InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Risen in Patria ❯ Protector ( Chapter 5 )

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

Risen in Patria

Summary: Years ago, a great war left the lands scarred with demons and humans hateful of each other.  Now the fallen Taisho Inuyasha has been turned into his own worst nightmare, but he finds his strength in the wild, beautiful Kagome Higurashi.  Together, the two must decipher the kingdom’s history to prevent a ruthless tyrant from destroying their homes and lives.

Warnings: Mild gore, language, OOC, explicit sexual content, implied sexual relationships

Miscellanies:

Word Count – 10,163
Post Date – June 6, 2013

Protector

A sea of pink petals twirled and swam through the air, perfuming his mind with its sweet, floral scent.  A curved stonewall encased him, hugging the world around him.  Two enormous hedges, unkempt from years of neglect, lined the stone, forever a struggle between man and nature.  Inuyasha looked around in wonder at the vivid green surrounding him and the sparkling blue waters of the pond before him.

“…My lord?”  A soft voice gently sounded to his side, alerting him to the fact that someone had been talking to him, and he swung his gaze down to the woman beside him…his mother!  She looked just as he remembered her, but once again, younger than in his memories.  His eyes quickly noticed her dress, wealthy robes that were once in good shape now lay loosely on her haggard frame.

Before he could even think about his response, a calm and determined voice, one that he recognized some place deep in his bones, filled Inuyasha’s mind.  “Izayoi, I will protect you.  I swear it.”

“I…thank you.  But,” he could see her eyes shut in pain, “What can we do?” She looked up at him imploringly, her eyes swollen from her tears.  “He has taken from me everyone I love, my mother, my father, my friends!” She looked down, unable to meet his eyes, and he felt a sudden, strange urge to shake her in frustration.  Why couldn’t she understand, his mind asked.

“Do you not love me, Izayoi?” The same, vaguely familiar voice rumbled out of him.  Inuyasha watched in fascination as a clawed hand – his clawed hand, though larger than he remembered – reached down to lift her chin.  It was like watching through another’s eyes.

“I-I…” She sighed tiredly, “Inu no Taisho…” She closed her eyes, looking for the words to say, to fix this whole thing, but couldn’t find them.  Finally, she conceded, “You know I do…”

“I’ve told you before to call me Touga.*” Inuyasha said, though again, the voice coming out of his mouth wasn’t his own.  A light pink dusted her cheeks.

“M-my lord, it’s not proper.”

“Doing things the ‘proper’ way has gotten us into this mess!” A frustrated growl shook his form.  “Why can you not understand?  I just want to protect you…us…I want to save you, take you far, far away from here.  I want us to be together, gods damn the King!...and the laws!  I don’t care that you are a human…” Suddenly her soft form was pressed against his, and the youkai in him could only purr in content as it could finally hold his mate.  “You are my human…my princess.”

“Touga…” Her eyes were shining and dewy with suppressed tears.  “I’m just…I am frightened, Touga.  For us, for you!  You cannot think to take him on alone.  He is too powerful as he is, and I cannot bear to lose you,” she cried out, finally allowing herself to collapse against him.

“His power is not a natural one, and many grow malcontent with his rule.  Rebellion brews in the cities, in the palace, under his nose.  That is our chance, Izayoi.” Her long black hair shone beneath him, and those claws, similar to his own but so much larger, reached down to free them it from the pins and ties binding it.  He stepped back to look into her eyes once more.  “Let all of this go, Izayoi.”

“I can’t...Not when I can save so many by giving him what he wants.  Rebellion…how many would die?”

“Rebellion is coming,” he spoke fiercely, grabbing hold of her shoulders.  “ War is coming whether you give that wretched youkai your hand or not, and I will not allow him to have you.”

She drew deep, pained breaths at his words.  “I don’t want to marry him,” she finally admitted. “He…he killed my father, f-forced m-my mother…” Her words succumbed to a choked sob.  “You’re all I have left.”

“Then marry me, Izayoi.  Be my mate, as you are meant to be,” his voice softened, gently imploring her.  He wanted her to stop crying, both Inuyasha himself and this man that was speaking through him.

“Touga,” she sighed, leaning against his chest in a mix of exhaustion and relief.

“Just say yes, Izayoi.  Let me protect you…please, don’t refuse me this time,” he allowed himself to beg, lightly stroking her hair.

Her eyes closed in thought for what felt like forever.  Finally, she looked up at him, still leaning against him as if unwilling to let go, and gave him a genuine smile.  “Yes.”  And that was all she needed to say before Inuyasha suddenly felt his head fall forward.

With a sudden intake of air, Inuyasha was brought back to the living, lurching forward.  He shook his head and closed his eyes to clear his dream-clouded thoughts.  But even as he tried to will away the foreign feelings and images, the scenes continued to flash before his eyes.  The scenery, foliage, and scents of his dream seemed so real that he could still sense them now as he sat awake.  He recognized the setting, a small garden at the edges of the town surrounding the palace.  His mother had taken him there when he was but a young child, and he visited it occasionally when he missed her.  For many years during his childhood, he had sought comfort from the warmth of its grounds, safety in the high branches of the Goshinboku, the garden’s largest tree.

But what did any of this mean?  Was the dream hinting that his mother had an affair with a youkai?  Inuyasha profusely shook his head, refusing to believe even the idea.

Remembering the way he had hugged her in the dream, he shuddered at the thought of being with his mother…that way.  ‘Blechh!’  He had not known her long, but everything he felt toward her had been strictly…well, motherly.  Yet, in his dream, holding her had felt like the most natural thing in the world to the youkai in him – the foreign youkai, he reminded himself.  This had been the second time he dreamt of his mother, and both times it had almost felt like he was living a memory.  ‘And who the hell Touga?’  He thought in frustration.

Pushing the confusing dream and questions out of his mind, he finally opened his lids and looked upward.

“What the fuck?”  He shot upward again, but a sharp pain ran through his system.  He ignored it, looking suspiciously around at the unfamiliar walls.  There was a set of stairs off to the side, but a large plank covered its entrance.  He realized that he was in some kind of cellar, but he couldn’t remember how in the seven hells he had gotten here.

