Trap of Darkness

A/N: Welcome back to Trap of Darkness. A big thank you to everyone who showed an interest in this story, and another big thank to you to LADY SILVERFOX charita rai. You really are the inspiration behind this story. Thank you for all your ideas. I take half the credit for this story, the other half goes to LADY SILVERFOX charita rai. Now on with the chapter. Enjoy reading and don't forget to leave a review. Thanks!

For a little head's up:

'Japanese'

'English'

Thoughts

Ten

When the bell signified the half hour break, Akemi and Jasmine were more than happy to pack away their things and rush out of the classroom. Sango, Kagome and Rin had to hurry to catch up with their friends before they lost them in the crowd. The moment they did they saw that Jasmine's gaze was more of a longing for the outside, while Akemi's was thunderous. It was clear that she was beyond pissed off. The sisters looked at each other, unable to help but think why Jasmine was more nature orientated and why Akemi was so frustrated with spending time with Sesshōmaru. It was almost as if she hated him.

Once outside, Jasmine took a deep breath of the fresh air and exhaled happily. Akemi merely glowered and walked away from the four of them, forcing them to rush after her.

'Akemi,' Jasmine called out to her, placing a gentle hand on her arm.

Akemi flinched at the contact but did not pull away.

'Talk to me,' Jasmine said in English, knowing that the Higurashi sisters were still incapable of grasping the English language, and therefore used it to her advantage.

'Not here,' she said leading them over to the trees.

They entered the treeline and walked further in, the thick trees hid them from view, just as Akemi had wanted. It was only until Akemi was incapable of seeing the academic building that she stopped. She just happened to stop in a small clearing shaded by trees that had grown outwards like a green and brown sky. Ignoring this, Akemi sat on the ground and crossed her legs. Jasmine, however, appeared to be basking in the nature around her while also being attentive of her yōkai friend's temperament. The sisters were more concerned with their friend's sudden anger. It was more curiosity than anything, but they were still concerned.

One by one the girls joined Akemi on the ground. Sango and Jasmine sat crossed legged just like Akemi since they wore trousers. Kagome and Rin had tucked their legs to the side due to wearing skirts.

'What's wrong, Akemi?' Sango asked.

'Do you not like Sesshōmaru-sama?' Rin asked innocently.

Akemi sighed and ran a hand through her blonde hair. 'It's not that I don't like him. It's…complicated.'

'Obvious you share past with Lord Fluffy,' Jasmine said, causing the sisters to gasp at the nickname.

'I grew up with Sesshōmaru,' Akemi announced, startling all four girls.

'But Sesshōmaru's over seven hundred years old!' Sango pointed out.

'I know,' Akemi said looking dead serious.

'You're also over seven hundred years old?' Kagome stated.

Akemi nodded, causing the three sisters to stare at her with gaping mouths while Jasmine sat there looking proud at already knowing that piece of information.

'She's not just seven hundred years old,' Jasmine said in perfect Japanese. 'She's a seven-hundred-year-old virgin.'

'Jasmine!' Akemi said smacking her arm lightly.

'Ow!' Jasmine complained, rubbing her arm. 'What was that for? It's the truth!'

Akemi glared. 'Maybe so, but you didn't need to blurt it.'

'Why did you not want to tell us?' Sango asked.

Akemi blushed and looked away.

'It's nothing to be ashamed of,' Kagome said. 'I'm sure you don't want to be considered a whore like Kagura and Kikyō.'

'But to still be a virgin at your age,' Rin said brown eyes shining. 'You really are amazing, Akemi.'

'Thank you,' Akemi said smiling at her friends' compliments.

'So what happened between you and Sesshōmaru-sama?' Sango queried, bringing them back to the previous topic.

All four of them looked at her, four different pairs of brown eyes, one with speckles of green, each lightened with intense curiosity.

