Kage Houseki no Himitsu

Chapter 24

Kagome

"A-Aoi!" I gasped. This was… sudden.

My cousin seemed to come to her senses. Her eyes popped wide open, and she broke away from Sesshomaru.

"I-I'm so sorry," she gasped, blushing profusely. "I… I don't know what came over me…"

Sesshomaru hastily (and with apparent embarrassment, which was an expression that didn't suit his cold face) dumped her on the ground and stepped away from her.

"… What just happened?' Sango asked the obvious question. She glanced from Aoi to Sesshomaru, then back again. "Aoi-san?"

"… um…" Aoi seemed to be intensely uncomfortable with everyone staring at her. She drew her legs up to her chest. "I-it was Ryuusai… she showed me her memories…"

Sesshomaru stiffened.

Before Aoi could say anything further, Sesshomaru turned and started to walk quickly away.

"Oi! Where the hell d'you think you're going?" Inuyasha barked.

Sesshomaru didn't stop. I frowned, and glanced between him and Aoi, whose eyes were hidden by her fringe. She was still blushing.

What had happened, really, between Sesshomaru and Ryuusai?

"Aoi-san!"

I whipped my head around to look back at my cousin; she had suddenly fallen sideways into an alarmingly large pool of her own blood. How had I not noticed it before? Sango had been the one that shouted.

I ran over to her and picked her up; I felt sick to my stomach when I noticed the extent of the injuries she'd recieved during her battle as Ryuusai. I was surprised she hadn't dropped dead instantly.

Tears pricking at my eyes, I looked helplessly up at my friends.

"Help her," I whispered, suddenly too shocked to speak. Aoi was growing cold in my arms; she was dying. "Help her!"

Location unknown, Aoi

I took a long time to come to. I had no idea where I was, or how I had gotten there, or who had brought me there... for a moment, even who I was.

The confusion passed once I opened my eyes. They took a moment to blur into focus, but I instantly recognised the ceiling of Kaede's hut; I'd spent three days staring up at it from this exact same position, after all. I'd know that ceiling anywhere.

I also knew that I was definitely Aoi Higurashi. I wasn't Ryuusai. I wasn't.

You might not understand what I mean; Ryuusai had infused me with almost every single one of her memories up until the moment she'd died. There were so many of them that it was almost overwhelming - too many memories for a half-demon girl that had only really seen fifteen years of life. My own memories were crammed into a small corner of my mind, and I apparently had to physically fish them out to remember them. Like Ryuusai's memories were my real memories.

I squeezed my eyes shut, and tried to concentrate. No, I was Aoi. Not Ryuusai.

"Aoi-san!"

My eyes popped open; I hadn't realised that there was someone else in the hut. I tried to move my head to look around at them, but I winced as pain shot through my whole body in retaliation.

Sango's face came into view, saving me the trouble of moving for myself.

"Don't try to move," Sango told me sternly. She swiped a damp, cool cloth across my forehead; that felt nice. "Kaede-ba-chan said that you'd need at least a week's rest before you can even think about moving; it's only been three days."

Sango smiled, and arranged the damp cloth on my forehead so that it would keep me cool. "Are you feeling alright? Kagome-chan has been worried sick about you. She's out with Kaede-ba-chan now picking medicinal herbs for your wounds."

"I'm..." I vaguely remembered suddenly feeling intense pain everywhere at once, then blacking out almost instantly. There was something else I felt I should remember, too - but I couldn't bring it to mind. "I'm... okay."

"I'll let you rest now," Sango said. She stepped out of sight. I heard her settle beside the fire in the middle of the room.

"What happened to me?" I asked. I stared at the ceiling, and tried to imagine Sango's face as she replied.

"You don't remember?" She asked with surprise.

"No. Not a thing." Well, there was something...

"Naraku kidnapped you and forced you to become possessed by Ryuusai again; Sesshomaru showed up and gave you quite the beating. Then, for some reason, Inuyasha used his Wind Scar on you - which is why you're in such a bad state now."

"Yeah..." Ryuusai? No, Ryuusai couldn't have been the one that had possessed me. I distinctly remembered Ryuusai giving me her memories in that weird misty place. Could she have been doing completely different things in two different places? It wasn't impossible, since she was dead, I guessed. But if Ryuusai had been only talking to me, then who had been-?

"Wait, no." I heard Sango shift as she turned to look at me. "It wasn't Ryuusai."

Sango paused for a moment as she tried to take in what I'd said. "Aoi-san, both Sesshomaru and Inuyasha recognised Ryuusai's voice and scent. I know it seems impossible, but Ryuusai somehow has the power to take control of you every now and then."

"It's not Ryuusai. It's Kokuei."

Another pause. "I don't understand."

I closed my eyes, trying to picture it. "Ryuusai visited me in... a dream, I guess. While I was possessed. She told me that it was Kokuei that had driven her mad all those years ago, and she warned me that it would make me end up like her, too. Kokuei was the one controlling me, not Ryuusai."

Sango didn't reply for what felt like a long time. At last, she sighed. "You should get some rest, Aoi-san. I'll tell the others about this, and we'll talk more once you're healed."

I felt like arguing, but my eyelids had grown heavy; I couldn't open them anymore. I felt myself drifting in and out of consciousness, then finally I landed on something.

Something very, very hard.

"Ow!" I yelped. I hadn't just landed, I'd fallen. From a significant height, it felt. My eyes flew open, and I sat up without a hint of pain. What was going on?

Suddenly, I recognised where I was; the greyish-white, swirling mist was enough to clue me in. I was dreaming.

I got to my feet, staring around me at my surroundings. I wasn't in the same place I'd been when Ryuusai had spoken to me while I'd been possessed by Kokuei; while everything was made of the same white, hard substance as the ground, it had been shaped up into stark, bare-limbed trees, rocks and boulders, small, motionless animals.

It was intensely creepy.

Ryuusai didn't appear behind me this time; she had been waiting for me. She sat contentedly on a snow-white rock, her flourescent eyes boring into me as I oriented myself. She gave a small smile when I noticed her.

"Ryuusai?"

She slipped gracefully off of the rock, and walked toward me. I noticed with a start that her feet didn't quite touch the ground.

"Why did you bring me here again?" I asked her as she drew closer. She stopped an arms-length in front of me. Her eyes grew a little sad, and she reached up to touch my forehead. I bowed my head to make her job easier.

I've troubled you. I didn't realise that my memories would be such a burden.

"What?" I answered the thought she'd sent me, my brow furrowing. "They're not a burden."

Ryuusai, having not released her fingers from my head, sent another message.

Your thoughts say otherwise.

Fair enough.

There is a method, Ryuusai continued, I can reverse the focus; make your memories your own, and store my memories... 'away in the corner', as you put it earlier.

I blushed, but nodded. "Okay... how do we do that?"

Simple.

And just like that, Ryuusai's and my memories switched places. I have no other way to describe it, only that it was extremely disorientating. Feeling dizzy, I fell to my knees. Ryuusai's fingers remained attached to my forehead, and she knelt down in front of me again.

Sleep now.

"'Kay," I mumbled. I barely noticed as the misty world dissolved around me, and Ryuusai's fingers slowly faded from my forehead. I welcomed the peaceful blackness of sleep that waited for me.