LL: *waves nervously* Umm, hi? I know, I know, it's been forever since I've updated. *sigh* I hate the holidays, and I'm really sorry that it took me so long to update.
Sesshy: You should be.
Miroku: Hey, give the girl a break, she's had a rough few weeks.
LL: *smiles* Why thank you, Miroku-kun. You're so sweet and thoughtful, unlike some-ack! *slaps Miroku* You perv!
J0rge: Oh brother, just let the poor people read the story already.
IMPORTANT!! My e-mail is really evil, and I haven't been able to send out update e-mails through it. So, if you want to get updates from me, send an e-mail to ellycian-suscribe@yahoogroups.com to get updates in the future. I don't intend to add people myself, so you MUST sign up YOURSELF.
Answers to questions:
Length of Pregnancies: For this story, I'm using a nine month gestation period, and Kagome is seven months pregnant right now.
When will Sesshy finally suck it up and admit that he loves Kagome?: Soon, very soon, I promise.
Where was Kikyo in Chapter 10?: Cowering and generally trying to remain inconspicuous. Kagome wasn't bound to be too happy with her after their last meeting, and she really didn't want to piss off Sesshy.
Sesshy was being inconsistent: Ok, to be perfectly honest, I screwed up. But since I'm too lazy to change it, Sesshy is actually grasping at straws. He doesn't want to admit that he actually wants Kagome around, so he says whatever sounds good at the moment. (Which sounds a lot better than "I screwed up")
Hmm, that's about it. Thanks for all your reviews as always!
Chapter 11: A Tear For Kagome
Tensions flew through the roof over the next few days. It was almost like the days before Kagome left, if you could ignore the fact that they were now traveling with a soulless priestess and a demon lord and that Kagome was – as she put it – the size of a blimp. But other than that, everything was just as it used to be, though hardly normal. Miroku groped Sango, Sango beat Miroku, and Kagome and Inu-Yasha constantly got into fights. The only unusual part was that Kagome started the fights more often than not, sometimes for no apparent reason at all.
Sesshoumaru watched, amused, as one of these fights progressed. It was a discreet conversation about him that the entire group could hear. Naturally, Inu-Yasha insisted on pointing out his faults – again – while Kagome valiantly defended him, vacillating between adjectives such as "honorable" and " complete jerk". Sesshoumaru sighed. Hormones.
To his surprise, Miroku echoed him. Considering that the demon lord could recall at least one instance when the monk had almost died from his interference, Sesshoumaru would have thought that Miroku would have made a point not to agree with him about anything. The demon exterminator was certainly having no problem expressing her dislike of him.
"Poor Shippou," Miroku sighed dramatically, "To have to be in the middle of that." Sesshoumaru stole a glance at the young kitsune, who was firmly attached to Kagome's shoulder, right smack in the middle of the argument. The demon didn't envy Shippou's position – at least not that much – but he felt that if the boy insisted on staying where he was then he deserved it.
Deciding that for the sake of everyone's nerves, not least of all his own, to end the argument, Sesshoumaru opened his mouth to speak. But before he could get a word out, a familiar, elusive scent caught his attention.
"Naraku," he hissed under his breath.
Inu-Yasha heard him, for he stopped and sniffed the air, growling. "I'll get him," the hanyou declared with his usual recklessness.
Sesshoumaru scoffed, but it was Kagome that replied. "Don't be an idiot, Inu-Yasha. You couldn't beat Naraku when you still had Tetsusaiga, how do you plan on defeating him now?"
"And you think that you can do it?" Inu-Yasha shot back. "What're you going to do? Waddle up to Naraku and slap him?"
Sesshoumaru clapped a hand over Kagome's mouth before she could reply, no doubt with a 'sit'. "Enough, both of you," he snapped, glaring at both Kagome and his brother in turn. "Naraku is a coward, and won't willingly join the fight. He will send his children to fight for him. You two," he turned to Sango and Miroku, "draw away his children. Inu-Yasha, you will get behind Naraku and keep him from getting away. I'll attack from the front. Shippou and Kirara will guard Kagome. Stay as far away from the battle as possible." He ignored the dead woman; she wasn't trustworthy.