Frantically searching his memory for some clue, he finally remembered, ‘The demons!’  He and Kagome had been fighting those two demons and he’d been hurt, badly.  There’d been the demon, the one with the lavender hair, and then that second demon…the one that had injured him so badly.  That was as much as he could recall clearly.  ‘Have we been captured?’  He looked in panic at the floors around him, but Kagome was nowhere to be seen.  Her scent lingered in his clothes, but just barely, and certainly not enough to indicate that she had ever been in this room at all.  And as he took a deep whiff, he caught the unsettling and ominous scent of blood – Kagome’s blood.

Ignoring the pain that lanced through him, Inuyasha cautiously pushed himself up and surveyed the room again to ensure he was alone.  Had they gotten a hold of Kagome?  Panic flooded him at the thought, and that was enough motivation for him to push himself to his feet.

His ears began to pick up sounds of movement from above.  They were minimal, but enough to indicate life beyond this cellar.  Crouching quietly and steadily up the stairs, he listened for anything that could clue him in on what he was up against.  There was some light shuffling around, and he thought he could hear a fire crackling, but he didn’t hear anything too alarming.  

Tensing his arms and poising the weapons at the tips of his fingers, Inuyasha counted to three and thrust his arm into the locked cellar door, cracking it in half and ripping it off its hinges.  He heard a frightened gasp just as he launched himself through the opening, and immediately spun around to face his foe –

…who was crouched low against a wall, clearly trying not to cower.

“Jinenji?” What was he doing here?  Inuyasha lowered his arms slowly, darting his eyes around to take in his surroundings.  “What am I doing in your house?” He asked in what he hoped was a calming voice.

Jinenji lowered his arms in response, and carefully stood up, though his enormous form was still stunted by the hut’s ceiling.  “You were…” He paused hesitantly.  “I had to take you back here after what happened,” Jinenji whispered, his voice so soft Inuyasha would have missed it had it not been for the fur-tipped ears on his head.

Inuyasha furrowed his brows in confusion.  After what happened?  “What are you talking about?”

The blue-eyed giant twisted uncomfortably, clearly still nervous in his presence.  “You don’t remember?”

“Well obviously not,” he snorted in reply.  Yeah, it was rude, but at the moment he didn’t care.  What he wanted to know was why the hell he felt like he had a hole in his body and what had happened to Kagome.  He could smell her scent, but the heavy, dizzying odor of herbs and medicine overwhelmed it.  “Where’s Kagome?”

Jinenji’s heart beat picked up in what he recognized as nervousness, and Inuyasha suddenly found himself suppressing a growl.  If the giant had so much as harmed a hair on her head…

Inuyasha watched carefully as Jinenji moved one of his hulking arms, and behind it, he saw a familiar head of black hair.  Though he couldn’t see much more beyond the small window of space between Jinenji’s arm and his enormous torso, he could see the sickly pale skin of Kagome’s face and the lackluster hair spilled over the padded floor.  Repressing his initial anger, he somehow kept himself from losing control and attacking the giant blocking her from his view.

“What did you do to her?” Nearly scaring himself at the deadly threat in his voice, Inuyasha narrowed his eyes and crouched in preparation to attack.

Seeing Inuyasha’s intent, Jinenji quickly tried to appease the provoked half-demon.  “No-nothing!”  He waved his huge hands defensively.  “Ka-Kagome…” Pausing hesitantly, Jinenji picked his next words carefully.  “Kagome g-got hurt.  I had to bring her back”

“Yes, I know that!” He growled partly in anger and partly in frustration.  He’d always hated when people would talk in circles around him, avoiding the actual question.  A fair share of people in court had the habit of keeping him ignorant of anything they felt he shouldn’t hear or anything they thought would displease him, and Inuyasha certainly didn’t want to deal with that from the demon in front of him.

Rather than attempt an explanation, Jinenji decided that perhaps then would be a good time to show, rather than tell, what had happened.  As he stepped to the side, his form began to crowd Inuyasha’s side of the hut, and so a suspicious Inuyasha moved closer to the area that the demon had left, his amber eyes never leaving Jinenji’s huddled body.

Jinenji slowly and cautiously, as if afraid he would startle Inuyasha into fight mode, gestured to Kagome’s prone form and bent down to lift the threadbare blanket from her.

When bloodied bandages came into view, Inuyasha’s stomach churned painfully.  The half-dried splotches looked like crimson flowers blooming across her torso, and he turned to Jinenji in anger.  What the hell had happened that kept both of them from protecting her?  The demons he’d been fighting had obviously been taken care of, or they wouldn’t be here, bandaged and talking right now, so how could she have been hurt?

Kneeling at her side, he reached a hand forward to touch the reddened bandages as if entranced by the sight.  The smell of bloody, metallic and tangy, suddenly pervaded the air around them, and he suppressed the instinctive disgust and – more disturbingly – the sickening sweetness the odor seemed to possess.  What was wrong with him?  Before he could reach the bloodied rags, he finally caught sight of his hands.

They were covered in dry blood.

He took a shaky breath.

Kagome’s blood.

A million thoughts drove themselves into his mind, each more dreadful that the last.  What the hell happened?  Had…he done this?  That was impossible, Inuyasha thought with a shake of his head.  ‘I protected her,’ he assured himself.

The crimson blossoms became too much to bear.  He turned away, eyes shut, and paused before looking upwards at Jinenji.  The giant was staring at him with some unidentifiable look, and Inuyasha resisted the impulsive desire to cut that haunting face out of his sight.  It looked too much like pity.  He told himself that he felt such an urge because monsters didn’t pity kings – a Taisho like him.

Whether by some cruelty or kindness of the gods, Jinenji finally spoke up, “Y-yo-u were h-hurt, and I-I tried to help-p you.”  Clearing his throat to put together the first completely coherent sentence Inuyasha had heard from him, he continued in a whisper that rang in Inuyasha’s ears, “You transformed into…this demon and you killed the other two – those demons, but you hurt her…Kagome.  You don’t remember at all?”

“No…”  He couldn’t tell if his reply was meant to answer Jinenji’s question or to deny – to himself, to Jinenji – that what Jinenji could be true.  But again, the rusty, metallic scent of blood wafted upwards from his hands, and his eyes helplessly latched onto the burgundy tint on his claws.  The claws that he’d meant to protect her with.  The claws his dream had promised to protect his mother.  “How…how did that happen?”  

