"So, Kikyo, you don't seem too thrilled about your fiancé."
Kagome opened her eyes. Across the hazy steam of the hot spring, Sango watched her curiously. Her hair had been rolled into a tall bun to keep the strands out of the water; Kagome's as well had been pulled back in a loose ponytail flipped upward. The girls sank into the clean spring together, relaxed, finally given a chance to get some privacy having waited for the men to finish earlier.
"That way, they'll be too busy drying off to peep at us." Sango had explained to Kagome as they raced off to take their moment, instead of insisting on going first.
Kagome cleared her throat, still uncomfortable being addressed as Kikyo. She had long given up on insisting her own name, but now the subtle jab seemed to bother her more. Maybe it was being alone with someone who was so nice to her without reason, maybe it was knowing that Inuyasha was aware of who she was (or wasn't), but she found herself moved to ask,
"Sango, if it's not too much trouble, could you please call me Kagome?"
Sango face went blank with surprise, but she nodded in agreement regardless.
"S-sure, Kagome. That's no problem."
"Thank you." Kagome sighed, meaning the words.
Leaning back and staring up into the sky, she noted the multitude of stars over their heads. Back in her city, it was almost impossible to catch a glimpse of a starry night through all the air pollution. Even the sun often came with its own veil of smog. Here, everything was so close she could reach out to stroke the moon.
She had almost forgotten Sango's question with the sky's beauty distracting her, but when she glanced back to the demon slayer, she could tell the question had yet to vacate her mind.
"It's because I'm not Kikyo." Kagome asserted, looking back to the stars, "But if I were, I couldn't imagine I'd feel any different. Being forced into marriage, or being forced into the decision of marriage, is awful."
"But you, er, that is, Kikyo…" Sango blushed as she corrected herself, feeling silly, but willing to do anything to make the situation easier for the young miko. As she had said, being forced into such a situation was hardly a coveted circumstance. "Kikyo is a priestess. It would have been unorthodox for her to marry at all. Really, this may have been her only chance."
"How sad." Kagome felt her heart sink with empathy. "It almost makes me feel better about having to take her place."
"Kagome," Sango responded resolutely, her eyes hardening, "If we can prove you are not Kikyo, you wouldn't have to take her place at all."
"But… what about the village?" Kagome deliberated, finally able to grasp the entirety of the situation. "Won't Inuyasha go back to look for the jewel? Won't he keep attacking other villages until he finds the jewel, Kikyo, or both?"
"He says that you have the jewel." Sango reminded her, "So it's more likely at this point, he'd…"
"Kill me, right?"
"Gods, no!" Sango lifted her hands from her water to wave away the suggestion, "Inuyasha would never harm a human. In all of his attacks, he only brought destruction around him in defense of Kikyo's confrontations, and of course, if something stood in his way. Structurally, that is; perhaps, because of his human mother, perhaps to avoid any further scorn from the human villagers. Either way, Inuyasha is not a threat to humans. Not in the way most other demons are."
"To most humans." Kagome corrected, smiling sadly at her own interjection. "He's a bit of a threat to me."
"And to any boyfriend you may have from your home village." Sango laughed. "I'm sorry to say, I don't believe any human male could stand in Inuyasha's way when it comes to getting what he wants."
"Oh please." Kagome cracked a real smile, chuckling to the girl who was slowly becoming her friend from across the spring, "There was no human male. Well," She deliberated for a moment here, chewing her lip thoughtfully, then lowered her voice and added, "Except Hojo."
"Hojo?" Sango folded her hands and leaned into them, pressing Kagome to continue.
"J-just some boy." Kagome stuttered, remembering how some boy had grabbed her so forcefully in his attempts, how he had thrown her back in contempt and threatened her heartlessly. Someone she had trusted for years; it had come as a complete shock, Hojo had always been clingy, but never violent.
"Kagome…" Sango watched the conflicting emotions flicker across Kagome's face and moved closer to her friend, waiting in case she needed support as she explained,
"I wasn't really ready, but my friends wanted me to be. They agreed I would go on a date with him, and I guess…" sinking into the hot water a little more, wishing it could overtake her and send her to the bottom, Kagome avoided eye contact with the demon slayer and began to tremble with anxiety. "I guess it just gave the wrong impression. When I turned him down, he got a little physical."
