InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Second Chance ❯ A Song for You ( Chapter 38 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

No!. Don’t own it. Oh well. Le Sob! Le Cry! Le Whimper!! The song itself isn’t mine either. It’s A Song For You by Donnie Hathaway. I thought it was touching when I first heard it, so I thought I would stick it to this fic.

I

She stood on the balcony of her apartment, watching the sun as it slowly drifted toward the western sky. The purples, oranges, reds and golds of the twilight shimmered mystically, the varying hues suggesting something supernatural played in their depths. It sparkled, it shone and so did she in ways that she couldn’t possibly imagine this time last year.

The phone call she received earlier that evening was the spark that kindled this sudden good will, this sudden good cheer that swam like minnows in her aura. Sesshoumaru was on his way, and she couldn’t wait to see him. . .

She’d come to a decision, one that might just change their relationship forever.

She loved him, so much so that it woke her at night, a dream so vivid surprising her into consciousness so fast for brief seconds she would stare at the wall in attempt to calm down enough to remember where she was. It was sensual, this feeling, but more than just touches, sensations, and sighs in the darkness. It was his arrogance, something that greatly pissed her off at times. He was multi-layered, like an onion or a rose, and for every petal she plucked free she found something else to love about him.

He accepted Shippou and the kitsune’s position in Kagome’s life, with an aloft grace that barely hid the pride that shone from his hazel orbs.

‘He was proud of me. . .though I can’t imagine why.’

Shippou came to see the mostly absent male as a role model and influence if Kagome say, insisted he wear something silly and not a bit masculine to school. Mint green may look good on some people but the young pup wasn’t for finding out if he was one of them.

She loved him, bad, good or worse and she intended to tell him. . .

Tonight. . .

)9(

‘Tonight is my last night with the miko.’

Inuyasha looked up sharply, blinking in disbelief before focusing fully on the massive pile of white fur lounging on his best couch.

“I’m sorry,” the stunned hanyou finally said. “I missed that. Repeat it.”

‘You heard. I do not repeat myself.’

“Nah, I don’t think I heard you right,” Inuyasha shook his head. “Cause if I had I think I might have blown the roof off of the empty container you call a skull.”

‘Watch yourself hanyou,’ Sesshoumaru glowered with one eye open. ‘My dalliances with the ningen have not made me less dangerous.’

“I would hope it would have made you smarter,” Inuyasha retorted with a snort. “What would you want to leave her for?! She’s the best thing in your life right now and you just want to leave?! Why?”

‘It is my choice,’ Sesshoumaru countered with a frosty glare. ‘And I do not have to explain myself to you. Or anyone.’

“I think-”

‘I care not what you think.’

Inuyaha sighed, shook his head, and stood up. “Fine then you arrogant S.O.B.” he replied with a weary sigh. “Since your holiness deems it necessary to act like a colossal ass and throw away the best prospect you have for becoming normal then so be it. What about Chance?”

‘Chance will stay with her for as long as he is allowed.’

“Huh?”

Sesshoumaru bounded down from his perch on the couch, moving with a grace that most dogs weren’t blessed with. ‘Of course you do not understand. I did not expect you to.’

They exchanged glances a little longer, the dark brown orbs of Inuyasha’s human disguise staring deeply into the canine’s honey . They struggled for understanding behind his cool demeanor and found nothing, nothing that would help him understand. Inuyasha finally relented, his gaze shifting from the dog to the door as he reached forward and turned the knob.

“Come on then,” Inuyasha said and held open the door. “I won’t stop you from being stupid, cause that’s what your doing. Walk a couple of rounds around the mall with me, if your highness has the time.”

II

He cast a wary glance behind him, the impeding sunset doing little for his sense of foreboding as he scanned the alleyway for witnesses. He nearly yelped when a strong hand grasped the back of his neck and jerked him through the heavy steel door to the dimly lit hallway on the other side.

“Are you paying attention Naraku?” Charles hissed as he released his deathlike grip on the smaller man. “Or do I need to repeat myself?”

“You don’t have to repeat anything,” Naraku grunted irritably. “I was checking the alley. Last thing we need is some little old lady and her prissy little dog walking up behind us when we’re not looking. I thought we were trying to avoid that kind of thing after all.”

