28 A Black Hole

Hello, dears! Sorry to keep you waiting. I hope everyone´s year had a great start. I struggled a lot with this chapter, I wrote it and rewrote it many times. Hopefully, it doesn´t suck. I wish it is to your liking.

We are near the end, it may take one more chapter o two and maybe an epilogue, who knows if can take it that far.

More notes at the end of the chapter.

Disclaimer: All the characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi, I just borrowed them for my story.

A void full of nothing, pure blackness. He tried to open his eyes but couldn´t muster the strength.

"Where am I?"

Inuyasha tried to collect his bearings to no avail, there was nothing he could hear or smell that would give him a hint of his whereabouts. He tried to move his body and again nothing came of it. He seemed to be paralyzed in a vacuum of space.

"Kikyo! I remember! Kikyo shoot me with a sacred arrow. I´m stuck to the Goshinboku for eternity."

All of a sudden, memories assaulted him. The whole village turning against him and Kikyo´s betrayal.

"She said she wanted to live with me and I believed her."

He tried to remember if there had been any hint of love on her part, but couldn´t remember. Kikyós eyes never showed love, or hate for that matter. That was until she fired that arrow, at that moment he could feel her hate all the way across the forest, her eyes burning with loathing and that had hurt a million times more than the shaft piercing his chest.

Then the recollections of another set of eyes replaced Kikyo´s. The cold orbs of the miko turned into warm, smiling eyes. Eyes that had watched him with love. Eyes that had accepted and adored him.

"Kagome!"

The scream was real this time, not just in his head. He could feel his chest vibrating when he pronounced her name.

"What happened? Where am I? Am I in the meido?"

He was starting to panic, the memory of Kagome swallowed by the meido froze his heart with fear.

"I can´t find you... Kagome!"

He tried to scream her name again when a violent bout of coughing stopped him. He could feel his mouth filled with a thick substance that was now spilling from his lips and running down his chin. The taste was unmistakable, he was coughing blood.

Inuyasha tried to calm his speeding heart and breathe normally again, a difficult task considering his lungs were filled with blood.

"How did this happen?"

He couldn´t move his body and he could feel no pain or cold, nothing. His body was numb and his mind was a foggy mess of scrambled memories.

"You need to focus!" He screamed at himself. He had to find Kagome soon. What if she was also injured? If she was bleeding like him her fragile human complexion wouldn´t survive for long.

Taking short breaths, getting as much air as his lungs could receive, and closing his eyes, Inuyasha attempted to focus on his hearing and again, the effort was futile.

"I can´t hear shit, I can´t see shit. Fuck! I can´t even smell my own blood."

What kind of enemy could even do that? He felt as powerless as a small child.

"It's the new moon!"

As realization dawned on him, so did the recount of the last few hours. For the first time since he regained consciousness, he was glad his body was numb, if only the feeling would spread to his heart, he could die peacefully.

The storm was finally upon them when Inuyasha had left in the opposite direction from Kagome, Miroku, and Sango. Feeling disgusted with himself, he couldn´t think clearly. He wandered around the woods until he decided he was far enough from them. He crouched down in a clearing, his clothes and hair damp from the rain, but the turmoil inside keeping him warm.

He deemed himself responsible for Kagome´s well-being ever since the time she pulled Tessaiga free, yet he was the one that kept hurting her.

"I have to stay away from her. It´s the only way."

Inuyasha stopped pacing when he believed he had found the best course to follow. She would be free to live a peaceful life, away from his destructive nature.

"But how can I do that? I can´t help myself, I need her. As long as I´m alive I´m helpless against her."

He stood up and smelled the air. The clouds were thick but the rain had stopped for the moment. He was near the lands of the west, maybe he could pay his aniki a visit, an idea had come to his mind.

Meeting with Sesshomaru and reaching an agreement was the only clear part of his visit to the daiyokai´s palace. After promising to solve the issue with the rivaling uwabami and omukade, Inuyasha demanded Sesshomaru to fulfill his end of the bargain by the next morning, not before.

Standing by the rocky shore of the westernmost lake in his brother´s domains, Inuyasha waited for the leaders of both rivaling clans. Sesshomaru had sent word of the meeting so it didn´t take long for Hitomaru and Toyotomi to appear. Both youkai had chosen to come before him in their human forms, for which the hanyo was grateful. It would have been extremely difficult to carry a conversation had they been in their true massive form.

After a heated discussion where neither of the opposing chiefs had the intention of backing down, Inuyasha came to the conclusion he would have to fight them to assert his father ruling once again. He wasn´t surprised to see the youkais were expecting this outcome when they both showed their real appearance.

The uwabami was the first to attack, charging forward while slidering through the mossy rocks and zigzagging forward then stopping in front of the hanyo and changing directions immediately, its hind section shooting forward like a whip. Dodging the snake´s tail and pivoting on the ball of his feet, Inuyasha launched himself into the air, his claws ready to impact on the snake´s throat but finding that the skin was too thick there, he barely scratched the surface before falling back between the two giants.

