PLEASE READ
AR (aka the author's rant)No. There is NO miraculous way Sesshoumaru's left arm will be saved. I don't get what you're complaining, people! I mean, come on. I thought it was a brilliant idea, to make him lose his left arm. Why? Because that bloody happens in the original story too! Then why is it so hard to accept if I decide to do the same? I really wonder. Mattaku.
I got asked how many chapters there are left to this story. Well. Read the title of this chapter very carefully and then use your head.
... Yes, that's right. –Sniffle- It's THE FINAL CHAPTER, m'darlings!
When I first began to write this chapter, I thought: 'How am I ever going to get it long enough?'
Well, along came Dah-chan with her nifty suggestions. Now I think: 'How am I ever going to stuff this all into one chapter???'
If you're sharp you'll find hidden song lyrics and hints from the text. The one who guesses the right song gets a virtual cookie and a hug.
And I know it's late but hey, I'm a human too.
Enough with my rant now. Everyone, I hope y'all enjoy our final countdown –dundundun-
Chiera
Chapter nine – The final struggle
"Kami-sama... This can't be happening." Ayame's face was suddenly all pale.
"Fuck! We were nearly there. I mean, you can even see the shore already from here!" Kouga's hands were clenched in fists as he continued to mutter curses in an undertone.
"Just go around it", Hidaka stated on that tone which reached everyone's ears no matter how quietly he spoke. "If everyone would not be tired and some injured, we could maybe risk it and go through crossfire but now there's no other choice than take a longer road."
"But sir", Minakawa objected, "we don't have time! You don't have time!"
"I know", Hidaka calmly replied. "Go round the right edge. Take contact to the pilots who're waiting and tell them that you'll be a bit late."
"Sesshoumaru – " Ayame started.
"Go. You don't have the whole day to waste."
"We can't just leave you here", Jinenji cried out. "Not after everything you have done!"
"It's no use", Minakawa whispered softly. "In the time it takes for us to take the longer road, colonel will bleed to death."
"But – !"
"That can't be – "
"GO!" Hidaka roared, pushing Minakawa away and now standing shakily on his only good leg. "You have no time to waste!"
Minakawa's lips thinned to a grim line. He did not like this one bit.
"All cadets follow me! We'll go round from the right", the captain commanded, and started to move forward, soon followed by Kouga and Ayame.
One by one, all the cadets began to follow, reluctantly at first, but then realising there was nothing they could do about it.
All save for one.
"Kags! What the heck are you doing? We gotta get moving so we'll get outta here!"
I watched colonel Hidaka's form as he stood there alone. My gaze trailed over his shadowed face to his left burned arm wrapped up in bandages resting limply against his side, the bullet hole in his thigh, the white bandages covering his abdomen tinted with crimson red.
I felt the tears burning in my eyes and my nails sank to the soft flesh of my palm. Waves of overwhelming emotions hit me one by one and then all at once. Desperation. Helplessness. Affection. Anger. Depression. Fear. Sorrow. Pain. Compassion. Frustration.
It felt so wrong to leave him there, so wrong I nearly choked on my unshed tears.
"Kagome", Shippo cried in desperation.
For a second Hidaka's eyes met my gaze. Their golden glow seemed to have dimmed a bit somehow. I could feel his pain, I could feel his sorrow. His frustration, his hopelessness.
"Go", he said huskily and averted his gaze.
It took all the self-control that I had, to turn my back to him and start walking after the row of cadets.
He raised his gaze and watched her retreating back. Few midnight-black locks had escaped from her tight bun. He could sense her struggle, how she had to force herself to take every single step taking her further away from him.
'My only hope, my only love.'
It was better off this way. With these injuries of his he was as good as dead anyway.
And the thing with him and Kagome had never been a meant to be in the first place. On the contrary, that relationship had been doomed from the very start. He still did not regret anything. He only felt a little sorry for Kagome for he knew the depth of her emotions and the pain that his death would cause her.
He never had wanted to hurt her in any way.
