AN: Exams' shadows are looming over me, however writing become my form of shoving away of the stress…it works really well, so it's all good. I get my break, and you guys get…this…Alright, if I forget to reply to someone's review I apologize. I've got 3 exams coming up in the next 5 days.
His heart is beating against invisible chains, for his curse goes on. As long as the Dark Lord lives, his love dies. Loneliness is his destiny.
Chapter 21: Conqueror of the Sky
Seconds are days even years. Their time halts as they gaze upon one another.
The forest freezes, including all the autumn leaves drifting in midair, all sounds seem to retreat away.
Thump! Hiraikotsu plants itself faithfully behind its owner.
"Sesshoumaru," she calls out his name, with her violet eyes wide open. The dying sun paints warmth to her complexion. The treetops are on fire both from the autumn leaves and the rays of piercing orange light.
500 years ago, she suddenly realizes, this is the exact spot where they first met. Not far away is a rock. This is the very place where she removed Lord Naraku's demon manacle from Sesshoumaru's wrist. That cursed object binds all his demon powers.
And now, she is standing at the same place once more…facing him, facing her soulmate that killed her in this same spot 500 years ago.
Her heart almost stops…
"You are coming with me." His emotionless commanding tone freezes the entire world. Repelling all warmth from the sun, he seems to bring an ice storm upon the earth.
"Why?" She gazes up at the tall assassin.
He gives her a look of no questions asked.
There is no connection between them this time. She can feel the barrier he forces up within his mind. As impermeable walls that is determined to shut her out…
"Come now, before I make you." His voice is as icicles falling from the wall of a dark and cold cave.
"Give me a reason!" Anger rises from within her. She is tired of it all. No explanations. "Why should I?" All he does is appear and vanish from my life without a trace. He once ended my life, he owes me the truth! He abandoned me! The purpose of her journey to the Northern Lands is to find him, to save him, to heal his pain.
But he never gives her the chance.
His next glare seems impatient. The air before her suddenly thins. She knows what exactly he is trying to do. She can feel his demonic aura surround her, seizing her, trying to choke her will. But she stands unafraid.
"I know what you are trying, and no, I am not afraid." I'll fight him if I have to, anything. He owes me. He owes me the whole truth. He owes me the reasons…
"You don't know me, you foolish human, you think I won't hurt you, you are mistaken." He raises a claw.
Slowly she takes two steps away. Her grasp closes around Hiraikotsu's strap. "You think I am this foolish and weak human, Sesshoumaru. I'll prove you wrong! I have changed!"
When he hears his name, he suddenly stops for a moment. His golden eyes changes. No one ever calls him by his name…for a long time.
Then he bares his fangs, and with a piercing voice he speaks, avoiding her crystal violet eyes at all costs, "you have no right to say my name."
He charges at her with speed faster than the swiftest falcon and the whitest lighting. He needs her. He needs her desperately. A bait, she is the only one. He knows that Naraku is after her, and he stripped the Dark Lord of his body. He will not know what form the Dark Lord will take next. That's where she comes in. Wherever she is, Naraku will follow. And then…he would be there…to take avenge his mother…to set the ancient wrongs finally right.
She hurls the giant boomerang in order to protect herself.
Her unleashed anger has been bottled up for too long. He owes her the truth.
She swings her faithful weapon above her head.
He charges, closer than ever before, even faster than a piece of fallen leaf drifting to the dark grave of the ground.
Then their collision is near…
As Hiraikotsu slowly falls from the direction above her head…
Calm down, calm down…Kagome tells herself a million times…Remember your fighting stance, never lose your balance. Remember what Sango taught you. But this voice seems fade out and distant. Her soul is burning. He abandoned me, if he gets hurt he deserves it…He left me…He ended my last life…
No.
He protected me. The sapphire rose, suddenly a familiar warm feeling hanging from her neck reminds her…He didn't tell me the truth, he left me to live a life forever incomplete…Her powers, the crystal rose, the phoenix that saved the life of the Northern Lands…Her wrist as he pulls her up saving her from a certain death upon the jagged rocks…
No…warmth swells from her eyes. I can't, I can't hurt him.
Thump! She screams as she plants Hiraikotsu into the ground before her. I can't, I can't fight against him. She remembers the last time they met, the feeling of finding something long lost to her. To be complete. Warmth builds up in her eyes… But why? Why does he act as if he hates me?
He knows her state of confusion of turmoil and struggle, yet when slowly she looks up at him. One side of his pale lips curls up, just a little. His eyes speaks in mockery: I thought you changed, but apparently not, still a useless and weak human. Wind sends his boa soaring as his demonic aura cracks the air around him.
"Sesshoumaru!" She calls out, pulling out the chain upon the sapphire rose. "Does this mean nothing to you!"
