Note: I'm so sorry for the long wait! Life happens, as we all know! I'll try not to take so long for the next one. I appreciate the love and patience!
Journey to the Future – Chapter 15
A gentle nip on her ankle pulled Kagome from slumbers and she opened her eyes blearily. Inuyasha was still sleeping, curled against her. A little color had returned to his face and he was breathing easily. She couldn't help letting out a quiet sigh of relief. Inuyasha had boasted before that he had never been ill but Kagome wasn't sure if that applied to falling into icy water while the temperature was below freezing.
His skin was warm when she pressed the back of her hand lightly to his cheek, but not abnormally so. If he had been human, the heat emanating from him would have been indicative of a fever, but she had come to learn that Inuyasha's body temperature ran much hotter than hers. It was why he always felt like a portable furnace; something she had appreciated since the temperature had dropped.
Kagome peered around for Sesshomaru's face; she knew that it was he who had awoken her. The youkai was starting at her impatiently. He glanced deliberately at Inuyasha and then back to meet her eyes.
"Kagome-nee-chan," whispered Rin from where she sat by the fire. "Sesshomaru-sama wants to shrink down again."
"Yeah, that's what I thought he meant," Kagome replied with a smile for the teenager, keeping her voice equally as soft. She very rarely saw Inuyasha sleeping deeply, as he was usually kept one eye open for trouble, so she was reluctant to wake him just yet. Whenever she worried about his lack of sleep, Inuyasha always assured her that he didn't need much sleep and tended to only doze lightly for a couple of hours. Kagome wasn't completely sure that she believed him. Whenever she caught him yawning, she wondered if maybe he was reluctant to fall asleep and wake up to find that he had lost another sixty years.
She got stiffly to her knees, muscles screaming in protest, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Gritting her teeth and taking care to move as smoothly as possible, Kagome slowly shifted him off of his brother and laid him flat on the ground. Inuyasha shifted slightly and curled tightly in on himself. Kagome straightened his blanket around his shoulders and pushed to her feet.
It was difficult to stand upright. She had abused her back muscles the night before by carrying the heavy hanyou and made the mistake of going to bed without stretching out. But she forced herself to keep moving, straightening slowly as the light exercise helped loosen her muscles. With every step, her knee throbbed, a painful reminder of the rock that had dug into it. She made a mental note to peek at it as soon as she finished stretching.
As Kagome walked slowly around the campfire, she watched curiously as Sesshomaru shrank back down into his humanoid form. A rush of wind accompanied the change and a torrent of youki buffeted her senses. Her heart throbbed strangely, making her gasp and clutch at the fabric over her breast. But the feeling passed as quickly as it had come and she forced herself to stop staring at the striking youkai and continue gently exercising her stiff muscles.
Surprisingly, Inuyasha managed to sleep through the entire thing and Rin looked entirely unaffected. Kagome didn't think that the teenager was capable of sensing youki, but Inuyasha definitely should have felt the surge of power, unless he was really that deeply sleeping. She guessed that his unexpected swim must have worn him out more than she originally thought.
Movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention and she watched suspiciously as Sesshomaru approached his slumbering brother. Kagome hoped that he wasn't about to wake him up. However, the inu-youkai surprised her with his next action.
"Foolish little brother," he admonished quietly. Kagome's jaw dropped slightly as Sesshomaru then pulled the long length of fluff from his shoulder and dropped it on top of his brother. The fur wriggled to life and wrapped itself around Inuyasha's neck and shoulders. The hanyou snuggled into the warm fur with a happy sound.
"I thought that it was a part of you," Kagome said quietly, the unexpected maneuver startling her into voicing the personal question.
Rin's soft giggle brought a blush to her cheeks as Sesshomaru turned his piercing golden eyes upon her. "Hn. It is," he said, a touch of amusement coloring his voice. "However, it is mine to do with as I will."
Kagome thought that his explanation wasn't really much of an explanation at all, but she didn't really feel comfortable pressing him for a more complete answer. So instead, she hummed thoughtfully and made one more circuit around the fire. Before joining Rin by the fire, Kagome preformed a series of stretches to ensure that the work she had just done wouldn't be undone by sitting again. Once she deemed herself capable of being able to get up again, she sat by the teenager.
Rin offered her a bright smile, a cup of hot tea, and a bowl of rice to go along with the game she was roasting over the fire. Kagome wasn't sure what kind of meat it was, but it smelled heavenly. She nearly moaned at the taste of the rice, which she hadn't had since her supply from Kaede had run out. Even the paradise village hadn't any rice. As Rin handed her a chunk of meat, Kagome glanced over at the still sleeping hanyou. That Inuyasha hadn't woken from the scent of the food was another indicator that his rest was much needed.
"Oh, Rin… how did you manage to get this rice?" she asked between alternating bites of grain and meat. Rin produced a clay jar of pickles and Kagome felt like she could have kissed her.
"Sesshomaru-sama is lord of the Western region," Rin explained as if it were all the explanation required.
