InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Don't know what you've got 'til it's gone ❯ The Tetsusaiga Test ( Chapter 16 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any other character created by Rumiko Takahashi

Chapter 16 – The Tetsusaiga Test

“Maybe you’re trying too hard,” Shippo tried not to snicker at Kagome’s scrunched, strained expression. Her eyes sprang open and she let her breath out in a rush.

“Too hard?”

“Yeah, try relaxing into it.” He shifted into a giant pink balloon with googley eyes, floated for a few moments, then popped back into his former shape.

“You make it look so easy!” Kagome groaned and flopped onto her back in the grass. They had been at this all morning and she had yet to change any part of her shape. She could feel her youkai power, tap into it, but couldn’t quite get it to do what she wanted.

Shippo plucked a blade of grass and stuck it in mouth, eyeing her speculatively. “Are you sure you’re kitsune?”

“Can hanyou kitsune change their shapes?” Inuyasha called down from the bough of Goshinboku on which he sat.

Shippo blinked up at him, “She’s hanyou?”

Inuyasha dropped from his perch in a blur of red and landed gracefully by the two fox demons. “I don’t know. But it may be why she’s having so much trouble shape-shifting.”

“Well, it depends on the kitsune, I guess. None of my family were hanyou,” he sniffed and stuck his nose in the air. “We didn’t hang out with riffraff. Ow!” he rubbed the rising lump on his head left by Inuyasha’s fist and climbed onto Kagome’s tummy.

Kagome rolled her eyes, “You don’t have to hit him, you know.”

“Yeah I do – show him who’s boss.” Satisfied that the kit had learned his lesson, the hanyou dropped into a squat with his hand on the ground between his feet.

“Some father figure you are.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nevermind,” Kagome was not in the mood to explain the modern theories of child rearing to the impatient hanyou.

He was about to press the issue, then thought better of it. A phrase her mother had used was bothering him. He understood what the words meant separately, but together, they didn’t make much sense. “Uh, Kagome?” He peered down at her, cocking his head.

“Yes?” he was absolutely adorable when he did that, with his innocent golden eyes and puppy-dog ears. She reached out and tweaked one of the little white triangles, delighted by how it twitched under her fingers.

“What is ‘birth control’?”

Her hand froze mid-rub and crept back to her body, “Uuuh…” She really couldn’t avoid the issue, especially considering how hot and heavy they’d been getting. On their way back to the well, her mother had pressed a package of condoms into her hand with a conspiratorial wink. Kagome had stammered her thanks and shoved the box to the bottom of her bag, hoping that no one else noticed. “It’s used to prevent unwanted pregnancies,” she spit out in a rush, opting for textbook terminology.

Shippo snorted, “Youkai don’t need stuff like that. We can smell when our mates are in heat.”

Inuyasha glared down at him, “Aren’t you a little young for that?”

“I’ve got a nose, and I know that Kagome is-“

Kagome sat straight up, spilling the kit from his seat on her belly and pressing her hands to her burning cheeks, “Can we talk about something else, please?”

The two males stared at her blankly. She sighed and rubbed her face with her hands. “Like, how do we know if I’m hanyou or not?”

Inuyasha blinked at her, “Touch my sword.”

“What!” he had to be crazy, saying a thing like that in front of a child. What was he thinking?

“The Tetsusaiga – touch it. If you’re hanyou, you should be able to touch it without triggering the anti-youkai spell,” his eyes narrowed at her furious blush. “What did you think I meant?”

“…uuh, nothing,” she had to get her mind out of the gutter; it was making way too many comparisons without her consent. She was reminded of an old American cartoon about two high-school losers, “Long…hehe…hard…hehe.” Her blush increased as a slow grin spread across his face. She ducked her head and held out her hand, bracing herself for a possible shock. “OK, let’s try it.”

When the expected weight did not fill her hand, she glanced up at him through her bangs. He held the sheathed Tetsusaiga hovering over her hand, his face serious. “What are you waiting for?”

He frowned, his eyebrows knitting, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You think it will hurt that much? Is there any other way to tell?” She pursed her lips when he didn’t answer. “Well, here goes nothing,” and before he could snatch it back, she wrapped her fingers around the hilt. She waited a breathless second, then let go. “So, this means I’m hanyou?”

Inuyasha nodded, his face pale. Shippo sniffed at her, “You don’t really smell hanyou. You could pass for youkai.”

