Well everyone, we are nearing the end of this story. Probably only a few more chapters after this one until the final story of the 'Vanishing Well Trilogy' comes out. I will let you know its name by the end of this story... which, unfortunately, is back in my head for redesign. I CANT THINK OF A FREAKIN NAME FOR THIS THING! Damn it... at least I have the story and plot and done. (KPK- yeah, those are always useful) Oh, and I have another story idea after that filling out nicely in my head for Inuyasha and Kagome, so no worries. -
Oh, and I'm planning on redoing the first few chapters of this story and the original to get it better. Rereading the stuff... oh, its so horrible I cried.
By the way, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to add the lost chapter of Loving Incense in at the end of the story for all of you. This was the original idea for chapter 25, but I lost it somehow in the computer, and recently found it. Let me know if you want.
Disclaimer - (Bum bum BA! That's right! Orlando Bloom is Evil Felix's evil-mastermind-helper! Doesn't seem the type, does he?)
Shard- Wait...wait, I'm confused.
Kamiko-Zephuru- Who isn't?
Love Music- I'm not
Stalking Chicken- You're not?
Love Music- nope
Good Felix- She's broken hearted, that's what she is
WHAM!-
Good Felix- Ow!
Inuyasha- What's the big deal? It's just some guy
Kagome- Who also happens to be the heartthrob of every movie-going girl in the world
Miroku- what's a movie?
Shippou- What's a heartthrob?
Inuyasha- hold it, now I'm confused
Sesshy- You've always been confused
Inuyasha- Why you!
Strawberry- (falling from the ceiling) WHOOOOOAAAAAA -umph!-
KPK and KZ- Strawberry!
Ayame- Who?
KZ- Oh forget it
Strawberry- Wow, that kinda fall hurts the bum
Sangarouka- I believe it
Strawberry- Somebody owes me for this
Love Music- HELP!
Kagome- What! What is it!
Love Music- I feel a strong urge to join his team (points to Orlando)
KPK- (slam!) WELL SNAP OUT OF IT!
Love Music- Why'd you hit me in the head!
Sango- Why do you think?
Love Music- Just for that, I AM joining that side!
KPK- (throws a fit)
Morobuku- (to Strawberry, who's still recovering from her fall) How'd you get up there anyways?
Strawberry- Take a look
(group and Orlando look up, as does Evil Felix from his evil lair)
Evil Felix- You gotta be kidding me
Stalking Chicken- Now that is big
Kaede- Shit
Orlando- uh oh
(what is 'up' you ask? the Titanic. That's right. The ginormous dinghy from 1912. And guess who just leapt down and landed amongst the group of Inuyashaness. Well, I'll give you a hint. It's a star character from the movie, and it ain't Rose)
Stalking Chicken- Jack?
Shard- Now I'm really confused
Evil Felix- THAT'S IT! I WANT TO RETIRE!
Koga- Who's he?
Love Music- Now this is a dilemma... Jack or Orlando?
KPK- That's it! I can't take it anymore! Sango and Shard, c'mere!
5 minutes later---
Love Music- WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA!
Sango- Hey, I'm just following orders here
KPK- no more of your switching sides nonsense. Not over guys
Shard- They're just slobbering, immature jerks anyways
Inuyasha, Sesshy, Shippou, Good Felix, Orlando, Jack, KZ, etc. - WHAT!
KPK- (whispers) methinks you's is gonna be hurt for that one Shardy
Sango- ... (looks at Orlando) although I will admit, that Orlando dude is kinda c-
BAM!
Sango- (concussion, faints)
KPK- You didn't have to hit her THAT hard
Shard- sorry
KPK- with HER Hirikotsu
Shard- I said I was sorry, a'ight!
Love Music- Will someone untie me now?
Inuyasha- I would, but I think I'd get 'sat'
Kagome- You're so smart
Inuyasha- (blood vessel pop)
Orlando- ENOUGH! You're here to face ME! Stop quarrelling and fight me!
(doesn't notice the persons standing next to him, who at the same moment is saying...)
Sangarouka- Do we really have to hurt him?
KPK- yes, Sanga. Now take the frying pan
Sanga- but he has such a pretty face
KPK- I know that, but he's also evil at the moment
Sanga- I really don't want to
KPK- Sanga, please, you're not making this any easier for the rest of us
Jack- OH FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! (takes frying pan and slams it over Orlando's skull)
Orlando- (is out cold)
KPK and Sanga- (are staring at Jack)
Sanga- that was a bit much, dont'chya think?
