InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ How Do We Learn to Love the Ones We Hate? ❯ Saving Grace (and a Few Others) ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: I own absolutely no characters created by Rumiko Takahashi; as much as I wish I was brilliant enough to come up with these characters, I did not; however, any characters that I create, I do own. Yay! I'm smart enough to make up characters.

 

 

 

Saving Grace (and a Few Others)

 

Ayame was running right in front of them, carrying Rin as if she was made of glass, her head bent over in thought.

 

“I hope she's okay.” Kagome whispered; Inuyasha nodded.

 

And then Ayame slammed her heels into the ground and stopped on the spot, Koga yelped and stuck his heels in the ground too so as not to smash into her, ending up flipping him and Miroku over themselves.

 

“What the hell?!” Koga yelled while picking himself out of the dust and dirt he had kicked up with his heels.

 

“I can't do this.” Ayame said softly, shaking her head.

 

“What?” Miroku asked, taking Koga's out stretched hand and pulling himself up.

 

“Rin's going to wake up and kill herself,” Ayame wheeled to face them. “she said all those things to Shippo and he's going to be dead, she wont get to see him, or talk to him or even apologize.” Ayame looked at Rin. “I'm going back to see if they'll take something else besides blood.” She said with a non-negotiation tone and sped off back towards the mountain before anyone could react or say anything else.

 

“Ayame!” Kagome yelled and pushed Inuyasha to follow her, he sighed, annoyed, but ran after her, Koga dragging Miroku along right behind them.

 

Ayame held Rin tighter against her chest so she could jump higher without Rin bouncing around, she skidded to the edge of the cliff and jumped down into the mist, not stopping when she hit

the bottom, instead, she rammed her heels against the rock on the side of the cliff and ricoched herself into the cave, racing through the walls and jumping down the huge set of stairs, thanking the

stars when she found the door to be still opened.

 

“Wait!” she screamed, and threw herself through the door, breathing in relief when she saw Shippo still sitting alive on the couch.

“What do you want?” Keirika spat at her, not even bothering to try to hide her dislike for them anymore, she was standing over Shippo in a territorial stance.

 

“We need to offer you something else,” Ayame got right to the point, breathing hard and fighting to keep her voice even. “you can't have Shippo, Rin still needs him.”

 

“Ayame!” Kagome yelled as she and the others finally came into view.

 

“What sort of something else?” Korika asked, much to Keirika's annoyance who would have rather drained Shippo right there in front of his friends.

 

“Anything but one of us.” Ayame said firmly.

 

Korika looked at Kanchia, who shrugged. “What about the jewel?” she suggested.

 

“Jewel?” Ayame asked.

 

“The Shikon Jewel.” Kuriko explained, his eyes glowing in the fire's light. “It's supposed to hold incredible power, but we just can't seem to find it.” He sighed sadly.

 

“And you want us to find it to replace Shippo?” Koga asked, letting Miroku down from his back.

 

“And we'll take nothing else.” Keirika said smugly.

 

“Fine.” Ayame said, then looked darkly at Keirika. “But I don't trust you, so Shippo has to come with us.”

 

Korika and Kairiko shared a look before nodding. “Fine, but we will find you to pay up if you don't come back.” She looked at Shippo. “Go, before I change my mind.”

 

Shippo looked ready to protest, but Ayame dumped Rin into his arms before grabbing is hand and pulling him out; Kagome looked between the two and did a shaky bow to the Black Magic

Siblings, Keirika sniffed in disgust and Inuyasha threw her onto his back in response before running back out.

 

Shippo kept his eyes on Rin the whole run back, no doubt wondering if she would really go back to her own personality when she woke up.

 

“Thanks Ayame.” He said quietly without looking at her; she just smiled back to let him keep his dignity and his embarrassment under 5 on a scale of 1 to 10.

 

Takashi Palace

 

Inuyasha put Kagome on the ground and held her hand the remainder of the way back to the palace; and Myoga suddenly appeared on his shoulder, greatly out of breath.

 

"M-master.” He huffed, wiping his tiny brow with his tiny hand.

 

“What?” Inuyasha asked, finding it odd that Myoga hadn't tried to bite him yet.

 

“I-I'm afraid that I am the bearer of bad tidings master, your father, my lord, has been killed by the demon Ryukotsusei.”

 

Inuyasha froze, staring at Myoga as if he thought if he stared long enough, Myoga would disappear, taking the dream with him.

 

How? Kagome thought in shock. Inuyasha's father is a demon who is ungodly strong, too strong to be beaten! So how strong is this other demon?

