Hindsight

 

A/N: I give you, a big, splody chapter. Big being relative. Well, and splody. Splody being both relative and not an actual word.

Day Three, Act Five.

Chapter Nineteen: Very Many Explosions. 

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Kagome felt, with extremely disturbing accuracy, the moment her powers slammed into Sesshomaru.

 

Disturbing, why? Because, even as her dangerously out of control purification powers enveloped a being quite susceptible to purification, she did not feel a jot of remorse.

Nor an iota of panic.

Not even a smidgen of dismay or discontent or disapproval or any other particularly guilt-laden emotion.

 

Instead, what she felt was a burst of heady, seductive satisfaction that, for once, the Powers That Be weren’t aiming their injudiciously pointed barbs at her.

 

And that the being currently being bombarded was someone that brought her considerable daily stress, and let’s just see how they like it, always bitching and moaning that she complained too much, and her life could not possibly be as bad as she sometimes claimed it to be.

 

Unfortunately for the fiercely grinning Kagome...the burst of heady, seductive satisfaction lasted less than a second, and common sense reasserted itself with a forceful, painful, near brutal shove, causing her to stumble forward in remorse, panic, dismay and sheer, full blown horror.

 

Holy shitski on a sesame seed cracker, she’d just purified Sesshomaru.

 

He was going to kill her for this.

 

She stared in terror at the solid wash of blinding pink light that completely obscured the clearing before and around her, knowing that, at the very least...Sesshomaru would not Be Amused.

 

At the very worst...the Western Kingdom would decide to avenge their fallen leader. The entire inuyoukai race would be out for her blood. Kagome thought hysterically that warrior inuyoukai would have several inventive ways of dispatching her to the Beyond. Not one of which would be remotely pleasant.

 

Kagome didn’t want to meet her spleen!

 

She dragged back on her powers frantically, pulling at the light with her hands, with her feet, with her goddamned teeth, all the while alternately muttering filthy curse words and fervent prayers.

She did not limit herself to the kamis. She threw herself at the feet of Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity -5 different denominations- Hinduism, and, just in case, Scientology.

 

As the angry pink light faded slowly, then eventually shimmered away, Kagome gaped in unspeakable terror at the seemingly empty clearing.

 

“Um...Sesshomaru? Um...are you...you know...um...alive?” Kagome called hesitantly, taking one careful step forward, eyes searching the eerily silent clearing.

 

“Uh, Sesshomaru, I totally didn’t mean to...you know...um...kill you or anything.” She continued, a nervous, short laugh coughing past her lips as the silence hung stubbornly in the still air.

 

“Uh...Sesshomaru...um...please don’t kill me. It was a total accident, I swear.” She tried, ignoring the whining plea that had crept into her tone, as her eyes darted around frantically, still with no sight of either an annoyed taiyoukai...or...you know...his ashes.

 

Kagome spun around at a low growl that echoed throughout the clearing, filling her ears with its thunderous timbre. As she swivelled, her nose slammed into something both firm and fluffy, and her terror escalated into full blown hysteria.

 

She looked up...and up...and up...and up.

 

Sesshomaru, in his full unleashed dog-mode...looked down his burnt snout at her...through blood-red eyes that did not look amused at all.

 

Kagome burst into laughter, falling back gratefully on her rather inappropriate sense of humour, for a teenage girl.

 

No matter how many times her mother had pointed out that the other girls most certainly did not send their little brothers to school in a full kabuki mask, Kagome still developed stitches in her sides at the memory.

There was no convincing her that all the clobbering Sango did that would most likely result in Miroku’s severe cranial trauma, was anything less than hysterical.

She giggled at kidnap attempts, attempted seductions –read, Kouga, and...Kouga...- exploding youkai, angry villagers brandishing torches, explaining to her friends back home that, no, she wasn’t actually dying of Tropical Tongue-Twisting Toe Rot, and even the never-ending parade of suckage that basically comprised her destiny.

