InuYasha Fan Fiction / Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ In Pursuit of the Green Dragon ❯ Bargain ( Chapter 13 )

Musashi's Domain, 16th-century Japan

Ed approached the well as the last clouds in the sky faded from tangerine to blood-red.

In the half-light, he saw Inuyasha sitting cross-legged on the ground, his back against the well, and his sword propped up on his shoulder.

Kaede hadn't been exaggerating about Inuyasha possibly starving himself to death--in the days since Ed's arrival in this time, he hadn't seen Inuyasha eating any the food that Miroku and Sango urged upon him.

Guilt churning his stomach, Ed wondered if Inuyasha had slept, either.

One white-furred ear twitched as Ed drew close, but Inuyasha made no other acknowledgement.

Okay, this isn't going to be easy. Carefully balancing the strangely light bowls in his hands, he lowered himself to sit facing Inuyasha.

"Hey," he said, quietly, offering Inuyasha one of the steaming containers.

He received a long, measuring glance, and then Inuyasha extended a clawed hand and took the bowl and the accompanying pair of wooden chopsticks.

Inuyasha paused to fold back the bowl's cover and sniff at the contents. "What do you want?"

Ed had been rehearsing various speeches on the walk over from Kaede's cottage, but he sensed that none of them were going to work. Time for the direct approach. "I need your help to reopen the well."

Inuyasha shot Ed a wary glance, and put the untouched bowl down in the grass.

Well, that's more encouraging than a "fuck off," Ed thought.

Trying to gather his thoughts, he folded back the lid on the soup bowl. Interesting. The lid was made from some sort of stiff paper, with a thin layer of metal bonded to one side. He found himself speculating how this had been accomplished without alchemy, and forced his concentration back to the matter at hand.

"Miroku and I have tried everything short of human sacrifice to get the portal to activate."

"I know that," Inuyasha said.

Ed dipped his chopsticks into the bowl, and carefully lifted a skein of noodles to his lips. He grimaced at the taste. The soup was incredibly salty, with weird fishy and sweet notes. He squinted down to examine the contents of his bowl. In the rapidly-fading light, he saw it was mostly a yellowish broth with a lot of noodles, but there were a few shreds of carrot and onion and bits of dried shrimp floating around in there.

"The thing is," Ed continued, after waiting fruitlessly for Inuyasha to say something else, "Miroku thinks you're the key to getting my transmutation circle to work properly. We, uh, discussed what happened...before...and came up with some ideas..."

Ed stumbled to a halt. He wasn't nearly as diplomatic as Al, but even he knew that reminding Inuyasha that Ed had kicked his ass wasn't a great way to ask for the hanyou's help.

Inuyasha's golden gaze sharpened. "Miroku thinks you can open the well if I help you?"

"Well, yeah," Ed answered. "When he and I were discussing--"

"Then I'll do it," Inuyasha interrupted. "Whatever it takes."

Ed blinked. He had been preparing himself to put up a persuasive argument. "Uh...thank you."

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed. "I ain't doing it for you," he said. He picked up the bowl he had set aside, and began scooping noodles into his mouth. "When?" he mumbled.

"Tomorrow morning. I need to adjust the transmutation circle a bit." Ed put aside his bowl of soup. "Look, it's going to be dangerous. We need your youki to power the transmutation, and it made you really sick, before--"

"You think I care about that," Inuyasha asked, "if it'll bring Kagome back? Keh." He noisily slurped up another mouthful of noodles.

"Okay, then." Ed rose, and picked up his soup. He extended the bowl to Inuyasha. "You want this? I'm not hungry."

Inuyasha accepted it with a grunt.

"Look," said Ed, carefully. "You know I'll do everything I can, right?"

Inuyasha's dog-ears twitched sharply at this, but, his mouth full of noodles, he said nothing. His skeptical expression spoke volumes, though.

