InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Go Home Kagome ❯ Red Wedding ( Chapter 23 )

Chapter Twenty Three

Red Wedding

 

Kagome landed on the well bottom with an UMPH! Frustration bit at her as she scrambled up the brick walls only to see the ceiling of the well house roof.

 

Her fingers slipped and she fell back down to the well floor landing on solid earth. Ever since the Shikon no Tama was destroyed she'd taken for granted that her connection to it would always allow her passage to the Feudal Era. It came out of my body after all. Who's to say it isn't back inside me now?

 

Inuyasha traveled successfully between worlds without a shard and she'd always assumed the well allowed him through simply because she wished it. She willed it with all of her might so perhaps some of her power was passed to him.

 

But now, tonight sitting in the dirt on her hands and knees, Kagome knew better. Shikon no Tama was gone. All traces of it were null and void as was it's hold on her. Normally this would be something to celebrate. She'd secretly been waiting to be attacked by some power hungry yokai and now she knew she was safe. Instead of joy she was in mourning.

 

Her hair hung down in dirty strands from lying in the dirt trying to claw her way back. Her efforts were wasted. Kagome ripped a finger nail and the sharp pain brought her closer to reality. I guess it's really over.

 

She clung to the secret hope that this time he would keep his promise to meet her. He was too late last time. Kagome's palm found her forehead. This isn't my memory? What the hell…did I hit my head on the fall down here?

 

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_--

 

Over 565 years ago….

 

Aiko's hand brushed the cool, coarse stone of the Buddha statue and she was filled with an unexplainable calm. This is where I belong. The night was silent except for the occasional cricket and night bird. Aiko took a deep cleansing breath and pushed away all her thoughts and guilt of leaving her mother behind. I've been waiting for this since…forever. Freedom.

 

She crept around the base of the statue and found Inuyasha was absent. No matter, Aiko knew from deep with in the depths of her being he would honor his pledge and come. She looked up to the night sky and counted the stars.

 

How lucky I am to be a bride under this night sky. It's a thousand times more breathtaking than any elaborate Shinto wedding ceremony. And the dress is more comfortable too.

 

Her mother had fitted her earlier today with the rented wedding outfit for her marriage to the fish monger. The clothing alone weighed more than she did. She was grateful to be rid off the outfit and the groom.

 

Aiko checked her basket and reassured herself that she hadn't forgotten Inuyasha's beloved hand pulled noodles and dried fish. The perfect wedding feast. Satisfied she patted the basket then sat at the base of the statue and waited. Her eyes closed and she slept under the moonless sky.

 

Aiko woke at the sound of approaching footsteps and saw the flash of silver hair as a male figure stepped around the other side of the giant Buddha. She rose to her feet and went to meet her beloved. It was almost morning and he was late but she didn't care. He came.

 

The man who spun to face her wasn't Inuyasha. He wore full Daimyo lord dress. His pointed ears and purple stripes signified he was a powerful Taiyokai. His long silver hair fell loose down his back. Aiko was fascinated and repulsed by his cruel expression. This was not the kind of being whose attention she wanted to attract.

“Why are you here?” she asked softy.

 

She knew he'd heard her but he chose not to respond. He turned from the Buddha's clearing towards the dense growth of trees.

“Little half-breed filth, why don't you come out here and meet your bride.”

 

Aiko's heart pounded. She tried to see through the trees but there was no sign of Inuyasha.

 

The yokai called out. “It's the new moon. Get your hide out here or else I'll do it for you.”

 

Aiko saw a slight figure make it's way out off the trees. A human man with long dark hair and slightly oversized ears approached her. His head hung and she had to stoop to see his face. Once she glimpsed his eyes, she knew instantly. “Inuyasha! You came.” Aiko silently scolded herself for forgetting tonight was the night of the new moon. That is why he is late.

 

The Taiyokai frowned. “You care not that he is weak?”

 

Aiko titled her head and announced in a voice stronger than she felt. “I've accepted him as he is. It makes no difference to me what he is as long as he's my Inuyasha. Who are you and why are you here?”

 

He bit back an oath and swung his armor back from his shoulders. “I am Sesshomaru lord of the Western Lands and this bastard's only relation. I'm here because I have to honor a promise I made, many years ago.”

 

He bent down and grasped the human Inuyasha by the scruff of his neck and tossed him at Akio's feet as if he weighed no more than a basket of clothes. “Here fish bitch. I give him to you. He is no longer my concern. As the Inu Taiyokai my promise had been kept and the half bred now belongs to you. It is no longer my concern if he is stealing food or scaring the priests.”

 

Aiko's lips fell open. She hadn't known what to expect but this was the last outcome she imagined. Inuyasha groaned but stayed down signaling his submission. She knew in his normal form he would have leapt to his feet and gone for this creature's slender white throat with his hanyou claws. “Sesshomaru-sama, is Inuyasha hurt or in trouble?”

 

He gazed down on her from under his thick silver lashes. “He's a filthy half bred. Isn't that enough trouble?”

