InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale ❯ Sticks and Stones ( Chapter 8 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Chapter 6

Sticks and stones

A.N.: Someone got carried away with the violence again and it wasn't me... or maybe it was.

The signs were there, but he'd ignorantly chosen not to heed them - until now.

When the girl he was supposed to pacify by an innocent declaration of love threw herself at him and declared her own minus the innocence and plus an obsessive devotion for him, it sparked suspicion.

When he with utmost effort managed to rip himself out of her grasp and, more importantly, out of the whirlwind of his own pent up needs and dangerously over inflated ego, thus preventing himself from doing something that might have been the proverbial drop causing his pools of self disgust to overflow, he declared the suspicion unreasonable.

When, after an agonizing wait, that wannabe miko finally managed to terminate their mission but left him to deal with her more than confused counterpart and said counterpart within seconds came to the genius conclusion that whatever had transpired was entirely his fault and acted upon it, suspicion returned full force.

When, and in the retrospective he was particularly embarrassed at this obvious lapse of reason, his rattled nerves and skyrocketing hackles immediately calmed at the sight of the girl's original body plus enticing yet soothing scent that was so much more concentrated in the otherwise almost scentless interdimension, he brushed suspicion aside for a better look.

When that bitch chose to go ballistic over one little joke he'd made at her cost, painfully reminding him not only of that most prominent of his flaws but also what it had let him to reveal to her the night before, he was too fucking furious to see suspicion trying to regain his attention.

But when they were sent into the second dimension and he took over his counterpart's body in the very moment he was trying to flee a violent mob of dwarfs and thus rendered Inuyasha unable to defend himself 'cause the control over this body was developing with agonizing slowness he finally realized what he was in for: one hell of a shitty day.

As soon as he had full control over his loaned body, brushing off those annoying twits with perhaps a little too much force as well as saving that trouble magnet of a girl had been delightfully easy but he wouldn't be fooled again.

Just because this counterpart's body came a lot closer to the standards, the perfect union of power and efficiency, his own body had set, didn't make him believe for a second that whatever lay ahead of him was going to be easy.

He was proved right when that burden of a so called companion he mercifully enough carried around not only made him fall but also unable to stay mad at her when he realized that she was hurt rather dangerously. And that was only the beginning: first she'd stubbornly refuse to let him take care of her wound, then while he did, she'd suddenly calm and do another thing he loathed; she pitied him. He could still feel her stares burning into his back while he set up a fire but he thought she'd forgotten about it when he went to catch some fish. But uh-huh, as soon as he returned she started her Spanish Inquisition she probably thought was subtle, although it was perfectly clear to him where she was going with her oh so innocent curiosity. He only went along with it because he still vividly remembered what she did as soon as she wasn't entertained in some way for longer than a few minutes and he was absolutely not in the mood to deal with a crying woman in the body of a little girl.

And now, like the rotten cherry on this ice cup of crap, this:

He hurried through the forest surrounding their small camp in search of whatever had scared the forest's population into such tense silence. Whatever it was, it had to be some kind of youkai, and a big one, too. There was no other explanation for the underlying sense of panic that seemed to seep out of every den and nest. Alarmingly though, none of his senses delivered any hint on what exactly the danger was. Then suddenly he did hear something.

“Inuyasha?”

He stopped dead and turned. Was that woman out of her fucking mind? Hadn't he made it absolutely clear that she was to shut her fucking trap? He hurried back to the camp when he heard her a second time, her voice louder but also almost visibly drenched with fear. Fucking wonderful, nothing better than the stench of fear to attract youkai.

And then suddenly he heard it. It must have been lurking in the darkness completely motionless for to his accurate hearing the faint sound of its scales clicking against one another was like hand claps to a human ear. He reached the camp just in time to see the giant snake youkai shoot towards Kagome who sat frozen at the fire like a deer caught in the headlights. A snake youkai, that explained why he hadn't smelled it. While his counterpart's hearing was excellent his nose was hardly better than a human one, and snakes didn't smell very intensively to begin with.

He grabbed Kagome and jumped, neatly evading the giant fangs of the large reptile. As he landed right across the small river, he briefly considered his options. He was unarmed, too bad that this body had no claws, and he had Kagome to look after, in that case fleeing might be the better choice. On the other hand, snake youkai where insanely fast and persistent and there was a high chance that it had been attracted by the shard inside Kagome's body anyway and all that was going to make escaping it close to impossible. So, instead of wasting his energy by running away for the rest of the night he might just as well try to finish it there and then. The decision was made and he jumped once again as the snake catapulted itself across the river. He grabbed the branch of a tree above him and swung onto another, then climbed up to the crown. There he settled the trembling Kagome.

“Stay here; it should have at least a little trouble reaching you up here.”

