InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Drifting ❯ Purity ( Chapter 15 )

Purity

 

InuYasha glanced at Kagome. She was sitting quietly, surrounded by her faint, pink glow. In the past few days, every time they had stopped for the night or even to rest, Kagome had taken that pose. It made for a lonely existence, and while InuYasha at one time had been used to it, after years spending his days among friends the constant quiet was getting on his nerves.

 

The truth was that InuYasha wasn't sure why Kagome was meditating in the first place. She said something about calming her down, showing reverence for the dead, training even, but InuYasha couldn't help but wonder if she was trying to avoid him. They hadn't really spoken since they had set out on this journey, and the silence was eating at him. InuYasha was pretty sure that her meditation was just another way for her to avoid him. Except for that one time… That time when it had felt like they were really them again, and nothing had ever changed.

 

The thing that really worried him, though, was Kagome's constant light. It shouldn't be growing brighter, he thought anxiously. He checked the water to see if it was boiling. After some inner debate, he had decided that Kagome probably wouldn't care if he went into her bag for some ramen. He was cooking it for both of them, since Kagome would only break her meditation to eat and sleep.

 

Of course, what he hadn't expected to see in her bag was the purified shikon no tama. He had never really wondered where it had gone, but it never occurred to him that Kagome might still carry it around. He had dropped it back into her bag guiltily, as if he had found something incredibly personal.

 

InuYasha poured the steaming water into the ramen cups and brought one over to Kagome. He carefully skirted her aura, and set the cup next to her. She stirred a little, and slowly opened her eyes. She reached to take the cup from his hand, but InuYasha jerked back from her, spilling the boiling hot ramen on his hand.

 

“You'll purify me,” he growled, shaking his hand off and cursing.

 

Kagome mumbled an apology under her breath, and was about to dissipate her aura, when an arrow struck it and shattered. Two more followed it, allowing Kagome to see the strange conical shape they were, and that they were poisoned. Kagome shot up and focused her attention on the area where the arrows came from.

 

“Two… maybe three of them,” she mumbled as three more arrows crashed and shattered against her barrier. Meanwhile InuYasha had unsheathed tetsusaiga and was knocking the arrows out of the air.

 

InuYasha was excited. After three days of barely saying a word to anyone, he finally had a chance to make some contact and get a little action. His whole body was tense with anticipation as the youkai came into view. Two male hornet youkai approached, followed by a much larger female youkai. The banter was about to commence.

 

“You are in our territory,” the female said, “And now-” She made a choked noise and was cut off as both of the male youkai were struck with arrows shot by Kagome. While neither were hit in a fatal area, both were destroyed by the overwhelming force of her purification.

 

“How dare you,” the last hornet began saying, quivering with rage at the disregard Kagome had shown for the ways of the youkai, but in another pink blast of light she, too was gone.

 

InuYasha stared dumbstruck at the vacant area the hornets had just occupied. Kagome was panting lightly, more from pent up emotion than fatigue. InuYasha turned his head to glance at her, and saw a fierce look of anger in her eyes that he had never seen before. It scared him.

 

“Kagome?” he asked softly.

 

He could tell that she was trying to keep control of herself as her chest rose and fell at an elevated pace. “Those… those things. They were… dirty. I… had to. I couldn't… I just had to.”

 

She walked away without another word, and went back into her meditation pose. InuYasha knelt down next to her, her words spinning in his mind.

 

“Is that what you've always thought of me, Kagome? Dirty?”

 

Kagome took a sharp breath, but didn't say anything. InuYasha jumped into a tree and turned his back to her, focusing his attention on the threat of more hornets. They had said that InuYasha and Kagome were in their territory, he could only hope that more would come for him to test his claws on.

 

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Kagome glanced around furtively. InuYasha wasn't to be seen.

 

Something was bothering her. When she had shot those hornets, she had felt something, something strange. Now she dug around her pack, searching for something. Her hand closed around the jewel.

 

She pulled it out and choked down a gasp. It was slight and difficult to see, but she could sense it. The jewel was getting pinker. The jewel was not purified.

 

What does this mean? She thought, horrified. I remember purifying it. I remember how it felt. It was dormant, empty. How…?

 

She heard a noise and quickly stuffed the jewel back into her pack. InuYasha turned to give her a dark stare, but didn't say anything. Kagome sighed with relief that he didn't notice anything was amiss, and readied herself for sleep.

 

 

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Sango knelt down in front of the grave and began to pray. What can I do, Kirara? How can I atone for this? She closed her eyes and tried to order her thoughts.

 

Once I lost everything that I had. My past in the form of my parents, my present in the form of my brother, and my future in the form of my village. I spent so long going after the man that did it to us, and in the end it was worthless. My brother died, just the same without the jewel shard to sustain him. My parents were still dead, and my village was still empty. The only promise was that never again would that man hurt another person the way he hurt me. My nerves cooled, my duty was finished, and I could start a new life.

 

This is different. These youkai weren't just terrorizing for the fun of it. They went after me. I can't go after revenge when that's what brought them here. But I can't forget my friends, my family. Before, I had hoped to recreate the demon-slaying village in respect for my family. But now… my abilities are what caused this to occur. But I was a slayer out of protection for someone, and that was the purpose of learning my art. What should I have done? What could I have done?

 

Sango considered this question for a very long time. Her limbs became stiff and the sun sank in the sky, but she refused to move. Miroku watched her from a little distance off. Finally she came to a conclusion: there is no way now to know what would have been best then. She must only think of her next move.

 

She slowly moved her stiff muscles and stood up, blinking away her weariness. Somehow she just knew that the next decision would be harder than the first.

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AN: I must apologize for the lateness of this chapter. I have been traveling the globe! Recently I have been in Costa Rica, Colorado, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, and Mexico. *whew*

 

Wolfshadow:

You certainly put alot of thought into how you were going to do this story haven't you? Very angsty. *grins* But you're also saying he hasn't thought of Kagome in that way even when she was 'fertile' during their travels? *Shakes head* You certainly have a different way alright. In a good way. Thanks for posting this.

 

Actually, I wasn't quite sure how this fic was going to go at the beginning. I just sort of put up a couple chapters, and the rest I've done as they come to me. I have an idea for an ending, but getting there is the key part. As for InuYasha…I'm not quite sure what you mean by this… InuYasha does have strong feelings for Kagome, and physically they were very close at the beginning of the fic. I'm afraid your review stumped me.

 

Xenus:

This is good. I know, you've already heard that, but, I find myself compelled to speak my mind. You know, sometimes, I second-guess myself, wondering if my

writing will ever reach the calibur of some of the authors out there. But you

seem to have pushed aside such a foolish problem. Or, rather, never had one to

begin with. I have to say that this story has, such enormous emotion, that I

feel... almost, nostalgic, the power that seems to grip my soul, tug at my

essence, I love fics like this. But I digress. Wonderful chapter, superb story

overall. Thank you for giving us low-level authors something to aspire to...

 

I want to thank you for this review. I was really starting to have doubts about continuing writing this fic, but your review pushed me to finish this chapter and get it up. Thank you.

 

~RadioNmyHead~

 

I do not own the rights to InuYasha.