InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Inuyasha World Travel, Where the F*** is Greece!! ❯ Breaking the Barrier ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4

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Inuyasha opened his eyes to find the room grayed with the approach of dawn. Outside, the humans of this strange, massive stone city were starting to stir, loudly. He watched Kagome squirm in protest as a giant truck thingy went by on the street directly below them, banging, roaring and squealing passed the thin walled hotel. Silently, he smirked. At least he wasn't the only one not used to all this damned noise. Still, he wanted her to sleep. Kagome deserved to get some rest after what had happened last night.

He had arrived on the balcony window with Kagome still asleep in his arms, and gone inside to find her father frantically pacing the small room, muttering something about "police" and "dirty street people." His reaction to seeing Inuyasha come in with Kagome in his arms had been one of pure elated relief, followed quickly by a look of panic when she didn't move or wake up. Inuyasha had glared at him to keep him quiet while he put her to rest on one of the tall futons in the room, and let her sleep.

Mr. Higurashi and him had then gone out to the balcony to discuss what had happened. Naturally, the man hadn't been pleased. More angry and guilty than anything else, blaming himself for letting his daughter out of his sight in a city like this. Meanwhile, Inuyasha was having similar feelings, brought on when he found out Kagome had gone of to search for HIM and that she had KNOWN the stupid city was pretty dangerous at night.

"Stupid bitch." He mumbled to the silent room, which was growing lighter by the minute. Kagome turned in her bed.

"Inuyasha?" His gaze shot up from his lap to look at her.

"Go to sleep." Was his grunted reply.

"Why are you over there?" She ignored his command and looked down at him where he sat against the wall at the foot of her futon.

"Keh." was the first thing out of his mouth, "I always sleep like this stoo-pid."

"But there's a bed right there." She lazily waved her arm at the extra cot room service had brought up. "It's yours, you can sleep in it."

"I know that." He snapped, then folded his arms over his chest. "I just don't want to!" he said haughtily, and Kagome giggled, making motions for him to keep it down.

"Shhhh, my dad's still sleeping."

He clamped his mouth and eyes shut and leaned back against the wall. "Go back to sleep." he repeated. There was a soft thump on the mattress and the sound of blankets shifting as she lay back down. For a moment, Inuyasha thought that maybe she had actually listened to him, for once. Then she spoke.

"I'm sorry Inuyasha...."

He cautiously cracked an eye open to find her lying on her back, staring at the ceiling. He relaxed a little and pulled his knees up to rest his arms on.

"What for?" He asked, forcing gruffness into his voice. She sighed.

"I shouldn't have yelled at you, and I shouldn't have said what I said. I didn't mean it."

What had she said? Inuyasha tried to remember. And what didn't she mean?

"I mean, " she searched for words that WOULDN'T offend the proud hanyou. "I know there's a lot of stuff you don't understand here, and I haven't been very nice in explaining any of it..."

She sighed and sat up. "I'd like to start over again, you know, forget that yesterday ever happened and-"

"Forget that you lied to me er US!" He scowled suddenly and stood up. "Fuck Kagome, you must have packed enough in that case to last you a whole month, and you said you'd be back in three days! How long have you been planning this huh? What were you going to do? Just disappear on us and never come back?" there was a pause, "Well?"

Kagome looked down at the hands in her lap guiltily. "It was only going to be for two weeks. I thought I'd explain things after I got back."

Inuyasha let out a snort.

"Really Inuyasha, it's not like you would have let me go even if I had told you. I have enough trouble just going to school, let alone travelling half way around the world!"

"HALF WAY AROUND THE WORLD!?!"

"SHHHHH!!!"

They froze for a moment and regarded the sleeping form of Mr. Higurashi who was still, luckily, sleeping. After a moment, Kagome got up from the bed, still wearing Inuyasha's coat over her torn shirt, and walked out to the balcony, Inuyasha trailing closely behind.

The second the door was closed, Kagome covered his mouth with her hand to prevent him from saying anything and asked, "Inuyasha, will you let me explain?"

He scowled behind her hand but nodded once in agreement. She removed her hand. Inuyasha crossed his hands over his chest, then leaned down on the balcony railing. "Fine, but make it fast."

Kagome sighed. "Yes, Inuyasha, we are half way around the world, in a foreign country called Greece. I came here for two weeks to visit my father who I haven't seen in two years because he works so far away from home. I lied to you because I knew if I told you the truth you would say no and then we'd get into a big argument and I might never get here."

"Damn straight!"

Kagome looked at him for a moment in disbelief before finding her voice and gasping out, "Inuyasha you are impossible!"

