InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Heaven and Hell ❯ Taking down the walls ( Chapter 8 )

Disclaimer: Inuyasha, why art thou not mine? Alas, ye belong to the great Rumiko Takahashi.

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

 

Inuyasha was explaining the situation to Miroku when their conversation was broken up by loud pounding resonating from the front door.

 

“Who in the hell would be knocking on your door at this time of the night, grandma?” Inuyasha asked the old miko as he took a sniff of the air. Inuyasha growled menacingly as Miroku walked over to the door flinging it open with a deft turn of the doorknob. To Miroku's surprise, standing in the doorway were Kagome's roommates, Sango and Legion. Neither of the girls looked too happy to be standing outside on a stranger's porch in the middle of the night. Both wore grim expressions on their faces.

 

Legion was the first to speak as she shoved her way past Miroku into the room. “You can turn off the growl, asshole. You're the one who took off with our friend and didn't bother to return her. So shove the attitude.” Inuyasha broke off the unconscious growl that was rolling from low in his throat. He mentally berated himself for acting like a dog defending his territory. He was about to give the demonness a piece of his mind when the source of the entire situation made her presence known.

 

“Sango, Legion?” Kagome's soft voice rippled from behind him. She was leaning against the wall as though if she let go the world would fall apart. Or maybe she would just go slamming into the ground. Neither one was sounding like a great prospect at the moment. She groaned as she tried to gather the strength to let go of the wall and move to a couch that the miko, Kaede, was sitting on. The old miko rose to help her as Sango who had been edging her way away from the grasping hands of a certain monk reached the hallway she was standing in.

 

“Can you walk, Kagome?” Sango asked her face pale with worry as she helped her friend move from the wall to her right side.

 

“Yeah, I just need to make it to the couch.” Legion, Inuyasha, and Miroku watched helpless as Kaede and Sango helped the weakened Kagome sit down on the couch.

“Child, it is unwise of you to be out of bed. The poison is still in your system. You should be resting to allow your miko healing abilities to clean your system of the toxins.”

 

“Poisons!” came the exclamations from Sango and Legion who had not been privy to the details of the attack that Inuyasha had been filling Miroku in on.

 

Kagome shook her head very gently in disagreement. “No, I think there are several explanations in order especially from you people,” she said indicating with a sweeping hand Inuyasha, Miroku, and Kaede.

 

Inuyasha's patience snapped as he snarled, “Us? I don't remember completely incinerating an infant snake demon. You want to explain what the hell happened back there, bitch.”

 

“My name is Kagome, Ka-go-me! How many times do you need that repeated before your pea sized brain can remember that?” Kagome was trying to rise off the couch as her temper flared. She was however forced to sit back down when her conditions made its self known through an intense pain in her abdomen. She collapsed with a small cry back on the couch.

 

“Kags, are you okay?” Legion said as she knelt down in front of her friend. Kagome nodded her head even though she was not feeling too well. She did not want anyone to worry about her. Legion and everyone else in the room knew she was lying, but they held their peace. Legion said, “So will somebody explain to Sango and me, what has happened tonight? I think we have all been keeping secrets.”

 

Inuyasha snorted and said “Keh!” as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the opposite wall from the girls.

 

Miroku ignored his friend's behavior. “I am not entirely sure what happened. Perhaps Kagome will fill us in on what transpired.”

 

Kagome was feeling very unwell, but she began to tell them what had happened. “We went to Washabi Park. We had just made it to the lake when a snake demon who lived there attacked us.”

 

“What?” came the startled gasp from her two friends. Inuyasha rolled his eyes at the two girls who were exchanging surprised looks.

 

Kagome continued, “Inuyasha managed to stop the snake demon, but she had a baby. Before he could get to me, the baby attacked me.” She said the last as she indicated a spot on her right side that was heavily bandaged. “I don't remember anything that happened after that until I woke up here.”

 

“Bitch, how can you not remember purifying the hell out of a demon!?” Inuyasha cursed remembering the blue-white energy that had flown out of her destroying the snake demon that was trying to kill her. “Fucking hell! There wasn't anything left of that demon.”

 

Kagome was tired, in pain, and quickly losing her patience with the rude, obnoxious jerk that Inuyasha was being. Her aura flared for a brief moment before it dimmed back to a weak pale shimmer. “I can't remember, jackass. I never remember when it happens. I cannot control that energy. I've tried for years and nothing works. SO STOP CALLING ME BITCH!” Kagome finished with a yell as her steadily rising temper exploded despite the pain she was in. Legion jerked her hand away from Kagome as the surge seemed to sear the flesh on her hand. An indrawn hiss of breathe was the only indication that Legion still felt pain as she flexed the hand. Kagome became immediately contrite as she realized what had happened to her demon friend. “Legion, I'm so sorry…” Her voice trailed off as her friend stood and backed a step away.

 

“Don't worry about it. I'll probably heal up in an a few hours. Just remind me never to piss you off.” Legion shot a dirty look at a disgruntled inu-hanyou who did not have the shame to even pretend to be sorry for pissing off the wounded miko.

 

“Look,” Miroku said soothingly, “Inuyasha said that the demon thought Kagome had something. It completely ignored him trying to get to you. Do you lovely ladies have any idea what it might have been after?”

