Sorry for taking time to put this up (not a lot, but enough for a cliffy)! I hope you enjoy this chapter! I really feel bad, but I've been super busy. I hate to say it, but you likely won't be getting an update for two weeks (not until after the 25th of Jan.) since I am not in the vicinity of a computer during this time. I have posted this chapter, and I feel bad for leaving you hanging with next chapter being the ending and all, but life sucks and I have to deal with life before I deal with fanfiction.
Needless to say, this story is NOT on hiatus, not by a long shot, I just mean don't expect the typical week or so updates. I apologize once again.
Chapter the Seventeenth
Purest of Exchanges
Everything seemed to be going in slow motion. Nothing made sense, and her mind was buzzing painfully. The sight of Inuyasha falling to the ground – unmoving – struck a chord within her heart that made a scream rip from her throat in horror.
He was…
"Kagome. I am sorry." Hojo murmured, "But it was for the best."
Kagome glared up at him, tears streaming down her face. They were no longer tears of sadness now…no…they were tears of fury. They were tears of pure hatred and disgust for Hojo. Her hands tightened around the hilt of the sword in her hand and she stared down at the long, silver blade for a moment.
"Why…?" She whispered hoarsely, "Who do you think you are?" The last question came out as more of a demand than anything.
The bloody dagger in Hojo's hand fell to the ground with a clatter, and there was a sick silence. His hair was slicked to his face from the sweat of his battle and his eyes were wild and fearful.
It was almost like he hadn't realized what he'd done.
Kagome's eyes hardened, "Why did you kill the man I love?"
"Because…you must be mine or no man can have you." He answered quietly, unable to look at her penetrating, narrowed chocolate eyes.
"You…you selfish…" Kagome started shaking with anger. Her entire body seemed to shiver with her pent up fury. Hojo had ruined it. Inuyasha had sent her back, yes, but Hojo had entirely removed her Inuyasha from existence. Suddenly she stopped, and she began to sway for a second before regaining herself.
"I am in love with you Kagome, and he stood in my way of getting my bride, understand that!" Hojo said loudly, as if he were giving himself an excuse for his actions.
Kagome's lip curled in anger. She steadied herself and looked up at Hojo with a glare that could rival that of the foulest beast. "You selfish bastard!" She swore, that pent up fury breaking from its dam and spilling over, enveloping her in her rage. She ran at Hojo, brandishing the sword with deadly accuracy as she made her way to him. Kagome began swinging it wildly, attempting to cut off any part of that horrible man that she could.
Hojo's eyes went wide with shock and he bolted backwards, his lower back hitting the balcony. When the sword came around once more, Hojo leaned back in terror.
It was a mistake that cost him everything.
With a cry of shock, he overbalanced and went over the edge of the stone balcony, his form disappearing to the ground. Whatever sickening noise or bone-shattering sounds Kagome expected to hear, they were drowned out by the pounding rain. She stood for a minute, the sword falling to the ground near the newly deceased Hojo's dagger.
She heard a sudden choking sound and her eyes widened. She turned around quickly and dashed to Inuyasha, skidding to a stop on her knees by his side on the wet balcony floor. She leaned down and touched his face tenderly, "I-I-Inuyasha?" She murmured, wiping some silver locks of hair from his beautiful face.
His eyes opened to reveal a slight crack of red, and it gave Kagome a rush of hope to see it, "K-?" He was cut off as his body suddenly had a spasm of pain and he stopped moving again.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed, putting her head to his chest immediately to see if she could hear his heart, hear the heart that was now her reason for living.
There was a small rumbling in his chest, and she assumed he was trying to chuckle, but it only came out as a sickly wheeze, "K-Kagome…I-I don't h-have much t-t-time…"
"Don't say that you idiot!" Kagome wailed, grabbing the folds of his clothes and burying her face in his smell, that familiar smell that she'd gotten so used to, "You won't die! You can't! You have to live through this, you have to!"
He smiled at her slightly, his shaking hand resting on one of hers, "K-Kagome…"
She looked into his face. His eyes were closed again, but she could hear his labored breaths. She knew he was conscious.
Her body was suddenly chilled by a strange cool breeze, and all time seemed to stop for a moment. She could only faintly hear the pattering of the rain outside the balcony, and could only faintly hear the sounds of shouts from inside.
No, her main focus point was a tall, pale woman with long flowing back hair. She was garbed in the robes of a priestess or a healer, a wooden bow around her shoulder. Her face was blank, but still soft with a sort of hidden kindness and gentleness that made it impossible for Kagome to feel wary. Still, the woman's eyes were like twin voids, like there was no spirit inside of her eyes, like they were not a part of this fantasy woman that had appeared to Kagome.
