Running Up That Hill
By: The Hatter Theory
Chapter 38: Time To Pass You To The Test
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Inu Yasha or anything by Placebo or Kate Bush
AN: Okay, thanks for your patience. It's been a psychotically busy week. Someone did ask if I could give warnings of what chapters will be censored here so they can follow the links to the full version, and for the rare few that actually read these things, yes, I will give warning, although the actual censoring will be little at all at this point. The full versions can be found on either ArchiveOfOurOwn or Dokuga under the same title and penname. Now, as to the question of length, which someone saw on AO3, this story is 50 chapters. Ish. I'm still deciding on whether to compile a few into one. So, we still have a ways to go. Don't hate me. XD Also, on that note, this is a full, uncensored chapter, since it had nothing worth censoring.
The morning sun was too bright for Shinzuru's remaining eye, and he blinked, wondering if perhaps he was getting to an age where he needed to sleep on a nightly basis. His people, the moth youkai, loved the night completely, and in holding with being a strange anomaly for his clan, he loved the day. From the sunrise to the glorious sunsets, he loved every second. The night was just another reminder of a breed that had considered him anathema.
Centuries of sunrises had been his, and he had anticipated each one, wanting to feel the warmth on his tanned skin. This sunrise was met with nothing but anxiety. The bench beneath him was cold stone, and it seemed resistant to soaking up any of his own warmth. It was just as well, he needed to move anyway.
Moving like a ghost past the servants coming and going, he fought against the sudden nausea roiling in his stomach. Lies, so many deceptions hanging in the air like dust motes, seeping into his skin and only serving to further ignite his temper. It had occurred, more than once, that there was no point to his endeavor. The female inu had lied and acted and manipulated with such regularity that he wondered if even she knew her own self and the game she played anymore.
When his shadow fell on her door, he paused. The entrance had become menacing, dark. It promised nothing but bitterness. Shaking his head, he knocked once, knowing even then that she was awake.
"Come," She called out. He blinked stupidly, wondering if he had misheard. Her voice sounded so strained, so weak despite being muffled by the door. Forcing himself to add that to the list of her acting skills, he steeled himself and opened the door, not even looking at her as he stepped in and closed it behind him.
There was nothing said in greeting as he moved to sit across from her at the small table. His naginata sat across his lap, giving him something to hold in his hands as he took in her haggard appearance. The shadows beneath her eyes had darkened into bruises, and her fair skin seemed translucent. Despite his own senses being inferior to hers, he could hear her heartbeat, rapid and irregular.
"What's wrong?" She finally asked, voice even stranger than it had been the day before.
"I should be asking that," He shot out, the words completely different than the ones he had wanted to say. But her visible condition could not be a lie. Something was wrong with the daiyoukai, and no matter her skills at deception, some things could not be faked.
"It is merely a passing illness," She replied, waving his concern away. "Why have you come?"
"It doesn't make sense," He blurted, once again surprised at his choice of words. "The reason for the lie. Everything you said, none of it makes any sense at all."
"If you doubt me, ask others who are mated but not in love. They can tell you if their marks manipulated them," She replied stonily, eyes glued to some spot over his shoulder. Her lips were pulled into a small, tight frown.
"I need to know the truth, Yuugao."
"That is not possible."
"Why not?" He finally snapped, any thought to her condition gone in the wake of his temper. Instead of answering, she merely stared blankly ahead, and he could see the pulse in her throat fluttering wildly, then pausing as if her heart was stuttering.
"Please leave," She whispered, not even acknowledging him as she stood and began stumbling away. Surprised by her strange behavior, he watched her instead of obeying her quiet command. She moved deeper into her room, not even closing the door behind her. She was just out of sight when he heard the strange thump and rustle of silks. His naginata clattering on the floor echoed in the silence as he bolted into her room, propriety forgotten.
She was less than a foot away from a small chest in the corner, a pile of tangled white hair and vivid silks that clashed garishly with her blue veined white skin. He turned her onto her back and pulled back, hissing when the pendant she wore placed a barrier around her. Then the stone in the center of the pendant began to swell and grow, losing any semblance to stone and becoming an inky, smoke like darkness that swept over her form. The room turned cold, numbing his fingers.
He tried touch the barrier, only to be burned when it rejected him. Half of her body was obscured by the mass within the shield. When a surge of his youki did nothing to weaken it, he looked at her face as the shadow cloaked it, hiding the brilliant white of her skin and hair from him. She was completely hidden from him.
"Sesshoumaru!" Shinzuru roared, terror gripping his heart.
The shield shimmered, and suddenly everything was gone, as if it, and the daiyoukai, had never even existed.
"Sesshoumaru!"
