The Library
By Anonymous Malink
Disclaimer, I do no own any Inuyasha like subjects in copyrighted form.
Part Seventeen– The Finale (A Finale of Sorts)
"I remember something about Sesshoumaru saying the god's hate him, but this is ridiculous."
Seven… Seven Forty Nine… Seven Fifty.
Rin sat with Izayoi in a nifty little room next to the entrance to the chapel. "Shouldn't he have been here by now? Even… Even…"
"Inutaisho was late for our wedding," Izayoi admitted, combing her hair down with long luxuriously exaggerated strokes. "He was… twenty three… minutes late." She glanced to her side and smiled. "He was always so competitive at his old job… he worked as a doctor you know."
Rin gave her a curious glance. "No actually… Sesshoumaru just said he was always a teacher. Well he didn't say he was always a teacher, but he said he was a teacher, and I just assumed-…"
"He was a great doctor at SMF," Izayoi said, resuming her meaningless brushing. "So great… a neurologist. He made so many advances, mostly paperwork. He invented these… kinetic cords… well anyway, he worked with so many of the greats… but then…" She stopped brushing, her hand shaking. "He accidentally… killed…" She took a deep breath and Rin looked to her, hoping to be of some comfort.
Izayoi cleared her throat and continued without finishing her previous sentence. "I guess his journey was worth it… He was such a great history teacher. You just needed to be able to teach, history wasn't all too complicated a subject." She smiled with a compassionate glint, lighting up the whole room. "He was never truly the same. He still did a lot of research… a whole heck of a lot. That's why for days on end, he would remain in his office at the school… he could use school-worthy excuses. 'Lots of paperwork.' 'Taxes.' 'Exams to grade.' I knew what he was doing…" She looked at the brush questioningly, and with a hint of resentment, as if it were the reason she was not with her husband right now, but resumed brushing nonetheless.
Rin looked at the strange shadow, yet oddly full, woman that stood before her. Her personality was still there in entirety, but something had changed. Izayoi was the shell of a woman who would have stood there otherwise. Rin had never truly had family, so when she was introduced to Izayoi it was like meeting a mother and a sister. But now… it would never be the same.
Inuyasha took a few steps away from the picture and Sesshoumaru turned it downward, placing it out of Inuyasha's view. "K, everything's ready," Sesshoumaru lied as he pulled Inuyasha toward the door, jittering the keys in his hand.
"I hope Isarugi is ok with us borrowing her car." Inuyasha muttered as he snapped his eyes away, trying to concentrate on the more important task at hand.
"She's a wreck, a paranoid lunatic," Sesshoumaru said, going through the kitchen into the garage. The old station wagon looked worse than Sesshoumaru's car, and that was down the highway a while a way, with three flats and locked from the inside. It was a limish green, and smelled up the entire garage. When they opened the door, the smell of mink flooded their senses and overwhelmed them, as they sat down on the fur covered chairs.
"She has a thing for animals?" Inuyasha asked.
Sesshoumaru remotely opened the garage door and put the car into the right gear, slowly backing out of the structure. He looked at Inuyasha and sighed, realigning his gaze to the rear view mirror as light began to flood their eyes in the way the mink clogged their sinus'. "Do you see any tissues… or..." He pulled a small hinge down in front of Inuyasha's chair, showing the registration papers. Inuyasha took a look, and couldn't believe it. Nakamura, Naraku.
"That… Son of a Bitch!" He tried to open the door but couldn't, finding it locked.
"Inuyasha, calm down."
"I'm in the same car as he, Sesshoumaru!" he yelled furiously, as they pulled out onto the countryside road, pulling into the highway a bit after. "It's sickening. We're in the car the murderer who… who killed dad was in!"
His breathing became hoarse and seemed to have calmed down, but it was apparent he hadn't. He took a deep breath, and Sesshoumaru tried to concentrate on the road.
"He killed our dad."
"He was a psychopath."
"That's a legitimate excuse?" Inuyasha asked, curious as to what Sesshoumaru's response must be, considering he just defended the man who killed his own father.
There was silence for a few moments. The countryside rolled on by as Tokyo came into view. The clock read 8:11. Time was actually beginning to look pretty good, like it was finally on their side. Inuyasha rested his head against the window, half outraged by the person beside him, and half frustrated by the fact he was in the seat someone must've sat in at some point, and that someone was the person who murdered his father.
