~*~
CHAPTER TWO:
Ways to Die
It had been too long since Naraku's last attack. Everyone was wary.
The group was walking along a well-trodden path weaving through a small wood. The trees were tall, the breeze refreshing, and the birdsong redefined the meaning of life. It was a peaceful wood, but they were all on the alert. Kagome was in front on her pink bicycle, Shippo sleeping in the basket. Miroku and Sango followed, the latter currently bashing the former on the head with a small boulder. Inuyasha was last in the procession, pulling a sharp rock out of his foot.
Shippo was feeling rather tired, having constantly been woken up by Kagome's shivering and moaning. It was obvious to the kit that Kagome had been having nightmares, but he couldn't remember what his mother had used to do to make them go away. So he was forced to lie awake next to the trembling Kagome, hoping her dream would end soon.
Inuyasha wasn't much better. He had woken a few minutes after Kagome, shaking and covered in sweat. Shippo had been sure he would come to wake Kagome up, but he hadn't. Shippo pouted. He wanted a family again, but how could he get one if Kagome and Inuyasha kept away from each other? He'd tried all the tactics he'd ever heard of-- embarrassment, harassment, cutesy-ness, innocence... nothing worked.
Shippo yawned. He'd just sleep for a little while, then come up with another matchmaker plan. It had been a while since his last attempt...
Yawwwwwwn...
~*~
It was cold.
So very cold.
Where was Mama? Papa?
Shippo was in the den, curled into a tiny ball, crying and trembling and wishing his Mommy and Daddy were here. They would be able to save him...
It was spring. Flowers were blooming and trees were green and the grass was young and healthy and Mama said there might be a new brother or sister in a few months to join the family. Shippo had always wanted a little sibling... but now there was no chance. Two demons had attacked his parents while they were all on a picnic. Lightning had flashed and thunder had roared and Shippo could smell death, but he had run like his Mama had told him to, away from the torn meadow filled with the stench of death. He had run to the den, curling up into a tiny ball, hoping his parents weren't the ones that the death-smell had come from...
Hours later, finally uncurling himself, the kitsune could stand it no longer. He ran back, following his scent, running into the meadow where his Mama had told him to run and not come back. And there she was, lying, looking like she had fallen, half her body sprawled in the long burnt ditch where Manten's thunder-breath had run. There she was, hand clasping a green leaf...
"MAMA!" Shippo ran faster than he had ever run before, tripping over a rock and sprawling at his mother's side. He buried his head in her hair, long beautiful red hair that always smelled of grass and sunshine and warmth...
If Love smelled like anything, it was like that.
And Shippo cried and cried, mourning his parent's deaths all over again.
His Mama's hair no longer smelled of grass and sunshine and warmth, but of death, decay, and that bitter cold that had chilled his bones when he lay curled in his own home, wondering who was dead and who was not. And her hair changed from the vibrant, healthy red to black. Soft black hair that he knew so very well...
"Kagome!"
And it was no longer his mother lying there, dead in the light of the sun, but Kagome, eyes closed and mouth no longer smiling, a tattered piece of Inuyasha's red kimono in her pale, pale hand. Death. Gone... forever.
"No... no... NO!" Shippo cried, tears running down his face, not looking away from the girl, stricken by guilt and fear and hate...
Why hate?
When the tears finally stopped, Shippo realized why tears of hate had fallen from his eyes.
Kagome had died because of him. Because he had asked her to help him fight Hiten and Manten, and she had, and now she was gone. He hated himself.
"Shippo!"
The little fox looked around with blurred eyes, wondering where the voice had come from. Everyone was dead...
"No they aren't," came the voice.
Perhaps this was Kagome! Kagome was still alive! This was only a nightmare... wasn't it?
"I'm afraid not, little one," was the mocking reply.
A demon dropped into view, hovering and smirking and leaning on that long weapon...
Hiten!
"Yes, you brat, it's me," Hiten said. "I'm not dead yet. You never killed me. I'm very much alive."
Shippo gulped. Where was Inuyasha when you needed him?
"No, that hanyou is not going to show up this time," the demon chuckled darkly. "You're all on your own. Nobody to get in your way. If you want your revenge so badly, come and take it!" Hiten lunged, the Raigekijin flashing in the light of the moon.
That was strange-- hadn't it been daytime a minute ago?
Shippo snatched out a few leaves, trying to both Multiply himself and hide his trembling from the bigger demon. But he was too slow, the shining, sparking polearm stabbed through his heart. White hot pain spread from his chest, waves of electricity rolling over his skin. And he was dying... dying...
