InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Future Incarnations: Inuyasha 2030 ❯ The Protector ( Chapter 4 )

 

The Protector

Inuyasha was pacing outside of the Torii gates of the Hirugashi Shrine. He was waiting for Kagome so that he could escort her to and from the University today. He was a little nervous, so far she had shown him a coolness that bordered on dislike. The only time she had even smiled at him was when she had given him the Tessaiga. Inuyasha smiled momentarily. The sword now hung at his waist and if felt natural for it to be there.

 

“Now why am I here?” he thought.

 

He remembered the conversation that he had had with Souta and Kagome's grandmother yesterday.

 

 

“Inuyasha, I need to ask a favor of you. Could you please protect Kagome?” Souta asked.

 

Inuyasha had been incredulous. Why in the world did Kagome need to be protected in the middle of downtown Tokyo? Anyone who knew anything knew how safe the city was. You could leave a fat wallet loaded with money on a busy downtown street and would know that it would be returned to you. Sometimes there were some lawbreakers that might mug or rough up someone, but it was a rarity in this city. Overall most people felt completely safe. Tokyo was definitely not New York!

 

“It is your lifepath Inuyasha. You were born to protect Kagome,” said Souta. “You always protected her and if you are to reach your destiny you must do so again.”

 

“Are you out of your…,” yelled Inuyasha.

 

Mrs. Hirugashi interrupted. “Please Inuyasha. Souta is right. You can fight your destiny or you can accept it. Either way you will still be drawn to your lifepath. You can do this the easy way or the hard way.” Then her voice softened. “But please, things have been happening at the shrine…”

 

“Grandmother!” Kagome interrupted. “I do not need any help! I'm fine on my own.”

 

“What things?” asked Inuyasha. Suddenly he was worried about Kagome, though for the life of him he didn't know where the feelings were coming from.

 

“We have been visited by demons,” said Mrs. Hirugashi. “We have managed to ward off the attacks for now. Kagome and Souta have been putting up warding sutras all over our shrine.” Inuyasha now noticed the many sutras that hung all over the place. He had seen them before, but had thought that they were only the typical prayers that you often see scattered all over a shrine. “But I worry about Kagome when she steps away from our shrine. She wants to study and we all want her to graduate from the University. But it is a little nerve wracking for us to see her go every day knowing that she has been attacked before.”

 

“Attacked?” asked Inuyasha.

 

“I have been fine Grandma! Nothing has happened to me so far,” said Kagome as she crossed her arms.

 

“Yes, my dear granddaughter. But when you start to roll the dice eventually you will come up with snake eyes. It is only a matter of time. Will you please allow your grandmother and father to find some measure of solace knowing that you have someone watching over you?” asked her grandmother.

 

Kagome just stood there for a moment and then nodded, looking away from Inuyasha.

 

“And Inuyasha, would you please grant a grandmother her wish to protect her one and only granddaughter? I have already lost my daughter. Please don't let that happen to my granddaughter,” pleaded Mrs. Hirugashi as her wide expressive eyes looked at him.

 

Inuyasha gulped. He had been cornered and there wasn't any way out of this.

 

 

 

So he had agreed to protect Kagome while she was away from the shrine property. He continued pacing for only a moment more before Kagome showed up at the Torii gates. She wore a green mini-skirt and a large white sweater. Her long wavy hair swayed back and forth as she walked and her legs were quite shapely. She was just as beautiful as he had remembered and he tried his best not to stare at her. Inuyasha noticed that there was a sutra attached to the back of her large yellow backpack.

 

“Your Dad isn't taking any chances is he?” asked Inuyasha as he pointed at the sutra.

 

“No he's not!” fumed Kagome. “I'm constantly being watched over. They worry so much that I don't have a life. They even make me keep this GPS cell phone with me all of the time so that they always know where I am.” Kagome flipped up the cell phone at him and he noticed that she was toting a model that was usually reserved for young kids, not a young woman. “It's infuriating! I've learned self-defense and I'm really good with a bow and arrow. But they still don't trust me to be by myself.”

 

Kagome then ripped the sutra off of her backpack.

 

“What are you doing?” asked Inuyasha. “Don't get rid of a sutra. It could help you.”

 

“Oh, it's one of my father's sutras. His stuff never works anyway, but don't tell him that,” Kagome then turned and started to rummage within her backpack. She took out another sutra and placed it near the top of her backpack, but it was carefully hidden.

