Author's Note: I do not own any InuYasha characters or InuYasha himself. I do however own this story, thank goodness. So, here's chapter 9, ENJOY!
Tsuki and Taiyo
Ch. 9
"Kagome…really?" Sango said, even more confused now than she had been when InuYasha had said her true name for the first time in nearly 500 years.
"Are you sure it's really her?" Miroku said, but the glare he got from InuYasha was the only answer he needed. Miroku sat back against the couch and folded his arms. His shaggy brown hair fell across his eyes as he hung his head, deep in thought. InuYasha breathed a heavy sigh as he looked towards the broken window in his living room. Although it was covered in heavy duty plastic, a cold breeze swept through the room. Sango shivered and pulled her sweater tighter around her, trying to shield herself from the phantom draft. InuYasha looked back towards his two loyal and old friends and sat up straight, trying to remain strong.
"I've waited so long to see her again, and now this," Sango said as she collapsed against the back of the couch, shaking the meditating monk slightly. He didn't seem to notice though as his chest rose and fell slowly, as if he was in a deep sleep. Sango glanced over at him and knew that he was trying to remember all of his old teachings in order to try and add a bit of help to the situation.
"We've all waited Sango," InuYasha said as he stood and walked over to the covered window, peering out into the white landscape before him as he had done when Kagome had disappeared not to long before. Sango walked up to him and placed a delicate, reassuring hand on his shoulder. He looked over at her and the way his sandy colored eyes looked at her made her heart ache.
"We need to go talk to her mother," Miroku suddenly said. Both Sango and InuYasha turned towards him as he rose from the couch and turned towards them. His now violet eyes were alive and burning with forgotten knowledge and as she looked deep within them, she remembered how much she had loved to stare into their amethyst depths.
"Why?" Sango asked as she walked up to him. He put a hand on her cheek and traced the once hard features of her fair face. Time had eased the battle hardened features of the slayer, but Miroku could still see the fierce and formidable women that he had grown to love and cherish. She looked into his eyes and the uneasiness in her them faded.
"Because her mother isn't her mother," Miroku said as he dropped his hand from her face and walked to InuYasha. The hanyuo looked at him skeptically and the monk could see the old uneasy, and protective half-demon he had once grown so accustom too. He saw the question that was on the tip of the hanyuo's tongue and Miroku nodded in understanding.
"If Kagome has truly been changed, this means that the hibernating part of her was never human. Thus her mother is not truly her mother. If a demon heart is what Kagome truly posses, then her mother must surely know her true heritage. We must go to Mrs. Higurashi and have her tell us the truth. Kagome is depending on us," Miroku said, earning a nod from InuYasha. Sango walked up to join the two and she also nodded, her long black hair fluttering over her shoulders.
"Just like old times," she said as the three friends looked at each other and wondered what lied ahead.
She knew she should be cold because she could feel the wind against her skin and the snow beneath her feet, but no chill ran through her. She looked straight ahead into the white forest she had been wandering through for some time and watched as her breath puffed from her mouth and swirled in the cold air, dancing to an unknown tune. She raised a hand to it and ran her fingers through it, watching as it clung to her fingers like a white satin glove. She sighed heavily and dropped her hand, slicing through the mist she had formed. She continued to walk aimlessly, thinking about what she had done to him; how she was barely able to control herself and what she had become. She found a large felled tree that lay near a small stream and sat down on it. She looked up towards the tree tops and felt small flakes of white innocents land on her face and melt, making small streams of their own. She looked back down and at the small, unfrozen body of water at her bare feet. She bent down on her knees in the snow and looked into the moving stream hesitantly. She was afraid of what would be staring back at her from the uneven surface of the water, but she swallowed the lump of fear that had formed in her throat and bent over the clear water, placing her hands on its snowy banks. What she saw staring back at her made her breathe a well deserved sigh of relief. Her mossy green eyes met the same mossy eyes of her reflection and her pallid, smooth, unmarked skin rippled gently in the small waves of the water. She smiled and sat up on her knees, resting her slightly shaking hands on her thighs, and laughed at how scared she had been about her own reflection. She shook her head, shaking white snowflakes from her midnight black hair and looked back down into the water. This time her breath caught in her throat. Staring back up at her was a reflection she had never seen before. The strange face looking back up at her had long, flowing silver hair with silverly blue eyes that seemed to be burning with a cool flame and the triquetra that rested on her forehead, right between her those piercing eyes, was the same color of them. The strangers face had high cheekbones, thin pink lips, and skin the color of the snow that was falling around Kagome as she stared, dumbstruck, at the face in the water. In a panic Kagome splashed the water and watched as the reflection broke up, but didn't disappear or change. Kagome looked back down at it and as she did, she noticed that the hair hanging around her shoulders and brushing the waters surface was still its normal midnight black.
