InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity ❯ Deviating from the Plan ( Chapter 5 )

InuYa sha sat down on the bottom step of the well-house with a heavy sigh.  Kagome was probably at school now, which meant one thing and one thing only: the earful that he planned on giving her would have to wait, even if waiting wasn't really on his list of things he wanted to do. It was probably just as well, anyway.  He needed to gather his thoughts before he saw her.  He was exhausted, damned if he wasn't, and given what he did know, that woman had a helluva lot of explaining to do.  He hadn't done a damn thing that should've led to her belief that he wanted her to bring Kikyou back to life.  Sure, he regretted her death, and he always would, but he'd never expected—never wanted Kagome to do something as asinine as to make the ridiculous wish she'd made . . .

'Careful, InuYasha,' a voice rumbled in his head.  'The only reason she'd have done something like that is if she honestly believed that it was what you wanted, and you know it.  Better to find out why she thought that instead of lighting into her with your righteous indignation.'

He sighed, ears drooping slightly as he considered that bit of unwanted advice.  As much as he'd like to disagree with it, there was a certain level of truth to it all, wasn't there?  The problem, however, wasn't nearly as easy to solve.  Figuring out where to start in said explanation might take a bit more thought than he had planned . . .

Grimacing when the sound of a car horn blared in the distance, InuYasha's ears flattened against his skull.  The first time he'd heard one of those, it had very nearly been his undoing, but the abrasive sound was one that he wasn't sure he'd ever grow accustomed to.  'Not that I've got any fucking choice,' he thought grimly.  'Ain't no goin' back now, is there?'

He considered going to find Kagome's school since that was where she was likely to be.  He discarded that idea almost as quickly as it occurred to him, though.  Given that she believed that he'd wanted Kikyou to be brought back to life, he wasn't so sure that his first meeting with Kagome now should be in a public place.  As compassionate and level-headed as she normally tended to be, he knew better than anyone that those particular traits of hers were easily forgotten at the mere mention of Kikyou's name, and with the way his luck was going, she'd end up saying 'The Word' so many times that he'd end up damn near fifty feet below ground for the effort.

Uttering a belligerent snort, InuYasha reached up to finger the prayer beads around his neck, only to be reminded yet again that they just weren't there, and that, more than anything, convinced him that ambushing her as she left school really was the worst thing he could possibly do.

Of course, he could always stomp inside the house and see if Mrs. Higurashi could shed some light on Kagome's wish.  He'd always gotten along pretty well with her, after all, and as much as the idea of asking for help bothered him, he figured he could use all of it he could get at the moment . . .

A familiar scent wafted to him on the gentle breeze, and InuYasha's head snapped up. There was only one being who smelled like that . . . Shooting to his feet, he whirled around, only to come face to face with the one person he never thought he'd have to see again. "Sesshoumaru."

True enough, Sesshoumaru lounged casually in the doorway with a tiny, black-haired woman standing beside him.  Clad in a modern suit and tie, it took a moment for InuYasha to get used to the visage that Sesshoumaru presented, and he couldn't help the snort that escaped him as he slowly shook his head.  It didn't matter what his half-brother was wearing, did it?  'Once a bastard, always a bastard . . .'

"Baka," Sesshoumaru replied in kind, his eyes narrowing slightly at the open hostility in InuYasha's tone.

Opting to ignore Sesshoumaru for a moment, InuYasha's gaze shifted to the black-haired woman instead, and he sniffed again, frown turning fast into a scowl as he stared at the woman with a dose of disbelief. "You smell like Shi—"

"This is not the time for idle chatter," Sesshoumaru interrupted as he pushed himself out of his slouch. "Come with us."

InuYasha leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest defiantly. "Why the hell would I go anywhere with you?  No fucking way."

"Please," the woman quickly spoke up before Sesshoumaru could reply to InuYasha in kind. InuYasha glanced at her again, his gaze stating quite plainly that he had absolutely no intention of going along with her request. "Kagome-sama will be home soon, and you can't be here when she arrives."

"Why not?"

