A/N: Hello everyone! I'm so sorry about the extended hiatus! Things have been really chaotic lately with my school and the pandemic, especially the transition to online classes!
But don't worry, I plan to update more regularly now that things are now clearing up for my schedule. I hope that you and you're loved ones are all safe and healthy, and that you all enjoy this chapter! :D

Chapter 19: Floating Memories Pt. 1
Chapter by 4evaconfuzzled

Things were a hazy blur when Kazubana finally came to. Her head was heavy and clouded, and her arms were throbbing with a dull aching pain. She tried crying out but found her voice slow and slurred. She shook her head a few times and immediately regretted that decision. After what felt like hours, she finally opened her eyes to see that she was in what looked like some sort of dungeon. Her feet were shackled in iron chains, and trying to move her arms revealed that they were also what was pinning her to the wall. The ground was cool and damp, and the air smelled of earth and blood, though she didn't feel wounded. Where am I? Kazu thought. Only a few feet in front of her were iron bars in a checkered pattern. Despite their rusted appearance, they looked sturdy enough to take a few beatings, ruling out the idea of breaking past them. That is if I managed to break out of these chains. She gave the shackles a few experimental tugs and found that they weren't giving out anytime soon. Looking through the rusted lattice iron bars of her cell revealed no clues to her location or who may have taken her. They only served to make her feel even more on edge about the situation. The air was dank and smelled of mold, and she heard the soft squeaks of mice somewhere nearby. Suddenly, she felt a demonic aura. It was strong and engulfed her easily. The feeling sent an eerie chill down her spine and made the hairs on her neck stand up. However, it wasn't the strength of the aura that made her feel this way. It was the familiarity of it.

As the aura grew stronger, a face began to appear through the darkness. It was a man only a bit taller than herself. He had snow-white hair, not unlike Sesshomaru and his brother's. Yet, this man was not an inu youkai. In fact, Kazu couldn't tell what he was. Usually, different youkai had different auras that she could differentiate. But this one had an aura that appeared to be a conglomerate of many auras. Like a patchwork quilt, except they were not harmonious, fighting each other for dominance. It was a rather large one too, pushing up against her, and making her want to suffocate. There was only one specific youkai aura within him that she could decipher, but for some reason, the word would not come to her mind.

The man stopped directly in front of her cell. In the meager torchlight, she could see that slightly below the bangs of his messy hair, was a pure white cloth over his eyes.

He's blind? Kazubana thought to herself. She found it hard to believe, the way he seemed to focus directly on her.

"Who are you?" Kazu asked shakily.

The man did not respond. He only pulled out a rusty iron key and opened her cell. Kazu tensed immediately and backed up against the damp dirt wall as best as she could. The man was on her before she knew it, and she screamed internally, the sound not able to reach her lips. Afraid of what he might do next, she turned her head and closed her eyes. She felt a weight on her chest, and her breath caught in her throat. Slowly, she opened her eyes back up and found herself in a cellar, but with someone else.

"Did you have fun outside Kagura?" a voice asked.

She looked down and found nothing on her chest. It was then that she realized that this body was not hers. She was in a purple and white kimono, kneeling on the bare earthen ground. She looked around and found herself surrounded by the flesh of various decaying youkai. She could not hold back her cry and found that even her voice was different. Looking ahead, she saw the detached head of a man who was familiar, yet unfamiliar. At least, he was familiar to this body.

"While I slept, you left the castle didn't you?" he continued. Four tentacles shot out from the youkai flesh and pulled her closer to the man's face. She cried out again, losing feeling in her limbs as the tentacles tightened themselves. She tried to resist looking at the man directly in his eyes, but one slimy tentacle wrapped itself around her neck and twisted until she was face to face with his piercing red eyes. His skin was deathly pale, almost green, and it looked almost like it was melting from his face. She wanted to throw up.

"Kagura, you are part of me. Would you like to become part of my flesh again?"

The stench of all the body parts made Kazu want to gag. She did not know who this man was or what he meant by, ' become part of his flesh again' . All she knew was that she wanted to get out as soon as possible.

"W-Wait! I promise I won't do it again!" Her body responded without thinking. How am I responding when I didn't even think of an answer? Kazu thought. Unless…

Before she could continue her thought she was brought back to her dungeon with a jolt. Her heart was racing and she was gasping for air. A quick scan around confirmed that she was indeed back with the strange blindfolded youkai.

"Wh-What... did you do... to me?" Kazu gasped out between breaths. The youkai sat up from her chest and just laughed.

"Yes...he will certainly come." And with that, he disappeared into a cloud to purple smoke. The noxious gas left Kazu in a coughing fit, and she felt herself grow light-headed.

Who is he talking about? Who will 'certainly come' she thought to herself. She had no idea. She only knew that whoever did come, she hoped from the bottom of her heart that it was Sesshomaru.

