Observation by Jesaka Karanaka

Chapter 5

5

Leaving again never felt so desolate as it did this time, though, Kagome did have a lot to look forward to when she came back. Rumiko was absolutely adorable, chubby cheeks and all, and while Sango would still be down for the count for a few weeks, she had no doubt that while she herself was gone, the boys would dote on her.

Packing up her bag, leaving her gifts of ramen and sweets, she felt the warm hands on her shoulders, rubbing up and down quickly, more to comfort himself than her, she suspected.

"So, tell me again when we're going to get started on a rug rat of our own, Kagome."

"Apparently, whenever I'm done with school and can move here permanently enough to get married to you." When his hands tightened on her shoulders in frustration, she sighed. "It'll be three months until my finals are over. Once those are done, I'll have to show for graduation on the other side, but then I can come over here permanently. All in all, no more than four months, tops. Then we can get married, finish the house, have all kinds of puppies, and suffer through my lousy cooking for the rest of our lives together."

"My cooking is the lousy stuff."

"But you know I'd eat every bite of it." She turned around and smiled at him, but the look melted off her face at his grim eyes and sober expression.

"Sesshoumaru has been hanging around here a lot, you know."

"I do."

"I was up near the river earlier, and I scented him. He's scent marking, Kagome. Staking a claim in this area. I just want you to be a little more careful - no going by yourself anywhere, if you don't have to. Don't give him a reason to be anywhere near you."

"No arguments from me on that. I really don't want to be caught anywhere near him." She wrapped her arms around him to reassure him of how serious she really was.

"Good to know we're on the same page," he replied, returning the gesture. "Now, lets finish getting you packed up. The sooner you're gone, the sooner I can get back to work, and the sooner you can move in." Laughing, she squeezed him and pulled away, going back to her work. He helped her, as much as he didn't want to, and carried her pack to the well for her, sighing deeply as the blue waves of energy carried her back to her time.

~(O)~

Three months later...

"Kagome, we will miss you. Be sure you visit as much as possible, and I want to see grandbabies - I just hope they have ears like InuYasha's."

"I'll be back often, mom. And yes. Grand babies - InuYasha has plans for a lot of them. You'll see each and every one." She hugged her mother fiercely, not knowing quite why.

"Oh, Kagome. I just have this feeling... I don't know why, but I have this feeling like I might not see you for a long time or that something dreadful is going to happen. Just be careful dear. And don't do anything rash. The time you are going back to isn't like the time you are from. Women are quiet, understated, meek - they are a different kind of power, not like they are today. Remember that, and stick with Yasha - he'll keep you safe. Ok?" Tears ran freely down her mother's eyes, and she held Kagome away from her by the shoulders looking into her daughter's own tearful eyes.

"I will, momma." Grabbing her last bag, filled to the brim with ramen, she jumped into the well, and into a past she would barely know.

Grumbling, she pulled herself over the well-edge, again, for the last time, she hoped, without help. Probably out demon hunting again. Good thing it was only ramen she was bringing on this last trip. Everything else with any weight to it had been brought over and moved into their house during the few weeks prior. He had been itching for a fight the last time she had been there - he wasn't ever a very patient critter. He needed the outlet for what was obviously the sexual frustration he had to have been feeling, and if it was a good hunt, so be it.

Getting over her own frustration quickly enough, she practically ran to the village. The exams were over. She graduated free and clear, a bit early even, with great grades, and was free. Miroku was marrying her to the love of her life this evening. She was finally going to get what she wanted, after years of self denial and denial by the fates themselves.

Kagome barely took note of the full dog demon aura that followed her. She didn't care what Sesshoumaru's game was. His honor wouldn't allow him to harm her without damn good reason, and she was doing nothing more than traveling as fast as she could - away from him. She smiled a little. In a few hours, she'd be his sister in law, and they would be honor bound to one another. Perhaps, while she was waiting on having her own children, she could offer tutoring to Rin, and start healing the rift between those stubborn dogs.

Arriving at the village, the smoky scent of funerary incense greeted Kagome's senses as she slowed to a walk. Going to hers and InuYasha's home, she dropped off the load of ramen and changed into her kosode and wrap skirt, sandals on feet, and walked down to Miroku and Sango's hut. The village was eerily quiet the whole way - she saw no one, and the scent of the incense permeated everywhere. Finally, she made it to the doorway of her old friends and knocked on the door frame. Sango pushed aside the mat protecting the door, red rimming her eyes, and sobbed aloud.

