InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Fading ❯ One Heart ( Chapter 9 )

Alright, chappy nine coming up ^_^ I feel so special to have gotten all those reviews from you wonderful, wonderful people! Thanks to all you guyz who've complimented me - it means a lot *tear* lol anyway, on to the story!

(Attention all you mediaminer.org peoples: If my before-fic comments have seemed a little odd in previous chapters, it's simply because I had been originally posting this story on fanfiction.net before expanding over to mediaminer and had forgotten to adjust my comments to suit all the reviewers over here ^_^;; oops… Anyways, from now on I'll try to remember to rewrite these comments for all of you.)

Chapter Nine: One Heart

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Riyo said, her dark eyes growing suspicious. "Whatever you want, you will not get it from me."

"What the hell?" Inu Yasha yelled. "It's barely been an hour since we left and already you've forgotten us?!"

"I'm telling you, I've never seen you before," the beautiful woman insisted. "Now you must leave. Half-breeds are not welcome in this village." It didn't come as a surprise to Inu Yasha when her face twisted in a tiny, self-mocking smile as she said that.

What the hell is going on? Inu Yasha wondered again, this time in his head. We leave her for one bloody hour and she forgets all about Kagome and the rest of us! Whatever this little game is about, I don't have time to listen to her shit!

"Okay, Riyo, I'll explain this one more time. I know that you know who I am. I came here a little more than an hour ago with a dark-haired girl, a monk, a youkai exterminator, and a small kitsune. The girl - Kagome - was barely visible because of some freak incident that made it so she no longer existed. You were the one person who could help her, but being the cold-hearted bitch that you are, you refused using all those lame-ass excuses about you being a half-"

Inu Yasha's words were cut off by Riyo as the woman clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Baka!" she hissed, in an amazingly accurate imitation of Kagome. No wonder they're related, Inu Yasha thought, trying to ignore the pain that her tight grip on his jaw was causing. "I don't know how you have learned of who I am, but you must not yell it out for the whole village to hear! Do you want to see me dead?!"

Pulling her hand off his mouth, Inu Yasha snorted. "I'm a hanyou and I don't see them trying anything on me."

"You don't live here," Riyo retorted, her eyes flickering green for a split second. She took a deep breath and lowered her voice. "As I said before, I have no knowledge of this Kagome that you speak of, nor have I ever laid eyes on you before." If Inu Yasha hadn't had such good hearing he would've missed the added "Thank the gods," that Riyo mumbled.

"I knew you were crazy!" Inu Yasha growled, stung. "And not only are you insane but you're bitchy too!"

"We've been through that before," Riyo told him icily. "Perhaps you wish for me to wait while you come up with something a little more… original?"

"Wench!Don't give me that shit! I need you to come back with me so that Kagome will be returned to her normal self! Aren't you damn mikos all proud of that righteous, self-sacrificing crap that you do?" Inu Yasha snarled between clenched fangs. This… woman… was going to be the death of him, he knew it. She had a tongue to match Kagome's when the girl was angry!

"I am a dark miko, boy," Riyo said in an eerily quiet voice. Her eyes glittered, green fire dancing in them again. "I have no morals, no conscience. My soul is corrupt, my heart black ice. If you had anything resembling intelligence, you would turn tail and run back to whatever hole you crawled out of like the puppy you are."

A foreign emotion pooled in Inu Yasha's belly, clenching his insides in a frozen grip. Fear was not something he felt often - he had stood up to the most horrifying demons with nothing more than a touch of worry - but this beautiful miko, so like Kagome and yet so different from her, had awoken his terror. He knew that she could destroy him quicker than thought, and do it without regret or guilt. You owe me BIG TIME, Kagome! the hanyou thought, swallowing his impulse to do as Riyo ordered and run.

"I know you're a dark miko," Inu Yasha said rudely, feigning boredom. "But if you can't bring Kagome back then you're obviously not a very good one."

"What?" Riyo asked, her voice still deceptively quiet. Her eyes flickered between nearly black and pure, fiery green.

"I said, if you can't even find a way to bring Kagome back then you're one pathetic excuse for a dark miko," Inu Yasha repeated, feeling a chill skate up his spine as her gaze locked on him. As if to remind himself of why he was doing this, the half demon clenched his prayer bead necklace in one fist and thought of Kagome. His ears still flattened back like he was expecting an attack, though. Which is probably what Riyo will do, Inu Yasha thought, trying to push down his fear. I wonder how tough a foretelling, corrupt, furious, bitchy half-dark-miko-half-dragon-youkai will be… Panic rose inside him again. Shit, I'm dead.

