InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cannot Be Broken ❯ Then There was One ( Chapter 29 )

InuYasha's ears flashed forward as Naraku's statement woke him from his glazed regret. He shut his eyes and bitter decisiveness pounded in his chest. He turned his back on Naraku to kneel before his lifeless mate. His voice was calm and cold as he spoke barely above a whisper. “You will never have to wait again.”

 

“Oh?” Naraku sneered. “And how is that?”

 

Gently the torn hanyou lifted his mate's body into his arms and turned. Standing tall and proud before the barrier, InuYasha lifted his head to look stoically at a dark-eyed Naraku. The hanyou-youkai's outward appearance was almost identical to the coldhearted face of his half-brother, but inside, the broken heart of the inu thundered one last wish. “You say you have her powers? That she is like you?”

 

Naraku smirked and lifted his face to the heavens. “Finally! Someone understands!”

 

“I understand more than you know.” He hugged her body tight against his chest. “And I know she will never be hunted again.” Live, laugh… and love in your next life... my Kagome.

 

In one swift movement, the hanyou leapt, breaking though the barrier to land in a crouch. In a move quicker than sight, he dropped Kagome and lunged for the creature before him. Tears fell unknowingly from blood red eyes as his claws raked out and the end stood still.

 

InuYasha landed hard on the ice-cold ground and looked up. Naraku was gone. He turned quickly only to have his throat caught in a vice like grip. He struggled to no avail as he was lifted off the ground. Blackness swirled across his eyes as he fought unconsciousness from Naraku's strangling hold.

 

“Fool! If you knew her as you say then you would also know her powers!” Naraku pulled the hanyou's face level to his. “Do you think I'd let time confine me? I am time!” His hot breath made the hanyou dizzy. “Death is eternal.”

 

“So is love.”

 

Naraku swung his head around to the voice.

 

InuYasha's eyes widened in disbelief. “Ka…gome…?”

 

The young miko pushed herself off the ground to sit up. Watching the two, her expression was mixed with sadness, peacefulness and confusion. Slowly she stood. The winter wind flapped heavily against her blood soaked kimono. She blinked slowly as if waking from a dream and cast her gaze around the battlefield before looking up at Naraku and then InuYasha. “Put him down.” She requested softly.

 

Naraku's hand automatically released his hold and InuYasha toppled to the ground. The hanyou struggled to stand as his hand gripped his throat protectively.

 

The red-eyed man turned to face her fully and stepped closer to her. His face was impassive and he did not speak as he raised his hand towards her.

 

“Stay away from her!” A guttural rasp erupted from the half demon as he lunged toward Naraku, his claws moments from imbedding into the man's back, before his wrist was caught from allowing him to follow through.

 

InuYasha balked, staring disbelieving at the cold golden eyes of his brother who blocked his path to Naraku. “What the fuck are you doing!?”

 

“Seize your actions.” Sesshomaru turned to look behind him. InuYasha followed his gaze and his jaw dropped.

 

Both Naraku and Kagome were standing in front of each other, looking deep into each other's eyes. Naraku's hand was cupping her check while her hand tentatively pressed against the smooth skin of his now exposed chest. Slowly they both turned to stand beside each other to look at the inu brothers.

 

Kagome nodded softly at her adopted father. “It is… understood.” She turned her soft eyes at InuYasha. “You can release him.”

 

Sesshomaru let go of InuYasha's wrist and both brothers turned to regard the couple cautiously.

 

“Kagome?” InuYasha stepped forward hesitantly. “I thought… but you were… how?”

 

Kagome smiled sadly and stepped away from Naraku's side. “InuYasha…I…. I came back… to say goodbye.”

 

InuYasha flicked his eyes angrily up at Naraku and reached out to her. “No… Kagome, come here.”

 

She shook her head sadly, her smile faltering. “No…. I don't belong here.” She glanced at Naraku who looked solemnly back at her. She slowly turned back to gaze at InuYasha, tears had filled her eyes. “I have to go now. I have to set things right.”

 

“I don't understand.” InuYasha flicked his attention to his brother who stood there impassively, as if he knew what was happening, before turning hurt filled eyes towards her. “Kagome?”

