Last Day
folder
InuYasha › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
5
Views:
2,890
Reviews:
34
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
InuYasha › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
5
Views:
2,890
Reviews:
34
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.
Surrealism
Yes, the first section was a teaser to the first chapter to see if there would be interest in the story. There's much much more to come. It will be angsty and sad in parts and I'm going to write and see how it goes to determine how it ends. There's going to be a lot more than just Kagome's illness. There will be lemons and confusions/miscommunications and of course Naraku. But I love you guys! You have no idea how happy getting reviews makes me. My idea for this story came because my aunt died yesterday and it got me thinking about death and what I would do if I found out I only had x amount of time to live. It's also inspired by Jem's song "24" which is featured at the end of each chapter as a countdown in a way. So keep teling me what you think! It helps inspire me to keep writing.
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the characters, etc, and make no profit out of writing these stories.
***
My name is Kagome Higurashi. Three days ago I celebrated my eighteenth birthday at home with my mother, grandfather, younger brother, and the normal human friends whom I’ve rarely seen in three years. More than a celebration, it was a commemoration of my life the past three years, three years of leapfrogging through time to defeat an evil hidden beneath a smirk. Three years of lying to the friends I’ve held for years and living a double life that could kill me at any moment. Three years of longing for a man who set my heart racing with a glance of his golden eyes, a man who had once been a boy with soft triangular dog ears that twitched in feigned irritation when I rubbed them. It was a celebration because my life didn’t truly begin until the three years prior when I first fell through the ancient well.
Two days ago I went to see the doctor for test results. For months I had been weak and fatigued, and when it turned to sharp pains I knew it was something rest and a first-aid kit couldn’t fix. All I remember is hearing my mother cry while snippets of the doctor’s conversation filtered through my hazy mind. Degenerative. Progressive. Incurable. Having gone so many months before it was detected, the heart defect had worn me out and there was nothing they could do without a transplant. Without one, my heart would give out, simply stop.
One day ago with wicked glee, Naraku destroyed the well upon my return. I came to say goodbye, and instead I have returned to the Sengoku Jidai to a place where there will be no transplant, no doctors, no equipment and sterile white room. I watched silently as my family was stolen from me, as the friends who stood by me despite my absence disappeared from my grasp, yet I didn’t cry. No one understood why I didn’t cry.
My name is Kagome Higurashi. And I’m going to die today.
Of course, there is no definitive time. At exactly 7:15 pm I will not drop dead. But every day could easily be my last…the doctors expected it. Who is to say what event will be the one, the moment when my heart, the heart people always tell me gives too much, finally gives out? I remember hearing those stories of teenagers who had seemed perfectly healthy and who suddenly died during a basketball game when their heart stopped. The doctor said I was lucky, they had caught it before it reached that stage and unlike others I had a chance to live if the transplant took. But now there would be no transplant, no chance to live a long life. After three years of Grandfather making up ailments to excuse my absence, now he had a real one.
Grandfather…. It all seems unreal. Three years of being attacked and being surrounded by death and yet my own mortality has never really occurred to me. It still hasn’t. As I glance up I see Inuyasha sitting silently in the corner of Kaede’s hut, staring intently into the fire. The flicker of his golden eyes says everything to me. He hasn’t so much as glance in my direction since the well was destroyed this afternoon. His guilt at being unable to prevent it is coupled by his own grief, though his stubborn pride would never admit it. Despite his protests every time I returned home, he also looked forward to our time there. There he had a family who loved him regardless, who never saw him as an “abomination” to their kind. There he was a brother, a son, and a grandson—even if the grandfather occasionally tried to purify “just in case.”
