Disclaimer: You all know it. I don't own InuYasha and never will.
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Beware the products of my half asleep mind. This wouldn't leave me alone till I wrote it down. Coulda been worse, I suppose. I hope you like it :) Read and review when you're done, you know the drill... :P
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Priceless
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"It's strange...how the wind keeps blowing, the world doesn't stop turning, just because he's dead..."
Kagome stared morosely, the chill of the autumn wind raising goosebumps on her arms, as she stared at the small marker that lay where his body was.
The field where many bodies were.
The field where Naraku had finally been vanquished.
Yet this one marker was the one that affected her the most. Why?
"It's strange...He took the blow for me. It should be me in that grave..."
"Kagome?"
She turned, facing the caller.
"InuYasha...why did he take the blow for me? Why?"
InuYasha glanced at the marker.
"I..don't know..."
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Naraku thrashed about, cutting down his opponents, and his demon helpers alike. The lesser demons, whether out of wisdom, cowardice or fear of 'friendly' fire, had retreated out of his reach, while the battle waged on below. Attack after attack was launched, both sides getting weaker. Finally, in a last ditch attempt, Naraku aimed all his remaining power at Kagome. Several tentacles flew straight towards her, aiming to pierce her body, to drain the life from her. Cries rang out across the field, InuYasha made a futile attempt, from halfway across the battle, to reach her, push her out of the way. Even Sesshomaru had a small look of fear in his eyes, though his face didn't betray those sentiments. Her eyes widened, and she took half a step away, before something plowed into her, knocked her aside, took the blow.
Kouga stood, held up by the limbs piercing his chest, eyes wide as he looked at Kagome, then down at his chest, where blood oozed out. The battle seemed paused, as though everyone was waiting for the result of this sacrifice.
"Heh. Guess the
mangy mutt couldn't take care of you, just like I thought...But I
guess he'll have to learn now, won't he?"
Naraku pulled his tentacles back, yanking them out of the wolf youkai, who collapsed to his knees without their support.
"Be...careful...Kagome..." Kouga's
eyes rolled back, and he fell foward. Kagome gasped and rushed to his
side, even as his last breath escaped.
Kagome, with tears leaking slowly down her face, turned to face Naraku again, as the battle raged on.
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"We won...but somehow, it doesn't feel like it."
Kagome took a few steps away from the grave and sat down, still staring at it. InuYasha moved quietly towards her, sitting next to her.
"Even if it doesn't feel like it, we made a difference. Naraku is dead, and because of it, the Shikon Jewel is safe and whole. Because of the sacrifices made...the lives given here, there is a safer future for the survivors."
"InuYasha...what if he hadn't saved me?"
"Then we wouldn't have won."
"You don't know that..."
---------------------------------- "Naraku!
You won't hurt us any more!" Kagome unleashed arrow after
arrow, breaking apart Naraku, slowly, but surely. As chunks were
blown off of him, she plunged a spare arrow into each, purifying it.
She passed wounded, dead...each one adding to her fury. InuYasha had
fought to her side after the earlier attack, and was now throwing all
his power at Naraku--Windscars slicing him to shreds as they slowly
advanced, systematically destroying the foe. Those who could still
stand and fight fell in with them--Shippo, with his fox fire and
kitsune magic, Sango, with her sword, her Hiraikotsu lying somewhere
on the field, smashed. Kirara, biting and clawing, fought beside
Sango, as Miroku wielded his staff like a sword, and threw sutras
around. Ginta and Hakkaku, attacking as best they could, still crying
for the fallen Kouga, even Sesshomaru, with his Tokijin, threw
strikes into the battle, as Jaken used his staff of two heads to sear
encroaching limbs that threatened him..
The bodies of the fallen, the wounded's cries of pain, just spurred them on.
Relentlessly, Naraku was cut down, purified, attacked, driven back, until, finally, he was no more. The shards of the jewel he had used to strengthen himself fell from the last chunk to be purified. The small chunks of the jewel reinforced that it was over. The battle was over.
The wounds would heal, the dead would be mourned, but for now, all there was to do was pick up the pieces.
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InuYasha was silent for a few moments.
"We wouldn't have won. It was because of your purifying abilities, and the fact they were so amplified by your sorrow, your rage, that we were able to destroy him. Just...believe me. We wouldn't have won."
"...I don't know InuYasha. I just know that...for me, it hurts that he gave his life up, just to save me."
