Artificial Love

Artificial Love


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello all! I’m terribly sorry for my long absence, but I needed a break over the holidays. I feel like my last chapter seemed too rushed and wasn’t terribly happy with it, so I decided to clear my head for a bit to reignite my interest for this story. I love this story, but I just was burning myself out and I found myself cutting corners. I didn’t want my work to suffer. Anywho I’m much happier with how this chapter came out, though I’ll warn you it’s very angsty. Happy reading, and reviewing!


Disclaimer: Ok. I don’t own Inuyasha, but apparently I still need a dog license for him. How is that fair?!


Chapter 8: The Beginning of the End

Inuyasha’s heart raced as he ran full tilt through the densely wooded forest. Though the strain that he was putting on his body would have been enough to cause such a reaction, it was not the reason for the terrible pounding in his chest.

The wind tunnel...

Poison coursing through his mates veins...

Miroku was dying.

It had taken much too long to make the monk stable enough even to move. The whole night had wasted away with thoughts of worthlessness and an anxious helplessness holding Inuyasha hostage and tensely immobile by Miroku’s side.

As he ran, he could slowly but surely feel the monk’s already feeble grip loosening, feel his breathing become more and more shallow, his pulse more sluggish. The worst part, was that he had no choice but to feel it. This demon power that he couldn’t live without, forced him to feel every weak beat, to feel hope when the monk’s pulse strengthened, and to feel his heart break in fear that Miroku’s heart had finally given out every time there was a skip in the painfully slow erratic rhythm.

It pained him.

It was painful to feel this much.

His mate, his Miroku, suffering and completely dependent on him for his very survival. And him, unable to be strong enough, move fast enough, think of one thing that could save the most precious thing that he had ever known. This was a test, surely. Miroku was counting on him to pass, to at least do this one thing right in a long life of mistakes.

And Inuyasha was failing.

He tightened his grip on the monk and drove on toward Mushin’s temple, Miroku’s drunken caretaker and the one man that could repair Miroku’s wind tunnel, which was, he could tell, on the ragged edge of losing all control and unleashing it’s full fury on them both. At any moment it could sever that fine line of control and draw them, and a good portion of the surrounding forest into it’s black infinity.

But Inuyasha kept telling himself that that wasn’t going to happen. Miroku was strong. He would fight the poison long enough for Kagome’s anti venom to take effect. The old drunkard would be able to patch up the wind tunnel good as new. Better than new. And everything would be fine. It’d all be fine.

A crystalline tear flowed hot and salty down his cheek.

“Don’t die Miroku. Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die.”

The words came out over and over, spilling from his lips as if a balm to heal his mate. As though if he repeated it enough it might actually happen. He prayed for it, wished for it. With his whole being he wished, and he poured all of his feeling for the monk, his hopes and dreams and love, most of all love, into his single prayer.

“Don’t die... Don’t die Miroku.”

A half an hour went by in this manner. Inuyasha running so fast and hard that he was sure that the soles of his feet were bleeding freely. Not that it mattered. He’d be damned if he let such a little thing force him to stop. At the moment nothing short of his own death would stop him.

He was comforted by the steady beat that Miroku’s heart had recently taken up. The monk’s skin felt warmer and his breaths were growing stronger, and all of that relieved Inuyasha more than anything had in his entire life. But none of that would matter in the slightest if Miroku’s curse widened any further. They would both be dead, yet still alive. Both trapped in a hopeless eternity of nothingness.

Miroku tensed on Inuyasha’s back and his breath quickened and lost the peaceful regularity of sleep.

“Inuyasha,” the monk hissed out painfully through clenched teeth. “Please... Stop running.”

Inuyasha frowned as his mind raced through all of the possibilities and consequences that stopping now would bring, and after a bit, begrudgingly slowed his pace to halt in a sheltered stand of trees, searching all the while with his senses to make sure that this place would be safe for Miroku. He gently laid the monk against a large tree that had grown a thick livid green coat of moss.

Inuyasha smoothed Miroku’s hair back from his forehead, a gesture that he performed often when he was nervous about him. the kind act caused the monk to smile through the obvious pain that he was in.

“I will be fine, Inuyasha, I have lived through worse poisonings than this.”

