InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Present Perfect ❯ Chapter 13 ( Chapter 13 )

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.

 

 

Chapter 13:

 

 

Kagome cornered Fenn when he came over Saturday morning. Inuyasha hid in the bedroom, using Tetsusaiga as an excuse. He knew what was coming. Kagome was calm. She was in miko mode, and the resemblance to Kikyou at such times was startling. Inuyasha was much better off waiting in the bedroom.

 

“You feed off human energy?” she asked Fenn, as she sat opposite him in the living room.

 

“I make no excuses for what I am,” Fenn said, “but I haven't hurt a human in years.”

 

“I don't expect you to change what you are. I know Inuyasha kills and eats animals raw.”

 

In the other room, Inuyasha's ears twitched violently. She knew?

 

Kagome continued speaking. “But he doesn't flaunt it, and he does it for sustenance, not entertainment,”

 

Inuyasha, listening unashamedly, felt a little bit guilty. He actually liked chasing the grey creatures around a while before he ate them.

 

:Un-do what you did to Susan,” Kagome commanded. “We will take care of any problems she might present.”

 

“And how will you do that, miko? Will you use different magics to get the same result? Why not just let my illusions stay in place? They're not hurting her.”

 

Kagome pounded her fist on the arm of her chair before she dropped it down to join the other one in her lap. “Yes, they are!” she insisted. “You took reality away from her.” There were too many times Kagome herself had been subjected to illusions, and of all the trials she had suffered, those had been the worst.

 

“What's reality? It's really very subjective, you know.”

 

That hit too close to what Inuyasha had been thinking the other night. Enough talking. He strode out of the bedroom.

 

“Where's Tetsusaiga?” asked Kagome.

 

Inuyasha turned on his heel, marched back into the bedroom and grabbed the sword off the desk. “Are we ready to go now?” he asked, when he came back out.

 

Kagome held Fenn's gaze for another minute, and finally said, “Un-do it. For your information, I'll just use psychology to handle Susan from now on.”

 

“Ah, psychology. The magic of the 21st century,” said Fenn, as he stood up. Inuyasha surprised him by pulling Kagome onto his back. Wait a minute—she was coming? This wasn't going to go over well with some of the old youkai. She was human—and a powerful miko. Fenn opened his mouth to voice his objections, then thought better of it. If Inuyasha wanted the youkai to meet his miko, he must have a reason.

 

Originally, he had planned to travel as an energy form, but it looked like he would have to re-think that now. To his utter astonishment, Inuyasha dissolved into his energy form with Kagome still on his back, and she disappeared right along with him! How was that possible? He let his own physical form slip away—at least they would save time in this form. They had a lot of ground to cover. He hovered as near to Inuyasha as his own form would allow, and as he concentrated, he realized that Kagome had not, in fact, taken on an energy form too. Somehow, she had disguised herself so that she was no longer visible, but she was still very much in human form! The girl was powerful indeed.

 

Fenn led the way and streaked off due east. He revised his plans slightly. They would visit Wormwood first. He was a crochety old youkai, but at least he wouldn't balk at meeting a human.

 

Wormwood lived in an antique town. Quite literally, the entire town's livelihood had been taken over by antique shops and small, quaint restaurants. It used to be a mill town, but it had been deteriorating for years. Antiquing had become the newest craze lately, and all the old-fashioned shops in the town center had sold out to the antique dealers. The place was packed on the weekends, deserted the rest of the time.

 

Fenn led them into what used to be the old department store. It was four stories high, and as rickety as their apartment. It had been divided into several tiny rooms, each stuffed with various antiques. He bypassed the first two floors and led them up a slightly crooked staircase towards the back of the third level. It was Saturday, so the place was hopping with people, humans from what Inuyasha could smell.

 

Kagome wandered through the small rooms, occasionally picking up small objects and examining them closely. These were antiques? It looked like a lot of junk, to her. The bracelets she'd purchased for Sango and Ayame's babies were more antique than these things.

 

“Don't touch!” A gruff old man shuffled out from behind a display, frightening Kagome just a little.

 

“Sorry,” she said as she put the glass sugar bowl she had been holding back onto a table filled with several identical glass bowls. The table itself didn't look all that steady. The old man nodded his head sharply in approval, and drifted back behind the display. Kagome went to find Inuyasha and Fenn.

 

Inuyasha was complaining, loudly. “I don't see why you brought us here. There's just a lot of junk and none of it even has power. I don't sense any youkai either.” He spotted Kagome and asked her, “Do you?”

 

To be fair, Kagome cast out her senses, not really expecting to pick up anything if even Inuyasha hadn't been able to sense it. However, her eyes widened and she murmured, “The old man!”

 

Fenn smiled. “I see you've met Wormwood. Lead the way, young miko.”

 

Kagome brought them through the maze of rooms to the one with the sugar bowls and pointed to a corner. “There!”

 

“Kagome, are you sure? All I see is a big wooden cabinet filled with kitchen stuff,” said Inuyasha. He sniffed, then sneezed. The only old thing in this room was dust.

 

“Try touching something,” Kagome suggested. Fenn smiled again. She was certainly a smart girl. Inuyasha thought it was some sort of spell. He put out his hand and touched a metal canister with a picture of a rooster on it. Nothing happened. He poked at it, then pushed it to one side. He was just reaching out to pick it up when a voice warned, “Don't touch.” To his surprise, a very irritated old human man was staring at him from only a few feet away. He should have sensed him, or at least smelled him. Inuyasha sniffed. Now he could smell him! And he wasn't human at all—he was youkai! It was just what had happened with the other youkai he'd met here—sight and smell hit him at the same time at the beginning. It wasn't supposed to work that way, but it did, at least until he memorized the scent.

