InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Transformations ❯ Big Plan Part I ( Chapter 22 )

"Kagome?" Sango asked.

"Shh!" Kagome replied, her hand out towards Sango in that same gesture. She looked around and finally got up, slowly turning in each direction and feeling her ears dart about, listening for that sound. And then it hit her, hard. "Inuyasha."

What a cliffy! Damn, I think I'm updating these way too fast. Oh well. Whatever makes the fans happy, right? *Fans cheer and throw roses and such up to her* Thank you, thank you, thank -

*THUNK!* Uhhh. . . *I fall back, unconscious, fire extinguisher bounces on ground*

*Good fans turn around and glare at my newly reincarnated brother, pound his cute face into nothing*

That may sound a bit weird, but every girl he meets says that. So I have to include that. Oh, wait. I'm supposed to be unconscious. *Eyes roll back, body falls. . .again*

Twenty Two

"Inuyasha?!" everybody gasped, and looked in the same direction as Kagome. But then Kagome didn't seem too happy.

"You!" she snapped, pointing at the edge of the forest "Where's Inuyasha?! I know you took him!!"

A human like demon came out of the forest, wearing nothing but classic Japanese pants and sporting a nice, long, furry blue tail. He had two black stripes on each of his cheeks and a four-point green star on his forehead. He looked at no one but Kagome, and spoke as though he didn't know what she was talking about.

"I do not know any Inuyasha," he said, clearly. "I am here just to take you home, Mistress Kagome. Please, follow me." He made a sweeping gesture with his arm and kneeled on the ground, waiting for her to go to him.

"Mistress?" Shippou asked. He wasn't familiar with that word. "Mommy? What's 'Mistress' mean?"

"It's a female version of 'master', Shippou." She looked more pointedly at the man. "Who are you?"

"A follower of your father, Master Lockhart. I know - we know - that you are his only child. You have inherited his entire kingdom. Please, let me take you home. Outsiders are dangerous."

"These outsiders happen to be my best friends!" she snapped. Having enough of him, she went forward and yanked him up by his short hair. He winced, but didn't protest. "Now what is your name?" she said, in a deadly tone. This whole "Inuyasha's dead" scene had made her a little too demanding of the people who didn't help.

"F-Ferni, Mistress. I was s-sent to-to take you h-home, Mistress. It w-was an order."

"Who gave you this order?"

"Master Lockhart's second in command, Murlo, Mistress. He is making sure our prisoner doesn't die."

"Prisoner?" she repeated, letting him go. "What prisoner?"

"It is not my place to tell you, Mistress. Please, I am not allowed." He kind of shuddered, back down on one knee like he wasn't allowed to look up at her dead-on.

"Alright. You go back and tell this Murlo character that if he wants me so bad, he can come and get me himself. I'm not leaving because he sent someone to go get me."

Ferni nodded, turned and left. Kagome turned around, and smiled directly at Shippou. "I've got an idea," she said, going straight over to him. She picked him up and Shippou curled in her arms, getting comfortable as Kagome made her way back to the hut.

"What's your idea, Mommy?" Cute little Shippou, ever since she got back and started taking care of him he'd been calling her that.

"To help you heal, fast."

"How are you going to do that?" he asked, as they entered the hut.

"Simple." She sat down, a small portion of her dream and instincts coming back. "Watch, Shippou," she said, drawing her nail across her palm. Shippou watched as it welled up, dripped over her hand, and then the stream came back up and it healed. All in just four seconds.

"Wow! I didn't know you could do that, Mommy!"

"Neither did I, until last night. I can help your owies heal just that fast, Shippou."

"How? I don't have your blood in me."

"Not yet," she whispered.

Shippou's eyes widened as he realized what that meant. "Wait - I have to drink your blood?" he asked, wrinkling his nose.

"Just a drop, Shippou." She paused. "Or, you could just wait around a month for it to heal naturally and - "

"No!" he snapped. "Okay, Mommy. I trust you."

"Thank you, Shippou. That means a lot to me. Here." She lifted her finger to her mouth and nicked it, drawing a single drop of blood. Shippou kind of frowned at it, but licked it anyway. And then he looked surprised. "What?" Kagome laughed.

"I thought it'd taste icky, like mine." He blinked a few times, his eyes crossed cutely. After a second he looked back up at her. "It doesn't."

"That's because Mommies never taste icky," she whispered, almost like it was a secret. She nuzzled his neck and tickled him, all the happier when he started to giggle and laugh.

"Don't! Stop!" he said, his words covered in little kid laughs. "I give! I give!" he pleaded, finally making Kagome stop.

She drew back laughing herself, wondering how fast her blood would work on him. "How do you feel?" she asked, the last bit of laughter dying down.

Shippou sighed as an ending to the fun, and thought about her question. "Well, I don't hurt anymore. I wanna see," he said, eagerly, as he yanked at some of the bandages.

"Whoa, slow down pup," she said, not even realizing her new nickname for him. "Let me see," she finished, unwrapping one of the ones around his left arm. It showed flawless, smooth kid skin, not a scratch on him. "It worked already!"

Shippou bounded up and started skipping around, ripping off each individual bandage one at a time as though he was stripping for an audience. Kagome just laughed at him.

After she finally got him to relax and get dressed she went back out, and saw everyone but Kouga, Maso and Nurino conversing for one reason or another. Without thinking she lifted Shippou to her shoulder and walked right up to them. They shut up when she got within sight, but she heard pretty much everything up until that point. They were talking about whether or not that demon was telling the truth; after all, they didn't know what her mother knew about her father. But she wasn't going to explain anything until somebody asked for it.

