Blood Ties, Blood Lies

Chapter Four: Wrong

I am so sorry for taking so long to finish this chapter! But finally, here it is!

Quick note: "Nee-san" is one way to address an older sister. Isn't that how Souta refers to Kagome? Also, "kaa-san" is kind of an offhand way to refer to one's mother.

Japanese Word of the Day: Chigau– different.

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Feudal Era, Early June

Miroku leaned tiredly against the wall, listlessly observing as Sango tossed herbs into a pot of what would soon be dinner. As he watched her, she looked at him and gave him a forced smile. "Are you feeling better, houshi-sama?"

He grimaced back at her. "Well, it's certainly an improvement to be able to feel my fingers again."

"I see…" She gave the pot a stir, then thoughtfully set down the ladle. "This doesn't feel real."

"What do you mean?" he asked her, sitting up a little straighter. He winced as the movement sent a small wave of dizziness washing over him.

"It doesn't feel real that…Kagome-chan is gone." She met his eyes. "Don't you feel as if she'll suddenly enter the hut, arguing with Inuyasha about how much time she spent in her own time? Doesn't it still seem like life will carry on the way it always has?"

Miroku went silent for a long time. It had been three days since Inuyasha had commanded him to come to the well and break whatever spell was sealing it. It had been three days since Miroku had thrown every trick he knew at the ordinary-looking pile of old wood and found his efforts futile. It had been three days since he had finally collapsed, drained of power, out of energy, and filled with a curiously empty loneliness.

Sango and Kirara had helped him back to Kaede's hut. But Inuyasha and Shippou didn't move a step away from the well. They stayed there the entire night, doing only the gods knew what. Arguing, brainstorming, or maybe just staring. Waiting for Kagome to suddenly appear and tell them it had been a joke. Shippou eventually came back, but Miroku, confined to his bed, hadn't seen Inuyasha since then. It saddened him a bit to think that the half-demon was so desperate to believe that Kagome would really come back.

But at the same time, he knew that both he and Sango were secretly hoping for the same thing. Hoping that Kagome would return. Hoping that out of blue she would appear out of nowhere and laugh, saying she had chosen to stay with them after all. It was foolish, but what else did they have to hold on to?

For that reason, he chose his words carefully when he answered Sango. Not only for her sake, but also for his own. "Life will certainly carry on, with or without Kagome-sama's presence. But I doubt it will carry on the way it has. You and I both know what a great change this makes in our lives. Even if she suddenly lifts the seal on the well and returns, there is now a huge wound between her and Inuyasha that I doubt the two of them will ever be able to forget." He raised an eyebrow at her. "You yourself said that eventually something would break."

She flushed and said hurriedly, "I never implied that I wanted such a thing to happen—"

"And I never said that you did," he finished for her. "What I am saying is that we all knew that eventually, Kagome-sama and Inuyasha would either reconcile that mess between them and Kikyou-sama, or else simply snap. It was merely a matter of seeing which would happen first. It seems that Kagome-sama has finally decided that enough is enough."

Sango's forehead wrinkled, and she protested, "But that doesn't feel right. I can't see why Kagome-chan would choose to do something so drastic. It's not just Inuyasha who needs her. We need her, too."

He sighed. "Perhaps it was simply too much for her. Kagome-sama is a naturally caring person; trust and love come to her quickly and they both run very deep. Inuyasha's actions have deeply wounded her because of her tendency to trust so deeply. She feels the damage twice as much as either of us would, I'm sure."

Silence fell between them, broken only by the crackling flames and the hiss as the pot over the fires came to a boil. Using large, wet rags, Sango removed the pot and set it to the side. "…should we call for the others?"

"I know Inuyasha won't come," Miroku said in a resigned tone. "But we should tell Shippou."

Sango stared blankly at the pot before shaking her head. "But Inuyasha needs to eat. How about I send Kirara with some of this? That way, Shippou-chan can eat, and Inuyasha…might."

