Chapter 6

Kagome fought desperately against her captors, twisting this way and that, but her efforts were in vain. The three men, still laughing and making lewd comments, were simply too strong for one girl to take on alone.

Fear surged through her as they hauled her up to her feet.

"Wh-where are you taking me?" she eventually blurted out, trying to maintain her composure as she was jostled and pushed back towards the clearing, the stupid fire having finally roared to life just to taunt her.

The men's laughter grew as she stumbled and fell before the pit, their voices echoing through the dense forest even as she struggled to see with ashes blowing into her eyes. She couldn't help but feel a sharp pang of disappointment in herself, wishing there was something - anything - more that she could do. But her hands were tied. Quite literally. And by the comments behind it sounded like her legs too would be retrained. She squeezed her eyes shut as tears threatened to spill once again.

However, just as despair threatened to engulf her completely, Kagome felt a familiar presence, and her eyes snapped open just in time to see a fierce blur of red and white erupt into the clearing.

He didn't hesitate. With a primal growl, Inuyasha lunged at Kagome's captors, putting himself between them and the girl on the ground. With his claws unsheathed and his eyes burning with a fiery determination, he growled and hunched his shoulders slightly, prepared to attack or defend as necessary.

Surprisingly - or maybe not - the three humans realized they were out of their depth dealing with an angry demon and decided to run away.

"Let the demon have her! I'm not being paid enough for this!"

Inuyasha allowed the humans to escape for the moment. He turned to see Kagome sitting up now and crouched down in front of her, eyes, ears, and nose scanning her for any sign of injury. Thankfully she appeared to be uninjured even if she looked slighly worse for wear. Her expression was a bit dazed, and he wondered if there was something his senses had missed.

"Hey," he said, accidently shaking her shoulder a bit more roughly than he intended, "You ok?" His voice was gruff but seemed to awaken her out of whatever trance she was in.

"Uh, yeah," she replied slowly. "Except for this," she added, motioning to her tied wrists.

Inuyasha paused a moment. He could cut the rope easily, but that would require showing his claws. He didn't want to scare her more than she already was or make himself seem dangerous, but it couldn't be helped. He sliced through them without ceremony, letting the frayed ends fall to the ground.

Inuyasha wasn't sure what kind of response he expected, but the soft "thank you" that escaped her lips as she rubbed her bruised and chaffed skin was a welcome one. But there was still something he needed to do.

Inuyasha stood suddenly and started to walk away into the darkness where the men had fled.

"Hey, wait!"

He stopped but didn't turn around fully, only peeking over his shoulder to watch as the girl climbed to her feet unsteadily.

"Where are you going?" she asked, slowly trying to close the distance between them.

"Keh, to finish them off, obviously," he said roughly, turning to leave again.

"No!" Kagome pleaded, pulling on his sleeve in a vain attempt to try and stop him. "Just let them go. You don't need to get hurt on my account!"

Inuyasha actually scoffed a bit at that one. "They don't stand a chance against me. They're just some cowardly humans.

"Then let them go for me?" she asked more timidly.

Inuyasha got angry then. "Don't you get it, stupid girl? Those men followed you deep into the forest. Clearly finding you is very important to them or at least whoever sent them. I'm not gonna let them lead someone more dangerous back to us."

He wasn't sure what spurred him on, but he couldn't risk them returning for Kagome. He had no idea why someone would want to go to such lengths to follow a random human girl, but he would be damned if he let them do it so easily.

"But…" Kagome tried to object, but it died on her lips.

"Don't worry," Inuyasha said. "You won't have to get your hands dirty."

Kagome flushed with guilt, but had no chance to reply. Inuyasha had already disappeared into the darkness

Kagome watched Inuyasha's departure with mixed emotions. Her gratitude for his intervention was undeniable, but the brutality of his actions left her feeling uneasy. She knew she couldn't change the outcome, but she couldn't help feeling sad and disappointed as she considered the bloodshed left in Inuyasha's wake.

Inuyasha pursued the three men through the forest. They did nothing to try and conceal their trail, and he caught up to them in a matter of minutes.

Upon realizing they were no longer alone, they yelled and screamed in both anger and terror.

Inuyasha did not savor bloodshed. It was a necessity for his safety - and now Kagome's.

His attacks were swift and brutal, sending the men scrambling and crying out in pain. The oldest man was the first to succumb, followed by the youngest. Inuyasha intended to kill the last man quickly too as a mercy, but his instincts stilled his hand and he simply tackled the burly man the the ground, using his clawed foot to keep the man's thick neck pressed into the cool, damp earth.

"Just kill me and be done with it, beast," the man ground out.

Inuyasha pressed into the man's throat a little more, but did nothing else. He needed information.

"Why do you want the girl?" Inuyasha asked, focused intently on the man for any sign of a lie. He stank of sweat and fear, and Inuyasha wanted to get this over with quickly.

"She'd make us rich," the man replied with a choked laugh, the best he could manage under the pressure of Inuyasha's foot.

A bounty then. "How?" He pressed, hoping for more.

"She's a pretty little thing. A whore house would pay well, used or unused."

Inuyasha growled at both the insinuation and the obvious lie. Three men tracking a girl for days did not make sense when they could more easily kidnap a woman much closer to a human village.

"You lie," he snarled, reaching down to pressed a sharp claw into the man's neck. The effect was immediate.

"It was the light," the man blurted out in a panic, trying to distance himself from the claw by writhing like a wounded serpent. Inuyasha would not yield though.

"What light?"

"Almost a week ago, on the night of the new moon, a strange light appeared in the sky," the man stammered out, growing more desperate as he spoke. "We came upon a well that seemed to be the source of the light and tracked the girl from there."

