InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity ❯ Where There's Smoke ... ( Chapter 11 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

 

InuYasha glowered at his half-brother but didn't turn his head.  "It was just a couple fish," he muttered, still unable to comprehend exactly why everyone was freaking out over his impromptu meal in the park.  "Big deal."

Sesshoumaru stared at him for a long moment, blinking slowly, as though he were trying to figure out exactly what was going on in InuYasha's mind.  "It was not 'just a couple fish', as you so blithely put it, baka.  Those koi have lived in that pond for decades.  Why else would you think that they were able to grow that large?"

"They were in the park, and the park belongs to everyone," InuYasha pointed out, dangerously close to the boiling point.

Sesshoumaru didn't look impressed.  If anything, he looked a little more agitated, if the slight narrowing of his eyes meant anything at all.  "As a matter of speaking, yes," he agreed.  "That does not mean that you can go in there and eat the fish in the pond."

"Shut the hell up, bastard!" he snarled, digging his claws into the arm of the chair so deeply that the wood groaned under his grip.  "I can take care of myself, damn it!  I don't need your fucking help, so back the fuck off!"

Sesshoumaru's expression didn't change, though he did nod very slowly, just once.  "If that is truly the case, then I suggest you hurry and do the things you need to do so you can be gone from my presence, ignorant half-breed," he replied calmly enough.  "If you think you can do things on your own, then be my guest, but do not whimper at me when you discover that you have hurt your miko with your carelessness."

That barb struck home, and it was all that InuYasha could do to keep himself from lunging at Sesshoumaru.  "What the hell do you think I've been doing?" he growled from between gritted teeth.  "If you honestly believe that I ain't trying—"

Sesshoumaru's sigh cut him off as the tai-youkai leaned forward far enough to pin InuYasha with an unblinking stare.  "Instead of devising ways to get yourself into more trouble, why don't you apply your energy toward making sure that you are ready for the examination you're to take next week?" he countered.

InuYasha snorted.  "Keh! And just what the fuck's in it for you?"

"For me?" Sesshoumaru echoed drolly.

"Yeah, for you.  What the hell do you want from me?"

Sparing a moment to cast InuYasha a look that stated quite eloquently that he thought his half-brother was merely being obtuse, Sesshoumaru settled back in his chair once more.  "You have absolutely nothing that I could possibly want, baka.  Unfortunately for you, there simply is no one else who can or would help you now."

InuYasha opened his mouth to retort in kind, but he never got a chance since five year-old Toga ran into the room in pajamas and toting his small black Mokomoko-sama along behind him.  The boy made a bee-line straight to his father and grunted softly when he ran straight into Sesshoumaru's knees in his exuberance.  "Tou-san?  Tou-san, Mama said it's time for bed . . . Will you read to me?"

Sesshoumaru pulled the pup onto his lap and spared a moment to ruffle his hair.  "In a minute, Toga," he replied.  "Run upstairs, and I'll be along shortly."

The boy giggled and scooted off his father's lap.  "Night, Yasha-oji-chan!"

InuYasha mumbled his reply as the boy dashed out of the room once more.  It wasn't the first time since his arrival that InuYasha had witnessed such an uncharacteristic show of affection from Sesshoumaru toward his children and grandchildren.  It was more than a little unsettling.  Too accustomed to seeing the stoic youkai exhibiting little to no emotion whatsoever, he had to admit that it was entirely unsettling—almost disturbing.

Pushing himself out of his chair, InuYasha started to follow the youngster out of the room, only to be brought up short by a rather pronounced clearing of the throat.  "What now?" he growled, struggling to keep a lid on his ever-rising irritation.

Sesshoumaru stood slowly.  "Try harder, InuYasha," he admonished as he moved toward the doorway.  "Need I remind you that being here was your choice—a choice that no one forced you to make.  You are the one who wanted to reach your miko, didn't you?  She's the one you've chosen, and if you truly wish to make things right with her, don't you think that you owe it to her to prove to yourself what you're worth?"

