Until The Day I Die

Chapter Five: True To Your Heart

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or its characters.

I feel so guilty writing this when I should be studying. Curse my urges to write!

I think about it and I hold you

When looking in your eyes I can't believe

I don't need to know the truth

Baby keep it to yourself

I don't wanna know

If you're playing me

Keep it on the low

Cause my heart can't take it anymore

And if you're creeping

Please don't let it show

Oh baby, I don't wanna know

"I don't want to know" (Mario)

"Tamago! To your left!" a soldier cried. Tamago instantly swung to his left and made contact with a red-eyed wolf demon. Intelligence was completely wrong about the invaders. Though their troop movements were clumsy like barbarians, the invaders weren't barbarians; they were full-fledged demons. So far, they had ravaged all the towns and fortresses they came across and left nothing standing. They had no real logic to their direction, but they were heading in the general direction of the capital. Fighting was fierce everywhere, but the ill prepared soldiers that they came across never survived. Fortunately, the case would not be the same here… at least the general said so.

The people many, many levels above Tamago had anticipated the horde crossing the village he was in and garrisoned all available troops there. They were also calling in reinforcements, but they would only make it in time if the army there could get the demons to stop advancing.

So far, things were going as planned and many units had converged with Tamago's; they even had a few samurais among their ranks. Unfortunately, it didn't make the demons any less powerful.

"Thanks Miroku," Tamago managed to say after slicing the demon in half. Miroku didn't get to reply as a large boulder was headed his way. Fortunately, he hit the deck fast enough for his head to remain on his shoulders. Tamago looked where the rock had come from and saw a gargantuan demon that would easily have been three stories. Immediately, archers above the valley started pummeling it with arrows that were set ablaze. The demon staggered and finally thudded onto the ground, causing a minor quake and flattening some demons that were nearby.

Tamago and Miroku ran towards another pocket of demons and made short work of them. Being that they were about a meter tall and had no natural weapons, the two gladly took the pseudo break from the intense fight.

"Miroku and Tamago, fall back!" one of the archers said.

"Why, Sango?" Miroku asked.

"The demons have entered the town and we haven't finished evacuating it yet. Besides, we killed all of the demons here." The two looked around and saw that she wasn't lying. The battlefield was littered with corpses, human and demon alike. Apparently, the little demons they slaughtered were trying to retreat. Oh well, Tamago thought, they'd just end up going after my lady.

The two made a mad dash back to the town. The archers quickly caught up with them, their bows and arrows abandoned; in an urban setting, there is no such thing as long-range warfare.

They were greeted by the stench of burning flesh. To the eastern edge of the town, they could see smoke and hear the blood curling scream of someone being torn to shreds.

"Oh my lord," Miroku said as they neared the battlefield. It had gotten so bad that even the townspeople had to help keep the demons back, not that they were succeeding.

"Tamago, Miroku, reinforce our flanks with those men!" the commander ordered, not even looking back.

"Yes Sir!" they said in unison. The two quickly split their ranks and went to each side. Naturally, Miroku included Sango, not that she was in a position to argue or really opposed the idea.

Tamago had bigger things to worry about. The flank he was covering was down to its last handful of men. Tamago and his carriage quickly assisted, covering those that were already retreating. They took positions behind an abandoned building, waiting for their aggressors.

Wait for it, Tamago willed those with him. One early reaction and they would lose their advantage. After a few moments, a loud thumping could be heard as something humungous was approaching. After what seemed like an eternity, even Tamago's patience was wearing thin. He was about to peek from the side of the building, but something else got his attention; the building crumbled as something's foot landed on it.

It was a demon at least seven stories tall. It was humanoid, but had large fangs and blood red eyes. It had a single large horn on its forehead and carried a wooden club.

Most of the men stood there, paralyzed, while others ran, fleeing like roaches in sunlight. Tamago was among those who stared. He was staring at death; his death. He was staring death straight in the eye. And all death seemed to do was smile at him, as if saying: No, it's not your time yet… but you'll wish it were.

The thing took another step forward, crushing all those that stood in its way. Tamago broke his trance just in time to make a quick jump to the side and fulfill death's promise; when the foot moved, his comrade's carcasses were dashed over the ground. Tamago turned away and hurled.

When he felt like he had nothing left to vomit, he searched for the- the thing. It was going to pay. It was going to pay dearly.

He quickly ran up to it and climbed up its back. When he was done with the long climb, he perched on its neck to catch his breath. He looked at the direction the beast was heading, and to his horror, realized it was heading for his estate. He could also see his family still inside it. In a panic, he almost jumped down and ran there to warn them, but though of something better.