She tried again, exasperation creeping into her voice. "I'll explain everything, but you have to—"

"Touch me and die, bastard," InuYasha growled as Sesshoumaru reached to grab his arm.

"Just move it, you worthless half-breed," Sesshoumaru snorted in response and wrapped his fingers around InuYasha's bicep, anyway.

"You know, I'd be happy to cut off your other—oi!  Why the fuck do you have both your arms?" InuYasha demanded as he jerked his arm out of Sesshoumaru's grip.

The dark-haired woman heaved a sigh and rubbed her temples in a completely exasperated sort of way.  "InuYasha-sama—"

"Stubborn as ever, I see."

InuYasha blinked in surprise at the kitsune who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. "Who are you?" he demanded despite the strangest sense of familiarity that InuYasha just couldn't place.

The fox youkai made a face but grinned. "You just left us, and you can't remember me?"

InuYasha's eyebrows shot up in surprise as realization dawned on him.  His nose told him all he needed to know, but his eyes were having trouble believing it . . . "Shippou?"

"Come on," Sesshoumaru growled, grasping InuYasha's arm once more and trying in vain to drag the hanyou out of the well house.

InuYasha, true to form, jerked away and straightened out his fire rat haori.  "Lay off, Sesshoumaru. I ain't going anywhere until I talk to Kagome."

Shippou stepped forward, lifting his hands in an entirely placating sort of gesture.  Once more, it struck InuYasha how different the kitsune looked.  He'd just seen the youkai child just minutes before, and now . . . He shook his head. "Damn, Shippou. I can't believe it . . . You're not a pesky little baby anymore."

"It's been nearly five hundred years, baka," Shippou pointed out in a surly tone.

InuYasha grinned despite the irritation of having been waylaid before he got a chance to talk to Kagome.

Sesshoumaru sighed heavily and shook his head. "I tried to tell you. I tried to do things nicely. Damn shame you have never listened to reason."

InuYasha should have expected the blow that came. He should have known that Sesshoumaru would wait until he was preoccupied to attack.  Instead, a bright flash of pain erupted behind his eyes, and then blackness engulfed his throbbing head just before he hit the ground.

Shippou nudged the hanyou with the toe of his sleek black leather shoe and heaved a sigh of his own as the hanyou's body lilted from side to side.  He didn't wake up.

Rin pushed Shippou away and hunkered down beside InuYasha's listless body. "Did you have to hurt him, chichi-ue?" she demanded, casting Sesshoumaru a pointed glare.

Sesshoumaru shifted uncomfortably. Rin normally called him `tou-san’. She was really irritated if she had reverted to the formal `chichi-ue' instead. "He'll be fine, and he wasn't listening to reason," Sesshoumaru pointed out dryly.

Rin didn't stop glaring but she accepted his explanation with a brief shake of the head as she pushed InuYasha's long silvery bangs off his forehead to survey the damage. There wasn't any. At least InuYasha could be thankful for that.

Shippou moved his wife aside gently and lifted InuYasha's body as though the hanyou weighed nothing. "Let's hurry before Kagome-chan gets here or he wakes up."

Sesshoumaru was inclined to agree. His half-brother's temper was near-legendary, and he had a good feeling that InuYasha wasn't going to be happy with the information that he and Shippou had been able to gather over the last couple of years. It would be best to explain everything as far away from the miko as they could.  With any luck, they'd get back to the mansion before InuYasha came around.  With a bit more luck, they'd be able to convince him to stay there, too . . .

Water. Sloshing water, and something damp, clingy, cold on his forehead . . . He groaned softly and tried to knock the thing away, but was thwarted by an annoyingly persistent touch. "Damn it," he growled then flinched at his own too-loud voice.

A gentle laugh: husky, comforting . . . and unsettlingly familiar . . . "Well, well, it's about time you woke up. I'll tell the others."

In his hazy mind, InuYasha recognized that voice.  His mind denied it.  She was dead.  He knew she was dead . . .

Naraku shot out his plant-like runners straight at Sesshoumaru, trying to wrap around him, to absorb the youkai.  He had tried that annoying trick before and had failed. Back then, Sesshoumaru had managed to escape the hold.  This time, Sesshoumaru hadn't seen the attack coming, and InuYasha had been too far away to intercept the vines.

