16 - The Curse

InuYasha knew that Miroku was right. He was a fighter. He liked to fight. He wanted to feel that adrenaline rush again, and that sweet moment of victory that came after a life and death struggle. So that was why he was currently on all fours, sniffing around the lavish home of a village headman (whose village was a good few hours run from the forest he'd been holed up in for the past year).

"Have you found anything, sir?" The headman was bobbing around behind him, watching anxiously. InuYasha rolled his eyes at the 'sir', and marvelled a little at how word travelled.

It was strange to him, but everyone seemed to believe that the destroyer of Naraku, and guardian of the famed Shikon Jewel deserved nothing less than 'respect'. Secretly, he'd half expected to go back to the old way of living after Kagome's departure, feeling like anything good in him was all attributed to her in some way. But apparently not.

He could almost hear Kagome, telling him "See? It's karma," in her 'I-told-you-so' voice. Maybe, he thought. Maybe.

"Hm. I think so," he sad aloud, replying to the headman's question. "There's definitely been a demon of some kind, sneaking around."

"A demon! But no-one has seen anything like that!"

"Are you sure? Do you know if anyone had been near your treasury before the robbery?" Miroku and Kagome would be proud of him. He was 'playing detective' as Kagome called it.

"Well, only myself of course...and Keishiko. He was supposed to be updating the records."

InuYasha thought for a moment. "He could have been possessed I suppose." This was getting a little tricky now – he couldn't hit a demon out of a person with his Tetsusaiga. He went back to sniffing the ground and – there! He'd definitely found a trail now!

The scent led him to a clearing in the surrounding forest, nearly half an hour's walk from the village. In the middle of the clearing sat an odd kind of demon. His (or was it her?) face was unremarkable, the kind that InuYasha would never have remembered seeing. His height was average, and his skin pallid – nothing about this demon stood out particularly. If it weren't for the unmistakable scent of demon hanging around, InuYasha would have thought that the demon was actually a human.

The stolen goods had been piled all around the clearing. InuYasha grinned. Here came the fight.

"Oi! That doesn't belong to you!" He called out.

The demon looked up and gasped. "Oh! I'm lucky today! You're that InuYasha, right? Protector of the Shikon Jewel? Can't miss those ears!" The strange, happy-go-lucky voice that the demon used was a shocking contrast to his bland features.

"Uh, not anymore," InuYasha said, taken aback.

"What do you mean 'not anymore'? Have a fight with that priestess girlfriend or something?" as he said this, the demon began to change. He trembled and melted into a column of wobbling grey goo, and then solidified into another shape entirely – one that was female, very pretty, wearing a short green kimono and obviously supposed to be Kagome.

"How did you do that?" InuYasha demanded.

"I'm a shape-shifter, silly," the demon said in a nearly-Kagome-voice. Then he (she?) laughed. "Don't like the reminder?" Nearly-Kagome trembled again, then split down the middle to create two nearly-Kagome's, who both stood there laughing.

"Shut up!" InuYasha yelled, confused and extremely angry.

The demon, to InuYasha's surprise, did just that. The nearly-Kagome's folded their arms, and looked pissed beyond hell.

InuYasha narrowed his eyes, thinking. "Change back to your original form."

The demon did that too, and InuYasha smirked, pleased with himself.

"Speak if you wish."

"Thank-you! Look, I need that Shikon jewel to get rid of this stupid curse, if you have it..."

InuYasha just rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You're not even worth the trouble, not when you gotta do what I say. It's too easy. Give everything back to the people you took it from -"

The demon turned to run, but InuYasha yelled, "Listen to me!" just in time. "Don't ever take anything that's not yours ever again," he finished.

The demon screeched. "That's not fair! Reverse it! Reverse your order!"

"No," InuYasha said, before leaving to find a more worthy opponent.

#

"I don't trust them!" Akane screamed.

"Shut up! They're just in the other room! They'll hear you!"

"Sorry." Akane was quiet for a moment, clutching her tea cup until her knuckles where white. "But...there's something off about them, and I don't know what it is. And they let Kagome get hurt!"

"Kagome's gotten worse than that. I'm sure even her knight-in-shining-fur couldn't save her from a few bumps and bruises." Ranma rolled his eyes, to emphasise the fact he though Akane was going overboard on this whole thing. He just hoped it would hurry up and end soon – the only thing Akane ever talked about nowadays was Kagome's saftey. He understood that she was worried, but what about him? He wouldn't mind it if Akane wanted to fuss over him, just a little.

"But, some things about them, just don't make any sense."

"Like what?"

"Well, Kagome's a reincarnation of some priestess right? But Kagome says that the two of them were really different people. And the other day Kagome said that she'd gotten her best friends back and that they were just the same as she remembered. Why should they be the same people, even if they look similar?"

Ranma shrugged. "Maybe it's Kagome that's the exception."

Akane shook her head. "No. I mean, Sango had her family murdered, and that changes a person, right? If this new Sango never had that happen to her wouldn't she be...different?"

"Well, maybe it did."

