Chapter Eight
"The Laws of Physics"
Inuyasha stared at her mouth agape.
"The fuck are you saying!" He snapped out.
"Well, you're clearly thinking that I'm something that I'm not, so you're going to follow me around until I prove you wrong, so yeah, we."
"I'm not saving your ass!"
"Well, you just did," she mumbled, pointing to the cliff. "And you did it yesterday." She ticked off a second finger, "and last night too." She ticked off a third finger. "So you're off to a pretty bad start."
He opened his mouth and then snapped it shut.
"I mean the cliff was one thing, and the bear was a second time, so it's technically four times."
She held up and waggled four fingers at him.
He stared at her with a look that could only be described as disdain.
She merely smiled as she pushed herself up to her feet, dusting off her pants.
"Let's get one thing straight, Princess," he insisted, shoving a finger in her face to emphasize his point. Kagome glanced down at the clawed tip that was pointing right at the tip of her nose. "We are not friends or acquaintances or whatever you think we are."
"Mortal enemies, got it," she said and could practically see him bristle at the statement. "Now are we going to get down this thing or what?"
"Are you serious?" Inuyasha snarled at her, leaning into her space. Kagome kept her ground, even when he bared his teeth at her. "Bitch, I have claws!"
"So do kittens!"
He opened his mouth to retort, and he just snapped it closed with an audible click.
"Don't you realize that I could kill you and it wouldn't even ruin my lunch?"
Kagome snorted, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"You and everything else in this place. So what's new?" She moved closer to him, jabbing a finger into his chest to reinforce her point. "So either help or get out of my way."
Inuyasha just stared down at her with his mouth opening and closing like a fish in the small pool in the garden.
Kagome had gotten in trouble by her mother once because she'd wanted to have a pet fish and had waded into the pool—after taking off her shoes and stockings because she was a lady thank you—and heaved up a giant decorative koi and held him up and declared that she would make this fish a bed and a take him on walks because this was her fish.
Her mother had ruined all her great plans because, as it turns out, fish are not out of water creatures, and thus Kagome had to relinquish the idea of taking her fish on long strolls through the woods like she'd wanted to.
"And how the fuck were you thinking you were going to get down from here on your own?"
"I'd figure it out," she shrugged.
"Woman, I have seen you in action, you don't figure shit out before you do it!"
"And?"
"And what? You're just going to fling yourself off the side of the cliff and hope someone catches you?" He'd stepped to the side slightly to make a throwing motion, and Kagome came up with a very, very stupidly fatal idea at the same time.
But her legs had already taken the order and run with it—literally—and she just flung herself off the cliff side.
Because there was something about her that Inuyasha wanted to find out, and he needed her alive for that.
Gravity and wind tugged and pulled at her without mercy as she entered free fall.
A soft pull at her shirt and a shout was all that he'd managed to do to stop her from throwing herself to presumably to her death.
A few seconds was all she had left—unless he moved.
The tree tops grew closer and closer, and maybe Inuyasha didn't need her as much as she'd thought. Maybe he didn't actually need her alive.
Well, Sango was probably dead anyway and maybe this was a kinder death than starving to death out here in the woods—she'd probably eat the wrong mushroom and die anyway and—
A near bone-crushing jerk sent her soaring into an opposite direction, and she did the only thing she could think of—scream.
Her descent slowed and then stopped, almost in the same instant, as she was unceremoniously dropped onto the ground.
"The fuck were you thinking!" He shoved her onto her back as he roared at her. "You just throw yourself off the cliff?"
"You suggested it," she gasped out.
"What if I didn't catch you in time?" He snarled, hands on either side of her head and glowering down at her as she tried to catch her breath.
"But you did."
"Do you have a fucking death wish?" His voice was so loud.
"No, but that was the fastest way to convince you to take me down here."
Inuyasha opened his mouth and then snapped it shut with an audible clack of his teeth.
Grinning, she wiped her face of sweat. Apparently leaping to her almost-death made her body think that sweating was an appropriate gesture to save itself.
"You pull that shit again, and I'm going to let you just pancake yourself on the ground, got it?"
Kagome gave him a mock-salute from where she was laying prone against the ground.
"Aye aye," she giggled, and he huffed before sitting off to the side and giving her an unobstructed view of the sky.
Well, she was down now.
Now what?
She looked at the river to the side of her. She'd intended to follow it to see if there was any evidence of Sango or Kirara, but that was feeling more and more like a pipe dream.
She didn't think that either of them was alive at this point, and if she didn't get some help, she didn't think that Sango would last long out here. Not with how wounded she was. Kagome remembered seeing all the blood, remembered helping her onto Kirara's back, and then waking up on her own.
