A/N: Okay. I lied. So, I'm four days past my dead-line. Sue me. ;) Honestly, though, not may fault. Every time I sat down to write this, I had to get back up for some stupid reason or the other. With all the distractions at my house, it's a wonder that I get anything done! As the great and short-tempered Inuyasha would say: Feh.
--Later--
The future had been drastically changed twice within just forty-eight hours. This future wasn't supposed to be changed at all to begin with. Now things were getting out of control, that so important future no longer stable. And not even Reyu knew what would happen next.
She once had a vision of Inuyasha defeating Naraku. Yesterday, that vision came to her again, but altered in a horrible way: Naraku killing Inuyasha. Today, she stood before the aftermath of the battle, in which neither Naraku nor Inuyasha were killed. In fact, no one was killed. But Kagome...
Reyu tried, but she couldn't summon up a vision of the past to see first-hand what had happend. So instead, she had to piece together the event from what she could understand from Kagome's upset friends. Inuyasha was bent over Kagome, completely oblivious to anything else. Shippo was in tears, sobbing uncontrollably, and Sango was silently crying while she tried to comfort him. Miroku was the calmest and explained as best as he could of what had went on:
Naraku showed up unexpectedly, taking them by surprise. Being a night of a new moon, Inuyasha had lost his demon powers and became a mere human. Somehow, Naraku seemed to know this and also their exact location, but how he found out, no one knew. Sango jumped on Kirara and attacked him head-on, while Miroku attempted to use his Wind Tunnel and Kagome loaded an arrow. Naraku simply swatted off Sango's boomerang, and his demon wasps kept Miroku busy. Kagome fired an arrow and missed, and Inuyasha was getting anxious. He had out his sword, even though it wouldn't transform, and was ready to fight despite the fact that the odds were against him. Naraku was approaching too fast though, ready to deal the death blow. And that's apparently when Kagome dropped her bow and ran forward to push Inuyasha out of the way. This must have caught Naraku slightly off guard, and maybe slowed him just a bit, enough to weaken his blow to were it wouldn't instantly kill. He slashed into Kagome's back while Inuyasha fell out of the strike zone. Kagome then collasped.
Miroku wasn't sure about what happend next. He said Naraku just stopped, looked at Kagome, then left without a word. Just left. It was fortunate though, since Kagome was hurt so badly. A few minutes later, Reyu dashed in, and here they were.
"You must have saw what was going to happen," Miroku said to her, "With your gift, and that's why you're here? You wanted to warn us."
"No. I mean yes, I was on my way to warn you, but this isn't what I saw. That's why I asked. My vision was different than this," Reyu sighed, crestfallen, and added guiltly, "And I messed up. I didn't make it in time. I-I'm so sorry. It's all my fault; this shouldn't have happend."
"Please do not blame yourself, Lady Reyu. We've been up against Naraku before, so we know the risks," Miroku said solemnly, "None of this your fault. Besides, you say your vision was different. How could you know this would happen?"
"My vision wasn't completely different," she told them quietly, "The only difference was that Kagome didn't push Inuyasha out of the way. He was hit by Naraku's blow and died."
They went silent. Inuyasha, upon hearing his name, looked up and finally registered Reyu's presence. He just barely heard what she said, and his mind wouldn't focus on anything but Kagome right now. He gently lifted her up into his arms, where she winced once before falling back into unconsciousness. His whole left sleeve was gone, as he had torn it to ribbons to use as makeshift bandages for Kagome. Even so, you could still see the dark red stain growing bigger on the red strands of cloth that were wrapped around her torso, the bleeding from her back not stopping. Inuyasha didn't look much different in his human form, save for the human ears and black hair, but when he turned to Reyu, there was a sad helplessness in his eyes instead of the usual sharpness.
His voice was steady but hollow. "Please," he pleaded softly, clutching Kagome in his arms, "You have to do something. Help her..."
"I c-can't," Reyu stammered, shaking her head back and forth and biting her lip. She felt like she was going to cry. "I'm just a seer. Not a healer. There's nothing I can do for her."
"We could take her to Lady Kaede," Miroku suggested, "The village isn't too far off from here."
"I don't think Kaede will be able to do anything," murmmed Sango, "Naraku's vemon has likely been inflicted in her wounds. It's probably already spreading to the rest of her body, and then..." She didn't finish the sentence.
"No!" Inuyasha shouted, his face consorted with anger now instead of grief, which was something he was more used to. But he was angry from the grief. "There's has to be something we can do! I'll find a way!"
