InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Rock, Paper, Scissors: Love Beats All ❯ Changed ( Chapter 4 )

[ A - All Readers ]
By: RinLove
Uh-oh! Things are looking even LESS promising now that Kagome's old friends have found Sesshoumaru carrying her tattered figure upon his back. This could be funny...^__^

Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 03.19.2007 | Pages: 2 | Words: 4.0K | Visits: 283 | Status: Work In Progress

Chapter Four:Changed
Kagome's Point-Of-View
Kagome's eyelids felt heavy with fatigue as she rested against Sesshomaru's back; the constant reopening of her injuries had greatly diminished her energy. Still, she strugggled to remain conscious. She couldn't just sleep when Rin was in such danger! Her eyelids snapped closed and she began to panic as all thought started erasing from her mind. After considerable effort, she managed to pry her eyes back open again.
"Sesshomaru, let me down, please." She murmured in a faint voice. She couldn't risk herself falling asleep when Rin and Sesshomaru was counting on her. She wondered if they would be passing any villages soon, so that she could purchase a bow and a quiver of arrows.
"You're already so weak that you can barely speak. You should rest." Sesshomaru replied flatly, not even pausing as he continued up the trail. Kagome shifted her weight slightly, intending it to be a sharp wriggle to indicate that she was serious, and began to tumble to the ground. Luckily, Sesshomaru was quick to balance her weight out again. "Stop being stubborn, human. You will rest." Kagome slumped over, all of her energy drained from her at last. The word "rest" instantly destroyed her resolve to stay awake, somehow.
"Thank you, Sesshomaru..." She said softly, wrapping her arms around his neck to hold herself steady as she fell into a deep slumber. She couldn't even manage to stay awake long enough to see if Sesshomaru had responded in some way.
Sesshomaru's Point-Of-View
"Thank you, Sesshomaru..." He heard her whisper as she brought her arms to coil about his neck, her body falling limp with exhaustion the moment she finished speaking. Sesshomaru had, unbeknownst to himself, been extremely tense while she was riding upon his back. Now, however, after she had thanked so inexplicably and so unexpectedly, he felt more relaxed somehow. In combination with her arms wrapping about his neck, he felt just as mellow as he would have been had Rin been by his side again.
He looked straight ahead of himself, his face a peaceful blank, and concentrated on their destination. They were about twenty miles away from the lake, so they'd probably make it there before sunset, if Naraku would give them that long. He thought of Rin and Kagome talking to each other that day when Rin had visited her in her room. When it came to the part where Rin gave Kagome the doll, he smiled without even realizing it. Kagome seemed to care a lot about the little girl. What sort of feeling was it that humans harbored that could be as strong as what Kagome seemed to feel for Rin? It was so powerful that Kagome could withstand great pain and great fear, if only to keep the little girl from harm. He smiled again at the remembrance of Kagome laughing with Rin during their visit with each other back at the castle. Why was he suddenly acting so strange...? Why was he feeling such a pleasant sensation? He felt like laughing out loud, as smiling seemed to be too weak of a gesture! What was happening to him? Had he been stung by Naraku's saimyousho without realizing it? Was this a reaction to the poison, perhaps?
"Sesshomaru! What did you do to Kagome!" the most annoying voice in all the world demanded. Sesshomaru looked up the trail a few yards and, upon seeing his half-breed brother bounding towards him, felt the unexplainable smile begin to fade from his face. However, it didn't vanish fast enough and his brother caught it with ease. "You...You were...You were actually SMILING, Sesshomaru! What did you do to her? Answer me!" InuYasha had made it close enough to his brother to land a good hit on him if Sesshomaru would allow it, but InuYasha wasn't thinking about attacking the demon lord at the moment, but was focusing on Kagome. "She's bleeding! What the Hell did you do, Sesshomaru? So help me God, if you DID anything to her, I'll rip your rotten heart right out of your chest!" Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed as he looked down at his over-imaginative brother.
"If you are meaning, did I do a deed worthy of the human male that travels with you, then no. Unlike yourself, I don't pair myself with humans. And I most definitely do not pair myself with dead ones." InuYasha seemed surprised for a moment before stepping back from Sesshomaru with a loathesome scowl over his face.
