InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Changing Lives ❯ Healing Days ( Chapter 22 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Kagome nodded in return and stood up. “But I really need to talk to Inuyasha now, Mama. Just let us know when dinner is finished, if we’re not down by then.”

Having gotten her hint, Inuyasha took her by the wrist and together they went up the stairs to her room, while Mama agreed and headed about her daily tasks.

~*~ Sesshomaru’s Mansion ~*~

His smile remained as he thought about how he had ultimately saved her life, and that of their daughter’s. Sure it had likely damned his soul, but did that matter?

~*~ The Meeting ~*~

“How long do I have?” Motsumoto asked, taking the information easily and without surprise.

“Four days.”

“See you in five days.”

Fifty Three We are winding down now. . . Kinda. . . Okay so maybe not. . . I’m just wingin’ it here.

Motsumoto stared at the card for a long time, turning it over and over in his hands, reading the numbers time and again, to the point where he was certain he knew the numbers by heart, the shape of the card, the colors; every detail was etched into his memory. It had been three days, and will be the fourth day tomorrow at five. He had to make his decision soon.

As he’d been ordered, he shredded the report. Then, thinking about how he knew nothing of demons and their abilities, decided to take the shreds home, where he burned them in his oven. With all evidence destroyed, he wrote up a new report, using plausible excuses for everything. Saying that the lights went off, and on his way to the cell, he had been knocked out, and awoke minutes later to find Desyno headless.

They didn’t know that the lights were already out, or anything else. Really, why it may not be a full-proof plan, it would work enough to satisfy just about everyone. Of course his team would ask questions, but then, he’d already worked out an explanation for them, and gave it just yesterday morning.

Report in, everyone sated, new life prepared; all he had left was to call the number. But which one? He’d been leaning towards the second number since he got it, but he had to be sure. In a situation like this, being unsure was suicide. Perhaps it wouldn’t cause him death, but either way, it would cost his entire life.

He rather liked his life, thank you.

~*~ Inuyasha ~*~

At long last, they went back to Sengoku Jidai. It wasn’t something they picked, but really, shards waited for no one. The crappy part was the day they chose, or rather, the night: he was sitting in a hut, with the rest of the group, one hundred percent human until sunrise.

And they couldn’t stay gone for too long. There were so many things to do in Kagome’s time still, mainly being that while reports had generally died down, they flared right up again when someone overheard Kagome telling him that the messages on the walls followed the order of her rape.

Which told him it was never a good idea to talk in public. Sure they were at WacDonald’s, relatively quiet and safe, but as it turns out, Kagome was always being trailed by somebody. This time it happened to be a blabbermouth. Through some difficult maneuvering from Sesshomaru, and mind-altering demons, that particular chatterbox was made out to be a liar and he himself started doubting whether he heard the truth or made it up.

Really, having Sesshomaru keeping an eye out for them, or rather for Kagome, was extremely helpful, as Inuyasha’s knowledge of Kagome’s time was limited and frankly he liked punching people in the nose better than slapping them with lawsuits.

He still didn’t understand that phrase, but Sesshomaru had used it, so it must be something really powerful. Sesshomaru never did anything half-assed or halfway.

In three days plenty had happened that he was glad was over already. The day after his older self showed up, he walked Kagome to school as he always did, but hid away this time and watched her from a distance. And then a woman who matched Hojo’s description began approaching Kagome from behind, a knife well-hidden but perfectly visible to his eyes in her hand.

Though he felt like beating the woman for even thinking such a thing, he felt it would be better if Kagome handled it, so instead he just kept following.

Though the girl cornered Kagome at the lunch break on the roof, it was nothing Kagome couldn’t handle. Inuyasha had stayed hidden and watched in satisfaction as Kagome took the girl right down, not with fists or arrows, but with clever words.

~*~ Confrontment ~*~

“What do you want?” Kagome asked, trying not to sound rude or impatient. Really, she didn’t come here to deal with schoolgirls; she was on the roof to be with Inuyasha for lunch. This girl was obviously the one Hojo had mentioned, made apparent by the fact that not only did she look as he’d described, but she was wearing a school uniform different from the school’s.

“Why can’t you just stay out of the spotlight for once?” the girl sneered angrily, and pulled out her knife, holding it menacingly in front of her.

“I didn’t choose to have a spotlight on me,” Kagome returned, disregarding the blade. “I didn’t ask for news coverage or anything like that.”

“So young, so pure,” the girl was drawling, “a virgin robbed of her innocence and scarred for life. What a load of shit. You liked it, didn’t you?” she finished, all but shouting.

