Title: 118
Chapter: Returning
"It is a precarious balance, that between purity and impurity. One single act alone cannot tip a person's soul completely in either direction. Most beings dance between the two a seemingly infinite number of times without ever settling on one entirely. It is a rare thing indeed to find such a one who embodies entirely the essence of one or the other. And, on the chance that one does find such a being, it is a more unique thing still to cause the soul of that unusual one to exchange their purity or impurity for the opposite. A scarce thing for certain, but not by any means is it impossible."
She held the kaiken as if it were an extension of her right arm. It fit within her hand as if the tsuka was molded within her own flesh. Perfect. Flawless. Deadly.
Her breathing was not labored. Even after countless kills-she had stopped counting at exactly 118-she never tired. Of course, she did rest during whatever brief moments she was spared from the otherwise constant torment that had swallowed her existence whole. Still, she had been far from any fulfilling rest for nearly a century and what she did manage could not account for her consistent, flawless endurance. No, the cause for that rested entirely within the abilities of her mind.
'Move,' she commanded from her thoughts as the sharp edge of her kaiken tore through a man's thin neck.
'Continue,' she inwardly screamed as her body tore around and, with all of its force, drove the blade into the chest of a young woman.
'Purge.' And purge she did. No life remained on the silent battlefield, apart from that of her fractured self.
By the time she'd finished with this group, one clearly with numbers well into the hundreds, the moon had long since stolen the sun's place. Its pale glow glided down upon her, the only softness amidst the brutal scene, as she took several steps away from the carnage and crashed to the earth. Her armor of unceasing fortitude had long since been stripped away allowing sleep to immediately consume her.
"Hey whatayou think 'bout this one here? I think she's alive," A stout man with a crooked nose shouted to his nearly toothless friend.
"Whatur you talkin' 'bout? Don't see anyone near you!"
Before a 'huh' could escape his lips, the crooked nosed man felt something sharp stab into his stomach.
An eerie, but beautiful voice whispered in his ear, "I can only guess at what you were thinking about doing to me had you discovered I was indeed alive and for that this will hurt severely."
Without a moment of hesitation, she forcefully flicked her blade imbedded in his flesh to the right. An almost inhuman scream tore from the man's throat. Satisfied with her work, she withdrew her weapon, and turned to finish of his friend.
"Please, Miss, I mean you no trouble," the toothless friend barely managed to say. Folding his hands tightly, he sunk to the ground and proceeded to beg for his life.
She scowled. Leaving one for later was an option she was no longer willing to take. She had made that mistake before.
Taking a step forward she felt a tingling sensation on the tip of her nose. Attempting to ignore it, she took another step. The feeling grew stronger, spreading down her face, moving along her neck, and gliding down her arms. Continuing along her body, it saturated her skin within seconds. Aggressively, it sunk down past her skin until she could feel it consume every inch of her core. Then, just as suddenly as it started, it was gone.
"Kagome?" A voice, one so unmistakable to her even after a hundred years, questioned aloud.
She turned around, keeping her kaiken unsheathed only out of habit, to face him. Slowly his confused, golden eyes absorbed her appearance. While her body's general shape remained same, the way she held it was not. She stood with confidence and, if the many layers of splattered blood coating her did not say it clearly enough, poised to kill. Hair that once hung softly and freely down her back was now woven tightly into a braid with its tip resting just below her shoulders. Skin that had once been pale was now heavily sun-kissed and scarred. Arms, legs and every other visible muscle of her body were now firm and defined where they had once been soft.
"InuYasha," she replied in a flat tone.
He was about to joke, "what the hell happened to you?" in an attempt to lighten the mood of the increasingly strange moment when his eyes met hers. What he saw knocked the breath right out of him. While the chocolate brown of her eyes had not changed in the least, the spirit beneath them had. If it weren't for her almost intolerable, clearly very, very, horribly dirty, human smell right now, he'd wonder whether she was of the animated dead as Kikyo was. No, she was certainly alive, but her spirit did not say the same. She looked dead on the inside and it was enough to chill him to his core.
"KAGOME!" a small, very happy kitsune screamed as he launched himself toward his desired target.
At a speed that surprised InuYasha, Kagome sidestepped, effectively dodging the incoming Shippo.
