InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Without You ❯ Shikon no Eien ( Chapter 2 )

Author's Notes: Sorry for the long wait...been very lazy lately and suffered huge writer's block. Not just in this fic but in other ones. Then inspiration hit the other day. Anyway, I decided to work on this in school, since I have nothing better to do there. Heh heh ^_^ Anyway, here's the next chapter. Also, the girl at the beginning of last chapter and the end are the same person.

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW. 本当にありがとう

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Di sclaimer: I don't own InuYasha. I do however own this plot and any OC characters of mine. The song lyrics are from dream's My Will. Mind you I did some tweaking to the lyrics since they were in Japanese...took some "artistic liberties" Anyway...I own shizz nit.

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Without You

Chapter Two

Shikon no Eien

Quietly awakening...

I always, always wish

That these fleeting thoughts

Would reach you

Unable to move forward across "just a little more" distance,

The way I see before me is always blocked.

Everyday I want to see you but can't; the days just pile up.

My strong heart turns into heartbreak.

If there is such a thing as "eternity",

I want to believe, even if I have to take the long way.

Although I know I've been hurt before because I'm clumsy,

I won't stop; I won't give in to anyone.

I think of you,

And that alone is enough,

To make the tears start to flow now.

I always, always wish,

That these fleeting thoughts,

Would reach you...

I've known all too well about pretending to be strong,

But since then, my doubts have vanished.

There's definitely things I want to show you,

And so many words I want to hear.

I want to see all sides of you, when you laugh and cry.

So I'll stop waiting,

And seize my CHANCE.

I think of you,

And I feel like that alone is enough,

To make my heart grow stronger.

I always, always wish,

That these fleeting thoughts,

Would reach you.

I think of you,

And that alone is enough,

To make the tears start to flow now.

My distant voice can't reach you now,

But so that someday,

It definitely will.

信じなさい...

信じ
2394;さい...

信じなさい...

--My Will, dream

(A/N: Shinjite means believe (that's what that prettiful writing says if you have Japanese text display). I thought writing believe three times would look dumb so I left it un-translated. Anyway, this song is the first ending in case you didn't know and I thought it fit appropriately to Kagome's emotions.)

Kagome's tear stained orbs glazed over the young girl, who seemed to know so much about their situation, despite never having met them before. Her heart seemed to soar at the slight chance that InuYasha could be saved, yet lost completely at the same time. There were so many conflicting emotions that the current situation had sunk in yet fully; nor would she accept the fact or could bear to believe it.

"I said, I could help you...if you want," the girl retorted, placing small dirty hands upon her hips, looking exasperated, "Aren't any of you going to say anything?" The girls eyes scanned over the group, staring closely at each one before moving onto the next.

Kagome opened her mouth to form a reply but Miroku beet her to it, "If you don't mind my asking, who exactly are you?" The girl blinked at him several times with deep, gray oculars, like he was the dumbest person to ever walk the Earth. Like it should be first nature that he knew her name.

"I'm Yumi," she sighed, slight annoyance in her voice, "Aiwaka Yumi." The girl stopped speaking after that, as if she has dubbed them all morons and they needed time for this information to sink in to their small brains.

"You...you said he wasn't dead...Is that true?" Kagome asked, breaking the silence of crickets chirping in the twilight. A rush of wind blew past, sending Kagome's hair flying across the side of her pale face as she waited anxiously for Yumi's reply. If he wasn't really gone then there was hope, and that hope could keep her going and ease the pain.

"Yes, it's true. He's quite alive, actually," Yumi replied. For some reason, the way she talked and carried herself seemed to surpass her years greatly. Yumi continued her explanation, somewhat reluctantly after seeing the group's looks of confusion fall upon her.

"You see," she continued, "The arrowhead he was pierced with had a shard of the Shikon no Eien (Jewel of Eternity) in it's tip." Yumi raised one hand slowly towards the alleyway that was now enclosed in darkness and an arrow drifted into her outstretched fingers, the arrow echoing with a dim purple mist. Dried crimson liquid still lingered on the arrowhead as a painful reminder of a memory stained to them all.

