InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Chronicles ❯ The Second Diary ( Chapter 29 )

~~Chapter 29~~

~The Second Diary~

 

“How's your mouth?”

 

“Keh.”

 

Kagome wisely hid her amusement as the two neared the village. “Why did Sesshoumaru want one of your fangs?”

 

“If I knew,” he remarked haughtily, “I'd have told you.”

 

Kagome wasn't so inclined to agree. “You never tell me things that you think will upset me.”

 

InuYasha snorted. “Look who's talking? You don't tell me everything, either. You wait till I read it in your damn diary.”

 

“That's so not true,” she argued. “I tell you a lot more than you tell me.”

 

InuYasha's snort proclaimed that he didn't agree at all. He held the bamboo cover back so that Kagome could enter Kaede's hut. A brown blur flew at her, knocking her back. InuYasha caught her and reached over her shoulder to slap Shippou on the head though not hard enough to hurt him. “Careful,” he warned.

 

“You're supposed to be nice to me,” Shippou complained. “Remember?”

 

InuYasha plucked the kit out of Kagome's arms and marched back outside with him. Kagome considered following but figured that if InuYasha broke his promise then he'd just have to endure the teasing he was trying too hard to avoid. Instead she knelt beside Sango and dug into her bag as he friends greeted her.

 

“Here,” Kagome said, offering Sango a folded parcel of beautiful blue cotton material.

 

Sango gasped as she stared at the fabric. “Kagome! This is lovely! Thank you!”

 

Kagome grinned and delved into her bag again. She dragged out a paper bag full of energy bars and some paper booklets on philosophy and religion. Always careful not to bring back anything that wasn't so easily destroyed, Kagome had avoided bringing Miroku books that she knew would interest the monk. But paperback booklets seemed safe enough, and many of them were no more than pamphlets. She pulled her hand back, however, when she got a good look at the monk's face. “What happened to you?” she gasped, leaning forward to gape at Miroku's black eye.

 

“Oh, my eye? That was nothing,” Miroku assured her. “Just ran into a little trouble. It's fine now.”

 

Kagome dropped Miroku's gifts into his lap and rummaged through her backpack to dig an instant ice pack from her things. She worked the packet to mix the chemicals inside and handed it to the monk. “Here,” she said in a no-nonsense tone. “Put that on it. It should help reduce the swelling.”

 

She fumbled around in her bag once more to pull out a length of cheesecloth material and a huge ball of twine for Kaede. “These may help for your herbs,” Kagome explained as she handed the items over. Kaede smiled as she looked over the items.

 

The last gift items in her bag were for Shippou and InuYasha. She had to sneak in the thing she'd picked up for the hanyou. It wasn't much, but Kagome hoped it would make him happy. `You just want to see if you can fool him into kissing you again, Kagome. Admit it. You want him to.'

 

Kagome felt her skin warm and prayed that the others didn't notice.

 

Shippou ran through the doorway just before InuYasha. To her surprise, the kit looked happy, and he hopped onto Kagome's lap with a bright smile. “InuYasha said you brought me something, Kagome!”

 

She grinned and retrieved five boxes of pocky, all in different flavors, and a new box of crayons. “Don't eat it all at once,” she warned as Shippou grabbed the boxes and hopped off her lap.

 

“You spoil us,” Miroku said with a wide smile as he held his hand perpendicular to his face and bowed.

 

“Kagome, didn't you bring anything for InuYasha?” Shippou asked around a mouthful of strawberry pocky.

 

The flush that she'd just managed to get rid of shot to the fore again. She glanced over at the hanyou, who was busy drawing his claws over Tetsusaiga and didn't appear to have heard the question. She figured he had and was simply ignoring it though she didn't point that out, either. “InuYasha's busy right now,” she remarked, hoping that no one noticed anything odd in her reply.

 

“Oi, Monk!” InuYasha suddenly called, sheathing Tetsusaiga and rising to join the rest of them around the pit fire. “What do you know about—” He trailed off, leaning in closer to examine Miroku's eye. “What the fuck happened to you?”

 

Miroku waved his hands before his chest, as though trying to push away InuYasha's line of questioning. “Nothing important. Do I know anything about what?”

 

InuYasha shot Kagome a questioning glance. She shrugged. He peeked around Kagome at Sango. “Did you do that?”

 

Sango's eyes widened in surprise. “Me? Why would I do that?” she asked with a high-pitched giggle.

