A/N: Is it true? Yes it is, it is indeed an update. I can't stress how sorry I am for always letting you guys wait. I would like to thank all of you who have kept encouraging me with your generous words and know that since I'm home with covid (while there is nothing I can really do without fear of contaminating anything), I have the first three quarter of the next chapter already drafted and hope to update upcoming week. It will be the second to last chapter. I know I've said this before, but the chapters became too long, and there is still quite a bit that needs to happen.

On a more positive note, I did already write the entire last chapter. So once next chapter is out of the way, you won't have to wait for long.

To be honest, the hardest part writing this story is, yes, it's ending. And while it is, I'm not best pleased with how my thoughts now turn out on the page. But second I've read the summary of the new InuYasha sequel and let's say I'm not best pleased.

I won't take any more of your time to whine about it, but I just can't get into the Sessh/Rin ship. To me he was always her guardian or her father figure and a father figure sleeping with his ward... Yeah, no. So to me, it just doesn't exist. There, everything erased. Thank you...

Ahum, enjoy the newest chapter and like always, let me know what you guys think^^

o.O.o

Chapter Forty Eight, Throats and Insects

Chapter Forty Eight, Throats and Insects

Fingers wrapped tightly around the handle of her bow, Chiharu inhaled deeply, her hair fluttering across her slightly flushed cheeks. Their little group of friends had travelled for several days, tracking Naraku's scent all through the mountains up north until they'd arrived at a large forest. What would be a popular destination for tourists and school trips in the future, Aokigahara was now a wasteland. Once a luscious forest, oozing with life and colour, had fallen in pensive silence, branches bare and bark rough and sometimes loose, littering the hard floor.

Overhead, Mount Fuji whispered in the chilly wind, hard volcanic rock surrounding the edges and Chiharu pushed a thick lock of hair over her shoulder. To ensure their safety Rin and Shippo had stayed with Kaede (under the incredible protection of Master Jaken) back at the village of Edo. It was for the best, but Chiharu missed their aimless chatter, their childish voices and gleeful behaviour.

In the distance the Shikon-no-Tama pulsed, the tainted, bruised-black light winking from within the distance. Chiharu could tell where it came from, she just couldn't tell how to reach it. Which was why they were circling Naraku's tainted lands, his form and his children hidden within a kekkai.

Sesshōmaru was leading the rag-tag group (no one had disputed that for once, as his senses were the best) and his golden eyes glinted coldly. He gazed around with the same apparent stoicism he watched everyone else, but Chiharu had noticed the way his muscles popped, the way his eyebrows creased ever so slightly. The way he had tried to enervate her with Tenseiga— Sesshōmaru was supposed not to care for anyone. He was superior to that. But Chiharu realised, he wasn't trying not to care because of false beliefs of superiority. He was trying to feel nothing, because feeling brought too much pain on the long road. Because feeling— brought you something to lose. How stupid she'd been to not see that. She'd known the man for over two years by now.

He suddenly stopped, at the edge of an open clearing and the sudden foul stench of death, blood and decay hit Chiharu like a ton of bricks. Gasping, she almost tripped over what looked like a mummified human corpse. Now that she inched on her tiptoes, staring around the clearing, she realised there were many more of them. Corpses, so many of them, both human and Yōkai, littered the open clearing, frozen, unseeing eyes staring up out of their sockets and many seemed somehow mummified, half melted. Naraku's miasma was lethal to almost every creature and her breath sounded sharp and hard in the stillness of the air.

"Oh my God—"

"All these people," Miroku whispered horrifiedly and even Kōga, who could find light in any situation was morosely staring around. He'd healed up nicely although his energy depleted quick in combat. Chiharu watched him move forward, toeing the frozen, maimed face of what used to be a human woman.

"There is no honour in death like this."

"Yes." Kagome agreed. "They died gruesomely," Somewhat stating the obvious and although Sangō and Mirōku nodded in agreement, Inuyasha gave her a look as if to say 'seriously, Kagome, what gave it away'.

She almost let out a laugh at his wilted expression and, with an arrow notched on her bow — just in case — Chiharu crossed the clearing, dodging fresh corpses and mummified bones, she moved to the edge. A sloping of hard volcanic rock going over into an even denser forest, spread out as far as the eye could see. Naraku's evil had greatly diminished the greenery around, but the forest below seemed almost untouched. She wondered why and she cocked her head, peering around. A strong Kekkai was shimmering lightly in the faint sunlight and a crisp breeze ruffled the fine hairs around her ears.

Reaching out, holy powers shimmering along her fingertips, she pursed her lips, "is that?"

