You and Me After All
Chapter 12: Forget
Kagome was tying up her bundle of belongings when Sango and Miroku arrived, their children trailing behind them. From the grimness of their expression, she saw they knew something terrible had happened to her.
She had no strength, or the heart, to explain. Inuyasha would fill them in later when she was already far away. Although, if they had seen the state of her clothing from before, there was not much more to explain.
"Kagome-chan, you don't have to go with him," Sango said, her velvet eyes bright with tears. "Stay."
"I cannot." Kagome swiped at her tears angrily. In fact, she should hurry and leave before Inuyasha awakened.
"Can you still go home through the Bone-Eater's well?"
Kagome shook her head. The thought of home — everything and everyone she had left behind — made the hole in her heart gape wide open. She had given up her home and family to be with Inuyasha. Not his half-brother.
Not Sesshōmaru.
"We can fight him," Sango said after a brief hesitation.
The suggestion made Kagome smile helplessly. She did not doubt her friends' mettle and their fierceness in battle. But, they all knew Sesshōmaru would come out victorious. He had a more powerful weapon, and his skills as its wielder was unquestionable.
And, for whatever reasons, he seemed to want this child she carried.
She smiled tearfully as she reached out to squeeze Sango's hand. From the corner of her vision, she noticed Miroku quietly slipping out of the hut.
"As much as I relish the thought, Sango-chan," she told her friend. "I doubt fighting is the answer."
Sango began to weep openly. "But… what do we tell Inuyasha when he wakes up and finds you gone?"
Kagome brushed the remnants of her tears away with a knuckle.
"Tell him to forget about me and to never look for me."