Shikuro: A Caribbean Fairy Tale

by Inuma Asahi De

Inuyasha was as bad as pirates came, according to his legend. Kagome was a woman of propriety, destined to marry for her family's honor when all she wanted was to live on the sea. What happens when their eyes meet by chance or perhaps by daring fate?

83. Death

Blanket Disclaimer: The writer does not own any characters created by Rumiko Takahashi but like everyone else wishes she did. All original characters or concepts are the author Inuma Asahi De's (with the exception of historical figures).

Chapter Eighty-Three

Death

The sound of the waves hitting the side of the ship outside the opened window was gentle to Kagura's ears. It reminded her of a lullaby her mother had once sung, rhythmic and captivating like the sea. The wind enchantress honestly couldn't think of a more relaxing sound as she laid in Hiten's bed, warm and satisfied. Pillowed against her breast, the thunder demon himself rested, his eyes closed and his lips parted just enough to allow a soft snore to enter the room. The sound mixed with the melody of the waves, cocooned Kagura in a safe haven of resonance.

Gingerly, she looked down at the man, her ruby eyes studying the handsome features of his sleeping face. His tan skin was still taunt with nearly boyish youth and his long eyelashes were tantalizing as they brushed against his almost flushed cheeks. He was beyond handsome in that moment, and to her, the most debonair sight in the world. Suddenly, he shifted against her, the feel of his chin brushing against the tops of her breast making her shiver with uncontrollable desires. Part of her thought to wake him and act on those desires building within her once more but the sound of him releasing a little growl in his throat made her stop.

It was the sound of utter and complete contentment, as if he was happy in his dreams surrounded by her scent and pillowed against her sweet soft flesh. A strand of his long hair fell over his eyes as he buried his nose into one of the yielding mounds, scenting her naturally sweet fragrance instinctively. She couldn't help the smile that grew on her face from the sight and the way her stomach flip flopped this time not with lust but with something far more dangerous.

"It's-u my own fault." She told herself absently as she studied every bit of his striking features, scrutinizing them and imprinting them within her memory. "Baka." She grumbled, directing the insult not at him but at herself. She was a fool, a fool who had grown accustomed to another fool's face.

With soft, almost trembling fingertips she reached up to brush the stray strand of hair out of his eyes. His eyelids flickered for a second as if he was about to wake but stopped long before he actually woke up. The wind demon felt slightly let down that he hadn't in fact woken completely but she understood he needed rest.

"I've been—relentless-u." She whispered to him as she brushed her fingers once more against his bangs. Sweetly, she smoothed them, allowing herself to caress the coarse strands of black hair. "No man can stay-y awake after that." She shook her head as if amused but the amusement quickly faded as memories of her life started to bubble to the surface of her mind.

She could see another man pillowed against her breast, his long silver strands far different than Hiten's. Each wisp of silver hair had been soft and delicate, matching his high cheekbones and narrow nose, all of which was inherited from his mother. He had truthfully been a slight man in many ways, his fragileness masked only by his sheer impressive coldness. It seemed to seep from him, a type of animosity for all living things that reviled even Naraku at times. Not that he was a mean man or even a cruel man but he was a calculated one and a man who knew exactly what he wanted from his life from the moment of his birth.

"Sesshoumaru-sama." She whispered the name, even the sound of it making her once warm body become just a little colder. He had been a hard man to get along with but he had been her intended and she had respected that far more than she could ever have loved him. "I respect-o Sesshoumaru-sama as a good-u mate would." She bit her lip as the words died on her tongue. "I gave-e him every devotion." She felt a lump form in her throat as her thoughts ran away from her.

"Anata wa," She saw the Inutaisho's mouth move as he addressed for the first time, telling her exactly what she was to be. "Watashi no musuko no tsumadearu kotodearu."

Kagura tilted her head back, looking away from Hiten as she allowed the memory to push into her mind. The very moment she was told that her marriage had been arranged and she was to wed one of the most influential demons in all of Nihon. At first, she recalled being happy, pleased that she had been chosen out of all the girls that longed for such station. But that had changed, just as the wind can move swiftly or slowly, her happiness had changed from great to nonexistent.

Images of his stony face invaded her mind, blocking out the happiness of the past few months and replacing it with unnerving reality. Closing her eyes, Kagura allowed herself to seep into the memories of her youth when she had been a young girl of no more than four hundred years. She had been beautiful with sweet white eyes, the color of clouds on a hot summer day. They were the eyes of wind demons and she had arguably had the most beautiful of them all. Even Sesshoumaru had once said so—

The tips of her fingers brushed ever so sweetly against the ground as she sat in front of him on her knees with her head bowed. "Watashi wa Sesshoumaru-sama, anata ni jibun jishin o ataeru yō ni natta." She spoke in her native Japanese offering Sesshoumaru herself in the most compliant and feminine of ways. Purposefully, she made her voice soft and frail, the perfect example of a proper wife for a dignified ruler. "Anata no chichi no meirei de." She continued as she dipped her head farther forward to the floor, imploring him to accept her as his father wanted.

"Kore ga subetedesu?" He replied, his voice coming across as almost bored as he questioned his father's decision.

She blinked as she looked down at the tatami mat, the green woven reeds almost mocking her. Lifting her head up rather daringly, she found herself face to face with the most deviously handsome man she had ever met or even seen. His hair was smooth and long, flowing to the ground in a giant sheet of perfect silver. His chin was both strong and subtle, his cheek bones both high and intimidating, and his eyes both mocking and unpleased all at the same time. He looked almost bored, his golden eyes piercing through her as he dared her to entertain him with just the slant of his pupils. A shudder moved throughout her and she briefly had no idea what to say or what to do. She had been trained always to simply remain quiet, neither thinking nor speaking unless spoken to and to only answer questions with flirty whims not thoughts.

"Ano—." She attempted to say but suddenly he held up one slender yet dangerously clawed hand.

"Watashi wa gakkarida to iu koto o nikumu." He addressed her slowly, his words rolling off his tongue in the most intimidating way as he insulted her swiftly and sardonically. "Shikashi, watashi wa omoimasu." Those golden eyes ran over her still appearing bored but in that moment somehow pleased. "Sukunakutomo, anata wa utsukushī me o motte iru."

She blinked from the words not believing that a man like him had spoken them. She fault insulted and oddly glad all at the same time. He was disappointed in her, he had called her blatantly a disappointment and yet, he had also told her she had beautiful eyes. Part of her, a tiny section of her mind that had yet to find a voice, wanted to insult him back. It wanted to tell him he was far too pretty to be a man but the daintiness of her heritage had been beaten into her well.

Bowing to him once more, her forehead brushing the ground with a combination of relief and humiliation, she whispered, "Watashi wa shōrai-teki ni wa motto yoi to omotte imasu."

"I hope-e to do better-u in the future." Kagura repeated the words in English as she opened her eyes once more, allowing the one truly pleasant memory of Sesshoumaru to drift away from her. It had not been long after that meeting that their true relationship had started and she found herself trapped within his web. He had been a selfish man at times and downright conniving, he was the reason she was here, a pawn in his perfect plan. He had used her to accomplish a lifelong goal, his father's goal, a man he hated and admired all in the same breath.

"Shikon-no-Tama." She whispered out the words as she imaged Sesshoumaru saying them. "Sesshoumaru-sama will have-e you." She whispered as she unconsciously ran her fingers over Hiten's hair again. "Sesshoumaru-sama will finish-i his dream." She felt a slight sob begin to build within her throat and she gulped to wash it back down. "And Kagura—will die." The lump came back, this time doubled as she spoke, the decisions she had made in life ripping into her stomach violently.

Without her permission, Kagura's red eyes looked towards the small window beside the bed. She was met with the vastness of the sea, the gift of the Shinigami's red eyes showing her what waited for her there. She hovered a few scant yards away, flesh still dripping from her falling into the ocean as she continued to decay even now. The sight made Kagura sick to her stomach: not because of the disgusting quality of the Shinigami's current state, but instead because her presence meant Kagura was about to die and Kagura, didn't want to die.

Kagura wanted to live, she wanted to continue living on this ship with this man laying against her chest. She wanted to be here always, to grow old here, and to have a life here that she never could have had anywhere else. She wanted to be with this man who truly liked her, the part of her Sesshoumaru had never seen as he manipulated her entire world and sentenced her to death. And yet, that was impossible, she (not he) had made a deal with a Shinigami. She had done that not for herself but for a man she thought she once had loved. She had obeyed Sesshoumaru's every wish and this was how she was repaid. She was going to die right after realizing how much she wanted to live.

The wind demon closed her eyes tightly, not wanting to allow the tears that were starting to build within them to be released. It too was an impossible task. "I'm going-u to miss you—Hiten-sama." She whispered to herself as she leaned forward her red eyes clouding as she tried to see his face. Unable to stop herself, Kagura allowed a tear to fall down her cheek, rounding down to her chin where it rested for several seconds before falling to land on Hiten's forehead.

