Midnight Rose

Chapter 12: Finding Setsuki

Recap:

"Kagome, are you okay?!" Sango asked.

"I'm fine." Kagome said. It was hard to see through the tears. She knew who the girl was. She knew who her mother was. She knew what she must do. "Setsuki is alive. And I know where she is."

End Recap

"Miko, are you sure we are going the right way?" Sesshomaru asked for the fifth time within the past fifteen minutes. They seemed to have been walking in circles for four hours, and though Kagome didn't know exactaly where she was going, she knew that she was going the right way.

Kagome sighed in frustration. She was getting tired of Sesshomaru's impaitence, and not only that, but he had a pup. A full demon pup at that. "Yes." She said.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Look, I said I would help find her, and since you don't know what she smells like, I suggest you quit agitating me." Kagome snapped.

"What are you so angry for miko?"

"Nothing!" She sighed a blast of energy escaped from her hands and cleared out the forest ahead of them. "Look, we'll continue in a minute, but I really need a break." Kagome walked off and masked her scent. Sango began to follow her, but Miroku held her back and shook his head.

Kagome sat down on a rock and ran her fingers through her hair. What was wrong with her? Was she jealous that someone else bore Sesshomaru's pup? Was she angry that it wasn't her? Was the young mikoyoukai falling for the DaiYoukai?

-Oh dear Kami. I think I'm falling in love with Seshomaru.- Kagome admitted to herself.

'Of course you are.' Her beast answered her silent thoughts.

'Where'd you come from?'

'Oh I've been here and there. You know?'

Kagome rolled her eyes. 'So what do you want?'

'You are confused as to if you love Sesshomaru or not. And I'm here to tell you that you do.'

'That can't be possible. I can't fall for him! He's another inuyoukai! He's a male! I can't!!'

'But you do.'

'No...no...'

Kagome leaned back onto the tree behind her with her eyes closed. This was too much. It was happening too fast. She wasn't even over Inuyasha yet, and here she was, falling in love all over again. Kagome sat up straight when she heard a twig snap. Quicker than she could blink, she had an arrow notched in her bow and aimed at the intruder. "Who are you?" She asked.

"I should be asking you the same thing." The young woman asked her. Her eyes were a piercing blue just like Kagome's, and they looked a lot alike.

They each took a step in the opposite direction, mirroring wach other. "Who. Are. You?" Kagome asked again.

"You're the one on my territory! So it's you who should be letting me know who you are!" The blue-eyed Kagome look-a-like said.

"I am looking for someone." Kagome put a hand on her hip. "And that's all you need to know."

"Well I guess you'll never find out who I am, will you?" The woman gasped as if finally realizing that they looked alike. "Why do you look like me?"

"Why do you look like me?" Kagome said.

The woman took a step forward and Kagome regained her defense. "Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you."

"I don't know that."

"Oh please. If I wanted you dead, you would be dead."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Yeah right. Who are you?"

"I'm...I'm..." -This girl looks like me. Should I tell her my name?-

'Yes. She look trustworthy.'

"My name is Setsuki."

Kagome gasped and immediately felt dizzy. She took a step back and grabbed her forehead.

"What's wrong?" Setsuki asked.

"Nothing." Kagome gasped again. Her sight was becoming blurry and she was beginning to hyperventilate. "Y...you're Set-Set-Setsuki."

"That's what I just said." It was Setsuki's turn to roll her eyes. She took a step towards to Kagome.

"NO!" Kagome breathed. "Stay...stay back." Kagome put up a weak barrier.

Setsuki sighed and walked to the barrier. As soon as she touched it, the forest around them pulsed and the two women screamed then fell limply to the forest floor.

Sesshomaru was the first to hear the screams, then Inuyasha and Kirara. They all ran to the sound and found Setsuki collapsed on top of Kagome. Sesshomaru knew instinctively that it was Setsuki on top of the miko. His blood told him it was.

"Kagome!" Sango called and went to her sister. She roughly pushed the other woman off of her.

"Be careful wench! This is the mother of my pup!" Sesshomaru barked at Sango. He wanted to take her head off for being so rough.

Sango huffed and wiped the sweat from Kagome's brow with a cold compress from Kagome's bag.

"Why aren't you tending to the mother of my pup wench?!" Sesshomaru snapped at Sango.

"Because Kagome is my first priority! I don't give a damn about the bitch you fucked some hundred years ago!" Sango snapped back.

The demon slayer's words were unexpected to the lord and he was taken back, but he quickly regained his composure. "I say tend to her! The miko can wait!"

Though Kagome's eyes weren't open, she still heard Sesshomaru's words. Setsuki's eyes fluttered, then opened. "I am fine and if you touch me, I will kill you." She stood up. "Get up miko."

Kagome opened her eyes and glared at Setsuki. "You don't run me." She said to the youkai, though she still stood.

"This man, could he be...?" Setsuki asked Kagome.