Sesshoumaru limped heavily over to a large rock and sat down with serious effort, leaning his back against the stony surface.
'I give up. I can give up already, right? I have nothing left. My body's broken... I'm through fighting it... .'
His breathing came in a sharp his as a sudden throb of pain shot through his body again. Trying to ignore the pain took so much of his strength...
'This time it's cut way too deep..'
If it was his turn to die, then so be it. He had lived a good life, he had no regrets. The only things about his death that made him worry, were Rin and Kagome. What would happen to Rin? He hoped that Kagura would not get his daughter to herself again. Maybe his father would take his granddaughter in. His father had always liked Rin.
Or maybe Rin would stick with Kagome. The thought made him smile a bit. They'd be well of together, like a mother and daughter... The only girls in his life he truly cared for.
"Live for me", Hidaka Sesshoumaru whispered to the now deserted top of the hill, his faint whisper drowning under the sharp booming sounds of gunshots.
My heart was heavy, weighing me down like never before. I stared at my boots, how they moved on and on as my legs took new steps.
'I can't run anymore.'
With fascination I watched as my boots stopped.
And then I heard my own voice, not faltering one bit as it clearly and loudly stated:
"I will not follow you further."
The three officers in lead immediately stopped and turned around. Several cadets had also stopped and were looking at me, full of confusion.
"Higurashi, are you disobeying commands", Minakawa asked scowling.
I looked back at him, straight to the eye.
"I won't leave him behind."
"I said that he'll bleed to death before we'll reach the shore", Minakawa bellowed.
"That is why I will cross that vale", I said softly.
"Kagome", Ayame shrieked. Her face was pale, her beautiful green eyes wide and shocked. "You mustn't! You'll die..."
A memory of Hidaka's words trailed to me.
"Even if we die… As long as we die with honour… Our deaths will not be in vain."
"Then I will", I calmly said, meeting her gaze evenly. A small smile lighted up my face. "If I die down there, I'll die proudly, knowing I gave all I had. And my death will not be in vain. I made a promise, Ayame. I promised not to waste my life. And I'm not going to break that promise."
I turned around and started run back to the hill on which we had left colonel Hidaka. Distantly I heard the loud objections of Shippo, Miroku, Bankotsu and my other friends. They were yelling my name, telling me to stop and come back... I closed my ears from the sounds coming from behind me and focused on running forward.
"You can't let her go like that", Shippo objected loudly.
"She left by herself", Minakawa bellowed back, eyes blazing with anger. "If she wants to go to kill herself then she may as well be my guest."
"They will both die", Bankotsu whispered on a broken tone.
"No", Shippo breathed out.
Miroku stood in silence, looking back the way Kagome had vanished.
"Gentlemen, fighting now is pointless", Captain Miyagi softly cut in. "They both have made their decisions. What kind of an outcome we will all get is yet to be seen. There's nothing we can do for them anymore, but a lot we can do for ourselves."
"But captain –"
"Enough lad." This time it was Kouga who spoke. "The best we can do for them now is to respect the decisions they met by themselves and believe in them. But we have injured among us as well. We have to hurry."
"But – "
Miroku placed his hand on Shippo's shoulder.
"Let it be, Ship. They're right and you know it."
The red-headed young man heaved a heavy sigh.
"Cadets, we move onward", captain Minakawa commanded, turning his back to the cadets and starting to walk on again.
I ran blindly forward, images of him flashing before my eyes. So many emotions, so many memories, it all was too much. I remembered how soft and sweet his voice had sounded the first time I met him, how I thought I was gazing at an angel. I remembered his hateful behaviour towards me, always mocking me, always giving me extra penalties; I remembered how strong my hate towards him had been.
Funny really. He had made me strong. Struggling hard to please him at least once but all the times getting just scolding, mockery and more push ups to do... By all that he had done in order to make me quit, he had only managed to make me strong, both mentally and physically.
Another image flashed in my mind, I remembered myself peeling potatoes and musing that Hidaka must be a sick sadist.
"That was pathetic Higurashi..."
