"Playing with Beads"

"It's coming your way, Inuyasha!"

With a small scoff, the white-haired hanyou raised his sword - a mighty silver fang nearly twice the length of his body, tense and prepared. The demon that suddenly erupted from the ground was repugnant, positively repulsive, like some demented cross between a centipede and an eel, covered in foul smelling slime and taller than the houses around it.

However, the half demon's scowl remained relatively unchanged, the creases between his rows deepening if anything, completely unfazed. He wasn't worried about the demon in the slightest. He knew it would pose hardly any issue. After all, if there was one thing in this world he were good at, it was fighting.

That fact was only affirmed the moment he swung the sword, and the disgusting youkai fell the the ground, cut cleanly in half and beginning to dissolve into dust. The hanyou sheathed the impossibly long sword and stepped forward lightly, gazing down his nose at the dissolving beast. His ears twitched after staring for a moment, and he turned to see a young monk in black and purple robes jogging towards him, smiling.

"Nice one, Inuyasha," said the monk as he stopped beside his friend, also looking down at the dead youkai. "Wasn't any trouble, was it?"

"Naw, it was a quick one," said Inuyasha softly, glancing at his dark-haired friend. "I'm surprised the villagers weren't able to take care of it themselves, actually."

"Well, not all of us have magic swords now, do we?" chuckled Miroku, raising an eyebrow. Inuyasha scoffed again. "I'm just surprised that it wasn't disturbed by the villagers when they had tried to seal those other minor demons. Ah, and here comes our employer now."

A group of villagers was running towards the two young men, their feet slapping loudly on the packed earth, their breath uneven. These men were obviously not used to running, Inuyasha noted. One of them, the man that had approached the two for hire in the first place, stepped forward and bowed low to the men. "We thank you for your services," he said in an unctuous tone. "We here at the village are eternally grateful for your good works."

"It was no trouble at all," Miroku said amicably, raising his right hand; a hand that was uncovered and free of any Kazanna, and had been now for over two years. "We had not expected the second youkai, of course, but my friend Inuyasha here had it covered."

"We would be glad to pay you for the death of the demon, of course," said the man, raising his eyebrows and straightening. "If you'd just step inside the hut, we could negotiate a price."

"Of course," smiled the monk. The crowd dispersed, chattering among themselves or looking wonderingly at the dead youkai, by now turned mostly to dust. "Inuyasha, do you want to come inside with us?"

"I'll wait outside," said the hanyou in a bored tone. Miroku nodded and followed their employer inside the hut, disappearing behind the door mat.

Inuyasha almost immediately slumped against the side of the small building with a long sigh, holding Tetsusaiga against his shoulder. The past few days really had been boring, actually. Sure, he and Miroku had traveled a lot in the time, and done several jobs, but for the most part the jobs had been simple exorcisms and such. Things which Inuyasha either didn't need to help with, or couldn't help with.

This in an of itself was a bad thing; Inuyasha was the kind of person who needed to be doing something. After all, he had been "doing" something every day of his short life for the longest time, fighting for his wellbeing or searching for something to make him stronger, until he had met quite the extraordinary young woman, and ended up pinned to a tree for 50 years.

Until Kagome.

There was another bad thing about boring days, aside from restlessness. Fighting youkai kept him busy, kept his mind focused on the task at hand. Being bored meant that Inuyasha could think, and he didn't want to think, because if he did that, he would always run into territories more dangerous than facing youkai. He would run into places in his mind that hurt his heart, his very soul, and he would start to miss her. He would start to miss Kagome all over again. But he couldn't stop himself now.

It wasn't like he could forget her either (as though he wanted to). Their year together, looking back on his short life, had been the best thing to have ever happened to his miserable existence. She in an of herself had been the best thing to ever have happened to his wretched, miserable, unworthy soul. He didn't deserve her, and he knew it, so it was best that she was gone, gone away from his world.

But that didn't stop it from hurting. He missed her. He missed her so bad, that it hurt to breathe whenever he thought about her. That was why it was best for him to be busy. Not to forget that girl, but to avoid that pain that came with her; the memories of their adventures, the scars - both seen and unseen - of their battles, the planning, and the fire lit dinners, and the laughter, and the tears… The mere memory of them pained him as much as any sword could.

"Hey mister, did you kill that thing?"

Inuyasha looked up dazedly, torn away from his dangerous, painful thoughts. Crouching in front of him was a young boy, his freckled face alive with curiosity as he gazed into Inuyasha's own.

"Did I do what now?" asked the hanyou, shifting a little and leaning down to look at the child on a more even level.

"Did you kill that youkai over there?" the little boy repeated, this time pointing at the demon. Only it's bones remained by now, off white and dull.

"Yeah, what's it to you?" the white-haired man answered warily. The child's expression melted into one of amazed respect. It was a little odd to Inuyasha, though perhaps he just wasn't used to respect. Who, after all, respected half demons?

