InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Truth About Cats and Dogs ❯ Miroku's Feelings ( Chapter 14 )

A/N: Thanks for the reviews people, hope this story continues to live up to your expectations!

 

Recap: Kagome returned to Kaede's village to visit home and collect more supplies with the help of Hachi. Kirara defeated a bear demon to recover another shard of the sacred jewel, whilst Sesshomaru and Kagura watched on. The gang started to head southwest, in search of more jewel shards, their chosen path taking them deeper into the Western Lands.

 

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Chapter 14 - Miroku's Feelings

 

`Another game. I am no fool. I know it is secretly the way of females to refuse the one they truly wish to accept, in some vain attempt to appear alluring and more feminine. You need not play such childish, pointless games with me. You have already expressed a desire to be with me, I do not need to hear your word upon the matter now.'

 

Kirara growled, the image of Sesshomaru's face as clear in her mind as ever. A violent burst of flames erupted around her, and she leapt into the air, transformed into her fire-cat form. With a ferocious snarl, she clamped her jaws into the snake demon hanging from the tree, biting down hard and shaking her head from side to side. The demon dissolved within her jaws, the speedy victory failing to deliver the satisfaction she sought.

 

`You stopped and looked back at me. And the morning you left me by the edge of the forest, you stopped and looked back at me again. You wanted me to chase you. A very coy tactic indeed.'

 

With another growl of sheer frustration, Kirara dissolved back into her human form, dropping to the ground to land on her feet.

 

“Kirara-”

 

“What?” she snapped, rounding on Miroku.

 

“Um, nothing!” he hurriedly replied, smiling nervously as he saw the enraged expression still etched deeply on her face.

 

Kirara saw Sango elbow Miroku in the ribs, and briefly wondered if she was missing something; but before her mind could focus on the matter, it presented her with another sickeningly clear picture of Sesshomaru's face.

 

`You have demonstrated time and time again that you desire to have me for your mate. Do not disrespect me so now by denying that it was your intention to lure me in with your wicked feminine charms and graces, so expertly used as to make me forget who I am and what I owe to my family name and the throne of the Western Lands.'

 

Kirara snarled, tearing her sword from its sheath and charging towards a nearby bush, which she was certain she had just seen something move behind. Slashing her sword through the middle of the bush, severing it in half, five songbirds squawked indignantly at Kirara, flying up into the air.

 

“Damn!” she growled.

 

`I have observed that the closer I move to you, the more you go out of your way to accentuate the alluring curves of your body.'

 

“Damn you…” she growled, tightening her grip on her sword.

 

“Kirara, look out!” Sango cried.

 

“Huh?”

 

Kirara spun around, frowning as she failed to see where the threat lay. She could sense a small demonic aura nearby, but could see nothing. As she turned to Sango for an explanation for her outburst, she saw her friend desperately trying to open a pot of poison.

 

`The view is equally as appealing from this angle.'

 

Kirara growled, relieved when she finally did manage to spot the danger, as it served as a temporary distraction from her mind's continual replay of Sesshomaru's conceding proposition. Something was winding its way through the ground towards her, darting and weaving in an attempt to catch her off guard. Kirara leapt up onto a rock, clasping her sword in both hands as she watched the ground moving, her eyes keenly fixed on what looked like a serpent of some sorts as it jerked and twisted through the earth.

 

“Die, demon!” she yelled, raising her sword above her head and leaping up into the air.

 

Kirara landed perfectly with her feet standing on either side of the snake, her sword stabbing directly into its body. It hissed and writhed, surfacing in an attempt to save itself.

 

“Not today, you filthy snake!” Kirara said darkly, twisting her blade.

 

She smiled to herself as the snake slowly darkened to a pile of ashes that blew away on the wind.

 

“Kirara, since we're near some water, why don't you clean yourself off?” Sango suggested.

 

“What?” Kirara echoed, looking down at herself. “You think I'm dirty?”

 

“You're covered in blood and sweat, go wash!” Inuyasha said bluntly.

 

“What he means is that we don't know where all that blood is coming from,” Sango quickly added. “We can't tell if you're badly injured or not.”

 

Kirara was sceptical, but she decided to accept Sango's excuse. Her body was still numb to anything and everything thanks to her demon spirit filling her veins with pure adrenaline. Turning to the nearby river, Kirara decided that dunking her body into cold, fast-moving water was probably the best thing to bring her to her senses.