"Yes, but what does that mean?" Sango urged Yumi to continue her so far empty explanation, Shippou curled up upon her lap sleeping. The tiny kitsune had cried himself to sleep and was now dreaming away peacefully, with the occasional twitch when a bad dream did find its way to him.

"Well, the Shikon no Eien is just as powerful to its user as the Shikon no Tama is to its. The Shikon no Tama has the ability to steal a demons abilities and bring them to its owner. In essence, their demon soul is ripped away from the human half, in your friend's case," she explained, a pained tone to her voice, "If half of their soul is missing, the human half just can't carry on by itself. Even though hanyou's become human during certain periods of vulnerability, the demon half of their soul is still there just overrun by the human half. Most often, victims of this jewel die instantly upon penetration of the jewel to the heart. Your friend is very, very lucky."

"How so?" Miroku inquired, raising a questioning brow, as the night air bit through their clothing causing them to shiver.

"Well, since your friend was human at the time this arrow pierced his flesh, some of his demon soul remained hidden from the jewel, repressed somewhere deep within him. You can prove it by looking, considering he's reverted back to his demon form now. He's alive, but just barely..." Yumi finished with her voice cracking, and she stole her eyes away to the ground quickly, dark raven hair falling over her features.

"Yumi?" Kagome called, a hint of concern to her voice. Yumi looked Kagome squarely in the face, gray orbs clashing against brown. Kagome sensed a familiarity with the emotion held in Yumi's eyes; almost a common bond between the two. She knew the emotion all too well unfortunately. The emotion of losing someone you loved.

"You lost someone too," Kagome stated, then trailed off for an instant before starting again, "Who was it?" The second she asked she felt horrible as a wave of grief crossed Yumi's face. Kagome looked down at the shadowed ground as she waited for either silence or a reply.

"My brother…Yuu. He was…also a hanyou," Yumi answered as though it were obvious Kagome should know her loss without ever speaking of it. Yumi stood there for a moment her eyes slightly glazed as memories of years before flew before her. She was seeing something none of them could see at the time. But memories are just that…memories.

"So then, you're a half demon as well?" Sango asked, blinking several times with slight puzzlement to her voice because Yumi just looked like your average girl. Dark brown hair, bangs hanging over her eyes somewhat; deep, gray eyes; no ears or tails to be seen and certainly no fangs.

"Yep," Yumi responded, a smile creeping its way onto her face, "And oddly enough, like your friend--InuYasha, I believe?--my transformation occurs on the night of the new moon as well."

Kagome took a long, hard glance at Yumi, never having seen a hanyou child before. She had never really thought about it before either. Sure she knew InuYasha had been a child once but she had never really contemplated on the life of a half demon child. Being shunned by your peers and elders, being absolutely alone because no one wanted or cared about you. To demons you were a lesser being and to humans you were a demon and thus should be feared. It had to be hard to live that way, and it suddenly explained so much about InuYasha's behavior.

He wasn't so enclosed just because he was; he was afraid to let people in for fear that he would be hurt or cast away. When your whole life was a constant struggle to be accepted and fit in with society's guidelines it left you empty. And if you let someone in to fill that void it could mean more pain and more emptiness in the end. If only she could do something for him, but realization had hit too late and now the chance was over. She was the one left with the cold, stinging numbness of loss.

How does he do this to me?

"Kagome-chan?" Sango's worried tone questioned, gazing at her best friend intently. Kagome's troubled eyes met the demon slayer's glance, then drifted back down to the shadow-crossed ground she had currently been starring at.

'Kagome-chan…'Sango though desolately, looking sadly upon her friend, 'I wished you'd never have to feel the pain I felt; of losing someone you love. I'll stand by you Kagome, you've always stood by me no matter what trouble my brother and I caused you all. I'll help you no matter what the cost.'

The odd group had been sitting in silence for quite awhile now, firelight cascading along their forms and creating flickering shadows on the destroyed structure behind them. The only sound was that of crickets chirping and the wind howling through the narrow streets and alleyways. The moon being gone, left the stars as their only natural source of light in its absence.

