InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ When We Awaken ❯ Chapter 1: Nemureru Mori no Bijou ( Chapter 1 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Ai Kisugi 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 01.05.2013 | Updated On: 01.06.2013 | Pages: 6 | Words: 8.2K | Visits: 1.2K | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 01.05.2013 | Updated On: 01.06.2013 | Pages: 6 | Words: 8.2K | Visits: 1.2K | Status: Work In Progress
Chapter One: Nemureru Mori no Bijou
Disclaimer: I only use the Inuyasha characters for my own devious purposes. They will be returned (mostly) unharmed when I am done. Inuyasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi and I make no profit from playing with and/or tormenting her characters.
Summary: What if Kagome was a miko who slept for 500 years? What if Inuyasha is a modern day hanyou who accidentally awakens her? Inu/Kag
He could see only low-lying clouds and his highly attuned senses could make nothing else out but wet coldness pressing in against him.
He looked down at himself. For some reason he was not concealed. His silvery hair cascaded down his shoulders and his claws were clearly visible at his fingertips. He was wearing the typical garb that he wore in college: faded, worn jeans and a red t-shirt completed the ensemble.
Inuyasha could only smirk to himself. It was a good thing that he was encased in fog; otherwise he was quite sure that a fellow student would have been terrified to see a dog demon. Right now, the mist was his only means of concealment.
Cautious footfalls fell behind him. He quickly whipped his head around to face whomever was approaching. At first, all he could make out was a dark form in the mist. As it moved even closer, he could see that it was a man, about his height. But he was wearing curious clothes. Unlike his modern garments, this man was wearing a red kimono that might have been worn in ages past. He even had a sword secured to his side, like a samurai of old.
As the figure moved close enough, Inuyasha could only gape in astonishment. It was as if he was looking into a mirror. Before him was an exact facsimile of himself, including his silver hair and white dog-like ears. The only difference was the curious garb.
He saw his own form smirk at him. Then the bastard had the audacity to cross his arms and shift his weight to the side, just as he normally did.
Where one Inuyasha stood stoically and at ease, the other one was rigid with shock.
“Who the hell are you…?” the modern-looking Inuyasha managed to blurt out.
The other Inuyasha, the one wearing a red kimono only offered a sad smile. “You…” was his cryptic answer.
The Inuyasha who was wearing jeans, pressed a hand to his chest. “What the fuck do you mean?!” he bellowed.
The figure before him only cocked his head to the side, as if to understand the person in front of him. “Do you have someone to protect, Inuyasha?”
The modern hanyou felt a tick developing on his forehead. “Stop answering me with more questions!” Inuyasha found this bizarre conversation was getting him increasingly agitated. The man in jeans lunged forward to grab the calmer man wearing the red kimono. “Tell me who the hell…”
Just as his hands were to make contact with the other man, he found the red kimono-clad body disappeared into the mist that surrounded them.
It was like the man had never really been there… “What the fuck?” asked Inuyasha as his hand fisted into the billowing fog.
But it was the man’s last words that echoed in his mind. “Do you have someone to protect, Inuyasha?”
It took him a few moments to realize that he was actually in a tent in the middle of the Chichibu-Tama-Kai National Park. Bundled up in their sleeping bags next to him were his buddies, Miroku and Hojo.
“Fuck,” muttered Inuyasha as he ran a hand over his brow. He needed to ground himself in the present and not the disturbing dream that he had just conjured up. He shook his head and then managed to get himself out of his sleeping bag. He was only wearing his boxers, so he pulled on a discarded red t-shirt and a pair of worn jeans.
He crawled slowly past his compatriots who seemed to be dreaming happily. Miroku was murmuring seductions in his sleep, apparently, the letch never let up. Hojo normally had a goofy grin on his face when he was awake, but asleep the boy seemed serious and pensive.
Inuyasha unzipped the opening to their tent and then closed it behind him. There was no way that he could continue to sleep. He was far too agitated.
Luckily, he hadn’t woken up in the middle of the night. A new day was starting to peek over the horizon, glimmering orange-pink colored the edges of the morning mist, which was peeking through the dense pine forest.
He shook his head and then cracked his neck as he turned it side to side. He stretched his hands far above his head and took in a deep breath of cool, crisp mountain air.
There was something about being in nature that brought out his wilder side. He spent far too much of his time looking like someone he was not. “Fuck this!” he groused as he tugged at a beaded necklace that hung around his neck. With a few whispered words the enchantment fell away, revealing his true self to the morning rays.
Instantly, his body shimmered and morphed. But there was no real transformation. He was simply dropping a glamor spell that made him appear like a normal teenage boy from Japan. But he was far from normal.
Black hair turned dark gray and then into silver. Violet eyes became brown and then golden. White dog-like ears flickered on the top of his head and his long fingers now held claws instead of shortened nails.
He turned to look up at the tops of the forest surrounding him. A fang peeked out from under his lips as he contemplated his next move.
Without a second thought, Inuyasha made a leap high above the forest line. Wind rushed past him making the edges of his red t-shirt and faded jeans whip to and fro, his long silver hair whistling behind him.
He made another jump, landing onto the branch of a tall pine tree. His bare feet gripped the coarse limb. The hanyou smirked and his amber eyes took in the forest around him.
Tall, whispering conifers surrounded him. They reached for the sun, while meandering fog encased their lower limbs. A babbling brook gurgled nearby and he could hear the chirping of birds waking from their early morning slumber.
He really needed this. The clean air... The wild... The chance to be himself…
Most of his life he was stuck pretending to be something he was not. Except for his family and a few close friends, everyone knew of him as ‘Ash,’ a perfectly normal college student attending Tokyo University. Ash could blend into the crowd. He wondered momentarily what his friends or even the few girls he had dated would have thought if they knew he had dog-like ears, claws, fangs and paranormal abilities. He shook his head as if to get rid of that unwelcome thought and then crouched in preparation for another jump.
He never felt truly comfortable in Tokyo. It was too big, too crowded and there were too many people. He could get used to the horrible stench of car exhaust, urine and pollution if he stayed within the metropolis’s confines, but it still made him nauseous.
Inuyasha took another breath of the crisp morning air; then he leaped toward a meadow…
…and landed on what he thought would be solid ground.
The grass and fireweed flowers under his feet crumbled. Wet, mist-shrouded soil gave way and he fell down into the earth.
His back was the first thing to hit solid ground, while dirt continued to sift on top of him.
“Shit!”
Inuyasha managed to push himself away from the continuing pile of soil that was accumulating. He stood up and brushed the dirt from his blue jeans. He turned to look up and saw that he was in some sort of cave. A hole far above his head radiated like a spotlight and revealed the hollow confines of the interior. Remnants of dust swirled in the air like snowflakes. The specks seemed to sparkle in the weak morning light.
A soft glow caught the edge of his eye, causing him to glance behind himself. Further down the cave a faint pink glow emanated.
He turned toward the light source. Inuyasha took one final glance up at the hole in the cave ceiling. He could easily return to the surface.
His brow furrowed in thought. It was odd to see light further down the cave. He could only think that perhaps another hole had formed within the thin cave tunnel. However, too many questions plagued his mind. Why was the glow pink and not the sun’s yellow rays? Brief flashes of jewels and untold treasure drifted into his mind. Perhaps he had seen too many pirate movies recently, but the idea of buried treasure beckoned him and curiosity guided his steps.
The faint light intensified as he walked further down the cave, until he came upon a scene he was not expecting.
He was hoping to find some long dead emperor’s treasure cache, but instead he found a shimmering circle of pink light. Within the glowing circle was a woman who was lying on a raised wooden platform. Along the edges of the sphere, he could see cobwebs that had built up like mist and were wavering in the dim light. An occasional spider scampered about the translucent webbing.
“What the…?”
The girl was still, but from his vantage point he could see the freshness of her skin and the glow of her cheeks. Inuyasha drew closer to examine the strange sleeping woman.
The girl wore miko’s robes and seemed to be resting, as if she had just laid down for a nap. She had long, ebony locks that framed her heart-shaped face, before drifting down her form and ending just above her waist. Long lashes framed her sleeping eyelids. Her outfit was very typical of a shrine miko, red hakama pants and a white haori with billowing sleeves. Clasped in her hands was an ancient samurai sword. The hilt was frayed and the sword had a sheath of black lacquer that showed the weathering of time.
Around her neck was a curious pink orb that pulsed like it had a heartbeat. The colors within the large pearl-like object changed with each beat from white to pink to purple, the glow around the orb fading and intensifying with the gentle thrum that seemed to permeate the cave.
Inuyasha tilted his head to get a better look at the sleeping girl. He could tell that she was lovely. Her face was soft and perfectly formed, her skin creamy and luminous, and her petite body held curves that could even be seen through the folds of her robes.
