:Author's Note:
Hooray for fan fiction! I haven't written one literally in years! In fact, this is one that I found from years ago and cleaned up because I liked the plot!
I do not own Inuyasha. I will not be posting this more than once. Once is enough.
The Shikon no Tama has been completed and Naraku is dead, but there's a catch: Inuyasha died in his human form during the battle to retrieve the last shard. After his burial, Myoga and Kaede explain that though Naraku is gone, now more than ever, the jewel must be purified and Kagome mustn't use it anymore to pass from time-to-time. They tell her that when the time comes, she will know what to do. Kagome says her good-byes to everyone and returns to her own time. Little does she know, she's about to meet someone who will change her life and send her on a race against time and evil ... again.
I'll Be There
Prologue
Kagome Higurashi drummed her fingernails softly on her open notebook and gazed out the window. The courtyard was empty, of course. Everyone was in a class, taking their finals. Kagome wasn't taking her final. She hadn't gotten past the first question. She had displaced her schoolwork so much that year . . . She had two hours left to make up answers for all one hundred and fifty questions. Math had never been her best subject, even when she had gone to class. She had expected to fail her exams, though. She should have realized that spending so much time out "sick" would catch up with her eventually.
"Sick" . . .
Unbidden, painful memories rose to the surface of Kagome's mind.
"Lady Kagome! Hit it in the heart! The heart!" Miroku yelled. The monster was too big for him to suck into his wind tunnel without tearing it horribly, but even if Sango was able to slice the hundreds of wriggling tentacles from the gray-green mountain, they regenerated as quickly as they were removed. They had been fighting so long . . . they were all running out of adrenalin, and the spell-sheild Miroku had cast around her would wear off any moment.
"I'm trying!" she screeched back. She set her sights once again at the heart of the monster, praying desperately for an opening between the flying tentacles. There! Quick, before it was too late! She pulled back and sent the arrow flying. Would it hit? She heard a terrible roar of pain from behind her, and she whirled around instinctively before she could see the final destination of her arrow. Inuyasha?
A thick, green tentacle had been severed from the beast by Hiraikotsu, clean-cut and glowing still from the dark magic that had created it. Wrapped in its suffocating grasp was her dearest, closest comrade. The wicked glow was just enough to shine off angry azure eyes. They glazed and deadened before Kagome.
His face was frozen in fury, his jaw tense and his shoulders hunched even as the tentacle slowly released him. He slumped over, his neck and back coming to rest at an horrible, unnatural angle. Kagome knew then and there that he would never move to correct the position again. His eyes, dumb with oncoming death sluggishly angled up to her, and his jaw dropped down he soundlessly mouthed words that would never find voice again. He was dying. He was dying right before her eyes.
"S . . . sorry, Kag," his lips came to form before his eyes slid shut. "Sorry."
She screamed and threw her face to the ground beside his. She screamed again, and lunged at him. With sudden strength, she grabbed him under the arms and dragged him away from the beast that had been his death. His neck was broken, causing her screams to deteriorate into sobs. His blood-soaked robes were covered in dirt and the black-purple slime of Naraku's monster. She had always known he could die, but she had never anticipated that it would happen then, on the night the last shard was found.
Kagome flinched when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Miss Higurashi, perhaps you would like to . . . uh . . . begin your test," the teacher suggested softly. Kagome stopped drumming her fingers. Her nails had grown in the weeks since her last visit to feudal Japan. When she had been there, she was constantly being tested, in her ability to run, to shoot and to fight. Now . . . now she spent her time trying to find some new purpose in life. Everything was so pale in comparison to staying alive, to finding more shards, to getting home in one piece.
Kagome picked up her pencil and averted her eyes to the test. That seemed to sate the teacher. He moved on from her desk. Kagome didn't begin her exam though. She stared at the page and wondered why she was even bothering with it. It wasn't like she cared. She didn't see how she could ever care again.
I could go back, Kagome thought to herself. Just one more trip through the well. Myoga told her she shouldn't travel through time with it anymore, but what if she just used the Shikon jewel once more, to go through and stay through? She could become a miko. She had been told again and again that she had the natural talent and skills. It was her duty to purify the jewel, after all. That was one of the few things Kaede and Myoga could agree upon.
She gave herself a mental shake. She didn't need to think of these things now. She didn't need to think about the forest or the amazing tree she had found him attached to, or the little village that rested on the edge of the forest. She didn't want to go back there. She wanted to go back to before that final battle and do whatever it took to keep Inuyasha from going after Naraku that night, when he was most vulnerable of all.
