- THE TIES THAT BIND -
Chapter One: Twist Of Fate
000
She blinked as her feet lightly touched the bottom of the Well, sinking into at least half a foot of snow. It wasn't the snow that startled her so much, really – it was the onset of winter, after all. It was something else entirely, something that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Something felt…different somehow, though she couldn't say what yet. For a moment she simply stood at the bottom of the Well, frowning as she tried to puzzle out the troubling feeling that had settled over her. Her chest still throbbed with that pain she had almost become used to, after all her time with it, so that certainly wasn't what had changed.
Too bad, too, she thought with something of a sullen smile. I could do without it, I think. She shook her head slightly, her fingers curling around the sturdy vine that wound down the wall of the Well, from bottom to top. She began pulling herself up, hand over hand, until she reached the top.
When she finally pulled herself over the lip and had time to glance at her surroundings, the first thing she noted was that it must have snowed just last night – and a lot as well. She was nearly blinded by the glare of sunlight reflected off the pristine heaps of white powder that surrounded her on all sides, dripping off the laden branches of the trees around her and completely obscuring the ground at her feet. She squinted, trying in vain to adjust her eyesight to the sudden brightness of the world around her, so different from the gloomy gray of her home back in Tokyo.
She couldn't help but smile slightly as she caught a glimpse of movement – the soft sheen of silver hair that she knew so well – from the corner of her eye. She turned, one hand rising to rub at her eye, which was quickly beginning to water from the strain of trying to see.
"InuYasha?" she asked, wondering if he was still mad at her, seeing as he hadn't spoken yet. She moved her hand away from her face and froze, nearly toppling over backwards into the Well again.
"You know of my brother?"
Her heart stopped beating. An interesting sensation, because her mind continued to work at a frantic pace. Her hands curled around the edge of the Well, her entire body as stiff as a board as she stared at the man she knew so well, and yet not at all – Sesshoumaru, InuYasha's half brother. She cursed herself for her foolishness – she was so preoccupied with other things that she hadn't even noticed the difference in his aura. If she had bothered to concentrate before, she would have known it was him long before she had reached the top of the Well. She would have had some warning at least.
But no. Stupid me – I actually thought it was InuYasha! Stupid indeed. She flipped one leg over the side of the Well – she knew how fast the inuyoukai could move and, if she had any hope of surviving at all if he decided to attack, she had better be as ready as possible. It was only then that she paused to consider his words.
And blinked.
"Huh?" she asked stupidly. His question was beginning to sink in through her thick skull – and it made no sense at all. What did he mean by asking a question like that? Of course she knew his brother! He had seen them traveling together a thousand times before. They had fought against each other before. They had fought with each other before. How could he not remember?
Perhaps this is his ego kicking in again, or something, she thought, her frozen mind slowly grinding into movement again. No self respecting youkai would ever acknowledge a human, after all. Perhaps this is his way of trying to put me in my place? Pretending he doesn't know me? She decided to go along with it. There wasn't much else she could do after all – and as an added show of respect, she bowed her head in as demure a manner as she could manage.
"Sesshoumaru-sama," she murmured, adding the honorific –sama to the end of the name carefully as she perched over the side of the Well, ready to escape at a moment's notice. "What brings you here?"
The young taiyoukai started slightly as his name escaped from her lips. She frowned, her body tensing once again – she knew something was wrong.
She regarded his tall, lithe form cautiously. He looked the same as she remembered: long, silver hair flowing over his shoulders and down his spine, all the way to the back of his knees; golden chips for eyes reflecting the glaring light from the snow; strong, muscular form half-hidden by the loose white haori, decorated with tiny flower patterns that curled up his shoulders and down his sleeves; heavy, fanged breastplate plastering his otherwise loose and billowing clothing to his strong frame; aristocratically high cheek bones, sharp nose and markings on his cheeks and forehead. All of it was the same, and yet she had the distinct impression that there was something different there as well. She looked him over again.
"How do you know my name?" he growled softly, the fingers of his hands flexing warily as he regarded her through cold eyes. The nails of his fingers were more like claws, gleaming hungrily in the dim morning sunlight. They were fascinating things – long and deadly, carrying in them a poison that could easily burn through her flesh in an instant. His claws…yes, there was something strange about his claws…but what?