There had been no sign of Sango or Kirara, and Kagome still had hopes that her friends were out there, but the reality of the situation was that there was nothing out here that seemed to have their best interests at heart. Actually, most everything seemed intent on eating them actually.
She looked over at Inuyasha as she climbed to her feet, the sudden drop in altitude still making her legs feel a little weak.
He seemed to be intent on keeping her alive, but he also seemed to have his own reasons for doing so. She just couldn't figure out what those reasons were exactly.
And then there was the thing in her pocket.
The round marble that came out of her side when the centipede creature bit her.
That added a whole new level of weird to some already weird stuff.
First things first, she needed to find somewhere safe.
Another glance at Inuyasha, well safer than this.
"So, Princess," Inuyasha drawled out the word, making it clear that it was an insult, "what's the plan?"
"Walk I guess," she shrugged. "I need to figure out what happened to my friend, Sango."
"How did you two even make it out this far?" He asked as they started walking down the pathway.
"Kirara was carrying us, and she got shot, and I landed somewhere back there," Kagome said, motioning to the area behind them, "but I haven't found Sango or Kirara."
"I hate to break it to you, but if this Sango-chick is anything like you, then she's probably dead."
"Maybe, but Sango's tough. She wouldn't die easily."
"She's still human."
Kagome snorted at that.
"She'd punch you in the face for saying it."
"Like she could hurt me," he bragged, walking just a little bit ahead of her.
"Sango has scared bigger and tougher men than you."
Inuyasha scoffed again, and Kagome couldn't help a small smile.
Sango would definitely have punched Inuyasha by now. Probably twice. Maybe even three times.
She glanced up at the man walking next to her in the woods.
Definitely four times.
He'd probably just open his mouth at this point and Sango would just punch him right in his perfect jawline.
Kagome stared out at the trees and the shadows inside, and she wondered if she was a fool to hope that her friends were still alive. Probably.
It had been days, and both of them were so injured that if they had survived, Kagome hadn't found them in time.
That was it. Kagome had been too late. That was the absolute simplest way to say it: Kagome had done too little and done it all too late.
"If—If we find Sango, can you help me bury her?" She asked him. It was a strange question and one that he had no obligation to agree to, but she'd dig the grave with a stick and her own willpower if that's what it took.
He was quiet, but his eyes slid over to hers and then away again. Kagome sighed, looking back at the path ahead of them.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "Only because it would take you for-fucking-ever to dig a hole big enough."
While he wasn't wrong, she was still a little offended at the notion.
"In case you ever wondered why you didn't have any friends, I'd take a hard look at your attitude, mister," she said pointedly.
To which, Inuyasha only laughed.
"Really? You think my attitude is the only reason?" He let out a derisive snort at that.
"Well, what else could it possibly be then?"
"Princess, you must've lived a sheltered life if you think my attitude is the problem." His ears flicked at the statement.
"Well, it's definitely a problem for me."
"Congrats," he said with a shrug as they continued to walk.
"Infuriating," she mumbled under her breath.
"What was that?" Inuyasha asked with a growl.
"It means to make someone angry or be very annoying. I thought it was an apt description."
"I know what it means, you—you tart!"
Kagome gasped before punching him in the shoulder.
"I am not a pastry!"
"That's not what I meant!"
Kagome paused, pages rattling off in her head as she tried to figure out what another definition would be and how it could possibly be an insult, but nothing was coming up.
"Well, what did you mean then?"
"I ain't telling you! You just hit me for calling you a pastry!"
"You just said that's not what 'tart' means! So what does it mean?"
"Yeah, well, I'm definitely not telling you now!"
"Tell me!"
"Why don't you fucking make me?!"
Kagome grabbed his lapels, getting a firm grasp of the fabric and tugging him down to face level.
"I order you to tell me!"
Inuyasha opened his mouth but no sound came out as Kagome stared him down. She poked him in the chest, feeling how the skin indented but nothing else did.
Oh.
Well.
Uh, this was new.
Definitely a new feeling.
Kagome had seen bigger. She'd been around the court and seen how some of the royals practiced and worked their skills—mostly flamboyant sword fighting, something to impress and not actually useful in a fight—but they still looked, well, flimsy.
Inuyasha, however—Kagome made a noise that she hoped was only inside her head and didn't escape her throat in any fashion.
Because at that point, she'd just have to toss herself in the river and hope she drowned.
"Well," she cleared her throat, "what does it mean?"
"What?"
"You called me a tart!"
"Oh, that."
"Yeah, that!"
Kagome didn't miss the way his cheeks flushed, and then he tackled her to the ground, knocking the wind out of her lungs.
