Okay, guys, I know you didn't like how the last chappie ended... Yet, when the idea comes... (sighs). I almost bopped myself with my sledge hammer for doing it, trust me! Anyway, hope everyone's December is going well! Please, Enjoy!
This chappie is dedicated to my first reveiwer, InuKagFan! Thanks!
15 - Grief and a Notebook
Dear Inuyasha,
By the time you read this, Sesshomaru and I will be dead. Unfortunately, after that little mishap on the evening news, the syndicate looked into Sesshomaru's spending records. Finding the hospital bills, plus the new clothes I bought you made them slightly curious. And you know what happens when they get suspicious of something. We sent the kids to a friend in America. They're safe there. And you will be, too. No details now incase this letter is discovered. Someone will be dropping by your current residence to give you further instructions. Please... don't feel like this is your fault. We would have been caught eventually. I just ask you one favor. Stay alive. Don't make our sacrifice in vain. Know that we love all of you, and we know that you will be okay. We're counting on all of you to make it out of this thing alive.
Love, Kagura
It had been two days since that letter arrived. No one did much on anything. Tears were shed, words were thrown, blames were laid. Eventually they realized that nothing they did or said could change what had happened. Along with the letter had come a picture. It was a family portrait of Sesshomaru, Kagura and the kids. On the back was a small message.
'Don't forget us'
That was the least they could do for the people who saved their lives.
Inuyasha had been uncharacteristically subdued after getting the news. He sat on his bed, starring out the window at the stormy sky. It had been pouring rain for days. As if the sky was crying for the selfless sacrifice made by his brother and sister-in-law. 'No,' he thought. 'She's my sister. Truely.'
Kagome stood at the door, watching Inuyasha as he gazed listlessly out the window. 'I'm worried about him. He hasn't moved or anything since... Not that I can blame him...' She herself had been crying on and off the past few days. The tears would just come at different times, clouding her mind over with thoughts of the family she hardly knew. "Please Inuyasha. Come eat something. You'll get sick..."
"No," he replied shortly. She looked to the floor, hurt filling her eyes. "Sorry..." he mummbled. "I didn't mean to snap at you," he said, hoping to erase the saddened expression from her face.
"That's not it." She sat on the bed behind him and folded her legs indian style. "I'm... I'm just... worried about you..." she studdered as she reached her arms out and wrapped him in a hug from behind. "There's just so much going on lately... It's a lot to handle..." By now her voice was starting to crack and she got choked up, trying to prevent the tears from falling down her grieve stricken face. She rested her forehead against the indent between his shoulder blades as she finally let the tears stream down her face, landing on the back of Inuyasha's shirt.
He smelled the tears coming before a single one fell. In his heart he knew he wanted to turn around and wrap her in a hug, telling her it would be okay. But he couldn't do it. 'I decided along time ago I would always tell her the truth. So I can't reassure her, when I don't know what will happen to us...' he thought logically. 'Oh, to hell with logic! Damn it, I can't stand her crying!' a fierce voice popped into his mind. 'But why aren't I crying? I mean, I lost my brother... I don't care if real men don't cry...' the sensible voice said again. 'But what about Kagome!?! She needs you now, and all you can do is sit here and mope! You're not the only one affected by this!'
As this realization struck him, he turned quickly and wrapped Kagome in a loving embrace. The sudden movement hurt, his body stiff from sitting for so long. Yet, he didn't care. All his emotions flooded to him at one, released by the young girl in arms, crying rivers of salty water in her anger and sadness. And now he found himself attempting to hold back the tears that threatened to break from his soft amber eyes. Quiting the useless fight, he allowed the tears to fall down his face, finally feeling what had been out of his reach for days. With the ability to feel the feelings of grief, sadness, and sorrow, he could mourn for his brother and sister in peace, knowing that this would make his heart fonder for the only one's he had left. His grip on Kagome tightened, as the scent of vanilla mixed with the salty water of her tears reached his nose. He would never let this happen to them. Never.
Sango took the loss of her cousin hard. Very hard.
No matter how much consoling Miroku attempted to do, she was lost in her own world, full of sadness and dispair. Of coarse, he was upset as well, but it was nothing compared to how Sango was reacting. But he couldn't blame her. Sesshomaru was her cousin after all, and she's very attached to her family. After her house burnt down, she went into chronic depression. It took an entire year to break her out of it.
Miroku wasn't sure if she would ever be okay. Much like Inuyasha, she never moved from the bed, her head buried in the pillow. She would cry for hours, then sleep. When she would wake up, she would start crying again. This process cycled on for two straight days. Miroku would sometimes go in and rub her back, whispering in her ears to get her attention. Yet, she never turned to him, just clutched her pillow tighter.
He was saddened by her actions. Just knowing that his love was so depressed made him upset. The worst part about it was he could do nothing to soothe her pain.
