InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Haunted ❯ State of Flux ( Chapter 15 )

AN: Well, here's some more… sorry about the sloppy editing last chapter! I had very little time to throw all these ideas together… and I was constantly interrupted! Heh…

 

And now for some responses (Thanks to you guys who reviewed!):

 

Auxana: Thank you! And I WILL NOT stop writing any time soon! It's great to know that you like it. Thanks again!

 

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Sessychansbestpal: Thank you thank you thank you! Yes, I've heard the Killers, and Good Charlotte, and Green Day. (A few of my friends are going to their concert, I'm not sure when it is, but the ticket price is already outrageous.)

 

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FFchick: Thanks! I'm glad that you find the chapters long enough. About the Kagome-life-giving-to-Inuyasha thing (Terrible grammar, I know. Very sorry.), I think that Inuyasha is already -in the series- incredibly devoted to Kagome, and his ties to Kikyo are from past love, strong loyalty and devotion, and guilt. Guilt being very strong in that mix. But what he feels for Kagome seems more… well, ya know. (Man, my current control of the English language is terrible.) Inuyasha really loves Kagome, I think. But yes, it seems to me that he is indeed very devoted to Kagome!

 

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Tiamath: Thanks! I do try to keep the chapters nice and long… in fact I've been trying to lengthen chapter one as I go along writing the others, adding a bit here and there. (It's already three pages longer.) Sorry 'bout the errors! I'll go back and correct it at some point… but thanks for the heads up!

 

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Rin sama1989: (Don't worry, we all babble. Or at least, I know I do!) Thanks! It's nice knowing what you like. Really helps, knowing what's working and what's not, and all that stuff. And here is the update!

 

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NewSalemWitch: Well, I wouldn't say soon as to when Inuyasha's getting freed, but for someone who's been waiting five hundred years, it's not very long to wait! (I've got something up my sleeve for Naraku, though the thought of putting the horrid thing on Naraku had crossed my mind…) Yeah… about the editing… I know it's crap. They need to put something a little more sophisticated than the basic spell check on Microsoft Word. Very sorry! I'll fix when I look over the story, I promise!

 

I'm happy that you're happy with Kagura! (Too much "happy" there…) I've recently developed a strong feeling of empathy and kindness towards Kagura, after reading her death (wahh!) and the events that took place before it. I mean, I have vol. 1-21 of the manga and read EP summaries off of inuyashaworld, but I forgot how in the end, she's really rather compassionate and friendly to the Inuyasha group. Which makes her death all the more… well, depressing and all.

 

Yeah, last chapter was rather slapdash and I didn't use quite as much proverbial glue to stick the little bits together as I should've. That's one of the things I'm gonna go back over once I finish this thing. (I'm estimating six more chapters and an epilogue… not sure, though!) No, Inuyasha doesn't know about how Kagome is neutralizing the spell yet. Miroku and Sango were just talking about it amongst themselves while Inuyasha was doing whatever he was doing. (I've already forgotten, isn't that horrible?)

 

I like responding to the reviews as well, because people always ask questions, or say nice things-, which I really truly appreciate, and I like to say thanks and answer the questions. (Ipso facto, I don't think I would've gotten past the fifth chapter -if that- without all the help and critiquing of my work that I've gotten. SO THANK YOU ALL!)

 

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Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha, my name, first of all, wouldn't be Jessica. But it is Jessica. And I would live in Japan, and I would be a lot older and smarter and richer. (Not to imply that Rumiko Takahashi is ancient because she isn't at all, I'm just saying that I'm a bit of a squirt.) To add to that, I'm not very bright, I don't have a lot of money, and I'm not living in Japan.) And, of course, I would be very, very famous.

 

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Haunted

 

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Chapter Fifteen: State of Flux

 

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Kagura sidled uneasily to the other end of her airborne transport, away from the dangerous sword. She shuddered involuntarily. She knew what the sword was supposed to do. Suddenly, her scarlet eyes widened. She had the perfect bargaining tool… "Free…" She breathed, staring at the dark bundle on the other edge of the feather. She had in her possession quite possibly the thing most desired by Naraku: his own freedom. And maybe he'd be willing to trade his for hers….

 

The wind witch snorted in disgust at her own naïveté. He was Naraku, after all. He would not take kindly to being tricked. He would have no qualms with killing her in an instant and taking the sword from her. No, best to wait, bide her time.

 

And maybe add another feature to the sword… A wicked gleam in her scarlet eyes, Kagura abruptly swooped in another direction, her winds carrying her to another direction, away from Naraku and towards a likely ally. Hopefully, Tsubaki would be willing to listen, for a price of course. After all, she was not fond of Naraku either.

 

Perhaps the dark priestess could be persuaded to help, in more ways than one.

 

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(•. •)

(><)

 

"Kagome?"

 

Mrs. Higurashi rapped her knuckles against the door gently, a small worried frown creasing her forehead. Despite Miroku's assuring words -or perhaps because of them, he'd sounded like a doctor that was trying to assure someone that their dying loved one was okay- she was still apprehensive. Was Kagome all right?

 

"Huh?" She just sounded a bit sleepy, but other than that she didn't sound upset or apprehensive. "Mom, is that you?" She asked through the door. "Did you talk to Sango or Miroku?"

 

"I did." She sighed. "But are you sure that you're okay?" She reaffirmed, still standing outside the door. She could hear Kagome hum in the affirmative, and suddenly she was through the door and in front of her in the hall, looking a bit uncertain. Mrs. Higurashi was silent.

