InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Inu Yasha, The Reincarnation of Midoriko? ❯ Chapter 1
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Desiree Dee 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action / Mystery | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 02.24.2006 | Pages: 1 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 1.1K | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action / Mystery | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 02.24.2006 | Pages: 1 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 1.1K | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I do not own the Peach man’s box. I do not own the little fox. I do not own a single hair. I have not owned him anywhere. Even though Inu Yasha’s the man, I do not own him minna-san.
Chapter 1
The young hanyou sat in the branch of a tree starring down at the miko below him. His focus was not on her, but the partially complete jewel around her neck. Something that felt like a lost memory trying to escape nagged at the back of his mind. As a child he always felt incomplete, but it never truly bothered him. When he had first heard of the Shikon No Tama a desire he could not explain arose within him. At first he thought it was a need to become a full demon, but upon meeting Kikyo he began to think otherwise. After a series of horrible events, he began to revert back to his original beliefs. Then came this girl, Kikyo’s reincarnation, the girl from the well, the girl from the future, that had restored his own. Many things had happened upon meeting her that he could not explain. Upon the shattering of the jewel, he felt as though a part of himself had burst along with it. He only threw this to the wind, thinking it was disappointment at the chance they would never put it back together again. The most recent and traumatic of all instances happened quite recently in the cave of Midoriko.
They had been in the exterminator village at the time. He had lain upon a roof belonging to a now vacant hut that they had decided to spend the night in. That was when he had sensed it, a need to enter the cave, because something was wrong. As he reached the cave he knew, Kagome’s piece of the jewel had some how made it’s way into cave, then a protective instinct seem to take over and lead him to where he needed to be. He saw everything, and knew that it was him or at least his body acting out the events that had begun to unfold. It was as if he were watching helplessly from within his own head.
He came into the main cavern to see the sight before him. He remembered something about the large cat being a former comrade and knew that he needed to slay his archaic enemy. He did not remember pulling out his sword, but he regained control of his body just after it had made the killing blow. He couldn’t quite tell what had happened, he was only aware enough of his surroundings to acknowledge the presence of the monk as he took the shard and left the cave. It had all been quite an unnerving experience. He found himself knowing things that he hadn’t before, but decided to hide as much of it as possible from the rest of the group.
He had been considering all of this as he starred at the shard glowing in the sun’s soft fading light. It was then that Kagome looked up from the book that she had been reading with a heavy sigh. He quickly turned his gaze to the setting sun; he did not want her to think that he was some kind of pervert that enjoyed starring at her, even though he did sometimes enjoy that particular task. She saw a twitch come from the companion that sat above her. She closed the book knowing that she would never finish it, the plot was thin, and made no sense, on top of that it was boring. She looked to the horizon; it seemed that their companions would not make it back before the next day. Inu Yasha had come back from a shard mission to retrieve her from the well, and this was where they were supposed to meet once Miroku settled his dealings with the head of the village. A chilly breeze rustled its way through the trees, Kagome shivered, and the young man in the tree mentally cursed himself for not taking her sleeping bag from the rest of the group. They weren’t supposed to take this long. He could have carried Kagome on his back and eventually met up with them by now, but she insisted on just waiting for them, and doing her homework in the process. She shivered and dug through the bag. She pulled out her jacket, but it didn’t do much good, then she thought of the only other thing she had.
Inu Yasha looked down at her again; she had pulled out a small piece of cloth folded into a nice square. The name Shippou had been embroidered into the cloth, and a beautiful green bow held the entire piece together. He saw her hands shake and the hurt and her eyes as she considered using the blanket for her own warmth. It was obviously for the kitsune’s birthday, which he had been reminding everyone of for the last week. His lips spoke before his mind could process what he was saying.
