InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity ❯ Growing Pains ( Chapter 7 )

~~Chapter 7~~
~Growing Pains~

-==========-

InuYasha stalked around the room like a caged animal, gritting his teeth and reminding himself for what had to be the thousandth time that he couldn't—couldn't—kill his half-brother—yet.

'Damned bastard . . . He's enjoying this shit way, way too much . . .'

The damned bastard shook out the newspaper in his hands, seemingly oblivious to his sibling's rampant irritation.

It just figured, didn't it?  In the past week since his arrival in this time, nothing—nothing—had gone well for him.  As if it weren't bad enough that Kagome still seemed to have no idea just who he was or what they'd done, Shippou seemed to delight in telling him the things that he'd observed at school, especially when it had to do with Kagome's scrawny little boyfriend, which, in InuYasha's estimation, was just not something that he wanted or needed to be reminded of, and worse, Sesshoumaru had told him in no uncertain terms that he was forbidden—yes, Sesshoumaru had actually used the word 'forbidden'—to go watch over her at night.

"Just how do you think that would seem, InuYasha?" he'd asked the first night that InuYasha had snuck out, or more to the point, when InuYasha had snuck back in the window, only to find the bastard sitting near the table.  "You are forbidden from going over there whenever you please.  That should have already been clear to you."

"She didn't know I was there," he grumbled, irritation rising at the very idea that he'd had to explain himself at all.  "And who the hell are you to tell me what I can or can't do?"

"I would have thought that you would exercise a little more caution in regards to the miko after what we told you earlier," Sesshoumaru pointed out calmly.  "Then again, you always have been a fool who allows your emotions to override what little common sense you possess.  Ignorant half-breed . . ."

"Fuck you, Sesshoumaru," InuYasha snarled, hopping right back out the window once more.

The rest of that particular incident, however, was entirely forgettable—or would be if certain people would stop reminding him of what had happened shortly afterward.  Apparently, the local authorities had been told that there was a 'strange guy' running around Tokyo wearing a weird red cosplay costume—whatever the hell that was—and carrying around a sword, and that had been enough for them to arrest InuYasha and drag him down to the station to find out just what he was up to, or so they said.

It also didn't help that InuYasha had no idea what a telephone really was, even though he'd seen one before in the shrine.  Even then, he had no idea how to use one, anyway, and even if he did, he didn't actually know anyone's number, either.

So it had come as a rather unpleasant surprise to him when Sesshoumaru had showed up at the police station later on to pick InuYasha up.  The officer who had come to get him informed him that carrying around a sword wasn't allowed, even if it was just for show, and InuYasha had been about ready to disabuse him of that stupid notion when Sesshoumaru had promised the cop that he would not allow InuYasha out of the house with it again.

'As if!' InuYasha scoffed inwardly.  'Damn bastard tried to get Tetsusaiga away from me for years, and it didn't work.  It sure as hell ain't gonna work now, either.'

Of course, that had very little to do with InuYasha's current irritation.  It was just an insular example of the myriad of things that Sesshoumaru had said or done since his arrival to make InuYasha's life a living nightmare.  That Sesshoumaru had just made another of his decrees guaranteed to irk the crap out of him wasn't surprising; not really.

"Just what the hell do you mean by that?" he growled as he continued to stomp back and forth.

Sesshoumaru didn't lower the newspaper.  "It means exactly what it sounds like, baka.  Kagura and Rin are going to take you shopping.  You need more modern clothes if you ever hope to fit in anywhere."

InuYasha wasn't sure why that sounded so ominous, but it did.  "No fucking way," he insisted in a tone that ought to have put an end to the current discussion.  It didn't.

Sesshoumaru did, however, finally fold up the paper and set it aside, pinning InuYasha with a very droll stare.  "You will," he replied evenly, "unless you have changed your mind about approaching the miko?"

"Of course not," he spat, cracking his knuckles as he continued to pace the floor.  "Anyway, she don't care what I wear."

The look he garnered for that was enough to set him on edge all over again.  "Need I remind you that you are the one who chose this time, InuYasha?  If you have no interest in assimilating into society, then you might as well find a way to go back."

"Keh!  Like it matters!  I didn't come through the well for anyone else!  I came here for Kagome, and Kagome never cared what I was wearing."