Reyu's head was spinning. Wrong, wrong, wrong, all wrong! None of this was supposed to happen, it shouldn't have! How did Naraku slip through like that? Reyu thought for sure that this future was in the right place, that it was solid and insuperable, and yet now everything had gone awry. Yes, Inuyasha was still alive, but only because Kagome changed the future herself when she pushed him away at very last moment. And now things looked pretty bad for her.
Kagome. Kind and caring Kagome, who apologized so sincerely to Reyu on Inuyasha's behalf, who had insisted that she accompany them through the pass, who gave her the strange and foreign "scrunchie" which Reyu still wore proudly in her hair, knowing that no one else in this time period had one.
Because the scrunchie thing was from the future, just like Kagome herself. Reyu knew right off when they met that Kagome was from the future, without any visions telling her so. The time-space and aura around Kagome was dissorted a bit, and it felt different than everything else. As a seer, she could sense those things. (Although that was the first time it had ever happend that Reyu came across someone from another time.) Kagome was a big part of this destinty, so that's why she was here, even though it's not her own time period.
'A girl from the future...' The words echoed in her mind, and Reyu thought again of the scrunchie that pulled back her hair. When she had examined it the day before, she couldn't exactly figure out how it was made. It stretched and didn't break, and it went in a circle, like a bracelet, but there was no clasp or knot; it was an unbroken circle. Reyu had realized it couldn't be made by hand, so that in Kagome's time, there must be some type of special tools used, tools that didn't exsist yet in this time period. Thinking about it now, Reyu wondered just how more advanced they were in Kagome's time.
Probably enough that she would have a better chance of survival there than here.
"How do you get there?" Reyu asked aloud. The others looked at her questioningly. "To the future," she explained, "To Kagome's time! How does it work, how do you get there?"
"The well," replied Miroku, "By the village. But why--"
"Things develop and advance as time goes on," she said quickly, "Like healing and medicines. They might be able to do something for Kagome in her own time!"
Inuyasha didn't need convincing; he had been to Kagome's time period many times before and understood what Reyu was saying. He felt stupid for not coming up with the idea himself and wasting time. Well, he wasn't going to waste anymore. He was already off, running towards the forest. With an injured Kagome in his arms, he had to be careful, but he also had to be quick. The thought of using Kirara, or even Reyu's horse, to carry Kagome there did occur to him, but he silently told himself that even in his human form, he was still faster than them. Really, he was just in full protective mode and didn't want to let go of Kagome.
Luckily, this state did make him run fast in his human form. Soon they where in the forest, the Bone Eater's Well up ahead, and Inuyasha made it there before everyone else did.
"Stick around the village," he told them, "Until...until me and Kagome come back." He tried to sound confident and unworried as he spoke, but his face betrayed him. Turning his back to them, he carefully climbed up and sat down on the edge of the well, held on to Kagome, then dropped in. There was a brief flash of light, then they where gone.
"Ah. That explains a lot," Reyu said to herself, looking down in the well, "I guess it wasn't trying to eat me afterall. All righty then," she glanced back at Miroku, Sango, and Shippo, and said, "I'll be going too. I want to make sure Kagome will be okay, and that Inuyasha won't do anything stupid. He seems like the kind of person who doesn't think before he acts."
"You can't," Sango said. "Only Kagome and Inuyasha have ever made it through the well. It doesn't work for anyone else."
But her words fell on deaf ears, because Reyu had already jumped in and gone through. There was a flash of light and she was gone.
---------------
Mrs. Higurashi hummed as she cooked. Most of dinner was done, but the turkey in the oven was taking a little longer. It was getting late, and she regretted not putting it in earlier. Oh well. They would just have to eat late tonight.
Maybe Kagome will come home, she mused, Wouldn't she be surprised? She'd make it time for dinner!
That's probably why Mrs. Higurashi waited on making dinner; a part of her hoped that her daughter would come home for tonight and they could have dinner as a family. She wouldn't mind if Inuyasha came and ate with them too.
She checked on the turkey, then pulled off her oven mitts and picked up the phone. Sota was at a friend's house, and she wanted to let him know dinner was almost ready.
"No, Sota, it's time to come home," she said into the receiver, "You can spend the night some other time. Hm? Okay, but I want you home in an hour. Supper should be done by then. One hour, no later. All right, bye sweetie."
When she hung up and turned around, she found a strange girl in her kitchen. Mrs. Higurashi almost screamed but caught herself. It was just a girl, about Kagome's own age. Who she was and why she was inside her house, Mrs. Higurashi didn't know, but the girl's outifit and her odd, purple eyes suggested that she was from the past, from the Feudal Era. Was she a friend of Kagome's?