"Nobu said he saw you cut it in half with a huge sword, but I didn't believe him," said the little boy, rocking back onto his heels.

"Keh," Inuyasha scoffed, straightening and leaning back into the wall. He could still hear Miroku's voice as he talked to the sycophantic villager.

"Say, why are ya playing with those beads?"

"Say what?" Inuyasha repeated, looked back down at the boy with a growing scowl. The boy was undaunted by the hanyou's quickly souring expression, however.

"You're playing with the necklace around your neck," he pressed, now pointing at Inuyasha's neck. "What for? Wha'do they do?

Inuyasha looked down in surprise. He hadn't noticed, but for the past few minutes, his fingers had been tugging and twisting absently at the Beads of Subjugation, bringing the smooth things to his lips now and again before clattering back against his chest, to be attacked again by his fingers only moments later.

"I'm not…" Inuyasha's voice trailed off as he slowly let go of one of the magatama that had ended up pinched between his thumb and forefinger. He glanced back at the boy, whose brown eyes were wide with expectation. "They're… My beads. The Beads of Subjugation," he said at last, more confused by the child's curiosity than anything.

"What do they do?"

"Well, uh, when the person who puts the beads on says a word, the beads, uh, stop the person wearing the beads from doing… Stuff." There was no need to go into detail about how he would sometimes end up with his face two feet underground after the beads were used, or how they blasted things could only be removed by the placer, nor how he could never hear the word "osuwari" the same ever again.

"Cool!" No, not cool. "Who put the beads on you? Was it that monk you were with?"

"Who, Miroku?" Inuyasha laughed. "Heck no, kid."

"Well then who was it?"

He looked away. Something heavy seemed to settle itself deep in his chest. "It was a friend of mine. She's… Gone.."

"What happened to her?" the child asked, cocking his head and rocking on his haunches. "Did she die or somethin'? Why haven't you taken off the necklace if she's gone?"

Inuyasha stared long and hard at the boy. He didn't even know this kid's name, but he was so persistent, there really wasn't any way of not answering him without sounding like a jerk, and if that happened, Miroku would end up telling Sango, and Inuyasha did not want to end up pissing off a very pregnant, very capable demon-killing mercenary. "She didn't die," he sputtered at last, deciding to tell the kid outright. "She's just gone. Forever. But she's not dead… I think. I hope."

"But then why-"

"Yasuo!" Both Inuyasha and the boy jumped at the call. The voice belonged to a woman waving to the boy, beckoning for him.

"Sorry, I have to go," said the boy, standing up and straightening his clothes before flashing Inuyasha a huge grin. "Thanks for killing the demon, dog man!"

The boy ran to his mother, leaving a mildly bewildered Inuyasha muttering, "'Dog man'?" under his breath. He watched the boy and his mother disappear, and stayed there for a little while longer. Miroku was still talking to the man inside the hut; the hanyou could hear him laughing a little.

'Why haven't you taken off the necklace if she's gone?' Still staring at the place where the boy had disappeared, Inuyasha's hand reached once again to absently fiddle with the Beads of Subjugation as the child's last question rang in his ears. The obvious answer was simply that Inuyasha couldn't. He hadn't been the one to put on the beads in the first place, and only the person who had placed the beads could remove them. That person had been Kagome, and Kagome, as he had told the child, was gone.

She was gone. She had been gone for over two years. He sighed and slumped a little lower against the wall, closing his eyes. That was the fact of the matter, he knew. Kagome was gone, and it didn't look like she was ever, ever coming back.

And if he could have removed the beads…

His eyes opened once again, not really focused on anything, or at least not on anything real. A thought had struck him, that even if he could have removed the beads, he still wouldn't. These beads, curse them however much he may have in the past, despise them as he might have, hate them to their very core for the physical pain and mental torment that they had caused him, he wouldn't ever take off these beads, now.

He may have been told "osuwari" to the center of the earth, choked in his sleep or on branches by accident, tugged along by them as if they were a dog collar, but these beads were something special now. Despite all the bad memories he might have had with them, there was one overwhelming fact about them that made him more emotionally attached to them than almost anything:

Kagome.

These beads, these gods-forsaken beads, were now the physical proof of his connection to that girl.

He brought one of the small round pieces of stone back up to his lips and closed his eyes. Inside the hut, there were the unmistakable sounds of movement, and Inuyasha smiled.

For one of the first and only times, thinking wasn't as painful as it normally was.

A/N I dunno, just an idea that came to me while I was drawing during US History class. I don't really see any stories about what happens during the three years difference, though I've definitely seen stories where Inu boi has a special connection with the Beads of Subjugation because they're connected to Kagome (sorry I didn't come up with anything more original. I tried to justify and reason why exactly Inuyasha is so fond of the beads, but I don't think I did too well, heheheh).

So yeah, enjoy this lil one-shot, I guess. I dunno, you don't have to , I suppose, hahah...

Have fun don't die love yourself okei byeeeeee