Inspired by the band, Brand New. So if you're a fan of both the band and the anime, you'll defenitely enjoy the fanservice. The title of the chapter is the also the title of the song said chapter was inspired by. Does that make sense? I think so. I'm reposting all, as it has gone through major editing, but if you've already read this, skip to the chapter you last ended on and it should still make sense.
Thanks to MelissaRose85 for her awe-inspiring beta-reading skills.
Double THANKS!! to Margot Gentry, who has made the second take and continuation possible.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the Brand New lyrics used. Not in this chapter, nor in the ones to follow.
"Speaking"
'Thinking'
Quote
Chapter 1
Sowing Season, Pt 1
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The sound of my blood rushing inside my body deafened everything else around me. I saw the tentacle approaching me, moving quickly from the opposite side of the clearing towards me, sneaking between demons in a snake-like manner. I tried to move, run, out of harm's way, but my feeble attempts were overcome by a deep, paralyzing fear.
Sometime between the beginning of the battle and the point we were now at, we had broken our circle, and I ended up in the open, fending for myself against the tide of demons. Everyone was too far out of reach to come to my aid in time. I could almost feel the tentacle piercing straight through me now, the pain coming from deep in my chest surely a preview of what was to come. I closed my eyes and did what I always do when in dire need for help.
"Inuyasha!!" I screamed as loud as my lungs would give and waited for either cold death and warm arms.
But my life did not come flashing before my eyes; instead, a familiar light filled my senses, too pink to be the one others claimed to have seen while near death. It was in this limbo moment that I found myself suddenly aware of everything surrounding me. I felt connected to every ounce of being around me, every rock, every leaf, every cloud. Every demon. I opened my eyes to try and asses the current situation and found myself gifted with the power of slow motion.
Sango was to my right, slamming hordes of demons with hiraikotsu, while the ever-faithful Kirara fought at her back…Shippou…poor Shippou, floating as a giant ball in the air trying to come to my rescue, abandoning Miroku's grimacing side. It seemed he had taken in one too many venomous creatures, but still fought his best through the pain.
None of them would get to me in time, not before Naraku's slimy appendage. I sensed Kikyo standing by the edge of the clearing, hidden from view and senses with a protective barrier around herself. I knew she was waiting for the right moment to make her move against Naraku, waiting for him to be at his weakest and most unprotected.
Sesshoumaru stood out in the darkening battlefield, a knight in shining armor…and silk, slashing fiercely and almost delicately at Naraku's ever shifting mass.
Lastly, my eyes found the figure clad in red that fought alongside Sesshoumaru - Inuyasha, as much of a demon as he would ever be, wielding Tetsuaiga as if the sword was part of his body, wild and unpredictable.
His swiveling ears caught wind of my call for him and I saw him turn in my direction, his face changing from anger to terror.
"Don't you dare touch her!" he screamed at a battered but smirking Naraku as he moved swiftly to cut off the tentacle that threatened my life. But it was now too close to me, and now having been cut loose it moved faster towards my frozen body.
I saw the leathery thing approach me ever so slowly in this new dimension of sense and for a moment I believed I could easily dodge it, but my legs were set on disobeying me. Slow motion started becoming real time once more, and for a second I gave into the idea of dying.
Ever the optimist, I could see even the positive side of Death. Surely it could not be so bad. I would no longer have to worry about graduation, or my friends finding out that I'm never actually sick, just traveling 500 years to the past to help save the world from evil.
No more worrying about the Jewel, either. The moment Naraku had gotten a hold of Kouga's shards, everyone's spirit had fallen a little, the thought of losing to the spider hanyou actually crossed my mind a couple of times, if only briefly. Kouga was badly injured by the encounter, and had been unconscious for several days now. We had decided to give it all we got in this (hopefully last) battle. We could not afford to give Naraku any more time to try and steal our shards and have the complete Jewel.
When Sesshoumaru showed up and told us he would join us in this battle, we welcomed him with open arms…more or less. The addition to our small party was not only a surprise to Inuyasha, but to Naraku as well. I was sure he had to regret not being able to raise not one of his demons without betrayal instilled in their core.
