-A/N- Last Chapter. Wow, it's been a long time coming.
Daibakuhatsu Daigaku
Chapter 25
Final Desire
Kagome felt very odd, now, for the light before her faded. She could no longer feel or sense anything tangible. Only pure, raw emotion, un inhibited by words or the brain or anything. It was like she had awakened as something completely different than a human, even though she wasn't sure if she was still sleeping or not.
Maybe she'd roll over in her bed, find her annoying alarm clock had croaked again and that she was late for classes. She'd curse the crap that had been done to her by so many people, but she'd get up and get going anyway.
Wait…That's right… I killed them; Steppy, that woman, Zusayama, and so many others… oh my goodness, how dreadful, am I? I killed people! I know they did awful things, but… I just wanted them to stop it so everyone could be happy and peaceful! I didn't want them dead!
Her thoughts, though, could not truly be translated, for they were not thoughts; they were ebbs and flows of force within her. Words only became apparent later, as she found herself slightly hindered to try and put her feelings into words.
She tried to shift where she was, because she knew she had form. Instead of feeling a limb move a bit, her muscles contort to shift her weight and such, Kagome saw a massive burst of light, like a whip, explode from- well not really left or right or up or down. It was so odd, in that she saw the whip form and vanish from all sides, all angles, an in some part of her mind she couldn't see the burning gas, while in another part the gas was right on top of her 'sight'.
Other than that fire like stream of light, all else was black and dark, hidden in shade.
She was cold on the outside, but very warm on the inside, almost uncomfortably so.
It was the pure existence of loneliness, and yet, the same heightened state of enlightenment. Many a question she had once pondered, for some reason, she now knew the answer was within her, and if given time, her memory would bring that answer up.
A small light grew before her, as if in the distance. Then another on the other side of her, and another perpendicular to the two, and then a light on the opposite of that one. Then four more lights shown themselves so very small, in the empty spaced left by the other blips of white.
What is this? She 'asked' herself.
The lights continued to grow in size until they were no longer white, but yellow, or orange, or blue, or green, one even an odd shade of magenta. Soon it became apparent that these little dots were not beads of existence, but were actually small stars. They kept growing, though, and became fairly large stars, and then even further still, until when they stopped growing Kagome could sense their heat, each one almost right upon her.
She felt ganged up upon.
In a brilliant flash of light, each of the stars threw a solar flare out at her, attaching it to her. It was quite frightening, but not terrorizing.
"Speak sooth, newly fallen." She 'heard' in her 'mind'. The tone of the 'voice' was not impeding at all; quite calm in fact, feminine, and inquisitive. "Is indeed thy call Higurashi Kagome?"
She got it. The voice was asking her name. It was that green star that said it: sun spots formed in a pattern reminiscent to the feeling of the question. "Yes, that's my name…"
The sun spots stopped, for no voice came from any star. It lasted like this for a while until Kagome could bear it no longer. "May I ask what has happened to me? This isn't what has happened in the past when the Shikon no tama-"
All the stars stirred, with small black bubbles popping across their surface: mumbles in her mind.
"You didn't speak truth," A red one said, masculine, upset. "You did not say you were the holder of the link." The way he said it, and the others' response… it was not a good thing. Very offended, and angry.
"I have spoken the truth: I was only asked for my name, and nothing else. Making an assumption that I'd know that I was supposed to introduce-"
"Be quite." It was firm, definite. The feminine blue star that 'said' it was obviously not pleased.
This time, the green star 'spoke' up. "Lady Kagome, thee doest understand that death is thine?"
It took a moment for Kagome to pick apart the sentence and translate, but then it hit her and shook her like she'd been crushed by a piece of cement by the force of the shock. "…I'm dead…?"
"You think that'd you'd be talking to us if you weren't?" A yellow star, masculine, said sarcastically. He sounded slightly adolescent.
"…Inuyasha…" Kagome thought. It was the only thing she could, and now that she was linked to all the others, they thought it from her. "…I didn't even get to speak with him…"
"Spare us the romantic melodrama, please: It does get so old." The red star said.
"Oh shut up. Go blow up or something!" Kagome was angry now at the stars around her, that they felt no empathy, had no willingness to try and understand, or feel. "Just let me be alone or with Inuyasha! Screw all of you! I-"
"SILENCE." It was said by all eight of the stars, not yelled by them. The volume of it was far beyond deafening, at least on human ears.
