InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Reliving the Past ❯ Chapter 16 ( Chapter 16 )

AN: Firstly, my apologies to you all. Again. I really meant to get this out last week, but haven't had the time to edit it before now. I know, I'm hopeless ^_^ I'm not going to promise weekly updates anymore, even though we are so close to the end. Every time I plan to do so, something always comes up to prevent me doing it. The only thing that I can promise is that it will be finished soon. Many thanks to everyone who as read and reviewed. Your feedback is always very much appreciated, even when I don't have the time to reply to you individually.

Hope you enjoy this chapter in which some truths are revealed….

Reliving the Past

by kmf

An Inuyasha fanfic

Rating: R

Warnings: Language

Disclaimer: I only wish I did own Inuyasha *fondles his ears*

Chapter Sixteen

Kagome sat staring at Kaminari across his kitchen table. Kaminari stared back at her for a moment, before smiling broadly.

"Tea?" he asked politely, lifting the teapot that sat before him and pouring the hot brown liquid into one of two delicate china cups. He elegantly lowered the pot, and used his forefinger to slide the cup and saucer slowly across the varnished surface of the table until it rested in front of Kagome.

She frowned down at it. Despite Kaminari's declaration that it was time they both came clean, they had yet to discuss anything about recent events. Back at the shrine, he had led her silently down the steps ignoring her half hearted protests, and had hailed a passing taxi. He had gently helped her in, aiding her to favour her good foot, before giving the driver an address.

When she had tried to talk to him during the drive, he had shaken his head slightly, lifting a finger to his mouth, before gently patting her on the knee. Feeling a little nervous, but not afraid, she had obeyed his wishes and sat quietly throughout the drive mentally rehearsing what she wanted to tell him and questions she wanted to ask.

Kaminari lived in a quiet neighbourhood, neat and ordinary. His house was much the same as any of the other houses in the road, which surprised Kagome a little. Kaminari was such a flamboyant lecturer, she had been sure that his personality would have been reflected a little in the house he lived in. After paying the taxi driver, Kaminari had put an arm around Kagome's shoulder and helped her walk up the steps and through the front door of his house.

It was quite bare inside. No pictures hung on the walls of the hallway, no rugs covered the polished wooden floorboards. The kitchen was also bare of personal touches; white and sterile. Until, that is, he produced a brightly patterned teapot and cups and prepared a cup of tea.

"Its safe to drink," Kaminari said, half chuckling, "I haven't poisoned it."

Kagome lifted her eyes from the tea in front of her and stared at the professor.

"But have you drugged it?"

The words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop herself. She flushed, and glanced at his tea, before looking back up into his eyes.

Kaminari looked amused. With slow deliberateness, he raised his own cup to his lips and sipped the liquid. Without moving his eyes from hers, he lowered the cup back to its saucer and smiled.

"You're cross about me giving you sleeping tablets," he said.

"You said that they wouldn't make me sleepy," Kagome glared at him, suddenly feeling more empowered and in control of the situation. The Kaminari she had encountered at the shrine, the cold and frightening Kaminari, had gone replaced with the familiar cocky Kaminari that she had liked so much.

He sighed, and nodded. "Yes, I did, didn't I," he said. "I'm sorry that I lied to you, but you were in pain, you were borderline hysterical and you hadn't slept well the previous night. I thought I was doing the right thing. I apologise."

Kagome blinked at his sincerity, feeling all irritation evaporate. She blushed a little, then lowered her head as she took a sip of her own tea. It was the blend that he had shared with her before, warm and soothing and achingly familiar. Her thoughts instantly turned to Inuyasha.

"I'm sorry too," she said, lowering her cup and looking back at Kaminari, "I said before that Inuyasha didn't care for me in the same way as I cared for him. But I think that I was wrong. And I think too that I am not ready to give up on him yet."

Kaminari raised and eyebrow and tilted his head to one side.

"Inuyasha. Quite an unusual name. It means dog demon, doesn't it?" Kaminari's mouth pulled into a smile.

Once again, Kagome felt a prickle of unease. His smile was the same as the one he had given her at the shrine. Insincere, and a little menacing. To hide her discomfort, Kagome took another sip of tea.

"Yes, it is odd. I think his parents were a little eccentric," she said.

"Tell me, was he named after the Inuyasha in the legend of the Shikon no Tama?"

Kagome nearly spat her tea out across the kitchen table, and only with effort did she swallow, coughing as she did so. Kaminari got up and moved to her side, patting her lightly on the back, before crouching beside her, his fingers curling around her shoulders.

"Or can it be that he is the Inuyasha from the legend. I have heard that hanyous have a reasonably long life span, although not nearly as long as full demons if they are allowed to live their life in full," Kaminari continued, "That seems a little unlikely though. Perhaps the truth is that you have found a rift in time; some way in which to travel back and forth between times."

