InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodlust ❯ Remember My Name ( Chapter 10 )

InuYasha laughed and glared at her through the hair that fell over his eyes.

"I spent four years protecting you, miko. Demon or no, you can't defeat me. Give me the jewel."

She looked at him oddly.

"Do you remember my name, InuYasha?"

He snarled at her, and flashed his fangs.

"Miko bitch! Give me my jewel!"

His voice dropped.

"Give me my jewel or I will kill your mate."

Terror flooded her body, was immediately replaced by cold rage, and she was between InuYasha and Sesshomaru before he could blink.

"You will not get through me, InuYasha."

She stood completely still, cold and calm, and stepped evenly aside when he rushed at her. The fury in her heart rose outwards to her fingertips, swift and controlled with deadly precision. Her claws glowed harshly with miko power, and she stepped forward, waiting for him to run at her again, eyes lit with a frightening combination of miko power and youkai heat. He ran towards her, and was met on the slashing points of her miko-throbbing claws. He leapt away, for the first time on the defensive, and found himself standing once more next to Sesshomaru's body on the ground.

Sesshomaru watched through half-lidded eyes, and stood slowly, blood splashing thickly on the trampled ground. His claws raked swiftly, three times against InuYasha's unprotected back, settling poison into the wounds, and InuYasha howled in pain. Crazed and in agony, InuYasha leapt completely over the fire, skidding to a stop in front of Kagome. Her claws shot out, teaching for his throat, and she connected, the gashes spilling his life down her hand. The thicker scent of him added layers to her rage, and her other hand swept deep through his abdomen, and he fell. On the ground, he gasped in mortal pain, and Kagome saw the red clear itself slowly from his eyes. He looked at her, as if for the first time, and could only answer the question of her scent.

"You…Kagome?..."

InuYasha, youngest son of Lord InuTaisho, died on the grass at the hands of the woman who had loved him. Kagome looked around her at a scene that was more deeply painful that what had followed the final battle with Naraku. Sango stood in shock, holding the injured kit against her bleeding breast, as she stared at Sesshomaru and the demoness with him. She did not believe the youkai was truly Kagome until she watched the demoness sink to her knees by the body of the dead hanyou and cradle him against her breast. Her tears came hot and fast, burning anguish deep into her soul, and she lay him down slowly. She touched his cheek gently, closing lids over golden eyes, and found her power. When she stood, his body was gone, leaving only a soft sigh and his faded scent in the slowly healing wounds of her heart, and she turned to look at her wounded mate. She pressed herself flush against him, and the salt of her weeping stung his wounds. Kagome held out her arms for Shippou, and they walked without a word to Kaede's small village.

The sun was approaching midmorning in a dull sky when then reached the assortment of homes, and the villagers ran, as much from Kagome's now unknown self as from the heavily bloodstained forms of Sesshomaru and Sango. They entered Kaede's dwelling, and she turned to acknowledge her visitors.

"Sango? Why have ye brought Lord Sesshomaru to me? And the small one in the arms of a stranger? Much has happened which must be spoke of, apparently. Ye had best sit, while I look at the kit."

Kagome growled in reflex, and Kaede backed away from her slowly.

"Who have ye brought here, Sango?"

The demon exterminator heaved an awkward sigh.

"Kagome…"

"Kagome! This cannot be Kagome, can not be…"

The silver-eyed demoness looked up at Kaede, and spoke softly.

"Forgive me, Kaede-babaa, I did not mean to startle you. Sesshomaru removed the spells of blood and fire that bound my youkai…but my heart is the same. Care for Shippou, please…I will tend to my mate."

The old miko's eyebrows raised slightly, and she looked at Sango, but the huntress just shook her head and shuddered slightly. Kaede could sense something wrong with the Taijiya, but she turned back to her charge, watching from the corner of her eye as this new Kagome bound the demon Lord's wounds. His expression was the same impassive mask that she had always had described to her, but there was warmth in his gaze he could not hide when he looked at Kagome.

The transformed girl lay carefully against her mate, and Kaede finished her examination of Shippou, shaking her head slowly.

"He will survive, and he will heal, but it will take several days before he is well, though he heal with youkai swiftness. What is responsible for all of this?"

Her practiced gaze took in Sesshomaru as well, and Kagome's eyes hardened slightly when she looked at the softly moaning kit, and she bit off the words.

"InuYasha."

Kaede watched all of their reactions to the hanyou's name. Sango drew up into herself, shaking uncontrollably, and Sesshomaru's arms tightened convulsively around Kagome. She could see that the Taiyoukai was in pain, though he hid it well, and she turned back to Kagome.

"I have not seen InuYasha since he left with the sorcery of my dead sister. What is he doing, what has he done?"

Kagome clenched her hands and avoided the older miko's eyes.

"Nothing more now to anyone. InuYasha….is dead. I…he went after Shippou and Sango, he was insane and full demon. I killed InuYasha."

Kaede's eyes widened, and she bustled around, making the preparations to cook a soup just so she would have something to do.

