Chapter 10- The Old One and The Lady
The train ride was interesting in and of itself. It shouldn't have surprise her that her cousin and Kuwabara could neither sit still nor stop talking the whole time they were on the train. Kurama, on the other hand, spent his time between calming his energetic friends and playing with Shippo. Hiei sat beside Kagome, his eyes closed in a mask of sleep with Kirara resting on his lap, purring, while he stroked her back. She had almost smiled at the sight, both demons were borne to flames and that created a bond between them, however tenuous.
This is nice…It's weird but it's nice the thought that fluttered through her head as she watched her companions and the scenery that flew by. She wasn't sure when it happened but at some point she fell asleep, her head resting against Hiei's shoulder and, to the amazement of all who knew him, he not only allowed it but shifted his position to allow her to rest comfortably against him. Kirara opened a single watchful eye for a moment giving Hiei a warning look that said quite clearly "I'm watching you buddy." It took everything in him to repress the smile that would have otherwise bloomed.
He had softened, considerably, around the girl. Enough to garner notice from the other, thankfully they all valued their lives and made no mention of it. He still hardened at her touch, at the mere thought of her but he no longer felt the need to chose between killing her or taking her. He had decided to wait and watch. There were too many unknowns and he wouldn't put himself in such a vulnerable position unless he understood every possible danger. That he had become protective of her was only to be expected. If she did not covet the jewel then there he would bed her. He didn't have any proof either way so it was easier to wait. Not that that was without its difficulties.
Kagome awoke to a soft voice next to her ear, a whispering tickling sound that sent warmth running through her body. She opened her eyes on a stretch, ready to greet whoever had woken her, but saw no one. Frowning Kagome pulled herself up in her seat only to find Shippo running towards her at hell-bent speed.
"Momma get up the train's gonna leave, get up get up."
"I'm coming Shippo."
She was, up and on her feet within seconds, her stuff already gone. Figures they remember my stuff but they leave me here…idiots. With deaf ease she caught her son as he threw himself up towards her and rushed them both out of the train. She was a little suprised to realize there were no train station here, just a platform, a ticket booth, and trees. Ancient, giant trees that made her breath hitch to a stop. Even Shippo looked on, eyes wide. For miles around there was nothing but trees and it was like going back in time, literally. One tree stood out, even from this distance, and a small part of her wondered if she went to that tree would she find a certain half-demon impaled to the trunk, waiting to be set free? No, of course not, but the memory was so strong here, so strong she almost got right back on that train because this place made everything too much to bear because it was like being home again, it was like being next to the well.
She took one step back, then another, but a hand shot out of nowhere and stopped her. The heat from that hand informed her of who the owner of said hand was. Hiei's warmth spilled through her, centered her because his existence meant that the past was the past and she was barred from that time forever. Her goal, now, was to find her friends, to solve the mystery within herself. To protect her new friends as she'd been incapable of doing with the old.
"I'm ok. Really…I'm fine."
"Hmph." He began to loosen his grip and her hand shot up so fast Hiei hadn't even seen it, her grip was tight but not uncomfortable. He looked at her face, a hidden warmth in his eyes, and tilted his head in question.
"Just…don't let go." Hiei studied her for a moment and nodded his head, leading her forward while Shippo clasped his little hands around her and held his mother tight, her sadness a festering wound inside his own little heart. By the time they reached the others Kagome was much calmer but Hiei retained his grip on her until they were so close that he had no choice but to let go or risk questions he was incapable of answering, but he remained close. Always close.
"You idiots left me back there."
"We sent the kid to get you."
"My apologies, my lady, but we thought it more prudent you get your rest until the last possible moment."
"Ya Higurashi, Genkai is scary." Kuwabara shuddered for effect.
"I can handle scary."
"Ha, wait till you meet the old bat."
Shaking her head, chuckling softly, she picked up her pack and began up the steps, followed by the others.
"HEY OLD LADY WHERE ARE YOU!?" Yusuke's voice echoed through the forest and through the rooms of the beautiful old world home.