If not for the absolute silence in the cramped hut, Jinenji doubted he would have even heard the whispered question.  “I…I’m not sure.  One moment, you were hurt…then…You transformed into this…I don’t know what it was, but you looked different,” he explained in a harrowed voice.  “You killed those two demons – the ones you and Kagome were fighting – and I didn’t think you were going to hurt Kagome, but then you said something...”

Inuyasha’s eyes remained locked on the deep red bandages, as if still trying to make sense that this was all real, and Jinenji thought for a moment to stop – to allow the hanyou who clearly couldn’t take this sudden change of events a rest – but Inuyasha swung his gaze back to Jinenji’s blue eyes.

“What did I say?”

“I-I didn’t hear.  I d-don’t really have good hearing.”

“You have to have heard something,” Inuyasha furiously insisted.  None of this made any sense.  He’d been dead set on keeping Kagome safe – if not for the fact that he liked her than for the life debt he owed her – so why in the nine hells would he have tried to hurt her?!  “You’re a goddamned demon!  How could you not have heard?” He demanded.

Startled by his anger, Jinenji stumbled backwards in mild fear.  “I-…well, n-not full.  And m-my da-dad…he didn’t have good hearing neither.  I’m sorry…”

When he realized how easily he’d frightened the demon – no, half-demon – Inuyasha took a deep breath, trying to ignore the scent of blood around him.  He had a feeling that Jinenji wouldn’t be so willing to give him answer if he was scared out of his mind, so he had to go about this carefully.

“Fine.  What happened after that?  How…did I stop?”  His contemplative eyes fell on her again.  ‘None of this makes any fucking sense!  I know I was injured, but I wouldn’t have attacked Kagome,’ he thought in frustration.  Despite all that had happened in the past few weeks, he liked her.  Genuinely liked her…and he wanted her, perhaps even more than he had before the curse because he’d actually gotten the chance to know the woman behind the beautiful face.  There’s was nothing that he could possibly imagine that would make him want to hurt her.

Jinenji blushed at Inuyasha’s question and stammered in nervousness.  Realizing that Inuyasha probably wasn’t in the most patient of moods, he finally got out, “I got there in time.”  Inuyasha watched him look down at the immobile body on the floor.  “I-I, uh-m…I saw that y-you were going to h-hurt Kagome so I st-stopped you,” he stammered out.  “Y-You were going to h-hit her – I could tell! – so I-I just knocked you out,” Jinenji explained, adding the last part with his hands raised defensively as if expecting a violent response.  “You were down in the lower room for all of yesterday and most of today.”

Each word that came out of Jinenji’s mouth only seemed to make the world spin faster.  Inuyasha braced his hands against the wall, feeling the crusted blood under his nails crack and flake.   He ignored the pain that shot through him at his jostled wound – somehow everything that he had found out in the past few minutes dulled the sharp throbbing.  Someone else – perhaps one of those demons he’d been keen on killing – must have gained control of his body somehow.  Maybe it was a poison in the demon’s claws that infected him or maybe it was an enchantment.  He didn’t know, but he did know that it had to have been something else acting through him.  That was the only logical explanation.  He turned his eyes downward to the woman lying unconscious on the floor once more, feeling little alleviation from the guilt.  Bewitched or poisoned or not, it was through his weakness, his fault, that she was hurt.  

Jinenji carefully took a step forward, drawing Inuyasha’s darkened amber eyes toward him.  “I…I need to change her bandages,” he explained softly, realizing that Inuyasha was calming down.  Without a word, Inuyasha stepped to the side to allow Jinenji to pass, and for the first time, the fragrance of herbs and foliage that accompanied the giant demon soothed his nose, blocking out the metallic tang in the air.  He watched as the half-demon slowly unwrapped the sticky white cloth from Kagome’s pale form, three long claw marks and the dark threads that sewed them shut emerging behind the gauze and green paste.  However, what captured his attention were the fiery red blotching and the sickly smell that suddenly erupted into the air.

Refraining from the urge to cough up whatever was left in his system, he managed to get his question out, “What is that?”

“That smell…” Jinenji paused.  “It must be infected,” he explained worriedly.  “I tried to clean the wound, but it could have gotten infected anyway.”  Suddenly, Jinenji transitioned into work mode, snipping the threads that he needed to open, and applying an infection-curbing salve.  Inuyasha watched with an almost morbid fascination as if unable to look away from the sight of those claw marks.  They had been sewn shut, but he could still see the deep red lines, thankfully not as serious as they appeared from the bandages.

When Jinenji was finished, he turned to Inuyasha again.  “If the infection gets worse, she could…be in trouble,” Jinenji explained seriously.  “She needs human medicine and I don’t have any here.  You can probably bring her home tomorrow morning, but just be careful not to jostle anything.  She’ll be more comfortable healing there, and if the infection dies down, she will be okay,” he explained.

It didn’t sound like the brightest of ideas to be moving her back while they were both still injured, but Jinenji knew more about medicines and healing so Inuyasha nodded his consent nonetheless.  

He watched as Jinenji moved out of the cramped hut, and debated finding a river nearby to wash his hands.  The smell and mere sight of blood coating his claws was nauseating.  In fact, all he wanted to do was wash himself from the inside out.  Somehow, he felt dirtied, tainted in a way that he had never felt before, even more than he’d felt at his transformation.

A quiet mumbling from below broke his train of thought.

‘…n…mmm…’ He heard Kagome’s soft moans and knelt her side.  He noticed that she had feverish red with beads of sweat falling from her temples.  Inuyasha hesitantly moved his clean hand to wipe her brow, absently brushing away a few stray hairs.  As if she could sense his presence, Kagome turned towards his hand.  “…hn…mm…”

Inuyasha had no idea what she could possibly be trying to say, but just hearing her mumbles comforted him.  If nothing else, it seemed like a sign that she was alive and healing.  He spared a look outside to gauge the hour.  The light pinks and oranges that dusted the sky meant that it was early evening.  He still had the whole night ahead of him.  A whole night of figuring out how this had happened.  And he was going to figure it out, he promised himself.  He owed Kagome that much.

