InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Broken Horn ❯ Promise ( Chapter 6 )

Author's Note: (smiles sheepishly) Yeah, it's Aerith's Church from Final Fantasy 7. A plate of cookies for all the people who guessed it right.

 

 

The Broken Horn

Chapter Six

Promise

“You shouldn't have told him.”

Daisuke turned around to see Miroku.

“What do you mean?” he asked. “Inuyasha's closest; it's only reasonable to send him after the demon.”

Miroku stared at him gravely. “Kagome's with him. She'll be in danger and she'll put the mission at risk.”

Daisuke didn't seem worried. “I trust Inuyasha to keep her out of danger. You and I both know that Inuyasha doesn't drag innocent people into his fights. Kagome will be fine.”

“You seem so certain.”

“I am.” He gave him a brief smile and left the control room.

Miroku turned to face the wide-screen computer, which was now displaying a grid-map of Zephlin's slums.

He exhaled softly and said to himself. “It's not the physical danger that I'm worried about.”

………

Kagome had to run to keep up with Inuyasha's jogging pace and it wasn't very easy since she was wearing a skirt. The minute Inuyasha hung up the cellphone, they were out the door and were diving deeper in the slums.

“What's going on?” Kagome asked in puffs. “Where are we going?”

“There's a demon near here,” Inuyasha answered as he dug into his knapsack that hung in front of him.

“You're pulling a job now?”

“This demon's been terrorizing people for a long time. It's always on the move so we could never get a fixed location. The fact that we now have its whereabouts is pretty lucky.”

“But -“

“This demon targets children, Kagome. I'm the closest one to it. Relax, I'm not going to drag you into it.”

She never said anything about being worried about being dragged into this, but it was slightly touching. She smiled softly. So the Midoriko Order wasn't the only reason he was an exorcist.

“So why are you able to get a fixed location on it now?” she asked.

“It means she's feeding.” Inuyasha freed his ears and clipped on his earpiece. “Eagle to base, do you copy?”

“Copy that.” It was Toji who responded.

“Requesting location of the subject.” He pulled out an electronic device before closing the sack and swinging it onto his back.

“Acknowledged, Eagle. Stand by, over.” There was a brief silence. “Downloading coordinates.”

Kagome almost crashed into Inuyasha when he abruptly stopped. He pulled out a short antenna out of the top of his device and held it in front of him. He began to circle the empty street they were on until the device emitted a rapid beeping sound. He immediately turned the device off and pushed in the antenna with a snap. Kagome looked up and saw that they had stopped in front of a shabby two-story building. Its door was already open.

Inuyasha pulled out a pistol and gestured her to follow him inside. Kagome stared at him. He was kidding, right? He wasn't actually suggesting that she go in a building that was in a terrible need of a new paint job.

When he saw that she wasn't moving, Inuyasha gave an impatient growl and pulled her in with him.

“Going radio-silent until subject's destroyed,” he muttered.

“Roger that.”

Inuyasha pressed his earpiece and cautiously looked around the place. “You stay here,” he said to her as he handed her his knapsack.

Kagome gladly obliged. The room was dreary and there was broken furniture everywhere. Shredded fabric hung from the walls and cobwebs fluttered at the corners. She spotted a bench that was still in one piece and she moved to sit on it. The moment it was within her reach, Kagome felt a pang of an odd shiver. She gasped out loud as it surprised her.

Inuyasha was at her side instantly. “What is it?” he demanded.

The teenage girl stumbled back a couple steps as her brows furrowed deeply. There was some sort of wave rippling from somewhere. It felt negative and even a little nauseating. Her skin tingled uncomfortably.

“Something's here,” she said. “Something…” she trailed off as she tried to locate wave's focal point. She then pointed to a spot on the ceiling. “Up there. It's coming from up there.” She didn't see the strange stare Inuyasha was giving her.

Suddenly he took her arm and led her to a staircase. “Follow my steps exactly,” he instructed and they carefully went up the hole-ridden stairs. Emerging onto the second floor, they entered a dark hallway. “Where is it now?” he asked her.

