Life is a web. Yet the web is of life.

Oh Gods... how can you be so cruel? What did I do to deserve this? Please... don't let her die.... Please.... Inu Yasha held the still body to him tightly, the coldness of her body seeping into his blood-red shirt. He raced through the forests, bounding from tree limb to tree limb, speeding through, ignoring his own cuts and injuries. The girl's blood scent stung his nose, made him feel dizzy.

I don't care what you do to me, you cruel bastards who everyone thinks are merciful Gods and Creators. I don't care what you do to me, I tell you, but leave her out of it, don't hurt her... I can't let her die, can't let her get hurt because of me, can't... can't... I owe her this much, at least, to keep her out of harm's way, but you cruel bastards just had to torment me by making her suffer, didn't you?

For that moment, what happened less than three minutes ago flashed in his mind.

**FLASHBACK**

Kagome sat by the campfire, gazing thoughtfully into the flames. They'd met Kikyou again, but this time the meeting was short; a shocked greeting — if you could call it that— from me, a worried call of my name from Kagome and the others, and Kikyou just left. Like that. No other words were said the rest of the afternoon from me. Kagome was silent and distant, as she is now. I wonder, truly wonder, what it is that she thinks about after I meet with Kikyou and she finds out. I dare not take any chances and guess or jump to conclusions, because they would hurt me too much. I want to tell her, one of these days when I muster enough courage to say it out loud, that she's mine, and only mine. That I love her, to the ends of the earth, the end of time. And that it hurts me to think of her leaving when she does, when she goes off to see that damned Hojo male.

She's mine, dammit, and I'm hers.

My nose gets a feathery tickle. A familiar scent wafts into my sensitive nose and I sit up straighter, looking around the little clearing we stayed at, and I could feel my ears straining to decipher any unusual sounds.

There.

I race off without telling the others where or why, my eyes and ears glued to the North, where that familiar scent came from. As I get closer, I put on a burst of desperate speed. Whoever is making her bleed is going to pay.

Bursting out of the forest and drawing my sword at the same time, I swiftly kill the bastard that dared to hurt her. She's unconscious, I see. Concerned, I pick her cold body up, up and into my arms, relieved to hear a pulse and her soft breaths. I was so relieved that I hadn't lost her to some low-life bastard of a demon that dared challenge something that was mine, that I hugged her to my chest, her blood soaking into my shirt.

It was then that, as I would later in my life reflect, my life turned upside down, and I felt as if I truly followed Kikyou to the depths of Hell.

I heard a soft thud and a pained gasp, and I child-like shriek. I had been so relieved about Kikyou that I hadn't been alert enough to know that Kagome and the others had followed me by way of Kirara. At the same time that I stiffened in surprise, I noticed that Kikyou's beating heart was slowing it's pace, and that she was well into the danger of dying, unless I make that two-day trip from here to the village where Kaede-babaa lived within half a night or less.

So, once again, I wordlessly bound off in the direction of the village we all now call home, Kikyou's fake body in my arms.

I should have stayed to talk to Kagome at least, but I neglected to do so, because I didn't want to lose Kikyou. Not when I owe her so much. Not when I still trust her.

**END FLASHBACK**

Now, as Inu Yasha flew through the air, his breaths ragged and uneven, seriously thought that he was somehow in the Hell that the dying girl in his arms was always so determined to take him to.

It was like being stuck in a sticky cobweb, turning this way and that in hopes of escape, but either way the threads wrap tighter, choking the life out of him. Looking around, newly hatched baby spiders crawl forward, their mother's taunting eyes focused on him, telling her dear ones that supper is ready, and that if they wanted to live, they had better eat up.

The web tightens more, choking and choking, mercilessly. Such a strong object, a strong weapon. Yet lives depend on it.

So you see, though one life would be lost, others survive and carry on the web of life. Currently, Inu Yasha would be willing to die, if only to let Kikyou live.

Life is a treasure. Yet the treasure will forever be buried.

I sat in shock as Sango tried to tell me the horrible news without bursting into tears in the middle of it. She had only said two words, three really, but the number of them didn't matter. You could write a beautiful, elegant poem with words, countless words, yet the three words would be enough.

Sango could have walked up to me, sobbing and shrieking and slapping and punching and kicking, and said:

"A life so precious that winds can easily carry away,

So fine and beautiful that she must be the Goddess of the blooming flowers of May.

Sadly has she left the world of happiness and colors,

To wander amongst death and horrors."

She could have said:

"Blood that stained ground 'till the ground itself seemed an angry ocean filled of the substance of life.

Tears that flowed; screams of agony; yet helpless were the audience that gaped in horror; frozen were they."

Or she could have put it into one word, and I'd have known who she talked of. She could have just said the word "killed," and I would have slammed her to the ground, demanding to know what had happened.

But all she did, was run up to me, slap me hard in the face, and scream. She screamed those little words, then after them, words that made me stagger back, my back hitting a tree and I went crashing to the ground.

"She's DEAD!"

Those were her first two words, yet they were really three, as I'd dimly thought before.

"She's DEAD! She's DEAD because you LEFT her! You hurt her so much she didn't want to live, didn't want to fight back, didn't [protect herself when that demon came after her..."

Is it really my fault? I'd never dreamed of hurting her so much, let alone hurting her at all. What was Sango babbling on about? What about Kagome? Why didn't she want to live? Why didn't she protect herself?

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!

**

Two weeks later, I find myself staring at a grave.

I jump through the well and out again, finding myself in my forest.

I walk for a bit, then find myself at another grave. This time, though, there was a building constructed outside it, and here I was, at the door of that building, staring blankly at the shut door in front of my face.

Blankly, I look at the name.

Then I head back to the well, jump through, and walk to the modern God Tree. Under it, the little grave I had been at first revelled in the dancing sunshine that had penetrated the old tree's branches and leaves. It almost seemed as if it were telling me that she wre happy.

Tears roll down my cheeks at that thought.

Sure, she's happy. She's happy that she died of a broken heart, happy that she was killed when I couldn't protect her, happy that she never got to hear what she didn't know but wanted to know, happy that I'd chosen someone other than her.

What a bastard I am...

Angry and upset, hurt and disbelieving, I break down and cry, flinging myself onto the mound of dirt that concealed the love of my life.

My mate.

My Kagome.

AN: Waiii! I didn't expect to end this off like this!!! I wanted a happy ending, really! I did! But, well, I realised that if I just went on, than it would sorta be odd... for me at least... so I just ended there.

I hope you like it, and I truly appreciate you guys, whether or not you review, whether or not you read my other fics Kagome of the Phoenix Clan, World's Craziest and Cruelist IY Pairings, and the original and first Life is Odd.

I'd just like to say THANK YOU to all you who read this fic, and that I will seriously try to write more often. THANKS A BUNCH PEOPLES!!!

Disclaimer: Inu Yasha is a treasure. Yet he will never be mine.

Unfortunately.