InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Mating Season ❯ Deception ( Chapter 26 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: SplendentGoddess 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Drama / Adventure | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 03.23.2006 | Updated On: 07.17.2008 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.1K | Visits: 12.4K | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Drama / Adventure | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 03.23.2006 | Updated On: 07.17.2008 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.1K | Visits: 12.4K | Status: Completed
Blanket Disclaimer:
Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.
========================
Chapter 26 – Deception
It took them nearly two hours to backtrack the man’s trail, he’d been running for that long. They paused along the way whenever they came across the body of one of the youkai that had managed to catch and injure him, which in turn, had ended up getting killed by him. Miroku would dispose of the remains with a sutra and a prayer. Hokori explained that the faster insects caught up with him rather effortlessly, and as a result, were the ones who did him the most damage. It was a mantis youkai that had broken his sword off with its claws. Finally, it was only the slowest moving ones that remained, that he attempted to run from because he knew, in a fight, he would surely, eventually, fall.
Following the youkai trail they eventually saw where it looked as though they had originated in some nearby hills, but since they weren’t far from the village, they decided to stop there first. One, to see if anyone there may have more information to offer as far as either these youkai and/or Naraku, and two, everyone was getting a little cold from marching through the snow, and could stand to warm their bones for a short time before continuing. It was decided that they would likely remain here for the evening, and, leaving Hokori to continue on his way, they would continue hunting Naraku in the morning.
It came as little surprise that Hokori excused himself once they reached the village, he’d offered about as much help as he could with their quest by that point, and they were grateful for his information. Though it wasn’t much, they at least had a general idea of direction. Inuyasha muttered that he believed Hokori was most likely going to acquire himself a new katana, and in passing, commented that it’d likely be wise for Kagome to stock up on more arrows as well. Miroku gave the two some of the small amount of money he always managed to acquire and carry on his person, and then he and Sango decided to seek information while their friends went shopping.
Right when Kagome was considering reaching out and taking her mate’s hand, it began….the whispers.
Every few feet, it seemed, a different voice from a different passing stranger, echoed in their heads. Inuyasha was used to it, but he realized it must be hard on Kagome to hear the words he’d hoped to keep hidden from her. At first, most of the comments were just about him, and were rather general. The words used included youkai and hanyou, when some recognized him for what he truly was, as well as rather negative descriptive appliqués such as filthy, lowly, tainted, abomination, freak, monster, beast, horrid, creature and perversion. When a few of them decided to assume for themselves the exact nature of said hanyou and the young human woman at his side, the appliqués repeated, accompanied by the additional names whore, traitor, betrayer, slut, corrupted, unclean and impure.
It was enough to drive a wedge between them, however unintentional, as each simply tried to block out the world around them in an attempt at blocking out those whispered curses. At least one stroke of fortune appeared, when it came to directly interacting with any of the traders of the village, the archer apparently allowed his love for money to overrule any other basic instinct that may have advised him against keeping certain cliental. In other words, he viewed Kagome and Inuyasha as the perfect customers, once he learned how many arrows they wished to acquire.
As they were heading back towards the Inn where they had all planned to meet up by that evening, they bumped into Sango.
“Hey Sango,” Kagome addressed in a pleasant enough voice, though she guessed by the expression on her friend’s face, that she hadn’t successfully hidden her inner turmoil after all. “Where’s Miroku?” she asked.
“Oh, he’s just trying to see if there are any demons he can exorcise for a free room…” she ground out with a bit of distress, some things never change. “Are you okay?” she asked next.
“Yeah…fine…”
“KehR 21;
Looking back and forth between the two, Sango knew something was up, but instantly had an idea.
“There’s a bathhouse built over a local hot spring, Kagome, care to join me?”
“Yeah!” then turning quickly to her mate, she asked in a low voice, “Do you mind?”
“Nah, go have your girl time…” He answered honestly enough. “I’ll see if I can track down the monk.”
Neither caught the momentary flash of mild panic in Sango’s expression.
“Okay!” Kagome piped up happily. “I am a little on the cold side, and could certainly use a nice hot soak.”
Whispering seductively in his mate’s ear for a moment, in an attempt to remind her that the other villagers could all kiss his ass, because he loves her, he said “You sure you’re cold? You look hot to me….”
Kagome blushed at the comment, first Shippo learns to say cool, and now Inuyasha calls her hot. Slowly but surely, she’s corrupting history. He saw her blush and quickly winked at her, before shooing her away with her girlfriend.
