INUYASHA
This was the original version of Death Full Circle. I have no idea why I called it that way back then, but it was called Death Full Circle when I put it up because the people kept coming back to life. Anyways, when I first started this, I just wrote the first paragraph, just the description of Inuyasha after he'd died. I'm not really sure why, but I wasn't angry at the world or anything, just in the mood to write something dark and sinister. I came back to it months later and liked the way I'd written it. I added to it, getting rather corny, and when I came back to it (this version), I thought it was really sad. But I still liked the first paragraph, so I rewrote things a little, then gave it a much better ending, taking out so many corny things. My favorite change was a toss up between Kikyo being wholly and truly unmentioned (cause I thought it was stupid to bring her into this) and the fact that Inuyasha actually truly dies. He doesn't come back in the real thing.
I think the really cool thing about this story is that I didn't change the first paragraph at all. Ever. The whole time, it was exactly as I wrote it that night. I changed some other things, did things different and less corny, took out Kikyo's pointless mention and really killed Inuyasha, but then by that point I already planned to bring him back. I might have done a spell-check, but that would have been the limits of my revision. The actually words and their order never changed.
God, this whole chapter makes me feel self-absorbed. This whole stupid For Ice Cream Has No Bones thing makes me feel self-absorbed, but I wanted to give you guys something, even if it wasn't very good and probably never went anywhere with itself.
Ending on this is stupid.
Death Full Circle
A fang was softly protruding past his lip. His eyes, half lidded, were blank and empty. Blood trickled down the side of his face, and his muscles were slumped in a way that surely meant death. His haori was torn and ripped, exposing most of his chest, and covered with blood. His hair would certainly be striped crimson forever, and his ears, as much as it pained her to note, didn't move at her call. He couldn't hear he, he wasn't moving, and he was covered in blood. Even she could peice together what all that meant. He would have called her stupid if she couldn't.
He won't be calling me stupid ever again...she thought. She could see the times when he had called her names, a scowl on his face. She could even remember those few times he'd smiled at her, the few times he'd said something nice without messing it up with some other comment.
She knew that if she didn't look away soon, this image of him would be forevert ingrained into her memory. But she couldn't look away. It didn't matter anyway; she'd never forget it.
She heard Sango and Miroku run into the clearing. She heard Sango gasp, and could practically see her hand move to her mouth. Miroku's staff clanged, and she could tell he'd dropped it. But she didn't care; she still wouldn't take her eyes off of Inuyasha.
Then she realized he was clutching something in his hands. She walked up slowly and kneeled beside him. Reaching down, she gently took it out of his fist. She fisted her own fingers around it a moment, but then she opened her hand to look at it.
It was a small ring, twisted golden and silver bands intertwined. On it was a small stone. It looked like rose quartz.
She raised it to her chest, clutching at it. She still couldn't cry. Her eyes were oddly dry. But she looked back at Inuyasha, and she saw something she hadn't noticed before...
Tied around his wrist was a small, white handkerchef. It was the one she'd let him borrow, making him promise not to get it dirty. Oddly enough, it was the only thing that wasn't covered in blood. She untied it and put it in her pocket.
"You kept your promise, Inuyasha." she whispered. She slid the ring onto her finger. "You didn't dirty the handkerchef..."
Her voice cracked as the previously bannished tears stole down her cheek, and her shoulders suddenly shook with frame-wracking sobs. She leaned her head back and screamed her sorrow into the sky. The sun was slowly setting; the night would come soon.
Through all the racket she was making, she heard Sango take a step towards her, and cried harder. Her friend stopped, a tear slinking down her own cheek.
"Oh, Kagome..." she whispered, and Miroku put a hand around her shoulder. She turned to cry into his chest.
Kagome's howls turned more animalistic the longer she cried. Soon she sounded like a youkai in every aspect. Sango and Miroku would have sworn it was youki - it was sure behaving like it - if they didn't know it was her miko aura whipping around their friend. They were becoming increasingly aware of youkai surounding them. Then Kouga apeared, and he actually looked sorrowfully down at Inuyasha's body from the other end of the clearing, though it was probably Kagome he was looking at. He was the only one who dared come into the clearing at all.
