Chapter 24: Mystery of the New Moon and the Black Haired Inuyasha Part Two
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha!
"Keep staring at me, ya scrawny wolf, and I'll tear your eyes from your skull!" Inuyasha threatened through clenched teeth.
"Sorry." Koga huffed out. "It's just you look so different, hard to believe that you're still the same flea-ridden mutt." He said looking from Inuyasha towards the fire that they all were sitting around, their camp already set up for the night. Kagome had gone to hunt and found a few rabbits for rabbit stew.
Hearing all the insults being fired back and forth, Kagome rolled her eyes - not taking them personally for she knew that the name calling was directed between the two of them and not towards her. It used to bother her, the derogatory names that Koga would call Inuyasha - as well as the wolf slurs that Inuyasha would send Koga's way, but she was used to the banter now. So, instead of getting heated and involved in the argument making it worse, she just focused on stirring the rabbit meat in the pot while thinking that she sure did miss the veggies that was missing. "I can't wait for the world to be fixed and the vegetables to grow once more." She thought with a sigh.
"Keep talking and I'll make you look different, you mangy wolf!" Inuyasha ground out.
"Do you wanna go, dog breath!?" Koga yelled jumping to his feet and putting his fists up in a fighting stance.
"Yeah, right now, let's go!" Inuyasha said as he jumped up and got into his own fighting stance as well. "Just don't come crying to me when a mere human kicks your ass!"
"Yeah right, don't make me laugh." Koga replied.
"What I'm gonna do to you, you won't be laughing, you'll be crying!" Inuyasha growled.
"Oh yeah?" Koga growled back getting in Inuyasha's face.
"Yeah!" Inuyasha yelled as he pushed Koga back.
"Ugh, will you just shut up already? Could you two not fight every time you guys are in the same place!?" Sango groaned.
"For real." Miroku and Shippo mumbled at the same time.
"Would you butt out?" Inuyasha grumbled. "And besides, he started it!" He accused Koga as he took a step closer to Koga.
"What!?" Koga hollered as he took his own step forward. "No, the fuck I didn't!"
"It doesn't matter who started it! If you don't stop, I'm going to finish it and you won't like it very much!" Miroku stated matter-of-factly.
"Wouldn't it be nice when the world is back to how it should be, and we can have vegetables with our stews again?" Kagome mused out loud partly to herself and partly to stop the useless fighting. She might know it wasn't directed at her, but it still irritated her, and all the screaming always gave her a headache.
"Ugh, yes! I never thought that I would miss something as simple of vegetables! But you know what they say, you never know what you have until it's gone so don't take anything for granted." Sango said with a longing look in her eyes.
"Yes, you never know you actually like something until you can no longer have it." Shippo said. "I used to think I hated veggies, now though, I know that I like them and really miss eating them."
Nothing else was able to be said about vegetables as a pain filled scream rented the air around them.
Kagome looked down at the gaping hole in her abdomen and realized a beat later that it was her that was screaming out in pain. Adrenaline must have taken over for her because she didn't feel anything anymore, just numbness. She looked from her stomach to her group standing in front of her with wide fearful eyes as she fell to her knees.
"Mmm, thank you. Your innards were simply delicious." A cool monotonous voice said as Kagome fell the rest of the way to the ground landing on her face unconscious.
Confusion, rage and fear filled each of their bodies as they looked for the source of the disembodied voice before finding a snake like creature with bone-like praying mantises hooks for hands and arms. He had a humanoid head with long light purple hair and blue eyes.
Not giving anyone the chance to attack, the snake like creature made another move - this time toward Inuyasha. However, Inuyasha - even though in his human form - moved just fast enough that the weird creature missed going through his gut and instead put a gash on his side right above his hip bone making him hiss out in pain.
Thinking fast, Sango grabbed her huge boomerang before tossing it toward the gross looking thing. Though, right before the boomerang made contact, the specimen disappeared into the thick woods.
"Where did the fucker go?" Inuyasha growled, impressively for being in his human state.
Inuyasha didn't receive an answer as a larger more humanoid version of the snake like creature came out of the shadows. This man, however, was weird - he walked around hunched over walking on his feet and hands. He had the same light purple hair and blue eyes, though, he had a dark silver mouthpiece fixated over his mouth. He wore shackles on his wrists and legs and just stood there not saying anything.
"Who the hell are you and where did that other freak get to?" Koga growled out.
The others were shocked as Naraku stepped out of the shadows as well walking over to where the man crouched on the ground.
