A Dog's Age: Eighteen
Written by Sarga
November/December 2006
Author's Note: This story starts off the same as A Dog's Age: Four, but it diverges at the second part. This is a compliment to A Dog's Age: Four, and while that one was written first, either one can be read first.
Some helpful terms:
bouzu – derogatory word for a Buddhist monk
hanyou – half-demon
haori – Inuyasha's overshirt
miko – priestess
sutra – a piece of paper containing a spell
Enjoy!
- - - - - - - - - -
Eighteen
"They say that a dog's age is proportional to a human's age by a ratio of 1 year to 7. For every 1 year in a human's life, the dog lives the equivalent of 7. Demons, at least those of the dog variety, tend to live a ratio of about 1 year to 60. Hanyou, they're a little less predictable. They can live anywhere from 20 to 40 times longer than a human, depending on the strength of the human and demon blood within them.
"Inuyasha?
"I'd rate him at about 35 to 1. His mother was almost as stubborn as his father after all..."
- - - - - - - - -
The girl sings a tune from her time, a song of requited love, angst followed by eventual fulfillment. What she sees in such a song escapes Inuyasha's grasp and he is thankful when it finally ends. Her singing stirs emotions in him that are better off left dead. He has to make sure she does not revive them.
"Are you done caterwauling yet, wench?" Inuyasha barks, a little too harshly for his taste, but it has the desired effect.
Bristling at the insult, the girl clamps her mouth shut, stomping past his impatient form, and he is hard pressed not to apologize on the spot. As they continue onward in silence, he looses focus on the road ahead, opting to glare solidly at her as she walks in front of him, and he mentally reminds himself to keep her at arms length.
Inuyasha sees as Kagome gives in to some internal voice and she begins searching through her pack. Pulling out the device that makes her pull at his heart, she moves as if to turn it back on. With a small growl, he pulls it from her grasp. He refuses to let her control him like that.
"Hey!" The girl intones as Inuyasha stops and scowls at the device. "I was planning on using that," she spits out in frustration.
"Too bad, wench," he growls back. "I'm sick of hearing it!" He slides the device into his haori, making a mental note to slip it back into her bag the next time she heads home.
"Son-of-a..." Inuyasha sees as Kagome reaches into her bag and hauls out several small cylinders. One at a time, the girl flings them at him and he is forced to use his demonic speed to avoid the tiny projectiles. "Fine! Take it!" She growls as a battery hits his ear, causing him to flinch. "You'll need the extra batteries if you want it to play." Another battery hurtles towards him and he reaches out a clawed hand, catching it in mid-air. Tucking it swiftly into his haori with the device, he sees that she is near the breaking point.
Uh-oh.
In a final outburst, Kagome flings the remainder of the batteries at him. "I'm going home where I can listen to what I damn well please."
Here it comes...
"SIT!"
Inuyasha lets out a string of explicatives as he crashes into the ground and her footsteps disappear quickly into the forest. Raising his head, he sees that she has dropped her pack on the road. As he extricates himself from the half-demon-shaped crater in the ground, he growls in frustration. She is too easily upset, fleeing to her time at the drop of a hat, but it is for her own good.
That's when he notices it. A faint, but distinct scent on the edge of observable range.
Naraku.
As soon as the curse will allow, Inuyasha hauls himself up out of the crater and races after Kagome, his anger forgotten. The urge to protect her overrides all. He will make sure whatever might harm her is far out of reach.
As fast as he can, Inuyasha races towards Kagome. Pushing through trees at a break-neck pace, she is quickly within sight. Alas, so too is her pursuer. He is easily identified as another of Naraku's incarnations, his bare back covered in the distinctive spider-shaped discolouration.
Kagome breaks through the tree line just as the demon does, and she becomes aware that she is no longer seeking respite from an angry friend, but rather refuge from an angry enemy.
Inuyasha sees Kagome push herself faster and he hurtles into her, toppling them both into the well. A blue aura engulfs the pair as they cross over into Kagome's time.
Panting lightly from the adrenaline rush, Inuyasha waits for Kagome to stand. He pulls her securely into his grasp before leaping upwards to relative safety.
"Stay here, wench." Inuyasha orders, harsh words meant to keep her safe.
Inuyasha leaps back through the well, the blue light pulling him to the correct side. As he bounds upwards, he narrowly avoids being impaled by his enemy's snarling fangs.
The creature, a seemingly non-sentient incarnation of his bitter foe, appears to be some cross between a lizard and bear. Its leathery tan skin resists Inuyasha's claws, his bear-like form giving him a heavy stance to maintain his balance.
