Nocturne - Chapter Forty-One: Fated Encounter
Rated - M (for suggestive adult themes, references to some violence, and coarse language)
o - o - o - o - o : Indicates scene or POV change
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha
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Sango's earlier smug appearance switched to a confused one as she watched Kagome get up and rummage through utensils until she gave a satisfied sound and drew up a small knife. "What are you doing with that?" Sango asked with concern.
Kagome held out her left palm to Sango and then casually took the blade and drew it against her flesh. Sango gasped when she saw the blood run freely from the fresh wound. Kagome winced at the pain but held her palm out to her friend.
"Are you crazy?!" Sango hissed. She jumped up and swatted the knife from Kagome's hand. It rattled to the floor, and Sango snatched up Kagome's left wrist to examine the wound on her palm. "You idiot, you've severed your tendon!"
Kagome tried to close her palm but was unable to do so. She'd pulled the knife down too hard and injured herself more than she'd intended. Admittedly, injuring one's self wasn't as simple as she'd thought and had overdone it. Oh well, she thought. It shouldn't matter.
Sango drug Kagome by the wrist to find something to clean the wound. "I can't believe you would injure yourself! And to prove what?! Your descent into madness? Just because you live among demons does not mean you will gain immunity to mortality by association!" She chided while wetting a cloth with one hand.
Kagome could already feel the pain ease up and let out a sigh of relief. For a moment, she worried she had gone crazy, and her experience from hours earlier was a fluke.
With more angry mutterings, Sango took the wet cloth and began to clean the wound. She carefully blotted around the edges to clean away the blood. As she did, her brow drew together in disbelief.
"What in Kami's name?" Sango questioned aloud and took the cloth straight to the wound, rubbing away now dried blood. There was nothing there: no wound or even an indication of injury on Kagome's palm.
Kagome pulled her wrist from Sango's grasp. "Now, you see why I am angry!" She said.
"What?" Sango replied in confusion. "You just healed. How?"
"I was given ningyo. Without my knowledge!" Kagome retorted. "Because apparently, I'm too human for certain daiyokai."
Sango's mouth was slightly agape, but she quickly found words to fill the void. "Kagome...ningyo? Are you certain? That particular yokai...if its flesh is consumed...it is rumored that if one dares to do so, they will be granted eternal life." She continued to look at Kagome, almost in awe.
"Please don't look at me like that," she told Sango. The woman quickly cleared her throat and looked away at anything else in the room. Kagome felt like a sideshow freak as if she'd spouted an extra arm, but she knew she didn't look any different than before.
"Sorry," Sango responded. "I-I didn't realize that the flesh of a ningyo would also grant someone the ability to heal, either." Sango chanced a look at her friend. "I think it's best if you didn't tell anyone else about this," she cautioned.
Kagome pursed her lips. "Why's that?"
"Well, the reason more people aren't out hunting ningyo, looking for an extended lease on life, is because of the curse that surrounds it. You seem to have bypassed that somehow, or rather Sesshomaru did on your behalf, but others are not so fortunate. If people learn that you are now...," she paused as she searched for an appropriate word, "...blessed with eternal life and a healing factor akin to a yokai's...?"
"They would be filled with insane jealousy?" Kagome guessed.
"They would probably try to consume your flesh to access your new gift," Sango said gravely.
Kagome's eyes widened in horror. "That wouldn't work! Would it?"
"It certainly wouldn't stop the desperate fools from trying."
Kagome stood up and paced the room. She'd never considered the cost of eternal life. But Sesshomaru must-have. He would not have risked her life to grant her eternal youth. He was too calculated for that. She took some comfort in the thought and decided to place her worries aside for the time being.
Kagome stopped pacing and looked down at her friend. "Then I'm glad you're the one I told, Sango, but I'm still mad at him."
Sango gave a harsh laugh. "You're mad at him for extending your years to match his own? What about Setsuna? Now you can be with your child too, well into adulthood. Wasn't your mortality something you dreaded?"
Why did the woman have to be right? Kagome wondered. "That's not the point."
"Then what's the point, my friend?" Sango asked with humor.
"The point is that he lied to me! He told me he would be with me no matter what, and he didn't even have to worry about that because he'd already let me eat a mermaid!" Kagome spewed angrily. "He had no skin in the game."
"Can you blame him?" Sango asked.
Kagome felt offended. "Blame him? You're kidding, right?"
"Would you not have done the same if the situations were reversed?"
"I would have asked!" Kagome responded defensively.
"Maybe there's a reason he didn't. Maybe he wanted to be sure that you wanted him and not the promise of eternal life." Sango used her hand, pointing her finger for emphasis. "Look, I'm not trying to defend him. I'm definitely not saying he was right. All I'm saying is that there's probably more to it."
Kagome glowered at Sango. "You're supposed to be on my side."
"I am on your side," Sango asserted, her head cocking to the side. "I am happy and oddly perturbed at the same time, but as your friend, I also want you to think about this rationally."
Kagome sighed. It didn't seem as though Sango would commiserate right now. "Fine," she acquiesced. "But he still needs to learn that keeping things from me is wrong! So, I will be staying until Rin has her baby, if not longer. Plus, it will be good for Setsuna to enjoy the company of humans."
Sango chuckled. "If he's anything like Miroku, anything longer than a week will be torture."
"Good god woman, is the lecherous monk's appetite never satiated?" Kagome joked.
