InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Unlikely Hero ❯ The Wish ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: I do NOT own InuYasha. InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi.

Chapter One:

"No!" InuYasha's voice was desperate, and furious. His sensitive nose making the horrifying discovery miles from where the battle had occurred.

Silver hair flung back against Kagome's face stinging like a million tiny whips. His sudden change in their course caused her to lurch in the opposite direction and the centripetal force almost sent her flying off of his back, save for the strong, clawed hands that anchored her legs to his sides. InuYasha's extreme upset had shocked Kagome into silence.

"Damn, how could I have missed it?" he barked out. The odor that invaded his senses chilled him to his very core. Blood. Death. Their blood. Their death.

Of course that had been Naraku's plan all along. To separate InuYasha and Kagome from their friends. To divide and conquer, even at the cost of his last incarnation, Byakuya.

~

The scene that greeted their eyes was mortifying. The acrid smell of the shouki burning their noses and turning their stomachs. Kagome stumbled as she slid off InuYasha's back. They were too late.

Grief, despair, helplessness- the feelings washed over Kagome as her eyes took in the scene. Kohaku's lifeless form lay cradled in Sango's arms. Sango's torn and battered body slumped over him with inconsolable heartache. Blood poured out of a gaping wound in her neck.

"Sango-chan!" Kagome rushed to her side yanking out her medical kit from her backpack.

"They're dead. All of them. Kohaku. Houshi. Shippou. Kirara." Sango's voice was flat, emotionless. "Naraku has the whole jewel." Blood slipped down the side of her mouth leaving an ugly crimson path as it joined the deeper colored substance oozing from her neck. She coughed up more blood but continued, "Get InuYasha to take you away from here! Now!"

Kagome looked down at Kohaku, "I was supposed to protect him." Tears ran down her cheeks. Sango's little brother had the last shard of the Shikon jewel. The one thing that they all knew Naraku had wanted. Kohaku had been Kagome's responsibility. Kagome reached around Sango with the tourniquet.

Sango held up her hand, stopping Kagome. "No. Its useless." She sputtered. "I'll be gone in a few minutes." Sango's body shook with chill. Kagome wrapped her arms around her friend. The young woman that Kagome had known like a sister was dying. And their was nothing she could do about it.

Not far from them, Miroku was sprawled across the bloody ground, dried blood stained his handsome features, blood that had come from his mouth, his nose, his now lifeless eyes. The young houshi had been like a brother.

Sango noticed Kagome focus on Miroku. "The shouki, it killed him." Tears rolled down her face. "I loved him... I never told him...but I loved him."

Those were Sango's last words. "No!!!! Sango-chan!!!!" Kagome's arms tightened fiercely around the young woman as the gentle rise and fall of her chest ceased. Tears blurred her vision as she caught the tiny shapes of Kirara and Shippou. Kirara was ripped almost in half and seemed to have been attempting to shield Shippou. Kirara who had always been a faithful and willing companion. A beloved ally, a fierce guardian, and a dear friend.

Shippou's neck was distorted at an impossible angle, twisted grotesquely away from his small form. Shippou who had watched his parents die.- Shippou who was orphaned. Shippou who was like her son.

Kagome rushed to his side, supporting the dead fox kit's body in her now blood stained arms. "NNooooooo!"

She cried, and cried and cried. But it didn't change anything. They were dead. She had failed to fulfill her obligation to protect Kohaku. And her feudal family. Sister, brother, friend, son. She had lost them all.

~

Grief, despair, helplessness, Kagome felt them all. The incredible loss. This can't be happening! InuYasha would never let this happen!

And where was InuYasha, anyway? "InuYasha!" she screamed through the misted valley. No answer came. She had never felt so incredibly useless, so worthless, so horrible in her life.

Suddenly, an unimaginably cold and malignant aura washed over her, claws gripped her neck biting into her flesh. Naraku. He had snatched her so quickly she'd had no warning of his approach. Her body was jerked off of the ground so fiercely that Shippou tumbled from her grasp. Her morose feelings dissipated into one of complete shock. "How...?"

Naraku just gave a diabolical chuckle. "Surprised by my presence?" The creepy grin that marred his face made her skin crawl. "You're wondering where your precious InuYasha is, aren't you?" Naraku taunted. "They're all dead. I killed them. InuYasha too."

Kagome gasped for air as his claws tightened unmercifully around her neck and she could feel the stinging of blood as it came from the scrapes in her skin. The evil of his touch made her shutter and her mind rejected what she'd just heard. She'd know it if InuYasha were dead. She'd feel it. "No! You're lying!" She hissed.

He sneered triumphantly, tossing a broken Tessaiga to the ground in front of them. "See?" He snorted jerking her head around so she could see the hilt and broken blade, rusted and untransformed. "And now you'll be the last to die!" His claws completely halted her breathing.

Kagome's world began to darken, but she didn't try to struggle free. She didn't feel the blood that slid down her neck and pooled against the green scarf of her fuku. She didn't feel the desperate desire to fight for her own life. All she felt was rage.

Righteous anger filled her core. Her body felt warm, almost too warm. With steady hands she reached out and grasped the Shikon no Tama.

Naraku gasped in surprise as he watched the young girl glow pink. His claws burned where they clamped down around her neck. As he tried to squeeze harder to snap her neck, Naraku felt his whole body begin to singe as her aura began to purify him. His claws melted away from her neck, loosing his grip. "How dare you!" he seethed as he tried to fling her away.

