Categories > Anime/Manga > Inuyasha > Boy of the Future, Girl of the Past
It’s been…quite a while since I wrote anything. I know some of you probably gave up on me. I almost gave up on fan fiction all together, but I simply love it too much to let it go like that. And so, I make my return with the long-needed third chapter of Boy of the Future, Girl of the Past. As I write this, I do not know where I am putting the Shikon Jewel, be it on (or in) Inuyahsa, or in Kagome as it should be, or somewhere else entirely. I know I don’t want to rehash the story from the anime, but it is difficult to know what to say, and I suck at planning ahead. I like to let things come to me naturally. And so, at this moment, as I write my little intro, I am wondering as you are, what is about to happen. I will not be putting this up until I like it, so I only hope you like it too.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nor do I profit in any way (besides the sheer emotional pleasure I get) from writing these stories or using her characters. I am no threat to the empire that is Rumiko Takahashi. Plus, I can’t draw to save my own life, so that throws anime out the window as a career choice, doesn’t it?
-
-
-
Boy of the Future, Girl of the Past
Chapter 3:
The Spider-Hand Thing Returns
-
-
-
He had no idea what it was, and he definitely wasn’t curious to find out. Regardless, it started speeding towards him, intending to give him a closer look. It was about 15 feet high with the top half and face of a woman, almost ethereal with beauty, except for the fact that her coloring suggested she was dead, and her sides sprouted many extra arms, two extra sets below her normal one. No, wait, one and a half sets. One side had three arms, and the other just two, and a space where one used to have been. Her bottom half was several times her height in length, and looked like that of a giant bug, with limbs that looked like feelers sticking out all over for what appeared to be eternity.
Inuyasha gasped, finally reconciling the image with something he knew, and would rather have forgotten. “It’s the spider-hand thingy!” he gasped mostly to himself.
“Centipede actually,” corrected Kagome beside him. He stared at her open-mouthed with a look that said, quite clearly, ‘what the hell are you talking about?’
“Centipede demons are one of the many kinds we do have to watch out for. Big, strong, soulless, mostly dumb, but smart enough to cause problems when they decide to scheme,” she explained in answer, her gaze turning back from its momentary resting place on his confused face to the demon approaching fast.
Inuyasha followed her eyes, locking his own the beast before him, which had halted its pursuit of them long enough to thrash about and knock several roofs askew. People ran from destroyed huts in every direction, some alone, others clutching family members or belongings as they fled. One man from the woods, on he had remembered liking the idea of killing him, ran past them flailing his arms comically over his head. Inuyasha vaguely hoped he would find a wall to run into, cartoon-style, before turning his attention to the bigger problem than his entertainment.
Many of the men in the village had grabbed various makeshift weapons and were standing several yards in front of the demon, brandishing their arms weakly in the monsters direction. It continued to slither in Kagome, Kaede, and Inuyasha’s direction without noticing the men’s attempts to stop it at all.
“What the…what does it… what the fuck are we supposed to do about that?” Inuyasha asked, unable to think of a better question.
“We kill it,” Kagome answered, lifting her bow in which she had cocked an arrow without his noticing.
“JEWEL!” the beast called as it moved swiftly towards them, all five remaining arms extended in some hideous invitation of embrace. “I MUST HAVE THE JEWEL, GIVE ME THE JEWEL!”
Inuyasha snorted before he could stop himself. “Figures. I’m in the Middle Ages, surrounded by priestesses who fight monsters, being attacked by a demon, and what does the thing want? Bling!”
Though he knew Kagome couldn’t have understood what he had just said completely, she still shook her head. She knew what Mistress Centipede wanted. What they all wanted.
“Not ‘bling’” she told Inuyasha. “It wants the Shikon no Tama, the Jewel of the Four Souls.” With that, she let go of her arrow reached into the neckline of her white kimono, and pulled out a small pink jewel about the size of a marble, strung on band along with many, angular, shell like beads.
Inuyasha gaped from the girls face, to the demon, to the jewel, then the demon, then back to the girl again. “You mean to tell me,” he reiterated, incredulous, “that that monster bug-woman over there is going to attack us and destroy this village, all because she wants your bead!?”
Kagome only nodded curtly.
“Well, than, GIVE IT TO HER!” Inuyasha shouted, completely unable to see the dilemma in that. However, it must have been big, because Kagome turned to gape at him wearing the same disbelief he had felt when the giant demon had showed up…like she had never seen anything like him before. It was very disconcerting
“No, child,” Kaede explained, her voice full with remarkable patience considering they were about three seconds away from being bug-chow. “This is no mere bauble, but a magical item that, if in the wrong hands, could increase the power of the evil force by enough to make destroying our world a simple task. We must keep it safe from demons, lest they will use it to destroy us. It will not leave us if we surrender it, but kill us all and continue to kill until it is unstoppable. Ye understand?”
Inuyasha nodded numbly. It was like being trapped into one of those annoying RPG video games that he never had the patience for as a child. He found himself wishing he had completed at least one of them, so maybe he would have a better grasp on how this whole ‘Feudal realms with magic jewels and giant monsters’ thing worked. The worst monster he had ever dealt with in his life was called Mr. Musuki, Inuyasha’s eight grade math teacher, who had been thoroughly convinced that Inuyasha had been the one to egg his car that Halloween. (He had, but that was no reason to jump to conclusions.) Giant centipedes were completely out of his depth.