"You said you could help us. I don't exactly see how this explanation is helping our situation a great amount," Miroku stated, his voice as usual calm and collected. Yumi eyed him strangely for a minute then opened her eyes wide as realization hit.

"Oh, right, that!" she exclaimed, suddenly beginning to pace the street in careful thought of which words to use. She whipped around to face the group, hands clasped together in front of her waist, "Well, in order to save your friend you have to retrieve the jewel from its current owner. Once you have possession of the jewel you can release all the captured souls from its confinement. And the owner's powers will cease to be. Of course, accomplishing this task will be far from easy to do as the owner currently has the powers of ninety-nine youkai and hanyou's in her arsenal. And she was a strong demoness to begin with."

"And who exactly is this demoness?" Miroku asked, eyes darting to each member of the group to see their reaction to all this information.

"Oh, sorry," Yumi said, "Her name is Lady Kyoko and she resides in the Kesshou Forest, quite a long ways from here. Not too mention she'll probably do anything in her power to keep you out of that forest. This is not going to be an easy journey." Yumi shook her head sadly as she thought of their upcoming trials.

"Many have tried before to regain their loved ones souls. And thus far, none have succeeded in doing that," she finished, the wind whipping her black hair across her face violently.

"So…you mean, we might never…get him back," Kagome said sullenly, her head turning to the ground, bangs shielding her glistening eyes. Her usual cheery demeanor was gone now, she felt so hopelessly sad. She felt the whole process of trying to gain the Shikon no Eien would be futile. "It will be too hard with InuYasha. He's always done most of the fighting…"

"Kagome," Sango consoled at suddenly seeing Kagome so sad, "Daijobu, I'm sure we'll get him back. We've got Houshi-sama's wind tunnel and ofudas. My skills as a demon slayer, and well…I'm sure Shippou can help too somehow. And you're an excellent archer, plus now we have Yumi's powers as well." Sango sat the sleeping kitsune down on the ground as gently as she could, as not to wake him and walked over to Kagome, putting a comforting arm around her, "I'm sure everything will turn out okay. I promise."

Kagome forced herself to smile at her friend's attempt to cheer her up, and turned to face her, "Thanks, Sango."

Sango smiled back warmly. Even if Kagome's smile wasn't a hundred percent sincere it still felt good to see a smile grace Kagome's face in this hard time. Miroku smiled as well, glad to see Kagome might be feeling even the slightest bit better now.

"By the way, Yumi, you are going to continue to help us, right?" Sango asked, turning her attention to the girl.

"I guess so," Yumi replied, smiling happily, "I want to get my brother back just as much as you want your friend back. I've just never been able to leave this place before now."

"Sorry to change the subject, but earlier you levitated that arrow right to your hand. How?" Sango questioned once more, starting to feel dumb with all that she didn't know.

"Oh, my mother was a miko…Odd huh? Miko's are supposed to kill demons and my mother managed to fall in love with one," Yumi chuckled to herself, then sighed half-heartedly.

"Not as odd as you think it is," Kagome said, immediately thinking about the relationship Kikyou and InuYasha had had. 'Or still had..' Kagome thought dimly and leaned her back up against the cold, stone wall, moving her face towards the sky.

InuYasha…how do you really feel about me? Did you return the feelings I had for you? Or was I just always a shell of Kikyou…a replacement. There's so many things I would have told you then, if I would have known things would have ended up like this. Please, InuYasha, please come back to me. I miss you so much already.

Kagome was suddenly shaken away from her thoughts as Miroku's voice broke the long silence. She quickly turned her eyes to him, trying to block out any painful thoughts. In times like these she decided she needed to be strong. Her bad mood could ruin everyone else's moral, so by pretending she was coping well would help everyone deal with their loss.

"So, where exactly do we find this, Lady Kyoko?" Miroku asked, the fire's now dimming glow reflected in his gray-violet eyes. He stood up and crossed towards Yumi who began her explanation.

