Chapter 13:

Rise

"You don't get drown by falling into a river. You get drown by remaining there. Falling accidentally and rising immediately was what distinguished Thomas Edison and Abraham Lincoln from the rest."
― Israelmore Ayivor

Kagome nervously bit her nails and somewhere in her head she could hear Ryura groaning. She had given up one bad habit for another.

Why was she chewing her nails? Because not more than ten feet away from the tree she was hiding behind, Kagome could hear the scraping of armor being taken off and the soft rustling of silk being discarded. The splashing of water next, followed by a small yelp at the heat of the water, had Kagome almost in a panic.

When she said she would wash his hair, Kagome had no idea she'd actually have to stay around for him to bathe first, hence why she was hiding behind a tree.

"Oh come on, Kagome. This water is so foggy you can't see anything!" Ryura called out.

"Nope! Not doing it!" Kagome retorted.

She heard Ryura grumble, "But I need someone to toss my armor to me. I can't reach it from here, and it's hard to see!"

Kagome groaned loudly and slouched. "Whatever. Fine, I'll hand you your stupid armor!"

She stomped out from behind the tree, swallowed the lump in her throat, and made her way over to the edge of the springs. Turns out he was right. The water, and the air around the hot springs, was so foggy you really couldn't see anything. She stumbled through the fog until her left foot lightly tapped against one of Ryura's discarded arm guards.

Looking down to the pile of armor and the bloody clothing next to it, Kagome felt her earlier panic return. She looked up as the water splashed, a squeak escaping her.

"I should probably wash the arm and shoulder guards first. Dragon scales and hide are hard to clean, despite popular belief," she heard Ryura say. He was getting closer! "Hence why I will never bathe while in my true form once I obtain it – talk about a nightmare."

A clawed hand, wrist decorated with curved blue stripes, shot out of the fog and did the 'gimme' motion. Kagome swallowed hard again and clumisly picked up one of the arm guards; by the look of it, it was the left one. She shoved the guard at Ryura who muttered in thanks.

As she waited for him to finish cleaning the guard, Kagome noticed she was sweating from the sheer heat emitting from the hot springs. After this, she was going to need a bath, too. Four days of being sick on top of all the crap she put up with since coming back had to leave her smelling awful.

All of the sudden, the now clean left arm guard was tossed onto the edge of the hot springs, landing with a loud thud beside Kagome. The clawed hand popped back out of the fog, and repeated the motions from before. This time Kagome handed Ryura his right arm guard.

Time passed by quickly with Kagome handing Ryura pieces of his armor. The chest piece she had to drag across the ground due to its weight, but by the end, every piece of his armor and clothing was clean – Kagome wasn't aware that you could wash silk like he had. Maybe it wasn't really silk?

As Ryura went about washing himself, Kagome laid out the clothing on nearby boulders to help them dry, and spread out his armor along the ground for the same reasons.

"I hope this fog isn't too thick for you, so you can actually see my hair to wash it," Ryura said, and Kagome jumped slightly.

"Yeah, hopefully!" She laughed nervously.

Hearing the water move, showing Ryura was coming closer again, Kagome stopped breathing out of nervousness. She saw his hands first, and her eyes followed his arms as the fog slowly revealed them. Ryura's hands landed on the edge of the hot springs and he leant forward, a grin on his face.

"Ready?" He asked. Kagome could only nod dumbly and reach for her bag.

Ryura looked at the bag with interest. She was now digging around inside it, and eventually pulled out a bottle. "What is that?" He asked.

"Shampoo. Don't worry, it's unscented, so you won't come out smelling like a woman," the grin on her face was wide, showing she had forced her nervousness away for the time being.

"I don't know what that is, but go ahead," Ryura said as he waved a hand and looked to her expectantly.

"You might want to get the rest of your hair wet, first," she pointed out.

Ryura dunked himself under the water without protest. When he surfaced, he pushed his now sopping went mane of hair out of his face. Kagome motioned for him to turn around, which he did with a soft splash of water. Thankfully Kagome could only see from mid torso up, as it was above the waterline. She faintly noticed as she dumped a good amount of shampoo in her hands that he had the same stripes on his shoulders that he carried on his wrists and face.

