A/N: Trigger warning: No descriptives but mentions of rape in the second half at this chapter.
Kagome waited until they reached the cave where they'd be making camp for the night to talk to Sesshomaru.
Ayame hadn't been keen on stopping when the rest of her clan hadn't been found yet. They had found the wolves and yokai Hakkaku and Ginta had hidden away, but the children and most of the other wolves and yokai remained at large. But the cries of her son had convinced her to rest and care for him where the comments of the others had failed to sway her mind.
Ayame and her son had been surrounded by the remains of her pack as she settled down to care for the newborn. Azumi had taken Shin somewhere deeper in the cave to talk, leaving Kagome and Sesshomaru to themselves. She'd suggested they take a walk and Sesshomaru had quietly led the way out of the cave.
She followed him back down the path until they reached a small cliff where he settled down and waited.
She sat down next to him.
For a moment, they just sat there in silence, but it wasn't a bad silence. Sitting beside him was relaxing and it soothed her tired heart.
"Tell me of your worries, Kagome," he said softly.
That was all it took to loosen her lips. "Everything about this bothers me," she admitted, dropping up her knees and wrapping her arms around them before she tucked her chin on top. "When I'm from, the yokai are all gone. Tatarimokke is the only one left and even then, no one actually believes he exists."
"You fear that Itsetsuhiko is why," he guessed and she looked over to see him studying her with a careful, blank expression.
She nodded. "We know he's slaying yokai and hanyo as well as any priestesses or monks that don't join up with him. He could be a big part of why the yokai have all vanished. He's been kidnapping female yokai right and left and slaying their mates. I doubt he intends to let them live long, either. The cruelty I sensed in him... What if we defeat him and there's no one left to continue the species? What if the powerful yokai all die out because they were killed by Itsetsuhiko? Maybe I'm just watching my own future unfurl before me..."
She sighed as he said, "You fear you cannot change the future."
It wasn't a question but she nodded again anyway. "What if this is all how things are supposed to happen?"
"You speak of fate." He paused, as though considering how to continue. "Do you think it was fate that brought you here to start with?"
"Well, sure," she said, surprised at the question. "After all, I carried Kikyo's soul within me. Did you know she made a wish on the Shikon jewel? She wanted to be with InuYasha, despite the pain they'd been through. She still loved him. The jewel granted her wish and brought her here through me."
He considered that and then said, "Perhaps you were intended to come back for another reason." When she looked at him, lost, he nodded at her chest. "Do you recall how I studied your chest and the glow it emits?"
She flushed as she nodded and he continued, "You have been marked by the kami, Kagome. I sought out Bokuseno to discover more about what that entails, but even he did not know your true purpose and Bokuseno is the oldest living thing on this earth. It is safe to say your power exists out of the rules that govern our own. It is that very power that likely makes you so attractive to Itsetsuhiko. If he possesses it, there is no limit to what he could accomplish."
Kagome tried to talk that all in, but she struggled. "Are you saying I'm more powerful than you?" she asked carefully.
He hesitated and then admitted, "I do not know. But you are stronger than the Shikon jewel. It is no surprise, therefore, that you were able to bend it to your will. Your power is immense, Kagome. When you learn to use it properly, there are very few that could stand in your way."
"There's no way," she blurted, though she couldn't help but be pleased that he thought so highly of her. "I'm an ordinary human girl. Sure, I mean I have priestess powers, but they're not anything remarkable. Even Kikyo was more powerful than me."
Sesshomaru smiled as he reached out to grip her chin in his hand. "Foolish woman," he said but his tone was more affectionate than scolding. "You outclassed Kikyo in every way. Her power paled compared to your own. Do you think I would settle for anything less than the best? And you, Kagome, are the best."
"Hey!" she protested, more to keep herself from drowning in the heat in his crimson flecked golden eyes. "Are you saying you only like me because I'm powerful?"
"Your power is what first drew me to you in my honorable father's remains," he admitted but then he gave her a devilish grin. "But it was your body that drew me in next."
"Sesshomaru!" She tried to bat his hand away as his grin deepened.
To her surprise, he chuckled and she stared at him, stunned. "It is your personality that draws me in," he confided, moving in closer so his lips were nearly touching hers. She could feel his every breath and she began to hope he was going to kiss her with everything he had. "It is your heart that I seek to capture. And it is your soul that I want draped around my own so deeply that we can never escape. You will forever be a part of me as I am of you."
Her eyes widened at the impassioned words. She hadn't expected that from Sesshomaru. "You..." She stopped to lick her lips and his eyes tracked the movement. "You're overbearing, Sesshomaru."
