InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Rock, Paper, Scissors: Love Beats All ❯ Sesshomaru's Mistake ( Chapter 11 )

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Chapter Eleven: Sesshomaru's Mistake

He stared down at Kagome's palid corpse, his eyes narrowing in concentration as he considered what he was preparing to do, and clenched a fist over the hilt of Tenseiga. He owed her this much for murdering her when she'd trusted him to protect her. As his father's son, as a demon lord, he knew that he must honor his word to her. As her guardian, he knew that he must do all that he could to preserve her life. But why had he shown tears for her, if she was merely his ward? When Rin had been attacked by wolves that day in the forest, when she had perished, Sesshomaru had not shown any emotion at all. So why was it any different with Kagome? Why weep over this human and not another? Sesshomaru's features became sharper as he waded through his thoughts and feelings. He'd known that he could bring Rin back, so perhaps he had wept for Kagome because he hadn't thought of Tenseiga? His countenance darkened. He'd known full well that he could revive Kagome, yet he still shed his tears for her. He clutched the hilt of his sword tighter in his palm as a memory swept over him...

"Sesshomaru," whispered the beautiful woman. She was lying motionless on a bed, her face thin and pale, as she held the hand of a small inuyoukai boy. The boy squeezed her hand, his features growing more tormented at her faint voice, but refused to shed a tear in her presence. She would be saddened at having to leave him if he gave into these feelings and, in her last moments, he was determined to show her only a face that she could take relief in. There would be no tears. Not now.

"Yes, Mother. I'm here," he answered, willing his voice to sound steady and calming. He wished that his father would speak to her. His voice held such a riveting measure of levelness, that it reassured all who stood by him. It was so much stronger than his own boyish voice. His mother closed her eyes as her head fell back to the side slightly, her breathing becoming more shallow. Sesshomaru's brow lowered and his expression hardened as he struggled to withhold the grief from his features. He searched desperately for the words to comfort his dying mother. He turned his head to glance over his shoulder at his father, who sat back a ways from the bed, his face cast in shadow. Why wouldn't he say anything to her?!

His mother gasped, her grip tightening on Sesshomaru's hand. The small boy whipped about to gaze down at her pained features, uncertain of what he should do. What could he do, in these last moments that she had left in this world? He felt his father come to stand beside him and looked up, surprised. InuTaisho did not spare his son a glance, but allowed his eyes to fall only on his mate, his face a sculpture of stone. Sesshomaru followed his father's example and turned to stare at his mother, who had relaxed against the bed and was gazing back at Sesshomaru's father.

"InuTaisho..." The young inuyoukai had to force himself to keep his eyes on his mother's face as she spoke, though he wanted to look up and see his father's reaction. Precious moments slipped by, worrying the dying inuyoukai's son. If his father didn't speak soon, his chance would be gone forever.

"I've always loved you," he said shortly after an unbearable stretch of silence, his voice rumbling like the thunder before a storm. And then he just turned away, returning to his chair; to the place where his face was hidden from view. Sesshomaru's eyes had grown wide with shock at his father's words. Was that all he had to say to her in her last moments?! How could four words be enough to carry her to peace as she passed on to the Next World? He snapped his eyes back to his mother, reaching for the words his father had failed to speak, and found himself surprised yet again.

His mother was smiling. Her eyes were half-shut, sparkling with sudden life, and she was smiling. 'It was enough for my father to tell her that he loved her...?' Sesshomaru turned back to his mother, unsure of what was left to say, and was chilled to the bone.

She had already passed, the smile still fresh on her face.

Her hand fell from his, landing on the bed with a soft "pat," as a tear streaked his face. She was gone. Sesshomaru reached up and slung the back of his hand across his cheek, wiping away the tear and cutting himself in the process. He turned to face his father, hoping for some sort of direction. What was he to do now, he wanted to ask.

And then he froze.

InuTaisho, remaining on his chair in the corner, his face still partially hidden with shadow, had two shimmering streams running down his face. He made no sound. He showed no expression. But the tears were undeniably there. Young Sesshomaru took a dazed step back, his legs growing suddenly weak, and plopped down on the bed beside his mother's corpse. So...nothing was left to do but...

Sesshomaru hung his head and, as his father had, allowed himself to grieve.

