InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Y Cyfnewidiad ❯ Gofyniad a Ateb ( Chapter 4 )

Y Cyfnewidiad

Kagome here again, and thankfully, in a much better mood than last time. A saner mood at least, if not better. I'm feeling less melodramatic today than before, less desperate. Two days ago (strange that I spent two weeks in grief and then suddenly snapped out of it, I know), I was out of my mind with the need to get back into the past; but now, I think I'm actually somewhat grateful for the break.

I've decided that maybe I should be more careful in this journal. You know, not say something that a psychiatrist could use against me. But then again, if I followed through with that, I don't think that there would be anything I could actually write here.

Well, I could always say that I was collecting notes to write a fantasy. I think by now, I'd be especially good at it.

I finally passed one of those calculus tests…about time, huh? It wasn't really as hard as I'd made it out to be. All I really needed to do was learn all those strange theories and rules, and then put them to use. Still, I would never have been able to do that three weeks ago. But then again, I was particularly preoccupied.

I have a life in the past, but I have a life in the present too. I think with everything that's happened to me, to us-first with Naraku, and now with Sesshoumaru also-I kind of forgot that. I don't know what's going to happen once the jewel is complete and everything, that's definitely a long way away. But still, once that's over, I might never get into the past again.

And if I don't have a life here then, where will I be? Living in the present a bit is good for me, I'm sure of it. I've been away so long and so often, I almost forgot how to function in my own time. These weeks have been good for me.

And the well will open again. I'm sure of it. He might not want me back again, but everyone else does. I have a charge to fulfil, and I know that eventually, I'll be able to finish what I started.

Chapter 4: Gofyniad a Ateb

Human?

'How…'

Wordlessly, he stared at the handful of hair that Inuyasha was presently holding in front of his face, reality slowly sinking in. Human. A shudder ran through him as he became fully aware of what this meant. No wonder his senses were dulled and nearly useless…

It was even worse than he had always believed. 'No wonder humans are so incompetent. They are practically blind and deaf.' It was surprising that they managed to survive as well as they did. He found himself wondering yet again why Inuyasha always was surrounding himself with these creatures.

Inuyasha…

He shook himself out of his daze and eyed his half-brother once again. Once again the triumph and glee had vanished from Inuyasha's eyes. Perhaps the half-breed had multiple personalities? Sesshoumaru had never suspected his half-brother of serious psychological problems, but it would certainly be par for course. The hanyou was watching him carefully, his face guarded and wary…and somewhat curious now as well.

Sesshoumaru found that he didn't much like that expression. With a half canine growl that he was surprised he could still make, he shoved Inuyasha away, and was satisfied to see the hanyou actually move back. He turned away, a part of him still hoping that this was some kind of trick…

But he knew it was not.

Human…

Sesshoumaru shook his head viciously, trying to expel the rational part of his mind that assured him this was reality…

This was impossible. Nothing in existence could change a youkai into a human. Perhaps that useless bauble that his half-brother chased, the Shikon no Tama, had that kind of power, but he was still unconvinced. In any case, it was still shattered into a thousand pieces, and even more worthless than before.

He was about ready to accuse Inuyasha of accomplishing this, but then thought better of it. The hanyou had to be one of the stupidest creatures he knew, and was lucky to find himself still breathing at the end of a day. It was virtually impossible that the halfwit could have found a way to do something like this.

Then who had done this to him?

Sesshoumaru glanced at the worthless humans surrounding his brother-trying to ignore the fact that technically he was now one of them-and finally decided that none of them had achieved this. The taijiya was watching him with a decidedly suspicious and unfriendly look on her face, but her eyes held no trace of the triumph. The monk was undoubtedly too weak to bring about such a transformation, and seemed too concerned in any case.

Sesshoumaru disregarded Miroku's concern and briefly examined the other two members of Inuyasha's motley group. The fox he discounted immediately, kitsune magic was mostly illusion. Although Sesshoumaru was admittedly not an expert on foxes, he realised that even if the youkai were able to develop such abilities, this one was too young to possess the necessary skill.

The miko? For a moment, the young priestess gave him pause. More than once, she had surprised him in the past; he had not forgotten her sudden revival in his father's grave, nor her defiant stands during other battles. The girl was undoubtedly both powerful and courageous, but did she have the strength necessary to do something like this?

