InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ To know you is to know myself... ❯ Put to the test ( Chapter 13 )

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

Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.


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Chap ter 13 – Put to the test



“Yes, Inuyasha….” The undead miko’s question dripping with hurt, betrayal, astonishment, and denial. “What, exactly, did just happen here?”

“K..Ki…Kikyo!” Inuyasha stuttered dumbstruck. He hadn’t sensed her presence. Well, of course he hadn’t.

“Did I scare you, little girl?” the miko taunted, not aware of the two’s current predicament.

Inuyasha and Kagome had since separated themselves from each other’s embrace, and both sat crouched down within the water, trying best they could to conceal their nakedness, even if it was too little too late. A quick glance in each other’s direction confirmed for Kagome, Inuyasha had no desire for Kikyo to be made aware of the circumstances.

“What do you want Kikyo?” Kagome asked, trying to sound rather neutral, yet, at the same time, allowing her annoyance over the interruption to ring through her gruff hanyou voice. Apparently, she’d sounded a little crankier than she’d intended to.

“You dare speak to me in such a manner?” Kikyo spat. “Your betrayals never cease to amaze me. How long before you cast your new prize aside as well?”

Glancing in Inuyasha’s direction, Kagome could tell he was hurt by Kikyo’s words. She’d always known the details of the story, but now, she also knew it by heart, on a more personal level. Inuyasha never ‘cast her aside’ as she had just claimed. In fact, it hadn’t even crossed his mind to attack her, at all. When he’d thought she betrayed him, saying all those hurtful things, firing arrows at him, all he’d done in return, was steal the jewel. Well, okay, he burned the village too, but still, he hadn’t raised his claws to her.

Suddenly, her hanyou hearing picked up the faintest, tiniest whisper of “I never betrayed you” from her companion, and, at first, she thought she was being fed her lines, as she in turn, turned to Kikyo, and said “I never betrayed you...” in the same low, depressed sort of tone Inuyasha had used, only, loud enough for Kikyo to hear.

Glancing back in his direction, Kagome quickly realized he hadn’t necessarily meant for her to repeat that, he was simply hurt, and muttering to himself. However, at that moment, he glanced at her with a small nod of approval, as he fought to rein control of his human emotions.

“What did you say?” Kikyo had suddenly spat, shocked that he would dare talk back to her, and knew right away it had to be because that little bitch was also present at the moment. Perhaps she should have waited until they had separated to interrogate Inuyasha by himself, but she’d wanted to stop them before they mated.

“He never betrayed you!” ‘Kagome’ shouted, as Inuyasha finally got a grip on himself. He was just starting to make some progress with Kagome, and he wasn’t about to undo all that had been done now.

“I have told you before to leave this world!” Kikyo shouted at the embodiment of her reincarnation. “You don’t belong here. You don’t belong with him.” As she was speaking, she’d gripped her bow, and drew an arrow in ‘Kagome’s direction.

“What are you doing?” shouted whom Kikyo believed to be Inuyasha.

“She is but a cheap imitation, after all.” The undead miko smirked, as she pulled back the bow string.

“So are you…” breathed Inuyasha, as he stood up, unwaveringly, giving Kikyo a direct shot. Even Kagome was amazed at the sensation of the familiar miko energy that was currently swirling around the body that was once hers. But whether or not that energy was strong enough to deflect Kikyo’s arrow, she didn’t feel like testing.

“Inuyasha!” she’d shouted on impulse, as she dove unthinkingly in front of the arrow.

Kikyo was taken aback by the fact that, while diving to save Kagome from her arrow, Inuyasha had called out his own name.

The arrow struck ‘Inuyasha’ in the arm, and it was not a purifying arrow. Kikyo had too sensed the miko energy that ‘Kagome’ had been projecting, and she knew that the girl would have, possibly, been able to reflect a spiritual arrow. But with no energy to counter against, much like Tetsusaiga’s Backlash Wave, her energy would have proven useless. That normal, plain ol’ arrow, would have pierced Inuyasha’s human heart.

