Categories > Anime/Manga > Inuyasha > Future Uncertainties
I want opinions. Yes, I really am that desperate for attention. Any of you watch Scrubs? Well, if you do, I crave reviews the way J.D. craves hugs. Give me reviews, or I may come to your house, knock on your door, and continue to do so even when you answer it and tell me to go away. So, in conclusion, review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t own Inuyasha. If I did, I wouldn’t need to get reviews to be happy. Instead, I would just look at the sheer number of fanfictions people have written about. If that didn’t please me, I would go to the bank and look at how many mangas I have sold to make that much money. If that too failed, I would check out the way the anime still airs on regular channels despite ceasing production, what, 8 years ago? You getting this, Rumiko? You taking notes? These are clear, cheer up methods here, and they are pretty awesome if I do say so myself! But I digress. I don’t have things, I think that was the original point.
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Future Uncertainties
Chapter 4
The Voice in My Head Says It’s True!
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When Kagome finally opened her eyes, the sun was slanting onto her at a strange angle. Doing a quick mental examination, she realized it must be late afternoon already. What a waste to a day!
Kagome jerked up in her bed roll so fast that Inuyasha jumped. He must have come down from the tree some time earlier when he had been certain she was far gone enough not to hassle him. He was sitting a few feet from her, gazing blankly into the pit where the fire had been. Sometime in the morning it had gone out. Kagome assumed Inuyasha had let because it was warm enough that they didn’t need it lit during the day.
“Idiot!” she said, annoyed. “Why did you let me sleep all day? What a waste! Ugh.” She put her head in her hands, but Inuyasha just snorted.
“You have big plans today I don’t know about?” he asked, humor in his eyes as he turned them on her. It made it harder to be mad about silly things like oversleeping when he looked like that, so she turned away.
“No, of course not. It’s just that…well…” She sighed heavily, letting her anger go in a woosh like air escaping from a balloon. “I don’t know. It makes me feel like nothing got accomplished.”
“Well, here’s the thing, Kagome,” said Inuyasha, sobering completely. “You sort of drowned yesterday, so I figure letting you sleep was a good idea. Not to mention that your magic will be kicking in any time now, so it’s not like we can go anywhere fast. We were just gonna sit here all day anyway, so you might as well get some rest out of it.”
Kagome grew quiet at the mention of the ordeal from the day before. It felt so long ago, and yet so new at the same time. Worry set in.
“I really wish you would leave, Inuyasha,” Kagome told him in a low, subdued voice.
“You don’t want me here?” he asked, his voice impassive but his eyes pained. Clearly he was missing the point.
“Oh, don’t be stupid. I always want you with me, but not if it’s going to risk your life!”
Inuyasha blushed slightly at her words, but then snorted to dispel her concern. “Oh, that again. Will you get off of that already? You aren’t gonna hurt me. You couldn’t if you tried.”
Inuyasha lay down on his back, hands behind his head, as though everything was settled by his ridiculous, overwhelming confidence. She wondered vaguely how someone who had absolutely no confidence that she wasn’t going to leave him at any minute, could still be so completely self-assured when it came to the matter of his strength. She sighed, supposed those things don’t work alike.
She considered ‘sitting’ him for a moment for annoying her, but he was already lying on his back, so the best she could do was strangle him. And, she remembered, flashing back to the fight they had had the day before about her abuse of the rosary, the fight he had completely forgotten when she needed him. She really had been going at him a bit much lately. She would rather eat her own leg then tell him, but he was right. She had been using it as an outlet for her anger, taking for granted that his strength would protect him and not even worrying about him as he go his face slammed into the ground repeatedly. She felt a surge of guilt. All the times he had defended her, gotten cut and stabbed and impaled to protect, and still the most constant pain he felt was caused by her directly, by her being too annoyed to deal with him. She remembered a seminar they had given at school about abusive relationships once, and she suddenly didn’t like where she stood on the chart. She vowed, then and there, to never, no matter how annoying he got, use the rosary unless he was actually in danger. Unless he had transformed, or he was unaware that he desperately needed to duck, no more rosary. She promised herself.
With a sigh, she wondered how long that promise would last.
Inuyasha glanced curiously at Kagome. She was sitting, lost in thought, sighing to herself. He wondered vaguely if she knew she did that aloud when she was worried and thinking. He didn’t think so. She wouldn’t like being transparent. Just then, she looked up and met his eyes, and then looked away, a guilty expression on her face. Suppressing a sigh of his own, Inuyasha realized she must be worrying about him being there with her. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
“So, we have most of an afternoon and a whole evening to sit around waiting for you to sprout wings or whatever. What should we do ‘till then?” He asked, lightly, trying to ease the heavy mood that was settling over the camp.
Kagome pulled out of her reverie, and looked thoughtful for a moment. “I think I would like to find a spring,” she told him at last. Inuyasha shot her a nervous look and she added quickly, “I mean a hot spring, so I can wash off. I don’t know what else was in that silver water, but after that Naraku thing, I could use a good scrub. Perhaps with some steel wool.”
