XV.

Blood-Streaked Moon

Kagome ran into the trees without thinking, without a destination in mind, intent only on getting away from the questions, from the many answers that she could not give, from the panic and the terror and the agony that was rising up to consume her. But it was Inuyasha's place she came to, deep in the wood, the den he had made for himself, the place he stayed when the village was too much, an assault on sanity and senses. She could understand that now.

A branch heavy with flowers obscured the entrance, a profusion of white blossoms and blue-green clusters of leaves, a splash of sweet-sour fragrance. Swiftly, she ducked under them and darted into the first chamber. A scent that Kagome had known even with a human nose struck her like a hammer, and her eyes widened.

Inuyasha -

The knowledge came to her suddenly, in a terrible flood. When time and the wind had had their way, she would never find that scent again; it could not be renewed.

"He is dead, he is dead, he is dead!"

Like a sword, the wail parted the curtain and she felt the tears come, finally, hot and salt. They burned her eyes; her throat was tight with pain. The split that had been born in her thoughts the moment she had encountered Inuyasha's scent tangled in Shippou's blood moved together, acknowledging the anguish, the rightness of it. He had been her enemy, for a while - for a while, until he was dead. But before that he had been her first love, her almost-lover, and she was empty now of everything but grief.

The pain he had inflicted, the memory of words that had torn her, the loss of him, his attempted theft, the feel of his claws on her skin - they were faint against the years that had come before, as if they were two different lives that he had somehow lived in one body.

She had no proof, no knowledge; she had no way of ever finding out what the truth was but she felt in her heart that Inuyasha had been destroyed by Kikyou - by Kikyou, and not by her...just like the first time. It had been in his words, the last words he had spoken - that he had loved her best, her, her - and she heard Kikyou's voice, and the lie in it, and knew that it had always been that way.

I shouldn't have run, I shouldn't have believed it. Not for a second. Not even one.

But she had. She had, and it was all over now - the fairy tale ended, come to its last page, The End, and there was no happily ever after.

Stumbling over roots in the dawn-shadows, Miroku followed her, and heard the keening sounds, the terrible wail. It bit into him, made him flinch - it was not a human sound - but he pushed forward under the branches, groping in the soft and scattered light that made its way past the leaves. He almost tripped over Kagome before he found her, and then he was kneeling next to her, making soothing noises. She held onto him, and she shook, and cried, and words burst out of her between heaving breaths.

"I killed him, I killed him, why did I kill him? I could have healed him just like Shippou - he loved me, he said. He loved me, but he died! Why? Inuyasha…Inuyasha…"

Miroku had no answers to offer, no comfort to give but his presence. He expected another terrible wail, but instead she began to quiet, drawing in deep, sobbing breaths.

In the long stillness after her cries, after her words, Miroku heard a shuffle of sound from behind them, from beyond a curtain that separated them from the cavern's other chamber. Footsteps approached them with a hollow echo, and Kagome's eyes lifted toward the sound, but Miroku let go of her, stood and took a single step forward, uncertain, as the curtain moved aside.

"Miro...ku..."

"Sango!"

The word exploded from Miroku's mouth, but even as he stepped forward and reached for her she fell, clutching at the curtain, pulling it down around her. She had seen the gold gleam behind him, the youkai strangeness in the other figure; it was all that made impression, awakening the fullness of her fear, her freshest memories.

Miroku was barely swift enough to catch her before her head hit the floor. As he lifted her, he felt sticky blood on her arms and swore under his breath.

"Kagome, Kagome, she is hurt – I can't tell how badly. We have to bring her back; I can carry her, but I don't want to leave you here."

She did not answer at first; Miroku lifted Sango, and stepped across to where Kagome was curled, knelt and then touched her shoulder gently.

"Kagome?"

The tears had freshened their flow; if Sango was hurt, if Sango was here, she knew who had done it. The thought might have lessened her guilt, but did not; she kept seeing his face, the blood - her eyes were drawn to her own hands, her robes; suddenly the scent of so much blood was sickening. She looked up at Miroku, saw his guilt and discomfort, his indecision - and he was right, he had to bring Sango back, see what was wrong, what had been done to her.

What Inuyasha had done. What - Inuyasha - had -

"Go, go, bring her, I…I am staying here, staying here..."