"I don't know who or what Kagome is to you, but my little brother is stranded on the other side of the well, too," Ed said fiercely. "Don't you, uh, have any brothers or sisters?"

Inuyasha stopped gulping soup long enough to say, "Half-brother. Asshole. Hates me."

So, asshole runs in the family, does it? Ed thought, but did not say. "Well, my brother means everything to me, and I'll do anything to get him back."

It was true--and Ed had the automail to prove it.

"Good," said Inuyasha. "Just make sure that Kagome comes with him."

And that was that. At least the hanyou was eating again. That had to mean something, right?

With no more to say, Ed left Inuyasha to his vigil.

oo0oo

As the clicking, whirring, iron-carriage-scented presence that was Edward Elric moved away, leaving silence and the gathering shadows of night in his wake, Inuyasha finished the last of the cup-ramen, and leaned back against the rim of the well.

Don't expect too much, he told himself, but it was hard to extinguish hope once kindled in his chest.

He wanted to believe Edward, damn it, despite the fact that the golden-haired stranger annoyed the shit out of him.

And Inuyasha couldn't help remembering that Ed been sure that his previous attempts would work, too. But yet, for a week now, everything Ed had tried had failed. At least, with this latest plan, Inuyasha would finally be able to do something to help open the well, instead of just sitting on his ass and waiting around.

He tried to imagine a life without Kagome, without her cheer, her kindness, and above all, her unfailing trust in him.

Before Kagome, and the circle of companions she gathered in their quest for the shards of the jewel, Inuyasha had lived a lonely life, wanted by only his mother, and Kikyou. But his mother had died while Inuyasha was still a boy, and Kikyou…He rubbed the old arrow-scar on his chest, and turned his thoughts away from the pain and guilt that invariably accompanied memories of the dead priestess.

Kikyou had been his first love, but there had been something fundamentally untouchable about her, a purity of purpose that had always made him feel unworthy. She had been a powerful, respected priestess, and what was he?

Just a lowly outcast, a filthy hanyou, neither youkai nor human, and despised by both races.

He had been fascinated by Kikyou, intrigued by her strength, and finally, grateful to her for offering him a chance to belong, even if it meant giving up the advantages offered by his youkai blood. He would have happily spent a meager human lifetime expressing his gratitude to her, worshiping her.

But Kagome—well, he had never wanted to put Kagome on a pedestal and worship her. She might be Kikyou's reincarnation, but Kagome was...Kagome. She was not confident. She did not move gracefully. Rather than respecting her, most of the people they met were bemused by her strange attire and odd turns of phrase. Her spiritual powers were erratic at best.

But she was also kind, and strong. And when she bled, he bled ten times over. When she smiled, he felt he could slay a dozen dragons.

She was fierce indignation when she saw or heard him being slighted. She was cup-ramen when he was hungry, bandages he didn't need (but still appreciated, despite his grumbling) when he was injured, and a friend when he was lonely.

She smelled of comfort and affection and acceptance. Whether in this world or in the strange realm on the other side of the well where her family dwelt, wherever Kagome was, was home. His home.

He trusted her with his life, his feelings, even his secrets.

Above all, he knew that when Kagome looked at him, she didn't see a hanyou, she saw him. All of him, both human and youkai. To her, he was simply Inuyasha.

And now she was gone, and even her beloved scent was beginning to fade from her belongings.

But during the long days of his vigil at the well, Inuyasha had not lost hope entirely. He could still feel the connection between them somehow, stretching through the well, as thin and as strong as a strand of Yura's demon-hair.

Kagome was still alive, somewhere…and still bound to him.

Edward had said he could open the well…but Inuyasha remembered, all-too-well, what it felt like when the yellow-haired foreigner performed his sorcery. The sickness, the weakness, the terrible, nauseous sensation of his life and strength being sucked out of him.

It had felt like being turned inside-out, every glistening shard of bone and nerve-ending exposed to the cruel air.