Sesshomaru's grip tightened all the more around the hilt of Tenseiga. The tears he had shown at that moment were meaningless, foolish expressions. He had nothing to grieve over, for he had no love for his mother. Love. A single word that was, in itself, a lie. And his mother, as he had learnt only a few months ago, had not died for the last time that day. She had been brought back from the Next World by a powerful demon, which she had slain the instant she laid eyes upon it. She had not sought him upon her rebirth, however, and so Sesshomaru proudly refused to meet with her. So, regardless of this knowledge, he had still not seen his mother since her "death" all those decades ago.

His eyes fell back into focus, returning from his memory, and his attention returned to Kagome's lifeless body as he awaited the pallbearers imps to appear. How had he allowed himself to fall under that illusion? He would not forgive himself for repeating InuTaisho's ultimate mistake. Not when he had for so long forsworn to do so...

***

Many years had come and gone since Sesshomaru's mother had passed to the Next World, but they felt very short to the adult Sesshomaru. He still remembered her as clearly as if it had been only a few years, and not a few decades, since her death. The only wear that time had made on her memory was that it did not bring him torment to remember her any longer. Thoughts of her entailed less grief than before. He had been thinking of her today, actually, which was why...

***

Sesshomaru caught his father's scent, blended with the acrid stench of humans, and started towards it. He had news to deliver to him about a possible trespasser on the Western Lands that InuTaisho ruled over. He supposed that he must be passing a human village, by the corruption of his scent. He flew through the forest, stopping within a few yards of the scent, and found his father. His eyes narrowed as he realized what he was seeing.

His father hadn't noticed him yet, and was walking next to a human woman. They appeared to be taking a pleasure stroll through the forest together. But that surely couldn't be right. Surely not! But, as Sesshomaru watched on, InuTaisho bent his face down to the human woman's...

...and kissed her.

"Izayoi," InuTaisho called her when he broke the kiss. The human woman, "Izayoi," looked back at Sesshomaru's father with a determining expression. 'My father...and a human woman?' thought Sesshomaru, stunned at this unexpected discovery.

"InuTaisho. Please," the woman began, "answer my question; I must know. D-do you love me?" InuTaisho looked down at her, his eyes narrowing in time with his spying son's.

"I do," came his father's grave response, spoken in the quiet, thunder-like voice he'd used with Sesshomaru's mother on the day of her death. That same voice, confessing the same "love," with the very same expressionless features.

***

That day, Sesshomaru had renounced his tears and took immense shame in those that he had shed on behalf of his mother. How could his father forget the mate that he had told he always loved? Was love such a fleeting emotion, so small a thing, that it could easily be tossed aside at the first sight of another woman? Love was a lie. A mere illusion, created to ensure procreation between those that fell under its spell. Sesshomaru swore to himself, the moment InuTaisho said those words, that he would not be fooled by the same illusion that his father had. That day, he voided his heart of all sensation.

And for the first fifty or so years, his resolve had held up exceptionally well.

Until those two humans.

***

'And because of Izayoi, InuYasha's mother, InuTaisho perished before I could match my strength against his. InuTaisho: the only opponent that had been worth defeating,' concluded Sesshomaru bitterly. He felt a familiar hate for his brother begin to burn through his chest as he remembered why he despised InuYasha so. Humans. They truly did throw perfection into chaos.

The imps suddenly appeared at Kagome's side, jolting Sesshomaru from his ill-meaning thoughts, and he quickly tore Tenseiga from its sheathe. He brought the sword above his head and swung it at the pallbearers, disintegrating their grotesque figures in a single swing. He looked down upon Kagome's form, awaiting her return, and was reminded of his earlier conflict; the question that had spawned all of these long-buried memories. Why had Kagome's death unlocked the tears he had sworn to hide for the rest of his existence? As he watched, the human stirred. 'My sense simply abandoned me in the wake of my exhaustion,' he reasoned. He had been exhausted from struggling against his near-transformation, and when he had realized that he had actually killed Kagome, his ward, he was simply too weak to fight off the emotion. That was all there was to it. He had not, as he had feared, repeated his father's mistake. He was not claiming to "love" anybody. Thankfully, Kagome came back to consciousness before he could begin to wonder why he had felt any emotion towards her death to begin with.

"Ses...Sesshomaru?" she started, looking up at him as she pushed herself up on an elbow. She appeared to be slightly disoriented. "Are you okay now? Your transformation--"

"Shut up." He didn't want her to bring that up. His weakness at that moment. His sudden loss of control. Her murder. He looked down at her with contempt. "We are late for the battle." He snatched the speechless Kagome from the base of the tree where he'd slung her, where he'd killed her, and sped off towards the battlegrounds.