Grasping his prayer beads tighter, Inu Yasha waited for Riyo to explode. Oddly, he felt a rush of irritation followed quickly by confusion flow into him. Neither of the emotions were his own. What the- His thought was cut off by a woman calling his name and the stir in the air that meant someone was leaping at him.

However, when he was knocked to the ground, it wasn't by the one he had expected…

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Kagome wanted to stop. Her muscles screamed with every weary step she took and her breath came short, which made no sense. Kai had said that being dead, you needed no food, water, or air to survive and could feel no pain. So why did she feel like she was being put through a meat grinder? She hadn't felt like this a few minutes ago. Then it had only been the pain of having her heart pulled on to worry about. Now she almost felt like she had before fading - alive and plagued by everything that came with it.

Damn him, she thought, annoyed. He never told me that you got these stupid ache things that feel like someone's trying to rip your heart right out! As if to emphasize this, the heartbeat that boomed like thunder in her ears gave a particularly loud thump and began to beat even more strangely. It sounded more like two heartbeats now, and Kagome felt a sudden, unexplainable rush of affection flood into her.

Now what? she wondered, confused and still full of pain from the constant tugging on her heart. Does this have something to do with the weird energy?

Abruptly, the love became laced with panic and traces of confusion. These emotions, coupled with what Kagome was sure were her own feelings, nearly overwhelmed the tired girl as she stumbled on.

All of this paled in comparison, however, when she looked up.

There he was, his image perfectly clear, not like the scenery or the figure standing beside him. His silvery hair hovered about his face like storm clouds, his eyes the golden lightning that could strike at any minute. And clutched in his hand like it were the most precious thing in the world was his necklace.

"INU YASHA!" Kagome shouted, forgetting about her weariness, forgetting about her death, and not even noticing when the tug in her chest changed. No longer was it painful - it was now simply a gentle insistence, a guide.

The irregular beating of two hearts slowed until it became the steady pound of one.

Kagome ran as if she had not just jogged miles, launching herself at the hanyou without hesitation. Love crashed in on her once again, nearly throwing her off balance with its force as Inu Yasha's ear swivelled towards her and he turned his head slightly, eyes widening in recognition. With a dull thud, the two bodies connected and toppled over, Kagome gripping Inu Yasha around the neck and the half demon reflexively closing his arms around her waist.

Riyo, who had been seriously considering tearing Inu Yasha to shreds where he stood, forgot all about that as a dark-haired girl who, going by looks, could've been her daughter appeared out of thin air, clinging to that annoying half-breed like a leech.

Her demon blood overcome by surprise, Riyo lowered partially-formed claws and looked on in confusion. Tail, horns, fangs, and talons retracted back into her body as her human side took over once again, but the shock stayed with the dark miko. Memories flooded into her mind, memories of this girl - Kagome, she now remembered - and her friends.

And the universally popular question wormed it's way into her mind - What the HELL is going on?

Kagome, meanwhile, was hugging Inu Yasha fiercely, nearly suffocating him. A single tear left a glistening trail down her nose, finally falling onto the half demon underneath her. Kagome buried her face in Inu Yasha's shoulder, trying to keep a hold on the strong emotions flowing through her. The even beat of one heart still pounded in her ears, bringing with it incomprehensible joy and love. "Inu Yasha…"

The hanyou lay there, stunned and baffled by the sound that pulsed in his ears and the surge of adoration that filled him to the brim. Since when did he feel any emotion this keenly? And then there was Kagome, there in his arms and wonderfully solid.

Tentatively, almost reverently, Inu Yasha ran one clawed hand through the raven hair that was spilled across his chest. It was slightly tangled from their fall, but still soft, and the sweet scent of her shampoo - mixed with her own natural scent - filled his nose as he inhaled. Real scent and real texture, not faded like they had been before. How…? Inu Yasha thought, tightening his grip on her body. But he hardly cared what the answer was, he realized as he copied Kagome and buried his face in her hair. At that moment nothing else mattered - not Riyo, not the jewel.

And all because his Kagome was back.

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I know, my chapters are short T_T But if you like this story then you won't mind that I'm trying to save some of the action for later on! And no, this isn't the end so don't get all disappointed in me, lol. I know it sounds like the ending, but you'll see in the next chapter. I almost feel sorry for Inu Yasha - I mean, how much heartbreak will the poor guy go through before he finds a girl who won't die on him? But that would be telling, and the next chappy should be a surprise ^_^ Well, I hope you liked this part of my little fic - fluff isn't my strong point -_-x R&R pleaz!

~SilverMyste~