"W-Who…?" She whispered roughly. She couldn't help but be mesmerized by the presence of the woman who so resembled her. Except this woman had a strange sort of aura around her…an aura of power and authority, yet softness and love. It was as strange a mixture of aura as her strange intangible body. Kagome assumed that if she were to put her hand out to touch this illusionary woman, her hand would pass through her as if she were air itself.
"I am Kikyo." The woman said in a musical voice that belonged to that of a woman who was speaking to a lover instead of a stranger. There was a melancholy essence to her tone that contradicted everything else of her voice.
She really was a strange spirit indeed.
Kagome's mind clicked with the name. Her mind instantly flashed back to the first day she spent at the castle…
"You bitch," He growled, "You look…and you smell like that woman…like that wench Kikyo. You say you're a priestess correct?" Inuyasha's voice in her memories rang clear. Kikyo was the woman who'd put the spell on him fifty years ago…
"Aren't you…shouldn't you be…" Kagome couldn't exactly say the word dead. This woman did not look dead. She couldn't have been ravaged by age. She looked to soft, to pure for that kind of fate.
Kikyo's lips turned up into a thin smile, but her eyes remained as cold and distant as they had been since she'd appeared. "I am dead, if that is what you ask."
Kagome looked down to Inuyasha for a moment, then looked back up at Kikyo with a fire in her eyes, that same anger that she'd possessed earlier when opposing Hojo, "This…it's all your fault."
"But had I not cursed him, you would never have met him, and therefore would have not experienced this destiny that's path was set out for you since your birth after my mistake. You see, Kagome, you were born on the day I set the curse, and that alone intertwined you with this castle from birth until the end of time." Kikyo's smile was still grim.
Kagome blinked at her words. The woman spoke in riddles, weaving a cryptic message through her explanations.
"Nevertheless," Kikyo added, jolting Kagome, "I must explain myself." The woman paused, and her eyes softened, suddenly gaining a light as if she'd regained her soul again, "I cast the spell in fury of being insulted. You see, Sesshomaru had been a kind young man before Inuyasha's mother took reign as Queen. I had met him, though unbeknownst to him, when he was a boy. He had been a naughty child. He was mischievous and reckless, silly and destructive. He was much like any child should be…just childish." She smiled cynically, "But I grew angry over time, for who were all these people to be happy and carefree in their lives while I suffered a fate worse than death? While I was the protector of the Shikon-No-Tama, a wretched jewel for a woman bound to a wretched fate. I became bitter, angry, slightly disturbed. I never showed it though; I always hid my rage behind a mask of kindness, for that was what I was always taught to do since I was a young child."
"I came across Sesshomaru that night at the castle. I recognized him immediately, his face, his castle, I had known he was a prince, and I had known this was where he lived. I had also heard of his darkness. I spelled myself into the guise of an elderly woman and tested him. Of course, when I realized that his bitterness was without reason, I grew angry. Much like your attack on Hojo, I lost control, something I am not proud of. I had ignored the kind boy, the sweet and loving boy who had tried to help me, not knowing that I was merely pretending to be a sickly old woman. Sesshomaru's younger brother…Inuyasha."
Kagome gasped. Inuyasha had not only been innocent, he'd tried to help Kikyo, helped a stranger, just because he cared for all things.
It sounded so unlike the Inuyasha she knew…
How bitter had Kikyo's rash actions made him? To be cursed for innocence…what a horrid fate.
Kikyo's eyes darkened as she continued her tale, "I was not satisfied though with Inuyasha's kindness. I had to show Sesshomaru the error of his ways. Out of both my dislike for the man's actions and my contempt for the Jewel, I recklessly bound so many innocent lives to a cursed life. It was a day after the incident when I returned to the castle to see what I had done – unbeknownst to them of course – I realized the enormity of my mistake. Out of my anger at my horrible deed, I killed myself. I pierced my own heart with one of the very arrows that I used to save lives with as a priestess. I fell into death's embrace until…until your birth. Then I awakened. I knew, I knew that with your first breath that you would be the one to break the curse. You would save the people I'd destroyed. I hade a small flicker of hope again…"
"And here we sit." Kikyo finished.
Kagome's eyes were still pouring tears through Kikyo's tale. Kikyo had been wrong in her actions, but Kagome could not help but feel empathetic. To be forced to live a life of emotionless fighting against evil…it was bound to take its toll on someone eventually.
"Now, you must choose what you will do." Kikyo whispered, "And the circle will have ended, for only time can choose for us all, and only fate can carry out time's choices with a firm hand. You can act the bringer of your own time, your own fate…"
With those cryptic words, the hazy ghost of Kikyo disappeared. Only one sentence remained from the woman's voice.
