InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ As Young Hearts Grow Older ❯ Discussion ( Chapter 11 )

As Young Hearts Grow Older

 

Chapter Eleven

 

Disclaimer: Inuyasha does not belong to me. It is property of Rumiko Takahashi.

 

 

Sango quietly pushed the bamboo shade aside before stepping as silently as she could into Kaede's hut. She knew her way around it well, but she wasn't prepared to see Kagome sitting up and smiling at her when she turned around. Startled, she jumped and her back hit the door frame behind her.

 

“Oh, ow! Whoops!” she laughed nervously.

 

Concern shifted across Kagome's features. “Are you alright, Sango?”

 

“Little bit clumsy for a demon slayer, don't you think?” Inuyasha asked coolly. He was not thrilled that his moment with Kagome had once again been cut short. This was going to start getting very annoying.

 

Every one heard Miroku laugh behind the taijiya. His laugh lightened the mood instantly. Kagome cracked a half-smile as Sango blushed deeply. “She's just a little bit off kilter. I surprised her with a passionate kiss in the woods. She's still stunned at my prowess!”

 

Sango turned an even deeper shade of red as she whirled around to meet his gaze. Her glare was filled with ire and contempt. Miroku's face was still bright with his smile. “If you weren't holding Shippou, I would beat you senseless!” she raged.

 

“You know, Shippou's old enough to handle himself. You can beat Miroku anyways,” Inuyasha pointed out, a devilish grin turning up a corner of his mouth and baring one of his fangs.

 

“Inuyasha!” Kagome exclaimed. She extended a hand and slapped him playfully, illustrating her displeasure.

 

“What?! It's true! He's perfectly capable of taking care of himself. He just likes it when you girls baby him, which you always do!”

 

“Shut up, you stupid dog!” Shippou sprang to life from within Miroku's arms.

 

“See! He was listening this whole time!” Inuyasha accused.

 

“It's a good thing that I was too!” Shippou retorted as he crossed his arms indignantly over his chest. “You were sitting here trying to ruin my good name!”

 

“If any one's good name is being tarnished in here, it's mine!” Sango exclaimed.

 

Kagome sat confused as the entire hut began to degrade into absolute chaos. Shippou leapt from Miroku's arms and stomped forward to confront the accusations of the unruly hanyou. Sango, freed of any reasons she would have had to refrain from clobbering Miroku, drew back her hand and slapped Miroku as hard as she could. It was Miroku's turn then to collide with the doorway.

 

Shippou and Inuyasha continued to argue with each other. Neither one could be heard over the self-important yelling of the other. Suddenly, as if it would bring the argument to an immediate close, Inuyasha slammed his fist against the top of Shippou's skull.

 

“Sit boy!” Kagome muttered.

 

The sharp sound of Inuyasha's skull contacting loudly with the floor echoed within the walls of the small hut. It was so loud and surprising that Shippou stopped sobbing, Sango stopped shouting, and Miroku's head turned sharply in the direction of the noise. Kagome felt instantly guilty.

 

“DAMMIT, WOMAN!” Inuyasha shouted. Fury overtook his features as he raised his head. “What in the hell did you do that for?!”

 

Kagome suddenly found herself speechless. She knew that she had done it to keep Inuyasha from further clobbering Shippou, but now it was beginning to occur to her that he wouldn't have really hurt the fox child. A blush crept across Kagome's cheeks as she struggled to find the words to defend herself.

 

Inuyasha's frown deepened as he watched her open and close her mouth as she tried to come up with an explanation. He stood brusquely and stomped for the door, shouting behind him, “Why don't you just think about it for a while!? I'm sick of this!”

 

Kagome's mouth remained open in shock as she watched him jump into the night sky before the bamboo curtain settled back into place from its violent shove. All eyes focused on Kagome, but no one said anything. They watched expectantly to see what she would do.

 

“I guess he needs some time to cool off…” Kagome muttered.