On the second day, Kaede came into their room. Miroku sat on the bed, gazing hopelessly at the forlorn Sango. Kaede found that since the letter arrived, the teens moped around the house in a very unhealthy manner. They barely ate and two of them stopped eating compleately! Not that she could blame them for their sadness. She herself was upset, but the young ones... They were just down right depressing! Kagome seemed to be getting through to Inuyasha, but Sango was a different case all together. Miroku would sit by her constantly, talking to her, trying to reassure her. Yet, she never moved. It was bad for both of them, and Kaede had a plan to help Sango release how she was feeling.
"Sango, child. Ye must get up," Kaede called as she shook her shoulder carefully.
"It won't work, Kaede," Miroku said in a tone so depressed that it would make a flower wilt. "She won't move."
"Well, when she decides to move, give her this." She handed Miroku a notebook and a pen.
"But why..." Miroku was about to ask as Kaede walked out of the room.
Then slowly, Sango lifted her head slightly, curiosity overriding her grief for a moment. When Miroku noticed this, he took the oppertunity and pulled her to an upright position.
"Sango! Are you okay? Can I get you anything?" he asked in a relieved tone.
She just stared at the notebook and took it from him, opening it to it's clean white pages. "Water..." she said in a raspy voice.
He quickly hopped up and bounded down to the kitchen, leaving Sango alone with her thoughts. She took the pen cap off, and slowly wrote one word on the top of the front page.
WHY?
It was a question she asked herself often. Why them? Why any of it? All because of mistakes their parents made... and now they were paying for it. It wasn't fair! Then suddenly, the tip of the pen hit the paper. She started writing slowly at first, then quickly, as if she had thought it all out previously.
Why was it us that were cursed with this? Did we do something wrong? Why are we being punished when we didn't commit the crime? Or any crime for that matter? And why did they give up their lives? They had kids! They had eachother! Yet they gave it up! And for what? Us! How many people will have to be hurt because of our cowardice and unability to face our own problems? Are we that weak, that we can't defend ourselves? It's not worth having everything ripped away! The struggle isn't worth the outcome!
Then Miroku entered the room, carrying a large glass of ice water, which contained a lemon and a little umbrella. She gave him a wierd look at the sight of the small paper umbrella sticking out of the water, and he just shrugged with a stupid grin on his face. Then he leaned over to see what she was doing. Without reading it, he walked back to the door and smiled. "I'll leave you with your thoughts, my love." She smiled and went back to her notebook. Reading over what she just read, she continued.
...But maybe it's not all in vain. We may not have much, but what we have is more important than anything else. We have eachother. To pick us up when we're down. To laugh with us. To cry with us. And now I realize that no matter the struggle... the end result, to be surrounded by the people you love. That's what we're fighting for. Inuyasha, Kagome... and Miroku. Especially Miroku. I just wish that so many people wern't hurt by our problems.
She closed the notebook, feeling slightly better. Then she tucked it under the matress and exited the room. Now she knew what she could do to release her emotions. She could take it out on a harmless piece of paper, instead of affecting the people around her.
Speaking of people around her, she had someone she needed to apologise to...
Everyone found themselves at the dinner table that night for the first time in days. Kaede happily dished out bowls of beef stew to the teens, glad that they were more cheerful. Inuyasha about the food, saying that ramen would have been better. Then Kagome bopped him on the head and made him appologise by pulling his sensitive doggy ears.
Kaede smiled silently as she sat down with her own bowl, glad to have their constant bickering back. Even though she lived alone for years, Kaede loved the sudden company of the kids. Well, they wern't exactly kids. More like young adult, on the verge of their futures. But first they had to conquer this problem. She recalled the phone call she received a day after the letter arrived...
- flash back
"Hello?" Kaede said as she picked up the phone. The ring had startled her with the quiet of the house. Everyone else was sleeping into the afternoon, still preoccupied with the previous days events. Not that she blamed the..
"Hello," a quiet voice stated. Kaede had to strain to here the softness of the voice that spoke to her.
"How may I held ye?"
"I am an associate of Sesshomaru and Kagura."
At that, Kaede froze. 'Is this person from the syndicate?' she thought. "I'm sorry. I have no idea who ye are speaking of."
"She said you would say that. She also said to mention that I held something in my possesion."
Kaede was quiet, confused as to what the young girl was talking about.
"I hold the Shikon no Tama."
With that, Kaede knew the woman on the other end of the line was trustworthy. Long ago, Sesshomaru gave Kagura a necklace. That's where this had all started.
Kaede used to run a jewlery shop almost 8 years ago. One rainy day, a tall, stoic man walked into the shop, dripping from head to toe. He bought a jem stone for a 'love interest', as he put it. But this was no ordinary jem. It was legended to hold magical properties. The Shikon no Tama. Legend said that whoever possesed the jewel would be protected from all danger that came their way. The man talked to Kaede, and they found that they had much in common. They both were involved in some way to the Blue Moon Syndicate.
