Warnings: None
Daughters of Destiny
Chapter 09:
"Caught in the Middle"
As soon as Youko Kurama stepped out of the trees, Keiko put herself between us, shoving me behind her like a sheepdog guarding a lamb—and she showed her teeth like a dog, too, eyes catching on Kurama's silver hair and opening wide, like she intended to shoot him into dust with laser eye beams.
And I really, really wished she had laser eye beams just then, because Kurama had to be at least seven feet tall, not to mention jacked, and he was staring our way with a grin I can only describe as fucking terrifying on his lean face. The tsuchinokos boiled around his feet, too, like he'd arrived in a puddle of writhing gold. He was far off, all the way on the other side of the meadow, but even so the sight of him sent a bolt of fear down my aching back.
"Shit," Keiko said. "Shit. Holy shit."
"That about sums it up," I observed.
"Both of them? Really? Both of them?" She talked like she hadn't heard me, unable to look away from the silver and gold vision hovering just inside the encroaching tree line. "One was bad enough, but both—?"
"Both of them?" I repeated. "What do you—oh my dear sweet Jesus, it's Sessho-fucking-maru."
I thought her earlier mention of his name had been an assumption on her part, because who fucking else had silver hair and golden eyes in this world but Sesshomaru? My call for her to guess who I'd found hadn't exactly been fair—but it turned out Keiko hadn't been guessing, not suspecting a Yu Yu Hakusho character to show up, jumping to a conclusion based on the supposed fandom we occupied. Turns out she'd actually met the dog demon, which, um, oh my god. When movement caught my eye off to the side and I turned just in time to see a tall-ass motherfucker wearing a huge, fuzzy thing and colorful Japanese robes stride into view, lustrous hair blowing like silk on the breeze, it was all I could do to stop and stare and not faint right on the spot.
Lucky for me, though, that Sesshomaru didn't notice my slack-jawed expression.
He was far too busy looking at Kurama to notice little ol' me.
Kurama spotted Sesshomaru as soon as the dog demon stepped into the meadow, of course. The fox looked momentarily surprised, but he angled his body toward the dog and lifted a clawed hand in greeting, shit-eating-grin in stark contrast to Sesshomaru's blank expression. I looked between the demons like they were playing ping-pong, from Kurama's smirk to Sesshomaru's swiftly narrowing eyes and back again—until Sesshomaru's eyes blazed, the whites of them turning blood crimson in the space between seconds.
It faded quickly enough, though. Cold, calculating Sesshomaru wasn't the type to lose control so early.
"You." Sesshomaru's voice carried like a linen flag on the wind, soft but strong and unpredictable. "I have been looking for you."
Kurama tossed his head, arms crossing over his broad chest. Sesshomaru's head dipped lower in response, eyes now sparking the color of bloodstained coins. Keiko pulled a hissing breath between her teeth, as if she meant to strangle the air even as she breathed it in.
Her hand, where it stuck out behind her to keep me back, shook. I stared at it, unable to look away, my heart kicking up its heels in response to her anxiety. Keiko and I were about to witness a clash of titans (or demons, I dunno)—and we were caught right smackdab in the goddamn middle.
"What do we do?" I said. On reflex I grabbed the back of Keiko's robe, edging closer to her because surely my wonderful, overthinking Keiko would have a plan, right? "What do we do? What do we—?"
"You have encroached upon the realm of this one's father, Inutaisho, lord of the western lands," Sesshomaru called out. "Leave immediately, and you shall be spared."
Kurama rolled his eyes. "Ah. The puppy. Errand-boy for the dog king. I should have known you'd find me eventually."
Sesshomaru bristled—and then he vanished, flickering from sight as though he'd never even been there in the first place. I started to tell Keiko, let her know that he'd disappeared, but before I could speak something slammed like a wrecking ball into my back. I stumbled and fell on my face in the meadow's tall grass, chest heaving as the air left it in a sibilant burst. I gasped into the dirt as I got my hands under me, rolling over on my back with a thrust of my arms.
Before me, Sesshomaru held Keiko close to his chest—but not in a sexy way you might find in dirty fic. Nah, the lucky child wasn't meant to get that lucky. He stood behind her with her back against his chest, one long arm looped around her body, hand cupping her throat just beneath the jaw. She hadn't even moved from where she'd been standing. He'd just shoved me away and warped behind her like some a ghost with bad fashion sense, that furry whatever floating behind him on the wind of his own movement, the pale white flowers dotting the meadow swaying in the same breeze. Keiko looked the color of old milk, eyes wide, lips gently parted, body rigid with fear.