 

However, she was fairly certain that it was the height of impropriety to giggle, chuckle and laugh outright in the face of someone she had just tried to kill, who seemed eager to return the favour, with more success. Her laugh cut itself off with an abrupt strangle and squeak.

 

Sesshomaru bared his teeth, and Kagome watched in morbid fascination as green, fluorescent acid pooled malevolently at his jaws. His entire underbelly was a golden brown, the edges of his pelt burnt to jet crisps. His snout was also a crispy brown, and as his body vibrated with the low, menacing growl echoing deeply from his throat, flakes of ash snowed liberally from his nose.

His bloodred eyes, fixed firmly on Kagome, glowed with a sinister gleam, and Kagome idly bet that they would have been shooting concentrated beams of death at her were they capable.

 

Kagome, staring almost certain death in the face, remembered dimly that the best defence was a good offence, and that righteous fury could take a girl far, and utterly relieved that she had not managed to vaporise him, she immediately marched up toe to paw with him and started screaming at the top of her lungs.

 

“Did I ask for your stupid snottiness? What have I done, really, to deserve the moronic siblings? I mean, geez!” She yelled, waving her arms around furiously. Without waiting for a reply, she stomped away to pace vigorously in front of him.

 

“Stupid fricking Inuyasha, bloody undead Kikyo. NARAKU!!!” she screamed, pointing in incoherent rage at Sesshomaru, then whirling around, “and then there’s always damned Kouga, damned school, damned MATH, damned every damn thing! Did I ask for this stupid jewel? Did I go down on one knee and beg the damned gods for this godforsaken quest? And then you come with your snotty snootyness and piss me off and you kiss me,” here, she levelled her most pressing accusation- with a finger shaking with righteous indignation- at the now-silenced dog demon, “and then act like a jackass  and MOM has a MAN!!!” she screamed at the skies, before dropping to her knees and stabbing the katana into the earth.

Stab, stab, stab. Poke. Wiggle. Stab, stab...almighty thrust. 

 

She looked up from the dirt to peek at Sesshomaru.

Oh Gods.

Ohgodsohgodsohgodsohgodsohgiddygiddygods in the heavens.

 

He had reverted to his human form, and was staring at her out of now honey-gold eyes. His silken clothing, untouched by her powers, fluttered dramatically over his body...which she could see because his sash had either come undone or been discarded. His smooth, ivory skin was darkened a dull, gleaming gold, shimmering against his silvery hair, the tips of which glimmered darkly under the charred remnants of her powers’ fury.

 

His newly golden chest slid in and out of sight as the silk fluttered in the wind, and Kagome gawped in giddy lust as the sunlight sparkled off of him, shooting prismatic beams up and out, catching playfully in his unbound hair, transforming his normally already- impressive self into a gleaming column of light and magic. Her smooth moonlight prince suddenly transformed before her into a Sun King. Her little heart went pitter-patter.

 

Her brain, which had ceased functioning at her first glimpse of this burnished-gold Sesshomaru, suddenly registered that he had hefted a single eyebrow at her, tilted his head infinitesimally to the left, and was staring at her with what she recognized as his condescending look.

 

“Oh, that’s about as much as I can damn well take.” She growled.

 

Shoving herself up, leaving the katana buried, she stormed towards him, jabbing her fist at his crossed arms. As his arms unwound slowly, his arched eyebrow clearly telling her that he was humouring her, her irritation spiked even higher.

 

“So, I get that you’re Lord Sesshomaru, and you clearly were born with that stick up your butt, but if you keep arching that damn eyebrow at me I’m gonna damn well blast it off this time.

“I’m going to kill your brother. And then, I’m going to re-kill that stupid Kikyo. Then I’m gonna kill Naraku. And then I’m going to go curl up in a corner and die. Because, quite honestly, if I don’t die I’m gonna kill everybody, and that would defeat the whole purpose of this thrice-damned quest.” The last word spat out with patent sarcastic disgust.

