InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Facets of the Living Jewel ❯ Aut viam inveniam aut faciam ( Chapter 20 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or the other characters. Ms. Takahashi does. But Kensei is mine!

 

Thoughts:

[Inuyoukai]

`Inuyasha or others'

 

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam

By Licentia poetica

 

Kensei Higurashi idly watched the young kitsune throw stones at the well through the time portal in the Sengoku Jidai. `Poor kid. He just misses Kagome and the others. I'd let him through, but I need to bank my power in case the four of them go back to the Sengoku Jidai together. I hope they go separately…it took a lot out of me to stabilize the worm hole yesterday.' He gave a chuckle as Shippo sat down next to the well and began to threaten it, talking to it as if it was sentient. `Well, you're talking to something, kit, but it's not what you think. It would take a lot more than your little pebbles and fists to destroy the time anchors.'

 

Suddenly something triggered a time flux next to his anchor in the modern era, causing him to grimace in pain. `Gods! The Nexus!' Time instabilities twisted the worm hole and nearly broke his control over the stabilizing anchors he had mentally forged. He reinforced the time node at the Sengoku Jidai both to strengthen his power there and to give him a moment to analyze the fluctuations, noting in passing that the kitsune was too close and he had inadvertently trapped him in the anchoring time node. `I can't worry about him yet.'

 

The future time flux was so close to the attachments of his node that, in spite of his reinforced anchor in the past, his command of the time dimensions threatened to slip. The pain in his head overwhelmed him, forcing him to his knees. Gritting his teeth, he managed to withstand the waves of power and keep them from battering through the node in modern Tokyo. `Gods, I can't lose my family now!'

 

As he managed to hold against the waves of power, he became aware of the untrained and terrified presence that generated them. `Kagome! She's the source of the flux? Damn Nexus!' He grimaced as the power behind the flux increased. `Gods, she's so strong!' He sought the mind meld that he had created with her as soon as her powers became evident, the tempest of the time fluxes making him feel as though he was holding a flimsy thread in a hurricane instead of the powerful link that he knew he had forged. `I know she heard me before; now if she'll just acknowledge the connection.' Wincing at the incredible powers battering against their link, he desperately sought to stabilize his end of the meld, hoping that she could hear his mental voice amidst the chaos. `Kagome! KAGOME!'

 

`Papa? Papa, help me!'

 

`Thank the gods, you heard me. Kagome, what's wrong? Choose a path and stop the flux!'

 

“I can't…I can't choose!'

 

`Kagome, you have to make a decision! Choose a time path!'

 

`Papa, I can't! They're all pain and death! My friends! I can't!'

 

Her terror and pain battered at him through the meld, forcing him to back off from the connection before he lost control of his mental anchors. `Gods, I'm losing her!' He could feel a time vortex developing in the Nexus. `She's going to die and the whole damn thing will fall apart. No one knows what happens to Time Lords who get lost in a vortex!'

 

He reinforced his anchors against the tidal forces of the vortex and desperately tried to think of a solution, hanging on to his daughter's mind meld by a mere mental thread. `Kagome! I can't use my own power to help her. If I use it to drive the Nexus I have to let go of one of the anchors and the whole damn space- time fabric will become unstable. Who knows what will happen, and the rest of my family will be lost to Naraku's black hole! Damn, my only choice is to keep the worm hole stable. I can't let go to save her!'

 

He could feel her weakening through the meld, losing herself in the chaos and beginning to spin down in the vortex. 'I have to do something! I've given up everything to make this work…her childhood, my wife, my son. I am not going to lose my daughter, not now!'

 

In desperation he searched for an answer; a vessel to hold his mental power. `If I can just knock her out of the vortex without letting go of an anchor! I need…I need a projectile that I can—' his physical voice suddenly rang out in the quiet of the time dwelling as he became aware of the one possibility that would save her. “Shippo.”

 

`It's my only chance.' In desperation he widened the hole at the Sengoku Jidai just as he had done for the foursome on the previous day. `I'm breaking every rule in the book, but here goes.' He drew the kitsune child into the time dimensions, holding him within the worm hole and preventing his passage to the other side. The terror on the kit's face made him wince. `Gods, he's just a child! This is against everything I've been taught; against my ethics, and there's no guarantee that it'll work!' His meld with Kagome diminished as she weakened even farther. `Damn! The consequences may be terrible, I might be ruining everything by meddling with the Nexus, but I can't lose her!' Firmly repressing any reservations he focused his power and forced a mind meld with Shippo.

