"Cocky bastard," Inuyasha spat as he pulled himself from the heap that was once Naraku.
His golden eyes roamed the battlefield, checking for the whereabouts of his friends. The monk was lying prostrate in some weeds, almost unconscious from the amount of miasma he absorbed with his wind tunnel. Before he had the chance, Sango was at the monk's side, flipping him over and checking his hand, just to be sure. She cried her relief when he grabbed her rear and then pulled her in for a kiss. Despite losing her brother, she had gained a husband, love, and a life long friend.
Once again, he let his eyes roam. His heart ached to know if Kagome was still alive. He had tried, desperately, to keep her safe throughout the battle, but toward the end, they were separated by a blast from the evil hanyou. When he spotted her, his brows crinkled together on his forehead. She was kneeling on the ground with the completed Sacred Jewel held out in front of her in her hand. What was bothering him was the look on her face, the look in her eyes. She was staring into the Jewel, entranced by it. Her eyes and face were both blank, as if she weren't in her body at all. Using his sword as a crutch, Inuyasha hobbled over to the girl. He reached for her, letting his hand brush a few wavy locks from her face.
"Kagome," he said quietly. "Can you hear me?"
Nothing. She hadn't even so much as blinked to acknowledge him. Worry swelled in his chest and he put a hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle nudge. "Kagome, come back to me," he ordered. After finally defeating Naraku, after all they'd gone through together; to lose her like this would be a fatal blow to his heart that he knew he couldn't take.
As soon as the Jewel had been fused together, Kagome ran after it as it flew from sight, dodging Naraku's tentacle-like limbs to get to it. A short distance, and just out of Naraku's evil reach, Kagome knelt in front of it. She picked it up and felt warmth spread from it, into her hand, up her arm and into the rest of her body. As a pink haze enveloped her, she watched as the gruesome battle scene around dissolved into pink nothingness.
"Priestess Kagome," she heard someone call over her shoulder. When she turned around, there amidst the pink was someone familiar. She squinted through the mist.
"Who are you?" Kagome asked.
"I am Midoriko. I'm sure you've heard of me, since you're the one that has been guarding the jewel since your birth." She walked over and motioned for Kagome to come nearer.
"Yes, I've heard of you. I've been to the cave where your body has been entombed. That's where I learned the story about you and everything that happened to you."
"I know of all of that. I've been with you, Kagome, through your whole adventure. I've been inside the Jewel," Midoriko explained.
Blushing, Kagome asked "Even when the Jewel was shattered?"
"As it was meant to," she said, much to Kagome's surprise.
"You mean, I was meant to shatter it?" she gasped.
"Yes," Midoriko laughed. "You were meant to fall through the time barrier in the well. You were meant to free that hanyou from his confines on the Sacred Tree. You were meant to do all of the things that you did while you were in this time."
"Hn, wait until Inuyasha hears this. He's been on my case about me shattering the Jewel since it happened." Kagome clenched her fists together, excitedly. Midoriko chuckled, but then her face grew serious, and it made Kagome worry. "What aren't you telling me?" she asked.
"Priestess Kagome, your mission here in the Feudal Era is complete. You have made the Jewel whole again."
Kagome didn't like where this was going and shut her eyes, as if it would block out Midoriko's words. Much to her dismay, she continued and Kagome could still hear her.
"The reason I am here before you is to warn you. The flow of time has shifted; the next time you travel through the well it will close."
"No," Kagome whispered. She didn't want to believe it. "I can't be done. It's too soon." She let her tears fall down her cheeks.
"Kagome, might I offer you one piece of advice?" Midoriko put a hand on Kagome's shoulder and looked her in the eyes. "This will devastate him and he won't know what to do. Just tell him what is in your heart. It will help him with his choice."
Kagome knew who she was talking about. How could she not? Who else could she mean? She took a step back, trying to back away from her fate.
"I wish you the best. You will be sent back to your friends now. They're all very worried about you. Thank you, Kagome, for putting the Jewel back together."
As Midoriko faded from her sight, she remembered one very important key to purifying and ridding the earth of the Sacred Jewel.
"How do I get rid of it?" she yelled.
"You must make a pure wish. Only you. Good luck."
And then she was gone. The pink was gone and all Kagome could see was the inside of her eyelids. She felt someone squeezing her tightly. When she opened her eyes, there was a blur of white all around her. She blinked several times before realizing that it was hair, Inuyasha's hair.
"Inu-, Inuyasha," she gasped in his tight embrace. He pulled back far enough to look at her face. His cheeks were tinted with pink and his eyes were glossy.
"Kagome," he smiled. Kagome felt her heart give a guilty lurch. She had to tell him that the well was closing. But how could she tell him when she, herself, wasn't sure where she belonged? Sure, she loved her family with all of her heart, but would she ever be able to just forget about her adventures and the people she came to know in the past? She didn't think she'd last very long without seeing the beautiful golden eyes she was now staring in to.
