InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Inexcusable Nature ❯ On the leash ( Chapter 9 )

Inexcusable Nature

Just A Starving Writer

Disclaimer: nope, not mine.

Part 9: On the leash

"She's waking up!" a voice thundered above her, bringing its words to truth.

"Kagome?" two children's voices blended together. As she opened gritty eyes, two childish faces looked on her with excited worry. This slightly shocked her. Why was Rin still around? Surely her protector could not have remained.

"Rin?' she asked as she massaged her aching temples. "Why are you still here?"

The child went off into an explanation that was too rushed and exaggerated to make any sense to the pained miko. Finally, she managed to block out the fumbling words and look around. There were her friends, Sango looking frustrated, Miroku with a giddy, content smile on his recently slapped face, and Inuyasha angrily pacing pack and forth in front of a pleasant camp fire.

However, the issue at hand seemed to be the youkai lord sitting a few feet from the formerly unconscious miko. The most disturbing piece of this picture was her white katana looking quite out of place at his waist, opposite two formidable and infinitely more masculine swords.

"GIVE ME MY SWORD!" she yelled, without consideration for her headache, wanting only the possession back.

"No."

She jumped him. Without thought of consequences, mind only on retrieving the sword which was responding to her anger by shaking against its present holder, she leapt from her place to the youkai, tackling him to the ground and setting for the hilt before her friends pulled her away.

"Kagome, stop," the monk chastised as he was hit in the cheek by one of her flailing fists.

"Kagome…" a demon slayer began as she avoided a blow.

"CUT IT OUT!" yelled an irritated hanyou as he got punched yet again.

Nothing appeared to get through to the girl. Finally, she seemed to have exhausted the fight out of her body, temporarily at least, as she calmed in their arms and the sword dulled to a slight tremble at the hip of a demon lord who had somehow managed to remain nonchalant during the incident.

"Are you ready to listen now?" Sango asked patiently without loosening her hold on her friend's arms.

"Tell me why that jerk has my sword."

"It's for the best. We didn't want you to get hurt." The monk's cryptic answer only made her anger, and the katana, jump.

"HE will hurt me before it will," Kagome stated rightly.

"You have to listen to us. Something happened at the doorway. Somehow, the two of you were…connected." The monk's usual gift for explanation was truly failing him now. "He hasn't left because he can't. He is presently incapable of taking more than a few steps from you."

For a second she was dumbfounded, but her mind was still set on the answer to one question above all.

"But my sword…"

"He told us what the sword has done before. We decided it would be best if you didn't have it at first. If it makes you attack him," a pointed pause only proved the point of this line of reasoning. "If it makes you attack him, he might hurt you."

"But why him? Anyone but him…"

"At least he's stuck around you," explained the demon slayer. "We figured he could just carry it for you. If something happens, you can get it without having to run far."

Oh the terrible sense that made. Still, the thought of being stuck in the presence of this irritating, and currently smirking, youkai did nothing for her outlook.

The sword fed off her emotions and shook, trying as it were to return to her and take action. Its current owner refused. He thoroughly ignored the moving katana and turned his attention onto the former owner.

"Stop." The command only made the sword shake harder. She pictured it bruising him and the trembling subsided a small bit.

"Stop what? Feeling? I can't. I'm human."

"Regardless, stop. You try my patience and it would be much easier to carry your corpse than deal with your presence."

Her eyes narrowed and the sword practically jumped out of its sheath. He put his hand down to keep it in place.

"You arrogant, pompous ass…" she began but her rant was cut short through the intervention of her friends.

"Kagome, please," pleaded Sango. "Just ignore him until we figure this thing out. Then you can both hate each other from far away."

Kagome saw the logic in that plan and resigned herself to crossing her arms in token of her annoyance. However, compliance with that course of action was going to be difficult. It seemed the lord had discovered the situation bothered her greater than himself and so decided to play the part of sadist. His smirk was egging her on.

"You stop it," she ordered. He looked at her questioningly. His feigned innocence was completely out of place on his cool face. Apparently the exchange of expressions between lord and ward went both ways. Once again, it wasn't appreciated.

"Don't give me that! I may be human but I'm not stupid." This time it was his arrogant half snort that made her blood boil.

"You know, I was wrong about you. There's nothing deep or wise or honorable about you. You're just a complete and utter pretentious ass. Just better at hiding it than your brother."

