InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Present Perfect ❯ Chapter 24 ( Chapter 24 )

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

 

 

Chapter 24:

 

 

Inuyasha transformed briefly once more into the Great Dog form when he sensed some youkai activity near the village. He remembered his lessons from the future, however, and didn't rush in indiscriminately to kill them. Let them incriminate themselves, he thought. It didn't take long.

 

Kouga had been right. These youkai were vicious and not very smart, but Inuyasha didn't doubt that somewhere behind the scenes lurked higher youkai with their own agenda. He sincerely hoped Kouga and Sesshomaru had been successful in eliminating them in the centuries after he disappeared. If Sesshomaru's youkai were able to learn how to hide themselves within human society, who's to say these malevolent higher youkai hadn't done the same thing? One good thing was that there was no evidence of them in Kagome's time. Unless Sesshomaru wasn't telling him everything, which was in itself entirely possible. He'd have to have another talk with Sesshomaru and the others about it before he went back to his own youkai. He didn't want any more surprises.

 

Predictably, the maddened youkai attacked, and he dispatched them easily while in his dog form. He didn't want any word of his ability to transform to get back to his brother or the others in this time, so he made sure he didn't leave any stragglers. In some ways, it was fun fighting in this form. He was still able to utilize his sankon tessou, and because his claws were so much bigger, the destruction caused by that particular attack was even more impressive. He could get used to this.

 

After a while, he switched back to his hanyou form, which was still his preferred form. He wondered again what the youkai he'd met earlier had meant when they said he had chosen this form. He couldn't very well go around as a ball of energy or a giant dog, now, could he? Unless. . . did they mean he could look more like a pure youkai if he chose—with his markings, and without his dog ears? Inuyasha shook his head to dispel the image of Sesshomaru that popped into his head. No, he wouldn't choose that. Besides, Kagome liked him just the way he was.

 

He spent a good part of the afternoon chasing down stray demons around Sango and Miroku's village. They weren't so tough. What was all the fuss about? He should be able to handle these rogue demons without a problem. Kouga was probably just exaggerating. He had yet to see a sign of a higher youkai, which proved to Inuyasha that they were just cowards letting the lesser youkai do all their dirty work for them. Just then, Inuyasha spied another swarm of youkai. He didn't wait to figure out their intentions this time. With a happy yell, he bounded after them, Tetsusaiga extended in front of him.

 

Miroku looked up as he heard a faint boom in the distance and saw a cloud of dust rise from somewhere in the forest. Inuyasha must have found the local youkai who'd been pestering them lately. That was most definitely a kaze no kizu. He glanced back down to Inuyasha's cell phone and stared again at the pictures stored within it, before he carefully pressed the off button and placed the phone on the floor beside him. He could always tell Inuyasha it must have fallen out of his sleeve.

 

Inuyasha returned to the village before supper, with a few things for the pot. He played with the baby while Sango prepared the food. Too bad the kid was so young. He mostly just wriggled around or stared at Inuyasha in fascination, which Miroku said was a miracle. Inuyasha didn't know what Miroku meant until the babe started to get hungry. Then he let out a piercing wail that tore through Inuyasha as good as any demon attack. The kid kept up the awful noise until Sango finally left the cooking pot and took him from Miroku. She sat with her back to the men and put the child to her breast. Inuyasha was amazed at how quickly the kid stopped squawling. He was more amazed that Sango wasn't even embarrassed. Would Kagome feed their baby like that? Would she let him see? Inuyasha's cheeks pinked at the thought. He wondered how Kagome was doing right now and if she'd ever forgive him for leaving her there.

 

 

Kagome walked back into the house and finished the breakfast she hadn't touched earlier. Shippo had gone, promising to be back later in the afternoon to escort her downtown to a meeting with Kouga and Sesshomaru. She honestly didn't want to see either one of them right now; she didn't want to leave the well in case Inuyasha came back, but Shippo had said it would be close to a week before he returned. He had made her promise that she would not go back inside the well house.