"Would you have killed him?" Sesshoumaru asked. Sesshoumaru looked serene, his face pale and his eyes glazed over to the road ahead of him, not once looking to the side to see Inuyasha. Inuyasha looked toward him, slightly confused. "Would you have killed Naraku, knowing he would kill dad? Stooping to his level, would you have stopped him in the only way you could…?" Inuyasha was unsure what to say at that point. Inuyasha definitely would have. There was no doubt…. But did that really mean anything? Given the situation, an almost innumerable amount of consequences could have happened.
No, there was no way he could have. Cold sweat rolling down his face, there would be no way he could hold a gun in his hand, pull the trigger, shoot a cold, deadly, metallic death at another person. Or perhaps it would be a knife, or a bat… that he could never swing, knowing the consequences. Sesshoumaru was right. It required a psychopath's mind… but then again…
He would never know…
"Don't think about it," Sesshoumaru said with a tinge of fear on his breath. "Pretend this was dad's car for a second. Pretend we were going to see them. This is a joyful occasion, albeit… nerve-wracking."
Inuyasha muttered something under his breath.
3 Kilometers to Tokyo City. Inuyasha tried to sit straight and not fidget, but found it increasingly difficult.
He grunted as they passed a sign that said Tokyo City and took an exit onto a sub-urb. As they passed Sengoku Memorial Hospital on the highway, Inuyasha could only help but look ahead, at what was about to happen. So many thoughts may have flooded his head, but the only one prominent enough to keep his attention was Kagome. It was all about her. He needed to finish it. Today. Tonight. It would be over.
"Shit," Sesshoumaru cursed, looking at the time. "Yeah, umm… buckle up."
"What," Inuyasha asked, pulling at his already buckled seat belt.
"Hold on to something," Sesshoumaru said as he floored the car which zoomed forward at a miraculous speed, trying to get by a green light turning yellow in the distance.
"It's red!" Inuyasha yelled.
"AHA," Sesshoumaru said, turning to him, his eyes focused on Inuyasha, "I was right! The other light was yellow, you have some vision impairment!" (See Part Two)
Then, it happened. The unthinkable happened. Everything that had been told in this story so far has happened to reach this point. I suggest you turn around and reread some of the more vital points in the chapters before this should you be ultimately unready.
I hope I have made myself clear. Because the car crashed.
When you're dying, it is said that your life flashes before your eyes. Perhaps it's not in dying… but in the sensation of realizing the futility of survival that you admit all your mistakes one last time, if not for the first time. An explosion of grandeur occurred on that highway, the entire front of Isarugi's car totaled, and the opposing car spinning out of control, onto the curb, and hitting a building. Isarugi's car flipped once in the air, and landed on a fire hydrant. It had begun. The beginning of the end.
Inuyasha felt the familiar sensation of blood trickling down his sleeves and cheek, and felt an excruciating pain on his head. A deep gash had made its way down his leg, courtesy of some window glass that had embedded itself deep in the flesh. He pushed his way out of the seat, hitting the asphalt with a thud, and then crawling the rest of the way out into the street. He tried speaking, but found it impossible. "E…es…" he muttered before passing out.
Sesshoumaru was in a significantly worse condition than Inuyasha, but being older was able to cope with it much better. Physical condition was nothing that concerned him; he was a mental doctor, capable of overcoming such extremities with willpower and gall. With a broken knee, two displaced fingers, a broken rib, and several wounds in the femur, he limped his way over to Inuyasha as cars began to stop at the scene. The other car seemed to be carrying passengers equally hurt, but when Sesshoumaru tried to get over to them the emergency vehicles were already blaring in the near distance.
When Inuyasha woke up, he was already in the hospital. It was that same hospital that they had been in weeks prior, SMF; Sengoku Memorial. In fact, he could have sworn that the room he occupied was the same room that he was wheelchair bound to weeks earlier. I mean, all the rooms in hospitals look pretty much identical to each other, but he was on level eight again, and somewhere near the middle of the hallway. Chances were good he was in the same place he was days earlier.
"Please hold still sir!"