She just nodded and he dropped off the branch again. He ripped off another one on his way down to use as a weapon. He met the youkai half way up the tree and it opened its mouth, probably hoping he'd just fall right between its teeth. But he changed the direction of his fall with a forceful kick against the trunk of the tree and managed to not only evade the fangs but grab the beast's head instead. Not wasting another second, he gripped the branch tighter and rammed it into one of the few vulnerable spots a scaled animal of this size had to offer: its eye.

The youkai hissed in pain and fell, taking him down with it. He had to let go of his weapon if he didn't want to be squished beneath his opponent. He landed a little unbalanced but at least the beast seemed to have forgotten about the girl in the tree , 'cause it threw itself at him fiercely, the stick still protruding from its head. It was quite obvious that the wound had mostly just sent the god damn thing into an anger fueled frenzy, making it even quicker than before.

Inuyasha cursed himself for not having stopped to take some tool, a fork, anything that could be used as a weapon when he'd left the village.

Well, there was nothing he could do about it now.

The beast came at him again and he hauled himself out of its reach, but he was too slow this time, or it was too fast more like. He managed to escape its teeth but when it saw that happening it simply yanked its head to the side, whacking him into another tree. All air smashed out of his lungs and his skin tore in many places as he skidded down through the twigs and branches but at least none of his limbs felt broken. He hit the ground and had to lie there for a second because his vision spun viciously. Then suddenly he heard her scream.

“Shit. Kagome.”

The youkai had obviously thought him dead, or at least knocked out, and had gone after his original prey again.

The dizziness fell off him and he hurried up to her hiding place, praying that it wouldn't be too late. Then suddenly the midnight dark sky above him lit with a blazing flash of pink light and before he knew what was happening lumps of bloody flesh rained onto him, followed by the rapidly descending snake youkai. By sheer luck he avoided getting dragged along but he followed it down nonetheless, to make sure it really was dead. It wasn't, but it wouldn't be living very much longer either. In a moment of mercy he jumped onto its head again and drove the branch still sticking in its eye all the way into the brain. The demon twitched, then slumped.

He found Kagome trembling and staring ahead with glazed over eyes, but without a drop of blood on her. She didn't scream this time when he snatched her and jumped onto another tree. Figuring that the bloody carcass would sooner or later attract all sorts of unwanted visitors to their camp he chose to leave the area and spend the rest of the night elsewhere. That elsewhere turned out to be another clearing at the bank of a small (the same?) river.

Seeing as Kagome had gone unharmed, he just set her onto the ground and moved to light another fire, which took him more than twice the time as usual, mainly because of lacking light but also because his stupid hands wouldn't stop trembling. It seemed as if his first near death experience since... around twenty years had not left him unaffected. That, and he'd probably hit his head when the youkai had tackled him. There, now he'd gotten the fire to work.

Suddenly a tiny, warm hand touched his forearm.

“You're hurt.”

He glanced down at himself, taking in the various scratches and cuts marring his exposed chest and visible through what was left of his trousers, some of them still bleeding.

“Nah, that's ok, it's mainly the youkai's blood anyway. I'll wash up in the river and that's that.”

“No, let me have a look at it, please, some of them look like they'll need to be bandaged!” Kagome inched forwards to examine him closer. He stood briskly and attempted to stomp off.

“Inuyasha!” He suppressed a shudder. There was something about that tone of her voice... Was it possible to sound concerned and angry at the same time? It reminded him of something... or someone...

He sighed. “Alright. I'll go wash up in the river now and then you can do whatever you think is necessary. Turn around.”

He stripped out off the ragged remains of his pants and stepped into the knee deep and ice-cold water, then moved to sit awkwardly on the stony river ground. The water around him grew even darker for a while and he watched with mild interest as the soft torrent parted the bloody cloud into swaying strands. He bent to rinse off his arms and shoulders, then emerged. He briefly considered not bothering to fasten the former trousers around his hips again, but, remembering the seemingly endless struggle he'd had earlier this day when he'd tried to convince Kagome to take her robe off, he did. At least the damn cold water had numbed the pain somewhat, it had begun to get on his nerves a little. He sat down close to the fire, cause the bath had stolen the last of his body heat.

Kagome on the other hand seemed to have plenty of it. She'd knelt down besides him wordlessly and had begun examining his wounds. It turned out that the only one in need of a bandage was an ugly tear on his right shoulder blade, that, according to Kagome, still had splinters of bark in it. She ripped off a piece of her robe and dipped it into the river, then returned and began cleansing the wound properly. Despite the occasional pain, Inuyasha once again felt a feeling of peacefulness seeping through him, and he relaxed involuntarily, too exhausted to really fight it. Then, suddenly, he knew whom the way Kagome had spoken to him and the gentle way she took care of his wound reminded him of; his mother.

Now that was a clear sign that he had to have hit his head.

