InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Harsh Changes ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

Harsh Changes

Chapter One-The Noise of Silence

It had been almost two weeks since the terrible day. The terrible day that had completely changed the lives of the small group of travelers. Kagome was still wearing the scars of it, her face was bruised, her wrist was broken, and her skin covered in deep dark slashes. She had a pained air about her. InuYasha had avoided the gaze of Kagome, avoided the gaze of anyone. He had a dark air around him as well.

"I have to go home." Kagome whispered.

Everyone nodded; it seemed everything Kagome said lately came in a whisper. InuYasha wasn't there at the well. Kagome found he wasn't anywhere near her these last two weeks. This surprised no one. But she had other concerns on her mind. She swallowed hard, feeling the tension of fear. She had to explain her condition to her mother. A believable excuse that would convince her mother not to worry seemed out of reach.

Kagome let herself balance oddly on the edge of the well. The wood moaned beneath her. The blackness of the well glared up at Kagome, almost consuming her. Shippou tugged innocently on her skirt. She turned to the little fox, starring up at her with troubled eyes.

"Hurry back." he chirped quietly.

She smiled weakly, unable to think of an answer that would sound right. She just nodded and turned back to the well. She held her breath, as if the blackness stole the oxygen from the air, and leaped in.

She left the ancient Japan in a state of buzzing silence. For quite some time, they stood there watching the well. No one could find words; the air was too thick with emotions, the emotions still echoing from that day.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Kagome." InuYasha said harshly, her naked and twisted body under him.

Her eyes were closed and her face was swollen and bleeding. She shivered uncontrollable and he felt the wet slickness of blood against his body. He didn't understand why this scene laid before him. His mind fumbled around trying to understand. He felt lost and cold. The smell of tears, blood and sex filled his nose and he felt sick. With a horrible math, he put two and two together. He felt another wave of nausea hit him. He got up and back away, dropping the sword he had been holding in his hand. It clattered against the ground dully. Her body curled up into a ball, and she began to sob.

"What have I done?"

- - - - - - - - - -

"What have I done?" he asked himself as he watched Kagome leap into the well. He still felt sick. He glared down at his hands and they disgusted him. These hands, he thought to himself, had hurt Kagome in a way he can never forgive himself for. Never.

The others, after a long time of just standing there, began to head back to the village. A dead silence was following them like a dark cloud. Watching them walk back made him remember the terrible events of that day. He wished Kagome never came back, never to gaze on his filthy face. He would have gone to the well to destroy it, but her scent was so strong there, from repeats visits. He couldn't even face her lingering scent. Not yet.

Miroku spotted InuYasha, a flash of red quite a ways away from them. InuYasha had been a ghost for the group. Barely visible, yet always hovering near by. Sango turned to where Miroku was starring.

"Is he there?" she barked roughly, her disgust for the hanyou undisguised.

Miroku gave her a sorrowful look that she shrugged off heading back to the path ahead of her. Miroku let out a ragged breath. Her angry was understandable. She was the one that found them, Kagome and InuYasha. InuYasha's shadow disappeared into the forest. Dusk was falling over the landscape, painting the sky is red and orange, the sky promising darkness.

Kagome lifted herself up from the well. Her bag was relatively light, since she had used most of her supplies over the last two weeks. Still, it was a bit of a struggle to get herself out of the well because of her injuries. The coolness of the well house made her shiver. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and she crossed her arms in a frail attempt to warm herself. She slowly made her way toward her house, praying that no one was home. No such luck. Her family came running from the house in a panic.

"Where on earth have you been-" her mother was cut off by a gasp as it came from her throat.

"Sis, you look awful. What happened?"

"I fell." Kagome answered, reaching up to touch the bruise covering the right side of her face. "Hard."

"What wrong with your wrist?" asked her grandfather.

"I landed on it. It's broken."

"We need to get you to a doctor." he mother insisted, gripping her good arm.

