Chapter Nine: Blood and Rain
"Perfect," Inuyasha muttered, "it's raining." He stared broodingly at the path that half an hour ago had been so clear. It wouldn't wash away, but it'd be a lot harder to follow, especially since tonight was the new moon and his enhanced senses were already starting to fade to those of a human. "C'mon" he growled, turning his head to look up at Shippou who had taken shelter from the rain in the leafy branches of the nearest tree the instant the first few stinging drops had made moist, dark splotches on the forest floor. "But it's raining!" Shippou complained, clinging tightly to the trunk of the tree and refusing to be budged. "What happened to "I shall not rest until Kagome is found!???" Inuyasha growled as he tried to drag Shippou away from the tree. "Kagome wouldn't want us to ruin our health looking for her!" Shippou shouted, lower lip thrust forward in a definite pout, as he clung even tighter to the trunk of the tree.
Kagome gasped for breath; rain beat against her skin. At first, it had been pleasant, cooling her overheated body. Now she was completely soaked and colder than she could ever remember being. It was probably early afternoon, she'd been running steadily since she'd left the clearing, but so far she'd found no trace of civilization, no possible source of aid. I can't keep this up, she thought, trying to control her breathing. I don't even know if I've been running in a straight line, she realized. For all she knew, she'd wasted the past four hours running in circles. She hadn't seen or sensed John the entire time, but how long before he started tracking her? She thought she could probably detect his aura if he were within a mile or so of her. Not that it would do much good, if he got that close there was no way she could escape. She opened her mouth, gasping for breath and trying to suppress the hysterical sobs that would be so easy to give in to. Tears gathered at the edges of her eyes and trickled down her cheeks, indistinguishable from the rain. She ignored them; she had to run. The mud pulled at her feet as if trying to stop her, with each step it became harder to pull her other foot up. She'd lost a shoe somewhere, she wasn't sure where. The rain was sheeting down now, biting, stinging, and icy cold. Sporadic shivers racked her body, and she couldn't seem to get enough air into her lungs. The rain curtained everything, she couldn't see a thing in front of her, or maybe her eyes were closed, she couldn't tell at this point. Her right foot caught on something, a rock. She couldn't keep her balance, and the momentum of her run propelled her forward at the same time that the foot caught by the rock held her back. She fell, and a stabbing pain shot through her right ankle. For the first few minutes, she just lay there, catching her breath. Once she could breathe again, she pushed herself up to her knees, she was covered in mud now, she'd been cold before, but now she was just numb. She struggled to her feet, but when she tried to stand on her right food, a searing pain shot through that leg, and Kagome gasped, eyes wide at the pain. She sank back to her knees, head hanging in dejection. She couldn't think, every part of her except her right ankle was numb. She knew she had to go forward though. She crawled, her pace achingly slow, until her shoulder smashed into a tree. It hurt for a moment, but not long, thankfully her sense of pain was deadened along with her other senses. She rested against the tree for a moment, just a moment she promised herself. She was so tired, if she could just rest for a moment. . .
The little log hut stood tranquilly in the middle of the clearing, an old shield spell prevented rain from falling on it. John barely restrained himself from ripping off the aged wooden door that sagged so pathetically on its hinges. Carefully, he pushed the door open, waited to see if anything happened, then stepped in. No traps so far, he wouldn't put it past the hag to set magical traps that activated at her death, she'd been a vicious old bat. But then the cow hadn't ever believed that she'd die either, so maybe she
hadn't set any traps. He tentatively walked farther into the hut. Nothing happened. Good, that would make his job that much easier. The books came first, carelessly he swept them off the shelves and into a large heap on the floor. The herbs too, he pulled
bunches down from where they hung drying in the rafters. He emptied drawers of bottles and vials that contained various oils, essences, distilled liquids, anything that pertained to magic. Then, he came to the bed, innocuous enough but there was storage room underneath it. He picked it up, breaking the headboard and footboard to make sure that they contained no hidden hollows or secret compartments. Nothing, they were just what they seemed, but underneath the bed . . .