 

Sango shrugged and sat in front of the fire to begin cooking. Miroku sat quietly in a corner to meditate on the happenings of the day, smirking at how he had made Sango blush. Shippou curled up on a stack of blankets, rubbing the small bump on his head and sniffling dramatically. Kagome looked at her hands and sighed.

 

She was beginning to feel ashamed of what she had done. The full force of his anger had hit her with a sting that she hadn't felt before. Admitting that she cared for him and knowing that he cared back had opened the floodgates of emotion between them. In a way, it had been nice. She was starting to realize that it also meant they could hurt each other much more deeply. Before, she could have written off his reaction as saying he was simply being dramatic, he didn't care for her so he couldn't possibly be that upset. She no longer had that luxury.

 

Kagome let out another deep sign. She never wanted to hurt Inuyasha. All that she had ever wanted was for him to find himself, to be happy- even if that meant that he would be happy without her. Now that he was before her again, with her again, she had no idea what she wanted for him, what she wanted for herself.

 

The future was much too uncertain. The jewel being back in the picture didn't make her choices easier for her. Something that Kikyou had said was beginning to eat at her again.

 

Kikyou's message had been clear. The time would come when she would need to choose between her life before Inuyasha and her life with Inuyasha. She wouldn't ever be able to pretend as though he'd never existed, as though she'd never met him. He would be a part of her forever. She already knew that. But was only having a part of him to hold inside enough? Could she live without him? Was she really cruel enough to walk away from the one person that needed her and loved her, the one person that she needed and loved?

 

She thought back to a time when Inuyasha was the only person at the center of her heart. She wondered how many nights she had sat up waiting for him to come through the well and tell her that he had been wrong, pretend like nothing had ever happened between them. How many times had she been jealous of the other woman in his heart, the chances that she'd had to be in his arms that Kagome had never had?

 

She was finally getting what she had spent so much time hoping for. Her chance to be happy with the hanyou she desperately loved was right in front of her. Now it appeared that either she would screw it up for the both of them or fate would.

 

Miroku broke through the cascade of depressing thoughts by speaking suddenly, shattering the ear-splitting silence in the hut that had been going on for hours. At least, it felt like hours. “I think we need to talk about what we're going to do about everything that happened today.”

 

Kagome glanced around the room. Kaede was sitting next to Sango, who held Shippou in her lap. Miroku still sat in the corner, carefully thinking over what he wanted to say. Inuyasha was still gone. The dinner Sango had been making before was almost finished now. She wondered how long she'd been withdrawn in the realm of her thoughts. How long had she been ignoring the rest of the world?

 

Kagome looked down at her wrist. Her tiny, feminine Mickey Mouse watched ticked off the seconds. It had been over two hours! Where did the time go? Mickey only smiled idly at her.

 

Without speaking, Kaede stood and shuffled over to Kagome. Getting older had taken more of a toll on her back these days, it seemed. She was slightly more hunched over than before, but much too stubborn to ever truly complain about it. She had always felt that it was a priestess's job to take her lot in life and make the most of it that she could. Her duty was to serve her village and her people.

 

She held a fist out toward Kagome. Kagome, without thinking, held her palm open, a repetition of earlier events. Kaede dropped the jewel into it. She had attached a rosary to it, in order to calm some of the unbridled power that Kagome felt running off of it in waves. It did feel weaker than before, so the rosary served its purpose, but it could easily be broken off if ever the jewel was stolen.

 

Kagome stared at the jewel in her fingers. Light sparkled off the surface, casting a thousand glittering reflections on the creamy white skin of her hand. Its colors seemed different to her now than when she was fifteen years old and fighting for her life. There were more colors within the perfect sphere, more hues that had never been there before.

 

If she hadn't know the destructive power that the jewel was capable of, how many lives it had destroyed, had many people had died for it, she might have thought it was beautiful. In that moment, she understood why so many people had coveted it. The Shikon no Tama was beautiful beyond compare.