Of course, that comment had taken the matter a bit too far and she once again found her neck in his hand. But she couldn't for the life of herself stop now. After all, he was going to have to hear this little rant eventually, considering their current situation.

"Since the first day I saw you, you've done nothing but insult me and I'm sick of it!" She ignored the force of his angry glare and concentrated instead on releasing this emotion in her traditional method sans katana.

"Now, I don't know why you find me so fun to pick on and I don't really care. I would really rather be ignored like you do all the other members of my species than put up with your haughtiness. But no, you've made me the Jaken of humanity! Well, I refuse to deal with it! Find another girl! If I have to be stuck with you, I will at the very least be respected!"

"You must earn respect, wench." The ice in his voice should have scared her, as well as the tightening of his hand around her throat. Still, she continued.

"I have! You said yourself, before you believed who I was, that I was the only one who could kill Naraku. Who I was before earned your respect! What have I done recently that's lost it?! Since I got back here, I've put up with your sorry ass, and was still able to save my friends. So why won't you respect me??"

He dropped her, but not before lowering her to a more respectable distance to the ground. It wasn't an answer, but it was something. Still, it was not enough. She reached out, grabbed his voluminous sleeve, and commanded his eyes back to hers.

"I'm not asking you to like me, only to put up with me and that'll be much easier if you stop treating me like dirt."

"I will treat you as I wish, wench." He turned, pulling his offended clothing from her grasp and blatantly displaying exactly what he thought of her. Kagome could take no more. Her anger transformed into bitter tears as everything that had happened thus far caught up with her. Entirely exhausted and upset, she could stop neither her broken gasp nor her hand as it stole the katana from his side. No one was able to do anything as she flawlessly rested the blade against his throat. However it did not have the effect she was perhaps going for as it shook with the force of her repressed sobs.

"No," she said between gritted teeth as tears formed a river down her cheeks. "You will treat me as I deserve."

Her arm went slack and the blade dropped harmlessly by her side, dragging the ground slightly. Head drooped, she began walking away before the magic of their connection stopped her.

"I'd like to go kill a tree. Do you mind?" She waited impatiently but the still stunned and aggravated demon lord made no move to follow her.

"You're not getting the sword back from me til I'm done." That threat prompted him and the two disappeared into the trees, leaving behind a shocked group of shard hunters.

"He didn't kill her?" a fox child asked with amazement.

"He didn't kill her," a demon slayer answered affirmatively.

"What the shit?" asked a still tense hanyou.

"I wonder what happened while we were imprisoned," pondered a monk.

Silence reigned as everyone considered what possibly could have occurred to make their miko friend worthy of life in that particular demon's eyes. However, the quiet was not destined to last as a certain cursed hand took advantage of a certain demon slayer's preoccupation.

"PERVERT!"

*

The tree was looking pitiful in the face of her graceful attacks. The beautiful little sword was cutting it down with ease, leaving precise and sharp edged marks all along its bark as Kagome preformed her little dance in front of the presently stoic demon lord. Since her outburst, he had retreated within himself and become once more the introspective and cold demon she had known two years before.

"Your grip, miko." The rebuke was acknowledged by a shift of her hand, but otherwise she remained intent on her goal of destroying the poor unsuspecting foliage. However, it did register in the back of her mind that it was perhaps a slight improvement in their nonexistent relationship.

Kagome failed to notice her hanyou friend approach and stand a respectable distance from his brother. He was about to draw attention to himself but was stopped by a hard look from the other spectator.

"Remain silent and do not disturb the girl." Said girl did not hear the soft command, as was probably for the best. It would have only given her a better impression of the lord.

"What is she doing?" Apparently, the hanyou was dense and his half-brother's look said as much.

"Practicing."

"But…is the sword doing that?" The awe in his voice spoke measures about the performance he was watching as the oblivious miko continued her assault on the tree.

"Perhaps."

The hanyou considered that remark and its possible implications. Firstly, it was strange for the cold youkai next to him to admit a human had any sort of skill, and secondly, it was strange for the girl to have any sort of skill. The swordplay was less athletic and more…beautiful, but still incredibly precise and deadly. It occurred to him that had she really wished to injure the lord previously, she was more than capable of doing so. That thought just about sent his head spinning. He pushed it aside, figuring it was best not to think of such things right now.

