InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Of All the Things ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Of All the Things

By: RedHerring

Chapter 1

The sun beat down from its high position in the sky, casting small, almost nonexistent shadows across the benches and trees in the courtyard. It was sweltering hot, the humidity at an almost unbearable level with the previous night's rain still clinging to the leaves of the trees and almost any other surface, only to be heated again to join the atmosphere.

Inside the school, students slumped over their desks, few staying awake enough to take notes. Several of the more overwhelmed students had their heads sticking to the desks; light snores escaping. One particular student, Kagome Higurashi, stared listlessly at the board, not really seeing it or even noticing when the teacher passed through her line of sight. Her mind was gone; probably left 500 years in the past where she so often disappeared. Even the bell that signaled the end of the school day could not wake her from her stupor, so deep was she in wistful thought.

Eventually the not-so-gentle prodding by concerned friends brought Kagome's mind rushing to the present.

"Kagome-chan, that's the third time today, are you sure that you're not getting sick again?" asked Eri. Ayumi and Yuka edged around their friend, blocking escape.

"I'm fine guys. Just a little tired," Kagome explained. She stood up and slowly gathered her books, her eyes slowly glazing over, signifying her oblivious state to the world.

"Did something happen with your boyfriend, Kagome?" asked Yuka slyly, narrowing her eyes.

"No," Kagome sighed, "He hasn't done anything wrong in a while…. I'm just really nervous."

"About what, Kagome-chan?" asked Ayumi. Their friend had been acting like this all week, and they were concerned, to say the least.

"I really can't talk about it, and I really need to go," Kagome said with another distant look creeping over her face.

"Kagome, you can't go yet. Don't you remember that today's your day to stay after with us and clean up?" Yuka reminded her.

"Oh, crap. I really have to go home now, can't you please-"

"That's ok, Kagome-chan," said a new voice. Everyone turned around to look at the newcomer. She was tall standing at 5'2" with long red hair in a braid down to the middle of her back. Kind and mischievous brown eyes looked at Kagome warmly.

"I have some extra time before I have to leave to get my sister at the dentist. I can stay here and do your job; you should go home and get some rest. You really do look sick this week," she said.

"Thanks Takara, you're a saint," Kagome said. She picked up her bag and headed out the door with a halfhearted wave behind her. Takara watched her go with sad eyes. This time she did look sick, and that worried her. Kagome didn't often get sick, even if everyone thought she did. There is no way that a person suffering from muscular dystrophy could have that kind of muscle tone. Takara went to the cleaning cabinet to get stuff to clean off the pen doodles off of the desks, ignoring the hurried whispers of the girls behind her. Eri broke off of the huddle and walked over to Takara as she was spraying cleaner on a rag.

"Takara-chan we have a favor to ask," Eri said, hesitantly. Takara raised an eyebrow, but otherwise said nothing. "Err, right. Um, we wanted to ask if you could follow Kagome-chan for us and find out who her boyfriend is. You see, she never talks to us about him, and with her being sick all the time we get worried that he might not be the best thing for her," Eri continued.

"Guys, if Kagome doesn't want to tell you about what's going on, then I don't think she has to," Takara said kindly. Besides, she didn't want to follow Kagome home, like some kind of sick stalker.

"But we're worried! She keeps telling us about how he's a violent, possessive jerk, and we don't even know his name! Would you please, please, please just follow her and get his name?" begged Ayumi.

"People, even if I agreed that this was a good idea, I still couldn't do it. I have to leave after I finish cleaning the desks to get my sister-"

"Don't worry, Yuka can take care of that, and Eri and I can finish up the class room," Ayumi said happily. Takara gave them all doubtful looks, it wasn't that she couldn't follow Kagome without getting caught, it's just that it was kind of creepy. Her eyes scanned over the hopeful and genuinely worried faces and she sighed.

"I don't know why I'm so nice," Takara grumbled to herself. She was immediately set upon by the girls who glomped onto her with all of their might.

"Thank you Takara-chan!" they shouted. Takara disentangled herself from the over enthusiastic girls and smiled.

"I'll find out the guys name, but you have to promise me that I get a favor in return when I need one," she warned. All of the girls nodded and looked positively humorous with their eagerness. "And, Aesop doesn't know you, Yuka-chan, so when you see her tell her that her sister said to 'go to Africa with the Popsicle lady,' okay?" Takara said, giving her the code that the two sisters used if just such a case as this happened to come up. They all nodded and Yuka took the rag out of Takara's hands while Eri and Ayumi pushed her to the door. Takara swiped her bag as she passed her desk and looked back when she reached the door. "I'm only staying long enough to get a name," she warned.

