CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Inuyasha fought his tears.
He dug his claws into his palms. "I swear to you, Houseki!
I will kill Naraku! For you, for Kikyo! For the people I care
about who I WILL NOT LOSE!!!"
"Um.... Inuyasha?!"
Miroku shouted in an anxious tone. Everyone raised a brow and
looked in his direction. He held both hands in the air. "I
think you got him!!"
His palm was solid. His void
was gone.
Sango put her hands to her
mouth. "Miroku!"
He laughed and ran to her.
Miroku picked Sango up and spun her around. "Can you believe
it!? He must be dead! My curse is lifted!!!"
"I... I did it!?"
Inuyasha stuttered.
Myoga jumped up and down
on Kirara's back. "I knew you could do it, Inuyasha-sama!!"
Sango gushed. "I'm so
happy!! My people have been avenged and there's nothing to worry
about now!"
Miroku sighed. "Are
you going to be happy from now on? You've been so miserable lately..."
"Yes! We're all going
to be happy! My baby won't be a cursed orphan!"
"Yes, your.... WHAT!?!"
"Baby!?" Inuyasha
cried.
"Sango!?" Kagome
shouted.
"And MIROKU!?!"
Shippou exclaimed.
"Eh, I knew it was bound
to happen," Kaede grinned.
Sango's smile faded. "I
only wish this was a time for joy."
They sobered and silently
agreed to hold off on the victory celebration till the following
morning.
Under the light of a nearly
full moon, Kouga stood high atop a bluff overlooking a valley
and a lazy, winding river. He didn't bother to wipe the tears
from his face as he howled at the moon. Exhausted from running
all the way back to his territory without the aid of Shikon shards,
he dropped to a seated position and watched the clouds obscure
the moonlight and darken the valley.
A voice he only thought he
heard soothed him.
"Kouga..." she
whispered.
"I miss you," he
breathed in reply.
He thought he felt arms encircle
him. He looked down, but didn't see the white, soft hands clasped
together across his chest, like she used to do when he was day
dreaming.
"I'm older than any
youkai..." she began, " and as essential as water.
I am Desire."
Kouga's eyes unfocused as
he listened to the voice.
"I am Yuuwakusha the
Seductress, Houseki the Hanyou and much more. I will exist so
long as people need each other. Now I fully understand that need
which I create, for I too have felt it as a mortal feels it.
I have loved and hated, been loved and rejected. I've known friendship
and rivalry, life and death. All is motivated by one force which
until now I had no real understanding of...: love."
The hands released him, a
soft sensation like a warm breeze brushed his ear. "Though
you may not see me, I shall always be beside you, Kouga. Thank
you, my love." Houseki smiled behind him for a moment then
drifted away on the cool evening breeze in a flutter of ash and
tears.
*
Inuyasha tried not to get
his hopes up. Every time someone would make a comment about how
wonderful it was to finally be rid of Naraku he would shrug or
walk away. It was just too good to be true.
He and Kagome went to the
God Tree early in the morning to investigate the scene. There
was the baboon disguise, an exorbitant amount of dried blood,
arrows and amazingly, an abundance of Shikon shards.
"I can't believe they're
just lying here!" Kagome shouted as she picked them up.
"It must be a trap,"
Inuyasha grumbled.
"Would you lighten up
already! We got the bad guy!" she shook his shoulders and
looked up at him with a huge, genki grin. "It's ok. Celebrate!"
"In time."
Kagome stopped bothering
him. 'He just lost his daughter!' she reminded herself and continued
to collect shards. She couldn't help but be optimistic. "Wow.
I'd say we have them all!"
"Impossible," he
spat.
"Well, we have mine,
Naraku's and Kouga gave me his two. We've been searching with
no luck for others for a long time now, maybe we do have them
all!" she cheered.
"If we do..." he
started.
"If we do... then it's
over." Her smile fell. They walked back to the village in
silence.
*
Kaede rubbed her chin. "There
is only one way to tell if all the shards are here."
"Count them?" Shippou
asked playing with them.
"No, child. We must
fuse them together."
"Is that possible?"
Miroku raised a brow.
"We do have a first-rate
Miko in our presence. A few hours of concentration should do
the trick."
Kagome sweat a little. "Hours?"
She thought of taking tests that lasted hours and started to
get nauseous.
"I'll help you."
Kagome was sequestered
for the rest of the morning and much of the afternoon in Kaede's
house. She clutched the shards, both large and small in her hands.
Kagome glowed a faint blue when she finally started to get the
hang of what Kaede instructed her to do, and soon was lost in
the trance necessary to bind the fragments together.
Inuyasha sat just outside
the house and guarded her. He watched the villagers come and
go, nodding his head as they bowed to him in appreciation. They
all knew what he and his friends had done.
