InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bittersweet Rhapsody ❯ Intensity ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: With the exception of some DVD's, a couple of manga books, and a poster, there's nothing that I own that's Inuyasha related, I'm afraid...

To my MediaMiner readers: I've been looking at the number of hits that my story's been garnering lately, and whoa! Thank you for your support and your comments! I've been slaving away at this story on and off for literally a year, and now I feel as if it has paid off.

Click. Click.

Click. Click.

Click Click.

The only noise in the entire room was the infuriating click click of chopsticks. Kagome glowered at everyone as she picked at her sake and rice; at this point she almost would have preferred a shouting match. The tension continued to mount with each passing minute, becoming almost unbearable for everyone at the table.

Everyone was glaring furtively at one another. Kagome was glaring at Miroku for daring to bring the dog-demon within two miles of her. Inuyasha was also glaring at Miroku for having pulled such a dirty trick on him. Miroku was glaring at Inuyasha for having handled the reunion so inappropriately. Sango glared at both Inuyasha and Miroku, looking unsure as to who she was more livid at. Kyoko glared at no one but stared wide-eyed at everyone, looking slightly uncomfortable.

Kagome jumped when Miroku suddenly laughed shakily. "Soooo...nice to see everyone together again, isn't it, guys?" He looked around upon the predictable angry silence. "Guys?"

Inuyasha summed it all up rather nicely. "Oh, just shut up, Miroku."

The monk sighed resignedly. "Gladly."

***

"What on God's green earth were you thinking, Miroku?" Sango hissed angrily at her husband after everyone had finally blown the facade and dispersed. "Forcing that poor girl to be with Inuyasha like that! I'll bet anything she's sitting somewhere and crying her eyes out right now!"

Miroku gritted his teeth as he slowly scraped away at a plate. "Sango, there was no going around it. I had to get Inuyasha. We don't stand a chance without his help!"

She shook her head. "That may be, but you still had no right to shock her like that! And besides-" -she spattered dishwater everywhere as she submerged a pair of chopsticks rather forcefully- "we have never known where Inuyasha's loyalties lie! Even God forbid we do get the entire Shikkon Jewel, what's keeping him from wishing to be a pure demon and killing us all?!"

Miroku sighed. "I don't know...I just don't know. It's too early to know what would happen. But even you have to admit that had it not been for him we would all be six feet under."

"I suppose," she replied coolly, "but this could have been handled with a little more finesse. You have to take Kagome's feelings into consideration, for one thing." She turned her back to him, suddenly feeling a sudden new rush of anger. "Argh, this is it, Miroku!" she screeched disgustedly. "For the next five hundred years, you are getting no - no-"

Miroku's face squinched up painfully. "Sango-chan! Anything but that!"

"Yes." She hissed. "That."

***

Shifting restlessly, Kagome perked her ears up as she heard Miroku's pleading howls coming from the house. A small swell of triumph surged through her as she supposed, with a sigh, that he was getting punished by Sango for having sprung Inuyasha on her like that. And it seemed, going by the increasing intensity of the begging, that he was going to be abstinent for pretty much the rest of his life.

(Serves him right,) she thought tersely. (I thought he got it, that he understood. But instead he goes and does THIS...)

(I wasn't ready for this...I wasn't ready to face him again. For crying out loud, I just ended that whole fiasco with Hojo! I was just perhaps starting to forget, to get it all behind me...but now I 'm landed HERE. But yet I'm obligated to finish what I started. It's just gonna keep getting worse and worse, isn't it?)

She was puzzled about something that just didn't seem right, however. And it was about Inuyasha himself. (He seemed so...so...I don't know. He didn't act in a way that I'd expect. I've never seen him like that before. Cross, yes, pissed off, yes, frustrated, yes, but not - not - SAD." She shook her head at that last thought. Inuyasha...SAD? From what she remembered of him he tended to take his emotions out in a totally different manner...like through anger, for instance. What was going on?

(Tch...maybe he's just sad about leaving Kikyo and his ten thousand kids behind. That's probably it.) But, she reflected after a moment, that didn't seem to click either. This seemed to be a different kind of sad. (Where IS Kikyo, anyway? No one's said a word about her ever since I came back. I'm sure she hasn't died or anything...Hey, maybe she-) She cut that thought off before it even ended, however. (No, that's not possible. Five more minutes and I would've been watching them get naked. No...)

