InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Synthetic Twilight ❯ X ( Chapter 10 )

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

Kagome lay awake, listening to the rain drops fall heavily against the roof above her. Tomorrow she'd be going with Sango and Miroku on her first hunt, though they'd fought numerous demons together in the past, she was still nervous and couldn't sleep. Sighing, she gently moved Shippo and crept out of bed. She'd found cleaning and polishing her weapons to be strangely comforting in the last two and a half months that she'd been at the demonslayers village. She lit a candle in the corner of the room and reached for the cleaning cloth that was already laying across her scabard. Has it really only been four months?, she thought as she wiped the cloth slowly against one of the blades. Four months and still not even a sign concerning Inuyasha or the Jewel. She frowned, he probably didn't know that she was even here, but why didn't he come to visit Sango or Miroku? They were friends of his too, weren't they? She glanced down at the already gleaming blade and placed it back into the scabard. She considered polishing her manriki when she noticed the small candle's reflection in one of the chain loops. She'd been doing that a lot lately, hadn't she? Doing anything other than thinking about Inuyasha and the Jewel, her reason for coming back to the past. She grabbed the lighter and tin of cigarettes she'd kept in her bag and walked out the front door. Shippo came out a few minutes later rubbing his eyes, "I thought you said you quit those."
"I did, Shippo, I just-" Kagome said guiltily. She took another drag, they'd been stale for the past two months so it wasn't really satisfying, she just supposed it was another one of those crutches she'd developed.
"Did you want to talk about anything?" he said sitting down beside her.
"No, everything's fine, sorry for waking you," Shippo gave her a dubious look as soon as the sentence left her lips.
"Everything's not fine, Mama. I know we haven't heard anything, but we could go look for him together." he said rubbing her arm.
"I don't know how I can face him, Shippo, sometimes I don't think I have the courage to." she said sadly.
"You didn't do anything wrong, why wouldn't you have the courage to face him?" Shippo said, giving Kagome a concerned look.
"Because I knew he'd choose her in the end, yet I still loved him. To be honest, I'm still angry about it. Do you remember when Kikyo was first ressurected?" Shippo nodded, "The look of hurt and anger on her face when she asked him how he could have betrayed her, even though he hadn't, I can sympathize. I- I feel closer to Kikyo than ever before," she whispered.
"Kagome-" Shippo reached for her.
She let Shippo hold onto her side before she began again, "I mean, it's pretty stupid being upset about it, isn't it? Coming out of a relationship like that, of course he's going to have baggage. He was going to sacrifice himself for her to have a normal life, wasn't he? Why would he choose me over her?" she finished hoarsely.
Shippo reached up and wiped the tears falling from her face, "You're not stupid, no one chooses who they fall in love with. I think- I think he loved you too, in his own way. He said he did it because it was best for you."
Kagome laughed bitterly, "You'd think he'd ask what I wanted first. No, Shippo, he did what was best for him. I came back because I was told I was needed, did you know? Now that I'm here... well, nothing's happened. Life looks like it just carried on, and I can't see any part of it in this time that I might belong in. I thought maybe, maybe life here would be as I left it and we'd go everywhere as a group like we had and things would be-" she sighed. "things would be normal." Rubbing the palm of her hand against one of her eyes she said softly, "I really don't know what I was thinking."
Shippo smiled sadly at his adopted mother, "Well, for now, you belong here and you're going to be leaving early in the morning to do a job that you've trained for months to do. That's a good start, isn't it?"
Kagome ruffled his hair affectionately, "It is, Shippo, thanks for letting me see things clearer." She rubbed the cigarette out in the dirt, "Let's go to bed. I can't fall asleep on the job, can I?" she said laughing.

The next morning she set out with Sango, Miroku, and five other demonslayers on the road heading north to a town that had been plauged by a nest of snake demons. Sango and Miroku pulled up next to her on Kilala, "So, are you nervous Kagome?" Miroku asked. Kagome smiled warmly as she realised that she looked like she belonged with this group, "Well, for now, you belong here..."
"Kagome-chan?" Sango asked, pulling Kagome from her thoughts.
"Ah, sorry!" Kagome apologized. "Not really nervous, but excited, I guess that's how to put it. I'm looking forward to it, really."
Daisuke, one of the older demonslayers, laughed, "That's our girl! You know, this is Kenji's first hunt too? He was asking how you could be so calm!" She looked over at the young boy, who looked to be fifteen at the oldest, was gripping his reins tightly muttering, "courage, courage", under his breath.
She smiled, "I was kind of nervous last night, to be honest, but a talk with Shippo put things into perspective."
"See, Kenji?" Daisuke called out loudly to the youth, "Everyone gets nervous, it's normal!"
The boy looked up hopefully, "Really?"
Sango smiled, "Really," the boy seemed to relax a little.
Kagome turned back to her friend, "What about these snakes, do you know anything about them?" she asked.
"The person I spoke with said that the snakes have been living on the outskirts of their village for sometime. He said that they'd been feeding the snakes livestock, but when they couldn't afford to keep it up, villagers started disappearing. So nothing unusual about them, really, just a threat to the village." Sango said.
"Sango-chan, what does Shippo do when you aren't around? Do any of the people in the village bother him?" Kagome asked.
"Oh no, when we're gone, Shippo helps the children study reading and writing. No one bothers him at all, when we went back to rebuild the village, we made sure to accept demonslayers who weren't interested in just killing demons just for the sake of killing demons. You know on our travels we made friends with a lot of demons, and to slaughter their kind needlessly would be an insult to them." Sango said.
Miroku nodded, "I think that's why our area is so tranquil. There are villages that kill any demon they come across and so big clashes between humans and demons are normal for them. Unfortunately, it seems that the people living around them suffer the most because they are not able to defend themselves."
"I see." Kagome said and looked back to the road.
"The village is up ahead!" Daisuke shouted.

