InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ His Wish ❯ Options Open ( Chapter 2 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

His Wish

Chapter 2

Options Open

RRIIIINNNNGGG!!

`Damn alarm clock.' Kagome sat up in her bed and grabbed for the offending technology. After clicking it off, Kagome decided a bath would be a much nicer way to wake up fully.

She trudged down the hall to the bathroom, only to find that Souta was already occupying the facilities. A few moments pounding on the door gained Kagome access into her personal (well sort of) haven.

She sighed as she closed the door and locked it. Retreating to the bathtub, Kagome turned on the spigots of hot and cold water. She brushed her teeth while waiting for the tub to fill.

Kagome had just slid into the pleasantly hot water, when there was a knock on the door.

“Kagome, dear.” It was Mama.

“Yeah?”

“Don't forget about school today. And breakfast will be ready in a few minutes.”

“Alright, Mama. I'll be out soon.”

Kagome listened as her mother's steps faded into silence. Sighing, Kagome returned her thoughts to their previous musings.

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After firing the arrow, Kagome had blacked out. All the energy pouring from Kikyo had exhausted the younger miko. Unfortunately, it had killed Kikyo. Again.

Kagome regained consciousness a few minutes later. Naturally, she was disoriented and wanted to know what had happened. Miroku, who had been watching over the sleeping miko, was the one to answer her questions, seeing as how Sango was mourning Kohaku, Kouga had run off, and Inuyasha was sulking somewhere.

Apparently, the arrow that Kagome had shot had disintegrated Naraku into dust. That was rather obvious news though and Kagome wanted to know what had happened to Kikyo.

“Well as far as I can tell,” said Miroku, “she had weaved all of her spiritual power and life energy into her spell. And when you fired the arrow, she lost all of her dead souls and collapsed into a pile of clay dust.”

“Did she manage to take Naraku to Hell, like she planned?” Kagome asked anxiously, as she sat up slowly to avoid making herself dizzy.

Miroku sighed and shrugged his shoulders, “That I don't know. All I do know is that Naraku is dead. See, look!” He slipped off the gauntlet that covered his Kazaana arm and displayed his palm. The flesh was solid and perfect, with no indication that there had ever been a gaping, sucking void in the middle of his hand.

“That's wonderful, Miroku-sama. I'm so happy for you,” Kagome exclaimed happily. “What does Sango-chan think of this?” she added with a mischievous glint in her eye.

Miroku grimaced and Kagome automatically sobered. “Sango is… honestly, I don't know how she is. I know she said she'd be okay, but when Kohaku collapsed and we went over to him, we found that he was still alive. But just barely.”

Kagome clasped a hand to her mouth. “Oh, no. What happened?”

Miroku ran his, now curse free, hand through his hair, before dropping it back into his lap. He sighed, “Kohaku stayed alive long enough to ask for Sango's forgiveness and to wish her a long and happy life. He also said that he was no longer afraid of dying, because he was already dead.”

“Where is Sango-chan?” Kagome stood, a little wobbly at first, in order to find her friend.

“She's still sitting by his body, just over there.” Miroku pointed to a spot in the trees. “We had to leave the glade, due to all of Naraku's… um… body parts poisoning the air.”

Kagome pulled her face into a sour look. “Thanks for the visual, Miroku-sama. I'll be back.”

Kagome tottered over to the place Miroku had shown her. Sure enough, there was Sango, leaning against a tree with Kohaku's body lying about ten feet in front of her, covered by the slayer's apron. Kirara was curled at the top of Kohaku's head in a mournful attitude.

“Sango-chan?”

Sango raised her head. “Ah, Kagome-chan. You're awake. We've been so worried, especially Inuyasha.”

Kagome knelt down next to the demon slayer. “Thanks for worrying, but I'm ok now. My head's too tough to crack easily.” She demonstrated by rapping her knuckles on her skull. Sango huffed a weak laugh at her antics. “So, how are you doing? Miroku-sama told me what happened after Kohaku-kun's shard was removed.”

Sango sighed and looked back down at her brother. “He asked for my forgiveness, Kagome-chan. I told him that he had never needed it to begin with.”

“Of course, he didn't. What he did was never his fault. It was all Naraku's doing and now he's dead. Thank goodness for that at least.” Kagome flopped back against the same tree as Sango.

“Yeah,” Sango perked up a bit as she thought this over. “Yeah, he's dead. Finally, my village has been avenged and Houshi-sama's curse has been lifted. Now we can all go back to leading normal lives, right, Kagome-chan?” The slayer turned her face towards the miko, expecting to see a smile, but was rewarded with a frown. “Kagome-chan, what's wrong?”

“Hm? Oh, nothing I guess. I'm just wondering what I'm going to do now.” Kagome sighed. “Now that Naraku's destroyed and the Jewel is gone, I guess I'm not needed here any…”

“Who said anything about the Jewel being gone?”

Both Kagome and Sango jumped as Inuyasha dropped from the tree branch above them.

“God, Inuyasha!” Kagome screeched. “Don't do that! You scared the heck out of us!”

He shrugged. “Sorry, didn't mean to. I was just passin' by to check on you, when I found you already here. How are you feelin'?” Inuyasha crouched down in front of Kagome and placed his palm on her forehead, while Sango watched with a quietly amused air.

Kagome blushed. “I'm fine, Inuyasha. I woke up a few minutes ago and have been talking to Miroku-sama and Sango-chan about what happened. And what did you mean by `who said anything about the Jewel being gone?' Didn't the Jewel disappear with Naraku and Kikyo?”