"We shall leave you to your lonesome in plenty time, Higurashi." A white and yellow star said. "But only after the inquisition is finished. It appears that just before your death, you felled a total fifty intelligent lives, Two million, four hundred sixty five thousand, three hundred seventy nine unintelligent lives, ninety four thousand, eight hundred eighty seven unaware lives, and did this in front of a good many more, but I grow tired of speaking numbers, so I shall not." A lime green star, older, male, 'said'. "You are to tell and explain what it is that inspired you to do such a thing so cruel."
"It wasn't cruel." She began, but was taken as finished with her sentence, and was cut off by the blue star.
"Oh, we think so, for-"
"Would you at least have enough of a soul to let me finish speaking?!" Kagome roared. In life, this would be another example of a short burst from the Higurashi volcano; here, though, the heat within here exploded in size, and she saw pink flashes and whips of light striking the other stars and going even farther out.
"Don't preach about respect." The white and yellow said, his tone unpleasant. "Just finish what you were saying, then."
"It wasn't cruel," Kagome repeated, flustered on the inside. "It was vile and despicable and disgusting and heart wrenching and so painful on me that if I had a heart I'd want to rip it out and offer it to you so that I could show what I meant by saying that it hurts for me, but even that couldn't sway you, from what I've seen."
"Don't make assumptions." A dark green one said. It was feminine, and also displeased.
The main green one sent a stream of fiery gas at the dark green one and a few others, apparently preparing to speak. "Thou suggest that perhaps we of the shell should be most inclined to not be so ungentle to this rosy color?"
Kagome deciphered the sentence while listening to the annoyed grumbles and weak concordances of the other stars: The green said, roughly, "Why don't we not try to chew off her head yet?"
Kagome sent a spot pattern of thanks to the green star, then continuing to speak. "And furthermore… the Shikon no tama…" They all shuddered. "It took over me, after I heard… something that I've been hearing, and feeling, for quite a while."
"Such would be…?" The green one asked.
And so Kagome told her and the others the poem of failing, flailing, and all of the rest with it.
"I can't believe he did it again…" the yellow one said. "Even after punishment, he still is giving prophecy to a planet that's over it's fair share anyway."
"Huh?" Kagome said, quite confused.
Many of the stars gave aggravated sighs, but a white star spoke up. It a small voice, that of a small child: Kagome couldn't determine the gender. "Every planet that is dominated by a self-aware species occasionally has an allowed prophet that links us with the prophet, and thus judgment from all those dead. A while back, centuries for humans, one star was assigned to deliver a prophet to the planet Gai - what humans call Earth. But the star split up the connecting flame and brought to many different people over a small period of time for him, many decades for humans, our judgments. And each semi-prophet would get a general sensation of what the prophecy was and our judgment and personal feelings, but many then went and interpreted it in different ways, a few even for their own disposal. Some based 'religions' on what they thought was correct, and although one of them got it quite correct by simple thought alone - which was admirable - even in that religion things broke up and caused havoc. It was disgusting seeing what people did on the planet, even persecuting the kind that had been their brethren for generations."
"Demons, you mean." Kagome said. "Human went after demons."
"She may be a recently fallen, but she is not a fool." The dark green one said approvingly.
"Indeed, such is the case." The white one affirmed, then continuing. "And so we punished him to share the mind-space of the star already watching over the planet, but he could not speak to any other, nor could he do anything but watch what happened in human time what he had done to the system there, and to Gai. As such, there has been no order to allow a prophet to be born on the planet since."
To Kagome, the whole explanation seemed very rehearsed, as if this was a regular question asked by the 'recently fallen'. But a question came from her soul concerning the whole matter. "So then… which prophet got it mostly right? Of which religion, I mean."
"You are not permitted to know until your essence at Gai has fully vanished." the blue one said. "Otherwise one might try to relay such information like the 'true' Faith, the meaning of the universe, or the fate of those of Arsol, or Mars to you, to those still are alive."
"The dead know all of that?"
"Of course we do; I just told you we do." The blue star said grumpily.
"But until your essence is gone, you shall not be allowed to know, or induce NOVA." The Red one said. "So until that time arrives, this court of judgment is adjourned. Higurashi is to spend semi solitude with a random other until the fulfillment of judgment can be made."
"What?" Kagome asked, but then their arms of light went back to the corresponding stars, and they zoomed off towards the dark abyss, quickly fading and vanishing altogether.