And so here we were now, after hours and hours of incessant fighting, the lesser demons that Naraku had at his command were still coming from every direction, and except for Sesshoumaru, everyone seemed to be feeling a little worse for wear.
"It's coming to an end…" I thought with a mixture of resignation and contempt as I watched my friends give it their all, their everything, in this final push.
"Kagome!!" Inuyasha yelled as he sprinted in my direction in a last attempt to save my life. It was his face, full of pained anguish and fear, that did it for me in that instant, and all thoughts of giving up and easy surrender were gone from my mind. I could not dare put him through any more heartache…not him, not the boy I loved.
I dug deep within my self and pulled every ounce of strength I could muster into my miko energy, trying to gather it in my hands. I felt the pinkish light gathering in my chest, tightly bound as if contained, restrained, spiking raw and stretching thin to my tingling fingertips. I pushed harder, trying to get some release, a feeling of drowning and drying out simultaneously washing over me. And then I felt it. A rope, a ribbon, a string. Something wrapped around my very core, my heart, keeping my energy in check. I concentrated on that suffocating thing and pulled, staring ahead at the tentacle that was now only feet from me. And then it tore, broke, shattered, very much like the Sacred Jewel had done so long ago, untangling something that had been purposely knotted by others before…and I felt complete. I felt whole.
My hands quickly came up to meet the one coming to claim my life with a grace very unlike my own. With the slightest touch of my fingers on the lengthy tentacle it dissipated into nothing more than glimmering dust. I did not need to look at a mirror to know that I was glowing. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck raising, as if I had just stuck a knife into an electrical outlet.
I felt…heard…power radiating off my entire body. The sound of waves and rushing blood gone from my mind, now replaced by a resonating, echoing heartbeat, and when I turned to look at Inuyasha, I found everyone on the battlefield, friend and foe alike, looking at me with slight awe and fear.
"Kagome! A-are you okay?!" squealed Shippou with a slight look of fear on his face and keeping a distance from me.
"Yes, I'm fine Shippou..." I tried to reassure him, but no sooner had I spoken and the spell that seemed to hold everyone in place broke, sending every enemy demon except Naraku in my direction.
Inuyasha reached my side before any of them and looked at me with a creased brow, "What the hell was that?!" ha asked as he took post in front of me protectively and turned to face the approaching demon wave.
"I'm not sure…I feel…different," I answered, moving confidently to stand at his side and bringing my hands up, palms open and pointing forward .
I reached in to that now overflowing well of energy in me and pushed it off from my palms. Part of me thinking it had to have been a fluke and I would not be able to do it again, another part thinking something very big was about to happen.
A blinding light burst from my palms and engulfed about half of the field in front of me.
I could feel myself glowing brighter this time, light coming off my body in slight, shaky ripples. Inuyasha moved away from me and stood far away behind me.
"What the hell is going on?!" he asked, more to the gods than anyone else. "How the- how did you just do that?!"
"I'm not sure! Stop yelling at me!" I shouted as I stared at my hands and then at the almost empty area in front of me, I saw the surviving demons thinking twice about the new situation and retreating into the trees. On the other side of the field, Naraku was still struggling against Sesshoumaru, being either too occupied or too exhausted to call forth any more of his minions.
And then once again, it all became very clear in my mind, like the last piece of the puzzle was in and the whole image was crystal clear. "I can purify the Jewel. I can defeat Naraku," I said to myself, tasting the words and finding them a little less comforting in my lips than they had been in my head.
I walked towards my friends, leaving Inuyasha to gather his senses on his own, I felt the energy in me settle down a little and noticed I was no longer glowing. I reached Sango just in time to stop her from overdosing Miroku with a mixture of antibiotics and cough syrup.
"How is he doing?" I asked as I took the bottle from her hands.
"Better I hope. I made him drink all the medicine," she responded, still shaky and frazzled, moving to lift the unconscious monk's head onto her lap.
"All of it?!" I said as I realized the bottle in my hands was completely empty.
"Yeah…" Sango responded, failing to notice the slight panic in my voice, and shifting the conversation, "What just happened, Kagome?"
I glanced to the events still unfolding at the other side of the clearing, where Sesshoumaru had Naraku engaged in combat, seemingly refusing to let him escape as he repeatedly cut him off from routes close to the forest line.