Miroku smiled grimly. Three days ago, life had seemed to be passing normally. Sure, Kagome had been taking longer than usual to come back, but it was hardly a surprise, considering all that she had gone through. But when Inuyasha had come with the news that he couldn't pass the well, Miroku had felt a chill pass over him. Even as Inuyasha all but dragged him to the well, he couldn't stop the feeling that maybe…maybe it was time…

Of course he knew it was wrong to think in such a way. But at the same time, that may have been the "break" that he, Sango, and Shippou had discussed only moments before. Not just a few days' rest from each others' company…but a true, final parting. Maybe things had been meant to end here.

Of course, he didn't dare voice such a thought. Saying such an ugly thing would only make it real, and he was sure that Inuyasha would not appreciate that. Sango had probably thought the same thing. And little Shippou. What of him? Who knew what he was thinking right now? He could still naively believe that Kagome would return—which Miroku desperately wished to believe himself. But perhaps, thanks to that strange, intuitive wisdom children possess, he also thought that perhaps this time, Kagome's return to her world would be permanent.

"Yes, perhaps we should send them something to eat," he agreed, letting his eyes close. "As Inuyasha no longer seems to care for his own well-being, it is up to us to care in his place."

He knew that Sango longed to say something in response to that. That it felt like they were the ones paying the consequences for Kagome's choice. That under normal circumstances, Kagome would have been the one to care about Inuyasha's health.

But then again, under normal circumstances, this problem would not have existed in the first place.

Instead of replying, Sango murmured instructions to Kirara, spooning some of the stew into a container of some sort. Miroku heard a lid close, then heard the container rattling as Sango took it outside and set it on the ground. There was a roaring sound as Kirara transformed into her larger form, a clatter as she picked up the container, then a loud whoosh as she took to the air.

Back inside the hut, Sango's footsteps whispered across the dirt floor before coming to a stop right in front of him. "Houshi-sama, perhaps before you worry about Inuyasha's well-being, you should worry about your own. I will not allow you to sleep through a meal again. Your power was drained, and you need proper care in order to regain it!"

Miroku reluctantly opened his eyes and found the demon slayer standing before him with a steaming bowl in her hand. "Sango…"

"Not a word!" she said bossily, kneeling down next to him. "You will eat this and finish it, even if I need to force-feed every last bite down your throat!"

Yet despite her hard words, her hands were gentle as she pressed the bowl against Miroku's lips. Even the slightest movement still made the monk dizzy, so he had no choice but to allow himself to be fed like this. He drank slowly, taking care not to burn his mouth on the hot food. He could feel Sango's eyes on his face, watching him for a sign that he needed water or that he needed to catch his breath.

But what he really noticed was the way Sango's hands shook slightly as she tipped the bowl's contents into his mouth. She's scared, he realized, letting his eyes flicker in her direction for the briefest moment. Kagome-sama is perhaps the most important person in her life right now. She is important to us all. How will we move forward without her?

Neither of them said a word to each other. Their minds were filled with questions and doubts, and the crackling fire was curiously loud as the sun grew dark and Kirara returned with an untouched pot of stew.

-- -- --

Modern Era, Early June

Sakuno Higurashi-san had been about to leave for work, hastily straightening her clothes and grabbing the car keys from the kitchen table, muttering to herself about alarm clocks that refused to do their jobs properly, when the phone rang. She glanced at it over her shoulder as it rang once…twice…

That's right, Souta isn't home and Kagome won't answer it…

With a sigh, she set down her purse and rushed to the phone. She picked up and answered, "Hello, you have reached the Higurashi residence. This is Sakuno Higurashi speaking; how may I help you?"

"Hello, Higurashi-san? This is Eri. May I please speak to Kagome-chan?"

"You…want to speak to Kagome?" Higurashi-san glanced up at the ceiling in the direction of her daughter's room, as if checking to see if she were there. "I'm afraid she isn't available right now. Would you like to leave a message for her?"

"Kagome-chan still isn't around? Is she in the hospital again? Is she all right?"

"No, no, she's out of the hospital. It's just that she's…occupied already."

"I see. Well then, I would appreciate it if you could ask her to call me back whenever she can. We girls want to hang out with her some time."

"Of course, Eri-chan," Higurashi-san said warmly. "She will call you as soon as she's free."