She was strangely out of place considering her surroundings. There was something mesmerizing about her, something surreal. She seemed more like a spirit than a human being.
Yet, there was something about her that seemed familiar, like the fading edges of a dream that disappeared when you woke. He shook his head and his feet drew him in, even closer. Soon he was right next to the glowing bubble that surrounded her. He should have been wary, but instead he simply put his hand forward as if to rest against the shimmering edge.
He was surprised to see his hand pass through the barrier. He pulled his arm back to look at his errant hand, but he could find nothing wrong. The glowing sphere that surrounded the girl seemed to be only light and not a physical object, though there was a curious accumulation of dust above the glowing orb. With only a shrug his body followed where his hand had been and before he knew it, he was standing above her.
His entire being seemed to be centered on the girl before him. A beautiful girl with no scent... He sniffed the air as if to verify what his keen senses had already told him. It was as if she was not even there.
Perplexity suffused his features. Was she really there? Without a thought he reached down with both hands, clasping the girl’s arms in his own. Then he shook her.
“Oi! Girl. Wake up!”
The girl shook silently, like a ragdoll in front of him. She was very real in his hands. For the briefest of seconds before he had touched her, he had thought that she wasn’t even real. Obviously that theory was incorrect. She wasn’t an insubstantial spirit. He could also tell that she wasn’t dead. There was no rigor mortis. She was limp, like an unconscious girl.
‘Shit! Does she need CPR?’
His eyes widened and his heart started to beat faster. Could she really be awakened? If she had been without air for longer than four minutes she was as good as dead.
He pushed a taloned hand under her neck, arching it to open up her breathing passage. The pad of his thumb somehow made its way to her full lips, touching the pink softness. He shook his head in an effort to clear his thoughts before he leaned down to press his mouth against hers.
For a mere moment he was at peace. He was meant to do this; his lips were meant to mold against hers. Her lips were soft and acquiesced.
The gentle thrum of the pulsing orb about her neck stopped and instead the pulse of her heartbeat took over, propelling her to life. Suddenly, she drew in a sharp intake of breath and her gentle scent suffused the room.
It was at that moment that her wide blue-grey eyes flew open in both terror and surprise. The startled girl drew back in confusion, gaping at Inuyasha.
‘Oh Shit…’ He had the best of intentions; he had only meant to revive the girl. But he looked like a hanyou. His ears drew back in alarm. Surely she was about to scream. He must look like a monster to her. No human other than his family and select friends had ever seen his true form. Even if his mother had always deemed his dog-like ears adorable, he was quite certain that the girl in front of him would have another opinion.
“Inuyasha?” the girl responded with awe in her voice. “It’s you…” she continued with reverence. Then a golden smile drew itself across her features, erasing the terror that he had just seen in her eyes.
He blinked. ‘What the hell? She knows my name?’ “How do you…?” The words he was about to utter died on his lips as the girl before him sat up to draw him into her embrace.
The same lips that he had briefly touched were now against his of their own volition. This time her fingers crept up his neck to fiddle with his long hair before one stray hand started to stroke his dog-like ear. He felt his leg quiver and he wanted to shake it like any pleased dog would have done with a good ear scratching. He had never had a girl stroke his dog-like ears while kissing him before. He quickly realized how much he liked the sensation.
“What…?” he tried to say, but just as he opened his mouth to say the word her clever tongue parted his lips, gaining entrance. He was utterly shocked by her behavior. The girl should be stunned by his appearance and perhaps screaming in alarm. Instead she was kissing him? And she knew his name?
Her lips were warm, wet and desperate. The girl’s tongue swept into his mouth in some sort of a frantic bid to prove that he was a substantial being and that he was with her.
‘Oh fuck…’
Maybe it was the ear rubs, her soft curvaceous body pressed against his torso, or the way she felt so natural in his arms, but he allowed her to continue and growled in approval. Part of him felt guilty for letting her kiss him when she was no more than a stranger to him, but right now he couldn’t find it in himself to care. He reacted, his own tongue joining with hers.
At first she seemed tense in his arms, but once she felt him respond, the hand that had gripped his hair in haste dropped to wrap loosely around his shoulder. Her body then seemed to mold itself to his, her soft form wrapped against his hard planes. Soon her frantic motions slowed and she pulled back, creases of worry evident around her eyes and forehead.
Inuyasha could see tears pooling in her eyes. He could only shake his head and wonder about the bizarre reaction of the mysterious girl in front of him.
“I thought…I thought you had been killed…I saw it,” said the girl with a small, sad smile on her lips. “But it was just a nightmare…” The strange girl before him heaved a sigh of relief and hugged him again. “Oh Kami, what a horrible nightmare!” She choked on her last words and fell into a sobbing mess on his shoulder.
He patted her shoulder awkwardly. He never had any idea about how to handle crying females. Especially not crying females that he had never met before, who had just declared that they thought he had died! ‘Crazy wench!’
The girl pulled away from him; she sniffed and then brought up one billowing sleeve to wipe her face. Tears stained the white fabric. She hiccupped as she peered over at Inuyasha. Her sad smile grew again and now he could see a hopeful grin blossom on her face.
All he could do was look at her with abject befuddlement. “What are you talking about?” he demanded with confusion.
She looked up at him for a moment, mirroring his bewilderment, before she smiled and continued. “It was just a nightmare, Inuyasha. I’m sorry if I caused you to worry.”
“But…” he stammered trying to find any coherence from the last few minutes. “But how do you know my name?”
The miko turned to look at him with puzzlement on her features. “What do you mean? Of course, I know your name.” She then laughed as if this was some sort of silly joke. “I’ve known you for the last two years of my life.” Then she paused and he could only take in a breath as he looked at long black lashes that opened to look at him, revealing the most gorgeous grey-blue eyes he had ever seen. “How could I ever forget you, Inuyasha?”
The hanyou swallowed. Part of him felt bad for what he was about to say, but he didn’t see any way around it. “But I’ve never met you before…” The sentence was a statement, but the lilt in his voice almost made it sound like a question.
The girl looked up at him in confusion. Her face was shaking left and right. “But Inuyasha, we have been together for the past two years. We were fighting demons…” She paused when she saw that the words had no effect on the man in front of her. “You know…the demons who wanted the Shikon Jewel?” She clenched the pearl-like jewel that hung around her neck and looked at it in confusion. The once pulsating pearl-like object now wore a dull off-white sheen.
Inuyasha’s ears only swiveled in confusion. “What are you talking about, wench?”
The girl before him drew in a sharp breath and seemed to be on the verge of hyperventilating. “Wench! You’re calling me WENCH, again! My name is Kagome. Ka-Go-Me!”
Inuyasha drew back. “Hey, it’s not like we ever met before, wench.”
Her chest was heaving as she spoke. “You do know me! I said my name is Kagome!”
He raised his hands up in apparent defeat. “OK. Now how in the hell do you know my name?” Then after a moment’s pause he pointed to the dog-like ears on the top of his head. “And why in the hell are you not freaked out by me?”
Her eyes widened at his interrogations. Sadness crept over her features. “You don’t remember me, do you Inuyasha?”
“No…I…”
Her stormy grey eyes found his again and he found that he couldn’t speak coherently. She took in another cleansing breath, squared her shoulders and faced him directly. Her tone brooked no argument. “You’re obviously under a spell. Maybe a demon or a witch did this to you.” She nodded her head as if to convince herself of the validity of what she had said.
“A demon…a witch…what? I’m not under a spell!” he protested.
She turned a level gaze at him. “Yes, you are Inuyasha. And what is with your strange clothes?” she asked while she gestured at his clothing with a look of perplexity on her face.
He could only step back in confusion. “Strange? What the hell? So my ears aren’t strange, but my clothes are?”
The girl seemed flabbergasted. “Yes!” she barked out while motioning to his head. “You’ve always had those cute ears.” Then she mumbled to herself. “It was the first thing that drew me to you…”
“What?” Inuyasha looked at the miko in front of him as if she was delusional.
Kagome sighed and moved to get off of the platform she had been lying on. Then the mangled sword that had been in her hands clanged as it hit the packed earth and stone of the cave.
The girl knelt forward and picked up the errant equipment and handed it to Inuyasha. “Here’s your Tessaiga.”
“My what…?” He drew the battered sword from its sheath and stared at it in puzzlement. “Why in the hell would I want a piece of crap like this?”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “I guess it stands to reason that if you forgot me, you’d also forget your beloved Tessaiga.”
Inuyasha snorted. “Beloved? Why the hell would I love this piece of shit?”
She only shook her head while she reached for a quiver of arrows and a bow that had been placed near the edge of the platform. The quiver was made of leather and though it had seen better days, it swung over her shoulders as if it was meant to be there. The bow quickly followed before the bowstring snapped in her hands.