Inuyasha jumps back, withdrawing the Tetsusaiga as he assesses his enemy. This creature appears to be neither exceptionally cunning nor exceptionally skilled in the art of battle. Hurtling forward once more, Inuyasha makes quick work of his enemy, slicing off first one arm, then the other, and finally the head.
As Naraku's poisonous insects quickly grasp the incarnation's jewel from the carcass, Inuyasha remembers Kagome's pack lying unprotected on the ground. He bolts back through the forest only to be met with the sight of the shredded pieces of Kagome's pack strewn about the ground. She cannot get through the well without the shards, and now he has none to give her.
"Damn you, Naraku!" Inuyasha shouts towards the retreating cloud of poisonous insects.
Inuyasha makes the decision to backtrack to Kaede's village to pick up the monk and demon slayer. Without Kagome's purifying abilities, he will be hard pressed to keep Naraku's countless demons at bay alone.
- - - - - - - - - -
"Kaede-baba, are you sure?" Sango asks for the third time.
"Aye, child," Kaede replies. "Ye cannot go without a miko, and despite my old age, I still know a few tricks. We cannot depend on the shell that was my sister. Her soul, tainted by Naraku's evil, will never be able to purify the jewel. I can safely guard the jewel, until ye can return it to Kagome."
Sango nods, finally satisfied.
The group prepares for battle, taking only the bare necessities. Miroku negotiates a price for his badger-demon friend Tanuki to take them by air and soon they are aloft. Making good time, the group quickly spots the distinctive cloud of poisonous insects in the distance. Pushing himself at the promise of greater rewards from Miroku, Tanuki begins to catch up with the demonic cloud.
Following the demon insects, they soon approach a mountain range, its towering heights disappearing into unnatural purple mist.
"Naraku's miasma!" Shippo exclaims in horrified awe. Sango fixes her mask to her face and hands off one to each of her comrades.
"We'll be in for a tough fight," Miroku muses as they reach the edge of the mist. Landing on a ledge, Tanuki transforms back to his original shape and is given his reward, 'a pair of marvelous devices from Kagome's time'; a fork and spoon.
Inuyasha stalks forward, leading the way along the rocky mountain path and up into the miasma. Even with Sango's filters, they have a hard time breathing the putrid air.
After a few moments of travel, Inuyasha is repelled by an invisible barrier. Rising to the challenge, Inuyasha withdraws the Tetsusaiga and prepares to force a way in. With a mighty roar, Inuyasha swings the sword, trailing a spectral display of power. The barrier is no match for the raw power behind the swing and is easily defeated.
Inuyasha picks up the old woman and hurries forward, Miroku, Sango, Kilala and Shippo following quickly behind. Passing the familiar forms of corpses and skeletal remains, Shippo clutches tightly to Sango's shoulder in an attempt to steel himself from the gruesome scene. He jumps down as they approach the ethereal castle, its human occupants long since deceased.
They slow to a snail's pace as they approach the castle doors and Inuyasha lays Kaede on the ground. Inuyasha, his sword held strongly before him, feels his blood run cold as he finds evidence of Naraku's villainy: Kouga.
Kouga, his lifeless eyes staring unseeing into the miasma, lies in a mangled heap on the ground. His legs shredded and his body brutalized almost beyond recognition, the once powerful demon lord lies broken on the dusty ground, the putrid stench of death radiating from his once lively form.
"Kouga," Sango whispers, saddened by the sight of the fallen ally. Despite the loss, she knows there will be another time to mourn, another time to recognize and condemn the atrocities committed. Not now, though; now is the time to make a stand.
They pass the whithered forms of more unknown victims, each at varying levels of decay. Without warning several of the forms leap forward, grabbing, slicing and clawing at the living humans and demons before them.
"It seems you have finally arrived," the smooth, slick voice of their enemy breaks through the fog, revealing his vile inhuman form. Slimy reeking tendrils shoot from beneath a pristine white cloak, causing the crowd to scatter.
Sango, her hiraikotsu flying, attempts to knock back the throngs of animated corpses, but only succeeds in incapacitating a few. Throwing her weapon again and again, she keeps the demonic force at bay...barely.
Miroku, his wind-tunnel rendered useless by the flying poisonous cloud of insects hovering nearby, manages to protect Kaede as she aims her bow with a surprisingly steady hand. His staff makes short work of the scant few creatures that get near to him and the old miko.
Shippo, a nimble and tiny target, aids his elders with interspersions of his fox fire. Shooting forth the blue flame, he manages to incinerate a creature headed towards Miroku.
Kagome's little boy is growing up.