He looked for the men that came with his and acquired their attention. "You," he yelled. "You there. Take all of the men left and evacuate that estate. Yes you! NO! I am not mad. What will I do about this monster? Don't worry, I can handle it." He jumped into the crook of its neck just as the abomination noticed the little flea making all the noise.

Tamago took out some of his daggers and made short work of the thing's throat. Blood gushed like water from the Niagara. Tamago stabbed the daggers into its chest and fell, holding onto the handles. The result was two lovely gashes going down to the monster's left foot. Tamago ran for cover, sure that the monster would go after him now.

He hid behind a large sakura tree and waited, but to his surprise, the beast didn't try to attack him. Instead, it gave out an ear splitting moan that shattered some nearby windows. Guess I don't know my own strength, Tamago thought to himself; he was never more wrong.

The Yokai clutched its head as tightly as it could until its claws drew blood, the moan turning into a scream. For no apparent reason, its skin started to boil and the gashes went on fire. The demon dropped to its knees and fell silent, its carcass engulfed in flame. Tamago was about to move from his hiding spot, but he noticed something dancing in the flames. After a few short moments, he could hear cackling like that of a hyena's. As his eyes adjusted to the flame, he realized that the demon's carcass wasn't on fire; it was covered in fiery demons. Somehow, when he cut the demon open, fire spirits came out of the demon and devoured it. One of the spirits saw Tamago and started after him. Some of the other spirits followed it while the rest went off in another direction.

To his horror, he realized that they were heading towards his villa, heading towards the very house he planed on living in with Kagome. He also realized there were still people inside.

In a desperate move, he cut off the spirits going to his house and tried to make them follow him instead. He also shouted for whoever was inside to leave right then. The spirits still moved closer to the house, but Tamago managed to get them to move to the wall farthest from the door the occupants were using to escape. He evaded them as best he could, waiting for some signal that the occupants had all safely escaped.

After a few intense moments and close calls, he could see his nana Kaede leaving. She glanced back at him, her eyes telling him that everyone had left safely and to be careful. With that, she ran away as fast as she could. It should have made Tamago feel good that everyone had gotten away, but he could read something else in her eyes; she was saying goodbye.

The fiery things started cackling all of a sudden and made a concerted attack. Half of them jumped at him, causing him to evade, but the other half anticipated his move and had their fangs bearing on him as he was landing. Unable to avoid it, Tamago put his limbs around him to get the least injuries. He fell hard and had two of the things clamped on his arms. He shrieked in agony; he could smell his flesh charring. Before any others could do anything, he ran into the house, bashing the hyenas into the doorframe as he passed it, knocking them off.

Unable to use his speed to his advantage, Tamago quickly found a hiding spot. But his tactic was a double-edged sword; the hyenas couldn't attack as a group anymore inside the close quarters situation he had forced upon them. Unfortunately, though, he was bleeding on both his arms and it made it easy for them to spot. Furthermore, everything the fiery beasts touched went aflame; if Tamago stayed in there too long, he would die.

A hyena surprised him from his back and shredded it. Tamago groaned, causing more to come his way. He took out his last pair of daggers and stabbed it in the head. Instantly, it blew away as a purple dust.

Its brothers found him and cornered him in his bedroom. They snapped at him, but stayed wary of the unsheathed daggers Tamago advertised.

His bed caught afire.

Tamago lunged at one, sure that if he stalled any longer he was dead. He made contact and the beast incinerated itself. Unfortunately, its comrade took advantage of the opening Tamago gave it and bit his abdomen. Tamago made a muffled moan, and stabbed it on its forehead. The hyena howled as it dissipated into the smoke filled room.

Tamago coughed blood. He could feel his lungs filling up. His vision became blurry and he almost tripped. He thrust his arm to the nearest wall to balance himself, but he felt glass. The sudden jerk shattered the window that he accidentally reached for and he fell out of it.

He couldn't see and he couldn't feel anything. He heard a thud and assumed that it was the sound of him falling. He could hear the fire beasts inside the house cackling. He could hear the songbirds chirping above him.

In a few moments they would be on top of him.

He reached into his pouch for something he thought he would never have to use; the "suicide pill," the last ditch effort of a warrior to fight the enemy when he knew he would die. By using up all of the warrior's life's worth of life-force in one battle, the warrior traded god-like power for his life. He swallowed the pill and got up.

He was surrounded by half of the remaining hyenas. There were five, but he was one. They were circling him and lunged at the same time. He stabbed them with his left hand's dagger; his other one was somewhere in his back.

The pill wore off before he could kill the last one. He fell on his back, driving the dagger embedded into it even deeper.