Golden eyes flickered once more to me, uncertain. He wondered why I wasn’t crying, if I was angry and blamed him for his weakness. At the moment I still felt nothing. But the pain he tried to conceal behind his eyes had me slowly crawling the few feet to him. Silently I laid down, my head in his lap as I stared into the flickering flames of the fire, his red haori soft against my cheek. I forgave him, it wasn’t his fault. Like always any physical touch, particularly from me, made him uncomfortable. He didn’t know what to do, and I felt his hesitation. Stiffly his body moved and he laid his hand upon my long, straight mane of ebony. After a moment he slowly began to thread his claws through the soft mass as he relaxed and leaned back to rest against the wall of the hut. At the comforting pressure my eyes slid shut, and I drifted into a deep and dreamless sleep.
***
With groggy indecision my eyes fought to open in response to the flash of brilliant morning sun exposed upon opening the flap of Kaede’s hut. Gradually I blinked them open, the desire to see what had disturbed my slumber stronger than the urge to drift back into nothingness. Warmth and the scent of Inuyasha enveloped me, only making the urge to curl in bed stronger. But as I lazily stretched and turned over onto my back, I realized it wasn’t my beloved hanyou beside me. He had draped his haori over me while I slept. Rather considerate of him, though he would never admit that he did it to comfort me. If I even asked, a slow crimson would burn his cheeks, he would “keh” dismissively and that would be it. Three years and he was still the same boy I had freed from a tree. Perhaps that’s why I loved him so much. He would always remain the same, my constant companion and protector.
With a sigh I push myself to my feet and over to the opened flap, squinting at the sudden glare that bathed me in warmth. Yawning, I lift my arms above my head, my shirt rising to reveal the creamy flesh of my stomach before it once again is covered. The white sweater is not the same as my old uniform, and the burgundy miniskirt is not the same green of old. As impractical as the outfit had always been, I’ve never been able to escape wearing something similar. Part of that had always been to receive the looks I occasionally caught Inuyasha giving me as he stared at my long legs peeking from beneath the short cloth. I roll my head, slowly working out the kinks as my eyes adjust to the light. Pulling the wrinkles that have accumulated around my breasts, I slowly walk down the steps.
Glancing up again and my eyes are captured by pure golden orbs as they silently watch me. I have grown from a naïve girl into a woman before his eyes, a fact I know he notices. My hair is considerably longer than it once was, though I had taken to braiding it while in the Sengoku Jidai and my bangs were not nearly as unmanageable. My scrawny frame had filled out considerably in my breasts and hips, though constant exercise has kept me slim. Enough running and practice with my bow has created lithe muscles although Inuyasha still claims I’m too fragile. A small smile tilts my lips as I look at him, the wind blowing his silver mane about his face while my own hair tickles across my neck in the morning breeze. I walk towards him, slowly braiding its length, my brown eyes never leaving his. He doesn’t say anything and neither do I.
It’s not until a small redheaded bundle crashes into my legs that I turn my attention away from the hanyou. Whereas I had grown so much in such a short time, my little kit had barely changed at all. His hair was longer and he had taken to tying it back to look “older” and he had grown perhaps an inch, still as cute as ever, even if he could not always get away with acting like a child, at least around Inuyasha. Even now his eyes sparkle innocently up at me, as if he could take away my worries with a grin.
“I made breakfast for you, Kagome,” he offered excitedly, always eager to please. “I thought it would make you happy.”
Chancing a look up I see Miroku meditating on the hill, the morning light bathing him in brilliant tones of color. Sango was practicing her hiraikotsu with Kirara watching, but she stopped to cast me an anxious look when she caught the boomerang upon its return. They always worried the most about me, no matter how much I grew. As hard as they fought to protect me, there was something now they could do nothing against. As I watched my friends I knew I could never tell them. They would worry; they would fret over me every moment. I couldn’t allow that. I wouldn’t allow myself to be weak. Long ago I swore to destroy Naraku and complete the shikon jewel, and nothing would stop me. Until the day I die I will fight alongside my friends, protect them, defend them, love them.
“Thank you, Shippou,” I smile down at the kitsune as he trots happily away to fetch the food, most likely berries he had found. It still seems so unreal, a dream I have yet to awaken from. The sun slowly rises in the sky and as it bathes me in warmth I know I have at least one more day. From now on every day I will live as if it were my last…because it very well may be.
