Disclaimers: I have realized that it is senseless to dream of owning InuYasha and company. Instead I have another dream: Actually finishing this fic!

I also do not know the specific names of the clothing of feudal Japan, so please just roll with it for now. .;;

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Three Way Mirror
Chapter 5
Mirrored Actions and a Chance of Death
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I have set my life upon a cast, and I will stand the hazard of the die.
-- Shakespeare, 'Richard III,'
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"What happened?" Kaede demanded as soon as Sesshoumaru arrived carrying an unconscious InuYasha. "He was fine not ten minutes ago."

"He reopened a wound," Kagome announced, "while he was trying to chop firewood. He fainted from blood loss."

Kaede made a humming, contemplative sound as she gathered several herbs. Sesshoumaru laid the half-demon on one of the straw sleeping mats, and removed his upper yukata. It seemed that the wound had gotten worse.

Suddenly Sesshoumaru stiffened, and angrily whirled on Kagome. The girl flinched. "This is your fault!" he roared. Kagome took a step back.

"No!" she protested. "I would never do anything to—I couldn't have—I don't—"

"You fool!" he shouted. "You return the mark! If it weren't for you, he could have healed this already!" Sesshoumaru looked down at InuYasha, almost startled.

InuYasha had grabbed Sesshoumaru's ankle, and was trying desperately to focus on the youkai lord's face. "Leave her alone," he said hoarsely. "She didn't know."

"W-w-wha-what if I do it now?" Kagome asked. "Then—"

"No!" Sesshoumaru interrupted her. "To do it now would me certain death! He wouldn't survive the process!"

"Process?" Sango inquired. "I knew nothing of the 'processes' behind the bites."

"You think it's just a bite?" Kouga intervened loudly. "Dammit, mating is an entire process, starting with the marks! They open up a link between the two and hold them together!"

Miroku was confused, and it showed on his face. Sesshoumaru set out to clarify the wolf's explanation: "Think of it as making a connection through the soul. Just as InuYasha's teeth have pierced Kagome's flesh, his soul has—in effect—entered her soul. The energy that goes into such a mark takes such a toll on the mind and—most importantly—the body cannot be maintained by one side alone. The mark has to be mirrored, or else the output becomes too great."

"And... if the mark isn't mirrored?" Shippo wanted to know, chopsticks halfway to his mouth.

Kouga answered. "Healing becomes less effective, and eventually... death."

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That night, Sesshoumaru stood guard outside, as did Kouga—who was feeling much better after he had seen InuYasha's injuries. Rin and Shippo were curled up against Kilalla, and Sango was just out of arm's reach of Miroku. Kaede was asleep leaning against a wall, several herbs scattered around her. She had fallen asleep while trying to compose a salve to stop InuYasha's bleeding. Said bleeding was slower now, but hadn't been stopped.

Kagome couldn't sleep. She originally lay beside InuYasha, holding his hand. Then she became restless and sat up. She sorely wished she could help, but both Sesshoumaru and Kouga had told her she shouldn't. She shifted uncomfortably about the way they both had looked at her, almost pityingly and angrily at the same time, like she should have done something but didn't know that she was supposed to. In truth, that was what happened.

"Kagome..." InuYasha said weakly. She nearly jumped.

"Y-yeah?" she replied. "What is it? Are you alright?"

A bitter smile worked its way onto InuYasha's face, and a matching bark of laugher erupted from his throat. "Not really," he admitted.

It took supreme willpower for Kagome to keep from bursting out crying. "What's bothering you? Maybe I can help."

"Well, for one, I can't feel my arm," he began, "and the smell of my own blood is getting to me." It was then that Kagome noticed that he looked a bit too pale. "And I was wondering..."

"Yes?"

"Could I... would you mind if I lay on your lap?"

A certain flashback of a weakened human InuYasha asking that same question entered Kagome's mind. "Err," she stammered. "Sure." She shifted so that InuYasha's head was propped on her lap, and watched his eyes slowly drift closed. "Is that any better?" she inquired.

A sleepy groan came from the back of InuYasha's throat. "A lot better," he acknowledged. "Thanks."

Something was nagging at the back of Kagome's mind. It took her a minute to work up enough courage to voice it. "InuYasha..." he replied with a tired grunt, showing he was paying attention. "Why didn't you tell be about... the mating process?"

InuYasha frowned for a moment, contemplating how to explain himself. "I... had to clear things up in my own head, first. After all... I did mark you while I was in my youkai form. I had to get that through my head that there was... no more waiting." Kagome imagined Shippo saying something to the tune of 'hope it didn't take too long,' but she squashed that part of her mind for the moment. She was trying to comfort InuYasha right now, not ridicule him.

"Then... if I marked you right now... would you really die?"

He had to think about that for a moment. "They said that?"

"Yeah."

"And they know that how?"

"Uh..."

"Have you noticed that neither of them have mates yet?"

"I..."

"So who's to say they're right?"

"Who's to say they're wrong?"

"Good point."

Kagome blinked.

Within a few minutes, InuYasha was back to sleep, and Kagome's questions were more-or-less answered. InuYasha didn't seem to think that the returned mark could kill him, but Sesshoumaru and Kouga certainly did. But if InuYasha didn't get better, then he would eventually die from blood loss or one of the other infected injuries they discovered. And if returning the mark could save him... even at the risk that he'd die... Well, if he wasn't going to get better without the mark and if the mark ran a chance that he'd die...

But at least with the mark he had a chance of living.

Steeling her never, Kagome bent over InuYasha's failing body...

Outside, the two youkai could smell more of InuYasha's blood. Thinking that his bleeding had just gotten worse, they ignored it.

The bleeding from InuYasha's piercing wound began to stop.

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Surprisingly I got this all done in one shot. That's a big deal for me.

Ja ne, minna-san.