Inuyasha nodded, despite the fact that she was pretty sure he had no idea what steel wool was. He rose to his feet, and then suddenly looked uncertain again.
“Are…are you gonna be ok if I leave you for a minute? Or maybe you should come along and we should look together. If something happens while I’m gone…well, alone is just not a good idea for you right now. Especially not until we know what’s going on.”
He stood, body half turned away from her, watching her, seeming torn between honoring her request and leaving her by herself for any length of time. She sighed heavily, getting slowly to her feet.
“As long as you are sure we can leave our stuff here, then I will just come with you. Might as well. Then you won’t have to make a second trip.”
“That’s not why I…” he started to argue but she waved it off.
“I know, I know, but I’m rationalizing being around you when I could maybe kill you accidentally, so give me a second to grab my towel, ok?”
“Keh,” said Inuyasha, unfamiliar with Freudian coping methods.
Once Kagome had gathered her towel, Shampoo, and a change of clothes, Inuyasha knelt so that she could climb on his back, like she usually did. But she hesitated. She didn’t like the idea of touching him. She felt contaminated by something horrible, some incurable contagious disease, and touching him felt wrong, like she was risking passing it on, bringing him down with her. Her mind couldn’t get around the concept that she could really hurt him, that she could be a danger to him. After naraku’s possession and drinking that stupid water, she didn’t feel worthy to touch him. She felt tainted. The words in her head seemed familiar in an odd way, then she realized why. Those were all words she had heard people use describing Inuyasha. Tainted, unclean, contaminated. With a sudden sense of guilt, she knew Inuyasha would take her hesitation to touch him a different way. And so, before he could ask what was taking so long, she climbed on his back.
As he stood, she immediately felt comforted by the closeness of him, as she always did. She was surprised that little magic power he didn’t know he had still worked under those types of circumstances. Mollified, she pressed her right cheek against the left side of his back, listening to the steady, even rhythm of his heart as he ran. She pulled herself closer to him, feeling his warmth like a blanket, and listened as his heart sped slightly in reaction. Smiling to herself, she kept her ear pressed to him the whole journey, all the while letting the sound put her at ease. It made her feel safe and protected. Nothing could hurt her while Inuyasha was there with her. And what’s more, it reassured her. He was there, and alive, and healthy, and strong. And she wasn’t going to be changing that. Feeling the way his muscles tightened and moved beneath her, hard as stone and yet still limber, reassured her that he was, in fact, very strong. And he would be safe there with her. Maybe the power she got would even let her protect him sometimes. Maybe it didn’t have to be a terrible thing. Maybe she could not worry about hurting him, not be terrified of his proximity when she as tainted as she was.
Then the ride ended, and Inuyasha put her down gently, and the reassured feeling faded at the loss of his touch. Something about not having his heart beat in her ear, looking at his soft, warm eyes instead as they gazed at her with concern, made him seem suddenly fragile again. She sighed heavily.
“We’re here,” he told her unnecessarily after a moment, when she still made no move toward the water several feet in front of them.
“Thanks for the ride,” she said sullenly. “Do you mind…giving me a little privacy?”
Inuyasha bit down on his lower lip, unhappy with the idea of leaving Kagome unprotected even for privacy reasons…not just from anything that might attack her, but from herself. He was more worried about this power she was getting then he let on, but his worry was for himself. It was for her. What could the power do to her? Could it hurt her? If it accidentally hurt someone else, what would that do to her? It was all very worrisome.
Kagome saw the hesitation in his eyes, and sighed. Now he was being silly. Evil powers or no, there was no way she was undressing in front of him.
“Look, you don’t have to be out of earshot, ok? Just where you can’t see me.”
Inuyasha was still uneasy with that arrangement, and so suggested an alternative. “How about one of those compromise things you love so much. I will turn my back and swear that you can sit me from now until your time if I peek, but I get to stay here. Deal?”
Kagome sighed unhappily, but recognized the best deal she was going to get without a fight, and she didn’t feel like fighting with Inuyasha. Somehow that desire was dampened by the crippling fear of killing him. “Fine, deal. Now turn around so I can undress.”
Inuyasha complied readily, turning his back on her and sitting down right at the edge of the spring, seeming totally relaxed except for the way his right hand lingered on the plain wrapped hilt of the untransformed Tessaiga.
With her eyes fixed on Inuyasha’s back, Kagome stripped quickly, not so upset to avoid finding the situation embarrassing, and jumped into the water, glad that the thick layer of steam and mist obscuring the top made it impossible to see through, if Inuyasha should be so inclined to try.
“I’m in,” Kagome told him, beginning to scrub herself off, and dipping her long hair into the water until it was saturated.
“I heard,” Inuyasha answered.
Kagome bathed in silence, wishing she could seriously talk to Inuyasha and tell him how she was feeling, but not believing that she would find comfort in him scoffing at her fears. And so, there was no speech for a quarter of an hour while Kagome washed herself and her hair thoroughly.