"Hey, don’t mess with that, it looks like you spent a long time on it, and I’m sure you want the brat to get it in perfect condition, so just hold on one second." He placed the blanket into her bag, and then picked it up by the strap. He then grabbed Kagome by her waist and jumped into the tree. He hung the bag on a nearby branch and hugged her close. He threw his coat over the both of them, then let her even breathing and intoxicating scent carry him into a deep sleep. Kagome just lie against his chest and listened to his heart. He had been acting so strange since the battle in Midoriko’s cave. He seemed almost out of it at times. The strangest thing was how he acted towards Kirara, training with her as if he had been doing it his entire life. It had bothered her slightly, but she didn’t talk to him about it. She soon realized that he was sleeping and was planning on doing the same herself when he began mumbling. She lifted her head to look at him. He was talking in his sleep. "Must complete...get demons...become whole...protect..." It figured to her, even in his sub-conscious had a one-track mind. He twitched slightly, and then sat straight up. Kagome gaped at her close friend, his eyes were open, but they contained no life. He turned his head towards the sky and began to speak. "Will I ever be whole? Will I ever be free? Can I end this, or am I forever destined to wander existence in constant torment and battle? When will it end?" With that his body fell limp and dropped from the branch to the ground.
Kagome screamed as his lifeless corpse fell with a soft thud. His firerat garb still draping her shoulders. She wanted to jump down from the branch, but feared landing on him and doing even worse damage. She saw her bag hanging from the next branch and formulated a small plan. She knew that the bag may not hold her weight, but at least she would not land on Inu Yasha. She jumped over to the bag and grabbed on. It was not the bag that had trouble supporting her weight, but the branch that the bag hung from. She dangled in the air for about two seconds before she heard the cracking. She looked up and saw the bark begin to splinter. She used her free arm to shield her eyes from the shards of wood that began to fly. She braced herself for the twenty-foot drop that still resided beneath her. The branch could no longer restrain itself, and finally gave into its inevitable fate. She let out an ear piercing scream and waited for the impact. It never came. She was caught by a pair of strong and very familiar arms.
"Now what did you go and do something like that for? Jeeze, you could wake the dead with stupid stunts such as those in the middle of the night." Her eyes grew wide and she blinked at him. "What?" he demanded.
"I think I just did." He looked at her utterly puzzled.
"What are you talking about, and how did I get down from the tree? You pushed me didn’t you?" He glared at her menacingly. She forgot all of the sympathy she had for him right then and there. Kagome pushed him back wards and jumped out of his arms.
"There, now I have pushed you, but I didn’t do it before. You started talking in your sleep and fell out of the tree, I was left all by myself up there, and thought that you had hurt yourself, but now I see that your pig head is just fine. Humph." She turned her back to him.
"Since when do I have a pig’s head?" He felt his face and nose just in case he had missed something. She glanced over her shoulder, and couldn’t help but laughing.
"It’s just an expression, but I guess I could forgive you. I think we need to get back to sleep so that we can go ahead and find the others."
"What about that studying you were talking about earlier?"
"Tomorrow is Shippou’s birthday, and it’s something that I don’t want to miss." He shrugged at her.
"Suit yourself." he picked his coat off the ground and walked over to Kagome.
"I think I would prefer the ground if that is okay with you." He stared at her for a moment, and then turned around.
"Feh." Was all he uttered while tossing her his coat. He shielded his face from her so that she would not see the disappointment on it. He was crushed that she did not want to be near him.
"What I meant was, ‘could the two of us just stay on the ground for tonight?’ No, that didn’t out right either." He turned to face her, she was blushing, but he understood what she had meant.
"So, it must be your turn to have the mind in the gutter." She glared daggers at him. "What I meant to say was, I know what you mean. C’mon I’m not Miroku." She smiled at him, and then just gave him a hug for no reason. At first he returned the hug, but then twitched and stiffened. She looked up at him once again. The life drained look was in his eyes again. She felt some thing warm on her chest. She looked to see the shard around her neck glowing with an eerie light. She took the chain off from around her neck and put it in her pocket. He immediately slouched over and fell into her arms.