The demon lord half expected Kagome to argue, but though she glared up at him, she said nothing. That worried him more than an argument would have. "I mean it, Kagome," he said quietly in the dog demon language.
"Yea, I know," she replied in the same way. "I'll be good, I promise."
"Fine," Sesshoumaru said in Japanese, releasing her and turning to the others. "Let's go."
***
Kagome clutched Shippou to her chest as she watched the rest of the group fan out into their appointed positions. Surprisingly, no one had argued, save Inu-Yasha, who only grumbled a bit. Kikyo didn't say anything either (come to think of it, she hadn't said a thing since they had reunited) but she seemed to take it upon herself to follow Inu-Yasha. But she supposed that everyone had felt that Sesshoumaru's plan was sensible, so hadn't had a reason to argue. After all, knowing their little group, none of them would let a silly thing like fear of the demon lord get in their way of disagreeing with him.
Before she had more time to process that thought, the unmistakable sounds of a battle started up. "Come on, we've got to get closer," she said to Shippou.
"Closer?" the kitsune squeaked. "But Sesshoumaru said…"
"He said to stay as far away as possible. And I intend to, but I need to be able to see what's going on to help," Kagome said, setting Shippou down.
"But," the little fox began to protest, but he cut himself off and sighed instead. "All right, let's go." Kagome was already several feet ahead and he squeaked in alarm, jogging to catch up.
Behind them, Kirara followed, silently chuckling to herself.
***
Naraku was pissed.
His usually reliable sources had not informed him that Sesshoumaru and Inu-Yasha had joined forces against him. And so, as Kagura's loyalty had become questionable of late, he had followed his daughter on her mission to retrieve a few shards that he had somehow missed. Now here he was, trapped between two very angry brothers. Inu-Yasha on his own didn't worry him; Sesshoumaru wasn't too big of a threat. But the both of them together produced a potentially lethal combination. Furthermore, Sesshoumaru was wielding the Tetsusaiga, yet another fact that had escaped his information net.
Just as soon as he escaped, someone was going to pay for this. That was, if he could get away.
Hissing in anger, he dodged a blow from Tetsusaiga, only to be hit from behind by Inu-Yasha's claws. With a vicious blow, he knocked the insolent hanyou back for long enough to allow him time to glance around. Kagura was facing off against the monk and the exterminator and doing quite well, but she didn't seem to inclined to come and help him. Blasted bitch, he grumbled to himself, I'll take care of her when we get back. There was no sign of the kitsune, fire cat or Kagome, though. And where the fuck was Kikyo?
Lashing out, Naraku saw an opening and ran. He was sure that he would get away when he saw her. Kagome, standing with her head bowed and fingers steepled before her, concentrating hard. He barely had time to recognize that the glint in her earrings as shikon shards before he slammed into something very hard and blacked out.
***
Sesshoumaru's heart nearly stopped when he saw who was in Naraku's path. It was odd, but he hadn't noticed her standing her there before. With a growl, he launched himself after the hanyou, feeling his brother beside him. But even as he did so, he knew he would be too late, Naraku was fast, and Kagome just stood there, seemingly oblivious.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, and she smirked. Naraku slammed to a stop instantly – literally – and fell to the ground with a thud. He caught a flicker of red before her before it faded, but he didn't stop, rushing straight to Kagome's side.
"Are you all right?" he asked with a growl, not taking his eyes from Naraku's form. The hanyou was beginning to stir, but Inu-Yasha could take care of him for a while.
"Fine," she answered demurely, folding her hands across her swollen stomach in a way that said she felt the question was unnecessary. Knowing that he would get no remorse from the woman for her foolish actions, the demon lord instead rounded on a wide-eyed Shippou.
"I told you to keep her away!" he growled furiously. Naraku was rising now.
