InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Kagome's Realization ❯ Chapter 22 ( Chapter 27 )

Here is yet another chapter to Kagome's Realization. Enjoy. So sorry it's taken me so long to get it out.

Chapter 22

Sango kicked another pebble out of her way and blocking the sunlight with her hand she surveyed the mountain again. "Anything?" She called up to Inuyasha who was checking higher ground.

"Nothing." Inuyasha responded while he looked around him again. "I have seen one cave besides the one I placed Kagome in and it was complete empty as well."

"Do you think Shippo" With more venom in her voice she added " and the monk have found anything?"

Inuyasha jumped down to where Sango stood, "Doubt it. Surely we would have heard some kind of commotion from Shippo by now if they had."

"Maybe he isn't here anymore." Sango said looking down at the ground.

"He has to be." Inuyasha said sternly. "I think he is responsible for this mountain being completely deserted. Also, Sesshomaru wouldn't have wasted his breath to tell us he lived here if he didn't. Playing jokes is definitely not his style."

"Okay. Then where should we look now?" Sango asked her faith renewed.

Inuyasha felt his patience waver. He was tired of searching, he wanted this to be over with already and Kagome to be making Ramen for him while Sango knocked out Miroku for touching her by an open fire.

Sighing loudly he said, "Only place left is the very top. Climb on my back."

Sango felt like she was taking Kagome's place as she stared at Inuyasha, who was squatted in front of her, his hands waiting to give support and security. We have to do this for Kagome, her mind reminded her. "Let's go." Sango said, climbing onto his back.

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"We've gone all the way around this mountain and we haven't even found Inuyasha." Shippo cried, tears streaming down his face. "Kagome is gone forever!"

"There, there." Said Miroku. "I'm sure Inuyasha and Sango are searching higher ground. I think we should just wait here for them to return."

Shippo looking at the cave the hid Kagome and did his best to stop his tears. "Okay. We'll make sure nothing happens to Kagome."

Miroku nodded his approval to Shippo with an I'm proud of you look on his face, but on the inside he was frowning. The mountain seemed to be deserted of animals and youkai. Could this be the doing of the wizard? If so then he must be around him somewhere but where?

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Inuyasha, tired from jumping from ledge to ledge with Sango on his back, a slightly heavier weight than he was accustomed to, landed on what appeared to be yet another ledge. It wasn't.

Sango frowned. "What on earth?" She expressed aloud climbing off of Inuyasha's back.

Before them was a small area lush green grass surrounding a small pond. Even from where they stood they could see that the pond was home to nice sized fish.

"I'm confused." Sango said looking behind her and then at Inuyasha.

"I did not see this when I decided to land here, nor did I smell it. There should be a mountain wall here, Sango."

"I know. I saw it."

"I want to check something out." Inuyasha turned around and jumped back up where they came from, stopped and turned around. As he suspected Sango appeared to be standing right next to the mountain. "Step forward, Sango, towards the pond." He instructed. And by pure magic alone Sango walked into the mountain disappearing from sight. Inuyasha's jaw dropped. "I can't see you."

"Can you hear me?" Came a soft far away voice.

"Barely." He answered jumping back down to her.

"What did you see?"

"I saw you standing next to the mountain and then I saw you disappear into the mountain."

"Looks like we found him." Sango said with a small smile creeping across her lips

"Should we get Kagome and the others?" He asked.

"I think we should talk to him first." Inuyasha nodded his agreement and motioned for Sango to go first.

"Do you think he'll see us?" Sango asked over her shoulder, after a few moments of climbing and silence.

"He better, I haven't come all this way to be turned away at the very end and by the person I've been searching for."

"I hope you don't plan on getting rough with him?" Sango said with the feeling of dread creeping over her.

"Unfortunately, I don't believe such an approach will work. If what Sesshomaru says is true than we are going to have some major persuading to do. He hasn't brought anyone back for years. I hope he hasn't forgotten how, because he must be a real old man by now."

"No need for insults, young man." Came a voice from above them.