Having left Tessaiga behind he could only count on his *Sankon Tesso for the moment; he would pull his *Hijin Kesso only as a last resort, he decided. He was relying on his speed, using his smaller size to his advantage.

Inuyasha charged again, this time aiming for the omukade´s midsection. He knew he had to stay away from its maw in order to avoid the venomous fangs.

The exchange continued for what seemed to Inuyasha hours, the darkening sky signaling the end of the day was near. The new moon would soon reach them, giving Inuyasha little time to resolve this fight. He knew what he was risking choosing this night for the confrontation but didn´t stop to ponder on the outcome for too long, he thought about what Kagome might say if she knew what he was doing, however. He didn´t have a death wish, that much was true, though he didn´t have anything to look forward if he lived. A life without Kagome was not what he had wished for, he had experienced for three long years and that had been enough. If he could avoid wanting and missing her by any means, he would at least try it.

Beads of sweat running down his brow, Inuyasha skidded to a stop near the bottom of the cliff. The lake where Sesshomaru had arranged the meeting was surrounded by tall, rocky mountains on the southern side of the lake which ended abruptly on their steeps sides like a granite wall enclosing the quiet waters. The other youkais had cornered him against the cliff, there was no other way out than to charge forward. It was time to use his Hijin Kesso. Buring the claws of his right hand on his left thigh, Inuyasha bolted at top speed against the uwabami´s side, successfully injuring the beast near its heart. The giant serpent writhed around in pain, its tail twitching in an awkward manner. Inuyasha tried to avoid it, jumping from side to side when the omukade´s legs came down in front him. The centipede was using its weight against him, the hanyo realized he was trapped when the snake´s tail lashed him on the back of the head and he was captured by tens of giant insect legs.

It all happened in slow motion as he replayed the events in his head, the omukade lifting him from the ground as it stood upright, using its thousand legs to move him up to its jaws and stabbing its poisonous fangs on his chest. The violent scream that escaped his lips as he felt the scalding heat spreading to the rest of his body must have alerted the agonizing snake of his defeat. When he opened his eyes, he was face to face to face with both youkais, their foul breaths mixing in an overwhelming putrid smelling cloud.

Turning his head to the side, the hanyo could see the last rays of sun straining between coal-black clouds. He closed his eyes and summoned the little remaining energy he had for one last attack. He spat on his claws and in one swift movement aimed for the omukade´s eye. He wasn´t sure whether his saliva would work against the giant centipede, he was only half human, he figured at least he could afflict half the damage of a regular human´s saliva. The omukade let go of his limp form while falling to the ground in agony. Inuyasha could hardly move, his body feeling hot and heavy from the poison, his senses still strong enough to detect the snake´s slow movements towards him. Wasting no time, Inuyasha dragged himself to the centipede´s open jaws and coated his talons on the venomous excretion from its fangs. The snake sluggish movements gave him time to react before he felt the yokai´s length wrapping around his body. Inuyasha looked for the injured chest and injected the omukade´s poison directly into the bloody carvings his own hands had made before. The uwabami tried hard to maintain its grip on Inuyasha´s body, the hanyo could hear the fast-beating heart of the snake starting to slow down at the same time as the deadly grip began to relax until he was loose enough to break free.

"This is the end," he said out loud, "I will recover from my wounds before the new moon. Your clans will have to abide by my father´s ruling"

Stumbling on wobbly legs, Inuyasha tried to move away from the convulsing shapes at the foot of the cliff. He advanced a few inches and fell on his hands and knees, he was willing his weakened body to move when his ears caught the sounds of falling rocks, his head whipping around to meet the snake´s eyes, a malicious grin spreading on its face.

"It isn´t over half-breed." The uwabami spat out. "Now we all die together; the mountains are collapsing on top of us. Our clans will demand revenge, a new war is coming, even if we are dead, there´s no way to avoid it"

The last words were barely audible as the thundering roar of the falling rocks approached them. Inuyasha hauled his body as much as he could to avoid the avalanche, he found a big boulder near him where he tried to find shelter, he could at least avoid the bigger rocks, with any luck.

That was the last thing he could recall. In his actual position, he couldn´t keep a tally of the damage received. It was becoming increasingly difficult just to keep breathing. He could feel his consciousness drifting away, swallowed by the black hole once again.

"Kagome, I´d like to see you again before the end.."

*Sankon Tesso: Iron Reaver Soul Stealer

*Hijin Kesso: Blades of Blood

I noticed that the links to this pages weren´t published in the previous chapters, just remove the spaces if you want to learn more about these youkais.

oomukade/

?s=UWABAMI

Here´s a brief description of the youkai Inuyasha faces so you can understand a little better what happened in this chapter in case you can´t follow the link.

OMUKADE: A giant centipede very vicious and agressive, just like Mistress Centipede from the first episode. The omukade´s weakness is human saliva.

UWABAMI: A giant shape shifting snake. They are believed to influence the elements, they are often blamed for floods or rock slides.