InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Silence the Fairytale ❯ Abandonment ( Chapter 26 )

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

A/n: o.o! I won't know what to do with all the reviews after a while! Lol! It's so awesome!

MisfitStep: Well, thank you! I'm happy you enjoy it so much ^^.

KnittingKnots: :>. Yes. There's always hope, isn't there?

Feudal Teller of Tales: Oh. Kill her? No, no. She died of some random something or other. Like -insert disease here-. *considers* I know it was short, I sorries. I wanted to update very much, and my brain wasn't working past that point. Did I disappoint :(? And btw, thank you on reviewing on my one shots XD. Lol. They had all been under my profile before, all of which had less than ten reviews each, so I just cleaned up shop and stuffed them into one thing. Lol. Personally, I like Sick of it All too, as it's also one of my favorite songs. <3. It's my only Rin fic, though I feel I haven't given poor Rin nearly enough attention. I love her to death, especially since the manga made her something far more important to Sesshomaru than I could ever have guessed >>. It's brilliant.

Kokoronogamu: I knows, for reals. *siiigh* Well, whatcha going to do? I did eventually end up liking her so much, and much better in the manga. The anime makes Kikyo more of a bitch than she is really >>;... I believe!

Sparkly Faerie: I have spoiled you with the comedy :p! And I agree, Kikyo wasn't so villany. She died bitter and carried it with her into the afterlife, so she was resurrected with the same bitterness. Kikyo really did have every intention of marrying him, I truly believe. I also truly believe she really was in love with him. I think Kagome's prescence alone proves that. They are different people with the same soul--one soul that loves Inuyasha. Kagome even mentions that it is the only thing they really have in common in the canon version. I know the flashback was sad... but then again, now we've come to the focal point of my story. What it takes to heal two hearts that are hurting... with the love :3.

Hot for ABERCROMBIE: Lol, like the name. Anyway, ty. I really wanted a story that didn't have all the extra characters... I remember, at the beginning of the story, I was so annoyed when Shippo showed up. I really wanted the romance and I realized he hindered it. And then came Miroku... and Sango... and though, now I find them loveable and wouldn't want the story any other way, I remembered that feeling and made it this way on purpose :).

Unistar: :D. TY!

Silverwolf Halfbeast: I'm glad you think it was perfectly written. I was having a hard time with it, particularly the beginning part before the flashback. You made me feel better.

CatLover260: Why, gracias. *laughs* I love your points, and you are very right. Sango and Miroku, as well as other loveable characters are still up in the air. The likeliness is no, though.

AllieCoolGirl: Lol!

YoukaiNeko: Mou, grumble grumble. I thought of that AFTER I wrote the chapter. Fifty years is indeed a while. *sighs and considers* I didn't really stop to do the math, I just thought about how they would talk about Miroku's grandfather, and Sango's grandfather, fifty years from the time of where they were then in canon. Miroku, being the oldest, was 18. Sango was 16. So I was just like "ah, okay, whatever! Fifty years works, don't it?" *thinks* So if Kikyo had her children first at twenty, then at say twenty three or four... twenty four plus eighteen isssss.... 42, plus Kagome's 16 years is waaay over 50 o_o. Oh, it does work, doesn't it? Ah ha ha, pardon me ^_^;;;. *taps foot* I also screwed up on how many years they knew each other. It hasn't been three, Inuyasha found Kagome when she was nearly fourteen, and it has just been her 16th bday, so he's known her 2. Grum, technacalities. Siiiigggh...


PS!! If the second half is in bold, I'm sorry, it's done that before and I can't figure out how to fix it. It just does it automatically. Please bear with me D:!

Luna-




Inuyasha's eyes were crusted shut.

He hadn't been sleeping well lately, and he was growing rather irritable because of it.

Scratching away the sleep that held them closed with an annoyed claw, he cracked his eye open and glared quietly into ruby jeweled eyes that could only belong to one kitten he knew of.

Then, a warm, wet, sandpapery tongue latched itself to his chin and licked its way up his face.

Repeatedly.

And now he had no question as to why he was awake as this Kami-forsaken hour of the morning.

Damn adorable cats...

"Cut it out, Kirara..." he groaned, begging, that perhaps just this once... he could get that extra little bit of sleep he so desperately needed after so many nights of near insomnia.

...but, no... no...

Of course he had no such luck.

That damn tongue just dragged lazily up his face over, and over, and over, and over, and over...

....and over....

...and over...

And he found he couldn't resist the urge to relocate the kitten elsewhere.

