House of Illusions by UnknownRandomness
Deep Shit
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of 'Inuyasha', however, the plot of this story and any original characters do belong to me.
A/N: This is a re-write posted on 30/7/2013. Hope you enjoy and please review.
‘Hoisting myself out of this well never gets any easier.’
Kagome Higurashi grunted quietly as with a final pull, she dragged her lithe body and giant bag over the lip of the Bone Eater’s well. Flopping down beside the base, the young woman took a moment to appreciate the natural beauty that surrounded her, so different to the city landscape of her time. Sometimes it still shocked her; the fact that she had access to a magical portal that sent her five centuries into the past.
‘Not something you hear every day,’ she thought, laughing to herself. She narrowed her eyes and scanned the clearing, ‘Inuyasha, where are you? Typical – he says he’ll meet me here, and he’s not here. Thanks a lot.’
She rolled her eyes and huffed.
A few calm minutes ticked by as the morning sunshine beat down on her raven head.
“Well, no use waiting for someone who is elsewhere!” With a smile on her face, Kagome stood and made her way down to the village.
Within twenty minutes, that smile was a distant memory.
<><><><><><>
Upon entering the weathered wooden hut, Sango had given her a one-armed hug, Miroku and Kaede had greeted her warmly and Shippo had practically become a limpet attached to her leg.
“Hi everyone,” she said, “how are you all?”
Looking over into the far corner, Kagome’s eyes met Inuyasha’s and she blinked, surprised at the scowl adorning his features. No one else had a chance to answer before the hanyou jumped up and let loose.
“Where the hell have you been, huh, Kagome? I said back in two days, and it’s been a goddamn week! We’re never gonna catch Naraku if you keep slowing us down with your school bullshit!”
The miko could feel her patience rapidly deteriorating. She had no idea why she put up with this.
“Yaaashaa, I’m warning you. If you don’t leave me alone I’ll say ‘it’! I am sick and tired of you being so insensitive- I know I’m slowing everyone down with my trips back to the future, but school is important; without it, I have no life there. So, just calm down!”
With the two of them still glaring at each other, Miroku chose that moment to intervene.
“Well, I have been keeping very well, Kagome. Kaede has enlightened me on a most wonderful herbal concoction for alleviating pain; which may prove very useful for all of us.”
The futuristic girl turned to the monk with a large smile. “That’s brilliant Miroku! Kaede, would you be able to teach me how to make this remedy?”
“Aye, if ye actually pay attention this time.” The elderly lady lightly chastised her uninspired pupil.
Laughing sheepishly, Kagome hugged Shippo tightly whilst stoically ignoring Inuyasha’s glaring eyes. Unzipping her yellow backpack, she searched for a maths book and pens, eager to get a bit more work in before continuing their seemingly never-ending search for the jewel shards. Had it really been two years since they started?
However, once Inuyasha saw the writing utensils, a barrage of verbal abuse came her way.
“You cannot be serious! You are not going to go study, stupid wench – we have to get going immediately! If it wasn’t for you we’d have gotten another shard by now!”
“That’s a lie and you know it! We haven’t had even a whiff of a shard’s whereabouts lately, and that’s probably because Naraku has got all of them!”
“Then we could’ve taken Naraku down and ended this stupid quest!”
The other members of the hut watched, eyes wide, as their companions screamed at the top of their lungs.
The demon slayer leaned over to Miroku and whispered in his ear. “It’s really strange to think that these two are best friends.”
Miroku nodded, a serious expression on his handsome face. “Indeed, my lovely Sango, it seems that they are at war with one another.”
Sango was just about to express her agreement when she felt a foreign object fondling her rear.
“HENTAI!”
The monk fell heavily to the floor, unconscious, a handprint appearing on his grinning face.
Meanwhile, the hanyou and human were still arguing fiercely.
“Gosh, you are so infuriating! Inuyasha- I am going to study!”
“Like hell you are! You’re not going to study and that’s IT!”
Kagome’s knuckles turned white with rage. She was just about to try and compromise with the hanyou when he quietly muttered to himself.