He made as if to walk over to her, and her aura lashed out. It didn't touch him, but it was enough to cause him to slide back into the shadows, his eyes continuing to watch, wide, alarmed, and sad, too.
Another youkai slid into the clearing a while later. The silver-haired, full inu youkai didn't try to advance on her as Kouga had, but what reason did Sesshomaru have to come closer, anyway? He didn't try to take Tetsusaiga, either. Stepping anywhere near Kagome would probably have killed him.
"I am sorry for this. You were to be his mate, too." he said quietly, but Kagome heard him. That didn't mean she'd stopped crying, though. "I have stopped trying to kill my brother. If you would like, I will put you under my protection and in my household. It is a sad day when a woman is deprived her love." The last part went unheard.
Eventually Kagome stopped crying. Kouga was still watching from the shadows, Sesshomaru still standing in the clearing. Sango was still leaning against Miroku, and Kagome just stared in sorrow at Inuyasha, her hand clutched at her chest. The ring was always to be close to her heart.
Sesshomaru left after a while, and so did Kouga (only after trying to get close to her again and nearly getting blown to bits - twice).
(A/N: Sorry to stop you in the middle, but I just wanted to say my portayal of Sesshomaru is dead wrong and makes him sound like an idiot - not the icy fluffy I know and kinda love! Plus, I made Kouga an unrelenting idiot. Both of them have no place in this story, so I'm glad I took them out in the end. Glad I took that whole stupid scene out, actually. And I'm so glad I decided to kill Miroku and Sango in the real one. It gave them a much more authentic impression, because their deaths had to be realistic and personal. That's the only way Naraku would do it in my writing, anyway. They're wallpaper here, and I hate it...Okay, I'll leave you alone now.)
Kagome suddenly looked over to the now rising sun as a figure came towards her. Miroku and Sango couldn't see who it was, but Kagome could.
"Naraku." she spat, eyes as hard as ice. She stood up as he touched down onto the ground. "Did you do this, Naraku? Did you kill him?" she asked. It came out sounding almost like an innocent question, deceptively calm. Naraku didn't show it, but the tone in her voice put him on edge.
"Of course it was me, dear. Now that I am without Onigumo, I am so much more powerful then your little hanyou." he said, smiling.
"I will kill you!" she hollered, her shoulders shaking in rage. "I will kill you for what you did to him! You will pay with your life! "
Naraku, being a total fool, walked up to her. "No, dear, I think not. You are too weak."
Kagome was thinking ahead, so as he stepped closer she lashed in her aura so it didn't touch him. If it did, he'd never...
He reached out a hand and grasped her cheek. "My, aren't we a beauty," he said, turning her head side to side, ignoring the hatred in her eyes. "I should have taken you for my own long ago."
He reached out to wrap an arm around her waist. It was within centimeters of touching her skin when she mentally shouted NOW!
She wrapped her hand around the wrist of his hand which touched her face, her other hand coming up to hold flat before his chest. A surprised look crossed his face, and before he could mask it, she let her aura shoot through the roof. It blew him back - or it would have, but seeing as he had an arm almost around her waist, it totaly blasted that arm to flecks of dust. He landed about ten feet away from her, his other hand gone from the point where she'd held it on down. He was covered in a layer of burnt youkai flesh, but quickly shook it off as much as he could.
Kagome raised her hand to her bow and pulled it up, notching an arrow. The arrow and bow glowed from her power. She glowed from her power.
She drew back the arrow.
She aimed at Naraku.
Narku's eyes widened in fear.
Kagome's eyes slitted in disgust.
"Die..." she whispered.
She released the arrow, closing her eyes. The arrow went strait at Naraku. It didn't just enlarge like it usually did - this time the magic that encirlced it was at least ten feet in diameter, and it totally annihalated Naraku as it hit.
Then several things happened at once. One, as Naraku was being destroyed, Miroku's hand glowed, and a sharp pain flowed out from it. Then it was gone, and in the place of his kazaana's usually empty cold, there was a warmth as his own flesh took it's place. Then Kagome began to glow again. She cried out as her aura shot a pillar into the sky. The almost-full Shikon Jewel that hovered where Naraku had been soared up to the top of the pillar, and Miroku's jewel shards shot out of the clothe of his robes to join them. Something glinted around Kagome's neck a moment before following the path of her aura to the rest of the Shikon Jewel.
