InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Decisions ❯ Chapter 23

 

Chapter Twenty-Three

 

---December, two days before the ceremony---

 

Kohaku had seemed slightly more happy with the news of Sango's pregnancy, but still refused to come out of his room where he had stayed since coming to Sesshomaru's palace. Sango was getting more and more depressed each day. She couldn't even hide it with the way her hormones were out of balance. She was laughing one minute and crying the next and she couldn't seem to get the mess with Kohaku out of her mind. He still blamed himself for the deaths of their friends and family, no matter how often Sango tried to convince him that it wasn't his fault. He refused to even look at Kagome because of the time that he had almost killed her. Kagome knew how he felt. She was the one responsible for his predicament, at least that was how she felt about it. She had brought the jewel back to this era and all of the mayhem that Naraku had caused because of it was her fault. When she told Sango this, Sango pointed out that it wasn't really her fault (of course, that was after she hit her over the head with Hiraikotsu for being so stupid as to even suggest such a thing). Mistress Centipede was the one that had dragged her to this era and it certainly wasn't her fault that she didn't know how to handle youkai. After all, she had never encountered one before coming to the Feudal Era. She hadn't understood anything that was going on and couldn't have known what would happen when she shot that arrow. Nothing that had happened was her fault. Naraku had set all of the events in motion and he was the one that should bare all the blame. HE killed Kikyou and caused the rift between her and Inuyasha, which, in turn, was how the jewel had gotten into Kagome's body in the first place. HE caused Sango's fellow exterminators' deaths. HE was responsible for everything.

 

After this conversation was when Kagome got her idea. She talked it over with Kikyou and she agreed. It was the best thing to do for all of them.

 

Kagome made her way up to Kohaku's room. She really hoped that she didn't have to play her trump card, but desperate times call for disparate measures. She knocked and was told by Kohaku in the emotionless voice that he had adopted to come in.

 

Kohaku looked up and was surprised to see Kagome there before averting his eyes from hers. How can she even stand to look at me?

 

Kagome smiled at him. “Kohaku, I would like for you to come down to dinner. I have something to discuss with the whole family and I can't do that when my little brother is sitting up here all by his self.”

 

Kohaku gaped at Kagome for a moment, forgetting his aversion to looking her in the eye. “You consider me your little brother? After all I've done, to you and to my own family?”

 

A shadow came over Kagome's face and Kohaku's face flushed with shame and his eyes sank to the floor. He had known that it was too good to be true. He was surprised when she sat on the bed and pulled him down to sit beside her.

 

“Kohaku. Nothing that happened was your fault. Naraku is the one that should be blamed for everything that happened. He was the one that caused all those deaths and everyone's pain and suffering. He was the one that made you try to kill me, which I would like to remind you that you didn't. It takes a strong person to resist Naraku when they are in so much pain.”

 

“It doesn't matter that Naraku was making me do those things. I was still the one that did them. I should have been strong enough to resist him and that spider youkai and protect my family. I should have been strong enough-”

 

“If anyone is to be shouldering the blame, it is me. I'm the one that shattered the jewel and caused Naraku to kill in the search of it. Do you know how many people died because of his obsession with the jewel? Too many. I bare the blame for everything that Naraku has done in his search for the jewel.”

 

Kohaku looked up into Kagome's face and tried to comfort her. “Sango told me most of what happened. You had no idea what was going to happen when you shot that arrow. Naraku is the one that caused all the trouble that you went through. You didn't even know about youkai when you came here. Although I can't really imagine living in a world without youkai.”

 

Kagome smiled. “Sango said virtually the same thing. And you should take your own advice and place the blame where it belongs: with Naraku. If I am not responsible for Naraku's actions then neither are you.”

 

Kohaku looked at Kagome in wonder. How did she manage to put it in such a way that it would be like he blamed her for everything if he continued to blame himself? He still carried the guilt but it wasn't as bad as before. “But I still should have protected-”

 

Kagome covered his mouth with one hand. “And I should have known exactly what to do with Mistress Centipede and that crow youkai. It was the first time you had been on a mission, Kohaku. In no way could you have expected to come out on top with Naraku in the mix. It took us three years to defeat him. Do you think that you could have on your first mission? You don't need to be so hard on yourself.”

 

Kohaku stared into his lap for a moment before looking up at Kagome. “Okay, I will try to stop blaming myself if you stop blaming yourself. And I will come down to dinner tonight.”

 

Kagome squealed and attacked Kohaku in much the fashion that she did Sota. She hugged him really tightly, then grabbed him and pulled him down the stairs, chattering all the way about how happy Sango would be to see him out of his room and about how now they might be able to get through a meal without her blubbering every two seconds.

 

Good job, Kagome.

 

Thanks, Kikyou.

