PURE FLOWER
Chapter 20
The Ending and the Awakening
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A very young Sesshoumaru looked down at the praying human from the top of the tower. It was one of the days which he and his father visited his teacher. His sharp ears heard the murmurs and the prayers of the humans and frowned. They were asking his teacher to revive the villagers that had died in war.
"Can you revive the dead?" Young Sesshoumaru asked as he noticed his teacher, Kannabi was standing beside him, looking down at the praying humans as well. The tower was concealed within a barrier so the humans would not see them.
"I can, but I will not." His teacher said.
"Why? If you have such power, why don't you use it?" Sesshoumaru asked.
"It is because we are not God, Sesshoumaru. We don't decide who live and who die." His teacher stated and Sesshoumaru frowned.
"One loses its fear of death if such indulgence is allowed." Kannabi said and stared impassively at the humans below.
"Why must we fear death?" Sesshoumaru asked."All beings only lived once, whether they live a long live or a short live, they live only once. And it is also the reason one treasures one another while they live." Kannabi said and smiled at the confused Sesshoumaru. "If one doesn't fear death, they will not fear losing the ones they treasure."
"Is that why father always strive to protect his subjects? Because he fears for their death and he wants to treasures them?" Sesshoumaru asked.
"Your father values live, thus he fears death of those dear to him. This quality is a good trait for him as a leader, but it will also one day be his downfall." His teacher said before turning and walking away.
Sesshoumaru watched as his teacher walked away towards his father who was watching him from afar, with a sad look in his golden eyes.
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Jaken rolled on the ground as he tried to breath but his lung felt like suddenly not working. He tried to gasp for air but failed. One moment he was worrying for the safety of his lord who had disappeared into the dark miasma, and then the next moment he felt himself stopped breathing. Slowly, he felt himself falling in pitch black darkness as his eyes started to close.
Ba dum...
Then all of the suddenly, Jaken saw a bright blue lights before he started breathing again. Gasping for breath, Jaken immediately sat up and looked down from the cliff. His yellow eyes widened in shock when he took in the scene before him.
Instead of being surrounded by dark miasma like earlier, the stronghold was emitting a bright blue light. If Jaken's eyesight did not fail him, he thought he saw his lord was the one emitting the bright light.
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Rin screamed as she felt her own soul and her mother's tainted soul were being forcefully ripped apart from the vessel she currently occupied. She fell to her knees as her strength gave out and wondered what was happening. She had completed the curse and she had felt the decaying of the land. What went wrong?
Suddenly, she heard two strong wailings coming from the altar. No, it was not possible!
Rin lifted her eyes to stare up at the altars and saw baby arms flailing. Using her remaining strength, Rin crawled towards the altar and pulled herself up to look at the sacrifices. Her amber eyes widened in shock when she saw the two half demon infants were alive and wailing healthily.
"It is not possible...!! Why...!" Rin whispered and reached out a shaking hand towards one of the half breed infant, but before her hand managed to touch the infant, she was roughly pulled away and slammed onto the ground. She gasped at the sudden attacked and when she looked up, she found herself staring into a pair of icy golden eyes.
"Sesshoumaru...!! Damn you...!" Rin shrieked in anger as she realized what had happened. Apparently the demon lord had been deceiving her from the start when he formed the pact with her. Like she was never going to honour the pact, he was too.
Sesshoumaru sneered down at the enraged lookalike. She had underestimated him and it was her own misjudgement that had caused her own failure. He had indeed used his Rin as bait to set the plan in motion, and as expected, the lookalike had taken it up without doubt. He had, from the start, realized it was impossible to bring his Rin back to life, but she did not know that.
Holding the screaming woman beneath his claws, Sesshoumaru then thrust Tenseiga into where her heart was supposed to be. He ignored the piercing screamed emitted from the lookalike and when he saw dark miasma emitted out from the body, Sesshoumaru immediately pulled out Tenseiga and swiped the blade across it. He would not allow it to escape again. He watched as the miasma formed into humanoid of the priestess Sakuyabi.
Damn you...!! I curse thee...!!
"Tenseiga, open the path to hell." Sesshoumaru ordered and suddenly, a black hole appeared behind the enraged spirit. "Meidou Zangetsuha!"
The black hole started pulling the enraged spirit along with the dark miasma into the pitch black darkness. When the spirit fell into the black hole, it immediately closed down and vanished into thin air.
When the tainted soul of Sakuyabi was sent to hell using his Meidou Zangetsuha, Sesshoumaru slid Tenseiga back into its sheath before turning to look down at the lookalike who was glaring up at him. Sesshoumaru knew it was a matter of time before her soul disappeared as he had used Tenseiga to cut off her link to the living realm.
"Why...why do you know how to open the path to hell? This skill...belongs to the Wing Clan!" Rin whispered weakly as she felt her soul started to fade. She glared up at the demon lord who only looked at her but said nothing.