"Feh. You go out there human all the time, and you don't see me having a fucking fit over it," he had said.
Kagome cringed and bit back the tears that threatened to roll down her face again. She had to think about her mom, and Souta and her Grandfather. She had to think about her future. That was what was important today.
Feh. Yeah. Important, Kagome thought bitterly. There were a million things that were more important that a math test.
Miroku wiped the sweat from his brow and looked down into the pit he had just climbed out of. He put his arm around Sango's shoulders protectively, and for once she didn't swipe him away. Instead she buried her face in his robes. He gave a fleeting glance at Kagome, who sat at the edge of the pit, hugging her knees to her chest defensively. Her gaze was locked onto to the inhabitant of the grave, the hanyou that had been known as Inuyasha. "Well, I guess that's that," he said softly, bitterly. He reached for a shovel to cover his dead friend's face, but Sango elbowed him in the ribs. Kagome, staring wistfully into the pit, didn't notice the pointed look Sango had shot at her.
Miroku seemed to understand. He nodded and they turned to leave quietly. He reached down and tugged at Shippou's vest. The kitsune offered Miroku a somber look before he hopped onto Kirara's back, and they left their friend alone at the Bone Eater's Well.
The location of the grave had been Sango's idea. That way, even when Kagome was in her own time, she would know exactly where Inuyasha laid.
Kagome didn't turn, though she heard the steps disappear in the direction of the village. She was concentrating on the pain that kept trying to overwhelm and kill her so that she could join him in the grave. She was almost surprised that they trusted her not to try to kill herself. They must have known that she was more cowardly than she was romantic. She supposed that had known that herself for a long time.
"You dumb wench," she could hear him saying. "Stupid girl. Always crying."
And she was crying, she realized. Tears streamed softly, slowly, steadily from her eyes, so she covered them with her sleeves. "Inuyasha," she whispered into wrists. "Why did you have to leave me now?"
Silence. No answer. There would never be any answers again. Kagome's eyes, already swollen from crying, burned as she cried new wounds. She released her knees and let her legs hang over the side of the grave. A bit of dirt crumbled over the side to land to the right of Inuyasha's lovely, human head, and Kagome continued to weep bitterly. Revenge? There was no revenge for her. They had killed Inuyasha's assailant.
"Bring him back," she whispered to the Shikon no Tama around her neck as her tears slowed. Wasn't it supposed to grant wishes? Why didn't it bring him back?
Stupid. Stupid idea. Kaede had said that almost anything could trigger the jewel's magic. Since the jewel was so impure from it's travels, it's use for evil and the evil hands that had held it's many facets, it would surely corrupt any wishes that she had hoped it would grant.
"Inuyasha," Kagome wailed silently. "Inuyasha . . ."
Kagome fiddled with her pencil. She sighed softly and looked back down to the first question to push the image of Inuyasha's cold face away. She didn't know anything about pre-calculus. She had actually barely passed trigonometry. She knew she shouldn't have come. She should have stayed home.
What, and feel sorry for yourself? Listen to Mom clean the house and make small talk with Gramps and pretend that everything's just fine, that Inuyasha's not dead and . . . and . . .
"Miss Higurashi, I get the impression you aren't able to complete the test," the teacher said suddenly.
Kagome startled inwardly. She didn't answer, only fiddled with the pencil a bit more urgently.
"Miss Higurashi, perhaps you would prefer not to take the exam? I'd hate to waste my time and yours," he continued dryly.
"I've just been sick so much this year . . ." Kagome murmured. Of course she wanted to get out. At that moment, there was nothing she wanted more than to get out of that room. She wanted to sleep. Maybe if she slept long enough she would forget she'd ever fallen into that well.
"You haven't even begun, Miss Higurashi. Go home. I'll see you next semester," the teacher said, taking the papers from her desk. She felt as though at least a fraction of the burden had left her. It made it easier for her to stand up, without feeling the weight of her life. He stood up straight again and walked past her as she gathered her things together to leave. A few faces perked up at her disruption, but Kagome ignored them. Hojou looked up and smiled blandly at her. She forced herself to wave slightly, but at the look on her face, his smile broke apart. He looked back to his test.
Kagome burst through the school's doors and out into the courtyard. Across the basketball courts she could see someone wandering around.
Hm. Another flunk-out, she thought to herself as she watched the figure, clad in the boys' black uniform meander it's way around the courts, towards the double-doors, and then away from them again.