"What?"

"You...you...oh just never mind." She rested her head on the railing, letting the cool metal ward off the headache that was already starting to form. After a moment of silence, Inuyasha turned to her.

"Oi, Kagome?"

"Hmmm?"

"Exactly how far are we from, from, you know..." It still felt odd to him calling the damned place home, even if that's what it was.

"Japan?" Kagome offered. Inuyasha nodded slowly, turning his gaze back to the stone buildings on the other side of the street.

Kagome was silent a moment, trying to think of a way to explain to the demon exactly how far away they were. Finally, "Inuyasha, you see over there, where the sun is rising?" He turned his head in that direction. "Well, considering how far the group travels every day, if we were to keep heading in that direction we would reach Japan in um...well..."

There was a silence, in which Kagome seemed to contemplate the distance, a thoughtful finger over her sealed lips.

"Well?" Inuyasha was impatient. A couple of days, weeks, months? What? How hard could it be?

"Well, I heard in history class that it took one man... um...." She was suddenly quiet again.

"What?" Inuyasha all but yelled. She had that look on her face. The one that she got when she was about to say something she knew he wouldn't like. Another moment went by.

"Ahem....four years...." She whispered.

Inuyasha gaped at her. Four years! Four years walking...how? The world couldn't possibly be THAT big...could it? But it hadn't taken them four years to get here. Why was that? What the hell was going on here!!

"But don't worry," Kagome waved at him in a calming gesture, smiling re-assuredly. "it doesn't take that long anymore. In fact, it only takes a day now, if you travel by aeroplane that is."

"A ru plai no?" He rolled the strange word around on his tongue, all the while thinking, 'No damned WONDER this fucking place seemed so strange!!'

Meanwhile Kagome was explaining what an aeroplane was, "It's like this huge metal carriage with big metal wings, and engines that make it go sooo fast it takes off like vroooommm!!" She made a motion with her hand and Inuyasha looked at her as if she had lost it. Metal, flying? What bull was that.

"Keh! Yeah right. How dumb do you think I am? Keh!"

Kagome made a face in frustration before suddenly scanning the sky and pointing, "There! See that long white cloud that's forming?"

Inuyasha scrunched up his face in confusion as he stared at the oddly growing cloud. After a minute, he realised that it wasn't a natural cloud, something was making it. When he looked closer, he saw what looked like a metal cross flying in the sky. "What the heck?"

"See." Kagome gave a smug smile, "I told you so."

Inuyasha just growled at her. Kagome ignored him, and he stopped growling as her face turned contemplative again for a moment. At length she said, "Say, Inuyasha?"

"What?"

"I'll tell you what. When we get back, I promise I'll go shard hunting with you for two weeks straight-"

"You will?"

"Would you let me finish!!"

"Keh."

Sigh, "Like I said, for two weeks straight IF you promise me one thing." She stared at him, eyes boring into his as he cautiously nodded.

"You must promise me to completely FORGET about the Shikon jewel AND Naraku for the two weeks that we're here."

"WHAT!!"

"Shhhhh!!!" She pressed a finger to his mouth again as his voice echoed down the street. "We can't go home now because, ahh, the next plane to Japan isn't for two weeks. So we might as well have fun while we're here. That means NO Naraku and absolutely NO Shikon no Tama. Alright?"

Inuyasha was silent for a moment. They were stuck here for two weeks, on the other side of the world, no shards, no Naraku, nothing. What else was there to do? "Keh. Fine."

"YES!!" Kagome all but shrieked as she tucked her elbows in at her hips and began jumping up and down. "This is great! We're going to have so much fun! We'll get to go on a cruise and see the Islands and all the ancient sites.....we're in GREECE!! Hahaha!!"

She spun around a couple of times, jumping and laughing in glee, while Inuyasha could only stare. Last night she had been a sobbing mess, very close to getting herself raped, and today she was jumping and smiling like nothing bad had ever happened to her. Kagome never ceased to amaze him. It was like this while they travelled too. One minute she was inches from certain death, next minute she was yelling in the face of some pissed off demon without a care in the world....that and the fact that his coat and her shirt had come loose and he could see her bra through the gap as she jumped and spun were enough to make him gape.

"Inuyasha?"

He snapped out of it just in time to see Kagome staring at him with a confused look on her face. Following his gaze, she glanced down and instantly turned red with embarrassment and....

"SIT!!"

...anger.

She left Inuyasha to peel his face off of the concrete balcony while Kagome when inside to get changed. It was the start of another glorious day.