Kagome waited for her to finish. “If there’s one thing you need to experience to understand, it’s your own ability to cope and recover. I didn’t know, either, that I’d get over it so easily. But I suppose that’s what happens naturally when the person you love is always there for you.”

The girl screamed at her and spun in a circle, making it seem like she was mad -- or maybe she was. “You’re crazy!” she snapped. “Crazy Kagome; that’s what they should call you! How can you even claim to be okay?! Don’t you get it?! You’re not the only one they hurt, but you’re the only one they showed on TV!”

Kagome straightened as the girl’s implication hit her. “So they raped you, too.”

The girl gave a sob, clinging to her knife like a lifeline, and shook her head sharply. “Mama says they did something so bad I blocked most of it out. The doctors say a part of my mind broke. That’s why I didn’t get on TV. They don’t want to show a mentally deranged girl!”

The danger of the situation increased dramatically, but Kagome had never felt so calm before, so empathetic. She took a step towards the girl. “What’s your name?”

The girl sniffed. “Why do you want to know?”

“Maybe if you tell me, I can help you. If it’s really what you want, I can get you TV time. Is that all you want?”

She shook her head. “No! No no no! Mama says -- TV is bad for me --”

“Then why are you so jealous?” Kagome asked sharply, taking another step closer.

“I’m not! You don’t -- !” She took a step back. “You don’t understand! It’s not fair! You’re okay! I’m not! Everybody loves you, a little martyr, but nobody sees me! I’m invisible! I was hurt so much worse and nobody wants to help me or-or-or -- or even look at me!” she cried, tears finally falling.

Kagome rushed to her as the girl fell, and held her instinctively, knocking the knife away as much for the girl’s protection as her own. And as she rocked the girl and tried speaking useless words of comfort, she realized just how young the girl was. She couldn’t be even fourteen.

Sometime later the bell rang, and Kagome stood up, petting the girl’s hair one more time. “Listen, I have to go to class. But my, ah, beloved is up here. Maybe you can talk to him. He’s the one who healed me.”

The girl looked up as Kagome headed for the stairs, then yelled out, “Hisaka! My name’s Hisaka!”

Kagome paused to look back, her hand on the door handle. “Hisaka-san, then. Try to be nice, Inuyasha.”

“Keh.”

~*~ Inuyasha ~*~

So he’d obeyed, more or less, and talked to Hisaka for around half an hour. At first he was hoping that making connections between the rapes might help, which as it turned out was the dumbest choice as she tried to yank his hair out, and then he chose to quote Dr. Lanes.

And she’d listened and replied, calming until eventually she’d smiled at him and said, “Is this all you do, heal?”

Against his strongest blocks and masks, he’d blushed at that. Not really, no, he’d thought. But instead he’d replied, “To those who need it, I guess.”

When he retold the conversation to Kagome and her mother, he’d been very smart about leaving that part out. The girl would have fawned all over him about how sweet he was for that, and by the gods he didn’t need another reason for her to embarrass him regularly. He had a reputation, dammit!

Sure he had no problem cuddling Kagome when she wanted or needed it, considering they weren’t in full view of people. In the off chance that they were, he was always careful of keeping a mask in place so nobody was the wiser about how it affected him.

He liked it that way.

Now if only Kagome would just give him the all-okay so he could kiss her like she’d written in her story and then follow the pointers she described for the rest of the night. . . But no. He was getting ahead of himself, and it was arousing him in front of the rest of the group.

Of course, being both observant and perverted, Miroku noticed immediately, but pointedly looked away with merely a knowing glance at Inuyasha. Inuyasha felt like hurting the monk for that, but unfortunately, doing so would require an explanation and any refusal to give one on his part would only make the females more persistent. One female he could deal with, but when Sango and Kagome joined together for a cause. . .

Suffice it to say it was difficult to get out of a situation like that. Truthfully, Inuyasha had never gotten away scot-free and he didn’t see himself getting out of any anytime soon. The closest thing to Miroku getting away free was when his raccoon-dog pal ‘transformed’ into another Miroku and mixed each other up.

It had taken Sango a short while to get the two of them to pay for that one, but man did they learn their lessons. More pointedly Miroku paid, but then, Sango was always but always more severe with the monk. ‘Love fights’, Kagome called it.

He glanced at Kagome now as she helped Sango and Kaede with dinner. She was adding seasonings from her time, which Inuyasha learned quickly could make ramen even better. He kept his hands away from the pot, though; last time he tried to sample dinner he got three handprints to the face.

Miroku had laughed after that, for as long as it took Inuyasha to catch and pummel him. The kit had laughed as well, but hid with Kagome so Inuyasha couldn’t touch the little brat. Sango said it had ‘served him right’, while Kaede informed him it was a lesson and Kagome’s eyes promised a make-up fight later.