"Naraku's lair," Sesshōmaru agreed and Inuyasha stepped up to her other side.

"Finally. That sucker is going down!" He hissed, and something bright sparked in his amber eyes. Chiharu wondered if Naraku was even aware they were all so close. All there, waiting to regroup and to attack.

"This one thinks we should make camp," Sesshōmaru drawled suddenly, looking back at the group and then at her with a jaded look. "Night will fall soon."

The fading sun light made his hair golden and his eyes alight, not unlike a cat's. It made her heart flutter and Chiharu swore inwardly. Nervously, she curled her fingers tighter around the bow's handle. Sesshōmaru cocked his head and arced an eyebrow and somehow Chiharu was, again, reminded, that her feelings were only inconvenient for him. Even worse, while she might not be as susceptible to his, he was very aware of what she was feeling by their shared bond. Inhaling deeply she averted her eyes, focusing on the sky instead. The Daiyōkai wasn't wrong. The sky was already darkening and the sun only but a streak of light in the West.

"You've been unusually quiet," Mirōku commented softly, stepping up next to her. His face morose yet still serious. "Is something the matter, Chiharu-sama?"

"Oh, no." she murmured, trying (and probably failing) to give him a reassuring smile. Kagome's eyes burned holes into the back of her head and she kept her eyes firmly forward, never meeting her sister's inquiring stare. They might not always act like it, but Kagome was, in the end, her twin. Kagome could read Chiharu like a book, just as Chiharu could read Kagome. It was a bond hard to break or, Chiharu supposed, hard to understand for an outsider. For someone who didn't have to share a womb and practically everything after that (a face, a birthday and being confused for the other, even with Chiharu's different coloured eyes).

Kagome had known something was wrong almost immediately and while the others had gotten ready to leave the village of Edo, Kagome had cornered Chiharu near the old bone eater well.

She'd needed a moment. Just a small moment and when Sesshōmaru turned to Rin and Jaken, Chiharu sped away from the bustling village. Settling on the ledge of the well, she stared at her slippers, at the hems of her hakama and let out a soft sigh of exasperation. She felt no different from when she had a few days ago. When Chiharu pressed her hand against her chest she was met by the rhythmical beating of her heart and when Chiharu inhaled oxygen would fill her lungs.

From the shadows of the trees, Chiharu deducted evening was starting. A chill had saturated the air and fallen leaves rusted around her feet. Chiharu intertwined her fingers and bit her lower lip. She'd love to jump through the well, hug her mother one last time, caress Souta's cheek and make fun of Ojiji— but, she couldn't…

Their mother would know something was wrong and Chiharu couldn't handle that.

Giving one last lingering glance at the well, she moved to her feet and shuffled away. Following the narrow path, she was eventually led to the river closest to the village of Edo. Moss grew in the cracks between the damp, grey stones making out the river bank and the water was almost black in the gaining evening darkness. Skipping a stone over the water's surface, Chiharu eyebrows drew together when she felt Kagome's aura closed in on her.

"Chiharu-chan?"

"Hello Onee-chan."

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong? You've been awfully silent?" She asked and Chiharu watched her older sister nervously rub her hands together. Her twin had brought the large yellow backpack she always carried around with her and Chiharu wondered if Kagome actually was planning on making a trip home.

"I'm not sure where to start," Chiharu finally decided on, slipping down on a large rock.

"Well, how about what you saw when you were—"

"—Dead?" Chiharu finished awkwardly.

"Yeah," she admitted and after a moment of silence, trotted forward, settling beside her. Her uniform skirt was rumpled and dirtied and her face was pale. Kagome looked tired.

"I learned I am someone's reincarnation too."

"Yeah, I know?"

"Yeah," Chiharu agreed, "and that's why I can sense the jewel shards. Because in a way, part of me is connected to it."

Chiharu waited for her sister to catch on, but Kagome's face remained neutral, impassive even. She wasn't working it out.

"Onee-chan, do you know how the jewel came to be?"

"Of course," she agreed readily. "Midoriko fought all these yōkai and the clashing youki and reiki made— oh!" Her eyes were wide when she turned to stare at me again. "You mean that you and the shikon-no-tama are like— bound together."

"Hm, hm."

"But, what will happen if it's gone?"

"You're asking the wrong question, Kagome-chan."

She frowned and then her eyes lit up. "Why did you not die die?"

"That is the right question," Chiharu agreed. "I'm bound to that jewel. I live because it exists."

"You live— so if it's gone, you would die?"

