InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Strange Wishes ❯ Incentive ( Chapter 10 )

“Ouch!”

Kagome sucked on her burnt fingertip, backing away from the steaming pan before her as she leaned on the counter whereupon six obento were already stacked. She scowled at the stove top, hoping that getting burned by the food that was meant for InuYasha wasn’t some kind of omen.

She hadn’t been able to get a wink of sleep the night before, and so had used the free time to prepared obento for all her friends. The sun had risen not to long ago, and she was extremely proud of how great all the food had turned out. She reflected that her increased maturity and experience evinced itself in her cooking, now that she was nearly seventeen.

Hastening to prepare the rice balls, she tucked them into one of the compartments in InuYasha’s obento before flitting back to the stove, scooping up the scalding eggs and sizzling fish and adding them as well. Having realized that she’d used up the last canister of pickles, she was doubled over before a low cabinet in a mad hunt for another jar when she heard a familiar voice.

“Oh, good morning, Higurashi. I just--uh--came in to feed Buyo.”

Kagome stood up, dust bunnies in her ponytail, “That’s fine.”

He walked over to the bag of cat food, watching her out of the corner of his eye, “I hope you don’t mind me asking; what’s all the food for?”

Kagome flashed him a tired grin, “I’m making lunch for my friends.”

“They’re some lucky friends,” Houjou said with a chuckle as Kagome fished a jar of pickles out from a dark corner of the cabinet.

“I’d rather think that I’m lucky to have them,” Kagome said, but Houjou had already gone back outside.

Stuffing all seven obentos along with her sleeping bag and medical supplies and other necessities into Souta’s old backpack, Kagome snuck out of the house, keeping a vigilant eye peeled for any sign of Houjou, her ears straining for the sounds of sweeping.

Feeling impervious, Kagome broke into a light jog as she made for the well house, trying not to pay attention to the slight throbbing of her ankle as she hurriedly entered the musty building and descended the stairs to the well.

Jumping in, the magical energy swirling about her, her body became weightless, as if her substance had ceased to subsist as the world around her grew younger. She felt herself light upon the earthen bottom of the well in the Sengoku Jidai, shivering at the leftover chill in the air from the night before.

“Look out!”

Tilting her chin upward, her view of the clouds floating above the square opening was obstructed by a fox-shaped shadow. The kitsune was plummeting toward her fast, but before he collided with her there was a loud pop as he took on his giant bubble form, squishing Kagome against the rangy vines that slithered up the walls.

“Shippou, what are you...? Uhn!” Kagome pushed at his pulpous body, but yielded no results.

“Sorry,” with another pop he shrunk to normal size, and Kagome picked him up off the ground and cuddled him against her. “InuYasha came back without you yesterday, so I was trying to go to your time and get you, but the well won’t let me through anymore.”

Kagome giggled at his pout, a brow arching in rumination, “I don’t know; that’s really weird.” She patted his head fondly, “So you’re all better now, huh?”

“Yep,” Shippou replied jocundly. “Your bag smells like food, Kagome.”

Kagome laughed as Shippou attempted to crawl over her shoulder, nearly succeeding but for her hand pulling him back by the tail, “I made lunch for everyone, so I hope you’re hungry.”

Climbing out of the well after the kit, Kagome dug in her bag for her pink hoodie; the sky was all cold colors, and the wind lacked even a trace amount of warmth. Pulling the hoodie over her shirt, she pulled her bag back on and followed Shippou down the slope and along the path to the village, where the sounds of construction were already audible.

She took a deep breath, her nerves effervescing beneath the surface of her resolution. She had spent a great deal of time last night thinking of what she had to do, steeling herself to atone for her actions and words, which at the times they had taken place had seemed nugatory. She was reposing all her faith in the hope that one year would be more than enough time to show InuYasha that she loved him as a hanyou.

She was a little surprised when the village came into view; many of the huts had been restored to their previous conditions, and she spotted Miroku working on a half-erected hut with his sleeves rolled up. She followed Shippou to where Sango was sitting on a sanded log just outside Kaede’s hut, and she set her bag on the ground as she filled the empty space beside the taijiya.

“Hey, Sango.”

“Hi,” She replied absently, her tone rather hostile.

