InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity 2: Defiance ❯ Dire Predictions ( Chapter 35 )

~~Chapter 35~~

~Dire Predictions~

 

Kagome turned off the vacuum and pushed the handle upright with a click as she frowned. She thought she had heard the doorbell, which was the reason she'd turned off the cleaner. Letting go of the machine, she hurried through the house and into the foyer just as the doorbell chimed again.

 

“Toga!” she greeted with a bright smile that faded when she saw what he held under his arm. Stepping back to admit her nephew, she accepted the chaste kiss he planted on her cheek before she closed the door and followed him into the living room. “What brings you by?” she asked, keeping her tone carefully neutral.

 

“I need to pick up my halberd. Is Uncle Yasha home?”

 

“No . . . he and Gin went for a run. You're going to look for a fight? That doesn't seem like you.”

 

Toga made a face. “It's not like that. Father needed me to go after a few neko-youkai.”

 

Kagome frowned as she sat down on the sofa. “That sounds dangerous. Why don't you wait for InuYasha?”

 

Toga shook his head but did sit beside her. “It's fine, Aunt Gome. I can take care of it. I'm not a pup anymore, remember?”

 

“I know you aren't. That doesn't mean I can't worry. Toga? Tell me what really happened with you and Sierra.”

 

She didn't think he was going to answer her. He sat up straight, his expression closed over---the same response she'd gotten whenever she'd pried too much. This time, though, Toga sighed, and when his shoulders slumped in a defeated sort of way, Kagome grimaced and slowly took his hand. “Do you think we can't see how badly this is affecting you? Do you think we can't tell what this entire situation is doing to you? We can, you know. All of us can.”

 

Toga looked so sad, so lost, and for a moment, he was the same little boy who cried when one of Dammit's pups was stillborn. He'd been inconsolable for a long time after that. The same haunted look was in his eyes now, the same sadness that Kagome couldn't take away or lessen, and that broke her heart.

 

He winced as tears filled Kagome's eyes, and he looked away quickly, clearing his throat as he started to rise. “I'll just get my halberd and go.”

 

“Toga, wait,” she insisted as she caught his hand and stopped him. “I know you. I've always known you. Is it so terrible that you can't say?”

 

“Yes,” he growled as he tried to pull away.

 

Kagome held on. “Then tell me.”

 

“I can't.”

 

“You can. Stop being so stubborn!”

 

“She's going to get sick, Aunt Gome!” he yelled as his temper spiked. When Kagome gasped, dropping his hand as her fingers fluttered over her lips, he sighed and relented. “She's going to get really sick.”

 

“How do you know this? Maybe---”

 

“Huntington's disease. It's genetic. There is no `maybe'. There's only a question of `when'. Sierra . . . .”

 

“And you left her? Toga---”

 

“Feh! What do you take me for? Of course I didn't leave her . . . . She sent me away.”

 

“Still,” Kagome said dubiously. “She needs you, I know it.”

 

Toga blinked sadly, the expression in his gaze unsettling. He looked too calm, too understanding . . . almost as though he didn't quite believe that it really could be over. “It hurts her to have me near.”

 

“But you love her,” Kagome argued softly.

 

Lips turning up in a bittersweet smile that didn't reach his gaze at all, Toga suddenly reached out and hugged Kagome. “That's why I left,” he whispered, his words rasping, harsh.

 

“Oh, Toga . . . .”

 

He let go and stepped back, his smile surfacing again despite the marked brightness in his eyes. “I've got to go. I promised Father . . . .” Turning on his heel, he headed for the foyer but stopped in the doorway and lowered his head. “Take care, okay? I'll . . . I'll, uh, see you.”

 

Kagome stood there long after Toga closed the door behind himself. It wasn't until much later that she realized something else.

 

Toga had forgotten his halberd.

 

 

-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-

 

 

Kagome lay awake in the darkened room, staring at the shadows dancing over the ceiling above her. The house was quiet, deathly still. It was a miracle that InuYasha could sleep. He had been so acclimated to the sounds of the forest that she knew he'd had trouble adjusting to the stillness inside when he'd first arrived in her time.

 

That wasn't the trouble now. Thoughts kept her awake, spinning around in her head, things that didn't make any more sense to her now than they had when Toga had walked out the door. She'd told InuYasha what he'd said. Though he had seemed concerned enough, he had also assured Kagome that Toga was fine. Trouble was, thinking back now, Kagome was almost certain that InuYasha was trying to convince himself of this as much as he was trying to convince her.

 

`Why do I feel like something is terribly wrong? Toga . . . .'