He had his doubts.

"Well, we could stand here staring at each other all day, or we could attempt to discover what has happened," Miroku stated calmly, moving to the other side of the miko to stand beside the slayer, who looked away from Sesshoumaru long enough to turn her distrustful gaze upon the monk. 'So…she is suspicious of everybody,' the former taiyoukai concluded, developing a fragment of respect for the taijiya.

Perhaps Inuyasha's ragtag group was not as completely incompetent as he had believed.

At the moment, however, such revelations did not overly concern him. If one of these humans had not found a way to transform him-and it was blatantly obvious that they had not-a very important question remained unanswered.

What exactly had happened?

"Sesshoumaru…what do you remember?" the monk asked, obviously taking control of the situation.

For once, however, Sesshoumaru found that he didn't care. He hardly even noticed, troubled by the answer to Miroku's question. "Nothing."

The monk looked displeased by that response, but Inuyasha seemed amused and quite delighted, "What was that?"

"Inuyasha, shut up," Miroku said wearily, but was completely ignored. The hanyou's attention was instead focused on the glare that Sesshoumaru had directed towards him, "You think that's going to work on me this time, pal? Sorry to disappoint, but you don't scare me anymore."

It would be best to shut Inuyasha up, and Sesshoumaru could see at least one fairly amusing way to accomplish that. With a smirk, he replied, "Then you were afraid."

Inuyasha paused and for a moment seemed taken aback, "You know… Just, shut up!" he finally managed.

"Your vocabulary is as astonishing as ever," Sesshoumaru commented almost reflexively.

It was the sort of remark that he would never in the past have hesitated to make. It was also the sort of statement that usually goaded Inuyasha into blindly charging him.

Unfortunately, Sesshoumaru did not remember immediately that in his current condition, provoking Inuyasha was not the wisest idea.

As it was, the hanyou already had Tetsusaiga in his hand and seemed prepared to use it.

"Inuyasha, sit!" Kagome screamed, seeing that her friend looked about ready to cleave his brother in half.

From beside her, she heard Miroku snicker softly, and had to restrain herself from reaching out and hitting him. That had already been designated as Sango's job. Instead, Kagome picked up the kitsune presently sitting on her shoulder and handed him to Miroku. 'That ought to keep his roving hands full for a while,' she decided with satisfaction.

"Kagome, what are you doing?" Shippou wailed as she took a step forward.

The miko hesitated long enough to turn around and respond to the fox's desperate question, "I'm going to go end this before one of them does something stupid."

"Good luck," Miroku murmured, eyeing the dormant sword that rested beside its still subdued master. His expression suggested that he didn't think luck was going to be enough to keep the brothers from killing one another…they needed something more like a miracle.

Kagome had decided, however, that the main concern at the moment was Inuyasha and his livid temper. She could tell that despite his nonchalant façade, Inuyasha's world had been flipped on its axis, and he had no idea what was going on. He was somewhat unstable at the moment. And though she hardly blamed him, that was not a good state to be in, considering his brother's presence.

Kagome sighed. This was not going to be an enjoyable experience.

Watching as Sesshoumaru moved forward to better observe his brother's ridiculous position-face in the mud-Kagome quickened her pace. She felt somewhat guilty for using the spell on Inuyasha, but knew that she had had no real choice.

She finally reached his side, and reached down to pick up Tetsusaiga, ignoring his angry complaints-it wasn't as if she could hear them anyway, since his mouth was presently full of mud. She didn't particularly like taking the sword away from Inuyasha, but didn't think that there was much of a choice. Not that it would do much good-if Inuyasha decided to kill his brother, claws would work just as well as a sword.

And then again, it was dangerous for Inuyasha to be without the Tetsusaiga. Kagome couldn't help but remember the various times he had lost hold of it and transformed into a mindless killer. Kagome chewed on her lip nervously, realising for the first time that without her spell, there was no way to change him back. The only one amongst them that had the power to defeat the demon was now as helpless as Sango, Miroku, or herself.

'No… he's worse off. At least we know what it's like to be human, and how to fight like this. He doesn't.' It was not an idea she liked. What if whoever had done this decided to turn Inuyasha permanently human as well? One night a month seemed too much for him.