“So…now what?” he asked.
“Now,” Kagome answered, a look of pure determination on her face as she released the jewel dangling at her throat to nock the arrow once more in her bow and lift it to aim, “You stay out of the way.”
With that, she and Kaede both loosed arrows in the direction of the monster. Both glowed pink, the elderly priestesses with a dim shine, and the younger priestess with blinding brightness and a slight whistling sound as it traveled towards the demon.
Unfortunately, the demon caught sight of the shots and swiftly moved out of the way, turning itself once more towards the priestesses who had attacked it. It let out a screech of fury and shot at them faster then it had moved before.
“We must lead it away from the village!” Kaede yelled, her voice on the edge of panic.
“I’ll do it,” Kagome called back, and with that she took of running in the direction that the huts ended, her back to the creature though her bow was out with another arrow nocked and ready.
Her eyes were turned away from the monster, so she couldn’t see as it altered its course and bolted at her even faster then before, faster than any human could run. Faster than Kagome could fight it.
And in that second, Inuyasha realized something. It was going to get her. And while he stood there watching, it was going to kill her and take that jewel from her, and then it was going to kill everyone else. All that death at its hands; it had to be stopped. It couldn’t be allowed. He knew, deep down, he couldn’t allow it. He had to stop it, although he hadn’t the faintest clue how to. He ignored that fact for a moment, and did the dumbest thing he could have done, had he any sense of self preservation: He bolted after Kagome, forgetting to move at a normal speed, and allowing all his strength to carry him forward like a bullet from a gun. Within three seconds of his revelation, he had gotten himself between the girl and the beast giving chase. As she stopped and turned toward the demon, eyes widening at the sudden closeness of it, he turned to and planted himself in its path.
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!?” Kagome demanded, glancing quickly at him as she took aim and loosed another arrow, which missed like the first.
Inuyasha knelt slightly into an instinctual fighting stance before calling back to her “I HAVE NO FREAKIN’ IDEA!”
Exasperated, the priestess nocked a third arrow as the demon drew nearly level with Inuyasha. She readied to fire, and than…
Just as suddenly as the chase had begun, the monster caught site of Inuyasha, who felt a strange rage rip through him as their eyes met and heard a feral growl escape his own lips as a small part of his brain took over and the rest desperately tried to avoid the nervous breakdown he was bringing on himself by behaving in a way he couldn’t comprehend whatsoever. And, miraculously, impossibly, incredibly, the beast stopped, and stared at him wide eyed.
He felt himself growl again, a move so automatic he couldn’t stop it any more than understand it. The demon gasped, gaping at him, and hissed in response, as though he were something terrifying to her. He felt a surge of pleasure at the reaction, but shoved it away into the category with the growling because he didn’t understand it any more then he had that!
“Inuyasha,” he heard Kagome say behind him, uncertainty tainting every sound. “What is going on here? I thought you said you weren’t a demon.” She sounded personally hurt by this, as though he had lied maliciously to deceive her.
“I’m not a demon. I don’t know what the hell is going on here. But it’s working, so shut up and run away while you can!” He hissed back to her, his mind firing on all cylinders for the first time in minutes. He could see every movement the beast made, and was hyper aware that it saw him as a threat. He could feel Kagome behind him, smell her fear, hear her accelerated heart beat as she watched him. He could feel strength course through him, unfamiliar, but also totally natural and comfortable. He could shove the fear for his sanity and his thoughts about his own life away into a small compartment of his mind and lock them away with ease. He could feel every tiny shift his body made, as though it were acting on its own accord. He couldn’t explain how, but he knew that, if he had to fight that monster, he could. He could fight it, and he could win.
And with that, he lunged at it.
Kagome screamed behind him, clearly believing him to be taking some sort of suicide leap. He heard gasps and screams from behind the monster, and one ‘hmm’ that sounded annoyingly familiar and seemed to have come to some sort of vital understanding about something suspected but unproven. He heard all that, but it didn’t distract him. Before he knew what he was doing, he had raised his right hand to strike (the small, still sane part of him sarcastically asked if he planned to slap it in the face) and raked his nails…no, not nails…claws, across its body, watching as a strange light burst from the wounds as though he had just rended apart blackout shades in the middle of noon to allow the sun to stream suddenly through.
The demon-woman screamed and writhed in pain, several of its arms falling off and landing in twitching heaps of limbs and feelers and other muck he preferred not to think about. But then she recovered and shot, not towards Kagome, but towards Inuyasha, deciding he was the bigger threat and had to be dealt with before she could retrieve her prize.
Shock gripped him, and his sudden, insane understanding of battle dissipated like a mirage in the desert. He stood straight, watching the thing shoot towards him without the faintest clue of what to do. ‘Oh shit,’ he thought numbly, ‘I’m totally fuc…’
His musing was interrupted by the whoosh of an arrow a foot past his right ear aimed at the demon’s head. She dodged just in time, and changed her course again, once more heading directly for Kagome. Suddenly, Inuyasha understood what she meant about it being dumb and yet smart enough to be trouble. It clearly was able to tell what the most imminent threat was, and go for it, but when two threats presented themselves, it was confused and disoriented, unable to reconcile them enough to know the right choice, so it just went towards whatever caught its attention.