Kagome took a few steps forward and her eyes narrowed as she tried to relocate the focal point of the wave. The concentration of the energy was much stronger now so the focus was easier to locate. She pointed to the third door down to their left. “That one,” she said.

Inuyasha nodded. “Good.”

He was only three steps away from the door when he suddenly stopped. He frowned as he sniffed. Then his eyes narrowed.

“What?” Kagome said.

“There's a human child inside.” He turned to her. “When we get inside, you grab the kid and run, okay?” he said quietly. “I'll deal with the demon.”

“But, I -“

“Just do it!” he hissed and before she could protest any further he kicked open the door and burst into the room.

When Kagome saw what was inside, all of her feelings of trepidation disappeared. There was a woman sitting in a rocking chair, singing a soft lullaby to the child in her lap. The woman looked shocked and she held her boy protectively when she saw Inuyasha's pistol leveled at her. The child looked no older than seven.

“What are you doing in my home?” the lady cried.

“Don't give me that kind of bullshit. No one's lived here for years,” Inuyasha snapped.

“I don't know what you're talking about. Get out of my home! Get out!”

Kagome's eyes stayed on the terrified child in the woman's arms. She could still feel the negative energy that was saturated in the air but the image in front of her seemed to clash with that.

Kagome touched Inuyasha's shoulder. “Inuyasha, maybe -“

He shrugged her off. “Let go of the kid and stand up,” he directed the woman.

“What do you want with my child? Who are you?” the woman demanded.

“I'm counting to three. If you don't do what I say, I'll shoot.”

“Inuyasha!” Kagome gasped.

“One…”

“No, please! Don't hurt my child!”

“Two…”

“Inuyasha, please, what are you thinking? Don't -“

“Three.”

A gunshot rang out. Kagome's legs gave out as she covered her ears and screamed. But her eyes widened in shock when she saw what was in front of her. The woman had pushed the child away and her arm turned into a long, thick, and green monstrous-looking arm. It knocked Inuyasha's gun-arm and the bullet missed and hit the ceiling.

Without thinking, Kagome scrambled towards the child, who was reaching for the she-demon. She swept the child into her arms and headed towards the door. The demon transformed her other arm in the same way, reached out and slammed the door closed. The thick limb then jutted to the side and knocked Kagome off her feet. She crashed into the wall and crumpled with the unharmed child beneath her.

“Kagome!”

Inuyasha had started towards the fallen girl when the demon withdrew her arm and lunged toward him. He shot at it but the demon avoided the bullets with liquid ease, twisting and gliding. Her body began to stretch and her legs merged together to form a serpent-like body. Her disproportionate arms hung from her shoulders like a gorilla and long white fangs grew out of her mouth. Her eye color turned into a murky yellow and two curved horns grew out of the top of her head.

Despite this transformation, the child in Kagome's arms continued to squirm around, his arms reaching out towards the demon.

“Mama!” he cried. “Mama!”

The demon knocked the pistol out of Inuyasha's hands and went for him with one clawed hand, her fingers gnarled. Inuyasha met her hand with his own claws and slashed them, leaving four deep gashes. He leapt forward and attacked again but this time, at her face. The demon gave an inhuman shriek as she stumbled back, clutching her face. Taking advantage of these precious seconds, Inuyasha dashed to his fallen pistol. In one swift movement, he picked it up and pointed it at his opponent. The second she moved her hands away from her face, he fired.

Her head snapped back from the impact and it slowly rolled back. Her eyes were wide with shock and her fingers lingered over her wounded forehead.

“Mama!” the boy screamed as she fell dead to the ground; her body returned to its humanoid form. He squirmed away from Kagome and ran to the fallen demon's side.

Inuyasha watched the child with indistinct pity. But something wasn't right. He could feel another presence but he couldn't exactly pinpoint where…He walked over to Kagome and kneeled down to make sure there were no signs of injuries. Afterwards, he relaxed a little; she only had a bump on her head, nothing extreme.