"Right, right," they said, "Just hurry up before she gets too far to find!" Then they shut the door. Takara sighed when she turned to walk down the hall. She looked out the windows as she walked by them. Kagome was just leaving the school grounds, so she wouldn't be too hard to catch up to. As Takara got to the stairs she looked around, and, spotting no adults, jumped on the rail and slid all the way down, jumping off with a flip to land smoothly on her feet again. A smirk plastered to her face, Takara jogged down to the street to gain sight of Kagome again. She must have picked up the pace because she was farther away now and was walking at a brisk pace, dodging around other pedestrians.

Takara skipped down the street, careful to keep behind tall people to hide her vibrant hair. Other than a car skidding to a halt a hundred feet away, nothing really happened on the way to Kagome's shrine. When Kagome got there she ran inside for a few minutes. She used the bathroom and ate a quick snack before writing a note to her mother, who wasn't there, and grabbing a gargantuan yellow bag, she slung it over her shoulders and walked out the door. As Kagome was puttering around her house, Takara had climbed the giant Goshinboku tree and hid herself among the foliage. Instead of heading toward the shrine steps, as she would have if she had been going anywhere, Kagome went towards a mini-shrine a few meters away from the tree. She slid the door shut with a snap and Takara waited for her to come out. She waited.... And she waited, and waited.

After an hour, Takara got worried. Was Kagome sick, and then she fainted in the mini-shrine? No, that couldn't be it. A sick, or almost sick, person couldn't have even lifted that ridiculously large bag. So, Takara climbed down from the tree and crept over to the building. She stopped before she got to the door and listened. It didn't sound like someone was in there. She crept closer and pressed her ear against the side of the wall. Still no sounds, at all. She made her way towards the door and cautiously peered into the mini-shrine. It was dusty and dark, and small. The only thing was a well in the ground surrounded by a raised walk that hugged the walls. But there was no one in there.

Takara was getting very curious, so she walked down to the well and looked in, but there was no one there either. Just no one, and Kagome most certainly did not come out of the well house. As her eyes continued to adjust to the darkness, they started to be able to pick out details. Something shiny caught her eye, near a corner in the bottom; maybe it could give her a clue as to what going on.

She jumped down and looked at what the shiny thing was. Damn, it was just a stupid shard of something pink. It was pretty, though. Crouching down to get a better reach, she picked it up, popping it into her palm to get a closer look at it. It was kind of small, and it was pink. Kind of like several different shades of pink that sparkled, making her light headed and dizzy. That was weird. No, wait...THAT was weird.

A drop of rain had fallen on her upturned hand. Takara looked up and saw a cloudy sky that was just releasing a torrent of rain. But there was a roof there, a few seconds ago. Right? And since when was a tree ever seen in that direction of the city? Utterly confused, and drenched, Takara pocketed the shard and looked to some vines creeping over the lip of the well for some leverage to get out of the well. She climbed up with no difficulty, her eyes scanning the surrounding terrain. It was wooded, something that the shrine definitely was not, and a wide meadow stretched before her.

How did she get here? There must have been fumes at the bottom of the well and she passed out. That's it. This was probably a dream and she could just wander around until she woke up. This place looked interesting anyways. There was the Goshinboku to the right, and trees surrounded the clearing. Also to the right, there was a path going by the God tree. Takara shrugged and started walking. After all, it was a dream; so it is perfectly reasonable to explore the most obvious route.

As she wandered down the dirt path she began to make out sounds that weren't part of the forest. Some sounded like big thuds, several screams- that was an explosion. What was going on? Takara looked around and saw movement to the left. She crept over, not wanting whatever was there to see her; it didn't sound pleasant.

As she got closer to the sounds the trees ended and a wide stretch of land appeared. It looked like it stretched for about half a kilometer, with a few hills interrupting the otherwise smooth landscape. Waist high grass swayed in the wind and the rain made the ground soft and muddy. The sounds were coming from something out of a nightmare. A large, hideous creature, sporting several types of limbs, tentacles, arms, legs, and other mysterious appendages was under attack by four people and a giant cat.

One person was dressed in red and had a giant sword, and was trying to get a hit in to where it looked like there was a smirking head in the putrid mass of tentacles. One person, dressed in purple robes of a feudal monk, with a staff to go with it, was fighting off the tentacles and other various monsters that came charging at him. The woman on the giant flying cat threw a gigantic boomerang the size of herself at the creature. Now, how could this not be a dream? Flying cats, giant swords and boomerangs? That creature looked dangerous though.

As Takara continued to scan the area she saw a figure with a bow and arrow, aiming at the withering mass. She was dressed in the school uniform, like Takara, and had long black wavy hair. Could it be Kagome?

