InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ For A Dream ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: THEFILLERBUNNY 
IN THE BEGINNING...
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Romance / Supernatural | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 05.10.2004 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.1K | Visits: 300 | Status: Completed
IN THE BEGINNING...
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Romance / Supernatural | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 05.10.2004 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.1K | Visits: 300 | Status: Completed
***DISCLAIMER***
I do not own InuYasha unfortunately. I only own my character whose name has yet to be revealed.
***AUTHOR'S NOTE***
Because I'm a FREAK who cannot stand her own writing, I went back and totally re-vamped this chapter. Sorry, everyone reading this, I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to. Also borrowed some stuff from Angel/Buffy or whatever you want to call it. It makes sense with the story, otherwise I never would have had it.
Formally known as "The Dream Void", I decided that that title was far to close to Miroku's "Wind Void", so I just changed the title and a few things in this chapter.
Also, if you're like me and don't like to review with some kind of comment or what not, could you just please send a review that says something to the effect: "I read this story" just so I know that my work is actually being read and not just taking up space on fanfiction.net. Thanks. And oh yeah...GIVE ME YOUR PEANUT BUTTER!
On with the fic!
Chapter 1
The half-demon opened his blood-shot eyes with a groan, feeling the lump on his head beginning to swell. His body was sprawled out on the floor of a shadowed room, only lit by the roaring fire placed about five feet away from his hair. The smells in this place where different than the forest floor that he had remembered falling asleep on and his instincts finally began to kick in.
"Finally awake, I see."
InuYasha jumped off of his stomach and landed gracefully with a fierce expression on his face. He looked for the origin of the voice and saw a pair of tiger-green eyes staring skeptically at him over the fire. The form stood up, revealing a short, drastically thin woman. Her hair hung messily down past her shoulders and shown a deep chestnut brown. She took a few steps towards him and her long, black gown trailed behind her.
"Like a swan..." She cocked her head to the side and inspected him, her deep voice reverberating off of the unseen walls. "Not what I expected, but, then again, I don't understand what the Powers That Be are doing most of the time anyway."
"Who the hell are you? And where am I?"
"Aren't you the unpleasant one." She took something out of a hidden pocket of the gown and tossed it on the fire. It instantly grew ten-times its size, the intensity causing InuYasha to jump backwards a few feet.
The shadows drew back from the room and the actual size of it was clear. The half-demon inspected the room and steps backwards. The walls were made of crystal, reflecting the light of the fire in all different directions. The ceiling was completely black, no light entering or escaping. The dog-demon sniffed the earth, expecting it to be cool and wet. What he got was the sent of very aged dirt.
"What the hell is this place?" InuYasha demanded, ignoring her peering eyes that followed his as he scanned the chamber.
"This is the place," she began, tossing more powder onto the fire making it wild, "Where the unconscious mind is sent when unable to control-" She paused and turned her back towards the silver-haired demon.
"What?" he commanded impatiently. If I'm gone too long, everyone will think something's wrong.
"Their inner demons."
"What?"
She let her hands fall limply to her sides and breathed deeply. "The Powers That Be sent you to me obviously to help you figure something out."
He was growing more irritated by each syllable. "What I need to figure out doesn't require the help from the likes of you, so just send me back to camp before I get even more annoyed."
The woman hesitated. She wanted more than anything to snatch the opportunity to argue with him that was hanging so seductively in front of her, but was more interested in her next question. If it meant that she could keep him around for a little while longer, she'd bend over backwards and do a dance on her head. It was a very lonely job, being the Dream Mistress, and having no one to keep her company-save for magically-induced fire that occasionally sent scenes of lives she would never have a chance to live. "Why are you so intent on getting back to camp?"
Anger and frustration reaching its peak; he went off before thinking about it. "Because I can't leave those four alone for three seconds without one of them being kidnapped or in some kind of danger! Because if I'm not there, Naraku will try to use the opportunity to take the jewel shards! Because if I'm not there, something might happen to Kag-" He halted out of annoyance, cursing himself silently for revealing so much about his world to this woman whom he hadn't even been introduced to yet.