"Why?" Inuyasha growled, growing more irritated by the information although he did not understand it.

"We were hired to investigate it. And before you ask, I don't know who it was. They wore a cloak. They just offered us a generous sum of money almost a month ago to check out anything weird that happened then report or bring it back to them. That's it, I swear."

The man was sweating profusely now. It seemed that the drawn out fear of death had had an effect. Inuyasha scrunched his nose in distaste, both at the scent of the human and what he was about to do. At least it would be quick and painless.

Inuyasha returned to camp some time later, his red haori slightly disheveled, a mix of sweat and blood - not his own - marring his appearance. Kagome's eyes met his, and she saw something flicker in his gaze. It was a strange mix of vulnerability and frustration, but it was gone before she could decipher it fully.

He seemed like he wanted to say something, but he kept quiet, his eyes downcast. He just stood there, possibly unsure what to do.

Kagome, still processing the ordeal, said quietly, "You did what you thought was right, Inuyasha."

He didn't say anything or even acknowledge her, but Kagome figured that actions would speak louder anyway. She picked up the hand towel she had pulled out her bag when Inuyasha left and poured some water from her water bottle onto it. She walked over to the half-demon slowly, and without a word started to wipe the blood from his hands.

Inuyasha froze for a moment. He wasn't sure why he was allowing her to clean him, or why he hadn't thought to clean himself before returning. But for a moment he remained still and focused on her movements, slow and gentle as they were. The sensation was strange. When she made to reach across for his other hand, however, he grabbed her wrist with inhuman speed, causing her to drop the soft, colorful cloth in surprise.

"Hey!" she responded, automatically trying to free herself. Even though his grip was gentle, she could not pull her hand away.

Inuyasha stared first at her wrist, at the injury he already knew was there, before noticing the palms of her hands. Rather than scraped like from a fall, they were red and chaffed. His eyes rose to hers, but she just shrugged, answering his unasked question like she could read his mind.

"I made a fire," she said simply, finally removing her hand from his. She picked up the small towel and walked back over to the fire, intent on washing the dirt from it before continuing her task.

Inuyasha wasn't sure how to respond, but something beckoned him further into the light of the fire. A moment later, Kagome was back at his side with the soft cloth again, wiping the other hand before telling him to sit.

Surprisingly he listened to her, and even let her to pour a handfull of berries into his hands. He wasn't particularly hungry - even if he was, he rarely ate berries - but followed Kagome's lead and silently popped the small fruits into his mouth. They seemed to be some sort of peace offering or maybe reciprocation. It was unnecessary, but not unwelcome.

The silence stretched on, and although it wasn't uncomfortable, Kagome felt the need to get something off her chest.

"Thank you," she said, looking directly into Inuyasha's slightly startled eyes. Her change in breathing and shifting posture had told him she was gearing up to say or do something, but this was unexpected.

"For... helping me," she clarified, choosing her words carefully. "That couldn't have been easy for you."

Part of Inuyasha wanted to laugh. It was incredibly easy to kill those humans. They were not good and clearly deserved it. On the other hand, the stench of blood still on his person, even though Kagome had tried to wipe it away, made him feel a bit ill.

Inuyasha didn't like the heavy mood. He didn't like what he was feeling. He didn't like what he had learned from the man in the forest. And he definitely - for whatever reason - did not like that this girl was clearly caught up in something bad, whether she knew it or not.

He sighed and then cast a somewhat awkward glance at her. "After all this, you sure you want to stay out here?"

Kagome's breath caught in her throat. Of course she didn't want to stay out here! She wanted to go home. She wanted to sleep in her own bed. She wanted a hot bath. She didn't want to kill someone or have someone else kill for her.

She looked from Inuyasha to the fire.

"But you did make a fire," she reminded herself. It might be slow, it might even be impossible, but if she wanted to go home she needed to live long enough to figure out what was going on.

Inuyasha watched as a wave of emotions passed over the girl's face. The firelight cast shadows that, combined with the serious expression she finally settled on, made her look a bit older. It made his insides twist uncomfortably.

"I do," she said, looking back at him with determination.

Inuyasha would never admit it, but he was impressed. The girl had guts, even if she clearly was in over her head.

A rogue thought entered his mind, and before he knew what he was doing, he said, "Look, if you're gonna survive out here, you'll need someone to watch your back. You're clearly not cut out for it on your own."

Kagome felt her face flush, her pride clashing with her knowledge of her own weakness.

She took a moment to compose herself, but her words still came out slightly clipped with annoyance. "So what do you suggest?"

Inuyasha found himself blushing now, but for a totally different reason. "What the hell are you thinking!?" he practically screamed at himself internally.

"Just- I mean- Stick near me so I can protect ya, ok?" he finally stuttered out, pushing his arms into his sleeves and stubbornly refusing to meet her gaze.

He wanted to smack himself in the head and beat some sense into himself. Seriously, was he - a half-demon - inviting a human woman to just frolic through the forest with him? This was a stupid idea, mostly because he was just leaving himself open to be rejected. And damn if that wasn't scary.

"Ok," she said, and Inuyasha had to do a double-take to make sure he had heard her correctly. "You're right," she conceded, "I don't know what I can do to repay you, but..."

With a gruff nod, Inuyasha accepted her decision and cut her off before she could get all emotional on him. "Good. We'll stick together. I can't guarantee you'll like it, but at least you'll be safe."

Inuyasha felt a strange sensation settle in his chest. He knew that she was helpless, and the idea of her - of anyone - being under his protection... relying on him... it was a lot to mull over. This was definitely uncharted territory, and Inuyasha allowed himself - perhaps unknowingly - to put a little trust in the girl across the fire from him.