InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ When Love and Death Embrace ❯ Madness ( Chapter 3 )

Again I highly recommend listening to James Blunt's No Bravery while reading this chapter.

 

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Kagome awoke the next morning to Shippou's fuzzy tail brushing against her nose. She scowled and pushed it away; questioning his new preferred sleeping position, which was to curl up around her head, often laying his tail across her face. She slowly sat up so that she wouldn't disturb the kit and stretched.

 

“You still have a bit of time before you need to be awake.” Inuyasha's voice came to her softly in the dark.

 

“It's alright.” Kagome said, reaching for her bag.

 

Inuyasha watched her pull out her hair brush and slowly work the snarls out of her hair. “Maybe one of us should stay behind to watch Kaede.” He told her.

 

“Why do you say that?” Kagome asked him.

 

“She's been breathing funny all night.” He said, “Like the time when you were really sick and your lungs were rattling.”

 

Kagome bit her lip. Inuyasha was correct when he had said that Kaede probably wouldn't live through the fall, the thought saddened her. She peeked over at Inuyasha and saw that he was watching the elderly woman thoughtfully, a flicker of sadness in his eyes.

 

She climbed to her feet and moved to sit next to him, smiling when he shrugged out of his haori and draped it across her shoulders. She caught his arm before it returned to its place in his lap and wrapped it around her instead, leaning her head against his shoulder.

 

“You're sad, aren't you?”

 

Inuyasha shrugged. “The old hag and I don't get along that great, but she's part of my pack, of course I'll be sad when she passes.”

 

Kagome snuggled against his shoulder before tilting her head up to press a soft kiss to his cheek. “Even though you like to think you have this big tough guy image, you really are a big softie.”

 

Inuyasha blushed and looked down at her, “What was that for?”

 

“What the kiss?” Kagome asked him making Inuyasha nod, “Because I wanted to.”

 

Inuyasha leaned closer to her and Kagome's heart began to flutter. He had done this once before, back when they first met. Of course back then she had panicked and shoved him backwards, making him fall down the hill. Her eyes fluttered shut as his breath fanned over her face. They snapped open when said breath suddenly disappeared.

 

Turning her head she saw the reason why Inuyasha had stopped. Sango was sitting up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she yawned. “Morning!” Kagome said, hoping that her tone was bright and casual to mask her disappointment.

 

“Good morning, Kagome.” Sango said.

 

Her words were followed by a soft yelp as she pulled Miroku's hand up, squeezing it tightly. “Idiot.” Shippou's sleepy sounding voice came as he curled up in Kagome's lap.

 

They moved about quietly, hoping to let Kaede get some extra sleep. They were just heading out the door when Kaede awoke and asked them if they would mind bringing back some herbs for her.

 

Kagome climbed onto Inuyasha's back as Kirara changed to her full form to carry Shippou, Miroku and Sango. Inuyasha turned and sped off in the direction that the demons had been rumoured to be seen. She sighed softly at the familiar sight of smoke rising in the distance. The village had definitely been attacked, she just hoped that there weren't too many injured.

 

Inuyasha came to a sudden stop that almost made Kagome fall from her spot on his back. She was about to ask him what was wrong when she turned her head and saw the destruction in front of her.

 

She slid off of his back and stared around the village. She had seen a lot of death and destruction since travelling with Inuyasha, but nothing as bad as this. Most villages had shown some form of resistance, but this one had none.

 

Two small children, no more than eight years old, stood together holding hands. They stared blankly up at the sky, traces of their tears drying on their dirt and soot covered faces. A woman was staggering around, holding onto a small child that was obviously dead. She kept nuzzling the child's bloody face, crying to the point of being hysterical. In front of one house several young girls and women were huddled together. Judging from the way they were holding themselves they had been raped, and most were so severely beaten that their eyes were swollen shut and their limbs were bent at awkward angles.

 

“What could have happened?” Kagome barely choked out as tears brimmed in her eyes. “Naraku doesn't do this.”

 

“He was here, I can smell him. He used humans to do this; the demons must have been here to draw attention away from what was really happening.” Inuyasha said.

 

“Why?” Sango asked, clutching Miroku's arm.

 

“Men cause the sacred jewel to corrupt much more than any demon could.” Miroku told them.

 

Kagome turned and looked at Inuyasha, frightened by the pure rage on his face. She saw his ear twitch to the left and his head snap in the same direction, staring at one of the few huts that weren't burned. She turned and moved towards it, shrugging of Inuyasha's hand when he tried to stop her.

 

She stepped inside and saw a small bundle laying in the sunlight. She was about to ignore it when she saw it move. She moved towards it, but stopped when she felt something under her foot. She stared down and cried out when she realized her left foot was standing on a human hand. She quickly stepped back and sobbed when she saw that the hand she had been standing on was a woman's, her body surrounded by those of her husband and children.

 

She turned away and threw up what little breakfast she had eaten that morning. She felt Inuyasha's hand close over her shoulder, his claws scraping her in a soothing and gentle manner. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and moved around the bodies to pick up the bundle of cloth.

 

Kagome gently lifted it and pulled the cloth back to reveal an infant. The baby had tears still on its face, but she had never heard it utter a sound. “Why wouldn't they kill the baby too?”