She had her hands up covering her mouth, unable to contain the smile that was slowly spreading across her lips. When he stopped his rant, she rushed forward several paces and furrowed her brow. "What might happen? And to whom will this injustice occur? Now you've gone and gotten me interested."
InuYasha snarled and spun around, crossing his arms over his chest, muttering something along the lines of "Feh!"
"Fine. Be that way." Her sudden drop in sarcasm made him hesitate momentarily, but he just snarled and concentrated on staring at the colors on the wall. "We'll see how well you do next time we meet."
Confused, he turned his head to glare at her out of the corner of his eye, seeing if he could read anything from her expression or scent. His eyes bulged out in shock when he saw her about two feet away from his face. She had a complacent look in her eyes, as if she knew something that was really important, and raised her hand to point to his nose.
"Sweet dreams, InuYasha."
As she said it, a white powder, much like the one she threw on the fire, clouded his vision and clogged his lungs. He coughed and sputtered, clutching at his throat as if he could remove the powder with his clawed hands. But just as quickly as it happened, it stopped, and everything was clear again.
InuYasha opened his eyes and found himself, back against an old tree, the Tetsusaiga sitting casually on his lap. He looked around quickly, snapping his head in all directions to make sure he got every inch of the surrounding completely memorized.
Have I completely lost my mind? he thought, smacking his head with the heal of his palm several times. No, it was just a dream.
The fire was dying, small and insignificant. The wind was cool and harsh against his face and the leaves rustled through the tall grass. Miroku and Sango were sound asleep, his arm somehow managing to fall across the small of her back. InuYasha chuckled to himself, finding great satisfaction in the morning smack that he was going to receive. Shippo was sleeping peacefully on Kirara's tail, relishing in the warmth that it brought. But when he went to check on Kagome, his rant towards the woman in the dream world replayed in his mind.
He stood up and moved closer to her sleeping figure. Plopping down beside her head, he leaned forward and inhaled her scent. He loved her scent. It was always the same sort of fresh lilac, and that ridiculous soft rock she rubbed all over her body when she took what she called "baths". Lilac fascinated him, as he had been unfamiliar with that particular flower up until the time he'd met her. Every moment after that had been filled with that alarmingly sweet, delicate scent.
From what he understood, the flowers were significant in and of themselves, if for no other reason than they were pale violet. That color was of some little interest to him, because this sort of half lavender, half gray was the same color the shards of the Shikon No Tama took whenever Kagome was near. He wasn't sure what the significance of the color purple was, but he guessed that it had something to do with the way Kagome's eyes constantly shifted between pale violet and storm-cloud gray.
Her mouth opened slightly with each breath she took, and her dark tressed laid in all different directions, having no rhyme nor reason to where it fell. Her small, soft hands were up by her face, shielding her neck as if someone would bite it.
Now, if only I could keep you just like this, he thought wrinkling his forehead, then you would never be in any kind of danger.
SOMETIME LATER…
"InuYasha?"
"Do you think he's really asleep?"
"I don't know, he's never sleeping when the sun's up."
Something long and pointy lodged itself between the hanyou's neck and shoulder and the victim's eyes shot open, bloodshot and angry. Kagome was kneeling very closely to him, inspecting his sleeping form, while the other three stood back, Miroku's staff held dangerously close to InuYasha's face.
"Back off!" the half-demon cried, more out of surprise than anger. "Can't a person sleep around here without being pocked with a stick?!"
Kagome made a face as the dog-demon stood up quickly, brushing the dust off of his kimono. "You know, it wouldn't kill you to be nicer once in a while, InuYasha!"
"Feh."
"-As I was saying last night," Miroku interrupted, extinguishing the argument that was shortly to follow, "the fire demon lives just on the edge of the mountain side."
"So are we in agreement that we're going there next?" Sango asked, awaiting the usual affirmative response.
"Fire demon…" InuYasha trailed off, thinking deeply about his best course of attack.
"Why does it live near a mountain?"
