Title: 118
Chapter: Confusing
"When one breaks a finger any attempts to move it back into place result in a tremendous amount of pain. Similarly, when someone's spirit is broken, it is not without incredible difficulty and inconceivable pain that one can even begin to reclaim that lost spark. Of course, while it may only take time and the proper care to fix a broken finger, it often takes something else entirely to allow a wounded soul to start healing. Without that unknown push, one such damaged finds one's self confused and changed. He or she, when left un-whole, may even begin to confuse, change and eventually break those around them."
She forced her heavy lids to lift. Her eyes met with two large, golden orbs, dominating all of her vision. A startled sound escaped from her lips.
"What's the fuckin' deal, Kagome?"
His patience had lost to his need to know what was wrong with her. He was worried. Beyond worried. The hanyou had fallen into an all-consuming panic, which wrapped him tightly in its foreign skin. He'd been worried before, but this – this was too much. It itched, stung and burned until he couldn't remember himself. His Kagome was lost and he was losing himself too. But he'd be damned if she knew it. He wouldn't give in like that. He wasn't one to give up so easily.
She rubbed a piece of his spittle off of her nose and considered his question for a moment. It was a very short moment. In truth, his words barely fazed her. It wasn't his deal and she had no intention of including him. She was not his to worry about.
"Nothing, InuYasha," she responded emotionlessly and sat up straight.
He felt her hand pushing him away and he panicked. Before he could register what he was doing, one of his hands snatched hers up and held it gently, close to his heart.
"It's not nothing to me, Kagome," he whispered in a voice unfamiliar to both himself and Kagome. His eyes willed her to see all of the emotions behind those words.
His heart sped along in a race against time, while hers remained unaffected and calm. He longed for her to open up to him. She wanted more time to sleep and think without his presence. He felt his walls holding in the feelings his humanity allowed him crumbling in the wake of her incredibly vulnerable state. She felt the walls she'd built to retain her sanity hold strong.
InuYasha was finally giving her a moment she had craved practically since she met him. For him, the timing felt strange, but right. In her eyes, he was decades too late for her mind to even register the change in him. That didn't even include the decades that had passed since she'd even wanted such a response out of him.
"InuYasha, my business is my own," she said coldly as she pulled her hand from his. "Move. Now."
He was dumbfounded, but he complied. He did not see that response coming.
"I don't understand-" he mumbled softly.
He didn't believe he had said his thoughts out loud until she cut him off to affirm, "No, you don't."
She pushed the flap over the door aside and he did not follow her out. As she told him he didn't understand, the void in her eyes had begun to reflect in his own.
The foreign skin sunk deeper into his flesh.
"You will tell me what I need to know."
Ten long claws drenched in poison sunk deeper into the itachi youkai's flesh on his arms. The smell of his blood stung both of their noses as its corrosive properties took effect and bit quickly through the skin, sinking deeper toward the muscles and bones.
The itachi stammered in a high-pitch voice, "I-I-I don't k-k-know anything, m-m-my Lord. I s-s-swear it!"
"This Sesshoumaru tires of your lies."
The Inu youkai pulled one of his hands back and prepared to slice his claws through the itachi's throat, ending the filth's life. Before he made the fatal move, however, he felt a powerful presence ten feet behind him. It was enough to make him pause.
"Sesshoumaru, I suggest you let him go."
He chuckled, but stopped when he felt the already large aura behind him expand. It smelled strange. He took another whiff. No, she smelled strange. And like his hanyou brother. His face turned into a grimace as he dropped the worthless youkai and turned around to face this foe.
A small smile graced his lips. So it was his brother's wench, the miko. How did he not recall that sent? He began to put that thought away for later when her strange smell sunk deeper into his nostrils. She was not the same girl he'd battled with before. Something was different about her. Entirely.
He took in her posture. It was strong and spoke of admirable skill. She was prepared to attack him – to even kill him. Her body seemed to hum with the desire to do the first, perhaps even the later. He had seen her face him with courage before, but it was just a mask for her fear and insecurities then. Now she stood completely fearless and fully secure in her own skin, as if she considered herself his equal opponent.
'How strange, this woman with such an unusual scent is,' he thought to himself. She still had a coat of purity, but it seemed to be battling with something new in her aura. Something very dark.
"You are different, InuYasha's wench."
"I am no more InuYasha's than I am your's or that itachi youkai's and I am not a wench," she responded, amusement glowing in her eyes.