"Still pathetic, Higurashi, but at least you tried this time... fifteen push ups!"
"How long has your wrist been sprained? Why didn't you say something! Off to the medical squad, Higurashi, now!"
"Why didn't you tell me you're afraid of the dark? Higurashi, go to bed."
"How am I ever going to make a soldier out of you?"
"Cadet Higurashi, I wouldn't let you near a gun even if my life depended on it."
"You call that a shot, Higurashi? Just where are you aiming at!"
".. It's all war, maggots."
"Let's put an end to these war games before Higurashi gets herself killed."
"You shouldn't push yourself too hard."
"I said 'bullshit', Higurashi. You really ought to listen to me properly."
"Higurashi, you need not act brave due my current presence."
"Do as you like."
"Actually she is better than one might presume."
"You want me to fill your glass?"
"I like doorways."
"Do the injuries hurt?"
"I didn't like it at all."
"Kagome..."
"In the end... it's all up to you."
"I don't want you to take that risk..."
"... Don't waste your life."
All the words he ever had said to me, echoing in my head at the same time. I saw him sneering at me as I did the push ups, I saw the mocking glint in his cold eyes as I failed once again, I once again felt his arms around me when he carried me, again I felt the ghost of his lips on mine...
There was no way I could leave him behind.
Not after all he had done for me.
His influence on me had been so great that no words existing can describe it.
I could see the hill ahead.
'Sesshoumaru... I tried to ignore it for so long but I can't do that anymore. I tried to walk away from you... just to realise I couldn't. I'm sorry...'
My running came to a stop abruptly. Mygaze fell on him as he was sitting against a rock on the other side of the hill top, his silver hair falling over his down bent face like a veil.
And then he raised his head.
Surprise flashed in his eyes when he saw me.
"Kagome…"
I fell to my knees before him, leaned against him and wrapped my hands around his neck. I sobbed against his shoulder, finally allowing myself to let the tears freely fall, the tears I had been holding since the moment I had been forced to leave him.
"Kagome, what are you doing here?"
"I couldn't go any further. Juts couldn't. I can't you leave here, Sesshoumaru..."
'Without you I can't go on anymore.'
"Kagome..." his right hand wrapped around my waist.
"I'm sorry", I sobbed on my broken voice. "I'm sorry..."
"You don't need to be."
We stayed there like that for a while, locked into each other's embrace as down below the war raged on.
"Come on", I said softly as broke free from his embrace, getting up. My tears had already waned, gone before my determination.
"Kagome, you have to go back. You still have time to catch up with Minakawa and the others..."
I was now frantically looking around, searching for anything that would make a good cane for Sesshoumaru to use. I could not drag him over that field; he would have to do the walking himself.
"Here", I said, holding triumphantly a firm branch in my hand. "You'll use this as a cane."
"Kagome, what the hell are you doing", he demanded to know, looking at me sceptically.
"We're going to cross that field."
"WHAT?! We are not following any petty suicidal plan of yours. THIS is what we'll do: You will turn your back to me and catch up with Minakawa. I'll stay here."
"No way. I'm not leaving you here to die."
"YOU WILL LEAVE, HIGURASHI! THAT'S AN ORDER!" His voice shook with great anger. I never had seen him loosing his temper so completely but I did not flinch.
"Then I'm afraid I'll have to disobey, sir."
He looked at me, not believing his ears.
"Do you think I could ever forgive myself if I walked away now", I whispered softly.
"Kagome.."
"Now shut up! You like it or not, I'll save you or then die trying. At least that way I can die with honour."
A ghost of a smile appeared into a corner of his lips.
"Get up", I said, offering my hand to him. He took it and heavily pulled himself up.
Mutely he took the cane I was holding, leaning heavily on it.
"Are you aware that you're getting us both killed?"
"By your own words, I'm rash. Thought you'd have noticed it by now."
He chuckled darkly.
"Besides", I added, my tone softening, "life would be too boring if you were not 'round."
