InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Delving Into The Mysteries Of The Past ❯ The Past Chapter ( Chapter 13 )

 

It was slightly cooler in the forest than it was in the sunlight, and I shivered slightly. The forest had always had a surreal quality to it, always quiet, the green foliage causing everything to bathed in a pale green light. Yet, the forest was deadly. Many demons hid in the thick underbrush, waiting for someone foolish enough to walk through so they could attack. Often times, whenever the shrine was attacked, the demons always came out of the forest. I tried to keep my footsteps light so as not to alert any demonic presence, but years of experience had taught me that demons could sense humans, and especially miko ones, in other ways than just sound.

 

Worse still, I had lost track of Sesshoumaru-sama's youki. Try as I might, I could not sense it anymore, which led me into a panic. I was probably somewhere in the middle of the forest by now, and was also hopelessly lost. I didn't have my bow and arrows with me, and I couldn't purify any demons because my strength was spent. It wasn't a good situation.

 

“Idiot,” I mumbled under my breath. “Drags me out into the middle of the forest and then doesn't even have the decency to show up!” A twig snapped behind me, and I whirled around, thinking it was Sesshoumaru-sama, ready to give him a piece of my mind, demon lord or not. I came face to face with a centipede demon. A very hungry centipede I must add. It grinned at me, showing rows of pointed teeth. It was a very hungry, carnivorous, centipede demon. I screamed and jumped back as it lunged at me, teeth tearing through the shoulder of my shirt. I grimaced and fell down, clutching my shoulder. I didn't have enough strength to even get up, never mind purify it. “I'm going to die here!” I thought wildly as the centipede demon lunged again. I shut my eyes and waited for my inevitable end.

 

Nothing happened. I heard a scream, presumably the centipede demon, and that was it. When I gathered enough to courage to open my eyes, I saw Sesshoumaru-sama standing over me, sword unsheathed, centipede demon dead a few feet behind him.

 

“Th-thanks,” I said, still a bit shaky.

 

“This Sesshoumaru did not do it to save you,” he replied. I rolled my eyes. Sure he didn't…He just wanted to test out his sword.

 

“I'm guessing you heard the battle that was going on a while ago,” I said, standing up. My shoulder twinged, and I could see little rivers of blood flow down my arm. Well, there went the `I did not go into the forest to meet with Kage's older and much hated half-brother; I was simply in my room getting new clothes' excuse I had cooked up. I sighed. Maybe I could say I got hurt during the battle with Naraku, but I doubted that would work. Kikyo had seen me right before I snuck out, and she would tell Mom if I was lying to her. “You could have helped, you know,” I grumbled, upset that I was going to be found out. Sesshoumaru-sama smirked.

 

“This Sesshoumaru does not help humans,” he said loftily. “This Sesshoumaru would have defeated that pathetic half-demon if he had not started fighting your family.”

 

“Uh-huh,” was all that I replied. I was more preoccupied with my wound than I was with him. Pulling down the collar of my shirt off of my shoulder, I could see the two jagged tears that were bleeding rather heavily. On closer inspection, they looked worse than they were. They were shallow, more like long scratches instead of teeth marks. They just bled a lot, that was all.

 

“You need to bandage that,” Sesshoumaru-sama said, glancing at my shoulder.

 

“With what?” I snapped back. I had never gotten used to how fast he could move, so when I blinked and he was right in front of me, I was more than just a little startled. “Gah!” I yelped, restrained by one of his hands holding my uninjured shoulder, the other ripping a good portion of my shirt off of the bottom. “Ack! Wh-what do you think you're doing!?” I was pretty sure my face was burning.

 

“Bandaging your shoulder,” he said simply. “Now take off you shirt.”

 

“WHAT!?” Forget burning, my face must have been glowing. And he was watching this looking faintly amused! “Why should I do that!?” I half yelled, half whined.

 

“How else do you expect this Sesshoumaru to bandage your shoulder?”

 

“Err...” He was right, and I couldn't go home letting it bleed like that. Of course, now that my shirt was pretty much in tatters, I was sunk any way I tried to get out of suspicion. I glared daggers at him, which he didn't seem to care about, and grudgingly slipped out my ruined shirt, face glowing like a beacon, and heart beating so fast I thought it might explode. Part of me though, the one that always felt like I was betraying Kage every time I saw Sesshoumaru-sama, was screeching like banshee inside of my head. “You little idiot! Get out of there!” it was yelling at me. However, in all of my nervousness, my legs had forgotten how to move, and my mind was very unwilling to make them move.

 

“Nervous?” Sesshoumaru-sama asked me, face close to mine. I froze, and remained unmoving the whole time he bandaged my shoulder. When he was done, I remembered to breathe again, and dove for my shirt, pulling it on quickly.

