Disclaimer: ::is finally released from the nuthouse. Takes two steps from it and grins:: INUYASHA IS MINE~~~!!! Bwa ha ha ha ha~~~ ::runs off like a maniac before "they!" can catch her again::
BTW ATTENTION ALL READERS~! Uhm, I dunno what you guys consider GORY but I dun wanna get sued by some mother who let her stupid 9 year old read this and he went all Exorcist on her or anything~ so! There are (relatively) graphic descriptions of death scenes in this chapter. Nothing like the movie Final Destination but there IS ALOT OF BLOOD! (note the title of today chappie, ne?) If you have a great imagination to where you read "blood" and see seas of it and can't handle it GO AWAY~!
Okie. Now if I get sued it's your own fault for not reading this.
____________________________
To Be With You Tomorrow
Part Six :: Illusions
Chapter Nineteen :: Blood Dream
Terrace looked out from the top level of the shrine, the dojo. Within the mists below she could see slight, wispy trails where Inuyasha and his brood were coming in. She smiled slightly. "They come."
"Why so excited, sister?" Terith asked in confusion, appearing from behind her, and Terrace fingered the hilt of the kodachi at her left hip. "You didn't know? Haha-ue has given us a small but important role in the tragic play that will be Inuyasha's death."
"She has?" Terith asked, and Terrace laughed. "Mother's wishes... but first, just to give you a teaser..."
"Yes," Terith pressed, excited suddenly and Terrace smiled. "Naraku-sama's beautiful Geneisatsu." Terith caught her breath and stared, her mouth dropping open. She seemed childlike in her excitement. "Really? For us?!!"
Terrace nodded but then pursed her lips. "Unfortunately we would have to leave off the 'satsu,'" she added, "We're not allow to kill them." Terith pouted at that but then looked surprised. "Why?"
Terrace just grinned. "It's all for our favorite pet."
Terith clapped her hands together, determined, and went to the large window, throwing it open before she dove for the mists. Terrace smiled and then turned to the figure in the darkness that waited. "Be patient, my dear Tama-chan. Our guest will arrive shortly after your allies do." And then she too dove into the misty abyss.
~*~
"Dammit, this is annoying," Inuyasha snarled as he pressed through the bushes and the mist, being sure to not stray too far from Kagome, lest he lose her. Shippou sat snuggled on the miko's shoulder, and Miroku, Sango and Kirara were nearby.
Over the head of the mist they could see the shrine, and it was huge. Inuyasha vaguely wondered where in the world he would even begin to look for Tama and Tanpopo before he felt a snag on his arm. He looked down at Kagome. "What?"
"I just felt something run across my arm," she said, pawing through the air at nothing, and Inuyasha blinked. He saw absolutely nothing but mist. "What are you talking about?"
"This.. thread," she insisted, and he noticed a leaf on a nearby bush seem to move when Kagome caught ahold of her invisible string and gave it a tug. Inuyasha reached out as if to touch when, from their left, they heard Sango's voice.
"Ow!" Inuyasha and Kagome snapped up, trying to peer through the mist. "Sango-chan?!?"
There was no reply. Kagome left Inuyasha's side and wandered into the mists, Inuyasha not far behind. "Sango-chan? Miroku-sama??" Suddenly Inuyasha felt something tug hard against him, tightening at his wrists, elbows, ankles and knees, not to mention a sharp, painful one at his neck. He gasped. "Kagome, stop, it's dangerous!!"
"Inuyasha?!" She spun, eyes wide as Inuyasha was spread eagle in front of her, and he groaned from the stress. "Da.. Damn..."
"Inuyasha~!" Kagome turned to go back to him but suddenly, she also felt her body being strung up. Inuyasha caught his breath when she cried out.
"Kagome~!" He wriggled in his binds, trying to free himself, but only succeeded in tangling himself up even more. The mists seemed to worsen, gathering around him, and Inuyasha found his eyes drooping. *Damn.. mist..... I can't... I can't keep my.. eyes open...*
"Sleep, Inuyasha," whispered a woman's voice.
And he did.
Terith and Terrace appeared from the mists, pulling their threads together, creating two large webs. In the larger one, Kagome, Miroku, Sango and Shippou hung, at the mercy of Terith. At the bottom, on a different set of strings, Terrace was allowed to play with Inuyasha.
Terith smiled. "Now, you four will show me the most intimate depths of your hearts."