"Are you okay?" Inuyasha's voice knocked her out of her reverie.
"Yes," she said, moving to stand. "I'm fine. Thank you." Inuyasha picked her up and placed her gently on her feet. He made to hug her again, but she pushed him away and cleared her throat. "We should get back to Kaeda's."
Inuyasha stood, confused for a minute, and then shook it off as her being tired. They had been through a rough past few days, after all.
They set off toward the village and Kagome was eerily distant. Sideways glances to Miroku told Sango that she wasn't the only one who noticed. When they stopped one night, Sango was the one appointed to figure out what was up.
"Kagome, let's go to the hot springs. We need to relax," Sango said, pulling Kagome to her feet and into the trees without letting her answer.
As they settled into the bubbly water, Sango leveled a gaze at her best friend and spoke.
"Spill it."
"Spill what?" Kagome said tiredly, as she yawned into her hand.
"Why you've been so silent and far away."
"I've been right beside you the whole trip," she said, obviously not understanding.
"Really? How about all the times Inuyasha asked you take a walk with him? He's never done that before, and you completely ignored him," Sango said.
"I didn't ignore him," Kagome snapped. "I just have a lot of things to decide." She stood, not bothering to check for perverts and walked to her clothes. She stomped back to camp and got into her sleeping bag, leaving Sango baffled in the hot springs.
"What was that all about?" Miroku whispered when she made it back to camp, eyes wide, hair dripping.
"I don't know." She sat down and stared at the fire.
"I think there's something that Kagome's not telling us," Inuyasha said, his deep voice echoing from the limb he was sitting on.
"I agree," Miroku said, glancing at Kagome's sleeping bag-clad form. As Inuyasha jumped down, a clap of thunder echoed through the forest. "We are only half a day's walk from Kaeda's, if we make a break for it now, we'll be there before this storm hits."
"Miroku's right," Sango said, standing.
"By the look of the clouds, it's going to be one hell of a storm. You guys get going. I'll get Kagome and we'll be right behind you," Inuyasha said, walking over to the girl of his affections.
"Be safe, my friend," Miroku said as he swung his leg over Kirara's back and settled in behind Sango on the fire cat.
"You too," Inuyasha yelled over a loud clap of thunder. He noticed that Kagome's form jumped at the sound of the storm. "Get up, wench. We need to get moving," he grumped, while shoving things in her yellow pack.
"I'm already awake," she said, sighing and rolling out of her sleeping bag. She tucked it into the room that was left in her pack and picked it up. She started walking in the direction of Kaeda's village, deep in thought. She didn't even notice when he crouched down to pick her up, or when she walked passed him without stopping. He stared at the ground for a minute before catching up with her.
"What's wrong with you?" he blurted out.
"Who says there's anything wrong with me?" she stopped and turned to him, blinking away the few rain drops that fell on her face as she looked up and into his.
"You've been acting all weird. And I'm kind of sick of it."
"You're kind of sick of it? I'm not even doing anything," she raised her voice.
"Don't get lippy with me, woman. Just tell me what's wrong with you," he snarled out.
"There's nothing wrong with me!" she screamed, losing her temper all together. "Kami, why won't you believe me?"
"Because you've been so quiet and it annoys me," he yelled at her.
"Oh, well let's alert the Kami's! Inuyasha's annoyed by something I've done. That's something new!" she screamed above the thunder.
"It's about to pour. Can't you complain when we get back to the village?"
"Argh! You make me so angry," she screamed as the rain began to drench them. She took off toward the village at a dead run, leaving her backpack on the ground beside Inuyasha.
"Kagome! Come back!" he screamed to her retreating form. "Stupid yellow bag," he growled before he took off after her.
Kagome ran until she couldn't breathe. She passed a hut a few paces back, and turned to go back to it. There, standing in the middle of the road, was her hanyou, soaked to the bone, just as she. Her clothes clung to her body and she was sure that her white shirt was completely see-through.
"Kagome, the hut's back here," Inuyasha said, his eyes glued to her soaked form.
"Fine!" she huffed as she stomped through the mud.
Once inside, she sat down in the middle of the room and pulled her knees to her chest, trying to suppress the shiver she felt from being soaked. Inuyasha sighed and shrugged off his haori. He draped it over her shoulders and sat down beside her, noting that she shrank away from him when their knees touched.
"Kagome, what's wrong?" he asked, his voice low and scratchy from yelling in the rain.
"I told you. There's nothing," she started.
"Yes, I know. You said there's nothing wrong. But I don't believe you. You do realize I can tell when you're lying right?" he asked, his voice raising a decibel with each word.