 

“Well, then why are you putting that sutra on your backpack?” asked Inuyasha in confusion.

 

Kagome looked up at his eyes and paused for a second. She was about to say something, then paused again. “I…um…I used one of my sutras instead. I just don't have the heart to tell my Dad not one of the sutras he creates actually work. I tell him that I am helping him make sutras. But the real truth is that I'm the only one in this family who has the ability to make them. I am a miko and maybe I'm something more,” said Kagome.

 

“Something more, something more than what?” questioned Inuyasha as he started trailed behind Kagome.

 

“I don't know. It's just that I can do things,” she said.

 

“Well, things like what? What can you do?” asked Inuyasha.

 

“I can channel holy purification energy. I usually do it with an arrow, But sometimes I can do it will my own body if I am angry enough,” said Kagome.

 

Inuyasha had seen her angry and the entire thought of an angry Kagome firing off purification energy at him made him a little queasy.

 

“Well, just don't do that to me. I'm not entirely human. That would hurt me,” he said.

 

She turned and looked at him and gazed into his eyes again. “You seem so human. But your aura is off a little and your eyes. Your eyes are brown today. What is your real eye color, may I ask?” said Kagome with more than a hint of curiosity.

 

“Um…gold or amber. That is my real eye color. But my parents think that would call too much attention to me. So they have me wear brown tinted contacts. It makes life a little easier. No one has heard of a person with gold eyes,” said Inuyasha.

 

“True. But your gold eyes—they're pretty,” said Kagome with a slight blush. “I prefer your real eye color.”

 

“Pretty?” said Inuyasha in some confusion.

 

Kagome just walked beside him and smiled.

 

“Thanks,” she said.

 

“Thanks? For what?” said Inuyasha.

 

“For agreeing to protect me,” she said sheepishly. “Not that I really needed any protection. But it was nice of you to help out anyway.” Kagome stared straight ahead and her playful look started to harden.

 

“What has been going on?” asked Inuyasha. “Your grandmother said that there have been demon attacks.”

 

“Oh, she doesn't even know all of it,” said Kagome with a sigh. “I keep most of it from them. I don't want them worrying. It's bad enough that my aunt died before I was born. It has made them extra cautious with me. I don't want to give them anything else to worry about.”

 

“You still haven't told me…,” he added.

 

Another sigh and she put her fingers through her long wavy obsidian hair. Inuyasha was suddenly caught off guard as he watched her hair and her pretty chocolate eyes. Luckily she was so lost in thought that she never noticed that he was staring at her.

 

“It all started when I turned 15 years-old. Demons would show up. They were weak, shadow-like demons at first. A simple sutra would be all that I needed to ward them off or to purify them out of existence. But then they started to get more powerful. Now only my bow and arrow or a purifying bolt from me can get them to disappear,” said Kagome in an off-hand manner.

 

“You mean that you have been warding off demon attacks for a few years now?” asked Inuyasha incredulously.

 

“Yes, for the past three years,” she said as she stared straight ahead. “I've been fine so far. But…I…” She looked at him and stared into his eyes again. Then she turned away almost as if she was embarrassed. “I haven't told anyone what has been really going on. It's good to tell you about it, because there is no way I would tell Dad and Grandma the truth.”

 

“You need to tell them,” said Inuyasha seriously.

 

“What and worry them some more? What can they possibly do to help me? All they can do is keep me locked up at the Shrine all day. Trust me, it's not my idea of a good time,” said Kagome.

 

“Better than dying,” said Inuyasha with some concern. Then he sighed. “Look, I won't tell them what you told me. But you need to tell them sometime. They love you and they just want to take care of you.”

 

Kagome looked up at him quizzically and then she smiled. “Thanks for helping to keep my secret.”

 

Inuyasha then looked down at her huge overstuffed backpack. It must have weighed over 20 kilos. “Let me take that,” he said. Soon Inuyasha was carrying two backpacks on his shoulders as they made their way to the crowded subway stations in Tokyo. And for once in his life Inuyasha felt both true belonging and purpose. All molded together and centered on the one small woman in front of him, the girl named Kagome.

 

Author's Note: Tokyo and practically anywhere in Japan is very safe. I dropped the equivalent of a $20 bill on the floor and someone ran after me trying to get it back to me. We left items in a taxi, only to have the taxi driver frantically trying to find us to return the items to us. I was amazed at how honorable everyone was in Japan. And it is so safe there! It is not at all like New York or Los Angeles. Japan is well, a whole other country.

 

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