InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Birth Marks ❯ The Void ( Chapter 38 )

Chapter 38: The Void

 

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for a manga or two at about $10 each… sigh.

 

Last time: “We haven't mated yet!” Kagome all but screamed as Inuyasha's face went pale. Yusuke grinned and turned away.

 

“Sure, if you say so. Just find a room next time though, okay?”

 

“Yusuke!” Kagome growled out, Inuyasha's arms the only thing that kept her from attacking the fight-junkie.

 

Laughing wildly, Yusuke waved and went to get breakfast and his bag so that they could move out.

 

This time: Kagome glared. Inuyasha grabbed her hand. Yusuke laughed. And the rest just looked confused. It was the same process repeated over and over the entire morning before Miroku sighed and pointed off the trail to a nearby clearing, silently suggesting where they should take their noon stop on their trip back to Kaede's village. Silently agreeing, they set up with a small fire and kettle boiling water for ramen.

 

"You. Over here. Now." Kagome gritted out, pointing to the ground by her feet and glaring heatedly to Yusuke. He grinned lazily and cushioned his head with his arms, leaning back against a tree.

 

"And what if I say no?"

 

"I'll tell Keiko that you ditched her to help me again, and then let her have at you," Kagome suggested airily as Yusuke went pale.

 

"Who's Keiko?" Shippou asked, stealing Inuyasha's cup of ramen.

 

"You wouldn't dare!" He leaned forward, his hands on the knees of his crossed legs. Inuyasha grabbed his ramen back, thumping Shippou on the head. Sango checked the other ramen cups and handed them out, Kohaku looking at the offered cup with curious disgust.

 

"I've done it before! And this time the stairs won't break your fall."

 

"Kagome, ramen's ready."

 

"Okay Sango, thanks for checking on that for me," she smiled, trotting over to sit by Sango, on the other side from Kohaku. She turned to Yusuke and smiled sweetly, "We'll fight after lunch, okay?" Yusuke grabbed his cup and sipped his slowly, procrastinating as long as `humanly' possible.

 

Finishing his ramen, Shippou crawled into Kagome's lap and fished a lollipop out of his shirt. "Who's Keiko?" he repeated, looking up at his mother.

 

Smirking, Kagome looked over at Yusuke, "Keiko is Yusuke-kun's—“

 

"Friend! She's just a friend. Sure I did say all that stuff and all, but—“

 

"You chickened out again, didn't you? I've heard that line before: 'we're just friends because we're too different.' Grow up! Sure, you're--"

 

"I'm finished."

 

"Huh?" Kagome had the intelligence to reply.

 

Standing up, Yusuke pulled his arm across his chest and stretched. "You still want to fight, don't you?" Nodding, Kagome finished off the last of her broth and stood up also. They walked to the center of the field and paced away from each other, "Standard rules?" Kagome nodded and they walked clockwise, drawing a large circle in the dirt.

 

"Sango, do you want to do the count? If one of us leaves the ring or falls down, you count to ten. If you get all the way to ten before we get back into the ring or stand up, we lose, okay?" Sango nodded and stood up, standing at the edge of the ring.

 

"Any other rules?" she asked, eyeing the edges of the crude ring.

 

"Yeah, let's just make sure that we can walk later, okay Yusuke." Yusuke shrugged and slid into an offensive position.

 

"Whatever you say, Lady Night."

 

"I told you not to call me that!" Kagome screeched, too distracted to dodge being blown out of the ring and into the surrounding trees.

 

"ONE! TWO..."

 

"You jerk!" Kagome leapt into the ring and tackled him into the ground. Laughing, Yusuke flipped his cousin over his head.

 

"Serves you right, most of my opponents don't let their guards down so easily!" Smirking, Yusuke let loose another weak rei-gan.

 

Kagome dodged, throwing her arm up and casting a partial shield to deflect the blast. Watching from her kneeling position, she growled and dug her clawed hand into the ground. "Stand still you rabbit!" a shadow along the ground in the shape of a claw swiped at the ground whenever Yusuke touched down from his hopping around the ring. Grinning, Yusuke shook his head and leapt again, nearly getting caught as the shadow claw rose off the ground a few inches.

 

"Ah, come on! I know you can do better than that!" He taunted, shooting a rei-gan by his leg when he was nearly captured by the shadow. Landing, Yusuke let out a surprised yelp when he fell over. His feet and now his arms were encased in shadow. Half-closing her eyes, Kagome allowed herself to be absorbed by the blackness of the shadow that she possessed, closely following Yusuke into the abyss.

