InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Fire of Life ❯ Part I ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

A.N.: Most importantly, this story contains SPOILERS for the Inuyasha series up to chapters 350-351 of the manga. So, if you have not read these chapters, and would like to find out what occurs in them from Mrs. Takahashi rather than from me (understandable, really ~ ^_^), I would advise you to read no further.

This is a two-part fic, actually, but I thought it ought to count as a one-shot…

Disclaimer: As I am in a hurry, I'll just say it plainly. I don't own Inuyasha. There….

Fire of Life

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"I hope that one day,

The Infernos below the Earth

Shall consume me along with this living coffin in which I dwell,

And in the raging fires I shall find eternal life."

~Anonymous poem from post-revolutionary Chinese film

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Fluttering grasses settled demurely at her sides, glowing pale blue under the ever-vigilant moonlight.

"Woman…I remember your scent. It is the same as that of the demon who had once sought my death - Naraku…"

Naraku- was she forever condemned to be associated with that idiot? Her aggravation was short-lived, however, as it was quickly replaced by a thought that - had it not been for the intrigue it carried - she would otherwise have deemed rather ill-suited for the moment.

So, this is Inuyasha's brother…

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Her anger flared against insouciant darkness. She could almost feel it surging through the night air in a manner similar to that of her trademark windblades - plunging, tearing,filling the void created by disappointment and crushed hope.

He was still speaking. "If you truly desire freedom, then you must use your own strength to defeat Naraku."

"I am only saying - I have no obligation to help you…"

And moments later she was soaring away from that wretched mountainside, cursing herself for daring to hope that he, of all people, would perhaps not have sided with the rest of the demon world and humanity alike…

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From a carefully chosen vantage point, she looked on as the battle below came to a head, knowing that interference on her part would not be appreciated by either party. To be honest with herself, she had been quite worried when Naraku had, by all appearances, succeeded in absorbing his opponent into the tangled mass of tentacles of which his current form was comprised. She had then felt all the more foolish when the demon lord in question had broken free seconds later and proceeded to, with Inuyasha's help, tear her obviously stunned master to pieces.

Narakuwas running, so it seemed, taking to the air in a swirling mass of miasma and shadow. She suppressed the rather childish urge to grin as she thought, Ha, bet you didn't expect any of that…

Then he was gliding away as well, blue mist pooling at his feet and carrying him off towards the eastern skies.

It made her wonder - how was it that one as self-centered as powerful as he would be willing march headfirst into what he must have easily recognized as a trap, all for the sake of one human child?

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He touched down gracefully onto jagged rock, coming to a stop not three feet in front of her. Needless to say, her attention was immediately diverted from the figure of the decapitated demon bird that was still crashing its way down the mountainside.

The edges of his mouth curled upwards by the slightest fraction.

"This entrance you speak of - where is it?"

Well, at least he's rather enthusiastic for a change, she thought caustically.

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She was hardly sure whether to trust her own senses as she watched the two statues fall into a kneeling position before him. The stone door groaned slightly, and the first glimmers of light from the world beyond shone through.

Her composure was thrown to the winds as she cursed herself a thousand times over for neglecting to mention the one crucial detail that had, not days ago, almost been her own undoing.

"Stop! The light from the doorway turns all it touches to stone!"

She would later reflect upon how idiotic she must had sounded, as, contrary to her fears, the light did not seem to affect him at all. She watched on as he treaded majestically through the illuminated doorway, like one of the mythical princes from the dawns of time.

I was right, Sesshomaru is indeed the only one who can, in the end, defeat Naraku…

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She threw the ball of crystallized miasma to the grass at his feet, and decided to take to the air before she could manage to further complicate her situation.

She hoped she had made herself sufficiently clear when informing him of the properties of the crystal. If she had, then he would most certainly use it and, in doing so, be aiding her in her search for Naraku's heart.

Her own words reverberated tauntingly through her mind: "Without someone of your caliber, killing off Naraku would be impossible…"

Guess that after all this time, I'm still asking for help, huh…

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She swayed precariously atop her feather, the world below spinning dizzily with every sharp throb emitted by the wound in her chest.

The irony of finally discovering the whereabouts of Naraku's heart but being impaled by a damned shaman before she could seize it would have made her curse herself a hundred times over, had she had any breath to spare.

The hole through her chest was decidedly fatal, and she was not sure why she was choosing to spend the last few seconds of her life surveying the countryside. She was hazily surprised that she had even managed to make it this far from the small temple, where Inuyasha and his people were no doubt still lingering...

