InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Pure As Snow ❯ What Goes Up, Must Come Down ( Chapter 4 )

A/N: Hey guys. Long time, no read. I've been busy as anything and inspiration has not come easy. Here's my next chapter. It's short, but it's all I've got (bows and scrapes).

Enjoy.

 

Remember: Inuyasha is not mine, oh but how I wish he was.

 

Reminder: Questions, comments, etc. e-mail or review. Love ya.

 

 

Chapter Four: What Goes Up, Must Come Down

 

Shocked was not a strong enough word. Neither was stunned. Perhaps flabbergasted and pissed would work best to describe Kagome's reaction to Inuyasha's first words since his imprisonment fifty years ago.

 

After the hanyou had shouted out his rather biased opinion of his ex-lover, Kagome had backed away as fast as humanly possible. Now ten feet away and with Kaede between the two of them, she felt brave enough to stand up for herself.

 

“Hey!” she yelled, her face peeking over Kaede`s shoulder. “I don't know what your problem is, but don't take it out on me!” Following this statement, she then proceeded to duck behind the old woman, who was trying to figure out what this girl thought she was doing.

 

Inuyasha himself didn't know quite what to think. Here was the bitch who'd pinned him to a flipping tree and now she was cowering behind an old witch? `She's lucky this spell hasn't completely worn off, otherwise she'd already be dead.' He growled low in his throat to show this woman he meant business. “You're my problem, bitch, and I'll take it out on you if I want to.”

 

Kagome slowly inched out away from Kaede, who seemed to be just standing there enjoying the show. The young woman glanced up and saw an expression of mild curiosity and anxiety on the old woman's face. Seeing that the hanyou had not moved from his spot against the tree, Kagome decided to venture farther out. She sat Indian-style in the grass and pondered why Inuyasha hadn`t tried to attack yet. He was obviously angry at her for some reason. She really couldn't imagine what she could have possibly done to piss this guy off. `Unless you count the fact that he'd been staring at my face when… he… Oh my God!'

 

Shooting to her feet and pointing an accusing finger at the incensed hanyou, Kagome shouted the first thing that came to her mind, “You jackass! You think I'm Kikyo, don't you?!”

 

Inuyasha's face blanked. No one had ever called him a jackass before. Lots of other unpleasant things, but not that. He blinked once, twice, three times, before snorting in contempt, “Well, yeah. You look like her, sound like her, Hell, you even smell like her.” His nose twitched slightly, drawing in the scents of the two women in the room with him. One, the older he expected, smelled of herbs and fire ashes while the other, Kikyo, smelled like… like… wait a minute. Kikyo had never smelled that sweet or warm before. She always carried the scent of cool rain, refreshing, yet somewhat cold. This girl brought to mind fields of wildflowers on warm summer days.

 

His discovery and subsequent deduction must have registered on his face, because this new girl was now grinning in a triumphant manner that only served to piss Inuyasha off even more. “Okay, so you're not Kikyo,” he admitted grudgingly, ignoring the girl's small victory dance. Then he got an idea. “How could you be? Kikyo was braver, smarter and more beautiful than you could ever be.”

 

Kagome halted mid-dance step, facing away from the hanyou. Kaede saw the anger and flames in the girl's eyes and wisely stepped back. Twenty feet. Which put her out of the door, down the hall, and in the common room where her tea was waiting. Kagome slowly brought her arms and right leg down to stand in a full upright position. Without facing him, she addressed the hanyou.

 

“Inuyasha.”

 

Boy, she would have loved to see the flinch that the all powerful, yet still stationary hanyou gave in response to her unexpectedly composed tone. Instead she asked a simple question, “Are you still stuck to that tree?”

 

Inuyasha froze, wondering where the wench getting at with this question, but terrified to find out. `Gotta fake her out.` He racked his brain and unearthed one of his brilliant diversionary tactics.

 

“Ummm,… no?” Okay so it had been a while.

