A bead of sweat trickled down her temple and Kagome wished for the umpteenth time that she had one of those sweatbands she used to sport for phys. ed. They just don't have the right kind of fabric here, nor the synthetic elastic to make it comfy.
Straightening up, she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and surveyed the area. Her task for the morning was to tidy the shrine's ancillary storehouse. Located halfway up the hill—just off to the side from the main staircase leading up to the top—it didn't really hold much of great importance for daily operations.
Though some effort was required, she was able to consolidate enough to free up about a third of the space. The harvest was better than anticipated this year, so the village's main storage was near capacity. This way, they could move some other less oft used items up here for winter and maximize food supply.
Outside the threshold, Kagome dusted her hands off a few times, then her clothes, and started to walk back. It was still early in the day; maybe she could get a head start in transferring some items up.
Life was going well lately now that she'd gotten the hang of things, she was able to channel her spiritual powers into arrows at will. All that was left was to practice being consistent with the amount of energy in each projectile. Since Kikyou no longer had to devote so much time to personally observing every detail of her training, when there was spare time, the miko would show her new things. The day before, she got to work on forming small barriers with anchors alongside Kaede. Her creation certainly had a nice blue tinge to it, but Kagome was curious if it would actually function.
Although to be honest, Kagome was still a little self-conscious about the whole thing. Who'd have thought she would have abilities close to the miko of lore. She'd just humoured gramps when he told his grandiose stories and brushed it off as just that—fiction. Kikyou did stress how they had been going about it wholly unstructured, like no prayers, no theory, kinda learning just to get the job done. She frequently warned that a weak foundation may become detrimental in the future and that Kagome should get proper training with her old teacher come spring.
Secretly, Kagome was delighted with the current way of learning. As any student in Japan can attest, education there was as rigid and paternalistic as education goes. She was going about this like a self-taught artist instead of someone who'd gone to art school, with skill built up by sweat and tears and practice. That was kinda romantic, wasn't it?
And practice she did. Every spare moment from her duties, she was either tucked in a forest glade or in the back courtyard of the shrine outside of popular worship times.
However, that did not avoid entirely the occurrence of curious villagers peeking at her. The most embarrassing part was that some of the more friendly individuals would cheer quietly every time her arrow lit up with the signature blue of her spiritual power.
Oddly, these people were as polite and reserved as can be with Kikyou but perhaps because Kagome was a trainee and the lack of miko attire invited a certain casual atmosphere.
Kagome shrugged her shoulders, cringing even in recall. Now that Inuyasha had stopped being weird, she preferred to practice in the forest with his watchful presence hovering in the periphery. At first, she was terrified of her reiki harming him, but he'd brushed it off in his usual gruff way. He was not the greatest fan of how it felt, but curiously her energy didn't hurt in any way.
Reaching the landing that separated the long line of stairs ascending to the shrine, Kagome made her way back down towards the village.
A few more steps, then some instinct made her look up, brows furrowing. Tilting her head up, as if that made catching the sounds in the wind easier, Kagome slowed to listen.
Something was not quite right. It was too loud, like the sound of distant shouting.
Skipping down the steps two at a time, she landed on the dirt road with a crunch. Clouds of dust kicked up in her wake as she broke into a light run towards the village. All her attention was captured by the thick plumes of black smoke now fully visible once she left the shelter of the trees.
Then cresting the shallow rise of the slope up ahead was a small figure sprinting at full speed, half stumbling in haste towards her.
"Kagome!" A strangled cry of her name as Kaede barreled into her.
She had to back pedal a few steps to absorb the momentum, her arms automatically going up to circle the small girl's shoulders protectively.
Kaede's usually demure features were contorted with distress, stray droplets of moisture escaped the corner of her eyes as she panted roughly, trying to catch her breath.
"Kaede! What's going on? What's wrong?"
"S-someone attacked…the village!" She managed to gasp out finally.
"What? Who?"
"I-I don't know. A y-youkai. I think I saw them up fly by, auburn clothes, dirty grey hair… I-I'm…" Kaede shook her head fiercely clearing some stray thought from her head. "Later. Is onee-sama at the shrine?"
"No, not when I was up there earlier."
Wordlessly, Kaede whirled around tugging on Kagome's arm to follow.
They started running back to the village. As they neared, the shouting grew exponentially louder. Hoarse cries of the men overlapped each other, as more than one person tried to direct the chaotic efforts to salvage the damage.