When his nails dug into her cheeks, three drops of bright red blood trickled down her skin, tracks of pigment rusty against her pale flesh.
Keiko didn't even flinch. But her eyes jerked down to mine, brown depths full of warning.
Don't move, she told me without saying a word. Don't you dare move, Tigger.
I'm not the type to take orders, but lemme tell ya, I was not going to disobey just then.
Sesshomaru, oblivious to our unspoken conversation (or maybe he just didn't give a shit) pulled Eeyore to him with a press of nails to skin. "This Sesshomaru has your pet," he said, words as cold and ubiquitous as a looming glacier. "Insult me again and she dies."
Pet? What the fuck did Sesshy mean by that? But for some reason Keiko didn't even look surprised, just stared across the field at Kurama with eyes that looked…wait. Did she look hopeful, eyes all wide and swimming with tears? Why the fuck was she staring at him like a puppy through the bars of a cage, like he might be the person to adopt her at long last? Did she hope that, like, through the pull of time and space he might recognize her or something? I mean, they were buddies and whatnot, but—?
"My pet?" Kurama said. His lips curled. "I have never seen this human before in my life."
Keiko's hope shattered like a mirror under a brick. Her shoulders sagged, though they snapped back into alignment when her slouch earned her a face full of claws for her trouble. Sesshomaru, meanwhile, pulled his lips back over his teeth with a rumbling growl.
"Liar," he said. "She reeks of you."
One thin silver eyebrow rose. Kurama said, skepticism dripping, "What do you mean, she reeks of me?"
"The nose of a fox cannot compete with that of a dog, but even a lowly fox like you should be able to smell the obvious," Sesshomaru said—deadpan, nearly, and yet somehow his scorn radiated in every syllable.
But Kurama didn't rise to the bait of that insult. He smirked, arms crossing over his chest, one long finger pointing toward Sesshomaru. "Oh. So you want me to come to you, do you, to get a taste? Is that why you've placed yourself downwind? You want to lure me close enough to strike?" He tossed his head with a contemptuous laugh. "Oh, you silly dog! I think not. You excel at close-range combat, little puppy, and I am not so foolish as to give up the advantage of distance and fall for this small-minded trick."
"It is no trick," Sesshomaru said from between clenched teeth—er, fangs. "She smells like you, you ignorant twit!"
Sassmaster McFoxman retorted, "Except she can't, because I've never seen her before!"
Yeah, seriously—Keiko had never met Youko Kurama. We certainly hadn't planned on meeting him today. How could she possibly smell like—?
Oh.
Oh, right.
She'd gotten lunch with Kurama just before I shoved her through the Bone Eater's Well, hadn't she?
Well. That explained a few things.
Too bad Sesshomaru didn't know what I knew, and that Kurama wasn't going to come close and check it out for himself. Even if this was the younger Kurama of yesteryear, more bombastic and less of a practiced killer than the Kurama of the future, he wasn't stupid enough to fall for what, to him, appeared like nothing more than a dirty trick.
"Liar!" This time Sesshomaru's calm mask cracked, red pouring into the whites of his eyes like spilled blood. Two sharp claws traced the line of Keiko's jaw, down the column of her heaving throat, Vanna White showing off the curves of a new sports car. "She is well-bred and attractive, as far as ugly humans go. Would you discard your property so readily?"
"I will say this one more time, and slowly, so you can understand: She is not my pet!" Kurama threw up his hands, smarmy douche rolling his eyes like a dramatic schoolboy, clearly fucking done with this entire line of conversation. "I care nothing for humans. I tire of this game of yours, so kill her or don't—it doesn't matter to me."
Keiko gasped. I did, too. Neither of the demons looked at us, though, eyes only for each other. I almost blurted at them to just make out already, but Sesshomaru growled low and deep in his throat. He had clearly been counting on a hostage situation to stack the deck against Kurama; I doubted he'd planned for his scheme to go awry. Expression uncertain, because I think the poor dude had truly been knocked for a loop, he said, "Do you not even wonder why she carries your scent?"
Kurama just rolled his eyes again, hands on his waist, one hip popped indignantly. "I won't fall for this," he said, as if talking to a small child. "Simply kill her and rid me of the sight of her wretched face. The girl is no concern of mine and I am not falling for this obvious ruse."