"Then consider how much trouble you'll cause her, then, baka," Sesshoumaru pointed out icily.  "In this time—in this place—there are no threats that require your particular skills, such as they are, and if you truly wish to build a life here, then I highly suggest you take the time to acquire new ones that will help you instead of clinging to those that will not . . . starting with the clothes you wear."

InuYasha snorted but didn't respond.  As much as he wanted to argue with Sesshoumaru on general principle, even he had to admit that there was some measure of logic to what he'd said, too.  'Course, it'd be a cold day in hell before he'd ever admit as much to that bastard.  Still . . .

It was hard to swallow, wasn't it?  All he wanted to do was to go to her, to get her to remember him—them—and that, unfortunately, was the last thing that anyone seemed to want, and while he could understand their very real concerns, it didn't really make him feel any better, either.  Knowing that he was near her yet knowing that there wasn't a thing he could do about it at the moment was enough to drive him crazy.

Patience never had been one of his virtues, after all.  Too bad it seemed like he was about to get a crash course on it, anyway . . .

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Kagome let out a deep breath as she stared glumly at the test she'd flunked miserably.  Kissune-sensei had given her the strangest look when he'd handed it back to her, and no wonder.  She had managed to write her name on the paper, at least, but she hadn't answered a single question otherwise.  If she didn't do better on the upcoming mid-term exams, she could kiss her chances of being accepted into college goodbye . . .

The bell sounded, announcing the end of classes for the day, and Kagome hurriedly scooped together her things.  She could feel the teacher's bright gaze on her, but given her performance of late, she was hoping to escape before he could call her back to ask her what was going on.

Truth was, she wasn't entirely sure she could answer that; not really.  There was still a strange sense of something being off, despite her knowing that it really was all in her head.  Maybe it was the change in seasons that had inspired the unsettling sense of yearning that she couldn't quite place.  Sometimes, though, she'd stop and stare off into the distance, and in her mind, she'd see the same sky, the same land, and yet it would look so very different . . .

Luck was with her, or so she thought, as she hurried out of the classroom and down the corridor toward the two flights of stairs that led to the main doors of the school.  Her feet seemed to whisper against the tired old linoleum, lost in the din of the combined voices of her classmates.  It only took her a minute to change her shoes, and with a sigh of relief at having finished another school day, Kagome closed the tiny locker door and grabbed her backpack off the floor.

"Kagome-chan!"

Swinging around at the sound of her name, Kagome blinked and smiled as Yuka hurried across the courtyard to her.  The pretty girl was grinning, and she grabbed Kagome's arm with a breathless giggle.  "I thought you'd already left," she said, tugging her along toward the gates.  "I have to run to the store.  Do you have time to come with me?"

Kagome grimaced.  Truthfully, she'd planned on going straight home and locking herself away in her room for a serious cram-session.  That was what she really ought to do.  Going shopping with Yuka, though, sounded so much better, in her estimation . . . "I shouldn't," Kagome said at length, tucking a long strand of hair behind her ear as she shouldered her backpack.

"Please," Yuka cut in quickly, turning around to pin Kagome with a pleading stare.  "Yuu-kun asked me to go do karaoke this weekend, and I really like him . . ."

Kagome smiled and let out a deep breath, giving up the fight before it really began.  Tanoka Yuu was a student at a nearby school that Yuka had met a couple weeks ago when she and Eri had run into some guys who were out on nanpa.  Eri hadn't met anyone special, but Yuka had, and Kagome knew that the two had been texting each other regularly since that fateful meeting . . .

"Okay," Kagome relented with a smile, "but I can't stay out too late.  I've really got to study for that exam . . ."

Yuka's smile widened, and she linked her arm through Kagome's as the two girls headed toward the bus stop just in time to catch the one headed toward the shopping district.  "I really can't believe you talked to any of those guys," Kagome remarked as the two slipped into vacant seats just before the bus jerked into motion.

Yuka blushed and ducked her head shyly.  "I know.  I can't really believe it, either, but Yuu-kun's not like the rest of them," she hurried on to say.  "He was just hanging out with a friend.  He'd never gone on a nanpa before."

"Never?" Kagome teased, flipping open her phone to send a text to her mother to let her know that she was going shopping with Yuka.  "I don't know.  I think some of the guys who do that are a little scary."