He said nothing else as he very deliberately strode past InuYasha and out of the room, leaving his words hanging in the air over the hanyou he left in his wake.

 

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

 

"And this is Goshinboku, where legend has it that a evil, ornery, foul-mouthed, fouler-tempered spirit was once sealed!"

Kagome frowned as she stared down at the crowd gathered in the courtyard below, while her grandfather was giving a guided tour.  They were currently taking in the sight of the majestic God Tree, and their 'oohs' and 'ahhs' could reach Kagome where she sat in her bedroom window.  She'd heard the spiel a thousand times before, and yet, something about it still struck her as odd, even if she really couldn't put her finger on why that would be.

She sighed.  It seemed to her that she'd been doing that a lot of late.

'Get it together, Kagome,' she told herself as she forced her attention away from the window and back to the book in her lap.  She was supposed to be studying, not daydreaming.  That's what she'd told Houjou when he'd asked her to go to the arcade with him today, and she'd meant what she said.  If she didn't buckle down and get serious, her grades were going to suffer, and the chances that she'd have to get into a decent college, even just to take the entrance exams, would be ruined, too.

If she only knew why she had such a hard time focusing lately . . .

But that unsettling, restless feeling just wouldn't go away.  It kept her awake at night, sidetracked her from studying at all, made her look up when she ought to be concentrating on her studies, wasted her time as she searched for some sort of reason, as she struggled to figure out just why she felt as though something important just wasn't there . . .

That's what it was, wasn't it?  The weirdest feeling that there truly was something missing, something irreplaceable, in her life . . .

Snapping the book closed, reining in the almost perverse desire to chuck it across the room as an unreasonable kind of irritation bubbled up, thick and fast.  She felt like she was going crazy.

A soft knock on her door drew her attention, and Kagome turned in time to see her mother let herself in, carefully balancing a small tray with a small tea pot and cup along with a few fruits.  She smiled and set the tray on Kagome's desk.  "I thought you could use a snack," she said, backing toward the door.

"Thanks, Mama," Kagome replied, casting her mother a grateful little smile.  "I haven't gotten much studying done, though."

Her mother didn't seem particularly surprised.  "You've seemed preoccupied lately," she allowed.  "I'm here if you need me, you know."

Shaking her head, Kagome pushed herself to her feet, set the book aside on the edge of the desk.  "I feel like . . . like there's something missing," she confessed.  "Only I don't know what it is."

"Hmm," Mrs. Higurashi intoned, her smile shifting into a thoughtful frown.  She seemed to be debating something, and she took her time as she retrieved a sweater that Kagome had dropped on her bed.  "And this thing that is missing feels like it's something important to you?"

"Yes," Kagome said.  Then she shook her head and force a wry smile.  "But it can't have been that important, could it?  I mean, you don't just forget something like that."

"Oh, it's possible," her mother allowed as she hung up the sweater and took a moment to straighten it perfectly.  Suddenly, she chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

Her mother waved a hand dismissively, and her laughter faded, but her smile didn't.  "I was just remembering your father and my first anniversary," she said.  "That whole day, I kept thinking that I was forgetting something important, but I couldn't remember for the life of me what it was.  Then your father came in, and he was so excited.  He brought me flowers and had arranged to take me to the place where he'd proposed to me, and there I was, looking as terrible as I possibly could since I'd thrown myself into cleaning in an effort to jog my memory."  She laughed again.  "I felt awful, naturally, but your father . . . He thought it was funny, too."

Biting her lip, Kagome shook her head.  "You forgot your first anniversary?"

Mrs. Higurashi nodded.  "But I never forgot another one, even now . . ."

"So you're saying that you think I'll remember whatever I've forgotten?" Kagome asked.

Very slowly, Mrs. Higurashi nodded.  "I think so—or maybe someone will remind you, like your father did for me," she assured her.  "But even if you don't, then maybe it wasn't as important as you thought it was."

