I sorry I made you wait so long. So as an apology I gave you some juicy InuKag in the beginning . Hope you like it! Please review (flames are fine).
Even with the new – and confusing- developments, work still needed to be done. Firewood and water needed to be fetched, and villagers needed to be tended to. Almost everyone went out to do their respective jobs, thus leaving Kagome, Shippou, and Kirara in a relatively empty hut with Yusuke.
Inuyasha had been especially reluctant to leave Kagome behind.
"Kagome, I really don't trust this guy." Inuyasha was looking down on her with eyes that openly displayed worry and concern for her well-being.
"You don't even know him. You haven't even given him a chance." She whispered back softly. They were standing just to the side of the Kaede's hut which provided them with a decent amount of privacy.
"Of course I'm not gonna give him a chance! And you shouldn't either! Are you stupid or crazy?"
"Neither." She replied curtly with crossed arms. "I may not know him, but I can tell he's not evil! Besides, Kirara will be with me."
He opened his mouth to release a reply but nothing came out. When he pressed his lips together, his shoulders slumped slightly silent defeat. She took a step forward and lightly brushed a hand against his cheek and in return, he wrapped her in a gentle embrace.
"Don't worry about me, it'll be fine," she mumbled sweetly from the crook of his neck. "Trust me," she pleaded.
He sighed as if trying to release his nervousness or - let's be honest- fear in one dragged out exhalation of breath. "I will… I do, it's just that-" he cut himself off and pulled out of her embrace. Inuyasha grabbed her shoulders and made her look him in the eye. "If anything happens: scream, have Kirara take you to the well and wait for me to come get you."
"Okay," she consented. Kagome placed a gentle kiss on the spot where his jaw line met his neck, right behind where the lobe of his human ear would be. He blushed at the gesture and finally released her in order to go about whatever it was he had to do.
"Um… Yusuke?" Kagome timidly approached the demon who seemed to be sulking alone in the far corner to Kaede's hut. His looked up at her curiously and pointed a finger at himself as if to say: 'Me?' She couldn't help but giggle a little bit as she nodded and sat down in front of him. They were the only ones in the hut- save for Shippou and Kirara-, for everyone else seemed to have their own business to attend to.
"Is it ok if I ask you something?"
He was about to make a smart remark and point out that she was already asking questions, but decided against it. He was in hot water with the rest of the group as it was, and she seemed to be the only one of them willing to give him a chance. She looked a little nervous about saying whatever it was she wanted to say. He figured he should give her some kind of encouragement.
"Yeah. Sure, go ahead."
Kagome wasn't sure how he would react to her asking this question. It seemed okay when she thought about it at first, but as soon as she actually got to him, she started to wonder if maybe the answer would lead to something more personal than she had intended. She was curious, but she didn't want to pry. Still, she had already begun the conversation, and it was rude to keep him waiting for her to continue. She swallowed the small lump in her throat and spoke.
"I was wondering... well… Who chained you up and why?"
At the surprised look on his face, she blushed a little and covered her mouth with her hands wishing that she could snatch her question right out of the air.
"Y-you can see them?" He asked.
"Yeah. They glow bright yellow around your wrists and ankles. I didn't notice them until you fought with Kouga. What are they?"
"They're my spirit-cuffs."
"Spirit…cuffs?" She looked really confused, so he decided to elaborate.
"Have you ever heard of a training method where athletes put weights on their ankles to make them run faster?"
She thought for a second and nodded.
"That's basically what spirit-cuffs are for-" he continued "- they make it harder for me to fight at my fullest because they have a hold on my spirit and demon energy, but the more I wear them the stronger I get. Genkai –that crazy old bitch- put these on me after I started ditching her training sessions."
Genkai outstretched an arm toward Yusuke and a bright yellow light surrounded him. The light focused in on his wrists and ankles, but still had an affect on his entire body.
"Now you will train all day, everyday you spineless punk. If you want to so much as pick your nose or take a piss you're gonna have to be at full power. I've decided that I'm not gonna tell you the release word either. You'll be stuck with those things until you get comfortable with them."
He was writhing on the floor, trying desperately to move his limbs and stand up straight. She was walking away from him when she suddenly stopped and turned to face him once more. She had a deadly look on her face when she said: "Those are the strongest set of cuffs that I have had to make so far. I'll warn you now, if you break them the consequences may be fatal."
Kagome took a pause to gather her thoughts and absorb the new information; that led to her thinking of a new question.
"How would they be broken?"she asked.
Shippou was barely listening, for he was far too entertained by candy and crayons to care about their confusing conversation.
"Well, they're made to suck up half of my energy and use it against me, that way I have to use the other half just to move. I wouldn't have enough energy to fight. My power has to grow for it to get any easier, but as my power grows, the cuffs get stronger." He paused for a minute to let her take it all in. He wasn't really sure what the answer was himself, so he merely began thinking aloud.
"The only way I know to get them off is a password, but that bitter old hag didn't give it to me this time…"
Kagome thought to herself for a little while. "Maybe if you gain too much power at once, you would overload them and they would break; I could see how that would be fatal—if that were the cause," she said quietly, then turn to look at him.
He was staring back at her with a shocked expression on his face, then –out of nowhere- broke out a wide grin and scratched the back of his head casually.
"I dunno… I never asked about it; must've slipped my mind."
Kagome sweat dropped and smiled back as politely as possible. 'Don't you think that is something you should really be worried about?' she thought, but let the subject drop. Silence reigned for a few moments before anyone spoke again.
"So…" Yusuke began, "now is technically later."
She gave him a confused look.
"You know… the whole 'I'll explain it to you later' deal." He said, quoting her promise to fill him in on everything going on.
Her mouth formed a silent 'oh' of realization before her furrowed her brows a little trying to decide: where to start, what was appropriate to tell him about the others and herself. She paused for second and then began slowly.
"Well, it all started on my fifteenth birthday, my cat got stuck in the well-house on my family's property and…"