"What were you talking about?" she asked, letting them think that she didn't hear. Shippou caught on quick, and didn't screw it up.

"Yeah we couldn't hear you, were you taking about me?" He stood up fully and stretched, showing how he wasn't hurt anymore. That got everyone's attention.

"Hey!" Sango cried, turning slightly to face the two of them. "How'd you do that?"

Kagome looked at Shippou with eyes that said "Don't let her know" and he must've caught it, cause he said, "I'm a demon, Sango."

"So what were you talking about?" Kagome asked again, changing the subject before Sango could further question them. And somehow, this was one of those times when Miroku could just talk and actually be heard.

"We were wondering what that demon meant by your father being his master." For a moment he looked like he was going to cross his arms, but instead fidgeted and gave up looking annoyed.

"Yeah, his name's Lockhart but don't call him that," she said, and decided on spilling details before everyone could bring up Inuyasha again. The plan stays, she thought. Nothing's changed.

"What should we call him, then?" Shippou said from her shoulder.

"Rare, but if you keep up this 'Mommy' business you're going to call him Grandpa."

"But didn't Ferni say he was dead?" Kouga said, pointing out the obvious fact.

"Indirectly, but yes. Believe or not Inuyasha killed him - big misunderstanding."

"You never said anything about being an heir to a kingdom," he accused.

"I didn't know until the day before my sixteenth birthday. No, not until my mother told me almost a week after that."

"Inuyasha killed him?" Miroku said, but it was more like he was thinking aloud. He looked up at Kagome. "Do you suppose they misunderstood what happened, and this pack that now follows you were the ones who took Inuyasha?" He used the word "took" on purpose, instead of "killed" to keep her from exploding at him. His thoughts were pointing that the pack knew what Inuyasha did to her father, and theirs was the pack that attacked him after Kagome left.

"No," Kagome said. She shook her head for further effect. "No, they would've told me. Right?" she said, looking over at Kouga. "That's how these things work, right?"

He nodded. "Unless someone, like Ferni, isn't eligible to say so. You could've just interrogated the wrong person. How is it Rare and your mother met?" he said, changing the subject quickly. Perhaps no one else could tell, but she was getting that look in her eyes again, the one he saw in her eyes the entire time she was in his cave. The one that said "If you keep asking these questions I'm going to hurt you," and the one that demanded to be obeyed. She really was a princess, then.

"Oh, he was fighting some kind of bear demon near the well and got knocked in. Mom found him and helped him get better." She looked away as she spoke, but Kouga caught the flicker of thanks in her eyes as she looked up at the sky. Okay, now he was starting to regret ever planning against Inuyasha. How is it Kagome could just do this to people?

Shippou, sensing his adopted mother's distress in her thoughts hopped off her shoulder and started talking. "Okay, so when does this plan thing start? I'm better, so I can be better bait. When do we start? Come on, Mommy! We gotta find him! Let's go!"

As usual, Shippou's unbelievable cuteness brought a laugh from Kagome and she nodded, going over to Sango to lift her onto Kirara and take her authority to the max in putting this whole thing together. It was new, commanding others with a voice that rung with authority and called others to you, demanding that they listen and obey, but as long as she was a princess, she was going to make the most of it. Princess. She would probably never get the hang of using that word to associate with herself, but she could act like it didn't have a new effect on her, couldn't she?

Either way, she was busy now, coordinating this whole plan to work out just right. Even as she explained to Shippou exactly what to do, and made sure Sango couldn't fall off Kirara, her mind was on the possibility that when they found Inuyasha, and they would find Inuyasha, he just might be dead. She had to at least consider that, if it came to be true. But she never once let go of her hope, and every now and then she'd look down at her left hand, praying with her eyes that Inuyasha was fine and not dead and he was going to enjoy the rest of his days with her.

Yes, she thought, as she moved Shippou to the spot he would need to be in for this to work. I know he's alive; I can feel it. He's going to live on with me, and then I'll. . . I'll tell him. Yes, I'll tell him I love him. I just hope I don't stutter. Gods, I can't even think it without stuttering. I'm going to have to practice this.

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Guess what? I recently found my Grown-up Shippou picture, but then I noticed all the little details that were so wrong and. . . Well, I redrew it. It's better, and it's colored. Plus I'm working on a pic of Inuyasha that was purely for fun cause I haven't seen any other pic even close to it. He's standing, with his eyes those little dash thingies -.- Kinda like that, and he has a big doggie-cone around his neck. Hee hee, I'm cruel. I was going to draw little mitts for his hands, but that'd be going a bit far. He's saying something I'm not going to write for fear of spoiling it, but when I finish it, I'll let you know. In the meantime, beware!

Every person that refuses to review will get a grenade thrown at them! P.S. About the Kikyo thing last chapter, that was an indirect reminder that I forgot about her involvement in this story. I don't think I'll add her again, but who knows, yes? Back to the grenades. . .

Yaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *Lifts up a whole belt of grenades and swings it around like the idiot I am* Take this, and that, and this and this and this!! *Pulls out several pins and throws them*

Wait a minute . . . - . - *Thinks out loud* you pull the pin, throw it, and then duck and cover. Yup, I did it right!! *Grenades explode, taking me with it*

See ya! *Yet another written beforehand ending, expecting this to happen*