 

“She did,” InuYasha muttered to Kagome.

 

Kagome nodded. “Mm-hmm.”

 

InuYasha thought it over a moment then shrugged before turning back to face Miroku once more. “Tell me what you know about barriers, will you?”

 

Miroku looked a little caught off guard. Scratching his head thoughtfully, he stared above their heads as though looking for answers no one else could see. “Well, there are many kinds of barriers, InuYasha. You already have the ability to break all but a few of the strongest with Tetsusaiga, and what you can't, I'm reasonably sure that Kagome could. Any particular reason?”

 

InuYasha sank back with a dejected snort. “Just trying to figure out something.”

 

“We met up with Kouga,” Kagome added. “InuYasha tried to attack him but this strange blue barrier appeared over me and over Kouga's arms—”

 

“Kouga's arms? Why his arms?”

 

“Because someone was letting that mangy wolf hold her hands,” InuYasha remarked.

 

Kagome fought down another flush before she continued, “Anyway, it repelled InuYasha. Tetsusaiga couldn't break it.”

 

“Interesting,” Miroku mumbled, rubbing his chin as he considered Kagome's words. “Interesting, indeed . . . Kouga doesn't know how to cast a barrier, does he?”

 

“Even if he could, he'd know that InuYasha wouldn't hurt Kagome,” Sango added.

 

“I don't think it had anything to do with Kouga,” Kagome said slowly. “It was almost as if . . .” She shook her head quickly, realizing how stupid her words would have sounded.

 

“As if what?” Miroku prodded gently.

 

“Oh, nothing. Just a weird thought,” Kagome said with a nervous laugh.

 

“InuYasha, ye went to Totosai to repair Tetsusaiga?” Kaede asked.

 

InuYasha nodded. “Yeah. So?”

 

“What did he use to repair the blade this time?” Miroku suddenly asked, apparently catching onto whatever Kaede was thinking.

 

“I dunno,” InuYasha answered slowly. “I went outside to wait, and a few minutes later, he was done.”

 

Miroku stared across the fire at the old miko. “Kaede, tell me. Do you think it possible that Master Totosai somehow imbued Tetsusaiga with the ability to cast a protective barrier?”

 

Kaede looked puzzled. “Nay . . . it would be nigh impossible to instill such powers without having some sort of spiritual energy to do so, and this Totosai is youkai, correct?”

 

“That's right,” InuYasha answered, paying keen attention to the conversation. “But there was a barrier around Kagome, and she said she didn't put it there.”

 

“Mayhap ye should go ask Totosai about this,” Kaede remarked reasonably.

 

InuYasha snorted. “Keh! I've had enough of the old man for now. He's almost as annoying as you, hag.”

 

Kagome rolled her eyes as Kaede cast her a meaningful look. “Osuwari.”

 

“Ugh!”

 

“Be nice.”

 

“You're one to talk!” he growled as he pushed himself up again. “Like that was nice, wench.”

 

Kagome shook her head. “I meant, be nice to Kaede.”

 

“Keh!” he snorted as he sat up again. “Then say what you mean.”

 

Kaede got up slowly and took up the small wooden bucket that she used for water. Kagome hopped up and took it from the old miko. “I'll get it for you,” she offered.

 

InuYasha stood and swiped the bucket from Kagome. “Keh!” Before she could stop him, he turned on his heel and stalked out of the hut. She grabbed the small item she'd brought back for him and ran after him.

 

She caught up with him as he headed down the path toward the stream. “What are you doing out here, wench? Trying to freeze? Where's your coat?”

 

“It's not so bad today,” she argued lightly. “I brought something back for you.”

 

“Keh.”

 

She smiled. He was trying not to act like he was interested but the sudden sheen that lit his gaze gave him away. She held out the pink envelope. He stared at her a moment before he took it. “What's this?” he asked as he pulled out the flat stone suspended on a thin, black leather strip.

 

She shifted nervously. “It's a wishing stone.”

 

He stared at it, turning the flat red stone over in his nimble fingers. “What do I do with it?”

 

“You hold it and make a wish.”

 

“A wish for what?”

 

She shrugged. “Anything you want. It's supposed to work, or so they say. My father gave it to me before he died.”

 

He reached out slowly, hooked her hair behind her ear. “Have you ever made a wish on this?”

 

“Yeah, once.”

 

“Did it come true?”