And then what of her journey coming up? How would she be able to stand it?! How would she be able to work alongside him once again without cracking? All of those minutes, all of those hours; all of those would be spent near him. And it wouldn't be like old times; every minute would stretch by endlessly, with a heavy cloud of silence permeating all around. A cloud that wanted to smother her...

Tension. Not just tension between everyone for various reasons, but real tension between her and Inuyasha. She had felt it there at the table, whether she had wanted to acknowledge it or not. The way he had stared dully at his plate across from her, the way she almost swore he had been looking at her. It was felt almost unbearable, and finally she had just pushed her plate of rice away, muttering something about getting some fresh air. She had no way of knowing for sure, but she had a sneaking suspicion that Inuyasha had followed suit...

Before it had been pure sexual tension. Sexual tension that had seared through both of them, or so she had thought. To her their ceaseless bickering had covered up the inner conflict within her, that bothersome urge that made her want to lose all decency and tell him that she wanted to screw him senseless. It had turned out a good thing that she hadn't lost her control, however; in the end she had learned that he had never felt anything for her in the first place. His constant chagrin towards her had probably been nothing more than it had seemed on the surface.

This time around, however, things would be different. Although she admittedly HAD enjoyed having a sparring partner (it had made things more interesting), she was positive that it wouldn't be happening on this journey. There would be no sexual tension this time, and even if things took another turn and they started speaking to each other, there would probably be no charged arguments either. Just silence...

One thing was true: this was going to be a hell of a journey.

***

"What a beautiful morning it is, Sango-chan!" Miroku grinned insanely as he stood within the open doorway, staring out at the sheeting white rain pouring straight down from an angry sky. "The little droplets of rain, they look exactly like little diamonds-"

"Yes, Miroku, I did pack the umbrella," Sango cut him off testily as she too stared outside. She sighed frustratedly as she rummaged through a particularly full bag. "Dammit, why did it have to do this the day we set off?! You would have thought after all of those sunny days-"

(It's probably an omen,) Kagome thought moodily as she stared at her from the opposite end of the table. (An omen telling me about just how much this journey is gonna suck. Honestly, I should just go home...) Her eyes jerked over towards Inuyasha, who was making no sign of movement in a corner. He was the only one in the entire room who seemed calm; the only part of him showing life was his eyes, which flickered around as they watched everything play out. It was probably all just a game to him, Kagome huffed as one ginger orb briefly caught hers and then immediately looked away. He probably thought it was all a joke...

"Well, who cares!" Sango was saying as she hefted her boomerang behind her back. "It's not as if a little rain will hurt us!"

Miroku winced. "Perhaps not for you, but as for me, Sango-chan...cold water tends to cause -er- shrinkage."

A collective groan arose from throughout the room.

"My God, Miroku..."

"Too much information!"

"Honestly, if your pick-up lines get any more pathetic..."

Soon even this, however, died down, and everyone got back into the former humdrum of waiting. Miroku still continued to stand restlessly at the doorway, trying to peer through the buckets of rain that still emptied from the skies. Sango carried on fretting over the baggage, packing and repacking various items with Kyoko tagging along at her heels. And Inuyasha went on being an observer, sitting in the corner as if he wasn't even a part of the scene...

Finally Miroku perked up considerably. "Lady Kaede!" he called out into the downpour as he noticed a familiar figure materializing from the gloom. "You're here at last!" he added as he helped her into the house.

"I apologize for being late," was all she said as she threw back her rough woolen cloak, revealing her sodden form. "The walk was considerably longer because of the rain."

"No, it's not a nice day to start a journey," Sango agreed as she finally finished fussing with the final rucksack. "However, it is not our choice to wait any longer..."

"Have ye decided where to head first?" Kaede asked.

"Kagome senses a jewel shard north of here, over the mountains," Miroku explained, finally averting his eyes from the doorway. "We may as well see if we can obtain it first, as we do not have any powerful weapons to fight Naraku with."

Kagome nodded her head in agreement. "We don't even have that jewel shard that caused me to fall back down the well. I wonder if Naraku's got it."

"He may very well have it," Kaede replied. "Having thought about this, I wonder if it wasn't his intention all along to lure ye back here..." She paused thoughtfully for a moment.

"What are you on about, old hag?!" Inuyasha burst out abruptly, leaving his corner and approaching Kaede, scowling. "Why the hell would he need Kagome anymore?"

