InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Soul Exchange ❯ The Bridge ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

AN: Ok, I better add another disclaimer.

Disclaimer: Don't own the plot of Hercules either.

AN: I will say this now: I have NEVER seen that film, but if the plots are too similar then I might get sued for plagiarism - and I don't want that to happen. But since I haven't seen the film then I really doubt that it'll turn out the same way in the end, because that's impossible. Anyway, just to be safe, I'm on a mission to find the film and watch it and try and steer clear of doing the same plot (though I've already planned out the entire fic and I ain't changing it).

Anyway - thank you to Trunks who sent me that e-card - wow! The first one I've received this year, thank you ^_^!













S oul Exchange

The Bridge













The great thing about being in a village so far from home was that nobody recognised you. And nowadays it seemed that the friendliest people Kagome met were the ones that didn't know her...

"Morning lass, anything I can do you for?"

Kagome quickly weaved her way through the crowd to the stables between two houses. She smiled pleasantly and held up her stolen bag of money. "Hi - can I buy a ride?"

"Sure - how much you got?" the man looked in her purse and his eyes widened considerably. "Well... uh... you could buy all the horses here for that much."

"I only need one."

"That's ok, then." The man almost had to wipe his drool away. He waved his hand to the six horses line up and tied to the stall posts by the halters. "Stallions... mares... geldings... personally I think a nice little mare would do you nice."

"Hang on..." Kagome's eyes fell on one of the horses in particular. "Where did you get that gelding from?"

"Oh that one?" the man visibly shuddered as he remembered. "That brown one was given to me by a merchant this morning... hah... merchant my arse... rotten manners..."

The horse was the same one that had brought her to Inaki... the one that the young lord had been riding. It recognised her and perked up at once. "Aw... he didn't like you did he... mean guy..." she looked up at the seller. "Why did the man give you this horse?"

"Said it was too much trouble. Sweet tempered as anything if you ask me. He said he wanted a faster, more reliable one. He traded it for a white stallion."

"White?" Kagome shrugged. "I would have gotten black... it would have matched his hair at least..."

"Black?" the man shook his head. "I think you must be thinking of someone else. The man that gave me that horse had white hair."

"Oh..." Kagome frowned. "Never mind then..."

"Where are you heading?"

"The coast."

"You'll want a sturdy one with stamina then." The man nodded to the gelding she was petting. "I'd take the brown one then."

"I think I shall." Kagome smiled and handed over the money.

"Will you be travelling alone?" the man asked, "The woods ain't safe for a young lass all on her own."

"Don't I know it..." Kagome sighed but shook her head. "I'll be ok."

"Sure now? I could arrange an escort?"

Kagome smiled at his kindness. "Thank you, but I have to go alone - but if you could do me a favour? If the owner of this horse comes by and wonders where his old horse went - don't tell him Kagome took it."

"Kagome took it. Gotcha."

Maybe she should have just kept quiet. She pulled herself up onto the saddle and was about to leave when she remembered something. "Oh - you wouldn't happen to know anything about the Shikon no Tama?"

"Shikon no Tama?" the man echoed and frowned. "What you want to know about that for?"

"I'm looking for it."

The man snorted. "Good luck. That jewel belongs to the Inu Youkai now."

Kagome frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Who doesn't know about that?" the man leaned against a post. "The warlord up in that palace," he gestured with his chin to the one on the slope of the mountain that overlooked the small town, "He was given that thing by some travelling Miko. A little while ago he passed it on to a young Inu Youkai lord..."

"Really... how long ago?"

"Seven or eight months ago..." the man rubbed his chin. "Definitely less than a year ago."

This was working out perfect after all. The Inu demon that the man was talking about could only be Inuyasha. If Inuyasha had the jewel then maybe... maybe Kagome could find him and take it from him - that way she wouldn't have to kill anybody. She could use the jewel and hide from Naraku...

She liked the sound of that deal better than ending anyone's life by her own hands.

Kagome smiled and waved. "Thank you, sir, I'll be going now."

"Good luck, lass."





^_^





"Sorry we couldn't have been much more of a help to you, Lord Inuyasha."

"S'ok." Inuyasha shrugged as he walked out the gates leading the white horse. He liked this one much better because it was way more obedient than the last.

"The last time we saw your father was several months ago. We gave him the Shikon to pass on to you by the Miko's request." The warlord shrugged with puzzlement. "We haven't heard from him since. We assumed he had made it back to your land safely."

"Yeah, well he didn't." Inuyasha said somewhat shortly.

"By the way... where be your land?" The warlord asked slyly.

Inuyasha stopped walking, gave him a withering glare. "Up in the clouds just beneath heaven. You can't miss us."

He swung himself up onto the horse and took the reins. "Well this has been a spectacular waste of time and energy. Nice seeing you again."

