F-FIFTY-TWO REVIEWS?! In less than a WEEK?! O_O Well I must say that this more than calls for another chapter to be posted! Thanks so much! You all have just totally made my day. *bows*
Now, I have some author notes that you might wanna read; they’re kind of important:
Someone asked if Sango and Miroku were going to make an appearance. I already said in my first author’s notes that they weren’t, because I didn’t know about them well enough to write. That is, I know ABOUT them, but as I’ve seen only one episode with Miroku in it, and none with Sango ,nor have I read any of the manga, I’d have to guess on their personalities which could lead to ooc-ness which I’m trying to avoid. Shippo will be appearing, however.
Also, this story is set sometime just after Kikyo appeared which is still pretty close to the beginning of the series. At this point, Inuyasha’s just starting to feel a little attraction toward Kagome, but of course he isn’t even close to admitting it. For those of you who can’t see him going nuts and destroying the well…hmmm…I tend to disagree with that. At this point, he could go either way. He is still arrogant and wild, and determined to get his own way. A very dangerous combo in my book. ^_~ But never fear! Really! You’ll just have to keep on reading to find out what happens.
So…why are you still here? Go! Read! *makes shooing
motions with her hands*
“NO!”
The shriek echoed throughout the forest, startling small forest creatures into scurrying to the safety of their burrows while a large herd of deer leapt into the air at the unexpected noise and crashed away through the trees.
The source of the scream was staring in horror at the clawed hand that had somehow immediately stopped its swift decent—almost like magic, really—leaving the very tips of those claws embedded into the wood with five long cracks running down the well’s side. “Don’t,” she whimpered. “Inuyasha, please don’t.”
He looked down at her, seeing the genuine fear in her eyes, and his grin widened even more. “Feh. Why shouldn’t I?” he asked arrogantly. “All this time wasted when you’re doing who-knows-what in your time, when you should be concentrating on collecting shards in this one! If you can’t go home anymore, then there isn’t any reason why you can’t focus all your attention on finding the shards, instead.”
“B-but I’ll be stuck here for life!” she cried.
“Not my problem,” he snorted, flexing his claws. The cracks widened ever-so-slightly.
“Stop it!” Kagome yelled, automatically readying herself to sit him before remembering the reason why she was in this situation in the first place. Instead, she grabbed his wrist to force his hand away from the edge of the well. He snorted again; as if she could force him to do anything…
Still, seeing the horrible distress on her face was wreaking havoc on his conscience (curse his human side, anyway), and he found himself taking a small amount of pity on her. A very small amount. Along with a great deal of satisfaction. He had her right where he wanted her. “Okay, wench, here’s the deal,” he growled, making his voice as gruff and commanding as possible; he needed to show her beyond doubt that he was the one in charge now, after all. “I won’t destroy your precious well…but only as long as you swear not to go anywhere near it until we find every last shard of the jewel.”
“But that could take us months. Maybe even years!” Kagome protested, somewhat grouchily. “If I don’t go home my family will think I died or something!”
“Feh! They know you’re with me!” he replied arrogantly.
“Somehow, I doubt that’s much of a reassurance!” she snapped, fixing him with a withering glare.
He glared right back. “It still stands,” he growled. “You come within a hundred feet of this well and all bets are off. I turn the well into matchwood and you can say hello to your new life stuck in the past. Don’t even try anything sneaky, either. I’ll be watching you. And you know you wouldn’t stand a chance of getting to the well before I did without that spell holding me down.”
Kagome stared at him with a tearful, furious gaze, but she was quite aware that there was nothing she could do but agree. She was no match for the hanyou and they both knew it…but that didn’t mean she had to like it. “You…you…you big jerk!” she finally yelled at him, before turning to stomp back to the village.
Inuyasha merely laughed. “I wouldn’t go around making me mad, either,” he taunted. “You wouldn’t want me to ‘accidentally’ forget my end of the bargain, would you?”
“If you do, I’ll never go shard hunting with you again! The stupid jewel can rot for all I care!” she yelled back.
“Oh, sure. That’s no problem,” he nearly purred. “You can just stay here in the village and let all those demons come find you, instead. Well…as long as you don’t mind all those innocent people getting caught in the middle of the battles, of course…”
“Gaaaahhh!” she shrieked in utter frustration, resisting the temptation to yank on her hair. Once again, he was right, and she hated it. When had the stupid hanyou gotten so damned smart?! She stomped her feet petulantly for a moment before storming off.
