InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ What We Fight For ❯ Introduction ( Epilogue )

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

Author’s Note: So, this is a new concept for me. Though I’d much rather write something fluffy and cute (Being the girl that I am^.^) This angst theme of love and loss just seemed to click somewhere I don’t usually tap into. So, here we are!
I’m a relatively new Inuyasha fan, and don’t know the Japanese terms for everything since I watched the anima before I started reading the manga. (It’s one of the only anima that’s actually better than its novel counterpart!) So please go easy on me. I do know Kagome’s eyes were blue in the manga, but again, we’re going by TV show terms here. So, this plot begins sometime in-between episodes 159 and the end of the original anima. Enjoy!
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=Introduction=
All was silent. The small campfire flickering and crackling before them, a dead tone humming through the still air. No one had any words to say, and no one had any thoughts to share. It was as if all the hope, all the bright light of day, was swallowed up in the vortex of their close friends’ betrayal; Miroku, Sango, Shippo and even Kirara’s faces were crest fallen.
The young kitsune, who had come to think of the once gentle hearted miko as a mother, spared a carefully hidden glance at the abandoned bow and quiver pushed aside on a nearby tree trunk. His tears arose again, though this time not as loud. He knew, as did the others, Kagome’s treachery was not of her own free will but of another, darker intelligence…Naraku.
But the absence of the young girl’s cheery smile, the emptiness and gloom looming about the air, felt no less depressing and lonely. As of now, they had lost a very dear, loving companion…and that’s what hurt the most. Knowing that she was out of anyone’s reach, and only an empty shadow left in the remains of her former self, it sent the message across.
They still had no idea if they could even save her or not. Sango’s brother Kohaku, had been in a similar situation, but was yet to return to his former self. The only reason he had even a fragment of his true memory back was because Naraku had let the poor boy have them for whatever totally twisted reason. So who was to say they’d ever get the real Kagome back anytime soon?
Suddenly, a low, frustrated growl erupted through the gloomy stillness. “I’m sick of waiting around!” Snarled Inuyasha, who had been silently keeping to himself atop a high, unseen tree branch. Even from the distance the others were sitting at, it was obvious he was deeply affected by the recent events as well, if not more than everyone else; his own eerie silence until now proved it. “While we hang around here doing nothing, Kagome is being continuously poisoned by Naraku’s influence! I can’t stand it!” With his repetitive thoughts vented, the angered hanyou jumped to his feet and began to make his way out of camp.
With a small sigh, Miroku, who was sitting beside Sango in front of the fire, turned his head toward his departing friend “Inuyasha you must be patient. We’re all deeply affected by Kagome’s choices as you are, but we can’t just charge into battle without a plan. Who knows what Naraku would do to Kagome if things got ugly?”
Under normal circumstances, Inuyasha would begrudgingly agree with the monk’s sound reasoning, but in his particular state of mind, he didn’t really give a damn who said what around here. His anger rising to unbelievable proportions, the tessaiga wielding hanyou whirled around to face the group, amber eyes aflame with anger, hurt and grief. “Then you don’t care about her safety as much as I do! We don’t have the time to make a stupid plan! Kagome’s life is in danger! If you think for one second I’d leave her in that bastard’s merciless clutches, you got another thing coming!”
“Inuyasha! Do you honestly believe we don’t care!? After all that as happened recently, you should know your speaking nonsense!” Miroku scolded, losing himself for a brief moment. It was one thing to be told you didn’t care, but just the way it came out of the hanyou’s mouth…somehow it had gotten to him.
Inuyasha hardly seemed fazed however, as his eyes instead sparked more fuel to the flames of his anger, “Then you should be helping me find Kagome, not sitting here on your lazy asses acting like you don’t give a damn!” Inuyasha lashed out, fists clenched and fangs clearly visible as he raved.
Of all the times Kagome, or even Kikyou had been injured or captured, never had the dog-eared hanyou been so thoughtless and wild. (Subtracting his full youkai moments that is) It truly saddened his friends, to know he was in so much pain as it was obvious he was hiding. However, they had to get his mind in the right place. They would get nowhere quickly with his thoughts clouded by emotion as they were now.
Sango in particular knew Miroku would need help calming the guy down, so she stepped in, as did Shippo. “Inuyasha” She began firmly, enough to get his attention “Try to understand what Miroku is saying. You said it yourself, Naraku is unpredictable and dangerous. Imagine allowing that relentless merciless man an opening to kill her right as you swing your tessaiga his way. What would that accomplish?” demanded, trying her best to stay calm, though on the inside her own heart was breaking. She was a strong youkai-slayer, but hiding her true feelings never was simple, as a chocked voice and watering of her eyes proved after her small lecture.
“Sango’s right!” Squeaked the nearby kitsune, as he watched the grieving woman with concern.
However, all breath might as well have been wasted on Inuyasha. All he knew was his best friend was in trouble, and it was his job to protect her, whether she liked it or not. He’d promised her he would never leave her behind, never let Naraku get his hands on her again, and though he’d fallen short once before, he wouldn’t let it happen again. Ever.
