InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Southern Fried Hanyou ❯ Two ( Chapter 2 )

Two

 

It took all of her strength and will power to wait until she got home before tearing into the crate. And it was indeed a heavy eight foot long wooden crate. It was something out of movie with its rough pinewood and foreign postage stamps.

 

Kagome ran her hand across the top with the intent to pull it apart only to be rewarded with a sharp jagged splinter. She raced to her bathroom and pulled out the splinter.

 

 

She returned to the crate wearing gloves and brandishing a crowbar. Carefully she pried off the lid. The nails made a horrible squeaking noise as they were freed from the wood. She performed the same task all the way down the length of the crate. Finally the lid was off and she was free to plunder the crates contents. The packing material was wooden shavings. Odd, it was packaged like an old artifact. On top of the shavings sat a note in Japanese script.

 

I gave your fiancé, Dr. Akitoki my word that even if it took me a decade I would find this for you. It is his gift to you. With it comes his love and his wish for your happiness.

 

Kagome dropped the note. Hojo had refused to marry her once his diagnosis was terminal. It still pained her to be referred to as his fiancé. But it changes nothing. So I am not a widow. I am still here without him. Oh Hojo…

 

 

She sat back on her heels gazing at the open crate before her. She already knew what was inside.

 

It was Hojo who discovered the obscure reference. He was so excited. He biked to her apartment three in the morning with the book under his arm. Kagome left the feudal era when she was seventeen but was still obsessed by it. Hojo never questioned her. He assumed it was her duty to feel this way. After all she was responsible for the Higurashi family shrine.

 

 

The book mentioned a sword forged from the fang of a powerful yokai. That same sword now bound the angry son of the original dog yokai.

 

“Kagome! It's that sword you told me about, the Tetsusaiga! It just has to be. Look here. It even calls him by name Dog-Yokai.”

 

 

Kagome spent every day since that moment searching for the Tetsusaiga. She felt she owed it to Inuyasha to give it a good home. Also she NEEDED it. Needed to touch it and feel its weight. It was physical proof of her junior high quest and of her first love. Very soon after that Hojo became her second and only love. She abandoned the quest for the sword once Hojo fell ill.

 

 

Now he is gone. But he did it. He found the damned sword. Once again here we are. But I am a different woman now. She shook her head. This wasn't the Bone Eaters well. She would not fall in. It was just another artifact an expensive antique. Not unlike the ones she and Hojo had handled during their stint at the Smithsonian. Except this was part of her personal history too.

 

 

Her love life was a shambles. She smirked at the thought. Every man she loved had left her, except for Souta. Souta was fighting death and loss in his own way by becoming a heart surgeon. First she lost her father when she was five, then grandpa when she was seventeen but he was elderly so maybe it was wrong to count him. Inuyasha turned her away. And Hojo… Her mind spun back to Inuyasha. That wound was older and scarred over and as a result was slightly less painful.

 

_-_-_

Their tiny band still hadn't killed Naraku but that was only a minor inconvenience. Earlier that day Inuyasha tricked Naraku and managed to steal the newly fully formed Shikon jewel from him. Naraku was gravely wounded by a direct hit of Kagome's sacred arrow and he retreated. However this time they were able to follow him and locate his castle. They planned to attack him at his weakest point before dawn and victory seemed so certain. Ironically his hidden castle was a not a castle at all but a shrine not far from the cave where Kikyo had nursed Onigumo's broken human body.

 

 

Inuyasha asked Kagome to meet him at moonrise by the Bone Eaters well. Her heart quickened and she agreed.

 

 

When she found him, he had his back to her and was looking into the depths of the well.

 

“Inuyasha?”

 

 

He turned. “Kagome.”

 

When he did not come to her, she walked slowly to the well.

He avoided her eyes.

 

“Kagome our quest…it's over.”

 

She laughed. “No silly. Tomorrow we will crush Naraku then it's over and we party!”

 

“Feh. We have the Shikon Jewel, now go home.” This was said softly though she could tell he originally meant to shout it. Picking a fight with her would have made it easier but he hadn't been able to quite do it. Instead he looked down and his silver bangs fell over his face hiding his expression.

 

“Now?” She was incredulous.

 

“Yeah now!” This he did shout.

 

“But Naraku…?”

 

“Will be defeated without you.”

 

“How can you be so sure? He's come back before. This isn't the first time I've hit him with an arrow.”

