A/N: To my readers. Honestly, you must have more faith in this Shadow.
If I said I am writing a Sess/Kag fic then I am writing a Sess/Kag fic. I understand that the start of this fic is noticeably lacking Sesshomaru's character. However, I do not believe that jumping to conclusions before the plot has been outlined is the wisest thing to do.
I am well aware of the policy on ASS (lol ass) that prohibits any story not of the Sess/Kag pairing, because, really, I have been posting stories on the site for almost a year. While it is true that my inspiration for writing this fic came from my obsession with the Toga character, it remains my goal to have the result of this encounter to be a pairing between Sesshomaru and Kagome…which I think would be evident in both the fact that I have left this suggestion in my author's notes on more than one occasion and the fact that I titled this piece specifically to indicate that Toga's character is going to play a large part in the initiation of said pairing.
Still, it seems that there are still those who doubt me. So, as a result, being that I have no wish for an official complaint to be made to the administrators of this site that would ultimately lead to the deletion of this story, I have opted to revise my intended storyline. The encounter between Kagome and Toga is now going to be shortened to a point where I, personally, believe is terribly unrealistic; but it seems that this is the course I have been left with.
So, I apologize in advance to anyone who wasn't being skeptical about my intentions, and who, like me, were enjoying the fact that Toga was getting to play a big role in this story. And I will also apologize for the choppy flow of the chapter following, since it was not my intention to write it in this fashion.
Well, that said, let's get on with it.
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Repercussions and Regrets
Left behind in the clearing by the well, Toga remained sitting by the light of the fire. His thoughts were wandering, scattered bits of knowledge washing together with doubts, uncertainties, and regrets.
'Well,' he thought absently during a pause in his more destructive thoughts, 'at least I'm not bored anymore.'
But it was in this that lay the problem. Because of his actions, because of his own selfish desires, he had been the cause of a great wrong. If it had not been for him building the well, the girl, Kagome, would never have been taken from her home, the jewel that she was entrusted to protect would never have fallen into the hands of those who would use it for dark purposes, and she would never have been stranded in a time a full thousand years before that when she had been born.
All of it was his fault.
Taking in a long, cleansing breath, the Inu Lord attempted to clear his thoughts. His nose twitched as he began picking up an unusual scent, but since he realized the scent was coming from the girl's possessions, he simply brushed it off. He had more important things to think about.
If it had truly been his doing that had stranded them in this place, would he have not thought to warn the girl in the future of the events that would transpire? Or did it not work like that? Was his future self not permitted the memories of this current time until after the girl had made the crossing? No. That couldn't be right. After all, she had said herself that she knew his sons…which in itself was rather odd since, at the moment, he had no children. But if she did know his sons, and he had no reason to believe that she was lying, then why would she have been uncertain when she had first met him? More than that, why did she not know his name?
The answer, while rather obvious, was quite disconcerting. He wasn't alive in the time she had come from.
Unbidden, a cold shiver ran through his body at the thought. He tried taking in long breaths again to calm himself, but again, the scent from the girl's belongings caused his nose to twitch. What was it? He had been smelling it all day and it was driving him insane, but it wasn't like he could just walk up to the girl and start rubbing his nose in her belongings…that would be terribly undignified…not to say he wouldn't enjoy the experience of rubbing his nose in the girl's…He shook himself again. He really needed to stop thinking about her in such a way. But damn if that scent wasn't driving him nuts! Well…he paused for a moment to check his surroundings….she wasn't here now, and he didn't think she would be coming back very soon.
Smirking wickedly, he pulled himself up from his sitting position and made his way over to her large pack. Crouching down next to it, he took another moment to make sure he really was alone. Gods, but if father could see him now, reduced to sneaking around a human's belongings to appease his curiosity. It was ludicrous, he knew that, but he just couldn't help it.
He reached out and took hold of the bag, lifting it up to be better able to sort through the scents it carried. The most noticeable scent, of course, was that of the girl, but he could also detect the soft floral scent of a cleansing product of some sort settled into the strong, unfamiliar fabric, the light scent of forest soil and grasses, some rather unusual scents that he had never encountered before and which, for lack of a better explanation, he attributed to her unusual origins, but there was also…Yes, it was there, the scent that had been driving him mad with curiosity.
It was the scent of a male, but not just any male. This male wasn't quite human, but he wasn't quite youkai either. A hanyou. But what was more, the scent of the male was very like his own. No, it wasn't like his own, it was his. His blood ran through the veins of this hanyou boy. His son.
Pulling back in astonishment, the Inu allowed the bag to fall back to the ground.