 

Kagome and Kohaku made their way to the dining room and saw that everyone was waiting impatiently for Kagome. Kagome was just about to enter the room when she saw Jaken run up to Sesshomaru. “My Lord Sesshomaru, she is nowhere to be found. Neither I nor any of the servants could find her anywhere.” Jaken cowered and waited for the blow that he knew would be delivered shortly.

 

“So you failed.” Sesshomaru said in his cold voice.

 

“Yes, my lord.” Jaken threw himself on the ground wailing. “I am a worthless excuse for a servant! I couldn't even find one girl! You can kill me now, my lord, as I am of no further use to you!”

 

“Now, Jaken, aren't you being a little hard on yourself? I'm a hard girl to find. You can't sense me or even smell me. Even Sesshomaru has a hard time finding me when I don't want to be found.” Kagome said as she walked into the room.

 

Sesshomaru dropped his cold mask and glared at her. “You are late.”

 

Kagome shrugged. “I had other business to attend to.” She turned around to direct Kohaku to his seat and found that he wasn't there. She looked back at the doorway and saw him peaking from behind the door. She rolled her eyes at him and went back to drag him in with her.

 

Sango gasped when she saw Kohaku actually out of his room. Then she burst into tears and rushed to hug him. “I'm so glad you're here!” Sango wailed.

 

Kagome rolled her eyes again. She looked at the rest of the group. “Hormones.”

 

Everyone at the table nodded sagely, even though none of them had the slightest clue as to what she was talking about.

 

Sango finally pulled herself together and sat down. “How did you get him to come down Kagome?”

 

Kagome shrugged. “I just explained to him that I had something to discuss with the family, so I needed him present tonight.”

 

Sango looked back and forth between them suspiciously. She knew that there was more to the story but she decided to drop it. Whatever had happened was between Kohaku and Kagome. She was just glad that Kagome had managed to get him to come out of his room.

 

Everyone ate dinner. There was the usual banter between all of them. Kohaku was still a little uncomfortable, but Kagome knew that he would get used to them in time. He laughed when Shippo and Inuyasha got into it and Inuyasha started to chase Shippo around the table. Sango caught Kagome's eye and mouthed a silent “Thank you.”

 

Kagome smiled. “You're welcome.” She mouthed back.

 

Dinner was soon finished and Sesshomaru growled to get everyone's attention. “Yama and Koenma will be here in a couple of days for the ceremony. This Sesshomaru-” he ignored the growl coming from Kagome at his use of the third person again “-has decided that the rest of you will also become part of my family. Not by the same method as Kagome will for reasons of her youkai souls, but you will still be a part of my family and as such under my protection and governance. You will live near me so that I can properly keep an eye on you and your descendants.”

 

The rest of the group stared blankly at Sesshomaru, not believing that he would take so many humans under his protection. Kagome they could understand, but the rest of them?

 

Kagome was the first to reason it out in her head. Well this certainly makes things a lot easier. “So, you want to make sure they have to listen to you and do as you say, don't you Sesshomaru? The fact that they aren't really under your command irritates you doesn't it? Miroku is sure a lot to take, so I understand your reasoning.”

 

Miroku drew up indignantly. “Hey! What about me is so bad?”

 

Inuyasha snorted. “Do you want the highlights or the complete list? Either way we will be here for a while.”

 

Miroku huffed. “I get no respect. I am a holy servant of Buddha-”

 

Everyone bickered for a while, but it was understood that everyone agreed to go through with it. Kohoku was overwhelmed. None of these people seemed to care that he had been Naraku's servant and had tried to kill them multiple times. They accepted him as one of them without any effort on his part. They really were like a family.

 

“Enough of this! Miroku, when you start acting like a `holy servant of Buddha' we might start treating you like one. But I have something serious to discuss.” Everyone quieted down and looked at her expectantly. “I spent a long time thinking about what I will wish for when the time comes. At first, one of my wishes was going to be that all the evil caused by the jewel was undone, but today I came across an even better wish. I thought about it and the wish I was going to make probably wouldn't have done anything because the jewel isn't really evil by itself. It was the evil in the beings that held and sought the jewel that caused all the terrible things to happen. However, Naraku has caused so much pain to so many people. I think one of the wishes should be that all the evil that Naraku had done, all the good people he has killed…I think the wish should be to undo that. Naraku caused so much death and destruction. The most good would be done reversing his deeds. That would take away Kohaku and Sango's guilt for not protecting their family and fellow exterminators. They would get their father back and maybe rebuild the village. Kami knows what other evil it would undo. My other wishes I need your input on. One wish is going to be for Inuyasha to be able to control his transformations and be able to keep his mind in the process. The other is the one that I really need your permission to wish for. I won't do it if you don't agree.” Kagome took a deep breath before continuing. “I would like for us to all be able to recognize each other and remember our lives together, even when we are reincarnated after I get back to the future. I understand if you want to be able to make a fresh start, but I would like to always remember my time here and the people I love.”