 

`Child, Kagome is dying! You must help her!'

 

Shippo, still frightened from the rippling earth beneath him and startled by his sudden transition into the blue coruscation of time travel, had opened his mouth to scream but stopped abruptly when he heard the baritone voice in his head. `The well is talking to me? Kagome is in trouble? I'll protect her, even if it's scary.' Crossing his arms and trying to look brave, he answered back. “What do I do? Where is she?”

 

`You are going to her on the pathway of my power. I have to warn you, it will not be easy! You must use the energy that I will give you to break through the waves of power that you'll see on the other side. Use this mental contact to call her.' With a slight sense of regret, Kensei pressed his end of Kagome's mind meld thread into Shippo's consciousness, relinquishing his connection with his daughter. `Call her! We are losing her!' Kensei narrowed his power and gave a huge mental push, projecting Shippo like an arrow through space and time toward Kagome's flux. `It's all I can do. I'm at the limits of my abilities and only the gods know what I've done to the Nexus. He watched, praying, as Shippo neared the junction of the Nexus and the worm hole. If this doesn't work, at the very least I have to try to save the child. I'll use my meld with him to pull him back somehow.'

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Shippo spread his arms wide as he flew through the blue tunnel toward the storm of power ahead. `It looks like Kagura's Dance of the Dragons attack.' He fisted his hands, preparing to fight his way through, and as he got closer he saw Kagome at the center, standing rigidly with her face contorted in pain.

 

“Kagome! Kaagoomeee!” he screamed with voice and mind. She did not respond. “Kagome, listen to me!” He began to gasp in fear as the edge of the maelstrom approached.

 

He reached the junction where the time forces met and screamed as his youki was battered by the conflicting powers and exploded out of his control, protecting him from forces he did not understand. Power flared through the time dimensions, ricocheting into Kagome and Kinsei and causing them both to scream in agony.

 

Shippo gritted his teeth and fought the current as the maelstrom pulled him in a fast, wide spiral circling around Kagome. `Ow, ow, ow, this hurts! But I'm not gonna lose her!' Buffeted about by the writhing strands of power as he reached out toward her, he was turned into the flow and caught transient glimpses of the area surrounding them as the current pulled him around. A flash of bright red swept past his vision. `Inuyasha! If I don't get to her he's gonna die, too?' Sango's anxious countenance blurred past and he spun in the current to face the center of the vortex again. `I'm not gonna lose my family!' He began to try to claw his way through the currents separating him from Kagome and called her again. “Kagome, help me! Kagome!” When she still didn't answer he desperately focused his youki, whimpering against the increase in pain, and tried to reach her by sending out his kitsune-bi. The fire was immediately sucked towards the center of the vortex and Shippo followed in its wake. `Great! Now if I can only—' his self-congratulation stopped abruptly as the vortex tightened and he began to spin so fast that he couldn't comprehend what was happening around him. He struggled uselessly against the flow as the open maw of the vortex began to pull him under and he reached up helplessly toward Kagome, the only stationary object in his consciousness. “Mama…Mama help me!” he screamed, his physical and mental voice ragged with fear.

 

She finally responded. Startled by his words, she opened her eyes. `Shippo? Shippo!' Seeing his danger she reached for him using both her physical hands and the mind meld. Ignoring the pain that enveloped her at his touch, she pulled him into her arms and mind.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Kensei despaired as he felt the meld with Shippo diminish. `I'm going to lose them both! I'll probably lose the connection with Innin and Sota as well.' He winced as the meld contacted Kagome's flux. The conjunction of his power, Shippo's youki, and Kagome's houriki caused a shriek of pure energy to explode from the Nexus, enveloping the Shrine of the Bone Eater's Well. `Gods! Kagome! What have I done?'

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Inuyasha entered the torii still flushed with energy, stopping abruptly when he saw Kagome in Miroku's arms.

 

[The beta is challenging our dominance. You must show him his place.]

 

`The bastard hentai. I'll kill him!' Inuyasha growled.

 

[We do not kill pack! Put him in his place. We are alpha!]

 

Suddenly Kagome exploded with the blue energy of the well and Miroku was thrown backwards. He landed twenty feet from her, hit his head with a sickening crack on the brick walkway, and went boneless. Sango and Innin were forced backwards, away from the shrine and toward Miroku's limp body. Surrounded by blue coruscating energy, Kagome screamed as her fists clenched and her body arched, her face contorted in a rictus of pain.

