InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Bearers of the Shards ❯ Why Demons and Caffeine Shouldn't Mix ( Chapter 4 )

{#} {#} {#} THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS {#} {#} {#}

{#} {#} Chapter 4: Why Demons and Caffeine Shouldn't Mix {#} {#}

Where once there were four, now five were seated around the campfire for dinner. Miroku cooked up some more ramen for their guest while Kagome tended to his wounds. Shippou watched with fascination as she cleaned the long weal on Yaburenumaru's back.

"Wow," the Kitsune exclaimed in hushed tones. "There's so much BLOOD."

"Go get a candy bar out of my backpack," Kagome ordered without looking at him. "There should be one more left."

Happily, the Kitsune danced off to obey. Inuyasha sat on the far side of the fire, sulking. He didn't seem to like the boy, and the feeling seemed to be mutual.

Periodically he sniffed in Yaburenumaru's direction, screwing up his face in poorly-concealed perplexity. The boy smelled human all right, but to Inuyasha he seemed shiftier than the average kid. He also didn't like Kagome's hands on Yaburenumaru's flesh.

The boy himself seemed ill at ease under Inuyasha's stare---he was probably not reassured by the persistent tic under Inuyasha's left eye.

"That's quite a name you've got there, runt," Inuyasha remarked. "Longer than you are tall."

"It's my family name," Yaburenumaru replied shortly. He spoke out of the side of his mouth, and would not look the hanyou in the eye.

"You're heir to your family's lands, aren't you?" Kagome asked, looking thoughtful as she sprayed disinfectant on his wound. "What happened? Did someone kidnap you?"

"I guess you could say that," he replied with a shrug, glancing over his shoulder at her and cracking a wan smile.

She handed him a bottle of water.

"Here, drink something. You look parched."

Inuyasha leaned back against a tree, folding his arms.

"I suppose your name means `unbreakable' because your family line thinks it's invincible, huh?" he sneered.

Yaburenumaru stiffened.

"My lineage is unbreakable, because I am returning to become its lord," he snapped. "My family is very noble, and very old. Our lineage is something that no one---man or demon---will ever put asunder."

"Feh," Inuyasha jeered, but his heart didn't seem to be in it. He seemed slightly unnerved by Yaburenumaru's sudden outburst.

"But you haven't inherited your title yet, have you?" Kagome asked the boy, winding a bandage around his shoulder and middle. "Does your kingdom lie to the south? There is a kirin traveling in that direction."

Yaburenumaru's head slowly lifted. The muscles in his back knotted beneath her hands.

"A. . .kirin, you say?" he murmured. "Journeying south? You have seen it?"

"Yes," Kagome answered, frowning at the strangeness in his tone.

"Then I must hurry, to overtake it before it reaches my father's lands," he said in a low voice.

He brushed Kagome aside and rose shakily to his feet. Miroku caught him by the arm, though before he could walk away. Yaburenumaru stopped, glancing down at the monk's hand with narrowed eyes.

"An odd place to be wearing prayer beads," he remarked. But he did not try to escape Miroku's grip.

"You shouldn't be traveling alone, especially in your condition," Miroku admonished.

"At least stay the night with us," Kagome urged, indicating a space by the fire. "There is a terrible demon on the loose."

"We're hunting it," Shippou chimed in. His mouth was covered in chocolate.

"Indeed?" Yaburenumaru seated himself beside the fire, gazing at Inuyasha with renewed interest. "Since when do you hunt your own kind?"

"Since they started carrying shards of the Shikon Jewel," Inuyasha answered bluntly.

Miroku shot a glare his way, but the hanyou ignored it.

"The Shikon Jewel, you say?" Yaburenumaru murmured. "I've heard of it."

Kagome placed a blanket around his thin shoulders, but he scarcely seemed to notice. His gaze upon Inuyasha was intense---almost hungry. Inuyasha didn't like it.

"Yeah, you and half of Japan," he shot back. "What's it to YOU?"

