:Disclaimer:

Leiko: We don't own Inuyasha. Short and to the point.
Akana: I so totally wish we did! That'd be so totally awesome! Wouldn't it be so totally awesome?
Leiko: What's up with you and the phrase "so totally"?
Akana: I so totally don't know... WHEEEEEE SUGAR!

:End Disclaimer:

Well, I got another reviewer other than someonewithoutaname (Dante Gemini), but someonewithoutaname seems to have disappeared! Ah well... I'm very sorry for the longer-than-usual wait. I had to build up suspense/I was being sorta busy and lazy. I hope you enjoy this, the final tragic chapter of this tale! But wait -- what's this? There's going to be something else? An epilouge, you say?

Chapter 7: The Final Domino

POV CHANGE

The journey back to Kaede's village was short. Or maybe my mind was just too preoccupied to notice? Either way, there were only a few days of silent travel. Even Shippou wasn't being his usual annoying self.

The people of the village all smiled when they saw us coming, as usual, but their smiles turned to confusion when I didn't scowl in return or when Kagome didn't smile back. Our eyes were cast to the ground as we walked solemnly to Kaede's hut. The old woman came out to greet us, but she knew something was wrong when she saw us trudging along. "What has happened to ye?" she asked in concern, rushing us inside the hut and away from the prying eyes of the other villagers.

I layed Tetsusaiga in its sheath against the wall near the door and sat beside it. Kagome layed her yellow bag beside Tetsusaiga and sat beside me, apparently needing the support of a friend who suffered the same tragedy. "Sango's..." Kagome choked out. She couldn't finish, so I knew I had to.

"Sango's dead."

Kaede's eyes widened. "How did this happen?" she asked. "She is far too strong to perish in any battles with demons!"

Kagome and I glanced at each other, then I began the story, knowing Kagome's voice would crack before she finished. Shippou clung to Kagome's shoulder, sniffling every now and then. It was a hard story to tell, for Sango had been an ally and... a friend; a close friend who'd suffered under the weight of a heavy burden.

The story lasted until mid-afternoon. Everyone was silent once I finished, ending with our decision to reunite at the village of the demon slayers. That was when Kaede voiced a dark realization.

"Kagome, if ye leave here, then without the powers of the Shikon jewel... ye cannot come back."

I felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me. I stared at Kagome, silently cursing my stupidity. How could I have forgotten such a crucial fact? But I realized that even if I had remembered, Kagome still would've brought Kohaku back without hesitation. That's just how she was.

Kagome, it seemed, had also forgotten. "Th-That's right," she said in shock. A hard choice was suddenly upon her, I knew. She could go home and be with her family but never return, or she could stay in the Feudal Era without even getting to say goodbye to them. "Let's go to the well," she said quietly. "I'll... I'll think about it there." She stood up and sat Shippou on the ground. He started to protest, but she just smiled at him. "See ya later," she told him shakily, her voice betraying her unsure emotions.

"You'll come back?" he asked, his voice filled with hope and his eyes edged with tears. "I-If you choose to go, you'll come back and say good bye?"

She looked into his face. "Yeah." I knew she was lying. Everyone knew she was lying when she grabbed her bag.

All was eerily silent when we got to the well. I didn't like it at all, but I chose not to say anything to Kagome. She already had enough problems to worry about. She stared down into the well's dark depths, and the inner turmoil was apparent on her face. She had a hard descision to make: stay here, stay with Shippou and me, and forget about her family, or go to them, take up her life where she left off, leave us.

"If you go," I told her, "I can still travel through the well and tell you how the others are doing."

Her eyes lit up. "That's right!" she said excitedly, throwing her arms around me. "Thank you, Inuyasha!"

I blushed a deep red and pushed her off me with a "keh". "So get lost," I growled, crossing my arms. "Go to your era. I'll go in a week or so."

"Can you come tomorrow?" Kagome asked quickly. "Please?" I looked at her and realized that, even though I'd still be able to travel to and from her era, she'd still miss everyone terribly. It seemed like she'd really grown used to this dangerous era of demons and half demons.

I started to respond, but an evil laugh from somewhere above cut me off. I immediately looked up, as did Kagome, and our eyes settled on three floating demons; a hyper fox demon on the left, a bored dog demon on the right, and a smirking cat demon in the middle. The cat demon was the one who'd laughed. I placed a hand on Tetsusaiga's hilt, growling. "What do you want?" I shouted up at them. Kagome dropped her bag to the ground so it would be easier for her to get her arrows if she needed them.

The demons descended, touching down lightly in front of us. I got in front of Kagome, blocking her from the three. The demons were all very different. The fox demon had reddish-orange hair, green eyes, and a bushy tail. The dog demon had black hair and red eyes. The cat demon had short brown hair and yellow eyes. All three wore priestess outfits with variations in the pants colors. The cat demon stepped forward and I tensed, tightening my grip on my sword.