 

Kagome watched her mother with hesitant grey eyes. How would her mother react? She wasn't worried about what she'd do or say to her, she was more worried about how Inuyasha would react to whatever her mother would say. He was obviously unused to a parental figure yelling at him, let alone a parental figure at all. "Mom…?" She asked carefully.

 

"You did a kind thing today." She smiled at her daughter, who looked surprised. "And I'm not mad." She added with a grin. "I just wanted to make sure that you were okay." Kagome nodded and ran a hand through her hair.

 

"I'm fine." She confirmed with a shrug. It was no big deal, after all. Mrs. Higurashi looked carefully at her daughter's face, just to make sure. With a nod, she walked down the hallway.

 

The older woman turned suddenly, her smile bright and strong in her face. "I'm proud of you." She added. "You made a big sacrifice." She smiled once again and continued down the hallway, her destination the garden.

 

Kagome paused, watching her mother as she walked down the hallway with puzzlement. She was wrong. It hadn't been hard to give Inuyasha a life that he justly deserved at all. For her, being the way she was now wasn't a sacrifice. She didn't mind being in the state she was.

 

At least, not if it meant Inuyasha was alive.

 

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(•. •)

(><)

 

"Where's Inuyasha, anyway?" Sango looked across the table to Miroku. Neither of them had gone anywhere since Mrs. Higurashi had gone up to Kagome's room. "We should tell him your thoughts on the curse."

 

Miroku nodded in agreement. "I don't know where he is, though." He frowned and glanced around the room as if he expected the hanyou to pop out from behind the couch. He shrugged. "Don't know." He repeated.

 

Sango rolled her eyes. Was it just Miroku, or were all guys so lazy? The exterminator got up from her seat at the table. "Then we'll just have to go look for him." She told the purple-eyed man. Miroku conveniently watched in appreciation as Sango turned her back to him and walked out of the room. "Are you coming or not?" she asked, unaware that his eyes had been resting on her behind.

 

He got up from the table and sighed. Two more weeks, and he'd be free of his deal with Sango. Clean thoughts… he was so sick of "Clean Thoughts". Out of habit, Sango made sure that the purple-eyed man exited the room before her so as to keep his roving hands in sight and away from her body.

 

"Maybe he's outside," Sango guessed and sped up until she was standing next to Miroku. The monk nodded in agreement and they headed back to the living room. As she turned, she felt Miroku's hand brush against her hip for a moment.

 

She looked up at him, murder in her brown eyes. He hadn't seemed to notice. Maybe it had been an accident, after all. But then again, it was Miroku… Brown eyes met purple as he glanced at her. "Something wrong?" He asked innocently. Sango shook her head in the negative.

 

"Naw," she replied nonchalantly, fairly confident that his hand had been an accident. Miroku slid open the back door and the pair put on a few stray pairs of shoes. Sango noticed idly that Miroku was wearing Mr. Higurashi's old black sandals. She herself was wearing a pair that probably belonged to Mrs. Higurashi. "Inuyasha?" She called loudly, aware that with his keen ears he'd be able to hear, even if he was at the very edge of the property.

 

"Inuyasha!!" Miroku yelled after her. He paused for a moment as the echo faded and no one answered. "Well, he's not outside-" Sango cut him off with a derisive snort. "What?" He asked in confusion.

 

"You call that searching?" Sango looked at him incredulously. "Let's check by the big tree where he sits sometimes." Miroku nodded in agreement and their sandals brushed against the short grass of the lawn. Mrs. Higurashi was gardening off to the side, a pair of clippers in hand as she tended to the plants along the border of the lawn.

 

"Are you looking for Inuyasha?" The older woman asked and wiped sweat from her brow. "I heard you calling." She stood up and put the clippers down. Sango nodded and the pair stopped walking.

 

"We wanted to tell him about what's going on with the curse," Sango clarified. Mrs. Higurashi looked surprised as she dusted off the pair of shorts that she was wearing.

 

"You mean he doesn't know?" The older woman asked curiously and shielded her eyes from the sun. Miroku nodded in the affirmative. "I thought that you would've told him right off."

 

"Well, I wasn't sure," Miroku admitted and peered at the tree where Inuyasha and Kagome often sat. "Sango and I just wanted to make sure first." Mrs. Higurashi nodded in understanding and pointed back to the house.

 

"I think that he went to the library, or the ballroom." She frowned as she thought. "I'm not sure what that room is, really." She resumed her instructions. "I do know that he was somewhere inside after he left Kagome's room."

 

"Thank you," Miroku inclined his head in thanks. The purple-eyed man and the exterminator trudged back to the house in silence; the only sound was of Mrs. Higurashi's clippers and the wind through the trees. But, the silence wasn't an uncomfortable one. It was more companionable, as if neither of them really needed to say anything. And they didn't. No words were needed.

 

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(0.0)

(><)

 

"Hey."

 

Inuyasha looked up in surprise. He was sitting on the patched former splendor of the floor in the library-ballroom, legs crossed and chin propped up on one hand. Kagome smiled at him and took a seat next to the hanyou, her feet making nary a sound on the floor.

 

And in his amber eyes, Kagome could see a deep thoughtfulness, his expression unreadable. Despite his impulsive tendencies and rough manner, Inuyasha really was quite a thinker and whenever he went off to be alone, it was always to think. "What's up?" She asked.

 

Without looking at her, in fact he turned away, he stuck his hand out again and Kagome sighed. "Take your life back." But this time, she noticed, there seemed to be a tint of pleading in his voice. "Take it," he repeated.

