InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Darkness in the Hearts of Light ❯ Misdirection ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter Two - Misdirection

A vine caught the skin of her leg with tiny thorns as she walked, cutting her just enough to cause the wound to bead up with little drops of blood. Kagome sucked a breath in between her gritted teeth as she grimaced and stopped. She reached down and rubbed the cut with her fingertips gently.

“Damnit, Inuyasha, why couldn’t it be me in your heart?” She could feel the tears blossoming in her eyes again as she stood and leaned back against a tree. “Isn’t there room in there for me, too? Even.. even after everything we’ve been through together?” She roughly wiped her cheek dry with the back of her hand. She hated crying, it made her feel weak.

“It hurts soo much.”

Overwhelmed, she slid down to the base of the tree clutching at her chest as she sobbed quietly. Her heart felt unbearably heavy inside of her chest.

“No matter how much I feel for him, he’ll never love me; will he? After all, how can I compare with.. her. She died for him. And I’m just.. I’m still alive.”

Kagome pressed her face into her hands as the tears finally poured freely and shook her deeply. Her body felt weakened and ached with the late hour making things worse.

It had only been three hours since she left camp but to her it felt like an eternity in the forest. She could barely see for the slither of a moon over head and the dense overgrowth. It worried her a little that she could be going the wrong way.

“I just,” she sniffled and wiped at her eyes as she tried to regain her composure, finding strength in her own words. “I just want to go home and forget. I miss everyone so much. I miss the way things used to be.. before all of this.” She fought against more tears as she tried to convince her body to stand again. “I’m missing out on everything; my friends, my family. I can’t even remember what it was like to be normal anymore!”

Kagome wiped at her cheeks one last time with resolve not to let herself cry again as she finally stood, blinking the last of the moisture away.

“If I go back to the well and my own time, I can just stay there and forget about everything from this time, right? After all, Naraku is collecting the shards and it’s almost complete anyway, so what does Inuyasha need me for?” The thought of him made the pain swell inside of her chest as thick as sludge. It made it hard to breath. She pushed herself off of the tree and stumbled on again with the smallest bit of resolve blossoming darkly inside of her.

“The Shikon shards!” She plucked them from their hiding place as she stopped. They shined beautifully in her hand, almost glowing. “I can’t believe I almost forgot about them. Inuyasha would come after them if I took them with me.” She stared at them thoughtfully as the nightlife chirped around her. “But, if I leave them with Kaede.. then I really wouldn’t be able to return.. ever, would I?”

She sighed heavily. “Maybe it’s better this way after all. It would be so difficult to tell them all goodbye, and they’d probably try to change my mind anyway, wouldn’t they?” She wiped at her tear stained cheeks. “I’ll miss them so much!”

Suddenly, Kagome’s skin prickled as the wind noticeably began to cool. She shivered a bit and replaced the shards in their safe place within her pack and slung it back over her shoulder.

“Then, my mind’s made up.” She fought off the sadness as she sucked in a deep breath for resolve. “I’m going home. For good.”

She started forward again when all of the sudden the presence of a Shikon shard caught her attention.

“It’s not.. one of mine.” And it was moving fast in her direction. She turned towards it as a shiver ran down her spine. Kagome took a cautious step back behind a tree for cover.

~Oh no, what’ll I do if it comes this way?!~ She thought to herself, afraid to let her voice carry.

Thunder rumbled overhead. She hadn’t noticed the storm rolling in before, either.

~Great, that’s the last thing I need.~ Her every sense followed the distant shards through the darkness as they swiftly passed a good distance beyond. “Thank goodness!” She sighed with relief.

All of the sudden, the presence of the shards stopped. Kagome froze in place. Two shards; there were two of them! She still couldn’t see their auras though. She thought briefly of Kouga, but no.. something was different about them.

“Please, keep going; please, keep going,” she whispered fearfully.

Lightning streaked overhead and struck the tree she was hiding against. The force of it threw Kagome brutally aside as she rolled over the rough ground for what felt like forever. She could feel bruises already setting in as she grimaced and tried to stand.