"Lord Inuyasha!" the warlord quickly caught his attention. "Maybe there is some news that will help you."

Inuyasha paused. "Go on."

"We here have heard a rumour of some things up north. Something about another Warlord getting his hands on a Youkai... specifically... an Inu Youkai..."

Inuyasha watched him through narrowed eyes. "Why didn't you say this earlier?"

"We dismissed it as a rumour..." the man shrugged again. "We didn't think it would be your father at least... your father is far too strong to allow himself to be taken hostage."

"Further north, right?" Inuyasha raised an eyebrow as the lord nodded.

If he'd had more time he might have gone and visited every country in Japan to find the Warlord with the dog demon... but he didn't have time at all. He'd been gone for too long by now, and his mother was probably worried sick about him... and he still had to go back and make sure Kouga or Sesshomaru didn't attack. He'd have to delay his search... but he wasn't going to put it off.

"Ok then, you've been a little helpful I guess." Inuyasha shrugged indifferently and without a word of goodbye he spurred his horse forward and surged off down the road that led to the village. He'd head for the coast from there... plus, he knew a few short cuts that would get him there before nightfall.





^_^





"E ye spy with my little eye... something beginning with..." Naraku looked around. "S."

"Sky." Kagome guessed dully.

"No."

"Slope...?"

"No."

"Stone.. .?" Kagome looked around when he shook his head. What else began with S on the trail?

They were walking down a road through the forest towards the coast. Kagome was riding on the back of her new gelding while Naraku simply walked along beside her, guiding her so she wouldn't get lost.

"Um... slow horse?"

"Nah, that would be S H."

"Uh... sandals."

"I don't see any sandals on you."

Kagome frowned and looked around. "Ok, I give up. What begins with S?"

"Sintristus-epiclormus."

Kagome turned to stare at him for a moment. "But that's TWO words."

"Not really..."

"What the hell is it?"

"To you - uneducated peasant - it would be the common blue flower you so delicately tread on as you walk." Naraku pointed out.

Kagome looked down before giving him a dirty look. "I AM educated... I know how to read. What's your problem?"

"Why couldn't you have been more like your cousin, Baby?" Naraku sighed wearily. "SHE could read Kanji."

"Hey - I can read Hiragana and Katakana!" Kagome said stiffly. "I don't need to know much else! And if I don't need to know anything else then why should I bother learning it? It's just a waste of time..."

"No wonder your family didn't hesitate to disown you..." Naraku said with a smirk in his tone.

Kagome's hands tightened on the reins. She had told herself long ago not to rise to his bait. There was nothing Naraku liked to do more than compare her faults to Kikyo's skills. Kikyo was good at archery... Kikyo was good at casting spells... Kikyo knew how to read Kanji... Kikyo knew this, Kikyo knew that. Kikyo never got involved with the wrong people. Kikyo always put other people's happiness before her own. She knew what was evil and what was pure. Kikyo wouldn't hesitate to do the right thing...

Kagome was selfish, Kagome was greedy, Kagome only every thought of herself and put her own happiness before others. Kagome would kill a prince just to get her soul back. Kagome couldn't read right, Kagome ain't speakin' right neither. Kagome cursed (mildly) every now and then and Kagome once drank a whole cup and sake by herself - the scandal! Kagome gets involved with demons - WOLF demons no less. Kagome gets engaged to wolf demon leaders. Kagome brings the dead back to life and Kagome has no soul.

That was how people viewed the two girls that for all appearances could have been sisters... or even twins. Sometimes people often got their names confused. And since forever, Kagome's mother had always referred to her as 'Kikyo-Kagome'. Meaning she would always start off talking to Kagome to same way.

"Would you come here a moment Kik- I mean - Kagome."

At first it could have been an innocent mistake. But after years Kagome had just accepted the fact that her mother had never been good with names. She also accepted the fact that her mother had always really wanted Kikyo as a daughter instead of Kagome.

"The love really bloomed in your house didn't it?" Naraku commented suddenly.

Kagome shot him a wary look. "Are you sure you can't read my mind?"

"Only when you think loud enough." He replied dryly. "Sometimes you think too much Kagome. It gets annoying."

"That's because I'm really intelligent... fundamentally." Kagome huffed.

"Can you smell that?"

Kagome sniffed the air and frowned. "Salt?"

"It's the sea."

"Wow..." Kagome had never been as far as Inaki before. She hadn't gotten around as much as Kikyo had. Smelling the sea was an entirely new thing for her... quite an interesting one.

By the time they reached the actual coast it was pretty dark and a tiny slit of a crescent moon could be seen above. Kagome led the gelding down to the beach and walked along with Naraku. "So... uh... how do we get to this island again?"

"We?" Naraku laughed. "You are going, not I."

"Coward." Kagome muttered discreetly.

"Keep walking along the beach and you shall find out how to get across. You must be quick though."