The girl looked down in confusion. “I had just re-strung this bow a week ago.” She looked up at the hanyou before her. “How long have I been sleeping, Inuyasha?”
Inuyasha just looked at her in puzzlement. “How the hell would I know!? Ouch!” He stopped his tirade once the bizarre miko started to pull strands of his hair. “What the fuck, wench?!”
The girl only rolled her eyes as she took a few strands of his long hair and wove them into a fine braid. “Ka-Go-Me…” she replied as if she was talking to a small child.
“Fine! Now why in the hell did you take my hair…”
His words stopped once he saw that she was now re-stringing her bow with his own hair. “Hanyou hair is virtually indestructible, except for your human night…” she reasoned.
Now it was the time for his eyes to widen. “How in the hell did you know that I had a human night?”
She turned to him again. But as she looked him in the eye, it wasn’t in anger, but muted sadness. “I told you that I know you, Inuyasha. When are you going to believe me?”
The boy before her opened and closed his mouth a few times, like a fish out of water.
When Kagome saw that he was too mystified to respond, she sighed and then picked up a small crimson bundle that was also resting on the platform.
The strange girl rubbed the coarse looking fabric with a look of melancholy and then offered the small parcel to him. “Here…” she said as she offered it to him.
He could only shake his head. ‘First a damaged, old samurai sword and now this…?’ “What is this, wench?”
The miko only looked more forlorn as she brought the red garment to her breast. She closed her eyes and then breathed deeply again, stopping to look at him directly in the eyes. Grey-blue met golden and she spoke with detached reverence. “This was your father’s. Made of the hair of a fire rat.”
Inuyasha gaped for a second. His eyebrow twitched before he let out a belly laugh. “What the hell? A robe of the fire rat…? What is next? Is there a Princess Kaguya that I am supposed to compete for?
For once, Inuyasha believed he was just the butt of a silly joke. Something his friends had concocted to mess with him on this camping trip. So far, he had never seen such an elaborate ruse. But he wouldn’t put it past his perverted buddy.
“What, did Miroku put you up to this?” He laughed as he pointed to the robe. “There is no way that I’ll ever put that on.
He stopped laughing and his eyes started to harden. He walked toward the miko, his stance stiff, and his facial expression bordering on hate. “And what do you get out of this, wench? Did you think it was funny to play a prank on a hanyou?”
The only thing that stopped him was that tears started to well up in the corner of her eyes. Her entire demeanor seemed to shatter. Then she took a breath and looked at him with an intense longing that his instincts told him was no act.
Her eyes found his again. “I would never do that to you, Inuyasha.” She turned to tug nervously at her hem, then looked at him again. “If you could only remember you would know that…”
He shook his head. He wanted to believe, yet disbelieve what his senses were telling him. The girl seemed so genuine. But her story was too odd to be believed. If this wasn’t some sort of prank, then was the girl crazy?
He looked at her again, trying to get a read on her eyes, trying to see a glimpse of insanity. They held the color of a sea storm and he felt lost in her sincere and disquieted gaze.
He must be losing his own senses, because he was starting to believe her drivel. He looked at the red fabric that she put in a pocket of her robe. Apparently, she had given up on him accepting it as easily as he did the battered sword. When she looked back up at him, there was red lining her eyelids, but she also held a steady resolve. Her face became a mask of placidity and somewhere deep inside of him, he hated it.
She brushed on past him. “How do we get out of here, Inuyasha?”
“Now wait a second,” Inuyasha cried as he tried to take command of a situation that seemed to be spiraling out of his control. But Kagome was already moving forward toward the light from his earlier cave-in. She stopped with determination under the gentle spotlight, before turning to her companion.
She gave Inuyasha a small shrug and a half-smile. “I don’t suppose that you could give me a ride up?”
“Ride?” asked Inuyasha in confusion.
“Can you please kneel?” asked the miko as she moved her quiver and bow behind her back.
“What…uh…sure,” answered the befuddled hanyou as he knelt down on the ground next to her.
He was quickly shocked to find the strange girl climbing onto his back for an apparent piggyback ride. “What the hell wench, do you always kiss and get on the backs of everyone you meet?”
Inuyasha could only hear the girl sigh. “No. I only do this to cute and rude Inuhanyous.”
“What…I,” Inuyasha was taken aback by her last comment. He didn’t know whether to be amused by her admission that he was cute or annoyed at her declaration that he was rude. But there was something in the back of his mind that reasoned that she was close to the mark with her evaluation of him. “Keh…Fine.” He decided that he didn’t want to argue with the girl about this. Whether or not she had kissed him, he would have still tried to help her out of the cave.
Inuyasha stood up and with one quick leap they moved up and out of the cave. Soon the duo were back in the open meadow, tall pine trees looking down at them from the grassy edge. Once again, he was conscious of her form against him. Her petite body was cradled next to his, her legs wrapped around his waist, his arms under her thighs.
It almost unnerved him when an errant thought told him to keep her nestled on his back. He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. His hands fell away from the miko and the girl dropped unceremoniously to the grassy land.
Unlike Inuyasha, she didn’t seem unsettled by their recent bouts of closeness. She was adjusting her bow and quiver of arrows once more before she addressed him.
“Can you get me to the Musashi-Mitake Shrine?” Kagome asked while looking up at the perplexed hanyou.
Confusion edged at his features. “Yes, but why…?”
“Kaede-sama works there. She’ll be able to help me get rid of the spell that you are under.”
“What the hell, wench? I am not under any spell…!” Inuyasha turned to grab at the miko, catching her robe. The girl pulled back and was unbalanced. Her body swayed and was about to unceremoniously hit the ground. Before Inuyasha knew what had happened his hands were firmly around her slim waist, his eyes staring into hers, their chests touching. He could feel the nervous thumping of her heart as her bosom was pressed up against his chest. His own blood drummed in his veins.
He didn’t understand what was happening, or why he felt drawn to this infuriating woman. But his eyes found her red lips and all he could think about was the way she had kissed him only minutes before.
Rosebud lips opened in question and he found himself licking his lips in response. A gentle blush suffused her features and dark lashes concealed her eyes before she turned her face to look at him. He became lost in her stormy grey eyes. He found his arms were gripping her tighter to him.
A roar shattered their tranquility and he found himself blinking before gently setting the stunned miko aright.
A billowing fog started to settle in the area, disturbing the mid-morning sunlight. Grayness settled over the land. Suddenly, the birds were no longer chirping.
Inuyasha had learned long ago to obey his instincts, and now for some bizarre reason the hair on his body seemed to be standing on end, like he had a brush with static electricity.
A large creature was slithering at the edge of the forest. The blackened mass quivered and wavered before moving closer, dark fog following it.
It was then that he noticed that the fog was some sort of poisonous gas. As it touched the surrounding trees, the branches withered and the animals were silenced.
Something deep inside was yelling at him to run or fight. He hadn’t made the decision when Kagome made it for him.
“Shick.” Inuyasha heard Kagome draw an arrow to her bow.
When he turned he was astounded to see the girl stand beside him, her miko’s robes fluttering in the wind and her dark hair drawn behind her, her grey-blue eyes focused on a pattern in the landscape far away. Her bow was drawn taut and her arrow seemed to glow like white-fire; her face held the concentration of a warrior that had been called to battle. Was this the very girl who had been crying in his arms minutes ago?
She took one sliding step forward, blocking Inuyasha with her own body. “Get behind me,” she muttered.
“What the hell? I don’t need protecting…I” Protested Inuyasha as he moved to shove the girl behind him.
Just as he pushed her aside, her arrow left her string, blue flame zinging toward her target. The arrow arched high into the air before landing in a cacophonous blaze of spiritual fire.
His eyes widened at the sight, his golden eyes reflecting the flickering flames. Whatever this girl was, she wasn’t normal. Though, for that matter, neither was he. He shook his head; he had always felt alone with his unique hanyou abilities. He had never known anyone who didn’t have demon blood that had paranormal abilities. Now here was a girl, by his side, who was just that. Unbidden, he smirked. It felt nice to be with someone else who was far from normal. Next to her, his dog-like ears, claws and fangs seemed almost natural.
His musings were quickly pushed aside as she yelled at him, “Use your Tessaiga, Inuyasha!”
“My what?”
“Your sword, hold it before you!”
He tried to pull the damaged sword from its sheath. But the dull blade only reflected his face and the gray skies above him.
“Now what?”
He could almost swear that he heard the miko curse before she yelled at him. “Slice the air with it in front of you and yell ‘Wind Scar’!”
Inuyasha arched an eyebrow at her odd command. He pulled the beat up sword in front of him and tried to wave it around like a wizard’s wand. “Wind Scar,” he muttered as if he was reciting an incantation.
“What are you doing?” yelled Kagome as she drew another arrow.