But she wasn't dissuaded despite her protest.
"And you have a horrible temper," he replied easily, undaunted, as if he knew she wanted him in spite of that.
"Well, so do you," she argued back as he raised a brow. "And you like to play games with people."
He smirked. "So I do." His other hand snaked around to her lower back as he pulled her in closer. "But I think you like it. You are always finding trouble, after all."
"And I suppose you think you're trouble." She scoffed as he chuckled. "Well, you're domineering," she continued, daring him to argue.
He didn't. "So are you." He chuckled again. "I recall quite clearly how you would sit my half-brother at the slightest infraction."
Well, that was true, she had to admit. They weren't often her finest moments, but as he'd already pointed out, she had a horrible temper.
"I'll probably boss you around a lot," she admitted, though she wasn't sure she wanted a partner who would obey her every command. In fact, she was pretty certain she didn't. She wanted a partner, someone who would stand toe-to-toe with her. Someone who would support her but someone she could support as well.
Perhaps that was why things had fallen apart with InuYasha...
"So tell me, Kagome," he purred, snapping her out of her thoughts. "What would you command me to do?"
She heard the dare in his voice and matched it with a request that would no doubt surprise him, she thought confidently. After all, he'd been chasing after her but she'd given away little to show his attentions would still be wanted. "Kiss me." She raised her brows as she waited expectantly.
He didn't disappoint. He closed the small gap between them and kissed her. This time, she fully welcomed his touch as his hand moved from her chin to cup her jaw and angle her head so he could kiss her more deeply. As he deepened the kiss, her hands sank into his hair, delighting in the silky texture of the long strands.
He pulled back when she needed air and smirked. "You are so attractive, Kagome," he said, tracking her lips with his thumb. "I desire you more than I've desired anything or anyone before."
She couldn't help but ask, "Even your father's sword?"
"Even that," he agreed easily. "You realize you will be mine, right?" As she opened her mouth to protest the domineering statement, he continued smoothly, "Do not worry, Kagome. You will find that I will be yours as well. There could never be another. I fear that anyone would pale compared to you."
"Sesshomaru..." She flushed. The sentiment was attractive, but he still had a lot to make up for in his earlier handling of her, and she wasn't quite willing to forgive and forget. While she didn't necessarily doubt the sincerity of his words, only time would tell if he meant every word he said.
Kissing him was one thing, but she wasn't ready to join her life to his yet and there was no mistaking that that was his intent. And for now, she wasn't sure if mating him was a good idea. Shin had done a good job of explaining it, but if it turned out he didn't love her, she'd know. And there was no way she could go through that again, not after what had happened with InuYasha.
This time, when she made her decision, it would be one she could commit to with her whole heart. And she expected her partner to do the same.
"I know," he said, but he didn't draw back. "You aren't ready yet. This is neither the time nor the place, in any case. Itsetsuhiko must be taken care of first, before he causes more damage. But trust me, Kagome. I will make up for my earlier infractions."
She smiled. "Then I know of a good way to start," she said, leaning in. She had planned on teasing him, asking him to do a ridiculous task for her, but before she had the chance, he closed the distance and kissed her again.
.
Hana had been thrown into a moving cage with other women upon her capture. Some were yokai, like she was, but others were human and there was even a hanyo in the cage with them. A bat hanyo, given her scent, but she wasn't positive she trusted her nose. The bat yokai were notorious for their hatred of humans.
All of the women huddled together, irrespective of their blood. They were terrified, a feeling Hana could understand.
Her captor had introduced himself as Itsetsuhiko and declared that he'd murdered her grandfather. She had already known that, though, by the smell of Grandfather's blood under his nails. Her cousin, Ayame, wasn't in the cage with her and she could only hope that meant that her cousin, her mate Koga, and their newborn son had escaped.
Daisuke was alive, but he wouldn't be for long. Itsetsuhiko had promised them that. He would live long enough to see her be tainted by Itsetsuhiko's hand before meeting his demise.
She could only hope her own end would follow swiftly after. If she could not live with Daisuke in peace in this world, she wanted to follow him to the next.
"What's your name?" one of the women asked softly. It was a human woman, but she did not seemed scared of Hana herself. Perhaps, Hana reflected, her fear of Itsetsuhiko eclipsed everything she'd been taught about yokai.
"Hana," she said just as softly. The cage was pulled by horseback and the guards—some mounted but the majority were on foot—were human. They weren't close enough to hear the conversation if they were quiet enough. "What's yours?"