Fury washed over Kagome and she jerked awake, feeling as if she were having a seizure. Her heart was hammering furiously in her chest, and she blinked, startled by the intensity of the emotions echoing. Without thinking she knew it was from her bond with Sesshoumaru, but what could cause such rage?
Not even bothering to change, she ran from her rooms, not noting the open doors or even the two kitsune in the corridor as she raced past them. Her bond led her through the shiro, down the stairs and through various hallways. Not pausing for breath once, she was panting by the time she reached Yuugao's rooms.
"What's wrong?" She gasped as she walked in, sides heaving from her run. Shinzuru was staring, wide eyed at a spot on the floor as if it were the gate to hell itself. Sesshoumaru's gaze was cold and impassive. Resshin was looking from Shinzuru to Sesshoumaru, his ever changing eyes cycling through the colors more quickly than she had ever seen.
"Leave," Sesshoumaru commanded in a quiet tone.
"Something's wrong," She insisted.
"It is none of your concern," He began again.
"Wrong!" She shouted, still panicked by the anger and confusion pulsing through their bond. "Where's Yuugao?" She demanded, her eyes moving to Shinzuru.
"Vanished. She just fell, was barely breathing. And then the necklace," He groaned, leaning against the wall and rubbing his face, as if he still couldn't believe what he had seen.
"That is enough," Sesshoumaru bit out.
"It is not!" Kagome snapped, still on edge from his own chaotic emotions filtering through to her despite the tight control he had over his aura. "You told me that I'm as responsible for the pack as you. She's pack."
"Shinzuru speaks the truth," Resshin said, ending the argument. "I have seen it through his eyes. The Lady Mother vanished."
"It is another trick," Sesshoumaru began.
"Doubtful," Resshin replied, his voice calm despite Sesshoumaru's furious gaze. "There is something not right here. I feel-" He started, but stopped, unable to articulate the feeling itself.
"The stone was probably the meido stone," Sesshoumaru started.
"No," Shinzuru snapped. "I know that necklace, I was with your father when he had it forged and when he gave it to her. This one was different. White, with a black stone in the center."
"It's the one that she used the day I was told about my trial," Kagome answered, remembering the strange necklace vividly. "I always thought it hypnotized me or something, like a focal point for meditation. She never really explained what it was."
Shinzuru made a noise, and everyone's gaze rested on him as he ran his hands through mussed auburn hair.
"She said something the night you finished your trial. She said that since Sesshoumaru interrupted, the lady was angry."
"The lady?" Kagome asked, confused.
"A kami. She said a goddess told her you would be the next, or none at all. And that Sesshoumaru's interference had angered her."
"How did he interfere?" Kagome demanded. "He didn't get there until after I'd buried the rosary!"
"The portal to your time was another test. If you had gone through it, you would have failed. His appearance was viewed as an interference. I don't know any more than that," Shinzuru admitted. Then his good eye widened and for a moment he looked almost relieved.
"Bokusenou said your mother had a story, and that he has respected her privacy. He didn't gainsay anything she said. Maybe he can explain this."
"I will go-" Sesshoumaru started, but was stopped by the sudden fury, as potent as his own, bleeding through the bond he shared with Kagome.
"Oh no, not without me," She snapped. "If I am somehow involved in this, I want to know what's going on and if I can help."
"We do not have the time for this," He ground out through clenched teeth. Her choice of apparel was not lost on him, and for all the world he did not want to see her wearing that kimono and nothing else in his mother's suite.
"I'm going to go change and we are going to Bokusenou or I can meet you there. Your choice," She hissed as she was turning on her heel, already lunging into a run. When she was gone, the daiyoukai turned to his two friends and felt the slightest bit irked by their hooded expressions.
"She'll need to come with us. If it is linked to her trial, then she may have a part to play," Resshin reasoned.
Sesshoumaru did not want her anywhere near the situation at hand if it turned out to be something besides his mother's penchant for the dramatic. When she had come running into the room, hair messy and wearing that kimono he'd very nearly been undone with want and the need to get her away from the crisis at hand.
"You will not dissuade her. It will be best if we wait for her to change, and then go to Bokusenou," Resshin tried again. "Your mate is as strong willed as you."
"Alert the twins, have your mate and Kagome's guests taken to the children's room. Tenka and Jaken are to go and stand guard as well. And my men at the entry to the family wing are to move to the children's room."
Resshin nodded once, moving so swiftly Sesshoumaru barely even noticed him.
"Something's wrong Sesshoumaru," Shinzuru stated calmly, her earlier terror having faded. Grateful for the return of the warrior he had known all his life, the daiyoukai only nodded, refusing to repeat his suspicions.
"Something was wrong with her before that darkness took her. Like she's been ill."
