Do You Remember, Love?
By: Kage Hasu
Beta: Ayaia of the Moon
Disclaimer: The men in black suits outside my door say I'm required to say the following don't belong to me: InuYasha and YuYu Hakusho. InuYasha and YuYu Hakusho belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Yoshihiro Togashi respectively.
Quote: "No living being is a one man show. Every decision you make will affect the countless people that care about you." – Genkai
Verse: "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" Psalm 27:1
A/N: Previous chapter have been beta'd and a few changes have been made to them.
Chapter 3: We Meet Again Part 1
It had been three months since my meeting with the human-who-was-not-human and there was not a day where my thoughts didn't invariably turn towards her. It was rather vexing. My subjects knew that something had happened in the human world . . . but none were brave enough to ask. Not even Hoksuhin, my right hand.
That was even more vexing.
My mind lingered far too often for my comfort on the swell of her breasts bared to my gaze after she had parted the collar of her yukata. It marveled on the contrast of inky black hair against the paleness of her skin. It loved thinking about her lips and her hands. This of course led to thoughts that are not suitable for the ears of children.
The subject of soul mates – much to my consternation – didn't cross my mind half as much as the way her eyes had twinkled when she was up to something or how stunning I thought her smile was. And the half that such bonds did cross my mind it wasn't to wonder over the mechanics of such a thing, but rather how the girl who was human-but-not had looked while explaining the concept.
And that would not do.
Not at all.
For a Mazoku to feel such things towards something that set one's instincts into overdrive – that was extremely dangerous. For my instincts to react so strongly to something like her – something I wasn't even sure what she was – was even more dangerous. Not only for the two of us, but also for my throne, my people, and my kingdom.
If my subjects felt that she was a threat to my kingdom, my rule, myself, or my sanity then they would eliminate her. The thing which worried me was this: she was a threat. She was a threat because in such a small amount of time – really only about an hour or so – she had ensnared me. The thought of her dying, of never seeing her again, filled me with such sadness that sometimes I had trouble taking in air. But really that was the problem.
No ruler could have such a weakness to exploit – for the safety of everything he held dear.
There is a reason that so many rulers are thought of as cold and uncaring. And the reason is: because when they care for something – when a monarch cares for something so much that they would give their very life to protect it – it is either their greatest strength (their kingdom) or their greatest weakness (their wife or children). And enemies used your weaknesses against you, they reveled in doing so.
They loved the look of hopelessness and defeat in your eyes as you realize that they took your most precious thing from you. They love that moment when you make a last desperate rush at them, to make them hurt for what you did to them and theirs – kingdom, wife, child, or friend.
I tell you this from experience, you know, for I am one of those who have done this time and time again.
I slumped tiredly, lazily resting my chin in a clawed hand. My gaze (heavy with disdain) lingered on the papers littering my desk. You'd think – wouldn't you – that in a world where the inhabitants love and thrive on chaos, destruction, and war that there wouldn't be anything so dull as paperwork.
Sigh.
But even in a world where there has been so much bloodshed that the sky is red instead of the blue of the Human World, there are such sad, tedious things as politics and paper trails. We do, after all, have a rather large treasury, and "one has to keep track of what is happening in the kingdom and where the kingdom's resources are going Your Majesty."
Not my words.
I held back a whimper at the piles of paper on my desk. I swore up and down that the stupid things were capable of breeding. Hoksuhin maintained that I had let my duties slide in the past three months. Incidentally, three months ago I encountered Kagome.
Faint footsteps echoed from the hall. Hurried, they were making their way up the stairs to the only tower room in the castle, to my office. I hurriedly tried to look like I had been doing paperwork for hours (No, I did not pretend to fall asleep and drool, ruining important papers).
Seitei, the shortest of the Four Monks, rushed into the room, panting lightly.
Hm. He'd have to step up his training.
'He's going to be begging for death by the time we're done with him.'
