Everyone I know
Goes away in the end

"Scrolls like these could only be found at our shrine," Gramps announced proudly earning two nearly identical looking annoyed looks, "This collection is nearly as old as you young man and has only..."

"Is there an index?" Kagome interrupted wearily and Inuyasha gave her an amused controlled smile. It had taken two full two days before he was comfortable with the seals coming off and down. The fact that Kagome had been intelligent enough to take him to this time, though, did not surprise him in the least. As dumb as she could be sometimes, overall she was a very smart if not brillant woman. Inuyasha had no doubt that if anyone could save him it would be her. Intelligence aside Inuyasha also was quite confident that she loved him almost as much as he loved her so...

"This is the index?" Inuyasha suddenly heard Kagome squeak when a extremely thick book was deposited in her arms. She stumbled, actually stumbled, under its weight but it was plucked out of her arms before she could drop it by a now inappropriately amused demon.

"Oh my no," Gramps chuckled and Inuyasha bemused smirk grew at the sight of the old man unceremoniously dropping yet another thick volume into Kagome's arms, "That is merely volume one. I'm certain that you will be able to find what you need on your own."

"Wait, no," Kagome scrambled as Inuyasha took the second obscenely thick book - literally shaking with the effort of holding back his laughter. While it was nice for Kagome to see her man happy and relaxed for once but it would've been better if it wasn't at her expense.

"I'll take this one. You take that one," Inuyasha chuckled softly as the old man turned and walked out of the small she'd with his nose held high. Once he was out of earshot Inuyasha leaned over to kiss Kagome's forehead before sitting down, "You hurt his feelings."

"He's just obsessed with these things and I know half of them are fake," Kagome huffed defensively as she knelt down beside him, "Some of these 'artifacts' are things we've destroyed."

"Like what?" Inuyasha hummed as he opened the first volume and began scanning.

" Dakki for example," Kagome sighed heavily as she lay her volume out of the floor and spread out on her stomach, "Your sword absorbed it, remember?"

"Anything else?" Inuyasha asked as he flipped to the next page.

"I mean no but, okay, you know these things aren't real," Kagome huffed, "You don't...Wait did you find something?"

Inuyasha had inhaled sharply and gotten to his feet in the middle of her explanation.

"What did you find?"

"Something for later," he mumbled distractedly as his amber eyes darted around, "I recognized the name."

"Whose name?" Kagome asked uneasily, "Like yours or..."

Inuyasha almost imperceptibly shook his head before suddenly grabbing a scroll and opening it slightly with a strange look on his face.

"It's a sketch," he laughed softly in disbelief, "I wouldn't have..."

"A sketch of what?" Kagome asked curiously as she awkwardly got to her feet but Inuyasha quickly held it out of her reach.

"I'll show you later. We need to find what you're looking for first," he teased before letting out a shuddering sigh when Kagome pressed her body tightly against his in an attempt to grasp the scroll from his hand. The feel of it was heavenly and it was increasingly hard to remember what he was doing. Especially when her hips ground up against his own. Taking a step back, Inuyasha panted lightly as he gave his woman a somewhat chiding look and tucked the scroll into the confines of his robe.

"Later," he promised - both himself and her with two very different meanings, "Curses and demon lore first."

"Fine," Kagome pouted - oblivious to the state she'd put him in before heading back to her book. Hours later they'd only managed to find three scrolls and none of them seemed to be helpful. Inuyasha was in an increasingly bad mood as he pulled the latest from the shelf before holding it up to his nose.

"This one smells familiar," he mumbled distractedly as he unfurled it and glanced it over, "But it's about a curse to...to..."

"Let me see," Kagome breathed excitedly as she got to her feet and rushed over, "Well that can't be helpful."

"It might be actually," Inuyasha corrected as he collected Kagome in his arms and plopped down with his miko securely in his lap. Pointing to the edges where notes had been made, he smiled faintly, "That's Miroku's handwriting."

"How would you Know?" Kagome muttered and Inuyasha snorted.

"He writes love notes for Sango but always chickens out," Inuyasha laughed softly, "He's had me read some."

"Does he really?" Kagome asked curiously but Inuyasha didn't elaborate.