"I was," Kagome hissed back. "The battle was over there. And anyway, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, thank you." Sesshoumaru growled again, but he didn't have time to argue. Instead, he attacked Naraku, leading him away from Kagome.
She was probably right anyway. Kagome had proven herself in battles before, and she wasn't even truly fighting in this one. So he focused wholly on the fight before him; the sooner it was over, the less chance there was of her getting hurt. His eyes blazed red as his mind narrowed down to one thing: destroy Naraku. The hanyou couldn't hold against his onslaught. With Tetsusaiga in hand, Sesshoumaru was invincible.
"Watch out!" Kagome screamed suddenly, and something slammed into his side.
***
Shit! Kagome thought frantically as she watched Kikyo rush Sesshoumaru. She couldn't hit the priestess for fear of hurting the demon as well, and as Inu-Yasha had pointed out, she couldn't exactly waddle up there and actually expect to do any good. That's it!
"Inu-Yasha!" she yelled. "Help him!" But the hanyou was clearly having trouble deciding what to do. He never had been able to harm Kikyo, even when she had been after him, and he clearly didn't like his brother very much. Kagome began to fret. "Inu-Yasha," she screeched, following with a variety of explicatives that she wasn't even aware she knew. Kikyo was holding her own against the demon, and she feared that the dead woman would soon overtake him. "If you don't help him right now, I swear, I'll rip out your guts and turn them into contemporary art!!!"
Inu-Yasha decided that it would be a good idea to help his brother.
As soon as the dog hanyou ripped Kikyo away, Kagome flung herself at Sesshoumaru. "Are you all right?" she asked, worried. He nodded, sitting up and apparently catching his second wind.
"I'm all right," he repeated softly, brushing a finger across her cheek before pushing her away. "Now get out of here." Before Kagome realized what was happening, Naraku had attacked again, Sesshoumaru countering his blows with the Tetsusaiga.
She did as she was bid, grabbing Shippou and Kirara and running to a safer place. Glancing in Miroku and Sango's direction, she saw that they were still battling Kagura and some lesser demons that had accompanied her. They seemed to be holding their own, but she threw a few blasts at the demons anyway before turning back towards Naraku and Sesshoumaru.
Naraku seemed to have gained a second wind as well, and a little courage to boot. He seemed to have realized that there was no way he was escaping this time so, for once, he had decided to fight. Sesshoumaru was up to the challenge, but without the blind rage that had overtaken him before, Naraku was slowly gaining the upper hand.
How is that possible? Kagome wondered to herself as she watched helplessly. Then a flash caught her eye, and it hit her. Naraku was harnessing the power of the shards that he had to increase his power. And as strong as Sesshoumaru was, he hadn't the strength to win. And there was no one to help him. Inu-Yasha was to busy restraining Kikyo to help (what were they doing?), and the others were busy elsewhere.
They were in a lot of trouble, Kagome realized, and it was going to take a great deal of luck to win this battle.
***
Inu-Yasha watched Kikyo anxiously from the corner of his eye. She was struggling furiously in his arms, and he couldn't understand why.
"Kikyo?" he ventured softly, "What's the matter with you?"
Suddenly, the woman went limp, and turned her liquid black eyes up to fix on his face. "Inu-Yasha," she whispered softly, brushing her hand across his cheek. "Where is Kagome? We must find her."
The hanyou blinked, trying to clear his mind. "Why?"
Kikyo batted her eyes at him, "She's very vulnerable in her condition." Inu-Yasha felt himself slipping into her dark eyes. They really should find Kagome, he began to think. Sesshoumaru was too busy fighting to watch out for her, so it would be up to he and Kikyo to protect her.
Kikyo? Protecting Kagome?
Wait a minute. "Why do you care about Kagome's safety? You never have before," Inu-Yasha said suspiciously. Without warning, the angelic look on the dead woman's face melted into hideous anger. She spun, sweeping the surrounding area until her eye caught something and she launched herself in that direction.
Inu-Yasha paused for a moment, trying to see what Kikyo had. But there was nothing there. Shaking his head, Inu-Yasha took off after the woman, one thought stuck firmly in his mind.