 

She sighed and sat up. InuYasha didn't stir. `That's why I left . . . .'

 

`That's why he left . . . because she loves him, too, and it hurts . . . .'

 

Why did she feel like it was deeper than that? There was more to it, more that Toga hadn't said. Those things that had been left hanging in the air . . . those were the things that kept Kagome from sleeping. “InuYasha?”

 

The hanyou popped one eye open. Kagome wondered if he'd actually been asleep at all. He sighed and rolled over, propping his head on his hand as he waited for whatever it was Kagome wanted to say.

 

“Toga forgot his halberd, you know? But he said he came over to get it.”

 

“You want I should take it to him?”

 

Kagome shot InuYasha a consternated glance. “I'm serious.”

 

He sighed. “I know you are. I am, too. Did you think I wasn't?”

 

“It doesn't make sense,” she went on, ignoring InuYasha's questions for the moment. “He was too calm about everything, too . . . I don't know . . . too accepting of it, like . . . .”

 

“Like what?” InuYasha prodded when Kagome trailed off.

 

She shook her head. “Like he didn't totally believe it, or---”

 

Kagome's frown deepened as she remembered feeling that way, herself. `I left, too . . . I thought InuYasha would be happier if I let him go, and I know what that feels like, to be the one to step away. But Toga . . . .' She shook her head slowly. `It wasn't disbelief in his expression . . . it was resignation. It felt like he was saying . . . .'

 

“Or what?”

 

Kagome's scared eyes met InuYasha's, and she had to force herself to put her feelings into words. “InuYasha . . . when he left, he said something. He hugged me, and he said to take care. You don't think . . . ?”

 

InuYasha's eyebrows drew together as he considered Kagome's words. “Feh! Of course not.”

 

She winced, wondering if he realized how unsure he sounded, himself. “It sounded like he was saying . . .” she swallowed hard, “. . . goodbye.”

 

“That's crazy,” InuYasha grumbled as he sat up. “It's impossible. The only way that'd happen is if his blood accepted her as his mate.”

 

“You didn't see his face,” she insisted. “He accepted it: whatever it is he thinks he deserves. InuYasha, please! If you won't listen to me, who will?”

 

He was going to argue with her. She saw it in his expression when he turned to stare at her. Something in her eyes must have convinced him. Seconds later, mumbling curses under his breath, InuYasha was rifling through the bureau for some pants.

 

“InuYasha?”

 

He shot her a quick glance. “You gonna lie there all night or are you gonna get dressed?”

 

“Where are we going?”

 

InuYasha rolled his eyes as he pulled his long hair out of the neck of his tee shirt. “Where do you think, wench? I don't know where the pup went. The only one who does is his bastard father.”

 

 

-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-

 

 

“Earth to Sierra . . .are you all right, dear?”

 

Sierra glanced up from her coffee, forcing a smile to alleviate her mother's obvious concern. “Fine . . . why?”

 

Her mother wasn't buying. “You're pale, Sierra, and you've lost weight you didn't have to spare.”

 

Sierra grimaced. She'd purposefully put makeup on thick today in hopes that her mother wouldn't notice. “I just haven't slept well lately,” she confessed. `Actually, I haven't slept at all, not since Toga left . . . .'

 

She made a face. That wasn't entirely true. She had slept, off and on. She just had to be utterly exhausted to do it.

 

“Can I ask you something? If you think it's none of my business, just say so.”

 

Sierra nodded, bracing herself since her mother rarely put things quite like that. “Okay.”

 

Her mother toyed with her coffee mug as she tried to find a way to phrase her question. “It's because you broke it off with Toga, isn't it? Why did you do that, Sierra? He made you so happy, and don't tell me that he didn't, because I know you. Any man who has the fortitude to drive you out here after he killed your dog has to have a good heart.”

 

Sierra sighed. “I can't . . . I couldn't ask him to stick around knowing what I was going to become. How could I ask that of him?”

 

She shook her head as she smiled tenderly at her daughter. “I don't think that's how he would see that.”

 

Sierra swallowed a suspicious lump that threatened to choke her as she remembered that day, that same conversation.

 

“There is none, not for me, not for you---not for us. Before it's all over, I wouldn't even know you, and I wouldn't care, but you . . . . Don't ask me to do that.”

 

“Then don't ask!”

 

“Toga . . . .”

 

“I won't leave you, Sierra . . . I need you.”

 

She sighed. She needed him, too. She hadn't stopped needing him. The ache in her heart wasn't getting any better. It was getting worse and worse, instead, and every day that passed seemed like a lifetime. When she dared to consider the future, she felt herself die a little more. She felt like she was standing on the edge of a deep, dark chasm, and the future was the void that threatened to engulf her.