"Hayamehime," she replied. From that, Hana assumed Hayamehime was the daughter of one of the nearby daimyo. Hayamehime confirmed that in her next sentence and then went around and introduced the rest of the women, human and yokai alike. "My father is the head of Takeda clan. This is Kazukohime. Next to her is Manamihime. Both are from the Miyoshi clan. Nyoko, Sachi, Keiko, and Rui are from nearby villages. Satoko, Yuri, and Maiko were all priestess before their capture. They were taken before their temple was burned to the ground by Itsetsuhiko. And Cho here is a samurai's daughter. That's all of us human women."
"But as you can see," Hayamehime continued, "Itsetsuhiko has taken other women, too. Shiori is a bat hanyo," she said, confirming Hana's guess. "Katsumi is a horse yokai. Haruki is yokai, but we don't know what kind. Shunran is a panther yokai. We thought she was a cat at first, but she corrected us." Hayamehime smiled. "Hanako and Kaori are kitsune. Hisa is a crane yokai. And Aiko is a moth yokai."
"There's one more woman, Akane, who is a yokai, but she is no longer in the cage with us," Hayamehime. "She's been moved to another cage. We've heard the guards say that there two other women, both daimyo's daughters, in there with her, but we've never met them."
"We are Itsetsuhiko's wives," Shiori spoke up.
"As you can see, he does not care about age or race," Hayamehime finished. "Our only purpose is to serve his every need and produce a thousand sons to fight for his new empire."
"But there's so many women here," Hana said, surprised. Why hadn't they fought or tried to escape?
"Disobeying him is worse," Satoko said, hate blazing in her eyes. "Emiko tried to seal him away as he defiled her." Satoko's jaw tightened. "He gave her to his men. We heard her scream for hours until her screaming finally stopped."
Hana sagged against the bars of the cage. There wasn't enough room for them to sit so they were forced to stand together in the crowded cage. It was all that kept Hana on her feet.
"The only escape we have left is death and our lord Itsetsuhiko is not so kind." Manamihime looked out of the bars into the forest around them.
"My sisters will kill him," Shunran promised darkly. "If I don't get the chance to do it myself. Oh, don't look at me like that, Hayamehime. You and I know it's better to try and be killed than it is to keep living like this. Do you really think your fathers would take you back after Itsetsuhiko has defiled you?"
Manamihime and Kazukohime exchanged a depressed look. "Ours will expect us to drown ourselves and cleanse away his sins." Manamihime's voice trembled as she spoke. "Even if Itetsuhiko is killed, we can never go home."
"Exactly." Shunran nodded. "You're already dead to him."
Maiko shook her head. "There is no point in throwing away more lives," she argued and Satoko and Yuri nodded. "We won't be welcome in temples now that our purity is lost. All of us have lost everything we have to lose except our own lives. And I, for one, won't give him the pleasure of taking that from me, too."
Cho folded her arms as she leaned against the bars. "We swore an oath to each other that we'd survive," she reminded everyone, to Hana's surprise. She'd never expected to see humans and yokai coexisting together in peace, yet here, all of the women had banded together.
Aiko seemed to notice Hana's surprise. "In the beginning, we kept to our own kind," she explained quietly. "But Cho here reminded us all that we are all Itsetsuhiko's victims and the only chance we have of surviving is by helping each other. That's the oath she's referring to."
Aiko's voice dropped lower so that the human women couldn't hear her. "Cho was the first woman to survive Itsetsuhiko's attention. She's been imprisoned here the longest. When he first captured her, he kept all the women separate but evidently he has since decided that it was more efficient to transport us around like cattle. Aside from you, Shiori and Rui were the most recently captured women."
"He hasn't been with me yet," Shiori said just as quietly. "But we're all certain he's just toying with us. It's torture, waiting for him to do what we know he will."
"And he enjoys that." Aiko glowered ahead of them where Itsetsuhiko rode on a low-born dragon yokai ahead of his troops. "Almost as much as he enjoys bedding us against our will. But you can be sure he won't leave you untouched for long. He enjoys his harem of women too much and anything new is a novelty to his sadistic mind."
Hana closed her eyes. Then it's too late for me and for Daisuke. There's no way we'll be freed before Itsetsuhiko turns his attentions to me. If that's the case, I hope Ayame doesn't find out where we've gone. She'll want to come rescue us. But his army is too big. She'd only end up being another prize for Itsetsuhiko.
Ayame, I hope you find the allies you need to kill the bastard. And I hope you destroy him. For Grandfather.
And for me.