Kagome opened her mouth to tell her friend about Toutousai, but caught herself just in the nick of time. She frowned at keeping something that she normally would have spilled her guts about from her best girlfriend, but she didn’t have long to dwell on that when she spied Sango’s irascible expression.

“Something the matter?” Kagome ventured.

Sango made a sound like a cat hissing, “Oh, nothing. I’m fine. Enjoying sitting here being a useless pregnant woman.”

Kagome glanced at her friend’s still-flat stomach beneath her purple and green kimono, unsure of what to say.

Sango narrowed her gaze as the Houshi walked past them, nodding to the two women and Shippou, “It’s just what I’ve always wanted, to be worried over like a goddamn child and caged up like a cricket.”

The miko laughed humorlessly, “You look pretty liberated to me.”

Sango snorted, “That monk is making me sit around ‘to get my rest’! He won’t let me help or do anything besides relieve myself--and I’ll be damned if he tries to stop me from doing that.”

“It sounds like he’s concerned about you,” Kagome inferred, learning all to swiftly that this was the wrong thing to say.

“Concerned is an understatement. Paranoid is what it is, telling me that walking five steps in one direction is strenuous labor!” She shouted, causing Shippou to duck behind Kagome.

Kagome didn’t like the angry flush that covered Sango’s face, and quickly dug in her bag for something to calm her down, “Here, Sango. I made everyone obento. Maybe we can all take a break from--well...we can all take a break.”

“Thanks, Kagome!” Shippou squeaked, grabbing his obento from the open pack and throwing off the lid. His cheeks were stuffed full of rice balls before he even took his seat on the log.

Sango sighed, accepting her and Kirara’s boxes, “Alright.”

As the slayer wrestled with her lid Shippou pointed to the top of a hill, “Here come InuYasha and Kirara.”

Sure enough, there were the hanyou and the fire-cat, Kirara harnessed to a makeshift sled piled high with logs, presumably freshly chopped by InuYasha. The two slid down the hill and through the wreckage of the village, approaching the hut the Miroku had been repairing only minutes ago.

A gust of wind hit Kagome from behind, and InuYasha’s head snapped up, scenting her instantaneously. She winced at the momentary hurt that glittered in the depths of his eyes before he jerked his head back toward his current project.

She was shaken out of her reverie by Miroku’s voice, “Did you make this obento for us, Kagome?”

She nodded as he set down a pail of some pasty substance, and retrieved a box from her backpack, “Where’s Kaede? I made some for her too.”

“I’m here, child,” Kaede spoke hoarsely, joining them. Miroku passed her an obento and chopsticks.

Kagome swallowed her fear as InuYasha strode past them, seemingly oblivious to his friends’ presence, “InuYasha! Do you want some lunch?”

He stopped, ears flattening slightly, though he didn’t look at her as he answered, “I’m not hungry.”

And with that he leapt away, disappearing into the forest. Miroku responded to Kagome’s plaintive look with a shrug as kitten Kirara trotted up to nose her fish out from the midst of the vegetables in her obento. The schoolgirl quickly gathered up her backpack with the two remaining obentos and headed off in the direction of the Goshinboku.

InuYasha’s forest wasn’t as diversified in its noises as she remembered it being. She only picked up the occasional snapping of a twig or rustling of leaves in the wind. Reaching the clearing of the God Tree, Kagome’s eyes were drawn to a patch of red that retreated higher into its branches as she stepped closer to the massive trunk.

Taking her time in settling herself at the foot of the great tree, she pulled her own obento into her lap after placing InuYasha’s beside her. Deliberately raising her gaze to the bows above her as she poked around with her chopsticks, she lifted an egg to her mouth.

She sighed, “Please come down, InuYasha.”

She waited for him to move or say something, but he gave her the cold shoulder. She bit her lip.

“I guess I’ll just have to eat your obento then,” She called, disappointed when her threat did not have the desired effect. She might as well have been blackmailing her shadow, and she wondered for a fleeting second if InuYasha hadn’t gone back to the village.

She groaned, feeling more ashamed than ever, and all of a sudden a bite of crunchy pickles sounded nauseating. Her stomach squirmed as she remembered what she’d said to him, and worst of all, how he’d interpreted it. Whether she’d meant to hurt him or not, she did.