Oh, you hear that too? The Voice – naming it would just be further proof of my insanity – had been with me since birth. Sometimes, out of the corner of my eye I could almost imagine catching a glimpse of gold and blue. Still, it (he?) generally kept me out of trouble, insulted me, or gave advice. I'd just ignore it (him?).
'Oh well that's not a nice thing to say.'
"Milord," despite the fact he was obviously a bit out of breath, the words were calm and composed. I was reluctantly impressed. "Lord Sesshoumaru from the Western Moon Kingdom of the Human World and a child are here and request your presence in the Great Hall. He refuses to speak to anyone else."
There are four kingdoms in the Human World: The Western Moon Kingdom, the Eastern Forest Kingdom, the Northern Mountain Kingdom, and the Southern Sea Kingdom. The four rulers (the Dog, the Panther, the Dragon, and the Turtle) are known as lords as opposed to the Three Kings here in the Demon World.
I rose.
It was a grave insult to keep someone of such status and power waiting. Even half a decade ago I wouldn't have bothered; however, barely two years ago a youkai who had once been a hanyou and before that . . . a human, had been defeated by Sesshoumaru and a small group of humans and youkai. Word was that Sesshoumaru's power had risen exponentially during that time.
Out of the four lords, Sesshoumaru was the only one worth knowing in my opinion. This had little to do with the fact that his father, Touga, had been a good friend of mine. (In fact, I didn't even know the names of the Panther Lord or the Dragon Lord since Yusei and Ryukotsusei had been killed by the former Dog Lord)
My soft soled shoes made no noise on the stone floors as I made my way to meet with Lord Sesshoumaru and the . . . child . . .
"Seitei,"
He jumped, obviously not expecting me to talk to him.
'Twitchy little thing, isn't he?'
I held back a derisive snort. "Why would Lord Sesshoumaru bring a child with him?"
There was an awkward silence.
'Oh they didn't!'
"I'm not sure Milord." Seitei said rather sheepishly. "No one has inquired."
"They did."
My lips thinned.
Such a gross oversight. E, D, and C-class youkai and oni were always moving from the Human World to the Demon World, sometimes B-class youkai also traveled, but less often did A or S-class youkai find a reason to cross over. Sesshoumaru, who was a Lord, rarely ever left his lands never mind his world. For him to not only be in Demon World but at my castle . . . it had to be important. For him to bring a child with him . . .
"Sesshoumaru is a lord, Seitei, for him to leave both his lands and his world and come here is an oddity. But for him to come with a child is inconceivable. The identity of the child is of utmost importance in such a situation . . . and no one bothered to inquire as to the identity of such an important figure?" My voice was calm, belying the anger I felt at such thoughtless actions. Some of my ki lashed out at my companion; perhaps giving Seitei an idea of the anger my calm words might have disillusioned him too.
He was quick to reassure me that such an oversight would be rectified immediately. I nodded sharply. He gave me a short bow and a shaky "Milord" before rushing off.
Little more than a minute later I had reached the doors of the great hall. Heavy though they were I opened them easily. All eyes but two immediately jumped towards me.
It was a rather empty room; with great stone arches and minimal seating (it would just have to be replaced the next time someone lost their temper). The Four Monks were present, as well as a small scattering of some of my other subjects. Lord Sesshoumaru stood, resplendent in white and well protected in his armor.
I'd always marveled at the Moon Kingdom royalty's insistence on wearing white to all events. Both Touga and Sesshoumaru had worn white to battle and it was always perfectly perfect, even after the opposing army lay rotted and bloating in the sun. It boggled the mind; blood was so hard to get out.
Next to him was a tiny figure in a heavy white cloak. The hood was drawn so low over the child's face that my eyes could barely see even the bottom half of her face (for such delicate features could only belong to a female). One tiny hand had parted the folds of the cloak and grasped the end of Sesshoumaru's trailing sleeve in what could easily be mistaken as insecurity, but which looked more like a restraining or calming hand than anything to me.
