Chapter 16

Disclaimer: For the thousandth time I DO NOT OWN INUYASHA! But if you wanted to give it to me for my birthday, I'll understand.

A/N: Well I've had a good run. This is my very last chapter of my very first fanfic. I hope you like it. While writing this chapter I cried and cried (you'll see). I would like to thank all of my reviewers; you guys were my inspiration to keep on writing (especially naturally high and Fairyangel24 and KougasMyMan who have been with me from the very beginning).

-Chocolatedragon15

"This is perfect," Merrick thought, "Everything is working according to plan. I won't free Kagome from my spell and return to her time until after she watches Inuyasha die. Although she is strong, she is not powerful enough to subdue me. As for her friend Sango, she'll die. She might be too powerful for me to fight. Mariko will stay here with me, and the rest will die."

"I will fight… Inuyasha!" Merrick crowed vociferously while eyeing Inuyasha fiercely, "No swords, just demon power got it!"

The crowd's cheering increased ardently showing their approval.

Sango, Mariko, and Kagome had almost reached the ring when a large man blocked their way.

"Where do you think your going? You have special orders from Sir Merrick not to leave your seats!" The monstrous man bellowed.

"You don't understand we need to tell the … Merrick something…" Mariko started.

"In person…" Kagome continued.

With one swift movement, Sango pulled out her boomerang from her back and with all of her strength and willpower she knocked the man unconscious.

"Hurry, we need to move!" Sango yelled.

Inuyasha stepped forward and crossed the threshold of the room.

Merrick lunged at Inuyasha and Inuyasha rolled to the left and he was out of the way.

Inuyasha jumped up and clawed at Merrick.

Merrick cried out in pain as he wobbled to his feet.

Inuyasha took this time to swing Merrick from his long hair and then toss him to the ground.

Merrick's vision became hazy. He had heard rumors about Inuyasha's strength and endurance, but he had no idea Inuyasha was this strong. Merrick didn't even have time to fight back or even block some of the attacks Inuyasha was lashing out

Merrick felt a very heavy foot smashing his stomach and his face.

"There is still one way I could win this," Merrick thought with a chuckle, "The people wont care if I almost lost in the long run."

Inuyasha picked Merrick up and was about to slam him into the ground when Merrick seemed to be suffering from convulsions. Large, sharp teeth emerged from Merrick's mouth. Then Merrick bit into Inuyasha soft flesh.

Green frothy liquid poured out of Merrick mouth and onto Inuyasha's arm and into Inuyasha's wound.

Inuyasha seemed paralyzed for a moment. He dropped Merrick and he fell to the ground.

Sango, Mariko, and Kagome had just reached Miroku, Shippo, and Khali.

Kagome looked away, tears flooded her eyes. She quieted herself and turned back around.

"There has to be something we can do?" Kagome cried. This was always her worst fear, Inuyasha dying in battle.

"Do you know what is happening to you at this very moment Inuyasha? You've been poisoned. You'll die a slow and very painful death. Your body temperature will increase rapidly and your organs will melt. You might even catch on fire. You'll be so hot that smoke will be coming out of every hole in your body; eyes, ears, mouth and nose." Merrick chuckled as he gave Inuyasha a good kick in the stomach.

Inuyasha groaned and got up.

"He'll kill himself." Miroku thought morosely, "It's time."

Miroku turned around to face Kagome, "Kagome, there is a good chance Inuyasha can still live, but you must get him back to Kaede. Here are all my herbs that I have with me. Merrick could not find where I hid it because it was hidden in my staff, take them."

"But…" Kagome faltered and then her eyes glanced over to Inuyasha and she shut up.

"Shippo, you've always liked my staff, it is yours to have," Miroku said as he turned to face Sango whose eyes had grown wide, "Sango, my time is up."

" What are you talking about, you still have time, and we haven't fought Naraku yet!" Sango's eyes filled with water.

"My time has come before I had the chance, I'm sorry, but if I must go, I want to take Merrick and his demon friends with me." Miroku said looking deeply into Sango's watery eyes. Then he turned to leave.

Sango grabbed his arm, "Miroku wait!"

Miroku turned around to find tears staining her delicate cheeks and her chest heaved up and down as she tried to stop herself from sobbing out loud.

"Making sure that Merrick never becomes strong enough to change the future is the most important thing Sango, I have to." Miroku said softly as he leaned in to kiss Sango.