The thunder demon crinkled his nose at the intrusion and slowly opened his eyes, grains of sleep making them feel heavy. "Kagura-hime?" Hiten mumbled as he tried to focus on her but found himself pretty much unable. Allowing a whine to leave his throat, he held back a yawn before snuggling into her side a little more. The warmth of her flesh against his face made him smile and gingerly he allowed his tongue the barest of moments to reach out and lap at her breast. "I'm tired." He told her finally as he felt his eyes become, if it was at all possible, even heavier.

"I know." Kagura responded to him evenly, her red eyes studying the figure in the distance absently for only a second more before she turned back towards Hiten. "Go back-u to sleep, koi," The words were soft and truthful as she whispered them into his ear. "I'll be here-e when you awake." Kagura frowned as the words echoed throughout the room, her mind contemplating them even as Hiten smiled and allowed himself to return to sleep. "Will I—," She actually asked herself as she turned her head slowly back towards the vastness of the sea. "Be alive-e when Hiten-sama wakes up-pu?"

She could honestly say, she wasn't sure.

-break-

"Inu-chan."

The soft whisper filled Inuyasha with a beautiful sense of inner peace that he hadn't really experienced in some years. "Okaa-san." He thought to himself as her scent washed over him, milk and wildness.

"Open your eyes," Her soft voice, a voice she had only used when speaking with him, flowed into his head. Just like her scent it encompassed him, seeming to become part of him just as the blood in her veins ran through his own. "Inu-chan." She finished and Inuyasha couldn't help but obey her words.

Golden eyes opened to the world, taking in the backdrop of soft blue that was the sky. Blinking confused he watched as a nearby cloud passed over his head throwing his face and person into shadow. "I'm outside?" He whispered to himself just as a soft giggle to his left made him jump. Turning quickly, he nearly gasped as the image of his mother reflected in his irises. "Okaa—." He barely managed to say, her presence so real to him that it nearly ate away at his soul.

Beautiful dark eyes he had inherited on nights of equal darkness blinked as full lips curved into an almost sad smile. The wind ruffled her long hair, the twin little strands on either side of her face brushing against her high cheek bones, the very bones he had inherited. "You've become big."

He recoiled slightly at her words, unsure of them and confused by them all at the same time. "I—." He looked down at himself, taking in his red jacket and black pants, his large hands and large feet. Somehow, he found the clothes he was wearing and the size of his body to be surprising. It was almost as if he had expected himself to be merely a child in her presence: with tiny hands, tiny feet, and a haori and hakama in place of western clothing. "I guess," He raised his head to look at her, the smile in her eyes making him feel warm inside. "I'm grown."

"An adult." The woman whispered and reached forward with calloused hands. "I never thought I'd see you this big—a man."

Inuyasha smiled as his mother touched his face with the tips of her fingers. "Okaa-san." He whispered and rubbed his face against her hand, loving the safety of her scent.

"You're so much like your father." She commented and pulled her hand away momentarily before returning upwards to his ears. They twitched instinctively under her fingers and Inuyasha sent her a bit of a glare that she promptly ignored. "I can touch them if I want, I'm your mother."

Inuyasha couldn't help but chuckle at the familiar words, leaning into her touch without another thought. "Of course, Okaa-san." Gentle fingers rubbed the triangles on his head for some seconds, the dog demon beginning to disappear from consciousness with each passing second of delight. Before he could completely lose himself however, his mother removed her hands from him, causing his ears to go cold.

His eyes snapped open from the change and he frowned as he noticed the serious expression on his mother's face. Her eyebrows were knitted together as if in thought, her lips were pursed tightly, her chin was lowered and her eyes were dark, turbulent, and fixated on the floor between them. He could honestly say he had only ever seen her look as she did now once and that had been long ago when he was no more than five or six.

Finally, she raised her head looking up at him with an expression of such sadness that he nearly felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him. "I'm here for a reason." She whispered, but that didn't stop the voice from sounding loud and almost treacherous. "She's powerful."

"What?" Inuyasha cocked an eyebrow not sure what his mother meant.

"And sweet and kind and noble and—." She continued on not bothering with his question as she placed her hand back in her lap absently. "And in great danger."

"Okaa-san," He shook his head and sent her the most confused of looks. "What are you talking about?"

"The path between light and darkness is a hard path to negotiate." She spoke cryptically as her face seemed to grow darker from her words. "She will need much compassion if she is to walk that line and not cross it."

"I don't understand." Inuyasha shook his head, a large frown forming on his face.

"You needn't." Izayoi told him as she finally stood the blue sky a strange backdrop to her somber face. "I love you." Her words rocked his very soul, the sound of them as frightening as even the scariest of monsters.

"Don't go." He couldn't fight the urge to say the words, the child in him wanting its mother.

She didn't respond to his words however and instead merely smiled sweetly. "Goodbye." She told him just as the scent of death seemed to jump into the air without warning.

It overpowered his nose, making him feel nauseous and somehow assaulted. Falling backwards from the power of it he closed his eyes, his nose beginning to burn as it was consumed with nothing but the smell of ash and death. "Okaa-san!" He called for her as he tried to open his eyes to see her once more but soot seemed to blind and sting them. "What's burning?" He asked himself as his vision was overrun with the thick black substance. Deep inside his heart however, he already knew. It was part of his distant memory, something he had shut away and hoped to never relive: the burning of a plague victim's body.

They had burned her with the others upon her death, attempting to stop the spread of the deadly disease. He had wanted nothing more than to stop it and give her a proper burial in the tradition of his western family and not his eastern one. Regardless of his wants however, she had been denied such decency and instead had been burned on a large mass funeral pyre before his very eyes; he knew this to be a fact, the memories were still present in his mind (although suppressed quite well). Still, despite knowing all of this, Inuyasha still opened his eyes.

The charred outline of what had once been his mother filled his vision, the sight of her blackened flesh a permanent image in his heart. The smell of her scent dissipating, the fragrance of milk and wilderness dying from the world, tore at his heart.

"No." He whispered as her young body became nothing but ash right before his eyes. "No!" He screamed, falling onto his hands and knees from the sight of the charred and mangled body. "No," He whispered as he stared at the crisp flesh, black and burnt. "No." His face contorted into a sob, tears he hadn't shed since he was a fifteen year old boy, washing down his face. "Okaa-san!" He screamed as he shut his eyes against the sight only to see his mother's lifeless burnt body behind his eyelids, once more.

Inuyasha's eyes swan behind his eyelids as he slowly began to wake from the horrid dream. His nose twitched slightly, searching for his mother's calming scent subconsciously, wanting nothing more than to envelop himself in her comfort. The scent that greeted his searching nose however was neither calming nor comforting. Instead, the only scent he found was a wholly disturbing one: death, decay, and charred flesh mixed with burning fur. He tried desperately to open his eyes in order to identify the scent but instantly regretted the action as his pupils practically caught fire the moment he opened them.

"Fuck!" He yelled in his head as he snapped them closed once more, his mind racing to remember what had happened before he had fallen asleep. "Am I drunk?" He asked himself first as he became more and more aware of his body and the area around him. Slowly, the nerves along his mouth, throat, and lungs awakened, reminding him of the truth as the once stabbing sensation of the toxin returned in the form of a slightly uncomfortable sting. "Toxin—mongooses."

Inuyasha scrunched up his face as the images of the mongooses muzzles filled up his whole mind. He could see one of the snarling creatures right before his eyes, hissing and spitting as it held a spear up next to his face. Its brown eyes glowed like they were on fire and it charged at him, only to disappear in a puff of smoke. Confused by the image Inuyasha attempted to open his eyes once more but found the task impossible because of the way they burned. Irritated, he tried to move one of his hands up to touch his face and rub at his burning eyes but, much to his surprise and panic, found himself unable to move more than a pinky in response.

"I can't move." He began to panic as he inhaled deeply and hurriedly all at the same time. He tried to open his eyes once more and although the sting had lessoned since the first time, he still found it far too painful to keep them opened for an extended amount of time. Snapping his eyes shut once more, he tried to wrap his mind around what had happened and why he suddenly felt beyond weak and drained. "Why the fuck can't I remember?" He cursed even as memories began to pound against the side of his skull contributing to a burgeoning headache.

Suddenly, in a flash of connecting thoughts, he began to remember the events of the past hour. He recalled seeing the little boat and his bastard cousin flirting with Kagome. He remembered the manor, the stone fence, and the opened window. He remembered Kouga and their decision to separate when they had reached the fork in the hallways. He remembered the scent of Kouga's mate and the two mongooses he had fought in order to reach her. He remembered Kouga showing up immediately after, he remembered the army of them approaching, and throwing Kouga into a room in order to escape them.