All of a sudden, Inuyasha heard a faint whistling sound. He slowly turned his head to where the window was. Then it shattered and broken glass littered the ground. A small object whipped through it into the room. The weeping boy suddenly jerked and pitched forward. Inuyasha ran to the window but he saw no one. He went back to the kid and saw there was a very small dart protruding from his neck. He squinted his eyes; there was a tiny, but familiar symbol on it.

Inuyasha reached to pick it out and give it a closer look when it suddenly liquefied and sank into the boy's skin. He frowned in bewilderment. Then, the boy started wheezing.

Inuyasha leaned his head to the side. “Hey, kid, are you alright?”

He reached to touch him when the boy abruptly jumped away, snarling viciously. Inuyasha stared in shock. The boy's lip curled to reveal fangs that were growing at an alarming rate. His eyes were dilated and their color seemed to swirl into a vivid scarlet.

“Shit…” Inuyasha breathed, realizing what was happening.

Then he heard Kagome groan softly. She was coming to.

The boy-demon noticed the teenage girl too and sprinted toward her with clawed hands bared. Inuyasha caught up to him easily and knocked him away with the butt of his pistol. The kid skidded across the floor and rolled several times. He pushed himself to his knees, hunched over and his breath grew harsher and raspier. Spikes grew out of his spine, tearing through the fabric of his shirt. He looked up, his face covered with blue markings.

Inuyasha gripped the pistol tightly. The boy was transforming at an abnormally rapid speed.

Kagome groaned again, her head spinning. As she tried to push herself up with her arms, she looked up. Everything was still a little fuzzy but she could sort of make out Inuyasha. He was standing and staring at something. She followed his line of vision and saw a small form. The child, perhaps?

The child climbed to his feet and ran toward Kagome with his hands reaching for her. She smiled softly and reached out to welcome him into her arms. Then all thoughts erased themselves when she saw Inuyasha raised his pistol and aimed it at the running child.

What…what was he doing?! N-

“NO!”

The trigger pulled and the pistol fired.

……

“Eagle to base, do you read?”

“We read you.”

“Requesting pick up…just for the girl.”

“Ackno - wait, repeat that, over.” Only silenced followed. “Eagle, do you copy? Eag -“

“What happened?”

“He hung up, dammit.”

……

It was starting to rain. The skies were turning gray and the clouds were gathering. But Kagome didn't care. She felt void of everything.

When they left the building, Inuyasha said only a few words. He instructed her to stay here and someone would come to pick her up. Then, he left. Kagome couldn't say anything. It was like there was a cork in her throat, trapping all her words underneath. She couldn't yell, she couldn't scream, she couldn't cry.

She sat on the building's front steps, staring blankly ahead of her. Wet strands of hair and droplets of rain clung to her face but she didn't move to wipe them away. Only one mental image stayed in her head. One horrible and bloody image.

The rain stopped hitting her face but she could still hear it pound the sidewalk. She felt a shadow loom over her. She looked up and saw someone holding an umbrella over her. Her eyes focused on the umbrella's holder.

Daisuke smiled sympathetically. “Hey.”

……

Charlotte closed the oven lid and checked on the contents inside through the little window one last time before straightening up. She wiped her hands on her apron and picked up a plate, and a towel to wipe it clean with. Hearing footsteps, she looked up to see Daisuke leading a drenched Kagome down the hall.

Charlotte sighed. “Poor girl.”

Toji, who was clipping his toenails at the table, turned to see what she was looking out. “She looks like she's been to hell and back.”

“A very wet hell,” Chiaki added, peering over Toji's head.

“Where's Inuyasha?” Charlotte asked.

“Didn't see him,” Chiaki said.

She frowned as she picked up a cup. “What?”

“He wasn't there when Daisuke came.”

“Where is he then?”

“Well,” Toji said with a thoughtful look. “If what happened is what I think happened, then he's probably in some pub right now drinking his brains out.”