But Inuyasha would submit to it tomorrow. For Kagome.

And he would do it another hundred times, if he had to.

But that didn't mean he wasn't dreading the experience, and that the thought of it curdled and soured the hot ramen in his belly. Denying the fear didn't send it fleeing. But he wouldn't let it stop him.

He never did.

With a sigh, Inuyasha closed his eyes, sword propped against his shoulder, the comforting hum of Tetsusaiga's blade like a familiar lullaby, and willed sleep to come and erase the long hours until dawn.

Tomorrow, I will see Kagome again.

oo0oo

“I've been thinking,” Ed announced the next morning, as he arrived at the well, armed with a bag of rice-flour and a sharpened stick.

He was accompanied by Miroku, Sango, and Shippou, who carried bowls of rice porridge, grilled fish wrapped in leaves, and pots of tea.

Inuyasha, who had not been able to sleep despite his best attempts, scowled irritably at the golden-haired foreigner.

"Yeah, I can't wait to hear what you've come up with this time," he said, not bothering to conceal his sarcasm.

He accepted a cup of tea from Sango and took a sip.

Ed glared in reply, but controlled himself with a visible effort. "Look, what I'm suggesting is that we do a short transmutation to begin with, just to let Al--and Kagome, too," he added, hastily, "know that we've found a way to reopen the well. If we send a note through, first, then we can open the well for a longer period in a few hours, and they'll be ready."

He was going to have to endure being turned inside-out not once, but twice? Inuyasha swallowed, hard. The hot tea in his mouth suddenly tasted unbearably bitter.

"Fine," he said, gruffly. "Whatever brings Kagome back."

Ed met his eyes, and nodded. "I'll try not to use up too much of your youki on the first attempt," he said quietly.

Inuyasha shrugged. "Keh. Whatever. Just get on with it."

He had lost his appetite, but he forced himself to pick up bowl and spoon, and began shoveling rice porridge into his mouth. He'd need all the strength he could get for the ordeal ahead.

He smelled the houshi's approach, incense smoke, sweat, and dusty robes overlaying his core scent, just before Miroku put a reassuring hand on Inuyasha's shoulder. "I brought ink and some paper from Kagome's notebook, if you want to write the note to her."

"And I'd like to write to Al, if you don't mind," Ed added. "Since we both have watches, I'll let him know what time we'll reopen the well."

"If it works," Inuyasha grumbled, shoving aside the nearly-empty bowl of porridge in favor of the writing supplies--brush, ink stone, ink cake, notebook, and a small bamboo container of water--that Miroku removed from a worn wooden case. The case itself was cleverly jointed, and unfolded into a small writing desk.

Inuyasha dripped a little water into the plain oval depression of the inkstone, and began to grind the ink cake, mixing the dark liquid to the proper consistency for writing. The smoky smell of the ink brought back memories of his childhood.

Hanyou or not, young Inuyasha had still been the son of a noble family, and so, while Mother was still alive, Inuyasha had been assigned a tutor… It had been a bitter winter, and the old scholar's gnarled fingers were always cold and aching, so the first thing he had taught Inuyasha was how to grind and mix ink.

Those had been happy times. Inuyasha had been too young to truly understand how his very existence was an affront to all of Mother's human attendants. There had always been hot food and hot tea in the mansion, and the thick, soft quilts in Mother's chambers had smelled of sandalwood and white plum perfume. He had loved sleeping there, warm, and safe and surrounded by Mother's comforting scent…

Inuyasha finished mixing the ink, and flipped open Kagome's notebook to an empty page. Gazing at the pale yellow paper, he contemplated what he was going to write. He could use the formal language of correspondence that he'd been taught so long ago, but he knew she'd never believe that he'd written it.

He snorted softly, and put brush to paper with short, swift strokes, composing something that she would believe.

When he was done, he put the brush down on its holder, and shoved the desk towards Edward, who had finished re-drawing his sorcery circle, and was just heaving himself up and over the wooden rim of the well.

