InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Risaishi ❯ Double K ( Chapter 3 )

 

 

 

Disclaimer: This author owns not the Inu-tachi characters, however in the path of world's conquest, she will come to own them. For now they belong to Takahashi Rumiko.

 

Authors note: This author comes by this mean inform that this chapter was written without POV. And again she remembers to the ningen reader that he should review, or else Toukijiin will serve its purpose.

Also the quote I used when Kagome's singing belongs to “Dearest” Song lyrics, and this author by no means owns any aspect of it. They belong for now to Hamasaki Ayumi. That quote means “It would be nice if we could put away and throw out everything except what really mattered, but reality is just cruel.”

Humph!

Enjoy

 

Risaishi

 

Chapter 3 -Double K

 

(The faux betrayal and similarities)

 

“Bitch… what the fuck did you just say? You told me to sit?”

 

Those were Inuyasha's kind words to Kagome when the spell of the kotodama no neju wore off and he glared at the all wet midnight haired girl, who had hold until then a worried gaze.

 

“do you think I'm a lap dog?! I'll rip you to shreds!”

 

She glared at him harder, until a mischievous glint cut in and she said with a smug expression.

 

“Come and get me then”

 

Consumed by his rage of being humiliated… told to sit, being subjugated by a bitch nonetheless. He leaped to the land, scrawny and scarce grass tickling his feet.

As soon as he was on the ground he repented it. She made a smug face intertwined her fingers behind her back and shot up her chin smugly.

 

“Osuwari”

 

Again he flew to the floor, his face smashed in the cold hard soil. His whole body was aching, who did this bitch think she was to send him flying to the floor?

When the spell wore off he found her looking at him with a funny look, as is she was concerned and tried to tug the nenju off of his neck. It wouldn't past his nose level.

 

“What the fuck did you put me on baba?”

 

“You can pretend it's a collar”

 

He heard the young girl still covered in damped and ripped clothes mumbling.

Kagome obviously hadn't noticed yet that he was Inu-youkai and would hear her mumble twenty miles away. Sort of.

 

“Bitch I can hear you… you better start thinking about taking this necklace out of me…”

 

She reacted oddly at his growl, shrugged in nonchalance and kept walking weakly behind everybody, her whole body hurt from the constant and repetitive attacks and she really couldn't muster how in the hell she couldn't still walk, or even talk for that matter . A small boy came near her and looked at her earnestly. He was no more than 5 years, holding to her a stomped flower he said

 

“Arigatou Gozaimasu, Kagome-sama, for helping to save our Area”

 

And he bent his body from the waist with his arms pressed to his sides.

Kaede smiled and walking the final path to her area she looked down at Inuyasha and Kagome… wondering inwardly what had been his first reaction when he saw someone so much like Kikyou Onee-Sama and yet so different…

Kagome smiled and ruffled the boy's pitch black hair and took the flower carefully as if she didn't want to ruin the already ruined blossom.

 

“Domo Arigatou for the flower.”

 

Inuyasha seemed surprised by her tone. That flower was twisted and some petals were brown, she was dirty and wet and sweaty and very, very hurt and yet her tone was a soft caress a proof of kindness. So much that the boy smiled and carefully wrapped a hand around her leg, and squeezed his eyes shut.

 

“Is Kagome-sama going to be okay?”

 

She giggled a bit, and again the sound stunned him, he could see the tiredly expression on her face but she didn't falter, and her hand fell in the boy's cheek making him face her. Then she gave him the most amazing smile and cocked her head a bit.

 

“Hai osanago!”

 

Her sweet tone and endearment term took him off guard. Why was she being so nice…? She was hurt and tired she almost had the right to be rude. As they entered the Area, a second later he couldn't help but hear the elder's murmurs.

 

“Is that Kikyou-sama? Has our miko returned?”

 

“Miko-sama… how?!”

 

So he wasn't the only one seeing the resemblance between her and his lost love… a heavy sigh born from his chest made his way lethargically through his lips.

