InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Go Home Kagome ❯ Promises Broken & Other Delusions ( Chapter 16 )

 

Chapter 16

Promises Broken & Other Delusions

  Inuyasha heard the lock on the door turn. Shit, she's back. I doubt that's a good thing. His head still hurt. He sniffed the air trying to figure out who was the other side of the door.

Nothing.

What the hell? He looked down and saw his hair was black. Great. He blew his bangs out of his face and ducked down behind the bed.

The door opened slowly and Kagome's head peered around the doorway.

 

Empty. But she knew better. “Inuyasha! Get out here where I can see you.”

 

He stood and she wasn't surprised to see the sacred energy of the hair brush had purified him to his mortal form.

 

“Hands up where I can see `em”. He made an odd face but slowly raise both hands in the air looking a bit like he was on the Japanese version of Cops.

 

Kagome kicked the door fully open and entered. She'd found her old bow and now held it taught loaded with a sacred arrow. Just in case.

 

Inuyasha saw the bow and his stomach clenched. Oh no, not that again. I'll kill ya first. “Kagome, please don't.”

 

She studied his dark eyes. They pleaded with her. Not again. Don't ever make me go through that again. Kagome relaxed her bow and set it beside her against the floor where it was within reach.

 

“Inuyasha.”

 

He looked at her and shook with relief.

 

“You hurt me.”

 

He took a step towards her to see the damage he'd inflicted but Kagome throw up her hand stopping him. “Stay put.”

 

Inuyasha froze.

 

“You tried to kill me.” It was a statement not an accusation. But then why accuse when it was the truth. The simple, plain and ugly truth.

 

“Kagome” he put his hand on his chest. “That wasn't me. I changed and I don't know why. But I'll find out and fix it.”

 

Kagome sat on her bed and wound her hair around her hand lifting it off her neck. Inuyasha saw the black marks around her windpipe and his heart broke. Each black mark bore a signature half moon red scratch from his claws. He held up his human hand and studied his blunt mortal fingers. These fingers would never hurt her. It was the other set he worried about.

 

He heard her sniff and realized she was crying. Kagome does that a lot. She raised her head and he saw her eyes were red. “Why Inuyasha? I love you…”

 

Inuyasha fell to the floor and sat at her feet peering up at her. He had no answer yet he heard his own damnable words.

 

“If you loved me you'd be with me.”

 

Her eyes widen at his incredulous words. “Before it was just timing, I just wasn't ready but I never would have let you go. Now…now I can't trust you. All the times you've saved me and sacrificed for me. Now here we are. I can't be with you.”

 

He fingered his prayer beads. “I'm going to Kaede for help. She and Miroku will fix this.”

 

“I'm not so certain they can.” Kagome folded her arms in her lap. “I went into the well.”

 

Inuyasha was on the edge of blind panic. His world was slipping away before his very eyes. “And?”

 

“And I saw Sesshoumaru.” She looked away past him to the window.

 

Inuyasha sighed. This day just kept getting better and better. “Really, so how is the rat bastard?”

 

Kagome looked back at Inuyasha. “I asked him about your first love.” She watched his face and saw his jaw twitch. There it was. The truth and everything she needed to know. “He said you killed her.”

 

Inuyasha's voice was barely a whisper “I…it was bad… an accident. Not like yesterday. It wouldn't have happened had he minded his own business.”

 

He sighed, “That fucker. I would've stayed there, had a family and been long dead of old age by now.” He refused to meet her gaze.

 

“So it's true.”

 

“Yeah but it's not what it seems…”

 

“And Kikyo?” Kagome pressed her face into the palms of her hands.

“Come on!” Inuyasha was outraged. “That isn't fair. You already know Naraku tricked us.”

 

“Inuyasha you loved her. Loved her enough that when she came back to life fifty years later as a zombie you kept your promise. But you killed her. You fought her and never held back or pulled a single punch.”

 

Inuyasha's hair dragged the bare wood of the floor as he put his head on his knees. What's gotten into her? She knows better. Oh what the hell, whatever way this is going it doesn't matter. She'll only believe the worst. “There's nothing I can say is there?”