Kagome was going to have to wash his hair a section at a time; it was just that long. With it unbraided she could easily see why it was such a pain to wash. If she had to guess, she would say his unbound hair would fall to his ankles, but with so much of it disappearing into the water, she couldn't be exactly for sure. If it did go down that far, then that meant his hair was even longer than Sesshoumaru's.

She scooted closer to him on her knees and with her hand that was free of shampoo, Kagome gathered his hair and pulled it from the water until the ends were free. This was where she began. Section after section of long, blue silky hair she washed until she reached his scalp.

If Ryura could purr, that's exactly what he would be doing. The way her blunt human nails scratched his head would have had even Sesshoumaru drooling like the dog he was. This was the first time since he was a child that he allowed someone to touch his hair, much less wash it for him, and he was silently wondering if he'd ever be able to do it on his own again.

Ryura had to be extremely careful while washing his hair, else risk cutting it off with his claws, which he was sorely tempted to do at times. Perhaps one day he'd get tired of it and ignore tradition, chopping it all off in one go. For now, though, he was going to enjoy having this long of hair.

"Alright, now go back under and wash out all the soap. It's going to be interesting to see how long you can hold your breath," Kagome said as she tapped the top of Ryura's head.

Once he disappeared under the water, Kagome went about washing her hands of the shampoo coating them in a thick lather. She had to at least use half a bottle of shampoo. It made her wonder if youkai had some special soap they used that wouldn't take as much to get a good lather?

Kagome jerked back in shock when she felt Ryura's head under her hands. He rose up from the water enough until his mouth was showing, his cheeks a bright red with his bangs plastered against his forehead and partially covering his eyes.

"I feel like I'm going to pass out," he murmured.

"Well, get out then!" Kagome said as she jumped to her feet and ran back to hide behind her tree.

She heard Ryura groan and slide out of the water. The noises were followed by a heavy thud, making Kagome peek around the tree to check on Ryura.

He was laying on his stomach, still half way in the water. When he rose up on his hands, Kagome quickly ducked behind the safety of the tree's wide trunk. Hearing footsteps next, she waited to see if he was just moving around or coming towards her.

Ryura appeared beside her, looking down at her crouched form. He was wearing his pants now, but little of anything else. His hands were wrapped around his hair and squeezing out buckets of water. While he did this, Kagome was finding it hard not to stare. Sure, she'd seen Inuyasha and even Miroku without a shirt on, but this was crazy, and she could instantly tell the age difference between all of them purely due to how muscled Ryura was; Inuyasha and Miroku were obviously not old enough to have filled out this much.

Kagome didn't even know it was possible for someone with his thin frame to be that ripped. He put models in her era to shame. Were all youkai like this, or was this just a "Ryura thing"?

"Oi, you gonna stare all day or did you want to take a bath, too?" He said, snapping Kagome out of her transfixed state.

The Miko squeaked and was on her feet fast enough it surprised Ryura. She stiffly walked past him, her face red not only from the heat, but her own embarrassment. The Dragon chuckled and took her spot behind the tree. He pulled his hair over his shoulder and continued to ring it out, letting Kagome bathe in privacy.

But not without saying something. "If you want me to wash your hair, just ask!"

Hearing Kagome's gurgled and muffled, water logged yell was enough to make him grin like a fool.

As Kagome bathed, Ryura felt deep within himself the four powers that now resided in his body. Considering they were fading as time passed, he had the feeling that it wasn't permanent. He was still healing, and the powers would possibly only last as long as it took for his body to completely recover.

He leaned back and rested fully against the tree with his eyes closed, intending on resting as much as he could. Ryura wasn't really comfortable with some foreign energy in his body. It reminded him too much of the spheres of power.

As he rested he thought on how to exactly go about training Kagome with a bow. It wasn't as if he couldn't do it, but with his youkai strength he knew he wouldn't be able to use her bow. He would need one stronger, forged from a material that could bend easily without breaking in half. Perhaps he could just have her fire a couple of arrows, and go from there, correcting her form and giving her advice? It wasn't like Kagome was a novice. She at least knew how to point and shoot.