 

Inuyasha looked up and caught her eye before glancing away at the moon.

 

“This ain't the same. You're different. This arrow took.”

 

She winced. “It's Kikyo isn't it!”

 

He frowned. “No.”

 

“Lair!” She pushed him away. “It's always been Kikyo!”

 

He caught her hand carefully in his.

 

“No.” he spat. “Kaede help me see. At first I wanted you both. Then I just wanted one of you. But now, now I know.”

 

“What?”

 

“Kikyo is dead. She was reborn out of hate and was only half a soul.”

 

Kagome's heart filled with dread. “Oh Inuyasha…”

 

“Don't” He dropped her hand. “Now that she's gone you are restored to your full power. THAT'S why we could never win. But this time you were a full priestess when you shot Naraku. I should've figured this out before, but Kaede showed me.”

 

“She's gone?”

 

“Yeah.” He looked away. “I fucking killed her. Kaede is burning her remains along the jewel tonight before Naraku has a chance of getting it back.”

 

“Oh” Kagome clasped her hands before her and dropped her head. She knew what it must've done to him. Then something else new occurred to her. She put her hand to her chest.

 

“Wait. Does this mean the jewel is inside me again?”

 

He refused to meet her eyes, “Probably, but you can handle it. You handled it just fine before you ever met me.”

 

“Whoa. That's allot to take in. But… what about…us? Don't you care for me?” She sought his eyes but he was looking down at the grass.

 

“It doesn't matter. Go home! Do your…homework. See that…boy who gives you stuff!”

 

Her voice caught in her throat. “Why?”

 

Inuyasha's words came slowly. “Because you don't belong here. You belong in your own time. Not here. Besides the jewel would never give you a chance at a real life here. It's too dangerous.” He coughed then growled low and ground his teeth.

 

“Kaede told you this?” Tears streamed freely down her face.

“She told me how to win. How to protect you!”

 

“What about my heart? Don't you care about that?”

 

He growled. “I am not in the business of protecting your heart.”

 

Then Inuyasha did something Kagome still did not fully understand. He grasped her by the shoulders and pulled her to his chest. His clawed hand lifted her chin and he kissed her. It was simple, chaste but heartfelt. Then he took advantage of her stunned silence to gracefully but quickly toss her down the Bone Eaters well. He called after her. “Miroku has sealed the well. Yaou ain't ever getting through again”.

 

She screamed the whole way down the well and again every time she threw herself back down it in vain trying to get back. But it was pointless. Inuyasha had won. After that all she had were her history books and the archaeology.

 

At first she was angry at him. Then she was desperate but soon she was just sad. Then she found Hojo. Not that he hadn't always been there, but this time she gave him a real chance.

 

_-_-_-_

Now it was just Kagome the 30 year old version and an old sword. Well, here goes. She braced herself and reached into the crate.

 

Her fingers plunged into the pine packing. For a few minutes she thought the crate must be empty but then she felt something. She must have been talking aloud to her self because Kiki came up behind her and was caught in a shower of the pine shavings.

 

She lifted the sword from the crate. It was wrapped carefully in a rough sheet of red fire rat hair, not unlike his kimono. She pulled the sheet free and saw the sword wrapped in a layer of sheer silk. Concerned for the Tetsusaiga's condition she laid it carefully on the carpet. The silk was translucent and she was able to see most of the four foot sword. It was broken, dirty and scratched beyond belief. Did it always look this bad? Of course, it only came to life in his hands.

 

Well its poor condition was good luck for her. Had it not been damaged than there was no doubt it would be safely squirreled away in some private collection somewhere. Wait! Kagome squinted at the swords scabbard. There was an inscription. This was new. It wasn't there before.

 

She held the pen light on her keychain over it and read.

To this sword the Tetsusaiga, is bound its master an angry Inu-yokai. Beware all who would seek to rouse him.

 

“Inuyasha!” His name tumbled from her lips. She hadn't spoken it aloud in years. Once Souta had mocked the way Inuyasha and Kagome constantly called out each others name. He did a whole dramatic scene where he only said the words Inuyasha and Kagome. At the time she was humiliated and angry. Now she saw how insightful and witty the scene had been.

 

She quickly dropped the Tetsusaiga. It was clearly under some kind of spell. She'd known the sword was bound to Inuyasha. Hojo had even said so. But she assumed by bound it meant it helped him control his yokai blood. Now she was reading the actual inscription she realized it was literal. He had been put into the sword.

