InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Two Sides of the Same Moon ❯ Whatever It Takes ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Title: Two Sides of the Same Moon
Summary: To save Inuyasha, Kagome participated in a ritual over Myoga's guidance before falling unconscious. After waking up, she realizes two things: one, she's trapped on her side of the well. Two, she's now an inu hanyou with miko powers, with a chunk of the shikon no tama. Believing that the war ended years ago, she struggles to lay the memories of her friends to rest and move on with her life as the new guardian of the jewel. But what Kagome doesn't know is that evil never dies, love can create miracles, and the game is far from over: it's about to start all over again, same players, different time.
A/N: I know hanyou Kagome has been done before, but this is my spin on it. I hope you enjoy! This story is already completed and posted in its entirety on fanfiction.net, but I thought I’d post it here, too.

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The dark-haired woman knelt at the side of her silent companion and gently placed her hand on soft, white ears that barely twitched under her fingers. A soft, pained moan escaped into the air. Tears wellened up in her ears and ran, unchecked, down her cheeks, smudging blood and mud as she drew her hand back and clutched it to her heart. He was dying. Inuyasha, her strong, faithful protector, was dying, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. Not even the strength of his youkai blood would save him. Higurashi Kagome bent her head over his chest and wept.

It had begun with a battle against Naraku, because when did a day that had dawned bright and sunny ever go smoothly? One minute, she and her friends had been walking on a steady path, following a rumor about a shikon shard. The next, all hell had broken loose in the form of a thousand youkai and a storm that made it difficult to see. At some point, she had lost sight of Sango, Miroku, Shippou and Kirara, and only the occasional war cry had told her that they were still alive. Her key objective had been to get to Inuyasha, and she’d finally found him... just in time to see Naraku, cruel and despicable Naraku, throwing Inuyasha against the wall and then injecting him with some kind of liquid that glowed with a mystical blue fire while the hanyou was temporarily stunned. Inuyasha had collapsed to the ground, gasping, and she’d rushed to his side.

“Inuyasha,” Naraku had said, laughing. He always enjoyed seeing the full effect of his ploys on his victims. “Your dream has always been to obtain the Shikon no Tama so that you could become a full youkai. Now that dream will destroy you. That poison has leeched onto your youkai blood and will kill you slowly and painfully. It’s too bad you weren’t human...” A lingering pause, while a malicious smile broke free. “... As then it wouldn’t affect you at all.”

“Naraku!” Inuyasha’s angry cry was accompanied by a swing of Tessaiga that brought the evil hanyou to his knees, which gave Inuyasha and Kagome the chance to escape. At first, Inuyasha had seemed fine, and he’d been able to carry Kagome a good mile away from Naraku. But then he had collapsed, and now his breathing was slow and haggard.

“You can’t die,” Kagome whispered, lifting her head. She could hear that his heartbeat was slowing, and that scared her more than anything else. “Inuyasha, please don’t leave me. I need you!”

“Kagome-san!” The voice was accompanied by a stinging sensation on her cheek. Almost absently, Kagome clapped a hand to her skin and watched the flattened flea float towards the ground.

“Myoga-jiji. You found me.” Lifting her hand to wipe at her tears, Kagome offered the flea youkai a shaky smile that soon turned brilliant. Of course! “Myoga-jiji, please, you have to help Inuyasha!” she cried, scooping up the flea. “Naraku injected Inuyasha with some kind of poison that affects his youkai blood. You can suck it out, can’t you?”

“Hmm...” Myoga hopped from Kagome’s hand onto Inuyasha’s chest, where he made a quick perusal of his master. He stooped and began to sample Inuyasha’s blood, but quickly pulled away sputtering. “Inuyasha-sama is too badly poisoned. His blood is turning against him, rotting him from the inside out. The only thing that would save him is the night of the new moon, when he becomes human...” The small flea looked up at the sky. “But that won’t be for another two weeks, and Inuyasha-sama will be dead within a couple of hours.”

