InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ This Mess We're In ❯ You Met Me ( Chapter 2 )

This Mess We're In

Chapter 2: You Met Me

Disclaimers: I own nothing. Sometimes, I cry.

Rating: PG 13 for now, but will probably be changed to R or NC17 later on.

Story Summary: Kagome has gone back where she belongs, but so has someone else. What exactly happened? They don't know yet either. K/Sess.

Chapter Summary: The first of the flashbacks to the Sengoku Jidai. Kagome is running scared. Sesshoumaru does something that absolutely terrifies our young heroine. Edited and reposted.

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---Sengoku Jidai---

What a day she'd had.

Kagome limped blindly through the scratchy underbrush of the darkened woods, with only her bow and a few arrows. There wasn't a single sound in the forest. The silence only augmented the feeling that she was utterly alone.

For the first time since she had fallen through the well into this frightening, foreign era, she truly was alone.

Tears welled up in her eyes, but she would not let them fall.

"I will NOT. I categorically refuse. I'm not going to cry over that completely unfair, ignorant, insensitive. . ." she choked out in a whisper, lifting her chin in defiance. Something stronger than steel shone behind the tears in her eyes.

"I won't. I'm tough. I can do this."

The worst part of the whole situation was that she could understand Inuyasha's rage. Two years of collecting the shards, one by one, with so many injuries and disasters to show for it. Two years, that she had just poured down the drain. Two hard years had gone by, and they had nothing to show for them but scars.

It wasn't as though she wanted to spend more precious years of her (extremely short, according to Inuyasha) human life playing `Find the Shard,' the most hazardous and annoying game ever created.

Why couldn't he even attempt to understand her reasons? Even if he couldn't agree with them, it was the least he could do. She would have tried, in his position.

But I was starting to love him, she thought. That was the difference.

Obviously, it was not mutual.

Tonight, for the first time, she had truly understood what her appointed duty was as the guardian of the jewel. She could sympathize with pre-zombie Kikyou. Her confidence that she had done the right thing, however, was a hollow feeling compared to the sacrifice she'd made tonight. Now that her anger had ceased to propel her, she was forced to rely on her rapidly dwindling physical reserves.

As an added bonus, the forest was becoming spooky as hell. She hadn't realized how much she relied on her companions' jokes and bickering to distract her from the knowledge that, in this era, there really were monsters in the shadows. Without the buffer of friendly conversation, she felt a tingle of foreboding. Despite her emotional and physical exhaustion, her senses were sharper than they had ever been. Paranoia was a great stimulant.

Suddenly, she heard something that would have sounded like the wind in the trees to anyone else. But she was Kagome, and she knew that that soft whoosh in the utter absence of natural wind could only mean one thing. She was being followed.

Crap. Crap, crap, crap, CRAP! Kagome's thoughts seemed to go in circles. Not NOW!

She whirled, her arrow notched and aimed.

At nothing.

The next thing she knew, her bow had been wrenched from her grasp, tossed aside, and she was sprawled on the ground with an excellent view of a shoe belonging to the Lord of the Western Lands.

She'd hoped that, after he had just tossed away the shikon shard he'd owned as if it were worthless, she would never have to encounter him again. He'd expressed the same wish, saying something along the lines of "I, Sesshoumaru, blah blah lord of blah, no longer require blah blah since my arm has regenerated. Blah blah leave my sight blah lowly hanyou blah."

Or something along those lines.

"Oh, crap," she moaned, rubbing her side. Her thigh was beginning to throb. "I hope you didn't break the arrow. I only have three left."

The inu-youkai towering over her prone form ignored her overly familiar comments and said, in that low, imperious tone of his, "Ah. The hanyou's pet human. I suppose his idiocy attracts other idiots. Why do you roam the woods at night, when you are obviously incapable of defending yourself?"

Sesshoumaru frowned inwardly. This particular human had never made any sense to him, though he supposed anyone who cast her lot in with Inuyasha's would be somewhat intellectually afflicted.

Crap, crap, CRAP! Kagome gave up on having any other thoughts and just lay there limply, hoping Sesshoumaru would become bored and move on to terrorize some nearby villagers. Or even better, Jaken the wonder-toad.

Sesshoumaru felt a tingle of surprise at her continuing silence. It seemed that in all the previous encounters they had had, she had been unbearably loquacious. Had she fainted?

The human continued to lie there, inert. He sniffed the air, but could not detect any sickness or serious injuries on her, besides a faint tinge of blood. Her scent was healthy; warm, sweet and spicy. Her open eyes lacked the glassy shine that indicated unconsciousness.

Was the girl actually trying to play dead?

He nudged her with his shoe in disbelief and pointedly cleared his throat.

"Well?" he repeated, in a tone of voice that suggested he was speaking to a child. A very stupid, recalcitrant child.

