InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Silence the Fairytale ❯ Kagome's Final Day ( Chapter 1 )

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

“Please, someone! Someone help me!” Kagome cried desperately, as she raced into the village breathlessly. The sun had set a good while ago and the more time passed, the more frantic Kagome became. Darkness surrounded her now, and she was dishevelled as she fell to her knees just on the outskirts of the village.

Sluggish stirrings within the place she called home brought on her fervor with renewed force. “Kaede-baa-chan! Onegai! Anyone, help!” A few villagers came from their huts suspiciously and Kagome called out to Kaede, her mentor, once more. “Kaede-baa-chan! Please, there is a man who is dying and needs our help!”

The old miko braced herself wearily as she got up from her futon, her sleep disturbed unexpectedly, and made her way out in to the darkness of the night to address her ward's cries with restrained patience. It was late, and she must be up at dawn to care for the shrine, and Kagome's pleas were incoherent from the confines of her hut. “What is this ye speak of, child?”

Kagome scrambled from her knees to Kaede, throwing herself down on the ground in a kneeling bow, a posture of begging. “Please, Kaede-baa-chan, there was a man crucified to a tree in the forest, and he is dying. Please, come with me!”

Kaede considered Kagome's form with great regard, but her attention was distracted as a villager spoke. “Did this man have hair the color of the moon, and ears like a dog?” Kagome lifted her head, unsure of why they were all still standing there, and she responded with slight aggravation since the seriousness of the situation seemed to be taken for granted.

She may be a child but she was not stupid.

“Yes! Please, come help me!”

Another villager stepped forward, speaking to her with a disgusted tone, “You helped a youkai! Why should we help a demon-lover?!”

Kagome recoiled at the accusation, about to speak a rebuttal until Kaede spoke.

The old woman lifted her hands, trying to calm the angry villagers, before she turned her attention down to Kagome,“Please now, Kagome-chan is young and does not know of these things. Now tell us, Child, did ye know it was a youkai?” Kagome quivered, lifting her head in confusion. The thought of lying crossed her mind, but she was raised to know that it was not right, thought her insides crawled coldly at the thought of speaking the truth. It went against her teachings to lie though, especially to Kaede-baa-chan.

She hestiated only a moment before she spoke.

“…Y-yes…”

The furious uproar began again instantly at her admission, and another villager shouted, “Mononoke! She's one of them!”

Kagome flinched visibly at these words, confused and on the verge of hysteria. Why were they angry? The youkai was in pain! She was taught to help ease the suffering of those surrounding her…

And she said so, defending the actions that were so clearly right in her eyes.

“I was taught to save those around me that need to be saved! Why are you angry?!” she cried out desperately, so wanting to understand their rage…

“Do ye not know the law of the village child…?” Kaede asked her in uncertainty, eyeing her ward carefully as if she was regarding her for some treacherous deed.

A cold lance of betrayal struck Kagome's heart at Kaede's words, staring up at her mentor from the ground in shock. She lifted a ghost white hand in the night and grabbed trembling on to the hakama pants Kaede wore desperately. Her brows knitted together as she attempted to comprehend. “Please... please… Kaede-baa-chan, I don't know what I did wrong!”

Before she knew what was happening, Kagome was grabbed around the waist and hoisted roughly in to the air. She shouted out in terrified surprise, horror gripping her insides like burning ice. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, she recognized the fact she was more afraid of the humans that had lived around her all her life than she was of the demon she had helped…

...though the demon was in a bloodlust, and the villagers were not…

“Let go of me!” she kicked out in a flail, trying to dislodge herself from the men that gripped her and raised her to the heavens for a judgement that she felt was unjust. To quell her, an unidentified man attacked her, landing a punch to her stomach.

She coughed harshly, brows drawing tightly together and eyes closed, her world tilting on an axis that was surreal and vague.

It must be a dream....

“We'll teach you what happens to those who help youkai.”

Kagome's eyes shot open wide and she was met face to face with a katana that glinted the moonlight like morbid poetry, her pupils dilating. A flash of her mother's face, eyes of frost and twilight drowning the world out, and a soft smile that was haunted from a past that was shrouded in a dark blanket of secrets and avoidance.

Kagome choked as a hot flash of agony dance through her chest, and she understood then that she was stabbed, though her mother's sad smile never left her mind.

And all Kagome could really wonder was why...

...when all her mother ever taught her was to be kind…

...and why she was being punished...

...when all she ever wanted to do was the right thing.

But her last thought was what would happen to that dying man who would be left all alone with no one to know once she was gone...