"Kagome-chan, I am, in fact, already dead." She replied, propping a leg up against the well. "I died when Hakudoshi pierced my heart with that weapon. The only reason I'm here again, is because I am not finished. You might have been the protector of the Shikon-no-tama, but it's my duty to make sure it will be gone from this word. We have to wish it away!"

"But, if we wish it away—"

"I'll be gone." Chiharu agreed and entangled her fingers on her lap. "However, if that's the price to rid the world of the Shikon-no-tama…"

"I can't!" Kagome gasped, shaking her head and blinking against tears that were clinging stubbornly to her lashes. "If that thing is gone and so are you, than I won't do it!"

"Yes," Chiharu agreed, "I'll be gone. But, you have to. One life doesn't weight up to a hundredth maybe even a thousand people. Look what the Shikon-no-tama has already done. How it has already destroyed or drove wedges between so many people. So many good people. You have to do what's right, Kagome-chan. And since you are the bearer of the Shinkon-no-tama now, it has to be you."

"This isn't fair!" Kagome gasped out and Chiharu wanted to retort that the world had never been fair. Eventually she shrugged.

"No," she agreed, placing both hands on her shoulders, "but you have to do it."

Sango's cry tore Chiharu away from her thoughts and she watched the slayer draw near, riding her fire cat. Its paws flexing on the fire that somehow made her capable of flight and for a moment Chiharu stared as they landed, the slayer deftly slipping off of her companion's back and her smile somewhat radiant. "Guys, there's a cave a bit more west. I think it's secluded enough to hide us from view."

"That's good," Chiharu remarked and Inuyasha's ears flattened.

"I'd rather look around some more," he replied gruffly and Chiharu wondered if he'd rather led the way to the nearest village. I could smell the scent of smoke and hear the sound of humans going about their daily workings. Then again, they had been no more safe in a village than they'd been in the secludedness of tall trees full in leaf.

"Inuyasha, we can't risk a fight yet," Kagome said, her arms crossed and her eyes flashing righteously. And she was right. They couldn't. They were still waiting for their back up in the form of Kōga and his group of ragtag wolf-friends. They could do with the numbers.

Wetting her lips, she lowered her bow and arrow, "perhaps some rest would be wise."

"Hn, this one things so too," Sesshōmaru voiced up, and Chiharu had to stave the childish need to disagree on principle.

"Fine," he conceded gruffly, finally onboard with the promised rocky cover. They followed the small uneven trail, Sango had unearthed, and soon they were seeing the small cave in the face of the mountain. The entrance was sheltered by hanging curtain of lichen, a curtain of decaying vines, and it indeed looked secluded enough to go by unnoticed.

At first, Chiharu barely even noticed it, the cave only a depression in the hillside, but once she moved the vines aside, it was quite large. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the grey dimness, but it looked quite well. Wide and spacious, with only one exit, which meant only one entrance.

They piled inside and after a moment, tasks divided everyone had something to do. Inuyasha and Sesshōmaru left, the first only to return twenty minutes later after gathering branches for a fire, and the second not returning, not even when Kagome had already started on work on dinner. Sango and Mirōku sat huddled together near the entrance, the fire drawing strange shadows over their faces, and a tense awkward silence stretched out between them.

Daylight waned and soon the scent of ramen filtered into the cave. Chiharu sat, stretching her legs, watching Kagome work on dinner. Her face looked grim and everyone seemed to dance around her angered mood awkwardly. Of course, she couldn't be bothered to act normally and Chiharu averted her eyes, gaze flitting over Inuyasha. He had settled at the mound of the cave, the faintest trace of pale light showed around the vines and fell over his face.

There were traces of his brother in Inuyasha's face, although he would certainly not be best pleased to learn of that. Speaking about Sesshōmaru, Chiharu frowned. "Where did Sesshōmaru go?"

"Exploring. Patrolling. The usual. The bastard wants to know all that is around here." Inuyasha answered gruffly. "And since he is the only one who can hide his presence, he went alone."

Chiharu smiled at Inuyasha. Obviously that was a sore spot for him. Sesshōmaru was an arsehole. But he was a powerful on at that. Capable to move soundless and swiftly. Even to Chiharu, Sesshōmaru was capable to move undetected. "Well, good, I think." And she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "How long before dinner is ready, Onee-chan?"

If the term of endearment, the respectful term of her status, was to ease her irritation, it did little and Kagome sniffed mildly. "The ramen is ready." Smacking her lips, she divided the noodles into several bows, before handing them out. The group sat in more tense, awkward silence, only broken by the clinking of china and somehow, it made the food tasteless. Or perhaps, her no longer being alive, made for not tasting anything?

