InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Reflected Past ❯ Resolved Separation ( Chapter 11 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 11 - Resolved Separation

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

"Inuyasha!"

"What?"

"Quit it!"

"Keh!"

Seated on the sloped roof of Kaede's hut, Inuyasha stilled his restlessly tapping foot. He watched as the orange sun started to descend behind the tree tops, taking daylight, as well as his hanyou abilities, along with it. He never enjoyed the experience of reverting to his human form, but he was particularly perturbed by the steady fading on this night. Something was off ... a feeling lingered in the air, something he did not like and he had always been one to heed his instincts. Still, there was nothing to be done about it ... damned human blood.

It would always be this way, he thought morosely, glaring at the defiant sunset. His chance at ever being a full youkai had disappeared with her, swiftly, brilliantly, and without expectation or warning. Inevitably, it was these days especially that brought thoughts of Kagome. She had always been very comfortable with his human form, something he still was unable to find within himself. To him it meant weakness, it made him an easy target. It was infuriating.

Four years, he brooded sullenly. Four years of nothing. No sudden emergence from the well with an "Ohayo, Inuyasha!", no shriek of “Osuwari!” to bring him crashing out of some sort of bad behavior, no moaning over those strange “test” things she always seemed to be taking. Nothing. Her voice, her face ... they would not fade, and Inuyasha doubted that they ever would. How fair was it that he wanted more than anything to be with someone that wasn’t going to be born for another five hundred years?

Heh...I guess I'll just have to hold out for a while, huh?

It was strange how he had been so concerned over the welfare of Kikyou while Kagome had been around, always feeling a sense of duty to keep her alive for as long as she felt the need to be there. Now that both women were gone, one to the afterlife and one likely in a place and time he could not reach, he found that it was Kagome who constantly circled through his thoughts, not his first love.

Part of him had to give some credence to the idea that Kagome could possibly be dead. Her disappearance with the Shikon no Tama could easily have signified the end to her existence, but it was far more acceptable to believe that she had simply been banished back to her own time, back to where she belonged. The jewel had had the power to bring her here, Inuyasha thought reasonably, it should have had the power to return her as well.

But then why was he unable to travel through the Bone-Eater’s well? Never before had he been forced to rely on the Shikon shards for passage to Kagome’s time; he had always assumed that it was because of his connection to Kagome. If she was dead, then that connection would no longer exist, and there would be no way to travel…

Absent-mindedly fingering the prayer beads around his neck, Inuyasha pushed these anxious thoughts from his mind and braced himself as the sun sunk even lower. Any minute ...

"Inuyasha!" A streak shot up to the top of the roof, and suddenly Shippou was perching beside him, surprising Inuyasha enough to make him jump. Dammit ... so much for sense of smell ...

"Don't do that," Inuyasha growled as Shippou turned to look at the sunset that Inuyasha was watching so intently. The young fox youkai leaned back on the roof, dangling his long, skinny legs over the side. It still astounded Inuyasha that something so shrimpy was capable of growing as quickly as this brat had.

"Sango figured you'd be in a bad mood. She sent me to get you," Shippou informed him.

"Not until I'm done,” Inuyasha said firmly.

"I'm not supposed to take no for an answer. Come on, it's Kenji's birthday. He'll have to go to bed by the time you're finished turning into a human.”

"Then I'll see him tomorrow," Inuyasha muttered, eyes sliding dangerously toward the kitsune.

Shippou sighed and nodded, looking as though he had expected this. His hands raised in a gesture that expressed defeat. "Well, I wanted to do this non-violently, but Miroku said to do what I had to do ..."

"Human or not, I can still kick your ass, Shippou," Inuyasha warned moodily. "And I've got another good half hour's worth of use out of these claws," he added, bringing one flexing hand up to reinforce the statement.

Looking as though he was going to take that threat seriously, Shippou finally shrugged and said half-heartedly, “All right. I’ll tell Kenji you wouldn’t come. He’ll probably cry, you know....”

“Bastard,” Inuyasha cursed before jumping off the roof with considerably less fluidity than normal. Every nerve irritatingly aware of the oncoming night, Inuyasha stalked toward Sango and Miroku’s home, certain that Shippou was reveling in his success. The village was awash in the smells of cooking dinners and lit fires. Mothers called their children in from playing, leaving the road practically empty as the hanyou made his way to the wooden house at the end of the road.

Who would have ever thought that I would come to settle in this place? Inuyasha wondered. He had never been overly fond of humans, mostly because of how they generally reacted to him, but wandering the country in the constant presence of three such beings had effectively stripped him of any bitterness he had held toward them. After Kagome’s disappearance, he really had had nowhere else to go, nothing else to do except return to Kaede’s village. When Miroku and Sango had married and decided to make the village their home as well, Inuyasha’s remaining there had been a foregone conclusion. What else was he to do? Besides, it was comforting to stay near Kagome’s well…

As he entered Miroku and Sango's small house, he was immediately assaulted by a cacophony of shrill barking, short yelps that were screeched from floor-level. Resisting the urge to plug his ears, Inuyasha looked down to find the source to be Kenji, Sango and Miroku's two-year-old son. Seated next to a housecat-sized Kirara, the boy had halted his play with his wooden blocks in order to greet the hanyou he so revered.

"You taught him to do that," Inuyasha said scathingly to Shippou, who entered the house right behind him.

Shippou grinned evilly at Inuyasha as he paused to pat Kenji on the head and then moved to join Kohaku in sniffing hungrily at the food. "What? He's speaking your language."

"Shippou, you little bitch …."

"Inuyasha!" Sango instantly reprimanded, looking significantly at Kenji who was watching Inuyasha with wide brown eyes and listening ears.

Crouching in front of the boy, Inuyasha stared seriously at him, pointing a finger for emphasis. "Never say that."

"Hai!" came the affirmative chirp.

"And quit barking at me."