Kagura had been near enough. She had stepped into the path of the lightning-fast runners. Five had impaled her at once, and all InuYasha could remember was Sesshoumaru's enraged howl as he shredded the vines as though they were made of little more than paper.  In those moments, InuYasha had heard her words: "Sesshoumaru . . . You have freed me. I thought . . . you wouldn't."

And the vicious growl that escaped the youkai had made the hairs stand up on the back of InuYasha's neck, too. He'd never seen his brother so close to losing control before, not even in the tomb of their father, and frankly, it wasn’t something that he ever wanted to see again.

"Kagura?" InuYasha rasped out in a harsh whisper, making an effort to keep his voice low in deference to his still-throbbing skull. "How can you . . .? You . . . You died."

She chuckled softly and removed the cool cloth from his head. "I did. Sesshoumaru saved me."

And it made sense. After the battle, InuYasha had seen Sesshoumaru carry Kagura away, leaving Jaken and Rin behind. Then again, maybe it wasn’t so odd; not really.  After all, if anyone could have saved her, then it would have been Sesshoumaru . . . ‘Tenseiga . . .’

"Where am I?" he hissed as the cold cloth returned, and he tried to shove it away.  His hiss turned into a growl of pain, and he stopped fighting, at least, for the moment.

"You're with us, in our home. Sesshoumaru and Shippou brought you here."

Despite the pain in his head, InuYasha managed to struggle into a sitting position and finally forced his eyes open. "Where is that bastard of a brother of mine?" he demanded.

Kagura smoothed her khaki slacks and stood with a sigh as she headed for the door. "He's with the children at present, but I'll tell him you're awake."

InuYasha's retort was cut short by Kagura's explanation, and he blinked in confusion. His brother?  Children? "Is he gonna eat 'em or something?" he couldn't help asking.

Kagura laughed softly, though she didn't respond otherwise.

The unmistakable sound of children's laughter drifted through the open window, and InuYasha couldn't help himself as he stumbled out of bed and moved toward it, pausing only long enough to yank Tetsusaiga off the nearby table and jamming it through the waistband of his hakama.  Kagura slipped from the room as InuYasha took in the scene below the window with unmasked incredulity.

Sure enough, Sesshoumaru was standing in the grass allowing four children of various ages—a boy and three girls, judging by the look of it—to climb him like some sort of living tree.  From InuYasha's vantage point, he could hear Sesshoumaru chuckle.  It was an odd sound, an unsettling sound.  Had he ever heard anything even remotely close from Sesshoumaru before?  'No,' he thought with a slight shake of his head as he continued to stare at the strange gathering below.  No, he never had . . .

He was still watching in silence when Kagura slipped into view below.  She said something to him—InuYasha couldn't hear it—and he nodded then carefully pulled the children off of himself before setting them on their feet once more, sparing a moment to ruffle the boy's unruly black hair before turning toward the mansion.

Things certainly changed, didn't they?

"Sorry about knocking you out."

InuYasha whirled around to face Shippou, his eyes narrowing as he moved away from the window, careful to keep a healthy distance between himself and Shippou, lest the kitsune get any more ‘bright ideas’ about cold-cocking him.

Shippou sighed where he stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame with a tentative smile. InuYasha rubbed his left temple where Sesshoumaru had landed the blow.  Even if Shippou hadn't hit him, he had tried to distract InuYasha so that Sesshoumaru could, as far as he was concerned.  "Yeah. So why the fuck did you guys drag me off? I need to see Kagome, and—"

Shippou coughed delicately. "That's the problem, you see . . . The last two years . . . They've been different."

InuYasha snorted and rolled his eyes.  "What do you mean, different? We hunted the shards, killed Naraku . . . You were there. You remember."

"I remember perfectly well, what happened." Shippou made a face, staring at InuYasha as though the hanyou should know better. "InuYasha, that was five hundred years ago in real time."

"I think I realized that much," InuYasha snapped, losing the battle with his patience before he could even try to fight for control of it.

