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 Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 4:25 am
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 4:27 am
::Title: Earthshake
::Inuyasha/Kagome
::Canon
::Rated: PG-13 for violence, cursing.
::Summary: Natural Disasters are nothing to laugh at... and so Kagome realizes as she's trapped, hundreds of feet beneath the rubble of what was once her school, with her classmates dying one by one, and absolutely no hope of rescue.
~SugarRos
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.o0o0o0o0o.
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Disclaimer: Inuyasha and Co. Do not belong to me. They all belong to Rumiko Takahashi. But right now they’re mine to manipulate. I’m going to have so much fun. XD
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.o0o0o0o0o.
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Earthshake: Chapter 01: Reclamation: Part 01
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.o0o0o0o0o.
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…drip….
…drip….
…drip….
Kagome watched, wide-eyed, as the pipe that had broken in two and jammed between two large concrete slabs dripped water only inches from her ear, feeling the cool liquid splash onto her lobe.
…drip….
…drip….
The cold that had settled over her was gone. She wasn’t shivering anymore. It was strange, she thought she would have died from the cold by now, but she’d grown warmer as time wore on. Her teeth weren’t chattering anymore. Or were they? She honestly couldn’t tell. She couldn’t really feel her teeth. Or lips, for that matter. In fact, she felt as if her entire face was numb. It scared her that she couldn’t feel much of anything, that her legs had stopped throbbing hours ago, and that she knew she was slowly losing the feeling in her right arm.
…drip….
She could feel the water dripping by her head, though, and that had to count for something. At least her ear wasn’t numb.
She prayed that she had only just gone into shock.
…Had she? She couldn’t for the life of her remember what her summer survival class had taught her. Had they covered earthquake survival? Why hadn’t she paid more attention in that class?
…Oh yeah. Because she’d been an arrogant little fool, thinking that traveling with Inuyasha gave her all the survival training she’d ever need for anything.
In reality, she had no idea how to survive without him. She was just useless, relying on him to tell her how to get them all through the night when it wasn’t clear if he would make it.
It killed Kagome more than anything to think that her mind was slowly breaking apart, and her will to live slipped away little by little.
Determination and a positive attitude, even in the midst of all the pain and blood and screaming around her was what had kept her going in the beginning. Of course, in the beginning, her classmates had still been alive. Severely injured, but alive. But as the voices dwindled and expired with time, so did Kagome’s hopes.
And then there was the boy that lay next to her, his breath frozen within his own lungs.
She hadn’t yet let go of Hojou’s hand.
The blood that had been seeping slowly from his lower half had long since reached her, and it soaked into her clothes, pooled around her head and shoulders. She couldn’t move away from it if she’d wanted to. She was trapped.
The voices of her other classmates were diminishing slowly, and Kagome couldn’t help but imagine how they were all slowly slipping away, the way Hojou had slipped away right next to her.
A tear escaped from her eye and slid down her temple, mixing in with the blood in her hair.
Funny.
She hadn’t thought she could cry anymore.
This could not be happening. After the years and years of battling some of the most evil, dangerous beings that ever graced the face of the earth, she was going to die by way of a natural disaster. Not eaten alive or clawed apart or possessed-- just a single shake of the earth, and she was down. How strange that she had always thought of herself as a strong person, able to hold her own in any situation.
This situation, however, was one she was not handling so well. Hojou was gone, his cold hand still clasped in her own, his blood soaking into her skin, and all she could think of was that she could not possibly make it out alive now that everyone else was gone.
Usually she was sure that Inuyasha would come crashing in and save her, as he always did, but she had soon realized that this was an instance that would leave him stuck, unable to do anything. She was, after all, buried deep underneath tons and tons of concrete and metal. Would Inuyasha even be able to sniff her out?
How long had it been since Hojou had left her here, alone?
She’d lost track of the time. She could tell it was daytime out; there were small pinpricks of sunlight filtering in through tiny gaps in the wreckage, but as for how long they’d been trapped under all the mass…
She was so thirsty.
“-lp me…”
Kagome wasn’t sure at first if she was imagining another voice or not. She’d stopped calling out for others hours ago. No one had answered her. She had thought them all dead. Fear crept up into her mind that maybe she herself was slowly slipping away. She involuntarily gave Hojou’s lifeless hand a squeeze. Oh Gods, please let someone still be alive.