"Come," He avoids this question as his brows furl, "or this time I will hurt you."
"So be it!" Kagome draws Hirakotsu from the ground…She swings it towards him as he is approaching with his claw raised a second time. Shifting suddenly to the left, Hiraikotsu sends two streams of golden and orange leaves fluttering into the sky. The branches that force repels shudder as they try to return to their original position.
And then she draws out the tiny boomerangs strapped to the waist of her green yukata, the boomerangs that Sango and Miroku made. They swirl, all to meet Sesshoumaru's direction.
She is at a point of unable to control her motions. She can only defend herself. Do I mean nothing to you? Sesshoumaru. Nothing at all? She only meets the ice cold walls he built into his mind.
But the demon avoids every one of those boomerangs. Their swishing sound synchronizes in the air, as a band of trained soldiers, ready to charge at the enemy without any emotions…
Then…
He reveals a looks of shock for a split second. The last time they met, he covers her mouth and drags her mercilessly into the forest. But now, she turned. Into a warrior standing tall…But immediately he wipes that look off his face.
Slowly he draws a whip, as the circle of tiny boomerangs close in upon him.
With it he makes a perfect arc in the air…
Then successively the tiny boomerangs stab into the ground in a perfect circle with only the two of them inside. His chained whip falls through the air. A shadow looms over his shoulder.
It's Hiraikotsu…
It's protecting her, by returning to strike the enemy's back, taking the advantage of his ignorance.
He is way too experienced with battles to neglect that…He flicks his wrist and lightly taps the surface of her faithful weapon…
The trajectory changes, it now flies parallel to the ground, and it is going to strike…her.
Move…Every sense screams at her. But she cannot…"Stop it!" She cries as her own weapon strikes her side.
You can defeat me, Sesshoumaru, but you can't defeat my will…I have changed, I'm stronger now. Light escapes from her eyes. There is no warmth from the setting sun, only the gleam radiating from his eyes.
She is certain a stab in the heart will sure feel better.
His snow white boa falls…
He picks her up. Not gently, but as an object He holds her waist against his side and carries her away…
His usual stoic expression changes through his golden eyes. Relief, mixed with exhaustion…finally he can demolish the walls he made from his mind.
He knows, that connection wither mind cannot be made again. What happened last time can never happen again…
His curse lives on, as is a monster is eating a hole from inside, so empty that he already becomes numb. A monster lives mocking his eternity. As long as the Dark Lord lives, his heart will not.
Autumn wind carries sadness heavily within, it sends a few wisps of his moonlight locks before his eyes. The chains of the sapphire rose brushes past his hand. He quickly looks away.
He needs her. Because Naraku is after her, and he stripped Naraku of his body. He knows, it takes more to destroy the Dark Lord. Who knows what form he may return next? But one thing is clear, wherever she is, Naraku is sure to pursue. That is all she is to him.
A bait…he tells himself.
He takes her deeper into the forest.
The sun is almost all gone.
There he stands between the darkness and light. Peace. Silence, yet with the looming shadow.
He knows, it's the in between place. Where the calmness welcomes him with an open embrace, it draws him in, tells him to forget all pain, wound and fiery memories of his half of a life in the castle. Yet a sole flame is still burning, his time with Rin. These are the memories he is determined to hold onto and never let go.
Longing sweeps into his heart.
Rin, quietly he says inside, carry on, be strong…I'm sorry, my path now ends here. But if I were to return, I'll come back as your guardian angel…
The irresistible darkness calls him…slowly taking away the feelings he once knows, he is becoming numb to it all…Inuyasha's soul is about to begin a journey to the Netherworld.
Perhaps to him, this is freedom, librating his half life in chains, and indignity. Yet the same time he will never hear the sound of streams, the color of sunlight, and see her smile once more…
He looks up into the gray part of the sky before him, the world where color dies. Sesshoumaru, I forgive you now. Hatred, it doesn't seem important anymore because he knows.
Nothing can come of revenge. Just as he is about to leave the side of life forever, dark claws seize upon him, engulfing his soul.
"Don't think I'll let you go that easily," it says, "I'll make you watch with your own eyes, slash with your own claws, the things you love the most."
Naraku.
It makes sense now. Sesshoumaru killed Naraku, no, he killed Naraku's body, but his soul still lives on. And Naraku's soul will now use Inuyasha's body.
The sun rises from the outside, the castle never changes, even light is tainted when reflecting off the walls.
"You! Sweep he leaves off the path." A demon guard shoves Rin on the shoulder.
