InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Inoku ❯ Chapter 3

Part 3

Inuyasha felt the corners of what had been his mouth up until a few seconds ago twitch upward as Miroku grinned. He found it rather galling that the body they shared could take on the outward manifestation of self-satisfaction when he was actually feeling quite displeased.

"I'm glad to see that you're finally coming around to my way of thinking, Inuyasha." the monk said a bit too smugly for it to be intended as an actual sentiment.

I don't like this…

"Don't kid yourself." he shot back. "I just want to get this over with so that we can get the hell out of here. This place doesn't feel right." As if prompted by his words, a shiver raced down their spine. They were both more than willing to lay the blame on 'cool night breeze meets wet, naked skin.'

"Have it your way." Miroku started up again, trying to distract them both from the feeling of unease that had settled in their belly. "But you must realize that my needs, as well as your own, are going to have to be taken into consideration from now on. You can't just do whatever you want anymore."

No, I don't like this. Not one bit…

Inuyasha sighed grudgingly, resigning himself to their common fate. For once, the monk was right. They wouldn't be able to fix themselves, or in fact get very far from the clearing in general if they couldn't even manage to reach an agreement on something as insignificant as what to wear.

"Then hurry up and tell me what you think it is that you need, bouzu. I don't have all night."

"Well, I wouldn't mind the added protection of your haori, especially considering how badly you tend to abuse your body, and now that we're sharing this one…" Their face contorted into a mask of anticipatory pain as Miroku winced, unwilling to finish the thought. After a few tense seconds, he managed to shake off the feelings of impending doom and returned to their conversation.

"So armor is good," he began a little shakily, picking up the fire-rat coat from off of Kirara's back. He rubbed the coarse fabric between their fingers, taking it into consideration. "Hmm. The only problem is that I prefer a certain degree of softness in my attire-"

"That's because you are soft, you fucking hypocrite." the hanyou sneered. Completely unfazed by the insult, Miroku persisted.

"-so whatever's directly touching our skin has to be something of mine. I don't like the way your clothing feels."

Inuyasha, however, was also feeling persistent.

"I thought you holy guys were supposed to be above all this worldly shit? Aren't you supposed to live in discomfort? You know, fasting, vow of poverty and all that other garbage?"

"ah…ha ha ha…yes, well-" Miroku laughed, unable to hide his growing discomfort. They soon discovered that one of their hands had crept up the length of their body and had come to rest at the back of their skull, scratching nervously. Inuyasha forced that arm down to cross over the other and rested them squarely against their chest.

"You know, this has been bothering me for quite some time, come to think of it, and now I think I'm finally in the position to get a straight answer from you."

They swallowed a growing lump; Miroku's doing.

"eh?"

"Just how the hell does someone like you become a monk?" Inuyasha demanded, reaching up to tweak at the gold hoops in their ears. "I'm being nice here and assuming that you really are a monk." He had been a bit too vigorous in his tugging, he realized now that it was too late to do anything about it. Their eyes were beginning to water.

"Don't do that again." Miroku hissed against the sting, rubbing the forearm of their accursed right hand across their eyes. Inuyasha couldn't resist the urge to reach up and touch their ears again, but this time, he did so gingerly, wincing at one point when a claw became momentarily caught in one of the hoops.

"Why does that hurt so much?" he muttered, drawing his hand back quickly.

"It's Sango." Miroku admitted with a miserable groan. "She's taken to dragging me about by the ears every time I ask a woman to bear my child. All that tugging makes the pierced area very tender."

"No shit." Inuyasha shook his head in solemn disbelief. He wasn't sure if he was gaining a new appreciation for the monk's fortitude, or if he'd just been convinced that his friend was much more stupid than previously believed. "Well, in that case, I won't do it again."

"You say that now…"

"No, I mean it. I can feel it as much as you can. Besides, I know how it feels to not want your ears touched."

"Oh? I guess you would, wouldn't you? You know, I almost wish that we had gotten your ears. Women seem to think-"

"Oi! Just because I won't tug on your ears doesn't mean I won't kick your ass!" he growled. "Get your mind out of our pants! Which reminds me, you still haven't answered my question. How does a no-account thieving pervert like yourself get to be called houshi-sama?"

Miroku was only half-listening. He found that he liked very much the way their body vibrated when Inuyasha growled. It called forth some lovely mental images of how such a thrumming might be used in practical applications, and it had the unlikely result of putting the monk in a much better mood than he'd been in all night.

"Well, let's just say that the 'powers that be' tend to look the other way on certain issues when you could just as easily suck them into the hole in your right hand." he laughed amicably. "That, and the man who ordained me was drunk at the time, so he was hardly in a position to criticize, ne? Now let's get back to the situation at hand. Much as I enjoy standing here reminiscing with you in the nude, it's a bit chilly out tonight and the bugs are going to start eating us very soon."

