"Ni Yao De Ai"
By:
Cinnamonkit15
Taira
Taira: Yes, yes, I'm sorry! I haven't written anything in so long! -ducks airborne fruits and the spatula someone was crazy enough to throw-
This one-shot has no pairing. So, yeah… Whatever, I don't care if there's no lovey dovey…
"Ni Yao De Ai" means "The love you want" in Chinese. So don't kill me for not telling you what it means! Anyways… This is a one-shot from the anime Inuyasha. I got the title because of this song I was listening to while I was getting the idea for this one-shot. Please enjoy. If you don't, no flames. Sticks tongue out Just read!
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It was the dead of night, and all that could be heard were the neighboring crickets. Kagome lay in her sleeping back, thinking to herself about the many things she'd been through with Inuyasha. She thought about Kikyo, Naraku, Miroku, Sango… Everyone…
'Why am I still here? We finished collecting the jewel yesterday…' she thought to herself.
They had just finished Naraku off for good. Kikyo had finally been avenged, but chose to stay on earth for a little while longer… So what was left for Kagome? Miroku had finally told Sango what he felt for her soon after he'd checked his wind tunnel, and Sango agreed to be with him. Sango's village was finally avenged, and Kohaku was free. Freedom… Kagura and Kanna had finally gained that, thanks to the Inu-gang… But what of Kagome?
'I should just go home… there's nothing left for me here…' she continued to think.
"Why are you still up?" a voice startled her out of her thoughts. It was Inuyasha. He was sitting up in the tree branch directly above her.
"I just…" she started, but was quickly interrupted.
"What were you thinking about, Kagome?" he asked. There was a stillness in his voice. Almost breathless.
"I… I don't know…" she couldn't answer. She felt her heart throbbing in her chest. She didn't want to rip herself away from the world she'd grown to love, but she knew she couldn't stay. She, for a fact, knew why Kikyo had chosen to stay. Kikyo had chosen to stay because Inuyasha was still living.
"Kagome…" Inuyasha had leapt from the tree and was squatting next to her sleeping bag.
"Maybe… I was just thinking that maybe I should leave to my own time…" she said quietly, her back facing him. At first, there was a silence. A stillness in the air that almost ripped her heart right out of her chest. She slowly tightened the grasp she had on her sleeping bag and buried herself a little deeper into it.
"You can do whatever you want…" he huffed roughly at her.
'Stupid idiot! I'm sad because of you!... ' she mentally yelled at him. "Then I'm going home as soon as the sun comes up…"
"Feh. Fine by me…" He folded his arms together, but inside something nagged at him. He didn't want to admit to it, but Kagome had really grown on him. He did love Kikyo, but did he even like Kagome that way? Kikyo was gone and Kagome was the closest thing to him… She was the person who had warmed his heart, but at the same time, he still felt bad for Kikyo. She, in the end of it all, died alone.
"Then… This is the last time I'll ever be here… Is that okay, Inuyasha?" Kagome's weakening voice whispered. A warm tear started falling down her cheek. She couldn't explain how hurt she was or why, but she was. She felt as if the strings in her heart were slowly being strummed hard by his rough hands.
"Do what you like, but are you taking the jewel with you?"
"Of course…" she replied. 'The jewel… is that all you care about? Do you still see Kikyo protecting it? Not me?'
"What do you plan to do with it? It's useless to you," he tried to reason. Maybe, if she would give him the jewel, he could make a wish for something useful… Being full demon? It had become a mere sentence to him now…
"I'm going to keep it safe… After all, Kaede said I was born to protect the jewel…"
'Damn… She's right, isn't she?' Inuyasha searched in his mind for one reason to either make her stay, or at least leave the jewel with him. It suddenly dawned on him. Why did he want the jewel now? He was already pretty strong and he had Miroku and Sango to prove it to him. After all, they had grown in strength along with him, as did Shippo. But someone else grew with him… Kagome. She'd gotten better at archery and stronger as a person from the first time he'd met her.