Yaburenumaru smiled faintly, folding his hands in his lap. A lock of hair fell down over his face, obscuring one eye.

"A legend," he replied, with a shrug. "And nothing more. But you claim to seek out pieces of it?"

"We seek vengeance for the humans slain by the demons we pursue," Miroku cut in smoothly. "Oftentimes those we hunt possess shards. That is all."

Yaburenumaru's eyes slid sideways to Kagome, who had seated herself beside him.

"And these shards. . .do you. . .keep them?" he asked softly.

Inuyasha straightened, putting a hand to Tetsusaiga's hilt.

"You ask too many questions," he growled.

He was distracted when Miroku laid a steady hand on his arm, giving him a look that warned him to be silent.

"Inuyasha, you're being rude," Miroku chided. Then, turning to Yaburenumaru, he added, "I'm sorry. Tell me about this kingdom of yours."

"My father's lands lie beyond the hills to the south," the boy explained, settling into a cross-legged position. "It spans the valley there, including the forests, and the surrounding mountains themselves. My family has ruled there since the first settlement of Japan. Our line has survived storms and earthquakes; defeated invading armies. . .and demons." He did not include Inuyasha in his gaze, and perhaps this was a fortunate thing because the hanyou was baring his fangs.

"Feh," Inuyasha muttered. "So they stamp out a few fledglings and think they're demon slayers."

Yaburenumaru smiled wryly, dipping his head lower so that his bangs fell further over his eyes.

"The Unbreakable Line has slaughtered many Greater Youkai---demons far larger than any `fledgling.' We fashioned the palace's pillars with their fangs. . .and framed our houses with their ribs."

Shippou's mouth fell open and a hunk of chocolate fell out. His eyes were huge as saucers.

"That is barbaric," Kagome remarked, wrinkling her nose. "You know, not all demons are bad. Like Inuyasha here. . ."

"Oh, yes. Inu. . .yasha. . . You're a dog demon, aren't you?" Yaburenumaru commented, peering over at him. "I have heard of your kind."

"Feh," Inuyasha shot back. "Like I give a shit. Look, kid, you should be a little nicer, because we're not OBLIGATED to let you stay with us. You can go find your `unbreakable kingdom' by yourself."

Yaburenumaru's intent expression softened.

"I apologize," he murmured, bowing. "I shall try to be more polite. The Tatesei are warriors all, but we know the value of honorable behavior. Please do not take it to heart."

"We will be glad to escort you to your home, as it seems to be right on the way," Miroku offered. "This demon we're chasing is very dangerous."

Yaburenumaru straightened, suddenly seeming almost as nervous as he had been when they first met.

"I can manage on my own," he assured them. "I just need to rest a while until these wounds heal."

"Nonsense!" Miroku exclaimed, clasping his arm warmly. "It would be no trouble at all. Where are you going, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha was stalking off into the trees.

"I'm spending the night out here," he called without turning around. "To watch the perimeters of the camp."

"Inuyasha!" Kagome protested, but he didn't stop.

Shippou turned to Miroku and whispered, "We HAVE perimeters?"

"Let him go," the monk told them casually. "He's just in a bad mood." Miroku's tone belied a warning not to press the matter.

{#} {#} {#}

Kagome awoke early---when it was still dark out---because she could not stop coughing. Unzipping her sleeping bag, she crawled over to her pack and fished out her water bottle and Houjo's medicine. She downed the latter as quickly as possible. Then she took a few swallows of water and then sat there a moment, waiting for the tickle in her throat to subside.

She cocked her head to one side, listening to the rain and wishing Inuyasha was nearby to demand an explanation for her being up.

A stick cracked nearby with a resounding snap.

Kagome half-turned just fast enough to catch a glimpse of someone moving in her peripheral vision, and then she felt the kiss of steel at her throat. Hands thin and hard as wire encircled her upper arms like a vise. And dimly, in the back corner of her awareness, she sensed that her attacker possessed a jewel shard.