"What do you think you're doing?" She coughed out.
"Shut up!" He hissed, already standing to his feet. "Get behind me!" His voice lowered to a whisper, and his posture changed.
"You can't tell me what to do!" She whispered back moving to stand beside him. She was a queen! She didn't just do whatever someone else said!
"Don't be a fucking—"
"Well, well, look who we have here," a man spoke. He had a long braid and thick black hair.
Inuyasha practically growled and bristled at the sight of him, or maybe at her—Kagome wasn't entirely clear on either fact.
"Well, look at you, Inuyasha," the man said, clucking his tongue at him. He leaned his staff against his shoulder as he crossed his arms in front of himself. "Finding such a delicate little morsel out here. Surely, you were planning on sharing what you found with the rest of the group?"
Kagome glanced over at Inuyasha.
Maybe she'd read him wrong? He hadn't seemed like he was part of a group, but then again, she hadn't thought that she'd be ambushed and experience multiple assassination attempts.
Taking a small step back, she didn't like the way the other man looked at her.
"And why would I share with you? Ain't like you share," Inuyasha growled, fingers flexing and cracking.
Had his claws always been that sharp?
"Because it's the polite thing to do," the man shrugged, uncrossing his arms and grabbing his staff.
"And where's your better half, huh?" Inuyasha sniffed the air delicately before swinging an arm in front of her, pushing her back as he sent bright yellow lights from his fingers at the trees. "Because I know that you wouldn't dream of trying to sneak up on me!"
There was a harsh yelp and the trees tumbling over as something moved just beyond their line of sight. Kagome took another step back, away from the lot of them.
Maybe she'd been wrong to trust so willingly, and she didn't want to think that she was that incapable of judging a person.
Not when her entire kingdom depended on her ability to judge and discern.
She'd already proven herself incapable to determine who was going to betray her inside of her own home.
A large figure emerged from the trees in front of them, rubbing his bald head.
"That mongrel has no regard for others," he said. "How bad is it?"
"It's barely a scratch. You're not even bleeding."
"But my hair, brother! How is my hair?"
The smaller of the two men made a slight face before looking at the balding man's scalp.
"It has the same number as last time, Manten."
"That is such a relief," the bigger of the two said with a sigh. "I was worried."
His fingers gingerly touched his head that was very clearly bald.
"He knows the numbers of hairs on his head?" Kagome asked.
"It's easy to count when you only need one hand," Inuyasha said with a grin, which Kagome wasn't quite sure was a wise move considering that she really didn't want to agitate the men in front of her.
Though the one, she wasn't quite so sure that he was fully human.
"I'll tell you what, Inuyasha," the braided man said. "How about you give us the girl and we'll pretend like you never trespassed on our territory."
Kagome continued to distance herself, because she wasn't entirely sure how good of an offer that was. While she trusted that she'd probably be okay with Inuyasha—he hadn't done anything bad at this point—she was definitely sure that she would not be okay with the other two.
Especially considering the bald on looked ready to eat her.
"I think she'd make a good ingredient in my hair tonic."
Yep, she definitely wasn't going to be safe with either of them.
Looking at the woods around her, she tried to figure out what her best option would be.
She could swim, but she could run a lot faster.
Maybe they couldn't swim, but they could definitely pace along beside her and there was no telling what would be at the end of this river. With her luck, it would be a massive waterfall that would kill her on impact.
Or she could be eaten. So a lose-lose situation it was.
Maybe she could use the little pink ball?
Even though she didn't know exactly what the little pink ball was, but it seemed to make the centipede woman happy when she ate it, so it had to be worth something.
Right?
At this point, it was one bad option after bad option.
She just wanted one that would let her live and not die at the ripe old age of eighteen.
Small things.
"Finders keepers," was all Inuyasha said. "I found the human, I keep her."
The braided man sighed heavily and dramatically.
"Very well," the braided man waved his hand at his brother, who formed a cloud underneath himself and took to the air.
Well.
This did not bode well in her favor.
Maybe the trees then? She could hide there?
Inuyasha would totally be able to find her—she was sure of that—but she wasn't so sure about braid guy.
So which way?
What did she do?
Kagome watched the man rise up in the little cloud, raising up to above her head and the trees, and maybe she should run?
Her legs made the decision for her, darting away from the others and then crashing into the tree line where there was a big enough break for her to slip through. Throwing her hands up, she hoped against hope that she was going to be able to make it through to find some sort of hiding place.
There was a shout and sky darkened too quickly to be natural, making her pause. There was a loud crash and a bolt of lightning struck the area behind her, near the water.
This was probably not good.
Another bolt and another bolt, and Kagome took off running, trying to avoid any areas that might give her away.
