InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Stream of Consciousness: A LiveJournal Collection ❯ No Regrets ( Chapter 55 )

Title: No Regrets

Community: First Tweak

Theme: Firelight

Place Earned: none

Rating: PG-13

Universe: Canon post-manga

Word count: 296

Warnings: character death

 

 

No Regrets

 

The fire burns brightly, the flames leaping upward, almost as if they were dancing. They largely obscure the deceased as they reduce her body to ashes. Billowing black smoke rises, bearing the soul to the heavens.

 

“She lived a good life,” one of the villagers says, and I nod. For most of that life, I was sealed to the Goshinboku. But if she lived those fifty years in the same way she lived the past few, then I know hers was a good life. She will be sorely missed by everyone in the village, all of whom she has helped in some way. There is not a person here who does not feel great respect for our late miko, including myself. Kaede and I had a somewhat uneasy relationship, but it was always there and it brought me comfort, even though I didn't realize it at the time. She was one of the first humans to accept me, a brash, violent hanyou into her midst. And now, she is the first one I must watch burn.

 

But Kaede will not be the last. I pull my wife closer to my side, and she wraps her arm tighter around my waist, probably knowing what I am thinking. Someday, I will have to watch the flames consume my Kagome as well. Part of me wonders what I will do on that day, how I will survive after she is gone. The answer is simple; I will live on. She has already given me something to live for: our beautiful son sleeping in the sling on her back. And when I find myself staring into the flames of my departed love, I will remember all we have shared and accomplished together, and I know I will have no regrets.