 

Her brow knotted together and she struggled to speak for a few moments as she tried to gather the memories she had long forgotten. She drifted her glassy violet eyes to stare into his feral red, still marked by his raging youkai. “I am still not sure if I understand it myself. All I know is that I've been fighting this for so long, that I soon forgot what it was I was fighting, and why.” She sighed shakily and tears began to fall from her eyes. “But I will remember it all soon.”

 

InuYasha shook his head, trying to fight what she was saying to him. “Kagome? No….”

 

She bit her lip as she struggled not to cry, but failed miserably. “For as long as I can remember, I was searching for something that I desperately wanted. I… looked for it for a long time, but I forgot what it was… I got lost.” She looked over at Naraku. “He's been searching for me.”

 

“Kagome?” InuYasha breathed.

 

She peered back at him, struggling to contain her tears. “He's going to take me back to where I belong. He's taking me home, InuYasha.”

 

“What?! No! You are home. Here… with me….” He reached for her again and flinched when she staggered back to stand next to Naraku.

 

“No! I… I can't stay. Not anymore.” She clenched her fists to her chest and searched the hanyou's eyes, pleading for understanding. Her heart skipped a beat at the pain and torture she witnessed in him. But she was wasting time, and it had to be done soon or she would not be able to contain herself. With sad resolution, she slowly looked up at Naraku and nodded. He in turn inclined his head in readiness. Kagome bit her lip and walked unsteadily over to InuYasha and stood in front of him. She uncontrollably sobbed and collapsed into his arms and held him tight.

 

InuYasha's arms shook as he raised them to hold her to him tightly. He breathed in her hair, trying desperately to remember every scent, every touch, every emotion she stirred in him.

 

“Don't ever think I did this because I never cared.” She whispered against his cheek. “I spent a lifetime looking for you, and I will spend eternity loving you.” She pulled back slightly and pressed her forehead against his. “Kiss me….”

 

The hanyou shuddered, his stripes and red eyes fading at her touch, turning him back into the hanyou she always knew. He could feel overwhelming peace and tranquility flood into him. He knew she was trying save him from his grief, but no amount of her power could ever reach the darkness her absence would create. His now golden eyes looked deep into her violet, as he pressed his lips against hers. He kept his eyes open as he kissed her, unable to fully comprehend what was going on, but knowing he was quickly losing her. He pulled her harder up to him to deepen the kiss, his eyes watering but refusing to let the tears fall.

 

Her eyes brimmed in such sadness and deep love that it sucked the life from his being. He couldn't breathe, and at that moment he realized he never wanted to breathe again. After only a moment in his view, she pulled back slightly, breaking the kiss. He involuntarily heaved in a sharp breath.

 

Her deep eyes searched his and she kissed his lips once more. “Goodbye.”

 

InuYasha opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a strangled scream as watched her eyes flash wide in shock with Naraku's hand pressed hard against her back. He watched as the glow of warmth, laughter, and love fade from her being as her life was sucked away into the creature behind her. He knew he would forever see this moment for the rest of his life.

 

InuYasha collapsed onto his knees, holding once again Kagome's lifeless form in his arms. Unchecked tears streamed down his face and he clenched her body against him so tightly she would have cried out if she could. He tucked his head numbly into the crook of her neck, cradling her face with his own. I never got to tell you…. I never got to say goodbye.

 

A bright glow crept into his numbed mind and he hesitantly looked up. He blinked heavily to clear the tears from his gaze and his mouth opened in awe. Within the brilliant light before him he saw two souls converge, and the body he knew as Naraku had melded into a creature that could only be described as heavenly as it lifted up from the ground.

 

It stood tall and proud, slender but strong. Its body looked as frail as the willow boughs but the prismatic aura that exuded from it showed great power. It was clothed in light and wind, and in every colour and hue imaginable. But it was its face that made InuYasha's eyes glisten in wonder. It, too, seemed to be made of light, and he could not tell whether it was the face of a child, a woman or a man. It seemed to be all ages, all races and both genders. It's face was gently framed by long gleaming hair, made of rays of light and shadow that reached the tips of the creature's toes, which drifted a few feet from the ground.