Frozen in mid-steps Sango and Inuyasha looked up and saw a man in a long gray robe and shiny black hair pulled back into a tight bun at the back of his neck. Despite how old he is supposed to be he looked remarkable young.

"You are Masimato Yunigie?" Sango asked.

"I am. And who are you?"

"My name is Sango and this is Inuyasha." Waving her hand in his direction. "We are in need of your help."

"Are you now?" He said with laughter in his voice. "Your companion was just questioning my capabilities, are you sure that I will be able to be of service to you?"

"If you wish it, yes I do."

"I meant no offence." Inuyasha said suddenly. "It's very natural for me to openly be a jerk. I give you my apologies. It was not my intention to come here and insult you before I've had a chance to speak with you."

"What is it you wish to speak about?" Masimato Yunigie asked.

"It is a who, sir." Sango corrected.

"Yes, we wish to speak to you about another companion of ours." Inuyasha added.

"This person could not come with you?"

"She is in a cave at the base of the mountain. I placed her there to keep her safe while the rest of us searched for you." Inuyasha said looking down.

"Safe? There is no harm to be found here. I saw to that long ago." The wizard said laughing slightly.

"Yes, what did happen to all the animals?" Sango questioned, it had been troubling her.

"There is no other water source to be found for miles, a simple barrier was done to block all others from coming to drink here and so they wisely left to live elsewhere. I wanted my privacy."

"I see."

"You have not come all this way to ask this question, what is it that you wish of me?" His patience was starting to run thin. He had a feeling what it was that they wanted, all who sought him wanted the same thing, but he wished they would say it already.

Sango and Inuyasha looked at each other. Speaking volumes with their eyes Inuyasha told Sango to go ahead.

Clearing her throat nervously she said, "A member of our small group has been murdered and we are now seeking your help."

"Murdered you say? By whom?" Yunigie questioned further.

"Only she knows. When I found her she was moments from death and she said that the person who attacked her had been taken care of." Inuyasha answered.

"She killed him?"

"I think."

"How did she die?"

"A knife wound to the chest."

"A horrible way to die."

"We think so." Sango commented, as she watched the interaction between the two of them.

"We do not usually die in the way that we think we will. Nor do we usually live as long as we think we ought. And if you are indeed only a small group I am sure that you feel the loss acutely. I am sorry for you."

"She is the reason we are together at all. She is the bond that holds us together. She has not finished the task that life has chosen for her to accomplish. You our are last hope in seeing that she does." Things were not going as Inuyasha was hoping; so far he had not even made it in the door, and quite literally to for he and Sango still stood on the stairs.

"We live and we die, young man, that is our ultimate task, you must do what you can in the time allowed you. There is nothing I can do to change this fact."

"You're refusing to help us?" Inuyasha asked, willing himself to stay calm and keep a level head.

"I can not help you, Inuyasha."

"No. You are refusing to help. You can but you're not." Inuyasha started to see the first flashes of red.

"Call it what you wish but I cannot become involved. If you know that I am here then you must also know that I came here to take refugee. To find solitude so that I can live what is left of my life in peace."

"Please!" Sango said with great feeling, climbing the rest of the stairs coming to stand in front of the wizard. She was surprised to find him so tall, he was taller than Sesshomaru. "Please." She repeated in a whisper. "Will you not help us? I do not know what terrible thing happened to you that made you realize there were errors in your ways. I will not presume to understand such strong feelings but will you not do this one last service for the world?"

Yunigie looked the young woman over. "Her task was to save the world?"

"Human and youkai alike." Inuyasha said coming to stand next to Sango.

"You know of the Shikon no Tama I presume?" Sango asked.

"The jewel was created before my time and I am extremely old. You presume correctly that I know of it. The jewel has shown itself to the world once again and is now in pieces, what of the Shikon no Tama?"

"Kagome, our companion, is its protector. She was the one who broke it, actually. In efforts to retrieve it Kagome shattered it instead."

"The reincarnation of the miko who died fifty years ago? Kagome is this person?" Yunigie questioned his eyebrow rising.

"Yes. She lives five hundred years in the future, reaching our time by jumping into an old well. She died in her time and I brought her here." Said Inuyasha.