Terrace smirked as she stroked Inuyasha's cheek, brushing aside a strand of his black hair. "Show me the things you fear most, and the pain you have endured which feeds it. Allow me to embrace you..."
"Tonight the curtain will drop on the greatest play of all!"
~*~
Kagome opened her eyes. She was standing in a clearing, surrounded by trees, the twilight filtering in through the leaves. She was alone, or she seemed to be, and she walked cautiously around, in case youkai were near. A sudden noise to her right caused her to jump in surprise, and her hands immediately shot back for her bow and an arrow-- which weren't there.
She mentally cursed herself for not having her bow. Had she dropped it? Where were the others? She had been going to save Tama-chan, when she had started to feel sleepy... so where was this? A dream? Had she fallen asleep and was dreaming?
"No, it's not a dream."
Kagome turned. She was standing underneath the Goshinboku, and so was Inuyasha. His hair was silver, his familiar dog ears perched wary and alert on the top of his head. Despite the past week and his illness, the sight of Inuyasha as a hanyou didn't register as quite out of place, and she smiled, going to him. "Inuyasha!"
She noticed someone appear from behind him, walking out of the shadows to go to his side. The person rested her hand gently on Inuyasha's shoulder and Kagome instantly reeled.
It was Kikyou.
The dead miko looked cold as always, but her face held a triumphant spirit that Kagome had never seen before. 'I won,' she seemed to say, and Kagome looked back to Inuyasha for an explanation. He looked at her with the same cold, emotionless eyes that she had seen on Kikyou so many times before. The same eyes he had when they had met that first day, when he tried to kill her. She bit her lip and then opened her mouth. "Wh... why are you... You're.. with Kikyou..."
"What about it?" he asked monotonously, and Kagome felt like he had slapped her. He smirked, obviously proud of the expression he had caused her. "Stupid. Did you honestly believe that I loved you? That you, a mere replacement, could in any way match or better my Kikyou? Fool." Kikyou slipped her hand into his automatically, and he squeezed it gently.
Kagome blanched. Everything she had feared was happening. Inuyasha had not only left her... he had never loved her. He cared nothing for her. The strength bled from her legs and she knew she had fallen, but it didn't register. She knew she was crying but she did not notice that either, neither did she care. Blankly she stared at the ground, and after a long moment she nodded. "That's true... I suppose I always knew.. that... you would choose Kikyou over me..."
Kagome, wrapped in Terith's threads, wept silently. "Inu...yasha..."
~*~
Sango opened her eyes. She was standing in a desecrated village, and there were corpses everywhere. Bandits, it looked like. She caught her breath. "Where...?"
She walked around slowly, looking for any semblance of life or someone she knew. Whichever came first. She wanted to call out for Miroku-sama or Kohaku, in case they were within earshot, but the thought that the enemy who had destroyed the village might still be nearby prevented her from doing so.
She heard the rustling of something in the trees and brush around her, and turned. She saw nothing, but she did notice Kagome's bow on the ground, broken in half, the pieces still attached by the string. There was a large pool of blood nearby, and in the blood...
Kagome-chan.
Rather, what used to be Kagome. The girl's body had been butchered beyond recognition, and the only way Sango knew it was her was the short skirt that she knew had once been green. There was a small kit's body nearby, and Sango deduced it was most likely little Shippou-- he would never have left Kagome's side.
If Kagome-chan and Shippou were like this, were the others nearby?? She had to know. She had to find the others and see if they were alright. Where was Miroku-sama?? Kohaku? What about Inuyasha, Tama-chan and Tanpopo-chan??
Were all of them dead?
She found Inuyasha near Kagome. The hanyou had been run through with his own Tessaiga, not to mention the long, clean slashes Sango noticed that he had gathered long before he died. There was something about those wounds she should know. She should KNOW those sort of marks; what kind of weapon made them...
Searching a little further into the trees brought her to Tanpopo and Tama. The way their bodies were positioned, Tama had tried to protect the kit, and Tanpopo had been killed in the same swift motion that had taken Tama-chan's life.
And Miroku-sama. The houshi was the most recognizable, as if the killer had left him alone after death just to tease the taijiya girl. Sango let out a terrible, anguished cry, collapsing next to him, clutching his robes in her hands weakly. His warmth had long since left him, and she found herself wishing he would reach up and grope her and tell her it was all just a sick, sick joke.
She didn't know who, but she would hunt them down. Until the day she died, finding the person who had done this to her friends would be her first priority, killing him the second. She would kill them. There were no second thoughts.
"Ane-ue."
