InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Kagome! Where are you?! ❯ chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter 9

I've had a couple of reviewers wonder about Sesshomaru and the items in Kagome's backpack. So . . . the beginning of this chapter is designed to give a basic inventory of her bag and his initial reactions to the items.

Basically I'm paraphrasing my story "What's In the Backpack?" and adding a couple of remarks from Sess's POV. For a more complete inventory of her bag, please read that story.

Corrected by Angelica Birmingham
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Sesshomaru's eyes snap open. The roar that woke him still reverberates inside the cave. It's dark, night has fallen while he was asleep. The cave is hot, humid and stuffy.

He gets up and feels around. 'Where is that bag?' His hand finds the bag and he opens it. 'Where is that thing she called a flashlight?'

He pulls out her rolled up futon, towels, the cooking pot, and her square books. He reaches into the bag and digs around in it. 'Is that it? No, it's smooth, that flashlight was rougher. This is it!' He pulls out a tube and after a couple of mistakes, finally turns on the flashlight. 'Good.'

Kagome is still deeply asleep. Her clothes are ripped in places and where they are ripped he can see bloody scratches.

He leaves the flashlight, still on, beside her. He goes to the entrance of the cave and pulls out Tokijin. He steps out of the cave and looks around.

The night noises and smells are totally different then he is used to. 'I need to know what is going on around me.' The temperature outside the cave is still high and the humidity makes it seem worse, even though it is deep at night.

He glances at the sky, looking for night flying birds, nothing. He looks back at the forest.

A pause. He closes his eyes and looks up. He opens his eyes. "The stars . . . "

The clear night sky is filled with stars. Stars are in patterns he has never seen before. A half-full moon is sinking in the sky. 'The moon . . . at least it's still the same.' A pause and he concentrates on the moon. "Hmmm . . . there might be small differences."

A distant roar breaks his concentration. He looks out on the primeval forest. 'In the morning, I will explore it.'

His stomach grumbles. 'But, I will do a quick hunt.' He looks back at the cave. 'My getting home depends on her, she needs protection while she sleeps.' He places his sword at the entrance and creates a shield around the entrance.
He vanishes into the forest . . .

Later . . . It is before daybreak . .

'While she is sleeping, I need to know what she has in this bag, so I can be prepared. Some of the items she has shown are strange . . . ' he thinks. He digs a hole in the side of the cave and places the flashlight in it. 'Good, that will give me light.'

He picks up the sword she took off the dead alien. He pulls it out of the scabbard and examines it. "Good steel. Very good steel. Not quite the right shape, a little too curved, but, not bad. Hmm . . I've never seen gems like the green ones on the hilt. It's a bit heavy for her perhaps, but, she should be able to use it."

He opens the bag and starts to take out items.

He pulls out a bag. It is made out of an invisible, smooth substance. He sniffs. 'Like nothing, I've ever smelled before. There are also some lingering odors, similar to ones I've smelled on her and the exterminator before. But what they are, I don't know.'

Inside the bag is several odd-shaped tubes. Since the bag is invisible, he can see that each tube has writing on it. He reads the tubes. 'Soap. But in such an odd-shape. Unscented Deodorant? If you have no scent, why do you need to use de-odor-ant, a very confusing name. But, if it does what it seems to be intended to do . . . a very useful item in hunting, so, why has she not used it before? And what is Shampoo?'

He places it aside and reaches into the bag. He pulls out the white box she pulled out before. "First aid, she said. Let's see what's in it." He opens the box, sniffs and stifles a cough. 'There are some powerful odors in this box. Potential powerful medicines, perhaps?' He rummages through it.

He pulls out a small knife. 'Small but a very high quality blade.'

'Clean, prepared bandages, of various sizes and shapes. Very well thought out.' He picks up a small white jar, one of several in the box, 'Something to kill pain? Interesting.'

He picks up another, 'What is antiseptic? Many, no all, of these small jars have writing on them that is not Japanese and not Chinese. English? Perhaps?' He tries to open it, but all the jar does is make clicking noise. He growls at the jar. 'No. I will not lose my temper at a jar. She will show me how to open it.'