```````
In the bathhouse, Kagome proceeded to let the hot water drain her of the day’s stresses and, in a moment much like old times, allowed herself to cry on her friend’s shoulder.
In an apologetic moment, Sango conceded that perhaps she had been wrong in her earlier opinions, but Kagome quickly shut it down. She cried how Sango was right and how she knew it could have been so much worse if she’d defiantly taken her lover’s hand as she’d wanted to. Have him wrap his arms around her and dribble kisses on her neck in the public view of everybody. The last thing she wanted was to face down a mob of angry villagers wielding torches and pitchforks. Sango laughed at the imagery, and reminded her friend that should anything like that ever happen, that she had every confidence that the two of them could handle themselves. She went on to explain that she’d only been concerned for her friend’s happiness, but hadn’t considered that if you hide who you are, then how happy can that make you? Most people probably won’t approve of her relationship with Inuyasha when they learn of it, but Sango made it crystal clear to her friend that she did. Before preparing to get out of the hot spring, to allow Kagome some more time to her thoughts, she left her friend with the suggestion that she and Inuyasha take to the woods that evening, rather than staying in the Inn with the rest of them. She assured them that they could all meet up in the morning. Kagome smiled smally, nodding in agreement that it seemed like a good idea. In the back of her mind, she was mildly surprised at Sango’s ability to suggest such a thing without visible discomfort, or even the slightest hint of blush.
```````
Inuyasha wandered around by himself for a moment, though truly he wasn’t alone, as Shippo had stayed with him. He recognized that his adoptive mother had needed some time to herself, plus the look Sango had given him when he’d moved to potentially fallow had given him the creeps.
Inuyasha ended up deciding against tracking down Miroku at the moment, since if he was trying to see if there was some poor fool he could trick into thinking he had a demon that required exorcising, he figured that his presence wouldn’t hold well for Miroku’s position. If the monk could find a free room for himself and his future mate, so be it, he’d already decided he wouldn’t be staying within the walls of the village tonight. He wouldn’t fault Kagome if she chose genuine bedding over sleeping on the forest floor, though something told him that what the two of them needed most was some time alone for a while.
It was strange, but now that Kagome had gone off with Sango to the bathhouse, the whispering seemed to have almost stopped completely. This would make sense if the whispering were solely about Kagome, but it hadn’t been. Much of it had been directed simply at himself, and was rather general. Now that he truly listened for it, he discovered that hardly anybody was speaking poorly of him at all, and the only whispers he seemed to be detecting were within regards to whatever services they wondered he would be interested in, as all the shop keeps hoped his presence would bring them some money.
“Do you hear that?” he asked the kit at his side.
“Hear what?” Shippo asked in return.
“Exactly…” Shippo shook his head in mild confusion, not quite getting it at first, until his eyes widened in realization.
“That’s weird…” he mumbled.
“Yeah, a little too weird.”
Suddenly, he detected the scent that he loved above all others in the known universe, and probably beyond that as well, the scent of his mate. A sweet enticing mix of jasmine and vanilla, from her shampoo, only proved to compliment her otherwise more natural odor. But something was wrong, something was terribly wrong. He’d hoped her indulgence in the hot spring would have relaxed and calmed her, allowed her to vent her frustrations to her closet female friend, but instead, she seemed even more tense, more upset.
“Ka…Kagome?” he asked as his heart pounded in his chest. “What’s wrong?” he pleaded.
Heedless of the villagers around them, he proceeded to take her hands in his, and pull her into a close embrace. Though at the moment he was too distraught over his trembling mate to notice, little Shippo had discovered that even this new display of intimacy hadn’t stirred the harsh words they were receiving earlier.
Sniffing, Kagome finally managed to compose herself, as she sobbed out the things that Sango had said to her. That though she didn’t “personally” feel discomfort over their relationship, that it would probably be better, for everybody, if the two of them didn’t stay at the Inn that night. Sighing, Inuyasha began to confess that he’d reached a similar conclusion, though he’d never reached the part where he was about to explain that his reasonings were entirely different, before the young woman in his arms stiffened in his embrace, just before pushing herself back a step.
“How can you say that?” she questioned quietly, hurt in her scent.
“Kagome…” he sighed, “You know how I feel, but I also know how others may feel…I just thought-”
“You thought what?” She spat. “That’d you’d hide me? Hide us?”