 

“I've, uh, I'vegottago,” I said in one big rush. He smirked again, and didn't move. “What?” I asked, getting all the more uneasy.

 

“If you do get caught sneaking in,” he began, and my mouth fell open. How did he know I was planning on sneaking back in? “Tell the one you call Kage that when this Sesshoumaru sees him, he will be rust on Tokijin.” Of all the nerve!

 

“I don't plan on getting caught,” I informed him, trying to sound confident and failing miserably.

 

“This Sesshoumaru said `if' you get caught.” He and I both knew he was implying that I was going to get caught. He turned to leave, and I blurted out a question I knew was none of my business but still had to ask anyway.

 

“Was Rin-san your mate?” That was the only reason why Sesshoumaru-sama was bent on killing Kage that I could come up with. He turned around again and studied me, while I shrank under his gaze. I never like being stared at, and he made it worse. Again, he moved too quickly for me to see, and the next thing I knew he was standing in front of me, and I craned my neck back to look at him, sweating slightly.

 

“No,” he simply said. “But she was going to be the day she died.” He left, and I just stood there, blinking in shock. I felt sad, very near tears, and yet part of me was relived for a reason I didn't know. I shook my head to clear my mind up, and started back to the shrine, after I found a trail. Once I reached home, I walked around back, and tried to decide how to scale the way up to my bedroom window. That's when I noticed the shadow moving in my window. I watched it for a few minutes, and realized it was Kage.

 

“Kage! Why are you in my room?” I yelled up to him. The shadow froze, and then he opened the window.

 

“Kagome? Why are you outside?” he asked. “I've-I mean everybody is looking for you!” he shouted out. Then he took in my appearance. “Damn it Kagome! What the hell did you do to yourself?”

 

“Help get in my room and I'll tell you,” I said.

 

“Can you climb that gutter?” he asked, pointing to it.

 

“I don't think that can hold my weight,” I said looking at it. That gutter was ancient, and I didn't know how much weight it could support.

 

“Just try it!”

 

“If I die, I'm blaming you!” I shouted as I began to climb it. It shook, and groaned, and a couple of times, I thought it was going to fall off, but it held my weight until I reached the window. Kage held out his hand for me to grab, leaning out the window as far as he could without falling out. I seized it, and he pulled into my room with a little too much enthusiasm, so when I cleared the windowsill, we both went sprawling on the floor.

 

“You pulled too hard!” I accused him, rubbing my sore elbow.

 

“If you weren't so weak, I wouldn't have had to pull that hard!” he snapped back, eyes traveling all over me. I gasped when I realized that the tear in my shirt revealed a lot more midriff than I was comfortable with. “What happened to you?” he demanded.

 

“What am I supposed to tell him?” I asked myself. “Let's see, I felt your brother's presence in the forest, so I went to talk to him, even though I've been warned not to, and on the way, a centipede demon attacked me and kind of bit my shoulder, but your brother killed it, and then he bandaged my shoulder with the part of my shirt that's gone, and I had to take off my shirt for him to do that. Sorry. Oh, and by the way, I found out the girl that you supposedly killed was going to be his mate. Ain't that sad?” Somehow, I didn't think that was going to work out too well in my favor, so I told him a condensed version of my story. “I saw something in the forest, and when I went to investigate, a demon attacked me and got my shoulder. Since I didn't have any bandages, I used the bottom part of my shirt to stop the bleeding.” It wasn't a complete lie, so it was better than nothing.

 

“Is your shoulder okay?” he asked, genuinely concerned. I nearly burst into tears because of that, but I held them in. “Can I see it?” he asked. I nodded, and pulled the collar of my abused shirt off my shoulder to show him the already blood-soaked makeshift bandage. He brows knitted together as he looked at it.

 

“It's going to get infected if you don't bandage it again,” he said, his dark eyes meeting mine. When they did that, I felt my breath catch in my throat, and butterflies started dancing in my stomach. “What are you gawking at wench?” That snapped me out of my trance. Sighing, I moved away from him, and hunted around under my bed to find the first aid kit I hid under there. I pulled it out.

 

“Turn around, and if you look, I'll purify you,” I warned him. He snorted.

 

“Yeah right, wench. You couldn't purify me,” he said cockily.

 

“Don't make me want to try,” I snapped, wrapping the self-adhesive gauze around my shoulder and pulling on a new shirt. “And I didn't appreciate you staring at me before.” That was a lie…sort of.

 

“Feh,” came the reply, from somewhere above me. I jumped slightly and looked up. Kage was leaning over the side of my bed, looking down at me from where I sat. He leaned closer as if he was going to kiss me.

 

“Nonononononono!” I yelled, waving my hands in front of my face. He lost his balance and crashed to the floor.

“What the hell was that wench!?” he yelled, pulling himself into a seated position.