"Are you calling me a liar?" she yelled.
"Yeah, I am!" he said as he stood up and glared down at her.
She stood up and met his glare with one of her own. He took one step forward and their noses were almost touching, but his demeanor was still provoking.
She pushed him back with one finger to his shoulder. "Get out of my face and just believe me."
"That's the thing, Kagome," he yelled. "I don't believe you!" he screamed, stepping close to her again. "And I'm not going to get out of your face until you tell me the truth."
"Fine. You want to know the truth? I'll tell you the truth. When the Jewel was completed, Midoriko came to me in a vision and told me that I'm the only one that can purify it."
"So? What's wrong with that? We knew it was going to be like that any way," he yelled, not understanding.
"The well's going to close, Inuyasha. It's going to close the next time someone passes through it. Don't you get it?"
"What? It's going to close? How do you know that?"
"Because Midoriko told me. Weren't you listening?"
"So that's what's been bothering you? You've been worried about the well closing?" he asked, his voice wavering from angry to sad.
"Yes! Yes, that's what's been bothering me. I tried ignoring you to see if I could live without you. But it hurts just as much as knowing I'll have to give you up," she said, tears welling.
"You want to give me up?" His voice was soft and low.
She just looked at him, her eyes slightly swollen. They were still standing nose-to-nose and when she tried to back away he put his hands on her shoulders to stop her.
"You want to give me up?" he asked again.
"Inuyasha, please." She tried backing away again. He walked toward her, hands still on her shoulders, until her back was pressed against the hut wall.
"You want to give me up?" he asked, his eyes flaring with tears he refused to let fall.
"You know I don't," she cried out and slipped from under his grasp, and ran outside.
Inuyasha stood, with his hands on wall, his fists clenching and unclenching. "Damn it," he growled under his breath.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid," he growled, pounding his fists into the wall with each word. "Just ask her to stay, stupid."
"No," he said, arguing with himself. "I'm not worth losing her family for. All I've done to hurt her; I wouldn't pick me either." Inuyasha sighed. This was hard. Arguing with Kagome about going home for a few days was nothing like this. And that was like pulling teeth, at best. How could he ask her to stay? It just wasn't fair to her.
Inuyasha walked out of the hut, shoulders slumped, face glum. The well was closing. It was as simple as that. He was a few minutes away from the village when he heard her scream.
After running out of the hut, her eyes blazing from tears, Kagome ran toward the one place she knew she would be able to think. As she reached the visible burly roots of the Sacred Tree, she took a deep breath and ran a hand across the bare spot.
This was where it started. This was where she was changed. Of course, looking back now, she realized that it was all because of that stubborn, beautiful hanyou. He taught her to fight for herself. He made her feel safe, time after time. She was kidnapped by the vilest of creatures, and yet, this one boy, no, man, this one man made her feel like nothing could touch her. She knew Inuyasha would always come for her. She knew. Even when he was searching for Kikyo, she knew that he was still devoted to their friendship. How was she to know that she'd come to love him? Does anyone ever know why they fall in love with who they do?
She shook her head. No, no one knows why. It just happens. And with that dignified concentration, Kagome decided that no matter where she was, or when she was, she wanted to be by Inuyasha's side. She nodded determinedly, yes, she would stay be his side.
She smiled to herself. She started to walk away, but turned for one last glance and hope for bravery. Yes, she would stay with him, but first, she had to tell him why.
She started running, fast, from the little jump her body got from finally being able to say it out loud. She pictured herself telling Inuyasha of her love, him wrapping his arms around her and promising to love her back forever.
Kagome was almost past the well when her foot got stuck in the sticky mud from the storm. It stopped her in her tracks and she started to fall sideways. She screamed. She was falling, falling into the well. For the last time.
"KAGOME!" Inuyasha screamed when he reached the edge, just in time to meet her brown eyes with his own gold one, before she disappeared.
Kagome landed with a thud on her rear end. She looked up. The top of the well was covered.
"NO!" she screamed as she climbed out of the well. She was in her time, the Modern Era, and 500 hundred years away from Inuyasha. Kagome kicked her legs over the lip of the well and knelt beside it. "This can't be the end," she cried.
Shoulders heaving with the thick sobs that wracked her body, Kagome barely noticed the familiar pink haze that surrounded her.
"Priestess Kagome, the well has closed. You must now purify the Sacred Jewel," Midoriko said, appearing before Kagome out of nothingness.
Unable to control her tears, she nodded and bowed her head. She knew what she had to do. She had to make a pure wish to purify it. But the only thing she could think of was Inuyasha.
"I wish," she began.
"Go on, Kagome. It must me done," Midoriko encouraged.
"I wish for the Jewel to give Inuyasha anything he desires. Anything so that he is happy," she cried.