“Kikyo wouldn’t have to go and study. She’d have gotten all of the jewel shards, seeing as she’s a trained miko.”
For a few tense seconds, the hut was silent as a grave. Slowly, Inuyasha realized his mistake, his ears flattening on his skull as he turned pleading eyes towards the miko.
“…Is that what you really think, Inuyasha,” Kagome’s mouth clenched into a thin white line, her eyes dark with fury, “that I’m useless?”
He raised his hands as if to protect himself from her oncoming fury. “No, no, I don’t. You’re not useless at all. You’re just a bit stupid sometim-“
“SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT!”
Tears glistening in her eyes, Kagome picked up her bag and weapons before running out of the hut.
Kaede and Sango glared at their male companion embedded deep in the earth under the floorboards, and Shippo jumped on top of his prone form before punching the back of his head.
“Baka! Why are you so dumb? You upset Kagome again!”
Wisely, the hanyou pretended to be unconscious.
Gradually, everyone became aware that Miroku was moaning as he returned from his hentai-fuelled fantasies. The houshii slowly sat up, took one look at his friend buried in the ground and sighed. Turning to the taijiya, he decided to take stock of the situation.
“Did he make her cry?”
<><><><><><>
Kagome sat on a fallen tree stump, viciously wiping her eyes, which were traitorously releasing a steady stream of tears. She hadn’t meant to shout at Inuyasha, but he made it so very hard not to. And why did she have to cry? She wasn’t a baby; she couldn’t let every little thing he said get to her. But no matter how hard she tried to not let it affect her, his habit of comparing her to Kikyo hurt. They were two separate people, yet in his head, they seemed to be two sides of the same coin – which they weren’t. Apart from a passing resemblance and their miko abilities, Kagome knew that she and Kikyo weren’t alike in any way.
It only took a few minutes for her to calm down, and with a lighter mood, the schoolgirl set her mind towards completing at least a chapter of her mathematics work.
Within five minutes she was throwing her book to the ground in frustration. Perhaps she had missed too many classes, or wasn’t clever enough, because no matter how hard she tried, this work didn’t make any sense to her.
‘I have enough to deal with… I don’t want to have to attend extra classes!’ Picking up her discarded book, she tried to understand it with renewed vigour. About an hour or so passed this way, and Kagome became aware of her stomach rumbling. Rolling onto the ground, she dragged her bag towards her and was about to search for some snacks when her spiritual energy spiked.
Quickly standing up, Kagome picked up her bow and slung her quiver over her shoulder, waiting for something to happen.
And happen it did.
A large youkai burst into the clearing she occupied not twenty feet from her, furiously sniffing the air. When its beady eyes focused on her, Kagome wasted no time in stringing an arrow, taking aim, and letting loose.
Just in time, it seemed, for the ferret youkai had been very quick, disintegrating into dust mere inches from her outstretched arm. Heart pounding, the young woman breathed a sigh of relief, letting her limbs fall back to her sides and dropping her bow. If she had been any slower…
The hairs on the back of her neck were erect, and a shiver skittered down her spine. Something else seemed wrong. Her senses were screaming at her, like the threat hadn’t been removed at all. With great trepidation, Kagome slowly raised her head, peeking out from under her bangs to see what was making her so nervous. What she saw had her rapidly back-stepping – as fast as she could, until her calves bumped into the tree stump she had been sitting on.
Lord Sesshoumaru was standing before her, looking directly at her, face impassive, but his eyes burned as if he couldn’t wait to shred her with his poisonous claws. Kagome managed to hold back a whimper as she stared into his golden gaze, terrified. When he didn’t move to kill her, the miko surveyed the rest of him and flinched as she noticed the arrow she had fired earlier burning with holy energy, encompassing his left hand and singing the flesh.
‘Hang on. His left hand?’
At his loud growl, Kagome’s gaze snapped back up to his face, and she felt the blood run from her own face at his expression. He looked positively murderous.
‘Why, why, why, why, why did I argue with Inuyasha? I am in some deep shit now.’