 

The light of this creature was intense. Its brilliance would make any mortal blind, yet the inu hanyou could not even blink as he stared up at it. A deep sigh seemed to echo into his very soul as thousands of voices in chorus breathed within the being. Very slowly, it opened its pink hued eyes and smiled down at him.

 

InuYasha could only stare up at it, unable to move from the ground, which was now bathed in pure light that was unfazed and untouched by the blood war it blanketed.

 

"You are the Shikon no Tama."  Sesshomaru stated quietly.

The entity turned its gaze to the youkai standing behind the hanyou's form. Its voice was quiet in serenity, as many voices seem to speak as one, though the entity did not even open its mouth. Instead, it was if the inu brothers could hear it in their very souls.

 

"I am."  It replied. Looking back at InuYasha, its smile grew to one of peaceful grace.  "And because of you, I am whole."

"Me?" InuYasha breathed.

 

It lowered its head in acquiescence.

 

The half demon unconsciously held Kagome tighter. “How?”

 

“You have given me what I had lost.”

 

“I don't understand.”

 

The celestial gazed deep into InuYasha's eyes, and he could not tell if it looked at him like he was a child needing guidance or if it was the child, begging him to play. If possible, it was both. “A thousand years ago, I was broken, but because of your sacrifices, I am now again one.”

 

InuYasha slowly shook his head and searched the creature drifting before him. “Wh… what are you?”

 

The entity shut its eyes and seemed to be in deep though before it opened them again to watch the inu demons. “I was created at the dawn of time, to be the foundation of existence. As such, I underlie all of creation. I am light, I am dark, I am life and I am death. I embody love and hate, heaven and hell. I am the beginning and I am the end. I am all… and I was nothing.”

 

The Shikon looked softly at the hanyou. “For eons I have created you, have watched you live, and have brought you home. Again to see you live anew.”

 

InuYasha felt Sesshomaru stand beside him. “You created us? You created life? Why? What is it all for?”

 

The Shikon laughed. It sounded like a husky chuckle, a child's giggle and a hushed secret. “You were created to create us.”

 

Sesshomaru hinted a frown. “Us?”

 

The Tama appeared thoughtful. “All within the expanse of creation, and beyond.”

 

The tai youkai growled slightly. “Explain.”

 

The entity's eyes glowed deeper shades of sunset as its smile grew at the desired knowledge the youkai wanted possess. It was in everyone's nature to want to know such secrets, though they were never secrets, just knowledge not needed to know.

 

“The beginning of creation started with one thought, one consciousness. All held within a grain of light, enveloped by an expanse of space that can never truly be fathomed by the mortal mind. Within that grain of light, all that exists today was contained. Yet this one small point of light was all there was. It was alone. Within eternity of a moment, it shattered itself, and spread across space, creating worlds, stars and time. But now shattered, it no longer held one thought, it held many. It was chaotic and cold, and there was no purpose to this new universe. Within the chaos, there was a need for something to set it in order. Thus these thoughts created life, a means for them to expand, to give them form and shape. In order to do so, they created me, a boundary between existence and existing. I would be the one to bring these forms into life, and to bring these lives back to form when they have ceased to live.”

 

Sesshomaru blinked. “You were created to makes these thoughts, this shattered entity, into souls, to be born and to live?”

 

The Shikon tilted its head. “Yes.”

 

“For what purpose?”

 

“Within the mortal heart lies a great power. It is the heart that defines what we are. When one lives, he bears fruit to many experiences, many choices and many emotions. It is how he feels that defines his choice, and it is his choice that defines his experience. It is experience that defines life. And it is life that shapes your heart, moulds your soul. It is the life of the soul that forms existence.” It held out a delicate hand and a globe of fire and blackness swirled in the cup of its hand. “If one lives within darkness, it will be all the soul will know. It will pass into the outer world of existence once it has died, and bring with it knowledge collected in its life, and build with this knowledge a foundation to join the scattered pieces of that one consciousness.” It lifted its other hand and a globe of light and flame swirled above it. “If the soul lives within light, it will know light, and it, too, will build a foundation. When the soul comes back to me, it is shaped by the life is has lived, and will bring to me its knowledge it has learned, which is used by the chaos of the soul stream to grow, expand, and create order. The more a soul lives, the more wondrous and great its knowledge becomes, and the more it will add to the foundation of the universe as it joins with other foundations.” It let the two globes lift from its hands to combine with each other, creating a mass of brilliant energy and power as it mixed and ebbed. “Thus, building themselves back together, to one day again be whole.” The Shikon no Tama drifted its hands down to its sides, and the ball of energy faded.