Kagome smiled as she watched her mother's departure.  It wasn't until after the door closed behind her, though, that Kagome heaved a sigh, her smile faltering as the troubled frown resurfaced once more.

 

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

 

InuYasha stomped into the expansive kitchen, ignoring the irritated look he garnered from Sesshoumaru and Kagura's cook.  Having fallen asleep late last night, reading through the dull-as-dishwater history book that he'd been given, he'd overslept this morning, missing breakfast in the process, which was probably the reason that the cook was giving him a death-stare at the moment.  If he wasn't so damned hungry—his own fault since he'd skipped dinner last night in his determination to avoid his well-meaning but irritating-as-hell family—he would have waited till lunch to grab something to eat . . .

The cook muttered something under her breath that InuYasha didn't quite catch as she stomped off toward the back of the house with her shopping list in hand.

"Yasha-oji-chan!" Toga exclaimed as he skittered into the room behind InuYasha.  "Will you play with me today?  You promised you'd show me more of your techniques!"

InuYasha spared Toga a sidelong glance.  In truth, he ought to be studying to get that damned exam out of the way so he could get the hell out of Sesshoumaru's house before one of them—Sesshoumaru, of course—ended up dead.  "We-e-e-ell . . ."

If Toga had a tail, it'd be wagging as he did this kind of half-scoot, half-hop around InuYasha's feet.  "Please, please, please!  I'll stay back out of the way, I promise!"

"All right, all right," InuYasha relented, rolling his eyes to let the pup know that he really was only going to do it to humor him.  "Lemme get something to eat first.  I'm starving."

"Me, too!" Toga yelped.

InuYasha turned to scowl around the room since he actually wasn't at all used to this one in particular and actually hadn't had a reason to come in here before other than to grab a bottle of water out of the refrigerator after the others had given him weird looks for sticking his face under the water tap to get a drink on his first day out of the well.

"Where do they keep the food in this place, pup?" he finally asked, glancing at Toga.

Toga scrunched his face up thoughtfully,  his right hand digging into the top of his unruly mop of black hair as he considered InuYasha's question.  "Mama keeps my candy and pocky in that," he said, pointing at a cupboard just out of the pup's reach.

InuYasha made a face.  "I mean real food.  You know: ninja food or something like that."

"Ninja food?" Toga echoed.  "Whazzat?"

InuYasha stared at the boy for several long moments.  "What's ninja food?"  He sighed and scratched his chin.  "It's in a paper cup with dried noodles, and you pour hot water in it."

Toga considered that, then suddenly bounced up and down on the balls of his feet a few times.  "Oh!  Ramen!" he exclaimed excitedly.  "I think there's some in there . . ."

Following the direction of Toga's waving hand, InuYasha strode over to the counter and pulled open the door.  There were two plastic bowls of the blessed noodles, covered in thinner plastic, and he grabbed one before glancing down at Toga once more.  The pup was standing beside him, gripping the counter top so tightly that his fingertips were leeched white.  "You want one, too?"

Toga nodded quickly, but then he winced as his ears flattened.  "Mama doesn't let me have them much.  She says they're bad for you."

"Bullshit," InuYasha scoffed, grabbing the second bowl, too.  Then he paused as he shot Toga another glance.  "Your, uh, mama . . . Is she here?"

Toga shook his head.  "No . . . She and tou-san had to go somewhere."

"Oh, okay," InuYasha replied, peeling off the thin plastic covering carefully.  "Now, where's the hot water?"

"Mama heats up water in a pot," Toga supplied helpfully.

It took another few minutes of searching for InuYasha to locate one of those, but he filled it up and got it on the stove without issue.

"It's taking a long time," Toga remarked as the two of them stood, arms crossed over their chests, watching the water do absolutely nothing.

"Keh."

Toga shot InuYasha a questioning glance.  "Sometimes Mama uses the microwave," he finally said.  "It's a lot faster . . . I don't know why," he added for good measure.

"Microwave?" InuYasha questioned grudgingly.