Below her, the dull roar of a waterfall…

And at its foot, a white-clad figure…

Her labored breath caught suddenly in her throat, and he became nothing more than a small white dot in a sea of swirling greys before all color vanished, and she tumbled from the feather into a sea of pain.

But it seemed that even as the darkness took her, it receded again…

She opened her eyes to the rough texture of stone, became immediately aware of the rushing river and the waterfall behind her, noticed herself to be soaking wet. Looking down to her chest, she realized with an even greater degree of confusion that the gaping wound had somehow healed itself.

Hmph, how ironic, I've been spared because Naraku holds my heart…

"Um, are you okay?"

She turned, and stuttered very foolishly as she took in the figure of the human girl and the small, kappa-like demon that usually hung about Sesshomaru. Both, she noted, were every bit as wet as she was.

Could she dare think, that it had been…

"Sesshomaru-sama saved us." The girl was determined to make conversation, it seemed.

"And saved you along the way." The kappa added grumpily.

Since when had he ever been inclined to saving anyone?

She glanced about, and spotted the demon lord in question leaning against a rock a few paces away, noting that he, unlike the three of them, did not seem to have a speck of water upon his ridiculously perfect figure. She was also for once grateful of his determination to look away from her, as the top half of her kimono had been shredded in the same explosion of power that had impaled her through the chest.

"Oy." She found herself to be suddenly incapable of coming up with a conversation starter that was not quite so pathetic.

No response.

"So you do have a merciful side, huh?"

The kappa was yelling something indistinguishable in the background. Sesshomaru rose.

"Jaken, Rin, we are leaving."

It was the same monotonic voice and expressionless face that she had almost grown used to, but at that moment she found it all too much to stand. Even if he chucked her back into the river, she was going to make him listen, dammit!

"Just wait a second, you idiot!" She yelled, wincing inwardly at her own utter lack of courtesy. "Aren't you going to ask what happened?!"

"I have no interest in your affairs."

She forced herself to gather her remaining semblances of calm. "Even if I know where Naraku's heart is?"

He turned, and gave her his full attention.

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It was nuts, really. She had actually managed to have a rather lengthy conversation with Sesshomaru, after he had just fished her out of a river, no less. What he had drawn to her attention, however, lay more ponderously upon her mind.

"If you already hold so little of Naraku's trust," he had told her - counseled her, almost. "Then he surely knows that you intend to betray him."

He was right, she had to admit. And because of it, she could not afford to linger.

She forced the words from her mouth, knowing fully well that they would be wasted upon him.

"Thank you and all that. I'll be going now."

"Really?" It was the human girl - Rin. "But didn't you come here, because you wanted Sesshomaru-sama to help you?"

She was caught off guard by the seemingly innocent question, reminded brusquely of her past naïveté and the seriousness of her current plight.

I don't see how even you, Sesshomaru, can help me now…

With a final glance back to the stone-faced demon lord, she took off into the air, allowing the misty winds to clear her mind as she soared above vibrant earth.

And she finally understood, grasped what her subconscious had all along been trying to tell her. With what she had assumed to be her dying breath, she had been so desperate to seek out and reach that waterfall because, after all, there were things that one would want to experience… and people one would want to see… for one last time, before death caught up with them.

Well, goodbye, Sesshomaru. If all you say is true, I do not think that we will meet again.

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She felt all this, and more, pass through her mind in the fraction of a second that it took Naraku to raise his hand, clench his fingers around the struggling red mass within it, and squeeze down unrelentlessly.

She saw his mocking smile, and was surprised to find herself matching it with a small one of her own even as her hopes dissolved to ash.

Somehow, she found it within her to lift her fan and send one last set of wind blades at him, while fully knowing that they would be just as ineffective as the previous ones. And then, even as the red shadows tingled at the corners of her vision like cherry blossoms tossed in a gale, she sensed something both wondrous and odd about her current plight, something for which she had been searching for a very, very long time.

She realized that she was indeed, in every sense of the word, free. It was a freedom sprung from her long defiance, from the fact that she had been able to create for herself the memories that she had just relived, and from this sanctity she was able to experience at the moment of her own downfall.

The showers of sakura faded, and there was only the silence of winter night.

~ End Part I

Yes, unfortunately, she died….but whether she will remain dead has yet to be seen…

With that said, this is a two-part story. Part two will be up later today, or early on tomorrow at the latest. Thanks for reading!