Both Inuyasha and Kagome crashed down into the spring with a loud splash, a pool of red growing around the couple, as Kagome’s wound bled out. Inuyasha was slightly disoriented, not sure at first what had happened. He’d thought, he’d draw Kikyo’s fire, because he was the more likely of the two to survive a purifying arrow, and if Kikyo was currently bent up on killing ‘Kagome’ and not ‘Inuyasha’ then that meant while he deflected, or at least attempted to deflect the arrow, the real Kagome could escape. He was not suspecting, though he realized now that he should have, said miko-turned-hanyou to instead leap in front of that arrow. It wasn’t the first time she’d done that, after all. When he realized that Kagome was still alive, and still hanyou, he also realized that it wasn’t a purifying arrow she’d been shot with, and then quickly gulped, when he realized he was likely very nearly killed himself. A sudden spike in the familiar youki of the body laying half on top of him instantly got his attention.

Springing to his feet, he stared down at her, and automatically, and rather frantically, screamed “Kagome! Are you okay?”

About this time, Kikyo realized that the two of them had, somehow, apparently switched bodies. A scenario she thought of as amusing, but irrelevant, since it was her intention to kill them both, anyway. She was pulled from her musings upon the discovery that Inuyasha, or rather, Kagome, had transformed.

Inuyasha stood in utter shock and horror, to see Kagome slowly rising to her feet, seemingly unfeeling the pain of an arrow in the thick muscles of her left triceps. All blood drained from his face, all feeling leaving his body, when he realized that her eyes were red, and purple stripes were present on her face.

Fuck

“Kikyo…” Inuyasha whispered, almost pleadingly. “Fly away.”

Kikyo snickered, deliberately oogling the naked form of her hanyou as Kagome slowly crawled, like a predator, out of the water.

“My my Inuyasha, had I but known how…gifted…you were, I would have rethought my request that you turn human.”

Inuyasha was thrown by her hentai statement, this was certainly not the Kikyo he had once known and loved. He was seriously starting to doubt that he even still cared for this Kikyo at all, after what she’d just done. He was also startled when he realized that Kikyo had been speaking to him, directly, but then he realized they’d called out each other’s names, and Kikyo, like Kaede, was none to dull and had obviously figured it out.

Inuyasha was relieved when Kikyo had appeared to be heeding his request, as several of her soul collectors wrapped themselves around her, as if to lift her from the ground. He was terrified that should she choose to stay, Kagome would attack her, and that, in turn, would almost certainly result in Kagome’s death. But he was totally thrown for a loop when, before she took off, she grabbed Tetsusaiga from where it laid, haphazardly discarded with their clothing.

“She may never have turned her arrow on you….but let’s see how long you last against her claws.” She smirked as she floated off into the trees.

“Kikyo!” Inuyasha screamed. How could you? He thought of her, once again.

Turning his attention to the more pressing matter of getting Kagome to calm her youkai blood, he turned to her direction, just in time to witness her running and launching herself at the departing Kikyo, slashing at two of the lowest flying soul collectors, successfully slicing them to pieces.

At the moment, he honestly wouldn’t hold it against her if she’d successfully brought Kikyo down, but then again, he can’t have her go running after her, leaping naked through the trees, her mind reduced to that of a mad beast.

“Sit….” He mumbled, hating to have to use the bloody subduing spell. She’ll never let him hear the end of it.

What he hadn’t put into consideration, was that the spell might not work. Oh sure, it pulled her to the ground, nice and hard to, bet that felt real good naked and still half hard. He mentally cringed.

When Kagome slowly pried her face from the dirt, she glared at him evilly, her eyes still red, and calling for a new victim’s blood.

Shit!

She lunged.

