Revised and Adapted 9/10/2010

Chapter XXXVI: Separation

I know I've said it before

And I know one day it might lose its meaning

If I keep repeating

But know this now

In the short lines I write just for you.

I love you, dear Kagome

And it is you I hope to never lose

Flower fourteen

Kagome held her baby to her chest and watched as she suckled slowly. The girl was being halfhearted at the moment and didn't seem like she wanted to eat at all but Kagome was making her since she hadn't eaten since Inuyasha had left to hunt six hours ago. It had been an eventual past two months. Seika was learning very fast and was already showing some early signs of crawling and wanting some solid foods.

Sesshoumaru and Rin had taken Kuroikeme and moved back to the western lands for at least a few months so Sesshoumaru could get some things in order. Apparently Jaken had left everything in a bit of a mess and now Sesshoumaru was trying to correct some of the mishaps his retainer had caused.

They had promised to be back soon, or at least Sesshoumaru promised he would be there for the final fight. Knowing that Sesshoumaru had the ability to get anywhere in the country in a about two seconds made this okay.

Shokuro and Mika were talking better than ever, they were going to turn three in just a few months and everyone was excited. To Mika's credit she had not displayed anymore acts of spiritual power whether it was mysterious telepathy or the ability to give people life. Kagome was pretty sure she was the only person in history who had managed to die twice and still be alive.

They had asked Kaede if she had any information on Mika's ability to know things without being told but the old woman had simply said: Although it has never happened, that does not make it impossible.

It had been a traditionally encrypted answer that they had all sighed and simply accepted.

Kagome drew the child away from her teat and looked her in the eyes before placing her on her shoulder. Her hand came in contact with the small back and she patted her until the infant burped, then with a practiced ease she moved her to the crook of her arm before standing.

It was a quiet day today, Kagome noted as she looked out one of the windows of her new hut. Inuyasha had finished it only about three weeks ago and they had moved in eagerly, taking Shippo with them. For now he used Kagome's all-to-herself-room, which made Kagome happy. She would rather someone get true use out of it then her get semi-use out of it.

Seika looked up at her with her bluish-gold eyes and let out a small whimper that Kagome recognized as alpha father. She had heard the story from Inuyasha on the little girls initial confusion and laughed. The ways of dog demons were so similar to actual dogs some times that it made Kagome feel oddly like she was committing a crime whenever she made love to Inuyasha.

"Is it bestiality is he had man parts?" She wondered out loud as she walked around the hut bouncing Seika lightly. The girl let out the whine and growl again. "You miss your Otou-san don't you?"

The baby cooed in response snuggling into her shoulder and taking a big sniff. Kagome had come to recognize the gesture as a nuzzle of love. It was something Inuyasha did too, especially when he was in a hurry and his instincts kicked in. At those times Kagome saw the real Inuyasha and not just the man who had adapted to a human way of life.

She giggled but abruptly stopped when Seika growls turned from those of affection to one that sounded dangerous.

Kagome immediately reached her senses out into the village searching for whatever had set the girl off. This was not a growl that had to do with the pup's needs, this was a growl of distress and mistrust, she knew that without having to know the language. She glanced at Seika and noticed the way her hair was bristling and the way her ears were flat to her head. This was a growl of warning.

Soon enough Seika pulled her lips back into a snarl as her claws dug into Kagome's kimono.

Kagome stood up slowly and walked to the back of the hut with her back to the wall. When she came to the futon she set down slowly and placed Seika on it so she could grab her bow and arrows.

Seika began to fuss but stopped when Kagome let a gentle growl come from her lips, something she had learned from Inuyasha, something that meant quiet—danger.

With that she placed an arrow on the bow pointing it at the ground. She stretched her senses as far as she could and felt something she hadn't felt in nearly six months. I shook her to her very core. She wondered if Sango and Miroku felt it, searching for their spiritual energy she noticed that neither seemed all too concerned, they had no idea.

"Hello, Kagome-sama." The voice echoed around her and everything seemed to pause. Kagome saw looked frantically out the window and noticed the way everything had stilled, it was eerie. Even the birds in the air had stopped moving.

"Akkanka." Kagome said without having to guess. She moved out of the hut, hoping he would not get near the pup if she wasn't too close. When she emerged her eyes went wide, everything around her was frozen in place. Villagers, children playing, trees, birds, even little animals were frozen where they stood. "How?"

"It is part of my charm." He said as he pulled on his invisible strings which were connected to every member of the village. As he pulled a figure appeared in front of him carrying the young Mika, it was a woman she recognized.