"It's a spell to drain priests or priestesses but then these notes. You see where some of them are crossed out or amended?" Inuyasha hummed thoughtfully as he pointed to one in particular.

"Aura binds," Kagome read before furrowing her brow and glancing at the others, "Marking. Hey wait..."

Inuyasha flipped the scroll over and sure enough there was nearly a small paragraph compressed only of hastily written notes.

Silent crimson wave

Yūrei - the end of a life

Light in the darkness

"What does that even mean," Inuyasha huffed, "He probably doodled a draft of one of his stupid poems on here and it's not even good."

"It sounds like a warning more than a poem," Kagome murmured thoughtfully as she read it again. Miroku wouldn't spend all this time making notes and quoting poetry unless there was some point to it. Setting her jaw, Kagome flipped the scroll over again and read the notes again.

"Let's not focus too much on the poem, alright? Lets see. Lets see. Ah! Okay see here he crossed out part of the spell. And here as well," she whispered thoughtfully, "And instead wrote..."

Inhaling sharply, a grin grew on her face.

"It's a counter curse. He wrote out a counter curse!" she laughed excitedly as she began scrambling out of Inuyasha's lap, "I need some paper. See if you can find any other scrolls near that one. I think that's only a part of it."

~o~o~o~o~

Sango hand stilled mid-brush as she watched Mushin and Miroku continue to pour over the scroll as they had been doing these past few days. They didn't even know for certain whether this was the spell that Naraku had even been using but Miroku was convinced it was.

"You see here," Miroku breathed as he referenced another scroll and jotted something down on their scratch paper, "I think this aspect can be neutralized."

"Perhaps so but this aspect here would rebound," Mushin hummed wisely as he got to his feet and made his way back to his library. Plucking out a scroll he made his way back, "This might be useful."

"What might be..." Sango yawned and both men shushed her.

"Not right now," Miroku cut her off as he glanced over the newly produced scroll before startling slightly and glancing at his mentor, "This is the blessing?"

"Your friend wears beads does he not?" Mushin asked curiously, "Until the shikigami is destroyed this would prevent the rebound from breaking the connection."

"It may very well be too..."

"What does this spell do?" Sango asked quietly as she tied her hair back, "I understand that..."

Miroku gave the slayer a patient look before cutting her off.

"This curse allows the caster to draw out its victims soul," the monk explained heatedly, "Their strength. Control the mind. Until the victim is completely drained at which point their physical body gives out. That which is removed is forfeit and cannot be returned."

"That which is removed...and you got all of that from that scroll?" Sango asked curiously and Miroku set his jaw as one eye twitched.

"If you have not noticed, we have been referencing several," the monk clipped back, "Now that we know the true nature of the curse, we are attempting to formulate a counter. Something which will prevent Naraku from draining whatever remains in our dear friend so if you are satisfied with that explanation we must continue our work."

Sango gave the monk a withering glare which he returned in kind.

"You don't need to be rude," she huffed and Miroku's eyes softened slightly.

"I apologize," Miroku sighed as he looked back down at his notes, "That was not my intention."

~o~o~o~o~

Inuyasha head lolled as the effort of holding it up became too much. They'd barely started the spell when exhaustion hit him like a ton of bricks. Even breathing became difficult and every muscle in his body both wanted to crumple under the effort of staying upright. In hindsight, they probably shouldn't have started when he was standing. Curses and counter curses weren't exactly known for being pleasant experiences. The worst was that the beads around his neck felt like they were cutting into his skin and with every word Kagome had spoken so far, they seemed to be sapping the energy right out of him.

"Wha...what this supposed to do again?" Inuyasha slurred as his whole body swayed and Kagome guided him onto the bed.

"The scroll said it was a blessing. Designed to suppress the wind tunnel originally," Kagome murmured nervously as she gently maneuvered his thick braid to laid just over his shoulder, "So probably suppresses demonic energy."

"Huh," was the only reply he could muster as he struggled to keep his eyes open. They'd found about half a down scrolls after they'd located the main one that bore Miroku's notes. It hadn't been difficult once they'd deciphered the index. Anything with a certain symbol next to it indicated handwritten notations and wouldn't you know it, all of them were related. Stupid monk. Should've just written it all down in one place but maybe he was afraid someone else would decipher it. What didn't make sense to Inuyasha was that if Miroku's beads made him feel like this, the monk never acted like it. Maybe the pervert had messed up the spell or something.