"What was she trying to do before she fainted?" He asked instead.
"I don't know," The moth demon admitted. "She wasn't moving for the futon. But I'm not sure what she was aiming for."
"It matters not," Sesshoumaru said, already making his way from his mother's suite into the hall. Shinzuru followed him through the hallways and out into the sun. It was still early morning, and the day promised to be a long one.
"I'm here!" Kagome announced. Sesshoumaru turned and saw her dressed in her normal red hakama and white kimono, thankfully not the one she had been wearing earlier. Even as she was running out of the shiro she was pulling on the oversized blue coat he was beginning to find endearing on her. Banishing such thoughts, he shook his head when she began to focus her ki to create her cloud.
"It will be faster if you hold on," He told her. Blue eyes widened, as if completely taken aback by the suggestion, he tried not to feel hurt. Apparently she was afraid of him... But as soon as he thought it, he saw her eyes widen even more and concern echoed through the bond. Damning the mark again, he was still gratified when she darted to his side and wrapped her arms around his waist.
"Like this?" She murmured. Instead of answering, he let his youki wash over them both, and concentrated. He had never tried with a passenger, and for a moment he worried her miko energy might reject his own. But as always, her ki accepted his without protest. And they were off. Anyone outside of the sphere would have only seen the bright globe of light around them and heard the spectacular crackle of energy, like lightning.
They would not have heard the miko complaining of motion sickness.
"How can you do this all the time?" She mumbled, hand going to cover her mouth. He hoped -desperately- that she wouldn't vomit all over him. The smell would be enough to make his own stomach roil.
"Do not become ill," He commanded, as if the command would somehow make her better.
"It's just going so fast," Came the muffled reply as blue eyes watched the world outside of them blur by.
"Then do not look at it," He rumbled, only to be further surprised when she looked up at his face instead. Her eyes were open and honest and trusting and everything he didn't want them to be right now.
"Sesshoumaru," She started, then stopped, blushing lightly.
"What is it?" He prodded, knowing that time was at a minimum before they landed at Bokusenou's roots.
"It's not the right time," she finished, eyes dropping to his chest. He cursed her strange habit of beginning and never ending something. Usually it turned out to be important to her, and -in a startling moment of clarity- he realized that it meant it was important to him too.
"We will finish this discussion later," He intoned just as they landed in the wood, feet barely whispering over the dry, brown leaves beneath their feet.
"And what has brought the children to my forest today?" Bokusenou asked. When Resshin and Shinzuru landed seconds later, their faces set in grim lines, the tree's expression grew pensive.
"Bokusenou," Shinzuru began, then paused, realizing his lord would want to speak first. Instead, Kagome turned to him and gestured for him to keep talking. When his gaze moved to the daiyoukai, Sesshoumaru only inclined his head slightly in affirmation.
"The other day, when Yuugao and I spoke here, you didn't refute anything she said," Shinzuru began.
"Of which topic are we speaking?" The tree youkai asked, eying the older demon thoughtfully.
"About all of it, in a way," Shinzuru sighed, moving to seat himself. Old demon that he was, he knew when a long talk was coming, and it was with a sense of relief that he watched the others follow his example.
"First, I need you to answer the question that has been bothering me for some time," Shinzuru began, unsure if he could ask when the subjects of that question were present. Wondering if he was signing his own death warrant, he forged ahead. "Can a mating mark manipulate someone's emotions?"
Sesshoumaru stiffened, and Kagome looked at her mate with worried eyes as anger and anxiety began seeping through the bond, jabbing at her own awareness. Not caring why he was angry, she slipped her hand into his own, giving him no choice but to lace his fingers with hers.
"That is hardly relevant," The daiyoukai began.
"I think it is," Shinzuru snapped.
"Children, stop," Bokusenou rumbled, his old voice beginning to deepen. When the moth demon and the inu daiyoukai ceased whatever it was they were going to say, Bokusenou contented himself, knowing they would stop their staring contest the moment he began to speak.
"The mating mark cannot manipulate it's bearers emotions. It is merely a bond. If it is a strong bond, there will be times when one or the other will know of their mate's emotions, especially in a time of duress or crisis. Does that answer your question?" He chuckled, amused at the sight of the two youkai now watching him. Resshin looked satisfied, although the tree knew why. Kagome, for her part, looked confused, as if she wasn't sure what was going on.
"You said 'know of'. What do you mean?"
Kagome's blue eyes swung to the daiyoukai, stunned that he had latched onto the current conversation instead of his mother.