The first specks of golden-gray sunlight peeked through Mai's window in the servants quarters of the Tiger Lily Pavilion and gently coaxed her awake. She rose from her futon, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, stretching and yawning all the way. Mai may have been an early riser by nature, but that didn't make it any easier to actually stay awake. She hummed an upbeat tune to wake herself up as she dressed in a simple kimono of pale blue and prepared to do her morning chores. She went outside to see that the other servant had already collected and portioned the morning water. A large bucket for cooking, a larger bucket for cleaning, and sure enough the barrel was missing, meaning that it was presumably in the bathing room ready to be heated for Lady Kazubana's bath. Mai took the bucket of cooking water to the hearth to prepare the morning tea.

When the water was hot, she carefully put the pot on a tray and carried it to Lady Kazubana's personal quarters. However, when she reached the sliding doors of her room, she noticed things were oddly quiet. Kazubana was not particularly loud, but she was usually stirring by this time.

"Excuse me," Mai called as she slid open the shoji door.

No one was there. She scanned the room for any sign of her presence. The futon was wrinkled and the blankets were tossed aside. Mai put down the tray and rushed over to the futon. A quick sniff revealed that she had not been there all night. The color drained from her cheeks and worry overtook her heart.

If she hadn't been here all night...where could she be?

She tried to think of places she may have gone for the night, but couldn't imagine why she'd leave her futon unmade, or at least leave a note. Mai bolted to her feet and headed straight for the main palace. Her heart and mind were racing, the latter with worst case scenarios involving Lady Kazubana.

What could have happened? Is she lost? Was she taken? Did she run away?

Her thoughts were interrupted when she burst through the doors of the main hall and stood face to face, or rather, face to chest, with Lord Sesshomaru. On command, Mai fell to her knees, forehead touching the floor,

"Forgive me my lord, I did not mean to run into you!"

The youkai grunted his acknowledgement, her signal to rise, which she did. Sesshomaru was curious though. Mai was usually very attentive and careful, one of the reasons she was assigned to Kazubana. It wasn't like her to run around not paying attention to where she was going.

"What worries you?"

Mai's first attempt to explain was a pathetic stammer that left her blushing. She took a deep breath and steeled herself before responding,

"Lady Kazubana is missing."

Mai only had time to see Lord Sesshomaru's eyes flash red before she was shoved aside, (surprisingly gently) and left alone with the guards in the entrance to the main hall.

Lord Sesshomaru reached the Tiger Lily Pavilion in two seconds flat, and that was still too long for him. He sniffed around her quarters and followed her scent to the gardens, where it disappeared part way through. However, he picked up another scent, one that was familiar yet different. He took a mental note of that before noticing that it wasn't that Kazu's scent disappeared, but it was merely covered by the scent of the familiar yet unfamiliar youkai, and that scent continued further west. Sesshomaru growled as he looked in the direction the scent continued. Whoever took Kazubana was in his territory, and that was unacceptable. The sound of rushing footsteps interrupted his thoughts and Sesshomaru growled even louder when he saw four of the guards that were stationed at Kazubana's quarters. Mai followed close behind them.

"You four. What were you doing last night?" The youkai lord boomed.

The guards were visibly distressed, but tried to hold their composure. The bravest one, a brown haired inu-youkai, stepped forward and spoke.

"We were guarding the personal quarters of Lady Kazubana as we were told," he said.

"If you were doing as you were told, she would not be missing!" Sesshomaru spat.

The bravest one bowed, and the other three hustled to follow suit,

"We swear we never left our posts! We heard nothing out of the ordinary, and we weren't made aware of anything suspicious until Mai came running out of the lady's room this morning!"

Sesshomaru eyed them before turning back to the west. Even without his youkai senses he'd be able to feel the fear radiating from the four guards. Mai too, was radiating fear, from how her youki was shrunken in on herself even though the lord's anger was not directed at her.

"You will be dealt with when I return," Sesshomaru said as he took to the sky in flight. Right now, finding Kazubana was more important. If they were telling the truth, then whatever this youkai was had the power to mask their scent at will, which meant that this youkai was a force to be reckoned with.

Kazubana lost count of how many of Kagura's visions she saw. They all varied in intensity, and evoked a different feeling from within her. She saw visions of strange youkai that smelled similar to her, although they looked nothing alike. Were they related? They couldn't be. Unless, they weren't naturally born? Some of the youkai made her feel annoyed, and others made her feel on edge. One youkai in particular with pale skin stark white hair made her feel at ease, and she felt a tear roll down her cheek. She was carrying something that she could quite make out. When she was just about to see it, the vision faded. There were visions of her simply flying. She felt peace, but also anxiety. Why was she anxious? Hadn't she always wanted to be free? That's right, she wasn't free. She was flying because she was told to. She was told to go follow someone, or to fetch something. Or...to fight. She remembered now. She saw a vision of wolves. Countless wolves who fell to her fan, only to be raised again by that same fan. She sent one to the leader of the wolf tribe to lure him to her location. So that...someone...could get something. The vision was fading, she couldn't see clearly.