"Your hand, wench."

The harsh command stirred the hanyou from his internal conversation and he watched with shock as the girl moved her hand back into what he deemed was the correct position. Not that he knew, but his brother seemed to.

After another half hour of `practice', the girl stooped in obvious exhaustion and walked to her spectators, sword scraping the ground.

"Well?" she asked with irritation, indicating what they were doing rather than her performance. Thus she was not expecting to suddenly be grabbed and turned as the demon lord moved her hand into the proper location on the hilt of the sword before crushing it in place with his.

"Remember this or be punished, wench," was his warning before releasing her. Thoroughly confused, shocked, and pissed, she could only shoot him a glare as she shoved the sword, none too gently, back into its sheath at his hip.

She slowly walked away, testing exactly how far she could go before their invisible tether stopped her. Wiping perspiration from her brow, she looked over her shoulder at the demon lord who had not moved from his previous location.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to wash up before bed. I guess that means you'll have to stand on shore with your back turned. Is that okay?"

"It is acceptable," the lord said without looking at her. Turning toward her, he followed the miko back to camp, leaving the hanyou behind to wonder how it was that his silly female friend from the future got along with his brother better than he did.

*

"Do you find it interesting that she still lives, Kagura?" Naraku asked while he entertained himself with half of the Shikon no tama.

"No," answered an uncomfortable wind sorceress. After personally witnessing the argument between demon lord and miko, she was not in the mood to be ridiculed.

"I find it particularly interesting. I wonder what the girl was so adamant about during their argument."

"She wished to be respected."

"Very interesting. She must have earned it, seeing as he has not killed her."

Kagura could only remain silent.

"He carries her sword..."

"She cannot control it. They sought to spare her life by keeping her emotions in check."

"I see. Such a peculiar weapon."

He seemed to get lost for a while in the tainted depths of the jewel, leaving Kagura to wonder once again at his sanity.

"Perhaps you should worry, Kagura." Strange how such a sensual voice could be so threatening.

"Watch them. I believe my original gamble was misguided, but the results are infinitely more interesting that I would ever have imagined."

"He will kill her." It was so irritating how the bastard could get on her nerves so easily. Still, she refused to believe his taunts this time. It was simply impossible, despite his knowing smirk.

"Go now. Watch your lord fall victim to the girl."

*

Kagome bathed faster than she ever had in her life. Not that she didn't trust her unwilling companion not to look, but simply that she was not accustomed to bathing in the presence of a male, even if his back was turned and he was safely behind a boulder. It was something she retained from her previous experiences with a certain lecherous monk.

She had been smart enough this time to borrow Sango's kimono so she would not have to wear her wet clothing until they dried. In front of the demon lord and his companions was one thing, but in front of Miroku was something entirely different.

Returning to camp in lead of the presently quiet youkai, she missed the expressions that flickered across his cool features. He would have appeared deep in thought, but his eyes were focused on her body as the kimono made her look older and somehow more appealing than the voluminous skirt had. He appreciated the change even more than her former plan of wearing recently washed clothing. While that look had made her look…easy this look made her so much more beautiful. For a human, especially for a human such as her, it was strangely wrong, as if the gods had messed up somewhere along the line and gifted a mere mortal with supernatural appeal.

Squashing those troublesome thoughts, the lord's mind went back to the matter at hand: their current connection. The miko's friends had mentioned an older miko that might have some insight into the matter, but it seemed unlikely that she would be able to lift the enchantment. It was useless, really, and their time was better spent seeking the hanyou that had thus cursed them.

However, that endeavor would be pointless until the girl mastered her sword, or at the very least got some of its control issues taken care of. He suspected the dimwitted swordsmith had made a slight error. Between the magnitude of the sword's responses and the fact that it was also sending out its owner's emotions, something was definitely off with the damn thing. It would be better to seek out Totosai first to have the katana adjusted to better fit the girl. Until then, he was forced to carry it for fear that she would do something drastic. And it was just plain foolish for him, the almighty demon lord of the West, to carry such a ridiculously feminine sword.

Yes, it was best for them to first seek out Totosai. The miko would no doubt argue, but, he considered while taking in her curves once again, the arrangement wasn't entirely without its benefits.

*