"Precisely that. I think perhaps, it was the primary reason such bonds were forged. Mothers that are nesting or nursing cannot leave their own, and would need to signal in case of attack. The mark was simply a way of alerting their mate that she and her cubs were in danger." Bokusenou deliberately danced around the issue he knew was clouding the daiyoukai's mind, hoping the pup would catch on. It was amusing to see that daiyoukai at a loss, to say the least. Especially over something so simple.
"So it does not impose one's feelings onto their mate?" He finally asked.
Kagome was staring up at him as if he'd lost his mind. He was stalwartly refusing to look at her.
"No, it does not," Bokusenou finally answered.
Sesshoumaru continued not looking at Kagome in such a way that everyone knew he wanted to.
"Sesshoumaru," She started again. He wouldn't look at her, but in the sudden silence in the clearing, she knew he would have no choice but to hear. "That talk we're going to have? You're going to explain to me exactly why you thought I was forcing emotions on you."
It was with a will of steel itself that he did not look at her and inform her that it was the other way around. And he would be damned if he admitted that he thought her arousal had merely been an echo of his own. Ignoring the hurt flickering through their bond, he stared ahead, determined to give nothing away, even through their bond.
"Shall we get back to the task at hand?" Resshin finally cut in, looking too satisfied by half, his shifting eyes hooded and a small smirk playing on his lips.
"Indeed we should. Now Shinzuru, the rest?" Bokusenou prompted.
"When Yuugao said the lady was angry, do you know the truth of that?"
If Bokusenou could have shifted and settled, he would have. As it was, he didn't, settling instead for a gusty sigh.
"That is a story even I do not know the whole of," The tree admitted. "It started long before I was a seed. Izanami's anger has been simmering as long as I have been alive. Her anger at Kagome is something I cannot confirm or deny."
Kagome started, terror gripping her heart. Izanami was the one that had been commanding Yuugao? Izanami, the creator goddess? Small wonder the youkai had been unable to refuse her. Kagome imagined that the will of that particular goddess was a be all end all, and the consequences wouldn't just be dire, but catastrophic if it was ignored.
"She wore a necklace bearing a white pendant with a black stone in the center. This morning, she fainted, and the stone, it grew and covered her in darkness. Then she and the necklace vanished."
"She fainted?" Bokusenou asked, worry evident. Shinzuru nodded thoughtfully.
"She looked ready to fall over the whole time I was talking to her. She's been getting worse the last couple of days," The auburn haired youkai added.
"Recently I felt something, although what I cannot say. But the black stone in the necklace is the bone from the tip of Izanami's finger. The story I was told is that when she was trying to follow her husband back into the world of the living, he pushed a boulder into the mouth of the cave, blocking her escape. But the tip of her finger had gotten caught just outside. He cut it off, and presented it to the first head of the Moon House."
"But Yuugao has to listen to Izanami?" Kagome asked, confused.
"Yuugao is a powerful female, perhaps one of the most powerful I have ever known. But Izanami is a goddess. One does not ignore a command, or a warning, from such a being," Bokusenou reasoned. "I know little of the House of the Moon, merely that it is a coveted title. It has always been one of those at it's head that hold it's secrets, and those secrets are passed on to the new head once they take their place."
"Great," Kagome grumbled, feeling even more lost than when she had arrived.
"So this necklace, any idea where it would have taken her?" Shinzuru asked tentatively, as if afraid of the answer.
If trees could shrug, Bokusenou would have been doing it. It was times like these that he wished he had a somewhat human form.
"It could have taken her to Izanami, or it could have been some other god using the bone to their own ends."
"So what now?" Kagome asked, looking at the others. "If she's with Izanami, we have to go get her."
"Incorrect," Sesshoumaru started, standing fluidly. "You will stay with the children-"
"Like hell!" She shouted as she stood. A finger jammed into his chest, enough reijki behind it to make her point clear. "I know that look on your face. You're about to do something appallingly stupid. Well, you're not going without me," She snapped, her foot coming down hard on the ground to emphasize her point.
The tension was cut by the old, rumbling laughter of the koboku no kai. The miko and daiyoukai turned angry eyes on the tree and he stopped, although his bark was twisted into a smirk. Kagome turned back to the daiyoukai and was about to speak when Sesshoumaru cut the tirade off.
"I will have to go through Gozu and Mezu's gate. There is only one way they will allow you to pass."
Anything she could have said was cut off by that quiet declaration, and he could feel her frustration breaking against him like a tidal wave, and the fear beneath it.
"What about the shard of Hosenki's armor, the one you used to get to your father's grave last time?" She tried, eyes tearing.
"I only had the one, it was caught in my clothing during the battle. And it could only be used once."
He could see her, feel her giving up, and he felt himself mentally flinch, knowing he was the cause. But nothing could be done. He was the only one that could use that gate without meeting the normal criteria. And no one was worth her death.