 

(O)

 

“Yusuke?” she called out into her dark world, used to the sensation of absolute blackness that surrounded her. Her feet touched down, or at least felt like they did, on a springy surface just as black as the void that she felt herself surrounded in.

 

“Over here,” Yusuke called over, his arms crossed over his chest and his black wings cloaked over his shoulders, making the appearance of a floating head in the darkness. Closing his eyes in concentration, several spirit lights appeared around his body, only managing to light the area around his immediate body. “You used your soul attack, and now we're stuck here.” His eyes scanned for Kagome in the darkness, but she blended into her surroundings perfectly, this being her controlling soul element.

 

“It's funny,” Kagome mused, flopping down onto the spongy ground, willing it to ripple like the surface of a pool of water.

 

Taking the bait, Yusuke rolled his eyes and bounce-stepped toward where he felt the ripples come from, “what's funny, the fact that we're stuck here for however long and the outside world will only pass a second?”

 

Sitting up when she felt he soul twin's lights brush her, “that too.” She shook her head, “but I'm talking about my soul and my spirit being two different things. Miko are supposed to be the light in the darkness of demons attacking and killing humans, and yet I am also a demon with a soul of the element of darkness. It makes me want to laugh when they say that my soul holds only light, when it doesn't.”

 

“Darkness doesn't mean evil; light doesn't mean good or purity. They forget that.” Yusuke allowed a small laugh to escape, “when I died…” Kagome rose her brow, but Yusuke cut off her comment, “the first time, they thought that I was pure evil in a human shell. Stealing, skipping school, getting into fights… I was bored.” Kagome nodded in agreement, knowing the `why' of each time he did what he did.

 

“Smoking…”

 

Yusuke laughed at that, sitting down beside his cousin. “Believe it or not, it did save my life. It was one of Genkai-baba's tests that we had to fight in the dark with our opponent. Stuck a lit ciggie in his belt and Bam, I won.” Kagome laughed briefly, her smile fading into a distant look as she stared into the surrounding darkness. Looking at his cousin, Yusuke noticed Kagome shivering slightly, not allowing her wings to cloak her body, or to even be materialized in the first place. Pulling Kagome into his lap, he encased her in his wings as his arms hugged her. “Hey, what's wrong?”

 

Preening the feathers in front of her absently, Kagome felt the delicate muscles twitch at her touch. “… I don't know what's going to happen next…”

 

Yusuke shrugged, resting his chin on the junction between her neck and shoulder. “You rest, enjoy the piece, enjoy your mate—“

 

“Inuyasha's not my mate… yet.”

 

“And your family, and be thankful that no one was hurt badly or killed…” Kagome felt the chuckle rumbling in his chest, “and you can let us out…”

 

“Why would I do that?”

 

“Because your pack's probably getting worried.”

 

“You said it yourself: no matter how long we're in here, it'll only be a moment out there.” Sighing, Kagome relented, “I'm worried about adopting Shippou and if the spell will work for me.”

 

“The runt?” Yusuke asked, “I thought you already adopted him.”

 

Kagome shook her head, “Iie, Inuyasha did on his night of power, but I haven't yet. My turn's tomorrow and I'm worried that I'm going to hurt him during the process…”

 

“What's so dangerous about this adoption? It's just signing some papers, isn't it?” Yusuke thought of what he'd heard about adoption, knowing about Kuwabara's supposed adoption after his parents disappeared during one of the Tantei's missions. His older sister had become his guardian and signed off on a whole bunch of papers for him.

 

Kagome shook her head. “Demon adoptions need a blood exchange.” She gestured with her hands the slitting of the wrist, “then the child drinks both theirs and the parent's blood to complete the ritual.” She cupped her hand and tilted it toward her lips. “Problem is, sometimes the ritual kills the child.” Yusuke closed his eyes and held Kagome closer.

 

“But didn't you just say that Inuyasha and the runt did the ritual already?” Kagome nodded in agreement.

 

“Inuyasha and Shippou are both male, so that made the ritual go more smoothly. And the more times the child's body has to go through the ritual, the more likely it has to reject the blood. That's why I'm hoping to use a different ritual that I found when I was training,” Yusuke gave her a curious look, “it resembles more closely the maternal blood bonding with the child and I hope that it'll work better.”