Inuyasha smirked just now, repeating the phrase in his mind. Make-up fight. That fit them only too well, didn’t it? Always ending up in a fight, no matter what they did. But as long as they were fighting, everything was normal between them. Sure the changes of late had changed them as well, but really, it was only so much of an alter.

They still fought, though now it was done with a light air and open forgiveness for every word and action before, during, and after. It was play-fights, even though they got pretty heated at times. Ah, but the heat of the fights sometimes -- their biggest fight was, as always, the one from so long ago when Kagome was just freed from Kouga’s clan.

He still didn’t get why she just had to let the wolf escape, and he still wondered what happened while she was under his hold, but since she didn’t cling to him like no tomorrow, it couldn’t have been anything bad. And something Kouga told her had to have softened her to his cause, and as Kagome just was, it meant Kouga wasn’t as bad as he’d seemed at first.

Perhaps he had been, but Kagome just changes people, usually for the better. She changed Inuyasha, so much so that he hardly recognized himself at times. She made people just realize the real weight of life, the insatiable need to protect it, the value of every soul and its container; Kagome was, in a word, ethereal.

No other woman, save Midoriko, could ever top her heart. He had to wonder now, as he thought about it, if she was in fact Midoriko. It was certainly possible; the Shikon no Tama did strange things to people, both good and bad.

What’s to say that the reason why Kagome was stronger than Kikyo was because she was, in fact, a mixture of souls rather than one? The Shikon no Tama had burned with Kikyo’s body and returned in Kagome’s. Even if the souls didn’t mix upon conception or birth, her life of near-endless kindness would have certainly drawn out Midoriko’s enough that the two could have joined.

It made sense, in an odd sort of way.

Kikyo could sense the shards, as every priestess of power could; but Kagome seemingly had a connection with it. Could Kikyo have resisted the tainted Shikon shards when Kagome had? Poisoned and cursed, the shards themselves had nearly taken over Kagome, but in the end, not even tainted shards could match her will.

No. Kikyo couldn’t have resisted the tainted shards with willpower alone. That time. . . Kagome hadn’t been trying to purify the shards, she had been completely defying them. Kikyo would have tried to purify them, and she certainly could have; but Kikyo simply didn’t have Kagome’s will.

. . .Or was it, Midoriko’s will? Both?

If this was true, if Kagome’s soul had merged even partially with Midoriko’s, then it was no surprise that she became so strong in such a short time. Surpassed Kikyo, maybe not in wisdom or tactic, but yes in power, in caring and will. Perhaps it had been part of how Kagome was raised that added to her willpower and caring, but ultimately, Inuyasha could clearly see that most of Kagome’s advances -- if not all -- were done because she chose to.

That kind of person, his mind offered up. Kagome is simply that kind of person.

He grinned, watching her even as she looked at him, blushed, and told him to eat dinner or he’d get none.

~*~ Elder Inuyasha ~*~

He shivered.

Meeting Kagome had done something to him, had put a large part of his mind and soul at rest. But meeting his younger self had put a strain on his mind and soul as well. Not the kind that bombarded you with painful, unending thoughts, but with a connection he could feel as clearly as the clothes on his back.

It had strengthened this night, the New Moon. Before he could feel his younger self’s own feelings, though it was slight. Tonight, it was so much stronger. He could hear his own thoughts repeated, and felt nostalgia as his own feelings joined with his younger self’s own.

Kagome vs. Kikyo vs. Midoriko. That’s what it came down to. He remembered thinking about it, about how Kagome seemed limitlessly stronger than both women, with characteristics from each that aided her without taking away from her own independent being, or overwhelming those who knew her.

Why did he think these things?

Probably, it was fate. Fate told him to realize it, for it was true; future battles of which they could hardly imagine proved this. It was this realization alone that taught him to let go of her, to allow her to continue to grow, to the point where it wasn’t him protecting her as much as it was him aiding her.

Kagome was greater than any demon, kinder than any angel, as powerful as any god and as merciful as the heavens themselves. Had they asked, any of the truly evil demons they’d fought would have lived, by simply asking of her forgiveness and pledging to help atone for what they’d done.

She would have let them live, because it wasn’t in her to take a life that didn’t want to go, or had no reason to go. In the end, all you had to do was ask with sincerity that she not kill you, and she wouldn’t. It was a fault at times -- really, she could always be double-crossed or sucked into a scheme for it -- but in the end, even a double-cross couldn’t kill her.