Mrs. Higurashi opened her mouth to speak, but the girl beat her to it.
"You're Kagome's mother, right?" she asked, and didn't wait for a reply, "You have to summon it, you have to summon it right now!"
"Slow down dear," Mrs. Higurashi said calmly, "What do you need me to do? Is Kagome here?"
"Yes, and you have summon it! The moving, metal thing, it's like a wagon, but without horses, the white one--" she paused, went still, and Mrs. Higurashi noticed that her left eye was glowing.
"The ambulence. You have to summon an ambulence," she said in a now slow, even tone.
Mrs. Higurashi's heart skipped a beat, and the color drained from her face. "What do you mean? Why do I have to call an ambulence? What's going on?"
And that's when Inuyasha stepped through the door, looking very upset and impatient and rueful all at the same time, with the bleeding Kagome in his arms.
---------------
Kagome was put on a stretcher and loaded into the ambulence, with its flashing lights and loud sirens still going off. Her grandfather and mother got in along with the paramedics, but when Inuyasha made to follow them, Mrs. Higurashi shook her head.
"I'm sorry, Inuyasha, but you and your friend need to stay here. It won't fit us all and we need to go now. Besides, Sota might be on his way, and I don't want him to come home to an empty house."
"But--"
"No buts!" she said, using the authoritive mother voice, "You'll stay right here and that's final!" Her voice became softer as she added, "I know your worried about Kagome, but you've done all you can. I'm glad you brought her here to get help. But there's nothing else you can do for her now."
"I think he's done enough already!" snapped the old priest, glowering at Inuyasha. Mrs. Higurashi shot him a disapproving look.
"We'll call you later, all right? Just stay here." They shut the doors before he could say anything else, and the ambulence sped away. He watched as it turned the corner and disappeared from sight. He continued to stand there, until Reyu started tugging on his remaining sleeve.
"Come on," she said, "Let's go back in and wait, like she said to."
He gave her no reply and no hint of moving.
"Inuyasha!" She began pulling on his arm in a vain attempt to drag him inside. "Please! It's really dark out here! Come on!"
He jerked his arm out of her grasp with one easy motion and ignored her.
"Okay, now you're just being stubborn." She grabbed his left ear and twisted it unmercifully. That got his attention.
"Ow! Ow! Let go of my ear, dammit!"
" Go inside and I will."
"All right, just let go!" She did, but not without a satisfied smirk, knowing that she was a seasoned pro at ear twisting. Inuyasha rubbed his ear and reluctantly followed her inside the house.
---------------
Something was burning in the kitchen, so Reyu went to check it out. It was the turkey, still in the oven. Having never seen an oven like this before, she opened the door and went to grab the turkey with her bare hands, until she felt the heat rush out at her. She jumped back and looked for something else to remove the turkey with. After much searching, she returned to the kitchen with a shovel and scooped the turkey in its pan out of the oven. It wobbled and nearly fell off, but she managed to place it on the stove. She then examined the oven switches and flicked them all to OFF, since it seemed the logical thing to do, and the oven did turn off.
Triumphant, she returned to the living room, where Inuyasha was sitting on the couch with a defeated look on his face. Reyu plopped herself down in the armchair across from him. Her victory over the oven had cheered her some, but upon seeing how sad Inuyasha looked, she felt depressed again. Had it been any other time, she would have been exploring the house and marveling at all the strange, new things here in the future, but right now she felt too gloomy to even be curious. They sat in silence for a while, each deep in their own thoughts. Finally, Inuyasha glanced over to Reyu and asked, "How did you get through the well? No one else has done that before but me and Kagome."
"I'm a seer," she replied, as if that explained it. "The well is a portal of Time, and seers are the children of Time. So to speak. I guess that means we're not bound to one partical time-space if it's possible to go to another. I'm really just your basic seer though, visions being the only Time magic I can do. I couldn't open a portal myself. Neither could Hiro, but I bet he could alter an exsisting one. That well's the only portal I've ever seen though. I wonder if a seer created it..?"
"Who's Hiro?" Inuyasha asked, since everything else she said was lost on him.
"Oh. Hiromi." She sighed, wondering why she even mentioned him. "He's a demon that I used to know. He's a seer, like me." She sighed again and said no more. Inuyasha could tell that she didn't want to talk about it, so he dropped it.