Excellent, Kagome thought. Her continued silence was provoking impatience, the first step onto the boredom train.

Or, she realized, the first step to getting herself melted into a puddle of green goo. Oops.

"Well what?" she asked wearily from her position on the forest floor. Though she knew she should be more worried, the only things she could focus on at the moment was the twig gouging her in the ribs, and the renewed approach of Sesshoumaru's foot. She looked up, and blinked in surprise.

Were her eyes deceiving her? Had the noble and expressionless Sesshoumaru actually rolled his eyes in annoyance?

"What are you doing, human wench? And where is the useless hanyou?" Sesshoumaru looked down upon the girl in curiosity. She was always so inappropriately dressed. Weren't humans sensitive to cold? When he saw villagers in his travels, they wore more protective fabric.

This girl was a puzzle, indeed.

Kagome rose awkwardly to her feet, brushing leaves and dirt from her skirt and sweater as she did so. "I don't know what I'm doing. I guess I'm searching for the Shikon shards. I have no idea where Inuyasha is," she responded honestly.

He definitely rolled his eyes.

"Weak human girl, you will answer my questions." Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed dangerously, and he took a step closer to her, forcing her to tilt her head back in order to see his face. He looked like he was a moment away from grabbing her throat and shaking her. Why did he have to be so intimidatingly tall? And so damned perfect looking all the time? It was enough to give a girl a complex.

Oh no. Now he was glaring at her with those hard, amber eyes. His clawed hand definitely looked throat-bound.

"Do not lower yourself even further by lying for that worthless brother of mine. I grow weary of questioning you."

"I'm not lying," Kagome shot back, her eyes rising to his once more. Her intimidation was forgotten at the mention of Inuyasha. "This afternoon, I got on his bad side, all right?" Her tone flattened. "He yelled at me for a good ten minutes and then took off. I don't know where he's gone, and from what he said, I doubt I'll see him anytime soon."

Sesshoumaru tilted his head in consideration. Ah, thought Kagome with relief. His hand had lowered to his side.

"Wench, what did you do to anger him?"

"I shattered the jewel again." Kagome's voice was small and sad. Why was she telling him this? Oh well, she thought. It was not as though he cared about the shards anyway. The thought of telling someone else, no matter how unsympathetic, was unbearably attractive at this point.

"Miroku, Sango and Shippou had gone to the village, and Naraku came upon Inuyasha and me. We knew we would have to fight him for that last piece, but we weren't ready yet, and he knew it." Kagome paused, her face reflecting her remembered dread.

Sesshoumaru's eyes seemed to glow with interest. He gestured for her to continue.

"So, there we were, in a clearing. I tried to shoot Naraku a few times, but he just shed his skin like a snake. And Inuyasha attacked him with Tetsusaiga-" Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed, and Kagome hurriedly moved on, "-but he wasn't fast enough."

Sesshoumaru seemed gratified at this mention of his half-brother's incompetence.

"Naraku burned him, and I was injured as well." Kagome motioned to her left thigh, which she had clumsily bandaged.

"Then," Kagome exhaled, "Naraku took our piece of the Shikon no Tama from me. He started to forge the two pieces together. Inuyasha was trying to get it back from him, but he was slowed down by his injuries, and Naraku was just too strong. We hadn't even touched him. He butchered his children. He took all their shards, and then. . ." Kagome trailed off.

"And, wench?" Sesshoumaru inquired, his face expressionless aside from the glow of his eyes.

"I had to," Kagome stated woodenly. "I couldn't let Naraku have the whole thing. He had all the pieces, and he was about to absorb it. So, while he was distracted, melding the shards back into one whole, I lifted my bow and shattered it again, just like the first time, in one shot."

Kagome was silent for a while before she started to speak again.

"I had to," she repeated as though to convince herself. "It was my responsibility to keep the Shikon no Tama safe. I couldn't allow someone as evil as Naraku to use it. But Inuyasha. . ."

Sesshoumaru watched as her eyes misted slightly and darkened into a deep brown. Her eyes are quite attractive, he thought.

"The hanyou was angry, was he not, human? He wanted the Shikon no Tama for his own use, and told you he could have retrieved the crystal himself. He could not understand that you could not take the chance that he might not succeed."

Her head bowed. "Yes."

His golden eyes hardened, and he lifted his chin slightly. "Doubtless, he would not have been able to recover it in time. The idiot overestimates his own abilities. It is one of his greatest flaws. You should not be surprised at his defection. He has no sense of duty or honor, but I am sure that you have noticed this, human wench."

Having gotten her story off her chest, the young miko had started to feel better about her decision, and better in general - which is why she started to speak without thinking.

Kagome's hands flew to her hips. "I don't see how you can say that. You don't know how hard it was, hunting for those shards. But he kept going! He helped me!"