"Amarante-obaa-chan." She whispered and lowered her bow. The old woman didn't acknowledge her as she held onto an unmoving Mikaren. "What have you done to them?"

His eyebrow rose and he laughed with a crocked smile. "The same thing I did to you." His fingers came down in contact with Mika's head and he brushed her hair with his putrid fingers.

It was then that Kagome realized that Mika was actually in total control of her body but utterly terrified. The little girl was trying hard not to cry as Akkanka knelt next to her and ran one clawed hand over her cheek.

"It's been half a year since you received my letter, hasn't it?" He asked as he kissed the little girls cheek then forehead.

"Bastard." Kagome said as she drew her bow taunt and pointed it at him. "Let her go."

He ignored her as he touched Mika's chin with one finger before directing his eyes to Kagome. "Isn't she beautiful Kagome?" he whispered as he kissed the little girls pouting lips. "Simply divine really."

"You're sick!" Kagome yelled out as she watched his lips back away from Mika's. She let the arrow fly but as it neared him it dissolved much to her surprise. "What?"

"As long as this little girl is near me, Kagome-sama there is nothing you can do." He tilted his neck sideways and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Her spiritual energy is more powerful than yours, you see, which means she reflects your arrows without even realizing it."

He then looked past her into the hut and Kagome felt her heart stop as he did. "I see much has changed in just a little over six months."

Kagome's whole body went numb as he looked at her.

"It seems we have both been using our time wisely." Akkanka took a step forward and Kagome took a step back.

She watched as Mika looked at her with pleading eyes. She had hoped that the girl would be able to use some amazing power to help them but it seemed for right now, the girl was just that—a girl with not powers to fight.

"While you have been breeding with that hanyou I have been researching. It seems that you have a secret. A secret that I can play with." He moved closer to her as the clearing before her hut started to slowly change. "You're not from around here, are you Miko?"

Kagome watched as the scenery began to shift, plants growing and dying, seasons happening within seconds, her hut behind her changed many times. "What are you doing?" She said scared as she resisted the urge to run to her pup and get the hell out of there. The only thing stopping her was her need to protect Mika.

"I can control time Miko."

Suddenly everything speed up so fast that she couldn't see it anymore. It stopped only long enough for her to see two men with traditional swords fighting, by the dress and the amount of houses around her she assumed it was the Revolution.

One man ripped the others stomach open as bile rose in her throat and she fell forward into the guts on the ground that began to decompose at a fast rate.

Before it was even gone she saw an antique car drive by. Moments later she saw the sight of the atomic bomb, the large cloud miles away. A newspaper flew by her and landed just long enough for her to read the headline, "Nuclear Attack by United States."

Sky scrappers seemed to pop up around her but the place she was standing began to shift. Around her the cars became that of the nineties and the people were no longer wearing Kimono's but instead western cloths of blue jeans and T-shirts with the odd school uniform here and there. Sony advertisements formed on the walls and the stores started to have TV's in the windows as school girls passed her with their short skirts and book bags in their hands.

With a jolt she was sitting in the middle of her home, the Sun Set Shrine, five hundred some odd years later.

"How is this possible?" The sound of Seika drew her to Wagakoiki where the little girl laid, giant tears in her eyes. She picked her up, slinging the bow over her shoulder as she looked back at Akkanka with anger in her eyes.

"You don't belong in the past. You belong right here."

Realization dawned on Kagome then. "If I'm here then Mika can't do what she was meant to."

"That's right."

As Kagome held Seika she realized that Mika and Amarante were nowhere to be seen. As if reading her mind Akkanka snorted and answered her unsaid question. "They cannot come here because they are not a part of this world, only you and the child in your arms are."

"Then how are you here?"

"Curious, isn't it?"

She watched him as he walked over to the shrine steps and looked out at the greater part of Tokyo. "I wonder what your hanyou will do without you?" He said as he looked at her over his shoulder.

"What do you mean?" A great fear came over Kagome as she spoke and held the baby a little tighter to her body.

"I mean. What will he do if you disappear and never return?" Akkanka watched her with a sadistic smile and then started to move towards her, his feet planting in the ground tightly, leaving prints in the concrete. "Would he fall apart? Would he die?"

"I thought you would wait a year? You said you would wait a year!"

"I said I would wait a year for Mika not you and him?"

Kagome saw the face of Inuyasha in her head—broken—crying—dying—shattering. She had to get back to him, she had to protect him.

Quickly she turned around and ran for the well house. If she could get to the well it would bring her back to Inuyasha, it always had; her feet pounded on the ground and her long hair got in her way as she ducked and then jumped over the fencing by the house.

