InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Interludes ❯ We Are Bound ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2 - WE ARE BOUND

(Vol. 1, Scroll 6: Yura of the Hair)

 

Kagome

 

He was such as jerk.

 

“I know, old hag! Haven't I told you I'd join with that stupid girl … for now?!” InuYasha was making sure we all knew how much he detested the idea of looking for the jewel shards with me. I thought the idea sucked, too, but you didn't hear me complaining at the top of my lungs. Sheesh. To think I'd felt sorry for him pinned against my sacred tree. What an idiot!

 

“Hey, you!” I called as I came around the bush wearing the old lady's borrowed priestess robes while my clothes dried. I almost used the Oswari! command, for which I would be forever grateful to Kaede, but thought better of it. I didn't want to make him so mad he stalked me in my sleep. “How come you hate me so much, huh?”

 

“Eh?” He twisted towards me, his scowling features clearing into an oddly blank look as he took in my red and white robes. His eyebrows tensed together in obvious disapproval.

 

“Why such a face, Inuyasha?” Old lady Kaede asked. She too had noticed his sudden change in demeanor.

 

What was it with this hanyou guy? One minute he was ranting and raving, and the next he'd gone into some kind of spacey trance. For the first time since he'd burst to life to save me and then attack me, he actually looked human, as though there were feelings and thoughts behind those flashing, insolent eyes.

 

“You said …,“ he turned towards Kaede without moving his eyes from my face, “um.” He seemed to struggle with the words, and he blinked hard to roll his eyes from me to the red haori fabric over his crossed arms. “You said before,” he tilted his head towards me, “you said she was the reincarnation of Kikyo.” There was a pleading note in his voice. “how can that be?”

 

“Reincarnation. The soul returns to a new body on this earth after its old body is through.” Kaede looked amused, but sounded gentle, as though explaining to a child. “Kagome is from our future. Kikyo's soul has chosen her as its vessel and has given her the power to come back to us.”

 

I was starting to get annoyed. Talking about me as though I weren't standing right there. As though I weren't Kagome!

 

“Yeah. Yeah. I know all that.” InuYasha was frowning again, the jerk. “But this girl isn't anything like Kikyo!”

 

“For once, we agree,” I said more sarcastically than I meant to, mad again that he hadn't use my name once in the days we'd been together.

 

“She stinks, for one thing,” he said and wrinkled his nose towards me. I stuck my tongue out at him and seriously thought about giving him another Oswari! but decided not to waste it on such obvious immaturity. I could swear I heard a growl rumble in his throat for a moment and then stop.

 

He turned away in an attempt to ignore my weak insult and returned his attention to Kaede. “Are you sure she's even dead?” I saw his eyes slide up under his moppy bangs to look at Kaede, trying to read her expression closely without making it apparent how important the answer was to him. He didn't trust Kaede. He didn't trust anyone. He seemed to fear this Kikyo person a lot. From what they'd told me about her marksmanship, I grudgingly understood his fear. I didn't feel like a reincarnation, but if this Kikyo could make this bully feel afraid, maybe it wasn't so bad to have some of her soul in me after all.

 

“Alas, yes.” Kaede poked sadly at the embers under the teapot. “I watched her body burn away to nothing, the flames melting the jewel away under my sister's flesh and bones.” Kaede stared at the fire for a moment in silence, and then whispered, “Yes, InuYasha. Kikyo is dead.”

 

InuYasha's expression was hard to read. Relief? Sadness? Confusion? What was he mooning over: Kikyo or the jewel? I wanted to punch him in the arm and say, why do you care? She tried to kill you, remember? Aren't you glad she's dead? Isn't the jewel more trouble than it's worth? Of course, my own guilt about shattering the jewel came into focus with this thought, and I was afraid he'd yell at me again if I brought that up. Damn him!

 

Before I thought of anything to say at all, a village woman with two young children came around the bend calling Kaede's name.

 

 

 

InuYasha

 

Old hag, Kaede waddled down the path, following the upset village woman. “Try not to fight,” she had the audacity to say.

 

“Feh!” I spat. Good riddance.

 

I was alone with the girl, which irritated me a whole lot. She was so, so, so … everything I hated in humans. Weak, but headstrong. Stupid, but lucky. Arrogant, but ignorant. And what I hated most about her was that, even though she smelled different - cleaner and sweeter - she was like Kikyo. She was different than the other humans. She saw things. And if she really had Kikyo's talents, she would be able to see inside of me. Between her strange powers and these blasted Oswari! beads, I wouldn't be any safer around her than I had been around Kikyo. And that really pissed me off to think on. I hated feeling trapped.

 

Kikyo. What the hell happened? The tightness I'd been fighting off rose in my throat, threatening to overtake me just as it had every moment since Kaede told me that Kikyo died that day fifty years ago, moments after sending that arrow into my heart. I swallowed and took a deep breath.

 

The girl was fussing with her clothes. She was wearing Kikyo's old priestess outfit, her hair bound with the same tie. Her profile was Kikyo's profile. Looking at her, I could only see Kikyo. I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and scream into her face, What the hell happened!? God damn it, tell me!? You owe me that much!? This girl was supposed to be Kikyo's reincarnation? Well, then why couldn't she clear up the mysteries that were tormenting me? Why didn't she meet me? Why did she have that hateful look when she shot at me? Why was she so injured that she died ….? Was she in pain? Why wouldn't she let me help her? Why did she kill me? Why am I still alive?

 

I had to get my mind off Kikyo or I was going to go insane. All the anger and confusion I felt watching this not-Kikyo girl in those Kikyo robes was going to make me kill something or someone. A little growl rumbled in my throat and I coughed a little to make it stop. Not that I minded killing in the right circumstances, but I prided myself on controlling my choice of victim.

 

I shook my head to try and clear it. “Hey,” I said.

 

“Hey, what?” she replied, clearly peeved that I been pointedly ignoring her, though she probably didn't fully appreciate that she was better off for my silence.

 

“Take those clothes off,” I said, realizing the words weren't quite right even before they were all out of my mouth.

 

I flinched at the expression on her face, expecting another Oswari! degradation and was relieved to receive only a whack to the head with a rock.

 

How long was I going to have to put up with this stupidity until we found the jewel and I killed her to take it for my own?

 

 

Kikyo

 

Awareness.

Cursed awareness, go away.

Stirrings of confusion and passion

 

Call to me.

My breath still breathed by another.

I cannot stop her breathing me!

 

The jewel lives!

It's purity untainted by hate.

My heart should darken it, but does not.

 

She is me.

Who is she to wake we two now?

I must die. Or I must live again.

 

 

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