"What---?" she began, but then the knife slashed downward, and the hands vanished. She pitched backward, landing hard on a tree root, and for a moment lay there stunned and unable to move. Then her hand flew to her neck. Only a little blood came away, but it was the absence of the ever-present necklace that caused her fear---the jewel shards were gone.

"Oh no!" she croaked, trying to raise a cry of alarm but failing due to the frog in her throat.

Behind her she heard feet pounding and leaves crunching, and she took off in the direction of the sound. It was Yaburenumaru; she was certain of it. She could just make out his skinny form in the wan light of the approaching sunrise. The running made her cough, and he heard her.

"Go back, Lady," he called softly to her. "This is one hunt you should not pursue."

"No way!" she exclaimed, and with a flying leap tackled him.

He fell to the ground, kicking at her face and shoulders, but nevertheless she maintained her grip around his legs.

"I said get you GONE!" he cried, struggling furiously. "The sun is rising. You haven't much time."

But he was weak from hunger and pain, and his efforts were feeble. She lunged forward and managed to catch him around the middle.

"Give me the shards!" she insisted, reaching for the hand clutching them, which was stretched far over his head to avoid her.

Then, abruptly, his body relaxed and he ceased struggling.

"Very well," he said with a curiously soft and bitter laugh.

She snatched the shards from his relaxed hand and backed away as he sat up. He cut a pathetic figure sitting in the dirt: slight and hollow-faced. Yet from within his fragile body his eyes burned with fierce intensity, as if he held some hidden strength.

"You already HAD a jewel shard," she said shakily. "How did you hide it from me for all this time?"

Yaburenumaru placed a hand over a cut on his chest.

"I tore it from my own body before approaching you," he said softly. "So that you would not sense it."

"But how did you know I can---?" Kagome began, but he interrupted her.

"You have waited too long," he whispered.

And then, silhouetted in the first rays of the dawn, he began to change.

{#} {#} {#}

Inuyasha perched in a tree a good twenty feet east of the camp, doing what he did best.

"Fucking brat," he muttered, brooding. "Speaking of that so lightly. . . Oh, yes, I KNOW of his line. . ."

He rested his chin on his knees, scowling.

"Tatesei," he said slowly, his chest burning with anger.

Then he heard Kagome scream.

{#} {#} {#}

It was easy for him to find her; some of her blood had been spilled. It didn't smell like much, but suddenly he smelled the demon as well, and this sent him running. He arrived at her side, Tetsusaiga ablaze, just in time to see the boy Yaburenumaru become something else entirely.

The boy's form grew and contorted, reshaping itself into something strange and raptor-like. The thing's eyes regarded him with Yaburenumaru's burning gaze. He wasted no time but swung his sword at it. The kenatsu cut a sizzling path through the undergrowth, but the demon leaped agilely away. He dodged a vicious swipe from the demon's powerful claws and prepared to swing again.

The demon had apparently had enough, because it took off at lightning speed.

At his side, Kagome sank to her knees. Alarmed, he hastened to her side.

"Kagome, what the HELL. . .? Are you OKAY?" Tetsusaiga forgotten, he crouched at her side, forcing her to tilt her head back so he could look at the wound.

"IDIOT! What is WRONG with you?" she wailed. "Go AFTER it!"

Somewhat deafened by her outburst, he rocked back onto his heels, regarding her less worriedly.

"Well, there's obviously nothing wrong with your air intake," he remarked.

"Just feel a little woozy," she murmured. "Took some medicine. No worries."

"When are you going to be DONE taking that shit?" he complained. "It makes you all swoony and slow."

"Never mind that," she told him. "Go after it."

Inuyasha shook his head. The demon was very far ahead now, and he didn't like it when Kagome bled---even if it WAS only a little.

"It tried to take the Shikon shards, didn't it?" he said seriously. "You should give them to me for safety."

Kagome gave him a look that very plainly said, "No."

"I meant YOUR safety," he explained hastily.

"Inuyasha, how dumb do you think I AM?" she asked slowly.