Inuyasha huffed impatiently. It wasn’t the poison that worried him. He could still hear a faint crackle of energy from the ward on Miroku’s hand, and not for the first time, the scent of charred flesh hit his sensitive nose. Miroku followed his worried glance and winced, as if he had just remembered the events that had caused this additional pain, and his eyes rose back up to meet Inuyasha’s serious stare.

“My prayer beads?”

“Couldn’t find them all. Didn’t really try. We figured the most important thing was to get you to Mushin’s and that the ward would hold till then.”

The snap of a twig drew Inuyasha’s attention just in time to catch a glimpse of a white baboon cloak before it swept back into the shadows. A smooth tenor voice lilted through the thick cluster of forest , echoing off the trees, making it near impossible to find the source of the chilling words.

“I am afraid that you have yet again made the wrong assumption, Inuyasha.”

Inuyasha was struck dumb by the sudden appearance of Naraku. His mouth worked silently, trying to make accusations, spit out insults, but was forced into silence by his racing mind.

“Look to the monk Inuyasha. He knows that I speak the truth.”

An evil chuckle drifted in from all around them, and Inuyasha glanced to Miroku, to find a defeated apology written in his eyes. The laugh grew louder and Inuyasha’s ears flattened in pain and anger at the deafening affect of the trees on his enemy’s sadistic cackling.

“Come out here you goddamn coward!” Inuyasha shouted gruffly over the laughter, then smiled and mumbled under his breath. “Come out and play you bastard.”

The laughter stopped abruptly with no trace of an echo and Naraku stepped into Inuyasha’s line of sight. His wavy black hair fell over his baboon pelt which no longer covered his face. His intense red eyes stared out passively from under blue tinted lids. His lips twisted up at the corners in sick satisfaction.

“Well then. I could kill you both now... But I find that overly merciful considering what your family has done to me.”

His smirk disappeared, but the grim humor still danced in his eyes. “I was just planning on letting the curse complete itself. After all, I think that everyone here knows that you won’t be producing an heir. Will you.”

The infuriating little smirk returned, with just the barest grunt of a laugh. “I was also planning on waiting until you reached Mushin’s temple and found his corpse, to grace you with my presence again. But I have grown... impatient.”

“Mushin is dead?” Miroku asked weakly, not wanting to believe the half demon, but not putting such a thing past him. A thud in front of him caused his eyes to jump up. And a mangled, severed head, that clearly belonged to his old guardian lay on the ground between him and Naraku.

“Maybe this would do better to identify him,” Naraku said, sneering, and tossing a hollowed out gourd full of sake to land next to the gruesome lump that had once been Mushin’s head.

“Bastard!” Inuyasha growled dangerously, taking up a stance and placing a hand on his sword hilt.

“As if you have any right to call me that. Consider what you are Inuyasha. You are nothing, if not a bastard.”

The evil hanyou hummed thoughtfully. “I believe this will be a fitting end for you as well Inuysha. Try as you might, your mate shall die. And If you attempt to change the inevitable, his curse will take you with him.”

Dark laughter once again filtered through the trees, it’s haunting affect amplified by a thick cloud of miasma that curled and snaked through the dense forest that surrounded them. Naraku disappeared into the acrid fog quietly, leaving behind the echo of his chilling laughter to hang in the ears and hearts of Inuyasha and Miroku.

Inuyasha slumped defeatedly against a tree, his sword hanging haphazardly in his loose and shaky grip. He stared foreword blankly somewhat lost in thought, all the while shaking his head faintly at the sheer audacity, the unfettered evil that was Naraku. His head hung limply for a moment before he gave a soft yet sharp laugh, that was laced with enough venom to kill. He rubbed the back of his neck as he thought of words that would communicate even an iota of what he was feeling at the moment. His ears shot up from their distressed position plastered flat against his head, at the sound of movement from Miroku.

The monk crawled to his former guardian’s disfigured and bloodied head, and made to touch it with a shaky hand. Before his violently trembling fingers could reach the mangled hunk of flesh that was only hours before attached to something alive, someone dear to him, he drew his arm back as though burnt. A muffled cry escaped through his gritted teeth and constricted throat, and he pounded the ground in anger and unspeakable fury. He then set himself clawing at it, digging at the mossy earth while tears of rage fell from his hard, wild eyes, to soften it for his work.