 

Sango and Kohaku were in shock. The rest of the group were surprised that Kagome had this so well thought out, but were not surprised that she had taken such care with her wishes. She always thought of others before herself. The last wish was the only thing that she asked for and that was as much for the rest of them as it was for her. There was really no question in anyone's mind but Kagome's that everyone would agree.

 

“You don't have to answer right away. I want you to think about it before giving me your answers.” Kagome paused and looked at Sesshomaru. “You asked me why I was being selfish for waiting to make my wishes. This is one of the reasons why. I figured that the exterminators would be brought back when the evil caused by the jewel was undone. I know that Sango and Kohaku would love to see their family as soon as possible. And I am willing to make my wishes after the ceremony if they wish for me to. I was selfish for not telling them of my intentions sooner. I just wanted to spend a little more time with all of you before I had to go back to my time for good. I-OWWW!” Kagome finished with a yell.

 

Sango glared at Kagome and shook her hand to get the feeling back into it. “You promised that you would stay until after my first child was born. Do you think that I will let you leave me to suffer on my own? You have to be there to help me. I miss my family but I will get to spend the rest of my life with them. You I will not see for five hundred years! You are like a sister to me. I can't do this without you!” Sango finished this with a wail and threw herself at Miroku's chest sobbing.

 

Kagome rushed over to Sango's side and rubbed her back. “Of course I'll stay if you want me to! I was just afraid that you would want me to go ahead and make them so that you and Kohaku could see your father again.” Kagome turned back to Sesshomaru. “I think you have some ideas as to what my conditions to taking Rin with me are.”

 

Sesshomaru was hiding behind his emotionless mask. He had an idea but he wasn't going to say anything until she confirmed it. “Enlighten me.”

 

“When the exterminators come back, I want you to have them rebuild their village here and keep them under your protection. It will help them understand that not all youkai are evil and will lessen the animosity between humans and youkai, at least in your domain. It will also keep you from loosing touch with family and keep you from turning back into that stuffy snob that you used to be…Well, still are, but that is beside the point.” Sesshomaru growled. “Well, it's true. Why, if it wasn't just family here, I couldn't do this.” Kagome walked up to Sesshomaru and plopped down in his lap and started petting his mokomoko (A/N: the fluffy littly boa thing on his shoulder). Sesshomaru growled at her but allowed it. Kagome just ignored him and set about getting more comfortable. Niiku hopped up onto her lap and curled up to go to sleep.

 

“Kagome go to sleep. You too Inuyasha, Rin, and Shippo. The others are just being adopted into this family formally, not by blood. It takes a lot of energy regardless, but it will take the most out of the ones sharing blood. Kagome, you will be excused from training these next two days so that you may conserve your energy. I expect you to not leave your room at all unless it is to go to the garden to relax or for meals. The same goes for the rest of you.” Sesshomaru stopped to stare at Sango. “Since you are expecting a pup you will also be require to rest. It will take a lot of energy out of you also considering your condition. Furthermore-”

 

Kagome was overjoyed to be let out of training but she was also really tired from all the training earlier that day. She yawned and tuned out the rest of Sesshomaru's lecture of all they could not do over the next two days. For someone who hadn't seemed to know how to say more than two sentences at a time that were not insults before she had really got to know him, he sure could lecture. She snuggled deeper into his fluffy boa thing. Soon she was asleep.

 

Sesshomaru finished his lecture and was about to tell Kagome to go to bed when Inuyasha pointed at her. She was sound asleep with a death grip on his mokomoko. He sighed. There was no help for it. He scooped her up in his arms, fire cat and all, and carried her upstairs to his room. He knew he had no chance of getting away from her with the grip that she had on him. And Kagome didn't like to be woken up, dispite the fact that she didn't get much actual sleep even when she was technically asleep. Or maybe that was the reason. She wanted to get as much sleep as she could. Even he hesitated when it came to waking her up. It was better just to let her do so on her own. She didn't really sleep in anyway. She was up at the time he wanted to train most of the time. He really didn't want a repeat of that night he had woken her when she had just come back to the past. Sesshomaru shuddered. There wasn't much that could give him pause, but Kagome was a hundred times stronger when she was mad and even stronger when she wasn't aware of anything. She had punched him and broken his nose when he had tried to wake her. Then she just rolled over and went back to sleep as if nothing had happened. She didn't even realize that she was the one who had caused his injury when she saw it the next morning. Inuyasha had gotten sat into a rather large crater because of it. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't tried to tell her that it was actually her that caused the injury. So there was no way he was even going to try to wake her up. He settled down on his big bed, resigned to having to sleep in his regular clothes. His last thought before going to sleep was that he was glad that he wasn't wearing his armour.

 

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