Sango froze. The one person who had not been killed. Sango silently prayed to any God that would listen, any God that still existed, that Kohaku had not done this. *Please, not Kohaku...*
She turned slowly, and her eyes fell on Kohaku's small form. He was drenched in blood, his hands, face, legs... all of him splattered in it. His tunic front was soaked with it. And his chain-blade was still dripping with torn meat and fresh blood. The clean-cut wounds she should have recognized-- Kohaku's sickle. Of course. Only his blade would make so fine a cut.
Sango felt the tears renew themselves at that sight. "Ko.. haku.. WHY?!! WHY DID YOU DO THIS?!!" The boy smirked.
"Sango, you didn't truly believe that simply killing my form would destroy my will?" The voice that came from Kohaku's mouth was not his own. The form of speech was not his.
Sango's body shook with anger. "Naraku...!"
The boy cackled. "Ku ku ku... of course. The evil that the jewel shard in your brother's back absorbed cannot be defeated, by any means. So of course Kohaku is still my puppet." He grinned.
"Sango, you tried times before, but now I must know: can you really kill your little brother...??"
Trapped within Terith's web, Sango whispered the name of her little brother.
~*~
"We did it~!" Kagome cried, leaping onto Inuyasha with a hug. The injured hanyou yelped in pain, and quickly followed up with a callous retort about how Kagome was to energetic for her own good and that if she "accidentally" jammed her hand in the nasty open wound on his chest he would have something to say about it after he regained consciousness. Despite that, Miroku knew the hanyou didn't mind as much as he put on. He too was relieved and animated, as they all were.
Naraku was dead.
Miroku sighed a breath of relief. The curse of his kazaana was over. The group stood in the tall grasses, the wind blowing gently around them. All of them were hurt, some more than others, and all of them were exhausted. Yet Kagome-sama, being the cheerful girl she was, was flitting between each of them, laughing and hugging all of them.
"Miroku-sama~! We did it!! We did it! It's all over!" she cheered, hugging the houshi, and he smiled. "It is a good day, indeed," he intoned, his right hand sliding over Kagome's rear. The miko squealed and slapped him. It was a good day. They were alive.
Miroku noticed vaguely that the winds were picking up. They seemed to center around him, oddly. There was an strange, uncomfortable pressure coming from his hand, the one with the kazaana. Miroku looked down at his hand curiously, just in time to see the rosary beads snap.
The black light shone brightly, the winds becoming horribly fierce as the kazaana's seal was destroyed. Miroku let out a shocked cry. Naraku was dead, wasn't he?! Why hadn't the hole in his hand disappeared?!
Kagome, the closest, was the first pulled in. With a scream, she disappeared into the black hole. Shippou flew in a with wail, too light to anchor himself. Sango and Inuyasha, too weakened by the battle, were tugged in too. Miroku stared at his hand as he felt himself being pulled in also.
How did this happen?! Naraku was gone! But.. but...
Miroku, at the mercy of Terith's illusion, cried out in his dream.
~*~
Inuyasha opened his eyes and blinked vaguely. His body ached in various places, probably from the odd position he was sleeping in. He sat up, grunting as he did, and abruptly hissed at the prickly feeling in his limbs from the lack of movement. After the feeling began to subside the hanyou warily looked around. He sniffed a moment and realized his sense of smell was back. Testing his ears, he casually flicked one and then the other. Yep, he was a hanyou again.
Inuyasha threw a miniature party in his head at the return of his youryoku and jumped down from the tree. Landing on the ground he stopped suddenly.
He could smell blood. Thick, unmistakable. Blood and the scent of dead.
The tree he had been sleeping in was the usual one that he slept in while in the village, and dropping to the ground he noticed the villagers, all dead. They were laid out all over the fields and the dirt roads, as if the village had been under youkai attack. Inuyasha stared, horrified. What in God's name...? What the hell had happened...!?!
As he trudged through the destroyed village, looking for anyone who might be alive, he abruptly realized there were scents mixed in whose he knew. He sniffed again, hoping that the refreshment of the scent in his mind would prove his fears wrong.
It didn't. He could smell everyone. Tama, Miroku, Sango, both of the kits' and Kohaku.
And Kagome.
But not in the village. Inuyasha broke into a run towards the scents, heart hammering against his chest, his mind reeling with one panicked mantra: "Please don't let them be dead."
The hanyou collapsed against the Goshinboku, panting heavily. He pulled himself back up to a standing position and circled around the huge tree, only to stop again and this time fall to his knees.
