InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bittersweet Rhapsody ❯ Injury ( Chapter 10 )

Disclaimer: Inuyasha is SO totally unowned by myself.

Inuyasha thumbed at the hilt of Tetsusaiga impatiently. "Birds of Paradise?!" he demanded hotly. "How?! We slaughtered them years ago!"

"Yeah, years ago!" Kagome interceded with a desperate air as she glanced worriedly at the massive shapes circling overhead. "They've had plenty of time to repopulate the mountains since then! And who said we killed them all anyway?!"

"I say that we did!" the half-demon growled, giving her a glare that could have set fire to wintry tundra. "And I should be the one to know, I was the one who had to save your sorry ass from being carried o---aagh!" His tirade was suddenly cut short when one of the "birds" decided to swoop down and attempt to grab him by the ears. He managed to deflect its sharp claws just in the nick of time by unsheathing the untransformed Tetsusaiga and using it as a shield but ended up falling backwards onto the rocky ground.

Things went from bad to worse extremely fast. Miroku, Sango, and Kirara (not to mention Inuyasha himself) were all experienced fighters, but the sheer number of the Birds of Paradise was overwhelming. They continually swooped down upon the group of travelers, squawking horribly and lashing out with their razor-like claws. Everyone was forced to congregate back-to-back into a tightly-knit circle to avoid being carried off.

"What do they WANT?!" Miroku cried out, beaning one on the head with his staff.

"I don't know!" Sango shouted in reply. "We don't even have a Jewel Shard for them to come after!"

Survival was their prime worry now; though Shippo and his whereabouts were preeminent on everyone's mind, no one could afford to look for the demon that had swooped down to carry him off. Kagome realized with a sinking feeling that they probably didn't even have a ghost of a chance; had Inuyasha been able to transform the Tetsusaiga perhaps they would have, but the sword remained useless, still thin and twisted and probably of even less use than a butter knife. (Why won't it change?) Kagome thought desperately. (What's wrong?...) Had he perhaps not used it in a long period of time and was unable to channel its power anymore, or did the sword itself have magical properties which had faded over the years? No, wait a minute, the properties weren't in the sword but within the user; the user's desire to protect a human activated it, and----ohhhhhh, that was why. Despite the perilous situation Kagome hung her head; even within the heat of battle his true feelings shined through like a terrible beacon...

The fighting continued to rage on, each moment getting more frenzied and desperate for the travelers than the last. The horrible, grotesque faces, with hanging jaws lined with pointed teeth, seemed to leer at Kagome as they swooped down in droves, pecking and squawking and scratching, urged on by the demonesque forms which resided as parasitic hosts upon each bird's back. The weight of the sheer number of them was going to overpower them sooner or later, no matter how good they were at fighting...although Kagome loathed to admit it, she could see no way in which they'd be getting out of this one...

It all happened within a split second, swift but merciful. Suddenly Miroku and Sango, seeing the dark shape still holding the unconscious Shippo hovering in the distance, ran off to aid him, followed by a bloody and scratched Kirara, whose hackles were raised in anger. At roughly the same time Inuyasha was attacked by fresh wave of the Birds of Paradise; he fought desperately, lashing out with his claws with his left hand and holding the almost worthless Tetsusaiga as a shield against the sharp beaks and talons with his right. And another thing happened as well... It was then that Kagome, formerly protected by being in the middle of the group, was left open and vulnerable. The birds beset her immediately, knocking her to the ground and attacking her mercilessly.

Kagome tried to fight, but her efforts were worthless. She attempted to grab at the bow and arrows slung across her back (now was definitely not the time to be worrying whether or not the bow had been Kikyo's), but suddenly one of the bolder demons closed in on her and gashed her chest, ripping part of her shirt open and causing torrents of blood to run down her torso. The last she saw was a combination of bright, gaudy stars and a grotesque, leering face hovering over her...