 

“I sincerely doubt that.” Kagome shivered minutely at his newly roughened, husky voice that did strange and excessively pleasant things to her poor little heart.

 

Kagome gaped, then snapped her mouth shut and glared evilly at him.

 

“You listen to me, Mister I-fricking-well-know-everything­! If I say I’m going to kill them all, then dammit I’m going to damn well kill them all! And your eyebrow, too!” she snarled, jabbing him in the chest with a stiffly-pointed finger.

 

“I do not doubt your sincerity, Kagome. Especially in light of your recent actions. However, perhaps it would serve you better to know that Inuyasha is not entirely himself at present.”

 

Kagome scowled.

 

“What, and being obnoxious and stupid and begging to have his face meet my fist isn’t ‘himself’? Ha!” she snorted, her disagreement eloquent.

 

Sesshomaru shrugged, looking down his long nose at her, his golden eyes meeting hers with what she could only accurately describe as amusement in their depths.

 

“The regenerated miko cast a controlling spell on him.” He said simply, leaning back, apparently to observe her reaction.

 

Kagome reacted, alright.

 

She shrieked.

 

“You have got to be goddamned kidding me!” she screamed. She lunged forward, grabbing her katana from its earthy sheath, and stomped furiously in Inuyasha and Kikyo’s direction, her power spitting furiously from her fingertips and her eyes. She’d had alls she could stands, and she couldn’t stands no more.

 

She was going to kill someone today.

 

Hopefully it would not be Sesshomaru, because for some unknown reason, he was amused by her, instead of exploding in his own burst of righteous fury, and Kagome had it in her to be grateful for the small favours the gods occasionally pitched her way. However, she sincerely doubted that he would be amused by a second attempt.

 

And in keeping with popular opinion, she was not suicidal, merely overly emotional.

 

She paused at the fringe of the forest, then pivoted and shouted in the direction of the hut.

 

“Sango!!! Miroku! I’m going to kick Inuyasha’s ass. I’m going to kill that annoying clay twit. I’m probably going to kill anyone who looks at me wrong. Coming?”

 

In a gratifyingly short period of time, Sango and Miroku leapt into the clearing, battle ready.

Miroku smiled reassuringly at Kagome, holding his hands out, pacifying.

 

“Now, Kagome, assuredly Inuyasha deserves some...guidance...but is this really the way?”

 

Kagome surged forward, jabbing the hilt of the katana into his chin.

 

“It’s him or you. Somebody’s gonna have to feel my wrath today.” She pointed out, rather reasonably, she thought.

“Him.” Miroku squeaked.

 

“Thought so.”

 

************

 

During her march, fuelled by a seemingly-bottomless well of fury, Kagome had some time to mull things over in the relative privacy of her mind.

 

She had overreacted.

 

It was a bitter pill to swallow.

 

Not, of course, because she had been wrong. That state of reality had occurred so often that she was fairly convinced she would never actually be in the right, in this bloody lifetime or the next.

 

No, it was a bitter pill to swallow because she had exploded –not because of Inuyasha- but because...Sesshomaru was an idiot.

 

Aside from the fact that she had been a bit distracted by the situation with Inuyasha, she was still damn confused about Sesshomaru.

 

Why the hell did he kiss her, and then get all uppity and I am Sesshomaru on her?

 

But what really was the verbal straw that broke camel-Kagome’s back was the ‘alpha’ comment.

 

Why didn’t he get all alpha on her again?!?

 

Life just was not fair.

 

Kagome exhaled, her sigh deep and heartfelt. She was tired. She wanted her pillow and Buyo and some chocolate.

 

She shot a glare at Sesshomaru, who was still looking at her in amusement. He had retrieved his sash –it had whipped away in the wind and tangled in a nearby tree- and was neatly attired once more.

 

Except. His face, and the teeny sliver of chest that peeked out of his haori, was still the burnished gold that had Kagome unconsciously biting down on her lip in frustrated lust.

