11-02-09: Well this chapter didn't need much revising. It's not much different from the last time I revised it, since there were barely any spelling errors or obvious grammar problems. So enjoy!
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You're Kinda, Sorta, Basically, Pretty Much, Always On My Mind.
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I Do Not Own Inuyasha
"Talking"
2. Inuyasha Revived
I stared up into the peaceful face of the hanyou boy. I knew him.. I knew him all to well. He was pinned to the Goshinboku, my sister's sacred arrow still pierced his heart. Vines and thick roots from the neighbouring trees grew over his body, locking him in place. He slept, oblivious to the living world surrounding him, perfectly at ease. He was in his own little world.. his own little fantasy. Free from the worries and labour of mortal life.
The gentle breeze blew his silver hair across his face and I felt my heart falter. It was Inuyasha. The boy from my childhood... the man who had loved my sister. He hadn't just existed in my childish imagination. My whole six year old life hadn't just been something my brain had concocted while I was in a 'coma'. I hadn't just gotten into an accident and forgotten my real family and had made up him in their stead. He was.. real.
I climbed up the thick roots, stumbling a bit, and stood before him. He looked even more real up close. But even though I could hear his breathing, and the slow steady beat of his heart, I was afraid. This might not be real, this might be a dream. He could fade away like so many times before, and then I would wake in my room crying, my hands reaching out into the darkness for the feel of his hand around mine once more.
I gazed over his face, trying to sketch this perfect image in my mind so I wouldn't forget. This was the most vivid dream I had ever had.. I couldn't forget it.
I slowly lifted my hand to brush a strand of silver hair from his face, but hesitated. So many times before he had disappeared.. I was afraid I would lose him again, that he might disappear into the darkness if I wasn't careful. But.. even if this wasn't real.. I needed the closure that I had tried.. that I had tried not to forget. I didn't have to think of them anymore and I could go back home.. but I had to know if he was real, that he did exist somewhere.
I brushed the strand of hair away, and my hand tingled where it had touched him. He was real, the slightly warmer temperature of his half immortal body told me so. I lifted my hands to the small silver dog ears on his head and held them between my thumb, index and middle finger. I caressed them between them and smiled to myself. Just as I had remembered, they felt like fuzzy velvet. The longer I stood here the more it felt like it was reality. That was something that I wanted to believe with all my heart.
"You! What are you doing over there?" The voice of a human male shattered the silence. Five arrows whizzed past and pierced the truck of the Goshinboku inches from Inuyasha's body. "This land is forbidden."
"Hold your fire, Kaito!" A more husky male voice shouted. "It's only a young woman.. Are you a foreigner!?" I didn't answer, I didn't know what to say. What could I say? I wasn't exactly a foreigner, I used to live here.. but I had known since the exact moment that Kikyou had let her arrow fly, that forever, this land would be forbidden.
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"She was in Inuyasha's forest?"
"It be a young girl in strange clothing.. " All around me, villagers talked amongst themselves as I sat on the dusty earth. My hands and feet were bound by thick, coarse rope. They pointed and stared at me like I was some freak animal in a zoo.
"Oi! Idiots! You didn't have to tie me up! I'm perfectly capable of sitting in one place without the need of rope!" I shouted, struggling to break free. My ipod was still blasting in my ears and I was starting to get a headache.
"Could she be a spy?"
"Could it be war again?"
" A kitsune in disguise, perhaps..?" The villagers ignored my insults and continued talking amongst themselves. Stupid.. Arrogant people.. I was the younger sister of their passed, beloved priestess, Kikyou for heaven's sake! They could at least treat me with a little respect like they used to! Besides, I looked far from dangerous! How could they even suspect such a thing!?
"Clear the way.."
"Miko Kaede-sama has arrived."
Mi...ko Kaede? A very old lady, dressed in red and white miko clothing came forward. She had a black eye patch on her left eye, and her snowy, white hair was tied into a low pony-tail. She seemed to have trouble walking on her own for she used her bow as a cane.
There was something familiar about this woman..something that almost made her seem like my older sister Kaede but..there could be no way that they were the same person. My real sister should be 19 now, not...not 600!
"Hn?" The elderly miko looked into my face, surprise and curiosity etched through her deep wrinkles. "Let me see your face clearly..." She demanded holding up my chin with her thumb and index finger. Up close the similarities shone through more clearly but I was having a hard time believing that this was my sister. She was just too.. too old! "Try to look a little less angry and more like a child."
I gazed up at her, trying to keep a straight face as the eternal battle; as to who this woman was, fought inside me. The woman studied my features with her wise chocolate eyes until finally she opened her mouth as the realization hit her.
"You resemble.. Kaori, my younger sister." She spoke quietly but clearly, and I heard the curious villagers gasp in surprise.
