Priestess Alchemist

Chapter 14-Her Father Skill's

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If the surface of the world would so kindly have opened up and made Kagome's problems disappear it would've been a blessing in disguise. Sadly it didn't. As she and Inuyasha stared back at one another he took a step forward. "Kagome?" Pure confusion was on his face and then a happy glow took over. She didn't seem like Envy, no smell at all of decay or death. Her eyes weren't empty. "Is it really you?"

She inched a step back and Edward's gloved hand touched her shoulder protectively. The fact that Kagome hadn't opened her mouth at all was testament to how frightened she was. She hoped this was a ghost, a spectator from her own thoughts, but she could feel his aura beat like a pulse. Inuyasha was very much alive. A small part of her wept happily inside that he was alive, but the other feared something awful after the tales from Shippo. "Listen bastard, what do you want with Kagome?"

Inuyasha instantly stilled when their scent hit his nose. "You aren't real," he growled out accusingly. She had to be a puppet! There was no way she'd betray him. Not his Kagome! "Just another trick. You're some puppeted whore!" He rushed her and Kagome threw herself in front of Edward, her arms stretched out just as Inuyasha grabbed hold of her shoulders. His claws, she could feel them. They were no longer hidden but digging sharp into her skin.

"Get away from Kagome!" Edward raised his metal arm, transforming it into a sword, and dove for Inuyasha who brushed the sword with his bare knuckles denting it. When Al came for him Inuyasha swatted him away like a fly. Kagome shrieked. Sota quickly gave a thump to the ground with his jangling staff and raised a barrier up that sent Inuyasha flying backwards into a tray of flowers that toppled over and shattered beneath the impact.

Fear was evident in her eyes. Even as he tasted the blood on his elongated fangs he tried to tell himself that this wasn't her. Just a mere copy. But copies didn't bleed. This Kagome though, this blood, tasted stronger than the Kagome he'd known. The blood was awash with power. "Kagome would never hurt me," he snarled.

Faster than any human could move Inuyasha left, vanishing out the door at lightning speed. Kagome slumped against Edward. "Who was that Kagome?"

She wasn't going to spare a lie when the truth had stared her in the face. Relationships fell under a foundation of lies and Inuyasha's presence made her mind reel with questions that needed answering. Ed was just the person she needed to help her solve them."That was Inuyasha." Her whole body was shaking and Edward's face snapped up to where that phantom had been. Kagome's former love.

"Inuyasha went crazy." "...Something called homunculi." "...swore he found some woman named Dante..." Shippo's words were evoked in her mind.

Insanity had driven him and she knew someone else was in control now. Those eyes she'd stared at hadn't been Inuyasha's, they were lost in their own world and he could only be guided here by someone's hand with such little sanity left. Kagome spun around in Ed's arms and gripped onto him. There was more behind Inuyasha being there than let on. "We have to leave!" She dragged Ed towards their speechless siblings. "Sota, Al, stay with us. We can't separate." Divided a group would fail, that had been proven many times with her group in the Feudal Era. Kagome was thinking as her feet pattered on the tiled floor. She didn't want to deal with this. Inuyasha's fickleness was a testament to his character. Even if he didn't believe in her now he would believe it was her eventually. He was, if anything, a wavering bonehead. Edward yanked on Kagome's arm bringing her square with his chest.

His eyes shone down on her like warm liquid gold. "Kagome, why do we have to leave?"

Fire met fire with their eyes. "Because when he finds out that I'm not a figment of his imagination he will hunt me down. Ed, why would Inuyasha be here of all places? He isn't smart so he sure as hell isn't alone." It wasn't a coincidence. Someone wanted to hurt or confuse them. Their brains were in tuned and he could clearly see all the variables in her mind as if they'd been thought by himself.