"I think there is much ye need to tell me, Kagome, and - "

Miroku ran in, ofuda in one hand and his staff held high in the other, ready to attack.

"Kaede! The villagers said two demons had come here with…Sango…."

He looked around, noting for the first time the others in the room. Sango looked up at him and ran to him, her arms locking tightly around his body. Miroku's eyes shot open, and he walked with the huntress carefully, and sat with her, looking at Sesshomaru and Kagome sitting together across the room.

"What has been going on, Kaede? Lord Sesshomaru I know of, but who is the youkai with him, and why does she have Shippou?"

Kaede sighed.

"The demoness is Kagome, and she was just about to tell us what has been happening to her when ye came in. We will have supper, and she will speak."

Miroku nodded, and settled back against the wall with Sango in his arms. Kagome took a deep breath, and looked for assurance in the quiet gold depths of Sesshomaru's eyes. He carefully wrapped his clawed hands around her, being careful not to disturb the sleeping kit, and she leaned into the support of his arms to tell her story. The sun drove through its passage and was just past setting before Kagome finished her tale, and Sango hesitantly told her part.

Miroku's eyes flamed in a very unpeaceful way, and he held her a little more tightly, as she wept for the first time since she had lain her brother to rest in the ruins of her old village. Kagome shuddered in silent tears, overwhelmed with a tinge of remorse and the remembering of betrayal and months spent alone. The tale was new to all of them in some ways, for even Sesshomaru had not known the details, had learned what he know only from the shallow, pained murmurings of Kagome's dreams. He stroked her hair soothingly, and the others stared in utter shock at the open display of affection.

Wisely, Kaede said nothing, allowing them all to come to terms with their grief in their own way. She found herself surprised that she did not feel much sorrow at the second death of her sister, but she had always known that the Kikyou who wandered the earth in a body of clay was not truly her sister, but a working of dark powers. InuYasha's death was more painful for her, for the story of betrayal that Kagome told clashed violently with the impression she had come to have of the hanyou.

Gradually the small group fell silent. Sango slept uneasily in Miroku's arms, and the monks head nodded drowsily, until he too was asleep. Kaede turned to Kagome and Sesshomaru.

"Ye are welcome to stay as always Kagome, and of course ye also, Lord Sesshomaru. I would suggest, however, that ye two stay within tomorrow until I have explained to the village that ye are not a threat. Do you require anything, Kagome?"

"A bath I think, but I'll wait until tomorrow and go with Sango. I've missed you all so much…"

"Ye do not seem so upset over InuYasha's death as I would expect, Kagome."

"He died to me a long time ago, Kaede, when he tried to steal my life for one already dead, when he betrayed my trust in his friendship, in his...love."

Sesshomaru growled softly.

"You should have let me kill him. You do not need his death on your conscience, his blood as a stain upon your hands, my Kagome."

She shook her head gently.

"I would not have you spill your brother's blood, Sess-chan. It was my place, my right as a mother. There was no other way, and that is my pain to bear."

Kaede smiled, content that the physical changes brought on by the removal of the spells and the mating with Sesshomaru had not changed her heart. Kagome kissed him gently and curled into him and around Shippou, quickly falling asleep. Kaede sat across the fire from the sleeping miko, and addressed herself to the youkai Lord.

"Now Lord Sesshomaru, ye have not said much about your part in all this, but Kagome's words tell much that desire other questions."

He spoke quietly, careful not to disturb Kagome.

"She is my mate. I was the one to break the spells upon her, though we have yet to discover who cast them in the first place. Apparently her bond with the kit is stronger than even she was aware of, and once the youkai blood in her was loosed, her mother-instinct took over."

Kaede raised her eyebrows, settling herself among the herbs and ointments she was preparing to be used the following day.

"Do you love her?"

The stoic Taiyoukai studied her for several long moments, and an all but invisible smile crept onto his face.

"Yes. I love her."

Kaede smiled, and unrolled her futon.

"That is well. InuYasha would never have been able to love her, though I know he believed he did. He was committed to Kikyou, whether it be her undead form or the girl who carried her soul from the future. Take care of her, Lord Sesshomaru, she has given up much to stay with you."

His eyes were tinged with wonder in the midst of their pain.

"I…know. I would die for her."

Kaede nodded, and Sesshomaru watched the old woman sink into sleep, an odd feeling of family stealing silently over him, as he sat silent guard over his mate and her human friends. Dawn approached swiftly, sweeping in a clear pink rush over the edge of the forest outside the village. Kagome stretched slowly, and peeked up at Sesshomaru, who glanced down at her and brushed her bangs out of her eyes with one clawed hand.

"How is your kit?"

She shifted Shippou gently and smelled his breathing, checked his pulse and bandages.

"He will be alright. The wounds are already healing, but it might be a little while before he is back to his usual self. I am glad to have him back….to have all of them back. I've missed them all Sess-chan, I didn't know how much until I saw them. And then with InuYasha…he was himself again, for one last moment, Sess-chan. He remembered my name."

