“…No.”

All the happiness, all the relief–all the sheer joy and elation Kagome had felt upon defeating Naraku and reclaiming the Jewel, upon returning home with her friends, upon reuniting with Sesshoumaru–all of it was being stripped away, torn out from underneath her until nothing remained but that dark place of pain she’d prayed she’d never return to ever again.

“No,” she repeated fiercely, her eyes burning as she lurched to her feet with a glare. “You can’t die–you won’t! I won’t let that happen.”

Golden eyes followed her in resignation as she wrung her hands and began to pace. “Kagome…”

“Tenseiga,” she said suddenly, fervently, whirling around as she scanned his side for a second blade. “Where’s Tenseiga? We can find another dog demon–or-or someone. There’s got to be someone who can wield it and–”

“Tenseiga was destroyed,” Sesshoumaru interrupted her flatly. “I destroyed it.”

All the air went out of Kagome’s lungs as she collapsed to a pitiful heap before him. “W-what? Why would you do that?”

“It was the only way to defeat Magatsuhi,” he answered, his hard gaze softening faintly as he studied her face. “…I had to defeat him.”

Tears shivered in Kagome’s eyes, spilling over at last as she squeezed her lids shut in denial. How could the gods be so cruel? She had been willing to sacrifice herself in order to keep him alive, and now the only way to complete her sacred quest was to kill him? It wasn’t right–it wasn’t fair.

“There has to be some other way,” she breathed out stubbornly. “There has to be a way to save you.”

“There is not.”

Kagome’s lashes glittered as they parted, trembling in anger at his defeated expression. “Stop it, Sesshoumaru–you’re acting like you want to die.”

The daiyoukai said nothing to this. A deep frown weighed at the corners of Kagome’s lips, her fists clenching at her sides.

“What I want,” he responded at last, “is for you to be free of your burden.”

“Well, if you think I’m going to let you martyr yourself on my account, you’ve got another thing coming,” she bit out hoarsely. “That Jewel shard can just stay right where it is.”

But Sesshoumaru’s furled claws were already detaching from his chest. Youki gathered with a spark at his fingertips as he positioned them over his heart–the same way he’d held them before Inuyasha’s eye on the day they’d first met, to draw out the black pearl sealed in his half-brother’s pupil.

Sealed…

A wild, frantic hope seized hold of Kagome as she knocked Sesshoumaru’s hand aside and shoved him to the ground. Her fingers twisted in the dense silk of his haori as she hovered above him, breathing rapidly through the adrenaline spiking in her veins.

“Do you trust me, Sesshoumaru?” she demanded, her eyes locking desperately with his as he gazed up at her in vague alarm.

After a tense moment, he nodded, Kagome practically ripping open the tattered front of his haori as she placed her sweaty hands to the center of his chest. Closing her eyes, she evened out her breathing, letting her mind clear as she focused her reiki to her fingertips.

This was crazy–absolutely, one-hundred-percent certifiable. But trying to remember the last time she hadn’t done something completely insane had Kagome coming up surprisingly short.

“Relax your defenses, Sesshoumaru,” she whispered, her features creasing in concentration, “and let me in.”

Slowly, she felt him rein in the massive tide of his youki, the dark electric clouds surrounding the buried Shikon fragment dissipating in her mind’s eye. Sesshoumaru groaned as the first tendril of her reiki slipped beneath his skin. Brushed by her raw power, the shard glowed brighter still, pulsing in time with the muscle around it–the muscle whose smooth walls would cave in upon themselves the instant the shard was removed.

An instant–that was the all the time she had. All the time she would need–if she had the strength and the will to make it so.

She thought of her younger self–of Kikyou, of Midoriko. She thought of the great power they all had once invoked, and what had driven them to do so.

Fear was a powerful emotion. So was hate. Even more so was hope, however desperate.

But love was stronger still–and it was love Kagome called upon, love she used, to seal up the hole in Sesshoumaru’s heart–

Forever.

Displaced in that same moment, the ejected Jewel shard pierced up through his chest in a splinter of rosy light. Watching his still form with bated breath, Kagome plucked it out, her whole body shivering with anticipation.

After a small, terrified eternity of waiting, his golden eyes cracked open at last.

“Hn.”

Utterly spent, Kagome toppled over onto her side, staring at him in flat, frustrated disbelief.

At such a dramatic moment, is that really all you have to say?!

Turning over to face her, Sesshoumaru winced as he touched the pads of his fingers to his chest. Kagome frowned, sensing the clash of his unfettered demonic aura against the reiki she’d embedded within him.

“Sorry,” she said, her lashes dipping in sympathy. “It’ll probably always be painful.”

Resting his chin against his wrist, Sesshoumaru gazed back at her in turn. “It is nothing.” After a moment, his eyes slid to the Shikon shard in her hand. “Will you complete the Jewel now?”

“Oh,” Kagome said, reaching into the neck of her haori. “Right…”

Letting the near-intact Jewel roll into the grass between them, Kagome pressed the final, missing piece to the chip in its surface. With a ripple and a shimmer, the Shikon no Tama sealed itself shut–whole and purified at last.

As her eyelids drooped, Kagome released a soft, contented sigh.

“It’s a lovely sight, isn’t it?” she murmured with a smile.

Looking at her, Sesshoumaru said, “Beyond words.”

---

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

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