The two fell silent again and stayed that way for the rest of the night. The turkey long grew cold and Sota never came home. No one called, so there was no news about Kagome. Reyu eventually fell asleep in the armchair, but Inuyasha had trouble getting to sleep, and instead laid on the couch, staring up at the ceiling and thinking about Kagome all night.
---------------
"Let's cut his hair!"
"No, Sota-kun, I don't think that's a good idea."
"Can we put his hand in a cup of water and see if he pees his pants?"
"I don't think we should."
"Can we at least squeeze toothpaste in his hand, so when he wakes up and rubs his eyes, he'll smear it all over his face? Come on, it'll be funny!"
"Well, maybe...what's toothpaste?"
"How 'bout you leave me the hell alone!" Inuyasha growled and sat up. He had been able to finally drift off to sleep just a few hours ago, but all this yapping woke him. That was most likely because it was morning, so he was back in his demon form, and his dog ears were more sensitive to noise now. He sat up and grumbled.
"I was just kidding, you know," Sota lied. Inuyasha looked at him with groggy eyes.
"Where were you last night? Your mom said you'd be coming home."
"Mom called me at my friend's house and told me to spend the night there," Sota said, matter-of-factly. "I came home this morning and saw you guys in my living room. Reyu-chan introduced herself and told me my fortune," he added cheerfully. Inuyasha glanced questionally at Reyu, who shrugged and shook her head.
So neither Reyu or his mother had told Sota about Kagome? Inuyasha hoped they weren't expecting him to do it. Sota might hate him then, for not keeping his sister safe, and just the thought that made Inuyasha feel worse.
But maybe Kagome was okay now? Maybe those doctor-people healed her, and maybe she was on her way home right now. And she would yell at Inuyasha for being so careless, and he would yell at her for being so stupid and getting hurt. Then he would apologize, really and truly apologize, and make her stay home in her own time for a while, and he would go back to tell the others that she was all right, then hunt down Naraku and make him pay.
Inuyasha felt suddenly awake and hopeful. "Did your mom call here yet?" he asked Sota.
He looked confused and nodded. "Yeah, just a few minutes ago. She sounded kind of weird and told me that grampa was on his way to pick me up. But she wouldn't tell me where to."
"Good. I'm going with you."
"But where are we going?" Sota wanted to know.
"You'll find out when we get there!" Inuyasha said, because he didn't know where they would be going. Wherever Kagome was, with the healers.
That wasn't an answer, Sota thought, but he could tell neither of them really knew, so he didn't ask again. Instead, he turned on the TV and played his Gamestation 360 to pass the time. It was a first-person shoot game and Sota had enough controllers so that Inuyasha and Reyu could play too.
After losing twenty-three times in a row, Inuyasha threw down the controller and gave up. Reyu, on the other hand, caught on pretty quickly and was giving Sota a run for his money. True, she didn't understand how the pictures moved on the TV or why they were making the digital people shoot each other with the weird weapons she'd never seen before, but she was laughing and enoying herself quite a bit.
"Yess, I just received a health pack!" Sota cheered, as his character's HP went up.
"All the health packs in the world won't save you now," said Reyu, tapping the buttons like crazy, firing rockets at Sota's character. She watched the screen with glee, waiting for her win, but she never saw it. The whole view in front of her became blurry and swirled, changing. The controller fell from Reyu's hands and she froze.
"Hey, what's wrong?" piped Sota, wondering why she went so still all of a sudden. "Why'd ya stop playing? Reyu-chan?"
When she didn't respond, he shook her shoulder. "Reyu-chan?"
She snapped out of it and blinked. "Huh?"
"Are you okay? What happend?"
"Oh. Oh, no, I'm fine, I'm perfectly fine. Just wigged out for a minute, that's all." She hoped he'd buy it and go back to his game. "I think I'll go out and get some fresh air, though."
"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked one more time, and Inuyasha, who was staring out the window, waiting for Kagome's granmpa to show up, turned his head back to look at her. She forced out a smile to assure them everything was all right.
"Yes, I'm okay." Then she went out the door.
---------------
"You're not coming!"
"Yes I am!"
"No you're not!"
"I am, you can't stop me, old man! I'm going to see Kagome!"
While Inuyasha and his grandfather argued, Sota walked over to Reyu and tapped her on the shoulder. She looked like she was spacing out again, and clearly wasn't paying any attention to shouts coming from the driveway.
"Reyu-chan?"
"Eh?"
"What happend to Kagome? Something bad happend, didn't it? That's why she's not here."
"Oh, Sota-kun..."
"Just tell me!" The stern look on his face told Reyu that he wasn't just going to drop it like before. So she told him. He took the news better than she thought he would. He kept his stern face and marched over to the driveway.
