InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Unlikely Hero ❯ Back to the Bone-Eaters Well ( Chapter 3 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: I do NOT own InuYasha. InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi.


Chapter Three:


InuYasha slowly stirred, his eyes fluttering open to observe the inside of Kaede’s hut. His eyes widened as he saw that Kikyou sat next to him.

“InuYasha,“ Kikyou smiled.

“Kikyou, you‘re alive!?“ he exclaimed.

Kikyou nodded, she reached out and rested her hand on his chest fingering the Kotodama rosary. “Remember all those years ago, when I told you that I had something I wanted to give you?"

InuYasha nodded, recalling the tender moment that they had shared.

"I made these, but it was just a trick to put you under a subduing spell. And then you gave me your mother’s compact, a real gift…I just…I couldn’t bring myself to deceive you with it. I just felt so underhanded, I‘m so sorry.” Tears of regret filled in her soulful eyes, she started to raise the rosary over his head.

“No!” InuYasha cried, staying her hand with his. “They’re mine!“

She looked at him startled and confused.

“I don’t want you to take them off!” His voice was sharper than he had intended.
Kikyou’s tears spilled over onto her face.

“Oi! Don’t cry!” InuYasha pleaded, squeezing her hand with reassurance.

Kikyou wiped at her tears with her free hand and gave him a hesitant smile.

Sunlight briefly flooded the hut, interrupting them as Shippou came bounding inside. Seeing InuYasha awake, Shippou's face lit up.

“InuYasha!” Shippou yelped with excitement, leaping onto InuYasha’s prone form.

“Oof!” InuYasha grunted. “You’re getting heavier, brat.” He grabbed Shippou by the scruff of his neck and sat upright, holding him eye-level.

Shippou’s loud cry had alerted Miroku, Sango, Kirara and Kaede that InuYasha was now awake. They all streamed inside. Shippou didn't seem to notice them.

“I’m just glad you’re alright!” Shippou declared, his green eyes began to fill with tears. “The well didn’t work, did it? It’s like Miroku and Kaede said, she can’t use the well to come here and you can’t go to get her! We‘ll never see Kagome again!”

“Maybe Kagome-chan hasn’t been able to try to come back through the well yet, maybe something happened, give her some time,” Sango offered. “Its only been a day.”

“We’ve been talking,“ Kikyou motioned to his friends who had now gathered in a small circle around the inu-hanyou.

“Miroku thinks that it was young Rin-chan‘s wish on the jewel that restored all of us,” Kaede commented.

InuYasha stared at the elderly miko. She wore no patch over her right eye. She had been injured as a child, yet now it was if the injury had never occurred. Stranger still, she seemed, younger.

“It seems that anyone who ever had any contact with the Shikon no Tama or the shards has been completely restored and healed.” Miroku explained.

InuYasha set the fox kit down gently. “Don’t worry, runt. I’ll go get Kagome.”

Kikyou offered InuYasha a bowl of stew, “here.”

“No, its okay,“ he waved her off, eager to get to the well to see if it would allow him to keep his word to his young companion. “I’m not hungry.”

InuYasha rose to leave the hut, as he did, everyone rose to follow him. “Nani!?! I’m not a pup! Its not like I need you all to walk me there!” Baring his fangs as he barked at the group.

“Come now,” Miroku’s cajoled. “We’ve traveled so far to get here, allow us to go just a bit further to see you off.”

“Keh!” InuYasha grunted and he continued stalking toward the bone eater’s well. He moved quickly, but kept his place slow enough to allow the others to follow; at a distance.

InuYasha cast a look back at his group of friends before leaping onto the lip of the well.

“…And come back soon!” Shippou shouted. “I want to know that Kagome is okay.”

He grunted in acknowledgement before jumping into the well.


~

“Oh my!” Kenji’s Aunt Haruka exclaimed. “What happened to your knees?”

“I…I fell and scraped them,” Kagome explained.

“Here let me get my first aid kit,” Aunt Haruka disappeared.

“You think it would be okay to call my mom in Toyko?” Kagome asked turning to Kenji.

"You're from Tokyo!" Aunt Haruka yelped in surprise she had just returned with the medical kit. "How did you end up here? And all alone?"

