Author's Note: Hello all, hope you're doing well. Let's get to it.

Beta: Penthesileia

Disclaimer: I wrote my first Inuyasha fanfiction Fifteen years ago (should have updated that sooner!). And still, I own none of the Inuyasha series or its characters. So sad.

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Chapter 27: Emergence

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Kagome

Kagome awoke, covered in sweat.

Alone.

She attempted to shake the dreams that had played throughout the night from her memory. They hadn't been as severe, as clear or as horrifying as the previous night had been, but they were still upsetting. She slipped out from under the covers. Ugh, she was tired. She rubbed her hands over her face and up into her hair before she noticed the cup of tea sitting on the nightstand. She smiled. A note was tucked under it in cursive handwriting.

Warm it up, eat well and shoot two hundred arrows today.

It was simple and to the point, just like Kaede was.

Kagome didn't want to shoot more arrows. Her old self was seeping back in, and she struggled to keep it back. Her body ached, but her pride flared up inside her. She refused to go back to being a naive, helpless teen. She would not let down Kaede, she would certainly not let down her friends, and she would not let down Inuyasha.

No, she didn't want to think about him! She didn't want to think of him holed up in that room with her dying friends. She slapped at her cheeks to get herself to think of something, anything else. Food. She'd think about food. Slowly she stood and stretched, rubbing at certain sore spots around her body. She shuffled into the bathroom, showered, changed, and took the cup of tea into the kitchen, where a note signifying the day's meals was taped to the refrigerator door. Heating up both the tea concoction and her breakfast, she dug in, furiously hungry. And after getting herself mentally prepared, she grabbed the bow and quiver propped up by the front door and headed out to practice.

And so her day went by, agonizingly slow. She shot arrow after arrow. Arrow after arrow. Arrow after arrow, only pausing to eat. In the afternoon, her teeth grit against the soreness, she hit the tree, although still nowhere near the target. But she did it! The accomplishment energized and motivated her. She could do this. She could! With her drive renewed, she continued to release her arrows at her target, until the last one flew from her hands and struck the target on the outer edge.

She collapsed into bed exhausted after eating her dinner and drinking her tea.

Her dreams were sad, but less so than before.

The next day, Kaede was up with her at the crack of dawn, just as tight-lipped as before as to how her friends' healing was coming along. Frustrated, Kagome threw herself into the training, Kaede standing off to the side watching her. By mid-morning, she hit the tree every time. Some managed to snag the target. Most didn't. She was sore. Tired. Aching deep inside for a full day's rest. Five-hundred arrows she's nocked and released so far, and she was starting to get the hang of it, but it was slowly taking a toll on her body. How much could she possibly take before giving out completely?

Lunch was just as delicious as ever, and after she'd cleared her plate, much to her surprise, Kaede stopped her from retrieving her bow. The old woman bent down and picked it up herself.

"Let's try something different today," she said, her hand on Kagome's arm.

Curious, she followed Kade out to the meadow. She watched as she picked an arrow out of the quiver and looked it over closely. Then another. And another. Each one she discarded, dropping them to the ground next to her feet. Then she smiled.

"This one will do." She said, holding it out for Kagome to take.

"What are we doing?"

"You are going to learn how to purify your enemy by using your arrows. Youkai are not so weak that a simple arrow from a simple bow will do much damage. You, however, have the ability to make these wounds count. You can severely injure a youkai with this technique. Sometimes it can even be deadly."

Kagome looked down at the arrow in her hand. The edge of the head was chipped and worn, the slim wood splintering, the feathers at the end sparse. She cocked an eyebrow. "Why this one?"

The old woman chuckled. "It's worn out. Your powers are not controlled yet, I don't want you shattering my new ones."

Shattering? Kaede was exaggerating, she had to be.

"Nock the arrow, child."

She did as she was told, nocking it into the bow and keeping it pointed to the ground, awaiting further instruction.

"Let it rest in your hands. Relax your arms, and-"

"Let me guess, close my eyes?" She interjected, before flushing in embarrassment at her cynicism. "S-sorry," she said.

"I was going to say breathe in deep, but by all means, close your eyes."

"Tha...That's okay."

"Deep breath in then," Kaede continued, "and let it out slow. Yes, just like that. Do it again. Now, your powers are physically driven by your soul, which mainly resides in the middle of your chest, underneath your breastbone." She tapped a finger against her own chest as a demonstration. "That is where your focus should lie. You should be able to feel it."

"Is it the heat?" Kagome asked. "I've felt it before, when Kikyou…" She trailed off.