"I can take the beads off," Kagome cleared her throat and Inuyasha subtly shook his head as he let out a shuddering breath.

"Just keep going," he managed tiredly as he shakily lifted his hand with enormous effort to point at the scroll that held more instructions. Kagome laughed softly and leaned down to kiss his forehead.

"Let me know if it hurts you," she whispered and he grunted once to let her know he understood. It seemed the longer these things were on the more distant everything sounded. It was almost like an out of body experience where things were happening but he couldn't feel them, couldn't sense them...

His head lolled once more as even breathing became difficult. Dumb monk.

"Okay, okay, so..." he faintly registered Kagome muttering to herself as she shuffled what sounded like multiple scrolls.

"'Gome," Inuyasha managed as he blindly scratched at the bedding in search of her hand and Kagome quickly sought his out as she continued reading the notes she'd made. Which hopefully were the right interpretation. If it wasn't so risky to leave Inuyasha here alone, she would have gone back to ask him but it was entirely possible that these scrolls were written after all of this happened. Just copied from these copies courtesy of the butterfly effect. An endless loop of creating history by bringing things to the past.

She squeezed his hand lightly as she set her notes down.

"Let me know if it hurts," she requested once again but he gave no indication he was listening this time. His breathing was uneven and the subtle way his body kept twitching was concerning to say the least.

"Okay. One," she tried warning him, "Two," her fingers hovered over the two spider shaped bite marks in his neck, "Three."

The effect was instant. The second her fingertips hit his skin his entire chest shot forward like he'd been hit with defibrillator. Even more worrisome was the fact that she couldn't even remove her fingertips despite throwing all her body weight behind them.

"Shit, shit, shit," Kagome cursed as she desperately tried to remove her hand but they were fused solidly against the mark. Inuyasha's legs began curling as his face contorted in agony.

And then the wisps began leaking out of his mouth and Kagome rocketed into full blown panic. Glancing around for something to catch what had to be his soul, Kagome bit the bullet and did the only thing she could think to do.

She kissed him.

It was a strange feeling to essentially have someone's soul poured into you. Stranger still when you couldn't stop the transfer despite every effort to do so. In that instant, she could feel every aspect of his body. The blood coursing through his veins, the feel of his breath entering and leaving his lungs, the sensation of the bed beneath him, the warmth of her skin against his, every flex of muscle.

And then it was gone.

With a startled gasp, Kagome fell backwards off the bed as the momentum she'd been building to pull away suddenly gave way and with a painful sounding thud, she landed squarely on her back. Dazed, she blinked up at the ceiling for a moment before scrambling onto her knees and checking on the man who she very well might've just killed.

Who mercifully was smiling at her with an exhausted looking grin.

"That was nice," he laughed tiredly as his grin faded and his eyelids fluttered closed, "Could feel you."

As she watched his breathing even out, heard a contended purr like sound echo in his chest, she wondered whether he felt the same thing she had. If he'd been as aware of her body as she had been of his. Maybe this was a good thing. Glancing down at the marks on his neck, Kagome blanched. Scratch that theory. Sure enough the spider shapes were gone but now they were replaced.

By a two tiny arrows.

It would seem that this stupid counter curse only served one purpose. Replace one caster with another. And now her body was hosting a portion of Inuyasha's soul. Cringing at the thought that some of Inuyasha was now bouncing around Naraku's body, Kagome tried to console herself with the fact that her body was ten times less disturbing as a host. At least she would try to give it back. The question now became what exactly that meant. Could she control him now? That could be a good thing. Or a very bad one. How did it all work? Would she be able to counteract Naraku's influence and keep Inuyasha by her side? That wasn't exactly a comforting thought. Neither was the thought that Inuyasha might still have his soul sucked out and deposited into her until he was empty. She'd be somewhat joking about handing some of her soul over but if the options were Inuyasha dying or them sharing a soul, sharing a soul was the obvious choice.

Either way, one thing was clear.

Inuyasha needed to stay right here in her time come hell or high water.

At least here he was safe.