InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Unlikely Hero ❯ Lost Now Found ( Chapter 2 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: NiteLight 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.08.2007 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.1K | Visits: 269 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.08.2007 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.1K | Visits: 269 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I do NOT own InuYasha. InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi.
Chapter Two:
His heart pounded intensely as his feet propelled him forward. InuYasha had never covered so much ground so quickly. - Not in pursuit of any foe,- not in any desperate rescue attempt and certainly - not in fleeing any enemy; had he ever traveled so fast. The land was a blur under his feet. His throat burned with thirst, but he wouldn't stop for any reason. He had to get back to the bone-eaters well. He had to make certain that Kagome had been returned to her own time, safe and sound. He hadn't bothered to explain to his brother or his friends, he simply lit off as fast as his legs could carry him. The others were okay, Rin's wish had seen to that, now he just had to know that Kagome was alright.
The adrenaline continued to surge through his body as the landscape varied underneath him. His sides hurt and his face was hot and flushed, sweat beaded his skin, and yet he pushed forward. Hours passed as he covered the miles that lay between the northern lands and his forest. It felt like forever.
Finally the familiar village came into his line of sight, just beyond it was the well.
Then he smelled it.
Of all the scents he could have imagined, this was not one of them. This is impossible...I haven't smelled that scent in over fifty years. Impossible!
Yet there she was, she was clad in her usual red and white. A basket half full of herbs rested in her left forearm. She was crouched down over a patch of lavender and had stopped, hand outstretched in mid-tug. Her soulful brown eyes staring straight at him. There was no odor of bone and clay, no scent of death. It was the scent he held in his memory. He stopped abruptly in front of her, disbelieving his own senses of sight and smell.
Maybe it was the shock seeing his friends dead, maybe it was the finality of ripping his nemesis to shreds by his own claws, maybe it was the relief of seeing his loved ones revived back to life, or maybe it was the exhaustion of the near-suicide like trek he had embarked upon in his despair over Kagome's disappearance... whatever the reason he just couldn't wrap his mind around it. His vision blurred and he felt his knees buckle underneath him.
"Kiky-- Kikyou," he stammered as his form hit the ground.
Kikyou gaped as she watched him fall, "InuYasha!"
~
Kagome's vision finally cleared. The bright blinding light finally receded, as did the powerful warmth that had enveloped her. Her gaze darted around as she looked about the clearing. Where is everyone? What happened?
"InuYasha!" she yelled as loud as she could. She got up and began wandering around looking for some indication of her friends. They were all gone. There was no sign of any of them. "InuYasha! InuYasha! InuYasha!!"
Tears welled up in her eyes, blurring her sight. She didn't understand what had happened and she didn't know why she was left all alone. She stumbled onward slowly trekking downward further into the valley, calling InuYasha's name in a voice that became more hoarse as it lessened in volume. She wasn't really seeing anything, just the outline of trees and stones. She stumbled and fell, scraping her knees. She again rose to her feet, each step burning her as her knees stung with each new step.
A sharp clear whistle broke the silence around her.
The sound shouldn't have frightened and startled her so much, but it did. Kagome jumped in surprise and instantly dropped into a fetal position protectively throwing her arms up over her head.
"Aiko! Aiko! Here girl!" a masculine voice called.
Kagome peeked up through the folds of her arms. A young man, maybe a little older than her emerged from the trees about fifteen meters from her. His look was unusual, he had bright inquisitive blue eyes and his blond hair was cropped short. Yet it wasn't his eyes or his strange hair color that drew her drop her arms to stare at him openly, it was his clothes. He wore a casual button-down shirt and slacks. Modern clothes. He held a dog leash in his left hand. "Hey? Are you okay over there?" he asked, this time his tone gentle.
Kagome just blinked, she opened her mouth, but no words came out. Promptly, she shut it again. She didn't know what to say, she didn't know what to do, she had never traveled through time without the help of the bone-eaters well. She wasn't even really sure where she was.
"Hey!" the young man greeted her. "You loose your dog out here too?"
"My...my...dog...?" She stammered.
"That was you calling out for, um, Inu-Yasha, earlier?"
Kagome swallowed hard and nodded.
“Must be a high spirited dog to have such a name,” he smiled.
Kagome only continued to gape at the youth.
“I already know what you're thinking,” he sighed. “I can tell from that look you're giving me, you're thinking: 'he doesn't really look Japanese, but he sounds really Japanese'. And you're right I'm half-foreign. Haffu."
"I..I didn't mean to stare.." Kagome apologized.
"It's okay, it happens to me all the time," he dismissed her. In a few short steps he was at her side, he extended a hand and she gratefully accepted his aid as she clambered to her feet. "I'm Tanaka Kenji."
"Higurashi Kagome," she replied.