Inuyasha was more than a little perplexed by Miroku's sudden change in attitude, but he tried to keep it from showing. He didn't want the monk to think that he had somehow gotten the upper hand. Trying to seem casual and unaffected, he shrugged.

"Yeah, alright. So, what, you wanted this thing?" he asked, bending down next to Kirara to retrieve the long purple inner robes that belonged to Miroku. Their hands waded through seemingly endless expanses of purple fabric, when Miroku broke the stillness of the heavy night air with a surprised yelp. Reacting on instinct, Inuyasha slapped at the spot on their left thigh where they had felt the small, sharp jab.

"What did I tell you? Damn mosquitoes…" Miroku cursed.

"That isn't a mosquito…" Inuyasha sighed, bringing his hand up to their face to reveal a slightly stunned flea youkai, still recovering from the force of their slap. "Myouga, you little bitch. I was wondering when you'd finally show up."

"Forgive me, Inuyasha-sama, but I couldn't help myself. The curiosity was overwhelming! Oh, what an experience! It's been such a long time since I've tasted anything that different. What a novelty…" Myouga sighed happily, a look of sheer bliss on his tiny face as he rolled around on his fat little back.

"I'm so happy for you. Listen flea, do you have any idea as to what the hell is going on here?"

"Yes, Myouga-jiisan. What did you mean a minute ago when you said that it's been such a long time? Have you come across this sort of situation before?" Their eyes were shining hopefully, and they looked so anxious that Myouga suddenly began to feel very guilty; First for drinking their blood and reveling in it like a drunken fool, then for getting their hopes up with a few careless words.

"Ah…well, you see…that is…" he shifted uncomfortably, avoiding those shining eyes. When he didn't continue after a few seconds, Inuyasha grabbed the flea demon savagely between his thumb and forefinger.

"Oi, Myouga-jiji!" he snarled. "If you know anything about this, then you'd better start talking or I'm going to start squeezing!"

"H-houshi-sama, please!" the tiny vassal squealed, squirming in their grasp. "Make him listen to reason!"

"Inuyasha…" the man said reproachfully, the glint in his eye softening somewhat. The squeezing abruptly stopped, and some of the pressure eased off of the tiny flea-youkai.

"Oh, thank you houshi-sama!" the flea gasped out, tiny beads of sweat breaking on his forehead in relief. "I thank you a thousand times over for saving this Myouga!"

"Inuyasha," Miroku continued, "Squeeze a little closer to the middle. That way, when his head explodes, we won't get blood under our claws."

"Ah! NO!!!" Myouga screamed, squirming with renewed abandon. "Inuyasha-sama! Miroku-sama! Please, listen!" The young man smiled evilly and tossed Myouga a few inches into the air, snapped his arm around and caught him in his fist.

"Alright jiji, start talking!" he said, peering into his closed fist through the tiny hole made by his thumb and finger.

"C-can't…c-can't breath…." came the tiny, labored reply.

"Oh alright! Stop being so dramatic. Here…" The boy reluctantly uncurled his fist, holding his palm out flat. As soon as the large, oppressive fingers were off of his little prone body, Myouga was away. The young man blinked in surprise, staring for a second at his empty palm, before his head shot up and he began to look around frantically.

"Hey! Get back here you little shit!"

Unseen as he left the clearing on the back of a passing moth, Myouga called back over his shoulder,

"Sorry m'lords, but I have no idea at the moment! I'll return when you're in better moods! Sayonara, Inuyasha-samaaaaaaaaaaaa!" His tiny voice quickly faded from their ears, becoming a mesh with the chirping of crickets and the rustling of the trees.

"Son of a bitch!" the young man swore darkly, flexing his claws in anger as a feral growl ripped through his body.

"Heh. You've got that right, bouzu."

~

"Where are you going, Kagome-chan?" Sango called after her friend as she caught sight of the girl heading back toward the scene of devastation.

"I'm going to find that shikon no kakera." Kagome called back. "In all the commotion, I'd completely forgotten about it, but since we've been sitting here…" she trailed off, squinting in the darkness.

"You can sense the shard, Kagome-chan?"

"Hai" she said absently, kicking over a rock in her path. "It's somewhere out here…"

"Oh. I see."

"Is something wrong, Sango?" A little voice piped up from around her ankles.

"No…well, it's just that I thought for certain that the kakera must have been inside of them…the boys, I mean."

"Uh-uh. I would have seen it if it had been inside of them, Sango-chan." Kagome frowned as she scanned the ground in front of her, searching for the tell-tale glow of the scorpion's shard. Several yards from the camp, she came upon a shallow pit. It was maybe four feet deep at most, but its circumference spanned several hundred feet. This must have been where the beast had fallen in the seconds before its body had disintegrated. Kagome carefully made her way down the rocky slope, trying her best not to slide on any loose gravel that would result in her reaching the bottom the fast and painful way.

A quick search indicated that it wasn't in the center of the pit, which made sense, since the shard had been lodged in the stinger. Her best odds would be to circle the perimeter. About ten minutes into a fruitless search, she came upon a large area where the surrounding stones were stained a dark, evil-looking color that could only be human blood.