. . .a box, small and intricately carved and, he discovered as he tried to open it, warded. The warding spell recoiled with a blinding flash of light and a painful jolt of energy. It would've killed a human. As it was, John ignored the pain and ripped the box apart with his claws. Its contents clattered to the floor. There was a small golden ewer, its soft metal scratched by its fall. Trash. John kicked it into the large heap on the floor. A small, silk bag, John tore it open. Crushed herbs fell to the floor, scenting the air with their pungent fragrance. He didn't even bother gathering them up and tossing them onto the pile. That left one last item, a knife. The knife. John held the blade up, letting the lamplight play along its edges. The ruby gleamed hypnotically with a light all its own. The thing fairly pulsed with energy. Instead of fascination, John looked at it with distaste. It held the life energy of dozens of girls, two centuries of sacrifices. The crone had devoted the past two centuries, most of her life, to storing enough energy in it to complete an immortality ritual. That fact alone made John want to destroy it.
Unfortunately, this sort of thing was rather difficult to destroy. The blade would have to be melted and mixed with other, counter metals. Iron perhaps. And the ruby would have to be crushed to a fine powder, divided into four equal parts, and then scattered to the four winds. There were many other ceremonies and rituals involved. Overall, a very tedious and time-consuming process. John scowled and tucked the thing into his belt. He'd have to destroy it later. One good fire should take care of the rest though. John ripped up the books, they'd make good kindling and he wanted to make sure that every page burned. Satisfied that everything, every scrap of spell-book, all the magical ingredients and implements and everything else that could possibly be used by humans for magic was in the pile. John picked up the lamp from where it stood on the shelf
and tossed it into the center of the pile. The books and dried herbs caught fire immediately, the glass smoked, turned gray, and cracked, and the metal instruments warped. Satisfied that nothing of use remained, John left the hut, this time ripping the door off its rusted hinges and tossing it onto the bonfire. Soon the whole hut was engulfed in flames, the shield spell was still in effect, so the fire blazed bright, untouched by the rain that fell all around it. John glanced at the sky, the clouds hid the sun, but it felt like mid or early afternoon. It had taken longer than he'd thought it would to
ransack the cabin, but he'd done it properly, soon every trace of the crone's existence would be gone, destroyed. Now, it was time to hunt down the girl.
Shippou was still hugging a tree somewhere, good riddance to the coward. He'd find Kagome while Shippou was still hugging the stupid tree, trying to keep his pelt dry. The slightly acrid odor of smoke jolted Inuyasha out of his thoughts, something was burning in the distance, the unmistakable smell of smoke tinged the air, barely detectable at first under the rain, but growing stronger. He was growing closer, but it was also growing stronger. The demon's scent was everywhere, then, he caught it. Slight, but like the smoke unmistakable. Kagome's scent. Recent, not more than a few days old. She was alive! He was going the right way, the tight feeling that had been building up and threatening to snap for the past six weeks dissolved. Relief surged through him. The most recent scent led in the same direction that the smoke seemed to originate from.
The ground had turned into swamp, he had to place his feet carefully, or else his steps would push him ankle-deep into the mud. He seemed to glide across the ground, ghost-like in the misty, rainy valley with the dark mountains looming over him. He crossed a
stream, its normally quiet waters rushed rapidly and noisily, starting to overflow its banks. Kagome's scent was very fresh here, so was the demon's. They'd both been here today. Under the strong, earthy scent of the rain and the acrid smell of smoke, he thought
he could almost detect a faintly metallic odor, magic? He didn't stay to analyze it, although his mind worried over it. Kagome, a demon, and magic. She was alive, thank god, but after six weeks with them, what condition would she be in? But she was
alive, at least she was alive. He was following a path now, it broke out of the forest and into a clearing. An old human woman's body hung from a tree. There was a dark patch, already fading, underneath it, where the blood mixed with rainwater was slowly being
absorbed by the earth. The rain was coming down in sheets now, driven by the wind. The body swung slightly to and fro. The scents diverged here, the demon's scent went in the direction of the smoke, and Kagome's went in the opposite direction. Rain, earth,
smoke, blood, ozone, and magic. The six strong smells blended dizzyingly, Inuyasha couldn't pick out which person was associated with which scent. Someone had cast magic, which probably summoned the lightning, which would account for the ozone smell. The old woman's body obviously hadn't been hit by lightning. So very likely
she or Kagome had summoned the lightning. Inuyasha examined the woman's body more closely, it was difficult to be certain of anything, but the slash wound in her stomach could have easily been made by a demon's claws. So the old woman had been killed by the demon. Magic had been used to summon lightning, probably to attempt to stop the demon. It obviously hadn't worked. It was possible that other magic had been cast. Maybe the old woman had attempted to hold the demon off while Kagome escaped. But if that was so, why hadn't the demon followed Kagome once it finished off the old woman? Why had the demon attacked the old woman in the first place? Inuyasha shook his head in frustration, none of this made sense, and he didn't have time to puzzle it all out. His first priority right now was Kagome, he had to find her and get her to safety before nightfall when he would become completely human.
