SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha...you do! Ha ha..ok no you don't. Unless your Rumiko Takahashi...in which case you are awesome! I don't own Gackt either. I own my original characters.

Chapter Five

Two days later.....

            "That's the last of it!" Inuyasha called from the bottom of the well. "Good gods Maiyami did you haveta bring half your damn room!?"

            "DAD! Heh, just ignore him Shippo." Maiyami whispered earnestly as they hauled her bedding, books, laptop and other "essentials" to her room in the shrine.

            "I usually do!" Shippo whispered back, and they shared a laugh.

            "I heard that!" Inuyasha called from farther behind them.

            "Honestly, what doesn't he hear?" Hitomi called as she ran towards them, catching her mothers Hirikotsu seconds before it took Maiyami's head off.

            "Hey you're getting better!" Sango called as Hitomi threw it back to her. "That's enough for today."

            "Thanks mom!" Hitomi's short black hair bounced as her petit figure skipped along side Maiyami and Shippo. She careened her neck and peered at the treasures in her friend's hands.

            "Don't worry I will explain it all." Maiyami said with a giggle, noticing the look on Hitomi's face. She took a deep breath and stared ahead of her at the morning sun. 'This is going to be such a wonderful summer....just fighting, running, training with dad and hanging with Shippo and Hitomi. Hey, I wonder if they are going to like Gackt as much as I do.....'

             She heard her father behind her stop mid step. Suddenly everything crashed as he dropped the box he was carrying and leapt into the trees.

            "That was random..." Hitomi shrugged and walked over to the box Inuyasha dropped.

            "Da-" Maiyami paused and listened intently. Her sense of hearing was so acute now, but she could still barley make out the sound of someone screaming.

            "Inuyasha!"

            "Mom!" Maiyami called and ran after him, Shippo and Hitomi hot on her heels. She dived, rolled, and sped forward with such ease through the woods named after her father.

            "My new body must be built for this sort of thing." she though, the stench she identified as her mother growing stronger.

            "Kagome!" Inuyasha leaped into a clearing and stood, catching his breath and searching for a scent. "Kagome talk to me!"

            "Inu.....yasha......."

            Kagome stood three feet in front of him, clad in only her bra and a pair of jeans, unbuttoned. Her skin glistened with sweat and blood trickled down each of her scratch and tear wounds across her back, arms and stomach. Her raven hair was tangled and soaked. It hung down her face lifelessly. Suddenly, she fell to her knees and vomited.

            "Kagome! What happened?" Thoughtlessly, Inuyasha ran to her side and held her as her figure heaved and shuddered.

            "Damn body..." she whispered hoarsely and spat. Turning, she looked up into amber eyes and tears formed.

            "Tell me what's wrong? What happened to you Kagome?" he inquired, smoothing down her hair and pulling her into his lap.

            Tears began to overflow as she spoke. "Oh it was horrible! Awful Inuyasha!" she buried her head in his chest. "This...this...demon thing...it looked like Kouga but not quite...it just suddenly grabbed me while I was sitting near the God Tree. It told me to shut up but of course I didn't and then it beat me and it started to rape me and..." she gasped and waited to continue. "When it was finished..."

            "WHEN IT WAS FINISHED?!" Inuyasha screamed, "What do you mean 'when it was finished'?!"

            "It..... raped me Inuyasha." Her voice choked and she stuck her hand out. "And then he stuck this in my stomach." She dropped the massive dart to the ground as her hand suddenly crashed down.

            "Mom!" Maiyami leaped into the clearing and crouched next to her father. Shippo and Hitomi followed.

            "I need to get you out of here." Inuyasha tried to stand, but Kagome calmly shook her head.

            "Inuyasha I can't feel my legs, and I can't feel my arms. And it's very hard to breath..." Kagome blinked a tear away. "I think this is meant to kill me..."

            "No!" Maiyami screamed. "Dad what happened? Where is this guy? We need to go after him! What happened to mom?"

            "Quiet Mai." Inuyasha brushed his hands across Kagomes stomach. "Do you feel this?"

            She shook her head.

            He raised his hand up and placed it on her neck to feel for a pulse. It was slow...deathly slow.

            "Kagome we need to get some help-"

            "Its...futile...I...love...you..." she gasped, struggling harder every moment just to take a breath.

            "Hitomi, go get your father!" Maiyami whispered and took her mothers hand. She smiled.

            "Take..care of your father Mai....make sure he eats well...."

            "Mom...that's your job!" Maiyami began to sob and Kagome looked up at Inuyasha again. Tears fell down his face.

            "I...should have never let you come back.... this is all my fault...forgive me Kagome...."

            "Your right Inuyasha, it is your fault."

            "-Gasp-!" Maiyami searched her mother's eyes. They seemed so empty. They suddenly closed. "Mom you don't mean that!"

            "Kagome it's not Inuyashas fault!" Shippo chimed in behind Maiyami, and he rested his hand on her shoulder. "Don't make the same mistake Kikyo did!"