The centipede flew past Inuyasha again, in a beeline for the young priestess as she tried hastily to ready another arrow from her dwindling supply. It was only a few yards, one giant monster leap, from Kagome, and she wasn’t ready. Then she heard a dull thud, and the monster turned again. Desperate to help, Inuyasha had picked up a large stone, and chucked it towards the monster, to distract it from the priestess.
“That’s right, ugly! Bring you’re giant demon ass over here so I can cut a few more of those creepy-crawlies offa you!” Inuyasha urged it.
It worked, for a moment. The demon turned toward Inuyasha, leaving Kagome time to aim her bow, and her arrow ignited with magic. But before she could shoot, the tell-tale crackle in the air regained the demons attention, and, to Inuyasha’s horror, it whipped its back end towards the priestess as it turned, knocking her to the ground and causing the arrow to go flying from her grasp as she landed on her bow.
The demon laughed riotously and stilled. It didn’t need to rush now. The priestess was down, and the boy who has been helping her was gaping uselessly as she inched towards the girl, enjoying her victory, a bit too much,
“I WANT THE JEWEL,” the centipede shouted in its hiss of a voice. “GIVE ME THE JEWEL! I WILL TAKE IT! I WILL BE POWERFUL! I WILL DESTROY!”
Inuyasha felt a flare of dislike toward the stupid little necklace with its stupid little charm. It was a marble. Just a stupid magic marble. This was why he could never get into those games. You always had to fight for some dumb little, meaningless trinket. A magical mushroom, or shield, or leaf, or something ridiculous that he would never want if it was offered, much less if he had to fight to get it.
But here he was in medieval times, and true to his Xbox’s suggestions, all anyone cared about was a silly bauble of a thing. If it wanted the jewel of the four whatevers so bad, maybe if that was somewhere else, it would just chase after it and leave them the hell alone. But where could it go, how could they get rid of it now?
An idea struck him so abruptly that he could have sworn, had he looked up, a light bulb would have flicked on above his head. Maybe they couldn’t get the jewel away from the village, but at least he could get it the hell away from Kagome.
“Kagome,” he shouted so suddenly that both she and the demon looked. The monster turned back to the priestess immediately, but the girls eyes stayed trained on him, clearly able to tell from his relieved expression that there was something up his sleeve.
“Do they ever play keep-away in this time?” he asked. Kagome nodded slowly, clearly not catching on at all. The monster laughed and ever so slightly began to close the distance between her and her prey.
“Well, then,” Inuyasha said, raising his arms in front of him in a clear catching position, “Let’s play.”
He flashed her a smile, and understanding lit her face. She pulled the jewel on its chain over her head swiftly. For the tiniest instant, she worried if allowing a complete stranger like the boy near the jewel was a terrible idea. But he had put himself in harms way to help her, even though he was told not to, and he had tried to distract the beast from her even when he clearly had no next move whatsoever. She had no choice. She would have to trust him. With that, she lifted the jewel up as though she was about to surrender it to the demon, which hissed in delight, and then tossed it with all her might into Inuyasha’s waiting hands.
Luckily, she had a good arm. He caught the jewel easily and raised it above his head. “Hey, bug, you looking for this?” he called to the demon, waving the necklace over his head tauntingly.
Mistress centipede spun quickly, looking from the girl on the ground, to the boy with his hands in the air. She didn’t understand it, but he had the jewel now, and that was all she needed to know. She rushed at him with all the speed she could manage, spitting angrily and howling obscenities at him. Kagome righted herself as soon as the demon’s back was turned on her and held her arms up, waiting. The monster sped towards Inuyasha, and for a minor second she questioned her judgment in tossing it to him, not that she had had another choice at the moment. Then, just as the beast was upon him, he yelled “Catch!” at the top of his voice, and threw it straight at her. Even under duress, his accuracy was remarkable, and the jewel came to rest in her waiting hands without any effort at all.
He held his hands up to the demon, waving them in front of him with a smirk. “Sorry, creepy, not over here,” he told it with an easy laugh that Kagome was sure he was faking.
The beast had no choice but to about-face and go for the girl again. Screaming mightily as she did. As the thing got close, Kagome tossed the beads to Inuyasha again, and he barked a laugh to get the monster attention.
“Nice try, stupid, but it’s over here now.”
The demon sped at him once more, getting so close that he could touch her before he threw the beads. Kagome caught them in midair just as the demon failed to stop in time and bashed into Inuyasha, who fell heavily backwards, pain on his face as the demon turned on the priestess again.
Kagome shot a worried glance at Inuyasha as Mistress Centipede moved at her one last time, to see him struggle painfully to his knees and the jump to his feet from there.
“I’m fine, throw it,” he called to her, a note of desperation in his voice as the thing neared Kagome with unmatched speed, its fury having grown to the point where she uttered nothing but an unintelligible mix of curses and shrieks.