For some reason . . . the little girl seemed rather familiar to me. As if I'd met her before. But that was, of course, impossible. I hadn't been to the Western Lands since Touga's death a little more than two hundred years ago; this fragile little thing couldn't be more than a fifty.
A low growl reached my ears. Looking up my eyes met the burning golden gaze of the girl's companion. The message in the deadly stare was crystal clear: Back off!
I chuckled darkly. As if.
"I heard you requested my presence Lord Sesshoumaru. I am quite interested in what business a Lord from the Human World could have here." My gaze returned to the child's silent figure beside him. "And to bring a child with you no less."
A slight smile tugged the lord's lips upwards.
I felt a burst of curiosity. From what I remembered (and it hadn't changed from what I'd heard) Sesshoumaru was as emotional as an ice cube and about just as warm.
'The ice cube has feelings after all.'
He glanced down fondly at the girl before placing a heavy hand on a tiny shoulder.
"She is anything but a child Milord; she's actually older than you." I gave no indication of my incredulity. There were many raised eyebrows in the chamber as the gathered digested that claim.
Eyes were drawn to the no-really-a-child as an outraged hiss issued from the darkness beneath the hood. The hood tilted just enough that one could easily imagine bright eyes glaring at her stoic companion.
"Sesshoumaru-chan," she drawled sweetly, "When you are in possession of a woman's age you do not go about spreading exactly how old she is to almost strangers . . ."
She was still talking but I couldn't for the life of me tell you what she said. The bell-like quality of Sesshoumaru's companion brought me back three months ago in a tiny hut on the outskirts of a small unimportant village somewhere in the Dragon's territory.
I hadn't moved a muscle since she had started talking but the only one who had possibly noticed my uncharacteristic silence and inactivity was the (rather ironically) the cause of the whole thing. Sesshoumaru was gazing at me in thinly veiled amusement, blatantly ignoring the girl giving him a piece of her mind. Fortunately she seemed to be very used to this, as she made no move to indicate that his lack of attention would cause her to figuratively 'fly off the handle.'
'Hm, quite a sight that would be wouldn't it?' The Voice purred suggestively. I could almost 'see' the leer on his (its?) face.
Regaining my composure, and hoping desperately that my face wasn't red, I approached the two people causing so much wild chaos in the normally controlled chaos that ran rampart throughout Demon World. I tried not to stare at Kagome but I couldn't prevent my gaze from returning to her form every once in awhile.
"I see," I said, referring to the new knowledge of the not-child. "Now, what is it that you have come here for?" I was being blunt, but being me I could get away with it.
One of the few perks of being the most powerful youkai in the four realms.
'Modest, aren't you?'
"There is a thief which has stolen something very . . . precious to me," a slight nod to indicate the girl beside him. "Kagome has been informed that the thief will make his way here in nine weeks. I have duties to attend to in the Western Lands and cannot pursue him or wait for him here. I am requesting that you give Kagome a place to stay while she waits for the thief."
As much as I liked the idea of Kagome staying in my castle for nine weeks, that story had quite a few holes in it. Apparently I wasn't the only one to notice this.
"Who told her such a thing? How do they know that he will come here? Why would he? If they know he will come here then why don't they know where he is now?" Hoksuhin questioned, sounding very much like a gossiping housewife to my mind.
I ignored the sounds of hysterical laughter from a source even I couldn't see.
Two tiny hands rose and pulled down a heavy woolen hood and for the first time in three months I saw Kagome's face. My breath caught in my throat and I was sure that if I had a heartbeat it would have faltered and stopped.
"Kirara told me." Her soft voice was strong and caught and held everyone's attention. "She is always getting visions of things that have yet to be. It is what she is." She shrugged a petite shoulder carelessly. "He is not coming here specifically but he will pass by just a kilometer and half in that direction." She pointed in a direction that was a few degrees off due north.