 

“It's not like she did anything.”

 

He said looking up at the sky, not wanting to face once again her angry expression, he felt the kids eyes boring into her skull and then into his though. But he didn't heard or sensed anything from her. He almost cringed when he thought that maybe she was going to osuwari him again…

But when he looked to this side over his shoulder she was smiling at the child and talking in a hushed tone in the boy's hear.

When she finished she smiled tenderly at the boy her side being painfully gripped by her hand, has her face began to be devoid of color… he stopped walking for a millisecond until he felt a tug on his Hi nezumi coat. When he looked down, the kid that barely reached his thighs was looking intimidated at him, almost afraid, but still he bowed deeply like he had done to the girl and stated very quickly.

 

“Arigatou Gozaimasu Inuyasha-Sama”

 

He froze. How long had it been since he heard someone use an honorific with his name? A respectful one? Only Myouga used it with him… And why did he seem so transfixed by looking at his powerfull claws and bloodied booths? He felt heat prickle at his cheeks and turned his head to the opposite side. His response was the most standard one when he was embarrassed, although he'd never, ever tell someone that.

 

“Keh!”

 

And he continued walking. Two things made him stop at one.

The first was that when every one of the men that had been in the forest to help the old hag began to disperse and followed their paths to their one houses - (that Inuyasha noticed were very little as always and weren't a lot he could only spot maybe 10 new houses, and that had to be very little, seeing that the last time he had seen these area had been 50 years ago…) He saw that old hag walking in front of him and stopping in front of a house he knew all to well. Kikyou's house.

 

I have to get the shikon no tama… I have to get it; I need to avenge my foolishness. I want to become a full youkai…I want to forget Kikyou… if only I was more powerfull I would be able to forget all about her… I think

 

Another heavy sigh was heard by only him coming from him own body, separating the next event.

 

She was just so tired, that after bowing to that little kid and kneading to tell him to go thank to Inuyasha too that had consumed all of her energy she took great comfort in seeing Kaede grabbing her yumi and stopping in front of what she vaguely remembered to be her house, she noticed Inuyasha stiffened and shudder, he uttered a heavy smile, that she knew - but didn't knew how- was meant for him only to hear.

With a faint smile she let her legs wobble a bit; her first foot slipping and she closed her eyes to come fluttering towards the cement ground amazed with cold dirt like she was a feather rocked by the gentle wind.

She wasn't conscious anymore, when Inuyasha with inhuman speed turned around and let her fall into his arms instead of harshly dropping to the floor.

 

“Keh! Stupid bitch! No time for fainting now…!”

 

“Come Inuyasha!”

 

The old hag's voice came to him again with familiarity and he still couldn't quite place it. Who was this baba? Why did her scent felt like this to him? He saw she had a fond smile in her lips, landing her eyes on the wet unaware girl in his arms.

Her arms spread behind her torso, towards the ground. He had to slap himself internally when he noticed the curves of her bosom being enhanced drastically by the wet attire.

 

What the hell I'm doing… noticing how this girl …is?

 

This wasn't right; he wasn't supposed to be doing this right? She was his enemy… pacing quietly to the door that Kaede held open to him he forgot all about the girl in his arms to face something that obviously belonged to his past. He wondered how could he had slept for fifty years and didn't feel that the whole betrayal had happened just now… he seemed oddly distant… Though it still hurt like the first time, the pain didn't well anymore; it was static, motionless, only tearing his insides as ever.

He couldn't understand why he wasn't looking madly for Kikyou to push her to finish what she had started or to take revenge.

It didn't feel it had just happen and it should feel like it… after all since that moment, fifty years had passed but he didn't acknowledged them, he hadn't aged a day, everything had stood stoic unmoving, as if time had stopped, then this incident with a girl who so much resembled Kikyou, and at the same time she was so completely different.

This house brought thousand of memories that made him flinch and awake the numbness in him. He suddenly felt a urge to cry and although he'd never do it he wondered why.

