InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Kagome's Realization ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 7 )

Inuyasha's semi-conscious mind registered that his head was laying on something so soft that it reminded him of the pillow that Kagome had on her bed, he remembered it well because it a lulled him to sleep the night after he fought Naraku last. Supporting his body, instead of a narrow hard branch, was a firm mattress. What the hell, Inuyasha's brain suddenly registered, when did I come to Kagome's time. Inuyasha slowly opened his eyes to take a peek at where he was. And he was in Kagome's time, indeed. Inuyasha looked at the familiar site of Kagome's room. He saw her posters on the wall and her books on her desk but where was Kagome. Deciding that he needed to investigate what was happening he started to walk out into the hallway to track down Kagome but when he passed by her full-length mirror he saw himself out of the corner of his eye and stopped cold in his tracks. As if the world was in slow motion, Inuyasha very slowly turned fully around to look into the mirror and low and behold he saw right, there before him was a very human Inuyasha.

Inuyasha quickly looked over to Kagome's window. It was daylight outside, what on earth. "Kagome?" Inuyasha said without realizing it, for he was too busy leaving Kagome's room looking this way then that try to decide which way to go to find Kagome. But he saw nothing and heard nothing. Walking out of the house he looked around the shrine to see no one. Where did she go and where is her family?

Inuyasha made is way to the well, deciding that maybe Kagome, for some reason beyond him at the moment, she went to the other side without him. Inuyasha walked up to the well, giving it a weary look, he was in human form after all, and jumped in. Inuyasha felt like he had been oswari'd by Kagome as he slowly lifted himself up off the dirt floor. He looked up to see the roof of the shrine and realized that he was still in Kagome's time. Growing panicked, Inuyasha quickly climbing up Kagome's rope and climbed out of the well. Inuyasha didn't like this one bit, where had everyone gone? He thought as he walked back into Kagome's house to check all the rooms in case he missed something. Apparently he hadn't for there was no one to be found. Seeing as he was in human form it would be easier to move around in Kagome's time and so Inuyasha set out to wonder the streets of Tokyo hoping that maybe he would find Kagome. Hoping he would find answers to the questions swimming in his head. But not only did Inuyasha not find Kagome, he didn't find anyone. Not one child, adult, or even a pet. The wind wasn't even blowing the leaves of the trees and there was an eerie silence that seemed to reach every corner. Fear started to grip Inuyasha. Fear of being alone and not understanding why was bearing down on him, threatening to drown him this time. I can't be alone again, he thought as he stood in one spot slowly going in a circle looking for signs that anyone was around. This isn't happening, not again, he couldn't believe that he was totally alone again, in a world that he wasn't equipped to deal with, like before. Inuyasha could see the world spinning before his eyes, how nauseating, he thought before he blacked out and crashed to the ground.

It was falling off his branch in the tree that finally woke Inuyasha up from his nightmare.

He was extremely confused at first as he waited for the pain to subside. The first thing he did was look at his claws and sighed with relief when he saw them. Inuyasha was so ready to jump for joy that didn't even notice that his fall had woken Kagome up and she was watching him for her bed. She watching him go from hurt from falling on his ass, to confused like he didn't know where he was and then contentment to realize that he had clawed hands. When his happy eyes landed on her he froze.

"Did you hurt yourself?" Kagome asked softly not wanting to wake Shippo.

Inuyasha was frozen where he stood as he looked at Kagome lying on the ground, where he left her. The day's events passed through his mind. Having breakfast, packing up their camp and with comfortable silence they had continued there Northeast walk in search of clues as to where Naraku had disappeared. He remembered dusk coming upon them and suggesting that they find a place to make camp again, he remembered eating Ramen for dinner and then watching as everyone fell asleep and he kept watch until sleep overcame him. Relief filled him to realize that he was only having a dream. No one being in Kagome's world wasn't nearly as scary as Kagome not being in the world. His world, more importantly. Even though he was confused as to why he was in her world, human no less, it ceased to matter to him once he realized that Kagome was no where to be found and he couldn't use his demon power of smell to find her. Maybe being a hanyou isn't so bad, he thought as he snapped out of his thoughts to see Kagome waiting for an answer. "No, of course not, I just wasn't paying attention to where I put my hand and I fell. No big deal, go back to sleep." And after a moment or two, added; "I'm sorry that I woke you up." And with that he leapt back up to his branch.

Each time you dream you dream a new dream, he reminded himself as he let himself relax against the tree and closed his eyes but the sound of Kagome's voice opened them again. "You had a dream didn't you?" She said so softly that had it not been for the fact that she was talking to Inuyasha no one would have heard her.

"Feh." Was all he said, no bring himself to admit to it but unwilling to lie and say no.

"So you did have a dream then. I gather it was bad huh? I know one that I had last night was. I was sleeping in Keade's hut when I heard yelling and screaming and all sort of bad language coming from outside so I sat up and was going to ask you what was going on because I figured you would have heard them before anyone but you weren't there. No one was in the hut with me. So I decided that I would investigate what was going on. Since I was alone I didn't think it wise to go outside so I went to the window and drew the drape back and outside were the town villager's with torches and spears and pick forks and they were pointing and yelling at the hut.

"I know that it was her." One of the villagers said. "No one else would be able to break her seal but her so she had to have done it."

Done what, I wondered hoping that they would continue some more so I could have some understanding as to what was going on.

"But why? She went through so much trouble to put it together again after she broke it. She even sealed the hanyou again to keep him from stealing it. Why, after finally sealing the power of the Shikon no Tama away for good would she try to steal it? She's its protector, it's purifier." Said another villager.