“What?”

Toji held his hands up. “I won't even bet on it.”

“See?” Chiaki pointed out. “That's how sure we are.”

“I can't believe this!”

Toji exchanged looks with Chiaki. “That's what he always does when -“

“No, no, no, no,” Charlotte said, looking aghast as she set the cup in her hand down with a thump. “This happens every time! He can not keep on doing this!”

“Well, he's been doing this, and he won't budge.”

She threw down the towel onto the counter. “Well I won't have it!” She pulled off her apron and started towards the door.

“Where are you going?” Toji asked.

“I'm going to drag his bloody ass back here, that's what I'm going to do!”

Chiaki watched their fiery cook storm out the galley. “You think she'll be able to drag him back?”

Toji shrugged. “It's about time someone tried.”

…..

The door of Heavenly Bar burst open and Charlotte stomped in like an angry bull. Her vibrant green eyes scanned the mostly empty room as she closed her umbrella, ignoring the stares some people were giving her. Her eyes stopped at the bar's counter. Target found. He was sitting slightly hunched over with a shot glass in his right hand and a bottle of whiskey near his left. He looked out of it - defeated.

When she saw him, half of her anger extinguished. On the way here, she had prepared a whole big lecture to scream at his face but she lost to will to carry it through. Charlotte sighed and ran her hand through her dark hair. She walked over and climbed onto the stool next to the drinking hanyou. After she placed her umbrella against the stool, she folded her arms on top of the counter and leaned on them.

“I'll have a water, please,” she said to the barkeep before turning her head to Inuyasha. “How much longer are you going to keep at this?”

Inuyasha gave her no response. He drank from his shot glass and refilled it.

Charlotte reached to take the glass away. “Stop drinking. It'll -“

He evaded her hand. “Why? It's not like I'll ever get drunk.”

“Inuyasha,” she said in a more urgent tone. “You can't continue like this. You can't do this every time something like this happens!”

“Do you know what I did, Charlotte? Huh?” Inuyasha turned his head to her. “I shot a kid,” he said in quiet tone. “I killed him.” He turned to face forward again. “He had to be six or seven. But I killed him quicker this time. I didn't hesitate like I did last time.”

“Why are you beating yourself up for this? No one blames you - I mean, no one who understands the situation does. You did what you had to do. It's not your fault that these evil demons target children. What happened…was it like the last times?”

“Yes.”

She gave him a hard stare. “Inuyasha, did you want to kill him?”

There was a short moment of silence. “No.”

“Then what's the problem - or well, I know what the problem is, but what I don't understand is why is it taking you so long to pick up your feet?”

Inuyasha drank another shot and swallowed hard. He refilled it again and said in a nonchalant tone. “Go away, Charlotte.”

He hated it when people talked like they understood when they really didn't. Did Charlotte have images of dying children pouring through her head?

Inuyasha covered his face with his hands, recalling what had happened, remembering the expression on her face.

She was horrorstruck. She sat there, staring at the fallen child.

He tried to get her to stand up but she wouldn't budge. He tried to explain to her - to explain to himself - what had happened. It was then when he realized that she was not listening. He turned to look at the child.

All his demon-like features had disappeared, leaving him bleeding heavily, staining his torn shirt. He coughed out blood and breathed his last.

Inuyasha could only watch.

He swallowed the lump in his throat and coaxed Kagome up. He helped her outside, called for pick-up, and left her on the front steps with her deathlike expression.

He heard the squads of the Midoriko Order drive up to that building, their sirens blaring. As he watched them pass, he began to wonder: if he had let the Midoriko Order handle this, would the child have survived?

Inuyasha took another shot.

Charlotte scoffed incredulously and she placed her hands on her head. “I can't believe this. The captain of the ship that I reside in is a wuss.”

“Hey,” he snapped. “I am not a wuss.”

