Standard disclaimers apply.

A/N: Thank you to those who reviewed the first chapter! Here's the second and final part to this story. It's angst-friendly, I think, depending on how you perceive it.

The Peony Lantern 2010


So she moved into his apartment, and it was bliss like he had never experienced. They had gone through so much together; this was the happiness they deserved.

He loved seeing her sleepy expression in the morning, the way she laughed as she watched television, and the way she paints her favorite peonies in deep concentration.

But as the novelty of living together naturally wore off after three weeks, Sesshoumaru began noticing things he could not explain. The magic surrounding Higurashi Kagome gradually faded, and he came to a silent, reluctant conclusion.

There was something very wrong with Kagome.

For some strange reasons, she did not like to go out in the day. Neither did she like crowded places. On the rare occasions when she did, she would keep a distance from him in public and walk in silence, refusing to engage in conversation.

She was growing to be disturbingly antisocial. He had asked her about her family, and while all she mentioned was how everyone was well and happily living at their shrine-home, she had evaded his suggestions to pay her family a visit together. Neither had she been willing to visit his family; all she had insisted on was how awkward it might turn out to be.

There was another incident which left him rather perplexed. It happened a few days ago, and he could still recall the details…

"I'll be meeting up with a couple of friends from grad school next week."

"That's nice." She commented, busying herself with folding the freshly laundered clothes.

"My friends would like to meet you, Kagome. They will be coming over tomorrow evening, so perhaps we can go to the supermarket before that to get some ingredients to whip up a decent dinner. French cuisine would be good, especially since I told them you used to-"

"No!" Her voice was panic-stricken, and she clapped her hand over her mouth in horror. Her hands stopped their task.

His eyes widened at her outburst. "French food is not to your liking?"

"No, I mean…no, they can't come! They shouldn't come."

Annoyance started to nibble at his insides; Sesshoumaru was never known to be the most patient man with things he could not comprehend. "What do you mean by 'shouldn't come'? They are my friends, and they're all decent people, if that's what you're worried about."

Her face was a total mask of distress by now, and it was only throwing him into greater confusion.

"I…I don't open up easily to people…I will be very, very uncomfortable." Her words reflected her discomfort and uneasiness, and it became too obvious to Sesshoumaru that she was lying. "If you really want them around, then…I…I'll leave the apartment and come back when they are gone. You can enjoy dinner with them."

He figured that she had to be really averse to the idea of meeting his friends, or she would not have said something so extreme. It wasn't as if he could understand why she was acting so strangely, but he did not want to upset her.

So the topic was left untouched, and the venue of the gathering was changed to someone else's place.

Then there was once when she had appeared behind him with a face towel as he was washing his face at the face basin.

"Here, your face towel."

He stood up straight from his bent over position at the face basin, trying to prevent the drops of water from falling all over the front of his shirt, and looked into the mirror to give her a smile.

But what greeted his eyes made his heart skip a beat. He barely stifled a cry of surprise and the momentary shock caused him to reflexively distance himself from her, even though his knees had gone weak. His hands fumbled, and the mug containing his toothbrush and toothpaste was accidentally shoved to the ground.

"Sesshoumaru? What's wrong?" She hurriedly asked, putting her hands on his arm before bending down to pick the fallen items off the floor.

He breathed heavily, staring at nothingness before turning to look at her fully. His eyes had been filled with fear and distrust, before slowly raising his fingers to her face and cupping a cheek.

"What happened?" Her face was a mask of worry and concern; her voice quiet.

"…nothing." He muttered, and took the face towel from her.

How did you tell the girl you loved that you just saw a horrifying reflection of her in the mirror? Dark, soulful eyes in a pale, gaunt face with multiple cuts, complete with maroon, coagulated blood against lifeless skin?

"Are you really alright?"

"I said, it was nothing." He released the breath he had been holding for awhile, and strode out of the bathroom.

As if those two incidents were not enough, there was a third one which sent his mind spiraling into dilemma.

His stepmother Izayoi had kindly prepared a pot of home cooked soup for him, and brought it up to his apartment along with groceries and some new clothes which she had bought for him. They had been watching TV together on the couch when the doorbell rang.

He went over to look through the peephole in the door, before turning back to the girl who was still sitting on the couch.

"It's my stepmother, Izayoi."

