Chapter 22
Fallaces sunt rerum species
"The appearances of things are deceptive"

"He might have been encased in a thick glass bubble,
so separate did he feel from his three dining companions.
It was a sensation with which he was only too familiar,
that of walking in a giant sphere of worry,
enclosed by it, watching his own terrors roll by,
obscuring the outside world."
—The Casual Vacancy

He woke up, disoriented, staring up at the roof of a hut. The world rolled around him off center, like everything had tilted unmercifully in his sleep.

"What the fuck?" He groaned, raising a hand to his head.

"Inuyasha!" Miroku shouted, voice ringing from the volume.

"Keep it down, would ya?" Inuyasha grumbled, hand sliding down to cover his eyes.

"Go get Kaede!" Miroku hissed. A door slid open and closed followed by scurrying footfalls that could only be Shippo. Miroku appeared over his line of sight as Inuyasha tried to keep his meal inside his stomach.

"Inuyasha? Can you hear me?" Miroku asked.

"Yes, you idiot. Now what the fuck happened?" He pushed himself to his elbows, struggling as the world tilted, and he had to dig his claws into the floor to stop from falling off.

"We don't know. You just passed out." He glanced at the door. "What do you remember?"

Inuyasha paused, trying to cut through the headache and fog that overtook his memory.

"I was talking to you, right?"

"We were out in the woods," Miroku added.

"Inuyasha!" Sango shouted, lurching through the doorway, and he flinched from the motion and the noise. "You're awake! How do you feel?"

"Like shit," he mumbled as he pushed himself up further to a sitting position.

Kaede appeared in the doorway with Shippo bounding in a second before her. The kit slid to his side and sniffled.

"What're you crying about now?" He grumbled as he leaned forward. Kaede set a basket down beside him, and he rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

"We thought you were dead!" He wailed, and Inuyasha's ears flattened against his hair.

"Keep it down!" He hissed, his hands now covering his face again as he tried to get his bearings.

"He's not wrong," Sango stated, quietly, much to Inuyasha's relief.

"You've been out for well over a day," Kaede mentioned off-handedly, grabbing his chin and shifting his head to the side. He batted her hand away and scowled at her.

"So what? Did I get hit or something?"

"That's just it, Inuyasha." Miroku moved back into his line of sight. "We were walking down the path and you just collapsed. There was no clear reason for it."

"Not one that we could tell at least," Sango added. "We were hoping that you could tell us what happened."

"Like I fucking know!" He growled. "Has Kagome come back yet?"

There was a glance exchanged between the three of them.

"No, she hasn't," Sango stated.

"I've been watching the well for you," Shippo started, "in case she came back while you were asleep."

"Shippo has indeed been very helpful." Miroku gave a firm nod towards the kitsune, who only seemed to swell with pride at the mention.

"Fan-fucking-tastic," Inuyasha growled. "I'm going to go check on Kagome. Bitch can't climb out on her own, you know." He pushed himself to his feet, only to have his legs give out almost immediately as everyone shouted at him to stay down.

His vision swam, and he gulped air into his lungs as he tried to steady himself on the floor and keep whatever was in his stomach in his stomach.

He made a guttural noise in the back of his throat as his head hung down towards the floor.

"Perhaps it would be best if you lie back down?" Miroku suggested, urging him with a gentle push onto his shoulders to get him back onto the pile of the hay. He collapsed easily with a low groan as his gut flopped around like a fish.

"What do you think is causing it?" Sango asked. His ears flattened back against his head as a wave of nausea rolled over him.

He needed to go check on Kagome, but his body refused to work.

Kaede pressed her fingers into his chest and stomach, and he weakly swatted her hand away each time.

"Inuyasha, let me work," she ordered him, and he growled at her, but stopped batting her hands away from him.

"Do you see anything?" Sango asked.

"No, nothing that would cause such illness," she said with a shake of her head. "Have you experienced anything like this before?"

"Yeah, I fucking pass out all the fucking time, hag."

"Inuyasha, be nice," Sango chided. "Do you think it's an illness?"

"I don't get fucking sick," Inuyasha grumbled.

"Yes, yes, Inuyasha. You've told us this many times," Miroku stated plainly with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Inuyasha started to push himself up, but he only got to his elbows before his stomach rolled and he swallowed back the bile as it burned the back of his throat.

