InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Time Rift ❯ Time Rift...Chapter Nine ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: I am a Kikyo hater, so if I owned Inuyasha, I wouldn't want her! But, I don't own any of them, Rumiko Takahashi does, lucky gal…enjoy!

 

 

 

Time Rift….by taterbean96

 

 

 

Chapter Nine

 

 

 

Shippo road atop the gentle Aun with Rin the following day as the group continued their journey towards the Southern Shrine. The poor child looked like her whole world had been shattered when she became aware that Jaken was nowhere to be found.

 

Inuyasha, with his usual lack of couth, announced that the tagalongs partner was probably already dead, since he went off in search of some stupid amulet.

 

Sango shot Miroku a shrewd glance. Amulet? As in the one they'd heard about the previous evening? Before the couple could question Inuyasha further, Rin burst out into tears.

 

“Inuyasha! You big jerk!” Shippo shouted, throwing angry fists at the hanyou.

 

Inuyasha flicked him away as if he were no more than an insect.

 

“Look, that's just what he told me; he thinks it'll help him get Sesshomaru back…”

 

This did seem to appease Rin a little, although Shippo, arms wrapped protectively around the little girl now, still sent damning thoughts out to that idiot Inuyasha.

 

Sango and Miroku soared above the land bound travelers. Their concerned whispers unheard by those below; they were certain now that Kikyo and Jaken were up to something…

 

Inuyasha, normally jumping through the treetops, had stopped to walk alongside Kikyo. Her soul collectors weren't hovering about; Inuyasha felt a curdling in his stomach thinking about the snaky beings out harvesting souls.

 

`It keeps her alive and here with me…' he reminded himself, trying to relieve the sickening feeling.

 

“Does that amulet thing really work?” he asked, glancing sideways from the corner of his golden eye at her. She looked so calm and poised, confident. An unwanted throb lurched into his chest.

 

“Hai, it does; but at great cost to the one invoking the power,” she replied, looking calm and collective. Her insides were writhing however, as she longed to beg him to give up this attempt to retrieve Kagome, to leave the reborn priestess in her own time…to give up on that haughty girl and try again for a life with her; another chance at happiness.

 

“However, there isn't anything Jaken wouldn't do for his Lord Sesshomaru, is there?” she continued, after drawing a calming breath through her nose.

 

“Well, that's true.” Inuyasha answered, bringing his arms up behind his head and gazing skywards.

 

Miroku and Sango flying above him were looking down on them. He scowled at their nosiness.

 

“I'll never understand anyone wanting to die for Sesshomaru…he's an ass…” he said, tearing his eyes away from his prying friends and returning to the conversation.

 

Kikyo laughed. It sounded hollow to his acute ears.

 

“I think maybe the child's changed him; kind of in the same way you changed me all those years ago,” she told him.

 

Arms still up behind his head; he swung his head to look at her with a cocked, curious eyebrow.

 

“Whaddaya mean?” the throb began to turn to a pounding.

 

She looked down to the ground, almost as if she were blushing. “I was so rigid before you came into my life…then we became a team, working to protect the Shikon no Tama. Those were the best times…”

 

He heard a catch in her voice. What was she saying? He too could remember that day on the pier, their embrace…but it was over, wasn't it?

 

“Kikyo, I'm not…”

 

“KYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!”

 

All bodies spun, to find a shrieking Jaken sprinting towards them from the nearby wood. His eyes were watering with terror, his mouth a gaping hole as he screamed. His staff was held high over his head as he came tearing towards them.

 

“Master Jaken!” Rin cried out, hopping down from Aun, attempting to run to her companion. Shippo yanked her elbow, stopping her.

 

An earthquake-like rumbling in the ground revealed that a gigantic youkai was in pursuit of the smaller.

 

“Inuyasha!” Miroku pointed to the emerging, statuesque figure of a blood red, one-eyed youkai with a long curved horn protruding from the center of its forehead. It was crashing through the trees, uprooting some, as it neared them.

 

Kirara, flying low, let Miroku slip from her back before taking Sango high into the air again. Miroku pulled sacred sutras from his robes; he hated to admit it, but times like these were when he missed that damned wind tunnel.

 

Sango soared directly overhead of the ferocious beast, letting loose her hirakotsu. It's thick hide repelled it easily.

 

The youkai's tongue was lolling from it's mouth, spittle flying from it, looking as if it were insane and in search of it's last meal.

 

“GEM!” it bellowed, “GIVE ME THE GEM!”

 

Inuyasha, hand on Tetsusiga's hilt, ordered Shippo and Rin to hide.

 

Miroku's sutras were scalding the flesh of the youkai, smoke rose from its evil, vulgar body. It stopped its pursuit of Jaken and began scratching at the white scraps as if they were mites.

 

Inuyasha scoffed at the beast.

 

“Ha! I'll knock him off with one blow!” he shouted confidently, arrogantly.

 

He pulled Tetsusiga from its sheath…

 

Nothing; no transformation…he stared at his fanged sword dumbfounded. What the hell?

 

“Sacred arrow, hit the mark!” Inuyasha glanced over at Kikyo, bow pulled taut, releasing the arrow. She looked so like Kagome at that moment, a trembling Jaken was cowering behind her.

 

Miroku continued hurtling sutras as the arrow struck home, the bulging single eye of the creature. It shrieked horribly, the purifying purple aura of the arrow engulfed the youkai. It began to break up into bits of flesh. A bright, erupting flash and it was gone.

 

Inuyasha, hands still clenching Tetsusiga, was perplexed.

 

“What's wrong with Tetsusiga?” Shippo asked, coming out from his hiding spot and leaping onto the hanyou's shoulder.

 

Miroku joined them. “It appears that Tetsusiga doesn't want to transform, probably because Kagome's not around. After all, it was her that pulled the sword from the bowels of your father's grave…”

 

“Keh! I know that!” Inuyasha snapped. He eyed his beloved sword, now useless scrap.

 

Sango and Kirara landed besides Miroku. The demon slayer shook her head sadly at the sword. Even the Tetsusiga needed Kagome; too bad Inuyasha wasn't as evident with his feelings as his weapon was.

 

While Inuyasha's friends stood, brooding over the fang, Kikyo stooped down to the shuddering Jaken, who was still clutching at her.

 

“Are you okay?” she asked, not an ounce of emotion in the soulless miko's voice.

 

He nodded, his hand to his heaving chest. The hand slid into his robes and pulled out the amulet, dangling from a tarnished gold chain. The gem was a vibrant, translucent aquamarine.

 

Kikyo snatched it, stashing it inside the folds of her hakama. She leaned in closer towards Jaken, her cold lips almost brushing the side of his head.

 

“Well done, your master will be returned to you sooner than you expect, especially with the offer that we have to give the spirits…” she whispered.

 

Standing and turning to rejoin the group, the miko met the suspicion -filled eyes of the demon slayer…

 

 

 

Authors Note: I don't own the characters, just so we are clear on that. Please read and review. I'm still a developing writer and really appreciate any comments! Thanks!