While Akemi was used to being the centre of attention, due to her upbringing, she was embarrassed at having to reveal a past she had hoped to steer clear from. Even remembering her time with the Taishō family unearthed the past she wanted to keep buried. She knew that one day she was going to have to face it, she just had not anticipated revealing it to outsiders. But they weren't outsiders to her, not anymore. Despite having only spent two days with them, Akemi considered them family, pack. They deserved to know what happened. Keeping secrets was not something family did.

'We were introduced when I was two, he was eight. As per his attitude, he thought me beneath him despite being of the same status. Him being the prince and heir of the House of the Moon and me the princess and heir of the House of the Sun.'

'Wait, you're a princess?' the sisters exclaimed together.

'Whoa, never thought you were that important,' Jasmine said astonished.

'Just because you now know what I was doesn't mean you can treat me any different,' Akemi said, a slight warning in her tone.

She hated titles anyway.

'Wait, was?' Jasmine said catching onto the past tense.

'I was the princess of the House of the Sun, but I'll get to that in a minute,' Akemi answered. 'My mother was the heir to the House of the Sun before me and was from England, while my family originated from Japan and the House of the Moon.'

Their eyes went wide.

'No, we aren't related,' Akemi said answering their unasked question. 'While my father originated from the House of the Moon, had an important position in the House, was not in any way related to the royal family of the House of the Moon. We lived in Japan in a palace of our own. My father was the general and best friend of Tōga-ō, Sesshōmaru's father. We practically spent every day with the Taishō family because of my father's ties with him. As a child, I was easily impressed and I ended up following Sesshōmaru around like a lost puppy. He got annoyed of course, tried to convince both my parents and his to keep me away from him, that I was disturbing him from training.'

'So he's always been an overbearing, insufferable, conceited asshole,' Jasmine deducted.

The Higurashi sisters stared at her in astonishment.

Akemi laughed, breaking the tension. 'Pretty much. He's always viewed himself as self-important, even from that young an age.'

'So, what happened? Did he succeed?' Rin asked, leaning forward expectantly.

'What do you think?' the blonde yōkai repeated with a smirk. 'The adults thought there was nothing wrong with me idolising him. I followed him around for two whole years, watching his every move. Had I been older it would have been called stalking. But I realised when I was a lot older that I wasn't idolising him at all. I was learning.'

'Learning?' Kagome repeated.

'Learning what?' Sango asked.

'I was memorising his movements, his expressions, the way his muscles worked, everything. And when I was four, I applied that to myself and began training with a sword.'

'You picked up a sword at four years old?!' Jasmine exclaimed. 'Your parents must have surely tried to stop you!'

'They were shocked when they found out, but they were incapable of stopping me. You could say I adopted Sesshōmaru's mannerisms with dealing with other people. It made it impossible for my parents to stop me. Ever since, I've trained daily, improving myself. And when I was eight, I made it known to the rest of the world that I could fight. I bested all my father's men, defeated all of Tōga-ō's generals, including my father, and challenged Sesshōmaru.' Akemi laughed as she remembered. 'Boy was he pissed when a girl six years his junior managed to land multiple hits on him. I suppose what really angered him the most was that we were equal in power. He couldn't force me into submission like everyone else. I suppose that until that day, he hadn't taken my position as princess of the House of the Sun seriously.'

'Did he accept you in the end?' Rin asked, brown eyes sparkling.

Akemi shook her head.

Jasmine looked at her with sadness and admiration. Akemi hadn't cracked under the pressure of not being accepted. She had fought it, carving her own path with her own hands. Not many could do that, and that was why Jasmine was unable to help but admire her friend.

'Sesshōmaru attempted again and again to make me submit to him, to prove to everyone that I was this weak female yōkai that should bow to the superior. But I kept proving over and over that it was impossible to knock me down, to break my spirit, to force me into submission, that I was the underdog. I made it known that I was equal to Sesshōmaru and that I should be respected. You could say that I became his rival.'

'And he hated that,' Jasmine said with a grin.