***

Inuyasha, his head turning immediately upon the screams, felt a shred of horror tugging at his chest as he saw the pitiful, twisted figure amongst the congregation of frenzied bird demons. Letting out a cry of rage as he booted an upcoming monster right in the face, he turned his back on the situation at hand and dashed for Kagome, punching, kicking, and clawing anything with feathers that he came upon. "Get...AWAY...from...her, you stupid bastards!" he screeched, grabbing handfuls of feathers and literally flinging the birds away. "You can't HAVE her!"

Somehow he managed to grab her frail, unconscious form, but now he was unable to fight effectively, his hands being full. He looked from side-to-side desperately, looking for Miroku and Sango's whereabouts. "Dammit, where ARE you guys?!" he shouted, shielding Kagome's face from the demons' prying beaks in just the nick of time. He couldn't see them anywhere...and they had just been next to him moments before. Where WERE they?!

He let out an "oof!" as a bird almost bowled him over by knocking him in the chest. (That's it. I can't stay here any longer. I hate to run away from a fight, but...) He stared down at Kagome, whose scarlet blood was seeping all over her shirt. (...it looks like I don't have a choice. They'll have to catch up with me later.) Taking a long shuddering breath, he broke his way through the ranks of demons surrounding him, taking off into the wooded area below with superhuman speed.

***

(Damn...how could this have happened?! HOW?!) His breath coming out in short, ragged puffs, Inuyasha, yet carrying the still unconscious Kagome, stared up at the night sky, which was partially obscured by the flailing canopy of the pine woods but beginning to show the slightest signs of pink. He shook his head despondently, squinting critically back down at the comatose girl, whose face was now a deathly white but fairer than ever.

(FUCK! How could I have let my guard down like that?! HOW?! Now thanks to my moment of carelessness she could die! DIE!)

Looking back over behind his shoulder one last time to check if he had outrun the last of the demons (they had been hard on his ass for the past three hours), he located a snug, well-hidden pine grove and proceeded to lay the girl gently down into a springy bed of ferns. He stared at her, tears threatening to well up in his normally stern, austere eyes. (Damn, I finally reunite with her when I never thought I'd see her again and then she might DIE! I have the devil's own luck, don't I?)

Reluctantly he shifted himself down next to her and examined her carefully, almost afraid to look for bad signs. Though extremely pale and though her breathing appeared faint, he found that she was still nevertheless breathing and still alive. Her pulse seemed feeble as his large, warm hand grasped her cold, lifeless one, but it was a pulse nonetheless. She was alive, that was for sure...but he still was unsure about just how hurt she really was. He was no doctor, but he decided to get right to the bottom of it and see...

Gingerly he straddled her legs, gently working with her blood-stained shirt until he had ripped it the slightest bit to reveal her wound. Sucking in his breath tentatively as the deep puncture came into view, he saw that it was a relatively large wound located on her upper chest near her collarbone but it had clotted some time ago. It was a nasty gash, there was no doubt about that, and it would have to be watched carefully for infection, but it all-in-all wasn't life-threatening.

He stared at her for a moment longer, entranced by her simple beauty despite her sloth. Her skin so icy and pale, her frail, slender form so helpless and vulnerable, those ruby red lips, large and slightly parted, so ready and kissable... His eyes even shamelessly roved down towards the slight cleavage he had exposed due to him ripping part of her shirt... He was in a perilous and very compromising position, sitting on top of her like this, but he was beyond the point of caring. He wanted to explore those lips, to feel the rhythmic moving of her body against his, to just have any contact with her other than the petty, quibbling facade he had kept up with her for the past few days. Boldly he slowly leaned down over her, his face getting closer and closer to those sweet lips of hers, daring to do what he had thought about for years---

And then she stirred.

Inuyasha immediately leaped back, expecting the worst, but a few seconds later she just moaned in her sleep, her eyelids moving slightly as she seamlessly transferred into yet another mode of slumber. The moment totally ruined (and also feeling quite ashamed of himself), he sighed and proceeded to root in the bag that had been strapped onto her shoulders, one that Sango had kindly packed for her prior to the journey. In it he found some wound dressings and herbs for various kinds of wounds, and he started off by gently cleaning the wound with a small rag. He then went on to apply salve to the deep scratch, which ran from the top of her breast to her collarbone. After admiring his crude handiwork, he then replaced her shirt back up where it was supposed to be, painfully untangled himself from her supple legs, and proceeded to wish for some cold water yet again.

