Title: The Heaviest Burden
Author: CuriousKitsune
Status: Complete
Summary: She stared down at the bodies littering the battlefield, her once warm eyes now filled with suffering. Death, Destruction, and Endless Despair.
Start
Death…
She stared down at the bodies littering the battlefield, her once warm eyes now filled with suffering. Sango, a sister in spirit if not in blood, lay a few feet away, a metal scythe buried in her neck. Her unseeing eyes seemed fixed on the boy to her right. Kohaku had a sword through his heart, his sister's hand still on the hilt. Sango's giant boomerang hung broken in a tree across the clearing. Near the tree a bloody wolf demon leaned propped up against a boulder, a cruel parody. His opponent, the wind sorceress, lay nearby, decapitated. Her head lay on it's side at Koga's feet. The bodies of Miroku and Kanna were gone, sucked into the void that the monk had finally used beyond its limit. Sesshomaru had somehow managed to die so that he lay against a tree, looking merely asleep. His clothing was red. Rin, his mysterious charge, was curled up in his lap, the hole in her chest a testament to Naraku's cruelty. The toad retainer sat nerby, his head bashed in to the point of being unrecognizable. InuYasha and Kikyo lay intertwined in the center of the clearing, both forgiven at last. Naraku himself was gone, destroyed when Kagome had purified the jewel, killing him from the inside out. Her hand clenched tighter on the small pink ball.
…Destruction…
So many lives destroyed, so many souls grieving, so much pain. All of Naraku's whims and plots ruining everything. Innocents killed just because they were there, or caught in the crossfire. The collateral damage alone was the cause of such mass deats that history later called it an epidemic. A sickness, yes. A sickness of depravity and the mind.
…And Endless Despair
Friends, killed. Enemies, vanquished. Innocents forgotten in the wake of more immediate threats. Hope, lost. She, the protector of the Shikon no Tama, the only survivor. The only one who will remember this day, this battle. A decision was made, there by the shells of both friends and enemies. I will not go back. She couldn't, after all that had happened. She wouldn't be able to stand wearing that mask, hiding her pain. And nothing could hide her eyes, her veteran eyes. A brief flash of sorrow and guilt for her family came but left just as quickly as it had arrived. Slowly, Kagome lifted the whole jewel and placed it in its spot around her neck. Her quiver came next, then her bow, sliding onto her back with practiced ease. The miko outfit she wore and had intended to burn as soon as possible hung on her willowy frame, now a permanent addition to the ensemble. She turned her back and started the long journey she know would last until her own death. Her shoulders sagged a bit as she walked away from the battlefield. For she bore the heavies burden of all: The burden of the survivor.
A/N: I'm not too happy with this one. I like the idea, but not how it played out. Eh, oh well. There goes my second oneshot.