Running Blind
Just A Starving Writer

Disclaimer: nope, not mine.
Author's Plea: I know how useless excuses are, so I'll offer none, only my infinite apologies. I offer you this chapter as a peace offering.
This story is winding down, which is one reason why this chapter was difficult to write. In fact, I still don't like it but decided that since I never like anything I write, there was no difference. Maybe. Perhaps...I don't know. Regardless, only a few more chapters...maybe 2...maybe 3...depends on detail. I'll try to have them up soon, but no promises.
On a happy, completely objective note, this chapter dedicated to the band Straylight Run, whose song Existentialism On Prom Night really made my day.

Thank you for your continued support. Enjoy if you can.

Part 8: April

April

They had come a long way, she mused silently. Certainly it was not the lengthy exclamations of love she had dreamed of as a child, but it was something more tangible and welcome. However, one thing was amiss: no exclamation or even nonchalant statement had been uttered by him as a reason for his behavior. While she had resigned herself to a lover that would never speak openly of his affections, she was dead set against any more serious relationship until he could at least admit his feelings to himself.

And the tests were getting quite old as well. In the beginning it had been quite exhilarating to run from him only to be caught, ravished, and released. The pain had only made the pleasure that much more unique, but now, with a body sore from continuous meetings with rather stiff trees, she was beginning to regret accepting this strange ritual of his. It may be making her stronger, but it was also adding to the already stupendous amount of scars that littered her body.

There had to be a way, she reasoned, for him to accept her as she was and cease the tests. There had to be a way for her to prove her worth to him, once and for all. But as adamant as she was that this was possible, a seed of doubt had been planted by the words of the fox. What if he never decided she was worthy? Could she live a life of constant questioning?

She would always shake the disturbing thoughts from her mind. As long as she questioned herself, she justified his testing. After all, if she couldn't live a happy enough life without him, then she truly wasn't strong enough for him. It was all rather circular, she allowed, and the only way to stay in control was to constantly remind herself of the beauty everywhere. It was either constant happiness or deepening depression and she gladly chose happiness, though sometimes there didn't seem to be much of a choice, or rather the ability to find that happiness. But Kagome always did, scoured the recesses of her soul whenever sadness threatened to overtake her just to find some scrap of happiness to cling onto, and as time progressed, it became easier and easier to stay bright.

Still, to say doubt didn't linger would be to lie foolishly. As long as the tests continued, as long as the lord felt the need to make her prove her worth, she would be plagued by the pain of unrequited love. But at least, she reckoned, she already knew something about that.

Smiling, Kagome waited patiently for the world to stop spinning from her physical exhaustion. The air, which still retained a slight chill, especially after a run, was every bit as burning as it was soothing on her worn lungs.

"Are you ever going to grow weary of this?" she asked as she consciously began to control her breathing and slow her heart. Her companion remained silent, refusing to meet her partially amused eyes. "It's not that I don't like running, because I do. I love it…but I know you are testing me."

With reflexes she could never hope to hone, the lord turned his head to heavily stare at her crumpled form. However fierce his eyes, his face still refused to betray his thoughts. She sighed in long suffering.

"I wonder if I'll ever pass this test of yours," she stated quietly as she averted her gaze. A heavy silence fell between them before she once again sighed, this time in release of very palpable tension.

"Oh well. I'll be patient if you will."

Without another word, she regained her feet and, after a quick stretch, began jogging back toward her friends. When she chanced a look back, she found the taiyoukai standing where she'd left him, unreadable features surrounding startling eyes that followed her progress. She smiled. Perhaps there was hope for him after all.

The air was charged when the group of shard hunters called a halt for the night. As befitting the land, Kagome could hardly concentrate long enough to help set up the camp before her feet took her into the woods at a steadily faster jog. Though she clearly heard the hanyou cursing her apparent stupidity, she paid it no heed. He knew well that no harm would befall her under his brother's watch, as strange an idea as that was.

Unfortunately, in her rush to be free of the constraints of normal existence, she neglected to listen to the still wood around her and by the time the first sounds of battle reached her ears, she was far enough from the shard hunters that she would be of little use by the time she returned to them. Still, it was enough to make her pause and the sudden cease of activity immediately made her aware of the unnatural silence of the woods. Offhand she noticed she was glowing again, but dismissed it as unimportant as she turned around and sprinted in the direction of her friends.

She had gone less than 100 yards before she was swept off her feet by the force of a powerful blow. Slamming into a tree, she grimaced as new injuries joined the old. She would never grow accustomed to such treatment, but at least she knew what to expect. Looking up, she was half surprised that instead of her usual 'sparring' partner, her enemy had instead made an appearance, joined by what could only be his new creation.

