InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Don't know what you've got 'til it's gone ❯ Finding Kagome ( Chapter 5 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: RhiannonoftheMoon 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Hentai | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 05.24.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 4.5K | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Hentai | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 05.24.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 4.5K | Status: Completed
I do not own Inuyasha or any other characters created by Rumiko Takahashi.
Chapter 5 – Finding Kagome
Inuyasha felt his hanyou blood return as the first rays of dawn broke over the campsite. He heaved a relieved sigh and stretched his tense muscles. He looked over at Sango and Miroku, who were still asleep. Deciding against waking them, he thrust Tetsusaiga into his belt and turned to leave.
“Inuyasha?”
He turned to the quiet voice. Shippo gazed up at him, his eyebrows drawn together and his fluffy tail quivering. Inuyasha bent down and awkwardly patted him on the head. “I’ll get her back, don’t worry.” Shippo blinked and looked like he was about to argue. “You need to stay here and take care of Sango and Miroku. They’re just pathetic humans, remember.” Shippo nodded and sniffled. “Don’t let them sleep too late.”
Following the scent of his human self, he found the place he had confronted her. Rosary beads were scattered forlornly over the sand, gleaming in the morning sun. He gingerly picked one up, careful to not touch it too much, and sniffed it. Her scent was still strong on it but it was different than it should have been. The normally floral scent had a musky undertone that stirred his blood. ‘I knew something was wrong with her. I shouldn’t have waited to talk to her.’ He clenched his fist around the bead and glowered. ‘If she’s not in one piece when I find her, there’ll be hell to pay.’ Tucking the bead into his haori with the rest of them, he and circled the area until he found where the alluring scent entered the forest.
Now that it was daylight and his hanyou senses were back, her trail was easy to follow. Her scent hadn’t faded much and her passage through the brush left branches bent and broken. Every few minutes, he would leap above the treetops to try to find where she was now, but the wind was not in his favor. He would have to follow her the hard way.
After less than an hour of tracking her, the rancid smell of old blood hit his nostrils. For a moment, he panicked, fearing the worst. A moment later he realized that it was not Kagome’s blood. At least, most of it wasn’t. Increasing his speed, he reached the carcass of the lizard youkai minutes later.
A gruesome sight met his eyes: the lizard had been gutted and was lying in a bloody heap. Flies formed a black undulating cloud and were hovering obsessively over the body. In the heat of the morning, it had started to decay and was releasing foul gasses tinged with sulfur. Covering his nose and mouth with the sleeve of his haori, Inuyasha inspected the area for a sign of Kagome.
He was not disappointed, for he quickly found her discarded shoes and socks. The toes were torn through and the socks were coated with mud and gore. Sniffing around a large tree, he detected another youkai’s blood. No, it was Kagome; her scent had changed again, drastically. The musk had all but overpowered the soft floral bouquet with which he was so familiar. The smell intoxicated him. He fought back a growl and pushed an image of soft, silky flesh out of his mind. ‘I’ve spent too much time with that hentai, Miroku.’ He was vaguely ashamed of himself. He’d never thought that way about Kikyo, and there was no way he could do… what he wanted to do… with Kagome. ‘Baka, she doesn’t want that,’ but he found himself wondering.
His stomach twisted in fear and his ears pinned back as the scent of her blood led him toward a large oak tree. Four teeth, all belonging to Kagome, lay scattered in the grass. His hand shook as he picked one up. ‘Could she have been eaten? Maybe there were two lizards; she killed one and the other ate her?’ Frantically, he searched the area for signs of another youkai. Finding none, he calmed the racing of his heart. He brought the tooth to his face and inspected it closely. It wasn’t broken or in any way damaged; it looked like it had fallen out on it’s own. He breathed in her scent, feeling it hum through him like a drug.
Concentrating on what the scene told him instead of the ache in his loins, he searched for signs of her next move. 'So, she probably wasn’t badly injured.’ His lips twisted in a smirk, eyes gleaming. ‘She sure showed that lizard.’ Despite his agitation and concern, he was proud that she had dispatched the youkai without much injury to herself. Her teeth and footgear were a mystery, but she would explain when he found her. Picking up her trail, he raced after her.