I could no longer sense Kikyo nearby and wondered if that was a good omen or not.
"Kagome…what happened…how did you purify all those demons at once?" Sango pressed on when I didn't answer, getting me to shift my attention from the fight to the questioning group at my side, where Shippou and Kirara had now joined in around the unconscious Miroku.
"I'm not sure, I just feel much more…before I felt so-" but before I could complete my reverie, Inuyasha came striding over.
"What the hell is going on?!!" he yelled outrageously, "What are you talking about 'I can purify him,'" he said with a mocking tone lightly marking his words.
"I can do it Inuyasha," I repeated my previous thoughts once again, the words still tasting very foreign in my mouth, "I can purify him."
Sango and Shippou just stared at me, and even Kirara's mouth seemed to be slightly agape. "Dammit Kagome! I'm going back to the fight, stay here and keep an eye for any stray demons," he said, turning around and heading back towards the sparring.
He didn't even consider my words. Pushed my thought aside like I was a little girl. I got up from my spot next to Sango and ran up in front of him, blocking his path and putting on hand on my hip and the other in front of me to stop him.
"What? You're gonna try and purify me now?" he asked with a hint of annoyance, trying to go around me.
"Inuyasha, stop, please!" I begged, "listen to me."
"Why? So you can tell me about how you think you can defeat Naraku? Get out of my way, I need to get back to the fight, Sesshoumaru is holding him off but I think we could finish him off quickly together."
"You've been going at it for hours now, and look at them," I pointed towards the spot where the demon and hanyou still fought, "this could go on all night!"
I walked closer to him, at once taking in his beaten appearance. The red robes he wore were good at masking weakness points, but if you looked closely enough you could se the bruises and scrapes, the long gashes and bleeding cuts. How did I not see it before? He was bleeding freely from his right shoulder, the blood trickling down his arm and flowing to his clawed hand, "Just listen to me," I said as I moved to hold his bloody hand. When he didn't make any effort to walk away, I took my opportunity to explain.
I quickly told him about how I felt when the tentacle came close to me, how I felt some kind of hidden energy reserve in me just open to my senses and how I felt I could use it. "I feel I can purify anything right now. Not just fragments of the jewel and some random demons. I feel like I could purify your demon side right now and make you human in one second."
He looked at me apprehensively, weighing my words before speaking, "So you want me to just let you walk up to him and say, 'Hey, Naraku, come over here for a second, there's something I'd like to try out with you?"
"No, Inuyasha, I-"
"Forget it. You may feel more power in you, but we haven't even had a chance to test it. I won't let you willingly walk to your death," he said with a forceful air of finality and started walking off again.
"I won't die Inuyasha! Trust me!" I told him just as forcefully, putting my hand up and grabbing him by the shoulders, trying to make him stop.
He flinched when I pressed along his shoulder wound and stopped, apparently mulling over my words for a moment, then glancing at the ongoing battle between his half-brother and the half-demon.
He sighed and looked me straight in the eyes, "Fine, but you stay behind me the whole time, and don't thi-"
"No, I need to go alone," I said.
"No way in hell!" he yelled hotly, standing face to face with me.
"If you come with me you'll be purified as well."
"What if it doesn't work?!" he insisted.
"It'll work. Trust me," I said, trying to convey as much confidence in my words as I could. Truth was, I wasn't completely sure what I was doing was very bright, but it felt like the most obvious thing in the world to me, even if it sounded all wrong.
He took his eyes off my face and looked at the group. Miroku was still passed out, his head resting on Sango's lap, something the monk would regret having been unconscious through once he came to. Kirara had reverted to her smaller form, and was nursing her wounds, while Shippou and Sango looked at us with worry in their eyes.
"Kagome…he's a lot stronger than he seems…" Sango said as from her spot beneath the unconscious monk.
"I can do this," I tried to reaffirm everyone this time.
"But Kagome…" Shippou whined clutching to my side, apparently too tired and hurt to jump into my arms.
"You…" Inuyasha started, grabbing hold of my shoulders this time and forcing me to face him, much too close for friendly comfort. "You make sure he doesn't hurt you…you make sure you come back here alive and in one piece," he said, and for a moment, looking into his golden eyes, I was sure everything would turn out fine.
