InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Presence of Autumn ❯ Fear and Loathing ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: I'm getting tired of repeating the same thing over and over again. Not mine, wish it was, but eventually I'll come up with something that will be mine!

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Chapter 6: Fear and Loathing

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Dusk the same day found them just off a fairly major road, gathered around a campfire under the eaves of another forest. They had thus far been unable to revive the female hanyou. She lay still as death, bundled in as many blankets as they could spare. Kagome was presently giving her small mouthfuls of water, holding her nose until she would swallow reflexively. Shippou sat on the other side of her, holding her wrist and feeling her heartbeat. Sango was stirring the kettle of stew sitting in the coals and Miroku was leaning back against a log, mending a tear in the hem of his robes.

Inuyasha, in genuine Inuyasha form, was perched in a tree like some ridiculously large red bird. He was watching Kagome very closely. She had begun gently wiping a small cloth dampened with water from one of her futuristic water bottles along Akiko's face. The filth was coming off in reluctant layers, gradually lightening to reveal palely fair skin. There was a nasty bruise along the left side of her jaw where the skin was broken and swollen. Also, she was still incredibly filthy; her hair and tail were matted and caked with dirt and dried blood. Her clothes were worn out and damaged and stained beyond any ability to clean. Other than that Inuyasha had to admit something to himself; she was incredibly beautiful.

Her eyelashes were black as pitch and long, resting softly against her cheeks. Her skin was fair, but lightly tanned and unblemished beyond the extent of her wounds. Her lips were a pale rosy-pink, full and almost slightly pouty. Her scent rose to his attention again and he found himself wondering what color her lips would be after he kissed them.

Blushing, he pushed such foolish thoughts out of his head. He had no idea who she was, really, and she had tried to kill him this afternoon. Technically speaking that wasn't true; it hadn't been her, it had been Naraku acting through her. Never the less, he had fought her, rolled around on the ground with her, felt her body as she moved beneath him, her warmth against his loins…

`Stop that, you damn hentai!' He thought furiously. `You're as disgusting as the monk!' He firmly rejected the thoughts and jumped down from the tree.

"How is she?" He demanded, squatting down next to Kagome.

Kagome sighed, turning to face him with a tolerant expression on her face. "Ten minutes ago when you asked me, I said she was as good as could be expected. She's still doing alright, and ten minutes from now, when you ask me again, she'll still be okay. Inuyasha, relax. Nothing's going to happen to her now. Honestly, if you don't stop asking about her I'm going to begin thinking you've got a crush on her, or something."

His face flaming, Inuyasha was about to protest that blatant falsehood. Just as he opened his mouth to spout adamant refusal he caught the tiniest of sounds coming from Akiko. It was only a sigh with a slight edge of a whimper to it, but it caught his attention immediately. His ears whipped forward and stood straight up out of his head. Shippou too leaned forward expectantly, his tail a fluffy ball attached to his butt and eyes agleam.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Swimming into consciousness that evening was one of the hardest things Akiko had done in her whole life. It was like trying to claw her way out of a dark hole, only the opening was only as big around as her finger. Sound was the first sense to come back to her. She was aware of several bodies next to her, their hearts beating in a smooth rhythm. She could hear voices too; two were only vaguely familiar while the third wasn't at all. She groaned.

She frowned slightly as she opened her eyes, only a crack at first, but she couldn't seem to muster the energy to open them any further than halfway at the most. The world took some time to swim into focus. It was dusk, early twilight and the stars were just beginning to gleam overhead. Seated around her was an odd group.

To her right was a human girl, no older than fifteen, with long black hair and gentle brown eyes. She held a positively filthy rag in her hand and Akiko had no idea what she was wearing.

To her left and holding her hand was an absolutely adorable little kitsune kit. His bright green eyes gleamed in the firelight and his high ponytail bobbed as he shifted positions to look at her more closely. She could feel his tiny hands on her wrist.

Right above her head was a male inu-hanyou. He had long, silvery-white hair, brilliant golden-amber eyes with slitted pupils, and soft looking dog ears protruding stiffly from the top of his head. He was so very similar in appearance to her baby sister that it was unsettling.

