Revised and Adapted 9/3/2010
Chapter XXV: Midoriko's Final Words
Sango had awakened from her faint some two hours everyone was sure she was okay Midoriko announced that it was time for her to go. She told them that her being with them was causing strain on Kagome and Mika's souls. Not wanting to cause the two women harm she decided it was time for her to depart from this earth.
So, regretfully, she told them that she must return to the afterlife but first there was something she had to talk to Kagome about. And so discreetly her and Kagome left the hut and went to the shrine, where a light coat of snow was settling.
The two stopped in front of the mini-shrine that Kikyo's ashes rested in. With their heavy hearts they put their palms together and prayed.
Around them a haze of white began to form. It gathered around them gently and formed a barrier between them and the real world. The places where there was pain and tainting hate.
Kagome's eyes were shut tight and she found it hard to pray. There were so many thoughts drifting in and out of her head. She couldn't breathe because of it and her lungs burned from the cold.
'Could this be?' she thought as she opened her eyes to look at Kikyo's grave closely. 'Could the weather be reacting to me?'
She thought of Mika and of Sango. When Sango had become upset, when she had screamed and cried, the storm had started. But it wasn't because of Sango's state; it was because of Mika reacting to Sango.
The little girl's eyes had been wide and she had nearly taken InuYasha's arm off when she held onto him for dear life. He had cuddled her and cooed to her, telling her in every way he knew that it was alright and she had nothing to fear. But the baby wouldn't be consoled until Sango had finally fainted and stopped screaming and sobbing.
Kagome looked up into the air and studied the falling snow. It fell onto her lashes making her blink and turn away from the sky. Her hands, which were still held in prayer, opened and took in the light flakes. They melted on her hands and became gentle puddles of ice cold water.
Carefully she pulled the material of her kimono more closely around her and huddled her shoulders together. Her eyes ventured to the other woman on her right and she sighed when she realized the snow wasn't affecting her in the slightest.
Her eyes clouded over when she turned back to the grave and began to think. She thought, while about the things that had happened, about Mika, Miroku, Sango, and InuYasha—until she came to a conclusion.
The snow around her was different than normal snow. She put her palm back out again and studied the way the snow mingled with different auras and emotions. Blue—green—grey—black—purple—brown—every color that had ever been thought of hinted in the snow and reflected.
As the whiteness gathered and became more brilliant time ticked and the area around them changed into a coat, a very light coat, of ice. The snow in Kagome's hair made her hair color change from black to almost white.
"Kagome?" Midoriko said in a small almost unsure voice. "You have mated the hanyou, Inuyasha?"
Kagome looked at her started and flustered. She had been unaware that Midoriko knew of her and Inuyasha's new relationship. She nodded blankly at the ghost Miko and did her best to fight her blush.
"Yet, you power still remains untainted."
"Why wouldn't it?"
"Miko is pure, to mix with a demon is to destroy that purity."
Kagome glared angrily at the older Miko and pointed at her firmly. "That's bullshit!"
Midoriko was taken aback at the word. She looked at the conviction on Kagome's face and smiled. "I'm glad you think so." She took Kagome's startled hand into her own.
Kagome felt warmth fill her for a moment and knew it was part of her soul coming back into her body.
"Kagome, you must always believe in your love for Inuyasha. It is the only way that things will be right again."
Kagome nodded as the feeling of warmth began to overwhelm her.
"You only must prepare Mikaren, Kagome."
Kagome looked at Midoriko with wide eyes. "Prepare her to destroy all demons?"
"Yes."
"I'm afraid, Midoriko-sama, that I can't do that." Kagome pulled her hands away from the older Miko and looked at her with determined eyes. "You said yourself that our soul is against it."
"I know this but there is a chance you will have to do it. You are perfectly capable I know, so will you if the time comes?"
"Capable and willing are two different things. I can't do this, my love for Inuyasha won't let me. Asking me to do this is like asking me to live without him."
The older women nodded and turned away from Kagome so Kagome couldn't see the look of relief on her face.
"Kagome, you are not the one who will train Mika."
Happiness filled Kagome. The whiteness around them began to lessons its decent and the world seemed to calm as the two Miko's did. A bird twittered on a nearby branch and its beady eyes studied them for a moment before it flew away quickly, singing to another bird who had answered its cal.
