The Scent of Despair
Written by Catrina Winner
Author's Note: Hey! I'm still not dead! And I broke two hundred reviews! I want to take a short moment out of our Inuyasha worship to take time to thank all those who followed after this story, even when I seemed to have vanished for so long. Yet, I am back from wherever I went to, and hope to not have any of you wait so long again. Though you never know, for life has a funny way of messing with your head when you're not looking. I should know, it happens to me all the time! Anyway, please review this chapter and I do hope you enjoy as much as you have the others.
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Chapter Fifteen
A strange smell of medicinal herbs assaulted Kagome's nose as she struggled to come back to the conscious world. Somewhere near her, she could hear the lowered voices of two women, whispering about something that seemed to be of grave importance. It was truly too hard for her to make out, however, for there was an incredible pain resonating from the lower area of her skull, making it hard for her to think of anything at the time.
She shifted, slightly uncomfortable; trying to make out her surroundings without opening her eyes, for the light was painful, even resting beyond her closed eyelids. Her back was digging into something harder then her soft Western-style bed she kept at home in her bedroom, so Kagome decided it was safe to assume she was not in Tokyo, or anywhere near her own room that she so longed for, but somewhere back in the backwards land of the Sengoku Jidai.
And, judging from the stench of the place, she was defiantly not lying facedown in the bottom of the dirty well anymore. The only place the scent of herbs remained in everything so strongly was at Kaede's residence.
Slowly, the memories of the previous waking period she had spent saying goodbye to her friends returned, straight up to plunging into the well, the purple light, and the heavy revelation that her path home had been sealed. The possibility of her never returning home was too much for Kagome, with her splitting headache only adding to the already enormous problems she seemed to be facing.
She squeezed her eyes shut more tightly then she had them before, trying to ward off the tears that were welling up there. Eyelids never made for effective dams. She sniffled lightly, and turned to bury her head in the pillow beneath her. Flashbacks of the life she had lived even before she had stepped through the well leapt into her mind. Sota, laughing with her, as they built up huge Lego towers that would reach to the ceiling, her sweet mother, taking everything in a gentle stride, never being moved by anything more then she allowed. And her Grandfather, who was constantly making up the legends of everything that existed and she had known in her short life. Even Buyo, her oversized feline monster, had left a hole in her heart.
As she thought of her family, and the quaint little shrine they had so long taken care of together, nothing could hold back her emotions any longer, and the tears, which had before slipped from her eyes slowly, in a single file, burst from their captivity with a vengeance. Kagome choked roughly and allowed herself to cry freely, trying to block the thoughts of her family, whom she had most certainly lost. Even with her face buried in the futon, she could still faintly hear the door slide open and the two women exit, allowing her to be alone in her sorrow. Kagome was indebted, but she wished one had remained to console her. Never had she felt so tired or broken in her entire life.
And no one seemed to take any notice.
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Inuyasha looked up sharply as Sango and Kaede skittered out of the room Kagome had been placed in. He had swallowed his emotions and carried her to Kaede's again. The older woman had been shocked to hear what had happened to the girl, and immediately locked her away into the small room where she treated patients, dragging Sango in with her. The two of them had been in there, whispering away for over an hour as Kagome wallowed in darkness. Now they ran out of there as if their heels had been on fire, and Inuyasha, hanyou though he was, couldn't help but be immensely curious. The entire time they had been plotting and whatnot, the demon had been pressed up against the door, trying desperately to listen in on what was being discussed. Even with his more sensitive hearing, Inuyasha could make out no more then a few words. This had angered him beyond what it normally would, and he now sat in the corner of the room, glaring out at anything that so much as twitched.
Which Miroku, of course, had been doing a lot of.
At first, he had been trying to listen in on Sango and Kaede's conversation with Inuyasha, but he quickly grew bored with listening to indistinct mumbling and moved away from the door. The hanyou soon saw it was a mistake to let the houshi lose interest in this matter, for he sat on the floor and began poking at the floorboards. He became tired of this much faster than eavesdropping, for obvious reasons, and began to sing. It irritated Inuyasha, for it blocked out what precious little he had been able to hear as it was. With a snarl, he had turned on the priest, tied him to the knotholes in the wall, gagged him, and gone back to listening in on the women's discussion.