Watching as he disappears within the hut, I turn back to Inuyasha who still watches me. My heart speeds up every time I catch him watching me, and I know he can hear its thumping now. My tongue darts out to lick my dry lips and I swallow, as if that will stop the effect he has on me. If anything it makes it worse because his eyes intently follow my ministrations, the intensity of his eyes as he stares at my lips turning his golden eyes into heated amber.
Unhurriedly he approaches, his muscles flexing beneath his undershirt as he comes to stand barely an inch from me. I can feel the heat radiating from his body, answering my own rising temperature. Slowly his hand raises, his claw brushing a lock of hair which has fallen from my braid and tucking it behind my ear, allowing his hand to brush against the skin of my cheek and sending shivers down my spine. “I caught you a rabbit,” his voice is deeper than it had once been, yet it still has the same effect on me. Only now it seems to reverberate throughout my body and shoots down into my stomach where it pools between my legs in blameless desire. Long ago my crush on him had blossomed into love and long ago had my longing for him become less than innocent. His eyes bore into mine, as if searching my eyes for any hidden truth, for the me behind the smile. He is making an offering, an apology for being stuck forever in the feudal era with him, and trying to gauge my reaction.
“There’s nothing to apologize for, Inuyasha. You’ve done nothing wrong,” raising my own hand my fingers lightly trace over the beads of the rosary around his neck. Months ago I had tried to remove it and he asked for it to remain. He knew I trusted him, but he couldn’t imagine being without it, without our special link. Never have I forgotten the look on his face at the thought of our connection being broken. And I had never loved him more.
After hesitating, he nods, though I know he doesn’t believe it. He will always blame himself, and claim it was he who wasn’t strong enough. Hearing Shippou’s approach from behind me begins to pull me to the present. “After breakfast, we should search for the final jewel shard.” Hearing his consistent phrase emerge from my mouth seems to shock him and I suppress a smile at his reaction. Time is no longer on my side, and I couldn’t remain at the village to mourn a loss I had yet to feel.
With a feral grin he nods at me, his golden eyes lighting up. For now I’m his Kagome, the same bubbly girl who has stayed by his side for three years, the girl who would argue with him, laugh at him, take care of him. To him everything would be as it had been, and despite my smile secretly I know that it will never be the same again.
***
In 24 hours
they'll be
laying flowers
on my life,
it's over tonight.
I'm not messing,
I need your blessing
And your promise
to live free
Please do it for me
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the characters, etc, and make no profit out of writing these stories.
***
My name is Kagome Higurashi. Three days ago I celebrated my eighteenth birthday at home with my mother, grandfather, younger brother, and the normal human friends whom I’ve rarely seen in three years. More than a celebration, it was a commemoration of my life the past three years, three years of leapfrogging through time to defeat an evil hidden beneath a smirk. Three years of lying to the friends I’ve held for years and living a double life that could kill me at any moment. Three years of longing for a man who set my heart racing with a glance of his golden eyes, a man who had once been a boy with soft triangular dog ears that twitched in feigned irritation when I rubbed them. It was a celebration because my life didn’t truly begin until the three years prior when I first fell through the ancient well.
Two days ago I went to see the doctor for test results. For months I had been weak and fatigued, and when it turned to sharp pains I knew it was something rest and a first-aid kit couldn’t fix. All I remember is hearing my mother cry while snippets of the doctor’s conversation filtered through my hazy mind. Degenerative. Progressive. Incurable. Having gone so many months before it was detected, the heart defect had worn me out and there was nothing they could do without a transplant. Without one, my heart would give out, simply stop.
One day ago with wicked glee, Naraku destroyed the well upon my return. I came to say goodbye, and instead I have returned to the Sengoku Jidai to a place where there will be no transplant, no doctors, no equipment and sterile white room. I watched silently as my family was stolen from me, as the friends who stood by me despite my absence disappeared from my grasp, yet I didn’t cry. No one understood why I didn’t cry.
My name is Kagome Higurashi. And I’m going to die today.
