Inuyasha couldn't open his eyes when he regained consciousness to see the cause of the crashes and thuds around him, but his heart hadn't been ripped from his chest and he he still had a chest - both positives despite his feeling too weak to move at the moment.

After all, what felt like an entire herd of lighting-rod wielding pachyderms trampled on his chest when Kagome's light hit him. For someone who claimed to be an inept priestess she packed one hell of a punch.

He knew she was nearby from her scent. Another particularly loud crack sounded above him and he heard Kagome inhale sharply.

Inuyasha propped himself up into a seated position, forcing his eyes open.

She was sitting with her legs folded under her and hands raised above her head as if she as holding up some heavy, invisible boulder. He watched a large limb drop from the sky, hit an unseen shield and slide to the ground. She'd made a barrier around them then.

"Inuyasha! Are you okay? I'm so sorry. I don't know what happened. How do you feel?"

In her relief some of her concentration slipped because a spray of dirt showered from the uprooted trunk of a tree the ogre swung at the barrier like a two-handed broadsword.

"Dang, I thought you got him," he groused.

The demon roared and paced around them. She did some damage at least. He was missing an arm.

Kagome shook her head, gritting her teeth. "Are you sure you're fine?"

"Yes. No thanks to you." As if the intense agony he'd underwent was nothing but a dream, he was surprised to find himself feeling normal again.

"I know," she agreed, her shoulders sagging.

He was caught off guard by her somber acquiescence instead of the fiery defense he expected to receive.

He noticed her wince as another tree limb made impact against her barrier. She looked exhausted.

"How long have you been doing this?"

"I don't know," she admitted.

"You won't last forever!" demanded the one-armed demon. "You will pay for mutilating my body, priestess. I'll rip your limbs off one by one!"

Kagome had never been more frustrated in her life. Instinct and luck was all she had going for her in this fight. Her powers were reacting to the situation, nothing more. She'd almost killed Inuyasha and had only incensed the demon into a rage.

Inuyasha walked to the edge of the small dome she'd erected and reached out his hand tentatively, expecting the barrier to burn, but his fingers passed through without rejection.

"Where are you going?"

"Stay here. I'll make this quick."

He dashed out from the barrier before she could get in a response.

The ogre was weakened, his injury a lot worse off than Inuyasha's own, but his skin was still like armor, his claws doing the same lack of damage as before. There had to be a weak spot.

"What happened?" taunted Inuyasha. "Run out of fire power?"

The ogre roared, forgoing language as he shot flame from his mouth instead. Inuyasha hadn't been ready for that one, and it would have hit him full force had a pink light not deflected the attack like a second skin surrounding him.

No, not deflect - absorb. He felt stronger. He glanced in Kagome's direction, wondering what she'd done to him, but what mattered more in the moment was using it to his advantage.

He weaved through the trees faster than before, ducking the debris hurtled in his direction as he circled the demon so quickly that the ogre couldn't keep up with his location. The demon was between him and Kagome when she passed out and her barrier dissolved around her, making her visible to the demon who instantly lost interest in playing chase with Inuyasha.

The demon lumbered toward the vulnerable priestess and Inuyasha dashed forward, jumping along the trees and the leaping through the air. On his descent he instinctively slashed at the back of the demon's neck.

He skid against the leaves, spinning about to face his opponent just in case he hadn't cut deeply enough, but the demon fell forward on his stomach and didn't move.

He went to check on Kagome, kneeling down and reaching out to shake her awake, but he froze in disgust at the sight of his blood-covered hand. He wiped it on his tattered and burned shirt but it wasn't enough. He reeked of blood and death and he couldn't stand it.

The sudden strength he'd gotten mid-fight had left him as well.

"Master Inuyasha! What were you thinking?"

"Myoga?" His expression darkened. "Have you been hiding nearby the entire time?"

The flea blew past the accusation.

"What are you thinking? You exposed your identity to this priestess! Oh, why are you so reckless?"

"She already knew. Cause this shitty bracelet doesn't work on her," fired back Inuyasha. "Just who did you get this from again?"