 

“Damnit!” Inuyasha raced from the gateway to try to reach her. The energies pulsed wildly as he neared them and he was thrown backwards, slamming to the paving stones and skidding on his back until he was stopped by one of the wooden supports for the torii. The structure swayed for a moment and several cracks appeared in the old wood, but it held against the blow. Leaping to his feet, he drew the Tessaiga and willed it to the barrier breaking form while he ran at the swirling energies threatening Kagome. Focusing his youki, he brought down the Tessaiga in an overhead strike. “Daaaah!”

 

The red blade sliced through the maelstrom with ease and cut off the currents of power, but at the same instant a flood of energy exploded from within the center of the vortex. As the katana blade and the power collided, the brilliant flash of a soundless explosion lit up the courtyard.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Kensei was blown backwards, exhausted in mind and body, but even as his back slammed into the unyielding wall of the time dwelling and he slid to the floor his primary feeling was relief. `Thank the gods, Inuyasha saved her. I don't know how he did it…how could youki stop a time vortex?' He cautiously checked the anchors of the worm hole and breathed a sigh of relief. `They're still in place, Kagome and Shippo are alive. I don't know what's happened to the Nexus, but I never could tell whether it was being resolved, anyway.' He winced as echoes of the power surge traveled back and forth between the time nodes of the worm hole, making his head ache. He raised tentative fingers to a sore spot on the back of his head and brought them away bloody. `Well, I broke through another Time Lord's flux. Maybe now I know why it's absolutely forbidden.' Sighing, he braced himself against the floor and stood up. `I forced a change in the time threads, I think. Midoriko will kill me when she finds out. How many times has she taught me not to meddle? But I had to save Kagome…the Living Jewel is our only hope.' He closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, trying to recover from the ordeal.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sango backed away from the explosion of power and watched in consternation as Miroku flew backwards. She was frozen with indecision for an instant, torn between her desire to help him and her concern for Kagome, but moved toward the monk when Inuyasha leaped toward the swirling blue power that enveloped the young miko. `He's being an idiot, but he'll help her. I have to see what happened to Miroku!'

 

When Inuyasha was thrown backwards by the maelstrom she hesitated again, her confident stride uncharacteristically clumsy. `Gods!' As the hanyou leaped forward and brought down the Tessaiga to slice through the currents of power, she made a diving leap to place herself in front of Miroku. `He can't defend himself!'

 

She executed a flawless shoulder roll and came up in a battle crouch in front of the monk's inert body, bracing herself against the glare of the explosion and waiting for the shock wave. She blinked as the light blinded her but nothing else disturbed the courtyard. `What? Such power and no explosion?' When she could finally see, she gave a small, worried cry. Kagome had been thrown backwards to the ground and, though she seemed unconscious, clutched the small, still form of Shippo tightly in her arms. `Shippo? How did he get here?' Her mind swirled with confusion as Inuyasha ran to Kagome's side, sheathing the Tessaiga as he went. Her first coherent thought was for the monk behind her. `Miroku! He's injured. Oh gods, don't let him be dead!' She turned and nearly ran into Innin as they both knelt next to his motionless form.

 

Inuyasha finished sheathing the Tessaiga and knelt down next to Kagome and Shippo. Her face was pale and she wasn't breathing so he listened carefully for a heartbeat. `Shit. She looks so fragile. She must have been pulled out of time again, damnit! What's happening to her? How the hell did Shippo get here? Something else must have gone wrong.' He waited, panic rising in his throat as the only sounds he could hear were his own strong pulse and Shippo's rapid heartbeat. `Oh, gods, please…,' he begged, gently picking her up and filtering out all other sounds, straining to hear even the faintest whisper of a beat. He gave a gasp of relief as her heart gave a sudden lurching thud. `Gods, this is worse than the time she got poisoned. I can't fight this time shit!'

 

Shippo gave a soft moan, stirring in her arms, and Inuyasha was reminded of the rest of his Pack. He glanced over to Sango where she kneeled next to Miroku. “Is Miroku all right?”

 

Sango turned from where she and Innin were examining the monk and glared at him. “You were going to attack him, you baka! Why do you care if he's alive or not? What's the matter with you!”

 

“I wasn't going to hurt the stupid bastard! He just needs to keep his hentai hands off of Kagome, damnit!”

