InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Unfettered ❯ At the Edge and Falling ( Chapter 21 )

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

AN: Wow, never thought I would get here. Only one chapter left after this one and maybe an epilogue if I find that I need one once the last chapter is done. Thanks to everyone who stuck with me over such a long hiatus.

Also thanks again to Doggieearlover for being my beta.

Perhaps for the first time ever InuYasha didn’t have to wake Kagome in the morning. Just as he usually did, she awoke with the dawn and wasted no time in getting dressed so that they could be on their way.

They had decided to bring only the barest necessities so that he could carry her on his back and make the best time possible. InuYasha was more than capable of finding and providing both food and shelter on the road. He had been able to do so when they were hunting shards, and that hadn’t changed.

They traveled swiftly throughout the days, stopping only briefly to eat and then again at nightfall. For the most part InuYasha and Kagome had little to say to one another, both completely focused on the task at hand, but in spite of that fact InuYasha still found himself feeling uneasy with Kagome’s silence. Even when they were at their worst during their old shard hunting days, she had still found a way to make the journey easier, be it with her smile or a story - just something that had given everyone a little more hope, a little more reason to believe that everything would be alright in the end.

Granted you could hardly compare gathering the shards to trying to get back their son, but even so, she wasn’t acting like herself. After several days of waiting and hoping that something would change and that he would feel the closeness with her that he was used to, InuYasha decided that he couldn’t stand it any longer and that he had to say something.

As they made camp for the night he finally asked, “What’s wrong? Ever since we started traveling you‘ve been too quiet and so distant. I thought we were okay again - well, as okay as we could possibly be in this fucked up situation, but I’m starting to think that ain’t the case.”

Kagome toyed with the tie of her yukata as she stared at her lap. “Do you think all of this could have happened because I’m being punished?”

InuYasha frowned. That certainly wasn’t what he had been expecting from her. “What? No. What the hell gave you that idea?”

“When I first found out I was pregnant, just for a second, I thought about not having him,” she admitted, her tone clearly revealing the feelings of guilt that she harbored.

InuYasha considered her words for a moment and then said, “Not having him. You mean...”

Kagome nodded. “It was just for a second. I was so sad and alone and afraid. I didn’t know what I was going to do, or how I could possibly take care of a baby. Then I realized that it didn’t matter, that I wanted our baby, no matter what. But maybe someone decided that because I even considered doing something like that, that I don’t deserve him.”

InuYasha lifted her head with his fingers beneath her chin. When she raised her eyes to meet his, he said, “That’s stupid. You said it yourself, you were scared. You weren’t thinking clearly. After all the shit that you went through, no one could blame you for that.”

Kagome was only slightly relieved by InuYasha’s assurances and only in the sense that he didn’t think it was her fault, not that she actually felt less guilty. She dabbed at her damp eyes with her sleeves.

“Hey,” he said gently as he pulled her into his lap. He positioned her so that she was straddling him. He brushed her hair back from her face and then cradled her cheeks in his hands. His expression was serious as he continued, “Don’t do this to yourself. Thinking something and actually doing it are two different things. You’re a wonderful mother and probably the best person I know. If anyone is being punished then it’s me.”

Kagome began to shake her head before he had even finished his sentence.

“Then it’s settled,” he said. The corners of his lips turned upwards slightly and he let his hands slide down her body until they were cupping her behind. He pulled her more tightly against him and felt her body tremble. He nipped lightly at her neck and let his lips brush against her ear. “Is it all right?”

A soft gasp escaped her. “Yes, please.”


‘It’s time to wake up’

“No, not again!” Taro cried out. “Please, not again. I don’t want to see.”

The monster in his head began to laugh and Taro whimpered. He didn’t want to wake up again. Every time they made him wake up horrible things happened. He had to watch as that terrible demon slaughtered everyone in sight, and even worse he had to watch himself do the same.

He always tried to stop, to keep his claws from ripping into the helpless people pleading for mercy and begging for the lives of their children, but he couldn’t do it. No, the dark thing controlled him and made him do such terrible things.

‘Careful or I may start to think that you do not like me anymore, and after all I have done for you, too. So ungrateful. Perhaps I shall have you feast on the flesh of your victims as punishment.’

Taro could feel the tears rolling down his cheeks. He could always feel when it woke him up. He could feel the hot blood pour out onto his hands and smell it, heavy and metallic, but had no means of stopping himself.

He knew it wrong that someone his age should wish for death, but he couldn’t help it. If his mother and father hadn’t hated him before, then surely they must now. He was weak, and it was all his fault that so many people were being made to suffer and die.


A ragged scream ripped through his head and for a moment Taro took control of his own actions. He put his hands over his ears, trying to shut out the screams of the villagers as well as his own. His body was shaking, and he fell to his knees screaming.

The demon laughed as he finished off the last of the villagers.

Kikyou looked at the beast with distaste as she made her way through the carnage to the hanyou child. He was still screaming. She knelt down and let her power slide over him and then through him. “You have broken his mind.”

‘Can it be repaired? He cannot amuse me in this state?’

Kikyou closed her eyes and focused her power again. “Perhaps I can dull his memories enough to restore his sanity, but he will need time to recover.”

‘Do it then. They come and I wish for him to be whole so that he will know what he is seeing when I destroy his mother before his eyes.’

