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((LEGAL STUFF: Inuyasha and Co. are property of the sole ownership of the wise, witty, and wonderful Rumiko Takahashi! I am not making any profit whatsoever except my own enjoyment in writing this. I do not own nor claim any rights to her characters and concepts. However, the original characters in this story belong to me, so please do not copy them or use them without my express permission.))

Chapter 2: Tunnel Trap

Inuyasha awoke with a splitting headache and someone dabbing at his forehead with a cloth. For one muggy moment he was a little child again, with his mother comforting him after some much older village kids had beaten the crap out of him while calling him a demon's bastard and making fun of his ears. What had hurt most about that memory was not the injuries, but the fact that those boys were right--at least, that's what he'd thought when he was still little and living with his mother. He was an illegitimate half-breed, and his ears were weird. "Mom..." he mumbled incoherently.

"No, it's me," said a familiar female voice, gently. "You're finally awake."

"Kagome...?" Inuyasha squintingly opened his eyes, and for a moment even the dim light of the tunnel-moss was painfully bright. "Ugh...what happened?"

"You brought the house down," Kagome said, half-laughing and half-angry. "And that fell on you."

He followed her gesture to the great slab of stone that rested at his feet, its near end barely propped against the wall with just enough space beneath for them to have had refuge. "Gah...no wonder..."

"If you hadn't pushed us to the wall...it might've been worse." She pointed to the Tetsusaiga, whose rusted blade was pressed flat beneath the massive rock--where they had both stood moments before it had fallen.

Painfully, Inuyasha sat up, mindful of anything that might be broken. Thankfully, nothing was; he just had bruises everywhere and lots of scrapes. Kagome didn't look much better, with her bloody shoulder and the nasty scrape on her chin. She probably had more bruises than him, with her soft mortal flesh. He dragged himself up against the wall and leaned back on it with a half-muffled groan, feeling miserably sore all over. The tunnel back to the rats' cavern was blocked, filled with a logjam of boulders and stones. Unfortunately, the tunnel ahead was collapsed as well, leaving them a living space about ten feet long and five feet wide. Hopefully their air wouldn't run out too soon.

Kagome pulled herself over next to him, keeping a comfortable distance. For a long time she was silent, and the only sounds were her breath and heartbeat in the dimness. "So," she finally said. "Why didn't you tell me you're scared of rats?"

Inuyasha sat straight up off the tunnel wall, indignant. "I am not afraid of rats!"

"Uh-huh." Kagome looked skeptical as well as faintly angry. "You were upset the moment we entered this mountain, and you've been a nervous wreck ever since you heard the rats. And I noticed you almost had a meltdown when you saw them."

Inuyasha's cheeks burned, and he looked down. "I'm not scared of rats," he asserted.

Kagome frowned at him. Then, suddenly, her eyes widened and she stared at something beyond him. "Look out--it's a big rat!" she gasped.

"Yip!" Inuyasha shot off the floor and was on the other side of the tunnel space before he registered the fact that Kagome was laughing at him. Laughing so hard tears flowed down her cheeks as she clutched her stomach.

"That's not funny!" he shouted, embarassed and indignant. It wasn't fair for her to do that to him!

Kagome sat up straight and wiped her eyes, still chuckling. "I'm sorry--that wasn't nice. But...you should have seen...your face--and that yelp you made..." She fell into giggles again. "I wonder if this'll work like you know what word. I'll say that word to stop you and 'rat' to make you go faster."

"It's not funny!" he gritted out, hands clenched at his sides. "You'd never let me pick on someone else's weakness, would you?"

Kagome sobered, sitting back against the wall. "I'm sorry. You're right, it wasn't good of me to make fun of you. But at least that proves it."

"Proves what?" Inuyasha sat back down with a grumble. "You don't have anything to prove."

"You are afraid of rats." Kagome sighed, looking thoughtful. "It is odd, though. I'd always heard that dogs chase rats like cats chase mice."

"I'm not a dog," Inuyasha growled, staring at his fists clenched in his lap. "You don't understand anything. I'm a--" He stopped, gritted his teeth, and took a deep breath. "I'm...afraid of rats...for a reason." That admission looked like it hurt more than the rock had.

"Why?" Kagome asked softly.