While he was still subdued-it wouldn't last much longer-Kagome pulled Tetsusaiga away and took half a step backwards. If they were suddenly attacked in the next ten minutes (unlikely), she could always get it back to him with time to spare.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, wench?" Inuyasha hissed, finally managing to push himself off of the ground.

"What does it look like?" she yelled back, turning to see Sesshoumaru with a particularly carnivorous look in his eyes, something she had never seen before in a human being. "And you cool it, mister. As long as you're both here, they'll be no maiming or killing. Understand?" she finished, fixing both with a challenging glare.

In her mind, she was a lot less determined or defiant. 'What the hell do I think I'm doing? As if this is going to work… Not likely. As soon as we get Sesshoumaru back to normal, he'll kill me for sure. If we can get him back, that is.'

As it so happened, Kagome was surprised to see that her sharp tone had worked to some extent with both demons-she still had trouble thinking of Sesshoumaru as anything less. Inuyasha was watching her with wide eyes, and his brother seemed at least somewhat amused, which was greatly preferable to the hungry, somewhat murderous look he had sported earlier.

'Um… now what?' Kagome wondered. "You," she snapped, pointing to Inuyasha, whose ears immediately went flat, "stand over there," and she pointed to a place off to the side. Before he realised what he was doing, the hanyou had taken several steps backwards.

Kagome quickly turned away from him, knowing beyond doubt that any second he was going to snap out of whatever daze she'd put him in and start screaming at her. For the moment, however, she wanted to feel somewhat victorious. She turned to look at Sesshoumaru, wondering if there was anything she could do with him. From the calm, watchful look in his eyes, she realised that he was going to be far harder to deal with than his brother, and knew that any spell of authority she had put over everyone in the area was going to be broken as soon as he defied her-which he surely would-so she sighed and backed away a bit.

"Miroku?" she called, turning to look at the monk. She barely kept herself from sighing in exasperation, seeing that Shippou was now standing on Miroku's shoulder, and the monk's hand was coming dangerously close to Sango's posterior.

At the sound of his name, the monk's hand snapped away and he turned a sheepish gaze towards the miko. "Yes, Kagome?" he asked innocently.

'I'm going to scream,' she decided. 'Or if not that, I'm going to start crying. Either way, I'm about to be in serious trouble.' She shook her head, trying to regain control of a situation quickly slipping away. "Alright. What do we do now?"

For a moment, the monk looked thoughtful. "I don't see anything that we can do, Kagome. As long as he doesn't remember what happened, we can't fix this. We can, however, continue to collect shards of the Shikon no Tama."

"And what about Sesshoumaru?" Kagome asked, finding that she didn't much like the idea of simply leaving the onetime demon lord to his fate. She wasn't particularly fond of him-it was hard to like someone whose hobby was trying to kill you-but she was certain that on his own, like this, he would not survive long.

"You aren't suggesting we drag him along with us?" Sango asked, scepticism in her voice. Kagome figured that the demon exterminator was not relishing the idea of spending time around a youkai lord-with or without his demonic powers.

Miroku shrugged, "I don't see any other option. Perhaps with time, his memory will return. Or we might eventually encounter whoever did this," he added, looking pointedly at Inuyasha.

Kagome found that she didn't like that scenario. By the time Sesshoumaru's attacker decided to pay them another visit, it would probably be too late to do anything to save Inuyasha. And then they would be stuck with two practically helpless onetime demons on their hands, and only three humans and a fox to find a way to change them back. Kagome didn't like their chances against someone that could quite obviously defeat Sesshoumaru.

'And I doubt they'd appreciate getting help from Kouga…' she decided with a slight smile.

She turned to face Sesshoumaru and put on the most charming smile she could manage, 'Not that it's likely to work. It seldom does even with Inuyasha.' And she had been quite correct, the amusement fled from his face and a guarded expression replaced it. Yet again repressing the urge to sigh, Kagome asked sweetly, "So, are you planning to stay with us?"

"No! Hell, no! Damn you, Kagome…!" Inuyasha began screaming.

'I expected as much,' Kagome supposed. Staying as calm as possible, she turned to Inuyasha and said, "Sit, boy," before turning back to the elder brother. "Well?"

