InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Kagome's Decision ❯ Kagome's Decision ( One-Shot )

Kagome's decision is final. She's never coming back to Sengoku Jidai again.... And she's going to seal the well as soon as she gets home. But... where is InuYasha? Does he know? And will he be able to stop Kagome before it's too late?

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or the like. This story is for my own entertainment. (Well. You can be entertained by it too, I suppose.)

A/N: HOLY GOD, LEMON WROTE SOMETHING THAT’S NOT X-RATED?? xD Must be old. If you want to know more, you can check out my fanfiction LiveJournal. [http://lemony-goddess.livejournal.com/tag/kagome%27s+decision] I didn’t edit the actual text aside from fixing some formatting. Um… enjoy my crappy old writing. xD

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Kagome's Decision
One-Shot
By Lemon Goddess
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Kagome bent down to pick up the other half of the Shikon no Tama, the part that was still corrupt. She wrinkled her nose in distaste when she thought of what Naraku had done to get this inanimate object, and what it would have meant for all mankind -- past and present -- had he succeeded. With her purifying touch, though, the evil aura was dispelled. Now all that was left was to merge her half of the jewel and this one.

InuYasha let out a final huff, and let himself fall backwards. He felt his muscles screaming in agony and exhaustion after the fight with Naraku. He felt like he could sleep for a week, and it had only been a ten-minute battle. Albeit an exhausting, nerve-wracking, adrenaline-fueled ten minutes that felt like it took ten centuries off his life.

With a shaky hand, Miroku removed the holy beads from his right hand. Slowly, disbelievingly, he turned his once-cursed hand to see its palm. When he saw no trace of the wind tunnel, he felt relief flood over his entire being as the family curse that had destroyed two generations was finally lifted.

Holding her brother in her arms, Sango almost felt like crying. But crying would be silly, right? After all, Kohaku was alive now... and free of Naraku's spells. With her family avenged and saving her brother, Sango felt a chapter of her life coming to a close. There was no higher demon to destroy now. All the others were smallfrys compared to Naraku. Unconsciously, she felt her gaze turn to the Buddhist monk staring at his hand. It was finally over. Maybe now Miroku would stop chasing after other women, and maybe she could have a genuine chance with him.

He stared breathlessly over the scene that lay before him. His body was new and yet old... the same, but different. He looked down at his hands. Human hands. A woman with dark hair and lifeless eyes approached him, and extended her hand, meaning she wanted him to follow her.

"Come, Onigumo," Kikyou said calmly, though her overall appearance was that of a battered and weary one. "Let's go." He nodded, taking her hand. She spared one last comment to the silver-haired hanyou laying on his back. "InuYasha," she called. The hanyou struggled to sit up. "What is done is done. I appreciate your avenging me. I'm sorry for the trouble I must have caused you, and for the hurt I undeniably caused you and your friends. We walk different plains now, InuYasha. I don't expect to see you in mine for a very, very long time."

That said, she lead Onigumo into the forest, her soul-stealers following somberly behind her.

InuYasha let out a relieved sigh as he let himself fall back again, a serene expression on his face. But something still nagged at the back of Kagome's mind that she just felt compelled to bring forward.

"Kikyou-sama," she interrupted. Kikyou looked back at her. "If you can say this so easily now, how come -- how come you pursued InuYasha with such vigor before?"

"I was blinded by my misguided hatred and selfishness, Kagome-san," Kikyou said with a weary sigh. "But now, all I wish for is to rest. May this soul bear you better use than I."

~*~

"Oh... Kagome-chan... are you sure about this?" Sango asked. She and Kagome were alone in a hot spring that mid-afternoon, well away from any peeping toms. Kagome nodded once, slightly disappointed in herself. They had hardly beaten Naraku for five hours, and she was already planning to seal the well. She didn't think she should even attend the celebration party that evening. It would make things too hard. "How are you going to tell Shippo-chan? And InuYasha?"

Kagome let out an audible whimper. "I don't know," she admitted. "I haven't thought that far ahead yet."

Sango sidled closer to Kagome, and gave her a sisterly hug. "You don't want to leave. Do you?"

"No!" Kagome exclaimed, returning Sango's hug. "I don't want to leave at all, but... I just don't think that I... that I could stay here and keep it together for much longer."

"Is this about InuYasha?"

"No... yes... I don't know."

"You have to tell him, you know."

Kagome nodded. "I know..."

- -

He hadn't meant to eavesdrop, really. He was just taking a nap, hidden away in a tree, when Kagome and Sango came down to take a bath and have a little "girl talk." He was too far away to see anything, but as for hearing, he could hear everything.

`So Kagome's leaving, huh?' he thought to himself, feeling his breath catch in the back of his throat as he took off, not bothering or caring to hear the rest of their conversation. `I knew it,' he told himself. `She said she wants to stay, but she doesn't want to be around me. She doesn't want anything to do with a filthy half-breed.'

InuYasha bit his lip as he continued to run through the forest, headed for -- for -- hell, he didn't know where he was going, as long as it was away from here, he didn't much care.