He glances at the sleeping Kagome. He can see and smell the scratches on her. 'Since keeping her alive and good health is necessary, I must, I suppose, require her to tell me how to use the items in this box.' He replaces the item in the box and puts the box down. He pulls out a small box with Kagome's name engraved on it. He opens the box, sneezes and quickly shuts it. 'Perfume box. And I saw a comb. Female items.'
He pulls out another of those invisible bags. This one is holding a half- dozen rolls of thin white paper. 'Toilet paper.' His brow furrows in thought, a pause. 'Ahh . . . useful.'

An invisible bag with some socks and female undergarments are removed from the bag.

A bunch of small bowls is next. 'Food. I can smell it. It's that new type of food, I've smelled on my brother's breath often of late.' Other items are removed. "More food. Metal cans, but what kind of metal? Water, tea . . . what is a Coke?"

A box is next. "What are Tampons?" He reads the instructions. 'Ahh . . . more female items. Hmmm. If these work as described her monthly odors may not be as bad as other female's are.' He puts the box down.

Another small invisible bag contains a long thin white stick with small bristles sticking up, and a tube and a couple of other items. "Toothpaste? But . . . I've never seen her with her teeth blackened. Odd, but nothing important."

'Hair spray? What is that?' he thinks as he holds up a dented metal tube.

"Some spices . . . interesting and definitely useful. Some of these are worth their weight in gold."

"Another flashlight. Good. Though . . . what are batteries and why did she use that, what did she call it, yes, duct tape to attach them to the flashlight?"

Kagome shifts her position and gives a low moan. 'She is waking up.' he thinks. 'I went through most of the bag anyway, so I will put the items back. She, no doubt, would have the wrong impression if she found me rummaging through this bag.'

He manages to get all the items back into the bag before Kagome stirs. The dim light of early day is beginning to reveal itself.

Kagome stretches as she awakens. He catches her wrist before she hits him on the nose. "Woman." He releases her wrist.

"Opps, Sorry, Sesshomaru. I didn't realize we were in a small cave again." she says as looks around the cave.

"This Sesshomaru made it for protection last night."

"Thank you, Sesshomaru, sir." She looks around furtively. "Oh, could you hand me that flashlight, please."

"Why?"

"Because, Lord Sesshomaru, I really need to get to the bushes outside." she pauses, "There are bushes outside, right?"
"That is not an answer, woman."

"Oh, forget it." She crawls over and grabs the flashlight. "I'll be back in a few minutes." She flashes a quick smile and begins to leave the cave.

He grabs her ankle. "Human woman, I expect answers to my questions."

She stops and looks back at him. "Ok. You asked for it. Do you want me to use the bathroom in the cave or in the bushes?"

He releases her ankle. It's too dark to tell if he blushes. He follows her out of the cave, collecting his sword along the way. She runs off behind a nearby bushy plant. He can hear her sigh of relief.

'There was no way I was going to do this in that ice box we were in.' she thinks as she sighs. 'Oh, great, I left so quickly, I forgot . . how do I ask him to get my toilet paper?'

"Why did you follow me out?" she asks from behind the bush.

"It is dangerous out here. And this Sesshomaru needs you to be undamaged."

"So, you will protect me, then."

"It is within this Sesshomaru's best interest to do so."

"You didn't against that Tyrannosaurus Rex, yesterday."

"You make it clear that you do not approve of killing. This Sesshomaru was showing you the folly of such an idea."

"Look, Lord Sesshomaru, I hate killing. And if you give me a couple of minutes I'll prove to you that killing is wrong." a pause, "But first, could you, please, look in my bag for something? Please Sesshomaru, sir?"

"What is so important?"

"Hmmm . . . it's a clear plastic bag with some writing on it. The writing says, 'toilet paper'. I need it. Pretty please, Lord Sesshomaru?"

"Very well." He retrieves it from the bag and flips it over the bush. "I will require you to maintain good hygiene. Humans' can and do have disgusting odors. And since this Sesshomaru is forced to travel with you, you will be clean."

Kagome opens the bag and takes out the paper. 'Hmmm . . . he had the flashlight out and working. And he found this very quickly. I wonder . . . what else did he look at when he rummaged through my bag?' she thinks.
"Hrrmmpphh" Kagome mumbles as she straightens her clothes. "Just for that crack, I should see how he would feel about a face full of hair spray."