Inuyasha faces evil incarnate, and the rest of the world seems to disappear. Naraku's tendrils, their speed too much for a human, are evenly matched with Inuyasha's heightened senses. As the pair begins their dance to the death, both see with crystal clarity the actions of the other. Naraku's tendrils creep forward as Inuyasha's sword is swung carefully downward with a calculated stroke. Naraku sees as his limbs are severed and redoubles his efforts by compelling further appendages to move toward the target. Inuyasha responds gracefully, a wave of protective power streaming forth from Tetsusaiga, searing the limbs from Naraku's body. At this rate the dance will be an eternal one...unless something tips the balance.
A stray demonic insect flies into the fray, adding the final grain of sand to the scale: The Jewel of the Four Souls, the Shikon no Tama.
Naraku quickly absorbs the creature as it flies, an outstretched tendril instantly retracting the creature back into his own body.
All motion on the battlefield ceases for a brief instant.
All hell breaks loose.
A massive wave of energy explodes forth from the vile creature of darkness knocking everything to the ground. With maniacal laughter, Naraku begins his new reign of tyranny by going after the weakest target within his grasp; the old woman.
"Kaede!" Sango screams, her movement too slow to block the attack aimed at the miko.
For her part, Kaede puts up a valiant struggle. The first two tendrils are purified without ever touching her person. Then the inevitable happens, Naraku punctures her chest, and her wearied body collapses in a wheezing heap on the ground.
A mighty explosion tares through the miasma, a purifying energy emanating from where the old miko had stood. Kikyo stands tall behind her sister's pain-wracked body, tears streaming down her cheeks.
The balance is tipped again.
Without a word, Naraku's is on the defensive, his limbs falling one by one in a steady rain as Kikyo's arrows fly.
"My love, my life...and now my sister," Kikyo's voice, unnervingly strong despite the pained expression on her face, rings clearly to all on the battlefield. As she shoots arrow after arrow at the abomination that would be ruler, a sphere of purifying energy begins to grow around the undead priestess. The sphere soon grows wide enough to encompass Sango, Shippo and Miroku, their reanimated enemies falling back to the ground as the pure energy touches them.
Inuyasha, his sword at the ready, aids Kikyo in her decimation of the enemy. With a mighty slash, he plies the shriveling beast in two, Kikyo's purifying energy quickly vaporizing the remnants. It tries to defend its newly achieved source of power, the whole jewel, but it is unable to attain the necessary reprieve from attack to regroup. Soon, Naraku is no more.
Kikyo glides towards the jewel, its tainted colour clearing as she approaches. By the time she places her fingers on it, it is once again pristine. Stowing it away in her robes, Kikyo returns to her sister's side.
"Kikyo-onee-chan," the old woman reaches her hand to her weeping sister's face. "Your job here is done, the jewel is safe once more," she coughs up blood and her voice becomes as jagged as her breathing. "Come with me, this life holds nothing for you any more."
Before the undead priestess can reply, a blinding light engulfs the pair. When the light clears, only one priestess remains, and she is still dying. On the ground, in a pile of dust, lies the Shikon no Tama.
"Take it back to your miko, Inuyasha," the old woman croaks. "She will know what to do with it."
With that the old woman's eyes glaze over and her body ceases its movement. Naraku, Kikyo and the jewel are once again as they should be.
- - - - - - - - - -
"What do you mean, 'We shall not pass'? We just saved your asses from evil incarnate!" Inuyasha yells at a young miko barricaded behind a strong spiritual barrier. Several large warriors stand at her sides, preventing the humans from acting.
"I mean, demon, that you shall not pass. The fact that lady Kaede is not with you leads me to believe that you killed her to gain free access to this well so you shall not have it! No creature of evil shall pass here so long as a priestess tends to this shrine.
"Well then we ought to change that..." Inuyasha is forcibly pulled back by Miroku and he starts to head in the opposite direction.
"Not now, Inuyasha, they are too strong in your weakened state. We will come back on the next new moon and sneak in while you are human and the barrier has no effect." Miroku guides his half-demon friend toward Sango's awaiting form and they make a game plan for the coming new moon. Sango and Miroku mount Kilala, Shippo resting on her head. They leave the area, and return to the village that Sango once called home.
- - - - - - - - - -
Over the weeks remaining until the new moon, Inuyasha, Sango and Miroku work to rebuild the town, its protective barrier providing a first line of defense in the temporary protection of the jewel. Safely behind one of Miroku's spiritual barriers, it lies dormant, hidden from the senses of would-be villains.