~*~
"SHIPPO!" Kagome sobbed. "Please wake up! Please!" She cradled the jerking kitsune to her chest, sinking to sit on the forest floor. Sango was next to her, shaking the little demon with tears pricking her vision. Miroku watched, tense, hand clenching his staff until his knuckles turned white. Inuyasha growled and took the fox from Kagome.
He was pale as death, jerking this way and that every now and then as if electrified. Tears leaked from his scrunched up eyes, his jaw clenched as if biting back the pain. Inuyasha knew exactly how to wake him from the dream he seemed to be trapped inside.
He bopped him on the head.
"Wake up brat, you're making Kagome cry," the hanyou snapped, holding Shippo up by the collar and glaring at him. The little demon made a small noise and twisted, no longer twitching. Inuyasha shook him again.
Shippo opened his eyes onto the scowling face of Inuyasha. Fresh tears began to well up in the kitsune's eyes, blurring the hanyou into a red kaleidoscope. Inuyasha winced, ready for the wail of "KAGOMEEEEEE!!!" that he knew would come next, and was surprised by the feel of a tiny body latching onto his chest and crying loudly, words blubbered between sobs.
"I dreamed... that you and Kagome... left me alone..."
Inuyasha started. He dreamed that we left him...? Why would the fact that I left matter to him?
And then it dawned on him, like the first rays of the sun onto a crystal clear lake in the silence of morning.
Shippo isn't an orphan anymore. He's found a family.
When was the last time the kitsune had woken in the middle of the night, missing his parents? When was the last fight between them that hadn't really been serious? And most importantly, why was it so hard to imagine journeying without Shippo?
Inuyasha looked down at the crying fox once more, then turned to go. He felt the group's stares on his back, and whirled to face them, scowling. "What are you waiting for? We're not going to make it anywhere if you're all to stupid to move!"
And he kept walking. Who knew? Maybe he'd found his own family.
~*~
Obieru sighed. Nightmares took so long to take root... maybe he should just kill them in their sleep and be done with it.
He laughed aloud at his own foolishness. Kill them in their sleep? What was the fun in that? It was so much better to kill them when they were awake, screaming, fear dripping from their eyes, terror choking them. He could nearly imagine it now...
Lying in a pool of her own blood as she looks up, blind in death, at her murderer. He looks back, horror rolling off his body in thick waves, as he runs away from his terrible deed...
Or perhaps he would have it a different way.
Her arrow misses, and his claws do not. They stare at each other, seeing their murderer, seeing their love. Fear... hate... anger... each show on their dying faces. And he falls, but she does not catch him-- their love dies as they do. And there is nothing more poisonous than dead love turned to hatred...
Obieru frowned. Somehow he didn't think that would happen. They seemed more like the "undying love" kind of couple.
A different one? Yes.
He gasps, shock in his eyes as he puts a hand to the arrow in his chest. He pulls it away, covered in blood tainted with fear, eyes unseeing. And she stands alone, only now realizing that she has not hit her mark. And she screams out her soul as he falls to the ground, dead...
So many ways to die... he had to pick one soon. Powered with so many Shikon shards, Obieru was positive that it would be a lark.
So many ways to die... but what about the rest of them? The kitsune brat would suffer for a long time if the hanyou and human girl died, so he wasn't much trouble. The monk and the exterminator, though...
So many ways to die... it was hard to say. Perhaps he would have the taiji-ya's younger brother do her in. Slowly. Painfully. Yes, that would work. But the monk... how would that work? He had long since resigned himself to his fate, so merely having his rosary broken wouldn't work.
So many ways to die...
So hard to choose...
~*~
Okay, that's a wrap! The next chappie s proving to be longer than I expeted, but it's fluffy, a first for me, so hey, who cares? I have to build the relationships up before I can smash them down, ya know. Angst is so... fulfilling. ^_^;;
Elyndewen Startree: Fine. Chocolate pocky for you. You were the one with 42 emails, btw.
Mad-Cabbage: You can have chocolate milk if you want. And no, it's not supposed to be a Kik/Inu/Kag triangle, because everything's going to-- OOPS! Almost gave something major away! ^_^;;
Rekouri Sentetsu: *gasp* Is it too confusing? *panics and dies*
Teehee... not. ^_^
~*~
Oops! Corrected something that my friend pointed out. I'm so stupid sometimes... ^_^;;