Sesshomaru said, "But—"
Kurama said, "Kill her."
"But—!"
"Just kill the damnable girl and be done with it!"
Sesshomaru's eyes hardened, gold turning near to magma. His hand tightened, closing so hard over Keiko's jaw that she let out a sharp cry of pain, eyes roving, struggling against the arms now pinning her to Sesshomaru's broad chest. My stomach heaved and lurched, chest as tight as a stretched drum, heart leaping into my mouth like it wanted to escape the prison of my ribs.
"As you wish," Sesshomaru intoned.
"WAIT A SECOND!"
I don't remember getting to my feet. Hell, I barely even remember screaming at them to stop, and I'm just as surprised as you that they listened to me. Both Kurama and Sesshomaru looked my way in shock, two sets of golden eyes boring into me like bits of expensive, fancy drills. I don't think either of them had expected the little cowering human girl to speak, let alone address them directly.
Something told me both of these assholes were used to humans cowering in fear.
"Wait!" I repeated. Keiko stared at me in horror as I cast about for an excuse—any excuse—that could save her life. "Sh-she smells like you because, um—because she knows your future!"
It was a shot in the dark and I knew it. So did Keiko. Her eyes bugged, fists clenched into hard bundles by her legs.
"Sakura, be quiet," she said, and I almost thought she was speaking to someone else—but oh yeah, 'Sakura' was the codename we'd agreed upon, the one she'd call me if ever I wound up face to face with a certain fox demon.
We hadn't thought I'd come face to face with Kurama's Youko form, of course, but now wasn't the time to split hairs over technicalities.
"No," I said, willing her to trust me, begging her with my eyes to just play along. "No—that's the truth. My friend here…her name is, um. June? And she is a seer of future events." I stretched my arms wide, trying to look authoritative even though Kagome's tiny body barely reached Kurama's waist. Tone as grandiose as I could muster, I declared: "June knows your future, and that is why she smells like you!"
No one said anything for a second. Keiko looked like she wanted to throw up. Slowly, movements indolent yet deliberate, Youko's head listed to one side.
"She smells of me because she knows my future?" he said—and then his brow furrowed. "That…that does not make sense."
"Agreed," Sesshomaru said (with supreme distaste, because he was agreeing with a fox, and Mister Stick-Up-His-Ass probably hated doing something so pedestrian). "The girl's assertions are both preposterous and illogical."
"And if she is a seer, then who are you?" Kurama said, with a nod to Keiko and myself in turn.
In my panic, I opted for humor. I grasped the hem of my robe and dropped into a curtsy. "I am her humble, um…maid. Her maid. Yes! That."
Kurama remained unconvinced. "First you were a little do-good thief, seeking the village's paper. And now you are the handmaid to a seer?"
Keiko cleared her throat. For reasons unfathomable, Sesshomaru let her go, released the iron prison of his arms and allowed Keiko to step away from him. Somehow she kept her knees steady, hand free of shakes as she leveled one finger straight across the field—at Kurama, of course. She stared down the length of her arm with head held high, affecting the single most imperious expression I had ever seen on a human face.
No wonder she had managed to keep the truth of her origins secret for fourteen years.
My Eeyore was no doubt scared shitless, but damn, her acting ability rocked.
"I foresaw the paper would bring you dire misfortune, Youko Kurama," she said—and at the sound of his name, his almond eyes widened. Keiko's voice sounded as commanding as her bearing looked, booking no room for any argument or protest from the confused fox demon, language skewing archaic like something from an old samurai movie. "That is why I sent my handmaiden to alleviate you of the paper. To possess that paper is to court misfortune. Until you return it to its original owners, the sickle of fate looms sharp and heavy above your head."
I wanted to clap when she finished, nominate her for a goddamn Oscar or something, but I didn't want to break the silent spell that followed her dire proclamation. I bit the inside of my cheek and looked at Kurama sidelong, not daring to move for fear of ruining her work. Kurama stared at Keiko from across the field, speechless—but then he threw back his head and laughed. He laughed long and loud, uproarious, head thrown back as his shoulders shook. Sesshomaru, meanwhile, wore a confused frown, eyes tracing Keiko's body as if trying to read the truth in the line of her upright spine.
Kurama's head fell forward when he stopped his great guffaws, face cupped in one clawed hand. He giggled behind his fingers as his head raised again, one golden eye peeking between his slender digits.