The heat from the hot spring was rising up around the edges of the bank, making Inuyasha uncomfortable. After a few minutes of it, he shrugged out of his haori and tossed it off to the side, not needing to turn around to know that Kagome had frozen at his movements.
“What are you doing?” she asked suspiciously.
“It’s a freakin sauna over here. I was gonna pass out,” he told her. She didn’t answer, but he heard her resume washing.
After a few more minutes, Kagome spoke again, her voice so subdued that Inuyasha almost turned to her to watch her face as she spoke but caught himself.
“Inuyasha?” she asked, tentatively, as though unsure if he was paying attention.
“Yeah?” he replied trying to sound soft and receptive.
“What if…what if this power is destructive?”
“Don’t let what the monk said scare you, Kagome. He had no more reason to believe that than you do. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He’s going by myth.”
“I know,” Kagome said quickly. “But it’s not impossible that he’s right. It may turn out that I turn into something destructive soon.”
“And what if you do?”
Kagome sighed. “Would you leave, then? If I were suddenly killing people? If I were suddenly a monster?”
Inuyasha snorted, but when he answered, his voice was subdued, quiet, very unlike his normal gruffness. “No matter what anyone or any magic does to you, Kagome, you could never be a monster. And no, I don’t care if everything your eyes touch goes up in flames. I’m not going anywhere.” To emphasize his point, he carefully, without turning, reached over and grabbed his haori, waving it over his head for her to see, his tone turning joking. “I’m fire-proof, remember?” He lowered his arm and dropped the garment to the ground again.
“Well, what if I told you to leave? What if I didn’t want you around anymore,” demanded Kagome, her tone cold and biting, deliberately harsh. Inuyasha’s ears pressed to his head at the sound of it, in pain no doubt. She was sure similar pain would be on his face if she could see his expression, but she had no choice. She had to know, if she was dangerous, if there was a way to get him to leave, to keep him safe from her if necessary. She already knew there would be no way to do that without hurting him. But better hurt than dead. In a few weeks, months, years, when the power faded, she could apologize and explain. He might never trust her again, but he would live.
But Inuyasha shook his head slowly.
“Nothing doing, Kagome. Now, you’re stuck with me whether you like it or not. I’m not going anywhere until this whole things sorted out. Then, after it goes away, you can tell me to leave you alone and I will. If…” Inuyasha felt his throat close around the words, but he forced it open and didn’t allow it to affect the sound. “If that’s what you want,” he finished.
Kagome felt bad again.
“That’s not what I want, Inuyasha,” she admitted grudgingly. “I just…there is no way I could live with myself if I killed you, you know that?” She was getting angry now, frustrated that his thick skull wasn’t being penetrated by her intentions. “It would kill me. I couldn’t survive it. It’s bad enough when I think you might get hurt, or worse, protecting me. But if I was the thing that hurt you, if I was the thing that killed you… I couldn’t live with that Inuyasha.”
To her great annoyance, Inuyasha just snorted again. “If that’s what you’re really worried about,wench, then you’re worrying for nuthin’.”
Kagome sighed heavily. She was getting nowhere, and all this arguing with Inuyasha was starting to give her a headache. A very bad head ache. She leaned her head into her hands and groaned as the pain grew abruptly, until it felt like the inside of her head was being hollowed out and cleaved open.
“Kagome, are you okay?” Inuyasha asked nervously, half turning toward to sound, concern in his voice.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Kagome gasped back. “Just a bad head ache. It’s…,” she stopped and groaned again.
“Kagome?” Inuyasha demand again, sounding very upset.
The pain in Kagome’s head grew, and changed, moving to the back of her eyes and focusing there like it was trying to drill into them from behind. Stars erupted in the darkness beneath her tightly clamped lids. Rather than fade, the spots of light grew, throwing colors in her mind, which expanded into shapes. Blurry images scurried behind her eyes, not in focus enough to tell what they were. She realized she couldn’t hear her own groans anymore, couldn’t feel her body, aware only of the sights and sounds of the image in her head.
By now, Inuyasha was on his feet, standing with his back to Kagome, trying to honor her wishes against his better judgment.
“Kagome!” Inuyasha yelled, frightened now.
Behind him, Kagome moaned softly. “Inuyasha,” she said, her voice fading as she spoke, “help.” He heard a splash and jerked around with inhuman speed in time to see black hair disappear under that water. Without a second thought, Inuyasha threw himself into the water after her. The familiarity of the situation was unsettling, but this water, though uncomfortably warm, was clear enough for Inuyasha to make out Kagome’s form. He grabbed her tightly, not even noticing that she was still unclothed, and pulled her to the surface with him in seconds. He waded quickly into the shallower area where he could stand and, without even leaving that water, turned Kagome towards him and cupped her face in his hands.