He remembered a lake and a beautiful sunset. He remembered her sitting next to him.

I heard this legend once…

"Kagome…" he said weakly.

When we grow up, we'll get married there…

He could see her image floating above him, beckoning for him to come back to her. She held her hand out to him and he raised his towards her's.

Remember our promise!

His eyes became wet as she started going farther and farther away, just when he almost grabbed her hand. I'm sorry… he thought to himself.

His arm fell with a squish; the grass around him was stained red. The hyenas that were circling him went off to find something else to play with; they had no use for a dead man.

"Huh?" Kagome said. She looked up and saw Inuyasha bent so she could mount him. She got on and he jumped from the edge of the ridge. Unfortunately, it seemed he hadn't run fast enough; they were headed straight for the lake of lava.

"AH!" she screamed, willing for them to go farther.

"Quit your whining wench!" he replied. For some reason, it looked like they were going closer and closer to the shore. Kagome looked around and saw that Inuyasha's robe was spread out as much as he could spread it. Oh… I get it, Kagome thought. He's using the updrafts from the lava to float to the other side! Inuyasha wasn't as dumb as he looked.

Unfortunately, he was off by a little and landed on the hot part of the shore. He ran around for nearly seven miles until he happened to come across a cool pile of ash.

"Dammit!" he hollered when he saw the burns on his feet.

"I got it!" Kagome suddenly said and ran into a forest they happened to be near. Within an hour she was back, carrying an assortment of leaves and herbs.

"Next time tell me when you're gonna scamper off like that! I almost followed you in there!"

"Well, sorry for finding these burn ointment ingredients," she replied as she started mixing the salve.

"Ointment? You know about medicines?"

"When I was younger, I was taught about the herbs and medicines you could find in nature," she said. In half an hour, the salve was done and she applied it to his feet. Surprisingly, his feet were less burned then she remembered them being when she set out to get the ingredients.

"Its my demon blood. It lets me heal a lot faster then you humans," he explained. Kagome wrapped some rags around his feet so they wouldn't get dirty and they started the hunt for the last shard.

Kagome had never been more embarrassed for someone else before in her life as she had now. Inuyasha and she had finally reached the location of the last shard. It was in a deep lake.

Inuyasha decided the best way for him to get the shard was to travel to its bottom. Kagome protested, saying that she didn't feel that it was corrupted, but he went in anyway.

Moments after he jumped in, she met a water being that looked like one of the statues in the forest temple. When it asked her what she was doing there, she told him her whole story, up till when Inuyasha jumped in.

Kagome realized Inuyasha was taking too long, and the water being jumped in to save him. And there he was, lying on the ground, getting CPR from it. The fact that it was probably a male still got to her.

"Ugh…" Inuyasha said.

"Are you alright?" Kagome and the being said at once.

"K'shief? What are you doing on top of me?" Inuyasha asked.

"Saving your life," it said, putting its whole body on him and grabbing what it shouldn't.

"Get off of me you psycho!" Inuyasha said hotly, going redder then he was back at the Fire Lands.

"Yes master…" it said giddily.

"I don't even wanna ask," Kagome said after she stopped giggling.

"Damn it! Go get that damn shard for me. It's too deep. Since you're not trying to kill me, obviously its not corrupted."

"Which I was saying from the beginning, I might add," Kagome said.

"Whatever," Inuyasha grunted.

"All you had to do was ask," K'shief said. It moved its hand up and the shard jumped out of the lake. Kagome took it and sealed it with the rest of the shards.

"My Lady, could you wait over there for a few moments?" the god said out of the blue. Kagome was about to protest, but remembered all the other encounters and just succumbed.

As usual, the god gave Inuyasha a diamond. This one was different in that it was red and only enhanced the Tetsaiga instead of giving it a new attack. But it was a very useful enhancement; Inuyasha could now break through barriers.

Kagome waited by some trees and giggled as the exchange occurred. The god simply wouldn't let go of Inuyasha's hand when he handed the diamond to him. The reaction Inuyasha had was priceless. Kagome knew she would never let Inuyasha live it down.

But how? We're done with collecting the shards, she thought

[Flashback]

"Kagome, wait up!" Inuyasha said. She didn't slow down, she just walked faster. "Kagome."

"I found the Jewel and 'I was just trying to speed things up,'" she said repeating the hurtful words he said before. "'Its not like I'd want to spend any more time then I'd need to with you.'"

"Kagome, what are you talking about," he said, and turned her so that she faced him. She was crying.