He'd be fine by tomorrow. That's how this always worked. He'd be fine tomorrow, and then he'd go and check on Kagome.

And she'd be fine, because everything was going to be fucking fine.

He'd accept nothing less.

"Stay there Inuyasha," Kaede ordered. "I will be back shortly. Shippo, come with me." He felt the fox let go of his wrist and then scamper off, following the sound of creaking bones.

"Keh," he scoffed. "I'll do what I want, hag."

"For once, Inuyasha, don't fight us on this," Sango insisted.

He growled, but let his head flop back onto the pile of hay as Miroku let out a soft sigh.

Kaede reappeared later holding a steaming cup of something that smelled suspiciously of shit and liver.

"Whatever that is, I ain't drinking it." The smell alone was making his bile curdle in his throat.

"Your youki feels weak. This will help." Kaede knelt down beside him.

"I'll be fine, hag. I ain't drinking that. Smells like shit."

"Inuyasha, don't be stubborn."

"How about I just paralyze him with an ofuda and then we can all be put out of our misery?" Miroku mumbled, and Inuyasha bolted upright to yell profanities about his chosen profession when a sharp wave of nausea rolled over him, forcing him to make a pathetic noise and cover his mouth with his hand.

"My point exactly," Kaede said with a frown. "Just drink it, willful dog."

"I—" he muttered out before clamping his hand over his mouth and letting a low groan reverberate from his throat.

"Sango, the bucket!" The sound of wood sliding across itself as a small bucket appeared in front of him, slamming down on the floor, as his stomach heaved against him. Thankfully, his food all stayed where it was supposed to, but he felt his mouth water a lot and struggled with the decision to spit it out or swallow it down. Either one seemed likely to provoke his own renegade stomach, but his contemplations were cut short as it lurched again, and he wasn't able to tamp it down this time.

His eyes watered as he retched, and he muttered curses between volleys.

"Honestly, Inuyasha," Kaede stated as a hand rubbed circles between his shoulder blades. "It would have been less painful to just drink the tea."

He glared at her from his hunched position over the bucket as he waited to make sure that his body was done rejecting everything he'd eaten since he was five.

A cup of water appeared before him, and he took it, eager to get the taste of bile out of his throat and mouth. Kaede cleared her throat, holding the cup of tea out to him. He growled, weakly, and took the tea, swallowing it all in a couple of large gulps, gagging on the taste.

"What is in that? Boiled entrails?" He commented with a sneer as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He smacked his lips a few times as his stomach rolled at the unsettling taste, and he jerked the bucket back under his face. He gagged once, twice, but nothing came up. He swayed, planting his hands firmly on the wooden floor to steady himself as he closed his eyes to help push the vertigo back down.

"Perhaps it would be best if you lie down?" Miroku encouraged.

"Fuck all of you," he groaned out. "I'm fine."

Firm hands pushed him back down onto the hay, and he made yet another pathetic noise in the back of his throat.

"Of course, Inuyasha," Miroku stated. A cool rag was placed over his eyes and forehead, and the distinct smell of fox wafted over his nose.

"I'll stay with him," Shippo said, and he felt the little kitsune curl up in the space between his neck and shoulder. Another soft batch of fur curled up on the other side of his neck. Smelled like Kirara.

He let out a long breath, feeling himself drift away and into sleep.

His eyes felt heavy, and his head didn't want to work right. He groaned, raising a hand to his face. The small body next to his face let out a pitiful whine and shifted in its sleep. He pulled the rag off, letting it slide away onto the hay next to his head.

He blinked as his vision came into focus. He could see the rafters of the small hut, and he turned his head towards the far wall where Miroku was slumped.

"Inuyasha?" Shippo yawned as he sat up. "Do you feel better?"

He grunted an affirmative, and Shippo wrapped his arms around his neck, rubbing their cheeks together.

"I was scared," he whispered.

Inuyasha lightly patted the kit's back, and he heard Miroku stir across the room.

"I'm fine, Shippo," he grumbled. The kit pulled away, wiping his eyes, and Inuyasha pushed himself up to a sitting position, rubbing his temples as the fog started to clear in his head.

"Good to see you awake," Miroku stated, stretching his arms over his head and yawning. "Your youki already feels better than it did yesterday."