“InuYasha,” She said, her voice rasping, “I’m really s--”

A rough hand clamped over her mouth followed a whooshing sound as InuYasha dropped from the tree limbs above her and landed beside her.

“Don’t apologize,” He said quietly, his hand still covering her mouth. She blinked at him, and he withdrew his gaze once more, stuffing both hands into his billowing red sleeves.

Gently nursing the finger she’d burned while cooking his food, Kagome used her free hand to pick up his obento, “I made this for you.”

Cautiously, he took the offering and peered under the lid lazily, “No ramen?”

A smile twitched the corner of Kagome’s mouth, “Nope, just nasty pickles.”

“Keh,” InuYasha ignored the chopsticks that had come with the obento, instead grabbing a handful of pickles and stuffing them into his mouth.

Kagome giggled when he choked, his eyes bugging out as he swallowed the pickles with great difficulty. His expression was scandalized, “Ugh!”

“They aren’t that bad, are they?” Kagome queried, wincing as she remembered that she hadn’t bothered to check the expiration date on the jar. “Okay, maybe they are kind of old....”

“Are you trying to poison me, wench?”

“No! Why would I try to poison you?”

“Feh. I don’t know,” He eyed her obento suspiciously, reaching out and taking a pickle from her box.

“What are you--?” She started as he bit her pickle.

“Bleh! Yours are nasty too!” He tossed the pickle from him, revolted.

Kagome clutched her stomach as she laughed, “You though I would give you unpalatable food on purpose?”

He crossed his arms, eyes twinkling, “No, I was just testing your food for you.”

Kagome giggled as she set her hardly-touched obento atop InuYasha’s neglected one, He’s such a...mystery.

He eyed her dubiously, “You’re not hungry anymore?”

She shrugged, curling into herself as a cool breeze assaulted her, “I guess not.”

Casting him a sideways glance, she froze when she saw him glaring at a point on her neck around where the Shikon jewel rested. He started when he noticed her stare, hurrying to feign ignorance.

“I gave Houjou’s necklace back, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

She knew that he wanted to deny it, but his own curiosity must have been too much for him, “Why?”

Kagome sighed, the wind playing with the drawstrings of her hoodie, tendrils of her dark hair floating about, “I...I didn’t mean to hurt you--with what I said. I’m sorry.”

The hanyou’s brows furrowed as he muttered, “I told you not to apologize, dammit.”

She cradled her afflicted finger in subdued frustration, “Well, I’m saying it. You were right.”

InuYasha was staring at the forest canopy wearing a pensive scowl that doubled Kagome’s guilt.

He has every right not to accept my apology. Who am I kidding, I don’t even have the right to apologize after how I made him feel.

She watched him intently, her hands shaking slightly as she contemplated what to do next. His insecurities were suffocating her as she sat beside him in Goshinboku’s roots, an emotional wall separating them by what seemed miles. His ears twitched a few times when the wind stroked the fine silver hairs, and Kagome smiled.

I bet he really doesn’t know how special those ears are. He probably hates them, She sighed as she recalled the place where they’d first met so very long ago.

Making to reach out for his ear, she quelled the urge with all she had, folding her hands in her lap, No, I can’t. If we’re going to talk, it has to be on a level playing field. If I want to show him that I truly love him as a hanyou, I’m going to have to make myself as vulnerable as he is.

“Do you--uh--remember when we first met? Right here, two years ago,” Kagome spoke quietly, looking up at the place she’d found InuYasha pinned to the God Tree.

“Yeah,” He replied charily, slanting her an inquisitive glance.

She took a deep breath, girding herself, “That wasn’t actually the first time we’d met.”

He blinked down at her, “Huh?”

“I-I saw you earlier on, the morning of the day Mistress Centipede chased me to the Goshinboku. You didn’t wake up though, even when I....”

“When you what?”

Embarrassed heat stole over her face, and she smiled at the fact that InuYasha would never know how much it cost her to admit what she was about to, “I kind of--touched your ears.”

She didn’t look at him, but she had a feeling he was ogling her with something likened to awe. She dared a peek at him when he cleared his throat, puppy ears flicking atop his head as he gazed into the distance, his cheeks reddening ever so slightly, “Y-You touched them?”

She grinned bashfully, “Well, I sort of....”