"Why?"

"You'll see." Naraku said mysteriously.

Kagome followed Naraku across the sands, looking out for a boat or a bridge of some kind that would take her across to the island that was supposed to be out there. She also didn't understand why it had to be night in order to cross.

Kagome just sat back and enjoyed the feeling of being beside the sea. The salty air made her hair smell tangy, and the sand prickled her bare skin. The air was chilly and the winds were unusually furious this far out. But Kagome had never seen anything like it, and savoured it.

"Here." Naraku suddenly stopped and Kagome blinked back to reality. She followed his gaze out to the water and her mouth dropped open slightly in surprise.

"That's... wow..."

The sea, it seemed, was divided by a stretch of sand that led off through the water towards... towards the horizon at least. Kagome couldn't see the island because it was too far away... but she had to wonder about the bridge of sand through the water. "What is that?"

"The sand bank that connects the island to the mainland." Naraku said evenly. "Normally it is hidden by the water. But for three nights every month, the tide falls low enough to allow travellers to pass along it. Though you have to be quick to cross otherwise the tide will rise again and swallow you up before you reach the other side."

"Three nights only?" Kagome couldn't tear her eyes away.

"The night before the new moon, the new moon itself, and the night after as well." Naraku nodded. "This is the last night it will be present."

"So I have to cross the sand to the island." Kagome said slowly. "Then I have to wait a whole month to get back again."

"You'll have roughly that much time to kill Inuyasha." Naraku told her. "Now you better go. You shouldn't waste much more time - and make sure you run."

"Are you sure you won't come with?"

"Why? I can't do anything." Naraku scoffed. "I'll only make you more suspicious... and besides... I am sure Lord Inuyasha will recognise me."

"You've met before then?" Kagome asked quickly.

"Let's call what you're doing a personal vendetta." She could almost see him bristle. "That fool turned me into what I am now..."

A beat passed before Kagome broke into his dark thoughts.

"An annoying, stuck-up, patronising, stubborn, bastard who can't let things go?" Kagome guessed.

Naraku sighed. "Don't interrupt my mood of animosity, Kagome."

"You're mood of what?"

"Oh for... Will you just go, you are wasting precious time." He snapped. "You may be immortal - but only immortal as a vampire. You can still die if you drown, get beheaded, get stabbed, get poisoned, get suffocated... understand?"

"What?!" Kagome barked. "You said I was immortal!!"

"Well... not TECHNICALLY immortal." Naraku defended himself. "You got long life but that's about it."

Kagome ground her teeth. "If you were made of solid matter... the things I would do to you..."

"Let's not get kinky, Baby. Let's just get you moving." Naraku nodded towards the sand bank. "Now go."

Kagome swallowed the bitter insult that was on the tip of her tongue, and urged the gelding into a run towards the sand bank. When she was on it she had much more ease guiding the animal across the hard wet sand.

"And remember-" Naraku called after her. "-BE the princess of darkness! The sultry temptress! The object of all his wildest desires! BE KIKYO!......... What did I say about the waving thing, Baby?!"





^_^





Inuya sha had waited patiently beside the beach until the crescent moon had risen and the tides had fallen away to reveal the bridge. At that exact moment he'd taken his horse and charged across the sands at full tilt, anxious to see if everything was all right at the palace.

Call him a mummy's boy if you will... but he WAS worried about his mother.

He reached the island at midnight exactly and headed south at once, not bothering to bow or greet the sentries there in any way. It wasn't long before he emerged from the forest and pounded across the vast grass lands that lay before the Southern palace. The grassy plains was where a lot of the Inu Youkai hung out - actually, where a lot of children hung out. They didn't often see their prince, and squealed happily as he swept past and cheered.

It obviously didn't matter to them that he was only a hanyou.

He passed the two lakes until he finally reached the palace and dismounted. His poor ride had been pushed too hard by now, and was labouring for breath. Inuyasha just left it by the gates of the palace for the stable hands to look after and went to go find his mother.

No surprises - he found her in the Throne room, fretting her head off.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" she literally screamed when she spotted him coming in. "I have been worried SICK about you! Do you like making your mother sick?! Are you that cruel?!"

"I missed you too, Ma," without warning he reached out to her and pulled her into a big hug.

This caught her by surprise and she stiffened somewhat. "What's the matter with you? Have you got a temperature?" she checked his forehead when he pulled back. "I can't begin to tell you how I fretted. Gone during the new moon... last time you left me when it was your time of the month you were half dead by morning."

"Oh thanks... and I was so close to permanently blocking that experience from my memory." Inuyasha smiled wryly.

"So you're back - what did you learn?" His mother asked anxiously. "You found his body didn't you - tell me you found his body."

"No. He's alive."

She looked a little crestfallen.