Kagome's thoughts went back to despair now, now that she was alone. If she had even been able to at least speak with her other half, with Inuyasha, then she might feel a little better. But… how would that be possible?
Perhaps…I could do the whole prophet thing to him, and let him know how I felt about him, and everything! Perhaps-
I wouldn't recommend it. She heard in her mind. She had been so fixed on her mindset that she did not even realize the random 'star' was right next to her, an arm of light attached to her. Your last shell was a human, right? Ha, those on Gai don't need another prophet; they need a savior. But I guess I should be careful, with the way I speak. I may just be reborn there in a little bit.
She no longer felt like conversing. Kagome was weary now, her soul so tired and weak, since it longed to cry so dearly, and yet could do nothing.
The silent type, huh... Still can't get over death, even when your dead? Hah, you'll get used to just being soul. It just takes-
If it's so obvious that we need help on earth, Kagome had no anger, instead bitterness. What was with all of these stars, these souls apparently, anyway? Did they have any empathy towards anyone else besides themselves and their kind? Then why don't any of you try to do anything, to help us out?
We? Us? You're still thinking in living terms, rosy. The only we and us are right here in space. And yeah, the jurors have thought about trying to make things better, but- ack, your so selfish! Help the humans? Help the people? What about the others on your planet, huh? Or the rest of life in the universe? You know, my last shell was this little, shelled, sea animal in the Andromeda galaxy, that actually was a part of a tribe und-
I didn't once say humans or demons or anything! Desperation setting in. I said us! ALL of us!
Oh, sure, whatever, rosy. You really are arrogant.
I have a name! It's Kagome Higurashi, and I know I'm being arrogant and inconsiderate and-
Then why are you doing it if you know about it? he asked, with the tone of mockery of an immature child. Why don't you think about me, eh? I'm a part of us, too.
WELL, DUH! AND THE REASON I'M KNOWINGLY BEING ARROGANT IS BECAUSE YOU REFUSED TO LISTEN TO ME BEING POLITE AND QUITE, SO NOW I TRIED THE OTHER WAY, OKAY!? FOR A BIT I TRIED TO BE EMPATHETIC TO YOU, BUT THEN YOU JUST DIDN'T LISTEN, SO I BROUGHT THE SAME BACK TO YOU THAT YOU DID TO ME!
That's why no one here helps the living. He 'said' quite coolly. We tried to talk to them kindly, but the ignored us, so we get arrogant to them. We won't speak to them if they won't listen.
Urrrrrrrrrgh! What was with this philosophy!? Can't you remember being alive and wanting to talk with the dead?! But since we can't, slowly we move on!
You might have thought you were gifted when you were alive and had the Shikon and all, but you aren't,-
I WASN'T GIFTED, YOU IDIOT! AND IT WASN'T A CURSE! IT WAS LIFE! THAT'S THE ONLY LIFE I KNOW!
Liar; all of us know we had lives before this one and remember it. Deny it all you want, but everyone who is dead gets to know what their lives were before.
No, I don't…! Why won't he listen? Why won't they listen to me?! I just know me! All I can remember is birth till… death!
Still scared to say your dead, huh?
WOULD YOU SHUT UP, YOU BELIGERANT BURNING BALL OF GAS!? Her star, indeed pink, began to tremble and pulsate, but she didn't care at all. Kagome didn't want to be dead or to go on to another life. She wanted to be back in the only life she knew, as Kagome. She wanted to breath in deeply, even if her lungs were bitten by the frost. She wanted to see the world, even f meant her blindness. She wanted to hear every voice, even if she became deaf. She wanted to taste the raw existence, no matter how bitter. She wanted to go back and do something - ANYTHING that could stop everything that was done wrong and help everyone get back a level head. She wanted to go back and touch, feel, hold, squeeze Inuyasha until she couldn't even tell the difference from he and she.
But since she couldn't change the living world, she'd start on the dead one.
