InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Same Thing, Different Time ❯ I'm So Sorry! ( Chapter 20 )

Disclaimer: Same as any other chapter before. (Darn it!)

Italicized words: more emphasis on its meaning.

Bold Italics: One's specific thoughts. Inner Voice.

~*~*~*: Lapses of time or Scene change.

Reviews are GREATLY Appreciated.

This story has not changed. The only reason for this repost was that it had the incorrect Thanks you's for this particular sight. Please, to those that noticed that they wrote reviews and weren't mentioned, excuse me. I pulled the chapter from the wrong file which went to a different site. Oops, my bad.

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Same Thing, Different Time

by: aishiteru_inu

Part 20: I'm So Sorry!

Previous Chapter:

He didn't even knock as he entered into the small house with heavy steps, the door having been slammed open as he pushed it aside with a bit of force. When Kaede looked up, she saw InuYasha carrying the dark haired girl, Kagome, by the back of the shirt in one hand, and the Shikon no Tama necklace, broken, in the other. The hanyou had never been one to conceal his turbulent emotions, and the expression upon his face, as he stood there with a furious scowl, showed him to be very ticked off.

The older woman's eyes went between the two before her, taking in their filthy appearance and the horrible smell which emanated from them. Her gaze shifted more fully on the girl, but she didn't look to be damaged in any other way. The expression on her face wasn't one of anger or fear either. It was simply one of guilt.

"She," InuYasha spoke forcefully, lifting the girl a bit higher into the air, then lowered her and stuck out the necklace. "broke it!"

With a snarl of disgust, he tossed the fragment toward the old woman, then released the hold he had on the back of the girl's shirt. She landed upon her butt with an 'oomph', catching herself from completely collapsing upon the wooden floor with her hands.

"Hey!" she cried out as he was already walking away. "You don't have to be so nice!"

"Yeah," he gritted between teeth, as he paced the floor near the fireplace. "well, it's as good as you get right now!"

In all the time that they had been there, Kaede had yet to say anything.

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"That is enough, InuYasha." Kaede finally spoke up after having listened to the angry hanyou curse and complain for the last couple of minutes straight. Even throughout the recapitulation of the events, he had interjected as much, and she grew weary of hearing him. "You will find yourself sealed outside the door if you do not cease."

"I told you she was stupid, but not even did I think, in a million years, that she would wind up breaking it! This is her fault!" Then he stopped his pacing, to direct his words at the girl. "This is your fault!"

Kagome sat there on the floor still looking dejected as to what happen. He was right. It was her fault that it was now broke because she had thrown it as far as possible away from her.

"I didn't mean for it to break. I had no idea that it would hit practically the only rock we found out there while looking for the other half. I thought that…" She thought that InuYasha would have gone after it, but she had been wrong about that too. To say as such would lay the blame on him, and it wasn't his fault. She was 'responsible' for the jewel. She shouldn't have done what she had in the first place.

"I'm sorry." she continued weakly. "I didn't think…"

"No you didn't think, baka! What kind of brain do you have in that head of yours anyway, or is it just empty space?!"

"InuYasha, I will not tell you again," the older woman said calmly but with enough firmness that the hanyou made a 'harrumphing' sound and toss himself into a sitting position on the floor with his back turned to both of them. "Not too long before the two of you showed up, I received a few phone calls concerning a strange light and what looked to be like fireworks being set off. Listening to what you have told me, I have no doubt that these sightings are because of that very same incident. Since you only found half of the jewel, it could be that the other half has been completely destroyed…"

"WHAT?" InuYasha twisted around, looking at the woman with a sickening shocked expression. "NO!"

"…or, perhaps, the other half, or pieces of it, have dispersed themselves elsewhere."

"It's not in the field," Kagome murmured remembering the scene after he had screamed into a near dead faint. "We looked all around for it. It's not there."

"Then we will have to wait until things start presenting themselves… or not."

InuYasha twisted further around, glaring at the dark haired girl with a wicked glint in his narrowed eyes.

"You had better hope that the pieces are out there or you won't like what I do next!" he seethed, giving her a display of his claws.

"InuYasha," the woman spoke his name.

"Yeah, what?" Anger still seethed in his words.

"You smell."

With a growl, he shifted his furrowed eyes to the elderly woman sitting not three feet from him. "Keh!" he spouted as he jumped up and stomped out the door, but not before he gave the girl another 'meaningful' glance.

Kagome winced upon hearing the door slammed against its frame again.

"He's reeeallly mad." she said disheartenly, not able to bring her eyes up to the older lady's, but then she heard a soft chuckling sound coming from her.