A sad smile graced Kaede's lips. "It's alright, child. It's been a very long time since I would consider my sister human. You do not have to still your tongue for my sake."

"When she tried to kill me," she continued. "Both times. Right before I… right before I protected myself, I felt the heat in my chest."

"Aye, that's it. You will learn to control it. Breath in deep, hold it in, concentrate on the heat, let it build inside you. Release it into your arms and let it flow into your fingertips."

She could feel it inside, now that Kaede had pointed it out. Was it a heat that had always been there, that she hadn't noticed because she didn't know any different? It was right where Kaede said it was, a warm spot in the middle of her chest that she assumed was normal. And now, following Kaede's instructions, she felt it grow.

It expanded inside her chest, and her body shuddered violently as she tried in vain to keep it under control, but the swell of power was too fast, too heavy for her. It felt like her insides were pushing outwards. It spread down her arms, pricks of heat that pushed through her. She felt it reach her fingertips, but she couldn't restrain it. It lit up the arrow, bright white and hot. With a pop, the shaft exploded, bits of wood splintering outward. Kagome shrieked, dropped the bow and fell backwards.

"Ah. Careful, child."

"What was that?" She lifted a shaking hand to her face, eyes wide.

"You have to control it." Kaede handed her another worn arrow. "Again. Focus. Control it."

Kagome carefully notched it, biting her lip. She smiled sheepishly up at Kaede. "I think I'll close my eyes this time."

For hours Kagome conjured up the heat inside her and released them into arrows. By the fifth try, she had managed to control it enough that it didn't immediately explode in her hands, thank god. And a few hours more, she managed to release the arrow holding her powers. It flew across the meadow and sunk into the tree.

She tensed in anticipation, but the tree stayed solid and in one piece. Huh. How anticlimactic. Confused, she turned to Kaede. "Isn't it supposed to do something?"

"It's a purification arrow, dear. That's a tree. What kind of tree could you possibly purify?"

Kagome swore she caught the hint of a smile as Kaede turned and ambled back into the cabin. She fought the teenage urge to stick her tongue out. She nocked an arrow instead.

She knew she was doing it correctly, she could feel it pass from her arms into the arrow. But what was the point if she couldn't see the effects?

She drew. Released.

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And so it went, day after day. Kagome moved on to action-shooting, hitting a target while running on her feet. She ran every morning and evening, the hours blending together only to be interrupted by her nightmares when she would finally fall into bed, exhausted.

They were getting better, but only slightly. Kaede urged her to continue drinking the tea, insisting that soon the dreams would completely fade away. Kagome had her doubts, but she wasn't going to argue. She felt better after drinking it, especially in the mornings, when she would awake, soaking and cold and dispirited.

And she was starting to dream of her family.

They would be so worried by now. Desperately homesick, she thought daily about going back. But Inuyasha's words rang true in her ear. The members of her family were not useful to Kikyou. And they were safer being as far away from her as possible. She couldn't be lured to Kikyou if she wasn't aware they were being held. She held onto that belief tightly, like a lifesaver.

Kaede would disappear into the room every other day, and Kagome had stopped expecting Inuyasha to emerge. She trained. She ran when she didn't want to, controlled her powers into arrows and shot them when she didn't want to, practiced her breathing when she didn't want to. Over and over, day after day.

Day after day.

It all blended together.

On day eleven she woke, drank her tea, and ran the path which was clearly marked over the years by Kaede. The loop ran out into the forest and around to end on the other side of the clearing. A good five miles. After her run, she shot her purification arrows. She ate lunch, drank her tea, shot her arrows, and ran the path. A mile and a half in, Kagome's legs were screaming. She'd been running the loop for five days straight now, twice a day every day, and it still wasn't getting any easier.

Only stubborn determination kept her moving; the thought that her friend's suffering would not be in vain. Her only goal now was to take Kikyou and her monk sidekick down, to free Kohaku. To free Inuyasha. She added, keeping her eyes on the uneven terrain. Roots broke out of the earth and spread across the trials in random patterns, and small rocks and larger boulders all created an obstacle course ready and willing to trip her up and cause her to crash hard to the ground.

She concentrated on her breathing, her lungs burning. Long breathes in, fill your lungs, long breathes out… Kaede had instructed, thumping her on her back. Do not breathe in through your mouth, use your nose. Control it.

The thought that it was any day now, that the healing was so much closer to being completed, drove her to continue down the path. Dusk was falling, and Kagome was trying not to get her hopes up that Inuyasha would show his face the next morning. She wanted to explain everything to him. He had gone in that room angry with her, and she hated it. He still assumed she had meant to hand him over to Kikyou, and she hated it.