            Quietly, Inuyasha bowed his head. "Your mother is right. I will take full responsibility for this Kagome." He hugged his wife as she lie lifeless in his embrace. She was gone.

            Maiyami turned away and put her face in her hands. Her body shook as she silently cried. Calmly Shippo wrapped his arms around her protectively, and she turned into his embrace. They sat like that for a while, while Inuyasha let his tears form a puddle on Kagomes blood stained stomach.   

            "Kagome-sama!"

            "Kagome-chan!"

            Sango and Miroku ran just behind Hitomi to the clearing. They stopped suddenly as there eyes fell on Kagome and Inuyasha. Sango's eyes filled with tears and she buried her head in Miroku's shoulder, who just stood in disbelief. Inuyasha stood somberly with Kagome's body in his arms and walked to the couple.

            "I need to take care of a few things."Inuyasha said. His voice was cold and dead. As lifeless as Kagome's body. "I trust you know what to do with her."

            "Of course Inuyasha but-"

            "Thank you Miroku." Inuyasha gently placed Kagome in his arms. Softly he brushed her hair off her face and kissed her forehead, taking a deep breath and pausing, suppressing something. He walked to Maiyami and placed a hand on her head, curled up in Shippo's chest.

            "I love you Mai-chan. Take care of her Shippo."

            "Of course Inuyasha."

            "I want to go with you!" Mai growled. "I can help! I want to get whoever did this! Please Dad!" She looked up from her spot in Shippos arms. Her yellow eyes pleaded with him.

            'Just like her mothers always did...' Inuyasha thought.

            "No Maiyami. If anything happened to you, I don't know what I would do. And your mother would never forgive me." Inuyasha stared at the trees. "I trust Shippo. He knows I will kill him if anything happens to you."

            "But Dad-"

            "But nothing Mai!" Inuyasha snapped and growled. "You will stay here. Period." With that, Inuyasha leaped off into the trees, following the scent of demon he had gathered from Kagome's body. Maiyami began to cry again into Shippo's chest.

            "Shippo, carry Yami back ok?" Miroku called as he and Sango started back with Kagome's body.

            "Yeah ok." Shippo stood and held her in his arms. Hitomi at his side, the three made there way back to the shrine, Maiyami losing consciousness the entire way. Just before her mind completely slipped away, she could hear a dog demon's anguished cries from somewhere deep in the forest.

            Maiyami awoke to the sound of sniffling hours later.

            "Sh...Shippo?" Maiyami whispered in the dark. She was laying in bed, still in the feudal era, a stuffed bear at her side. In the corner sat Shippo, his knees to his chest and his head on his knees. Hitomi lie next to her in deep sleep. Maiyami could tell it was very late at night.

            At the sound of her voice, Shippo looked up and wiped away his tears with the back of his hand.

            "Do you need something Yami?" he whispered, trying to sound strong, but the crack in his voice gave him away.

            'I should have just let him cry...' Maiyami thought, crawling out of bed to sit next to him.

            "No Shippo. You just sounded like you needed a hug." Quietly she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and leaned her head against him. They sat, staring at the empty room and listening to the steadiness of Hitomis heart beating.

            "I just couldn't sleep.... I'm so sorry Yami." Shippo suddenly confided, dropping all manly walls he had enclosed himself in. "I lost my parents when I was really young, and your mother and father took me in. We kid around a lot but I have always seen Inuyasha as a father and Kagome, my mother. So I know it doesn't compare to your pain, but I feel like I have lost my mom all over again Yami."

            "Lets not compare pains Shippo, its not important." Maiyami relaxed even more. "Thank you...for taking care of me, I mean."

            Shippo scuffed. "Are you kidding? Your father would have killed me if I hadn't. Not that I mind all that much...."

            "Shippo?" she interrupted.

            "Yeah?"

            "I know this is going to sound weird but...I don't know I get these feelings sometimes. Like there instinctual. I must have some sort of power from my mother or something." she stopped to look into his eyes. "Anyway, I'm feeling two things very strongly right now. First of all, I feel a very deep bond with you. Like..." she faltered, "Like.... I don't know." 'I wont tell him everything just now.' she thought. "Anyway the second thing is...I don't think she's gone. I think I would have felt her soul leave."

            "Maiyami we watched her die...." Shippo began. " I don't want to think she's gone either but we have to face the fact."

            "No!" she shouted, and then quieted down. "That's not what I meant. I just...I don't know. Have some odd feelings."

            "Lets just sleep on it Yami." Shippo opened his arms a little and let Maiyami rest against his chest. The sound of his heart beating and the quietness of his breathing relaxed her as she drifted off to sleep, still perplexed, but exhausted. 

            Shippo stroked her hair gently and stared at the stars still shining brightly outside. 'I can't even imagine what Inuyasha is going through right now.' Shippo thought.

            "Kagome if you're here," he whispered to the darkness, "I've got Yami. You know how I feel about her. Go take care of your Inuyasha."

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Still liking it? I hope so! Don't worry I'm not a fan of unhappy endings. That's all I'm going to say. Review Please!