"Thank you, Higurashi-san," Eri replied. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye." She returned the phone to its cradle with a sigh and picked up a memo pad and pen. Kagome, she wrote with a slight frown on her face. Eri-chan called this morning. She would like you to call her back whenever you can. Please do call. Kaa-san.

She set the note down in the middle of the table and stared at it for a moment. Her daughter had come home eight days ago very quiet and rather blue. Of course Higurashi-san knew that it had something to do with Inuyasha-kun. Only he could affect her naturally chipper daughter that way. And in the end, only he could cheer her up. So she did all she could as a mother, smiling, cooking her favorite foods, letting Kagome know that she was there while still giving her space if she wanted it. It was difficult, but in the end it was the only effective way to help her daughter.

But when Kagome had abruptly asked Higurashi-san's father to seal the well on her third day home, she suddenly doubted whether this "only effective way" of hers was really the best she could do. Kagome's fourth day home was the day the school year ended for her, so since then Kagome had been hanging around the house and having very strange mood swings. Sometimes she was so depressed that she would lock herself in her room, skipping meals, sleeping during the day, and wandering aimlessly up and down the upstairs hallway at night. Sometimes she became strangely energetic, taking over the kitchen with enormous cooking projects or cleaning up dusty old shrines that hadn't seen the light in years.

Frankly, the change frightened her, and Higurashi-san was growing more and more desperate to find some way to help her daughter. For the past year she had made it a rule not to ask about the goings-on beyond the well. The occasional bloodstains on Kagome's clothes, the fierce arguments with Inuyasha, and the way Kagome stared at the half-demon boy when she thought no one was looking were already plenty. But at a time like this, when it seemed like her daughter was on the edge of a breakdown, she felt more and more that it was time to stop being the accepting friend and become the prying mother. Even if Kagome resented the change, something was seriously wrong with her daughter.

She glanced down at her watch and muttered a curse under her breath. "I'm late."

Looking again in the direction of Kagome's room, its door probably locked as a result of one of Kagome's depressed spells, Higurashi-san rushed out of the house, half-wishing that Kagome was still at that age when anything could be cured with a Band-aid and a kiss.

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Feudal Era, Early June

Shippou perched on the edge of the well. In its dark depths, Inuyasha's silver hair and crimson clothes flickered and flashed as the half-demon desperately dug into the dirt at the bottom. "Inuyasha,"—he ventured with a tremor in his voice—"aren't you tired?"

The fox demon wasn't sure what scared him most: the fact that for the past three days Inuyasha had spent his time either digging or staring listlessly into space, or that he hadn't made a single sound all this time. That day when the well had been sealed off, Miroku had gone at it for hours, doing everything from chanting to attacking it with his staff to throwing ofuda that made Shippou nauseous just looking at them. Finally, long after the sky had gone dark, the monk lost the battle of endurance, and his legs suddenly refused to support him anymore.

And that was when they had finally accepted it: Kagome could not and would not return. And there was nothing any of them could do about it.

Only Inuyasha had refused to believe it. Since that tense, emotional day, Shippou remembered Inuyasha tightly pressing his lips together and leaping into the well. And since then, he hadn't slept or eaten a proper meal. Despite his body's naturally quick healing process, Shippou had noticed blisters on Inuyasha's knuckles the last time he had jumped out for a drink. There were shadows under his golden eyes, which were dulling by the day. And he never spoke.

There was something seriously wrong with him.

"Inuyasha," he called out again. "Don't…don't you think you need to take a break? Kirara brought food a while…ago…"

The half-demon stopped and looked up. Their eyes met, and suddenly it didn't matter that Inuyasha refused to speak. His words were clearly expressed through his eyes: "Are you a fool?"

And he went back to digging, silently flinging dirt out of the well in large clods. Old soil tangled with roots and streaked with clay already formed a sort of ring around the well, and the circle grew higher by the hour.

Shippou bit his lip. He wanted Kagome back, too. What was he without the angel who had pitied him, pampered him, protected him ever since his parents had been murdered? Inuyasha probably wanted her back even more than Shippou did. But no matter how much he wished for her to come back, this…this was just wrong.

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Modern Era, Early June

"Nee-san?"