Picking her up by the scruff by pinching it between his forefinger and his thumb, for she really was so small, he let his one eye lazily wander in search of the ever-lively Buyo...

...she had not wedged herself between his own body and Kagome's as usual, which was odd... she wasn't on the other side of Kagome...

When he was really beginning to wonder absently, if perhaps by some miracle, she had been eaten by a youkai... and though, he knew he shouldn't be thinking such bad thoughts somewhere deep, deep, far down inside the human half of his soul... he could not help but hope ever so slightly...

For if she had not existed, the kitten would not exist. And if the kitten did not exist, he would still be asleep.

...it was at that time during his musings a lolling purrrrr came from the inside of his haori, curled up ever so innocently on his abdomen, and his eyebrow twitched slightly.

Lifting up his collar and peering down inside of his haori, he could only wonder how she got there without his noticing... but who was he to ask questions? He wasn't one to understand anything and expected everything unpredictable.

Just like if, say, three or so years ago someone was to walk up to him and say 'hey, Inuyasha, you're going to end up being followed by a miko. And with that miko, you're going to hurt her feelings and you're going to feel horribly bad just like you do with everything else, but this time you're going to want to do something about it. So to make her happy, you found her a cat. You hadn't planned on it really, it just kind of happened. And that damn thing is going to get fat and spoiled, and it's going to be hellbent on making your life miserable. But you won't be able to tell... it's going to just be cute and subtle, but it's slowly planning your demise through insanity. Well, then, this cat there is going to have a nekomata. Just one, because it makes that much sense, considering this cat is... well, infeline-ish, as one might call another inhuman, but she is a cat... so infeline would have to do. Anyway, Inuyasha, what I'm trying to get at is that your life is going to be completely changed, you're going to mark this miko as your own without knowing it, then fall madly, deeply, and totally in love with her. Not only that, she's the granddaughter of the miko who rejected you. You're not going to want to act on your feelings then, cause you're afraid it's going to happen all over again, though you know she wouldn't do that... then again, you didn't expect Kikyo to, so who are you to say what you know. But as fate would have it, you don't really have a choice in the matter anymore, because you did mark her... Funny about that, huh?'... he probably would have puched that person in the face, and not believed a word they said.

...yet, here he was, with the little miko curled up in his arms, sleeping ever so peacefully... completely oblivious to every thought he was thinking, every feeling he felt.

And for some reason, laying there with the tiny kitten squirming from his hand, a lump of fur using him as a futon, and a miko who had somehow so easily wormed her way into his heart...

...he was depressed by it...

He almost felt that, perhaps, he had taken something away from her.

The dream he had with Kikyo kept replaying in his mind, and at times when he would peer in those endless azure eyes that so resembled the sky, he was brought back to that day... to those feelings.

And Kagome would notice his stillness, as she noticed everything with him, much to his dismay now... she would worry and wonder and fret over him, and try to make everything better in the way only she could.

And he would enjoy that attention, just like he was coming to be addicted to everything she did with him, and then resent himself for it.

It was ironic that way, wasn't it?

The way, the very day of her birthday was the very day he realized exactly how deeply he had fallen for her. How natural it was to be by her side, how for the first time he could ignore those snide and prejudiced remarks concerning the fact he was a hanyou, how easy he found it was to laugh with her and smile with her and joke with her, how wonderful it was to have her near him... when, for the first time, he had seen her in the fading light of the day, and could not help but notice how she seemed so celestial covered in the soft gold tones... the gentle reds and oranges that played along her skin, making her seem so delicate and so untouchable...

How she smiled that smile so full of adoration, so tender and caring... how she looked off into the sunset, timeless, and eternal...

And for a moment, for only a slight moment... he felt as if she might live forever there in that moment, watching the sun set into its habitual slumber, and he wasn't struck by the loneliness of thinking how she would be gone... another grain of sand lost in his hourglass, another fragment of mortality that would be destined to slip through his fingers like a dream.

And in that period of time, it was then his heart was beating, solely for her.

And when he breathed, as she turned to look at him, her hair rippling as gentle as the waves of the ocean... he was captured by her, and would not be freed ever again.

...times like these, I never want them to end...

....it was what she had told him not so long ago.

She came to him, settling beside him, and they bantered back and forth quietly, comfortably...

They laid together, under the skies, and she watched him with those curious and understanding eyes that reflected the world around them... wrapped so easily in his arms, allowing him to envelope her much more intimately than usual...

...The only person to ever allow him to do so.

He told her something he had never told another being in fifty years.