Jack- (shrugs)
KPK- I LIKE THIS GUY!
Love Music- Good! Now untie me!
Miroku- Uh, guys...
Inuyasha- Sorry, LM, no can do
Love Music- LEMMME OUT!
Good Felix- Wohoo! (singing randomly) DANCING IN A FLOODED MALL WHILE THE MACHINES TEAR DOWN THE WOOOOORLD!
Miroku and Morobuku- (sing-song-y) Hey guuuuuys...
Sango- Wow...what a headache
Strawberry- Hey! I found my golf cart! Score!
Kagome- (to Jack) wanna know my favorite part of the film? "(Rose) I'll never let go, Jack! Plop!" (makes hand motion of someone letting someone else fall)
Miroku- GUYS! LOOK OVER THERE!
Inuyasha group look where Miro.s are pointing
Inuyasha- (bleep)
CHAPTER 33 - The Loving Incense
A week of time had slipped by everyone in the group. Having two of your friends die, as they discovered, puts you into a strange daze for a while. Everything you do, everything that they did, it reminded whichever one saw an object and/or whatever about the ones that had fallen. Then again, it seemed rather ironic: dead are the two evil, dead are two good.
Upon finding out of her friend's deaths, Yoshima broke down, and had a panic attack a day later. Once she was let out of the hospital, her mother, Mikiki, had come and picked up her daughter and Hoshido. They then left by train to go back to Nagoya. Naena stayed in Tokyo.
Sangarouka was having fun with her newly found powers. Whenever she got stressed out or was reminded painfully of those who died, she could simply melt the closest thing to her. Rather startling to the people in a coffee house when suddenly the T.V. melted into a big black blob.
Morobuku had finished up with his and his fiancé's wedding plans and finding housing arrangements for afterwards. The date was set for July, and they were then going to move into an apartment in Nagoya, not far from where Yoshima and Hoshido lived.
The school dance was postponed again for several icy reasons, and was set to be the last day before winter break began. As it turned out, the day before was the date when Chiaki was supposed to be released from the hospital. She had slit a cartilage disk in her spine, which was quickly sewn back up and she was already beginning to walk normally on Monday of that week.
The Tokyo tower had been completely decimated. The steel structure had condensed from the extreme cold, and when the structure had thawed out so quickly, the supports had given way and began to crack, destroying the entire thing. Plans were set for the next few years for a stronger tower to be built, and was also supposed to be even taller than the original Tokyo Tower.
Because Chiaki was still in recovery and Inuyasha refused to continue, the back ups for Romeo and Juliet were cast as the two lovers for the play now. Not one of the Inuyasha gang went to see it.
- -
Kagome stared blankly out of her window, out at the small snowflakes that were drifting down to their destination on the shrine grounds. It felt a little empty in the room without Sangarouka there with her and Sango, randomly doing something. Their friend was right now with her soon-to-be husband in Nagoya, getting their home preparations finished up. 'At least the ceremony is going to be in Tokyo...' she thought.
Sango continued to hum to herself, and write down notes on the numerous pieces of music paper that she had acquired, bobbing her foot to the music in her head. She gazed down at the paper before her face, darkened with the graphite of her theme, when she fluttered her eyes as if in realization. "You know..."
"Hmm?..."
"I really think..." she began, looking up at her friend, "that they both died happy; Akutsuo and Osoane, I mean."
"Really?" Kagome set down her pencil and turned to the demon exterminator. "How do you figure?"
"Well, for one, Osoane didn't come out with you and Inuyasha because she wanted to be with the man she loved. She just wanted to stay by him, to be able to be with him in any world, kinda like how Kikyo had given up for Inuyasha."
Sango saw the miko flinch with a mixture of foul emotions, so she quickly continued. "But, I find it ironic that the only reason he died was trying to protect Osoane. I think that Akutsuo felt fine with dying, considering that he had been killed protecting someone. That is how Inuyasha feels toward you, most likely. That he would fight to his death and then some to keep you protected, whether you wanted it or not."
Kagome smiled, slowly turning back to her homework upon the desk. "Yeah... I think so too..."
Sango returned to writing out her melodic ideas. 'Whew, good save...'