Sesshoumaru watched her impassively. Well, well, he thought. She continued to defend the brat, though it was obvious that her loyalty had been misplaced.

"The hanyou is motivated purely by self-interest. Does he not want to eliminate his human blood? Your defense of him is unjustified, wench."

Kagome's frustration came to a head, causing more ill-reasoned words to fly from her mouth. Her fist pressed more firmly into her hips, and then she raised a hand and actually shook her index finger before Sesshoumaru's face. "My name is Kagome! Not wench, not `the hanyou's human pet,' and not `useless human girl,' it's Kagome. Ka. Go. Me. Must you always be so incredibly insulting?"

Kagome listened, horrified, to the words spewing out of her, too stunned at her own effrontery to notice that Sesshoumaru had instinctively taken step back.

Oh, crap, crap, crap! The trauma of today had completely rotted her brain away, she mentally groaned, closing her eyes tightly in panic. He hadn't even made a move to hurt her yet. He was actually being kind of okay, and there she was provoking him!

Sesshoumaru looked in shock at this bizarre creature that had been yelling into his face. Did she have no respect?

One moment, she was telling him in a sad voice that she had sacrificed the regard of her ally so that she could perform her duty. Then, she had begun ranting wildly. The next moment, she stood petrified, with her eyes closed and her hand over her mouth.

Now she was making strange groaning noises. Perhaps the girl did suffer from a mental disorder of some sort.

Kagome stood, trembling, her head filled with a cacophony of thoughts. Shit. There was no way Sesshoumaru would let her live after that outburst. After mentally saying her goodbyes to her friends and her family, her thoughts turned to pity for her next incarnation.

That poor sucker, she thought sympathetically. She had no idea what she was in for, the unfortunate girl. Oh, gods, Kagome thought, if only she could have left a message for her, telling her to move to England, or America, or somewhere where they didn't have shrines or wells that took a person back in time. It never ended happily. You just failed your mission, ended up deserted, and, to add insult to injury, stupidly got yourself killed by a man who was prettier than you.

Mama! Souta! Grandpa! I love you! Kagome thought desperately.

She slowly became aware of a strange, quiet sound. She couldn't place it, and the unfamiliarity of it was making her very nervous. Her legs started to shake, knocking her knees together. Perhaps, Kagome thought, this was some other special attack of Sesshoumaru's. Her mind whirled with images of Sesshoumaru's transformation, and his poison claw.

What could this one possibly be? Each passing moment struck more terror into her heart.

"Oh gods!" Kagome choked, her eyes still tightly closed. "I'm not ready to die!" The noise only grew louder. She stiffened her spine and willed herself to stop trembling.

"If I'm going to die," she growled, "I'm going to go down fighting."

Kagome formed her shaking hands into fists, raised them, and opened her eyes, only to see something even more awful than anything she could have imagined.

Sesshoumaru - Inuyasha's older brother, the ruthless Lord of the Western Lands - was laughing at her.

Her mouth fell open at the sight. She had never seen him look so human before. Sesshoumaru was chuckling under his breath, his amber eyes alight with amusement, and the moonlight gilding his hair. Kagome felt all the breath leave her body at the sight of him. She had always known he was beautiful, in an icy sort of way, but this was just ridiculous. Maybe he never smiled for fear of being trampled by amorous females.

Sesshoumaru quieted. The human girl's jaw had gone slack and she looked like she was about to faint, when a moment ago, she'd looked like an angry kitten threatening him with tiny claws.

He could also detect the scent of blood, and it was growing stronger. It seemed that the wound on her leg had reopened.

She was extremely irritating in her outspoken nature, but he was pleasantly surprised to find that she had a sense of duty. She was human, and weak, yet she had parted from her protector because she would not allow him to endanger her charge.

Sesshoumaru understood responsibility and sacrifice in the name of duty.

She even defended the hanyou to him, though her loyalty seemed to go unappreciated.

He could not remember when he had last been so amused or surprised by anyone, human or youkai, and when one lived as long as he did, life tended to become very boring.

The Lord of the Western Lands stepped forward again, and pushed her towards a fallen tree, motioning for her to sit.

"Calm yourself and close your mouth," Sesshoumaru stated in an expressionless voice.

He was a powerful youkai, and guardian of these lands, was he not? He was entitled to a whim. Or two, he thought, remembering Rin.

"I, Sesshoumaru, will not kill you."

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Author's Note: I am reposting this with some modifications to fit better. I am still a little uncertain about the placement of this chapter, so it may be moved/revamped later on. I'm still trying to work my incomprehensible labyrinth of a plot into a chapter by chapter structure.

I thought I'd post it since I might not write more until next weekend.

Thanks again to the reviewers. Your encouragement is really helping me get this out.