Two sweaty figures, bare bodies on a warm futon, lay in the dark with only the flickering sparks of the fireplace to fill the silence.  The sheets fell to the side in a crumpled heap as the man kicked apart his partner’s legs and flipped her onto her back.

In a swift move, he was in her once more, eliciting a surprised yelp from the girl beneath him.  He smirked arrogantly.  “I don’t tire as easily as the bandit.”

She lost any retort she could have wanted to say as he hit something deep within her that had her crying out to the paper-thin walls.  The part of her that was mortified by her lack of shame disappeared in those moments.  She should have been beating herself up for enjoying the way he moved against her – what kind of whore actually liked being taken against her will, even if she had no choice but to allow him what he wanted.  But as her body succumbed to the physical pleasures he wrought on it, Koharu couldn’t care less who could hear.

The muscled man above her rocked against her almost angrily, bringing them both to the end the needed when the abrupt opening of one of the doors startled them.

When she realized who was standing at the door, Koharu shot up, yanking the sheets to herself.

“Don’t bother.  You were my whore first, princess,” the man at the door taunted.

“O-of course, Nara – ” She began stuttering when the man above her interrupted.

“What do you need, Naraku?” He pulled himself off her and began dressing without another glance at her.

“I need to speak with you.  Get dressed.”  Naraku turned to leave, before an idea crossed his mind and he shifted his ruby gaze to Koharu.  “I have a few guests that could use some entertaining.  Why don’t you go keep them busy, princess?”

Feeling the dread curl and twist her stomach into knots, Koharu began to pull on her flimsy yukata, refraining from the urge to shiver as the cool air brushed across the room.  She started rising when a voice interrupted.

“Just leave her be for now.  I’ll probably fuck her again after we’re done anyway,” he said, waving a hand nonchalantly.

Naraku leveled a calculating stare at him, his gaze sending shivers down her spine even though it wasn’t directed at her, and conceded.  “Fine.  I wouldn’t get too attached, though.”

The man snorted indignantly.  “Won’t be a problem.”

“Good.  Get dressed.”  Naraku spun on his heels and abruptly slid the sliding door shut, signaling the end of their conversation and allowing the two in the room to get dressed.

Koharu knelt, quietly pulling on her yukata when a large hand reached down and drew it back down, lingering on the naked skin at the curve of her neck.

“There’s no point in that.  Did you think I told Naraku to leave you here for nothing?” He asked with his usual smirk.

“Oh…of course, Bankotsu-sama.”  

As much as she hated to admit it, she couldn’t help feeling a twinge of anger every time he put it so bluntly.  It tore at her – the fact that she had come to rely on a man that saw her as little more than “someone to keep the bed warm,” as Bankotsu had so kindly put it.  Nonetheless, she would take him over Naraku or any of Naraku’s other men any day and the fact was that he had protected her from the numerous times Naraku meant to “share” her with them.  As it stood, he was the best of her choices, and Koharu wasn’t foolish enough to fail to recognize that.

After a few moments of silence as he dressed, he left without another word, leaving the “princess” alone to her thoughts.  Bankotsu made his way down to Naraku’s room with the practiced stealth of a mercenary.  The hand on his halberd always tightened subconsciously when he walked the hallways.  This might have been his temporary “home,” while Naraku had him doing the dirty work, but Bankotsu wasn’t stupid enough to let his guard down.  Naraku was the type of man who might have slit his throat just to see if the blade was sharp, and he wasn’t about to let himself become the test subject.  Perhaps the only time he even relaxed a bit was with the whore – after all, he reasoned, every man needed some time to enjoy a treat or two.  

“Come in.”  Naraku’s voice reached him from behind the closed door.  The door slid open with a slight creak, and Bankotsu held back the shivers that always ran down his back when he stepped into this room.  The two corpses, one belonging to the previous lord and the other belonging to the idiot that had entrusted his daughter to the wolves, still lay to the side, their decaying stench clouding the air.  Even with his own familiarity with dead bodies, he still couldn’t stand the way they smelled.  Naraku offered him a grin, as if pleased with Bankotsu’s discomfort.  “How is the recruiting?”

“As planned.  We have twelve thousand in Ha Kian, twenty miles north of here, and another two thousand stationed around various towns.  Fifteen hundred more on their way to the castle now.  They’ll be ready to march in three weeks.” Bankotsu reported.  The scattered northern lands were wrought with anger and thirst for blood.  It hadn’t been all that difficult to convince them to march against the kingdom that was largely responsible.  They might not be the most organized or trained men, but they were the most angry, and he knew never to underestimate anger as motivation.

“Hmm…” Naraku hummed aloud in thought.  “Good.”  He poked aimlessly at the dying embers of the fireplace, drawing out the uncomfortable silence in the room.  A large pot hung over the charred wood, clearly still hot from the fire.  “I have another task for you in the meanwhile.  The slayer girl.  She’s of no more use to me.”

Bankotsu watched as Naraku stood and walked to the clay pot and removed the lid with his back to the mercenary.  “She disappeared in the forests south of here.  You’ll see it marked on the map.  I want her gone.” He instructed.  As Naraku reached into the pot to pull something out, Bankotsu suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck stiffen ominously.  

A pulsing quiet stretched between the two men.  Naraku finally turned around, allowing him to see the burning red heart he tenderly cradled in his arms.  “This time, I’ll make sure no one gets in the way.”

Sango was not the type of person who easily admitted defeat.  But as she looked at Miroku’s wound – the bite marks on his arm and the darkened flesh around it – she was starting to realize it was time for her to wave the white flag.  It was unlike any other injury she had ever seen, and every passing second only made it worse.

Miroku himself had passed out from the fever, and for that at least, she was grateful.  She watched in morbid fascination and horror as a blackish purple liquid seemed to spread through his whole forearms from the bite wound, spidering up his arm in the infected veins.  And despite her fear that the strange infection would be infectious, she had dared to touch the bite marks, but there was a dangerous air around them, pulsating and keeping her from pressing her fingers down.

“Fuck…Come on Miroku,” She groaned out, yanking off a piece of cloth from her silk dress, a pretty gift from the man himself, and tying it tightly around his arm in the hopes that it would stop the spread of whatever it was inside him.  