"QUIET YUSUKE!" The voice was old, very old, but it was strong and just a little craggy. It was a lovely voice all the same, as far as Kagome was concerned. When the elder woman stepped out from the shadows of her home Kagome flinched backwards. Genkai was a short woman, old and worn but she moved with surreal grace. Her hair was a pale gray, her eyes as brown as the trees around her. In their depths there was wisdom and strength, this was a woman who could destroy as easily as she could protect but behind that image, like double vision, Kagome saw someone else entirely: A young, pink-haired beauty with a serious face andt kind warm eyes. She blinked but the double vision refused to disappear. Her soul beat for a moment, the jewel within her ushering something that could have been a warning or a welcome. Genkai stopped in front of them and for a moment Kagome was positive that she was invisible.
She can't see me. She'd studying the others like they were her very own sons, she even sees Shippo. But she can't
Genkai's eyes brushed across the group again catching a smattering of jewels in the empty space between Yusuke and the young demon. A shimmering shape made up of billions of shining stars and in its center a jewel.
See
Genkai's eyes narrowed as the shape took a clearer form. A beautiful young girl with black raven hair streaked with gold and silver. A red, much too big, jacket with a black shirt beneath. A sword at her side, purple beads wrapped around her hand and eyes that swirled with color and power. Horror laced her features, as did pain, and Genkai moved ready to attack. Ready to kill.
Me.
She had just enough time to turn, protecting Shippo, before the blast threw her to the ground. Yusuke's spirit gun had hurt, Genkai's was almost devastating. Yusuke's was tainted by demon blood, Genkai's was purely human and her purification powers could only do so much. She hit the ground hard, Shippo shaking and angry in her arms.
"You monster." Genkai whispered, the others too shocked to move for a moment and she would use that moment to her advantage. Genkai lunged for the girl, she would tear her apart with her bare hands but Hiei was in the way, sword drawn and the look on his face dared her to come closer. To try and hurt the monster curled and hurting behind him. Genkai felt an animalistic growl rip from her throat.
"KAGOME!? What the HELL Genkai? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
"How DARE you bring her here Yusuke, this beast. You brought a PRIESTESS to my door! They're all evil, bewitching monsters who kill everything in their paths."
"You will not touch her." Hiei's voice was bleak but sure, colder than the ice realm he had been borne in. In unison the other three men stood behind him, protecting Kagome even as she got up, Shippo at her side his eyes burning with anger. Wiping the dust from her clothes Kagome moved forward and at her movement Kirara burst into her true form, curling around Kagome in a protective flame, growling.
Genkai looked at Kagome with disgust. Kagome placed a hand against the cat urging the fire demon to walk at her side, Shippo mounted on her back ready to change and to kill if necessary. The old lady had hurt his mother and if she tried again Shippo would destroy her. Kagome continued forward, until she stood in front of the men who looked at her as if they were ready to jump to her protection at a moment's notice. Hiei remained at her side.
"Why did you attack me?"
"Monster."
"I am not."
"All priestess are monster, pigs, you don't deserve to live."
Her words hurt, hurt deep but she stood tall. She had faced worse than one old lady wanting her dead for reasons unknown. Instead she shook her head and stared at Genkai straight in the eyes.
"I never hurt you, never hurt yours, I haven't been a priestess long enough in this world to do you any harm so don't you DARE condemn me for the actions of others." It was Kikyo all over again, being compared to another priestess. Being tried and judged before she had ever known she would be tested and it wasn't fair and it wasn't right and while she could sympathize with Kikyo she could not sympathize with the nameless, the faceless, women who had hurt this old lady before her. Kagome's eyes blazed with her anger, with her tears. Genkai dismissed them easily.
"Humph a priestess is borne a priestess and trained as one, regardless of where and when they were born. No matter how well hidden. You aren't dressed as a priestess of the West, you hold no mark, you are a monster. Priestesses destroy demons, good or evil, without a thought. Without a second glance and you do the same to humans."
"Then why are they still alive? Why is my cousin and his friends still alive if I'm so evil. Don't condemn me before you know me, don't you dare judge me. Shippo, Kirara, let's go."
Without another word, and with the men guarding her back,her little band turned towards the forest, Shippo glaring angrily at the old woman. Hiei followed her to the tree line. She offered him only a small smile in thanks before disappearing into the thick trees.
