Chapter 55: Heart-Breaking News
Kaori moaned in a lot of pain as she awoke. Everything ached, everything hurt. Just breathing seemed to hurt her chest. She opened her eyes to a wooden ceiling. So, she was still in the past?
It was silent around Kaori, and she hated it. She looked around as much as possible and turned her head in great pain to her side to find Sesshomaru sitting next to her with his back to her.
"Why didn't you return your jewellery to your body?" Sesshomaru asked, breaking the deathly silence. Kaori lowered her eyes with shame.
"I really didn't want to survive," Kaori told Sesshomaru truthfully.
"Am I that hard to deal with?" Sesshomaru asked, finally looking over at Kaori just as she started seeing clearly. He was covered in bandages and butt naked, except for maybe the bandages covering most of his body. Kaori forced herself to laugh and force herself up.
"I'm married to you," Kaori wince. "You're supposed to be hard to deal with."
Sesshomaru returned to look out the window. "You could have died, Kaori."
"I know. I thought I was going to," Kaori told Sesshomaru.
"If you had your jewellery on, perhaps you wouldn't have had that feeling," Sesshomaru said harshly. A breeze came in as someone entered the hut. It happened to be Kagome with a bowl of water. She didn't look like her cheerful self. "Leave!" Sesshomaru demanded. Kagome jumped and quickly scurried out of the hut.
"I've served my duty. Either I was going to die with Naraku, or we both would live. You ruined it. Until I die, Naraku will be revived," Kaori told Sesshomaru, her head down. "It's just the way."
"No!" Sesshomaru yelled. "I will not allow it."
"For once, Sesshomaru, you can't control something," Kaori told Sesshomaru. "Just, why did you return my jewellery to my body?"
"Last resort to save your stupid life!" Sesshomaru said and Kaori could tell he was holding tears back, still refusing to look at Kaori. He was all choke up and near crying.
"Sesshomaru, my life isn't stupid. It's just, I no longer have a purpose in this world," Kaori told Sesshomaru.
"To teach Joo-yun!" Sesshomaru said, finally turning to Kaori. A tear rolled down his cheek and he closed his eyes, hoping to stop the rest.
"Sesshomaru," Kaori said, choking up as well. Tears also threatened her eyes. "You can teach Joo-yun. I know you can protect her; you've done it perfectly for a few months without me. I just can't stay. I no longer want Naraku alive. Do you?"
"No, but I want you!" Sesshomaru yelled, tears almost lacing his voice. "I need you!"
"I do too, but this just has to happen, Sesshomaru," Kaori told Sesshomaru, wiping a tear rolling down his cheek away. "I don't want to leave you."
"Kaori, I love you," Sesshomaru told her, looking to the ground as he finally let tears fall freely. "I've never loved someone as much as I love you before, Kaori. And I don't want to lose you."
"Sesshomaru, you aren't losing me. I'll still be there when I die," Kaori told him, tears rolling down her cheeks as she tried to keep her voice calm and relaxing. But everyone once and a while, her voice cracked.
"You aren't dying. I forbid it!" Sesshomaru declared.
"I have to," Kaori told him forcefully. "I don't need to be here anymore. I need to die. I need to give up my life for thousands of others."
"I don't care about others. I care about you!" Sesshomaru yelled, grabbing Kaori's shoulders. "Damn it, don't you understand?"
"Yes, but Sesshomaru. You are only one person loving one person. Those thousands out there are loved my thousands. That's so many more broken hearts than just one," Kaori tried to explain, but Sesshomaru was just too stubborn and selfish to understand at the moment.
"KAORI! You aren't leaving me! I'll tie you to a pole to keep you from killing yourself!" Sesshomaru told her, yelling his head off.
"I won't have to kill myself. If I remove my black pearl while my ribs are still broken, I'll die instantly," Kaori told Sesshomaru. His eyes went wide as tears continued to roll down his face.
"Kaori," Sesshomaru cried. Kaori pulled him into an embrace, letting his head fall onto her shoulder. She held him tight, letting her tears fall as well. "I love you too much to let you go."
"I love you too, Sesshomaru. But that's the thing; don't let me go. Remember me forever," Kaori told Sesshomaru, releasing the embrace to cup his cheek, looking into his amber eyes. "Make a shrine to help, or a memorial, or a tombstone. Don't forget."
Sesshomaru looked into her eyes deeply before looking at the floor. "You have to die, don't you?" Sesshomaru asked somewhat calmly. She nodded solemnly. "And what would happen if you didn't?"
"Well, Naraku would return, and your life would be risked along with Inuyasha's, Kagome's, and Joo-yun's," Kaori said. "And mine." "Do you desire that more than my life?"
It was silent in the hut. "Up until when do you have to leave?" Sesshomaru asked.
"Tomorrow, and then I'll live if I remove my pearl. We have that long," Kaori told him. It was silent again.
"May we be together until then? May we be alone for that long?" Sesshomaru asked. "You don't have to leave this second, do you?"
"No, Sesshomaru, but I can't wait for too long. What do you have in mind?" Kaori asked.
"Well, I said if we both survived this, we would have hell of a time in the field," he told her, looking into her eyes. "Well..."
Kaori laughed before looking into his eyes. "Sure, anything for our last time together," Kaori told him with a smile.
"All right. May I carry you?" Sesshomaru asked almost silently.
"Yeah. I think that would be the best option," Kaori said with a smile, sitting up with great pain.
Kaori was lifted up bridal style and carried outside where Kagome, Inuyasha, Shippo, Sango, and Miroku stood, quite worried and shocked.
"Where are you going?" Kagome asked worried.
"Out," Kaori answered, since Sesshomaru had his eyes on the ground.
"Will you be back?" Sango asked. "Well, I mean like tonight."
"I'm never coming back here. Just to let you all know, you were great friends. I consider you as family with me, and I love you all. I'll miss you," Kaori told them.
"Why? What is he going to do with you? Why was he crying?" Inuyasha demanded, stepping in front of the group. The group exchanged glances. If Sesshomaru was crying, that wasn't good...
"Well, it's between me and Sesshomaru. And we really need to get going. Good-bye, and I'll see you sometime in the after-life," Kaori said and next thing she knew, Sesshomaru was running at top speeds with her in hand.
They reached the field and Sesshomaru dropped her on the grass softly, since her injuries were still sore. He winced, though, when he did, and Kaori realized he too was injured.
"How will we do this? You're covered in bandages and sore like hell, and I can barely move on my own," Kaori joked, cracking a smile. She caused Sesshomaru to as well.
"I guess you're just going to lay there and take it," he smirked.
"But you're sore as well," Kaori said, running her finger along the middle of his chest. It was effective, even through the bandages. He shuttered and closed his eyes, tilting his head to the side. Kaori smiled at the effect it was taking.
"Kaori," Sesshomaru hissed with passion, "may we do something different tonight? Since we will no longer have any other day to do this again, I would like to do this one way."
"How?" Kaori asked curiously.
Sesshomaru pulled two pieces of cloths out and showed Kaori. "Blind-folded. We can just take it off if we don't like it, and we can always do it again without the blind-folds, but wouldn't it be nice to undress each other without looking? Just feeling and tasting and heard and smelling, but the lack of sight?"
Kaori smiled and took one cloth. "Sure, I completely understand. And actually, I always wanted to do this," she told him, placing the blind-fold on him. He did as well, quite oddly, but Kaori fixed it once he was finished. "So, um, how will we start?"
"How about like this?" Sesshomaru asked, feeling her face before kissing her lips. She smiled and kissed back as they laid down and rolled on the grass for the rest of the night...