“It’s not about hiding, it’s about privacy!” he spat back.
She looked at him in a sort of mix of confusion and disgust. “You want to do that? After everything that’s happened today?”
“Damn it Kagome!” he damn near yelled. “You’re not making any sense! Yes I’d like to mate, but shit! If you just wanted me to hold you I’d do that too! You should know that!”
Now some of the villagers were beginning to whisper, though nowhere near the intensity of earlier, even now that their relationship has just been outted.
Kagome’s eyes darted around her surroundings in an uncharacteristic show of panic, before she bolted, heading off into the heart of the village, where Inuyasha quickly lost her in the crowed. Wait…that wasn’t right, was it? He’d managed to track her scent through Tokyo, so how could he lose it so easily here? Little Shippo’s nose was no better, though he did suddenly detect the scent of Sango and Miroku, whose scents Inuyasha noticed himself. Even more confused, or less confused, as an underlining feeling of dread washed through him, he bolted in the direction of their friends.
```````````````
Kagome was relaxing in the hot water, but finally decided she’d better get out of the tub before she got too pruney. She decided Sango was right. There were bound to be some, no check that, not some, try a lot of closed-minded individuals, but she couldn’t let that get her down. If any real trouble should ever arise, she knew that she and Inuyasha could handle it. But she thought, with a light smile, that she’d also take Sango up on her offer, to meet up with her, Miroku, and Shippo, come the morning. A slow rise of color rushed up her cheeks that had nothing to do with the temperature of the water.
Staggering outside in that kind of peaceful relaxation one acquires when every muscle in their entire body has been alleviated of its stress and tension, she headed towards the general direction in which she’d left her mate before heading off with Sango.
Seeing him approach her, a sort of silly and seductive smile on his lips, she smiled in return and headed towards him slightly faster, though she reframed from throwing her arms around his neck once she was within range.
“I’m sorry for earlier, I had no idea-” she began, but was cut off by a gentle finger on her lips. A finger he dare not let linger too long, lest they start the whispers up again, that Kagome had noticed for some reason, had temporarily stopped.
“Sango found me…” he spoke, softly.
Kagome shivered, imagining all too well the implications of that statement.
“So what do you think?” she asked.
“I think sleeping outside could be cold…” he smirked, the tone of his voice a complete 180 from when he’d voiced his genuine concern over the cold temperature back when she’d been studying.
“Baka…” she teased, he smiled. “I’m not a ‘weak human’ any more, and besides,” she added after cautiously and stealthfully brushing the back of her fingers across his cheek before once again dropping her hand to her side, “I have you to keep me warm.”
With that, Inuyasha picked her up, not caring what stares and/or whispers the action might provoke, as they leapt outside the walls of the village, into the surrounding forest.
`````````````````````````
Finding Sango and Miroku speaking with one of the village headman, Inuyasha hoped sarcastically in the back of his mind that he wasn’t ‘interrupting’ anything, though at the moment, he honestly didn’t care if the presence of their youkai friends discredited their ability to exorcise the man’s house. He had much bigger things to worry about.
Rushing right up to them, the man was a little taken back, but as soon as he saw Inuyasha speaking frantically with the slayer, he knew they must be companions.
“Sango!” Inuyasha had called. “I lost Kagome’s scent, which way is that bathhouse?”
“What bathhouse?”
He froze….that wasn’t the real Sango either? Shit!
The headman suddenly decided he could be useful to this group after all, though he’d had no information regarding a demon named Naraku. He quickly pointed them all in the direction of the bathhouse.
Everyone running in that direction now, Miroku was the first to speak.
“Inuyasha, what’s going on?”
“Kagome got all upset over stuff she told me Sango said regarding how we should hide our relationship from public view.”
“I never said such a thing!” Sango spouted right away.
“Though those concerns seem warranted….” Miroku added.
“Keh, it don’t matter if it’s a good idea or not! My point is Kagome didn’t act like herself, at all…and when I ran after her, I lost her scent.”
“How can that be?” Miroku asked in bewilderment. He knows how good Inuyasha’s nose is.
“Simple….” He ground out feeling rather stupid with himself, and panic stricken all at the same time. “It wasn’t really her…”
Once they approached the bathhouse, Inuyasha began to pick up residual traces of her scent, along with Sango’s, though the taijiya swore she’d never been there. He believed her, however, when he also detected his own scent.
“Your scents lead off into the forest!” Shippo proclaimed.