Somehow, he managed to roll out of the way of the attack, and reach the bow and arrows that he’d also brought along with them when they’d come here. Clutching the bow, it provided a spiritual barrier for him, just as Tetsusaiga’s sheath had done in the past. Kagome bounced off of the energy field, growling and snarling. Though Inuyasha did not currently have any true inu instinct, he still had his full knowledge of the subject, and completely and fully understood the growls she was spouting at the moment. She was speaking, very brokenly, in the inu-youkai tongue.

What she’d said was “Kill. Enemy.”

He wasn’t sure if her human vocal cords could pull it off, but he was quickly running out of options, and without really thinking too long and hard about it, growled back best he could…

“Not Enemy!”

Kagome paused, having understood him, yet, not necessarily believing him.

“Enemy.” She growled back argumentatively. “Threat.” She growled next, as a means of stating her case.

This was not a good thing. Normally, a transformed youkai like this would consider a human “pray,” not an enemy or a threat. So she was obviously remembering the subduing spell, and the bow’s barrier, and determined he was a miko. If he hadn’t sat her, she probably wouldn’t have turned on him, but then again, she could have gotten herself killed if she went after Kikyo.

“Not Enemy! Not Threat!” Inuyasha growled back, realizing how strongly his scent must have reeked of fear at the moment. Not that he was truly scared for himself, but…if she killed him, then who would be there to help her turn back? “Pack!” he finally growled as well.

She scoffed at him, smirking an almost human smirk. “Have no pack…” she said aloud with human words.

“Yes you do!” he yelled in the human tongue as well. “You have me, Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Kaede, your mother, grandfather, and brother, we all love you!”

It was clear these names were meaningless to her. She approached him slowly, cautiously, for he still clutched the bow in a death grip, knowing himself that should he release his only form of protection at the wrong time, he was surely done for. He'd only get one shot at this, and it had to be right on.

“Kagome!” he yelled next, and she flinched at the name. It was familiar to her. She paused, and in that moment, he dropped the bow and ran up to her, quickly throwing his arms around her, as he realized, it was likely the only way to reach her, as the last time he’d transformed, this was the only way to reach him.

“I love you Kagome!” he cried at the top of his lungs. “I need you with me…” he tried, hoping if he said words to her he’d actually said before, they might trigger a memory within the girl. “I need you with me…” he repeated, a little calmer, when he realized that the demon he held in his clutches was currently unmoving, apparently attempting to fight off its own, personal demons.

“Not Threat?” she growled slowly, in what he could tell was an uneasy question.

“Not Threat.” He growled confirmingly into her chest as he held her. “Mate.” he added.

“Have no-” she’d started to grumble in human words, but at that moment, Inuyasha stood himself up on his tip toes, and kissed her, very similarly to how she’d kissed him, when she released him from Kaguya’s spell. Kagome reached up with her clawed hands, and gripped him just below both shoulders, now, the scene was identical. (except, yeah, they’re both still naked)

This is it. He thought as he continued kissing her. She’ll either kill me, or change back. He deduced next, wondering if those had been Kagome’s thoughts when she’d resorted to this action. He was pulled from his ponderings, when he felt the grip of her claws soften, and her lips ever so slowly press down against his own, as a means of returning the kiss.

“Inu…yasha?” he heard his husky voice mumble brokenly.

Looking up into her eyes, he saw that they were amber once again, and he doubled the intensity of his hug.

“Kagome! Thank the gods…” he sighed with an air of relief.

“What happened?” she asked next, herself again. Well, at least as much herself as she’d ever been, while in his body.

“Kikyo…” he whispered dejectedly.

Kagome realized around this time that her left arm hurt like hell, and glancing down at it, realized she had one of Kikyo’s arrows protruding through her flesh. It was also in that moment that she realized the two of them were both still naked. A very bad feeling crept into the pit of Kagome’s stomach. Some sort of twisted combination of humiliation and outrage.

“What happened?!” she asked again, more demandingly this time.

“Kikyo thought I was you…and fired an arrow at me, you jumped in front of it….”

Kagome merely nodded, allowing him to continue. She vaguely recalled these events, they were hazy, but sounded familiar, and the arrow in her arm sort of proved they must be true.