~Inuyasha!~ Her mind screamed with panic. Kagome searched frantically for the presence of the Shikon shards as she finally managed to stand but couldn’t feel anything except the ache in her body.

She could smell the sickly, sweet scent of the struck tree smoldering above her. It was almost overwhelming but she stood perfectly still as she leaned against the rough bark of another tree, fearing that if she ran she would be spotted.

Kagome searched for the Shikon shard again as her senses cleared. Where ever it was now, she wanted to be sure she was standing on the opposite side of the tree from its owner.

“Please, just keep going,” she whispered again.

A twig snapped. Kagome winced fearfully. The sound had come from somewhere.. in front of her! She froze. It wasn’t from very far away either. She stretched every sense she could out into the woods. The shards were still where they had been before, yet something.. or someone seemed to be in front of her now!

~What’s going on here? I have such a bad feeling about this!~ She cringed down just a bit. The whole forest was silent except for the occasional rumble of thunder. Home suddenly seemed a lot further away.

Kagome started to reach for her bow but stopped short. Her every sense screamed for her to move. Something was coming towards her with the swiftness of.. an arrow!

She could barely hear the shriek of its shaft streaking towards her. Kagome’s knees felt out from underneath her, dropping her to the ground out of pure instinct as the flint struck firmly into the old bark where her heart would have been had she not moved.

She didn’t know what to do except run. She had to concentrate on escaping. But she had no idea where her attacker was, nor which direction she could actually run. It was like being blind.

Wait, if her attacker was in front, she could run towards the shikon shards. If she was right, then they had been left behind to distract her while they circled around. That could be the only safe place to run. But.. they’d have to know who she was to know to use that kind of tactic.. wouldn’t they?

The thought of it sent shivers through her. What if they really were after her? Without Inuyasha.. she choked at the thought. ~I’ll have to do it on my own! Inuyasha won’t be coming to help me this time.~ She twisted her body around the base of the tree and pushed herself to her feet, running. She couldn’t feel any jaki in this direction. It just had to be her best bet.

The Shikon shards though, she’d have to leave them. If she stole them as she ran passed it would give her assailant all the more reason to come after her. It was better to just flee and live for now. After all, it wasn’t her battle anymore, was it?

She threaded through the trees, her heart pounding in her chest as she tried to put as many obstacles as she could between them. With amazing precision, another arrow whizzed passed her just barely missing her as it skipped off the bark of a nearby tree and stuck in the soil at its base.

Kagome yelped, her heart catching in her throat as she darted away from the last arrow’s path. She just had to survive! She was so close to putting it all behind her. Not now. She couldn’t die now! She wouldn’t!
Determined, she pushed herself harder, but her body was beginning to feel the weight of her dire circumstance. She had no idea where her pursuer was. She couldn’t sense jaki of any sort anywhere now either. But something inside of her told her that it wasn’t a good thing.

With her legs burning from all of her effort, she skidded to a stop and hugged her back tightly to a tree. She prayed that the youkai after her was still a distance off and hadn’t seen her movement through the darkness. She still couldn’t sense a shred of evil aura anywhere. Panting, she clutched her hand to her chest, and tried desperately to catch her breath.

Lightning streaked overhead, illuminating everything. She managed to catch a brief glimpse through the forest ahead of her. A dark figure stood not far off with a bow stretched taunt aiming directly at her, his eyes reflecting light like the mirrors of an animal’s eyes.

How could she not sense him?! He couldn’t possibly be human, could he? No. She distinctly remembered sensing a moment of evil jaki before. And his eyes..!

Kagome rolled her body against the tree to catapult herself back the way she had come, just as another arrow struck the tree where she had only just been. It was unbearable! He was just toying with her now, like a cat with a mouse!

As she ran, Kagome caught the sense of jaki racing after her. At least this time she knew where he was. But now she knew it was deliberate. He was herding her but all she could do was try to keep ahead of him. As before, she did all she could to put more obstacles in his line of fire. Her legs were really beginning to burn now, as were her lungs from all of the strain. She couldn’t afford to slow down though, not yet. There was a chance she could still lose him. She swept her bow off of her back and plucked an arrow free. She had to do something.

