InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity ❯ InuYasha's Heart ( Chapter 44 )

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

InuYasha knelt on the ground as Kagome slid off his back to stand beside him. She seemed perfectly calm and yet anticipation welled up in her, as though there was something wonderful waiting for her just inside the cave. The cave seemed oddly unaffected, even by the passage of five hundred years. It appeared to Kagome the same as it was the last time she had been here. She'd been so young then.

"Do you want to go in alone?" he asked quietly.

Kagome shook her head. "She wants to talk to you, I think . . . I mean, I feel it."

He took her hand, offering her a reassuring squeeze when he felt her pulse fluttering in an erratic pattern. "We don't have to do this."

"I want to. I'm just anxious."

She stepped toward the cave, dragging InuYasha along. He seemed almost reticent. She shot him a quick grin.

The barrier around the cave's entrance tingled as Kagome stepped through. InuYasha followed. "I wonder if anyone has been in here since the last time we were," Kagome remarked, her voice hushed, low.

"Probably not." He stopped short, staring at the same structure they'd first seen so long ago.

Kagome let go of InuYasha's hand and slowly walked toward the statue. She raised her hand to touch the hole in Midoriko's chest—the spot where the Shikon no Tama had been forced out. Her arm glowed with a soft light as she reached forward, touching the armor, touching the priestess.

Kagome's aura glowed brighter, casting the melancholy cave in warm light. A strange current rippled through Kagome and into the statue, and as she stared, the casing that covered the powerful miko fell away. Eyes closed with a faint smile, Midoriko's skin glowed with the power of Kagome's energy, and InuYasha watched in amazement as Midoriko very slowly opened her eyes.

"Kagome, you've regained your memories, I see."

Kagome stepped back and bowed. "I have. I appreciate what you did, but . . . Why is it that I can remember both times? I wasn't in both places at the same time. That's not possible."

"You existed in both times, Kagome, because you needed to do this task, and because your life would have been altered too significantly to be repaired otherwise. You were here, in your place and in your time, doing what you needed to do. Your heart, however, your conscious mind . . . Those were with the ones you met in the past," Midoriko explained, resting her hand against Kagome's cheek.

"So my body was here and my mind was in the past . . . ? It was all a dream? Miroku? Sango? All of it?"

Midoriko chuckled. "Not a dream, Kagome, never a dream. Were it merely a dream, would you have come to love your hanyou so much?"

Kagome's confusion was a palpable thing. "Then what was it?"

"I think in your world, it is called a `parallel universe'. Both sets of memories are correct. Both sets of memories are yours. Both sets of circumstances happened to you and because of you. They simply existed at the same time on different planes."

"I think I understand," Kagome said slowly. "InuYasha . . ."

"Ah, your guardian." Midoriko's eyes brightened as they shifted to look over Kagome's shoulder at InuYasha. "You found a way to her, I see. I wondered . . ."

"Did you know all along, that I'd come for her?" InuYasha demanded. "And if you did, why did you take away Kagome's memories?"

Midoriko's slight smile widened. "I didn't know, for you were not there. I cannot see into a heart that isn't shown to me. As for Kagome's memories, she needed this, so that she realized what she needed to know." Midoriko's hand dropped from Kagome's cheek as the miko walked slowly toward InuYasha. "Show me what is in your heart, InuYasha."

Gaze narrowing, he stepped back, hesitating. "Why?"

"Always the warrior, aren't you?" Midoriko chuckled. "Worry not, hanyou. I owe you a gift, for protecting Kagome, and for finding a way back to her."

She lifted her hand, placing it on InuYasha's cheek, as she had done to Kagome. The miko closed her eyes, a vague frown marring her brow. Then she smiled again. Her hand dropped from him, and when she opened her eyes again, they were full of unshed tears. "It pains you to hurt her, does it not? And yet it is necessary for you to do this, for you to mark her as your intended?"

InuYasha couldn't look at Midoriko. A sudden flash of what should be stuck in his mind, an all-too-real image of him, standing over Kagome as her blood spilled from her. Eyes dull and condemning, staring at him with bitter reproach in her gaze. `You promised you'd protect me, InuYasha . . . What have you done to me?'

He flinched at the vision as the coppery scent of Kagome's blood filled his nose, turned his stomach, sickened him. For a moment, he saw her blood on his claws. He closed his eyes against the illusion. When he opened them again, his hands were clean.

Midoriko cupped his chin in her hand and forced him to look at her. "Pride and honor are wonderful traits InuYasha. These you possess in abundance, but because of these things, you cannot do what, in your heart, is unthinkable, and as much as you would have it otherwise, it is simply not within you to bring harm to Kagome."

One curt nod. InuYasha tried not to think, not to see. Kagome's eyes burned into his mind, the ache building inside his head as her skin faded to an ashen hue, as her flesh grew cold to his touch. He shook himself, as though trying to push away the distorted visage of the woman he loved, dying because of him.

But Midoriko continued, her voice soft, gentle, soothing away the nightmare visions with her words. "Yet you love her. You love her more than you love yourself. It is that love that makes you wish to carry out the ritual, and it is the same emotion that stills your hand."

"I . . . Y-Yeah."