Probably heading straight for Kaede’s hut to beg off another rosary,
Inuyasha thought with a smirk. With a positively evil grin and a
slightly maniacal chuckle, he took to the trees to follow.
“Kagome, whatever be the matter?” Kaede asked, slightly bewildered as the girl stomped into the hut only a few minutes later, looking furious enough to kill…something.
“Everything!” Kagome sniffled, holding out the rosary still fisted in her hand. Well, it looked more like a string at the moment; the remaining beads had been lost long ago.
Shippo, who had been taking a catnap, now awoke at the sound of his surrogate mother’s distressed voice. With a nimble leap, he was perched on her shoulder and patting her cheek soothingly with one little paw. She smiled a little and stroked his hair gratefully. “What’s that?” he asked curiously, eyeing the broken string in her hand.
Kagome sniffled again and shuffled nervously. “It was Inuyasha’s rosary,” she replied gloomily. “It kinda…broke…”
“No way!” Shippo yelped. “You mean Dog-breath’s free?!”
He squealed as he suddenly found himself being hoisted into the air by his tail and brought around face-to-face with a grinning Inuyasha.
“Boo.”
The hanyou smirked when the little kitsune squealed again. “Kagomeeee! Help me!” Shippo pleaded, trying to squirm free of the tight hold on his tail.
“What’re you lookin’ at her for, brat? I’m the one you gotta be begging for mercy here!” Inuyasha replied with an evil chuckle.
“Inuyasha, quit bullying Shippo. Please put him down,” Kagome sighed.
“Ohhhh no. This brat’s been harassing me for weeks and every time I try to get even I end up eating dirt. Not anymore. Now it’s my turn!”
“Inuyasha…” Kagome began warningly.
He just grinned at her. “What’re ya gonna do, sit me? Oh, wait. That’s right. You can’t anymore, can you? Bwahahahahaha!” His loud guffaws nearly shook the roof.
“I’m gonna diiieeee!” Shippo wailed, hiding his face in his hands.
“Nobody’s going to die, Shippo,” Kagome sighed again, suddenly weary of this entire ordeal.
Inuyasha just smirked and opened his mouth to contradict that remark, but froze before he got the first word out. He blinked, and suddenly leaped straight up and to the side, revealing a startled Kaede who had been creeping up behind him, a rosary clutched in both hands, poised to slide it over Inuyasha’s head. She blinked at the spot the hanyou had been standing only a moment before.
“Nice try, grandma, but you’ll have to do better than that,” Inuyasha snorted. “Sneaking up from behind? Not playing very fair, are we?”
“I don’t think you should be one to complain about not playing fair!” Kagome snapped.
He smirked. “You’re just sulking ‘cause I finally got one over on you,” he replied arrogantly. “Besides, you can’t complain, either. Who’s the one that collared me with that damned rosary the first chance she got?”
“That would be Kaede,” Kagome growled.
The elderly miko sweatdropped and abruptly decided that now would be an excellent time to gather some water.
“Okay, okay,” Inuyasha snorted. “Fine, but who’s the one who activated the spell first chance she got?”
“That’s ‘cause you were trying to kill me!” Kagome exploded, her face slowly starting to turn a most interesting shade of red; even Shippo was beginning to look nervous.
Inuyasha blinked at her, then crossed his arms over his chest and stuck his nose in the air disdainfully. “That’s right, wench,” he snarled. “And don’t think for a moment I won’t try it again if you even think of slapping another one of those things on me!” He swiped at the air with his claws for emphasis. “I’m not anybody’s lapdog, got it?!”
Kagome’s mouth fell open at the obvious threat in his tone, and her eyes were wide with shock. “I…you…I can’t believe you just said that,” she stammered. “I…I thought that we…that you were my friend.”
Inuyasha inwardly winced at the expression on her face, as though he’d just speared his claws into her chest…but that didn’t stop him from uttering his next words. “Well, maybe you thought wrong.”
There was complete and utter silence. A very foreboding silence. Kagome’s gaze pierced him, brown eyes haunted, but her expression was shuttered. He was hard-pressed to keep from squirming beneath that stricken gaze, suddenly wishing he could crawl beneath a rock. Finally, after long, tense moments, Kagome licked her lips and shook her head ever-so-slightly.
“Maybe I was,” she whispered softly, and without another sound, she
turned and walked slowly away.
And no, that does NOT include hurling blunt objects at the author. -_-;
R&R? You guys did such a great job last time! I’m sure you can do just as well this time around, too! ^_________^
Quickening
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