"Come, we should get back to the shiro. The little ones will be frightened, no doubt. They'll want to see you off before you go," Shinzuru added.
When Kagome formed her cloud with it's signature pop, he tried not to feel hurt by her sudden distance. It was as irrational and illogical as she was behaving, and he would not give in to her antics. Instead, he focused on the information the tree had given him. Not the news about his mother, that was something still too vague to think overmuch on. Making assumptions would do him little good. But the information regarding his bond was almost too much to contemplate on it's own.
A million reasons why it could not be true sprang to mind immediately, his own cynicism reminding him that hoping could be as foolish as wanting her in the first place. Yet, there was little reason for the tree youkai to lie. What to believe?
He could always ask another, mated youkai what was true. As soon as the thought entered his mind, he struck it down. The personal nature of the question notwithstanding, he refused to admit such ignorance to another. And none were mated to a miko. Her own ki might very well have changed the nature of the bond itself.
Shaking his head to clear it of such thoughts, he focused on the task at hand. The group was nearing the shiro, and the miko seemed to be making herself smaller and smaller the closer they were. When they landed in the inner gardens, he was displeased to note that she said nothing, merely walked ahead of the males with light, hurried steps.
"Sesshoumaru," Resshin began.
"She cannot go. Do not think to sway me," Sesshoumaru started.
"It's not that," Resshin sighed, a wealth of feeling held within the sound. The daiyoukai turned to his friend, curious what the normally silent youkai would want to say in the face of this new dilemma.
"She thinks you don't trust her," Resshin informed him. "When you asked about forcing feelings on another through the bond-"
He refused, absolutely refused to admit he thought he was forcing his own lust on her, even though Resshin could see it as clear as day. There was a line that the forest youkai had drawn out of respect for his lord and friend, and Sesshoumaru knew he would never cross it.
"You should tell her."
"It is none of your concern," Sesshoumaru bit out, already wanting to focus on finding his wayward mother. The search would be a hundred times less complicated and frustrating than the conversation his friend was trying to force on him.
"Sesshoumaru, I won't break with my ethics, would that I could in this instance. But it is as a friend that I ask you to tell her."
Ignoring the demon's words, he began stalking into the shiro, leaving the other two behind. The halls were quiet and seemed to echo strangely. The servants, understanding the level of alert, were not in evidence, all of them within their own quarters. He could feel their whispers and the scent of their fear made him want to destroy something as he navigated the halls and corridors.
Barely paying heed to the stairs, he took several at a time, suddenly eager to assure his pack that everything was fine. With an approving glance, he was passing the two silent guards, feeling their own youki probing him, searching for the tell tale signs of an illusion. The door opened in front of him and Rin came flying out, eyes wide with fear. She clung to his legs, burying her face in his hakama as the scent of her fear and everyone else's fear filled the room.
The instincts within him snarled at the distress emanating from his pack. His mate was not in sight, as he had expected, making him even angrier. These were her children, their children, and she wasn't there, where she should be!
"Did your visit to Bokusenou yield answers?" Kasai asked in a quiet, respectful voice.
"Few that were relevant to my mother's disappearance. I must travel to Gozu and Mezu's gates."
"I know you've managed it before, but are you sure-" Mizu began, then stopped, realizing what he was going to say in front of the children.
"As long as I carry Tenseiga, I will be allowed to pass unharmed," Sesshoumaru informed them. The children were all watching him with tearful expressions, and despite his growing fury that their adopted mother had still not made an appearance, he leashed it and knelt.
"I will be back soon," He assured as they came hesitantly, moving closer to him. Rin had no such reservations, and threw her arms around his neck. Her body trembled and he could smell the bite of salt on the air.
"Is momma going with you?" Shippou finally asked. Sesshoumaru shook his head.
"She is not able to enter those gates," He answered, knowing the kit would understand. More and more children were moving to hug him, and his heart stumbled in his chest with the realization that they saw him as something more than just alpha.
The happy moment was interrupted by a scream and the sound of shattering glass. Terror shot through the bond, echoing shrilly through his being. He was darting from the children and towards his mate's room when something stopped him, making him stagger.
There was nothing. Absolutely nothing coming through the mark. The feel of her was gone.
Moving quickly, Sesshoumaru didn't even bother with opening the doors to her room, instead cutting through them neatly before he reached each one. He felt the others at his back, knew they were surveying the wreckage just as he was. But their fear and anger could not equal his own. They did not know, did not feel the sudden absence of her energy within him.
Searching the air for scents, he snarled angrily when two spirits emerged from a particularly large chunk of the mirror.
"Where is she?" He snapped.
"Yomotsu-shikome," One of the spirits answered, her long dark hair still moving strangely despite the lack of wind. When he saw the ends tipped in barbs, he knew who she was, but not why she was in his mate's rooms.