Finally, the night of the new moon arrives. The trio, camped just outside of Kaede's town, waits for the sun to fully set, leaving Inuyasha with his human blood. They approach the well's new barrier with caution, noting the lack of guard.
Either they think I've given up or they're confident that their barrier is strong enough to keep us out.
The reach the edge and Miroku attempts to step beyond the barrier. Unexpectedly, he is thrown back three body lengths, skidding along the grass none too gracefully.
"What the..." Miroku stares at the barrier's sutras, his eyes widening with realization. Before Inuyasha can meet the same fate, Miroku pulls at his arm and whispers in his ear. "We need to go, now," he intones, pleading with the half-demon not to make him explain. Something in his voice must have shown that, for Inuyasha does as he is told without a word. Once they are aloft on Kilala's back, headed towards their home, Inuyasha finally cracks.
"Will you tell me why I just gave up a month of my time, bouzu?" Inuyasha growls, rather impressively for his human night.
"The sutras she used contain no ordinary demon-blocking barrier. Her sutras are, in effect, impenetrable walls with eyes and ears of their own."
"By impenetrable, do you mean 'we'll have to find a counter-spell' or 'we have to wait for her to bring them down'?" Inuyasha glares at Miroku's stony countenance.
"I mean, so long as she decides to live within the confines of the barrier, and I noticed the entire shrine encompassed with the sutras, then no one may pass who is not carrying their own personally approved and blessed sutra, and anyone who does approach it is seen and heard as clearly as if the caster were standing next to us."
"What about..." Inuyasha flexes his claws.
"We can't just steal a sutra from a guard, it has to be personally labeled for the holder. It makes it harder for the townspeople to visit the shrine, but it certainly makes it more secure. Although I'm sure that she's gone through the task of making sutras for each of the residents by now."
"Get to the point, bouzu." Inuyasha, his patience thin, orders an explanation.
Miroku sighs at his friend's impatience but calms his voice in empathy. "It means that I'll have to do some heavy research. I don't know how to break through."
Inuyasha growls impatiently.
"It'll take me a few months, but I'll find a way in."
- - - - - - - - - -
'A few months' becomes seven and Miroku finally returns to the village, complete with three young monks and their wives. He is not successful in his venture to break through the sutras and so he leaves again, this time for three months. Upon his second return he brings seven warriors, five men and two women, whose village was destroyed by demons. Yet again he is unsuccessful in breaking through the barrier.
On Miroku's third expedition, this one five months long, he returns with four families, complete with livestock and children. This time he does not even try to break the sutras: he has found that he has a family of his own on the way.
Sango, eight months pregnant, argues that Miroku should continue his search. Not even Inuyasha agrees with her and soon Miroku is settled into life as a a demon slayer's husband. The years progress and Miroku takes several three and four month trips, none of them yielding success.
Eight years and five children later, and Inuyasha begins to lose hope. He spends two years wandering, dropping back for a few days at a time before he comes to a painful realization.
Kagome is lost to him.
Another year of mourning and Inuyasha returns to his family. The children of the village, for it has become a village once more, are growing strong before his eyes and he sets himself to the task of teaching them to fight. With his superior strength and experience, they become aware of just how dangerous demons can be without the hazards found outside of the village.
Sango, with the support of her new and growing community, begins to take on demon slaying jobs once more. Several former demon slayers, who had been out on assignment at the time of the disaster, return home at word of the village's revival, providing an extra abundance of knowledge and experience. The demon slayers are alive once more.
Inuyasha, his heart aching as he watches the children grow, longs for Kagome's love and he comes to the realization that he has it. Shippo, the child who she treated as her own, still young, is living testament to her caring, nurturing and loving personality. Through Shippo, Inuyasha has a link to her, and he figures that it might just be enough.
It has been twelve years, but Shippo is a patient boy, and he accepts his new father with an open heart. Together, the eternally young remember Kagome and begin to move on.
- - - - - - - - - -
"I've found it, father!" The youthful voice, rich and smooth, excitedly relays the information to Miroku. "I've found a way to break through the barrier!"
Inuyasha, adrenaline pumping, leaps from where he had been training the younger children to Miroku's side.
"Uncle Inu," the boy turns towards Inuyasha. "It'll work, you can get back to her and..." the boy waggles his eyebrows suggestively.
Although Inuyasha laughs, he is not so blind as to jump at this 'opportunity' so easily. For the sake of Miroku's oldest, however, he will go through the motions, even moving so far as to touch the barrier before returning.
Inuyasha prepares for the short journey with the seventeen year old and his father.
"You know, Inuyasha," Miroku begins, his voice unusually downcast. "If you do get to the other side, there's no guarantee that she'll have waited for you. Eighteen years is a long time..."