But still, her soft breathing and soft hands, and the occasional hushing noises she made when he tensed at an especially nasty piece of bark, those where some of his earliest as well as the most continuous impressions of his mother. He'd been hurt a lot when he was little.

He could have told her before, if he hadn't been so lulled into his sentimental remembrances, the position of the tear allowed no bandage, at least not with the limited amounts of tearable cloth they still had. He assured her it'd be ok, and she accepted that after the obviously obligatory minutes of insisting on the opposite. That girl, really.

She claimed that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again tonight anyway, and that he could thus use the few hours till dawn to rest a little, but he would have none of it. He wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, or did she happen to hide a portable mini bar somewhere in that flimsy robe? That shut her up. So they just remained sitting at the fire, she staring into it and he staring into the surrounding wood. Now, with neither of them speaking, he could once again hear all the reassuring forest noises that had been lacking before. Wait, neither of them speaking? He threw Kagome an anxious glance. Well she did look sullen, sad maybe, but it might have been sleep deprivation, too. Still, he wasn't about to risk anything.

“So what was pink stuff you finished the youkai off with?” Yay! A subject to talk about that did not concern his private life.

She looked up from the fire surprised. “I've been asking myself that.”

“Might have been your miko abilities. As far as I recall, those could be used not only in defense but also in offense.”

“Yeah, that's what I thought, too... It's kinda strange... “

“What?”

“Those two, Sango and Miroku, that they prepare us so... “

“Shitty? Almost not at all?”

“Hmm.”

“Yup, been wondering about that, too. A lot of the crap that's happened could very well have been avoided had they just told us a tiny bit more about what we were to expect.”

“Yeah, I mean they knew I had these powers, they coulda just told me that I'm able to fire pink I-don't-know-what from my hands.”

“Damn right. It's like they don't really want us to collect those goddamn shards... “

“But what do they want then? I mean, considering what they told us so far is true, forcing our souls over those of our counterparts must be a hell of a bother for that Sango. Strange.”

“And the jewel is real; I'd recognize the fucking thing anywhere. And it is powerful, I tell you that.”

“... about that...”

“Nope.”

“But why?”

“Cause it's none of your fucking business. I don't think I could tell you anything useful anyway. Just that it's fucking powerful for an ugly pink glass ball.”

“If you say so...”

Silence fell over them again, and Inuyasha was at a loss of words. What was there to say? What a bother that girl was.

“Sooo...”

Now this again. The Spanish Inquisition part 2. Just as well, as long as she was occupied. Was it just him, or was the full-blown panic he felt when he thought about her crying maybe a little obsessive? Well, anyway.

“Sooo...?” Seemed like they were going to make this a habit.

“So, before you moved Germany, you lived in the USA?”

“Yeah.”

“For how long? I mean I assume that you woke up again in Japan, right?”

“Hmm. I woke up there but I didn't stay very long. There were still too many people who'd recognize me for what I really was, so I moved to Paris. I thought in a metropolis of that grandeur I wouldn't stand out as much.”

“And?”

“Nah. Didn't really do it for me. I stood out already 'cause I was Asian, the hair did the rest. And learning French was such a fucking bother, a Japanese accent sounds kinda strange with that language.”

“So what'd you do?”

“I spent round three years there, then I really had enough. So I thought that if big cities weren't for me then maybe wilderness would be. So I moved to Africa.”

“Africa!!”

“Yeah. Was kinda nice until World War II. I mean the continent is large, but most of the good places got into hearing range sooner or later, and I'd like to see anyone relax when they're firing canons and machine guns all around you. And I sure as hell wasn't about to go live in the friggin' Sahara.”

“Wow, Africa. That is so... I've always wanted to go there someday... “Suddenly her face dropped. Really, how could someone wear her emotions right on her skin as much as this girl did?

“You still can. We'll just have to collect all the jewel shards and then you can have your life back, plus Africa trip.”

Inuyasha had always wondered who'd come up with the word flabbergasted, and why, but seeing Kagome's face right then made him guess that this someone had simply sought to describe exactly that expression.

“Thanks.” Or his. What was she thanking him for?

“What for?”

“For knowing what I was thinking about and saying what you did I guess. I didn't realize. “

“What?”

“I wouldn't have thought you to be so... perceptive.”

Charming.“Thanks a lot. You saying you thought I was stupid?”

“No! Just - wait - you were the one who was all 'Social? Never heard of that.' So don't blame me for believing you.”

She had a point. But, he had one, too.“Well it's true. I'm not into the whole interpersonal shit, it was just plain obvious what you were crying about the last two days 'cause you just fucking lost your whole life!”

'Smoooooth.' Hell yeah, the voices were back. But they, too, had a point. She bit her lip although it was quite clear that it was shaking. Still, all he could do was watch with anxious fascination as her eyes grew moist and moister. She seemed to try to suppress it, but it was no use, the first tears spilled and his eyes followed them with dread as they ran across her chubby cheeks and dropped from her chin dramatically. He'd been right, it was even worse when she was stuck in the body of a little girl. Then she spoke, and her raspy strangled voice did nothing to improve his state of mind.