She responds the traditional way, lowering her head and bow in obedience, but her eyes never loses its piercing elevation. It's been a while, since Lord Naraku left the castle leaving his son Asuke as the ruler. Before the Dark Lord leaves, he hid away the chains and the tools of torment somewhere. He also ordered execution of the prisoners so disfigured that they bear no resembalance of being someone, something that is once alive. Peace to their souls. Perhaps that is the only way they can be free. They first are driven mad by the pain, then slowly they lose their speech, uttering nothing but primal grunts.
"Rin!" Shippo runs down the dirty path, his gray rags flapping with two brooms in his hand. She can see his smile under the beige mask of a slave with one red stripe painted across, symbolizing the lowest class. "I have to show you what I just learnt to do!"
Rin smiles at the young child with hair as bright as autumn leaves.
"Shippo, have you been practicing magic again?"
Shippo smiles again, from under his mask. Then leaves around him begins to swirl.
"Nice job Shippo! I'm proud of you." She feels warm inside. Shippo used to be the child who hides in a corner out of fear. Who has deep magic hidden within the blood in his veins, but he never believed in it. He always thought he was powerless, once. But it's through Rin, he realizes he is everything he thinks he isn't.
He makes the leaves dance around him. But those aren't browning leaves in their eyes at all, but the bright orange leaves that just have fallen. All the decay from the castle melts away. As long as they are together, that's all that matters.
The security in the castle has been dropped lately.
Before the arrival of Asuke – Naraku's son – the dungeon is full of bloodstained saws and spike whips. There used to be a demon guard watching with cunning eyes at every corner, and slaves' lives are no different than that of animals.
But now, a new quietness looms over the castle. The guardsare now gone.
Asuke watches that slave from the corner of a room in the Northern Turret.
His face is emotionless.
He watches them having a fight with the leaves. He watches them point at each other and laughing. He listens to her tell the child with orange hair stories, but he can only catch a few fragmented words.
The sound of their laughter somehow carries directly to where he is. His black cloak flaps from the wind bouncing off these black walls.
Shut up…he stands there…Slaves aren't suppose to be happy, Naraku once told him.
"So what happens then?" Shippo looks up at her eagerly.
"Only she can fit into the glass slipper, the girl who has been neglected, the one who was treated like dirt by her stepmother and stepsisters."
"He found her!" Shippo's green eyes dance with joy.
"And they lived happily ever after." Rin sweeps some leaves with the giant broom off the path. True love is only in fairy tales…she can never imagine, because at this place, the only aim anyone has is to survive.
What a pointless story, Asuke catches the last phrase. Why would a prince seek a lowly girl?
And then their laughter rings out again.
Buzzing annoyance surrounds his mind. Such insolence, under my powers, he bites his lips. Somehow that girl with vermillion eyes angers him, there's something about her he cannot stand.
"Guards," he speaks. "Summon her to me." They nod as the chain mail of their armor shuffle.
"Yes, Lord Asuke." The dark haired girl kneels before him.
"What were you doing down there?" he inquires, standing over her.
"Sweeping the leaves."
"And?"
"Nothing, my Lord, "she replies, matching his equally emotionless tone."
"You are lying." He takes a step forwards, his deep blue eyes sparkle with impatience, "what else were you doing?"
"Telling a story."
"What story?" His anger appears to diminish a little for some reason.
"Is there something I can get for you, my Lord?"
"Speak," He raises his voice, danger radiates from these blue orbs. That is the one single sentence he loathes the most in his life. All his life he has been waited on, there is nothing he desires that he cannot get. But that only adds to the hollowness in his heart.
"My duty is only to satisfy your physical needs."
"Insolence!" He glares at the girl with vermillion eyes.
"I'm afraid I cannot," her defiant voice replies, her knuckles on top of her knees are white because she is clutching her fist so hard. Wind howls sending the black curtains over the window – the only source of light. His pale feature almost shines through the darkness. He takes another step towards her, now he seizes onto the rough gray fabric of her collar.
She can feel his warmth in the darkness.
"You really aren't scared? Defying me is the same as defying Lord Naraku…Now…"
Her heart beats faster…She tries to crush the anger in her mind by sending thousands of bricks into her mind.
"What is your name?" He asks her.
"Slaves aren't suppose to have names, my Lord." The last word in her answer is drenched with sarcasm.
"Answer me!"
"What difference would it make?"
"Your life and death." His deep blue eyes sparkle in the darkness…
"You are just the same inside! You and Naraku, black hearted bastards that tortures for pleasure. I feel sorry for you, Asuke, to live your life without a soul, without a will, you are nothing but Naraku's puppet –" She doesn't know what makes her burst out...
"Shut up!"
He slaps her.
Her body impacts on the cold and hard ground. But at the same time wind dies and slowly the curtain falls. At the same moment light invades the room, her beige mask flutters down…
She can taste the blood in her mouth, but she doesn't care.
