InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Moments ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, but what I wouldn't give just to hug the stuffing out of him…

 

Moments

 

By Amberle-chan

 

Summary: For a single moment, Kagome is completely vulnerable in the hand of fate. This time, her soul may break…

 

Chapter One

 

He was ancient, so old that he could not remember his own age. Had a millenium passed? Perhaps two? He did not really care. He was certain he would live forever.

 

And then it happened, and the change was sudden, not gradual, as occurred with other humans. In the space of a year, his body, which had always meshed together perfectly with his strong, unbending spirit, turned on him. Muscles that had given him an athlete's lithe ability began to twist and sag, burning with pain even if he walked a short distance. Bones that had supported him through centuries of strength now ached unceasingly and became brittle.

 

He railed at the heavens and the gods. Why they did grant him such a long life only to turn him into a mound of feeble flesh in less than a year? He could not allow it. There had to be a way for him to return his body to its former vitality. He would find it. He was determined to live forever.

 

When he realized that he was dying, he sent his most trusted servant on a quest to search for the one spell or potion that would grant him the immortality he was seeking. He knew he could have joined with a demon to regain his youth, as others had done before, but he saw such people as weak. They were willing to sacrifice some of themselves when they turned their bodies over to a demon's possession. He was not willing to perform such an act. He would remain who he was; he would never give his soul to a demon.

 

After searching for several weeks, his servant returned with the news of the Shikon jewel and its power to grant its possessor any wish. He ordered his servant to retrieve it, but the servant was unable to obtain it. By the time the servant had reached the village where the Shikon jewel was interred, it had apparently been destroyed when its keeper had died and the jewel burned with her body. He ranted and raved for days on end, almost killing his servant in his rage. It was only the servant's undying loyalty to his master that saved his life.

 

Fifty years passed and with each passing day he felt the inevitability of his death, the loss of his dream of immortality. The gods may have granted him a very long life, but it seemed that as payment they required that he die a slow, lingering death. He knew he could have killed himself just to spite the gods, but his will to live was strong regardless of his treacherous body.

 

Then word came that the Shikon jewel had not been destroyed but shattered, and that the shards were being gathered together by another priestess and her inu-youkai protector. He began to research the power of the jewel shards. He realized that he did not need the entire jewel but only two or three shards to gain his immortality. He gave his servant the task of watching the priestess and her companions carefully for any chance to steal the shards she had. After the servant observed the priestess and his friends for a very long time, he returned to his master.

 

“You cannot take them from her,” his servant said from the darkest corner of the room. “She is too well protected by Inuyasha. Every youkai who has tried is dead.”

 

“I must have the shards if I am to survive. There must be a way,” his master replied from where he sat near the firepit in the middle of the room. The orange glow of the dancing flames briefly lit against his face, revealing the yellowed skin sunk into a wrinkled mass of flesh above which a few gray hairs hung limply against a balding head.

 

“Only if we could destroy Inuyasha. But we are not strong enough. We would never make it past his sword.”

 

“There must be times when she is not under his protection.”

 

“Rarely, if ever,” the voice from beyond the firelight paused for a moment. “However,…”

 

“Yes?” his companion prompted.

 

“There is a time when she does not have Inuyasha's protection. A single moment in time when she is completely vulnerable….”

 

 

 

 

 

* *

 

Kagome grabbed her backpack and swung it across her shoulders as she hurried out of her Tokyo home with a quick “See you soon, Mama!” Her mother barely had time to acknowledge her daughter before Kagome ran across the yard and entered the small, ramshackle building that housed the shrine well. She smiled brightly as she slipped through the doors. Summer vacation had finally begun and, except for the occasional return home to restock supplies, she could spend the next several weeks with her friends five hundred years in the past in Japan's feudal era.

 

Kagome hurried down the stairs leading to the well and leapt inside its dark confines. She had been gone almost a week so she could finish her final exams, and she missed her friends, especially Inuyasha, whom she knew would probably be surly because she had been gone so long. She chuckled to herself as the pinkish light of the time slip enveloped her; Inuyasha was always grumpy, but she knew him well enough to know the truth. Underneath his obnoxious, rude, foul-mouthed façade lay a heart as golden as his beautiful eyes.

 

Her smiled brightened as the pink light engulfed her fully; she would be there in just a few moments.

 

Then, just as Kagome almost passed through the time slip completely, a talon-tipped hand latched onto the back of her neck. The sound of her scream bounced and echoed off the well walls…

 

Xoxoxoxoxoxo

 

Inuyasha chewed on a piece of a grass as he leaned against the wooden planking of the Bone Eater's well. He had been waiting nearly an hour for Kagome to appear, and he promised himself he would let her have a piece of his mind once she returned. She should have returned at least three days ago as far as he was concerned. “Damn that `school' of hers anyway,” he mumbled to himself. In the two years they had been searching for the Shikon jewel shards, school and studying had kept Kagome apart from him far too often. But she had assured him that her school year would be over when she returned, and that she could spend the next several weeks helping him fight off youkai and searching for missing jewel fragments.