~~~
The journey back to the hot spring was no more fun than the journey from it had been. If anything, the day was hotter and more humid. They had ridden Kirara part of the way, but the big cat had strained under the heat and their combined weight.
The miserable weather coupled with Shippo’s constant whining with and their concern for Kagome, put Sango and Miroku in very nasty moods. Sango had taken offense to anything that came from the monk’s mouth. His face had gotten so sore that he stopped talking completely and was now walking alone at the front of the group. He had started off walking behind, but she had pounded him with her boomerang for looking at her ass. Granted, he had been looking. He just didn’t think it was fair that she had jumped to conclusions.
He also knew why Inuyasha beat up on Shippo so often. If the kit weren’t so young, he would have considered giving him a smack upside the head. Every fifteen minutes he would ask a variation of, “Will Kagome be all right?” If he didn’t get the answer he wanted quickly enough, he would start sniffling. It wasn’t that Miroku wasn’t concerned; in fact, he was afraid that something horrible had happened to the miko. He didn’t want to be constantly reminded of that fear, was all. He sighed and jingled the rings in his staff.
“What if Kagome -”
“Shippo…”
Sango sighed in relief when they finally came across their campsite of two days ago; she was hot, tired, and desperately wanted to change out of her exterminator’s uniform. The hot spring was only a short walk up the path and then they would see… what they would see.
The exterminator had doubts about whether they would find anything useful there. Enchantments had to be cast by something. She had learned from training and experience that youkai were fairly predictable: the ones that stuck around usually made their presence known and needed killing. The sneaky ones skillfully hid themselves and rarely stayed in one place for long. Since no one had noticed anything after Kagome had gotten back, and since Kagome herself hadn’t mentioned anything, then the youkai had probably not stayed at the spring. Of course, that was assuming the spell had been cast by a youkai. She gnawed on her lower lip. If the spell had been cast by something else, then it was up to Miroku to figure it out.
She looked at the monk from the corner of her eyes. He seemed as lost in thought as she was. Suppressing a shudder, she decided she did not want to know what those thoughts were. His gaze caught hers. “This is the path to the spring?” he asked, gesturing to the small trail that led deeper into the woods.
She made an unladylike snort. “As if you didn’t know,” she huffed as she started up the path, ignoring his innocent expression. She suddenly stopped in her tracks, grabbed the monk, and shoved him in front of her.
“Lady Sango, if you have any doubts as to my intentions –”
“Save it.”
Shippo watched the two for a moment before following after them. ‘I’m the most mature person in this group. That’s scary.’
~~~
“Nothing?” Sango asked from her perch on the boulder.
Miroku sighed, relaxing his stance and opening his eyes. “Not a thing. There are traces of a demonic presence but they are fading quickly. Whatever was here is long gone and may not have had anything to do with Kagome.” He rubbed a hand over his face.
They had scoured the spring for any trace of what had enchanted their friend. It was the same as she remembered it: secluded and peaceful, the font of the spring trickling from a crack in the rock wall at the other side of the pool. No evil demonic auras were present. Not even a shikikami or ofuda was to be found. The place seemed undisturbed.
Sango slid off the boulder and landed gracefully on her feet. “Well, that’s it then. I suppose we should wait for Inuyasha at the campsite.”
“Do you suppose he could have been wrong about the hot spring?” the monk mused as he retrieved his staff, which was leaning against tree.
“Who knows? Without Kagome here to tell us what happened, we really are just grasping at straws.”
Quiet sobbing caught her attention. Shippo was sitting at the edge of the water with his head in his hands, his shoulder shaking. “Oh Shippo, don’t cry. Inuyasha will find her and he won’t let anything happen to her.” Sango bent down, picked up the kit and gave him a big hug.
“I-I-I already lost one m-mama, I don’t want to lose her t-t-too!” he wailed into her shoulder.
