Chapter 22: Water Problems
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha
"Where the fuck were you!?" Naraku yelled at his crew as he chucked his glass of wine against the wall, shattering it into a million pieces. "Not only did they survive, they stole my portion of the fucking jewel! Now they have a nearly completed jewel because you asshats were nowhere to be found!"
Naraku was seething so bad he couldn't stand in one place, as he paced the deck of his ship he was muttering to himself as the crew looked at each other confusedly. "Well!?" Naraku shrieked out making his crew jump. "Anyone going to tell me where the fuck you all were at!?"
"Uh, you said that we could take the night off, said that you and Tsubaki had it covered." Renkotsu answered receiving a growl from Naraku as he pulled out his pistol and shot Renkotsu between the eyes.
"Shit!" Mukotsu shouted out. "Why did you do that for, Cap'n?" He asked receiving a bullet in the head as well.
Watching the second man from his team hit the ground dead, Bankotsu singled for the rest of his men to stand down in fear of losing more.
"Anyone else got something to say!?" Naraku growled out, when no one said anything Naraku put his pistol away and smoothed his unruly hair back. "Good, now Koga its your turn to go out and pay our dear friends a little visit."
Koga nodded and left the ship on a rowboat to go on shore so he could run and locate the pirates they were supposed to kill.
Though, Koga didn't care a whole lot for Inuyasha, he did care for Kagome very much so and he really didn't want to see her killed. Plus, seeing what was happening to the world he was seriously having doubts about which side he should be on. Watching the fruit, vegetables and animals slowly die off because Naraku stole the jewel really put his mind on the right track and he knew what he needed to do.
As he was running through the forest, though still close enough to the ocean, trying to find them the ground trembled almost knocking him off his feet.
"What the?" Koga said as he walked out the forest as the ground still shook. "Shit! He exclaimed as he watched as the water drained from the ocean leaving nothing but dried dirt. "I've got to hurry up and find them before it's too late." He said to himself as he continued to run, though, this time where the ocean used to be - thinking that it be a straight shot to the very people he desperately needed to find.
*A few weeks later*
Kagome sat in the captain's cabin on the windowsill with her back up against the wall looking at the almost completed jewel hanging off her wrist, as it sat on her upturned knees, with a hopeful expression. Once this was fully completed the world will be saved, but first they had to defeat Naraku so something like this wouldn't ever happen again. She looked out the window as they sailed through the clear blue water, she looked out at the water watching the dolphins play amongst the waves before looking up towards the clouds seeing what she could picture in them.
"There's a rabbit." She whispered to herself as she searched the sky. "And a ship, and..." She squinted her eyes as she swore that one of the clouds looked strangely like Inuyasha. As she was studying the cloud she didn't notice as the door opened and a figure walking towards her to stand right behind her.
"Oh look, that one's shaped like a dolphin." Kagome heard Inuyasha's voice behind her making her jump.
Hearing his chuckle Kagome smiled and without looking at him, she jerked her elbow back lightly hitting Inuyasha in his gut making let out an oof. "Aren't you supposed to be sailing the ship?"
"Miroku wanted a turn at the wheel." Inuyasha explained shrugging though Kagome had yet to turn around, so she didn't see it. "What are you thinking about? You haven't really come outside much these last few weeks." He asked her as he laid his hands on her shoulders squeezing gently.
"Hmm." Kagome hummed. "Nothing really, just that there's only a few more jewels left to find then our journey will be over." She said a little sadly as she moved her gaze back toward the jewel on her wrist.
Sensing her sadness, Inuyasha moved to sit next to Kagome patting her legs to tell her to scoot over. Kagome sighed as she swung her legs over, turning her back toward the window giving Inuyasha plenty of room to sit next to her.
"Hey." Inuyasha whispered as he hooked his finger under Kagome's chin, turning her head to face him. "Just because this one might be over soon but that doesn't mean that another one won't be right around the corner."
"Really?" Kagome looked hopeful; she didn't want to be apart from Inuyasha again.
"Really." Inuyasha said. "Listen, Kagome, there's been something I've been wanting to tell you for the last couple of weeks."
"What's up?" Kagome asked as she looked at him, however, before Inuyasha could answer the ship started go around in circles.