"Me, too," Yuka agreed easily enough then sighed.  "He's really sweet though."

"That's what Eri-chan said," Kagome allowed.  She, too, had said that Yuu hadn't seemed like a player, and that was probably the real reason that Kagome wasn't too worried about Yuka's plan to date the guy.  Her phone beeped, and she read the text her mother had sent, telling her to have fun but not to stay out too late since it was a school night.

The bus kept moving while Yuka chattered about her latest conversations with Yuu.  Kagome stared out the window at the passing city, her eyes taking on a faraway sort of look as the streets blurred together.  That strange sense of yearning crashed down on her with a fierce abandon, and she blinked when Yuka grabbed her hand and dragged her out of her seat.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

'You know, you're gonna have to go out there sometime.'

InuYasha snorted indelicately and crossed his arms stubbornly over his chest.  'Keh!'

It had only taken him about two minutes to figure out that he did not like clothing in this time period in the least, and if he had his way, he wasn't going to wear any of it, either.

Except that they'd all freak the hell out, and he knew that, too.

He grunted and wrinkled his nose, hunkering down on the floor with his back to the wall as he glowered at the clothing that Rin and Kagura had picked out for him.  It wasn't that the clothing looked that weird, although they really did, but that aside, he just couldn't quite bring himself to leave them on for more than five minutes.  He'd tried on the jeans despite his misgivings, only to find that they were quite possibly the most uncomfortable things he'd ever wore in his life.  Too unyielding, too cumbersome, he felt like he just couldn't move right in them, and he'd discarded them quickly enough.  Then he'd tried on a pair of black sweatpants, and while he couldn't say they were uncomfortable, he really didn't like the feeling that he wasn't wearing any pants at all.  Who cared if the fire rat clothing that he wore was a little on the archaic side, anyway?  At least he didn't feel stupid or weird in them, and that should account for something, shouldn't it?

Letting out a deep breath, InuYasha's ears drooped slightly.  Of course it mattered.  He'd chosen to be here, and he had to do what he could to fit in, right?  Damned if those clothes didn't bug the hell out of him, though.

A curt knock on the dressing room door made him jerk upright a little straighter, and he couldn't contain the low growl that slipped from him at the unseen intruder.  He knew who it was, and even if he couldn't sense or smell them, it didn't take a brilliant mind to know that it had to be the women who were taking great delight in tormenting him.

"InuYasha?  Is everything all right in there?" Kagura asked, her voice muffled by the closed door.  Her next question was quite subdued and even a little reluctant.  "Do you . . . need help . . .?"

"Keh!  Fuck, no!" InuYasha snarled, unable to stave off the acute embarrassment that slammed down on him.  What the hell did they think he was?  A damn pup?

A moment later, the door opened, and Kagura peeked into the room.  When she spotted him, crouched on the floor in the same clothes that he'd stomped into the store wearing, she sighed and slowly shook her head.  "Have you even tried them on?" she demanded dryly.

"Yes," he growled, feeling his cheeks reddening even more at the droll look she was pinning him with.  "I didn't like 'em!"

She didn't look like she'd expected anything different, and she rubbed her forehead.  "I imagine that they'll take some getting used to," she allowed in a thoughtful tone that was completely at odds with the complete exasperation on her features.  "What didn't you like about them, exactly?"

"How the fuck am I supposed to be able to move when I can't fucking bend in those?" he demanded, jerking his head toward the jeans that he'd tossed carelessly on the bench.

Her gaze shifted to the jeans in question, and she seemed to think about it before replying.  When she did, however, it wasn't to say what he was hoping to hear.  "They always are when you first buy them," she remarked thoughtfully.  "After you wear them awhile, they should be a lot more comfortable."

His snort stated quite eloquently that he really didn't believe that claim in the least.

She chuckled and strode over, retrieving the jeans and shaking them out before carefully folding them once more.  "Did they fit otherwise?"

"They're kind of low," he grumbled.

"Low?" she echoed, casting him a raised-eyebrow-ed glance.  "What do you mean?"

He snorted again and unfolded his arms long enough to gesture at his waist.  "Low," he stated once more.

"Jeans are made that way," she assured him.  "Not too tight?"