...he had been unsure why he relented, why he did.

...he had promised himself that it would remained buried, along with the other ghosts of his past.

But no, here he was, tormenting himself once again over her...

...A two-tailed kitten gnawing and scratching at his index finger, pleading for mercy and hoping to be released.

His attention drew to the hanyou in front of him... a hanyou, like he.

Only... well, much different.

"Fine, fine, here..." he griped, tugging Buyo from her cave within his clothing, and placed the two together. The kitten eagerly started suckling, and the mother groaned as if hoping to have avoided the situation for just a tad longer... though, she gave in, and rolled on her back to expose her tummy to the world as her brood lounged over her and fed.

Beside him, Kagome stirred at his movements.

He watched as she rubbed her eyes, so sleepily, and lifted her face to him. Her eyes were hooded heavily, fatigue still apparent in her face... though, she beamed at him in her half-awake state, so enthusiastically...

"Inu..."

He brushed her unruly hair from her face, smiling down at her, as the brilliance of her face brushed away the cobwebs of the past from his mind... if only, for the time being...

"...Kagome..."

She was happy.

...and so was he.

And together, they settled back down, to catch a few more hours of sleep.





"Kagome, watch out!" he snapped angrily at her, knowing by now she should have known better than to leave herself exposed like that.

His feet skidded along the ground, tearing up patches up earth as he quickly did a turnabout and bounded towards her with inhuman speed, grabbing her about the waist and hoisting her away from the impending danger that was coming down upon her.

Being jerked from her inert position very suddenly caused her to loose her breath, and she cursed aloud at the feeling. Yet where she had been only a moment before hand, a giant scythe-like appendage came crashing down in an attempt to claim her life.

Inuyasha snorted, placing her back down quickly far off to the right and darting off again, the skin of his palms still tingling from her purifying powers that had flared to life as she aimed with a sacred arrow all too slowly.

She still hadn't learned to just do and not think.

It would have killed her twenty times over by now if he had not been there.

"Inuyasha, behind you!" she called out as she lifted her delicately crafted wooden longbow at the mantis youkai that loomed behind him, taking aim.

He had already known, but he was so focused on the one in front of him- the one nearest to Kagome- that he had nearly forgotten. Luckily, his instincts had told him to move right before she had shouted to him.

"Keh, I got this, you just watch your own ass this time!" he snarled, pulling back one clawed hand as he launched himself into the air and aimed directly at the overgrown insect's thorax.

"Sankon Tessou!"

His claws made contact, tearing through exoskeleton and fleshy insides that gave way under his attack, and the creature let out an inhuman screech of pain.

"Give usss the Ssshikon no Tama!"

The mantis behind him brought down its claw on Inuyasha, knocking him harshly into the ground and tearing into his shoulder effectively.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome cried out in concern, letting go of one of her sacred arrows, dismembering the arm of the mantis that had cut him down.

Keh, seems I need to get hurt for her to stop using that damn brain of hers so much...

"I'm fine, Kagome!" he called back to her, standing up with ease, ignore the slight sting the wound caused. He tried to reassure her, but the worry never ceased in her face.

She knocked another arrow, taking aim and waiting for the right opportunity to fire without causing him any danger.

At least, if anything, she had damn good aim... so Inuyasha would never have to worry about getting blasted into a billion pieces of Inuyasha shiskabob.

Or, at least he hoped...

"Give ussss the Ssshikon no Tama, hanyou!" came the demand once more as another blow came heading his way.

"I already told you, you piece of shit, we don't have it!" he was beginning to grow weary of a fight that should have been so easy.

He jumped out of the way, unsheathing Tetsusaiga and wielding it, as the familiar weight of it settled easily into his hands.

"We sssmell it! The girl, the girl hasss it! Give it to usss!" shrieked the mantis before him, and Inuyasha felt his heart drop down towards his feet as it turned and charged on Kagome.

"Inuyasha!" she cried out in alarm, releasing another arrow in her panic that sailed and landed true enough to remove a leg, but did not deter the raving mad youkai.

"Kagome!" came his own wave of horror, as it seemed to be reaching her quicker than he could have guessed, than should have been possible, and was not quite aware of why he had been faltering in his attempt to get to her...

Pain.

That was why.

Pain lanced through his back, blood pouring down his waist, as an injured and forgotten pest laid behind him, writhing in agony.

"We ssshall have it! It belongsss to usss!"

In a blinding white rage, Inuyasha turned on his opponent behind him, releasing the wind that cut so quickly he was nearly dizzied by it.

