InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Together in Tokyo ❯ Falling ( Chapter 23 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: SilentTaiyoukai 
A corpse, a fox, and those golden eyes.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 05.30.2010 | Pages: 1 | Words: 1.1K | Visits: 373 | Status: Work In Progress
A corpse, a fox, and those golden eyes.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 05.30.2010 | Pages: 1 | Words: 1.1K | Visits: 373 | Status: Work In Progress
“Their names were hidden beneath a veil of vines and a layer of creeping moss. She cleared the encroaching plants away to run her fingers over the engraved characters. Tears fell from her eyes, though she couldn’t say exactly why she was crying. She wasn’t sad exactly, though she could hardly say she was happy about all this. Though she was glad to have her closure and to say the goodbyes she had not had a chance to give before. Sesshoumaru loomed silently behind her, watching as she kneeled down in the bed of moss and spoke to the dead.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t go back,” Kagome said, one hand placed flat over Inuyasha’s stone, the other over Shippo’s. “I tried so many times to make the well work again, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t.”
By then she was sobbing. She wiped her eyes and looked up into the thick canopy of trees, blinking furiously to keep the tears at bay. She watched the clouds roll by for a few moments before lowering her eyes back to the graves.
“You were the best friends I ever had. And I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye before,” she whispered. “So I’ll say it now. Goodbye. I’ll always remember you. And I’ll miss you.”
She laid her head down on Inuyasha’s stone for a moment before she got back to her feet. She glanced around the small clearing and at all the statues laying about. Foxes, all of them, most of them broken and overturned, fallen guardians of the ancient graves. She then turned to Sesshoumaru, who was standing beside the statue from which Inari had sprung to give him his life as a human. The statue was nothing how the former taiyoukai had described it to her. It was molded and cracked down the center, and one of the fox’s ears was missing. There was no aura of holy power around it, and it looked as though if she were to touch the statue it would crumble into dust between her fingers.
“Are you finished?” he asked.
Kagome wiped her eyes again and went over to the once holy statue. She ran her hand down and over the kitsune’s paw and the last toe broke off at her touch, landing silently in the moss.
“Let’s go,” she said, and Sesshoumaru turned and walked away.
She followed closely behind him, keeping her steps in sync with his until she couldn’t bear to look at his back anymore. She walked around him and continued on, even though she had no idea where she was going.
She tried to keep her mind clear, but the image of Inuyasha as nothing but a pile of rotting bones kept placing itself into her head. Knowing that she was walking through a veritable graveyard was no comfort either, knowing that there were bones everywhere, the bodies of so many defeated people scattered through the woods…
Kagome’s foot caught on something buried beneath the leaves. She broke her fall with her hands, skinning her palm on a rock in the process. She looked back to see what she had tripped on and saw that there was a long bone laying across the arch of her foot. Her eyes followed back to where it buried itself back in the leaves, and she could see light blue denim peeking up through the dead yellows and browns, until she finally saw something that made her scream.
A tattered shirt stretched over decaying skin, scraggly hair invaded by a spider’s nest, and empty eyes staring at her from inside a rotting skull. A corpse sitting in the hollow of a tree. She scrambled backwards, her hand coming to close around a thin branch that snapped under weight.
Sesshoumaru met her eyes for a moment before she was sent tumbling head over heels. He was standing still beside the tree and its hidden corpse, and he watched her fall.
She screamed as she tumbled down the hill, her hair being ripped out in clumps as it caught on fallen branches and sticks. Something sharp dug into her leg, and then she hit something very hard and saw a flash of glowing gold. She was caught on her back, her neck lolling backwards against the support gathered at her neck. From her upside-down perspective, she saw it. It was a fox. A white fox with blue eyes, which was strange. Foxes couldn’t have blue eyes. Or at least she thought so. She thought she must have been in shock or something. It sure was getting difficult to think straight…
The fox was standing beside a tree only a few yards away, a knarred old thing with a thick trunk that she was going to crash right into once she started rolling again….
She blinked, and the fox was gone.
It was a moment before she realized that she wasn’t about to go rolling through the leaves anymore, and that the glow was Sesshoumaru’s eyes.
How fast did he have to run to catch her?
It was impossible. She could see his ring on the hand that was supporting her legs, one of which was bleeding at the knee. He had said that his powers weren’t strong enough to break through the ring’s cloaking magic. She could feel it though, his youki coming off him in a powerful wave, much stronger than what she had felt come from him on the train all those months ago. It pulsed, pulsed, raised the hair on the back of her neck, ebbed, and was gone.