"Then all this shit with Naraku and demons and fighting. It will all just stop. And we'll just be together forever without any more worries or pain."
"InuYasha, please, I can't stay. My body isn't able to tether me to this world any longer. It's not my choice anymore! You must live...please, InuYasha! Please just live!"
A pause, and then...
"You're mine."
Naraku growled, his eyes narrowing, as he spied on the scene taking place beneath his body. InuYasha intended to die with Kikyo, then? Why was it that no matter how many times he broke those two fools apart, they returned to one another's sides?! Death, betrayal, and now, even when Kikyo held only a portion of her soul, even when she half hated InuYasha, they were both prepared to die alongside the other? This was infuriating! What must he do to show them how petty their feelings truly were? What must he do to separate them forever?
"Kikyo is mine to do with as I wish," Naraku informed the half-human. He smiled nastily as InuYasha sat bolt upright, instantly searching for Naraku's hiding place. "I have deduced that the priestess will return to Hell. Alone." Naraku manipulated his tentacles and wrapped them around InuYasha.
"Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" the hanyou bellowed, raking his claws across the masses of tentacles that binded him. Naraku only smiled wider and sent more tentacles to entwine the half-demon. "Iron Reaver Soul Steal--! Damn!" The tentacles pinned his arms to his sides, completely immobilizing InuYasha. "DAMN YOU, NARAKU!" Naraku grinned and projected his face before the couple.
"DAMN YOU, NARAKU!" spat InuYasha, tightly wound in Naraku's slimy tentacles. In a moment, Naraku's face had appeared in the darkness above Kikyo. The miko had already fallen unconscious, at least a fourth of her body missing. InuYasha's expression was contemplative as he stared at Kikyo, but soon became rageful as he looked back at Naraku. "You aren't going to get away this time, bastard!" Naraku grinned again and InuYasha's scowl deepened.
"I will not pursue you any longer, InuYasha. I believe that you'll be much more miserable alive." InuYasha's eyes widened, his anger receding, as he realized what Naraku was saying. He was going to make him suffer by sending Kikyo back to Hell. By allowing InuYasha to live the rest of his life in torment at her memory! InuYasha renewed his struggle to free himself from Naraku's tentacles.
"Bastard! Let me go and fight!" Naraku's wicked laughter echoed around the foul cavern as the tentacles drew InuYasha away from Kikyo. "Damn it! You coward!" The tentacles took him from the room, shutting out his view of Naraku's apparition and Kikyo's motionless form. It drew him back through the thick masses of tentacles, rolling him towards the outside. 'No...! Take me back in, damn it...' he thought, eyes wide. The tentacles spat him out suddenly, leaving him sprawled out on the cool grass. He looked up and saw that he was at the base of Naraku's pulsating mound of purple and black flesh. The sun was painful to his eyes after being inside the dark tomb for so long. The tomb that he was supposed to share with-- "KIKYO!"
Kagome bounced on Sesshomaru's back as he landed from an especially high leap. He was tearing through the forest with more speed than Kagome had ever believed him capable of. She clutched her hands around the spikes on his armor, knowing that it wouldn't be a pleasant experience if she fell off of his back at such high speeds. 'My mom would kill me if I ever drove this fast...' thought Kagome absently.
Are you okay? Your transformation--
Shut up.
She winced, cringing on Sesshomaru's back as the words rang through her head. Had she really made him that angry? That time when he'd been on the verge of losing his control... That moment when she'd pressed herself against his bare chest, bravely embracing him even as she shook with terror at what he was becoming...
Humans aren't the problem. It's love. You love Rin. You're scared for her...and you hate yourself for it.
She was only trying to offer her support. Geez! She hadn't meant to insult him...
This Lord Sesshomaru fears nothing!
She gasped.
"HEY! You hit me, didn't you?!" she shouted at the back of Sesshomaru's perfect hair. She felt him stumble slightly and maybe slow down a little.
"..."
"Uh-huh, that's what I thought! Hmph! I was only trying to help and you lost your temper with me! That really hurt, ya know!" Sesshomaru began to gain speed, obviously intending to get to the battlegrounds before she started on his case. Well, Kagome Higurashi wasn't about to let up!
But just as she was about to delve deeper into her lecture, Sesshomaru leapt back into the air, the mokomoko gracefully trailing behind them like a furry ribbon. She was so in awe at the sensation of flying weightlessly through the treetops that she lost the ability to speak for the time being.
And then they were descending.
