InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ When a door closes... ❯ The Tempering ( Chapter 14 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Namiyo11 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama / Adventure / Action / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 04.20.2008 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.3K | Visits: 199 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama / Adventure / Action / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 04.20.2008 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.3K | Visits: 199 | Status: Completed
Chapter 14- The Tempering
Checking...nope, I don’t own or make money from Inuyasha! I just adore it.
The original character of Lady Atae however, is my creation entirely, as are the Dokueki.
Recap: Miroku and Inuyasha have sorted out some problems, and the hanyou’s finally decided to get her back when he learns the truth behind Kagome’s choice. What else happened that winter? Read on!
Naraku had been gone for months. His darkness had been released in the form of youkai, tormenting the land. After a month of intense training, Kagome was permitted to return to her own devices to an extent, to be called at need. Much of what she’d need to learn now would be taught best by experience. That wasn’t hard to come by nowadays, as too often that winter, blood and snow met.
At first, most of the youkai released had settled into small lairs, as they had before Naraku had fused them, and were dealt with by the locals if they attacked. But, as the snow made people stop traveling, and other prey grew scarce, they began to band together and attack both humans and youkai bands at will. Alone, they were nuisances, in groups, as they had learned from Naraku’s dark example, they were far stronger. Some were strangely twisted, products of his tinkering. As word got out a tajiya had set up shop in the village, Sango soon found many clients, she and Kagome going around the area with Kirara and dealing with various youkai.
The village life went on. Kaede had a new apprentice, and the villagers built a fine hut for the two females who helped guard them, at least partially out of fear of displeasing Kagome. She had been offered apartments in the luxurious castle of her packmate, but she preferred to stay in the village...at least until Miroku came back. Then, she’d likely leave the happy couple and Shippo to live there with Sesshomaru and Rin. The kitsune was better off with them and Kaede than her, he didn’t like her pack leader and it strained their relationship. He kept nagging her to go find Inuyasha.
Save for Kaede and Sango, she was separated from her old life in both times. Her school friends had gone to college or gotten married. They drifted off, and even Houjo had stopped chasing her long ago. Word had come that Kouga had finally taken Ayami as his mate. Inuyasha and Miroku were long gone. As for her family, well.
Kagome still managed to return to the future once a month as she’d promised her mother, but it was more and more merely to collect supplies. Her family tried, she tried, but she wasn’t part of them anymore. She was a hanyou living in the feudal era, and they were humans in the modern one. It grew harder and harder to make herself return to them on the night she became human, it was a bitter reminder of her past.
One month, her mother had sent her back with the last of the things she’d wanted from the house, and converted her bedroom into a home office! Kagome had felt numb, but managed to smile. She did so even as her own grandfather had ofuda supposedly hidden and tried to exorcize her youkai side. Souta was now following his own dreams, planning to become a Shinto priest and maintain the family tradition and the Shrine. A strict course of study and school kept him busy.
Days seemed to meld into a grey emptiness, cut off from her time, denied her beloved, her family, and the full humanity she once held, Kagome was slowly losing herself. The fiery temper, kindness, and courage that had won the heart of a lonely hanyou and tamed a magical jewel were fading away. It was an act of will for her to rise some days, she talked less, and smiled rarely. Youkai, after all, lived for mates...killed for mates...and died for them sometimes.
Inuyasha’s abandoning her had left a wound that wouldn’t heal. There was no going back and they would never be together again, though he was rarely out of her thoughts and never left her heart. By spurning her, he’d spurned the promised alliance and Sesshomaru’s offered reconciliation. There would be no second chance, even as she stubbornly clung to hope he would come back somehow. A tiny part of her kept whispering she couldn‘t trust him, not now, and it hurt deeply. How could he do this? Maybe...he’d never truly loved her, not as she’d loved him.
Sesshomaru worried for her and did what he could as the packbond between them grew and deepened. He’d become a brother to her in a way he never had to his half-sibling, and she took somber pride in her new position as his packmate and a Lady of the Inu Clan. But he could not heal her broken heart. His rage at Inuyasha had grown to new levels as he watched someone who’d become dear to him fade. His own guilt...he kept to himself and tried to expiate as he could as he dealt with his duties as Clan Lord.