As she thought that, the figure turned around and stared at Takara. It was Kagome! But why was Kagome in her dreams? To answer that thought, Kagome started to run up to Takara. As she got closer Takara could see that a small boy with a tail clung to her shoulder. When Kagome got close enough to talk, she all but shouted at Takara, "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Well," began Takara, "I don't really know how. I jumped in the well and got dizzy, then it started raining on me, and I'm trying very hard to continue thinking that this is a dream."

"You aren't dreaming," Kagome said seriously.

"Kagome, who is this?" asked the young boy with a tail. As he asked, a particularly loud thump was heard as the boy dressed in red was hurled into a bolder that cracked from impact.

"Holy crap. You guys are getting whipped," Takara said in slight awe as the red-garbed person picked himself up again and staggered back to the fray.

"Takara, you need to get back now-"

"No time for that now," Takara said with determination. "Tell me what's been going on."

Slightly startled, at her friend's brisk order, Kagome hesitantly gave the rundown of the fight. "Naraku, the one we're fighting, surprised us when he attacked. Inuyasha, the one in red, is trying to get in a hit, but physical attacks don't really work unless he can hit Naraku's heart. Naraku will just regenerate any limbs that get hacked off. It's really hard too, because he'll start absorbing you if he gets a hold on you," Kagome was distracted as the flying cat took a particularly hard hit.

"Are there any attacks that work the best?" Takara asked, keeping a critical eye on the fight. She was identifying everyone's patterns and hits. Planning her own moves as the four out there dodged around Naraku.

"The only thing that can really hurt Naraku permanently are my purifying arrows, but I can't get a clear shot,' Kagome complained. "This must sound pretty extraordinary to you."

"It does, but I'll pretend like I accept it for now. Can you put your magic into anything besides arrows?" Takara asked.

"I've never tried," Kagome confessed. Takara picked up a small, sharp rock off of the ground, along with a medium sized pocketknife from her sock.

"Try putting some into these," she said to Kagome. "And you," she said, pointing to the little boy. Shippou snapped his head from the battle to look at Takara. "Could you find some more stones for me, and bring them back to Kagome?" she asked.

"Hai," chirped Shippou, glad that he finally had something to contribute to the battle.

Kagome was slightly confused. While trying to keep her attention on the battle, looking for an opening to shoot, she was trying to figure out what Takara was doing here into the picture. There were so many things going on all at once that she was hard pressed not to just scream and run away from it all. Of course she would never do that. The gang needed her and her purifying magic. The only reason she turned away in the first place was because she felt the presence of a shard, and was worried that they would have another demon on their hands. When she saw Takara, she was shocked. How did she get here? She said that she fell into the well, so it must have let her pass through with the shard that she must have accidentally left behind. But now wasn't the time to ponder out these things. Inuyasha wouldn't be able to last long, and it looked like Takara was moving about purposefully.

Takara was a few meters away at one of the mud puddles that had formed. Takara quickly cut a bit of her shirt off using another sharp stone. She fastened it into a sling and tossed it aside. Then she knelt down and began to smear mud all over her face, neck, arms, legs, and hair. For good measure she jumped in and rolled around for a bit, making sure that she got a good amount in her hair.

Now thoroughly covered in mud, she picked up the sling and made her way over to Kagome who was looking at her dubiously. Takara saw the look and answered the unspoken question in one word. "Camouflage." Shippou came bounding over with a pile of rocks bigger than him, nearly toppling in his arms.

"Thank you," she said to Shippou. "Now, Kag, put the magic on the stones and the knife, hurry," Takara urged. Inuyasha had just been impaled on a tentacle and it did not look good. How he was moving, Takara didn't know, but she decided to just not think about it. Just like she was trying very hard not to think about the crazy thing she was about to do. If she didn't think about it, then she wouldn't burst into tears and run screaming.

"I can't do it," Kagome complained, after the third try.

"Just make it sticky," Takara suggested.

"I can't just 'make it sticky' that's not how it works," explained an exasperated Kagome.

"Well, try thinking that way when you do what you do with arrows. It needs to stay there so I can hold it," Takara explained as she reapplied the layer of mud that had washed off in the rain. But it was lightening up, so she probably wouldn't have to put on another coat.

All of this had taken about fifteen minutes, and it took another five minutes for Kagome finally got some purifying energy stuck onto the blade of the knife. All this time, Inuyasha and the others battled Naraku. He had tried to escape several times, when he took a rather bad hit, and when they had managed to surround him, but Inuyasha and the gang were good fighters, and an early shot from Kagome had weakened him severely. Every time he tried to escape though, Inuyasha was right there, blocking him yet again.