“No! Inu-yasha!” Her voice broke as she dissolved into tears again. “No. No. This can’t be happening.”

Myoga gazed up at the human girl and sighed as she collapsed next to Inuyasha, crying helplessly into her hands. The sight was enough to inspire pity and compassion in even the coldest of hearts. “Kagome-san... perhaps... there is another way.”

“Another way? What do you mean?” she whispered, hardly daring to hope. Myoga hesitated, and she said quickly, “Myoga-jiji, please. I’ll do anything to save Inuyasha’s life.”

“It is very dangerous, Kagome. I daresay Inuyasha-sama would kill me if he knew I was even suggesting it to you.”

“He won’t be able to kill anyone if he dies,” Kagome said softly, tears glistening in her brown eyes.

“There is a ritual that used to be enacted between mates who were not of equal status,” Myoga began. He would not have even thought about mentioning the ritual were the circumstances not dire. But Inuyasha really would die unless something was done, and he could not bear to see his young master die in this way. Not only would it be an insult to the great Inu no Taisho, but Inuyasha deserved far better than to be taken down in such an underhanded manner by someone like Naraku. “Mostly between humans and youkai, so that the human’s life would be extended. It involves an exchange of blood. The poison is only attacking Inuyasha-sama’s youkai blood, so if he were to have mostly human blood...”

Kagome’s eyes widened. “It would give him a fighting chance,” she finished, looking down at Inuyasha’s silent form. She reached down and took one of his hands into her own, wincing when she realized how cold his skin was growing. He was going into shock, and that alone could kill him if they didn’t hurry. “Wait. Would Inuyasha still be a hanyou?”

“Yes. It would only take a day or so for his youkai blood to build back up. In the meantime, the human blood would filter out the remainder of the poison. Inuyasha-sama would be back to normal within a few days. The real danger is to you, Kagome-san.”

“Me?”

“It’s an exchange of blood,” Myoga reminded her. “Meaning that Inuyasha-sama’s poisoned blood would enter your body. I can’t tell you what this would do to you, Kagome-san. Your miko powers could purify you, the blood could change you, or you may simply die. The ritual has never been done with a miko, nor has it been done with poisoned blood. Therefore the outcome is impossible to say. That is why I wasn’t sure if I should tell you.” He didn’t say it, but Myoga knew that Inuyasha really would kill him if something happened to Kagome, especially if it occurred while she was trying to save Inuyasha’s life. “This is not something to undertake lightly.”

“But Inuyasha would survive? That’s all that matters. Tell me how to do the ritual,” she ordered, wiping the remaining tears from her eyes. “I don’t care what happens to me.”

As it turned out, the ritual was fairly simple. It required the gathering of certain herbs, some of which Kagome recognized from her teachings with Kaede. Others she had never seen before. Myoga directed her to take a clean container and half fill it with water from the stream, then set it to boiling. She added the herbs one at a time under his watch, stirred the mess exactly five times, and then left it to simmer. While that was happening, she washed and sterilized Inuyasha’s hands, as well as the sharpest blade in her backpack. Handling the knife made her stomach churn with nerves, but she refused to be cowed and carefully placed the blade on a bit of cloth next to Inuyasha’s body. If it was to save his life, no sacrifice was too small.

“The tea is almost done,” Myoga said, sniffing the air. “A few minutes more.”

Nodding, she knelt next to Inuyasha and took his right hand, at a loss for what else she should do. His rasping breathing was concerning, even though she was doing her best to keep calm. ‘Please Kami-sama,’ she thought, holding his hand against her cheek. ‘Please bring Inuyasha back to me. I need him.’ She closed her eyes against more tears and took several deep breaths, wishing that she would have had the chance to see all of her friends and family one more time. But that was the problem... there was no more time.

“It’s ready, Kagome-san.”