Sitting under the shade of a huge conifer a few feet away, the half-demon scowled as he pondered the question that had been coming at him ever since he saw Kagome again a few days ago. (DAMN it. What is WRONG with me anyway?! Why does this stupid woman have such an effect on me?! She's stubborn, utterly annoying, dumb, extremely ugly, doesn't even act like a lady...and she's - and she's...absolutely...beautiful...) He stared with half-closed eyes at the helpless, unconscious girl, whose breast was now rising and falling steadily with each breath she took. (I-I don't know what to do anymore. She's driving me insane! She's driving me insane and she doesn't even have a clue she's doing it!)

(Why didn't I act on it when I had the chance?... She was at least TALKING to me back then, and even if she didn't feel the same the worst I could have gotten was a

no! )

(I've NEVER felt this way about someone before. Not anybody! Not even Kikyo...) His jawline visibly tightened as visions of his former lover popped unbidden into his mind. (And for some reason I never even thought of doing, well, -you know- with Kikyo either! And now I do... Is this---NATURAL?!) He shook his head, his face glowing a hot crimson as he yet again tried to check the unbelievably sick thoughts racing through his mind. (URGHHHH!!! That's IT! There's got to be a cold stream around here---I've been smelling it for the past ten minutes! I'm gonna find it!)

Taking one last look at Kagome, he ripped off his bright red jacket and proceeded to cover the girl with it, giving a grunt of satisfaction as he noticed that color was beginning to seep back into her cheeks and that her sleep seemed more natural. He would leave her, though just for a few minutes---his pants might have been feeling a few sizes too small, but it probably wasn't wise to leave her alone for too long.

"I'll be right back," he muttered brusquely and to no one in particular as he stepped out of the pine grove.

***

It was sheer torture, but she was yet again audience to the pair of star-crossed lovers. Every muscle in her body wanted her to move, to run far away and not bear witness to Inuyasha and Kikyo confessing their love towards one another, but she seemed permanently frozen within the bushes. There they were again, as clearly as it had been the day she had actually seen it... Inuyasha, his arms entwined around Kikyo's bare shoulders, his mouth pressed firmly against hers...and Kikyo, standing there pressed against him as her long white hands lightly massaged the small of his back. The waterfall behind them poured down whole-heartedly, mist and water droplets spraying against their bodies as if setting the tone for some far-off dream...

Dream? Or nightmare?...

"You missed me, didn't you?" Kikyo's voice rang out softly as usual, pulling back from his swollen lips as she tweaked his dog-like ears gently.

His reply was very soft, but audible and clear. "Of course I did, Kikyo. Every day, every second---you were always right there within my mind. And no one else..." He reached up once again to softly kiss her lips, his hands softly smoothing down her silky black locks.

The usual conversation that she constantly dreamed of, however, seemed to go off on a tangent from there. "Yes," Kikyo went on, pointedly looking over towards Kagome. "And no one else..."

"No...no one else," Inuyasha added, looking over towards her as well. "There was never anyone but you, Kikyo. No one."

"But what of-"

His long clawed fingers gently stroked her mouth in order to silence her. "Don't be a fool, dearest...I just needed her in order to get you back. What made you think that I wanted...her?" He gestured over towards Kagome in the bushes. "She was an idiot to think that she ever had a chance. I want...you. Forever."

And he leaned over yet again to kiss Kikyo tenderly...

***

"NO!" Kagome shrieked as she sat bolt upright, the vivid scenes of Inuyasha and Kikyo still reverberating throughout her head. Wiping off the deluge of cold sweat that had been beading on her forehead, she tried to breathe deeply as she stared upward at the scraggly canopy of conifers, trying to gather her thoughts as best she could.

(Damn, it was that dream again...)

