I'm somewhat frozen by shock, that and absolute revulsion: she was getting molested by a corpse. Hardly even thinking about it, I take off the shirt of my red outfit and put it around her. It barely reaches her thighs, but… well, it's better than nothing.
She doesn't even notice that she's nearly naked, instead she's giggling like a maniac and I take a whiff. The incense is burnt out but the stench still makes my eyes water.
I am such a fucking idiot! She smells like sake, but something else. The fucking bastard drugged her! He knew that I wouldn't be able to smell it with all that smoke… he sent his family out… that look on his wife's face. I should have fucking guessed!
I punch a wall, leaving a nice hole in the shabby thing.
Yura's still outside, merrily killing villagers and waiting for us to make an appearance, and the one person who's on my side is out of the game, giggling and chasing things that aren't there.
FUCK!
And I had thought it couldn't get any worse.
HA!
You'd think I'd know by now that it can always, always get worse. My life is a study in cruel irony already, so it just has to follow that everything that can go wrong, does. The animated corpses beneath me shuffle awkwardly on Yura's strings, and I curse as I dodge another flying body. The villages are dead, I can smell that, but she's controlling them and I can't fucking see how. They move like puppets, flying through the air when I know that they shouldn't be able to. Hell, they shouldn't be able to do anything; they're dead.
The girl in my arms wriggles again, snatching out into thin air with her little hands, grabbing nothing but giggling like a maniac. A reminder of just how fucked up this situation really is.
"InuYashaaaaaa," that slurred voice wheedles, again, and I grit my teeth.
"What, woman?"
"Are these stars?" she asks, and once again I nearly drop her as she launches herself half out of my arms after one of those infernal 'sparkles'.
"They're not real, wench, so stop it!" I yell before plummeting through the air after her as she manages to squirm free. I catch her and roll as we hit the ground. Again.
Just great. I have a drunk, drugged, half-naked wench trying to break her own neck, as well as give me a heart attack, and a serial-killing village-massacring youkai on my tail. I grit my teeth and grab her by the shoulders.
"Listen, bitch, you need to fuckin' sober up and stop…"
I freeze in fear. Oh no. No no no no…
She sniffles.
Oh please, no, don't cry, anything but crying, yell, scream, hit, just don't cry. I cannot handle women crying…
"You hate me!" she sobs, tears running down her face, and I fight down the panic that women crying always manages to make me feel.
I'm not cut out for this. If I know what's good for myself I'll just leave her and get out of here. Screw the Jewel, nothing can be worth this kind of trouble. I'm free now, why risk getting caught again by hanging around? She's just a human girl. Yura will take her back to Tokyo, they'll chip her up, and she'll be just another tool for them to use. No skin off my nose. I don't owe her anything, hell, I don't even like her. She's annoying and bratty and naïve and she's got no damn common sense. Even if we survive this battle there'll be plenty more, and I'm not willing to get killed on her account. She's not going to last long, with or without me. There's no point in any of this. I don't know what the hag's big idea was, sending her out with me, considering that she's just going to get killed somewhere along the way. If she was looking for a saviour, Kaede picked the wrong girl.
There's a gust of wind and a cruel laugh, and all my excuses and justifications fade away into blood rage and pure hatred.
Yura's here. Time to get down to business.
The world spun around her in a crash of light and colour. The sparkling threads that wove themselves about her body called to her, and Kagome extended a hand without hesitation. The thread was cool and slick under her fingers. There were so many, and she had to follow them. They all went.. this way!
She lurched into the forest, following those shining threads. Far away, almost at the back of her mind, she remembered InuYasha's face as he had ordered her to stay put, but he morphed into something snarling and terrifying, sending her scrambling even faster into the wilderness.