"I'll hold still when you stop shoving that thing down my throat!"
Inuyasha listened in to next door, where he heard a voice he hadn't heard in a while. Because… he was unconscious.
"Sesshoumaru?" he whispered, feeling lightheaded and with a hoarse breath.
"This guy is insane," he heard a doctor say as he passed Inuyasha's room's open doors. Suddenly he felt a hand press down on his chest, indicating a presence that scared "the living shit" out of him.
"Try to lie flat," he heard a female doctor say, or perhaps a nurse.
He looked over at her, and she looked rather familiar. She was, wearing patient's clothes though, and… yeah, she wasn't a doctor at all. She had short black hair, square glasses and a kind smile.
"Mrs… Isarugi?"
The woman laughed, and shook her head. "Close."
"Inu?"
A distressed mother burst into the room, suffering complete insanity and crying the world over. Izayoi's tears, bless her heart, filled the room with a mother's love for her child, as she came and nearly choked Inuyasha to death in a stalwart hug. "I was so worried! I thought I'd lost both my boys… oh, never ever again!"
"…Mom?"
Izayoi let go of him long enough for him to get a good look at Izayoi and another woman, vaguely familiar, stared back, side by side. They looked very much alike. Inuyasha breathed heavily and tried to remember, but found it surprisingly difficult. He usually had a pretty good memory. Now… nothing. Nada. Zip. This woman was an evasive… evasion in his mind. Something that happened long before. Or… something his mind didn't want to remember. Either way, it could have been the blood loss.
"My mind's made up, I'm getting up!"
"Inadvisable sir!"
"Oh dear," Izayoi sprang from the room and hurried next door to Sesshoumaru.
The pasty blue room shook with a loud jolt as Sesshoumaru ripped something out of the wall in an attempt to get up. Inuyasha shook his head. As if by reading his mind, the woman spoke. "You don't remember me, do you?"
Inuyasha looked back to her and after a moment shook his head. Slowly, but firmly, he shook his head and mouthed an apology. "I… remember, something," he whispered.
"Something is better than nothing," she replied. "And be that as it may, I'm glad we… oh never mind me."She stood up and dusted herself off. "I'll be right back, would you like anything?" He shook his head. She smiled and left the room, leaving him to his own devices one last time.
He closed his eyes and tried to go sleep, but was suddenly poked back to reality by a familiar hand. "Wake up. Sleep is for people who don't have places to be."
He opened his eyes and saw Sesshoumaru, standing like a god among men before him, banged up and all, but with the light hitting him a special way in his hospital attire he looked heavenly. He also had a five o'clock shadow which was much heavier than he expected someone like Sesshoumaru to have. "You look like Jesus," Inuyasha joked, his voice still hoarse.
"I feel like him too," Sesshoumaru said offhandedly, sitting down in the chair beside the bed that the "forgotten woman" was sitting in prior. "The doctors were nailing things in my body. They were trying to perform an unnecessary tracheotomy on me… cutting my throat. You feeling ok?"
Inuyasha nodded, then thought a second and shook his head. "You're not making this easy," Sesshoumaru joked, "Choose one." Inuyasha stared a moment into his eyes and then shrugged.
"I feel lightheaded," Inuyasha said.
"There's a surprise," Sesshoumaru said, "How about symptoms? Things that aren't normal." Inuyasha lifted his hand to hit him but found he had little strength to fist his hand.
Sesshoumaru snickered. "Yeah, I thought so. They gave you loads of drugs; did you know your entire leg had to be stitched up? It was pretty gross, albeit neat."
"What about the wedding," Inuyasha scratched out before feeling the room begin to spin. Sesshoumaru smirked and looked around the room.
"What wedding? This wedding? This is as much a union as it is a… no, there's no analogy to make that work. Sorry to disappoint." He tried to smile but couldn't make it all the way there. "Nature doesn't want us married, obviously. Uhh, Rin and I, I mean. There's too much against it, sorry to say. I've thought about it… and weddings are dumb anyway."
Inuyasha opened his mouth to speak but found his voice spoken dry. He made a question mark on the bed with his index finger. Sesshoumaru smirked. "Yeah, that's right. Weddings are dumb. I said it. I mean, for all its worth, of course. You pay money to someone you don't know, to plan some dumb wedding that's literally all show and all I'm gonna do is get drunk and… and…" He sighed. "Yea."