The old priestess shook her head. "I have no idea. And that's why I urge for ye all to exercise extreme caution when journeying. It may be that he needs her to sense the final jewel shards, so make sure to secure the ones that ye might collect. It would be disastrous if he got his hands on them..."

The half-demon rolled his eyes. "It's not as if we have a chance anyway, old woman! We're screwed no matter what we do, if you ask me." He glared murderously at the remaining group members. Kagome made sure to glare at him back. What made HIM the so-called expert, anyway?! He was still such a prick, she thought with frustration.

"HEY!!" Everyone jumped as an indignant voice coming from just outside abruptly interrupted them. "What are you all doing?! Are you planning on leaving me behind?!" Everyone stared amused as Shippo suddenly materialized from within the gloom outside, looking very wet and, for that matter, also very angry. "'Cause you're NOT!!" he added with a stamp of his tiny paw.

Everyone looked down at him incredulously, none of them overly wanting to break the bad news to him.

"Shippo," Miroku finally began calmly, "It's not going to be like last time. This time we might never return, and it would be foolish to bring you towards sure death. Technically in demon years you aren't all that much older than Kyoko, and-"

"I don't care!!" Shippo whined, tugging at the monk's robes pathetically. "I wanna go with you guys! Come on! I helped you last time! Didn't I? Didn't I?!"

"You did, but-"

"So WHY?! C'mon! Please?!" The little fox demon began to sniffle piteously. "Have a heart, you guys! I just wanna see Kagome again! Please?!"

"No means NO, Shippo!" Inuyasha shouted tersely, striding past Kagome to glare at him. "Don't you GET it?!" He took a special moment to glare at Kagome fiercely, as if the entire matter had been her fault. "And besides, Kagome's right here! So there! You looked at her! I have no clue why you'd want to in the first place, but..." He pointedly ignored her angry gasp, going on, "So you can go now, Shippo! And consider it lucky that you're not gonna kiss death right on the mouth!"

Shippo, however, wasn't going to give in anytime soon. "I don't care if I have to kiss death on the butt, Inuyasha! I'm coming along!" He unfastened himself from Miroku's robes and gazed at Kagome pleadingly. "Kagome, do something! I don't WANNA stay here!"

Kagome stared at him stupidly for a moment. To tell the truth, she DID kind of want Shippo along, for reasons aside from the fact that he was her friend... There would be another person to distance her from Inuyasha with him along, for one thing; and that was by all means welcome, especially if he was planning on treating her like THIS during the entire journey. In addition, anything done in defiance of him was a definite positive. He still undeniably needed to be taught a thing or two about compromising...

"Well, come on then, Shippo!" she finally exclaimed hotly. "You don't have to stay here if you don't want to! You've come with us before, so who says that you can't again?!"

"I do!" Inuyasha, of course, wasn't going to give up without a fight.

"Well, who cares about you?!" Kagome countered venomously.

"All right, everyone!" Miroku managed to cut in before Inuyasha could reply (although he starting to turn a rather interesting shade of puce). "I think we can all go a few moments without bickering! Shippo-" -here he nodded at the little fox demon- "-you might as well come along-"

"YEAH!!"

"-as long as you don't cause trouble-"

"YAY!!"

"-and absolutely no pranks!"

Shippo looked at him innocently. "But I thought you'd actually like Sango trying to seduce you in the middle of the night, Miroku!"

"Not if it's you under that alteration spell!" the monk shot back, giving him the evil eye.

"Well, it's not like I kissed you or anything! That's just gross!"

"What?!" Sango chimed in, looking ready to kill both of them.

"N-nothing, Sango-chan-"

"Never mind!"

"Can we all get going today?!" Inuyasha bellowed in a disgruntled voice.

Everyone jumped but immediately saw the point. "As I was saying," Kaede began smoothly, "use the utmost caution when on this journey. Naraku will be searching for ye for sure, so do not make it easier by venturing too far north unless ye are prepared."

"Yeah, yeah, we KNOW!" the half-demon retorted. "You have anything else to say that we don't know?!"

A long silence ensued, in which only the pitter-patter of raindrops could be heard. Everyone shifted uncomfortably as they all realized that there was nothing more to say. Finally Sango broke the stillness by kneeling down next to Kyoko and kissing her cheek. "You be good to Lady Kaede, Kyoko," she said to her softly. "We'll be back as soon as we can."