 

“Mama . . . I can't even risk having children. I could pass this . . . this gene on to them, and . . . I can't do it to them, and Toga . . .” she blinked quickly, willing herself not to cry. “Toga's already moved on, anyway.”

 

“Are you sure about that?”

 

Sierra shrugged. “He told me . . . he . . . he kissed another girl.”

 

She winced. `God . . . that hurts even worse. Toga . . . .'

 

Her mother sighed as she pushed her coffee mug aside. “He doesn't strike me as the kind who would get over you that fast. He seems really loyal.”

 

“Yeah,” Sierra agreed with a small smile, “like a . . . puppy . . . .”

 

Mrs. Crawford chuckled as she stood up, grabbing her cup and Sierra's and taking them to the sink. “I don't know if I'd have compared him to a dog, Sierra.”

 

Sierra's laugh was as hollow as the emptiness in her soul; the place that Toga used to fill. “Yeah, I . . . I don't know what I was thinking.”

 

Her smile faded as she slowly shook her head. `Nope . . . I don't know what I'm thinking, at all . . . .'

 

 

-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-

 

 

Kagura stumbled down the stairs as she shook her head quickly, wondering just who would be pounding on her door in the middle of the night. The thumping didn't stop, either. Sesshoumaru uttered an uncharacteristic growl behind her, attesting to his irritation. “Someone had better be dead, baka, or I'll rectify it,” he hollered. Kagura shook her head and yanked open the door.

 

InuYasha barely nodded at her as he stomped inside, dragging Kagome by the hand behind him. “Shut the hell up, bastard! Where did you send Toga?”

 

“Toga?” Sesshoumaru echoed, staring at InuYasha as though he was no more than a speck of dirt on a white linen shirt.

 

InuYasha snorted. “Feh! Yeah, Toga! Your son . . . Toga? Looks like you with black hair and a personality?”

 

“What is this about?” Sesshoumaru demanded. “Have you not heard of a telephone?”

 

“You wanted me to tell you over the phone that you sent your son to die?” InuYasha growled.

 

Sesshoumaru glared at his brother. “Are you implying I did such a thing?”

 

“It's something Toga said to me before he left,” Kagome hurried to explain, stepping between the brothers as Sesshoumaru started toward InuYasha. “Please!”

 

Sesshoumaru stopped and shot Kagome a cursory glance. “Speak quickly, miko, before I dispatch your mate.”

 

“Toga said he left because she asked him to, not because he wanted to. She carrying a gene that causes Huntington's disease later on, but I---”

 

InuYasha interrupted as he pulled Kagome out of Sesshoumaru's reach. “He was lying when he said his blood didn't choose her.”

 

“No,” Kagura rasped out, her hand fluttering above her heart as she collapsed weakly against the table behind her. “Oh, no . . . .”

 

Kagome forced herself to voice her biggest fear, craning her neck back to stare at InuYasha. “He didn't go on this hunt as a favor to you, Sesshoumaru. He went . . . he went to die.”

 

Sesshoumaru didn't respond. Turning his back on them all, he strode into the living room as he stared at the swords crossed over the fireplace mantle.

 

“Tell me where he is, Sesshoumaru,” InuYasha growled as he followed the tai-youkai into the room. “I'm going after him.”

 

He didn't answer that, either.

 

“Sesshoumaru?” Kagome asked, peering over InuYasha's shoulder as the hanyou grimaced furiously.

 

Kagura stalked past them all, stepping around Sesshoumaru and forcing him to look at her. “Damn you, Sesshoumaru! You fix this!” she demanded, her eyes flashing with angry tears. “Fix it before it's too late!”

 

“What would you have me do?” he countered. “Toga---”

 

“Find him!” she screamed. “Find him and tell him the things you should have told him long ago!”

 

“What things?” Kagome asked, loathe to interrupt but having to know just the same.

 

Kagura didn't turn her glare away from Sesshoumaru's. “Things that Sesshoumaru never told him because he hoped Toga would choose a youkai.” Dashing the back of her hand over her eyes, she continued to challenge her mate. “Find him, Sesshoumaru. Find him before your pride costs us our son.”

 

The two continued the silent war a few moments longer. Finally Sesshoumaru jerked his head once in a nod before he brushed past Kagura to yank Tokijin off the wall. Kagome winced as he hesitantly pulled Tenseiga down.

 

“I'm coming with you,” InuYasha growled as Sesshoumaru strapped the swords to his waist and started past them all toward the front door.