 

Without removing her boots or armour, Kirara lay her sword down by the banks of the river and waded in until she was waist deep in water. She then squatted down, immersing herself in the water. Even through the gushing water, she could hear her friends talking about her as though they thought she could not hear them; but Kirara ignored their words, trying her best to calm her mind.

 

As her skin began to grow numb from the chill of the water and her body began to beg her to resurface for air, Kirara finally felt the demon spirit within her submit and fade. A small smile graced her lips as her mind began thinking about finding the next shards of the jewel, about finding Naraku and wondering if Kagome would be back soon. Kirara began to tell herself that she had made a foolhardy decision sending Kagome back to Kaede's village with only Hachi for protection; what if something bad happened? They would have no way of knowing if Kagome was alright unless Hachi had the gall to come and tell them so.

 

Kirara then began to feel guilty. She had sent Kagome back. It was her fault Kagome had needed to go back because she had failed to return to the group with the antidotes. It was her fault she got sidetracked when she was meant to return with them.

 

`You will toy with me no longer. You will be my mate.'

 

Kirara shot up out of the water, screaming loudly enough to make Inuyasha and Shippo cower over as they covered their ears.

 

“Kirara?” Sango yelped.

 

Kirara paused, a stinging pain in her right ankle suddenly making it far easier for her to forget all about Sesshomaru. Looking down through the water, she saw two red trails seeping from her ankle; something had bitten her. Looking desperately around for the culprit, Kirara eventually came to the conclusion that it could not have been anything more than a fish; but it had been a very painful bite, one that had been delivered with enough force to pierce right through her boot.

 

“What happened?” Sango asked, wading into the water towards her friend.

 

“Nothing,” Kirara lied forcing a smile. “I just want to wash the blood from my clothes, I won't be long.”

 

Sango nodded, but her expression told Kirara that she had done little to convince her that all was well. As Sango made her way back to dry land, Kirara ducked down under the surface of the water, almost choking as her ankle began to sting from the movement. Peering round at her foot, Kirara watched the blood float out from the wound, taking some relief from the fact that the flow of blood seemed to be weakening. With her demon powers, such a wound should heal in a matter of hours, she thought to herself.

 

Kirara stood up again, her face twitching involuntarily. Despite her mind trying to ignore her injury, it was certainly causing her a lot of pain. She set about scrubbing her hair and clothing and splashing water over her skin to clean off the effects of her battles. Glancing down occasionally to check on her ankle, Kirara strategically waited until all traces of blood were gone, and the water around her feet was clear once more, before tying her hair up at the sides of her head and wading back out of the water.

 

“Alright, let's go!” she said cheerfully, feeling suddenly wonderfully refreshed.

 

Kirara scooped up her sword, tying it back onto her belt. As she lifted her head she yelped at what she saw: the others had gone.

 

“Sango?” she called, looking desperately from side to side. “Inuyasha? Shippo?”

 

Kirara began to dash back and forth, her demon spirit starting to stir again as she began to panic.

 

“Sango!” she yelled. “Sango, where are you? Sango! Inuyasha! Inuyasha, can you hear me? Shippo! Is this a game, Shippo?”

 

Kirara stopped, staring dejectedly at the empty path ahead of her, the direction she was sure they would have been heading next.

 

“Don't you care that you couldn't find me?” a voice asked her.

 

Kirara mewed, leaping around to find Miroku standing behind her. She hissed, screwing up her face as she landed hard on her feet, her ankle throbbing.

 

“Are you alright?” he asked her.

 

“Fine,” she lied. “Where are the others?”

 

“They went on ahead,” Miroku explained. “You know how impatient Inuyasha can be.”

 

“Insensitive, more like!” Kirara grumbled. “They must have been moving very fast! Should I transform so that we can catch them up?”

 

“There's no hurry,” Miroku assured her. “Why don't we just walk for now? I'm sure they'll stop sooner or later, we'll catch them up then.”

 

Kirara frowned curiously at Miroku, but he merely smiled and began to walk on. With a silent sigh, Kirara followed after him, soon falling into pace with him.

 

“It must be very strange for you to be back in your human form,” Miroku began.

 

Kirara turned to him questioningly, but he was looking straight ahead of them, and so she turned away again.