“He’s not even a man, Sango. He’s a monster. A sick twisted up monster” Seeing no one’s speech-giving expression waver, it only made him more defensive, his voice suddenly raised as his continued. “Imagine if Kohaku where in Kagome’s place, Sango! Would you be so quick to wait?!” Under Inuyasha’s merciless accusing glare, Sango caved. She wouldn’t put herself there. There was no point arguing with him anyway.
That pained silence was Inuyasha’s cue that no one planned to stop him, and he hardly waited for second thoughts, as he bolted out of camp in at a raging pace, suddenly revealing just how much tension had been building up inside his bones, and his heart.
As the crimson shape of the hanyou’s firerat garb grew steadily farther and farther away, those left behind shared a worried glance, tugging between Inuyasha and Sango. Miroku offered a hand to the slayer’s shoulder in comfort, knowing even a slight mention of the woman’s brother brought back painful heartache “I’m fine” She dismissed, sliding the gesture away. Instead of pestering her, the two watching over her only waited for something else to be said of the woman. In an attempt to change the subject, she instead turned back toward the direction Inuyasha had left, “Should we follow him?”
Being the man of reason, Miroku pondered it over for some time before finally offering a logical answer, “I’d advise against it for now. He just needs to blow off some steam.”
“But what if he really tries to go after Kagome while he’s like that?” Shippo piped up, thinking of how rash the hanyou could be.
Dark blue eyes in wavering to his decision as they were, Miroku only shrugged his strained shoulders, “Then we pray for his safe return.”
As uneasy silence settled onto the clearing once again, fire embers rising into the half-moon sky, all eyes peered into the darkness, no doubt following the monk’s earlier suggestion, for it was all they could do until the time was right.
(Meanwhile, at in unknown location)
A small rounded mirror shone through the darkness, its light reflecting the earlier described events. Swirling about the blackness below on the wooden flooring was miasma, the deadly poison only breathable by black hearted beings; it was obvious who dwelled here. Soon enough, two crimson orbs revealed themselves, piercing the blackness with an even more frightening tone. No sooner had all made an appearance, an evil, sickening chuckle erupted into the air, shattering the eerie silence with unease to all who heard the unsettling disturbance.
No other being on the face of the earth had the power to cause such fear instilling sights besides the embodiment of darkness himself…Naraku. Eventually, the searing crimson gaze overlooking the clear circular object was not the only thing visible. A pale face came into the dim torchlight, a most sinister expression gracing his features.
“Kagura!” His voice rang like a shrill echo in the still air, the thickening poisonous fog seemingly doing nothing to absorb the intensity in its wake.
Soon, the darkness cleared ever so slightly to reveal a second figure, that of the person called, Kagura. Her defiant crimson orbs ever aflame with the light of struggling hesitants “What is it?” She asked, a hinted whisper of irritation in her tone, as always.
“Bring our newest guest to me, unbound” The half-youkai being ordered, his voice suddenly dropping to an illusionary smoothness, as if coaxing the woman before him to do his bidding.
Of course, Kagura knew better than to believe such lies; she would drop dead the moment she ever attempted something too far off from her master’s wishes, he held her life in his palms; a constant reminder of how thin a line she was walking. This is mind, she gritted her fanged teeth and nodded, turning to leave and retrieve the newest arrival. The fact Naraku specifically ordered the prisoner unbound meant it was time for the final phase. I was beginning to wonder if he planned on just keeping her hostage, forever her soul lost. How ironically poetic, for reasons obvious to the girl’s past.
Upon approaching the prison cell she had been searching for, her thoughts put to silence for the time being, the wind sorcerous nodded to the armored guard positioned right next to the iron bared door; the key loop dangling from his belted hip. Responding to the woman’s order, knowing who she represented in these parts, he quickly took the required key and approached the lock on the nearby door, inserting it in the small hole and turning clockwise until the satisfactory click opened the door.
Without so much as a nod thanks, Kagura made her way into the pitch black room, a cold, musty, moldy smell greeting the sorceress upon her entry. It was enough to make her crinkle her sensitive nose at. It wasn’t a smell, it was a stench. “I don’t know how anyone besides the mindless could live in here” The woman pondered aloud, peering into the darkness for said empty minded prisoner.
Finally, the fogs cleared enough to see a shape. That of a woman, or rather, young woman. Her chocolate toned orbs were lifeless in appearance, no light reflecting through them, her expression bleak and pale. Adorned in similar garb as the person retrieving her, that of a simple white kimono. She stood silently in the corner of the room, awaiting her master's orders, or whoever called her.
Kagura knew what the girls fate was, and though she hardly called herself emotional, it did somewhat concern her what Naraku was going to do to this kid. Somehow she knew it would just make things worse, for everyone involved in this epic mess.
That was an understatement.

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