"Who are ye?" she asked.
"That's not important. Just know that I will be coming to your residence in three days. We had a plan to get the kids out of danger, and now I must compleate this alone."
"I understand."
"Until then." With that, the mysterious quiet voice hung up, leaving Kaede's mind to wander.
- end flash back
'That's tomorrow,' she thought as she watched Miroku hit the floor. He just couldn't keep his hands to himself.
"Hey, you have really nice carpet..." he said, his cheek getting a rug burn.
Everyone else sighed and continued their meal as Miroku got back up and sat down, giving Sango's glaring face a goofy grin.
"I'm bored," Inuyasha complained. Kagome flicked his ear. "Ow! What was that for, wench?"
She resisted the urge to toss hiss head off her lap, where it was resting. As soon as she had sat down, Inuyasha had sprawled out across the remainder of the couch, using her head as a pillow, despite her protests and red face. "Then get up and do something, lazy!"
"I know!" Sango called from the floor, where she was putting medication on Miroku's cheek. It was ribbed raw from sliding across the carpet. "Let's play a card game!"
"Oh, Sango..." Miroku said in a depressed tone as she hopped up to retreive some cards from the kitchen. "You know that I'm horrible at cards..."
She just grinned and sat down. Her hands took the deck out of the box, expertly shuffling them. The cards arched into the bridge as she let them fall, making one neat little stack.
"Oh shit..." Inuyasha muttered under his breath. 'Not cards... She wins every time, damn it!'
They decided on poker, having Kaede be the dealer. Having no money or poker chips, they were stumped. How could they play if they had nothing to bet! Then Kagome ran into the kitchen, coming back with a bag full of lifesavers.
"Do you mind?" she asked Kaede as she sat the bag on the coffee table.
"Of coarse not, child," she replied, happy to see them having fun again.
She sat and the cards were dealt.
An hour and a half later, the game was on it's last round. Inuyasha had been knocked out in the first 30 minutes. Kagome warned him not to eat all his poker chips. Miroku was the second one out... well, okay. He was out cold for groping Sango. Even so, he did lose all his chips.
The only ones left were Kagome and Sango. They had been dead even the whole game, fighting for the lead. Now it was down to the last hand, both girls with all their chips in the pot. Both had hands they thought couldn't lose.
Sango grinned wickedly, sending chills up Kagome's spine. 'For such a mild mannered person, Kagome sure is aggressive when she bets!' Sango thought, eyeing her best friend as she took a peak at her cards.
'Sango is scaring the crap out of me!' Kagome thought as Sango glared at her wickedly, not bothering to surpress the shiver running up her back. But her cards... Hehehe...
The girl with the long dark brown ponytail and magenta eyes laid her cards down. "A straight! Ha!" Sango called as she started doing a small victory dance.
"Oh wow, Sango..." Kagome said with a sly look on her face as she gazed at Sango's hand, now face up on the table. "That's a great hand. Too bad you lost..."
That stopped Sango in her track. "What!?!?!" she said as she looked at Kagome's small smirk. Sango's jaw dropped as Kagome laid her hand down. "A straight flush!!!!"
She grinned wildly and took the large pot in her arms, sliding the lifesavers across the table as Inuyasha plucked one from the pile and popped it in his mouth. He choked when he saw the look Kagome gave him. "What?" he asked after painstakingly swallowing the lifesaver.
"You're gonna make yourself sick with all that candy!" she said as she hastily grabbed another one out of his clawed hand. "You already ate over 50 of them!"
He stuck his tongue out at her as she dumped the lifesavers into a bowl and went to the kitchen.
Sango was still stunned. 'I lost... I lost at cards... But... But I'm Sango... I don't lose at cards... Ever...'
She was rudely torn from her stuttering thoughts as Miroku's hand wandered to it's favorite place again. Her fist connected with his face before she could even react. She wa shocked when he yelped in pain, clutching the side of his face in pain. 'I didn't hit him that hard...'
Then she bent down and wrapped her arms around him, realizing that she hit him on his cheek with the painfull rug burn. "I'm sorry..." she said soothingly as she lightly kissed the injured cheek.
"Feels better already..." he said with a smile.
That's how the night went on for almost another two hours. Inuyasha and Kagome bickering over the candy and Miroku ending up admiring Kaede's carpet four more times was quite intertaining to the older woman. Finally they all stumbled up to bed, their eyes drooping with exhaustion.
An hour after they went to bed, she went up to ckeck on them. First she peaked into Miroku and Sango's room. She giggled as she pillow wall Sango built between them. Yet their hands came over the wall, grasped together in theri sleep. She closed the door and chuckeled and walked to the next room.