Kagome did as he said, and tossed the beads to him once more, the infuriated monster bellowing turning away from her without a second thought before he even had the chance to insult it. This time, though, Kagome did not stand ready to catch. This time, she nocked on last arrow, and allowed all the magic she had to flow into it as she took aim.
The demon was getting very close to Inuyasha, but he could see Kagome behind it readying an arrow to strike the final blow, and knew he couldn’t throw it back without sabotaging that. The monster apparently could see he had no intention of passing it off, and screamed with laughing glee as she sped ever faster toward him. Jewel in hand, he began to back away as fast as he could, all the while keeping an eye on Kagome. He saw as she smiled, having found her target, and loosed the last arrow.
The demon was so deadest on Inuyasha and the jewel that it didn’t even notice the rush of magic speeding towards it from behind. A moment before impact, Inuyasha threw himself to the ground, not sure why but somehow knowing that it would be best if he was not directly in its path.
Just as he did so, the demon exploded into a million brightly colored lights, black body-matter spewing in all direction, though flying right over his head with his low position on the ground (for which he was thankful). A final, resounding shriek rent the air, and then, just like that, the beast was gone.
-
-
All was silent for several moments after the creature’s demise. Somewhere in the numbed back of his mind, Inuyasha noted that he hadn’t realized how loud the demon’s slithering had been until it was gone. He then decided that slithering was a disgusting word and he no longer liked it, not that he had ever had particular feelings toward it in the past.
He sat utterly nonplussed, head spinning slightly, on the ground, Kagome standing some 30 yards away, her bow still up in the position it had been as she fired. Villagers stood frozen in place, staring at the suddenly silent scene.
Then, as suddenly as it has ended, the noise erupted again, this time in the forms of cheers and shouts loud enough to make Inuyasha jump from his position on the ground as it pulled him from his reverie. Kagome, too, seemed to defrost at once, and jog over to where Inuyasha climbed slowly to his feet, dazed.
The cheering crowd surrounded them, clearly totally willing to forget that twenty minutes earlier they had mostly been for killing Inuyasha. The shouted prayers and appreciation at the pair, who stood slightly stunned in the middle of it all.
“Th…that’s enough, everyone, thank you but we really ought to go and um…rest now,” Kagome announced in a mild voice. “You know, just in case,” she finished lamely. The ecstatic group paid her no mind whatsoever.
Thankfully, at that moment, Kaede came to their rescue. “Come, everyone. Every one of ye has much to do before night falls. There are homes to be repaired and I request that all of ye offer aid to those who have lost property in this battle. Anyone who was hurt at all will please come to see me here while Lady Kagome and our visitor and guest Inuyasha go and rest from the labor.” After her speech, as the crowd began to disperse, spirits undampered, she turned pointedly to where Kagome and Inuyasha stood still slightly confused. “Ye both did well,” she told them. “And I will want to talk to ye both, especially ye, Inuyasha, before the night is out. Please feel free to go and rest.”
“I can help, Kaede, really, I’m fine. I should help with those who have been…” Kagome broke off as Kaede shook her head.
“Nay, child, allow me. I am not at all weary, as I did not battle today. Besides, it looks as though Inuyasha is in need of assistance as well, and I think ye ought to treat him privately.”
Inuyasha, for a moment, had no idea what she meant by that, and wondered if maybe she was referring to his shoulder. He hadn’t even noticed the pain in a while, and now he couldn’t even find it over the much more severe pain radiating from the right side of his chest. He looked down in search of damage, and could see no blood anywhere except where it had fallen from his shoulder onto his jeans. Then he noticed a large tear in the right side of his shirt, and the small spot of blood there, with the skin beneath it exposed. To his surprise, it was blotchy with hues of purple and black.
“Oh,” he nodded understanding, “my ribs are broken.” And then, without warning, his knees buckled and he collapsed to the ground.
Vaguely, as he fell to darkness, feeling pretty pathetic for the whole passing out thing, he heard Kaede’s understanding tongue click, and Kagome’s scream, along with the gasps of the villagers paying enough attention to notice. He coughed lightly in the coming darkness, feeling something wet and warm on his lips. He momentarily berated himself mentally for drooling in front of a girl, when he heard her say something about blood and realized that’s what it must be on his lip. She was only mildly aware of Kagome calling several men over to carry him. They tried to lift him gently, he thought, but one jerked too hard on his left, and pain wracked him again. After that, everything went dark. A small part of his mind wondered if he would wake up at home. Another part tentatively suggested that he might not wake up at all. A third part lamented that it missed hearing Kagome’s voice down there in the darkness, and didn’t like the silence there.
The rest of him told those bits to shut up, and he knew no more.