 

“There's more my Lord, Lady Takashi is grieving extremely over it, and it has worn away her body slowly… she has been taken seriously ill my Lord.”

 

“How bad?” Inuyasha suddenly went stiff.

 

“Very bad my Lord; the doctor, the mosquito demon, thinks that she might not---” Myoga flew off on Inuyasha's shoulder as he sped off towards the castle, Kagome on his back again, Inuyasha

proceeded to step on Myoga in his rush. “---make it through the night.” Myoga finished weakly, flat on the ground.

 

Lady Takashi's Room

 

“Inuyasha?” Lady Takashi asked weakly, Lady Higurashi was by her head, dipping a cloth in cool water and dabbing Lady Takashi's forehead.

 

“Yeah.” Inuyasha sat on the floor by her head.

 

“I'm sorry to say that I'm not feeing very well.” Lady Takashi said, coughing hard at the end of her sentence.

 

“Mother!” Inuyasha said in concern, putting his hand on her arm.

 

“Lady Takashi?” Kagome moved next to Inuyasha, but Lady Takashi could only smile, too weak to say anything else.

 

“What's the diagnosis?” Koga asked quietly from outside as Shippo carried Rin to her room.

 

“I'm not sure.” The Mosquito demon doctor looked at Lady Takashi apologetically. “But she is very sick, and getting worse by the hour; she has a high fever, seems to be a little delirious at some

times and has trouble getting breath, I would honestly be very surprised and say it was a miracle if she made it though the night.”

 

“That bad?” Koga looked back in at his friend and master since they had been three years old in human years, not demon years.

 

“I'm afraid so.” The doctor placed the last of his medical items in his bag and bowed before walking away; Koga looked into the room a little longer before going to stand by his best friend.

 

“Hey.” He patted Inuyasha on the shoulder, and Inuyasha took it correctly as an apology, meaning that his mother wasn't going to get better.

 

Bankotsu looked in from outside the window, smiling at how well and fast his mother's poisoned worked, and how fast her shikigami had bitten Lady Takashi, and at such a perfect time too;

everyone would think she was dying because of the loss of her husband, it would be so easy now. Inuyasha would be so distraught about his mother that he wouldn't notice Bankotsu taking

Kagome, leaving Kikyo to comfort Inuyasha; then Bankotsu would get Kagome's kingdom and Kikyo would get Inuyasha's when the siblings killed them off.

 

Bankotsu touched the shard of a jewel that Hosenki had created in his neck, his father had threatened Hosenki for it and brought Bankotsu back from the dead after a suitor of one of the girls he

had stolen had jumped him in jealousy, killing Bankotsu with a swift stab to the heart; but that wouldn't happen this time, Inuyasha wouldn't kill him because Kikyo would be working on him

while he tried to woo Kagome, nothing was going to go wrong, he took one last quick look at Kagome, marveling at her beauty again before jumping off of the balcony and making his way back

through the maze.

 

Kagome stood and left to leave Inuyasha to his thoughts, she walked back into her room and jumped as she saw Sango on the bed, afterwards, she realized that Sango had waited here the whole

time, gone just incase her brother needed her back at their palace.

 

“How did it go?” Sango rose in concern.

 

“Rin's fine, but we promised we get find them something called the Shikon Jewel instead of Shippo giving his blood to trade for Rin's health.” Kagome shook her head.

 

“Uh-oh.” Sango said quietly, her hand moving to cover her mouth.

 

“What?”

 

“Did you say the Shikon Jewel?” Sango asked, hoping that she heard Kagome wrong.

 

“Yes…?”

 

“Oh…. God.” Sango whispered. “The demon Ryukotsusei has the Shikon Jewel.”

 

“So?” Kagome asked, where had she heard that name before?

 

“Ryukotsusei is the one who killed Lord Inu Taisho.” Sango whispered.

 

“And we promised to get it or someone here would pay with their blood.” Kagome choked out in dread, finally understanding Sango's panic.

 

Rin's Room

 

Rin groaned and wrenched her eyes open; the world was spinning so much that she wouldn't have been able to see her own hand if she held it up to her eyes. That's right, I lost a lot of blood because that demon had to suck it out.

 

He eyes went wide as she remembered what was traded to clean her blood, and all of the things she had said to that person, she had gone as even gone as low as to tell him that he was only worthy of being with a whore.

 

“Shippo!” she screamed and threw the covers off, only to be grabbed by the shoulders and laid back on the bed.

 

“It's alright.” A gentle voice told her, but she still couldn't see anything and her ears were buzzing, so she was unable to identify them.