“Why yes we are.” Charles grinned, the bright gesture lost to the darkness swarming in his bottomless gaze. “But I will repeat it anyway. Some things are too important to leave to chance.” He pointed upward, towards the barely seen top of the service stairway. “We will change into those-” he pointed toward a pair of gray uniform jumpsuits, with matching pairs of hats and boots sitting on top of the folded pile. “and go all the way to the top, to the tenth floor-”

“We’re going up ten flights of stairs!” Naraku interrupted suddenly. “I didn’t sign up for a hike man!”

“Well if it weren’t for your carelessness we wouldn’t have to go through this!” Charles hissed back. “It was your foolishness that caught the wench on to us, and your foolishness that suggested setting up the cameras in the first place! It is only by sheer luck-” here he gave Naraku as suspicious, piercing glare. “That they haven’t suspected me in all of this!”

“Nobody forced you to,” Naraku grumbled under his breath.

“What was that?”

“What’s the next course of the plan?” Naraku asked instead, a heavy, gin-soaked sigh coiling from between his lips as he glared up at the stairs.

“We will come out in the offices at the tenth floor. The secretary is gone for the evening and the guards from that floor will be in the middle of shift change. Any that are there-” Charles held up a small pistol and nodded.

Naraku nodded back. “I got you. Then we go up to the bitch’s floor and do a little justice.”

Charles rolled his eyes at this, but nodded and shimmied out of his shoes and pants.

“Hurry. I want to be done with this before anyone realizes that something may be wrong.”

)9(

‘I just don’t get it,’ Inuyasha’s words echoed from within Sesshoumaru’s mind. ’Why would you want to leave her? Kagome’s the best chance you have to be rid of the spell! You could be normal again!’

‘He’s right you know,’ Kikyou replied softly. ’Why are we leaving her?’

‘Because it is time we left,’ Sesshoumaru replied, then tuned the miko out completely to listen to Inuyasha’s conversation with one of the merchants-

‘They’re not merchants anymore,’ Kikyou corrected suddenly. ’They’re store managers and general managers. Everything’s corporate now.’

‘Of course.’

‘Why are you leaving her?’ she asked again and, if he didn’t know better, the miko almost sounded like she grieved the moment they would say goodbye.

‘Chance is not leaving,’ Sesshoumaru explained once again. ‘But Sesshoumaru-’

‘Doesn’t have to,’ Kikyou offered instead. ‘She cares for you, both of you, and you-’

‘I care not for what she feels,’ he countered flippantly. ‘This Sesshoumaru knows what is best.’

‘If that were true,’ Kikyou replied before receding into the darkness of his mind. ‘Then you would not have been cursed in the first place.’

Sesshoumaru considered this a moment and despite her wisdom felt his resolve strengthening. Around the living miko he felt. . .odd. His chest felt overstuffed, his mind refused to focus on anything but her lithe form and his behavior. . .he could not risk whatever madness was descending on him. What good would he be, what use would living for so many centuries be, if he went mad not because of the touch of a mere ningen.

He wouldn’t risk himself for anyone, especially not an onna that ran him over eleven months ago.

The inu snarled but lay still, waiting until the right time. . .

)9(

“What are we doing again Kagome?” Shippou asked as he reached for another carrot and began to carefully chop. “And why are we putting this yucky carrots in it?”

“We’re making something I found online,” Kagome replied as she continued to shred chicken. “I think it was called a ‘pot pie’.”

“A what?” was Shippou’s flabbergasted reply. “I don’t think anyone wants to eat something with a pot in it.”

“No, I don’t think that’s what it means,” Kagome giggled as she reached over to stir the contents of a nearby pot. “I think its because you cook the insides in one pot, then bake it in a different pot.”

“Then shouldn’t it be called a two pot pie?”

“Huh,” Kagome grunted softly. “I would guess so. I never thought of it like that.”

Shippou beamed, taking a moment to sit down the knife before hopping down from the stepstool to bring the carrots to her. His claws clicked lightly against the plastic cutting board, his tail merrily swishing as he presented her with the board. She patted his head in thanks, making the ponytail that barely made it to her waist bob slightly. His human form was taller, a little past Kagome’s waist, but his humanoid form was barely taller than a seven year old human.