There WAS a difference between her usual dream and the one she had just had, however... (It was different this time, though...Inuyasha and Kikyo actually went right out and SAID that I never meant anything to him except as a means for him to get her back...Well, even though that never really happened, I'm sure there's absolutely nothing wrong with THAT theory,) she thought miserably, flushing as she remembered the sheer embarrassment she had had when Inuyasha had basically called her nothing in the dream.

"I wish I was home," she muttered silently, looking upwards at the sky above her, tinged with shades of pink and purple for the oncoming dusk. "I wish I had never gotten into this again." Sighing heavily, she pictured in her mind's eye exactly what she wished for. (I wish I was going to college instead of being forced to stay here...I wish I was leading the life of a normal eighteen year old girl...I even wish I was dating Hojo...anything but this again. For crying out loud, he doesn't love me. In fact, he doesn't even like me! Why - why am I still wasting my time dwelling on this?)

However much time had passed, she was not to be a good judge. Looking around the dusky little pine grove, she could see nothing but the moving of the branches in the slight wind and the quiet calls of birds settling in for their nightly roost. Had she been sleeping for a day? Perhaps more? Her head was too muddled and fuzzy to know or to perhaps even care, but something in the back of her brain told her that it was important. Wait---she remembered something---the dim shapes of squawking birds, mounted by fearsome demon riders---Shippo shrieking as he got carried off within one of their sharp, curling talons---Miroku and Sango running out to assist him...

It all came back with a deluge of memories, and especially of her last ones. That ugly demon's face leering over her, its spurs lashing right into her chest...Wait, her chest! Quickly she tried to stand up to get a better look, but ended up shrieking in pain as her sudden movement perpetrated a searing moment of pain that practically knocked the wind right out of her body. "Ugh," she moaned, stopping a second to catch her breath and then going to a more careful inspection of her body. She gingerly looked down her shirt (not very far though, as for some reason or other it seemed to be ripped partially open) and gagged as she saw the ugly-looking gash that ran diagonally across her righthand upper chest. "Crap, I really did it this time, didn't I?" she muttered, wincing as she poked the dry, clotted blood with a trembling finger. "I'm really lucky. Another inch and it could have cut an artery."

Something was really puzzling, however. Upon closer inspection of the wound it seemed that someone had cleaned and applied salve to it; it seemed that someone was taking care of her, though whether it was one of her companions she really hadn't a clue. What had happened to them all, anyway?... Was she the only survivor of that horrible raid in the mountains?... It was such an unbearable thought that she closed her eyes momentarily, uttering a prayer in her mind for their safety.

It was at that moment that something bright and red and not blood suddenly and quickly caught her attention, however. Squinting as was her usual bad habit when she was trying to figure something out, she noticed with alarm that what she had been using as a blanket apparently happened to be Inuyasha's bright red haori. "What the-?" she muttered confusedly, her heart skipping a beat as she tried to piece together what had happened while she had been asleep. She quickly scanned the pine grove; there was no sign of other people, just her bag, the smoldering remains of a campfire, and her bow and quiver of arrows, which lay in a haphazard pile next to her makeshift bed of ferns. "Inuyasha's jacket?" she thought aloud. "And just my bag? Oh no, this couldn't mean-"

"For Chrissakes, would you STOP squealing like a stuck hog?!" an angry voice demanded from outside the grove. Kagome watched tensely as Inuyasha came crashing out of the bushes, looking pale and quite irritable. "It's thanks to you that we're stuck in this stupid predicament anyway!"

Unfortunately yes, it DID mean that. Wherever Miroku, Sango, and Shippo were, they sure as hell weren't here. She was now totally alone with Inuyasha and completely at his mercy.

Author's Note: I know, very cliche. Flame me if you must. But it WILL give them a chance to sort out any -er- grievances.

Simply a Lady: Yeah, I'm afraid that's the way it works... Still, I don't think I'll post the lemon on ff.net. Sadly enough, I'll already have to start censoring in chapter twelve to avoid getting shut down. It really sucks. But everything will be on here for sure.