She hadn’t known before, but he had duties to every Inu pack in the Western Lands, they all looked to him, as son of Inutaisho, for holding their lands and keeping the Clan safe and well run. Many in the Inu Clan had questioned and challenged a hanyou entering their ranks at first, particularly the premier pack, when even the half-breed son of Inutaisho was deemed unworthy. A few had insisted on trying her with physical challenges as well as was their right, at least at first, something she’d hidden from Sango.
But Sesshomaru was now much admired for his foresight in the Clan, at least by those who saw Kagome in action. Her gentle, sad, but steady presence when she was called to sit in as he settled disputes and fought off enemies at his side had quietly begun to earn her a place among them, beyond her status as packsister. Such as today, as the late winter snows settled along the land...
***
“Kagome!” Sango blocked with her weapon as she yelled. She stood in snow up to her knees, spotted with the crystals of freezing blood, but at least it was not hers.
“Got it! Shouheki-ya!” Kagome drew her string in a thumb grip, concentrated, and released. The shouheki-ya, the barrier arrow, shot towards the remaining Inu fighters, spreading into a temporary magical barrier to protect them from her opponent, a Dokueki, one of Naraku‘s last experiments, one they suspected had been intended for Inuyasha with it’s peculiarities. A large, highly resistant and powerful youkai, with an incredibly deceptive, weak aura and poisonous blood and venom. The Tetsusaiga would have been nearly useless against them. They had to be killed at a distance and their blood avoided. The creature’s jaws struck sparks from the glowing dome and it hissed in fury, twisting at speed for her!
“Hiraikotsu!” Sango’s weapon sheered partway through the last of the two heads of the enormous serpent, one that had made the mistake of choosing this Inu packholding as a good place to feed. Dokueki seemed to adore the taste of Inu, at least a dozen had emerged this winter from near the wolf youkai territories and gone for the packs. They had been sent to deal with the problem when this small pack had called on Sesshomaru as Clan Lord for assistance after being decimated by the serpent. To her surprise, Kagome’d learned most Inu youkai were hardly stronger than wolf types, relying on numbers and cunning, not the incredible strength of the House of Inutaisho.
She jumped out of the way as the remaining head went for her, and she hesitated before she used her flameclaw, afraid she’d accidentally come in contact with the poison. She tried to get some distance to use the Hamayami, getting slammed into a snow bank and the rocks beneath it as the serpent lashed out with it’s tail, yelping as the cold wetness penetrated her clothes. It hurt, and helped further shred her outfit, already torn by the day’s fight. If Kagome had still been human, the skin that showed through the rents would be laced with scars now...and she wouldn’t have cared much.
“Sango! Get me some space!” she yelled, clambering out as it tried again, ignoring the pain in her side. It would heal soon enough. At least she was feeling something when she was injured.
“Got it!” Sango had caught her weapon, venomous blood flicking from the edge, and Kirara tried to distract it, giving Kagome a few precious moments to get back and aim. She fired a Hi-ya, taking it in the eye and going through. The creature toppled, twitching as blood and fluids sprayed from the severed body. Everyone dove back as they tried to avoid the toxic remains.
Panting, leaning on her bow, Kagome shivered. She still hated battle, even as it gave her a place to channel her energy. The few Inu left here, mostly the precious females and young, came out of the cavern complex they dwelt in to see their success, and their lead female, an aged but stately one named Lady Atae, approached, hands folded into her sleeves.
“So. You have done well,” she said simply, looking at the two fighters and the neko. She had grave doubts when they saw what their Lord had chosen to send as help, but now, well. Seeing the power of the female hanyou, risking herself for a pack that hadn’t been in favor of her, all in spite of the heart-pain that was so clear, she made a decision. She would honor Lord Sesshomaru’s discrete requests.
“Thank you, Lady Atae,” Kagome managed, ignoring the still forms, Inu and attacker, behind them in the snow. She’d seen too many of them already these last months.
“Come,” she told them, beckoning, leaving the others to deal with the carcass.
***
The old female led them inside the caverns past lairs and common areas, to a small shrine of sorts. Inside was a large chest on a dais, and she bowed to it before she opened it and reached inside.
“Lady Kagome. Your clothes are unfit for wearing. This...is a better choice,” she held out a small pile of clothes, white and green, with a strange weave to them that caught the light and seemed to sparkle.
“What are they?” Kagome looked at them in confusion, they smelled like magic.