"Stop fighting and let's go!" He commanded, already getting in the car. His grandfather shook his head.
"Sota, you should stay here. I just came by to check up on you and get a few things--"
"No! Mom said I could come."
"Yes, but that was before--"
"Just shut up and take us!" Inuyasha shouted, following Sota into the back seat of the car. He instantly knew he wasn't going to like the strange contraption, but if it got him to Kagome, who cared?
"Look, Kagome's still in the ICU," said her grandfather, in a much softer tone, "They won't let Sota in since he's too young, and how would I explain you, Inuyasha?"
Inuyasha waved the baseballcap he got from the house and crammed it on his head. "Problem solved," he declared. The old priest sighed and got in the car.
"Reyu!" Inuyasha shouted, sticking his head out the car window, "Are you coming or what?"
She frowned as she got in. "Inuyasha, maybe you shouldn't go."
"What? Of course I'm going!"
"It's just that...well...nevermind." There was no point. He was too determined and it was all hopeless anyway. She gazed out her window as they drove into the city, heading to the hospital.
Hopeless.
---------------
It hurt so bad.
She had been through pain before. It was nothing new. But this...this was something different all together. It hurt so bad, beyond belief. So bad that the word 'pain' wasn't nearly enough to accurately describe it.
The doctors cleaned the wounds, switched them up, gave her medications and IVs and painkillers. She had lost a lot of blood. The wounds no longer bled, but that wasn't the problem anymore. A strange and unidentified type of poison had already spread throughout her entire body by the time she got to the hospital. None of the doctors or nurses, or anyone, could figure out what kind it was, what it came from, or how to stop it. Since it was a new venom, there wasn't any antidote for it yet. There was no way to counter act it.
That's because it was Naraku's venom, and demons didn't exsist in this time. Of course there wasn't an antidote.
Well, thought Kagome, That's it. I'm screwed. It was funny, how calm she felt about all of this. Maybe that's because the pain took up so much of her attention. Painkillers and sedatives did nothing for her. The poison was too strong. It paralyzed her whole body, and it made it feel like there was blazing fires running throughout her veins instead of blood. Every second she was in pain; it never went away and it never felt any weaker. Kagome wasn't sure how much more she could take, and she knew how badly she just wanted to make it stop, no matter how it had to be done. So long as she didn't hurt anymore.
Her mother was slumped over at the side of her bed, crying into her hands. It broke Kagome's heart to see her like that. She wanted to tell her it was all right, but that wasn't true, and she couldn't talk anyhow. One of the doctors started talking to her mom, and helped her up. Kagome heard her ask something, but she couldn't make out the words even though she was right there next to them. It was like listening to a radio with bad reception; just a bunch of buzzing.
The pain kept Kagome from focusing on anything going on around her. Her thoughts were the only things she could really hear anymore, so she let them flow freely in her half-numb mind.
As usual, the first thought was of Inuyasha. She wondered where he was, if he was okay. At first she was afraid that Naraku got to him after she pushed him out of the way, but realized with reflief that that didn't happen, because who else could have brought to her own time? So he had to be alive, and that made her happy. She was glad that she pushed him out of the way of Naraku's blow and didn't regret it, not even now. To Kagome, he was worth it. And, although she hated to think it, she felt like she had one up on Kikyo. Because, sure, Kikyo was willing to die with Inuyasha.
But Kagome was willing to die for him.
---------------
As soon as he shook the room number out of the nearest nurse, Inuyasha was off. The others were left behind to catch up with him. Sota was stopped outside the doors to the Intensive Care Unit since he was under fourteen, so Reyu volunteered to stay with him in the waiting room. Inuyasha had already gone through and the priest was shuffling in after him.
Reyu sat uncomfortably in the hard, plastic seat next to Sota. Her outfit and purple eyes received stares from the other people in the room, but no one said anything. Everyone seemed so glum, which made sense, since they were in the waiting room for the ICU, not the Recovery. Reyu was starting to shake because, for whatever reasons, her Sight was acting up all of a sudden and she was being bombarded with visions of the other people in the room. She knew why some were here, some of what had happend to their relatives or friends, and some of what would happend. She knew which of these people would get good news and which would burst into tears and sobs. She chewed her lip and trembled, trying not to cry herself. There was nothing she could do with these visions and she didn't want them. It was the same as earlier, when she was playing the game with Sota, and she hated it.
There had to be something she could do. She never failed before, she wouldn't start now. With that in mind, she tried to close off the visions and think of an idea.