Kagome jerked away, afraid she would she the scars hidden under her long sleeves.

"No, no. I had someone look at it. It's not as bad as it looks, honest."

"Don't be silly, Kagome. We'll take you to a real doctor." her grandpa said, trying to get beside Kagome as well, to coax her to come.

"Please. I'm fine, really. It's not as bad as it seems."

Her mother looked at her daughter, trying to see the truth behind the blood shot eyes. Kagome forced a smile, trying to lessen the concern that was seen though her mother's face.

"I'm really tired, Mom. Can't I just get a bath and go to bed."

Ms. Higurashi gave her daughter one more looks over.

"Are you sure you're OK?"

Kagome nodded, Souta grabbed her bag from her shoulder and headed inside. Kagome followed. Her mother and grandfather were still standing there, in front of the well house. A strange silence spread across the yard that the modern sounds of cars and people could not break through. They glance over at each other, then toward the house. Kagome's mother wrapped her arms around her; it got really cold all of a sudden.

- - - - - - - - -

She was fighting him, throwing her legs and arms around. This made him mad. What was the bitch fighting for? He slammed his claws into her arms, causing her to scream. She shot her leg straight back trying to hit him. It hit him between his legs. A pained yelped escaped his throat. He was getting real tired of this. He flipped her onto her stomach, forced her up on to her knees and grabbing her flailing arms, bringing them to her back. He held her legs still with his own legs and forced her face into the dirt. She still struggled against him. So, he tightens his grip on her wrist, causing her to scream louder.

"Please, let go, you're hurting me." she cried out, trying to remove her hands from his. He let her struggle a little more, but he could feel her weakening. He waited. She began that crying again. She tried again to lift herself up. He leaned down to growl in her ear.

"Please. You don't want to hurt me." she said.

He ignored the words, they meant nothing to him. She was his and that was all that mattered.

- - - - - - - -

Kagome let the warm water run over her. It soothes her sore muscles. But that was about all it soothed. She tried so hard not to think about what had happened. She tried to forget that day. The silence of the bathroom made it hard to forget. She felt tears fill her eyes and she felt angry rise up after it. Her fist slammed into the water, cause waves of bubbles to overflow over the edge.

"Damn it!" she cried out, letting the tears replace the water in the tub. She hated herself. She hated what happened. She hated-. Her fist unclenches.

"Say it." she told herself, trying to force out the words. "Even if you don't mean it."

"I hate hi . . ."

Why couldn't she say it? Why couldn't she say she hated him? She had a right to. If ever there was a time to spat hatred at him, now was the time. Yet she found herself unable to. She let out a sadden sign. Her hand pressed itself to her belly. A thought came back. That thought.

She let the fear rise up in her again. It had been three days since she should have had her period. Three days and that thought hadn't left her mind, lacing everything she did with a nagging voice. She was too young to have a baby. Seventeen is no age to start a family, not to mention a demonic family. But the strange feeling that she thought about it kept bugging her. It was almost like a voice. It sort-of came from her belly.

It made her feel funny. The voice seemed a bit scared itself. Kaede had said one time that she could sense the aura of babies while they were still inside their mothers, correctly predicting the gender of the baby. Was that what was happening? Was she sensing the baby's aura? She shook her head.

"Don't jump to conclusions." she told herself, "You don't even know if you're pregnant."

She let her body go limp and let it slide under water till only her head was exposed.

"I might not even be pregnant." She said, trying to calm herself.

She let out a shaky breath.

"I'm not pregnant." she insisted.

But the fact still remained. She could be.

Shippou sat very still. A small fire raged in front of him as they sat silently in Kaede's hut. InuYasha was sitting on the roof, according to Miroku. The others sat around the fire, starring blankly at the dancing flame. So much had happened in the last few weeks and no one bothered to explain it to poor Shippou. Kagome cried a lot and was hurt and bleeding. InuYasha refused to talk to anyone. Sango was mad at InuYasha and Miroku acted sorrowful toward everyone.