The six of them were laid out, the same as the villagers, all of them dead. Miroku, Sango, and Kohaku, and Tama with both of the kits. But he couldn't see Kagome.
Inuyasha shuddered when he felt a drop of cold, wet SOMETHING trickle down his neck, and he reached back to touch it. His fingers came back into view, the fingertips wet with bright red blood. Kagome's; he knew the scent. He turned, his eyes tracing their way up the trunk of the sacred tree, and he looked up to see Kagome's body.
Of them all, she looked the best; her head was still attached to her body, she was not butchered beyond recognition like some of the others were. And the killing blow was a mere slash in her chest. Her pale skin was not tainted, her small, beautiful face still and serene. But she was still dead.
Inuyasha cried out her name desperately, the scream ravaged and grieving as it tore from him. He meant to bound up into the branches and bring her down when he noticed a bloodstained hand reach out from the other side, hidden by the thickness of the branch, and draw Kagome to its body. Inuyasha backed up a bit to look up into the tree and brutally rip apart the bastard who'd done this to Kagome, to his friends--
--until he found himself looking into his own eyes.
"Inuyasha" was sitting in the tree, his golden eyes blank as he combed through Kagome's bloody hair. The other hanyou looked lost, stupefied. He stared at nothing and everything at once as he cradled Kagome to him, the only movements being his hands, his hands which were covered in blood. He much resembled a dumbfounded child caring for a doll which would never live. Inuyasha blanched.
"It's going to happen eventually, you know that, don't you." said a monotonous voice, and Inuyasha spun, whirling on the voice. A third copy of himself, this time human, looked at him with dark, sad eyes. "You'll do it eventually."
"Do.. do what...." Inuyasha asked stupidly, and the human Inuyasha looked up at the hanyou in the tree. "Kill Kagome. Kill them all." He lowered his eyes back to Inuyasha and his eyes saddened even more. "You don't remember? Oh, of course not, you went crazy... Just.. Just look at yourself."
Inuyasha looked down, at his hands, at his clothes. The front of his pants and his haori were drenched, soaked through the skin with blood that he hadn't noticed before.
And it was on his hands. Kagome's blood was on him.
Inuyasha reeled, slamming backwards into the Goshinboku as he frantically tried to get away from it. What the fuck had happened?! Why couldn't he remember anything that had happened??
The only thing that came to mind was fighting. Fighting a losing battle, and there was no way out, and he was dying, he didn't want to die, and then he felt his body go hot inside.
And then, nothing.
Inuyasha slid to the ground. He knew. Of course he knew. He was the one.
He'd killed all of them.
"Inuyasha..."
He looked up. Kagome was standing apart from him, blood staining her face and the front of her shirt as she pulled back on the bowstring, her dark eyes hardening as she aimed the arrowhead at his chest. "You monster... how dare you betray us..."
WHAM!
Inuyasha slammed against the tree with a cry of pain, his hand clutching at the arrow she had shot into his chest. Kagome lowered the bow and staggered towards him.
The purifying arrow was glowing brightly, sending shudders through his body, racking his chest with pain every time he breathed in. His eyes were blurring with the sleep that was waiting to take him. "Ka.. gome..."
"Why... did you betray us?" Kagome asked, her voice sad. She looked so very much like Kikyou. Sounded like her. But it wasn't her. It was happening again. She lifted her face to him. "Is it destiny?"
Inuyasha trembled throughout his soul, the pain in Kagome's voice tearing him apart. His vision blurred again, this time from the tears that filled his eyes, and he lowered his face. "It must be..." he whispered sullenly.
Kagome appeared in front of him then. The arrow radiated more painfully with her approach, and he winced as the agony in his chest multiplied, both from the arrow, and the suffering he was enduring.
"Then I suppose you know what will happen next..." she said softly, gripping the front of his clothes tightly. "You won't die alone... not ever. I'll be here with you."
Inuyasha sighed softly as he let the darkness overwhelm him and he leaned his head against hers. "Yes... we'll go together."
Wound in a mess of youkai threads Inuyasha murmured the name of the woman he loved.
~*~ To be continued ~*~
a/n :: Uh-oh, am I in trouble now?? ;p I bet I either lose half my reviewers after this chapter due to heart failure or all 100% of them are going to attack me with blunt, heavy objects. (Please dun do that, I cant post chapter 20 if you do that~! ^-^)
Dun worry, everything'll turn out alright! I'm cruel sometimes, but I'm not an out-and-out sadist~ Stick with me for chapter 20! And please review!~!