“Hell if I know,” answered Inuyasha. “This sword is a fucking dud.”
“Kami,” Kagome cried. “Of all the times for you to forget how to use your Tessaiga!” She aimed another arrow at the offending target. “I only have three more arrows left Inuyasha. You have got to remember how to use your sword.”
The stoic miko aimed her bow at a form wavering in the nearby woods. Before the arrow was loosed, it became engulfed with white fire. “Whoosh.” The arrow left her bow, the string still vibrating in her hand. The missile shot true zipping through the air before hitting a large slithering object that screamed as it was hit.
“This sword is nothing but a dull blade. You’re delusional, wench.”
The girl simply yelled back at him. “Is this attack a delusion?” He saw the wavering form in front of him lash out, long tentacles spouting out and shooting at them.
“Dammit!” He wasn’t thinking; his body seemed to take over as he grabbed Kagome and swept her up, throwing her on his back. Then in the same fluid movement, he was leaping toward the sky and away from the attacker. With a few leaps he had managed to put quite a distance between the two of them and the enemy. For a brief moment, he enjoyed his respite, pulling the miko from his back and clinging her fast against his chest.
The tranquility was short-lived. Waving tentacles, like a leviathan shot up at them again. One appendage tried to wrap itself around Inuyasha’s sword arm. Luckily for him, Kagome managed to stab at it with her arrow, as soon as the spiritual force that resided in her arrows touched the blackened creature, it roared in pain, rearing up and pushing itself back.
“Shit, you’re handy with those arrows,” was all Inuyasha could reply.
“And I’m running out of them,” muttered Kagome as she looked meaningfully to her emptying quiver. There were only two arrows left.
“Fuck!” Inuaysha cried out as he dodged another round of flailing tentacles and leapt to a nearby pine tree. For only a brief second he was able to catch his breath before the tree underneath him shook. He saw a rising miasma of gray fog enveloping the base of the tree with long blackened tendrils wavering up the tree trunk.
Nowhere was safe. He held Kagome against his back with one hand while he tried to leap in a large arch away from this battle. He could only gape as he saw Kagome not only aim her arrow while he was moving, but managed to shoot one while riding on his back.
White flames arose from just behind his ear to flicker. The holy arrow was released, almost in slow motion, spinning toward its target, a glowing white blaze. It created a trail of fire arching across the sky before it leapt at the darkness lingering below. Whatever was below them shrieked as it was engulfed in plasma. Long appendages that looked like the dark arms of a squid, were instantly burned, turned into a single column of ash that puffed away into nothing as the wind blew.
Whatever was there was hurt, but he could still hear it moving below.
The miko at his back drew her final arrow. He was mindful that it was her very last one.
He could barely make out Kagome’s features since she was on his back, but he was amazed to hear no protests or screams. He could only make out her steady breaths and her rigid form.
Whoever this girl was, she had done this before and she was good at it. His eyebrows puckered in confusion. It was galling him to his very core to have a girl fighting for him. He needed to do something. He couldn’t just let a mere human girl upstage him in battle.
Another leap and they were both far away from the bizarre demon that had attacked them. He quickly dropped Kagome on a limb of a very tall conifer before he jumped down to face his target.
He heard her protests as he left her behind. “Inuyasha, we need to work together…this is no time to…”
He could only snort. ‘Work with a wench?’ Well, for a human wench she was actually pretty formidable, but there was no way he was ever going to tell her that. Never mind that he felt completely emasculated by what she had done so far. He landed on the ground on all fours. Only his right arm was raised, as he flexed his claws. He immediately fell into a coughing fit. Whatever was in this air, it was putrid. It was like breathing in gaseous acid. It hurt to take in air.
His eyes widened noticeably as he considered what this would do to a mere human. As if to answer the question, he saw the remains of a dead bird flutter to the ground next to him before it dissolved into a decaying mess in front of his eyes.
“Shit!” He had to take this thing down before it got to the miko. She wouldn’t be able to survive something like this. At that thought something in his chest clenched in fear. He scoffed in irritation at the idea and tried to discard the unwelcome emotion.
He heard something slithering up to him before he saw it. Dark fumes obscured his vision, like the billowing smoke of an oil fire.
He could hear a faint chuckling; it was really a hoarse laughter that reverberated through the trees. It seemed alien, inhuman.
“Inuyasha…” the creature intoned with a thick voice.
‘What the fuck? It knows my name as well?’
“Thank you for waking her. I will reward you with this…”
Tentacles swept out toward him and it was only his well-honed instincts that let him leap off the ground before they smacked into the ground where he had just been squatting. They tore into the dirt, ripping grass and roots from the soil.
He fell backwards, and was almost able to control his fall. But he wavered just for a second and an errant tentacle slammed against him, drawing blood. He tasted the salty, red liquid on his lips and managed to spit it out. He tried to ignore the dull pain in his midsection and the dark viscous fluid that was soaking the front of his shirt.
A long forgotten instinct called out to him. He dipped his own claws into the blood covering his chest. The pang of ripping his flesh was only a momentary distraction. Despite the pain, he felt alive. His reddened claws, dripping with his lifeblood were flung at his opponent.
Red-black liquid sliced through the air before landing on the leviathan in front of him. His blood fell like acid blades against the demons skin, carving off long tendrils that quivered on the ground. Blackened blood oozed out of the demon’s wounds, but it only seemed to further enrage the monster.
The creature seemed to have trouble catching its breath as it bellowed. “I killed you once before. I can do so again!”
‘What the hell…? No one can die twice…’
The demon’s strange words were a distraction, but not one that Inuyasha could afford. Just as he was trying to figure out their meaning, one of the tendrils that he had sliced off had managed to creep behind him and speared him in the gut.
Sickening pain lodged within him, blood gushed out of his mouth and he looked down. He saw a black, rubber-like tendril squirming out of the front of his stomach, like an alien being birthed from his insides.
His eyesight was starting to fog over. Black dots obscured his reddened vision. With what little energy he had left, he managed to slice the errant tentacle from his stomach, leaving a gaping hole of rendered flesh and dripping life fluid.
His knees buckled underneath him and he fell to the ground, as if in prayer.
The thing in front of him only laughed manically. Then the monster spoke in low and bitter tones. “As I said half-breed, I killed you once and I can do so again…”
There was no fight left in Inuyasha. He coughed up more blood. It spewed onto the wilted green blades of grass in front of him.
Inuyasha barely heard the miko’s voice. It came from somewhere behind him. “Not while I’m around…”
Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard the ‘Whoosh’ of her final arrow as it flew into the sky and honed in on the startled demon in front of him.
He could barely make out the spiritual fire that lit up the air all around him. The blackened air that surrounded him was suddenly obliterated by white light. And somewhere in the dim recesses of his mind, he heard the screams of a demon. But then there was only blackness…
End of Chapter One
Author's Notes:
#1: ‘Nemureru Mori no Bijou’ is Japanese for ‘Sleeping Beauty.’
#2: Princess Kaguya or ‘the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter’ is a Japanese Legend where the princess Kaguya (of the Moon people) gives her would-be suitors impossible tasks. One task is to bring her the robe of the fire rat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter
#3: The Musashi-Mitake Shrine was established 2,000 years ago, so it was around when Kagome fell into her magic sleep and it is still used today.
#4: I bet you thought I would have Inuyasha kiss Kagome like the Prince in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. Pffftt…! This is Inuyasha we are talking about… :-)
#5: In this story, Kagome will have some Kikyo-like traits since she was raised as a miko from birth. She will still be the emotional teenager that we all know and love, however she’ll just have a little more refinement and skills than canon Kagome. Inuyasha will also have a few changes to his personality based on circumstances. He lives in the modern day, has never been orphaned and he has also been coddled, unlike our feudal Inuyasha.
#6: Inspirations for this story came from Inuyasha, Sleeping Beauty, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, ‘Urashima Tarô,’ a little from the ‘Lady of the Lake’ from ‘Le Mort d’Arthur’ and of course, my own wicked imagination.
#7: What I am currently reading: Behind the Silk Screen by eien-no-basho. If you haven’t read this fantastically crafted piece of fan fiction yet, you are missing out. Highly recommended!#8: Sorry, MediaMiner fans. I tried to upload this file so many times and I had tons of problems. Finally, SplendentGoddess told me to copy and paste the text of the MS Word file into WordPad and save as an .RTF. (Apparently, RTF in Word isn't really an RTF!) If this actually looks good, you can thank SG! ;-)
Disclaimer: I only use the Inuyasha characters for my own devious purposes. They will be returned (mostly) unharmed when I am done. Inuyasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi and I make no profit from playing with and/or tormenting her characters.