He was rewarded with a small smile, but no answer of commitment as Kenji returned to stacking his blocks, only to destroy them with great glee the moment they reached the desired height. Inuyasha was constantly amazed at the amount of noise that could come from so small a creature.

“Ah, you came,” Miroku’s voice echoed from down a hallway. He appeared a moment later and instantly headed for the front door, pausing only to clap Inuyasha on the shoulder as he went by. “We thought we would have to drag you forcibly out of some tree in order to get you here. How kind of you to save us such an ugly scene, my friend.”

“You could have planned it for another night,” Inuyasha called resentfully after Miroku, who quickly disappeared outside. “It’s not like the kid knows it’s his birthday!” He immediately whirled and seated himself on his haunches in front of Kenji. “How old are you?”

“Two,” the boy replied instantly, pushing some of his blocks toward his dog-eared friend.

“Damn,” Inuyasha muttered, eliciting another stern “Inuyasha!” from Sango. It was true Kenji was extremely smart; in fact, it was almost scary how he absorbed things like a sponge and repeated them later. Thinking this over, Inuyasha smiled widely, his fangs poking over his lips with evil amusement.

“Say, Kenji … do you know what “-baba” means?”

Instantly Sango appeared in his field of vision and hauled Kenji up into her arms, the boy’s blocks falling back to the floor with a clatter. “Honestly, between you and Shippou, he’s going to become a nightmare,” she sighed, settling her son at the table. She then returned to the cooking fire and began stirring a massive pot as Shippou started setting platters of food on the table, practically drooling over the smells that were taunting his sensitive nose.

Miroku returned with Kaede and even more food, leaving Inuyasha to wonder precisely how many people were supposed to be expected at this meal. The room was now swarming with humans and youkai, and Inuyasha felt his self-consciousness return. Reflexively, he tried to twitch his ears and, when they didn’t cooperate, reached up to make sure they were still there. Behind him, one of the windows revealed that the orange sunset was quickly morphing into purple twilight.

When everyone moved to seat themselves at the table, Inuyasha knelt stiffly on his floor mat and reached for one of Sango’s strange-looking, but delicious-smelling concoctions. Almost simultaneously, his claws rescinded, leaving human fingernails that slid slickly across the outside of the bowl, nearly causing him to drop it. Out of the corner of one eye, he could see that his long hair was now a shiny black instead of its usual silver-white. Looking up at the others at the table, he could not help but notice that all eyes were now riveted on him, some pausing in the process of chewing or reaching for various things. Kenji’s eyes were as wide as the bowl he was eating from.

Inuyasha frowned. "What?” he said defensively, silently daring anyone to make a snide comment. “Pass the rice."

Everyone immediately looked studiously elsewhere as Kaede placed the large bowl of fluffy rice in front of Inuyasha. He quickly set about piling a huge mound of the stuff into his own bowl, hunger finding its way to the forefront of his mind now that his humiliation had been secured. Conversation began to flow around him again as he sat and chewed at his dinner, readjusting to the lack of fangs. Worthless human teeth ….

As Kohaku discussed how repairs to the old demon exterminators’ village were progressing, Inuyasha watched Kenji as the boy began methodically removing the peas from his plate, dropping them on the floor, and clearly taking advantage of his parents’ inattention. Silently sympathizing with the child’s actions, Inuyasha returned to focusing on what Kohaku was saying.

The reconstruction of the exterminators’ village was a project Kohaku had taken on with great urgency, clearly feeling the need to do something productive for his old home. Sango hated the idea of her brother often disappearing for weeks at a time to do the work alone, but at nineteen, Kohaku was no longer a child to be ordered around. Miroku and Sango made trips to help him as often as possible, making Inuyasha wonder why it was that they had not returned to the old village to live permanently. He just assumed they had decided against raising their child in what was essentially a ghost town, one that youkai would probably target as soon as it was inhabited again. Demons had unbelievably long memories and their hatred for the exterminators was likely still fresh on many youkai minds.

Kohaku suddenly stopped in mid-sentence, a deep frown furrowing his forehead as, simultaneously, Miroku and Sango turned their heads toward the door. Picking up on the sudden tension, but not a cause for its source, Inuyasha looked back and forth between the faces. “What?” he asked, annoyed by the fact that, until morning, he was essentially blind, deaf, and devoid of a sense of smell.

“Youkai,” Miroku explained, standing and reaching for his staff. Jumping to his feet, Inuyasha hurtled outside of the house, followed at a slightly slower pace by the others. It did not take long to discover the source of the former exterminators’ obvious feelings of foreboding. A few of the villagers were standing in the street, watching warily as an ominously familiar white form walked purposefully down the road. Trailing not far behind Sesshoumaru were his obnoxious little toad retainer and a young human woman who, on closer inspection, appeared to somewhat resemble the little girl Sesshoumaru had always allowed to follow him around.

"Sesshoumaru!" Inuyasha called, barely believing his misfortune. The bastard always picked the worst possible moment to show up, and Inuyasha doubly resented the sun for abandoning him. "What the hell do you want?"

Sesshoumaru’s golden eyes took on a malicious glint as he noticed his younger brother's altered appearance. "It seems I've caught you at a bad time, Inuyasha."

"I repeat, what do you want?" Inuyasha demanded again, gritting his teeth. Of all people to see me like this …

"I've brought something that will interest you,” Sesshoumaru answered cryptically, coming to a stop not far away from his brother’s tense form.

Inuyasha watched as Sesshoumaru's hand fell to one of the swords at his side, drawing it with a smoothness that set off an instant internal alarm. Immediately he lunged at his older brother, wondering at the last instant precisely what he intended to do with human strength, no claws, and a Tessaiga that would not transform again until morning. Sesshoumaru easily stepped aside as Inuyasha rushed at him, twirling the sword in order to shove the hilt into the oncoming hanyou's face.