 

Wow! There were simply no words.

 

Kagome believed in magic. She'd seen more than her fair share of it on both sides of the old Bone Eaters well. It was a very real possibility that Inuyasha was in the sword. Hojo words came back to her, “Look here. It even calls him by name, Dog-Yokai.”

 

Inuyasha or Dog-demon.

 

But surely that isn't what your mother called you from birth? I wonder what his real name is. After all isn't Inu-Yasha more of a title or description than a name?

 

Kagome was at a loss for words or thoughts. To believe that he was in this sword was too much to be true. Her head cleared when Kiki came up and sniffed the sword. Then she dropped her head and growling bared her teeth.

 

Something is in there. Kiki can tell. Dogs always hated him. Maybe he is in there? One thing was for sure, it would take more than his name to rouse him.

 

Kagome had been muttering the whole time aloud and he'd yet to make an appearance. She thought for a moment. The inscription had described him as angry not evil surely that alone was significant? But if so, why was he still angry? Because he'd given up his one chance to be a full yokai? Or maybe because he'd lost Kikyo again or maybe he had an ingrown toenail? The hell if she knew. One thing is for sure, this calls for a good stiff drink! Now I must get out of this house.

 

Kagome stood, stretched and ran a brush through her hair before grabbing the house keys and hitting the street. Now is not the time to make a rash decision.

 

She decided to take a long walk and ended up at Poogan's Porch, her favorite restaurant. She seated herself at the bar with an order of grilled shrimp and a mug of good draft beer. Poogan's was famous for their ghost Zoë who could be seen at night in the upstairs window. While Kagome had never seen Zoë it seemed appropriate to think things over in the presence of another dead woman.

 

She munched a biscuit and watched the tourists as she thought. Well wasn't she not much more than a tourist herself? She was still in the US as only a resident. But she'd lived in Charleston over a year and was adapt at spotting the tourists.

 

She watched a family with sullen teenagers and was struck by a realization. How old was Inuyasha when he was bound to the sword? What if she released him and he was a kid? She was thirty but when she left she was seventeen. He was twenty, well he was really over two hundred but he seemed to be the human equivalent of twenty. Now he should be thirty three but maybe in the sword he was still twenty.

 

What would she do with a twenty year old kid? Or even eighteen. It was never certain how old in human years he really was. If he hadn't aged at all she would be stuck with her own personal demonic version of Peter Pan.

 

She rubbed her temples and tried to remember if Peter loved Wendy. Wendy loved Peter. Kagome had a vague recollection of the play. In the end Peter comes for Wendy and she is an old woman with a granddaughter. Wendy tells Peter if he is to give the girl Myra a kiss it should be a real kiss not a button or toy. Is that what she would have, a boy trading buttons as kisses? Or in Inuyasha's case, rescues and insults.

 

What if she brought him out and he was fully yokai. He could devour her, Kiki and then her neighbors! Then what if he wasn't too young or evil but upset that he was so far from Japan? Charleston South Carolina was beautiful but not like anything he was used to. Maybe she should put the sword back in the crate and put it safely away in her attic.

 

Do I want this because of Hojo's death? It would be wrong to bring Inuyasha out when I didn't even know what I wanted of him?

 

“Miss?” A deep southern drawl broke into her thoughts.

 

Kagome opened her eyes and saw a white haired man in khakis and a collared shirt before her.

“Are ya all right?”

 

She laughed. “Oh yes, thanks for asking.”

 

“That's good. I am deeply sorry to disturb ya but it is closing time. Would ya like me to call ya a cab miss?”

 

She glanced at the clock on the wall and saw it was ten o'clock.

 

“No that won't be necessary I walked here and will just walk back home.” She hopped off the stool and strolled down the hallway.

 

“Have a good night.” He tipped his hat and held open the door.

 

“You too.” He shut the door behind her and she was alone on an expansive porch with chairs and massive hurricane shutters. She walked down the steps and paused to salute the statue of Poogan the dog that sat on his grave before exiting the yard through the tiny gate. She paused on Queen Street to admire the over grown palmetto palm trees and dramatic Spanish moss. So different form the cherry blossom trees back home. Could he be happy here too?

 

_-_-_-_

 

Inuyasha is at least two hundred years old. Please forgive me if it was confusing.