As Miroku left his place at the doorway to join them as well, Kagome found herself turning away from the flurry of hugging and kissing. It made her uncomfortable, to tell the truth... Perhaps it was just an isolated corner of her twisted mind, but somehow the closeness of the tightly-knit family reminded her of Inuyasha... About what could have happened, but didn't... Though maybe it had actually been for the best...

Inuyasha was watching them with an apparent look of disgust. "Hmph, stupid wishy-washy crap," she swore she heard him mutter. "Who needs it?!" That, however, was when he noticed her looking at him, and when he turned away from her.

Kagome, though, was already distracted. Kaede was coming up to the table, holding in her hands something that had been previously hidden by her cloak. If she wasn't mistaken, it looked like a decently-sized bow accompanied with a quiver of white-tipped arrows...

"I give this to ye as a gift, Kagome," Kaede said, proffering the weapon, "as ye are in need of a weapon. But keep in mind that this is no ordinary bow. It has powerful magic residing within it, as it once belonged to my sister Kikyo---"

That magic word did it. Upon Kaede's utterance the entire room was flooded with tension-filled silence. Miroku and Sango both looked up apprehensively, looking startled. Shippo stared at everyone confusedly. Even Inuyasha gave a slight stir, the scowl from before immediately wiped off his face. Eventually everyone was staring at Kagome, who seemed to be turning whiter and whiter with each agonizing second. She didn't know what to do, what to say...

"I don't want it," she finally announced flatly, pushing Kaede's hands away. "I don't need a weapon; I did fine without one before."

"But I insist!" Kaede pressed, pushing it back towards her. "Ye cannot depend on your holy powers to pull ye through desperate times. especially at the hands of demons."

"No!" Kagome shook her head resolutely. "I'll find another way! I want absolutely nothing to do with - with - her!"

Everyone really looked alarmed now, but Kaede remained calm. Slowly putting the accursed bow and arrow inside one of the already stuffed rucksacks, she murmured in a soft voice that only Kagome had to strain to hear, "It is unfortunate, Kagome, but whether ye like it or not, your fate is closely tied to that of Kikyo's. Ye will have to learn to accept it, and possibly even learn to embrace it. Remember that..." Kagome watched the old woman as she closed the sack, wondering if she was seeing things. She could have sworn she saw her jerk her head towards Inuyasha at saying that. And that the half-demon had flinched...

***

After some final farewells and the distributing of all the supplies (Miroku and Inuyasha, fortunately, were the ones to get most of Sango's load), they all set off into the rain, Miroku and Sango still crying out goodbyes to Kyoko, who was standing with Kaede at the doorway. The rain, however, was still fierce, and soon they became nothing more than faded blurs, and after that wavered out of view. And that was the last that Kagome saw of them for a long time...

Their backs slightly bent due to the relentless downpour, they hurried for the cover of the forest, which, though dripping wet, was slightly better than being out in the open. They would have the cover of the woods for about fifteen miles before heading out into the plains neighboring the mountains. Once there Kagome would have a better idea of how far away the Jewel Shard was...

Everyone was silent, probably all slightly perturbed from the last exchange from Kaede. Inuyasha took the lead, his damp silver hair flowing behind him due to the wind. Kagome slowed her pace so that she wouldn't have to go near him; the current vibe that she was emanating from his was not a good one. It made her nervous. And tense... She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but the feeling was one that made her want to go near him and to stay away from him at the same time...

Instead she fell back next to Miroku, who was already looking rather bedraggled and was still staring ruefully back in the direction of home. Although she probably could have broken down and started crying if she wasn't determined to play keep away with her feelings, she managed to crack a smile at him as they trudged through the drenched greenery. "Hey," she said to him in a curious tone, "that reminds me...about Shippo...just HOW did you realize that it was Shippo fooling you?"

Miroku squinched up his face painfully, as if he would have done anything to erase the memory. "Let's just say," he replied quietly, so that Sango could not hear, "that I grabbed his 'tail'."

Preview of next chapter:

"But I suppose you know all about flattery, Inuyasha," she spat, getting onto her elbows, "since you're so big-headed all the time, thinking that everything and everyone revolves around you! You're so selfish!"

"Are you calling ME selfish?!" His voice got higher and higher with every word. "What about YOU?! YOU'RE the one who took off and left us all in the dust! You abandoned your duty! Look how everything turned out because of you! And you're calling me SELFISH?!"