"Keh," he scoffed and pushed himself to his feet, staggering a couple steps as he put a hand out to stabilize himself against the wall. Miroku grabbed his other arm, and Shippo grabbed his calf, like that was doing anything worthwhile, but it made the kit feel better, so who was he to judge?

"Easy," Miroku warned, and he already felt the wooziness leaving.

"I'm fine," he growled, jerking his arm away.

"Ah, Inuyasha, so good to see that ye are doing much better today," Kaede said as she pushed the door open. Sango followed her carrying a tray of what smelled like breakfast.

She patted the wall before stepping inside.

"I would suggest that you eat before you consider too much activity today," she said, taking a seat in the middle of the hut.

"I'll do whatever the fuck I want, hag."

He headed towards the doorway with a scoff, except he bounced off the barrier and back onto his ass.

"What the fuck, Kaede?"

"I warned ye, Inuyasha, breakfast first." She had the audacity to sip from her tea cup as though she'd done absolutely nothing wrong in sealing him inside the hut.

"Stop arguing and just eat your food. We'll unseal the hut once you've gotten something in your stomach," Miroku said, cuffing him, albeit much lighter than usual, across the back of the head and taking a seat beside Sango.

"Fine," he said, sitting down and taking the bowl with a growl and eating quickly.

Now that he was eating something, he realized that he felt like he was starving. They'd clearly anticipated his appetite and provided him seconds and thirds of breakfast, which he snarfed down quickly and efficiently.

"Do you still intend to go to Kagome's time?" Miroku asked.

"'Course I do!"

"Kagome needs time to heal. We should let her rest," Sango added. "We all agreed on this, remember?"

"It ain't like I'm gonna force her to come back!" He crossed his arms. "'sides, it ain't like she can't heal here too, you know."

"Kagome should be allowed to return at her own pace, Inuyasha."

"What did I just say? I ain't forcing her to do anything she don't wanna do!"

Seemingly appeased, no one else questioned him on it.

True to her word, Kaede removed the ofuda after another pointless examination, and before she could say a single word, he was leaping off and out of the small hut.

Kagome.

Kagome.

Kagome!

Her name perpetuated in his head as he ran, heading straight for the well. His legs felt sluggish, like he's running through thick mud, and weighted down, but he was going to check on her whether they think it's unnecessary or not. He'd left her alone for a few days already.

He leapt into the time slip, eager to see Kagome and just make sure that she was okay. He just needed to see that she was fine. That was all. He just needed to see her. She didn't even need to know that he was here at all.

He landed and jumped out easily. His legs already felt better. Pushing the door open slowly, he checked the courtyard, but there was no one out there. It was—weird. And concerning. But he wasn't about to question it. He slipped in through the back door after confirming that no one was there. In fact, he didn't hear anyone at all.

Come to think of it, he didn't see the old man out there. He glanced back outside and noted that it looked like the old man hadn't swept it off in days. It was unusual, and it just made the hair on the back of his neck raise.

He glanced around the kitchen. There were dishes in the sink, an uncommon occurrence.

He sniffed. Everything smelled stale and old, like no one but Kagome had been in here for days.

You know what? Screw her not knowing.

"Kagome?"

He darted up the stairs to her room. Empty.

He started back out into the hall, but diverted to the bathroom. It was clean, but the remnants of someone being sick remained behind in scent only. Kagome had been ill.

"Kagome!" He shouted, checking Souta's room and then heading back down the stairs.

He hadn't wanted her to leave. He hadn't wanted to send her home. He didn't want her to go, but they said that it was the best thing for her. It would be good for her, they said.

Fucking hell. He knew better than to leave her.

He tore into the kitchen, eyes scanning the room, looking for anything that stood out, anything that was unusual or out of place.

The folded up note from before still sat on the counter. He picked it up and read it quickly, growling the more he read.

Her family had left and weren't planning on being back any time soon.

She'd fucking lied straight to his face. He snarled, crumpling the note in his hand and tossing it across the floor as he slammed the door shut behind him. The glass rattled in the panes, but he ignored it and could have cared less if it had shattered behind him.

Where the fuck was she?

He crouched on the ground, sniffing. She'd been out here a day or so ago, but she hadn't come back. It was old and fading, but he could still smell that she'd been up and walking and alone.

He followed the trail into her grandfather's shed, it was simple and direct enough. If he'd been more focused on what his nose was telling him, he would have noticed this earlier.