 

Sango fisted her hands and leaped up to argue with him, but at that moment Miroku moaned and she turned back to him just as Innin helped him sit up, supporting him from behind.

 

“Oh, gods, my head.” Miroku groaned, his words slurring together as if he was drunk. Obviously barely conscious, he blinked blearily at Sango and leaned back into Innin, almost knocking the smaller woman over.

 

“How is Kagome?” Innin asked, unable to rise from her position supporting the monk but noticeably upset as she stared at her motionless daughter. Her voice quavered as she asked, “Why isn't she moving?”

 

Inuyasha didn't answer so Sango stalked over to the trio, swallowing hard when she saw Kagome's face. `Oh gods, she's so pale and still.' She knelt down, taking Shippo from Kagome's unresisting arms as he began to shake his head, his hands coming up to cover his ears. “Are you okay, Shippo?” she asked gently.

 

He looked up at her and gave a wavering smile. “I…ow. I think so. My ears hurt.”

 

Sango looked back up at Inuyasha, her anger diminishing rapidly. He did not meet her eyes and continued to stare down into Kagome's face; faint traces of his cheek markings were still visible. `At least his eyes are golden again. Why was he transforming to his youkai form?' Her residual anger melted as she saw the pain and concern in his face, so she asked quietly, “Inuyasha? Is Kagome all right?”

 

“I don't know.” His voice was almost a whisper. “Her heart is beating and she's breathing, barely. She hasn't opened her eyes.”

 

`Kagome.' Though his voice was soft, Innin heard him and once again was faced with the conflict between her natural maternal instincts and the demands of the Nexus. `I hate this! I've always believed Kensei when he's told me that she's safe, but seeing this…the incredible powers that she's exposed to…how often does this happen? How many times has Kagome been close to death? I've trusted Inuyasha as well, but why were they so frightened of him and why were his eyes blood red? I don't know if I want my daughter to be in love with him...he's always been gentle with her, if a little rough around the edges, but…now things are different.' She shifted a bit as her body protested Miroku's dead weight and cleared her throat. `He won't like this, but I will protect my daughter.'

 

“Inuyasha, you have to go.” She shook her head as his gaze snapped up and focused on her face. “I know you don't want to leave Kagome, but you used the Wind Scar earlier and the police will be after you. You need to go through the well.”

 

“I won't leave Kagome.” He pulled her closer to his chest and growled softly, causing both Sango and Shippo to glance nervously at him. He ignored them as he focused on Kagome's slow, thudding heartbeat and the smell of fear coming from Innin. The fear scent increased as he stood up, cradling Kagome against his chest.

 

`Does she think we'd hurt Kagome? What is she afraid of?'

 

(She's worried about her daughter.)

 

`Shit, so am I! This place is so empty of magic I thought it would be safe. Now what?'

 

[Take her back through the well. In our time perhaps we can find something to counter the time spells.]

 

(Weren't you the one who wanted to come here?)

 

The demon sighed. [I do not claim to be perfect, human. Who in this time can help her, now that we know that the time magic will follow?]

 

He jumped to the well house, but hesitated as Innin cried out, “What are you doing? You need to go, but my daughter is hurt and you should leave her here with me! I'll take care of her!”

 

He turned around to look at her. “You can't protect her from the Nexus. I'm not sure that anything can, but I'm taking her with me. I'll take care of her.”

 

Ignoring the startled exclamation from Innin, he opened the door to the shrine and cleared the steps and the wood of the well in one leap. As the blue energy of the transference enveloped him he thought, `Shit, she's going to hate me, but even if I can't protect Kagome from the Nexus, I know more about what I'm facing in my time. I won't leave Kagome anywhere without my protection now.'

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Kensei hissed in pain. After the energy drains of the last few minutes, the use of his power to stabilize the worm hole for the transference was almost beyond him. He managed to hang on until they had crossed, then placed a time barrier over the anchors and slipped into unconsciousness.

 

The well was sealed to travel. Miroku, Sango, and Shippo were all trapped in modern Tokyo, and Inuyasha and Kagome were alone in the Sengoku Jidai.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Translations:

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam: Latin; I'll either find a way or make one.

Japanese:

Kitsune-bi: Fox Fire; Shippo's blue fire attack.

Torii: the traditional gate found in Japan at the entrance to a Shinto shrine, consisting of consisting of two uprights supporting a concave crosspiece with projecting ends and a straight crosspiece beneath it. Passing underneath a torii on the way to visit a shrine is an act of purification before approaching the kami.