The firelight played on the faces of his friends and he gazed up to where InuYasha was supposed to be. Sango and Miroku ate in silence. Shippou frowned; he had enough of the damn silence.

"What happened?" he shouted, jumping up to his feet, slamming his bowl on to the floor, which wasn't as intimating as it sounded. Everyone just look at him as if he wasn't speaking the same language they did.

"Hey, I want to know what happened! Why isn't InuYasha going after the demon that hurt Kagome? Why is everyone so sad? What happened?"

His small voice echoed bizarrely in the hut. Sango looked away from him. Miroku just gave him a sad look and the sounds of movement from the roof meant InuYasha left. Shippou sat down, feeling defeated. The silence returned.

Kagome sat on the lip of the bathtub. The strange device lying harmlessly on the sink; a clock was cradled in Kagome's sweaty hands. Her family had gone shopping that morning and she told them she wasn't in the mood for travel. She lied.

She went out as soon as they left and walked almost four blocks to a store she didn't go to, normally. To buy the pregnancy test she didn't want to use. Then she went back and took the test she didn't want to take and now sat nervously waiting for results she didn't want to hear. She forced herself to think she was only being paranoid.

She glared down at the clock. It had been six minutes since the test should have ended and told her the truth, told her is she was pregnant or not. But she hadn't had the courage six minutes ago to look. She wondered if she had the courage now. Her hands shook a little.

"You have to look." she explained out loud, "It's important."

But courage still availed her, tricky little things that courage was. But she had to know. So, she let fear put the clock down and stand up slowly. Fear forced herself to look in the direction of the sink. She stared down at the dreaded plastic. Her breath came out in a sharp sob. One strip meant she wasn't, two meant she was. Two pink strips stretched across the plastic window.

- - - - - - - - - -

The demon had InuYasha in his grasp; tetsusaiga had been throwing aside like a toothpick. InuYasha let out a scream as he felt his ribs crack in his chest. He now felt the terrible surge of demon blood flow through him.

"Damn it!! He thought as he fought for control.

This was entirely his fault. The damn demon didn't even have a shard. It just happens to be a very large, very powerful demon. InuYasha had to go running head first into this battle, with no real idea what force he was up against. But he knew now, and the demon blood came boiling up demanding control. Suddenly he heard a small female voice, far enough away that she didn't see this, but close enough she would be stumbling upon any minute.

"No." he hissed, "Anyone but her."

He tried to make some sort of warning sound, some way to tell her how much danger she was in. But that moment the demon blood took full control, pushing aside the foolish thought of Kagome's safety. The stripes ran down his cheek and his eyes converted to red.

- - - - - - - - - -

Miroku sat against the wall of Kaede's hut, with only Kaede to keep him company. The others had disbanded, wandering around. He watched as Kaede kept herself busy by cleaning the same spot of the floor for the last haft hour.

"Do you think she'll come back?" he asked breaking the silence.

Kaede signed, throwing the rag down.

"One cannot be for sure, but she has plenty of reason not to return."

Mirkou nodded.

"But she may, because of the shards. She may return."

"Aye, she may."

"Lady Kaede. How on earth are we going to deal with this? How are we going to get past this is she does return?"

Kaede was silent for a moment.

"Do ye wish to destroy the well yourself? That would save the jarring emotions."

"But would it help Kagome. Maybe she needs to face this to heal."

He shook his head.

"I'm sorry, I'm thinking out loud."

Kaede nodded her head and everything returned to silence.

Miroku lowered his head. This wasn't something that was going to be easily solved, if it was ever solved at all. Kagome was hurt. Sango was ready to kill. Shippou was confused and InuYasha had his own pains to deal with. Not to mention the stress Miroku was going through trying his hardest to mend wounds, to calm tempers, and to bring people back from their own personal hells. Trying to keep this tiny group from completely falling apart had become his biggest concern at the moment.