 

Inuyasha wrapped an arm around Kagome's shoulders. “It's crueller to leave her like this. She'd slowly die of starvation, or be eaten by an animal.”

 

Kagome sniffled and snuggled into his side. “She needs to be changed, her wrappings are wet.”

 

Inuyasha nodded and set about finding the things that Kagome would need to change the baby. “Come on, there's hot spring near by that you can bathe her in.”

 

He scooped Kagome up in his arms and waited until she found a comfortable way to hold the infant. He told Miroku where they were heading to and promised to help him dig a grave pit when they returned.

 

“She's been in a dirty covering for at least several hours, why hasn't she cried?” Kagome asked as she cleaned the baby.

 

“Must be some kind of survival instinct, perhaps the pup didn't want to alert anything to her presence.” Inuyasha said.

 

He blanched when Kagome turned and started to hand him the baby. “Here, you need to hold her so that I can was her things.”

 

“No way, I'll hurt her!” Inuyasha insisted, “Give me the clothes and I'll wash them.”

 

“But the smell coming off of them,” Kagome told him, “I can barely stand it!”

 

Inuyasha snatched the dirty clothes away from Kagome and flung them into the spring, resisting the urge to gag at the strong odour coming from them. Kagome noticed his nose wrinkle slightly and gave him a look that clearly stated: “I told you so”.

 

“We'll have to take her home with us.” Kagome said quietly as she played with the infant. “Surely someone there will be able to take her in.”

 

Kagome failed to notice the way Inuyasha's hands faltered at the word “home”. “How would you explain that, besides we don't know if the well would let her pass through?”

 

Kagome threw a small pebble at him. “I meant to the village you goof.”

 

Inuyasha had the good grace to blush as he finished washing the infant's clothes. He shrugged off his haori and handed it to Kagome. “Here, wrap her up in this until her clothing is dry.”

 

Kagome smiled softly and did as she was told. Inuyasha once again picked her up and carried them back towards the village, setting her down under a tree as he proceeded to dig a burial pit for the dead.

 

She allowed the baby to play with her fingers as she watched Miroku give a final blessing over each of the bodies. Once Inuyasha was done with the burial pit, he gently picked up each body and lay them together in the groups that they had found them in. Once all the bodies were attended to, Kagome handed the baby to Miroku and walked over to help Sango with the group of raped and battered women.

 

She helped clean their faces and talked to them in soothing tones, seeing the blank stares of shock on their faces. She listened as Sango explained that they were going to bring them with them back to Kaede's village.

 

“What about Youkai, and those men?” One woman asked softly.

 

“Our Hanyou companion will help to protect all of you until we reach the village, and he will continue to do so as you begin your lives there.” Sango explained softly.

 

The woman fell silent, seeming to accept the answer. Kagome smiled at Sango, thanking her silently for handling that situation. She saw the girl in front of her tense and felt a hand close over her shoulder.

 

“We should get moving; we need to cover as much ground as possible before dark.” Inuyasha told her.

 

Kagome nodded and looked at Sango who was doing the same. Together the two girls began to convince the women to climb to their feet. It would be slow going since many of them were limping heavily. Kagome took the baby back from Miroku and was startled when a hand brushed a fly away from the infants face. She looked at the woman curiously.

 

“That's Aiko's little girl, Setsuna.” The woman said, “I take it none of her family are alive?”

 

Kagome shook her head, “No, we were going to see if there was anyone in our village that would be willing to take care of her.”

 

The woman looked thoughtful, “Perhaps you should allow one of us to take care of her, many of these girls have lost their babies.”

 

Kagome bit her lip, the woman was thinking surprisingly clear for someone in her position. It was then that Kagome noticed her injuries were minimal. “How is it that you have barely any injuries?”

 

“I was out in the woods looking for mushrooms with my sister and her husband when the village was attacked. He told us to stay behind, but my sister has never been a sensible one. She saw her husband killed and her child beaten severely before the men took her too.”

 

The woman's voice was shaking as tears spilled down her cheeks. Kagome now understood what was happening. This woman was trying to be strong for everyone else. She was suffering too, but she knew it wasn't as bad as the others.

 

“It's alright for you to grieve too.” Kagome said, “Perhaps you should raise Setsuna.”

 

The woman tried to back away, only to bump into Sango. “Trust Kagome, she wouldn't have suggested it if she didn't think you couldn't do it.”

 

Kagome felt the woman's hands shaking as she took the baby from her. Sango wrapped an encouraging arm around the woman and spoke softly to her as Kagome dropped back to walk with Inuyasha.

 

“You did good wench.” Inuyasha said quietly, as Kagome grabbed his hand and squeezed it, a secret smile on her face.

 

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AN: Ok so I meant to update so much sooner then this. In fact, I meant to update “I'm looking in” first. Unfortunately Dell and Satan seemed to have a bastard love child other wise known as my computer. I lost the final chapter of “I'm Looking In” so I'm in the process of re-writing it when I get a chance. Luckily I still had the paper copy of this chapter.

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or the characters of Rumiko Takahashi. I do own the plot of this story along with any original characters that may make an appearance.