InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Returning Home ❯ The Second Step ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

Chapter 2: The Second Step

The next day Kagome did not speak to InuYasha after he didn't respond to her `Good morning'. She had wanted to go back home, now that she was certain he was mad at her, but when she tried to say good bye Sango and Shippo convinced her that InuYasha was just grumpy this morning, not mad. Once InuYasha figured out what was going on he yelled at her for being stupid and to get her pack together and let them start looking for the shards.

So she had stayed.

And he hadn't said anything since.

She gathered the items that had been spread out over the hut for sleeping and breakfast, and put them in their proper place in her bag.

They traveled west and north toward their last confrontation with Sorrel. Then, figuring that she had continued in the same direction that she left the clearing, they turned north again where the roads met.

It was after several days of silent trudging that they found a small village to stay in.

Sango stopped them before they entered the village, "I think we should stay together. There is something strange going on here."

"A youkai?" Kagome asked, she didn't sense anything but was afraid to stretch out her senses.

"No," Miroku looked around at the villagers milling about, "many of these villagers are armed."

InuYasha grunted, he had noticed that the armed villagers had fighters' qualities to their air, but they were still just villagers, not warriors.

"It would be best if we were to stay together and project a peaceful aura." Miroku suggested as they moved forward into the village, "We would not want to aggravate them."

It did not take them long to find out what had the village so tense. A youkai horde had been striking villages just to the north and seemed to be working it's way south. Some professional warriors had even been sent to the village to help protect it. They spent most of their time lounging around in their rooms.

While Miroku, InuYasha and Shippo rested in the one small room that was available for the group, Kagome and Sango went with the village women who were going to get a bath before the winter cooled the water too much. It was still a quick and brisk event, some not even bothering to remove their clothes. Sango and Kagome were tougher though and got a good scrubbing.

"Are you sure that you have recovered enough to do this Kagome?" Sango asked as they dried and dressed themselves, "You seem awful… deliberate with your actions."

"You mean slow don't you." Kagome sighed, "I'm not tired. I'm not numb like I was. It's just… just… I feel like…" Kagome's eyes unfocused as she tried to put it into words, "I'm on a balance beam, blind folded, one wrong move and I'll fall. Like if I put to much energy out there it won't come back."

Kagome's eyes refocused and she smiled brightly at the worried look on Sango's face, "But I'm sure I'll get over that in time as well."

The sun was just setting when their group made it back to the village.

*

InuYasha and Miroku decided to leave their small room in favor of information for their quests. After all, professional warriors were prone to travel.

The main room of the big house where the warriors were housed had been turned into something of a bar. InuYasha broke away from Miroku and made his way to one wall to scowl at the relaxing men. Miroku casually joined them.

One man, with a few gray hairs and a scared face approached InuYasha. After looking him over he said gruffly, "I wouldn't believe it if my own father hadn't told me, you're InuYasha aren't you?"

InuYasha directed his scowl at the old general, "What do you want, old man?"

The man chuckled and nodded, "My father told me of a young youkai by that name that hung around his camp for about a year. Said all he did was watch the young men train… and steal food. Was that you?"

InuYasha turned away, he didn't want to start to remember that part of his life.

"My father said that it was a shame that you didn't stay longer." the man went ahead anyway. His years training angry young men gave him confidence that this was his fathers InuYasha, despite his youth and the 60 some years that had passed. He was, after all, a youkai. "The men had gotten used to you, and the general at the time was about to take you in. Boys that come in like that are the stuff of generals."

"I've done alright." InuYasha growled reluctantly.

The general shrugged casually, the thought had occurred to him that if InuYasha had stayed, he could now be taking orders from an adolescent.

"Sir," a small group of young men approached hesitantly, "we've returned from next village."

"Really." The general gave them a flat humorless look, "What do you have to report?"

"There aren't as many troops up there and the village miko said that she wasn't going to involve herself in battle." The young man said nervously.

"Won't involve herself?" the general frowned, "Why?"

"She said that she had her own duties that were more important."

"What's more important than a horde of youkai?" The general asked angrily.

"Sh-she didn't say." The young man backed up a step.

"She seemed a cold individual to me sir." One of the other young men grumbled, "She had only been there a few weeks, showed up out of no where. I'd think she was a youkai but they would do a better job disguising themselves."

InuYasha stared blankly at the man that had just finished speaking. "Kikyo?" he breathed. InuYasha stood up quickly and headed for the door at a quick pace.

"InuYasha!" the general called to him, "Where are you going?"

InuYasha paused then turned back to the general, "Take care of Kagome till I return."

"Who?"

"Ka… the girl in the strange clothes." And then he ran out.

*

Shortly after InuYasha's sudden departure, Kagome and Sango walked into the crowded room. Every eye turned on them as Kagome stood on her toes to see over the heads of the men.

"Miroku!" Kagome waved at him then lead Sango over to the table that the monk was sitting at. Once the girls were seated next to Miroku most of the men went back to what they had been doing.

"What brings you here Kagome?" Miroku was certain that it was Kagome's idea to inter the room full of soldiers.

"We went to our room," Kagome was still looking around, "but Shippo wasn't there so we thought that he would be here with you and InuYasha. Where is InuYasha?"