The creak and groan of the failing structures was deafening, punctuating the crackle of the fires not yet extinguished.
People stumbled around her, jostling whatever vessel they had on hand to haul water from the river. With the heat of the summer morphing into a dry autumn, any spark that jumped the narrow gaps between buildings was a real threat.
Wailing came from afar, someone sobbing hysterically. And Kagome wondered distantly if anyone was hurt.
"Kaede," She reached to grip the girl's shoulders. "I need my bow."
She nodded.
"I'll keep looking for onee-sama."
"Be careful."
Kagome split off to the row of huts furthest from the river. Disoriented from the hazy air stinging her eyes, she couldn't quite make out her surroundings clearly but it would appear that the section was undamaged.
Finally succumbing to the smoke, a coughing fit seized her, and she had to take a moment to recover.
Skidding across the threshold, she sagged with relief as she made eye contact with her elderly foster parents.
"Oba-san! Oji-san!"
"Kagome!"
Scanning the two of them quickly, she thanked the kami that although they looked shaken up, neither of them were injured, unlike last time something like this happened.
Darting to the corner by the fire pit, Kagome snatched up her bow and swung the quiver over her shoulder.
"You have to stay hidden, okay?" She called to the pair of elders sternly.
"No, we have to do our part." Granny shook the basin in her hand in emphasis.
Kagome nodded. This was their home long before it was hers.
"I'm gonna go figure out what's going on. Please be careful!"
Before she turned to retrace her steps, Kagome caught the odd expression that was akin to a grimace flash across grandpa's face.
Shoving that aside to ponder later, she refocused on the most pressing task at hand. Running back out towards the village square, Kagome glanced up, noting with relief that the plumes of smoke had dispersed somewhat. The air was still acrid with dispersed soot, but she hoped it meant the fires were now under control
Her steps were stilled as she caught sight of a huddle of women sheltered against the wall of a nearby hut. One held a rag to her own forehead, already dyed red. Another was trying to help the other with a torn sleeve soaked with blood.
They could use some help. But almost as soon as she began to walk in their direction, she stopped abruptly.
Inexplicably, something in her gut told her it was not where she was supposed to go.
The flux of bodies previously busy fighting the fires had redirected. Stray buckets littered the ground and in place of them, the people were holding hoes and shovels and sticks, waving them in the air. The crowd was so thick she couldn't see but it was obvious they were circling around something.
From somewhere deep within, Kagome knew it was imperative to see what it was that the villagers were so intent to trap.
Sprinting to catch up, she launched herself at the backs of the nearest men, throwing the full weight of her body and caution to the wind. Knowing her petite frame was a deep disadvantage against the burly muscle of those who did the daily hard work of tending the fields, Kagome went all out. She elbowed and kicked, but all that resulted was being jostled around, struggling to keep her balance. Several times she failed, landing roughly in the dirt but she picked herself up immediately lest someone trample her.
Between the moving torsos and flinging arms she could catch glimpses of the centre of the circle. There were flashes of a brilliant red and locks of white, both shades so familiar it made her heart writhe against her ribs. It made her stomach drop to her feet.
Amongst the indecipherable drone of voices, she heard snippets of coherence— 'hanyou', 'that damned dog'. She didn't want to acknowledge it, nor attempt to comprehend it. She just needed to break through the crowd.
And then she did.
The movement was so abrupt that she lurched forward, somehow momentarily free of obstacles in her way and she stumbled. Several wobbly steps took her face closer to planting flat into the ground but somehow, she managed to save herself from that fate.
There he was.
Inuyasha.
He was crouched in a stance that positioned his right foot slightly in front of his left. His forearms were held up in front of him—an unmistakable combat stance at the ready. But he cast about wildly, arching his face this way and that, searching, almost desperately among the crowd for something. The movement made the glimmering ends of his hair flutter behind him.
Smears of dirt soiled his robes and dark blood smeared down one side of his face, already dried.
His eyes were wide, the usual mellow depths crazed, enhanced by the whites around his irises bleeding an unnatural crimson. But the reason for it, she realized with another pain in her chest, was not malice, but a kind of bewildered… anguish?
"Inuyasha?"
Seconds seemed to stretch until his searching gaze finally locked onto hers. His chest heaved painfully up and down for a couple of breaths. And then as if his world suddenly righted itself, his dilated pupils constricted, and he looked at her—really looked at her.
"Kagome." His voice was cracked, a bare whisper of her name on the wind.