After a few seconds of hospital, he spontaneously stood up and stretched. "I love the way this hospital makes me feel younger." He then stopped and stared at the wall. "That… wasn't supposed to be said out loud." He up and left the room, pledging return at a nearby time.
Izayoi came into the room as Sesshoumaru left, and sat by Inuyasha until the other woman returned. His room became a place where others could talk and feel like they were safe, for some reason. Even Sesshoumaru preferred it to his own room. But those were the only four people he had seen the entire day, not that there were many to choose from. For a second he thought that the woman was Rin, but Sesshoumaru didn't give a second glance to her. Not only that, but the next day he awoke to the sound of her voice.
"Poor kid, is he alright?" When he opened his eyes he saw a couple new faces. Rin was there, looking down at him with a smile. Sesshoumaru was right beside her, but very much sicklier. Izayoi wasn't there, and was replaced by a doctor who was checking his pulse compulsively every thirty seconds, and had installed a monitor. The doctor said that Inuyasha was allowed to get up every once and a while to stretch his legs, but he never saw the opportunity nor craved it. At the moment, actually, he craved, literally, nothing.
With two days behind him at the ward in the hospital, he sat respectfully in the morning with Sesshoumaru at his side, sunlight streaming in through the window right outside his door in the hallway, but otherwise the room was quite dull. Sesshoumaru was breathing deeply, struggling, but not quite the result of fatal impact. It was actually pretty much wheezing. In any case, Inuyasha tried to ignore and dig deep into his memory as to who this person was who came into his room to dote on him every once in a while.
That woman.
She seemed like a nice woman, and she was less beat up than him, but definitely scratched up. He thought quite about the idea that she was from the car accident, but couldn't quite make the connection. "What's up," Sesshoumaru muttered, looking at Inuyasha as he dazed awkwardly upward, who was thinking without… well, thinking. The proper term is 'spacing out.'
"Who's that woman," Inuyasha blurted out, his voice still sore. They said it was returning to him, but it couldn't get too loud without it starting to scratch his throat and make it bleed, actually.
"…What?" Sesshoumaru leaned forward. "What woman?"
"The woman, who comes in, every once in, a while," Inuyasha stuttered.
Sesshoumaru leaned back and took a deep breath, which staggered as it came out. "It's a nice day," he said, pointing to the window. "Let's… let's go for a walk."
Sesshoumaru now had a very obvious limp when he walked, not unlike before, however… actually, yes, quite unlike before. Now it looked like he needed a cane. Inuyasha walked normally in comparison.
Outside in the garden in front of the hospital, there was a single asphalt path that meandered through an island in the middle a circular road. The grass was green; there was plenty of shade and only some sun. Typical wooden benches were scattered around and there was always the huge weed-like flower infestation everywhere you looked surrounding the path.
They walked down the path, in a bit of silence, before Sesshoumaru sat down on the bench. "Walk's over," he stated abruptly, plopping down. "Sit."
Inuyasha nodded and sat beside him.
"Yeah, it's nice out."
"The woman?"
Sesshoumaru looked straight ahead, concentrating on something far away, as he did when he was trying to make something seriously clear. "You sure you want to know, Inuyasha?"
Inuyasha gulped, and then muttered "Yeah…" Something was… strange.
Sesshoumaru nodded. "Yes… yes, you do." He took a second to gather his thoughts, and Inuyasha braced himself for a… big discovery. "Uh, yeah Inuyasha. That… that was Mrs.-… Mrs. Higurashi."
And there they sat, the sun slowly rising higher into the sky, both of them staring blankly foreword, both not saying a word, both leaving no traces of emotion and both not ready to communicate in any form. Inuyasha took a sharp breath and yawned.
For a few moments everything was calm. Only the feel of the wind blowing dead leaves could be heard, rustling from the direction of the building.
Sesshoumaru shook his head. "Do you know who that is…? Inuyasha?"
Inuyasha nodded slowly. "Yeah… yeah I do."
Sesshoumaru turned toward him, shifting his weight over and tucking one of his legs under the other. He grunted and stifled a coming laugh. "Inuyasha? Do you… remember what you did a couple nights ago?" Inuyasha shook his head, but then stopped, and nodded, laughing.