"Kagome?" He called, walking around one of the shelves to the small room in the back. "Kag—"

His voice died off as he stared at the mess of books and scrolls littering the floor and the table, some opened, some still tied closed.

But it was the girl sprawled out across the floor that made his heart stop and his blood freeze.

He couldn't tell if she was breathing. He couldn't see the rise and fall of her chest. He couldn't hear the sound of her heart over the roaring of his own.

"Kagome?"

He took a tentative step towards her, brushing the old scrolls away and turning her onto her back.

Her skin was clammy to the touch, and he pressed his head against her chest to hear the fluttering of her heart. He smelled no blood, no sign of trauma.

What the fuck had happened here?

"Kagome? Can you hear me?" He asked, looking up at her from his crouched position, but she remained still. He touched her cheek, the skin under his fingers cool and clammy to the touch. It made him flinch.

Kaede.

He needed to get her to Kaede.

He picked her up, carefully, unsure of what had happened, but confident in his assessment that it was wrong and unnatural. He carried her out of the shed, letting the door fall shut behind him.

He made it all the way to the well house before realizing his problem. Kagome couldn't pass through the well without the shards.

"Fuck!" He growled, running back inside the house, leaping up the stairs in one bound, and darting into her room.

He scanned the floor for her yellow pack, but it wasn't in its usual place beside her desk.

"Fuck, Kagome, what did you do with the damn thing?" He muttered, still searching. "Of all the times for you to fucking put things away." He finally set her down on the bed, starting the process of dismantling her room. He tore her through her dresser before moving to her closet.

She was going to kill him when she came back here again, but he didn't care or was beyond caring at this point. He pulled out a bin of dirty clothes and spotted the familiar yellow bag, packed with whatever remained in it. Snatching it from its place against the wall, he unzipped the small pocket inside and saw the small vial of jewel shards before zipping it back up and tossing it over his shoulder. He turned back to the frail girl on the bed and narrowed his eyes.

What the fuck was going on here?

He scooped up her up from bed and bounded off back towards the well.

He slid to a stop in front of Kaede's hut, using his shoulder to push the mat out of the way as he called for her.

"Kaede!" He shouted. Fuck, she wasn't here. He stepped back outside, hesitating. He didn't want to go running around all of creation looking for the old hag with Kagome, but he wasn't about to put her down either.

Shit!

Just fucking shit!

Her breathing hitched, and he was already panting.

He heard Miroku's staff and spun, looking for the monk. Odds were that Kaede was with him. They weren't far, and Miroku seemed to have already spotted him. He was carrying something for Kaede since she was walking beside him. He could hear their conversation from where he stood.

"I did not expect Inuyasha to return so quickly," Kaede commented.

"He's holding something—" Inuyasha could practically feel Miroku's squinting. "Is that Kagome?"

"Aye, monk, hurry!" Kaede hustled her way back to the hut, but Miroku beat her there.

"What happened?" He asked, setting the basket on the ground. He reached out for her, and Inuyasha jerked her away, snarling, open mouthed at him. "Calm down! I'm not going to hurt her!"

"Don't touch her!" He curled the girl closer to him, keeping her away from the monk. "You sent her away!"

"Don't be an idiot! I'm not the enemy!" Miroku snapped back at him. "Now tell me what happened."

"I don't know!" He could still feel her breathing. "I just—I found her like this!" His ears flattened back against his head. "She won't wake up!"

Miroku swallowed.

"Okay. Take her inside and lay her on the floor." He stepped inside the doorway, holding the mat aside, and Inuyasha growled at the thought of putting her down.

"Don't be stubborn. You brought her here so Kaede could help her."

"Inuyasha, what happened?" Kaede asked, breathing heavily, as she headed into her hut.

"We don't know," Miroku answered. "Inuyasha said that he found her in this condition."

"Put her down here," Kaede said, motioning to the floor in front of her. She turned to fetch jars off her shelves, and he moved to the spot where she'd pointed, but he couldn't bring himself to put her down. He couldn't let her go.

"Inuyasha, you have to put her down," Miroku reminded him.

He whined in response as he knelt on the floor, still holding her against his chest.

"Inuyasha, put her down. You brought her here so Kaede could help. You have to put her down or else she can't help Kagome." Miroku's hand was on his shoulder blade, far away from Kagome. "You know that none of us will let any harm come to her. But you have to put her down, so Kaede can fix her."