So he was short for his age. So what?

“Thanks Ship,” Kagome smiled down at him. She turned and slid the carrots into the pot, and was reaching for the onion at her side when the elevator doors sang. “Uh oh, honey. You might want to change.”“Is that the repairman that called you earlier?” Shippou asked as he ’popped’ into his human disguise while Kagome washed her hands. She nodded and he scoffed. “Well this one had better keep his hands to himself. His eyes too if he knows what’s good for ’em.”

“You sound like Inuyasha,” she replied and laughed at his scowl. “I’m surrounded by overprotective youkai.”

III

The gunshot was softer than Naraku expected, something he figured to be the result of the silencer on the end of it. The lone guard slumped to the lush carpet below with less noise than the gunshot, the guard’s brown orbs wide in surprise before the light within them faded. Charles stepped over the man without a word and Naraku followed his example, allowing the man to lead him to the elevator at the back corner of the room.
It wasn’t until they were on the elevator, the doors closed and the crappy elevator music singing softly from it’s tiny speakers, that Charles sighed and closed his eyes.

“Exciting, isn’t it Onigumo?” the older man breathed as he leaned against the elevator’s stainless steel walls. “I mean, it would have been better if it were a knife instead of a bullet, or barehanded instead of a either one, but a kill is a kill.”

“You sound like you’ve done this before,” Naraku quipped cynically. “Don’t tell me you were some sort of gun for hire, old man.”

“What I am, or was for that matter, is of no concern of yours.” They rode in silence afterward, the pair waiting as the elevator ascended to the highest floor. The cab stopped and, before the elevator doors opened, Charles grunted a “Do what I tell you, boy,” before stepping out of the elevator and grabbing the first living creature on the other side.

)9(

“Kagome, the repai-HEY!”

Her head jerked up instantly, an inert sense of trouble and a new something put her on high alert. She slipped out of her shoes, a pair of wheat hued espadrilles that were sexy but non-functional in case she had to run. She reached toward her knife block and pulled free the smallest knife in the set, a small paring with a smooth steel handle that fit nicely into the palm of her hand.

She slid her hands behind her and stepped out of the kitchen, her bare feet silent against the pearlescent stone tile. She walked slowly, deliberately, toward the cruel laughter and the sounds of struggle. Her heart stuttered and sped up but her breathing was calm and her head clear as she stepped into the living room.

“If it isn’t our wayward little tenant.” Charles grinned at her, a smile that she once found so caring twisted now as he gripped little Shippou by the collar of his shirt. The end of the gun was pressed against the back of his head, making the boy’s head bow forward as Naraku leaned against the closed elevator and grinned.

Charles gave Shippou one last harsh shake, his eyes twinkling as Shippou struggled, and said, “Why, it is her. Hello Higurashi-san. Long time no see.”

“Let him go,” she demanded and though her voice barely trembled her heart knocked against her chest like a hailstorm against a steel rooftop. She could hear her blood rushing in her ears and she frowned and shook her head clear. ‘Must stay calm,’ she calmed herself as her grip tightened on the knife. ‘They will hurt Shippou if I don’t. I have to wait until Inuyasha or someone else comes.’

“Who is he anyway?” Naraku asked and reached forward to grasp Shippou’s chin. “I don’t remember this little runt tagging in behind you. “

“He’s mine,” Kagome snapped and gritted her teeth in anger when his grasp on Shippou tightened. “But that’s none of your business. Let him go.” Allowing herself to relax, she shifted her hips and gave them a cocky smirk. “He’s not who you want anyway. I’m the one that spoiled your fun. I take it you knew about the cameras Charles?”

“Of course I did my dear,” he said back with a fatherly smile. “It was my idea. Naraku-san was the technology, but I was the concept. “ He sighed wistfully. “The fun we’ve had with our little toys. “

Naraku’s smile faltered slightly, but strengthened as he eyed the dipping cleavage of Kagome’s summer dress.

