Before I begin this chapter, yes I realize that somewhere deep down in the manga, Kagura...um...passes on, but in the words of the great Clark Gable - "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." Not to be so harsh but it's the truth. Besides, I haven't read it anyway. So in my simple little mind, Kagura is still kicking and alive.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. Those great talents belong to someone else.

Constellation of Blood - Farewell To The Days Of Freewill

It was late in the night when Kagura awoke to the sound of breathing beside her bed. She shot up, her breath catching in her throat when the moon illuminated Sesshomaru's silent figure. She raised a questioning eyebrow, wondering why he was just standing there, until she realized that he wasn't even awake. The man was sleepwalking! Kagura quietly kicked off the fresh sheets from her legs and dangled them over the edge.

"Sesshomaru..", she whispered softly, trying her best to keep Nigi from hearing down the hall. She watched his brow furrow in anger, a hint of fang poking out over his bottom lip.

"It is mine..." This surprised the wind demon, for the hatred leaking from his mouth was a rare thing to hear. Sure, he would speak of the same revulsion for Naraku and Inuyasha, but this was different. It was as if he was hurting while speaking; as if every word spoken strained his mentality. She calmly placed her hand on his shoulder. She once heard that it was best not to wake up a sleepwalker but Sesshomaru was scaring her and she wasn't one to be terrified while sleeping.

"Sesshomaru...wake up..." Her crimson orbs grew wide as she was shoved against the wall, a single clawed hand outstretched and winding its way around her neck like a serpent. Kagura tried to shake him out of his sleepy trance, but could not reach. His grip tightened, closing off the air to her lungs. In a moment, her entire wind pipe would collapse under the demon lord's strength.

"You took HER and now you want my land as well?! What kind of fool do you took take me for?!" His voice was low and dangerous. Kagura whimpered in a last attempt to save herself as blackness began clouding her vision.

"Sessho....mar..u..." The sensitive ears of the demon prince caught the high-pitched sob of Kagura and forced the rest of his mind and body awake just as she fell limp into his arm. A red imprint of his attempted strangulation was apparent on his skin and he had to rethink the past few minutes in his head.

"Kagura....." He gently shook her until the air became steady and the dizziness disappeared. The wind sorceress sat up and crawled to the nearest corner. Never had the great Sesshomaru attacked her. Even when she had insulted his power, he never touched her. She rubbed at the mark on her neck, trying to recollect her thoughts. She was scared. Not only for herself but for the man sitting across from her as well. "I apologize for my actions tonight -"

"What was all that about?" Sesshomaru lifted up his head to meet Kagura's heavy gaze, expecting a hard scowl but not receiving one.

"I usually do not sleep for a demon does not need much of it, but I supposed fatigue caught up with me and -"

"You know that's not what I meant!" Her voice was like a hiss - hushed but extremely fatal if taken lightly.

"I know not of what you speak of." She shook her head in frustration. She knew he was hiding something, something big in his life, and she wanted to know desperately. ANYTHING to get inside of the mysterious Sesshomaru.

"That's a damn lie, too! I heard you talk Sesshomaru. You mentioned something about someone taking her away but they wouldn't get your land."

"It's not of your concern." He stood and began to walk out of the room, his features revealing nothing to Kagura.

"Who was it you were talking to, Sesshomaru?! Was it Nigi?!" Her fascination was getting deeper by the second.

"I SAID IT'S....it's not of your concern, Kagura. Leave it at that." His demand was simple and clear but didn't falter Kagura's enthrallment in the matter. She slid back into bed as Sesshomaru closed the giant door linking their rooms together.

She had tried, but no matter what, Kagura could not fall asleep again. It was nearing dawn soon and she hadn't slept a wink since the confrontation between Sesshomaru and herself. She turned her thin form to the window where a single beam of moonlight shined through the open window. It was odd, how the beam only hit one of the floorboards but nothing else. Could it be that it was divine intervention taking place? A sign of some sort? She sighed and mentally berated herself for believing such foolishness as a cloud darkened her room. However, fate was an entirely different subject and Kagura hopped from the bed once more and squatted beside the floorboard the moonlight had lightened once more.

It was hollow, she noticed, as she knocked upon the hard wood. And it was quite easy to lift from its position in the floor. Dust formed a thick cloud around Kagura, causing her to choke on the grit and grime. But as the dust cleared, she noticed a small, elegantly decorated box. Covered in layers of forgotten hopes and caped in cobwebs, it seemed to still glow with an ethereal gleam. Kagura blew off a bit of the dust and slid her fingers underneath the latch that held it closed. Carefully, she pulled it open and gasped at a painting that lay on top of other items. It was a portrait of a young woman, possibly in her late teens, with fiery long hair and an equally warm smile. She sat with her legs to the side and her eyes closed but she was obviously special to someone in the house and Kagura was ready to present the painting to her first guess.

She raised her hand to grasp the doorknob, bracing herself on entering Sesshomaru's room. What the man did in the privacy of his own, she had never seen, nor did she ever intend to. But the fact of the matter was, she was curious. She turned the knob delicately and entered the lavish bedroom of the lord of the western lands and stood frozen beside his bed in the dark upon noticing that he wasn't beneath the covers.