Kagome looked stricken as she felt the blood drain from her face. She fish mouthed for a few seconds then dropped her head looking away from the inquisitive woman. It was the question Kagome really couldn't honestly answer without making the Tanaka family assume she was completely certifiable.

"Higurashi-san was separated from her tour group," Kenji answered for her, reaching out to give Kagome's shoulder a quick squeeze. "You said you needed to call your mother as soon as we got back, so she wouldn't worry, right Kagome?"

Kagome nodded dumbly, shocked as to Kenji's explanation. She hadn't given the young man any reasons as to the circumstances that caused their meeting.

It must have been a satisfactory explanation, as the woman nodded and began to clean Kagome‘s scrapes. “This may burn a little,” she warned.

"It's okay for Kagome to call her mom, Oba-chan?" Kenji asked innocently, masking the fib that had slipped so convincingly moments before.

"Of course!" Tanaka Haruka agreed, as she continued to bandage Kagome’s knees. She quickly finished up, “good as new!” Then the kind woman directed her into the kitchen to use the telephone.

Kagome choked back her emotions as she heard her mother's confused voice on the line. She fumbled trying to explain to her mother just how she'd ended up so far from home. She felt the receiver lift gently from her hand as Kenji took the phone to give her mother directions. Kenji seemed to naturally handle Kagome's queer situation as if it were just an average day.

Kenji's Aunt Haruka and his Uncle Sora were very hospitable people. They had two children, a son, Genya about Souta's age, and a daughter, Machi who was a few years older. And while it was obvious that the whole Tanaka clan was curious they refrained from further interrogating Kagome as to the odd circumstances that had brought her to them. She gratefully accepted their offer to stay until her mother arrived and she even shared dinner with them.

"Higurashi-san, come outside with me," Machi invited Kagome. "I want you to watch Aiko do some tricks."

Kagome found herself accepting, if only as an excuse get away from under Kenji's shrewd observation of her for a while.

The demonstration lasted a few minutes and quickly dissolved into a game of fetch. Machi was delighted to have an audience and she threw the stick as far as she could, the shiba giving chase and retrieving the stick, only this time returning it to Kagome.

"Aw, she wants you to play, Higurashi-san," Machi told her.

Kagome reached out and accepted the slimy object. She grimaced in mild distaste.

"Go on, throw it," the girl encouraged.

Kagome threw the stick.

All eyes watched it sail through the air, glowing brightly as a wash of pink enveloped the stick before it hit the ground.

"Wow!" Machi cried with admiration. "How'd you do that?"

"Uh, I don't know...." Kagome stammered, she was as surprised as Machi. Kagome hadn't realized that she was even able to charge anything but her arrows with her miko aura.

"That was so cool! Do it again!" Machi begged. "Please...?"

"Machi-chan," Kenji's voice interrupted. Kagome jumped in surprise, she hadn't realized that he had followed them outside. How long has he been standing there?

"Oh, Kenji-kun, it was so neat...we were playing fetch with Aiko-chan and Higarashi-san threw the stick and made it glow!" the girl explained with unbridled excitement. "Just like a firecracker!"

"Now, Machi-chan," Kenji rebuked. "Aren't you too old for such stories?"

"It's true!" Machi protested. "Higurashi-san tell him!"

Kagome opened her mouth to speak, but Kenji interrupted again.

"I've been standing here watching the whole time. I saw her throw the stick, nothing unusual happened." Kenji walked over and picked up the stick, "see? Just a stick. Nothing for anyone to get excited about, with maybe Aiko as the exception."

Aiko bounded up to the young man. Kenji threw the stick and Aiko gave chase immediately.

A scowl appeared on the girl's face, but Machi remained silent.

"Machi-chan! Time to wash up!" a feminine voice called out, breaking the silence.

"I better go in, now," Machi dismissed herself

The shiba returned to Kenji tail wagging, he plopped down on the grass and gave Aiko a quick scratch behind the ears before turning to Kagome. "Come on, have a seat," he invited. Kagome reluctantly approached and sat down next to him. "So exactly what was that unearthly pink glow?"

Kagome shifted uncomfortably.

Kenji watched her squirm with patience.

Her discomfort shifted to annoyance. "If you saw it than why did you lie to your cousin?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you want to explain yourself to the Kiso Valley?" his voice dripped with sarcasm. "You know, 12 year old girls are not known to keep much in confidence."