Kagome pushed herself to go faster. She didn't want to be running in the dark. She rounded a bend she'd come to know well and immediately stopped.

The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Goosebumps raised across her skin. Her stomach churned inside her.

Something was screaming at her not to take another step. To not go any further. She hesitated. Took a step back. Then heard it.

It was a low clicking sound, fast and in long strings. She whipped her head around, peering deep into the darkening woods where she thought maybe the noise came from. It was like nothing she'd ever heard before. It was unnatural. It scared her.

Nope. Nope, she would not be finishing her run today, Kaede would just have to deal with it. She wasn't sure if it was everything that had happened until now that spooked her so much, but she was not hanging out around the middle of the woods to find out if she was being ridiculous.

She turned to head back and saw it out of the corner of her eye.

It moved fast. Unbelievably fast. A pale, pink-purple glow she glimpsed through the thicket. It zig-zagged low, blinking in and out as it moved around bushes and trees. Kagome had trouble keeping track of it.

She ran. Back in the direction she'd come from. Whatever it was, she was in its path. The light was growing brighter, moving towards her. The clicking grew louder, and if Kagome didn't think it was crazy, she would have sworn it sounded excited.

And then she tripped.

"Oof!" She breathed, a rock digging into her side as she slammed into the ground. She looked behind her to see the cause of her fall - a root. A stupid root! Not wasting any time she rolled over to get to her feet.

She froze.

It had broken free from the thicket, its long, skeletal legs and joints holding up its rounded body. The colored glow she'd seen moving through the forest emanated from the top of its head, and it pulsated a steady, slow rhythm. It had a hundred eyes, all blinking separately from each other, creating a disturbing fluttering pattern. Its' mouth was made of what Kagome could only describe as a mandible, which is where the loud, fast clicking sounds came from.

Its legs, twenty of them, straightened out as far as they could, rising higher above Kagome, towering over her.

She struggled to inhale, her lungs paralyzed. It was a spider. A giant-freaking-spider.

"Wha- What the hell?!" She shrieked, backing away as fast and she could and getting to her feet. She was going to run. She was. But then it spoke to her.

"Huuuuckckckckmaaackn…." it said. Or at least, she thought it said. Her brain had to have short-circuited, there was no other reason she could think of that a spider so large could be actually speaking to her.

"Neeckeeckckckceeed Moooorckckcckrrrre fleeeckckckcecksh," it said, taking a step towards her.

She ran. Faster than she'd ever run in her life. She pushed her body, her lungs burning, her feet falling hard against the ground. Branches tore at her, she didn't bother dodging them. She had to get back to Kaede's meadow, where her bow and arrows lay unhelpful by her target practice spot.

Dusk was settling. It filtered less through the trees, making it hard to see. She couldn't tell if the creature was still behind her or not, but he had to be. She could hear it clicking, but couldn't tell if it was right on her tail or if she'd made any headway. Don't look! She screamed to herself. Don't look! But she couldn't help it. The terror gnawed at her. She had to know if these would be her final steps or if she might have a chance to get away. She turned her head to look behind her,

A leg came sweeping from her right. She caught a glimpse of it just as the needle-thin tip shot towards her ankle. She couldn't move fast enough. It pierced through her skin.

She screamed and tumbled forward, falling again. She got up. She got up ran and ignored the fact that it had stabbed her ankle, ignored the fact that the spot where it pierced her burned red hot. She could feel it slowly spreading up her leg. She ignored it.

She ran.

Adrenalin had taken over. Nothing mattered but to live. She pushed her legs, her right now incredibly painful, and broke through the forest's edge into the meadow. The dissipating sunlight touched her skin, and she could see better without all the trees. She shot towards where she knew her bow and arrow lay, her heart pounding, her body screaming at her. She could see her weapon on the ground ahead of her. Off somewhere in the distance, she swore she heard Inuyasha scream her name.

But he was in the room, saving her friends, not here. Not able to save her.

She would have to save herself.

She dove for her bow, grabbing it and flipping over into a somersault, rolling out and swiping up an arrow as well. She nocked her arrow and spun on her feet to face her opponent.

But something was wrong. Her vision blurred, turning her target into a big, fuzzy mess. It looked like there were three giant blobs coming for her. It was getting darker, the sun starting to set below the treetops. She hadn't noticed, but the burning pain had made its way higher. What had the creature done to her when it stabbed her with its leg? What had he injected into her to cause her wobble?

She fell on her butt, sweat pouring from her forehead. She squinted her eyes, trying to get a clear look at her target. But it was too fuzzy, and the light was diminishing by the second.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, STUPID?!" A voice shouted at her. His voice. "SHOOT HIM!" She had to be imagining it. She had to be. With her befuddled mind and hazy eyesight and leg that would no longer work properly, she was imagining Inuyasha calling out to her. And imaginary Inuyasha was right: she couldn't hesitate any longer. The monster spider may have succeeded in killing her, but she wasn't going down without at least giving it some pain from her own hands. She collected the energy inside her, pooled it together and let it flow down her arms, into her hands just as she'd practiced so many times before. She drew back her arrow. Released.

It screamed. Or, at least, she thought it screamed with its rapid, high-pitched clicking. Pale, pastel light burst bright in the night sky, she could see even that through her hindered vision.

And then movement. She could barely see it, but she felt the air move around her. More screaming. Panic welled up inside her. She didn't want to die yet! She didn't want these to be the last moments of her life!

She didn't want to die!

...The blow never came, as she cowered with her bow in her hands, no more arrows around for her to use as a defense, yet the noise intensified. Click-screaming, sickening crunching, and then… loud cursing?

"God Dammit, Kagome!" His voice said. "Are you okay?"

His hands were on her. Cupping her face, pushing her hair back, gripping onto her shoulders and shaking her. "What did he do to you? Did he bite you? Where is it? Where did he bite you?" His hands moved to the hem of her shirt and pulled it up to check her torso for any wounds.

"My- my ankle. It stabbed my ankle." She gasped out.

And then his hands were gone. She suddenly felt too cold without them. At first she thought maybe he had left, but she felt movement at her hip and realized he was touching her ankle. She just couldn't feel his hands on her. Her leg was completely numb.

She felt the tears well up. What had that thing done to her? She could barely see anymore, and the burning from her leg was slowly seeping into her hip. Her leg was useless. Would this be her life now? Blind and paralyzed?

The thought terrified her.

"Fuck," Inuyasha cursed again. And then his hands were back cupping her face. He lifted her chin to where his eyes must have been. She couldn't see them anymore. "Kagome, it poisoned you. I need to get it out of you fast, but it's going to hurt. Where has the burning reached to?"

She moved her arm. Pointed to her hip, right where her underwear lay.

"Okay. Kaede, hold her head." He ordered. And she felt the old woman underneath her, moving her onto her lap. A cool compress was placed on her forehead, and then something touched her lips. The strong smell of leather invaded her senses.

"Bite onto it, child." The old woman said. Kagome could hear the worry in her voice. She obeyed, opening her mouth and biting down hard into the material. Kaede gripped both sides of her head. Hard.

She felt Inuyasha's hand on her hip, just barely through the pain. He gripped onto her running shorts and ripped them from the hem up. Kagome gasped. Kaede hushed her. "It's okay, it's okay," she breathed. "He needs to find the end of the poison trail."

She heard him grunt. "There it is, the fucker." He said. And she felt him push up the line of her panties with his thumb, over the swell of her hip. Her breath quickened. She could feel her heart racing, out of fear or embarrassment she wasn't sure. A mix of the two, probably.

"Sorry, Kagome," he said. "This is going to hurt."

And then his claw dragged across her flesh, ripping it open.

She screamed into her gag, biting hard into the leather. Kaede kept her head still, despite her thrashing. Then she felt his mouth on her wound, felt a gentle pressure. He was sucking at it. She gasped; moaned as she felt the burning move slowly up her leg again. She could feel it under her skin, traveling towards the wound Inuyasha had created. It hurt. It hurt so bad. Fresh tears leaked from her eyes, rolling down her temples and into her hair.

Inuyasha lifted his head and she heard him spit. "Okay, it shouldn't move up her side any higher, I got it oozing out of her hip." she thought she heard him say. But she wasn't sure. She was passing out due to the pain. "Kagome, can you hear me? Kagome! ...Shit, get ready, Kaede. I have to open up and drain it from her ankle, too."

Nothing mattered anymore. She was passing out.

"Goddammit, it's turning black!"

She was passing out….

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Yay! Inuyasha is out! Chugging right along now, I love writing for you guys so much. I am very thankful you have all been cheering me on to continue. Getting over my writing hump was difficult, but it gives me so much happiness now, and I am very grateful that you all helped me get here. I hope everyone liked the chapter! As always, I would love to hear what you think, any comments or crits are welcome. And for those of you unaware, I keep a tumblr blog for my readers. Just about how the writing is going, updates and extras, as well as daily life stuff that keeps me from writing. Check it out if you'd like, just search for SugarRos Fanfiction. You can also follow the tags Youkai in the Mirror or YITM for updates related to this fic! :)

SugarRos