Kagome supposed that it really was all that she needed, though she hoped that because Sesshomaru seemed at least partially nomadic, he didn't enforce a ridiculously high rice tax like the daimyo. Although, now that she thought about it, Kagome wasn't sure how youkai even fit in with the human government.
"How does that work, exactly?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. "I know that there are human daimyo in charge of the different states, but how does youkai hierarchy fit in?
"Are you not from the future?" inquired Sesshomaru, dropping Inuyasha's signature clothing, which Kagome had abandoned at the front of the cave, on the floor by the hanyou.
Kagome hadn't even realized that he had left to get them.
Sesshomaru settled himself against the wall by the fire. Kagome privately thought that the loss of the furry boa made him look smaller and less intimidating somehow. He raised an eyebrow as she stared at him.
She blushed at being caught and looked back down at her breakfast. "Um… yes, I am, but…" she hesitated, not sure if she should reveal anything about her time. "I'm afraid that all youkai and hanyou must have either hidden themselves away or have vanished by my time. Most people regard them as myths or legends," she said ruefully, toying with her chopsticks.
"That's terrible!" Rin exclaimed indignantly.
"Wha…" Inuyasha mumbled, raising his head and blinking sleepily at them.
Kagome, Rin, and Sesshomaru all turned to stare at the hanyou, which went a long way toward forcing him into awareness.
"What the fuck are you all staring at?" he demanded irritably, appearing to be uncomfortable with the intense scrutiny. As he sat up, he looked incredulously at the length of fur still draped about his shoulders and then turned confused, vulnerable eyes upon his brother.
Sesshomaru said nothing and merely raised his hand toward Inuyasha. The hanyou flinched back warily, but no attack came. Instead, the fur uncoiled itself and zipped across the ground back to its owner, where it draped itself over its customary shoulder.
There was a moment of awkward silence where both Inuyasha and Kagome were stunned by the fur seemingly having a mind of its own and Sesshomaru and Rin looked supremely unconcerned with what had just happened.
"That was creepy as hell," Inuyasha deadpanned, breaking the silence. He moved to sit on the opposite side of the fire from his brother. "Hey, who the fuck changed my clothes?" he said, plucking at the dark blue kimono.
"Do not force me to remind you to watch your language again, little brother," Sesshomaru said irritably.
Kagome reddened. She hadn't thought twice about changing Inuyasha's soaked clothing in the face of the emergency. But now that she thought about it, it was clear he would be upset about the liberty taken.
"The miko tended to you after your foolishness," Sesshomaru explained before Kagome could think of what to say. "You should thank her for saving your miserable life."
Inuyasha's face turned crimson and he bared his teeth at his brother. "Could you be any more of a..." he trailed off as Rin waved his breakfast in front of his face.
His anger immediately vanished and he spluttered his thanks. Kagome hid a smile in her bowl at his embarrassment.
"Are you feeling okay now, Inuyasha?" she asked, concern coloring her voice. "I was really worried when you came back last night."
"Keh!" Inuyasha scoffed around a mouthful of rice. "I fucking feel fine."
The hanyou yelped as a pebble smacked him in the forehead. He turned a glare upon Sesshomaru, whose hand was still raised from flicking the small rock across the fire.
"Watch your mouth," the youkai cautioned. "I will not tolerate your foul language any longer."
Inuyasha opened his mouth furiously, presumably to argue, but after a quick glance in at Rin, he shut it again with an audible click as his teeth slammed together.
"So, nee-chan," Rin said, seemingly oblivious to the tension between her guardian and his brother as she turned toward Kagome. "Are there really no youkai where you live?'
Kagome pursed her lips and swallowed her last bite of food. She set her bowl down and took a sip of tea. "I'm not really sure if they are all gone," she said, carefully. "To be honest, I'm just now starting to figure out how to even sense youkai, so it's quite possible that they are just hiding. There are a lot more humans in my time," she explained.
"And it stinks there too," Inuyasha complained, wrinkling his nose at the memory of the stench. "I could barely even fu…. breathe."
"The portal is open to more than just the miko?" Sesshomaru asked, his expression intensely interested.
For some reason, that interest made Kagome feel uncomfortable. She couldn't picture the statuesque youkai in the middle of downtown Tokyo. "We don't really know," she corrected. "Inuyasha was able to come through to my side, but even Kaede was surprised that he was able to. And now it's closed, so no one can get through."
She wilted a little at the turn the conversation had taken. Clearing her throat lightly and hiding her face in her tea cup, Kagome decided that she would rather not talk about the well and her inability to travel through it.
"So, how far are we from Hitomiko's village?" she asked, hoping that the other three would accept the change in subject without calling her out on it.
"Eh, if I carry you again? Probably about half a daACHOO!" Inuyasha sneezed violently, spilling hot tea over his lap. He bit back a curse and slapped at the scalding liquid.
"I think that… maybe you should take it easy today, Inuyasha," Kagome said in concern. "You could have died yesterday from the cold."
"Keh!"