“Shit!” shit shit shit shit
Bolting as fast as his hanyou legs could carry him, he left his human comrades in a cloud of dust. They’d just have to catch up, he had no time to waist.
Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.
========================
Chapter 26 – Deception
It took them nearly two hours to backtrack the man’s trail, he’d been running for that long. They paused along the way whenever they came across the body of one of the youkai that had managed to catch and injure him, which in turn, had ended up getting killed by him. Miroku would dispose of the remains with a sutra and a prayer. Hokori explained that the faster insects caught up with him rather effortlessly, and as a result, were the ones who did him the most damage. It was a mantis youkai that had broken his sword off with its claws. Finally, it was only the slowest moving ones that remained, that he attempted to run from because he knew, in a fight, he would surely, eventually, fall.
Following the youkai trail they eventually saw where it looked as though they had originated in some nearby hills, but since they weren’t far from the village, they decided to stop there first. One, to see if anyone there may have more information to offer as far as either these youkai and/or Naraku, and two, everyone was getting a little cold from marching through the snow, and could stand to warm their bones for a short time before continuing. It was decided that they would likely remain here for the evening, and, leaving Hokori to continue on his way, they would continue hunting Naraku in the morning.
It came as little surprise that Hokori excused himself once they reached the village, he’d offered about as much help as he could with their quest by that point, and they were grateful for his information. Though it wasn’t much, they at least had a general idea of direction. Inuyasha muttered that he believed Hokori was most likely going to acquire himself a new katana, and in passing, commented that it’d likely be wise for Kagome to stock up on more arrows as well. Miroku gave the two some of the small amount of money he always managed to acquire and carry on his person, and then he and Sango decided to seek information while their friends went shopping.
Right when Kagome was considering reaching out and taking her mate’s hand, it began….the whispers.
Every few feet, it seemed, a different voice from a different passing stranger, echoed in their heads. Inuyasha was used to it, but he realized it must be hard on Kagome to hear the words he’d hoped to keep hidden from her. At first, most of the comments were just about him, and were rather general. The words used included youkai and hanyou, when some recognized him for what he truly was, as well as rather negative descriptive appliqués such as filthy, lowly, tainted, abomination, freak, monster, beast, horrid, creature and perversion. When a few of them decided to assume for themselves the exact nature of said hanyou and the young human woman at his side, the appliqués repeated, accompanied by the additional names whore, traitor, betrayer, slut, corrupted, unclean and impure.
It was enough to drive a wedge between them, however unintentional, as each simply tried to block out the world around them in an attempt at blocking out those whispered curses. At least one stroke of fortune appeared, when it came to directly interacting with any of the traders of the village, the archer apparently allowed his love for money to overrule any other basic instinct that may have advised him against keeping certain cliental. In other words, he viewed Kagome and Inuyasha as the perfect customers, once he learned how many arrows they wished to acquire.
As they were heading back towards the Inn where they had all planned to meet up by that evening, they bumped into Sango.
“Hey Sango,” Kagome addressed in a pleasant enough voice, though she guessed by the expression on her friend’s face, that she hadn’t successfully hidden her inner turmoil after all. “Where’s Miroku?” she asked.
“Oh, he’s just trying to see if there are any demons he can exorcise for a free room…” she ground out with a bit of distress, some things never change. “Are you okay?” she asked next.
“Yeah…fine…”
“KehR 21;
Looking back and forth between the two, Sango knew something was up, but instantly had an idea.
“There’s a bathhouse built over a local hot spring, Kagome, care to join me?”
“Yeah!” then turning quickly to her mate, she asked in a low voice, “Do you mind?”
“Nah, go have your girl time…” He answered honestly enough. “I’ll see if I can track down the monk.”
Neither caught the momentary flash of mild panic in Sango’s expression.
“Okay!” Kagome piped up happily. “I am a little on the cold side, and could certainly use a nice hot soak.”
Whispering seductively in his mate’s ear for a moment, in an attempt to remind her that the other villagers could all kiss his ass, because he loves her, he said “You sure you’re cold? You look hot to me….”
Kagome blushed at the comment, first Shippo learns to say cool, and now Inuyasha calls her hot. Slowly but surely, she’s corrupting history. He saw her blush and quickly winked at her, before shooing her away with her girlfriend.
```````
In the bathhouse, Kagome proceeded to let the hot water drain her of the day’s stresses and, in a moment much like old times, allowed herself to cry on her friend’s shoulder.