While it appeared Naraku was fully prepared to simply sit back and watch her fight with his minion, said minion was already in action, coming at her once again with his large weapon, what almost looked to be a cross between a sword and a club. Whatever it was, he clearly intended to use it squish her to a bloody pulp. Luckily, she was well trained in the fine art of avoidance and so was well out of the way by the time the club decimated the tree she had been thrown against.

Kagome did her best to dodge the heavy blows even as she thoroughly cursed herself for leaving her bow back at camp. Of course, she had been too reliant upon her lordly watcher to provide her safety and that thought only made her doubts that she was unworthy multiply.

"I'm surprised, miko," the evil hanyou said from the tree he was nonchalantly leaning against. He had forgone the traditional baboon cover and though she could sense part of the jewel, she was almost certain he was not the real Naraku. Rather, from what she sensed, the puppet was part of him, provided some of the real hanyou's powers so that the true Naraku could really feel her demise. How she knew this, she did not question. After all, it was silly to do such a thing while she was in battle and stranger things had happened than intuitively understanding the ploy of her enemy.

"Surprised?" she questioned as she escaped another swing of the massive weapon.

"Yes, surprised. Surprised that you've lasted this long. Of course, Kikyou would have already killed this little toy and been done with it, but you've lasted longer than I expected for a mere reincarnation."

She smiled wryly. If he wanted to make her feel bad enough to make a mistake, he was going to have to try harder than that. Knowing that she would be tired out before the brute of a demon, she decided it was time to take the offensive. During her next escape she clutched a rather large splinter from a decimated tree. It was only about the size of a chair leg but the end was sufficiently pointed. Laced with her miko powers, it was infinitely better than nothing and might actually work.

She barely escaped the next blow of the club but it worked in her favor as she rolled forward, toward the trollish youkai. As the minion was still dislodging his weapon from the tangle of tree limbs on the ground, it was temporarily susceptible and she used that time wisely. Concentrating on the splinter clenched in her hand, she was relieved when it instantly lit up with pink light even as she plunged it into the beast's foot.

The effect was instantaneous: crying with outraged pain, the youkai dropped his weapon in favor of reaching for her instead. Using strength she was unaware she had, she yanked her would-be dagger from its bloody place and, gripping it with two hands, thrust it up into the minion's stomach. Howling as purity flooded its body, the youkai dissolved into ashes which lazily drifted to cover Kagome giving her an even more otherworldly look. There she stood, glowing slightly, grasping a rough stake of wood with shaking hands as ash floated over her, coating her tangled black hair in a snowy veil.

However, her moment of success was short lived. Before she was even fully aware that she had managed to somehow defeat her foe, an intense pain in her own stomach caused her to look down in alarm. A bloodied brown tentacle was poking from her blouse and she dimly realized it was her own blood that was swiftly dying her white shirt red.

Any fear she may have had was leaving her, just as her life was. As she grew more and more disconnected, she felt her body being pulled toward the evil hanyou who looked at her smugly.

"I believe the jewel is mine now, reincarnation," he stated smoothly even as a hand reached toward the jar at her neck.

It would be so easy to give in to the lulling calmness that was steadily blacking out her peripheral vision. It would be so easy to fall asleep, she thought. But there was something wrong, she knew. He couldn't have the shards. He just couldn't. She would die here, yes, but not before she kept the shards safe.

"It was never yours," she mumbled awkwardly. "It will never be yours."

"Humans are really such disgustingly fragile things," he said with a smirk as he yanked on the jar and the necklace snapped.

Concentrating with all she had left, she felt her powers spring eagerly into being and once more inhabit the stick still clutched in her hand.

"So are power hungry youkai," she said with a weak smile before throwing her self and the splinter toward the hanyou. As she felt the glowing wood bite into his flesh she was able to find thus untapped reserves of strength and focus on purifying the puppet. With one last surprised grunt, Naraku, or at least this Naraku, dissolved and yet still her powers flowed from her seeking an outlet.

Before her body could give out, she extended her free hand, bloodied and glowing with a burning brightness, toward the jewel shards, both hers and the tainted ones that had been in the puppet's possession. Smiling softly as they were all easily purified, she finally let the darkness overtake her.

Sudden awareness shot into her. Light, startling beautiful light, filled her being. Every fibre seemed alight with feeling, which was odd, considering that she remembered that she should rightfully be dead and thus have neither fibres nor feelings.

Nevertheless, the feeling filled her, demanding her entire attention and before she knew what was happening, she was gasping for breath, eyes frantically searching her surroundings for reasons as to why she yet lived.