I gave him a nod and he stepped back, releasing my body from his clawed hands. I took a last look at my friends and headed for the ongoing battle at the other side of the clearing.
'You better be right about this, Kagome,' I thought to myself. The falling night had taken on a chilly air and a gust of wind caressed my legs and made my school skirt fly up a little, tinting my cheeks pink, my modesty in such a situation making me even more aware of my humanity.
I could not remember the last time such confidence had allowed me such foolishness, except the one time I thought my bow and arrow skills were not too bad and so wittingly tied a demon's leg to an arrow, letting it fly straight into the Sacred Jewel and shattering it into a million pieces.
The sound of sword against flesh was spread throughout the land as Sesshoumaru pulled Tokijin out of Naraku's stomach. He gave me a quick glance while Naraku took a moment to gather himself, and I felt very small and insignificant, no matter how much I had just talked about being able to defeat this and purify that. I felt my skin start to hum again, a slight glow resurfacing once more now that I was in close proximity to two very strong presences.
"Leave," Sesshoumaru suddenly spoke.
I looked at him in surprise. It was all my fault. The jewel shattered once, and it was all my fault. None of the grievances that now pained my friends would exist if only I had been a little more careful.
I had once thought the world so simple and monotone, filling my days with classes and friends, and the random boys that wrote me cheesy love notes. But now it had all changed, and I knew that the fairy tale I once thought I could handle would eventually twist so much, even I would not be able to detangle from it.
This was all my fault. This was my battle, not Sesshoumaru's. And he had to get out of the way if he didn't want to be purified as well. I planted my feet on the ground and did not move an inch.
"Well, well, the little miko wants to play, huh?" said Naraku smiling, crimson blood staining the usual cheery purple of his robes.
We stood almost triangularly coordinated on the darkening day, and I felt wearily out of place. Did I really think I was a match for either one of these men? With my short uniform and polished nails.
"He…he's mine Sesshoumaru," I said, my voice trembling with either courage or fear.
Naraku snickered and Sesshoumaru growled. After what seemed like an eternity under Sesshoumaru's careful gaze, he slowly put Tokijin back in its sheath and walked away from the scene.
I heard Naraku chuckle when Sesshoumaru's figure could no longer be seen and saw him become more at ease, "You do realize this means your death, girl?"
"The name's Kagome," I replied more out of habit than the need to be recognized, trying to concentrate on the energy I had felt before.
"You might be Kikyo's reincarnation, but you two are nothing alike," he said as he recalled the growing mass of tentacles back into his body, gaining confidence as well as two legs, and moving towards me.
I quickly thought about how best to go about this. I could try and do it just like before, redirecting the energy out of my hands, but somehow I knew it would take more to purify him than it took to do so with the horde of demons previously.
'If I can get direct contact with his skin…" I thought, stopping my feet from backing away from the approaching hanyou.
"I can see why Inuyasha would still pick her dead form over you," he told me sneering, awaiting my reaction. And as hard as I tried not to let him bait me, my breath hitched and my shoulders flinched, the sharpened comment piercing my heart.
He was so close to me now; I could smell the metallic scent of his blood soaked robes. It was now or never, no time for any relationship angst.
And so I closed the distance between us, taking a couple of steps and reaching for his hand. Whatever reaction he had pictured in his rotten mind, this had certainly not been it. I saw the look of surprise from the unexpected touch of my skin.
I curled my fingers around his and tried to concentrate on the task. I needed to purify him. I needed to do it fast. But all I could think of were his words, 'Inuyasha would still pick her dead form over you.' And before I could stop myself, the words were already half way through my mouth. I just had to know.
"Do you miss the blend...of color...she left in your black and white field?"I murmured while holding his hot palm in mine, "Do you feel...condemned, just being here?"
The last words almost a whisper as I tried to reign my spoken thoughts back in, I looked up at him and found his deep purple eyes open and unguarded. For a tiny moment I forgot about purifying him and I remembered that he too had been pushed aside, feelings trapped and ignored while his loved one went and found another. As weird and twisted as it seemed, I wanted to connect with him, I wanted him to know that I too understood the pain of unrequited love. But out the corner of my eye I saw a speck of red in the distance running towards us and realized it was too late for missed connections. I remembered who I was, and who he was, and what we were both supposed to be doing.