 

Kagome smiled. On that night so long ago, the night her father died, she stared out her window, staring at Goshinboku, staring at the full moon, and she had wished that she'd have one good friend, someone who made her feel as safe as her father had. Staring into InuYasha's eyes shining with the light reflecting off the snow, she thought maybe . . . “Yeah, it did.”

 

A mix of longing and confusion, of fear and desperation crossed his features. He leaned toward her as her stomach filled up with butterflies as he moved in, closer, closer . . .

 

A loud crash made Kagome jump. InuYasha shoved the stone back into Kagome's hands, telling her to hold it for him as he dropped the bucket and dashed. Kagome raced up the path behind him. Sango, Miroku, Shippou, and Kaede followed out of the hut. Whatever it was sounded big.

 

“InuYasha! Come out of hiding and face me!”

 

Kagome recognized that voice. She ran back to the hut and after grabbing her bow and arrows from beside the door, she dashed outside again. One of the huts on the outskirts of the village had been flattened. Miroku caught her arm as she tried to dodge past them. “A friend of InuYasha's?” he asked quizzically.

 

“His name is Waku. He's a hawk youkai. He attacked us while we were traveling to Katosan's castle the first time.”

 

InuYasha stared at Waku with a scowl on his features. “What the hell do you want?” he growled.

 

“InuYasha, I've come for the Shikon no Tama. Hand it over, and I may spare this paltry village from tasting my wrath. If you refuse . . .” Waku sent a blast of wind at another hut. With a deafening crash, that hut exploded, too.

 

“Keh! Awfully far from home, aren't you?”

 

“Unlike you, puppy, it doesn't take nearly so long to cover such distance. Shall I give you a demonstration?” He flew at InuYasha, who managed to dodge aside before Waku struck. With a jeering laugh, Waku landed and nodded at him. “You avoided me once. You won't be able to do so all the time. Care to give up now?”

 

“Dunno where you got your information, Waku, but I never give up!” InuYasha lunged at the youkai, his claws slicing through the air in a flash of movement too fast to discern. “Sankon-tetsusou!”

 

Waku escaped InuYasha's attack easily, laughing as his claws swiped at the empty air. “Let me throw you a bone, fuzzy,” Waku taunted, whipping his wings as a whirlwind blasted toward InuYasha.

 

Another blur of movement as InuYasha ripped Tetsusaiga from the scabbard and hefted it. In a blinding flash of white light, Tetsusaiga was slicing through the air, the wind barely wrapping around the blade before he slammed it into the ground, the waves of fire flashing forward to meet the manufactured tornadoes head-on. “Bakuryuuha!”

 

The energies collided and twisted together only to break back in two waves. Waku shot up into the air, avoiding the swirling tornadoes as they passed and slammed into the break that was InuYasha's Forest. Trees lifted, shook, splintered as the Bakuryuuha died away.

 

“His speed is incredible!” Miroku remarked as he watched Waku's slow descent.

 

“The mark of the hawk youkai,” Sango observed. “InuYasha might have trouble with this one.”

 

Waku's laughter rang out again. InuYasha growled as he glared at the youkai. “Is that all you've got, Waku?”

 

“On the contrary, puppy, I'm just getting started.” Launching himself forward, he caught InuYasha's arm as the hanyou tried to roll out of the way.

 

“You missed, bastard,” InuYasha snarled as he got to his feet again and renewed his grip on Tetsusaiga. “I'd hate for you to have come all this way to suffer a quick death.”

 

Waku shot forward as InuYasha hurled himself toward the hawk. They collided in mid-air. Waku screeched in pain as InuYasha's claws dug into his arm. Waku fell. InuYasha landed and lunged again, bringing up Tetsusaiga over his head and slamming it down with a bellowed, “Kaze no Kizu!”

 

Waku's golden eyes flashed as he propelled himself off the ground, straight toward InuYasha. Moving so fast that he broke through the wall of flames created by the Wind Scar and emerged unscathed, InuYasha didn't have time to get out of the way as the youkai barreled straight toward him. Waku's talons tore into InuYasha's chest as a harsh scream was ripped from the hanyou. Waku bore InuYasha to the ground, the vicious sneer on his face contorting as he flexed his embedded talons, wrenching another agonized cry from InuYasha.