A sudden noise from the forest distracted the girls, making their heads snap up. What had sounded like a low rumble cut off the instant they peered into the bushes.
"An animal." Sango muttered, then turned back to Kagome.
"I… I suppose." Kagome shrugged. Sango touched her shoulder, urging her to resume her story. Kagome lowered her face and softly finished, "His reaction made me too afraid to properly break it off. I still wasn't sure what to do about it, but I guess, in a way, this situation I'm in has solved that problem. I was actually on my way to break it off with him when I got sent here."
Ending her story with a tense laugh, she stood and stretched, quick to change the subject.
"Phew, it's getting hot!" Kagome nervously turned away from Sango, hoping the frantic beat of her heart was nowhere near as noticeable as her sorrowful expression. However, though remembering and retelling had been nerve-wracking, she had to admit, she was glad to have been able to tell someone about it at all. Even her friends at home had no idea that Hojo had become forceful and controlling.
She turned back to the slayer and extended the drying cloth she had brought with them, offering it from the bank. The girl took it with gratitude but pulled Kagome into her arms along with it.
"You and I will be working on self defense." Sango insisted, smiling with a comforting confidence.
"Sango, you'd do that for me?" Kagome clasped her hands together and nodded her thanks, another genuine smile growing across her face, "It would mean so much to me, and I'm sure it would help everyone. All I've done since arriving is get kidnapped. I'm sick of being weak."
"If you are truly some relation or reincarnate of Kikyo," Sango mused, patting herself dry as they spoke, "You must have some sort of spiritual power. However, and in any case, we can begin our work tomorrow. Don't worry at all, Kagome. I was raised to fight demons, so beating back human lechers is no trouble for me."
"Lechers like, say, Miroku?" Kagome slyly raised her eyebrows, noting the way Sango's mouth nearly disappeared and her eyes ballooned in response. Whipping the drying towel back at Kagome, Sango groaned good naturedly and reached for her clothing.
"Don't even joke about the monk." Sango rolled her eyes, linking arms with Kagome after pulling on her kimono. "He could be lurking and might get some sort of impression that I like his perverted ways!"
As the girls clothed themselves hastily and returned to the camp, chattering and laughing with one another as they went, a shadowed figure allowed a few paces between himself and the duo before soundlessly rising to follow. He had been hiding nearby, covertly seated with his back to the hot spring and his eyes clenched shut, only his ears and other senses pinned on the noises from the bathing area and any potential predators who might advance toward it.
Inuyasha gripped the handle of Tessaiga and stalked after the girls, relieved that they were clothed once more. He could finally get his eyes back on Kagome, the girl in the short kimono, who for some unknown reason bled compassion for everyone around her but herself. He had almost given away his position while listening to her story about a human laying his hands on her, erupting into a growl as her words had reached him: I guess it gave the wrong impression.
"Idiot." He mumbled, rage swelling as he replayed the sentence in his head. "How can you make excuses for such a lowlife."
He'd had to remind himself to quiet down and not give himself away. He didn't want to have to explain that he was only keeping the jewel within a protective distance; however, though he'd arrived to protect the jewel, as he followed it back to the campsite, he realized he felt another urgent need to protect thrumming alongside the first. He watched Kagome wave to Sango, her raven hair drying in the hot night, then turn to one of the tents that had been erected hours before.
When she emerged from the tent, he saw that she had equipped herself with a bow and arrow.
Continuing to pursue Kagome with noiseless steps, he surveyed as she marched just to the edge of the camp, but not outside of it, and slowly began to arm her bow, drawing back the arrow. She aimed ahead and released, grinding her teeth lightly as she did so; the arrow lamely shot up into the sky and danced back down in an almost mocking manner. This didn't stop her; she reeled back again, eyes set on the target in front of her, a small, bloomless tree.
"What are you doing?"
Kagome spun around so fast that the bow and arrows she held clattered to the ground. When she realized it was only Inuyasha, arms crossed across his chest, she let out the air she had gasped in when he'd caught her off guard.
"Well, I should learn some way to defend myself." She reached down to grab the bow from the ground, then began collecting her dud arrows to commence with practice.