"Pleased to meet you, Higurashi-san," he paused as if waiting for her response. None came. He continued, "Maybe well have better luck if we look for our lost dogs as a team! Besides, I'm sure its a good idea to have someone with me that knows the area. You know, I'm not really from around here, I'm just visiting my cousins. My grandfather thought it would be a good idea for me to get out of the city for awhile. So I'm visiting during the summer break. I really don't know this area so well, I was just out taking my cousin's dog for a walk when the leash broke so I gave chase. Not that I know Tsumago all that well..."
Kagome blanched at the thought of her location. Tsumago? We were that far west?
Kenji noticed the change in her countenance as he spoke. "Hey, you look like you're going to pass out! Are you okay?"
His acute assessment caught Kagome off guard. One moment the youth was babbling on, filling the silence as if she were of no consequence, the next he was intensely focused on her. The contradictory behaviors sent her on edge. "Um-" she started and quickly wet her dry lips. Not sure of what to say she simply nodded again.
He stopped walking and she was forced to follow suit. "You look really pale. Do you want me to help you back to your home?"
"No. I'll be fine," Kagome waved him off. She stepped forward, not wanting to be obligated to have a conversation with the inquisitive youth. Kagome was not an accomplished liar, and she sensed that this rescuer of hers would see straight through her. And talking would make her cry and she was sure she had shed all she humanly could, it was just not possible to cry anymore today.
"Where are you from? You're lost aren't you?".
"Y--Yes," Kagome answered truthfully, her voice quivering. "I just want to go home to my mom!"
"Hey, you're bleeding!" Kenji cried.
"Oh!!" Kagome had completely forgotten about the wounds around her neck, the ones that Naraku yielded with his claws. Her hands flew to her neck to feel for the injury. She felt nothing, no dried blood, no soreness, just the smooth skin of her neck.
"Sit down, let me look." Kenji ordered her.
Still shocked at the condition of her neck, Kagome just blankly obeyed the boy.
"Does it hurt?" Kenji asked examining her knees. "They're scraped up pretty bad."
"I'm okay," she tried her best to make her voice confident and resolute, but it came out as nothing more than a hoarse whisper.
"You look exhausted. When was the last time you had something to eat?"
"Yesterday," she rasped truthfully, without thinking. It was right after dinner when she and InuYasha had separated from the others. He had caught Naraku's scent, which had actually led them straight into trap set by Byakuya. It was the last time she'd seen her beloved friends alive. She shuttered.
"Yesterday! You haven't eaten all day!" he exclaimed. "What happened to you?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Kagome breathed so quietly she was sure her response had been inaudible.
Kenji reached out and rested a hand lightly on her shoulder. While her answer had been unintelligible to him, the inflection in which was intended had not lost its effect on him. Her eyes housed unspeakable sorrow and heartache. "I'll make sure you get home safely. I promise."
Kagome felt a weight of dread lifted from her. She rose to continue their journey, giving him a weak smile in show of her appreciation.
"I'll take you to my uncle's house." he resolved. "I may not know the Kiso Valley very well, but I know how to get back there. Its still quite a distance, I'll carry you."
Kagome's head snapped around to see Kenji crouch down and offer her his back.
Just.
Like.
InuYasha.
It was too much for Kagome, she had been wrong. She could still generate more tears and she burst out sobbing.
Kenji was thoroughly confused. "You must've really been through something," he murmured scooping her up bridal style in his arms and starting again on their journey. Kagome's sobbing continued and she didn't bother protesting to him carrying her.
Kenji's arms grew tired as he trudged onward. The girl had cried herself to sleep in his arms. As slender as she was, Kagome's weight wore on his arms and made them feel like they were being ripped from his shoulders. He readjusted her sleeping form over his shoulder. But after a quick assessment of her very short fuku skirt he thought better of it and transferred her back into his arms. He could only imagine her reaction if she awakened to find he had put her in such an undignified position.
Finally the house came into view. He should have cared more about the needling he was bound to get for showing up so late to the house. And about what had happened to their dog. He'd managed to loose Aiko, his cousins beloved shiba and found a mysterious girl.
Excited barking broke through his ponderings and Aiko bounded up to him as if she hadn't broken the lead and taken off into the countryside. Kenji scowled at the dog. "Humpf. 'man's best friend', not likely, you traitor."
Kagome stirred in his grip and he looked down at her as her steely blue-gray eyes fluttered open. "Oh, I must have fallen asleep!"
Kenji took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Can you stand on your own?"
"Oh, yes! I'm so sorry you carried me all the way here!"
"Its fine," he bit out as politely as he could manage as he set her on her feet. His arms were numb and his muscles ached from the long confinement carrying the slight girl. Kenji was strong, but he was sore from the long journey and his unexpected passenger.