"Shippo is probably in the kitchen getting handouts." Miroku looked at the wall that InuYasha had been leaning against. "I am not sure where InuYasha went."

The general had been watching Kagome since she walked in the room. This had to be the girl InuYasha had told him about. He approached the table, "InuYasha left. He didn't say where, but he'll be back."

"He just left?" Kagome looked him sadly.

He nodded.

"Come on Kagome," Sango put her hand on Kagome's shoulder, "I'm sure InuYasha didn't go far. Lets find Shippo."

*

InuYasha ran the miles to the next village in a matter of minutes. He ran right up into the middle of the houses before a voice called out.

"Halt! Youkai!" A young miko with heavy black hair and a cool face was aiming an arrow at him.

It wasn't Kikyo.

*

Sango turned her head towards the outside entrance of the kitchen. Shippo was being scolded lightly by Kagome for wandering off by himself without telling anyone.

"Kagome," Sango interrupted her quietly, "Do you feel that?"

Kagome stopped scolding Shippo and stretched her senses. She had never been that good at sensing youki but if she allowed herself to she could since the power, and something else, "Shikon shards, three of them coming this way."

*

"You're not Kikyo." InuYasha panted.

"No, I'm not." The woman didn't lower her bow, "What are you doing here? You're not with the horde so what do you want?"

"Then why the hell don't you want to fight youkai!" InuYasha yelled at her, `Damn it! She would have known-` his thoughts were interrupted by the miko in front of him.

"That is not where my power lies." She lowered her bow and gave him a long puzzled look, "As a miko I'm not very powerful, I… lost it. My power now lies in my instinct. I can heal by it."

"So?" InuYasha crossed his arms and scowled at her.

"You're looking for someone." She said.

"No shit." InuYasha huffed.

"Not a miko," she waved off his crude retort, "A youkai."

InuYasha nodded, perhaps she knew something about Naraku.

*

Kagome stood in with her back to the cool forest, facing the burning village. An arrow was resting in its position on her bow as she squinted into the melee. All around the foreground the warriors and towns people fought the horde of youkai. The shards were floating somewhere above or deep in the smoky, fiery, field of battle. She was trying to reserve her energy for the youkai possessing the shards, but they never gave her an opening.

The general was not far from her, he prevented the lesser youkai from reaching her, but she had used some of her power to protect them both from air attacks while he battled on the ground. And now she was nearly empty.

A wicked looking bird youkai dove for them and Kagome shot quickly. Her arrow hit the things wing and it dissolved sending the rest of the bird crashing to the ground where the general finished it off.

*

"A wounded woman." She continued, "I saw such a youkai a little over a week ago, she passed by the village one night."

"Sorrell?" InuYasha asked, maybe this wasn't such a waste of time.

"I do not know…" she looked to the north and east, "She went that way, toward the mountains following the river road." She turned back to InuYasha, "The next night a young boy came into the village. He said he was looking for his sister and wouldn't even stay the night, he ate the food I gave him and left, following the same road. I thought that strange."

"Was he Kohaku?" InuYasha asked intently.

The miko shook her head, "He didn't tell me his name. But if these are the people you seek, the river road is just to the east of this village."

"…Do you know how to heal a girl turning into a youkai?" InuYasha ask somewhat reluctantly.

The miko shook her head but said, "I would have to see her. Wait… you left this girl somewhere?"

"Yeah, so?" InuYasha scowled down at her.

"With a horde of marauding youkai running around?" She scowled up at him, "You should return to her, quickly."

*

Kagome was kneeling on the ground panting, she could barely stay awake. The general lay next to her, mortally wounded.

Kagome looked up at the ongoing battle; the next youkai that came their way would kill them both easily. And it looked like the next youkai was going to be one with a shard.

"It's coming," Kagome croaked, "the leader."

"You have to shoot it." The general panted.

Kagome shook her head, though he probably couldn't see it, "I don't have the energy, I'd have to feed."

The general was quite then said, "Take mine."

"What?" she looked at the dieing man. He wasn't young, and he was mostly dead already, but she could see that there still had a great amount of energy within him.

"If you kill their leader the rest will lose faith," he argued, "we might have a chance to win."

Kagome shook her head violently, tears were welling up in her eyes, "I don't want to feed off a human, I don't want to feed off of any one."

"I'm dieing anyway. You are our only hope." The general growled out, "Take my energy and kill the bastards!"

Kagome looked up at the fight, they were loosing. She couldn't see her friends. She didn't know were InuYasha was, but she could guess. If she didn't do this, this one time, what was left of the village would be doomed. As well as any others that the horde visited.

Slowly Kagome crawled up to the general, but kept track of the approaching shard.

InuYasha came to a stop just inside the trees and grabbed his sword in preparation of joining the fight, when he saw Kagome. The fires revealed her siloete in stark relief as she knelt over the prone body of the general that he had talked with before. He saw her glance up at clouds of black smoke before she leaned down and pressed her lips to those of the dieing warrior.

*

A/N: Thank you so much for reviewing and I'm sorry for taking so long, I won't go into an explanation this time, cause time just sort of got away from me. And remember, Kagome wasn't so much kissing the general as feeding off of him.