There was no groping, no hands going for butts, just a nice first kiss shared by two people who were in love with each other.

Sango was surprised to find that her knees felt like jelly, and she had butterflies in her stomach. Miroku's lips were as sweet as honey and as soft as a silk. His breath was cool and minty. She had almost forgotten that he was about to walk out of her life forever…almost.

"Never forget that I really did love you Sango. Too bad we'll never know, huh? I want you to have my prayer beads." Miroku said as he handed her the beads and then turned to leave.

"I love you too." Sango called after him, it was so faint he barely heard it.

Houshi entered the ring and grabbed for Inuyasha, "Get out now! Get as far away as you can, this is not the time to play tough guy!"

He helped Inuyasha out of the ring and he took a fighting stance.

"Do you hear that everyone? A human thinks he can fear better with me than a demon!" Merrick voice rang which was followed by an earsplitting laughter.

" All I ask is that you let my friends go." Miroku said calmly.

"Why, you'll lose anyway." Merrick spat.

"Even if you allow them to leave, if I lose they'll still be in a close vicinity to catch them. I thought you liked the chase, the hunt?" Miroku inquired. There were murmurs in the crowd that made Merrick uneasy.

"Fine, they may go." Merrick said waving for them to go.

Inuyasha, Kagome, Khali, and Shippo ran down the corridor towards the front door. Kagome realized that Sango was missing.

"I'll be back, I need to get Sango," Kagome cried.

The pain was escalating in Miroku's hand; he would die soon, taking everyone in this room with him. All he had to do was stall long enough. Miroku's breathing became shallow, and he began to sweat.

"I'm glad I made my peace with Sango though," he thought with a smile.

It was time now. Everything in the room began to go into his hand Kagome had just reached Sango who was holding onto a doorframe.

"Sango we have to go now, or we'll be sucked in." Kagome cried.

"Not yet," Sango called.

"Now, we'll be killed if we don't." Kagome's voice somehow made it to Miroku's ears. His head turned towards Sango and before he was sucked up he smiled at them.

"Sango the air rip will suck in the whole house and the yard, we gotta go now!" Kagome yelled as she grabbed her friend and ran down the hall.

The suction increased as they ran.

They were out of the house, and running toward the gate towards Inuyasha, Shippo, and Khali.

Almost there, almost there. The suction increased.

"We can make it, just push forward." Kagome called.

They had just passed the gate when the heard a loud sucking sound. When they turned around to look at the estate, there was a large crater of dirt. The gate around the estate was mangled, but intact.

Sango couldn't hold it in anymore, she had to breakdown; she needed to break down.

Kagome picked herself off of the ground, " We can mourn for Miroku later, we need to get to Kaede and be treated for our wounds. We are all badly wounded, and Inuyasha could die very soon. We need to go."

Kagome picked up her weeping friend, "Come on hunny, he risked his life to save us, he wants us to continue the mission. We owe it to him. That smile on his face before he entered the air rip was to let us know that would be all right, and that he knew what he was doing. Sweetie, I miss him too, but his death cannot be in vain."

Two days later, Kagome, Sango, Khali, Shippo, and Mariko were at the well.

"Next time, you leave something at school, I'll just wait till the next school day. Don't worry about your secret, I won't say anything." Mariko replied to Kagome.

"I know." was all Kagome could utter. Everyone's eyes were red and puffy from crying. Although they didn't have Miroku's body, that didn't stop them giving him a proper priest funeral.

"Will Inuyasha be all right?" Khali asked.

"Yeah, but he needs to stay off of his feet for a while. It' s killing him already." Kagome tried to laugh.

"Well I'm heading to back to the mountains." Khali called.

"Won't we see you again?" Shippo asked. He had grown attached to her in the time they had spent together.

"Yes, but you'll have to wait a whole 'nother year. It's not time yet." Khali replied as she hugged everyone and left.

Mariko and Kagome hugged everyone before they jumped into the well.

"I'll be back as soon as I drop as I drop off Mariko to her house and restock on supplies." Kagome said more to Sango than to Shippo.

With that they jumped into the well.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed my first fanfic as much as I enjoyed writing it. Remember reviews don't hurt either. I enjoyed writing this so much that I've decided to write another Inuyasha fanfic, but it may be a while because I also want to write 2 or three others from different shows. My next Inuyasha fanfic won't have any of the main characters die because I could barely make my fingers press down on the keyboard to write this. Happy Holidays!

Love always,

-Chocolatedragon15