Even her voice sounded darker and it mirrored her stance in its steady conviction. She wasn't the same girl he had met with before. Such a statement from him would normally send her, and her inseparable hanyou, into a fit of stupid rage. Now she responded with indifference only tainted by amusement? Just who was this human before him? And then it hit him. He, a superior youkai, was wasting his time considering, not to mention conversing with, a lesser being. Even worse yet, she was a human. Disgusting.
"This Sesshoumaru has no time for you, human," he spit the word 'human' out with every bit of hatred he felt for the species, "Either back down now or you shall suffer the same fate as that itachi."
She smiled wickedly as her aura exploded. At a speed he believed a human incapable of, she tore toward the inu youkai, her kaiken clenched expertly in her right palm. Before she could make a mark in her target, however, a flash of white and red knocked him out of the way.
"Just whatcha think your doing to Kagome, Bastard?" InuYasha yelled bitterly.
Sesshoumaru's smirk slipped back into place and he turned his back to his half-brother.
"This Sesshoumaru has a prior engagement, hanyou," he replied before speeding off in the direction of the escaped itachi youkai.
"BASTARD-" InuYasha began in a rage before Kagome cut him off.
"Sit, baka."
In response, his face met the dirt.
"Kagome what's the big idea. I-"
"Sit. Be quiet."
"I-" he began again, as his face lifted a few inches from the ground.
"Sit and listen," he complied and she continued, "InuYasha, I do not need you protection anymore. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself."
"But Kagome-" he began from his seated position.
"Sit!" She screamed and his face once again slammed down. "As I was saying, I can and will fight my own battles. That's final. Now, I'm going for a walk again. This time do not, under any circumstances, follow me."
She began to head in the direction of Sesshoumaru's retreat, but stopped abruptly when InuYasha said, "Going after Sesshoumaru, wench? Do you have a death wish? Seems to me like you don't even care about getting the jewel shards anymore."
The moment the words left his lips, the hanyou regretted letting his anger move his tongue. He felt worse still when she turned around to face him. Her eyes boiled with a wrath he would have believed her incapable of if he weren't seeing it pouring from her now. Before he could open his mouth in an attempt to rectify the situation, she was upon him. He could only gasp when he felt the slash of her blade through his cheek.
Her mouth let a sound escape, echoing his own, as she looked upon her blade stained in his blood.
"InuYasha, I-" she began, suddenly unsure of herself, but then dropped her head and whispered, "I need to go home right now. I'm sorry."
He felt her racing form tear through the trees, undoubtedly in the direction of the Bone Eater's Well. He wanted to follow, but his sudden lack of will refused to grant him movement. For the first time since finding this new Kagome he truly began to doubt that his Kagome would ever be coming back.
Locating and finishing of the itachi youkai was no trouble at all. Unfortunately, the filth could not provide him with any useful information so while it hadn't taken long, it was still a waste of time. Sighing, he changed he course, moving in the direction of the home of an old, even in his definition of the word, subject of his family. While he didn't like the woman personally, he knew without a doubt where her loyalties lay and he trusted her abilities would aid him in his quest to avenge Rin. And, as an afterthought, he considered she might also shed some light on the perplexing miko.
While Sesshoumaru pondered Kagome's existence in his world from miles away, Kagome prepared herself to leave the Sengoku Period behind for good, the shikon jewel shards, Naraku and especially, InuYasha be damned. She couldn't even bring herself to say goodbye to Shippo, Sango, Miroku, Kaede, Kirara and her other friends. Seeing their hurt faces might weaken her resolve to leave this place behind for good and she couldn't do that. She really couldn't do much of anything right now. The events that hat transpired since her escape from that dark, evil world coupled with everything she'd seen and done over the hundred years she was there weighed heavily upon her. While a part of her knew she couldn't really go back to her family the modern world as she was either, a more dominant part within her demanded she leave.
Defiantly, refusing to even take one last look at what she was leaving behind, Kagome hurdled her body into the depths of the Bone Eater's Well.
A/N: Will Kagome really leave the Sengoku Period era behind once and for all? Tune in to the next chapter coming soon to find out ;)! BUT, in the meantime, please leave some reviews. I'm craving feedback. Especially, let me know, are any of the characters too OC for you (even considering the circumstances)? Thanks :D!
Special thanks to my 2 reviewers thus far (MyTwiliLove and kouga's older woman) the 3 people who have this story on their favorite list and the 6 who have it on story alert! You guys really motivate me to keep moving along with this story.
Translations:
Itachi – weasel