“Kagome! Kagome, can you hear me? Kagome, wake up!” she shouted to her, ignoring the way the sudden onset of hot water was making his head spin as he stumbled slightly, all the while holding Kagome. When she didn’t respond, he staggered to the bank and grabbed the towel she had brought, wrapping it hastily around her. He shook her gently, talking to her, but she didn’t seem to hear him. She was clearly breathing, but wasn’t responding to anything around her.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped open.
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“Inuyasha,” Kagome tried to call, “help.” She couldn’t tell if it had worked, couldn’t hear her own voice, couldn’t feel her mouth move. All she was aware of were the slowly solidifying sounds that encircled her, playing for her behind her eyes. Everything was becoming clearly.
Kagome heard a muffled scream, a words she couldn’t make out. She could see the vague outlines of huts. There was a roaring somewhere out of her range of vision, and a flash of purple ran by. Suddenly, everything cleared completely. The purple was Miroku, standing before her like he was a foot away, close enough to touch. He was next to her, brandishing his staff at something she couldn’t see.
“Be gone, demon!” he shouted, reaching over to pull the rosary from his right hand that bore the wind tunnel. But whatever he was fighting saw what he was, and recognized it. A giant claw ripped out of nowhere and bashed Miroku aside, sending him crashing to the ground ten feet away.
“Miroku!” Sango screamed, before turning her attention to the beast, anger plain on her face. She lifted her weapon and shouted “Hiraikotsu” as she threw it at the demon. Behind her, where Kagome could not see, she heard the thing screech as the weapon connected, but then it hurled the boomerang back with even greater force, throwing it into Sango, who went flying like Miroku, landing on her back, unconscious. Miroku, to the left, was struggling to get up, but the monster whipped at him again, forcing him back to the ground. Kirara ran in front of Sango’s prone form, transforming as she went. She stood protectively blocking the demon slayer from view. Behind Kirara, Kagome recognize the site of the battle with a jolt of terror. It was Kaede’s village, where Miroku, Sango, Kirara, and Shippo had gone to wait for Kagome and Inuyasha to come for them. Many of the huts were had fallen, some on fire. Kagome saw Kaede trying to evacuate the village. The air was full of screams of horror and pain.
A shadow abruptly hid the sky from view, positioning itself directly over Sango and the demon cat, who Kagome saw had Shippo riding helplessly on her back. Instinctively, Kagome recognized the shadow as a foot. The foot of a very large demon. Directly over Sango, it started down with amazing speed, planning to crush the life out of her, Shippo, and Kirara.
There was no chance it wouldn’t succeed.
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All of a sudden, Kagome was aware again. She could feel Inuyasha holding her, hear him calling to her in panic, shaking her gently but urgently. She felt the towel draped over her front and his hands against the bare skin of her back, but she couldn’t care.
Her eyes focused and she saw Inuyasha’s face hovering over her. Her eyes locked on his, as relief flooded them.
“Kagome, what happened? Are you all right? What can I do? How do you feel?” He asked several things very fast, but Kagome barely noticed.
She knew what power the Silver Spring had given her. She had become a true seer. She had visions. A very small part of her was relieved that she had received something that couldn’t hurt the boy holding her as she lay limply in his arms, terror still on his face, mingled with confusion.
But the rest of her as focused on what she had seen. With terrible certainty, she knew that it was a vision of the future, something that would come to pass very soon. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that it would be happening, and she had to get there to stop it. She and Inuyasha had to make sure it didn’t occur as she had foreseen it. They had to move fast.
“Kagome,” asked Inuyasha, not sounding nearly as relieved as he had moments before. “What happened to you? What’s going on?”
Without answering, Kagome wrenched herself out of his loose grip and rushed over to where she had left her clothes, towel gripped behind her in an attempt at modesty. Inuyasha didn’t fight her, and let his arms drop to his sides, rising to his feet.
“Kagome…”
“No time, I will explain on the way,” said Kagome quickly, grabbing her clothes and glancing back at Inuyasha, who reluctantly turned to let her change, keeping an ear carefully perked in her direction. Without double checking that his eyes were averted, Kagome let the towel drop and rushed into her clothes so quickly she nearly tore the skirt and ignored the socks of all together, clamping them into her fist as she stuffed her feet into her shoes.
“What do you mean? On the way where?” Inuyasha insisted, too worried to sound angry.
“To Kaede’s village. We have to get to Miroku and Sango before it’s too late.”
“Too late? Too late for what? What are you talking about?”
“I said I will tell you on the way. But we have to go right now!” Without waiting for Inuyasha to turn, she jumped on to his back, clasping her legs tightly around his waist and her arms at his throat.
“Kagome…”
“Inuyasha, we don’t have time! We have to hurry. Please, just trust me and run!”
Inuyasha didn’t understand what had Kagome so panicked. He didn’t like the idea of running of without a clue why or what he was running into. He really didn’t like the look on her face, the terror and determination there.
But he did trust her with everything he had.