"The air is drier near the base of the mountain," came the all-knowing voice of Miroku, proudly, "The drier the area, the faster the fire can spread, you know."
"Oh yeah…that would make sense…" Kagome trailed off. She wasn't really interested in knowing the answer, really just trying to make conversation. For the past week, the half-demon had been acting oddly and she had a very bad feeling that it had something to do with her.
THOUGHT BUBBLES…
Kagome's eyes fluttered open. It wasn't quite dawn and the wind was still cool on her face. She peeled off the top of her sleeping bag and stood up, rubbing the last remnants of sleep from her eyes. Her legs were still weak from the deep rest she had been pulled out of, but the campfire soon brought warmth to her rigid body.
Every morning, InuYasha was the first to get up to start the fire for everyone, and usually he would be sitting lazily in a nearby tree, gazing out into the new day. He would be thinking of Kikyo, the young girl knew it, so she tried to stay asleep as long as possible so she wouldn't have to awake to see his sad and longing face.
That morning, though, as she looked around, she couldn't find the hanyou anywhere. Shrugging her shoulders, she sat down in front of the fire and watched as the sun sunk into the sky. A smile spread over her face as she thought of her family waking up back in her time to the same shining sun.
It was deathly silent around their camp, almost abnormally silent. Kagome strained her ears to hear any signs of life and frowned when she found nothing. This lack of noise was actually beginning to frighten the girl and she wrapped her arms tighter around her knees.
A dry leaf crackled behind her and she jumped to her feet and spun around in surprise. InuYasha stepped out of the thicket, his head hanging low and silver bangs casting most of his face into shadow. He was deep in a trance, seemingly forgetting that there were others around him, sleeping or not. His arms hung limply, save for his right hand that held the handle of the Tetsusaiga firmly.
"Inu…Yasha?" Kagome jumped to her feet, keeping her distance from the deeply subdued half-demon.
He was muttering something that was almost completely incoherent, but Kagome was able to grasp some of it. "Kikyo," he whispered, "I'm…sorry… …love…her…you…?"
"InuYasha?" The onyx haired girl took a couple of steps farther away from him, her hands hugging her sides in fear. "InuYasha, it's me…It's Kagome."
He suddenly stopped moving and his hand clutching the sacred sword went dead. He raised his head slowly, growling from the back of his throat. The hair hiding his eyes parted and the dull gleam that was there began to bleed away. The gold shine began to take its place and the two of them just stood there, staring at each other as if one were about to attack.
"Kagome?" His blinked several times and shook his head stubbornly, temporally ignoring the terrified glances he was receiving from the girl. His eyes were now completely back to normal his usual face of seriousness slowly began to lurk its way back.
Again, the two didn't say anything for what seemed to be an eternity. InuYasha could smell the fear radiating off of the girl standing before him and guilt crept into his heart. Her eyes were frozen in terror and confusion and the color had completely left her cheeks.
"Kagome? What happened?"
She stammered at first as if afraid to say the wrong thing. "Eh…you tell me."
Before thinking if it were a good idea or not, he closed the gap between them, looking down at her with intense eyes. "Was I saying something?"
She shook her head quickly, ignoring her initial impulse to tell the truth.
It was then that InuYasha realized that it was not he who she was afraid of. She was completely calm now, her scent returning to normal. Before, she had not been afraid that he was going to kill her, but more so afraid that he did not realize the difference between her and an enemy. More guilt flooded his mind and he silently cursed himself. He should never have left the camp. If he had stayed, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to speak with Kikyo and hence wouldn't have heard what she had to say to make him temporarily loose his control on reality.
"I'm sorry, Kagome," he whispered with a tenderness he didn't realize still existed within him, hanging his head down to his chest. "I'll never hurt you, I promise. I'm sorry that I scared you."
"It's okay," she replied obligatorily, feeling suddenly sorry for him. Standing on her toes, she gave him a swift kiss on the cheek and smiled warmly.
Her actions left him stunned. He half expected her to yell at him, telling him that he should be more careful or something along those lines. This took him completely off guard.