Tentatively, she stretched her arm and touched his ear, just as she had the first day she’d fallen through the well, when she had been searching for some vestige of familiarity in the strange new word she had found herself in. So she had gone to the Goshinboku, and there she had discovered the boy sitting beside her now, his eyes wide, golden beacons shining down on her.

She saw confusion cloud the light of his gaze as she rubbed his ear tenderly, giving him everything he couldn’t ask for. Perhaps he didn’t know what exactly it was that he needed, or that he needed anything at all, but she gave it to him, and he accepted.

His confusion evanesced as he leaned into her hand and sighed, closing his eyes as she gently scratched the base of his ear, his soft silver hair caressing her fingers.

“Kagome...,” He said languidly, speaking from within the haze of a deep stupor. “You didn’t have to give that necklace back to that kid.”

Fondling his ear as he slumped against her, she whispered, “I think I did, InuYasha. I...I wanted to give it back.”

She let her hand fall from his ear, granting him awareness once more, and she blushed as their eyes met. Amber pierced brown with a driving force, his nose only inches from hers. Despite her warm layers she felt suddenly exposed, though it wasn’t a bad feeling. It was a if she were closer to InuYasha, and she could almost hear the mortar of his emotional rampart crumbling as it collapsed in on itself.

Kagome fumbled for the obentos and chopsticks and dumped them carelessly back into her knapsack, “How about we go and help the others finish fixing up the village?”

He grinned, prizing her backpack from her grip and swinging it over his shoulder, “Sounds like a plan.”

Kagome squealed as he hefted her into his arms with a singularly fluid motion, sprinting through the forest at the speed of the wind.

The miko was smiling widely, a healthy flush dusting her cheeks as InuYasha set her down outside Kaede’s hut.

“Looks like nobody wanted your poisoned pickles, wench,” InuYasha remarked, not bothering to mask his amusement as he nudged an obento that was empty save for the pickles with his bare foot. All the other boxes around it were just like it.

“Shippou tasted the crunchy things first, so we all knew not to eat them,” Sango told the couple matter-of-factly, working sedulously at sewing together the reeds of a bamboo door flap, her aura much more cheerful compared to what it had been when Kagome had arrived. Ever perceptive of her friends’ scrutiny, Sango answered their unasked query, “Miroku’s letting me help with the door flaps.”

“I’ll help too,” Kagome volunteered, kneeling beside the taijiya, who began to instruct her on the basic concept of looming.

The hours breezed by like the clouds above them, InuYasha, Kirara, and Miroku raising house after house. By midafternoon half of the village was reconstituted, and the weather was holding up nicely.

“Kagome! Come over here and help me with this, will you?” InuYasha called to her.

She obliged him, coming to his aid, “What should I do?”

InuYasha was holding up a wall that consisted of five logs of ample bulk, the space beneath them barren of any support but his arms, “Just get one of those pegs over there and stick it in the corner--the rabbet--right there. Damn fox thought it would be funny to mimic a log with his kitsune magic.”

Kagome chortled airily, but stopped when she saw the logs slip somewhat in InuYasha’s grasp, “Okay, pegs...pegs--here!”

Kagome snatched up a wooden peg and thrust it into the corner where the boles met at a right angle. InuYasha heaved a sigh as he let go of the wall, straightening up to survey his handiwork.

“You’re good at building things, you know,” Kagome mentioned, sidling up beside him.

“Feh,” InuYasha brushed off her praise with marked insouciance, though not before she’d spotted the proud twitch of his lip. “Well, no thanks to you, I’ve helped rebuild just about every village in Musashi.”

Kagome was about to retort, but both of their attentions were gleaned by a bubbling laugh that seemed to be coming from within the hut wall itself.

“What on Earth?” Kagome’s countenance manifested shock as the peg she had just inserted began to wiggle out of its niche, cackling madly as it threw off sparks of all different colors.

“Fuck,” InuYasha growled, grabbing Kagome and darting away just as a conflagrant explosion of filled the air, the sound of boles tumbling down crashing in their ears.

When Kagome opened her eyes it was to see InuYasha, his hair covered in woodchips and his body bent over hers as she lay on the ground in the midst of an avalanche of logs.