"That's my cousin Genkai, she's not evil." Yusuke roared at his mentor.
"You were always a hot-head Yusuke you've still got a lot to learn. That girl will kill any demon in sight, if given the chance, I've seen them do it all my life. And, more, there's something not right in her. Something twisted inside of her."
"You are wrong Genkai." Kurama replied, pulling himself further from the older woman, his eyes glaring at her with contempt.
"Ya Genkai Kagomes nice, why'd you go and try to hurt her like that?" Kuwabaras voice was one of restrained fury.
"Enough, all of you, get her off my land."
Genkai walked away, her anger like an erupting volcano, but when she rounded the corner Hiei was there and she saw something in him she had never seen before. Of all of Yusuke's group Hiei had always been the wild card, he could go both ways would have gone with evil long ago if he had not bonded so deeply with his comrades but he was still a danger. A risk. She loved him but she was not blind to him.
"Why do you protect her?"
"Why do you condemn her?"
"You, more than most, know the devastation that priestesses cause." The priestesses had been one of the reasons the demons had needed a world of their own. Centuries ago the humans had banded behind the priestesses of the world and declared war on all demons. The only ones that had refused were the ones who lived within the land of the West, priestesses and demon exterminators and monks and demons and normal humans that lived together in relative peace and harmony. Each from that clan had a marking, either a symbol etched onto their skin on their necks or a necklace with the same etching: A beautiful, delicate, jewel made out of a kaleidoscope of different precious stones. Any priestess without that marking was an enemy not only to demons but to the world entire. The priestesses of the past, without demons to hunt, became witches and gypsies using their powers for personal gain. Even going so far as to purify the souls humans and erasing said soul from existence forever.
"She is not like them. She predates them."
"Bullshit, I saw her she is young and more powerful than any priestess on record. She's nothing but a death machine."
"YOU KNOW NOTHING OF HER!" His bellow startled birds from the trees, the fluttered wildly in a mad dash to escape.
"AND YOU DO? You know her, fire apparition? You know with absolute certainty that she will never turn on you? Never destroy you or youe loved ones? What if she meets your dear sister and deems her evil? She'll kill Yukina."
"She was never trained as a priestess, Genkai, she was dragged into the past. She traveled with demons, she adopted a DEMON son and has a DEMON guardian. "
"Impossible."
"Never again try to harm her…I will kill you."
"Hmph, I expected better from you Hiei, better than to believe the lies of a pretty face."
"She says she traveled with the Lord of the West, Sesshomaru, and his family. She has pictures, everywhere, hanging on her walls. She even carries them with her…Do not condemn her until you know her. You are said to by wise, Genkai, until this moment I believed it but your hate blinds you. Makes you stupid."
She had been walking for what seemed an eternity, silent as the dead. Shippo and Kirara remaining at her side, her son desperately filling the void her silence created. Eventually she had joined her son on Kiraras back, the fire demon turning her head and brushing Kagomes leg gently. Kagome stroked the fire cat gently while Shippo cuddled against her chest, glad that his mother was ok. Oh my little boy, you've grown so much…but what would I have done if she had missed and hit you instead? It worried her, it hurt her, to think of ever losing Shippo or Kirara. Her last ties to a past she'd never get back and to people she would never meet again. Because they were her son and her best of friends. Even if she couldn't talk the fire cat was her closest, dearest, most loved friend. If anything happened to either of them she feared that whatever darkness might have once lingered in the jewel would make her into a killing machine…And that she would enjoy it.
The woods around them suddenly grew disturbingly darker, wisps of mist began to form. Kagome shivered and pulled Shippo closer, her eyes wide but neither her own senses nor that of the jewel sensed any malignant demon near but she did feel something. A familiar, cold, spark that should never have existed. Before her, materializing out of the mist, came a small child-like shape. Kirara stopped, hissed, while the mist thickened but the child was close enough to see now. Close enough to recognize. Shoulder length white hair, a white robe, a cracked hand mirror. It was her worst nightmare come back to life. I
"Kanna." Her voice came out a strangled whisper.
The girl blinked, her eyes as emotionless as ever, but a smile graced her face. Kanna stood, unmoving, her mirror pointed away from Kagome and company but it didn't make Kagome feel any better. Kanna was Naraku, a part of him in any event, and if she lived….