He raced along the increasingly obvious trail that Kagome had made as she ran. Blurred footprints, deep at the toe with almost no heel, carelessly broken branches and scattered leaves, even a human would have no difficult following such a trail. The gaps between the prints were considerable, she'd been running, running away from something. The demon probably. It was quite an impressive distance for a human. The residual scent of fear lingered in the air, he wished the rain had washed it away. He ran faster, anger widening and quickening his strides. After tonight he'd find whoever had done this to Kagome. He didn't know why they hadn't followed her, but after he made sure that Kagome was safe, he'd come back for them.
There was a clearing up ahead. The golden light of the afternoon sun glowed through the new spring leaves and everything had that eerily still, fake quality that only happens after a rain, as if everything was too clean, too perfect to be real. There was a light
breeze, it whispered through the higher branches of the trees, and they sighed gently. Inuyasha stood frozen at the entrance to the clearing. The leaves cast light gray shadows on his long snowy white hair. It was a true white, no yellow or blue undertones like most. There was something, someone lying against a tree up ahead. Kagome. Kagome!!! Time froze and sped up at the same time. He wasn't sure what happened between now and then, the next thing he knew, Kagome was in his arms and he'd buried his face in her thick black hair. It smelled like her, like flowers, fragile and sweet and
beautiful. It was still slightly damp from the rain, that must be why his cheeks were wet. Kagome's clothes were wet too in fact and she was so cold. The smooth, soft skin of her face where it touched his was the same slightly chilly temperature as the breeze that blew at her hair, blew strands of it across his lips. He raised a hand to brush the fine black strands away, but somehow it ended up tracing the delicate line of her smoothly rounded jaw, it could be so stubborn at times. Just like her to go to sleep under a tree while he was killing himself worrying over where she was. She must be really tired from having run so far if she hadn't woken up even after he'd screamed her name and picked her up. Picked her up? Inuyasha realized that he was holding her on his lap, one arm around her
slender waist with the fingers of his hand splayed out across her back to support it. Her shoulder pressed into his chest, her thick, curly blue- black hair mixed with the long, silky white strands of his. His other hand cupped her neck and supported her head, her lips were inches from his, he was holding her as if she were his lover. He blushed a deep shade of red and hastily put more distance between them. It was a good thing she hadn't woken up, she'd think he'd gone insane.
Inuyasha leaned his head back a bit and looked at her. Her skin was almost as white as his was, but it had a blue undertone, and her features seemed more fragile than normal, maybe she was thinner. Her thick black lashes almost hid the pale blue-lavender
shadows that were below her closed eyes. Inuyasha's hands tightened on her shoulders, she looked so helpless and delicate, he wanted to pick her back up and not let go. Ever. It must be the altitude, he needed to get ahold of himself and get her to safety before
nightfall. He gently cupped one hand against the side of her face, raising it so that the sun shone across it. "Kagome. . .Kagome" he whispered, softly at first, but then more loudly when she didn't awaken. "Kagome!" he shook her slightly, she'd never been such a heavy sleeper before, why wouldn't she wake up? "Kagome?!! KAGOME!!" he was shouting now, and she still wouldn't wake up. Starting to panic, he leaned closer, cold seemed to radiate from her. He pressed a hand to the pulse at the base of her throat, or to
where it should be, he couldn't seem to find it. Humans did have pulses there, didn't they? He must be getting them confused with demons, that was it. Only, her chest wasn't moving either, and she was so cold and pale. "KAGOME!!
KAGOOOOOMEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!" The wind blew harder now, and the sound
the branches made as they scraped together was louder, angrier. The sun continued to shine as it followed its descending arc across the sky, but the wind robbed its rays of their
warmth and only light was left. Kagome's beautiful, motionless body clutched in Inuyasha's arms, his face raised, tears caught the light like diamonds, flashing for an instant before falling. His snow white hair blew across her blue white skin and entangled itself in her wavy, blacker-than- night tresses. Black on white, both glowing in the
sunlight.