The petite woman jumped on top of the stool so she could tower over him. “Well, your actions are proving otherwise. My God, look at you!” She reached for the nearest thing to her - newspaper. She rolled it up and began to hit the hanyou with it. “Pull yourself together!”

“Ah, ow! Hey!” Inuyasha raised his arms in attempt to defend himself.

“Do you realize what you are doing?” She smacked him one more time. “You have a crew outside on your ship,” she lectured, pointing the roll of newspaper outward to nothing in particular, “wondering when you're coming back and waiting for your orders because you're their freaking captain. You got a girl on that ship, who's lost and confused, and needs some kind of guidance from you so she can make it in this world. And I still have a chicken in the oven, and if I don't turn off that oven in ten minutes, that chicken's going to burn and Toji's going to start whining because I said I was going to make wonderful chicken dish instead of those Godforsaken shrimp dumplings he wanted instead! And you!” She shoved the roll at his nose as people started to stare at her again. “You're just sitting here, drinking your ass off, which is completely pointless because you can't get drunk anyways! It's all - because of - you!” she said, hitting him again.

She threw the newspaper down on the counter and sat back down. “Barkeep, where's my water?” she demanded.

“Right away, madam,” the young man squeaked.

Charlotte rubbed her face and exhaled, most of her steam blowing off. “There are people out there who need you, Inuyasha. Every minute that you stay here, a life might be at risk. If you don't get to them, who will?”

“The Midoriko Order,” Inuyasha said bitterly as he rubbed his sore arm.

She shrugged vaguely. “But it's not like you're going to let them beat you to it.”

He turned away and scoffed softy.

Charlotte gulped down her glass of water quickly before she turned to him. “So, can we go home now?”

He sighed. He wasn't going to admit it out loud, but she was right. He had a ship and a crew waiting for him. There was also Kagome he had to tend to.

He held the shot glass to his lips. “After I finish this bottle.”

“Five more minutes and your ship will be a torching flame.”

Inuyasha sipped the last of the whiskey in his shot glass and grabbed his coat. “Let's go.”

……

On the rooftop of one of the tall buildings not too far from Heavenly Bar, a cloaked figure stood watching. Two taller cloaked shadows stood a distance behind her, waiting in silence.

The door of the bar opened and a white-haired hanyou stepped out; a smaller female followed suit. He popped out the umbrella and held it so it covered both him and his companion, and they both hurried down the street.

The watcher exhaled softly in the cold and her visible breath lingered in the air before disappearing. Her fingers tingled as they rested on the pommel of one of her twin baton blades.

In her other hand she held a very small canister. Inside was a very special kind of liquid. Highly concentrated in demon energy, a few magic properties were mixed into it. As a result, it could become a powerful catalyst - to special transformations in particular.

She clipped it to her belt next to her leather case of darts and mini-tranquilizer gun.

“After this,” she breathed, her eyes trained on the hanyou. “Where are you going to go now?”

Her lips curved upwards and she turned around, her cloak whishing behind her. She signaled to her two followers with her gloved hand. They subtly inclined their head in respect and proceeded behind her.

The three took a simultaneous step and in the next second, they disappeared, leaving only a cloud of dust.

……

Kagome looked up when she heard someone knock at her door.

“Come in,” she said, hoping it was not Inuyasha behind that door.

The door opened and Kagome's chest relaxed in relief when she saw it was Daisuke.

“Hey,” he said, approaching her bedside. “You seem comfortable.” He gestured to the book in her hand.

Kagome shrugged vaguely as she closed the book and dropped it onto her lap. “I can't seem to concentrate on it.”

Daisuke nodded, understanding. “Uh, may I?” He pointed briefly to her bed.

“Oh, sure. Have a seat.”

He sat at the foot of the bed with his hands folded loosely in his lap. “So how are you doing?”

Kagome quirked a smile and looked to the side. “I've been better.”

“Um, if you don't mind, I'm…just going to get straight to the point,” Daisuke said. “I want to apologize.”

She frowned at him, confused. “For what?”

“For what happened.”

“How are you even involved?”