“Okay.” Kagome poured the tea into two cups and drank hers down before she had the chance to loose her confidence. The taste wasn’t unpleasant. It was almost sweet, with a faint lemon aftertaste. She knelt next to Inuyasha and held his cup to his lips. After the first little bit had trickled into his mouth, he coughed and sputtered, coming awake a jolt.

“Ka-Kagome?” he gasped. “Where... what?”

“Inuyasha, it’s okay. I’m right here,” she said, scooting around to face him. “Here, open your mouth and drink this. It will make you feel better.”

He was still half asleep, but awake enough to follow her orders. His lips parted and he obediently drank the tea. “Kagome, my head hurts,” he mumbled once it was gone.

‘He must be dying if he admitted to a little pain,’ she thought wryly. Seconds later, the impact of what had just gone through her mind hit. Kagome swallowed hard, unable to keep a tear from flowing down her cheek. “Go back to sleep, Inuyasha. You’ll feel better soon.”

“Mmm.” His golden eyes fluttered shut. “I smell... darkness...”

“Darkness? Inuyasha?” She shook him gently, but he didn’t respond. Kagome frowned pensively as Myoga hopped onto her shoulder.

“It must be done now, Kagome-san. I can feel Inuyasha-sama slipping away.”

“What do I do?” Gently, she set Inuyasha back down and picked up the knife.

“You must slash the palm of both of your hands and then press them together. Whatever you do, do not let go, understand?”

“Yes.” Kagome washed and sterilized her hands, then gulped and pressed the blade against Inuyasha’s right hand. Only the knowledge that he wouldn’t feel the pain enabled her to put pressure against the knife. His skin split like butter and she choked back a gasp as blood began to trickle down his wrist, quickly dropping his right hand for his left and repeating the procedure. Inuyasha barely twitched at the pain, but she was well aware that it wouldn’t be long until his hanyou healing ability kicked in. Heart pounding, Kagome squeezed her eyes shut and slashed the knife across her left hand. Ignoring the pain, she grasped the knife handle with her bloody hand and did the same to her right hand. Then she threw the knife down and grabbed Inuyasha’s hands, lacing their fingers together.

At first, it didn’t really hurt, but then it grew more intense. There was a sensation like cold water running down her left arm, while hot fired burned up her right arm. She cried out in pain and forced herself to hold onto Inuyasha even tighter, knowing that if she released him, it would probably mean both their deaths. Inuyasha groaned faintly and his body pulsed the way it did on human nights, though his hanyou characteristics remained. Tessaiga trembled at his hip, and the shikon shards around her neck flashed with a dull pink light. Kagome heard herself moan out loud as the fire began to spread through her body, starting in her chest and slowly making its way down to her hips and thighs, even down to her toes. Her body grew weak and she lost the ability to hold herself in a sitting position, instead sprawling across Inuyasha’s body, though she still refused to let go.

Myoga hopped around her, shouting something about Naraku, but Kagome was too far gone to care. Vaguely, she was aware of the flea sucking on one of her hands to get her attention and telling her to let go. It took a few minutes for the words to get through her sluggish brain. Let go. Right, she knew what that meant. Kagome forced her fingers to unclamp from Inuyasha’s and drew them away. The simple acting of moving made her heart skip a few beats and she gasped, rolling over to kneel on her hands and knees like a dog as her body roughly expelled everything she’d eaten during the past day. Her throat ached with thirst when she was done. Water. She needed water.

The stream wasn’t too far away, but it seemed to take ages to get there, when standing took far too much effort. Kagome dragged herself to the edge and hung her head over, gulping weakly at the icy liquid. More water splashed her face than went in her mouth, but even that felt good. Pulling back, she gasped for air even though she was laying on the ground. Myoga leapt onto her chest and yelled something about Inuyasha, but she couldn’t process what he was trying to tell her, and the darkness was growing at the edges of her vision. She tried to smile comfortingly at the flea as her head fell to the ground, but she wasn’t even sure she had done that much before she passed out.

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