The trees around her moaned in a language she could not understand, reaching their dark arms over and around her, faces yawning open on black trunks. Leaves and twigs caught at her hair, trying to stop her, and she screamed but kept running. Her sparkling lifeline stretched out into the darkness in front of her and she gripped onto it as hard as her trembling muscles would let her. The ground wobbled beneath her and the world tilted wildly, sticky hands grasping at her ankles and trying to drag her down. Keep going, just keep going…
Blood slides down my neck and I swear. Colourfully.
"Getting tired, puppy?" Yura drawls huskily, drawing a snarl from me.
"Just getting started, bitch. Gonna kick your trashy arse from one side of this forest to the other before I'm done."
She laughs and cocks her head, brandishing one elegant hand. "Tough talk, but your blood on my nails tells me something different. I've got a lot staked on killing you, and I'm a sore loser."
"Might have to get used to it, 'cos there's no way I'm losin' this fight!" I push off the ground towards her, trying to catch her off guard, but I'm not quick enough. Something in the air catches me in mid-leap and throws me high into the air. Another grabs me and Yura smoothly follows with her sword, slitting my left calf. She's having fun, so it's shallow. Bleeds like hell, but no muscle damage, and I can keep fighting. There's that fucking giggle and a caress on the cheek and I'm falling fifty feet to the ground.
My landing isn't as graceful as I'd like, but I catch myself, at least. We're just about to start the whole routine over when I hear a scream. A familiar scream.
My head whips around, eyes narrowing, but the girl is gone. Fuck! Why can't stupid human wenches ever do what they're told?
"Sounds like trouble, puppy. Better be careful. You don't know what manner of beasties are out this late at night," Yura mocks, fluttering her eyelashes at me, but I only snarl back at her as I run in the direction of that scream. What's that stupid wench gotten herself into now?
Miroku gripped his staff so tightly his fingers ached, but his face showed nothing of his tension. It was a mask of serenity, but he knew that no matter what his face looked like, his scent would always tell the truth of it.
After all, wolf demons have a very good sense of smell.
Kouga stalked towards the human, the grin on his face widening until the tips of his fangs glinted in the moonlight. "Out late tonight, I see," he mocked, subtly rolling his shoulders to loosen the muscles, preparing to strike if he needed to. His pack circled the pair in the dark of the waning moon, some in wolf form and some humanoid, but all tense and growling quietly.
Miroku smiled back, the rings on his staff jingling slightly as his hands vibrated with tension. This was all a game of wits, something that Miroku had always been good at, although he generally preferred it when the stakes were not his life. This time, he could not afford to lose. "As are you. But might I suggest we skip the small talk, I'm in somewhat of a hurry." His voice was smooth and hard, and as unyielding as Kouga's eyes.
"Where are you off to at this hour?" Kouga asked nonchalantly.
"There's a village on the other side of the ridge. I hear that they have friendly young ladies not averse to warming a cold traveller at the end of a long day," Miroku replied with a waggle of his eyebrows and a lascivious grin, an act that came to him as easily as breathing.
"I wouldn't know," Kouga replied lazily, baring a fang at the human in a clear message. "Somehow I doubt that they would offer me any of that hospitality."
Miroku chose to say nothing to that, and he could feel the auras of the other youkai as they finished manoeuvring into position around him. All of a sudden he was tired of the baiting. Kouga knew what he wanted, that Miroku had information pertaining to it, and that he was not volunteering it freely, so why bother with the small talk? "Well, then, I'll be sure to recommend you to them to try and change their minds. Now if you don't mind…"
"I do mind."
Kouga stared at him with eyes hard and cold as ice. With a sigh and a slight frown, Miroku began to ready himself to fight. He had hoped it would not come to this, but since it could not be helped…
"One question, human, then you can go snuggle up to whatever whores you want," Kouga sneered, and Miroku would have gaped if his composure were not so iron-clad.
"And that question would be, wolf?" he asked, seguing flawlessly into negotiation mode, another role that fit him like a glove and was just as easily worn.