Summary: What if Kagome was a miko who slept for 500 years? What if Inuyasha is a modern day hanyou who accidentally awakens her? Inu/Kag
Warning: Some swearing (mainly by Inuyasha), some violence and a kiss.~~~oo0oo~~~Special thanks to my awesome and talented betas: Kmoaton, Alpine, and SplendentGoddess~~~oo0oo~~~Karaumea, SplendentGoddess and Eggry were wonderful in helping me to brainstorm this story. They all made suggestions and helped me to shape the plot that you are about to read. Even though this is not a collaboration piece, I was certainly helped and guided by these lovely ladies!~~~oo0oo~~~ ‘Thinking’“Speaking”~~~oo0oo~~~
Gray fog surrounded Inuyasha. He turned around and tried to ascertain where he was and what he was doing.He could see only low-lying clouds and his highly attuned senses could make nothing else out but wet coldness pressing in against him.
He looked down at himself. For some reason he was not concealed. His silvery hair cascaded down his shoulders and his claws were clearly visible at his fingertips. He was wearing the typical garb that he wore in college: faded, worn jeans and a red t-shirt completed the ensemble.
Inuyasha could only smirk to himself. It was a good thing that he was encased in fog; otherwise he was quite sure that a fellow student would have been terrified to see a dog demon. Right now, the mist was his only means of concealment.
Cautious footfalls fell behind him. He quickly whipped his head around to face whomever was approaching. At first, all he could make out was a dark form in the mist. As it moved even closer, he could see that it was a man, about his height. But he was wearing curious clothes. Unlike his modern garments, this man was wearing a red kimono that might have been worn in ages past. He even had a sword secured to his side, like a samurai of old.
As the figure moved close enough, Inuyasha could only gape in astonishment. It was as if he was looking into a mirror. Before him was an exact facsimile of himself, including his silver hair and white dog-like ears. The only difference was the curious garb.
He saw his own form smirk at him. Then the bastard had the audacity to cross his arms and shift his weight to the side, just as he normally did.
Where one Inuyasha stood stoically and at ease, the other one was rigid with shock.
“Who the hell are you…?” the modern-looking Inuyasha managed to blurt out.
The other Inuyasha, the one wearing a red kimono only offered a sad smile. “You…” was his cryptic answer.
The Inuyasha who was wearing jeans, pressed a hand to his chest. “What the fuck do you mean?!” he bellowed.
The figure before him only cocked his head to the side, as if to understand the person in front of him. “Do you have someone to protect, Inuyasha?”
The modern hanyou felt a tick developing on his forehead. “Stop answering me with more questions!” Inuyasha found this bizarre conversation was getting him increasingly agitated. The man in jeans lunged forward to grab the calmer man wearing the red kimono. “Tell me who the hell…”
Just as his hands were to make contact with the other man, he found the red kimono-clad body disappeared into the mist that surrounded them.
It was like the man had never really been there… “What the fuck?” asked Inuyasha as his hand fisted into the billowing fog.
But it was the man’s last words that echoed in his mind. “Do you have someone to protect, Inuyasha?”
~~~oo0oo~~~
Inuyasha bolted awake, his body lunging forward with a jerk, his heart racing. A thin sheen of sweat made his skin look almost translucent. His long black hair clung to the dampness around his shoulders and chest; his violet eyes took in his surroundings.It took him a few moments to realize that he was actually in a tent in the middle of the Chichibu-Tama-Kai National Park. Bundled up in their sleeping bags next to him were his buddies, Miroku and Hojo.
“Fuck,” muttered Inuyasha as he ran a hand over his brow. He needed to ground himself in the present and not the disturbing dream that he had just conjured up. He shook his head and then managed to get himself out of his sleeping bag. He was only wearing his boxers, so he pulled on a discarded red t-shirt and a pair of worn jeans.
He crawled slowly past his compatriots who seemed to be dreaming happily. Miroku was murmuring seductions in his sleep, apparently, the letch never let up. Hojo normally had a goofy grin on his face when he was awake, but asleep the boy seemed serious and pensive.
Inuyasha unzipped the opening to their tent and then closed it behind him. There was no way that he could continue to sleep. He was far too agitated.
Luckily, he hadn’t woken up in the middle of the night. A new day was starting to peek over the horizon, glimmering orange-pink colored the edges of the morning mist, which was peeking through the dense pine forest.
He shook his head and then cracked his neck as he turned it side to side. He stretched his hands far above his head and took in a deep breath of cool, crisp mountain air.
There was something about being in nature that brought out his wilder side. He spent far too much of his time looking like someone he was not. “Fuck this!” he groused as he tugged at a beaded necklace that hung around his neck. With a few whispered words the enchantment fell away, revealing his true self to the morning rays.
Instantly, his body shimmered and morphed. But there was no real transformation. He was simply dropping a glamor spell that made him appear like a normal teenage boy from Japan. But he was far from normal.
Black hair turned dark gray and then into silver. Violet eyes became brown and then golden. White dog-like ears flickered on the top of his head and his long fingers now held claws instead of shortened nails.
He turned to look up at the tops of the forest surrounding him. A fang peeked out from under his lips as he contemplated his next move.
Without a second thought, Inuyasha made a leap high above the forest line. Wind rushed past him making the edges of his red t-shirt and faded jeans whip to and fro, his long silver hair whistling behind him.
He made another jump, landing onto the branch of a tall pine tree. His bare feet gripped the coarse limb. The hanyou smirked and his amber eyes took in the forest around him.
Tall, whispering conifers surrounded him. They reached for the sun, while meandering fog encased their lower limbs. A babbling brook gurgled nearby and he could hear the chirping of birds waking from their early morning slumber.
He really needed this. The clean air... The wild... The chance to be himself…
Most of his life he was stuck pretending to be something he was not. Except for his family and a few close friends, everyone knew of him as ‘Ash,’ a perfectly normal college student attending Tokyo University. Ash could blend into the crowd. He wondered momentarily what his friends or even the few girls he had dated would have thought if they knew he had dog-like ears, claws, fangs and paranormal abilities. He shook his head as if to get rid of that unwelcome thought and then crouched in preparation for another jump.
He never felt truly comfortable in Tokyo. It was too big, too crowded and there were too many people. He could get used to the horrible stench of car exhaust, urine and pollution if he stayed within the metropolis’s confines, but it still made him nauseous.
Inuyasha took another breath of the crisp morning air; then he leaped toward a meadow…
…and landed on what he thought would be solid ground.
The grass and fireweed flowers under his feet crumbled. Wet, mist-shrouded soil gave way and he fell down into the earth.
His back was the first thing to hit solid ground, while dirt continued to sift on top of him.
“Shit!”
Inuyasha managed to push himself away from the continuing pile of soil that was accumulating. He stood up and brushed the dirt from his blue jeans. He turned to look up and saw that he was in some sort of cave. A hole far above his head radiated like a spotlight and revealed the hollow confines of the interior. Remnants of dust swirled in the air like snowflakes. The specks seemed to sparkle in the weak morning light.
A soft glow caught the edge of his eye, causing him to glance behind himself. Further down the cave a faint pink glow emanated.
He turned toward the light source. Inuyasha took one final glance up at the hole in the cave ceiling. He could easily return to the surface.
His brow furrowed in thought. It was odd to see light further down the cave. He could only think that perhaps another hole had formed within the thin cave tunnel. However, too many questions plagued his mind. Why was the glow pink and not the sun’s yellow rays? Brief flashes of jewels and untold treasure drifted into his mind. Perhaps he had seen too many pirate movies recently, but the idea of buried treasure beckoned him and curiosity guided his steps.
The faint light intensified as he walked further down the cave, until he came upon a scene he was not expecting.
He was hoping to find some long dead emperor’s treasure cache, but instead he found a shimmering circle of pink light. Within the glowing circle was a woman who was lying on a raised wooden platform. Along the edges of the sphere, he could see cobwebs that had built up like mist and were wavering in the dim light. An occasional spider scampered about the translucent webbing.
“What the…?”
The girl was still, but from his vantage point he could see the freshness of her skin and the glow of her cheeks. Inuyasha drew closer to examine the strange sleeping woman.
The girl wore miko’s robes and seemed to be resting, as if she had just laid down for a nap. She had long, ebony locks that framed her heart-shaped face, before drifting down her form and ending just above her waist. Long lashes framed her sleeping eyelids. Her outfit was very typical of a shrine miko, red hakama pants and a white haori with billowing sleeves. Clasped in her hands was an ancient samurai sword. The hilt was frayed and the sword had a sheath of black lacquer that showed the weathering of time.
Around her neck was a curious pink orb that pulsed like it had a heartbeat. The colors within the large pearl-like object changed with each beat from white to pink to purple, the glow around the orb fading and intensifying with the gentle thrum that seemed to permeate the cave.