“These are made of the hair of the mountain troll. They are very powerful, a treasure of my pack. They will protect you in battle, and once belonged to a powerful priestess who wore them to fight our kind, taken as battle spoils, but they were meant to be used. You are Lead female of the pack of Lord Sesshomaru, full fit to wear them. Accept them with our gratitude and respect.”
“Truly? Who was this Priestess?” Sango asked, fascinated at the fabric, it was like nothing she’d ever seen. Mountain Trolls were legendarily powerful creatures.
“Her name was Sassuma. It was long ago, before even I lived. Will you accept them?” Atae asked Kagome, barely glancing at the tajiya. She was still not pleased a youkai slayer was in her home, to help or not! Sango really couldn’t blame her, equally uncomfortable at being surrounded by suspicious youkai. It was a taste of what Kagome and Inuyasha had had to endure among humans, though, and she accepted that.
“T-thank you. Yes, I...would be honored,” Kagome was shyly pleased, she took them and looked at them closely, it looked like the robes of a fighting priestess, white hakama and a close wrapped kimono in green, with white sleeves. A pair of soft green shoes and a sash were with them.
“I’m not sure they’ll fit, though.”
“They can be altered. Come, we shall see to it,” Atae led them out.
***
They cleaned up, and Kagome was measured and put into a soft, plain kimono as they waited for her new robes. Atae led them to a large, comfortable chamber, her own in the cavern complex. She sat them down and watched Kagome for a time, until the hanyou began to fidget.
“What is it, Lady Atae?” she asked as the Inu sighed. The Lady hadn’t expected to pity her, but Atae did feel it, and decided to speak to it. She was the eldest, most revered female in the Clan, and her Clan Lord, at his wit’s end, had asked her to talk to the hanyou.
“It is that you have the look of the other one, Inuyasha,” Atae told her flatly. Kagome winced at the reminder.
“How do you know? Have you seen him?” she asked softly, a haunted desperation in her eyes. Atae saw her lean forward so eagerly...it was very unfortunate.
“Was there a monk with him?” Sango asked, no less worried. She kept waiting, and hoping, that he’d return to her as she and Kagome held the line against Naraku’s last remnants. It was hard, and in spite of careful, almost fearful searching and questioning, there had been no news anywhere, it was as if the earth had swallowed both Inuyasha and Miroku.
“It was long ago. Over a century now, I believe, and no human was near,” Lady Atae paused. “I am sorry, honored tajiya, that I cannot give better news,” she finished stiffly, as Sango nodded sadly.
“Thank you,” she answered.
“Hm. You see...he was fighting our Clan Lord at the time, and I chose to observe them. As I heard, then, your heart chose him before Lord Sesshomaru made you packmate. You can never be with him again, my Lady. Choose another. Worthy of you and our clan,” the old youkai advised bluntly.
“But-”
“Lady, I know what he did, he would have known there was no way to have you back when he rejected Lord Sesshomaru’s offered alliance. Do not allow yourself to believe otherwise,” Lady Atae rose and frowned.
“But-I love him! How would he know that? If it was innocent-” Kagome tried desperately.
“Myouga instructed him in our ways. I know this, he was my vassal before he served our former Lord and was sent to teach and assist him by Inutaisho’s last commands. I am uncertain the flea did him a favor by helping him survive even after being found unfit. He likely rejected you to gain vengeance of Lord Sesshomaru, and all of the Clan. That one’s anger is great against us all. Not, perhaps, without reason, but a feral outcast he is, and will remain. One with no pack or territory cannot hope to court you, Lady Kagome, nor can you claim him without our Lord‘s consent. The thing is what it is,” the Lady said gravely, believing every word. The Inuyasha she’d observed was much different than the one he’d become with Kagome.
Kagome slumped...it made horrible sense. She couldn’t, wouldn’t turn on her new Clan. She was one of them. Her life was pledged here and their acceptance had been grudging, but it was real. Sesshomaru was dear to her, and Rin, they were family, pack. But Inuyasha, he hadn’t had any of it, ever. Maybe he’d just wanted her to have a pack on his terms, not because he loved her. Maybe...she’d been convenient. Maybe all he’d seen was what he hated when he saw her with her mark. He’d-spit on her. On her Clan and Pack.
That was the day Kagome gave up her last faint hope. He wasn’t coming back.