In an apologetic moment, Sango conceded that perhaps she had been wrong in her earlier opinions, but Kagome quickly shut it down. She cried how Sango was right and how she knew it could have been so much worse if she’d defiantly taken her lover’s hand as she’d wanted to. Have him wrap his arms around her and dribble kisses on her neck in the public view of everybody. The last thing she wanted was to face down a mob of angry villagers wielding torches and pitchforks. Sango laughed at the imagery, and reminded her friend that should anything like that ever happen, that she had every confidence that the two of them could handle themselves. She went on to explain that she’d only been concerned for her friend’s happiness, but hadn’t considered that if you hide who you are, then how happy can that make you? Most people probably won’t approve of her relationship with Inuyasha when they learn of it, but Sango made it crystal clear to her friend that she did. Before preparing to get out of the hot spring, to allow Kagome some more time to her thoughts, she left her friend with the suggestion that she and Inuyasha take to the woods that evening, rather than staying in the Inn with the rest of them. She assured them that they could all meet up in the morning. Kagome smiled smally, nodding in agreement that it seemed like a good idea. In the back of her mind, she was mildly surprised at Sango’s ability to suggest such a thing without visible discomfort, or even the slightest hint of blush.
```````
Inuyasha wandered around by himself for a moment, though truly he wasn’t alone, as Shippo had stayed with him. He recognized that his adoptive mother had needed some time to herself, plus the look Sango had given him when he’d moved to potentially fallow had given him the creeps.
Inuyasha ended up deciding against tracking down Miroku at the moment, since if he was trying to see if there was some poor fool he could trick into thinking he had a demon that required exorcising, he figured that his presence wouldn’t hold well for Miroku’s position. If the monk could find a free room for himself and his future mate, so be it, he’d already decided he wouldn’t be staying within the walls of the village tonight. He wouldn’t fault Kagome if she chose genuine bedding over sleeping on the forest floor, though something told him that what the two of them needed most was some time alone for a while.
It was strange, but now that Kagome had gone off with Sango to the bathhouse, the whispering seemed to have almost stopped completely. This would make sense if the whispering were solely about Kagome, but it hadn’t been. Much of it had been directed simply at himself, and was rather general. Now that he truly listened for it, he discovered that hardly anybody was speaking poorly of him at all, and the only whispers he seemed to be detecting were within regards to whatever services they wondered he would be interested in, as all the shop keeps hoped his presence would bring them some money.
“Do you hear that?” he asked the kit at his side.
“Hear what?” Shippo asked in return.
“Exactly…” Shippo shook his head in mild confusion, not quite getting it at first, until his eyes widened in realization.
“That’s weird…” he mumbled.
“Yeah, a little too weird.”
Suddenly, he detected the scent that he loved above all others in the known universe, and probably beyond that as well, the scent of his mate. A sweet enticing mix of jasmine and vanilla, from her shampoo, only proved to compliment her otherwise more natural odor. But something was wrong, something was terribly wrong. He’d hoped her indulgence in the hot spring would have relaxed and calmed her, allowed her to vent her frustrations to her closet female friend, but instead, she seemed even more tense, more upset.
“Ka…Kagome?” he asked as his heart pounded in his chest. “What’s wrong?” he pleaded.
Heedless of the villagers around them, he proceeded to take her hands in his, and pull her into a close embrace. Though at the moment he was too distraught over his trembling mate to notice, little Shippo had discovered that even this new display of intimacy hadn’t stirred the harsh words they were receiving earlier.
Sniffing, Kagome finally managed to compose herself, as she sobbed out the things that Sango had said to her. That though she didn’t “personally” feel discomfort over their relationship, that it would probably be better, for everybody, if the two of them didn’t stay at the Inn that night. Sighing, Inuyasha began to confess that he’d reached a similar conclusion, though he’d never reached the part where he was about to explain that his reasonings were entirely different, before the young woman in his arms stiffened in his embrace, just before pushing herself back a step.
“How can you say that?” she questioned quietly, hurt in her scent.
“Kagome…” he sighed, “You know how I feel, but I also know how others may feel…I just thought-”
“You thought what?” She spat. “That’d you’d hide me? Hide us?”
“It’s not about hiding, it’s about privacy!” he spat back.
She looked at him in a sort of mix of confusion and disgust. “You want to do that? After everything that’s happened today?”