"Of… of course I do." Inuyasha's throat was even drier than he thought it was, surprising him. He brought a cough up to try to clear it, but found himself scratching it more. "I mean, the graveyard."
"You cleared your conscious."
"I put her to rest."
Sesshoumaru smiled. "Why?"
"For myself."
Sesshoumaru blinked. "Say what?"
Inuyasha turned his head away from Sesshoumaru, into the wind. "I put her to rest for myself… so I could move on. To other things. Maybe better, maybe worse."
Sesshoumaru held his tongue and bit his lip, nodding confusedly. "Yes… but what about Kagome?"
Inuyasha looked at Sesshoumaru. "Isn't that what you always tell me? Things always tend to work out?"
Sesshoumaru immediately shook his head, a bit caught off guard by the statement. "Uh, no. I say the opposite. Murphy's laws. I am a living, breathing cracked mirror reflecting a black cat standing underneath a ladder. And I know there's something about salt…" He put down the thought and ruffled Inuyasha's hair. "Yeah, there's something you should know that you should have probably inferred."
Inuyasha nodded.
"The Higurashis' were in the other car." Inuyasha blinked. "Kagome, man, Kagome!"
Inuyasha's eyes widened, his body stiffened and suddenly he felt as if he was lit on fire. "What?! No! Is she alright?"
Sesshoumaru gave an egotistical smirk and nodded. "Yes, she's fine. Catatonic, but fine."
"She-"
"Just messing with you, jeez." Sesshoumaru scratched the back of his head and stretched his upper body. "She's in a different room, obviously, but she's perfectly sane and stable, awake, and… oh yeah, she doesn't remember you."
Kagome looked out the window in her room, third floor, simply watching nature in action, her mother beside her stroking her hand. The door was closed, and the rest of the room was the same as Inuyasha's, with a simply bedside table to her table's right, and two chairs around the room. There was however, a window, as stated before. The door was shut.
A natural course of events occurred outside, with a nice breeze blowing the trees. Kagome had been banged up quite badly, with two fractured ribs, a blow to the forehead leaving a nasty bruise, and a compound comminuted fracture in his left leg. Her brothers sustained much heavier damage, but were on a different floor, and Koga was in surgery constantly for reasons some would not like to discuss.
Mrs. Higurashi tugged slightly at her daughter's arm, redirecting her attention away from the pleasantry of somewhere beyond the hospital doors.
"Yes, mom," Kagome asked, putting forth her best smile for her mother.
Mrs. Higurashi just beamed back at her daughter, not able to speak for a second, having had the breath simply tore from her at the sight of her beautiful daughter in a hospital bed, suffering. "Honey," she began, taking deep slow breaths, "Are… you sure?"
Kagome gave her a question glance. "Am I sure?"
Mrs. Higurashi swallowed all reason. "Are you sure you don't remember Inuyasha?"
Kagome blinked. "Wh-? No, mother. Who is he? Or… it?"
Mrs. Higurashi sighed. "No, he's ju-… I…"
Suddenly, Sesshoumaru opened the door to the room and Inuyasha burst onto the scene, his hair having trouble keeping up with him. "Kagome!"
Kagome looked up at him, and her eyes widened. "Wha-?" He rushed over and kneeled at her side, her mother getting out of the way and went to stand by Sesshoumaru.
"I'm just… sorry Kagome," he repeated a few times, so very excited about being so near to her again. "Kagome I… do you remember me?"
Kagome looked at him, having sat through the apologies with confusion and strange appreciation, but didn't even have the courage to respond to the boy in front of her. "I…"
Inuyasha smiled. "It's ok… I get i-"
"Inuyasha?"
Kagome looked at him and smiled. "Inuya-" Her eyes suddenly darkened and her head fell backwards against the pillow. Inuyasha almost had a heart attack.
"What? Kagome?"
"It's alright dear," Mrs. Higurashi said, smiling with tears forming in her eyes. "She's been tired lately. She… she'll be awake soon."