Miroku stepped away reluctantly and tightened his arms around Sango. Wet drops soaked his shoulders as he pushed aside the branches blocking the cave-mouth; it had begun to rain while they were inside. Drops pearled on the ends of leaves before they fell, and Miroku studied Sango's face in silence as he walked; her paleness, the bloodstains. He could see the long gashes in her arms, from her shoulders down nearly to her wrists.

He could not tell what she was dreaming, what she was thinking; when she woke he noticed, but she would not meet his eyes and she did not say a word, seemed content merely to press herself closer to his body, regardless of pain.

Behind them in the darkness, Kagome lay alone with her tears, but there was a displacement in her thoughts like an echo without a voice, and it called to her whole attention. It was that same offering of comfort, of calm; it was Sesshomaru. It was what she needed more than anything else; his closeness, his comfort.

She remembered that once before, he had held her as she cried, and it had been warm and strange and wonderful. She felt something similar now, stranger only because she knew he was not beside her. What did it mean; what did any of it mean?

She wanted to sleep, so that she could forget - but she was afraid of her dreams, of what they might make her remember.

In the quiet and the stillness, pressed down by Inuyasha's fading scent, the decision passed out of her hands, and out of her thoughts. Like fog, soft and delicate, sleep crept over her; it loosened her hands and relaxed the tightness of her body; it smoothed the panic and the pain away from her face, for a little while.

For a little while...

Sesshomaru stood under wet leaves, and stared at his brother's body. The deep wounds that Kagome's claws had made were ochre slashes, clotted in death; Inuyasha's eyes stared up sightless into the rain. Like a tear in his thoughts, there was a sudden assault of anxiety, of guilt, of longing – it was Kagome, feeling too much again, and he did not need to know how much she needed his brother. Anger threatened to choke him, forced words out of his mouth like spears towards his brother's flesh.

"You had to die, but you should not have hurt her. She is mine now, but do you see how well she cries for you?"

I hate you.

He would never have an answer, or a response. His hand shot to his waist, drew his sword and held it still, pointed at his brother's motionless chest. An incoherent urge filled him; he wanted to tear Inuyasha to pieces, as if that could help. He wanted to bring him back and make him breathe again, so he could kill him himself, so much less gently than Kagome had.

The fact that Tenseiga had already failed to do such a thing once was immaterial; Inuyasha seemed to be smiling, a fitting smile, a smile with an edge of taunt in it.

At that moment, the rising tension in Sesshomaru's thoughts suddenly broke, like a taut rope cut in two, and with its passing he felt more at ease, more himself.

Kagome. She is comforted. I owe the Houshi…much.

But beyond just the release of her grief, there were other feelings, a thing he had not expected to find.

She thinks of me; she wants me close.

Automatically, instinctively, his thoughts and his power reached out to her. The horrible thought that had been with him since the beginning of this mess backed out of his mind and began to dissipate. She would not turn from him; it was not Inuyasha she needed now. He lowered his eyes, looked down at his brother's body.

The smile no longer seemed taunting, only sad; the scent of death was cold and clinging.

"I understand, brother."

I will have what I wanted.

"You still should not have had her first, Inuyasha."

There was not much left of the sunrise. Already, a faint purple was hovering over the edge of the sky, beneath the grey lightness of the clouds. Sesshomaru stood for a while, contemplating the deeds of his brother's life. He had never wanted to admit it, but they had been many, those deeds, worthy of his blood, their father's blood...before the madness.

When there was sunlight reaching behind the overcast sky instead of darkness, Sesshomaru knelt in the blood and the rain beside his brother and reached with claws as delicate as a physician's needles into his chest, between his gleaming ribs.

"You have laid this night under the stars, and now you will be covered. It is dawn, and the sun summons you."

They were old words; it was an old rite. He had been unable to do this for his father; his father, his flesh burned to ashes in human ruins, only the bones left, white, shining, enormous. For a moment, Sesshomaru closed his eyes, and then continued his task.

Inuyasha's heart still held warmth; respectfully, Sesshomaru lay the silent organ in the still hands, and closed the stiff fingers around it. Carefully, he lay the torn flesh back across his brother's open chest and cut a long strip of silk from the hem of his own haori, bound heart and hands together with it.

Slowly, he bent and lifted his brother's body; slower still, he turned towards the village.

