InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ In Dreams ❯ Three Months ( Chapter 2 )

~*Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. You'd think any dim-witted lawyer would realise that this is a FANFICTION site. Heck. It's FANFICTION.net!

"…" - speech

'…' - thoughts

~*~*~ - change in scenery or time

Rating: PG

Genre: traces of Angst

Three Months

~*Miroku*~

The trees fall back behind me. I am sitting on the top of a hill covered in grass. My staff is to my right, and my legs are crossed.

I am meditating.

My mind is blank of all thoughts. Lately, this has become not so much as only a practise as a monk, but to quiet my spirit for the battle that will soon take place.

There is a hole in my right hand. A hole that sucks up anything and everything in its path. Soon, it will bring me into its depths, just like it had father and grandfather.

How long do I have to live?

How long do I have to lift this curse?

So many questions.

All is calm. And I welcome the peace.

The sun begins to set before me, but I take no notice. The dusk brings silence into the atmosphere of this grassland. Not even the insects interrupt the quietness.

But what is this?

Footsteps are approaching.

My hand slowly reaches out for my holy staff. My entire body tightens from years of training, but I do not show it. To show that would mean weakness.

"Houshi-sama?"

I relax immediately.

It is only she.

My hand releases its hold on the staff. The breath I held blows out slowly.

I remain silent.

She has reached my side, and I can feel her sitting down on my left. The thump of a heavy boomerang I have become accustomed to announcing its presence. I can feel her eyes on me. Her presence is distracting.

Silence once again encircles the area.

Sometimes, I wonder- would she agree to bear my child?

She seems to become jealous at times, and at times, I'm almost certain that… But if I were to ask, what would happen if she were to give her consent?

Would I give her a child?

If she would be the bearer of my children, I could wish for nothing more.

However, if she did become pregnant, would I leave her to raise our child alone?

What if the curse was not lifted in time?

What if I was sucked up into the Kazaana before we could defeat Naraku?

What if-!

No.

I must not think of such things.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Deep breaths.

Cleansing breaths.

But I cannot clear my mind.

When I try, images of her flood into the white expanse.

I can never truly concentrate when she is near.

So I open my eyes, and turn to my left.

She is in her yukata, and her eyes are closed. Her legs are crossed in a poise that resembles mine. Her expression is neutral, and her right hand clasps the ties of Hiraikotsu. Long strands of hair are blown about in the occasional breeze.

She is truly beautiful.

She must have picked up some of my habits.

I study her figure silently until she seems to acknowledge my attention.

A sweet voice breaks into the silence of sunset.

"Konbon-wa, Houshi-sama. I did not mean to disturb you, but I see you meditating every evening." Her lovely eyes open and focus on mine. "Does it truly work?"

I search her face. Her eyes are underlain with a deep sorrow, and I know. I know that she is thinking about him.

About her brother.

In a calm air from my previous contemplation, I am in no mood to grope.

"Meditation… is a method to try and achieve enlightenment. It is to clear one's mind of all thoughts, and to calm the soul." I chuckle. "Now, I simply use it to help in forgetting my problems, and to help me deal with them. It helps me, and so yes, I believe it does work."

She looks at me, and a sad smile lights her face.
"Your problems… My problems… so many obstacles."

She seems to be in a curious disposition.

"We all have problems, and we must overcome them all," is my answer.

Her expression is suddenly emotionless. "Not all obstacles can be overcome."

"But we must try."

There is something cold glinting in her eyes. And I realise something is wrong.

"You try, but you will die trying." Her voice is taunting. "Your quest will fail."

"Our quest will not fail."

"You are doomed." She turns to me, and no longer do I see the woman I have come to love. Her face has contorted, and even as she speaks, her shape is twisting. "Three months. You have three months before you are swallowed by my winds of hell." The sweet lilt of her speech has turned deep and evil.

Where a woman previously sat, now sits a grinning man in a baboon pelt. I stand up abruptly. My right hand is gripping my staff and the beads jingle against it.