Kikyo had completely lost it.
***
"Kirara, we need to do something. See if you can draw off Naraku for a moment, but don't get too close to him." The fire cat meowed in ascent as she trotted off toward the battle. Kagome closed her eyes as she began to gather her power for a subduing spell to put on Naraku.
"Kagome, you know my invisibility won't hold when you're doing that," Shippou said nervously.
Kagome smiled wryly, "That won't matter in a moment." Shippou sighed and dropped his spell altogether. A flicker of movement caught his attention and he turned to see Kikyo barreling towards them!
"Kagome! Watch out!" he yelled, but too late.
Kagome turned, her concentration shot, to see Kikyo tackled by Inu-Yasha.
***
Kouga's ears pricked as he heard the sounds of a battle not to far off. Normally, he wouldn't have paid much attention, but a shout that sounded suspiciously like "Kagome" caught his attention. With a growl, he sped off in the direction of the shout.
No one would hurt his woman while he was around.
***
Deftly, Inu-Yasha flipped Kikyo over so that they were face to face and pinned her to the ground by her shoulders. "What's wrong with you, huh? What're you after Kagome for?"
"You can't be that dense," the dead priestess spat back. "She has my soul, and I want it back!"
Inu-Yasha blinked, looking up at Kagome, who was watching the exchange dispassionately. Behind her, flashes of the battle between Sesshoumaru and Naraku could be seen. The hanyou looked down again at the woman he had once loved, his hands tightening on her shoulders. "No."
"What?" Kikyo hissed.
"I won't let you hurt Kagome." The words rung out like the toll of a bell, but Kikyo wasn't down for the count yet. Her hands gripped Inu-Yasha's shoulders and she began to burn through his fire rat haori with pure magic. He yelped and sprung up. Kikyo followed and turned towards Kagome, who stood rooted to the ground in amazement.
"Now girl," she said with wicked glee, "I'll have what's mine."
***
Kagome couldn't move. She could vaguely hear Shippou pleading for her to do something. The sounds of battle clashed behind her, but everything seemed to be as if she was viewing the world from underwater. And with a sudden certainty, she knew she was going to die.
I'm so sorry, Sesshoumaru, that all of this was in vain.
A blur of red entered her vision, and golden eyes locked with hers just as Kikyo was torn to pieces.
***
Kouga entered the battlefield to see Kagome fall backwards to land on her bottom. With a flash, he was by her side, and though he was very confused by her current condition, he pushed his questions aside for later. "Kagome-chan, are you all right?"
She didn't answer; her eyes remained locked on a pile of dirt and bones before her. "Kagome?" the fox child asked uncertainly. Finally the woman shook herself and raised her head enough to look the dog-hanyou in the face.
"Inu-Yasha," she breathed, much to Kouga's displeasure. Her mouth worked up and down a few times, trying to form words, until she finally smiled wryly and stood, brushing herself off. "Thank you."
***
The cat-youkai was screwing with his plans. Just when he had been about to beat the Lord of the Western Lands, it had to jump in and ruin everything. Even the power of the partially completed jewel wasn't enough to beat both the demons at once.
Perhaps it was time to bring in a little reinforcement.
***
Sesshoumaru growled as Naraku retreated slightly and suddenly whistled shrilly. He wasn't sure was the signal meant, but he was sure that he wouldn't like it. When a young boy came loping up, he wondered if Naraku had lost it. "That's your master plan," he laughed, slinging Tetsusaiga over his shoulder.
Naraku didn't get a chance to reply, for Kagome's shrill scream cut through the air. Sesshoumaru turned immediately before he realized what he was doing and turned back to see that both Naraku and the boy were affected by whatever was bothering Kagome. Deeming it safe, he turned his back on Naraku once more and loped toward the woman in question.