When dinner was finished, Chiharu moved to the side, unrolling her bedroll next to the cave wall and changed out of her Miko gear, dressing into her pyjamas.

Sesshōmaru did not return that night. For a long while, after everyone had laid down for sleep, he did not return. Chiharu rolled on her side, pillowing the side of her face on her left arm, and gazed around. Sango had settled on the other side, Kirara curled around her mistress. Mirōku and Inuyasha sat together at the entrance, probably to stand guard, although it didn't seem like they were any good at it, as they too seemed fast asleep.

Shafts of moonlight filtered in through the vines and after another ten minutes, Chiharu realised, it wasn't her raging thoughts that kept her awake but the burning of someone's eyes, lingering on her. Pushing her sleeping bag off, she rolled over onto her stomach. Propping herself up on her elbows, Chiharu looked up only to find Kagome's heated stare. Her older sister had also rolled over onto her stomach, cradling her chin in her joined hands.

"It's not fair, Chiharu-chan."

"I know. Please, just shut up."

"Can't we just—"

"No," Chiharu disagreed and rolled her tongue along her front teeth, "any other wish will be considered selfish. Especially that wish. Onee-chan, please!"

"What should I tell mom or Jii-chan? Or Sota?"

"Kagome!" She hissed urgently, eyes flitting through the cave, ensuring everyone else was still asleep. "Stop. You think I like this? You think I want this? But I can't be that horribly selfish! I can't put myself above the teeming masses of people that will die so horribly if that jewel stays in this world!"

"But—"

"Would you?" Chiharu asked. "Because I don't think you would." She shook her head, her shoulders shaking and the scent of salt hit Chiharu's nostrils sudden, hard. The faint wind whistling in through the entrance carried it with. "I'm really sorry." Blood pounded into her ears and Chiharu averted her eyes. "I will always love you, you know?"

"I know." Kagome gasped, wiping her face with her sleeve. "It's just not enough."

I-I. ⌡. Γ┐

Sesshōmaru stilled, stopping at the base of the cliff and peered at the lands below. Everything in a mile radius was cloaked in Naraku's aura. He knew the ex-human was close, but even he, Sesshōmaru, could not tell wherever exactly he'd hidden. He'd hoped his venture around the mountains would book him some progress. Yet, instead it had only served to make him even more restless. It had served to awake his anger more.

"I know— it's jut not enough." Kagome Higurashi said, her voice soft, a whisper and he heard Chiharu Higurashi cleared her throat.

So the Mikos were still awake it seemed and he cocked his head.

"I still think you should tell them," the girl, Kagome, said and he peered in through the vines, obscuring most of the cave. Shafts of moonlight filtered over the ground, across his Miko's bare shoulder. The shirt she was wearing, striped and oversized, had slipped down revealing pale flesh and the swell of her chest. It was nothing indecent (still a miracle since he knew how the twin dressed), but his tongue skimmed along the points of his fangs.

"I don't think we should," Chiharu whispered. "I hope to do that afterwards. I don't need anyone recklessly fighting with abandon. You know what Inuyasha is like."

"He would be very upset that you—" the other choked and Sesshōmaru frowned, "— that your life is pretty much done."

"He would be reckless, Kagome-chan," Chiharu whispered. "Promise me you won't tell him. Not yet at least."

The other girl sniffed noisily and for a moment, he only heard the soft gasps of someone crying. "I promise."

He'd frozen where he stood, his jaw clenched and then he sank to a crouch. The dead Miko's words echoing suddenly in stark relief and a thrill of anger formed at the base of his throat. So that was what she meant when she told him, as some sort of greeting, that she could only prolong the inevitable. That she could only try. His eyes flitted over Chiharu again, over the slight blush that stole over her cheeks and the fatigue that lined her eyes. She looked so very much alive—

He would have to find a way. There must be a way and with a scowl, he averted his eyes. Or perhaps he should let nature run its course. Her lips curled up in a smile and her fingers fisted in the collar of her shirt, pulling it up—

There had to be something—

(To be continued...)

A/N: Aokigahara forest is very dense and the lava absorbs sound, which is why it is supposed to be a very silent place. It has many legends and stories surrounding it, of which at least one tells the story about the Yūrei (ghosts of the dead). Which is why I chose this particular destination for the final fight. Naraku stringing and destroying a beautiful forest— Especially 'the suicide forest', sounds right enough. However, I've never been there before, so its' description it's hugely based on my imagination.

Like always let me know what think! I love to hear all of your thoughts. Next chapter next week (perhaps this weekend already if I finish the chapter earlier)! See you guys!