A/N: Second update for today
Kagome's POV
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Chapter Fifty-Four: Goodbyes
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The name meant nothing to me.
"Akuma?" I repeated. "Should I know who that is?"
My question went unanswered. "What are we going to do, Sesshoumaru-san?" Rin asked, her voice trembling. "You know what he will attempt. Take her to the forest realm, or Amaterasu's kingdom―"
"No."
Rin gaped at him. "Where else can she go? You can't expect her to stay here!"
"I do not," Sesshoumaru replied calmly. "But, as long as she remains among the divine, she is not safe from Akuma."
"You mean…" Rin paused, and when she finally continued her words were laced ever so slightly with disgust. "You would send her back to Earth?"
The world fell away, leaving me alone with my screaming thoughts and the thunderous sound of blood rushing in my ears.
Back to Earth?
"It is the only place she can be truly safe, Rin. Akuma would never suspect that I would cast Kagome from my side. She will return to her family until he has been dealt with."
My family…
"No," I protested softly at first, and then progressively louder. "No!"
Sesshoumaru immediately reached for me, to subdue my suddenly flailing limbs, and I tried to scramble back. "I will not go back to them! I cannot!What is left for me there but pain and suffering? What do I have aside from a father who despises me, a weak mother who is unwilling to protect me, and a brother who clings to me for comfort I am unable to give?"
"Kagome!" He grasped my wrists in hands like vices, and, though I knew it was impossible, I struggled to free myself. "Stop this."
Tears filled my eyes and overflowed, and the will to fight left me while I stared at the floor. "No," I whispered. The last of my hairpins fell as I shook my head. "You want me to leave?" I murmured brokenly as I heaved with sobs. "You want to make me live without you again?"
His breathing hitched, and my body shivered so violently my knees nearly gave out. "I hardly survived the first time." I remembered the emptiness, the all-encompassing loneliness that I had felt when forced to abandon him, and the ache in my heart swelled. Pressing myself into his cloth-covered chest, I wailed, crying like a mother who'd lost her child.
"Rin," he said, and the sound of her name rumbled against my cheek. "Leave us."
Once she was gone, Sesshoumaru's long arms crushed me closer. "Do not cry," he said as he nuzzled into my hair. "I can't bear to see you cry."
"Then please," I begged as tears continued to fall, "let me stay with you."
"I only want to keep you safe, Kagome," he replied. "But, for now, you are not safe here."
"Don't make me go," I pleaded, still sobbing softly. "Please don't make me go."
"I do not want you to go," he admitted quietly. "However, we must find a way to keep you hidden from Akuma, and I can think of no alternative."
We sat in silence, and I, thinking my fate was sealed, exclaimed half in jest, "If only we could go to the moon."
Sesshoumaru stiffened. "The moon?"
I nodded and wiped at my face. "Yes, the moon. It would be perfect."
He said nothing else for a moment, and startled me when he chose to speak.
"I think, koishii, you have just found our alternative."
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A/N: Hope you enjoyed it :)