“Your eyes,” she said, reaching up and cupping his chin, forcing him to look down at her. His eyes were just a plain brown, and she frowned at him. “They were yellow. I saw it. You said that can’t happen unless you take the ring off.”
“Don’t speak,” he said, and Kagome closed her eyes as he lifted her up.
Kagome didn’t remember falling asleep, though she must have, because in the next moment they were emerging from the trees and walking across the parking lot to the car. Dusk had just begun to set in and Taka was there waiting for them, sitting beside the car and wagging his tail.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t go back,” Kagome said, one hand placed flat over Inuyasha’s stone, the other over Shippo’s. “I tried so many times to make the well work again, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t.”
By then she was sobbing. She wiped her eyes and looked up into the thick canopy of trees, blinking furiously to keep the tears at bay. She watched the clouds roll by for a few moments before lowering her eyes back to the graves.
“You were the best friends I ever had. And I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye before,” she whispered. “So I’ll say it now. Goodbye. I’ll always remember you. And I’ll miss you.”
She laid her head down on Inuyasha’s stone for a moment before she got back to her feet. She glanced around the small clearing and at all the statues laying about. Foxes, all of them, most of them broken and overturned, fallen guardians of the ancient graves. She then turned to Sesshoumaru, who was standing beside the statue from which Inari had sprung to give him his life as a human. The statue was nothing how the former taiyoukai had described it to her. It was molded and cracked down the center, and one of the fox’s ears was missing. There was no aura of holy power around it, and it looked as though if she were to touch the statue it would crumble into dust between her fingers.
“Are you finished?” he asked.
Kagome wiped her eyes again and went over to the once holy statue. She ran her hand down and over the kitsune’s paw and the last toe broke off at her touch, landing silently in the moss.
“Let’s go,” she said, and Sesshoumaru turned and walked away.
She followed closely behind him, keeping her steps in sync with his until she couldn’t bear to look at his back anymore. She walked around him and continued on, even though she had no idea where she was going.
She tried to keep her mind clear, but the image of Inuyasha as nothing but a pile of rotting bones kept placing itself into her head. Knowing that she was walking through a veritable graveyard was no comfort either, knowing that there were bones everywhere, the bodies of so many defeated people scattered through the woods…
Kagome’s foot caught on something buried beneath the leaves. She broke her fall with her hands, skinning her palm on a rock in the process. She looked back to see what she had tripped on and saw that there was a long bone laying across the arch of her foot. Her eyes followed back to where it buried itself back in the leaves, and she could see light blue denim peeking up through the dead yellows and browns, until she finally saw something that made her scream.
A tattered shirt stretched over decaying skin, scraggly hair invaded by a spider’s nest, and empty eyes staring at her from inside a rotting skull. A corpse sitting in the hollow of a tree. She scrambled backwards, her hand coming to close around a thin branch that snapped under weight.
Sesshoumaru met her eyes for a moment before she was sent tumbling head over heels. He was standing still beside the tree and its hidden corpse, and he watched her fall.
She screamed as she tumbled down the hill, her hair being ripped out in clumps as it caught on fallen branches and sticks. Something sharp dug into her leg, and then she hit something very hard and saw a flash of glowing gold. She was caught on her back, her neck lolling backwards against the support gathered at her neck. From her upside-down perspective, she saw it. It was a fox. A white fox with blue eyes, which was strange. Foxes couldn’t have blue eyes. Or at least she thought so. She thought she must have been in shock or something. It sure was getting difficult to think straight…
The fox was standing beside a tree only a few yards away, a knarred old thing with a thick trunk that she was going to crash right into once she started rolling again….
She blinked, and the fox was gone.
It was a moment before she realized that she wasn’t about to go rolling through the leaves anymore, and that the glow was Sesshoumaru’s eyes.
How fast did he have to run to catch her?
It was impossible. She could see his ring on the hand that was supporting her legs, one of which was bleeding at the knee. He had said that his powers weren’t strong enough to break through the ring’s cloaking magic. She could feel it though, his youki coming off him in a powerful wave, much stronger than what she had felt come from him on the train all those months ago. It pulsed, pulsed, raised the hair on the back of her neck, ebbed, and was gone.
“Your eyes,” she said, reaching up and cupping his chin, forcing him to look down at her. His eyes were just a plain brown, and she frowned at him. “They were yellow. I saw it. You said that can’t happen unless you take the ring off.”
“Don’t speak,” he said, and Kagome closed her eyes as he lifted her up.
Kagome didn’t remember falling asleep, though she must have, because in the next moment they were emerging from the trees and walking across the parking lot to the car. Dusk had just begun to set in and Taka was there waiting for them, sitting beside the car and wagging his tail.