"Move," he growled at his brother and Shippou, who were crowded around her. Shippou hopped over to Kagome's other side, where the wolf-demon, Kouga, lay. Both he and Kagome were surrounded in a pale pink glow. Before he could figure out what was happening, the amber drops in her ears shattered. The two shards contained within combined and hovered above her, while two from Kouga's legs, the ones from Naraku, and another lone one from the boy joined them. Glancing over, he realized that the boy had dropped to the ground and appeared to be dead, if Sango's scream was any clue. When he looked back, the jewel had disappeared, and Kagome was blinking sleepily as the glow faded, lingering the longest around her hip. His hand went to her cheek. "Kagome?" She smiled tiredly, placing her small hand over his reassuringly.
Suddenly, her eyes widened as they focused on something behind him. "Watch out!" The next thing the demon knew, he was flying through the air, followed shortly by Inu-Yasha. The two brothers scrambled to their feet at Kagome's scream. Naraku dealt a vicious blow to her abdomen before either of them could react and she slumped to the ground. Kouga lay next to her, unconscious and bleeding from a head wound.
Sesshoumaru didn't stop to think. Tightening his grip around the Tetsusaiga, he charged after Naraku, who leapt away. The hanyou seemed to have returned to his former battle strategy: flight before fight. And with every step, he was closer to getting away. The last shreds of the demon lord's sensible mind told him this, while his animalistic side was screaming at him to transform and dismember the one who had dared laid a and on his Kagome. With a deep-throated growl, he threw down his sword and gave in.
***
Inu-Yasha watched in horror as his brother transformed into his true form. He had never seen Sesshoumaru so angry before, not even when he had been denied the Tetsusaiga in their father's grave so long ago. So instead of going to help him as he had originally planned, he turned to Kagome – and Kouga – who was unconscious from the earlier attack.
Shippou sat beside her, a little worse for wear himself, trying to wake her up. He backed off a bit as Inu-Yasha knelt and looked up at the hanyou with watery eyes. "She won't wake up," he whispered softly.
Inu-Yasha's insides turned to ice as he slipped his hand under his chin to feel for a pulse, and sighed with relief as, after a very tense moment, he felt a beat, then another. "She's alive," he whispered, "She's alive!"
If his brother heard him, he was ignored. By now, he had trapped Naraku between his huge paws. Standing, he grinned as he saw the expression on the other hanyou's face. Naraku looked as if he was about to piss his pants.
Without warning, Sesshoumaru belched poison onto the demon, and when the steam cleared away, there was nothing left but a few bits of bones of the man once known as Onigumo.
***
Miroku's eyes widened as Sesshoumaru transformed. Their battle had stopped when Kagome had screamed. Wordlessly the three of them – Sango, Miroku, and Kagura – watched as the shards were ripped from Naraku's chest and Kohaku's back and as Sesshoumaru finally destroyed Naraku once and for all.
Finally, Miroku turned to Kagura and studied her for a moment. Then he smiled softly, "You'd better go."
With a grateful smile, she left.
***
Even though the urgent need to get to Kagome overwhelmed him, Sesshoumaru didn't forget to slide his sword back into its sheath. Without a word, he swiped Inu-Yasha out of the way and slid down next to her. A quick look over her made his gut wrench; most of the damage was centered on her swollen stomach and she was bleeding heavily. He knew that without help, soon, she would die.
The demon lord slid his arms around her and picked the woman up, ignoring the protests of her friends. The only thing that registered was Shippou's determined clinging to his adoptive mother. Two pairs of youkai eyes locked in a silent battle of wills. Finally, Sesshoumaru nodded, allowing the young kitsune to climb onto his shoulder before he flew off in the direction of his castle.
Don't you dare die on me Kagome …
Next time: Showdown between Inu-Yasha and Sesshoumaru! Hey! Doesn't Kagome get a say?
LL: *plotting evilly*
Sesshy: I don't believe this. You pull a stunt like that and you're not even worried about it?!?
LL: Nah, it'll all turn out in the end … eventually. *evil grin*
Miroku: *looks nervously over at the rabid fans* For your sake, I hope it doesn't take to long.
LL: Only three chapters left!