---------------
Room three-six-two, room three-six-two, Inuyasha repeated over in his head. Room three-six-two. In the hospital, it was nearly impossible to pick up just a single scent, ie. Kagome's. The smell of blood and chemicals and sickeness dominated his nose. He had to go down the halls and find her room by number.
There were too many rooms, too many smells, too many strange nosies, and too many sick and injured people. All of his sharpend senses were being assaulted by the overload, and it was driving him mad. How can they even keep Kagome in a place like this? he thought, his anger rising, It's horrible here! And where is her God damn room at?
He wondered if he already passed it up. Maybe he did? He knew Kagome's grandfather wasn't behind him anymore, but he figured the old man just couldn't keep up. Maybe he actually found the room and decided to let Inuyasha keep roaming the halls; afterall, he was pretty angry at him.
Just when he was about to turn around and backtrack, though, he found Room 362. But only because Mrs. Higurashi was standing outside it, wailing and crying her eyes out, the nurses trying to comfort her and the doctors shaking their heads sympathetically. Inuyasha could feel it creeping over him when he saw that, but he inhaled deeply and pushed passed them, into Kagome's room.
"Ka..Kagome...?"
As soon as he saw her, he knew. She was lying there, so completely still, like a statue. Her eyes were closed and already she smelled of death, and the strange, onimious machines that she was hooked up to were going off like alarms. One made a horrible, long 'beeeeep' noise, and Inuyasha wanted to rip it apart, to make it stop, to make everything stop. He stared down at Kagome with wide, horror filled eyes, and he knew. He knew and couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it.
"No. No, no, no, please no, not Kagome, anyone but Kagome..."
Someone, a doctor, put a hand on his shoulder and was steering him out of the room, saying, "I'm sorry, son, we tried our best, but there's nothing we could do for her. I'm going to have ask you to please wait outside the unit now. I'm sorry."
"No, she's not dead, she can't be, she can't be," Inuyasha mumbled over like a mantra and he jerked away from the man and headed back to her room. It had to be a trick or, or something! He would go back in there to find Kagome sitting up, free of machines, tubes, and stillness, and she would laugh and say "Got you, Inuyasha!"
Mrs. Higurashi was gone now but doctors and other officious-looking people blocked his way, talking too loudly and scribbling things down on clipboards, moving to and from her room. Inuyasha began to shove his way through again, but this time, they stopped him. Two people were pulling him away now and the door swung shut with a quiet 'click'. He could have easily fought his way through, and would have, but when that door was shut on him, so were the false hopes that had kept him going all day.
When he had first stepped into her room and saw her there, Inuyasha knew that she was gone, but the realization struck him at that moment as the door shut and locked him away from her forever.
It was the terrible truth: Kagome Higurashi was undeniably dead.
---------------
"Hey, was that Inuyasha?"
"What?" Reyu jumped out of her seat and stuck her head out into the hall just in time to see Inuyasha disappear around a corner, running so fast that a nurse fell over after almost crashing into him.
"Oh no."
"Hey, wait! Where are you going, Reyu? What's going on?"
She skidded to a halt. "I have to go now, Sota!"
"But--please don't leave me here! I don't wanna be alone!"
Reyu walked back and bent down so that she was at eye level with him. "Listen, Sota-kun: You're not going to be alone. Your mother's coming right now. And I want you to be very brave and strong, okay? You have to be brave for her."
"I-I don't think I can," he sniffed.
"Nonsense. I know you can. Now be a brave boy and wait here for her, all right?"
He nodded his head and wiped his eyes as Reyu lead him back to the waitng room. She gave him a quick hug and turned to go chase after Inuyasha, before she lost track of him altogether. But before she left, Sota looked at her one last time and asked, "Everything's gonna be okay, right?"
"Yeah Sota-kun," she said softly, while looking at the ground instead of his face, "Everything's going to be okay."
---------------
He wasn't running away. True, the dreadful hospital was long behind him, but he wasn't running away from it. He wasn't running away from anything. Neither was he was running to anything. He was just...running. Running as fast he could.
He didn't know why he was running. He just let his mind stop and his feet took over. Run. Run. Run. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't care. His baseball cap flew off, exposing his ears. Didn't care. He was running so hard and so fast and never slowing or stopping, he could barely feel his legs anymore. Didn't care. He didn't care about anything anymore because nothing mattered anymore.
Didn't care. Nothing mattered. So hopeless.