"She died in the time she belongs to?" Came another question from the wizard.

"She did." Again answered Inuyasha.

"Maybe it was her time then." Yunigie said with great sadness.

"Sango, I do believe we have come all this way to be told that we need to accept that Kagome has died because it is her time." Inuyasha said glaring at Sango.

"Calm down, Inuyasha." Sango said with a very worried look on her face.

"Why should I? I've been telling myself, making myself believe when it is not in my nature to do so, that I can find a way to fix this. That I can find someone or something that could I can't and that is saving Kagome. This is my worst nightmare come true and I'm helpless." Inuyasha turned his attention to the wizard to see him staring at him intently.

"Inuyasha." Was all Sango could say as she fought to keep the tears that were blurring her vision from falling.

Unnerved by the way he was being watched Inuyasha lashed out. "Were you unable to save the life of the person you love most in this wretched world? Is that the reason you're hiding in these mountains like a wounded animal? Is that the reason why you drove away all signs and sounds of life by hiding the water source? I will presume to understand such strong feelings, but such an action would not honor my Kagome or the love that we share for one another." Inuyasha stopped when he heard Sango gasp. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sango with tears streaming down her face and one hand covering her mouth.

"Such deep feelings you have." Was the only comment Yunigie made.

"If it is now my fate to live forever without her in my life I am glad that I will never have to regret not sharing my feelings with her. I am glad that they were not shared as she was dying in a pool of her own blood." A hateful laugh came from Inuyasha. "Maybe that was how it was for you?"

"Your pain is far worse than mine. You may stop causing more pain to yourself with your comparisons."

"I will cause all the pain that I wish. And I shall too. I shall unleash my pain on Naraku. I shall find him and rip him to shreds. And when there is nothing left of him but Onigumo's heart I shall unleash my pain on him as well. With that Kikyo shall be avenged as well and little will be left to regret but what is left shall last me the rest of my life." The realization of what life was to become caused Inuyasha's breathing to become a labor.

"Did you say Onigumo?" Yunigie asked with great interest.

"You knew him?" Sango asked in a squeaky voice. Witnessing Inuyasha's pain was becoming more than she could bear.

"I met him once. He knew the pain you are feeling, he sought me out, I would say almost sixty years ago, his wife having been murdered by bandits and he wanted me to bring her back. When I refused he became nearly violent and swore that he would find a way to save her himself."

"Is there no other way?" Sango asked next to her Inuyasha stared off into space, seemingly unaware of the conversation around him.

Yunigie shook his head, "And I told him as much. Yes, now that I recall he swore that the Shikon no Tama would be able to save her and that he would get it."

Inuyasha, hearing that this was the reason that first put Onigumo on the path for the Shikon no Tama, snapped out of his stupor and took the few steps needed to put him in front of the tall wizard, grabbed the collar of his robe and yanked him down to his eyelevel. "Never compare my pain to that of Onigumo. The loss of his wife may have been what made him seek out the jewel but it didn't last long. In the end it was his lust for the protector of the jewel that caused his downfall and the creation of Naraku."

Yunigie looked down at the clawed hands that held the collar of his robe so tightly and then back into the pain stricken eyes of Inuyasha. "You shall have your revenge? He shall pay for what another has done?"

"No!" Inuyasha spat. "I seek to take revenge for the pain that he caused me in getting what he wants. And I shall finish what Kagome and I started and that is to gather all the shards of the jewel and make it whole again. And to make sure Naraku doesn't hurt anyone ever again."

"That was her wish too?"

"Yes, she once told me that we had to stop Naraku, no matter what it took. He is nothing but a coward who hides behind tricks and deceptions and he shall be stopped."

"You will do what it takes to do that? Even if it costs you your life?"

"Yes! My life wasn't worth much before I meet Kagome and without her it shall be worth less so I have nothing to lose. It would be worth it if Kagome and I get the chance to meet again." Inuyasha's grip starts to loosen but Yunigie doesn't pull away.

"You love her that much?"

"More than anyone."

"Than I shall break my vow this one time only." Masimato Yunigie said standing tall. "Where is Kagome?"