Kagome stood quickly up from the table, her chair falling over with her speed. Kaminari, never letting go of her shoulders, stood with her and drew her close to his chest, his mouth tilting down to her ear.

"I told you it was time to come clean, didn't I? If you are honest with me, I will be honest with you," he breathed quietly, before nuzzling her neck.

Kagome's breathing became rapid as she tried to push him away from her. How did he know? How was it possible that he could discover her secret so easily? Who was this man?

Kaminari pulled away from her and smiling down at her expression. He smoothed her hair back from her face, tucking it behind an ear.

"Ah, I see you still need a demonstration of my good faith," he said quietly, before turning and leading her out of the kitchen and up the bare hallway, her hand firmly grasped in his.

Kagome felt herself follow passively. She was frightened. Very frightened. Borderline terrified to be exact. But she was also extremely curious. She needed to know what his secret was. And she had also learned a self-defence trick or two in her time in the past. Yeah, she didn't have her bow and arrows. She did, however, have her hands and her feet. And she knew exactly where to place them should Kaminari's odd behaviour get out of hand.

And so she followed him.

Kaminari smiled down at her in an encouraging fashion as he pushed open one of the doors leading off the hallway. When she hesitated on the threshold, he gave her a little push into the room. Colour assailed her eyes. Compared with the white sterility of the rest of Kaminari's house, this room was blindingly gaudy, cluttered with items that screamed for attention.

Kagome didn't know where to focus her attention first.

Kaminari came to her aid. He pulled her over to a wall upon which was displayed a painting. Kagome was no art expert, but she could tell that it was done by an amateur. The figures were crude, proportion ignored, but the subjects were compelling bearing witness to the emotion felt when the painting was executed.

"Now do you understand?" Kaminari asked.

The painting was of two demons she had briefly encountered early on in her feudal adventure. They were memorable for the fact that they had been responsible for orphaning Shippo in a particularly cruel manner. Granted, they had wanted to kill her as well in a bid to encourage the younger ones hair to grow, but that was insignificant compared to the trauma they had caused the young kitsune.

Quickly looking around the room, Kagome saw that this was not the only painting of Thunder brothers. They were everywhere, hanging on three of the walls, and where there was not enough space, propped up on the floor. The one wall that was free of paintings was graced by another object. A weapon. Old, corroded, but recognisable.

"I don't..." Kagome started, but before she could finish Kaminari took her by the arm and pulled her close to largest painting.

"Don't you remember?" he demanded harshly, "How could you not remember?"

Kagome winced in pain, "Of course I remember!" she cried out, trying to shake him off, "What I don't understand is how you know?"

Kaminari made a disparaging sound. "And I thought you were a smart girl," he said shaking his head, before tapping a finger on her forehead, "Think about it!"

Kagome swallowed in nervousness, looking up at the painting again, before looking back at Kaminari. When she spoke, she was hesitant and unsure.

"Reincarnation?" she asked.

Kaminari grinned and patted her on the head.

"You were… Manten?"

The grin turned to a frown.

"I am...I was..no, I am Hiten," Kaminari said.

It was Kagome's turn to frown. "No, you are not," she said shaking her head, "You are Kaminari. Even if you are Hiten's reincarnate, you are no longer him. You have a new life, new memories, new goals."

Kaminari raised an eyebrow at her fervour and shook his head. "You are wrong, Kagome. I have no new memories. When I was eight I remembered all that had happened to me in my previous life. Those memories took away the child and made me the man I am now."

His grip grew tighter on her arm, bruising her skin and making her wince. She pulled away slightly, trying to free herself, but Kaminari was unrelenting.

"How..?" she began to ask, trying to distract him hoping that his grip would relax.

"How did I remember?" Kaminari finished her question, smiling at her before pointing to a small painting of Manten's head and shoulders. "My brother's death."

Kagome could not help the gasp of surprise that she uttered. "Manten was reborn as your brother?" she asked.

"You shouldn't be shocked," Kaminari smiled, "I don't understand why you should be. I promised my baby brother when he died that we would always be together. And we should have been in this time. If it hadn't have been for her," his eyes grew very cold and Kagome couldn't hold back a shudder that run up and down her spine as she fancied she saw a flicker of red race across them.

"Her?"

"My mother," Kaminari was still staring at the picture, "Our Mother. She killed him. Murdered him. Stole away my chance of living this life with him."

He paused, bowing his head as if he was trying to get his emotions under control. After a moment or two, he inhaled deeply, then looked back towards Kagome, his eyes calmer. He smiled again, before abruptly sitting down, crossing his legs elegantly. Kagome, her arm still grasped firmly by his hand, fell forward onto her hands and knees, before he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his lap.

