Disclaimer: Kagura, Rin, Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. Kurama belongs to Togashi. The Plushies belong to and were made by me except for Kurama who I gave away to a friend.
"Kagura' Big Adventure"
Kagura was not the most intelligent of my plushies, not by a longshot, and her personality hardly matched that of the wind sorceress in whose image she had been created. Nevertheless, Kagura and her plush doppleganger had one thing in common: their mutual love of Sesshoumaru (or of plush Sesshoumaru in this case.)
Often I would walk into my room and find her sitting next to him, staring intently at whatever he was doing (which was usually just standing at the edge of my bed trying to think of cryptic things to say) with her large red eyes I had made from scraps of an old tee-shirt. She always wore the same curious, blank look on her face while he wore an uncharacteristically happy one, a fact that had often irritated the plush-lord of the bedroom. What she expected of him, I'll never know, but I suppose it has to do more with things that went on behind my back.
"She thinks he's pretty," Rin-plushie has told me on more than one occassion. "And she admires his incredible strength and vast wisdom. Who wouldn't love Lord Sesshoumaru?"
Before I could even begin to wonder what "incredible strength" a creation of felt and pillow-stuffing could have, she would always begin telling some story that she felt highlighted his infallable sense of knowledge... stories I never felt like pointing out the obvious flaws in.
"The other day Kagura found some book laying on your bed next to her. There was a big eye on the cover and it made her very curious, so she picked it up, but she and I can't read so we took it to Lord Sesshoumaru. He said the title of the book was '1984.' Imagine that! A book with numbers for a title! I asked him to read the book to me and tell me what it was about. All he had to do was stare at the cover! He said 'This Sesshoumaru does not need to turn pages!' and told me all about how the book was about these people named Madonna and Micheal Jackson. Then he started talking about some Ronald Reagan guy and this thing called 'Pepsi Free' and a huge cultural phenomanon called MTV! All that and he didn't even have to turn the pages! Lord Sesshoumaru is amazing!"
You can accuse me all you like of not properly educating my plush dolls, but, in my defense, I'd rather not be known as the psychopath who tries to educate beings formed from felt and pillow stuffing. Talking to them seems enough to condemn the average person...
The day of one particular seems to stand out in my mind in regards to plushie-induced insanity. It was an average day, not unlike every other monotonous day in February... (and I apologize to all of you fans of February. I'm more of an October person myself.) I was running off to my job, hurrying since I was a tad on the late side, and carelessy threw my Kagura plushie off of my bed as I was fumbling to make it. In retorspect, it pobably was not the kindest thing I could have done, but I was in a pro-reality mood at the moment and tried very hard to convince myself that she had not murmured "ouch!" as she landed flat in my sock drawer. Dashing out the door, I was not present for the rest of what happened, but was fortunately informed of the events by several of my stuffed animals at a later date.
Kagura lay face down after a terrifying flight through the air. Her creator's wrath must have been intense that day for her to do something so cruel. Still shaking a bit from the abruptness of the throw, she was silently grateful that she had been able to land in this weird drawer full of soft things. Sitting up and surveying her surrounding area, the plush doll was quite aghast with what she had seen.
"I'm so sorry!" she cried to the flat and seemingly lifeless beings below her. "I had no idea that other plushies lived in here!"
My socks, of course, did not answer.
Terror suddenly gripped at her little, cotton heart. She had killed them! They were so flat and pale and lifeless... surely they coul not have survived her falling upon them after such a harsh landing! Having no resemblence whatsoever to the windsorceress Kagura in personality, the thought of her soft landing costing the lives of these poor innocents deeply affected her. (I suppose the real Kagura would have just done a Dance of the Dead and used their misfortune to entertain herself for a while until Naraku came around and told her to do some other stupid thing for his plans that never work...) However, not being the original, Plush-Kagura stooped low and held one of the victims in her hands, hoping for some sign of life, but finding none. Scanning the pale, flat body for any sign of an injury, Kagura was taken aback suddenly by the enormous gaping hole in one end of the dead "plushie." Even more horrifying to her was the fact that all of her victims seemed to have the same hole in exactly the same places! There was only one thing to do.
"Sesshoumaru!" she cried, "Sesshoumaru, help! I've just committed mass murder!"
"This Sesshoumaru," replied the familiar calm and arrogant voice, "does not care. However, when This Sesshoumaru builds this Sesshoumaru's empire, he will have to be force to imprison you if you repeat the offense."