"The hanyou summed it up well," he commented coolly, eyeing his half-brother with a look of morbid satisfaction on his face once again. 'Damn. I've got to remember to stop doing that,' Kagome decided. Still, it was strange to see Sesshoumaru with any expression on his face at all. The miko found herself wondering whether emotion itself was new to him in human form, or if his ability to hide it was stronger as a demon.

'Inuyasha always said that human emotions were stronger…' She wondered if that was the case with Sesshoumaru as well. "You are leaving, then?" she asked, feeling somewhat disappointed, though she couldn't pinpoint why.

He was still watching Inuyasha struggle in the mud. "Do you plan on doing that often?" he finally asked.

Kagome's face went hot, and only found her flush spreading when Shippou decided to answer for her, "Count on it!"

He watched Inuyasha struggle for a bit longer before choosing to reply. "I will stay," he decided, glancing briefly towards the kitsune. "For now."

Kagome's blush vanished and she smiled widely, "Great!"

Her smile faded somewhat when she remembered the tattered state of his clothes. The pants were still halfway decent but besides that… Kagome frowned, where were they going to find something for him to wear? She had no idea how close the next village was, and knew that Miroku didn't have a spare set of clothes; at least, he didn't have anything that would fit Sesshoumaru…

Her train of thought skidded to a stop as Inuyasha finally managed to pull himself of the ground, again, and stomped back towards her, murmuring, "Great, damn it. Just wonderful." He stopped long enough to grab the Tetsusaiga away from her before turning around and trudging into the woods.

"Damn that wench. Idiot girl," he muttered to himself, looking up to see that the sun was going to be setting in less than an hour.

And how much time had they lost now because of his moronic brother? Half-brother, that is. Naraku already had many more shards of the jewel than they did…hell, they seemed to be losing more than they found nowadays. Now they had lost several more days for no reason, and were further behind than ever.

Inuyasha couldn't guess how many shards they might have been able to find if not for Sesshoumaru. Yeah, he was fully aware that there were times when they went without finding anything for weeks at a time, but at least they had been searching. Staying in one place and looking after an idiot who was too weak and stupid to take care of himself was getting them nowhere.

'Damn him. He's lucky he's not a hanyou. He'd never survive that one night a month. How funny it would be if we couldn't find a way to turn him back…' Inuyasha thought about that for a moment before realising that it might not be as funny as he had originally believed. He doubted Sesshoumaru would be able to simply settle down in a village somewhere…

'My biggest fear on the night I'm human is getting attacked. I have many enemies… for as long as I can remember, there've been people who wanted me dead. He's a demon lord. Or at least, he was. With his personality, I'm sure he's made tons of enemies who'd love to see him dead but couldn't find a way… Until now.'

The idea of killing his brother himself had always been somewhat appealing. However, despite his occasional victory over Sesshoumaru, it was not an idea that he had seriously considered.

The idea of someone else now being able to slay Sesshoumaru was not one that Inuyasha found pleasing at all.

The hanyou shook his head in frustration and pushed the somewhat compassionate thoughts out of his mind. He decided that it couldn't be healthy to find himself concerned about his brother. There was nothing that was going to make him discount everything he'd learned about Sesshoumaru over the years.

The taiyoukai was a self-serving, ruthless, and arrogant bastard. Even now, Inuyasha knew that his brother would not welcome his concern, and would later make him regret even thinking about caring. He might be human now, but Inuyasha knew that nothing else about Sesshoumaru had changed.

And now that the jackass was going to be travelling with them for as long as he deemed necessary, they would be slower than usual. Inuyasha knew that he could just forget about finding shards of the jewel while Sesshoumaru was with them. He chose to discount the fact that Kagome, Sango, and Miroku were human as well, and Shippou was a child. Even in human form, Sesshoumaru seemed to be faster than all four of them.

Still, maybe he wasn't slowing them down, but he was a damn inconvenience all the same. Inuyasha stopped walking and turned around long enough to glare quietly at his older brother. The glare only darkened when he remembered what the former demon was wearing.

Not that he could possibly forget. It had taken several dozen sittings before Kagome had managed to remove the top part of his kimono from him… Inuyasha was sure he still had some bruises from that.