 

She intensified her glare. This was all his fault.

 

She stomped off, following Kikyo’s soul-train. Yet another of her daily stressors.

Kagome was usually really reasonable about Kikyo’s existence.

 

She didn’t much mind that Kikyo existed basically because some psycho old hag decided she needed to be Ebenezer Scrooge, post-Ghost of Christmas Future, with Kagome’s soul.

 

Kagome could live with Kikyo being the Tiny Tim in that analogy.

 

She managed to scrape up considerable sympathy for Kikyo’s first demise. Naraku was a sneaky, treacherous bastard, and Kikyo, for all her snooty airs, hadn’t deserved to die in that particular inglorious blaze.

 

Thus, she ignored- well, usually- Inuyasha’s disappearances to meet his undead ladyfriend.

 

She masterfully turned two blind eyes to anytime Kikyo would do something just calculated to piss her off, like try to convince everyone that Naraku wasn’t all bad. He was once Onigumo. Let him gather the shards and then take it from him. I’m so sure that little Kagome doesn’t mean to dress like a...geisha. A very classy geisha, of course, dear.

 

Blah blah blah.

 

She wasn’t too pleased about the countless comparisons everyone threw at her, either.

 

However, she bloody well drew the line at effecting witchery on Inuyasha. Annoying and loud and annoying though he was, he should at least be free to be a complete and utter jackass of his own free will.

 

And damn it, if she didn’t get to boss Inuyasha around, by the gods, no one would!

 

Which reminded her...

 

“What do you mean, she’s the alpha in their relationship?” she suddenly asked Sesshomaru.

 

Sesshomaru paused, then turned to regard her blankly, his amusement wiped away.

 

“Uh...sorry?” she asked hesitantly.

 

Shit. Had she managed to stumble upon his actual ‘I shall kill you, puny mortal’ trigger???

 

“I merely meant to indicate that she dominates the interaction.” Sesshomaru said, still giving her the evil eye.

 

“Well I don’t bloody care if she dominates him halfway to Timbuktu; he’s still going to get a hurting.” Kagome scowled darkly, somewhat relieved that Sesshomaru did not launch into a complicated and immensely boring dissertation on inuyoukai customs and hierarchy.

 

The ass-kicking she fully intended to heap upon Kikyo’s head would be somewhat hampered if Inuyasha took it into his fool head to defend his ‘alpha’.

 

She skirted past the thick trunk of a blossoming tree, peeking sneakily forward at the sound of Kikyo crooning, to scope out the scene.

 

The first thing she registered was Inuyasha, sprawled bonelessly on the shiny green grass under a stately tree, eyes staring unseeingly upwards.

Kagome started forward, shocked, thinking frantically that the bitch had managed to kill him before she herself got the chance to whack him into painful unconsciousness.

 

Her head shot to the right, where Kikyo, crooning, was nimbly relieving a soulstealer of its burden. As she cupped someone’s stolen soul in her scrawny witch-fingers, Kagome’s fingers tightened around an arrow, whipping it out and around, wondering idly which of Kikyo’s eyes to aim for.

 

Inuyasha stirred on the grass, and Kagome sighed quietly, relieved that he wasn’t dead yet. He propped himself up on his elbows to look at Kikyo in confusion.

 

“Uh, Kikyo? What the hell am I doing here? Where’s here? Where’s the bastard, and Kagome?” He asked, each question raising in volume. As he slowly got to his feet, staring at Kikyo, Kagome scowled.

Great. He really was being mind-controlled by the rampant bitch.

Great.

 

“Ah, Inuyasha, don’t worry your pretty little head about these things. That’s what I’m here for.” Kikyo said, patting Inuyasha’s head and smiling condescendingly at him.

 

Inuyasha tilted his head away from her hand, staring down at her in irritation.

 

“I ain’t your pet, bitch. Where the hell is everyone?” Inuyasha scowled, looking around the clearing in annoyance.

 

“I’m not a bitch!” Kikyo said, stamping her foot petulantly.

