InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Unlikely Hero ❯ Discovery ( Chapter 4 )

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

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


Chapter Four:


The blue light that encased him briefly felt like a comforting embrace. InuYasha felt his heart lift as the pungent smell from the pollution of modern day Tokyo greeted him. He didn't have to leap out of the bottom of the well to know that she was there; his sensitive nose detected her unique scent and his ears picking up the quiet sound of her muffled sobs. In a single movement he was out of the well, sweeping Kagome up in a near crushing hug.

Kagome gasped in relief, partly in awe of his sudden arrival, partly just to breathe. Her arms tightened around him, "You're...okay!..There...was...this...light...and...the ...you ..were..gone...but......I....I...knew...you'd...come...for me." She choked out between labored breaths.

InuYasha inhaled deeply, her scent bringing him comfort. His hold on her relaxed, just a little, as his tension began to subside. "Don't cry, Kagome. I hate it when you cry."

Kagome buried her tear streaked face in his chest, "I'm...s..sorry."

"Everything is alright, Kagome," InuYasha's voice was soothing. "Shippou, Miroku, Sango, Kirara, even Kohaku… they're alright..."

"What!" Kagome could hardly believe her ears. His own flattened at the volume in which Kagome's jubilation yielded. But he was quickly rewarded with the biggest grin he had ever seen cross her beautiful face. "They're alive?"

"Everyone's alive," he nodded. "The jewel..."

"You used the jewel to save them!" Kagome exclaimed. Usually she wasn't one to interrupt, but her excitement caught the better of her.

InuYasha shook his head, "No, not me..."

"I want to see them, I want to go back, can we go now?" Kagome's voice came in staccato bursts.

A small smirk of satisfaction crossed InuYasha's face, finally she's begging to go back to my time, but I ’d better tell her about Kikyou first. He thought, remembering his own reaction to seeing the resurrected miko. "Keh. Of course, but---."

"Thank you! Thank you!" Kagome cried unraveling herself from his arms to throw her leg over the side of the well.

"Kagome wait, there's more I have to tell you..." InuYasha persisted, I have to make her listen!

"Tell me in the feudal era.." and with that she leapt down into the inky darkness.

InuYasha heard the soft thump as she hit the bottom. He felt a surge of relief as he remembered she couldn't go through on her own. "Kagome," he called softly from above.

"Come on, InuYasha!" She implored, "I really want to go!"

"Kikyou's there."

InuYasha realized his mistake immediately. From his location above her he could not see her reaction. All his sharp vision provided him with was the top of her dark head, her thick bangs shielding her face from him. And he couldn't sense any change in her scent either. Whatever subtle changes her emotions caused were completely masked to even his nose. The seconds became minutes as time passed in dead silence. His ears swiveled like little radars trying to pick up the hint of a sound. Kagome was located at the worst possible place. If he jumped to retrieve her, they would both pass through to the feudal era; and in audience of their well meaning comrades. So he would have to wait.

"Kagome," he called. Still he gained no reaction.

She remained still, as if frozen in time.

InuYasha had just run out of patience.

"Damn it!" he cursed as he leapt inside the well. They'd just have to have this out in the feudal era; audience or not.

~

The miko sisters sat around Kaede’s cooking fire in the small hut. They had been the first to disperse from the bone-eater's well. After the group had seen the hanyou off, Kaede had been eager to dissuade her sister from staying to await Kagome's arrival. Kaede's motivation for seeing InuYasha through the well had been to relieve her own curiosity. She wondered how it had been possible for Kagome to be transported back to her own world without the girl using the well as passage. While a small part of her feared that the well would no longer allow passage, she knew in her heart that she would see the strange child again. Kaede had grown very fond of Kagome, in spite of the stressed relationship between her sister, Kikyou and the young girl. Kaede knew how impetuous Kagome could be and was uncertain of the reception that Kikyou would recieve from the girl. For Kaede understood what no one was bold enough to voice: both Kikyou and Kagome were in love with InuYasha.

“What will you do now, sister?” Kaede asked soothingly.

Kikyou gave her sister a weak smile, “I don’t know, Kaede-chan. It’s not as if I planned this life. The jewel no longer needs to be protected. My sworn enemy has been destroyed.”

Kaede nodded, her eyes lighted with gratitude. “I am glad you were saved.”

“I should seek out the child,” Kikyou continued, referring to Rin. “She should know my gratefulness for ending the existence of such a treacherous power as the Shikon no Tama.”

“Hai,” Kaede agreed. “For that we are all tremendously indebted to the girl. However, if you do seek out Sesshomaru-sama and the child, please be very cautious. And take InuYasha with you.”

“There is much for InuYasha and I to speak about,” Kikyou said softly, her brown doe-eyes glazing over in regret.

Kaede reached over and put a comforting arm around her sister. “Are you prepared to know what choice he has made concerning the two of you?”

Kikyou swallowed hard. She closed her eyes. “I hope so.”

~

“I wonder how Kagome-sama is doing?” Miroku wondered aloud.