"Don't look too disappointed." Inuyasha scowled. "I saw the Warlord in Inaki, he said there were rumours that a warlord up north had Dad as a hostage."

"Just rumours, Inuyasha." She shook her head tightly.

Inuyasha's frowned deepened. "How can you say that? I thought you loved him?"

"I do! I did!" Lady Inu sighed. "But sometimes you just have to accept that they're gone... he isn't coming back to us. You really think your father would still be alive? He would at least have found some way of getting a message to us. And do you really believe he would be so weak as to be captured by humans? They're just rumours, son, just rumours."

Inuyasha walked away from her, a dark look on his face. "It's so easy for you to give up on him. He's gone six months and you presume he's dead. Don't you even grieve?"

Lady Inu swayed slightly. "You think I haven't?"

"A little quick to grieve aren't you?" Inuyasha shot at her.

Lady Inu suppressed a scream. "There's no right way to answer your questions is there?! I grieve yes - but I also have to hold a Kingdom of demons together - I am only human Inuyasha... do you know how hard this is for me?"

"And this is roughly the point where you start talking about Tessaiga and the throne, isn't it?" Inuyasha said flatly.

Lady Inu walked across the hall to point to the old rusty sword that had belonged to her husband, carved from his own fang. It was hung by two pegs against a wall. "Take it - use it!" she then pointed to an ancient pair of iron cuffs that were worn by the ruler of the kingdom lying beneath the sword on a low table... obviously Inuyasha's father wasn't wearing them. "Take these - wear them!"

"No!"

"At least pick them up!" She pleaded. "The moment you pick them up you can be the new Emperor - you'll take so much weight off my shoulders - Sesshomaru may not attack and you can defend your people properly! It's THAT simple."

"I am not picking them up, Ma!" he gestured angrily. "He's still alive - and I am NOT taking the throne away from him."

He pivoted and started to stomp out of the hall. His mother rapped her fingers anxiously against her thighs before remembering something. "Oh - Inuyasha - you must go see Lady Katara!"

He stopped as he reached the doors. "Who?"

"The new lady in the palace - from the village close by."

"Why should I see her?"

"Because you're both engaged to be married in two weeks!" she called cheerfully.

The reaction was instantaneous. The doors slammed so hard after him that the frames groaned and crack slightly. His mother smiled to herself.





^_^





Kago me urged the gelding faster as they approached the island shore. It was so close... but not close enough. The sun was beginning to rise and the tide was coming in amazingly fast. It was so close that it was beginning to lap a the gelding's hooves.

"Come on... come on... we're so close..." she urged him faster, feeling guilty as she heard him strain.

The shore grew closer, and gradually the horse had to slow down as the water rose to his knees.

"Just a little bit more..." she crooned, rubbing his neck firmly.

The water reached up to its chest and Kagome's legs were submerged by the time the horse began to reach sloping ground towards the beach. Kagome sighed with relief as the gelding trod out of the water onto the sands and drew to a halt, clearing stating enough was enough.

Kagome slid off his back, also exhausted and patted his neck gratefully. "Good boy..."

Now she had to wonder which way south was...

Was it left or right? She'd pretty much arrived slap bang in the middle of the island as far as she could see... and she was surrounded by nothing but sandy beaches and forest.

She waited a while, mulling over which direction until the horse had recovered enough to keep moving. Kagome, didn't ride him though... she just took his reins and guided him right, moving along the beach to see where it would take her.

She half expected to bump into the Lord himself as she walked, but it was a big island, and somehow she doubted the probability of that happening. Every now and then she thought she heard sounds coming from the forest to her left and stopped to listen. But the sounds weren't very ominous, and were probably just some woodland creatures messing around in the trees.

"Where's Kouga when I need him..." Kagome sighed distantly.

She hated him with eighty-two percent of her heart. But the other eighteen percent still loved him and wished he could still be by her side...

"Hey you!"

Kagome stopped abruptly and spun towards the trees.

Two men in armour were approaching her. Actually... that was some pretty expensive looking armour they were wearing. It took her a moment to actually realise what they were... because they most definitely weren't human. Both had medium length white hair tied back, amber eyes and elf ears. Faint stripes marked their arms and each had two stripes running on each cheek.

"Are you... Inu Youkai?" she whispered, recoiling slightly as the approached.

"She's human." One said to the other.

"Kill her." The second one nodded.

"Whoa - wait!" Kagome yelled out before something struck her head from behind.

A flush of cold went through her until she faded into unconsciousness.

The gelding reared slightly, until the reins were grabbed by the female Inu Youkai that had struck Kagome. "Don't kill her." She snapped to the two men. "Take her at once to his Lord Sesshomaru."

Kagome had obvious taken the wrong turn at some point.













AN: Well this had originally been my attempt at making a semi-serious fic... but I think I keep adding humour in (or what I think might be humour). That happens when I get bored with the scenes... sorry...