“Is that why you lied to your aunt too?” Kagome snapped, her temper flaring. “Are you also saying that your Aunt is going to broadcast everything to the entire town? Or do you just lie to everyone?”

“Nani-?” Kenji started, her anger catching him off guard. “No! How could you think I would disrespect my aunt that way! I don’t lie to everyone! You just looked so distressed, like you couldn‘t explain anything without falling to pieces!”

His concern for her began to leach at her anger. She was grateful for his help, yet the ease in which he had lied to manipulate his family made her nervous. And still, she felt intrigued by his acute assessment of everything and everyone around him.

Then, as if on cue, a familiar comforting female voice rang out in her ears, ”Kagome!”

“Mama!!” Kagome yelped, leaping up in one single fluid motion to race across the yard and sling her arms around her mother. Completely forgetting Kenji and the uncomfortable conversation, she burst into tears, “Mama!!”

~

It was the wee hours in the morning when the Higuarashi women arrived at the shrine. Kagome had slumped over in the front seat, sleeping soundly.

“We’re home,” Mrs. Higurashi gently shook her daughter.

Kagome opened her eyes. “Thank you Mama,” she murmured, her voice heavy with sleep.

“Come on,” her mother beckoned. “Let’s get you to bed.”

“No, I want to check the well, first.” Kagome refused, the sleep fleeing her limps as she opened the door and jumped to her feet.

Hearing the determination in Kagome’s voice, her mother didn’t attempt to dissuade her. She followed Kagome across the grounds to the well-house. Kagome stepped inside, followed closely by her mother. She went down the steps and surveyed the well with thought. “Its never allowed me to pass without InuYasha or the jewel, but I’m going to try it anyway.”

“But, honey, it’s the middle of the night,” her mother protested wisely.

Kagome didn’t respond, she just slung her leg over the side of the well and climbed down the ladder as if she hadn’t heard anything her mother said.

“Kagome!”

Her foot touched the ground at the bottom of the well. Nothing happened. “I’m still here, Mama!” Kagome called.

Her mother sighed in relief. After hearing her daughter relay the events that had occurred, the last thing she wanted was her precious child to return to that gruesome world. Yet she knew Kagome would want to go, at the very least to pay respects to her fallen friends, and to make sure that InuYasha was recuperating.

“Then come on up, you need to get some rest,” her mother implored.

“I’m staying here,” Kagome explained. “I want to be here in case InuYasha comes tonight.”

“Kagome,” her mother said reproachfully. “You told me yourself how injured InuYasha was, it may take him quite a while to recover be able to get from the Kiso Valley back to Edo, hanyou or not.”

Kagome crossed her arms and plopped down on the bottom step. “I’m staying here.”

Her mother exhaled deeply. She left the let herself into the main house. She retrieved a couple of blankets, though it was summertime there was still a chill to the night air. She left a note on the refrigerator as to their location and made her way back to the tiny well-house to keep watch with her daughter.

~

The morning dawned bright and the sunlight invaded the well house through the cracks around the sliding doors. Kagome stretched languidly and lifted her head from her mother’s shoulders.

Her movement stirred her mother out of her rest. “Oh,” she moaned. “I’m going to have a crick in my neck all day!” She reached back and began massaging the back of her neck. Then she noticed the guilty look on Kagome’s face.

“I’m sorry, Mama,” she apologized.

“Its okay,” she reassured her. “Well, I’d better start breakfast.” Her mother stood and began collecting the blankets.

Kagome made no move to follow her.

“Aren’t you coming in for breakfast?”

“Not hungry,” Kagome replied gloomily. “I think I need some time here alone, just to think.“

Her mother nodded with understanding, “Just don’t go running with InuYasha without telling me first, okay?“
Kagome nodded in agreement, and she watched her mother go up the steps and out of the well house. Kagome sighed pensively. She had really hoped that InuYasha would have shown up by now. Kagome knew he was injured, but she also knew that he’d never allow anything to keep him from her. Unless, the well won’t let him through…I’ve lost them all, I can’t loose InuYasha too!

The thought brought tears to her eyes. Her heart ached with grief as she recalled what had happened just yesterday morning. Her friends were gone. And there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.