"Yes. This is Lord Sesshomaru, the father of your pup. The man who wronged you years ago." Kagome answered the question in Setsuki's head.

"Watch yourself miko. I did not wrong Setsuki in any way." Sesshomaru barked at Kagome.

"I see now." Setsuki said.

"What?" Kagome tore her eyes away from Sesshomaru. She would deal with him later.

"You are me."

"What?! That's impossible." Kagome spat. "I'm the reincarnation of a miko named Kikyo."

"No, not my reincarnation. You are just like me. Miko turned youkai. Beautiful. And hopelessly in love with a fool." Setsuki explaned.

"You couldn't be any more right." -Where is Sakura I wonder.-

"She is fine." Setsuki answered.

Kagome looked at her. "I said that out loud?"

"Did you?" Setsuki could've sworn that she heard Kagome say that out loud.

"There's only one way to find out." -Can you hear me?-

"Oh my Kami! Yes!" -Can you hear me?-

"Wow!" Kagome exclaimed. "This is so cool!"

"What is going on?" Sesshomaru asked.

"None of your damn business!" They both snaped at him.

He staggered backwards under the verbal blow from the two, but recovered quickly. "I will not tolerate this! Tell me what is going on!"

"Sesshomaru, you don't scare anybody so shut the fuck up." Kagome said.

"Bitch I can have your head faster than you can blink!" His eyes were growing red. How dare the miko talk like that to him?! He was her master! She was beneath him!

"Then do it." Kagome challenged. When his eyes calmed down and lost their threatening color, she said, "I thought so." -I don't know who the fuck he thinks he is, talking to me like he owns me.-

'He only acts like that because he is in front of Setsuki. He wants her to see that you are his bitch and just that. He wants to assert his authority.'

'I can tell him where to assert his authority!' Kagome growled at her beast.

"Setsuki, where have you been?" Inuyasha whispered.

"I've been around Inuyasha." She said warmly. She'd always had a soft spot for the haynou. "How have you been?"

"I have been fine." Inuyasha gulped. This was his first love, though she'd never returned the feelings. He hadn't been in love with her as he was Kikyo or Kagome, even though he didn't know just how much he loved Kagome yet. But he still loved Setsuki. She was beautiful beyond any comparison except Kagome's. Their beauty was equal, no one towering over the other. "And how about you?"

"I raised a full demon pup on my own without any help from her father. That was pretty hectic. But other than that, I've been fine." She said with a smile.

Inuyasha finally broke down. "Oh Setsuki! I've missed you so much!"

"I've missed you too Yasha." She closed the distance between her and her haynou friend and gave him a hug.

-Where is Sakura?- Kagome asked in her mind.

"Somewhere safe." Setsuki answered aloud.

-Are you going to let her see Sesshomaru?-

Setsuki sighed. "No. I can't."

Kagome nodded. Of course she understood. Her own father had abandoned her and her mother when Kagome was just a baby. Ayumi, her mother, was eighteen and Ken, her father, couldn't handle the fact that she was tranforming into a demon. Ken didn't know that when he'd left Ayumi, he'd left her pregnant.

"Does she want to?" Kagome asked.

"Yes. Of course she does. I just can't put her through that. It's hard enough for me, just think of her." Setsuki admitted sadly.

"Setsuki...where is my pup?" Sesshomaru asked, putting two and two together.

"That is none of your concern." Setsuki answered firmly.

"It is my concern! You will tell me where my pup is!" Sesshomaru growled.

"I will do no such thing. I am not obligated to." She said simply. "In Youkai Laws, it says that if a woman gets pregnant by a demon but is chased out of her village, if the father of the pup comes after her, he has rights to see him/her. But if the father of the pup doesn't come after her, then I am allowed to deny all rights."

"I did not know you were with pup."

"That was your problem."

"You will let me see her!" Sesshomaru was getting angry.

"I will do no such thing! And you cannot make me!" Setsuki had a temper as well.

"I can! I am Lord Sesshomaru! I can do anything I want to!"

"Except make me bring your pup to you! I would rather you take me prisoner than you see her!"

Everyone gasped. Submission to being held prisoner meant serious business and it was not to be taken lightly. In most cases, if a person surrendered to be taken prisoner, they were.

"You cannot mean that." Sesshomaru said.

"But I do. I hate you!" Setsuki spat. -I will do anything to keep my beautiful Sakura away from him. He is a beast and I want nothing to do with him.-

Kagome nodded again.

"What are you nodding for miko?!" Sesshomaru snapped at her.

Kagome narrowed her eyes at him, but gave no answer.

"You will stay away from my daughter!" Setsuki screamed.

A small girl that appeared to be seven stepped out of the trees into the clearing. "Father?" Her voice was small and timid.

Everyone gasped and turned to her.

Sorry it's been so long!! I wasn't planning on taking this long and I didn't realize that it had been this long!! I'm soooo sorry! Please forgive me!! And review! Don't forget to review!!

~KM705.M-san