"I had thought after all these years he would settle down, but the man still hounds me daily. I couldn't tell you how many headaches I've had to feign to get a full night's rest."
Kagome felt her anger ease, and her mood lifted with their friendly banter. The pair sighed in contentment and continued to share their wifely plights. It was good to be away in a change of scenery. This was something they all needed from time to time, a reprieve.
"Mother?" Setsuna called hesitantly into the house.
Kagome turned to the sound of her daughter's voice. The young girl looked confused, and she rubbed her nose with one hand and holding up the screen with her other. Her white ears on top of her head twitched back and forth.
Setsuna stayed on the peripheral of the entryway, neither in nor out. She looked around outside, answering her mother without looking. "I smell something funny."
"What's that, love?" Kagome questioned. Her daughter was usually quite boisterous when excited, reserving a more serious side when serious matters were at play, like her father's lectures. To see Setsuna so quiet and uncertain was worrisome.
"I don't know," she said softly. Her ears continued to swivel to pick up different sounds that only she could hear. "But it smells...wrong," she said.
Sango gave Kagome a questioning look, mouthing the words 'What's wrong?' Which she only received a shake of the head and shrug as a response.
"Come inside, Setsuna. You'll let all manner of insects in while you linger in the doorway," Kagome told her.
The young girl stayed put, looking over her shoulder, oblivious to her mother's words. Kagome hurried over to look outside as well. There was nothing as she peeked outside, and she could not smell nor hear anything unusual. The only difference was a feeling of foreboding.
"Sango?" Kagome solicited, concern evident in her voice.
The taijiya had already pushed the pair aside and went out to give a proper investigation. Nothing untoward was taking place to the naked eye. Villagers could be seen coming and going about chores and errands, and the noise of their movements and chatter could be vaguely heard, but something was different that none could quite put their finger on. "I see nothing," Sango said. "There are always strange sights and smells here in the village, little one," she consoled the rigid girl.
"No," Setsuna replied, "it's not that."
Sango grabbed Setsuna's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Just the other day, Rin attempted to cook, and there was the most horrible smell that permeated throughout the village." Her attempt to write off Setsuna's strange behavior was met with little resistance. Setsuna finally looked at her and her mother and smiled.
"I don't hear any birds. That's what it is. Maybe they were scared away by the smell, right, mother?" she asked.
Kagome had a strange feeling but did not want her daughter to worry over anything. "Maybe they smelled you," she teased.
Setsuna laughed and ran inside; her earlier behavior was forgotten.
Kagome followed her in, and Sango stood outside, giving the lane by her house one last look around to ensure nothing strange was around. Once she confirmed all was well, she came inside as well.
"So, what brings you back so soon?" Kagome asked.
She pouted, thrusting her bottom lip out in an overt fashion, and crossed her arms dramatically. "They won't let me play. They said it's unfair because I'm faster, and I'm a gooder smeller."
Sango sighed with annoyance. "Was it Hiro?"
"No, but he didn't say anything either. He's just jealous cuz I'm stronger than he is. But it was- it was a girl." Setsuna looked frustrated and on the edge of tears. "She was mean and said I couldn't play with them and called me a half breed...Mother," she paused and turned her large, wavering eyes to Kagome, "what's a half breed?"
Kagome instantly felt rage swell in her chest. She'd done a damned good job at shielding Setsuna from people who would treat her child differently. Kagome knew she should have prepared Setsuna better for the cruelty of the outside world, but it was easy to forget that there were biased individuals out there when you lived in a bubble of protection. "Half yokai and half-human, love," she answered as gently as she could. "You know that your father and I are different. 'Half breed' is just a mean way of saying it."
"Don't let her words bother you; some people do not know how to appreciate the differences of others," Kagome assuaged. "If Hiro and the others are your friends, they won't care what that girl has to say."
Setsuna contemplated those words, trying to comprehend as best as a five-year-old could. "Father would have punished them," she replied angrily.
Kagome felt the urge to throttle someone right now, but the child offender wasn't the best choice, so she settled for being angry at Sesshomaru. "What good would that do?"
"Make them stop," Setsuna said, her little nose wrinkling.
"No, it would make them fear you." Kagome pulled the girl into her lap. "Fear only goes so far. Love and respect go so much farther."
Setsuna looked up at her mother, leaning against her chest. "I don't understand."
Sango chuckled, all too familiar with childhood antics, bullying, and the like. "It means that you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar."
"You grownups don't make any sense," Setsuna groaned.
"Let's go see if we can talk to this girl. What's her name?" Kagome inquired. She rose, pulling Setsuna with her.
"Stupid-Mei," she supplied with a smirk.
Kagome rolled her eyes and tugged Setsuna along, pulling her outside. "Setsuna!" she scolded. "I'd ask what your father would say, but I'm afraid to hear your answer! We don't use that word: stupid."
Sango followed along, wanting to deal with the issue so that the behavior did not spill over into other matters. She wore a discreet and knowing smile as she followed.
Kagome made her way to the outskirts of the village, where she knew the local children played after they had finished training. Setsuna walked with her head held high the entire way, acting as if Kagome would give the offending child a sound lashing. Once they'd gotten nearly halfway, Setsuna stopped dead in her tracks.
"Don't stall, even if you're having second thoughts," Kagome warned.
Setsuna stood stock still, and her eyes seemed far away. "I smell it again, mother."
A/N: Little kids can be so mean. Mostly it's learned behavior from the parents.