End
"Perfect," Inuyasha muttered, "it's raining." He stared broodingly at the path that half an hour ago had been so clear. It wouldn't wash away, but it'd be a lot harder to follow, especially since tonight was the new moon and his enhanced senses were already starting to fade to those of a human. "C'mon" he growled, turning his head to look up at Shippou who had taken shelter from the rain in the leafy branches of the nearest tree the instant the first few stinging drops had made moist, dark splotches on the forest floor. "But it's raining!" Shippou complained, clinging tightly to the trunk of the tree and refusing to be budged. "What happened to "I shall not rest until Kagome is found!???" Inuyasha growled as he tried to drag Shippou away from the tree. "Kagome wouldn't want us to ruin our health looking for her!" Shippou shouted, lower lip thrust forward in a definite pout, as he clung even tighter to the trunk of the tree.
Kagome gasped for breath; rain beat against her skin. At first, it had been pleasant, cooling her overheated body. Now she was completely soaked and colder than she could ever remember being. It was probably early afternoon, she'd been running steadily since she'd left the clearing, but so far she'd found no trace of civilization, no possible source of aid. I can't keep this up, she thought, trying to control her breathing. I don't even know if I've been running in a straight line, she realized. For all she knew, she'd wasted the past four hours running in circles. She hadn't seen or sensed John the entire time, but how long before he started tracking her? She thought she could probably detect his aura if he were within a mile or so of her. Not that it would do much good, if he got that close there was no way she could escape. She opened her mouth, gasping for breath and trying to suppress the hysterical sobs that would be so easy to give in to. Tears gathered at the edges of her eyes and trickled down her cheeks, indistinguishable from the rain. She ignored them; she had to run. The mud pulled at her feet as if trying to stop her, with each step it became harder to pull her other foot up. She'd lost a shoe somewhere, she wasn't sure where. The rain was sheeting down now, biting, stinging, and icy cold. Sporadic shivers racked her body, and she couldn't seem to get enough air into her lungs. The rain curtained everything, she couldn't see a thing in front of her, or maybe her eyes were closed, she couldn't tell at this point. Her right foot caught on something, a rock. She couldn't keep her balance, and the momentum of her run propelled her forward at the same time that the foot caught by the rock held her back. She fell, and a stabbing pain shot through her right ankle. For the first few minutes, she just lay there, catching her breath. Once she could breathe again, she pushed herself up to her knees, she was covered in mud now, she'd been cold before, but now she was just numb. She struggled to her feet, but when she tried to stand on her right food, a searing pain shot through that leg, and Kagome gasped, eyes wide at the pain. She sank back to her knees, head hanging in dejection. She couldn't think, every part of her except her right ankle was numb. She knew she had to go forward though. She crawled, her pace achingly slow, until her shoulder smashed into a tree. It hurt for a moment, but not long, thankfully her sense of pain was deadened along with her other senses. She rested against the tree for a moment, just a moment she promised herself. She was so tired, if she could just rest for a moment. . .
The little log hut stood tranquilly in the middle of the clearing, an old shield spell prevented rain from falling on it. John barely restrained himself from ripping off the aged wooden door that sagged so pathetically on its hinges. Carefully, he pushed the door open, waited to see if anything happened, then stepped in. No traps so far, he wouldn't put it past the hag to set magical traps that activated at her death, she'd been a vicious old bat. But then the cow hadn't ever believed that she'd die either, so maybe she
hadn't set any traps. He tentatively walked farther into the hut. Nothing happened. Good, that would make his job that much easier. The books came first, carelessly he swept them off the shelves and into a large heap on the floor. The herbs too, he pulled
bunches down from where they hung drying in the rafters. He emptied drawers of bottles and vials that contained various oils, essences, distilled liquids, anything that pertained to magic. Then, he came to the bed, innocuous enough but there was storage room underneath it. He picked it up, breaking the headboard and footboard to make sure that they contained no hidden hollows or secret compartments. Nothing, they were just what they seemed, but underneath the bed . . .