Inuyasha never looked at her, just at the clawed hands fisted in his lap. When he began, his voice was quiet and full of anger and pain. "It was a long time ago. Right after my mother died. I was five or so. Just a little whelp. My brother..." He paused, as if hesitating to honor the older son of the Western Lord with that particular title. "Sesshomaru. He...he...beat me and threw me into a pit. It was full of water...and rats. A lot of 'em. Some of 'em were drowned and some were swimming, and they climbed on me...on my head..." He shuddered, his ears lowering sideways. "I was there for hours, swimming and hanging on to the rocks and smacking rats. They were hungry...they bit me and chewed on me. My ears were..." Said ears flattened in memory. "You don't want to know. I finally got desperate enough and climbed out. And that took a long time, too. I had rat bites everywhere...especially my shoulders, head, and face..."

Kagome stared, mouth open, in profound sympathy. Oh, Inuyasha, what a horrible experience for a child!

"Thank God demons don't scar," he said softly after a moment, "or I'd be a walking freak show. I dragged myself away into the woods like a dying dog..." He snarled silently at his own thoughtless words and at the pain of the memory. His voice grew stronger with anger. "I spent days naked and starving in the forest, swollen and fevered with disease and infection from the rats. I was blind, and my hands were so bitten and torn from climbing I couldn't use them. I couldn't even walk. All I could remember was it was all Sesshomaru's fault, and I hated him. I'd never met him before then--only seen him once from a distance--but ever since that moment, I've hated him."

Oh, Inuyasha... Kagome could say nothing for a long time. She'd thought his indignation about Sesshomaru treating him "like dirt" stemmed from being kicked out of his father's household or something along those lines. She'd never suspected that Sesshomaru might actually have made a habit of torturing and tormenting him in his younger days. But then, why not? She'd seen the cold amusement on the older dog-demon's face as he held Inuyasha by the throat and coolly ripped out his left eye to reach the hidden Black Pearl that held their father's tomb. Sesshomaru had enjoyed the pain that Inuyasha suffered.

She'd just been given another tiny window into the soul of her companion.

"So now you know," Inuyasha said sullenly. "Go ahead'n laugh."

"There's nothing funny about it," Kagome retorted quietly. "I promise I won't tease you any more. I should've asked you first before I made fun of you. I'm sorry."

Inuyasha snorted and turned away, but it was mostly to hide the intense relief on his face. "Then you won't say anything about this to the others?"

"I won't," Kagome whispered. "Not unless lives depend on it."

"Fine."

They sat in the silent darkness for a long time, just listening to each other breathe.

"It's awful dark down here," Shippo whimpered softly, clinging to Sango's hair.

"What are you afraid of?" Sango asked, a bit short-tempered. "The others obviously made it beyond this point just fine."

"I just hope they aren't dead or buried in a rockslide," Miroku murmured, watching the light of the flashlight dance across the rocky walls.

"The way Inuyasha travels, I don't know how far ahead they are." Sango took a moment to inspect the footprints in the dust on the ground. "He's going on all fours here, carrying Kagome by the look of it. He moves fast that way."

Miroku swallowed. "It could take us a long time to find them."

Sango nodded grimly, and they continued to descend.

"Grrrrmph!"

"Inuyasha, don't hurt yourself."

"Shut up! If I could just get the Fang out...rrrrrrr--ah!" Inuyasha's hands slipped off the sword's grip and he flew over backwards, landing hard on his rump against the other side of the cave-in. "Ow...dammit!"

Kagome leaned back against the wall, looking pale. "Just give it a rest for a while, would you? You're wasting air."

In the dragging amount of time that had passed--roughly an hour, Kagome guessed--the moss had steadily grown dimmer, probably from a lack of oxygen. She was starting to feel hot and tired, as well as afraid. She hadn't told Inuyasha about her own fears, despite his honest confession. She was claustrophobic--not bad, but in a situation like this her fear would grow steadily worse, and she could feel it now. Any minute, the tunnel was going to cave in on her. She just knew it.

"What are you staring at?"

"Hn? Oh--nothing..." Kagome averted her wide-eyed stare from her companion's direction.

"Something wrong?"

"No."

Despite her answer, Kagome was surprised to see him come to a crouch before her, staring into her eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked suddenly, his voice oddly soft.

"Of course I'm okay! What makes you think I'm not okay? I'm perfectly fine!"

"Hmmm?" Inuyasha cocked an eyebrow and leaned forward, almost nose-to-nose. Kagome gulped and leaned back a little further. "You're scared, aren't you?"

"Scared? Me? Of what?" Kagome half-whispered. "Don't be stupid. There's nothing to be afraid of in here."

"Then don't let fear of enclosed places get the better of you," Inuyasha said directly, sitting back on his haunches. "You have to stay sane, y'know. So we can get out."

"Wha--who--how--did you know I'm...I'm claustrophobic?"