The laughing they had heard grew louder, and with a dull flump Shippou landed a top InuYasha, laughing his little head off.

The hanyou unleashed a carnivorous snarl, grabbing for the fox who dodged his hands and laughed. Kagome watched, feeling strangely sentimental as InuYasha kicked the remnants of the hut off his legs and tore after the kit, shouting obscenities and death threats of varied gruesomeness.

That night, as the thumbnail moon rose to the heaven’s peak, the group of enervated humans and demons sat around a fire outside Kaede’s hut. They had finally finished repairing the village a few hours after the cool recurring of dusk.

Sango and Miroku were curled in each other’s arms, the latter observing the demon-slayer with a distinct brightness in his dark blue eyes as the light of the flames warmed his shakuju. Kaede sat beside them, seeming lost in her own thoughts. Kirara lay beside Shippou, licking the multiple contusions on his skull as the kit yawned, showing off needle-sharp fangs. InuYasha lay stretched out on his back and propped up on his elbows, his expression one of lassitude as he wiggled his toes precariously close to the flames. The young miko sat not far to his right, her sweatshirt gone in the wake of the fire blazing in the pit.

A lightning bug that had been hovering over the fire popped and screamed as it was consumed in a burst of glowing ash, and the inuhanyou’s voice intruded upon the congenial quietude, “We should set out tomorrow.”

Sango lifted her head tardily, Miroku brushing her bangs from her eyes, “Where to?”

“Takakuri of course,” He replied.

“It will not be that easy, InuYasha,” Miroku said. “We do not know the location of the Taiyoukai of the South, and wandering into his lands again after his son’s blatant warning would be tantamount to poking a sleeping dragon-youkai in the eye.”

The hanyou scoffed at this, “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of that bastard. He snuck up on us last time.”

Miroku was not convinced, “Takakuri practices a most dangerous magic. Just look what he did to Shippou; the damage caused by Kagome’s miko arrow lasted for days, and Kagome has yet to fully recover from her fox-fire burns.”

Sango nodded, “I’ve never encountered a youkai quite like him; one who uses such a unique brand of magic and hypnosis. Not to mention his appearance is one of a kind, with his scaly skin and attributes that are characteristic to kitsune.”

“He’s no kitsune,” Shippou chipped in. “He didn’t even smell like one. Well, he smelled a little like one.”

“Furball’s right,” InuYasha averred. “Takakuri stank of snake, but also butterfly-youkai and tiger-youkai.”

“The Taiyoukai of the South must be a motley demon to sire such a child,” The Houshi commented.

“Masaki.”

The group turned their heads in unison, and Kagome fingered the light pink jewel about her neck nervously, “The Southern Taiyoukai’s name is Masaki.”

“How’d you know that?” The dog-eared boy asked suspiciously.

Oh great, I get to lie some more. Toutousai better thank me for this, “I mean...I just heard it somewhere--in a town.”

“Right. Hedge all you want, Kagome; I’ll find out sooner or later,” InuYasha promised.

Kagome swallowed.

“Do ye believe ye will come to possess the entire Shikon no Tama?” Kaede inquired.

InuYasha snorted, “Of course. It ain’t that hard. We just need Takakuri’s shards, the shards Miroku has, and Koha--”

He cut off abruptly when Sango averted her eyes. Kagome saw it as the perfect time to change the subject.

“InuYasha has a theory about how to destroy Naraku using the Shikon no Tama.”

The inuhanyou met her gaze, and she got the impression that he was trying to discourage her from saying anything more.

“What is that?” asked the elder miko.

Heedless of the deterring glances InuYasha was pinioning her with, she continued in a subdued tone, “He said that maybe he could use it to wish Naraku human.”

Unease pricked her heart at the silence that followed before InuYasha crowed, “Keh! It was just a dumb idea! It’s not like it would really work.”

The taijiya shook her head, “I don’t now. There are too many contingencies that could come with a plan like that.”

Kagome flinched at the accurateness of Sango’s statement, though the movement went unnoticed as the others squabbled.

“It is not completely fallible,” The old miko croaked. “Naraku is a hanyou. Wishing him back to a human would likely destroy the jewel as well as rid the world of his sublime evil.”

“Forgive me, Kaede, but the chances of such a wish backfiring spectacularly are too great.”