Jerking his head once in a nod, InuYasha winced inwardly since he really didn't see any way out of wearing the accursed things.

Kagura spared a moment to stare at him, her expression a little inscrutable, like she wanted to say something but wasn't sure whether or not she ought to.  "It's a lot to take in, isn't it?" she asked at length.

"I'll get used to it," he mumbled under his breath.

"You will," she agreed briskly.  Her smile faded, however, when he stood up.  He couldn't contain the grimace that surfaced when the shoes that he'd been given just before they left on their little shopping adventure pinched his toes.  "Those will probably take longer for you to get used to," she mused.

Heaving a long-suffering sigh, InuYasha didn't deign to comment on that, either.

Leading the way out of the dressing room, Kagura lifted her chin, glancing over the racks of clothing to locate Rin.  She was shuffling through shirts on a nearby rack, obviously looking for more clothes to torture InuYasha with.  It figured, didn't it?   He snorted indelicately and tried his best not to growl.

Kagura's soft chuckle told him in no uncertain terms that he'd failed miserably, too.  "Don't worry so much," she finally said as her amusement died down though the small smile on her face didn't dissipate.   "She has excellent taste, of course."

Making a face that stated plainly that he believed otherwise, InuYasha grunted in response.  It was hard, he had to admit.  He was just too used to her and Shippou both still being children.  Hell, up until a week ago, that's what they'd been.  It was weird, damn it.  All grown up now—and doing their level best to drive him insane . . .

"She's glad you're here now, you know . . . so is Shippou," Kagura went on.

For a moment, InuYasha had to wonder if the woman wasn't reading his mind.  That idea made him snort, too, as he crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly as a thoughtful scowl settled on his features.  "Why ain't she dead?" he asked suddenly.

Kagura laughed again, as though she found his question to be entirely ridiculous.  "Sesshoumaru gave her his Mokomoko-sama a long time ago to ensure that she lived," she said simply.

For some reason, the idea that Sesshoumaru had done any such thing was just a little out of the realm of InuYasha's imagination.  His brother, blatantly doing something to help a human . . .? He snorted loudly.  "Keh."

Glancing at her watch, Kagura sighed and started moving toward the woman in question.  "Come, InuYasha," she called back over her shoulder.  "There are a few other stores we should go to before we go home."

'A few other stores?' he echoed in his head.  Damn, but he didn't like the sound of that; not at all . . .

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Clink.

InuYasha crouched on the floor, staring up into the mechanism with avid interest as he turned the knob and waited for the lights and bells to spring to life.  A moment later, a bright orange ball dropped from a hole onto the clear plastic track that set off the flashing lights that had originally drawn his attention.  The loud ringing made him grimace, but he stayed where he was, watching as the ball rolled down the track and along the various traps and drops in the machine.  Once the ball hit the bowed platform about midway down, it shot back to the top to take another route downward again.

"InuYasha-sama . . ."

Waving a hand in a gesture meant to shut Rin up, InuYasha didn't take his eyes off the descending ball.  He wasn't sure how the machine worked, exactly, not that it mattered.  It was fascinating.

The ball finally fell into the wide funnel at the bottom of the machine, swirling around the basin in smaller and smaller circles until it reached the hole in middle and fell through.  InuYasha waved a hand at Rin once more, his intention clear.

She sighed, retrieving the orange ball that had just dropped out of the machine through the little door at the bottom just under the plastic cylinder.  "I'm out of coins, InuYasha-sama," she informed him with a soft giggle.  "Sorry."

The look he shot her was petulant at best—and peeved as hell.

Dropping the orange ball into the small plastic bag where she'd put the other ten balls he'd dropped from the machine already, Rin laughed again and shook her head.  "The girls will love you, though," she remarked, holding up the bag to show him what she meant.  "That's a lot of gumballs."

InuYasha grunted and stood up, his ears twitching in irritation.

Kagura tapped her foot impatiently.  "If you're done playing with children's toys," she said brusquely though not unkindly, "shall we move on?"

"Never saw one of those before," InuYasha mumbled, glancing back at the machine as he turned away.

Kagura chuckled.  "Toga loves those things, too," she admitted.

InuYasha snorted at the comparison to the small boy—Kagura and Sesshoumaru's son.