-
-
-
Author’s Note:
Wow, that was pretty cool from over here. When I sat down to write, (at about 3:30 in the morning) I figured this was going to be a foot in the door. I feared desperately that I would no longer be able to connect with this story from so long ago. But, apparently, it was not a problem. This chapter, despite being a battle (which I usually have trouble with) poured out with ease. I had devised and begun to weave each event before I consciously new what it was. I think I was just as surprised as Kagome when Inuyasha suggested keep-away. And I even know where it is going after this, so I won’t leave you hanging for the rest of eternity. I am so glad to be writing again. It feels wonderful… even it if it now 7:21 in the morning, dawn, and I still have to post and proofread this. I might save that for tomorrow…and then again I might not. Please tell me what you think! I need the encouragement. *Pathetic sob.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nor do I profit in any way (besides the sheer emotional pleasure I get) from writing these stories or using her characters. I am no threat to the empire that is Rumiko Takahashi. Plus, I can’t draw to save my own life, so that throws anime out the window as a career choice, doesn’t it?
-
-
-
Boy of the Future, Girl of the Past
Chapter 3:
The Spider-Hand Thing Returns
-
-
-
He had no idea what it was, and he definitely wasn’t curious to find out. Regardless, it started speeding towards him, intending to give him a closer look. It was about 15 feet high with the top half and face of a woman, almost ethereal with beauty, except for the fact that her coloring suggested she was dead, and her sides sprouted many extra arms, two extra sets below her normal one. No, wait, one and a half sets. One side had three arms, and the other just two, and a space where one used to have been. Her bottom half was several times her height in length, and looked like that of a giant bug, with limbs that looked like feelers sticking out all over for what appeared to be eternity.
Inuyasha gasped, finally reconciling the image with something he knew, and would rather have forgotten. “It’s the spider-hand thingy!” he gasped mostly to himself.
“Centipede actually,” corrected Kagome beside him. He stared at her open-mouthed with a look that said, quite clearly, ‘what the hell are you talking about?’
“Centipede demons are one of the many kinds we do have to watch out for. Big, strong, soulless, mostly dumb, but smart enough to cause problems when they decide to scheme,” she explained in answer, her gaze turning back from its momentary resting place on his confused face to the demon approaching fast.
Inuyasha followed her eyes, locking his own the beast before him, which had halted its pursuit of them long enough to thrash about and knock several roofs askew. People ran from destroyed huts in every direction, some alone, others clutching family members or belongings as they fled. One man from the woods, on he had remembered liking the idea of killing him, ran past them flailing his arms comically over his head. Inuyasha vaguely hoped he would find a wall to run into, cartoon-style, before turning his attention to the bigger problem than his entertainment.
Many of the men in the village had grabbed various makeshift weapons and were standing several yards in front of the demon, brandishing their arms weakly in the monsters direction. It continued to slither in Kagome, Kaede, and Inuyasha’s direction without noticing the men’s attempts to stop it at all.
“What the…what does it… what the fuck are we supposed to do about that?” Inuyasha asked, unable to think of a better question.
“We kill it,” Kagome answered, lifting her bow in which she had cocked an arrow without his noticing.
“JEWEL!” the beast called as it moved swiftly towards them, all five remaining arms extended in some hideous invitation of embrace. “I MUST HAVE THE JEWEL, GIVE ME THE JEWEL!”
Inuyasha snorted before he could stop himself. “Figures. I’m in the Middle Ages, surrounded by priestesses who fight monsters, being attacked by a demon, and what does the thing want? Bling!”
Though he knew Kagome couldn’t have understood what he had just said completely, she still shook her head. She knew what Mistress Centipede wanted. What they all wanted.
“Not ‘bling’” she told Inuyasha. “It wants the Shikon no Tama, the Jewel of the Four Souls.” With that, she let go of her arrow reached into the neckline of her white kimono, and pulled out a small pink jewel about the size of a marble, strung on band along with many, angular, shell like beads.
Inuyasha gaped from the girls face, to the demon, to the jewel, then the demon, then back to the girl again. “You mean to tell me,” he reiterated, incredulous, “that that monster bug-woman over there is going to attack us and destroy this village, all because she wants your bead!?”
Kagome only nodded curtly.
“Well, than, GIVE IT TO HER!” Inuyasha shouted, completely unable to see the dilemma in that. However, it must have been big, because Kagome turned to gape at him wearing the same disbelief he had felt when the giant demon had showed up…like she had never seen anything like him before. It was very disconcerting
“No, child,” Kaede explained, her voice full with remarkable patience considering they were about three seconds away from being bug-chow. “This is no mere bauble, but a magical item that, if in the wrong hands, could increase the power of the evil force by enough to make destroying our world a simple task. We must keep it safe from demons, lest they will use it to destroy us. It will not leave us if we surrender it, but kill us all and continue to kill until it is unstoppable. Ye understand?”
Inuyasha nodded numbly. It was like being trapped into one of those annoying RPG video games that he never had the patience for as a child. He found himself wishing he had completed at least one of them, so maybe he would have a better grasp on how this whole ‘Feudal realms with magic jewels and giant monsters’ thing worked. The worst monster he had ever dealt with in his life was called Mr. Musuki, Inuyasha’s eight grade math teacher, who had been thoroughly convinced that Inuyasha had been the one to egg his car that Halloween. (He had, but that was no reason to jump to conclusions.) Giant centipedes were completely out of his depth.
“So…now what?” he asked.
“Now,” Kagome answered, a look of pure determination on her face as she released the jewel dangling at her throat to nock the arrow once more in her bow and lift it to aim, “You stay out of the way.”
