The freezing rain poured down from the heavens without mercy. The wind made the trees whip wildly back and forth as it howled through the forest. In a small clearing far from all civilization, a small lean to shuttered against the storm. Inside the meager shelter, a different kind of storm was brewing.

“InuYasha! I told you to LAY DOWN!!” Kagome screamed. She took a deep breath to calm herself as the half-demon stubbornly glared at her from across the tent. “Your wounds haven’t healed yet,” she said, her voice heavy with worry.

“Feh, merely scratches,” InuYasha replied while standing up, ignoring the sharp pain that ripped through his abdomen. Blood dripped steadily from the open gash in his side, soaking his kimono. It also poured from the cut on his forehead. The last demon the group had fought, ran InuYasha through the stomach with his claws after throwing him head first into the side of a cliff. InuYasha still won, of course, but that didn’t mean he did not need to rest.

Sango and Miroku sat in silence as Kagome tried to convince the stubborn half-youkai to let her dress his wounds. They knew that if InuYasha had not been injured so severely, Kagome would have told him to ‘SIT!’ a hundred times by now. Sango was concerned with InuYasha’s health but was also growing weary of the two’s constant bickering. She yawned and Miroku glanced at her with a hopeful look on his face, but her eyes didn’t close. He looked somewhat disappointed.

“Sorry, Hoshi. I won’t go to sleep with lechers like you around to grope me,” she said casually, ignoring the fake hurt look on his face.

“Sango-san, is that how you think of me?” Miroku inquired.

“Yes,” she sighed as Kagome pleaded with InuYasha.

“Come on, InuYasha. It will only take a minute. At LEAST sit do-” Kagome was cut off as InuYasha plummeted face first onto the ground. He grimaced in pain as his wounds opened further. Of course, Kagome noticed, “Oh my God! InuYasha, I did NOT mean to do that!! Are you alright?!” she said, rushing to his side.

“As I told you before, I’m fine,” he lied while pushing her away and attempting to stand.

Kagome felt her temper rise and before she could think, she screamed, “You are NOT fine, you pitiful excuse for a demon!!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Kagome immediately regretted them. So many demons they had fought had called InuYasha pitiful and worthless that it was just the first thing that came to mind.

When he finally succeeded in standing, he stared at her for a second with eyes filled with pain on a face like a blank page. Then he turned to the front flap of the tent.

“I’m sleeping outside,” was all that he said.

“No! InuYasha, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean it! Please come ba-” But her words were lost because he was already ducking out into the storm.

InuYasha was stunned. He never expected such cruelty from Kagome. All other demons and humans: yes, but not Kagome. He had always thought of her as the one person who saw him for what he really was, not just some worthless half-breed.

All of his life, he had blamed himself for the terrible things that happened whenever he got close to someone. SesshoMaru burned his mother to death in InuYasha’s own home just to spite InuYasha. Kikyo died because she fell in love with him. Naraku, the one who inflicted so much pain on the people InuYasha had grown to know, Sango and Miroku, still roamed free because InuYasha wasn’t strong enough to stop him. And InuYasha had failed to kill SesshoMaru and avenge his mother because he was only half-blood.

When other demons or humans cursed and called him worthless, he just accepted it because, in his own mind, that is what he was. But Kagome…

“If only I weren’t so damn weak!” he said aloud though no one was there to hear him. InuYasha looked down to find himself shivering all over. He wasn’t sure if it was from grief, or because the freezing rain had turned to snow. He pulled his kimono top tighter around his body and started on his way; his bare feet made no sound in the fresh layer of snow.

End of Part 1

Back to Guest Writers

Back to Home Page