"Come now, Sesshomaru," he said, voice replete with mirth. "What are you playing at? What game is this? Your lie about my scent did not work, so you playact me for a fool? What promises did you make to that poor wretch, for her to act with such vigor?" Kurama's lips pulled back over his teeth, but not into a smile. "This girl is no seer. Or if she is, she's a poor one indeed."
Sesshomaru's brow rose. "Oh?"
"Oh, yes," said Kurama. "It does not take the gift of foresight to know who will win the fight between us."
Sesshomaru bristled. "You overestimate your abilities, fox."
"Do I?" Kurama replied. With a voice like needles he said, "Or have you been kept wrapped in silk and pearls for so long, you've forgotten what a real demon looks like? Spoiled little brat."
That got Sesshomaru to break form, at last. He growled loudly enough to raise the hair on my arms, eyes blazing scarlet once more, every last one of his pointed teeth on full and fucking scary display. "This Sesshomaru will cut out your tongue and eat it," he snarled, voice like thunder in the meadow.
Kurama merely simpered, "Pretty words. But can you make them reality?"
Sesshomaru started to speak, but he stopped when Kurama lifted the hand from his face and snapped his fingers.
"I think not," the fox demon said—and the ground under my feet erupted.
Sesshomaru had likely thought the meadow an advantageous position in which to challenge Kurama, but Kurama was nothing if not resourceful. Underestimate the douchebag at your peril, basically. Even if they didn't engage each other in a forest, a variety of plants at Kurama's ingenious (and also goddamn horrifying) disposal, the meadow was still quite the little playground for the wily fox. The ground below rumbled as if it capped the source of thunder itself, and then it lurched and buckled as something beneath it stirred. I tumbled end over end and sprawled onto the ground, and to be honest, for a second it felt like I'd fallen into one of those Honey, I Shrunk the Kids movies. The plants around me rocketed upwards, like either they were growing or like I'd suddenly gotten a whole lot smaller, tendrils of greenery shooting up against the backdrop of clear sky, leaving me quite literally in the dust. I scrambled to my feet, stumbling over the ground now cracked into slabs, and found that while the meadow grass hadn't changed, all those little flowers dotting it had undergone quite the transformation.
As in, they'd grown mouths.
Mouths with teeth.
Mouths with teeth and big gigantic leaves that were actually more like tentacles splitting off the flowers' gigantic stems, writhing and striking at the air as the flower-mouths bit and snarled, ropy saliva dropping from their lolling tongues and onto the grass below. At least two dozen of them had sprung up all around Sesshomaru, Keiko, and me—but before I could do so much as yell at Keiko to watch the hell out, Sesshomaru shoved her away from him and blurred, running full-tilt away from Keiko and across the field toward Kurama. Keiko tripped over a crack in the earth and fell flat, vanishing under the tall meadow grass and out of sight.
Out of sight for me, I mean.
The twenty-foot-tall, man-eating plant hovering over her, however, had a pretty good picture of where she'd fallen.
"Eeyore!" Her name tore from my throat like a jagged sword through skin. "Eeyore, move!"
But she didn't reappear above the grass, nor did the grass move around her, so she hadn't crawled away on all fours. My legs worked, propelling me toward her across the meadow, watching in numb horror as the flower looming above my friend reeled back, coiling atop its stem like a snake about to strike—
Am I about to watch Keiko die?
The thought surfaced out of the depths of my awareness, slow and lumbering. The world moved at half speed, the undulations of the bloodthirsty flower hypnotic in their ponderousness. I could hardly move, could hardly run, fear and dread so thick it made controlling my body nigh impossible—
And then I wasn't moving my body.
I mean, my body was moving—but I wasn't moving my body.
Like a peal of thunder a voice in my head said: NO.
Just as it had before, the voice in my head swelled louder, louder, and louder still, answering my unspoken question—Am I about to watch Keiko die?—with denial after denial, until I couldn't think, couldn't feel, everything drowned out by the depth and power of that terrible, familiar voice. Something inside me snapped, like I'd been jerked away from my own perception, yanked backward and out of myself by a ripcord of psychic energy.
It was like watching the world from the wrong end of a telescope. I felt myself run to Keiko's side, body no longer under my control. I saw her body amidst the grass, legs bound and immobile by the flower's grasping tentacles, face contorted in a wild scream—but even though worry and dread and panic suffused my awareness, I couldn't feel my heartbeat run out of control. I felt nothing, no connection my body even though it moved, skidding on its knees to Keiko's side, one hand raised with splayed fingers up toward the flower bearing down from above.