Being thrown off the windowsill, Inuyasha and Kagome tried to stand up and regain their footing but that was easier said than done as they keep getting thrown from their feet. Finally making it to the door and out on the deck, they quickly saw they were trapped in a whirlpool with Miroku at the wheel trying with all his might to get out of it.
"What's going on!?" Kagome yelled struggling, along with Inuyasha, to get up the stairs.
"Damn, bloody, whirlpool came out of nowhere and trapped us in it!" Miroku grunted as he tried to turn the wheel.
"What do you mean a whirlpool came out of nowhere? Were you not paying attention?" Inuyasha growld hanging onto the railing to keep from going overboard.
"What I mean, Captain." Miroku gritted through his teeth, only using Inuyasha's honorific because of the other crew were within hearing distance trying their best to help with the situation they were in. "Is that I was sailing through the clear ocean one minute, then the next bloody minute a fucking whirlpool came out of abso-fucking-lutely out of nowhere!"
By the time Miroku was done talking they were in the middle of the whirlpool and going so fast that the crew were swept off their feet and had to hold on to whatever was around them to keep from flying off the ship.
Round and round, faster and faster the ship spun making Kagome lose her grip on the railing. She screamed, but Inuyasha thinking fast as he let go with one hand and grabbed Kagome's hand keeping her from being lost at sea.
About ten minutes later, they were stunned to find that they had not been sucked under the water to their deaths but rather the water around them was completely gone.
Kagome tried to bring water from the air but quickly found out that she couldn't. All the water from everything was gone.
"What do we do now?" Sango asked as she let go of Miroku's waist to look around them.
"This is bad, really bad." Kagome said. "Without water, the trees will die - the rest of the animals will die - and if they die, we die. We have to hurry up to find the last few shards of the sacred jewel!"
"Well, we know Koga has two, Kohaku has one and three shards are already in its holding place, is there any more than that?" Sango asked.
"Nope, that's the last five." Kagome confirmed. "We just have to find Naraku."
"Um," Sango muttered making everyone look her way, "n-never mind." She whispered looking away with tears in her eyes.
"What is it, my dear?" Miroku asked laying a hand on Sango's shoulder.
"It's just," Sango sighed, "if we take the jewel from Kohaku then he'll die, so I was wondering if the world would be okay without his shard of the jewel?" She asked with her head bowed and her hands wringing together.
"I promise Sango, if there is the slightest chance that I can save your brother, I'll do it." Kagome promised. "If he put the jewel fragment in him before his heart stopped then I'll be able to heal him."
"Really?" Sango asked as some hope blossomed in her chest just as Inuyasha's heart sunk into his gut.
"No!" Inuyasha growled. "Not again! I will not let you put yourself at risk of dying ever again."
"Inuyasha, I'm a pirate, I put myself at risk of dying every day and yet you're okay with me being a pirate." Kagome said gently as she understood his fears, it scared her too but it's something she felt she just had to do. "Sango's brother needs help and if I'm able and willing then I am going to do everything in my power to help both him and Sango and there's nothing you can say or do to stop me."
"Yo." A voice sounded off behind them before Inuyasha could answer Kagome.
"Koga?" Inuyasha called out when they all saw who it was. "What the hell do you want? Because if it's a fight then I'll gladly give it to you!" He snarled as he took his sword out of its sheath.
"Save it, dog-breath, I didn't come here to fight - I came here to help." Koga said.
"Bullshit, Koga, we all know that you're working for Naraku!" Miroku called out.
"I was, before I decided to leave him and join you." Koga declared. "Naraku is off his rocker, even more so than before. He's losing his grip on reality, and when he completely loses it, the world will be doomed - whether or not the jewel is back where it belongs. And, I don't know about you, but I enjoy living and continue to live, so I wanted to give you these to help." He said as he bent over and took the shards from his legs and handed them to Kagome.
"Is this some sort of a trick?" Inuyasha asked as he watched Koga hand his jewels over.
"Look around you, mutt! There is no water left! Naraku is blind to see what he's doing is wrong and is destroying the world! I'm not about to sit back and let it fucking happen, so either accept that I'm a part of this team now or learn to deal with it." Koga growled.
"Now that that's settled, I'm going to get some water from our reserve off the ship then we can get moving." Kagome said as she fused to two shards with the bigger one before heading towards the ship.
"Keh." Inuyasha muttered before following Kagome to the ship.
See you next time!