 

Kagome scooted around until she was sitting in front of him again, face to face. "I told you," she began firmly, "that you're keeping it. It's a gift, just accept it." She smiled indulgently at him. "I want you to, otherwise I wouldn't have given it to you in the first place." Inuyasha stared at the floor, expression grave.

 

"I can't." He refused flatly. "I can't." He repeated. Kagome looked at him in puzzlement and tried to get him to look her in the eyes again. As she suspected, he turned away.

 

"Why won't you look at me?" She asked curiously, feeling a bit irate. Inuyasha brought his eyes up to hers and stared balefully, amber eyes smoldering.

 

"Better?" He almost spat. Kagome backed away in alarm. "Now, take it back!" His hand shot out of his sleeve and stopped between them. "Take back your life!" He demanded angrily.

 

"No!" Kagome's own stubbornness and anger flickered into light. "You keep it!" She folded her arms across her chest, her dark grey eyes glaring mulishly into his own.

 

Inuyasha lowered his hand back onto his lap and his gaze as well. "Why?" He asked simply. Kagome looked at him in bewilderment. There was a pause as Kagome thought of an answer.

 

"Because I want you to have it." She finally said, feeling rather inadequate. "And plus…" She continued slowly, trying to decide what to say. "You… you've been stuck like this a long time, haven't you?" She gestured at her body. Inuyasha nodded reluctantly, still gazing at the floor. "So, I think that you should get to be alive. It's not fair if you're stuck like this forever."

 

"What about you?" Inuyasha asked and looked up from the floor, anger still laced through his voice and eyes. "Are you sure that that's what you'd want? To be stuck like that for an eternity?"

 

Kagome looked surprised. "What makes you think that I'd be stuck like this forever?" She asked, then realized what a stupid question it was. Inuyasha looked at her incredulously.

 

"And what makes you think that you wouldn't be?" He shot back. The conversation had lost most of its confrontational side. "I was like that for five hundred years!"

 

And it had been hell, pure hell. He'd been so alone, isolated, and the misery had been relentless, just like the passing of time. It had sucked the life out of him, and in the end, he just didn't care about anything. He hadn't even realized how bad it had been for him until things had improved. With a lurch, he realized that despair had become the norm for him. He was shocked when Kagome said, "I don't mind too much right now. I'm sure that we'll come up with a cure soon, too! So it won't be too long."

 

For a moment, Inuyasha was speechless. Finally he managed to choke out, "Well, you're certainly confident." Remembering the matter at hand, he turned to her mulishly again and said, "But you're still taking your life back."

 

It was Kagome's turn to look askance. "Have you been listening to me at all?!" She stared at him angrily. "I just said that I would rather give it to you than keep it for myself!" She huffed for a moment.

 

"Well, I'd rather give it to you!" The mulish hanyou shot back with a glare. "It's yours in the first place! I've no right to take it!"

 

"You're not taking it!" Kagome's voice rose as the conversation turned into an argument. "I'm giving it to you! I already told you that!" Standing indiscreetly behind a bookshelf and unnoticed by the pair, Sango, Shippo and Miroku watched the argument with slight dismay.

 

"But it's yours!" They were standing up now, still glaring at each other. "And you're taking it back! NOW!" Inuyasha gripped the spectral girls arm and concentrated.

 

"No!" Kagome shouted back and willed just a fiercely, her hand on the demi-demon's. There was a flash of cackling bright light from the prayer beads around Inuyasha's neck and they both collapsed on the ground.

 

"Kagome! Inuyasha!" The trio appeared from around the corner and surrounded the pair on the floor, both of them still holding onto each other. Sango and Miroku stopped abruptly about a foot away and gulped. "Now, this is weird…" Shippo said in a small voice. There was wispy grey smoke issuing from the beads around Inuyasha's neck, almost like the steam that comes from a car badly in need of repair. The stuff was slowly surrounding the pair with the smell of smoky incense and lavender.

 

But the oddest thing about the whole picture wasn't the smoke, or the way little bolts of Inuyasha's lightning-stuff that played between their entwined fingers. In any other circumstances, the pose would've been quite endearing. The odd thing was that both of them were swirling with colors and transparency as the Curse settled down between them. For a moment, Kagome's feet and legs were pale and grey, then flesh and blood as the transparency traveled up her body and traveled down her arm where it's met Inuyasha's hand and turned it grey, then was pushed back by a cackling pink force that tingled from Kagome's fingers and turned Inuyasha's hand back to flesh and blood.

 

"What's that?" Shippo whispered in the dead silence. There was a faint buzzing, cracking sound from the interplay between the grey force and the pink energy that came from Kagome's fingers.

 

"Good question." Miroku replied flatly, worry in his purple eyes. After a moment's hesitation, he took a cautious step closer and bent over the prone forms of Kagome and Inuyasha. Sango bent over and took a closer to watch the rather violent exchange between the pink stuff and the Curse with a concerned frown. This was a big dilemma…

 

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(•. •)

(><)

 

"What's in it for me?" Tsubaki asked suspiciously. "I've got more to gain from helping Naraku than from killing him." She watched Kagura with suspicious turquoise eyes. Kagura smiled coyly and snapped her fan shut with a sharp click.

 

"Are you sure?" The wind witch asked carefully, a confident smile in place. "Do you really think that Naraku is as generous as to give you that which you desire?" Tsubaki sighed and beckoned to her shikigami. The snake-like demon curled itself around her neck in familiarity.

 

"Of course I'm not that naive." The black priestess retorted. "But I have other ways to get what I want. This job is in my interest, so I'll do it." She looked at the scarlet-eyed demon standing across from her with unveiled suspicion. "And what do I have to gain from helping you?"