Kagome listened with frenzied awareness, imbibing her friends’ banter through her every cell, The chance of this backfiring is great, but I can stop it. Now that I know what will happen--what I have to do--we can destroy Naraku while still keeping InuYasha alive.

“You’re right, Miroku,” Kagome said quietly, facing the monk’s somber visage. “The risk that the Shikon no Tama will turn that wish inside out is high, but we have to take that chance.”

The Houshi blinked at her, “Kagome?”

She glanced at InuYasha, who was watching her through hooded golden eyes, “Trust me. InuYasha’s plan is the way to defeat Naraku. I know it is.”

She stared each of them in the eye, seeing her own resolve reflected in the depths of her friends’ gazes. InuYasha was the last one to meet her penetrating stare, “Feh. Whatever, I suppose it couldn’t hurt to try.”

Shippou nodded as he spun his top around in the dirt, the others making gestures of assent. Kaede eyed the younger miko analytically as she spoke, “Aye. Kagome has always had a reliable intuition.”

“So...we leave at sunrise.”

Miroku shook his head, “We still have a very pertinent matter to consider, InuYasha.”

InuYasha etched tiny rivers in the ground with his claws, “What might that be?”

“How will we avoid getting ambushed by Takakuri this time? We don’t have any clues as to where he or ‘Masaki’ might reside,” Miroku explained as he rubbed Sango’s shoulder, and Kagome had a hunch that it was this action that had brought the pronounced glower to the visage of the hanyou beside her.

“I have an idea,” The schoolgirl interjected. As soon as she had everyone’s attention she resumed speaking, “We could start out by finding Sesshoumaru.”

“Does Sesshoumaru know the whereabouts of the Taiyoukai of the South?” Sango questioned.

Kagome hesitated, I can’t tell them about Sesshoumaru being in love with Masaki’s mate, or else they’ll wonder where I’m getting this information. They’re already getting suspicious.

Gaze darting from face to face, Kagome licked her lips, “Well, last time we met with Takakuri he was there because Sesshoumaru was attacking the humans in his father’s lands, right?”

“That is correct,” Miroku said in a tone that encouraged her to keep talking.

“So if we find Sesshoumaru, we’ll find Takakuri, and when we find Takakuri,” Kagome smirked, “We can find out where he lives.”

“Not bad,” InuYasha said after a few second’s silence, his voice inflected with subtle pride. “Not a bad idea at all.”

“That’s assuming Takakuri brought the shards back to his father,” The Houshi stated. “We may not need to go so far as to follow him home.”

“He may have lost the shards,” Sango added.

“Keh, well its the best damn lead we’ve got,” InuYasha said with commanding finality, then addressed Kaede. “You think the villagers will be back soon, or do you want we should stay until they do?”

“This old goat can fend for herself,” Kaede answered in a smiling tone.

InuYasha grinned, flashing his fangs, and Kagome’s heart skipped a few beats. It only got worse when the hanyou cast her a sidelong glance, “You’ve got enough supplies in that bag of yours to last a good while, I hope?”

Kagome nodded, still feeling a bit unsteady.

Shippou, who had wandered over to the taijiya’s side, tugged on her sleeve, “I think you should get some rest, Sango. We’re going to be up pretty early, and I’m sure it will be a long day.”

The monk glowered at the kit, “That’s my job, Shippou.”

“It’s mine too, I’m the big brother,” Shippou made a stubborn face. “Don’t you care about your mate’s health?”

Sango sighed, slapping a hand over the monk’s mouth, “I’m going to sleep, okay?”

Shippou sneered at Miroku as Sango retired to the shelter of Kaede’s hut, the two-tailed fire-kitten and the fox kit following at her heels. The Houshi stayed where he was as Kagome and InuYasha got up, the former glancing at the inuhanyou uncertainly.

Maybe--maybe he’ll sleep with me again, like he did two nights ago, Kagome thought wistfully. I know he’s not really used to showing affection, especially with everyone around, but--

“‘Night, Kagome,” InuYasha said gruffly, before taking the path up the hill that led to his favorite sleeping tree.

Her sigh was lost in the gust of wind that played with InuYasha’s moon-bright hair as he retreated further into the darkness, “Goodnight.”

This might be more difficult than I thought.