With that, she and Kaede both loosed arrows in the direction of the monster. Both glowed pink, the elderly priestesses with a dim shine, and the younger priestess with blinding brightness and a slight whistling sound as it traveled towards the demon.
Unfortunately, the demon caught sight of the shots and swiftly moved out of the way, turning itself once more towards the priestesses who had attacked it. It let out a screech of fury and shot at them faster then it had moved before.
“We must lead it away from the village!” Kaede yelled, her voice on the edge of panic.
“I’ll do it,” Kagome called back, and with that she took of running in the direction that the huts ended, her back to the creature though her bow was out with another arrow nocked and ready.
Her eyes were turned away from the monster, so she couldn’t see as it altered its course and bolted at her even faster then before, faster than any human could run. Faster than Kagome could fight it.
And in that second, Inuyasha realized something. It was going to get her. And while he stood there watching, it was going to kill her and take that jewel from her, and then it was going to kill everyone else. All that death at its hands; it had to be stopped. It couldn’t be allowed. He knew, deep down, he couldn’t allow it. He had to stop it, although he hadn’t the faintest clue how to. He ignored that fact for a moment, and did the dumbest thing he could have done, had he any sense of self preservation: He bolted after Kagome, forgetting to move at a normal speed, and allowing all his strength to carry him forward like a bullet from a gun. Within three seconds of his revelation, he had gotten himself between the girl and the beast giving chase. As she stopped and turned toward the demon, eyes widening at the sudden closeness of it, he turned to and planted himself in its path.
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!?” Kagome demanded, glancing quickly at him as she took aim and loosed another arrow, which missed like the first.
Inuyasha knelt slightly into an instinctual fighting stance before calling back to her “I HAVE NO FREAKIN’ IDEA!”
Exasperated, the priestess nocked a third arrow as the demon drew nearly level with Inuyasha. She readied to fire, and than…
Just as suddenly as the chase had begun, the monster caught site of Inuyasha, who felt a strange rage rip through him as their eyes met and heard a feral growl escape his own lips as a small part of his brain took over and the rest desperately tried to avoid the nervous breakdown he was bringing on himself by behaving in a way he couldn’t comprehend whatsoever. And, miraculously, impossibly, incredibly, the beast stopped, and stared at him wide eyed.
He felt himself growl again, a move so automatic he couldn’t stop it any more than understand it. The demon gasped, gaping at him, and hissed in response, as though he were something terrifying to her. He felt a surge of pleasure at the reaction, but shoved it away into the category with the growling because he didn’t understand it any more then he had that!
“Inuyasha,” he heard Kagome say behind him, uncertainty tainting every sound. “What is going on here? I thought you said you weren’t a demon.” She sounded personally hurt by this, as though he had lied maliciously to deceive her.
“I’m not a demon. I don’t know what the hell is going on here. But it’s working, so shut up and run away while you can!” He hissed back to her, his mind firing on all cylinders for the first time in minutes. He could see every movement the beast made, and was hyper aware that it saw him as a threat. He could feel Kagome behind him, smell her fear, hear her accelerated heart beat as she watched him. He could feel strength course through him, unfamiliar, but also totally natural and comfortable. He could shove the fear for his sanity and his thoughts about his own life away into a small compartment of his mind and lock them away with ease. He could feel every tiny shift his body made, as though it were acting on its own accord. He couldn’t explain how, but he knew that, if he had to fight that monster, he could. He could fight it, and he could win.
And with that, he lunged at it.
Kagome screamed behind him, clearly believing him to be taking some sort of suicide leap. He heard gasps and screams from behind the monster, and one ‘hmm’ that sounded annoyingly familiar and seemed to have come to some sort of vital understanding about something suspected but unproven. He heard all that, but it didn’t distract him. Before he knew what he was doing, he had raised his right hand to strike (the small, still sane part of him sarcastically asked if he planned to slap it in the face) and raked his nails…no, not nails…claws, across its body, watching as a strange light burst from the wounds as though he had just rended apart blackout shades in the middle of noon to allow the sun to stream suddenly through.
The demon-woman screamed and writhed in pain, several of its arms falling off and landing in twitching heaps of limbs and feelers and other muck he preferred not to think about. But then she recovered and shot, not towards Kagome, but towards Inuyasha, deciding he was the bigger threat and had to be dealt with before she could retrieve her prize.
Shock gripped him, and his sudden, insane understanding of battle dissipated like a mirage in the desert. He stood straight, watching the thing shoot towards him without the faintest clue of what to do. ‘Oh shit,’ he thought numbly, ‘I’m totally fuc…’
His musing was interrupted by the whoosh of an arrow a foot past his right ear aimed at the demon’s head. She dodged just in time, and changed her course again, once more heading directly for Kagome. Suddenly, Inuyasha understood what she meant about it being dumb and yet smart enough to be trouble. It clearly was able to tell what the most imminent threat was, and go for it, but when two threats presented themselves, it was confused and disoriented, unable to reconcile them enough to know the right choice, so it just went towards whatever caught its attention.