 

"Tsubaki." Kagura drawled. "I know all about your little dilemma." The priestess flinched. "You're running out of time and unless you get your hands on those ingredients that you need, you'll soon look your age." She toyed with her fan in a careless way, but was nowhere near as relaxed as she appeared. Her entire ploy was playing on this one point…

 

"I can get you what you want, and I won't kill you once all is said and done like Naraku would." She tucked the fan in a pocket in her jacket and glanced at Tsubaki.

 

"And how do I know I can trust you any more than Naraku?" Turquoise eyes clashed with scarlet. "It's a dangerous balance I stand on, I know. And you just might tip it over."

 

"Do you honestly think that Naraku has any regard for life other than his own? He doesn't give a damn about what happens to you," the wind witch said frankly. "He'd kill you as soon a look at you. I, on the other hand, don't give a damn either, but I do keep to my word."

 

Tsubaki weighed her choices carefully. How could she come out on top of everyone else? "I'll do it, but you have to give me my pay before I give you the completed product." She looked at the package that Kagura held so gingerly.

 

"Then we have a deal." Kagura confirmed and crossed the space between them to give the bundle to Tsubaki. "Oh, and it must be done before four weeks and a day are done with." She pulled the white feather from her hair and took off.

 

"Then you'll get my pay before that time." Tsubaki said back. As the wind witch flew away until she was a mere speck on the horizon, the black priestess smiled grimly and looked at the package in her hands.

 

"My, my, my." She chuckled darkly and headed back up the grassy slope. "It looks as if Naraku has a mutiny on his hands." But that didn't surprise Tsubaki in the slightest.

 

What surprised her was that it hadn't broken out before this.

 

_|__|_

(•.•)

--( • )--

(____)

 

"Kagome!"

 

Voices were calling her name. They were familiar voices, too. Not her mother, though. Or Souta. Who was it, then?

 

"Kagome!"

 

It wasn't Grandpa. And it wasn't Eri or Yuka and she was sleeping over. Maybe she was wrong, and it was her mother, after all. But she didn't want to get up; it couldn't be time for school yet, could it?

 

"Kagome!"

 

No, it wasn't her mother. Because the voice was masculine now. That was confusing. Just before, she could've sworn that it was her mother…

 

"Kagome! Get up!"

 

Oh, and that was Shippo, for certain. So then the others were Miroku and Sango. Not her mother, or her grandfather. Slowly, Kagome opened her heavy eyelids and blinked blearily up at three concerned faces. She sneezed and sat up. "Sango, your hair is in my face."

 

"KAGOME!" Shippo squealed and leaped at her. "Whoa!" To her utmost shock, Shippo sank through her as if she were merely air and hit the floor behind her with a thud.

 

"What?!" She looked down at her stomach where Shippo had sunk through. And gasped, with surprise and horror. "What happened?!" She turned to Inuyasha, who lay beside her. "Oh, gods…" He was in the same condition she was, part flesh-and-blood, part spectral, and constantly changing as pink sparks played across his grey, the red chest.

 

"Is he okay?!" Her voice was shrill with worry. She didn't realize that her hand was still in his. Shippo picked himself off of the ground, shaking slightly from the frightening experience, and trotted over to Inuyasha's head.

 

"Are you okay?" Miroku asked, somewhat calmer now that Kagome had woken up. The black-haired girl didn't look up from the hanyou's face as she replied.

 

"Yeah, fine." She said absently. "What about Inuyasha?" She turned to Miroku. "Is he okay? What happened?" Shippo leaned over one of Inuyasha's white ears and yelled into it.

 

"HEY, DOG BOY! WAKE UP!"

 

The fuzzy appendage twitched. Miroku shrugged. "If you're okay as you are, I'm sure that Inuyasha is, too." The purple-eyed man ran a hand through his black hair. "But there's no way to know for sure." Kagome frowned, a worried expression firmly in place.

 

"Inuyasha, please wake up!" She shook his shoulder gently with her free hand, the other still grasping Inuyasha's own. She didn't seem to be able to pull away. The sparks had her hand completely numb.

 

"Kagome, are you sure you're alright?" Sango asked and placed a hand on the other girl's shoulder tentatively, afraid that it would sink through. And after a moment, the raven-haired girl's shoulder did indeed become untouchable and her hand did sink through. Sango pulled back quickly.

 

"Yeah, I'm fine." She smiled quickly at Sango. "I'm more worried about Inuyasha," she admitted and shook her head. "What happened?" She asked for the third time.

 

"DOOOOOG BOOOOOY!" Shippo howled into Inuyasha's ear. "YOU CAN WAKE UP NOOOOW! HEEEEEEEEYYY!" The demi-demon's ear flicked again and Shippo tugged on it before it became spectral again.

 

"Well, you and Inuyasha both tried to give each other the spell, and then this bright light and little bolts of what looked like electricity came out of Inuyasha's prayer beads." Kagome frowned.

 

"I remember feeling all… like something flooded my nerves and just knocked me out." She rubbed her head. "I do feel a bit funny," she admitted and stared down at Inuyasha again. "Are you sure that he's okay? What if the shock hurt him worse than me?"

 

"He's half-demon," Sango looked down at Inuyasha's face as it changed from ghostly to flesh-and-blood again. "He's a lot tougher than you. He just hasn't woken up yet, I think. But there's now way of knowing for sure."

 

Kagome gnawed on her lower lip with worry. "I hope you're right." Shippo tugged on the hanyou's ear again and he winced. "Inuyasha!" Kagome leaned over and stared at his face. "I think he's coming to!"

