November 23
It's been a long time since I've written. I really don't have much memory of what's happened in the past week because I've been unconscious for most of it.
After Inuyasha returned from his trip, I was finally starting to feel a little bit like my old self. Inuyasha had been taking care of me every day and with his help and a lot of rest I felt a little less weak.
I felt good enough that I insisted that Inuyasha and I go for a walk that afternoon. We didn't go far since it was kind of cold outside, we just went down to the river but that's when everything fell apart.
"Geez, it's cold out here today," I said as we got closer to the river.
"It might snow soon," Inuyasha said.
"The first snow of the year," I said happily. "Then we can build snowmen and have snowball fights and make snow angels!" I said excitedly as I danced in circles.
Inuyasha laughed a bit. "You're ready for winter, aren't you?"
"I guess I prefer it to be warm outside but I do really like snow."
"I'll make sure you have some really great snow days."
I continued to laugh and dance in circles. I felt so happy and free despite how sick I'd been lately. But suddenly my head started pounding. I paused and put my face in my hand.
I had moved a bit ahead of Inuyasha but he noticed the way I had stopped all of a sudden. "Kagome? What's wrong?"
His voice was starting to sound far away. I began to feel the same way I was feeling when I was helping Kaede with the birth. I became dizzy and light-headed. It was like a dark cloud was shadowing me, stealing away my consciousness, but this time I couldn't stop it. I felt myself going down but Inuyasha caught me before I could completely collapse.
"Kagome!" he exclaimed, his expression full of worry.
"Inuyasha…" It was the last thing I said before I closed my eyes and my consciousness faded away.
"Kagome!" I could still hear Inuyasha's voice. "No! Kagome, wake up!" He had no idea what was wrong with me and his voice was full of desperation. "Kagome…" I could hear the tears in his voice. I wanted to wake up and comfort him and tell him I'm okay, but my body wouldn't move.
All of a sudden I felt myself moving. I could tell that I was still in Inuyasha's arms. A few minutes later we stopped. "Kaede!" Inuyasha said.
"Inuyasha," Kaede said. "What happened to Kagome?!"
"I-I don't know. She just collapsed all of a sudden. Is there anything you can do?"
"Lay her down."
I felt myself being put down. Kaede's warm hands touched me while Inuyasha held my hand the entire time.
"Has anything been off with her lately?" Kaede asked.
"She's been sick. She said she's been having headaches and was fatigued. She thought it was just a cold."
"I see. That must have been what was going on when we were helping with Hana's birth a few nights ago. Tell me, Inuyasha, how long has this been going on?"
"A couple of weeks I guess. Ever since she helped expel the dark spirit from Kina...Kaede, do you think that has something to do with it?"
"It appears so. I can feel a buildup of dark energy in her chest. She expelled it from Kina's body, but she was not strong enough to get rid of it and it instead took hold within her. It has been weakening her ever since then."
"Can you do something about it?"
"This is very complex magic, far beyond my level of expertise."
"There has to be something we can do!" Inuyasha said, sounding extremely distraught.
"There is one thing."
"What is it? I'll do anything to help her."
"There is a powerful priestess named Anana who lives in a temple in the western mountains. She is well known throughout the land for her immense spiritual powers. You must take Kagome to her and ask her to purify her."
"Got it."
"You must get there quickly, Inuyasha. With Kagome's spiritual powers, the dark energy will quickly consume her life force within a matter of days and there will be no way to help her."
"You mean she'll…" The pain in his voice was apparent. Just the thought was unbearable to him.
"Yes, she will die if she does not get help soon."
"I won't let that happen," Inuyasha said. "You're going to be okay, Kagome. I'm not going to let you die."
He picked me up again and said goodbye to Kaede. I'm not really sure where we went or how long we traveled but it was a long time. I do know that Inuyasha didn't stop the entire time. I could hear him swearing to himself every now and then and he did ask for directions a couple of times. He would also kiss me and say something like "Hang in there, Kagome. I love you, I'm not going to let anything happen to you."
When he finally did stop, I heard a woman's voice.
"Who are you?" she said.
"Are you the priestess Anana?"
"I am."
"Please, you need to help her," Inuyasha said. "I was told that you're the only one who can do it. She's going to...she's going to die if you don't do something."
"Come in," the woman said calmly. "Tell me, what's your name?" she said after a few minutes.
"It's Inuyasha. This is my wife, Kagome. She's been possessed by some kind of evil spirit. She collapsed a few days ago and she's been like this ever since."
"Lay her down here."
I felt myself being put down but my hand was still in Inuyasha's. There was silence again for a few minutes.