His thoughts jumped from one to another as Kagome silently slept, cooled tears in her eyes. She dreamed of the emotions she wished Inuyasha would show to her. She wanted nothing more than for him to be happy, but there was nothing else she could do.
Soon, the sun's golden rays started shedding their light everywhere they could reach. Miroku and Sango were already up. Sango was wiping her boomerang while Miroku was meditating. Kagome slowly woke up, her heart breaking with each moment she made. A slow painful throb with each sound she heard. There would be no turning back now. She unzipped her sleeping back, slipped out and got it ready to be put in her backpack.
"What're you doing, Kagome?" Sango asked curiously. She had been asleep the whole night. It had been one of her first full-nights of sleep in a long time.
"Eh? Going home, Kagome?" Miroku asked, opening one eye.
"Um, yes…" Kagome didn't want to tell them she'd never see them again, but she had to. She didn't want to just leave without at least giving them the truth to her final goodbye.
"Oh! When you come back, will you bring me some chocolate, Kagome?" Shippo's happy voice was the second to last thing she didn't want to hear.
"I'm sorry, Shippo. I won't be… I won't be coming back…"
After she had said that, there was an uncomfortable silence. Kagome kept packing her things, expecting to hear someone try to convince her to stay, but it hadn't come. She turned to look at them, but they all sat there, mouths agape. Shippo's eyes were watering, and so were Sango's.
"But you can't Kagome! You just can't!" Shippo pulled at her shirt. "Please don't go!"
"I can't stay here… The jewel is fixed and… Well… I'd like to stay, but I have so much to do in my own time…" she said sadly. She was lying to herself, she knew it. But she didn't want to admit the real reason she wanted to leave. It was to get away from Inuyasha. Every time she saw him, she saw Kikyo, even if it was supposed to be the other way around. Kagome shoved the last of her belongings into her big, yellow backpack and stood up.
"Kagome…?" Sango said a little shakily. Kagome had become almost like the sister she'd never had. "Is there any way we can talk you out of this…? Could you at least come visit us once?"
"Maybe…" Kagome turned to Sango and Miroku, a weakening smile on her face. Sango then saw just how much Kagome didn't want to leave.
"Please, Lady Kagome…" Miroku said softly, looking to Sango and wiping one of her tears away. "Say you will?"
"I can't make promises…" Kagome slowly walked down deep into the forest, where the dry well was. All they could do was watch her, hoping a miracle would keep her with them.
"Kagome…" a voice behind her whispered through the thin morning air. She had been getting ready to climb into the well, when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry… I need to go…" Kagome said. "I can't stay here anymore, Inuyasha…"
"…" he couldn't reply. He didn't know what to say. He looked at her from behind, from her midnight hair to her brown slip-ons.
"Farewell, Inuyasha…" he heard her soft voice say, but before he could even say her name, she was down the well.
"Kagome!" he yelled and jumped down after her, expecting to get through like he always did, but it was no use. Kagome had sealed the well. There was no way he could get back to her, and she said she couldn't promise to ever visit them again. Inuyasha began to claw at the ground, growling and yelling about how stupid she was for leaving. He was just about to start cursing like a sailor when something wet dripped on his hand. He then reached up to his face. He found that he too was crying. His sensitive ears picked up a sob from Shippo and a crying Sango. Inuyasha stood up slowly and looked at the ground, as if Kagome could hear him.
"Come back soon, Kagome…" he muttered.
:Kagome's time:
Kagome muffled a sob with her sleeve and looked at the closed well. Her grandpa came and found her crying right in front of the well's entrance.
"Kagome? What's wrong? Did you have another fight with that.. Erm… Inu-something?" he asked, forgetting Inuyasha's name at the moment.
"No, Grandpa…" she said, wiping her eyes. "I'm just happy to be home."
-:- End -:-