Inuyasha tilted his head to get a better look at the sleeping girl. He could tell that she was lovely. Her face was soft and perfectly formed, her skin creamy and luminous, and her petite body held curves that could even be seen through the folds of her robes.
She was strangely out of place considering her surroundings. There was something mesmerizing about her, something surreal. She seemed more like a spirit than a human being.
Yet, there was something about her that seemed familiar, like the fading edges of a dream that disappeared when you woke. He shook his head and his feet drew him in, even closer. Soon he was right next to the glowing bubble that surrounded her. He should have been wary, but instead he simply put his hand forward as if to rest against the shimmering edge.
He was surprised to see his hand pass through the barrier. He pulled his arm back to look at his errant hand, but he could find nothing wrong. The glowing sphere that surrounded the girl seemed to be only light and not a physical object, though there was a curious accumulation of dust above the glowing orb. With only a shrug his body followed where his hand had been and before he knew it, he was standing above her.
His entire being seemed to be centered on the girl before him. A beautiful girl with no scent... He sniffed the air as if to verify what his keen senses had already told him. It was as if she was not even there.
Perplexity suffused his features. Was she really there? Without a thought he reached down with both hands, clasping the girl’s arms in his own. Then he shook her.
“Oi! Girl. Wake up!”
The girl shook silently, like a ragdoll in front of him. She was very real in his hands. For the briefest of seconds before he had touched her, he had thought that she wasn’t even real. Obviously that theory was incorrect. She wasn’t an insubstantial spirit. He could also tell that she wasn’t dead. There was no rigor mortis. She was limp, like an unconscious girl.
‘Shit! Does she need CPR?’
His eyes widened and his heart started to beat faster. Could she really be awakened? If she had been without air for longer than four minutes she was as good as dead.
He pushed a taloned hand under her neck, arching it to open up her breathing passage. The pad of his thumb somehow made its way to her full lips, touching the pink softness. He shook his head in an effort to clear his thoughts before he leaned down to press his mouth against hers.
For a mere moment he was at peace. He was meant to do this; his lips were meant to mold against hers. Her lips were soft and acquiesced.
The gentle thrum of the pulsing orb about her neck stopped and instead the pulse of her heartbeat took over, propelling her to life. Suddenly, she drew in a sharp intake of breath and her gentle scent suffused the room.
It was at that moment that her wide blue-grey eyes flew open in both terror and surprise. The startled girl drew back in confusion, gaping at Inuyasha.
‘Oh Shit…’ He had the best of intentions; he had only meant to revive the girl. But he looked like a hanyou. His ears drew back in alarm. Surely she was about to scream. He must look like a monster to her. No human other than his family and select friends had ever seen his true form. Even if his mother had always deemed his dog-like ears adorable, he was quite certain that the girl in front of him would have another opinion.
“Inuyasha?” the girl responded with awe in her voice. “It’s you…” she continued with reverence. Then a golden smile drew itself across her features, erasing the terror that he had just seen in her eyes.
He blinked. ‘What the hell? She knows my name?’ “How do you…?” The words he was about to utter died on his lips as the girl before him sat up to draw him into her embrace.
The same lips that he had briefly touched were now against his of their own volition. This time her fingers crept up his neck to fiddle with his long hair before one stray hand started to stroke his dog-like ear. He felt his leg quiver and he wanted to shake it like any pleased dog would have done with a good ear scratching. He had never had a girl stroke his dog-like ears while kissing him before. He quickly realized how much he liked the sensation.
“What…?” he tried to say, but just as he opened his mouth to say the word her clever tongue parted his lips, gaining entrance. He was utterly shocked by her behavior. The girl should be stunned by his appearance and perhaps screaming in alarm. Instead she was kissing him? And she knew his name?
Her lips were warm, wet and desperate. The girl’s tongue swept into his mouth in some sort of a frantic bid to prove that he was a substantial being and that he was with her.
‘Oh fuck…’
Maybe it was the ear rubs, her soft curvaceous body pressed against his torso, or the way she felt so natural in his arms, but he allowed her to continue and growled in approval. Part of him felt guilty for letting her kiss him when she was no more than a stranger to him, but right now he couldn’t find it in himself to care. He reacted, his own tongue joining with hers.
At first she seemed tense in his arms, but once she felt him respond, the hand that had gripped his hair in haste dropped to wrap loosely around his shoulder. Her body then seemed to mold itself to his, her soft form wrapped against his hard planes. Soon her frantic motions slowed and she pulled back, creases of worry evident around her eyes and forehead.
Inuyasha could see tears pooling in her eyes. He could only shake his head and wonder about the bizarre reaction of the mysterious girl in front of him.
“I thought…I thought you had been killed…I saw it,” said the girl with a small, sad smile on her lips. “But it was just a nightmare…” The strange girl before him heaved a sigh of relief and hugged him again. “Oh Kami, what a horrible nightmare!” She choked on her last words and fell into a sobbing mess on his shoulder.
He patted her shoulder awkwardly. He never had any idea about how to handle crying females. Especially not crying females that he had never met before, who had just declared that they thought he had died! ‘Crazy wench!’
The girl pulled away from him; she sniffed and then brought up one billowing sleeve to wipe her face. Tears stained the white fabric. She hiccupped as she peered over at Inuyasha. Her sad smile grew again and now he could see a hopeful grin blossom on her face.
All he could do was look at her with abject befuddlement. “What are you talking about?” he demanded with confusion.
She looked up at him for a moment, mirroring his bewilderment, before she smiled and continued. “It was just a nightmare, Inuyasha. I’m sorry if I caused you to worry.”
“But…” he stammered trying to find any coherence from the last few minutes. “But how do you know my name?”
The miko turned to look at him with puzzlement on her features. “What do you mean? Of course, I know your name.” She then laughed as if this was some sort of silly joke. “I’ve known you for the last two years of my life.” Then she paused and he could only take in a breath as he looked at long black lashes that opened to look at him, revealing the most gorgeous grey-blue eyes he had ever seen. “How could I ever forget you, Inuyasha?”
The hanyou swallowed. Part of him felt bad for what he was about to say, but he didn’t see any way around it. “But I’ve never met you before…” The sentence was a statement, but the lilt in his voice almost made it sound like a question.
The girl looked up at him in confusion. Her face was shaking left and right. “But Inuyasha, we have been together for the past two years. We were fighting demons…” She paused when she saw that the words had no effect on the man in front of her. “You know…the demons who wanted the Shikon Jewel?” She clenched the pearl-like jewel that hung around her neck and looked at it in confusion. The once pulsating pearl-like object now wore a dull off-white sheen.
Inuyasha’s ears only swiveled in confusion. “What are you talking about, wench?”
The girl before him drew in a sharp breath and seemed to be on the verge of hyperventilating. “Wench! You’re calling me WENCH, again! My name is Kagome. Ka-Go-Me!”
Inuyasha drew back. “Hey, it’s not like we ever met before, wench.”
Her chest was heaving as she spoke. “You do know me! I said my name is Kagome!”
He raised his hands up in apparent defeat. “OK. Now how in the hell do you know my name?” Then after a moment’s pause he pointed to the dog-like ears on the top of his head. “And why in the hell are you not freaked out by me?”
Her eyes widened at his interrogations. Sadness crept over her features. “You don’t remember me, do you Inuyasha?”
“No…I…”
Her stormy grey eyes found his again and he found that he couldn’t speak coherently. She took in another cleansing breath, squared her shoulders and faced him directly. Her tone brooked no argument. “You’re obviously under a spell. Maybe a demon or a witch did this to you.” She nodded her head as if to convince herself of the validity of what she had said.
“A demon…a witch…what? I’m not under a spell!” he protested.
She turned a level gaze at him. “Yes, you are Inuyasha. And what is with your strange clothes?” she asked while she gestured at his clothing with a look of perplexity on her face.
He could only step back in confusion. “Strange? What the hell? So my ears aren’t strange, but my clothes are?”
The girl seemed flabbergasted. “Yes!” she barked out while motioning to his head. “You’ve always had those cute ears.” Then she mumbled to herself. “It was the first thing that drew me to you…”
“What?” Inuyasha looked at the miko in front of him as if she was delusional.
Kagome sighed and moved to get off of the platform she had been lying on. Then the mangled sword that had been in her hands clanged as it hit the packed earth and stone of the cave.
The girl knelt forward and picked up the errant equipment and handed it to Inuyasha. “Here’s your Tessaiga.”
“My what…?” He drew the battered sword from its sheath and stared at it in puzzlement. “Why in the hell would I want a piece of crap like this?”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “I guess it stands to reason that if you forgot me, you’d also forget your beloved Tessaiga.”
Inuyasha snorted. “Beloved? Why the hell would I love this piece of shit?”