 

InuYasha looked over at Sesshomaru in utter confusion.

 

Sesshomaru appeared humbled. “Every time we live, we learn, and bring what we learn to the afterlife. The essences of what we learn are like pieces of a puzzle, shaping the consciousness back together, to reform a unity of several thoughts.”

 

The Jewel of Souls nodded slightly. “For where there was one mind and one thought, there will now be many in one, and be one in many.”

 

InuYasha stared up at his half brother. “How are you getting all this?”

 

Sesshomaru let his eyes drift to the hanyou, then down to his side. “Tensaiga.”

 

“Yes. The Swords of Souls.” The Shikon no Tama gazed down to Tensaiga and finally Tetsusaiga. “Within me is the power of yin and yang. So to does this power flow through each soul I created. Your father was an especially powerful soul. He came to understand the purpose for life late in his own, and though only death could unite him to the soul stream, he did use his soul's knowledge to capture a part of this divine power within him to be placed in each of his fangs. One made for life, the other for death. One is yin, the other yang. For so did your father love a mortal life, and understood its importance, did he give himself to protect it. To each of you he gave the power to guard the souls from harm, so that they may live to serve their purpose. Both fangs are of equal strength and importance. They are the essence of one, two halves of one soul. Together, they embody the truth of life.” The Jewel shifted its gaze from Sesshomaru to InuYasha. “Through the power of the swords will you be the guardians of mortality, to ensure our world's restoration. As was the swords' purpose.”

 

InuYasha looked slowly from his half brother to the Tama, his expression tired. His eyes filtered down to the body he held in his arms and blood hot rage suddenly pumped in him. “Guardians of mortality? Restoration of the heavens? A living border of life and death? Fuck this shit! If you are the one in charge of life and death, then what went wrong? If you have the power to give or take life, to be the link to do whatever you think is so important, then why were you broken?! Why did you come here?!”

 

A twilight gaze settled on the hanyou with aching sadness and serene acceptance. “I was created to be the border, nothing more, nothing less. Whereas all that created me would form within me to become mortal and live, I would not. A part of me was set on my duty and purpose, while the other wanted a chance to live, to be apart of the unification. I had resolved to let a part of me live, while the rest of me retained the boundary. Yet I could not create myself as a soul, for I was but the gateway between worlds. Instead I would be born within a soul.”

 

“How was that possible?” Sesshomaru flicked his golden eyes over the heavenly being.

 

“A soul is formed with a collection of chaotic entities. Though one power may be more dominant than the rest, it is still one soul, but never to be the same when it lives again. When I molded the entities into a soul, I placed a portion of myself within it in order to be born as the dominant power. However, I never realized the ramifications.”

 

It gazed from Sesshomaru to InuYasha. “When one is born, it does not remember where it has come from, nor its purpose beyond existing. When the soul is born, it is meant only to live, and to learn with no other influences other than the souls that live with it. Survival is innate, the will to live a force very difficult to break. When I was born, I forgot what I was, and forgot what I was intended for. So I lived. Only to live in fear for my survival when my other half came for me.”

 

“Naraku?” InuYasha growled. “How is it possible that that sadistic bastard was also the Tama?”

 

The Jewel lowered its head slightly. “A soul is made of many parts, but these parts are governed by two sides.”

 

“This yin and yang?” Sesshomaru asked.

 

The Shikon nodded. “A soul is a representation of me. I am the whole of opposites. When I had divided, I embodied one aspect, while my other half retained the polar side of it. Whereas I embodied life, light and good….”