'Miroku-sama's blood…' she realized sadly. 'Inuyasha's blood…'

As distressing as this revelation was, it was within that foul mess that she discovered what she had been looking for.

"I found it!" she cried. Wincing, she reached reluctant fingers into that sticky, rank unpleasantness and retrieved the shard. When she had wiped both the shard and her fingers clean, she jumped up and waved it over her head.

"See? I've got it!" she called to them. Then before anything else could happen along, she pocketed the shard and high-tailed it out of that creepy place.

Just as Kagome was making her way back into the remains of their camp, she and the others were greeted by the familiar sound of golden rings hitting metal in the steady, rhythmic intervals that usually signaled the approach of a certain houshi. Since the moment that Miroku had joined their small band of travelers, that faint jingling sound had never ceased to amuse Kagome. It reminded her very much of the collar that her mother had put on their cat, the one with the small bell on it that was meant to warn the birds and small rodents that a predator was on the loose. What was even more amusing was the fact that, while in many ways, Miroku-sama was also a predator, Bouyo was, in actuality, much more successful at catching his prey. She often wondered, in jest, which sound was more horror inspiring; the jingle of Bouyo's bell in the ears of a trapped field mouse, or the jingle of the houshi's rings approaching an unguarded woman from behind. But that had been under different circumstances, and today, the sound only served to make her feel apprehensive.

Both women watched in anticipation, waiting to see the young man step out of the dense underbrush and into the camp. What they eventually saw made them blink in surprise. Purple robes fell to their ankles, the hem resting a few inches above bare feet. Glimpses of a similar violet peeked out from over the collar and between the shoulders and sleeves of Inuyasha's fire-rat haori, which they wore over the robes as a sort of overcoat, the long tails hanging loosely by their sides, as they had no waistband to be tucked into, and belted by another swath of purple fabric. In their right hand they held Miroku's staff; the Tetsusaiga rested at their left hip.

"What is that supposed to be?" came the gravelly whisper into Sango's ear, as the kitsune on her shoulder glanced distrustfully at the young man's choice of attire.

"This may be difficult to believe, Shippou-chan, but I think that's a compromise." Sango whispered back, her eyes wide in amazement.

"Somehow, I think I'm more frightened than before!" Shippou squeaked softly before scrambling to hide behind the soft fall of Sango's hair.

"Hello." Kagome smiled at the boy, fighting to keep down the veritable flock of butterflies that seemed to have taken up residence inside of her.

"Hello (Right)." he greeted them cordially enough while muttering darkly to himself.

"I really wish he wouldn't do that." Shippou whimpered from the new position he'd taken behind the taijiya's other ear. "It's really creepy."

"Shippou-chan!" Kagome scolded in a harsh whisper. She looked over at the young man to see if he had heard the kitsune's insensitive comment, but it appeared that he hadn't.

Thank god for Miroku's ears…

"So… what do you guys want to do now?" Kagome asked awkwardly, her face suffusing entirely against her will with a slight blush when those stormy, violet eyes turned from Sango to fall upon her.

"The same thing we always do." he huffed, scowling at her from beneath the dark fringe of his bangs. "Let's get moving. We've wasted enough time here already."

"Yes, and I'm anxious to leave this place…" he added a moment later, his face softening as he offered her an encouraging smile.

Talk about mixed signals… she sighed to herself. I wouldn't even know where to begin.

Taking that as the signal to leave, Sango and Shippou sidled up to Kirara, but as Kagome headed over to join them, the young man quickly shoved his staff at Sango and dropped into a crouch in front of Kagome, offering his back.

Kagome hesitated, looking first to Shippou, who looked horrified and shook his head with a violent NO, then to Sango, who nodded, though a bit uncertainly, her eyes pleading.

Remember, Kagome-chan…think how they must feel…

Nodding back determinedly, Kagome walked up to the boy and without another moments hesitation, climbed onto his back. When he hooked his elbows under her knees and rose to his feet, she was elated to discover that every little nuance was exactly the same as it had always been. She shot a reassuring grin over his head to the grim-faced pair standing next to Kirara, after which a large, collective sigh of relief worked it's way through the camp. Satisfied, Sango and Shippou climbed up onto Kirara. They were just about to take to the air when they heard the sound of an indignant squeal from behind.

"EEEEEK! Pervert! Osuwari!"

They turned around in time to see Kagome jump off the back of the black haired young man, who was now laying prostrate on the ground, his face buried in an inch of gravel. Kagome ran over to Kirara and hopped up behind Sango, grabbing tightly onto the taijiya, though more for protection than fear of falling off.

"Go!" she shouted.

"But Kagome-chan, what about-"

"They'll catch up!" she snapped. Back on the ground, the young man managed to pull his face up from the dent it had made in the hard earth to watch their ascent into the sky.

"Why?" he groaned, before answering himself a second later.

"I couldn't help myself."