"Why should I believe you?" He snarled, pulling Tenseiga from it's sheath.
"We are your mother's creatures," The pale spirit next to Harionago snapped. "It is by her will alone that we have been allowed to stay on this plain."
"Enough," Harionago snarled, her hair dancing in jerky, angry movements, as if to reflect her mood. "Yuugao is with Izanami, and the miko as well. We must go find them."
"Is there a faster way than Gozu and Mezu's gate?" A voice behind Sesshoumaru demanded. He recognized the slayer's angry tone and was about to tell her to go back to the nursery when Harionago's voice stopped him.
"For one that is alive? No. It is the simplest entrance. Tenseiga will guard the boy."
He did not appreciate being called boy by anyone, even a spirit almost as old as his mother. The situation however, kept him from commanding the spirit otherwise.
"If he had just pupped her this would not be an issue," The other spirit, still unnamed, snapped impatiently. The snarl that erupted from his throat surprised everyone in the room, including him. The pale spirit was looking down the length of her nose at Tenseiga, which hovered, poised and ready to pierce her head.
"Well, it's true," She accused. "Your mother did everything in her power to see the miko safe, and your own stupidity undid all of it. Now she and the miko both pay the price. Or maybe you're glad. After all, it's no secret you despise your mother, and you never even consummated your mark. Have you even noticed it's absence?"
"You will not speak to this Sesshoumaru in such a manner," He growled, wanting to plunge Tenseiga through her. She was his mother's creature, and he was still unsure of he trusted her words in the least. But the disappearance of his mating mark was enough to prove that something more than a mere spirit was at work. And his mother, for all of her power, could not undo such a bond.
"Enough, the both of you. Sesshoumaru, myself and the Yuki-onna will accompany you. As the dead, we will be able to pass through the gates. We must hurry. I do not know why Izanami wanted the girl so badly, or why she took your mother, but I am sworn to Yuugao, and it was her order that we protect miko."
"You failed," Sesshoumaru snapped. "Why should I allow you to follow?"
"Because we would rectify our mistake. If you would have us stay away, you will have to cut us down."
The spirit's simple words were enough to decide him. He might need their aid in the underworld, and he was not one to throw aside tools so carelessly.
"Shinzuru," Sesshoumaru barked.
"Yes?"
"Keep my pack safe. I will bring back my mate," He replied, already gathering his youki to prepare for the long flight to the volcano where the cave hid the gate.
"There is one thing that I would suggest we do," Harionago cut in. "There is someone that would aid our cause," She offered.
"I have neither the time nor the inclination," Sesshoumaru stated coldly, impatient with the delays and wishing he could cut the spirit down and be rid of her presence.
"Shoki is not far, I feel him near. He will not give aid to me. Normally he would not help any youkai, but for the miko, he might consider it," She admitted, worrying her lower lip. How strange, he had always thought spirits left behind such habits once their bodies died. Apparently he had been incorrect.
"Why should I seek his aid?" He demanded, the very idea if asking for the help of the spirit appalling. Few knew of the supposed king of demons, but his mother had once angered the spirit, and the castle in the sky had suffered his attacks. He had only been a pup then, and a young one at that, but he could not forget the spirit.
"He is one of the strongest of our kind. He will choose to help the miko. Especially since Izanami has destroyed your bond."
"It matters not. She is still this Sesshoumaru's mate," He growled, angry that spirit spoke so easily of his mating's sudden dissolution. Harionago said nothing, and her expression only faded into apathy.
"He would see her brought back. Come, I will guide you," She answered instead.
The energy he had been gathering around him condensed and grew into a shield. He was surprised by the feel of the spirit tugging at him, her energy somehow interlacing with his own enough to direct him. The world flew by and he cared nothing for it, reminded only of how he had held his mate only an hour before.
The dissolution of his bond with her left an echoing void where the spark of her ki, gently cradled in his own, had once been. The loss ground against already raw emotions, and he tried to shut the feelings out, knowing they would do little good. Yet images continued to assault him, mixed with phantom scents and textures. Each one scraped against the chains on his instincts, and it was with an iron will that he kept them bound.
"We are close," A voice whispered in his mind, making him snarl at the intrusion. It withdrew as quickly as it had come, and he readied himself for a fight.
Kagome blinked blearily, groaning as she did so. Her head felt as if it had been opened and her brain taken out, only to be replaced with wads of wool or cotton. Her throat hurt, and her hands went to it, moving over it gingerly. Moving them down to the hard stone she lay on, she realized that it felt like some sort of rough stone altar.
"So you are awake," Someone observed, startling her. "The hag will pay dearly for marring your flesh."