‘That’s odd,’ she thought, ‘it seems every time the jewel is near his heart this happens. It never did this before, but why now?’ Inu Yasha was now peacefully snoring. She inched him over to the tree as best she could and propped him up against it. She went back for her bag, and placed her shard in one of the pockets. ‘He should be safe from you for now.’ she thought, and settled her self next her traveling partner. She covered them both in his coat and she finally drifted to sleep.
The rising sun stretched over the horizon and into the eyes of the sleeping companions. A pair of inhuman eyes shot open.
"It’s here! It’s today! Yay! Wake up everyone! We have to go meet Kagome, I think we’re close, I’ve smelled her since we stopped last night."
"And you think that has nothing to do with the fact that you slept in her bag?" The groggy monk rubbed his eyes and starred at the overly excited kitsune.
"Come on, you two, I’m already ready to go! Kirara even helped me pack my stuff, so let’s get yours too." Shippou rushed around the campsite grabbing everything and placing it into the cart Miroku had procured from the village. The monk stood and looked to the only other human member of the group.
"Then I guess a bath is out of the question for this morning?" The large demon-bone connected with the base of his skull.
"Pervert." She stated plainly as she walked away.
"Perhaps another time." He gasped as he attempted to recover the use of his limbs.
The point for meeting their friends was just over the hill in front of them. They had walked until it was too dark to see and since they were without torches or one of Kagome’s portable light sticks, they decided camping out would be the best idea. However, none of them had gotten much sleep since some kind of banshee had been screaming in the nearby woods all night. At first, the screaming worried them, but they decided that Inu Yasha could handle whatever might be threatening in the area and put it to the back of their minds.
He smelt them coming. At first, his groggy mind simply said,
‘Good, now I don’t have to move.’ A presence shifted next to him. That caused his mind fully arouse. ‘What? How did I get like this? The last thing I remember is arguing with Kagome, and then hugging her. I didn’t do anything did I?’ He noted how his coat covered the both of them. He stared over at her and the smile on her face. ‘Whatever it was couldn’t have been too bad if she was still there, and smiling.’ His gaze never left her. In fact, he lost touch with everything else in reality until a small orange ball of fuzz shot towards Kagome.
Shippou gave a small ‘oomph’ as Inu Yasha’s hand blocked his original path. He sat on the ground rubbing his head.
"Hey, what did you do that for? You should be nice to me, it is my birthday."
"So what brat, she’s still sleeping, and if you don’t quiet down she’s going to wake up cranky." He hissed through his teeth at his best attempt to whisper. He knew from experience that Kagome was not the most pleasant person when she didn’t get all of her sleep.
"So, Inu Yasha, it seems that you and Lady Kagome had an eventful evening." Miroku came into view on a cart drawn by a small donkey. Sango gave him a death glare from atop Kirara’s back. She would have hit him, but he was just out of reach to safely hit him with her weapon.
"N..nn..nn..nothing happened. At least I don’t think it did." Inu Yasha became quite defensive.
"Your sleeping arrangements would speak otherwise." Miroku said while pointing to the young girl next to the hanyou. Inu Yasha wasted no time in grabbing a nearby rock and nailing the monk square between the eyes.
"Praise Kami that someone did it. I didn’t know how much longer I could take it before I just gave up and killed him." Sango stated. The rock had hit Miroku fairly hard and he had dropped the reigns as he sat there drooling like a brain-dead monkey. The donkey took this opportunity to have its breakfast.
"Serves you right you stupid pervert, it looks like you cleaned that village out, and on top of all that you woke me up." Everyone except the incapacitated holy man turned to look at the grouchy teenager.
"Kagome, you’re awake!" Shippou bound into her arms, gave her a warm hug, and fell down into her lap. "Well, did you remember what today is?" Expectant hope filled his eyes. Kagome looked over at Inu Yasha as he stood up and put his coat back on.