No. . . it took three men after her, while she was weakened from carrying a child, with no ability to climb out of the well herself, apart from himself and her bow. It took the vilest of mankind to kill a being so perfect you’d think she was invincible, immortal, and eternal.

He shut his eyes on the thoughts. Staring at the ceiling was doing him no good, and these thoughts were wrecking him yet again. He needed a distraction, and fast, before he started trying to tear pieces of himself out to lessen the inevitable pain --

“Inuyasha.”

He opened his eyes. Well shit. He must’ve been so entrapped by his own thoughts, he hadn’t noticed Sesshomaru’s entrance.

“Hey, nii. What do you want?” he replied sourly.

“Motsumoto called the correct number.”

“Did he?”

“You didn’t hint, did you?”

“I told him to use his instincts.”

“But did you hint?”

“Not for a nanosecond,” he sighed, sitting up and turning to face his brother. “Besides,” he added, “I don’t know the number.”

“Point taken.” Sesshomaru took scope of the room before sitting down, placing the two of them almost knee-to-knee.

“So what are you still doing here?”

“Wondering a bit.”

“About what?” Inuyasha asked, yawning behind his hand.

“Why you seem to refuse to take a bigger part of life.”

“And what does that mean?”

Sesshomaru sighed, and Inuyasha just knew this would be a repeat of some conversation they’d had before. “Think for a moment,” Sesshomaru began, and immediately Inuyasha knew this was going to take a while.

“About what?”

“If you wouldn’t interrupt, you’d know by now,” Sesshomaru replied. “It was your idea, was it not, to enlist a rule upon all demons to let other hanyous live?”

“Getting to the point. . ?”

“You know very well they all banded together to support one another, and you know even better each of these hanyous over two hundred owe you their lives. You know they made a no-questions-asked organization and asked you to lead them. You’re the oldest living hanyou; why can’t you simply lead the younger ones?”

“Like the way you lead your brood and your corporation?”

“I led the entire West Lands for near five centuries; I’ve led my ‘brood’ for four centuries, and my corporation for three. There was a time I was leading all three. Surely a hanyou with more than half my abilities could lead a country’s worth of hanyous through the centuries.”

“You talk a lot.”

“I’m making up for lost time and your lack of speaking,” Sesshomaru bit out. “And your attitude is testing an old man’s patience. Don’t make me scar you again.”

“I’m un-scar-able,” Inuyasha pointed out.

“I will do it if I must.”

“If I can completely control the demon in my blood to the point where I don’t need Tessaiga to hold it back, what chance do you have of scarring my body when I can’t even bruise anymore?”

“Bullets still hurt. Imagine for a moment if I shot you, and from there dripped poison in the wound.”

“That’s nothing,” Inuyasha hissed. “I’ve felt real pain.”

Sesshomaru was quiet then, because he knew he’d struck a blow or he knew Inuyasha had to have a moment, Inuyasha didn’t know, but he was grateful all the same.

Shaking his head, Inuyasha finally replied to the real issue. “I’m no leader anymore. I can’t lead without her.”

“You led her,” Sesshomaru out.

“On quests, maybe, but I never led her. She led me, Sesshomaru-nii. . . Don’t. . .don’t ever get that confused.” He was looking away now, at a single bit of carpet that was interesting solely because it was a shade lighter than the patch it occupied.

There was a long pause from both then, as Inuyasha stared at the carpet and Sesshomaru stared at Inuyasha’s human ear. The silence that stretched out between them was strained with everything they’d said to each other before, and everything they’d held back, everything they hadn’t said when they had to.

“And so she led you,” Sesshomaru finally began, slowly, “yet you never learned from her how to lead others?”

He shivered again. He could hear several voices now, all mental, some of his own, some of Kagome’s, some of his younger self’s and some of Sesshomaru. All the things said were muddled and unnatural, blending together and making every word unintelligible. And then, above all, Miroku’s voice, saying the only thing the monk had said which had enough value to strike everyone who had heard it, for the simple fact that it was undeniably true:

“Gods are all around us, leading us where we need to be. Sometimes they take the form of signs, but in some special cases, they take the form of humans or demons -- Kagome. Your endless wisdom taps my own out; it has to be that of a God.”

“Kagome was a God,” he said simply to Sesshomaru. “I could have never led anyone as well as she could, no matter how long I knew her, how much I learned, if she cataloged everything she did and the reasons why and I studied those for all of my life.”

Sesshomaru stood up without another word and left the room, quietly shutting the door behind him. Inuyasha was left with his thoughts, blending with his younger self’s inner admission that Kagome could arouse him with a look when she wanted to.

The meshing of their thoughts brought a smile to his face even as his heart ached. Man, when was he going to just die? This time paradox was confusing and difficult enough.