Somehow their near inaudible exchange catalyzed a wave of sudden hush in the crowd. The only sound was the shuffling of feet and breathing.
She took a step forward towards him, helplessly reaching out a limp hand. He still looked so lost, and it broke her heart to see it.
"Girl," A gruff voice from behind her made her jump violently. "You better step back and let the adults deal with this."
"W-what?" She gasped. "What are you guys doing to Inuyasha?"
Like a seal broken, the voices started back up again, deafening, and one shout overlapped another.
"That half-breed attacked—"
"I saw him cut Maya down!"
"Fucking bastard—"
"Even a cur wouldn't bite the hand that feeds it!"
Now she understood what had made Inuyasha flop to and fro like that earlier. The way hostility encroached from all around felt suffocating and disconcerting. On pure instinct, her legs closed the distance and brought her naturally to Inuyasha's side. Kagome turned around, feeling her low back bump against his hip. With her arms held at a low angle to either side of her, she tried to face the villagers again.
Everyone was so angry.
She didn't understand. They're saying Inuyasha was the one who did this? Started the fires and… wounded people?
Kagome felt a quiver start from her stomach and travel down her limbs, making them feel weak.
"Please calm down. We need to all calm down and put the evidence together first." She pleaded. "Inuyasha didn't do this."
At her last words, she felt a tremour from his body where they touched. The hanyou was worryingly silent throughout all of this.
"What fucking evidence do you need?" Another man gestured crudely at the burnt husks of the nearby buildings, still smouldering lightly. "Is this not enough?"
She pressed back again, still unreasonably trying to somehow tuck his much bigger form behind her own. As if she could only just succeed in doing that, this terrible nightmare would end.
"Y-you're missing the point... we should stop whoever actually—"
The growing fear stifled the rest of her sentence.
Sensing her shrinking back, the crowd only advanced forward, closing in on them. Her heartbeat pounded in her throat, and Kagome swallowed, making it hard to breathe.
"Stand back."
That commanding tone that yielded results without an appreciable increase in volume could only mean one person. The voices dwindled and the villagers shuffled aside, muttering greetings with slight bows. From the back, Kikyou walked through.
Bloodstains marred the crisp white of her kosode, but it didn't look like it came from her own injury. An absent part of Kagome's brain supplied that it would make sense that the priestess would tend the wounded. Loosely held at her side was the long bow that always accompanied her.
Kagome searched her porcelain face for any hint of her thoughts, but Kikyou's expression was as unreadable as ever. Was she here to help them? She must, right?
"I no longer sense any jyaki or ill-intention in the immediate vicinity." The miko spoke levelly, addressing the crowd. "Therefore, we are not in imminent danger and can afford the time to regain our senses."
"With all due respect, Kikyou-sama," A man from earlier spoke up, his tone clearly in contrary to his words. "This isn't like that time that the half-breed killed a goat, people are hurt and look at all the damage right before winter!"
"He didn't—" Kagome railed to counter, but the words fizzled on the top of her tone when Kikyou shot her a look.
"The key is to maintain objectivity. Your statement is still conjecture at this point."
"I saw him with my own eyes!" A woman's voice shouted in the crowd, sparking an answering chorus of affirmatives.
"B-but did you see his face?" Kagome rebutted, unable to restrain herself no matter how hard Kikyou glared at her.
"Miko-sama, you must also see this is getting out of hand!" Another voice rose heatedly. "We decide to do a good deed and look where that got us? That good for nothing half-breed has gone and bewitched our new miko-in-training. We need to do stop him before he completely defiles the girl."
Inuyasha flinched violently against her.
"You asshole better shut. the. fuck. up." He, at long last, spoke, grinding out each word low from his throat. She felt the growl vibrate all the way through to her.
Inuyasha stepped out from behind her, and with deliberate slowness rearranged his stance. It was unequivocally a turn to the offensive, the tips of his claws glinting in the sunlight.
Kikyou snapped around, pinning Inuyasha down with her gaze, disapproval obvious in her hard eyes.
Kagome too was startled into turning, one hand automatically landing to grasp his elbow. Looking up at him, she couldn't help but gasp in dismay.
Inuyasha's expression grew hard and closed off, as if his usual expressive features had turned to stone. She couldn't tell what he was thinking… feeling. Even his irises changed, dimming into a duller, solid colour, the red that had subsided earlier began to bleed back into his sclera. A corner of his lips pulled up into a snarl, fully exposing his fangs.