"Kaze no Kizu!"

He turned, unable to do the same for the other, lest he wished to harm Kagome.

I have to get to her before he does. I have to save her. I have to grab her. I have to make sure she's safe.

His mind whirled along those thoughts, racing by one another so quickly he could not grasp hold of them, but the urgent need drove him on as he leapt towards her.

...too late.

She screamed.

Her body, tossed carelessly into the air, her side cut deep and staining her kimono shirt a deep crimson red.

"Kagome!"

Panic.

Suffocation.
Terror.

Pain.

...pain.

The mantis tried to cut him, tried to hurt him too, but Inuyasha did not care.

He met with the scythe of the mantis head on in a white hot rage that seared his body, causing him to slice through it with Tetsusaiga, slice through its arm, slice through its torso, slice through the middle of it, and force his way out the other side.

Guts, blood, organs, and screaming, raining down upon him.

The feeling of cutting through pure bone.

The feeling of not caring.

He pushed off the back of the mantis as it fell, using it for momentum.

...he had to catch her.

She was in danger of falling, falling, hurting, being hurt.

Have to save her. Have to protect her.

He dropped Tetsusaiga, freeing his hands.

They made contact with her backside solidly, bringing her to him, cradling her safely in his arms.

Her breathing, labored, her eyelashes fluttering...

Guilt.

Guilt for carelessness, brash, prideful thinking...

Not so easy, too careless, my fault, she's hurt...

Must keep her safe. Must find a healer.

He landed heavily on both his feet, ever so slightly jostling the precious person in his arms, causing her to wheeze.

The world was spinning, and his mind was working, trying to asses the nearest village.

The village that had called for this very extermination.

North, head north, towards the den, towards home.

"Ssshiiikoooon... mussst... have..."

Numbed, Inuyasha turned.

He used one hand to attack, and finished off the mantis that dared hurt what was his.

"Hijin Kessou!"

Blades of blood.

Sliced through the air, sliced through what was left of the youkai he had taken mercy on.

If he had had his way, he'd tear it limb from limb for Kagome.

But she was already sinking, already fading.

Must keep her safe. Must protect her.

Yet there was something...

Something that poked, grabbing his attention through his fog-laden mind in an unwanted, unwarranted way.

Something that refused to be ignored.

He looked down.

...a marble.

Absently, he reached down, gently, ever so gently around Kagome, and lifted it up, tucking it into his haori.

Then, he gathered Tetsusaiga, and turned to fly towards the village.

~~~*~~~

"It is unfortunate that Miko-sama has been injured in battle. It is a grievious thing we wish to apologize for, but we give our eternal thanks to Inuyasha-sama for saving our village yet again."

The village head man.

He bowed, uttering thanks and musings and what not.

Inuyasha absently remembered, twenty five year prior they had attacked him.

It seems they had selective memory and chose to carefully ride off that event, for those of whom remembered him.

It was merely the irony that struck Inuyasha.

Otherwise, he did not care.

...only, that...

"Keh. Is the Miko of the village tending to her or not?"

The village head shuddered at the icy bite in Inuyasha's tone, his anger apparent.

"At present, she is. But she had to undress Miko-sama..."

"Her name is Kagome."

"...Kagome-sama in order to tend to her wounds. Shinsei-sama requested that all males not be present during this time."

"Keh."

He didn't want to cause trouble.

He didn't mention the fact he didn't care.

He didn't mention the fact he had seen her naked a thousand and one times.

He didn't mention the fact he had marked her.

He didn't mention the fact he was seething at being prevented from seeing her.

He didn't mention the fact that he was itching for a fight, and they were giving him far too many reasons for him to want to fight with them.

He didn't mention anything.

...simply because he was afraid if he did, the Miko would not help her.

So, he went to stand outside the hut she was in.

He paced.

He listened to her racing heartbeat, strong and sure and constant.

He listened to her labored breathing.

He listened to her whimpering.

He smelled her sweat.

He smelled her tears.

He smelled her blood.

He smelled her pain.

And he thought of how all these things were now going to be constant because of one little thing.

Inuyasha reached inside his haori, and pulled out the marble.

He glared at it intensly, absolute loathing pouring off every ounce of his entire being for the damn cursed thing.

The Shikon no Tama.

Apparently, the youkai hadn't been lying.

No matter how much, all this time he had been praying they were. That every one that came seeking Kagome's life merely did so because of her resemblence to the maiden who held it prior.

But it seemed, all along, his prayers had gone unanswered.

...Kami had truly all along abandoned him.