InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Diverted Fate ❯ ...Or Not ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: No, no, no, and…no. I do not own Inu-Yasha or any Inu-Yasha-like products.

Author's Notes: Ahem, I do not make any excuses for the rather…LATE… update of this fic. All I can tell you is that I have a lot of things to do and when I do get some time to sit down and work on this, it's not always a lot. But thank you to everyone who updated. I really appreciate it. Now without further aduer…(or cursing…) I bring you the second chapter.

Diverted Fate

Chapter 2

…Or Not

Kagome made her way slowly through the dense underbrush that covered the forest floor. It had been four hours now since she'd lost the beaten path. She had first wandered off when she had sensed the faint presence of a Shikon shard to the north. After losing the path, the search for the elusive village had become measurably harder, but she trudged on in hopes of finding the village before nightfall, and if she was lucky, maybe a futon to sleep on for once. She cursed herself for making her earlier detour now.

The aura had faded in and out ever since sometime that morning. Always to the north and always just a little too far out of her reach. She'd continued looking for it the first couple of times after deciding she was hopelessly lost anyway. After only managing to make her situation worse, however, Kagome decided to ignore that nagging feeling somewhere in her mind that told her there was a shard of the Shikon no Tama nearby. Instead, she concentrated on finding the path or the village. Whichever came first.

She couldn't help but feel that whatever held the shard was taunting her though. Begging her to come after it.

After some mishaps of branches nicking her face and arms, and tripping over what seemed to be badly placed tree roots, Kagome pushed her way through the thicket and stumbled into a clearing.

"Finally! It's about time…"she mumbled to herself.

Kagome wearily tossed her pack to the ground and dropped down next to it. She momentarily lifted her eyes to the sky where she saw a steady trail of smoke. This, at first, didn't quite register in her mind but she soon did a double take looking back toward it. It had to be from the village! Kagome hurriedly stood back up and looked over the trees that began slopping down a hill a short distance from where she stood. It couldn't have been anything else!

"So I haven't been bumbling around this whole time." Kagome breathed a small sigh of relief.

She sat back down to rest awhile, safe in the knowledge that the village was close by. That's when she felt a sudden strong pang to the north again. She looked quickly into the woods at her left and saw a blur of green and blue, but only for an instant. Then it was gone. She got up quickly, stringing her bow with an arrow. This had to be what she had been sensing all day.

The sun was beginning to go down in the west. She had a couple hours at least until dusk. Kagome mentally noted the general direction of the village and made her way over to the clearing near to where she had seen the earlier movement. Kagome tried calmly aiming her arrow into the wood.

"Show yourself! Or I'll… I'll shoot!"

She swallowed nervously while mentally berating herself for the slight hesitation in her words. She held her ground and managed to keep her senses sharp. The Shikon shard's presence became even more intense. A thought came to her mind…were there two?

Kagome had no time to mull over this as something abruptly flew past her and grazed her cheek; starting a small but steady flow of blood. She was startled enough in the process that her grip on the arrow failed and it went flying, leaving her temporarily unarmed. She heard the vibrating twang of the arrow embedding itself in a nearby tree. Kagome spun around quickly, looking for the source of the attack. Nothing.

Confused and suddenly a bit disoriented, she withdrew another arrow from her quiver. It wouldn't help her in the slightest if her attacker were omnipresent. Her eyes flickered from place to place as she searched hopefully for another flash of color. Kagome's innate sense for the Shikon shards told her that whatever it was, it was somewhere to her left. Now was one of those times she wished she could be more specific, but the feeling was still rather vague.

Kagome discreetly moved her body to the left then sharply turned her upper body in the same direction, releasing her arrow into the hazy darkness of the forest. She heard the piercing of flesh and a muttered curse. Kagome drew and strung another arrow.

"Stop toying with me!"

The bow creaked under the strain Kagome placed on the string. Some rustling noises came from the bushes as something similar to a mutated moth came from the shrubbery. Kagome's eyes widened then narrowed as she pulled the string tighter.

"What are you? How did you come to posses those shards?" Kagome asked in a would-be commanding voice. That is… if she could have raised her voice a little more.

"I owe you no answers, trespasser."

The youkai wasted no time in pleasantries as it rushed toward Kagome. While she had been prepared for this, her reflexes were not near fast enough. Just as she released her hold on the arrow, the moth youkai's razor-sharp wings came into contact with her bow. It snapped from the contact and physical strain placed on it's string and back-lashed at Kagome's face. She fell backward onto the ground, now unarmed and without much to her defense.