"Hmm, now what day could it be, Inu Yasha, do you know if there was anything special about today." He was about to reprimand her for being so forgetful when he caught the mischievous glint in her eye. He crossed his arms, puffed out his chest, and decided to play along.
"Feh, I don’t remember anything all that special about today. Let me see, oh I know, it’s the day when we search for a town that will actually buy all of the goods that Miroku stole, and we will pay for our dinner for once instead of conning some poor sap out of it." Kagome gave him a strange look, not quite the response she had been expecting, but it was enough to get a rise out of the small Kitsune.
"Come on guys, you know." He whined
"Okay, Shippou you got us, Happy Birthday." Inu Yasha’s chest deflated slightly, he had been hoping to play this game a little longer. He enjoyed mentally torturing the little fox almost as much as he enjoyed physically torturing him. At least he knew he wouldn’t get subdued for this one, and had wanted to take advantage of that. Still, he was lucky he got the little bit of it that he had.
"So, where’s my gifts?" He looked expectantly to each person in the group and locked his eyes on Kagome.
"Not until tonight." Kagome scolded him mockingly. "You shouldn’t be so greedy."
"Well, Inu Yasha was right about one thing," Miroku had decided to rejoin the world of the living, "we will be heading into the next town, and as my gift to you Shippou I will pay for dinner and a room this once without any other motives."
"You mean that Miroku?" The entire group spoke in unison while staring at the young man whose face was just beginning to match the color of his robes.
"Don’t any of you believe that I can be honest?"
"No." It seemed as if the rest of the group had been on the same brainwave.
"Tachi can vouch for me."
"Yeah, well he ain’t here right now is he? And unless I’m not recalling correctly, he didn’t seem to help out your reputation the last time we saw him." Inu Yasha had broken away from the collective thought. Miroku gave a defeated sigh.
"As my gift, I’ll make sure he keeps that promise."
"Thank you Sango. With great gifts like those I can’t wait to get Kagome and Inu Yasha’s tonight." Everyone else looked over at the white-haired stripling. He was leaning cooly against the tree.
"What?” He gave them all a questioning look. Kagome just shrugged and picked up her bag.
"We need to go if we are going to get through with our plans before sundown." She turned to Sango, "So, what was it that kept you from making it yesterday? As if I couldn’t guess." She glared at Miroku who was now doing his best to regain control of the stubborn ass. (Don’t you love donkeys?)
"Perhaps the ladies would prefer a ride on the cart while it is available?" He flashed his sweetest smile.
"Oh no you don’t you dirty reprobate. You need to keep your hands focused on a different ass. Besides, it doesn’t look like you have enough room up there for her bike. So, it looks like you will be all alone. Shippou, get in the basket so you can be a little more comfortable."
"Hey, Inu Yasha, is this your gift? Being nice to me?" Inu Yasha just face-faulted.
"Hey, if you don’t want to ride, then walk for all I care." He gave an annoyed growl and began walking ahead of the group, then he paused and turned to look at Kagome. "Where’s your jewel shard at?" ‘How had he noticed it missing?’ she thought. She reached into the pocket of her bag and pulled out the chain. "I would feel more comfortable if it were around your neck." he stated mechanically and continued on his way. She stared at the fragment in her hand, wondering why he had said that.
"It is quite obvious to me that something did occur last night. Mind enlightening me, I mean us Lady Kagome? In excruciating detail if you please." Miroku looked down at the contemplative miko.
"You and your ass just move along, us women have some talking to do if you don’t mind." Sango glared at him. He then pushed the donkey ahead hoping to catch little snippets of their conversation.
"That does seem strange, now that you mention it, I did notice a change in Kirara after meeting you. She seemed a little more content. In fact, her seeming a little less restless is what sealed my decision to stay with you all."
"Why didn’t you say anything about it before?" Kagome looked to the girl that she now saw as a sister.