~*~

Shippo wailed miserably, clinging to Kagome's neck as he cried. "Noooo!" he screamed. "I don't want you to go, Kagome-chan! Please stay! Don't leave me~!" he bawled.

Kagome gently pried Shippo off her neck. "I'm not leaving you, Shippo-chan," she said soothingly, though she choked back tears of her own. "Not really. As long as you're thinking of me, I'll never really leave you."

The fox cub sniffed, fighting back his tears. "Will you think of me?" he warbled. Kagome smiled.

"Of course," she admitted.

Against a wall, Miroku's expression grew dark. He would miss Kagome sorely. They all would. He had planned for Kagome to attend his and Sango's weddings -- whether or not they wed each other. He would have loved to see Kagome's and InuYasha's wedding, for it was obvious that they loved each other. They were both just too bull-headed to admit it.

Looking out the window, Kagome realized that it was getting late. She had to go soon, or else the festivities would start, and she would be caught. She sighed, putting Shippo down. "I had better go," she announced. Sango rose to her feet and hugged Kagome one last time, as did Miroku -- he didn't try anything on her, which she was grateful for. She wanted to remember him as a changed man.

Kaede stiffly walked over to Kagome, and embraced her. "No one can make these choices for ye, child," she said in her ear. "But I sorely wish ye would change your mind." Kagome nodded, hugged Shippo tightly and gave Kirara a final pat on the head.

"What about InuYasha?" Miroku asked tensely. "Have you told him yet?" Kagome shook her head.

"But I think it's better this way," she declared, forcing herself to smile. "He'd probably just argue with me to stay, and I really don't want to sit him before I go."

- -

On top of Kaede's residence, InuYasha sat quietly. Did Kagome say "sit him" or "see him"? His ears flattened back as he watched her small form get smaller as she headed down the path, toward the Bone Eaters Well.

He flicked his ears back and forth in indecision for a moment, before silently jumping off the roof of Kaede's hut and following Kagome, being sure to stay out of sight.

~*~

Kagome sat at the lip of the Bone Eaters Well, still ripped in half with second thoughts. What if InuYasha still wanted her around? What if she was making the wrong choice?

She fingered the Shikon no Tama that hung around her neck. Should she give it to InuYasha? No, didn't he say he didn't want to be human or full-demon any more? And what was that supposed to mean, precisely? Should she stay until he decided?

`C'mon, Kagome,' she told herself. `You made up your mind about this already. You're going home and never looking back... right?' She swung her legs to the other side of the well, and said in the strongest voice she could muster:

"Goodbye, InuYasha."

- -

As he saw her thin frame disappear into the well, he found that he couldn't hold it back any more. Those words stung like no wound ever could.

A heart-wrenching sob worked its way free from his throat, and he ran away.

~*~

Kagome had hardly touched down on her side of the well before she was contemplating going back. At first she thought she had imagined it, but now there was no mistake; that was InuYasha she heard. She clambered out of the well and was just about to throw herself in again when Sota barged in.

"Kagome-nee-chan!" he shouted, breathless and clearly panicked. "There's something you should see!"

- -

He ran. Just ran. He needed to get as far away from there as possible, but he found that he couldn't. Every time he thought he was getting somewhere, he would end up back at the well.

Was it so much to ask that he leave this heartache behind?

~*~

"Kagome-nee-chan, look at this!" Sota exclaimed, pointing to a piece of old parchment that lay on the kitchen table. Her mother and grandfather sat there, looking perplexed.

"What is it?" Kagome inquired.

"Read it!" Sota said worriedly.

She picked up the piece of paper, which was written in -- Miroku's hand?!

Kagome-sama, it read.

Little more than three weeks after you left, another despicable evil befell the village. As I write this I am struggling to maintain the barrier around the village. Kaede has fallen ill, and Shippo won't come out of the hut. Sango is doing her best to secure the perimeter, but I fear she is drastically weakening. You must be wondering where InuYasha is in all of this? That is what we want to know, too. We haven't been able to find him since the fight with Naraku.

But these demons are worse than Naraku, if only because they have greater numbers. It started out as a small infestation, but now it has become a full-blown epidemic. Please, Kagome-sama, if you have not sealed the well already, come back before it is too late. I fear for everyone's safety, most of all InuYasha's. He is not within the barrier.

With all haste,

Miroku

Shakily, Kagome placed the letter back on the table. The paper was yellowed with age, so there was no way that anyone here could have faked it, let alone Miroku's hardly legible drawl.

"Kagome-nee-chan… will InuYasha-nii-chan be alright?" Sota inquired.

Kagome found her breath coming faster, and there was no way for her to control it. Before she knew it, she had fainted from freight.

- -

InuYasha let out a snarl at the top of his lungs, scaring away several small animals. His face was streaked with tears. He had long given up on holding them back. Kagome hadn't even been gone for a week, and he was losing his will in everything. He slammed his fists into a tree, intent on releasing some of his pent-up frustrations.

He suddenly went quiet, a familiar scent reaching his nose that he had all but forgotten.

Kagome.

