InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Act Two ❯ Cue the Lights ( Chapter 3 )

"Act Two"

~E. Marie

E-mail: Emw712@aol.com

February 3, 2004: This is still fanfiction, so no suing allowed! Reviews would be appreciated, even if they're just flames to keep me toasty while I type. ^_^

Chapter Three: Cue the Lights

The wind teased her black tresses from the careful queue at the nape of her neck, and with a sigh of frustration, Kagome wiped the stray pieces of hair back from her face, gleaming with sweat. Gathering herbs in the dark forest was a strenuous chore, but one she was more than glad to do if it meant giving Kaede a moment of leisure. The last three years had aged the elder priestess perhaps more than any of the others; the burden of protecting her village coupled with the continuing tragedy of the Shikon no Tama and her sister's resurrection had worn deeper tracks around her grey eye, and her hair was now a white-silver that rivaled that of Inuyasha. Returning to the village after another fruitless search for Naraku had become a recurring theme over the last several months, and even though this break from the hunt meant they had been unsuccessful, Kagome was glad for the chance to help her mentor. Doubling her efforts, the young miko turned back to the herbs in front of her.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Kagome thought aloud, while ripping another leafy plant from the ground. "Three years ago, I wouldn't have known a healing herb from a kutzu leaf. I've learned so much, well, here anyway. I'm just glad I was able to finish school without completely disgracing myself-"

"But I thought you weren't finished!" called Inuyasha, as he leapt from the god tree, his prison of half a century, to land just behind her.

With a grin, Kagome threw the plant she had just pulled, dirt clinging to the roots and all, at Inuyasha's smirking face, a playful attack the half demon easily dodged.

"Inu-chan, we've talked about this before. Continuing my education to become a doctor in my time is hardly something I can begin while I'm still fighting the ultimate evil, five hundred years in the past. That's just a part of my future-"

"OUR future," Inuyasha interjected.

"-our future," Kagome continued with a smile, "that will have to wait until we have recovered all the other fragments of the sacred jewel and finished Naraku for good…if that time ever comes."

With a light growl, Inuyasha crouched down in front of his woman, bringing his nose flush to her own.

"We've already begun our future, Kagome, and I would never let anyone, not even that damned Naraku, touch our happiness. Someday, your belly will be rounded with our pups growing inside you, and I'll protect them with my sword while you save them with your medicine. In your time and in this time!"

A light blush covered her face at his allusion, and she shifted to nuzzle her cheek against his. "I can't believe you've put so much thought into this, Inuyasha. Do you really want me to be the mother of your childr-, er, pups?"

"Feh," he replied, with a grunt. "Would I do this?" Inuyasha asked, while swiftly pushing her on to her back, pinning her legs wide, and positioning his clothed body provocatively between her thighs. "If I didn't want pups?"

With a light giggle, Kagome grazed her nails down his back, drawing him closer. "If you were anyone else, except maybe Miroku, I would give you a funny look for saying that…but since it seems you're hopelessly in love with me, I'll just have to let it slide, ne?" She ground her hips against his, laughter dancing in her eyes.

"Damn straight," he growled, as he claimed her lips in a hungry kiss, his claws snaking down her arms, so he could capture her hands above her head. Before her heart began to beat any louder in her ears, Kagome broke the kiss and gasped aloud, "Kaede!"

With a raised eyebrow, Inuyasha released her hands. "Not quite the name I expected you to cry out, `Gome."

"No, baka, Kaede needs the herbs for one of the sick villagers. Take them to her for me, please? We'll continue this later, if you're a good puppy!"

Twisting away, Inuyasha muttered, "Don't press your luck, wench," before turning to grin at her over his shoulder. Whether or not he said it often enough, Kagome looked stunning, even in the work clothes of a miko…especially when she glowed with the heat of the day and the "activities" of the last few minutes. Gathering the full basket of herbs under one arm, he watched as Kagome turned back to her chores, to fill a second basket.

"Since you're being, nice, Inuyasha, I'll pretend I didn't hear what you just called me," said Kagome rather primly, as she peered up at him, her eyes an unreadable mixture of merriment and a murderous glare.

Bending to place a kiss on the top of her head, Inuyasha leapt into the trees. "Say `osuwari', and the herbs get it!"

Laughing, Kagome turned back to the plants before her, grateful for the little interlude and the unexpected help. Before the sun dipped back behind the trees, she had finished, and picking up the last basket, now heavy with the fruit of her labor, Kagome began the short trek back to the village. She didn't get far before the presence of a thousand jewel shards, approaching at top speed, made her drop the basket and break into a run. Nearing the well on her way to the village, Kagome opened her mouth to cry for Inuyasha when she was pushed flat to the ground by a gust of wind, the very air knocked from her lungs. As she gasped for breathe, Kagome turned to see Kagura looming over her.