Shippou was telling all of this to Takara as Kagome concentrated on getting all of the rocks filled with Purifying magic. Takara was psyching herself up for what she was about to do. However, her mental preparation was cut short as Naraku sensed the large amount of energy coming from that direction, and high tailed it over there to attack the three figures.

Kagome didn't notice the attack, so Takara grabbed Shippou, Kagome and the knife and dashed out of the way, back the way she had come; just barely being missed by a particularly gruesome appendage that crashed down in the spot they had just occupied. Inuyasha saw the attack too and rushed off towards Kagome. He was surprised to see someone else there. Surprised because he hadn't smelt her, and realized that that was because she was covered in mud.

"Who the hell are you?!" he yelled as he got closer. Takara had moved Kagome into a spot of relative safety, so she turned and gave Inuyasha a once over.

"I'm here to help," she said as she gave him a small smile. She took the knife and waved it in his face. "You're doing pretty well, but he's getting too good at blocking and predicting your attacks, so I plan to go in and distract him. You gotta try doing some stuff differently, so when I can get some of his attention, you can go in there and slice him up." Inuyasha just nodded, breathing fast and in short gasps. He didn't really want to try to figure out the girl's presence. She wasn't a threat, and she was even trying to help with Naraku, so she didn't need anymore attention. Inuyasha was just about to jump off, when Takara interrupted again.

"Nuh-uh. Wait a bit and get your wind back," she warned.

"Stupid wench, don't tell me what to do," Inuyasha growled.

"Hey! You need to rest for a bit! If you don't, then you'll be too tired to react quickly enough when he throws another attack, and it could get you seriously hurt. Then Naraku can either kill you, or get away. Again, from what Shippou has been telling me," Takara replied hotly.

"Keh," Inuyasha huffed. But he stayed where he was, trying to breathe a little better. Miroku and Sango were having a really hard time, though. The only thing they were really doing was pushing Naraku back, still blocking all his escape attempts. When Miroku was thrown against a tree and knocked unconscious, Inuyasha grunted and rushed toward the fray again.

Takara sighed and gulped. This was it. With a small wave at Kagome and Shippou, Takara ran to the left of the fight, planning on circling Naraku and coming up behind him. With all of the noise he was making, he wouldn't be able to hear her sneak up behind him.

And he didn't. And it wasn't until Takara jumped onto his back, skillfully dodging, leaping and evading all of his wandering tentacles, and stabbed him with the knife infused with Kagome's purifying energy, that he even acknowledged her presence. He looked at her, screaming from the pain of being purified, to fling her into a tree, where she fell into a heap at the bottom.

When Takara stabbed Naraku, Naraku turned his head slightly to see behind him. Inuyasha was off a bit to the right of Kagome, and no one was in the way, so she had a clear shot to Naraku's head. So did Inuyasha.

"Kukukukukuku. You fools! Do you really think that you can defeat me? When you have failed so many times before?" He taunted.

"Yes! We do!" shouted Inuyasha. "Kaze no Kizu!" Inuyasha swung his sword and released his cutting wind, just as Kagome fired her Purity Arrow. The Kaze no Kizu kept the tentacles from knocking the arrow off course. The arrow aimed straight for Naraku, he didn't even have time to look up as it ripped through him, tearing his head from his body and purifying the evil life out of him.

The huge piece of the Shikon no Tama he was carrying reacted to the intense amounts of energy and shattered. The force of all the attacks causing a huge explosion that knocked down everyone who wasn't already. Whipping over everyone and burning flesh. In the explosion Naraku was completely and utterly obliterated, and the Shikon no Tama was, once again, spread to the far reaches of Japan.

The town, only half a Kilometer away, heard the explosion and the uneasy silence that followed. Slowly, they went out to investigate; Kaede leading the search. What they found was heart stopping. Everyone was down and unconscious. The ones close to Naraku at the time of his death were charred and broken. Everyone was out cold.

Inuyasha was unconscious with nearly every bone in his body broken. Miroku had a concussion and several broken ribs, a broken arm, and was poisoned from the large amount of evil bees that his Kazanna had sucked up. Sango was knocked unconscious, buried under Kirara with burns covering her left side and a completely charred tail. Kagome was the one who was hurt the least. Only a sprained ankle and Shippou was protected. The townspeople gathered everyone up gently to bring their saviors to Kaede's hut. Even the strange red headed girl who's back was a mass of blood and mud, and one of her legs pointing out at an odd angle.

So intent was the entire town on the survival of these humans and demons that many stayed up late into the night helping Kaede with the strain of caring for them. Even then, it was weeks before the first of them awoke.