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A dim blue glow curved its way only the black, rocky walls of the dank cave. No light was visible, only that that was being created from the granite pedestal sitting in the center of the cave, surrounded by stalagmites with purple and black flames echoing off of their tips in a pattern. A large, stone staircase led up to the pedestal and was situated far from the ground; a single miss step and you would be sent hurtling to the cave's rocky bottom. On the cave's high ceiling hung several odd chandeliers, which seemed to be made from some sort of crystal, yet each individual crystal flowed like liquid, creating odd patterns of light on the ceiling.

A single woman stood before the pedestal, hands gliding lightly over the purple sphere in its center. Long, painted purple fingernails protruded from fingers, looking oddly like claws. Her deep violet eyes were glazed over as she stared deeper into the sphere in some sort of stupor. Her midnight black hair was being blown back by some un-seen wind as her lips formed words that she never spoke. In the middle of her pale white forehead sat a dark, violet jewel that hung from a golden headband. Her long, dark kimono trailed behind her, it's tail ending at the first step off the pedestal. A raven was embroidered on the kimono's left side in golden thread that set it apart from the black silk. A slit ran down the center of the kimono's skirt, ending mid-thigh and the usual obi was replaced with a large, black belt with a golden clasp.

Suddenly, a rushed pair of footsteps echoed of the cave's rocky floor as they made their way up to the top platform. The woman who had been standing there snapped around violently and slapped the girl the footsteps had belonged to without haste. The girl stumbled backwards, her hand clasped over her cheek where she had been hit.

"I told you never to disrupt me, Akiko!" the woman shouted, hatred dripping off of her voice as her voice flew throughout the once quiet cave. The girl sat on the ground, shaking in fear.

"I-I-I'm sorry Lady Kyoko…b-but Hikaru Souichiro is waiting at the entrance. He…HE CAME TO KILL YOU!" The young girl drew in a shattered breath as she finished her sentence, afraid that her sudden yelling might cause another beating. The girl was barely over the age of seventeen, with dark brown hair that hung about her shoulders and flared out slightly near the ends. Her deep magenta eyes were clenched shut in case of another strike, but she only felt the slight breeze as Kyoko began walking down the stone steps past her. Akiko simply sat there dumbfounded as she watched Kyoko descend the steps without a word.

"By the way," Kyoko retorted, suddenly stopping at the last step, "The hanyou you killed earlier…the one known as InuYasha…I want you to kill his friends. They seem to want to regain his soul and they have proved to be quite bothersome to some other demons. I want them dead before they take their first step towards this forest. Is that understood Akiko?"

"Y-y-yes, M'Lady," she answered, unsure of even her own words. Sure stealing someone's soul isn't exactly the nicest thing to do…but killing someone with her own hands. She crawled over to the sphere making well sure that Kyoko was out sight and peered into it cautiously.

Kyoko will kill me if she sees me doing this.

She glanced around the cave once more before looking again. In the sphere was a group of five: a girl of about thirteen, with a worn yukata; another girl wearing odd clothing; one with a haricots strapped to her back; a small, sleeping kitsune child with bright orange hair; and last…

It can't be him…I thought he had died. I can't kill…Miroku. I must be imagining things.

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Lady Kyoko walked out of the cave's dark entrance the rain pouring down in sheets upon her. A man with medium brown hair and piercing aqua marine eyes glaring daggers at her. His long bangs were plastered to his face in the rain's un-ending downpour, covering his eyes. He was dressed in traditional samurai garb, with dark blue pants, which looked almost black from the rain, and a lighter blue shirt with white trimming on the sleeves and neckline (A/N: Think Rurouni Kenshin clothing here.) The katana extended from his side gleamed oddly as a single stream of rain water dripped off the flawless blade.

"So, we meet again…Souichiro," Kyoko stated, her face contorting into a twisted smirk. Though it was raining her body remained absolutely dry as though the rain couldn't even touch her.

"Kyoko…" he said tightly through clenched teeth, his eyes narrowed. He was suddenly in front of her in an instant, his sword pressed to her neck, "This will be your end."