 

Inuyasha snorted eloquently.

 

Kagome giggled.

 

As his head whipped around, Kagome sauntered out into the clearing, still absently twirling her arrow, taking no notice of the pink sparkles that whipped around the slender bit of wood.

 

“I may just let you survive the beating you’re gonna get for the Kouga insult, after that one.” She told Inuyasha conversationally, genuinely grinning.

 

“Kagome! What the fuck is going on? Last I remember you almost cracked my fucking back before you left. Where the fuck is everyone and why the fuck don’t I remember anything?!” Inuyasha asked, voice rising in panic.

 

“Calm down, kemosabe. Rampant bitch here apparently put a hex on you. I so told you she couldn’t be trusted.” Kagome gloated.

 

Inuyasha turned to stare at Kikyo in apparent horror.

 

“You did what?” he shouted.

 

Kagome had to admit, as much as she hated Kikyo, she had to admire the way she stood right up to the furious Inuyasha, without a single blink or twitch.

 

“I put a spell on you. And now you’re mine.” Kikyo said calmly, eyeing Inuyasha up and down with a proprietary gleam in her eyes, rather like someone considering buying a horse. Kagome’s skin shivered at the exceptional creepiness of the statement, especially coupled as it was with Kikyo’s matte, gleaming eyes.

 

“Look, Kikyo. You need to get over this. I told you last time that we’re not gonna work out. What’s with all of this fucking bespelling, and dragging people to hell? It’s not like you’ve been to hell, or are gonna end up there.” Inuyasha said sagely, extending his hands,  palms up, to the eerily-calm miko. Kagome wondered if he'd gotten into her Mom's stash of Dr. Phil tapes, because his impression of the calmly condescending psychiatrist's tone was spot on.

 

“Don’t you dare use that tone with me, Inuyasha!” Kikyo shouted suddenly, her hands fisted tightly at her sides, looking ready to swing.

 

“What tone?” Inuyasha asked innocently.

 

“That, you’re-being-an-irrational-female tone! You promised, and I’m dragging you with me whether you like it or not!” Kikyo said, folding her arms violently, expelling an irritated huff of air, and pinning him with the old fish eye.

 

“I did not promise to meekly follow you to hell, woman. I promised, and I fucking quote, ‘To follow you, hell be damned.’ It was a joke. And you know it!”

 

“It wasn’t such a damn joke when the damn villagers were smirking and winking at me when you dogged my steps! I lost respect as the village miko. I got offered damn sex advice from Old Kaito! OLD KAITO!” Kikyo screamed.

 

“Old Kaito was a lech. He woulda given you sex advice if you were as old as Totosai! He woulda given you sex advice if you walked past his hut! He woulda given you sex advice with his last gasping breath! He woulda given you sex advice if you were a goddamn eunuch! Get over it!”

 

“GET OVER IT?!?” Kikyo shrieked majestically.

 

Kagome cleared her throat delicately, wiping the smirk off her face when they both swung around to stare at her, brows furrowed, colour still high on Inuyasha’s cheeks.

 

“Fascinating though this undoubtedly is, you can’t be bewitching Inuyasha, Kikyo. It pisses me off. And if you do again, I may lose my calm and kind demeanour and kick your ass straight back to wherever the hell the Old Hag dragged you out from.” Kagome said, eyes flashing.

 

“Fair enough.” Kikyo said, shrugging.

 

Kagome gaped.

 

“Well, I wanted the shard, and he was being...him. It was the quickest way.” Kikyo said reasonably, ignoring Inuyasha’s sputter of outrage.

 

Strangely, looking at the raving Inuyasha, and then turning back to the now-calm Kikyo, Kagome somehow understood.

Hell, if the damn subjugation beads also put a lid on Inuyasha’s mouth, she’d be singing ‘Sit’ as soon as she came out the well.