Kagome turned, eyes widening as she took in the sight of the woman, for her voice was that of a woman, sitting on a throne across from her. But it didn't look like a woman, by all rights, the thing shouldn't even be able to speak.
The skeleton would have been a morbid, but striking statue sitting on the throne. As if made from onyx, they seemed to absorb the light around them, reflecting nothing. However, the effect was ruined by the bits of flesh still clinging to it, and the long stringy hair clinging to the skull in ragged tufts. A dark, swollen tongue peeked from beneath yellowed, twisted teeth. One sightless eye, black and shining like a jewel, reflected light back at Kagome, and she felt sick as her eyes traveled lower of their own volition. A decaying breast clung to the chest, and behind the ribs a heart hung, a shriveled looking thing like a blackened, dehydrated fruit.
She could not bring herself to look any lower.
"How rude," It observed. "But humans always are. It is of little consequence. Soon I will be free of this body."
"Who are you?" Kagome demanded, voice rasping from the abuse her throat had suffered when the thing -hag, she corrected herself- had erupted from the mirror and taken hold of her.
"You don't know?" The skeleton asked, eye twinkling maliciously. Kagome was grateful the thing had no lips to smile with, else she was sure she would go crazy. "Such an ignorant little miko, not recognizing your creator."
Confused, she tried to focus on the strange riddle instead of the rotting flesh smell emanating from the animated corpse.
"I created your home, the islands you call Japan, with my husband."
Fear collided with disbelief, both tangling and fighting for dominance.
"You can't be-" She started, trying to quash her fear. Surely this was an illusion, or the trick of a youkai. Surely a goddess could not, would not look like this rotted, disgusting shell.
"I am, little miko. And I excuse your thoughts only because they are true. It is a disgusting body, isn't it?" The kami asked. For a moment, Kagome was positive the kami was joking, but the seriousness of her tone killed any thought of that.
"Izanami, why am I here?" Kagome whispered.
"Because you were an opportunity too unique to ignore," Izanami answered blithely, standing and walking closer to her. Kagome felt bile rising in her throat as she watched the skeleton coming closer and closer. Horror froze the scream in her throat, and she waited helplessly, unable to move or speak. The kami stopped a foot away from the altar, that single, awful eye too eager for the miko's liking.
"I don't understand," She finally choked out, praying she wouldn't vomit.
"My husband locked me in this world, disgusted by my appearance. I had almost made it. If I had escaped, I would have become beautiful again, I would have lived again. But he could not bear my presence, even though he claimed to love me," The kami spat venomously, her volume increasing with each word.
"I was almost out. But he threw that stone over the entrance. My finger was caught, and he cut the tip off," She explained, voice dripping malice as a hand came up to prove her point. The middle finger, such as it was, was missing the bone from the tip of it, making it almost even with her index finger.
"Do you know what it is like to be left by the one you love?" Izanami demanded. "To be rejected when you are so close to happiness and freedom?"
The question would have raised several unpleasant memories in Kagome's mind had it not been for the overpowering image of the goddess in front of her. As it was, she had trouble thinking at all, and she was far more concerned with the kami's story and how it related to her.
"But why am I here?" Kagome asked, knowing she was pushing her luck. But the kami seemed talkative, as if glad for the audience.
"The House of the Moon was a title created by my husband. A foolish attempt to keep that one little bone safe. He gave it to the strongest youkai he could find and gave them the honor and the castle in the sky for their efforts."
"Just for a bone?" Kagome asked, gaping. What harm could a bone do?
"Oh, plenty of harm, little miko. It could have been my foothold into the world had it fallen into the hands of a human, or one of the other kami could have used it to summon me back. Not to mention the power inherent in the bone of a goddess, especially the one that gave birth to your nation. My husband wanted to make sure nothing could happen."
"But I thought the House-"
"You of all people should know how easily people forget the truth. Five hundred years from now, humans will have forgotten the existence of youkai. It has been millenea since my entombment. Do you not think the youkai guarding that little piece of bone have forgotten? The powers over spirits because of the bone became the reason, and soon an enterprising little youkai decided to use those powers for the betterment of the land. By the time the inu took the title, everyone had forgotten the true purpose behind it," Izanami gloated.
Kagome however, was still lost. What did this have to do with her? Everything that came to mind was so wildly unimaginable and nonsensical that she couldn't begin to believe them.
"The inu, a troublesome clan. Yuugao's compassion and her mate's sword are enough to drive anyone mad, and while Yuugao may be excused, the foolish one that made the Tenseiga may not. None may wield the power to cheat death in such a manner, it is an affront to the natural order. Once he died, I had thought the matter settled. After all, his son was not inclined to use the sword. But then he used it. Again and again. And you-" The goddess bit out, the single dark eye swinging back to her hatefully.