She fell silent then, and stared up at the cloudy sky. The silence stretched, until finally, she spoke again.
"I can't help but think...if I just straight out told him I wouldn't ever like him as more than a friend, he might still be here. But...I don't know anymore. I just don't know."
She leaned against InuYasha, taking comfort in the presence of another survivor, in someone who could understand how she felt, at least in part.
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She closed her hand around the fragments. A pink glow leaked out around her fingers, and she opened them again to find the almost whole jewel. There was just three pieces...
"Sango..."
She looked up at her companion, who was bandaging wounds on a few of the wounded. A deep cut ran down from her forehead to her jaw, narrowly missing her eye as it traveled down her face. Blood had long sinced stopped flowing from it, and it would scar later, when it healed. It was just a sign that no one had escaped being wounded.
Sango's breathing hitched,
and she looked up at Kagome.
"Sango...do we
know where Kohaku's body is?"
"Yes...I'll show
you after I finish bandaging this one."
And so it was that Kagome found herself and Sango looking down at the remains of Kohaku. He had managed to fight off Naraku's control to fight alongside them, but was one of the first casualties because of it. Naraku has struck him down for his "insolence and defiance".
Kagome knelt down and carefully reached for the shard. She pulled it out of the open wound on Kohaku's back, where Naraku had sliced him open in an attempt to get the shard, before being driven back. She turned Kohaku over, so that he was laying on his back, hiding the wound, before motioning Sango over to help her. Together, they carried him over to lay in honor beside the others who had been killed.
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Kagome reached up to her neck, grasping the Shikon Jewel that hung there. It felt heavy, laying as it was against her neck, like it carried the weight of all those lives on it. She hung her head, a few tears starting to trail down her face. The scent of salt, light as it was, caused InuYasha to hug Kagome to him.
"Don't cry Kagome, please, don't cry. They wouldn't have wanted you to cry..."
Her breathing hitched, as a sob came, involuntarily, at the mention of those dead. InuYasha's attempt at comfort had failed, causing tears to fall more rapidly, hitting the ground and staining it darker as the moisture leeched down into the earth.
"This stupid jewel! It's the cause of all this!"
She yanked hard on the cord it hung on, breaking it with a small snap as she tugged. She made a motion as if to throw it, but at the last second, clutched it in her hands like a lifeline.
"This stupid thing...the cause of so much pain and suffering. And we can't even use it, because only unselfish desires will make it vanish. And anything we ask for may be a tainted desire...this dumb thing, this stupid, dumb little trinket!"
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Kagome looked at the jewel. Two shards left...
She couldn't put it off any longer, she had to retrieve them.
She walked slowly, as if the weight of the task was holding her back. She finally made her way to Kouga's body. Crouching down, she raised the small knife she had brought for the task, touching it lightly to Kouga's skin, vision blurring. She couldn't do it...she just couldn't. Tears came, unbidden, as she tried again to cut into him, to retrieve the shards that were needed. Her tears intensified, and she dropped the knife.
Light footsteps heralded the arrival of someone. She looked up, and the blurred form of InuYasha stood in front of her.
"Don't cry, Kagome, please..."
"I can't do it, InuYasha! I can't get the shards from him, it's too hard, after what he did for me...!"
InuYasha knelt, and took the knife from where it had fell. Picking up the body of Kouga, he walked over to the other dead, placing Kouga with them. He stood there for a moment, before reaching down and cutting the shards out of Kouga's legs, before standing up again.
"I'm sorry, Kouga..."
InuYasha turned then, and walked slowly back to Kagome, feeling truly sorry and regretful that Kouga had died, no matter what he had wished on the wolf before.
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InuYasha looked over at the grave, the one among hundreds, yet not. Placed on the end of the row of dead, Kouga had been the last of the dead to be picked up, and the first to be buried. The grave stood out, somehow, as if, because of Kouga's final act, a bit of nobility had affixed itself to his grave, making it more noticible.
"I'm truly sorry for your death, Kouga, though I may not show it. And there's one thing I wish I could tell you..."
InuYasha pulled Kagome closer against him, as a few of his tears joined hers.
"Thank you... for saving Kagome... and for your sacrifice."
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And at the end of the day, as night fell, the jewel was whole, the survivors healing, the dead being mourned, graves being dug. Tears shed, sadness shared in the pain of being a survivor, when others died. And at the end of the day...life went on.
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And at the end of the day, they found someone to share their pain with, and that in itself was...priceless.