"Sesshomaru, what are you doing with Kagome? Why is she injured?" The monk--his name was Miroku, Sesshomaru was nearly certain--asked from some ways behind InuYasha. He was running up the trail with the demon slayer named Sango. Sesshomaru took a moment to consider whether or not to tell them, before deciding that it was senseless not to. He opened his mouth to begin, but before he could, he caught sight of a yellow insect buzzing just next to InuYasha's left puppy ear. Sesshomaru shut his mouth and looked at the bee inquiringly before understanding.
"Saimyousho. I see, then. The poisonous insects are Naraku's spies, aren't they?" Sesshomaru looked over at his brother and seen that he was clearly confused...but he soon reverted back to his usual hot-headed self.
"What does that have to do with anything? I want to know what's wrong with Ka--Yargh!" InuYasha jumped out of the way as the bee zipped over to Sesshomaru, hovering right before the demon lord's eyes. He understood.
"You can safely report to Naraku that we are on our way." The saimyousho immediately darted off into the open blue at Sesshomaru's words and left him to face his brother and his friends' curious questions. But they didn't seem to be curious, for some reason.
"So, Naraku took Rin, am I right?" Sesshomaru gave his brother a lethal glower at his words, but InuYasha only looked off to the side with a worried expression over his face. "I was wondering how he'd get Kagome to hand over the jewel." Sesshomaru gave InuYasha a questioning look, but his brother wouldn't look back up. The demon lord looked over to Sango and Miroku instead, and asked a direct question.
"What is he saying? How does he know that Naraku has taken Rin?" Miroku stepped forward, intending to speak, when Sesshomaru felt Kagome shift upon his back. "Kagome!" Sesshomaru exclaimed in surprise. He turned and set her on the ground, propping her up against one of his legs as he looked down at her. "Kagome...?" Her eyes began to flutter open.
Kagome's Point-Of-View
When Kagome opened her eyes, she was on the ground with her back up against Sesshomaru's knee. She looked up at him inquiringly. He seemed so worried...but why?
"Sesshomaru...? What's...wrong?" she began uncertainly. But then a horrible possibility went through her head. "Oh no! Is it Rin? Did we get there too late?" Sesshomaru's eyes widened slightly at Kagome's sudden shout, but then he put a hand atop her head and sighed.
"No. We haven't arrived yet. Please calm down and greet InuYasha before he explodes from jealousy." Kagome gasped and peered around Sesshomaru's broad form. Beyond the fluff, she seen InuYasha's shocked face.
"InuYasha! Naraku kidnapped Rin! You have to help us save her!" was the first words out of her mouth. His face instantly became sour as he crossed his arms. She then remembered Kikyo. It was as unexpectedly thought of as breathing, but the image of Kikyo and InuYasha staring deep into one another's eyes appeared before her eyes. She smiled sadly at the remembrance and looked behind InuYasha for the woman she was reincarnated from. All she seen was Miroku and Sango. "InuYasha, where's Kikyo...?" InuYasha looked off to the side, his face suddenly taking on a truly depressed expression. Kagome smacked a hand to her forehead. "If you guys had a fight already, then I'm going to kill the BOTH of you!" InuYasha turned and began to walk off down the trail.
"I've gotta get going, Kagome. Good luck with the Rin thing." He said quietly as he walked on down the path. His voice seemed so unlike his usual self. What was going on with him? She stared after him, watching his platinum hair dance with the wind. His left ear twitched. What was going on...? Why was he so upset!
"InuYasha! What's wrong? What's happened? Unh!" Kagome shouted after him, sharply sitting herself back upright and causing a bolt of pain to shoot through her. She collapsed back against Sesshomaru again and looked down at her side. Her wound had reopened again and blood was spreading over her already blood-soaked shirt. She sighed. She looked as though she'd been on a battlefield.
"Kagome..." She looked up as Sesshomaru spoke so gently. The tone through her off and she felt herself feeling a little embarrassed. She blushed and forced herself to relax against his knee.
