InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Strength ❯ Determination ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

A/N: Thanks as always to Doggiearlover for the beta job and in case anyone has forgotten, I don't own InuYasha nor will I make any money from this.

Kagome groaned as the ringing of her alarm woke her. She forced herself to sit up and then reached carefully across InuYasha to turn it off. Her eyes felt dry and heavy. She blinked several times trying to call some moisture into them, but it wasn’t working very well. She closed her eyes and lay back down onto the bed.

Maybe it would be better if she stayed home from school. InuYasha was still in pretty bad shape, and now with the possible danger of youkai attacking the shrine, her family needed her to be close so that she could protect them. Finals were important, and she really wanted to graduate, but neither of those things were more important than her family’s safety.

She was still debating with herself when her bed room door opened. She opened her eyes as her mother entered.

“Ah, you are awake,” Asami said. “Breakfast is nearly ready, and I‘ve already laid out your things in the restroom.”

“Mama, do you really think I should go to school today?” she asked. “I haven’t even studied so I’ll probably fail anyway, and you might need me here. Or something could happen with InuYasha… Maybe I should just stay home.”

Her mother didn’t say anything for a moment, and Kagome could tell that she was considering it. “I am willing to let you make this decision for yourself because I know how worried you have been and how much InuYasha means to you, but I do think you should go. You are a smart girl and have been working very hard to graduate. If you don’t at least try, then you will never know if you might have passed or not. If you are worried about us then you can place some Sutra around the house so that should anything happen, we’ll have a safe place to stay until you return. Also, I was hoping that I could count on you to walk Souta to school. He’s going home afterwards with one of his friends, but he was going to be walking there alone today. ”

Kagome hadn’t thought about any of the points her mother had made. It would take almost no time at all to make the house a safe place for her mother and grandfather to take shelter in from any youkai that might come, and then when she got home, she would find a way to make the entire shrine grounds safe. What’s more, she really did want to be finished with school, and if there was even a slight chance that she could pass her exams then she wanted to take it. But what about InuYasha?

“You’re right, Mama,” Kagome admitted. “I’m just worried InuYasha might get worse again.”

“How about this? I’ll stay with him and watch over him the whole time you’re gone. If it looks like he might be getting worse then I’ll phone the school and have them send you home,” Asami offered.

“Are you sure, Mama?” Kagome asked.

“I thought we went over this once already,” her mother said with a smile. “Taking care of family is no burden. It is a gift, since it means that you have people you love in your life.”

Kagome blinked, her eyes no longer suffering from the dryness that had plagued them upon waking. She definitely understood what her mother meant, and it was even more touching because it was InuYasha, who hadn’t had that gift since his mother died.

“Thanks, Mama,” she said softly and then her tone brightened. “I guess I had better hurry and get ready if I am going to place those Sutra and walk Souta to school.”

Kagome was surprised when Souta didn’t protest at all about her walking him to school. Under normal circumstances he would have surely thrown a fit about being escorted by his big sister. She couldn’t count the number of times she had heard him saying how he wasn’t a little kid anymore since he was only a few weeks from being in middle school.

They had only been walking a few moments when Souta asked, “So, is this really what it’s like all the time back there? I mean having to worry about youkai and stuff?”

Kagome nodded. “It’s not always bad though. Usually I’m not afraid because InuYasha is always there, and I know he won’t let anything happen to me.”

“I always thought your stories sounded exciting and was jealous that I couldn’t go with you,” Souta admitted, “but now I’m kind of glad it wasn’t me instead of you. Seeing Inu-nii-chan like that, and then those youkai that came to the shrine - I don’t know how you do it, Sis.”

She just shrugged. “You kind of just do what you have to. Look at you for example. You were really brave when I needed you. You were sick and scared, but you didn’t let that stop you from helping.”

Souta blushed and looked at his feet. “Aw, that was nothing, not compared to what you were doing. I was just sitting there.”

Kagome put a hand on her brother’s shoulder. “You did more than that. You shouldn’t underestimate yourself, Souta. I bet most people wouldn’t have stayed like you did.”

He just dipped his head noncommittally. Kagome sensed that he was done talking for the time being, so she didn’t say anything else as they finished the short walk to his school. He left her at the entrance, but turned back before going inside.

“Be careful, Sis,” he called.

“You too,” she replied.

He looked at her for a moment and then nodded once before disappearing inside.

When the school day finally ended Kagome couldn’t wait to be on her way home. Her test hadn’t gone as badly as she had feared, but she was pretty sure that it was going to be a very close thing as to whether or not she passed. She shuddered at the though of having to come back for four more days and do it all over again.