"She's a very powerful priestess," Anana said. "She absorbed a great deal of demonic energy. Her life is nearly gone."
"Can you help her?" Inuyasha asked desperately.
"I will see what I can do."
I don't know what Anana did, but I could feel the energy stirring around me. It seemed to be a battle between darkness and light; the darkness trying to keep it's hold on me and the light trying to fight it off. My heart pounded as my body reacted to what was going on. There was a loud bang, I don't know whether it was just in my mind or if Inuyasha and Anana could hear it too. But all of a sudden the dark energy was gone. There was only light and I was blanketed in a feeling of peace.
"She will be fine," Anana said. "She will need rest."
"I'm not leaving her side."
"You are a good husband. I'll be around if you need me."
I'm not sure how long I stayed unconscious. I just couldn't get up the energy to open my eyes. But I now felt lighter, like I wasn't being held down but such a dark cloud as I had before. And I knew Inuyasha was by my side. I knew I would be safe as long as he was with me.
Finally, I felt like I could do it. I slowly opened my eyes and sure enough, the first thing I saw was him. My poor husband looked so upset and exhausted; there were tired circles under his eyes and there was so much pain in his expression. I also noticed he wasn't wearing his fire rate robe. Instead, I was wearing it.
"Inuyasha," I said softly.
"Kagome!" he said, the worry evident in his tone. "Sweetheart, are you okay?"
I nodded. "Yes, I'm okay."
"I'm so glad you're alive," he said as he ran his fingers across my cheek. "I was so afraid… I thought I was going to be too late. If you had died, I...I don't know what I would have done…"
His hands trembled as he spoke and I could hear the fear in his voice. I wanted nothing more than to hold him in my arms and comfort him.
I sat up a bit and brushed the tears from his eyes. "I'm here, I'm okay. There's nothing to worry about anymore."
"Take it easy, honey," he said, laying me back down. "You've been through a lot, you still need to recover."
"Inuyasha, what happened?"
"While we were walking you collapsed all of a sudden," he explained. "I didn't know what to do so I took you to Kaede. She told me to bring you to the priestess Anana. She said if I didn't get here quickly you would die. I ran as fast as I could but it was hella far. Then it started snowing on the way and I figured you'd either die or freeze to death so I wrapped you in my robe. If that weren't enough, some demons tried to attack us. I haven't slept or eaten in days."
"Inuyasha...thank you for doing all of that for me."
"I'd do it all again if it meant saving your life, Kagome." He leaned down to kiss me and it felt so good to have his lips on mine again.
"I see you're awake," came Anana's voice. I saw her standing in the doorway. She was quite a beautiful woman; she wore the clothes of a miko and her long silver hair hung down her back. She also wore a rose quartz necklace.
I sat up and Inuyasha instinctively put his arms around me for support. "Thank you for saving me."
"You're welcome," Anana said. "It might take a couple more days for you to fully get your strength back. Until then, you are welcome to stay here."
"I really appreciate that."
"I can tell you are a very strong priestess. Your spiritual powers are only like a few that I've seen before. I can also tell you haven't been properly trained to use them, which is why you were susceptible to the dark spirit that was consuming you."
I realized she was right. I had never really gotten any in-depth training on how to use my spiritual powers. Back when we were fighting Naraku I just kind of went by instinct and since then I'd only learned the basics. Who was to say something like this wouldn't happen again? Maybe next time I wouldn't be so lucky.
"What should I do?" I asked.
"If you'd like, I can train you myself. I can teach you how to refine your powers and use them to their full extent. You can stay for a few more weeks and I can teach you everything you need to know."
"Wow, you would do that?" I glanced at Inuyasha to see if he was okay with staying and sure enough there was a smile on his face. He nodded and I turned back to Anana. "I'd love to train with you."
"Wonderful. Take a couple of days to rest and then we will begin our training. In the meantime, I would expect that you two are tired and hungry. I will have someone make you dinner and prepare a room for you."
All of that was yesterday. Luckily I've found some materials to write with; I want to continue to write about our experience here.
The shrine is very nice. We've been given a beautiful room and we've had some incredible meals. Both of us slept in for a long time today but all of the sleep really helped me feel better. I honestly feel better than I've felt in weeks. Inuyasha is still very worried about me of course, he's hardly let me lift a finger on my own.
We haven't seen much of Anana but I guess when my training starts she'll be around a lot more. Instead, Inuyasha and I have been spending all of our time together resting and walking the beautiful grounds of the shrine.
I'm not really sure what to expect from my training with Anana but I'm looking forward to it. It'll be a good opportunity for me to get stronger.