“I hate you. You're right, I just lost everything I had, I was drawn into this hell of a task that is my only hope to regain what I lost but it seems to grow more insolvable by the second and all you're doing is either making fun of me or blocking me out completely, confusing me with your sudden almost caring antics or driving me insane! I don't know how you think that's gonna heighten our chances at re-completing the Shikon no Tama, and if you're so hell bent on not seeing me cry, and I figured as much 'cause you only ever talk to me when I'm about to, then I wonder why you're at the same time doing everything to make me!”

The fucking brat. What did she think this was to him? All fun and games?“Get a fucking grip, woman! I don't give a stinking rat's ass about whether you're crying or not!” 'Not exactly true but oh well.' “And whoever gave you the impression I had any caring antics? I don't fucking care about anyone, including me most of the time, and this trip is not about to change that.” 'Depends on how you look at it, but still... ' “Blocking you out? Hell yeah! If you're unable to mind your own fucking business! Making fun of you? If you insist on acting like a brainless moron then fuck it, 'cause I'll insist on telling you so as long as you do! And now let me tell you something about you! I've never met someone who cared so much about every other breathing creature, and that's not a compliment! We spent half a day in that shit dimension completely superfluously just because you thought we were somehow obliged to 'right the wrong we've caused'. You wanna know what I think about that? If those people are unable to deal with such ridiculous crap then they don't fucking deserve anyone's concern! They're gonna screw their fucking lives up anyway, sooner or later! So what's the fucking point wasting your time on it?

“And you're constantly endangering yourself! You don't seem to waste a second thinking about your personal safety and that's not a fucking compliment either, not when I'm the one who's got to save your ass every time you don't. When that bitch sent her morons to beat me up, what was the fucking point trying to help me? You knew you'd never been in a fight before, what could you possibly have done? And today! What did you fucking think trying to pry a dozen of those motherfuckers off me would do anyone, most of all you, any good, when it was obvious that every single one of them was bigger and stronger than you? You're so fucking selfless and trusting I'm beginning to believe that you're convinced there's something good in everyone of us, or some sappy crap like that! There's just no other fucking explanation for that insane amount of confidence you're walking this world with and that - “ he had to stop for a deep breath, “- is no fucking compliment!”

There, take that.

But, she didn't look all that touched by his reproaches, in fact her lips almost formed a amused smile. Damn that woman and her roller-coastering moods!

“Inuyasha, really, all you're accusing me of is being something like a good person, which I sure am not, but still.”

“A good person? It's a fucking miracle you survived till you're fifteenth birthday with that uncontrollable naivetÃ© !” Ack! Foot in mouth detected. He'd probably never learn.

But at least she didn't start crying again.

“Why do you keep doing this? Do you really hate me?”

“What makes you think I - Ah forget it!”

“Yeah, forget it. Let's just forget that there are twelve more shards to collect and eleven more dimensions to travel. And that during all this time we're going to be each other's only person to relate to. Why try to get along when we could just as well argue all of the time? Nothing like constant bad moods to make working together all the more efficient.”

“I can't relate to just anyone! In fact, I don't think I ever did!”

“I know it's not easy but you don't even try!”

Points, points, where did she get them all from all of a sudden? He glanced up to the sky as if to maybe find an answer up there but what he did find was an excuse to interrupt their stupid argument then and there. Dawn had, unnoticed by the both of them, broken quite a while ago and now the sun was already spreading her first rays over the morning cold earth.

“Sun's already up, I say we go looking for that shard.”

“Oh no, we don't. Not until we've worked this out.” Why had he known she'd say that?

“Look, let's just -”

“ - forget it, I know”

“Shut the fuck up and listen to me!”

They glared at each other, breathing heavily.

“What I was going to say was, let's go find the shard first and do whatever you think is necessary as soon as we're back in that interdimension where we're not in constant danger of being attacked by random youkai that sense the shard in your body.”

“Are you out of your mind? Don't you remember what happened to that Sango the last time we argued inside the interdimension? I think I'll be scarred for the rest of my li- existence!”

“Sure, I remember, but if you want to talk about us arguing less then it might even be rather productive if we had to remain absolutely calm. Besides, those two owe us for the shit they've been telling us anyway.” Wherever that crap he fed her came from, Inuyasha hardly cared, as long as they'd stop these futile discussions now. He'd just find another excuse as soon as she'd start again. But she still seemed to be a little reluctant. What more was there to do to convince - ah, perfect.

“And then, if you were worried about our counterparts' reputations back in the other dimension, think about what people will think of yours as soon as she returns from her jolly trip with the freakish bastard. I'd say the shorter she stays away the less harm is done.”