"Naraku!"

An evil chuckle resonates in my ears, and I look around for the hanyou.

But he is gone.

My vision is suddenly filled with nothing but black.

I am standing in a place where there is no light, no sound, no hope, and only darkness and despair.

What is this place?

I stand, yet there is no ground. There is no up, down, left, or right.

There is nothing.

But then, there is a tingling from my right palm, and I drop my staff in surprise.

Down it falls, but to where, I do not know. Vaguely, I wonder- how can it fall if there is nothing to fall to?

Bringing my shaking hand up to eye level, I watch in horror as the cloth covering it suddenly starts to shake and flap. The rosary sealing the evil unexpectedly snaps, and the beads fly away into oblivion. My attention is diverted onto my palm, however, as my left hand vainly tries to keep the cloths over the Kazaana.

With a sickening silence, the purple fabric disappears, and I instinctively hold the now opened air rip away from my body.

I can feel the pull of the winds as the black hole is activated. There is nothing to suck up, yet I can almost feel the hole widening.

A surge of pain courses through my arm, and I realise in dismay that the cuts have reopened.

Almost in morbid fascination, I can only watch as my entire hand is slowly disappearing. Slowly, but surely, the black hole is enlarging, and will continue to grow until there is nothing more to consume.

Strangely enough, there is no pain.

Not after the beginning.

I can only sense the nothingness that used to be my right arm.

And as the Kazaana continues to suck me in, I know.

I know I will die.

Just as father had.

Just as grandfather had.

Words echo through the black expanse, yet I do not know if it is I who spoke them. "Doomed."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I wake up, sitting up in a cold sweat. My entire body is shaking, and I perceive, in tremendous relief, that I am whole. The Kazaana is still sealed by cloth and rosary.

Thank Kami-sama. It was only a nightmare.

I look around, and discover the figures of my sleeping companions. We are in the small clearing of a forest.

I remember now.

We had set up camp after travelling a day with no findings.

I attempt to stand up, but I need my staff to support my shaking legs.

I walk in one direction, not knowing where to go. Wiping the sweat off of my forehead with the back of my free right hand, I study it. Nothing is damaged. Carefully uncovering only a part of the palm, I sigh in relief that it has grown no larger.

Yet phantom pain comes from the long healed cuts and with it, the memory of nothingness from my dream.

Having walked to the edge of the forest, I glance out at the sky.

The first splashes of colour announce the coming of dawn.

A new day is beginning.

Another day in my ever shortening life.

Having steadied myself, I sit down, cross-legged, taking in deep breaths

It is not yet sunset, yet I have to meditate.

I have to calm my rattled nerves.

The early morning is silent.

The wind picks up, and blows through the trees. With it, I can hear a familiar voice echo. Whether it is within my mind, or across the grass covered plains, I do not know. "Three months." "You have three months."

My hand tightens into a fist.

I will defeat him.

No.

We will.

I will make certain of it.

I will kill Naraku and lift this curse.

I will live on.

Or die trying.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kazaana - The hole in Miroku's hand- commonly translated as 'wind tunnel' or 'air rip'

Houshi - A lower levelled priest, or monk, in the case of the English dubs.

Hiraikotsu - (name of) Sango's ridiculously large boomerang

Yukata - summer kimono-like clothing

Konbon-wa - good evening

[The ending is… horribly ironic, ne?

Set before he… propositions to Sango, I've given our favourite houshi a time limit.

He has to defeat Naraku within the allotted time, or be sucked into his hell hole. Oh, what to do.

~Some extra stuff on 'Love's Like That'- I was half tempted to have Kagome turn around (in her dream) and discover Naraku instead of Inuyasha. Just imagine the twists I could've had with that. But instead, I more incorporated that idea into this one.

Are these dreams prophecies? Visions?

I don't know.

I'm used to writing in an entirely different type of first person perspective, but this entire project is for the purpose of… getting used to this?

Till next time!]