It was pure menace.
Kagome never knew it would look like that on his face.
She realized with growing despair that no words she was planning to utter could diffuse this. Understandably, Inuyasha should be indignant and offended. At the same token, there was no amount of explaining on her part that could convince the fearful villagers. And Kikyou had to play the mediator; at best she could only buy them time to clear Inuyasha's name. If she believed them...
The edges of her spiritual senses trembled as the spike of Inuyasha's clearly enraged youki continued unchecked.
Kikyou's mouth narrowed into a thin line. From within her robes, she drew out a set of beads. Even without knowing what the strange black and white necklace was, Kagome felt her insides turn to ice.
Instinct drove her to retreat and retreat fast. Whatever that thing was, it could only be bad. A spiritual relic or weapon even...
Once more, she backed up, arms arching awkwardly around the hanyou, pushing him backwards with her. Somehow, even in this agitated state of his, he still moved to her will without resistance.
Frantically, the knowledge of the last month she'd been trying so hard to learn flitted through her brain. It was all useless of course, because she needed to defend against spiritual power. And her own power was of the same nature. Besides, she's up against a fully-fledged miko who basically had trained all her life. It was like pitting a newborn against superman.
The priestess walked slowly towards them, bow slung over her shoulder and the beads now looped around the upraised index fingers of her hands which were clasped together. Her lips began to move soundlessly, and the beads pulsed with a purple light.
She felt a hard arm clamp around her middle, drawing her close. Inuyasha snarled low sending all the hair on her nape on end. His entire body coiled but arrested between the urge to lunge at what is clearly an attack of some sort or to run away with her.
Kagome, too, couldn't decide at this point whether she should stop him.
Then, fueled by the rising panic, a stray memory popped up.
"Wait. Please." She stuttered out, wide eyes still glued to the glowing talisman.
Kikyou stilled. And as her incantation stopped, the beads also returned to their dulled normal appearance.
"Kikyou-sama, remember back when I first came, when—when I pulled Kaede out of the river?" Kagome managed to croak out, steeling herself for what she was about to negotiate. "You promised me you would assist me in the future, if it was something within your ability, you said you would help me."
She had never intended to call on that favour. Having to do so sullied the actions she'd done out of pure goodwill. It saved a girl who had become like a sister to her. The guilt of using it as leverage made her sick to her stomach.
Recollection flickered on Kikyou's face, and she inhaled deeply, closing her eyes. When she opened them again, she'd regained control of her brief lapse of emotion.
"I do recall."
"Then please, please, just let us go." She could feel the traitorous moisture building up in her eyes and balled up her hand in defiance. The other was gripping Inuyasha's arm around her tightly. The almost scalding heat radiating from his body kept her strangely grounded. She heard Inuyasha's quiet protest in the low call of her name, but she ignored it and plowed on. "I know that no matter what we say, you'll choose not to believe us. All I ask is you let us leave and don't pursue us any further."
A muscle twitched violently in Kikyou's jaw. The silence stretched painfully long.
She inhaled heavily once more. "Very well."
"But Kikyou-sama! How coul-"
Kikyou raised one hand in the air to stop the incoming protest.
"You will leave this very day. After that, do not come within five ri of the village. With this, my debt to you has been repaid fully, Kagome."
She bit her lip in response to hearing Kikyou say her name. It sounded so final.
"NO!" The high-pitched scream of a familiar voice drew her attention sharply to the side.
Standing in front of the adults was Kaede. Had she been there all along? How much of the terrible exchange had she witnessed thus far?
She looked so small, her hands fisted in the fabric of her sleeves. Tears streamed down both her cheeks, but her eyes were flashing and livid.
"How could you?" She spat out, unclear to whom it was directed at.
Then dashing her sleeve angrily across her face, she whirled around. Pushing roughly past the people her way, Kaede ran.
Kagome's repeated calls of her name went unheeded.
And Kikyou stood, staring at the retreating form of her younger sister. Something like regret flickered across her features.
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Ri (里) - 1 Ri is approximately equal to 3.927 km
A/N: Annnddd this happened. I think this is the longest IWFA chapter to date, more than double the usual length! I've always wanted to reimagine/narrate what it would be like for Inuyasha in the canon beginning when he gets framed. Well, I twisted it a little bit and here we are ;)
P.S. For reference, please see Chapter 8.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. However, this plot, the exact sequence of words and any original characters described therein, I reserve all rights to.