His breathing was labored, and no matter how she wiped, his brow was covered in sweat.  She had to get him to civilization, and soon, because she knew he wouldn’t make it otherwise.  There was no food, no water, and she didn’t dare leave to find them any because she was honestly afraid that he might die in her absence, as if her presence somehow kept his life tethered.

She’d managed to get the both of them to safety and shelter, and there hadn’t been a sign of their attackers after they’d been saved by the witch.  Speaking of which, she still had no idea what happened.  The demon and rogues that had attacked the royal carriages…and those silent men…their leader had implied that the “spider” sent his deepest regrets.

‘That would mean Naraku sent them to kill Miroku…and me,’ Sango concluded.  But did he mean to kill her?  From what she knew, Naraku wouldn’t have any idea that she was even traveling with Miroku.  After all, she hadn’t heard from him, which was quite the blessing she might add, since the days leading up until the coronation.  ‘But it sounded like that demon knew I was there…’ Sango couldn’t help the paranoia and suspicion.  She’d gotten in bed with the devil, and it would come back to bite her in the ass one day.  Of course, it was all worth it, she reminded herself.  Kohaku…he would be back safe, and that was worth selling her soul.

Her greatest fear was that after all this Naraku would betray her still, and so she knew she needed to devise some plan that would ensure that Kohaku would be returned safely.  Naraku wanted something…something that was supposedly in the capital, somewhere in the main castle.  Unfortunately, he’d been entirely withholding about what exactly that was.

As she tried to figure out what the man who held her baby brother’s life in his hands wanted, a suddenly whistling sound began to register in her ears.  It was soft, barely audible, and Sango looked around cautiously to figure out where it could be coming from, praying to the gods that it wasn’t some demon trying to sneak up and attack them.  With Miroku in such bad shape, she didn’t know if she’d be able to protect them both.  Unable to locate the source of the sound, Sango took another glance at Miroku when the rustling in his robes caught her eye.   

‘What is that?’ She moved her hand to the one odd region, carefully feeling his now-dirty and raggedy robes.  By some chance, his injured arm fell to the side and she finally caught sight of his right palm, swollen, purple, and grotesque.  And as much as she wanted to look away, she could not help but notice that his hand was creating the breeze.  At the center of his palm was a blackened and leathery circle, swirling in on itself.  She moved her hand over his, eyes stuck as if in a trance, and felt the effects of it for herself.  

‘Kami…what the hell is that?’

She had never encountered anything like this before, but now she knew it wasn’t just some regular infection.  This looked like some dark witchcraft or youkai magic – something that a healer at your average healer wouldn’t know how to deal with.  That meant she needed to find someone specialized, someone with knowledge of the dark arts and the ability to heal them, and she knew just the family to look for.

Sango took a look outside and realized that nightfall would be upon them soon.  There was no way she could drag Miroku out into the cold with her in such bad shape and with Miroku trailing the smell of blood and infection everywhere, so that left tomorrow morning.  If the gods were on her side, she’d be able to get him to safety and treatment in three days time, and she could only hope he would make it through the journey.

After all, she had a favor to collect from one Higurashi priestess, and lecherous monk that had found a small place in her heart was well worth the price.

Come dawn, and Inuyasha had barely slept a wink of sleep.  As he had promised himself, he’d kept intense vigil through the night.  These woods weren’t safe.  The demons here weren’t safe.  Jinenji wasn’t safe.  ‘I’m not safe,’ he thought as a reminder.

She hadn’t woken up at all last night, and he wasn’t sure whether he should be grateful for that.  Part of him was grateful; he couldn’t imagine facing her after what he’d done.  First, at the capital…and now this?  Why was it the one time he truly wanted someone, he did everything he could to make sure she would hate him – and she would hate him.  ‘I can’t keep this up,’ he knew.  If he didn’t confess soon out of guilt, his many years of living at court had taught him that all secrets came out eventually, and when this one did, it would be the worst one yet.  He had killed, he had conquered, and he had done what needed to be done to keep the kingdom safe from the dangerous, wretched creatures that were demons, but he had never – nor would he ever willingly – rape anyone.  If it weren’t for the fact that he could still feel her, remember the way she had looked and smelled that night, Inuyasha wouldn’t have believed it at all.  Worst of all, he still desired her.  

Refraining from the urge to chuck something at the walls – other than the fact that their half-demon host wouldn’t have appreciated it, and he feared the slightest disturbance would collapse the tiny home – he brooded over what the events of the past few weeks.  He had tried to make the best of the situation, tried to turn this curse into a blessing of some sort, but nothing was going his way.

“I changed her bandages,” Jinenji’s soft declaration broke the silence.

Grunting his acknowledgement, Inuyasha rose from his perch at the threshold of the hut and made his way to Kagome’s side.

“Kagome has a salve made from Omeji herbs at her house.  You’ll need to change her bandages and apply that to her wounds.”

He nodded automatically, taking in what Jinenji said but still lost in thought.  Kagome had said that the path to and from Jinenji’s gardens was largely safe, but he wanted to be mentally and physically prepared – or as physically prepared as someone could get with a hole in his chest – for the trip back.  It wasn’t long – less than an hour at the leisurely pace he and Kagome had taken yesterday – which meant that he could have her safely back at home in ten minutes max, Inuyasha estimated.  However, as he now knew after yesterday’s attack, the area wasn’t very safe at all.

“Twice a day, preferably, until you start to see scarring,” Jinenji continued.  “She’ll be awake and can tell you what she wants by then.”

“Are you sure it’s the best thing to do, taking her home right now?”  If they were attacked on the road back, then Inuyasha would be risking further injury to her.

Nodding, Jinenji explained seriously.  “These herbs really only effectively treat demons.  Her infection will only get worse without her own medicine.”

“Okay,” he consented, pushing himself to his feet.  His own wound still shot sharp pains through his system if he moved too quickly, but he could deal with it until he and Kagome were safe at the Higurashi estate.

“Do you need h-help?” Jinenji asked reluctantly when he noticed the wince on Inuyasha’s face.  “I can c-carry Kagome back w-with you,” he suggested, hoping Inuyasha wouldn’t take the offer as an insult.

…which, naturally, is exactly how the prideful hanyou took it.

“No,” he grunted out.  “We’ll be fine.”