"It never seemed important. Do you know something that we don’t, girl?" She patted the fire cat beneath her that had been keeping the same slow pace as Kagome’s bike. Kirara simply acted as if she hadn’t heard or understood, but in fact, she knew everything.
Chapter 1
The young hanyou sat in the branch of a tree starring down at the miko below him. His focus was not on her, but the partially complete jewel around her neck. Something that felt like a lost memory trying to escape nagged at the back of his mind. As a child he always felt incomplete, but it never truly bothered him. When he had first heard of the Shikon No Tama a desire he could not explain arose within him. At first he thought it was a need to become a full demon, but upon meeting Kikyo he began to think otherwise. After a series of horrible events, he began to revert back to his original beliefs. Then came this girl, Kikyo’s reincarnation, the girl from the well, the girl from the future, that had restored his own. Many things had happened upon meeting her that he could not explain. Upon the shattering of the jewel, he felt as though a part of himself had burst along with it. He only threw this to the wind, thinking it was disappointment at the chance they would never put it back together again. The most recent and traumatic of all instances happened quite recently in the cave of Midoriko.
They had been in the exterminator village at the time. He had lain upon a roof belonging to a now vacant hut that they had decided to spend the night in. That was when he had sensed it, a need to enter the cave, because something was wrong. As he reached the cave he knew, Kagome’s piece of the jewel had some how made it’s way into cave, then a protective instinct seem to take over and lead him to where he needed to be. He saw everything, and knew that it was him or at least his body acting out the events that had begun to unfold. It was as if he were watching helplessly from within his own head.
He came into the main cavern to see the sight before him. He remembered something about the large cat being a former comrade and knew that he needed to slay his archaic enemy. He did not remember pulling out his sword, but he regained control of his body just after it had made the killing blow. He couldn’t quite tell what had happened, he was only aware enough of his surroundings to acknowledge the presence of the monk as he took the shard and left the cave. It had all been quite an unnerving experience. He found himself knowing things that he hadn’t before, but decided to hide as much of it as possible from the rest of the group.
He had been considering all of this as he starred at the shard glowing in the sun’s soft fading light. It was then that Kagome looked up from the book that she had been reading with a heavy sigh. He quickly turned his gaze to the setting sun; he did not want her to think that he was some kind of pervert that enjoyed starring at her, even though he did sometimes enjoy that particular task. She saw a twitch come from the companion that sat above her. She closed the book knowing that she would never finish it, the plot was thin, and made no sense, on top of that it was boring. She looked to the horizon; it seemed that their companions would not make it back before the next day. Inu Yasha had come back from a shard mission to retrieve her from the well, and this was where they were supposed to meet once Miroku settled his dealings with the head of the village. A chilly breeze rustled its way through the trees, Kagome shivered, and the young man in the tree mentally cursed himself for not taking her sleeping bag from the rest of the group. They weren’t supposed to take this long. He could have carried Kagome on his back and eventually met up with them by now, but she insisted on just waiting for them, and doing her homework in the process. She shivered and dug through the bag. She pulled out her jacket, but it didn’t do much good, then she thought of the only other thing she had.
Inu Yasha looked down at her again; she had pulled out a small piece of cloth folded into a nice square. The name Shippou had been embroidered into the cloth, and a beautiful green bow held the entire piece together. He saw her hands shake and the hurt and her eyes as she considered using the blanket for her own warmth. It was obviously for the kitsune’s birthday, which he had been reminding everyone of for the last week. His lips spoke before his mind could process what he was saying.