 

Sesshomaru titled his head in understanding. “Your other half, Naraku, was of death, darkness and evil.”

 

“Yes. As half of the Shikon no Tama, I only knew of purity and the powers of good. I feared my opposite. Thus, when the creature, Naraku, came to claim me, I ran. Instead of joining with him, as I was meant to, I hid within the soul stream, to be repeatedly born with the souls I inhabited. Yet I was never linked to the existence beyond the border. I was never a true soul. I was and will forever be the Shikon no Tama.”

 

InuYasha's face fell to look down at the still body that lay limply in his arms. “Why?” He looked back up at the Tama. “How did you know? Why did you go back after all this time?”

 

The Shikon's soft eyes looked down at the body. “I was never complete with the soul I resided in. I never lived. I had always felt broken, incomplete.” It drifted its gaze to InuYasha's. “Until I met you.”

 

“Me?”

 

“I knew my other half searched for me, but the need for survival outweighed my forgotten duty. It was I that called your souls to me, to be my guardians. I knew you would have the strength to keep me alive, especially since your swords embodied my powers to protect mortality. Yet the bond I had formed with you was unlike any I had ever known.” The Shikon looked at the necklace around InuYasha's neck. “When the rosary was placed, it forged the two souls together, and combined myself with your youkai. I had felt the most complete that I had ever in my thousand years I have existed. Then the link you had formed with my host soul created a power I had long since forgotten. It combined your two souls as one. It was this great power we shared that finally made me come to terms with what I was, though I could never truly comprehend it within my living soul.”

 

InuYasha stood, unconsciously lifting the body into his arms as he looked up at the Sacred Jewel. “What power?”

 

“Love.” The celestial smiled softly. “The greatest power any soul possessed as it melded back into existence was the essence of love. I had realized that that was what I had been searching for during my millennia of life. It is love that binds the souls here with each other, making them whole. It is love that connects you all to each other, for it is its power that reminds you all that you were once one. You are all a whole being that wishes to be so again.”

 

Its eyes settled onto the body he cradled protectively in his arms.

 

“And there is nothing greater than this, than the one who sacrifices their life for love.”

 

InuYasha lifted his face up at the Jewel. Tired pain was mixed with acceptance in his deep amber eyes. “You died for… for us.” He sighed resolutely.

 

“I died to become what I am. It was not for love I sacrificed myself, but for necessity.” Its pink hued eyes gazed upon the body serenely. “It was not my life, nor my love I gave to you.” The Shikon's voice flowed around him. “That is something I could not be capable of giving, for it was not my soul to give.”

 

InuYasha shook his head in deep dejection. What did that mean? He was never really loved? She never loved him? He felt his head drop and he cradled it into the cold crook of his mate's neck, trying to hide from the doubts and fears he held within him. InuYasha held the body tighter, afraid of what the Jewel would do or say if he let go. He couldn't let go, ever. Even if she was never real, even if her love was never real, he was. He'd be damned if he ever believed she did not love him. His soul practically screamed `liar' at the Shikon's glowing face. He knew Kagome's heart, he felt it through the rosary. It was their bond, and he knew her soul…. He knew she loved him… right? She died for him, twice. Hadn't she? It was for love, wasn't it?

 

Wave after wave of self-loathing and cynicism flooded over him. How could she love him? She was a pure being and he was just a hanyou. It was the very reason why he could never be open with her, why he could never tell her how he really felt. He came to rely on the necklace to be his outlet, and even then he hid himself from her. He was afraid, pure and simple. He was afraid that she would find his weaknesses and hurt him in ways he could never protect himself. Why he had fought her so long, he didn't know. She knew his heart, knew what he was and accepted him in everyway. Except she never knew how he felt for her. Now that she was gone, he felt hollow, alone. Only his memories kept him here. Only the knowledge of her love…her love…was it ever there?

 

He fell on his knees and buried his head into the body's chest. Was it not enough he would never have her in his life again? Could he bear one more moment of it knowing she never once loved him?

 

“It was she who gave her life for love.”