"What do you think, I'm gonna EAT them or something?" he demanded, advancing on her. She was slowly crawling backward to get away from him.

"I'm NOT picking them out of YOUR butt when you turn demon and we have to SLAY you for them!" Kagome declared.

"JUST. . .COME. . .HERE!" he ordered, but she kept scooting backwards.

After several minutes of this, he finally lost it and took a flying leap at her.

"YAH!!!" he cried fiercely. "Give them up!"

He landed on top of her, and they went down in a tangle of flailing limbs that rolled several meters before coming to a stop.

"Heh." Inuyasha smirked. He had her pinned. "Hand `em over."

"NEVER!" Kagome cried, staring up at him, wide-eyed.

Then he paused. The rat in his brain finally found the cheese at the end of the maze.

"Hey. . ." He peered down at her curiously. "Why didn't you yell `sit'?"

Kagome glared up at him. He was straddling her, pinning her to the ground with his weight. Each of his claws encircled one of her wrists, pinning them over her head.

"Because I took the prayer beads OFF you, baka!" she exploded. "I THOUGHT I could trust you now."

"You thought that, eh?" he said, grinning. "Well, then I'll be taking the shards."

"INUYASHA!" she cried, frustrated.

"Just until this thing with the demon blows over," he assured her.

"Whatever. Will you just get OFF me?" Her face had gone rather pink.

He stared down at her as if seeing her for the first time, then got off in a hurry, shards in hand. Then he put the necklace over his own head and stood there admiring it for a moment. Kagome got up and lunged for him, but he dodged, jeering at her.

"Why don't you try yelling `sit'?" he taunted. "If you yell it loud enough maybe it'll hurt my ears."

"So he finally figured it out, did he?" said a dry voice. "After all, Kagome took it off him several days ago."

Miroku and Shippou emerged from the trees, looking bleary-eyed and unkempt. The monk peered curiously at Kagome, who looked even more bleary-eyed and unkempt and had leaves sticking out of her hair.

"Feh," Inuyasha scoffed. "Her mistake. Anyway, I've got what I wanted, so let's head back to camp."

Miroku looked shocked and horrified. Kagome went very red. Shippou just looked clueless.

"What's that?" he wanted to know.

"The SHARDS of course!" Inuyasha exclaimed, pointing to them and looking somewhat flustered.

{#} {#} {#}

Inuyasha led the way on the walk back to camp, while Miroku, Kagome and Shippou discussed things in low tones, walking five feet behind him.

"We could, of course, just make him give them back to us by force," Miroku pointed out.

"Yeah," Shippou agreed. "I mean he's got to sleep SOMETIME. . ."

Inuyasha heard them, of course, because they were only five feet away. He rounded on the lot of them, several veins popping in his forehead.

"Stop fucking plotting against me!" he hollered at them. "And you won't EVER catch ME asleep!"

"Unless it's with Kagome," Shippou reminded him.

This earned him a Stare of Death from Kagome, and for the rest of the walk she was sulking as much as Inuyasha.

{#} {#} {#}

The next two days proved to be an arduous trial of everyone's patience---everyone save Inuyasha, who was taking `obnoxious' to the extreme. Reveling in his `newfound freedom' he wasted no opportunity to taunt Kagome with his possession of the shards, to pound on Shippou and steal his food, or to insult Miroku.

Yet it was at dinner on the second day that things went horribly awry.

Inuyasha had just finished stuffing his mouth with ramen when something occurred to him.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, spattering noodle bits in every direction. "Kagome, why does Shippou get all the chock-lit? I want some!"

"It's all gone," Kagome told him wearily.

Shippou stuck his tongue out at Inuyasha, which earned him a lump on the head.

"Well, what about that stuff YOU'RE drinking?" he asked, once he had tired of pounding on Shippou.

Kagome rolled her eyes.

"It's coffee," she explained. "It's bitter. You wouldn't like it."