Trailing along behind the women, InuYasha's eyes darted around almost nervously.  Rin had said that the mall wasn't very crowded.  InuYasha hadn't agreed with that.  There were still more people milling around than there were in the villages that they'd visited in the past, and the smells drifting out of the food vendor's stalls were all twisting together, lending an air of disorientation on top of everything else.  Ears flattening against his head as he struggled not to let himself become overwhelmed, he sighed inwardly.  The senses that had always helped him as he and the others had traveled in search of the shards of the Shikon no Tama were thwarting him now.

Hell, he couldn't rightfully discern what Kagura and Rin were talking about, and they were no more than five feet ahead of him.

In fact, he had to admit that it was likely the hardest part of having chosen Kagome's time.  It was hard to deal with so many different things constantly barraging his senses.

Kagura and Rin stopped suddenly as Kagura dug her cell phone out of her purse and flipped it open.  InuYasha grunted at the interruption since he sorely wanted to get out of this place.

A flash of light off to the left drew his attention, though, and he turned his head to see what it was.  A strange strobe had illuminated a small store, and he frowned.  It wasn't a clothing store, he could tell at first glance, but what was inside, he couldn't tell.

Without a second thought, he stomped inside, ears flattening a little more when the electronic chime rang out as he stepped through the invisible barrier that spanned the otherwise open doorway.  Ignoring the salesgirl who called out a greeting, InuYasha slowly looked around, wrinkling his nose at the thick smell of incense that hung in the air.

Narrowing his gaze as he spotted a rack of necklaces that stood on a nearby table, InuYasha moved toward it.  The sign affixed to the top of the rack read 'Shikon no Tama', and he scowled.  They looked almost real, didn't they?  Glass orbs filled with some kind of liquid—pink liquid that swirled and glimmered with a soft glow.  Even at a distance, he could tell that they were fakes, but it baffled him just the same.  As he drew closer, he could tell that those bits of glass were nothing more than an illusion—no more than a child's toy, suspended on a pretty silver chain not unlike the one that Kagome had strung the real jewel on for safekeeping . . .

"Ah, the Shikon no Tama," a wizened voice beside him spoke.

InuYasha started.  He hadn't noticed the stranger's approach, as intent as he was on the fake jewels.  "They ain't real," he grumbled, covering his surprise easily enough.

The old man laughed—a wheezing breath that was rather pleasant just the same.  "Do you know the story?"

InuYasha shifted his gaze to eye the man without turning his head. "You could say that," he muttered.

"Of course those aren't real," he continued amiably, folding his arms together under the generous sleeves of the traditional haori.  In fact, being dressed as he was put InuYasha a little more at ease since the old man clothes were reminiscent of the clothing from his time.  He could have been the headman of some village that they'd traveled through instead of a storekeeper in modern day Tokyo . . . "No one knows what happened to the real one.  Some say that it was purified by a powerful miko.  Others say that it never existed at all."

"Don't be stupid," InuYasha growled before he could stop himself.  "What the hell do they know about it?  They weren't there, were they?  Not like even one of those bastards fought against Naraku!"

"Naraku?" the old man repeated.  "Ah, the ancient evil said to have lusted after the power of the Shikon no Tama . . ." Scratching his chin, his eyes dulled as though he were thinking or looking into the past.  Then he chuckled and nodded.  "I see you know something of the legend, then.  Good, good.  Young people today scoff at old men like me.  They don't have time for legends and stories.  Yes, you do, and that does me good."  His chuckle escalated into a full-blown laugh.  "It does me good . . ."

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell the old codger that he'd have to be stupid not to remember something that had happened so recently.  Before he got a chance to do it, however, the old man clapped him on the shoulder.  "Let me show you something.  Would you like to see it?"

InuYasha opened his mouth to tell the old man to go away, but then gave a mental shrug.  After all, what could it hurt?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N:

Nanpa (nampa): Literally translated as "the soft school", it is also known as "girl hunting" … it's a common way for young men to meet young ladies that is kind of the Japanese equivalent to "cruising" to United States kids.  Groups of well-dressed boys (nanpa boys) hang out near areas that are heavily trafficked by girls where the boys can then approach the girls and hopefully get to know them.

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Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Purity): I do not claim any rights to InuYasha or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al. I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize.

~Sue~