"Instead I want you to protect the jewel within her Kagome. It must be protected at all cost."
Kagome nodded and looked towards the sky, sticking her tongue out and catching a snowflake on it. She gathered enough on her tongue to quench her thirst and then closed her mouth, just staring at the cloudy blue.
"We must defeat Akkanka and protect Mika for the rest of her life."
"Yes, if the Shikon dies with her then I can trap it in heaven."
"Beating this man, Akkanka, won't be that easy. You know that."
Kagome nodded and turned away from her to look at the grave before them.
"I can do anything as long as InuYasha's by my side." She turned to Midoriko and took her hands into her own while smiling. "Me and my friends have done the impossible before, we can do it again."
"I'm glad to hear that. But you know people will continue to come after the jewel. And you won't be around forever to protect her."
"I know, but InuYasha will." Kagome whispered and looked at her hands as she took them back into her lap. The snow began to fall a little bit quicker and the clouds became slightly darker, almost black. To black to be snow clouds. Midoriko studied these changes in stride and smiled at the young women before her.
"Kagome, what will you do when you're old and he is still young?"
Kagome looked at her with wide and haunted eyes. Tears formed around them and stayed still on the lashes, not daring to fall. Her cheeks became more flushed and her lips parted as she tried to breathe faster than her body was willing. Quickly she looked down and bit her lip as she closed her eyes tightly and tried to focus on anything other than that one question.
"I—I" she hiccuped and put her face in her hands before letting out one sob. "I—I can't think—abo—o—out it. I can't!" She gasped and wiped at her face feverishly.
"You know, there is bound to be a way for you to stay with him."
Kagome looked up hastily and the tears in her eyes stopped their decent. Her hands came away from her redden cheeks and her lip trembled as she waited, for a sign of hope.
"Have you seen the marking on Rin's forehead. Her bangs cover it slightly."
Kagome thought for a moment and then remembered the moon shape on Rin's head.
"The marking on her forehead was caused by him. It has demon magic on it and will sustain her life for as long as he lives."
Kagome set back and thought about this for a moment.
"But that means if Sesshoumaru dies early, she will go with him?"
"No, she will live out his natural life. The demon lord has connected them. She and him share his blood. It runs through her veins giving her the life of a demon. She will live a few thousand years even if Sesshoumaru is cut down now. It is something I doubt Sesshoumaru was even aware of when he did it. Not even his father did it with Inuyasha's mother."
Kagome nodded and rubbed her hands together for warmth. She had left her mittens inside and she knew that any moment now InuYasha would be coming to give them to her.
"But what does that mean for InuYasha and me?"
The snow began to grow heavier and at one point in the sky the clouds parted allowing the sun through. It caused her to sparkle like a gem and glisten, shimmering just enough for InuYasha to make her out and smile as he approached.
He had been listening in on the conversation for a while now and he had to agree with almost everything the two women were saying. From the tree he was in he leaned back and waited for Midoriko to respond to her and answer the question he too had pondered.
When he had first seen Sesshoumaru and Rin he had noticed that the change in scent was much more than just a mating scent. There was something deeper.
Carefully he jumped out of the tree and made his way to them. The first half of the conversation might have been private but this half involved him and Kagome. If Midoriko knew anything more than what he already knew about demon markings he wanted to know. Right before he made his presence known Midoriko looked him in the eyes and started talking.
"I believe it means that if InuYasha knows how to mark you like Sesshoumaru did Rin, you will live as long as him."
Kagome's breath hitched in her throat as did InuYasha's as he stood behind her looking Midoriko in the eyes. The women seemed to be trying to tell him something.
What it was he didn't know but the feeling her eyes gave him made him relax. He smiled at her and nodded his head, even if he didn't understand.
Midoriko's eyes closed and she smiled as she began to fade causing Kagome to gasp and reach for her. InuYasha jumped and grabbed a hold of Kagome bringing her close to his chest as the two studied the miko.
"Midoriko!"
The other Miko shook her head back and forth, her hair falling in her eyes before looking at Kagome directly.
Kagome heard the voice in her mind clearly, as she had heard Inuriku long ago.
'Trust him, Kagome, and everything will be alright.'
For a long time Kagome and InuYasha just set in front of the shrine without moving. They watched the snow drift silently down around them, covering the spot that Midoriko had been sitting in.