Kyoko simply cackled and with a wave of her pale, bony hand he was sent off his feet and flying into the tall oak tree about ten feet away, cracking its thick trunk upon impact. His back skidded along the coarse bark as his unconscious form slid to the muddy ground.

"No, Souichiro," Kyoko scolded with a tone of evil, "I believe it's your turn to die." A blue glow surrounded her hands and in an instant her nails had transformed into sharp pointed claws, dripping with the crimson liquid of souls stained to them. She inched towards Souichiro's limp form one slow step at a time, glaring hatefully the entire way. She didn't feel an ounce of remorse for the life she was about to abruptly end.

"Ta-ta," she said, her face an inch from his with claws pressed up to his neck harshly, "Pity I have to kill you. You were quite a cute one." Suddenly, a searing pain ripped through her stomach, as blood began to pour through it. Souichiro's sword had completely penetrated her abdomen and she gasped out in pain.

"You…you…vile human," she stammered, kneeling on the ground with one hand on the wound the other being used for support. Souichiro rose to his feet slowly, smirking.

"A second ago I was cute."

"Eugh! You disgust me!" with those words Kyoko swung her dagger like claws in Souichiro's direction, blue rays of light shooting at him like darts.

"GAH!" Souichiro flipped out of the way of her sudden attack, landing cat-like further away.

Kyoko stared in disbelief, 'When had he gotten so fast? I can't win with a wound like this…' A swirl of black smoke began to surround her, forcing her hair and clothing to blow upwards as the smoke engulfed her. The smoke soon disapparated, leaving nothing in its wake.

Souichiro smirked, "Looks like I won today, Kyoko. And someday…you will pay for slaughtering my kin." He turned his back to the cave and began walking off into the horizon, the rain letting up and revealing a moonless sky.

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Author's Note: Whee-hee! I finally finished this. You have no idea the amount of writer's block I have had. But now, the second sucky chapter is up! YAY ::throws confetti::. Anyway, please if you are reading this review and 私は私が永久に愛す
2427;ことを誓う! (Can you tell I'm having fun with the Nihongo text display?) You'll be my newest best friend! Yesh, I am a review whore ^_^. But anyway, tell me what you think! And if you want character sketches tell me and I can send them to ya or something. Thanks for reading this!

Glossary of Japanese Words: My cousin asked me about these words since he didn't know and I figured they'd be helpful to others.

Hiraikotsu=name of Sango's weapon…they use this name in the dub too so I really don't see the issue.

Houshi-sama=Literally translates to monk-sama. They call him this in the sub-titled version. Sama is a suffix used for respect.

Daijobu=Don't worry or it's okay.

Kitsune=Fox…aka Shippou!

Chan=suffix for friends

San=suffix that is the equivalent to Mister, Miss, or Mrs.

Youkai=demon

Hanyou=half demon

Yukata=Like a kimono but usally warn in summer. So I guess it's like a summer kimono or something.

Shakujou=name of Miroku's staff. I know this usually isn't used in fanfic often but I just thought that staff sounded dumb so I used the Japanese.

Kazaana=Air void, air rip…yeah wind tunnel-ness.

Onegai=Please

Katana=Typical Japanese sword…like what the Tetsusaiga looks like before it's transformed.

Shikon no Eien 永遠の宝石 =Jewel of Eternity….considering when they say jewel shards in the original Japanese version they call them Shikon no kakera, I am assuming that jewel is Shikon and not four souls. And so therefore it would be Shikon no Eien. I'm not a master at speaking Japanese but I'm almost positive this is it. I don't read kanji but here's the kanji for it 永遠の宝石 (It'll show up as question marks if you don't have Japanese text display).

Kesshou=Crystal…I was going to call it Kesshou Mori (Crystal Forest) but it sounded odd with all the English so I left forest in English.

愚かなテキストの ;表示は目標に取り組&# 12414;ない。 しかしそれは単語に 1462;り組む!

And please review! (I have no idea if this kanji is correct…I just typed Japanese into this translator thing and out came kanji for it But it was in Japanese to begin with.)