. . .a box, small and intricately carved and, he discovered as he tried to open it, warded. The warding spell recoiled with a blinding flash of light and a painful jolt of energy. It would've killed a human. As it was, John ignored the pain and ripped the box apart with his claws. Its contents clattered to the floor. There was a small golden ewer, its soft metal scratched by its fall. Trash. John kicked it into the large heap on the floor. A small, silk bag, John tore it open. Crushed herbs fell to the floor, scenting the air with their pungent fragrance. He didn't even bother gathering them up and tossing them onto the pile. That left one last item, a knife. The knife. John held the blade up, letting the lamplight play along its edges. The ruby gleamed hypnotically with a light all its own. The thing fairly pulsed with energy. Instead of fascination, John looked at it with distaste. It held the life energy of dozens of girls, two centuries of sacrifices. The crone had devoted the past two centuries, most of her life, to storing enough energy in it to complete an immortality ritual. That fact alone made John want to destroy it.
Unfortunately, this sort of thing was rather difficult to destroy. The blade would have to be melted and mixed with other, counter metals. Iron perhaps. And the ruby would have to be crushed to a fine powder, divided into four equal parts, and then scattered to the four winds. There were many other ceremonies and rituals involved. Overall, a very tedious and time-consuming process. John scowled and tucked the thing into his belt. He'd have to destroy it later. One good fire should take care of the rest though. John ripped up the books, they'd make good kindling and he wanted to make sure that every page burned. Satisfied that everything, every scrap of spell-book, all the magical ingredients and implements and everything else that could possibly be used by humans for magic was in the pile. John picked up the lamp from where it stood on the shelf
and tossed it into the center of the pile. The books and dried herbs caught fire immediately, the glass smoked, turned gray, and cracked, and the metal instruments warped. Satisfied that nothing of use remained, John left the hut, this time ripping the door off its rusted hinges and tossing it onto the bonfire. Soon the whole hut was engulfed in flames, the shield spell was still in effect, so the fire blazed bright, untouched by the rain that fell all around it. John glanced at the sky, the clouds hid the sun, but it felt like mid or early afternoon. It had taken longer than he'd thought it would to
ransack the cabin, but he'd done it properly, soon every trace of the crone's existence would be gone, destroyed. Now, it was time to hunt down the girl.
Shippou was still hugging a tree somewhere, good riddance to the coward. He'd find Kagome while Shippou was still hugging the stupid tree, trying to keep his pelt dry. The slightly acrid odor of smoke jolted Inuyasha out of his thoughts, something was burning in the distance, the unmistakable smell of smoke tinged the air, barely detectable at first under the rain, but growing stronger. He was growing closer, but it was also growing stronger. The demon's scent was everywhere, then, he caught it. Slight, but like the smoke unmistakable. Kagome's scent. Recent, not more than a few days old. She was alive! He was going the right way, the tight feeling that had been building up and threatening to snap for the past six weeks dissolved. Relief surged through him. The most recent scent led in the same direction that the smoke seemed to originate from.
The ground had turned into swamp, he had to place his feet carefully, or else his steps would push him ankle-deep into the mud. He seemed to glide across the ground, ghost-like in the misty, rainy valley with the dark mountains looming over him. He crossed a
stream, its normally quiet waters rushed rapidly and noisily, starting to overflow its banks. Kagome's scent was very fresh here, so was the demon's. They'd both been here today. Under the strong, earthy scent of the rain and the acrid smell of smoke, he thought
he could almost detect a faintly metallic odor, magic? He didn't stay to analyze it, although his mind worried over it. Kagome, a demon, and magic. She was alive, thank god, but after six weeks with them, what condition would she be in? But she was
alive, at least she was alive. He was following a path now, it broke out of the forest and into a clearing. An old human woman's body hung from a tree. There was a dark patch, already fading, underneath it, where the blood mixed with rainwater was slowly being
absorbed by the earth. The rain was coming down in sheets now, driven by the wind. The body swung slightly to and fro. The scents diverged here, the demon's scent went in the direction of the smoke, and Kagome's went in the opposite direction. Rain, earth,
smoke, blood, ozone, and magic. The six strong smells blended dizzyingly, Inuyasha couldn't pick out which person was associated with which scent. Someone had cast magic, which probably summoned the lightning, which would account for the ozone smell. The old woman's body obviously hadn't been hit by lightning. So very likely
she or Kagome had summoned the lightning. Inuyasha examined the woman's body more closely, it was difficult to be certain of anything, but the slash wound in her stomach could have easily been made by a demon's claws. So the old woman had been killed by the demon. Magic had been used to summon lightning, probably to attempt to stop the demon. It obviously hadn't worked. It was possible that other magic had been cast. Maybe the old woman had attempted to hold the demon off while Kagome escaped. But if that was so, why hadn't the demon followed Kagome once it finished off the old woman? Why had the demon attacked the old woman in the first place? Inuyasha shook his head in frustration, none of this made sense, and he didn't have time to puzzle it all out. His first priority right now was Kagome, he had to find her and get her to safety before nightfall when he would become completely human.