The voice spoke again, sounding choked and dry. “Hurts… help… Help me.”
Oh, thank whatever heavens were out there that someone else was alive. Kagome opened her mouth to call out, only to let out a gargled, pained noise.
She was so thirsty.
Purposely creating saliva in her mouth to wet her throat, she coughed a few times before calling back, weakly at first, then a bit stronger. “H-hello…? Hello? Is someone there?” It was such a strange feeling, not being able to move at all, and it frustrated her that she couldn’t turn her head to get a better idea of where the other girl was.
It was a few seconds before she got an answer. “….Who is that?” The voice called.
“Higurashi Kagome. I’m trapped, I can’t move.” She called back, getting used to her voice again.
“Kagome? It’s Yumi! What happened?”
She barely registered the other girls’ weeping as relief washed over her. Oh, Yumi. Thank God Yumi was alive. “Yumi, are you okay?”
She waited for a reply that didn’t come. “…Yumi?”
“Kagome, I think I’m hurt.”
Kagome took in a shuddering breath, determined to at least keep one other person alive with her, although she couldn’t tell anymore if it was because she was worried for her friend, or simply worried for her own sanity. She couldn’t stand being alone anymore, trapped down there with the dead littered around her. “Where are you hurt?”
The reply that came back was gurgled. “Ugh… um... my... my shoulder. I- I think there’s something stuck through it.”
Oh god. “Yumi, don’t look at it, just concentrate on my voice, okay? Keep talking to me.” She couldn’t help the way her voice shook. She heard her friend sob as she bit back tears herself.
“Ka- …Kagome, I don’t think… I mean…”
“Don’t look at it Yumi. Let’s talk about something else. Like what we’re going to do once we’re out of here.” She smiled to herself, knowing what the answer would be.
“Once… we’re out…” Yumi muttered, her voice barely audible.
“Yeah, once we’re out.” Kagome repeated. “You know what I’m going to do?”
“…..What?”
A sort of flashback overcame Kagome. A memory of when she first saw Inuyasha, pinned to the Goshinboku, as peaceful as she’d ever seen him, unconscious to the world. And then the last giant battle they’d been in, raging against Naraku from the acidic belly of a Youkai, and Inuyasha had leaned over, and spoke into her ear, his eyes glazing over with a look she’d only seen a select few times before. “Kagome… For just a bit longer… please support me.”
Support him. She supported Inuyasha more than he could ever know. She took in as deep a breath she could to steady her voice. “When I get out of here, I’m going to tell Inuyasha that I care for him more than he’ll ever know.” Her heart ached even as she spoke the words. All the optimism in the world wouldn’t help the current situation. Most of her classmates had died, Hojou right beside her, while his lips had still been pressed up against her own. Yumi sounded as if she were on the edge herself.
How long could she possibly survive, buried in this classroom graveyard? How could she possibly go on?
Now Kagome wasn’t the bravest person in the whole world. In fact, she tended to be frightened a whole lot, especially during her long visits to the Feudal Era. But no one else in the class had been battling giant Youkai for years as she had.
And that counted for some sort of bravery, right?
Well, it counted for stamina, at least, because she was still alive.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts. She could still be strong for Yumi. Yumi wasn’t dead; there was still hope. “It’s your turn now, Yumi. What are you going to do?”
“….”
“Yumi?”
“….”
“Oh Gods….” Kagome could feel another sob rise in her throat, choking her.
Not again.
How many of her friends was she to see die slow, painful deaths? How many times was she to have hope yanked out from under her?
…How long could she possibly survive down here alone?
Panic built up in her mind. She was going to die down here, alone and in pain, surrounded by the empty bodies of her classmates and friends. Someone else had to be alive. Someone. Anyone. There had to be a person trapped under here with her that was breathing as she was.
“H-hello?” She called out, trying to twist her neck to see around her. “Anyone out there?”
She was again met with silence.
“Anyone…” She cried out, her breath hitching. “Anyone, please!”
Nothing.
“Somebody!...” She yelled as loud as she could, her voice cracking from dehydration. “Anybody!”
Kagome was alone, buried under the tons and tons of rubble that was once her school. The last frail, little human to take in breath as the spirits of her schoolmates left one by one.
