InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Silent Affair ❯ Chapter 4

Hope everyone in the US had a happy Fourth! Our local fireworks got rained out so we just listened to the fire trucks and ambulances circle our part of the city as people persisted in trying to blow themselves and their houses up... On to Chapter 4!

 

 

Three years. Kagome had been missing for three long years. Inuyasha thought vaguely, I'm slowly going mad. The last time he had smelled her scent in any pretense of freshness had been over two years ago, just before her scent finally faded from her pillows after months of her absence. For months he had searched for her within the states of Kansas and Missouri, home to the city she and his family had been living in for the ten years before she disappeared. He hadn't found a single clue. At one point last year he'd found airline accommodations to San Francisco in her name from the same time she'd left but he hadn't been able to find out where she'd gone after that or when exactly she may have taken a second flight. All he knew was that she wasn't anywhere to be found in California either. After three years his fiancee had left him, telling him that she couldn't wait around for him to find Kagome in order for them to plan their wedding. But Inuyasha refused to get married without Kagome there. When he came to his senses he was supposed to let her know but he wasn't to think that she would wait around for him. Inuyasha didn't expect her to.

 

Finding Kagome had become an obsession. Any clue he might find, any lead he came across was almost immediately followed in hopes that he would quickly discover her whereabouts. He had no such luck. He couldn't find her anywhere in the United States and he was beginning to lose hope. Nowhere else in the world would they be able to understand her signing and even in the States it would be a very small percentage of the population that would even know what she was doing if she asked for help. The hanyou was growing more and more frustrated and he felt like his world was crashing down around his ears. His parents had known she'd left. Notes had been placed on their pillows. Miroku had tried to warn him that she would leave but the stubborn hanyou hadn't listened. He kicked himself everyday for that blunder. Sota seemed to have an idea where she was but wouldn't tell him as he'd been sworn to secrecy. Inuyasha had begged, pleaded, and even threatened the young man who was more like his brother than his blood half sibling. Nothing. Sesshomaru even knew, taunting Inuyasha with the fact that he knew where Kagome was and that he had no intention of telling him. Inuyasha had been very willing to give anything and everything he owned for the knowledge but Miroku had stepped in and saved him the embarrassment of dropping to his knees and begging his elder brother to tell him where he could find Kagome.

 

Now he was boarding a plane to Japan in a last ditch effort to find her. Miroku had dropped some hints that he might find her there, along with the slip-ups Sota had let by the last few months. The two had obviously been able to tell by his distress that he was falling apart at the seams. The inuhanyou was coming undone and without Kagome to soothe him he wasn't going to last the month let alone the rest of his long life. Inuyasha had come to quite a few realizations about himself in the last couple of years and knowing he couldn't survive without Kagome was one of them. She meant more to him than he had ever been willing to admit, even to himself, until now. So Miroku had helped him book a flight to Japan and planned to join him a day or two later. Inuyasha greatly appreciated that at least one of his friends hadn't completely abandoned him.

 

Spending his few days alone in a place he hadn't been in almost fourteen years had been all the more stressful for the hanyou, especially with how anti-youkai Japan had become in the last five years or so. Toga had been right to move his family and a part of him that he ignored for the time being was glad his father had uprooted them from Japan and taken them to the States to avoid all the persecution and prejudice directed at those with youkai blood. His money was still good no matter what but Miroku had helped him book hotels that were more youkai and hanyou friendly. Inuyasha would never quite understand how his old friend had such good connections in far off places but decided that it didn't matter as long as he was able to continue his search for Kagome.

 

As far as he was aware she was nowhere to be found. No one he asked knew of a Higurashi Kagome and none of the demons he could find recognized her scent. That meant that she wasn't there or they simply hadn't run across her. It wasn't too hard to fathom seeing as Japan was so densely populated, especially in the urban areas. That was a hell of a lot of scents to sort through let alone pick out a singular and personal scent from a t-shirt that's scent was so faded to begin with. Eventually, once Miroku had joined him, Inuyasha was able to find out that Kagome had in fact entered the country three years prior and that as far as the government was aware, she hadn't left it. Given some new hope he renewed his search with vigor, hunting down every lead and pursuing anyone that might possibly have seen her. Finally it all came down to a few city blocks, the one surrounding her family shrine and the blocks surrounding his father's old home. Neither area seemed to show much promise until Miroku mentioned that his mentor's shrine wasn't too far from where Kagome used to live.

 

At that point in time Inuyasha had been willing to try anything, not realizing until much later that Miroku had known just a bit too much about where he might have been able to find his best friend. The temple gates were the only thing that stood between him and where he hoped he would find Kagome and for some reason Inuyasha was having a hard time taking the first step. It wasn't that he feared being rejected by the temple's barrier but more that he feared his search there would turn up nothing and he would leave empty handed again. He wasn't sure his heart could take this kind of disappointment for much longer. Taking a step toward the entry, the inuhanyou took a deep breath as he strode through the barrier without a problem. Almost immediately he was assaulted by the smells of food being prepared somewhere, the flowers in the garden and a far too familiar scent to just be a coincidence lingering among those of the monks. Kagome was here. Now he had only to find her and everything would be alright.