 

“It was all you fault!” I gasped, trying to calm my nerves. Had he really just tried to kiss me? And did I just push him away like that? I am such an IDIOT! What's wrong with me? But what if he wasn't? What if he was just going to say something or make fun of me? I'm still the world's biggest idiot!

 

“Whatever wench. Come one, let's go,” he said, getting up. His feelings were hurt, even though he was trying to hide them. I acted on impulse and hugged him from behind. “What the fu-!?” I cut him off.

 

“No reason. I just wanted to say thanks,” I said into his hair. Thanks for what, I don't think either of knew, but neither of us made a move to end the moment. There was something about him that made me angry with him for one minute, and then want to hug him the next. Ask me, and I wouldn't be able to explain what I was feeling.

 

“You're a freaky wench,” he replied when I let go of him. “Leave, before you decide to attach yourself to me again!” Laughing, I walked out and down the hallway, in a considerably better mood. I stopped in a room downstairs to see how Miroku-sama was.

 

“How is he?” I whispered to Sango-chan. She didn't answer right away, and she hastily swiped her hand across her eyes.

 

“He hasn't woken up yet,” she said, not turning to face me. She didn't need to; I could tell she had been crying from her actions.

 

“I'm sure he'll be fine, Sango-chan,” I tried to reassure her.

 

“He should have woken up by now, Kagome-chan,” she said dejectedly. She sniffed, and her eyes glistened. I sat next to her.

 

“You really do love him, don't you?” She looked flustered.

 

“What?! No I don't!” she exclaimed, blushing furiously.

 

“Oh really?”

 

“Yes!”

 

“Then why are you blushing so much?”

 

“…”

 

“I thought so.” I enjoyed teasing Sango-chan.

 

“I could say the same thing about you and Kage,” she said in retaliation. It was my turn to blush now.

 

“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.

 

“Come one, Kagome-chan. I know you like him!”

 

“Yeah, as a friend!”

 

“Oh, really? Maybe you do, but he definitely likes you.” Miroku-sama began to stir, and Sango-chan jumped up, teasing forgotten.

 

“Houshi-sama!” she said, relief passing over her face.

 

“Sango-chan, Kagome-sama,” he said weakly.

 

“Don't talk!” Sango-chan said, concern evident. “You're still too weak!” She leaned over so that she could replace the cloth on his head with a cooler one.

 

“Don't worry about me Sango-chan,” he said, raising his hand with the Kazanaa to stop her. He froze halfway, shock and horror evident on his face as he stared at his hand.

 

“What is it?” I said, rushing over. Had the Kazanaa gotten larger? Was he closer to dying now? I sucked in a breath at that thought; I coulnd't bear lose any of my friends. Sango-chan too looked worried, until her face started to flame bright red. I smacked my head into the palm of my hand. We had forgotten that Miroku-sama was also a con artist besides being a monk, and he had taken this time to allow himself a grope at Sango-chan's expense.

 

“HENTAI!” she yelled, hitting him hard in the head. Shippo-chan walked in.

 

“Kaede-sama wanted to know how he was doing,” he said. Sango-chan turned to look at him.

 

“Tell her he's fine,” she said stiffly before exiting the room.

 

“Miroku groped her, didn't he?” Shippo-chan said, more of a statement than a question. I nodded sadly.

 

“Miroku-sama, you have to stop doing that. If you love her, you have to tell her,” I said to him.

 

“But I do tell her!” he whined. I shook my head.

 

“Grabbing her butt like that isn't telling her anything except that you're a pervert,” I told him bluntly.

 

“But it's not my fault. My hand's possessed!”

 

“That's the lamest excuse I've heard,” Shippo-chan said. I laughed, and Miroku-sama tried his best to give me a hurt expression, but that just made me laugh even harder.

 

“Let me guess, that lecher groped Sango again,” Kage's voice came from the doorway. I nodded, unable to stop laughing. It was infectious, and pretty soon was everybody was laughing except for Kage, who allowed himself only to smile openly. Even Miroku-sama laughed, after he saw that he wasn't going to get any sympathy from the rest of us.

 

“I see you're all getting along fine,” my mother said, looking from behind Kage. She was smiling, which was good. It was rare to see her smiling ever, and I was glad that she wasn't mad at me like she was the last time we saw each other. “I forgot to tell you Kagome! You've gotten stronger, haven't you? That was an impressive display of power you showed when we were fighting Naraku.” I blushed under her praise, spirits elated and soaring.

 

“Thank you, Mom.” I said, trying my best to act humble. She saw through the act.

 

“Don't bother trying that. I can see right through you.” She laughed truly for the first time in months. My smile broadened. It was good to hear her laughing, even though it wouldn't last as long as we would have hoped for.

 

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