He'd never had time to suffer because of kikyou's betrayal, his temperament had taken the best out of him and he hadn't suffered. Inuyasha had chosen to be angry, to be furious, not that anger or tears changed anything… she had still betrayed him.

Kaede looked at him a bit confused, her long ponytail reaching her waist in a strange slim silver river.

 

“Will you not enter?”

 

He “keh'ed” at her question and advanced again. Seeing her take off her zori sandals, he balanced the girl softly to the ground and sat on a step to take of his very bloody booths. He reached the girl and took her penny loafers, his eyes lingering in the lines of her knees and thighs…

Shaking his head heatedly, something that Kaede didn't miss although she didn't quite understand the young man - that was very much older than herself - action, he pulled Kagome to his shoulder and walked without the old hag telling him where.

This was Kikyou's house, but her scent no longer lingered…Her scent was forgotten to these walls. What he found was in her room, in kikyou's room where Onigumo had once been, the scent of the old hag… and in which should be Kaede the little girl's room he found a very fresh scent of Kagome. She had been there before…

What in the world did this mean?

Not knowing which room to enter he waited for the hag to come forward, and when she did she entered the room that as he knew had been Kaede's…

 

The girl in his arms stirred and he let her down to the futon in the middle of the small room as she stiffened and relax constantly.

She then let her lids flutter and her lashes batted once twice she fully opened her eyes. She closed them mid-way her gaze become half-lidded and she looked at Kaede with her legs tucked nicely behind her bottom like any decent lady.

 

“Kaede obaa-chan… I'm sorry I fell asleep”

 

She still had the shikon-no tama jewel in her hand grasped as tightly as she could, her knuckles white. She then looked at Inuyasha who, when she had said the old woman's name, stiffened and lowered his chin to his chest and breathed in a large puff of air…

 

“Kaede, uh?”

 

The old woman looked at him, with a sad smile that miserable expression had come back to her face… Kagome's expression adjusted to that of the old woman's. She felt so sad every time she saw that amount of grief in Kaede's eyes…

 

“I didn't think you'd remember me, Inuyasha. I was but a mere child when you saw me for the last time, ne?”

 

Her voice held a derogatory hint and she looked cold and mad for a second, then she just turn her attention to the very young girl in her spare futon and reaching the forgotten bucket of cold water, and with the cloth that she had used before and began cleaning Kagome's face wounds. The gouge in her forehead was deep but not large, and after all the blood that remained from her falling in the water bellow the bridge was cleaned, the wound really didn't look that scary.

The one that did look scary - very much- was the one where the Mukade jurou had buried her jaw teeth and ripped open her flesh to take the shikon no tama out of her body.

Inuyasha looked away, his back against the walls of this so known house and he avoid looking at Kaede pushing the two parts of the cotton camisole the raven haired girl was using and when cleaning the dangerous wound, reveling her flat stomach and full breast. Yes he ignored it.

 

“So you're the runt… you're pretty old now baba… does that mean that Kikyou's an old hag too?”

 

His words were tinged with hatred, with anguish, she was supposed to grew old yes, with him by her side, they're supposed to have been happy, but all because she was a bitch, now… now he had nothing to cling to, now he was alone again. Now he had lost every tiny bit of hope that she'd once given to him…

But Kaede looked at him with an odd look and angry confusion shinning in her eyes.

 

“Kikyou Onee-sama died the day she sealed you”

 

He couldn't quite understand how words could hurt so much. How an information, a knowledge would tear someone a part…Kikyou was dead.

He couldn't deny it anymore…

Although she had betrayed him and put him, to eternal sleep… Kikyou, Kikyou

Would always be his first love, the woman he had so entirely loved.