Toga pointed at the strange white box above the stove.  Then he scooted over to grab a foot stool so that he could reach the lever that popped the door open.

InuYasha shrugged inwardly.  If it was faster, then he figured that'd be all right.

So, he shut off the stove and popped the pan into the microwave.  Toga wasn't entirely sure which buttons to push, so InuYasha pushed a few of them, then hit the 'start' button, half-thinking that it wasn't going to work, and very pleased when the contraption beeped and lit up inside.

Toga hopped down from the foot stool and moved it back across the kitchen where he'd found it.  InuYasha was about to ask him how long it would take to heat the water when the most ungodly zapping sound, followed in short order by a horrific stink, drew his attention.

"Fuck!" he yelled as the pot inside the microwave erupted in the strangest light show he'd ever seen.  Arcs of electricity flew through the small space in a matter of moments.

"Cool!" Toga hollered, hopping up and down, clapping his hands.

"Is it supposed to do that?" InuYasha demanded, raising his voice to be heard over the din the microwave was making.

"I never saw that before!" Toga exclaimed.

It didn't look right, not at all, but he'd never actually used one of those before, either, and the pup didn't seem to think anything was wrong, but the smell . . . Lifting his forearm to cover his nose, InuYasha choked back a cough as smoke started to seep out of the seam around the door.

"Ah!" Toga whined when the smoke alarm kicked in.

Flattening his ears as the overhead sprinkler system shot to life, InuYasha shook his head, glancing around in an effort to find a way to stop the beastly gadget that was quite obviously defective.

"What the . . .?" Shippou blurted as he dashed into the kitchen and skidded to a halt.  "Kami!  What the hell did you put in there, InuYasha?"

"Water," InuYasha growled, eyes watering horribly as the smoke grew progressively worse.

"Water, my ass!" the kitsune shot back.  With another muttered curse, Shippou grasped the microwave's cord and gave it a good yank.  The fissure between the plug and the wall outlet sparked, the arc of electricity seeming to refuse to let go of the unit.  The lightning inside the box abruptly stopped, but the smoke continued to roll out of it.

It took another minute for Shippou to reset the alarm via the wall panel near the doorway, but finally, blessedly, the alarm shut off, and a few seconds later, so did the overhead sprinklers.  The three of them were soaked from head to foot, and InuYasha glowered at Shippou, who glared right back, as Toga continued to alternate between coughing, choking, and laughing.

"What were you trying to do?  Burn the house down?  I know you don't like Sesshoumaru, but—"

"Do you think that's what I was trying to do?" InuYasha snarled back, giving in to the urge to shake like a dog, sending water flying everywhere, not that it mattered in the already-soaked kitchen.  "I was just trying to heat up fucking water!"

Shippou snapped his mouth closed on the retort that he had already formed and drew a deep breath.  "Not in a metal pan in the microwave, baka," he ground out from between clenched teeth.

InuYasha snorted, balling up his fist and clouting the kitsune over the head.

"Ow!" Shippou howled.

It didn't really make InuYasha feel better.  Well, maybe just a little . . .

"It was like the summer festival fireworks!" Toga exclaimed.

"You're not really helping, runt," InuYasha growled.

Rubbing his head where InuYasha hit him, Shippou glared at the hanyou for a moment, and InuYasha, to his credit, glared right back.  Suddenly, though, Shippou laughed.

"What's so damn funny?" InuYasha demanded, shifting his glare from the kitsune to the accursed microwave that was still issuing smallish tufts of smoke.

Shippou wound down and cleared his throat, swallowing the rest of his ill-placed laughter, though his smile remained.  "Look at the bright side, InuYasha."

"Keh!  There's a bright side?"

The kitsune nodded as the far-away wail of fire sirens grew a little bit louder in the otherwise-silence.  "Yeah . . . At least you're not going to be hauled off to jail this time."

InuYasha snorted, cheeks reddening as he continued to survey the carnage.  "Shut up, Shippou.  Just shut the hell up."