Hi, all! This is my first fanfiction on this site and I'm really glad to finally be posting! This one-shot was inspired by the Death Cab For Cutie song "What Sarah Said". I really only used two of the actual lines from the song, so you should check it out. It's a really great (and sad) song.
Note: Characters aren't mine! They belong to Rumiko Takahasi.
"Love is watching someone die…"
Kikyo was dead; her angry soul had been pacified years ago. Lady Kaede was dead; she had died only a bit after Naraku's demise. Rin was dead; she had been killed by her husband, Kohaku, who had become possessed once again. Kohaku was dead; he had killed himself after realizing what he had done. Sango and Miroku were dead, and all their children had moved away. Shippo had died; one of his kitsune pranks had gone too far. Sesshomaru was presumably dead; he had left after Rin had died, and no one had ever heard from again. Even Kouga was dead; he had gotten himself killed in a battle after his shards were taken away. And now Kagome had just drawn her final breath, leaving him, Inuyasha, alone. Again. She had been his only companion for five years, but now she was gone. Forever.
He sat in Kaede's old hut (which she had gifted to Kagome and him in her will) and stared at his mate, not really seeing her at all. His thoughts turned inward. Mentally, he checked off the list of the people who he would (for the most part) trust his life to, but who were all stowed away in the dirt.
Kikyo- check.
Kaede- check.
Rin and Kohaku- check and check.
Sango and Miroku- check and check as well.
Shippo- check.
Sesshomaru- check? He was pretty sure his elder brother was dead, but if so, he had most certainly never seen the body.
Kouga- check. God, even the wolf-turd was dead, although right now, he would have swapped his sword for Kouga's company. Any of them, actually. Especially Kagome…
He came out of his head then, and stared at her body. He supposed it was time to bury her, although how he was to do that he hadn't the faintest. He vaguely remembered Miroku saying a special prayer over each grave, and Kagome continuing the tradition after the monk had died. How would he do that? He knew no prayers. He was no monk! He had no spiritual power.
Then he remembered someone who did, or rather, had. Old Kaede had been a priestess in her heyday, and she had left them all her scrolls and books in a trunk. Standing, he walked to the corner and cracked open the lid of the ancient case. A puff of dust tickled his nose, and he sneezed. When the sensation had died away, he started to rife through the trunk.
Finally, he found what he was looking for. It was an unassuming little bundle, but to Inuyasha it was the most precious thing in the world right now. He slipped into his pocket, then dug around a bit more to uncover a white robe and sash. White was a funeral color, was it not? This would do nicely. He closed the trunk and, folding it neatly, set the robe aside. He wouldn't put it on until after he had dug the grave.
Hefting a shovel, he started to leave the hut, then paused and looked over his shoulder. "I'll be right back, okay?" He got no reply, and instantly he felt foolish. Who talked to dead bodies? But it felt wrong to just leave the hut without any acknowledgement to his mate. He had done it for so long…
Outside, he walked to the place where all the others lay. A perfect row of graves. A neatly lettered marker adorned the head of each spot. Another thing he would have to do. Everything had to be perfect for Kagome.
As he walked by, he looked at each grave as he had never looked at them before. Kikyo's grave was plain and unadorned. He felt a sudden pang of guilt. After Kaede's death, they hadn't left her any offerings. He would have to remedy that, and leave everyone offerings later. Kaede's grave had a single bundle of dried lavender resting on the headstone. He moved on to Rin's grave, where there was a small bundle of fabric: her childhood kimono lay upon the soil. Kohaku's sickle-and-chain lay on his grave, as was the custom for tayjia. Sango's grave was adorned similarly, with her Hirakoutsu resting vertically on the small plot. Miroku's grave was right next to Sango's, his staff in the same position as her boomerang bone. Shippo's grave was much smaller than anyone else's; after all, he had only been a child. His spinning top, expanding snake, and riding horse, all in their miniature forms, lay on the soil. Last in the row came Kouga's grave. Although he wasn't a tayjia, his Gorioshki lay on his grave.
Inuyasha started to dig. If memory served him correctly, this marked the digging of the tenth grave he had ever dug, the tenth person he had ever cared about. His mother being one, and Kikyo, Kaede, Rin, Kohaku, Sango, Miroku, Shippo, and Kouga being numbers two through nine.
Inuyasha finished digging. Wiping his sleeve on his forehead, he climbed out of the hole. It was time to lay his mate to rest.
A while later, Inuyasha walked out of the hut, carrying Kagome wrapped in a woven map. Her grave marker lay on top of the bundle, neatly marked with her name and age, as well as profession. Kagome Higurashi, 87, Shrine Miko.
He was not wearing the white robes, however. Upon trying them on, he had found they were much too small for him. Instead, he had torn a strip off the hem and tied it around his head, as well as tied two smaller strips on each arm as armbands. It was just as well, though. He had married Kagome in his red fire-rat robe, and it was only fitting that his should wear it for their parting.
He bent down on the edge of the hole, gently lowering her into the pit. He repressed a shudder at the thought of his kind, gentle Kagome in a deep, dark hole in the ground. Pushing the thought aside, he began to throw the dirt in one handful at a time. Soon, the entire grave had been filled in, with only a gently sloping hump rising above ground level. Inuyasha stuck the grave marker in and started to read the special prayer off the scroll.
He only stumbled a few times with pronunciation in the beginning, and the rest moved slowly and cleanly off his tongue. As his last words faded away, he pulled a bundle of cloth out of his pocket and laid it on the grave. It was Kagome's old schoolgirl uniform that she had worn countless times before, and only given up when she had returned to spend the rest of her life with him.
He stood back up and shuffled his feet.
"Umm… Kagome… I…" Suddenly, he felt his throat get thick with tears. He stopped talking, but then tried again to speak his thoughts aloud.
"Kagome…"
Damn it, why couldn't he say anything? It hadn't been like this at any of the other funerals.
"Kagome… I… uhhh… I'm gonna… miss you, okay?"
Was that really all he could say? He had so much to tell her, but he couldn't make any of it come out.
Inuyasha furiously scrubbed at his eyes, where tears had started to leak out of. Stupid emotions! Finally, he gave up and just sat down next to the grave.
Night fell, and still he continued to sit there. He didn't want to go back to their cold, empty house, which would remind him even more of Kagome's absence. He would rather spend the night out here. At least he was with her.
As he sat there, a thought occurred to him. He had watched all of them die, he had buried them all, and now he was left behind. Alone. All alone. Who would bury him? Who would mourn for his passing?
Who's gonna watch you die, Inuyasha? he asked himself as tears flowed thick and fast down his cheeks. So who's gonna watch you die?