The Houshi was waiting outside, and he, too, had bloody hands, but he smelled not of the boy, and not of Kagome, and not of Inuyasha.

His woman. The Taijiya.

There was grimness on the Houshi's face, and the trailing scent of the woman whose blood had stained him was full of darkness.

"Sesshomaru-dono - "

There was a complete blankness of confusion on Miroku's face; Sesshomaru understood only too well.

"He is dead. He is my brother. While he lived, he was my foe, but now I will treat him with the respect he deserves."

It was something that Miroku had not expected, but it was also something he could understand.

"Kaede is binding Sango's wounds, Sesshomaru-dono. She said that after that, she would begin preparations for the funeral rites."

Something - he did not know what - made him continue.

"At that time, his family should be with him."

Sesshomaru did not answer, but Miroku could have sworn he saw a flash of gratitude in those passionless features.

The Daiyoukai turned and stepped into the house; blood had stained the pale curtain, rich and red.

The old woman was waiting for him, watching the door past the Taijiya, the woman of the bloody scent, whose wounds she was binding with pungent herbs and rough linen. The woman started with fear at the sight of him, but he ignored her; his focus was further in. A place had been made ready for Inuyasha, the ritual necessities laid out beside the fire. As he lay him down, the old miko turned towards him, and he saw surprise and unease on Kaede's face at the sight of his brother's heart bound in his hands, the dark, richer bloodstain.

"Do not forget he was half-youkai. You will bury him in the way of your people, but this, too, is right."

She could not argue; even if she had wanted to, the fury in his face stalled all her words.

Women came from the village, slowly, one at a time, and stayed to help Kaede. Sesshomaru wondered why these human women were so willing to aid in the funeral rights of a hanyou; he had no way of knowing how many times Inuyasha had saved these women and their husbands, their children.

Sango, too, came out of her dark corner, to watch if not to touch, to listen if not to speak. The women sang while Kaede dressed Inuyasha for death and chanted, beginning the death-ritual.

"It is light, it is darkness; it is dawn, it is the falling of the night."

The songs stopped. The women came into a circle around her, knelt and bowed their heads, stretched out their hands and answered her.

"It is the falling of the night."

Carefully, Kaede covered Inuyasha's eyes.

"From the long red darkness we come and thus it is that we go again. The essence is undone, the shape unraveled - into the darkness we go, and none return."

"Into the darkness, and none return."

Sesshomaru watched the women, Kaede's movements, felt himself strangely moved. The darkness, they said; and he had seen that darkness, when they had not - he had ventured into it, retrieving Rin who had been stolen.

That darkness...is that where you are destined, Inuyasha? Is that where your soul has gone?

He found himself vaguely surprised by a feeling of...pity. Yes, pity. Not only for his brother, but all these humans, fragile, doomed.

Kaede's response was followed by a wail full of woe, full of the knowledge that all submit in their turn. Minutes passed. One by one, in their own time, each of the women stood and walked outside, until Kaede was alone with the body, and Sesshomaru. Even Sango quietly stepped through the stained curtain.

Sadness and shock had made Kaede tired, a weariness that went deeper than her flesh.

I feel…old. Old and tired. Ahh…too many burials, too many deaths.

She had always feared to see Inuyasha laid out this way in front of her; since Kagome had come, and awakened him, breaking the seal that had chained his flesh to the Goshinboku.

As she worked, wrapping Inuyasha for the grave, she felt Sesshomaru's eyes on her, heavy, uncomfortable, but he said nothing. He sat very still, very stiff, and did not speak, and kept his eyes mostly on his brother's face. She wondered what he was thinking, but could never have asked; she wondered if he, too, was grieving, but could not even bring herself to believe in the wonder.

The sun was shining through the spaces around her door-curtain; the morning was wearing away, and finally Kaede sat back and let her hands fall into her lap.

"It is finished; the next world awaits him."

It was early afternoon when the final preparations were ready; the only thing they were missing was Kagome - no one could find her. The humans of the village, Kaede included, were hesitant to approach Sesshomaru, despite the fact that they knew he would easily be capable of locating her. Just after the sun reached its high, Kaede cornered Miroku while the others were outside.

"We cannot leave him unburied, Miroku; we could wait another day, maybe even two in this cooler weather...but I wonder if it would do any good."

