Woot woot! Long chapter! For me at least... Anyway, hope you all enjoy this chapter! Only about three more chapters for this story! But don't think that all the problems are going to be solved in the next chapter or something! I'm gonna try to make it so that I keep people interested in the plot until the very end.
Anyway, enjoy!
Remember Me Always
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Summary: Three little words he spoke to another broke her heart in ways he would never know. It's painful for her to remember him. She wants desperately to forget. And with the completed shikon no tama in her hands... she can. InuKag
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters from the series.
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Last Chapter
Kagome closed her eyes tightly.
Upon opening them again, she saw the scene before her blur.
Suddenly, she was dropping infinitely off of the side of a cliff.
Roaring waves screamed below her.
Cold and numb, Kagome shut her eyes once more, shutting out the pain.
A sudden heaviness accumulated in her raven hair.
It was water.
Ocean water.
………
Kagome opened her eyes desperately, finding that she was panting.
She couldn't think, couldn't breathe.
Voices screamed in her head, mingling with the shouts and yells starting around her.
End
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.:Chapter Seven:.
A light spring breeze frolicked carelessly in the creamy blue skies, whisking through delicate audiences of ancient trees, causing their lush pink blossoms to float leisurely to the emerald green grass carpeted meadows.
A tall, silent woman maneuvered her way skillfully around the exuberantly waving cherry blossom trees to the middle of the sunlit meadow. Once there, she kneeled down elegantly and unbound the weighted sackcloth bag from her shoulder, setting it on the soft grass gently.
Almost reluctantly, she retrieved a polished wooden instrument from the smooth leather case she had tied to her waist.
With her silky ebony locks draped across her shoulders delicately gleaming, and her pale skin barely affected by the generous warmth of the sun, the woman closed her sad brown eyes and placed her lips on the mouthpiece of the small instrument.
Inhaling a breathful of fresh spring air, the woman blew into the minute wooden instrument with all of her strength.
A choked, pathetic gasp emitted from the base of the polished wood, where music was supposed to tumble from.
Unwilling to give up in a subtly stubborn way, the woman shut her eyes more tightly and tactfully struck at uplifted ivory keys with her long, pale fingers, while taking in breath after breath, only to be wasted on wispy, pitiful, noteless gasps.
Several hesitant tears trailed from her tautly closed eyes, dropping soundlessly on the end of the polished wooden flute.
The cold tears framed and washed away the scant dust from the end of the instrument, where it had been broken. Three words were engraved clumsily on the splintered brim
Inuyasha and Kikyo.
The silently weeping miko wiped away the tears endlessly flowing onto the flute, her fingers lingering on the crudely broken end.
A bitter laugh escaped her lips.
Who would have thought that when Inuyasha had broken the miniature flute fifty some years ago, giving Kikyo half and himself the other, as a sign of love and devotion that he was actually foreshadowing the two of them drifting apart?
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The scene of herself falling endlessly into the merciless ocean, the wind whipping her hair painfully onto her face still burning in her tearful eyes, the salty taste of ocean water still steaming on her tongue, and the ruthless tumble of waves still roaring in her ears, all Kagome could think to do was to scream.
She didn't see Inuyasha watching her with a horrified expression across his face; her eyes were too busy reliving her terrible dream. She didn't hear the worried calls of Miroku and Sango, and had no way to respond to them anyway; her ears were aching too much with the bellowing of the tumbling ocean. And she could not feel Inuyasha, after coming out of shock, shaking her shoulders desperately, searching for the girl he knew in her terrified brown eyes, because her skin was too numb with the deathly cold air surrounding the ocean, rushing past her as she dropped.
Kaede suddenly slammed open the door to the hut and walked in on the frightful scene. Kagome had her glazed-over eyes open to their limit, her mouth gawked wide to emit her blood-chilling scream.
Miroku and Sango helplessly shouted comforting words to the screeching girl, hoping to wake her from her obvious nightmare.
Inuyasha, with a frightfully lost expression tainting his normally indifferent face, desperately shook the girl, his darkened amber eyes pleading with the gleaming, tearstained ones before him to look at him.
Kaede took a deep breath and marched over to the bawling girl, almost afraid that her endlessly sobbing eyes would soon be crying blood instead of tears due to the tension placed on them.
She pushed Inuyasha, Miroku, and Sango harshly away from Kagome, whom had been previously moved to a sitting position.
Strangely enough, when, moments before, Inuyasha's presence and touch had meant nothing to her, once it was gone, an overwhelming sense of insecurity seemed to come over Kagome.
Her incoherent screaming stopped long enough to helplessly mumble, stuttering uncontrollably.
"What's she saying?" Inuyasha demanded urgently, turning to Kaede.
The old woman shot him a look that told him to shut up, and continued to stand two feet away from the traumatized girl, saying and doing nothing.
