InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Enormous Wings ❯ Chapter One - Antagonist ( Chapter 1 )

“They say he saw the world

through the eyes of a blue dog.

There once was a man

who had enormous wings.

It was sad,

the rain had knocked him down.

People came from all around . . .

He was lying there.”

- Enormous Wings, Susanna Hoffs, Susanna Hoffs, 1996

 

Kouga laughed to himself as he sprinted away from the more-than-pissed-off inu hanyou and from Kagome. He had once more managed to enrage Inuyasha and had once more had gotten Kagome to essentially take his side and get the puppy-eared male to take a rather hard nose-dive into the dirt. Nothing pleased him more than to see the hanyou hit the ground like that and make that strange, strangled “oof” sound as he did so. It was like music to his ears and kept telling him that, despite her words, Kagome preferred him over Inuyasha. Of course, he always went out of his way to irritate the silver-haired male. It was the only way, in his mind, to get any amount of satisfaction in his hunt for Naraku.

 

In some ways, his efforts to irritate Inuyasha were forms of revenge. The hanyou had shown him up in battle. Twice. It irritated Kouga to no end in thinking about those two battles. Being a hanyou, Inuyasha should not have been stronger than he was. He was full youkai. He had the strength of generations coursing through his veins. Inuyasha did not.

 

`How did he get to be so powerful anyway?' Kouga wondered as he ran, making sure that Ginta and Hakkaku were still behind him. `I mean, I know he has that sword and that's a great deal of his power there . . . but there's something else . . . something hidden deep within him. I can sense it . . .' Then Kouga blinked and mentally shook his head. He had to be imagining what he'd just been thinking about. There was no way that hanyou had any hidden power. Nor could he be any more powerful than Kouga was himself.

 

`One day, I'll even have a chance to prove it, too. I'll show that puppy who's more powerful, even if I have to bend him over and dominant over him that way!'

 

Kouga laughed once more as he ran on.

 

* * *

 

Inuyasha took a deep breath and did his best to squelch down the urge to cough up the blood that had made its way into his mouth. He hated it when Kagome sat him like that. It hurt each and every time. Lately, he'd come close to coughing up blood. Sure, he could pass the pain off as nothing but the bleeding each time it happened . . . well, he couldn't be able to hide that for much longer.

 

`If only that damn wolf would stop coming around,' he groused to himself, pushing himself onto his feet. `Maybe this wouldn't be happening.'

 

The truth was, Inuyasha didn't know why he nearly coughed up blood every time Kagome `sat' him. Very rarely did they change in their intensity. The only times that they did were when she was really, really angry with him. When it came to that irritating bastard, Kouga, she was never that angry. That was why he couldn't figure out why blood filled his mouth every time.

 

`I need to get away . . . before they find out . . .'

 

Keeping his mouth shut and trying to think of an excuse for when he came back, Inuyasha took off into the forest, in the opposite direction of Kouga . . . and in the opposite direction of his friends. He needed to get away, to have some time to himself so he could think. He couldn't do that with his friends around. They didn't like it when he became quiet and thoughtful. It was like he wasn't allowed to have his moments, which struck Inuyasha as odd because of the way that they wanted him to behave. They wanted him to be more thoughtful, more considerate . . . less like himself and more like Sesshomaru, the more he thought about it. Granted, he didn't think they wanted him to be exactly like his older brother. They wanted him to be well-behaved, having proper manners . . . like his brother. Only they wanted him to have their values in him rather than his brother's. It was something he'd come to realize some time ago, but wasn't something he could do anything about. If he was loud and brash, he was `sat' for being a rude and arrogant jerk. Or smacked on the head with Miroku's staff. If he became quiet and thoughtful in the only way that he knew how, he was disturbed by someone because he was being too quiet and that wasn't like him. It felt stifling to him but he didn't know what to do about it other than run away to have those precious moments to himself.

 

So he ran. He ran from his friends, ran from the confusion and didn't stop until he reached a small stream. Once he finally stopped, Inuyasha collapsed to his knees by the stream and coughed, the blood dripping from his lips and landing in the stream as he did so.

 

When the fit was over, Inuyasha drew several deep breaths. The coughing fit had left him feeling shaky and a bit sick to his stomach. He needed to calm himself before he did anything else.

 

`This has got to stop,' he told himself as he gulped in much needed air. `I can't . . . I can't keep doing this.'

 

The moment he felt his stomach settling down, Inuyasha leaned over the water and began to rinse his mouth out. While he could handle eating raw meat (something that was also changing because his friends couldn't handle watching him eat that way), he couldn't stand the taste of blood. He never really had been able to.

 

As soon as he was satisfied that he had all of the blood out of his mouth, Inuyasha let out a heavy sigh and stared at his reflection in the water, refusing to acknowledge the sad and haunted eyes that gazed back at him . . .

 

* * *

 

“Hey, Kouga . . .”

 

At hearing Ginta say his name, the wolf tribe leader looked up. He'd started to fall asleep, having felt quite proud of himself for accomplishing at least one thing today. Sure, getting Inuyasha to eat dirt was minor compared to everything else that he had to do but it still made him feel good. Slowly, he propped himself up on his elbows.

 

“Yeah, Ginta?”

 

“Why do you keep annoying Inuyasha like that?” came the quiet inquiry. “We are on the same side, you know.”

 

“What?” Kouga blinked. For a moment, he wasn't sure that he'd heard Ginta right. It sounded like the other wolf youkai was getting annoyed with him for irritating Inuyasha!

 

“I said why do you keep annoying Inuyasha like that? He's looking for Naraku, the same as we are. And he's the one who's protecting Kagome. Why do you insist on irritating him like that?”