 

Sighing, on the verge of tears, Kagome cleared her dishes and started up the stairs to her room. Her mother stopped her. “Kagome, he will come back to you,” she said quietly.

 

“I know. I believe that too, mama,” replied Kagome. In the space of an hour she had grown up a lot. She was going to have a baby. For a moment she was tempted to just tell her mother everything, but she didn't. This was one secret she wanted to hold close to herself. It was her lifeline, her protection against the nagging doubt that she would never see Inuyasha again. She didn't want to hear any trite cliché's about how the baby would help her to cope. She knew that. She didn't want to have to think it yet. Right now she held on to the knowledge that she carried Inuyasha's child as the one bright spot in this whole mess. Mama would find out soon enough, in any case.

 

“I'm glad you chose to stay,” her mother continued. Her unflappable mother had tears in her eyes. “I couldn't bear to lose you too.”

 

That did it. The dam burst, and Kagome let herself cry. It helped that her mother cried, too, and didn't even try to be strong and in control. Grandpa came in at one point, took one look at mother and daughter, and backed right out again. He had things to do in the shed, er, shrine depository, anyway. Since Kagome had brought more youkai to this house, he had been digging through the stores of antiquities, trying to find anything that might help pinpoint what had happened to Inuyasha. He'd come across a few things from that time period, and was just sorting through the legends that were associated with them. Perhaps something in his pile of artifacts would be of some use. He'd show Kagome his finds later, when she was feeling better.

 

Kagome was waiting at the bottom of the stairs when Shippo returned. He had his little car again, and she slid into the front seat next to him. For all that he was grown up now, he was still the same kitsune she had known and loved in the Sengoku Jidai. She felt a little guilty over purifying him earlier.

 

“Shippo, I want to apologize for before. I wasn't myself,” she began. “I feel terrible about hurting you.”

 

He waved her apology away. “Forget it, Kagome. I understand why you did it. I'm youkai, remember? You didn't really hurt me.”

 

Kagome knew he was lying. She had tried to be gentle, at least the second time when she zapped him on purpose, but she had a lot of power. She let him keep his pride, however. “I'm glad, then,” she said. “So Inuyasha should be back in a little less than a week? And he knew all this before he left, right? You told him. I wish you had told me, too.”

 

Shippo winced. “I wanted to, Kagome. I didn't like keeping you in the dark like that. But it was for your own good. Inuyasha was really adamant about that. He didn't want anything to happen to you or the baby.” Shippo risked a glance at Kagome. He gulped, and asked the question that had been bothering him the most. “Are we still Ok?”

 

Kagome smiled. “Oh, Shippo, how could you ask that? Of course we're Ok. I could never stay angry at you.” She reached across and patted his arm. “You'll always be my little Shippo.”

 

Shippo couldn't help the tears that sprang to his eyes. He wiped them away with one hand. “Kagome.” He awkwardly patted her arm back. “I was so afraid you wouldn't care about me anymore.”

 

“Nonsense, we're family,” Kagome said firmly. “No matter what happens, we'll always be family.”

 

Shippo's car pulled up in front of the same office building where she and Inuyasha had had their first meeting with Sesshomaru's youkai. He let her off, and went to park the car. Ayame met her in the lobby, and gave her a hug. “He's gone?” she asked. Kouga had filled her in on the plan. It seemed that everyone except Kagome had been in on it. Of course they would be. It was in their best interests that Inuyasha went back. Kagome tried to keep such uncharitable thoughts out of her head, but it was hard. She hugged Ayame back, sincerely grateful for the youkai woman's presence.

 

She didn't see why she had to be here. Inuyasha had already gone, and she had more or less promised that she would not follow him. Still, they planned for each of them to spend a portion of time with Kagome at the house, to keep her company, they said. She knew better. They still didn't trust that she wouldn't try to go through the well, especially if things went wrong. She couldn't promise herself that she wouldn't try, either, if Inuyasha didn't come back when they said he would.