The centipede flew past Inuyasha again, in a beeline for the young priestess as she tried hastily to ready another arrow from her dwindling supply. It was only a few yards, one giant monster leap, from Kagome, and she wasn’t ready. Then she heard a dull thud, and the monster turned again. Desperate to help, Inuyasha had picked up a large stone, and chucked it towards the monster, to distract it from the priestess.
“That’s right, ugly! Bring you’re giant demon ass over here so I can cut a few more of those creepy-crawlies offa you!” Inuyasha urged it.
It worked, for a moment. The demon turned toward Inuyasha, leaving Kagome time to aim her bow, and her arrow ignited with magic. But before she could shoot, the tell-tale crackle in the air regained the demons attention, and, to Inuyasha’s horror, it whipped its back end towards the priestess as it turned, knocking her to the ground and causing the arrow to go flying from her grasp as she landed on her bow.
The demon laughed riotously and stilled. It didn’t need to rush now. The priestess was down, and the boy who has been helping her was gaping uselessly as she inched towards the girl, enjoying her victory, a bit too much,
“I WANT THE JEWEL,” the centipede shouted in its hiss of a voice. “GIVE ME THE JEWEL! I WILL TAKE IT! I WILL BE POWERFUL! I WILL DESTROY!”
Inuyasha felt a flare of dislike toward the stupid little necklace with its stupid little charm. It was a marble. Just a stupid magic marble. This was why he could never get into those games. You always had to fight for some dumb little, meaningless trinket. A magical mushroom, or shield, or leaf, or something ridiculous that he would never want if it was offered, much less if he had to fight to get it.
But here he was in medieval times, and true to his Xbox’s suggestions, all anyone cared about was a silly bauble of a thing. If it wanted the jewel of the four whatevers so bad, maybe if that was somewhere else, it would just chase after it and leave them the hell alone. But where could it go, how could they get rid of it now?
An idea struck him so abruptly that he could have sworn, had he looked up, a light bulb would have flicked on above his head. Maybe they couldn’t get the jewel away from the village, but at least he could get it the hell away from Kagome.
“Kagome,” he shouted so suddenly that both she and the demon looked. The monster turned back to the priestess immediately, but the girls eyes stayed trained on him, clearly able to tell from his relieved expression that there was something up his sleeve.
“Do they ever play keep-away in this time?” he asked. Kagome nodded slowly, clearly not catching on at all. The monster laughed and ever so slightly began to close the distance between her and her prey.
“Well, then,” Inuyasha said, raising his arms in front of him in a clear catching position, “Let’s play.”
He flashed her a smile, and understanding lit her face. She pulled the jewel on its chain over her head swiftly. For the tiniest instant, she worried if allowing a complete stranger like the boy near the jewel was a terrible idea. But he had put himself in harms way to help her, even though he was told not to, and he had tried to distract the beast from her even when he clearly had no next move whatsoever. She had no choice. She would have to trust him. With that, she lifted the jewel up as though she was about to surrender it to the demon, which hissed in delight, and then tossed it with all her might into Inuyasha’s waiting hands.
Luckily, she had a good arm. He caught the jewel easily and raised it above his head. “Hey, bug, you looking for this?” he called to the demon, waving the necklace over his head tauntingly.
Mistress centipede spun quickly, looking from the girl on the ground, to the boy with his hands in the air. She didn’t understand it, but he had the jewel now, and that was all she needed to know. She rushed at him with all the speed she could manage, spitting angrily and howling obscenities at him. Kagome righted herself as soon as the demon’s back was turned on her and held her arms up, waiting. The monster sped towards Inuyasha, and for a minor second she questioned her judgment in tossing it to him, not that she had had another choice at the moment. Then, just as the beast was upon him, he yelled “Catch!” at the top of his voice, and threw it straight at her. Even under duress, his accuracy was remarkable, and the jewel came to rest in her waiting hands without any effort at all.
He held his hands up to the demon, waving them in front of him with a smirk. “Sorry, creepy, not over here,” he told it with an easy laugh that Kagome was sure he was faking.
The beast had no choice but to about-face and go for the girl again. Screaming mightily as she did. As the thing got close, Kagome tossed the beads to Inuyasha again, and he barked a laugh to get the monster attention.
“Nice try, stupid, but it’s over here now.”
The demon sped at him once more, getting so close that he could touch her before he threw the beads. Kagome caught them in midair just as the demon failed to stop in time and bashed into Inuyasha, who fell heavily backwards, pain on his face as the demon turned on the priestess again.
Kagome shot a worried glance at Inuyasha as Mistress Centipede moved at her one last time, to see him struggle painfully to his knees and the jump to his feet from there.
“I’m fine, throw it,” he called to her, a note of desperation in his voice as the thing neared Kagome with unmatched speed, its fury having grown to the point where she uttered nothing but an unintelligible mix of curses and shrieks.
Kagome did as he said, and tossed the beads to him once more, the infuriated monster bellowing turning away from her without a second thought before he even had the chance to insult it. This time, though, Kagome did not stand ready to catch. This time, she nocked on last arrow, and allowed all the magic she had to flow into it as she took aim.