 

The girl cracked a wicked grin that would have had Inuyasha running for the hills if he`d seen it (or been able to, for that matter). She was formulating a plan to get that rude hanyou to watch his mouth. `Thanks, Gramps, for teaching me all about subduing spells.' She pulled the string of rosary beads that her grandfather had always insisted she carry with her out of her jeans' pocket. Fingering the dark beads and cream `fangs', Kagome wrapped the necklace in both her hands and muttered a short spell, imbuing power into the strand. Inuyasha's distinctly fearful voice sounded out behind her, “W-what are you doing, wench?”

 

Kagome pivoted on her heel, making sure to keep her hands out of the hanyou's view. “Inuyasha,” she called out sweetly. Too sweetly. The hanyou flattened his ears to block out the saccharine quality of her voice and attempted to struggle free of the spell for the tenth time since Kagome had asked if he was still stuck. Said girl was now carefully making her way over to the tree, a sickly sweet smile plastered over her lips.

 

Inuyasha stopped struggling long enough to get a good look at his certain doom pacing slowly towards him. She was swaying her hips in a seductively innocent manner and the hanyou had to bite his tongue to keep from drooling. The long legs attached to those evil hips were encased in strange blue leggings, while her upper body was covered by one of the strangest and shortest kimonos Inuyasha`d ever seen. Wavy black hair that stopped just above her waist flared out and emphasized her trim curves. She was actually shorter than he was, but the passion (there was no other word for it) that lit up her dark brown eyes made her appear taller or maybe just more menacing. A heart-shaped face, accompanied by full lips and a pert nose, surrounded those eyes `She's actually very pretty. In an evil, conniving sort of way.'

 

“Inuyasha.”

 

Her voice brought him back to reality. The girl was standing not a foot away, still wearing that damn smile. Inuyasha gulped down the lump of fear lodged in his throat. “Y-yes?”

 

Kagome cast her eyes downward in a play of harmless flirtation. “I just wanted you to know that my name is Kagome.” She brought her eyes back up to meet his golden gaze. “Say it with me, Ka-Go-Me.” She tapped the tip of his nose delicately with her right forefinger at each syllable

 

Staring into the girl's expressive mahogany eyes, he could do nothing but obey, “Ka-Go-Me.”

 

She smiled a genuine smile this time and her eyes brightened into suns. If suns were that shade of brown, of course. Inuyasha was relieved. `This slip of a girl is definitely not Kikyo. Kikyo was never this passionate about anything.' He had to break off his train of thought because Kagome was speaking again.

 

“I have one last thing to tell you, Inuyasha, then you're free to go.” She was now running one of his forelocks over her fingers and the hanyou couldn't help but wish that her slender hand would reach up higher to rub his- `No, bad Inu,' he berated himself. A deep whiff of Kagome's scent brought a surprising sense of calm and Inuyasha was able to speak clearly with this intimidating and fascinating woman.

 

“What is it, wench?”

 

Closing the (extremely) short distance between them, Kagome pulled her left hand from behind her back and carefully reached up to place the ensorcelled prayer beads over Inuyasha's head.

 

A clacking something passed his ears, then a line a black with white fell in front of his vision. A gentle tingle of magic left the hanyou confused, although he didn't really know if it was Kagome's closeness or the strange necklace she'd just hung around his neck. Suddenly she was gone, having taken two very deliberate steps backwards. At Inuyasha's bemused expression, Kagome only grinned and said one word.

 

“Osuwari.”

 

Magic flared and the rest of Kikyo's spell was broken. However, a new spell had taken its place. Inuyasha crashed magnificently to the floor, bruising several important appendages upon impact. He glanced up warily through a haze of pain to see that Kagome had already turned and stalked out of the room, leaving him to wallow in his agony.

 

He groaned and, as his head sank back into the oddly comfortable hole it had made, he thought, `What did I do to deserve this?'