Suddenly, silver orbs appeared from around the demon lord and it slowly formed a shape. When the silver lights disappeared, Rin's amber eyes widened in shock as she stared at the figure her mother had looked up upon.
"High priestess...Kannabi no Mikoto...?" Rin whispered as tears slowly falling down from her eyes.
"My dear misguided descendant...it is not my wish to see this happening." Kannabi said as she knelt beside the fading priestess.
"You are the one who bestow him the sword...why? Why do you help demons?" Rin accused as she stared at her ancestor.
"I am a close friend to Sesshoumaru's father, and I am also Sesshoumaru's teacher since he was but a pup. It saddens me to meet you under such circumstances..." Kannabi said softly and laid her land on the priestess's cheek.
Suddenly everything made sense to Rin. No wonder the demon lord seemed to know more than what was written on the scrolls regarding Wing Clan. No wonder the demon lord had the weapon to interfere with the curse! Her ancestor, the high priestess of Wing Clan, Kannabi no Mikoto could see into the future. She had long since known what would happen so she had taken the demon lord under her wing, to teach him how to counter her when he chanced upon her.
"It is too late...even though the sword has protected the living beings in the Western Land from death, it could not save the land from going into ruin! You are too late!" Rin exclaimed as she glared at the demon lord.
"Five hundred years." The demon lord spoke and Rin wondered what he was talking. When she turned to look at the high priestess, she suddenly realized the statement.
"...You mean to tell me the curse will only last for five hundred years...?" Rin asked wearily and when the high priestess nodded her head, Rin let out a shaky laugh. So it meant her mother's revenge and her plans were meant to fail from the beginning. Everything was just a set up!
Sesshoumaru looked down at the lookalike impassively. He did not feel any remorse or sympathy for the priestess who had destroyed those he treasured. Deciding not to see the end of the priestess, Sesshoumaru walked towards the altar where his crying daughters were at. Pulling out a silver cloth he prepared earlier from his sleeve pocket, Sesshoumaru wrapped his daughters up to keep them warm before carrying them up into his arms.
Rin looked up at the demon lord who was inspecting his half breed daughters. Even though her plan had failed partially, Rin did not regret such ending. From the start, she had not expected to live. She had been disappointed and saddened to the point of not wanting to live in such cruel world.
"...Aren't you disappointed...finding out your daughters are half breeds?" Rin whispered as her eyes slowly closing. She barely saw the demon lord glancing at her before looking back to the infants.
"This Sesshoumaru does not care for such trivial issue." Sesshoumaru said and without looking back, he walked pass the fading priestess and his smiling teacher. "They belong to this Sesshoumaru, only this matter."
Rin allowed a smile to grace her lips as she felt her soul faded.
"Perhaps...if we have met under different circumstances...things would be different..." Rin thought before she fell into darkness. "I would have loved you..."
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When Sesshoumaru reached the cliff that overlooked his stronghold, he saw Jaken ran towards him with tears streaming down his face.
"Lord Sesshoumaru...!! Jaken is so glad to see you again!! Jaken cried out and wipe his tears with his sleeves.
"Oh...? You think this Sesshoumaru will fail?" Sesshoumaru said and without waiting for a reply, he stepped over the toad demon and continued the path towards the tree where the lookalike's real body now laid against. As he stood before the empty body, with one arm holding his pups, Sesshoumaru raised his other hand and his claws lengthened and lit in green light. The reason he kept this vessel with him was so he could threatened the lookalike should the plan failed. Since the plan had worked, it was pointless to keep the empty body with him.
"Sesshoumaru, wait."
Sesshoumaru halted what he was going to do and turned slightly to look at his teacher, Kannabi who stood behind him with a smile on her face. Sesshoumaru wondered why his teacher was still in the living realm.
"Consider this my parting gift, my dear apprentice."
Sesshoumaru watched as his teacher stood before the empty body of the lookalike before pulling out a necklace with a black stone hanging on it. Then he watched as she placed the necklace over the neck of the empty body before chanting something. Suddenly, the black stone emitted a bright light similar to the one that had emitted from Tenseiga before. And before he realized what he was doing, he was kneeling beside the empty body of the lookalike with his hand on her right cheek.
Ba dum...
"Rin..." Sesshoumaru whispered as he heard the faint beating of a heart from the body. He saw some movement behind the closed eyes and his own widened in surprise when the supposedly empty body of the lookalike slowly opened her eyes. Then suddenly, the body sat up and started coughing and gasping for air.
"Rin...everything is fine now." Sesshoumaru said and again placed his hand on her cheek, his fingers caressing the soft skin beneath. He smiled when amber eyes filled with emotions stared directly back into his own.
"...Lord...Sesshoumaru...?" His Rin whispered.
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A/N: Hi folks, one more chapter and maybe an epilogue.
Sorry for the typo since I am too anxious to complete the story.