"That's because I am." The villagers gasped again. "I am.. the younger sister of Miko Kikyou-sama." I stated proudly. Even though I might be dreaming, that didn't say I couldn't brag about my family, now did it?
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"I'm not sure if you remember but our older sister Kikyou was a miko who protected over this village..." Kaede explained my sister, Inuyasha, my life before I fell through the well, but left out their deaths or the cause for some reason. Of course I remembered but it was nice to hear my life through someone else's point of view.. It helped me understand this older version of Kaede better.
We had moved from outside and were now sitting in the hut that used to be my house.. The place where I had grown up in. She spooned stew out of a black cauldron and into a wooden bowl. She handed it to me then poured herself some. "It has been 50 years since that day."
"I see.. I totally understand everything now.." I said taking a sip of her stew, which was actually quite good. She looked at me with disbelieving eyes.
"You don't understand at all do you?"
"No!" I cried. "I don't understand anything at the moment.. so it's better if you try not to explain anything until I figure out what you said."
Okay.. I thought. Here it's been 50 years since Inuyasha-onii-chan was pinned to the tree. I was sent down the well at the same time. But.. the well threw me 500 years into the future.. where I slept for 41 years then when I awoke I lived for 9 years growing and changing into a 15 year old.. BUT Kaede.. had grown to 60 years of age.. because.. she didn't fall into a dead slumber like I had..
I rumbled my temples and drank more of the soup. "Okay...I think I understand now."
"I'm glad you've figured it out.. But now it is my turn to misunderstand.. " Kaede looked at me, her eyes searching. "Why have you aged only to a young woman instead of a old lady, like myself?"
I felt heat form in my cheeks and I trailed my finger along the edge of the bowl as I thought of an answer. It was hard.. smooth and warm under my finger tips. "I fell into a deep sleep for 41 years.. through that time I didn't age. About 9 years ago I awoke and my body resumed the normal human ageing process?"
"I think I could believe that.. " She said finally.
I sighed and finished the rest of the stew. "I'm glad one of us gets it. It's my story but I barely believe it myself."
Suddenly a loud, blood curdling scream echoed through the village, making my heart lurch in fear. Kaede jumped up at a alarming speed for her age and ran to the door. I followed quickly behind her. Something horrible was happening outside and my curiosity got the better of me.. and so did my clumsiness. I tripped over my feet and tumbled out the door. A large black stallion landed just a few feet away from my face, its gut torn open and bleeding.
I was on my feet in an instant, trying not to look at the helpless creature. I turned my gaze to the rooftops to see the centipede youkai from the well, rise into the air, her mouth covered in blood. The villagers ran from her, covering their heads, protecting them from the falling debris.
"Mo...Mono no ke!" A man shouted, running with his family from the village. The youkai snapped her head toward me, and a eerie hiss erupted from her lips.
"Give me...the Shikon no tama!!" She screeched, lunging toward me. Kaede pushed me out of the way, but I grabbed onto her kimono, pulling her with me. We both only missed the youkai's attack by mere inches. I helped her up and pulled her behind the stables, away from the chaos.
"The..." She gasped, trying to catch her breath."The Shikon no tama? You...are carrying it!?"
"Yes, fortunately..." I said, staring at the youkai ahead. "Or maybe unfortunately..." The sound of people screaming, huts breaking, the sound of ripping flesh, was something I had hoped never to hear again. "Stay here, unless you positively have to move because you'll die if you won't." I said then ran from the stables.
I had to drive this youkai back to the dry well, so this destruction would stop. It was my fault after all. If I hadn't gone into the well house then none of this would be happening and I would be at home eating cake and ice cream, enjoying my birthday. Instead of risking my life to save a stupid feudal era village. Didn't these guys have weapons to protect them from this sorta thing!?
Then.. maybe as a sixth sense, the sound of a heart-beat pounded in my mind. Inuyasha's image appeared before me, something that I had never thought possible. He opened his eyes slowly, menace and anger filling his amber orbs. 'I can smell it.' His voice hissed inside my head. I'd never heard his voice filled with so much hate before, and it scared me to know that it all was going on inside my childish imagination. 'I can smell the woman who killed me.. she's coming closer.. 'His voice faded away, and I was plummeted back into reality.
"Give me the Shikon no Tama!" The youkai's sinister voice yelled from behind me. I didn't look back. Whether this was real or just a dream didn't matter anymore.. The only thing that did matter was I was going to die, and I was going to fail my sister's dyeing wish. She didn't want me to come back.. She wanted me to stay in the place where there are no youkai until I could find a way to rid the world of the jewel's evil.
I blinked back tears, and my vision burred. I tripped over my feet and fell into a large bush, hitting my head against the hard ground. One day my clumsiness would get me killed.. but not today. The youkai's body suddenly rushed over me, and I knew if I hadn't tripped, death would have fallen upon me in mere seconds.