"Does this . . . Kirara know where he is now?" Hoksuhin questioned again. Kagome blinked innocently.
"Not her, but her mate does." She corrected.
"Then why do you not go there?"
"Destiny is Destiny." Well that wasn't at all ambiguous was it? "Besides, I really want to meet someone and if I don't stay here for at least nine weeks then he won't even be born." Kagome pouted prettily at the thought. "Plus, this way InuYasha will kill someone who would have otherwise killed someone else who is the ancestor of the Battousai. Kirara isn't quite sure how that works out but she did some research on how we should approach the problem and she found that without the Battousai the future of Japan is quite dark. Quite literally. Her visions just went black. Apparently the Battousai is one of those really important people that without him or his ancestors the fabric of reality tears." She seemed quite unconcerned about that fact.
"You don't seem to find that worrisome at all." Nankai, the fourth monk, commented.
"Well, no not really. We've been making sure that Time and Destiny never butt heads for far too long to be worried. They do argue quite a bit."
"How do you mean?"
"Well sometimes something happens where Time says that so-and-so person has to die because that hit was a fatal, but Destiny says that that person has to live because she has big plans for them. Then they argue quite loudly causing Shippou to turn back time so that I'm able to step in and interfere and get it right. If we don't then we do it over and over until everything's back on track. (I believe that's what mortal's call a time loop.) It's rather hard though," she continued, almost to herself, "to keep things the way that we remember them so that things turn out the way that they must to lead up to a series of events that lead to us becoming what we are now so that we could make sure that everything turns out the way that we remember it. Frankly it gives me a headache anytime I think about it too hard, but I suppose that's time travel for you."
Her voice was a low, musing mutter by the time she'd finished and I had the feeling that she'd forgotten she even had an audience. An awkward cough caused her head to snap to the culprit.
She shrugged rather self-consciously.
"Yes, well . . . InuYasha will accidently pass through a portal between the two worlds two days after he kills the person in question. He will appear just a few hours to the north and I'll be able to catch him then. Silly mutt." She grinned wickedly. Several of my people shivered.
'Now really,' it (he?) said irritably, 'such an evil expression just shouldn't be able to appear so easily on such an angelic face.'
I nodded in agreement absently. Something about the name 'InuYasha' had been bothering me.
"Silly mutt," Kagome had said.
It clicked.
"InuYasha . . ." I said slowly, rolling the name around on my tongue. "Isn't that the name of your younger half-brother Lord Sesshoumaru?" The man stiffened, his disgust at hanyou in general and his father's bastard child well-known, but much to my surprise, answered.
"Yes, the thief is indeed my half-brother." Hm~. Well that was bound to be an interesting story.
". . . I see."
"I'm sure you do." I ignored the slightly amused tone to the younger man's voice.
"Might you share exactly how the Heir Apparent to the Western Lands became a common thief . . . from his own house no less?"
XXXX
Unbeknownst to the two Toshin their meeting was not going unwatched.
"It's been a really long 500 years . . . hasn't it my dearest Sango?" A deep, masculine voice purred. A feminine figure flinched.
"I just wanted to be sure that he was the best choice for her." This time it was woman's voice who spoke.
"Che, if I didn't know better I would have thought that you would have preferred she mated Sesshoumaru, Sango . . . so long as it wasn't the Mazoku." Another male voice spoke, this one not as deep as the first and with a mischievous quality to it.
A short silence before. . .
"Shippou-chan please don't talk like that. You sound like InuYasha when you say things like that." 'Shippou-chan' shrugged before whispering in the fourth figure's furry ear.
"Notice Sango didn't deny it, Kirara?" Two hands – one slim and feminine, the other strong and masculine – rose to politely cover amused smiles and stifle laughter (which they managed to turn into short coughs) as 'Sango' turned her glare on them before turning to the culprit.