She packed up her belongings, relieved not for the first time that her friends were in a different class than she was. Briefly she felt guilty for thinking such a thing, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it now. She hurried down to her locker to change out of her school shoes and into her street shoes.

She slipped her loafers on and closed her small locker. With a quick glance around to make sure her friends weren’t anywhere in sight, she made her way to the door and outside. Just as she was about to relax, thinking that she had managed to miss them, they appeared in front of her.

“Kagome!” Ayumi called, waving at her.

She put on her best smile as the three girls hurried to meet her half way. “Hi, guys. I’m sorry but I don’t have time to stay and talk today.”

“Neither do we,” Yuka said. “We have to study.”

“That’s right,” Eri added. “So come one. We’re all going to my house for a review session.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t.” Kagome said as she tried to step around her friends. “I have to get home as soon as I can.”

“But, Kagome, it’s exam week. We need to study. Whatever it is can’t be more important than that,” Eri protested.

“Guys, really,” Kagome tried again, but was interrupted as Hojou stepped up into the half circle of people around her.

While her friends turned to greet him, Kagome seized the opportunity and made a run for it. She hurried past them towards the front gate and prayed that they wouldn’t notice in time to catch her. She sighed as she stepped out onto the side walk, but her relief was short lived.

Her entire body began to hum with power as she felt the presence of youki. She scanned the area and found him standing just across the street, his nearly black eyes boring into her as he stared. While she tried to decide what to do, she found herself nearly knocked into the street by her friends running up behind her.

“Kagome! Hey, what’s going on?” Yuka asked. “Why’d you disappear like that?”

She didn’t want to take her eyes off of the youkai but was forced to turn her head and address her friends as Eri pulled on her sleeve. “I have to get home. I‘ll see you tomorrow.”

She turned to leave and gasped, taking a step back upon finding the youkai standing directly in front of her.

“Where did he come from?” Ayumi asked.

“Yeah, I’m sure he wasn’t there a minute ago,” Hojou agreed.

Kagome bit down on her lower lip as she tried desperately to come up with a plan. She couldn’t risk using her powers, but she also couldn’t let anything happen to her friends. She cleared her throat and lifted her chin. “What do you want?”

“Higurashi, do you know this person, then?” Hojou asked.

The youkai smirked, a fang peeking out from between his lips as he eyed her friends. “I think you know what I want, and you’re going to give it to me, aren’t you?”

Hojou stepped forward, and Kagome nearly groaned. He really was a sweet to try and come to her defense, but it was going to get him killed if she didn’t do something. She took a hurried step forward. “It’s okay, Hojou, just stay back. I can handle this.”

“But Higurashi…” he began.

“Hojou, please,” she said turning her head just enough to glance at him.

Something in her expression must have convinced him because he nodded and stepped back. With that taken care of she refocused her attention on the youkai in front of her.

“Well,” he prompted still smirking.

Kagome frowned and narrowed her eyes. How dare he come to her school and threaten her friends? They didn’t have anything to do with youkai or the Shikon no Tama, and she was going to keep it that way. She let her power grow within her and drew closer to the youkai. She was pleased to note the surprise on his face.

“You listen to me,” she said quietly, so that her voice was little more than a growl to her friends standing a few feet away. “If you so much as look at them the wrong way again, I‘ll do things to you that will have you begging me to kill you. They are under my protection. If you want it, then you come and try to take it from me when there is no one else around, but you leave them and my family out of it. Now, you have ten seconds to turn around and walk away.”

For several terrible seconds the youkai didn’t move, but then at last, he turned and walked away. All the tension rushed out of her body, and she felt completely drained. She hadn’t expected to have to worry about her friends as well. She was still trying to collect herself when her friends surrounded her.

“Kagome, are you okay?”

“Who was that?”

“What did he want?”

Kagome held up her hand, and everyone stopped talking. It was a relief. She set her books on the ground and reached into her bag. Her hand closed around the three sets of prayer beads she had strung during the breaks between classes, with the intent having been to give them to her family for protection. Oh well, she could always make more when she got home.

Without so much as a word of explanation, she slipped them over the heads of her three friends, saying a prayer to bless them. When it was done she said, “Promise me you won’t take them off.”

“Kagome?” Eri asked, her voice very small.

“Promise,” Kagome repeated.

“I promise,” Ayumi agreed, and she was echoed almost at once by Yuka and Eri.

Only then did Kagome smile. They really were good friends to still trust her so much, even after all of her grandfather’s crazy stories about her illnesses and after how little time she had actually spent with them over these last few years.

“Thanks. I promise I’ll explain everything later, but I wasn’t just making excuses when I said that I had to be home,” she told them, and the girls all nodded.

