The Ghosts That Haunt Me
Chapter One
"When my coffin is
sealed and I'm safely six feet under,
Perhaps my friends will
see fit then to judge me.
Oh, when they pause to
consider all my blunders,
I hope they won't be
too quick to begrudge me . . ."
At My Funeral, Crash Test Dummies
Kagome's foot was going numb.
She shifted a little, attempting to ease the tension out of it, while wincing at the chill that the morning dew presented to her bare legs. Sango, sitting to her left, shot her a questioning look. Kagome offered a weak smile and shook her head, directing her attention back to Miroku, who was kneeling before them on the ground, his back to them. Sango followed suit.
"Oh, great Kanzeon," the monk pronounced solemnly, "Guard the soul of our companion, Inuyasha, as it rests in your comforting hands. He was a stalwart ally and a good friend. May he find peace and joy in the next life, and all lives thereafter."
Kagome felt something that resembled a sob crawling up her throat, and though she gritted her teeth, a squeak popped out. The grief was just too fresh to control. Kaede, sitting to her right, laid a wrinkled hand on her arm in comfort, and Kagome attempted to swallow her tears. Miroku paused, waiting for any more noise to emerge from the spectators behind him. Hearing none, he continued.
"Inuyasha, in honour of your great life, we present you with food for your hungry spirit. We hope that it pleases you."
Hearing his cue, Shippo staggered up, carrying a monstrous tupperware container full of steaming ramen. It was the largest her mother had to give her, and Kagome couldn't help but give a wry smile at the sight of the kitsune carrying a tub as large as he was. With an audible thump, it was deposited at the base of the God Tree, and Shippo scampered back to his position beside Kirara. Miroku threw him a smile.
"Inuyasha, we assume that you have consumed the spiritual essence of this humble offering. If you wish for us to finish off the physical remains, give us absolutely no sign." There was long pause. The morning sun beat down, filtered softly through the green leaves of the trees above. Distantly, a bird chirped. "Thank you, Inuyasha. We will follow your wishes."
In spite of the circumstances, Kagome felt a snicker escape her. Beside her, Sango nonchalantly raised a fist, and clouted Miroku in the back of the head.
With that, the small ceremony was over. The companions rose out of their kneeling positions, stretching, and preparing to eat. Just as Kagome rifled through her knapsack for chopsticks, a strong aura made itself known to her senses. "Sesshomaru..." she said softly, as the others looked up in unison. There was barely time to tense, as in less than a minute he had broken through the treeline. Without ever having the appearance of hurrying, he materialized in front of Kagome. Inuyasha's misanthropic older brother. The last son of the great Inutaisho. The Killing Perfection. Sesshomaru. His clear amber eyes met hers, and Kagome shivered.
"Where is the half-breed?" he asked quietly.
Kagome's eyes widened. He didn't know? She stared at cold youkai in mortified silence, chewing her lip, and trying to recall the last time their group had seen him. It had to have been at least six months, she realized, and clearly Sesshomaru wasn't on the receiving end of the local grapevine. She let her gaze drift down to the ground, and tried to think of what to say.
"I...He..." she stammered. Sesshomaru remained stonily silent, making it clear that he was going to wait until she had provided him with answers. She heaved a shaky sigh, and plunged in. "He...a month ago. He died a month ago." For a moment, she squeezed her eyes shut, forcing back tears. "Naraku used the shards to manipulate a group of forest demons. We were fighting them when Naraku attacked us from behind." She stopped, wondering if Sesshomaru would request further details. She couldn't continue. She wouldn't. He could stand there all day, for all she cared. She opened her eyes, and attempted to peer through blurry tears, unsure of what to expect. What she saw was surprising.
The taiyoukai in front of her seemed frozen, standing statue-still, while a soft breeze grasped a few strands of his long ivory hair and tossed them about. As her eyes dried, Kagome was shocked to see a look that could only be described as bewilderment painted upon his pale face. Almost as though he had forgotten her, Sesshoumaru slowly tilted his head to the side, and his brows furrowed, forming a gentle crease between his eyebrows. Then, sharply, he turned his head to the left, and then the right, his nostrils flaring gracefully.
'He's looking for Inuyasha's scent,' she realized, watching him inhale deeply. 'He doesn't believe me.' Sesshomaru's eyes fell to the God Tree, at the bamboo arrow which had been plunged into the gnarled bark of the trunk, and the ever-present wooden rosary beads which hung from it. At the ground below, the green sod still maintained the look of being slightly unsettled, having not yet totally taken root again.
Kagome suddenly stiffened, remembering. 'Tessaiga...does he know we buried it? Will he...?' She threw Miroku, who had not yet moved, a fearful look.
The youkai lord, however, was unpredictable, as always. Sharply, Sesshomaru turned away from the group and the grave and, without saying a word, walked determinedly away, a vision of ghostly white disappearing amongst the trees.
His half-brother was dead.