"She knows you're a wanted demon? But Lord Inuyasha, what if she turns you over to the Shikon Council?"

Inuyasha wanted to squash him like a grape right then and there, but Kagome was still out of it.

"Maybe say it a little louder, Myoga. Kagome's doesn't know about … that. Just that I'm half-demon. I've got it under control."

"No you don't! This isn't the first time you've removed your bracelet in front of humans! The eye witness description in the police report - that silver hair of yours is very distinct. I've come to warn you that they're sending hunters to the area. And," he hesitated and Inuyasha wondered what was worse than delivering the blow that he would have to uproot his life. Again.

"King Onigumo is dead. Sesshomaru has won the Shikon Council vote but Naraku refuses to vacate the castle. I really think, Master Inuyasha, that the safest place for you - everything considered - is back at Lord Sesshomaru's manor."

He glanced down at Kagome.

"I'll leave." Myoga's face lit up in delight. "Not to that asshole's place though." Myoga's expression crushed in despair.

"I suppose that's acceptable for the time being. Right. Let us venture back to your room for your bags and leave upon the hour."

"I was thinking tomorrow. Besides, I've got to get her back to campus. Can't just leave her in the middle of the woods."

"But the hunters!" cried Myoga.

"Do you hear that? Shut up." His sharp tone zipped Myoga's lips.

As the sound of snapping twigs and crunching leaves got closer, he shoved the bracelet over his wrist and scooped Kagome up in his arms. With his demonic strength all but nullified and the wounds on his shoulder, it was more difficult that he wanted to admit to carry her. He concealed them with his back against a large tree several feet away. It wasn't as far as he wanted, but moving now would give away their position. He strained to listen to their conversation.

"Why did you leave the jar out here in the first place?"

"I - I didn't want it to get loose in my dorm."

"Your cowardice is quite the disappointment. And your seal wasn't strong enough either."

There was subdued silence before the young man spoke again.

"What do you think killed it?"

"Another demon, obviously. Look at the neck."

"I'd rather not."

The older man's sigh carried disappointment. Inuyasha strained to follow their movements lest they venture out his way. He peeked around the tree to see them scavenging the ogre demon's corpse, pulling a tooth here and taking a blood sample there. Disgusting. He turned back around.

"What about the body?"

Inuyasha heard the flick of a lighter and the whoosh of a flame's inception. The acrid scent of burning flesh met his nostrils and he was thankful the bracelet dulled his sense of smell.

This campus was getting too crowded. Hunters were on the way and now the scavengers in the woods, people who liked to study demons and conduct barbaric experiments in the name of science. They weren't sanctioned by the Shikon Council, that was for sure. He'd done his research when picking a small, rural college with the lowest ratio of demons to humans. The council didn't keep an eye on small towns as much as big cities, which were overcrowded nests for demonic roosting.

Seemed all of his preparation and planning was for naught. Nothing ever went the way he wanted it.

When he was certain the men had left, he continued through the woods until Kagome woke up in his arms, flailed in surprise and caused them both to topple to the ground. Inuyasha sucked in a breath through clenched teeth from how it jarred his shoulder, the pain already exacerbated from holding her.

"About time you woke up," he snorted, rising to his feet.

"The demon. You beat him!"

"Don't sound so surprised."

"I'm not. I'm just … relieved you're okay."

"Well, I can't take all the credit. Your protective spell helped. A little."

She served a blank stare at the admission. "Glad it … worked."

"I knew it was an accident!" He felt his anger rising. She could just as easily have purified him!

"An accident that you just admitted helped." She reiterated shamelessly.

"If you keep being a half-assed priestess, you're going to be a dead human. I won't be around to babysit you all the time!"

"Wow," she snorted. Stiff posture, glinting eyes and sharp tone had the hair on the back of Inuyasha's neck standing straight up. "Sorry I've been nothing but a burden for you, jerk!"