She gasped. Hadn't thought about that, huh?

“Oh my god, you're right! The poor little girl... Ok.”

“Ok?”

“Yeah, lets get going.”

Woohoo! He bent down to grab her once again. She stopped him with an upraised finger.

“But don't you think I'll just forget that we're far from having worked anything out between us. I'll get back to you about that.”

“Keh! Whatever.” He positioned her against his chest and took off.

“There! I can feel something!”

Inuyasha had this time been playing closer attention to her and had therefore been warned by her tensing before she yelled out in excitement. He finished his last leap and came to a smooth halt on a fallen tree.

They hadn't been running around the forest for long, but that came as not that much of a surprise, that girl's Shikon no Tama radar had a rather impressive range, he'd give her that.

“Yeah? Where's it come from?”

She pointed to his right. “From there somewhere. It's still really very faint.”

He took off into the direction she'd indicated without another word. If he wasn't gravely mistaken, and he was pretty convinced he was not 'cause if there was one thing he had it was an almost supernatural sense of orientation - he snorted, like he wasn't supernatural all over, anyway - they were headed south-west, which meant they were pretty much moving parallel to the imaginary boundary between the two territories that probably lay somewhere in the middle of the wood separating the tribes.

“Tell me as soon as the direction isn't right anymore.”

“Sure.”

They covered a lot of ground rather quickly, Kagome occasionally correcting the course he took a little, and before the silence between them could have grown uncomfortable, the forest opened and they stood at the feet of a small hill.

“I think the shard is up there somewhere.”

He squinted his eyes.

“Yeah, I can see something like a ruin up there. The youkai was supposed to live in a ruin, right?”
“Hmm. So what do we do now?”

What kind of a question was that? “We're gonna go up there, kill the youkai and take the shard.”

“But, after last night, don't you think that it'd be better to be a little more cautious? That thing yesterday was pretty dangerous already and it didn't have a shard.”

“Nah, that's ok, it caught me unprepared, is all. This time I'm gonna make me some weapons beforehand, so I won't have to improvise again. That should do, this body is quite strong.”

“If you say so... “

“Look, if it makes you feel better, I wasn't about to burst in there and then see what's actually going on. We're gonna sneak up and try to catch it off guard, I'm not completely insane yet!”

“It's just that we've done enough bad already, it would just be horrible if one of our counterparts died.”

“I won't die, and as long as I don't die, you're not gonna die either.”

She fell into silence after that, obviously not too convinced but at least she wouldn't object anymore either.

He collected whatever might be, with little effort, turned into a weapon and managed to produce six primitive spears from some sticks and stone and Kagome's former belt he still carried around. Said girl watched him with the same mixture of perplexity and curiosity she'd watched him light the fire with the other day. His primitive survival skills seemed to be utterly fascinating to her. He finished fixing the last stone to the last stick and eyed his work critically. Why oh why didn't his counterpart have claws?

Inuyasha mounted the hill with the caution Kagome insisted on and wiggled through the bushes atop it without breaking a single twig. He'd once been rather good at hunting. Obviously, that was something you didn't forget after thirty years of urban laziness.

“The shard hasn't moved in a while.” Kagome's whisper broke the thick silence engulfing the whole hilltop. There was absolutely no life around. The mighty aura of the youkai inhabiting the ruin ahead of them probably kept even the cicadas away.

“Perhaps it's asleep or something.”

Yeah. Or lurking for some idiot animal, or shard hunters, to stumble into its trap. No point panicking her, though.

The ruin proved to remind Inuyasha oddly of the scenario Sango and Miroku had greeted them with the last time, but he didn't fancy Greek architecture that much anyway. Those assemblies of pillars all looked pretty much the same to him. Then, on a closer glance he discovered that the pillars here only marked the entrance to a way larger building behind them.

“So, how close is it?”

“Can't really tell, but it feels... about as far as the girl was when I told you we should be able to see her, you know, when -”

“Yeah, I know.” So around a hundred meters, a little more perhaps.

“Ok, that means if the spider's inside the ruin, it's pretty much at the far end of it, or, if it's outside somewhere, hiding directly behind it. Either way, I'd say it's better to approach it from the outside. Perhaps there's a window at the far end of the ruin, or a wall broken down.”

“That seems to make sense.”

“What do you mean, 'seems'?”

“Well, if I may remind you, the last time you decided about our course of action we both got beaten up.”

“Keh! First of all you got beaten up, me, that was just scratches, and then if you hadn't interfered, those wimps would have been no trouble at all! They just caught me off guard 'cause you had to lecture me about how stupid my plan was!”

“That doesn't make the plan itself any less stupid! One against ten, a normal person would want to avoid such a situation, even if they were convinced they'd make it!”

“Well, sorry I'm not normal, but, just in case it managed to escape your attention, I'm not even human!”