"That was fun." He couldn't help but smile to himself even as his eyes started to water in an attempt to alleviate the burning sensation. The smile quickly disappeared from his face however as the next set of memories tore into both his mind and heart. The sight of Kagome's face, her tears as she watched him suffer, the sound of men breaking down the door, and her scream of terror, filled him. "Kagome!" He forced his eyes to snap open despite the pain, his still irritated cornea's practically on fire. "I have to find her—please let her be safe."

His vision was blurry as he looked around the room, searching desperately for the woman he loved more than life itself. First, he saw Kouga and Ayame, the two still very much unconscious but (if their moving chest were any indication) alive as they laid a few feet beside him on his left. Ignoring their presence, he turned his head to his other side, searching for Kagome there. It didn't take him long to see her, hunched over on the ground only a few scant feet away from him. He narrowed his eyes in surprise; how he had missed her scent he would never know. Ignoring that strange fact, the demon in him growled wanting nothing more than to rush to her, hold her, and search her over for any wounds or injuries. The look on her face however, prevented the human in him from moving even one tiny, single inch.

She was sitting on her knees her arms, wrapped around her middle, shaking like tiny leaves as she held herself as if she was a little child. Her face was pale, nearly white in complexion, an impossibility considering how much time she spent in the bright sea sun. Her black hair in stark contrast seemed darker as it draped across her face, the strands just long enough to hide the top of her ears but not enough to prevent Inuyasha from seeing her sunken eyes. They were dull, the color a strange black that reminded him of Kikyo in the most disturbing of ways. It was as if all the happiness that had ever been within her was completely gone, drained away until nothing good was left within her soul. The sight made him shudder, his stomach turning and his heart sinking from the very prospect.

"Kagome?" He whispered, his voice husky as if he had a sore throat.

The girl didn't move from the sound, her eyes focused on something else entirely, which was far away from them both physically and mentally. Following her gaze, Inuyasha realized it was the red bow laying on the floor as if it had been thrown away haphazardly. For the life of him, he couldn't comprehend why the bow wouldn't be at her side. She had to be connected to it, without the connection she couldn't use her power without suffering.

"Is that—did she drain herself?" He questioned as he forced himself up onto his elbows, the stinging in his eyes nothing compared to the stinging of his movements. Grunting, he inhaled sharply and winced but continued to force himself to move nonetheless. Every instinct in his body told him to get to her, to help her, and to figure out what the hell was wrong with her. "Kagome?" He spoke again, his voice a gentle whisper as he managed to push himself up onto his elbows. His eyes watered from the contact with the air and he wanted nothing but to close them once more. The look on her face prevented him from even thinking of doing such a thing however. He almost couldn't stand it, the dull look of her skin, the way her hair seemed to have lost its curl. "What happened?"

Slowly, as if just now realizing that Inuyasha was awake, the girl turned her head and looked straight at him. The sight of those eyes so melancholy and lost made his heart fall and his hands sweat. "They're dead." Was all she said, the way her eyes became even duller and blacker as she spoke intimidating.

"What?" Inuyasha blinked rapidly not understanding what Kagome was talking about. "Who's dead?" He breathed deeply, even as those breaths made his lungs ache and his throat burn.

"All of them." Kagome whispered her expression starting to change as she spoke each word. The sullen face morphed as her bottom lip began to quiver and gloom was replaced by horrified realization. Shaking she pulled her hands away from her stomach and looked at her sweating palms as if they were monsters. "I—all of them," Her voice cracked and her eyes filled with tears of immense sorrow and regret. Ripping her eyes away from her hands, she quickly adjusted her body until she was no longer sitting on her knees but instead on her bottom. Hastily, she pulled her knees up to her chest, her lips trembling as her ashen face grew whiter and whiter. "I—I didn't mean to." She finally said as she closed her eyes, tears seeping out from between her lashes.

"What?" Inuyasha scrunched up his brows even as the scent of death wafted into his nose.

"I killed them!" She finally snapped, the desperation in her voice, the pain, and the brokenness louder than any sound Inuyasha had ever heard. "I killed them—all of them." She sobbed and brought her hands up to her face, covering it as if trying to hide from the entire world. "How—I'm good—I'm good—I'm good." She rocked back and forth in her spot as her voice cracked and whined. "It's not real!" She shouted, her whole face contorting with her own hysteria.

"Not real—?" Inuyasha tried to wrap his mind around her distraught words but found himself unable. Not only was his brain functioning slowly because of the toxin but Kagome was also not making very much sense. "What's real—who's dead?"

"Them!" She screamed and threw one hand off her face pointing a finger at something just beside the door.

Uncertain, Inuyasha finally pushed himself into a full upright sitting position, his eyes following Kagome's finger. The sight that greeted him was probably one of the most sickening things he had ever seen. The door was completely gone and the doorframe looked as if a cannonball had been shot through it, the edges nothing more than splinters of wood barely hanging to the wall. The sight of such destruction was not the thing that disturbed him though. No, the disturbing part was the smoldering remains of what had once been living creatures.

Body upon body laid on top of one another, men with opened jaws seeming to still be screaming from their own death pain, littering the ground. All the flesh still left upon their exposed bones was black, their faces burned beyond recognition, and their fur was completely gone except for patches that were still smoldering, little cinders collected in their hair. The sight made Inuyasha feel sick to his stomach, his whole body going ridged as his mind tried to process what exactly it was seeing.

"They're—they were—burned alive." He told himself as he studied each blistered face's opened mouth scream and each body's outstretched hands clawing for a means of escape. "Who did this? How did they—?" The thought was cut off before it could be completed. Slowly, he turned his head away from the bodies and back towards the sobbing Kagome. "It's not possible." He told himself as he brought a shaking hand up to his face. "She—Kagome wouldn't." He felt his heart nearly break in his chest as he listened to each uncontrollable sob that racked her body. "She did." A small voice in the back of his head told him, admitting something he couldn't quite believe.

Kagome was gentle, Kagome was kind, and he knew, Kagome wouldn't hurt a single living thing; not even a raging demon. Kagome was the kind of girl who got upset at the sight of violence and who deplored it above everything else in the world. To raise her hand or her bow, with hate and the intent to kill was something unimaginable. It seemed downright impossible. He had never known a miko to use their abilities in such a dark way—.

"The path between light and darkness is a hard path to negotiate."

Inuyasha felt his breath hitch in his throat from the memory of the dream. "Was that—was Okaa-san?" He shook himself to remove the thought, the burning in his lungs making the movement more painful than it should have been. "It was just a dream." He forced himself to say internally even as his gut told him that was a lie. "Miko's won't kill intentionally—so how could she have? Did she even—?" He inhaled sharply, the burning sensation in his throat making him realize there was only one way to resolve his confusion. "Kagome." Her name seemed like a ghost upon his tongue. "Did you—?"

The girl promptly hiccupped and ripped her hands away from her face. The pain lodged in her eyes made Inuyasha go stark still as if he was a wounded animal caught in a predator's gaze. "Yes." She told him, her whole body seeming to tingle with hate for herself as she spoke. "It was me—me—me—me." She sank into the ground further, breaking eye contact with him as she wrapped her arms around herself tightly. "I'm so sorry." She cried out as she grabbed for her hair, yanking on it as if the pain would make her feel better. "I killed them—I did it."

Inuyasha honestly didn't know what he should do as he looked at her. His whole body was frozen with a mixture of disbelief and pain. "There's no way—it has to be a mistake." He told himself even as the mounting evidence was shoved into his face with every whimper and moan she released. "Kagome could never do this." He thought as her sobs grew louder and his heart grew more and more pained. "Kagome isn't that kind of person." He reasoned even as his eyes traveled over her body, the knowledge that she had been the only one not susceptible to the toxin eating away at his consciousness. "She was the only one awake."

The fact was haunting and compelling. Licking his lips, he realized the only way he would really know for sure was to ask. But how does one go about asking someone if they were responsible for the murder of so many people; especially, if that person is as sweet and kind and honest and fair as Kagome Dremsont. Opening his mouth, he tried to find the words but they were hard to make appear. A small part of him actually didn't want to know, it just wanted to make all of this go away. That part of him only wanted to make her feel better and it knew that forgetting about this incident would do nothing but make her life easier. Still, a larger part of himself knew that things like this didn't just vanish into thin air.

"How," He forced himself to speak even as his heart told him not to. "How did this—h-happen?"

The sobbing girl hiccupped as she listened to his words, barely acknowledging them as she buried her face into her knees. All she wanted to do was disappear, crawl underneath a rock and die. "Everything I believed in is gone." The thought echoed in her head taunting her. "I'm—I'm a monster." She held back another sob as she gritted her teeth, her body beginning to shake with her own horror. "I killed th-e-e-em." She managed to say out loud, a gasp overtaking her words within seconds.

Despite the pain coursing through his body Inuyasha pushed himself forward, needing to reach her. Every sob she released bit into him, taking chunks of his heart with it. "Kagome." He whispered as he forced himself onto his knees with a large grunt of pain. Luckily, it seemed the pain was beginning to subside, even if it was just slightly. Moving on his hands and knees, he approached her slowly both for her sake and his own abilities. "It's okay." He offered as he moved across the floor, the feeling in his limps returning more and more with each carefully traveled inch.