I didn't know what was going on. I was thinking that they couldn't be talking about me. I couldn't remember finishing the jewel let alone sealing you away for trying to take it, and try as hard as I could I couldn't remember. But then it didn't matter as a yell of "Get her" rang out and a couple of torches were tossed onto the hut causing the roof to catch on fire. I never knew how quickly huts could burn because in no time the hut was filled with smoke and burning pieces of the roof were falling around me. Knowing that I couldn't escape by running into the mob of angry villager's I ran out the back and made my way between the huts, not knowing where to go till it hit me to run to the well. I would go home and try and figure out what happened, what had gone wrong. So I ran and ran and ran some more till I was in site of the well when I saw.. I saw …" Kagome stopped, losing her voice as she tried to swallow the tears threatening to rise up to her eyes at the memory.

"What did you see?" Asked Inuyasha as he wiped away a tear that escaped from the bunch. Half way through Kagome's story Inuyasha had jumped down to where Kagome lay, hearing in her voice the fear that she felt when she had the dream. Like his, her dream seemed real to her, her confusion was just like his but different, very different, for she dreamed that she had killed him. Wanting to give her comfort with his presence he had jumped down.

Kagome's fingers flexed and gripped his hand tighter, he wasn't sure if she realized it or not but not long after he sat down next to her her hand had found his and held it in a tight grip, almost as if it gave her comfort and support. "I saw you sealed to the Sacred Tree." She squeaked but finding a stronger voice added. "Only it was so different than when Kikyo sealed you. Your shirt had blood all over it and you hair was no longer white but black. You were human, Inuyasha, and I had killed you with my arrow. I ran over to you and climbed up to see if I could remove the arrow. Like I did before, remember? But it wouldn't budge. I really shocked me that I couldn't remove my own arrow when it dawned on me that it wasn't mine. If it were mine I should have been able to remove it causing it to disappear. My mind just couldn't process what was going on. I could hear the mob making it's way to the well and with one last look at you I was about to run to the well and jump in but something caught my eye. It was a bamboo. I did a double take and I saw that it was Naraku and he was laughing and in his hand was the completed Shikon no Tama. Seeing him froze me in my place. So there I was staring at him and him laughing at me and the whole time the angry mob is getting closer and then Naraku motions for me to turn around and so I slowly turned around and when I did one of the men from the village was bearing down on me and he grabbed me by my shoulder and was shaking me. The scream you heard when I woke up was the same as the one in my dream. My urge to keep running, if I could just keep running it would go away but you stopped me and it was then that I realized that I was having a bad dream, nightmare is more the word for it. Sounds crazy doesn't it?" Kagome said, moving the hand that held Inuyasha's to lie across her abdomen.

Inuyasha tried to ignore the heat he felt with his hand in Kagome's laying on her abdomen. Even though he was well loved by his mother while she was alive, Inuyasha couldn't think of another soul that he had intimate contact with. Sure he carried Kagome on his back, even had Shippo on his shoulder, and grabbed Sango a time or two when she needed it but no one but Kagome seemed willing to touch him when it struck her to do so, like stroke his ears for one thing, or to seek comfort from his presence and touch, like last nights nightmare and her holding his hand while she talked about it. Kikyo willingly hugged him but she was cold from lack of physical presence and she also did it to knock him out to try and take him to hell with her. "Scary is more like it, Kagome."

"Yeah but what scared me the most was that I was all alone. I had no Inuyasha to save me and that scared but it scared me even more to think that you were dead. That you had been murdered and everyone was willing to believe that I had done it. My gut instinct was to run and to keep running. That I would be safe if I could just run faster and stronger than them. Is that what it was like, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked as she nestled Inuyasha's hand in a loving and comforting fashion, almost hugging it to her.

"When I was a boy, yes. My instinct was to run and hide someplace that they couldn't reach me, usually up in a high-branched tree. But as I got older and I had started to learn how to defend myself I stopped letting people who were really scared of me scare me. I realized that despite their hatred I was stronger than most of them. Humans, for sure, but also weak full blooded demons who thought that they could beat me or eat me because they thought I was smaller or weaker than them. I even beat demons that were stronger than me if they decided that they wanted to end my life. All that I learned or was forced to learn about fighting came from fighting with people who started fights with me. Except for now a days I don't think I have ever started a fight that I have won." Inuyasha said thoughtfully before turning his full attention back to a silent to Kagome.

Kagome was silently pondering all that Inuyasha was telling her. She was more and more amazed each time he opened up to her. Where once she would have to push and push was now replaced, it seemed, that if they were alone he would lose some of his shyness and embarrassment and actually tell her what he was thinking and even feeling. "You went after the jewel when it was in Kikyo's care." She reminded.

"Yes but I only tried to steal it from her, I never tried to kill Kikyo for it. Even after Naraku had set his trap and I thought that Kikyo was trying to kill me I still only went after the jewel. Taking her life as a form of revenge didn't cross my mind. All that I knew was that she betrayed me and so I went after what I tried to get originally before I let myself get involved with her. But Kikyo beat me at my own game. She's the only person who actually defeated me in a fight. Though, technically, it wasn't much of a fight seeing as she shot me with just a single arrow and I never even threw a punch." A snore from Miroku and a shifting in her sleep Sango brought the two out of their own private world, where nothing but their conversation existed.

"You better get some sleep, dawn isn't that far away and I don't want to hear you whining that your tired. So sleep." And with that Inuyasha gently pulled his hand free from Kagome's, which instantly felt cold after being so warm. Inuyasha wanted to just let go of Kagome's hand and jump back up into the tree but found himself frozen in his place looking at Kagome looking at him. And, surprising them both, reached out a hand and stroked her cheek softly yet lovingly, whispered a sweet dreams and was gone. With red cheeks Kagome rolled over onto her side so that Inuyasha couldn't see and did her best to try and go back to sleep or at the very least pretend that she wasn't kept awake by Inuyasha's gesture or trusting confession.