They landed hard on the ground, jarring Kagome to the point of almost releasing her death-grip on Sesshomaru's armor, and the taiyoukai sped off again. She opened her mouth, about to let Sesshomaru know that she hadn't forgotten that she wanted to bite his head off, and stopped. Where was the pain? She looked down at herself, hesitantly touching her abdomen where her wounds had begun to heal.
The gashes had vanished.
"You didn't just hit me...did you?" she asked, reaching back up to regain her hand-hold on Sesshomaru's shoulder. Her voice wasn't as strong as she had hoped it would be.
"..."
"You killed me?"
"..."
"And so, then--with Tenseiga--"
"Shut up." Kagome scowled.
"You shut up! You just killed me! Excuse me, but I'm a little upset!" Kagome was positively incensed. She had been dead. A corpse. And he had been the murderer! 'I've been kidnapped, attacked, fought over, kidnapped, forcibly engaged, wounded, kidnapped, temporarily robbed of my soul and now murdered?! Why do I stay here, again...?' Kagome growled, frustrated.
And he had the nerve to tell her to "shut up?!"
"..."
"Well, say something!" she demanded, glaring at the back of his head with as much venom as she could muster.
"What would you recommend?"
"Oh, I don't know..." she began sarcastically, "How about "SORRY?!"
"Sorry."
"Not good enough!" she screamed, absolutely fuming at this point. "How can you think "sorry" even covers it?! I DIED!"
"I was merely following your suggestion."
"What, by killing me?!"
"By apologizing."
"GAH!" She smacked him upside the head. "BAKA-SAMA!"
He halted.
Kagome gulped.
"We're here," he told Kagome, who had just walloped him over the head, calling him "Lord Idiot." He would have killed anyone else who showed him such disrespect, but he tried not to make a habit out of killing the same person twice in a day. Besides, her anger was justified. He had accepted her as his ward, and she had perished under his guardianship. His pride allowed him to ignore her tantrum, albeit grudgingly, for this reason alone.
Kagome hadn't moved since they had arrived, so Sesshomaru slid her from his back himself. He looked over his shoulder at her, his expression unreadable, and saw that she was looking at him with something of surprise. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully at her, unsure of why he refused to break the gaze, when she suddenly looked away with a gasp.
"That's Shippo over there!" she shouted, her features growing alarmed. Sesshomaru followed her eye and saw an enormous ball of snake demons coiled around each other, floating very low to the ground. Only, there was something else beneath them. Something familiarly pink.
Kagome unexpectedly legged it to the battlefield, causing Sesshomaru to follow after her. Effortlessly passing her up, he gathered her under his arm, dropping her to her feet when they stood before the enemy. She immediately began plucking the demons off with her sacred arrows, unfazed by Sesshomaru's gesture. The taiyoukai leapt into the air and used his Poison Flower Claw to attack the snakes that swarmed the blimp-like Shippo, using restraint so as not to injure the kitsune demon. Soon, the other snake demons fled the scene, realizing that the battle was hopelessly one-sided.
"PLEASE DON'T GO, SHIPPO-KUN!" begged Rin from within the balloon. 'Shippo's dead.'
"NOOOOO!" came Sango's blood-curdling scream from somewhere off to his right. 'Kohaku, too.'
"KIKYO!" roared InuYasha from far behind. 'As well as Kikyo.'
"Shippo! No! Shippo!" was Rin's hollow voice, again from inside the blimp.
Sesshomaru had turned full-circle, following each scream in sequence, before focusing back on Shippo as he vanished with a loud "pop." Sesshomaru caught sight of two small figures lying on the ground just below where the Shippo Blimp had once hovered. He took a step forward, intending to scan Rin for injuries, when,
"Shippo... He's dead. I killed him. It's...it's all my fault." Sesshomaru's eyes widened somewhat at Rin's Kanna-like monotone as she spoke. Her fault...? The tears streaked the young girl's face, her eyes blank and unblinking, as she laid her head on Shippo's motionless chest.
"Shippo!" shouted Kagome as she rushed over to kneel next to Shippo's lifeless form. Death seemed to take enjoyment in stalking this heroic group. Kikyo, Shippo, Kohaku, and even Kagome had died today. He slowly walked over to the three of them, bending down to lift Rin to her feet. But she began to fall back to the ground the instant he released her, apparently unable to stand. Sesshomaru caught her, looking down at her with concern. "She's--" Kagome choked, clutching Shippo in her arms, "--traumatized, Sesshomaru. She's under mental shock at Shippo's...Shippo's..." The oddly-dressed miko burst into tears, her entire body quavering with sobs.
Again, Sesshomaru felt that loathesome feeling from when Kagome had thought Kanna's mirror had claimed his life. That despicable emotion that had torn at his heart back at the castle as she cried for him. His fist clenched as he began to tremble. 'Why...? Why am I trembling at this girl's tears?!' He looked away from her, staring off at Miroku, who seemed to be in the same predicament as he was at the moment. Minus the hugging, of course.