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CARED ENOUGH TO EVEN WISH TO SPEAK WITH THE LIVING, TO HELP ANY OF THEM? WHEN DID YOU LAST TRY TO EVEN HELP THE DEAD WITH ANY THING AT ALL? WHEN DID YOU LAST THINK ABOUT SOMEONE ELSE BESIDES YOURSELF? OH, SO I AM SO ARROGANT? INDEED, FOR IF I AM, YOU ARE TOO, FOR YOU ARE WILLINGLY IGNORANT. IT MIGHT BE BLISS FOR YOU, TO ALL ELSE IT IS HELL! SO STOP TRYING TO SUCK AWAY THE 'LIFE' FROM ANY DEAD YOU MEET; YOU AND THE REST OF THE DEAD, STOP IT! AND THEN WHEN YOU ACTUALLY START CARING FOR OTHERS THE WAY YOU WERE TAUGHT IN LIFE, THEN YOU MIGHT JUST BE FREED FROM THIS CYCLE OF REBIRTH YOU ALL KEEP TALKING ABOUT! GO RELAY THAT TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS AND LET ME LOVE!
She was calmed. The pulsating dimmed and she shrank back to normal size, then even shrinking and cooling slightly. Even when she was alive, she had never gotten so upset with anyone. Even Inuyasha.
The mere thought of him shrank her further.
You're so melodramatic. And pathetic. That's all you are, a selfish brat. So you thought your Shikon no tama would make you respected and all? Surprise, surprise, you aren't.
Just leave me to love.
Oh, so high and mighty, yelling and screaming like some fake prophet of the divine, and now you want my pity? Oh, boo hoo, so sorry for poor little rosy.
I don't want your pity, my name isn't rosy, I don't want anything because of the Shikon no tama, and it's not mine; some other people stuck it in me for themselves. Now just leave me to love.
Liar, the Shikon is yours, alright. You were the one who could talk with the dead and all, and how do you use it? Just to talk with your old, pathetic father. Oh yeah, you aren't selfish. Oh no, not at all.
I'm no liar, my father is not pathetic, and it's not like the Shikon came with instructions. Now leave me to love. Please…
What, being polite is supposed to help you or-
You know, all of you dead could have talked to me, since I had the Shikon no tama. All of you, every last one. And you didn't. You're calling me arrogant, so I call you a hypocritical liar. And I'm sorry if trying to be kind offends you, but it is who I am. It is my flesh and bones. So please leave me to love.
The star wasn't all that happy with that last statement. It seemed like what she said, that the dead had their chance to talk with the living through her, hadn't gone over that well in his soul. He gave no immediate rebuttal, instead sputtering helium for a bit until he could think of something else. W-well… it's not like a zillion stars could all orbit around the earth and talk to some bratty girl! Your planet would sizzle! And I'm not a liar!
That not how it works. Her tone was calm now, kind, like a mother to child, teacher to student. When I talked to my father, we were no where near the earth: I was in my own star, and he was in his, but we could see our humonic forms. I went to him, not him to me.
We-..uh, well, I- FUCK YOU, LIAR! YOU'RE A LIAR, THAT'S ALL! A PATHETIC LIAR!
Funny how you keep on saying I'm a liar and I don't deny it, and yet when I said it to you, you said you weren't.
C-CAUSE I AIN'T!
Perhaps so, perhaps not… tell me, have you ever loved someone?
SHUT UP, LIAR!
I guess I have, when I was alive, at least.
I DON'T WANT HEAR ABOUT YOUR CRAPPY LIFE! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!
We didn't get along at first; almost killed each other a few times.
SHUT UP!!! SHUT UP NOW, LIAR! BRAT! LIAR!
But somehow, I stopped and tried to understand him, actually tried to… feel what he felt, and how and why; Kind of like how I'm trying to do the same to you now.
The hue of her star grew more pale and vibrant, arms of light and gas spreading far and wide. The star that had come to her was fighting her, but was stuck in an orbit around her growing form. He could not escape. NO! SHUT UP! YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND ME! NO ONE WHO LIVED COULD! NO! STOP! SHUT UP!
It really worked then, and I started hearing this music in my head, this soft melody whenever I thought about him, felt him, was close to him. Even when I was scared and preoccupied with prophecy… I still heard it. Heh… I can even hear it now; wow, it's loud.
That it was. She was almost fully white now, arms sprouting arms now, suddenly finding new stars beyond the seemingly empty abyss. They were drawn to her, but not destroyed or anything; they were drawn to her to listen to the beautiful melody she gave them all. It was so inspiring, the thought that they could hear. But I'm a star, I'm dead, many thought. And yet they heard, something that only the living could do.