She raised a hand to her bleeding cheek and held it there, attempting to stem the flow of blood.

"Oh bloody hell…"

Kagome suddenly found herself wishing Inuyasha were there to protect her…

^.~

Inuyasha looked up from his position where he had been sitting against the outside wall of Kaede's hut. The wind was blowing strongly from the northeast… and with it, it brought a faint, almost unnoticeable trace of a disturbing scent.

"Kagome…"

Inuyasha jumped up and walked in the direction from which the wind gust had come. He had to be hallucinating. Kagome couldn't be… But the wind had died down for the moment and he couldn't smell anything. He tried to simply shake off the feeling. There was nothing there. He was imagining things. Inuyasha turned back around and began walking towards the hut when the wind picked up again and the trace scent once again came with it. Kagome's blood. The scent he had picked up on every once in awhile when Kagome had been with them; when she was wounded in battle or had cut a finger on a thorn. He froze in his tracks and whipped around. He was about to dart off in the direction of the scent when a pit appeared in the hollow of his stomach. If he was going, he couldn't very well just leave without telling the others. Nor could he tell them his reason for deciding they had to leave so abruptly.

He walked dejectedly over to the small structure of Kaede's hut, racking his brain for something that would get them moving without having to tell them what he feared had happened to Kagome. When he did finally think of a rather simple plan, he nearly slapped himself upside the head.

As he reached the door to Kaede's hut he called out.

"Let's go, " Inuyasha said shortly.

Miroku stood slowly, "Go where?"

Inuyasha was already walking through the doorway, "I smell a youkai."

He shrugged his shoulders carelessly and started forward, leaving the rest of them to find their own way after him.

Miroku and Sango exchanged a curious look and Miroku left with Kirara and Shippo trailing behind. Meanwhile, Sango bent down to pick up her Hiriakotsu.

Far ahead, Inuyasha smirked as he saw them following. That had been simple enough.

^.~

Kagome darted her way out of every onslaught brought on by the youkai as best she could. Unfortunately, with little success. She had several small cuts on her legs and arms and a gash in her stomach had her gasping for breath at every movement.

She tried to gain some advantage by backing against a tree so she could see every other area of possible attack. She pulled an arrow from the quiver she still carried on her back as to at least have some meager defenses. From her right the feeling of the two Shikon shards pulsated gently. Kagome held her arrow up over her head and plunged it down upon the youkai as it skimmed past her.

Its wing caught Kagome's leg and she gasped as she fell to her knees while the youkai skidded to the ground a ways beyond her. Kagome closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. She stood up slowly and shakily to look over at the moth youkai. Her arrow had pierced and was now sticking out of its forehead.

Assuming the youkai was dead, Kagome leaned against the tree and slid back down against it. She took a moment to breath before slowly drawing a last arrow as a precaution and crawled her way over to the motionless collection of wings and flesh. She looked it over and then plunged the head of her arrow into its shoulder blade and pulled it out, extracting the jewel shard that had been embedded there.

Suddenly, the youkai reared up and bit into Kagome's previously unwounded side. In a panicked motion, Kagome stabbed her arrow into the youkai's eye where the remaining Shikon shard still gleamed with a corrupted power. She yanked the arrow out and once again a Shikon shard came out along with the arrow-head. The youkai let out a piercing scream before it crumbled into lightly scattered dust before Kagome.

She picked up the other shard and clutched them both tightly in her fist. Kagome scrambled away as fast as her wounded body would allow, using her free hand to pull her backwards along the ground. It wasn't long before the last of her strength failed her and she lay sprawled across the ground. She looked over to her hand that had been flung out to her side but still tightly held the shards.

Unable to keep her eyes open any longer, Kagome passed out completely.

^.~

Farmers from the outskirts of the nearby village had heard the screams and cries of the battle that had taken place. They ran up to the source of the noise as soon as it had gone silent. When they arrived, they looked across the small clearing to find a young girl.

"Aye, some trial the lass must'a gone through here."

"'Tis true enough."

The villagers mumbled among themselves before walking over to the girl and carefully picking her up to leave her in the care of the village priestess.

Author's Notes: Okay.. I have now become the poster girl for carpel tunnel syndrome.