Chapter 7

A New Day

It must have been the stress, because somehow, Kagome had fallen asleep. She felt a sharp jab to her side and awoke immediately. The memories of the previous night returned to her in a flash as she stared at Inuyasha, who was kneeling in front of her with that same frightening smile on his face.

“Wake up, Meimu,” he said. “Its nearly sunrise”.

And with that, he rose and grabbed Kagome by the back of her shirt. He was rough, and seemed to give no thought to causing her injury, as he dragged her from the cave and out into a clearing. Kagome cried out as her legs scraped the rough ground through her jeans. When he had her where he seemed to want her to be, he let go of her shirt and her head met the ground. He paid no mind to this, and walked a short distance away from her.

Kagome had to struggle to get herself into a sitting position. Tears were pouring down her face, both from the pain in her body and the pain in her soul. Without a doubt, she knew that Inuyasha would kill her…this wasn’t the man she had fallen in love with.

The hanyou, who had was not wearing the black hood any longer, was looking up at the sky. He smiled coldly as he looked at Kagome. “Don’t cry,” he said, “you’ll be dead in a few minutes”.

This did nothing but make Kagome cry harder. “Inu…yasha… What ha-happened to you?” she asked between sobs.

He didn’t respond, but merely continued to look at her with that same murderous smile.

Sooner, much sooner than Kagome would have liked, the sun began to rise. Inuyasha wasted no time in drawing the Tetsusiaga. He walked slowly over to Kagome and pressed the razor-sharp blade to her throat. Kagome could feel her skin break, and blood oozed down her neck. It was no more that a scratch at the moment, but Kagome squeezed her eyes shut and tensed her body in anticipation of her death.

“I like to smell their fear”, the Hanyou replied, but he did not press the sword any harder.

And then, unexpectedly, the ropes binding Kagome’s arms and legs were cut, and she heard Inuyasha take a couple of steps back. Still trembling with fear, Kagome dared to open her eyes. The sun had fully risen now, and Inuyasha was looking at her with an indiscernible look on his face. The sword was held tense and ready at his side.

And then, “you’re not Meimu,” he said.

Kagome didn’t know what to say. Slowly, she shook her head.

“Kagome?” Inuyasha asked. He did not smile.

Before she knew what she was doing, Kagome had leapt to her feet and charged at Inuyasha. Frantically, she began hitting every inch of him she could reach. “How could you do this to me?” she screamed at him.

At first, he made no move to stop her. He took every blow without flinching once, the look on his face unchanging. But, after a few moments, Inuyasha grabbed her wrists in his hands, dropping the Tetsusiaga, and twisted. Kagome gave out a cry of pain as he pushed her back.

“Never touch me,” he said. He picked up his sword and headed back into the cave without a backward glance.

Kagome collapsed to her knees and cried, but the tears were short lived. She stopped as soon as she saw Inuyasha coming out of the cave again. He had something in his hand.

“Medicinal herbs,” he said, holding a slightly damp rag out to her. He held it on the very edges with his fingertips, in such a way that made it clear that he did not want to make any skin contact with her, even for a moment. “Its for you neck. You’re bleeding.”

Kagome nodded and took it, dabbing it gently across the cut. She did not know what to say to Inuyasha. His voice held no remorse…in fact, it held no emotion whatsoever. For the first time in her life, she was truly at a loss for how to speak to him.

“Come in when you’re ready,” he said. “I have food”. With that, he turned and headed back inside.

Kagome watched him go, observing that even the way he walked was different. Before, his movements had always been somewhat childish. He would plop down, slouch, walk with somewhat heavy footfalls…but now… He moved like an assassin, like his brother, with a kind of lightness and grace that he had never shown before.

She waited a few minutes before following him back into the cave. When she did, it was to find him staring at an apple that she assumed was breakfast, as he had set another one on a nearby rock, apparently for her.

Kagome sat down, taking care not to get too close to him, and took a bite of the fruit. “Thank you,” she said, after she had swallowed.

Inuyasha said nothing.

Kagome, who was determined to at know something that had happened over the past three years, was not about to let this moment go in total silence. “Who’s Meimu?” she asked.

For a time, he said nothing but started to eat his apple. Kagome noticed that even his table manners had improved…he ate more respectfully then she did. She was even more curious now to learn what had happened to him, and was about to ask more questions, when he finally spoke.

“Meimu is a demon,” he said.

“Then, why did you think she was me?” asked Kagome, confused.

“She is always you,” Inuyasha said.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, Meimu takes the form that she thinks will have the greatest affect on the one she pursues, or the one who pursues her. I have been hunting her for some time, now. She always appears as you,” Inuyasha explained. “Always”

Kagome did not like the way he said that, without any emotion. “You haven’t caught her, yet?”

“No,” said Inuyasha. “Last night, I thought I finally had. The illusion- looking like you- can only last until sunrise. That’s why I waited.”

“You knew it was me when the illusion didn’t break?” asked Kagome.

Inuyasha nodded, but did not speak. “Finish your apple,” he said after a moment of silence. “I’ll take you back to the well. You have a life to get back to.”

Kagome suddenly found herself without any appetite, she set her apple down. “Inuyasha…”, she began, “I’m sor-”

“Don’t be,” he said, and it amazed Kagome that his voice continued to hold no feeling. “I can imagine that it must have been hard to wait for your half-demon boyfriend for three years, when their was a perfectly available human boy to give you comfort”. It was the first time he had ever referred to himself as her ‘boyfriend’, and where this would have thrilled Kagome before, now, it only made her wince as though he had struck her.

There was no anger or spite in his tone, but Kagome found that there didn’t really need to be. In fact, his calm indifference stung all the more, and Kagome wished he would get angry…she wished he would yell.

“I did wait, Inuyasha”, she said.

“It makes no difference,” he told her, standing now and pulling the black hood up.

“It does,” Kagome wanted to get some emotion out of him, she wanted to know that he was still in there, she wanted him to say that it mattered, that he was pissed…

“It doesn’t,” he said.

Kagome stood up, too. “What happened to you?” she asked. “What happened that day in the woods?”

“I grew up,” was Inuyasha’s reply. Without another word to her, he left the cave. Slightly dumbstruck, Kagome followed along after him.