Kagura's POV

Someone with bones jutting out of his body stopped me. Red eyes, pulsing, stared at me with hatred from his hands. Naraku.

Damn him!

"Kagura, it seems as if Hakodushi has died," he said, smirking, "Quite foolish, it seems as if he intended to overthrow me."

So he knew! Why hasn't he killed me yet?

He was holding something in his hand. Naraku extended his hand and I saw it was my heart. Pulsing and red, glowing, yearning to return to my body.

"I'm here to free you, Kagura," he said, "Isn't that what you've always wanted?"

"Y-you'd actually free me?" I stumbled over my words. I couldn't believe it.

"Yes, Kagura," he said, still smiling calmly,"then you will be freed from me forever."

I could feel it returning to my body. My heart. Hot and wet, pulsing.

I'm free! I started to leave, but Naraku's voice stopped me.

"Oh, not yet, Kagura," he said. Tentacles sliced through my flesh, and blood spurted from my wounds.

"Don't worry, I spared your precious heart," Naraku said, laughing, "Enjoy your precious freedom while you can. You won't live for another day."

That bastard! He pumped me full of miasma!

I landed softly in a field of flowers. I can heal from these wounds in a day. I'm free! Finally! I laughed aloud.

What's wrong?! My body won't listen to me! Damn it! I'm to weak to heal! I focused my power onto my wounds, but it was futile. They reopened, and blood blossomed around me. I could still feel my heart, pulsing, sending me closer to my death with every beat. It was a small comfort, that I would die by my own terms instead of Naraku's.

Does it end here? Will I die alone?

A figure with a white and red kimono stopped before me. I looked up, and saw amber eyes, haunting and cold. "S-sesshomaru?" I hardly dared to believe it.

"I followed the scent of blood and Naraku's miasma," Sesshomaru explained.

So he came here, following the the scent of his enemy. How ironic! I laughed bitterly. "Well, don't let me stop you. Aren't you so disappointed I'm not Naraku?"

He stared at me with those warm yet emotionless eyes. "I knew it was you," he stated simply.

So you came, knowing it was me. I gasped from pain and shock.

Sesshomaru grabbed the Tensaiga. He couldn't see the underworld demons around her, just the miasma, eating away at her entire being. It was too late for her.

Slowly, as if the words brought great pain to him to say them, Sesshomaru asked,"You leaving?"

"Yeah," I answered slowly, "but it was enough. I got to see you one last time." Red eyes met amber ones, and then I closed my eyes for the last time. "Good bye, Sesshomaru. Maybe you and I will meet in the afterlife," I whispered, so softly that he could not hear.

I could feel myself dissolving, but there was no pain. There was only happiness. I was floating in the air, free, free, finally! I took one last look at the world. I was leaving. A warm light embraced me, and I willingly gave into it.

Sesshomaru's POV

A single tear traced my cheek and dropped onto the flowers.

What's this? I didn't cry for my father when he died, yet I am crying for a woman I barely knew?

But the tears were flowing freely now.

Inuyasha came bounding in. "What happened here, Sesshomaru? Where's Kagura?" he asked. I did not answer.

He saw the blood on the flowers and the miasma in the air. Inuyasha asked sofly, almost gently,"Did she suffer?"

I wiped the tears from my eyes. "She was smiling," I said, walking off, with Rin and Jaken following me.

I heard a the wind, almost as if it had a voice. Could it be?

The wind caressed me, and I could hear its voice.

I am the summer breeze.

I am the winter storm.

I am the soft wind of autumn.

I am Kagura.

I am the wind.

The free wind.