The baby in her arms had gone silent when she started to run but was still whimpering every time she was jolted up or down by her mother jumping. They reached the door of the well house and right as she opened it, and walked into the threshold, he touched her back and she screamed as the world suddenly flashed a bright white and time started back up.

She stopped and looked behind her when the pain left, searching for Akkanka, he was no longer there.

A few leaves that were left blew off of the budding tree and went towards her only to disappear. She could hear the cars and the horns of Toyko traffic and the skidding of tires and crunch of metal as one person hit another. A bird flew by her and she followed it with her eyes before she tilted her head down and looked at the small downy head that rested in her cradled arms.

Sukiaizu looked up at her mother with a blank expression. She didn't know how to feel, she could smell people who reminded her of her mother and for that she was glad, but she couldn't smell people that were normal to her. The little baby was royally confused as she watched her mother step outside the well house slowly.

With tunnel vision she walked towards the house, the house she had grown up in. Carefully she opened the front door and as she did the familiar sound of her mother greeted her.

"Souta, is that you?"

Mama's voice came from the kitchen and nearly made Kagome cry as she rushed into the other room. She flew down the hallway and ran straight to the kitchen. She was greeted with the sight of her mother's back. A back she had not seen in over six years.

"Mama…?" She whispered and jumped when her mother dropped the wooden spoon she had been stirring with and turned to look at her.

The two looked at each other for a moment then both broke into tears as they rushed forward. Mama's arms came around her and all Kagome could do was let herself be held with her baby still nestled in her arms.

"Kagome, is that you. Oh—Oh—God it can't be you, it can't." The full grown woman held her out at arm's length and studied her before looking down into her arms with surprise as a little Inuyasha met her gaze. "Kagome, what happened? Where's Inuyasha?"

The sound of that name rocked Kagome to the core as she slowly fell to the floor, landing on her knees.

"Kagome!" The older woman cried as she knelt to look her daughter in the face.

"Inuyasha." Kagome said with a trembling voice.

Kagome shocked her mother as she shoved the baby into her mother's arms and ran outside of the room, outside of the house.

"Kagome!" Her mother yelled after her as the infant started to cry. As fast as she could the woman followed her daughter, positive she knew where she was going.

Mama arrived at the well shortly after Kagome and watched as the woman threw the door opened and jumped down all the steps at once before literally throwing herself into the well. A few second later there was a thud and the sound of someone crying with a broken heart.

"Inuyasha!"

-break-

"Is it done sir?" Amarante asked Akkanka as he walked by with his head held up high and his nose in the air.

"It is done; she will be trapped in her own world now. We'll be able to kill the hanyou and thus, when the time comes, the child of the shikon no tama. For now I have left her with her parents."

She nodded and set down next to him as he drank so sake. "Do me a favor Amarante. write a letter to Inuyasha, telling him what has happened. The shock alone should make this quicker."

She nodded and hastily left from the room to fulfill her duty. Akkanka smiled, feeling he had performed some major feat but then a thought struck him. Why had he let the woman live. Why not kill her and get it over with.

He stared at the ceiling for a long time, sleep eluding him as an image formed in his head of a man, tall with white hair and gold eyes. He had three swords on him, two were at his side and one was at his back in the proper samurai fashion. A growl came from his throat as he saw the image and it wouldn't go away no matter how much he snarled at it or yelled at it in his head.

Finally he turned on his side and pulled a small vile from a box on a low sitting table. The blue liquid inside moved slowly, acting as if it was thick like syrup. He opened it with a slight pop from the suction of the air and then downed a couple of drops of it.

Within moments he was asleep and in a peaceful dream of his mate from so long ago. Her black hair, her dark eyes, and her pleasant smile. "Airashii—," he mumbled as the dream haunted his heart.

-break-

"It's been two days." Kaede whispered as she watched Inuyasha sitting in the tree in her front yard, the rain beating down on him. His hair was plastered to his face, his eyes opened but numb and blind. In his hands was a letter that they had received two days ago.

Akkanka seemed to enjoy the art of breaking hearts with writing.

"He isn't going to move anytime soon, is he?" Sango said from beside Kaede.

Her eyes were sad and her shoulders slumped as she watched the man grieve with the letter at his side. He was broken again as his bent ears showed.

"It's my fault." His mind whispered as he thought of his wife, his child, his life. "It's all my fault, I can't do anything right, I can't protect her, I don't deserve her." The voice in his head trailed off and he bent a little lower. The rain had stopped now and the sun was coming out behind one of the many dark clouds that littered the sky.

The remnants of the storm dripped from his bangs and mixed with the tears on his face.