She then looked to Hojou. She didn’t have a set of beads for him. Kagome reached into her bag again and drew out a long strip of paper and one of pens. She carefully wrote out the characters for a Sutra that would protect him, just as Miroku had shown her, and then handed it to the very confused young man.

“Tuck that inside your uniform,” she instructed. “It will keep you safe, but unlike the beads I gave them, this will only work once, so if something happens, you need to forget about going home and get to the shrine as fast as you can. I’ll bring a rosary for you tomorrow. I know this must seem crazy to all of you, but I am asking you to trust me.”

Hojou’s expression cleared and he nodded.

“I’m really sorry you all got dragged into this,” she told them. “Now, I really have to get home. I’ll see you all tomorrow, and I’ll try to explain some of it then.”

Hojou and the three girls watched Kagome take off down the street without looking back.

“That was strange,” Eri said once Kagome was no longer in sight.

“Very,” Yuka agreed. “I wonder what could be going on. I hope Kagome isn’t in any trouble.”

Ayumi nodded her head in agreement. “I’ve never seen Kagome like that she was so… so...”

“Fierce,” Hojou offered. “She seemed fierce, like a wild animal protecting its young. For a moment I thought she was going do something terrible to that strange man. I believe that she would have had he not left. I think he believed it as well.”

A few blocks before reaching the shrine, Kagome gave up on propriety completely and began running along the sidewalk towards home. In fact the only courtesy she allowed herself was to say “excuse me” when she bumped into someone. A part of her knew that InuYasha had to be all right, because her mother would have called otherwise, but something inside her still urged her onwards, insisting that she need to be with him now.

She hit the stairs at a full run and refused to let them slow her down, even though her lungs were already burning. She ignored her grandfather as she cut across the courtyard to the house, sparing only the breath it took to yell, “Hi, Gramps,” as she passed.

Kagome kicked off her shoes in the genkan and made a mental note to come back down and set them in their rightful place once she had checked on InuYasha. She was sure that her mother would understand her haste.

Once she made it up the stairs, she stopped just outside the door to her room to catch her breath before opening the door and stepping inside. She found her mother seated in a chair beside her bed, watching over InuYasha just as she had promised.

“Welcome home,” Asami said without looking away from the sleeping hanyou.

“How is he, Mama? Did anything happen?” Kagome asked, joining her at the bedside.

“He’s better, I think,” her mother replied, coming to her feet. “He has been mumbling your name in his sleep, occasionally.”

“Thanks, Mama, for taking care of him for me,” Kagome said.

Asami smiled and patted her daughter on the shoulder. “It was no problem. Now, I really should go prepare dinner. I am going to make Yakisoba for Jii-chan since he had to fend for himself at lunch.”

Kagome frowned. “I didn’t-”

“Please, Dear. Jii-chan is perfectly capable of making himself lunch every once in a while. In fact it might actually be good for him,” Asami said with a laugh. “Besides, there was plenty of rice in the cooker, and miso from breakfast in the fridge. Don’t worry about anything, but finishing your exams and caring for InuYasha, and I’ll handle the rest.”

Kagome nodded and slipped down into the chair. She was going to have to find some way to really thank her mother. She really didn’t know how she would have been able to cope with everything if it hadn’t been for all of the support she was getting from her family.

She heard the door to her room close and leaned forward. She used the back of her hand to feel InuYasha’s forehead for a fever and was relieved to find none. From there she slid her finger tips across his cheek and along the line of his jaw.

“You seem to be getting better. I hope you are. I could really use your help. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t protect everyone by myself. I thought I knew how strong you were - how amazing. I mean I loved you already, but now I know that I didn’t really have a clue,” she said. “I wish you would just wake up and tell me how stupid I’m being for worrying about you. I…”

Kagome gasped and then fell silent as he stirred.

“K’gome... K’gome...” InuYasha rasped.

Her heart raced in her chest as she took her hanyou’s hand firmly in her own. “I’m here. It’s okay...”

“Kagome...” he groaned.

She looked at him, startled to find dull unfocused amber eyes looking back at her. “InuYasha, oh, InuYasha, I’ve been so worried about you.”

“K’gome...” he whispered, and she gasped as he grabbed the back of her head and pulled her face down to his.

Her heart raced. He’s kissing me... really kissing me. What do I do? Kiss him back, idiot! She gave herself over to him, but it didn’t last long as she felt his hand fall away. She lifted her head and found him sleeping once again.

She lifted a trembling hand and brushed her fingers over her moist lips, not quite able to believe that she hadn’t just imagined the last twenty seconds. She felt kind of shaky and breathless, but exhilarated at the same time, and her heart was practically bursting in her chest.

InuYasha had finally kissed her. The only real question she had was whether or not he would remember having done it.