“Kikyo realized we’d switched bodies when you called out my name…and-”

“I’m sorry…” she mumbled.

“Keh, don’t be, I was gonna say, and I called out your name, after you got shot.”

Kagome looked down into his eyes, and nodded again… “Did I….” she started to ask, but couldn’t finish her thought. The last thing she remembered was getting hit with that arrow, and crashing down upon Inuyasha in the water. Now, here she is, standing in his embrace, and the first thing she remembered, was the feeling of him kissing her, and an echoed memory of hearing him say that he loved her, and needed her with him.

She gulped, and tried again, hard pressed to know the answer, yet fearing it all the same.

“Did I….” she still couldn’t ask, but he spared her from having to try a third time.

“You transformed.”

Kagome’s ears lowered to her head, her whole body slouching. Then, she brought her claws up to her nose, and gasped when she caught the scent of Kikyo’s soul collectors.

“Oh gods…” she mumbled to herself, but due to their close proximity, and the quiet of the woods due to all other life having run for it a few moments earlier, Inuyasha had heard her.

“You only got two of her youkai, you didn’t kill Kikyo.” he said, rather monotone.

“I’m glad.” She whispered faintly. Sure she had no love for the miko, but still, she didn’t want to be the one who killed her.

“I would have forgiven you if you had, though…” he whispered low, startling her with his statement, as she turned to face him once again, and he confused her more by placing his hand upon her cheek, holding her face to keep her from averting her eyes which he was sure she’d do once he started talking.

“She’s tried to kill me, she’s tried to kill you, she took the Tetsusaiga with her so I couldn’t use it to reverse your transformation….” At that point, Kagome gasped, but kept her gaze locked with his. “I did have feelings for the Kikyo that lived 50 years ago, but I’m not sure any of her remains within that Kikyo. She’s proven herself to be evil one too many times, and besides….I love you now, anyways.”

He was right, Kagome tried to look, and she succeeded too, by simply closing her eyes. She figured out rather easily that she must have attacked him. She’d noticed that her entire front was covered with dirt and was slightly pink and sore in some spots, indicating that she’d fallen flat on her face from a great height, so he must have used the subduing spell. Besides that, she’d also noticed that her bow was away from their belongings where he’d left it, instead, laying on the ground right beside him, as if to indicate, that at one point he’d grabbed it, using his miko barrier to deflect her. The youkai blood within her system had made her very observant to the world around her, and that included increasing her powers of deduction. While she may have been somewhat at a loss to the details that had transpired were she in her human body, she was fairly certain of most of the details while in her hanyou one. That is, at least one detail, that kept ringing in her head over and over again, threatening to show her the actual memory. She kept pushing back into her subconscious mind, because she didn’t want to remember it. Simply knowing it occurred was bad enough.

“I…I attacked you…” she mumbled brokenly.

“You weren’t yourself.” He defended automatically. “Come on now, I’ve gone mad attacking people, including you, and you’ve forgiven me.” He forced a chuckle, and she opened her eyes. “You love me as a hanyou, right?” he asked sweetly, she nodded slowly. “I love you while you’re one…too.” He then proceeded to raise himself up to kiss her again, only this time, she compensated by meeting him halfway, lowering her face to his, as they kissed each other softly.

“Come on…” he mumbled once their lips separated. “We’d better get dressed, and go see if we can track her down and get my sword back.”

“Right.” She agreed, albeit shakily. She wasn’t sure she wanted to face Kikyo again.

Inuyasha was startled by Kagome when she reached over and pulled the arrow out of her arm, without so much as an “ow” while doing so. He knew it obviously must have hurt, but he realized, if he’d been the one shot in the arm, he’d have pulled the arrow out without an “ow” too. He smiled at her, and she caught and understood the look, nodding in return, as they each went about gathering their clothing. Her hanyou blood was boiling with determination, they had a mission to accomplish, and now wasn’t the time to show weakness.