Midoriko's smile was bright, radiant. She let go of InuYasha and took his hand, leading him forward to stand beside Kagome.

"InuYasha, put your hand where Kagome should receive your mark."

He hesitated only a moment before lifting his hand to cover the vague scar. Midoriko's hand covered his. InuYasha stared into Kagome's eyes as a faint warmth, a dazzling energy rippled through his hand into her flesh underneath. A sudden breeze whipped through the cave. Kagome felt a tickling sensation, something gentle and soft. It went more than skin deep. As though visiting the feeling down to her very bones, she could feel a sudden heat burst within her, as bright as sunshine, as brilliant as InuYasha's timid smile. The wind whipped her hair into her face but she didn't blink. InuYasha's gaze was intense, golden flecks of color fading and rising, pulsing with the strength of the blood that coursed through her veins.

Gradually, though, like a music box winding down from its song, the wind diminished. As it died, Midoriko let her hand fall away. "It is done."

InuYasha blinked in surprise and glanced at Midoriko before his eyes dropped to Kagome again. She stared at him a moment before slowly lifting the hem of her blouse. No larger than the width of two of his fingers, InuYasha touched the silvery slash on her flesh, the definite mark. He blinked quickly as he stared at it, his claws tracing over the mark over and over, as though he didn't quite believe it had happened, that he didn't have to worry about it any longer.

Kagome was his.

A strange mix of emotions shot to the fore. Kagome smiled but blinked as tears filled her eyes. She stared at InuYasha and realized he was having much the same problem. She threw her head back and laughed.

Midoriko cleared her throat softly, drawing their attention. "Come with me, InuYasha. I'd like to speak with you while I still have time."


InuY asha followed Midoriko further away from Kagome, almost afraid to hear what the miko wanted to say.

"I saw another conflict in your heart, InuYasha. Unfortunately, the other is one that isn't so easily handled. Do not remain obstinate for the sake of the act. The one you chose desires to bear your children."

His gaze dropped as heat filtered into his cheeks. "I know," he admitted. "I just want to know that they won't be treated the way I was, and . . ."

"You don't have to change your mind this second, InuYasha. You are both still very young. For Kagome's sake, though, perhaps you could give it a bit more thought?"

InuYasha grimaced. Truth was, he already was giving it more thought. Since his talk with Rin, he'd been too preoccupied by the daunting task of marking Kagome that he'd not been able to give Rin's words proper credence. But now . . .

He glanced over at Kagome. She sat on a small boulder with her shirt pulled up on the side, staring at the mark on her flesh. Even from here, InuYasha could see it plainly. He smiled. "I'll think about it," he remarked, idly watching as Kagome straightened her blouse then lifted the hem again, as though the mark somehow made her happy, too.

"Well done, InuYasha. You have protected Kagome far better than I could have hoped for."

Midoriko turned and walked back to Kagome. He stayed where he was. The women talked for a few minutes. Kagome reached out and hugged Midoriko. Then she stepped back as Midoriko's spirit faded away. When it did, it seemed as though the entire cave diminished. The statue that had stood for so long crumbled into a pile of ash and dirt, and the gentle blue light that filtered from that statue faded out completely.

He stepped over to Kagome and took her hand. "Come on, Kagome. I think it's time to go."

She spared another long moment, staring at the ruin where the mighty priestess used to stand. She squeezed InuYasha's hand and let him lead her out of the cave. The barrier that used to block the entrance was gone.

Blinking quickly in the bright sunlight, InuYasha couldn't help but remember Midoriko's words. He'd promised Midoriko he'd give the idea of having a family more thought, at least for Kagome's sake. He made a face. `If anyone ever dared to tease my pups though,' he thought with a fierce growl, `I'd make them regret ever being born.'

Kagome's small hand wrapped around the prayer beads. InuYasha stared down at her hand as a pink light engulfed both her hand as well as the beads. "What are you doing?" he asked, his voice gentle.

The light faded, and Kagome stepped back, a bright grin surfacing on her face, lending more sparkle to her expression. "Midoriko said that I could remove the curse on the beads," she admitted. "Not that I was tempted to use it anymore, because I wasn't."

Cautiously, he lifted the beads. He got them past his eyes before he dropped them again. The incantation really was gone, but the beads were staying put. "Maybe," he said slowly, careful to keep his expression blank as he stepped toward Kagome, "I liked being at your mercy. Did you ever think about that?"

"You didn't," she replied, backing up a step. "Anyway, I didn't think you'd mind so much anymore."

He reached out and caught her around the waist and pulling her close. "I'm keeping them."

"I thought you'd say that. But you know, with Dammit about to have her puppies---" Her eyes widened in alarm as she said that. "InuYasha, let's hurry."

"She's not supposed to have them till next week," he pointed out.

Kagome relented when he kissed her. She pulled back though and shook her head. "I have a feeling, though . . . We need to get home."

InuYasha sighed but scooped her up and settled her against his back. "You ruin the best ideas sometimes, Kagome."

She giggled. Her breath brushed his neck, and he shuddered. Tightening his grip on her legs, he vaulted off the ground. `Leave it to Dammit to ruin a perfectly good opportunity to kiss Kagome.'