"You're clu--clas--clutz...you're what?" Inuyasha looked perplexed by the complex word.

"Claustrophobic," Kagome giggled, fear forgotten for a moment at the way he tried to fit the unfamiliar word to his tongue. "It means the same as what you said; the fear of enclosed spaces. Yes...I am a little."

"Ah." He got up and went back to the trapped sword, poking about and looking for a way to lever it out.

"How did you know?"

He glanced at her, then shrugged. "Kikyo...once said she was. You looked pale so...I guessed."

Kagome turned away. "Hmph. Nice to know we have something in common."

Inuyasha didn't look at her for a long time.

"There's no other scent-trails," Shippo reported, hopping to Sango's shoulder again. "They definitely went down there."

"But how? The walls are so steep...they couldn't have climbed it. Couldn't Inuyasha have leaped over it?" Sango shone the flashlight over to the othe side of the dark chasm that blocked the path of the tunnel leading deeper into the mountain.

"He might have; it's an easy distance for him, even carrying Kagome," Miroku observed. "But Shippo says there's no trace of them over there."

"Maybe he flew down," Shippo suggested.

Sango nodded. "In any case, if that's where they went, we've got to go, too. Shippo, do you think you can get us down safely with your magic?"

"Check--no problem!" Shippo rooted about in his clothing and produced a broad leaf. "It's an old kitsune trick. We'll float down on this!"

"Will it hold us?" Miroku asked.

"Well...it worked for Lady Kaede, and I guess I can make it bigger..."

"In other words, you don't know," Sango said, rolling her eyes. "Oh, well...now's as good a time as any to die splattered on a cave floor somewhere down there. Okay, fellas, let's go."

"It'll work!" Shippo asserted, earning glares from his companions. "It'll really work!"

"Just do it, Shippo," Miroku ordered.

Shippo concentrated, and there was the glitter and flare of kitsune magic.

Inuyasha's ears pricked at the sound of rock on rock, as though somewhere in the piles of rubble that trapped them, something was moving around. Growling quietly deep in his throat, he glanced at where Kagome sat dozing in the corner and stepped close to the cave-in side the sound came from.

The sounds were steady and even, like...scratching? But it was massive scratching, as if something very large and very determined were trying to dig its way in. A sudden jolt of concern hit Inuyasha when he realized he couldn't sense whatever it was over there, whether demon or mortal creature. A touch of fear rose up within when his already stressed mind tossed him images of a giant, slavering monster rat digging its way in to them to devour them horribly.

Get a grip, idiot, he scolded himself with a low snarl. He went to crouch protectively beside Kagome, golden eyes glistening in the dimness as he focused on the caved-in wall from which the noises emerged. Over time, they grew steadily closer.

Half an hour later, the noises suddenly stopped.

"Yeeeeech!" Shippo complained loudly. "It reeks in here!"

Sango held her nose as well. "No kidding," she mumbled, patting Shippo's side. Currently, the little kitsune was in a variation of his "giant pink bubble-monster" form, this one flattened like a raft, his four spindly limbs paddling furiously for shore, carrying his friends through the cold black cave-water they'd very nearly had a splashdown in.

"What kind of stink is it?" asked Miroku curiously. "It reeks of the dead."

"Smells like a bunch of rats," Shippo insisted, pulling himself out halfway on the bank. "Thank you for choosing Kitsune Cruise Lines! Everybody off!"

"Where did you pick up a phrase like that?" Sango asked as she and Miroku disembarked.

Shippo, returned to his normal form, shrugged. "Heard something like it from Kagome, I guess." The kitsune wrinkled his nose. "Yuck. Rats, if ever I smelled 'em. Yup, the floor's covered in rat poop. Ick...and I've got bare feet."

"Yes, it's disgusting," Miroku concurred. "But for this much stench to be present...where are all the rats?"

"Good question," Sango said, realizing he was right. Where were all the thousands of rats necessary to generate this much stink--and rodent waste?

"Guys?" Shippo quavered, having trotted up the bank a ways. "Shine the light over here. I think I found some of the rats..."

Sango turned the flashlight in the direction of Shippo. The kitsune stood beside one of several piles of rat bodies. There were hundreds of them, all lying haphazardly strewn about on the shore, in piles of various sizes. They were all dead, all of them mutilated to some degree as though some giant creature had mowed through them, slashing and crushing.

"This must be one of the leaders, this demon-rat," Miroku said, waving them over to one oversized corpse, this one a fearsome mutant rat the size of a large dog. "I can sense some residual demonic power left in the body. I wonder what killed it?"