 

It hadn't taken him long to find his long lost friend and once he did Inuyasha just stood, staring at her for several moments. Her hair was longer, much longer, her figure was trimmer and there was something… sad about her scent, but it was still his Kagome. Tending to a small vegetable garden in the afternoon light, she looked peaceful and absolutely beautiful. He hardly knew how to approach her. Miroku had made the first move, stepping up to her and giving her a light tap on the shoulder. `Miroku!' she smiled, making the name sign she had given him years ago. Her eyes lit up and Inuyasha watched with envy as she hugged the young man. The two stopped conversing in sign when Kagome finally noticed his stiff form. Her hands stilled and she stared at him for several minutes. `What is he doing here?' she signed to Miroku, seemingly pretending that he wasn't there to see what she was saying.

 

Inuyasha grunted faintly, finally coming out of his daze to take a few steps in her direction. She watched him somewhat warily, a lack of the warmth for him in her eyes like there used to be. It hurt to have her look at him like that, almost more than her absence had. She had changed. Inuyasha made his way until he stood before her then dropped to his knees. “Kagome,” the hanyou let out in a dry sob.

 

Miroku watched his two friends reunite, wincing when Kagome's face twisted in pain. She didn't want to give in, she didn't want to feel anything for him but her heart was too big and too forgiving, forcing the young woman to crouch down and hug her best friend to her. She made gentle hushing noises and reached up to tentatively pet his hanyou friend's ears. The inuhanyou held her closer, obviously terrified that she would slip from his grasp if he ever loosened his hold. Finally he pulled back far enough to look into her eyes, holding her face between his hands and staring at her as if to memorize her every feature. `What? Do I have something on my face?' Kagome signed, a small smirk on her lips.

 

“Have you been here all this time?”

 

`All this time… Have you been looking for me since I left?' she asked him incredulously, the disbelief obvious in her eyes. Inuyasha's golden eyes widened considerably and his mouth opened and closed for a moment.

 

“Of course I have baka! I had no idea where you'd gone, why you'd left, when you were coming back. You could have been dead and I wouldn't have known!” Kagome looked away, unable to face the pain he displayed so openly. Was he still so clueless to her pain as well? Was he so dense that he didn't know why she'd left?

 

`I'm fine. I've made my life here. The monks helped me train my miko powers so I can protect myself and I have everything I need here.' Inuyasha stared at her in amazement. `Miroku made sure I made it here safely. He even came to visit last year,' she finished, a brilliant smile sent in the young man's direction. Miroku took a step back, a frightened look on his face, pulling at his collar nervously. A pair of amber eyes turned his way, glaring. Kagome was released after a moment as Inuyasha began stalking toward his long time friend, growling low in his throat.

 

“You knew all along and you didn't tell me? You waited three years just to drop hints! You… you…” Inuyasha was reduced to a snarling beast, backing Miroku into the wall of one of the smaller buildings. Kagome finally shook off her confusion and approached the feral inuhanyou. Placing a gentle hand on his back startled him and he spun, ready to attack her mindlessly. But he stopped himself and Kagome looked unaffected. She was used to his outbursts. Granted she hadn't seen him this bad in a long time but she knew now as she'd known then he wouldn't hurt her. He froze, staring at her in fear and confusion.

 

`Inuyasha, you need to leave. I don't know why you're here but you'll disturb the balance the monks try to maintain here.' Growling a moment, more at himself, Inuyasha hung his head. Reaching out his hand he waited for Kagome to take it. When she didn't he looked up at her. She looked faintly confused but more than anything she looked unsure. He needed to touch her, to hold her, to keep smelling her scent. When she still wouldn't reach out for him in return he let his shoulders sag, staring at her brokenly. `I can't do this Inuyasha,' she told him. The hanyou didn't know what she meant.

 

He pleaded with her to let them talk somewhere and she sighed, glancing off to the side for a moment before looking back into his eyes and nodding. She led her two friends to the small room the monks had been kind enough to let her stay in for the last three years. Miroku followed behind his stricken friend, noticing that Inuyasha was much closer to his breaking point than he had been before finding Kagome. It had been their hope, his, Sota's and Inuyasha's parents', that seeing her again would raise his spirits but her obvious rejection of him was causing the inuhanyou to fall deeper into his depression. Miroku knew she still loved him, she'd broken down and told him as much during his last visit, but she wasn't willing to stay Inuyasha's friend and only his friend. She wanted more from Inuyasha and unless he was willing to give her that, she would disappear from his life again because she thought it was what was best for him. The young man hoped the hanyou would realize the truth before it was too late for them both.