AN: Greetings again! Am I the only one who noticed that AN are the initials of alice nine.? I mean the band not Alice 19th the manga. Though that works too. I guess it's the initials of a lot of things…including Author's Note, and Artist's Note too… oh whatever. Yasei-Hane with the jewel, here we go. Guess he's a good birdy after all. He was being controlled by Tsubaki for most of the time remember…. And he DID try to escape… COME ON, I need Yasei fans!!! My only OC thing in this whole fic!
Well… besides the badger. CAN YOU SPOT THE BADGER???
CHAPTER 18: TALKING BIRDS! (AND BADGERS)
"Is it just me, or is that bird talking to us?" Inuyasha wondered aloud.
Despite the gravity of the situation, Miroku, Sango and even Kirara did a little sweatdrop-sigh. Inuyasha could be sooo dense.
"OYYYYYYY!!! Are you guys done out there?? Kagome twitched like, two times but that's it. Neither she nor Kikyo have shown any signs of waking up… IS ANY OF YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME???"
"Of course!" Sango replied. "If there were any animals left in the forest, they'd have woken up."
Just as a really, really random, on-cue one-off, a badger waddled out of the opposite bushes and grunted discontentedly at the group. After making about five of these annoyed grunting sounds it eventually waddled back into his designated patch of leafy ferns and fell –literally. There was a THUD and everything- asleep with a loud snore.
Crickets chirped in the distance.
The moon happily decided now was safe to show up, and all the dark clouds that had gathered scattered. In fact everything was back to Normal. Whatever that was in Feudal Era Japan.
The group, as one, blinked. Once. Then again. Then they rubbed their eyes and pinched themselves just to ascertain that they did just get told off by a badger in badger-language for being raucous.
"Chiriiiiii!!" Pay attention!
"Uh, sorry… little sparrow thing." Inuyasha felt like a little boy, being remonstrated for procrastination.
"Chir." Yasei.
"Oh… how do you do- HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THE JEWEL?"
Yasei had picked the Jewel up and was hopping over to Kikyo and Kagome.
"Chrrrrrr…." Taking it to my mistress. Is that so wrong?
"YES! –what mistress?- Uhh Miroku help me out here!" Inuyasha turned to the monk for support.
"Listen, err, Yasei, we app-appreciate your help but if you could just give us the Jewel, well then, err, everything will be fine." The monk stuttered, wondering if it was actually sane fighting with a bird about possession of property won in battle.
"Chrrrr chhhrrrhrh." But this Jewel will revive her.
(It was hard to talk with a Sacred Jewel in your beak.)
"Huh WHAT? GIMME THAT!!" Inuyasha went into full dog-mode, scampering on fours after the little sparrow, who then did his best to hop faster, and made little jumps with his wings, but could not fly because the Jewel was too heavy.
It was perfectly comic. A fluttering sparrow, resembling a mini-chicken; a pretty Jewel in his beak, with wide eyes trying to get away from a half-breed dog-demon in funny red robes and the cutest ears… Both supplying sound effects, such as scared squeaks and intimidating growls – oh, and running around in small circles. Really, imagine it for yourself.
"As much as I'd love to watch this some more, please STOP!" Miroku commanded, since Sango, Shippo and Kirara were indisposed due to utter hysteria.
"Urf?' Inuyasha looked up from his Yasei-chase. "But I nearly got him..."
"Really."
"Heeey he's going again!" Inuyasha caught Yasei just as the bird was about to give Kikyo the Sacred Jewel.
"Chrrr rrr chr." (still hard to talk.) let me go! It's her soul anyway.
"But Yasei, how do you know she won't disappear like the other priestess?" Asked a confused Inuyasha.
"CHRRRRR!!!!!" Because it's HER soul that a) made the Jewel b) purified Tsubaki!!!
"Oh." Inuyasha thought a bit. Everyone gathered around the two priestesses. Inuyasha continued, "So… what about Kagome?"
"Chrrrrr –chr, Chiri?" What about her?
Yasei said, after spitting out the Jewel onto the ground in front of him, and stood glaring at all half-demon dogs who would try and steal it.
Inuyasha growled and shook the little bird by his tail feathers. "WHAT ABOUT HER? Her soul is in there too you know!!"
"Chiiiii…." Ohhh…
Yasei contemplated this new bit of information.