*~*~*~*~*

The next two weeks went by faster than anything Inuyasha had even known, and he finally understood why people always told him 'Time flies when you're having fun.' At the time, he'd thought the Bozou was just being perverted, but now he realised just how true it was. (The Bozou was still perverted though.) Inuyasha had never had more fun in his life.

That second day, they packed all their stuff back up again, and after a quick breakfast (which included all sorts of strange but good food) they were back in the car thingy again. This time however, Kagome sat with him in the back. Her cheerful chattering and her trust in this 'car' thing were enough to soothe Inuyasha's nerves to a point where he almost didn't notice that they were on a narrow strip of road with things whizzing past them at bone crunching speeds. It was actually relaxing, watching this strange countryside whizz past him. Kagome had a map, and she pointed out different cities, and mountains as they went by, explaining things he didn't understand like "telephone poles" and "Billu-boards." And for once, Inuyasha didn't have to lift a finger at all. It was great!

After several hours of driving however, the novelty had started to wear off. Kagome's father had started telling them this long story about some stupid prince named Octopus who had been fated to kill his father and marry his mother. By the time he got to telling them about the octopus prince's grandchildren they were in driving through mountainous country, which was really stupid because instead of going in a strait line, they had to twist and curve to follow the road along the mountainside. After a time, Inuyasha got sick of it and decided to get out and run around, following the car as it drove. Mr.Higurashi seemed rather impressed by this, and they had even raced a bit against each other whenever Inuyasha pulled up even beside the car. Other times, the car was no where to be seen, as he ran up and stopped for a brief moment at the top of a mountain before continuing on his way. He always caught up though.

Kagome meanwhile was sitting again in front passenger seat chatting away with her father about anything and everything she could tell him about the warring-states period and demons. He was fascinated, of course, which only made Kagome want to talk more, however, they also talked a bit about Souta, Mama and Grandpa, although Kagome had to admit she hadn't seen them all that often.

They were right in the middle of a discussion about Kitsunes, and of course Shippo, when suddenly Inuyasha appeared, standing on the road before them, his bright red robes in sharp contrast to the grey and foggy day. Kagome had agreed that he could wear them for today, as they were going to be spending most of their time in isolated country. Besides, to be fair, she always wore her school clothes in the medieval period. Why couldn't he wear his here?

Inuyasha seemed to want to talk about something, and looked rather put out about it. Arms crossed over his chest, he waited for Mr. Higurashi to pull up beside him and Kagome to unroll her window.

"What is it, Inuyasha?"

In reply, Inuyasha pointed a finger at the air to his side, and slowly moved it forward. There was a slight buzzing in the air, and suddenly, a crackle of energy appeared to singe Inuyasha's hand. He pulled it back quickly and looked back at Kagome peevishly.

"Another barrier?!" She asked surprised, but then she realised why. They had been heading to a place called Delphi. Delphi had been a temple, and a very important one too, belonging to the oracle of Apollo. No doubt they had erected barriers around such a sacred place, barriers Inuyasha couldn't enter. Which meant that he would have to wait on the other side for them to finish their tour of the place and carry on their way. Inuyasha didn't mind, or at least he didn't seem to mind. He just "Keh"ed and leapt up a cliff to follow the perimeter of the barrier around to their next meeting place. Kagome sighed, and hoped he wasn't offended.

*~*~*~*~*

Delphi was amazing. First, the museum had housed some of the oldest statues Kagome had ever seen. There was a sphinx, a very rare bronze statue called the charioteer, and numerous belly-buttons of the earth. Apparently, once upon a time people had believed Delphi to be the centre of the world. On that note, they had all unanimously decided that the world had an "outy" at it's naval, and set to work.

Next Kagome and her father ascended the sacred path to the temple, passing many ruins and covered sites where people seemed to be excavating. Her father explained that this had once been the city of Delphi, and was still being excavated by archaeologists. Further up, they passed re-constructed treasuries, where people had once left their offerings, and then the Polygon Wall. Made without cement or mortar of any kind, this wall had survived a millennia of earthquakes and wars, and had not once collapsed. Also, written upon the wall were the names of 800 slaves, who had been freed by their masters for their good service. It was amazing.

Finally they came to the temple of Apollo itself, where young maidens had once leaned over the sulphuric fumes coming from the earth, and then predicted people's futures once they were fairly, ahem, hi. Of course, this was entirely the scientific theory, and somehow, Kagome realised there must have been something more magical to it than that.

Walking up to the small stadium and amphitheatre, Kagome's eye caught a speck of red. There, perched upon the surrounding cliffs like some lone ancient guard, was Inuyasha. He was intently watching the scenes below, ears twitching to catch everything that was said by Mr. Higurashi. Inside, Kagome found herself suffocating a quell of anger and indignation. Why should Inuyasha be the only one left out? What had he ever done to stupid Apollo?