He had tried everything when he had found the letter. He had jumped down the well more times than he could count, he had even stood in front of Wagakoiki and prayed for hours before trying the same thing in front of Kikyo's grave—nothing had worked.

Slowly he moved his head up and looked into the light that burned his eyes. He squinted and then closed his dull golden orbs to all things lively. The sunshine was pointless if Kagome wasn't there, if Seika wasn't there.

"I wonder," He mumbled with his eyes now half-lidded with depression, "How long will it take me to die?"

His stomach growled and he ignored it, his bottom ached and he endured it, his ears burned and he took it, his hair was plastered to his skin itching him and he smiled for it, and his eyes stung with both tears, light and rain but he didn't care.

"Inuyasha?" He looked at Kaede out of the corner of his eye but didn't acknowledge what she had said. "Come with me and I will help you."

Her voice was grave and heavy with her age as she began to walk off into the twilight.

For a moment he debated on what he should do. Should he follow her or should he stay and wait for death. The clouds in the sky darkened as several minutes passed and the rain began to return. He looked inside the hut and saw Sango cuddling Mika who was still traumatized from the experience. The only thing they had been able to get out of her was that it had been a man, an evil man, and a scary old woman whom had taken Obaasan and Seika-chan.

The letter had filled in the blanks. It had told them that Akkanka had taken Kagome to her old country and left her there with his pup. When Inuyasha had first read it he had been filled with rage and clutched Tetsaiga preparing to kill the next thing to move. He had run to the well, thinking it would open for him if it meant Kagome was in her well, but the magic had not come to life as he had hoped, the well had failed him.

Miroku and Sango watched as Inuyasha and Kaede disappeared into the forest. They had read the letter some time ago and both could not believe the fate that had been handed to their brother. No one deserved to go through the pain he did. It seemed that every time something good was happening, something bad had to happen to Inuyasha and Kagome. It was unfair, sick and unfair.

Sango walked back into the hut, sitting down to stir their dinner. Miroku took his seat next to her watching as Mika laid some feet away curled up with Shippo, Kirara, and Shokuro.

A light rain started to fall the second the little girl set up and looked at her parents. It grew heavier as her tears started again and she ran to her mother. She clutched Sango desperately as she cried.

"Sango?" Miroku said as he patted the girls back. "Do you think Mika is making it rain?"

"Maybe." She whispered as she held the little girl. "Even if she is, I bet a little bit of it is not just for her, but for Inuyasha as well."

"Inuyasha." Miroku nodded to his wife and turned to look outside once again across the river and towards the mountains. "Could Akkanka be anymore—I don't know—bastardish?"

"Bastardish?" Sango said as she hugged Mika to her. The little girls cries were now only hiccups.

"I couldn't think of a word." She let out a little laugh as he looked down at the ground and whispered the next part. "Why is this happening to them Sango?"

"I don't know." She whispered back to him and then looked him in the eyes. "Is there ever a reason why bad things happen?"

-break-

"What are we doing here Kaede?"

The two were standing in front of Wagakoiki looking into its branches. The old woman had her bow, and one arrow. Inuyasha knew deep down what they were for.

"Kagome is in her own world, this tree stand there does it not?"

He nodded and let his fingers move over the bark softly. "Kaede?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you." He turned and looked right at her.

She was now standing about ten feet away from him and her one good eye was filling with tears. "Inuyasha if this works—"

"I hope it does." He looked down at his feet and saw a little flower there. Bending over he plucked it from the ground and looked it over. "Dew Plant, you taught me the name and meaning of this one."

She watched him as he tucked it into his belt next to his sword that no longer worked. It had gone dormant the moment he had found out that Kagome was gone, without her it was nothing but a rusted piece of metal.

He looked up at Kaede with love in his eyes for the old woman.

"Dew plant red and kind,

Bring me to my raven maiden,

I want to feel her."

"Haiku," Kaede said in a small voice as she looked at Inuyasha with cloudy eyes. "Write one more, for me?"

He smiled as he watched Kaede draw her arrow across the bow. It was so different from the last time this had happened to him. This time it was done out of love instead of hate.

"Miko draw your bow

And with its arrow pierce me

I am glad to die."

His voice trailed off, the air around them became thick and the fire burning in Sango and Miroku's hut was blown out as Kaede lowered her hand and tried hard not to cry. The hanyou's face was peaceful and the sound of the arrow hitting him echoed around her.

The energy that had to go through her body to perform the spell came with a price as she fell to the ground. She laid there for a few seconds her chest moving slowly as she heard Miroku's call in the distance.

"Inuyasha." She whispered as her eyes grew foggy with impending death. "I have always loved you."

End of chapter

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