Akemi grin's matched hers. 'I doubt that he would ever admit to me being his rival, but that was what we were. I was the only one he couldn't defeat, and it bothered him.'

'That's amazing,' Sango said, still shell-shocked. 'I never thought that I would be able to meet a yōkai that's on the same level as Sesshōmaru-sama. I mean there's Inuyasha, but Sesshōmaru-sama can easily kill him if he wanted.'

Kagome and Rin both nodded, their matching brown eyes shining with admiration.

'So what happened?' Jasmine asked, easily seeing the pain in Akemi's green eyes.

Akemi glanced at her and looked down at the grass, tugging and picking the strands apart.

'It all changed a week after my fifteenth birthday,' she said, pain entering her voice. 'My parents and I were called back to England for a House crisis. We joked about it on the plane, saying it was just another classical prank from one of the many pranksters in the House. But that wasn't the case. By the time we made it, over half of the House had been massacred. Their bodies had been brutalised to the point we couldn't identify them. We only knew they belonged to the House because of the Sun mark on their foreheads.'

Akemi clenched her fists, nails cutting into her skin, the droplets dripping onto the grass.

Jasmine quickly snatched the nearest hand and uncurled her fingers. Akemi merely watched as her hand glowed a faint green and her wounds began to close. Jasmine looked angry as she took her other hand, opening it to reveal a woundless palm covered in blood. She then settled Akemi with a warning but gentle look, those brown-green eyes appearing to delve into the yōkai's soul. While Jasmine couldn't really look into her soul, she knew that her soul itself was deeply scarred.

The sisters crowded close. Rin hugged Akemi from behind, Kagome gave her a side hug and Sango held her right hand. Jasmine sat to her left and leaned against her side.

Touched by their affections, Akemi closed her eyes and took it all in.

'Thank you,' she said, feeling calmer.

The girls didn't move away, nor did they disconnect their touch. They didn't understand why they felt the need to remain in physical contact, but they unconsciously knew that she needed it. Pack always takes care of each other, and having physical contact enabled the others to remain calm and remember that they were no longer alone. Akemi had begun a breakdown, but thanks to their quick thinking they had managed to stabilise her.

'We all fought the invaders, but they were more prepared than we had given thought to. At the time, I didn't understand how I managed to survive, but after seven hundred years of tossing and turning it through my mind, I've come to the realisation that they hadn't been prepared for me being able to fight. Though I hadn't been able to save my family, my House, I was able to survive, and thus keep the House of the Sun alive. As long as I live I will remain a target to this unknown conspirator against the House of the Sun. I intend to take them down, get revenge for my House and ensure that the House remains alive.'

'What have you been doing for the last seven hundred years?' Sango asked.

'I've been rebuilding the House of the Sun.'

'But aren't you a virgin?' Jasmine asked.

Akemi blushed. 'Not that way!'

'Then how?' Rin queried.

'It's no longer occupied by only dog yōkai. The House of the Sun has extended to every manner of creature, yōkai of all types, even hanyō, humans, phoenix, angel, faery, mermaid, djinn, elf, dragon, unicorn, pegasus, devil, imps, you name it. It's larger than the original House of the Sun, with varying powers that we still don't understand, but we're a tightknit family that looks out for one another. Just like how my family had been before.'

'So that's how you knew I was a djinn,' Jasmine wondered aloud.

The sisters looked at her. 'You're a djinn?!'

Jasmine looked at them, realising they hadn't known. 'Yup,' she said happily.

'What's a djinn?' Rin asked.

"Jinn, Romanised as djinn or anglicized as genies are supernatural creatures in early Arabian and later Islamic mythology and theology. The Quran says that jinn are made of a smokeless and 'scorching fire', but are also physical in nature, being able to interact in a tactile manner with people and objects and likewise be acted upon.' Well that's how it's explained in the Wikipedia. There are also many types of djinn.'

'Which one are you?' Kagome asked.