Her eyes widened, her mouth dropping open and her breath whistling in her throat as she stared at him, finally detecting what she had been searching for all along. He had both arms. Not just one, but two. And yet she distinctly remembered him only having one last she saw him – and that wasn't that long ago. She was relatively sure that he couldn't have grown another in such a short time.
"Your arm! You have two!" she gasped, pulling her leg over the side of the Well and stumbling to the ground as she lurched forward to look closer. The inuyoukai's eyes widened as he started back, a snarl pulling back on his lips as he stared at her with a disgusted expression written across his face.
"Most people do," he hissed at her, taking a step back and flexing his clawed fingers in a threatening manner. Her gaze jerked up from his filled sleeve to his face, sticking there. He regarded her as if he thought she was insane, and no flicker of recognition crossed his face. She was stumped. Dumbfounded. Lost. Confused. She had no idea what was going on.
"What are you…talking about? Don't you remember? InuYasha he…with the Tetsusaiga he…" she faltered, trying to drag up the right words from the scrambled depths of her mind. Things were so jumbled, however, and she found her voice trailing off helplessly as she stared up at his increasingly stunned expression.
"How do you know of the Tetsusaiga?" the inuyoukai snarled suddenly, taking an unexpected step forward. He was much taller than her – in fact, he towered over her – and suddenly she felt a great deal smaller than she ever remembered feeling in his presence before. She also felt like she was in quite a bit of danger and rather wished she was still hanging off the edge of the Well instead of standing right under his imperial nose. If looks could kill, his golden eyes would have murdered her three times over.
"How do you know of InuYasha? How do you know of me?" he asked as she hunched her shoulders, cowering back and staring up at his face. There was cold rage in his expression – impatience and confusion mixed together in a concoction that served only to make him angry, and she knew she was in grave danger if she didn't think of something quickly. It was too damn bad her that her mind was working so slowly, these days.
"I…InuYasha and I…we traveled together," she stuttered helplessly, her voice stolen by his imposing figure. She opened her mouth to try and say more but was quickly cut off by the claws that curled around her neck, lifting her bodily from the ground. Her breath squeezed out of her in a yelp of surprise and terror as her feet lifted from the ground, her fingers going to his hands as she tried desperately to pry them loose.
"You lie, human! My half brother has been pinned to that cursed tree for nearly fifty years now, and you are far too young to have traveled with him before his imprisonment," he growled. He did not raise his voice, but that only made it all the more frightening. He was quiet and he was deadly – he would kill her.
"No," she hissed breathlessly. If her mind had been in a panic before, it was absolutely raving now. If this was some kind of joke, he was taking it way too far. She had absolutely no clue as to what was happening to her. Just yesterday she had parted from InuYasha and her friends to return home for a good night's rest – and now that she returned, she found herself facing her beloved's half-crazed brother who couldn't seem to recognize her.
And doesn't even know his brother has been freed? she asked herself, terrified. None of it added up. None of it made any sense at all. What the hell was happening?
The inuyoukai abruptly let her go, his lips curling into another silent snarl as he took a step backwards. She slumped into the snow, her entire body shaking and her hands still clutching at her throat. She could feel the bruises forming where his fingers had dug into her skin, and she thanked the gods that he had not cut her with those venomous and deadly claws of his. Her chest heaved as she gulped in breath, her hair falling over her hunched shoulders and face as she struggled to make sense of a situation that inherently made no sense.
"Who are you, girl?" the cold voice growled from somewhere above her. She wasn't looking, however. She was searching for answers within the depths of her brain, dragging up possible explanations to the situation she found herself in. She listed the facts systematically, trying to fit them together in some semblance of order that would make sense to her.
One: He doesn't remember me. Two: He doesn't remember his brother being released from the God Tree. Three: He has his arm back. That seemed to be all she could think of at the moment, and none of it added up no matter what order she put them in.
"I asked you a question!" His voice whipped through her thoughts with such force that she could almost feel them hit her physically. She jerked her head up, eyes widening as she stared at his angry face. Part of her – the part that was detached and could still think in a semi-rational manner – wondered why he seemed so frustrated and angry. She had never seen so much emotion on his face before. Not ever. Now, however, he looked wary and angry and impatient and frighteningly on edge. Why?