Inuyasha ran for what felt like forever, past buildings and cars and people, not taking anything in, not thinking any thoughts. Run. Run. Run. Don't stop, don't ever stop. Run. Make it go away, make it all go away and run. And he ran.
But even Inuyasha could get worn out and he found that, unfortunately, his legs were slowing down. And as he began to decrease his speed, his thoughts and feelings increased. His lungs burned, and his heart was beating so fast he thought it would rip out of his chest. And his eyes were starting to water, but not the wind on his face.
Finally, he came to a stop. When his mind became coherent again, he wasn't at all surprised to see where he ended up: the Higurashi Shrine. Kagome's home. Staring downward as he walked, he entered the shrine and slumped against the nearest tree, sinking to ground. Only when he lifted his head did he realize what tree he sat under.
The God Tree. Of course.
He clenched his fists and sighed, resisting the urge to get up and slash the tree to pieces, and to break and tear and crush everything around him. The image of Kagome, lying so still and so dead in the hospital, replayed over and over in his mind. He was clenching his fists so hard, his claws digged into his skin. He could feel his blood oozing through his fingers and he saw Kagome, bleeding in his arms. Her blood. On his hands. Dying, dead. Gone and gone forever.
"DAMN YOU, KAGOME!" he shouted, to the grey sky that matched the grey day. Tears flowed freely down his face. "Damn you..." he whispered.
---------------
"Figured I find you here. Good thing too, because my legs are about to fall off. That was one heck of a walk."
Inuyasha didn't even look up as Reyu leaned against the tree next to him and let out a sigh of relief.
"You knew, didn't you?" he said, still staring at the ground. He said it as a statement, not an accusion. "You knew she was going to die. That's why you didn't want me to go." Apparently he had accepted Reyu's claims to see the future.
"Yeah," she said sadly.
"Why didn't you tell me?" This time, he did sound mad.
"Would it have changed anything?" she shot back. Inuyasha didn't answer.
"Look, believe it or not, I'm just as upset as you are. I didn't know Kagome for very long, but I do know she was great person and she didn't deserve to die like that."
"You can't be as upset as me," he snorted, "I'm the one who killed her, after all."
"Wha? Inuyasha, Naraku killed her, not--"
"It was because of me! She died to save me!" He punched his fist into the ground. "It's all my fault."
"No. It's all my fault," said Reyu, "If I had made it in time..."
"It's my fault! I wasn't paying attention, I was being careless--"
"It's my fault for falling asleep and arriving late--"
"No, it's my fault for not protecting her! I couldn't protect her, I couldn't save her, so it's my damn fault!"
"All right, all right. It's not a competiton, you know." Reyu sighed and stepped forward so she could pace around a bit. What a thick-head, she thought irritatably. "Really, Inuyasha, if it's anyone's fault, then it's Naraku's. Not yours, not mine, his."
"Feh. I'm still to blame," he murmmed, leaning his head back against the tree, looking straight up at its branches. "I wish I was still pinned to this tree. I wish she never came to my time and released me. Then none of this would have happend."
"Inuyasha..."
"She lost everything because of me, Reyu, everything! She left her family and home to go back to a time that wasn't her's, to help fight a battle that wasn't her's! And I was mean to her, and I fought and argued and hurt her feelings all the time, instead of appreciating what she did. And she stayed with me and cared about me even when she shouldn't have. And now she's dead because of that! All because she met me!"
Now flustered, Inuyasha pulled himself up. He held out his right hand in front of him, as if seeing it there for the first time, and you could see the puncture marks that lined the bottom of his palm, where his claws had dug in. He seemed digusted with himself.
"I don't even deserve to live," he thought aloud, "Maybe I shouldn't be, maybe I sh--Oof!"
Inuyasha staggered one step backwards and rubbed the side of his face as he stared at Reyu. She punched him! Right in the face, too! And here he thought he had her all figured out; that she was a timid, sweet, polite girl who just had freaky powers and no coordination to speak of. But the sting in his face and the Glare of Doom he was getting from her right now suggested that he missed a few things.
"How can you even say that?" she shouted at him in stark disbelief, "Kagome died to save your life, and you would just throw it away like that? You would waste her sacrifice like that?"
"I didn't ask her to die for me!" he shouted back, "I didn't want her sacrifice her life for mine! I'd rather it have been me that was killed instead of her!"
"It was supposed to be you. I orignally Saw you die," she said, but she didn't shout, just spoke. "But you know what? Your friend wasn't going to let that happen. Kagome changed the future. She died, not you. So now, Inuyasha, what you are going to do about it?"
It wasn't a rhetorical question; she actually said it like she was expecting an answer. He didn't have an answer though, so he countered it with his own question.