"Inuyasha, you actually have to turn on the oven," Suuna instructed the hanyou, attempting terribly to create ramen from the package and not cup. The nurse was getting a little agitated, but was coping. "Very good, now put the pot on."
"'Kay..." Inuyasha smiled proudly at his work. "Now what?"
"Well, first you put the pot on the other side up," She rubbed her temple as the teen flipped the pot onto the correct side. "Now, you put in two cups of water."
"Keh, easy as hell," he said as he poured two pitchers of water and overflowed the iron-cooking tool, spilling the liquid all over. "Now wha-"
"We really have to work on this," Suuna sighed, dumped out the overflowed pot and filled it up with two-cup measurements of water. She slipped it back onto the stovetop, receiving a glare from Inuyasha. "Now, turn on the Stove Top."
Inuyasha was a little befuddled. Stove Top? What was that? Why was it that Kagome always would 'Turn on the oven' to make him ramen. The poor puppy dog slightly shook his head a bit to retain his train of thought before pursuing his mission. "The stove top... riiiight... um..."
The nurse rolled her eyes before covering them as the hanyou before her bent forward and started to sniff the different controls. 'Maybe if it has a scent...' he thought casually, making his nose's way around the control panel. 'I will be able to do this...'
A sudden crack against the back of his head forced the teenage half demon to get his face into the pot of water. He whipped his head around angrily to see Suuna with a broken bokken stick in her hand. The nurse rubbed her temple before giving him any clue of her action. "No wonder Kagome gets mad at you, Inuyasha: You never listen to what anyone says! Sheesh, I mean-"
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!"
"Then what did I ask you to do fifteen minutes ago?" Ms. Higurashi popped her head into the kitchen and asked.
"Uh... You told me... to... um..."
"My point made," Suuna sighed, reaching beyond him and turning the range area on high.
- Going back in time QUITE a bit - -
Koga sat quietly on the paramount of the serene peak, solemnly watching the large golden orb of light that gave the day its light drift below the horizon. His legs propped up and arms overhanging on them, the young man groaned to himself while letting his head drop down. How could have he been so blind before? Why was it that he had seen things with his eyes, but never perceived them? He knew that one was true, for how many times had Inuyasha bellowed to him to lay off of Kagome? 'All too many...' he thought grimacing to himself once more. 'And you can have her, Inuyasha... my heart has chosen a different path...'
It was unfortunate that it had taken him so long to try to figure things out, to actually realize what was going on inside of his soul. For so long Ayame had always been there, never hid a single bit of how she felt towards him from the wolf prince's heart, yet he had always shot her down to chase a fickle dream. He had seen it. Over and over, doubling itself into the abyss he had seen how much the miko truly did love Inuyasha. Although it at first somewhat hurt to actually realize this, and that he had been full of denial about it, it was for the good for him. The ebb and flow of love and time would have eventually given out on his delusion. It was better to get that done sooner that not.
He groaned at his inability to speak his mind. Had that not been the reason why he asked Ayame to come up to the mountaintop this dusk? Koga raised his head back up and let it drop on top of his clasped palms.
It was so frustrating how easy it was to lie to himself and others and declare another as his love, but it was a whole different battle when it came to what he truly did know, deep down within the depths of thought and knowledge. Even though he felt as though he had nothing to fear, no worries to quarrel with in his state of mind because of how Ayame had always told him of where her affections lay, there was still something... a fear that she might have moved on, that he had hurt her too much, that she had lied about it the entire time.
'No...' he thought to himself, smirking at his own idiocy. 'She wouldn't have lied the whole time to me. That isn't who Ayame is...'
"Koga?"
The wolf prince nearly threw himself off the mountain, or very tall and rocky hill, upon the demoness's sudden appearance. The girl laughed openly at this before she sat down next to him. "You asked me to come up here. What is it that you wanted to tell me?"
"Well, first there are a few things that I wanted to ask," he replied, reinstating his 'manly' posture on the ground and acting as if he had never been scared by her. Or was scared at that very moment of her. Completely mortified.
"Hello, earth to Koga..." Ayame's waving hand in front of his face knocked the wolf back into reality. "Oh, heh heh..."
"So, you wanted to ask, and then tell. So, get-a-askin'."
"Okay..." he managed, taking a deep breath to continue in his bold ongoing. "First thing was that, in the past, were you ever jealous of Kagome?"