A cleaning came into view where another bolt of lightning struck, exploding the ground beneath it, and Kagome turned to the right, diving back into the trees.
"I can smell you!" Manten sang over head, and she really hoped that he was just trying to spook her into showing herself.
She reached behind her, fingers frantically feeling around for an arrow or some sort of projectile she could launch in that—that jerk's general direction. She fumbled getting the arrow onto the string and balancing it, and then she just put everything into and behind it and then, she let it go.
It tore through the branches and the leaves like a bright beacon amidst the dark and darkening skies.
Lightning and thunder roared across the skies around her, deafening everything with its cacophonous rage.
She waited, trying to listen to see if she'd hit anything—she doubted she had. It was a literal shot in the dark at this point.
But then there was a bellowing roar, one that echoed as the lightning paused, and the hair on the back of Kagome's neck went up.
Sprinting, she darted between the trees as bolt after bolt of lightning exploded around her, splintering trees and cratering the ground around her. A body flew in front of her, and she watched Inuyasha's form slam into the tree feet from her.
"Inuyas—urk!" Fingers clamped around her throat, jerking her up into the air and in front of the bald headed man.
"Do you know what you did?" He seethed, white light collecting in his mouth.
Kagome tried to pry at the fingers, but it was no use. He wasn't letting go.
"I will throttle you and make your lover watch."
What?
Kagome almost stopped struggling for a moment because the absurdity that she would do—whatever things lovers did—with Inuyasha of all people! She was almost offended that people didn't think she had better taste than that!
Didn't they realize how—how—how infuriating he was?
Kagome struggled to take a breath, feeling her face grow hot as she kicked her feet trying to get some sort of purchase so that she could do something to free herself.
"You shot this arrow," he held it up as he practically snarled at her, "and burned off all my beautiful hair! Look at me!"
He dragged Kagome closer to his scalp and in a fit of speed and strength, she snatched the arrow from him and jammed it into his head.
Well, his nose mostly.
But his hand let go of her, and she fell to the ground, collapsing, as he howled in pain.
She should probably feel a little bad, but she didn't—not really.
Kagome staggered away, hacking and coughing as she put some distance between herself and the now very bald Manten.
Inuyasha was shaking off whatever hit he'd taken and on his feet, and with an angry scowl on his face.
"I told you to stay behind me!" He snapped out at her, grabbing her arm as Manten launched himself back into the air.
"Don't tell me what to do!" She wrestled against him, trying to pull her arm free.
"You going to be difficult, or do you want to live?" He growled out, and the answer was simple.
She was going to be both.
He didn't get to play hero and act like she was just some—some thing that people wanted as a prize. She'd had enough of that, thanks.
"I seem to be doing okay," she said, yelping as he dove to the side and out of the way of a bolt of lightning as he took her with him. She landed roughly into the dirt, grunting with the impact.
"You still think so?" Inuyasha asked, already pulling her to her feet before she'd even gotten her bearings. He leapt again as another blast came right where they'd been a moment before.
Her leg knocked against something, and she caught sight of the hilt of a sword.
"Why aren't you using your sword?!"
"It doesn't fucking work!"
"It's a sword! You swing it around until you cut something!"
Inuyasha jerked her out of the way until they were back where they'd started by the river.
"Yeah, well, this sword is a rusted piece of junk. It ain't cutting shit!" His ears swiveled around, searching for where the damage was. He dodged, jerking Kagome by the arm as an arrow sank into the ground right where her feet had been.
Manten's head bled furiously, and he looked like he was crying.
"I am bald!" He cried. "My beautiful hair!"
"You had hair?" Kagome asked, and Manten roared. Lightning spewed from his mouth as Kagome snatched the arrow out of the ground right as Inuyasha pulled her away.
"Would you stop agitating him?" He said, leaping out of the way of another blast.
"I wasn't aware stating the truth was an aggravation!"
"Having trouble keeping up, half-breed?" The other brother asked, and Inuyasha stiffened.
"Half-breed?" Kagome sputtered out. "How dare you!"
"He is a filthy mongrel who isn't worth of having such luscious locks!" Manten shot back.
"You're the mongrel!" Kagome shouted, grabbing onto the arm that kept her clamped against Inuyasha's side. "And you're a rat with that tail coming out of the back of your head! You deserve to be balder than—than—than a cat's butthole!"
There was a distinct lack of silence, and for a moment, Kagome thought that maybe she'd gone too far.
And then Inuyasha laughed, a loud, barking body-shaking laugh, which only infuriated the brothers more.
Kagome could see them seething as she looked up where lightning gathered in their hands and mouths.