***
The robes were a wonder. They shielded her nearly as well as the robe of the firerat did Inuyasha, and it came in handy as the winter wore on. There were more youkai, more killing. Sango tried as did Sesshomaru, but they couldn’t keep Kagome from becoming more and more distant as she began to take more chances in combat. She never put them in danger, but one day, everyone knew she would lose her struggle and would be lost if she couldn‘t put him behind her as her own reputation grew...
Rumors about the pair of deadly female fighters Lord Sesshomaru had at his command spread, and even the most far flung youkai clans began to take note. A flea, dining on a tasty lynx youkai heard them in shock. He gathered what scraps of information he could, and planned to get to his master.
***
As the mountain passes cleared, Inuyasha and Miroku closed up his lair, having spent much of their time making preparations for what was to come before heading out. A tiny flea was along for the ride by force. Myouga had finally showed up a month before, and after reporting the rumors, and some planning, his adored young Master made a decision. The little vassal trembled in terror.
“You can’t be serious! Please reconsider!” he begged as he hung onto Inuyasha’s hair.
“You agreed it’s the only way, remember?! And you thought I didn’t listen when you taught me that shit!” Inuyasha barked with a trace of glee as the monk screamed again when they shot across a small ravine. The hanyou’s idea of safe, fast travel was not the same as his! “Will you stop screaming? My Kagome took bigger jumps than that and laughed!”
“She’s as crazy as you! I can‘t believe you talked me into this!” Miroku yelled, clinging to the hanyou’s back in terror.
“Try and run off, and see what happens!”
Author’s notes-I really wish I was better at describing clothing. Kagome’s troll robes are based on the design of the red clad Priestess in the anime ep. ‘The Red and White Priestesses’ in the Tsubaki story arc. I loved those outfits, and decided Kagome needed to end up in something like it.
More on the Hamayami’s attacks- Hi-ya is the proper term for a fire arrow. Shouheki-ya is Barrier, and Arrow. Seirei-ya is Spirit or Soul and Arrow. Won’t say what that one does, it’s for a later chapter. The thumb grip is a eastern archery grip on an arrow, different from the standard western one. The things I look up for a story. It seemed logical to give some of her bow attacks a specific grip, just as the Swords of the Fang have special movements to them. Dokueki? It means venom. Keep those nasties in mind as well. Thanks for reading!-Namiyo’
Checking...nope, I don’t own or make money from Inuyasha! I just adore it.
The original character of Lady Atae however, is my creation entirely, as are the Dokueki.
Recap: Miroku and Inuyasha have sorted out some problems, and the hanyou’s finally decided to get her back when he learns the truth behind Kagome’s choice. What else happened that winter? Read on!
Naraku had been gone for months. His darkness had been released in the form of youkai, tormenting the land. After a month of intense training, Kagome was permitted to return to her own devices to an extent, to be called at need. Much of what she’d need to learn now would be taught best by experience. That wasn’t hard to come by nowadays, as too often that winter, blood and snow met.
At first, most of the youkai released had settled into small lairs, as they had before Naraku had fused them, and were dealt with by the locals if they attacked. But, as the snow made people stop traveling, and other prey grew scarce, they began to band together and attack both humans and youkai bands at will. Alone, they were nuisances, in groups, as they had learned from Naraku’s dark example, they were far stronger. Some were strangely twisted, products of his tinkering. As word got out a tajiya had set up shop in the village, Sango soon found many clients, she and Kagome going around the area with Kirara and dealing with various youkai.
The village life went on. Kaede had a new apprentice, and the villagers built a fine hut for the two females who helped guard them, at least partially out of fear of displeasing Kagome. She had been offered apartments in the luxurious castle of her packmate, but she preferred to stay in the village...at least until Miroku came back. Then, she’d likely leave the happy couple and Shippo to live there with Sesshomaru and Rin. The kitsune was better off with them and Kaede than her, he didn’t like her pack leader and it strained their relationship. He kept nagging her to go find Inuyasha.
Save for Kaede and Sango, she was separated from her old life in both times. Her school friends had gone to college or gotten married. They drifted off, and even Houjo had stopped chasing her long ago. Word had come that Kouga had finally taken Ayami as his mate. Inuyasha and Miroku were long gone. As for her family, well.