With that he opened the door to welcome the older woman in, but as he turned around to make the basic introductions, he realized that the living room was empty. Kagome was no longer on the couch. Leading his stepmother into the kitchen where she busied herself with placing the pot of soup into the refrigerator, Sesshoumaru hurriedly made an excuse to leave the kitchen. He entered each room and checked if the washroom had been occupied, but there was no living soul in sight. Kagome was gone, in a matter of seconds.

"Sesshoumaru, my, my, you're really good at keeping the place neat and tidy!" Izayoi smiled as he entered the kitchen, failing to notice the perplexed expression on his face. "If I did not know better, I'd think you have a girlfriend helping you with the chores!"

He chose to remain silent with a half-hearted smile, and evaded his stepmother's concerned gazes when she pointed out that he was looking very tired.

It was only after Izayoi left, when Kagome reappeared at the door.

"Where did you go?"

"I went out." She smiled a little too brightly, walking past him to enter the apartment.

"How?" He was genuinely perplexed. How could she have simply…disappeared like that?

"I…I snuck out when you guys were busy in the kitchen." She tried to explain, but he was quick to add.

"Without even saying hi? Or bye, for that matter."

"It would have been awkward."

"Awkward? It is not as if you are an illegal immigrant." He said heatedly, watching her face freeze into an expression of uneasiness. "Are you hiding something from me, Kagome? Is there anything I should know?"

"I'm tired, Sesshoumaru. I want to rest." With that, she had strode back into the room they shared, and was asleep by the time he went into the room, even though he knew she was probably feigning.

Now, Sesshoumaru was staring at his computer screen in a mixture of what he could best describe as disbelief and realization. Staring back at him was an email from Tsuda, the guy he met at the party, and attached to the mail was an article from Kyoto University's department of Economics titled…

"Ex-student dies in fatal car crash in Paris."

There was also a message from Tsuda. "Hey Sesshoumaru...I know this is not easy to accept, but it's the truth. I wasn't lying when I told you Higurashi-san had passed away. But since I am your friend, and you're Inuyasha's brother, I wouldn't want to see you hold on to the false hope of Higurashi-san coming back."

The box within the columns of words was framing none other than her face. His heart sank into the pits of hell, and it felt like someone had ripped it out and stabbed it viciously. Cold perspiration broke out over his skin, while a drop of moisture ran down his temple to roll off his face at the point of his chin.

He couldn't think properly. If Kagome was…dead, then who was the girl sleeping in his bed every night? She was just reading in the bedroom beside the study room in which he was currently in.

So he did something which he knew he might regret later, but rationality insisted it had to be done.

He grabbed his car keys, though his fingers were trembling from fear.

And sped straight towards a certain shrine in downtown Tokyo the moment he started the car engine, without telling her where he was going.

But as his car sped out of the basement parking lot of the apartment building, he failed to see her standing at the window of the bedroom, watching his car turn around the corner with eyes filled with melancholy.

The headlights of cars on the roads, traffic lights and the flashing neon from signboards passed him in a kaleidoscopic, depressing blur, before he found himself outside the shrine in which she was raised.

He ran up the stone steps two steps at a time, before coming to the front of the shrine. His mind was whirring, and all he recalled was an expression of surprise as an older woman with Kagome's features met his eyes.

"Excuse me, you are…?"

"Kagome," That was all he could say as his emotionally-laden mind struggled to function. "I…Kagome…where is she?"

The woman's eyes narrowed and grief peeked from underneath the apparent annoyance. "Is this some sort of sick joke, young man? If it is, please leave immediately. This is…this is not funny in the least."

"No, I am serious." He tried to reason. "Look, I don't know how to put this…but she's with me, and I got the news that she has passed away, but…I see her. I am Sesshoumaru, and I got to know her in 2007 when we were in Paris."

The facial expression on the older woman softened, and she said in a quiet voice. "I see her all the time as well. In my mind, in my heart, in my dreams. My poor, poor child."

He watched as sorrow engulf the woman, who evidently was Kagome's mother, only to look up in surprise as she called out to him.

"Young man…if you are a friend of Kagome's, won't you come in and pay her a visit? She'd be so happy to see you."

So dumbly he followed Kagome's mother, until he came to an altar with a little photo frame with Kagome's face. There was an incense stick burning silently in front of the picture, while fresh white chrysanthemums were arranged neatly in a vase by the side. Behind the photograph was an urn, and he did not know what to feel. It was clear that the urn contained her ashes, but how on earth could she be in his apartment, when he was staring at her ashes in an urn?