"Uh, Inuyasha?" She whispered as he still chuckled.
"We are the Thunder Brothers! You will treat us with respect!"
Kagome swallowed.
"I'm not the one that got cursed to be a cat's asshole!"
Fingering the arrow into her bow, she pulled back quickly, aiming for the braided brother's head. She'd have one chance, and that was all.
A bright light filled the area as she watched it miss her intended target completely and sink into the throat of Manten, practically dissolving it away entirely so that the head lolled off and onto the cloud.
Again, deafening silence filled the air.
"Holy shit," Inuyasha breathed out behind her. "Good shot," he mumbled.
"I was aiming for the other one's head," she whispered back.
"Well, that's some shit shooting then, because Hiten is about to be pissed."
"Sorry?"
"Sorry, she says," he scoffed, as lightning struck everywhere all at once, forcing Kagome to cover her eyes from the sheer brightness of it.
The braided figure, Hiten apparently, held his brother's lifeless—and headless—body in his arms like one of the dressing dummies that stood in Kagome's bedroom at home.
"I will avenge you," he said softly.
"Should we go?" Kagome asked him, gently taking a step back into Inuyasha, bumping against his chest.
"I think we're a little too late for that," Inuyasha gritted out, tugging her behind him. "You got another arrow?" He asked, watching as Hiten rose up into the sky.
Kagome fumbled around her back, trying to remember if she had another arrow, but she clambered around behind herself frantically only to find nothing there.
"Uh, I don't think so?"
"Well, damn. You better get real fast then," he told her.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kagome asked as Hiten raised his staff into the sky.
"It means run before he fries your ass." Inuyasha leapt up, sending some bright yellow lights at Hiten, who blocked it with his staff as he brought it down towards Inuyasha's head.
Inuyasha, however, blocked it with the scabbard from his belt.
"I thought that sword didn't work?" Kagome shouted up at him, and he turned to give her a sneer.
"Fuck off!" Inuyasha shouted back, blocking another hit. "You should be running, idiot!"
"I'm not an idiot!"
"You are if you're not running!"
"Pay attention!" Hiten shouted, sending a blast of lightning between the two of them, throwing Kagome backwards and sending her rolling across the ground.
She found a log and darted behind it to hopefully hide. But then, there it was.
An arrow.
One arrow. All by itself.
But it was an arrow.
And she could shoot it and help—possibly. There was like a forty percent chance that she wouldn't hit Inuyasha by mistake.
Maybe thirty percent?
She took a deep breath, drawing up her bow and aiming for Hiten's torso. Taking a slight step back, she felt her foot slip and fall away into nothing. Kagome felt the arrow fly as she wobbled and fell backwards into the pit with a thump.
The explosion that roared over her, blinded her as the log overhead exploded where she'd been, raining dirt and wood down upon her.
Kagome blinked as she came back into awareness.
"Sorry," came Inuyasha's voice. "Guess I'll have to bury you too. I thought I'd be done with burying people when I left the castle."
"You lived in a castle too?" Kagome asked as she sat up.
"The fuck!" Inuyasha squawked leaping back from where he'd been standing. "You're dead!"
"Uh," Kagome mumbled patting herself down. "I don't think so."
"How'd you get all the way over there?"
Kagome looked around at her little crater and shrugged.
"I think I got thrown?" She looked around at the lack of fighting. "Did we win?"
Inuyasha let out a snort.
"I won, you mean."
"Hey," she let out a grunt as she tried to stand, wobbling on her feet. "Pretty sure I shot one of them."
"Well, you almost shot me on that last one," Inuyasha said, hand appearing in front of her face as he leaned over the edge of the crater.
"Almost and did are two different things."
"You're a little fucking shit, you know that?"
"I think we can call this a 50/50 split. You got one, and I got one."
Inuyasha balked at that mostly with sounds that resembled a chicken as she took his hand and hauled her out.
She noted that his shirt was burned, and he had blood smears across his cheeks.
"Fine, we can 50/50 split dinner."
"But I don't have any more arrows," she said, showing him the empty quiver on her back and a pout on her face. "It's not fair."
Letting out a heavy sigh of annoyance, his shoulders dropped a bit.
"Whatever, just clean your face before we go anywhere. You look like a dirt clod that tried to fuck a tree."
Kagome eyed the way that he moved towards the river. It didn't look overly painful, but there was definitely something wrong.
"Are you hurt?" She asked.
"I'm fine. I'll heal long before you."
"Let me see," Kagome said, and he gave her a look over his shoulder.
"It's fine. It'll be healed up by tomorrow."
Kagome didn't know what made her press on, but for some reason, she needed to see.
"Let me see," she repeated.