 

Kagome didn't think. On instinct alone, the overwhelming desire to protect gave way to a curious calm as she nocked back and arrow and took aim. The arrow flew through the air, gaining speed and energy, the pinkish hue of her spiritual energy evolving as the arrow split the cold. It hit Waku's arm, knocking the youkai off InuYasha. Sango gasped as the appendage exploded into a million shimmering lights. Waku screeched in pain as he spread his wings and took off.

 

“What was that?” Shippou whispered, his voice full of awe at Kagome's display of power.

 

“I didn't realize you had that much power, Kagome,” Miroku remarked softly. He glanced over where Kagome had been standing, but the miko was gone. Her bow and arrows lay scattered on the ground, but she was already next to InuYasha, assessing his wounds and apparently trying to wake him.

 

With a sharply indrawn breath and a few muttered curses, InuYasha sat up with an arm over his stomach. He grimaced as Kagome helped him stand, and he let her drape his arm around her, her arms holding onto him to steady him. “Where the fuck did he go?” InuYasha growled as Kagome slowly led him toward Kaede's hut. The villagers who had gathered outside to see what was happening moved aside to allow them to pass. InuYasha started to pull away from Kagome but stumbled. Miroku caught his other arm, and they dragged him into the dwelling.

 

“I'm fine, damn it! Get off me!”

 

“You're not fine!” Kagome insisted, slapping InuYasha's hands away as she tried to pull open his haori. Miroku grabbed her bag and set it down beside her. InuYasha sucked in his breath as Kagome succeeded in pulling his undershirt open. The fabric had actually been pushed into the wounds, and when she pulled it open, she had to tug a little to dislodge the material. She stared for a moment, a sick expression on her face. Then she swallowed hard and dug into her bag for the first aid kit she carried.

 

“Do you need anything else, Kagome?”

 

She shook her head and offered Miroku a grateful smile. “No, thanks. I can get it from here.”

 

Miroku nodded and left the hut.

 

“Just a scratch,” InuYasha maintained stubbornly.

 

“Kagome took her time cleaning InuYasha's wounds, ignoring his blustering. The wounds were deep, and the flesh of his belly looked pretty much like hamburger. She bit back the bile that rose in her throat as she made sure that he was clean. Some of the bleeding had stopped by the time she had finished cleaning the wounds. She taped antiseptic gauze over the worst of it and sank back on her heels, forcing a smile that she was far from feeling for his sake.

 

InuYasha sat up and pulled his clothes back together. She didn't miss his wince of pain as he struggled to rise. She shot to her feet and pushed on his shoulders until he sank back down on the futon. “And where do you think you're going?” she asked mildly.

 

His mulish expression said it all. “Where the hell do you think? I'm going to find that bastard and finish him off.”

 

“You need to recover before you go looking for trouble,” she insisted. “And Waku won't be back, at least for awhile.”

 

A suspicious glint entered InuYasha's stare. “Why did Waku leave?”

 

“I shot him,” she confessed, unable to meet his gaze though she wasn't sure why.

 

“Damn it, wench! What the hell were you thinking?”

 

She glared at him as her temper rose from his angry bellowing. “You could be grateful,” she yelled back. “He wanted to kill you! He tore your stomach apart!”

 

“You don't get it, do you? You let him live! He'll come back for you, just for revenge! You made yourself a target!” He flinched as his stomach reminded him of his injuries.

 

“I'm already a target,” she said softly, her anger draining away as quickly as it had come. `He's not mad. He's worried . . .' With a sigh, she dug into her bag and pulled out the Shikon no Tama. “As long as I still have this, I'm a target. This is what Waku was after . . .”

 

InuYasha digested that for a moment then sighed. “Myouga said not to purify it until after I found Mother's diary. Well, I found her diary . . .”

 

His observation hung in the air between them, and Kagome considered it, too. “I think Myouga meant that you're supposed to read the diary before we do this,” she finally said as she held up the jewel again.

 

He made a face then sighed again. “Keh. Let me have it, then.”

 

Kagome dug into her bad once more, rummaging around in search of the diary. Hers was there, along with her schoolbooks and everything she'd carefully packed earlier in the day. A sick feeling erupted in her belly as she slowly shifted her gaze back to InuYasha.

 

“InuYasha . . .? It's gone . . .”

 

 

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A/N:

 

Sankon-tetsusou: Iron Reaver, Soul Stealer.

Bakuryuuha: Backlash Wave.

 

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Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Chronicles): I do not claim any rights to InuYasha or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al. I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize.

 

~Sue~