Kagome: Chapter 1

Important note: Hi again! I'm just putting another note here in case any of you people who don't read notes get confused by this chapter. If you read the note in the last chapter, you don't need to read this. If you didn't, and you don't understand why Inuyasha is in this chapter, it's because this chapter happens at around the same time as the first Chapter 1, only a little before it. And now, understand and enjoy Chapter 1 #2!!

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"Ah… it's such a beautiful day." I said peacefully, turning to smile at Inuyasha, who in turn, turned a little bit pink. "And we have such a nice view, too!" Sango agreed, lounging on her stomach and playing with Kirara. "Yes, it is lucky for us we found such a lovely ass- I mean camp." Miroku said, noticeably eyeing Sango’s defenseless backside. Sango turned, noticed his gaze, and quickly sat up straight. Miroku frowned. I sighed again, this time for different reason, and sat up. "It's about time we had lunch. You guys hungry?" "You bet!" Inuyasha and Shippo said enthusiastically. I giggled. "Well of course you two are hungry. You're always hungry!" Inuyasha frowned for a second. "Well, not alwa-" he began, but his stomach interrupted with a loud growl. He grinned apologetically. "...you win." I laughed again, and went to go make the Ramen. I got all my materials from my overstuffed yellow backpack. 'Portable microwave, timer, bowls, chopsticks, and of course, Ramen.' I thought to myself. I started humming as I made the food. 'Geez, I really am in a good mood today!' It surprised me, because it had been a while since I had been this happy. We were always so busy chasing demons and jewel shard rumors; we never seemed to get a chance to just enjoy ourselves. But for once, we’d finally got the perfect chance. We were camping out near the edge of a cliff. Close enough to enjoy the scenery, far enough so we wouldn't roll off in our sleep. It was perfect.

I finished making the Ramen, and was just about to pour it into separate bowls, when I heard an enraged yell from Inuyasha. I frowned. How could anyone fight on a day like this? I finished with the Ramen and quickly walked back to the slightly more vacant campsite. "Where are Shippo and Inuyasha?" I wondered aloud. Sango shrugged. "Inuyasha started chasing Shippo after Shippo whispered something in his ear. We didn't hear what he said, but it obviously made him mad because he turned red in three seconds flat and started yelling at Shippo." 'Hmmm, I wonder what Shippo could have said...'  I thought to myself. Miroku cleared his throat. "...Um, Kagome? The Ramen?" I came back to earth with a crash. "What? Oh, yeah huh! Sorry you guys." I set their bowls and chopsticks in front of them and set the other two bowls down for Shippo and Inuyasha. Then the three of us started to eat. We were quiet, waiting for Inuyasha and Shippo. A few minutes later, we heard a loud crashing, stomping someone coming through the dense bushes and mumbling angrily to himself. "-he-ever-grumble-something-like-that-again,-I'll-" Inuyasha stuck his head through the bushes and quickly stopped talking. We looked at him expectantly. "Will what?" I asked calmly. Inuyasha looked uncomfortable. "Well, you know I wouldn't really hurt him, I just, well he... oh, just forget it. Can I eat now?" "Yeah, come eat." I said, somewhat less brightly than when I offered food before. But my cheerful mood came back when Inuyasha started eating his Ramen so fast he choked on it. I laughed so hard I almost choked along with him, and started whacking him really hard on the back. He finally coughed and started breathing again. After breathing hard for a couple moments, he looked up to see that Miroku and Sango were giving him looks. "What!?" He snapped. "Shouldn’t you thank Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked pointedly. Inuyasha's cheeks tinted pink. "Well I... I was going to, but if you're just gonna stare at me, then..." Miroku and Sango quickly started eating again, glancing up every few seconds. Inuyasha glared at them, and then looked at me. For some reason, I could feel myself blushing a little. "Thanks." He mumbled. "...you’re welcome." I replied.

After we finished eating, we decided to go look for Shippo. Inuyasha could have easily found him, but he decided he wasn’t going to help us, proclaiming that he wanted an apology from Shippo first. We decided to ignore the fact that Shippo couldn’t very well give Inuyasha his apology until he was found. Instead, we went and looked for him ourselves. We couldn't find him, so we decided to let him come back when he was ready. Besides, I had a sneaking suspicion that he had fallen asleep. He hadn't gotten enough sleep lately, insisting he was old enough to stay up with the rest of us. So we headed back to the campsite. There wasn't much to do, since we weren't hungry anymore, and there weren't any demons attacking us, so we just sat around and looked at the scenery again. It was pretty uneventful until Miroku got bored and groped Sango. Sango, of course, jumped up and started chasing him around, trying to slap him. It started getting interesting when Miroku ran too close to the cliff and pulled a tight curve, which of course Sango had to follow. However, she tripped, and almost fell off. She started teetering back and forth, losing her balance. Of course Miroku noticed this, and ran back to Sango. He grabbed her around the waist, and pulled her in to him. She sighed in relief and collapsed against him. Suddenly, they both looked up at each other and turned red. Then they started stammering and they pulled away from each other. Inuyasha and I started laughing. Sango and Miroku just looked at us with embarrassed grins on their faces. They came back and sat down, glancing sideways at each other every few minutes, and whenever they caught each other’s eyes, they blushed and looked away.