He exhaled heavily. “I should've never told Inuyasha about the demon. I should've gotten someone else to attend to it. I didn't really think about how it would affect you since you would be with him.”

“Don't worry about it.” Kagome smiled gently. “I don't blame you at the least.”

“Right…about that. I think you should offer Inuyasha…some leniency. I'm sure he didn't at all intend to -“

“Don't speak for him.” Kagome's voice grew hard as she looked away.

Daisuke bit his lip. He stood up and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I'm sorry. I just - just hear what he has to say, Kagome.”

Kagome said nothing. When she heard the door close, she turned her head to look at it. She knew it would be reasonable to listen to Inuyasha's explanations, if he had any. But to be honest, she didn't know if she wanted to hear any kind of explanations at the moment.

Her mind was plagued by that image. The image that she knew would haunt her forever. His large hazel eyes, wide in shock, his small frail body, his small hand reaching for the she-demon, and the blood streaming from his head.

Kagome snapped her eyes shut with a sharp gasp. Her lip trembling, she drew her legs to her chest and hugged them tightly.

……..

Inuyasha let out a heavy breath after he climbed on board the Fortis Libertas. The rain had stopped but the deck was empty; the crew was still below.

“So are you going to talk to her now?” Charlotte asked, climbing on after him.

He blew his hair out of his face. “Yeah, I guess. Gotta find her though.”

“You won't have to look too hard,” she said, looking behind him.

Inuyasha turned around to see the teenage girl standing on the quarterdeck, her back facing him. He could tell that her arms were folded and she was probably just staring blankly at nothing. He swallowed, feeling slightly apprehensive.

“I'll keep everyone below deck,” Charlotte said behind him.

“Tell Toji that we're moving out,” Inuyasha called after her. When she disappeared below, he climbed up the stairs to the quarterdeck. Kagome showed no response as to whether she knew he was there or not.

“Hey,” he called out.

She still did not respond.

Inuyasha looked around uneasily. He wanted nothing more than to run back to the pub and chug down that bottle of whiskey. He had opened his mouth to speak when she spoke.

“Before you say anything,” she said, “I want to ask you one question.”

He approached her. “Yeah?”

“How many children have you killed?”

She surprised him. “What?”

Kagome flicked her head swiftly to get her hair out of her eyes. “How many children have you shot and killed? How many kids have you torn away from their parents? How many futures have you stolen?”

Inuyasha scoffed, his uneasiness replaced with disbelief. “Are you trying to guilt me into this? Do you think that I felt nothing when I shot that kid? I didn't want to do it, Kagome. I did what I had to do.”

She glared at him. “He was like seven years-old, for God's sake!”

“I didn't have a choice!”

“No, Inuyasha. You always have a choice.”

He threw his hands into the air. “Oh, wait, you're right,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I did have another choice but that involved you getting killed. I just happened to choose the lesser of two evils.”

Kagome stared at him. “What?”

Inuyasha gave her a hard look. “I don't know how but the demon knew we were coming, Kagome. She injected a part of herself into the kid and after we destroyed her body, she hoped that we would let the kid go. She would live through him, infecting his system, turning him into a demon like herself. She was a parasite. I mean, it was weird that the kid was transforming rather quickly….”

Then there was that dart…there were a many strange factors that were in play there, actually…

Kagome's eyes grew wide with realization. “I did feel something…it was small but…”

“It was the kid,” he said in a firm tone. He felt he could relax a little; she finally understood now. “But I was going to leave him for whatever Order that came to deal with, but then he started to -“

The look in her eyes stopped him. They were even angrier and her jaw was trembling.

“I can't believe…” she gasped. “You…you knew.” She gritted her teeth. “Why did you bring me here? Why did you bring me here if you knew something like this would happen?”

“No, I didn't! I didn't think - “

“No,” she interrupted him. “You had to know. You had to! If this was the kind of world you lived in and if you were an exorcist, of all things, you had to have known that something like this was bound to happen!”