"What are you doing with that wimpy centipede opponent of yours?" This time it defiantly wasn't inside my head. I looked up to see Inuyasha, still in the pinned to the Goshinboku like he had been hours before, but now wake, alive! But.. why was his voice filled with hatred? He should know who I am, maybe not by looks like Kaede had known, but at least by my scent.
"Settle this with a single blow, Kikyou.. Like when you killed me." He sneered. He thought I was Kikyou? But why? I didn't look anything like my older sister. My vision cleared and I noticed how dark it was now. I looked at my hair that surrounded me was I lay in the dirt, and it did look black. Maybe because he had only just woken up, his senses where a little muddled.
"Inuyasha.. " I got to my feet, clutching the Shikon jewel around my neck. "I'm not Kik-"
"It comes." He interrupted. I felt my heart lurch painfully again. I searched the surrounding forest, looking for any sign the youkai was near. She came from above. Her arms reached out to grab me and I tried my best to get away from her grasp. I fell to my bottom and stared into death's pale face. I had frozen again.. my stupid habit had taken over. But the youkai stopped suddenly, her fingers inches from my face.
"Al.. Alright! Pull!" The village men stood at the edge of the tree line, holding the same thick rope in their hands as the ones that was used to bond my hands and feet together. The rope was tied to long iron spears, that jutted out from the centipede's back. I was grateful for their actions and happy that it came seconds before my death but, I already knew that their weak attempts to killing this monster, wouldn't be enough.
"Heh, I'm disappointed, Kikyou.. " Inuyasha sneered. I stood up again and climbed up the large roots that covered his body to be at eye level.
"Inuyasha, I'm not Kikyou. I'm-"
"Keh. Go stuff it! No girl smells this disgusting except.. " He stopped short, and leaned closer, sniffing me. "Hn?...Kaori?"
I nodded my head slightly. "I'm Kaori, Inuyasha. Not Kikyou. I've been trying to tell you that but you keep int-"
"I should have known, Kikyou's not as helpless, and she's more of a woman then you are." Inuyasha muttered, interrupting me again. I grabbed his ear and yanked hard, making him yelp in pain.
Of course she'd look more like a woman! The last time he'd seen her she had been two years older then my age now! She was 17, and right now I was still 15! But the sound of shouting men pierced the silence, and I felt the anger and colour drain from my face. I whipped around to see them falling to the ground, the rope running from their hands and the youkai reaching her chalky pale hands toward me again. They grabbed my sweater and started pulling me back. Instinctively, my arms wrapped around Inuyasha's neck. "Wahh! Save me Inuyasha!" I cried.
"You gonna pull my head off! Leggo Kaori!!" He yelled as the youkai pulled me harder.
"Kaede-sama.. Inuyasha is.." I heard one of the fallen men whisper in a panic behind me, and I heard my elder sister gasp.
"Inuyasha has awoken!?"
"This body.. is troublesome." The Centipede, growled to herself. " I shall devour you whole.. Shikon no tama and all!!" She yelled. One of my hands shot up to my necklace, holding the jewel protectively to my chest, while the other wrapped itself tighter around Inuyasha's neck.
"Shikon no tama..?" Inuyasha murmured to himself. I let go of him and turned fully around to face the youkai, a mild case of courage taking over.
"I thought I told you to keep your filthy hands off me!" I shouted, pushing her away. The blinding white light, shot from my hand again and all six arms, of the centipedes human arms flew off and littered the ground around the Goshinboku. My legs gave away and I slumped to my knees. I had also done that in the well, but since when did I have such power?
"Damn bitch.." The youkai rushed at me, catching me of guard. Her large fangs sunk into my flesh around the Shikon no tama, and snapped my mother's chain. Blood gushed from my wound and I saw the jewel fall toward the ground.
"Ahh? Something came from around her neck..!" One of the village men shouted. It was the same husky voice from earlier.
"Shikon no tama!" I heard Kaede shout. But seriously didn't these people notice the glowing pink ball around my neck, when they had tied me up in the village or do they only yell its cursed name just to add effect? The jewel landed just out of reach in front of me. I crawled as best I could to get it, one hand holding my wound, trying to stop the blood.
"Just as I had thought, she had worn it as a necklace." The youkai hissed, lunging toward me. Again these people were stating the obvious!
"That's mine!" Inuyasha yelled. When did this become his? As far as I know, he should still be.. dead. Not yelling at me. I grabbed the Shikon no Tama and held it close to my body. I needed to keep it protected. At least for my sister's sake.
"Hand it over, Kaori!" He shouted, as if I was a young child, with my hands on something precious. Well... the last thing was right, but I wasn't a child anymore!
Suddenly something wrapped around me and I was pulled to the Goshinboku. Inuyasha's body separated me from the hard tree but the thing that tightly squeezed my body, made it excruciatingly painful. I glanced behind me. It was the centipede. Her large bug-like body had wrapped around the Goshinboku and myself, threatening to snap me in two.