Noticing how close his voice had become, Kagome's head snapped opened and she turned to look at him surprised (not surprised by his movements, but surprised by his very presence.) It was as if she had not noticed him till now and was just seeing him alive for the first time. "You're okay?" The words came out as shaky and filled with pain. "You're okay." She said again this time seeming to believe what she was saying as she cried.

"I'm fine." Inuyasha told her as he reached her side, his whole body groaning from the pain of his movements. "Are—." He started to say but was cut off by another of her giant sobs.

Launching herself forward, her mouth opened and gasping for breath, Kagome literally tackled her intended. Inuyasha fell backwards, unable to support her in his current state and gasped as his lungs were unwittingly filled with a rush of oxygen. The pain of the action was surprisingly minimal and the dog demon held in a sigh of relief he couldn't begin to explain. On top of him, Kagome continued to sob, her face already buried in his shirt as she cried and cried, relief flooding her every pore.

"I wa-s-s wo-r-rried." She managed to tell him as her body shook uncontrollably against him, her hands gripping his shirt, pulling him towards her. "I thought—I thought," She shook her head, burying it farther into his chest. "Dead."

"Dead?" Inuyasha repeated even as he brought his hands around her back, pulling her towards himself even more (if it was possible). "No—I'm here," He whispered carefully as he rubbed her back and closed his eyes. "I'm here—I'm alive."

Kagome sniffled from his words and somehow managed to pull herself together just enough to look at him. The blackness of her eyes caught him off guard for all of a minute and he found himself stilling from the sight. There was something about those eyes that were unnerving, maybe it was because they looked so much like Kikyo's eyes or maybe it was simply because they looked so much not like Kagome's.

The girl searched his face the best she could, uncertainty beginning to fuel her as she watched him look at her nervously. It was a look she had never before seen on his face in regards to her. He looked almost, confused and untrusting, and she was positive she knew why. Pushing herself upwards, practically ripping herself away from Inuyasha, Kagome resisted the urge to sob again. "You—you hate me."

"What!?" The dog demon felt his heart jump into his throat, his whole body practically in spasm from her words. "Never!" He managed to shout even as his throat and lungs caught fire with pain.

Kagome flinched at the sound and recoiled away from him in a way Inuyasha could honestly say he had never seen before. "You do—you hate me."

"Kagome," Inuyasha shook his head, his mind racing in an attempt to understand her. "Why would I hate you?"

Her head snapped upwards and her eyes filled with red hot disbelief. "Look!" She shouted, her voice coming out in such a shrill explanation that Inuyasha's ears actually pressed to his head. "Look at what I did." She snapped her wrist towards the charred remains of the mongoose demons she had killed. "I murdered them! I killed them!" Her voice was near hysterical as she slammed her hand down palm first onto the wooden floor. "I'm a monster!"

Reaching out for her, Inuyasha grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her but not too hard to hurt her in anyway. "Calm down." He commanded as his eardrums virtually burst inside his ear canal. "Tell me—what happened."

She turned towards him looking every bit the tender age of eighteen. "I—you—you were." She struggled desperately to find the words, her own distraught nature causing her tongue and brain to lack communication. "The toxin," She finally said even as her body began to shake as if she was having a flashback to the event in question. "You—all of you were—."

Inuyasha felt the memories begin to return as she stumbled over her own words. "We were dying." He whispered to himself as the sensations he could recall made him practically squirm uncomfortably.

"Yes." Kagome whispered her voice small and mouse like. "I didn't know what else to do." She cried as she wrapped her arms around herself the shaking making it near impossible for her to grasp her sides properly. "I—I grabbed the bow and I—something happened in me." She looked up at him as if pleading for him to explain what even she didn't understand. "I made an arrow." She recalled as her heart began to tighten to the point of throbbing within her chest. "It was black."

Inuyasha listened patiently even as his mind jumped onto the thought. "A black arrow?" He whispered to himself so softly that Kagome couldn't hear him. Quickly, his mind jumped back to their time with Onaconah, his memories of Kagome's first and only arrow he had ever seen jumping to the forefront of his mind. "It was white—pinkish white." He felt a lump form in his throat as he realized exactly where Kagome's story was heading without her having to say another word.

"I—I fired it and everything—exploded." She reached for him as she spoke, her eyes looking at the ground between them as her fingers searched for the comfort of his person. "They screamed—I've never heard such screams." Her voice broke just as her fingers grasped the fabric of his pants legs, pulling at it until the fabric groaned. "And then—fire." Her voice died in her throat as the flames that had killed the mongooses danced before her eyes. "I—I just wanted to protect you." Her face snapped upwards, tears gathering on her chin as she looked at him. "I couldn't let you die."

The dog demon looked at her with bright golden eyes finally lined with comprehension. "She did do it." He told himself, admitting what he found himself not wanting to admit. "She killed them but—," Another part of his mind began to reason. "She—Kagome saved us." The thought echoed throughout his head so loudly that he had no room to think of anything else. "Kagome saved my life." He told himself as the demon inside of him actually pouted, hating the thought.

He couldn't stop the swell of both pride and anger that instantaneously flooded his body. Part of him, the demon part hated the fact that its mate had to save it. It didn't like the idea at all and with a swift grow cursed the fact that it had been that weak. The human in him however, couldn't help but swell with love and disbelief. It couldn't have been more proud. And in the end, no other thoughts mattered but the demon's wounded pride and the human's admiration for its mate. The fact that Kagome had killed was completely ignorable compared to those two different modes of thought.

"She saved me." He licked his lips knowing that he would never ever in a million years voice the words aloud. His pride would not allow him to say such a thing. "You—." Admiration began to build in his chest as he realized what it was Kagome had done. "You stopped them, you saved us."

"No!" Kagome shouted, unable to allow those words to apply to her. "I killed them," The words rushed from her mouth as she gripped his pants legs, the threads beginning to pop underneath the tension of her fingers. "I killed innocent people."

"But you saved us." Inuyasha tried to argue back, his true belief that she had been right fueling his words. "It doesn't matter what happened," He felt his pride for his mate's power bubble up within his chest. "You did what you had to do and that's what's important."

"I could have done something else." Kagome fought back her whole body shaking as she spoke each and every word. "Why didn't I?" She ripped her hands away from him, her fingers shaking so badly that she couldn't hold onto his body any longer. "I could have used a barrier—I could have purified them—I could have done so many things." She grabbed for her own hair, yanking and pulling on it with force she didn't know she had. "And I—," She looked up at him, the horror in her voice making Inuyasha feel distinctly uncomfortable. "I chose to kill."

The sound of groaning to their right stopped the conversation before it could advance any farther. Both Inuyasha and Kagome jumped and whipped their heads towards the sound as Kouga began to move, his mind gradually coming back into consciousness. "Che diavolo." He whispered, the words rolling off his tongue in much the same way words rolled off a drunkard's own.

"Oi!" Inuyasha called towards the other demon, his own experience with waking up from the toxin sparking his words. "Don't move right away."

"Eh?" Kouga growled out even as his own body seemed too caught on fire. "Dannazione!" He cursed and promptly began to cough from the pain in his throat.

Despite all of his clouded thoughts regarding Kagome, Inuyasha couldn't help but feel a bit of satisfaction at the sight. "Damn bastard deserves a little pain." He told himself before glancing at his mate out of the corner of his eye. Part of him was glad for the interruption, mainly because he had no idea what to say to Kagome at the moment. "She—saved us," He thought to himself for what was probably the tenth time. "But she killed to do it."

"The path between light and darkness is a hard path to negotiate."

"What the hell does that mean!?" He growled to himself as his mother's words floated into his mind once more, taunting him.

Across from him, completely unaware of the previous conversation or Inuyasha's own thoughts, Kouga growled slightly. The pain in his eyes was extraordinary but not so much that he would dare allow himself to be vulnerable in front of his cousin. It was with this stubbornness ragging throughout his head that he was able to force his eyes to open far faster than Inuyasha had been able to. Blue eyes pried apart, the normally white part of his eyes which surrounded the pupil red and agitated.

"Arg." He growled to himself and snapped them back shut even his own stubbornness no match for the pain. Dragging his weakened arms from the ground, he brought up a hand and rubbed it across his eyes. "Ahi." He hissed from the searing sting before deliberately scenting the air. His mate's scent instantly filled his nose and much like Inuyasha, his eyes snapped opened in response refusing to close. "Ayame."

The wolf demon's head spontaneously moved to her location within the room, spotting her so quickly that it almost seemed unnatural. The young female wolf was unmoving beside him, her body strewn on the floor just as it had been when Kagome had entered the room a mere twenty minutes before. Reaching for his young mate, Kouga gently ran the back of his hand over her cheek, his blue eyes filled with worry and slight despair.

"Meticcio?" He spoke after a few more moments of staring at her intently. "What-eh 'appened?" He finally looked away from the girl and towards his cousin, his eyes traveling over them before seeing the destruction behind him. The sight gave him complete pause, his hand dropping from Ayame's face in favor of staring at the unbelievable view. "Damn." He whispered the words softly as he stared at the charred flesh with disbelief. "How-eh did I not smell-a tat?" He spoke out loud, the use of English making it seem as if he was asking a legitimate question, which he was in fact not.

Ignoring the second question in favor of the first and real one, Inuyasha shifted awkwardly. His initial thought, his only thought, was to lie. "Something went wrong with the toxin." Inuyasha deceived without a second thought as even the hair on his arms started to stand on end. He knew if Kouga was truly aware of Kagome's advanced powers that the girl would be in very real danger. Priestesses and miko's who could kill were far more dangerous to a demon than even the most horrifyingly strong monster on the planet. "If Kouga knew she did that," He licked his lower lip as the demon inside of him bristled, wanting nothing more than to protect its mate. "There's no telling what he would do."

Beside him, Kagome lifted her head frowning darkly as she listened to Inuyasha speak. "That's not what happened." She wanted to say but an instinctual fear deep within herself (a fear few humans still possessed), told her not to say a single word. Somehow she knew the danger she was in without even having to understand its potential. "I killed a demon," She lowered her head once more from the thought as an earlier memory from a different incident suddenly jumped into her head. "Again—I killed a demon again." Her heart stopped dead in her chest as the image of Manten's awful face jumped into her head. "I really am a monster—a horrible fucking monster!"

"Serve-e dem right." Kouga mumbled to himself as he pulled his body into an upright position his blue eyes turning towards the still unconscious Ayame.

Not wanting to prolong the conversation any further or even guide it in an uncomfortable direction, Inuyasha quickly gathered his wits. "We need to get out of here." He told Kouga as he glanced over at the unnervingly quiet Kagome. Watching her carefully for several seconds, he made sure to word his sentence as delicately as possible before he spoke. "Someone—had to have heard—," He started to use the word 'screams' but stopped before they could actually leave his mouth. "Maybe explosion?" He thought to himself, realizing that he must look and sound ridiculous as he debated internally. "What do I say—I don't want to make her feel worse but," He sighed and narrowed his eyes as he took in the sight of Kagome's broken face: she looked so small and fragile, far smaller and more fragile than he had seen her in months. "I almost can't believe it." He thought to himself, the image of the tiny shattered girl scaring him more than he cared to admit. Unable to think of anything more appropriate and running out of time to speak, he found himself unable to say nothing more than: "What happened?"

Unaware of the incident and Kagome's shift in mood, Kouga immediately agreed as he forced himself onto his hands and knees. "I will-eh carry Ayame." He told them as he raised one foot up, placing it flat underneath himself. The wolf demon breathed deeply from the exertion, the after effects of the toxin still tormenting his body.

Watching him carefully, Inuyasha had to admit that he was impressed with how quickly Kouga was recovering but then again he understood where the recovery was coming from. "At least my mate's awake—if she wasn't I'd probably be twice as motivated too." He thought as he glanced down at Ayame a bit worried. "Okay." Inuyasha agreed as he too forced one foot up underneath himself. It surprised him how much effort the simple movement actually took and for a moment he grew worried. "How the hell are we gonna get to the ship like this?" He asked himself as he braced one hand on the ground getting ready to stand. After preparing his weakened body for a few precious seconds he grunted and managed to get his other foot underneath himself as well. "Thank god." He muttered as he pushed himself to his feet completely.

His mind swam for a moment and he found himself closing his eyes so as to block out the tormenting sight. After several seconds of debating if he was going to actually throw up or not he finally felt his stomach settle down and sighed. Opening his eyes once more, he blinked in surprise as he watched his cousin actually struggle to get his other foot back onto the ground. The proud wolf demon looked as if he was shaking, his whole body seeming to tremble with even the slightest of moves.

"Maybe there is a bright side to all this." He thought to himself and smirked ever so slightly before a slight sniffle to his right made his ears go straight up, alert.

Turning he found himself looking at the still silent and crumbled Kagome. At some point she had risen to her feet as well and had even taken a hold of the bow once more but standing straight up with the bow in hand had done nothing to improve her stance. The girl was still hunched over, her body leaning forward and her sullen eyes staring at the ground as her arms wrapped around her middle. The sight tore at his heart and made him feel sick to his stomach in the most unpleasant of ways. All he wanted was the rush to her, to grab her back into his arms and comfort her but now was neither the time nor place. There was no telling who had heard the fight and screams and explosions they had caused in the past quarter hour; which meant, there was no telling who might show up at any second.

"When we get back—," He told himself as his ears twitched on his head, the sound of Ayame moaning reaching them. "I'll talk with her—she just—it's hard when you have to kill someone to live." He licked his lips, already knowing that in Kagome's case it just wasn't that simple. Briefly, his dream came back to him, the image of his mother as her own gentle black eyes looked at him rising up to the forefront of his mind.

"The path between light and dark—."

He watched as she formed every single syllable, her lips moving so deliberately in his mind that it almost felt, once more, completely real and not a dream.

"—is a hard path to negotiate."

She finished, closing her eyes to him with a sweet smile that he remembered often occurring in his youth. A slight warmness rushed over his body and he could honestly admit that for the briefest of seconds he felt decidedly home-sick. Shaking off the feeling the best he could, not wanting to be distracted in such a situation, the dog demon turned his thoughts away from her gentle face and towards her soft words. "What does that mean?" He asked himself but the thought didn't last long as Kouga began to speak, not to Inuyasha but to his wife.

"Stai bene?" He whispered as Ayame's groans filled the room, the girl coming into wakefulness agonizingly.

"Sì." She replied in a breathy whisper already able to move (most likely thanks to Kagome's wind energies removal of the toxin from the room.) Forcing her burning eyes opened as well, the green of her irises bright even against the backdrop of her red sclera, she glanced up at Kouga. "Mi sento," She mumbled as she just managed to look up at her mate, her face actually appearing a dark green. "Orribile."

"Lo so," Kouga told her as he brought a hand up to her forehead and began to gently pet her hair. To a human, the action might have been odd but to a demon it was a sign of great devotion and affection. "Sarà bene," He continued on even as her eyes began to close, the multiple doses of the toxin in her system making her recovery even harder than the other two demons. "Te lo prometto." He finished with a whisper as he leaned forward and seemingly head butted her gently; another strange gesture that meant a lot in the demon world.

Watching the display with absolutely no interest, Inuyasha frowned his ears working overtime on his head. In the distance he could already hear the advancing footsteps of the next wave of men as well as the more discouraging sounds of an awakening town. "We have to get out of here now." He thought to himself as his hands grew sweaty with anxiety not only because of the impending attack but because of Kagome as well. Briefly, he turned back towards the girl watching her as she stood, not moving, dark eyes staring into nothingness. "Kagome?" He thought worriedly but didn't have time to think any further as rustling from behind him caught his attention.

Turning to look at the noise, Inuyasha came face to face with Kouga, his mate already in his arms, held tightly against his body. The serious curve of his eyebrows and the slits of his pupils spoke volumes to the dog demon. "We leave-eh now." The wolf said the words, leaving no room for any exceptions that Inuyasha could think of (not that anyone in the room would dare to give him one.)

"Got it." The dog demon agreed with a shake of his head and moved away from Kouga towards the unnervingly still Kagome. Unsure, he approached her as slowly as he could, not wanting to make any sudden movements least she be frightened. "She does sort of look like—a helpless deer right now." He thought to himself absently as he reached her side.

Ducking his head down to her level, he froze for a moment waiting for her to make eye contact with him but she didn't. The girl continued to stare blankly at the ground, her face a mystery of calm collection and absolute self hate. The very sight made Inuyasha's heart sink further in his chest, he just couldn't stand the sight. Her sullen black eyes made him feel oddly horrified, the lack of grey in them causing the demon within his person to grow agitated.

"It's like something's gone—." The thought entered his head before he could truthfully control it. "Is that even possible?" His skin began to crawl, the demon within him growing more and more anxious as it looked at its mate with anger building within it.

The demon knew that something was different, it could smell it on Kagome's very skin and that bothered it tremendously. That was not to say that the demon was bothered by Kagome, no Kagome could never bother the demon within him. What bothered the demon was the fact that it could see no way to right the new scent on her skin. Dog demon's were creatures of habit, they expected the word to stay within some form of consistency, especially in regards to the people they chose as mates. Kagome's sudden change in scent, change in mood, and change in eye color were disheartening to a demon of consistency to the point of producing paranoia. It was simply out of its control and that terrified it worse than even the knowledge that its mate how the power to kill it at anytime.

"Meticcio!" Kouga's growl destroyed any further train of thought Inuyasha could have and the dog demon growled slightly to himself annoyed. "Fretta!"

"Alright!" Inuyasha responded with a snap of his jaws as Kouga told him to hurry. Shaking his head, focusing on the unmoving Kagome, Inuyasha continued his approach. Outstretching his hands, he made sure she actually saw them before he touched her person. Clawed fingers managed to brush against her shirt, the girl jumping automatically at the contact.

"What?" Her head snapped upwards, her eyes going wide as if panicked.

"It's okay, it's me—it's me koi." Inuyasha quickly reassured as he pulled his hand away, the action actually making his chest hurt just a bit.

Kagome blinked rapidly at his gentle words, first because she had no idea what one of them had meant and second, because she couldn't believe for even a second that he would think to treat a monster such as herself with such kindness. "What's wrong with you?" She whispered as her shame mounted in her very soul, consuming her as her whole body shivered with raw emotion. "How can you—even," She spoke so softly that the nearly snarling Kouga in the background didn't hear her. "Look at me?"

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her words bewildered for only a moment before realization kicked in. "Kagome—do you really think," He paused as his mind grew more and more perplexed by her strange behavior. "I wouldn't want to look at you?"

Outside a distant shout penetrated the hallway, the word unrecognizable to anyone regardless of the languages they happened to speak. The sound caused both Inuyasha and Kouga to snap their heads upwards towards the still smoking doorframe. Uncertain, neither one moved the instinct to freeze far too strong for their bodies to actually jump into action. They both waited silently as the distant sounds of stomping feet grew closer and closer, neither quite thinking clearly enough yet to realize the danger behind those sounds. In fact, it wasn't until the distinct call of a male mongoose hissing "Da questo modo" that either man realized the true danger behind the sounds.

"Shit, they're coming." Inuyasha panted as he turned away from Kagome and looked back at Kouga who already had Ayame cradled safely in his arms. The two demons made eye contact, which lasted for only a few scant moments before Kouga broke it with a shake of his head.

"Meticcio I'm-a leavin'." He snapped as he moved towards the window the moonlight that had been pouring through it seeming to change in that moment to something far more dangerous: the waking sun. "Catch up-a when you're done!" He called over his shoulder as he managed to hold onto Ayame and somehow magically undo the small window latch at the same time. Within seconds the window squealed as it was pried open by Kouga's hand. The wolf demon didn't even spare him a second glance as he pushed himself up onto the ledge, swinging his legs around until they were dangling out the other side. "Arrivederci!" He called 'goodbye' over his shoulder before pushing himself forward, falling to the ground with Ayame in his arms.

Watching Kouga jump out the window, Inuyasha too jumped back into action. There was always time to discuss the incidents that had happened within this room, if they lived, that is. Turning back towards Kagome, the dog demon sent her the most sympathetic look he could muster. "I'm sorry Kagome." Inuyasha told her, his voice laced with worry and true apology as he studied her unnaturally neutral face. "We have to go—." He reached for her but she flinched away from his touch much to his amazement.

"No." She shook her head even as the sounds grew louder, the approaching people probably not too far away from them.

"Kagome we have to leave." Inuyasha argued back as he looked at her for all pretenses as if she was crazy.

The girl brought her head up to look at him, her eyes laced with tears as they darted between him and the charred bodies behind her. "I can't!" The words broke through her throat, the sound of them nearly choking her making Inuyasha even more antsy.

"Why not?" He growled at her as he reached for her again but much to his amazement she dodged him, her hand slipping out of his grip as she actually glared at him.

"Because—." She snapped, the anger within her actually manifesting all around her in the form of infuriatingly hot black energy. "Look what I fucking did!" The energy consumed her very being, clouding her skin in the strangest dark mist Inuyasha had ever seen. The dog demon actually took a step back in fright as the girl pointed at the charred remains of their earlier attackers. "I'm a horrible person, a monster, I don't deserve to go with you—to be on the Shikuro." Her eyes closed once more, the tears rushing down her face as she cried, hatred for herself overflowing from her tear ducks.

Inuyasha gritted his teeth, his heart aching for her as he watched the tears compile on her chin, dripping down to the floor. "How can she say that?" He asked himself as he resisted the urge to simply shake some sense into her. "She saved us—and sometimes that means killin' someone so you might live." He reasoned even though a strange feeling in his gut told him that there was a flaw in his reasoning and that the rules of his own world did not and would never apply to Kagome's. Kagome was different, very much different. Ignoring that tiny source of reasoning, Inuyasha flattened his ears momentarily to his head before actually glaring at her. "Stop talking nonsense!" His eyes burned as he looked at her, hating that she was feeling the way she was. "Of course you deserve to be on the Shikuro." He kept his voice as low as possible even though he actually wanted to yell.

"How can you just say that?" The strange black energy around her began to spin, creating a strange almost cyclone effect which he could see through. "After what I did." She gasped as pain rocked her to her very core, hatred for herself culminating in her chest, ripping and tearing at her soul. "I'm supposed to stop hate to prevent violence and look—look what I did." She turned towards the horrible sight in the doorway her voice shaking as she spoke. "You should hate me, fear me, want me dead." She turned back towards him, her eyes actually pleading as if she needed him to say he did. "How can you not?"

Even though he knew they didn't have time for this and even though he could hear footsteps only a few minutes away, he found himself unable to hold back the words begging to be spoken. "I could never hate you." The words flowed out of his mouth as other, stronger ones began to circle in his head.

"But you have to, this—this isn't me this isn't the woman you knew." Kagome shouted and actually stomped her foot on the ground, the black swirling energy seeming to grow darker with each and every word. "How can you look at me like nothing happened?!" She screamed, the sound making his ears flatten to his head and the demon inside of him actually snarl with anger.

"Damn it Kagome." He finally snapped, unable to deal with the emotions running throughout his own body. "I'm looking at you right now and all I can fucking see you." He let the words flow unhindered as they raced about his head begging to finally be said. "And I love you." The words fell from his mouth with little thought as to their repercussions; they were simply there, finally in the open.

Kagome's whole expression turned from sullen self hatred, to pure unadulterated disbelief. Around her the black swirling energy fell and crashed to the ground, leaving her bare and exposed to his eyes. She started to open her mouth but no words came, there were no words that she could even dare to think of at that moment.

"Don't you get it?" Inuyasha continued on not even realizing what he was saying, the combination of fear from the approaching footsteps and anger from seeing his intended in so much pain making him blind to his own words. "I love you," He jabbed a finger in her direction. "No matter what I love you—nothing ever, ever, ever will change that," He flung both hands up in the air as if that made his point more valid. "Nothing can change that feeling." He continued on as his heart pounded in his chest but not because of what was happening right then. "You could kill every person on earth and I would still love you."

Kagome's mind raced with what she was hearing, never in her life had a man other than her father or brother told her that she was loved. She couldn't even comprehend the words or the feeling that was building in her bruised heart. She felt unworthy, she felt confused, and she felt as if the whole world had just been turned upside down. It all seemed impossible: a man loved her, and on top of that, it was the man she secretly loved who was professing his feelings openly. Besides even that, after everything she had just done, the death all around them, he was still professing those words. "How can he just—?" Her mind seemed to be floating away from her body unable to cope with what was happening. "How?" Kagome whispered in complete shock but they didn't have time for the conversation to go any deeper.

"Oh Dio in cielo, abbi pietà!" Someone screamed from just outside the door having seen the horrific sight of the countless charred remains.

Hearing the voice, every instinct in Inuyasha's body seemed to activate. The demon within him snarled as it felt the potential danger to its mate rock it to its very core. "Run!" It screamed at him for perhaps the first time in Inuyasha's entire life. "Protect mate—run!" It continued on as Inuyasha's ears and nose took in every little detail of sound and smell around them. "There's fifteen or so." He managed to deduce within a few short seconds, his body seeming to reawaken from the very thought. "Run."

Making a split second decision Inuyasha grabbed his mate without another word. In her current state of shock, Kagome didn't even seem to notice as he wrapped his arms around her waist and dragged her with him across the room. The window was already opened from Kouga's earlier departure, making their escape as easy as jumping out of it.

"It's a two story drop." He told himself as he approached the opened pane. "And I'm feeling much better now—shouldn't be a problem at all!" He narrowed his eyes and without a second thought managed to slide both himself and Kagome through the opened part of the window. Behind him he heard the telltale sounds of someone entering the room and something screamed at him in Italian that he couldn't quite understand.

Ignoring both he dropped from the window ledge. Part of him subconsciously realized that Kagome had not made a sound throughout the whole ordeal. Even as they fell the twenty something feet back to the soft grass, she didn't make a single sound. For the briefest of moments, he wondered why she wasn't speaking, his mind rushing for an answer even as his body darted across the beautiful Mediterranean garden. The only conclusion he could come to was that Kagome was still preoccupied by the horrors committed within the little room. It wouldn't be till much later that Inuyasha realized exactly what he had said.

-break-

Kaede sat in the small chair in her cabin, which rested before the petite window behind the desk. In her hand she held an old quill, dripping with ink as she prepared to finish a letter she had started sometime before. Gingerly, she wiped the excess ink on the side of the inkwell, deliberately watching every action she made with careful precision. Watching the ink as it finally stopped dripping, she smiled with satisfaction and brought the quill back towards the parchment. The sound of careful scratching filled the air of the cabin once more as she looped letter after letter of her own name, signing the well crafted letter.

Finished, she pulled the quill from the page and dropped it back inside the well without a sound other than a simple sigh. Her large human eye blinked, the one underneath the patch moving rapidly as if begging to be freed. Understanding the gifted eye's need, the old woman reached up and pulled the patch from her face. The eye closed for a moment in response, protecting itself from the sharp edges of the leather eye patch before it fluttered open. The first thing it saw was the letter on the desk, the intelligent eye catching the wet ink in one quick swoop before blinking the sight away deeming it redundant and uninteresting.

Quickly, it moved away from the drying blackness and instead focused on the window, which hovered over the table. The bright blue Shinigami eye looked out across the Atlantic slowly, watching the presence hovering silently in the distance. "She's still following us." Kaede thought as she looked at the decaying remnants of the old Shinigami as she flew a good hundred yards away from the ship. "Like a lion waiting to catch an antelope." She closed her eyes against the sight as the image of a lion stalking such delicious pray entered her mind briefly.

She could almost see the muscles of such a creature as it stalked the potential meal hidden in the dry savanna grass. She watched as it licked its lips slowly, its sharp eyes narrowed as it focused solely on the unaware creature. Suddenly, it stopped moving and lowered its body weight, the ears upon its head flickering as they took in sounds from nearly every direction. Its paws pushed at the dirt as it prepared to spring, the muscles along its shoulder blades growing taunt as its pupils narrowed even more to enhance its vision. It licked its lips in one slow calculated motion, and then, it sprang.

Kaede's eyes snapped open, the memory that was not her own, slipping away from her just before she saw the antelope meet its end. Tired, she brought a hand up to her wrinkled face and ran it over her exhausted eyes. "Two days." She whispered to herself, the image of the lion being replaced by the Shinigami that hovered just outside. "Since Kagura was told she would die." The old woman felt her heart tighten to the point of worry in her chest.

Since that time, two days before, Kagura had simply launched herself into the arms of the lover she had found. Hiten and herself had become inseparable, seemingly interwoven with one another as if their very souls had latched onto the other's heart. Even now as Kaede's Shinigami eye turned its attention up above her head to the cabin of Hiten, she could see that bound forming not physically but emotionally. Hiten was changing and Kagura was changing with him. The two were becoming better and more observant people the longer they looked at one another. It was astonishing and heartwarming and Kaede could only imagine the damage that would come if it should die. She almost wondered why Kagura would embrace such a relationship. Kagura knew she was going to die, a fact she had never disclosed to Hiten; so, why? Why would Kagura allow the man to seemingly fall unknowingly in love with when she knew where she was headed and that it was only a matter of time before she fulfilled the contract of the Shinigami.

The old woman smiled at her own train of thought. Although she didn't necessarily agree on Kagura's reasons, she perfectly understood them. "When one knows they are about to die," She lifted a hand up to her chest as the words fell from her lips, sweet and cheerless. "They let go of their fear and simply live for one more moment of life." Her slight smile twisted into a painful frown on her face and she shook her head as if mocking her own words. "One more moment of life." She repeated the phrase, the taste of it on her tongue not as bitter as she thought it should have been.

Turning her eyes back to the Shinigami that hovered outside, she wondered only absently if it could sense her within the ship. Shinigami were observant creatures normally, their eyes the key contributor of that characteristic, but this Shinigami was so close to death it probably wasn't paying all that much attention to anything other than Kagura and the current phase of the moon. Blinking, Kaede turned her head upwards towards that ever growing moon, watching as it stared back at her from a star lit sky. It was a cool moon, almost blue, the features of it a direct mere of the state of Kaede's heart. Her mind tumbled as she watched it, memories from long ago, from times she had not been alive to see, began to simmer inside of her.

"It is only on the night of a full moon," Kaede closed both her human eye and her Shinigami one as her psyche raced with the collective memories of the Shinigami species, memories that no mere mortal could have ever hoped to possess. "That a Shinigami will take a life." Her eyelids flickered as she forced them to stay closed, the memories of other lifetimes invading her whole body.

"Dahuiccoramoculisperennisstultissime." She could hear the words as if they were being chanted right above her head, the Shinigami she had once known seeming to whisper them.

Her old fingers grabbed the hem of her skirt, pulling at it with all her might until the sticking groaned. "Give the eyes of endless sight to this poor fool." She automatically translated them despite having never known Latin in her life. It was another gift of the Shinigami; to understand all language regardless of where it originated.

"Siniteillosusqueinvestigareetinvestigareoculisdistillanssanguine." The ancient language, still used by some today, fluttered against her consciousness.

She felt a lump form in her throat as the words broke into her mind's eye, loud and unnerving. "Let them search and search until the eyes drip with blood." The sight of Kagura's ruby eyes filled her, dragging her soul into her stomach and nearly chopping it to bits.

"Damihifacta suntetsanguis." The words finished; the sound of them unnerving and almost unreal, as if the words should have never been uttered to form a sentence.

"And when they are done," She paused as she felt her fingers shake against her skirt, each little thread that held the material together moaning under the strain. "Give that blood to me." She breathed in deeply, the sound of the breath nothing more than a shudder as if her throat was a leaf upon a tree.

Kaede's eyes opened as the sound echoed all around her, dangerous and hallow. She extracted her fingers from her pants, yanking on them until she freed them from the bondage of the fabric. Bringing her hands up to her face she examined the parts of her fingers which were red from the strain. The wrinkled skin stared back at her, mocking her old age and she found herself almost hypnotized by her bodies decaying state. It would be years before she actually looked like the Shinigami who hovered outside, bits and pieces of its body dripping into the sea; but still, she feared that life more than she feared death.

Dropping her hands into her lap without grasping the fabric of her clothes the old woman tilted her head back and closed her eyes. "Thecontract of the Shinigami." Kaede sighed heavily, a heavy shudder running down her back just from speaking such words. "I could never take one or make one or be involved with one." She shook her head as her thoughts turned to Kagura once more, the woman who had made such a dangerous contract. "Kagura." The name seemed somehow dangerous, however, she could have never explained such a feeling. "You stand to die—your contract has been finished." The old woman felt her heart pump a little faster in her chest. "Your mortality shall find you." She shook her head and brought a hand up to cover the Shinigami eye upon her face. "And you will die, leaving nothing but a beautiful corpse."

The very thought made the old woman's stomach turn. She could hardly believe the fairness of such a possibility. A girl so young with such potential with a lover at her side, was going to die for no reason other than a bad decision made within her past. At first, Kaede hadn't been able to understand why Kagura had made such a decision but as a Shinigami she had the ability to find out why. Many times Kaede had allowed herself the barest of glimpses into Kagura's mind. The things she had found there had been dark and undeniably sad.

"Sesshoumaru-sama." She whispered the name, knowing it and knowing him in ways no one might ever consider. "Sess—hou—ma—ru—sa—ma." She drug out the name once more as the image of the tall man entered her head fully. "It was you." She whispered into the darkness of the room. "She did all of this for you."

The woman actually snorted as she pulled her eyes back down towards the floor and glared. She had seen the circumstances and how the brokenhearted ex-fiancé had decided her life was not worth living without her mate. It was a childish decision, one made out of upset and not logic. But then again, that's how all Shinigami contracts are made.

"Poor souls." Kaede whispered as she saw in her mind's eye all the thousands of people the mambo had taken before it reached her. Each one had a story even sadder than the last, the Shinigami's eyes use helping them to either escape life or find a life which had escaped them. "To use such a gift for something so trivial." She shook her head even as her own subconscious mocked her. "I guess—when I first heard of these eyes, I wanted them for the same reason."

She frowned to herself as images of Inuyasha filled her mind. She remembered needing him after her sister had died, she remembered being told that a Shinigami eye could find anyone or anything, she remembered the mambo, she remembered obtaining them, she remembered searching until she reached the farthest corners of the globe, and most of all she remembered what had happened once she reached the farthest corner of the globe.

"I found purpose there." Kaede told herself as she glanced at the letter she had written earlier. "A goal that couldn't be reached in one lifetime." Her heartbeat actually slowed in her chest, the feelings behind her own thoughts dangerous and cold. "I wonder if it will be reached without me?" She asked herself even though she already knew the answer. Looking back down to the floor, the old woman frowned and neither spoke nor thought a single word for just a moment.

Instead, she narrowed her eyes at the floor and held back the tiniest of tears from entering her old human eye. The wood planks below her feet were darker than they had ever been, perhaps sensing her mood and the words she could neither think nor say. Expertly, she tilted her head back, the prickle of tears in the corner of her eye replaced instead by the blurriness of them washing across the whole of her pupil and iris. The floorboards above her head (which doubled as foot boards for someone else) remained the same color as the boards below her feet. It was a color that offered her no reassurance.

"Will she be okay?" She suddenly asked herself as she pulled her eyes away from the floor above her head. They instantly found the unmarked letter on the table before her. "Can she do it all alone?" She wondered as the contents of the letter wafted in and out of her head. "She's just one person—." She corrected herself as images of her entered her mind, her bright eyes narrowed with determination.

In her mind's eye, Kaede stared into the other woman's eyes, watching her with intense scrutiny. One false move and that single girl could ruin everything she had ever worked towards. She would ruin the Shinigami eyes, the compass, Sesshoumaru and his plan; one wrong move and that girl could very well destroy the world.

"Can I really let her do something as important as this all alone?" She pursed her lips from the very thought, not liking the direction her mind was taking her. "Do I really have a choice?" Deep down inside, the part of Kaede which was still human knew she didn't. There were no longer choices, there were only proper decision.

She looked down at the soft paper of the letter, studying each little word on the sheet. Naraku, power, final, inside, complete, Shikon-no-Tama, Sesshoumaru, Nippon, core, miko, time, patience, and understanding popped out before her very eyes, each word dancing before her vision. Every word seemed to taunt her as she realized her life's work was summarized on that one page of information. Everything she had discovered and gained throughout the entirety of her life, every place she had traveled, every source of information she had gathered, every person who had ever offered her insight, and every continent she had ever walked on, summarized in four short paragraphs. Somehow, she found it hard to let such information go. And yet—

"I know—," She laughed slightly even though there was hardly any true laughter inside the mirthful sound. "My only choice is to do what I've already decided to do." Her lip quivered just slightly, the natural fear of the unknown boggling her mind. "I wonder—what it's like to die?" She asked herself the question only once before allowing it to depart from the entirety of her person, never to be thought again. Decision made, Kaede picked up the piece of parchment and carefully blew upon the still somewhat wet ink. Instantly it seemed to dry, little sections of it actually splattering where the ink had been too thick. Absently, she stared at the splatter marks, the uniqueness of their patterns drawing her attention. "Life is like these marks." She thought absently, her words dark inside her head. "Insignificant and messy."

She allowed the thought to slide as she reached for a premade envelope resting peacefully upon the table edge. Sliding the piece of paper into the envelope, she took one last deep breath before reaching for the quill. The sound of the quill scratching against the front of the letter was loud within the confines of such a small room. After only a few scarce seconds however, the sound ceased and in its place a finished name was left. Admiring her work, Kaede did her best not to actually cry as she watched the ink turn less shinny and more flat as it dried.

"That's the last thing I'll ever write." She thought to herself and then laughed for the sheer absurdity of such a thought. Shaking her head, she turned away from the letter and looked out across the room which she currently called home. "Goodbye." She whispered to it, her voice raspy and horse with aging.

And with those last words, Kaede turned away from the desk, from the chair, from the window, from the bed, and the small carpet she had placed there to warm her feet. She turned away from the walls, and the floor, she turned away from an existence that had been both transcendental and rather meaningless. Her old bones creaked as she walked, the sound meant for her ears only. She hunched just a bit as she paused from the pain in her joints and breathed in heavily as the scent of familiarity warmed her very bones.

One last time she turned and looked out at that room but her eyes didn't see any of the necessities of it. Instead, they focused out the window at the world she had known in life. She saw the beauty of the sky, the distance of a vast and unrelenting sea, she saw the sun as it dipped down and the darkness of night as it crept in. Her lower lip trembled for just the barest of seconds and she bowed her head. "May we meet again." She told the entirety of existence before raising her head once more.

Her eyes, much to her own surprise, fell back onto the letter she had just so recently composed. It seemed so tiny on the large desk, a speck of no more than dust compared to the immensity of the world. Yet, within that letter was the hope of all existence if it were at all possible. Everything that ever was and ever would be didn't even know that it was relying on that one letter in order to continue its existence. For a fleeting moment, Kaede found that thought both absurd and unnerving but the moment didn't last. Soon her feelings of worry and irrationality faded into no more than the hint of a smile on her face. One last time she looked over the room, her eyes sweeping over every little feature before she finally turned around and prepared to leave.

Old bones creaked, her breath came in pants, she reached for the door her fingers brushing the cool wood of the handle. Holding the doorknob tightly, the wood pressing into her wrinkled palms she twisted it carefully. The sound of the wood whining as it was forced to move caught her ears and she couldn't help but be intrigued as the door parroted the sound when she pushed it opened. They were both sounds she would cherish even if the thought sounded strange. The empty hallway greeted her as the door finally opened completely and unsurprised she stared into it with firm conviction.

Kaede Cummings was simply ready to die.

She took one step beyond the threshold of the door, her hand still posed upon its handle. The wood squeaked underneath her feet in response and she couldn't help but smile. "I wouldn't change anything." She whispered into that nothingness as her life momentarily rushed before her gaze.

She could see her mother and her father, faces she had forgotten long ago; she could see her sister, her black eyes still wide opened and charming; she could see the tavern where she had been born and where she once thought she would die. She could see Inuyasha, his golden eyes looking down at her with both acceptance and humility. She could see Kagome, her grey eyes opened to the world, a savior that didn't know she had such power. She saw Richard Dresmont, his own grey eyes just as opened if not a bit timid and scared. She saw her friends from childhood, from adolescence and from adulthood. She saw every smiling face, every laugh, and every tear. In that one brief moment, Kaede saw every happiness she had ever known and it warmed her to her very soul.

"I had a wonderful life." She whispered and to her own amazement she realized she had meant exactly what she had said.

The door closed with a soft click, leaving the room in complete silence and, odd enough, peace. The bed stood unhindered, the chair remained tucked underneath the desk, the window was slightly opened, the curtains caught the playful breeze, and on the lonely table a letter rested waiting to be opened. To the untrained eye it was small and unobtrusive but within it rested the fate of a world that knew not of its own apocalypse.

And on the off white parchment that composed the envelope was written, in beautiful looping letters, one name: Kagome O'Lionsigh.

End of Chapter

Please Review

A/N: And so completes the chapter. I hope everyone is enjoying the stories progress. We are in the middle of a scary section now. Kagome has committed a mass murder, basically. Kagura and Kaede are both ready to die but we don't know which one actually will, if either. Inuyasha has confessed his feelings to Kagome in a very blunt and opened way, at possibly to worst time ever. And we are still waiting to find out about the killer of Sango's rapist...and, on top of even that, what the hell Sesshoumaru—you're a jerk! Or are you?

Side Note: I just wanted to say thank you to my anonymous reviewers for a second. I appreciate you taking the time to leave me a review and since I can't actually reply to you like I can other's (who I have and haven't) I thought I would just extend my gratitude. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Bonus Point:

How do you say "I love you" in Japanese? (And by that I mean, how do you say literally "I love you" in Japanese not the more proper "I like you a whole whole lot" that is used between even husband and wives in traditional households.)

Last Chapter's Bonus Point:

Kagome's uniform is a green and white sailor suit (common in Japanese high schools and junior highs). She wears a red necktie around her collar and white knee high socks as well. Her shoes are brown leather penny loafers, virtually. Congrats to all the winners!

Glon Morski, AiydanWarrior, RockStarAnimeLover, IkutoTsukiyomi'sGirl, ravenraymoon, leomae, KuramixMidnight, TaoGrace, Asian Delicacy, Cagome, NurNur, AKENI SHIKON, Guest, SilverMoonLite, anime4eva222, walomadolo, Guest, SpunkyAnimeLuver, kittyzwevme1234,

Translations:

Watashi wa Sesshoumaru-sama, anata ni jibun jishin o ataeru yō ni natta. Anata no chichi no meirei de. – I have come to give myself to your, Sesshoumaru-sama. At the behest of your father.

Kore ga subetedesu? – This is all?

Watashi wa gakkarida to iu koto o nikumu. Shikashi, watashi wa omoimasu. – I hate to say I'm disappointed. But I am.

Sukunakutomo, anata wa utsukushī me o motte iru. – At the very least, you have beautiful eyes.

Watashi wa shōrai-teki ni wa motto yoi to omotte imasu. – I hope to do better in the future.

Che diavolo? – What the hell?

Stai bene? – Are you okay?

Mi sento orrible. – I feel horrible.

Lo so. Sarà bene te lo prometto. – I know. It will be okay, I promise.

Da questo modo – This way!

Oh Dio in cielo, abbi pietà – Oh god in heaven have mercy!

Next Chapter:

Time

See you then!

UNEDITTED

POSTED

8/10/2013