Her mother had given her a bag of coffee grounds and a small pot to heat it in. Kagome was glad of it; it gave her back some of the energy the cold was leeching off her.

"It smells good," Inuyasha insisted. "I want it."

In a hurry, Kagome downed the last swallows of the coffee and set her cup down by the fire.

"Nope, sorry; all gone," she told him. Her eyes watered from the heat of the liquid in her throat.

A very cunning look came into his eye.

"Oh, no," he said. "There's more in your bag. I can smell it."

Without further adieu he dived into her backpack.

"INUYASHA! STOP IT!" Kagome cried as he flung the pack's interfering contents over his shoulder.

"AHA!" he announced, producing the bag of grounds at last.

However, the Ziploc opening of the bag seemed to deter him as he couldn't get his claws into the opening. Instead of losing his temper, though, he held it out to Kagome and ordered, "Open this."

"No," she told him flatly.

He eyed her narrowly for a moment, then grabbed Shippou by the tail and held him aloft.

"Open this or the Kitsune gets it," he threatened.

"NOOOO!" Shippou wailed, thrashing around where he dangled in the air.

With a sigh of exasperation, Kagome took the bag and opened it for him. He sniffed it, then poured himself a mouthful of grounds.

"You know you're not supposed to EAT it," Kagome told him dryly. "It's supposed to be mixed with water."

"Not (crunch, crunch) bad," he remarked. Then he emptied more of the bag into his mouth. "Makes me (crunch, crunch) feel a little stronger." He swallowed, waited a moment, and then said, "Hey, this stuff makes you stronger, doesn't it? Why haven't you given me some before now?" The twitch under his eye was becoming, if anything, more pronounced.

Kagome watched him nervously.

`He's feeling the effects of the caffeine ALREADY?' she thought. `This is NOT good. . .'

"Inuyasha, maybe that isn't such a good idea," Miroku said, apparently thinking the same thing.

"Hell, this stuff is GOOD," Inuyasha exclaimed, grinning around a mouthful of coffee grounds.

"I want some!" Shippou cried, but everyone ignored him.

They watched with great misgiving as Inuyasha poured the rest of the bag's contents into his mouth, swallowed, and licked his chops.

He sat there a moment, apparently focusing on the sensation of the caffeine coursing through his veins, then slapped both hands on his thighs and jumped to his feet.

"Well, I'm done," he announced. "Let's go after the demon!"

Miroku and Shippou eyed him dully, making no move to follow him. Kagome fell into a coughing fit and took a swig of water.

"How can you be so fucking LAZY?!" Inuyasha demanded, placing his fists on his hips and glaring at them. "That demon bastard's going DOWN. Let'sgolet'sgolet'sGO!"

"Inuyasha, CALM DOWN," Kagome told him sternly. "You won't catch his scent ANYWAY. It's nighttime, and somehow I think Yaburenumaru is only a demon during the day. When he tried to take the shards, he warned me to give up because the sun was rising. He knew he was going to change."

Inuyasha regarded her very seriously for a moment. Then he turned and started to go stomping off into the forest.

"DemonBASTARDfuckingtriedtokillKagome (stomp stomp) I'mgonnaWASTEhimNOW!" he shouted. Above them, birds roosting in the trees took flight in a panic.

Miroku took a flying leap over the fire and tackled him before he could disappear from view. Both of them went heavily---Miroku with a grunt and Inuyasha with a string of expletives rattled off at breakneck speed.

"You're. . .not. . .going. . .ANYWHERE," Miroku ordered between gritted teeth.

"Inuyasha, LISTEN," Kagome pleaded. "He's just a BOY. I think he's under some kind of curse, like in fairy tales, where he becomes a horrible demon in the daytime. Someone must have cursed him---someone who doesn't want him to inherit the Tatesei throne. And he tried to WARN me when he took the shards. He told me to leave him before it was too late."

Inuyasha neither paid her any heed nor ceased his struggling.

"LikeIGIVEafuckabouttheTateseifuckingMURDERERSjustlemmeAThim!"< /div>