"Try to walk by yourself as much as you can. I'm too petite to put up with your weight."
"I know."
"But we'll cross that field even if I'd have to carry you."
"Wouldn't that be a sight."
"Now, shut up and let's get going. There's no time to lose."
Side by side they walked down the hill. She was very aware of Sesshoumaru next to her, ready to support him the moment he needed her help. The woman's gaze was glued to the battlefield before her. It seemed as if they were nearing in a slow motion, walking towards their doom with painfully slow pace...
'You've seen too many bad movies, girl. Now is not a right time to turn back. You finish what you started. You can make it and you know it.'
She swallowed down the lump in her throat and prayed that she was right.
Then Kagome's gaze briefly brushed over Hidaka's form, how he still trudged forward not minding the various injuries. Calmness settled over her as well. After all, she was not doing this for herself. She was doing this for him. That was why she was not going to back down.
And then they stopped. They stood there for awhile side by side, gazing at the field of destruction ahead.
The calm before the storm.
"Let's do this", Kagome stated firmly.
"Yeah."
They broke into a run.
The mouths of the North-Korean soldiers fell agape.
"What the fuck is that", the commander demanded to know. But no one answered for him. His dark eyes under his frown followed the two forms, a man and a woman, breaking through from the side and now proceeding through the battlefield and the crossfire.
"They're friggin' insane", the commanding officer muttered to himself. Then he shrugged. If two crazy people wanted to take a walk through a raging battlefield who was he to stop them?
"Don't mind those freaks, soldiers! Keep firing!"
"But sir, what if those two are civilians?"
"Too bad for them then, they ought to have common sense not to prance on the firing line. Just shoot!"
The South-Korean soldiers could but stare.
"Lieutenant, what do we do? There are civilians in the way!"
The lieutenant cussed under his breath, grabbing the binoculars.
"You're wrong, private, they are no civilians. They are Japanese soldiers. Must be those special troops we were warned about."
"But sir, they're on the firing line. What should we do?"
'They must be bloody insane, pulling a stunt like that', the lieutenant thought by himself. 'If these are the pride of Japanese military, I don't want to see how out of their minds the rest of them are.'
The lieutenant shook his head.
"They probably have a helluva good reason for crossing through this battlefield," 'Or at least I seriously hope so', he added in his thoughts, " and Japan is neutral in this war. Try to avoid shooting them the best you can."
"Sir yes sir!"
The two helicopters loomed in the air above the field of battle.
"What the hell's going down there", Koraichi Hiten, the number one pilot of SAF troops wondered out loud.
"Hey look! Two guys are running through crossfire!"
Hiten glanced at the two little spots his vice-pilot Manten had informed about through the speaker.
"Bloody hell. Those guys have to be out of their damn minds!" Hiten blurted out.
"The other one seems to have silver hair", Manten wondered out loud.
Hiten inhaled sharply.
"Don't tell me that the colonel... Shit!"
"I hope we aren't too late", Manten muttered darkly. He turned to see the woman and her two companions sitting in the back of the helicopter he was piloting.
"Kikyo-san, you and your subordinates better prepare yourselves. I have the feeling you truly have some work to do."
"That's why we are here", Kikyo calmly replied, glancing out of the window at the battle raging in the valley.
Surely I had been through exercises where the cadets were suppose to go through an obstacle course as fast as possible as a team. It was hard enough to survive just that, but the trainers were also ever so kind that they kept firing at us the whole time we tried to complete the course. Of course they had been rubber bullets, though.
Now I finally realised again fully the point of that exercise. I couldn't but hope that this situation here would be nothing but an exercise as well.
Even though I knew that this time it all was for real.
'Just keep going. Don't mind the gunshots thundering over you. Don't look at the soldiers in rows on the edge of your vision. Keep going. Get a hit and die. Keep going..'
I glanced at colonel Hidaka. He was panting, leaning heavily on the cane I had found for him and limping onward as fast as he could. I was amazed by his speed, even when injured.