“This is not about being human, it's about possessing a brain!”

“A brain? Who was the one of us to-”

“Ssssshhhhh!”

“What-”

She clamped a chubby hand over his mouth.

“The shard has moved!” She whispered, “I think we might have alarmed the youkai.”

“Fuck!” But it figured. They had - again - been arguing quite vehemently.

“Then again, our chances at really catching the thing off guard were close to non-existent anyway. Spiders have such accurate senses; they feel the tremors of your steps if you're approaching them.”

“Thank you. That really calmed me.” Irony? Sarcasm even? What was up with that girl? Since when had she started being her bitchy self again - wait, had she ever not been like that? Damn her and her mood swings! Jeez, once he thought he about knew what she was like she changed again. Confusing.

Well it couldn't be helped. They'd have to face the thing sooner or later, so why not sooner, as long as the midday sun was up and they at least could fully exploit the advantage of their superior sight?

“Well since it knows we're here anyway, let's just wait till it comes. It should have sensed the shard already, and will want to have it, maybe even enough for it to change its tactics and try a direct attack. And we'll be warned since you can- “

“The shard is approaching.”

“Like I said. Ok, stay here; I'll do what I can. And fucking don't even think about interfering, you got that?”

“Yup.”

What, no resistance, no discussions? Confusing. What else was there to say?

“But - IIIaaaahhhhh!”

And, though he'd probably seen worse a few hundred years ago, Inuyasha struggled to suppress a shudder as the giant youkai came scrambling out of the ruin. It was fucking hideous! One of the hairy ones, with eight unsettlingly large and intelligent looking black eyes and, what was worse, a hind body the size of a fucking van! He glanced from the youkai to the spears he'd stuck under his arm. How on earth was he supposed to kill that monstrosity with these?

“Where's the shard?”

“On the underside of its belly, I think.”

Fucking perfect, the least accessible place possible.

He sprinted towards the youkai, hell bent on not letting it get even close to Kagome. Reluctant to waste his precious spears he picked up a large stone and hurled it at the spider demon to get an idea on how easily hurt it was. The stone, a boulder almost, hit the demon's back - and just bounced off it. Yay! So he was facing an opponent that was about ten times heavier than him, faster, stronger most likely, had double the limbs and a body hard as armour. The only advantage he had was his humanoid intelligence, which he heavily doubted he even possessed, seeing as he was, after all, currently running head first into said opponent.

But the reflected boulder dropped onto one of the youkai's legs and broke it with a crunch. So at least the legs were breakable. He'd just have to break them all, turn the beast onto its back and extract the shard...

Well, at least he had a plan now...

The spider stumbled but managed to catch itself a little too quickly for Inuyasha's tastes. He had no more time to ponder, though; he was in jumping range now. And jump he did, directly onto the demon's back. He attacked the joint of the right hind leg, but he only managed a few thrusts until the youkai began to buck wildly to throw him off. Which it achieved quite effortlessly. Inuyasha hit the stony ground hard and the spears clattered around him. He could feel the wound on his back, that had only just stopped bleeding, reopening again. But, he ignored the pain and rolled away when the youkai came at him with that horribly large spider fang mouth thing braced apart to snap him in two.

Stones, he needed more stones, the spears were more or less inefficient. He picked up another small boulder. The youkai attacked again, and he had the choice: staying, smashing two legs with one stone but risking a bite, or evading and missing the chance.

The second of the hairy limbs shattered under the heavy stone in his hands with a squishy cracking noise as before, the same time as the spider's fang tore into his side. Within the brief moment before the pain would come he picked up a smaller stone and rammed it into one of the youkai's eyes. Then his body bent against his will as his brain registered the harmed tissue. Adrenaline spread through his system and slowed the action around him down considerably, or he himself sped up, either way, he had no trouble hurrying out of the range of the spider's now wildly thrashing legs. Apparently, it felt the pain of its lost eye a lot more intensively than that of its lost legs.

He pressed his hands to his side to stop the bleeding a little, the wound wasn't fatal, at least, all the while keeping an eye on his adversary and Kagome, who had indeed stayed where he left her and watched him anxiously. Since it still trembled in agony, he considered it safe enough to grab another stone and approach the youkai again.

This time he smashed another leg and got away unharmed. The giant youkai was moving a lot clumsier now, with half of its legs hurt. For the first time since he'd seen the goddamn thing, he felt like it was actually possible to kill it.

He came by the pile of spears and picked one up. Maybe he should rather try hitting its brain through one of the eyes, like he'd done with the snake youkai. But a thrown spear wouldn't have enough momentum to tear through that amount of tissue, he'd have to get close again.

The youkai in question had re-found its balance, more or less, and was now attacking. It came onto him fast and he braced himself to leap away. Then, suddenly, as he tensed to do just that, pain shot through him, pain of an intensity that made white lights flash before his eyes. He dropped to the ground and that probably saved his life. The spider's fangs missed him and the beast stumbled over him.