"Hey, don’t mess with that, it looks like you spent a long time on it, and I’m sure you want the brat to get it in perfect condition, so just hold on one second." He placed the blanket into her bag, and then picked it up by the strap. He then grabbed Kagome by her waist and jumped into the tree. He hung the bag on a nearby branch and hugged her close. He threw his coat over the both of them, then let her even breathing and intoxicating scent carry him into a deep sleep. Kagome just lie against his chest and listened to his heart. He had been acting so strange since the battle in Midoriko’s cave. He seemed almost out of it at times. The strangest thing was how he acted towards Kirara, training with her as if he had been doing it his entire life. It had bothered her slightly, but she didn’t talk to him about it. She soon realized that he was sleeping and was planning on doing the same herself when he began mumbling. She lifted her head to look at him. He was talking in his sleep. "Must complete...get demons...become whole...protect..." It figured to her, even in his sub-conscious had a one-track mind. He twitched slightly, and then sat straight up. Kagome gaped at her close friend, his eyes were open, but they contained no life. He turned his head towards the sky and began to speak. "Will I ever be whole? Will I ever be free? Can I end this, or am I forever destined to wander existence in constant torment and battle? When will it end?" With that his body fell limp and dropped from the branch to the ground.
Kagome screamed as his lifeless corpse fell with a soft thud. His firerat garb still draping her shoulders. She wanted to jump down from the branch, but feared landing on him and doing even worse damage. She saw her bag hanging from the next branch and formulated a small plan. She knew that the bag may not hold her weight, but at least she would not land on Inu Yasha. She jumped over to the bag and grabbed on. It was not the bag that had trouble supporting her weight, but the branch that the bag hung from. She dangled in the air for about two seconds before she heard the cracking. She looked up and saw the bark begin to splinter. She used her free arm to shield her eyes from the shards of wood that began to fly. She braced herself for the twenty-foot drop that still resided beneath her. The branch could no longer restrain itself, and finally gave into its inevitable fate. She let out an ear piercing scream and waited for the impact. It never came. She was caught by a pair of strong and very familiar arms.
"Now what did you go and do something like that for? Jeeze, you could wake the dead with stupid stunts such as those in the middle of the night." Her eyes grew wide and she blinked at him. "What?" he demanded.
"I think I just did." He looked at her utterly puzzled.
"What are you talking about, and how did I get down from the tree? You pushed me didn’t you?" He glared at her menacingly. She forgot all of the sympathy she had for him right then and there. Kagome pushed him back wards and jumped out of his arms.
"There, now I have pushed you, but I didn’t do it before. You started talking in your sleep and fell out of the tree, I was left all by myself up there, and thought that you had hurt yourself, but now I see that your pig head is just fine. Humph." She turned her back to him.
"Since when do I have a pig’s head?" He felt his face and nose just in case he had missed something. She glanced over her shoulder, and couldn’t help but laughing.
"It’s just an expression, but I guess I could forgive you. I think we need to get back to sleep so that we can go ahead and find the others."
"What about that studying you were talking about earlier?"
"Tomorrow is Shippou’s birthday, and it’s something that I don’t want to miss." He shrugged at her.
"Suit yourself." he picked his coat off the ground and walked over to Kagome.
"I think I would prefer the ground if that is okay with you." He stared at her for a moment, and then turned around.
"Feh." Was all he uttered while tossing her his coat. He shielded his face from her so that she would not see the disappointment on it. He was crushed that she did not want to be near him.
"What I meant was, ‘could the two of us just stay on the ground for tonight?’ No, that didn’t out right either." He turned to face her, she was blushing, but he understood what she had meant.
"So, it must be your turn to have the mind in the gutter." She glared daggers at him. "What I meant to say was, I know what you mean. C’mon I’m not Miroku." She smiled at him, and then just gave him a hug for no reason. At first he returned the hug, but then twitched and stiffened. She looked up at him once again. The life drained look was in his eyes again. She felt some thing warm on her chest. She looked to see the shard around her neck glowing with an eerie light. She took the chain off from around her neck and put it in her pocket. He immediately slouched over and fell into her arms.