"Keh he he heh.." Her laughter, full of victory and menace, scent shivers down my spine. "I've heard that some hanyou brat, called Inuyasha or whatever, is after the Shikon no tama.. is that you?"
I heard and felt Inuyasha growl at her. He was most likely upset at the fact at being called a hanyou. If you wanted to fight him, all you had to do was make fun of his hanyouness and he'll gladly kill you.
"Don't under estimate me, centipede jourou." He sneered. "When I fight seriously, a bitch like you is just small fry." I looked up at him, my eyes filled with hope.
"You have a plan!?" He looked down at me, not saying a word. I'm guessing no plan, then.
"Can't move, can you? It looks as though your power is being sealed, isn't it?" The centipede chuckled. Oh great, I forgot about that part. The youkai bent down to pick up the Shikon jewel. My hand grasped the place that it had been in my hand but I felt only air. I must have dropped it when I was pulled to the Goshinboku. "You just stay there and watch.. " She stuck out her tongue which was freakishly long and and it curled around the jewel.
"Ahh, crap!!" Inuyasha shouted. His yelling was starting to give me a headache but if I started a fight now.. we might as well be signing our funeral papers.
"Ah! It ate the ball!" One of the village men shouted, stating the obvious again.
"It can't be..." Kaede gasped. Well.. it can be because it's happening! Jeez, can't they just go away and let me die without hearing their cheesy sound effects, trying to make the situation seem worse than it already is...Which is probably impossible.
"What'll it become, Kaede-sama?"
The six arms, that had littered the Goshinboku, flew back onto the youkai. She stared blankly at me for a second, then her chalky pale skin ripped off her to reveal a dark purple, spotted pink monster. Her eyes became large and bulged out from their sockets. "How wonderful...My full powers have returned..." She hissed. Gross! She's happy looking like that!? She needs some serious plastic surgery!
The hold around my body and the tree suddenly became ten times stronger. It became hard to breath and I felt like I would break any minute. "Oi, Kaori." I looked up toward the inu hanyou. He wasn't looking at me but at the face of the youkai. He seemed perfectly unharmed, isn't that wonderful!? "This arrow, do you think you can pull it out?"
"I.. I'll try.." I reached for my sister's arrow, still piercing his chest. I was a inch from it when Kaede yelled out to me, freezing my hand in its place.
"No! You must not pull it out!!" She yelled. "Inuyasha must not be freed, Kaori!"
"You half asleep, babaa?" Inuyasha snapped. "Do you want to become centipede bait!? If that thing completely absorbs the Shikon no tama.. Its the end!!" Inuyasha looked down at me. "How 'bout it, Kaori? You wanna die here with me!?"
This wasn't something I had to think twice about. Sure, I maybe betraying my older sisters by dong what I was about to do but, then again, I had always been more loyal to this arrogant man than my own family. My hand grasped the arrow. "Kikyou forgive me." I whispered and pulled it hard. The arrow vanished in a pink light and my hand was left grasping the air.
"The arrow..." A village man yelled.
"Has vanished!?" My sister finished the mans obvious statement. Inuyasha started to chuckle darkly under his breath. The centipede's body suddenly fell into pieces and I fell to the hard forest floor. Inuyasha, at a speed I had almost forgotten he had, jumped off the tree and landed in front of the youkai centipede.
"You brat..." She hissed. Inuyasha flexed his claws and smirked at the hideous monster.
"Come and get it, hag!!" He jumped toward her. " Sankon Testusou!" He yelled and slashed though her body in one strike.
"Yeek..."One of the men gasped.
"Wi...With one strike..." Another shouted.
Inuyasha landed both feet at the same time, pieces of the monster falling behind him. I was amazed.. He had that effect on me. I was constantly finding myself in awe by this creature. He was just so much more amazing then mortals.
The pieces of the monsters body started to shake slightly and I was forced to my feet. "You mean this isn't over?!" I whimpered. Kaede ran to my side and put one hand on my shoulder.
"Kaori, do you see a glowing piece of flesh? The shikon no tama should be inside that..."
"Right, if I don't take it out then this thing, it'll revive again." I muttered to myself and scanned the balls of flesh before me. I saw it. It was in a large piece of its bug-like body. "Over there..." I stumbled over to the piece and pulled out the jewel, still attached to my silver chain. The monster pieces turned to bones instantly and it was all over. I sighed in relief and looked at the jewel in the palm of my hand. "I forgot how much trouble this gave Kikyou-onee-sama..." I sighed.
I heard footsteps coming toward me, and Inuyasha's claw reach down, beckoning me to hand something over to him. "Now be a good, loyal, little human girl and hand over the Shikon no tama."
End Of Chapter 2
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