Inuyasha dropped like a dead body, collapsing heavily into the dirt. Trying to blink away the stunning effects of the impact, he glared furiously up at Sesshoumaru, blood pouring from what was clearly a broken nose. Sango, Miroku, and Kohaku materialized around him, each wielding a weapon.

"Always so quick to rise to aggression, little brother," Sesshoumaru chided disapprovingly, ignoring the threatening humans entirely. "It's a wonder you've lived so long."

"Bastard … you're the one that drew the sword,” Inuyasha swore, rising back to his feet. He was astounded when, instead of attacking, Sesshoumaru simply extended the sword toward him hilt first.

"Look at it," Sesshoumaru instructed, eyes settled on Inuyasha's face, as though awaiting reaction.

Still suspicious as to the precise motives that had brought him here, Inuyasha slowly lowered his eyes to the blade. It seemed ordinary, average on first inspection, but then he noticed that the metal appeared to be fused with fragments of … something, shards that glowed a fierce purple-black and eerily resembled …

"Shikon no Tama," Inuyasha breathed, his own words echoing within his ears. He was frozen for a moment, simply staring as the weapon reflected dull light, and then his face lifted, eyeing Sesshoumaru, who was still attempting to hand him the sword.

"Retrieve your miko, Inuyasha,” Sesshoumaru ordered. “I will wait."

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Stri pped of hanyou abilities or not, Inuyasha doubted he had ever run so fast in his entire life. His human lungs gasped for air as he tore through the forest that had served as his prison for half a century, broad tree branches whacking him soundly in the face, vines twisting around his feet and ankles as he shot toward the well with immense speed. He had to get to her. He had to hurry …

Part of his reeling brain expected his brother’s streak of cruelty to materialize in a sword that was beset with fake shards; there had to be some trick because there was no way Sesshoumaru would selflessly choose to help him. The weapon in question was clutched severely in one hand, throbbing with a pulse that matched his own manic heartbeat. He surged into the clearing that housed the well, barely able to see the squared wooden outline because of his degraded human sight. It didn’t matter. He could have found it in pitch blackness.

Without the slightest hesitation, Inuyasha launched himself into the well. Dropping into its darkness, he was immediately assaulted by the familiar moldy smell of old wet wood, but just as he began to speculate frantically as to whether it would work … whether he would simply crash at the bottom and become the conclusion to Sesshoumaru’s big joke …. he felt a familiar tingling, a feeling that had always characterized passage through the well, through time ….

An instant later his feet struck damp earth and Inuyasha instantly looked upward, angrily cursing over the fact that it would have to be the night when he was at his absolute slowest that such an opportunity would present itself. Seizing hold of some of the hand and footholds that were worn into the walls around him, he began to pull himself up out of the darkness.

He emerged in the small building that housed the well and did not bother with trying to be quiet as he shoved open the creaking wooden doors. Kagome’s name reverberated inside his skull as he sprinted toward her comfortingly familiar house, experiencing an elation he had not known for a very long time. It would be just like it was before … except this time without Naraku’s interference … no constant battling, no searching for the damned shards … just him and Kagome ….

The possibility of entering the house through a door did not even cross his mind as he launched himself up the side of one of the walls, pulling and grappling with the few handholds that presented themselves. With great effort he finally hauled himself up to her window, relieved beyond words to see that the steady glow of her strange light source poured from inside the room. Balancing precariously on the ledge, Inuyasha pressed his hands against the glass in an effort to see inside … and nearly pitched back to ground-level when he saw the figure of a young man seated at her desk, frowning furiously as he read a book.

Sensing that he was being watched, Souta glanced over at the window and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw a bloody face staring intently back at him. Standing so quickly that he practically fell over his chair, he reached steadily for the baseball bat that lay wedged between the desk and the wall, wielding it in what he hoped was an appropriately threatening pose. He watched the strange form that hunkered outside his window, its face pressed to the glass and wearing an expression of astonishment that matched his own.

But … there was something oddly familiar about ….

“Inuyasha!” Souta exclaimed loudly, dropping the bat and rushing over to shove the window aside. “What … how did you … ?”

“Souta … ?” Inuyasha questioned suspiciously, as though not completely convinced that this was to whom he was speaking. The boy had still been just a kid the last time Inuyasha had seen him. He stepped over the window sill and into the room, glancing from side to side at the walls that now held posters of people in strange attire, some of whom were holding the “soccer ball” he had so often spotted Souta playing with during his various visits to pick up Kagome.

This did not look like Kagome’s room…

“Where is she?” Inuyasha asked, feeling a moment of dread. Had he been wrong? Had she not been returned to her time? He sniffed futilely at the air, but his sense of smell was not at all capable of picking up her scent.

“She doesn’t live here … well, she’ll be moving back this weekend, but she’s not getting her room back,” Souta informed him insistently, as though that was the matter of pressing importance. “Man, is she going to be surpr---“

“Whaaaat?” Inuyasha asked, his already rattled brain not comprehending what he was being told. He reached out and grabbed onto Souta’s shirt, pulling the teenager closer with human strength that was motivated by sheer frenzy. “Where is she?”

“In the city, at the university. She’s got finals and then she’s finished,” Souta replied, eyeing with interest the deadly-looking sword held in Inuyasha’s grip. “Er … maybe I should give her a call ….”

“Let’s go,” Inuyasha replied, hauling the boy from the room and down the stairs with no small amount of racket. He vaguely heard Kagome’s mother calling Souta’s name. A light switched on somewhere at the back of the house, but he did not release Souta until they were safely outside, ensconced by the unseasonably cool night.

“Tell me how to get there,” Inuyasha requested almost desperately.

Souta shook his head slightly, frowning at Inuyasha’s appearance. “Why do you look so weird? And what happened to your face? You’re gonna freak sis out if you show up like that.”

“How do I get to her?” Inuyasha repeated through clenched teeth, emphasizing the important words in a manner that suggested deafness on Souta's part.

