InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ To Be Cursed ❯ Chapter Six ( Chapter 6 )

Small, nimble fingers dug into pale, cream colored fur as the fire neko flew gracefully over the sleeping world. It was sometime during the middle of the night now and Kagome had waited until her friends were soundly sleeping at their campsite before setting a barrier around them and hitching a ride on Kirara.

 

She hadn't really wanted to just up and leave them, but they knew she needed to go home and was well aware that when they awoke to find her gone, they would know she left to avoid Inuyasha. Inuyasha, she thought sadly. Even if she no longer loved him as a potential boyfriend, she still cared about him and the blatant disregard for her feelings and safety made her cringe.

 

The hanyou's love for the undead miko would have been something out of a faerie tale, something almost swoon worthy, if the entire reality of their tryst wasn't so disturbing. Yes the two had loved - though Kagome suspected it was one-sided based on Kikyou's desire to have the hanyou turn human - but their love had been torn apart and buried some fifty plus years ago. It was true that the two were pitted against one another by Naraku but if their love had been real - and their trust solid - the farce wouldn't have taken such a harsh toll on them.

 

Maybe they both would have been spared an undue amount of heartache and pain.

 

Although Kagome couldn't honestly say that she thought Kikyou loved her hanyou friend, she knew the deceased miko had to have harbored feelings of some kind toward him based on her constant seeking him out. Kagome still thought that the amount of monitoring Kikyou did on Inuyasha was something to be wary of. After all, the undead miko had stolen her shards and given them to Naraku.

 

That brought another question: How in the nine hells could Kikyou have assisted a monster such as Naraku without even batting an eye yet she wouldn't love Inuyasha because he was hanyou? How did that work? Naraku was by far the most vile and deplorable creature she had ever had the misfortune of meeting and yet a one-time miko would willingly help him and occupy his bed?

 

A low rumbling underneath Kagome brought her back to reality and she patted Kirara's neck affectionately while looking around the forest as they descended. They had only been flying for around half an hour and the nighttime air, coupled with the thought of going home, made her feel alive…free. As the neko touched ground, Kagome easily slid from her companions back and gave her a nice scratch behind the ears before bidding her farewell. She stepped toward the well and watched as Kirara climbed the clouds to return to her mistress.

 

Now standing at the well, Kagome sighed heavily and slumped to the ground, her back resting on the weathered wood. There was still nearly an entire week to go before she could meet with the late Taiyoukai again and, truth be told, she wished he had said one week instead of two. At first, two weeks hadn't seemed like nearly enough time to thoroughly go over what was asked of her but now she found waiting another six days to be very undesirable.

 

Finally, she had a purpose and it wasn't being a shard detector, or a nurturer or a comrade in arms. She was needed to aid someone and it was something that, apparently, only she could accomplish. The young miko found herself fervently wishing that she could get on with this new quest to help the stoic Taiyoukai and mumbled a curse or two under her breathe for being so callous as to view his situation as a relief from her boredom.

 

Inuyasha must be rubbing off on me more than I thought.

 

With another heartfelt sigh, Kagome stood from the soft ground and perched upon the lip of the well. Staring down into the gaping maw of her only way home, she whispered “I hope things are better when I return.” With that, she leaped down and was quickly enveloped in a flare of blue light.

 

She landed gently at the bottom of the portal between the era of her birth and the era of her heart and soon made swift work of the climb to the top. The moment she opened the shoji door, Kagome wanted nothing more than to storm the house and hug every one of her family members. However, it was the middle of the night and Kagome knew her entire family was sound asleep.

 

She crept across the distance between the well house and her house and was soon slipping a key into the front door. With little sound, the door was opened and Kagome was inside, taking off her shoes and depositing her backpack. Tip-toeing through the kitchen and up the steps, Kagome finally made it into her room and wasted no time in stripping of her clothes, donning some pajamas and slipping into bed.

