Kagome felt light headed as she woke up. She hardly opened her eyes before letting out a slight moan.
She felt Naraku's arms tighten around her. She looked down, startled. How had she not noticed before?
She put her hand against his arm, her skin warm where his was cool. She tried to gently pry it off, but it just tightened a little more. She knew he was awake now.
"Mmm…" he moaned gently, his breath against her neck. Kagome winced at the chills that crept up her spine.
He kissed the base of her neck, and her flesh began to burn. She clenched her eyes shut and the grip on his arm tightened. "Let…go…"
He didn't seem to catch her warning tone. He pulled her robe down lower and began to kiss down her back. She felt her forehead and cheeks heat. She brought back her elbow, slowly, and let it meet his chest. She used that to push him away. "Stop it."
He chuckled, placed one last soft kiss on her bare flesh, he pulled the neck of her kimono back up to where it was supposed to be. She tightened it around her body and began to slide from his grip.
He let her. Kagome slid off the bed and made her way across the room. Turning, she took a glance at his devilish face, formed into a grin. She winced, pulling her kimono more tightly around her. Still, she felt as if he were undressing her with his eyes.
Kagome left the room, happy she wasn't stopped. She was glad he wouldn't keep her cooped in the bedroom.
As she stepped out, she wasn't sure where to go, but as soon as the thought crossed, a delightful aroma drifted through the air around her. She felt like a dog, her nose in the air as she sniffed for the source.
When she turned the corner, she spotted a woman, humming an unfamiliar tune. Kagome stared at the back of her head, studying her. Her hair, what might've once been black, was now a faded grey, pinned to the back of her head with a pair of chopsticks, her skin pasty. The woman was cooking. That was the sweet aroma she smelled. She smelled rice and beans and many more unnamable foods. But it delighted her to hear the soft clinking of chopsticks against plates. Something about the scene reminded her of her mother…
"No need to spy on an old lady, if you don't mind. Come on out and eat your breakfast." Even her voice was as delicate as her slender, yet slightly aged hands.
A bit embarrassed, Kagome emerged from the doorway. The woman didn't even turn. Kagome sat down on a pillow.
The woman took a few more minutes to put the food on the trays. When she was done, she carried a tray filled to the brim with potatoes and rice and beans, and a small bowl of soup on the side. Kagome couldn't tell what kind, but she saw bits of seaweed and the innards of crab legs and oysters. She let the smell of it moisten her mouth, and then, she began to devour it.
The woman sat down in front of her and began to eat her food. She didn't even look at Kagome. She noticed how the woman seemed to feel around her plates and her tray. It was a bit strange.
"If you insist on staring, I suggest it's on your own food. You still have some left."
Kagome looked down at her remaining bites of soup. "I'm sorry." She eliminated the idea that the woman might've been blind. She wouldn't have known there was food on her plate if she couldn't see it.
The woman looked up at her-though she didn't really...look at her. Something in her eyes was vacant. As if she were staring at her, but not really seeing her.
"It's quite alright, Deary," the woman replied with a grin. "Would you like some more?"
Kagome looked down at her food, the empty bowl with only a few more grains of rice then at the bowl of soup. She ate the last few bites and shook her head, "No, I'm fine."
"Please, don't talk with your mouthful. I got quite enough of that when Naraku was a child."
Kagome became silent. This woman lived with him?
"What?"
"I think you can hear me pretty well."
The woman got to her feet, her tray in her hand. She set it down on the counter and came back to Kagome. She gripped her arm in her hand, her touch soft and gentle.
"Naraku was right when he said you were small." The woman gently squeezed her arm a few times. "I'll have to work on putting some meat on those bones."
Kagome smiled as she released her. "So...you live with Naraku?"
The woman began to clean her plates. "Have for all my life."
"I'm confused."
The woman sighed. "Do you know the mistress Kikyo?"
"Very well."
"You know of Onigumo, then, I presume?"
"Yes," Kagome replied. She knew of their relationship, too.
The woman sighed, as if beginning a long and tiresome tale. "I am his brother."
"Naraku's?"
"Whom else would I be speaking of?"
Kagome swallowed the lump in her throat. "Why haven't I heard of you before?"
"I've remained anonymous."
"Why's that?"