Kouga grinned suddenly, crossing his arms and flashing a careless grin, sending Miroku's mind into a whirl of analysis and contingency planning. His focus expanded to the youkai surrounding him, scanning for any tension heralding movement, preparing for the attack that had to be coming.
"Seen a girl and a hanyou 'round here?"
Kagome giggled.
And giggled.
And giggled.
And giggled some more, nearly convulsing on the floor of the clearing she was laughing so hard.
Who would ever have thought that an enormous ball of hair trying to catch her would be so damn funny?
Another tangle of hair lunged towards her and she threw herself out of the way, laughing and batting at the errant strands that managed to snag her. She had been somewhat confused when the sparkly threads had led her to this clearing, but an enormous ball of many different types of hair had begun to attack her.
It was, to say the least, not the most threatening of enemies that she had encountered in her short experience with danger. Not when, even though the drug was wearing off slightly, she had visions of people jumping out of the bushes, armed with the latest de-tangling formula and rendering the ball so slick and smooth that it had nothing to hold it together, slipping over itself into a sea of shiny detangled hair. There was obviously something to be said for a few knots to hold everything together. Who would have thought?
Hair that takes care of itself, the next step in revolutionary hair product, she thought, the image sending her into fits of sniggers again, and she missed the latest tendril streaking towards her. It latched onto her and started to pull her towards it. With a shriek she began to swat madly at it, interspersed with more giggling as the threads tickled her ankle.
"Kagome!"
Miroku prided himself on being a patient man. Years of hardship and the study of the Eight Fold Path had taught him the value of equanimity and calm in situations of duress. Becoming angry and stubborn would help no one, and would most certainly not advance anyone involved along the path of enlightenment.
Kouga, Miroku reflected, had obviously never discovered this vital truth, and Miroku himself, monk though he was, was rapidly forgetting his resolve to act rationally in situations of conflict.
"Might I suggest… again that this journey… would be completed… more expediently were I… to be allowed… to run beside you all?" he asked Kouga, albeit in puffs of breath as a shoulder jammed in his abdomen, rendering him breathless with each stride of the wolf youkai running at full tilt carrying him like a sack slung over one shoulder.
Kouga dropped back to behind his comrade and grinned maliciously down at the monk. There was a glint of mischief in his eyes and Miroku just knew that he was enjoying this. The irony had to be poignant.
"Why suggest it, when you could just tap into my brain and make me?" Kouga smirked before moving ahead once more, and Miroku closed his eyes in annoyance. He may have been considering resorting to violence, but there was one thing he would never do. He had sworn to never take control of a microchip imbedded in a youkai's brain, and that vow was far more important than discomfort, or his life for that matter.
Although, he conceded as the smell emanating from the wolf youkai carrying him worsened markedly, he had never made a vow against using trickery, underhandedness and just playing dirty to get his way. If he could just get his feet on the ground and his hands in front of him, Miroku could play this game with his eyes shut.
After all, this was not the first time he had been toted across a great distance whilst bound hand and foot. His eyes went slightly hazy in remembrance of that occasion. His last abductor had been a great deal comelier than this lot. Less fleas, too…
But back to the task at hand. Miroku grimaced in great distaste at what he was going to have to do next, and almost talked himself out of it. Surely he could just wait and see where they took him?
But no, he could not, and he damned well knew why. There had been far too many coincidences on this little jaunt of the past week to not mean something, and Miroku was no idiot. Those pieces fit together somehow, and he did not need his rather superior intellect to tell him that it had to do with that girl. After all, this wolf tribe was looking for her, and that was enough to make Miroku realise that the game had stepped up a notch. The Sphere wanted her, the Pure wanted her, and if he guessed right than Heiwa had had her, and that she was somewhere over those mountains right now.
He just had to be next in line, and then things could go as they would from there. He was sure that it would be entertaining.
So, Miroku steeled himself, held his breath, and hope that he would not catch any of the horrible things that he was sure the smelly mass was carrying.
With a final prayer to Buddha, he bit his 'trusty steed's' butt.