 

Kagome closed her eyes and fresh tears ran down her face. “I..I don't know. Inuyasha something is wrong. Can't you see that?”

 

He lifted his head from his knees and roared “I fucking well know that.”

 

She pressed on. “Why do you hurt the ones who love you?”

 

He jumped to his feet. “I don't know. It's why I wanted to be full youki or human. I'm not always in control.”

 

“Doesn't the Tetsusaiga control your youki blood?”

 

He pulled his dark hair from his face. “Not always. It's like a monster I never know…It's why I push people away. Kikyo was already dead. She was safe with me because of her death.”

 

“Sesshomaru seemed to know. Maybe he can help?”

Inuyasha's expression said he'd rather die than go to his half brother for help. “Asshole already thinks he knows everything but he doesn't.”

 

He stood and took Kagome's hands in his. He winced when he saw her freeze in a moment of fear. “Does this mean it's over? Can't you wait for me to figure this out?”

 

Kagome looked into his eyes and felt all her feelings form the night before flood into her chest. The she turned her head and felt the dull pain of the black bruises on her neck. “I..I don't' know Inuyasha. I want to but I just don't know…”

 

“Kagome please, forget about all those things I wanted from you. I can wait. You've waited for me all these years so what's a few more?”

 

Why couldn't he have said that this morning before…?

 

“Go on with your life and I will work this out.”

 

“Inuyasha I want to trust you...”

 

“I know…” he whispered.

 

“I've always know no matter what happened I could always depend on you.” You were the one person who'd never physically hurt me but you've always had the power to destroy me.

 

Inuyasha's soft mortal lips pressed a kiss to her forehead. He pulled Kagome into his chest. Her arms went around him in a tight embrace. He moved his lips down her face. Kagome pulled away before his lips met hers.

 

“No Inuyasha. Not now.”

 

He nodded gravely. “It's okay. It won't always be this way.”

 

She turned her head and saw her bedside table lying broken in two on the floor. Kagome didn't have to ask. She already knew.

 

She shrugged then stood. “It's late, you should go.” Kagome showed him to the door. Once outside, Inuyasha watched the light in her room turn back on. He saw her go to window and watched as she locked it. He ground his teeth and felt his fingers itch as his claws appeared. He ran his claws over the door of the Bone Eater's Well house leaving five long rows of scratches in the soft wood.

 

 

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1996:

 

Higurashi Ayumi placed the heavy black phone down in its cradle. The police still had no clues as to the where abouts of her fifteen year old daughter. Souta said she'd been yanked down the old well by a half naked centipede youki. Ayumi and her father had the fire department scale the well and they went over it with a fine tooth comb. All they found was one of the gold hoop earrings she'd given Kagome for her birthday.

 

Ayumi herself jumped down the well after they left. Souta and her father had to buy a ladder from the hardware store just to get her back out.

 

It had been what now? Three days? Girls just don't vanish into thin air in respectable neighborhoods in front of their little brothers. Ayumi practically grew up here herself and had seen nothing out of the ordinary.

 

She held the tiny gold earring in the palm of her hand studying it. Souta was a good kid. Why would he make up such a ridiculous story? Was her entire family on drugs?

 

Kagome was a good daughter. Her grades were perfect; she did all of her chores without being asked and she had that little well to do boyfriend who hung around her. What was his name? Ah yes. Hojo.

 

Hojo spent every day since Kagome's disappearance at the shrine. He brought flowers to the well and called often for updates. Today Ayumi entertained the happy notion that if she were to toss Hojo down the well it might solve everything.

 

Souta called from the kitchen, “Mom. Dinner's here.”

 

Ayumi paused to watch the black phone that would never ring before turning to leave.

 

Dinner was a solemn affair. The chief of police explained earlier on the phone that with every passing day their chances of finding Kagome alive decreased by forty percent. This was the third dinner she'd missed. That made the likelihood she'd be found dead somewhere around one hundred and twenty percent. Ayumi was no math expert but she was certain those weren't good gambling odds.