 

Inuyasha groaned and Aiko realized Sesshomaru had dragged him here against his will. Wasn't he going to come on his own? Where were you Inuyasha?

 

The night was dark from the lack of moon but as she studied his face she saw the bloodied bruises and that his arm hung lose and dislocated from his shoulder. He's weak, that monster beat him all the way here.

 

Sesshomaru turned to leave but a din of shouting erupted in the woods. He stepped back into the trees and watched.

 

A mob of angry mortals stormed the tiny clearing baring torches, staffs and swords. Aiko shrunk back against the stone Buddha.

 

A large, thick necked man stopped before her and kicked her hard in her stomach.

“Bitch! How could you mother pawn you off on me? You've shamed me with this half breed.”

 

Inuyasha struggled to his feet but a man slipped up behind him and struck him hard across his head with a club. His eyes went wide and then closed as he collapsed into the grass. A small trickle of blood flowed from his nose and another from his ear. Aiko lay on her belly in the dirt. She screamed as she reached for him.

“Inuyasha!”

 

Aiko's fish monger bent down and wrapped his meaty hand in her hair lifting her head off the ground. She cried but he ignored her and turned to face Inuyasha who lay gasping as he slipped in and out of consciousness. The fish monger's accomplices hauled him to his feet.

 

“I know you've had her… filthy hanyou! She is ruined and possibly carrying your spawn. Watch and see how we deal with the likes of you in this village.”

 

Two men held him back and propped his head up. They made sure his eyes were open when the fish monger hefted his katana and swung the sharp blade down on Aiko's neck. Her screams were cut short and Inuyasha's lids weren't quick enough to block out the sight of her head falling from her shoulders.

 

He lost all sense of himself and howled his throat hoarse demanding. “Kill me too! Fucking human cowards, kill me too.”

 

The men restraining him had meant to honor this simple request but Inuyasha, even human, was unpredictable at best. They flung him down to the ground and retreated through the woods to the village.

 

The fish monger sheathed his bloody blade. He paused before Inuyasha and kicked him full in the face with his wooden geta sandal. He felt his nose break and the bones press back into his sinuses. The fish monger laughed then left. His world was overtaken by blinding white agony.

 

Inuyasha didn't know how long he lay in the dirt before Sesshomaru approached him. “See what your human side is capable off?”

 

Inuyasha turned his head and spat out a tooth. He saw the dim outline of Aiko's body and then he was ill on the ground. Inuyasha lifted his head and growled at his half brother. “You could have stopped them but you did nothing.”

 

Sesshomaru shrugged. He felt no urges then or now to save the girl. She was human and a trivial creature at best. “The blame rests with you not me. Had you been here when you were supposed to they never would have found her. Your tardiness killed her.”

 

Inuyasha dropped his head back down on the hard ground. “I was late because I stopped to fight with you.”

 

“Foolish half bred.” Sesshomaru frowned and headed back to the woods. His expression was one of boredom. Outraged Inuyasha called out to him.

 

“Wait!”

 

Sesshomaru stopped. “What?”

 

“Kill me. You've been promising to do it for years. Make good on your threat.”

 

Sesshomaru sighed. “You're half dead and human. It's not worth my time. But the day will come. Never doubt it. However today it's more entertaining to leave you here. The dawn will heal you and then we shall meet another day.”

 

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

 

Present day…

 

Kagome's eyes snapped open. She coughed and wrapped her hands around the warm and blessedly intact column of her throat. How could I have forgotten?

 

She was winded from her vision and the fall down the well. I stayed with him even after…they killed me. I saw it all. I remember… Her eyes shut but the images were burned on the inside of her eyelids. The katana rising above her bare neck then falling down and severing…

 

Despite the fact she was sitting on the warm earth Kagome's felt a chill in the marrow of her bones. I could have lived ten more lifetimes without reliving that particular memory.

 

Kagome forced herself to take deep, calming breaths until her pulse slowed. His world it's so dark… I'd almost forgotten.

 

“Sesshomaru you dick head!” Kagome's shout echoed off the stone walls of the well. He knew exactly what he was doing when I saw him and that was really him. I should have known. No kitsune is capable of recreating those cruel eyes…

 

Kagome remembered when Naraku threw Kikyo into the river of acid. It was Sesshomaru who told Inuyasha she was `dead'.

 

`I know not what your connection to that miko is nor do I care to'.

 

He's always been clueless. Sesshomaru never knew Kikyo until after she came back to life. He must have been bored the day he found me on his side of the well. Why did I believe him? As if he has any reason to care one iota about us or our lives. He claimed omnipotence but it was all a lie.

 

Inuyasha hadn't saved her so of course in his opinion he was as good as her murder. On the other hand had he not stopped to fight Sesshomaru then she or I would have lived… We could have shared a life together.

 

How can I trust him to be there tomorrow five hundred years later if he couldn't even make it to the Stone Buddha and that was only the next day? What if he's dead?

 

Kagome sat up and leaned back against the stone walls. She anticipated the coming dawn with hope and a dark dread.