Akane shrugged. "There's more...like, Tokyo's got like millions of people living in it, and it's just when Kagome happens to be feeling low, and depressed and stressed out that she runs into Miroku by some miracle? I mean, what's the chance of that? It seems like it was planned out to me, it's too coincidental."

Ranma shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah. I s'pose. I dunno. The lord works in mysterious ways?"

"Since when did you become religious?" Akane asked dully. "Anyway, speaking of chances, how did Sango get to Kagome just in time today? Neither Kagome or Miroku had cell-phones or weapons -"

"You don't know that he doesn't have a cell-phone -"

"If you're being attacked by a flying demon with a sword, you don't pull out your cell-phone, you run for cover, right?"

"I s'pose." Ranma grunted.

"Like I was saying, what's the chance that Sango happened to be close enough, with weapons no less, just in time to save Kagome? I mean, Sango just happened to be driving around a suburban area, nowhere near her apartment, at the exact same time a demon comes flying out of nowhere?"

"Yeah I get it, too coincidental," Ranma snapped, trying to think.

Akane huffed. "So you see my point?"

"I guess." Ranma looked up at her. "Okay, say that Sango and Miroku are actually the bad guys, who are they really and what's the motive?"

"I don't know. Magicians or demons? And motive? The Shikon jewel obviously."

"I'm not entirely sure. They've had plenty of opportunities to take the jewel, and bump off Kagome." Ranma was silent a moment. "So they have some sort of higher purpose. Revenge?"

"But they could have killed her already by now."

"Maybe they want to make her suffer. Make her think she's safe and take it all back."

Akane paled at that. She wasn't sure if Kagome would take that any easier than her break up with InuYasha.

Ranma was about to say something else when they both heard the sound of footsteps. They both stop talking, guiltily, unable to look at three guests as they entered the room.

"Hey guys," Kagome said softly. "Have I missed dinner?"

Akane nodded, and sprang to her feet. "I'll heat up a plate for you."

An awkward silence followed. Ranma looked carefully at Miroku and Sango trying to decide whether they looked like people with malicious intentions. They didn't. The concern on Sango's face perfectly matched Akane's, and Miroku only stared grimly at his hands.

A sudden noise pierced the silence. Kagome had turned on the TV. "Sorry," she said, and turned the volume down.

Akane came back with a tray, loaded with food. "Can I get you guys anything?" She asked Sango and Miroku, not wanting to be rude to them in front of Kagome, regardless of her suspicions. When they both shook their heads, Akane resumed her seat.

More awkward silence.

And then Kagome slammed down her rice bowl. "I'm so sick of this!" She said, furiously. When she turned to face the rest of the group, her eyes were bright with unshed tears.

"I choose to stay here, so I could just get on with life! Normally! Instead Gramps is taken away from me and I have to continue guarding the jewel, only minus InuYasha!"

"Ka-kagome..." Akane was at loss for words. Ranma checked Sango and Miroku again, but the only thing he could tell, was that they looked unhappy.

"I'm sick of violence and demons and magic! I'm over the action! I'm ready to start living like a normal person again! I thought – I thought, that it'd be better now for some reason, with Sango and Miroku," Sango took Kagome's hand, but didn't say anything. "It was like I could have my happy ending with my friends and keep my family. But nothing has ended and I'm tired of it!"

Kagome shook, trying not to cry. "I just – just wish -"

Miroku hushed her. "Don't wish anything. You never know how the jewel will take it."

Akane frowned at him, and so did Ranma, as they both wondered whether it was right that Miroku know this sort of thing.

"There's nothing else for me to do." Kagome said stubbornly.

Miroku shifted, uneasy. "Well...you know I have experience with magical artifacts..."

Kagome smiled as she remembered Miroku's lame business. Though, Akane and Ranma didn't like where this was going.

"If...if you were okay with it...I could look after it for a while, until you get some of yourself back, that is. You need a break, I think."

Kagome looked at him startled. "You would do that? It'd put you in a lot of danger..."

Akane felt a growing sense of impending doom.

"Sango and I can handle it."

Sango nodded. "I think it's a good idea. Kagome, you're really run down."

"I – I am." Kagome was quiet for a moment. "Yes, please -"

"Kagome, wait!" Everyone turned to look at Akane. "I, uhm, think for a moment, are you sure?" Akane struggled with herself to tell Kagome all of her worries. But she couldn't, why should Kagome believe her? What if she were putting them all in danger by revealing them? What if she were wrong?"

Kagome sighed. "Yes. I'm sure. Miroku, please take the jewel." And she reached towards him, the jewel lying in the palm of her hand.

AN - Sorry for the long wait! This might seem sudden, plot-wise and all...and some of you might not like it......I dunno. The ideas have sort evolved somewhow, to how they started a year ago? more than that? less than that? And one day I will definitely be re-writing this to make it all smoother and less holey......oh and chouko mysteriously died, i think. I can't remember why she's there in the first place. probably to create tense romantic situations between inuyasha and kagome because i am a fangirl. but shes dying, because her character is stupid and pointless. in the rewrite she wont ever have existed in the first place.

sorry. im in a bad mood. but that doesn't change chouko's pointlessness.