Sango hugged her knees more tightly, "I hope she's alright." Her mind traveled back to the last few moments of her life. Kagome had held her in her arms while she'd died. Kagome hadn't listened to her, she hadn't run off to protect herself.

No.

The young girl whom Sango regarded as a sister had stayed by her side, in reckless disregard of her own safety. Kagome had lamented over the loss of all of their friends, and blamed herself for Kohaku's death.

Kohaku.

Now that it was all over, now he was alive and safe, now that he'd remembered her, nothing had seemed to change between them. She had pled desperately for him to join with her in pursuit of InuYasha, yet he had refused. Simply shaking his head and stating that he would stay with Lord Sesshoumaru.

Sango felt a gentle hand brush away the tears from her cheeks. She looked up in surprise to see Miroku's concerned deep violet eyes looking straight into her face. She instinctively moved away from his reach as she felt her face flood with embarrassment; Sango hadn't even realized she'd been crying.

A pained expression crossed the young monk’s face momentarily, then vanished. “Still don’t trust me, lovely Sango?” His handsome face lit with a smile as he scooted closer to her. He rested his once-cursed hand against her backside. A look of surprise crossed her face but she did not raise her hand to strike him. Encouraged by this, Miroku edged even closer, his face merely an inch from hers. “You haven’t forgotten your promise to bare my children?” He questioned softly, leaning close enough to brush his lips against hers.

Shippou finally turned his attention away from the well to observe them. “Oi, Miroku!” Shippou advised. “I think you should quit while you’re…”

CRACK!

The young fox-demon squeezed his eyes shut wincing at the sharp sound of Sango’s well placed slap. “…While you’re ahead…” Shippou finished.

Sango stormed off muttering about how there’s a time and place for such things and how the perverted monk had no respect for her. Miroku shrugged sheepishly over at Shippou before following after his beloved, (if not violent), object of affection.

~

Kagome's face held a flash of surprise as InuYasha encased her in the enormous sleeves of is haori, hugging her tight as the blue light glittered around them.

And then his arms were empty.

Completely devoid of the girl. "What-!"

"InuYasha!" Shippou's bright emerald eyes met InuYasha as he looked up into the clear sky of his own era. "Where's Kagome?"

"I don't know!" InuYasha growled. What the hell is going on!?! Why can't Kagome come back with me? He hopped up in the air, reactivating the well to pass back into the modern era.

Their confrontation over Kikyou momentarily forgotten, they tried again. And again. Each time, InuYasha would pass through and Kagome would be left behind in her own era. The result was the same, with the exception of the third trial, which resulted into Kagome's exasperated dissolution into tears.

~

"InuYasha! Kagome!" Kagome's mom greeted them. "InuYasha are you okay?"

"Keh."

"Oh, that's right!" Kagome cried. "Your leg! Does it hurt?"

InuYasha shrugged, "The jewel, I guess."

She watched her daughter and the hanyou closely as she made herself busy preparing a quick meal for them. Kagome still seemed morose and upset. I'm glad Kagome kept her promise and didn't rush back into the Warring States Era right away. "I'm so sorry about your friends."

"Keh. They're fine."

"But Kagome told me they all...died."

"InuYasha used the jewel and they were all saved," Kagome explained.

"No-" InuYasha attempted again to try to correct the misunderstanding.

"Kagome that's wonderful news!" Mrs. Higurashi beamed, then her face clouded with confusion. "Then why are you two so upset?"

"The well, it rejected me," Kagome's head hung low.

Kagome's mom looked stricken. She opened her mouth to rebuke her daughter for trying to break her promise and travel back to the past so soon.

But then she thought better of it. Kagome was far too upset over the loss of contact with her feudal ties. It was like having them all taken away a second time. To know that her friends were safe, but to also know she'd never see them again.

"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry!" Her mother said, but it was only part true, for she was all too relieved to hear that her daughter, her precious baby, would no longer be able to put herself in harm's way 500 years in the past.

InuYasha looked at the older woman incredulously. He didn't doubt the woman's compassion, yet the slight ripple in her scent belied her dishonesty. He couldn't help the scowl that etched across his face. Maybe she's finally decided this would be a good time for Kagome to part ways with the half-breed.

Mrs. Higurashi was apparently oblivious to InuYasha’s change in demeanor, she smiled and set a large bowl of ramen in front of him. Instantly, his scowl disappeared and he dug in heartily. He hadn't realized just how hungry he had been until he gulped down his first bite; then he annihilated the entire bowl in less than a minute.

"You were hungry! Here," Kagome's mom cried, taking his bowl to refill it. "Let me get you another helping."

All feelings of misgivings vanished entirely as he let into the next serving. Kagome's mom didn't seem to mind him at all. Maybe this woman is just relieved that Kagome is home safe.

"I just wanted to see them again, if only one more time," Kagome lamented softly.

"We'll find a way, Kagome." InuYasha vowed between swallows.

Kagome nodded, solemnly.