 

“No!” she protested, trying to get the arms off of her so she could get up; it didn't matter if she couldn't see, Ayame would take her back to those mountains. “I have to stop him, I need him, I can't let him do that!”

 

“It's ok Rin!” the person said again, trying to lie her back down.

 

“Let me go, I have to stop him!” she yelled. “I need to, I love him!”

 

The person trying to restrain her stopped moving, but didn't let go much to Rin's dismay. “Really?” they said quietly.

 

Rin frowned, the buzzing in her ears had stopped, and that sounded… kind of… like… Shippo. She turned and reached her hand out because she still couldn't see, and touched someone's face, someone's ear, someone's cheek, someone's nose, someone's lips, and that someone's hand took hers and kissed her palm, she had felt those lips before.

 

“Shippo?” she reached out with her other hand and felt his small pigtail and the large bow holding it in place.

 

“Yeah.” Shippo whispered, kissing her hand again.

 

Rin sat on the bed, looking in the direction of his voice, remembering his smile and warm laugh, and she couldn't help the river of tears that flowed from her eyes.

 

“What's wrong?” his thumb caressed her cheek, wiping away the tears even though more replaced them immediately.

 

“I said--- such---horrible---” she couldn't help the sobs that racked her body every few words. “things---to you---and then you---and the demon---and---!”

 

Shippo pulled her lightly against his chest, holding her as she ruined his shirt with the salty tears. “It's ok, you weren't saying those things, the poison was! It's fine!” he reassured her, rocking gently from side to side. He put her down on the bed again to see if she could sleep off some of the side affects, because she obviously couldn't see him from lack of blood; but Rin latched onto his shirt and wouldn't let go, so he lay down with her and placed her head on top of his chest; she rotated so she could hold onto his shirt easily, continuing to sob. Shippo smiled and wrapped his arms around her.

 

“Promise you wont ever do that.” She said suddenly.

 

He frowned in confusion. “Do what?”

 

“Don't ever give yourself to take my place or kill yourself for me.” She said sternly, facing her eyes towards his face, but he concluded that she still couldn't see, because she was looking at his cheek and not into his eyes.

 

“…I promise.” He cupped her cheeks in his hands and kissed her lips; Rin melted into it, wrapping her arms gently around his neck and leaning on him more than she had been before, Shippo rolled on his side so Rin was lying on the bed, he broke the kiss reluctantly. “You should sleep.” She shook her head vigorously, holding onto him tighter than ever. Shippo sighed and lay back down with her, laying her head on top of his chest again, after a few moments she fell asleep.

 

Dinner

 

Inuyasha sat in silence next to Kagome; Koga, Ayame, Miroku, Sango, Bankotsu and Kikyo sat around the table around them; Shippo was still upstairs with Rin and had taken their food in the room so she didn't have to leave before she woke up, and Lady Higurashi was still by Lady Takashi.

 

“I'm so sorry about your mother Inuyasha---” Kikyo started.

 

“She's not dead yet.” Inuyasha cut in sharply and Kagome gave her a harsh glare.

 

“Of course, I just am sorry that you must go through this.” Kikyo corrected herself while Bankotsu mentally kicked himself at his stupid sister almost giving away that she knew that Lady Takashi was going to die.

 

“Hmph.” Inuyasha huffed and jammed a piece of meat into his mouth, Kagome gently touched his hand under the table, telling him wordlessly to calm down; he scowled.

 

“Will you walk with me?” Kikyo stood and moved over to his side, he reluctantly stood, not meeting her eye as he walked ahead so fast that Kikyo had to jog to keep up with him; Miroku looked at them then at Sango and back to Inuyasha and Kikyo before rising and holding out his hand to Sango.

 

“Will you honor me with a walk Lady Sango?” he asked, bowing deeply, his had still out; she hesitated like usual before placing her hand on top of his so lightly, it was if they weren't touching, and rose next to him, following him out into the gardens, blue by the missing sunlight.

 

Miroku let their hands fall as soon as they were out of sight, but still held Sango's making her blush; she thanked the night that it was too dark for him to see the blush.

 

“I hope you do not care that I am not of royal blood.” Miroku smiled, using his lecherous techniques to try to get closer to Sango.

 

“O-of course not!” she said quickly, her heart spluttering, and reflexively pulled her hand out of his.

 

Miroku smiled sadly. “I understand why you do not wish to be with me my dear Sango, it's fine.”

 

“That's not it!” she said again, correcting herself again.

 

“It's quite alright.” Miroku bowed. “I understand, you have nothing to be wrong about this for, besides, there are many other men in the world that are better suited for you.” He turned and walked away.