"I am Hatsuki," she purred, her eyes dancing with laughter. "My companions are Asaka and Sayoko." She motioned to them as she spoke their names. "We are here to tell you that the well won't work for you, half breed."

The fox demon, Asaka, giggled. "We placed an enchantment upon it that won't let you go through!"

The dog demon, Sayoko, crossed her arms. "There is no way to break the spell, so don't even try."

"I don't believe you!" I growled, pulling Tetsusaiga out and holding it threateningly in front of me. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't hack you into bits right now!"

Hatsuki's smirk remained on her face. "I'd rather give you a few reasons why you should," she taunted. "Like, for instance, Kikyou..."

I stiffened. "What about Kikyou," I asked, my voice taking on a dangerously low tone. I could feel Kagome's curious stare on my back, but I didn't care.

"We are the ones who set it up," Hatsuki explained. "You see, we have powers of subtle persuasion. We can invade a person's mind and fill it with doubts, questions, and ideas. If she'd wanted, Kikyou could've walked the earth for any amount of time she desired, but we used our powers to make her choose to leave this world, but not before finding you and giving you the choice to go with her or not."

"Damn you!" I shouted. I ran at her, wanting nothing more than to slice her into little bits and feed them to various demons.

An invisible barrier stopped me, but I was determined to get through. It proved too strong, however, and I was forced backwards. All the while, Hatsuki remained smirking. Asaka was laughing, and Sayoko's face was as expressionless as my half brother's.

"I'm not done yet," Hatsuki said. "There's more, much more." I cursed as I glared at them. Kagome was by my side, glaring at the three as well. "You know of Yuriko, Miroku's sister, of course. Once again, we used our powers of persuasion, making her become jealous of Sango and overprotective of her brother, pushing her to make Miroku choose. If we hadn't intervened, she most likely would've been happy that Miroku had found the person just right for him."

"That's horrible!" Kagome cried out. She grabbed an arrow from the quarrel on her back and notched it in her bow. She pulled the string taunt and aimed it at Hatsuki.

"Hold on, little priestess," she said. "Wait until you've heard the rest of our tale before firing that arrow of yours." Kagome was about to shoot anyway, but I held out my hand to stop her. I had a suspiscion about what the cat demon would say next, and I wanted to see if I was right.

"Once Naraku was dead," she continued, "Kohaku's memories would've returned to him, but we used another of our powers to keep them stored away. We then 'persuaded' Sango to take him in the woods, and we put the notions of taking his shard into her head. Then we let Kohaku remember everything. After that, we let Sango choose for herself if she would let Kohaku live or die, knowing what she'd choose and knowing also that it would be absolute torture for her."

I was clutching Tetsusaiga so hard that my knuckles turned white. "Kagome," I said, my voice taking on a deadly calmness, "shoot your arrow."

She didn't even need to be told. Her arrow glowed a pinkish color with her priestess energy. She let it fly, her eyes burning with the fires of hate. There was only one other person who she'd ever hated so much in the amount of time that I knew her, and that was Naraku.

Asaka giggled in childlike glee. "You really think that arrow can penetrate our barrier?" she asked.

"You really shouldn't underestimate the priestess, Asaka," Sayoko commented.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

The arrow met with the barrier, and energy crackled for a minute before the arrow broke through. Hatsuki had been expecting this outcome, however, and she ducked. The arrow flew above her head and landed deep in the wood of the tree behind her. "Impressive, little priestess," Hatsuki taunted. "You're just as angry as the monk was when we told him all this... and killed his dear little sister."

I snarled and charged at Hatsuki, sweeping my sword across horizontally. Everything she'd done was unforgivable. She drew the katana that was hanging unsheathed by her side and parried the blow. "You stand no chance against me," she said coolly.

I leapt away from her, landing back by Kagome's side with my sword still at the ready. "Wind scar!" I shouted, lifted Tetsusaiga above my head and slashing it diagonally across the air. Yellow beams of energy appeared, heading strange for her.

They hit another barrier, one that the demon had just put up. I wasn't discouraged, though. I glanced at Kagome, and she caught on to the idea. She shifted a bit secretly, putting her hand in a better position to reach up and grab an arrow. "Wind scar!" I shouted again, sweeping my sword across the air in front of me.

"Not this attack again," Hatsuki said boredly, confident in her barrier.

Kagome, using the light from my attack as a shield from the eyes of our opponents, shot an arrow quickly into the midst of the wind scar. The arrow was faster than my attack, and it reached the demon first. It missed by a hair's breadth, but it served its real purpose: breaking the barrier.