 

Inuyasha stood up and stretched. It was a fine, early summer morning and the rest of the day promised to be just as lovely. He looked around appreciatively. His forest was very pretty during the summer. Two years before, he would not have noticed it. Kagome had changed him that much. She had taught him so much in the last two years, not just to observe the world around him more closely and with different eyes, but things about himself. She had managed to slip past the walls he had created around his heart and soul, something that Kikyo had never done. He was not sure when that had happened; perhaps it had been that first day, the day she removed the arrow in his heart, the moment she had given him her unconditional trust that he would help her get away from Mistress Centipede.

 

He turned and looked down into the well. He was so tempted to jump in and bring her back here now, even though she was due back at any moment. He ached with missing her. And if he had changed a lot in the last two years, there were still some things that remained the same. He still did not have the courage to tell her how he truly felt about her. He needed her, more than he had ever needed Kikyo. When she was with him, he was stronger, and all because she had accepted him as he was and did not want him to be anything else.

 

“Kagome,” he whispered into the summer breeze as he walked a few feet away from the well. As he had done a thousand times over the past week, he pictured her smiling face in his mind, her light giggling laugh in his ears. Did she realize how much he cared?

 

He turned as he felt the familiar pulse of the time slip behind him. Normally, he would have leapt down into the well to help Kagome out and to carry that monstrosity she called a backpack, but he just slid his arms into the generous sleeves of his haori. She had kept him waiting for too long and she could climb out on her own today.

 

He waited a moment or two for Kagome's voice to call out to him from the bottom of the well, but when he didn't hear her, he figured that she had returned to her own time again because she had forgotten something. That had happened way too many times before.

 

Inuyasha stepped closer and peered over the lip of the well. “Oi, wench, did you forget…Kagome!”

 

Inuyasha's amber eyes widened in fear as he saw Kagome's prone form sprawled at the bottom of the well. She wasn't moving. Inuyasha growled savagely and jumped down. Her backpack lay at her side, torn and ripped, its contents spilling out of its remnants.

 

“Kagome?” Inuyasha whispered as he knelt down by her side. She didn't move as he called her name. Her breathing was shallow and raspy. Inuyasha's heart clenched in dread. What had happened to her? He picked her up, cradled tightly against him as he leapt out of the well. He then laid her gently in the grass at the side of the well.

 

He growled low in his throat as he examined her. Her clothing was also ripped and torn in the same manner as her backpack, shredded by claws or talons. The chain that held the vial of jewel shards she always wore around her neck was missing, but then his growl grew into a whine when he saw the mottled, bruised, and abraised skin around the spot where the chain always lay. Someone had choked her.

 

Someone had tried to kill her. Someone had tried to kill his Kagome.

 

The whine turned back into a growling snarl. “I'll fucking kill them…”

 

He gently laid one hand against her cheek. “Kagome?” he said, his voice low and pleading. “Kagome, come on, you got to wake up.”

 

His anxiety escalated when she didn't stir. He shook her shoulder gently and called her name again, but still received no response. In a near panic, Inuyasha picked Kagome up and with her enveloped tightly in his arms, he sprinted through the trees straight toward the village. As soon as its first buildings came into a view, he put on an extra burst of speed.

 

“Kaede!” he bellowed as he leaped into the village square. Not even waiting for a reply, he ran straight into the old priestess' hut, knocking the straw mat completely off the doorway as he burst through.

 

Kaede was just beginning to stand up as Inuyasha entered the hut. “Inuyasha, what in the world…?” she began to ask and then she saw the unconscious girl in his arms. “Kagome!”

 

Inuyasha kicked one of the folded pallets open with his foot, gently laid Kagome on it, and then fell to his knees by her side. “I found her like this at the bottom of the well. I think somebody tried to choke her.” He couldn't help the thought from burning through his mind again. Somebody tried to kill Kagome…

 

Inuyasha looked up at the old miko with pleading eyes. “She won't wake up. Please, Kaede, you've got to help her!”

 

Kaede immediately knelt by Kagome's side to her examine her. Just as she was checking the girl's pulse, Miroku ran into the hut. “Inuyasha, what's going on? Kagome!” he gasped when he saw her lying still on the pallet. “What happened?”

 

“I found her at the bottom of the well. I think she was attacked by a youkai,” Inuyasha replied. “Her backpack's still there.”

