InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Inuyasha and Kagome: After the Jewel ❯ How It All Ends ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INUYASHA! Nope. Not at all.


Two years after first beginning their quest to heal and collect the thousands of shards of the sacred shikon-no-tama jewel Inuyasha and his company suceeded. The final battle ocurred, ironically enough, straight on the dot, the day Kagome had ventured to the Sengoku-Judai. Her 17th birthday Most 17 year olds would of enjoyed their special day with friends, a rollicking party, boys, the works. Kagome spent hers shooting purifying arrows into the heart of a terrible demon, and sustaining life-threatening wounds in the process. The shouki from Naraku's body tainted the purity of Kagome's arorws, which were linked to her and Kikyou by a tendril of power to aid in their strength. The shouki had tainted Kagome's blood, poisoning her and sending her into a deep coma. And as fate would have it she was also standing on the edge of a cliff at the time. She had plumetted downwards, and would of fell to her death had Inuyasha not appeared to save her in the last second.

"Fool!" Kikyou had hissed. "Will you forsake the battle just for the life of that girl, Inuyasha?! You have waited years for revenge on this monster! I thought you sought to avenge my death?!" Inuyasha had barely paused to listen. Indecision had seized his limbs only briefly before he sailted over the cliff to his lover's rescue.

'I know what's important, Kikyou. Naraku may escape, and I'll be angry. But Kagome and I have found him more times before, and come close to killing him before too. We can do it again. I can't bring her back from the dead.'

In the end, just before Naraku was to vanish, fate smiled on the party. In a shrine a hundred or more miles away a different battle was being won. Kagura had suceeded in finding Naraku's human heart. And she had teamed with the one male she thought able to kill Naraku once and for all. Hakudoushi lay dead and still bleeding, sizzling from the inside out where Sesshomaru's poison was actively eating his body. And meanwhile Kagura made short work of the baby.

Naraku's body began to glow with light of blinding intensity. Sango recovered from her shock first. "HIRAIKOTSU!" she screamed, flinging the lethal boomerang through Naraku's midsection. "KAZAANA!" Miroku called seconds later to handle the 'clean up' as he so jokingly called it. Naraku's body exploded into a thousand particles of light, which were quicky sucked up by Miroku's wind tunnel. But with consequences. The evil intensity of Naraku's spirit knocked the monk out cold, he would be that way for several weeks.

Clouds overhead dispersed, shining light on a woman weeping over the comatose form of a man she held dearly (despite despicable hentai habits) and a somewhat miffed shrine-maiden.

Inuyasha, with Kagome cradled limply in his arms leapt back over the cliff, tears in his eyes. Sango lifted her head to look at him. "She won't wake.." The hanyou said brokenly. Sango was touched to hear he was trying not to sob. 'So.. He does love her.' The slayer thought. But her own heart-wrenching love-situation took most of her attention and she was quickly back to clinging to Miroku's unresponding form.

The sight of tears on her ex-lover's face softened Kikyou some. The miko approached, palms up in friendship. "Inuyasha.." she said slowly, sadly. "So you have replaced me." 'I have, haven't I?' he thought, staring sadly at Kagome's barely breathing, sweating, trembling body. "I won't forget your promises." she said slowly. "But I will not let this girl die, she healed me from shouki once. And it is partly my fault she lies half dead. I knew the danger, I kept it from her." "Kikyou.." Inuyasha said softly, running his clawed fingers through Kagome's silky black hair. "I will keep to my oaths, if it is your desire i retire to hell with you, then I will go. I pledged my life to you when you died for me. I will never forget your sacrifice. But Kikyou.. My heart isn't in it. That belongs to Kagome. I give it to her freely. She loves me as I am. As a hanyou." "Hmph." was the reurrected priestess's only answer. But her actions spoke volumes. Kikyou put her hands on the young woman's chest, muttering softly. Purple purifying energy snapped and crackled from her finger's, absorbing into Kagome's body. Inuyasha backed away with a yelp, his skin, and even his spirit burning from the intensity of Kikyou's energy. There was another blinding flash of light, the waves of it made Inuyasha scatter. And when it cleared he became aware of two things. The first, Kikyou was gone. There was a heap of crumbled pottery on the ground where she had knelt seconds before. Inuyasha's heart gave a twinge, and he braced himself, waiting for a hole to open in the ground and drag him to the depths of hell. But it didn't come. And Kagome sat up. "My soul.. It's.. It's whole." she stammered, eyes wide with shock. "Kagome..." Inuyasha breathed. "KAGOME!" he cried and crushed her to hischest. He needed to hear her breathe, listen to the steady beat of her heart and breathe in her very alive scent to believe that she was infact alive and not dead as he had feared.

They lingered that way for several minutes, each desperately clinging to the other, before Sango's sobs made Kagome pull away. "Sango! Miroku!" Always thinking of others she scrambled to her feet and rushed over, hurriedly checking the monk's vitals. The pulse was steady, albeit a little weak. He was a little sweaty, perhaps a bit of antidote and some of Kaede's herbal remedies would help him regain conciousness if nothing else. "Inuyasha, would you..?" but the hanyou was two steps ahead of her, he had already silently retrieved the bag and was handing it out to her. She smiled faintly. "Thanks.." she muttered softly and went to work.

The antidotes didn't work their usual wonders. But Kagome wasn't truely expecting them too. Her touch did more help than the medicines so she assumed he needed to be purified of the evil energy wreaking havoc on his body. 'Like me.' she thought. 'But now that Kikyou is gone Kaede is the only person I would trust to do such a thing.. I am untrained, I might hurt poor Miroku. And Sango would never forgive me.' Kagome turned her soft brown eyes towards the demon-slayer, whom now was hovering on the outskirts of the activity, her face wrenched in misery. Kirara, the faithful firecat, sat in kitten form on her shoulder nuzzling her tear stained cheeks.

Inuyasha had reverted to his normal, moody, grumpy self and was sitting in a tree, watching when a gleam of sunlight off of something caught his eye. He studied it, and his breath caught in his chest when he realized what it was. A small, glass ball. The shikon-no-tama! He leapt from the tree and raced towards it. Kagome noticed, and immediately caught where he was headed. "SIT!" she screamed. "SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT!" Inuyasha ate dirt. Leaving Miroku in the hands of Sango Kagome rushed past the subdued hanyou and grabbed the jewel. "I'm sorry, Inuyasha." she said honestly, as the boy began to pick himself up, murder shining in his eyes. "But the jewel was horribly black and tainted, I could see and feel it's energy. I didn't want you to touch that.. Who knows what might of happened." she was relieved to see the look in his eyes soften. He understood. "But maybe I overdid it a little.." she admitted softly, timidly brushing dirt from his red-clad shoulders. Inuyasha pretty much melted on the spot, both from her touch and the overwhelming emotion that came knowing she was concerned for him. No one had ever been concerned for him in his life since his mother, until she had come into it. Bandaging his hurts, praying that he came out unscathed when he went into fights, anxiously awaiting his return on those nights he needed peace and quiet. But Inuyasha must be Inuyasha, and his thoughts were just that. The deeper part of himself he rarely, if ever, shared. So he gave a very Inuyasha lke response. "Keh." and turned his head.

Kagome smiled, put the jewel in her pocket and headed back for Sango.