And he still loved her. Proof enough of that was the cutting sensation he had received when Kaede - that he had only known as a child - uttered those words. The air lacked in his lungs and the prickling of tears coming again. He held them, his voice feigning detachment, coldness when he spoke. Kagome looked at him, not understanding why he was talking about Kaede's Onee-san that way… he had seemed angry but she didn't understand the complete sadness in his eyes, although his voice didn't show it. She could feel that feeling dancing around him, crackling when it shocked with something else.

 

“Then the bitch tried to kill me for nothing.”

 

Kaede shot her eyes to the little window above Inuyasha head, her fingers absently scrubbing some yellow goo stuff in the wound in Kagome's side above her hip bone.

It hurt like hell, and the youngster took her fist to her mouth to bite it while she held back moans and cried of displeasure.

Inuyasha was still looking away from the scene, but when he heard her stifled wails his koinu ears flattened against his skull tightly.

He just wanted to tell her to shut hell up.

 

“You should know, you were the one who inflicted Kikyou onee-sama's last blow”

 

This time Kaede held nothing but a sheer sadness and loneliness in her tone as she spoke looking at the quarter moon.

But Inuyasha shot to his feet in a blink, Kagome looked scared at him, but he ignored her look, Kaede never once let her position wane, her onyx pained eyes never leaving the moon. Inuyasha growled and bared her his fangs

 

“What did you just said baba?”

 

His tone was vicious, as is she had said to him the worst words in the world, as though she offended him deeply.

 

But it makes sense… he tried to kill Kikyou and then she sealed him and died…

 

Kagome's thoughts though, did nothing to appease her, when the tension became almost unbearable.

 

“I never touched Kikyou! She sealed me! She tried to shot me!”

 

His growl was again vicious he looked like he wanted nothing more than to ram his claws in the old woman and slice her.

 

Is he that animalistic and simplistic?

 

But when she looked into his eyes, Kagome saw such great pain, greater than Kaede's, greater that she had ever seen…as if she had lost the last thing he had to cling on to in his life…

Was that it?

Had he been in love with Kaede's Onee-san? Was he still in love? For him probably, no time had passed…Things had just stopped and had just now started to move, as if he had been in pause mode all of this time.

Tears prickled her nose… if they had been in love why did they attack each other? Inuyasha had stated that Kikyou had “finished him off” and Kaede had very clearly said that he had been the one who had killed Kikyou…

What had gone wrong? Did they forget who they were? Did they forget their love? She didn't understand why but she felt a strange connection to … this story to this woman that she had never seen; this woman that she had heard the Area people whispering about…announcing her return, looking at her instead.

Were they that alike?

Maybe they were… if even Inuyasha who had loved this woman had confused for Kikyou…

Why was she so sad all of a sudden?

Inuyasha was still snarling at the old woman and Kaede obaa-chan was looking at him shocked.

 

“Don't growl at Kaede obaa-chan”

 

The young beautiful girl raised her upper body, supporting her weight on the elbows and glared at the youkai boy…

 

“Or else bitch?”

 

Inuyasha said in a mockery tone. When he understood her mischievous eye glint it was too late. He was on the process of scoffing at her when that dreadful world caught up in his perked ears. He immediately flattened them.

 

“Osuwari”

 

And his face came down to make acquaintance with the tatami floor. This time it didn't hurt half as much as it had the first time, but damn she was still a bitch and he was the male, she couldn't subjugate him. Bloody Hell! She should submit!

 

“Ow! Bitch you're going to regret that!”

 

He growled to the tatami floor but he knew she could hear him… And she did.

 

“I'm not a bitch!”

 

“Oh no? You sure look like o…”

 

“Osuwari”

 

All the way she wore a tired tone of voice. When the spell wore off before he could say something….

 

“Inuyasha step out of the room, I have to change Kagome's attire.”

 

Kaede obaa-chan talked smoothly, her polite tone entering Inuyasha's perked and twitching ears and he growled one last time before jump out of the window to outside of the house.

 

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

 

 

When she woke up the next morning, her whole body was sore as hell. She couldn't move one muscle without have it aching and crying for stillness.