 

“They trust you.” Kagome didn't hear Yusuke's last statement as she passed into the land of sleep. “And now you've passed out. Great.” Transporting Yusuke and herself into the alternate void world sapped all of her energy, and maintaining it even more. Laying her down, Yusuke stood up and stretched, retracting his wings. Now it was his job to get them back. Summoning his glowing spirit orbs between his hands, he slid into an attack position above Kagome, compacting the orbs into a single one about the size of a marble. Releasing it, the orb exploded, illuminating the dark void into complete light.

 

(O)

 

The light faded and the inu-gumi stared on in shock. One moment Kagome and her `guest' seemed to melt into the shadows that covered the ring that they drew into the dirt, the next, Kagome's `guest' was standing over her, panting from the exertion of attacking her. Slumped over, his hands were placed in a position that looked like he was about to attack an unconscious Kagome. Sango rushed in, knocking Yusuke to the ground, and fairly snarled at him, demanding an explanation.

 

“I didn't do anything, lady! Kagome passed out while we were in the shadow world!”

 

“It's okay Sango, Yusuke didn't hurt me.” Kagome explained, propping herself up on her elbows with a small grin. “I guess you win then, ne?”

 

“K'me!” a voice called from overhead. A redheaded demon landed in front of Kagome, sweeping her up into a spinning hug.

 

“Hello Jin—“

 

“Da sen' me to se wha' all th' ruckus wa' `bu', an' here ah se ya!” he put Kagome down and looked at the others. “whoo, guess ah miss'd all th' fun den… `dis lass wi' ah fan came alon' and s'ar'ed fightin' wi' me an' ah woulda been here soon'r bu' she tri'd to `tak meh on wi' mah own pow'rs! Well, Jin of the Wind wouldn' ta' nah o' dat! Ah `bou' to cyclone har back t' wh' she came fr', bu' den she jus' go `aah' and fall like splat!” Jin clapped his hands together for emphasis.

 

“So Kagura's dead den—then?” Inuyasha corrected himself, berating himself mentally for staying around Jin for too long while Kagome was training.

 

“Nah, sh' jus' rea'y conf'se, den wen' off da o'er way,” his eyes landing on Yusuke, Jin walked up to the Toushin, squinting a little, “if ah wasn' meh, ah swa' yeh lo' li' da…”

 

“Jin, this is my friend Yus-kun.” Kagome hugged her slightly taller cousin's arm, “he's from the same place I am.”

 

“Ah!” Jin gave an exaggerated wink to Kagome, “We'come teh Musashi, ah'm Jin, K'me's c'sin o' har da' si',” Jin slowed his speech pattern down dramatically, as if he was speaking to a child.

 

“Jin, I know who you are, and—“ Kagome pinched his inner elbow, “I hope that we can be friends eventually.” Yusuke uncrossed his arms and held his hand out to shake.

 

“But isn't Yusuke Kagome's…” Sango whispered, only to be cut off my Miroku shaking his head.

 

“an' wh' be thi' lovely lass?” Jin scooted over to Sango, kissing her hand gently, earning a blush as reward.

 

“S-Sango.”

 

“Whoo, K'me didn' do yah jus'ce wh'n she tal' `bou' yah. A beau'ful a dan'rus!”

 

“And taken,” Miroku stepped up and wrapped his arm around Sango's waste, resting his ungloved hand on her hip. Placing her hand over Miroku's, Sango smiled apologetically and nodded.

 

Jin sighed and waved his hand off in a general direction, “s'ory o' mah l'fe. Ah g'ess ah be'er ge' goin' den. Nice tah see yah `gain K'me. My'e we ca' tal' some ti', neh?”

 

Kagome shrugged, “maybe.” And with that Jin took off, Kagome waving at his retreating back.

 

“…Glad to see that he didn't change that much in 500 years.” Yusuke murmured, sitting down and absently rubbing where Kagome had pinched him.

 

“You met him before?” Kagome walked over to where they had lunch and started packing everything away.

 

“Yeah, at the Dark Tournament. I fought Jin and won, but that was the best fight that I've ever had! It was a blast… literally!”

 

“What's the Dark Tournament?” Miroku asked, sitting down by Yusuke and enjoying the view of Sango helping Kagome clean up, specifically her rear view.

 

Yusuke shrugged and looked up at the clouds. “A bunch of rich guys buy teams of demons and bet against each other on which team would win. There's always a guest team that has to fight or be assassinated in their sleep, and that team's almost always has at least one human on it that the demon world deems as a threat. A couple of years ago, my team was the guest team and we won.” Shrugging again, Yusuke looked around at the others in the group casually before looking back at Miroku. “But mostly, it's just a way to keep lower-level demons happy so that they don't try to attack the spirit barrier and invade the human world.”