END THOUGHT BUBBLES…
"Kagome? Are you okay?"
The raven haired girl blinked. InuYasha's face was about an inch away from hers. "What?"
He took a step backwards and crossed his arms, making a funny face like he wasn't sure if he were more annoyed or concerned. Shippo jumped into the girl's lap and stared up. "Your eyes got all funny and your weren't saying anything when we talked to you."
"I'm fine," was her reply, not believing the small, little girl's voice belonged to her.
"Kagome, are you sure everything is okay?" Miroku said, stretching out his hand to assist her.
Why is everyone so much taller than I am suddenly?… Kagome looked around perplexed and realized she was on the ground, her legs bent awkwardly underneath her. How did I get here? Weren't we all walking a minute ago?
Taking his hand, she pulled herself up and waited a moment for her balance to catch up to her. Dusting off her skirt, she looked up and saw looks of shock and dread.
"Kagome…" Sango rushed closer to the younger girl and pointed down to her legs. "What happened?"
A chill ran up her spine and a sudden sharp pain burned through her legs. She looked down as if in slow motion and a single tear fell from her eye, landing on the blood-soaked dirt below her. From her waist down, she was covered in blood, her ankles completely torn up and a part of her right knee twisted unnaturally. Her lower abdomen was sliced through, blood pouring down her sides and only adding to the pool beneath her feet.
She looked up in apathy, searching the eyes of her party. Miroku and Sango were standing together, his arm for some reason protectively around her. Shippo was sitting on the transformed Kirara, teeth gnashing. InuYasha stood closest to her, though, his arm held out to her and the Tetsusaiga pulsating in his other hand. It was then that she noticed that it wasn't her blood that had temporarily paralyzed them.
Kagome followed InuYasha's eyes to behind her, and with a subtle groan, she turned around. There standing, eyes scarlet, was Naraku, his sword bloodied by what must have been the raven haired girl. He smiled cynically at her, his eyes cutting through her like his sword apparently had. She opened her mouth to scream, but before her breath could leave her lips, his sword plunged itself back into her abdomen, tearing itself upward towards her heart.
What's happening? InuYasha…someone help me!
I do not own InuYasha unfortunately. I only own my character whose name has yet to be revealed.
***AUTHOR'S NOTE***
Because I'm a FREAK who cannot stand her own writing, I went back and totally re-vamped this chapter. Sorry, everyone reading this, I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to. Also borrowed some stuff from Angel/Buffy or whatever you want to call it. It makes sense with the story, otherwise I never would have had it.
Formally known as "The Dream Void", I decided that that title was far to close to Miroku's "Wind Void", so I just changed the title and a few things in this chapter.
Also, if you're like me and don't like to review with some kind of comment or what not, could you just please send a review that says something to the effect: "I read this story" just so I know that my work is actually being read and not just taking up space on fanfiction.net. Thanks. And oh yeah...GIVE ME YOUR PEANUT BUTTER!
On with the fic!
Chapter 1
The half-demon opened his blood-shot eyes with a groan, feeling the lump on his head beginning to swell. His body was sprawled out on the floor of a shadowed room, only lit by the roaring fire placed about five feet away from his hair. The smells in this place where different than the forest floor that he had remembered falling asleep on and his instincts finally began to kick in.
"Finally awake, I see."
InuYasha jumped off of his stomach and landed gracefully with a fierce expression on his face. He looked for the origin of the voice and saw a pair of tiger-green eyes staring skeptically at him over the fire. The form stood up, revealing a short, drastically thin woman. Her hair hung messily down past her shoulders and shown a deep chestnut brown. She took a few steps towards him and her long, black gown trailed behind her.
"Like a swan..." She cocked her head to the side and inspected him, her deep voice reverberating off of the unseen walls. "Not what I expected, but, then again, I don't understand what the Powers That Be are doing most of the time anyway."
"Who the hell are you? And where am I?"