Souta grinned slyly into Inuyasha's face. “Well, you’re in luck, actually. I just got my license.”

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Inuyasha had faced countless numbers of youkai, most of whom had been entirely bent on his destruction, all of whom would have terrified a human into an early grave, but as he gripped the seat of the strange contraption Souta was currently navigating through the busy streets of Tokyo, Inuyasha felt certain that he had led the more sedate life. How the hell did these people live in such a place? Weird metal beasts streaking all around, most obviously intent on wreaking massive bodily injury. How was one to tell friend from foe?

“You should wear the seatbelt.”

“Eh?” Inuyasha questioned nervously as Souta swerved to avoid side-swiping another of these strange "cars".

“The seatbelt. That thing over your shoulder. It’s supposed to keep you from being propelled from the car, should something … unfortunate happen,” Souta warned the obviously tense hanyou.

“You just …. lead,” Inuyasha stammered quickly. “I’ve had greater opponents than these.”

“They’re not opponents, Inuyasha. Just other people in cars, like us.”

“Then why are they trying to kill you?”

“They’re not. They’re just in a hurry to get where they’re going.” Souta took a moment to honk at someone who was traveling at an obscenely low speed, waving dismissively at the person as they graced him with a rude gesture.

“Does … does Kagome … use one of these things?”

“Yeah,” Souta answered, looking aggrieved. “I’ve told her they should take her off the rode for the betterment of society. You should see that girl behind the wheel of a car. She’s scary.” He then looked off to the right and apparently found what he was searching for. “Ah, here’s our exit.”

Inuyasha gripped the seat once more as the car whirled off onto a different tangent, hurtling down a slope, everything whizzing by at a disturbingly high speed that quickly ended as they came upon a snarl of traffic at the end of the ramp. Souta occupied himself by turning a small knob that began issuing a raucous mixture of clanging and tortured human screams. Inuyasha was suddenly grateful that his demon hearing was gone for the night.

Becoming more impatient by the moment, he tapped his fingers restlessly against the metal of the sword that lay across his lap. “How much longer … ?” he finally asked.

“We’re almost there, I just need to find a parking space. See that white building over there? That’s where she lives, over there on the second floor. See that one with the lights on? That’s hers … probably studying all night to pass her last two exams. We’ve been moving her stuff out for a while, so the place is nearly empt --- Inuyasha!”

Souta stared in amazement as the hanyou vaulted himself out of the car’s open window and began running down the street, sword in hand.

“Oh, man … Sis is gonna kill me,” Souta moaned, watching the rapidly vanishing figure.

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“Ag ghh!!" came the frustrated cry. “Houjou-kun, I’m going to flunk,” Kagome exclaimed, slamming her pencil down as she glared ferociously at her math book. “They can’t do this! It cannot come down to one grade!”

Smiling calmly at the young woman next to him, Houjou replied, “This exam would not mean so much if you had just gotten some help earlier and done better on your other tests. You should have called me sooner, Higurashi. You know I’ll always help you.”

“Thank you, Houjou-kun. I just … I didn’t think I needed so much help,” Kagome answered, slightly embarrassed to have to lie to him. The truth was she had not called him sooner because she had not wanted to encourage Houjou’s feelings for her, something she had been doing her best to squash for eight years. It had been an act of desperation to call him the night before her final math exam, but he had always been such a good student, particularly at science and higher mathematics. He had graduated nearly two years earlier and was now halfway through medical school. There would have been no one better suited as a math tutor, and so, Kagome had given in to her rising panic.

“Why don’t we take a break?” he suggested, marking their place and closing the textbook. “You’re very stressed and that is not conducive to a good study environment.”

Nodding in agreement, Kagome rose from her seat at the table and poured herself what had to be her sixth cup of coffee that evening. Her mind whirled crazily with theorems, and formulas, and numbers. She highly doubted that sleep would come to her that night. “More coffee?” she asked, but he simply pointed at the two still-full mugs that were sitting in front of him.

“Right, right,” she said distractedly, returning to her seat. Glancing around her tiny apartment, she found it hard to believe she was nearly finished and ready to go home. Grandpa and Souta had arrived the weekend before to take the boxed remnants of things she would not need for her last week, moving them back to the shrine so that Kagome would not have the additional stress of relocating everything the weekend after finals. It looked almost bare without her things but, mentally, she was already gone from this place. Living in the city had been a fun adventure, but she would welcome the calm respite that would be the comfort of her real home.

“Have you decided what you’ll do next?” Houjou questioned, breaking the heavy silence.

“Hmm? Oh … ah, no, well, I haven’t completely decided … maybe teaching … ?”

“You could always try nursing school. I’ll need a good one in a few years,” he suggested humorously, but Kagome did not doubt that he would love for her to take him up on that offer.

In truth, she had given that career some thought. Her escapades in the Sengoku Jidai had clearly given her a lot of medical experience, as well as a high tolerance for the presence of blood, as it had generally fallen to her and her medical supplies to take care of the various scrapes and injuries they had all acquired. Her heart thumped dully as she morosely wondered what they were all doing now …. Miroku-sama, Sango-chan, Shippou-chan, Inuyasha ….

Even after four years of separation from them, Kagome still worried frantically over their well-being. Had they survived the battle with Naraku …? Were they okay? Were they happy? And Inuyasha … was he lonely? With both Kikyou and herself gone from his life, she worried over him most of all. In the months after her forced return and apparent exile from the Feudal era, Kagome had dug desperately through history book after history book, texts on myths, legends, and demons; always anxiously searching for a sign of anything that might give a clue about the battle with Naraku, the survivors; something to help put her mind at ease.

Do they think that I am dead? she wondered fearfully. How unfair it was for the Shikon no Tama to have brought her into their lives only to have pulled her away without the slightest warning, no way of letting them know that she was okay or for her to ease her own mind about them. Inuyasha … that name brought a strangling hurt. God, she had loved him … and still did. It was so unfair.