Nodding reluctantly, Jinenji began to pack the various medicines he had originally intended for Kagome.  With Jinenji’s attention elsewhere, Inuyasha made his way to Kagome’s prone figure and gently lifted the threadbare blanket from her body.  He could see the red seeping through the bandages again and clenched his fist guiltily.  It didn’t take a genius to realize that those wounds would scar Kagome for the rest of her life.  

Putting the guilt aside for the moment, he gently lifted Kagome up, making sure not to jostle her wounds and waited for Jinenji to strap the bag of herbs and medicines to his back.  Even with his injury, the extra weight was almost no burden on him and if the need arose, he knew he would have the strength to run Kagome to safety.

‘I guess being a demon has its benefits in this case,’ he mused as Jinenji finished preparing them for the short trip.

With a curt nod, Inuyasha took off in the direction of Kagome’s home.  Luckily, he made it back with no incidence minus the slight tearing and sting Inuyasha could feel in his midsection.

Ignoring the discomfort, Inuyasha quickly made his way into the house, throwing down the bag of Jinenji’s medicine and gingerly setting Kagome down on her bed.

He began his search for the Omeji stuff that Jinenji had mentioned, thanking the kami that Kagome had meticulous labels for each and every plant, paste and herb in the cabinets.  Frankly, if it weren’t for the old cook Kaede forcing him to eat his greens every now and then, he probably wouldn’t have ever known the difference between peas and broccoli.

‘A-ha.’ He pulled a jar of half-goopy, half-leafiness labeled “Omeji” out of one of the cabinets.

He carried the jar over to Kagome’s futon, kneeling by her side.  With a deep breath, he began to unwrap her bloodied bandages, taking great care not to tear anything or hurt her in the process.  Inch by inch, three red streaks appeared before him.  The sickening smell of infection still overwhelmed her natural scent, and Inuyasha blinked away the reactionary tears he had to the stinging odor.  

 As if on autopilot, his hands began to take small globs of the paste and smooth it over her wounds.

It smelled so wrong.  Since his unfortunate transformation, he’d loved the way she smelled to the point of addiction.  His sense of smell was the one thing he wished he could keep after removing the curse, if only so he could continue to take in that entrancing scent.  And now, the smell of infection and the bitter paste had taken its place.

He didn’t know much about treating wounds, and he could only hope that what he was doing wasn’t causing Kagome any additional pain.  Through it all, she lay motionless, and if it weren’t for the slow rise and fall of her chest, he would have feared the worst.

‘It could have been,’ he reminded himself.  That the same claws that had done this to her were the ones now trying to rectify their mistake was not lost on him.  By some miracle, he saved Kagome from the demons that attacked them, but by that same miracle he had nearly killed her.  He may have thought Jinenji weak and useless, but that didn’t change the fact that the it was the giant who had kept Kagome safe in the end.  ‘If Jinenji doesn’t deserve to be around her, then I sure as hell don’t either.’  They were both beasts in the end, and after this, he knew he couldn’t stay with her.  While Jinenji had said she would be okay this time, it was a fluke, and one that was unlikely to be repeated.

As he finished wrapping fresh bandages around her, Inuyasha made the decision that he knew he had to make.  He would leave Kagome.  She wasn’t safe around him.  ‘At least until I have this curse removed,’ he thought.  There was no reason that she would accept him even after he transformed back – hell, after what he had done to her the night of the coronation he didn’t think he deserved her forgiveness – but he could still try.  He was still Taisho.  That had to count for something, he thought, as a brushed a damp strand of hair from her face.

With a sigh, he pulled his hand away.  The exhaustion of the day starting to kick in and the pain from his own wounds that he had managed to ignore returning, Inuyasha lay down on the woven flooring beneath him, figuring that he might as well try to get some sleep now that they were safe.  Sending a final glance at Kagome, he shut his eyes and let the peace and quiet take him.

He woke the next morning to the sound of moaning and a light creaking.  He blinked sleepily, his eyes slowly focusing on the raised bed in front of them.

“Inuyasha?” Her voice sounded frail and soft.  She was lying on the futon, one leg falling off the edge as if she had tried to get up, with both hands over her wounds and eyes shut in pain.

Shooting up to set her back on the bed, Inuyasha whispered his response as though a loud voice might kill her.  “Hey Kagome, I’m right here.”

She blinked away the sticky crust in her eyes and smiled weakly up at him.  “What…happened?” She managed out, taking deep breaths as a painful throbbing shot up her spine.

Inuyasha paused.  Was now the time to tell her that he had been the one to injure her?  Though she might not have had the energy to fight with him, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try to kick him out if she learned the truth, and in her condition, she wouldn’t be able to take care of herself.  Making the split second decision, Inuyasha explained, “We were attacked by those demons, remember?  You were hurt so Jinenji told me what you needed to heal the wounds and I brought you back home.”  Of course, it didn’t slip his mind that this would be another thing to add to the list of reasons why Kagome would eventually hate him.

Her brows furrowed, and she looked like she wanted to ask something else, but couldn’t focus from the pain.

“Look, just stay in bed and I’ll explain it all when you’re feeling up for it, okay?”  Kagome looked up at him, as if surprised by the amount of gentleness in his voice, but nodded and let Inuyasha set her comfortably on the mattress again.

She watched, her eyes half-opened, as Inuyasha scurried around the room doing...something.  Truthfully, she was so tired she didn't care.  She brought her eyes back to the ceiling and welcomed the haze of sleep.

For the next hour or two – or it could have been twenty for all she knew – she drifted in and out of sleep, catching but the shortest glimpses of the world.  Each time her eyes would blink open just the slightest, she saw her hanyou moving around busily, occasionally checking her wounds and attending to her.  As a deeper sleep claimed her, she let a distant thought drift through her with a small smile.  'My little nurse.'

After a night of restless dreams, Kagome woke to the world once again.  She tilted her head to the side, brow furrowing in confusion at her missing companion.  

“Inuyasha?” She called out weakly, her mouth suddenly feeling dry as a bone.

Nothing.

Perhaps he was simply in some other part of the estate taking care of his own wounds, she thought.  Resigning herself to more rest, as she certainly didn't feel well enough to go moving about, Kagome sighed and looked back up at the ceiling.  While she might have felt physically drained – that was likely due to her using purification powers as well – her brain was running a thousand leagues a minute.

