InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ And Times In-Between ❯ Musings - Prelude Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

Kagome looked down at the Shikon shard that they had found just the day before. A small smile crossed her features when she thought about the tree that had controlled it. 'Now, that has to have been the first shard we've found that was being used for good,' she thought with a contented little laugh. Suddenly, the screams of the villagers reproduced itself in her mind, and she paled. She did her best to suppress a shudder, but failed, her entire body trembling with the recollection.

What had those villagers done? Nothing. She frowned, and trembled again, but this time with anger. 'How dare he? Those were innocent people!'

Inuyasha turned his head a little to see Kagome fuming, an enraged look in her eyes. She wasn't prone to outbursts of anger, so this behavior was a little startling. "Oi, Kagome, are you okay?"

Her head shot up and she looked at him with confusion in her eyes. "Why wouldn't I be?" she asked, calm once more. The anger she had experienced just a brief moment before had evaporated. Inuyasha frowned but turned his eyes back to the path before them. They were making good time, and he didn't want to stall them with pointless sentimental blather.

*-*~*-*

And Times In-Between

Chapter Two

*-*~*-*

The small campfire that they had set up crackled one final time before it burned out. The group had walked the entire day, and when they had set up camp, everyone was feeling exhausted. They had fallen asleep easily, Shippo curling up against Kagome's side, Sango to her left, and Miroku safely across the fire from them while Inuyasha was sleeping with one eye open.

Kagome turned in her sleep, the echo of the frightened cries of the villagers plaguing her in her dreams. They cried for help, for a savior, for anyone to come to their aide. A woman's eyes widened in terror before her life fled her body, a poisonous whip slashing at the front of her body. As her eyes dulled in the pain of death, her ears rang with the deafening cry - Kagomeeeeee!

"No!" she gasped out, her body snapping into a sitting position. Kagome's breaths came in shallow pants, her pulse racing and her eyes unfocused. A moment or so passed and she stood and walked shakily into the darkness, away from the sleeping bodies of her friends. She leaned against a tree, closed her eyes and regained her breath. There was something wrong with her, she concluded. She had seen people die before, she had seen demons evaporate into oblivion; she had witnessed such horrendous acts before. And yet the images of something she hadn't even seen haunted her. She had promised herself before not to be affected by the things she saw happen in the past - it would be the only way to retain her sanity. So why was this…?

A thought struck her. Sesshoumaru - that murderer - had just gone and killed everyone for sport. What could those innocent villagers have to done to deserve such a sad fate? Not a thing. And he had just gone and killed them - for the fun of it. He was just as bad as Naraku.

"That bastard," she spat, grinding her teeth together. She sat down at the base of the tree and hugged her knees to her body, feeding the rage she harbored for that demon by recalling every instance in which he had ever committed a crime against her law. The hours ticked away and she got up from her niche as the sun began to rise. She walked in a shaky line, noticing dimly that the trees were beginning to thin out. "Sesshoumaru," she growled to herself, hating the man that belonged to the name.

You called?

"Kagome-sama?" Miroku placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, and her body had a small spasm at his touch, as though waking out of a dream. "Kagome-sama, we're leaving now," he intoned.

She looked up at him and a cheerful smile spread over her face. "Good Morning, Miroku-sama. How did you sleep?"

He nodded while they headed back to camp. "Well enough. You?"

"Like a baby, Miroku-sama. Like a baby."

*-*~*-*

Sesshoumaru studied his work. It was rough, but good enough to pass his - rather high, mind you - standards. He was a practical youkai, one of purpose, or so he fancied himself. He was not wont to make decisions based upon a whim or to follow through or finished something halfheartedly. He had spent the night completing the somewhat gruesome task he had set himself to the day prior. Sesshoumaru was no fool. He had buried the victims of his night of slaughter and prayed for them. Restless souls were a danger to all forms of life, and vengeful ones more so.

It was rough, he concluded, looking upon the graves of the massacred villagers, but it would accomplish what it was designed to do. He stood, content to have finished such a tedious task, and took a moment to stretch out his lean body before heading back into the forest to continue his patrol. The brief moratorium had been necessary but not exactly welcome. He would have to make up for time lost today, and the prospect of a rushed inspection was not one that enticed him. Rushed work implied a half-assed job. Of course, that was merely an implication. There were ways around that.

Sesshoumaru paused for a moment, sniffing carefully at the air. Something had caught his attention. It took almost no time for him to readjust his thinking. It wasn't a smell that bothered him. The breeze blew, and he heard a low growl floating within it. "That bastard…" came the echo of a voice. It struck him that he recognized that voice, if vaguely. He tilted his head to the side a little, letting the bursts of cool air that rushed through the trees hit him. A moment later, the faint voice called out through the wind again. "Sesshoumaru…"

That did it. A smug little smile spread over his face. So it was that girl - the one which traveled with his half-witted brother - that held such a low opinion of him? How vaguely amusing. Perhaps, had he been in a more belligerent mood and not quite as pressed for time as he was, he would have gone back to punish her for that slight, but today was not the day. It would just give him a valid reason to kill her later on, he mused. That is, he thought idly, after I destroy Inuyasha.