Kaede was waiting, not speaking to him, and he let out another whine, but slowly, carefully lowered her to the ground.

"Tell me what happened. Everything ye saw there."

"I went through the well and checked her house, but she wasn't there. I found her out in her grandfather's shed. She was on the floor." He lowered her head to the ground, the fingers of one hand cushioning her from the hardness of the wood, the other gripping her cold hand.

"I'll go find Sango," Miroku stated, pushing himself to his feet.

"Stay, monk. Your help might be needed," Kaede stated as she started pressing her hands along Kagome's arms, progressing towards her chest. Miroku moved away from the doorway.

"Where was her family?" She asked.

"They weren't there. Hadn't been there for five fucking days."

"You said they were coming back," Miroku stated.

"Yeah, that's what she told me. I should've fucking stayed. I knew something was wrong."

"Was there any reason for her to be in the shed?"

"Dunno. There were scrolls everywhere and books too. Like she'd been looking stuff up."

Kaede's hands hovered over Kagome's neck. He could feel the reiki from here.

"There are two things I need ye to do." His eyes flicked away from her hands and met her gaze, hard and forceful.

"What?" He snapped in response to the almost-glare she was giving him.

"First, find Sango and tell her I need her here." She held up two fingers. "Second, ye need to go to Kagome's time and see what she was researching."

"Why do you need that?" He didn't want to go. He didn't want to leave her alone. He needed to stay here, with her, make sure that she was okay.

"Her sleep is unnatural, and I need more information. Now go!"

"I—I c—I'm not—" He fumbled with the words, struggling to let the girl go.

"Inuyasha," Kaede spoke firmly, in a tone of voice he hadn't heard in almost a year, not since he'd been freshly awakened from his seal. "Time is of the essence. Kagome needs help, and I cannot safely help her without more information. I need to know what she was reading. Bring me as much information as ye can. Ye are the only one capable of getting this and helping Kagome. Understand?" She grabbed his wrist, emphasizing her point. "This is not a punishment. Ye have done nothing wrong. But ye need to hurry. Kagome can not wait."

He swallowed the lump in his throat.

He'd done nothing wrong. He wasn't being punished for failing her.

Forcing his fingers to release her, he pulled away from Kagome as Kaede let go of his wrist.

"Send Sango here, and then go through the well," she reminded him as he stood up. He nodded once and then bolted out the door, searching for the slayer.

He found her on the crest of a hill, landing in front of her. To her credit, she didn't spook like he'd anticipated.

"Kaede needs you now," he stated brusquely.

"What—"

"Just go!" He started to move, but she hadn't. "Now! Hurry!"

Kirara transformed, and Sango called to Shippo before climbing on. He leapt away, heading straight towards the well. He leapt through and out, darting back into the shed. It took a long time time to decipher her scrolls and books.

They all dealt with stories of priestesses and their powers. He left the ones still sealed alone. She'd clearly separated them into piles, which were now a mess across the table and floor. He tried sorting them again, but he wasn't seeing a connection. Stories of priestesses, reiki, and battles against youkai. The history of the priests and priestesses of the shrine.

What the fuck was Kagome trying to get at? He threw the scrolls and books into a singular pile onto the table. Kagome had warned him several times not to remove anything from the storage shed. Maybe there was something inside the house. Kagome liked to write things down, so maybe something more on her desk?

He went back into the house, noting that the door was open from where he'd left before. He shut it behind him, flipping the little switch that he'd seen her do before to lock it after herself. He'd leave out her window when it came time. He looked around the house, sniffing out where she'd spent most of her time, which was weirdly on the stairs and her room.

Her bed was unmade, another unusual thing for her.

But he looked at the piles of papers spread out across her desk. That seemed the most promising.

It was all notes, some of them school work, he recognized some of the notebooks, but there was one that he didn't immediately recognize, and it was furiously scribbled in. Some of it was barely legible; however, he recognized some of the key words around it: reiki, youkai, priestess, and so forth. This, he picked up the notebook before turning towards the window, this he could bring back to Kaede.

He leapt out the window, closing it behind himself and headed straight for the well.

A/N: So I hope that this kind of helps explain the mess that last week left us in (well, not us-us, mostly just you guys), and why Inuyasha was being such a dill weed the entire time.

But I'm also pretty sure that you guys have more questions now than you got answers, so there's that.