'So the girl wasn't kidding when she told me of my sons. But a hanyou? I mated with a human? Then again, if the mother was anything like Kagome…'
Not allowing himself to finish that thought, he moved back to where he had been sitting by the fire. He had some more thinking to do. A lot more.
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Sitting high in the branches of one of the trees overlooking the well clearing, nearly 1000 years after the well had been built by his own father, the hanyou boy, Inuyasha, was doing some thinking of his own.
Night had long since fallen, but he had yet to return to the village and the rest of his group. He knew they were going to blame Kagome's departure on him. They always did. They would say that he hadn't been kind enough, or he had pushed her too hard, or he hadn't thought of her feelings, or some other nonsense that made them look to be fucking saints while he got the blame for everything that went wrong. It was ridiculous! And damnit! He just didn't want to listen to their fucking lectures right now.
Kagome was gone, gone back to her stupid home in the stupid future, leaving him behind, again, just so she could be lazy and hang out with her stupid friends and go to her stupid school. Why didn't she get it? He pushed them all so hard because that rat bastard Naraku was hunting the jewel just like they were, and every time that stupid girl made the group stop they were loosing ground. If Naraku managed to get ahold of any more of the jewel, he wasn't sure that they would actually be able to defeat the bastard.
And he would defeat him. He had made a promise, and he was going to keep it. He may not have been able to protect Kikyo from Naraku's wicked intentions when she was still alive, but things were different now, he was different now. He would destroy Naraku for all the pain he had caused, and when the jewel was completed, he would have his wish. But it would not be for himself that he was wishing for. Becoming a full demon just didn't seem so important anymore. But there was something, no, there was someone, who deserved to be wished for more than he.
But how the fuck was he supposed to get to wishing if that stupid Kagome was always running off and leaving him to rot in wait?! She needed a fucking leash. Oh, who was he kidding? If anyone was on a leash, it was him.
Absently, he brought his hand up to give a futile tug on the rosary beads encircling his neck. He cursed loudly. If it wasn't for the damn subjugation necklace, that stupid girl would never have been able to go home in the first place, not until she had finished her job.
Sighing, he was forced to amend his thoughts. He was kidding himself again. He knew, deep down, that he would still have given in to Kagome's desires to go home. All she would have had to do was start crying and he was like puddy in her hands. Damn females! If he were a betting man, and he was, he would lay a whole village worth of silks on the fact that women only cried the way they did so that they could get their way with males. The problem was, was that it fucking worked! And they knew it too!
Well, he wasn't about to let it happen to him…again. No, this time it would be Kagome that was apologizing. After all, he hadn't done anything wrong, right?
Mind made up, the hanyou leapt down from his perch into the well clearing. He walked towards the well with long, purposeful strides. He was on a mission. That mission: going into the future and dragging back one reluctant miko. It was a difficult mission, and he was likely to get 'sat' many, many, many times. But damn if he wasn't persistent. He would succeed.
So, with that in mind, the hanyou boy pushed off strongly from the ground and allowed himself to fall into the darkened depths of the well. Fully expecting to find himself immersed in the bright lights and swirling colors of the time portal, he was shocked stupid when instead his bare feet landed with a firm thud against the dirt at the base of the well.
"What the fuck?"
Ok, now, Inuyasha was no rocket scientist…and not simply because he had no fucking clue what a rocket was…but he was damn sure that that wasn't supposed to happen. There was something way off with this whole situation. The well had never refused him before.
Hoping beyond hope that it was just a fluke, the hanyou leapt out of the well, only to turn in the air and fall back down into the depths. But, like before, nothing happened. His feet touched down on the dirt bottom of the well with no portal opening to bring him to the future, or to Kagome.
The well was closed. Kagome had left, and there was no bringing her back. His world ground to a jarring stop. Kagome, his Kagome, the only friend he had ever had, the only person he had ever really trusted, was gone. And gone with her was his hope of ever finding the remaining shards of the jewel. Naraku would win. He would never have his revenge. He would never be able to keep his promise to the woman he loved. He would never be able to…
Overwhelmed with the implications of what had happened, Inuyasha sunk to his knees at the bottom of the well.
"No…" he whispered in disbelief. "This isn't happening. It can't be. Kagome…KAGOME!!"
His hands clenched tightly into fists. Angry, frustrated, and filled with hurt, he lashed out, hitting his fists hard into the ground. The skin on his knuckles tore open at the brutal treatment, blood flowing from the wounds; but he couldn't stop. Stopping would mean having to face the truth. Stopping would mean that the pain he was feeling was no longer physical. Stopping would mean he had given up.