Mentally drained and near exhaustion Kagome moved closer to Inuyasha from where he was behind her and sighed. She could hear his heart beat in her ears, and she swore she could feel it pounding in his chest. It was racing she realized and that made her smile. She knew why it was racing, it was because the way she had just moved. She was flush against his private area. An area that was not so private to her anymore.
She smiled and let out a breath she had not been aware she was holding. It left her body and took everything out of her lungs, leaving them deflated as she held her nose and closed her mouth tight. She stayed like this for a minute, clearing her head and counting backwards from sixty. Once she hit twenty-four she gave up and took and big, deep, gulping breath.
"InuYasha?"
He nodded his head as it rested on her back, his arms around her tightly and his fingers lased just under her breast. She leaned into him and then slumped, not able to move or think.
"What all did you hear?"
"I heard a lot," He mumbled and turned her around to bring her closer to him. She set in his lap as he crossed his legs and her arms went around his neck. "What she said about us, what she said about me and marking you. What she said about Mika, about protecting her and what you said about me."
She could hear the emotion in his voice and she could make out the way his body was shaking as he held her for dear life. His arms were clingy and his touches needy as he kissed her neck and then moved to her lips. It was a delicate show of affection, love, and devotion. A moan left her and traveled into him, making his throat vibrate and his need heighten.
He started to move his hands down cupping her breast within them and bringing her closer to him. She moaned on his lips again and parted for him, breathing through her nose and panting through her mouth. He dipped his head down and kissed the exposed flesh at the collar of her yukata, nosing it down to kiss her collar bone.
A growl came from her throat and he paused looking up at her and studying her face. She was in rapture, her eyes tightly closed, her head slightly tilted upwards, and her hands clutching at his shoulders as her back arched, and her lips slightly parted. She was such an inviting sight, and he wanted her.
"God, Kagome." He groaned and pulled her into a tight hold. She was so responsive to him, so sexually demanding with her bodies scent, look, and feel. It was almost impossible for him to even think of another person like this, to think of another woman who would moan for him, and arch for him. She was one of a kind.
"InuYasha?" She whispered into the side of his neck, letting her breath brush against him making him shudder as it swept over the place his human ears should be. The warmth of her breathing and the cold of the air mixed within him and caused him to gasp and shudder.
He held her tighter in fear that she would disappear and never return to him.
"Kagome, never leave me?"
She nodded against his neck and smiled before kissing it and tugging at his arms. The snow around them began to fall in a slow and deliberate manner. It was as if it was shielding them in a place that was kind and beautiful, full of sensations of love and desire.
"InuYasha, about what Midoriko said, I want to do that! I want you to mark me like she described. But do you know how?"
"I do. It's an instinct." He whispered as he pulled her close. "It will hurt."
"I don't care." She said to him in a soft voice. "Leaving you will hurt far worse."
He nodded his head and turned his claws into her yukata, slipping the sash away from her and exposing her to the cold.
His claws searched for a minute before coming in contact with a scar. The first scar to ever appear on her body.
His hand began to travel up, starting at her navel and following a line, made by something razor sharp. It stopped at her shoulder and he took a deep breath.
"Here is where I need to put it."
She nodded her head and he felt her inhale sharply. "Why there?"
He didn't know what to tell her, he just knew that his body was telling him to do this, to mark her here when the time was right.
For a moment all he did was think, think about what had happened when he had killed her and what his body was commanding him to do now. Slowly he moved his fangs to brush over her neck in the same place that he had all those years ago, in the hut that had started this meeting, this relationship.
"Because," He whispered as he moved his fangs away and looked into her eyes. "This is the place that we connect; we connect by our souls Kagome. And when your soul disappeared for that brief moment when I thought I had lost you and—and—killed you, we were our closest. In that moment I realized how important you were to me, I mean, I knew before but when I saw you dead with my claw marks in your flesh I realized something—something deep. I can't live without you. I'm nothing without you Kagome."
She stopped breathing at his words and snuggled into his embrace. The coldness and wetness of the snow was touching her flesh and causing her to shiver so she moved with him seeking out his warmth. He moved his hands over here flesh and the warmth that tingled in those cold places made her pant. She moaned and pushed closer to him, her shivering coming back full force for another reason.