Of course, there is no definitive time. At exactly 7:15 pm I will not drop dead. But every day could easily be my last…the doctors expected it. Who is to say what event will be the one, the moment when my heart, the heart people always tell me gives too much, finally gives out? I remember hearing those stories of teenagers who had seemed perfectly healthy and who suddenly died during a basketball game when their heart stopped. The doctor said I was lucky, they had caught it before it reached that stage and unlike others I had a chance to live if the transplant took. But now there would be no transplant, no chance to live a long life. After three years of Grandfather making up ailments to excuse my absence, now he had a real one.
Grandfather…. It all seems unreal. Three years of being attacked and being surrounded by death and yet my own mortality has never really occurred to me. It still hasn’t. As I glance up I see Inuyasha sitting silently in the corner of Kaede’s hut, staring intently into the fire. The flicker of his golden eyes says everything to me. He hasn’t so much as glance in my direction since the well was destroyed this afternoon. His guilt at being unable to prevent it is coupled by his own grief, though his stubborn pride would never admit it. Despite his protests every time I returned home, he also looked forward to our time there. There he had a family who loved him regardless, who never saw him as an “abomination” to their kind. There he was a brother, a son, and a grandson—even if the grandfather occasionally tried to purify “just in case.”
Golden eyes flickered once more to me, uncertain. He wondered why I wasn’t crying, if I was angry and blamed him for his weakness. At the moment I still felt nothing. But the pain he tried to conceal behind his eyes had me slowly crawling the few feet to him. Silently I laid down, my head in his lap as I stared into the flickering flames of the fire, his red haori soft against my cheek. I forgave him, it wasn’t his fault. Like always any physical touch, particularly from me, made him uncomfortable. He didn’t know what to do, and I felt his hesitation. Stiffly his body moved and he laid his hand upon my long, straight mane of ebony. After a moment he slowly began to thread his claws through the soft mass as he relaxed and leaned back to rest against the wall of the hut. At the comforting pressure my eyes slid shut, and I drifted into a deep and dreamless sleep.
***
With groggy indecision my eyes fought to open in response to the flash of brilliant morning sun exposed upon opening the flap of Kaede’s hut. Gradually I blinked them open, the desire to see what had disturbed my slumber stronger than the urge to drift back into nothingness. Warmth and the scent of Inuyasha enveloped me, only making the urge to curl in bed stronger. But as I lazily stretched and turned over onto my back, I realized it wasn’t my beloved hanyou beside me. He had draped his haori over me while I slept. Rather considerate of him, though he would never admit that he did it to comfort me. If I even asked, a slow crimson would burn his cheeks, he would “keh” dismissively and that would be it. Three years and he was still the same boy I had freed from a tree. Perhaps that’s why I loved him so much. He would always remain the same, my constant companion and protector.
With a sigh I push myself to my feet and over to the opened flap, squinting at the sudden glare that bathed me in warmth. Yawning, I lift my arms above my head, my shirt rising to reveal the creamy flesh of my stomach before it once again is covered. The white sweater is not the same as my old uniform, and the burgundy miniskirt is not the same green of old. As impractical as the outfit had always been, I’ve never been able to escape wearing something similar. Part of that had always been to receive the looks I occasionally caught Inuyasha giving me as he stared at my long legs peeking from beneath the short cloth. I roll my head, slowly working out the kinks as my eyes adjust to the light. Pulling the wrinkles that have accumulated around my breasts, I slowly walk down the steps.
Glancing up again and my eyes are captured by pure golden orbs as they silently watch me. I have grown from a naïve girl into a woman before his eyes, a fact I know he notices. My hair is considerably longer than it once was, though I had taken to braiding it while in the Sengoku Jidai and my bangs were not nearly as unmanageable. My scrawny frame had filled out considerably in my breasts and hips, though constant exercise has kept me slim. Enough running and practice with my bow has created lithe muscles although Inuyasha still claims I’m too fragile. A small smile tilts my lips as I look at him, the wind blowing his silver mane about his face while my own hair tickles across my neck in the morning breeze. I walk towards him, slowly braiding its length, my brown eyes never leaving his. He doesn’t say anything and neither do I.