Sesshoumaru appeared behind Shippou and stepped around the younger youkai.  He crossed the floor and sat in a beautifully carved chair as InuYasha grasped the hilt of Tetsusaiga and warily glanced from his half-brother to the kitsune and back again. "We knew what you did.  Shippou told me of the well and of your choice.  We stayed here, waiting for you.  Shippou became a teacher at the miko's school so that he could watch over her when the time came."

"And we've both watched for your arrival.  Trouble is, two years ago, when Kagome-chan should have gone through the well . . . she didn't." Shippou pushed away from the doorframe and sank down in a chair by a small table, staring at InuYasha, waiting for the reaction to come.

It wasn't really the reaction that he was expecting, though.  InuYasha sank down in the vacant chair, his expression registering confusion at what he'd just been told.  What they'd said made no sense at all, did it?  Kagome was there with them just yesterday, wasn't she?  Of course, she went through the well . . . "What do you mean, she didn't?"

Shippou sighed and leaned his elbow on the table, rubbing his forehead with a clawed hand. "I mean, something changed. Something was altered. Somehow, it's as though the past never happened."

InuYasha glanced incredulously from the kitsune to his brother and back again. "But I'm here . . . You're here . . . The past did happen . . ."

"We know what happened. Your miko obviously doesn't." Sesshoumaru crossed his arms over his chest and leveled a look at InuYasha. "She doesn't remember me or Shippou . . . or you."

InuYasha's mind refused to believe Sesshoumaru's dire statement, and he shook his head in denial. "She has to remember me . . . Maybe she forgot you," he snarled, eyeing Sesshoumaru though his narrowed gaze. "I've tried for years to forget about you . . . but she couldn't have forgotten about me."

Shippou sat forward, elbows on his knees. "I don't know how all this happened, InuYasha, but I saw the jewel today."

His mind was dangerously close to being overwhelmed. InuYasha shook his head again. "She purified it. She had to have. She brought Kikyou back . . ."

"It was dormant," Shippou clarified. "It looked like cheap glass. Kagome-chan still wears it around her neck."

InuYasha sighed and shot to his feet. "All right. So, the past did happen, but . . . but something else has changed it?  Something that happened after Kagome purified the jewel . . ." He trailed off, staring out the window at the changed world he had chosen.  Kagome didn't remember him?  Maybe he just needed to remind her . . . "If I talk to her, if she sees me . . . she'll remember."

He missed the knowing look that passed between Sesshoumaru and Shippou as he stalked toward the door.  He'd go see her.  She'd remember him.  Of course, she would.  She was Kagome, the strongest miko, ever.  She couldn't have forgotten. She promised she'd never leave him . . .

"You can't, baka.  Surely you know that. You can't simply march up to her and remind her. We don't know what caused her to forget. We have no way of knowing what would happen should she remember. Understand that if you cause the miko to remember her past in a traumatic way, the consequences could be dire, both for you as well as for her." Sesshoumaru pinned InuYasha with a bored stare. "Do you really wish to inflict that much damage on the woman you claim to love?"

"I never claimed to—" cutting himself off abruptly, InuYasha couldn't staunch the flow of blood that stained his cheeks.

The maddening youkai arched a brow at his half-brother though his expression remained otherwise blank.  "I would wager it's a bit late to quibble incidentals, InuYasha."

"Keh," InuYasha snorted, shaking his head, stubbornly.  "Ain't none of your business, how I feel about her.  Anyway, why the fuck do you give a shit about her memories? You don't like her, and you sure as hell don't like me. Kagome needs to remember, and I'll make sure she does!"

InuYasha's resplendent show of anger did little to impress Sesshoumaru.  "And if the memories harm her, InuYasha? What will you do then? Will you spend the rest of your life being bitter and angry because you destroyed two women who shared one soul? Or perhaps you'll wait another five hundred years for their next reincarnation to come around so you can destroy her, too?"