He raced along the increasingly obvious trail that Kagome had made as she ran. Blurred footprints, deep at the toe with almost no heel, carelessly broken branches and scattered leaves, even a human would have no difficult following such a trail. The gaps between the prints were considerable, she'd been running, running away from something. The demon probably. It was quite an impressive distance for a human. The residual scent of fear lingered in the air, he wished the rain had washed it away. He ran faster, anger widening and quickening his strides. After tonight he'd find whoever had done this to Kagome. He didn't know why they hadn't followed her, but after he made sure that Kagome was safe, he'd come back for them.
There was a clearing up ahead. The golden light of the afternoon sun glowed through the new spring leaves and everything had that eerily still, fake quality that only happens after a rain, as if everything was too clean, too perfect to be real. There was a light
breeze, it whispered through the higher branches of the trees, and they sighed gently. Inuyasha stood frozen at the entrance to the clearing. The leaves cast light gray shadows on his long snowy white hair. It was a true white, no yellow or blue undertones like most. There was something, someone lying against a tree up ahead. Kagome. Kagome!!! Time froze and sped up at the same time. He wasn't sure what happened between now and then, the next thing he knew, Kagome was in his arms and he'd buried his face in her thick black hair. It smelled like her, like flowers, fragile and sweet and
beautiful. It was still slightly damp from the rain, that must be why his cheeks were wet. Kagome's clothes were wet too in fact and she was so cold. The smooth, soft skin of her face where it touched his was the same slightly chilly temperature as the breeze that blew at her hair, blew strands of it across his lips. He raised a hand to brush the fine black strands away, but somehow it ended up tracing the delicate line of her smoothly rounded jaw, it could be so stubborn at times. Just like her to go to sleep under a tree while he was killing himself worrying over where she was. She must be really tired from having run so far if she hadn't woken up even after he'd screamed her name and picked her up. Picked her up? Inuyasha realized that he was holding her on his lap, one arm around her
slender waist with the fingers of his hand splayed out across her back to support it. Her shoulder pressed into his chest, her thick, curly blue- black hair mixed with the long, silky white strands of his. His other hand cupped her neck and supported her head, her lips were inches from his, he was holding her as if she were his lover. He blushed a deep shade of red and hastily put more distance between them. It was a good thing she hadn't woken up, she'd think he'd gone insane.
Inuyasha leaned his head back a bit and looked at her. Her skin was almost as white as his was, but it had a blue undertone, and her features seemed more fragile than normal, maybe she was thinner. Her thick black lashes almost hid the pale blue-lavender
shadows that were below her closed eyes. Inuyasha's hands tightened on her shoulders, she looked so helpless and delicate, he wanted to pick her back up and not let go. Ever. It must be the altitude, he needed to get ahold of himself and get her to safety before
nightfall. He gently cupped one hand against the side of her face, raising it so that the sun shone across it. "Kagome. . .Kagome" he whispered, softly at first, but then more loudly when she didn't awaken. "Kagome!" he shook her slightly, she'd never been such a heavy sleeper before, why wouldn't she wake up? "Kagome?!! KAGOME!!" he was shouting now, and she still wouldn't wake up. Starting to panic, he leaned closer, cold seemed to radiate from her. He pressed a hand to the pulse at the base of her throat, or to
where it should be, he couldn't seem to find it. Humans did have pulses there, didn't they? He must be getting them confused with demons, that was it. Only, her chest wasn't moving either, and she was so cold and pale. "KAGOME!!
KAGOOOOOMEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!" The wind blew harder now, and the sound
the branches made as they scraped together was louder, angrier. The sun continued to shine as it followed its descending arc across the sky, but the wind robbed its rays of their
warmth and only light was left. Kagome's beautiful, motionless body clutched in Inuyasha's arms, his face raised, tears caught the light like diamonds, flashing for an instant before falling. His snow white hair blew across her blue white skin and entangled itself in her wavy, blacker-than- night tresses. Black on white, both glowing in the
sunlight.
End