"Sesshomaru-sama can get you there even faster," Rin pointed out helpfully. "There is no one that can travel more quickly than he can." The teenager beamed at her guardian, who returned the affection with the slightest curve of his mouth and a noticeable softening of his eyes. Kagome was surprised at the tiny smile and Inuyasha's jaw was gaping open in shock. Everything that she had seen about the youkai so far, combined with Inuyasha's telling reaction, made Sesshonmaru seem somewhat… less than expressive. However, Rin appeared to be a bit of an exception.
"I couldn't ask him to do that," Kagome said ruefully. "I've been told that Hitomiko is a very powerful miko and I'm not positive how she feels about youkai."
From what she had heard from Kaede, miko and youkai were typically the bitterest of enemies. However, the youkai women in the paradise village had spoken well of Hitomiko, giving credit to the idea that she was at the very least tolerant.
"Oi!" Inuyasha protested indignantly. "What about me? You didn't seem so worried about taking me to a potentially dangerous miko!"
Kagome grinned sheepishly and twisted her fingers together in her lap. "Yeah… I figured that you had some experience around miko… and even if she is hostile, she couldn't have expected me to travel across Japan by myself." She reached over to pat the hanyou on the arm. "Don't worry; even if she tries to fry you, I won't let her."
"That makes me feel so much better," Inuyasha drawled sarcastically, shrugging away from the affection with an embarrassed blush.
"Besides," Kagome added. "You knew where we were going when you agreed to come with me."
"It is no inconvenience for me to take… both of you to the miko," Sesshomaru interjected smoothly. He stood gracefully and whistled sharply.
From the depths of the cave emerged the two-headed dragon, Ah-Un, that Kagome had seen the last time they had camped with Sesshomaru and Rin. The beast lumbered over toward the teenager and settled its bulk against the wall behind her. Rin reached around and rubbed their snouts.
"Let us depart," Sesshomaru instructed, patting his ward on the head as he passed.
"Wait," Kagome interrupted in bewilderment. "Shouldn't we… I don't know, wait a while until Inuyasha's in the clear?"
Inuyasha bristled and shot to his feet. "I'm fine, woman!"
But Sesshomaru paused and looked at the hanyou intently. After an awkward moment, in which Inuyasha fidgeted relentlessly under the scrutinizing gaze of his brother, Sesshomaru looked back to Kagome.
"He is well enough," the youkai declared. "He is more likely to worsen here than in a warm human dwelling." He then turned on his heel and headed back toward the front of the cave.
"Okay, fine," Kagome sighed. "But you're wearing this extra coat," she said to Inuyasha, digging through her bag and withdrawing the heavy garment she had purchased with the boots.
"What? I don't need that!" Inuyasha protested, trying to avoid the coat that Kagome pressed into his hands.
"You will wear it, or you will stay here," she said firmly.
The hanyou pouted, but gave in. "At least let me change back into my firerat robes," he cajoled.
"Fine, fine," Kagome said, waving her hand dismissively.
Inuyasha scooped up his clothing and after a furtive glance at Rin, trotted further back into the cave.
He emerged shortly and then slipped on the coat Kagome offered with a little difficulty. He crossed his arms over his chest, his expression clearly asking "are you happy now?"
She was, in fact, happy now. Kagome grinned gratefully at him and turned to say a hasty goodbye to Rin, who looked as if being left with the dragon was a common occurrence. She readjusted her bag and shot a dirty look at Inuyasha, who was fiddling with his boots.
"You leave those on too," she commanded, propping a hand on her hip. "I'm surprised you didn't get frost bite yesterday."
Inuyasha stuck out his tongue petulantly, but left the shoes alone.
Kagome and Inuyasha hurried to catch up with Sesshomaru as he walked back toward the entrance of the cave. She couldn't help but wonder how this arrangement was going to work. Inuyasha wouldn't likely take well to being carried and she didn't really think that Sesshomaru would even offer.
The youkai gestured for them to step closer as soon as they left the sanctuary of the cave. Kagome gladly huddled next to Sesshomaru as the cold air hit her skin. Inuyasha stepped slightly closer with obvious reluctance.
There was a small surge of youki and a large glowing white bubble encased the trio. Kagome let out a gasp of surprise as Inuyasha simultaneously bit out a soft curse. She grabbed onto Sesshomaru's sleeve as she felt the bubble rise from the ground. Inuyasha shifted uncomfortably and she reached out to hold on to his sleeve as well. The hanyou rested his hand on top of her clenched fingers and Kagome felt a little less nervous.
If she looked carefully, she could just barely see through the opaque white walls. Then, the orb took off with a blast and the surroundings began to move so quickly that Kagome felt ill when she tried to focus on the blurs that passed by.
She squeezed her eyes shut and gripped Sesshomaru's arm and Inuyasha's fingers more tightly. But the journey ended just as quickly as it had begun. A gust of cold air blew against her face and Kagome opened her eyes in surprise. Her jaw dropped as she took sight of the massive mountain looming over them. At the base, only a few hundred meters away, was an elaborate shrine and a smattering of smaller homes around it.
Kagome felt tears sting her eyes as she stared at Hitomiko's village. She had finally made it and she could only hope that Hitomiko would have the answers to lead her home.