"Ah, but…but you know me already," she fumbled. "Kagome, don't you remember?" His claws twitched again, but no recognition dawned on his expression.
He really doesn't know me, does he? she thought. The realization hit her so hard that for a moment it felt as if someone had just tossed a brick at her skull, full force. Somehow, in some way, he had completely forgotten she existed.
000
He growled as he regarded her limp form, flexing his claws and trying to pull his emotions into control. It was hard, however, with those intoxicating waves of power rolling off her body, crashing over his senses and sending goose bumps shooting across his pale skin. He didn't know who she was – nor even what she was, for that matter. She certainly smelled human, but he had never met a human with an aura such as hers.
The power called to him, whispering in his ear to take it, and in return it – whatever 'it' was – would grant him unimaginable power. It beckoned to him, burning in his blood and distracting his thoughts from the curious things she said. That wasn't the only thing that bothered him, however. When his claws had curled around her throat he had felt another power rise up in her, thrumming through her flesh – entirely different from that other power.
It was the power of a miko, he knew, and a strong one at that. Not only did she harbor youkai energy in her flesh, but she harbored the pure and painful power of a miko as well. That didn't make sense at all.
He took a step backwards, his lips curled into a snarl and his golden eyes narrowed to mere slits as she stared up at him with a horrified expression, babbling meaninglessly about how they had already met, or some other such nonsense. He wanted to kill her, but he was wary of getting too close to her. He had felt the tingling in his palms as her miko powers had flooded through her veins – if he hadn't let go, it would have begun to hurt, he knew.
"We have never met," he growled, thinking that if he had he would have been sure to remember her. He was certain that he hadn't, however. He had never before considered his memory to be bad. She looked dumbfounded at this, her mouth once again drooping open stupidly. He could almost see her thoughts grinding along behind those large, brown eyes of hers, and he wondered what she was thinking. He took the time to contemplate his situation.
She wore strange clothing of a foreign type he had never seen before. The fabric clung to her skin, tight and constricting and indecently revealing, he rather thought. She had long, raven black hair that flowed over her shoulders and back, dark bangs curling around her cheeks and falling loosely over her the top of her eyes. Her eyes were large and brown, her skin pale but her slim figure strong and healthy. He could smell the scent of growth on her, as well as fear and confusion. No matter how much he squinted at her he could not see her as anything but strange and foreign and unusual.
Not only did she look unusual, but she acted so as well. She seemed to recognize him, in some way – at least she knew his name, and his brother's as well. She also knew the name of the Tetsusaiga, which bothered him more than anything else. She certainly shouldn't know the name of his father's sword, carved out of his own fang. And yet, she clearly did, and he had no idea how.
And then there was that troubling aura that was suffocating him. He was beginning to be able to separate it from her own aura – for it was indeed a separate entity. She was a miko, but this thing reeked of youkai and of taint. It was calling out to him shamelessly, and he wanted no part of its false bargain. Power was something he would gain of his own toils, not as a discarded gift from some other unnamable force.
"InuYasha." His thoughts were pulled away from him as the name was choked from the girl's throat. A wave of fear rolled off her as she pushed herself hastily to her feet, pushing her silky hair back from her face and staring around quickly to catch her bearing. He watched her cautiously, unsure of what her purpose was. She didn't seem to be focusing on him, however, so he didn't think she had any intention of attacking – and even she did, he was almost certain that he could dispatch of her easily enough, even with her formidable miko powers.
Suddenly she was rushing past him, the yellow, lumpy bag attached to her back falling loosely from her shoulders and thumping as it hit the snowy ground. He turned to watch her as she dashed to the half-hidden path that led down the hill, pausing there and staring over the edge, down to the village. She seemed to be reassured by this sight, because she squared her shoulders in a determined manner and then quickly turned off the path, tumbling through the brush and brambles.
He followed her, leaping gracefully over the obstacles that tugged and tore at her clothing. He made sure to keep a safe distance, however, in case she decided to turn on him without warning. His golden eyes burned into her back, watching her carefully and suspiciously. He had no idea what she was up to, and that bothered him. He didn't think he had ever been so clueless in all his lifetime – and if this continued, he would bury his poisonous claws into her chest and rip the life from her body.