Jasmine's mouth clammed shut as her cheeks brightened. 'I do not know,' she finally answered looking away. 'I did not live amongst my kind, but around humans.' Jasmine lowered her head until her hair curtained her eyes. 'I'm as clueless to my species as humans are to killing the earth.'

It was Akemi's turn to comfort Jasmine, and she did so by placing a hand on Jasmine's and squeezed. Jasmine looked up at her in surprise.

'Don't worry,' Akemi said with a smile. 'I have many djinn amongst my people. I'm sure that they'll help you once I have explained the situation to them.'

'Will they want to help me?' she asked dejectedly. 'I was probably ousted from my people.'

Akemi squeezed a little tighter. 'They will not reject you. Why? Because I consider you to be part of my pack. And pack stays together, Jasmine.'

Jasmine smiled, albeit sadly, but with a hopeful light in her eyes. 'Thank you.'

'Don't forget about us,' Kagome announced.

Jasmine smiled at her and her sisters as they gave her warm smiles. 'I'm so glad I met you four.'

'We're glad we've met the pair of you too,' Sango said.

Jasmine perked up as a thought came to her. She turned to Akemi. 'So how did you meet Inuyasha?'

'You knew Inuyasha too?' the sisters said together.

Akemi laughed nervously. 'Well, just over fifty years ago I heard that Tōga-ō fell for a human. My curiosity got the better of me so I returned to Japan. They were popular, although half of their popularity wasn't positive, but it didn't take me long to find out where they lived. At first I watched them from afar. Inuyasha was such a lonely child. Not even his own brother acknowledged his existence. He scorned it actually. And like Tōga-ō, you could say I fell in love with them.'

'But Inuyasha hasn't said anything to us about you,' Kagome said.

Akemi smiled. 'Of course he wouldn't, he doesn't recognise me.'

'How?' Sango questioned.

'When I finally approached the pair, I was in my child form.'

'How's that possible?' Rin asked, taken in by her words.

'I suspect it has something to do with that pendant around her neck,' Jasmine commented, piecing a bit of the puzzle together.

'Pendant?' the twins repeated.

'Can I take a look at it?' Sango asked.

Akemi pulled it out of her top and held it in the middle of her palm, the chain elongating magically as she moved her arm over to Sango who peered closely at the jewel. The taijiya picked it up with her thumb and forefinger, brown eyes narrowed in concentration. The ever swirling mist within the jewel kept changing colours, never fixing on a specific colour. The silence between the girls was tense with anticipation, everyone looking at Sango as they waited on her expert evaluation.

'I've never seen anything like this before,' she said setting the jewel back in Akemi's hand.

The chain shortened as Akemi let it drop against her chest, the gem winking at them from where the sun hit the stone.

'What's the matter, Sango-chan?' Kagome asked.

'Sango-nee?' Rin questioned.

'I can't quite pick out what the jewel's made from. It's such a complex composition that I can't make out anything but yōki. It's blocking me from reading it,' Sango said massaging her temples.

'You can't see through the yōki because that's all you're used to sensing,' Akemi explained with a smile.

They all looked at her.

'What did you say?' Sango asked, eyes trembling. 'You do understand that anyone capable of creating a physical object from yōki alone have to be incredibly powerful? Someone of Inu no Taishō-sama's level, even Sesshōmaru's level, are capable of making these power stones.'

'But Akemi-chan is of Sesshōmaru's level,' Kagome reminded her.

Sango looked at the blonde yōkai with a questioning look. She opened her mouth.

'I'm not the maker of this stone,' Akemi said before she could ask.

'You're not?' Kagome asked, surprised.

'If you didn't make it, who did?' Jasmine questioned.

'Everyone of the House of the Sun incorporated a portion of their energy and power into the stone and gave it to me. It enables me to shapeshift into any form I wish, even into a child. The only drawback is that it cannot change my physical characteristics like my hair, eyes, skin colour and body structure. It can change my scent and my yōki so that I cannot be identified.'