A few uneventful hours later, there was nothing to do again. “I’m bored." I said, for the tenth time. "Unless you can think of something to do, deal with it!" Inuyasha snapped for the tenth time. "...You know, I never though I'd say this, but I'm actually starting to miss all the demon attacks we usually get." I threw back at him. Sango gave me a look. I threw up my hands. "Okay, okay, I don't. There’s just nothing to do!" Suddenly, I heard a rustle in the bushes. Apparently everyone else heard it too, cause we all turned to get a better look. *rustle* There it was again! "What was that?" Sango whispered. I shrugged, but kept silent. Suddenly, it attacked. But it zoomed out of the bushes so fast, we couldn't see it move! "What the-" Inuyasha started, before having the wind knocked out of him by... nothing? There was nothing there!! Inuyasha fell over backwards, narrowly missing an upturned bowl. "Inuyasha!" I cried. I ran over to him and helped him up. "Are you okay?" "Fine." He said quickly. “But I’ll be better once I get that bastard-” Suddenly, Sango screamed. She had been thrown into the air, and was heading straight towards the edge of the cliff. Thinking fast, Miroku opened the windtunnel, and closed it when Sango started hurtling back to him. He then caught her. …Or more like she slammed into his gut and knocked him over. “Are you alright?” She asked hurriedly. “Yeah, fine.” I heard Miroku grumble, getting to his feet. I tried to locate the demon (or whatever it was) before it attacked again. Suddenly, I got a strange feeling, halfway between a chill and a shock. “It has a jewel shard!” I cried instinctively. “What?” Sango asked, turning to look at me. “Figures.” Inuyasha muttered. “Bet it’s Kouga.” I glared at him. “Kouga may be fast, but he’s not that fast. Besides, the thing looked black, or at least dark.” Inuyasha gave up accusing Kouga, and nodded. I squinted toward the area where I thought I’d felt the jewel shard. Suddenly… “Inuyasha, look out!” To late. The thing slammed into Inuyasha, and I got a swift glance of gleaming, blood-stained fangs- Inuyasha’s blood. Next thing I knew, Inuyasha was on the ground, holding his upper arm and biting his lip. “Are you okay?” I called. He didn’t answer. He was glaring at wherever he thought the demon had disappeared to with an expression of pure malevolence. He had it under control, for the time being. But I didn’t know whether or not those fangs were poisonous. He could be hurt! I looked around for my backpack. ‘I need a bow, some arrows…’ I thought urgently. “Ahah!” I cried, sprinting over to my weapon. Unfortunately, my backpack had somehow been thrown to the edge of the cliff, so I’d have to be careful. I gingerly made my way to my backpack, and managed to pick it up without being klutzy. I stood up, and was about to run back to Inuyasha and the demon, but the demon got to me first. “Kagome, watch out!” Sango cried, to late. I would have fallen for sure, but somehow Inuyasha was right there to help me. He shoved me hard to the side, out of the way of falling. However…

“INUYASHA!!” I screamed.

“Kagome…”

I watched him plummet, wanting to do something, anything, but knowing that I couldn’t. My whole body was paralyzed, in shock. ‘Dear God, let him be okay.’ I thought as hard as I could. And he probably would have been, too. If it weren’t for that stalagmite. The sound of someone being impaled and Inuyasha’s resounding cry of pain was more than I could bear. I was crying and screaming his name. I couldn’t even hear myself. I saw the pool of blood around Inuyasha expand, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt my body and mind go numb as I blacked out.

I woke up, probably at least an hour later. I sat up, and winced. I’d been lying on rock. Not smart. I turned to Miroku to ask what happened. However, in doing so I saw the look on his face, and Sango’s. And suddenly, it all came back. The demon, the jewel shard, the cliff…” “Inuyasha.” I whispered, and broke into a new wave of tears. Sango got up and put her arm around my shoulder, offering comfort, and probably wanting some in return. However, I had no comfort to spare, as there was no comfort for me. Inuyasha was dead. What was the point in life now? I realized why I always came back to the Sengoku Jidai. It was what made my life unique, out of the ordinary. Unlike anyone else’s. No one else could say, ‘Hey, guess what, I’ve been to 500 years before now, pretty sweet, huh?’ And of course, there were my friends. Or really, more like my family. Sango was like the sister I never had, Miroku was an older brother that needed to be taught a lesson, Shippo was my second little brother… and Inuyasha… well, I love Inuyasha. ‘Or loved.’ A mean little voice in my head whispered. I cried harder on Sango’s shoulder, and hiccupped. I realized Sango was crying too, and so was Miroku, if it was only a tear and an expression. I cried harder still, realizing that we were nothing without Inuyasha. How could we live without him? I started falling asleep, having exhausted myself crying so hard. As sleep took me, I hoped desperately that I would roll off the cliff. However, as I was soon to find out, that was not the case.