"Kaede?"

"Perhaps young Kagome does not wish to attend his burial. Perhaps that is why we cannot find her."

"No! Kaede, she may be a demon but she's still Kagome; she is terribly broken by what she has done, that's all. I have a feeling..."

"Miroku, is there something you're not telling me?"

"Ah..."

"Miroku!"

He gulped; he had been waiting all morning, while the villagers searched the rice paddies and the edge of the forest, for her to confront him.

He sighed.

"The truth is, Kaede, I know where Kagome is, unless she's gone somewhere since I left her at dawn. It's just...I know she wouldn't want to be disturbed right now, and most of these people..."

He lowered his voice.

"Most of these people were like strangers to her, Kaede...even before. We never stayed here for long, and she has been gone since the end of last winter. And with...how she has changed - "

It was Kaede's turn to sigh, but she still scowled at him.

"I understand - perhaps you are right. But next time, tell me first! This village is not so well-off that we can afford to waste an entire day in a frivolous search, for a girl who is not lost!"

Miroku held out a hand to restrain her as she turned away.

"Kaede, she is not a girl any longer. Not a girl, not a woman - still Kagome, though."

Her face seemed to crumple a little, turning inward.

"I know it, Miroku, I know it; but it is a hard thing for this old heart to bear. And now, with Inuyasha gone..."

"But we are still here, Kaede - Sango and I. It was you I came to, when she agreed to marry me, and it is here we plan to stay."

He smiled at her and then he left, so that she could be alone. He had seen tears gathering in the old eye, flowing down to settle in the wrinkles of her face. He felt a little bit like crying himself; Inuyasha...a good friend, Inuyasha. And Kagome - he felt, in some small way, like she too had died, gone away from them forever. It was silly, he knew, but he couldn't help himself. He kept thinking of her as she had been the first time he saw her - and then, like remembering a nightmare, he would hear that horrible, grieving howl.

Kagome.

He spoke to himself out loud, his eyes trained on the forest.

"If she isn't back by sunset...I'll go get her then."

At the edge of the noon-dulled forest, staring up into an endless sky, Sesshomaru scowled at the distance between himself and his home and felt the beginning of an uprising in the land.

Rin is home, waiting. I did not tell her I was leaving; she will be unhappy.

He was powerless to stop the flowing power beneath him while he stood in that place, thinking, but his thoughts were deep and complex, of lives and deaths, seeking a balance point, somewhere there would not be an edge under his feet. He was thinking of Council, and trouble - trouble that had been growing, brewing, fermenting.

Since Kagome came, and before – since I found Rin, I have been walking on the edge of a knife, back and forth. They fear me, but that is all, and that is not enough.

Kagome's presentation was more on his mind than anything else, and the session of Council he feared would follow – or the Challenge, which he would not have feared for himself, but did for her.

They will Challenge her, all those fatuous females. Before her I would not have them – and after her, if there was 'after her', I would not, either. Silver and silk and sidelong glances, wine and whispers, long nights and long silences – I want none of it! Only she, who I have chosen –

He was building himself to a fine flame of anger. With a deep breath, he stopped, and let the blackness flow out of him and into the night. If those he had carefully selected did their work, there would not be much to worry about. He knew Kagome had not been paying attention to the whispers that had sprung up around her; there had been no time since her change to tell her of plans or possibilities – of difficulties or dangers.

And there is Kinawai...Kinawai, who said he would return, and bring what he could collect of rumor and hearsay.

But thinking of Kinawai brought his thoughts back to Rin, because both might be waiting in the same place – and what might the messages be, the rumors? The urge was sudden and strong in him to dart out into the waving grass, through the trees to his own place, but he contained it. He could not go without Kagome, without a word – she would notice, and be worried.

It was time to go home, away from the noise and the stench of fear, that human scent. The kit was healing – Inuyasha would be buried – all too soon, the night of her presentation would be upon them. That, he could not delay.

Yes, it is time to go home.

But Kagome was still grieving, though she was softer with it now, after these many hours– and Sesshomaru still had not figured out why he was beginning to walk and breathe and speak with accompanying sensations of futility for every action. The thought that had come to him like a steam-shadow was still with him, haunting him, taunting him. It clung to him with tenacious claws, and he could not shake them free no matter how much he tried.