 

“Yes, it is,” she replied honestly. “It has been so very, very long since I last had human form. And of course, back when I did have human form, it wasn't this body that I owned.”

 

“It wasn't?” Miroku asked, casting a sideward glance at Kirara.

 

“No,” she replied, shaking her head, her still wet hair slapping against the shoulder plates of her armour. “I was not much older than Shippo when Priestess Midoriko cast the spell on me. My human body was… Well, I suppose, much like that of Rin's, the young girl who travels with Lord Sesshomaru. I looked the same as I do now, but I was still a child.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“My parents had been killed, and, rather like Shippo, I set out to avenge their deaths by killing demons that terrorised humans. But, again just like Shippo, I was too young and too weak to do well on my own. I met Priestess Midoriko, who was only about fourteen years old then, and still in training as a priestess. We fought together for two years before she cast the spell on me.”

 

“If you don't mind me asking Kirara, why did Midoriko put the spell on you? After two years together, surely she felt she could trust you?”

 

“Some of my family, fire-cat demons I had not seen for many years, came to Priestess Midoriko's village to take me back to their tribe. When I refused to go, they threatened to kill all the humans in the village. I pleaded with Priestess Midoriko to let me stay with her, but she said that it was too dangerous, that my family would always be looking for me. When I refused to go, she told me the only way to stop them coming back for me was for her to put the spell on me. She also said it was something she wanted to do because she didn't trust me not to turn against her when I was fully grown, and my instincts would make me want to go back to my family.”

 

“Wow…”

 

“I'm not unhappy about it. I believe that this was my destiny. I enjoy helping others. The only part of my life that has saddened me is that us demons live so very much longer than you humans do. But on that point, I have often wondered if Inuyasha and Shippo are still alive in Kagome's era. I might even still be alive in 500 years' time.”

 

“Life is a very precious thing.”

 

Kirara paused, eying Miroku over thoughtfully as his last remark. She suspected she knew what he was thinking, and it pained her to think of it herself.

 

“You mean your life is precious,” she said softly. “Because whilst a human life is but a short one, yours has been made even shorter by Naraku's curse.”

 

“Indeed,” Miroku agreed.

 

“Which is why you place so much important on siring an heir, someone to avenge the deaths of the male bloodline in your family should you fail.”

 

“Yes. It's so good to hear a woman say that. It is the curse of the hand, I'm not a pervert really.”

 

“First of all, I was only talking about the fact that you wish to have a family, and quite quickly. Secondly, the hole in your hand is no excuse, because even without it, you would still be a pervert, Miroku.”

 

“I'm just misunderstood.”

 

Kirara laughed and Miroku feigned offence.

 

“It's alright, I know that, when all is said and done, there is only really one woman you wish to have a family with,” Kirara said slyly.

 

“Oh really?” Miroku responded, his face turning slightly pink. “Listening to you talk, I think Kagome may have been right about you, Kirara. You are like Sesshomaru.”

 

“What?” Kirara echoed, turning her head to glare at Miroku.

 

“Well, you just claimed to know what my true thoughts and feelings are,” Miroku calmly explained, ignoring the fire burning behind her eyes. “Isn't that the sort of assumption only someone like Sesshomaru would make?”

 

“Stop trying to change the subject, Miroku,” Kirara recovered. “I know you care deeply for Sango.”

 

Miroku's face turned a deeper shade of pink, and a small smile tugged at his lips.

 

“And the look on your face confirms my suspicions,” Kirara added. “I must tell you though Miroku, Sango is my best friend, and I care for her like a sister. Her happiness is very important to me.”

 

“I understand.”

 

“Which is why I could not part with her to anyone but you, Miroku.”

 

Miroku stopped walking, turning to face Kirara, his face paling as surprise dawned across his features.

 

“You are giving me your blessing to be with Sango?” he asked.

 

“Do you need my blessing to be with Sango?” Kirara asked, stopping and turning to face him, planting her hands on her hips.

 

“Well, no, not really…” Miroku said slowly, the pink tinge slowly returning to his face. “But I should like to have it. As you are all the family Sango has left, I would like to think that you were in agreement with it.”

 

Kirara smiled warmly.

