Chapter 39

Finale

Inuyasha searched frantically for Kagome. The pups and their father took out boats and formed a search team joined by Kouga, Mashai and Sesshoumaru. Even Sesshoumaru's pups returned and joined the search for their aunt. Minutes turned into hours which turned into days. The days eventually turned into weeks. No sign of Kagome was ever found. Mashai was convinced that his mother had vaporized Kagome but he didn't have the heart to say such a thing to Izayoi, his love. And Inuyasha would hear nothing of it. He was convinced that Kagome lived but was just missing. In his heart, he was positive that she was alive. He refused to return home until he found his love.

Izayoi and the older pups took care of the younger pups. With their mother gone and their father in a desperate search to find her, it was as if the pups were now parentless. Some of the pups held up better than others, the younger ones feeling the loss of their parents more severely. Sesshoumaru chided Inuyasha privately for not letting Kagome go and returning to his brood but, he too, hoped against hope that Inuyasha was right and that Kagome lived somewhere unharmed.

After a few months, Inuyasha returned, finally having exhausted what he believed was every lead for his missing wife. Yasha met him when he returned,

"Father. It is my fault all this happened. If I had never suggested ...", Yasha began to weep.

"Don't cry, son. It isn't your fault. We would have met up with Naraku sooner or later. Even if we hadn't went on vacation.", Inuyasha spoke quietly.

Father and son stood and looked quietly out into the mountains.

Although Sesshoumaru tried to get Inuyasha to hold a memorial service for Kagome, Inuyasha refused. Kagome was merely "missing", he said.

To the humans who knew her, he merely said that she was now in Japan working on some projects that she had been wanting to work on. He never could bring himself to acknowledge that the love of his life was probably gone.

Kouga refused to speak to him ever again which was just fine by Inuyasha.

Inuyasha retired from his work, leaving Yasha and the other pups to carry on in his place. He took solace in his younger children and grandchildren as they came along. He swore never to love again. Both of his loves had been lost tragically to Naraku. He cursed the demon and stared into the sunset cursing himself as well for not being there to save Kagome.

Meanwhile ...

A woman woke up in a San Diego hospital. Bruised, battered, and unable to recall anything of her previous life, the nurses and doctors told her she was grateful to be alive. She had suffered third degree burns over most of her body and she would need reconstructive surgery to even begin to look normal. She had been found by the US Coast Guard floating in the Pacific Ocean and figured she had been in a boat wreck. Over the next few years, she suffered surgery after surgery until a more normal person began to emerge. Not knowing her name, and tired of calling her Jane Doe, one of the nurses named her Diana.

Diana eventually built a life in San Diego over those years, but she always wondered who she was and who she had been. She adopted the name Diana King and began working in a doctor's office, noticing she had a knack for medicine. Finally, friends she had made decided to post her picture in papers up and down the West Coast hoping someone would recognize their friend and fill her in on her life.

DO YOU RECOGNIZE THIS WOMAN?

The ad screamed in bold headlines with her picture beneath it. Diana felt that it was no good to do such a thing. Something told her it wouldn't work. But, a young man in Oregon saw the paper and practically screamed. It had been ten years! There was no way! Could it be?

He called his father in British Columbia. A weary, old sounding man answered the phone,

"Hello?"

"Dad? God, you sound like an old man."

"Whaddya want Shaoran? Definately not to scold me.", Inuyasha demanded.

"No. Jessa brought me this morning's Portland Chronicle. There's a woman in the paper who suffers from amnesia. Dad ... it looks like Mama."

Inuyasha's voice perked up,

"What? Son, fax me that right now!", he demanded.

Shaoran, like his father, had refused to give up on his mother. Most of the older pups didn't believe their mother was dead and kept the hope alive in their younger siblings. Hurrying for his father's sake, he faxed the paper over to him. When Inuyasha received the fax he dropped to his knees and cried,

"Kagome!"

Shaoran heard his father's voice cry out his mother's name through the phone. Although her face had changed a bit, it was still evident. Kagome was alive and living in San Diego as Diana King.

Inuyasha managed to gather all his pups together, as well as Sesshoumaru and his family. Announcing Kagome's discovery, he showed them the picture. Izayoi expressed her worry,

"But, Papa, won't we scare her if she finds out we're demons?"

"Yea, Papa, she thinks she's human now.", added Yasha.

"I'll be easy on her when I get to her. But, it's been 10 years. I have to go to her. I need her. I love her. And she needs us.", Inuyasha said, solemnly.

Inuyasha booked a flight to San Diego. Saying goodbye to his pups, he left to reunite with his love. His Kagome.

A/N: How will Kagome react? What will Kagome's life be like rediscovering what her life WAS like? Follow along in the next sequel "Tragic Soul"