All the demonslayers seemed to strap their masks on at the same time as they road into the small town. Sango presented them to the village headsman before he told them where to find the nest. They left their horses in town and walked to a small, rocky cave where they were told that the snakes lived in. Sango pulled out three of the small, green pellets that Kagome knew to be the bane of Shippo's existance, "Is everyone ready?" she called. Murmers of assent were given, "Here we go!" she shouted as she threw the pellets into the cave. A large, noxious cloud of green gas rose from the cave entrance, everyone held their ranged weapons at the ready to take down the first leaving the enterance. A few seconds passed when angry hissing was heard and several tall, but skinny black and orange snakes slithered out.
"Hirakotsu!" Sango shouted as she let her huge bone boomerang fly. Kagome notched an arrow and let it fly screaming. Miroku pulled out a couple of ofudas and threw them at the snakes as well. Their combined attacks left an explosion that shook the ground, when the air cleared, the small snakes were either purified or laying on the ground dead. Sango slid back a few feet as she caught her weapon expertly, "That was too easy," she said shaking her head.
"Kenji watch out!" Daisuke screamed, but he was too late, the mother snake appeared and grabbed the boy by the waist. Kenji yelped as he was pulled high into the air by the snake, "Put him down!" Kagome yelled as she notched another arrow, the snake seemed to be expecting this because she whipped her tail around, snapping Kagome's bow. Kagome cursed as the string snapped and struck her across a cheek. Daisuke charged at the snake with a two-handed axe drawn, the snake also batted him effortlessly away. Sango's Hirakotsu struck the snake hard in the abdomen before whrilling back to it's master. The snake hissed angrily, "None of you humans are in the position to kill me!" she spat. "You take my children and I'll take one of yours." she growled. Kagome felt helpless, I have to do something! She quickly grabbed the swords out of her scabbard, and without hesitation, charged at the snake. Sango threw her boomerang again and Miroku struck the snake in the face with a suttra. Kagome dodged the snake's still wildly thrashing tail and swung up with a sword. The snake howled angrily and Kagome sent as much purification powers as she could into her swords. One of the demonslayers gasped behind her, "Her arms! It looks as if she's on fire!"
"Stop oogling the girl! Focus!" Daisuke yelled and threw his kusarigama at the snake, pinning it down from one side. Several chains then followed, pinning the snake from all sides, one man brought a pike down on the snake's tail, ceasing its thrashing.
"Finish her, Kagome!" Sango yelled.
Kagome brought both of her swords in front of her and stabbed the snake in its soft abdomen and jerked the swords down. The snake screamed in agony before it exploded in a cloud of pink dust. Kilala jumped up and caught Kenji as he was falling quickly to the ground. Miroku came forward to bless the remains of the snake corpses that were still laying on the ground. A few of the demonslayers came up and began to take away some of the remains that would be useful for making armor or weapons.
"Is he going to be okay?" Kagome asked Sango as she was bandaging the boy's wounds.
"It doesn't look like anything vital was injured" she said, taking out a poltice and cleaning another deep gash into Kenji's side. "If the wounds don't become infected, he should be fine if he rests. Souta!" Kagome jumped at the name Sango called, "Head back to the village on Kilala and tell them the job's done. Ask them if we can borrow a wagon to place Kenji in, we shouldn't be moving him around too much."
"Yes, Sango-sama" the young man said before heading in the direction where Kilala sat with Miroku.

Two fleas sat in a tree overlooking the cave, "See, my husband? I like the ring to that.. my husband" Shoga glowed.
Myoga grimaced, "What was she thinking?! She could've gotten killed! Then I would've gotten killed by Sesshomaru-sama and Inuyasha-sama! Oh Kami-sama, why have you forsaken me?! First with the marriage and now this!"
Shoga slapped the back of her husband's head, "You were BLESSED to be with me! Who'd have you anyway? Me! Only me! If you try to run again, I'll squish you myself you ungrateful louse! Now, go report back to Sesshomaru-sama and introduce me as your wife! You'll see, I come in handy."
"Yes, dear." Myoga whined.



Pfft, Inuyasha/Kagome fic, no one's guessed it yet? This is a Myoga/Shoga fic!
I kid, I kid.
This is going to end up as canon pairings, even if I don't make it seem that way in a later chapter. *cough*

I do not own any of the characters from the manga/anime Inuyasha.