~*~ V^-^V ~*~
~Tessen
BTW ATTENTION ALL READERS~! Uhm, I dunno what you guys consider GORY but I dun wanna get sued by some mother who let her stupid 9 year old read this and he went all Exorcist on her or anything~ so! There are (relatively) graphic descriptions of death scenes in this chapter. Nothing like the movie Final Destination but there IS ALOT OF BLOOD! (note the title of today chappie, ne?) If you have a great imagination to where you read "blood" and see seas of it and can't handle it GO AWAY~!
Okie. Now if I get sued it's your own fault for not reading this.
____________________________
To Be With You Tomorrow
Part Six :: Illusions
Chapter Nineteen :: Blood Dream
Terrace looked out from the top level of the shrine, the dojo. Within the mists below she could see slight, wispy trails where Inuyasha and his brood were coming in. She smiled slightly. "They come."
"Why so excited, sister?" Terith asked in confusion, appearing from behind her, and Terrace fingered the hilt of the kodachi at her left hip. "You didn't know? Haha-ue has given us a small but important role in the tragic play that will be Inuyasha's death."
"She has?" Terith asked, and Terrace laughed. "Mother's wishes... but first, just to give you a teaser..."
"Yes," Terith pressed, excited suddenly and Terrace smiled. "Naraku-sama's beautiful Geneisatsu." Terith caught her breath and stared, her mouth dropping open. She seemed childlike in her excitement. "Really? For us?!!"
Terrace nodded but then pursed her lips. "Unfortunately we would have to leave off the 'satsu,'" she added, "We're not allow to kill them." Terith pouted at that but then looked surprised. "Why?"
Terrace just grinned. "It's all for our favorite pet."
Terith clapped her hands together, determined, and went to the large window, throwing it open before she dove for the mists. Terrace smiled and then turned to the figure in the darkness that waited. "Be patient, my dear Tama-chan. Our guest will arrive shortly after your allies do." And then she too dove into the misty abyss.
~*~
"Dammit, this is annoying," Inuyasha snarled as he pressed through the bushes and the mist, being sure to not stray too far from Kagome, lest he lose her. Shippou sat snuggled on the miko's shoulder, and Miroku, Sango and Kirara were nearby.
Over the head of the mist they could see the shrine, and it was huge. Inuyasha vaguely wondered where in the world he would even begin to look for Tama and Tanpopo before he felt a snag on his arm. He looked down at Kagome. "What?"
"I just felt something run across my arm," she said, pawing through the air at nothing, and Inuyasha blinked. He saw absolutely nothing but mist. "What are you talking about?"
"This.. thread," she insisted, and he noticed a leaf on a nearby bush seem to move when Kagome caught ahold of her invisible string and gave it a tug. Inuyasha reached out as if to touch when, from their left, they heard Sango's voice.
"Ow!" Inuyasha and Kagome snapped up, trying to peer through the mist. "Sango-chan?!?"
There was no reply. Kagome left Inuyasha's side and wandered into the mists, Inuyasha not far behind. "Sango-chan? Miroku-sama??" Suddenly Inuyasha felt something tug hard against him, tightening at his wrists, elbows, ankles and knees, not to mention a sharp, painful one at his neck. He gasped. "Kagome, stop, it's dangerous!!"
"Inuyasha?!" She spun, eyes wide as Inuyasha was spread eagle in front of her, and he groaned from the stress. "Da.. Damn..."
"Inuyasha~!" Kagome turned to go back to him but suddenly, she also felt her body being strung up. Inuyasha caught his breath when she cried out.
"Kagome~!" He wriggled in his binds, trying to free himself, but only succeeded in tangling himself up even more. The mists seemed to worsen, gathering around him, and Inuyasha found his eyes drooping. *Damn.. mist..... I can't... I can't keep my.. eyes open...*
"Sleep, Inuyasha," whispered a woman's voice.
And he did.
Terith and Terrace appeared from the mists, pulling their threads together, creating two large webs. In the larger one, Kagome, Miroku, Sango and Shippou hung, at the mercy of Terith. At the bottom, on a different set of strings, Terrace was allowed to play with Inuyasha.
Terith smiled. "Now, you four will show me the most intimate depths of your hearts."
Terrace smirked as she stroked Inuyasha's cheek, brushing aside a strand of his black hair. "Show me the things you fear most, and the pain you have endured which feeds it. Allow me to embrace you..."