‘That’s odd,’ she thought, ‘it seems every time the jewel is near his heart this happens. It never did this before, but why now?’ Inu Yasha was now peacefully snoring. She inched him over to the tree as best she could and propped him up against it. She went back for her bag, and placed her shard in one of the pockets. ‘He should be safe from you for now.’ she thought, and settled her self next her traveling partner. She covered them both in his coat and she finally drifted to sleep.
The rising sun stretched over the horizon and into the eyes of the sleeping companions. A pair of inhuman eyes shot open.
"It’s here! It’s today! Yay! Wake up everyone! We have to go meet Kagome, I think we’re close, I’ve smelled her since we stopped last night."
"And you think that has nothing to do with the fact that you slept in her bag?" The groggy monk rubbed his eyes and starred at the overly excited kitsune.
"Come on, you two, I’m already ready to go! Kirara even helped me pack my stuff, so let’s get yours too." Shippou rushed around the campsite grabbing everything and placing it into the cart Miroku had procured from the village. The monk stood and looked to the only other human member of the group.
"Then I guess a bath is out of the question for this morning?" The large demon-bone connected with the base of his skull.
"Pervert." She stated plainly as she walked away.
"Perhaps another time." He gasped as he attempted to recover the use of his limbs.
The point for meeting their friends was just over the hill in front of them. They had walked until it was too dark to see and since they were without torches or one of Kagome’s portable light sticks, they decided camping out would be the best idea. However, none of them had gotten much sleep since some kind of banshee had been screaming in the nearby woods all night. At first, the screaming worried them, but they decided that Inu Yasha could handle whatever might be threatening in the area and put it to the back of their minds.
He smelt them coming. At first, his groggy mind simply said,
‘Good, now I don’t have to move.’ A presence shifted next to him. That caused his mind fully arouse. ‘What? How did I get like this? The last thing I remember is arguing with Kagome, and then hugging her. I didn’t do anything did I?’ He noted how his coat covered the both of them. He stared over at her and the smile on her face. ‘Whatever it was couldn’t have been too bad if she was still there, and smiling.’ His gaze never left her. In fact, he lost touch with everything else in reality until a small orange ball of fuzz shot towards Kagome.
Shippou gave a small ‘oomph’ as Inu Yasha’s hand blocked his original path. He sat on the ground rubbing his head.
"Hey, what did you do that for? You should be nice to me, it is my birthday."
"So what brat, she’s still sleeping, and if you don’t quiet down she’s going to wake up cranky." He hissed through his teeth at his best attempt to whisper. He knew from experience that Kagome was not the most pleasant person when she didn’t get all of her sleep.
"So, Inu Yasha, it seems that you and Lady Kagome had an eventful evening." Miroku came into view on a cart drawn by a small donkey. Sango gave him a death glare from atop Kirara’s back. She would have hit him, but he was just out of reach to safely hit him with her weapon.
"N..nn..nn..nothing happened. At least I don’t think it did." Inu Yasha became quite defensive.
"Your sleeping arrangements would speak otherwise." Miroku said while pointing to the young girl next to the hanyou. Inu Yasha wasted no time in grabbing a nearby rock and nailing the monk square between the eyes.
"Praise Kami that someone did it. I didn’t know how much longer I could take it before I just gave up and killed him." Sango stated. The rock had hit Miroku fairly hard and he had dropped the reigns as he sat there drooling like a brain-dead monkey. The donkey took this opportunity to have its breakfast.
"Serves you right you stupid pervert, it looks like you cleaned that village out, and on top of all that you woke me up." Everyone except the incapacitated holy man turned to look at the grouchy teenager.
"Kagome, you’re awake!" Shippou bound into her arms, gave her a warm hug, and fell down into her lap. "Well, did you remember what today is?" Expectant hope filled his eyes. Kagome looked over at Inu Yasha as he stood up and put his coat back on.
"Hmm, now what day could it be, Inu Yasha, do you know if there was anything special about today." He was about to reprimand her for being so forgetful when he caught the mischievous glint in her eye. He crossed his arms, puffed out his chest, and decided to play along.