"Well..." she shifted her weight from one side of her to the other, wrapping her arms around her legs. "A bit at first. Well, a lot at first. But I kinda realized that there was nothing I could do about your feelings, and that she didn't choose for you to do that intentionally. And also..." she sighed, looking off into the mellowing sun. "I can remember looking at her one day, talking to her when no one else was around, when Inuyasha came in on us. He was acting so much gentler than I've ever witnessed; mostly because at first he didn't realize that I was also in the general vicinity. I can remember to this moment of how she looked at him, so completely in love... after witnessing that," she turned her head to the side and grinned dreamily. "I couldn't bring myself to resent her. I knew who she cared for. I know who she cares for."
"That was a long answer," he replied softly, making sure that she wasn't watching his slow and small movements of move closer towards her.
"Well, I'm in a long answer mood, so live with it," she replied, rolling her eyes at his simplicity. "Any more questions?"
"Yeah," he replied softly, gazing at the small bits of snow that began to drift down from the sky. "Are you cold?"
"Are you serious?"
"Well, kinda spur of the moment," he replied sheepishly. What was happening to him? One woman was bringing the acclaimed violent, ruthless, and strong leader of the wolf demon clan to his knees. Not only that, making his normal personality of self-confidence and temper had withered away to dust. "But, are you?"
"No, I'm okay..." she replied quietly, but he couldn't have missed the small shiver her body gave out unwillingly. He decided that now was not the time to act.
"Okay, um..." his mind was starting to lose it's ability to think, what with his blood-vessels pounding in his ears. "After you saved me from that bear... why did you say that I saved you from it and killed it?"
"Simple," she said calmly, as if there was nothing to it. "For one, people don't really expect for a woman to save a man from a deadly experience. It's always the man running in proud and strong, saving the girl from evil's grips and bringing her home, victorious in all."
"That shouldn't be. Why should anyone give up what they do for another just so it's more acceptable? Completely stupid..."
Ayame was rather stunned. Had he actually just said that? 'Well, who-da-thunk...' She grinned happily to herself. "And also," she continued. "Your reputation would have dropped below almost nothing if I had told the truth. Demons would attack you endlessly to get the jewel shards in you legs afterwards, and I figured, a life for life." She sighed, knowing that reason, although it sounded good, was not completely accurate. 'And a love for a love...' her mind echoed into it's depths, resonating like a broken record that was bent on driving her into melancholy. "Any more questions?"
He took in a ragged breath before letting it out of his lungs shakily. If he was to have the most courage he had, the most boldness and bravery in his body to do this, he had to assemble it now. Even though, his heart wouldn't stop doing flips and rush vigorously towards collapse. "Yes, one more."
"And that one is?..."
"Um... I... I-I was... I..." He cleared his throat, struggling to get at least something under his control. "Would... you..."
"Yes?..."
"Would you spend your life with me?" he blurted out. Ayame's face was one of complete shock, partially of delight and partially of sheer amazement. 'Did... he... actually... ask... me... that!...'
"Before you answer," he broke into her train of thought. 'It's now or never...' he thought, taking in another deep breath for stabilization. "I want to tell you what I originally wanted you to come up here to hear. Ayame... I... I've realized that Kagome loves Inuyasha, and that I never fully loved her anyway... and that... I... er, you're... You're the one that I want to spend my life with. I'm not quite sure when it happened, but... I kind of realized one day that I'm... in love with you..." he admitted, eyes falling down to ground in despair. Why did she not answer him? Koga opened his mouth to finish his confession, but his voice was so soft and painful that he was ashamed of what he had become. "...I'm so deeply in love with you..."
"Well..." Ayame eventually got out of her lungs to speak. She was still in quite a bit of shock at the man that sat before her in his ragged and depressing way. "I think I know how to answer you."
He turned his face to hers. "And how would tha-"
The wolf demoness launched forward, knocking both of them onto the ground with her lips firmly settling on his.
- - -
Was that nay good? I know that Koga (which I am now spelling correctly, since that is how the manga states his name) was a little OOC, but hey, that is how a guy acts when they're trying to say something like that... usually. Much of the time we lose all strength and everything just tumbles down within our brains. Though, there are a lot of guys that will say stuff like. "Blah-di-Blah, I'm in love with you!" just to get them into bed. Luckily, Koga isn't one of those guys. ;)
Review?...