 

Sango held up her hand to stop him, but her father's word kept her from doing so.

 

“Find someone who will be good for this kingdom Sango, it is up to you to pick someone perfect so Kohaku will follow your example and will be worthy of inheriting this kingdom. You also must choose someone that will keep you prosperous in your later years; I will not force you into an arranged marriage, and neither will Kohaku if I were to die, so be happy for having your own choice, but try to pick the best for yourself.” He told her, his hands on her shoulder.

 

“You don't need to worry father.” Sango told him proudly. “I have no intention of falling in love, it only causes pain; like when mother died for you, so you wont need to worry of me having trouble picking the best of the one I love, because there wont be one.”

 

Her father chuckled. “Don't be so sure, just keep to love within my guidelines.” He tussled her hair and walked away, Sango stuck her chin out in determination. “I wont ever fall in love, I promise.” She said out loud.

 

Sango considered going after Miroku, but decided against it, remembering only too clearly her promise and being afraid that she would get to attached to Miroku, and walked back to her room.

 

The Maze

 

Kagome went as stiff as a board when Bankotsu took her arm, having not forgotten what happened the last time they were alone. He had asked her for a walk, but she hadn't really expected going into the dead center of the maze and away from everyone else's hearing ranges, except Ayame if she was lucky.

 

“I hope that Lady Takashi gets better.” Bankotsu said in an overly sweet voice.

 

No you don't. Kagome thought bitterly. “Me too, it will hurt Inuyasha so much, and so soon after his father's death too.” She shook her head sympathetically.

 

“Kagome… would you consider taking me up on that offer of giving me a try as a suitor?” Bankotsu took both of her hands and leaned closer to her face. “Because if she were to die, the engagement could technically be called off.”

 

“I would consider it.” Kagome replied tartly, leaning farther back as he leaned farther forward. Consider it for about a half a second, then decide against it and swear to stay with Inuyasha forever from the bottom of my heart, so go ahead and try all you want, it'll do no good at all; not to mention that we've already had this conversation. She added sourly, leaning back even farther as he came forward more. My back is going to break!

 

Bankotsu's hand suddenly shot to her back and pulled her up to his lips, first smiling in triumph, but then in confusion as what his lips hit weren't hers. She had put her hand in between their lips in the time he had let go of it, and was now gently pushing him away.

 

“Once is enough---for now.” She added to be nice as she was taught, but only to be nice. “I am, after all, still engaged to Inuyasha.”

 

“But it is not for love, because of the way you speak of him.” He pulled her hand gently out of the way. “And isn't love the most important thing?”

 

“Yes.” She agreed dryly. “But not now.” As if, you wouldn't get my love if you were the last man left in the galaxy. “So please, do not push me and let me go.” She said, a threat hidden in her words as she walked away. Where's Ayame when you need her punch someone out?

 

Bankotsu growled, she obviously still hadn't opened the note he had given her on the night of the ball when he noticed how much things had progressed between Inuyasha and Kagome.

 

What can she possibly see in him? He thought bitterly, snorting as he realized just how jealous he was becoming; Bankotsu was like his father in the sense that he didn't show his feelings when it came to love and emotions, they stayed safely tucked inside his head.

 

Kagome's Room

 

Sango sighed and sat heavily on the bed, why the heck was she feeling regret of all things for letting Miroku walk away? She rolled over and spotted the note from Bankotsu on Kagome's side table, remembering how Kagome had later pointed out that Bankotsu was the one who had the dead aura and followed her around despite her engagement. She stood and grabbed the note, ripping the seal open and unfolding it.

 

Everything started to get black, so the only things Sango could see was herself and the note, she panicked and tried to drop it, but the glowing words held her still, not letting her look away. She started to get dizzy as the word on the page started to echo in her ears, the blue words in front of her eyes were etching themselves there so she would see them everywhere she looked.

 

You will only see Bankotsu, you will pay no heed to any other boy's courtship, you will see only Bankotsu, you will not love Inuyasha and you will be completely under Bankotsu's spell when you look into his eyes, you will see no one but Bankotsu .

 

Sango tried to forget the words, but they scalded themselves into her mind and soon over took every thought she had, she saw only Bankotsu after the light returned to her vision and she put the note down. What's wrong with Kagome? He's really not bad at all, in fact, he's quite nice and compassionate; it's a shame that he only pays attention to Kagome. Sango smirked. Maybe something will have to be done about that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**THAT WILL BE THE LAST TIME THE SIBLINGS APEAR, DON'T WORRY!!**