But as his fists dug into the dirt at the base of the old well, he never noticed that there was something else tearing into his skin, that it wasn't simply dirt that was becoming embedded in his bloody knuckles. A dark, pulsing glow surrounded his hands, unnoticed by his hanyou eyes. And the angrier he became, the darker the light. It surged through his body in an unstoppable wave, the darkness calling upon the restless fires of his demonic blood.
When at last he stopped his self-inflicted punishment, it was not the hanyou that remained, but the demon. His bleeding eyes opened to the world, a monster set free without restraints, a monster created by the dark light of the Shikon.
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'The Shikon.' Still lost in his thoughts, and knowing nothing of the events happening just on the other side of the well, Toga continued trying to find an answer to his dilemma. 'The answer to this lies in that jewel. I am certain of it. But if what she said was true and the jewel could not carry to this time because it had not yet been created, then what happened to it? Was it left behind? If so, then how are we to reach it?'
But no matter the direction of his thoughts, he always came to the same conclusion: they would have to make a jewel of their own if they were ever to return to their rightful times. The question was though, how were they to do that?
'She said that it was impossible, but if that were the case, then the future she knows could not exist. It is obvious that I make it back to the time I came from, because if I didn't then it would be impossible for the elder son that she mentioned to have ever been born. So then how? How do we make something of such power that it can transverse the very fabric of time?
'Or, perhaps, it is not the power of the jewel that I should be thinking of. What was it she said? That the jewel must be in the hands of one who is pure enough to keep the demonic energy sealed within at bay? So the jewel was made from demonic energy…and sealed within a pure vessel? If that is true, then the dark ones she spoke of would seek to corrupt the purity of the vessel, thus releasing the dark energy. That would explain the dark energy I felt upon entering the well…but…I also felt the purity. It was not unlike her. But then, would the dark power be not unlike my own?
'Could it be possible that she and I could create another jewel? Or, if not that, find a way to combine our energies in such a way that the portal would open again? But how? How can we combine powers so different from each other? How can a youkai and a human release enough energy for such a thing without killing each other in the process? Unless…'
"Oh…Kami…What have I done?"
Toga would be left mo more time with his thoughts though. In the distance, a piercing scream rose up, and he knew it at once to be Kagome. In a blinding flash of light and speed, he left the clearing behind and went to her aid.
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"KAGOME!!"
The voice carried upon the wind to his sensitive ears. He could hear the panic and the desperation in the voice, and it was almost enough to make him smile.
'So, brother,' he thought disdainfully, 'Have you failed to protect yet another woman? How pathetic. Even with father's fang giving you strength, you are still nothing but a weak, pathetic, halfling.'
Lifting his nose to the breeze, the current Lord of the West, the Killing Perfection that was Sesshomaru, searched for the signs of a battle. The sharp, metallic scent of blood reached him, but instead of the human blood he had thought he would detect, the scent that reached him was that of a youkai, one that he had encountered before. His eyes narrowed in anger, knowing that the half-breed had once again been lost to his darker side.
'Father,' he cursed him in his mind. 'Shall I always be the one to pay the price for your sins?'
Still, not willing to allow such a filthy, mindless creature to taint his bloodline with its despicable acts, and knowing that he was the only being capable of bringing a stop to the hanyou's murderous rampaging, Sesshomaru altered his course and began making his way towards the best that he had the unfortunate distinction of calling brother.
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Ok, I hope that I have helped to appease some suspicions with that chapter. If you still have doubts, then read the fucking chapter again because I'm not going to spell it out for you.
Well, that was awfully sweet of me, wasn't it? Then again, I never really claimed to be a very nice person. In fact, I would be more inclined to say something along the lines of frigid bitch. But hey, that's just me ;P
VERY IMPORTANT: Since I now have everyone's attention, and since we are on the topic of pairings anyways. I would like to bring up the fact that even if I was writing an InuPapa/Kagome story, that the FFN site wouldn't allow me to label the pairing as such. Maybe it's just me, but I think the fact that they include Kaede in the character list and not InuPapa is very strange, if not offensive (because, really, who wants to read a story about Kaede? -shudders at the thought of all the wrinkly skin-) So, anyways, I got to thinking (always a dangerous thing where I'm concerned) that this oversight should be rectified. Given my newfound love of the character of InuPapa, I propose that we users of the FFN site get together and demand a fix to this gross oversight…Sadly, I am horribly lazy and completely unaware of how to go about such a thing. So, if anyone's interested in starting a petition, this Shadow would be ever so grateful and more than happy to sign on and to use my stories as advertisement.
Well, I guess that's about it.
Later
Shadow
Disclaimer: Despite the opinion of the voices in my head, I do not own Inuyasha.