 

InuYasha gripped the body hard as the Tama's words flittered over him. He lifted his tear stained eyes up at the Tama in confusion, only to have them widen as he saw the rosary around his neck lift and shatter before him. A tear jerking cry wrenched from his throat as the last bond he felt with his mate was severed, leaving him in cold painful oblivion.

 

“What was created to keep us contained has been broken, it is no longer needed to bind our powers, for we are now both whole, two beings in one soul.” The Jewel stared deeply into the golden irises of the hanyou.

 

InuYasha shook his head numbly, as he shut his eyes. Hot tears flecked down on his paled cheeks. “I will never be whole again.”

 

A soft sigh swept over him like a calming zephyr wind. “Oh InuYasha…. You will never be alone. She is apart of you, as we all are apart of each other.”

 

InuYasha's eyes slowly looked up at the Jewel in quiet brokenness before holding Kagome softly against him.

 

The Shikon no Tama smiled softly down at him as it held all the secrets he wanted told. Slowly and peacefully, the Jewel lifted its face to the sky.

 

“I leave you, Guardians of the Swords of Souls. Live and protect this world in their truth.”

 

In a blaze of wind and white light, the Jewel slowly began to ebb and swirl, expanding outwards and upwards in a colossal tornado of intense energy, blinding the two brothers. And in a pure flash of light and warmth, it was gone.

 

Sesshomaru blinked his eyes and looked around. The shock bled the red from his face as he watched his entire army stir and gaze around. A few had even sat up, brushing grass and debris from their uniforms in bewilderment. All of them, each and every one, were alive and well, unscathed and unmarked by all that had occurred. His head hesitantly dropped to look down at InuYasha who was staring out into the tundra, his expression lifeless. His mate's body was still tucked tightly against him. The tai youkai was about to speak before he heard a voice call out across the barrens.

 

“InuYasha!” Sango waved her arms excitedly as she and the monk arrived in front of them astride the demon slayer's fire cat.

 

InuYasha made no response, instead he slowly tucked his face into the crook of Kagome's neck, instinctively breathing in her unique smell.

 

“InuYasha! Kagome!” Miroku smiled and hopped off the fire cat. “Kagome?”

 

“Kagome!” Sango jumped off Kilala and ran to them but Miroku held her back.

 

“What happened?” The monk's face drained as he watched the hanyou. InuYasha looked like he was devoid of all life.

 

Sesshomaru looked at them. “Do you not remember?”

 

Both warriors looked up at him. Sango stared at him in confusion, and Miroku shook his head. “No, I just remember falling off Kilala and….” He looked around and blinked. “Where's Naraku? Where are all the bodies…why…?”

 

“Naraku was also the Shikon no Tama, the darker half of it.” Sesshomaru stated. “He searched for Kagome to….”

 

“She died.” A voice mumbled up to them.

 

All three looked down at the half demon. His head rested on Kagome's chest and he seemed to be staring into space. “She died. She gave herself to Naraku and saved us. And now she's gone. They're both gone.”

 

“Oh, InuYasha.” Sango's eyes glistened with sadness. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.”

 

Miroku placed an arm around the slayer's waist and drew her into his chest and she willingly hugged into him and mourned the girl who saved them. His own eyes moistened with tears before they also fell. “At least she knew how much we loved her.”

 

“No.”

 

Miroku looked down at the hanyou in confusion.

 

Golden eyes slowly shut as he eased his hold on Kagome. “She never knew. I never told her.”

 

Sango lifted her head from the monk's chest and gazed down at him. “InuYasha?”

 

“Brother.” Sesshomaru's stoic voice seemed like a rock in this unstable moment and InuYasha was slightly jarred. “It would not do to keep her contained within you any longer. You have held yourself from her for more than was needed.”

 

InuYasha barely opened his eyes as his elder brother's words filtered into his mind. It was the truth. He had kept it hidden within him longer than he intended, too afraid of what she would say or do or think. He had meant to tell her, to give her that piece of him he never let anyone have, but it never seemed like the right time. There was always something holding him back: his trust, her loyalties, their powers, and their secrets. And even with those out of the way he still could not give him completely to her.