And, of course, it had taken a considerably shorter time for the wench to convince Sesshoumaru-whose own clothes had been quite effectively shredded-to wear it. 'Damn him, I'm sure he just did it out of spite,' Inuyasha decided. The former taiyoukai had made some vicious comment about his reduced sense of smell being good for something: at least now he wouldn't have to endure Inuyasha's foul scent.

The hanyou still seethed at the memory. He wasn't sure if that counted as a joke or not-Inuyasha snorted softly, 'Sesshoumaru, joking? Not damn likely.'-but he didn't find it very funny.

He looked up at the sky to see that the sun had dropped further. Inuyasha wondered if they were going to find a village before dusk. While he himself didn't find human company particularly pleasant often, the idea of bringing Sesshoumaru into a human village was rather amusing. Inuyasha found himself wondering if his brother had ever before entered one. And if so, had he departed without leaving behind a trail of bloodshed?

At least if they found a village now, Sesshoumaru would be unable to kill anyone. Actually, watching his brother endure the company of more than three humans-while he hardly appeared pleased about having to spend time among them, surprisingly enough, Sesshoumaru didn't seem too offended-might prove entertaining.

Perhaps he would enjoy one of Miroku's famous exorcisms. 'I know I'd enjoy it more if Miroku decided to exorcise him.' Inuyasha considered that possibility for a while, and found his mood lighten significantly.

No, Sesshoumaru would definitely not like one of Miroku's exorcisms. That would definitely violate the screwed up honour code that he regarded so highly, 'Though I don't see where the honour is in murdering younger brothers.' Inuyasha decided that he would like to see Sesshoumaru's regard for Miroku drop a bit; he seemed to respect the monk somewhat more than the others (for whatever that was worth), though Inuyasha couldn't understand how anyone could admire that damn lecher.

Then again, Miroku had been relatively well-behaved lately, to Sango's relief. Then again, perhaps that wasn't such a blessing: she wasn't getting much practice with hiraikotsu. And maybe 'admiration' was a bit of an overstatement. It would probably be more accurate to say that Sesshoumaru did not hate and disdain Miroku as much as the others.

Then again, he didn't seem overly disgusted by the other humans either anymore. In fact, considering it was Sesshoumaru, it seemed as if he might actually be coming to like them a bit, assuming he was actually capable of liking anyone.

'Well, one way or the other he damn well likes them more than me…' Sesshoumaru still made it perfectly clear that he thought Inuyasha was an irredeemable idiot. The hanyou felt a wave of anger and something far more painful pass through him.

'He hates humans. At least I'm half youkai…' Inuyasha growled softly and shoved the thought out of his mind before it could foment. It wasn't as if Sesshoumaru actually liked any of them, he probably just realised that acting almost respectful towards the humans would aggravate his brother.

'Half-brother,' Inuyasha corrected mentally. 'And that has to be it. Damn sadistic jackass…'

Inuyasha found himself somewhat satisfied by his assessment of the situation, but the realisation brought him no joy. He found that he didn't like the direction most of his thoughts had been taking ever since they had first found Sesshoumaru. He just wanted this whole misadventure to end, one way or another.

'Damn that pompous bastard. Why the hell should we help him? He'll only come back and try to kill us again.' Inuyasha knew that that would be the only result. His half-brother was completely ruthless, there was no way he would ever understand Kagome's whims of compassion.

'She'll die by his hands yet…stupid, idiot girl. He'll break her…and she'll run willingly to her doom.'

It was not an idea Inuyasha found too pleasant, but he realised it was more than just anger or hatred speaking. No, he recognised his last thought as something more than a stray, possibly somewhat resentful thought. It was more like a prophesy.

Inuyasha found that idea particularly unsettling.

A/N: I find Inuyasha particularly amusing to write. If he comes across as kind of bipolar, it's completely intentional. I doubt he'd have any idea what to even think in a situation like this. And a strange thing to note: I've got to have the worst possible mood music playing while writing Inuyasha fan fiction…the soundtrack from Grease. I swear I was listening to it while writing almost every single word of this chapter. Um…yeah, well…

This chapter title means "Question and Answer." I wanted to make it plural, but well…I don't know how. Anyway…