"Rin will be okay with time. She just has to find a way to cope with it." Sesshomaru turned his attention back to Kagome as she spoke, flicking his eyes to Rin's limp form. She was staring off into pure nothingness, her eyes wide, but unseeing. He did not doubt Kagome's words, for he knew that she would not claim to know what was the matter with Rin and risk the young human's life. He knew he could trust the priestess when it came to Rin's health.
"Very well. Shall we save the lives of those who remain?" he suggested, intending to remind her of the friends that she still had left. She clutched tighter to Shippo's corpse, her face shadowed by her bangs.
"Please use Tenseiga again," she said, her voice low. Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed in thought as he watched her face, wet with the downpour of tears, and held his silence. He looked off into the distance, towards the demon slayer and monk, as he answered.
"Impossible." He heard an abrupt rustle of clothing as she turned to look at him, undoubtedly furious at his refusal. There was a moment where nothing was said and all that Sesshomaru did was watch the monk comfort the grief-crazed human woman. And then Kagome exploded with rage.
"Why not?! You saved me, a human! A human that you killed with your own hands! Isn't Shippo above me on that scale?! Even...even just a little?" Kagome's voice broke, tears beginning to overtake her again, when he suddenly felt her leap at him. He turned, surprised, and watched in sheer incredulity as she grabbed the hilt of Tenseiga. He grabbed her wrist, looking down at her with a decidedly testy expression. She looked back at him with the defiance of ten InuYashas as she demanded, "How am I more worthy of resurrection than a fellow demon?!"
His grip loosened at this question and Kagome took full advantage, wrenching the sword from its sheathe before he could realize what had happened. He instantly started forward to retrieve the weapon, but at that exact moment, Kagome's knees buckled beneath her and she fell to the ground. Her knuckles were bone-white as she held Tenseiga. She tried to speak, but the "words" ended up as various crackles and moans. Her eyes were so wide, that it looked as if their lids had been forced back against their sockets. 'Konkatsu!' Sesshomaru recognized. Sesshomaru knelt down beside her and pried her fingers from the hilt of the sword, taking it away from her with an indifferent front. As he sheathed it, Kagome came back to herself a little.
"You nearly split your soul in two," he explained before she had the chance to ask. She fell against him, clutching his haori for dear life. He looked down at the crown of her head, but quickly adverted his eyes again. She deserved what she had gotten. She began to quiver, still shaken from the experience of shredding her soul, and Sesshomaru found his resolve wavering. His eyes narrowed as he looked back at her, taking his arm around her protectively. "A human cannot wield Tenseiga's power without splitting their soul. Every time they draw on that sword's power, they must bear the agony of tearing their soul in half. The technique is called Konkatsu--Soul Split. The pain will subside; your soul will heal." She nodded uselessly, seemingly unable to do anything more.
Sesshomaru looked back at Rin and Shippo, checking that the human girl was still there. She hadn't moved an inch from where he'd left her. He scowled slightly and turned his attention to Shippo's corpse, which had a purple tinge around its lips. Sesshomaru stood, lying Kagome back against the grass. "I'll return shortly." And then he started towards Sango and Miroku.
The two humans looked up at him apprehensively as he approached, but said nothing. When he finally arrived before them he saw that Kohaku had, as he'd supposed, perished. And by his own devices, if the jewel shard lying on the ground next to his body was to account for anything. Sesshomaru turned his attention to the humans and extended his hand.
"My antidote," he instructed. Sango's eyes welled with tears and the monk glowered at him, clearly believing that Sesshomaru had no tact at all. But that was fine. Just so long as he got his antidote back. The demon slayer took the antidote and slung it at him, burying her face in Miroku's chest as she began to sob again. Sesshomaru caught the vile with ease and left them to themselves.
Returning to Kagome and the young ones, he was relieved to see that Kagome had recovered and was standing, waiting for him to reach her. Questions seemed to be hanging from her lips, he observed as he grew closer. He closed the distance with a dash that was faster than the eye could comprehend, surely leaving an image of himself behind, and knelt at Shippo's corpse in the selfsame instant. Kagome was still looking at where he'd been standing a few moments ago.