But I was more amazed at the fact that we had not been hit yet. Still I didn't want to let that bubbling hope inside me take a hold on me for if that hope was to let me down I knew I wouldn't be able to take it. Although, if that hope did fail me and I'd get shot, I most probably wouldn't end up dead anyway, so it really did not matter... However, there was still a long way to go.
The length of the valley was approximately two and half kilometres, four fifths of that length engaged in battle. Even though the way was only two kilometres long it could as well have been two hundred kilometres for us. Everything seemed to happen in slow-motion, each step was painfully slow and all the time I felt the pounding of my heart all the way in my head, the cold palm of fear clenching my heart so tightly it ached. I began to wonder whether I really had lost my mind.
"You ought to have left me there", he muttered to me under the unpleasant sounds of firing machine guns and distant yells and shouts and yelps. The sounds of bullets hitting the soft flesh.
"How can you so well forget your own teachings, Sesshoumaru? Teamwork", I replied softly. "We're a team and you won't let a team mate behind. Unless you want your colonel to beat you up because of that."
"What if the colonel will dislike risking your own life for an already gravely wounded team mate, who has decided to be left behind by himself?"
"Then the colonel doesn't fully grasp his own ideals. Risking your life for your team mate – injured or not – is what team work's about. Supporting and helping each other through bad times. And if this is not a bad time... then I don't know what is."
Hidaka let out a dry chuckle.
"You are too damn smart for your own good."
"Pwned."
He raised his eyebrow.
"What was that supposed to mean?"
"Just a slang-word..", I replied, grinning widely to myself.
In the distance we saw a helicopter land onto the shore.
"We gotta pick up the pace", I breathed out. "Can you do it?"
"Worry about yourself, Kagome. I'm just fine.."
I eyed at him sceptically but let it drop. My steps became hastier and his limping onward became faster.
Half of it was yet to go...
I prayed in my mind that they would wait for us.
Kikyo jumped down, her feet firmly planting onto the sandy ground of the shore. Her white doctor's coat fluttered behind her due the blades of the helicopter that still were slicing the air. About hundred yards away a group of soldiers were steadily nearing them.
"Go to meet them. Try to register all the injuries so that you can inform me of them immediately when you arrive here."
"Yes ma'am", the two young medics replied, hurrying off.
She waited.
Finally the SAF cadets reached the whore on which she was waiting with the helicopter and its pilots.
"One broken leg, one compound fracture. Six cadets who have been hit by a bullet and I heard that colonel Hidaka would be in the worst condition", the young man reported while his partner was already tending the injured ones.
"Well, where the colonel is then?"
"He was left behind."
"What?" Kikyo snapped. They had left Hidaka behind?
"Captain Minakawa said that he's not quite sure 'bout colonel's current situation for one cadet turned back after refusing to leave him behind to die."
"Who", Kikyo demanded. She already had a dreadful hunch and craved to be proven wrong.
Unluckily she wasn't.
"The girl. Higurashi."
Kikyo's heart missed a beat. She knew her cousin and was very aware that she had always been rash. Easily forgetting to think about herself when thinking the others so much.
"Look, they're over there", someone shouted.
Everybody turned to see to which direction the shouter was pointing. Faces paled, jaws dropped, sharp inhales made hissing sounds.
No one could utter a word as they watched two of their companions struggling their way through the raging battlefield.
It felt as if the sky would be falling down on us. The artillery units had joined the play, making grenades rain onto the field. Luckily though the grenades didn't explode anywhere too near us. Our pace had slowed down. Warily I looked at the thicket made of barbed wire which was placed conveniently between the battlefield and the shore. Between us and our rescue. Unmoving forms of blown up tanks loomed ahead, their charred skeletons casting deep shadows which engulfed us.
"Once we'll get to the cover of those tanks we'll take a little break", I decided when I looked at Hidaka once again. He was panting heavily; his limping seemed to require more and more effort from him. After few more yards we made it heavily sank down onto ground and for awhile just lay there, panting.