This is the first time he's seen her face. Actually, the first time he sees a face for a while. Everyone wears a mask around here, all but Naraku and him.
This is also the first time someone stands up against him…
Her featuresshines through all the hideous things around the room, the gray rags she wears, the black marble floor…So they say, she is the girl with the face of an angel but eyes of a demon.
Slowly she heaves herself up with an arm, her eyes speaks it all: She has no fear. Not anymore. If she still has the emotion within her, she would probably be driven insane within those castle walls.
"You deserve it." Asuke walks across the room." I'm going to show the other slaves what happens when you defy me." His blue eyes meets hers for a split second, piercing, as a battle of will. But she never looks away.
Then he breaks their locked battle and walks outside the heavy mahogany door."
"Take her to the courtyard."
"Yes, Lord Asuke." Shuffle of chain mail.
Roughly he swings her limp body over his shoulders.
Whoosh, they are airborne.
His demonic power is focusing on his feet. His boa soaring behind them, so powerful, even the sky is beneath him.
Night cloaks over the orange sunset and its warmth.
The moon is especially bright tonight. Soft moonlight tinges the fur on his boa. But around him it seems so cold.
His heart is encased completely in ice.
He flies on, a lone demon across the bright disk hanging in the sky.
But then he gazes at her face, his silvery hair in the wind.
Her lips are a shade of purple, her face as white as the untouched snow, her violet eyes hidden.
He sighs.
Warmth…yet coldness rushes against her cheeks.
She slightly opens her eyes, only to find herself so close to the sky that it feels like if she reaches a hand up she can touch the golden disk of the moon.
She is at his back, and she looks down at herself.
It's his black yukata around her…shielding her from the cold…But why?
He is wearing white underneath, as pale as his hair and the untouched snow.
He must have felt her stir.
I don't understand.
Before unconciousness takes over her once more, he answers her question, "if you died, you wouldn't be useful anymore.
Coming up Next:
Chapter 22: Guardian Angel
"Touch her and you'll wish you were never born."
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Replies to Reviews:
Wacky-girl: Yes the mood will be lighter in the near future…glad you liked it! Thanks for reviewing!
Sesshy-kun's gal: Thanks!
Tsuke Yume/Bluedove: Thanks for pointing out my mistakes, I'll fix them if I have time.
Xpices07x: Thanks for reading, this story I feel is a few braided together…I have lots of fun writing it…thanks for the review!
Twilight Elf-Maiden: Thanks for reading, hope ya like this one!
DumbAssPunk: Thanks for your comment, it means a lot. This chapter is written during my precious breaks during exam period. I should be able to update faster during the Christmas break.
Renyun: Thanks for coming back to read my story…I know my update rate is the pace the snail takes to cross the road…but this snail will get there…hehe, hope you like this one. This chapter is an intense one to write.
Fire onnagoddess: Thanks for reviewing, I tried to update sooner with shorter chapters. The plot is going to centre around Sesshoumaru and Kagome more now.
Ouilver: thanks, hope you'll come back.
Rin-Elwin: thanks for reading
Sugacoated-Cherries: thanks for reading, there's the story behind why he did what he did.
LadyRedEyes: I had to end there last chapter…didn't want to but to prevent a chapter from going on forever I had to…Thanks for the review!
E.J.A Roberts: I hope that the fact Inuyasha dies will not make you stop reading, that is just one of the plotline traps I set up. Thanks for the review. More will be revealed real soon. Thanks for reviewing.
Rachynn: Thanks for the compliment, it will lighten up from the previous segment. Also, there will definitely be more scenes with Sesshoumaru and Kagome, the rightful main characters.
Tracy Johnson: I hope you like this chapter. Now the plot will refocus on the true main character, haha I know it's been a while.
Ladylillyofazra: I hope you like this chapter. Thanks for the review.
Maiden of the Seven Stars: Hey, glad you liked the mushrooms. I don't think many stories would have biting and talking mushrooms. This is a crazy time for me, I have to make time to write this chapter…I've got 3 finals in the next 5 days. Hehe…good guesses. But I cannot break Sesshoumaru's act immediately. Thanks for the review…I always love reading your reviews. I should be able to update faster because I promised myself after I get out of the exams I will write and draw like crazy…(the best part about university is that there's no work assigned over Christmas break) Hope you like this chapter.
NekoYasha101: I know I was evil to end there…but had to or else the chapter will drag on forever. But no worries now the main character will be back as Sesshoumaru and Kagome. Hope ya like this one!
Star Sapphirex: Heya! Exams has been insane lately, art, writing, and friends keep me sane. But I'm ready for the exams, I love not procrastinating. Thanks for having faith in this story…I hope you like this chapter.
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