 

It was because he wanted it to be perfect. He wanted it to be alone after making love to her repeatedly. He wanted time to say it right, to say it in such a way that she would never doubt his words. But a funny thing about being alive. You think you are given all the time in the world, but all you are given is all the time in your life. And who knows how long that is. And he missed his chance. Now here he was, holding her body, on a battlefield where each of them died, and all but she was able to know how he truly felt. If given the time back, he would have told her the moment he knew, and he would have told her every moment of everyday that she completed him.

 

His brother was right. He couldn't keep it contained any longer. Though she couldn't hear him, he would finally let her know, finally let her have his life that was hers the moment they met.

 

He lifted her face to his own and pressed his lips onto hers, finally letting go and spilling his entire heart into that kiss. He poured everything he felt the moment he knew he was hers, and she his, into her lifeless body. He let Kagome have his soul.

 

He reluctantly lifted his mouth from hers, his breath shaking and hot against the winter frost and her pale lips. “Kagome…” he nuzzled his face into the nape of her neck, breathing her in for the last time, “I love you.”

 

And then there was silence, broken by a massive gasp of air as Kagome's chest heaved in a breath. Her body trembled and her fingers softly folded into the sleeve of his fire rat haori.

 

InuYasha shook in shock and his quivering clawed hands lifted her face to his own. “Ka…gome?” His throat barely let him speak.

 

A soft moan escaped her lips and deep blue eyes blinked heavily open. She smiled softly up at him. “Inu…Yasha.” Her breath shuttered as her lungs got used to the bitter cold. “I had a strange dream.”

 

InuYasha couldn't even breathe. He looked her over, praying to everything that this wasn't a dream. Her voice, her deliciously beautiful voice had said his name. He looked into her now lively blue eyes. “Kagome? You're… oh gods!” He clutched her hard against him.

 

She wheezed from the pressure. “I'm what?”

 

InuYasha let her go slightly and looked into her beautiful dark eyes. His gaze danced around her face, still fighting the idea it was all a dream. She smelled the same, looked the same, except her eyes, but she felt… different. But she was definitely alive, and purely Kagome.

 

InuYasha fisted his hands into her soft kimono and knocked the air out of her once again as he crushed his lips onto her soft warm ones, not giving a damn to the excited shouting of the slayer and monk who have been screaming the moment she revived. He wrenched his lips from hers and gazed down at her face. Her cheeks were pink and flustered and her eyes glassy and deep, and filled with such passion and love he never knew imaginable. “How…?”

 

She tilted her head slightly in a daze. “How?”

 

“The Shikon stated it was never a real soul, it had melded into ones it made. Kagome had her own soul. The Shikon was but a part of it.” Sesshomaru stated as if it was the most obvious thing and leaned down to help her onto her feet.

 

Kagome looked confused when she saw her father and her friends surrounding her. InuYasha stood up quickly beside her, not letting go of her in anyway, as if she would vanish if he did. “Shikon? Soul?”

 

“Do you not remember?” Her father lifted an eyebrow slightly.

 

Kagome frowned as she tried to recall her last memories and then paled. “Oh….” She looked at InuYasha. “Yes. I kissed you goodbye, and then… I was here.” She rubbed her forehead. “I had the weirdest dream, about a white light and souls, the Shikon no Tama and feeling so sad, because I lost something I really loved.”

 

She looked at all of them and struggled with a small smile. “I guess it doesn't matter.” She blinked heavily and looked around and her expression widened in surprise. “What happened? Where is Naraku…?”

 

Her father let a small rumble echo in his chest. “Gone, as is the Shikon no Tama. You need never have fear of it anymore.”

 

Kagome examined the youkai lord briefly, too overwhelmed to question, but knew enough to believe whatever her father said. She shivered and leaned slightly against InuYasha in exhaustion as she came to grips with her surroundings and what had happened. The Shikon no Tama was gone, which meant she was….

 

“Kagome?” Sango caressed her arm. “How are you feeling?”

 

“I feel…strange… like I'm…missing something.” She rubbed her arms distractedly. She looked at InuYasha's neck expectantly and frowned. “What happened to the necklace?”

