Two Souls, One Heart Chapter 10: Guilt, an inuyasha fanfic

I know that Inuyasha and the gang haven't realized what the heartless are, or anything, but I planned it out like that. So Sorry for the delay, but I was away at a church camp for a while and just got back a few days ago. Enjoy!

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"What was Koga talking about back there when he said 'the heartless'? What did he mean?" Inuyasha pondered, mainly to himself. Tari was very knowledgeable, however, and replied,

"Heartless are beings that used to actually be people. When a person loses their heart, they become a heartless. These creatures seek out other people and try to take their hearts as well." Inuyasha opened his mouth to respond, but snapped it shut when he swore he saw a shadow sweep across the platform beside him. His right hand rose to tightly grasp Tetsusaiga's hilt. Tari watched curiously as Inuyasha's piercing golden amber eyes darted across the relatively small area, as if in search of some sort of threat. Tari quirked a skeptical eyebrow at the hanyou when he sniffed the air a few times, almost like a bloodhound in search of game animals during a hunt.

"Those things, 'the heartless' don't happen to be small and entirely black with glowing yellow eyes, are they?" the young human male was surprised at the hanyou's question, having figured that since he didn't know what the heartless were, he most certainly wouldn't know what one of them looked like. Tari blinked a moment in shock, but replied with,

"That is one form of heartless…why…?" Another shadow swept ahead of them, and this one was not missed by Tari's watchful green eyes. He whipped out his katana and held it out elbow's length ahead of himself, grinning bitterly a bit. 'So that's why he asked.'

Two heartless materialized from the shadows the two males had seen gliding across the stone floor, though this type of heartless was unfamiliar to Inuyasha; these heartless were much larger. They appeared to be featherless, crimson colored birds. At a guess, they were about a yard and a half long, counting their long, stiff tails and had a two yard wingspan. Their leathery, burnt tipped wings flapped lazily to maintain their hovering stance as they glared at the two males with their round, pupil-less yellow eyes. On their peach bellies stood out a black heart emblem with the main heart section divided up into four sections by jagged blood red lines that outlined the entire insignia as well. Rather than have a tip at the bottom where the two halves of the heart met, the ends branched off into three tails, one curving to the left, one to the right, and one straight down the middle.

"These are another type of heartless, called Wyverns. Be careful around these, and don't let them grab you with their talons." Tari instructed Inuyasha before the two charged at the enemies of darkness. The two heartless dodged the attackers effortlessly, each giving one strong flap of their wings to rise above Inuyasha and Tari. One of the Wyverns dove for Tari, managing to just barely graze its beak against his ankle before he hopped safely out of the way.

Inuyasha, on the other hand, wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box.

He leapt up high enough to level himself with the other heartless that was still left dormant in the air. However, within three seconds prior of doing so, he realized that such a move wasn't a very wise one. He swung his blade down in an attempt to decapitate the heartless, but it easily swerved sharply behind him. Before he could even think to turn around, he felt the jagged talons of the Wyvern close on him, the back talon crushing his shoulder blades and the front three digging into his collar bone and upper arms. He struggled against them, but the Wyvern was persistent, plummeting to the ground, planning on dragging the hanyou with it. Just as it was about to let Inuyasha go, he kicked his legs over the Wyvern's head so that he landed on its back. He managed to wrench his shoulders and arms free, but paid the price of feeling its razor sharp claws slide across his back and pinch together at his shoulders for a moment before releasing him fully. He pushed off of the heartless with his feet, drilling the bird into the ground. He seized his opportunity and easily relieved the Wyvern of it head.

"I see you're a rather capable swordsman. I'm impressed." Tari cheered approvingly after he finally managed to stab through the second heartless's stomach with his katana. Inuyasha simply shrugged, sheathing Tetsusaiga forcefully at his side.

"Never mind that; we need to keep going." Inuyasha said, already starting to race ahead. With a curt nod, Tari hurried to catch up with the running hanyou.

(Meanwhile…)

They didn't trust him.

They didn't trust Koga at all.