The breeze made her a little light-headed, and she stumbled to the bench beside the doors. In the mornings before school, these benches, this whole courtyard was filled with screaming, laughing people, but now it was silent. Everyone else was inside, leading the life that they were supposed to be leading, letting themselves be carried along the paths that their parents had set out before them. They would have children that would move just as quickly, just as fluidly.
She put her head between her knees to clear it. She was the rut in the path. She wasn't like all those other people. She had seen things that they had only seen in nightmares. She had found friendships that they would never understand, and then left it all behind. She wasn't a member of this world or the other. She was some kind of monster, trapped between. She was like the youkai that had craved the Shikon no Tama. She felt it's weight around her neck, and she hated it. She had lost everything because of this jewel. First her "normal" life, then the boy she lo . . . well, her best friend, and then the only friends she had remaining, trapped in a timeline that she couldn't return to. She hated it.
She stood suddenly, dropping her books. Despite the figure coming closer to her, she reached into her blouse and ripped out the jewel. The chain it was attached to gave easily, and she pulled her fist from her shirt.
"Why?" she hissed at it, not opening her hand. She shook it. "Why do you cause pain to everyone that comes into contact with you? Why do I have to be the one to carry you?"
The jewel said nothing from it's docile postion in her hand. A small, warm orb. Nothing more. Clenching the Shikon no Tama, she fell back the bench and began to cry once more. It seemed like she was always crying lately. Life is unfair, she scolded herself. Get over it. She sat up straight and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Concentrate on the now, she insisted. Was is just her, or was the Shikon jewel warmer than it should be?
It was. In fact, it was becoming warmer by the second. It was begining to burn her palm. Curious, she opened her hand to find . . .
. . . nothing. The jewel was gone, and she was left with an empty hand, red from the heat of what had just occupied it seconds before.
Her eyes widened. It was gone? The Shikon no Tama was gone! She jumped up. She just had it! Could she have dropped it?
"Oh no, oh no, oh no," she murmured, dropping to her knees. Perhaps it had fallen from her hand and rolled under the bench? No, nothing but dirt and a few weeds. "Ohno ohno ohnoo!" she whimpered a bit more urgently. She did a turn-around on her hands and knees to look in the grass on the other side of the bench. This wasn't happening. All that time spent searching, just so she could lose the goddamned thing in weeds by a bench in the school courtyard. She pawed through the grass, becoming more and more frantic as it became more and more apparent that the jewel was gone. She wasn't sure if she should laugh or burst into tears when a pair of shiny black shoes stepped before her, right into the path of her investigation.
"Hey, do you mind?" she demanded irately, forcing a few loose strands of ebony hair behind her ears. It was obvious she was looking for something. The least the intruder could do was respect that.
"Pfft," the owner of the shoes grunted. The left began to tap.
The tears that had been debating whether or not to fall a moment ago came to a strict conclusion. She put her face in her hands and sobbed harder than she had before. Harder than she had when she first saw him fall. Harder than when she had returned home and explained things to her mother, grandfather and Sota. It was all coming together. He was really really dead. She had loved him. Despite all the nasty things they had said to one another, his inability to decide between her or Kikyou, his irritability, his unaccepting, unappreciative demand for her services twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, his insistence that she be some kind of Shikon-shard-finding machine for him, so selfish, so Inuyasha. He was everything, and how was she living without him?
Get a hold of yourself! she insisted, but it was in vain. There was nothing to hold onto to. She felt like her heart was being ripped from her chest.
What would Inuyasha say! she scolded, remembering shiny-shoes. There she was, sobbing uncontrollably at the feet of a complete stranger. Crying shamelessly! Girls, he would say, Always
"Goddamnit," came a voice from above. "Girls. Always fucking crying. What's your problem, anyway? I just need to know where the fucking main office is. Can you dry your fucking cry-baby eyes long enough to fucking tell me that?"
Kagome choked. Exactly. That was exactly what Inuyasha would say, save the part about finding the principal's office. Who said that? Was it the voice of God or something? Inuyasha's voice right above her head?
That was stupid. It was shiny-shoes. Shiny-shoes was asking her where the school office was. She was the one that was so upset she was hearing Inuyasha's voice. She looked up to see the owner of the shoes staring down on her.
Long, dark hair and ice blue eyes. "Aw, fuck this. Just fucking forget it. I'll find someone who isn't having a fucking emotional breakdown." There was no mistake to it.
He turned to go.
"Inuyasha!" she cried before he could leave. She knew that face. After that night, she would never mistake that face again. Inuyasha's human form.
He turned back and looked at her suspiciously. "How the fuck do you know my name?"