"It must have been Inuyasha," Sango said.

"I don't think so," Shippo said softly. "If he had, his scent would be all over the cavern, as well as the leftovers of his energy, like this demon-rat. But I can't smell him, except on his trail. And besides...look--this thing was crushed to death. Inuyasha may be a big dumb idiot, but he's not that big."

"You're right!" Sango realized. "This could be trouble. Whatever killed these rats may be after Kagome and Inuyasha!"

"Let's move!" Miroku ordered. "Shippo, find the trail."

"Gotcha!" The kitsune went to work immediately.

Kagome was pacing back and forth along the length of their stony prison. What's more, she was wringing her hands as she did it, looking more and more nervous as time progressed. She had awakened from her doze nervous, and continued to grow worse as conditions didn't improve. The steady, even beat of her footsteps in the stuffy silence was slowly driving Inuyasha insane.

"Dammit, girl," he finally growled. "Can't you sit still for just a minute?"

Kagome slowed, looked at him, and resumed pacing--this time in a circle. "I'm sorry. I'm just nervous, I guess." Her voice shook oddly, and he noticed the trace of disguised desperation in her tone.

"About what? Maybe the moss will grow off the walls and eat us?" Inuyasha snorted.

"Don't say that!" Kagome snapped, whirling on him suddenly. "That happens to dead people! The moss grows on them..." She wrung her hands and resumed pacing.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and rolled over onto his back, staring at the rocky ceiling of their prison. "Don't talk stupid, Kagome. We're not going to die."

"Yes we are." Kagome had stopped her pacing and was just standing there, staring at the cave-in that led back to the rats. "We're going to die here. The air will run out, or the walls will fall down, or we'll just starve...and we'll die."

Inuyasha rolled up and looked at her, his expression concerned and intense. Is she going mad...?

"We'll die...buried alive...so far beneath..."

"Kagome...?"

Her piercing scream scared him, jolting him to his feet as she slammed herself against the cave-in and beat on it with her small fists. She was crying suddenly, sobbing loudly as she bloodied her fists against the stone.

Inuyasha almost automatically leaped to her, taking her wrists and pulling her away, trying to hold her so she wouldn't injure herself further. "Kagome, snap out of it! Get a grip!"

"Let go! Let go! I want out!" she cried. "Let me go! Sit!"

Inuyasha thumped roughly to the ground, jarring his cheekbone and chest painfully against the rocks, remembering at the last moment to release her so he wouldn't drag her down with him. As she ran for the other side of the enclosure, he spent a few moments dragging air into his bruised chest. Ouch! Oh, dammit...she's nuts... Ow...

Kagome flung herself again at the pile of stones, bruising and scraping her fingers even worse in her terrified need to get out. Her previous injury began to bleed again, and the smell of her blood and panic filled him with a sense of desperation. He had to get to her.

"Kagome, stop it!" Inuyasha dragged himself to his feet, wincing. He was at her side again, pulling her away, but this time she fought him, attempting to go back and pull the boulders out of her way.

"Lemme go! We've got to get out of here! We'll die in here! The rats will come and the tunnel will fall and we'll die in here!" She was sobbing uncontrollably.

She's gone completely crazy! Inuyasha realized with a sudden pang of fear in his gut. Kagome's claustrophobia had grown in her, in the hours here, and had reached a breaking point. She wanted air and sunlight in a place where they were impossible to obtain, so she was breaking down.

Inuyasha gripped her tightly, feeling quite desperate and not knowing what to do, but she suddenly turned on him, clawing and kicking. When she kicked him hard in the shins and scored another good hit in his already sore ribs, he grew angry, gripping her wrists. "Stop it, wench! Snap out of it!"

She flung her weight backwards, throwing herself around, almost dislodging herself, but he pulled her closer. Trying to restrain her, he bore her down, struggling, to the ground. She wriggled and cried out beneath him, her arms pinned out above her head by his inexhorable grip. She wouldn't stop struggling; she wouldn't stop crying and screaming. It grated on him, it frightened him, it angered him, it worried him; she wasn't listening to him and she wasn't acting like herself. He grappled with her, finding it amazingly difficult to keep her pinned. Strange emotions welled up in him, things he didn't understand. She was going mad and she wouldn't listen to him! He had to make her stop!

Without thinking, without knowing why, he bit her on the nose.

The shock of his teeth closing on the bridge of her nose snapped Kagome out of her hysteria, and she went silent in a second. It didn't hurt; he didn't use his fangs. The grip was firm, not breaking the skin, but enough pressure to warn. Not quite painful, but unexpected and certainly upsetting. Blue eyes wide, she uttered a frightened squeak, frozen to the spot.