“Thanks, Shippo,” she ruffled his fluffy red ponytail; he meant it as a compliment. “But how am I going to take my math test if I can’t pass for human?”

~~~

Kagome pushed the mirrored sunglasses up her nose and grimaced at her reflection. The big lenses covered her eyes but combined with the scarf framing her face, looked absolutely ridiculous with her school uniform. The claw she had cut on her left index finger was still blunt but had grown noticeably longer. The scarf started to slip backwards in her silky hair, showing the bottom point of the crest on her forehead. Frustrated, she tugged it back into place. ‘This isn’t going to work.’

She slumped back to her desk, pulling off the shades and scarf, and slouched into her chair. Propping her chin in her hand, she stared forlornly out her window at the setting sun. ‘I’ve barely gotten a thing done all day! Not only have I not studied for my math test, I can’t even disguise myself as human. What am I going to do?' She opened her math book with a resigned sigh. ‘At least I’ll have a few moments to concentrate since Inuyasha stayed with Shippo and Myoga.’

She’d cajoled, pleaded, threatened, until he’d finally broken down and agreed to give her a couple of hours in her time to study. “But if you’re not back by moonrise, I’m fucking coming to get you,” he’d all but shouted in her face. She’d promised and hopped down the well before he could change his mind, secretly pleased that he was so reluctant to be parted from her.

To be completely honest, she really didn’t like the 500 years that separated her from her …mate. She smiled softly, her eyes distant. A breath whispered through her window, billowing the curtains and fluttering the pages of her math book. She turned back to the book with a low, unconscious purr.

She was in the middle of a particularly nasty integral when a realization hit her. ‘I’ve been going about this shape-changing thing all wrong!’ She dropped her pencil on her desk and pushed her chair back. ‘I’ve been trying to shape-shift into something I’m not! But I’m hanyou, so I just need to shift into what part of me is!’ Walking back to the full-length mirror on her closet door, she stood in front of it and closed her eyes, picturing herself as she was just a few days ago. With a deep breath, she reached out to the demon-energy within her and…pop. She opened her eyes and grinned at her human reflection. Slowly spinning in front of the mirror, she admired the fruits of her efforts.

Her ears perked to the doorbell ringing. Cocking her head, she listened to her Grandfather greet the visitor, “Kagome? No, she’s in bed with a sinus infection.” Yuka’s voice floated up to her, “Well, could you tell her-” Kagome didn’t wait to hear the rest. Yanking open her bedroom door, she flew down the stairs to the front door, barely remembering to slow down before her girlfriend saw her.

“Hi, guys!” she chirped with a wave. “Thanks, Grandpa, I’ve got it.”

“But Kagome, you-“ her grandfather waved his hands at her frantically, not yet registering her human features.

“I said I’m fine,” giving him speaking glare and, with her back to her friends, pointing to her unblemished forehead. Her grandfather’s mouth became a perfect ‘O’, his eyes wide.

Emi grinned at her, “Kagome! You don’t sound stuffy at all!"

“Yeah, well, I’m feeling much better,” Kagome coughed into her hand for effect.

“Hi, Kagome! Glad to see you’re feeling better. It’s too bad you have to take this summer class. Did you get my old notes for the test?” Hojo spoke up from the back of the group.

“Hojo!” Kagome was suddenly very grateful for the distance between her and Inuyasha. “Yeah, I got them, thanks so much.” She felt guilty just talking to him, which was silly; it wasn’t like she was interested in him or anything.

“I was thinking that if you are still feeling OK after the test tomorrow, we could catch lunch and a movie. What do you say?”

“Gee, Hojo, that’s very kind of you, but-“ Kagome’s mind ground to a halt. “Tomorrow?” she squeaked. “Isn’t the test the day after tomorrow?”

Hojo gave her a worried frown and shook his head. “Today is Thursday and they always have the test on Fridays. Are you sure you’re OK?”

“Uh, yeah,” she mumbled distractedly. All of her blood seemed to have pooled in her feet and she could barely understand what her friends were saying.

“So then, how about that date?”

“She says yes!” Yuka and Emi spoke up for her, crowding her into the house and closing the door in the boy’s face.

“But-“

Her friends fixed her with intense stares, “You need to drop that two-timing jerk once and for all. Didn’t you say he was growing distant?”

“Yeah, but we made up and now-“ Her youkai was protesting the disparaging words of her friends against her mate even as her human mind was counting down the hours until her math test. She tried to ignore the roiling of her demon blood, knowing that they were only looking out for her. However, the anger in the pit of her stomach was not listening to reason.

“Kagome, he’s no good for you. Hojo is a nice boy and will treat you well,” Yuka gestured to the closed door. She tapped Kagome’s chest with her finger, “You are going on that date. It will be a great way for you to celebrate the end of the class.”

She clenched her hands into fists, not trusting herself to speak and becoming slightly alarmed at the tingling in her limbs. The angrier she got, the more her hold on the kitsune glamour seemed to slip. Mistaking her silence for agreement, her busybody friends nodded, satisfied, and opened the front door. “She’ll see you tomorrow at noon,” Yuka stated and waltzed down the stairs with Emi trailing behind her.

Hojo grinned and waved, “That’s great! See ya then, Kagome!” and followed after the girls.

Kagome gave their backs a baleful glare and slammed the door shut. Why did she let her friends get her into these things? There was no way on earth she was going to make that date. She felt the spell break, leaving her head buzzing as if it were filled with a swarm of bees. Pinching the bridge of her nose to relieve her newly acquired headache, she climbed the stairs to her bedroom, her head echoing, ‘Fourteen hours.’

~~~

“She promised she’d be back by now,” the irate hanyou grouched, leaning over the side of the well and staring down into the dark depths.

Shippo sighed, weary of the conversation but drawn into it nonetheless. Really, how many times would they have to go through this? “Then why don’t you go get her?”

“I shouldn’t have to get her. She should fucking be here when she’s supposed to be!”

“Just go already,” the kit knocked his head against the side of the well. He didn’t really want to be left alone with Myoga, but it beat listening to Inuyasha’s griping. And the sooner he left, the sooner Kagome would be back.

With a snort, the hanyou leapt over the edge of the well and dropped through the time portal. He hardly noticed as the pink light engulfed him and deposited him safely 500 years into the future. As soon as he felt his feet touched ground, he bounded out of the well and the shrine in which it stood. Sniffing the night air, he quickly located her; she was in her bedroom. Landing quietly on the windowsill, he peered into the softly lit room. Kagome sat at her desk, her head pillowed on her arms and her eyes closed.

‘She’s sleeping,’ he slid off the sill and tiptoed to her, careful not to wake her. He admired the way the warm light made her skin glow and her hair shimmer. ‘So beautiful,’ he smoothed a stray strand of hair from her face. Slowly, gently, he eased an arm under her legs and behind her back, shifting her weight from the chair to his arms. He carried her limp form to her bed, laying her on her side and climbing behind her. Curling his body around her, he buried his face in her hair and inhaled her wonderful musky scent. ‘I was planning to bring her back, but…we can stay here tonight.’
Converting /tmp/phpRGvA5w to /dev/stdout