 

“It is no longer needed.” Sesshomaru stated simply. “Its purpose was to contain the Shikon and the youkai powers. All that remains now are InuYasha and yourself. As long as you are with him, InuYasha need never fear himself either.”

 

Kagome watched him in a daze. “What do you mean?”

 

“The Shikon was but a part of you.” He father looked at her bored. “When the rosary was placed, it connected the Shikon and the youkai together. Now with the Shikon no Tama back to where it belongs, the rosary is invalid. The link that remains is the soul bond you created when you mated earlier today.”

 

Kagome shot beet red as did InuYasha who scratched distractedly at the back of his head as they remembered their actions before the war started.

 

Miroku's eyes gleamed and he was about to open his mouth before Sango slapped him across the back of the head.

 

Kagome coughed slightly. “Soul bond?”

 

Sesshomaru gazed down at her wryly. “The actions of love through mating. With the essence of life mixed between two souls, a soul bond is created. You are now apart of each other. One soul, in two bodies. Now more so than ever.”

 

Kagome shook her head in disbelief, too overwhelmed as it was. “One soul…in two bodies? When we… it made our souls one?”

 

“To an extent. The true connection happened when you died to release the Shikon no Tama. Your soul was already bound to InuYasha by that time. So naturally your soul would become one with his when you died.”

 

Kagome paled. “I…I died?”

 

“We all did…” Miroku glanced up at Sesshomaru, “I think.”

 

The youkai never bothered to correct the monk. “It seems the Shikon no Tama paid retribution and gave back the life it had taken. How could it give back a soul that was not taken by it, but by yourself? You gave your soul to InuYasha, and he returned it… finally.” Sesshomaru frowned slightly and turned to oversee his amassing army.

 

Kagome watched him go, unable to comprehend what he meant. She then looked to Sango and Miroku, and finally InuYasha. She was silent for a long while before her small voice broke the dead calm.

 

“Then it's over?” She sighed and looked up at the sky as she assessed her bearings. “They're gone? And… I'm human.” She looked down at her hands expecting some sort of powers. “I don't see the lights anymore… but I still feel them.”

 

Sango laughed. “Well, yeah, you're still a miko, regardless. Though the Shikon is no longer in you, you are still a compliment of it, just without powers beyond your control.”

 

The blue-eyed girl looked up at her friends expectantly. “It feels so much like a dream, I don't think I'll ever understand what happened, what it was all for.”

 

“Keh. It doesn't matter anyways. It's over, and there's only one thing that matters.” InuYasha smirked.

 

All three looked over at him.

 

“And what's that?” Kagome asked.

 

“Living.” He smiled down at her and lifted her face to brush his lips against hers. “And loving.”

 

Kagome's azure eyes opened wide and shut softly as his kiss deepened. “InuYasha?”

 

“I love you, Kagome.” He breathed against her mouth.

 

Kagome shivered at his touch and pressed her mouth against his once more. “I love you.”

 

A slight cough caught their attention and both grinned up at each other before turning back to their friends.

 

“So what do we do now?” Sango asked.

 

“Yeah.” Miroku grinned. “Seems like everything is back to normal, well, as normal can be.”

 

“Normal….” Kagome breathed, liking the way it felt.

 

InuYasha folded his arms around her waist and held her tight against his chest. “No special powers, no abnormal link… do you think you can handle being normal, Kagome?”

 

A snort echoed over the tundra and all four gazed over at Sesshomaru who had turned to look back at them. “She is not normal. Her soul is combined with yours. She is apart of you, and you of her. Her life is shared with your own. Who would consider a lifetime with a hanyou normal?”

 

InuYasha's jaw dropped as he watched his half brother turn and continue walking towards his generals. “Did he just insult me?” He gathered Kagome into his arms and leapt up after Sesshomaru - Sango, Miroku and Kilala racing behind. “Hey, fuck face, what did you mean by that?!”

 

Kagome's face turned from one of confusion to one of complete joy as she wrapped her arms around InuYasha's neck. A lifetime with her mate. But for some reason, a lifetime didn't seem like the end.

 

And for the first time in all that she could remember, she felt complete.