Hatsuki's eyes widened in fear and surprise as she realized our plan. "Sister!" Asaka and Sayoko both shouted at the same time. The two leapt in front of the attack, trying to sheild Hatsuki. There was a bright light, and when it dimmed, the two were nowhere to be seen, their bodies turned to dust by my wind scar. Hatsuki was badly injured, for they hadn't been able to protect her completely.

"Damn you!" she spat at us. I ran at her, ready to finish her off right then and there, but my sword hit air as she faded away. She'd escaped to recover from the wounds.

"She got away," I growled. I turned to Kagome and noticed that she was trembling. "What's wrong?"

"They placed an enchantment on the well," she answered, her voice shaking just as much as she was. "You... You can't go through..."

It dawned on me that she was right. "K-Keh," I said weakly. "I don't believe them." There wasn't much conviction in my voice. I knew, somehow, that they were telling the truth, that I couldn't go through the well no matter how hard I tried.

Kagome collapsed to the ground, next to her bag, dropping her bow. I sheathed Tetsusaiga and walked over to her. Tears slid down her cheeks as she stared at the ground. I didn't really know what to do or say.

It was too much for her, all of this. Sango was her best friend, and to find her dead like that... And now, to add to it, she found out from the same demons who caused it all that if she went to her era, I wouldn't be able to visit. It wasn't fair to her. She'd done absolutely nothing to deserve any of this.

Now she faced the hardest decision in her life, and I had three choices.

There was what I wanted to do. I wanted to wrap Kagome in a strong hug and tell her how much she meant to me. I wanted to explain how I chose her over Kikyou. I wanted to ask her, beg her even, to stay with me in the Feudal Era. I wanted to keep her there and never let go, never let her leave my site.

There was what I could've done. I could've told her to go back to her own era, to be with her family. I could've told her that I would love her even if she left. After such a display of self-sacrifice, she would never have the courage to leave me, I knew. She would stay with me, and we could live happily together.

Then... there was what I had to do.

POV CHANGE

"I hate you."

I looked up at him with my tear-stained face in shock. "That's right," he said, sneering. "I hate you. I always have. I just acted all sweet and stuff to get the jewel. I've never really had feelings for you, and I just realized that since the jewel's gone, I don't have to act anymore. I can be my true self." He stood up, laughing down at me. "I can't believe you actually fell for it! Humans are pathetic!"

I stood up as well, trembling. "You... You can't really mean that!" I protested. This... This can't really be Inuyasha! The demons, they must've done something to him!

"Heh. Wanna bet?" he asked with a malicious smirk. "In fact, I should kill you right now and leave you here to rot!"

I took a step back just in time to avoid his swiping claws. I was thrown off balance, and I felt myself tumbling over into the well. I wanted to scream, but my voice was caught in my throat. All the way down, I stared into Inuyasha's cold, heartless expression as he tossed my bag down to me.

POV CHANGE

I waited until she completely disappeared before softening my glare. I sank to my knees, staring at the ground. It had pained me greatly to be so creul to her, but... I knew it was needed. If she thought I hated her, then leaving this place wouldn't be such a big deal, and she would move on. I had done what was needed. It hurt, but it was the best thing for Kagome.

"Dammit!" I cursed, pounding the ground as a tear slid down my cheek. Clenching my teeth tightly, I wiped it away with the sleeve of my haori and stood up. I turned away from the well, towards the setting sun, refusing to let myself cry. Kagome was safe, and she would be happy. That was all that mattered.

Besides, I didn't have the time to cry. I had revenge to seek.

POV CHANGE

I sat on the ground against the well, staring up through a small crack in the shrine's ceiling to look at the stars that were just coming out. Salty tears mingled with my hair. "Inuyasha..." I whispered. "You... You didn't mean that. I know you didn't. I could see it in your eyes. Inuyasha, you... you're such an idiot!" Sudden rage boiled inside me. "You stupid, dog-eared jerk! You dumb, self-sacrificing..." My voice caught in my throat as a fresh bout of tears came upon me, my anger subsided. I let them come, shutting my eyes lightly. Without thinking, I lifted a small flap on my backpack and took out a very thin item. I held it for a few minutes before opening my eyes and looking at it.

Everyone was there again. It was just like before. No... it was before, before everything started going wrong, right after Naraku was defeated. Miroku had a sheepish grin on his face along with a fresh red handprint. Sango was glaring at him angrily, arms crossed. Kirara was sitting in her small form by her master, looking up at the two of them and mewing a little. Shippou was the only one out of the four even looking at the camera, giving a huge grin.

"You're such a pervert, Miroku!"

"Ah, I simply could not help myself!"

"Mew?"

"Cheeeeeeeeeeese!"

Their voices came clearly to me. I then looked to the side of the photo, to Inuyasha. His arms were crossed over his chest and his back was to the rest of the group. His head was turned so that he was scowling at the camera.

"Dammit, Kagome! Hurry up and get this over with!"

A tear dripped onto the picture. I held it close to my heart.