Ye, gods~ I've been spending some time on Gaia, and the people are VICIOUS on there! First you separate them into "the anime series Inuyasha lovers" and "the anime series Inuyasha haters." Then its whether or not the actual character Inuyasha is cooler than his brother or a not.
Then it's the "Who should he end up with?" game, and these people are ruthless! Either they love Kikyou and will defend her to their deaths, or they love Kagome and they too will die for the cause. I truly think half of them are nuts, and the next world war will be on Gaia, over whether or not the soul Kagome has is her own or Kikyou's.
I personally don't have the brain power to hold an argument with rational thoughts involved! When I get into fights, I have to explain in angry words what I mean to my friends and they translate for me… My thinking is Kagome makes Inuyasha happy-- therefore he should be with her. That's just that! You stay with the person who makes you happiest. And Inuyasha is not happy with the Chunk of Walking Clay that Eats Souls Formerly Known as Kikyou.
Okay Im done. I have a headache. Here is the new chapter. Enjoy, it's a bit longer. There's also a big fat scene that may require Kleenex that I should warn you guys about.
Disclaimer: INUYASHA AND KAGOME FOREVER. Huh? Oh, I mean, Inuyasha's not mine.
____________________________
To Be With You Tomorrow
Part Nine :: Revenge
Chapter Thirty-Nine :: Luck
Tama stared, her body rigid as she scanned the blackened and burned floorboards. Her eyes darted back and forth over the shoji paper which was still burning and the sooty, charred remains of some of the bodies Kagome and the wolf-girl has slain.
But there were no bodies where Kagome and the girl had been. At all.
Genrou grinned. "Reduced them to nothing but fucking ashes, huh?"
"Hardly!"
At that everyone glanced over by the window, where Mika was still hanging loosely to Kagome. The miko looked frightened, but triumphant. "Mika-san's fast, you dope!" Kagome cheered, feeling a bit elated. Escaping imminent death without a scratch had that effect, she noted.
Genrou grit his teeth, furious that he had failed to kill the stupid wench and allowing his hatred to rise so that it would consume the growing shame he felt by being outclassed by a woman. From across the room, one of the wolves stepped forward.
"Hey boss, you can't use th' Hellfire in here again, it's dangerous."
"WHY NOT?" Genrou bellowed, "This is my place, I will use whatever I wish to use, WHENEVER and WHEREVER I choose!!"
The wolf looked fearful, fidgeting anxiously. "Well, s'just that, like ya asked, we moved all the explosives up here from the basement so we'd be ready for the attack on the Kooritaka. If ya fire that again, you'll blow the whole fortress away."
Genrou shut his mouth and closed his fist, Hellfire disappearing into thin air. He turned to Tama. "Let's get this over and done. I have better things to do than fight some lousy woman."
Tama readied herself as well. "Too bad one of 'ems dying."
He launched himself at her again and Tama blocked the strike with Tessaiga before swinging the great sword at Genrou's head. The wolf dropped down in a dodge and threw out his leg, catching Tama in the face. She flipped backwards, catching herself and pushing off to swing at him.
Swing, miss; swing, parry. Tama thrust the sword at him and Genrou slammed Chishibukiga against it, the blade cutting into the ground. Genrou threw a punch at the hanyou girl's face, and Tama dropped to the side, allowing Genrou's fist to slide through air. Then she brought Tessaiga up, the blunt side slamming into his outstretched arm.
There was a grinding crunch as his arm was put out of commission, and Genrou cursed loudly. Leaping back, Tama lifted the sword and swung again. She missed but struck the ground, and a flash of golden energy shot through the floorboards, slicing through Genrou's leg.
He howled in agony, clutching the open wound. It was deep, deep enough to see the hard whiteness underneath the meat and blood. He went down to his knees.
Tama stood over him, leveling Tessaiga at his throat. "Give it up. You're dying already, you waste of flesh, Kagome-chan sealed your fate a long time ago."
"Heh, give up? To a woman?" He chuckled. "Not a chance. I may be dying, but…" He twisted his broken arm, palm up, yet again allowing Hellfire to emerge. Tama blanched, looking at the globe of fire and then back at the crazed wolf's eyes. "I'm taking you with me," he grinned.