"Feh, I don’t remember anything all that special about today. Let me see, oh I know, it’s the day when we search for a town that will actually buy all of the goods that Miroku stole, and we will pay for our dinner for once instead of conning some poor sap out of it." Kagome gave him a strange look, not quite the response she had been expecting, but it was enough to get a rise out of the small Kitsune.
"Come on guys, you know." He whined
"Okay, Shippou you got us, Happy Birthday." Inu Yasha’s chest deflated slightly, he had been hoping to play this game a little longer. He enjoyed mentally torturing the little fox almost as much as he enjoyed physically torturing him. At least he knew he wouldn’t get subdued for this one, and had wanted to take advantage of that. Still, he was lucky he got the little bit of it that he had.
"So, where’s my gifts?" He looked expectantly to each person in the group and locked his eyes on Kagome.
"Not until tonight." Kagome scolded him mockingly. "You shouldn’t be so greedy."
"Well, Inu Yasha was right about one thing," Miroku had decided to rejoin the world of the living, "we will be heading into the next town, and as my gift to you Shippou I will pay for dinner and a room this once without any other motives."
"You mean that Miroku?" The entire group spoke in unison while staring at the young man whose face was just beginning to match the color of his robes.
"Don’t any of you believe that I can be honest?"
"No." It seemed as if the rest of the group had been on the same brainwave.
"Tachi can vouch for me."
"Yeah, well he ain’t here right now is he? And unless I’m not recalling correctly, he didn’t seem to help out your reputation the last time we saw him." Inu Yasha had broken away from the collective thought. Miroku gave a defeated sigh.
"As my gift, I’ll make sure he keeps that promise."
"Thank you Sango. With great gifts like those I can’t wait to get Kagome and Inu Yasha’s tonight." Everyone else looked over at the white-haired stripling. He was leaning cooly against the tree.
"What?” He gave them all a questioning look. Kagome just shrugged and picked up her bag.
"We need to go if we are going to get through with our plans before sundown." She turned to Sango, "So, what was it that kept you from making it yesterday? As if I couldn’t guess." She glared at Miroku who was now doing his best to regain control of the stubborn ass. (Don’t you love donkeys?)
"Perhaps the ladies would prefer a ride on the cart while it is available?" He flashed his sweetest smile.
"Oh no you don’t you dirty reprobate. You need to keep your hands focused on a different ass. Besides, it doesn’t look like you have enough room up there for her bike. So, it looks like you will be all alone. Shippou, get in the basket so you can be a little more comfortable."
"Hey, Inu Yasha, is this your gift? Being nice to me?" Inu Yasha just face-faulted.
"Hey, if you don’t want to ride, then walk for all I care." He gave an annoyed growl and began walking ahead of the group, then he paused and turned to look at Kagome. "Where’s your jewel shard at?" ‘How had he noticed it missing?’ she thought. She reached into the pocket of her bag and pulled out the chain. "I would feel more comfortable if it were around your neck." he stated mechanically and continued on his way. She stared at the fragment in her hand, wondering why he had said that.
"It is quite obvious to me that something did occur last night. Mind enlightening me, I mean us Lady Kagome? In excruciating detail if you please." Miroku looked down at the contemplative miko.
"You and your ass just move along, us women have some talking to do if you don’t mind." Sango glared at him. He then pushed the donkey ahead hoping to catch little snippets of their conversation.
"That does seem strange, now that you mention it, I did notice a change in Kirara after meeting you. She seemed a little more content. In fact, her seeming a little less restless is what sealed my decision to stay with you all."
"Why didn’t you say anything about it before?" Kagome looked to the girl that she now saw as a sister.
"It never seemed important. Do you know something that we don’t, girl?" She patted the fire cat beneath her that had been keeping the same slow pace as Kagome’s bike. Kirara simply acted as if she hadn’t heard or understood, but in fact, she knew everything.