 

“Why would you want to keep the lower-level demons happy?” Kohaku spoke up for the first time, looking up from where he was practically hidden in the shadows.

 

“Because, unfortunately, even the stupid ones realize that there's strength in numbers… and they can hide in the human world easier.”

 

“Isn't that what Taijiya are for, to control the lower-level demons?”

 

“It's not as easy as that.” Sango started, only to be cut off by Kagome.

 

“Because the Taijiya in my time are all corrupt and believe in human purity.” She hitched her thumb over her shoulder at Yusuke, “they even attacked Yus-kun, and he's only something like 1/100th recessive demon gene or something.”

 

Yusuke gave her a dry glare, but elaborated on the fancy speech, “it means that the likelihood of me ever knowing about my demonic heritage was practically non-existent… until I was stabbed through the heart and killed for the second time.”

 

“Killed?”

 

Yusuke nodded and shrugged. “The first time I wasn't scheduled to die yet and I was given a second chance, with the agreement that I would work off my debt from being brought back. Second time, I was in the middle of a mission and I just,” he shrugged, “refused to die.” Kagome snorted and smacked Yusuke over the head `accidentally' as she adjusted the bag on her shoulders. “Stubborn to a fault, ne?”

 

“Seems to work so far,” Yusuke replied, standing up and grabbing his duffle bag.

 

(O)

 

Near sunset, the group spotted the smoke of more than one fire—a village! Coming closer, the group crested the hill overlooking a moderate village with a tall wooden wall nearly surrounding it. Near the open gate stood a row of spikes driven into the ground with objects settled on tope of the poles. Telling Shippou to stay with the others, Kagome slipped into the forest's shadows, blending in with the foliage, and slinked as close to the entrance as the surrounding forest would allow her to.

 

Looking closer at the pikes, Kagome nearly turned green as she sprinted back to the others. “They're heads.” She informed the others, bending over as she gasped to keep her lunch down. “O-oni heads,” she explained, looking at the surrounding forest.

 

“From what it looks like, it's too late to continue tonight, and they'll think it's suspicious if we camp in the forest, so the village is our only option.” Miroku stated grimly.

 

His ears twitching to catch the sounds of the walled village, Inuyasha looked at Kagome. “How good's that spell you showed me earlier?”

 

“The glamour spell?” Kagome asked back, “I could hold several in place for as long as we're in the village and practically no one would be able to detect it unless they have an almost god-like sixth sense. I don't smell any holy people, at least not strong ones, in there, so we should be safe.”

 

“An illusion? Kagome-sama, would that be wise?” Miroku asked, watching the village also.

 

“It's not an illusion, it's a spell that I learned a while ago and it'll change our physical looks, like my ears, for as long as needed without fading. Only the counter-spell or death removes the spell, so it's pretty strong enough to work. And no, you don't have to stay within a certain distance of me and stuff like that.”

 

“Good enough.” Inuyasha nodded taking mental note of what all needed to be changed about everyone. “You should start with the runt.” Nodding, Kagome set Shippou down and looked at the others from his eye level.

 

“Hmm… we need a story. From what the village looks like, I don't think that they would just understand the usual `we're just a group of weary travelers looking for a place to stay for the night' line. Sango, would you mind taking on another `brother' for the night?”

 

“No… what are you planning?” Kagome had already started, running her fingers over Shippou's hair, turning it black with ruddy highlights. Her hands tracing down, Shippou's ears, teeth and claws rounded out while he grew to look like a human twelve-year-old. His tail disappeared completely and his clothing changed to a black Taijiya uniform with forest green and blue armor.

 

“Can I trust you to not lose this?” Kagome handed Shippou her dagger as she turned him around and undid the bow that held up his hair.

 

“Yes momma!” Shippou chirped enthusiastically as he tied it around his waist with a blue sash. Finger brushing his hair, Kagome swept it into a low ponytail instead of his usual high one, tying the ribbon so that the ends were loose instead of in a large bow. Giving Shippou a once-over, she nodded and pushed him gently in Sango and Kohaku's direction.