"Inuyasha, this is a nice turn of events. I knew about half-demons turning human once a month, now I know yours, but no-matter you're about to die now. You see Juromaru here obeys only one, and that's Kageromaru. Once I take these shackles off, Juromaru will be unstoppable. Have fun." Naraku laughed menacingly as he undid the shackles and put a barrier around in just in time as Juromaru swung at him.
Dread took place deep within Inuyasha's chest as he watched the man called Juromaru turn and look in their direction as he stood up from his crouching position. Before anyone could do anything, Juromaru seemingly transported from where he was standing to right in front of Miroku punching him squarely in the jaw and knocking him off his feet before teleporting back to where he was standing.
"Shit." Inuyasha cursed as he looked back at Miroku, the punch hadn't knocked him out though Inuyasha bet that it made him see stars. He then peeked at Kagome, wanting desperately to go to her and help her in any way he could, he could still tell that she was breathing so he let her lie for now. "He's fucking fast."
"Yeah, and super strong." Miroku mumbled as he rubbed his jaw as he stood up.
"Where's the other guy?" Sango asked looking around.
"No idea." Inuyasha murmured. "But I'm not giving this asshole any more time to come at us again." He said as he took his sword out, not really caring that it was basically useless right now and charged without a second thought toward the man.
Inuyasha was surprised that Juromaru didn't move from his spot but didn't give it much thought as he thought he was an easy target and would die easy enough. He swung his sword at him but was shocked that he didn't dodge out of the way, he only repositioned himself, so the sword made contact with the mouthpiece making it fall to the ground.
"W-what's that coming out of his m-mouth?" Shippo stuttered as they all watched as a white mist seeped out of his mouth, he climbed onto Sango's shoulder trying to get to somewhere safe as he shook like a leaf. Before anyone could answer, Koga fell to his knee as he clutched both arms around his stomach and the weird thing was behind him eating whatever it just ripped from Koga's body.
"Y-you bastard." Koga grunted out in pain as he turned around to swipe at Kageromaru, however, he didn't go fast enough and Kageromaru darted out of the way and disappeared again. "Damn it! Where did he get to now!?"
Miroku was paying extra close attention to Juromaru trying to figure out what that white mist was coming from, then he saw it, a blur, right before Koga was attacked, coming out of Juromaru's mouth.
"Everyone, be careful, Kageromaru is hiding within Juromaru's body." Miroku warned.
"Well, that makes it easy for me." Inuyasha said as he held is sword in both hands in front of his body. "I'll just kill two birds with one stone." He said as he charged at Juromaru, he was surprised when one minute he was in front of him then the next minute he was behind him giving him a hard kick to the back sending him flying.
Using quick, Inuyasha did a rolling maneuver to break the fall and land on his feet. Before he could even turn around, he was sent flying once again due to a kick to the side of his head, though this time he couldn't correct the fall and he landed with a thud on his side.
Sango sent her boomerang at Juromaru but he was still faster than even the Hiraikotsu. Shaking of her nerves, she caught her boomerang and threw it again only to get the same result. Again and again, she tried to hit him but again and again she failed but she didn't give up just like none of the others didn't.
Miroku took out sutras and threw them at Juromaru only for Juromaru to twist and turn out of the way of each of them. Still, though, Miroku continued to throw sutras until he ran out of paper to throw. Once he ran out of sutras, he made an attempt at one and one hand combat, he clutched his staff in his hands in a white knuckled grip as he ran full force trying to match Juromaru's speed.
Koga was trying to match Jaromaru's speed and trying to land kicks and punches but wasn't having much luck with that.
Shippo was trying to create as much of a distraction as he could with his spinning top, blue flames and his other tricks that he knew how to do including his multiplication trick where he could multiply himself to confuse his opponent. However, no matter how hard he tried, his tricks went unnoticed by Juromaru.
So busy, everyone was trying to help defeat the enemy that no one saw a pulse going through Kagome's motionless body.
Inuyasha was just about to swing his untransformed Tessaiga but before he could there was a blur that ran past him. With wide blinking eyes Inuyasha watched as a transformed Kagome completely annihilated Juromaru by pretty much ripping his body apart. So, shock he was by the state Kagome was in he missed the blur that darted from Juromaru's mouth and into the ground - as did everyone else.
Thinking the threat over, Inuyasha threw his Tessaiga down and slowly walked toward Kagome making sure he kept his hands within view of her at all times.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha whispered making sure that his voice was low and his footsteps slow. Once Kagome looked at him with her white eyes, he froze his movements making sure that his hands were in view of her at all times. "Kagome, it's me - Inuyasha." He said, when he heard the growl start deep in her chest, keeping his voice low.