"Tonight the curtain will drop on the greatest play of all!"
~*~
Kagome opened her eyes. She was standing in a clearing, surrounded by trees, the twilight filtering in through the leaves. She was alone, or she seemed to be, and she walked cautiously around, in case youkai were near. A sudden noise to her right caused her to jump in surprise, and her hands immediately shot back for her bow and an arrow-- which weren't there.
She mentally cursed herself for not having her bow. Had she dropped it? Where were the others? She had been going to save Tama-chan, when she had started to feel sleepy... so where was this? A dream? Had she fallen asleep and was dreaming?
"No, it's not a dream."
Kagome turned. She was standing underneath the Goshinboku, and so was Inuyasha. His hair was silver, his familiar dog ears perched wary and alert on the top of his head. Despite the past week and his illness, the sight of Inuyasha as a hanyou didn't register as quite out of place, and she smiled, going to him. "Inuyasha!"
She noticed someone appear from behind him, walking out of the shadows to go to his side. The person rested her hand gently on Inuyasha's shoulder and Kagome instantly reeled.
It was Kikyou.
The dead miko looked cold as always, but her face held a triumphant spirit that Kagome had never seen before. 'I won,' she seemed to say, and Kagome looked back to Inuyasha for an explanation. He looked at her with the same cold, emotionless eyes that she had seen on Kikyou so many times before. The same eyes he had when they had met that first day, when he tried to kill her. She bit her lip and then opened her mouth. "Wh... why are you... You're.. with Kikyou..."
"What about it?" he asked monotonously, and Kagome felt like he had slapped her. He smirked, obviously proud of the expression he had caused her. "Stupid. Did you honestly believe that I loved you? That you, a mere replacement, could in any way match or better my Kikyou? Fool." Kikyou slipped her hand into his automatically, and he squeezed it gently.
Kagome blanched. Everything she had feared was happening. Inuyasha had not only left her... he had never loved her. He cared nothing for her. The strength bled from her legs and she knew she had fallen, but it didn't register. She knew she was crying but she did not notice that either, neither did she care. Blankly she stared at the ground, and after a long moment she nodded. "That's true... I suppose I always knew.. that... you would choose Kikyou over me..."
Kagome, wrapped in Terith's threads, wept silently. "Inu...yasha..."
~*~
Sango opened her eyes. She was standing in a desecrated village, and there were corpses everywhere. Bandits, it looked like. She caught her breath. "Where...?"
She walked around slowly, looking for any semblance of life or someone she knew. Whichever came first. She wanted to call out for Miroku-sama or Kohaku, in case they were within earshot, but the thought that the enemy who had destroyed the village might still be nearby prevented her from doing so.
She heard the rustling of something in the trees and brush around her, and turned. She saw nothing, but she did notice Kagome's bow on the ground, broken in half, the pieces still attached by the string. There was a large pool of blood nearby, and in the blood...
Kagome-chan.
Rather, what used to be Kagome. The girl's body had been butchered beyond recognition, and the only way Sango knew it was her was the short skirt that she knew had once been green. There was a small kit's body nearby, and Sango deduced it was most likely little Shippou-- he would never have left Kagome's side.
If Kagome-chan and Shippou were like this, were the others nearby?? She had to know. She had to find the others and see if they were alright. Where was Miroku-sama?? Kohaku? What about Inuyasha, Tama-chan and Tanpopo-chan??
Were all of them dead?
She found Inuyasha near Kagome. The hanyou had been run through with his own Tessaiga, not to mention the long, clean slashes Sango noticed that he had gathered long before he died. There was something about those wounds she should know. She should KNOW those sort of marks; what kind of weapon made them...
Searching a little further into the trees brought her to Tanpopo and Tama. The way their bodies were positioned, Tama had tried to protect the kit, and Tanpopo had been killed in the same swift motion that had taken Tama-chan's life.
And Miroku-sama. The houshi was the most recognizable, as if the killer had left him alone after death just to tease the taijiya girl. Sango let out a terrible, anguished cry, collapsing next to him, clutching his robes in her hands weakly. His warmth had long since left him, and she found herself wishing he would reach up and grope her and tell her it was all just a sick, sick joke.
She didn't know who, but she would hunt them down. Until the day she died, finding the person who had done this to her friends would be her first priority, killing him the second. She would kill them. There were no second thoughts.
"Ane-ue."