 

“I'll go get it.” Miroku offered as he left the hut, knowing that Kagome's things shouldn't be found by anyone who didn't know her or what her possessions from the future were for.

 

“Take Sango with you!” Inuyasha shouted after the monk. “That youkai might still be around!” In the back of his mind, he knew that he was the one who should have gone with the monk, but there was no way in hell he was going to leave Kagome's side.

 

XXX

 

Miroku and Sango returned minutes later, both of them carrying Kagome's things in their hands, the remains of her tattered backpack slung over Miroku's shoulder. They placed Kagome's possessions in a nearby corner and hurriedly turned back to where an extremely worried Kaede and Inuyasha were still kneeling by the unconcious miko's side. Kagome still had not woken up.

 

“I didn't sense any youkai in the area,” Miroku said to no one in particular as he knelt on the opposite side of the pallet from Kaede.

 

“Well, there had to be,” Inuyasha replied. “Kagome's jewel shards are missing.” He pointed toward her bruised neck. “Whoever it is must have taken them while they were trying to kill her.” He couldn't help the growl that leapt into his throat. “I'm going to kill them. They are so fucking dead.” It was only then that he realized that he had not sensed any youkai near the well, either.

 

“Not all of the shards are missing, Inuyasha,” Sango said. “We found this underneath her bag.” She held out her right hand; on her palm, one shard sparkled briefly in the firelight.

 

Inuyasha reached and out took the shard, tucking it into his haori. He didn't say anything

about retrieving the other missing shards, a testament to his anxiety over Kagome. Getting the other shards back came second after Kagome's welfare. He would get the other shards back when he killed the youkai who had hurt Kagome.

 

Shippou chose that moment to run into the hut at full speed. “Hey, is Kagome back yet…Kagome!” he screamed when he saw her lying so still on the pallet and all of his friends hovering over her.

 

Sango scooped the kitsune up in her arms before he could pounce on Kagome. He struggled in her grasp. “Let me go, Sango! What happened to Kagome?!”

 

Sango sank to the floor with the little fox demon cuddled in her arms. “Shh, Shippou. Inuyasha found her like that. Now be quiet and let Kaede work.”

 

Shippou ceased his wriggling and collapsed back against the exterminator with a whine. “Kagome…,” he sobbed. He looked at the old miko with tear-filled eyes. “Will Kagome be okay, Lady Kaede?”

 

Kaede sighed as she sat back up from where she had been leaning over Kagome's unmoving form. The entire time since Inuyasha had brought into the hut, the old priestess had been examining her, and in the past few minutes as they talked, she had one hand lightly pressed against Kagome's forehead and another hovered over the girl's heart. They all gazed at Kaede with fearful eyes.

 

“Except for the bruising around her neck and some other cuts and bruises, I cannot see anything else wrong with her, except…”

 

“Except what?” Inuyasha demanded. “Spit it out, old woman!”

 

Kaede turned her attention completely on Inuyasha, her sharp eyes boring into his gold irises. “It is as if Kagome's spirit is far away, so far that I barely feel it. It is almost like she does not want to come back…or cannot.”

 

Inuyasha finger's brushed down Kagome's hair, something he had been doing for the past several minutes. He gazed down into her still face. “She'll come back. She's gotta come back.”

 

“There may be something I can do, but I will need help,” Kaede said. She glanced up at Miroku. “Will you assist me, Master Miroku?”

 

“Of course, Lady Kaede,” the monk replied. He lifted one hand to drift above Kagome's heart, the other clutched around his staff that lay across his lap. Kaede placed her hand above his. Both of their eyes slid closed.

 

And the waiting began.

 

XXX

 

An hour passed and then two. Kaede and Miroku had not moved from their spots as they worked and prayed over Kagome. Inuyasha was hard pressed not to jump up and pace around in his ever-increasing frustration at his inability to help in this situation, but he did not want to break the priestess' and monk's concentration. Shippou had fallen asleep in Sango's lap.

 

“Why don't you go for a walk, Inuyasha?” Sango suggested in a soft voice as she brushed light fingers through the kitsune's fur. She coud not help but notice the inu-youkai's growing impatience. “I'll keep watch.”

 

“I'm not leaving Kagome,” Inuyasha spat out in reply.

 

Sango sighed. It was the answer she had expected. In the two years she had known Inuyasha and Kagome, she had watched them become closer and closer to the point that they were almost inseparable, even despite their constant bickering. Inuyasha had practically lived near the well in the past week while Kagome had been gone. Sango had almost caught him almost jumping inside a few times, only to remind him about his promise. Sango smiled as she remembered the argument that Kagome and Inuyasha had had before she returned through the well to her time. It was the same argument that they had had almost every time Kagome went home.