Blinking away the sudden gathering of tears, Kagome pulled her math book toward her and flipped aimlessly through the pages.

“It won’t be that bad, Higurashi,” Houjou said sympathetically, taking her suddenly watery eyes as a sign of frustration instead of heartbreak. “They always try to scare you into thinking that it’ll be worse than it is, just so that you’ll study harder. You’ll do fine, I promise.”

Unable to bring herself to reply, Kagome looked up at the clock and noticed how late it was. Nearly midnight. It was going to be a long night….and it was then that something tugged at her mind, a sensation that reminded her of ... shikon shards …? No, no, she decided quickly. I’m imagining things … it’s because I was just thinking of him …

“Houjou-kun, maybe you should go. It’s so late and I know you have to be up early," she offered. She looked up at him, but never heard his response as her eyes caught sight of a flash of red outside her living room window. Watching in open astonishment, Kagome saw a hand reach over and slide back the pane with enough force to break the glass. Immediately, a dark-haired form leapt into the room and she felt certain she was about to be pitched into a heart attack.

Houjou jumped to his feet, overturning one of his cups of coffee at the sudden intrusion, spilling the brown liquid all over the table. Kagome barely noticed. A heart-stoppingly familiar man stood barefoot amidst the pile of shattered glass, one hand clutching a very lethal-looking sword.

“Inuyasha!” Kagome shouted, recognizing the human form of the hanyou instantly. Before her brain could form a coherent thought about his sudden appearance, Houjou launched himself at the equally amazed Inuyasha who stared back at Kagome as though frozen, clearly paying no attention to the other human in the room.

And it was this inattention that Houjou seized on. The young man rushed at Inuyasha, prepared to wrestle the sword away, but Inuyasha, his moment of shock overcome, quickly whirled and shoved Houjou flat onto his back. Waving the tip of the sword threateningly at Houjou’s face, Inuyasha glared stormily down at him and demanded, “What the hell do you think …?”

“O … osuwari,” Kagome said breathlessly, afraid over what could possibly come of such a fight if Houjou decided to try to be brave again. Instantly, Inuyasha slammed face-first into the worn carpet and Kagome rushed forward to drag Houjou to his feet.

“Call the police,” Houjou instructed, pushing her away as he made a move toward the sword again.

“Ahh, no, Houjou-kun, it’s just a misunderstanding. It’s perfectly all right,” Kagome assured him anxiously, grabbing her old friend’s jacket and shoving it into his arms as she pulled him toward the door. “Really, thank you very much for the help. I’m actually feeling much better about…”

“Higurashi, you can’t expect me to leave you with that ---“

“It’s fine, perfectly fine,” Kagome insisted, pushing him outside the threshold of the door with shaking hands.

“Kagome ---“

Houjou’s voice was cut off by the slam of the door. Kagome immediately turned around and launched herself at Inuyasha, who was picking himself up from the floor, rubbing furiously at his already bruised and bloodied nose.

“Inuyasha!” Kagome cried, nearly flattening the hanyou once more with the force of her body as she squeezed him tightly, arms folding around him in a stranglehold, fists clenching handfuls of that familiar fire rat's fur. Again tears pricked at her eyes as she felt the warm solidness of flesh and bone underneath the material. One of her hands curled into the long strands of his hair, instantly comforted and overjoyed to see that he felt the same, looked the same, smelled the same …

In that moment, Kagome could not have cared less about her final exam.

“Ka … Kagome,” Inuyasha breathed, squeezing her back with a force that crushed the air from her lungs. His own eyes burned painfully as his arms encircled her. She was perfectly all right...just perfect, beautiful, and present. The relief that came from seeing that with his own eyes was overwhelming.

“Are you okay? Are you all okay?” Kagome asked frantically, not releasing her hold on him in the slightest. She felt the slight nod of his head against her ear, and she noticed that her heart felt like it was pounding its way out of her chest, astounded and overjoyed and relieved.

“They’re all fine … it was you, Kagome, we thought … we wondered if ….” Now that he was with her again, clutching at her like a drowning man, he found himself completely unable to voice the fears that had plagued him for so long.

“I’ve been here the whole time,” she said tearfully, pulling back to look him in the face. “I couldn’t get back to you … the Shikon no Tama …. Did I do that to you?” she asked suddenly, pointing at his face and looking positively horrified.

He frowned and then realized what she was talking about. “No … no, that was thanks entirely to Sesshoumaru.”

“Sesshoumaru? Why did he …?”

“I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. I’d forgive that bastard for anything at this point.”

“What brought you here?” Kagome asked, still tugging at the sleeves of Inuyasha’s haori, as though terrified that he might suddenly dematerialize right before her eyes. Inuyasha apparently shared the sentiment because he was holding onto her arms with a death grip of his own.

“It was that sword,” Inuyasha explained quietly, glancing to where the weapon lay next to him in a pile of glass shards. “Sesshoumaru brought it to the village and told me to come get you. The shikon shards are inside the blade … I don’t know why, I didn’t bother to ask him.” Inuyasha’s face was very serious, but his tone dropped to something lower, warmer, and he pulled her closer. “Kagome ….” He tried to think of a way to voice his thoughts and feelings properly, but his mind was still reeling from just being with her again.

As always, Kagome knew him better than anyone and understood without even having to hear him speak. She leaned closer to kiss him, soft lips meeting his, and it was an action that he was all too happy to reciprocate. He finally broke the contact, his human brown eyes boring into hers as he sternly complained, “Don’t ever leave like that again.”

They were both caught off-guard when the door swung back open, allowing an out-of-breath Souta to rush into the room. He pulled up short, appalled to have stormed right into what had clearly just been an intimate moment.