I grabbed for that energy in me, so readily given now, and pushed it out of my core and into his palm, letting the hot light course all over his body. I was glowing brightly again, brighter than even before. He gasped, astonished, eyes wide and full of nothing but years of unavenged passion. I didn't want to feel sorry for him, I didn't want to cry for him. He destroyed so many lives and caused so much pain, I knew I should not cry for him. He didn't deserve them, but as I felt my tears break free and rush down my cheeks, a bright ball of pink energy engulfed us both and expanded all around us, illuminating the entire field.
When the light finally settled and the coming twilight rightfully took over again, I opened my eyes and saw he had been turned to nothing more than dust, the almost complete Jewel was resting now at my feet.
Still silently crying, I let my head fall back and saw Sesshoumaru high in the cloudy evening sky, his white robes and gleaming hair a strong contrast against the gray clouds. He seemed to be sizing me up for a moment, but quickly took off as Inuyasha rushed to my side and roughly grabbed my shoulders, looking me up and down to check for permanent physical damage.
I thought he would scold me for being so bold and intimate with Naraku, but instead I felt his warm arms circle around me and pull me into a hug, drying my tears with the cloth of his haori.
No one spoke for what felt like an eternity, but Inuyasha eventually pulled himself back at arms distance, "Are you okay?" he asked, and that seemed to break the romance that had lingered in the air moments ago.
The sky gave in to the dark clouds and heavy drops started falling, paying no mind to the remaining occupants in the open field.
I let out a long sigh, my tears having finally stopped but now being replaced by the rain, and reached down to the ground to pick up the almost finished Jewel, pretty and petty at the same time. I wiped it off and held it close to my chest, where the remaining shards hung loosely around my neck.
"Go on. Get rid of it once and for all," Inuyasha said rather uncaringly.
"Inuyasha..."
"It won't turn back time. It won't make me a better man. And I sure as hell don't want to end up like the other hanyou. Get rid of it. Make it disappear. Hurry up before I change my mind."
Staring at his warmly colored eyes, I wondered which had been the defining moment that made me fall in love with him. I had fallen for him so hard that even when he would follow Kikyo and leave me behind time after time, my love for him never faltered.
I had known Inuyasha loved Kikyo, and I had learned it the hard way. The first time Kikyo was brought back from the dead, taking my soul and almost killing me in the process, Inuyasha had run after the undead miko without even sparing my dying form a look.
He had loved Kikyo before I had ever even been born. And their story was so tragic, how could I do anything but to step away from the love that seemed to transcend even death? So I would look away, I would cover my eyes, I would close my mouth, and I would be there when he came back to let me have all he had left.
Of course, I'm sure he loved me on his own way as well. He loved me for everything he wished I could have been, but not enough to try and become the one I for me. So we would sit on tall trees and hold hands while we healed. We would share stories and meals, and have long conversations during long trips. But he would not share his heart with anyone but the undead.
Of that I was painfully aware. I gave him a small smile and closed my eyes, trying to concentrate on the undoable task. So now, on to completing the Jewel first.
I ripped the necklace from my neck and loosened the shards from the thin chain. I put both the small shards and the almost round Jewel in my hands and pressed them tightly together, a vibrating feeling coming from the shiny orb and then receding into it's normal state. I spread my palms open and saw the once again completed Sacred Jewel. A fleeting smile once again touched my lips, but before anyone else got any ideas about wishes, I closed my hands against it again and closed my eyes. And now, on to the second impossible task.
"You may want to stand back." I cracked one eye to tell Inuyasha but found him already a good distance away. The rain was falling harder now, soaking my uniform through and through. I sat down in the muddy field and kneeled in a praying position, the Jewel held tightly in my hands.
Closing my eyes again, I went back into the task at hand, and tried to grab a hold of that energy that had recently come to life within me. I knew my skin began glowing brightly again and felt it light up with goose bumps. I felt my hair become lighter and float around me, loose strands brushing my cheeks and neck.
How would I purify such a powerful force? I could feel the energy radiating from deep in my chest, like a string that, if followed, led to the bigger catch. I concentrated on the Jewel in my hands and felt around for a weakness, anything that would allow me to enter it and give me a chance to decode it, to pluck it apart and separate the pieces.