 

Still, she sat and listened, and signed the occasional paper that Sesshomaru put in front of her, and wished the meeting would be over. Finally, Ayame took her aside. “Are you all right?” she asked in concern.

 

“How could I be all right? Inuyasha's gone, I just found out I'm pregnant, which I'm sure you already knew.” Kagome gazed defiantly around the table, and the men, including Shippo, busily lowered their heads and concentrated on their paperwork.

 

Ayame walked with her out to the hallway and sat on a small sofa near the elevators. “I was so excited when I realized you were pregnant,” she confessed. “Do you remember that time, back then, with you, me and Sango? We were talking about babies, and your baby was going to be the buffer between our two. All these years, I wished that could have been so. Now it is finally going to happen! I just wish Sango were still here to share this with us.”

 

Both women sat, remembering the past. Kagome did remember that conversation. Strange how things had worked out. She missed Sango fiercely at that moment, and wondered how life would have turned out if she and Inuyasha had just stayed in the past and never come back here. But, as she was finding out day by day, you can't change the past.

 

“Didn't you have any inkling that you might be pregnant?” asked Ayame, curious.

 

“Not really. I just thought I had indigestion,” said Kagome. Ayame laughed.

 

“You should see a doctor. I can set up an appointment with my doctor, if you like. Since your baby is part youkai, it would probably be smarter to go to a youkai doctor.” Kagome agreed. She hadn't really even thought that there might be such things as youkai doctors. She wondered if youkai pregnancies were all that different from regular human pregnancies. She supposed she was going to find out.

 

Shippo brought her back home after the meeting and offered to stay the night. Kagome declined, but she had a suspicion that Shippo would be around somewhere close anyway. She shrugged. That was fine with her. Maybe she'd even bring him some dinner later on.

 

Her grandfather stopped her before she went inside the house. “Kagome, come with me, I have something to show you,” he said, excitement evident in his voice. Kagome rolled her eyes. Not more dried kappa hands or ancient remedies, she hoped.

 

Grandpa led her to a table in one of the worksheds. It was as crowded and disorganized as the `antique' tables in that shop Fenn had brought them to. Only this table didn't have any sugar bowls. Instead, it was filled with yellowed sutras, scrolls of varying degrees of deterioration, ancient pieces of pottery, beads, and charms of all sorts.

 

“What am I looking at, Grandpa?” she asked, fingering some of the sutras which still had faint markings scrawled on them. They must really be old. “Where did you find this stuff anyway?”

 

Her grandfather puffed out his chest. “This shrine has more history than you realize, girl,” he told her. It wasn't exactly true. She herself was a part of that history, and he couldn't be more proud of her. He hoped that something on this table would jog her memory of that past time, and would turn out to be something that she or her youkai friends could use in this latest quest of theirs. He was a little hazy on exactly what the quest was about, but he knew Inuyasha had gone back to the past alone, and that it was very dangerous. “These pieces are all from the Sengoku period. After many long and arduous hours of searching, I was able to unearth the history of each piece. This here is a piece of pottery dating back to the early. . . .”

 

His voice dropped off. Kagome wasn't listening. Her gaze was focused on one of the several sets of prayer beads he had found. “Ah, yes, the prayer beads,” he began, when she snatched one up.

 

“Where did you get this?” she asked. She had felt a definite tingle from these particular beads. It was a very familiar tingle.

 

“I told you. It's part of the legacy of this shrine,” her grandfather replied.

 

“Of—this shrine?” asked Kagome weakly. “Are you sure?”

 

“Absolutely sure. These beads were handed down from generation to generation. Why? Do you think they can help you and Inuyasha?” Her grandfather peered at Kagome anxiously.

 

“I don't know if they can help, but I know who they belonged to,” replied Kagome. Those were definitely Miroku's sealing beads that he had used to seal the wind tunnel in his hand before Naraku was destroyed. Did that mean. . . .?