"That, my dear, is a very pure wish," Midoriko smiled. "Thank you for saving the world, Kagome. Your wish will not go unheard."
The pink haze got extremely bright for a moment, and Kagome shielded her eyes from it's source: the Jewel. And when she looked again, both Midoriko and the Jewel were gone. She was alone in the dark well-house.
She picked herself up and walked to her house. Her mother, who greeted her from the kitchen, looked on in worry as Kagome silently climbed the stairs and went into the bathroom.
"No, no, no, NO!" Inuyasha screamed. He jumped into the well and waited for the glowing sensation of magic to surge around him. But when nothing happened and his feet hit the dirt, he knew it was over.
"DAMN IT!" he roared as he leapt out of the well crying and screaming. He grabbed the hilt of his sword and whipped it out, waiting for it to come to life. Once the sword was in full form, Inuyasha ran, head first into the trees of the surrounding forest; swiping down thick trunks left and right until only stubs of the splendid forest remained.
Inuyasha sunk to the ground, catching his breath for a moment or two when he heard a sweet voice call his name. He turned around and there in the middle of the destruction he had just caused was Midoriko, the priestess from whom the Jewel first emerged.
"Inuyasha," she said sweetly. "I'm here for Kagome."
He dropped his sword and fell to his knees before her. Anything she had to say about Kagome, he was all ears for.
"Tell me," he begged. "Has the well re-opened? Can she come back?"
"No, it has not opened again," she replied.
Inuyasha growled. "Then why are you here?"
"To rid the world of the Sacred Jewel, Kagome had to make a pure wish on it."
"What's your point?" he asked rudely.
"Her wish was for you to have anything you desired for you to be happy." Midoriko smiled at him. "What do you desire, Inuyasha?"
Already on his knees, he let his head drop. Anything he wanted. As the tears leaked from his eyes once more, he looked up into the angelic face before him.
"I want to be with Kagome, now and forever."
She sank lower into the massive pile of bubbles, hoping they would swallow her memory of the last four years of her life, hoping they would ease the pain of her broken heart.
Kagome sat in her bubble bath until the water went from steaming hot to shivering cold. She stepped onto the cold tile and wrapped a towel around her depressed body. She heard a wrap at the door and opened it to reveal her mother standing there, concern written all over her face.
"Kagome, did you and Inuyasha have another fight?" she asked.
At the sound of his name, her heart clenched and she made a dash for her room. She threw herself into her plush pillows and sobbed until her breaths came in ragged gasps and a fitful sleep claimed her.
She was dreaming. She had to be. Because before her stood that handsome man, clad in all red, his silver hair cascading down his shoulders and back. And those eyes, those lava gold eyes that made her melt from sheer intensity.
He was looking at her, staring at her with those eyes. He took a few steps forward until he was close enough that she could smell him, that woodsy, natural musk that was all his own.
She waited. She wanted to hear his voice so she waited. She pictured all the times that she had been this close to him and had wanted to be closer. She wanted him more than anything.
"Please" she thought.
As soon as the words left his lips, he was floating in the air. Swirls of light and wind rushed around him and then suddenly, he was at the bottom of the well. Midoriko, the Jewel, all a lost memory.
He jumped to the top and looked around. His heart was set ablaze as he realized he was in the well-house. Kagome's well-house. He darted from the small building and jumped onto her windowsill. He glanced in for her and found her body lying on the bed. Slowly, he slid the window open and stepped in.
At once, his senses were assaulted by all things Kagome. Her sweet skin, her sweet hair, and her tears.
"Please," he heard her whisper in her sleep.
Please what? He thought. He stepped to her bedside and knelt down. She was such a sight for sore eyes. It had only been a short time, but being separated unwillingly felt like years apart from her. He waited until she shifted before he sat on her bed. Inuyasha brushed a few strands of raven hair off her beautiful face before he lowered his lips to meet hers, for a gentle, long awaited kiss.
"Mmm," she mumbled when he pulled away.
Kagome didn't want to wake up, for if she did, this Inuyasha, who had just leaned down and kissed her, would disappear forever, just like the real one did. She looked up into his molten eyes again and he opened his lips to speak.
"Open your eyes," dream-Inuyasha said.
Weren't her eyes already open? No, of course not; she was dreaming after all.
"Open you eyes," he said again, only dream-Inuyasha's lips didn't move.
Slowly, Kagome woke and to her complete and utter delight, dream-Inuyasha was gone. But even better, he was replaced by the real one. There, in the darkness of her room, were his golden eyes, silver hair, and red attire.
"How?" she inquired, not fully convinced.
"You wanted me to be happy," he whispered, his hot breath ghosting her skin. "Now I am."
Okay, there it is! That's how the show ended for me! Leave me millions of comments and tell me what you think. I'll update my other stories soon, I promise.