The tableau lasted for less than three seconds. Inuyasha's eyes snapped wide; he released her almost immediately and leaped away from her, shocked at his own behavior, embarrassed and ashamed. What on Earth had gotten into him, and... And why the hell did I just do that? I just bit Kagome! What's wrong with me, dammit?

Kagome sat up slowly, shaking all over, tear-streaks glistening on her face, staring at him as he blushed and cringed back against the wall, expecting the worst sits of his entire existence. He had bitten her like a common animal!

"I'm sorry I'm sorry it wasn't supposed to happen I didn't mean to I'm sorry--" The words tumbled out of his mouth in a jumble as a result of his shame. He didn't even care that he was actually apoligizing to her--he was so mortified by his own actions that he couldn't help himself.

"Inuyasha..."

"--shouldn't have done it and--"

"...thank you."

"--completely stupid--ah...uh...huh?" He stared at her as she curled up against the wall and cried softly. Almost afraid to come any closer, he slunk nearer on all fours, his belly close to the ground and his ears pinned like a repentant puppy. Craning his neck, he tried to see her face, to see her expression. "Kagome? I--"

"I'm sorry I went nuts on you," she said shakily, wiping her eyes between sobs. "I'm scared..."

Shaken by her rapid series of changes, he tried to respond. "Hey...er...it's okay. I...um...know how you feel...uh..."

"I know you do." She finally raised her eyes to look at him, crouched low before her as he was. She giggled a little. "Are you going to look sorry forever?"

"I...I don't know why that happened," Inuyasha said, drawing away as a red hue appeared high on his cheeks again. He cleared his throat and tried to return to his former demeanor. "It was...very rude of me. I apologize for...accosting you," he said stiffly, formally.

Kagome didn't answer him, but instead curled up again and leaned against the wall. Inuyasha was more shaken by her silence than anything else as he drew away and sat in the far corner from her. In his heart there was a twinge of fear; what had his bite done to make her act thus?

I hope she won't stay mad. Is she mad? God, I hope I didn't hurt her...I didn't smell blood when I...when I did it, but... What's the matter, Kagome? Please do something...yell at me, sit me--anything...just don't be so silent forever...

But Kagome still said nothing, and left Inuyasha alone with his doubts in the corner.

"What a mess!"

"You can say that again!"

Sango stared at the caved-in wall ahead of them. "Now just what are we going to do?"

"Maybe they're...under all this," Shippo said, his voice slightly choked.

"I am not even going to consider that!" Sango snapped. "Get busy, kitsune! Transform into something big so we can move this rubble!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Miroku, who had paused further back in the tunnel, concluded his observations of the rubble's layout and walked up beside his laboring companions. "Sango, Shippo, I think someone's been here before us."

"Yeah--Kagome and Inuyasha," Shippo grunted, having taken the form of something that vaguely resembled a large blue gorilla with big arms and long-fingered hands, perfect for levering stones. He wasn't actually very strong, though.

"No, look--the rocks back down the tunnel were shifted there from here, as if something were trying to dig in here, too."

Sango checked the strewn rocks over, her eyes widening. "You're right. Of course! Where else could they have come from?"

"Something was trying to dig them out. Whether it was trying to help or trying to harm, it was trying to get to them. And that means..."

"Something knows they're alive in there!" Shippo crowed, digging with renewed vigor. "Kagome! Inuyasha! Kagome!"

"Kagome!" Sango joined the call. "Kagome, if you can hear me, answer!"

"Inuyasha!" Miroku shouted, trying for the sharper-eared of the two. "Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha was jolted out of his quiet reflection by sudden, shouted voices that seemed to rise up right behind him. He jumped up from the wall, guarded, but calmed when he realized they were the voices of Shippo, Miroku, and Sango.

"Kagome!" he hissed, calling into the gloom. "Kagome, they're here."

"The others?" Kagome said, a faint sob of relief in her voice. "Thank God!"

"Shippo! Sango!" Inuyasha shouted, his voice carrying through the apparently thin wall of their confinement.

"Inuyasha!" answered Sango's muffled voice. "Oh--they're alive!"

"We're coming!" Shippo said. "Is Kagome there with you?"

"She's fine!" Inuyasha turned to look into Kagome's face, and was relieved to see that her expression was now shining with relief and hope. "We're getting out of here!" he said with an eager grin.

Kagome smiled at him. "I'm glad!"

To be continued...