“But you, my dear,” Charles continued with a disapproving cluck of his tongue. “You had to ruin it. And we had such plans for you, didn’t we Onigumo?”

“She’s mine Chuck!” Naraku snapped suddenly. “I want her first! Don’t you-”

“Don’t order me,” Charles replied and glared at Kagome. “You will have your turn. Now,” he said with a pleased smile. “Come to me my darling.”

“Don’t do it Kagome!” Shippou cried out and yelped when Charles jerked his hair. “I can protect you!”

“Aw, aint that sweet,” Naraku cooed and grabbed a fistful of sunset curls. “Like you can protect anyone kid. I think you’d better shut up and do as we say.”

“Hey, leave him alone!” Kagome demanded, her nerves a jumping wreck as the gun moved from the back of Shippou’s head to his neck. “Shippou honey, its ok,” she said to her frightened kitsune. “I know you’ve got my back, but if they let you go you have to promise to go to your room and stay there.”

“Huh?” Shippou blinked in surprise. “But Kagome I-”

“Please,” Kagome begged and, knowing that only he would notice it, she allowed herself to relax long enough to fade into her own mind. In her mind was a mental picture of the knife in her hand and the trust she had in her kitsune son, the sudden sun in her world.
“Do as I ask.”

His focus sharpened to a razor’s edge and he inhaled, his eyes wide as the round of his human pupils became cat-like slits. He relaxed and closed his eyes.

“Please Charles,” Kagome said and stepped toward him. “Let him go and I’ll do what you say.”

“You will do as we say anyway, regardless of the child,” Charles replied and grinned when Naraku laughed beside him.

“But you want me to enjoy it, don’t you Naraku-san,” Kagome replied, her attention turned to the unstable of the pair. “You want me to want it, don’t you? You want me to beg for it, to need it, whatever it is you feel like doing to me and I will.”

“Kagome, don’t,” she heard Shippou whisper, his little voice strained in despair.

“I will, but he can’t be here. Let him go to his room.”

“I don’t think-”

“You do too much thinking anyway,” Naraku interrupted and snatched Shippou from Charles’ hands. “You heard her. I want to make the little slut strut before we put her out of her misery!”

“Hey, that’s my mama you’re talking about!” Shippou cried and was ignored.

“Naraku-san, you must stay calm. We can-”

“No, you can do whatever the fuck you want!” Naraku snarled viciously. “I want her spread! Send the brat so we can get this thing started!” He glanced up when the overhead lights turned on, the waning sunlight from the kitchen no longer enough to sustain an acceptable amount of light. Charles sighed and gave Kagome a considerable once over.

“She is -quite- lovely, isn’t she,” Charles commented, his eyes leering as he stared at her long legs and bare feet. He closed his eyes and sighed, his eyes popping open as cold steel buried itself into his ribcage. His breath rattled in his chest and Charles slumped over the kitsune, his last sight before the darkness came was of green eyes, once jade but now with the luster of emeralds, watching him with a cold, ellipsoid gaze.

Naraku wasted no time in backhanding the kitsune, who sailed like a stone toward the far wall. The mirror shattered upon contact and Shippou fell in a shower of sharp glass.

“Hey!” Kagome punched out when Naraku made his way toward the child. “Come get it asshole!” She turned and fled toward the kitchen. He snarled viciously, his eyes as cold and devious as the fractured orbs of a hunting spider as he scooped up the gun and quickly followed, leaving the unconscious child behind.

)9(

The heavy, metallic scent of blood assaulted them as soon as the elevator doors opened. Sesshoumaru snarled, his ears deaf to Inuyasha’s own bestial grunt as he padded as Sesshoumaru padded into the room. The guard, a human that assisted Kagome with her groceries from time to time, lay in an ever widening pool of his own blood, the right side of his face a crimson mess of tissue and cartilage.

“Kagome’s in danger Sesshoumaru,” Inuyasha growled, his human glamour fading to the white haired hanyou underneath. “Sesshoumaru?” He turned and found nothing but air beside him, his office door already open with the massive hound that was his brother standing on his hind legs and pushing the elevator door with his nose.

