After he died, the world became a torrent of darkness, and the waves crashed in her ears, and she was blinded by the water streaming down her face.
But he was gone.
It was not that she still loved him- though she once did. She had shared too much with him, she wanted only to be his friend.
There is perhaps nothing more I can say after the death of this character, for some lives were woven about him. But 'life goes on'.
As for Kagome, she locked herself behind a well, and smiled at the memory of two lives which she had lived before. Her childhood- with her family. Her adolescence- with her best friend. Her maturity- with her mate. Perhaps you can guess, perhaps you cannot. After Inuyasha's death, it was as if she were freed- and enslaved as well. Her love grew for her mate, and she protected him with a wrath nearly exceeding his own. She loved him fervently, along with her two small friends Shippo and Rin. She drew magic from her heart, and fed the soul of Midoriko that was within her. This is the ending of her story.
As for Sesshoumaru, he earned back his honorable title because of a generous young woman- or two, and he became resolved. He fell in love with his mate over and over again, and he kept her happiness as close to his heart as his own, and strove to reach it with her. After his brothers death- did he feel released, or suspended… He had never foreseen past his little brothers death, what he would do afterwards. He had not predicted the half breeds final day- final breath, to be spent fighting across from another being but himself. So he respected him. And he loved Kagome, and he loved Shippo, and he loved Rin. And he learned how to love in completeness. This is the ending of his story.
As for Sango and Miroku, the burden was lifted from the first, the curse from the latter, and so they became happy. They learned not to depend on much but each other, and they left someplace. Whether they holed in with Kaede or vanished somewhere else has not been recorded. I suspect a far off place where they could be left alone, and in peace, and in happiness- though they dearly missed a life they had left behind.
As for Inuyasha- and Kikyou… Perhaps they are suspended in the time and space or the dark abyss of eternity, caught in the pose they had longed for- bound together by threads of fate, but darkened, for fate had not expected such a thing. And one was supposed to have a second chance, and his craze rubbed his heart raw and he could not move on. Perhaps he was younger- or older, than fate had intended. But that is the end of their story as well.
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Drip… drop… drip… drop…
The familiar scene lay evident before her eyes, the ending of winter curling against the waning winds.
One more winter past, she thought as the heavy snow slid down and off the thin, weak branch before her, meeting the ground with a 'plop' and denting the once perfect sheet of snow that for now swept the ground silver.
She leaned against the sturdy wood guarding Sesshoumaru's fine home, watching the quiet morning sky begin to lighten slightly with the promise of the coming sun.
Earlier, much earlier, back in the spring- the beautiful spring… She had leant against this wooden border with the same ease as always, staring in contentment as Rin and Shippo hopped about the flowered garden (which was the world) around them… And laughed in joy at their childlike games, and seemed ignorant to the harshness of life that balanced its scale. A million pounds of happiness weighed the one side; and the cold snow of sorrow a million pounds matching on the other…
Snow was such a thing that cannot be described. Like the moon, it is mysterious, and beautiful- which is horribly ironic because of the mean things that crawl from the darkness surrounding its luminance… Snow shined in the dark, and yet blocked the sun from its target, it clouded the world, and if it snowed enough, you could get sick or die. And you could be blinded by staring at its purity, and you could be cold by its intensity. But the snow never stopped coming- it was winter every year.
But spring as well.
Spring was when snow was banished, and Inuyasha forgotten from her heart for just a little while.
Spring was when Rin and Shippo would hop about the valley of the world and dance and laugh and be ignorant to the sorrowful bliss of the coming winter. And they would forget that life was a rusty golden scale, and on each side the same weight… And then somebody would scream, far in the distance, and the scale shifted for a moment, and lovely life groaned, and then it all fell back to the way it should be.
*
Once upon a time there was a normal girl who lived a normal life. She was then pulled into an enchanted world by a horrible demon that wanted to kill her if only for a troublesome jewel that was supposed to have been destroyed. Upon landing in this world, she met a boy- who was asleep. And her tale begun. Much later, when the winter tolled again in sweet wisps of snow in her face, she stared at the sky, and a silver haired demon who had been asleep… Stood behind her, and embraced her, and comforted her, and soon the scale was balanced again.