What exactly had happened...?  The two demons attacked them and lured her and Inuyasha out into the forest, and she remembered the terror that had run through her at seeing Inuyasha's wound.

'How could he have survived that?'  She had seen even full demons succumb to much less fatal of wounds.

But then, she suddenly recalled, when it had seemed like the demons would take her life, Inuyasha had saved her...only...

Something had gone horribly wrong.  That much she could feel in her gut.

He might have tried to hide it from her earlier, but she knew.  He had come back and killed off the demons with impossible ease, but then, he had turned to her.

Of course, she learned in mere seconds that he wasn't coming after her in that way, she thought with a blush.  Even in that moment, she knew exactly what he wanted, and she had to admit that some part of her wanted it too.

'Ah, not the time to be thinking about that!' She berated herself.

Focusing on what happened after their...minor tryst, Kagome shut her eyes and tried to remember exactly what it was that had felt so different.  His youki had surged, but while she was surprised by how much, that in itself wasn't entirely uncommon.  After all, she had heard of half-demons relying on their youkai instincts to save them in life-threatening situations.

'Still...'

It almost felt like something...or someone else had interfered.  With the little power she had left, she had tried to draw out the intrusive presence, but somehow, from that point on she remembered nothing.

A slight throbbing at her side brought her thoughts back to the present.  She had still yet to see her own wound, Kagome realized.  With slight trepidation, she carefully pulled Inuyasha's somewhat less tidy bandages away and cringed at the sight.   It certainly looked worse than it felt.  The cuts were thin, three of them that ran vibrant red down her ribs and to her waist.

'I have no idea how I got these,' she realized, her mind drawing a blank as to when the demons had been able to cut her so.  That fight she remembered clearly.

Before she could think on it much longer, she heard footsteps coming down the raised platform outside her door.  

“...Inuyasha?”

Even before his transformation, Inuyasha had never enjoyed the sight of blood.  It was messy, unpleasant and somehow never made him failed to make him feel a tinge of guilt – even when he had known he was doing the right thing.

But just this once, he let the diluted streams of red flowing from his hands to the river soothe him as he meticulously washed his claws of the blood coating it.  Otherwise, he might have had to face his reflection.  It had terrified him the first time he saw it, but he could feel himself growing more comfortable with it as the days went by, and that scared him even more.

The deer's carcass lay to his left.  The animal itself had died easily, but it was the feel of his claws dragging down its body in its final moments that stirred his gut uneasily.  Had he nearly brought Kagome down the same way?  What the hell did it say about a man that he couldn't even protect a girl he cared about from himself, much less from others.

He reluctantly thought back to what Kagome had said about him – no – about the Taisho.  He wasn't even sure which one he felt like anymore.  It seemed like so long ago that all of this had happened.  That she had told him how she truly felt about the Taisho and told him what he had done to her.

The blood was all but scrubbed out from within his own hands.  He moved his hands out of the water and let the water settle, daring to look down at the clear blue.

A set of golden eyes stared back.  He led his gaze up to the snowy white ears on top of his head, the ones Kagome seemed so fond of.  In fact, he thought with a pang, Kagome seemed to be so much fonder of every part of him as a hanyou.

It felt like living a comfortable, strangely natural, and dangerous lie.  A lie that, Inuyasha knew with all his heart, would one day blow up in his face so quickly he wouldn't be able to pick up the pieces.  While he had promised to leave Kagome, he couldn't leave like this.  One, because she deserved to know the honest truth from his mouth.  And two, he prayed to the kami that she would hate him less if he told her, and he prayed doubly hard that perhaps that might give him the chance to make things right with her.  In the end, it was selfish.  He knew that, but it was hard to deny what he really wanted nonetheless.

'I have to tell her the truth,' he decided, shutting his eyes and backing away from the water.  'I have to tell her everything.'  The thought of her anger with him felt like a knife twisting in his chest.  He would be lucky if it were just her anger.  He had, after all, taken her help, her food, her hospitality, her care, just days after his coronation – after what he did to her – and she would realize it too.

Maybe she would realize he was trying to be honorable, a stupidly optimistic part of him hoped.  Maybe she wouldn't gut him, the smarter half of himself mocked.  Well, he would know soon enough.  

Dismissing his thoughts, he stood up to his full height and swung the dead deer over his shoulder before taking off on the short run home.

He had barely made it past the first room on the way to the butchering room when he heard her voice ring out.

“...Inuyasha?”

Still carrying the deer over his shoulder, Inuyasha walked into her room, wincing as he saw her wound again.  Evidently, the curiosity had been too great and she had taken off the bandages – which, by the way, took forever for him to get on properly.

“How are you doing?” He asked, setting their animal down on the ground so he could move to her side.

However, her eyes never met his.  Instead, he followed his gaze and found it on the deer he had just placed on the floor, more specifically on the three claw marks running down its throat.

Immediately his eyes shot back to her, but hers had already looked back down at the exact same claw marks on her own skin.

Inuyasha froze, feeling as if the air in his lungs had frozen and hardened inside him.  He didn't need to think about it to realize what she was thinking.

“Kag – ”

She cut him off with a look, one that held an imperceptible expression.  “What happened, Inuyasha?” She asked, her voice far softer than he had anticipated.

She didn't sound angry...he thought, unsure how to feel about that.  

But this was the time, he knew.  He was going to keep his conviction, and the fates had presented him with the right moment to do so.

“It was me...I...attacked you after I killed the demons,” he admitted with a deep breath, hating the tremor in his voice.  Looking away from her piercing eyes, he continued.  “I don't remember any of it – I swear I don't – but Jinenji told me I transformed into a demon – a full demon – and...he said I did that to you.  I'm...I'm s-sorry,” he finished, stuttering over his apology.

His confession sounded meek even to his own ears.  Gritting his teeth for the anger that he was sure would come, Inuyasha mentally prepared himself.

“Inuyasha?” Her question was hesitant, but he could tell she wanted him to look at her.

Truthfully, he didn't want to, but he knew he owed her as much so he drew his eyes up from the floor to hers.

“I hope you know I don't blame you,” she spoke, her eyes shining understandingly at him.

A dam Inuyasha hadn't even known had been erected suddenly collapsed within him.  She...didn't blame him?  He looked up at her in shock.