InuYasha flinched at the painful reminder. He wanted to lunge at his brother, to rip him apart with his claws, but he could also see the truth belying Sesshoumaru's words, and no matter what Sesshoumaru's agenda might be, InuYasha couldn't allow himself to do a damn thing that might hurt Kagome, and maybe Sesshoumaru knew that, too. "Keh!" He started toward the door again.  So, maybe he couldn't tell her straight out who she was, who he was, but surely it wouldn't hurt just to see her, though, to make sure that she really was all right?

Sesshoumaru frowned and jerked his head once toward his half-brother. Shippou made a face. Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes and let them glow red for a moment. Shippou paled just a little then flinched. With a resigned sigh, he said, "InuYasha, there's one more thing."

InuYasha swung around to face the kitsune again, though he didn't break his stride, either.  "I don't have time for this, Shippou." Catching both their frowns, InuYasha rolled his eyes. "I just want to see her, okay? I just want to make sure she's fine. Whatever it is can wait until later."

Shippou shot out of his chair and grabbed InuYasha's arm. "This can't. There's something else I need to tell you before you go charging over there."

InuYasha snorted, but did stop, planting his hands on his hips and stabbing Shippou with a baleful glower. "Spit it out, will you?"

Shippou glanced at Sesshoumaru, who rolled his eyes and slowly stood. "Your miko is dating a human named Houjou," Sesshoumaru explained as Shippou high-tailed it away from InuYasha. "She told Shippou today that she's been seeing this boy for the last two years."

It didn't come as a shock to anyone when InuYasha let loose a thunderous howl of frustration. Even still, the windows shook, the walls trembled, and the resonance of shattering crystal clattered up the stairwell and into the room.

Sesshoumaru shook his head slowly. He had warned Kagura and Rin to take the children to the park a couple of blocks away. He had a feeling that his mate was going to have a fit when she got home and found her beautiful collection of crystal animals, smashed beyond repair. Sesshoumaru almost sighed, envisioning the damage that Kagura was likely to visit upon InuYasha for the trespass. Hell hath no fury like Kagura scorned, after all . . .

"I'll rip the bastard apart," InuYasha calmed down long enough to hiss. "Just watch me. I'll leave him in such a mess that it'll make what we did to Naraku look like playtime."

Shippou flinched. Naraku had been left scattered in too many pieces to count. Once Kikyou had retrieved the jewel though, the fragments of Naraku's body had dissolved and had blown away in a cloud of black ashes on the breeze.

"You can't just go tearing people apart, InuYasha," Sesshoumaru pointed out in a quite reasonable tone. "That sort of thing is frowned upon nowadays."

InuYasha dug his claws into his palms and gnashed his teeth together. "Then what am I supposed to do?" he spat.

Shippou grinned finally, shooting a knowing glance at Sesshoumaru. "You could try wooing her."

"Wooing—?" InuYasha began then cut himself off with a violent shake of his head. "No fucking way."

Sesshoumaru stood and motioned for Shippou to follow. The two slid past InuYasha but stopped in the doorway. "Suit yourself. Thing is, if she were my woman, I'd do whatever it took to woo her back into my arms."

InuYasha growled in frustration. "Will you stop with that word?" he bit out.

Sesshoumaru's expression was innocent—way too innocent. "Wooing? You'll have to woo her. She doesn't remember you, and she's dating Houjou. Disemboweling your opposition won't work. She's spent the last two years with the boy. I doubt she'd want to see him in pieces."

With that, the two youkai left the room. InuYasha desperately needed to shred something. He ended up loosening his claws on a defenseless pillow and didn't feel any better when white cottony fluff flew through the air in result of his actions.

Then he sank down on the edge of the bed as the unwelcome bitterness of the temporary defeat made him grimace.  'Damn that Sesshoumaru . . .'

If Kagome really didn't remember any of them, then he was right—something else to thoroughly piss him off since the idea of Sesshoumaru being right about anything just didn't set well with InuYasha in the least—not only about ripping Houjou to pieces but also about wooing Kagome.

InuYasha sighed. He didn't know the first thing about trying to charm a woman—any woman. It had been sheer dumb luck that had made Kagome care about him, in the first place. How in the hell was he supposed to do something as ridiculous as woo her?