"What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said."
"But I don't understand what you said!"
"All right, let's put it this way," she said with a tone one would use to explain something to a small child, "If you could have anything right now, anything at all, no matter what it was, what would you want? Think about it now."
Like he had to think about it. "I'd want Kagome to be alive."
"That's right."
He waited for her to go on, but she said nothing else. "I still don't get it. Can't you just come out and say it already?"
"No, because I'm still not sure yet."
"Sure about what?"
"Shh!" she held a finger to her mouth, "Be quiet. I'm thinking."
Inuyasha growled, only to be shushed again. What was with this girl? Half the words that came out of her mouth never made any sense to him. Sometimes she was straightforward and sometimes she spoke in riddles. And right now, Inuyasha was in no mood for riddles. He was about to start yelling again, but Reyu finally spoke.
"Kay, I have an idea," she exclaimed, clapping her hands together.
"An idea? For what?"
"To fix this," she said, as if it was the most obvious thing, "What else?"
"Fix? You mean, you're going bring back Kagome...?"
Reyu frowned. "No. Kagome's dead. You cannot bring the dead back to life."
Inuyasha was about to disagree, Kikyo in mind, but when he stopped to think about it, he realized she was right. Kikyo was forced back to the world of the living, fueled only by her hatred and the souls of dead girls. That wasn't life.
"Then what are you going on about?" he asked, frustrated again. "If there's nothing we can do for Kagome, then why do anything? There's no point in it!"
"You. Are. So. Hopeless! Of course there's a point in it," Reyu said confidently, "We're going to fix this. We're going to do something for everyone. Now stop whinning and listen to me. I said I had an idea, so let's go!"
"What idea? Go where? Why the hell can't you just explain yourself for once?"
"My idea. Back to our time. I just did."
Inuyasha gave up; Reyu was impossible. She was up to something, but he couldn't figure out what. He decided to just go along with whatever she was planning. There was nothing else for him to do anyway, aside from delivering Naraku a slow and painful death. And then what? Killing Naraku wouldn't undo the damage he had already done.
So much damage he had done. The foremost reason Inuyasha's life was in misery was due to Naraku. Naraku had tricked him and Kikyo that time so long ago, Naraku took the Shikon Jewel shards, Naraku killed Sango's family and took over Kohaku, Naraku had cursed Miroku's hand, Naraku madeInuyasha's life a living hell.
And now Naraku had killed Kagome. For the second time, Inuyasha had lost that soul to Naraku. For the second time, Inuyasha lost someone he loved, and to that damn bastard Naraku! It wasn't fair. Not to him, and especially not to Kagome.
Why did she have to die?
Was it Fate? Did it matter? Was it hopeless?
It all felt hopeless, and Inuyasha felt empty, like there was this big, gaping hole inside him, where something was missing. As he followed Reyu to the well, he didn't even bother to hide his tears. He cried silently but heavily. Reyu stopped and looked back at him.
And she flashed him a smile; she was crying too.
A/N: I'm sorry Kagome-fans! And now you know why I have been repeatedly smacked with paperback novels and random projectile objects. Heh. I apologize for killing Kagome off. But that's a part of the story, so in order for it to be told, it had to be done. Besides, this is a fanfic and I am its author, so I have the right to kill any characters I want! Muhahaha!--No, just kidding. I'm not really happy about it. But please! Do not give up on my story just yet! There's still two chapters left to go; it's not over yet! So please keep on reading and reviewing and whatnot.
Since this chapter was kinda depressing, I have a little treat to cheer you up! I reccently obtained the 'Art of Inuyasha' book from the library, and it also included some interesting triva! Like the characters' names, for example. 'Inu' means dog and 'yasha' means forest spirit, so if literally translated, Inuyasha would be called 'Dog-forest spirit'! -lol- Now, I'm not an expert at Japanese, so I'm not sure if these are literal translations or what, but here are some of the characters' names and what they mean:
Shippo-Seven Treasures
Kaede-Maple
Kirara-Mica
Koga-Steel Fang
Kohaku-Amber
Sango-Coral
Jaken-Evil Sight
I'll post the rest of 'em in the next chapter. (Aha! An incentitve!) I don't know the meaning of my own characters' names. I stole 'Hiromi' from another manga, and I thought 'Reyu' sounded good, I but made it up, so it might not mean anything. Or if it does, it's probably something bad, like 'toilet paper', or 'big, green booger'.
Well, that's it for now! Don't hate me and keep reading! Arigatou, yo!