“I …. ah …,” Souta breathed quickly, then threw up his hands in defeat. “At least he broke into the right apartment. See you this weekend, sis. Later, Inuyasha.” And with that, he pulled the door closed behind him, more than anxious to leave them alone.

----------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------

As often seemed to be the case with the Bone-Eater’s well, someone was hovering nearby, watching, waiting …. On this occasion, however, it had less to do with an eagerly anticipated arrival than the simple desire for the watcher to have his business finished so that he could be on his way.

Still as a statue and looking to be almost as perpetual, Sesshoumaru stood in front of the well, peering intently into its depths. He had heard that this was the means with which his brother’s human made her way to their era from what was rumored to be a time far beyond their own. The monk, Miroku, had taken great pleasure in revealing to him that this future time was one ruled entirely by humans, not their youkai superiors. Sesshoumaru was having difficulty grasping at a catastrophe sufficient enough to bring such a society about, but if it was to happen, it was not a future that sounded particularly enticing.

Though he was more than ready to continue on his way and leave the human village far behind, there was a part of him that almost hoped Inuyasha would choose not to return. As unlikely as this was, it would solve several problems: the jewel and the sword would fall into the hands of generations far in the future, during a time when demons clearly did not exist in large numbers if at all, thus rendering the weapon obsolete. It would also permanently remove the hanyou from Sesshoumaru’s realm of existence, something that was quite appealing.

As soon as the thought formed, he balked at the idea. It was for him to properly dispose of or, at the very least, contain the sword his father had so thoughtlessly created. Leaving its fate in the hands of Inuyasha and a human miko was not particularly palatable.

And there was still the matter of exactly why Midoriko’s sword … and the Shikon no Tama…had emerged from obscurity. Sesshoumaru did not believe in coincidences and so took the event as a warning of something to come. Things happened for a reason, there was little in this world that fell to chance, and he was intent on discovering why the sword had suddenly decided to make its presence known again.

As he waited, his eyes peering into the dank depths of the ancient well, Sesshoumaru listened as Rin made her way through the overgrowth not far behind him, quietly for a human, but with an unbelievable racket in terms of a demon’s hearing. Adjusting to her presence again was going to take some time, he had been quick to realize. This older Rin resembled the childish Rin in very few ways, not entirely surprising, but still something to become accustomed to. There was no more ceaseless chatter, no insistence that she had behaved in his absence, no torturing of the hapless Jaken; instead she spoke and acted with a maturity he had not expected. He wondered briefly if she was making a similar adjustment to him.

“Sesshoumaru-sama?” she called quietly, as though not sure whether she should disturb him. When he looked back at her, she took that as her cue to come stand beside him. The shiny white pinpricks of stars overhead cast down enough light to make him appear almost ghostly as he waited for his brother’s return, and Rin felt that he was eerily beautiful.

“I’ve been talking to Kohaku,” she said, listening as the chirping insects resumed their noise now that they had become properly accustomed to the presence of another person in the clearing. “He told me how you saved his life.”

“I acted against Naraku,” Sesshoumaru corrected her.

Smiling at what almost sounded like a defensive statement, Rin voiced one of the worries that had so plagued her during the time when Sesshoumaru had been so insistent in locating Kohaku. “I was afraid that you meant to kill him.”

“I did kill him.”

“And then you revived him,” she reminded him.

“Yes,” he admitted. “It would have pleased Naraku for me to kill Kohaku. I responded by removing the boy from Naraku’s sphere of influence with his life still intact. Naraku lost a weapon and a puppet in the process.”

“I’m glad. I could tell he was a good person … when he wasn’t under Naraku’s influence, that is,” she amended. “He deserved to survive Naraku.”

Rin took a few steps forward and peered curiously into the blackness of the old well. “Is it true, what he said?” she asked, referring to an earlier conversation with Miroku. “Do you think this girl really does come from another time?”

“I have seen stranger things.”

Another silence fell between them as they both regarded the well, and Rin decided to seize on her moment alone with him to ask about a more personal matter. “Sango was saying that Inuyasha loves this girl … Kagome. He’ll probably be very grateful to you for giving him a way to return to her.”

“I doubt that,” Sesshoumaru replied wryly. Gratitude was not something that came naturally to Inuyasha, nor was it something Sesshoumaru desired.

Rin glanced up at him, wondering just how many questions she would be able to get away with. She was aware that Sesshoumaru and his brother had a tense relationship, but even she had been surprised by the hostility of their encounter earlier that evening. “He’s a hanyou, correct? So you will probably outlive him.”

“I guarantee it,” came the emphatic reply.

“Do you think the two of you will ever move beyond your argument? If Inuyasha apologized ---“

“There is nothing between us that requires his apology," came the quick answer.

Rin blinked in surprise, as much at this revelation as the fact that he was actually speaking to her about the subject. “Then why are you so angry with him?”

“You mistake anger for dislike,” he answered easily, looking at her with what seemed to be curiosity. “Why does this interest you so?”

“I don’t know,” she spoke slowly, recalling the fading memories of her parents and brother. They were distant pictures now, bits and pieces of voices and faces and moments that were separated from her by nearly a decade. “I think when you experience the loss of your family it’s natural to hope that those around you will appreciate their own families for as long as they have them.”

Sesshoumaru was quiet for so long that Rin wondered if he was signaling the end of the conversation, but then he responded. “Individuals adhere to family for purposes of comfort, protection, familiarity, shared background. These are things that neither I nor Inuyasha require from each other. Therefore, there is nothing to resolve. His eventual demise will not effect my life.”

“How sad for you both,” Rin said quietly, meaning it sincerely. Loss of loved ones was difficult to experience, but she could not imagine anything worse than having no one to grieve over at all.

Sesshoumaru looked at her in surprise. Is that pity I am hearing? he thought. And for what reason? He would not miss Inuyasha when his death came. Why would one miss something that was of no consequence in their life? It was because of bad choices on the part of Inutaisho that Inuyasha walked the earth at all. By all rights, the hanyou should not even exist.