*-*~*-*

Sango glanced to her left, looking at the monk who sat peacefully by her side on the tanuki's back. He sat in a meditative position, his staff across his lap, and a serene look on his face with his eyes closed. A little frown spread over her face and she snuck another look at him. There was definitely something wrong with him, she determined, taking another covert peep at him.

"Is something wrong, Sango? You've been glancing my way for quite some time now," Miroku murmured, his eyes still closed and his body remaining perfectly still.

Sango blushed, flustered, and averted her eyes. "I was just… worried about you, Houshi-sama."

At this, Miroku cocked an eyebrow, but otherwise remained motionless. "Whatever for?"

"You've been so… contemplative lately. It's so unlike you…"

"I am a monk, Sango. Monks meditate." She looked away, a deep blush on her face. He couldn't help it; he doubled over and a fit of laughter consumed it. It rolled out of his mouth in soft, pleasantly deep waves, and only increased when Sango began to stammer a protest.

Kagome looked back from her place in front of them, when she heard him start to laugh. She had heard snippets of their conversation, but had chosen to remain quiet, diligently doing her Geometry homework. Curiosity got the better of her and she turned around, sending a curious and suggestive look to her flustered friend. "Sango-chan, what did you do to him?"

At this, Miroku's laughter died down somewhat conspicuously. "She forgot that I am, in fact, a monk." He straightened his robes out, and resumed his meditative position, a small little smile still on his face. Kagome sent an apologetic look back to Sango, but the taijiya shrugged it off, a smile on her face.

She had forgotten.

She glanced back over at the monk again, and let her eyes drift around her. Kagome sat in front of them, mumbling about her homework. Shippo and Kirara were curled up to her rear, sleeping contentedly. Then at the very front, sitting just above the tanuki's face, sat the imposing figure of Inuyasha, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes narrowed as he surveyed the land below them as they drifted through the air.

It was interesting that they had all placed their trust and safety into Inuyasha's hands so easily. They followed his lead, falling in step in their places behind him. They simply accepted his leadership - almost blindly, she thought. But it seemed most natural to do so, at the same time. It was somewhat the pack mentality, she mused. The strongest one became the leader of the pack - the one that the others deferred to. Inuyasha was undoubtedly the strongest one within their little pack, and with good reason, as well.

What was the saying that Kagome had mention to Sango once? "Behind every great man, there is a far greater woman". It was something along those lines anyway. With a girl like Kagome behind him, Inuyasha would remain the strongest among them. Kagome was an amazing girl, so much was obvious. Her eyes wandered to the girl in front of her. 'She is such a sweet girl.' Kagome sat ahead of her, bent over her textbooks, lost in insanely complicated equations and dizzying numbers. 'So innocent,' she thought sadly, glancing down at her side to see her Hiraikotsu. 'The best one among us.'

"Kagome-sama?" Sango heard Miroku's voice and snapped to attention, listening as the monk addressed her friend.

"Mm?" She replied, only half-listening as she finished proving two triangles similar somewhere amidst an ocean of calculations - most of which were wrong.

"Would you mind being a little more silent?" He murmured.

Kagome blushed embarrassedly and stuttered an apology. She hadn't realized that she'd being doing her work out loud, she was sorry for having interrupted his concentration. Miroku made a sound somewhat akin to a snort in acknowledgment. Kagome sighed and turned back to her books. Miroku resumed his meditations. Shippo and Kirara continued to sleep. Sango sighed.

She stood and walked forwards, stepping around Kagome's clutter of books and items spilled out of her bag, and made her way to the front of the tanuki's body, where the figure in red was seated. "Inuyasha?" she called, sitting down beside him. He spared her a glance, but said nothing. She was all for companionable silence, but…Sango felt like banging her head against a wall. It seemed this was as companionable as the trip was going to get.

*-*~*-*

He felt it. He had felt it since the day before, when they had met Sesshoumaru in the woods. Something was off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Inuyasha wasn't stupid - he had quite a handful of other flaws that could easily have been misconstrued as stupidity, but stupidity in itself was not a quality that he possessed. There was definitely something wrong, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.

"Ne, Inuyasha… why do you think he did it?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Sesshoumaru. Why do you think he killed those people?"

He cut the memory off before it ended - he hadn't particularly liked the end of that conversation. Could that have been what was bothering her? Now that they were traveling tanuki-back, he had time to sit down and think about his little dilemma. Why would that have been bothering her?

"Inuyasha?"

He didn't need to look to know who it was. The taijiya stood by him, and he got the feeling she must have felt a little awkward standing there and waiting for acknowledgement, so he decided to appease her. He glanced at her just long enough for her to notice, and then turned back to his musings. For some reason, though, he couldn't quite get back into his previous line of thinking.

"Oi, Kagome."

She looked up from her books expectantly, and he turned his head to face her. "I'm hungry. Make some food."

*-*~*-*

"Sesshoumaru. Why do you think he killed those people?"

"What, are you stupid? Why do you think?"

"God, Inuyasha… just…" she threw her arms up in despair before commanding him firmly. "Osuwari".

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AN: Deep and heart-felt thanks to Yokoshima-na-Neko on ff.net and blackberry on MediaMinre.org, for their kind reviews. =) It's always nice to get positive reviews, mm?

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