His aunt was the first to greet them at the door, "Kenji-chan!" The middle aged woman smiled at her nephew, then her gaze redirected at Kagome. "Oh, hello!"
Kagome gave a polite bow.
Chapter Two:
His heart pounded intensely as his feet propelled him forward. InuYasha had never covered so much ground so quickly. - Not in pursuit of any foe,- not in any desperate rescue attempt and certainly - not in fleeing any enemy; had he ever traveled so fast. The land was a blur under his feet. His throat burned with thirst, but he wouldn't stop for any reason. He had to get back to the bone-eaters well. He had to make certain that Kagome had been returned to her own time, safe and sound. He hadn't bothered to explain to his brother or his friends, he simply lit off as fast as his legs could carry him. The others were okay, Rin's wish had seen to that, now he just had to know that Kagome was alright.
The adrenaline continued to surge through his body as the landscape varied underneath him. His sides hurt and his face was hot and flushed, sweat beaded his skin, and yet he pushed forward. Hours passed as he covered the miles that lay between the northern lands and his forest. It felt like forever.
Finally the familiar village came into his line of sight, just beyond it was the well.
Then he smelled it.
Of all the scents he could have imagined, this was not one of them. This is impossible...I haven't smelled that scent in over fifty years. Impossible!
Yet there she was, she was clad in her usual red and white. A basket half full of herbs rested in her left forearm. She was crouched down over a patch of lavender and had stopped, hand outstretched in mid-tug. Her soulful brown eyes staring straight at him. There was no odor of bone and clay, no scent of death. It was the scent he held in his memory. He stopped abruptly in front of her, disbelieving his own senses of sight and smell.
Maybe it was the shock seeing his friends dead, maybe it was the finality of ripping his nemesis to shreds by his own claws, maybe it was the relief of seeing his loved ones revived back to life, or maybe it was the exhaustion of the near-suicide like trek he had embarked upon in his despair over Kagome's disappearance... whatever the reason he just couldn't wrap his mind around it. His vision blurred and he felt his knees buckle underneath him.
"Kiky-- Kikyou," he stammered as his form hit the ground.
Kikyou gaped as she watched him fall, "InuYasha!"
~
Kagome's vision finally cleared. The bright blinding light finally receded, as did the powerful warmth that had enveloped her. Her gaze darted around as she looked about the clearing. Where is everyone? What happened?
"InuYasha!" she yelled as loud as she could. She got up and began wandering around looking for some indication of her friends. They were all gone. There was no sign of any of them. "InuYasha! InuYasha! InuYasha!!"
Tears welled up in her eyes, blurring her sight. She didn't understand what had happened and she didn't know why she was left all alone. She stumbled onward slowly trekking downward further into the valley, calling InuYasha's name in a voice that became more hoarse as it lessened in volume. She wasn't really seeing anything, just the outline of trees and stones. She stumbled and fell, scraping her knees. She again rose to her feet, each step burning her as her knees stung with each new step.
A sharp clear whistle broke the silence around her.
The sound shouldn't have frightened and startled her so much, but it did. Kagome jumped in surprise and instantly dropped into a fetal position protectively throwing her arms up over her head.
"Aiko! Aiko! Here girl!" a masculine voice called.
Kagome peeked up through the folds of her arms. A young man, maybe a little older than her emerged from the trees about fifteen meters from her. His look was unusual, he had bright inquisitive blue eyes and his blond hair was cropped short. Yet it wasn't his eyes or his strange hair color that drew her drop her arms to stare at him openly, it was his clothes. He wore a casual button-down shirt and slacks. Modern clothes. He held a dog leash in his left hand. "Hey? Are you okay over there?" he asked, this time his tone gentle.
Kagome just blinked, she opened her mouth, but no words came out. Promptly, she shut it again. She didn't know what to say, she didn't know what to do, she had never traveled through time without the help of the bone-eaters well. She wasn't even really sure where she was.
"Hey!" the young man greeted her. "You loose your dog out here too?"
"My...my...dog...?" She stammered.
"That was you calling out for, um, Inu-Yasha, earlier?"
Kagome swallowed hard and nodded.
“Must be a high spirited dog to have such a name,” he smiled.
Kagome only continued to gape at the youth.
“I already know what you're thinking,” he sighed. “I can tell from that look you're giving me, you're thinking: 'he doesn't really look Japanese, but he sounds really Japanese'. And you're right I'm half-foreign. Haffu."
"I..I didn't mean to stare.." Kagome apologized.
"It's okay, it happens to me all the time," he dismissed her. In a few short steps he was at her side, he extended a hand and she gratefully accepted his aid as she clambered to her feet. "I'm Tanaka Kenji."
"Higurashi Kagome," she replied.