"Oh, kami above, Kagome!" Rumiko began to wail with her as Miroku pushed his way to the door and grabbed the miko by the arm. He dragged her into the hut and held her as tight as she'd ever been held by anyone, soon to be joined by Sango and Rumiko.

"It was an accident. He and I were out in the forest, collecting beams for the temple. The tree he was in - the roots were loose in the soil... When my axe hit it, it struck the entire thing loose. His axe came loose from his hands..." and Miroku could continue no more. His sobs were louder even than Sango and Rumiko. Kagome's body went limp, her arms loose and her spine numb.

"What happened to him?" Miroku ran out of the hut, his shame preventing him from staying. Sango continued, her resolve to let her friend know the only thing that helped her keep steady.

"The tree pinned him, but forced the axe he held through his neck, Kagome. It was instant. He never knew pain." Kagome's mind started racing, a mile a minute. It wasn't possible. Not now. Not just when things seemed to be working out, not when her life, and his, were finally coming together and everything was going to be ok. Not when they had survived worse.

"Where?" she asked, her voice hoarse from desperation.

"He is buried in the temple yard, and the stone smiths are making a small shrine for him. Everyone was devastated Kagome." Kagome got up and walked, numbly, dead to the world, to the temple yard, followed closely by Sango, and went to its first, and currently only, grave.

The fresh soil assaulted her senses, as did the multiple sticks of incense sticking out of the ground burning there. Smooth, rounded stones covered what would have been mounded dirt, and out of the stones stood a forked branch. Recognizing the wood of the branch, Kagome choked back a bitter laugh that it was from Goshinboku. Twined between the forks, with stark contrast to the white river stone below, was his subjugation necklace, still intact.

Kagome fell to her knees.

And screamed.

~(O)~

He had anticipated her screams. And her wailing. He had even anticipated her possibly going back to her own time and never returning. Maybe even staying an appropriate mourning period (what was that for humans, anyway?) and then leaving or finding another to remarry. What he hadn't expected was her to sit at his half brother's graveside, refusing food and water, dead to the world for nearly two weeks.

Sesshoumaru knew he had to do something. His father would kick him across the continent for allowing a pack member to suffer like this. And with InuYasha dead, the miko, taijiya, monk, kitsune, and infant were all now a part of his main pack. The monk had stopped checking on her a week ago. The taijiya, a few days ago. They both had given up on trying to force her to live. They would come back when they knew her to be dead to bury her.

Humans. Shows what good they are as pack.

She was scent marked, if not bite marked, as InuYasha's mate. That alone gave her status in his pack. Not as high as Rin, maybe, but definitely higher than Jaken. And due to the lack of frequent observation from her so called ‘friends', no one would notice her going missing, and if they did, they would just assume she had left on her own. All in all, she wasn't much of a risk. She was at least dressed decently now, and he would bet there were at least a few more of those kosode at the house his brother had built. And she'd be good company for Rin - possibly a good teacher, educator. Once she got over this mourning.

He sighed, audibly. He felt badly about InuYasha. For once in his hundreds of years, he honestly felt lousy about the runt. Yes, he had meant it when he had said that he wanted to be the one to kill him, and yeah, he'd come close a few times... But he was an underling of the pack. His father would have had his left nut if anything terrible had really happened to InuYasha. Being bound to a tree for fifty years had been a lesson in trust, one that the hanyou needed - so it didn't count... Damn good thing dead dogs didn't come back.

Getting up from his spot, he flashed over to the doorway of the house his brother would have shared with the miko. Going into it, he surveyed the rooms and efficiently packed several kosode into a parcel that he secured to his waist. Going back out, he looked to the cemetery just in time to see Kagome tip over from her constant vigilance into a state of unconsciousness on her side. Flashing to her, he grabbed her around the waist and carried her to his cave.

~(O)~

A/N:  Yeah.  I am so sorry that this is my Xmas gift to Dokuga.....but the timing was just no good.  I promise to git my kiester focused and cranking on Chapter 6 when I can get the time this weekend.  Thankfully, I have a 5 day weekend to work on it, and a lot of ideas.

And maybe a logging accident isn't the best way to kill off Yasha, but real world shit happens - and no one is immune.