 

Moving on to Yusuke, she brushed over his eyes quickly before going to Inuyasha. “The story is,” she transformed Inuyasha's ears, “I am being sent back to my father's lands for my own safety, but my husband worries for my safety from demons, thus he also sends guards with me.” Inuyasha snorted and rolled his eyes as Kagome tied back his now-black hair. His violet eyes following Kagome's movement as she spelled his clothing and feet to look like a guard's uniform with a crescent holding a ball as the mon—family crest—over his heart. “My guards are thus: my brother, a monk and his brother, the monk's fiancé and her younger brothers.” She strokes Puu and it turns into a blue jay and flies to perch on Yusuke's shoulder. Kilala is last as she is turned into a Siamese and curls around Sango's neck.

 

“What about you?” Yusuke eyed Kagome critically, his eyes landing on her ears. Blushing faintly, Kagome dug into her bag and pulled out the skirt and obi that matched her haori.

 

“I'll be right back,” she skipped behind a tree and quickly changed into the skirt, but looked at Sango in a helpless way. Inuyasha rolled his eyes and went behind the tree also, helping tie the obi in a fancy knot.

 

“Your ears?”

 

“I'm getting to it!” Kagome huffed, tugging her clothing into place before running her fingers through her hair, transforming it to the style it was while she was with the Daughters. The small braids were gathered up in an elegant style with beads on the end of each strand. Her ears were normal, but green beads hung off each lobe. A delicate chain hung across her forehead, supporting a matching green bead between her perfectly arched eyebrows on her moon-white face. “The princess, of course, is a bit exotic.” Kagome changed her voice to a delicate timbre with a strange accent, “she came from a foreign land when she was a child, an agreement with a local minor lord on the southern coast with another small country south of China. She's going home to the lord that raised her since she moved to Nippon.”

 

“You're never going to pull it off.” Yusuke crossed his arms and rolled his now stormy grey-blue eyes.

 

“Did I mention,” Kagome looked over at Yusuke with a stern look, “that the brother is mute? Kilala, how about you stay with me?”

 

“Yes ma'am.” He mumbled, uncrossing his arms and leaning against a tree. The neko leaped over to Kagome and curled around her neck like she had Sango.

 

“Very interesting story Kagome-sama, but should we keep our normal names?” Miroku asked.

 

Kagome shrugged and then charmed hers and Yusuke's bags to shrink to small charms. Charming the small bags to look and weigh like small earrings, she walked over to Yusuke and grabbed his left ear. “Yes, Houshi-sama, we should keep our names and titles—Hold still Yusuke!—It'll be hard enough to remember the story otherwise.—There, I'll heal it later if you want.” Yusuke rubbed his sore ear; a new piercing had a small rectangular piece of silver hanging off of it that was his duffle bag in its past life. Turning to Inuyasha, the hanyou held his hands out to keep Kagome away from his ear, even if it was only temporary. “Quit being such a baby! You guys can't take a little pain, can you?” sulking in defeat, Inuyasha tilted his head so that Kagome could pierce his left ear with an earring with a rounded piece of silver attached.

 

“Well, shall we go then?” Miroku gestured to the road as he took the lead with Sango behind him. Kagome stood in the middle with Yusuke and Inuyasha on either side. The boys brought up the rear of the procession. The twilight lit up the fog that had started to surround the village, making the group seem to come from nowhere, like spirits from heaven.

 

“Halt! Who goes there?” a guard called from his post at the front gate.

 

Miroku stepped forward, making a gesture of peace. “We are but weary travelers and we wish to stay the night in this village instead of the forest. You see, the lady,” Miroku gestured to Kagome, “is very delicate and is in need of a proper night's rest. Surely you can find it in your heart to allow us sanctuary?” The guardsmen looked dubious, eyeing Sango and Kagome hungrily.

 

Kagome resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she stepped forward. “Please sir, much honor on both of our parts for night's rest allowance?” she knew that she had just butchered the line, but that was part of the `exotic princess' role, along with an almost-whispering soprano voice.

 

The guard grabbed her chin and turned her head from side to side. Kagome had to resist biting the man's fingers off for touching her. “And what makes me so sure that you're not just some kitsune in disguise or something?”

 

“I have fighters for demons for guards, why demon have demon-hating guards?” she tried to hide her disgust with herself. The guard took the look for disgust against demons and nodded in approval. Calling to another guard to take his place, the guard led them to the center of town and the chief's home. Here we go, Kagome thought looking at the sprawling house.

 

(O)

 

I'm sorry for the delay. I kept on saying `I'll do it this weekend,' but it turned into the next, and the next… and finally one of my friends e-mailed me to make sure that I hadn't died. All I have to plead my case with is thus: Senioritis and Writer's Block concerning the transition into the next arc. Later (Hopefully sooner though)! Dark Inu Fan