 

“Meet Wormwood,” introduced Fenn, with a bow and a flourish of his arm. The air behind him warped, and Kagome glanced at Fenn suspiciously but she didn't say anything. Fenn must have done something so that the other human customers wouldn't see this particular little room.

 

“Mr. Wood, not Wormwood,” grouched the old man. He hobbled over and moved the canister back to its original position before studying his visitors. “You're human,” he accused Kagome, “and you're not,” he pointed a bony finger towards Inuyasha, who didn't argue with the old youkai's assessment.

 

“And just what are you supposed to be?” asked Inuyasha.

 

“Inuyasha!” admonished Kagome. Youkai or not, he was still an old man. In fact, he was the first old-looking old youkai she'd seen in this country. To the old man, she said, “I'm sorry, Mr. Wood. We didn't mean to disturb you. We would like to introduce ourselves. I'm Kagome Higurashi and this is Inuyasha. It's true, I am human, and Inuyasha is youkai, but we would both like to help the youkai of this country. Fenn was kind enough to bring us around to introduce us to you.”

 

Mr. Wood—Wormwood—regarded Kagome skeptically. “Where did you say you were from?”

 

“Er—Japan,” she replied. “It's a country far away across the ocean.”

 

“I know where Japan is,” the old man said impatiently. “I'm not stupid. What are you doing here? Who said we needed help?”

 

Except that he was old, he reminded Kagome a lot of Inuyasha.

 

“I did,” said Inuyasha. He folded his arms and stared down at the old youkai.

 

The old man stared right back. “You must be that new youkai leader I heard about,” he said at last. “Don't think much of you.” He turned to shuffle back behind his cabinet. Inuyasha was speechless.

 

Fenn chuckled. “Wormwood, take another look at this young man, and at his human as well. Don't you notice anything unusual about them?”

 

Mr. Wood stopped and turned, scrutinizing Inuyasha and Kagome with ill grace. “So he has some human in him, who cares? Do you think I'm one to be scared by a show of sheer power?” He shuffled closer to Kagome, causing Inuyasha to step protectively in front of her. “Out of the way, dog demon!” said the old man in exasperation. “I'm trying to see what's so different about this human of yours!”

 

“I'm not his human!” objected Kagome. Oddly enough, Inuyasha didn't say anything to contradict the old man. Did he think she was his human too? Kagome decided she'd allow Inuyasha to think it—but not the wrinkled old youkai. She pushed Inuyasha out of the way herself. “I'm Kagome. And I can purify you like that!” She snapped her fingers, and sparks flew.

 

The old youkai pushed his spectacles further up on his nose and inspected Kagome, quite unafraid of her display. “You're a miko, then,” he said. Kagome had realized quite some time ago that the terms were not quite right, but somehow the translations always came out to ones she could understand. She was pretty sure Connecticut didn't have miko's, per se. She nodded, folding her own arms in a most Inuyasha-like pose.

 

Fenn, who had been leaning against the door jamb watching the proceedings with interest, coughed. Everyone looked up. “Kagome was the one who found you,” he told Wormwood.

 

Now the old youkai looked interested. “She did? You should have said so earlier,” he reprimanded Fenn, who merely grinned. “Come on, then,” he told them. “Since you came all this way and you did find me after all, or at least the girl did, I might as well show you some things. I'm not that easy to find.” Still muttering to himself, and not bothering to check if the others were following him, Wormwood shuffled out of the room and down four flights of stairs to the basement area, which was marked `NO ADMITTANCE.'

 

Here the rejects of the antique world sat gathering dust. Or more dust. Inuyasha sneezed again, violently. It served to clear out his nasal passages, though, and he caught a faint whiff of power from somewhere in the room. “Kagome,” he murmured in warning.

 

“I feel it, too,” she replied. “Mr. Wood, what are these objects of power? Is this what you wanted to show us?”

 

In reply, Wormwood dug through a pile of broken furniture and pulled out a statue. It was made of light wood, or possibly bone, and felt incredibly old to Kagome's senses. It pulsed with an aura that was almost familiar in that it was neither recognizably good nor bad.

 

“What is it?” she asked softly, not quite daring to touch the object.

 

“It's a statue, what do you think?” replied the old man tersely. He held it out to her. “You can have it.”

 

Immediately Inuyasha jumped in front of Kagome and put his own hands on the statue. “Don't touch it, Kagome,” he cautioned. As Inuyasha came into contact with the statue, the aura swirled darkly. Swiftly the old man grabbed it back.

 

“I said her, not you!” he said.

 

Kagome came forward and touched her fingertip to the statue, brightening its aura. “There,” she said, satisfied. Just like with the jewel, she had purified it.

 

“Thank you, young lady. I have a few more around here that could use your touch. It's been too long. Wait . . .” Wormwood rummaged around the room and brought Kagome two or three other objects of power so that she could purify them also. When he couldn't find any more, he sighed, and asked her, “Are you sure you don't want to take one, as a thank-you?”

 

“No, that's all right,” said Kagome with a smile. She was glad she had been able to help.

 

Inuyasha was just glad to get out of there. He hadn't been too impressed with the grumpy old youkai, and he wasn't sure he liked being dismissed like that. “What did he mean—he didn't care that I have some human in me?”

 

Fenn laughed. “He was bluffing. He didn't want you to know he was scared of your power. He must have felt you coming for miles away. That's why he hid himself so completely.”

 

Inuyasha felt a little better after that. He could live with being feared because he was powerful. He still wasn't exactly sure what being part human had to do with it, though. “Where to next?” he asked, suddenly chipper.

 

“To wolf country!” replied Fenn, streaking off.

 

“Great,” muttered Inuyasha, sweeping up Kagome and transforming. “More wolves.”