[This is becoming a common excuse for why I'm not writing Broken, but I'll use it again. I was inspireeeed. :) Hope you enjoy, though it is a little sad.]
"This woman..." the monk Ungai (see if I care how it's spelled) paused, trying to build up suspense, "This woman claims that demons are capable of love. She, a priestess, has betrayed her own. We can only conclude that she has been possessed. We have tried exorcising her, but to no avail. Our only option is sacrifice her!"
She was going to die. Kagome knew it. She had grown up living with her grandmother, Kaede, after her family had died (in a war, killed by humans) and had been taught to respect all life. Perhaps that was why she suffered now. Perhaps that was why, despite her being a miko, she was being sacrificed by a group of monks, in some clearing in the middle of no where, in front of her whole village. She had befriended a young kitsune, and now he had been purified, and she was being forced to commit ritual suicide [AN: That's a thing. Look it up.]
Ungai droned on, about how he didn't want to kill her, but duty forced him to.
"Look at you!" she suddenly screamed, causing Ungai to pause in surprise, "You're killing me for my beliefs! You people are the real monsters!"
She strained at her bonds, "Demons can feel things too! They feel pain, joy, sorrow, love! They're human in every way except the technical one!"
Not one of the stone-faced monks or townsfolk wavered. Instead, one untied her hands, placing a blade in them. They were all prepared to kill her if she resisted.
If I have to go... I'll go with honor!
The blade entered her stomach, carving the beginnings of a circle. She gritted her teeth, didn't cry, didn't scream. The circle was halfway done now.
"You're... all... monsters. These... stereotypes... will get you... nowhere."
Blood flowed and pooled. Three quarters done.
"Silence, witch!"
She coughed, blood exploding from between her lips.
...
She brought the blade to full circle. Quite impressive, as most didn't survive long enough to do so. She collapsed, pulling the blade out, waiting for the customary blade through the chest to put the sacrificed out of their misery. It never came. They were going to let her die in slow agony, because, when she looked in their eyes she could see it, they hated her. She began to convulse, coughing up more blood and choking on it. She felt a sudden terror, but she made no sounds. Her body tried desperately to keep her alive, but couldn't keep up with the blood practically gushing from her stomach. She tried to push herself to her hands and knees, vomiting a large amount of blood and then collapsing into it. She was dying.
...
Minutes droned on like hours. She had stopped moving, and remained curled in the fetal position on the ground. Time moved in slow motion. Blood trickled slowly from the corner of her mouth, running sideways down her face and dripping onto the ground.
"Goodbye... Sesshomaru,"she murmured. She had no clue why it was his name she spoke on her final breath, only that his name felt right. She closed her eyes and was gone.
...
He dropped into the clearing wordlessly. The humans gasped, but they all stayed frozen as he strode toward the lifeless miko. He knelt beside her, tears on his face for the first time in his life. It was hard enough learning he loved someone. Even harder to learn he loved someone who could never be his. But hardest of all was learning he loved someone who had already gone, and left him behind. He held her against him, rocking silently. The Ice Price disguise had dropped, and he was just a heartbroken young man, holding the body of the woman he'd always loved, but had been too prideful and afraid to admit his feelings to.
"You were right," he whispered into her hair, "We are capable of feeling things."
Ungai stepped behind him, sutras in his hand. Sesshomaru gripped his wrist at the last second, turning slowly with blood red eyes. With a flick of his wrist he decapitated the old man. The rest of the villagers fled in fear, and he collapsed next to the miko, who still looked beautiful, despite being covered in blood, as well as being dead. His eyes faded back to gold, filled with pain and despair. Tears flowed from them once more, and he sobbed brokenly.
"We are... but sometimes I wish we weren't."
[SO SAD! What do you think?]