Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha.
This came to me when I was thinking of Kagome's selflessness towards the whole Kikyo/InuYasha/Kagome love triangle thing. She might get mad, but she has never given InuYasha the ultimatum her or me. This is an alternate ending to the series.
Sacrifice
The final battle was well under way. Kouga ran, creating twisters around him, at Naraku, only to break away when those sharp tentacles would fly towards him. Stoically dispatching any part of the half-demon that was in front of him, Sesshomaru used Tokijin to carve his way deeper towards Naraku's true body. Miroku, despite the additional poisonous insects, had opened his Wind Tunnel, sucking in everything in his path. However, with the pain no doubt filling his body, he was unable to completely suck up their enemy. The demon slayer Sango and her companion, Kirara, used all of the training well, attaching Miroku's sutras to her Hiraikotsu to rip through their enemy with more ease.
But it was InuYasha and Kikyo who fought the hardest. Dozens of arrows were shot through InuYasha's destructive attacks, making them more deadly than normal. Fighting side by side, one could argue that they were a couple to be reckoned with. They guarded each other zealously, perfectly in sync with the others' movements. When one was open right, they were covered immediately, leaving no chance for a weakness to be found. To say that they were formidable foes was an understatement.
So it was no surprise that, despite the ferocity of the battle, Kagome had maneuvered herself away from the pair. Though still close, she knew her limits, and having to be a third wheel to them would certainly distract her. She needed to keep her mind focused on defeating their archenemy, destroying him to protect the world they lived in. With only three shards left before he completed the jewel, they couldn't afford for Naraku to escape them. The completed Shikon no Tama could grant him unbelievable power that they would stand little chance against.
Hit the mark, the girl from the future thought to herself, releasing her arrow that was pointed directly at Naraku's chest. His human heart! Hit his human heart! Her mind was screaming as the arrow began to veer, losing momentum because of the huge demonic aura, the power of it. Readying another quickly, she felt tears forming in her eyes as she focused all her power into the arrow, the bow. All her sorrow, all her pain, was pushed into protecting those around her, the ones she had come to know better than any of her friends from her time. I will protect them, she thought with a ferocity that sent a wave of power throughout the group.
This new arrow blasted through Naraku's aura, his barrier, as if by sheer force of will, Kagome could defeat him. She thought of Sango, losing almost her entire family to this beast and having to nearly give up on her younger brother. Miroku, who had had to deal with the torment of knowing that one day he would die a horrifying death. Kouga, whose comrades were killed just to bring him out of the mountains and into Naraku's domain, who had to live with the guilt of causing their deaths, however inadvertently. Kikyo, who had died believing she'd been betrayed by the one she loved and had nearly died all over again at the hand of this monster. And InuYasha, Kagome thought through the tears. This is for InuYasha, who was never able to have the life he dreamed of with the woman he loved all because of this thing's greed!
The arrow, still gaining power, had taken everyone's attention but Naraku's. Kagome didn't know if she was the only one close enough to hear it, but she could have sworn that she heard him say, "I'll take you with me, Kikyo."
In a split second, Kikyo and InuYasha were thrown apart by a tentacle spearing between them and slapping the priestess aside, just far enough that her lover wouldn't be able to save her when that tentacle spun towards her, ready to kill her.
InuYasha's pain-filled roar spurred Kagome into action. She threw herself over the other woman's body without a moment's hesitation, protecting her from the stab that then went through her own abdomen just in time for her arrow to hit Naraku directly in the heart and the mostly-complete jewel there. Suddenly, despite the pain, Kagome noticed that the pressure was gone; Naraku's tentacle was dispersing.
She could taste the blood in her mouth, the cooper-like taste revolting. I...I'm dying. Her gray eyes caught Kikyo's shocked brown ones as she started to fall to the side. At least...at least Kikyo is safe. InuYasha can finally be happy.
Hardly able to hear her name being shouted by several different voices, she simply laid where she'd fallen, trying to ignore the pain with each labored breath she took. It hurts, she thought. It hurts so much. The tears that had already been in her eyes seemed to dry, as if her body were trying to save every bit of moisture that it could. As if that would save her. I never thought dying would hurt so much.
"Kagome, Kagome, say something!"
Her eyes were open, she knew, but it was hard to focus them. Everything was blurry and darkening around the edges. Was that what dying ended like? Were all the stories true? Did she just fade away, into darkness, then come out in a brighter world? Or perhaps she would be reincarnated again. I wish...I wish I could just tell him that I love him.