Kagome still managed to return to the future once a month as she’d promised her mother, but it was more and more merely to collect supplies. Her family tried, she tried, but she wasn’t part of them anymore. She was a hanyou living in the feudal era, and they were humans in the modern one. It grew harder and harder to make herself return to them on the night she became human, it was a bitter reminder of her past.
One month, her mother had sent her back with the last of the things she’d wanted from the house, and converted her bedroom into a home office! Kagome had felt numb, but managed to smile. She did so even as her own grandfather had ofuda supposedly hidden and tried to exorcize her youkai side. Souta was now following his own dreams, planning to become a Shinto priest and maintain the family tradition and the Shrine. A strict course of study and school kept him busy.
Days seemed to meld into a grey emptiness, cut off from her time, denied her beloved, her family, and the full humanity she once held, Kagome was slowly losing herself. The fiery temper, kindness, and courage that had won the heart of a lonely hanyou and tamed a magical jewel were fading away. It was an act of will for her to rise some days, she talked less, and smiled rarely. Youkai, after all, lived for mates...killed for mates...and died for them sometimes.
Inuyasha’s abandoning her had left a wound that wouldn’t heal. There was no going back and they would never be together again, though he was rarely out of her thoughts and never left her heart. By spurning her, he’d spurned the promised alliance and Sesshomaru’s offered reconciliation. There would be no second chance, even as she stubbornly clung to hope he would come back somehow. A tiny part of her kept whispering she couldn‘t trust him, not now, and it hurt deeply. How could he do this? Maybe...he’d never truly loved her, not as she’d loved him.
Sesshomaru worried for her and did what he could as the packbond between them grew and deepened. He’d become a brother to her in a way he never had to his half-sibling, and she took somber pride in her new position as his packmate and a Lady of the Inu Clan. But he could not heal her broken heart. His rage at Inuyasha had grown to new levels as he watched someone who’d become dear to him fade. His own guilt...he kept to himself and tried to expiate as he could as he dealt with his duties as Clan Lord.
She hadn’t known before, but he had duties to every Inu pack in the Western Lands, they all looked to him, as son of Inutaisho, for holding their lands and keeping the Clan safe and well run. Many in the Inu Clan had questioned and challenged a hanyou entering their ranks at first, particularly the premier pack, when even the half-breed son of Inutaisho was deemed unworthy. A few had insisted on trying her with physical challenges as well as was their right, at least at first, something she’d hidden from Sango.
But Sesshomaru was now much admired for his foresight in the Clan, at least by those who saw Kagome in action. Her gentle, sad, but steady presence when she was called to sit in as he settled disputes and fought off enemies at his side had quietly begun to earn her a place among them, beyond her status as packsister. Such as today, as the late winter snows settled along the land...
***
“Kagome!” Sango blocked with her weapon as she yelled. She stood in snow up to her knees, spotted with the crystals of freezing blood, but at least it was not hers.
“Got it! Shouheki-ya!” Kagome drew her string in a thumb grip, concentrated, and released. The shouheki-ya, the barrier arrow, shot towards the remaining Inu fighters, spreading into a temporary magical barrier to protect them from her opponent, a Dokueki, one of Naraku‘s last experiments, one they suspected had been intended for Inuyasha with it’s peculiarities. A large, highly resistant and powerful youkai, with an incredibly deceptive, weak aura and poisonous blood and venom. The Tetsusaiga would have been nearly useless against them. They had to be killed at a distance and their blood avoided. The creature’s jaws struck sparks from the glowing dome and it hissed in fury, twisting at speed for her!
“Hiraikotsu!” Sango’s weapon sheered partway through the last of the two heads of the enormous serpent, one that had made the mistake of choosing this Inu packholding as a good place to feed. Dokueki seemed to adore the taste of Inu, at least a dozen had emerged this winter from near the wolf youkai territories and gone for the packs. They had been sent to deal with the problem when this small pack had called on Sesshomaru as Clan Lord for assistance after being decimated by the serpent. To her surprise, Kagome’d learned most Inu youkai were hardly stronger than wolf types, relying on numbers and cunning, not the incredible strength of the House of Inutaisho.
She jumped out of the way as the remaining head went for her, and she hesitated before she used her flameclaw, afraid she’d accidentally come in contact with the poison. She tried to get some distance to use the Hamayami, getting slammed into a snow bank and the rocks beneath it as the serpent lashed out with it’s tail, yelping as the cold wetness penetrated her clothes. It hurt, and helped further shred her outfit, already torn by the day’s fight. If Kagome had still been human, the skin that showed through the rents would be laced with scars now...and she wouldn’t have cared much.
