In Silence, Inuyasha Drabble
Title: In Silence (Drabble)
Fandom: Inuyasha
Pairing(s): light/suggested InuSan
Word Count: 496
Rating: PG
Also available over on AO3!
There is silence at the end of every battle. A moment when the entire world becomes nothing more than blood and smoke, the air so heavy it feels as though it might drag us down with its weight.
We are part of that silence. The cloth of armor clings to my body, bone plates molded into welts with sweat and the impact of claws only moments ago. My breaths are ragged, unsteady. Leaning against the hilt of my sword, half-buried in the earth, I try to take account of what I am seeing. Droplets of blood cover the ground sporadically, falling from the cut across my scalp. More than just seeing the ruin around us, our bodies and weapons have become a part of it.
And yet, some of our friends cannot feel the weight of what has happened. Already halfway over the hill to the east, Kagome and Shippou are oblivious to these moments. Neither of them understands that this does not end the instant she retrieves a piece of the shattered jewel.
Is that all this is, just another shard to be purified and added to a jar?
Here, now, a life has been lost. Someone has died.
A part of me wishes that I could understand my dear friend's indifference. Her detachment. For Kagome, what we have done seems little different from catching a fish for supper. Does she really not understand that those we kill also have souls?
It's true that what we killed was a youkai. My entire life has been spent hunting them, killing them. But even I know that, before they died, they had thoughts and ideas. They were a person of their own kind. We may not be able to understand them. We may even believe that their motivations were wrong. But that is still a life lost, and that deserves respect. Even taijiya understand that.
Only one other person remains on the field, breathing in the scent of death. He recognizes this scene of destruction for what it truly means. Inuyasha understands the weight of a life lost.
Inuyasha isn't laughing off the joke Miroku made before he followed Kagome towards town. He isn't pretending that this is just another day, just the cost of Naraku's sins. He feels this the same way that I do.
His eyes, golden even in the dimness, slide over the churned dirt. I can see him memorizing the pools of blood and entrails that are still sinking into the earth. He pauses on the lifeless face of the youkai we have just killed, the remains dissolving quickly into the air now that the jewel shard keeping it alive has been taken.
For a moment, he is very still. And he knows. I can feel it in the way that his eyes find mine and do not immediately look away. Only after a long second does his gaze drop to the filth still covering his hands.
In this, we are alone together.