"I'll be okay. I'm feeling loads better, now. I think I'm already starting to heal!" She smiled up at him cheerfully and he brought his arm--his only arm--around her back and gripped her behind the knees as he rose. He'd picked her up with one arm and her butt wasn't even in his face this time! She smiled broader. "This is way better than being slung over your shoulder! Why didn't you just do this before?" She demanded in a playful tone. Sesshomaru smiled down at her and she laughed. "Hey, I didn't know your face could move that way!" Sesshomaru's face twitched a few times before he burst out laughing with her.
"Okay, I'm a big kid! You can tell me. I can take it." Shippo's voice came from the ground in between Sango and Miroku. Kagome and Sesshomaru stopped laughing and looked down at him curiously as he finished. "The world is coming to an end, isn't it? I mean, it's really coming to an end!" Kagome blinked and looked around at everyone, thinking about the events that had occurred over the last week or so. Kagome had blatantly given InuYasha and Kikyo her blessing, Kagome was comfortably sitting in Sesshomaru's arms, and Sesshomaru had just laughed out loud for the past thirty seconds without even having to lose his mind to do so! Kagome smiled at Shippo.
"I see your point. Everything has changed, hasn't it? It...it is a little strange." Shippo hopped up onto Kagome's lap, giving Sesshomaru an apprehensive look--Sesshomaru only turned away, pretending that he hadn't seen Shippo. "What's going on, guys? Why is InuYasha acting so wierd? Where's Kikyo?" Miroku's expression became hard and cold.
"The same thing that happened to Rin, I'm afraid. Naraku stole Kikyo away so that she could make the jewel whole again with her holy powers." Kagome turned to ice and Shippo hopped down. He must have sensed Kagome sudden fury. This couldn't happen to them! Not after they'd come so close to achieving their fairytale ending! Kagome shut her eyes tightly as she felt the tears beginning to sting. She wouldn't let this happen to them! Not ever again! Naraku had already destroyed their first chance at love. She WOULDN'T let him destroy their second!
"Sesshomaru..." Kagome said in a shaky voice, slowly opening her eyes to look up at him. He looked down at her without any expression at all. "Will you please...help save Kikyo?" Sesshomaru and Kagome looked directly into one another's eyes, Kagome's expression was of determination while Sesshomaru retrived his usual poker-face. In any other circumstance, Kagome would have considered this a competition...but for whatever reason it didn't feel that way to her. Not anymore. Sesshomaru closed his eyes and, when he reopened them, he was smiling. Kagome smiled back at him.
"InuYasha, I ask that we join forces in order to conquer Naraku and safely recover those whom we've lost. Afterwards, we may go our seperate ways and pretend that nothing has happened. I won't be offering this pact a second time, so decide carefully." Kagome tensed and looked at InuYasha. Would his pride get in the way of accepting his brother's help?
"InuYasha..." Kagome began softly. InuYasha turned around after a few moments and looked directly at Kagome.
"I'll do it." InuYasha didn't look at his brother, but at Kagome, as he answered. "I'll help you get Rin back from that slimeball." Kagome understood. He could live with his decision to join forces with Sesshomaru only if he thought of it as doing his brother a favor. 'But why is he looking at me like that...? He should be looking at Sesshomaru, shouldn't he? It's like he's answering ME, for some reason...' Kagome shook the thoughts away and smiled at InuYasha.
"Great! Then we should get going as soon as possible!" Kagome hopped down out of Sesshomaru's arms--erm, arm--and landed on her feet on the ground. A surge of pain coursed through her body and she felt something splash over her legs. Had she landed in a puddle? She didn't have a chance to look, however, as everything suddenly went dark. The last thing she remembered was many familiar voices yelling her name.
InuYasha's Point-Of-View
"I'll do it." InuYasha looked into Kagome's coffee-brown eyes and felt that sense of connection that he used to feel with her. It was the same sense of connection that he felt with Kikyo, as well. "I'll help you get Rin back from tha slimeball." He continued to stare into Kagome's eyes after he'd spoken, trying to ignore the fact that she was in Sesshomaru's arms and not his. Why was he feeling this again? Why was he feeling this strange happiness for Kagome again? He was getting confused again, too...like before, when he was faced with the decision between Kagome and Kikyo. Kagome smiled at him, making InuYasha's heart leap. He felt his face warm slightly. Did anyone catch that? He looked out of the corner of his eye at Sango, Miroku, and Shippo--it didn't look as though they were paying attention to him. He let out his breath and looked over at Kagome again. Sesshomaru, he seen, was looking at InuYasha inquiringly. 'Of all the people...please tell me that HE didn't see that!' Sesshomaru turned back to Kagome, his face still expressionless. 'I HATE that. You can never tell for sure what Sesshomaru's thinking...'