It’s not until a small redheaded bundle crashes into my legs that I turn my attention away from the hanyou. Whereas I had grown so much in such a short time, my little kit had barely changed at all. His hair was longer and he had taken to tying it back to look “older” and he had grown perhaps an inch, still as cute as ever, even if he could not always get away with acting like a child, at least around Inuyasha. Even now his eyes sparkle innocently up at me, as if he could take away my worries with a grin.
“I made breakfast for you, Kagome,” he offered excitedly, always eager to please. “I thought it would make you happy.”
Chancing a look up I see Miroku meditating on the hill, the morning light bathing him in brilliant tones of color. Sango was practicing her hiraikotsu with Kirara watching, but she stopped to cast me an anxious look when she caught the boomerang upon its return. They always worried the most about me, no matter how much I grew. As hard as they fought to protect me, there was something now they could do nothing against. As I watched my friends I knew I could never tell them. They would worry; they would fret over me every moment. I couldn’t allow that. I wouldn’t allow myself to be weak. Long ago I swore to destroy Naraku and complete the shikon jewel, and nothing would stop me. Until the day I die I will fight alongside my friends, protect them, defend them, love them.
“Thank you, Shippou,” I smile down at the kitsune as he trots happily away to fetch the food, most likely berries he had found. It still seems so unreal, a dream I have yet to awaken from. The sun slowly rises in the sky and as it bathes me in warmth I know I have at least one more day. From now on every day I will live as if it were my last…because it very well may be.
Watching as he disappears within the hut, I turn back to Inuyasha who still watches me. My heart speeds up every time I catch him watching me, and I know he can hear its thumping now. My tongue darts out to lick my dry lips and I swallow, as if that will stop the effect he has on me. If anything it makes it worse because his eyes intently follow my ministrations, the intensity of his eyes as he stares at my lips turning his golden eyes into heated amber.
Unhurriedly he approaches, his muscles flexing beneath his undershirt as he comes to stand barely an inch from me. I can feel the heat radiating from his body, answering my own rising temperature. Slowly his hand raises, his claw brushing a lock of hair which has fallen from my braid and tucking it behind my ear, allowing his hand to brush against the skin of my cheek and sending shivers down my spine. “I caught you a rabbit,” his voice is deeper than it had once been, yet it still has the same effect on me. Only now it seems to reverberate throughout my body and shoots down into my stomach where it pools between my legs in blameless desire. Long ago my crush on him had blossomed into love and long ago had my longing for him become less than innocent. His eyes bore into mine, as if searching my eyes for any hidden truth, for the me behind the smile. He is making an offering, an apology for being stuck forever in the feudal era with him, and trying to gauge my reaction.
“There’s nothing to apologize for, Inuyasha. You’ve done nothing wrong,” raising my own hand my fingers lightly trace over the beads of the rosary around his neck. Months ago I had tried to remove it and he asked for it to remain. He knew I trusted him, but he couldn’t imagine being without it, without our special link. Never have I forgotten the look on his face at the thought of our connection being broken. And I had never loved him more.
After hesitating, he nods, though I know he doesn’t believe it. He will always blame himself, and claim it was he who wasn’t strong enough. Hearing Shippou’s approach from behind me begins to pull me to the present. “After breakfast, we should search for the final jewel shard.” Hearing his consistent phrase emerge from my mouth seems to shock him and I suppress a smile at his reaction. Time is no longer on my side, and I couldn’t remain at the village to mourn a loss I had yet to feel.
With a feral grin he nods at me, his golden eyes lighting up. For now I’m his Kagome, the same bubbly girl who has stayed by his side for three years, the girl who would argue with him, laugh at him, take care of him. To him everything would be as it had been, and despite my smile secretly I know that it will never be the same again.
***
In 24 hours
they'll be
laying flowers
on my life,
it's over tonight.
I'm not messing,
I need your blessing
And your promise
to live free
Please do it for me