Kagome and Inuyasha were sleeping easily. As she opened the door, Inuyasha's ears twitched slightly, yet he never woke. He held Kagome in his arms, seemingly protecting her from the light coming in through the window. Kaede knew he would throw his life away before he let anyone harm the young woman who rested easily in his loving embrace. She smiled at the endearing scene and closed the door again.
Both couples were so different, yet they share such a deep love for one another. She just shook her head and went to her room, sleep overcoming her mind. 'Tomorrow our mystery guest arrives...' she remembered suddenly as she climbed into bed. 'Hopefully this plan will work. I don't want to see these kids harmed.'
Both couples awoke at the same time the next morning. Sango awoke to her clever pillow wall destroyed, and Miroku sleeping very close to her. 'Yet...' she thought, looking behind her back. 'No hand on my butt... Maybe he has some hope afterall...' At that point Inuyasha and Kagome came in to wake them up. Snago received odd stares at the number of pillows spread across the floor, blushing furiously at what they probably thought. "It was nothing like that, you two!!" she said urgently as Miroku woke up.
"Uhhh..." he mummbled as he climbed out of bed.
"Oh, we know!" Kagome replied brightly. "We were just admiring all your lovely pillows..." she snickered and Inuyasha smirked.
"Grrr..." Sango growled as she smacked Kagome in the head with a pillow.
That's where it all went bad. They all got into it, grabbing one of the maky pillows pile on the ground and the bed. In the end, they were all in a pile of pillows and people, laughing their heads off.
Then they felt eyes staring at them from the front door. They looked toward the feeling, expecting to see Kaede with an amused look on her face. Yet they were shocked when they looked. Kaede was there alright, but there was someone else as well. A strange woman with long light colored hair and cole black, emotionless eyes stared back at them.
To my Friends and Reveiwers --
InuKagFan - Yes! I love my sledge hammer, too! Well, Kagura and Sesshy... oh you have know idea how sad I was to write it, yet it had to happen... (sniffs) Thanks for the reveiw!
Kagomegirl56 - Oh, I know! I love him too! (sniffs) But you know how it is when an idea hits... (sighs) Yes, I am getting quite a good number of reveiws! Oh, I'm so happy! (okay, I'm getting big headed. Sorry!) Anyway, huggles and I'll TTYL! Love and Hugs!
Tesse - Thanks so much! Kaggy is a quarter demon, FYI!
Julia - Thanks! I was worried about it getting corny, so I'm glad you don't think it is! And I'm glad that I can evoke such emotion in a reader! That's so cool! And also, I know that it is sad... I was sad when I wrote it, believe it or not... (sniff)
Suaru - Hey, girl! You're the only one who asked where Shippo and Rin were! They are okay, and probably won't make an apperance in the story again. Maybe... hehe... Hugs! Love and hugs! (p.s. - UPDATE!!)
Kagome's girl - I thank ye for thy kind words, and I promise that I shall finish this story! No worries! Thank you!
JadeElemental - Okay, to answer all the numbers...
1. That's okay! The author alert wasn't working properly when I posted the chapter, as I later found out!
2. You are the best too! We should talk!
3. No, unfortunately, they are dead... Besides, I woundn't play with people's heart strings like that... That would just be too mean of me!
4. Yes, I love Miroku, too! What a lovable pervert!
Hehe! Hugs and I'll TTYL!
Tobias - Thanks!
Anime-Devil-101 - I do too! Yet, many people die in my story... How ironic! Thanks for the reveiw!
PrincessKagomekk - Okay! Okay! I'm hurrying! ...Oh wait, the chappie is already out... (blushed and sweat drops) Never mind! Hehe! Thanks!
Courtnie - I update every weekend unless I have an emergency or something... So please, be patient! I won't stop this story!
inu crazy - Well, I'm not sure if I'll make a sequel. Sometimes the sequels just take away from the original quality of the story, and I'm not sure if I'll want to risk it! But I'll decide when I get the story compleated, so stick with me! Thanks! I'm glad that I'm one of your favorite authors! Yay!
Lost-in-Dark - Thanks so much! Yes, I no... I think that was my sadest twist yet... (sighs). Oh, the pains of a good story... (sniff)
Wesley - Hey sis! No, don't hurt me! It's just how the story goes! Ahhh!!! (runs from made Wesley) Anyway, thanks for all the reveiws! You're the coolest sixth grader every! See you at choir, hun!
Okay, so thats the end of chapter 15... Wow! Chapter 15! That's awesome! And all of you are awesome! Thats why I make it a point to respond to every reveiw in each chappie, because I appreciate it so much! So please Reveiw! I should be updating at least one more time before the holidays, so don't yell at me just yet! Until next time! Adios, my amigos and amigas!
Ash