My breathing was shallow. I was not that much exhausted as of yet, the reason for my current shape was the terror taking a hold of me, the horrifying dread that made my heart beat quicker in my chest. It required more and more from me to find the courage to take the next step. By my side colonel Hidaka was gulping for air, a few beads of sweat glistening on his forehead. His eyes were closed, the blood slowly seeping through the bandages wrapped around his abdomen.
And then a grenade exploded only twenty-five or so yards away.
His eyes shot open and he looked at me from the corner of his eye.
"We better move on."
"Yeah", I gulped and got up. I offered him my hand and he accepted it, heaving himself up, immediately leaning heavily onto the cane.
We continued to proceed through the battlefield.
We kept on going as fast as we could and yet it felt we could have not proceeded slower. Hidaka was now openly panting, his injuries making it hard for him to breathe. I was very close by his side, worry for him flooding in my veins, ready to offer him my hand the moment he needed it. He was now heavily bleeding; the bullet-hole in his abdomen had never really had time to heal. Bullets whizzed everywhere in the air around us, grenades exploding every now and then. Shouts, curses, yelps and cries from the soldiers in the distant reached our ears as faint as the whispers of the ghosts. My eyes were defiantly glued to the form of a familiar helicopter on the shore; never did my gaze wander from there.
One step. Another one.
'Each step you take brings you closer to the safety.'
One step. Another one.
'Each step you take brings you closer to salvation.'
One step. Another one.
'Each step you take brings you closer to home.'
Slowly a smile began to form on my lips.
There was only half a kilometre to go. We were nearly there. I turned to triumphantly look at colonel Hidaka. However all that my eyes registered was how his cane abruptly snapped in two and how he fell to the ground with a muffled groan.
My widened eyes regarded his unmoving form lying on the ground next to my feet. And before I found the will to move it hit me.
Ayame let out an involuntary shriek as she saw how Hidaka's tall for heavily fell onto the ground. Her hand clenched the fabric of her uniform right over her heart in a tight fist. The said heart fluttered wildly in her chest.
'Get up!' she mentally shouted to Sesshoumaru. 'Goddamnit, Sesshoumaru, get up!'
He didn't get up and a few mere seconds later Ayame saw how Kagome suddenly jerked, her head and shoulders being sharply tossing back. The fall was slow and the dry dirt of the battlefield rose into the air when the woman's body landed on it on her back, forming a small dust cloud.
"Kagome!"
It was the medic woman who was crying the cadet's name, her beautiful pale face wearing an expression of an ultimate terror.
Ayame bit her lip, soon tasting the coppery flavour of her own blood. A forceful sob made her body tremble.
They all watched the two bodies lying unmoving on the ground.
'Get up!' Ayame screamed in her mind. 'Both of you, just get up...'
But nothing happened. Neither of them did not even twitch.
"We have to go", captain Minakawa braked out on a raspy voice.
"We can't leave them there!" Kikyo cried.
"Kikyo-san, they're dead. Cadet Higurashi got shot and colonel Hidaka probably died because of his grave injuries."
"But you can't just –"
"Retrieving their bodies would be too risky", the captain replied harshly. "I'm sorry", he added on a softer tone.
"But the colonel... Kagome.."
"All cadets get into the helicopters. NOW!"
After few more minutes they finally took off into the air.
I drew in a shaky breath. The heartbeat echoed in my ears, drowning all the other noises underneath. A moan escaped from my lips. My shoulder ached. I managed to open my eyes though the lids covering them felt awfully heavy.
I blinked a few times.
And then I remembered it all.
I jerked up and immediately grimaced at the hot stab of pain in my shoulder. My widened eyes brushed over colonel Hidaka's still unmoving form.
In an instant I was on my knees by his side.
"Sesshoumaru! Oh, Sesshoumaru are you alright?"
"My strength is waning", he managed to pant. "You should have done as I told you from the start. You should have left me there and saved yourself."
"Still the same song! Let it drop, Sesshoumaru. We're both going to make it out of here alive! Trust me. Now get up."
"I can't."