The treaty he was reading wrinkled under his hand, but Sesshomaru ignored it. The words kept echoing in his mind. His half-brother was dead. His half-brother was dead, and he, Sesshomaru, hadn't even been the one to kill him.
No matter. There were treaties to be read. He looked down at the crackling scroll, and forced his eyes to follow the neat script. It didn't matter that the hanyou was dead, because there had been problems with sheep poaching on the eastern border, and local magistrates...
Magistrates.
God damned magistrates.
Oh, how he hated magistrates!
Loath though he might be to admit it, Sesshomaru knew he was not yet an adult. At his age, most youkai were still nomadic, wandering about, acquiring both land and skills. Thanks to his father's early expiration, Sesshomaru had inherited not only all of the Western Lands, but also the responsibilities and duties that came with ruling them. Which meant countless hours of meeting with delegates, doing paperwork, and forever listening to the complaints of those wheezing, whining magistrates!
He hoped that some horrible misfortune would befall them all.
In a sense, his relationship with Inuyasha had been necessary to maintain his sanity. Oh, his desire for Tessaiga had been genuine, there was no denying that. His father's illegitimate half-breed son ignorantly running around with the most glorious of the deceased lord's physical possessions was an injustice that caused Sesshomaru to seethe just thinking about it. Still, the vendetta admittedly carried some side benefits... When the horrors of official duty plagued him, the young lord could always count upon his hunt for Tessaiga as the perfect excuse to escape. Deliberately kicking his papers off his desk and onto the floor, he would rise, assemble his belongings -- Jaken and Rin -- and head out for the open road. The exercise was good for Rin, and it was always wise to get Jaken outside once in awhile, lest he grow domesticated. They would travel until Rin began to request bathroom breaks, at which point he would take his leave of them, and would go threaten Inuyasha. A bit of sparring, some taunting, and he'd be stress-free! After his sibling spat, he'd head back to uncover whatever shenanigans Rin and Jaken had gotten themselves into. By the time they had been located and rescued, he'd wasted a good three or four days without having to look a single magistrate in the face!
But those days were behind him now. His brother had been foolish enough to get himself killed, and Sesshomaru was so annoyed with this turn of events that he couldn't even find reason to avenge his death. He idly doodled a picture of himself standing triumphantly over an unconscious Inuyasha. This seemed a little too close to the truth, and he inadvertently winced. Abandoning his drawing, he began to scratch through the varnish of his desk with a hardened nail, carving into the solid wood beneath it. How had Inuyasha gotten himself killed? The hapless moron had actually been improving as of late, and it seemed so unlikely that Naraku had managed to get the better of him. Inuyasha had finally bested him, the young lord realized. Death, of course, was only a sign of failure, but at least Inuyasha had the honour of being extinguished in a glorious battle, while he himself was stuck with incessant meetings for the rest of the week.
'I am the only member of my family left...' The words echoed hollowly within him, even as he distantly wondered where such a thought had come from, considering he had always been (violently) reluctant to acknowledge Inuyasha's relation to him. His face darkened into a frown as he began to carve a miniature gomoku board into his desk. A thin sliver of wood curled around a sharp claw.
"Sir...?"
He glanced up, quickly moving the treaty to cover the vandalization of his own property. Oh goody. Magistrate. "Yes?" he said, in what he knew was a blasé tone.
The magistrate didn't seem to notice. "Well sir, I've been investigating those mysterious sheep poachings that were reported to you some time ago. The residents of Hitsuji district suspect it's the actions of ruffians from one of the neighboring districts. Now, I've spoken with several living in the Urufu district, and they say they know nothing about it. However, the nephew of the third village's headman says he saw..."
Sesshomaru allowed his eyes to drift towards the window, gazing out at the verdant forest that seemed to offer a peaceful, beckoning solitude.
Suddenly, he felt very, very alone.
Notes: My apologies for the shortness of this chapter, but this is a prologue of sorts, and also a test-run to see if I'll continue with this fic. It's been a long time since I've written one, so I'm kind of questioning my writing abilities at the moment, especially in light of how many better authors there are out there.
Also, although I despise review-mongering by authors, by all means, drop me a line. It doesn't have to be anything special -- I'm not asking for lengthy feedback. Just let me know that you prefer a universe where another chapter of this fic exists. It can be a letter, for all I care. "A." The letter "a" will be our secret, very short code for, "This fic does not displease me. Feel free to continue."
The ceremony honouring Inuyasha's death was a hodge-podge of my knowledge of Chinese and Japanese religious and funeral ceremonies, so I'm sorry to say it's far from accurate. However, in Japan, funerals are strictly Buddhist fair (rather than Shinto), so it is correct that Miroku would be covering that.
Kanzeon, better know as Guanyin, or Kannon, is a bodhisattva characterized by his/her compassion and role as a saviour for those in need of help.
Gomoku, or go, is a Japanese game similar to tic-tac-toe.