 

"DOOOOG BOOOOOY!" Shippo yelled into his ear as he tugged on the other one. "WAAAAKE UP!" Inuyasha winced and a clawed hand swiped at the annoying kitsune, knocking his away as he opened eyes that changed from vibrant amber to dull grey and back again.

 

"Inuyasha!" Kagome yelped happily. The semi-poltergeist sat up and winced, rubbing his abused ear gingerly. "I'm so happy!" She launched herself at the hanyou and gave him a big hug.

 

"Huh?" Inuyasha blinked in bewilderment, face slightly flushed. "What happened?" He asked and Kagome moved back hastily, her face stained slightly pink. "And what the hell happened to you?" He pointed an accusatory finger at the black-haired girl.

 

"You should take a look at yourself." Shippo said sourly and dislodged himself from a pile of wood that Inuyasha had hit him into. "You're off just as bad." Inuyasha looked down at himself, then back up to the others.

 

"No wonder I feel so queasy," Inuyasha commented dryly and stood up, pulling Kagome with him. "Whoa." He looked at their connected hands. "What the hell happened?!" He demanded again. "And why are we stuck together, as well as all… weird?"

 

"Ask Miroku." Kagome pointed at the purple-eyed man who always seemed to have the answers to everything. "He can tell you." She stood unsteadily as her body kept changing from solid to insubstantial.

 

Sango looked at Miroku in confusion as he snapped his fingers. "It's the prayer beads!" He grinned triumphantly at the pair. "The spell is in the prayer beads!"

 

"What?" Sango turned to look at him in bemusement. "What are you talking about, Miroku?" The purple-eyed man grinned and pointed at the prayer beads around Inuyasha's neck.

 

"I always knew that there was something funny about those," he said. "No matter what state you're in, Inuyasha, they stay spectral. Now it fits together." And he was right. Even as he spoke, regardless of the nature of Inuyasha's neck and chest, the beads around his neck stayed slightly transpired and a dull grey color.

 

"So can you break it?" Kagome asked eagerly and nearly tipped over as her leg became spectral. Inuyasha caught her and set her upright. Miroku blinked and thought for a moment.

 

"I don't know." He said with a shrug. "I'll need some time to look at it and think, do some research. But now that we're sure, I bet we can have that spell off really soon."

 

"How soon is really soon?" Inuyasha questioned, hope rising in his chest. The purple-eyed man frowned, thinking, for a moment.

 

"Oh, no more than a few months, probably about two, but no more than that." The others stared at him for a moment. Inuyasha blinked, then sighed.

 

"Oh, great."

 

"Well, it's better than a year, right?" Kagome asked and stood up. She'd fallen over when both legs ceased to solidly exist at the same time. The semi-poltergeist shrugged indifferently. No, it was more that great, it was wonderful. He'd waited five hundred years, after all. He could wait a few more months.

 

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(•. •)

(><)

 

"Ah, Kagura." Naraku stole into her mind and filled it with a feeling of cold, dark, dread. "I was just wondering what had become of you." There was a question behind the comment, one that the wind witch refused to answer.

 

"You have what I asked for, yes?" He asked, his ruthless personality echoing through her mind. From her place next to the black urn, Kanna watched exchange with emotionless black eyes.

 

"And I gave it Tsubaki, as ordered." She snapped back. "Anything else?" She demanded from the entryway to the cave, fan waving idly. Kagura conveniently didn't mention that she'd told Tsubaki a different set of instructions. If he didn't ask, she didn't have to tell.

 

"You know what to do." Naraku replied. Through an unspoken command, Kanna turned her mirror towards Kagura and revealed an image. "And I expect you to do a bit of damage, no death, not yet." The wind witch frowned with confusion. And what would that accomplish?

 

"You do not need to question my plans, even in your thoughts." Kagura flinched, but didn't back away as he had expected her to. "I have my reasons. Now see to it." Grudgingly, Kagura inclined her head in ascent and stalked away towards the exit of the cave.

 

"Akutagawa girl and friends, here I come," Kagura said with a sigh. This time would be different. The wind howled as it rushed by her, making her squint marginally with the speed that she was traveling at.

 

"This time will be different."

 

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(•. •)

(><)

 

"I think that this'll give my Mom a heart attack," Kagome said gloomily as the two of them walked unsteadily down the hallway. Both she and Inuyasha were still changing back and forth between being spectral and flesh-and-blood.

 

"Naw, that'd be the old man." Inuyasha said back. "Your mom'll probably faint or something like that." He fell over to one side as one of his legs ceased to exist as flesh, toppling Kagome with him. "Gods damnit!"

 

Miroku frowned as he thought behind them. "Is something wrong?" Sango asked curiously from next to him. Shippo sat on his shoulder. The purple-eyed man turned to her before replying.

 

"I'm not sure how this happened, but I think that it's safe to say that it has to do with Kagome's spiritual powers." His frown deepened as he stared at their hands.

 

"You mean those pink sparks, right?" Shippo asked, green eyes sparkling with interest. "But what's it mean?" Miroku shrugged and ran a hand through his hair.

 

"I don't know. I think that Kagome's fighting the spell somehow, but she's not putting any effort into it, which means either that it's something else, or she's really, really powerful." He shrugged again. "I don't know too much about this stuff, actually. Most of the time it's just guess-work."

 

Sango nodded. After all, who needed to know these sorts of things in such a modern era? They were really quite lucky to have Miroku around.

 

"Dinner, everyone!" Mrs. Higurashi shouted from the kitchen. The five of them all gulped visibly. Taking matters into his own hands, Inuyasha marched into the living room as if nothing was wrong, Kagome protesting feebly as she got dragged along.