In an instant the entire room erupted into panic. The wolves who were left standing mobbed off for the door, jumped out the window-- whatever they could do to escape. Genrou growled an order, that they should stay with their leader, but they ignored him, taking off without him. In anger, Genrou slammed the blade down, first to his left, then to his right, and the kenatsu from Chishibukiga crumpled the doors and the half-open window.
Beams of wood and blocks of stone dropped down, blocking the escapes and crushing some of the fleeing wolves underneath the weight. Tama cursed at him loudly. "You chickenshit son of a bitch! They're your own men!"
"My own mutinying men!! If they're not going to die with me willingly they will die with me pathetically!!" he snarled, "I'm not going to Hell alone, you half-breed bitch, YOU'RE COMING WITH ME!"
The wolf lifted his blade over the fiery ball, green and blue eyes blazing. Tama spun and ran to Mika and Kagome, ripping her kimono off as she did. Clad in nothing but her white yukata now she wrapped the hi-nezumi-cloak around the two girls' shoulders.
Kagome didn't have even a second to protest as just then, Genrou jammed the sword through Hellfire and into his hand, aiming directly for the storage room of explosives. Kagome gasped aloud as Tama turned to look. She looked back, and Kagome saw a hint of fear in her amber eyes.
"Sorry, gotta do this~" Her words cut off just as the white flash rushed over them, and Kagome screamed her name as the hanyou grabbed Tessaiga and ran back towards Genrou.
~*~
The resounding boom that shook the very forests slammed through the ground underneath the gumi's feet as they raced towards the southern wolves' den. Inuyasha gasped sharply, the anxious feeling in his gut tightening.
He pushed himself even harder, racing pasts trees and bushes that looked like green and brown blurs, white where the sleet that had begun to fall earlier was now sticking to the ground. He knew the others were there with him, but they weren't in his thoughts. They didn't matter, all that mattered was getting to her.
Something was wrong. He knew, he could tell something was wrong; he could feel it inside of him. She needed him, she was hurt and she was dying and it throbbed inside him. Inuyasha, run. Run, faster!
Without even realizing it he called their names. "KAGOME!! TAMA!"
The gumi broke through the forest line in seconds and he saw the fortress up ahead. Black smoke seeped from every window, and from the back of the huge house a column of toxic fumes rose into the sky. Part of the roof had been blown off.
Kouga stopped, staring. "What the fuck happened?!" he demanded of no one in particular. Inuyasha ignored him and raced around to the back, leaping up into the blown-out room. "Kagome! Tama!!"
The others followed, mere steps behind him, and upon entering the room, Sango gasped slightly. "Oh, gods…" Miroku's eyes narrowed. "What happened…?"
The room was in pieces, the roof having collapsed and the walls blown outwards, as if the room had been sealed off and exploded from inside. The acrid stench of scorched flesh and burning hair emanated from the confines of the still-burning room, and Inuyasha had to hold back a gag.
The dead bodies of wolves were littered all over the monstrous room, all of them charred to nothing. Near what had been the entrance was Genrou's body. Splinters and chunks of wood stabbed him in every part of his body, the Chishibukiga sticking through the hand at his side into the floor.
Tessaiga was also nearby him, looking a little sooty if anything. There was a second body, charred fingers loosely clinging to Tessaiga's hilt. The hanyou ignored it for the moment and scanned the room for survivors.
He didn't have to look far; in the middle of the room, kneeling over the bodies of Genrou and the other person, were the only two people left alive. Both women. Inuyasha's heart shot to his throat when he managed to make out the sooty, ash-covered form of a girl in a short skirt which might have been green at some point in time.
He also did not fail to notice the muddy looking tracks of tears streaming down her face, or the kimono of red fabric draped around her shoulders.
*Tama's… kimono…* he thought, feeling the knot tighten in his stomach. The first stab of real fear hit him. Tama was hurt.
Kagome's cries were broken, desperate pleas, the kind of sounds that could only come from someone grieving. The body she knelt by, the one holding Tessaiga, was a body with silver hair. It didn't register in his mind. Even Kagome's cries of Tama's name, over and over, didn't make any sense.
She couldn't be hurt that badly.
His voice sounded weak and hoarse when he managed to speak. "Ka..gome..?" The young woman looked up, and instantly she began to cry even harder. "Inuyasha!! Inuyasha, I… She wasn't wearing her kimono! Even though it could have protected her, she didn't, she gave it to me, she just… and then she…"
Kagome trailed off and Sango gasped softly, covering her mouth and turning to Miroku as she realized the gravity of the situation. Tanpopo made a soft whimpering sound and Inuyasha stumbled forward and looked down at the body.
Her face looked no different than the first day she had come back to him, when she had found him again. Just paler, smudged with dirt and ash here and there. But the differences stopped there, for further down her body, the wounds grew worse.
Her smooth arms were burned, blackened and bloodied, and blood drenched the once white under-kimono she wore. It too was black and frayed with burns, smudged with gray ash where it was still halfway white.
Her hair was matted with blood and soot, some of the ends of her bangs curled from the flame. Her ears sagged limply.
Inuyasha couldn't move. He felt like he couldn't breathe, like the smoke from the still burning wooden beams was smothering him. It didn't feel real. Tama couldn't be lying here, dead. She couldn't be, because she had escaped death before, just like him.
They were hanyou. They had battled huge Oni together and lived to laugh about it. They had fought Shininikubuta and hardly broken a sweat. Tama had been swallowed by a river and survived. She had battled illusionists and come out without a scrape.
She couldn't have been killed by just a damn explosion.
He slipped to his knees by her, his face twisting angrily. "Hey, get up, you lazy bitch," he ordered. She didn't respond. At first, anyway. Dark eyelashes twitched and Tama's golden eyes slid open. Kagome gasped sharply, shock visible on her pale features.
Even Inuyasha released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. His voice didn't sound like his own as he grated out, "Tama??" His chest tightened uncomfortably when her eyes settled on him. "Inuyasha.."
"Oh God," Kagome said brokenly, more tears blurring her eyes. Tama's eyes narrowed. "Don't cry…"
For a moment Kagome thought the hanyou girl was talking to her-- until she looked at Inuyasha. A small pool of tears glittered in his eyes, and one tear had streaked down his cheek. He wiped at his face mindlessly, struggling to regain control over himself.
"I'm not crying," he told her angrily, "Why the hell would a cry over a bitch like you…" Tama smirked at him, relaxing her body and allowing her head to fall to the side. It was hard, straining to hold up her head. Inuyasha's hand clenched around the bloodied fabric of her sleeve, and he bent forward, resting his forehead on his shoulder.
In a voice so soft that even Tama had trouble hearing him, he said, "Tama… I thought you were dead." Tama reached up and patted his hands. "It's okay, Inuyasha… I'm not going anywhere…"
Behind Inuyasha, Kouga was watching quietly, until his eyes fell on the girl beside Kagome. She was as beautiful as the last time he'd seen her, just a little banged up and smudged with ash. He stepped forward slightly. "Mika-chan…"
She looked up, wide blue eyes falling on his face. "Kouga…" Instantly Mika looked down, away from him. "Kouga, please don't… You should leave…" Slightly hurt, the wolf stepped back. Kagome looked up, watching the encounter between them and wondering vaguely if Kouga was Mika's husband. But then why had he claimed to love her?
But then he set his shoulders, eyes narrowed. "Mika, you don't love me anymore?" The wolf-girl looked up, eyes teary. "No, that's not it! I do love you Kouga! I always, always have…" She looked down. "What is Kagome-san to you?"
At that Kouga stopped, eyes wide. He tried to swallow past the rapidly growing lump in his throat, and Mika looked up sorrowfully. "Genrou kidnapped her for bait for you, she must mean something…"
Kouga's face fell. "I.. claimed her as my woman…" Mika's face crinkled. She lowered her head, sniffling. "I understand… Then, could you tell? You knew what Genrou did to me… Is that why you broke our bond?"
"You're the one who broke it first!" Kouga declared, grabbing Mika by the arm and pulling her up to look at him. His voice cracked slightly as he said, "What's the point of being married to you, of agreeing to be your mate and protect you if you're not going to let me!? That's why I started looking for another woman, Mika; you left me!"
"I didn't break it!! I didn't want you to know!!!!" she screamed at him, "I never, never betrayed you Kouga, I've loved you my whole life!!! But.. But I didn't want you know…"
She collapsed against his chest and Kouga looked down at her helplessly. "Know what?"
"That.. That I'm not pure anymore… That I'm dirty…" At this Kouga pulled her away, looking her in the eye. "What? Mika, there's… nothing that could ever do that to you. Ever."
"I'm going have his child…" The wolf princess' voice quivered. Kouga stared, eyes wide. Slowly his eyes trailed down to Mika's stomach, which he only now noticed was slightly larger than normal.
Kouga's mouth hung open slightly, his face twisting into an expression of rage and grief. Kagome looked away from him as he turned to Genrou's corpse.
"You fucking son of a bitch!!!" the wolf leader yelled, punching hard into the chest of the dead wolf. "You goddamned, disgusting bastard…"
"Kouga-kun," Kagome reached out, taking his shoulder. "Stop… Genrou's dead."
"Son of a goddamn bitch… Fucking bastard, he did that to her!! He beat her and he.. Fuck!" Kouga closed his eyes, hanging his head. "I can't do a goddamned thing about it… I can't even take revenge for her!!! I can't just STOP!"
Kagome lowered her head. "Kouga-kun do you still love Mika-san…?" At this, the wolf looked up. Kagome did not have any pain in her eyes, only a polite curiosity. Kouga calmed a bit, looking at the charred floorboards. "Yes."
Hearing his soft confession, Mika began to cry harder, covering her face with her hands. Kouga stood up, slipping his arms around his bride. "Mika, I love you…"
Kagome smiled faintly at this. Kouga looked a little ashamedly at her. "Kagome, I'm sorry… But, you know we can't be anything now…"
Inuyasha raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You're giving up on Kagome?! That's it, I don't get to kick your ass or ANYTHING?!"
"Sorry to disappoint," Kouga said, still talking to Kagome and ignoring Inuyasha completely. Kagome laughed nervously. "I think I can get over it." She wiped her face, her gaze falling on Tama. "Tama-chan, your wounds are…" Tama shook her head. "I'll be okay… but I need to see Ani-ue…"
"What the hell do we need to go see that bastard for?" Inuyasha demanded, and Tama closed her eyes. "Because he has Oyaji's Tenseiga. And unless we leave soon, by the time we get to him, I'll be dead."
~*~ To be continued ~*~
a/n :: Okie note about Mika. I know about the character in the anime called Ayame. However I've never seen an episode featuring her, so I have no idea how she acts, what she's like, any of that. And I had no wish to try to write her when I obviously no nothing of her. So I made Mika.
Please review~
~*~ V^-^V ~*~
~Tessen
Then it's the "Who should he end up with?" game, and these people are ruthless! Either they love Kikyou and will defend her to their deaths, or they love Kagome and they too will die for the cause. I truly think half of them are nuts, and the next world war will be on Gaia, over whether or not the soul Kagome has is her own or Kikyou's.
I personally don't have the brain power to hold an argument with rational thoughts involved! When I get into fights, I have to explain in angry words what I mean to my friends and they translate for me… My thinking is Kagome makes Inuyasha happy-- therefore he should be with her. That's just that! You stay with the person who makes you happiest. And Inuyasha is not happy with the Chunk of Walking Clay that Eats Souls Formerly Known as Kikyou.
Okay Im done. I have a headache. Here is the new chapter. Enjoy, it's a bit longer. There's also a big fat scene that may require Kleenex that I should warn you guys about.
Disclaimer: INUYASHA AND KAGOME FOREVER. Huh? Oh, I mean, Inuyasha's not mine.
____________________________
To Be With You Tomorrow
Part Nine :: Revenge
Chapter Thirty-Nine :: Luck
Tama stared, her body rigid as she scanned the blackened and burned floorboards. Her eyes darted back and forth over the shoji paper which was still burning and the sooty, charred remains of some of the bodies Kagome and the wolf-girl has slain.
But there were no bodies where Kagome and the girl had been. At all.
Genrou grinned. "Reduced them to nothing but fucking ashes, huh?"
"Hardly!"
At that everyone glanced over by the window, where Mika was still hanging loosely to Kagome. The miko looked frightened, but triumphant. "Mika-san's fast, you dope!" Kagome cheered, feeling a bit elated. Escaping imminent death without a scratch had that effect, she noted.
Genrou grit his teeth, furious that he had failed to kill the stupid wench and allowing his hatred to rise so that it would consume the growing shame he felt by being outclassed by a woman. From across the room, one of the wolves stepped forward.
"Hey boss, you can't use th' Hellfire in here again, it's dangerous."
"WHY NOT?" Genrou bellowed, "This is my place, I will use whatever I wish to use, WHENEVER and WHEREVER I choose!!"
The wolf looked fearful, fidgeting anxiously. "Well, s'just that, like ya asked, we moved all the explosives up here from the basement so we'd be ready for the attack on the Kooritaka. If ya fire that again, you'll blow the whole fortress away."
Genrou shut his mouth and closed his fist, Hellfire disappearing into thin air. He turned to Tama. "Let's get this over and done. I have better things to do than fight some lousy woman."
Tama readied herself as well. "Too bad one of 'ems dying."
He launched himself at her again and Tama blocked the strike with Tessaiga before swinging the great sword at Genrou's head. The wolf dropped down in a dodge and threw out his leg, catching Tama in the face. She flipped backwards, catching herself and pushing off to swing at him.
Swing, miss; swing, parry. Tama thrust the sword at him and Genrou slammed Chishibukiga against it, the blade cutting into the ground. Genrou threw a punch at the hanyou girl's face, and Tama dropped to the side, allowing Genrou's fist to slide through air. Then she brought Tessaiga up, the blunt side slamming into his outstretched arm.
There was a grinding crunch as his arm was put out of commission, and Genrou cursed loudly. Leaping back, Tama lifted the sword and swung again. She missed but struck the ground, and a flash of golden energy shot through the floorboards, slicing through Genrou's leg.
He howled in agony, clutching the open wound. It was deep, deep enough to see the hard whiteness underneath the meat and blood. He went down to his knees.
Tama stood over him, leveling Tessaiga at his throat. "Give it up. You're dying already, you waste of flesh, Kagome-chan sealed your fate a long time ago."
"Heh, give up? To a woman?" He chuckled. "Not a chance. I may be dying, but…" He twisted his broken arm, palm up, yet again allowing Hellfire to emerge. Tama blanched, looking at the globe of fire and then back at the crazed wolf's eyes. "I'm taking you with me," he grinned.
In an instant the entire room erupted into panic. The wolves who were left standing mobbed off for the door, jumped out the window-- whatever they could do to escape. Genrou growled an order, that they should stay with their leader, but they ignored him, taking off without him. In anger, Genrou slammed the blade down, first to his left, then to his right, and the kenatsu from Chishibukiga crumpled the doors and the half-open window.
Beams of wood and blocks of stone dropped down, blocking the escapes and crushing some of the fleeing wolves underneath the weight. Tama cursed at him loudly. "You chickenshit son of a bitch! They're your own men!"
"My own mutinying men!! If they're not going to die with me willingly they will die with me pathetically!!" he snarled, "I'm not going to Hell alone, you half-breed bitch, YOU'RE COMING WITH ME!"
The wolf lifted his blade over the fiery ball, green and blue eyes blazing. Tama spun and ran to Mika and Kagome, ripping her kimono off as she did. Clad in nothing but her white yukata now she wrapped the hi-nezumi-cloak around the two girls' shoulders.
Kagome didn't have even a second to protest as just then, Genrou jammed the sword through Hellfire and into his hand, aiming directly for the storage room of explosives. Kagome gasped aloud as Tama turned to look. She looked back, and Kagome saw a hint of fear in her amber eyes.
"Sorry, gotta do this~" Her words cut off just as the white flash rushed over them, and Kagome screamed her name as the hanyou grabbed Tessaiga and ran back towards Genrou.
~*~
The resounding boom that shook the very forests slammed through the ground underneath the gumi's feet as they raced towards the southern wolves' den. Inuyasha gasped sharply, the anxious feeling in his gut tightening.
He pushed himself even harder, racing pasts trees and bushes that looked like green and brown blurs, white where the sleet that had begun to fall earlier was now sticking to the ground. He knew the others were there with him, but they weren't in his thoughts. They didn't matter, all that mattered was getting to her.
Something was wrong. He knew, he could tell something was wrong; he could feel it inside of him. She needed him, she was hurt and she was dying and it throbbed inside him. Inuyasha, run. Run, faster!
Without even realizing it he called their names. "KAGOME!! TAMA!"
The gumi broke through the forest line in seconds and he saw the fortress up ahead. Black smoke seeped from every window, and from the back of the huge house a column of toxic fumes rose into the sky. Part of the roof had been blown off.