Sango froze. The one person who had not been killed. Sango silently prayed to any God that would listen, any God that still existed, that Kohaku had not done this. *Please, not Kohaku...*
She turned slowly, and her eyes fell on Kohaku's small form. He was drenched in blood, his hands, face, legs... all of him splattered in it. His tunic front was soaked with it. And his chain-blade was still dripping with torn meat and fresh blood. The clean-cut wounds she should have recognized-- Kohaku's sickle. Of course. Only his blade would make so fine a cut.
Sango felt the tears renew themselves at that sight. "Ko.. haku.. WHY?!! WHY DID YOU DO THIS?!!" The boy smirked.
"Sango, you didn't truly believe that simply killing my form would destroy my will?" The voice that came from Kohaku's mouth was not his own. The form of speech was not his.
Sango's body shook with anger. "Naraku...!"
The boy cackled. "Ku ku ku... of course. The evil that the jewel shard in your brother's back absorbed cannot be defeated, by any means. So of course Kohaku is still my puppet." He grinned.
"Sango, you tried times before, but now I must know: can you really kill your little brother...??"
Trapped within Terith's web, Sango whispered the name of her little brother.
~*~
"We did it~!" Kagome cried, leaping onto Inuyasha with a hug. The injured hanyou yelped in pain, and quickly followed up with a callous retort about how Kagome was to energetic for her own good and that if she "accidentally" jammed her hand in the nasty open wound on his chest he would have something to say about it after he regained consciousness. Despite that, Miroku knew the hanyou didn't mind as much as he put on. He too was relieved and animated, as they all were.
Naraku was dead.
Miroku sighed a breath of relief. The curse of his kazaana was over. The group stood in the tall grasses, the wind blowing gently around them. All of them were hurt, some more than others, and all of them were exhausted. Yet Kagome-sama, being the cheerful girl she was, was flitting between each of them, laughing and hugging all of them.
"Miroku-sama~! We did it!! We did it! It's all over!" she cheered, hugging the houshi, and he smiled. "It is a good day, indeed," he intoned, his right hand sliding over Kagome's rear. The miko squealed and slapped him. It was a good day. They were alive.
Miroku noticed vaguely that the winds were picking up. They seemed to center around him, oddly. There was an strange, uncomfortable pressure coming from his hand, the one with the kazaana. Miroku looked down at his hand curiously, just in time to see the rosary beads snap.
The black light shone brightly, the winds becoming horribly fierce as the kazaana's seal was destroyed. Miroku let out a shocked cry. Naraku was dead, wasn't he?! Why hadn't the hole in his hand disappeared?!
Kagome, the closest, was the first pulled in. With a scream, she disappeared into the black hole. Shippou flew in a with wail, too light to anchor himself. Sango and Inuyasha, too weakened by the battle, were tugged in too. Miroku stared at his hand as he felt himself being pulled in also.
How did this happen?! Naraku was gone! But.. but...
Miroku, at the mercy of Terith's illusion, cried out in his dream.
~*~
Inuyasha opened his eyes and blinked vaguely. His body ached in various places, probably from the odd position he was sleeping in. He sat up, grunting as he did, and abruptly hissed at the prickly feeling in his limbs from the lack of movement. After the feeling began to subside the hanyou warily looked around. He sniffed a moment and realized his sense of smell was back. Testing his ears, he casually flicked one and then the other. Yep, he was a hanyou again.
Inuyasha threw a miniature party in his head at the return of his youryoku and jumped down from the tree. Landing on the ground he stopped suddenly.
He could smell blood. Thick, unmistakable. Blood and the scent of dead.
The tree he had been sleeping in was the usual one that he slept in while in the village, and dropping to the ground he noticed the villagers, all dead. They were laid out all over the fields and the dirt roads, as if the village had been under youkai attack. Inuyasha stared, horrified. What in God's name...? What the hell had happened...!?!
As he trudged through the destroyed village, looking for anyone who might be alive, he abruptly realized there were scents mixed in whose he knew. He sniffed again, hoping that the refreshment of the scent in his mind would prove his fears wrong.
It didn't. He could smell everyone. Tama, Miroku, Sango, both of the kits' and Kohaku.
And Kagome.
But not in the village. Inuyasha broke into a run towards the scents, heart hammering against his chest, his mind reeling with one panicked mantra: "Please don't let them be dead."
The hanyou collapsed against the Goshinboku, panting heavily. He pulled himself back up to a standing position and circled around the huge tree, only to stop again and this time fall to his knees.
The six of them were laid out, the same as the villagers, all of them dead. Miroku, Sango, and Kohaku, and Tama with both of the kits. But he couldn't see Kagome.