000
The sight of the village sprawled out below was a little reassuring – at least something hadn't changed. It looked just the same as she remembered it from yesterday, if one excluded the snow. The little huts clustered together, thatch roofs heavy with white dust and thin tendrils of smoke curling up from tiny, makeshift chimneys. It was early in the morning though, and cold besides, so she couldn't see anyone stirring in the streets or in the fields below – but that was to be expected. She squared her shoulders, turning and pushing through the familiar path that would lead around to the other side of the God Tree.
The only way she could prove to herself that her theory was correct – or disprove it, as she fervently hoped – was to go see the tree for herself. It loomed over her, huge branches spreading out in every direction, dripping frozen dew that drifted slowly to the already frosted ground. It was a massive thing, easily seen from even a mile away – the largest tree in the area.
She forced her numb body forward, part of her eager to come around the edge of the tree, part of her dreading it. If she was right, then Sesshoumaru had never met her. If she was right, then InuYasha had never met her. If she was right then, somehow, the Well had mistaken sent her too far back in time – back to a time just slightly before she had first come to Sengoku Jidai, before she had ever freed InuYasha from his curse. If that was the case then…
Then what? she asked herself, resting her palm against the frozen bark of the God Tree. She could feel its life moving sluggishly through its wooden veins. Far more importantly, she could feel the taiyoukai's gaze boring into her back, as if he sought to rip her flesh to pieces with just a look. She pushed forward again, taking a deep gulp of cold air as she came around the edge of the humongous tree and…
…and sank to her knees, her legs cushioned in a pillow of powdery snow as they collapsed beneath her, no longer willing to support her weight. Her head tilted back, her hair falling loosely over her shoulders as she stared in stunned despair at the suspended figure of her beloved. Of her InuYasha.
"How can this be?" she whispered, her voice breaking. The Well had never failed her before – why now? Why had it sent her back to this time, before she had ever even met InuYasha? If she went back home, and then came back again, would she still be here? Or would she return to that time in the near future, on the cusp of their final battle against Naraku?
"How can this be…?"
000
Sesshoumaru stood off to the side, his golden eyed gaze flicking between the limp form of the strange miko and the equally limp form of his half-brother. His nose crinkled, a frown flashing across his face as she turned her pleading gaze on him, once again helplessly whispering the question: how can this be? He had no answer for her – he wasn't quite sure what it was that shouldn't be, after all.
"You say you traveled with my brother," he said instead, his voice calculatedly cold as he pulled his emotions into place. "And yet, you can clearly see that that is impossible – unless you are far older than you look, of course." That was an interesting idea. She certainly smelled human, but perhaps miko's had a special power that allowed them to live longer than others. She did seem rather powerful.
"Fate is cruel," the girl hissed under her breath, so low that if he had not had extraordinary hearing, he would never have caught the whisper. She almost laughed – he could sense it on the edge of her voice, a harsh and bitter thing that never blossomed into existence. He frowned again.
"Nonsense," he answered coolly, tilting his chin up and continuing. "But fate matters little. You still have not answered my questions – how do you know of me? And how do you know of the Tetsusaiga? That is not a thing of common human knowledge." Or at least, he did not think so. In truth, the little amount of time he ever spent with humans usually involved a copious amount of blood and intestines smeared across the ground.
She rose to her feet then, lurching forward clumsily and almost sliding to her knees again. She moved to walk past him, murmuring something about 'returning home' under her breath. His eyes flashed as his arm lunged out, claws curling around her forearm and jerking her back. He only held on to her long enough to put her back in her place in front of him, before quickly releasing his grip. Even in that short amount of time he could feel those intense miko powers surging through her flesh again. He growled at her threateningly.
"Impudent human! Do you think you can ignore my questions so easily? You will not be leaving until I am satisfied!" It was irksome, this girl who ignored him so blatantly and yet whom he could not kill. Not if he wanted her knowledge, at least. Not if he wanted to avoid a battle that could cost him his life, at least.
She cowered back, however, her eyes full of fear. He had never seen a miko so spineless before in his entire life – even the weakest of the bunch were bold and foolish. This one, however, simply looked confused and cowed, as if her entire life had been flipped upside down. She didn't seem to realize that the power flooding through her veins could have fried him in an instant, if she had desired it.
