Unexpected Success

I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters or locations.

A Princesses' Plight

Long ago, in a kingdom far away there lived a king and queen who had greatly longed for a child, but for unknown reasons were unable to conceive. Until one day, the kingdom was graced with a miracle and a baby girl was born. With flowing black hair and eyes that—

Sigh, this was getting boring. Not to mention, it was taking too long, thought Kagome. Despite the fact that it had only been an hour since they had departed from the familiar shores of her home—and only five minutes since she had begun narrating to herself how she had gotten here—Kagome could already feel a sense of dread making its way from her stomach up her gullet.

"It could just be seasickness, or do you not suffer from that anymore, Princess?" piped a mildly amused voice. Lost in thought, Kagome was surprised to have received a response to her inner musings and decided it was only polite to answer. After all what kind of Princess would she be if she left the voice in her head hanging?

"God, is that you?" It seemed a fairly logical question seeing as she had not said anything out loud in the past half hour. Admittedly God was more feminine than Kagome had expected.

"Very funny, Your Highness, but faking delusions won't save you from this anymore than faking seasickness. And for your information, nothing you've said so far has been 'in your head'. In fact, you're lucky that I was the only one who heard your blabbing", spoke the dark haired girl. Kagome released an exasperated groan in return, having turned around from her position over the rails on the side of the boat just in time to see Sango forming air quotes with her fingers and looking at Kagome with an expression that bordered between amusement and its-too-hot-for-this.

Lady Sango, daughter of the Lord of Takai, was a tall, slim and impeccably sharp-witted woman who had been best friends with Kagome since she had débuted into upper society just over four years ago. Being a few years older, and thus wiser, Sango had helped the then young Princess find her bearings among the opportunistic and cunning bastards who had been clamoring for her attention. Though beautiful and well-bred, Sango had a cool ferocity about her that Kagome absolutely loved; the woman could kick ass and took shit from no one, a fact that wasn't always appreciated by potential suitors.

Sango too didn't say anything for a moment, when she saw the Princess' eyes glaze over she knew that her friend had become lost in thought. Instead of piercing her dream bubble with a sarcastic and teasing comment like any good friend would, Sango took the opportunity to sweep a quick look over the raven haired female.

Pale and sweet, with luscious lips and delectable curves, Princess Kagome was the subject of every man's naughty fantasies- at least that's what two members of the ship's crew thought. You know, until Sango ensured that they never thought about Kagome again.

However, as the demon slayer looked her over, Kagome looked anything but delectable right now. Hunched over the ship's rails with gaunt skin and a vaguely dazed expression, one would have thought the Princess a victim of seasickness, a beautiful victim, but a sufferer none the less. Of course if you consider why she's like this, it's understandable that she isn't quite at her best right now, mused Sango just as the Princess threw her head back over the rail to let loose a violent scream.

"This is so unfair!" shrieked the raven haired beauty, the fire that had been lost since she boarded the ship now returning to her eyes. With the ferocity of a snake demon, Kagome whipped around and declared that she was done moping, which Sango knew to mean that she was now going to start snapping at everyone—still it was better than watching your friend wither away into a husk.

Kagome was furious! No, furious had been the case when her mother had promptly informed her a month ago to pack her things i.e. tell the maids to pack her things, because they were going out on this stupid… she didn't even know what to call it. She certainly wasn't going to use the same phrase her mother had: 'visiting friends'. She considered it a disgrace to decency to put 'friends' and that monster in the same general area of meaning.

And Kagome planned on telling her mother as much as she stalked through the ship's inner cabins towards the lower deck, Sango hot on her heels (partially to calm Kagome if need be, but mostly for the entertainment value), she knew she would find her mother pouring over official documents or letters from royals and dignitaries.

A brief flash of guilt hit Kagome and her stride faltered, after all her mother was working even now despite her recent decline in health, so was it ungrateful of Kagome to further burden her with complaints?

No. I have to try. She deserved as much as a say in where she went and for what purpose, and the chance to save herself. Dramatic yes, but she was a seventeen year old girl and right now desperation and anger trumped guilt and rational thought.