The demon was getting very close to Inuyasha, but he could see Kagome behind it readying an arrow to strike the final blow, and knew he couldn’t throw it back without sabotaging that. The monster apparently could see he had no intention of passing it off, and screamed with laughing glee as she sped ever faster toward him. Jewel in hand, he began to back away as fast as he could, all the while keeping an eye on Kagome. He saw as she smiled, having found her target, and loosed the last arrow.
The demon was so deadest on Inuyasha and the jewel that it didn’t even notice the rush of magic speeding towards it from behind. A moment before impact, Inuyasha threw himself to the ground, not sure why but somehow knowing that it would be best if he was not directly in its path.
Just as he did so, the demon exploded into a million brightly colored lights, black body-matter spewing in all direction, though flying right over his head with his low position on the ground (for which he was thankful). A final, resounding shriek rent the air, and then, just like that, the beast was gone.
-
-
All was silent for several moments after the creature’s demise. Somewhere in the numbed back of his mind, Inuyasha noted that he hadn’t realized how loud the demon’s slithering had been until it was gone. He then decided that slithering was a disgusting word and he no longer liked it, not that he had ever had particular feelings toward it in the past.
He sat utterly nonplussed, head spinning slightly, on the ground, Kagome standing some 30 yards away, her bow still up in the position it had been as she fired. Villagers stood frozen in place, staring at the suddenly silent scene.
Then, as suddenly as it has ended, the noise erupted again, this time in the forms of cheers and shouts loud enough to make Inuyasha jump from his position on the ground as it pulled him from his reverie. Kagome, too, seemed to defrost at once, and jog over to where Inuyasha climbed slowly to his feet, dazed.
The cheering crowd surrounded them, clearly totally willing to forget that twenty minutes earlier they had mostly been for killing Inuyasha. The shouted prayers and appreciation at the pair, who stood slightly stunned in the middle of it all.
“Th…that’s enough, everyone, thank you but we really ought to go and um…rest now,” Kagome announced in a mild voice. “You know, just in case,” she finished lamely. The ecstatic group paid her no mind whatsoever.
Thankfully, at that moment, Kaede came to their rescue. “Come, everyone. Every one of ye has much to do before night falls. There are homes to be repaired and I request that all of ye offer aid to those who have lost property in this battle. Anyone who was hurt at all will please come to see me here while Lady Kagome and our visitor and guest Inuyasha go and rest from the labor.” After her speech, as the crowd began to disperse, spirits undampered, she turned pointedly to where Kagome and Inuyasha stood still slightly confused. “Ye both did well,” she told them. “And I will want to talk to ye both, especially ye, Inuyasha, before the night is out. Please feel free to go and rest.”
“I can help, Kaede, really, I’m fine. I should help with those who have been…” Kagome broke off as Kaede shook her head.
“Nay, child, allow me. I am not at all weary, as I did not battle today. Besides, it looks as though Inuyasha is in need of assistance as well, and I think ye ought to treat him privately.”
Inuyasha, for a moment, had no idea what she meant by that, and wondered if maybe she was referring to his shoulder. He hadn’t even noticed the pain in a while, and now he couldn’t even find it over the much more severe pain radiating from the right side of his chest. He looked down in search of damage, and could see no blood anywhere except where it had fallen from his shoulder onto his jeans. Then he noticed a large tear in the right side of his shirt, and the small spot of blood there, with the skin beneath it exposed. To his surprise, it was blotchy with hues of purple and black.
“Oh,” he nodded understanding, “my ribs are broken.” And then, without warning, his knees buckled and he collapsed to the ground.
Vaguely, as he fell to darkness, feeling pretty pathetic for the whole passing out thing, he heard Kaede’s understanding tongue click, and Kagome’s scream, along with the gasps of the villagers paying enough attention to notice. He coughed lightly in the coming darkness, feeling something wet and warm on his lips. He momentarily berated himself mentally for drooling in front of a girl, when he heard her say something about blood and realized that’s what it must be on his lip. She was only mildly aware of Kagome calling several men over to carry him. They tried to lift him gently, he thought, but one jerked too hard on his left, and pain wracked him again. After that, everything went dark. A small part of his mind wondered if he would wake up at home. Another part tentatively suggested that he might not wake up at all. A third part lamented that it missed hearing Kagome’s voice down there in the darkness, and didn’t like the silence there.
The rest of him told those bits to shut up, and he knew no more.
-
-
-
Author’s Note:
Wow, that was pretty cool from over here. When I sat down to write, (at about 3:30 in the morning) I figured this was going to be a foot in the door. I feared desperately that I would no longer be able to connect with this story from so long ago. But, apparently, it was not a problem. This chapter, despite being a battle (which I usually have trouble with) poured out with ease. I had devised and begun to weave each event before I consciously new what it was. I think I was just as surprised as Kagome when Inuyasha suggested keep-away. And I even know where it is going after this, so I won’t leave you hanging for the rest of eternity. I am so glad to be writing again. It feels wonderful… even it if it now 7:21 in the morning, dawn, and I still have to post and proofread this. I might save that for tomorrow…and then again I might not. Please tell me what you think! I need the encouragement. *Pathetic sob.
Sign up to rate and review this story