 

Kagome looked up to meet the eyes of every one in the room. They looked at her expectantly. She knew that they were all wondering, waiting for her to tell them about what Kikyou had said to her.

 

Sango broke the ice. “What do you think we're supposed to do with it?”

 

“I'm not sure,” Kagome admitted. “I don't know why it came back. All she said was that the Gods brought it back because we would need it. She said a `new evil' is coming.” Kagome surreptitiously left out the predictions for tragedy and hardship.

 

“What did she mean by a new evil?” Miroku asked rhetorically.

 

Kagome shrugged helplessly. She didn't know the answers and she wished she understood why she always had to be the one thrown into these situations. Would she ever have a normal life?

 

Kaede stared at the fire. She was disturbed by her sister's appearance earlier in the day. She hadn't said more than a few words since she had returned to the hut. It seemed that her sister would never be able to resign to the peace of the afterlife. She wondered vaguely if the same fate would apply to her when she left this life.

 

A thought struck Kagome. “Kaede-sama, how was the jewel being protected when Kikyou was in control of it?”

 

Kaede turned her arthritic neck slowly, meeting Kagome's questioning gaze. She kept all traces of pain from the dull aching of her old body off her face. “Kikyou had kept it in a purified temple on a special stand. She kept incense burning to ward off any demons or spirits. She purified it at routine times, usually once a week, so that the evil within did not get too great.”

 

Miroku raised an eyebrow. “Why would you ask such a question, Kagome?”

 

“I understand it,” said Sango. “We're not looking for shards, so it would be useless to travel with the jewel. That would just be asking for trouble. It would be best for us to stay in the village with it. We can best protect it from demons here- not to mention all the foolish humans who would want it.”

 

Kagome nodded, smiling at her friend. There were times when it seemed like she and Sango were of the same mind. Miroku stroked his chin thoughtfully.

 

“But won't that make the village a dangerous place to be? It would increase demon attacks in the area, surely.”

 

“Well,” Kagome said, “I'm not sure that the demons know about it being here yet. As far as we know, it was only re-created today. They'll sense something different, but they won't know what it is yet. Besides,” she paused for a moment, “I can't explain this easily. It just feels different. It's not the same malicious intensity.”

 

Kaede nodded. “I sensed it as well.”

 

“Do you think we should enshrine it again?” Miroku asked the elderly priestess.

 

“It would be foolish to travel with the jewel,” Kaede agreed. “Perhaps it is best if ye do enshrine it. It seems the only way to protect it.”

 

“I just don't want the villagers to get hurt over this,” Kagome said, a note of concerned sadness creeping into her tone.

 

“We don't have much choice. We need them to help protect it,” Sango argued. “There's no way that we can do it on our own. We're just going to get older and weaker. Think about the sheer numbers of demons out there. There are only six of us.”

 

“I have to agree with Sango. We'll need all the help that we can get,” Miroku commented.

 

Kagome looked pleadingly at Kaede. If any one else would care about the villagers, it would be the other priestess. Kaede thought for a moment, pursing her lips, before she spoke.

 

“Sadly, I believe ye are correct. We will need the help of the villagers to protect the jewel from falling into the wrong hands. It is easier to fight with an army than with only six.”

 

Kagome's face fell. She didn't want any one else to get hurt. A large part of her simply wanted to protect every one. It was the mother in her.

 

“Alright,” she conceded. “We'll get started tomorrow. Is the former temple still standing?”

 

Kaede shook her head.

 

“We'll need to get the villagers together so that we can begin to build one. Miroku, you and Inuyasha-“

 

Kagome stopped speaking upon the mention of Inuyasha's name. She had been so distracted that she had almost forgotten about him. “Oh, I have to go apologize!” she exclaimed.

 

Before any one could say another word, she was running out the door, the Shikon no Tama still clutched within her fingers.