“Sango! Get me some space!” she yelled, clambering out as it tried again, ignoring the pain in her side. It would heal soon enough. At least she was feeling something when she was injured.
“Got it!” Sango had caught her weapon, venomous blood flicking from the edge, and Kirara tried to distract it, giving Kagome a few precious moments to get back and aim. She fired a Hi-ya, taking it in the eye and going through. The creature toppled, twitching as blood and fluids sprayed from the severed body. Everyone dove back as they tried to avoid the toxic remains.
Panting, leaning on her bow, Kagome shivered. She still hated battle, even as it gave her a place to channel her energy. The few Inu left here, mostly the precious females and young, came out of the cavern complex they dwelt in to see their success, and their lead female, an aged but stately one named Lady Atae, approached, hands folded into her sleeves.
“So. You have done well,” she said simply, looking at the two fighters and the neko. She had grave doubts when they saw what their Lord had chosen to send as help, but now, well. Seeing the power of the female hanyou, risking herself for a pack that hadn’t been in favor of her, all in spite of the heart-pain that was so clear, she made a decision. She would honor Lord Sesshomaru’s discrete requests.
“Thank you, Lady Atae,” Kagome managed, ignoring the still forms, Inu and attacker, behind them in the snow. She’d seen too many of them already these last months.
“Come,” she told them, beckoning, leaving the others to deal with the carcass.
***
The old female led them inside the caverns past lairs and common areas, to a small shrine of sorts. Inside was a large chest on a dais, and she bowed to it before she opened it and reached inside.
“Lady Kagome. Your clothes are unfit for wearing. This...is a better choice,” she held out a small pile of clothes, white and green, with a strange weave to them that caught the light and seemed to sparkle.
“What are they?” Kagome looked at them in confusion, they smelled like magic.
“These are made of the hair of the mountain troll. They are very powerful, a treasure of my pack. They will protect you in battle, and once belonged to a powerful priestess who wore them to fight our kind, taken as battle spoils, but they were meant to be used. You are Lead female of the pack of Lord Sesshomaru, full fit to wear them. Accept them with our gratitude and respect.”
“Truly? Who was this Priestess?” Sango asked, fascinated at the fabric, it was like nothing she’d ever seen. Mountain Trolls were legendarily powerful creatures.
“Her name was Sassuma. It was long ago, before even I lived. Will you accept them?” Atae asked Kagome, barely glancing at the tajiya. She was still not pleased a youkai slayer was in her home, to help or not! Sango really couldn’t blame her, equally uncomfortable at being surrounded by suspicious youkai. It was a taste of what Kagome and Inuyasha had had to endure among humans, though, and she accepted that.
“T-thank you. Yes, I...would be honored,” Kagome was shyly pleased, she took them and looked at them closely, it looked like the robes of a fighting priestess, white hakama and a close wrapped kimono in green, with white sleeves. A pair of soft green shoes and a sash were with them.
“I’m not sure they’ll fit, though.”
“They can be altered. Come, we shall see to it,” Atae led them out.
***
They cleaned up, and Kagome was measured and put into a soft, plain kimono as they waited for her new robes. Atae led them to a large, comfortable chamber, her own in the cavern complex. She sat them down and watched Kagome for a time, until the hanyou began to fidget.
“What is it, Lady Atae?” she asked as the Inu sighed. The Lady hadn’t expected to pity her, but Atae did feel it, and decided to speak to it. She was the eldest, most revered female in the Clan, and her Clan Lord, at his wit’s end, had asked her to talk to the hanyou.
“It is that you have the look of the other one, Inuyasha,” Atae told her flatly. Kagome winced at the reminder.
“How do you know? Have you seen him?” she asked softly, a haunted desperation in her eyes. Atae saw her lean forward so eagerly...it was very unfortunate.
“Was there a monk with him?” Sango asked, no less worried. She kept waiting, and hoping, that he’d return to her as she and Kagome held the line against Naraku’s last remnants. It was hard, and in spite of careful, almost fearful searching and questioning, there had been no news anywhere, it was as if the earth had swallowed both Inuyasha and Miroku.