It was the thought of a feeling; having never been in love, having never had a romantic thought, having never even been close, he still did not need to be told what it was, happening to him - or what it meant.

"Dangerous miko! I knew, I knew…"

He spoke aloud; only the trees listened, but could give him no answer.

I have to ask her if she is coming home…or at least tell her that I must go back for Rin.

Having said it, he felt better about it, more decisive. If she would not come, he would bring the girl back with him, and he would wait. He would endure ages, even in this human village, if it would bring her back with him – as the presence of warmth which the cold stone had been missing, as the breath of answer to his desire, as his - mate.

Damn you, Kinawai.

She had taught him the difference between desire and duty; did she intend to educate him now as to the difference between lust, and longing? Already the lesson was penetrating; sharp, relentless. And he knew, too, that his life was shared now, no longer a thing belonging to himself alone. There was no hiding from the knowledge, and even while he stood there in silence under the leaves, it shook him, and lit his eyes, and darkened his face.

The day passed around him and by him; afternoon darkened to a grey twilight with dusky velvet edges; still he stood, not moving, barely breathing; he felt as thought he was waiting, but he could not have said for what.

In the village, the men and women who had gathered for Inuyasha's funeral feast were growing impatient as the sky grew darker. The morning's rain had faded but the air was still raw and damp, and even cooler now that the sun had fallen. Finally, a group of men approached Kaede and held a low and whispered conversation with her. Now, they were saying, or it would be too late; or should they wait until tomorrow? Kaede turned and searched through the small crowd for Kagome, and did not see her, and was not surprised in the least - but then she could not find Miroku, either, and that was surprising.

"Have any of you seen Miroku?"

"No, Kaede-sama - "

"I last saw him in the morning, Kaede-sama -"

"I have not seen him since we brought the body outside, Kaede-sama."

With a flutter of her hands, she silenced them, and let out a deep sigh.

"I suppose we will have to -"

A voice stopped them, young and shrill.

"Where are you going? You cannot go; Kagome isn't with you!"

In the window of Kaede's house, Shippou was leaning against the sill with his arm pressed tightly against his side, and Kaede froze, looking at him.

How is that - kami protect us, he was dying, dying!

There was a rustle from the tree line, and then Kaede turned because the villagers were drawing back with a murmur; Sesshomaru was behind her.

"He speaks the truth – I will find her, and bring her back. Kit, if you are not in bed where you belong, Kagome will not be happy. She brought you back from the edge of the abyss just this morning; you should not be up."

His words were enough to silence the woman, but not Shippou.

"If you're going to find Kagome, I'm going with you! Her scent is funny, I want to know what's going on!"

He let out a little huff of pain, and Sesshomaru was by the window instantly. Carefully, he lifted the kit through it, stared at him. Unblinking, Shippou stared back.

"My blood has made you bold, kit. Very well - but you stay still, and quiet."

Wide-eyed, Shippou nodded, and Sesshomaru turned to Kaede.

Under his eyes, the men who had lifted his brother's bier lay it down.

"I will return momentarily."

He swept away into the trees, following Kagome's scent; on the way, he met the Houshi and sent him back. Miroku watched him continue onward, wondered if he should give warning about where, exactly, Sesshomaru was likely to find his mate.

Probably not the best idea, actually. I'll go tell Kaede...that she's coming.

Kagome had not moved very far, only from one chamber of the small cave to the other. She had stepped outside long enough to toss away the fur and the curtain that were stained with Sango's blood, but other than that she did not move.

She stayed on the rock ledge and the furs that had been Inuyasha's bed, and slept fitfully, for quarters and halves of hours at a time. Sometimes she dreamt, and sometimes there was emptiness, and sometimes her eyes stayed open for minutes that ticked by like days, staring into the darkness full of tears.

She remembered all the times he had ever caught her, saved her, fought for her – every time she had ever bled for him, all the tears, all the smiles, so many words that they became a blur, all the tones of endearment, the sacrifices – but it all had been useless.

We knew, we knew from the very beginning. Like how he would never touch me, except once, except once, almost – like how I thought I would die if I did not run, run away from the chance –

The branches at the opening were moving; she could hear them rustling, caught their scent moving on the new draft of air as someone stepped inside. She stood, and then a voice halted her, rough with surprise.

"Kagome? You are here?"