Eventually, Kagome's mumblings gave way to a silence that seemed quieter than usual, which was a very strange experience.
Her head gradually drooped to rest on her shoulder, which slackened in tension and relied more on the wall behind her.
"Inuyasha… save me too…"
The hanyou had to strain his sensitive ears, but he caught the last words Kagome had whispered as she drifted back into a dreamless sleep, a tear trailing sadly down her face.
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A lazy yawn emitted from the girl's stirring form. She sat up slowly, a hand held at her forehead.
"Ow… head hurts…" she muttered sleepily, as she rubbed her eyes open.
The pair of brown orbs widened significantly as she took in the scene before her.
"What happened?" she wondered aloud, standing up to observe the circle of smashed furniture around her: ranging for delicate porcelain vases to sturdy wooden tables.
What alarmed her even more was the motionless form of Inuyasha lying on one of the only other splinter-less sections of the room.
Although she knew the hanyou was probably sleeping, Kagome couldn't help but feel somewhat scared. For some reason, it felt like she had lost someone dear to her heart before, and didn't want to lose Inuyasha again.
Kagome stopped in her steps.
That didn't make sense.
Shaking the thought from her head, she hesitantly placed a cold finger on Inuyasha's wrist, searching for a pulse.
Touching his skin sent a tingle of pleasure down her spine. The comforting warmth of his beating pulse warmed her shivering cold fingers.
She sighed in relief.
He was alive.
Kagome instinctively shrunk back as Inuyasha suddenly sat up.
An expression of deep relief passed over his sleepy face, confusing Kagome.
"You're okay," he muttered, standing up.
"Yeah," Kagome replied, frowning. "Should I not be?"
Inuyasha shot her a weary look. Her innocence was driving him crazy. How could she know him so closely in her dreams, but be completely oblivious to the past years they had spent looking for Shikon shards together when she was awake?
He didn't understand.
Kagome did.
Her eyes squinted as she remembered the crashing ocean waves that had terrified her so much, and Inuyasha's definite confession that he loved Kikyo.
Her heart clenched together as she felt the nauseas after affects of remembering the dreadful dream.
She was desperately confused. A kind of calm seemed to wash over her as she admitted to herself that somehow, by repeating dreams or actual encounters, she had known Inuyasha in the past, but that only confused her more.
Kagome closed her eyes and searched her mind.
Who was Kikyo?
Who was the boy dressed in the robes of a monk but flirted shamelessly with the brown-haired girl next to him?
Inuyasha flinched as Kagome opened her brown eyes abruptly.
"They were Miroku and Sango," she muttered suddenly, meeting Inuyasha's confused gaze.
"The lecherous monk and brown-haired girl in my dream," she offered.
Inuyasha hesitated. "Was I -"
"Yes," Kagome interrupted firmly, her eyebrows knitted in concentration.
Then after a moment, "The only people I don't know are Naraku or whatever and that Kikyo girl."
Inuyasha's sleepy golden eyes focused immediately.
Could she be recovering from her sudden amnesia?
"Naraku is a self-centered little fucker with a bunch of weird offspring," Inuyasha offered, receiving a dirty look from Kagome.
"Thanks, that really helped," she sighed.
"No prob."
"What about Kikyo?"
When she received no reply, Kagome glanced at the hanyou. His face had grown taut.
"Oh please," Kagome interrupted, looking away. "She's your lover right? That's why in the dream…" her voice trailed off.
Something salty was pricking at her eyelashes. Kagome mentally slapped herself. Why was she getting jealous over Inuyasha, whom she had just recently meant? Who had kidnapped her?
Kagome glared at the hanyou next to her. But the heavy-spiritedness around him wiped away her blaming looks. She suddenly felt like reaching out to the troubled hanyou.
Just as Kagome offered him a hand, he shook his head and looked up.
"This isn't a dream," Inuyasha muttered simply.
Kagome's eyes widened for a moment.
"Remember, I told you everything right now is a dream?" Inuyasha sighed. "Well, it's not. I lied."
Kagome smiled faintly.
"Well," she began, taking a deep breath, "I don't think I ever believed that this was a dream anyway. You're a horrible liar," she scrunched up her nose and grinned at the hanyou before her. Then, taking another breath, she continued, "I guess the dream thing was kind of a way to keep me from going crazy. You know, a lot of confusing things have been happening in my life lately," she confided. Encouraged by Inuyasha's attention, she went on, "First of all, I've been having reoccurring dreams, and ones about you at that, and my mother and grandpa are thinking of selling our house. They want to move."
Inuyasha said nothing. He knew how much the ancient house meant to Kagome. She had once called it her "home forever."
A stray tear caught Kagome unawares. She gave into a bitter laugh. "And I've been crying a lot lately," she said, frowning.
Inuyasha looked at Kagome's pitiful form, shaking, laughing, crying, and frowning at the same time. He wanted to reach out and embrace her and comfort her, but was afraid that he would be doing the final deed that would break her.