His astonishment obvious from the look on his face, Kagome elaborated, “I felt some other demonic presence in you when it happened.”  She set the bandages back on the wound lightly, eyes closing just the slightest at the pain.  “For all we know, after those two demons were killed, one of them temporarily possessed you.”

Something about what she said suddenly struck true as though it hit on some buried memory inside him.  No, it wasn't the demons...but something had been watching him.  It had reminded him of the night of his coronation – something which made no sense.  Still...he hadn't been able to keep from being possessed and that was his fault.

“Kagome,” he sighed, knowing that though she appeared to have forgiven him for now, it wouldn't last.  “I don't think you're in the right mind right now.”

The injured girl gave him a deadpan look.  “My mind's working just fine, thanks.”

“The medicine is probably messing with your head,” he insisted, moving back to the cabinet with bandages to clean his hands in the basin and get her wound wrapped up again.  “You need to lie back down so I can redress the cuts.”

“Inuyasha, do you even know what the Omeji herb does?”

“Uh...makes you better?”

With a roll of her eyes, Kagome lay back down and let Inuyasha carefully remove the old bandages and rewrap her.  “I know what I'm talking about, Inuyasha, and I told you that I don't blame you.”

“You will.” He said simply, averting his eyes.

“Why?  Did you want to hurt me?”

“No!  Of course not!” He immediately answered, appalled that she could even think that.

“Then I don't blame you.” She repeated stubbornly.  “Get that through your thick head.”

She watched as he grumbled in resignation, probably too tired to fight her, and stood up to put butcher the meat.  “Fine,” he mumbled with a slight shake of his head.  He grabbed the deer and swung it over his shoulder, taking a step to leave the room when she interrupted.

“Wait,” she called out, suddenly sounding as if she were the vulnerable one.  “Were you ever going to tell me?”

He looked back at her, and somehow she got the sense that there was something he was going to say that she didn't want to know.  However, he merely nodded.  “Yeah.  When you got better.  In case you were going to kick me out.  I wanted to make sure you'd be okay first, since it was my fault and all.”

“Oh...”  That was surprisingly...sweet in its own way – and she would correct that non-sense about 'his fault' some other time.  Kagome's eyes followed him for another moment.  “Wait!” She yelled out again, this time a little more frantically and excitedly.

“Come here,” she demanded, feeling almost restless at what she was about to do.

“Uh...you know I have a dead animal in my hands right?  I should go take care of this,” Inuyasha pointed out with a tiny smirk.

Kagome rolled her eyes and tried not to let her anxiety show.  “Just put it on the floor for a second.  It's not like it's going to run away.”

With an exaggerated sigh, he dropped the carcass and walked back over.  “Yes, my lady?” He mockingly bowed.

Giggling at his little act, Kagome beckoned him to kneel down to her level.  He cocked his head in confusion, but obliged.  Then, with Inuyasha a mere foot above her, Kagome mustered every ounce of courage inside her, grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked his lips down to hers.

She didn't bother to wait for him to get over his very evident shock, and shut her eyes to let herself draw him in.

...which didn't take long at all.  His utter surprise gone, Inuyasha couldn't help melting into the kiss, letting his inhibitions go and groaning as she parted her lips just enough for him to get a taste.  She tasted like everything sweet and warm in the world, her mouth tormenting him with an even more potent form of her scent.  Their lips moved against each other tentatively at first, but as they found their rhythm, he grew more aggressive, wanting his tongue to taste every bit of her it could.

'So fucking good...' He moved an arm to the other side of her bed, ready to lean in and show her just how much better it could get when she pulled away.  'Too soon!'

Kagome's eyes opened up just the slightest, taking in the after-effects of her work.  His eyes were still closed, and whether he knew it or not, she could hear the small whimper leave his chest when she separated them.  She almost wanted to let out a sigh of pure relief at the very obvious signs that he was as happy as she was with her decision to just yank him down and kiss him.  'It wasn't exactly the proper way to do things,' she thought with a light laugh.

At the sound, Inuyasha opened his eyes as well, still utterly perplexed about what had just happened and why she had stopped!

“U-uh..mm...”

“You kissed me,” she started in a soft whisper, brushing a loose silver hair from his face.  “When you transformed,” she ignored the way he started to tense, “the first thing you did was kiss me.  That's how I know you weren't going to hurt me.  That's why I don't blame you.”

“I k-kissed you?” He breathed out in complete wonder.  He had turned into a full demon and kissed her?  That made no sense.  Well, he had always wanted to kiss her, of course, and his demon side had something to do with it because ever since the day he had woken up a hanyou, it seemed his attraction to her was only harder to ignore, but still...why would he have kissed her and then attacked her...

“Mmhmm,” Kagome nodded absent-mindedly, internally debating whether she should tell him exactly what else he had done, considering he obviously remembered none of it.  In the end, she figured that Inuyasha had had enough of a shock as it was for the day.  Leaning up a few more inches to lightly touch her lips to his again, she smiled.  “You should get to that deer.  It is just a dead animal lying on my floor,” she teased.

With a shaky smile of his own, Inuyasha nodded and went through the motions again.  He made his way out of the door, still processing what had just happened.  He had kissed her.  As a demon.  Then she kissed him in response.  And holy hells it had been wonderful; he was almost pissed he missed it the first time.  He absent-mindedly raised a clawed finger to his lips, as if he couldn't believe it.

He wasn't sure what this all meant, except that it would make his original plan to leave a hell of a lot harder.

Author’s Note:

*Touga is a common name I see fanfic writers give to Inuyasha’s father, and since I don’t know whether I missed an episode or page where he is specifically named, I will use this too.  Feel free to correct me if you know his actual name.

I don’t know if any of you follow my other story Craigslist, but I just realized that the parallels between this chapter and Part Three of Craigslist (which I was writing simultaneously) are uncanny.  Except, in this story, Inuyasha actually did the damage (and he doesn’t get any nooky [yet XP…] in this chapter).  

Blech.  AND I’M SO SORRY THIS TOOK…OVER A WHOLE YEAR…I WILL TRY NEVER TO DO THAT AGAIN (except I’ll probably be even busier next school year…so uh…)!!  I ended up cutting this chapter a bit short, but I got in most of the stuff I wanted to so it's all good.  Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy!