For some reason, the ice cream has been inexplicably powdery as of late. We are not sure what happened to it, but it seriously has a powdery texture, it's totally inedible. So tonight, after her kitchen shift, my friend kiped the private stash of smooth, creamy, good ice cream, and then we had delicious ice cream fest of joy. But now I'm so stuffed full…uh, it's an unbelievably delicious feeling. So anyway, just remember that while I'm pretty sure that artificial flavors cause powdery ice cream…
*****
Something Is Real
Part 21
*****
"You still up?" Inuyasha dropped out of a tree, right next to Kagome. She would have shrieked in surprise if she hadn't long since grown accustomed to him doing things like that all the time. "It's late. We have to get up early tomorrow."
"It isn't like Naraku's not going to be there…" Kagome stopped short and looked up at Inuyasha in worry. "Do…you think maybe he knows?"
"No way! We're way ahead of him this time." Inuyasha assured her, the blind faith he held in that sentiment enough to reassure Kagome. It was amazing that his naiveté could actually make her feel better about the situation, but it did. He really believed they would win, and so she knew that they would as well. It wasn't even worth questioning. "You know…I fought against it. Being with all these other people for the last big battle. But you know…I'm glad they're here."
"Me too." Kagome thought back to her talk with Kikyo earlier that evening.
You truly love Inuyasha.
Trust in that, Kagome, and there is nothing to fear.
"And I think…with all of us in one group. It's gonna feel just like any other time." Inuyasha was having a hard time expressing himself, and since they hadn't continued walking since Kagome had stopped, he was feeling fidgety. "You know. Hearing about a shard and going to get it. All those other times."
"I'm glad we're together." Kagome agreed, her cheeks going pink as she reached forward, her heart racing, and let her fingers twine through his. "It's been so long since this all began, but for me…it started with you, Inuyasha. I'm glad you'll be with me in the end."
"I'm always with you." He answered, flushing slightly as he realized exactly what she was saying. "I mean…we work well together. I guess."
"Yeah…I guess so." She sighed, feeling slightly let down. Why did he have to make these things so difficult?
"Earlier…I talked to Sesshoumaru." Inuyasha spoke up when she was just about to continue her walk back to the campsite. "He…we talked about lots of stuff. About my father. Being…and yeah."
"Inuyasha?" What was he even trying to tell her? She wondered what his brother could have said that would be appropriate for this moment. But then, Inuyasha had never been one to appreciate moods and moments.
"Kagome, dammit, I'm trying to talk right now." He told her, his voice a frustrated growl. His hand was in his hair, scratching nervously, his other hand still in hers. "It's like this."
"Yeah?" she prompted after he followed that statement with a full minute of silent fidgeting.
"I…well…being with you," he was blushing so deeply, even she could see it in the low light. "I…when this ends…and tomorrow even, I want…you should know."
"Inuyasha…you aren't really saying anything." She told him finally, impatient.
"You aren't letting me!" Inuyasha snapped, pulling on her hand and snapping her body up against his. She gasped in shock as his hands grabbed her arms in what could have been a violent gesture, except that it was immediately followed by his mouth pressing against hers so gently she couldn't decide whether he was being firm or soft at the moment. She couldn't really think about it, the way his kiss was apparently frying all her neurons and leaving her without a single clear thought in her mind. And then he broke it. "Like that." He finished his statement, and pulling at her arm, he headed back toward the campsite.
"Inuyasha?" she was still having a hard time with communication.
"We gotta get rest before tomorrow." He felt like his face would burn off, but by the time they had gotten back, he was able to hop into a tree with little notice, and she went about rolling her sleeping bag out while blushing horribly.
Inuyasha had kissed her.
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"Sesshoumaru-sama!" Rin was sitting next to the fire when he finally returned to the camp. He looked around at Kagome and Shippo fast asleep in her sleeping bag. Kohaku was resting as well, sleeping against a tree. His sister and the monk were missing, as were that obnoxious wind user and her sister. The wolves were all lying around the camp, sleeping in positions that made them resemble their animal counterparts much more than they ever did in their waking hours. The dead priestess appeared to be sleeping, but she was sitting a bit too still, and her breathing was almost too soft to seem convincing. Inuyasha was up in a tree above them, dozing as much as he ever allowed himself to. Jaken's snores were audible from a nearby tree trunk, where he was sleeping without any attention to the only person in the camp who was still up, the little girl who was currently beaming up at him.
"It's late, Rin." He finally responded to her excited greeting. "Why aren't you asleep yet?"
"Because…I wanted to see you before I went to sleep." She admitted, her cheeks pinking sweetly. "I was worried."
"Why were you worried?" he asked, moving next to the fire with her. He was not cold, but he would not allow her to become chilly just because she wanted to be next to him.
"I just like to see Sesshoumaru-sama before he leaves for battles." Rin explained, her voice more solemn than he'd ever heard it. "In case something bad happens."
"Oh." Sesshoumaru found himself strangely speechless. He had always thought that Rin was such a child. She did not see that people were mortal, that life was finite, and that he would one day die as well. But apparently he misjudged her. Organizing his thoughts, Sesshoumaru did something that he had never done before. He asked Rin about herself. "Rin, if I were gone, where would you go?"
"I don't know." She answered honestly, but her voice wavered sadly.
"You were alone when we met." He continued. "Where are your parents?"
"They died." She told him, fidgeting with her sleeve and not meeting his eyes. "And my brother, too. I was there when it happened."
"I…did not know that." Sesshoumaru could not believe that he had never asked her something so basic, so simple. It was no wonder she showered him with so much love. He was all she had.
"Sesshoumaru-sama would never leave me, would he?" she pleaded, her voice as young and lost as he remembered from the first time he'd heard it.
"I will always try to be there for you, Rin." He told her finally. "But if something does happen, I want you to be happy and strong on your own."
"I love you, Sesshoumaru-sama." She cuddled against his side, and after some time, he lifted an arm for her to get closer. "I love you best of all."
"Sleep now, Rin." He let her rest her head in his lap, patting her head softly and more affectionately than anyone would have believed him capable of. "And do not worry. I will be here when you wake."
"Good." And with that, she drifted off.
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"And then a beautiful man came down from the moon, and even though they shot thousands of arrows straight at him, the imperial soldiers could not harm him." Kagura was lounging against a thick tree stump, with Kanna cuddled up against her. After she had left Kikyo, she had found her sister resting in this spot, and ever since then, she had been telling her a story that Kikyo had told her once. "So the princess' parents cried and begged to the man. 'Please don't take our daughter away! She is not of this world, but we love her just the same.' But the beautiful man did not care. He had come for the princess, and he would take her back, no matter what. So he handed her a robe of beautiful feathers that would help her return to her home, the moon, and told her it was time. But the princess was sad, and she wrote a letter to her parents and one to the emperor as well, telling them how she would miss them, and then she put on the robe. Immediately, she forgot all about her life on the earth, and all the feelings that had burdened her, and she flew to the moon with the beautiful man, never to return."
"That's a good story." Kanna sighed after some time. "But it is very sad, isn't it?"
"It depends on how you look at it." Kagura shrugged, enjoying being close to her sister, no matter what the excuse was. "I think that it would be nice to leave the world behind, to leave every memory of every bad thing behind. Like you could just put on a new robe, and you'd be a whole new person."
"But if you did that," Kanna spoke up thoughtfully. "You would forget me. You would forget Kikyo. You would forget Kouga, as well. I do not think that would make you happy."
"You're right." Kagura hugged her slightly. "You are the one who knows me best, aren't you? Although…Kikyo is really close. She sees things that I thought I had hidden from the whole world. You just know them. You watch everything so quietly, and you learn more than anyone expects."
"Would it be worth it, then?" Kanna asked, twisting slightly to blink large black eyes at her sister. "If you could forget everything that made you hurt inside. Would it still make you happy?"
"Well…I think that when the princess puts the robe on, she doesn't only forget the things she has felt. She forgets how to feel altogether. I'd never be sad again." Kagura considered. "But I could never be happy, either. I don't know. I think that if I forgot even just the bad things, it wouldn't make the good things seem as wonderful as they do. You need to have something to measure it against, you know?"
"I would not do it." Kanna answered after a while. "Even if I forgot being punished by Naraku, I think life is too precious to let it be taken from you. Even the most painful moments are valuable in their own right."
"Kanna…you never told me." Kagura was stroking her sister's hair softly, wondering at how pale it was. "When he punished you…"
"No, do not ask." Kanna's voice held a hint of sorrow. "Please. Let us just be together right now. It was worth it to see you again."
"I'm sorry." Kagura smiled sadly. "I won't ask again."
"Kagura?" Kanna spoke up after a long silence. "If I die, will you cry for me?"
"Of course." Kagura nodded, feeling a tight pain in her chest at the very idea. "What…about me?"
"Yes." Kanna nodded slowly. "It would be very sad for me if you died. I would cry for a long time."
"I never see you cry." Kagura pointed out.
"I can cry." She defended. "I still have a heart, even if it seems like I am without anything. Like a puppet on Naraku's strings…"
"You aren't that." Kagura assured her. "No one thinks that. You did so much to get this far. You know…" there was a long silence, and Kagura weighed her next words carefully before she spoke. "If you're afraid…about tomorrow. You don't have to come."
"Neither do you." Kanna replied. "And you have more to fear than me."
"Why is that? We'd both die just the same, just as easily." Kagura reminded her sister.
"Because, sister." Kanna moved a bit, and soon she was standing. "You have more to lose than I do. No one cares what happens to me except for you. Many people would be sad if you were to leave this world. You have many friends, you know."
"That's not true." Kagura couldn't decide what stung more, the fact that she truly had few friends, or the fact that her sister was so alone in the world. "Think of Kohaku. He would miss you, I'm sure. You two are always together."
"He loves Rin." Kanna told her sister. "I think he always will. But I am grateful to him. He saved me and brought me to you."
"Then I am grateful to him, too." Kagura stood up slowly and stretched. "I feel safer when you're here. I trust Kikyo…and Kouga. But I sometimes feel the world is out to get me. I know that you'll never turn your back on me, though. That makes me feel good."
"I am glad." Kanna took her sister's hand and they walked back to the campsite together to get some sleep.
It would be a long day.
Tomorrow.
*****
The End (Of Part 21, That Is)