Sesshomaru.

Suddenly feeling warmer, safer, Kagome threw herself through the doorway. She half-intended to throw herself at him, too, to hold him tightly, to be reassured by his heartbeat – but when she saw him, she felt surprise tighten her eyebrows and couldn't restrain her voice.

"Shippou! Shippou…Sesshomaru, why did you take him out of bed, why would you -"

But she stopped talking, because Shippou's eyes were wide, wider than wide; he was staring at her as if she had suddenly grown a second head.

"Ka - Ka -Kagome? Kagome?"

She let out a little sigh, tried to smile for him.

"Yes, Shippou."

She saw his nose twitching, and his shock seemed to fade into curiosity.

"But you're...you're youkai now, Kagome!"

"Yes; but if you don't like it, then you should yell at Sesshomaru, because it's really his fault."

She leaned close to him, whispered the words conspiratorially. Looking at Shippou, hearing him talk, seeing him smile, made a great rent in the dark cloud that hung over her. Sesshomaru stepped close to her and allowed Shippou to slide out of his hands and into Kagome's. The kit endured her examination with good grace, his eyes on Sesshomaru's face, his explanation sure.

"I took myself out of bed, Kagome, so that's really my fault. They are burying Inuyasha now – or they thought they were, until I stopped them, and he stopped them. They couldn't do it without you, and no one was paying attention. But I wanted to come find you, because I had to tell you something - a message."

"A...message?"

Sesshomaru stepped close and ran his hands over her shoulders, through her hair; he had seen her tremble, at the mention of Inuyasha's name. Carefully, he held her, the kit between them. Watching the two of them, the pulse of disordered scents in this place was no longer so difficult for Shippou to decipher, but he was more than a little confused. How could Kagome be the mate of Sesshomaru?

And she is youkai now. Maybe she will be my okaa-san for real.

"From Inuyasha, Kagome. Do you remember when he transformed, and killed all those humans?"

She nodded, almost didn't trust herself to speak.

"Yes...I remember."

"After that, we were talking...it was night time, I think, while the rest of you were sleeping. He said that if he ever died before you, I should tell you thank you, for the promise you made him. He said...he said you would know which promise."

"Ah - ah -"

She was bending over without any will behind the movement at all; a strange, strangled sound escaped her, over and over again. If Sesshomaru had not been holding her, she would have fallen.

"Kagome, wait, Kagome! There was something else he told me – something important. I was awake, in the afternoon – I was listening to Miroku and Kaede talking. They said that you had been the one to kill Inuyasha -"

Horror imprinted itself on her features, that he should know this, that he should speak of it, but his voice continued on and dragged her with it.

"I know, I know, but that's why this is so important. He told me, when he was telling me to thank you...he told me that that was what he wanted. That if he had to die, he wanted...he wanted you to kill him. He said that if he was really selfish, he would ask you to kill him right then - because he was afraid that someday...someday he would hurt you. Or maybe he meant he would hurt you some other way, but - but don't be guilty, Kagome, don't feel... don't feel...so bad..."

She stood as though dazed, watched the tentative smile form on his face and fade, saw hope following. Very carefully, she cradled him, pressed her lips against his forehead. Sesshomaru allowed her a few minutes of silence, and then touched her cheek gently. She was crying again, but there was something different in her tears, something less despairing about them.

"There are things that need tending, mate. The funeral procession is waiting. Will you come, and say goodbye for the last time?"

From his warm spot between them, Shippou spoke up, interrupting him.

"They're going to bury him near the Goshinboku, Kagome, between the tree and the well."

She nodded, reached up with one hand to wipe tears off her face and then stopped short, stared at the rust-colored stain that had drenched her fingers.

"Yes. But I - I should wash first - "

"No."

Sesshomaru still her hand, held her red fingers up in front of his eyes.

"Bring his last heartbeats with you on your hands, mate. That is youkai custom; that is our way."

Again, Shippou spoke up, but this time Sesshomaru looked down on him with approval.

"Did you send him heart in hand, Sesshomaru-sama?"

"Yes. That, too, is our way."

"The day is wearing on, the dew is faded – in the night, the moonlight carried you away. The image you bear now, we will all bear one day. Inuyasha, you were a hunter, a warrior, a worthy opponent. Inuyasha, who loved and was loved, who lived and is lost, we say farewell."