But his scent… He smelled like wind and rain, musky but not overpoweringly so and crisp like spring water just before dawn; his scent was at once warmly present like the sun on wet sand and also cool and sharp like the forest after a rainstorm.

He was unbelievably gorgeous, and he smelled like a memory of summer nights.

His eyes were focused on her with such strong attention that she felt like she should be blushing, even though she'd done nothing that should make him stare so…

The day came flooding back to her. With a small gasp she tried to lift her hand to her neck, but found herself too weak even for that.

Somehow perceiving her need, the human girl took Akiko's right hand and placed it at her throat. The collar was still there. For one long month she'd been wearing it, been imprisoned by its compulsion, tortured by its authority over her body and unable to do much of anything to stop it. But her village was in danger. Her older brother Kintaro and her baby sister Natsumi, her mother, Hinoto; they were all in danger from Naraku. She had to heal and get to them as quickly as possible.

Biting back tears, refusing to show weakness to these near strangers, Akiko did the next best thing. "Who are you?" She was shocked at how weak and fragile her own voice sounded.

The human girl smiled. "I'm Kagome Higurashi. That's Shippou, Sango, Miroku, Kirara, and that's Inuyasha."

Inuyasha… She thought. Lord Dog. It suits him.

Akiko licked her suddenly dry lips and spoke. "I'm sorry about attacking you. I had no choice; Naraku forced me."

"We know it was the collar." Kagome told her. She smiled again gently. "We hold nothing against you."

"Feh." Inuyasha stood up abruptly and stalked off out of Akiko's range of sight.

Akiko closed her eyes for a moment. He was upset, as well he should be; it was him she had attacked. She opened her eyes again when she heard Kagome move. The human girl moved over to the fire and dished out a bowl of stew, which she then carried back to Akiko. "Here, let me help you."

"What is it?" Akiko asked.

"Beef stew." Kagome told her, stirring it gently to help it cool. "I made it." She tried to feed a spoonful to Akiko, but the female hanyou turned her face away. Kagome sighed. "You need to eat."

Inuyasha returned to Akiko's side then. He squatted down beside her and stared at her hard, golden eyes gleaming in the firelight. "Eat. You have to regain your strength. I won't carry you again all day tomorrow."

Still mistrustful of the stew and not knowing why, Akiko shook her head slightly, trembling and hating herself for it.

Inuyasha emitted a low growl from deep in his chest, a warning to do as she was told.

Akiko gave a higher pitched growl in answer, basically saying `Fine, I'll do your will, but for my own reasons.'

Mindful of Inuyasha watching her, Akiko refused to let Kagome feed her as had been the girl's intent. Akiko went through the agony of sitting up and forced herself to slowly down bite after bite of the delicious stew. After ascertaining that she would continue to eat without being forced, Inuyasha walked away again and leapt into a nearby tree.

Her shaking muscles only betrayed her once, when a large lump of potato dislodged itself from her spoon and fell back into her bowl, splashing broth onto her already filthy haori. The kitsune kit at her side silently handed her a cloth to wipe it off with. His bright eyes watched her every move with respectful admiration.

Still she was acutely aware of another pair of eyes watching her. Inuyasha stayed in his tree the whole time, but his eyes never left her. She was sure he was watching her to make sure she wasn't hostile, that she wouldn't attack him or his friends again. And that she'd do as he'd told her. That really rubbed her the wrong way. She didn't do as anyone told her; she did what she deemed worthy of her effort. Still, she was hungry, and the stew was good.

She consumed three bowlfuls before she couldn't eat any more. Setting the bowl aside she slid back down into the warmth of the blankets they'd wrapped her in. The collar pressed against her throat uncomfortably, hot and sticky and rigid. She hated it more than anything, but wouldn't try to remove it. She'd tried that when she'd first been captured and the memory still made her cringe. The shock from the collar had made her vomit until her stomach felt like it was inside-out. Naraku's cruel laughter had been a harsh sound in her ears.