 

“Of course,” she said. “It has been… Very trying, to say the least, watching you and Sango together all this time. Just like how it irked me that Inuyasha and Kagome would never tell each other how they both felt, it really annoyed me that you and Sango have never been more open with your feelings for each other.”

 

“You mean Sango has feelings for me too?” Miroku asked.

 

Kirara grinned at the optimistic look on the monk's face, which promptly caused him to laugh nervously.

 

“Not that…” he began awkwardly. “Well, I was just… She likes me too?”

 

Kirara nodded slowly.

 

“I suppose you have the most honest view of us all, having observed us all in silence all this time,” Miroku agreed. “You certainly managed to sort things out for Inuyasha and Kagome.”

 

“Yes,” Kirara said, nodding her head. “And now I intend to do exactly the same for you and Sango. But I think it's only fair that I should warn you now: if you ever do anything to hurt my friend, I will tear your heart out and feed it to the vultures, do you understand?”

 

“Perfectly!” Miroku yelped, holding up both hands in defeat as Kirara held up one fist by his chest.

 

“So, no more asking pretty girls to bear your children, and no more groping other women in places they do not wish to be groped, agreed?” Kirara pressed, holding her fist steady.

 

“No,” Miroku said slowly, shaking his head.

 

“What?” Kirara growled, her eyes sparkling as she threatened to unleash her anger.

 

“I can't promise what you asked,” Miroku replied solemnly. “Because I intend to ask one more pretty girl to bear my children, and I intend to touch her a lot more than I do right now…”

 

Kirara growled as she realised that Miroku was mocking her, but he merely laughed at her response.

 

“Come on, we need to catch up with the others,” he said.

 

“Why did they go on without us, Miroku?” Kirara asked.

 

“Sango was worried about you, she asked me to talk to you,” Miroku confessed. “But you seem to be fine now. Still as feisty as ever.”

 

“Feisty?” Kirara echoed, her eyes flashing again.

 

“I didn't mean it as an insult!” Miroku hurriedly replied.

 

“No,” Kirara said quietly, hanging her head. “Of course you didn't.”

 

`It just reminded me of the last time someone used that word to describe me,' she thought to herself.

 

`I believe that I can douse the flame of that feisty attitude that you possess.'

 

Kirara stiffened, shaking her head violently as she tried again to physically remove all thoughts of Sesshomaru from her mind.

 

“Kirara!” Miroku yelped, cowering behind one arm as her wet hair slapped at his face.

 

“Oh sorry Miroku!” she said, stiffening. “I was just… You're right, we should get going if we want to catch up with the others.”

 

“Right,” Miroku said, walking on.

 

Miroku began wiping the water from his face, which Kirara was slightly glad of, as her face contorted in pain when she first began to walk on her bitten ankle again, which she did not wish him to know about.

 

“I hope Hachi manages to find us again,” she commented, hoping to distract her mind from the persistent pain.

 

“I'm sure Kagome will keep him right,” Miroku replied. “But we can expect them to be a few more days yet. Kagome was going home first, remember?”

 

“Of course,” Kirara said, casting a nervous glance down at her ankle.

 

Gulping quietly, a cruel thought fleeted through Kirara's mind: the bite she had received must have been venomous. Casting her mind back to when she had been standing on top of the rock, waiting to pounce on the serpent below ground, she began to wonder if the reason it had appeared to move so quickly was because there had in fact been two of them. She had succeeded in killing one, but what about the other one? Such demons could breathe under water, and so it was not entirely unlikely that it had come after her. They had had such small demonic auras, it could easily have escaped her notice long enough to quickly bite her.

 

“I was just thinking about the antidote,” Kirara said slowly. “If one of us were to become poisoned…”

 

“Let's pray that that does not happen,” Miroku replied. “We are carrying no antidotes, and we are too far away from both Kaede and Jinenji to ask either of them for help now. By the time we had made the journey there and back, it would be too late.”

 

“That's what I thought,” Kirara said, a sinking feeling weighing down her stomach. “Let us pray then.”

 

Miroku flashed a frown at her, but she quickly forced a smile, silently praying to every God she could think of that the bite had not been poisonous.

 

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Next Chapter: Miroku and Kirara rejoin the others as the day draws to a close, and the gang set up camp for the night. Sango and Kirara enjoy a girly chat before bedtime, but a nasty surprise awaits the gang when they wake the next morning. Chapter 15 - Sango's Secret.