SHUT UP! YOU LIE! I CAN'T HEAR YOU! I WON'T HEAR YOU! STOP IT! STOP IT! THIS WASN'T WHAT THEY SAID WOULD HAPPEN! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO JOIN US! STOP IT!
But I just couldn't say it. I couldn't say that I care for him, that I fancy him so much. It's not that big soppy love you hear in the movies or read in books or fan work or anything; I'm beginning to wonder if that stuff is even real, or if people pretend it or make it up because that's what they felt it was supposed to be without thinking as to what it really was, this love. It's like… you just want to hold each other, want to finish the other's sentences, know what makes them ticked so that you can make them mad and laugh about it just a moment later, and even when you have your privacy, you are never truly alone.
No… please, just be quiet…. Just shut up… stop…
And now I regret not telling him how much I care for him. How funny that is, how ironic… And then I went out and went both with and against a prophecy… and now I wonder what it was even supposed to be. You were right on that: the Shikon no tama only matters on that planet, not here. But that's because it's matter, like mass… Then it struck her. That perhaps… We could have shared it. All of us, all the living and the dead, all the species, all the planets, all the stars. It could be the one thing that tied everyone together, the fact that we all could still talk with our loved ones, even if we thought we were talking to them in heaven, nirvana, hell, or where-ever. It doesn't matter!…
He was silent now. It seemed like he was listening to her. Not only that, her arms were everywhere, touching thousands of stars who suddenly knew all that she did, and were listening closely as the melody kept going.
He is so beautiful, Inuyasha is. So great, even if it takes patience to see. Maybe it can't really be appreciated if… listen to me, going off like this. Wow, you'd think I was teacher or something in ancient Greece.
Where's Greece? Several hundred of the thousands she touched asked.
Here, this map I'm thinking of? This is earth, the world, Gai, whatever you name it, it's still home. And right there, at the northern-bottom end of that big sea? That's Greece. A lot of philosophers came from there in ancient times, but those are mainly the ones the world remembered. There must have been millions that history forgot.
She was white now, pure white. Most of her arms now had fused together in one big, white mass that countless stars orbited in. From touching them all, she could hear what they were beginning to think of:
Oh yeah, I remember feeling like that, that love.
Life?… oh yeah, I remember when…
Wow, I can remember what chocolate tastes like, come to think of it.
The way she's speaking, it's like those old teaching's I learned…
Life. She had brought life to the dead.
She was happy for it.
But Kagome still wanted life. No, she didn't want life, she wanted to be with the people who were living. That was what she wanted.
--
Inuyasha didn't stop trying to move the wall that had fallen on her, or the iron cross, or any of it. He kept pushing, cursing and pushing, his mind roaring that it couldn't have happened. He wouldn't have let it happen.
Not even when the sky turned from blue to light blue. Then light blue to a very light blue. The sun was hard to pick out of existence. Koika, the lone one of the group who had risen to look at the sky, felt… so warm.
The sky turned to white, and a soft melody was born from the wind.
Suddenly a gale blasted all around them, circling around the crushed orthodox church. From it the melody grew in strength and force and width and fervor, and so many were happy then. They didn't know why, but they were so happy that they were crying. All of the people: Japanese and French, Guard and civilian, human and demon, all crying. Even Inuyasha couldn't stop the cement-like tears from streaming down his cheeks as he fought the wind to fight the wall.
--
And now… Oh damn, how much I just want him to know. Not just to know, but for me to tell him and give him everything I can and take in everything he gives. To stay with him for as long as I can and work with him to stop all of the things that the living and the dead and the neither from doing that hurts the others.
She had reached the adjourned jury now. They couldn't escape the star for whom they were to pass judgment on. She was all, everything, enveloping all in her warmth and hope and love and melancholy and despair and frustration and all of it all together in the exact meaning to feel.
Kagome…? she heard.
Dad! Where are y- oh, I 'see' you.
I know I said you were the brightest star out here, but isn't this a bit much?
She laughed, and so did the stars and the planets and the living and the dead.
I guess… it all happened just like it planned to?
Yes; I was the first born, so I fell.
Kagome, do you know the story of Moses? How, after much indeed, he bestowed the plagues, lead the people to the 'promised land' and then disappeared?
Up to that point, just about.
Kagome, don't you see? You are Moses! Only female and Japanese and at the moment dead.
He's dead too, at last check.
But there was more to him than that: Many people thought he had died on Mt. Sinai, and so they went into despair. However, he returned with the word of the Christian god and lead the Jesuits for over forty more years.