'Poison. Fuck.”

You'd think that a spider that large simply wouldn't need to be poisonous, but nuh-uh! He scrambled away trembling wildly, thrashing almost, but then his body finally managed to send the last of his spare adrenaline through his body and the pain faded. He rose and turned in time to see the youkai doing the same. He leaped while it still swayed and landed on its back again. He went for its eyes directly and rammed the spear into it with all the strength he could muster. But, it threw him off before he could do any fatal harm. During the short flight, brutally ended by the suddenly appearing ground, Inuyasha tried to recall anything useful he knew about spiders but - quelle surprise! - he didn't know a thing. He'd never been in a situation where he was unable to use his claws against one, and more than one swipe had hardly ever been necessary anyway.

To his utter shame, he fell unconscious for a split second or two, the impact really shattered his already fragile constitution. He came to his senses again as, for the second time inside this dimension, he heard Kagome scream in terror. He forced himself up and stumbled over to her. The spider hadn't bothered with him anymore as soon as he was out of it, or meant to use his momentary weakness to get the shard from Kagome, who knew, anyway. Inuyasha jumped for all he was worth, throwing himself between the girl and the spider's fangs. He hurled her away seconds before the fangs ripped his flesh a second time, though not as deeply as before 'cause he fell and scrambled out of their reach. Very dignified, he thought as he stood shakily. To think that there had been a time when he'd killed youkai of that size with a flick of his wrist.

“You alright?” he yelled, remembering Kagome, whom he'd thrown away without bothering where really. He didn't really have the time to await her answer cause the youkai charged again, but he thought he'd heard a grunted “I'm ok but-” while he picked up another stone. He was about to lift it and smash another leg, which could very well have been the last he needed to unbalance the spider completely when another spasm of pain shook him. He was forced to drop the boulder and curled into a ball to counter the mind blowing agony, but that proved to be a rather bad idea seeing as he'd just jumped to increase the impact of the boulder. He crashed into the ground, felt a rib or two break as they connected with some unfortunately placed stones and blackness fell upon him again. He struggled, but in vain. The last thing he saw was the brutally smashed eye of a giant spider, that strangely reminded his foggy mind of the first time he had to eat raw meat, after his mother's death.

He'd caught a rabbit but ripped it apart almost completely in the process.

“Gee, that was - “

“Wake up! Please Inuyasha!”

The voice suddenly ringing in his ears confirmed the suspicion he'd been having for quite a while: Those eight-eyed dancing rabbits couldn't possibly be real, they had to be a part of some really weird dream.

He tried to open his eyes and succeeded, but what he saw was far less unsettling. Someone's face was hovering but an inch from his own and calling his name.

He attempted to shove the person away but his arms wouldn't quite obey.

“Inuyasha! Please wake up, it's still alive and I don't know whether I'll be able to do that again!”

Wait! He knew that voice.

“Kagome?”

“Thank god, you're awake!”

She helped him sit up.

“I did the pink stuff again, but I haven't really figured out when it works and when not. The youkai seems to be - ah! It's rising! Do something!”

Inuyasha glanced around quickly and found what she was talking about: The spider youkai lay a few meters away and was indeed attempting to rise, but a considerable part of its hind body seemed to be missing.

“You did that?”

“Yeah, dunno how, it was about to rip you apart and I actually only, you know, reached for you and screamed your name, but then the pink stuff came from my hands and hit the youkai.”

Judging by the size of the hole, that had to have been one enormous blast of spiritual energy. That girl sure was powerful.

The spider was now standing on shaking legs and Inuyasha realized that it was about time he really did something. A short check of his condition brought up nothing too promising: two ribs broken, scratches all over and, most probably, fatal poisoning. But, he was still able to walk and throw stones, he estimated, so it'd have to do. He'd just have to be quick, 'cause judging by the way his body shook uncontrollably, the poison was already attacking his nerves.

But, happily, killing the youkai was a matter of seconds, another stone, another leg, rendering it unable to move and he could easily drive the spear still sticking in one of its eyes all the way into its brain.

With his opponent dead it seemed as though the last of his strength decided to call it a day and he just slid to the ground, not intending to move another muscle until they'd left this rotten dimension again.

Kagome came and did something really spooky that from his position looked like she just reached through the youkai's shell and extracted the shard, but he wasn't all that sure 'cause he was slowly beginning to lose his sight.

“Are you alright?” Kagome knelt down to examine him.

“Poisn.” huh, so the poison was already affecting his brain. Which might have explained the trance like calm he felt, instead of a slight panic or a little remorse or whatever is expected from someone who is dying. He gave it another try.

“Poison”

“You mean the spider was poisonous?”

He nodded.

“But that's horrible! Doesn't it hurt?”