"Die, foul creature," said my mouth, without my permission. Heat built in my hand, comforting and inexplicable. "Perish under the scorch of holy light."
At that command, a blast of pure white light rocketed from my hand—and that power I somehow managed to feel.
It ripped through me like electric fire, hardly containable inside my skin, blasting out like steam from an overheated kettle. It tore through the monster-flower's flesh in seconds, tearing its mouth open Joker-style, its rotund cheeks splitting as its flowerbud head split in horizontal half. Chunks of plant flesh rained down, leaking green sap from the edges of the lumps lying quivering on the ground. The flower's stem thrashed and trembled, flailing its torn head with a spray of more sap, and then it went limp and collapsed with a thud upon the ground.
For a moment, silence reigned. Nearby, more plant-monsters screamed, screeching as Sesshomaru likely tore through their ranks—but before my body could do anything more, a voice cut through the quiet.
"Interesting," said Kurama. "The do-gooder handmaid possesses holy magic?"
My body, or whoever controlled it, didn't spare Keiko even a glance (though I managed to see her clawing at the vines from the corner of my eye, before my body turned from her completely). I stood up to find Kurama standing not ten feet away, near the spot where his slaughtered plant had burst from the broken ground.
Kurama lifted a hand, pointing it at me.
"You," he said, eyes gleaming. "Come here, now."
What a fool, to think he could command me (that thought ran through my mind, but in a voice that did not belong to me). My head inclined, a cruel laugh spilling from my lips. Somehow my voice had deepened, or was this how I always sounded, and I knew the truth now that I no longer held control?
"So: It deigns to speak to me?" I said. Another laugh, haughty and dismissive. "I think not. I have bested more frightful beasts than you, wretched kitsune."
Kurama's lips pulled back, grinning, but somehow not smiling at all. He took one step toward me, toward us—
Keiko, said a voice that did belong to me.
Keiko. She was still here, beside me, hidden by the grass. Was she OK, or—?
"Tigger!" A hand wrapped around my body's wrist, touch nigh indiscernible thanks to the distance between soul and shell. "Tigger, what are you—how did you—?"
My face turned to her—and I felt impatience in my chest, though the emotion was not mine. With mounting horror felt at the most visceral level of my soul, I watched my hand rise, Keiko's confused and terrified eyes visible through the splay of my spread fingers.
Fingers in which that heat began to build, threatening and bright.
No.
NO.
NOT EEYORE NO NO NO NO—
"Silence, girl," said that deep, cruel voice. "Stay out of my way, or I—fuck no, you asshole, back the fuck off Eeyore!"
I'm not sure how I did it, really. One second my hand gathered that hot, electric light, and the next I slammed back into myself, shrugging off the sway of the horrible voice like an unwanted and stifling blanket. It felt like I kicked off the bottom of the pool and broke the surface of water cold and dark, color and warmth rushing in to fill me, pushing out the voice and reclaiming my body with a thrill of electric triumph. All at once my heart pounded in my ears, every muscle singing with nerves alight with joyful fire.
"Fuck no!" I repeated in my own, clear voice, just for good measure and just for the sheer pleasure of it. "Don't you fucking touch her!"
Behind me, Kurama (who had no goddamn clue what had just transpired, which made two of us) said in voice most irritated, "What is this? What game do you—?"
"It is unwise to take one's eyes off one's opponent."
Sesshomaru's voice cut through Kurama's the way my light had cut through the flower monster, swift and cold and undeniable. I wheeled just in time to see Kurama dance backward, Sesshomaru and his trailing mass of fluff pursuing him across the field with swipe after swipe of wicked claws. They danced with each other, almost, as graceful as they were deadly—and when Kurama plucked a blade of grass from the ground, it lengthened into the shape of a honed katana.
Sesshomaru only smirked, and grappled the blade with his claws. Kurama's eyes flashed, pressing back against his opponent with a snarl.
To be honest, watching them fight was sort of gorgeous? But a tug on my robe pulled my eyes from their tangled dance, down to Keiko as she rose unsteadily to her feet.
"Run," she growled. "Run, now!"
"Yes ma'am," I said.
And with that, we ran for our fucking lives.