Inuyasha nods solemnly.
"I know."
- - - - - - - - - -
A human Inuyasha approaches the barrier with a little apprehension. He has been blown back a number of times in the past and he is not looking forward to a repeat performance. He knows all too well, that he will not be able to penetrate the barrier, despite the boy's enthusiasm.
Steeling himself for the inevitable backlash, Inuyasha clasps the jewel in one hand while he thrusts the other one forward and...he nearly falls head first on the other side of the barrier!
Wasting only a few seconds from shock, Inuyasha bolts toward the well, leaping over the side as quickly as humanly possible, maybe even as quickly as a hanyouly possible. The familiar blue glow overtakes him and soon he is on the other side of the well for the first time in eighteen years.
Inuyasha wastes no time climbing out of the well, seeking out his long-lost love. He will tell Kagome tonight, even if she has a dozen children, even if her husband tries to beat him back with a stick. He will tell her...
Inuyasha leaps up to her old room, sliding the window open silently. The first thing he notices is that the room is no longer a bedroom. While there is still a bed, it appears to be more of a reading room than a bedroom, the desk that he remembers is gone, replaced by a large cozy chair and bookcase. He reaches his hand to feel the soft fabric and takes a deep breath, closing his eyes as he smells her scent in faint traces around the room.
"Are you going to stand there forever or are you going to say hello?" Kagome's voice, richer than he remembers it, holds a hint of laughter to it.
His eyes snap open and before she can blink, he has his arms wrapped around her.
"Kagome," Inuyasha does not try to hide the tears of joy he feels welling up within him. "Kami, I've missed you!"
"What took you so long," Kagome playfully asks, pushing him into the room and shutting the door firmly behind her.
Inuyasha pulls back, taking his first real look at the woman he has longed to hold for so many years. She has aged, albeit gracefully. Her smile still lights up her face as if it is trying to illuminate the entire room with its radiance. Her raven tresses frame her in billowing waves. Her scent, somewhat dulled by his human form, still holds that calming fragrance of natural beauty.
Kagome lifts a trembling hand to Inuyasha's cheek, lightly brushing it with her fingertips. Out of the corner of his eye he sees a flash on her hand. Pulling it down to inspect it, he sees that her finger holds a plain gold band.
"Kagome," he breaths, a frown on his lips as he remembers what the ring symbolizes. "Doesn't this mean you're married?"
With a sad smile, Kagome nods. "Don't worry, Inuyasha. He'll understand." Driving the point home, Kagome silences any further protests with her lips against his.
Suddenly, there are no words and Inuyasha expresses himself to Kagome in the only way he knows how. He loves her with eighteen years worth of emotion, the angst, the pain, the love, the joy, all of it so intense that neither can speak. He marks her as his, a testament to his devotion, even after such a long trial of separation and soon they are spent.
Breathing heavily, her body glistening in the glow of the city lights, Kagome turns to her once lost love. With a glint of sadness in her eye, one that he is too sated to notice, she removes the subjugation necklace. He smiles at her in thanks and they fall back together.
Finally, Inuyasha rises from the bed, looking towards the impending dawn.
"I have to tell them that I won't be returning to the village," Inuyasha mumbles as he reluctantly dresses for his brief return.
Kagome nods and stands with Inuyasha, embracing him before his short trip.
"I've always loved you," Kagome whispers. "I always will."
With a wink, Inuyasha jumps toward the well and through its magical glow. He races towards his waiting friends and explains the situation, rushing back as quickly as his human form will carry him. He jumps back into the well and is met with the sickening feeling of hard ground beneath him.
Inuyasha is stranded. No jewel, no necklace. No Kagome. He climbs back out and tries three times before his friends urge him back out of the barrier's parimeter. He sees the dawn on the wrong side of the well and he mourns her loss.
With a soul-wrenching howl, Inuyasha says goodbye.
- - - - - - - - - -
Five-hundred years later, Kagome stands and stares towards the well, the dawn having long since broken into broad daylight. She hears a rustle behind her and turns with a sad smile to the man at the doorway.
"Is that why you refused to mark me as your mate, because you already had?" A single tear slips from her eye as his arms wrap around her.
"He'll mourn and he'll grow," Inuyasha whispers into his mate's ear. "He'll find you again," he pulls back a little, a small twinkle in his eye. "And I'll get to keep you." Inuyasha grins, as he makes her forget his younger self's pain.
Together again after five-hundred years, married and mated, the reunited lovers move on.
END
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If you haven't already, I recommend that you read the complementary piece A Dog's Age: Four
-Sarga-