She was alone.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 4:50 am
I will admit that I have a very vague passing knowledge of InuYasha, and most of what I know involves Sango and Miroku (the two friends who like it think it is only worth it for them. XD).
However, even with the predisposed bias, I was intrigued by this. I liked the slow, built-on realization Kagome has that yeah, she is probably not going to get out of this, and the logical thinking she had in dealing with it and trying to keep Yumi positive and alive. I also liked the irony that her supposed death will not be fantastic, but mundane.
On the actual writing, I can only say one thing bugged me:
"A tear escaped from her eye and slid down her temple, mixing in with the blood in her hair."
The "single tear" thing is done to death, and realistically, a couple would have fallen. "A few tears" is a simple fix.
I did not notice any mistakes or errors otherwise, and have no other real suggestions to offer. You have a similar issue that my own fanfic has: Kagome's thoughts of "I am going to die here!" feel a little repetitive at first, but on a second read, actually do underscore the severity of the situation.
I guess most of my other questions probably stem from not really knowing the canon. Who are Hojou and Yumi? And what is the Goshinboku?
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 5:01 am
biggrin You're right, a single tear is a very overly-done dramatic description, lol.
Hojou and Yumi are characters that attend Kagome's school in her era - she interacts with them whenever she's away from Inuyasha's era for any extended period of time. XD
The Goshinboku tree is the tree that Kagome first discovers Inuyasha pinned to by Kikyou's spiritual arrow. That tree is important because, other than the well, it's the one thing that ties Kagome's time to Inuyasha's time. It's survived all those years. smile
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 5:09 am
Earthshake: Chapter 01: Reclamation: Part 02
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.o0o0o0o0o.
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Inuyasha growled and paced back and forth in the small hut that he’d just finished re-building.
Something just wasn’t right.
Why the hell was this feeling of pure, utter dread consuming his every thought? Why couldn’t he calm his beating heart? Why did he feel like something terrible had happened?
The strange thing was, he’d been feeling like this for the past two days now, and he just could not figure out what it was that was bothering him so much. He’d taken a run through his forest to find out if there were any other youkai feeling uneasy, but they’d all been calm. Even Naraku was strangely inactive in his evil doings.
Feeling like he was going crazy, he’d even sought out Myouga to ask him if he’d heard of anything foreboding coming. The flea had been easy enough to find, which was a sign within itself that no danger was coming his way. Myouga had gone so far as to tell Inuyasha that he might want to consider just taking a rest and lounging around for a few days until Kagome came back.
But the feeling wouldn’t let him rest. The feeling was all consuming and obsessive, and it had finally gotten to the point where Inuyasha could think of nothing else but the doomed wariness that kept rushing through him. Warning him.
Something was definitely wrong.
What the hell was going on?
And it had now been a full day since the deadline Kagome had promised to be back. Her test couldn’t have taken this long. She was never at her class thing when it became dark, he knew that much.
Why was she so late?
Usually, Inuyasha would sulk a few days before finally deciding to drag Kagome back himself, but this was a different situation. The feeling that consumed Inuyasha grew worse with each passing second of Kagome’s absence.
Something was completely, totally, absolutely wrong.
“Inuyasha, must you pace so? You’re making us all on edge.” Miroku sat in the far corner of the hut, his staff resting comfortably in his lap and arms, eyes following the hanyou’s fluid back-and-forth movements.
“Yeah, well you ******** should be on edge. Somethin’ ain’t right.” He stopped his pacing and pulled open the door flap, taking a good look outside before continuing on with his erratic walking pattern.
“Sounds like paranoia to me.” Muttered Sango under her breath as she finished helping Shippou whittle a piece of wood.
“I ain’t got ********’ paranoia.” He snapped back without hesitation.
Shippou blinked from Sango’s side. “What’s paranoia?”
“Don’t worry about it, cause I ain’t got it!”
“Sometimes people worry about things that don’t exist.” Sango tried to explain, grinding her teeth together to keep from smashing Inuyasha’s head in with her boomerang. “When it becomes an obsession, it’s called paranoia.”
“Oooh,” The kitsune nodded. “You mean like when Miroku worries about having a child? Cause we all know that’s never going to happen.”
Sango couldn’t help but let out a snigger at that as Miroku cleared his throat loudly. “No, Shippou,” he corrected, “What I worry about is a legitimate, real problem. Inuyasha, on the other hand, is imagining things that aren’t there.”