As the hours slipped by,
Inuyasha fought with boredom and the desire to check in on Kagome.
He had been told not to interrupt her trance, but he just wanted
to make certain she was all right. Something was making him nervous.
Perhaps it was the idea of having the Tama in one place. He remembered
how it had been for Kikyo and ground his teeth. There was no
way in hell anything was going to happen to Kagome. He would
die first and then pursue the offender from the grave.
'Wow,' he thought. 'It could
be over. If that jewel is whole, our job is done. She can go
home...' this last thought bothered him to no end. 'But the Shikon
no Tama will still attract evil. It must be destroyed!'
He recalled the recent conversation
with Kaede. She had mentioned that if he chose to use the Tama
to transform into either a human or a full youkai, the jewel
would be used up completely. If he were to become human, he would
be good. If he became a youkai he would be evil. Such was the
nature of the battle ensuing inside the Jewel of the Four Souls.
Inuyasha looked up at the
pale, blue sky and smiled. "That's it then," he said
out loud to no one in particular.
In the distance, a strange
flash of white caught his eye. His heart rose up into his throat
and he strained to see the person walking between the rice paddies.
"What the fuck?..."
he whispered and remained seated. "What the fuck does HE
want?" Inuyasha grumbled. When he got within a few hundred
feet, Inuyasha walked calmly towards him. Both
men stopped and stared at each other.
"Whadaya want?"
he snarled.
Sesshou-maru cocked his head
to the side in mock concern. "The Great Sesshou-maru comes
to the court of his hanyou brother and gets treated so?"
"Out with it. I don't
trust ya as far as I can throw ya."
Sesshou-maru was unmoved.
"I have heard that Naraku is no more."
Inuyasha smirked. "You
got it right."
He raised a brow. "I
must say I am angered that it was not I, Sesshou-maru who had
the pleasure of eliminating him."
'What the hell is he up to!?'
Inuyasha wondered.
"I also assume you will
be attempting to collect all the shards of the Shikon no Tama?"
"You mean I WILL collect
them all."
"You know I will fight
you for them. Your battle is not over with the death of Naraku."
"Yeah it is."
Again he raised a brow, but
said nothing.
"Don't worry, Bro. I'll
be leaving soon. You'll never see me or the Tetsusaiga again."
He wanted to add that he would be taking the Jewel, but decided
not to incite a fight right here with Kagome so vulnerable.
"I see..." Sesshou-maru
mused. "In that case, good riddance." Before he turned
and walked away, Sesshou-maru did something shocking: he bowed
his head - only just slightly - but he did it. Inuyasha nodded
back.
"You too."
Only a few minutes after
he disappeared, Kagome emerged from the house with Kaede behind
her. She grinned sleepily.
"Well?!" he asked.
She jogged over to him and presented the Shikon no Tama, just
as it looked when first they met nearly three years ago.
The celebration was long,
loud and joyous. At its commencement, Miroku and Sango were married.
They would stay with the others for another night, but decided
they would leave the following morning to begin a search for
Sango's brother, Kohaku who must surely have been freed of Naraku's
spell. Kagome took dozens of Polaroid photos. Kaede was even
coerced to take one of the group. Sango pleaded with Kagome to
let her have it, and the girl agreed on the condition that it
would be destroyed before she died to protect the future.
Inuyasha pulled Kagome aside
as the party went on behind them. He kissed her roughly and held
her close.
"Inuyasha..."
she began, blushing.
"I need to talk to you."
He sat down and pulled her down with him. She played with his
prayer beads which now hung around her neck.
"What's up?" she
asked.
"What do you want to
do?"
She blinked. "What do
you mean?"
"We have to use up the
Shikon no Tama some how, but I need to know what you want to
do. Do you want to stay here or go home?"
She bit her lip. "Well,
If I go home... well what do you want to do?!"
"Nononononono. You.
You tell me."
She slumped her shoulders
and looked at the ground. "I want to go home."
"Can I come with you?"
Kagome looked up into his
soft, yellow eyes. "Of course! Oh, but I don't think it'll
be easy for you, I mean, being a half-demon in the 21st century..
what with the scientists and ..."
"Nononono!" he
laughed. "I want to use up the Tama. We'll go to your time
and I'll become human."
Kagome was in shock. He just
repeated exactly what she had been hoping he would say, almost
word for word. She embraced him and smothered him with kisses.
"There you are! Oh!"
Shippou gawked at them. He shook his head a few times and grabbed
Inuyasha's sleeve. "Come on you party poopers!" The
little kitsune tugged and got them to rejoin the party.
The festivities lasted well
into the morning hours and after a sound sleep, the seekers of
the Shikon no Tama parted ways.
GLOSSARY : Genki = Cheerful
END CHAPTER THIRTEEN