The elevator doors opened instantly and Sesshoumaru slipped inside, Inuyasha close behind before the doors closed and they rose to Kagome’s apartment. Blood assaulted them again, the brothers noting with relief that neither sample belonged to Kagome before noting the human that lay on the floor at their feet.

‘Where is the other?’ Sesshoumaru demanded, his nose flaring as he sniffed the bloody air. ‘And where is-’ He turned to the sound of breaking glass as Shippou finally stood, his back and paws a bleeding mess as he stumbled forward toward the kitchen.

“Hey kid!” Inuyasha called and scooped him up. “Where’s Kagome?”

“She’s out there,” Shippou grunted and winced as he fished one of the mirror shards from the palm of his scarred hand. “And some jerk named Naraku went after her!”

‘Then we must-’

A scream, piercing in her fright, shattered the air around them and they ran toward the fading twilight.

)9(

She made it as far as the balcony when he grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked. She shrieked in pain and outrage as he pulled her backward and slammed her against the nearby wall.

“You bitch!” Naraku roared into her ear. He reached around and pawed insistently at her breasts, giving each one a painful squeeze before pressing his hand against her thigh. “I’m going to make you suffer.”

“Don’t touch me,” Kagome snapped and jerked away from him. He thrust his hips into her backside and ground into her, making sure to give her backside a cruel squeeze before licking her cheek.

“I will do whatever the fuck I want to do to you,” he replied slowly. “Where is that mutt of yours by the way? I want to gut him and make you scream on his bloody remains.”

“I-”

“Let her go.”

Naraku rolled his eyes and huffed, pissed off beyond belief at being interrupted. “Here we go again,” he said as he shoved Kagome to her knees and turned around. “Why can’t we have a nice evening to ou-” Naraku stopped, his voice frozen in his throat as he stared at the creature before him. Snow white hair fluttered in the harsh wind and the eyes, they glowed with a fierce amber resonance.

“Wh-what are you?” Naraku demanded and stepped backward toward the ledge. He dragged Kagome with him, ignoring her pained hiss as he attempted to put as much distance as possible between him and the abomination on the other side.

“What?” Inuyasha chuckled darkly. “You afraid ningen? You stink of blood and filth.”

“Stay away from me,” Naraku cried out and pointed the gun toward the crown of Kagome’s head. “I don’t know what you want, but it aint here.”

“Give her back,” Shippou said as he settled himself onto Inuyasha’s shoulder. His tail flickered against the hanyou’s shoulder and his gaze glowed in the fading twilight. “She’s pack an-”

“I don’t give a shit what she is, she’s mine and if you don’t get back I’ll blow this bitch’s brains out!”

“Inuyasha please!” Kagome cried out, her confusion over his sudden change in appearance forgotten. She winced when Naraku jerked her hair again and ignored his demands to be quiet. “Please get Shippou away from here!”

“No Kagome!” Shippou cried and, without warning, jumped from Inuyasha’s shoulder and ran toward her. “Give her back you asshole!”

“I said stay back!” Naraku shouted and raised the gun toward the kit.

“Shippou NO!” Kagome screamed and reached for him moments before Naraku squeezed off the first shot. Kagome’s terrified scream shattered the night and, before the piercing hot lead could shatter the kitsune’s ribcage a blurring white mass intercepted the round and collided into Naraku. Kagome was knocked to the side, sent sprawling and blind as a sudden burst of bright crimson light surrounded Naraku.

The light died away immediately and Kagome blinked away her blindness in time to see Sesshoumaru, dressed in crimson and gold, pick Naraku up one handed by his neck. His eyes glowed blood red and he snarled, drinking in the stench of Naraku’s fear. He was overcome with bloodlust, it singing in his ears as he lifted Naraku over the ledge of the building and opened his hand, watching with a wicked smile as the man plummeted to the ground below.

“Sesshoumaru?”

He turned, the moonlight silver in his dark locks as the scarlet in his eyes faded to a soft hazel.

“Sesshoumaru, it is you?” Kagome stood up slowly, sapphire orbs wide in disbelief. “You-and Chance. . .all this time and-”

“Kagome I-” He stopped, his brow furrowed and his eyes dark in confusion as blood bubbled from between his lips. He glanced down at the sudden warmth at his chest, pressed his hand to the front of his gi and pulled away a hand coated in his own blood.

