Standard disclaimer applies.
The Revenant
Chapter Ten
By: Luna
…
Sesshoumaru bowed in greeting to Furusawa-sama, Naraku's aging father. Sesshoumaru heard of the rumors surrounding the old man; if it was true the old man had tuberculosis, Sesshoumaru didn't want to be near him; he held his breath as he was allowed upstairs to Kikyo's quarters. Kikyo just had her child, and Sesshoumaru was there to make sure no harm was made to the baby as it was bundled up and taken to the city, to be guarded from Naraku.
The servant boy, Saitoh, had also disappeared. Sesshoumaru wasn't sure if he escaped from Naraku's wrath, and he was too busy as it was with his own family to take the time to protect the servant boy. All of the Furusawa's were cold; he hoped they didn't do anything illegal to the poor boy that had been seduced. Naraku was said to have gone missing; Sesshoumaru wasn't too worried. The spider usually crawled back home when he was done infecting some part of Japan with his presence. At the moment, only the old man remained in the house, and other than greeting his guests, Sesshoumaru knew that he usually retreated back into his study; he never came out otherwise.
Sesshoumaru slid open the shoji door, freezing in his study the young woman staring blankly out her window, up at the clear blue sky. The entire room was thrashed; only Kikyo was pristine, who sat serenely in the center of all the destruction, wearing her best red kimono with black and gold dragons carefully stitched into the silk. Dolls that she had once collected so arduously lay ripped open all around her, their heads ripped off and cotton spilling from their open necks.
She was humming, he realized as he came closer. Singing under her breath in a light, serene tone even as she ripped open yet another doll.
"Kagome, Kagome, the bird in the cage," she sang, her eyes staring up at the sky even as she ripped off a leg. "When, when will you come out?"
Sesshoumaru cautiously made his way closer. "Kikyo…?" He hated that song. Few had really dissected its meaning.
"In the evening of the dawn, the crane and turtle slipped." She turned her head, just slightly, and ripped off its arms.
"Kikyo, what are you doing?"
"Who stands right behind you now?" Kikyo smiled and ripped off its head. She turned to Sesshoumaru, smiling brightly in greeting as she reached for a tray of cold tea, ignoring the swirls of cotton that had fallen inside the cup as she held it up to Sesshoumaru. "Hello, my dear. Would you like some tea?"
~N~
Sesshoumaru frowned down at the tea in his hands as he finished the ceremony, practicing alone in their family chashitsu, the tea house. The 4.5 tatami in floor area had been built for this purpose; with its low ceiling; the hearth built into the floor; shoji screens; an alcove for hanging scrolls and placing other decorative objects; and several entrances for host and guests, it was the perfect place for Sesshoumaru to go and clear his mind.
Inuyasha had been away for business; young and good looking with an open attitude, his was the ideal personality for going out and attracting new customers, as well as testing new teas. Their import/export business was going well; Inuyasha usually travelled, while Sesshoumaru took care of things from home. Their parents were mainly retired, and Sesshoumaru preferred it that way; he liked running the business his way.
Running feet reached his ears, long before the door flew open to the tea house; Sesshoumaru scowled in anger at the servants flushed face. "What is it?"
"Sesshoumaru-sama!" The servant cried. "Fire! The mountains are on fire!"
Sesshoumaru rose immediately, not caring if his white kimono got dirty, and flew out of the small tea house and took to the air; the Furusawa house was downwind; no wonder he could not smell the smoke until he saw the flames. Panic pitched low in his belly when he saw the Furusawa house up in flames. He went even faster, bursting through the burning roof and landing in the middle of Kikyo's bedroom.
She was still sitting where he had last seen her; in the middle of the room, only this time a bloody knife was held in her hand and her lantern had been thrown across the room; it was what started the fire. Sesshoumaru was amazed Kikyo was even alive. "Come on," he called. "We have to get out of here! You'll die!"
"I'm already dead." She replied calmly, her eyes glazed over, her smile a little crazed. "He killed Inuyasha, did you know that? Then tucked his body away so that I'd never be able to find him. I don't want to live in a world that doesn't have Inuyasha in it. "
Sesshoumaru froze, pain punching him in the gut, but he couldn't believe her. Inuyasha was away on business. That was why he had not contacted Sesshoumaru; he was busy. "That's not possible."
"He killed him, so I killed him." She laughed, her throat scratchy now from all the smoke. "I cut out his heart and buried it, so that he can never find it. He'll wander all throughout purgatory, never to be happy, because I took his heart away from him. He deserves to die. They all deserve to die. My hand is the hand of justice. It's my duty to strike evil from this earth."
She was broken. The pain of that knowledge numbed him, but he stepped forward anyways and picked her small body up and cradled her against his chest, then jumped out of the hole he created in the ceiling and into clean air.
"Kagome, Kagome, the bird in the cage," Kikyo started to sing, her hand still clutching the bloody knife. "When will you come out? In the evening of the dawn, the crane and turtle slipped."
Sesshoumaru hated this song. The turtle, the symbol of longevity; the crane, the symbol of luck, happiness, and fidelity. In the song, they slipped and fell, and essentially broke. It was a song that spoke of their broken promise.
"Who stands right behind you now?" Kikyo raised the knife, tucking the blade close to her as she raised her other hand to caress Sesshoumaru's cheek with bloody fingerprints. She whispered the last lines, even as her fingers tightened on the handle of the knife. "At dawns and evenings, who is in front of the back, where a crane and turtle slipped and fell?"
Sesshoumaru cried out as she plunged the knife into her heart.
She died with a peaceful smile on her face.
~N~
"What happened after that?" Kagome asked quietly, her eyes a little damp.
"I buried her body in the garden where she and Inuyasha used to meet. She would have liked that, I think." Sesshoumaru replied, leaning back against the sink.
"After that? What about your family…?"
Sesshoumaru's heart felt like it was being squeezed, but he answered anyways. "Naraku had killed my stepmother while my father was away. During a tea ceremony, I believe he must have poisoned my father; by the time the fire reached our house, my father was weak, and could not escape in time, for he refused to leave my mother's body. They both died."
Kagome's brow crinkled. "Didn't you try to save them?"
Sesshoumaru's brow crinkled. "I went to the house. I went to find them…"
Studying him, Kagome smiled a little at his confusion. "It's all right if you don't remember. I'm sure it's like in cases like yours."
Eyes narrowing, Sesshoumaru glared at Kagome. "Cases like mine?"
Kagome stared at him, and something seemed to shift in her eyes just before they went blank; Sesshoumaru was sure, then, that there was something she was not telling him. "Heartbreak," she said softly. "I wouldn't want to remember either."
Kagome turned back to her cold breakfast, and with robotic-like movements, ate every bite.