"Aren't you the unpleasant one." She took something out of a hidden pocket of the gown and tossed it on the fire. It instantly grew ten-times its size, the intensity causing InuYasha to jump backwards a few feet.
The shadows drew back from the room and the actual size of it was clear. The half-demon inspected the room and steps backwards. The walls were made of crystal, reflecting the light of the fire in all different directions. The ceiling was completely black, no light entering or escaping. The dog-demon sniffed the earth, expecting it to be cool and wet. What he got was the sent of very aged dirt.
"What the hell is this place?" InuYasha demanded, ignoring her peering eyes that followed his as he scanned the chamber.
"This is the place," she began, tossing more powder onto the fire making it wild, "Where the unconscious mind is sent when unable to control-" She paused and turned her back towards the silver-haired demon.
"What?" he commanded impatiently. If I'm gone too long, everyone will think something's wrong.
"Their inner demons."
"What?"
She let her hands fall limply to her sides and breathed deeply. "The Powers That Be sent you to me obviously to help you figure something out."
He was growing more irritated by each syllable. "What I need to figure out doesn't require the help from the likes of you, so just send me back to camp before I get even more annoyed."
The woman hesitated. She wanted more than anything to snatch the opportunity to argue with him that was hanging so seductively in front of her, but was more interested in her next question. If it meant that she could keep him around for a little while longer, she'd bend over backwards and do a dance on her head. It was a very lonely job, being the Dream Mistress, and having no one to keep her company-save for magically-induced fire that occasionally sent scenes of lives she would never have a chance to live. "Why are you so intent on getting back to camp?"
Anger and frustration reaching its peak; he went off before thinking about it. "Because I can't leave those four alone for three seconds without one of them being kidnapped or in some kind of danger! Because if I'm not there, Naraku will try to use the opportunity to take the jewel shards! Because if I'm not there, something might happen to Kag-" He halted out of annoyance, cursing himself silently for revealing so much about his world to this woman whom he hadn't even been introduced to yet.
She had her hands up covering her mouth, unable to contain the smile that was slowly spreading across her lips. When he stopped his rant, she rushed forward several paces and furrowed her brow. "What might happen? And to whom will this injustice occur? Now you've gone and gotten me interested."
InuYasha snarled and spun around, crossing his arms over his chest, muttering something along the lines of "Feh!"
"Fine. Be that way." Her sudden drop in sarcasm made him hesitate momentarily, but he just snarled and concentrated on staring at the colors on the wall. "We'll see how well you do next time we meet."
Confused, he turned his head to glare at her out of the corner of his eye, seeing if he could read anything from her expression or scent. His eyes bulged out in shock when he saw her about two feet away from his face. She had a complacent look in her eyes, as if she knew something that was really important, and raised her hand to point to his nose.
"Sweet dreams, InuYasha."
As she said it, a white powder, much like the one she threw on the fire, clouded his vision and clogged his lungs. He coughed and sputtered, clutching at his throat as if he could remove the powder with his clawed hands. But just as quickly as it happened, it stopped, and everything was clear again.
InuYasha opened his eyes and found himself, back against an old tree, the Tetsusaiga sitting casually on his lap. He looked around quickly, snapping his head in all directions to make sure he got every inch of the surrounding completely memorized.
Have I completely lost my mind? he thought, smacking his head with the heal of his palm several times. No, it was just a dream.
The fire was dying, small and insignificant. The wind was cool and harsh against his face and the leaves rustled through the tall grass. Miroku and Sango were sound asleep, his arm somehow managing to fall across the small of her back. InuYasha chuckled to himself, finding great satisfaction in the morning smack that he was going to receive. Shippo was sleeping peacefully on Kirara's tail, relishing in the warmth that it brought. But when he went to check on Kagome, his rant towards the woman in the dream world replayed in his mind.
He stood up and moved closer to her sleeping figure. Plopping down beside her head, he leaned forward and inhaled her scent. He loved her scent. It was always the same sort of fresh lilac, and that ridiculous soft rock she rubbed all over her body when she took what she called "baths". Lilac fascinated him, as he had been unfamiliar with that particular flower up until the time he'd met her. Every moment after that had been filled with that alarmingly sweet, delicate scent.