 

Sesshoumaru whipped around, pinning InuYasha with a formidable glare. “I will do this my way, InuYasha. Go home.”

 

“Go to hell, bastard,” InuYasha retaliated. “You've done nothing but fuck up the entire situation so far. You ain't going near Toga without me.”

 

 

-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-0-=-

 

 

“I'm sorry,” Kagome apologized again as Kagura handed her a cup of tea. “I should have figured it out sooner . . . I should have said something, but . . . InuYasha said I was just worried about nothing.”

 

Kagura sat down on the sofa beside her and sighed. “It isn't your fault. You didn't know, either.”

 

Kagome set the mug on the coffee table and shook her head. “What sort of things didn't Sesshoumaru tell Toga?”

 

Kagura sighed again, rubbing her forehead with a slightly shaking hand. “The mix of youkai blood with that of a human . . . it would save her---Sierra. It would protect her from human disease, much like the fusion of your miko blood---holy blood---with InuYasha's protects your children from transforming into full-youkai.”

 

Kagome gasped softly. “No one ever told us that, about youkai blood preventing disease . . . .”

 

Kagura smiled sadly. “It wasn't that we were keeping it from InuYasha . . . it just wasn't ever an issue that brought it to mind. Over the years, though, when Toga was drawn to humans time and again, I asked Sesshoumaru to tell him.” Her lips curled into a cynical sneer. “He thought that Toga would think it was his blessing to find a human to mate.”

 

“Kami.”

 

Kagura shook her head slowly. “I keep remembering how close Toga and Sesshoumaru used to be. There was a time when he idolized his father. When InuYasha came through the well, he became Toga's hero. Sesshoumaru never said as much but I know . . . sometimes he seemed so sad, and I always wondered if that was the reason.”

 

“And that's why Sesshoumaru sent Toga to InuYasha for training?”

 

Kagura nodded. “He said it was because I wouldn't let him use real swords, but . . . I think he believed Toga would try harder for InuYasha.” She took a long sip of her tea before setting it aside, too. “And I wonder, too . . . I don't think Sesshoumaru had it in him, to hurt Toga, even in training.”

 

Kagome digested that in silence as she glanced at the clock on the mantle once more. They had left almost two hours ago. She only prayed that they found Toga quickly. “Maybe we should call Sierra? Maybe if we explained everything to her . . . ?”

 

Kagura frowned and shook her head. “No, I think . . . I think Toga should do that. I think he would have done that, if he had known before.”

 

Kagome didn't want to agree. She couldn't help but want to fix everything for Toga. She knew, though, that Kagura was right. This really was Toga's battle. Retrieving her tea, Kagome stared into the cup as she lifted it to her lips. `Hurry up, InuYasha . . . find him before he does something stupid . . . .'

 

 

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A/N:

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Reviewers

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fruitcake (MMorg) :
Wonder what this hunt thingy is. Hope he doesn't get hurt. Ryo's such a trouble maker. Hm. is the 3rd movie canon? Because in the movie, InuYasha's dad gets killed by a human right after InuYasha's born and in Chronicles didn't you say it was a demon that killed him? So, which is true?

 

Ryukotsusei did kill Inu no Taisho. He inflicted the injuries that would have killed him both in the third movie and in Chronicles, and backed up in canon in manga/anime. Ryukotsusei inflicted the mortal wounds. The human that killed him in the movie didn't so much `kill' him as he `rushed' his death. Even had Inu no Taisho not gone into the castle to save Izayoi, he would have died.

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MMorg

Iggy Lovechild ------ DarklessVasion - not signed in ------ Maril (It isn't actually explained in the anime/manga but… as it is part of their transformation, and as I have seen Sesshoumaru separated from his Mokomoko-sama, the logical explanation is that they did have to be born with them…Sesshoumaru's father has one of his own, so he didn't just `inherit it' … there is really no other explanation.)

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FFnet

xSilverShadowsx ------ Flames101 (Cute? LMAO!) ------ Toya's Gurl (P3 is set about 2 or so years after this one…) ------ myeerah ------ kestral-tudorica (No, Kari stated earlier that she dumped Allan for cheating with Sierra before) ------ Ryguy5387

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AFFnet ------ AScom ------ ATnet

Midnight_Sparrow ------ akdreamer ------ Sess_2005 (Thanks! I try) ------ inugrl15 ------ Wing_Goddess ------ Shiga ------ giovanna (No… not if it's in character…)

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Final Thought from Kagome:

…. Any time, InuYasha …

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Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Defiance): I do not claim any rights to InuYasha or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al. I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize.

 

~Sue~