The thick darkness made it unbelievably difficult to run, much less aim an arrow. She couldn’t see anymore than a few steps ahead of her at a time.

Suddenly, the ground sloped down at a sharp angle, catching her off balance. Lightning streaked across the charred night sky, flashing a brief glimpse of her attacker, licking the flint of his arrow before he cast it after her. She had no control over her body though as she struggled to twist out of the way. It was too late.

Everything fell into sharp focus as time all but stopped. She was beginning to fall backwards down a steep hill when the arrow aimed for her heart finally reached her. There was an instant when Kagome could actually feel the moment of penetration ripping through her skin and into her upper chest, barely missing its original target; her heart.

The burning agony of the pain was enough to make her forget she was falling as she screamed. Her eyes blurred with tears. It was just a bad dream. It was all just a bad dream!

Reality suddenly flew a thousand miles away as she continued her descent to the earth just a few feet below. Her body rolled uncontrollably into the ground, the force of it punching the arrow completely through the bone of her shoulder blade and out again at an awful angle.

There was a rush of air that flew from her as she finally hit the level ground below. Kagome felt like she was choking. She couldn’t catch her breath and began coughing terribly. It took everything left in her to try to roll on her side and attempt to stand but her strength was entirely gone.

Above, the thunder cracked hard again and the rain began to cruelly cascade in torrents, drenching the forest in its cold grasp.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps approached near her head. Kagome tucked her wounded arm in close against her chest and searched desperately for where her bow had landed. She knew it was useless though and instead turned to peer fearfully up into the falling rain as a shadow fell across her.

She felt like she was suffocating, as her eyes grew heavy and glazed over. She tried to blink the haze away but could only just make out the shadowy figure of her attacker standing over her.

“Little girls shouldn’t wonder through forests alone, you know. Or something nasty just might happen to them.” Kagome could hear the wicked smile twisting in his voice as the bow stretched taunt again.

“Inuyasha…” she desperately wished for him but her voice faded as she passed out.


Inuyasha’s ear twitched as he opened his eyes slowly. For a moment, he felt like someone.. was calling him. Nah, that was stupid.

He uncrossed his arms and stretched, yawning deeply as sleep left him for morning light. The air had a pleasant crisp scent to it as dew continued to settle over the ground in a fine mist.

He leapt from the high branch he had chosen to sleep on and dusted his garments off lazily.

“Finally up, huh?”

“Miroku!” The hanyou was startled. Somehow he hadn’t realized the monk had joined him sometime in the night. “Feh! What the hell do you want?”

“Aren’t you worried about her at all? From what Shippo said, you really hurt her feelings last night.”

“What?! She’s the one that flew off the handle, not me! Besides, who cares? Kagome has too many feelings anyway,” he mocked with a childish voice.

“I care!” Shippo stepped out from behind Miroku’s leg. “But obviously you don’t! It doesn’t matter who got mad. You should just apologize anyway!”

Miroku approached him with a pensive look. The hanyou felt awkward and started to step back but the monk continued walking passed him before he finally paused and spoke.

Without looking at him, Miroku addressed Inuyasha coldly.

“We may need her for the Shikon shards, but she has proven that she’s worth much more than that to us. She’s our friend.” Miroku walked on in the direction of the village with Shippo in tow. The kitsune peered back at Inuyasha as he walked by with a murderous look in his eyes.

“Don’t you think I know that?” The hanyou whispered to himself. His expression was pensive at best. “Where are you going?!” His fists were clenched in anger as he hollered after them. Gah! They were doing the same thing to him she had.

“Back to the village. There’s no point in going on now. Is there?” Miroku’s words hit him hard and Inuyasha reeled with their weight.

He waited until they were far out of sight before he leapt into the treetops and rushed on towards the village, passing them by in his speed.

Miroku looked up in time to see the fleeing silhouette overhead. “It seems he heard us.” A small, satisfied smile crept over his lips.

“Do you think he’ll get her to come back?”

“We can certainly hope so. But who really knows? It’s entirely up to her, after all.”

They walked on again. It was a long walk yet till home could be reached and perhaps an even longer wait until Kagome might return.

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