"If you don't run from me, you won't have to defend yourself." Inuyasha snapped, shaking his head. He reached out to stop her, this time only grabbing her gently in the exact opposite manner of their first meeting. She nearly fumbled her bow again with the physical contact but recovered quickly and pulled her arm back to stare up at him defiantly.
"You can't be with me all the time." She protested, "And what if Kikyo comes back? You'll have no use for me then. Or if the jewel really is in me, and another demon happens to..."
"Just what are you saying?" Inuyasha bared his teeth, jutting his chest out. "I'm telling you Kagome, that won't happen."
"It's only the jewel you want to protect." Kagome accused, then continued to slide the remaining arrows scattered on the ground into her quiver. "So, what if you're wrong, and Kikyo does still have the jewel? And, once you have your hands on the jewel you'll become a full demon, right? Then I'll have to protect myself. Maybe even from you."
She spun around to pin him with her eyes growing angry, the surge of her untamed thoughts suddenly producing anxious scenarios and solutions.
"Why don't you just take the jewel out of me, huh?" With her free hand, she pulled the neck of her shirt down to show the portion of skin Inuyasha had examined days before, insistent that inside her body, a delicate and powerful gem was lodged. "You don't have to kill me, and you don't have to marry me. Just take the jewel then if that's all this is for!"
Inuyasha stepped back in disbelief as Kagome pulled at her shirt, revealing the spot where he was certain the jewel lay dormant. He was even more surprised to realize the heat that rose to his face was brought on by the pale shoulder glowing under the moon, and not the excitement for the presence of the jewel that could grant his deepest wish.
Regaining composure, he swallowed before recovering the step back he had initially taken, and purposefully trudged forward through the tall grass that swept up across his shins, and up to her knees. She seemed to tremble as he approached, the confidence in her previous speech evaporating as his figure enclosed her in its path. Reaching out to softly touch the hand that clenched her sleeve, he pushed it back upward, dragging along the clothing she had pulled down until the area where the jewel lie was covered again.
"Inuyasha?" She spoke his name in quiet confusion, his hand resting on her shoulder for a moment before he reminded himself to take it away.
"I won't hurt you, jewel or no jewel." Inuyasha promised, glancing away in embarrassment at his own admission. "And no one else is going to either. Don't you think if I were the type of guy, I would have done away with Kikyo already? Or do you really still think I'm that kind of monster?"
He looked back to her, and their eyes met in the first instant of understanding they had shared since meeting in the woods, when all there'd been was confusion and misinterpretation – and, she remembered, fear. Now, staring up at the hanyou who, though intense, had yet to harm her, Kagome solemnly reached out. Hesitating for a moment, she wondered if he would welcome the touch, but seeing his ears flattened and his waiting expression tugged at her heart. She didn't want him to think she was the type of human who would treat him badly just for being a hanyou; she didn't want to be that kind of monster, either. She gently wrapped her fingers with his, noting the surprised jump that trembled through his body in response.
"I'm sorry, Inuyasha, for implying that you were. But given my circumstances, you must understand how difficult it is to… well, to trust you." She squeezed his hand, which had gone limp in hers with the shock of her tenderness toward him. "I know it must be hard in this world for you. I can see it must have been so hard for Kikyo as well. That's why I need to learn to fight. If I'm going to take her place, and you're not going to take the jewel out of me, I'm going to have to."
Inuyasha gulped. His disbelief rose as his eyes danced over her sincere face, the long raven locks fluttering back in the breeze over the field. He searched her eyes for any hesitancy but saw only determination. She had, in effect, just agreed to the terms of the contract; and that meant… Idiot, it's not for you, it's for the villagers. She's just a good person. Something you'd know nothing about. He frowned at his own thought.
"Come on." He curtly spun around before she could see the bright red glow of his face, but gripped her hand harder instead of letting it go to pull her along behind him and venture back in the direction of the campsite.
As Kagome followed him toward the sleeping area, she was torn between the urgent screaming in her mind that she shouldn't believe him when he said he would never harm her, and the warm acceptance in her heart that for reasons unknown to her, she already did. Her eyes remained locked on their interwoven hands, the clawed thumb absently and unknowingly rubbing small, comforting circles into her own.