 

There really wasn't any malice or anger in Ginta's tone. Kouga knew that. His fellow youkai was merely curious, and it showed. However, that didn't mean that Kouga had to like it. He growled low in his throat as he rose to his feet, causing his childhood friend to skitter away rather quickly.

 

“Inuyasha is nothing more than a half-breed mutt,” he ground out, his hands balling into fists. “If it weren't for that big sword of his, he'd have no power whatsoever. I simply remind him of that. That's all.”

 

Before Ginta could say anything more, Kouga left the cave that he'd found for them to take refuge in then took off. He needed to get away, to clear his head and get rid of his anger, lest he take it out on his fellow wolves. That was the last thing he wanted to do.

 

`And I know just who to see to cheer me up,' he thought gleefully, racing in the direction where he'd left Kagome. `I know she won't mind seeing me . . . and it'll give me another chance to annoy the hell out of Inuyasha again.'

 

Feeling a little better already, Kouga sped off into the night.

 

* * *

 

Sango watched as Kagome paced around the campsite, the young miko's form radiating a combination of worry and anger. Then she let out a soft sigh. It'd been a few hours since they'd run into Kouga and the wolf demon tribe and since Inuyasha had taken off. Why the hanyou had done that, they didn't know. He hadn't said a word and hadn't returned.

 

`He's been doing that a lot lately,' she noted to herself, idly stroking Kirara's ears. `Especially after we run into Kouga. And he has an excuse each time. Something's not right here.'

 

In a lot of ways, Inuyasha's disappearances after they ran into Kouga were suspicious. They knew that Kikyou was out there somewhere and that Inuyasha still had some very strong feelings for the undead priestess. Why, Sango didn't know. It baffled her that Inuyasha seemed to prefer someone who had died rather than a living, breathing person . . . like Kagome. The fact that her best friend was in love with the hanyou was not lost on anyone traveling in their group . . . well, except for maybe Inuyasha. He always seemed dense when it came to matters like that. Kagome had all but declared her love for him to the hanyou.

 

`Is he running off to see Kikyou after Kouga shows up?' She wanted to believe that it was possible but something told her that it simply wasn't the case. It was running deeper than simply seeking out a former love to irritate a potential one. Something was bothering the hanyou, something he felt that he couldn't let them see. What, though, was where she was running into trouble.

 

Other than Inuyasha, only Sango knew the most about youkai behaviour. She knew everything that a slayer needed to know and then some . . . such as, when two males came across a potential mate, they fought over that female. It was often a very bloody ordeal, one that resulted in the death of one of the males. That was how nature worked. Survival of the very fittest. Female youkai did not want to mate with a weakling male. However, because Kagome was human and quite obviously loved Inuyasha, Sango had not made that connection between Inuyasha and Kouga. Like Kagome, she merely thought of their spats as boys being boys. It was something they really didn't have the time for. Finding Naraku and freeing Kohaku from the dark hanyou's grasp. That was the most important thing for her right now. That, and trying to figure out what it was that Inuyasha was now hiding. All she knew at that moment was that it had something to do with Kouga.

 

`Maybe I should say something to Kagome about it,' she thought, rising to her feet. Upon seeing the younger girl's worried and annoyed expression, Sango immediately reconsidered. The miko looked ready to snap because her worries were getting to her. It was best not to say anything until Kagome had calmed down. Considerably. Which Sango knew wouldn't happen until Inuyasha came back. She just hoped that it wouldn't lead to another fight between the two. They could be endearing at times but their fights often bordered on ridiculous, often ending with Inuyasha being `sat' (not that he didn't deserve it or anything, in her mind) and with Kagome going home. She hated it when the girl left for the future. That left her with no one to really talk to. Inuyasha went somewhere to sulk, Shippou whined until Kagome came back and Miroku . . . well, he was Miroku, and would always be. She could always hope that things would play out nicely this time.

 

Not that it would ever happen. Not with the tornado approaching them . . .

 

* * *

 

It hadn't been easy but somehow he'd managed. Pain had lanced throughout his abdomen, making it nearly impossible for Inuyasha to walk back towards where his friends where. He wanted nothing more than to just curl up and go to sleep, wait for the pain to pass. However, Inuyasha couldn't. The longer he stayed away, the angrier Kagome got. Experience had taught him as much.

 

`I can sleep when we get back to the village,' he told himself, fighting back the urge to vomit the remains of his lunch . . . what little bit he'd eaten, anyway. Lately, he'd not been hungry, not even for ramen. His stomach kept bothering him, even after he'd made it to the stream to cough up the blood that had filled his mouth. It hadn't acted like this before. Maybe there was something wrong with him . . .

 

`Nothing . . . that's all this is . . . nothing,' Inuyasha berated himself, straightening his back. `There's nothing wrong with me . . . nothing at all.'

 

During his brief sojourn at the stream, many thoughts and ideas had come to Inuyasha, along with a realization. Despite his friends' words, they wanted him to change. They couldn't truly accept him for what he was. Miroku was a monk, someone who was supposed to be holy. It didn't stop him from being a lecher but that still put the monk one up over him. Having a hanyou around wasn't exactly a good thing for a man of the cloth, especially an ill-tempered one. And Sango . . . well . . . she was taijiya . . . Kirara was more acceptable. She and Kirara had been partners for a long time. As long as the youkai served the human, it was acceptable. Not someone like him, who apparently couldn't behave himself. Then there was Kagome . . . though she said she didn't want him to change what he was and that she accepted him, she truly didn't. Not with his ill manners. He'd end up embarrassing her and he knew it.

 

So he'd come to the only decision that he could. He'd change. He wasn't about to be accepted completely and wholly as he was. It hurt, especially since they were his friends, but there wasn't anything for it. In order for them to be happy, he had to change. Whether he liked it or not.