A Question of Incarnation

CHAPTER 6: You Can't Escape Your Past: Part 2

A/N: Ta-dah! Late saturday evening, the week following the last posting. I feel like such a good little authoress, updating on time. Heck- I'll even throw in a disclaimer! My, I'm sure feeling charitable this evening...

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, any of it's charecters, or plot lines. Just the time waster below.

It was all too much. Kagome felt the guilt, the grief, they were crushing her. Inuyasha had died because she hadn't been able to protect herself from Naraku. Sango and Kirara had been murdered because she had selfishly left, leaving them to defend themselves on their own. And Miroku had killed himself because of the grief brought on by all this. And not one of their sacrifices had meant anything, because Naraku just came back yet again. Everything she touched suffered. She was cursed- she didn't deserve to go on living. She had caused all this. Sango and Miroku deserved better. "They we're supposed to grow old together. Have a ton of kids, and live their lives with the family that had been denied to them earlier, to die happily of old age, surrounded by those that loved them. Why? Why did this have to happen? Why? Why?" For the first time her control over her emotions slipped, because she knew the answer.
It was so hard to not burst out right there and tell her. But he knew it would only cause her more pain, and that was the last thing he wanted to do. So he bit his tounge and gently took the small, furry, bundle from her limp hands, placing it back in Sango's lap. He knew that was where Kirara would have preferred to be. He gently pulled Kagome away from the tomb and into the bright daylight, sitting them both down onto a slab of concrete that had once been a sidewalk, yet to be cleared away. As she sobbed into his shoulder a man walked up to them, nonchalant despite the chaos surrounding them. The sun was behind the figure, all Adrian could see was a silouette. Unaware, his hand grasped as the air along his right hip, instictively looking for a sword that was no longer there. "Back for round 2, 'Sir?'" He spat out the title with as much disgust as he could muster. He loathed that police officer, the nerve! Didn't he know who he was messing with? "As you can see, I'm a bit busy at the moment, so you can just screw off." He glared at the black outline, shielding his eyes with the hand that wasn't busy trying to keep Kagome from collapsing entirely.

The man gracefully took a seat next to him, unintimidated. He smiled, the sun glinting off his chestnut hair. "Haven't changed a bit, have we?" He said, smiling, exposing slightly pointed canines. He looked to be about his age. His eyes softened as he took in Kagome's weeping form on Adrian's other side. He got up and sat next to her now, pulling her off of Adrian.

"You bastard! What the hell do you think you're doing?" He yelled. The man didn't even have the decency to look at him. The stranger gently grasped Kagome's chin, lifting her face to look at him.

"Remember me, Mom? I've gotten a bit bigger, haven't I?" Kagome's eyes widened, and she fell against his chest.

"Shippo."

Rather guility she would later remember that her first thought had been, 'Well, at least I didn't end up killing everybody.' But, regardless of her first reaction, she was escatic to see the long-lost kitsune.

Shippo glanced down at himself. "Grew a little in 500 ears- haven't I? Doesn't really matter though. Kagome- are you alright? I know this is a bit of a shock, it was for me too afterall, but then, I've had quite a bit more time to think about it." Tears glistened at the corners of his eyes. "Sango and Miroku died an honorable death and they both went to it willingly, fighting for something they believed in with all their hearts. Don't blame yourself for something that was out of your control, okay, Kagome? This was their decision. They could easily have run away, but it would have meant that the demon would have slaughtered their village. The lives of the people they cared about meant far more to them than their own. I repeat, don't blame yourself for something that isn't your fault."

Kagome sniffed a bit. Shippo's words, his very presence comforted her. He was different, no longer the young child she had once known, but he was still the same caring person, if a bit wiser. For just a few moments she felt like she had a year ago. But, the grief came crashing down on her once more. Even if Shippo was right, and it really wasn't her fault, the fact still remained that two of her best friends had been murdered and she had never even known.

Adrian was frozen. His world was crashing down around his ears now that he could actually step back for a moment and actually take the time to think about what had just happened. Shippo had somehow survived Naraku's slaughter- and was sitting in front of him- a young man. Sango, Miroku and Kirara had been killed. And worst of all, Naraku now had the almost complete sacred jewel and had suceeded in regenerating himself. But Shippo jerked him from his thoughts.

"'Adrian,' will you plase come talk with me for a moment?" Shippo pulled him aside, the carefully controlled look in the kitsune's eyes slipping. He led him just out of earshot of Kagome, but where Adrian could still keep an eye on her. Shippo read the confused look on his face immediately. "Yeah, I know it's you Inuyasha. Really, grasping for your sword and swearing at me before you even knew who I was, it was a dead giveaway. That and those golden eyes. I bet Kagome's glad to have you back though- right?"

Shippo easily read the answer that filled the silence between the two, spoken by his averted eyes. "I understand. That's your decision, and yours alone. However, there are more important matters to be dealt with. There still may be a chance."