"When you destroyed the jewel, it was more than enough to warrant punishment."
"What?" Kagome snapped hotly. "I was just doing the right thing!"
"That jewel was one of my creations."
"Yours?" Kagome shouted, suddenly angry. "You mean you allowed it to be made? Do you even understand what you did, the suffering you inflicted?"
"That was the point," The kami muttered disdainfully. Kagome was sure if Izanami still had a nose, she would be looking down it at her.
"That was the- You evil bitch!" She snarled, any thoughts of politeness lost to the ire growing and spreading through her. "You mean you intended for it to cause so much pain?"
"It is what the children of my husband deserve!" Fury suddenly swelled in the room, a palpable feeling that stabbed at Kagome's senses, forcing a headache to blossom. "He loves all of you so much, even though you wither and rot. I have aided certain events so that such objects could be created. The jewel was one of the best, and you destroyed it," The goddess accused.
"You're a monster!" Kagome flung at the other woman, completely forgetting that she was talking to a goddess, one of the creator kami. Even the sight of her no longer bothered the miko. But that seething hatred roiling in the black eye that glared hatefully at her, something that should have burned her, scared her, only served the further excite her temper.
"If I am a monster, it is because my husband has left me here to become one," Izanami bit out. "Soon it will not matter. The inu clan will pay for it's transgressions against me, and you will pay for your insolence." The very thought seemed to calm the rotting goddess, because her tone evened out and sounded almost pleasant.
"I want to go home," Kagome snapped, the fear she had suppressed beginning to grow again at the goddess's sudden change of mood.
"Petulant child. You will never leave."
Kagome tried to jump off of the altar, but was stopped by hands holding her wrists and ankles down. She could see vague outlines of the hands themselves, and only shadows of the people they belonged to.
"Try not to bruise her this time," Izanami commanded airily. "I don't want my new body any more bruised than it already is," She added as she began walking away, completely ignoring Kagome's outraged cries for an explanation.
Sesshoumaru eyed the deformed spirit in front of him with distaste. Not for the obvious flaws in his form, but because the spirit was glaring at him and Harionago with just as much loathing. As solid as the female spirit beside him, Sesshoumaru would have mistaken him for a man had it not been for the strange aura surrounding him.
"What are you doing here?" Shoki demanded.
"We have come to ask for aid," Harionago began when she saw that Sesshoumaru would say nothing. But the sudden, belly shaking laughter of the spirit stopped her. He continued on in that manner for several minutes before quieting down and wiping his eyes.
"Me? Help the get of the bitch you serve? Oh, you should have known better than to come seeking my aid," He chuckled, ignoring the displeased flare of youki coming from the daiyoukai.
"It is for a miko. The priestess that destroyed the shikon no tama. She was taken to hell. Alive," Harionago added. That stopped the spirit, and Sesshoumaru felt as much as saw the dark eyes of the self proclaimed oni king swing to him, searching.
"There have been rumors that one of the eight hags escaped and headed for the west," He observed carefully.
"It took my mate," Sesshoumaru replied evenly, staring the spirit in the eyes. Shoki did not respond, merely gazed evenly back, as if searching Sesshoumaru for an answer. When it seemed he had found something, he nodded once and finally blinked.
"We best be going then," He finally replied. "Although I'm not going to forget your mother's offense," He added as he stood and brushed his pants off as any living man would do.
Sesshoumaru almost asked, but refrained. He was still unsure how the spirit could help.
"The yukki-onna is gathering the others. We will meet them at Gozu and Mezu's gate."
"Any idea why the miko was taken?" Shoki asked as Sesshoumaru began gathering his energy to prepare once more for flight.
"Izanami wants her," Harionago answered evenly. When Sesshoumaru heard sudden, violent cursing he stopped his efforts to look back at the oni king.
"Do you know why?" He asked evenly.
"Did the girl use the bone to access the border?" Shoki demanded angrily, his eyes still on Harionago, ignoring Sesshoumaru completely.
"Yes, but why-" She began, but was stopped by more cursing.
"We've got to hurry. You best be prepared for a fight pup," Shoki snapped, not deigning to answer as he began to shimmer and condense like a thick fog wrapped around a ball of blue fire. Sesshoumaru said nothing, although he wanted to demand an answer. He could not cut the spirit down before he had such, although worry began to mingle with the anger of his mate's kidnapping at Shoki's violent reaction.
Letting his youki surround him, he set off in the direction of the gates, forcing himself to ignore the sudden uneasy feeling coalescing into a leaden brick in his stomach. The loss of the bond hit him again as he wondered if his mate was okay, and what she was doing.