Kagome sighed. There was nothing she could do about it now. Instead, she slapped a happy smile on her face and gave Inuyasha a cheery wave from where she stood. He saw her, looked surprised for a moment, and then went into the pose that always accompanied the word "Keh!" Kagome suppressed a giggle and then hurried on before she attracted too much attention from other tourists.

*~*~*~*~*

As promised, Iiuyasha was waiting for them when they exited the barrier and continued on towards a small restaurant and a late lunch. The food was great, and both Inuyasha and Kagome were pleasantly surprised at their explorations of Greek Moussaka (sort of an eggplant and tomato lasagne without the noodles), and mutton (lamb). However, the waiter kept looking at Inuyasha strangely, and by the end of the meal, even Kagome was starting to get slightly annoyed at him. Alright, Inuyasha was different, and everyone was entitled to a good minute or so of staring, but after that, it was just rude. Even Mr. Higurashi thought so, and decided to make a point to him by skimping on the tip.

After the meal, they were in for a long winding decent from the mountains, down to the Mediterranean, and along the shores of gulf of Corinth. Inuyasha decided to go for a run again, and this time, Kagome asked to go with him on his back. They talked while they went, flying over cliffs and boulders in effortless leaps and bounds. Without the added weight of Kagome's backpack, she felt as if they were flying. Kagome didn't miss the opportunity to let out a few whoops and trills of excitement as they went, that is until Inuyasha told her to stop screaming in his ears. However, even he seemed to be smiling as they ran. The clouds had cleared up, the sun was out, and a good breeze was blowing off the perfect turquoise blue of the gulf. Kagome had never felt so high.

*~*~*~*~*

Hours later, a car containing a middle aged man, a sleeping girl, and a snoring hanyou, all from Japan, came to a stop, parked in the hold of a large ferry between mainland Greece and the smaller peninsula of Peleponesse. Shinji smirked as he held up the camera and aimed it at the sleeping pair. It was almost too cute for words. Kagome's cheek was resting on the demon's shoulder, and his head was in turn slumped lightly in her direction...

He snapped the camera and instantly the car was filled with the white light of the flash. Inuyasha snapped awake, sitting bolt upright with a confused and panicked expression on his face. This was no forest, where was his tree? How had he fallen asleep? Where was Kagome?

Kagome, in the mean time, just ignored the flash and continued to slumber, falling down and over behind Inuyasha's back as he moved. It was too comical and Shinji snapped another photo, which abruptly brought the hanyou to his senses again, and his memory back with them. He growled in annoyance as Shinji chuckled and announced brightly. "Rise and shine. Wouldn't want you to miss the ferry ride now!"

"Uwhaa?" Kagome was now awake and sitting up, bleary eyed and bushy headed. She looked over and immediately blushed a light pink colour as she realised how she had been sleeping, before spotting the camera in her father's hand and redoubling her efforts. "DAD!!" She hissed, now a medium reddish hue. Inuyasha, also pink, was wondering why Kagome was so worried about a small black box, when the car gave an unexpected lurch, signalling the launch of the boat.

Immediately Kagome forgot everything else and flew out of the car, dragging Inuyasha with her as she climbed the narrow stairways to the very top of the four story fairy and looked out over the harbour, which was quickly getting smaller with every passing minute as the opposite bank got larger. The sky was grey again, and spit was falling from the dark clouds that had rolled in.

The top of the deck was wet and slick with water and grease, but Kagome didn't notice this. Not until her feet accidentally slipped out from under her and rose into the air. Her back automatically arched in surprise as she fell backwards in one of those infamous clumsy ice skater falls, in which the victim ends up with a bruised tail bone and a compacted spine. She was saved, however, when Inuyasha caught her from behind by wrapping his arms around her torso and waiting until she gained her balance. Unfortunately, Mr. Higurashi chose this time to come up the stairs as well, armed with a camera, and earned himself another blackmail photo of Kagome and Inuyasha. Kagome wanted to die from embarrassment, but instead settled for keeping at least three feet between her and Inuyasha for the rest of the boat ride, just to be safe.

*~*~*~*~*

They reached their hotel not a half hour later, as it was situated about a mile or so down shore from the ferry stop. Unlike the last hotel in Athens, this one was perfect. Large and spacious, it came complete with a balcony and a view of the gulf and beach not a hundred feet away. Kagome started bouncing she was so happy, and Inuyasha rolled his eyes at her, but didn't complain about the room.