"Great! Then we should get going as soon as possible!" InuYasha blinked, confused for a moment, before remembering that he'd just agreed to help save Sesshomaru's kid. He really hadn't been thinking of helping the little human girl, though, when he'd said he'd help Sesshomarui save her. He hadn't even been thinking of the help he'd receive in getting Kikyo back from Naraku. He was thinking...he was thinking that he'd be able to stay close to Kagome. He hadn't missed her when she was gone, he was sorry to admit, because Kikyo had been with him the entire time. But now that Kikyo had been abducted, he couldn't stop thinking about the modern-day version of the miko.
InuYasha snapped back to reality as Kagome leapt down out of Sesshomaru's arms...but then something happened that made his every limb become as rigid as stone. As she landed on the ground, the impact caused her wounds to open up and blood gushed forth and splattered down her body and over her legs. She looked down, clearly confused, and then began to stumble.
"KAGOME!" He heard himself shout, along with the rest of the group...even Sesshomaru. InuYasha took a shaky step forward, looking at Kagome with wide eyes as his heartbeat slowed so much that it almost stopped completely. Miroku, Sango, and Shippo were already running over to her, but InuYasha could hardly move. It felt like his body was shutting down as he watched Kagome fall back. He wanted to catch her...to catch her and to make the bleeding stop. He took another step forward, but it was all in slow-motion. Kagome fell, fell, fell...and then, an arm came back behind her and brought her to Sesshomaru's chest. InuYasha's heart froze in time when he seen that. Sesshomaru and Kagome...seemed so...looked like they were...but it wasn't, somehow. Nothing was making sense to InuYasha now. Nothing at all.
The world came rushing back to the half-demon now and he felt everything return at full-speed. He took a few steps towards Kagome and Sesshomaru, but didn't go any further. What was he going to do? How was he planning to help her? He couldn't help her. 'But I have to try. It wouldn't be right...if I didn't try.' InuYasha slowly made his way over to her and knelt down in front of his brother, resting his hand on her forehead. He slid his eyes over her until he came to her wounds.He took off his fire-rat kimono jacket and folded it into a long, thick bandage. The cloth was made of durable cloth--the strongest cloth in the forest--so it had to do something to slow down her bleeding, didn't it? It was a long shot but... InuYasha took the cloth and wrapped it around her adomen, tying it as tight as he could around her wounds, but leaving it loose enough so as not to constrict her breathing.
"It seems to be working..." Miroku said, relieved. Shippo had nudged himself under her limp arm and was looking at her with open worry. Sango looked like she was getting hit hard by this. She seemed close to tears. InuYasha could see why, of course. Kagome was her closest friend; it wasn't like Sango had anyone else but this wierd group. Her family had been murdered, thanks to Naraku, so other than InuYasha, Kagome, Miroku, and Shippo, she had nothing. Even her own brother was under Naraku's control and tried to kill her everytime he caught sight of her. Miroku seen sango out of the corner of his eye and slid his hand into her's. Sango closed her eyes and bowed her head, allowing her bangs to cover her eyes; a tear slid down her face and landed on Shippo's head, who looked up at her sadly.
"We'll rest tonight." Sesshomaru said suddenly, making InuYasha look at him in surprise.
"What about Rin? I thought you'd want to get her back as soon as possible." He said, watching Sesshomaru as he picked Kagome up off of the ground.
"I've allowed Kagome to over-exert herself. We'll rest tonight." He repeated, not looking at InuYasha. He began walking up the trail, InuYasha and the other's following some ways behind them. One thing InuYasha had learnt over the past fifteen minutes was this: The entire world had decided to rotate in reverse this week.