 

A chocking cough and a few strange looks passed between Sango and Kagome as they weighed something between them. Legion did not seem too surprised, but she moved to take a seat on the other side of the room where she apparently could watch the whole byplay without taking the brunt of another flare from Kagome. Kagome managed an, “Um…like what?”

 

“If you're trying to be sneaky, wench, you're not doing a good job. You two girls know something so spill it.”

 

Kaede took this opportunity to air her own suspicions. “Child, I believe you may possess something that will cause demons to seek you out. Am I wrong to believe that you are Kagome Higurashi? Your family protected the Higurashi shrine for many years until the car accident that took their lives?”

 

Kagome smiled sadly at Kaede as she replied, “Ah…Yes, I could not bear to live at the shrine after the accident. It was so lonely there without Mama, Souta, and Jiji-san. Everything seemed to remind me of them.” Her eyes became watery as the memories of her loved ones flooded her mind. Sango put an arm around her friends shoulder in comfort and support.

 

Sango continued, “After we graduated, I decided to use my college fund to start a club with Legion. We asked Kagome to join us as a partner. It just seemed natural that we would all live in the apartment over the club.”

 

“Kaede, what does her family's shrine have to do with the attack on Kagome tonight?” Miroku asked in an attempt to make the connection between the seemingly disparate events. “You said you think she has something that would make demons seek her out.”

 

“Perhaps that is something that Kagome needs to tell us. Child, I know you do not know us well, but if you carry what I think, I fear you are in graver danger than you could possibly realize. I hope that you will trust us with secret you carry. I would not see you come to harm,” Kaede said softly as she laid an old wrinkled hand on Kagome's shoulder. Kagome nodded her head in agreement with the words that Kaede spoke.

 

“Perhaps I should tell them, Sango. Not even Legion knows everything,” Kagome said quietly to her best and most trusted friend.

 

Sango appeared to be torn by Kagome's word. As everyone gazed at the two girls expectantly, a silent war was occurring within both the girls. To impart the knowledge they possessed meant they were placing a great deal of trust in the hands of two men and a miko they barely even knew. Legion was their friend and already trusted, but she had never pushed for answers. To bring others into the inner circle required an exposure of vulnerabilities that neither was sure they were ready to face. Kagome battled internally with the knowledge that she had already condemned her family, because of what she carried. Sango had already lost her parents, and her little brother might never wake up. Could she deal with the responsibility of forcing others to carry her burden? She never wanted others to suffer because of her. Still both girls were breaking under the strain of secrets too long carried. It might not show to anyone else, but inside the shell they both needed someone to lean on. They both desperately wanted to trust someone else with the secret knowledge they possessed.

 

Sango finally conceded to her need for release. “Just tell them, Kagome. I guess they are already in deep enough. If nothing else Legion deserves a truthful explanation.”

 

Kagome leaned in closer to her friend finding strength in a shared burden. “My family has guarded the Higurashi shrine as far back as we can trace our family tree. The family has also protected a secret prophecy made by a long ago miko. After she was betrayed by her lover, she destroyed him with a powerful arrow. However, the betrayal of her love broke her spirit and she followed him into death. The reason for the betrayal was that she was the guardian of the Shikon no Tama.” An expectant silence followed her words. “Her final request was that the Shikon no Tama be burned with her body to travel with her spirit until her next reincarnation. When she was reborn the Shikon no Tama would return to the world and a time of great turmoil would follow.” Kagome stopped here to gather her courage for the telling of her greatest secret. “I am that reincarnation and within my body lays the Shikon no Tama. It is what protected me when the infant snake demon attacked. It is what is purifying the poisons out of my system. It is the reason my family is dead and why Sango's parents were killed and her brother left for dead. This crystallized soul of the priestess Midoriko brings with it a terrible curse- the death of all who get close to me.” Tears overcame Kagome's resolve to be strong. Sango held her, but Kagome held her head high defiance etching itself across her features even as tears trailed across her cheeks. She would not give into despair.

 

Inuyasha dragged his hand through his hair careful not to pull his ears. “Shit…” he said softly. He slumped against the wall. The Shikon no Tama! If it got out that this little miko carried the soul and power of Midoriko and all of the youki she had absorbed into herself, the demons were going to swarm her like locusts. Knowing the truth a small part of himself that despised his hanyou nature lusted after that power. For a brief moment he was tempted to take the jewel for himself. Mentally berating himself with an acidic voice filled with self loathing, he knew that he could never do that. Looking up at Kagome, pain both physical and spiritual etched on her face, he knew that he was going to do whatever it took to keep her safe. He would be damned if he let anything else put those tears on her face.

 

Miroku contemplated the revelation of the young miko even as he admired the beautiful curves on the body of both her and Sango. How wonderful was Buddha to have given the world such gifts as these two creatures! He would have to offer his services to soothe their sorrow with the pleasure of his body. “Kagome-sama, I am sorry to hear such terrible things have befallen you. I humbly offer you the pleasure of my body to assuage the grief of your heart!” He said this as he moved and took her hands. Kagome blushed red to the roots of her hair. She didn't have time to react as Sango took it upon herself to whack the amorous monk upside the head.