Kagome suddenly turned her weary form to Inuyasha, a look of pleading on her fragile face.
"J-just leave me alone for a while," she whispered, as her brown orbs, still shiny from tears that had not yet dried from the past, washed anew with more sobbing.
The hanyou gave her a concerned look before nodding his head and leaving the small hut.
Seeing the last of his red haori disappear behind the closed door, Kagome felt it safe to start bawling her eyes out. She only hoped that she wouldn't be rendered blind by so much continuous crying. But she couldn't help it, even if she hated how weak she felt.
Her heart was torn between being tired from searching, but curious to know.
Just what had happened between her and Inuyasha in the past that made her literally lose any memory of him?
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The tall, wispy green grass tickled her skin as she walked through the meadow. Kagome opened her eyes.
Her aching heart had led her to a place that seemed to fill her with memories.
Empty memories where she could not remember anything at all.
Her eyebrows were already tired from knitting together in confusion so much recently.
Her voice was so unrecognizably weary from sobbing that she barely realized her own voice when she spoke.
"I walked through here…" she felt her throat rasp out.
A surge of excitement entered her mind as she realized that she was remembering something.
"Past the cherry blossom tree," she said softly, her fingertips brushing the bark, warm from the sun.
She stopped in her tracks when she felt two deep grooves underneath her fingers. Upon observing more closely, Kagome found that there were two deep puncture marks in the tree trunk.
She found with growing surprise that she could almost smell Inuyasha's scent in the deep marks.
Kagome realized that when she tipped her head to the side slightly and allowed the sunlight to shine onto the bark, that dark brown stains of what she was sure had been blood inside the tree's puncture marks.
"Inuyasha had been pinned onto the tree by arrows," Kagome deducted. "But-"
A voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts.
Kagome turned her gaze immediately to the clear, glistening lake near the tree, and saw, under the shade of a large tree ablaze with pink blossoms, two people, one of which she could tell was Inuyasha.
Kagome walked a little closer, trying to figure out where she had seen the woman standing next to Inuyasha before.
Kagome held a hand to her forehead.
Definite déjà vu.
But she knew who the woman conversing with Inuyasha was, now. She had identified her as Kikyo, the woman who had won over Inuyasha's heart.
A pang of jealously pierced Kagome's heart, and this time she expected it.
She walked until she was within earshot of the conversation, concealing herself expertly in the tall grass, not bothering to wonder how she knew the meadow so well.
"Did you kill her?" Kikyo asked softly, locking gazes with Inuyasha.
"No," the hanyou said after a moment of hesitation.
The woman smiled sadly. "I did not think you would." She lifted her face to look at Inuyasha. "You love her too much."
Sighing, Kikyo reached into the sackcloth bag bound over her shoulder and retrieved a beautiful polished wooden flute.
But it was broken obviously at the end.
Inuyasha's eyes widened immediately, and an unreadable expression dawned his face as he reached out to touch the miniature instrument.
"I cannot play it without the other half," Kikyo explained blandly, that sad look still in her cold brown eyes.
Inuyasha reached into his haori and pulled out the missing part of the flute, which he had kept in an inner pocket for many years. He handed it to the woman.
A brief expression of surprise and maybe gratitude crossed her face, but passed immediately. She accepted the offer and pieced the two pieces of the instrument together.
Kagome watched in curiosity.
Kikyo placed her lips on the mouthpiece of the instrument, and positioned her fingers on the keys. But the moment her grip loosened on the flute, the two parts broke apart again.
Inuyasha retrieved the other half from the grass and held it steady, allowing Kikyo to play the instrument.
The tune she played was a sad one. It made even Kagome, who saw no significance at all in the exchange of the flute halves, feel upset.
The tune eventually ended on a long, fading note.
Kikyo lifted her head and met Inuyasha's pained gaze. She brushed his hand away from where it held the bottom half of the flute in place, allowing the piece to drop once more into the grass.
Kikyo followed Inuyasha's gaze to the polished wooden flute half, lost in the tall grass.
They both looked up simultaneously, locking eyes.
"It does not clip together like it used to," Kikyo whispered sadly, her brown eyes glistening. "It cannot stay attached by itself. Just like us."
Inuyasha looked away, but with one hand, Kikyo turned the hanyou's head back toward her.
"We have broken apart like this small instrument," the woman said sadly. "But with a little help, we can also be brought back together."
Inuyasha didn't look like he fully believed it, but paid intent attention nonetheless.
"Just one question," Kikyo said quietly.
Inuyasha nodded.
Meanwhile, Kagome was undergoing a lot of déjà vu.
What Kikyo said next was almost enough to make Kagome scream in dread.
So, did you like it? Thank you all so much for all the encouragement and suggestions so far! Please read and review!