 

"Wait!" Miroku grabbed Inuyasha's hair before he reached the dining room and dragged him and Kagome back into the hallway. Pulling a spell out of a pocket -did he carry those everywhere? Sango wondered- he stuck one to Kagome and one to Inuyasha. Slowly, the colors and greys stopped swirling about their bodies and settled.

 

"Why didn't you do that before?" Inuyasha asked pointedly as they both became semi-solid and rather grey. "Could've saved us a lotta trouble." He grumbled. Miroku shrugged.

 

"I forgot," the black-haired man admitted. "And they'll wear off in about two hours or so, anyway." He pushed the pair of them back into the room. Their hands were still stuck together, but that could be easily explained…

 

Sango noticed an ominous glitter in Miroku's purple eyes. That didn't bode well at all. He had that look in his eyes that he got whenever he-

 

"Hands off!" She whacked him in the head with her hand. "You have two weeks left, you know!" The exterminator scowled at him, face flushed. Miroku rubbed his head gingerly and nodded in compliance, his purple eyes slightly out of focus.

 

"Ah, there you are-" Mrs. Higurashi stopped in mid-sentence as she regarded Inuyasha and Kagome, and then their intertwined hands with a smile. "And what do we have here?" She was still smiling as she wiped her hands on the apron around her waist.

 

Both Kagome and Inuyasha blushed and spluttered. "Mom!" Kagome protested. "It's just the spell. We were trying to break it-" Not really, but she didn't need to know the details, "and we got stuck like this." Subdued pink sparks still played around their hands.

 

"That's too bad," the older woman said with genuine sympathy. "Better luck next time, hm?" Kagome nodded for the both of them and the group trailed after Mrs. Higurashi into the dining room.

 

"Hey everybody!" Souta greeted cheerfully. "Hey, Shippo! Guess what I found!" He exclaimed excitedly as the kitsune sat down next to him on a large pile of old books so that he could see the table.

 

"What?" The ginger-haired fox demon asked curiously as he helped himself to a bao*. "Ooh, is it more packing peanuts?" Green eyes widened with enthusiasm as he took a big bite out of the bun.

 

"Nope! I found a big pile of old archeology stuff!" Mr. Higurashi looked at the pair with interest as Souta continued his story. "It was in that really old room that no one's really looked in, you know? In the closet, and there were a lot of old tools and rope and stuff." He shrugged and grinned.

 

"I wonder what we could make out of that…" Shippo thought aloud and took another chomp of his food. Mr. Higurashi interrupted with thoughts of his own.

 

"You mean the old equipment that belonged to umm… what was her name, Miyagi? Something Miyagi. I found some of her writings notes. Quite a prestigious archeologist, actually. This was the last place she was seen before she mysteriously disappeared at the height of her career." He nodded and continued to eat obliviously.

 

"You wouldn't have anything to do with that would you, Inuyasha?" Shippo teased. The semi-poltergeist glowered and bopped the ginger-haired kitsune on the head. "Hey!" Shippo protested. "That's not fair!"

 

Inuyasha looked at him grimly and hit him a few more times, "for good measure" as he put it, before Kagome pulled him away. "Wait…" Miroku interrupted and stopped eating. "What was her name?"

 

Mr. Higurashi looked up his food briefly to reply. "Miyagi. Kaguya? No, Kaiya? No, not Kameko either… Ah, Kagura! Miyagi Kagura."

 

Conversation around the table stopped abruptly as five individuals turned to look at him in surprise. "Kagura?" They asked in unison as they exchanged incredulous glances. Surely not Kagura the wind witch!

 

"Yeah, that's it. Miyagi Kagura. She was looking for something around here and she went searching one day, but never came back." The senior stopped to chew his food and swallow. "Everyone assumed that she'd been murdered and her body never found."

 

There was a large thump and a rush of wind. The same five exchanged a glance and rushed away from the table. "Go hide somewhere!" Inuyasha called behind him as they hurried out to the lawn, Sango grabbing Hiraikotsu from beside the doorway and tossing Miroku his staff.

 

"Speak of the devil," Sango commented harshly. "Literally," she spat and hurled Hiraikotsu up with deadly accuracy. Deftly, Kagura flicked her fan and a gust of wind blew the formidable weapon aside.

 

"No, just one of his incarnations," Kagura countered with a bitter smile. The wind witch dropped to earth gracefully, the large feather that was her transport shrinking until it was a normal size. She tucked the feather into her hair and regarded the five coolly. "And what have we here?" She glanced at Inuyasha and Kagome. "What sort of amateur spell did you fumble?" She smirked. "But I should be asking you that." She looked at Miroku.

 

"I didn't do anything, Miyagi Kagura." Miroku shot back and moved into a defensive stance, glancing at Sango for a moment. Kirara stood by her, flames licking at her large feet and long canines bared menacingly. But all in all, Sango looked more menacing, with a deadly glint in her eyes that promised vengeance for her kin, and Hiraikotsu balanced perfectly, just waiting to be thrown.

 

"Well, aren't we well-informed," Kagura drawled. "But that life's over with." Scarlet eyes narrowed as she slashed at the air with her fan. Miroku leaped aside and Sango took to the air, hurling her weapon at Kagura as she did so.

 

"What do you mean by that?" Inuyasha asked put Kagome behind him protectively. Kagura turned around and brought her fan into play yet again. Leaping out of the way, Kagome in his grasp, the semi-solid hanyou landed heavily on the grass and turned to the wind witch again.