“As you wish,” Kikyou replied. She placed a hand on the boy’s forehead. Abruptly the screams stopped and he fell over onto his side, eyes closed and unmoving. “I have returned him to sleep, but I will need time and solitude while I try to repair the damage.”

The darkness lifted the boy from the ground. ‘Follow me and I shall find a suitable location.’

Kikyou did as he instructed and followed along behind the demon. She could not wait for her reincarnation and InuYasha to catch them so that it would be done and her life would again be her own. The one benefit of having been a miko was that she had not been forced to be subservient to a man, and she resented having to do so now.

After walking several hours they came upon a cave and the demon stopped.

‘Will this suffice?’

Kikyou inspected the cave and nodded. “Just lay the boy inside and I will tend to him.”


Kagome and InuYasha walked side by side through what was left of the small village. Bodies were everywhere. There were dark stains in the dirt and on the bits off wood that had at one time been huts. Kagome covered her nose and mouth at the smell and willed herself not to be sick.

InuYasha wrapped his arms around her. “You don’t have to stay here. I can bury them myself.”

She shook her head. “I can handle it.”

He studied her for a moment and then accepted her words with a nod. “I’ll get started digging.”

There wasn’t any question that they would stop and bury the bodies, even if they were in a hurry. These people deserved to be laid to rest properly. More than that, both InuYasha and Kagome felt responsible for what had happened to these poor villagers.

InuYasha picked a spot near what would have been the edge of the village if it had still been standing and with a controlled blast of the Tetsusaiga created a long hole in the earth several feet deep. In his best estimation it was long enough to lay all of the villagers together side by side. After that they could place simple markers or flowers, if they could find any, for each one of the villagers. It would have been better had they more time to dig individual graves, but that would have taken far too long. He looked to Kagome.

She nodded at him. “I’ll see what I can find to make markers.”

While she did that, he went about the grim task of carrying the deceased to the grave. He took care with each body, gently laying them out side by side. Most of the time he had to hold his breath as he carried them, and not just because of the smells that came with death. Truthfully he was used to that scent, more so than he liked to think about. No, what really bothered him was that he could smell his son on many of them. He hoped fervently that Kagome wouldn’t ask him if he could tell her more precisely what had happened.

He was nearly finished filling in the grave when Kagome returned pushing a small cart full of stones, which also had a basket of flowers sitting on top. She was clearly having trouble moving the heavy load, but she didn’t complain or give up. She just continued in his direction. InuYasha hurried over to help her.

“I didn’t know how many…” she said quietly.

“Too many,” he said equally as quiet. “But this should be enough.”

He showed her how much space to put between the markers, and then together they laid the stones and the flowers. By the time they finished it was dark. Kagome walked along saying a blessing for each of the poor souls who had been so brutally murdered. As soon as it was done, they left to search for a place to make camp for the night, because even though it was already dark out, neither could bear the thought of staying too close to the village.

Kagome managed to hold it together until they were settled in for the night. She cried against InuYasha until there were no more tears left in her. “Why is this happening? Those poor people probably never hurt anyone in their lives, and I can’t help but feel that it’s my fault.”

InuYasha held her more tightly. “It’s my fault as much as yours, but mostly it’s the fault of that bastard and that thing wearing Kikyou’s body.”

“InuYasha, could you tell what happened?” she asked.

He closed his eyes. “Not exactly, but I could tell more than I wanted to.”

She lifted her head from his chest and looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t think you want to know,” he replied, hoping that she would let it go, just this once, even though he knew that she wouldn’t.

“Tell me,” she insisted. “I have to know.”

“I think they probably attacked at night, since most of the families were lying together with blankets and mats scattered around them,” he said, preferring to look at the ceiling of the cave, rather than having to see the horror on her face. “They never even had a chance to defend themselves - not that it would have mattered…and some of them… some of them smelled of Taro.”

“What?! You can’t mean… He wouldn’t. Our baby would never hurt anyone,” Kagome protested. “You can’t really think that he…”

“I know he wouldn’t hurt anyone, at least not willingly,” InuYasha told her. “I told you that you didn’t want to know.”

“Our poor little boy,” Kagome sniffled. “We have to get him back, InuYasha.”

“We will, I promise,” he assured her. “And as soon as he’s safe, I’m going to make that bastard pay for what he’s done.”

The morning air wasn’t cold but it sent a chill down InuYasha’s spine. He listened closely to the forest and what he found disturbed him greatly. It was far too quiet. Even the air around him seemed unnaturally still and heavy, and he came to the conclusion that they were much closer to finding their son than he had dared to hope.

His youkai began to rise in anticipation of the hunt and then the battle. Behind him Kagome stirred. She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

“InuYasha? What is it I feel…” her voice trailed off into nothing and she shivered. Tremors wracked her hands as she rubbed them along her arms. “It’s here. You can feel it, can’t you?”

InuYasha went to Kagome and knelt beside her. “What is it? What do you feel?”

“Him, it, that thing that took our baby,” she replied. “It’s so close. It feels like there is something creeping inside my skin. I thought when I felt your youki that it meant that you were feeling it too.”

He shook his head. “The forest is too quiet and the air smells wrong, so I figured we were close - that’s all.”

“InuYasha… we are going to get him back, aren’t we?” Kagome asked.

InuYasha pulled her into his arms and held her firmly against him. “We’re going to get him back or die trying. I promise you that.”