"I heard that, woman. What is hair spray?"

Kagome comes out from behind the bush. She smiles. "Do you really want to know, Lord Sesshomaru?"

"Yes."

"Then, stay out here for a second. I'll be right back."

Kagome reenters the cave, locates the can of hair spray and returns.

She is holding a metal can in her hands.

She points it at him and . . .

"Sigh. I can't." She puts the can down. "You know, Sesshomaru, if I were your brother, I'd have done it."

She lifts it up and points it away from Sesshomaru. "Sniff this." She releases a short burst from the can.

He visibly gags. "That is a horrible stench, woman. What do you use it for?"

"It holds hair in place, Sesshomaru. Like grease does, but it's a lot easier to apply and remove."

"Ahh, I see."

Kagome twirls so she is in front of Sesshomaru and stabs him in the chest with her finger. "Now, Sesshomaru, listen to me. I will be clean. Not because of any order you might give. But, because I like to be clean."

"Woman."

"Shut up, Sesshomaru."

He glares at her.

She glares back.

"Look Sesshomaru, sir, if I were your brother, I'd find a pile of dinosaur shit and cover myself in it, just to upset you."

He nods his head.

"I'm not going to do that, because we have to work together, not fight each other." she pauses, and swallows. "But, lord Sesshomaru, that works both ways. Don't order me around like I mean nothing to you. Treat me with respect."

"If you deserve it."

Kagome's face twitches and she is about to open her mouth, when her eyes catch a flash of light from the tops of the nearby mountains. The early morning sun is beginning to reflect off the snow at the tops of the mountains.

"We'll continue this later, Lord Sesshomaru. Right now, I need to get my camera and reach the top of this hill first."

"Woman . . . " he growls at her. She ignores him and goes into the cave.

She exits the cave with her camera in hand. She bows to him, "Lord Sesshomaru, could you please help me to the top of the hill?"

"Woman, I am not your servant."

"Please, Lord Sesshomaru. I want to take a picture of the sunrise. It should be beautiful, the sun rising over this magnificent forest."

A pause. He reaches out, grabs her and they float to the top of the hill.

"Thank you, lord Sesshomaru." She bows to him.

"This Sesshomaru only helped you because he was planning to go up here anyway. Now that it is daylight, this Sesshomaru needs to look at the forest."

She smiles at him. 'Whatever excuse he wants to make is fine. I've got to remember I can't tease him, like I can Inu-yasha. I don't think he'll take it the same way Inu-yasha would.'

She looks at the rising sun.

The forest stretches off to the east. It fades in the distance beyond the curve of the earth. The only break in it is a large river running north/south. Mist is rising off the river and intermingling with the woods.

The rising sun highlights the top of the trees. As the rising sun changes color, the colors of the forest change as well. Sounds rise from the primeval woods, as the animals in the forest awaken to greet the sun.

The setting is beautiful.

She stares at it, lost in its splendor.
He bumps her. "You wanted to do something."

"Ahh, yes. Thank you. I...." She shakes her head and brings up the camera and takes pictures. "You know, Sesshomaru, I'm going to have to remember the way that cube is setup now. My brother will absolutely want to come here. Before, Inu-yasha showed up, he loved dinosaurs." she says as she snaps off pictures.

She lowers the camera.

"I don't have that many exposures left, but, I think I'll use up a roll here. My mother is going to love these pictures. I can't wait to see her painting of this sunrise. And my brother will love some pictures of real life dinosaurs."

"You have never explained to this Sesshomaru how you know where this is. You mentioned that we were millions of years in the past. That doesn't make sense. Explain."

The end of the chapter.

Authors' note: I would like to get some responses from reviewers to the following question.

How much detail should I go into with Sesshomaru and the explanation about dinosaurs? Should I just do a "Kagome explains about dinosaurs" line, or should I try to actually dialog the scene?

(Personally, I would like too only lightly cover it, not getting bogged down in details, and go on. But . . . if a large number of reviewers want it, I'll dialog the scene.)

Thank you for reading jeff shelton