 

Everyone pushed their food around their plates. No one felt like eating. I should've cooked; ordering out was a waste of money. But she didn't trust herself to remember to turn the stove off. Ayumi was so distracted she'd likely burn down the house or chop off her own hand.

 

Souta lifted his head from his rice bowl. “Mom! Did you hear that?”

 

She glanced over at Souta. “Hear what?'

 

“It sounded like Kagome…”

 

Ayumi's heart leapt to her throat and her ears filled with the sounds of sobs and shouts. Later on she would be told she was the one sobbing. Her legs ran of their own volition to the front door. She threw it open and heard it the door knob hit the wall behind the door. She used so much force the knob lodged itself in the wall and the door was stuck.

 

She peered out into the dusk and saw the greatest sight since she'd been presented with her own newborn children at each of their births. Kagome was climbing the steps of the shrine.

 

Ayumi yelled and raced out the meet her. Ayumi was a slight woman and not much taller than Kagome. That night she lifted her daughter off the ground as she cried. “My baby! I was so worried. Where have you been…?”

 

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

1997:

 

Ayumi stood over a sink full of dirty dishes. She hated the feel of the rubber latex yellow gloves on her hands. She'd asked Santa for a dishwasher every year for the past ten years but no such luck yet. She glanced out the window over the sink. She saw someone in red walking across the Shrine yard. Damnit it's that Inu-hanyou. I swear the boy thinks he lives here.

 

She remembered the first time she'd met Inuyasha only a year or so ago. He thought he had a right to Kagome. She'd tried to set him straight but he always politely tuned her out. Ayumi didn't care if Kagome was the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe. She was her daughter and would have a normal life.

 

She watched the kitchen door open and Inuyasha strolled in without so much as a knock. Ayumi stood in silence as he headed straight to the pantry and began pulling out packages of Ramen Noodles. She cleared her throat and he turned towards her.

 

“Good morning Inuyasha.”

 

He bowed his head. “Good morning Higurashi-sama.” She watched his silver white hair fall forward with the movement of his head and understood what Kagome saw in him.

 

Ayumi gestured to the kitchen table as she pulled off her yellow rubber gloves. “Please sit.”

 

“No thanks, that's okay. I'm here for Kagome.” He turned towards the stairs.

 

Ayumi put her hand on his should and squeezed hard to emphasize her point. “No. Sit.” She smiled to soften her tone. “I'll make you some of those noodles you like so much.”

 

He grinned, sat and eagerly watched as she put the tea kettle on to boil the water.

 

“Inuyasha. You and I need to have a little talk.”

 

He nodded as she poured the boiling water into the noodle cup and went to fetch him a pair of chop sticks.

 

“I know you've been spending the night in her room.”

 

Inuyasha's face turned bright red and he looked away.

 

“I also am fairly certain nothing inappropriate has occurred.”

 

He visibly relaxed.

 

“Yet. But if you expect to be able to use my daughter to find those shards we will have to set some ground rules…”

 

Inuyasha spoke quickly, “I would never hurt Kagome.”

 

“I'm not so certain of that. I'm not naïve; my father runs this shrine and knows every legend backwards and forwards.”

 

He frowned. Good. I'm starting to worry him

 

“My point is this. Should any harm come to my Kagome because of you I will hunt you down. And when I am through with you, that old priestess's arrow will seem like a pin prick.”

 

Inuyasha's eyes widened. He was a hanyou but he wasn't stupid. Ayumi was serious.

 

“There will be no more sneaking in here! And she must be allowed to come home whenever she wants.”

 

Inuyasha's gaze fell to the table and his uneaten cup of Ramen.

 

“Do I have your word?”

 

Silence.

 

“Do I have it?”

 

He bowed his head his eyes closed. “Yes Higurashi-sama I pledge with my life that no harm will come to your daughter.”

 

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Notes:

Yeah, yeah I know Ayumi is a push over in the magna and anime.