*bonk*
"I do believe she heard you Shippou." The first voice deadpanned. Clawed hands grasped painfully at a large bump. Slightly teary eyes glared at the first figure.
"Whatever gave you that idea, Miroku?"
'Miroku' shrugged carelessly ("Just a thought") before turning to the last figure.
"Kirara, do you know what Lady Kagome has been up to in the past couple decades. I don't see her as much as I'd like." Miroku sounded very regretful about that fact. Sad, old eyes gazed at the other three.
"She's been in the Human World and the Spirit World, keeping an eye on all her descendants, especially in recent years. She's really taken a shine to that Yusuke boy. I believe it might be because he reminds her so much of Raizen. The past five centuries have been really hard on her; there are shadows in her eyes that none of the bloodiest, cruelest youkai wars caused . . .
"She's taken up a teaching position at Yusuke's school. In the Spirit World I believe she's taken the form of one of Koenma's ogres. Jorge Saotome, I think . . ." 'Kirara's' voice was husky and decidedly feline-like.
Sango, Miroku, and Shippou stared at Kirara in shock. An embarrassed blush rose on her cheeks.
"But . . . but Jorge has been Koenma's help for more than two and a half centuries." Sango protested.
"Yes, she has been planning this for awhile hasn't she?"
Silence.
"We really hurt her by keeping the two of them apart . . . didn't we." Shippou whispered. Miroku turned scornful eyes on the younger man.
"She wouldn't talk to the three of you for almost three centuries . . ." Shippou, Kirara, and Sango flinched violently. "Before that the longest she gave any of us the silent treatment was eleven days when Shippou created a time loop for twenty-three years so that he could get the date with that mortal girl perfect . . . she was stuck quelling the uprising in the Netherworld with me (the same four and a half-ish hours) for 23 years, 10 months, 15 days, 19 hours, and 55 minutes. . ." Kirara's hands clenched at the reminder of the pretty human. Sharp claws punctured her hands, blood running down her fingers to plop softly on the ground.
"We had to make sure he wasn't like other youkai, wanting to taint her pure soul. Like that Itsuki with Shinobu." Shippou defended weakly.
"For five centuries?" Miroku retorted scornfully. The other three flinched again. "Not only did she have to give up her child so that the fabric of the world wouldn't rip, but she also had to leave the man she loved – the father of her child – for no reason other than a silly made up trial and your three's overprotectiveness. Because that's all that silly trial was – overprotectiveness." By the time he had finished the other three were as pale as ghosts and the two females had misty eyes.
"Do you think she'll forgive us?" Sango whispered.
"She's talking to you isn't she," Miroku returned harshly. "But I don't think she'll be able to fully forgive you until she is in Raizen's arms again. When that happens she very liable to forgive and forget." He sounded disapproving of the fact that Kagome could forgive the other three for keeping her away from her other half for five centuries. He knew that had anyone tried to keep Sango from him for even a fraction of that time he would have created chaos and mass panic. Possibly a couple million undead zombies ravaging the countryside would have gotten the message across. Possibly.
"I hope so," Kirara murmured. "We've missed her."
"Can I go get her?" Shippou pleaded with Miroku. "It will have been exactly five centuries in 98 minutes and 15 . . . 14 . . . 13—" ("We get the idea," Kirara interrupted.) "— seconds." Miroku stared blankly at the former fox youkai.
"I don't know where she is. Finding people is Lady Kagome's expertise, it's how she's evaded the three of you for so long." He added blandly.
They smiled sheepishly. Miroku rolled his eyes. Sango, Kirara, and Shippou sighed in relief at the small gesture of forgiveness.
"Che," Miroku said, looking at the two figures on the screen, "This will be an awkward meeting."
There was an awkward silence. Shippou chortled happily.
"Now Miroku's the one who sounds like InuYasha," he chuckled before disappearing into thin air.
A pause . . . then *slap*
"Keep your hands to yourself. Stupid pervert."
A content sigh.