InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ An Arrow Not Burning ❯ Death ( Chapter 6 )

"Onee-sama! Onee-sama! Please wake up! Onee-sama!"

"Lass, she's dead. You can't help her."

The girl was crying. A vague thought drifted through his cold, dark, aching world. Why was she crying?

"What about this one? He's still breathing."

"Finish him off and throw him in the well."

"But it looked like he was helping Kikyo fight that demon. Shouldn't we--"

Kikyo. The word dropped into the darkness of his mind like a softly illuminating candle. He knew that name. He could almost remember. If only it wasn't so cold.

"Are you forgetting his attack on us! Kill him before he wakes up!"

"But he said it wasn't him. Kikyo said something about an imposter, and didn't that demon they killed look something like him at first."

Kikyo. Pale face, dark eyes, dark hair. Sad face. Happy face. Smiling at him. People didn't smile at him. But she did.

"So what? He's more than half-dead, and he's too dangerous to let live. Kill him and be done with it." Were they talking about him?

"No!" The girl again. Light footsteps, coming near. "You can't kill him!"

"And why not?"

"Kikyo loved him!"

Kikyo loved him. Inuyasha's eyes snapped open, as if the words had slid back the door of his waking mind. He stared at the piece of macerated flesh in front of his nose, and realized it was his arm. They'd been -- fighting? Yes. A demon. Naraku. Shape-shifter. They'd taken him out together: he remembered the burning arrow flying above him as he collapsed. But Kikyo, she was--she was--

"Kikyo."

His voice: a broken whisper.

"Inuyasha?" The voice was close. He turned his head a little. A face swam into view. A girl's, streaked with tears, one eye covered with a bandage. He tried to remember her name. He knew he knew it.

"Kaede...?" he finally whispered.

She nodded. "K-Kikyo's dead, Inuyasha." Fresh tears flowed down her face. "We-we could s-see what was happening. Y-you damaged the demon, and then Kikyo's arrow destroyed it. You were down. Kikyo started to walk towards you, but then she sort of staggered, she dropped her bow, and then she just--just fell over. We-we ran up the stairs, but when we got here, she-she w-wasn't breathing."

Inuyasha closed his eyes as they started to burn. Dead! It wasn't what he wanted! He'd never wanted her dead, even when she humiliated him by pinning him to a tree with her arrows. When he'd felt the final arrow, he'd thought they were both dying, and he could accept that. But he was awake again, and his demon blood would probably keep him alive, and he wanted to live, but he also wanted Kikyo to live!

He pushed himself to hand and knees with a convulsive move. Agony wrenched through him, telling him he'd made a mistake. He retched, gagged, coughed, each twitch sending white-hot fire through his belly. Black liquid tasting of blood, bile and poison gushed out of his mouth and splattered onto the floor as he struggled for to clear his clogged throat. The spasms eased, but left him shaking, and with an intense nausea that each tight-caught breath threatened to send into another searing paroxysm.

A small, hot hand touched his shoulder. "You shouldn't be trying to move, Inuyasha," said Kaede from beside him. "You've got an awful fang or something right through your belly and out your back, and without Kikyo, I don't know if anyone can take it out without killing you."

He stared at the stained wood beneath him. "Don't. Care. Brat," he wheezed. Wood cracked as his clawed fingers tensed in the effort to raise his head. "Have. To see. Kikyo."

His vision was blurring, but not so much that he couldn't make out her body. It was barely a length away with two men crouched by next to it. They had turned her over onto her back. The white top was stained, not just with her blood, at the shoulder, but with his. They had folded her hands over her stomach. But he couldn't make out her face.

And he had to see her face, at least once more. To say 'good-bye', to say 'sorry', he didn't know. Just that he had to get to her. To see her face.

He forced one leg to move, and nearly collapsed as his tortured belly revolted. More retching, more gagging and coughing left almost every muscle locked, shivering with tension, every agonized breath a wheeze. Something touched his shoulder again, and spoke in his ears, but he couldn't respond. Couldn't speak. Couldn't move. Couldn't even see her face in his mind. There was only pain. Only grief. Only longing.

"Inuyasha. Inuyasha!" He didn't know how long he existed in that timeless fog before the girl's voice penetrated it. "Please, Inuyasha, open your eyes. I had them move her. Please, Inuyasha. Open your eyes."

He obeyed that voice, and saw--her. Kikyo. Her face was drained of color, her eyes closed. Dried blood marred her slightly parted lips and her chin. There was no expression on her face--the miko mask was her death mask.

Tears blurred his vision. He wanted to speak. Wanted to say good-bye. Want to say he was sorry. And he couldn't. His throat was paralyzed. There were only tears. Tears that kept him from seeing her face.

Something glinted. Something pink, that glittered with its own light. Inuyasha found his gaze centering on that. Even through the tears, he knew what it was. The Skikon no Tama, resting along her neck, where it had shifted from the move. The Jewel of Four Souls.

The jewel that could turn him from hanyo to full demon. The desire he had had almost as long as he could remember. When he had heard about the jewel and its power, he had thought to take the jewel, not caring for the consequences to its guardian. Until he met her. Until she evaded him, humiliated him, defeated him, and then--talked to him. He had hurt her feelings that first time, yet she hadn't turned away. She had never treated him as something foul, something abominable, as a thing to be hated and despised. She had stolen his heart and taught him that there were some things more important than simple strength.

If the jewel could turn a hanyo to a demon, then it surely could--

He snatched the Shikon no Tama with his good hand, breaking the strand. Bring her back! Please, let Kikyo live! His body convulsed at the unconsidered motion, but Inuyasha didn't feel it it, as all his will focused on one thought. I wish Kikyo to live!