Kaede's words echoed between the trees, through the darkness. Even the children had come outside, even Shippou, who leaned on Sesshomaru but stood on his own two feet, watching the flickers of torchlight on Inuyasha's shrouded face, the curls of incense smoke moving like mist. The women held Kagome in their midst like a delicate flower, amid a cluster of waving, floating sleeves, at the center of a continuous hum of songs, of whispers, of lamentations.

Their singing was ending; the echoes still lingered on the forest path, uplifted memories sometimes no louder than a murmur, hymns for the virtue of the dead. It was Kagome's turn now, and they supported her in her grief, reminded her of the easing it would bring. They had brought her forward on the highest notes of their song, tender and cruel. There were no moments of silence, only a pure, clean transition, many voices becoming one voice, Kagome's death-song.

The villagers did not know the words - only Miroku, who found himself listening with tears in his eyes, could understand. He had heard the song before, whens he played music from her time; he knew it was sad...so sad.

hontou ni taisetsu na mono igai subete sutete
shimaetara ii no ni ne
genjitsu wa tada zankoku de
sonna toki itsu datte
me o tojireba
waratteru kimi ga iru

itsuka eien no nemuri ni tsuku hi made
dou ka sono egao ga
taema naku aru you ni

hito wa minna kanashii kara
wasurete yuku ikimono dakedo

aisubeki mono no tame
ai o kureru mono no tame dekiru koto

There were other verses, other words; Miroku turned slightly to look at her when there was quiet, no continuation of the song. Her voice had swollen in her throat, and silenced itself; he could not blame her.

They were lowering Inuyasha into the ground. Sesshomaru stood beside Kaede at the head of the grave and did not speak, watching the silk-wrapped body laid down to its final rest. Kagome stayed in the same place with her mouth open and her eyes fixed, swaying.

Her lips moved, soundless, and then the Inu spoke for her, opening her grief. It was a howl that escaped her, pure, cold, a high and eerie keening.

Sesshomaru reached for her arm, and then stopped. From the trees, an echo had reached her first, the voices of wolves and wild dogs answering, offering solace to their demon kin. The sound wove back and forth between the trees in many tones, and Kagome fell silent, and closed her eyes. Sesshomaru was glad of the change, glad of the silence; the sound of her singing had been like a knife, a sword in his belly, but the sound of her howl was death.

He could not help but think that to lose him would not torment her in such a way – they were bound together only by his will and by desire, was that not so? The softness of her body and the softness of her smiles - neither counted against that sound!

He did not feel his face taking on bleak angles of despair. She came to him and reached for him but his thoughts were far away, even as he held her. He had his own howl in silence, very different in its nature. He knew, and no longer could deny the knowledge; she had accused him, and now he knew it was the truth. He was caring for her, his own mate. Had it been while he was watching her that it had happened; while she slept, or after? He did not know; he did not know!

He watched in silence as the earth was filled in over his brother, rich and black. For Kagome there was only weariness, ending a long stream of tears that she had not seemed aware of. She was tired, deeply, unbelievably tired. Without the pressure of her unspent grief to push her forward, sleep was closing on her like a heavy door; she could not move past it. Sesshomaru was there, holding her arm, her shoulders, guiding her, lifting her, carrying her – suddenly she felt safe again, felt as though she could forget. Like a child, she closed her eyes and turned off the world.

A/N: Sorry, that took longer to edit into a stand-alone chapter than I thought! The song is actually one of the ending themes for Inuyasha, third season, I think...Dearest, by Hamasaki Ayumi. Pretty song; fitting, I thought. Anyways, Please Review! More soon! really quick UPDATE: Wow, that pasting of song lyrics really didn't work; I've fixed it now, though, so only the Romaji is in the fic; translation below!

It would be nice if we could put away and throw out
everything except what really mattered, but

reality is just cruel

In such times,
I see you laughing
whenever I close my eyes.

Until the day I reach eternal sleep,
that smiling face will
have to stay with me without fail

People are all sad, so
they go and forget, but-

For that which I should love,
For that which gives me love, I will do what I can.

Final Revisions, complete! Wow, this is actually...a really long chapter. Longest one yet, I think. I considered cutting it further, but since that would've just made the next chapter really long, there was no point. R&R!