InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Hanging by a moment... ❯ Careful What You Wish For ( Chapter 62 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Genre(s): Angst, Romance
Rating: A
Warnings: (Temporary) Character Death
Word Count: 500


Naraku was defeated, the jewel purified, and after three long years of separation, she returned to him.

For the next sixty years, Kagome and Inuyasha lived together in pure bliss. Well okay not pure bliss; they had their moments like any couple, and at first the lack of children had been disappointing, but Inuyasha loved Kagome with all his heart.

Watching her age was the most painful thing he'd ever had to endure, but he wouldn't have traded his time with her for anything.

“It's getting dark,” he murmured as Kagome scrubbed a kosode in the stream.

“I can see that. My eyes haven't gone, you know,” she teased.

Kissing the top of her head, he said, “Come to bed soon.”

Following as soon as she rang out the kosode, she looked over her shoulder at the feeling of being watched. She couldn't see the many pairs of red eyes watching her, but she knew they were there, downwind. She glared back, then went inside.

They'd been hounding her for days now. They knew what her husband could sense but refused to admit; her time was running short.

Inuyasha wasn't ready when, a few days later, she developed a high fever. He didn't want to leave her side, but they ran out of the herbs used to reduce fever, and so as quick as he could, he ran out to collect more.

The sudden surge of a demonic aura was almost overwhelming.

As he rushed back to the house, the stench of death was unmistakable. Pushing the reed mat aside, it smelled like Kagome and...Naraku?

“Kagome!”

Rushing into the sleeping room, she was standing there, in a brand new yukata, looking eighteen years old.

“Inuyasha...”

She both looked and sounded so sad.

“Ka-Kagome…?”

“For days I've been telling them no,” she began softly. “They knew I was dying. They...they tried to strike a bargain, offer me immortality, if I let them devour my soul.”

Just like Naraku… he thought, distraught. But was she still his Kagome?

“I've been telling them no, but...at the moment of my death...”

He cringed.

“I...was afraid, and weak. I said yes.” She collapsed to her knees in tears. “I'm so sorry!”

“Are you...still you?”

“Yes and no.” Wiping her tears, her hand morphed into a tentacle before changing back. “But my heart is Kagome,” she assured him. “The youkai within me, they...weren't counting on the strength of my reiki keeping their darkness at bay. I have become like the Shikon no Tama. If I give in to the darkness I'll become evil, but my pure heart is fueled by my love for you. My desire to live wasn't purely selfish, it was also because I didn't want to leave you alone. I think I can keep the youkai dormant, asleep, and use the power they've given me without surrendering my human heart.”

“Keh, guess they didn't know what they were bargaining.”

“Can you forgive me?"

“For becoming a hanyou?” He pulled her into a kiss.