She only shook her head while she reached for a quiver of arrows and a bow that had been placed near the edge of the platform. The quiver was made of leather and though it had seen better days, it swung over her shoulders as if it was meant to be there. The bow quickly followed before the bowstring snapped in her hands.
The girl looked down in confusion. “I had just re-strung this bow a week ago.” She looked up at the hanyou before her. “How long have I been sleeping, Inuyasha?”
Inuyasha just looked at her in puzzlement. “How the hell would I know!? Ouch!” He stopped his tirade once the bizarre miko started to pull strands of his hair. “What the fuck, wench?!”
The girl only rolled her eyes as she took a few strands of his long hair and wove them into a fine braid. “Ka-Go-Me…” she replied as if she was talking to a small child.
“Fine! Now why in the hell did you take my hair…”
His words stopped once he saw that she was now re-stringing her bow with his own hair. “Hanyou hair is virtually indestructible, except for your human night…” she reasoned.
Now it was the time for his eyes to widen. “How in the hell did you know that I had a human night?”
She turned to him again. But as she looked him in the eye, it wasn’t in anger, but muted sadness. “I told you that I know you, Inuyasha. When are you going to believe me?”
The boy before her opened and closed his mouth a few times, like a fish out of water.
When Kagome saw that he was too mystified to respond, she sighed and then picked up a small crimson bundle that was also resting on the platform.
The strange girl rubbed the coarse looking fabric with a look of melancholy and then offered the small parcel to him. “Here…” she said as she offered it to him.
He could only shake his head. ‘First a damaged, old samurai sword and now this…?’ “What is this, wench?”
The miko only looked more forlorn as she brought the red garment to her breast. She closed her eyes and then breathed deeply again, stopping to look at him directly in the eyes. Grey-blue met golden and she spoke with detached reverence. “This was your father’s. Made of the hair of a fire rat.”
Inuyasha gaped for a second. His eyebrow twitched before he let out a belly laugh. “What the hell? A robe of the fire rat…? What is next? Is there a Princess Kaguya that I am supposed to compete for?
For once, Inuyasha believed he was just the butt of a silly joke. Something his friends had concocted to mess with him on this camping trip. So far, he had never seen such an elaborate ruse. But he wouldn’t put it past his perverted buddy.
“What, did Miroku put you up to this?” He laughed as he pointed to the robe. “There is no way that I’ll ever put that on.
He stopped laughing and his eyes started to harden. He walked toward the miko, his stance stiff, and his facial expression bordering on hate. “And what do you get out of this, wench? Did you think it was funny to play a prank on a hanyou?”
The only thing that stopped him was that tears started to well up in the corner of her eyes. Her entire demeanor seemed to shatter. Then she took a breath and looked at him with an intense longing that his instincts told him was no act.
Her eyes found his again. “I would never do that to you, Inuyasha.” She turned to tug nervously at her hem, then looked at him again. “If you could only remember you would know that…”
He shook his head. He wanted to believe, yet disbelieve what his senses were telling him. The girl seemed so genuine. But her story was too odd to be believed. If this wasn’t some sort of prank, then was the girl crazy?
He looked at her again, trying to get a read on her eyes, trying to see a glimpse of insanity. They held the color of a sea storm and he felt lost in her sincere and disquieted gaze.
He must be losing his own senses, because he was starting to believe her drivel. He looked at the red fabric that she put in a pocket of her robe. Apparently, she had given up on him accepting it as easily as he did the battered sword. When she looked back up at him, there was red lining her eyelids, but she also held a steady resolve. Her face became a mask of placidity and somewhere deep inside of him, he hated it.
She brushed on past him. “How do we get out of here, Inuyasha?”
“Now wait a second,” Inuyasha cried as he tried to take command of a situation that seemed to be spiraling out of his control. But Kagome was already moving forward toward the light from his earlier cave-in. She stopped with determination under the gentle spotlight, before turning to her companion.
She gave Inuyasha a small shrug and a half-smile. “I don’t suppose that you could give me a ride up?”
“Ride?” asked Inuyasha in confusion.
“Can you please kneel?” asked the miko as she moved her quiver and bow behind her back.
“What…uh…sure,” answered the befuddled hanyou as he knelt down on the ground next to her.
He was quickly shocked to find the strange girl climbing onto his back for an apparent piggyback ride. “What the hell wench, do you always kiss and get on the backs of everyone you meet?”
Inuyasha could only hear the girl sigh. “No. I only do this to cute and rude Inuhanyous.”
“What…I,” Inuyasha was taken aback by her last comment. He didn’t know whether to be amused by her admission that he was cute or annoyed at her declaration that he was rude. But there was something in the back of his mind that reasoned that she was close to the mark with her evaluation of him. “Keh…Fine.” He decided that he didn’t want to argue with the girl about this. Whether or not she had kissed him, he would have still tried to help her out of the cave.
Inuyasha stood up and with one quick leap they moved up and out of the cave. Soon the duo were back in the open meadow, tall pine trees looking down at them from the grassy edge. Once again, he was conscious of her form against him. Her petite body was cradled next to his, her legs wrapped around his waist, his arms under her thighs.
It almost unnerved him when an errant thought told him to keep her nestled on his back. He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. His hands fell away from the miko and the girl dropped unceremoniously to the grassy land.
Unlike Inuyasha, she didn’t seem unsettled by their recent bouts of closeness. She was adjusting her bow and quiver of arrows once more before she addressed him.
“Can you get me to the Musashi-Mitake Shrine?” Kagome asked while looking up at the perplexed hanyou.
Confusion edged at his features. “Yes, but why…?”
“Kaede-sama works there. She’ll be able to help me get rid of the spell that you are under.”
“What the hell, wench? I am not under any spell…!” Inuyasha turned to grab at the miko, catching her robe. The girl pulled back and was unbalanced. Her body swayed and was about to unceremoniously hit the ground. Before Inuyasha knew what had happened his hands were firmly around her slim waist, his eyes staring into hers, their chests touching. He could feel the nervous thumping of her heart as her bosom was pressed up against his chest. His own blood drummed in his veins.
He didn’t understand what was happening, or why he felt drawn to this infuriating woman. But his eyes found her red lips and all he could think about was the way she had kissed him only minutes before.
Rosebud lips opened in question and he found himself licking his lips in response. A gentle blush suffused her features and dark lashes concealed her eyes before she turned her face to look at him. He became lost in her stormy grey eyes. He found his arms were gripping her tighter to him.
A roar shattered their tranquility and he found himself blinking before gently setting the stunned miko aright.
A billowing fog started to settle in the area, disturbing the mid-morning sunlight. Grayness settled over the land. Suddenly, the birds were no longer chirping.
Inuyasha had learned long ago to obey his instincts, and now for some bizarre reason the hair on his body seemed to be standing on end, like he had a brush with static electricity.
A large creature was slithering at the edge of the forest. The blackened mass quivered and wavered before moving closer, dark fog following it.
It was then that he noticed that the fog was some sort of poisonous gas. As it touched the surrounding trees, the branches withered and the animals were silenced.
Something deep inside was yelling at him to run or fight. He hadn’t made the decision when Kagome made it for him.
“Shick.” Inuyasha heard Kagome draw an arrow to her bow.
When he turned he was astounded to see the girl stand beside him, her miko’s robes fluttering in the wind and her dark hair drawn behind her, her grey-blue eyes focused on a pattern in the landscape far away. Her bow was drawn taut and her arrow seemed to glow like white-fire; her face held the concentration of a warrior that had been called to battle. Was this the very girl who had been crying in his arms minutes ago?
She took one sliding step forward, blocking Inuyasha with her own body. “Get behind me,” she muttered.
“What the hell? I don’t need protecting…I” Protested Inuyasha as he moved to shove the girl behind him.
Just as he pushed her aside, her arrow left her string, blue flame zinging toward her target. The arrow arched high into the air before landing in a cacophonous blaze of spiritual fire.
His eyes widened at the sight, his golden eyes reflecting the flickering flames. Whatever this girl was, she wasn’t normal. Though, for that matter, neither was he. He shook his head; he had always felt alone with his unique hanyou abilities. He had never known anyone who didn’t have demon blood that had paranormal abilities. Now here was a girl, by his side, who was just that. Unbidden, he smirked. It felt nice to be with someone else who was far from normal. Next to her, his dog-like ears, claws and fangs seemed almost natural.
His musings were quickly pushed aside as she yelled at him, “Use your Tessaiga, Inuyasha!”
“My what?”
“Your sword, hold it before you!”
He tried to pull the damaged sword from its sheath. But the dull blade only reflected his face and the gray skies above him.
“Now what?”
He could almost swear that he heard the miko curse before she yelled at him. “Slice the air with it in front of you and yell ‘Wind Scar’!”
Inuyasha arched an eyebrow at her odd command. He pulled the beat up sword in front of him and tried to wave it around like a wizard’s wand. “Wind Scar,” he muttered as if he was reciting an incantation.