"Answer my questions – now!"
"But I…I…can't," she hissed, taking another step back. He felt his frustration boil over, felt his claws curl around her neck once again. He could feel the surge of her power tingling across his flesh but he ignored it – at least for the time being it wasn't causing any pain.
"Then you will die," he growled, clenching his fingers tighter around the soft flesh of her human neck. They were such fragile creatures, so easy to break.
000
She felt the breath being crushed out of her, even more forcefully than the first time he had tried to strangle her. She struggled, scrabbling at his hand with her fingers, her eyes going wide. Her lungs seared and burned and she knew she had to do something if she hoped to be free of this death grip.
"No!" she cried breathlessly, the word rattling from her throat like a dead creature. "You…you need me!" For a moment she could see Sesshoumaru's eyes narrow, but everything was going blurry, all the colors smearing together and swirling around her head in one giant, cosmic rainbow.
And then an instant later she was kneeling in the snow again, gasping for breath and clutching at her released throat. She coughed, body trembling wildly from the strain.
"Why would I need you?" the taiyoukai asked warily. He seemed to be extremely wary these days, considering he could kill her at any moment – and had almost done so twice. She glanced up to his face, registering the slight hint of curiosity in the arch of his brows. She found that she was not very good at coming up with lies quickly…so she simply told the truth.
"Because you don't know where the Tetsusaiga is," she coughed weakly, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment as she attempted to steady the swaying of the world around her. She missed the narrowing of his eyes as he looked down at her, as well as the frown that twitched on his lips.
"You may continue," he allowed after a long pause as she struggled to catch her breath and still her rapidly beating heart. She lifted one hand from her neck to rub at her temple as the easy truth once again tumbled out of her mouth.
"I know where Tetsusaiga is. And besides, you can't set him free without me."
"How can a pathetic human like you set my half brother free? And how would you know where my father's sword is hidden?" She could sense the doubt and suspicion in his voice, though she did not look at his face. She kept her eyes closed, afraid that if she opened them again the world would start toppling around her. She already felt sick to her stomach – all the extra, dizzying motion would probably make her vomit.
"I know a lot of things," she continued weakly, trying to steady her voice and sound as confident as possible. She kept one side of her brain working hard towards a solution, while she turned the other side of her brain off, refusing to acknowledge her situation and what it might mean for her future if she couldn't return to the right time. "I know that you carry the Tenseiga, another heirloom of your father's, which can save a hundred lives in one swing. I know you travel with a youkai named Jaken. I know you search for the fang that your father left to InuYasha, though I am sure you have never told anyone such. I know…a lot of things." She didn't sound very confident – only tired. And sick. Both of which she very much was.
There was another very long pause. She finally lifted her head to look at his face. He had shifted his gaze away from her, resting it instead on the familiar figure of his half brother. She didn't dare follow his gaze, for fear that her heart would burst if she looked upon her beloved's limp and nearly lifeless form. She simply glued her eyes to the taiyoukai's elegant face, staring numbly and stupidly and without purpose.
At last the taiyoukai spoke.
"Then you will release him. And you will give me the Tetsusaiga," he murmured, lifting a hand to motion towards his brother's form.
She glanced to InuYasha at last, and thought for an instant that she might faint.
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The second chapter of my rewrite! Or the first chapter, technically. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. I decided to bring the presence of the Shikon no Tama in earlier, because when I first wrote the story I completely forgot about it until...the third chapter I think? Well, with Sesshoumaru's amazing senses, I figured he would have noticed something as blatant as the cursed jewel the instant he met her, so I decided to put it in now. I also wanted to add a bit of emphasis to her miko powers. Kagome was always a very strong miko - in the first book of the manga, she fried off part of a youkai just by touching it. Now that she's been in Sengoku Jidai for four years, I believe her powers would have grown quite a bit more, even if she doesn't know how to utilize them very well yet. So here you go! Please review and tell me what you think of the additions and changes!
Next Chapter
Chapter Two: The Tetsusaiga
Chaos ensues as InuYasha is released from his cursed prison and the location of the graveyard is revealed to the ambitious Sesshoumaru. What will happen when the next battle begins, and the stubborn Tetsusaiga proves unwieldable?