"Take this, priestess, and use it well!" cried the demoness, pressing the nearly complete Shikon no Tama into Kagome's hand. Leaping back onto her magic feather, Kagura vanished as quickly as she had come, leaving Kagome sprawled on the ground, dazed and confused. Rising to her feet, she stared at the shining jewel in her hand for but a moment, before sounds of yelling and the sight black smoke, coming from the direction of the village, captured her attention. A surge of power erupted through the surrounding forest, and as she called out for Inuyasha, Naraku, in a cloud of dark miasma, emerged into the clearing. Inuyasha, Tessuaiga drawn, was in hot pursuit, as Sango and Miroku kept a small army of lesser demons at bay.

Seeing Kagome standing by the ancient well that had allowed her to overcome time, Naraku leered, showing his sharp teeth.

"Ku ku ku ku ku…how easy you have made this for me, priestess! With you joining Kikyou in the land of the dead, there will be no one left to undo all I have done to taint the sacred jewel!"

"You bastard! You won't touch her!" cried Inuyasha, as he leapt at Naraku, ready to kill. A faint look of annoyance crossed Naraku's sinister face before he sent a spike, dripping with lethal miasma, straight through Inuyasha's chest, to his very heart. With a cry, the hanyou fell to the ground, blood and putrid poison bursting from the wound.

"Inuyasha, no!!" cried Kagome, as she collapsed against the lip of the well from the shock of seeing her lover impaled. Clutching her hand to her heart, she pressed the Shikon no Tama against her breast. Stinging tears began to stream down her face.

"Don't worry…you'll be joining him soon," said Naraku with sickening calmness, as he sent another spike, just as deadly, at Kagome's heart. The speed at which the spike flew at her frail body did not even allow Miroku, Sango, or Shippou the chance to cry aloud in warning or fear, but as the weapon born of Naraku's flesh drove through her hand and palm on its journey to her heart, it struck the Shikon no Tama. A blast of pink magic erupted from the jewel as it shattered once more, this time into mere flakes of dust. With a cry of excruciating pain, Kagome fell backwards into the darkness of the well.

"The jewel?!?!? Nooooooo!!!" cried Naraku, and in his anger at having destroyed his prize, the very meaning of his demonic existence, he demolished the ancient well with a swipe of one of his tentacles. As she fell through the blue, swirling gate between worlds, the tiny slivers of the jewel cutting into her skin, Kagome saw the portal of light on the other end disappear. The blue spheres of swirling energy around her died into nothingness, and she gave into the pain of her body and her broken heart. All was lost.

On the ground, a broken Inuyasha stretched his hand toward the shattered remains of the well, poison and unshed tears clouding his vision.

"Kagome…."

*****

With a groan, Kagome rolled over on the hard, rocky surface. Confusion darkened her consciousness, until she remembered where she was…and why she was there.

"INUYASHA! The well! Oh, Kami!" she cried as she leapt to her feet, only to look up from the bottom of the well to see, not the ceiling of the well shrine in modern Tokyo, as she had expected…but instead, the most perfect sunlight peering in, and ivy growing down the aging walls of the dried well. A look of shock marred her pretty features, and she raised her hand to touch her forehead…only to realize that that particular hand had just been pierced by a poisonous spike from an evil demon. But there was no wound. Her hand was whole!

With a cry of surprise, Kagome looked down at her body, which should have, by all the laws of biology, been dripping with blood from the thousands of tiny, painful cuts made by the slivers of the twice-broken Shikon no Tama, but there was no blood. She should have been wearing her miko clothing, covered with dirt and her own blood, but there she was, wearing one of her old schoolgirl uniforms. Strangely enough, this uniform seemed to be brand new, and it fit her perfectly, because her breasts seemed to have suddenly become a little smaller. Raising her shirt, she gasped when she saw that the scar that had marked the place where the jewel had been ripped from her body, three years ago, had disappeared, without a trace.

"What is going on?!?!?" she cried. Turning her face back to the top of the well, Kagome fought the nausea and déjà vu that threatened to overwhelm her sanity.

"Hello? Inuyasha? Miroku? Sango? Anybody? Heeeeellllp!!!!" Her cries were met with the chirping of birds and the overwhelming tranquility of the world above. Fighting her tears, Kagome grabbed one of the vines that ran along the side of the well and frantically began to climb out. Throwing her feet over the edge of the well, her eyes grew wide. The surrounding forest, which had been smoldering just moments before from Naraku's attack, was as peaceful and green as ever. White butterflies danced across the clearing, oblivious to the stuttering girl from the future whose nails were digging into the flesh of her palms. Her fear running high, Kagome turned and ran to the one place that could afford her the peace to gather her thoughts and silence her desperation. She fell to her knees at the sight that awaited her.

"Inu…ya…sha…." The name died as a whisper on her lips, as she beheld her beloved half demon, locked in limbo against the bark of the god tree. Fifty years of forest growth had made its way up his body, and an aged arrow pinned his sleeping form to the tree.

March 11, 2004: House keeping? Fluff your pillow? Just kidding! I decided to do some tidying up of the story as a whole, before I post Chapter Six. This is the "newly remastered" Chapter Three, predominantly typo free. Enjoy!