Sango rocked him and made shushing noises. She hadn’t realized that the kit had come to think of Kagome as his mother. It made sense, now that she thought about it. He had joined the group shortly after Kagome had started her adventures in the Sengoku Jidai and they had formed a close bond. Kagome was the one he usually ran to for protection. He even slept with her most nights. Having lost her own family, Sango felt for the kit and wanted to spare him any more pain. She and Miroku shared a dark look. They had to find Kagome quickly.
~~~
Kagome was making excellent time. She had maintained her brisk pace through the night and into the morning, slowing down only when the heat became too stifling. She didn’t feel the need to sleep and she wasn’t even that hungry. Once she had gotten used to the changes in her body, she found that she was enjoying her new mobility and strength. Her body dodged branches and leapt over logs seemingly by itself, leaving her mind free to wander. ‘I wonder if I can soar through the trees like Inuyasha?’ The idea was tempting but she was hesitant to try it. Maybe she would give it a shot when she knew there was a soft place to land. Aside from one stop, the Great Kimono Caper, she had been running since the fight.
She had spotted the village just as the morning sun had peaked over the horizon. Skirting around the edge of a village, she had spied some laundry hanging to dry behind a small hut. She had paused, hiding herself behind the screen of trees at the edge of the yard. The woman of the house had stepped out of the door with another load of damp cloth. Kagome had watched her put it on the line, wondering how to approach her. She must look a fright, barefoot and covered in youkai blood. When the woman had started back into the hut, Kagome had thrown caution to the wind, walked into the yard and called out to her, “Wait, please, ma’am!” The woman had turned to her in surprise, her eyes widening in horror, and she had run screaming inside.
Kagome had stopped short. ‘I know I look bad, but come on!’ A moment later, a man had burst out of the hut, brandishing a rusty sword. “Begone, demon!” Kagome’s jaw had dropped in shock.
“I’m not a demon!” she yelled back, but he continued his charge, yelling obscenities. She had turned and fled, grabbing the first thing her hand touched and yanked it off the laundry line. Wadding the fabric into a ball and tucking it under her arm, she had continued her flight until she was positive that no one was still chasing her. Eventually, she had slowed to the more reasonable pace she was now sustaining.
‘He must have thought I was a demon because of my school uniform.’ It hadn’t been the first time someone had mistaken her outlandish cloths to mean that she was youkai. Then she remembered her claws and groaned. ‘I wonder what else has changed?’ She caught a whiff of a river and sighed in relief, veering to the right and the source of the smell. ‘Finally, a bath!’
Shaking out the material in her hand, she regarded it with distaste. She had never stolen anything before and it didn’t set well with her. However, it was better than what she had been wearing. It was a youth’s kimono, faded but well-made, with embroidered yellow tigers on a blue background. She shrugged into it, the fabric sticking to her skin, which was still damp from her swim in the river. Surprisingly, it fit fairly well, if a little snug. It didn’t cover much more that her uniform had, but she was used to that. What did irritate her was that she had no way to keep it closed. ‘Why didn’t I steal a belt while I was at it?’
A sudden thought struck her. “I wonder…” she murmured as she picked up her uniform blouse and checked under the collar. “Thank you mom!” she cried when she found the safety pin. Her mother’s smiling face rose in her mind. “Never leave home without one,” Kagome echoed her mother’s words. She pinned the kimono closed and prayed that it would hold.
Kagome wandered over to the edge of the river and seated herself on a rock, dangling her feet into the water. She sighed and rested her head in her hands. ‘Mom, what would you say if you could see me now?’ She hadn’t been able to catch her reflection in the swiftly moving stream, but she knew her mother would not miss the claws or fangs. She pushed at one with her tongue. ‘Where am I going? I have to go back sometime. My friends will be worried and Shippo will be upset.’ She sorely missed the little kit and her heart ached that she would be the source of his pain. The splashing of the river and sun beating down on her was making her eyelids droop. She cracked a huge yawn and stretched. ‘Inuyasha will be looking for me.’ The thought of him started a slow burn in her abdomen that was slightly alarming but not unpleasant. ‘He will find me eventually.’ She smiled slightly as she leaned back on the rock, picturing him; long silver hair blowing in the breeze, ears twitching to catch the sounds of the forest but that molten gold gaze fixed only on her.