Finally, even Inuyasha reached a point where he realized that his endeavor was futile. He curled in the corner, and, for lack of anything better to do, glared at Miroku, who was the only thing that twitched in the room as it was. And if there was one thing he hated, it was twitching humans, bound and gagged to a wall. Well, it was among his top ten at least. Right next to Shippo.
He had been pondering what could be worse then Shippo on an annoyance scale when the door opened and Sango had rushed out, Kaede close behind. He raised an eyebrow at the two. This time, his ears didn't even have to strain themselves to hear a gasping sob in the next room. Inuyasha stood and began to approach the door slowly, all anger melting from his form and thoughts. Sango leapt in his way and stretched her arms to either side of her body, taking no notice of Miroku, who was now thrashing around on the wall, trying to catch her eye.
"Leave her be, Inuyasha. She needs to be alone," the demon huntress said. Normally, even Inuyasha would comply with the killer look she had in her eye, but nothing was going to keep him away from Kagome when she was in trouble. Besides, he could smell the scent of despair seeping through every crack in the wood to attack his sensitive nose.
"Move."
Sango watched in surprise as the normally kind Inuyasha bared his fangs at her, then pushed pass her body, pushing her so roughly that she went sprawling straight into Miroku, who was smashed into the wall, but very happy to finally have been noticed in any way at all.
"Stop!" Kaede took up Sango's position in front of Kagome's doorway and shook her head slowly, in a way that made her gray hair rock from side to side. "You can't understand what she's going through. Sango, at least, can, and I suggest you take her advice." Her eyes narrowed.
Inuyasha paused and looked over in Sango's direction. She was standing now, staring at him with a mixture of anger and hurt in her eyes. The hanyou cast a withering look at the old woman, turned, and stormed out the door. Kaede let out a sigh of relief, then listened carefully to Kagome's room.
"She's stopped crying. Come, Sango, we must tell her everything that we have realized," Kaede said and pressed herself towards the door. Sango glanced over at Miroku, who was shrieking under his gag; scared she would leave him hanging there. "Leave him there. He probably deserves it anyhow," the older woman said and ushered Sango back into Kagome's small room.
The raven-haired girl was wiping at her eyes roughly. When she heard the door open, she turned and stared into Sango's face. The demon huntress moved swiftly to her friend to embrace her.
"What… happened?" Kagome asked slowly, hugging Sango back. Sango looked towards Kaede, and the woman began.
"Kagome, at the ceremony where you granted everyone their wishes, I, along with many others, witnessed something immeasurably strange. Between you and Inuyasha a red tie of fate was passed, demonstrating that you two are sealed together in spirit, no matter what the circumstances. Your inner desires must have determined that, for we all heard the words you spoke to summon the Jewel's power, and each of us realized that the wish you must have shared with Inuyasha was to stay with him.
As soon as we discovered this, Sango and I made the assumption that when you leapt into the well, you heard Inuyasha yell your name. At this time, the Jewel activated, knowing your true intentions of staying with the hanyou, and that his were the same. And so, the Jewel sealed the well, perhaps forever, though we really have no proper way of knowing if this is the truth," Kaede paused, "I am truly sorry that you are forced to bear more hardships now, Kagome, Miko of the Shikon Jewel. Remember, the Jewel will never allow anyone a completely happy beginning or ending. So we must all suffer to achieve what our hearts desire most."
As soon as Kaede completed speaking, Kagome looked up slowly, her eyes moist with tears again, "Are you saying that Inuyasha loves me and so I can never see my family again?"
Sango nodded, and blinked with surprised as Kagome roughly pushed her away.
"I'd like to be alone now," she whispered, her vision already blurred from the tears that had sprung up there again.
"One more thing, Kagome," Kaede said. "The well is glowing now, a faint purple. It has truly sealed." They both stood and bowed to the distraught girl.
"We are sorry, but there is nothing we can do," Kaede murmured, and both she and Sango filed out of the room.
I'm never going to see any of them again… Ever! Why did I ever have to discover this place in the first place? Kagome asked herself, then gave her soul fully over to the sorrow she was feeling inside, tearing her apart.
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Well, it's much longer then the rest of my recent chapters AND it came out very quickly!! You can thank my kitty. *pats him on the head* He's so cute! Anyway, please review this, and stick around for the next chapter, which will, hopefully, come out as fast as this one did! Review!!