The melody that was spanning the cosmos suddenly took a jump in power and pitch and speed. Dad… Why didn't you tell-
I thought of it only a few minutes ago - but for you, that would have been weeks, months, even.
I get it… A few of the stars she touched said. He means that if you're this Moses, you're supposed to go back to your people!
If Kagome had a jaw, it would have gone slack right about then.
Dad… you wouldn't have thought of anything that might get me back to life, would you?
Besides the reincarnation stuff? Sorry, Kagome, I haven't.
Hold on! A star said, speaking with a strong German accent. You are a white hole! I bet that you can be balanced by a black hole!
Really?! That melody was reaching a climax now. Where- wait, you sound like Albert Einstein.
Oh… yes, I think that was the name of my last shell… The star went off in thought for a moment before coming back to think to others. Oh, forget that, girl! I won't even be here but for 20 more hours! Just forget zat! Just find a black hole and dive right in!
…Where might I begin looking? The universe is slightly large, you know.
Kagome noticed a star zooming closer to her. Faster and faster, almost at the speed of light. It took her a moment to catch up with the stars' thoughts, Dad?! What are you-
Please tell our family I love them and you very much, Kagome… I don't think I'll get to speak to you again after this-
Dad! Stop, what are you do-
I'll make enough mass through both your and my stars to force a black hole into existence that has to take you to life.
Wha- DAD, NO, PLEASE!
What, do you think I'm going to die?
He had her there. Well, no, but-
…Kagome… I didn't want all of this to happen at first, when I came up with the idea of the Shikon no tama. But now, I'm happy we made it. This is my final desire with you: Please love everyone you meet, and share the Shikon with them, and stop all this idiocy in the universe.
DAD!He was almost there. Only enough time to say one thing more, and then they collide.
I LOVE YOU, DADDY!
He might have smiled were he living. Love you, too.
They struck. All the power and light and music all reached it's full paramount in that instant. And then she heard nothing, felt nothing, saw nothing.
And she opened her eyes, coughing so hard she thought her lungs might come out of her lungs. She was still facing the ground, and barely had enough energy to turn herself over; but she did.
Kagome didn't notice the terrified stares of the many in the surrounding area: After all, the destroyed roof of the church had just flew off into the sky and into space, leaving a previously crushed and very dead person breath and coughing and fairly alive.
Her feet burned, her body ached, everything hurt so much, all of her, all of it. And yet she was so happy to feel all of it, any of it, even the slight chill in the spring air.
Kagome for a moment tried to speak, but she realized that the acid from her stomach had really taken a toll on her voice, for it didn't work. Or rather, it didn't work well.
Suddenly then, a body flung itself onto her. It was warm, and sounded like the harmony of her melody, so she was happy as Inuyasha kissed her forehead. "Oh kami…" He kept saying over and over again as he held her. "Oh Kagome…"
For being dead for a while, she had to admit, her hearing was pretty good, since she could hear from there, on an altar and under Inuyasha, she heard a few people running over and calling out to someone named Brunet. She was even more surprised when she heard them speak in a foreign language, and yet she knew what they said:
"Oh shit, we have to stop the bleeding. Here, I'll call the helicopter-"
"Gyah…" Brunet hissed. "Fine, but tell them that we'll be going to Russia… Ack!… Careful, please! Also, hey, Marie, tell them not to keep a lot of carry on- I want to get as many of these victims out of here as I can."
"Sure. I'm on it."
It didn't take more than ten minutes for three large, U.N. helicopters to start landing in the gardens. By then the sound of Japanese police was starting to grow, as word began to spread in the Japanese government that the prime minister had died, and the Deputy Prime Minister was now on top.
The helicopters could only fit two thirds of the people there, including Inuyasha, Koika, Kagome, Koga, Sango, and Miroku, and when they took off, the remaining third scattered, mainly heading up Mount Hakodate. Kagome wished she could have told the westerners to try and cram the people in, but she couldn't speak in the first place, so that made things a little more difficult.
But now, they were over the sea, and here she was; in pain, but safe with Inuyasha and her friends all around her. And on top of that, she was leaving Japan. And so now she wanted to sleep, for she really was tired, and hungry come to think of it. And thirsty. She'd tend to those things later, though. Right now she just wanted to sleep. And so she did, with every intention of waking up.