"Who are you…?" she asked absently. As the words left her lips, the rippling reflection cocked its head and smiled slightly up at her. Kagome let out a small squeak and fell flat on her butt. She scooted away, leaving a deep trek in the snow as she did, soaking the bottom of her jeans. It was only then that she noticed how cold it was outside and a large shiver came over her. But a loud giggle that emanated from the waters surface automatically shut out the cold once again.
"Come back here, I'm not going to hurt you," the water called to her. Although her mind was screaming at her to run, her body began to crawl back towards the water's surface, which had become unnaturally smooth.
"Who are you?" Kagome asked again, staring straight into the living reflections silvery blue eyes. The girl looking back at her smiled again, revealing perfectly white and pointed canine teeth.
"I'm you silly. Well, a different part of you per say," she said to Kagome. Kagome's brows knit together in confusion. How could this be she thought?
"How, every time I've ever changed, it's always been…," Kagome said, trailing off. She really didn't know what to call what she had been changing into. Another soft giggle interrupted her thought process and she looked down at herself once again.
"You mean it's always been her?" her other half said as she turned her silvery head to the right and yet another face had appeared, except this was one that Kagome was all to familiar with.
"Well hello, long time no sees huh?" said the red eyed, raven haired girl looking back at her now. She had the same high cheekbones as the silver haired one as well as the same triquetra, but the difference was that across her cheeks ran horizontal silvery blue stripes; the same color as the other girls eyes. Kagome's gaze hardened and began to fill with anger and distain as she looked down at the girl who had forced her to hurt InuYasha.
"Oh, don't look at me like that, you're the one who can't control yourself," the red eyed girl said, a small dissatisfied smirk on her face. A small fang poked out and over her bottom lip and Kagome saw that it was equally as white and pointed as the other girls.
"You hurt InuYasha," Kagome hissed at her, this caused the girl to growl in response. The silver haired girl cleared her non-existent throat loudly and both Kagome and the girl in the water's reflection turned towards her.
"If you're done arguing, then perhaps I can answer a question or two I know your human part has," the silver haired girl said, raising an equally silver eyebrow at Kagome. She just nodded to the girl who was looking up at her from the mirror like surface of the clear water before her.
"Good, now let me introduce who we were. This one next to me was once known as Tsuki, and I was known as Taiyo," she said, bowing her head slightly while Tsuki did the same. Kagome robotically bowed in return, but her head was spinning widely with questions.
"What do you mean by once known as?" Kagome asked softly as the single question broke the surface of her ocean of questions. She didn't know why she was being so quiet though. Perhaps it was that the shock of the discovery that her reflections could speak was slowly beginning to wear off.
"Well, that is a long story, so perhaps I will give you the short version. Me and Tsuki were once very powerful youkia sisters who were revered as goddesses. I was the goddesses of the sun, and Tsuki was the goddess of the moon. We kept the villages of Japan safe from other youkia and provided them with a type of paradise on earth. In this time, youkia and humans lived together in peace and for many centuries, nearing a millennia, the world we knew remained this way," Taiyo said, her voice filled with the emotion of happier times, but her eyes grew cold as she paused. Kagome turned towards Tsuki when it was apparent that Taiyo was not going to go on. Tsuki sighed and finished where Taiyo had left off.
"One day, about 5 centuries ago, that all changed. A powerful human came along and began to kill the youkia in Japan. Soon, the carnage began to move closer to the human populated areas and that is when the rumors began. This youkia hunter began to spread poisonous lies about youkia saying that we were only using them for their life forces and breeding purposes; that we were no good, were incarnations of evil, and tyrants that were holding them captive by giving them this paradise. He also said that if they ever strayed, we would eat them of all things!" Tsuki said, and Kagome could see the anger in her crimson eyes as her blue pupils began to shrink.
"Tsuki, will you be ok to continue?" Kagome said gently, causing the blue of her shrinking pupils to once again become completely visible. Tsuki looked at Kagome and she could see the look of thankfulness in the Alice Blue of her eyes.
"He turned them all against us and they hunted us down like prey animals, and killed our bodies. They could not kill our souls because we are immortal demons. Our souls wandered in a state of purgatory while the world we had created fell to chaos. We believed that we would never be able to be free from our hazy prison and restore order," Tsuki said before she was interrupted by Taiyo. They both turned towards her and Kagome could see that her silvery blue eyes were alive with a fire that burned fiercely with anger, recollection, and of gratitude.
"Until we found you."