"Kagome! Where the fuck are you? Answer me, damnit!"
She knew that voice. It had never said her name before, but the swearing was a dead give away.
Twisting as best she could whilst being pulled along the ground by animated hair, Kagome squinted at the blurry figure sprinting towards her. He swam into hazy focus, and she caught her breath. The air around him was smudged gold, a haze that followed him as he moved. She was mesmerised, and still gaping when InuYasha arrived at her side and slashed through the hair pulling her towards the massive ball. He grabbed her bicep and she gasped as what was left of the bullet ricochet twinged, and his ears drooped, before flattening completely.
"What did I tell you, wench?" he roared into her face, and Kagome was spellbound by the little ripples that it sent through the aura around him. Patches of red flashed in the gold, and she reached out to touch one.
"Shit," he swore as he ducked away from her questing fingers. "Snap out of it! There are no sparkles, no strings, no happy little green people dancing on rainbows! Sober the fuck up!"
Kagome heard a feminine giggle from behind her in the trees, and she spun. Well, she tried to. Her body had trouble catching up with her head and she sagged onto InuYasha, who caught her around the waist absently. Kagome squinted at the youkai poised on the thin strings that crisscrossed the air.
"Having trouble with your human, hanyou? Such stupid creatures," Yura said with a sneer.
"Smart enough to collar you, bitch," InuYasha growled back, shoving Kagome behind him and flexing his claws. There was a tense moment of staring, just letting each know how much the other hated them, before he launched himself at the barely-clothed youkai.
Forgotten by the two opponents, Kagome turned to stare at the giant hair-ball again, something tugging at the back of her mind. As Yura threw him to the ground and InuYasha threw insults back, Kagome staggered towards it, tripping but ignoring the grazes on her bare knees. There was something, something inside that ball, something that she had to find.
Grasping the thick ropes of hair, she began to climb. There had to be an opening somewhere, she could feel it.
"What do you think you're doing, you little bitch?" Yura screeched, but Kagome ignored her, just gripped tighter as the hair around her began to move. She was almost there…
There!
The sparkles were strongest here, nearly blinding, but Kagome grit her teeth and thrust her hand inside the now-writhing ball. Her hand closed on something smooth and round, and she smiled in triumph as she pulled it out. It called to her, thrummed in her brain, asking her to do… something…
She squinted at the thing in her hand, trying to see what it was in the dim light of the moon. The shape resolved itself into something recognisable, and Kagome blinked, not sure whether to be disgusted or frightened. But…why is it red? the detached part of her mind wondered, while the rest of her marvelled at the halo of prismatic lights that rippled all over it in an other-worldly display.
"Kagome!"
She heard his shout at the same time as something pricked at the back of her mind. Kagome reacted on instinct, letting go of the hairball and plummeting ten feet to the ground with a grunt. Something flashed over her head, silver and sharp, before Yura was on her.
"Give that back, little girl!" she screeched, clawing at Kagome's back with her nails as the girl folded up around the skull, knowing that it was important but not quite sure why.
A vicious snarl echoed across the clearing. With a squeak Yura backed away from Kagome, ducking as InuYasha's claws swiped over her head. Kagome tried to tune them out as she concentrated on the skull in her lap. She could tell there was something… strange about it. Something tainted, staining even the aura it gave out. Her mind was still muddled, but the drugs were beginning to wear off and the sparkly haloes to fade. She knew that she had to do something, before Yura stole the skull back.
There was an angry growl and a feminine giggle from behind her, and Kagome could practically smell the blood. Fear that had been mercifully kept at bay all night suddenly swamped her with choking force, tears springing to her eyes at the strength of it. She had to do something; InuYasha could not hold out forever, whatever he might say to that. She was not helpless; she refused to be! She was not just a useless little girl who needed protection, and she was going to help!