He opened his eyes and looked down at his hands, gaze lingering on the markings of his wrists. It was the first time he had seen them in so, so many years. Images of his father, who carried the same markings, passed through his mind and Ryura frowned. Now he remembered why he hid them. They were signs of his shame, of his sins. Willing them to disappear, Ryura sighed heavily. Would he ever stop feeling so guilty? He didn't honestly think he would. To get rid of the guilt, he would have to forget what he had done in the past, and there was no way he would ever be able to forget. Perhaps one day, if the Kami allowed him to live for a long period of time, he would be able to put the past behind him, but right now, in the present, he knew he had a long way to go.

He sighed again and pushed himself to his feet, completely forgetting about Kagome taking a bath. The fog was so dense he could hard see his hand in front of his face, which was possibly a good thing for him.

Kagome was standing outside the hot springs, with a towel wrapped around her head, her hair within, as she was in the process of pulling up a pair of dark blue jeans. She had just pulled them over her hips with Ryura came walking through the fog and she squealed.

"Hey!" she snapped. "It's a good thing you don't wear subjugation beads!"

Ryura blinked quickly and looked up, just now noticing Kagome in front of him. How in the world had he missed her...? Was he that far gone in his thoughts?

He sighed, yet again, and ran his clawed hand gently though his still slightly damp hair. "Forgive me. I had a lot on my mind. I didn't mean to surprise you."

Stilling, Kagome turned her eyes up to him and saw the look on his face. "Ryura... What's wrong?"

"The past," he murmured.

"Is that why you hid your markings?"

Ryura nodded once while folding his strong arms over his chest, but didn't say anything further about it.

Kagome could only smile sadly. "That's a shame. They looked very good on you."

"They looked like my father's," he said sternly.

Kagome sucked in a harsh breath through her teeth, "I'm sorry..."

He raised a hand and gave it a short wave of dismissal, then tucked it back against his chest. His claws began to idly tap against his ribs and he gave her a once over.

"What sort of material is that you are wearing?" He asked with a pointed look at her jeans.

Kagome looked down at her jeans. "Oh, it's denim. It's a more sturdy material from my era, but it's still made from cotton."

"Denim? Interesting..."

"Ryura, I have a question, if you don't mind my asking?" Her voice was quiet.

The Dragon Daiyoukai looked at her for a long moment before nodding. She had saved his life, after all, by calling for Sesshoumaru, not to mention she took over the task of washing his hair. He could at least answer a question.

"If you don't like seeing your markings because it reminds you of your father, how can you stand to look at yourself? Surely you must look like one of your parents, if not both." Her words were honest, and he could tell by the tone of voice that she didn't say what she did to offend him.

"I don't like looking at myself. Why should I? I hate myself, so why bother looking at something you hate. Would you like seeing Naraku whenever you looked at your reflection?" He said a bit harsher than he meant to.

Kagome flinched. He did have a point.

"I... I won't say I know how you feel, but..." she trailed off and took one step closer. "I used to hate looking at myself, too. I really do look a lot like Kikyou. There are minor differences, like our eye color and hair color, yet I saw her in my reflection, and sometimes I still do."

Ryura's head tilted as he listened. What was she getting at?

"I know it sounds like I hate Kikyou, but really... I'm jealous of her, even with the mistakes she made while she was actually alive. She wasn't perfect, but who is?" Kagome turned to the side, not wanting to look at him as she admitted how she felt for the first time out loud. She knew Ryura was hurting far more than she ever could when it came to this topic, but she couldn't help but think if she talked about her feelings, it might not only help heal her, but heal him in a small way as well.

"I can't hate her. Inuyasha loves her, just as I love him. She loves him too, I can tell that much. Kikyou is starting to return to being the woman Inuyasha fell in love with. She's kind, in her own way," she said with a murmur, then continued. "The last time we saw her... I'll never forget to look on Inuyasha's face."

She looked at him finally. Her smile was sad and looked like she was about to break at any moment. "That's when I realized that I would never be able to heal Inuyasha, or truly be with him. He won't be able to let go of the past, not before I die of old age, at least. While I love him, I have to learn to let him go. Not only for myself, but for him, too. I know seeing me causes him pain, and that pain will only increase after Kikyou is put to rest again. I can't subject him to being in pain the rest of my life because of my own selfish reasons."