'So when you changed into a child…' Jasmine began.

'It turned me into my child form. Had Sesshōmaru or Tōga-ō seen me when I was with Inuyasha or Izayoi, they would have recognised me,' Akemi finished for her.

'But it also has the ability to translate languages,' Jasmine said.

Akemi nodded in agreement.

'What else can it do?' Rin asked excited.

'Can it help with tests? Or with remembering?' Kagome asked, equally excited.

'The limits to the stone has not been tested. What I do know is that humans cannot wield it. The power is too unstable for those with weak energies and power,' Akemi explained.

'What's the worst case scenario?' Sango asked professionally.

'Death,' Akemi answered. 'That is why I do not take it off,' she looked at Jasmine, 'unless it's a special circumstance.'

'You could have killed me!' Jasmine exclaimed.

'You are strong enough to keep the instable power balanced for a limited amount of time,' Akemi explained.

'That's why you asked for it back after a while,' Jasmine said coming to an understanding.

Akemi nodded.

'Have you told Inu no Taishō-sama or Sesshōmaru-sama the situation with your family?' Sango asked.

Akemi went silent.

'You should tell them,' Jasmine told her, placing a supporting hand on her arm.

Akemi looked at the ground.

'We'll go with you if you want,' Rin said encouragingly.

Akemi shook her head. 'No. They don't need to know.'

'But,' the girls protested.

'I'm not obligated to report to them. My father may have been under their rule, but that does not extend to the House of the Sun. They do not need to know.'

'Wasn't your father friends with Inu no Taishō-sama?' Sango asked. 'Isn't it fair that you tell him what happened to him?'

'And what about Sesshōmaru? Don't you think he deserves to know?' Kagome said.

Akemi frowned at that. 'No. He doesn't.'

'At least tell Big Fluffy,' Jasmine said, startling the sisters. 'He lost his best friend and general.'

'Fine,' Akemi said after a while. 'Just…give me time.'

'And I believe you said you was the princess of the House of the Sun,' Jasmine said crossing her arms. 'Care to explain that?'

Everyone turned to Akemi, anticipating an answer although they had a vague understanding.

'Before the massacre I was the heir, and with everyone in the House dead, I become its leader, Head of the House, the Queen. Whatever floats your boat. The stone was made to protect me where my House members are unable to.'

'That makes sense,' Sango said thoughtfully. 'Had the whole House of the Sun arrived in Japan, Inu no Taishō-sama would have foreseen that as an impending attack to the House of the Moon and would have taken action. To compensate for being incapable of protecting the Head of the House of the Sun, they made a stone composed of their different energies and powers. The result being an unstable mass of power that could only be kept balanced by someone with equal to or stronger than the energies the stone's comprised of. In the hands of someone with dark intentions, we could be talking about mass genocide.' Sango looked at Akemi sharply. 'As a member of the Inu Ind. security that oversees the welfare of Japan's ruling family, who happen to belong to the House of the Moon, I, Higurashi Sango, inform Taiyō Akemi-sama to keep the stone within close proximity to her person.'

Akemi reframed from sighing. 'I understand the consequences and will as such hold full responsibility for whatever happens to the stone, be it far out of my control or not.'

Sango nodded, her shoulders sagging with relief. 'Thank you. Sorry, I needed to get that off my chest. But you need to tell both Inu no Taishō-sama and Sesshōmaru-sama of the stone's existence. They need to be informed.'

To do that, they'll need to understand the history behind its creation, Akemi thought. Revealing that history will only open the can of worms on the whole history of the House of the Sun. Akemi sighed through her nose. Looks like I'm going to have to tell them about the massacre of the House of the Sun.

As Akemi opened her mouth to respond, a voice interrupted.

'There's no need, we already know,' Sesshōmaru's hostile voice bit through the now tense air.

Word meanings

Yōki – demonic energy

Inu no Taishō – dog general