Kagome's mother knelt in front of the altar and said softly, "Kagome…look who's here. It's Sesshoumaru, he has come to see you."

For awhile he could not utter a single word; all he did was kneel in front of her altar in stony silence.

"Kagome…I….there are so many things I need to ask you about." He was not entirely lying when he said that. "If you can hear me, tell me what I need to know."

Everything went by in a blur. He did not know how he survived the shock and confusion, but he did, and he eventually found himself going back to his apartment. The truth was too clear; it was just up to him to believe or reject the absurd reality.

He opened the door to his apartment unit.

She did not even look surprised. In fact, she was sitting on the couch, awaiting his return.

He looked at her coldly, not trusting his jumbled emotions to dictate his actions.

"Is there something you need to tell me?"

"You already know it. I heard you when you were at the shrine." Her voice was trembling; indicative of the impending tears. "I'm sorry…I should go."

She turned to walk out of the door, but once again, his hand looped itself firmly around her wrist, preventing her from going further.

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know. Away from you, I guess."

"Do you know what you're saying? After all we've been through…"

"That should be my line! You don't get it, do you, Sesshoumaru?" Kagome wept bitterly as he refused to let go of her hand, her painful sobs escalating in high-pitched, breathy wails at times. "I don't belong to this place…and being with me will kill you!"

"Kagome…what are you talking about?" Deep down, Sesshoumaru faced up to reality. He realized a part of him sort of knew the truth all along; just that he was stubbornly refusing to believe it, as if that could change reality.

He should have known from the day she refused to see his friends, and how she mysteriously disappeared when his stepmother, Izayoi, kindly brought food, groceries and new clothes for him to his apartment. There was also the time when he saw her bloody reflection in the mirror. It was too uncanny, and until he saw the newspaper articles and the publication in the newsletter by Kyoto University did the silent acknowledgement of the truth took place.

Then her mother showed him her altar.

Yet oddly enough, he was not fearful in the least.

"I really, really wanted to take you with me. I knew it is wrong…your time in the living realm is not supposed to be up, but…" Her voice broke under the sorrow she was suffering from, but Kagome continued bravely.

"…I was so selfish. I wanted you to be by my side so badly. It's not fair, Sesshoumaru…that was what I kept telling myself. I had never done anything bad when I was alive. Why did life have to be so unfair as to do this to me? All I wanted was to be with the man I love…I wanted to come back to Japan and marry you one day…I wanted to live…"

He held her hands tighter, but somehow, they were becoming less solid to the touch. His fingers could brush over her porcelain skin as if they were merely tendrils of smoke, and her face looked paler than ever in her anguish.

"Instead, I died alone in Paris on a cold winter morning in the hospital's intensive care unit. There was nothing familiar around me…there were only tubes, machines, drips…I don't know." She continued sobbing. "…I was so scared. Somehow I could think, but my body was too battered…it felt like I was slipping down a dark tunnel, and I never came back up. I was so angry and upset after I died. I didn't even do anything wrong…I wasn't even driving…I was just sitting at the back, laughing at some joke when everything changed in a matter of seconds…"

"So I came back to you, and while I was really, really happy to see you again…it pained me to see you dying bit by bit. Everyone has been commenting on how tired you look…and it is not because you haven't rested enough. It's because of me; the closer we are, the more I drain your life force. Every kiss, every bit of contact…you will slowly die because of me-"

"And we will be together, should I die at your hands?"

She nodded as she cried harder, saying almost incoherently. "You must hate me for doing this…I am so sorry, I was only thinking of myself…"

"How can I hate someone whose only mistake lies in loving me?"

Then he pulled her into his embrace, and claimed her lips with his own.

It was a gentle, tentative brush of lips against lips, before he pulled away to whisper softly, "Together, forever and ever."

She looked into his eyes, and he saw forever within her taupe orbs.

Two days later, the headlines of all the main newspapers in Japan were dominated by the mysterious case of a young man found dead on the bed in his apartment with an urn containing ashes clutched tightly within his arms. The urn had been reported by the deceased's family to be mysteriously missing hours before the corpse of the young man was discovered by his stepmother…


The End.

A/N: Sad ending, I know. Do not ask me why he could touch Kagome and see her when she's supposed to be dead…this was how it was be in the original Botan Dourou legend. It sure was a bittersweet tale of karmic love that goes beyond the grave. I hope you guys enjoyed this one; please review!