~*~ Hojo ~*~

Just clicking a remote at a cable TV was so boring, but until the full use of his arm came back, he couldn’t even write straight. So much for homework or helping out. Luckily plenty of girls were willing to help, making him fully realize exactly how he’d acted around Kagome for so long. Sure most of the time she admitted her ‘illnesses’ hadn’t been illnesses at all, but he’d showered her with get-well gifts and charms anyway.

Exactly like how that pack of females were doing to him, except that they had sheer numbers in their favor. In two days he had roughly the amount of gifts that he’d given to Kagome over two years.

Someone knocked and he watched his mother open her door and invite in the visitors after a moment’s chat. He sat up quick when he saw who it was, and stood up sharply, sending a twinge of pain down his arm.

“What are you. . ?” he started, unable to finish.

A sheepish redhead toed the floor, a police officer at her one side, and a well-dressed man at her other side. The girl that had attacked Kagome and himself -- what was she doing here?

“I’m very sorry,” she started, in a tiny voice. She hadn’t looked up yet.

The well-dressed man cleared his throat.

She looked up at the man, then over at Hojo and bowed respectively. “I’m really very sorry,” she tried again, then righted herself. “I, um. . . I got jealous of Kagome-san because everyone felt bad for her. I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

Taken aback, he looked at his mother, then the officer and the other man.

Making introductions, the man said the girl was Kyone Hisaka, his daughter. Hojo could tell the man was holding something back as he explained the situation, but didn’t ask about it. He hurriedly bowed when the Kyone man and his daughter did, and then the three of them were gone and Hojo stared instead at his mother.

She was reading a letter that Hojo hadn’t seen, and then she handed it to him. As he read, he understood. Written down was that Hisaka had been a ‘victim’ of the same criminals who’d hurt Kagome, though it didn’t say in what way. Explained here was Hisaka’s mental instability and her profuse apologies, along with a check to cover his hospital bills and extra -- the ‘extra’ bit referred to blatantly as ‘hush money’ to keep Hisaka’s problems a secret.

When he looked up, his mother said, “Look on the other side of the letter.”

Other side? He flipped it over and saw that someone had hand-written on the other side at some point.

Hojo-san,

Please don’t report to anyone about my troubles. It’s a kind of family secret, and with how important my father is, people could use that knowledge to harm me and make my family suffer. I can’t say how sorry I am, but now that my parents have explained the whole situation to me, I understand why they kept me out of the media.

I hope we can meet another time so I can try to make up for what I did to you.

Kyone Hisaka

That didn’t explain much more than the other side of the letter, but somehow, it made him feel a little better. So the girl at least understands everything now. And it did explain, mostly, why she felt the need to hurt Kagome and why she snapped and attacked him.

At least he hoped she got better. He felt really bad for her now, knowing that she’d been dealt a bad hand by the same men who’d hurt Kagome so badly. He looked up at his mother. “What are we going to do about the money they gave us?”

“Pay the bills, of course,” she replied. “But of the rest. . . We’ll give most of the extra back, but keep a bit in case we need it.”

“Isn’t that kind of wrong. . ?”

“Of course not. You have to look at it from their point of view, too; it would be an insult to refuse all of the money, even if it’s more than you need. Around a fifth or a fourth of the total extra should suffice well.”

Even as she’d said it, she’d been signing the checks. Hojo shook his head at her, folded up the letter with a little difficulty, and took it upstairs to his room. In truth his mother was a bit greedy, and really protective of the money she had. Hojo himself wouldn’t have been able to give anyone anything if he hadn’t taken a job and started saving; now that he had a stable work week (though at the moment it was on hiatus) he had income and his income was kept away from his mother at all costs.

He had to chuckle at his own thoughts. Keeping money away. . .at all costs. Too bad he hadn’t spoken that one aloud.

:End Chapter:

Promised to keep updating, now didn’t I?

If you’re wondering about the ‘future battles’ that proves Kagome as a kind of mixed-soul Midoriko god who leads, you can just stop. I have no intentions of making an enemy up just to pull out everyone’s strength reserves and explain in battle what I explained in words.

Though it would be cool, huh?

Still keeping my eyes out for contest-goers. Granted I can’t exactly check as I type this (haha, laugh at the poor computer-but-no-internet authoress, you no-good hairless wookies), but I’m hoping people are responding.

What I didn’t mention in the contest note that I should have is that otaku outfits count as entries. You can dress up as your favorite character, or whichever one you think my fave is (good luck guessing!) and it’ll be accepted. Hell, it could just be make-up and a wig, and it’d work.

Until next update. :Bows and gracefully exits: