Travel Travails Chapter 7: A Corpse Never Truly Dies Alone, an inuyasha fanfic

A/N: Hey everyone! I've got a rather somber chapter here for you all. This is the first installment in a bunch of chapters with this theme of Corpses. I just find it really silly of anyone to assume that Kagome can blithely get used to the multitude of dead bodies she meets. She's a modern girl! She's not used to seeing dead bodies all the time! (She's not from New York…hehehe. Sorry about that ol' NYC pride coming to the surface.)

Enjoy and Review please!

A Corpse Never Truly Dies Alone: First Encounter:

Inuyasha helplessly stared as Kagome cried.

He had been on his own since he was five, killed his first person by age seven and was generally capable of handling himself in almost any given situation. Yet this, seeing Kagome undone by the dead body of a boy, he had no idea where to begin. His rough life-given education had not provided any lessons in comforting others and especially not pretty and cheerful girls who were fast becoming a friend.

"Uh…," he tried but knew there was nothing to say.

"He looks like Souta!" Kagome sobbed quietly into her hands. "He's too young to be dead…"

Inuyasha sourly thought that there was no such thing as too young to die. To think otherwise is deluding yourself but if she collapses this way every time she sees a dead body, her naiveté is gonna get us both killed.

"There's too much death in this time, no peace or happiness!" She looked so dejected and heartbroken Inuyasha felt a shocking surge of sympathy for the loss of her complacent innocence.

"There is peace and happiness," he responded, not able to bring himself to lay a hand on her shoulder. "It's just not very… common."

"It should be!" Kagome said vehemently as she jerked her face to Inuyasha. "That boy shouldn't have died before he was twelve! Someone should stop all this!" Her odd blue eyes burned in fervor and glowed with the luster of tears. Red rimmed and leaking, they held a fire that captivated Inuyasha with a power neither of them realized.

I've never seen anyone cry so hard for someone she doesn't know, Inuyasha thought, disconcerted. "Eventually all wars end," he answered slowly, feeling his way through the words as he spoke them. "Eventually this peace you want will come to these people. You just have to wait for the bloodthirsty and power hungry to stop or die. Someone's victory stops the killing and murders."

Kagome had sunk onto her knees and she now slowly rested her head on them. "Nothing else? No other way? Just…wait?"

Inuyasha knelt down so he was eye level with the despondent and disillusioned Kagome. "You and I are doing all we can. We can't bring back the dead. We can't take destroy all the existing armies and we certainly can't fight all the ones that would rise from the destroyed armies. You and I are powerless to stop death."

Kagome felt her eyes tearing again and buried her head between her knees. "I don't want to hear this."

Inuyasha glared in annoyance. "I don't know how else to tell you the truth. Almost no one in this era lives very long and sure as hell no one is going to go through their lives without a few wars, plagues or destructive youkai! That's the way it is," he said firmly and coldly.

"All those dead people, killed by a war they didn't even understand. How terrible," Kagome said quietly, pointing at the carnage surrounding them. Inuyasha looked around, not quite able to tell Kagome that the three men, two women and six children that had been slaughtered were all killed in an ambush by common road thieves.

"There's nothing we can do," Inuyasha reiterated. Standing, he brushed off his hakama pants and then offered Kagome his clawed hand. "But we can give them a burial. A proper burial, with flowers and anything else you want to do."

Kagome looked up at him, her face blank and exhausted. "We couldn't help them while they lived, why not help with their deaths?" she asked rhetorically. She smiled a soft smile that was still full of hope and life and sighed. "Why not?"

Hefting her off the ground with one graceful motion, Inuyasha pointed out a shovel that had been abandoned at the side of the road, probably by one of the victims. She wandered over and began digging next to him as he opened a grave with his claws.

As each body dropped into its grave, the sunlight grew dimmed and faded until there was none was left.

"It's dark," Kagome commented mindlessly as the young boy was dropped into his final resting place.

Inuyasha shoved the last of the dirt over the corpse and settled next to the shivering Kagome. Still not touching her, he sat close enough so she could feel his warmth.

"Want me to make a fire?" he asked softly.

Kagome shook her head. "I feel guilty for being alive now and by a fire when they're…"

"Dead," the hanyou said factually. "No use torturing yourself because they died. Just count your blessings and go on."

"Do you have a lot of experience with burying people?" Kagome asked after a moment.

Inuyasha lowered his head. "No, I've only buried someone once before."

"You sounded like you were used to it."

"I'm used to death," he replied honestly. "Not so much the burying."

"Why do it now?"

"You were crying so hard and you don't know him at all. I've never seen anyone cry over a stranger's death," Inuyasha answered, not looking at her.

"I'd cry more for someone I knew," Kagome said quietly, the events of the day lying heavily in her mind. "So be careful when how you fight."

"I fight just fine!" snapped Inuyasha, his eyebrows lowered in a glower.

"I know. I'm just asking that you be cautious. I don't care how common it is in this era, I think you're too young to die."

Inuyasha leaned back. "…You don't want me to die?"

Kagome stared at him incredulously. "Of course not! Baka!"

Not saying anything, the hanyou settled into a crouch, turning his face away from her. He wasn't foolish enough to believe her but wished it could be true. It had been too long since anyone had cared about whether he had died or lived. To have someone acknowledge his existence so bluntly was enough to rock his world on its axis.

Kagome nodded her head and invaded Inuyasha's line of sight. "Thank you for burying them. I know it couldn't have been easy with your nose and all."

"Keh," came the typical snort but it was said with no intensity.

Getting up, Kagome stretched. "Let's move away from here. I just can't sleep here."

Inuyasha sprang to his feet easily. "I'll make a fire once we set up for the night."

"Sounds good."

The two walked away, soon forgetting this first encounter with death. The hundreds of dead bodies Inuyasha and Kagome would eventually see paled the impact of that first corpse. Neither realized the gift that corpse had given. Neither understood that the discovery of the anonymous corpse was the rebirth of one scarred child's faith.

A/N: Well, I hoped you liked it. I was unsure of the ending but I liked it. (You'll notice I adore pretentious endings. It's a vice.) Review please and let me know what you thought!