The sun was already high in the sky… she had overslept,,, and she had to get a way of coming back home… quickly. What if the well didn't do anything? What if she was stuck here? She just wanted to return…

She felt dirty and wrinkled her nose when looked at her light yukata clad bandaged body. Hidden by the futon she asked herself if Inuyasha had seen her like this…. When flames licked her cheeks she refrained herself of thinking such things ever again. He was a man, a grown man and she shouldn't think things like those of him… Besides she couldn't forget that pained expression that had tensed up in Inuyasha's face last night.

When the all subject came back to her she remember the story of Tsukiyomi and Hoshiyomi, the ningen and youkai lovers who had ended up torn apart because of a misunderstood… This was the story that Okaa-san always told her to make her always rely in the good part of people.

Could history repeat itself with similar consequences?

She sighed.

She obviously needed a bath and so, with great pain she got up and looked at her smashed body.

 

I feel like I've been hit by a bus a truck a car and a bike all at the same time

 

Her feelings, hadn't they be so true, would've made her laugh. But if she laughed it was going to be the death of her. She was already stiffened enough as it was.

Seeing no one in the room she was occupying at the moment she decided to softly call for obaa-chan name.

She waited for a second when a rustle of fabric rumbled in her hears and the shoji doors opened. Kaede obaa-chan hadn't changed her expression from last night. And although she looked down and miserable she offered Kagome a kind genuine smile.

 

“Hai child?”

 

She blushed a bit and took her finger to her bottom lip.

 

“Would you mind if I took a bath? I feel like I really need it.”

 

“Not at all Kagome-chan, here you go”

 

In her arm fell clothes pretty similar to those the old miko was wearing.

 

“I hope this will fit you. I had a nice figure when I was young too. Oh Kagome? Wouldn't you like to bathe in the hot stream? It's very nice to sore flesh”

 

Her kind smile persisted and she felt compelled to take her offer. It had been some time since she had bathed in a hot stream… There was one here? Where then?

 

“Where is it Kaede obaa-chan?”

 

“Do not worry child, dress and I'll take you there.”

 

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

 

 

Inuyasha had been talking with the old woman in the morning. Sitting in the wooden fence that limited the residential zone of the area from the long forgotten rice fields now dry and dark, he had listened to the baba's world with great pain. The Day had come sunnier though. He didn't remember seeing such a beautiful sun in a long time. There were no clouds in the sky; the birds were chirping he could feel around him, now in the cliff the wildlife pouring from the trees the smell and youki from lower youkai.

His back was relaxed against the soft and scarce grass, and yet so green so happy, dancing in the soft breeze…

This was nothing short on contradiction, how could a day like this born in Risaishi - a very rare day in this scarred country-When today he had found out such dreadful thing…

 

Was it all a misunderstanding?

 

Could it have been …? But how? He had been there in the failed ends of the first Kikyou's arrows he had been in the end of them… then how could it be that this was a misunderstanding? He had seen as clearly as day Kikyou was there, mockery on her face, anger deep hate…. There was no mistaking…

But why would the hag lie about that?

Why would she tell the story in such a different way? Why would she say that he was the one that came to Kikyou and that had sliced her back with his claws? It wasn't true! He had been waiting for her… for her alone to make him happy… to be his. He had been waiting to see her make his dream come true. And then she had appeared out of the blue and shot him. This was her fault! She had the treacherous one, and he, he was the foolish hanyou that actually thought that someone could love him…

But Kaede… Kaede was completely dedicated to Kikyou, since she was a little runt…she wouldn't lie about that… would she? No she wouldn't. Then had it been Kikyou who lied? But she was dead wasn't she? Then someone had killed her.

The wind breezed in his face and he felt the need to howl, to whimper something. Instead he decided he'd go for a run and maybe even bathe in that good hot stream at the heart of the forest.

Had someone tricked them? Had someone made them doubt one another? Had someone made her seal him…?

She was dead…

He couldn't quite stop the sniveling when he thought in that.