"It's fine," he said, and she tugged as his sleeve to pull his shirt to the side to see how bad those burns were. Her irritation grew, and finally she just shoved him hard to the side and jerked the shirt down as she sat on his stomach to keep him from moving.
Inuyasha made the noise of deranged parrot, as she stared at the gleaming red skin underneath the fabric of his shirt.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Making sure that you're okay!" Her eyes watered. "These must really hurt," she said trying to not touch the bright red skin within view.
"A little," he mumbled. "Hiten got in some cheap shots while I was distracted."
"Distracted by what?"
His face colored as he stared at the creek beside them.
"Does it matter?"
"Well, kinda! You can't go off and get distracted during a fight! What if he'd really hurt you?"
"What were you gonna do about it?" He sneered leaning forward to get into her face about the whole thing.
"I don't know, but I'd figure it out!"
Inuyasha let his head loll back, and Kagome watched the sinews and muscles of his neck and shoulders shift under his skin, and why was that suddenly so attractive? Taking stock of her current position, she felt her own face grow warm and tried to gently and calmly climb off his lap, where she was practically straddling him like a saddle—which somehow felt wholly immodest.
"Uh, well, as long as you're not too badly hurt," she swallowed the rest of her sentence as she rose to her knees and looked around for a place to push herself up. She leaned back in hopes that she'd manage to just tip herself into standing, and she definitely started in that direction and then just flopped.
"Wow, never seen anyone pretend to be such a convincing fish before," Inuyasha pointed out as she pushed herself up, kicking his leg lightly.
"Shut up."
"Seriously, what was that?" He asked, and she shot him a glare over her shoulder. "Don't give me that look! You're the one that was trying to molest me!"
"I wasn't molesting you!"
"Well, it sure felt like you were trying to cop a feel!"
Kagome felt her face grow eight kinds of hot and warm, and at this point, it had to be glowing brighter than the sun.
She quickly dunked her hands into the water and splashed her face, trying to get all the dirt off, and just avoid looking at Inuyasha in particular.
She'd just sat in his lap of all places like it was nothing! And she'd tried to pry his shirt off of him!
That was just—it was a lot of skin for her to process.
A lot of very male skin and—why was he so warm?
Were all men like this?
Kagome splashed more water on her face and scrubbed viciously. Because then at least she'd have an excuse for why her face was red and hot. Because friction.
She'd just never spent this much time with a man before.
Even if that man was a really hot jerk, there were still man features—like bits and bobbles—and even if she didn't want his bits and bobbles, they were still there, and she just wasn't used to it.
That's all.
Feeling somewhat less mortified than before, she shook her hands off a bit before rising to her feet.
"You good?" He asked, wiping his own face with his hand to get rid of the excess moisture.
"Yeah. Are you sure that you're okay to travel?" She asked, eying his chest where she knew he was wounded and not for any other reason than specifically that. Just the whole injury thing.
Nothing else.
Nothing at all.
"I ain't human. I can walk."
He pushed himself up, and she walked beside him as they continued down the river.
Kagome had a lot of questions happening right now, and she wasn't sure where to start.
Maybe a thank you?
He hadn't sold her off or given her away, even though he'd gotten injured in the process.
"Thank you," she said quietly. His ear flicked towards her before his face turned just enough that he could look at her.
"For what?"
"For not handing me over to them?"
"Keh," he scoffed, looking back at the road. "You wouldn't last two minutes with the Thunder Brothers."
"I think I lasted more than two minutes," she quipped with a smile as Inuyasha let out a snort through his nose, though he didn't look like that really upset him.
"Barely."
"But I did!"
"You don't have any arrows left. What're you gonna do to the next youkai that comes along?"
He was right. She hadn't thought about it, but she didn't have any arrows, which meant that she really was defenseless. Not that she was really armed before, but now, she had a bow that she could probably whack something really hard once, but after that?
She knew that she couldn't just give that marble away to anything because the way that the centipede had reacted wasn't good.
She wasn't even sure that she wanted to give it to Inuyasha either. It was definitely too big to swallow, and she wasn't even sure that would do anything good.
"You're gonna get eaten or worse."
"What's worse than getting eaten?"
"Getting eaten slowly." He gave her a look, and Kagome swallowed. Maybe he was right.
It was clear that this place was definitely not friendly to anything less than powerful.
And she definitely wasn't powerful. She was barely formidable when she had arrows. Now, she was just a walking, talking snack.
"Why aren't you trying to eat me?" Kagome asked, looking over at Inuyasha, who immediately choked on his own breath.
"What?" He asked her loudly.