 

~~~~

 

“A week! You can't go home for a week!” Inuyasha shouted. “You have three days, that's it, wench!”

 

“My exams won't take three days, stupid! They're going to take a week!” Kagome yelled back. She gasped out an audible sigh. “Look, Inuyasha, these exams are the most important I'll take, if I want to graduate in three weeks. And I do want to graduate!”

 

“Keh!” Inuyasha snorted, turning his back on her, his arms across his chest. “After all this time, I still don't know why all that school stuff is so important to you, Kagome.”

 

“Because I need to know this stuff in my world, baka!” Kagome said vehemently. “How many times do I have to explain this?”

 

“Yeah, but you don't need to know it here!” Inuyasha declared.

 

“But I may not be able to always come back here, Inuyasha!”

 

Inuyasha rounded on her. “We are not talking about that, wench!”

 

Sango and Miroku shared a grimace together as they watched their friends argue once again, a safe distance away. The possibility that Kagome would not be able to return through the well at some point was a subject that Inuyasha absolutely refused to discuss. To him, the idea was simply unthinkable.

 

Kagome sighed again and then decided to relent—a little. She could not give up going home for a week, but maybe she could work out a compromise. She placed one hand on Inuyasha's crossed forearm and peered up into his face. “Look, Inuyasha, I'll make a deal with you. You let me have the whole week for my exams, and I will spend the entire summer here with you, except for my graduation and re-supply trips. Deal?”

 

Inuyasha turned away. “The entire summer?” he asked quietly after a few moments silence.

 

“Yes, but you cannot come back for me. You leave me alone for the whole week. I see you at any time and the deal's off.”

 

Inuyasha growled almost silently under his breath. Being without Kagome for a whole week was going to be pure torture. He usually couldn't stand it when she was only gone for a day, and her usual three-day visits home always pushed him to his limit, but for her to not be here for a whole week...

 

But then again, she would spend the whole summer here, with him.

 

“Deal.”

 

Kagome came around to face him and smiled brilliantly. “Thanks, Inuyasha!” She then reached up and lightly kissed his cheek. Inuyasha stepped back in shock as her soft lips brushed against him. “I'll see you in a week.” She turned and waved merrily at Sango and Miroku. “See you guys in a week. Bye!”

 

Sango and Miroku waved their goodbyes to her. Kagome dropped into the well and was gone.

 

~~~~

 

Sango let her memory of that day a week ago float away. Kaede and Miroku were still in their trance-like state, their hands hovering above Kagome's body. Inuyasha was staring down intently into her face, one hand gently brushing her bangs off her forehead. “I should never have let you stay away a week,” he whispered softly. “I should have gone to get you.”

 

Sango's eyes widened slightly. Inuyasha rarely, if ever, let anyone see his true feelings for Kagome be revealed in front of anyone else. He really must have been frightened for the girl. “I'm sure she'll be fine, Inuyasha,” Sango tried to reassure the inu-youkai. “We all know how strong Kagome is.”

 

“And she'll have to use all of her strength to return now,” Kaede said suddenly as she sat back with a ragged gasp. Miroku opened his eyes, his expression torn and weary with exhaustion.

 

Sango gently laid the sleeping kit down on a pallet and hurried to fetch two cups of water for the priestess and the monk. Inuyasha stared intently down at Kagome's still body and then brought his eyes up to lock with the monk's. “Miroku?” he asked quietly, trying to hide the fear he felt from his voice.

 

“Kaede and I have managed to call her spirit back, Inuyasha, but she will not return completely,” Miroku replied after he took a sip of water from his cup. “There is still something wrong.”

 

Inuyasha scraped his claws against the wooden floor, bringing up splinters. “Wrong?” he demanded.

 

Miroku turned to the old miko. “Did you feel it, Lady Kaede? Kagome's fright?”

 

Kaede nodded. “Hai, I did.” She turned to Inuyasha. “We have called Kagome back, Inuyasha, but she is not yet free to awaken. She has been terribly frightened by something and now she is afraid to return.”

 

Inuyasha moved so that he could place one hand against Kagome's cheek. “It's that youkai who attacked her. I know it is,” he growled. He looked up to Kaede with anxious eyes. “So how do we help her?”

 

“She needs to feel safe again,” the old priestess said. “We must keep her warm and comfortable. Perhaps if we talk to her as she sleeps, she will realize that she is surrounded by friends and that it is alright to awaken.”

 

“Stupid wench,” Inuyasha muttered, as he pressed his hand against Kagome's pale cheek. “Doesn't she know that I'll always keep her safe?”

 

“It is not that easy, Inuyasha,” Kaede said. “We can tell her that she is safe, make her safe, but in the end it will be Kagome who needs to decide when it is the right time to awaken. That could be tomorrow, next week, or next month. It is all up to Kagome now.”