What if they had been tricked? After all both versions had the same end…

Inuyasha robbed the shikon no tama.

Kikyou died.

What if all the hatred he'd felt for her was a lie tearing his heart apart with no real reason to? What if… what if she did love him and that all had been a mistake… what if she'd died hating him, like he had died (for fifty years at least) hating her.

But there was nothing to do now…

Kikyou was dead. And there pain he didn't think this pain would ever heal…

From a far from the direction of the hot stream he heard a soft voice, almost just a caress in the wind, but hearing intently he heard the strange girl that look like Kikyou, singing.

 

“Hontou ni taisetsu na mono igai subete sutete shimaetara ii no ni ne genjitsu wa tada zankoku de”

 

Yeah… it would be nice…

 

She stopped singing in whim and he could see from afar a midnight locks hair diving in hot water. She sighed contently, and he watched from the top of the tree.

It wasn't his intention, it really wasn't. But he couldn't help himself when he saw such glittery beautiful ebony tresses splattered along the surface of the timid water that reflected the trees around and they seemed happy two.

He caught himself with the stupid thought that maybe this stupid girl was the reason for such a rare weather in Risaishi.

 

What a really stupid thought.

 

She continued under water for a second longer and then erupted from it; she seemed to be a lot better… oh yes a lot better!

He almost fell from the tree when he saw her completely naked out of the water with the sun glistening in the drops that covered her and reached most intimate places swiveling and turning in her body's curves.

Well damn him! He had to admit she was astonishing.

Aw shit! How can I been thinking this things about this baka girl? She's got me eating earth for fucks sake!

 

She sighed again and slumped to a low rock lodged in the curse of water of the stream pulling her knees to her chest and a tear - he could smell the salt in it- slipped from her eye.

For a moment he thought she had hurt herself when she sat, because of her wounds but that didn't seem to be it… What was it then? He was really tempted to leap from the bench and ask her. Well… no he wasn't, but he was genuinely curious.

 

I miss home, I miss okaa-san and Souta outouto-chan and jii-chan…

 

He heard her mutter, and almost scoffed inwardly with a bitter smile.

 

At least you have someone to miss and that probably misses you too.

 

He had someone to miss too, but he could never see her again and he missed her so much. Haha-ue was long lost from this world, because she was the human one with Chichi-ue's end, she would die anyway, seeing they were mates and mates couldn't live without one another.

He thought idly, lethargically if someday he'd have the chance to find a love like chichi-ue to haha-ue's.

A pang in his chest remembered him of Kikyou kind smile and he smiled too despite the pain that image brought him…

Their love had been nothing like his parent's.

In the two sceneries things worked out wrong. If she had betrayed him, then she hadn't even loved him. But if they had been tricked in betraying one another…

Then that love was tainted with insecurity and mistrust.

He had thought for a moment yes, that she would be his mate, but in the end it was something that he didn't knew much about and he'd have to ask Myouga if he wanted to now.

Not that he wanted. Of course not.

 

Fuck!

 

He had to curse. It was in his nature to curse and he had to when he saw that girl, descend from the rock she had sat on and dive in the water again and lift her whole body again in a whim, so quickly that she had splashed water all around her as if she was a water Kami.

This girl was dangerous.

That was what he decided when he saw her beginning to come to landwards to climb her way out of the steamy pond. He quickly averted her eyes and looked at the dark foliage of the trees of his forest…

He wondered absentmindedly what she would dress considering that she had her clothes ripped. Oh well. She laughed girlishly and when the rustle ended he looked behind again and an anguish gasp escaped his lips followed by a low growl.

 

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

 

All in all it had been a very good bath, hot and steamy were her favorites, and she had even brought some shampoo that Kaede obaa-chan had lend her.

She was - at the moment- happy and satisfied, and to thank Kaede obaa-chan she was determined to make oden to lunch.

Her eyes shined a bit at the idea of her favorite food and she clasped her hands together and giggled girlishly, finishing then to dress her white miko suikan.