"Over here," he said playfully, looking over his shoulder at her. She turned with a start, wondering how he'd gotten past her. In a moment, however, she was kneeling next to him and watching him with interest. She said nothing, however, so Sesshomaru answered the question he knew she was trying not to ask. "Shippo may be only nearing death." Sesshomaru uncorked the vile of antidote and dribbled it into the kitsune's mouth.
"What do you mean? He isn't breathing. His heart has stopped and he's ice cold! How would the antidote to your Poison Whip help him any...?" she wanted to know. But, at that moment, Shippo's eyes snapped open as he began to take in great gulps of air. Kagome leapt on him like a cougar after a plump rabbit, smothering him in a hug that threatened to undo Sesshomaru's efforts to preserve his life.
"Shippo! You're alive! You're--"
"--trying to breathe!" Shippo finished for her, causing her to drop him on her lap. She smiled down at him, her eyes welling with tears.
"You're bleeding, though! I'll-I'll get the bandages from my backpack!" she said suddenly, lifting Shippo to the ground as she stood to retrieve her yellow luggage-carrier from a few yards away. Once she returned, Sesshomaru watched avidly as she unpacked enough gauze and medicines to treat an army. She began tending to the now-sleeping kitsune's wounds with as much skill as himself, surprising the taiyoukai with her medical knowledge. Rin crept over, to both Sesshomaru and Kagome's delight, to watch with interest as the priestess worked. The small human girl still would not speak, though. 'Just like the first time I met her,' Sesshomaru thought concernedly. When the most serious of Shippo's injuries had been taken care of, Kagome asked, "How did that work? Why did Shippo get better when you gave him that antidote?" Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed, reluctant to admit his own mistake.
"When we were fighting off the snake demons that were attacking Rin and Shippo, I inadvertently scratched Shippo with my Poison Flower Claw. I noticed my mistake only when Shippo's pigment began to change." Kagome's features were full of disbelief. Sesshomaru adverted his eye and gazed off into the distance before himself. "The poison that I administer with that attack causes the victim to appear dead as its body shuts down." Sesshomaru stood and turned around to stare at Miroku and Sango, knowing that the chances of Kohaku or Kikyo's revival were too slim to measure.
Kagome came up beside him and took his arm with both of her hands. He glanced down at her out of the corner of his eye, unmoving. She looked back up at him, smiling, and affectionately hugged his arm to herself. Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed at the top of her head as she pressed her face against his tricep.
"Thank you for saving Shippo. And for...for saying that you did something wrong," she said, the smile still evident in her voice. "You don't do that often...do you?" He stiffened. What was she aiming at, exactly?
"..." She seemed to sense his sudden coldness and explained.
"I just mean," she began, looking up at him with a softer smile than before, "that I'm glad that you could trust me not to hold it against you for making a mistake." He looked back ahead of himself again.
"InuYasha's bullheadedness was not inherited from our father." A welcome silence passed between them as each returned to their own thoughts. And then...
"We're...still together," Rin said, standing just behind them. Sesshomaru and Kagome parted, looking down between them at the sparkly-eyed little girl. "Friendships are forever. We're all still together." Kagome reached down and took Rin's hand.
And, to both girls' immense surprise, Sesshomaru followed suit.
Kagome quickly bounced back, replying to Rin with a cheerful smile. "Of course we are. It's a bond that can never be broken, Rin-chan!"
"InuYasha is in need of our aid, Kagome. The battle has not ended." Kagome met his eye and nodded.
"Right." And, Kagome carrying Shippo in her arms, they started towards the demon slayer and monk. They would have to gather all of their allies to go up against Naraku. 'The humans cannot spend this time mourning the deceased while the living require their assistance.'
(A/N: Sesshomaru's mother never died in the actual series. I made it to where she came back to life here in the fanfiction so that it fits in with the manga, where Sesshomaru later meets her in Chapter #466. After all, he can't meet her in the future if I kill her off when he's just a child. I realize that she is OOC here, so I'd like to offer an explanation to redeem myself. Let's say that Sesshomaru's failure to seek her upon learning of her rebirth has made her bitter towards him and everyone else in #466. And Sesshomaru is rude to her as well, even though he cried at her death, because he feels that she didn't want to see him. They are cold to each other in Chapter #466 because they were both too proud to meet with the other and thus feel as though each has abandoned them. A simple misunderstanding.)