"Don't worry about InuYasha, child. It is the other half of the jewel that you need to keep mind of, if it should still be."

"I am so sorry," she apologized again. "If I hadn't thrown it… What if you're right and the other half was destroyed?"

"You're going to have one damn angry hanyou looking for you!" came the distant voice from outside. "So you just better hope that its out there to find 'cause I know where you live!"

Kaede just shook her head at InuYasha's outburst and the saucer wide eyes of the young girl.

The woman went deeper in thought to what the girl asked -- what if the other half had been destroyed? In truth she did not have an answer for that. It was something that had never been brought up before, the idea of it had not ever been entertained that she knew of. The jewel of four souls had always been regarded with a great deal of respect and watched over with the utmost care, and to have it broken as such was something that she would have to give a good deal of thought to.

Still the other half that remained held power enough to wreck havoc should it still get into the hands of any that were of evil, cruel, or tainted hearts. The same would it be for any of the jewels shards if that were to be the case.

"What's done is done. You cannot go back and change it. But tell me, were you angry when you did such?

Her words caused Kagome to look up at her, and reflect upon the events that had lead up to her recent actions. She had been pretty upset when she had walked away from him after killing that snake demon. She had been really upset with mortification when he had laughed at her when she had fallen, not once but twice. And when she took off the necklace, she was upset, but… it hadn't been out of the same kind of emotions. She had been hurting. She wasn't sure why she felt that or where it was coming from, but, just like the first day she had met him, there was… something… something she felt… When she threw it away from her, she hadn't held any hate toward him; only a sense of loss knowing that the dog eared, yet still stranger would be gone from her life.

"I was upset," she answered truthfully. "but not from anger."

The woman nodded, leaning more back into her chair.

"Tell me something else," she began again. "The necklace. Have you ever misplace it, or were not able to know where it was?"

Thinking back again, Kagome couldn't remember a time that she could not find the necklace. She could misplace anything else. There were times she could lay something down and return minutes later only for it to be gone. It would take minutes to even days looking for things, but she always was able to locate her necklace easily.

"No." She shook her head. "It was always in plain sight wherever I went to get it."

Kaede nodded her head again, looking thoughtful at the broken jeweled necklace in her lap.

"Perhaps child, we should get you into a bath and into some cleaner clothes. There is nothing more that can be done for tonight. Afterward, we will see what we can come up to eat for you."

Kagome nodded, rising up as the older woman did.

"I should call my mom. The last she saw was of me running out the door with that monster chasing me. She must be worried to death."

"The phone is right over there," she pointed to a small stand that sat against the wall near the kitchen. "It is a good distance back to your home, so you should consider staying here for the night. I am sure your mother is still too shaken over the event to be driving. She can get you in the morning or I can take you on my way to work."

Both moved in different directions to fulfill the tasks at hand, but as Kagome's hand touched the receiver, she looked at the retreating back of the elderly police lady.

"Umm… Kaede," she called, waiting until she turned around before continuing. "Thank you."

Kaede gave her a gentle reassuring smile and continued on her way.

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InuYasha had walked to the top of the knoll just beyond old baba's house, and plopped himself down on the ground. He crossed his arms more as a way of holding himself back from striking out at the stupid girl than anything else. What in the world had he been thinking?!

He should have taken the chance and crashed into the house that first night and taken the jewel when he had the chance. He should have just ripped it from her neck one of the many times she was near him, or better yet, just came up on her, scared her half to death, snatched it, and took off. He would have had it by now. He would have been full demon! But nooooo, he had to be an idiot himself and let the damn thing slip through his fingers one too many times. He had to go and actually consider liking the girl! Liking her enough that when she handed him the necklace, he didn't take it! How STUPID could he be?!! She must have slammed him into the ground one too many times!

Well, no more! She broke the jewel. It was her fault throwing it like she had, and now… now he was stuck like this. He would never be the demon he wanted to be!

"Stupid, stupid, stupid, BAKA!" he cursed the girl. "You had better hope that the other half IS somewhere around to find, you stupid girl! You haven't seen the worst of me yet!"

He continued to grumble and curse out his frustrations.

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It felt good to get under the spray of the shower. The warm water cascaded over her body in a relaxing caress. Tiny rivulets coursed their way down her neck, over her shoulders, down her breasts to drip off from underneath; downward still over her stomach and legs. Reaching an arm up, Kagome leaned forward and rested her forehead upon it to allow the downpour of water to beat against her back. She would have to turn around to allow it to get the muscles in her shoulders, but, right at that moment, it felt good just to stand there as she was.