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Chapter 5 – Finding Kagome
Inuyasha felt his hanyou blood return as the first rays of dawn broke over the campsite. He heaved a relieved sigh and stretched his tense muscles. He looked over at Sango and Miroku, who were still asleep. Deciding against waking them, he thrust Tetsusaiga into his belt and turned to leave.
“Inuyasha?”
He turned to the quiet voice. Shippo gazed up at him, his eyebrows drawn together and his fluffy tail quivering. Inuyasha bent down and awkwardly patted him on the head. “I’ll get her back, don’t worry.” Shippo blinked and looked like he was about to argue. “You need to stay here and take care of Sango and Miroku. They’re just pathetic humans, remember.” Shippo nodded and sniffled. “Don’t let them sleep too late.”
Following the scent of his human self, he found the place he had confronted her. Rosary beads were scattered forlornly over the sand, gleaming in the morning sun. He gingerly picked one up, careful to not touch it too much, and sniffed it. Her scent was still strong on it but it was different than it should have been. The normally floral scent had a musky undertone that stirred his blood. ‘I knew something was wrong with her. I shouldn’t have waited to talk to her.’ He clenched his fist around the bead and glowered. ‘If she’s not in one piece when I find her, there’ll be hell to pay.’ Tucking the bead into his haori with the rest of them, he and circled the area until he found where the alluring scent entered the forest.
Now that it was daylight and his hanyou senses were back, her trail was easy to follow. Her scent hadn’t faded much and her passage through the brush left branches bent and broken. Every few minutes, he would leap above the treetops to try to find where she was now, but the wind was not in his favor. He would have to follow her the hard way.
After less than an hour of tracking her, the rancid smell of old blood hit his nostrils. For a moment, he panicked, fearing the worst. A moment later he realized that it was not Kagome’s blood. At least, most of it wasn’t. Increasing his speed, he reached the carcass of the lizard youkai minutes later.
A gruesome sight met his eyes: the lizard had been gutted and was lying in a bloody heap. Flies formed a black undulating cloud and were hovering obsessively over the body. In the heat of the morning, it had started to decay and was releasing foul gasses tinged with sulfur. Covering his nose and mouth with the sleeve of his haori, Inuyasha inspected the area for a sign of Kagome.
He was not disappointed, for he quickly found her discarded shoes and socks. The toes were torn through and the socks were coated with mud and gore. Sniffing around a large tree, he detected another youkai’s blood. No, it was Kagome; her scent had changed again, drastically. The musk had all but overpowered the soft floral bouquet with which he was so familiar. The smell intoxicated him. He fought back a growl and pushed an image of soft, silky flesh out of his mind. ‘I’ve spent too much time with that hentai, Miroku.’ He was vaguely ashamed of himself. He’d never thought that way about Kikyo, and there was no way he could do… what he wanted to do… with Kagome. ‘Baka, she doesn’t want that,’ but he found himself wondering.
His stomach twisted in fear and his ears pinned back as the scent of her blood led him toward a large oak tree. Four teeth, all belonging to Kagome, lay scattered in the grass. His hand shook as he picked one up. ‘Could she have been eaten? Maybe there were two lizards; she killed one and the other ate her?’ Frantically, he searched the area for signs of another youkai. Finding none, he calmed the racing of his heart. He brought the tooth to his face and inspected it closely. It wasn’t broken or in any way damaged; it looked like it had fallen out on it’s own. He breathed in her scent, feeling it hum through him like a drug.
Concentrating on what the scene told him instead of the ache in his loins, he searched for signs of her next move. 'So, she probably wasn’t badly injured.’ His lips twisted in a smirk, eyes gleaming. ‘She sure showed that lizard.’ Despite his agitation and concern, he was proud that she had dispatched the youkai without much injury to herself. Her teeth and footgear were a mystery, but she would explain when he found her. Picking up her trail, he raced after her.