Friday, April 8, 10:22 AM
Roma, Italy, E.U.
Azienda Ospedaliera Policlinico Umberto 1
Kagome felt like lead as she was gently awakened by the fluent ticking of a mechanical heartbeat. It was rather annoying, actually, so she tried to roll over on her side and go back to sleep. But instead, she got a throbbing pain in her left hand, so strong that it forced her awake and to whimper a bit.
The light of the room blinded her for a moment, but she greatly enjoyed its warmth, so she let the light in. As her eyes slowly adjusted, Kagome began to make out the foot of a bed , near the end of her feet. And then a door beyond it, and soon she found she was in a sunlit hospital room, an iv in her left wrist, several large wires taped onto her stomach, and many other things. She felt like a Christmas tree.
Slowly she let her head fall to the right, looking at the slumbering half-demon hunched over a large chair. Immediately she tried to say something to him, but her throat seared with pain and her stomach lurched, causing her to instead cough miserably.
He stirred a bit in his sleep, and started to move around a bit in the chair, as if slumber was leaving him.
Kagome looked around her bed for something to get his attention, or to throw at him or something like that. It was then that she heard a droplet of fluid drip into the filter of the iv.
Darkness. Pinned to a cross. Drop of water. Drop of water. Never ending. Steppy. Her. Stun gun. Striking me. Drip. Drip. DRIP. DRIP! DRIP! DRIP!
Kagome shook all over as she tried to get the awful thoughts from her mind, sending her into another fit of strained coughing.
The sound of her distress fully shook Inuyasha from sleep, as it had in the few days they had been here. He jumped up, alert and worried, moving to run over to her, instead tripping over the chair and falling face first to the ground.
She kept coughing. He looked up at Kagome, and instead found that she was actually smiling between coughs. Laughing…
"What's so funny!?" He asked sourly.
She kept smiling and coughing, gently pointing her hand at him.
He made a pout and growled, but Kagome could tell it was all for show. It was just a gut feeling, which probably wasn't saying much considering how little she had in her gut right now, but it still made her feel good.
Inuyasha 'got over it' fairly quickly, going into mild mumbling for a minute or two until he looked out the window. Then his face paled slightly, and he turned to face her. "Uh… Kagome…?"
She looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"You… Er… um, I…" He took a deep breath, looking out the window so he didn't have to look at her. "I don't…I don't want you out of my sight again… That… What happened… I was real scared. I… I've never been that scared, when you…" He was getting close to stuttering as his breath got heavier. Calm down, Inuyasha…
Be bold in your time of crisis, and fell it straight on!
I'll give those words one more chance, book. If they don't work this time, I'm burning you. Inuyasha took a deep breath. "You… I really do care about you, Kagome… If you don't care about me, that's fine, but… I don't-"
He stopped to look over at her. She had a huge smile on her face and was pumping her arms up and down, kicking her legs under the sheets, rocking the entire bed.
"Uh…" He only stared while she went wacko. Slowly she calmed down a bit and beckoned him over to him. The moment he got into range, as best she could, she wrapped her arms around his middle.
If Inuyasha had any doubt before about her returning affections, they were all gone now.
A few minutes went by as the two just simply held each other.
"Um… Kagome…? There's something else…" He began, sounding slightly perturbed by breaking the sacred silence.
She nodded, as if to say 'Go ahead, say it.'
"Well… You know… how we told you what all happened when we were coming after you?… in the gardens?…"
She indeed did, and nodded so.
"You see… Well, here, I'll show you first." Slowly he moved the different machines she was attached to so that they would roll more easily. Then Inuyasha went back to the bed and picked Kagome up and out of the bed, gently setting her down on her feet. "Can you walk?"
She nodded once again. He held out his hand, and the two went over to the window Inuyasha had been looking out of.
He undid the thin sheet cover on it and opened it, letting a roar of sound and voice into the room.
Kagome looked out of the window, at the possibly thousands of people all outside of the hospital and into the neighboring parks and streets. Most were demons, but there were a lot of humans and half demons there too.
One of them spotted her, and shouted something in… Arabic, maybe? She didn't have much time to think about it before all of the gatherers saw her.
"HIGURASHI! SAVIOR! HIGURASHI! SAVIOR! HIGURASHI! SAVIOR!…" Was the chant the boomed out together, like a giant megaphone.
Kagome was… well, stunned, really. This was not exactly what she thought she'd find outside of a hospital window.