"I remembered nothing about my former self before the age of seven," he said quietly, his breath tickling her ear. "I only felt a sense of loneliness which I thought that every only child felt. And then one day I felt complete. It took me a few weeks to work out why I felt whole; my mother was pregnant. She did not tell me of the child, she and my father kept it very quiet. But in her presence I would feel relaxed and comfortable and loved, something I had never felt from my mother before. And eavesdropping on conversations allowed me to discover the reason."

Kagome felt Kaminari's arms tighten around her waist, and his head dip down to the base of her neck. He paused for a moment, before kissing her lightly.

"And then what happened?" Kagome asked, wanting to both know the circumstances around Manten's second death and to get Kaminari's lips and hot breath away from her body.

"A scan of the foetus at 18 weeks gestation revealed that there were abnormalities, the head was an odd shape, large in relation to the body," Kaminari's voice grew rough. "She terminated the pregnancy because of it. I was at school at the time and felt Manten die again, felt him torn away from me because he had been reincarnated in his true form. And as he died I remembered all the grief and hate I felt when he died the first time. I remembered Inuyasha throwing his sword and killing him. I remember the shards of the Shikon no Tama and the extra powers they gave me. I remembered you."

Kagome swallowed, and tried to pull away from Kaminari, but he took hold of her hair and pulled her head back so that she could see his face clearly. He smiled shaking his head.

"You cant leave now, I have only just begun to tell you my story," he said softly, kissing her forehead before letting go of her hair.

She bit her lip and tried to relax in his arms wondering just how she was going to get away from him if he decided that he wanted to finish what he and Manten had started all those years ago.

"Where was I?" he asked, frowning for a moment, "Ah, yes. My mother killed Manten, and I remembered just how superior I had once been. You know, it is so very frustrating for a child to remember how strong he had once been and to know that it was almost impossible for him ever to be that strong again. I used to spend hours imagining how I would punish my mother if I suddenly was graced with my lightening attack, fantasising about how I would have revenge for her stealing away my chance to live once more with my younger brother.

"Eventually, I realised that I didn't need supernatural powers. Not when a similar result could be gained using mankind's inventiveness."

"What do you mean?"

Kagome felt more and more unease. She didn't like the way Kaminari's voice was sounding so calm when he was talking about such a traumatic event. She found it disconcerting enough to be given hints about her own demise in her previous incarnation, but could only imagine how distressing it would be to actually remember it in detail. Yet Kaminari was relating his past as if he was completely detached from it.

She twisted her head again to look up at his face, to try and get a clue as to what he was thinking. As her eyes met his, she froze. While his voice and posture stated he was calm and relaxed, his eyes said otherwise. They were stormy, angry and menacing.

Kagome swallowed, unable to tear her eyes away from his.

"What did you do?" she asked again, her voice quiet and subdued already anticipating the answer.

"I electrocuted the bitch."

Kagome felt her heart lurch in fear as he uttered the words. He had killed his mother. He had electrocuted his own mother when he was still a child. Feeling oddly sick and woozy, she tore her eyes away from his, bowing her head and blinking rapidly in an effort to try and dispel the nausea she felt.

"It was a simple thing to do," Kaminari continued. "She had no idea how much she disgusted me, until the very end when I told her that she had murdered my brother. She denied it was murder, saying that I was too young to understand the situation. She had the nerve to tell me that she had terminated the pregnancy because of me, so that I wouldn't be bound to a handicapped sibling when I grew up."

The words danced around in Kagome's head. He had killed his mother. He had electrocuted his mother. And he was glad that he had done so. She wanted to push herself out of his arms and run as far away from him as she possibly could, but her limbs felt leaden and unresponsive.

"I got rid of my father in the same way as mother. He had condoned Manten's murder and I couldn't forgive him either," Kaminari said quietly, "Although he was a little trickier to get rid of. After all, a plugged in hairdryer falling into a bath could be considered careless the first time, but suspicious the second. Luckily, I had a natural affinity for electricity and making a plug live was a simple thing to do."

He chuckled a little as he reminisced. Kagome tried to open her mouth to question him again, but her tongue felt heavy in her mouth and she couldn't manage to form words. Kaminari kissed the top of her head again.

"You really are so trusting, Kagome," he said softly, moving his head down to nuzzle her head once again, "You ought to be more observant. If you had been you would have realised that I only pretended to drink my tea."

Kagome's eyes widened a little as she realised that she wasn't feeling numb from the shock of Kaminari's revelation. He had drugged her. Again. And she had fallen for it.

Inuyasha was really going to be quite cross with her.

TBC