Inuyasha stared at her. He had to keep his cool.

“You're being unreasonable. You're just upset and -“

“Take me home,” she said vehemently.

“I can't.”

“Why not? I don't want to help you in your little treasure hunt. I just want to go home.”

“No, I literally can't.” He sighed heavily at her troubled expression. “In that cave, when I first brought you here, that's where I found the device to bring you here. After I used it, it somehow broke. I don't know how, I guess it wasn't meant to be used a second time. And we don't know how to fix it.” Kagome gazed at him with disbelief, slowly shaking her head.

“I'm sorry,” he added.

“No, you're not sorry. If you were sorry, you would've never brought me here in the first place! You're horrible! Why, Inuyasha?” she asked as she closed the distance between them, her body trembling. “What did I ever do to deserve this? Tell me that.”

He shook his head, unable to answer. “I…”

“How could you do this to me?!” She began to pound her small fists against his chest. “Why? Why did you take me away? How could you trick me like this! You-you pig-headed, manipulative bastard!”

Eventually, her fists gave out and Inuyasha instinctively caught her wrists to keep her from falling to the ground. Then, she surprised him again when she fell against him, her face pressed against his chest. He released her wrists and she clutched the fabric of his shirt.

“I just want to go home,” she whispered. “I want to see my mom again. I want to see Souta and Grandpa. My friends and Tetsuya. I don't want to be here anymore.” She hit his chest. “You suck,” she added feebly.

Inuyasha stared at the dark head that was attached to his chest. He was totally clueless as to what to do or say. The things she was accusing him of: tricking her into leaving her home…carelessly exposing her to things that he naively thought he could shield anyone from if he tried - he'd be lying if he denied those things. But what was he supposed to do now? Was he supposed to hug her?

Suddenly she pulled away, looking away in slight embarrassment. He, himself, felt a little disoriented.

“Sorry…I didn't…”

Without thinking, he suddenly said. “I'll get you home.”

Kagome looked at him, bewildered. “What? But, you said -“

His mouth kept talking. “I know. I'll find a way to get you home. I promise.”

“You promise?” She looked surprised.

He extended his pinky finger. “Pinky promise,” he said jokingly.

She smiled slightly but she still looked uncertain when she hooked her pinky around his. She then pulled her hand away and quickly tucked her hair behind her ear. Her lower lip started to tremble and her eyes began to water.

“Whoa, hey,” Inuyasha said, slightly panic-stricken. “I said I'd get you home. That's a good thing right? Why are you crying?”

“Because you're being nice all of a sudden. It's weird!”

He started to feel really uneasy. “You know, crying women make me really uncomfortable.”

Kagome sniffed. “Then you're not going to like what's coming.” She tried to wipe her tears and looked at him. “Why? Why are you doing this? I mean, I just blew up at you back there.”

To be honest, even he didn't know. Even from the start, he wasn't sure why he had decided to help her. He wasn't sure if it was her familiar features or her naïve nature. There was just something about her that made him want to help her.

Instead, he gave her a mild smile and said, “Do you really need a reason to help people?”

She smiled back and sniffed. “If it concerns you, yeah.”

“Ha, ha. Okay…stop crying…please?” Inuyasha looked around desperately for help even though there was no one else on deck. He reached out and patted her head awkwardly. “Uh, there, there.”

He sighed heavily. Another promise, huh? He gazed that the girl as she tried to dry her eyes. How was she getting him to do these things? He sighed and scratched his head. What was he getting himself into?

 

Author's Notes: Sigh. Yes, angst, angst, and more angst. Blargh.

FAQs

Is Kikyou in this story? Or has she passed away?

She'll appear every once in a while…

Is Daisuke sick?

(blinks) Huh? …Is this coming from his ridiculous sleeping habits…?

I have this horrible hunch that Daisuke might not live to see the end of the story.

Oh no! (Runs to cover Daisuke's ears)

So, is Sango and Shippo in this upcoming chapter or even Naraku?

Patience, grasshopper.