Gathering up my strength I heaved him up. With a soft thud he landed onto my back and my knees nearly gave in under his weight. My teeth sank into my lower lip. Drawing out a few crimson drops of blood. My injured shoulder throbbed so painfully that for awhile I thought it'd just fall off. I carefully wrapped my arm around Sesshoumaru, supporting him the best I could.
And then a grenade fell, blowing up the thicket of barbed wire between us and the shore. How kind of Korean's to get rid of it for us, it'd have been hopeless to try to carry Sesshoumaru through that fence of barbed wire.
I felt the desperation looming like a shadow behind my back. We had to get to the shore. We had to get out of here. But what use was it anymore? The helicopter was gone, we would not get home, we would die here, in the middle of a war we were no part of...
Tears and drops of sweat stung in my eyes and blurred my sight as I blindly stumbled forward, half carrying, half dragging colonel Hidaka with me. I heard the gunshots and shouts and explosions, I saw the sea glittering in the distance, I smelled the bitter gunpowder, I tasted my own blood and felt the warmth of Sesshoumaru's skin next to mine. My all senses were heightened but there was only death and blood everywhere.
I felt so small between the two fronts, I felt so small on that field of war, and I felt so small under the weight of Hidaka's body... I felt so helpless as I staggered onward the best I could.
Minakawa sat down onto his seat sighing heavily. He covered his eyes with his large hand. Funny. His hand was shaking. Biting his lip he let the hand fall limply to his lap.
Nothing had gone the way it should have.
He looked down at the battlefield, for one more time.
Sudden movement caught his eye.
Silver haired figure moving on a slow pace.
His heart missed a beat.
He was alive.
"Koraichi, get us back down this minute", Minakawa bellowed, jumping up from his seat.
"I'm sorry sir, but that'd be too dangerous, now please sit –"
The pistol clicked as Minakawa put off the safety.
"I said get us back down this minute."
Hiten glanced the pistol pointed at his way. Everyone in the helicopter was too shocked to do anything.
"As you command, sir", Hiten gulped and got ready to land.
The sand under my feet was traitorous. I felt as if it would have swallowed me and pulled me into its depths. I sank lower and lower.. daylight waned... All became dark.
Next time when I realised anything I was laying there, sand in my hair a heavy weight on top of my body. With wide eyes I watched how a huge shadow was coming down from heaven.
The weight that had been pressuring me was now gone. Strong arms picked me up. I was too exhausted to open my eyes. Was this how it felt when you die? Strong arms picking you up, carrying you safely to the heaven above...
It hurt. Someone was pressing the sore spot on my shoulder. Funny. If I were dead I should no longer feel pain... right?
Whispered voices, all around me. Angels or demons? Long lost souls haunting me? Had I now become one of them as well?
"She's coming to."
"Is she all right?"
"Exhausted. Hit by a bullet. She'll recover."
"I am so glad..."
My lids were heavy, heavier than they had ever been before but I managed to open my eyes.
I saw faces, blurry at first. Then, slowly, little by little the features on the faces sharpened. I began to recognise them, they were familiar faces. The expressions on those faces were happy and delighted, relieved and joyful.
"I can't believe you did it", Shippo said softly. The red-haired young man was sitting by my side.
"Teamwork was the key-word, ne?" I replied with a weary smile.
"Shippo, she's exhausted. Let her rest."
I turned heavily my head and saw Miroku's smiling face.
"Where's Sesshoumaru", I asked, closing my eyes again.
"Kikyo-san is looking after him. Don't worry about colonel Hidaka now, Kagome. Rest."
Gladly I fell back to the warm darkness. I felt content, relieved and so exhausted. Distantly I heard Bankotsu's voice.
"I'm proud of you, Kags. Everything's all right now. We're going home."
I let out a small sigh and let the darkness fall over me.
'Home', was the last thought in my mind before I fell into a heavy slumber, and that thought was filled with warm love.
Chie: There will be an epilogue which wraps this fic up pretty nicely. I'll post it in a few weeks.
Thank you. –bows-