Inuyasha shuddered when he felt a drop of cold, wet SOMETHING trickle down his neck, and he reached back to touch it. His fingers came back into view, the fingertips wet with bright red blood. Kagome's; he knew the scent. He turned, his eyes tracing their way up the trunk of the sacred tree, and he looked up to see Kagome's body.
Of them all, she looked the best; her head was still attached to her body, she was not butchered beyond recognition like some of the others were. And the killing blow was a mere slash in her chest. Her pale skin was not tainted, her small, beautiful face still and serene. But she was still dead.
Inuyasha cried out her name desperately, the scream ravaged and grieving as it tore from him. He meant to bound up into the branches and bring her down when he noticed a bloodstained hand reach out from the other side, hidden by the thickness of the branch, and draw Kagome to its body. Inuyasha backed up a bit to look up into the tree and brutally rip apart the bastard who'd done this to Kagome, to his friends--
--until he found himself looking into his own eyes.
"Inuyasha" was sitting in the tree, his golden eyes blank as he combed through Kagome's bloody hair. The other hanyou looked lost, stupefied. He stared at nothing and everything at once as he cradled Kagome to him, the only movements being his hands, his hands which were covered in blood. He much resembled a dumbfounded child caring for a doll which would never live. Inuyasha blanched.
"It's going to happen eventually, you know that, don't you." said a monotonous voice, and Inuyasha spun, whirling on the voice. A third copy of himself, this time human, looked at him with dark, sad eyes. "You'll do it eventually."
"Do.. do what...." Inuyasha asked stupidly, and the human Inuyasha looked up at the hanyou in the tree. "Kill Kagome. Kill them all." He lowered his eyes back to Inuyasha and his eyes saddened even more. "You don't remember? Oh, of course not, you went crazy... Just.. Just look at yourself."
Inuyasha looked down, at his hands, at his clothes. The front of his pants and his haori were drenched, soaked through the skin with blood that he hadn't noticed before.
And it was on his hands. Kagome's blood was on him.
Inuyasha reeled, slamming backwards into the Goshinboku as he frantically tried to get away from it. What the fuck had happened?! Why couldn't he remember anything that had happened??
The only thing that came to mind was fighting. Fighting a losing battle, and there was no way out, and he was dying, he didn't want to die, and then he felt his body go hot inside.
And then, nothing.
Inuyasha slid to the ground. He knew. Of course he knew. He was the one.
He'd killed all of them.
"Inuyasha..."
He looked up. Kagome was standing apart from him, blood staining her face and the front of her shirt as she pulled back on the bowstring, her dark eyes hardening as she aimed the arrowhead at his chest. "You monster... how dare you betray us..."
WHAM!
Inuyasha slammed against the tree with a cry of pain, his hand clutching at the arrow she had shot into his chest. Kagome lowered the bow and staggered towards him.
The purifying arrow was glowing brightly, sending shudders through his body, racking his chest with pain every time he breathed in. His eyes were blurring with the sleep that was waiting to take him. "Ka.. gome..."
"Why... did you betray us?" Kagome asked, her voice sad. She looked so very much like Kikyou. Sounded like her. But it wasn't her. It was happening again. She lifted her face to him. "Is it destiny?"
Inuyasha trembled throughout his soul, the pain in Kagome's voice tearing him apart. His vision blurred again, this time from the tears that filled his eyes, and he lowered his face. "It must be..." he whispered sullenly.
Kagome appeared in front of him then. The arrow radiated more painfully with her approach, and he winced as the agony in his chest multiplied, both from the arrow, and the suffering he was enduring.
"Then I suppose you know what will happen next..." she said softly, gripping the front of his clothes tightly. "You won't die alone... not ever. I'll be here with you."
Inuyasha sighed softly as he let the darkness overwhelm him and he leaned his head against hers. "Yes... we'll go together."
Wound in a mess of youkai threads Inuyasha murmured the name of the woman he loved.
~*~ To be continued ~*~
a/n :: Uh-oh, am I in trouble now?? ;p I bet I either lose half my reviewers after this chapter due to heart failure or all 100% of them are going to attack me with blunt, heavy objects. (Please dun do that, I cant post chapter 20 if you do that~! ^-^)
Dun worry, everything'll turn out alright! I'm cruel sometimes, but I'm not an out-and-out sadist~ Stick with me for chapter 20! And please review!~!
~*~ V^-^V ~*~
~Tessen