He bent to grab his haori, and slung it over Kagome’s shoulders behind him. Tucking his hands under her knees, he muttered “hold on” and launched himself forward so quickly that it felt like his eyeballs were still at the spring.
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I don’t own Inuyasha. If I did, I wouldn’t need to get reviews to be happy. Instead, I would just look at the sheer number of fanfictions people have written about. If that didn’t please me, I would go to the bank and look at how many mangas I have sold to make that much money. If that too failed, I would check out the way the anime still airs on regular channels despite ceasing production, what, 8 years ago? You getting this, Rumiko? You taking notes? These are clear, cheer up methods here, and they are pretty awesome if I do say so myself! But I digress. I don’t have things, I think that was the original point.
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Future Uncertainties
Chapter 4
The Voice in My Head Says It’s True!
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When Kagome finally opened her eyes, the sun was slanting onto her at a strange angle. Doing a quick mental examination, she realized it must be late afternoon already. What a waste to a day!
Kagome jerked up in her bed roll so fast that Inuyasha jumped. He must have come down from the tree some time earlier when he had been certain she was far gone enough not to hassle him. He was sitting a few feet from her, gazing blankly into the pit where the fire had been. Sometime in the morning it had gone out. Kagome assumed Inuyasha had let because it was warm enough that they didn’t need it lit during the day.
“Idiot!” she said, annoyed. “Why did you let me sleep all day? What a waste! Ugh.” She put her head in her hands, but Inuyasha just snorted.
“You have big plans today I don’t know about?” he asked, humor in his eyes as he turned them on her. It made it harder to be mad about silly things like oversleeping when he looked like that, so she turned away.
“No, of course not. It’s just that…well…” She sighed heavily, letting her anger go in a woosh like air escaping from a balloon. “I don’t know. It makes me feel like nothing got accomplished.”
“Well, here’s the thing, Kagome,” said Inuyasha, sobering completely. “You sort of drowned yesterday, so I figure letting you sleep was a good idea. Not to mention that your magic will be kicking in any time now, so it’s not like we can go anywhere fast. We were just gonna sit here all day anyway, so you might as well get some rest out of it.”
Kagome grew quiet at the mention of the ordeal from the day before. It felt so long ago, and yet so new at the same time. Worry set in.
“I really wish you would leave, Inuyasha,” Kagome told him in a low, subdued voice.
“You don’t want me here?” he asked, his voice impassive but his eyes pained. Clearly he was missing the point.
“Oh, don’t be stupid. I always want you with me, but not if it’s going to risk your life!”
Inuyasha blushed slightly at her words, but then snorted to dispel her concern. “Oh, that again. Will you get off of that already? You aren’t gonna hurt me. You couldn’t if you tried.”
Inuyasha lay down on his back, hands behind his head, as though everything was settled by his ridiculous, overwhelming confidence. She wondered vaguely how someone who had absolutely no confidence that she wasn’t going to leave him at any minute, could still be so completely self-assured when it came to the matter of his strength. She sighed, supposed those things don’t work alike.
She considered ‘sitting’ him for a moment for annoying her, but he was already lying on his back, so the best she could do was strangle him. And, she remembered, flashing back to the fight they had had the day before about her abuse of the rosary, the fight he had completely forgotten when she needed him. She really had been going at him a bit much lately. She would rather eat her own leg then tell him, but he was right. She had been using it as an outlet for her anger, taking for granted that his strength would protect him and not even worrying about him as he go his face slammed into the ground repeatedly. She felt a surge of guilt. All the times he had defended her, gotten cut and stabbed and impaled to protect, and still the most constant pain he felt was caused by her directly, by her being too annoyed to deal with him. She remembered a seminar they had given at school about abusive relationships once, and she suddenly didn’t like where she stood on the chart. She vowed, then and there, to never, no matter how annoying he got, use the rosary unless he was actually in danger. Unless he had transformed, or he was unaware that he desperately needed to duck, no more rosary. She promised herself.
With a sigh, she wondered how long that promise would last.
Inuyasha glanced curiously at Kagome. She was sitting, lost in thought, sighing to herself. He wondered vaguely if she knew she did that aloud when she was worried and thinking. He didn’t think so. She wouldn’t like being transparent. Just then, she looked up and met his eyes, and then looked away, a guilty expression on her face. Suppressing a sigh of his own, Inuyasha realized she must be worrying about him being there with her. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
“So, we have most of an afternoon and a whole evening to sit around waiting for you to sprout wings or whatever. What should we do ‘till then?” He asked, lightly, trying to ease the heavy mood that was settling over the camp.
Kagome pulled out of her reverie, and looked thoughtful for a moment. “I think I would like to find a spring,” she told him at last. Inuyasha shot her a nervous look and she added quickly, “I mean a hot spring, so I can wash off. I don’t know what else was in that silver water, but after that Naraku thing, I could use a good scrub. Perhaps with some steel wool.”
