Disclaimer: Do not own Inuyasha or its characters.
This can't be happening.
The Shikon no Tama. The damned source of all her problems that emerged from her body 5 years past.
It was finally gone. She should have been ecstatic, overjoyed that the jewel which made her the target of so many youkai attacks had finally disappeared. One minor fact prohibited her.
She could still sense it. It was inside of her.
Kagome's mounting panic and horror was interrupted by one thought.
Inuyasha. He's gonna kill me.
Her vision darkened and she could barely make out the figure of the enraged hanyou racing towards her nor could she feel the deep laceration bleeding profusely beneath her ribs.
He won't get the chance. I think I'm dying now.
She accepted it with an unexpected calm. With unseeing eyes, she also accepted the sight that her miko senses outlined: the impish goblins surrounding her body that were preparing to take her soul when she died. Vaguely, somewhere in the back of her drifting mind, she wondered why she had not been able to sense the creatures before. After all, she had seen many die; some at her own hands.
Her hands were now useless. In fact, Kagome could no longer feel her hands, or any other part of her body.
Isn't my life supposed to flash before my eyes?
She waited for her death in this strange place devoid of her natural senses with only her unusually heightened spiritual powers guiding her. The goblins, demons, or whatever, seemed more agitated now and were growing more restless. Kagome assumed that this meant it was almost over and felt cheated.
No flashbacks then. My family. My friends. Can't I even see them one last time?
Inuyasha. You vowed to protect me always. How can you protect me from death?
Her sense of calm shattered.
I can't die. Not yet. So much to do, to say.
A pulse, a heartbeat reverberated through her.
My heart? But it has stopped beating. My body is cold.
Again, Kagome felt the warmth pulse through her, growing stronger and steadier.
I can feel my power. Why can I see it now?
The glowing aura of iridescent pinks and blues mesmerized her senses. It surrounded her being and pulsed in its strange rhythm. Kagome watched in wonder as one of the goblin demons disintegrated as it came into contact with her energy.
No, this can't be my power.
The Shikon no Tama. It had merged, now pulsing within her.
Kagome's initial fear and horror at the implications were quickly overridden by her realization that she could now control the combined spiritual force of her previously dormant miko power and that of the jewel's. Releasing a burst of it, she watched in joy and disbelief as the remaining goblins were scorched into nothingness.
And then all was warmth and quiet.
Inuyasha's Forest, beautiful and melancholy on any night, was especially so when illuminated by a full moon. It was a night like this that was disturbed by the disgruntled actions of one worried hanyou. In fact, he had been in the middle of mercilessly slashing down his 50th tree when Miroku interrupted.
"Inuyasha! Stop trimming your claws and come back to the hut. Kagome's wak-"
A blur of red and silver flew by the monk, who sighed and dejectedly continued his conversation with the empty space in front of him previously occupied by an annoyed Inuyasha.
"Kagome's waking up, but keeps calling your name Inuyasha. She seems to be having a nightmare, but isn't feverish. Mmmm, what is that Inuyasha? Oh no, you don't need to thank me for being your message boy. I enjoy these late night expeditions into the forest searching for you and dodging falling trees."
After heaving another self-pitying sigh, he surveyed the damage Inuyasha had wrought upon the forest and began the long walk back to Kaede's hut.
Meanwhile, Inuyasha was already there, making record time even for a half-youkai. Sweeping through the single room, he found Kagome lying on her sleeping bag moaning and in very apparent distress.
"Kagome...wake up, Kagome. Open your eyes." His normally gruff voice was gentled in his concern. Her near death earlier that day had terrified him.
Ignoring the babbling of Kaede and the others in the background, he uncovered the bloodstained bandage encircling her below the ribs and was shocked once again by how quickly the wound was healing. In fact, the scratches on her face and hands were all but gone.
He had no time to ponder over this miracle when his ears swivelled toward Kagome. She was whispering his name in terror. In fact, he could now smell her fear that was initially masked by his own anxiety and her blood.
"It's okay Kagome, I'm here. You're safe."
Seeking to comfort her, he caressed her cheek. Kagome flinched away from his touch. Inuyasha's ears flattened against his skull at her reaction.
"No, Inuyasha. Please. I didn't do it on purpose."
"Wake up Kagome. It's just a dream. I'm right here with-"
"Osuwari!"
A loud thump followed by distinct growling emanated from the floor of the hut as the hanyou peeled himself away from the dirt and wondered how he got himself involved with impudent mikos who didn't know how to stay out of trouble if their lives depended on it.
He raised his head and found himself staring into Kagome's tear-filled eyes. Immediately his frustration and annoyance were forgotten in the wave of his relief.
She was awake and alive and safe. She could yell at him and subdue him anytime she wished.
"Kagome."
"Inuyasha." Kagome looked at him dazedly. "Why are you lying on the floor?"
"Keh. Stupid wench. Why am I usually face down in the dirt?"
Kagome made a movement to sit up and winced instead, grabbing her midsection in a cry of pain.
"Stop moving around you idiot! You nearly got yourself killed today!"
"What?" Kagome looked at the silver-haired boy in confusion and struggled to remember.
The Shikon no Tama. Oh shit.
In hindsight, she probably should have let those goblin-things eat her soul or whatever they were going to do because Inuyasha was going to do much worse when he finds out. It was really gone. It wasn't a dream. Or a nightmare in her case. She had been having one just now of a certain pissed off hanyou chasing her down, accusing her of losing the sacred jewel. She ran and ran but like in real life, he always caught up to her. He was transformed into his full youkai form by that time and intent upon devouring her so she did what she usually does when the inu-youkai overpowers her. She used the subjugation spell.
Kagome moaned and glanced at the hanyou-shaped indentation on the floor beside her sleeping bag. Apparently she had unwittingly yelled out and subdued him.
Her internal turmoil was interrupted by the young kitsune, who launched himself into her arms only to be swiftly thrown back in the opposite direction by Inuyasha.
"Watch it, you little mutt. She's still hurt."
Startled out of her misery, Kagome automatically reprimanded him for treating the little fox in his usual, but harsh manner.
"How do you feel, Kagome?" Asked Sango from her place near the fire.
"I'm fine." Considering I almost died today and I presumably still have the Shikon no Tama embedded in my body.
Inuyasha sensed her rising panic and anxiety but could not help himself from berating her about her carelessness.
"Stupid human! You're not fine. You still have a gash the length of Tessaiga on your belly! Why did you not stay hidden like I told you to? I could have handled that stupid youkai by myself. You just end up in the way." In danger.
"In the way? In the way? How dare you? I try to protect you from getting yourself slashed open and what do you do? Call me useless and a pathetic human like always." Haven't I proved myself to be more than a shard detector?
Close to tears, Kagome looked at this hanyou who had occupied most of her thoughts and dreams for the past 5 years and wondered how it was possible to simultaneously love and hate him at the same time.
"It's gone." In a whisper, audible only to his keen ears, she confessed the truth to the only man she'd ever loved. A truth that she could not keep from him because she knew in her heart that it had always been about the Shikon no Tama. The devastating truth that the love that she offered was unwanted. And now, because of her own folly, she could not even give him the power to wish for the woman he had always loved or the full-youkai blood for which he had always yearned.
Hope you liked it.