Inuyasha dropped his arm to his knee and sighed, “Nope. Not unless this glowing ball of pink stuff is a fake, it didn't.”

Kagome stared as he pulled a fully completed Shikon Jewel from his haori. It was the real thing, too, or Kagome would eat her left shoe. She hadn't spent the better part of two years searching for the damned thing to not know what its aura felt like. “B-but how…? Why didn't…? I-I thought that…” she stuttered.

“Look. I don't know what Kikyo said to you about the Jewel disappearing or not, but when Naraku went `boom', this was laying on the ground where he'd been standing.” Inuyasha cut off her half-uttered questions so he could explain. “And all I care about is that the bastard's dead and gone. About freakin' time, too.” With that, he plopped the Jewel into Kagome's unexpecting hand.

The poor girl could only gape at the pink ball sitting so innocently in her palm. `To think, all this trouble over such a tiny thing,' Kagome thought, an oddly affectionate half-smile quirking her lips. Out loud she said, “Well, I guess we'd better do something with this thing, huh, Inuyasha?”

The hanyou blinked in agreement. “Yeah, okay. What do you want to do?”

Kagome posed thoughtfully, an index finger situated on her chin. “Um… Oh, I know!” She clapped her hands together. “Let's go ask Kaede-bachan. She should have some good ideas. Besides, we need to tell her about Kikyo. And I'm sure Shippou-chan is missing us terribly. You know how he gets.”

“Keh. That runt decided to stay behind on his own, remember? He'd better not come crying to me because he changed his mind after we left.” Inuyasha eased into a standing position, before offering a hand to each of the two girls still sitting. After the girls were upright, he glanced over his shoulder to the corpse of Sango's brother. “Hey, Sango.”

“Yes?” Sango was too busy brushing grass off her skirt to notice the strange glint in the inu-hanyou's eyes, but Kagome caught it. `I've never seen him look so… I don't know. Maybe empathetic is the right word. I guess he probably knows exactly how Sango is feeling right now, what with Kikyo and all.'

Inuyasha had wandered over towards the body. “What do you want to do with your brother?”

“Oh!” Kagome smacked herself mentally and physically for having forgotten what Kikyo had told her about Kohaku. “I can't believe I forgot.”

Sango was cautiously watching her friend to see what the girl had just remembered that caused her to hit herself in the head like that. “Kagome-chan, what is it?”

Kagome whirled on Sango, clutching the slayer's arm in her hand. “Something Kikyo told me. She said that we should take Kohaku-kun to Sesshoumaru and he will revive him.”

“B-but why would he do something like that?” Sango appeared shocked, to say the least, but also reluctant to hope for such a miracle to occur.

“Because he owes Kikyo a favor for helping to kill Moryoumaru and the baby and she passed the favor onto me.” Sango now looked like she was about to faint from relief. “Don't worry, Sango-chan. You'll get your brother back.” Kagome hugged her friend tightly, before whispering, “And don't worry about his memories. I'm positive you can help him recover from them.”

By this time, Sango was sobbing into Kagome's shoulder. Whether they were tears of joy or of heartache, it didn't matter. Sango now had a way to have Kohaku returned to her, even if she decided against bringing the boy back to life.

Kagome dared a glance at Inuyasha to see if he was scoffing at the `silly women's crying', but, surprisingly, he was grinning almost ear to ear, and, considering where his ears were situated, it was quite a feat of muscular achievement. She couldn't help but grin back at her dog-boy's expression, while continuing to comfort the slayer.

“Inuyasha, will you go tell Miroku-sama the good news and to come over here?” Kagome asked quietly, knowing that he would be able to hear her. “We probably should get going soon, if we want to track down Sesshoumaru tonight.” Inuyasha nodded and left Kagome to tend to the, now, emotionally exhausted Sango. `I'll let him know what else Kikyo said when we get back to Kaede-bachan's' she thought peacefully, as she and Sango slid back down to the ground, where the slayer fell promptly asleep, with Kagome still stroking her hair.

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“Nee-chan!! Get out of the tub before you turn into a prune! And Mom says to hurry up, too, or you won't get any breakfast!”

Kagome jerked awake. `I can't believe I dozed off in the tub.' To her brother, “Alright, I'm coming, you little brat!” She heard Souta scurrying back down the stairs, as she pulled herself from the now tepid water.

`Is this how it's going to be all day? I drift off in my mind, then get scared witless back to reality? What a day this will be.' Kagome wrapped a towel around herself and yanked the plug out of the bath's drain. She sighed, `I guess it'll be like that until I can deal with all that happened.'

Now, with a towel turbaned over her hair, Kagome growled in her throat, anger overtaking her depression, “Inuyasha no baka. How dare he do that to me. Especially when he knows how mad it would make me.” But as quickly as it had come, her anger left her. Heaving a defeated sigh, she ambled her way back to her room to get dressed for school.

`Still,' She paused mid-way through dressing, `I wonder if he really knew what he was doing. He just never seems to think before he acts. Well, either that or he usually thinks he's justified in his actions.' She sighed again as she continued to pull her uniform top over her head. `Stupid idiot never thinks anything through and I'll make sure he'll regret it for the rest of his life.' Kagome paused again. `But still…'

“Kagome! Come downstairs! You're already running late and your breakfast is getting cold!”

“Hai, Mama! I'll be right down!” she yelled back at her mother, as she scampered from her room. `Back to my old life, I guess,' Kagome thought miserably, no more pleased to return to the old ways as she was to suffer through her horrible geometry class in a couple hours.

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