 

~*~

 

“Where the hell is Kagome?” Inuyasha roared as he skidded to a stop in the middle of the campsite. Upon his return from spending an evening with Kikyou, he had noticed immediately that the future miko's scent was old, indicating she was no longer in camp. As soon as he had caught site of his remaining companions, minus Kagome, still sitting around the camp he was furious. He glared at Miroku then Sango and back again.

 

“Well? Where the fuck is she?” The hanyou barked as his temper flared. The Taijiya was already standing and tightening her grip on Hiraikotsu, more than ready to bury the weapon in the dog's skull. Miroku's calming hand on her should was the only thing that curbed her rage.

 

“She went home you jerk!” Sango hissed as her rampaging chocolate eyes narrowed at her companion. “After you left us in the same spot two days in a row, we all assumed that shard hunting had taken a back seat to your time with the corpse, so she had no reason to stay. She hasn't seen her family in quite a while and was running low on supplies.”

 

Inuyasha was fuming. He ignored the small clench in his heart at the thought of Kagome hurting again because of him and instead focused on his anger. Yes, he was angry…very, very angry. At whom? Did it matter? He was mad at Kagome for leaving; he was mad at Sango for being so bitchy; he was mad at himself for being an ass.

 

As he stood there baring the brunt of his friends' scrutiny, he felt something in his soul shift and suddenly, he felt extreme guilt wash over him. He never wanted to hurt Kagome; she was his first true friend. How could he always be so cruel to the one person who had never judged him? Wait…wasn't I just cursing her existence? An involuntary shudder ran along his spine and he cringed at the sudden feeling of having his heart and soul torn to ribbons.

 

What in Kami's name was going on?

 

He shook his head and a rush of insane anger overcame him, completely obliterating anything else he had felt previous. Even through the burning rage he felt, something else didn't feel right.

 

It felt like he was being toyed with; as if that amount of anger wasn't his own.

 

Before he could even begin to question what was going on within himself, he had a calming sensation thrum through his soul. It was familiar to him in both a good and bad way. It soothed his anger, yes but it also left him feeling suspiciously empty.

 

He always had the exact same sensation when he was with Kikyou.

 

Faster than he could pinpoint that stray thought down and study it, his mind was filled with images of Kikyou and how he always felt when he was around her. Only the questioning voice of the houshi was finally able to stir his mind from lustful - if not intentional - images of a naked Kikyou.

 

“Inuyasha!” Miroku nearly shouted, the grip on his friends shoulder tightening momentarily before shaking him. “Are we planning to stay here, continue with the search and hope Kagome can find us when she returns or go back to Lady Kaede's?”

 

The hanyou blinked his eyes several times, his fragmented mind trying to form coherent thoughts out of the monk's words. What the hell is going on with me? He shook his head in an attempt to drive away the feeling of having cotton lining the inside of his skull. He turned his blurry eyes to Miroku and could read the concern in his violet orbs and wondered exactly what was wrong with him.

 

He felt disjointed and not altogether there. Like he had been two places at once somehow or been living through two different sets of eyes and for the life of him, Inuyasha couldn't decipher one image from another; couldn't tell what was a lie or what was truth. Looking from the monk to the demon slayer and back again, he mumbled a barely audible “Back to Kaede's” before he was gone in a flash of silver and red.

 

Miroku watched his dog-eared friend bound off through the trees and couldn't help the trickle of worry that slithered up his spine. Something very bad was going on and something even worse was soon to happen, he was sure.

 

“Miroku? Are you alright?” Sango questioned as she pressed a reassuring palm into his shoulder. Concern shone brightly in her mahogany eyes and Miroku mentally recited all the reasons why he loved her.

 

“Hai Sango,” he whispered, his voice sounding thin and tired, “but I fear something very wrong is happening around us and Inuyasha is at the center of it. Did you see what happened a moment ago? He looked as if he wasn't sure who he was; as if he was trying to figure out his own life.”