“It was long ago. Over a century now, I believe, and no human was near,” Lady Atae paused. “I am sorry, honored tajiya, that I cannot give better news,” she finished stiffly, as Sango nodded sadly.
“Thank you,” she answered.
“Hm. You see...he was fighting our Clan Lord at the time, and I chose to observe them. As I heard, then, your heart chose him before Lord Sesshomaru made you packmate. You can never be with him again, my Lady. Choose another. Worthy of you and our clan,” the old youkai advised bluntly.
“But-”
“Lady, I know what he did, he would have known there was no way to have you back when he rejected Lord Sesshomaru’s offered alliance. Do not allow yourself to believe otherwise,” Lady Atae rose and frowned.
“But-I love him! How would he know that? If it was innocent-” Kagome tried desperately.
“Myouga instructed him in our ways. I know this, he was my vassal before he served our former Lord and was sent to teach and assist him by Inutaisho’s last commands. I am uncertain the flea did him a favor by helping him survive even after being found unfit. He likely rejected you to gain vengeance of Lord Sesshomaru, and all of the Clan. That one’s anger is great against us all. Not, perhaps, without reason, but a feral outcast he is, and will remain. One with no pack or territory cannot hope to court you, Lady Kagome, nor can you claim him without our Lord‘s consent. The thing is what it is,” the Lady said gravely, believing every word. The Inuyasha she’d observed was much different than the one he’d become with Kagome.
Kagome slumped...it made horrible sense. She couldn’t, wouldn’t turn on her new Clan. She was one of them. Her life was pledged here and their acceptance had been grudging, but it was real. Sesshomaru was dear to her, and Rin, they were family, pack. But Inuyasha, he hadn’t had any of it, ever. Maybe he’d just wanted her to have a pack on his terms, not because he loved her. Maybe...she’d been convenient. Maybe all he’d seen was what he hated when he saw her with her mark. He’d-spit on her. On her Clan and Pack.
That was the day Kagome gave up her last faint hope. He wasn’t coming back.
***
The robes were a wonder. They shielded her nearly as well as the robe of the firerat did Inuyasha, and it came in handy as the winter wore on. There were more youkai, more killing. Sango tried as did Sesshomaru, but they couldn’t keep Kagome from becoming more and more distant as she began to take more chances in combat. She never put them in danger, but one day, everyone knew she would lose her struggle and would be lost if she couldn‘t put him behind her as her own reputation grew...
Rumors about the pair of deadly female fighters Lord Sesshomaru had at his command spread, and even the most far flung youkai clans began to take note. A flea, dining on a tasty lynx youkai heard them in shock. He gathered what scraps of information he could, and planned to get to his master.
***
As the mountain passes cleared, Inuyasha and Miroku closed up his lair, having spent much of their time making preparations for what was to come before heading out. A tiny flea was along for the ride by force. Myouga had finally showed up a month before, and after reporting the rumors, and some planning, his adored young Master made a decision. The little vassal trembled in terror.
“You can’t be serious! Please reconsider!” he begged as he hung onto Inuyasha’s hair.
“You agreed it’s the only way, remember?! And you thought I didn’t listen when you taught me that shit!” Inuyasha barked with a trace of glee as the monk screamed again when they shot across a small ravine. The hanyou’s idea of safe, fast travel was not the same as his! “Will you stop screaming? My Kagome took bigger jumps than that and laughed!”
“She’s as crazy as you! I can‘t believe you talked me into this!” Miroku yelled, clinging to the hanyou’s back in terror.
“Try and run off, and see what happens!”
Author’s notes-I really wish I was better at describing clothing. Kagome’s troll robes are based on the design of the red clad Priestess in the anime ep. ‘The Red and White Priestesses’ in the Tsubaki story arc. I loved those outfits, and decided Kagome needed to end up in something like it.
More on the Hamayami’s attacks- Hi-ya is the proper term for a fire arrow. Shouheki-ya is Barrier, and Arrow. Seirei-ya is Spirit or Soul and Arrow. Won’t say what that one does, it’s for a later chapter. The thumb grip is a eastern archery grip on an arrow, different from the standard western one. The things I look up for a story. It seemed logical to give some of her bow attacks a specific grip, just as the Swords of the Fang have special movements to them. Dokueki? It means venom. Keep those nasties in mind as well. Thanks for reading!-Namiyo’