~~~
The journey back to the hot spring was no more fun than the journey from it had been. If anything, the day was hotter and more humid. They had ridden Kirara part of the way, but the big cat had strained under the heat and their combined weight.
The miserable weather coupled with Shippo’s constant whining with and their concern for Kagome, put Sango and Miroku in very nasty moods. Sango had taken offense to anything that came from the monk’s mouth. His face had gotten so sore that he stopped talking completely and was now walking alone at the front of the group. He had started off walking behind, but she had pounded him with her boomerang for looking at her ass. Granted, he had been looking. He just didn’t think it was fair that she had jumped to conclusions.
He also knew why Inuyasha beat up on Shippo so often. If the kit weren’t so young, he would have considered giving him a smack upside the head. Every fifteen minutes he would ask a variation of, “Will Kagome be all right?” If he didn’t get the answer he wanted quickly enough, he would start sniffling. It wasn’t that Miroku wasn’t concerned; in fact, he was afraid that something horrible had happened to the miko. He didn’t want to be constantly reminded of that fear, was all. He sighed and jingled the rings in his staff.
“What if Kagome -”
“Shippo…”
Sango sighed in relief when they finally came across their campsite of two days ago; she was hot, tired, and desperately wanted to change out of her exterminator’s uniform. The hot spring was only a short walk up the path and then they would see… what they would see.
The exterminator had doubts about whether they would find anything useful there. Enchantments had to be cast by something. She had learned from training and experience that youkai were fairly predictable: the ones that stuck around usually made their presence known and needed killing. The sneaky ones skillfully hid themselves and rarely stayed in one place for long. Since no one had noticed anything after Kagome had gotten back, and since Kagome herself hadn’t mentioned anything, then the youkai had probably not stayed at the spring. Of course, that was assuming the spell had been cast by a youkai. She gnawed on her lower lip. If the spell had been cast by something else, then it was up to Miroku to figure it out.
She looked at the monk from the corner of her eyes. He seemed as lost in thought as she was. Suppressing a shudder, she decided she did not want to know what those thoughts were. His gaze caught hers. “This is the path to the spring?” he asked, gesturing to the small trail that led deeper into the woods.
She made an unladylike snort. “As if you didn’t know,” she huffed as she started up the path, ignoring his innocent expression. She suddenly stopped in her tracks, grabbed the monk, and shoved him in front of her.
“Lady Sango, if you have any doubts as to my intentions –”
“Save it.”
Shippo watched the two for a moment before following after them. ‘I’m the most mature person in this group. That’s scary.’
~~~
“Nothing?” Sango asked from her perch on the boulder.
Miroku sighed, relaxing his stance and opening his eyes. “Not a thing. There are traces of a demonic presence but they are fading quickly. Whatever was here is long gone and may not have had anything to do with Kagome.” He rubbed a hand over his face.
They had scoured the spring for any trace of what had enchanted their friend. It was the same as she remembered it: secluded and peaceful, the font of the spring trickling from a crack in the rock wall at the other side of the pool. No evil demonic auras were present. Not even a shikikami or ofuda was to be found. The place seemed undisturbed.
Sango slid off the boulder and landed gracefully on her feet. “Well, that’s it then. I suppose we should wait for Inuyasha at the campsite.”
“Do you suppose he could have been wrong about the hot spring?” the monk mused as he retrieved his staff, which was leaning against tree.
“Who knows? Without Kagome here to tell us what happened, we really are just grasping at straws.”
Quiet sobbing caught her attention. Shippo was sitting at the edge of the water with his head in his hands, his shoulder shaking. “Oh Shippo, don’t cry. Inuyasha will find her and he won’t let anything happen to her.” Sango bent down, picked up the kit and gave him a big hug.
“I-I-I already lost one m-mama, I don’t want to lose her t-t-too!” he wailed into her shoulder.
Sango rocked him and made shushing noises. She hadn’t realized that the kit had come to think of Kagome as his mother. It made sense, now that she thought about it. He had joined the group shortly after Kagome had started her adventures in the Sengoku Jidai and they had formed a close bond. Kagome was the one he usually ran to for protection. He even slept with her most nights. Having lost her own family, Sango felt for the kit and wanted to spare him any more pain. She and Miroku shared a dark look. They had to find Kagome quickly.