Sesshoumaru turned from the well, gesturing for Rin to follow him. “You'll need to stay in the village for the night. It is clear that he does not intend to return any time soon.”

----------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------

Morning dawned in Kagome’s apartment to find a ravenous Inuyasha, having comfortably resumed his hanyou form, eagerly slurping down a second cup of ramen noodles. Kagome ran frantically back and forth from her bedroom to the kitchen, wading through piles and piles of review papers, books, study guides, and all manner of objects before finally finding the items she was searching for.

“I.D. … and a pencil.” She looked quietly desperate, as she held them up for Inuyasha’s inspection. “I’m ready,” she said, nodding to herself as though verifying the fact. “Oh! Calculator!” she exclaimed, diving into the pile once more before pulling up, looking frazzled. “Can we use a calculator? I’ll take it anyway.”

She then paused in the center of the apartment, Inuyasha watching her with rapt interest. Whatever these exams were, they were clearly unhealthy. He had never seen Kagome so worked up over a test.

“Okay, I’m leaving. Inuyasha,” she said, pointing at him with sudden vehemence. “Don’t touch anything that beeps or lights up, got it? Or just … don’t touch anything! I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

“And then we leave?” he asked, sounding sulky.

“Yes,” she said, smiling brightly and looking slightly saner. “Absolutely. But don’t leave this apartment! And don’t answer the door … or the phone ….”

“Go take the damned test, woman!” Inuyasha finally exclaimed, shoving the cup of ramen down on the table with enough force to send noodles slopping over the sides.

“Right,” Kagome agreed, her swift exit followed by the clicking sounds of a door being securely locked.

Inuyasha looked about as he found himself surrounded by an empty, silent apartment, eyeing the room suspiciously. “What’s a phone …?” he wondered aloud, before resuming his breakfast.

------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------

The village was slow to wake from sleep the next morning, activity quietly resuming itself after a long night of discontent over the presence of a youkai at the home of the monk and the demon exterminator. This rumor was easily confirmed as the demon in question was seated outside Miroku and Sango’s house, his patience clearly wearing thin as Kirara, seemingly permanently transformed into her larger form, glowered at him with an unblinking red stare. She hovered over Kenji like a wolf over its litter.

He watched Kirara with vague interest, finding it odd that of all the creatures present, it was this beast that understood the ramifications of the presence of Midoriko’s sword far more than her human companions. Nearby, Rin was seated next to Kohaku and Shippou, looking completely enthralled by a tale the young human man was expounding on, his hand gestures giving off hints as to the drama of the story.

Kohaku and Rin had been quick to resume the friendship they had shared as small children, something Sesshoumaru was not entirely pleased about. True, he had restored the boy’s life, but not out of kindness or sympathy. It had purely been an assault on Naraku. Sesshoumaru had simply removed a weapon from his enemy’s arsenal while, at the same time, irritating the hell out of the hanyou bastard by bringing the boy back to life.

Kohaku was a weak byproduct of his species’ inferior breeding. He was too soft-hearted, not at all suitable for Rin, particularly so since the evolution of their relationship would mean that either Rin would reside in a village that also housed Inuyasha (who attracted more trouble than anyone Sesshoumaru had ever known) or perhaps in Kohaku’s old village, the one that had also been home to Midoriko long ago and practically bore a bull’s-eye as far as the youkai population was concerned. This definitely did not sit well.

Rin looked up at him, as though feeling the weight of his stare from several feet away, but a sudden shrill barking sound diverted Sesshoumaru’s attention. He looked down to see the monk’s annoying offspring yelping at his feet.

Almost instantly, Shippou moved to pull the child away, swinging him up into his arms, warning as he did so. “No, Kenji. That one bites back,” Shippou said, pausing to give Sesshoumaru a distrusting glare before disappearing into the house with the boy. Kirara gave a low growl and turned to trot inside as well.

Thankfully, it was then that the familiar reek of hanyou wafted through the air, followed quickly by the arrival of Inuyasha and the woman it had apparently taken him nearly twelve hours to retrieve. Sesshoumaru stood, preparing a properly scathing welcome, but was caught off guard when the inhabitants of the house behind him shoved past him in their haste to greet their long-absent friend.

“Kagome-chan!” Sango shrieked gleefully, grasping Kagome in an almost painful embrace the instant Inuyasha bent to let her off his back. A moment later, she was set upon by an equally ebullient Miroku who simply grabbed the girl and kissed her full on the lips, prompting a sniping comment from the half-demon.

“Kagome-sama, you have no idea how worried we’ve been…”

“I do! How do you think I’ve felt all alone on that side of the well? I had no idea if …. Shippou!” she squealed as she caught sight of the fox youkai that was now nearly as tall as she was and immediately wrapped her arms around his thin body, all but crushing him.

“Kagome, you’ve missed so much ---“ Shippou began in a rush, as she turned to greet Kirara and Kohaku, but he was cut off by another excited shriek as Kagome pulled Kenji out of his uncle’s arms. The little boy glanced wildly around him, looking as though he was not sure whether to be terrified or thrilled, as the others around him appeared to be.

“Miroku-sama, I can’t believe it. You finally convinced someone,” Kagome said, kissing Kenji on the top of his dark head.

“It was just a matter of wearing her down until she gave in,” Miroku grinned.

Inuyasha moved away from the group of overly-excited humans, catching sight of Sesshoumaru, who was still standing near the house, watching them without expression. His hand rested lightly on the hilt of the sword Sesshoumaru had brought him, and his tone was still suspicious as he spoke to his brother in a tone that was uncharacteristically non-confrontational.

“Why did you bring me this? I’m sure it was not done out of kindness.”

“She purified the shards,” Sesshoumaru commented, ignoring the question as he realized that he no longer sensed the darkly overpowering aura that had claimed the weapon from the moment Rin had found it.