He raced to the well, but stopped short. Kagome was indeed climbing out of the well, but she was dressed in a pair of jeans and a white tank top, and she was flushed with excitement from worry and unease. On her shoulders were a bow and a quiver of arrows. Her feet hardly hit the ground before she was off and running toward the village. He decided to follow her.

~^~

"Are you sure this will work, Houshi-sama?" Sango inquired as Miroku buried a box with a letter he personally wrote in it. It was where he guessed Kagome's house would be. "Are you even sure that's the right year?"

"Positive," he confirmed. Then he turned to her with a smile. "Just try your best to look tired." His expression sobered. "And I asked you to stop calling me that."

With a slightly embarrassed smile, Sango nodded, "Miroku-kun." Miroku grinned. "I'm still unsure about whether this will work or not… it seems like we're lying to Kagome-chan."

Miroku wrapped his arm around Sango's shoulders, resting the shovel on his shoulder. "My dear Sango-chan," he said, "we're not lying, per say. We're… taking the facts to the extreme. After all, we could be overrun in three weeks. Who knows?"

She elbowed him lightly in his ribs. "You're bad."

He grinned from ear-to-ear. "Just pretend the letter's not even there."

~*~

"Where are Miroku-sama and Sango-chan?" Kagome wanted to know as soon as she entered Kaede's hut, finding the elderly miko healthy and at the fire pit and catching Shippo as he jumped at her.

Kaede jumped at the sudden appearance. "Kagome-chan! I thought ye were staying on your side of the well," Kaede admitted her confusion. Kagome brushed this aside.

"Where are they?" she demanded again. "And where's InuYasha?"

- -

What in the WORLD was going through that girl's mind? InuYasha wondered as he perched in a tree not too far from Kaede's hut so that he could hear what was going on. What letter was she talking about? Miroku and Sango had left to commission a villager to deliver a letter for them, but how could they send it to Kagome?

~^~

"Looks like she's here already."

"I told you it would work. And you doubted me. I am soooo misunderstood." Miroku teased.

~*~

"Sango-chan! Miroku-sama! There you are!" Kagome exclaimed as soon as the monk and taiji-ya entered the hut. "What happened to the barrier?"

Miroku blinked. "What barrier?"

"The barrier you set up to keep out the demon infestation!" Kagome cried, absentmindedly throwing her arms in the air, which caused Shippo to scramble up to her shoulder.

"Demon infestation?" Sango repeated. "There are more demons than usual, but how would you know about that, Kagome-chan?"

"I--" Kagome suddenly cut herself off. "I saw it in… in a dream! I had a dream that the village was overrun by demons and I panicked! Now I see that I was just being silly." She grinned sheepishly, hoping that they would buy it.

"What happened in this dream, Kagome-chan?" Sango wanted to know. She could tell that her friend changed her answer. Kagome decided to tell them what happened in the letter, since it was unlikely that it would happen now.

"Well -- err, the village was being overrun by demons, like I said earlier, and Miroku-sama set up a barrier to keep them out, but was weakening," she began. "And Kaede-baa-chan was ill, so she couldn't help. Shippo wouldn't leave the hut… and… uh… InuYasha couldn't be found. He was -- err -- outside the barrier."

"Is that why you came back?" Shippo asked. "You were afraid it would really happen?"

"Ye were worried about InuYasha?" Kaede inquired.

Kagome nodded, completely outnumbered. "Yeah," she admitted truthfully.

"Then why didn't you say goodbye to him earlier?" Miroku pressed on.

She winced. "I didn't want to have to say goodbye," she mumbled. "I thought it would hurt too much…"

- -

She was lying. She had to be! She sounded perfectly fine when she said "goodbye" before she left last time!!

He suddenly remembered -- there was a salty texture in Kagome's scent after she jumped through the well.

"Keh," he said to himself, berating himself for his ignorance. He vigorously dried his face. `You fool.'

~*~

Kagome strolled down the path into the forest, happy to be back. She knew where she was headed, but she didn't know if he would be there…

She stared up at the large, sturdy branches of the Goshinboku. Sure enough, in the higher branches, there was a red form nestled comfortably against the trunk. "InuYasha," she called gently, knowing he wasn't asleep. He peered over the branch he was laying on. He jumped down and landed lightly in front of her.

"What do you want?" he demanded, hoping his eyes weren't red.

Kagome looked down at her shoes. "I… I wanted to say that I was sorry for before… when I didn't tell you goodbye properly. Shippo-chan told me you kept going back to the well…"

"Keh," he scoffed, averting his face so that she wouldn't notice that he was blushing. "I-- I just wanted to make sure you were really gone."

She smiled ironically. "Well," she declared. "I've decided to stay--" InuYasha's heart leapt with joy-- "until you figure out what you want to wish on the jewel for. After that, I see no point in me staying."

InuYasha stared at her in mild fascination. She didn't take her gaze from her shoes, so she didn't notice. He smiled.

- -

He wrapped his arms around her, bringing her close for a hug. "Thank you."

"F-for what?" she wondered aloud, shyly hugging him back.

"For staying with me. For believing in all of us. For just being you." I love you, he added mentally. `But how do you feel about me?

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