"What do you want Kagura?" She could feel herself jump out of her skin for a moment. Her red eyes darted to the corner of the room where a stealth like Sesshomaru sat. Kagura felt a gulp rise up in her throat and tried her best to swallow without showing the fear she knew she was feeling. She raised the picture in front of her, almost using the ancient piece of artwork as a shield.

"Who is she?"

"Where did you get that?" A golden glint was reflected by the moonlight, further intensifying his glare and causing Kagura to shiver slightly.

"I asked you first." Her heart was beating a thousand times faster than the demon lord but her gaze was just as deadly as his own. In a flash, Sesshomaru was right beside her, plucking the portrait for her pale fingers and throwing it into the opposite wall. Kagura's rosy eyes widened in horror as the graceful image of the strange woman was shattered into a million shards of color and wood. "What...what did you do that for?!"

"Kagura." For most, this would be warning enough. But Kagura was too fueled by the destruction of something so beautiful and innocent, that she could not comprehend her actions or words.

"It was just a picture! You didn't have to go and break it!" Her fists were balled up and the blood quickly washed away from the bones inside making her knuckles turn as white as the sheets she had tried to sleep in.

"Kagura." His voice was deeper this time, with a hint of a sound that Kagura had never heard before. It was of a predatorily nature; as if she was being hunted in a giant forest rather than standing in a square bedroom. His were now nothing than mere slits of amber, his anger turning them into pools of molten gold.

"Who was she dammit? It's just a question! Was she horrible to you or something in the past?! So horrible that you had to go and destroy any remembrances of her?! Or was she something you couldn't have?" There wasn't another warning, just the hanging head of a demon defeated. Kagura could feel her skin turn cold. "I get it nowâ€.you couldn't have her. The great Sesshomaru finally couldn't get something he wanted. And it kills you soâ€."

"Watch your tongue Kagura." A smirk began to pull at the corners of Kagura's lips, slowly forming into a sly grin.

"That's what it isâ€you wanted her for your own. Just like Tetsusaiga. It's a shame you're unable to get either" He had thrown out three warnings and she had ignored all three. It was time that she was taught to obey orders when they are given. In less than a second, Kagura was seized by the wrist and thrown upon the great lord's mattress as if she were nothing but a petty rag doll. Her wrists were controlled by his own strong grip high above her head and her legs were kept from struggling by his own knees.

"I get what I want..." Kagura tried her best to escape by squirming but she was locked in an iron grip. "...always" Before a gasp could escape her mouth, a kiss was planted neatly upon her mouth, in a forceful attempt to show what words couldn't.

In the same instant that the kiss had started, it had ended; leaving a perplexed Kagura sprawled out on the bed and no Sesshomaru in sight. Gracing her blushed lips, she stood up from the bed and walked over to the annihilated painting. With the greatest care, she picked up each piece and neatly placed them into her arms, and taking a moment to focus on the lovely woman who had managed to unhinge Sesshomaru.

"I don't know who you are," she sighed. "But I wish you could tell how you won that man's heart for my own knowledge." She tucked the last shred into her kimono pocket and retreated back into her room.

Outside, Sesshomaru stared intently at the lake that separated him and his rightful own. Why? Why had he done such thing to someone like Kagura? He had remembered being lost in thought when she had entered his room, looking like a lost child with something important. And something important was what she indeed had. But it was something he had wanted to forget; something he wanted to store away for as long as possible. It was a sign of weakness, it was. And for it to fall into Kagura's hands didn't help his situation. She had managed to do what most found impossible: anger him. Not irritate him to the point of killing, but true anger. He had wanted to rip her to bits for retrieving that portrait and bringing it into his presence. But he had almost killed her moments before and it bothered him. For one thing, she had heard things that most hadn't. And second, he had lost control; a trait he had never gained and had never intended to gain. But he had lost control tonight and almost killed Kagura. What did it matter anyway? He just needed a few of her skills. Skills he could find in any other woman.

But what about that kiss? He may have wanted to hit until she was black and blue but when she was standing in front of him, her cheeks tinted with a bright pink from the anger she was emitting and her body radiating of feminine glow, he had wanted to take right then and there. There was no reasonable explanation for this, except that it was mating season for demons. But Kagura wasn't your ordinary demon and he had never bothered with the season. He had no reason to. Whatever the cause for his actions, he had to be sure they never reoccurred. Sesshomaru closed his eyes and began to meditate silently as dawn approached.

A soft knock brought Kagura out of her trance and she suddenly realized that morning was greeting her with open arms. Was it dawn already? She rubbed at her eyes and sat back on her heels to gaze at her work. In front of her, was an almost perfectly restored painting of the mystery woman. Kagura had managed to piece the painting back together in the wee hours of the morning and was very pleased with the outcome.

"Come in." There was a small creak from the door opening.

"Good morning, Kagura. I hope you slept well?" Nigi's masculine voice penetrated something within Kagura.

"You could say that, I suppose." She ran a tired hand through her raven locks and sighed for the umpteenth time that day.

"Kagura, would you consider taking a short stroll with me this fine morning?" Kagura smiled bashfully before nodding. This was too easy.

"Could you possibly explain something to me while we walk?" Nigi grinned, bearing a set of the whitest fangs she had ever seen.

"Of course. What about, my dear?" She yanked on his sleeve, pulling him towards the restored portrait. "Oh, I see."