“Sesshoumaru!!” Kagome screamed out and rushed forward when Sesshoumaru sank to his knees, disbelief shimmering in his once impassive face as he slumped into her arms. Inuyasha and Shippou were close behind as Kagome rushed to sit down, Sesshoumaru’s head in her lap. Inuyasha ripped open Sesshoumaru’s gi and gaped at the hole in the upper part of his chest. Blood pumped from the wound with every beat of Sesshoumaru’s heart and a foreboding sucking noise rattled from his chest with each breath.

“Inuyasha?” Shippou asked as Inuyasha looked up and into Kagome’s desperate eyes. He shook his head, his eyes closed at her sudden sob and Sesshoumaru’s liquid gasp.

“Why?” Kagome asked as she hugged him. “Why Sesshoumaru? Thank you so much for saving Shppou, but why?”

He breathed in struggled gasps, gurgles that were liquefied and pained as he said, “For. . .you. . .anyt. . .” He coughed, blood splattering onto his lower lip as his golden gaze went from her to Inuyasha. “Take. . .take ca. . .”

“I will,” Inuyasha assured him with somber eyes. “Don’t worry about them. I will.”
Sesshoumaru nodded and closed his eyes, his breathing labored as Kagome turned to Inuyasha. “He’s been hurt worse than this, hasn’t he?”

Inuyasha nodded somberly.

“And he always healed right? Why isn’t he healing now?”

“Because,” Inuyasha began and gazed toward the full moon. “Tonight he’s human, all human and his healing powers wont be back until morning. It will be too late by then.”

“But,” Kagome sobbed miserably. “Isn’t there something we can do for him?! Isn’t there anything?” Inuyasha’s silence was deafening and it was Shippou, with his hand in her own, that answered her.

“He doesn’t have much time.”

Kagome sniffed, one tear after another streaming down her cheeks as she kissed Sesshoumaru’s forehead.

“Kagome-”

“I love you,” she whispered into Sesshoumaru’s ear. “I love you so much and I‘m so so sorry I didn‘t tell you before now. I‘m so sorry Sesshoumaru.”

Golden orbs opened and connected with hers, drinking in her face as he reached up and gently caressed her cheek. Time seemed to still and he gurgled something, the blood bubbling on his lips.

“What?” Kagome said and leaned toward his mouth. “I didn’t hear you Sesshoumaru. Say it aga-” He exhaled suddenly and the hand against her cheek dropped to the smooth stone beside her. The light in his gaze faded to nothing and his body, tense under his pain, relaxed and drooped against her.

The heavens opened and the rain began to wash the world clean.

(End Chapter)

SF: (Girls of the Inu cast cry) I’m really, really sorry you guys!

Sesshou: (digging through the fridge for a Vanilla Pepsi) Silly, whimpering females. As if this Sesshoumaru would throw away his life for some ningen.

SF: Sesshoumaru, why, why must you be such a kill-joy, huh? Can’t you just live in the moment? Right now, right at this very moment there are dozens of women out there willing to throw themselves underneath you for what Chance just did for Kagome and you can’t do anything more than grumble like a giant sleepy bear!

Sesshou: Your personal opinion of this Sesshoumaru is not my concern.

SF: (fuming) You know what? Just for that attitude I think-I think- I think I’ll let you STAY DEAD!! So there ya jerk!

Sesshou: You think so, do you?

SF: I know so. Watcha gonna do bout it?

Silver: (shaking his head) Speak proper English. Some people above the Mason-Dixon line don’t understand what you just sai-(SF screams and flies past him, with Sesshou close behind) Oh well then. Nevermind. Hey, if he stays dead then who gets the lemon?

Inu-chan: I do! Get started whelp!

Silver: Whelp?!

Shippou: Oh boy. There they go. Sorry about the adults folks. SF’s temper is pretty bad lately. The Little Muse isn’t here to staunch that anger of hers.

Rin: That’s ok though cause Shippou and I will do our best! Next time: Chapters Thirty-Nine and Forty: A Story Retold and The End of A Tragic Legend!