Sesshomaru nudged her gently out of his lap and stood slowly, stretching out the stiffness in battle weary muscles, and took off his bloodstained haori. Kagome noted with concern the small, fresh bloodstains on his bandages, and looked around the small hut for new ones. She saw that Kaede had set out salves and fresh bandages for her to use, and checked on Shippou's tiny bandages as well. She was hesitant to use the salve on Sesshomaru's wounds after what had happened to his father, but she picked them up along with the bandages and the kitsune, and tugged gently on Sesshomaru's hand, pulling him to the hot spring near the village. He raised an eyebrow in question.

"I thought you were going to bathe with the huntress."

She nodded.

"I am, but I don't think it would go over very well with her if you bathed with us as well. Besides, I need to change your bandages, and Shippou's."

Sesshomaru nodded and sat with his back against the nearest tree.

"The kit first."

She smiled across at him warmly, and bent over Shippou's small body, twitching asleep, and called out to him softly.

"Shippou-chan wake up, I have to change your bandages."

He looked up at her groggily, and his eyes opened wide, until he caught a familiar scent, and blinked at the demoness holding him.

"Ka…Kagome!"

She smiled.

"Yes it's me Shippou. I'm sorry I left…but I had to get away from InuYasha."

"But Kagome! InuYasha is here, he tried to get Sango, and then he hit me…"

Kagome comforted the sobbing kit, and unwrapped the bandage around his ribs, gently spreading the ointment over the gashes there and binding him tightly with a new bandage.

"InuYasha won't hurt you any more, Shippou, he's…dead."

He nodded, and with wisdom beyond his years sensed that something about how the hanyou had died still haunted her. He sniffed her over, and wrinkled his small nose.

"You smell like Sesshomaru!"

Kagome laughed at his expression, and set him on her lap so he could see Sesshomaru, who nodded at him.

"He is my mate, now, Shippou. That's why I look so different, mostly. All along I was youkai, but there were spells on me to lock away my youkai blood."

"And then Sesshomaru mated you, so you go this family traits. I know about that, but how come you mated Sesshomaru? I thought you didn't like him?"

"He is…a little different than InuYasha made him out to be."

She smiled bright at Sesshomaru.

"Aren't you, Sess-chan?"

He growled softly and she laughed.

"Alright Shippou, that's you done. C'mere Sess-chan, lets see what I can do with you."

He was amazed at the change in her, the cheerful exuberance that overflowed her eyes, now that she was back with her friends…and he had not forgotten the friendly warmth he had felt the night before. Kagome washed the wounds gently with a soft thoroughness that bespoke her experience, and she sat on her heels and held up the salve for his inspection. He leaned back slightly from the strong smelling ointment.

"What is it?"

"Not sure exactly, Kaede makes it. It helps wounds heal more rapidly."

He nodded slightly, and she applied it carefully to his wounds, binding new bandages tightly around him. He nuzzled her cheek and kissed her when he saw Sango coming, before motioning to Shippou, who climbed warily into his care. He walked off, with a cordial nod to Sango, and removed himself and the kit to Kaede's home, careful to avoid any of the human villagers.

Sango walked up to Kagome, and smiled tentatively.

"Kagome?"

Kagome swept her into a bone-crushing hug, and held up the last of her sweet-smelling soaps.

"The last of my things from my time. I'm going to make good use of them! Up to a bath?"

Sango nodded quickly, and stripped out of her fighting clothes, climbing into the water and sitting on a ledge that projected under the water with a heavy sigh.

"Are you alright, Sango?"

"I will be…I never got a chance to thank you, Kagome. If you hadn't come when you did, I don't know what would have happened."

Kagome smiled.

"You saved my life more times than I can count while we were shard-hunting, Sango…I should be the one thanking you. But - how come Miroku hasn't asked you to marry him yet?!"

Sango blushed and glared at Kagome, whose eyes twinkled remorselessly.

"You haven't changed a bit Kagome, except for being mated to Sesshomaru. I did hear you right, didn't I?"

Kagome's smile widened, and her eyes softened slightly.

"You heard right Sango…he is my mate, and I love him. But it happened so fast, I don't even know how it happened."

Sango smiled knowingly.

"It didn't happen so fast. It was love at first sight. I don't think you loved InuYasha, I think you loved Sesshomaru, and had no idea what to do with the feelings."

Kagome spluttered, and thought back to the first time she had seen Sesshomaru, vivid and wicked, descending from the clouds like some God from on high….and she blushed violently and knew Sango was right.

"How did you know, Sango?"

The Taijiya nodded sagely, and spoke with mock-wisdom.

"You couldn't have lost your heart to him so quickly after InuYasha, if you hadn't already felt something for him."

Kagome giggled.

"He said a similar thing to me."

"He loved you when you were human?!"

She nodded, and Sango grinned.

"Now that's something I never thought I'd hear....Sesshomaru in love with a human."

The two laughed, relaxing into the easy friendship born of their years together, and Kagome was glad to see her closest friend more cheerful, after the previous day's events. The demoness and the demon slayer soaked in the hot water, and Kagome grinned, glad to be back with her friends.