Sango's a girl and she doesn't act like this.

Yes, and Sango also isn't being forced to do what I am, otherwise I'm sure she would have made a fuss as well.

As Kagome marched through the halls in search of her mother, her mind had begun to wander to the weeks preceding up to this moment. Oh, she wasn't talking about packing and asking everyone around the castle what sort of souvenir they would like. The Princess had done everything in her power to prevent this voyage from taking place.

She had started small, a little begging and pleading here and there, but when it became apparent that the Queen had no intention of changing her plans through simple talk Kagome had tried switching up her game. From buttering her mother up to feigning illness and injury, Kagome had employed all the persuasion methods she had. She had even gone on hunger strike for a week until her dearest guardian would agree to cancel the trip, but after raising two children and running a kingdom it seemed the Queen's patience was an everlasting well.

It wasn't until Kagome had climbed to the roof of the tallest spiral in the castle—a last last last resort—that her mother had lost her patience and told her daughter in no uncertain terms that this trip, and everything it entailed, would be happening as per plan.

It was times like these that warned everyone that Queen Higurashi was not to be tested.

Xxx

Sango tapped her foot and counted the amount of times the boat had rocked within the last fifteen minutes that Kagome was discussing things with her mother. She was up to nearly two hundred when the door opened with a boom and crashed into the wall behind it with a bang. It was amazing the thing had not fallen off its hinges, but Sango found that she didn't have adequate time to ponder the structural integrity of the door when her best friend stalked out of said open door and walked away without sparing her a second glance.

Keeping a good three or so foot distance, the demon slayer tactfully avoided asking about what happened- she had heard everything through the wood walls as it was—an instead informed Kagome that they were closing in on their destination.

Unfortunately, this seemed to have the opposite effect as intended, and her-friend-the-snake-demoness whirled around and struck Sango with a glare so intense that it would have fell a lesser man.

Luckily for Sango, she was no man.

After another hour or so of hearing Kagome recount every excruciating summer spent at their current destination, Sango was sure she had heard both the royal escort and ship crew breathe a collective sigh of relief when a call went up announcing their approach to Inutaisho's Kingdom.

At that point, so much of the ships populace had moved to the port side to get a better view of the land mass that Kagome was surprised that the ship didn't tip from the weight. Ironically enough, Kagome found that she too was one of the idiots craning to see the magnificence of the Demon Kingdom.

While not strictly for demons at all, Inutaisho's kingdom had always been the land with the highest demonic population. If approached from a politically minded perspective, Kagome supposed that demons would choose to move there to be among their own kind—a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts, with every demon moving to be with other demons causing an increase in their numbers.

Similarly, it could be that demons appreciated the unusual structure of the government more than humans. Inutaisho, who had come to face various forms of opposition during his initial efforts to unite the feuding demon tribes into one kingdom, had since decided to impose a pyramidal government where each demon—or human for that matter—was capable of moving up the ranks if they so deserved. Inutaisho may have ruled the entire country, but the land was systematically divided into four provinces: West, North, East and South.

Personally, Kagome thought that the naming wasn't very original, but whatever. It wasn't her kingdom.

Each of the provinces was in turn governed by the leader of the predominant clan that ruled over that particular territory. The Dog King himself would in turn preside over all four leaders, directly ruling from the center of the Kingdom.

"It's a breathtaking sight, isn't it?' Kagome whirled around to catch sight of the men and women parting like the Red Sea to make way for her mother. Turning back towards the shore just as her mother came to stand beside her, eyes fixed straight ahead, Kagome found that some questions did not need answering.

Raking her gaze over the glittering sea as it met solid shore at the foot of a boisterous port town, Kagome felt a strange tugging sensation at the pit of her stomach. In a curious way, she had actually missed this place.

Well, she had missed some parts of this place, such as the sprawling hills and impossibly tall mountains and how demons and humans seem to get along so effortlessly here.

Some demons and humans anyways, piped that pesky inner voice.

No, Kagome wanted to say, it's just one demon I don't get along with. And that was exactly the demon they were going to chain her to.