"Umm…" everyone looked at Sango, "Didn't Tsubaki say something about only… one of them coming back…?"
The sadness that had plagued them for the last month descended, harder than ever.
"I don't know, but… Inuyasha, I think you should choose." Sango ventured again.
"Choose WHAT?"
"Ahem, well…"
"WHAT WE MEAN IS, NOW IS THE PERFECT TIME TO MAKE UP YOUR MIND, YOU TWO-TIMER!!!!" Yelled Shippo.
"Chi!" Right!
And Yasei dropped the Jewel into Inuyasha's open palm.
"WHAT??????? NO WAY!!!!!!!!" Inuyasha held out the Jewel. "Somebody else take it!"
Everyone took a step/hop back. Inuyasha stared at them, his mind clouding over. This was too much. Way too much. Everything had started catching up with him, and now it jumped on him in one big ambush.
"Maybe we went too far… After all, it's not something to joke about…" Sango whispered as Inuyasha dropped to the ground, frozen and staring straight ahead, mind whirling. She carefully took the Jewel from his hand, though still he didn't move.
"Right. Let's try cracking this thing in two."
"Umm Sango, that's how all this STARTED, remember? Sacred Jewel, breaking, shard collecting… you know the story."
"Yeah, but do we have a choice?" Sango stared at the two priestesses. One dead, one alive. "We can't choose one over the other, Miroku. You know it's wrong. Even if one is already dead… Her purpose here isn't really finished, is it? Who are we to argue with Destiny? Now COME ON. We want Kagome back, don't we?"
"Chi!" Kikyo too.
Miroku raised his eyebrows at Yasei.
'Chiii? Chiri." Whaaaat? She can be nice too. "Chiriri…." She saved my life you know…
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\
Awake, Kagome.
Inuyasha? Mom? Anyone?
Who do you love, Kagome?
Everyone. Not Naraku though, I really don't like him… I love my family, my cat, my friends, my other friends, and now sort-of Kikyo - somehow, she's not all that bad…
Really, Kagome? Anyone specific?
Only Inuyasha… But he loves Kikyo.
Emptiness.
Fade out.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\
"Dang. We can't do it."
"Looks like only Sacred Arrows would work… And we don't want to go there again…"
"Is Inuyasha still… thinking?"
Miroku got up to look. The half-dog demon had recovered, only to jump into a tree and continue his staring process there.
"What the hell are we going to do, Miroku?" Sango muttered.
"Well, if worst comes to worst, we might have to… choose."
"Chiriri…." That's bad.
"I miss Kagome…" sniffed Shippo.
Sango sighed.
"Shippo, would you go get some firewood? I think we'll need it."
"OK…"
"Chiri?" Can I come?
"Sure…"
Sango was just staring blankly ahead. Miroku cleared his throat, then went on, "Sango… about the time you left…"
"Sorry."
"Huh?"
"What do you expect me to say?"
"Um... Not much actually. I need you to listen. I just want you to know… That there will always be something here for you. I mean… if not anything else, then I will always be here."
Sango's eyes widened, but still she kept staring straight ahead.
"That's all… really…" Miroku stood up and shuffled away, cursing circumstances under his breath.
Sango wouldn't budge for a long time, replaying those words in her head, and wondering when this living hell will end.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\
"What's up, blockhead?" Miroku was suddenly beside Inuyasha.
"When'd you get here?" Inuyasha had been dead to the world, and he wanted to remain so. "Leave me alone."
"Nah."
"Who has the Jewel?"
"I do."
"Oh." Inuyasha stared at the sunrise.
For a while, everything was really quiet. Until Shippo and Yasei came back with the firewood, that is.
"Chiri." Hey. "Chiriir! Chiiii chiriii." I've got an idea… How about we bring them back one at a time and ask which one of them wants to die?
Miroku and Inuyasha glared at Yasei. Until they realised that, it was actually a good idea, if not for the 'who wants to die' bit. Why not consult the actual people involved?
AN: I really wanted to end it with this chapter, but there's too much. GRR NEXT CHAPTER THEN!!!! (gosh I'm writing all this in one big chunk aren't I??)
AND AGGHH I think I totally died writing the Sango-Miroku bit. You can just tell I was uncomfortable. shudder romance is nice and all to read but PLEAAAASE never make me write anytihng like that ever again!