Kouga stopped, staring. "What the fuck happened?!" he demanded of no one in particular. Inuyasha ignored him and raced around to the back, leaping up into the blown-out room. "Kagome! Tama!!"
The others followed, mere steps behind him, and upon entering the room, Sango gasped slightly. "Oh, gods…" Miroku's eyes narrowed. "What happened…?"
The room was in pieces, the roof having collapsed and the walls blown outwards, as if the room had been sealed off and exploded from inside. The acrid stench of scorched flesh and burning hair emanated from the confines of the still-burning room, and Inuyasha had to hold back a gag.
The dead bodies of wolves were littered all over the monstrous room, all of them charred to nothing. Near what had been the entrance was Genrou's body. Splinters and chunks of wood stabbed him in every part of his body, the Chishibukiga sticking through the hand at his side into the floor.
Tessaiga was also nearby him, looking a little sooty if anything. There was a second body, charred fingers loosely clinging to Tessaiga's hilt. The hanyou ignored it for the moment and scanned the room for survivors.
He didn't have to look far; in the middle of the room, kneeling over the bodies of Genrou and the other person, were the only two people left alive. Both women. Inuyasha's heart shot to his throat when he managed to make out the sooty, ash-covered form of a girl in a short skirt which might have been green at some point in time.
He also did not fail to notice the muddy looking tracks of tears streaming down her face, or the kimono of red fabric draped around her shoulders.
*Tama's… kimono…* he thought, feeling the knot tighten in his stomach. The first stab of real fear hit him. Tama was hurt.
Kagome's cries were broken, desperate pleas, the kind of sounds that could only come from someone grieving. The body she knelt by, the one holding Tessaiga, was a body with silver hair. It didn't register in his mind. Even Kagome's cries of Tama's name, over and over, didn't make any sense.
She couldn't be hurt that badly.
His voice sounded weak and hoarse when he managed to speak. "Ka..gome..?" The young woman looked up, and instantly she began to cry even harder. "Inuyasha!! Inuyasha, I… She wasn't wearing her kimono! Even though it could have protected her, she didn't, she gave it to me, she just… and then she…"
Kagome trailed off and Sango gasped softly, covering her mouth and turning to Miroku as she realized the gravity of the situation. Tanpopo made a soft whimpering sound and Inuyasha stumbled forward and looked down at the body.
Her face looked no different than the first day she had come back to him, when she had found him again. Just paler, smudged with dirt and ash here and there. But the differences stopped there, for further down her body, the wounds grew worse.
Her smooth arms were burned, blackened and bloodied, and blood drenched the once white under-kimono she wore. It too was black and frayed with burns, smudged with gray ash where it was still halfway white.
Her hair was matted with blood and soot, some of the ends of her bangs curled from the flame. Her ears sagged limply.
Inuyasha couldn't move. He felt like he couldn't breathe, like the smoke from the still burning wooden beams was smothering him. It didn't feel real. Tama couldn't be lying here, dead. She couldn't be, because she had escaped death before, just like him.
They were hanyou. They had battled huge Oni together and lived to laugh about it. They had fought Shininikubuta and hardly broken a sweat. Tama had been swallowed by a river and survived. She had battled illusionists and come out without a scrape.
She couldn't have been killed by just a damn explosion.
He slipped to his knees by her, his face twisting angrily. "Hey, get up, you lazy bitch," he ordered. She didn't respond. At first, anyway. Dark eyelashes twitched and Tama's golden eyes slid open. Kagome gasped sharply, shock visible on her pale features.
Even Inuyasha released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. His voice didn't sound like his own as he grated out, "Tama??" His chest tightened uncomfortably when her eyes settled on him. "Inuyasha.."
"Oh God," Kagome said brokenly, more tears blurring her eyes. Tama's eyes narrowed. "Don't cry…"
For a moment Kagome thought the hanyou girl was talking to her-- until she looked at Inuyasha. A small pool of tears glittered in his eyes, and one tear had streaked down his cheek. He wiped at his face mindlessly, struggling to regain control over himself.
"I'm not crying," he told her angrily, "Why the hell would a cry over a bitch like you…" Tama smirked at him, relaxing her body and allowing her head to fall to the side. It was hard, straining to hold up her head. Inuyasha's hand clenched around the bloodied fabric of her sleeve, and he bent forward, resting his forehead on his shoulder.