"Everything else seems to want to eat me or do whatever the Thunder Brothers were going to do," she muttered the last part, even though she had a pretty good idea of what would probably have happened before she was turned into some sort of youkai home remedy for hair growth.
"I don't eat women! Or humans!" Inuyasha shouted, looking particularly mortified.
"Well, how am I supposed to know?"
"Do I look like I eat people?" Kagome looked him over.
"You got some sharp teeth in there."
"Ain't like you're flat toothed either!" He snarled, pointing a finger at her face. "How do I know you're not going to climb on me in my sleep and try to take a nibble?!"
"You are the last thing I'd eat!"
"You don't have to be rude about it!"
"You're the one trying to make me say that I'd take a bite out of you, you—you weirdo!"
Inuyasha put a hand to his chest like she'd punched him.
"Weirdo!" He gasped. "I'm not the weirdo here!"
"You're the one trying to convince me to eat you! You're probably stringy and tasteless!"
"I will have you know that I'm probably fucking delicious!"
"Probably," she scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "More like probably not."
"Bold words for someone who's out of arrows."
Kagome huffed angrily as they walked. She already knew that she was out of arrows, and she'd hoped that she'd be able to find some as they walked. At least one, but that was a far hope. Maybe she could just whack something with the stupid bow like a club. She was tempted to just whack him once and see if he could knock some sense into him or maybe stop acting like a jerk.
Kagome took a deep breath, trying to calm her irritation.
"I'm well aware that I'm out of arrows, thanks," Kagome snapped out at him.
"Keh," he scoffed, twirling a couple of arrows between two fingers and then holding them out to her.
"You found them?" She asked, gingerly taking them from between his fingers as she ran her fingers along the shafts.
"Seemed like you needed all the help that you could get."
They were a little worse for wear, and the tip didn't seem as sharp as it had in the past, but at least it was something pointy!
She had something to shoot now, and she wasn't completely and entirely defenseless.
Sure, she wasn't an amazing shot, but she was definitely a halfway decent one.
Well, she wasn't the worst shot ever.
But there was a lot left to be desired in terms of range and actual aiming.
Kagome carefully put them in her quiver as she walked beside Inuyasha.
"Thank you," she said, smiling at him, and he seemed to purposefully avoid looking directly at her.
"Just try not to shoot me," he grumbled.
"Okay!" She chirped, feeling minutely better about her circumstances.
Inuyasha hadn't really said anything after the episode with the Thunder Brothers, and Kagome felt the silence weighing down the mood between them. It felt heavy and oppressive, and Kagome felt like she was going to vibrate out of her skin if someone didn't say something.
Her mouth opened to comment on how far they'd gone—just a little innocent comment about their circumstances just to lighten the mood—when Inuyasha stopped suddenly, snapping his arm out in front of her.
"What is it?"
"Blood."
"You're bleeding?!" She cried, already reaching for his shirt.
"No, you idiot, I can smell it—a lot of it."
"Where?" She asked. "Is someone hurt? Maybe we can help!"
"Yeah, I don't think they're gonna need much help."
Kagome stared up at his face as his arm retracted from blocking her path, and she stared up at him, taking his lead.
"What do we do?"
"Be careful," he answered, starting to move forward again.
Kagome kept her eyes peeled and her hands gripping her bow tightly, expecting to have to defend herself at any given moment.
She also may have tried to subtly sniff the air to figure out what he was smelling. How far off could he even smell things?
Or was he just making fun of her and pretending?
She glanced up at his face, but she didn't think that he was joking around from the way his features were firm. He looked serious.
If he was walking right towards it, then it couldn't be that serious, right? He wouldn't walk right into danger if it was something that he couldn't handle, right?
Kagome returned her gaze to the path in front of them.
"I don't smell a youkai," he mumbled quietly as they moved towards the smells he was smelling. He paused, pushing aside the branches as he stepped into the tree line. Kagome followed his steps, making sure to keep just behind him as he moved.
She may or may not have learned a small lesson in dealing with the thunder brothers.
Though she'd never admit that to Inuyasha and give him the satisfaction of being right in any fashion.
Keeping close, Kagome waited for whatever was going to happen. Each step made her think that someone was pop out from behind every tree that they passed.
And then Inuyasha just stopped walking, causing Kagome to crash into his back.
"Stay here," he ordered like she was a child.
"I am not staying here!" She hissed, grabbing onto his sleeve. "I am coming with you!"
"You need to stay here!" He snapped back, jerking his arm away.
"I am not staying here like a child!"
"Yes, you are, because you're acting like one!"
"No," she countered, still holding onto his sleeve, "I'm acting like someone who wants to live, idiot!"
"You're the idiot who wandered into the forest in the first place!"
"I didn't just wander in! I fell!"