“S'ok.” he assured, although the pain was actually bordering on unbearable. But, it wasn't like she could possibly do anything about it, so why worry her?

“Are you - is he gonna...?”

“Die? Yeah.” Even if it weren't for the poison, he'd probably die of the rib slowly penetrating his lungs. Must have happened when he was lifting the last stone. The sniffling alarmed him. She wasn't - she was crying. Great. What'd he done now?

“Stop that!”

“What?”

“Crying!”

“But it's all because of me! Just because I can't really use my powers you had to risk your life protecting me! And now you're dying! And the poor boy whose body you've taken will die, too.”

“S'ok, 'tis what I got to do... Protect you.” And it wasn't like the his hanyou counterpart would miss being bullied by the dwarfs all that much, if he still was in his right mind.

“Yeah I know it's your job, but you sure aren't supposed to endanger yourself the way you did when you threw yourself in front of me! No one can expect you to, that's just insane!”

“You rather... I'd let you... die?”

“Yes! If saving me means getting yourself killed!”

“No sense.”

“What?”

Talking was getting increasingly difficult now. “You... make... no sense.”

“Why - oh my god, sorry! I'm gonna get us out right now! Then you won't hurt any more.”

She placed the shard in her upturned hands and began whatever it was she had to do to make it fuse with her.

Inuyasha watched her through heavy lidded eyes. That girl made absolutely no sense. She couldn't possibly have meant what she just said? She wanted him to be selfish? To value his own life higher than hers, or rather, since it wasn't really their own bodies they were wasting here, rather put her in pain instead of himself? She must bee out of her mind. She didn't even like him, why did she care about his well-being? Out of her mind, indeed.

And again reminding him of his mother. She too had never wanted him to protect her when the people, in the village they'd fled to, threw stones at her, although he was, even at the age of four, already way tougher than her. But, she always walked on proudly and feigned indifference, and when he asked her about it later she always said that since none of what was happening was his fault he shouldn't be hurt because of it. He'd argue that it couldn't be her fault either, cause she'd told him that she'd loved his father, and that it was never wrong to do something out of love, But, she'd say that she deserved those stones because she had not acted upon her love when she should have, because she'd feared the consequences, the hurt. She'd never explained her words and so Inuyasha wasn't entirely sure what they meant, even now.

“Aw, crud!” Kagome dropped her hands into her lap. “I still have no idea what I'm supposed to do! It just happened the last time, but I don't know how!” She looked at him concernedly. “I'm sorry, it might take a while. Will you be alright?”

His tongue felt thick and heavy but he managed to form a word around it.

“Yeah.”

“Really I - “

“Hurry - dying.” Why was she still talking if she was so concerned about his pain?

“Soon? Oh my god, that must hurt so much! Is there anything I can do to ease the pain? I really don't know how much longer it will take.”

Well she could try killing him now, that'd sure ease the pain considerably, but he couldn't possible ask her to do that. Suddenly a picture appeared in his mind, a memory, probably stirred up because he'd been thinking about his mother.

“Head... lap?”

“Huh? Lap? You want to put your head on my lap?”

He nodded, blushing. What had he been thinking? There was no way she'd -

“Ok, come here, I'll help you.” She patted her lap.

She all but pulled him onto her thighs and he suppressed a contented sigh when the strain in his neck eased... well, and when her scent soothed the pain a little. She really did smell nice, no matter the dimension it seemed. But, he wasn't about to let her know that.

She started her meditation again, her face a mask of determined concentration. Inuyasha closed his eyes and was lulled into a sleep his counterpart would most probably never wake up from again by her even breathing when suddenly drops of warm liquid dropped onto his temple.

“Why... cry?” he couldn't even open his eyes any more, he estimated he had another five minutes, maybe ten to live.

“It doesn't work! I just don't know what to do I - I- “ she broke out sobbing and whined something incoherent. Then she squealed.

“Ah! It's working! Fuse! Fuse already!”

And she it really seemed to have worked, cause she went limp and didn't talk anymore, which probably meant that she was leaving her counterpart's body. Fucking Miroku, couldn't take him out first even if he was dying!

“What's - where?” Ah, so her counterpart had awoken. This would be fun.

“Kitan? What are you - IIIIIIEEEEK!” She'd probably discovered the spider.

Either he was beginning to leave the dimension or he really was dying now, the feel of this body slowly got weaker.

'Well, at least this one didn't punch me.” he thought as the sounds and smells dulled into nothing.

A.N.: Yeah, I know it's been long, but schools a bully one year before graduation (or whatever 'abitur' is wherever you come from). I had to write an essay in French! Twelve pages! I feel I deserve some pity... maybe... Or not, since I chose to do it.

Anyway, this is my first beta read chapter, I'm sure every thing's a little easier to read now

THANK YOU ALVIDA!!

... now with that said, read and leave a review if you have the time...