Inuyasha nodded, despite the fact that she was pretty sure he had no idea what steel wool was. He rose to his feet, and then suddenly looked uncertain again.
“Are…are you gonna be ok if I leave you for a minute? Or maybe you should come along and we should look together. If something happens while I’m gone…well, alone is just not a good idea for you right now. Especially not until we know what’s going on.”
He stood, body half turned away from her, watching her, seeming torn between honoring her request and leaving her by herself for any length of time. She sighed heavily, getting slowly to her feet.
“As long as you are sure we can leave our stuff here, then I will just come with you. Might as well. Then you won’t have to make a second trip.”
“That’s not why I…” he started to argue but she waved it off.
“I know, I know, but I’m rationalizing being around you when I could maybe kill you accidentally, so give me a second to grab my towel, ok?”
“Keh,” said Inuyasha, unfamiliar with Freudian coping methods.
Once Kagome had gathered her towel, Shampoo, and a change of clothes, Inuyasha knelt so that she could climb on his back, like she usually did. But she hesitated. She didn’t like the idea of touching him. She felt contaminated by something horrible, some incurable contagious disease, and touching him felt wrong, like she was risking passing it on, bringing him down with her. Her mind couldn’t get around the concept that she could really hurt him, that she could be a danger to him. After naraku’s possession and drinking that stupid water, she didn’t feel worthy to touch him. She felt tainted. The words in her head seemed familiar in an odd way, then she realized why. Those were all words she had heard people use describing Inuyasha. Tainted, unclean, contaminated. With a sudden sense of guilt, she knew Inuyasha would take her hesitation to touch him a different way. And so, before he could ask what was taking so long, she climbed on his back.
As he stood, she immediately felt comforted by the closeness of him, as she always did. She was surprised that little magic power he didn’t know he had still worked under those types of circumstances. Mollified, she pressed her right cheek against the left side of his back, listening to the steady, even rhythm of his heart as he ran. She pulled herself closer to him, feeling his warmth like a blanket, and listened as his heart sped slightly in reaction. Smiling to herself, she kept her ear pressed to him the whole journey, all the while letting the sound put her at ease. It made her feel safe and protected. Nothing could hurt her while Inuyasha was there with her. And what’s more, it reassured her. He was there, and alive, and healthy, and strong. And she wasn’t going to be changing that. Feeling the way his muscles tightened and moved beneath her, hard as stone and yet still limber, reassured her that he was, in fact, very strong. And he would be safe there with her. Maybe the power she got would even let her protect him sometimes. Maybe it didn’t have to be a terrible thing. Maybe she could not worry about hurting him, not be terrified of his proximity when she as tainted as she was.
Then the ride ended, and Inuyasha put her down gently, and the reassured feeling faded at the loss of his touch. Something about not having his heart beat in her ear, looking at his soft, warm eyes instead as they gazed at her with concern, made him seem suddenly fragile again. She sighed heavily.
“We’re here,” he told her unnecessarily after a moment, when she still made no move toward the water several feet in front of them.
“Thanks for the ride,” she said sullenly. “Do you mind…giving me a little privacy?”
Inuyasha bit down on his lower lip, unhappy with the idea of leaving Kagome unprotected even for privacy reasons…not just from anything that might attack her, but from herself. He was more worried about this power she was getting then he let on, but his worry was for himself. It was for her. What could the power do to her? Could it hurt her? If it accidentally hurt someone else, what would that do to her? It was all very worrisome.
Kagome saw the hesitation in his eyes, and sighed. Now he was being silly. Evil powers or no, there was no way she was undressing in front of him.
“Look, you don’t have to be out of earshot, ok? Just where you can’t see me.”
Inuyasha was still uneasy with that arrangement, and so suggested an alternative. “How about one of those compromise things you love so much. I will turn my back and swear that you can sit me from now until your time if I peek, but I get to stay here. Deal?”
Kagome sighed unhappily, but recognized the best deal she was going to get without a fight, and she didn’t feel like fighting with Inuyasha. Somehow that desire was dampened by the crippling fear of killing him. “Fine, deal. Now turn around so I can undress.”
Inuyasha complied readily, turning his back on her and sitting down right at the edge of the spring, seeming totally relaxed except for the way his right hand lingered on the plain wrapped hilt of the untransformed Tessaiga.
With her eyes fixed on Inuyasha’s back, Kagome stripped quickly, not so upset to avoid finding the situation embarrassing, and jumped into the water, glad that the thick layer of steam and mist obscuring the top made it impossible to see through, if Inuyasha should be so inclined to try.
“I’m in,” Kagome told him, beginning to scrub herself off, and dipping her long hair into the water until it was saturated.
“I heard,” Inuyasha answered.
Kagome bathed in silence, wishing she could seriously talk to Inuyasha and tell him how she was feeling, but not believing that she would find comfort in him scoffing at her fears. And so, there was no speech for a quarter of an hour while Kagome washed herself and her hair thoroughly.