"Naraku?"
Kanna's head tilted but she said nothing. She did take a few steps closer, so close that she could reach out and touchthe older woman if she wanted to. If she tried Kagome would turn her to dust.
"I am not Kanna, anymore. I am the lady of the woods." The child demons voice was as cold as ever. Her eyes blank, showing no emotion and no spark of life.
"The lady of the woods?"
"Kagura…saved me. She returned to me my heart, when Naraku died I remained."
"Your heart? You stayed, alive?"
"Oh yes." It was only now that Kagome noticed the change in her voice. Before Kanna's voice had been emotionless, freezing. She had no feelings, no wants, no cares or dreams. Kanna's voice now was still just as cold but it held a hint of something, a hint of life maybe? Or, perhaps, a hint of dreams?
"Do not fear I am the Lady of the woods and I will not harm you, not here in this sacred place."
"Sacred place?"
Surprise flickered in her eyes, "Of course. This is where you killed him. Don't you remember?"
"Naraku"
"Yes, my father."
Kagome had been gone a very long time and it shouldn't have bothered Hiei at all but it did. It did because this was a haven for demons, demons roamed everywhere and whatever it was about Kagome that attracted demons to her like moths to flames would, undoubtedly, be at full swing. Shippo and Kirara were with her and that offered some measure of protection but more than likely Kagome would be trying to be every place at once in a vain attempt to keep them from harm while forgetting her own vast powers (which he fervently hoped would instinctively react to attack and thus remind Kagome that she was no longer the human she had believed herself to be).
How he knew these things when he had only seen her fight once was beyond his ability to comprehend. Perhaps the jagen eye had inadvertently picked it up or, perhaps, those silent moments had lead up to something he could not yet grasp. It no longer mattered. Because she intrigued him, because she enticed him, because he hated her, loathed her and constantly wished her dead even as he longed for her. She was somehow connected to the Shikon Jewel and when he found it he would destroy it, eradicate it, and she would hate him beyond all belief so he could not, would no allow himself to develop any real emotion to her. She would hate him soon enough, he was sure, but was determined to enjoy her for as long as he could. But damnit WHERE was she!?
Shaking himself out of his thoughts he glanced around at his companions. Yusuke, who appeared not to have noticed Hiei retrospective moment, Kuwabara, who was incapable of noting such a state, Kurama, who only looked at him with a worry that was a shadow of his own, and Genkai, who sneered at his obvious concern. He had not succeeded in winning Genkai to Kagome's side, the girl would have to prove herself on her own.
"We should search the woods."
"Yes, it has been hours she could be in danger."
"Ya Genkai Kagome's strong but who knows what's out there?"
"Come on grandma what's the big deal, she's a priestess? She barely stood up to your spirit gun right?"
"Shut up, all of you. She'll come back on her own I made you two slackers do it that beast can do it too."
Hiei growled in the corner.
"She'll come back alive."
Because if she doesn't, old hag, I'll kill you.
Little Karm- As you requested. More. ^_^
Runandra- Sesshomaru was always my favorite, even before Rin changed him. Part of it was that I had a little (Humongous) crush on him and the other part was that I could respect that he wanted to get stronger on his own mettle. Not with the jewel. He was pretty much the only one in the show with that mentality. I'm considering doing a Kagome/Sess fic when I'm done with this. Sadly it won't be for awhile yet.
wow- Sorry it has been taking me longer than i'd like. Part of it is work (I hate work. I wish I could just write in peace T_T -grumble- -grumble-) the other part of it is deciding what I can and cannot use from the original version of the story. Won't change too much, it's a re-write of a previous story after all, but the little details are a nightmare.
Avenging Neko- I'm afraid to say our little Kags has a ways to go yet before she can overcome her depression. I promise it's more than just the loss of her friends but that's all i'm saying. Mwuhahahahaha
I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Look for the next one come Sunday, i've been slacking abysmally on updates but I finally worked a time table. Let us all hope my boss doesn't change my schedule again. Also does anyone have any tips on how to pull your boyfriend away from the computer for longer than an hour a day?