Mrs. Higurashi sobbed once and then left the room, filled with a mix of happiness and surprise. Inuyasha looked up at Sesshoumaru, who nodded in understanding and then left. Inuyasha stood, but couldn't bring himself to leave for even a second, and kneeled back down in front of her, anxious for a new start. For three hours he sat there, simply sitting there, watching her sleep and awaiting her wake.
When Sesshoumaru returned, it was noon. "Inuyasha." Inuyasha turned to the door to see his older brother standing there, car keys in hand. "I'm going to the store. Come?" Inuyasha shook his head.
Sesshoumaru beckoned Inuyasha anyway. "Come on. You can't stay there all day."
"I can, though."
"It's not healthy. Plus, umm… won't it be awkward with you standing over her when she wakes up?"
"I don't care," Inuyasha said, even though now that he thought of it, it was kind of weird.
"If you give me one reason," Sesshoumaru said, leaning against the doorframe, "One good reason why you should stay there and not come with me, then I'll leave."
Inuyasha looked at him dumbfounded, and couldn't say anything for a few seconds.
"Because," a voice from beside him rang out, "It's a known fact guys can't go shopping without complaining."
Inuyasha smiled and looked at Kagome, who looked refreshed and grinning at Sesshoumaru, who took a deep breath and waddled out. Kagome turned to Inuyasha, who was now at a lack of something to say. It truly was more awkward than he thought it would be.
"How long have you been awake," Inuyasha asked.
"Since that conversation, all of it," she said. Kagome looked right into his eyes and smiled. "I remember you now. I can't believe I forgot."
"I can't believe you remembered." He shook his head. "I was… an ass."
"I… don't hold it against you," Kagome said, looking out the window. "You were under heavy stress."
Inuyasha smirked. "Sounds like-"
"Sesshoumaru," Kagome said, finishing for him. She stretched out and sighed. "It's nice to see you normal again."
Inuyasha cleared his throat. "Yeah, uhh, I was… I was meaning to talk to you about that."
"You already apologi-"
"No."
He turned a bright red. "I… thought… a lot about this."
She let out a quiet laugh. "Did you now?"
He nodded, eyeing her carefully. He took her hand but also a breath before starting. "I really wanted to talk to you about something, but I didn't think it was appropriate considering the circumstances." He cleared his throat again, his voice becoming hoarse once more. "But because you seem to remember now; remember everything up to the moment you left I think… I just… I wanted to talk about what you think about… us."
She blinked. "Congrats on making the situation even more awkward, 'Yasha," she joked. "I know what you mean though. It is weird."
"I want to know what you think…" he said abruptly.
She nodded. "Yeah, me too. It's just… confusing, you know?"
He agreed. "Definitely."
"We're still kids."
"True."
"I hope I'm not being brash by saying we both want something, right?"
Inuyasha's heart stopped a moment, but he swallowed a rock and smiled, shaking his head. "Not at all."
She smiled. "Good." Clearing her throat, she continued. "I just…"
"Agreed."
She looked at him strangely. "I didn't even say anything."
"You didn't have to," he admitted. "I mean, living with Sesshoumaru… you pick up a few things."
She smiled. "So I guess, that's that."
He scratched the back of his heads. "Friends, then."
"Until we're older!" she added, making sure he heard.
He nodded. "Yeah… until we're older." He let go of her hand and stood up, facing the door and preparing to leave.
She turned her head to see the birds playing on the tree branches outside, still frolicking in the last days of Autumn. "Best friends," she included, still taken with the birds.
He nodded. "The best."
"I'll see you around, then."
"Definitely."
"My mom wants us to move back, has wanted it for a while," Kagome said, trying to keep him from leaving. "I… I think I want to now too."
"Cool."
She nodded and looked at him, tearing her eyes from the window as he stopped at the doorway. "I'll see you… at the library, then."
He smiled, and wiped a tear from his eye as he turned toward her. "Sure thing."
Anon's Notes: IT'S OVER!!
And so am I. I'm sure they'll be an epilogue eventually, but no good story needs one to function. This story... may need one. Damnit. Thanks for reviews, and most of all for reading it. I hope it entertained. That is a story's true purpose.
One a note about the story, I was originally planning to have it come together by making it from Sesshoumaru's point of view, however at the end it just didn't work the way I wanted it to. That's why there were so many drafts, and it took near a year to wrap up.
Oh well. Thanks again.