"Stay away!" Kagome shouted in her gravelly voice as she took a step back when Inuyasha took a step forward. "I can't say what I would do to you, but I don't feel very in control of my actions right now."
"I'll take my chances." Inuyasha said taking another step forward pausing just for a beat as Kagome's growl got louder. He continued his way to her at a slow calculated rate, keeping an eye on her hands making sure he could dart out of the way should she decide to use him as a claw sharpener.
As he was making his way to her he had to duck out of the way a couple of times from her deadly claws, he got a couple claw marks from her - but he didn't mind in the least, he just wanted to help her through this. However, before he could actually touch her and help bring her back, he felt immense pain coming from his torso. Looking down he saw a hole where his belly should have been, then he felt a pulse going through his body he looked up and saw the sun coming up over the horizon. He felt his demon blood as it rushed back to the surface and begin to stitch his injured body back together. He watched as the ends of his hair turn from dark black to a dazzling silver color and, though he couldn't see them, he knew that his dog ears and his golden eyes were back. He coughed and a little bit of blood dribbled out of his mouth as he clutched one arm around his mid-section so he could continue his way to help Kagome.
Miroku and Sango saw the flash that hurt Inuyasha dart back into the ground then dart back out heading towards Inuyasha once again. Without a second thought Sango threw her giant boomerang at Kageromaru yelling at Inuyasha to duck out of the way.
Being caught off guard, Kageromaru got cut down, Inuyasha jumped out of the way and Kagome - who came to at the smell and sight of Inuyasha being hurt by Kageromaru - let out an 'oh shit' before diving to the side just barely missing being hit by the giant boomerang.
Kagome, who was completely healed when she turned into a full demon, jumped up before rushing over to where Inuyasha was. "Oh my gosh! Inuyasha I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" She asked as she lifted up his shit to not only see the hole in his stomach but to also see where she had struck him with her claws. She let out a small breath of relief when she saw that the wounds that she inflicted on him were angry looking red whelps that were in the process of healing, about another hour and they'll be gone. The hole left by Kageromaru, however, was still a gaping hole -though not as big as it first had been.
"Keh, I'm fine Kagome." Inuyasha said as he gently pushed her hands away from him after a few minutes of letting her check him over. "And you got nothing to apologize for, so don't even try."
"Well," Miroku said with a yawn and a stretch, "I don't know about any of you, but I am exhausted and ready for a short nap before we head off anywhere."
"Oh, yes please, a nap sound wonderful!" Sango said almost blissfully.
"Count me in." Kagome said with a big smile, transforming into a full demon always wiped her out.
"Me too!" Shippo called out raising his hand in the air.
"Wha-? You can't be serious!" Inuyasha called out with both arms in the air waving them around erratically. "We've got work to do! Or have you forgotten? We don't have time for naps!"
"Oh, pipe down Inuyasha!" Kagome said feeling a little agitated by his tone. "You're still hurt, I'm completely wiped out, Shippo is a child and needs his sleep and they," she gestured towards Miroku and Sango while looking back and giving them a wink, "are but mere humans that didn't get any sleep last night! Have some compassion!" She said as she put the back of her hand against her forehead and every ounce of drama that she had seeped out passed her lips.
Inuyasha's lips curled into his famous half smile that made Kagome want to see how those lips tasted. He secretly loved it when she got into her bratty moods, it made him want to show her just who really was in charge of this relationship. "Keh, when you put it like that, how could I say no?" What? just because he's the man and in charge doesn't mean that he wouldn't do as she asked, he would do anything for her, all she would have to do was say the word and it would be done.
"Yeah!" Kagome shouted in a deep voice as she threw both fists up in the air and did a little victory jog. "Nap time for the win!" Everyone in the group, except Koga who looked absolutely confused, laughed at her antics.
"You let her get her way just like that? You don't exert your dominance and make her obey you?" Koga asked with a shocked expression on his face.
"You don't get it, scrawny wolf boy, I might be in charge of this relationship, but without Kagome none of this would be possible. It's because of her that this little group works so well together. For Kagome, I would kill anyone standing against her without a second thought if she wished me too." Inuyasha said matter-of-factly before walking away from Koga to a nearby tree to jump in and make homage so he could watch over his little family.
Hope you liked the chapter!
A/N: I live! Sorry it took forever to get this chapter out, my oldest son cut my charging cord in half, so I had to wait for another one and I had my baby July 18th so been super busy with that. But hopefully I'll be able to update my stories every Friday! So, until next time! See you soon!