Take Two
Chapter 5
I really don’t have time for
this. Kagome studied the familiar golden eyes, cold and
sharp now, still identifying her as the last face they had seen before
closing.
“I’m not Kikyou,” she said sharply. Funny how that was still a
sore point. “If you’d bother to use that hyper-sensitive nose of
yours, you’d know.”
He was sniffing, confusion flickering across his face. “So who
are you, then, if you’re not that bitch Kikyou? At least she
looked smart-”
“And was prettier, I know,” Kagome snapped. “Believe me, you’re
going to regret saying that in a- Ahh!” She gasped as
Mistress Centipede grabbed at her, pulling her away, and Kagome fisted
her hands in Inuyasha’s haori. “Let me go, you bitch!” She
freed one hand and threw it outward, warding off the youkai in a flare
of light and falling to the ground. Shaking off the lingering
dizziness, she gathered her limbs under her to stand when she was hit
broadside and lifted into the air, a sharp pain biting into her side.
She fell to the ground, stunned, and panted, trying to recover the lost
breath from her lungs. Voices were screaming at her, Inuyasha,
Kaede, the villagers, and she forced herself to reach forward to grab
the Jewel lying innocently on the ground, a thin sheen of blood marring
it. But she could only watch through blurry eyes as a long
flexible tongue scooped it up while segmented body lengths scooped her
up against Inuyasha and squeezed.
“At last!” Mistress Centipede crowed, shedding her vaguely human
skin. “I have it. I can feel it’s power! Now you will
all die!”
Kagome was beginning to lose consciousness as what little air she had
recovered was inexorably squeezed from her lungs. Maybe I’ll just wake up in bed, she
thought hazily.
“Hey, you,” Inuyasha’s voice rumbled in her ear. “Can you pull
out this arrow?”
She tried to focus on his face through the spots dancing in front of
her eyes. “Huh?”
“Don’t you faint on me, you stupid…” He trailed off, staring down
at her, face even more confused. “Pull it out,” she said, voice
eerily calm. “Do it now, if you want to live.”
Nodding, she wormed a hand up, fingers brushing against his hair as she
wrapped them around the glowing wooden shaft. Closing her eyes,
she yanked with all her might as her vision faded completely.
There was the heavy thud of a heartbeat, and in an instant, she was on
the ground as Inuyasha ripped through the youkai flesh with an evil
laugh. A glowing lump of flesh fell not far from her, and she
reached out instinctively to take back the Jewel, cradling it in her
palm as Kaede knelt next to her.
“How did ye know, Kagome?”
Because I’ve done this before,
she said to herself. Cupped in her hand, the Shikon no Tama was
warm, and she could hear a low pulsing undertone, as though it sang for
her ears alone. Then a bare foot crushed the remains of the
youkai foot, and Kagome looked up into Inuyasha’s snarling face.
“Give me the Jewel, bitch, before I have to hurt you,” he demanded.
Fisting her hand around the it, Kagome took a deep breath. “I
hope you have a rosary on you,” she murmured to Kaede, rising to her
feet. Shaking her hair back, she stared Inuyasha straight in the
eye. “I’m only going to say this once, so you’d better listen up,
Dog-boy. My. Name. Is. Ka. Go. Me!” She dodged to the side
as he lunged for her, claws extended to pierce her fragile flesh.
Things were dawning on Kagome as she slipped from one side to the
other, avoiding Inuyasha’s swipes. Last time, when she had
awakened him, Inuyasha had been trying much harder to reclaim the Jewel
from her, fueled by his hatred and confusion over Kikyou’s
betrayal. Now, he was moving slower, making her seem almost
skilled in dodging his blows, and there was more of confusion in his
expression than anger, as though he were merely fighting on
autopilot. She could hear Kaede chanting, and saw the beads
dropping into place. “Sorry about this,” she muttered as the
rosary settled around his neck.
“A word of submission, child. Quickly!”
Kagome gave a sharp nod, then took another step back. “Osuwari.”
As it had every time before, the necklace glowed, and Inuyasha fell
like a stone to the ground. He yanked against the spell’s
restraint, and Kagome calmly said it again, pulling him face to face
with the earth.
“We’ll be fine,” Kagome said as Kaede and the other villagers gathered
around, pressing in to see the daemon up close. “Inuyasha and I
are going to need some time to work this out, Kaede-obaachan.
We’ll be back to the village before dark.”
Kaede studied her for a long moment, then nodded and shooed the other
villagers back. “Kagome has control of Inuyasha,” she stated,
herding everyone away. “She will manage him.”
“Damn it, woman,” Inuyasha snarled as the others walked away.
“Who the hell are you? Where’s Kikyou? Give me that
Jewel. It’s mine!”
Kagome knelt in front of him. “You’re going to be eating a lot of
crow in a minute, Inuyasha. You might as well get
comfortable.” Staring into his eyes, she reached out and very
deliberately cupped his cheek in her hand.
The reaction was immediate and intense. His eyes went wide, and
she could see the memories flash across his face. Then
recognition flared, and he reached up, pressing her hand harder against
his face. “Kagome?”
She sighed with relief. “Yokatta. Hai. I’m here,
Inuyasha. I’m here.”
He launched himself at her, catching her around the waist and rolling
in mid-air to land on his back with Kagome on top and his face buried
in her hair, breathing her scent in deeply. “Oh, gods, Kagome, I
thought I was dead. I thought for a minute we were all
dead.” He straightened up, automatically shifting her to rest
across his lap, looking around frantically. “What’s
happening? Where’s Naraku? Where’s Kikyou? Where are
the others? Where are we, Kagome?”
“Shh, it’s all right, Inuyasha. We’re… Well, we’re back at
the beginning, okay? I have the Jewel, it’s whole, and for the
moment, no one else is around.” His hand started sliding along
her leg when she said that, and she smacked it, shoving it back toward
her knee. “Stop that! I’m 15, you idiot. This is no
time for a quickie.”
“Ku-i-ki? What are you babbling about? Of course you’re
15. So what?”
A horrible realization started to dawn on Kagome. “Inuyasha,
what’s the last thing you remember?”
“We were fighting Naraku. He had Tetsusaiga and Kikyou.” He
reached for his waist, swearing. “Where’s my sword? What
the fuck’s going on here, Kagome?”
Kagome took a deep breath. “It’s in your eye, Inuyasha. I
told you, we’re back at the beginning. Which means Sango’s and
Shippou’s families are still alive, Kikyou’s still dead, and the sword
is still in your father’s grave.”
He stared at her, eyebrow cocked in disbelief. “No shit?”
She shook her head. “Never. You know that. I’d never
lie to you.”
He stood abruptly, setting her on her feet as well. “All right,
then. Let’s go,” he said, setting off along a faint trail.
“Go? Go where?” she demanded, scrambling to catch up.
“To find Naraku,” he said as if she were simple. “We’re gonna
kill that fucker before he gets his hands on any Jewel shards.
This time, we’re doing it my way.”
Kagome stared after him, then shoved through the underbrush to follow.
---
Chapter 4
Chapter 6
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