Kagome spun around, her eyes wide with surprise, the sticky ladle in her hand held up like a spear. "What? Who is it?"

Souta, Kagome's nine-year-old brother, rubbed sleepily at his eyes, leaning slightly against the wall. "Nee-san, it's three in the morning. What are you doing?"

She relaxed slightly, although there was a frenzied look in her eye that did not disappear. "Oh, it's you, Souta. Is it really that late? I totally didn't realize. You just get so caught up, you know." She spoke unusually quickly and randomly broke up her sentences with short, nervous bursts of laughter. "I'm making bentos, you see?"

Oh no, Souta thought, following her hand as she gestured at the kitchen counter. "…how many are there?"

"Hm?" Kagome's hair had been tied back, and now she nervously twisted it into a bun and let it fall out again, over and over, unable to keep still. "How many? At last count, I think it was something like eleven—"

"Eleven?"

"Well, yeah, they tend to pile up the longer you go—"

"Don't tell me that you've been at this since dinner, nee-san?"

"Of course, how else would I have made so many?"

Souta nervously eyed the pile of neatly prepared boxes. "And who are they for?" he asked cautiously.

Kagome visibly twitched, then tittered in a high, fake voice and answered, "Well, I suppose you'll have one, and Mom and Jii-chan can have two, and my friends will appreciate it, I'm sure, plus maybe it'll save Mom some effort with tomorrow's dinner—well, tonight's dinner, technically, since it's already three o' clock—"

"Why are you doing this, nee-san?" Souta interrupted, now wide-awake and scared. "This is really, really weird. Yesterday you spent seven hours making shaved ice, and the day before that you cleaned the whole shrine grounds, and before that it was omelettes. What are you doing?"

She beamed at him and turned back to her half-finished box. "Silly Souta, I'm keeping busy. What with summer break, I'm feeling a bit restless."

"Don't you have summer homework to do?" he asked helplessly.

Kagome jerked in surprise and dropped the ladle on the counter. Then, she turned and gave him a huge fake grin. "If it's all right with you, I'd really rather not think about schoolwork right now, thanks. Besides, aren't you glad that you have so much food?"

"Your cooking's gotten better, nee-san, but this is still weird," he said quietly, wondering why schoolwork had suddenly become such a sensitive topic. Had she failed her classes? That couldn't be right; school had let out four days ago, so surely her grades weren't ready yet. "You've been acting so strange since the last time you came back. And you've stayed so long! Won't Inuyasha get mad and come for you?"

This time, Kagome was apparently so shocked that her wild twitch sent three bento boxes flying, spilling their contents onto the kitchen floor. "Oops!" she said, laughing gaily. "Clumsy me! Souta, be a dear, won't you? Let's also not talk about Inuyasha for a while, okay?"

"Okay…do you want me to help you?" he asked her as she knelt down and began dropping chunks of food into the trash can.

"No!" she snapped at him, flinging a chunk of ham so violently into the can that he heard it splat again the bottom. Then she dropped the can and covered her mouth. "S-sorry," she said softly. "That came out wrong."

Souta took a careful step forward. "Nee-san, are you all right?"

Kagome stared back at him for a long moment before abruptly coming to her feet, the spilled bentos forgotten. "Well, would you look at the time," she chirped gaily, sailing back to the kitchen counter. "It's pretty late, Souta, you'd better get back to bed!"

"But you should sleep, too," he said anxiously, remaining in place.

"I said you had better get back to bed!" Kagome replied in a singsong voice, washing off the ladle she had dropped. "Don't you worry about little ol' me! You just move along and let me run around a little bit more! You know how it gets: you get a little restless and start thinking too much so you really badly need to just get moving and do something, no matter how useless it may seem—"

-- -- --

And in two different worlds, separated by five hundred years of war, peace, and development, and connected by a simple dry well, two young boys entreated the people they most admired in the world:

-- -- --

"Inuyasha…"

-- -- --

"Nee-san, listen to me!"

-- -- --

"You have to stop!"

(end)

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Not my best...but the first draft was even worse, so I'll take comfort from that. We get to see Kikyou again next chapter, so stay tuned!