"I'm sorry," She said as her arms come off from around his neck and worked their way into his top for warmth. Her fingers were cold against his chest and caused him to shiver as he removed his hands from her flesh. He un-tucked his shirt, removing it so only his white under shirt was left. He pulled the red Hoari around his shoulders and her front, covering them both from the stinging snow.
She snuggled into him and sighed before laying her head on his chest and tightening her legs around his waist. They were so wrapped up in each other that they didn't notice that the snow had stopped falling and in its place was nothing. The clouds were parting and the sun was warming InuYasha's back.
"I love you." She said all the sudden without thinking. She had no idea why she had said it so abruptly but it seemed right at the moment. With the way they were sitting and how she could hear his heart quickened when she announced it. She felt his arms tighten even more around her.
"I love you too." He didn't look at her as he continued. "I'll mark you after we get married. Something to look forward to, right?"
She laughed and snuggled into him even more, drifting off to sleep. By the time Kagome woke up, the snow had started to melt a bit around them causing everything to become muddy.
Time ticked away from them and before they knew it, it was sunset. They could hear Miroku and Sango in the background calling out their names.
She heard InuYasha call that Kagome was with him and they would be home before everyone went to sleep in the hut. Then all went quite and the village watch was changed, the men exchanging small talk before going into their huts and eating the dinners their wives had made for them.
Inuyasha moved and turned her to him, kissing her and loving her mouth as he licked her lips and asked for her approval, which she gave without thought.
He fell backwards and she laid on his chest as their mouths moved in unison, brushing lovingly and neatly. Their tongues touched each other as they explored and dived into the sensations and taste of each others mouth.
Then as soon as it had started it stopped and she looked into his eyes lovingly as he smiled back at her and shivered from the wetness of his back.
"Kagome, I want us to get married real soon, okay?"
She nodded and didn't question him in the least, instead she just smiled and laid her head back on his chest. "How soon?"
"Like maybe the day after tomorrow."
"That soon?" She had jumped up and looked at him with shock on her face. "With all that is happening right now, we should wait!"
"No,"
She stared back into his defiant eyes and tried to think of a reason to wait, or a reason why she wanted to wait.
"I think everyone could us the pick-me-up."
She nodded and moved her head to his heart, listening to the steady thumping that was slowly becoming faster. "But what about Akkanka, and if I get pregnant. We can't have a baby now, no matter how much I want to."
"You want a pup, so soon?"
She nodded and looked at him with slight brown eyes that held a longing, an unbelievable longing.
"I want to have your children; I want little babies with silver hair and golden eyes and puppy ears. I want little InuYasha's to drive me insane and our one sweet little girl."
He nodded and held her to him, his eyes closing and his heart steadying in his chest.
"What will they look like again, tell me?"
She grinned and began to tell him of the little black doggie ears, and the browned eyes with a golden undertone. She told him of the little fangs and small claws, the gentle red lips, the small feet, tiny hands, long hair, and big eyes.
They both went into their own little world and lost focus on the absence of snow. Pictures filled both their heads, pictures of little puppies, looking like them, looking like each other.
InuYasha talked about what they would smell like, telling her that they would become an odd mixture of her and him. He said that they would smell of rain, of sunflowers, of the forest. That they would hold an aura of lavender like the mixture of their own was.
His blue and her red, would blend into their child and form an odd resemblance of miko and hanyou. A miko-yottsu, which would be loved and completely adored.
They would never feel the pain their father had endured, and they would never be taunted and if someone had the gull to, if someone tried, InuYasha would make them regret it.
"InuYasha, I want to be pregnant."
He nodded and smiled at her as he held her and loved her and devoted his everything to her. Everything. "Kagome, I can't wait."
They both fell silent and let the wind console them as thoughts of battle, of hurt, of hate filled their heads. They couldn't wait for children, love, and marriage but they knew the road was still rocky.
"InuYasha?"
"Yes?"
"Let's get married tomorrow, Miroku and Sango can stand in for us and Kaede can do the blessing."
"Okay, tomorrow afternoon, I will make you my wife and tomorrow night I will mark you."
She nodded and stood up reaching down for him and taking his hand in hers, pulling him to his feet. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment then kissed gently, shortly.
"It's been almost nine years since we first met"
"Nine years, is a very long time."
She laughed at the implied joke. It seems that counting years had become their habit.
Their fingers grasped together, mingling as they pulled closer to each other.
End of Chapter
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