 

“Listen, bitch! I ain’t your damn puppet thing! You want something, you ask for it like a damn proper person! What the fuck is the world coming to, when your own damn ex-lady’s regenerated clay body won’t bloody trust you?” Inuyasha bawled, aggrieved, thrusting his hands into his hair and pulling violently in frustration.

 

Kikyo watched calmly as Inuyasha continued to shriek, stomping around the clearing and generally making a scene.

 

“So. Are we to battle?”she asked abruptly, turning her gaze to Kagome, pinning her with her chilly brown eyes.

 

“Eager to get your ass kicked, are you?” Kagome shot back snarkily.

 

“Not quite. Are you?” Kikyo asked haughtily, tilting her head to pin Kagome with a supercilious brown eye. All Kagome’s kind thoughts towards her vanished, and she bared her teeth in fury.

 

Kikyo whipped her hand to the side, scooping up her bow, and had an arrow notched before Kagome could blink twice.

Fortunately for Kagome, her fighting style did not rely wholly on evil glares, and her body kick-started into motion at Kikyo’s first movement. As she threw her body sideways, competently keeping her arms tucked in and rolling smoothly to land on her side, she saw the arrow shoot past her to embed itself into a tree, the feathers quivering ominously.

 

Oh, bitch, it’s so on.

 

With a roar, Kagome pulled her knees in and used the momentum to spring up fluidly, grinning as she remembered her teacher’s shouts and her replying curses that made it possible for that kick-ass move to occur.

As she landed, she notched the arrow still in her hand, powered it up and shot it at Kikyo, whipped her hand back and notched another, dashing as her first arrow caught Kikyo in the shoulder.

She paused at Kikyo’s incredulous glare, her hand shaking as she touched the arrow, then ripped it out with a foul curse that had even Inuyasha blushing.

Kagome, arrow still poised to fire, cocked an eyebrow at Kikyo, her lips tilting up into a grin.

 

“Oh yeah. Sensei so prepped me enough to kick your ass comprehensively.” Kagome taunted, inching the arrow’s point up a bit to aim for her non-beating black hole of a heart.

 

Kikyo stared at her, fingers curling and uncurling around the shaft of a new arrow, apparently contemplating her odds.

 

“They aren’t good, your odds.” Kagome clarified, grinning.

 

Not only was Kagome finally in a literal killer mood, but Sango and Miroku were behind her. And Sesshomaru, if he wasn’t too pissed off about the whole mental meltdown, almost vapourising him, giving him perhaps the most deadly tan in history, calling him foul names and generally abusing him...thing.

 

She’d have to give him two cookies in apology.

 

Kikyo nodded once in acknowledgement, before dashing forward, her fist swinging for Kagome’s nose.

 

With an extremely satisfied, somewhat bloodthirsty grin, Kagome dropped her bow, gracefully ducked under Kikyo’s arm, and surged up, her own clenched fist ramming with decided force into Kikyo’s chin.

As Kikyo flew backwards, then dropped like a stone, Kagome rose, and dusted off her knuckles, feeling that, for once, The Powers That Be had had her back. Kikyo smashed into a tree, and collapsed into a crumpled heap, groaning.

 

“I’ve been wanting to do that for years.” She said cheerfully, before scooping up her weaponry and striding towards Kikyo. As she knelt next to the unconscious miko, she touched her hakama gently, plucking the shard out of a pocket hidden inside, and rose. As she sashayed out of the clearing, she could not help but to turn to eye Sesshomaru appreciatively, before shooting him one furtive, saucy wink.

 

At Sesshomaru’s elevated brow, Kagome threw back her head and laughed joyously, riding her adrenaline rush, feeling as though she could conquer the world.

 

 

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Author's Note: Ass-kicking is always fun. Secondly, one of the characters comes to a life-altering decision in this chapter, only they and the other person don't realise it. Next up is Sesshomaru's pointy-view, but after that I'm toying with a flash-forward special chapter. I don't know yet, because I have the proper chapter already sketched and scribbled. I'll see where it goes.