"Okay, you can do that, but I need help bringing these guys back to life now! I killed them all when I fell on them, and I think that's bad."
"Hmmm... are you certain they are deceased?" he asked, deciding that perhaps helping Kagura would be more interesting than trying to figure out where Inuyasha and Tessaiga plushies were hidden.
"Yeah... They're all very pale and falt and have a hole on one side of them." She sounded worried, which Sesshoumaru decided was rightfully so considering mass murder wasn't exactly a nice thing to do. "Hurry! Think they're getting worse!"
"This Sesshoumaru is forced to inquire what could possibly be worse than being dead..."
"Being dead twice... but forget that. Please just hurry!"
Her logic was faulty, her intelligence non-existant, and her resemblance to the graceful demoness he had seen on the television non-existant, but he was drawn to her side anyway. Within seconds he had leapt gracefully into the draw a whole two feet above his head. Ignoring Kagura's look of deep admiration, he surveyed my socks. "They are gravely injured," he whispered to her softly. "These holes in there sides are enough to fit Rin through..." Unsure whether or not he would be successful, but hating the pleading look in Kagura's eyes, Sesshoumaru-Plush drew from his hip a model of the tenseiga he had stolen from on of my figurines. 'So pale...' he thought, 'so flat... so hard to believe that they were alive once...'
Kagura's nonexistant heart skipped a beat as her obsession/love-of-her-life slashed the tiny plastic sword over the dead bodies. She held her non-existant breathe for a moment, but they did not move.
"I... I killed them." Her voice was soft and regretful as she knelt beside the socks. "This is truely... truely my fault."
Hating himself for not being able to give life back to the inanimate socks, Sesshoumaru felt awkward with what he felt he had to do.
"It... could not be helped," he said in his calm, serious tone, but there was a soft note in it as he looked down toward the kneeling Kagura. As she looked up at him in shock, he turned his head away. "You were not in control of your flight. The Master killed them when she threw you. You are just lucky not to have met a similar fate."
"Sesshoumaru..."
He knelt beside her. "I'm sorry for your loss..." It took all of the arrogant young lords will to look into her eyes.
"I just wish I knew who they were..."
"There is a way to find that out," he replied, standing up and helping her to her feet. "On top of this mountain lives another demon." By mountain, I am certain he meant my dresser. "He carries only a rose as a weapon and dresses in a bight yellow tunic. He will know who lived here." He paused. "His name is Kurama and we can search him out if that would be a comfort to you?"
Kagura nodded and up Sesshoumaru leaped to the top of the "mountain." Behind him, Kagura plushie simply flew up using her magical demon powers. Together, both the great demon and the wind demon took a few steps closer to the form of a man standing up there, aparently waiting fot them.
"Hello," said the red-haired Kurama plushie in his cool, clear voice as though he had been expecting them.
"Yo," said Kagura.
"This Sesshoumaru need not waste his breath on a formal salutation," said Sesshoumaru.
"I believe," said Kurama, "that the two of you are inhabitants of the bed. Your reason for journeying all this way must be an urgent one."
Sesshoumaru nodded.
"I have just committed mass murder," said Kagura.
"Mass murder?" he repeated, amused. "Who have you killed?"
"I... I don't know. That's what I have come to ask you. I was thrown by the Master and landed on all of the inhabitants of the third drawer up on this mountain. I have come to ask you the names of those whose blood stains my hands... metaphoricaly speaking."
To the surprise of the two demons, Kurama seemed more amused than troubled by the tale of the brutal slaughter. "The inhabitants of that drawer," he said gently, were never alive to begin with. Unlike us, they are not plushies and never had anything inside of them. They were always flat and pale like that. They are will-less servant of the Master whom she wears upon her feet. Those holes you may have mistaken for injuries are merely the opening into which she slips her foot."
Kagura's eyes would have widened had they not been sewn on. It was as though a burden had been lifted from her! "So they are... nothing but clothes for the Big People?"
"Exactly," said Kurama, "no more alive than your kimono."
Nothing interesting happened after that, except for the fact that when I got home, poor Rin plushie seemed to have been shoved inside of a sock which Kagura informed me was the "latest fashion." She, too, was wearing one. In fact, all of my plushies were with the exception of Kurama who gave me a look of sympathy. Oh well.