“Yeah.”

“Then return the sword to me. My business is finished here,” Sesshoumaru ordered, the words immediately initiating a defiant stare-down between the two demons.

Overhearing this, Kagome moved quickly to stand next to Inuyasha. “Wait … if you take that sword with you, I’ll have no way to get back here.”

“That is hardly my concern,” Sesshoumaru replied coldly, sounding completely uninterested.

“The Shikon no Tama should not be in the hands of a youkai, particularly not a strong one,” Kagome insisted firmly. She was not about to let Sesshoumaru quietly leave with that jewel. It had caused too much pain, too many problems. And though she had witnessed subtle changes in their dealings with the youkai lord over the years they had spent tracking down Naraku, she was not at all willing to trust the jewel in his hands.

Sesshoumaru regarded Kagome coolly, as though internally judging her worth. “You were once the jewel’s guardian,” he stated.

“In a manner of speaking,” she answered, not entirely certain what he was leading toward.

With a swift movement that Inuyasha barely saw, Sesshoumaru reached and pulled the sword away from his brother, the gem-like luster of the shards glowing a brilliant purple-pink. This Shikon no Tama, Sesshoumaru thought, had obviously chosen Kagome and her previous incarnation, Kikyou, to see to its security. He did not precisely understand why this was, but the girl’s connection to it was irrefutable.

“Remove the shards from this sword,” he said finally, “and I will allow them to remain in your keeping.”

“Remove them?” Kagome repeated, looking from the expressionless youkai lord to the gleaming metal of the blade. Could she do such a thing …? She had fused individual shards together before, but this was different … wasn’t it? Placing one hand on the sword, Kagome summoned up old, nearly dormant abilities....

She was rewarded with a steady glow that grew stronger and stronger until it forced the others grouped around them to look away from the blinding light. Only Sesshoumaru and Kagome looked on as, piece by piece, the shards pulled together in the palm of her hand. Closing her fingers around them, Kagome took a step back and, instantly, the light died out. A familiar round weight was settled in her fist and, when she opened it, the Shikon no Tama gleamed back at her, whole once more.

“It obviously chooses to respond to you.” Sesshoumaru was the first to speak, watching as Kagome regarded the glittering ball with a mixture of relief and trepidation. “I leave it in your care.” He then lowered Midoriko’s sword and turned away from them, preparing to leave, his companions moving to follow him.

“Miko,” Sesshoumaru suddenly called to Kagome, turning to look back at where she still stood beside Inuyasha, holding onto the Shikon no Tama, “perhaps this time you’ll refrain from shattering it?” he wryly suggested, before continuing down the dirt road.

------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------------

Within the depths of an overgrown forest that had been all but abandoned by the presence of humans and youkai alike, the remains of an ancient temple stood, its wood pillars slowly crumbling under the onslaught of weathering, time, and disrepair. The forest had encroached upon it to the point that trees were shoving up through the rotting floorboards, reaching hungrily for the scattered sunlight that poured in from the collapsing roof. The place crawled with snakes, rats, and all manner of vermin, all of which had been quick to make their home within the temple’s confines in the absence of a human inhabitant.

And it was to this scene that Ashrem woke, prying open long unused eyes that felt as though they were weighted down. It was hours before he summoned enough energy to move his stiff, unusable muscles in even the slightest of ways, first with the twitch of a fingertip, then that of a toe, all of which resulted in an excruciating agony as blood surged once more through starved organs, lungs inhaling with a difficulty that came from long disuse. He felt as though he was trying to breathe underwater.

For nearly two days he continued to lie there, trying to piece together precisely what had wrought his spontaneous regeneration from stone to living, breathing body. Night gave way to day and then to night again, a passage that was easy to determine as he was lying directly under a gaping hole in the roof that allowed rain to pour down on him mercilessly.

That bitch, he thought with grim satisfaction. She had finally let him go. He had known Midoriko would eventually succumb to the smothering darkness that had come with the sealing of the hanyou Naraku. She had been worn down, slowly, methodically over the years until finally she had been unable to hold onto the evil that pressed in around her. She had given in, and what was most amusing, and perhaps ironic, was the fact that she had, effectively, been defeated by the very soul she had chosen to guard her abilities from evil.

That miko …. the one called Kagome … he remembered. It had been she who had so desperately attempted to defeat Naraku by sealing him within the jewel and, thus, it had been she who had overwhelmed Midoriko, shutting down the jewel until … now. It seemed that Midoriko’s weariness had finally beaten her.

He laughed then, the sound coming out as something more like a dry, shuddering cough, and forced his painfully stiff muscles into action, pulling himself to his knees. He felt as though his body was about to snap in half every inch of the way.

He was pleased to see that the wounds Inutaisho had inflicted on him no longer existed. That bastard would never see what was coming for him. Ashrem was not entirely certain of how much time had passed, but it had obviously been several years, long enough for his home to fall into disrepair. It did not matter. His abilities were still intact, as was his link to poor Midoriko …. or rather all that remained of her …. the heart that had served as his prison, as well as that of countless vengeful youkai. The Shikon no Tama.

He was aware that it now lay, once again, in the hands of the miko Kagome, and though that would likely present some obstacles, her powers obviously being great enough to manipulate the jewel in her own right, Ashrem did not doubt that the battle over the control of the jewel would result in his victory.

There had been the other girl as well … this one younger than the miko who now possessed the Shikon no Tama. That girl had been the one who had apparently instigated Midoriko’s decision to relinquish the seal and release those that had been trapped within the jewel. Ashrem had no clear idea as to the identity of the girl, but he found it especially intriguing that Sesshoumaru had felt such a keen desire to save her from herself, preventing her from using that sword against the boar demon. It seemed Inutaisho's son had decided to involve himself with yet another human. That fact, Ashrem did not doubt, would prove to be most useful in the future.