Inuyasha let out a warning growl. “Shut the ******** up, pervert, before I take a swipe at you!” He snarled, taking the few short steps to tower over the monk. “You’re making it sound like I’m seeing things. I ain’t seeing things, I just have a feeling that something bad is going to happen.”
“What do you think that is?” Miroku asked back, his gaze never wavering. “You’ve checked out all the possibilities. Other than Kagome, you’ve-”
“She’s really late.” Shippou interrupted, ignoring Sango’s attempts at keeping him quiet. “Do you think Kagome’s in danger?”
Inuyasha shook his head. “She was fine when I checked on her a couple days ago. What the hell could happen in two days?” He didn’t miss the meaningful glance between his companions.
Kaede finally spoke up for the first time. “Inuyasha, might it be a wise idea to check on the lass again? Find out if she’s well? She ought to be, but it can’t hurt to know for sure.”
Inuyasha shook his head. It wasn’t like he hadn’t thought of doing that, but Kagome had warned him not to come after her while she was taking her tests or she’d sit him until he couldn’t have pups. And as much as he wasn’t too fond of the subject at this moment in his life, he sure as hell wanted pups in the future. He didn’t much like the idea of her taking away his ability to have them. Besides, she had warned him that she might have to take even more tests, something about making stuff up? Make-up things? Make-up testing? Something like that. It was just all tests. And she didn’t want him there.
But Kaede saying out loud what his worst fear was shook him to his core, and it was as if he suddenly knew that it truly was Kagome who was in danger.
Without warning, he turned and threw aside the door flap, glancing over his shoulder at his friends. “I’ll be back with Kagome soon. No one do anything stupid, you hear me? Don’t leave the village until I get back, I don’t want to have to come back and realize I was right and then have to save you lot from some stupid youkai, alright?” And without waiting for an answer, he was out of the hut and running along the path as if his life depended on it.
Sango let out a visible sigh of relief once he was gone from sight. “Well, those were a tense few days, hm?” She tilted her head down at Shippou and tried her best to give him a calming smile.
“Indeed.” The monk agreed, standing and brushing the bottom hem of his robe, his staff jingling. “Something strange has overcome him. Hopefully seeing that Kagome is safe and well will calm him a bit and get him to relax. Heavens knows we all need it.”
Kaede grunted from her position on the floor. She hadn’t moved an inch. “I’m not so sure he’s entirely wrong in worrying.” She muttered, more to herself than the others.
Sango and Miroku shared a quizzical glance before Sango addressed the old woman. “What do you mean, Kaede-sama? Do you feel something also?”
“Not entirely, no.” She shook her head, her eyebrows drawing together in deep thought. “But it is not like Inuyasha to make a fuss over nothing…”
“Well, the earthshake is still fresh in everyone’s mind.” Sango added, biting her lower lip in a nervous manor. “It could just be him over-reacting to it…”
Kaede sighed, and moved to get up and fetch more firewood. “Ah, well. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see when Inuyasha is back.”
Sango and Miroku shared another glance. Somehow, Kaede’s words hadn’t comforted them in the least.
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.o0o0o0o0o.
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“Edelweiss…”
‘Breathe in… Breathe out…’
“Edelweiss…”
‘Breathe in… Breathe out…’
“Every morning… you… greet me...”
‘Just BREATHE.’
“Small… and white… clean… and bright…” Kagome’s voice was hoarse, her mouth dry, her throat sore. She could only whisper the lullaby her mother used to sing her to sleep as a child.
“You… look happy… to… meet me…” Memories of her mother bending over her bed and tucking her in flooded her head, and she choked out a dry sob as she willed herself to stay conscious. “Blossom… of snow may… you bloom… and grow…”
‘Please keep breathing.’
“Bloom… and grow… forever…” Memories of her brother being born, of his first words, memories of her Grandfather, her father that she’d barely known. Memories of her friends, of her teachers. …Of Hojou…
“Edelweiss…” Her voice seemed distant now. She wasn’t sure if it was her still singing or if someone else had taken over for her. “Edelweiss…” Memories of Inuyasha hit her, regrets of never telling him just how much he meant to her.
“…Bless… …my…”
That’s when Kagome Higurashi passed out, dead to the world.
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