He was a God. Standing there in his unblemished white, his hair and clothing fluttering in an invisible breeze, nonchalantly returning his heirloom sword to its place at his hip, he resembled nothing less than a deity. And with a shot of comprehension, she knew exactly what he had done.

She wanted to thank him. She wanted to grab him and reassure herself that she was still capable of such lively actions. She wanted to kiss him and bask in the warmth that was in direct opposition to the cold nothingness she had just returned from. But there was something in the blankness of his features that stilled her. He looked so entirely distant, so vastly untouchable at that moment, so very much like the deity he resembled.

Slowly, he kneeled beside her and easily tugged the splinter that had served her so well from her hand. His unfathomable eyes examined it carefully, seeming to understand every cut it had inflicted before he stabbed it into the ground above her head. Dropping his hand, he picked up a piece of her hair it had severed and slowly brought it to his eyes for study.

She could only watch in confused awe as he then tucked it into his sash, rose, and began to walk away. He stopped for a second, and turning slightly, flicked something toward her. Even without looking down, she knew the object that had landed in her open palm was a chunk of the Shikon jewel.

Without a word, he turned back and resumed walking. Her eyes followed him until he disappeared into the dark woods before she let the wave of exhaustion she had been holding at bay wash over her and take her to a much more welcoming darkness.

"Kagome?"

The voice was bodiless and drifted across her mind.

"Kagome, are you okay?"

Why were they so worried? Of course she was okay.

"Kagome, please wake up."

The plea registered to her dimly and her natural tendency to calm and placate spurred her to consciousness.

"Shippou?" she questioned wearily.

The fox immediately jumped onto her, fully capable of hugging her back into unconsciousness. Weakly protesting his vigor, she was thankful when Sango lifted him away from her neck.

"How do you feel, Kagome-chan?" the slayer questioned softly as she helped the miko into a sitting position.

"Exhausted but otherwise fine. What about you?"

"That's the strange part. We weren't doing all that well against Naraku. He had a couple of new minions that were keeping us busy, not to mention with all the Saimyoshou, Miroku was unable to use his Wind Tunnel. We'd finally managed to take down two of the three and Inuyasha sent a Wind Scar toward Naraku when this pink light came out of nowhere and Naraku began screaming. When the Wind Scar finally hit him, he pretty much exploded into nothingness."

Kagome's eyes widened with that bit of information.

"After we finished off the last youkai," Sango continued, "we went to look at Naraku's remains and we found a segment of the jewel. We immediately realized you were probably in danger and went off to find you. You were….you were lying in a puddle of blood, so pale, covered in blood and dirt. We thought you were dead, Kagome. We were so sure…But Miroku said something and went up to you, and you were alive! We didn't know what had happened, only that a battle had been fought and you had 2 large new pieces of the jewel…We took you away and made a new camp. You've been asleep for a day."

"Oh my…" the miko could only murmur.

"What happened, Kagome?"

"Naraku was there. He distracted me with a youkai and when I killed it, he struck me. I don't know how, but I killed him too before I died."

"...died!"

"I think…I mean, I don't really know how it's supposed to feel like but I'm almost positive that I died. Then there was this light and I woke up and Sesshoumaru was there."

"Tenseiga?" the monk asked softly from the side while the slayer's already wide eyes grew wider.

"I think so, yeah. He gave me part of the jewel and left…"

"How strange…"

"Yeah…"

"I suppose that means Sesshoumaru-sama also killed a Naraku," the monk hypothesized.

"Yeah, sounds about right. Also would explain why he didn't come save me during my battle when he had to have been close." The miko paused in thought. "Did you feel like these puppets were different?"

"Yes, actually, I did," Miroku answered. "I am almost willing to believe that each of the Narakus we faced was a segment of the complete Naraku. Considering the large part of the jewel we have now, it's possible that by defeating each part of him, we have actually defeated Naraku."

"Do you really think so?"

"It's possible, but I don't know how we can be sure."

Kagome said nothing. After all, the monk had a point. How could they know for certain that the parts of Naraku they had vanquished were all of him and not just more puppets? It was quite the question, but not one they could presently answer.

"I suppose the only jewel shards left are Kouga's and Kohaku's. Should we just see about getting those for now?" she questioned softly.

"That seems to be the best course of action," the monk agreed.

"Yeah, we finally get to put that mangy wolf in his place," Inuyasha stated from the safety of his tree, finally entering into the conversation.

She only smiled softly. In an odd way, everything had just become simultaneously simpler and more complicated. She sighed. Everything would work out eventually. For now she was too tired to think about it. Settling back down into her sleeping bag, she promptly fell back asleep.