“What are you doing?” yelled Kagome as she drew another arrow.
“Hell if I know,” answered Inuyasha. “This sword is a fucking dud.”
“Kami,” Kagome cried. “Of all the times for you to forget how to use your Tessaiga!” She aimed another arrow at the offending target. “I only have three more arrows left Inuyasha. You have got to remember how to use your sword.”
The stoic miko aimed her bow at a form wavering in the nearby woods. Before the arrow was loosed, it became engulfed with white fire. “Whoosh.” The arrow left her bow, the string still vibrating in her hand. The missile shot true zipping through the air before hitting a large slithering object that screamed as it was hit.
“This sword is nothing but a dull blade. You’re delusional, wench.”
The girl simply yelled back at him. “Is this attack a delusion?” He saw the wavering form in front of him lash out, long tentacles spouting out and shooting at them.
“Dammit!” He wasn’t thinking; his body seemed to take over as he grabbed Kagome and swept her up, throwing her on his back. Then in the same fluid movement, he was leaping toward the sky and away from the attacker. With a few leaps he had managed to put quite a distance between the two of them and the enemy. For a brief moment, he enjoyed his respite, pulling the miko from his back and clinging her fast against his chest.
The tranquility was short-lived. Waving tentacles, like a leviathan shot up at them again. One appendage tried to wrap itself around Inuyasha’s sword arm. Luckily for him, Kagome managed to stab at it with her arrow, as soon as the spiritual force that resided in her arrows touched the blackened creature, it roared in pain, rearing up and pushing itself back.
“Shit, you’re handy with those arrows,” was all Inuyasha could reply.
“And I’m running out of them,” muttered Kagome as she looked meaningfully to her emptying quiver. There were only two arrows left.
“Fuck!” Inuaysha cried out as he dodged another round of flailing tentacles and leapt to a nearby pine tree. For only a brief second he was able to catch his breath before the tree underneath him shook. He saw a rising miasma of gray fog enveloping the base of the tree with long blackened tendrils wavering up the tree trunk.
Nowhere was safe. He held Kagome against his back with one hand while he tried to leap in a large arch away from this battle. He could only gape as he saw Kagome not only aim her arrow while he was moving, but managed to shoot one while riding on his back.
White flames arose from just behind his ear to flicker. The holy arrow was released, almost in slow motion, spinning toward its target, a glowing white blaze. It created a trail of fire arching across the sky before it leapt at the darkness lingering below. Whatever was below them shrieked as it was engulfed in plasma. Long appendages that looked like the dark arms of a squid, were instantly burned, turned into a single column of ash that puffed away into nothing as the wind blew.
Whatever was there was hurt, but he could still hear it moving below.
The miko at his back drew her final arrow. He was mindful that it was her very last one.
He could barely make out Kagome’s features since she was on his back, but he was amazed to hear no protests or screams. He could only make out her steady breaths and her rigid form.
Whoever this girl was, she had done this before and she was good at it. His eyebrows puckered in confusion. It was galling him to his very core to have a girl fighting for him. He needed to do something. He couldn’t just let a mere human girl upstage him in battle.
Another leap and they were both far away from the bizarre demon that had attacked them. He quickly dropped Kagome on a limb of a very tall conifer before he jumped down to face his target.
He heard her protests as he left her behind. “Inuyasha, we need to work together…this is no time to…”
He could only snort. ‘Work with a wench?’ Well, for a human wench she was actually pretty formidable, but there was no way he was ever going to tell her that. Never mind that he felt completely emasculated by what she had done so far. He landed on the ground on all fours. Only his right arm was raised, as he flexed his claws. He immediately fell into a coughing fit. Whatever was in this air, it was putrid. It was like breathing in gaseous acid. It hurt to take in air.
His eyes widened noticeably as he considered what this would do to a mere human. As if to answer the question, he saw the remains of a dead bird flutter to the ground next to him before it dissolved into a decaying mess in front of his eyes.
“Shit!” He had to take this thing down before it got to the miko. She wouldn’t be able to survive something like this. At that thought something in his chest clenched in fear. He scoffed in irritation at the idea and tried to discard the unwelcome emotion.
He heard something slithering up to him before he saw it. Dark fumes obscured his vision, like the billowing smoke of an oil fire.
He could hear a faint chuckling; it was really a hoarse laughter that reverberated through the trees. It seemed alien, inhuman.
“Inuyasha…” the creature intoned with a thick voice.
‘What the fuck? It knows my name as well?’
“Thank you for waking her. I will reward you with this…”
Tentacles swept out toward him and it was only his well-honed instincts that let him leap off the ground before they smacked into the ground where he had just been squatting. They tore into the dirt, ripping grass and roots from the soil.
He fell backwards, and was almost able to control his fall. But he wavered just for a second and an errant tentacle slammed against him, drawing blood. He tasted the salty, red liquid on his lips and managed to spit it out. He tried to ignore the dull pain in his midsection and the dark viscous fluid that was soaking the front of his shirt.
A long forgotten instinct called out to him. He dipped his own claws into the blood covering his chest. The pang of ripping his flesh was only a momentary distraction. Despite the pain, he felt alive. His reddened claws, dripping with his lifeblood were flung at his opponent.
Red-black liquid sliced through the air before landing on the leviathan in front of him. His blood fell like acid blades against the demons skin, carving off long tendrils that quivered on the ground. Blackened blood oozed out of the demon’s wounds, but it only seemed to further enrage the monster.
The creature seemed to have trouble catching its breath as it bellowed. “I killed you once before. I can do so again!”
‘What the hell…? No one can die twice…’
The demon’s strange words were a distraction, but not one that Inuyasha could afford. Just as he was trying to figure out their meaning, one of the tendrils that he had sliced off had managed to creep behind him and speared him in the gut.
Sickening pain lodged within him, blood gushed out of his mouth and he looked down. He saw a black, rubber-like tendril squirming out of the front of his stomach, like an alien being birthed from his insides.
His eyesight was starting to fog over. Black dots obscured his reddened vision. With what little energy he had left, he managed to slice the errant tentacle from his stomach, leaving a gaping hole of rendered flesh and dripping life fluid.
His knees buckled underneath him and he fell to the ground, as if in prayer.
The thing in front of him only laughed manically. Then the monster spoke in low and bitter tones. “As I said half-breed, I killed you once and I can do so again…”
There was no fight left in Inuyasha. He coughed up more blood. It spewed onto the wilted green blades of grass in front of him.
Inuyasha barely heard the miko’s voice. It came from somewhere behind him. “Not while I’m around…”
Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard the ‘Whoosh’ of her final arrow as it flew into the sky and honed in on the startled demon in front of him.
He could barely make out the spiritual fire that lit up the air all around him. The blackened air that surrounded him was suddenly obliterated by white light. And somewhere in the dim recesses of his mind, he heard the screams of a demon. But then there was only blackness…
End of Chapter One
~~~oo0oo~~~
The Next Chapter: Urashima Tarô: Four chapters have been completed so far. I will be releasing one chapter a week. Then once I catch up with what I have already written, I will be posting once a month.Author's Notes:
#1: ‘Nemureru Mori no Bijou’ is Japanese for ‘Sleeping Beauty.’
#2: Princess Kaguya or ‘the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter’ is a Japanese Legend where the princess Kaguya (of the Moon people) gives her would-be suitors impossible tasks. One task is to bring her the robe of the fire rat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter
#3: The Musashi-Mitake Shrine was established 2,000 years ago, so it was around when Kagome fell into her magic sleep and it is still used today.
#4: I bet you thought I would have Inuyasha kiss Kagome like the Prince in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. Pffftt…! This is Inuyasha we are talking about… :-)
#5: In this story, Kagome will have some Kikyo-like traits since she was raised as a miko from birth. She will still be the emotional teenager that we all know and love, however she’ll just have a little more refinement and skills than canon Kagome. Inuyasha will also have a few changes to his personality based on circumstances. He lives in the modern day, has never been orphaned and he has also been coddled, unlike our feudal Inuyasha.
#6: Inspirations for this story came from Inuyasha, Sleeping Beauty, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, ‘Urashima Tarô,’ a little from the ‘Lady of the Lake’ from ‘Le Mort d’Arthur’ and of course, my own wicked imagination.
#7: What I am currently reading: Behind the Silk Screen by eien-no-basho. If you haven’t read this fantastically crafted piece of fan fiction yet, you are missing out. Highly recommended!#8: Sorry, MediaMiner fans. I tried to upload this file so many times and I had tons of problems. Finally, SplendentGoddess told me to copy and paste the text of the MS Word file into WordPad and save as an .RTF. (Apparently, RTF in Word isn't really an RTF!) If this actually looks good, you can thank SG! ;-)