Anger gave Adrian the courage to speak once more. "What! That bastard...he...he...slaughtered them. He didn't spare a single person, he even went delibrately out of his way to cause Miroku pain. He didn't even have the decency to do it himself, he just made his underling do the dirty work. I'll kill him. That is the important matter here!" Shippo believed his promise. Anger dripped out his every pore. The kitsune knew it was time to come clean.

Adrian could barely hear Shippo's next words. "Sango knew the demon was coming before he got there. She forced me to go hide in the forest on the other edge of the village. I did as I was told. I-I regret that decision every day. I should have died with them, honorably, but I hid. I should have died that day, but I didn't." He looked up at the black-haired man, his face the personification of anguish. "I ran and ran, I couldn't even work up the courage to come back until a week later. By then, Miroku was just an empty shell, surrounded by the graves of his friends. I helped him construct the tomb for Sango and Kirara, but I kind of sensed that it was meant to house him as well. A few weeks later, while we were working together on the manuscript of our travels, he told me that he would have been a father in seven months." Tears ran down his cheeks, despite his attempts to hide them. Shippo was a child that had been forced to grow up too fast, and it was all too evident at that moment. The kitsune's eyes were pained.

"H-his face still haunts me. He-he had expected nothing, going through life knowing that he would die before his time, destined by some cruel trick of fate to remain only a danger to those around him. He pulled away, distancing himself from everything and everyone, but Sango brought him back. He literally defeated his demons, and for the first time in life, thought that he might actually have a chance at a happiness he had never even dared to hope for. And then it was all ripped away from him in the space of a day. Miroku was already dead when I got to him, a corpse that had been unfortunate enough to be assigned the duty of burying everyone else before he got to rest." Uncharecteristically, Adrian pulled Shippo into a brief hug, letting him truly mourn his friends after 500 years of holding in the pain and the guilt. They grieved together.

Shippo pulled himself together first. "Inu—Adrian, I said there might still be a chance. And there may be, if you go quickly. Time goes at a fairly even rate on both sides of the well, and Kagome's only been on this side of it for a year. That means that only a year has passed in the feudal era since you were...well...killed. Miroku and Sango were murdered a year and a half after Kagome left. If you go now, you can keep this all from happening." The kitsune looked up, hope in his eyes. "You can save them... you can save me."

Something in Adrian balked at the idea of going back. He could feel his pulse quicken. He ran his hands through his hair, the black glinting silver, the sweat slickening his palms making it stand up even more than it had been before. Shippo saw the fear in his eyes. "Please—You have to do this! Naraku, he was never killed by anyone else. He's been working his way up the politcal ladder all around the world ever since, starting wars, breeding corruption and hate. His goal is a third world war, nuclear war, to wipe out humanity. I think he's camped out on a tanker in the pacific somewhere, his hand on THE button. I can't track him down, and no one will listen. You have to destroy him when he was still weak, it's everyone's only hope. It's not just Miroku and Sango you'll be saving, but everyone else as well. Please. I know there are bad memories there! But this is bigger than you, or me, or all of us!"

The logic was working on him. And Miroku and Sango deserved better. The man sighed, almost able to watch whatever little of the life he had once known flit away from him. He felt a small stab of regret. His eyes darted around him, resting on a woman and her children, straining to see what was happening, a young boy and his dog, a man with a bouquet of roses walking away from the florists. They remained the longest on the beautiful black haired girl behind him. They were what mattered. "Keh. I'll said I was going to kill that bastard, and I wouldn't be much of a man if I let him get away- now would I?" He cracked his knuckles to illustrate his point, secretly enjoying the small sneer his lips curled into. Inuyasha was back.

A/N: Oh yes! Ah ha! It is good- ne? Adrian shall now be refered to as Inuyasha, except for when someone is talking to him. However, do not let that confuse you, because no one except Shippo has really figured it out. So yeah. Fluff will hopefully come next chapter, but it's not IxK. Gee- that pair is rather angsty, aren't they? I really need to do something about that... angst is bad. But then- that's why we have Miroku! Otherwise known as Mr. Comic Relief! Hurrah for Hug-A-Houshi Day (Just made that up. Hee Hee.)! The people have spoken--The monk and demonslayer live! So yeah, I can't really say that reviews make me update faster but they make me update on time! Oh wait- umm... I have a horsemanship clinic and some classes on said animals to go to next weekend.. so... I'll just try to post when I can. Be forewarned. I also have no more pre-written chapters, (like the 2 ahead I was for the first 4...) which also makes it harder. But anywho—Press the pretty purple button! It's my favorite color!Will update as soon as possible. Sleep is a bit more of a priority for me than most people.

A/N/N: Wow! 56 reviews! You people all rock! Sorry about having to stop replying to them all, but after winter break was over, it was time to choose. And I figured you'd probably prefer a new chapter out of the two. But thank you anyway! Over a 1,000 hits... (faints)