Edward rolled to his feet, and picked up the brush, studying it briefly as if were an unfamiliar object. Then, he reached into his clothing and brought out a small, round silver object engraved with an odd creature. He pressed something and a lid sprang open, revealing a miniature of the clocks that Inuyasha had seen in Kagome's house.

Edward mumbled something, clearly talking to himself, and began to write, awkwardly, in a foreign script. When he was finished, he waved the paper in the air for a few moments to dry the ink. "Okay," he announced, folding the paper in half. "I think we're ready."

Inuyasha rose to his feet, and following Edward's lead, dropped lightly down into the familiar confines of the well.

Taking care not to step on any of the rice-flour designs, he folded his arms in his sleeves, pushing back the cold dread squeezing his chest. "What do you want me to do?" he asked, conscious of the concerned faces of his friends, peering down over the edge of the well.

Edward looked at him, his expression serious and determined. "Stand over there--" he pointed at the tip of a triangle drawn within the circle, "and follow my lead. When I put my hands down on the edge of the circle, you do the same. Try not to move, as long as you can. If you break the connection with the circle, then the portal will close."

Inuyasha nodded. "I won't move." Not if even if my hands burst into flames, he vowed, silently. I'm not moving until that message is delivered safely to Kagome.

Edward moved to the opposite side of the circle. "Ready?" he asked, and Inuyasha nodded.

Edward took a deep breath, scored his left palm with the tiny folding knife he carried, and closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating. Then, he dropped to his knees, and slapped his hands, palms-down, on the white circle. Inuyasha followed suit, and felt the same wrenching shudder run down his spine as on the day he had met and fought Edward.

Cold blue flame rose around them, and a sensation like hundreds of acupuncture needles pierced Inuyasha's palms. It was working!

Inuyasha clenched his teeth against the first wave of nausea, and concentrated on keeping his hands pressed against the circle.

Don't move, he reminded himself, as the sharp tingling faded to a dull ache, spreading from his fingers to his wrists.

He started to shiver. It was cold…but he never felt cold, except on his human nights…

Inuyasha looked down, and saw that the claws had disappeared from the tips of his fingers. He almost jerked his hands back then, but remembered in time.

Don't move. Don't move…don't move…don't move…don't move…just a little longer…don't move…

"Done," said Edward, finally, sounding very far away. The blue flames disappeared and Inuyasha blinked, trying to focus eyes gone blurry.

He tried to lift his hands from the circle, and almost fell backwards. Damn it! I can't be this weak already…how am I going to keep the well open for Kagome…?

Across the circle from him, Edward looked as drained as Inuyasha felt.

"That was harder than I expected," he said, panting a little, as if he'd been running. "The well wants to go to Kagome's time. Diverting it to 1925 isn't…easy." The last was said almost apologetically.

"Keh." Inuyasha shrugged, wondering if he had the strength to climb out of the well, or if he should just stay here and rest until it was time to summon Kagome. "Think you'll be able to bring them back here?"

Edward's golden eyes gleamed in the pale beam of light coming down from the well's opening, high above. "No problem, if you can hold out long enough," he said, returning the challenge.

"I'll do whatever it takes," Inuyasha vowed.

Edward nodded in acknowledgement. "I'll let you know when we're ready to try it again. In the meanwhile, maybe you'd better eat something. And lay down." His concern was more galling than his combativeness.

"I'm fine," Inuyasha lied, gritting his teeth against his stomach's desire to rid itself of breakfast. His fingertips dug into the stones lining the walls of the well, reminding him that his claws were gone.

He sneaked a glance at the hair hanging over his shoulder, and was relieved to find it was still silver. He twitched an ear experimentally. Still there, on top of his head, where they belonged. Good.

With any luck, he could hide the extent of his weakness from his friends, and continue with the sorcery circle when the time came.