Her head began to throb and her eyes widened in realization, before she closed them tight in concentration. Pressure that was now somewhat familiar built behind her eyes as she tried to fight down the fear that the sensation automatically caused. She had the strangest sense that she knew what to do. She concentrated on the skull, for what purpose she had no idea, but the tickling in the back of her mind was almost as if something was trying to tell her something, and she just… knew what to do.
The pressure released, and there was a loud crack that echoed across the clearing. Kagome opened her eyes, limbs tingling and mind miraculously clear of any residual effects of the drug or alcohol, to look down upon the skull in her lap.
It was broken, cracked in half like a nut. Inside was a blue comb with a few black hairs wound around it. The strange auras were all but gone with Kagome's new-found lucidity, but suddenly things fell into place.
"InuYasha!" she yelled, wanting to ask him what to do, before there was a blood-curdling scream and Yura was on her again.
The youkai was wild, her composure shattered as she clawed at Kagome to get the comb in her lap. Time seemed to slow down and the girl met Yura's gaze, desperate but somehow resigned, in the brief moment before InuYasha sliced her clean through with her own sword. Blood spurted from her mouth with an obscene bubbling noise, and it was over.
Oh, Kagome thought absently, brushing the blood off her face. So that's what a chest looks like on the inside.
The comb in Kagome's hand cracked in two, and the threads unravelled. There was a whispering sound and she looked up in time to see the hairball collapse in on itself, losing its shape to become inanimate once more, no longer bound together by Yura's power.
Another second and it disappeared altogether, dissolving into motes of light carried away on the breeze. She could breathe again.
"Kagome," a familiar voice called. InuYasha was looking at her with a concerned frown. "Are you alright?"
The practical part of her, a part that she had barely known existed a scant three weeks ago, kicked into gear and she looked into his face. She could tell he was struggling to stay standing straight, and his face was drawn. She passed a glance over his torso: lacerations from Yura's hair criss-crossed his chest, and a few deeper wounds from her sword oozed blood sluggishly down his skin. The past few hours were shoved unceremoniously to the back of her mind to be cried and panicked over later when they were both safe, and she nodded.
"Yeah, I'm alright. But you need help. There's some medical stuff in my bag from Kaede," she said, standing slowly. The skull and comb tumbled from her lap, and she spared them a glance. "So… in the end, she was only a comb," she mused as she walked to InuYasha and circled an arm around his waist despite his glare.
As he tried not to lean on her and failed miserably, they began walking into the woods in the direction of the village. Kagome could hear something rattle in his chest with his breath, and frowned.
"You should have been more careful, you know," she scolded, and was answered with a glare and a scoff.
"Keh. Says the wench who goes running off into dark woods and climbing giant balls of hair in next to nothing."
She smiled, choosing to ignore the insult, as well as exactly why she was wearing so little. That was for later. "You called me by my name tonight, so I know that you know it. Do you have to keep calling me wench?"
"Unless you prefer bitch, wench," InuYasha said, deadpan.
Kagome stared at him out of the corner of her eye, almost sure that he was serious, until a twitch of his mouth gave it away. A weak giggle escaped her.
"I'd prefer my name," she jibed back, a comment which led, as she had known it would, into the banter that they were familiar with. Kagome felt a smile spread across her face as they settled into the dynamic that had become normal. They fought, but she was beginning to realise that this did not make them enemies.
Somehow, even after being nearly killed, with her only ally a wounded hanyou with the charm and subtlety of a barbed wire fence, things were not so bad. In fact, she would even venture to suggest that she could learn to live with it. If InuYasha was willing to learn with her.
Somewhere not so very far away, a wretched little voice sobbed, "What are we going to do?"
There was a harsh whisper in return. "Quiet. We'll be fine once we reach the mountains. Try and get some sleep; we're leaving here at sunset tomorrow."
"But Kaede…" Another sob echoed through the dark.
"Just… hush, child. It'll all be fine, you'll see. She's on her way, and soon everything will be resolved. If that blasted flea is doing his job."