She was fighting now, a youkai. No. Not a youkai, a hanyou. Kagura knew a hanyou? He looked very familiar, and smelled familiar too. He was wearing a bright red robe, with matching red hakama. Strange, that's the same outfit as…

" Kaze no Kizu! "

Inuyasha?

I fought Inuyasha?

No.

Kagura fought Inuyasha.

But why would she fight him?

"Inuyasha!"

That voice... That voice is also familiar. The vision faded in and out. Kazubana fought to keep it clear. There was a human. She looked and smelled like...Kagome? What was she wearing? Her kimono is so short! There were other humans as well. They smelled familiar, but she couldn't recognize them.

What is the connection? We both knew Inuyasha and Kagome.

The vision shifted. She was wet. Someone had just pulled her from a river. Jaken was also wet, along with a little human girl. She looked up to see Lord Sesshomaru. Her heart was racing. She felt so many things at once. Admiration, sorrow, longing, anger, jealousy, and...something else.

Finally, the vision shifted again. This time she felt pain. Both physical and emotional. There was that same man with the stringy black hair and tentacles. His name was on the tip of her tongue. She felt pure rage just looking at him. He had something of hers, something that she needed in order to truly be free, but he was taunting her. She needed Sesshomaru's help. She needed him to kill this man and free her. He was the only one who could. This man. No This youkai. No. This hanyou, was the reason she was doing all of these horrible things. But wait, he's also the reason she existed...right?

Kazubana's vision went white as a stabbing pain went through her heart. She screamed out and water filled her eyes.

"Do you feel it? Your heart? Does it hurt?"

Kazubana blinked away the tears and looked up to see the man with the blindfold. He was uncomfortably close to her face wearing a smug expression. He looked like he was about to taunt her again when he suddenly froze like a cat noticing a bird.

"He's here."

Kazubana tried to make sense of what he meant but her body was too weak. Her vision went black and her head felt heavy. The last thing she saw was the image of the man turning around and leaving the dungeon.

Sesshomaru touched down in front of an opulent manor located deep beyond the western forest of his domain. It was fairly large and the grounds were well taken care of, odd, considering there were no servants in sight. A manor of this size would require at least two dozen. However, the familiar yet unfamiliar scent was all over the place, meaning this was certainly the place. The only thing keeping Sesshomaru from unleashing Bakusaiga and completely obliterating the place was the possibility of Kazubana being inside and the risk of harming her. Luckily, his prey presented itself before him not too long after he had the thought.

"Good morning," the strange youkai said, sitting calmly on the roof of the manor. "Took you long enough."

"Where is Kazubana?" Sesshomaru asked, poison dripping from his claws and sizzling onto the ground below.

"She's in my house," the youkai replied with a smirk.

Sesshomaru's hand immediately reached for the hilt of Bakusaiga.

"My, my, hold on a minute! Don't you want to discuss things like gentlemen first?"

"You've already lost that right the second you laid your hands on Kazubana," and with that he summoned his whip of light and struck at the youkai. He leapt out of the way, leaving a corroded hole where the whip struck. He landed on a nearby tree where Sesshomaru took aim again, and missed once more. The youkai smirked again, leaping out of the way before the tree could fall to the ground. Again and again Sesshomaru struck, just missing the strange youkai, destroying the entire entrance yard in the process. Sesshomaru was losing his control. How was this youkai dodging all of his attacks when he was blindfolded? Were his senses that sharp?

"Sesshomaru, you should really work on your aim shouldn't you? It isn't like you to be this slow."

Before Sesshomaru could wonder how this creature knew his fighting style, an explosion from the manor nearly knocked the wind out of them both. Sesshomaru leapt up and righted himself, hovering just above the ground, closing his eyes to avoid the debris. When he opened them again, the strange youkai was lying limp a few yards away from him, and coming from the manor was a fierce whirlwind. Wooden beams, tree branches, and mats were flying all around it, and Sesshomaru could discern the source. Suddenly, the winds subsided as quickly as it began, and the debris was sent flying in all directions. Sesshomaru paid no mind to it as he rushed forward looking for any sign of Kazubana, but before he could even reach the steps, a ragged Kazubana emerged from the main doors, clothes torn, hair windblown, and eyes devoid of light.

"Se-Sesshomaru," she rasped, collapsing on the stairs. The youkai lord was there in an instant to catch her, eyes searching her face and body for any injuries.

The strange youkai watched from where he was launched with a malicious grin.

She's back.

And he disappeared into a cloud of purple mist.