InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Who Says Words Can't Hurt? ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

… Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me…

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Inuyasha watched with a guilt-ridden countenance as Kagome's chest lifted and fell in a rhythmic yet somewhat shallow pattern. White bandages were wound tightly about her arms where inexplicable cuts had suddenly formed hours ago when she had been out in the forest. But that wasn't why he felt so culpable.

Kagome had seen him with Kikyo… again. But it hadn't been just any rendezvous; the hanyou had been holding Kikyo in his lap, confessing undying love. And, oh gods, did he feel like the scum of the earth at that very moment. He could tell Kagome had been hurt deeply by the tears he'd found still streaming down her face even when she'd finally fell unconscious.

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Flashback

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Inuyasha gazed down at the undead miko where she laid in his lap. A clawed hand reached down to tenderly stroke her cheek as Kikyo turned her face into his touch to hide a wicked smile. Her smirk went unnoticed by the hanyou as he opened his perfect lips to whisper lovingly to her. "Kikyo, I love you," he admitted quietly as a small smile played over his lips.

Inuyasha seemed to be in a daze as he leaned against that tree with the woman in his lap and Kikyo knew her spell wouldn't last long until he realized what was going on. She arose swiftly and smiled falsely down at her love's confused façade.

"Come, love," she commanded in a forced warm voice.

Only being able to nod dumbly, Inuyasha grabbed onto her outstretched hand and he helped to pull himself up to stand beside the scheming woman. "Where are we going?" He seemed to be a bit out of it.

Kikyo just smiled in response and promptly wrapped her arms around his lean waist, leaning into him to burry her face into his chest in order to hide another grin. Inuyasha unhesitatingly complied with his own loving hug.

The ground immediately began to tremble, but Inuyasha was too far gone to even notice. Kikyo didn't smell like the earth and bones he was used to; she smelled like the fresh spring shower his old Kikyo smelled like. It was the smell he'd missed. The smell he loved. The smell… the smell so unlike Kagome's.

Kikyo's eyes snapped open and her brows furrowed in anger as she sensed his withdrawal from the spell. She looked up to see the Inuyasha, face raised to the wind and nose sniffing furiously. A look of horror passed over his still slightly dazed expression before he dropped her and bolted into the surrounding trees.

Cursing as the portal in the ground slowly closed, she picked herself up off the dirty ground. Huffing indignantly, she angrily dusted off her hakkama.

Inuyasha panicked as he came to Kagome's unmoving form that lay limply on the forest floor. He quickly turned her over onto her back and his golden eyes grew with terror as he noticed her still-bleeding wrists. The crimson liquid leaked sluggishly from several cuts that ran the length of both her arms.

Pulling the girl's limp body into his arms, the hanyou took off into the air towards Kaede's hut, forgetting Kikyo completely.

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End Flashback

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Inuyasha pulled himself from his rather depressing reverie and decided instead to focus on Kagome's wounds He mulled over any possibilities as to how she had come to possess such gashes. He hadn't smelled any demons when he'd found her, or any other humans for that matter… A sudden realization hit Inuyasha like a ton of bricks.

'Did… did she try to kill herself? W-would she even do that?!'

Inuyasha calmed himself before he could lapse into another panic. He slowly picked himself up from his position sitting beside the futon where Kagome rested and made his way over to the quiver of arrows that had been on the girl's back when he'd found her. He crouched beside them and sniffed tentatively for any trace of Kagome's blood on them.

Sighing in relief when he found none, the hanyou once again took his spot beside the healing girl. 'There was nothing else there for her to cut herself with… How did she get those wounds?' Inuyasha racked his brain for an answer, but when he found none he decided to just lie back down and nap on it.

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Miroku, Sango, Shippo, and Inuyasha all sat in the hut, staring expectantly at Kagome as Kaede carefully redressed her wounds. When the elder miko was finished, she sat back on her haunches and took her turn in gazing anxiously at the girl. "Ye say that ye flesh just tore apart suddenly and ye fainted?"

Kagome nodded and Kaede frowned in thought. "I cannot think of a liable explanation, child. My apologies." Here the old woman paused and glared into Kagome's eyes with suspicion. "What were ye doing in the forest at such a late hour in the first place?"

Kagome faltered and began to sweat under the elder woman's scrutiny. "Uh… um… well, you see…"

Inuyasha frowned and began to sweat also.

"Uh…," Kagome stuttered again, "Um… I… I wanted to take a bath!" she yelled triumphantly.

"In the dead of night in a demon-infested forest? Ye would have to be of a suicidal mentality to want such a thing, child."

"Well… I was really dirty, you see. And you know how I don't like being dirty."

The old woman frowned, but turned around to begin gathering her supplies nonetheless. "I cannot ever recall such an incident as this, child. I am sorry, but I do not believe I will be of much help to ye. I do, however, know of a very wise hanyou that lives in the eastern mountains somewhere that may be able to help ye. She is rumored to have lived for thousands of years and knows everything there is to know about curses, dark magic, and priestesses such as yourself if ye would like to attempt a visit with her."

"What do you mean 'attempt', Kaede-sama?" Miroku interrupted politely.

"Well," the woman began, "She is very elusive."

"Oh…"

Kaede shuffled into a back room to replace her supplies. "Ye are welcome to stay in the hut tonight," she offered to everyone. They nodded in agreement and preparing themselves for bed. They all fell into a restless sleep with uneasy minds.

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"Mama, I'm home," Kagome announced tiredly as she walked through the front door. Her mother came bustling in immediately to relieve her of her backpack.

"Oh, dear, you look so exhausted! Would you like me to run you a bath?" she offered with a kind smile.

Kagome nodded happily and her mother made her way upstairs after giving her instructions to relax on the couch while she waited. The woman returned within moments to usher her daughter up the stairs and into the bathroom. "Take your time, dear."

"I will," Kagome sighed. "Thank you, Mama," she said with a grateful smile.

After her mother had left, Kagome stripped of everything but her bandages. "Lucky my uniform kept these covered so Mama didn't see," she sighed, glaring down at the bandages angrily.

"How did you get here?" she asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion at the inanimate wrappings that hid her healing gashes like they could provide an answer. Kagome sweatdropped as she realized what she was doing and just decided to try to relax. It would be her last chance before they left for the ancient hanyou in the mountains.

Kagome closed her eyes in satisfaction and reclined into the steaming bathwater, mindful to keep her bandages dry.

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"So you see, Mama," Kagome explained to the woman sitting across from her at the kitchen table sipping tea, "we'll be gone for quite a while, maybe months." She had told her mother that they had to go to the mountains because there was a woman there that could tell them the cure for a sickness that was spreading around the village.

"Why don't you just bring some medicine from here for the villagers?" her mother asked.

"Well, I don't really know what the illness is or I would. Besides, we think it's being caused by a demon, so I don't think modern medicines would have much of an effect anyway," she quickly explained.

"I guess you can go under one condition." Kagome looked up at her mother as a smile spread across the woman's face. "You invite all you friends back through the well to dinner tonight. I never did get to meet them."

Kagome nodded and hugged her mother before heading out the door to the well, leaving her mother to prepare a very large dinner. She suddenly had the feeling that this wasn't the best idea…

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