 

"Do you honestly think that I'd willingly leave such a life?" She indicated the house. "I had all I needed, and more." She leaped out of Hiraikotsu's way and dodged Miroku's attack with ease. "And I had no desire to just disappear, though the newspaper articles were amusing."

 

She swung around and leaped out of Sango's path. "So why did you?" The exterminator asked through gritted teeth. Kagura may be her enemy, but she couldn't help but be curious.

 

"I didn't. It was Naraku." There was a lull in the battle as the group stood several yards away from the wind witch, neither group making a move.

 

"Naraku?!" Inuyasha hissed, golden eyes lit with anger. "That's bullshit. I killed him with my own hands." He could see it in his mind; Tetsusaiga coming down at Naraku's neck, a severed head, Kikyo's spell sealing both him and the demon.

 

"Well, you certainly did a bad job." Kagura snapped. "He's alive and relatively well." The feather came out of her hair and appeared in her hand. With one final gust of wind from her fan, Kagura leaped back onto her feather and took off. "Next time you try to kill someone, make sure they're dead before you walk away!" She called to Inuyasha down below.

 

"Fuck you!" Inuyasha yelled back in a display of bad temper and equally foul language as he leaped back, away from Kagura's attack with Kagome in his grasp. He scowled and kicked at a stray dirt clod. That was something to think about, though. Naraku. Alive…

 

"But I thought you said that he died a long time ago…" Kagome looked at Inuyasha in surprise. Realizing that he still held her close to him, Inuyasha put the black-haired girl down and stepped back a bit.

 

"I did. I cut off his head." But for demons like Naraku, that wasn't enough, which was why Kikyo sealed him away and Inuyasha with him, whether it was an accident or not was still debatable.

 

"But how does that work?!" Kagome asked in bewilderment. "If you cut off something's head, it's got to die! The brain is disconnected from the body. It's just not possible," Kagome stated flatly.

 

"Not for some demons. I'm guessing that Naraku is one of the particularly powerful type, with all sorts of things up his sleeves." The black-haired man looked at Inuyasha for confirmation.

 

"Yeah…" Inuyasha said quietly. "He was -is. And Kagura's working for him, it seems." Looks like he was just going to have to kill the bastard again. But if that entitled all the event of what happened last time…

 

"No, not working for him," Miroku scrutinized. "She's not working for him out of her own will. I would say that he's bound her somehow." Sango looked at him curiously.

 

"What do you mean?" Kirara mewed on her shoulder, once again kitten-sized. Hiraikotsu was slung over one shoulder and a katana in its sheath was in her hand other hand.

 

"Kagura didn't seem… very fond of this Naraku. And yet, she does his dirty work. Why would she do that if she wasn't being coerced in some way?" Sango's brown eyes narrowed as she stared in the direction that the wind witch had left in.

 

"Huh." Sango turned and stalked into the house, Miroku's purple eyes following her with concern in the approaching dusk. The sliding glass door closed quietly behind her as she headed straight for the staircase without a word of explanation to the confused Mrs. Higurashi and her questions.

 

"This is really, really bad, isn't it?" Shippo asked from his perch on Miroku's shoulder, green eyes wide and solemn. "I mean, Naraku's alive. I have a feeling that this is going to be like on TV when the villain tries to take over the world or something." Inuyasha snorted derisively.

 

"Probably. That's the sort of thing that he'd like." The demi-poltergeist said shortly, staring off into the distance. Shippo stared at him, askance, then laughed nervously.

 

"I was just kidding, Inuyasha." He assured hastily. After a moment's silence stretched between the four of them, Shippo tugged on Miroku's ear. "Let's go back inside, okay?" He glanced surreptitiously at Kagome and Inuyasha. "Come on, Miroku!" He whispered.

 

Neither of the two paid any attention as Miroku and Shippo left. They both stood in silence for another moment, but for different reasons. The wind sighed heavily through the trees, making the leaves quiver and rustle. "It's different now." Kagome said quietly, "Isn't it?" She looked up at Inuyasha's impassive expression.

 

"…yeah, it is," he said finally and looked down at Kagome. "Naraku, as I remember it, was ruthless, heartless, manipulative." He sighed and looked out across the property, up the hill and to the dark velvety sky. "To discover that he's been out there, all this time…" He looked down, startled, as Kagome squeezed his hand reassuringly.

 

"Well, if he's been out there that long, then a bit longer isn't going to hurt, will it?" At Inuyasha's almost outraged look, she hastily assured him. "If he was going to blow us all up or take over the Earth or something like Shippo said, he would've done it, right?"

 

Inuyasha nodded reluctantly. She had a point there… Her hand was warm in his; a tingly feeling spread from his fingers to his wrist and all the way up his arm. He looked down to discover that the little pink sparks that Miroku had finally confirmed as Kagome's powers were spreading up his arm and restoring it to flesh and blood as her own arm because more grey again.

 

"Kagome!" He said harshly. "Don't do that!" She shook her head with confusion as the sparks continued their work. They spread across his chest and up to his head. Amber eyes glared down at her. "You're going to give me it all!"

 

Kagome looked down at her hand. "I'm not doing anything." She replied. "I think that Miroku's spell is wearing off." And sure enough, the spells dropped of their bodies as if they'd never been stuck in the first place. "See?"

 

The sparks died out from Kagome's fingers and their hands dropped away from each other as they regained control of their limbs. "There we go." Kagome shook her hand out and Inuyasha did likewise.

 

Both of them were semi-solid, sharing equally in the Curse. "Whoops!" Unsteady on her legs from the experience, Kagome slipped and fell to the side. Inuyasha caught her hand and managed to keep her upright. "Thanks," Kagome smiled up at him, brown eyes glittering in the dusk.

