LAST TIME
"I'll wait as long as I have to." Repeated Izayoi knowing full well her destiny, a cursed destiny but she thanked Kaguya for the curse or else she wouldn't have found her reason for living.
HAUNTING MEMORY
At the castle
After the incidence, Inutashio returned to the castle with Sesshomaru and promised that he would visit as soon as possible. The lady of the west as always aloof from her husband and son did not notice her son's changing behaviour. Inutashio did not have the courage to face his own son and remained busy with his court work. Sesshomaru who had been growing up with so much love suddenly felt into a void of emptiness and built barriers of indifference around him.
Apart from all the skills he was honing as the future lord of the castle, there was one more thing he was concentrating hard on. The only thing inside his barriers was her face and her voice. He didn't even remember her name but his instinct told him not to forget her. So he cherished that memory and didn't let it fade away.
Midoriko decided that she was too dangerous for everyone so she took shelter in a sacred mountain called mount hakurei. She meditated for days until she could finally feel her power stablize and well within her control. She survived on fruits alone. The lesser demons in the wilderness of the mount were her only company. Despite of her high spiritual power they had finally come to understand that she was not a danger to them.
One day Midoriko was meditating near a lake. An injured nekomata limped towards her. She healed her and named her kilala. The nekomata followed her all around the place.
Together would they made an unbeatable team.
Midoriko began to serve people slaying demons attacking the villages wherever she went. She was searching for a reason to live. She tried to not think of him. But whenever she did it stabbed through her heart like a kind of physical pain and tears brimmed over endlessly. His shocked face when she had bound him with her spell haunted her in the day and in the night in her dreams. She was unaware that Sesshomaru felt the very same but the irony of his pain was that he didnot know where it came from. His was a pain that he could not understand or express.
He resorted to ruthless hunting to erase his pain. The beast inside him let loose. His heart became cold. The dear prince of the kingdom proceeded to become a cold hearted lord that everyone feared. The dear princess of the kingdom lived the life of a traveller wandering, helping the people that she could. She lived with that memory she had. Sesshomaru embracing her protectively not wanting to let go of her. It haunted her to no ends when she remembered the look he gave her after she erased his memory. It never once crossed her mind that he had engraved the memory of her face and her last words into her heart so intensely that even time was not powerful enough to erase it. She had no idea that Sesshomaru lived with the haunted memory too.
Midoriko travelled in the direction of increased demonic activity and hence did not know how close she was to the castle. Three years had passed and she had come of age, so had sesshomaru. She was a lone priestess but Sesshomaru was heir to the throne of western lands. Neighbouring demon lords tried to approach Inutashio. But he tried to politely refuse because he could not forget the innocent question his son has asked him some years ago. "Will she become my lady?" It echoed through his mind. "Midoriko…." He sighed. Sesshomaru was so aloof now, it was impossible to reach him. Inutashio walked in his garden with these troubled thoughts after recently turning down one such proposal.
Sesshomaru having overheard this sighed in relief. He wondered why his father was being so easy about this. He after all knew nothing about how he felt. He raised this question to his father. "Child! There are things I cannot tell you and also there are things I must not tell you. But I have decided to tell you something which I thought I couldn't have told you. If you can accept it then you might as well have the answer to your questions. I'll take you to lady Izayoi. She will tell you about ….Midoriko. I cant see you in pain and killing yourself like this everyday anymore." When he looked at his father puzzled, he said. "Midoriko is the girl who erased herself from your memory but couldn't do it completely. Izayoi is her step sister and …. my betrothed."
Sesshomaru stared at his father unsure of his motives. The last two years when he had been receding into the depths of pain, his father hadn't told him anything and now…. Was he doing it out of selfishness. He had forgotten about love and trust, his mother had never personally taken care of him. He did not care if his father had another lover but he did care about one thing …. Midoriko… the name that set his pulse racing in an instant. To find her, he had to meet this lady his father mentioned.