Ryura looked at a loss for words. His arms had dropped back down to rest at his sides while Kagome was talking, and his shoulders were slightly hunched.

"It's okay, Ryura..." she said softly once she noticed his dejected appearance. "You know why?"

She gave him a moment before saying, "Because I know that time heals everything – I've begun to heal since I've started to let go of Inuyasha. I don't hate seeing myself anymore. I had to rise above that hate as the first step to letting go of him – and the road ahead of me is a long one. If anything, I'm proud I'm her reincarnation now, and I only wish I'll be able to get to know her better. I want to know her, not the perfect Priestess that Inuyasha has painted her to be. I want to see Kikyou the Woman, not Kikyou the Miko."

"My point is," she said after letting him soak up what she said, "I wish for you, for your soul... For your own peace of mind and spirit, that one day you too will see that the past is the past, and that you only have your future to look forward to. I hope you won't hold what you've done in the past against yourself forever, and live in a world of nothing but darkness and pain, like Inuyasha is. I'd like to think that the Kami-sama gave you this chance not only to redeem your soul, but so you could be at peace. All souls are their children, and no parent likes to see their children suffer, no matter how dark and corrupted their soul has become. I know I wouldn't."

Ryura couldn't find anything to say that would actually sound intelligent. Instead he grabbed Kagome by the arm and pulled her into his chest, wrapping his strong arms around her small frame in a hug. The movements caused the towel to fall from her head and rest on the ground in a heap, her hair falling about her shoulders. He clung to her tightly and rested his chin on the crown of her head. Ignoring her startled cry, he allowed his eyes to close and just thought about what she said.

It took Kagome a bit to get over her embarrassment of being pressed this tightly against Ryura, but when she did, she realized he needed the contact. He needed to feel like there was someone in the world who didn't hate him, who wasn't afraid to touch him in fear of their lives, and who didn't damn him for his actions in the past. He needed a friend, a true friend.

She wrapped her arms around his middle, returning his embrace softly. She could be that friend; she could give him that comfort to help him on his way to healing.

When he pulled away from her slightly, Kagome saw he was allowing his markings to show. She smiled brightly at him, but didn't say anything about it. Ryura smiled back and gave her a quick squeeze before fully letting go.

He didn't say anything as he turned to finish dressing, and she didn't speak either. Instead she pulled on her socks and shoes, and brushed through her hair, ridding it of any tangles and left it down to fully dry.

Ryura was just finished with equipping his armor and was now combing through his hair slowly with his clawed fingers. The sight made Kagome laugh and Ryura turned to look at her with a brow raised.

"I can help with that," she said with a smirk while holding up her brush and waving it at him.

His chest rumbled with a quiet chuckle. "So you not only wish to wash my hair, but tend to it as well? At this rate, Kagome, I'm afraid this is going to be your new job. I'm getting spoiled."

"Oh shush and come sit down in front of me," she said dryly.

When he was settled on the grass covered ground, Kagome lowered herself to her knees. She began to hum as she brushed gently through his nearly dry hair, and Ryura felt his eyes droop. Yes, he was getting spoiled. Not that he'd complain.

His hair was a lot easier to manage when wet than her own was, thankfully, and it really did feel like silk! The age-old question had been answered, and Kagome was jealous. Oh was ever she jealous. She would kill to have hair like this. Damn him, Sesshoumaru, and Inuyasha. Lucky bastards.

Kagome started grumbling as she pulled his hair back from his face and neck with a hand, smoothing out any bumps that popped up with her brush. She placed his hair in its customary high tail and tied it off with the thick ribbon he used, then she began to braid the long locks. His blue hair fell through her fingers like water and jealously surged within her again.

"At this rate I might cut your hair myself. No one should have this nice of hair. It's unnatural," she grumbled out. "I wish mine was like this."

"Youkai are supernatural. Of course we would have perfect hair and perfect looks. The only ugly youkai you will ever meet is a lower grade one," he said hauntingly, causing Kagome to hit him lightly on the head with her brush.

His head fell back as he laughed, and Kagome continued to grumble like a child.