One day she would kill him. As slowly and as painfully as she could manage. She would start by tearing off his claws, then she would remove his hands and feet followed by his lips, his foul lips that he had dared kiss her with, compel her to kiss him back with this loathsome collar, those vile lips with which he had called her `dear flower', `sweet flower', `lovely flower'. And then the serious torture would begin; she would peel his hide off in strips, burn his eyes out with acid, slice open his belly and slide in hot pokers. Because of his demonic ability to heal, she could keep all of this going almost continuously until she grew tired of it.

The thought of Naraku in agony didn't make her as pleased as she had hoped it would. Instead it made a bitter taste in her mouth and brought tears to her eyes. The deep, gut-wrenching feeling of self-loathing returned to her and she wanted to scream, to tear something to shreds with her claws, to weep on her mother's shoulder at all the foul things Naraku had done and threatened to do to her and made her do. She wanted nothing more than to run away and hide in a deep dark hole and never come out into the world again. That desire fed off of and in to the knot of self-loathing in a horrible downward spiral.

Hot, bitter tears poured down her cheeks and she curled up into a ball, wrapping her tail around herself. She refused to make a sound, though. She was too proud for that.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Inuyasha could smell Akiko's hot tears mixed with the rising scent of her anger and hatred. Together they burned in his nose. He buried his nose in the sleeve of his haori to filter out the scent, but it still came to him. Sighing in agitation he spun around on the tree branch and tried to ignore it, but it was no use.

He glanced down and managed to catch a glimpse of Shippou. The little kitsune was huddled in a ball away from the fire, against the bag filled with things from Kagome's time. He was rocking slightly and his eyes were huge and sparkled with tears. Even as young as he was, he still knew when something was horribly wrong. Akiko's scent confused him, he'd never smelt anything so sad and scary.

Inuyasha suddenly felt a great swell of pity for the kit. He jumped down from his perch in the tree and walked over to Shippou, who looked up with his eyes glistening with unshed tears. Shippou caught the invitation in Inuyasha's eyes and leapt up into his open arms where he trembled, tears finally escaping to run down his cheeks. Inuyasha folded the kit into his embrace and went over to Kagome where she was watching with worry and surprise.

"What's the matter, Shippou?" Kagome asked softly as she stood, looking concernedly at Inuyasha.

Shippou shook his head, unable to express his feelings, still clutching onto Inuyasha's haori for dear life. She reached out to him though, and he turned and grabbed for her. He curled into a ball in her arms and she held him lovingly to her stomach while he shivered.

Freed of Shippou, Inuyasha went over to where Akiko lay. She tensed at his approach and clenched into a slightly tighter ball, but all he did was sit down with his back to hers. He crossed his legs at the ankles and folded his feet under the opposite knees and rested the Tetsusaiga across them. He crossed his arms, putting his hands up the opposite sleeves of his haori and sighed.

After several minutes, Akiko relaxed a bit. She rolled her torso so that she lay on her back where she could see him, leaving her legs covered with her tail and curled nearly to her chest on the far side from him. She didn't say anything, but her eyes were open and she was staring at him; he could feel it on the back of his head.

Some of the fear and anger left her scent. He spoke. "Want to talk about it?"

She was silent for several moments. "No." She finally said.

Respecting that, Inuyasha replied. "Then calm down. No one here is going to hurt you. Go to sleep."

There was a rustling of blankets and Akiko rolled onto her other side so that she was facing him. He felt her continue to stare at him for several minutes, but eventually she stopped and her breathing evened out. Inuyasha remained where he was for a while to make sure she was sleeping soundly before rising to his feet and returning to his earlier perch.

Everyone bedded down for the night.

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(A/N) That chapter was kind of depressing to write, but I like how it turned out. Kinda makes you wonder what kind of nasty stuff Naraku made her do. Well, you'll find out eventually. If you review… *hint* *hint* Okay, I'll write even if you don't, but reviews make me feel better about it. The next one won't be so damn depressing, I promise.