~~~
Kagome was making excellent time. She had maintained her brisk pace through the night and into the morning, slowing down only when the heat became too stifling. She didn’t feel the need to sleep and she wasn’t even that hungry. Once she had gotten used to the changes in her body, she found that she was enjoying her new mobility and strength. Her body dodged branches and leapt over logs seemingly by itself, leaving her mind free to wander. ‘I wonder if I can soar through the trees like Inuyasha?’ The idea was tempting but she was hesitant to try it. Maybe she would give it a shot when she knew there was a soft place to land. Aside from one stop, the Great Kimono Caper, she had been running since the fight.
She had spotted the village just as the morning sun had peaked over the horizon. Skirting around the edge of a village, she had spied some laundry hanging to dry behind a small hut. She had paused, hiding herself behind the screen of trees at the edge of the yard. The woman of the house had stepped out of the door with another load of damp cloth. Kagome had watched her put it on the line, wondering how to approach her. She must look a fright, barefoot and covered in youkai blood. When the woman had started back into the hut, Kagome had thrown caution to the wind, walked into the yard and called out to her, “Wait, please, ma’am!” The woman had turned to her in surprise, her eyes widening in horror, and she had run screaming inside.
Kagome had stopped short. ‘I know I look bad, but come on!’ A moment later, a man had burst out of the hut, brandishing a rusty sword. “Begone, demon!” Kagome’s jaw had dropped in shock.
“I’m not a demon!” she yelled back, but he continued his charge, yelling obscenities. She had turned and fled, grabbing the first thing her hand touched and yanked it off the laundry line. Wadding the fabric into a ball and tucking it under her arm, she had continued her flight until she was positive that no one was still chasing her. Eventually, she had slowed to the more reasonable pace she was now sustaining.
‘He must have thought I was a demon because of my school uniform.’ It hadn’t been the first time someone had mistaken her outlandish cloths to mean that she was youkai. Then she remembered her claws and groaned. ‘I wonder what else has changed?’ She caught a whiff of a river and sighed in relief, veering to the right and the source of the smell. ‘Finally, a bath!’
Shaking out the material in her hand, she regarded it with distaste. She had never stolen anything before and it didn’t set well with her. However, it was better than what she had been wearing. It was a youth’s kimono, faded but well-made, with embroidered yellow tigers on a blue background. She shrugged into it, the fabric sticking to her skin, which was still damp from her swim in the river. Surprisingly, it fit fairly well, if a little snug. It didn’t cover much more that her uniform had, but she was used to that. What did irritate her was that she had no way to keep it closed. ‘Why didn’t I steal a belt while I was at it?’
A sudden thought struck her. “I wonder…” she murmured as she picked up her uniform blouse and checked under the collar. “Thank you mom!” she cried when she found the safety pin. Her mother’s smiling face rose in her mind. “Never leave home without one,” Kagome echoed her mother’s words. She pinned the kimono closed and prayed that it would hold.
Kagome wandered over to the edge of the river and seated herself on a rock, dangling her feet into the water. She sighed and rested her head in her hands. ‘Mom, what would you say if you could see me now?’ She hadn’t been able to catch her reflection in the swiftly moving stream, but she knew her mother would not miss the claws or fangs. She pushed at one with her tongue. ‘Where am I going? I have to go back sometime. My friends will be worried and Shippo will be upset.’ She sorely missed the little kit and her heart ached that she would be the source of his pain. The splashing of the river and sun beating down on her was making her eyelids droop. She cracked a huge yawn and stretched. ‘Inuyasha will be looking for me.’ The thought of him started a slow burn in her abdomen that was slightly alarming but not unpleasant. ‘He will find me eventually.’ She smiled slightly as she leaned back on the rock, picturing him; long silver hair blowing in the breeze, ears twitching to catch the sounds of the forest but that molten gold gaze fixed only on her.
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