The heat from the hot spring was rising up around the edges of the bank, making Inuyasha uncomfortable. After a few minutes of it, he shrugged out of his haori and tossed it off to the side, not needing to turn around to know that Kagome had frozen at his movements.
“What are you doing?” she asked suspiciously.
“It’s a freakin sauna over here. I was gonna pass out,” he told her. She didn’t answer, but he heard her resume washing.
After a few more minutes, Kagome spoke again, her voice so subdued that Inuyasha almost turned to her to watch her face as she spoke but caught himself.
“Inuyasha?” she asked, tentatively, as though unsure if he was paying attention.
“Yeah?” he replied trying to sound soft and receptive.
“What if…what if this power is destructive?”
“Don’t let what the monk said scare you, Kagome. He had no more reason to believe that than you do. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He’s going by myth.”
“I know,” Kagome said quickly. “But it’s not impossible that he’s right. It may turn out that I turn into something destructive soon.”
“And what if you do?”
Kagome sighed. “Would you leave, then? If I were suddenly killing people? If I were suddenly a monster?”
Inuyasha snorted, but when he answered, his voice was subdued, quiet, very unlike his normal gruffness. “No matter what anyone or any magic does to you, Kagome, you could never be a monster. And no, I don’t care if everything your eyes touch goes up in flames. I’m not going anywhere.” To emphasize his point, he carefully, without turning, reached over and grabbed his haori, waving it over his head for her to see, his tone turning joking. “I’m fire-proof, remember?” He lowered his arm and dropped the garment to the ground again.
“Well, what if I told you to leave? What if I didn’t want you around anymore,” demanded Kagome, her tone cold and biting, deliberately harsh. Inuyasha’s ears pressed to his head at the sound of it, in pain no doubt. She was sure similar pain would be on his face if she could see his expression, but she had no choice. She had to know, if she was dangerous, if there was a way to get him to leave, to keep him safe from her if necessary. She already knew there would be no way to do that without hurting him. But better hurt than dead. In a few weeks, months, years, when the power faded, she could apologize and explain. He might never trust her again, but he would live.
But Inuyasha shook his head slowly.
“Nothing doing, Kagome. Now, you’re stuck with me whether you like it or not. I’m not going anywhere until this whole things sorted out. Then, after it goes away, you can tell me to leave you alone and I will. If…” Inuyasha felt his throat close around the words, but he forced it open and didn’t allow it to affect the sound. “If that’s what you want,” he finished.
Kagome felt bad again.
“That’s not what I want, Inuyasha,” she admitted grudgingly. “I just…there is no way I could live with myself if I killed you, you know that?” She was getting angry now, frustrated that his thick skull wasn’t being penetrated by her intentions. “It would kill me. I couldn’t survive it. It’s bad enough when I think you might get hurt, or worse, protecting me. But if I was the thing that hurt you, if I was the thing that killed you… I couldn’t live with that Inuyasha.”
To her great annoyance, Inuyasha just snorted again. “If that’s what you’re really worried about,wench, then you’re worrying for nuthin’.”
Kagome sighed heavily. She was getting nowhere, and all this arguing with Inuyasha was starting to give her a headache. A very bad head ache. She leaned her head into her hands and groaned as the pain grew abruptly, until it felt like the inside of her head was being hollowed out and cleaved open.
“Kagome, are you okay?” Inuyasha asked nervously, half turning toward to sound, concern in his voice.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Kagome gasped back. “Just a bad head ache. It’s…,” she stopped and groaned again.
“Kagome?” Inuyasha demand again, sounding very upset.
The pain in Kagome’s head grew, and changed, moving to the back of her eyes and focusing there like it was trying to drill into them from behind. Stars erupted in the darkness beneath her tightly clamped lids. Rather than fade, the spots of light grew, throwing colors in her mind, which expanded into shapes. Blurry images scurried behind her eyes, not in focus enough to tell what they were. She realized she couldn’t hear her own groans anymore, couldn’t feel her body, aware only of the sights and sounds of the image in her head.
By now, Inuyasha was on his feet, standing with his back to Kagome, trying to honor her wishes against his better judgment.
“Kagome!” Inuyasha yelled, frightened now.
Behind him, Kagome moaned softly. “Inuyasha,” she said, her voice fading as she spoke, “help.” He heard a splash and jerked around with inhuman speed in time to see black hair disappear under that water. Without a second thought, Inuyasha threw himself into the water after her. The familiarity of the situation was unsettling, but this water, though uncomfortably warm, was clear enough for Inuyasha to make out Kagome’s form. He grabbed her tightly, not even noticing that she was still unclothed, and pulled her to the surface with him in seconds. He waded quickly into the shallower area where he could stand and, without even leaving that water, turned Kagome towards him and cupped her face in his hands.
“Kagome! Kagome, can you hear me? Kagome, wake up!” she shouted to her, ignoring the way the sudden onset of hot water was making his head spin as he stumbled slightly, all the while holding Kagome. When she didn’t respond, he staggered to the bank and grabbed the towel she had brought, wrapping it hastily around her. He shook her gently, talking to her, but she didn’t seem to hear him. She was clearly breathing, but wasn’t responding to anything around her.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped open.