“Damn it Kagome!” he damn near yelled. “You’re not making any sense! Yes I’d like to mate, but shit! If you just wanted me to hold you I’d do that too! You should know that!”
Now some of the villagers were beginning to whisper, though nowhere near the intensity of earlier, even now that their relationship has just been outted.
Kagome’s eyes darted around her surroundings in an uncharacteristic show of panic, before she bolted, heading off into the heart of the village, where Inuyasha quickly lost her in the crowed. Wait…that wasn’t right, was it? He’d managed to track her scent through Tokyo, so how could he lose it so easily here? Little Shippo’s nose was no better, though he did suddenly detect the scent of Sango and Miroku, whose scents Inuyasha noticed himself. Even more confused, or less confused, as an underlining feeling of dread washed through him, he bolted in the direction of their friends.
```````````````
Kagome was relaxing in the hot water, but finally decided she’d better get out of the tub before she got too pruney. She decided Sango was right. There were bound to be some, no check that, not some, try a lot of closed-minded individuals, but she couldn’t let that get her down. If any real trouble should ever arise, she knew that she and Inuyasha could handle it. But she thought, with a light smile, that she’d also take Sango up on her offer, to meet up with her, Miroku, and Shippo, come the morning. A slow rise of color rushed up her cheeks that had nothing to do with the temperature of the water.
Staggering outside in that kind of peaceful relaxation one acquires when every muscle in their entire body has been alleviated of its stress and tension, she headed towards the general direction in which she’d left her mate before heading off with Sango.
Seeing him approach her, a sort of silly and seductive smile on his lips, she smiled in return and headed towards him slightly faster, though she reframed from throwing her arms around his neck once she was within range.
“I’m sorry for earlier, I had no idea-” she began, but was cut off by a gentle finger on her lips. A finger he dare not let linger too long, lest they start the whispers up again, that Kagome had noticed for some reason, had temporarily stopped.
“Sango found me…” he spoke, softly.
Kagome shivered, imagining all too well the implications of that statement.
“So what do you think?” she asked.
“I think sleeping outside could be cold…” he smirked, the tone of his voice a complete 180 from when he’d voiced his genuine concern over the cold temperature back when she’d been studying.
“Baka…” she teased, he smiled. “I’m not a ‘weak human’ any more, and besides,” she added after cautiously and stealthfully brushing the back of her fingers across his cheek before once again dropping her hand to her side, “I have you to keep me warm.”
With that, Inuyasha picked her up, not caring what stares and/or whispers the action might provoke, as they leapt outside the walls of the village, into the surrounding forest.
`````````````````````````
Finding Sango and Miroku speaking with one of the village headman, Inuyasha hoped sarcastically in the back of his mind that he wasn’t ‘interrupting’ anything, though at the moment, he honestly didn’t care if the presence of their youkai friends discredited their ability to exorcise the man’s house. He had much bigger things to worry about.
Rushing right up to them, the man was a little taken back, but as soon as he saw Inuyasha speaking frantically with the slayer, he knew they must be companions.
“Sango!” Inuyasha had called. “I lost Kagome’s scent, which way is that bathhouse?”
“What bathhouse?”
He froze….that wasn’t the real Sango either? Shit!
The headman suddenly decided he could be useful to this group after all, though he’d had no information regarding a demon named Naraku. He quickly pointed them all in the direction of the bathhouse.
Everyone running in that direction now, Miroku was the first to speak.
“Inuyasha, what’s going on?”
“Kagome got all upset over stuff she told me Sango said regarding how we should hide our relationship from public view.”
“I never said such a thing!” Sango spouted right away.
“Though those concerns seem warranted….” Miroku added.
“Keh, it don’t matter if it’s a good idea or not! My point is Kagome didn’t act like herself, at all…and when I ran after her, I lost her scent.”
“How can that be?” Miroku asked in bewilderment. He knows how good Inuyasha’s nose is.
“Simple….” He ground out feeling rather stupid with himself, and panic stricken all at the same time. “It wasn’t really her…”
Once they approached the bathhouse, Inuyasha began to pick up residual traces of her scent, along with Sango’s, though the taijiya swore she’d never been there. He believed her, however, when he also detected his own scent.
“Your scents lead off into the forest!” Shippo proclaimed.
“Shit!” shit shit shit shit
Bolting as fast as his hanyou legs could carry him, he left his human comrades in a cloud of dust. They’d just have to catch up, he had no time to waist.