They spent the next three nights at that hotel, either lazing on the beach or exploring the local area. Kagome insisted on doing some souvenir shopping for her family and friends back home, and indeed there seemed to be a lot of shops set up for that exact purpose. Inuyasha didn't like them. In fact he hated them with a passion the moment he followed Kagome into one and saw some sort of booklet boasting "sex positions of ancient Greece." Then there were some very eechi so-called "lust demon" statues, depicting horned men with very large male parts all standing at attention. It was a gross, disgusting and degrading to a level even the bozou had yet to approach. Luckily, Inuyasha hadn't been the only one who thought so. Both he and Kagome had turned several shades of red before leaving the store, listening to Mr. Higurashi calmly explain how Greeks believed in perfection of the human anatomy and were much less squeamish about such things, and so on and so forth. Inuyasha didn't care, that was just wrong!!

*~*~*~*~*

The next day, they were all packed and back in the car again, heading out for a place called "Olympia." Inuyasha had to admit it sounded interesting. Games to prove strength, even if was only human strength, as an alternative to war. Apparently, nations that were at war could not enter champions into these games, which was some high honour, and thus, all wars were stopped whenever the Olympics approached. Champions trained in events like running, wrestling, spear throwing and so on, and the winner from every event was allowed to step into the house of the king of gods and receive his blessings.

Although Inuyasha would never admit it, he was interested, and more earnest to see this place than he'd been to do anything (other than look for shards or kill Naraku) for a long time. Maybe even a little too earnest, otherwise, he would have noticed the warnings in the air around him before walking head first into the strongest barrier he had yet seen. The shock was so great it threw him back a hundred feet, over the parking lot they had left the car in, and painfully into the side of a small cliff at the other end.

Wincing, he gave his head a shake, cursing his own stupidity as Kagome came running up with concern on her face. He snarled at her as he assured her he was fine, and didn't need her to worry about him. Then, abruptly told her he didn't even want to see the F*cking "Olympics" in the first place so she could just go in without him again and he'd wait here. Mr. Higurashi bought it, or at least enough of it, and gave Inuyasha a slow, almost doubtful nod before turning back to the site.

Kagome however, wasn't so easy to fool. Anger with Inuyasha usually meant he was feeling something else and just didn't know how to show it. (and still look all tough and invincible) The fact that he had walked straight into the barrier in the first place, instead of detecting it, was enough to tell her that he had actually been looking forward to seeing Olympia, and that this anger was just a facade to cover up his disappointment. Once again, Inuyasha had been singled out because of something he couldn't help, and the more Kagome thought about it, the angrier she got.

"Come on!" She nearly shouted. Grabbing Inuyasha by the wrist, she spun around on her heel and all but dragged him back towards the barrier. Inuyasha was too shocked to protest, especially when Kagome began to mutter

"Stupid Gods! ....What's he ever done to them? ... Not his fault he's half demon."

Damn, if he didn't stop soon, he was going to get fried again. He put on his best angry voice, "Kagome, I said it's fine, I..."

"It's not FINE!!" She seethed. "You're my friend Inuyasha! Nobody treats my friends like that and gets away with it!"

That stopped him. Friend? Kagome thought of him as her friend? Not only that, she was willing to fight for him?...Against GODS?! "Wait! Kagome! Damn it..."

It was too late. One more step and the air around them became bright with energy. Inuyasha squinted, unable to see as Kagome's own aura snapped spasmodically with the energy of the barrier. He felt his skin start to burn as she pushed her way forward, determined against all reason to get him through.

And then, suddenly, it was gone. The burning faded to a slight tingling warmth where their hands were joined, and the air cleared. Kagome had done it! Inuyasha was inside the barrier. Even he couldn't suppress a rather admiring smirk as Kagome flashed him her own triumphant grin. Then, ignoring the rather befuddled stares of the other tourists, and the amazed one of Kagome's father, they continued on down the trail. The tingling in their hands telling them that as long as he was with Kagome, the gods would accept to have a half demon in their midst.

*~*~*~*~*

When I visited Greece, it was march, and WAY too cold to go swimming. However, the summer, as I understand it, is WAY too hot to do anything accept swim, and everything is so dry, it's almost arid. So, the time of year that this story takes place in is undecided. Probably a mix of both times of year, or maybe the fall, but I can't be sure.

Yes, the lust demons are real, I saw a WHOLE bunch of them, everywhere I went. Further on, I'm going to have Kagome and Inuyasha get chased by a woman selling fertility charms (just like I and my friends were) and then maybe have Inuyasha pass out on a trip to the Athens fish market, I'm not sure yet. :-P