"Oh because that makes so much sense more sense!"
"Well, it's the truth!"
Inuyasha growled, teeth bared, before jerking his arm away from her grasp.
"Fine, but you better not fucking cry about it," he said as he walked away from her, leaving her to follow in his jerk-ish wake.
Kagome clenched her fists in irritation as she followed him, but that quickly faded as she saw what could only be described as carnage.
There were—there were a lot of bodies.
And a lot more blood on the ground.
Inuyasha squatted next to one, using the tip of his claw to see what was under the helmet.
"Looks like a couple of bandit groups decided to fight."
"Over what?" Kagome asked, taking a step farther into the small area. She took a cautious step over someone's arm.
"Turf? Property? Doesn't really matter. One side had something and the other wanted it. End of story." He rose up to his feet. "But it doesn't look like they've come back to loot what they left behind."
"They'd steal from the dead?"
"The dead ain't exactly using it, and we can, so look for something useful."
"You want me to touch dead people?"
"I want you to find things that we can use before whoever left comes back."
Kagome looked down at the dead man at her feet. He was laying on his back with an arrow protruding straight up. He must've been running away from the fight and gotten shot right in the back.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, looking around his waist for anything that might be useful. There was a small pouch pinned beneath his waist, and she tugged the corner of it, but it was too firmly underneath him to be removed.
Kagome tried to wriggle just her fingers under the man's belt, but that didn't work either.
She sighed out heavily.
She was a queen. What sort of leader was she going to be if she couldn't be out there with her troops at battle? What would they think of her safe in her clean castle?
No one respected a leader who didn't get their hands dirty.
However, a dead body was something else entirely. She'd never been so close to one.
And his eyes were still open.
He could probably just reach out and grab her ankle or something—which was probably the worst thing she could think right now as she's trying to pilfer probably stolen goods off a dead man.
This was not how she saw her life going a week ago.
"You're going to have to actually touch him," Inuyasha said from where he was flipping someone onto their back, and then rifling through pockets and pouches.
"It feels wrong."
"If it makes you feel any better, he'd have killed you in a heartbeat and then taken all your stuff."
"But I don't have any stuff."
"Still would've killed you."
He had a point, and her people needed a queen that was unafraid and tough and hard.
But they still needed her to care.
Her people deserved a queen that could love and be soft and kind.
So how did she manage the two of them?
Where was the balance?
She could barely survive out here, so how was she supposed to figure out how to balance?
How was she supposed to lead if she was already dead?
She could do this.
"Sorry," she told the man, rolling him onto his side with a heavy amount of effort. Much more than Inuyasha's little one handed lift and flip.
How strong was he?
The pouch held nothing more than a handful of coin, but it was more than what she had at the moment.
"Thank you," she said, holding the change in her hands as she stood, the man's face staring at the trees behind her.
"You gonna thank every one of these bastards? Because they'd step on your corpse as they walked by."
"We can't all be cold and heartless like you," she muttered under her breath as she stood up to look at the next corpse. "Do you think that we should bury them?"
"They wouldn't do the same for us."
"Shouldn't we be better than them?"
Inuyasha looked up, eyes narrowed at her.
"No," was all he said before he continued searching another dead guy.
Sighing, she knelt down in front of the next one, who was already lying on his back. He stared up at the sky, and she untied the purse from his belt, feeling the few coins clink inside. She dug out the small handful and slipped them into her own purse before finding a knife in his boot.
She put the dagger in her own belt and stood.
There was a soft thud of another body.
"I think we should bury them," she said.
"I'm not burying them," Inuyasha said, rifling through the pockets of another man. "And I'm not dying of old age while you dig a hole with your hands either."
"It feels wrong to just leave them like this."
"You'll get over it," Inuyasha said moving onto the next body.
Kagome didn't want to get over it, but she had a feeling that there was little to be done about that.
By the time that they'd finished rummaging through all the bodies and taking whatever they could.
Most of their weapons were trash or rusted, but Kagome collected all the arrows that she could. She might be a terrible shot, but some were better than none.
"I really don't think we should just leave them like this," Kagome said, glancing back at them. They were just laying out in the sun. It felt wrong. People should be buried, regardless of whether they deserved it.
"We don't have the time to give one big grave, much less however many small ones. It's the price of living in the forest. You eat food, and you are food. Now, if you don't want to be food, then start moving."
"I refuse to be relegated to nothing more than an animal!"
"Well, woof, woof, Princess. You can walk and pray for their mortal souls and what not."
Kagome huffed, and then followed him, because while she was all about protest, she also knew that she needed to live.
She probably needed him to live.
Kagome fell in step behind him, following him back into the trees.