InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Collected Works ❯ Bittersweet ( Chapter 60 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Title: Bittersweet
Author: LuxKen27
Universe: Canon (Chapter 552)
Word length (free): 444
Rating: T
Summary: In his final moments, Naraku realizes just how tightly the red thread of destiny binds.

Entry for: iyfic_contest Week 194, “Naraku” prompt

Disclaimer: The Inuyasha concept, story, and characters are copyright Rumiko Takahashi and Viz Media.

Her voice broke through his cloud of darkness seconds before the purifying power of her arrow. He watched listlessly, suspended in animation, as the pure pink light edged ever closer to the corrupted jewel at his core.

“Naraku!” she called out, her tone hoarse with determination. “The Shikon no Tama! It didn’t grant your real wish, did it?”

My real wish…

He closed his eyes as memories filled his mind, each piling on top of the other in rapid force:

The first time she encountered him –

– this kindly miko, feeding him broth –

– keeping his filthy, paralyzed body clean and bandaged –

– the painful desires that took hold in his heart –

– the helpless desperation that cried out to the hordes of youkai –

That’s right…

He smiled sadly, his soul filling with despair for the first time in fifty years. How ironic that this little girl, this reincarnation of his one true love, would be the only one to discern his motives.

Why? Why had he taken up this quest, to collect the shards of the Shikon no Tama? Why had he thirsted for such power, to be able to spawn incarnations to do his bidding? Why had he concocted such elaborate plans to complete the jewel and slay his enemies?

Why? Because he had something to prove.

He had someone to impress.

The love he had fostered for that kindly miko as a human lived on in each subsequent recreation of his body – first as jealousy, then as hatred, then as retaliation. He’d had to cut his very heart out in order to find it within himself to kill her…and even then, he was not able to complete the job.

She’d asked him once, during that confrontation at Mt. Hakurei, just what his true objective was.

“Don’t you understand, Kikyo?” he’d asked her sardonically. “There is only one thing I wish to accomplish here.”

He had laughed as he struck her down, splitting her shoulder, allowing the dead souls that animated her body to escape. “Kikyo, my only desire…”

Perhaps if she’d begged for her life…

…if she’d acknowledged his love for her…

…he would have reconsidered.

But no. She gazed upon him with nothing less than absolute loathing – and as she fell backwards, hurtling headfirst towards the swirling rapids of miasma –

– as her life flashed before her eyes –

– she thought only of her precious Inuyasha.

“My only desire,” he said aloud, watching as Kagome’s arrow pierced the corrupted jewel, feeling his body shatter into millions of tiny pieces for the last time, “was Kikyo’s heart.”

Not even the Shikon no Tama was powerful enough to give me that…in the end, it was all for naught.