Notes: For mynightshining. I have another, alternative Miroku/Kagura that I'm writing but I liked how this one came out.
Miroku would be lying to himself if he said he didn't expect to see her there, mostly because he had always imagined his passing to be a show for someone. That had after all been the terms of their pact; she would let him be, withhold the information of his whereabouts to Naraku, if she was allowed to be there. When it happened.
It seemed unusually cruel of her to ask such a thing of him, and yet ironically he didn't think Kagura meant it that way. The few times she appeared at his little shanty on the beach, insulting his living quarters and the ocean and the tea, he noticed something different. When she thought he wasn't looking, she watched him with a cold, almost predatory scrutiny. He knew enough to know she was only ever serious when it was personal, even if the reasons eluded him.
So yes, it would be a lie to say he hadn't expected to see those red eyes and curling feathers at his doorstep the moment he felt it tear. To hear a casual quip, Is it time already? No time for your blasted tea, I suppose. But he would also be lying if he said he had not hoped she was there. He was weak-hearted and dying and even a demon was better than no one.
Instead, a freak storm hit the coast. Merciless winds pounded the grassy hillsides. Wind whistled through the cracks in his walls and he was in the middle of writing. He bolted for the door when he felt the moment rise within him, bolted right into a faceful of angry rain. His mind trembled and swelled with fear and adrenaline. He stumbled and ran, his heart pounding furiously as if in some unforeseen race, but the sight that greeted him was an empty wasteland of black sand and sea. Not a feather, not a sneer in sight.
The wind whipped violently down the beach front. Miroku, shielding himself from the sand, squinted out into the black horizon and waited. A lightening bolt shattered the wholeness of the sky and he felt it in his spinal cord like a sharp jolt and then a rippling unraveling. Thunder rumbled like a dust devil, rolling out like a squad of warrior samurai on the cusp of battle, and somewhere in between the sound washing over him and the skip of his pulse, it happened.
The rosary broke. Jade beads shot out like shards of light, arcing beautifully like a display of fireworks, but the stopper had been pulled, and the curse was much faster. Tendrils of darkness beckoned lovingly as the jade beads stopped mid-air, then sailed back towards the center, almost as if to reform again. Sand rose beneath his feet like the churning waves beyond and Miroku feel to his knees.
Numbness crept into his face as Miroku stared into the darkness. He closed his eyes.
Kagura, as usual, came too late.
The sun was high and bright. Her feather tipped over a crest of weak ocean breeze and skidded down like an old row boat towards the sandy shore. She fluttered to a stop above the gentle sea foam, casting curious eyes around the beach, but there was nothing. Not a sign of disturbance. Kagura frowned.
Tentatively, she reached down and scooped a handful of sand in her hands. The hole beneath filled in smoothly and disappeared.
For a second, her fist trembled.
There was a pang in her chest. An iron band over her lungs. It had been growing steadily over the last day as she travelled over the ocean. It had made her stumble more than once. Her skirts were stiff with salt. The moment it had started, she had known she needed to come back. Naraku was angry with her, and it could only be for one reason.
And yet here she was. He was not. She had wanted to at least exchange goodbyes, a little for him, but mostly for herself. Now there was no one.
Her life was full of these quiet futilities.
After a moment, Kagura wiped the sand from her hands and sat back on her heels. The sea chewed groggily and salty spittle sprayed lightly over her arms and cheek. She closed her eyes briefly. A shallow breath. Then she waved a finger and the feather slowly rose in a jagged trajectory up.
She left to stop herself from saying something stupid. Like, 'see you soon.'