He didn't understand why she was overreacting. As far as he could tell, she was reckless and wasn't phased by dangerous situations, a combination he found both impressive and exhausting so far. He just wanted to make her stop and think that she wasn't invincible. She was a human who could barely cast a spell or barrier and had no inkling of formal training or how the supernatural world worked.

"Listen here! You're putting words in my mouth! I just don't want you to die for some stupid reason if I'm not there to protect you!"

Kagome's retort died on her tongue. Was he just worried about her?

They were nearing the edge of campus but Kagome stopped them before they left the cover of the woods.

"You can't walk across campus like that. You look like you just wrestled a bear. My dorm is really close. I can get you clean shirt."

He looked down. It was ripped and burned and bloody.

"My hair will cover most of it." He positioned his long locks over his injured shoulder.

She gave him a no nonsense stare. "Don't be silly. I'll be right back."

He waited until she was out of sight so she wouldn't yell at him before walking away.

"Aren't you going to say goodbye? Isn't she your friend?"

Inuyasha rubbed the center of his chest absently as he walked, ignoring the question.

"I see. Any connection to you will put her in danger now," mused Myoga. "Which is why you agreed to leave so readily, isn't it?"

"No way. That's not it at all!"

Myoga said nothing to such a stout rejection.

The pressure in Inuyasha's chest kept building, a hand around his heart squeezing tighter and tighter. He stopped walking for a moment, hoping that would solve the problem, but the pain kept intensifying.

Are you quite alright, Master Inuyasha?"

"Do I look alright?" Something was wrong. This wasn't from the protection spell. Couldn't be.

It was hard to breathe now. The first zaps of electrical current began to chart their gymnastic routine through his rib cage, sparking in warning of the worst yet to come. He did not want to have an encore performance of Kagome's initial spell.

He saw Kagome approaching him from a distance and knew she was annoyed from her purposeful march.

With every step she took toward him, the pain in his chest lessened in tandem with her approach. He didn't like what that meant. It didn't make sense what that meant.

"Seriously, Inuyasha? You couldn't wait five minutes? I suppose you don't want the shirt now but there's some disinfectant and gauze in here. I'll come back to your dorm and help you dress it." She held up a small bag she'd brought with her.

Inuyasha took off at a run, leaving her standing there in utter confusion at his sudden departure. She watched his speedy gait slow to a loping stumble and then he just dropped to the ground.

Students stopped around him, drawing a crowd. Kagome hurried forward to check on him.

Before she made it to his side, he was up on his feet, healthy as a horse and charging at her like a bull. He hooked her by the elbow and steered her down the sidewalk, yelling at the concerned students to mind their own business.

Kagome jerked free of his hold and dug her heels in where she stood.

"You gonna tell me what's happening?"

"You! You happened! You have no idea what you've done. On so many levels."

"Inuyasha, I don't -"

"You cursed me!"

"Eh?"

"C'mon," he demanded brusquely, marching toward the next dorm along the sidewalk. Kagome clutched the bag handle tightly in her hands, wondering just what kind of mess she'd made now.

"I am Myoga. I served Master Inuyasha's late father, a legendary War Lord the likes of which no one can compare. The world lost a truly powerful demon when he passed. On his death bed he requested I look after his second son, and I proudly accepted the honor," he concluded with the slightest annoyed look at Inuyasha.

"Second son? You have a brother?"

"Can we get back to the issue here? Cursed, remember?" Inuyasha pointed vehemently to his face, pausing in his impatient pacing around the room.

"Right, and why do you think you're cursed? I mean, you did get knocked around by that ogre."

"Because if I go too far away from you, it hurts."

"That sounds ..."

"Don't give me that crazy look. You did this!"

Myoga cleared his throat.

"I have a theory. If I may … Miss Kagome, I don't pretend to understand spiritual powers, but I've learned a few things over my many years. Will you humor an old man?"

Myoga hopped over to Kagome's arm, pulled out a tiny blade and cut her with it. She was more surprised by the paper cut sting than anything and smacked him flat against her arm.

"Did Totosai make you a toothpick?" Inuyasha had never seen the flea use a weapon in his life.