"I need to bathe, Shippo," Kagome said coldly.
He was about to respond before InuYasha shot him a look that shut him up immediately. Sniffling, the kitsune dropped his head as Kagome's strange scents, blocked out before by an adrenaline rush brought on by her appearance, tore through his nose.
'Where has Kagome gone to? She smells like she's been somewhere else. But how did she get so far away? She's only been gone for the morning,' the little kitsune wondered. He didn't even want to question why she and the blade in her hand reeked of human blood.
The water hugged her tightly as she collapsed into its depths. She held herself beneath its surface for as long as she could until she was forced to pull up for air. Pushing herself onto her back, she began too carelessly float. An unfamiliar sound broke free from her lips. A sigh. She could not recall the last time she made such a sound and had thought for many years now that she was incapable of producing it. Her left arm, dripping with red from the places were the water had loosened the coagulated blood's hold on her skin, reached for her face allowing her fingertips to brush against her lips. Upon contact, she felt a wave of memories she had been suppressing flood her mind.
His lips softly upon hers, filling in all the gaps where words would never suffice.
Perhaps it was because her fingers still touched her lips that this memory came first. Angrily, her hand plunged back into the water. Along with the other, they formed a cup shape and quickly splashed water onto her face. She repeated the process again. And Again.
'Never again,' she thought as she angrily scrubbed the filth and the blood from her body. Regardless, her mind refused to obey.
"Michi," escaped her lips in pleasure as his fingers flicked softly over the pearl between her legs.
"Yes, my aikouka?" he responded playfully.
"I love you," she whispered softly to the man of her memory.
Tears crawled to the corners of Kagome's eyes and then, like a sudden rainstorm tearing across the skies of a sunny afternoon, poured down her body. Violently, the sobs ripped out of her shuttering self until the large ripples cascading over the water's surface met the fairly large pond's edge.
She cried and scrubbed and cried more until the sun rested just above the mountains, her body was red only from irritation and tears could no longer come. Feeling drenched in an overwhelming exhaustion, Kagome slowly swam forward until her head could collapse onto the wet clay of the pond's edge.
A crack of the fire ripped Kagome free from her memory-plagued nightmares. Her eyes flicked open, as her hand instinctively dove for the kaiken sheathed at her right hip. Feeling only air in its place, she scowled as a growl tore past her teeth.
"Child if I didn't know better, I would think ye InuYasha," an old woman chuckled.
"Kaede," she said as much to the woman, as to herself as she pushed herself up to sit on the mat she currently occupied.
Kagome felt the heat rising from a cup pushed in her hands.
"Kaede, I-"
"Drink it down, child. With the sleep ye be having it be clear ye aren't going to have much strength to tell me what I know ye desire to. So just drink it down now and rest. When ye wake next I will hear ye."
Bringing the cup to her lips, she downed it quickly and laid her body back down on the mat. As the concoction's warmth soothed her nerves, it also smoothed down the wrinkles of worry in her mind. Thoughts of sharing her tale softly ebbed away. Within moments she fell back into a peaceful slumber of the type that hadn't experienced in years.
A/N: I am not an expert in Japanese history or mythology. I have a limited knowledge in both subjects and am referring to Internet pages for information on each. Hopefully what I use throughout this story is accurate and, of course, I am mixing a lot of what I have learned with my own literary license. If you, however, notice anything terribly amiss please leave me a note about it.
Also, I'll let relevant Japanses to English translations at the end of each chapter. I hope they are all accurate.
Oh and...
InuYasha: "She's only sayin' this once so listen up!"
Me: "Here's my disclaimer: I don't own anything InuYasha. The movies, shows, mangas, the characters, the plots-"
InuYasha: "Nothin' got it!"
Me: "Thanks InuYasha."
InuYasha: "I wasn't sayin' it for you, wench! I'm just lettin' everyone know you don't have any claim over me."
Me: *mumbling under my breath* "Bloody hanyou. If it weren't for your windscar I'd-"
InuYasha: "What was that woman?"
Me: *quickly* "Nothing, nothing!"
Translations:
kaiken – type of a traditional, Japanese dagger, which was often carried by women for
self defense
tsuka – handle of a dagger
kitsune – fox, fox demon or fox spirit
aikouka – lover