In a voice so soft that even Tama had trouble hearing him, he said, "Tama… I thought you were dead." Tama reached up and patted his hands. "It's okay, Inuyasha… I'm not going anywhere…"
Behind Inuyasha, Kouga was watching quietly, until his eyes fell on the girl beside Kagome. She was as beautiful as the last time he'd seen her, just a little banged up and smudged with ash. He stepped forward slightly. "Mika-chan…"
She looked up, wide blue eyes falling on his face. "Kouga…" Instantly Mika looked down, away from him. "Kouga, please don't… You should leave…" Slightly hurt, the wolf stepped back. Kagome looked up, watching the encounter between them and wondering vaguely if Kouga was Mika's husband. But then why had he claimed to love her?
But then he set his shoulders, eyes narrowed. "Mika, you don't love me anymore?" The wolf-girl looked up, eyes teary. "No, that's not it! I do love you Kouga! I always, always have…" She looked down. "What is Kagome-san to you?"
At that Kouga stopped, eyes wide. He tried to swallow past the rapidly growing lump in his throat, and Mika looked up sorrowfully. "Genrou kidnapped her for bait for you, she must mean something…"
Kouga's face fell. "I.. claimed her as my woman…" Mika's face crinkled. She lowered her head, sniffling. "I understand… Then, could you tell? You knew what Genrou did to me… Is that why you broke our bond?"
"You're the one who broke it first!" Kouga declared, grabbing Mika by the arm and pulling her up to look at him. His voice cracked slightly as he said, "What's the point of being married to you, of agreeing to be your mate and protect you if you're not going to let me!? That's why I started looking for another woman, Mika; you left me!"
"I didn't break it!! I didn't want you to know!!!!" she screamed at him, "I never, never betrayed you Kouga, I've loved you my whole life!!! But.. But I didn't want you know…"
She collapsed against his chest and Kouga looked down at her helplessly. "Know what?"
"That.. That I'm not pure anymore… That I'm dirty…" At this Kouga pulled her away, looking her in the eye. "What? Mika, there's… nothing that could ever do that to you. Ever."
"I'm going have his child…" The wolf princess' voice quivered. Kouga stared, eyes wide. Slowly his eyes trailed down to Mika's stomach, which he only now noticed was slightly larger than normal.
Kouga's mouth hung open slightly, his face twisting into an expression of rage and grief. Kagome looked away from him as he turned to Genrou's corpse.
"You fucking son of a bitch!!!" the wolf leader yelled, punching hard into the chest of the dead wolf. "You goddamned, disgusting bastard…"
"Kouga-kun," Kagome reached out, taking his shoulder. "Stop… Genrou's dead."
"Son of a goddamn bitch… Fucking bastard, he did that to her!! He beat her and he.. Fuck!" Kouga closed his eyes, hanging his head. "I can't do a goddamned thing about it… I can't even take revenge for her!!! I can't just STOP!"
Kagome lowered her head. "Kouga-kun do you still love Mika-san…?" At this, the wolf looked up. Kagome did not have any pain in her eyes, only a polite curiosity. Kouga calmed a bit, looking at the charred floorboards. "Yes."
Hearing his soft confession, Mika began to cry harder, covering her face with her hands. Kouga stood up, slipping his arms around his bride. "Mika, I love you…"
Kagome smiled faintly at this. Kouga looked a little ashamedly at her. "Kagome, I'm sorry… But, you know we can't be anything now…"
Inuyasha raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You're giving up on Kagome?! That's it, I don't get to kick your ass or ANYTHING?!"
"Sorry to disappoint," Kouga said, still talking to Kagome and ignoring Inuyasha completely. Kagome laughed nervously. "I think I can get over it." She wiped her face, her gaze falling on Tama. "Tama-chan, your wounds are…" Tama shook her head. "I'll be okay… but I need to see Ani-ue…"
"What the hell do we need to go see that bastard for?" Inuyasha demanded, and Tama closed her eyes. "Because he has Oyaji's Tenseiga. And unless we leave soon, by the time we get to him, I'll be dead."
~*~ To be continued ~*~
a/n :: Okie note about Mika. I know about the character in the anime called Ayame. However I've never seen an episode featuring her, so I have no idea how she acts, what she's like, any of that. And I had no wish to try to write her when I obviously no nothing of her. So I made Mika.
Please review~
~*~ V^-^V ~*~
~Tessen