"Ask him to forgive a horrible woman such as I."
Time seemed to start once again.
Inuyasha's breathing returned to her ears, and she was once again preoccupied by him.
"I-Inuyasha…I spoke…with Kikyo."
His eyes shot open, his face suddenly furious.
"She…asks…for your forgiveness. She told me her story…she's not evil like you believe. She made a mistake." Kagome explained.
His face seemed to soften, "W-We a-a-all make mistakes sometimes…" He agreed hoarsely.
Had Kagome turned around at that moment, she'd have seen Kikyo once again. Tears slipped down the other woman's face and she smiled quietly. She had been forgiven. Her existence was complete. Kikyo then disappeared forever.
Kagome saw his ragged breathing start to slow, and she knew time was running out. Her eyes widened and she cupped his face in her hands, "Inuyasha, I…I…" She broke down in tears, sobbing into his chest again.
In her mind she was screaming. Why couldn't she just say the words and break the spell?
"Kagome, it's o-okay…" He whispered, coughing in pain.
Kagome's head shot up in agony, and she let out a scream of horror, "Inuyasha! No! Please! Don't do this! Inuyasha, I-I…"
"Inuyasha I love you!" Kagome screamed.
He smiled, "I-I l-love you…too." He said, and then he knew no more.
Everything ended for a moment to Kagome. It was just…all there. Time was moving, but she was not. She just stared at the still face of her love.
She then bent down and kissed his lifeless lips tenderly, letting all of her emotions go from the bay they'd been kept in for so long.
Memories of the short time they'd spent together flashed by her eyes. Tears seeped down her cheeks and onto his pale skin.
The rain began to lessen, and a small haze of sun peaked over the trees.
Kagome stopped kissing him and just lay down beside him, her arm hugging his dead body to her for a moment.
How she wished she could have hugged him like this when he was alive.
She heard hurried footsteps from a ways away, heading towards the balcony. Be it a villager or one of her friends, she didn't care. It just didn't matter anymore.
Why hadn't it worked? Why had her professing her love for him not broken the spell? His hair was still white; he was still a demon…
He was dead…
"Kagome…?"
She looked up weakly to see Sango and Ayame and Shippo. Miroku was behind them, supporting a mildly conscious Koga.
When they saw Inuyasha and Kagome, their faces all immediately contorted in shock and horror. They immediately knew what had happened.
"I…said that I loved h-him…b-but h-he…he still…" Kagome stuttered, her eyes red and puffy from her crying.
Shippo burst into tears. Sango looked away, her eyes shielded by her bangs. A trail of wet ran down her cheeks, and Kagome could see she was crying. Ayame cried too, but did not hide it. She turned and hugged onto Koga, who was now successfully supported and could hug her back sadly. With Koga held by Ayame, Miroku went and wrapped his arms around Sango to console her.
The girl turned and wept into his chest.
Suddenly there was a crack and a blinding white light that made everyone cry out in shock.
When it died down, Kagome was astounded.
They were no longer demons.
Miroku had lost the markings and the pointed ears and the fangs and his once yellow eyes were now a deep violet. Sango's eyes went from that purple colour to a deep brown and the markings on her face, fangs, and pointed ears had disappeared. Ayame and Koga's claws, fangs, pointed ears, and tails had disappeared. Shippo's hair was no longer a fiery red, but a warm chestnut brown. His eyes were the same, but he'd lost the tail and all of his demonic features.
Kagome looked to Inuyasha. He was changed also. Curious, she took in his appearance, but it did not quell the sadness of his loss. His once blindingly silver hair was a midnight black. There were no markings on his face. There were no claws or fangs. There were no dog ears.
She touched his face sadly, his beautiful face. He would've been so happy had he lived to be human again…
Her shocked friends were not joyously congratulating each other and Kagome about finally becoming human. They remained silent, depressed, and mournful.
"You would save the people I'd destroyed…"
Kikyo's words rang on the wind like a gentle breeze. Something tickled her ear, and she had a feeling that Kikyo was watching from her place in heaven.
There was a soft pink glow hovering above Inuyasha, in front of Kagome.
"My parting gift…"
The orb of soft pink light descended into his chest, enveloping his entire body in the glow for a second before it dissipated.
And then Inuyasha began to stir…
End of Chapter
Just so whoever decides to complain about where I ended it can know, I intended to end it a few paragraphs back just to be evil, but I decided that I might get in trouble for having to take a few weeks to update and leaving you all with a really horrible cliffy.
So I decided to be nice. Now you be nice and review!