 

Almost unconsciously, but not quite, Kagome kept a hold of his hand as they walked slowly back to the house. She could feel her heart fluttering wildly in her chest as the made their way across the dark lawn and to the bright patches of light that were the windows.

 

And was it just her imagination, or was Inuyasha's hand squeezing hers back?

 

(\ /)

(•. •)

(><)

 

"Hey, Kagome!" Eri's voice was as cheery as ever. "What's up?" Kagome fumbled with the phone as it started to slide through her hands.

 

"Hi Eri!" She managed to say back. Maybe if she put the phone on the ground and put her head next to it… "Just a sec-" she let the phone hit the ground and then lay down next to it on her stomach. "Hi! Sorry about that."

 

"No problem. Hey, I was just wondering, are you doing anything this weekend or next week?" Souta snorted as he walked through the living room. Kagome certainly did look strange like that.

 

"No, I don't think so." She replied. "Hey, Souta," The younger boy turned around to look at her. "Do you know if anything's going on next week?" He shook his head. "Nope," Kagome said to Eri. "Nothing."

 

"Cool. Me, Ayumi and Yuka were thinking of coming up and visiting you soon, next week or on the weekend for a couple of days." Kagome blanched, her grey face turning white. "Your mom said yes when she was down here a few weeks ago."

 

"S-sounds great." The ghostly girl stammered. She couldn't let her friends see her like this! And Inuyasha was a secret! As much as she'd like to share everything with them and see them again, it wasn't advisable.

 

"You don't sound like you think so," Eri said carefully. "What's wrong?" Kagome rolled onto her back and thought, the phone still near her ear.

 

"Oh, it's nothing. I just saw a really big spider," She invented. They had a few weeks prep period. And Shippo could disguise himself, Miroku could disguise Inuyasha and her, maybe. Hopefully. Or maybe she'd be normal by then, somehow.

 

"Oh, gross!" Her friend exclaimed. "You should get someone to squish it." Kagome grinned. That was just like Eri. She hated bugs with a passion.

 

"It's gone now, though." Kagome assured her hastily and rolled back onto her stomach. "But yeah, that's great! What day were you thinking? I'll keep a lookout."

 

"We were thinking Saturday or Sunday." Kagome counted off the days on her fingers. That gave her… let's see… six days to prepare.

 

"Sounds great!" Kagome grinned. And it would be. She'd wanted to have her friends over. "So I'll see you then! I have to go now, though. Miroku wants to use the phone." The purple-eyed man looked up from the paper he was reading in confusion.

 

"I do?" He asked. "I didn't know that." Kagome shook her head. With a shrug, Miroku turned back to the newspaper.

 

"Okay, then." Eri cheerfully bade her goodbye. "I'll see you then!" She giggled a bit. "I can't wait to see the house!" Kagome nodded enthusiastically.

 

"Okay, then. See ya!" She fumbled with the phone. "Hey, Miroku!" He looked back up from the paper. "Could you help me with this?" An amused twinkle in his eye over her pathetic attempts, Miroku picked up the phone and put it in its rightful place. "Thanks."

 

"No problem." He went back to the couch and continued to read the newspaper. "Who was that, anyway?" He asked casually. "You went white as a sheet for a moment."

 

"My friend Eri. She's coming down in about a week." The black-haired girl sat up and looked at Miroku. "Speaking of which, can you disguise me somehow, and Inuyasha, too?" The hanyou stuck his head through the wall.

 

"What's this?" He asked caustically. "I'm not wearing some spell for however long." With difficulty, he pushed his way through the wall and folded his arms over his chest obstinately.

 

"Please, Inuyasha!" Kagome begged. "I really need your cooperation here! It's just like how Shippo was before." The hanyou shook his head obstinately. "Well, then you're just going to have to stay out of sight for the entire time." Kagome told him.

 

"What?!" Inuyasha stared at her incredulously. "And why would I do that?" Miroku shook his head as the conversation escalated into an argument and went back to the paper.

 

"It was your own idea, you know. To keep it a secret. Plus, if Shippo can do it, you can do it." The kitsune looked up from his card game with Shippo in the ktichen and called into the living room.

 

"Yeah, are you saying you're too weak?" He taunted. "The great Inuyasha can't wear a spell for a few days. I had to wear one for fifty years!" Souta looked impressed.

 

"How old are you, then?" The black-haired boy peered across the table at the small fox demon. "I thought that you said you were seven-ish." Shippo nodded in the affirmative.

 

"In demon years, I am. But demons live a lot longer than humans. I can't remember how old I am, exactly." He smiled sheepishly. "But I think I'm about fifty." He shrugged. "Go fish." Souta picked up a card obediently.

 

"Well?" Kagome demanded to Inuyasha. He grumbled for a moment, then nodded curtly in compliance. "Thank you." She smiled and turned back to Miroku. "You can do that, right? Make spells so we'll be normal, temporarily?"

 

The black-haired man paused for thought before answering. "I'll have to take a closer look at the spell and make a counter, but it should be done in a few days." Kagome nodded.

 

"And Kirara can just stay small, can't you?" Sango smiled down at the little fire cat on her shoulder. Kirara mewed in response, wide scarlet eyes staring unblinkingly into the exterminator's.

 

"So it's settled then." Kagome dusted off her hands and stared out of the window to the back yard. Hopefully, next week would be uneventful. No visits from Kouga, no attacks by Kagura, no side effects by the spell. Kagome sighed and shook her head ruefully. Like that would happen.