InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Don't know what you've got 'til it's gone ❯ Body and Soul ( Chapter 24 )

A/N: Sorry this is a bit late. It's been a busy week. There are only a few more chapters left to this fic - probably 3 or 4. Yes, I will finish it. Thank you all so much for reading. I'm actually looking forward to wrapping this up because, as much fun as it has been, I'm excited about the other one I am working on.

 

FFnet:

Angel Sancuary, Angelfire412, pinky2007, kimi, lady Kcassandra, watergoddesskasey, MiniSparky, MagicV, Dark Inu Fan, WickedGame, rosebud, inuyasha's2hotmiko

 

Kitty Kudan: The necklace is explained. I don't think the `mate dies if the other dies' is canon, though I know it is a popular theme.

 

Gohan757 - Inuyasha always trusts Kikyo. Pisses me off.

 

Lauren1 - it was functional last time I checked…

 

Amanda Trinh - Kinky-ho! LOL!

 

Mmorg:

Alize - thank you!

 

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

 

Chapter 24 - Body and Soul

 

Inuyasha stumbled into the hut he shared with Kagome and glanced around the dark, empty room; despair rising thick and black in his throat. Dropping to his knees, he slammed his fist into the wood floor until his knuckles were bloody and the boards had splintered. She`d masked her scent and he`d been unable to track her. She had not gone to Kaede's village or down the well. Leaping over the forest canopy, he scanned the ground for her lithe figure, shouting until his voice was hoarse and his throat raw. Out of ideas, he'd returned to the demon slayer's village on the off chance that she had come home.

 

More disturbing than her disappearance was the total lack of connection through their marks. He should have some sense of her, but there was nothing. It was only here, in this hut, that Kagome's presence surrounded him, the musk of her scent permeating the structure. His eyes fell on their futon, slightly rumpled from when they'd lain together after the villager had come with his plea. Arms and legs entwined, he'd kissed her until she'd stopped trembling. “Kagome…”

 

Her vacant expression mocked him from the shadows, barren walls looming over him like a cavern. Why hadn't she known him? She'd attacked him when she'd first started to change, but she hadn't really tried to hurt him. He could feel his happiness shattering; the pieces scattering like the shards of the jewel after it had been struck by Kagome's arrow. Was his life with Kagome irreparably broken? There was no life without Kagome. He shook his head, a low whine escaping his throat. He'd failed her but he didn't know how.

 

“Inuyasha?” Shippo timidly spoke from the doorway; the bamboo curtain pushed aside just enough to let an eye peer through.

 

“What is it, Shippo?” his voice was as flat and hollow as the emptiness in his chest.

 

“Are you alright?”

 

He shook his head, letting his bangs fall into his face and hide his eyes. The injuries she had given him had almost healed but the wound on his soul burned hot and dry, all the more because he was sure that somehow, it was his fault. Light fingers touched his shoulder and he jerked reflexively from the contact.

 

“Inuyasha?” the kit's voice wavered on the brink of tears.

 

“She's gone Shippo. I can't find her.”

 

Shippo sat hard, his legs suddenly unable to support him. His lips quivering and eyes filling with tears, he threw his head back and wailed a cry of loss and mourning.

 

Inuyasha clenched his teeth on his own howl, struggling against the crushing weight of defeat. Sharp claws bit into the floorboards, gouging chunks from the already damaged wood.

 

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

 

“He hasn't left the hut in a day,” Sango whispered to Miroku as they stood in the doorway of Inuyasha and Kagome's hut, arms linked and faces grim. Miroku shook his head; Shippo had not exaggerated the situation.

 

“You cannot lose hope, Inuyasha. To despair is to die.” Miroku regarded the silent hanyou with concern; he never seen him so crushed and overwhelmed. Inuyasha would fight to the death, even if the odds were stacked against him and there were no chance of victory. Now, he sat hunched in the empty hut staring at the wall, his golden eyes clouded and faded. Normally alert and active, his silver ears drooped limply against his hair.

 

“You must have seen or felt something when you came through the well,” Sango urged. He shook his head without looking up from the wall, his gaze unfocused.

 

“What happened before you went to her time?” the monk released Sango's arm to steeple his fingers and closed his eyes.

 

He shrugged noncommittally. He'd gone to see Kikyo, but she hadn't done anything to Kagome. Kikyo had been with him. He shuddered involuntarily at the thought of the dead woman's arms around him, Kagome watching from the trees, her heart breaking. Had she not forgiven him after all? Maybe she had left him for Kouga? He closed his eyes as the world lurched under him, wrenching a whimper from his chest.

 

“There had to be something. Inuyasha, think, damn it!” Sango was suddenly angry at the pitiful creature. Moping would not bring Kagome back.

 

His lips curled back in a snarl, “Leave me alone.”

 

Miroku had had enough. Stomping into the dimly lit hut, he whacked him over the head.

