If she left, maybe she would forget. Maybe, she would start over. Maybe… Maybe she was foolish enough to think that all her memories would go away just disappear, if she ignored them hard enough.
As the energy hit her square in the chest, and her fragile body slammed against the heavy base of an ancient oak, she felt herself beginning to lose consciousness. Touching her hand to the base of her skull, she winced as it throbbed painfully. And she felt blood. Dark, warm, sticky, and trickling from the base of her skull. 'Inuyasha,' she thought, as her brain began to become fuzzy and blackness crept around the edges of her vision. 'Please, come save me…'
There, slumped like a broken doll against the base of an ancient, sturdy oak. There she lay, amongst the foliage, dirt, and dead leaves and as the blood trickled down her neck, and began to blossom across her uniform and leave a dark, crimson stain. All he could do was watch. After all, it was his fault. She was hurt because of him. He had a sudden thought, 'How much did she hear?' but this thought was pushed to the back of his mind as another, more important one made itself known. He had to get her help. He had to save her, preserve the flicker of life left in her. He knew that the elderly miko, Kaede, had no hope of healing such a wound as hers. He knew of no one who could treat such a wound…in this era.
He scooped up her broken form and swept her away, to safety. Hopping through the well, time swirled about him, surrounded him. He landed softly, taking great care not to jostle her unconscious body. He leapt from the well, and burst through the well-house doors. Sprinting across the shrine compound as if the dogs of Hell were at his feet. He ploughed through the entrance to the Higurashi homestead. He yelled, desperate, so desperate, for someone, ANYONE, to answer his plea: 'Please, let her live!' He yelled, yelled 'till his throat was hoarse and he could yell no more. Someone had to be here, had to hear his cries. Didn't anyone care? Didn't anyone care that their only sister, daughter, friend was hurt, most likely dying?
Then, a miracle. The front doors of the house were thrown open and standing there, frozen with shock, was her mother. She dropped her bags and swept down upon him, questions flowing forth from her lips. Didn't she understand? There wasn't time! She needed help now. He begged the worried woman to call for a healer. And for the first time in a minute, she looked at her daughter. And the longer she looked, the more tears began to flood her eyes. He pleaded with her, begged her to call the healer. God damnit, Kagome needed help! Then he too looked at her face. And he knew. Knew by the way that the color had gone from her face, her body uncomfortably limp. He knew. But she couldn't! She couldn't be…gone. 'Oh please! Please, don't let it be! Let her breathe again! Let her call my name, berate me, chastise me, punish me. Let me hear her voice. Please, don't let me be responsible for another woman's death!' His heart prayed and cried to the heavens, 'Please, don't let her be dead!' as his voice was raised to the sky above, in an anguished howl that had not been heard since the time of the great Inu Youkai.
The In-Between Place. Limbo. Oblivion. The Nothingness. It had to be, no where on earth had this much fog…did it? Was there even a ground here? It didn't seem real, as she hovered there, in the nothing, waiting. Waiting to be found, waiting to be discovered. She waited for someone, anyone to appear. She waited for someone to explain this…this place, what she was doing here.
Suddenly, the fog seemed to thicken, not all around, but just in one particular area. It seemed to all congeal around one point, shaping and forming itself until something new, something shaped like a man, was left. The mist glowed for a brief second, and what stepped forth from the eternal stretches of mist was far from what she had expected, even though she wasn't quite sure what she had been suspecting in the first place.
However, the youkai spirit that stepped toward her, for if she was certain of anything, it was that this being was indeed a youkai and most definitely a spirit, had eyes that filled her with a sense of familiarity and calm. She knew these eyes, almost, it seemed, better than she knew herself. The feeling, the depth and intensity of these bright, golden orbs brought her into such tight embrace of comfort; she knew she was safe with this ethereal denizen. She knew him, almost as if from some past life.
The youkai lord stepped toward her (he had to be a lord, judging by the elaborate armor strapped tightly to his noble figure and the quality of his haori and hakama.) He beckoned to his left, where the mists seemed to part in order to reveal an image: There, in the image in the mist he sat, cradling the form of not the long dead imitation miko, but of her. He sat, his face buried deeply into her ebony hair, her hair, which she had not had the opportunity to wash for over a week. His salty tears mingled with the oil, grease, grim, and blood which had clotted thickly throughout her raven locks. And without any warning, she began to cry. Tears flowed forth freely from her sorrowful eyes. There he was, telling her he loved her and she wasn't even there to hear it. And she didn't need to be, for she watched his lips to see the words they formed, so lovingly. But oh, how she wanted, longed to be the one who sat there, in his arms, his strong, muscular arms, listening to him confess his heart to her.
She turned back to him, that silent, spectral youkai lord before her, and pleaded with him. "Please…Please, just let me go back. I'll tell him, I promise. Just please… let me go back. Don't let it end now. Please…"
He stood there, just staring, as silent and motionless as ever, for what seemed an eternity. Was he even breathing? Did he even need to breathe, for that matter? But finally, after long last, he nodded. And a smile began to work its way across his face. He smiled his wide, over-bright smile, his fangs glinting slightly in the faint glow being emitted from the mists. That was when she knew. She recognized his face, for only once before had she seen this face, and not very clearly at that. A face combined well the features of his two sons. "Inu-no-Taisho…" she gasped. His smile broadened as he nodded slightly to her, and waved his hand. With that wave, she was gone.
He had left her! How dare he? He had left her, again! And what was worse, he had left her for that girl. That wench, she had done it again. He would come back, she was certain. But she wouldn't. After all, death was forever, in most cases anyways. Not in her own, but in most cases, it was forever. This time, though, there would be no meddling oni to bring her back.
His unshed tears began to well up in his clenched eyes. He couldn't hold them in for much longer. Why did she have to die? Why did she have to leave him? Why—sudden movement caused his eyes to flash open and his ears to perk up. A wonderful scent unexpectedly overwhelmed the receptors in his sensitive nose. Such a flowery, spicy scent could only belong to—
"Kagome!" She was alive, just barely, but she was alive. She blinked her tired, mud-brown eyes up at him, confused and dazed.
"Inu…yasha?" He answered swiftly, overjoyed by her miraculous return.
"Hai?" she smiled her simple, over-bright smile into his merry eyes and replied simply,
"You…came…"
Again her eyes fluttered closed, as she snuggled deeper into his arms, though this time, they closed not in death, but temporary slumber. The woman beside him wept silently, happily, and uncontrollably. She wasted no time in calling the healers, who arrived soon after in a strange, horseless vehicle making a noise like a wounded wolf. The top flashed brightly with awkward shades of crimson and cerulean. Her mother called the vehicle an 'ambulance' and stifled her sobs long enough to have herself a good laugh at him for folding his ears back against his skull and growling protectively at the people who attempted to swipe his precious bundle.
Finally, she forced him to hand over his treasure to the people who would save her. They swarmed over her body and back into the 'ambulance' that they reminded him of ants. 'Please, let her be okay,' was his silent prayer.