From what he understood, the flowers were significant in and of themselves, if for no other reason than they were pale violet. That color was of some little interest to him, because this sort of half lavender, half gray was the same color the shards of the Shikon No Tama took whenever Kagome was near. He wasn't sure what the significance of the color purple was, but he guessed that it had something to do with the way Kagome's eyes constantly shifted between pale violet and storm-cloud gray.
Her mouth opened slightly with each breath she took, and her dark tressed laid in all different directions, having no rhyme nor reason to where it fell. Her small, soft hands were up by her face, shielding her neck as if someone would bite it.
Now, if only I could keep you just like this, he thought wrinkling his forehead, then you would never be in any kind of danger.
SOMETIME LATER…
"InuYasha?"
"Do you think he's really asleep?"
"I don't know, he's never sleeping when the sun's up."
Something long and pointy lodged itself between the hanyou's neck and shoulder and the victim's eyes shot open, bloodshot and angry. Kagome was kneeling very closely to him, inspecting his sleeping form, while the other three stood back, Miroku's staff held dangerously close to InuYasha's face.
"Back off!" the half-demon cried, more out of surprise than anger. "Can't a person sleep around here without being pocked with a stick?!"
Kagome made a face as the dog-demon stood up quickly, brushing the dust off of his kimono. "You know, it wouldn't kill you to be nicer once in a while, InuYasha!"
"Feh."
"-As I was saying last night," Miroku interrupted, extinguishing the argument that was shortly to follow, "the fire demon lives just on the edge of the mountain side."
"So are we in agreement that we're going there next?" Sango asked, awaiting the usual affirmative response.
"Fire demon…" InuYasha trailed off, thinking deeply about his best course of attack.
"Why does it live near a mountain?"
"The air is drier near the base of the mountain," came the all-knowing voice of Miroku, proudly, "The drier the area, the faster the fire can spread, you know."
"Oh yeah…that would make sense…" Kagome trailed off. She wasn't really interested in knowing the answer, really just trying to make conversation. For the past week, the half-demon had been acting oddly and she had a very bad feeling that it had something to do with her.
THOUGHT BUBBLES…
Kagome's eyes fluttered open. It wasn't quite dawn and the wind was still cool on her face. She peeled off the top of her sleeping bag and stood up, rubbing the last remnants of sleep from her eyes. Her legs were still weak from the deep rest she had been pulled out of, but the campfire soon brought warmth to her rigid body.
Every morning, InuYasha was the first to get up to start the fire for everyone, and usually he would be sitting lazily in a nearby tree, gazing out into the new day. He would be thinking of Kikyo, the young girl knew it, so she tried to stay asleep as long as possible so she wouldn't have to awake to see his sad and longing face.
That morning, though, as she looked around, she couldn't find the hanyou anywhere. Shrugging her shoulders, she sat down in front of the fire and watched as the sun sunk into the sky. A smile spread over her face as she thought of her family waking up back in her time to the same shining sun.
It was deathly silent around their camp, almost abnormally silent. Kagome strained her ears to hear any signs of life and frowned when she found nothing. This lack of noise was actually beginning to frighten the girl and she wrapped her arms tighter around her knees.
A dry leaf crackled behind her and she jumped to her feet and spun around in surprise. InuYasha stepped out of the thicket, his head hanging low and silver bangs casting most of his face into shadow. He was deep in a trance, seemingly forgetting that there were others around him, sleeping or not. His arms hung limply, save for his right hand that held the handle of the Tetsusaiga firmly.
"Inu…Yasha?" Kagome jumped to her feet, keeping her distance from the deeply subdued half-demon.
He was muttering something that was almost completely incoherent, but Kagome was able to grasp some of it. "Kikyo," he whispered, "I'm…sorry… …love…her…you…?"
"InuYasha?" The onyx haired girl took a couple of steps farther away from him, her hands hugging her sides in fear. "InuYasha, it's me…It's Kagome."