Miroku, Sango, Shippo, and Kirara came to that conclusion no later than five minutes of leaving Inuyasha to join the wolf demon in an attempt to rescue Kagome. The four of them could feel the weight of their guilt crashing down on them the moment they turned away from the hanyou to follow Koga. No matter how hard they all tried, the image of Inuyasha lying there, pleading with his eyes that they stay as the darkness crushed his spirit was burning in their memories. It must have shattered his spirit when they walked away.

Of all the people who had the most guilt, Sango felt its weight the worst.

She couldn't shake off the image of Inuyasha's dull eyes searching her, pleading for at least someone to stay so that he could help save Kagome as well. One of her friends, one of her only friends, who had finally realized all of his mistakes and was seeking atonement, had asked of them only that they would help him stand, and that he would try on his own from there. He only asked them for their support, like any friend in need would. It was their job to help him, their job to do the same as he and they had all done for each other. He finally managed to just once, finally believe in his friends enough that he could ask for help.

And they walked away.

They walked away without him.

Wasn't she the one that had said friends stick together? Wasn't she the one that had told the hanyou to believe in himself? Wasn't she the one that had the choice of following Miroku after he had said they needed to go, or staying to help Inuyasha? She knew full well that the answer to all of those questions was 'yes' and now there was nothing she could do to take her actions back.

"Sango…do you think Inuyasha's alright…?" Shippo asked softly. The guilt was heavy in his tiny voice, giving Sango the feeling of betrayal to the kitsune deep in her heart. She did her best to smile, but it was hard to act cheerful when you betray one friend in order to save another, causing pain and suffering along the way for you and everyone else. It was a wonder Kagome managed to remain so cheerful during such hard times, supporting the entire group when everyone else wanted to give up all hope. Before she could reply, Koga turned sharply toward her and the kitsune.

"I hope he died a painful death, runt." He growled to the shuddering little fox demon.

"Don't say that, you big jerk! Inuyasha would never let something like this kill him, and especially not from someone like YOU!" Shippo shouted at the wolf, temporarily forgetting the fear and terror of being with a miasma-induced demon. Without warning, Koga lunged at Shippo, bringing his claw back. His claws swiped at the kitsune, grazing his cheek, causing three lines of crimson to appear on the young fox's face.

"Shippo!" Sango cried, kneeling down to Shippo and bringing the sobbing kitsune to her in a gentle hug. Kirara walked over and hopped onto Sango's elbow, nuzzling Shippo affectionately with her nose, gently licking the blood on his cheek away. The kitsune sniffed a thank you to both Sango and the fire cat before burying his face into Sango's armor. The said taijia hugged little Shippo closer to her, the tears she had been suppressing since they abandoned Inuyasha now breaking free, cascading down her ivory face. Miroku placed his hands on Sango's shoulders, giving her a gentle, soft look before glaring at Koga.

"He's only a child! How dare you do something like that to one so young?" Miroku demanded to the wolf prince. He gave Sango's shoulders a gentle squeeze, as if to offer comfort to her somehow. Sango continued to weep, but her sobs were silenced, her mouth pulled in a thin line. Koga gave no reply of words, but the glare in his azure-purple eyes spoke volumes.

Miroku had never been so outraged in all of his life. It never really bothered him when Inuyasha would hit Shippo on the head, mainly because he rarely ever put much force into it, and never did the hanyou harm the kitsune in any actual way. Koga, on the other hand, made it very clear to all that so long as he was still overpowered by the miasma, there was nothing that was going to give him a moment's hesitation to harm anyone or anything. Shippo had simply spoken what everyone else had been thinking, being the only one who had the bravery within him, despite that he was a child. Even if Shippo was a demon, it still didn't make a difference to Miroku, let alone any of the four friends there- he was still a child, and attacking one so viciously is a dark deed that only the wicked would do.

"Let's keep moving, you want to save Kagome as well as I do, don't you?" Koga's level voice pulled the group out of there thoughts. Though they said nothing, they stood, Sango still hugging Shippo, Kirara now hopping onto Miroku's shoulder, as they reluctantly followed their 'leader.' After all, they knew full well that it was already too late to turn back to Inuyasha. They couldn't face him and be able to look him in the eye, mainly because he would be able to see the shame in their own eyes.

NEXT CHAPTER IS THE REUNION! I PROMISE!