She wasn't aware of being lifted until InuYasha's face became the center of her vision. Forcing her eyes to see him as clearly as possible, she noticed that he wasn't looking at her face. His eyes were staring down at her stomach, where she felt nothing. "I-I wish y-you hap-happiness," she whispered, shuddering under the effort to speak. More blood was in her mouth, trickling down its corner.
Furious amber eyes met hers. "Kagome, you can't die! You know you can't, goddamnit! You said you would complete the jewel with me! You fucking promised!" His face left her vision, filling it with the silver white that she knew was his hair. Everything's getting worse, she thought as InuYasha shouted, "Sesshomaru, save her! You've got that damned Tenseiga; do it now!"
"Naraku's appendages were seeping with miasma; her body is beyond repair, brother. There is nothing that can be done."
She knew everyone else must be talking, but voices were fading out of her hearing. She knew InuYasha was speaking to her, but she couldn't make out his words. Everything was fading away except the thought, Please be happy. For me, InuYasha, be happy.
As the last of her life slipped from her body, she heard Kouga's roars of heartbreak and fury and felt Sesshomaru's stoic, watchful gaze. Miroku gave a quivering prayer in her honor, thanking her for the curse she had lifted, the friendship she had given, and her kind heart. Sango sobbed into Kirara's fur, though it couldn't be muffled. InuYasha snarled profanities at the gods, at Fate, at Naraku. Anything that he believed was at fault was cursed and threatened should she die. But Kikyo's words played through her mind until darkness completely swallowed her. "Thank you, Kagome, for protecting me. I shall make sure that your sacrifice is never forgotten."
With that in her mind, Kagome Higurashi died, surrounded by the people she considered her family and closest friends, as well as in the arms of the man she loved.
Sacrifice
Mrs. Higurashi knew the moment she saw InuYasha standing in Kagome's room, a destroyed look on his face, what he had come to tell her. She dropped the new uniforms she'd just bought for her daughter to the floor, her hand covering her mouth. "No," she murmured, trying to relearn how to breathe. "No, no, no!" Her voice rose to a cry as she sank to her knees in the doorway.
She tried to cover her ears against what she knew he would say, but the facts were staring her in the face. Her daughter, her beloved Kagome, was gone, had passed on to the next world. No, it couldn't have happened! She has to be safe; there's got to be some other reason!
The sound of her distress brought the rest of the household to her. Souta looked from his hysterical mother to his idol, realization hitting him like a truck. Tears filled his eyes, but he held them back; he had to keep strong for his mother in times like those. She would need someone to help her overcome her grief, to help her pass this time in her life. And it would have to be him, he knew.
"How," Grandpa Higurashi asked, his voice cracking, his rigid body shaking. "How did Kagome..." He couldn't finish the question because of the lump in his throat.
So, InuYasha told of their loved one's sacrifice, her complete selflessness that had probably been the only thing to save their world from Naraku's tyranny. 'I can show you where she was given a true priestess's burial."
Only the old man followed. Mrs. Higurashi couldn't go to the spot where her daughters remains had been all this time, the fifteen-year-old's fate sealed before her life had even truly begun. Of course, they would give her a proper service at that same spot. Perhaps they would spread ashes there, so no one could ask to see her one last time.
Grandpa Higurashi was shocked to find out the spot that his granddaughter had been laid to rest in the spot where no one in the family could tread, the only real spot where a chill would go up there spines, despite their knowledge of what had taken place all over their shrine. But it had always been a protective chill, as if someone were watching over them without their being able to see them.
Kagome, we'll recognize your sacrifice in this time, as well.
Sacrifice
I'm almost fifteen years old; I should be able to overcome that stupid fear, Kagome Higurashi thought to herself, holding herself a little straighter. She glared at the offending spot, just below the scar on the Goshinboku. The area was fenced off, but it wasn't really because of the sacred tree. For some reason, her grandfather had moved the fence farther out after she had been born, saying he'd felt "a sacred spirit" there and that it was best to just leave it alone.
I'll sit there for five minutes, prove that I've conquered all my fears.
But her feet wouldn't move. A chill crept up her back and she felt a sudden urge to cry. Not just teenage girl crying, but pain-filled, real crying. The kind that people would do at funerals or hospitals. It was like she was looking at her father's grave, feeling an undeniable twinge of familiarity.
I'll do it tomorrow, she thought to herself, taking a step back. I'll be fifteen then; I'll have to conquer that fear tomorrow.
But she couldn't stop the tears that rolled down her face or the feeling of emptiness in her heart.
I cried while writing this. This last section is actually really deep in meaning to me because of my own hindsight on a major event that happened in my life.