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“Inuyasha,” Kagome tried to call, “help.” She couldn’t tell if it had worked, couldn’t hear her own voice, couldn’t feel her mouth move. All she was aware of were the slowly solidifying sounds that encircled her, playing for her behind her eyes. Everything was becoming clearly.
Kagome heard a muffled scream, a words she couldn’t make out. She could see the vague outlines of huts. There was a roaring somewhere out of her range of vision, and a flash of purple ran by. Suddenly, everything cleared completely. The purple was Miroku, standing before her like he was a foot away, close enough to touch. He was next to her, brandishing his staff at something she couldn’t see.
“Be gone, demon!” he shouted, reaching over to pull the rosary from his right hand that bore the wind tunnel. But whatever he was fighting saw what he was, and recognized it. A giant claw ripped out of nowhere and bashed Miroku aside, sending him crashing to the ground ten feet away.
“Miroku!” Sango screamed, before turning her attention to the beast, anger plain on her face. She lifted her weapon and shouted “Hiraikotsu” as she threw it at the demon. Behind her, where Kagome could not see, she heard the thing screech as the weapon connected, but then it hurled the boomerang back with even greater force, throwing it into Sango, who went flying like Miroku, landing on her back, unconscious. Miroku, to the left, was struggling to get up, but the monster whipped at him again, forcing him back to the ground. Kirara ran in front of Sango’s prone form, transforming as she went. She stood protectively blocking the demon slayer from view. Behind Kirara, Kagome recognize the site of the battle with a jolt of terror. It was Kaede’s village, where Miroku, Sango, Kirara, and Shippo had gone to wait for Kagome and Inuyasha to come for them. Many of the huts were had fallen, some on fire. Kagome saw Kaede trying to evacuate the village. The air was full of screams of horror and pain.
A shadow abruptly hid the sky from view, positioning itself directly over Sango and the demon cat, who Kagome saw had Shippo riding helplessly on her back. Instinctively, Kagome recognized the shadow as a foot. The foot of a very large demon. Directly over Sango, it started down with amazing speed, planning to crush the life out of her, Shippo, and Kirara.
There was no chance it wouldn’t succeed.
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All of a sudden, Kagome was aware again. She could feel Inuyasha holding her, hear him calling to her in panic, shaking her gently but urgently. She felt the towel draped over her front and his hands against the bare skin of her back, but she couldn’t care.
Her eyes focused and she saw Inuyasha’s face hovering over her. Her eyes locked on his, as relief flooded them.
“Kagome, what happened? Are you all right? What can I do? How do you feel?” He asked several things very fast, but Kagome barely noticed.
She knew what power the Silver Spring had given her. She had become a true seer. She had visions. A very small part of her was relieved that she had received something that couldn’t hurt the boy holding her as she lay limply in his arms, terror still on his face, mingled with confusion.
But the rest of her as focused on what she had seen. With terrible certainty, she knew that it was a vision of the future, something that would come to pass very soon. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that it would be happening, and she had to get there to stop it. She and Inuyasha had to make sure it didn’t occur as she had foreseen it. They had to move fast.
“Kagome,” asked Inuyasha, not sounding nearly as relieved as he had moments before. “What happened to you? What’s going on?”
Without answering, Kagome wrenched herself out of his loose grip and rushed over to where she had left her clothes, towel gripped behind her in an attempt at modesty. Inuyasha didn’t fight her, and let his arms drop to his sides, rising to his feet.
“Kagome…”
“No time, I will explain on the way,” said Kagome quickly, grabbing her clothes and glancing back at Inuyasha, who reluctantly turned to let her change, keeping an ear carefully perked in her direction. Without double checking that his eyes were averted, Kagome let the towel drop and rushed into her clothes so quickly she nearly tore the skirt and ignored the socks of all together, clamping them into her fist as she stuffed her feet into her shoes.
“What do you mean? On the way where?” Inuyasha insisted, too worried to sound angry.
“To Kaede’s village. We have to get to Miroku and Sango before it’s too late.”
“Too late? Too late for what? What are you talking about?”
“I said I will tell you on the way. But we have to go right now!” Without waiting for Inuyasha to turn, she jumped on to his back, clasping her legs tightly around his waist and her arms at his throat.
“Kagome…”
“Inuyasha, we don’t have time! We have to hurry. Please, just trust me and run!”
Inuyasha didn’t understand what had Kagome so panicked. He didn’t like the idea of running of without a clue why or what he was running into. He really didn’t like the look on her face, the terror and determination there.
But he did trust her with everything he had.
He bent to grab his haori, and slung it over Kagome’s shoulders behind him. Tucking his hands under her knees, he muttered “hold on” and launched himself forward so quickly that it felt like his eyeballs were still at the spring.
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