After a few minutes I felt it, I saw it. I heard it screaming in anguish. I sensed the battle inside the Jewel just like I had seen so many other battles right in front of my eyes. There was a lone bright figure, fighting off a mass of darkness, like a yin and yang with a little more black than white.
'Kagome,' I heard a soft voice calling, startling me out of my senses and almost making me loose concentration.
'I…' I felt a little stupid talking to a voice, especially a calm voice in the middle of such chaos, 'Who…who's there? How do you know my name…'
'Kagome, I need your help,' the voice said, and this time I could tell it was a woman speaking. Could it be I was talking to her?
'Who are you?' I repeated, not quite trusting anything in this realm. Lost was the feeling of rain on my skin or my hair brushing my face. I was suspended in a light breeze, weightless and unmoving, but terror surrounded me and I could feel the desperate efforts of both light and dark fighting against each other.
'I am Midoriko, your assumptions are not mistaken,' the voice spoke again, now somehow closer to her.
'Midoriko!' I gasped, 'Is…is this the battle inside the Jewel…is this the battle that created it?'
'Wise and cunning, I see,' she tried a quiet laugh but sounded more like a tired moan, 'I need your help, miko.'
When she called me a miko, recognizing me as one of her own, I felt a little braver. Alright, so I purified Naraku not even an hour ago, now what.
'What can I do?' I asked.
'You must defeat the darkness around us. You must set me free and relieve yourself and any others of my failed attempt at peace,' she said, and this time I was able to make out her form even with my closed eyes, a bright silhouette coming closer to me.
'But how?' I tried not to let my anxiety show, 'I'm not nearly as powerful as you.'
'Don't doubt yourself, Kagome. Don't tell me you have not noticed the change in yourself?'
'Yes! I feel so- how did you know?'
'We don't have much time, the dark side grows stronger, fighting with everything there's left now that it feels your power is closer to being unimpaired.'
'Please, I need to know what's happening to me?' I asked her again to explain, curiosity winning all my attention.
Maybe sensing that I would not let the issue go, she decided to answer me 'Kagome, I have been at war in this Jewel ever since it was created, out of my own foolishness, thinking I could imprison all evil and guard the world against it on my own.' she began, now standing at my side and taking hold of my hand, the one that had so inappropriately held Naraku's before.
'When Kikyo was made the keeper of the Sacred Jewel, she was the first to try and destroy it, and the dark forces within it were enraged, for the hope of one day being free again always lived on within them. When she had the Jewel burned along with her dead body, it came back inside of you, her reincarnation.
'And so when you were born, a powerful miko as well, the dark side feared you would try and follow in her steps. While the Jewel slept inside of you it also took a hold of your miko energy, creating a barrier against your true power and sealing it deep within you.
'Their efforts were so strong, and I tried incessantly on my own to dispel their barriers, that when I was unable to do so, I thought you would never come to know your true gift, and would go on to live like a normal human.
'But when you were pulled through the well and traveled through time, the Jewel was stolen from you, and somehow you managed to steal some of your powers back. I was amazed at how much energy you could wield, even though you were unaware of your real abilities and doubted yourself constantly.
'When Kikyo stole your soul, I thought that surely it would be your end. Even when you managed to gain most of it back, with your lost miko powers and your incomplete soul, you still fought and held incredible capacity. You eventually managed to regain all of your soul from Kikyo, but it wasn't until the last battle against Naraku, when you were faced with immediate death, that you proved yourself above and beyond anyone's expectations. You broke the seal the dark forces had placed on you. You released your energy and used it so capably. I am now in debt to you. But I must ask for your help once more. You must rid the Jewel of this darkness, and by doing this you will be breaking down any last hindrance against your true self, the darkness in the Jewel will no longer stand in your way. Please, purify the darkness and let my soul rest.'
When Midoriko stopped speaking, I released a breath I did not know I was holding. All these years of feeling like I could barely use my energy, like maybe I shouldn't be a miko with what little powers I had. All this time feeling like there was something missing. And now here was my chance to make it all better.
'I will do my best.' I told her, trying to inject as much faith into my words as I could muster.