He suddenly stopped moving and his hand clutching the sacred sword went dead. He raised his head slowly, growling from the back of his throat. The hair hiding his eyes parted and the dull gleam that was there began to bleed away. The gold shine began to take its place and the two of them just stood there, staring at each other as if one were about to attack.
"Kagome?" His blinked several times and shook his head stubbornly, temporally ignoring the terrified glances he was receiving from the girl. His eyes were now completely back to normal his usual face of seriousness slowly began to lurk its way back.
Again, the two didn't say anything for what seemed to be an eternity. InuYasha could smell the fear radiating off of the girl standing before him and guilt crept into his heart. Her eyes were frozen in terror and confusion and the color had completely left her cheeks.
"Kagome? What happened?"
She stammered at first as if afraid to say the wrong thing. "Eh…you tell me."
Before thinking if it were a good idea or not, he closed the gap between them, looking down at her with intense eyes. "Was I saying something?"
She shook her head quickly, ignoring her initial impulse to tell the truth.
It was then that InuYasha realized that it was not he who she was afraid of. She was completely calm now, her scent returning to normal. Before, she had not been afraid that he was going to kill her, but more so afraid that he did not realize the difference between her and an enemy. More guilt flooded his mind and he silently cursed himself. He should never have left the camp. If he had stayed, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to speak with Kikyo and hence wouldn't have heard what she had to say to make him temporarily loose his control on reality.
"I'm sorry, Kagome," he whispered with a tenderness he didn't realize still existed within him, hanging his head down to his chest. "I'll never hurt you, I promise. I'm sorry that I scared you."
"It's okay," she replied obligatorily, feeling suddenly sorry for him. Standing on her toes, she gave him a swift kiss on the cheek and smiled warmly.
Her actions left him stunned. He half expected her to yell at him, telling him that he should be more careful or something along those lines. This took him completely off guard.
END THOUGHT BUBBLES…
"Kagome? Are you okay?"
The raven haired girl blinked. InuYasha's face was about an inch away from hers. "What?"
He took a step backwards and crossed his arms, making a funny face like he wasn't sure if he were more annoyed or concerned. Shippo jumped into the girl's lap and stared up. "Your eyes got all funny and your weren't saying anything when we talked to you."
"I'm fine," was her reply, not believing the small, little girl's voice belonged to her.
"Kagome, are you sure everything is okay?" Miroku said, stretching out his hand to assist her.
Why is everyone so much taller than I am suddenly?… Kagome looked around perplexed and realized she was on the ground, her legs bent awkwardly underneath her. How did I get here? Weren't we all walking a minute ago?
Taking his hand, she pulled herself up and waited a moment for her balance to catch up to her. Dusting off her skirt, she looked up and saw looks of shock and dread.
"Kagome…" Sango rushed closer to the younger girl and pointed down to her legs. "What happened?"
A chill ran up her spine and a sudden sharp pain burned through her legs. She looked down as if in slow motion and a single tear fell from her eye, landing on the blood-soaked dirt below her. From her waist down, she was covered in blood, her ankles completely torn up and a part of her right knee twisted unnaturally. Her lower abdomen was sliced through, blood pouring down her sides and only adding to the pool beneath her feet.
She looked up in apathy, searching the eyes of her party. Miroku and Sango were standing together, his arm for some reason protectively around her. Shippo was sitting on the transformed Kirara, teeth gnashing. InuYasha stood closest to her, though, his arm held out to her and the Tetsusaiga pulsating in his other hand. It was then that she noticed that it wasn't her blood that had temporarily paralyzed them.
Kagome followed InuYasha's eyes to behind her, and with a subtle groan, she turned around. There standing, eyes scarlet, was Naraku, his sword bloodied by what must have been the raven haired girl. He smiled cynically at her, his eyes cutting through her like his sword apparently had. She opened her mouth to scream, but before her breath could leave her lips, his sword plunged itself back into her abdomen, tearing itself upward towards her heart.
What's happening? InuYasha…someone help me!