But Kagome clung desperately to the jewel around his neck and her tenacity bested him. Her purity burned him to his core and he felt his claws dissipating into human hands. The chain around his neck snapped and the glowing young woman and a perfectly white Shikon no Tama hit the ground.

She'd taken it from him.

"But you're nothing!" he growled. Naraku was human now. Frighteningly burned and disfigured, but all too human. He picked up the broken Tessaiga and rushed at Kagome. "Die, you fucking bitch!"

Kagome gasped as she braced for the impact. She didn't close her eyes. She didn't fear her death.

Then she saw a flash of red and silver as Naraku was torn in pieces. "InuYasha," she breathed.

It had taken almost all his strength to reach her. He collapsed beside Kagome. He was badly injured. Kagome looked up to see Sesshomaru step out of the mist. A large circle opened up the meidou as he swiped with the Tenseiga and what was left Naraku was no more.

"It has ended." Sesshoumaru stated, his stoic voice steady, in spite of the blood that marred his robes suggesting that he was injured as well.

"Thank you, bastard," InuYasha murmured, so low Kagome almost hadn't heard him.

Sesshoumaru's superior hearing picked it up easily and he silently nodded his acceptance.

Kagome surveyed InuYasha. His skin was pale from blood loss. His right leg was practically severed off of his body and dried blood stained much of his hair. Even with all of his hanyou strength he couldn't have made it any distance alone. It took a minute for her mind to accept, but she knew it was true. Sesshoumaru carried InuYasha. That’s not Sesshoumaru’s blood, its InuYasha's!

InuYasha gave her a quick, rare smile. "I'm just glad you're okay."

Kagome threw her arms around InuYasha, dropping the Shikon no Tama. She started bawling uncontrollably.

Sesshoumaru turned his back to the emotional display. He sniffed lightly as he waited for the familiar scent to come into view. Ah-Un, Jaken and Rin finally appeared in his line of vision.

The toad demon's eyes widened at the scene that met him. "Sesshoumaru-dono what has happened?" he croaked.

Rin lit down from the two headed dragon demon and took to a weeping Kagome's side. Rin gently rested against Kagome, silently offering support as her large brown eyes took in everything. Tears welled up and she looked down at the ground, away from the dismal sight. Rin's gaze came to rest on a white shining orb, without thinking she reached out and closed her tiny hand around the very object that had caused the destruction that surrounded her. She clutched the Shikon no Tama to her chest and shut her eyes, causing the flood of tears to spill down her soft cheeks. I wish they weren't dead. I wish they were all back to they way they were, I wish we could stay that way forever...

A pure wish. From an innocent child.

A bright light engulfed the child, as bright as the sun. It radiated from the center of the child's small chest and pulsed outward. Its beams flooded the valley and expanded outward across the land.

The light was so bright even Sesshoumaru's eyes were forced closed.

Rin! Sesshoumaru's first thought was to protect the child, and though he couldn't see, the demon lord's sense of smell was not hindered and he was at her side, gathering the girl in his arms within a moment.

The light dispersed from around them and Rin opened her eyes. She was surprised when she saw that the jewel had vanished. "Oh, Sesshoumaru-sama its gone! I had that white ball and I meant to give it to Kagome-sama, but she was so upset! And I just, I didn't know what to do!"

"Rin, you are unharmed," it was a statement not a question. Yet Sesshoumaru seemed to utter it for his own reassurance that his charge was safe. He studied the child in his arms, she was unscathed.

It was then that he realized it. His dark brows disappeared into his bangs in surprise. He held the child in his arms. Both of his arms. The movement stirring around him caused Sesshoumaru to rip his focus off of his left arm to the maimed allies that surrounded him.

One by one they rose, InuYasha first, followed by the fire-cat, the fox-child, the monk and the two sibling demon slayers. All but the young strangely dressed girl; who was no where to be seen. She had disappeared along with the blinding light from the purified jewel. He breathed in deeply taking in the scents around him, the scent of death was absent, as absent as the presence of the strange girl.

InuYasha stood there dumbstruck.

No words came from his lips as he looked about. Relief came first, as he saw his once dead friends restored, he assumed that Sesshoumaru had used Tenseiga to revive them. Kohaku, Sango, Kirara, Shippou, and Miroku they were all resurrected. However, panic washed over him next, Kagome was nowhere to be seen. But where is she? He sniffed the air deeply. No scent trail. He looked about frantically.

"She's not here," came the even, impassive voice of his half-brother.

"What the hell happened to Kagome!?!?" InuYasha bellowed. His teeth ground together as he stomped over to Sesshoumaru, still not perceiving the miraculous healing that allowed him the freedom to move so effortlessly on both his appendages. Instantly he was in Sesshoumaru's face growling and showing his fangs in an act meant to intimidate his brother.

Rin's dark orbs welled up with tears, "I think its my fault…I didn't mean for anything to happen to Kagome-sama!"

Sesshoumaru was non-pulsed as he deliberately used his left hand to push InuYasha away from him and Rin.

The significance of the gesture was lost on a desperately confused InuYasha. "What! What do you mean your fault?" InuYasha snapped as his glare transferred to the small girl. "What happened to Kagome?"

"I - I just wished that everyone would be alright and the jewel and Kagome-sama just disappeared!" She cried.