Kagome scowled at the teeny flea demon as he picked himself up off the floor.

"As I suspected. It's the Oath of the Warrior."

"Am I missing something here? What did that prove?" Inuyasha's skeptical expression shifted to Kagome when she sucked in a sharp breath.

Her gaze moved from her arm to her knees to Myoga and finally to Inuyasha, who was scratching at his arm. The same spot that Kagome had been slashed. When he stopped, she saw a cut the same length and the position as the one she no longer had.

"Uh, Inuyasha …" Kagome swallowed, her throat dry. She'd scraped her hands and knees running from the fire demon, but now that she had the mind to check, her skin was unmarked in all areas.

She suspected his leg and arms had additional abrasions that also used to be her own. Compared to his shoulder and knuckles, he probably hadn't noticed such minor injuries cropping up without reason.

"How is that possible?" She spoke directly to Myoga instead, Inuyasha still not realizing that among his many scrapes and bruises, the one on his arm was freshly administered.

"It's a spell that provides strength in return for protection. Though it fell out of practice ages ago, it used to be the highest honor bestowed on a warrior."

"An honor to get spiritually tazed for walking a couple yards away? No way. They were forced into it like me."

"Ah, for the Warrior's Oath to be successful, both parties must consent. You would have accepted the bargain," corrected Myoga cautiously.

Inuyasha choked on air. "The hell I did!"

"I'm no expert on this ancient spell, but I see it as such: Kagome must have feared for your lives, and you must have had strong feelings to protect her. Those strong feelings were the agreement."

"Strong feelings is a little much," he grumbled in embarrassment as Kagome blushed.

"The truth stands. If either of you had faltered in your intentions, neither of you would have survived the spell."

"What did they do if a warrior wanted to resign? Or, you know, go somewhere on his own?" Inuyasha waited expectantly for Myoga's response.

The flea remained painfully silent.

"Myoga?" prompted Inuyasha through clenched teeth, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Don't you dare say it."

"It's just that warriors never took the oath without lengthy consideration. I'm sure it's not that it can't be broken, it's just that I-don't-think-it-can-be-broken."

Myoga dashed around the room as Inuyasha pursued. "Come here you little - you watched the whole thing unfold in the woods and didn't do anything about it! I bet you even saw those creeps drop the jar off."

Kagome tried to stop him running around with his wounds still untreated. She tripped over something on the floor, fell into the closet door and busted her lip.

Inuyasha forgot all about squashing Myoga. She touched her fingers to her bottom lip as she got to her feet, bringing them away smeared in red.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," she breathed, patting her sore nose. Not broken, thankfully.

As he looked at her, the wound disappeared right before his eyes as if time was reversing.

"Kagome, how -"

Then his own lip began to throb and he tasted iron and Kagome was looking at him with the most guilty, apologetic look she could give.

He checked the mirror and saw his lip was busted where hers had been.

Kagome and Myoga watched the realization form like a storm cloud over already-choppy waters.

"This just gets better and better."

I hAvE wRiTtEn FiVe DiFfErEnT cHaPtEr FiVeS aT tHiS pOinT andijustblaahhhh so it is with great pleasure that I hit publish on this amalgamation of my blood, sweat, premature grey-hair, quarantine-crazy, delayed, this list isn't parallel but figures since its in my a/n for chapter effin five and i hate myself and there was no reason this chapter should have been such a road block disaster***gasps for air*** Everything's fine :) :)

For such a struggle bus, I feel like not too much happened in this chapter but it was necessary to introduce/emphasize some elements and establish the spell Kagome accidentally cast that forces Inuyasha to stay nearby so that fun times can ensue between this lovely pair of stubborn people now that they're stuck with each other

MeTheAnimeLover7: Thanks for reading! I'm glad you like my writing :) I'm trying not to make this story be anything too serious and I loved the comedic moments in the anime.

Guest: No, you're incredible! For reviewing!

I hope all of you are doing well and staying safe in this difficult time and not letting the chapter fives in your lives win either, whatever they may be.

See You Next Chapter,

RadiantSun