"I bet you're glad that you made me cry, aren't you. It seems all you want to do is make me miserable. There, are you happy? Naraku is ten times better then you. At least he treated me nicely. But you," she spat the word like venom, "all I am to you is a thing to find the shards, aren't I?" she snapped.

The two were standing still, Kagome trembling. Inuyasha stood there, absorbing what he just heard. His face showed pain. Now you know how it feels. Kagome thought to herself.

"Here," he said, showing her a beautiful diamond. For a brief moment she thought that he was about to say the two words she was wishing so badly to hear. "Obviously you think you can protect yourself. Since you're such a weak human, you can use this if you get hurt. Just stay out of my way."

He wasn't capable of remorse obviously. I'm sorry. That's all he had to say. She felt even worse then before.

"Get on," he gestured for her to take a seat on his back.

"Why?"

"Like I said before, 'I'm just trying to speed things up, its not like I'd want to spend any more time then I'd need to with you," he said in a tone so cold, Kagome was starting to fear for her life. She reluctantly climbed his back as quietly cried to herself.

[End flashback]

"You know what you want. All you have to do is be true to your heart…" something hissed into Kagome's ear. She yelped in surprise, turning to see whom it was. There was K'shief, basically breathing down her neck.

"What are you doing!?" she all but screamed.

"Sorry, but I was just trying to tell you how to waken your latent powers…" it said cryptically.

"K'shief, what are you doing to my wench!" Inuyasha said, strangling it.

"Um… nothing. Isn't that correct, Lady Kagome?" the god said with pleading eyes.

"Yeah. Inuyasha, let go of… him," Kagome said, feeling sorry for it for some reason. Inuyasha eased up and let go of the god.

"Yeah, yeah, lets get going. Its almost time for us to get back to the Temple of Kings," he said, walking away from the lake.

He's so eager… Kagome thought as she moved to follow him. Unfortunately, something was holding her back; something wet.

"K'shief, if you don't let me go, ill get Inuyasha to sick you!"

"I heard that!" Inuyasha said.

"Remember what I told you, My Lady. It is the only way you will be able to save the one you love," it said cryptically.

"What do you mean 'the one I love'?" Kagome demanded. Unfortunately, he melted into the lake, laughing cynically as if he just pulled something on her.

Hojo had finally made it back to his kingdom. Unfortunately, he was the bearer of bad news. He reached the castle in a few days and was directed to the Queen. Openly, she didn't express her feelings.

She called a meeting with the council to be held the day of the planets' alignment.

"Oh that guy gets me so mad!" Kagome whined.

"K'shief has always creeped me out… But I never would have thought he would try and kiss me!" Inuyasha complained.

"But he was reviving you," Kagome said.

"I don't need reviving. He just used that as an excuse to kiss me, I know it!"

"Well, he didn't go and tell you any weird things at least."

"What did he say?"

"…" Kagome was about to say something but changed her mind. She looked at the ground instead. Inuyasha put his face in front of her's.

"Was it something bad? K'shief gives very good predictions."

"Hey, you never told me why you know so much about these 'gods,' " she said, trying to change the subject.

"Alright, I get the message," he said and left her alone.

I know what I want. All I have to do is be true to my heart? What did K'shief mean by that?

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled, and grabbed her by her waist.

"Huh?" she said, surfacing from her thoughts.

"Watch where you're walking. I almost lost you again," Inuyasha said, fear in his voice. Kagome looked in front of her and saw a sheer cliff. "Don't scare me like that," he said, wrapping his other arm around her. Kagome turned her head to face him and saw something in his eyes she had only seen in her dreams.

"Inuyasha…" she whispered as their lips touched. This is what you meant, wasn't it K'shief?

"Honorable Lords and Ladies of the council," the Queen said, addressing the assembled council, "I am sure there is much that you would like to know about the events that have recently unfol-"

"Is it true that Princess Kagome has died?" someone demanded. The assembly started murmuring.

"As I was saying, that and all of your other questions will be addressed at our meeting in two days. What I called you here today for was to introduce you to somone."

"And where is this someone?" the same person asked.

"That's a good question," the Queen answered, but didn't elaborate.

"Hey you! You can't go in there!" the gaurds outside said. The assemblage could hear two distinct thumps and the chamber doors exploded in a shower of splinters. The Council almost dissapeared into a panic as they saw a white haired being with a green whip enter, but the Queen motioned for them to calm down.

The red-eyed demon deliberately walked up to the Queen and stopped three feet from her. The Queen smiled.

"Brash as always," she said.

"The new guards never cease to amuse me," it said. It kneeled before her, kissed her hand and stood next to her.

"As I mentioned before, there was someone I wanted to introduce to you. May I present, Master of Intelligence, Lord Sesshomaru."