Miroku knew what it meant. Kagome was calling Naraku's peice of the jewel, and the larger peice was calling his and Kagome's peices. Other peices flew in from around the clearing - no doubt those belonging to other youkai which they hadn't gotten yet - but only a few.
The jewel dropped back down to Kagome's hand, completed, after a moment. Kagome blinked. Was it just her or was the jewel larger? Now it was the size of her palm, the size of a fist. Had she put her own energy into it? Or had it somehow obsorbed other energy from all those other youkai it had inhabitted?
She didn't really care. She stumbled over to Inuyasha's body and held the jewel out to him.
"There, Inuyasha. You can have the jewel, like I promised." she whispered to him as she set the jewel onto his lap. "But I wish that you were alive to enjoy it. And I wish there was someway we could stay here together."
The jewel pulsed. "I will grant your wish." it said.
"W-what?" Kagome asked.
"I will grant your wish." it said again. "You have given me so much more power, and have protected me for so long, so I will grant your wish. Or rather, wishes. You were speaking to this hanyou, correct?"
"Yes." Kagome said quietly.
"Is that all you wish?"
"I-I suppose. I'm not...I think maybe Inuyasha might want something. Could you grant him a wish, too, if he wants one?" Kagome asked, keeping her focus on the jewel, not on Inuyasha. Not on his too-still face, or his blood-stained hair, or his ripped haori...Not on Inuyasha.
"Very well, if you like. Now, for the hanyou." The jewel glowed. It floated up over Inuyasha's heart, where his haori was torn. Kagome wanted to look away, but once her eyes had fallen on his body...she couldn't.
The jewel glowed ever brighter, and Kagome could have sworn she saw one of the spheres of light that is a soul fall over Inuyasha before the light was too bright to see. The flash faded rapidly, though, and Kagome watched Inuyasha for a tense moment, waiting for something. She didn't know what she was waiting for, but then, when his chest moved slightly in breath - in life - she was overjoyed.
"Oh, Inuyasha!" she cried, throwing herself over his body. He grunted beneath her, and that only made her happier.
"Oi, Kagome, would you get off me?" he asked a little defensivly, but she thought she heard a hint of happiness within all of that roughness. He stiffened at the scent of tears. "Hey, what's wrong? Kagome?...Woa, wait a minute...Kagome, I...didn't I...Didn't I die?"
Kagome nodded, pressing her face against his chest. "Yeah." she whispered.
"Then what's going on?" Inuyasha wrapped his arms around her at the movement. "Naraku...I know I'm dead. We aren't both dead, are we!"
Kagome sat up, and she smiled at him. "No, Inuyasha," she said. "We aren't both dead."
"Then what's going on?"
"You're alive. I-I revived you with the Shikon no Tama. I...The jewel can grant a wish for you, now, too." she said, another tear making it's way down her cheek. "What do you want?"
"I...Do you know what happened to Kikyo?" he asked. He didn't miss the hurt looked that crossed her features.
"No, I don't." she said in a hollow voice.
"She is still wondering the earth." the Shikon Jewel replied.
Inuyasha took a deep breath. "Then I know what to wish for."
Kagome knew the jewel could bring back the dead. It had brough back Inuyasha, after all. She just didn't want him to do this. She knew he would wish to live with Kikyo - he would always choose Kikyo over herself. So she turned away from him, and let her tears fall.
"I wish that Kikyo could finally rest in peace, and pass on to the afterlife. She deserves that much, at least." Inuyasha whispered behind her.
Kagome turned back. His eyes were closed, and his expression was hurt. She reached out her arm to place it on his shoulder. He opened his eyes to look at her.
"Don't you want to live with her?" Kagome asked quietly.
"No. She's dead - you're alive. She was close to me, true...but I love you." he said, and he stood up, dragging her to her feet as well.
Kagome's eyes filled with tears. She threw her arms around him and sobbed. "Oh, Inuyasha, I love you, too."