She sighed after a few minutes.

Pushing herself away from the wall, Kagome reached for the shampoo and globed a small portion into the palm of her hand. How did things come to be as they were, she wondered as she rubbed her palms together to create a lather before reaching up to apply it to her head. She was just a normal girl up until a couple of weeks ago, and even then she was still finding it hard to believe that she was something more than what she thought. Sure a lot of weird things had happened over the past few months since her birthday, but since the golden eyed, dog ear stranger abruptly forced his way into her life, the 'weird' stuff was making itself a bit more real than she liked.

It was one thing for all the 'weird' stuff to start up as it had, and yet quite another to discover demons were indeed -- flesh and blood, so to speak -- real. And even over the past couple of weeks, it's been hard to accept it as such despite having a near constant youkai… correction half youkai… hanyou… watching over you. It was true he did some amazing things that normal humans couldn't do, like jumping above the tree tops, soaring through the sky, and running as fast as the wind. Yet even with the claws, and fangs, and dog ears, and the things that Kaede had told her over a week ago, her rational mind just couldn't completely accept such disturbing facts.

For all that she did know about him, for the most part she just accepted InuYasha as just some rough, persistent hoodlum -- that was, until today. Not until she was chased out of the house by the giant snake monster, her family inside total freaked out, did it truly dawn on her the danger that both of them had spoke of. And that InuYasha was truly more than she could imagine.

Demons. They weren't just some fantasy story or a way people explained unexplainable happenings in the past.

She couldn't help the smiled that curved the corners of her mouth. This certainly put a whole new light on history class!

After rinsing her hair, she began to lather her body to remove the remaining dirt and stench of the monster.

This Kikyo person was another thing to consider. She was Kaede's older sister, who use to be the guardian of the jewel before she died. No one had fully explained what happened to the girl to cause her death at such a young age. 'She wasn't much more older than I am.' But she supposed that if it was something that they wanted her to know about, she would when they were ready to tell her. That was pretty much all she knew about the girl other than she looked a lot like her. The elderly police lady had told her before that she believed she was some reincarnation of her.

'She must be very lonely living out here alone. She must have loved her sister very much too.'

She smiled a bit more. Kagome was OK with what the woman wanted to think. She liked the woman, even though she thought she was a little short of a whole pack when she weaved the story about demons, the jewel, and her.

'Can't think that anymore.' She mused as she stepped from the shower compartment into the bath filled with relaxing warm water. Settling down, she submerged herself completely up to her neck. There were a lot of things that she had to reconsider. Her life had just taken even more of a huge twist.

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It took a good while, and a lot of swearing, and stomping back and forth, but he began to calm down a bit. The Shikon no Tama was broken. Period. And there was nothing he could do about it. Whether the other half -- or shards -- were out there somewhere was yet to be found out, but the other piece was still around and that alone could make him more than what he was. It was better than nothing, and, to leave it in the hands of that idiot girl, it would probably wind up getting smashed or destroyed too.

He had left it with the old woman, but she might have just handed it back to the girl since she's suppose to be the guardian of it. Guardian… HA… what a joke! But between the two, it would be no simple task of just grabbing the thing. The girl would still sit him in an instant and the old crone… she'd be putting seals all over so that he wouldn't be able to move let alone get into the house. She was already forearmed of knowing his stunts of before.

With a deep aggravated sigh, he was going to have to give more consideration to devising a plan, but after he took a bath himself. Kaede was right, he did stink.

Turning around, the hanyou made his way back down the knoll in the direction of the outside bathhouse.

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"Much better," Kagome murmured as she rose out of the water and stepped onto the tiled floor, glad to have the sludge removed from her body and hair. She pulled the plug on the drain before moving to grab one of the towels hanging on the peg next to the shower door. She wrapped her hair up in it, then took the second one down and began to vigorously rub her skin until she was dry and pink. Dropping the drying towel onto the floor, she bent slightly over and undid the towel about her head. She then began giving her hair the same vigorous treatment as she had her body. Straightening, she flipped her hair up and back, and dropped the towel on top of the first.

Raising her hands to her head, Kagome ran her fingers through her hair. She was giving the damp tresses a fluffing shake when the door slammed open, and there was InuYasha standing in the doorway.

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The ending of this chapter. Was that cruel to you or what?

I want to give thanks to the three that reviewed the last chapter of my story. Kagome14; Biganimefan1; ShimmeringDragn Hope you enjoyed this Chapter as well.

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Baka - Idiot, Stupid

Hanyou - half demon, half human

Shikon no Tama - jewel of four souls

Youkai - demon