'Thank you, Kagome. Now let your mind take over and just let your energy flow freely. You'll know what to do.'
Easier said than done. Midoriko was next to me, a light in the ever filling darkness. All around me there were cries of battle, shrieking indescribable laments. I could feel it trying to overcome me, swallow me like a giant wave. I tried feeling for that energy again, except this time there was so much pain around me it was hard to feel anything else. It took me several moments but I finally found it, and followed that energy like a lifeline down to my core.
It was easy to give into it once I found it, and just let it overflow like Midoriko had told me to do. I tried to relax and let the warm feeling flow. The cries around me grew louder and the feeling of weightlessness faded away, making me heavy as lead, the atmosphere now thick and hot. I felt the dark pushing into me, trying to force my light back in, but I had so much more inside me, I was barely getting started. I took that source of energy in me and tried moving it from my chest, going higher and higher with it, until I could feel it right behind my eyes. And then I opened them and all I saw was light, the screaming around me fading instantly and the feeling of fear and anxiety coming to an end.
'Ahh…well done, Kagome,' Midoriko sighed, her voice fading, 'I shall be forever in your debt.'
My senses came back to me slowly, and the light I saw slowly became a dark field and shadowy figures in front of me. It had stopped raining, but I was soaked from head to toe.
"I think she's coming to!" said a feminine voice behind me.
"Kagome! Kagome, are you ok?!" I heard a frantic Inuyasha ask.
"Is it gone?" I asked to no one in particular, still not able to see much more than fuzzy, dark images.
"Is what gone Kagome?" what I now discerned to be Miroku's voice asked me.
"The Jewel. Is it gone?" I asked again.
I felt tiny claws pry my tightly clenched hands open, and then silence. No one spoke for a moment, so I assumed the worst. It must still be there, nestled in my hand. I was sitting awkwardly in the mud, my legs under me and Sango supporting my back. Shippou moved off my lap as I tried to move my hands to get a better look at the Jewel. My sight was coming to and when I looked at my palms I saw nothing, so I shook my head a little, trying to clear it.
But my hands were still empty. "It's gone. It really is gone," I murmured silently, looking up to see the faces of my friends.
But no sooner had I looked up did I wish I hadn't. They were all staring at me, and for the second time in the day I felt like all eyes were on me, shock and awe reigning free.
"What's wrong?" I asked timidly.
It was Shippou that gave me the news, "Your eyes are pink," he said matter-of-factly.
"What?"
"Your eyes have changed color Kagome," Sango confirmed the previous news.
"And may I say they compliment you perfectly," said Miroku, and I looked into his face just in time to see him smirk.
"Your scent is different, too." Inuyasha now piped in, standing a little farther away from me than I would have liked.
"Really?" I didn't think there was much more I could say about the current situation.
"This is going to take some getting used to," Shippou said, still eyeing me suspiciously, while Kirara made a nod like movement at his side.
"This will take some getting used to as well," said Miroku with an wonder-filled smile on his face, holding up his right palm open in our direction.
We all shrunk back a bit, shocked at his movement and at seeing the beads hanging loosely around his wrist, but then realized what the empty, ordinary palm meant.
"It's over," Inuyasha said, as if just now coming to the realization out loud.
We all exchanged worried looks, not quite wanting to believe it just to be proved wrong again. But after a few minutes I felt a smile tugging at my lips, and try as I might, I could not hold it in.
"It's over!" I beamed at everyone.
We hugged and kissed, and Miroku was nice enough to keep it friendly. Inuyasha was forced to join when I got up and grabbed his hand, ambushing him into a group hug. Spirits were high and mighty when we started getting ready for the trip back to the village but I saw Inuyasha hang back and look far away into the tree line of the forest.
I walked up to him and once again grabbed a hold of his hand. I was suddenly hit with the desperate need to keep him by my side. Keep him right within my grasp. I intertwined my fingers with his and stood on my tip toes, and as my face neared his he looked like a deer caught in the lights. I came closer to his face and moved just an inch to the left, giving him a chaste kiss on his cheek.
The boy still had the decency to blush, and made me smile even more. We walked hand in hand across the field to the spot where our friends waited, and where the long journey back to Kaede's began.
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