… Pant, pant, pant…
….. Blood…so much blood…
"I love her! I choose her!"
His voice cracked. Pained eyes stared at him. Her body was torn to shreds one sharp handful of claws was buried deep within her center.
"I-Inuyasha?" She whimpered.
"Stop! Please!" He begged… like the pathetic little DOG he was.
She merely stood… faithful… trusting… she always had trusted him.
"N-No" He began to yell again at the enemy forcing him to abuse the woman before him.
"I-Inuyasha?" She questioned, her bloodied face still filled with something remarkable. Hope.
"Kagome" He fell to his knees before her, his claws slipping from her wound in her stomach. "I love you… I choose you! I swear! I'm so sorry!"
A short gasp…
Her gasp…
Blood… Kagome's blood.
Pools of her blood ran down his arm as his demonic eyes reverted back to shocked amber.
"Inuyasha… stop."
Her voice…so sad… so betrayed…
"I'm sorry…" Her bright blue eyes began to fade away as her knees buckled and she collapsed to the ground, "I-I know… y-you don't… love me… as much as her… I'm sorry."
"No! Don't you dare apologize! I-It's me! It's my fault… K-Kagome!" Inuyasha cried… he remembered the tears as they fell from his eyes and onto her dying face as he scooped up her dying form.
"I love you." She whispered sadly as she smiled lightly, "Even if… you don't f-feel the same… I l-love you…"
"Kagome!" He clutched to her, striving to keep her here… to have her remain his.
"Inuyasha, wake up."
Her cold hands shook as they slowly made their way around his neck…
A weight was lifted…
She had traded her freedom for his…
No…
He had taken it from her…
He was free.
And she was now bound… to that fuckin piece of sh-
"I-Inuyasha…" She struggled to her the words out… " S-sit."
Her last free words… her last free smile…
The beads that bound him to her fell in a puddle of her blood.
"KAGOME!" He instantly began to shoot up in a shock.
"Inuyasha. Inuyasha, wake up!"
Hands clamped around his shoulders… cold, thin hands… familiar, yet vaguely strange.
Her face…
"K-Kagome?" His vision slowly came to him as he saw dead brown eyes.
Yet… not…
"No, Inuyasha." Pain immediately dripped all over the woman coaxing him away from his nightmares.
She was strong… with good posture and an intelligent wit… but she was not her… not Kagome.
"I-I…" Inuyasha fumbled, "Kikyou."
Kikyou was much like Kagome in a way… same build, same facial features, same initial soul… but yet… she was so so different… she was just like Kagome, yet nothing like her all at the same time. Just a reincarnation should be.
Kikyou lacked Kagome's care-free nature, her smile, her laugh… she lacked all the traits that made Kagome who she was.
As Kagome lacked the regal, powerful attitude and stature that Kikyou simply radiated.
Inuyasha admired both girls for their own strengths… and Inuyasha loved them both very much…
But whom had he loved more?
Who did he choose first and who second?
He stared at the woman before him… strong, yet pained… simple, yet mystic…
His vibrant eyes bore into her dull brown eyes… those he desperately wished where those blue pools that engulfed his very being.
He loved Kikyou, true… but he was disheartened at the fact it was Kikyou sitting next to him, waking him from his nightmare. And not-
"She's gone Inuyasha…" Kikyou looked down sadly.
Kagome… he truly loved her more.
Inuyasha stood suddenly, taking note of the two humans and kit lying on the opposite side of Kaede's hut…
Sango face crinkled in slight pain as she muttered incoherent words…
Miroku's brow creased lightly…
But Shippo…
He cried and whimpered…
"Ka-Kagome… no… Inuyasha stop… please…" Shippo moved as if running in his sleep, "P-please…"
She was on all their minds, haunting all of their dreams and thoughts.
"I'm going out," Inuyasha muttered to Kikyou as he stood.
"Where?" Kikyou asked softly… monotone as ever.
Inuyasha's voice was low, quieted and nice, "I just need to get out of here for a bit. It's stifling."
Kikyou nodded once and added, "Please be back before dawn."
"Feh." Inuyasha didn't bother arguing, as he made his way out of the hut.
He rarely said anything to them, and he hardly snapped anymore. It was so much more different when Kikyou had died the second time. He lost her to Naraku's newest form at the time, but her soul was truly gone… Kikyou was allowed to move on… She was able to be free in her own way, then.
"The one you choose as second, Inuyasha, is mine!"
Inuyasha snorted at Naraku's words, as he broke into a sprint toward the forest.
But Kagome… she hadn't been so fortunate. She died, due to him, and then was forced to follow Naraku; cater, fight, obey, hurt… whatever he wanted from her, she was forced to give.
"It's my fault she's a prisoner…" Inuyasha mumbled stopping suddenly.
Kagome's smile…
Belonged to Naraku.
Kagome's freedom…
Also Naraku's.
Kagome's soul…
Naraku's.
Kagome's priceless laugh…
"Naraku!" Inuyasha suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs, "DAMN YOU!"