"For a long portion of my life, I was ashamed of myself. People treated me like I was worthless. They treated all half breeds that way..."
"You're a half breed...? As in, a demon?"
She nodded. "I was a very fragile child. When people told me things, I believed them. When they told me I didn't belong, I believed that, too.
"But my older brother...he was always there for me. He would tell me otherwise. Always very protective of me, too," she said with an airy laugh.
Kagome waited for her to go on.
"He was known as Onigumo, back then. And when I became blind, well, he was even more so protective." She sipped something from a green cup. "Funny, isn't it? How a human boy can love her half demon sister more than anyone in the world..."
She found it nearly unbelievable that Naraku had loved someone. But he was human, back then.
"What about your parents? Didn't they love you?" Kagome asked hesitantly, unsure of how far she should push the subject.
"My parents did, of course. Naraku's parents were human, but when his father died, he became a silent child. And then, my father came along. My mother fell in love with a demon, the very thing that had killed her first husband and Naraku's father. Naraku wasn't very fond of him. He was scared to death of him, actually, though my father was very sweet. He tried many times to have Naraku open up to him, but nothing worked. And then I was born..."
She hesitated. "It seemed that I was able to bring them together. When I was born, Naraku and my father finally had something in common."
Kagome asked, "What was that?"
She smiled. "They both loved me dearly."
Kagome smiled, but her happiness was cut short.
"But when my mother died, he became depressed. He became distant from Naraku and I. When Naraku was at the edge of his teenage years, my father perished in a fire that had destroyed our home. We were on our own."
Kagome swallowed, her throat becoming dry. She had not expected Naraku—Onigumo—to really have a heart. Or had one. She looked at the woman, searching for the look of a liar, but unable to find one. She was telling the truth. She really was.
The woman continued, "Onigumo resolved to deceit to get what we needed from life. He became overwhelmed with the power he gained. There was one night when he went too far…" Her face became distant, lost in memory. "He tricked a bandit leader into trying to receive the Jewel of Four Souls, which a priestess carried. This bandit leader did not know there was a half demon keeping a watchful eye on the priestess. Still, he lived the encounter, losing only an eye, and came back to camp only to find the Onigumo had made off with his troops. He discovered Onigumo and his troops at an inn down the road celebrating their change in leadership. Enraged, the bandit leader blew up the inn, but the charred body of Onigumo somehow managed to survive the blast, as did I, due to my being a half demon. I only lost my sight. The bandit then threw the barely-living Onigumo off a cliff. Onigumo, as strong-willed as he is, managed to survive, and was found at the edge of the water by the priestess Kikyo, before I was able to. I followed her as she took him to a cave, a safe haven where she could nurse him back to health in peace. I never revealed myself to her, and only visited when she left.
"Though one day, I came to him and he was gone. Without a word. And then, a day later, he came to me in a new body. It wasn't that hard to figure out that he had sold his body to demons, but I didn't care. My brother and I were now the same. His lust for power may have clouded his reasoning, but I still stand by him as his brother."
"I…I have a question." Kagome squirmed uncomfortably.
"And what question ponders your mind?"
"I thought demons stayed young." She didn't like pointing out the woman's appearance, but it was stabbing at her with an invisible needle. She had to know.
"Half breeds get traits from parents, human and demon. It seems I gained everything besides long life. Most demons can live up to three hundred years! I am cursed with the human trait most half demons are lucky enough to avoid."
"I'm…sorry I asked."
"Nonsense! You wanted to know, so you asked. I'm proud of that." The woman regained her sweet composure, her smile warm.
Kagome nodded, though she knew she could not see it.
"Now, would you like to come to the river with me? I've needed some help with the chores for a while now, and you seem like a lively young woman."
"I'd love to."
"Great, now follow me, please."
"Miss, uh, may I have your name?"
"Well, I think your name is pretty enough, why would you want mine?"
Clearly, her socialization skills were rusty. Kagome corrected her, "No, I meant if you could tell me your name."
"Ah. Oh, yes, you can, Kagome. Atsuko is my name."
Very pretty, and fitting for her. Kind child, it meant.
"May we go, now?"
"Yes we can," Kagome replied. At least one good thing came out of this.
She had met someone new, who wasn't completely out of their mind.