 

“Hey! What'd you do that for? You think I'm not suffering enough?” Startled out of his melancholy, the hanyou glared at the monk and rubbed the knot on the back of his head.

 

“Idiot! Look at yourself, sulking in this hut. The Inuyasha that I know would be out scouring the forest for her.” He hit him again for good measure.

 

“You think I haven't done that already?” Kagome's face rose in his mind's eye, no recognition in her eyes as she brained him with the ball of her scythe. The pendant Kikyo had given her had swung from beneath her blouse, a green stain against the white cotton. He blinked, finding himself face to face with Sango, who had seated herself in front of him. “Kikyo's gift…”

 

“Kikyo gave you something?” Sango peered into his face, confused. Why had he gone to see Kikyo? His unwavering trust in the undead priestess never ceased to amaze her, especially considering the number of times she'd betrayed him.

 

“No…she gave it to me to give to Kagome…a wedding present.”

 

Miroku sat next to Sango, wishing he had questioned the hanyou further when he'd brought Kagome back to Kaede's village, pale and sick. He'd suspected the Kikyo was involved and that woman was nothing but trouble.

 

“What was it?” Miroku's eyes darkened as Inuyasha described the jade pendant. The priestess truly had succumbed to evil to be able to use such black magic. “You do not sense Kagome because her soul is no longer in her body.”

 

“What?” Inuyasha's ears snapped forward.

 

“You described an object used in a curse that pulls the soul from the wearer. Kikyo will have a matching pendant, though it will be thin in the center and thicken toward the edges. If the two pendants are joined, then Kikyo will own the rest of Kagome's soul. She probably used the jewel shards from the mole youkai to strengthen the curse.”

 

Inuyasha closed his eyes and bowed his head, thoughts whirling. Had Kikyo been playing with him from the beginning, her sad smiles and soft sighs masking unadulterated malevolence? How could the love they had shared been so corrupted? Time and again, she`d betrayed them and he`d always defended her, given her the benefit of the doubt. Now, she`d manipulated him into hurting his own mate. “How do we break the curse?” he growled, his jaw twitching with the force of his clenched teeth. She'd shown her true face; he wanted to rip it off.

 

“We must smash the pendants before they are joined. Once together, the curse is irreversible.”

 

He sprang to his feet, flexing his claws. “Come on, there's no time to lose.”

 

Sango stood and brushed herself off. “I thought you said you couldn't find her.”

 

“I may not be able to find Kagome, but I sure as hell can find Kikyo.”

 

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

 

Akane ran through the forest, letting her instincts guide her north and home. The body was not her own, she was sure. She remembered the survivors of her clan fleeing down the mountain, her kit held tightly in her arms. He'd stopped breathing but she wouldn't let him go; he was all that was left of her family. Her mate had died getting her out of the village, crushed by the ogre's giant spiked mace. Crashes and screaming, falling trees and the heavy scent of blood followed her as the ogre picked off the fleeing kitsunes. Days and nights bled together as she left the horror behind her. Her harrowing flight had eventually brought her to a spring in the lowlands, but her wounds were bad and not improving. With her last bit of strength, she had buried the body of her kit in the soft soil and sent her soul to the vessel, her broken body dying around her.

 

Why she had power over this new body, she had no idea; the spell wasn't supposed to work that way. Vaguely, she recalled merging with another soul, leading it through the change and sinking back into the darkness. That other soul was now gone and she was left in control.

 

She'd been snapped back to the earthly plain to an inu-hanyou dousing her with water. Hardly aware of herself and without thinking, she'd fought him off and fled, masking her scent and aura so that she couldn't be followed. It was only after she'd left him far behind that she felt that she should have known him. His silver hair and golden eyes seemed so familiar, as if he'd visited her in a recurring dream. His stricken expression stabbed at her heart, wounding her with its pain and shock. She'd almost stopped and gone back, wanting to smooth the lines of hurt from around his eyes. Steeling herself, she'd pushed on; he was an echo of the other's life. She had to get home and find what was left of her kin.

 

She'd been running hard for a day and a night. Dawn was just beginning to break with a newborn glow that chased the lingering shadows from the trees. Birds tittered from their nests, greeting the light with songs of joy and supplication. Rodents scurried and foraged now that the night predators had gone to sleep. The forest pulsed with energy and Akane listened as she ran, the sounds of life warming her heart. How long had it been since she'd been a part of the living world? She had no idea. Finally, the land began to incline and the dense, ferny undergrowth thinned, to be replaced by hardier shrubs. She had reached the base of the mountains.

 

She became aware of a presence trailing her, faint but constant. Once in a while, the scent of graveyard soil would waft by, disappearing again as the wind changed. She was certain it wasn't that poor hanyou; she idly hoped that he hadn't been hurt too badly. No, it was dead and malicious, a specter or undead creature with a thirst for…her? She shuddered, pulling her aura more closely around her and increased her pace, pushing to the limit the of hanyou body she inhabited.