"Pleased to meet you, Higurashi-san," he paused as if waiting for her response. None came. He continued, "Maybe well have better luck if we look for our lost dogs as a team! Besides, I'm sure its a good idea to have someone with me that knows the area. You know, I'm not really from around here, I'm just visiting my cousins. My grandfather thought it would be a good idea for me to get out of the city for awhile. So I'm visiting during the summer break. I really don't know this area so well, I was just out taking my cousin's dog for a walk when the leash broke so I gave chase. Not that I know Tsumago all that well..."
Kagome blanched at the thought of her location. Tsumago? We were that far west?
Kenji noticed the change in her countenance as he spoke. "Hey, you look like you're going to pass out! Are you okay?"
His acute assessment caught Kagome off guard. One moment the youth was babbling on, filling the silence as if she were of no consequence, the next he was intensely focused on her. The contradictory behaviors sent her on edge. "Um-" she started and quickly wet her dry lips. Not sure of what to say she simply nodded again.
He stopped walking and she was forced to follow suit. "You look really pale. Do you want me to help you back to your home?"
"No. I'll be fine," Kagome waved him off. She stepped forward, not wanting to be obligated to have a conversation with the inquisitive youth. Kagome was not an accomplished liar, and she sensed that this rescuer of hers would see straight through her. And talking would make her cry and she was sure she had shed all she humanly could, it was just not possible to cry anymore today.
"Where are you from? You're lost aren't you?".
"Y--Yes," Kagome answered truthfully, her voice quivering. "I just want to go home to my mom!"
"Hey, you're bleeding!" Kenji cried.
"Oh!!" Kagome had completely forgotten about the wounds around her neck, the ones that Naraku yielded with his claws. Her hands flew to her neck to feel for the injury. She felt nothing, no dried blood, no soreness, just the smooth skin of her neck.
"Sit down, let me look." Kenji ordered her.
Still shocked at the condition of her neck, Kagome just blankly obeyed the boy.
"Does it hurt?" Kenji asked examining her knees. "They're scraped up pretty bad."
"I'm okay," she tried her best to make her voice confident and resolute, but it came out as nothing more than a hoarse whisper.
"You look exhausted. When was the last time you had something to eat?"
"Yesterday," she rasped truthfully, without thinking. It was right after dinner when she and InuYasha had separated from the others. He had caught Naraku's scent, which had actually led them straight into trap set by Byakuya. It was the last time she'd seen her beloved friends alive. She shuttered.
"Yesterday! You haven't eaten all day!" he exclaimed. "What happened to you?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Kagome breathed so quietly she was sure her response had been inaudible.
Kenji reached out and rested a hand lightly on her shoulder. While her answer had been unintelligible to him, the inflection in which was intended had not lost its effect on him. Her eyes housed unspeakable sorrow and heartache. "I'll make sure you get home safely. I promise."
Kagome felt a weight of dread lifted from her. She rose to continue their journey, giving him a weak smile in show of her appreciation.
"I'll take you to my uncle's house." he resolved. "I may not know the Kiso Valley very well, but I know how to get back there. Its still quite a distance, I'll carry you."
Kagome's head snapped around to see Kenji crouch down and offer her his back.
Just.
Like.
InuYasha.
It was too much for Kagome, she had been wrong. She could still generate more tears and she burst out sobbing.
Kenji was thoroughly confused. "You must've really been through something," he murmured scooping her up bridal style in his arms and starting again on their journey. Kagome's sobbing continued and she didn't bother protesting to him carrying her.
Kenji's arms grew tired as he trudged onward. The girl had cried herself to sleep in his arms. As slender as she was, Kagome's weight wore on his arms and made them feel like they were being ripped from his shoulders. He readjusted her sleeping form over his shoulder. But after a quick assessment of her very short fuku skirt he thought better of it and transferred her back into his arms. He could only imagine her reaction if she awakened to find he had put her in such an undignified position.
Finally the house came into view. He should have cared more about the needling he was bound to get for showing up so late to the house. And about what had happened to their dog. He'd managed to loose Aiko, his cousins beloved shiba and found a mysterious girl.
Excited barking broke through his ponderings and Aiko bounded up to him as if she hadn't broken the lead and taken off into the countryside. Kenji scowled at the dog. "Humpf. 'man's best friend', not likely, you traitor."
Kagome stirred in his grip and he looked down at her as her steely blue-gray eyes fluttered open. "Oh, I must have fallen asleep!"
Kenji took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Can you stand on your own?"
"Oh, yes! I'm so sorry you carried me all the way here!"
"Its fine," he bit out as politely as he could manage as he set her on her feet. His arms were numb and his muscles ached from the long confinement carrying the slight girl. Kenji was strong, but he was sore from the long journey and his unexpected passenger.
His aunt was the first to greet them at the door, "Kenji-chan!" The middle aged woman smiled at her nephew, then her gaze redirected at Kagome. "Oh, hello!"
Kagome gave a polite bow.