In a second later she was pinned to a tree a low growl issuing itself in the depths of Inuyasha's body.

He looked at her angrier than she had ever known but when her brown eyes met his sun kissed golden ones he let go and Keh'd.

 

“You can't wear those clothes, take them off!”

 

She felt her nerves getting redder actually a vein popped from her balled up fists and she asked slowly.

 

“Were you watching me take a bath?”

 

And when his whole body stiffened and he didn't move nor talked she knew he was.

 

“Osuwari”

 

She humphed, and stomp his back to make her point clear. She was mad.

 

“Lunch is going to be oden, don't come late”

 

Her tone very irritated and threatening, he didn't thought nor even for a second of not going to lunch.

 

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

 

So she could cook what was the big deal? His stomach still rumbled happily with the memory of the amazing oden that annoying girl had made. And she looked happier than any of them eating her bowl. Her eyes shone with joy as she delved in the food. She wasn't talking to him. Not that it bothered him. No it really didn't bothered him her voice was obnoxious and he didn't want to hear it or even think of it.

But he knew he hadn't acted right at the hot stream, but when he looked back he didn't even thought. He didn't knew what had came to his head… was the thought of her wearing the red hakama and the white suikan, and being stealing kikyou's identity?

Had he thought it was Kikyou and therefore lunged at her?

He honestly didn't know and so, couldn't answer his own questions…

 

Up in his tree, the one nearer the cliff that gave sight to the entire Area and attached lands, he sighed and bit his bottom lip.

Would he ever find out why that had happen? Would he ever find out what had happened?

Maybe… Maybe it was really just a trick, maybe Kikyou had loved him.

He didn't know which idea was more comforting and which was more unsettling. The one that Kikyou had really loved him and there had been a ploy set against each other, and they didn't trust one another; or the idea that she hated him mocked him and his feelings and really had wanted to seal him…

A scent that he had learnt to know and fear although he'd never admit the last one, it smelled like vanilla and wildflowers, jasmine and something so unique he couldn't quite put his nose in it.

 

“What do you want wench?”

 

She huffed and turned her head away. Her cheeks a bright pink.

 

“Kaede obaa-chan said she needed to talk to you. And I'm sorry I sat you this morning.”

 

He dropped right in front of where she had tucked her hands under her butt and had kneaded, playing with some strands of grass she seemed completely distracted by the way the wind played with her ebony tresses an made her grass fly from her hand. When she noticed he was looking at her intently his hands on the ground and his knees draw up in a very canine display of anxiety a deep scowl on his face.

 

“No you're not, you're a bitch”

 

She looked sadly at him and again plucked some grass strands from the floor, the wind threatened to rob them again but she grasped him and put a tucked a lock of shiny black hair behind her ningen ear.

 

“Am I that similar to her?”

 

She established a soft tired smile. Kagome had spent the entire day- seeing it was now a deep afternoon, and the red sky was already calling the night -hearing the Area elder people that came to thank her, that she was exactly alike their other miko, before Kaede-sama. Kikyou-sama… Then they had told her numerous times the legend. So she knew the version Kaede had passed to Inuyasha.

He stiffened again and looked away right away blushing; now sitting in a non-so-canine way, in Indian style and arms crossed at the chest.

 

“Then I'm sure you have your motives to hate me”

 

She offered him a sad smile and began lifting, but he caught her wrist before she could. She shot him a quizzical glance and he came closer. His eyes seeing something that wasn't there.

Those words had attacked him as if they were coming from Kikyou's rouge lips, tore at him, and he let his gaze fall to her pink innocent ones.

He wanted to prove her that he didn't hate her… He'd always love her…He still did.

Then he realized what she was doing and Kagome loosened herself from the grip he had on her wrist.

Her choked sour laugh made him feel like shit.

“I guess I'm that similar.”

 

And she began walking away.

 

- - - - - -

Next chapter: The Shikon no Kakera!

 

Chino.