Inescapable
by FaeHime
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Chapter 1: Unnecessary
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"No!"
The miko threw herself at the back of the oni, effectively distracting it from completing its attack against the distracted demon lord. Her muscles screaming in protest, Kagome pulled herself up enough to dig her fingers into the beast's eyes, eliciting a painful roar as it swung its arms wildly in an attempt to grasp hold of her.
Kagome's throat caught on a scream as she felt her insides tug against a pressure that lifted her weight from the oni's back and sent her flying to the hard packed earth. She slammed into the ground, feeling her shoulder crack and the exposed skin of her legs and face being scuffed off as she tumbled to rest on her side in the middle of the clearing. Coming to a stop, the young woman closed her eyes against the pain radiating throughout her body.
'Damn...' she thought to herself dryly. 'I hate it when InuYasha is right.'
~Earlier That Morning...~
“Hey, Kagome!”
InuYasha's voice had the miko looking up from where she knelt amongst the rabble from her backpack. Notebooks, texts, and other school supplies were strewn around her haphazardly, overlapping and piled into categories only she could decipher.
'In theory that is,' Kagome thought with a frown. 'But where did I put that list?'
A short glare at the rabble was the only indication that her thoughts weren't completely on her friend. Shaking off her irritation for the moment, she turned back to the boy looming over her with a perturbed look on his face and smiled apologetically.
“Sorry, InuYasha, I'm having trouble finding the one paper I need for this assignment,” she explained with a vague gesture to the mess she had created. The hanyou snorted, picking up on of her folders and leafing through it disinterestedly. Every time she had a major project that required her to work during her time in the past, he always seemed to grow more surly than usual until she was finished.
“Did you need something?” she asked when he made no move to continue or leave her to her work.
“I'm just wondering why you keep trying so hard with this school stuff,” he muttered, still flipping through her papers with an unimpressed scowl.
With a patient sigh, Kagome responded to the age-old argument, “Because, when we finally get rid of the Jewel and take care of Naraku, I want to have options for my future. There's not a lot of demand for miko archers in my time, you know!”
Standing, she reached for the folder on his hand, a self-deprecating smile on her mouth. While she had checked this folder several times already, she figured it couldn't hurt to look again. Besides, the hanyou had a habit of destroying things she needed, and she couldn't afford to redo all the research she'd accumulated in this folder. So focused on her search for the errant list she needed, Kagome was startled out of her thoughts when InuYasha's next softly spoken question reached her.
“But what if your future is here... with us?”
Her eyes flashed to meet his, but her friends normally vibrant orbs were avoiding hers, his bangs acting as a barrier between them. It was hen that the young woman noticed that Sango, Miroku and Shippo were all watching their conversation intently. Kagome swallowed heavily, her heart aching with a plethora of emotions.
This question had been on the tips of everyone's tongues for some time, and Kagome honestly didn't know how to answer. It wasn't that she didn't want to stay here in the Feudal Era, because that couldn't be further from the truth. Looking around at her friends, the miko didn't want to imagine life without them. However, she didn't want to imagine her world without her family either. In the end, Kagome didn't think she could choose between her family and her friends.
“I just... want to be prepared if it isn't,” she finally answered, the whispered admission falling into the heavy silence.
Glancing around, she was happy to see the understanding on Sango and Miroku's faces. Shippo looked about as happy as InuYasha seemed, but even he sent her an encouraging smile. Turning back to her long-time friend, she wished fo the millionth time that everything didn't have to be so difficult. Still refusing to look at her, InuYasha snorted rudely before turning away and hopping into a nearby tree, leaving her he folder he'd held captive. Sighing morosely, Kagome opened it only to discover the missing list sitting right on top of the other paperwork.
'Of course,' the young woman groused to herself, tucking it carefully into her packet and grabbing her camera from her bag.
She'd been taking an hour or two each day to wander the area around where they stopped for lunch to search for the plant life on her list. It was a bit bothersome, as it slowed them down substantially, but it was still quicker than trying to find the species back in her own time, so their hanyou leader had few complaints.
“I'll be back in a little while guys!” she called, heading out of their clearing with determination.
“I still say it's a waste of time,” she heard from the tree at her back, and a small smile graced her lips at the brash friend's stubbornness.
~Present...~
Looking back, Kagome couldn't help but agree with the hanyou for once. While she valued her education, and didn't want to end up as a burden on her family if she ended up stuck in the future, it didn't seem so important now. She could understand how InuYasha would feel her education was a waste of time as she laid there bleeding.
Distracted by her own sullen thoughts regarding her future, Kagome had inadvertantly wandered frther from the group than usual. By the time she noticed her surrooundings, she'd traded one distraction for another when the sounds of battle reached her. Curiosity getting the better of her, the young woman had hurried towards the sounds, determined to help if someone was in trouble.
And then she'd stumbled upon InuYasha's older half-brother being attacked by a trio of Oni.
'Why didn't I just walk away?'
Facing away from the battle now, Kagome surmised from the sudden silence behind her that the moment taken to dispose of her presence had cost the oni its life. Letting out a stuttering sigh of relief, Kagome closed her eyes against the sickening warmth she felt spreading beneath her form. It was only when she felt a hand turning her slightly that she fixed her glassy gaze upon the face of the intended victim of the oni.
"Konni… chiwa… Se- Sesshoumaru…"
Eyes the color of whey looked over the injuries adorning the body of the small woman that lay before him. He had heard her shoulder crack, when she had hit, and took a passing note of the scratches, scraps and other various shallow wounds gained from her flight across the forest floor. What caught his notice though was the dark, wet appearance of the ground beneath the miko that was slowly getting larger.
Sesshoumaru carefully reached out, lifting her arm from where it was laying across her stomache, and nearly flinched at the four puncture wounds he found sluggishly pulsing with her life's blood. Carefully inspecting them, he came to the conclusion that the oni must have speared the girl through the back with its claws, punching straight through to the front of her soft belly. Looking again at her face, he saw how pale and clammy the girl had become, how shallow her breathing was.
Kagome watched as he kneeled over her, silently figuring out what she could already feel: she was going to die.
Just as she was getting ready to close her eyes again against the brutal pain, his soft admonishment caused her eyes to snap back to focus.
"That, miko, was entirely unnecessary. This Sesshoumaru would have barely suffered any damage in the attack, all which would have healed within a few short moments. Why would you do something so foolish?" he intoned, sounding harsh in the face of her sacrifice.
Dark eyebrows creased together, before a small smile found its way across her pale and bloody lips.
"Because, my lord… everyone… deserves to have someone covering their backs-- whether they need it or not." her voice was faint and forced against the labored and unsteady beating of her heart. Wincing in agony as she felt the last of her life bubbling from her wounds, Kagome's body stiffened weakly, her face contorted for but a moment before all of her muscles relaxed and the air left her lungs in a delicate huff.
The demon lord blinked slowly as he stood, his gaze passing to across the clearing, where the bodies of two oni lay festering in the noon heat. He shifted his sights back upon the body before him, knowing that though her actions had indeed been unnecessary, her subsequent death was even more so, as she had only been acting the part of an ally, albeit a weak one.
A sharp ring shattered the silence of the clearing, as the heir of Tensaiga pulled it free, ready to repay his debt to the Shikon Miko Kagome.
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A/N: Woot! Here is the first Chapter re-write/ expansion/ update for the new year! Next will be Chapter 2 and so on and so forth until the first 17 or so Chapters matches the second half of the story, at which time I'll post chapter 27 XD
For the nex update schedule please visit my profile! Everyone let me know what you think of the extended chapter! XD