"The camera-bots-!" Inuyasha yelled towards her, trying to get his voice in over all of the others. "Brunet got the camera-bots and went on a massive campaign to get you out there! Basically, you've now got a day named after you, have a dozen medals from a dozen countries, and are the equivalent of Moses to the Demons and crap!"
She just stood there stupidly, as if waiting for someone to say just kidding and all of the people to stop working, like they were robots or something.
Dad… you said I was like Moses and all… I didn't know you meant literally! This… what am I to do?!
The door to the hospital room burst open. Sango bolted right up to her friends and held her close, mumbling things that neither understood. Miroku, Koga and Koika filed in a little less extremely, but all of them were quite happy. The last person to come in wasn't though; the nurse rushed in and yelled something at her in Italian, shutting the window and whisking Kagome back into bed. After pushing everyone out of the room (the woman really had guts, pushing a growling half- dog demon out of the room and all), she gathered some breakfast things on a tray and gave it to Kagome, a little more gently. She also turned on the television and handed Kagome the remote. After writing some things down on a clipboard on a hook against the wall, the nurse left the room and went outside, apparently to give a piece of her mind to the others she'd just shoved out of the room.
Kagome quickly changed the language presentation on the T.V. to Japanese. She didn't actually needed it: for some reason, she knew what the newswoman was saying, even though it was in Italian. But the little Hiragana and kanji on the bottom would lessen any others' thoughts that something was screwed up with her brain.
"…And the new Prime minister has apparently called for Kagome Higurashi to be returned to his nation for trials for treason and assassination of former Prime minister Zusayama, but the E.U. has already responded by reportedly telling him to "Go to hell, with the other Minister" ."Apparently the female news anchor found this fairly funny, along with the rest of the crew of the show, for there were sounds of laughter in the anchor room. "In fact, many people throughout the European Union have begun to say that she is an angel from heaven, since within the hour of her arrival in Rome, a vaccine was successfully tested against the Avian Flu, and the final testing for Human cases today are predicted to be phenomenal. Some people have gone so far so as to say that she is a goddess descended to the earth to save us all, as this altar being made by several druid communities in Eire show."
Kagome was dumbfounded, watching a few dozen people working on a large, wood, stone and earth monument in a grassy pasture-land, all apparently for her.
"And with the videos of what she was able to do reach around the globe, there are even more and more people who are beginning to follow her 'teachings', so to speak. In fact, the newly formed United Peoples of America has absorbed almost all of the breakaway parts of the former U.S.A except for The Republic of Alaska, Hawai'i, Cascadia, and the Divine Nation of God. However, Cascadia has apparently signed a formal alliance with the U.P.A. to go to war with the D.N.G., thus ending the war between the two opposing nations in favor of two against one. It has been proposed that Cascadia will try to join the U.P.A., but both nations have denied and struck down such a proposal, apparently in favor of two nations in peace instead of one in violence."
"And even though many authorities all over the world continue to say the things witnessed from the Camera-bots in Hakodate were created via a computer, most experts on the subject say that such effects demonstrated are currently impossible, not to mention the blinding flash of light seen all over the world when the event occurred. All over the world there are demonstrations by millions of people, showing their support in the Japanese girl who we are all dying to know more about. So we now leave you with a few videos of these demonstrations as EuroHour comes up next. This is Prime News Italia in the morning, and I'm Annunziata Giordani."
And they showed the videos with the locations shown in print at the bottom. Lhasa, Hyderabad, Tikrit, Cotonou, Blantyre, Pretoria, Santiago, Managua, Canberra, Jakarta, Singapore, Dili, Suva, Bangkok, Busan, Vladivostok, Warsaw, Leon, Paris, Barcelona, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Atlanta, Toronto…
She couldn't believe it. Here she was, one girl who had just done what she had thought was right (except for the times when she wasn't exactly in control of her body), and… all of this? She hadn't meant to do all of this, had she? The whole world peace thing, that was good and all but… A cult following?
She looked out the indoor windows as the nurse walked off and Inuyasha and the rest moved to come back inside.
Kagome smiled. Even if all the people in the world worshiped her, at least there were some people that she could worship too.
AND WE'RE DONE!
Except for the Epilogue that will answer some unattended to questions. For example, how did Sesshomaru get the Tessaiga? And how does he know Kagome? Those amongst other things are soon to come!