After a short while a small hole had been carved into the ground before him and he fell still as he stared once again at his guardians blank and unseeing face. His mouth hung open as though he were dazed and his breath came in short quick gasps from his choked lungs. He slowly reached out to the severed head and lifted it gently. Placing it quickly in the hole, he turned to the sake gourd that lay nearby and lifted it to sit in his lap. Carefully, he removed the stopper and poured a small amount of it into the makeshift grave. He then gulped down several large mouthfuls before angrily throwing it at a nearby tree where it shattered, covering the surrounding flora in the pungent rice wine.

Miroku slowly rose to his feet and walked stiffly towards Inuyasha, stopping before him, and falling limply into his arms.

“I couldn’t... Couldn’t finish. Couldn’t bury him.”

“Don’t even worry about it,” Inuyasha whispered, stroking Miroku’s hair comfortingly.

“Will you...” Miroku started exhaustedly.

“I told you, don’t worry about it baka. If you’re gonna worry about something, try worrying about yourself. About staying alive. You’re no good to me dead.”

Miroku laughed humorlessly. “You know as well as I do, that I’m already as good as dead, Inuyahsa.”

“Shut up dammit!” Inuyasha yelled, not ready, or able to face the truth of the situation. “You’re gonna LIVE! You’re gonna be fine and we’ll find someone else to fix the wind tunnel and everything's just gonna go back to how it should be, ok! You WILL live!...” Inuyasha’s voice broke against the emotions that tried to pry their way from his chest. “You can’t leave me like this... Not alone like this.” Half of a heartbroken sob forced it’s way past his throat before he could cut it off. “Please... please don’t leave me alone. I can’t be alone. Not again.” He leaned his head against the monk’s, placing feathery kisses in his midnight hair, and marveling at how the tears that now clung to it sparkled like stars in the night sky.

“I don’t chose to leave you Inuyasha.”

Miroku’s eyes darkened with sorrow at their predicament. “But I do know how you’re mind works, and if you mean to follow me into the void, I will not allow it.” He raised his head feebly from Inuyasha’s chest. “I love you far too much to see you end in such a way.”

“I won’t just leave you to die!” Inuyasha shouted hoarsely, burying his face in the soft comfort and sweet scent of Miroku’s neck.

“You will,” Miroku said softly, his voice quavering a bit. “If you have the smallest love for me you will leave me now. My curse will not be held much longer.” He breathed in the scent of Inuyasha’s hair and a bitter smile slid rigidly onto his pained face. “Of course... if you really loved me Inuyasha... you would kill me.”

“What?” the hanyou gasped, lifting his head suddenly to meet the monk’s eyes.

“I would like you to kill me now, love. Before it is too late.”

MEOW! You’re gonna kill me now, I know. I couldn’t help it, that’s just how the story goes! It’s not like I want Miroku to die! Blame my muses, they talked me into it! You’ll still review me right? Flames are welcome as I am a fan of campfires and bonfires and structure fires... um ha... I like fire. Happy reading, riting, and rithmatic... I mean reviewing.

Immortality lost: No habla... I mean hablo... Dammit I don’t speak Spanish! Inuyasha! tell this man that I don’t know what he’s saying so he can shut up now!

Inuyasha: Are you sure this plane is safe? (taps side of plane and jumps back when large metallic object falls off)

Miroku: None of us speak Spanish. Why are we going to Mexico again?

Inuyasha: (picks up piece of plane and glares at Immortality lost) I seriously hope you don’t expect me to get into this flying trash can with you to go to some country where everyone talks like this guy. (Eyes pilot who is still rambling very quickly in Spanish)

Immortality lost: I just escaped from prison and I have to leave the country. Any more stupid questions geniuses?

Inuyasha: Yeah, how did you get out of prison anyway?

Miroku: I put plastique in her cookies.

Inuyasha: (blinks stupidly) Yeah, that’d do it.

Immortality lost: Screw this, we’re going to Canada! It’s closer anyways! (lights phrase book on fire and throws it in the air)

Miroku: I love Canada! My english voice dub lives in Canada!

Immortality lost: (Smacks her forehead and starts walking to car while writing on something in Magic Marker. Holds up sign that says *See ya next time folks!* and keeps walking, mumbling something about idiots surrounding her)