It didn't take us long to reach the river, pelting downhill from the meadow and to the bank below the crest at the meadow's edge—maybe half a mile, but certainly no more than that. Despite the short trek, by the time we skidded to a stop on the river's pebbled shore we both breathed like our lungs might heave straight out our panting mouths. Keiko's punk-rocker hair stood up like a chicken who'd run afoul of an electric socket, feathery and clumped with dirt and sweat. Grime stained her face in streaks like war paint, a bit of green slime from the slaughtered plant-monster splattered across her nape. She did a double-take when the glob slid off her skin and landed with a plop on her shoulder, wiping disgusted fistfuls of the muck from the back of her head with a repulsed, "Ugh!"
I all but stuffed my fist into my mouth to stifle a laugh. Keiko—hands coated in goop—glared at me and flicked some of it my way. It landed square on my nose, and then it was her turn to laugh. She bent over at the waist, hands on her knees, cackling at the ground between her feet.
I began to join in—but I saw movement behind her, high up on the distant meadow's ridge.
Youko Kurama stood at the top of the ridge, too far away for me to see his face, white clothes and flying hair unmistakable just the same.
Keiko followed my gaze when I didn't join her laughter, and as soon as she saw him, the mirth died. Once more she put herself between Kurama and myself. Her feet kicked up gravel as she darted in front of me, even though I—or the presence inside me I didn't yet understand—had tried to kill her only minutes before. She wore her teeth on full display as she glared at the distant demon, every inch as ferocious as the kitsune on the hill.
I turned around and walked away.
Keiko called after me, of course, when the heard the crunch of my feet on stone, but I soldiered on undeterred. The river's rushing waves crested over my bare feet (I'd lost my shoes long ago) in a cold rush, but I waded in until it covered my ankles, my shins, my knees, my thighs, all the way up to my waist, robe swirling around me like a pool of ivory.
Then I pivoted, motions labored amid the rushing water, back up toward the ridge where Kurama waited.
"I got here first, asshole!" I bellowed, and to my satisfaction my voice rang off the rocky shore like it had been projected through a speaker. "We had a deal! I beat you to the river, you let me go! So get lost, ya hear me?!"
Keiko gaped. I stood in the water for what felt like an hour, but surely for no more than a minute, wondering if Kurama would honor our deal—and then the figure on the ridge moved.
Kurama turned, and he vanished above the horizon line.
Keiko's jaw snapped shut with a click. "You—you two had a deal?"
She sounded as surprised as I felt. "Um. Yes." I blinked, coming back to my stunned self with a start. "I'm actually really surprised that worked."
Keiko nodded (no shit, Kagome), and walked to the edge of the water, hand outstretched. I waded back through the swirling foam and grabbed it, levering myself onto dry land with a splash.
Keiko hugged me, then. I hugged her back, burying my face in her filthy robe, not caring that plant-monster-goop got in my hair and stank like rotten nettles.
"Do you think he beat Sesshomaru?" Keiko asked, not letting go.
On cue, there came a loud shriek from the distant meadow—the plant monsters, still fighting.
"Not yet," I said, voice muffled as I spoke into her chest. "Kurama probably just keeps distracting him with those plants. We should go back to the village, get the hell out of here."
"Yeah." She pushed me back and stared down into my face, earnest and searching. "But, Kagome, before we go—what happened back there? That light, that voice—?"
"I—I have no idea," I said. When Keiko's brow knit, I told her, "It happened before. Back when I left you in the ravine, and—" My throat clenched at that memory, guilt rising hot and ugh. "I'm so sorry I left you, Keiko, but I didn't want to. Really, that wasn't me!"
Keiko didn't react for a second.
Then, voice barely louder than a whisper, she said: "Do you think…Kikyo?"
My eyes dropped from her face to her feet.
Leave it to genre-savvy Eeyore to jump to that conclusion, huh?
Truth be told, the thought that the horrible voice might belong to Kikyo…it had crossed my mind, skirting at the corners of my what-ifs like a ghost. It had crossed my mind, but I didn't dare entertain the notion for long. I wasn't Kikyo—I was me, from another world, and I certainly hadn't lived a past life as a priestess. The relationship of Kikyo to this Kagome I didn't understand, didn't necessarily want to understand, but perhaps the time for denial had passed, and maybe—
Another shriek from up on the ridge, the dying knell of a felled monster. Perhaps Yoko Kurama hadn't honored our deal, after all. Perhaps he had merely been distracted by Sesshomaru, and the fight raged on and on.
"There's no time," said Keiko, urgent and low. "We have to go."
And she was right.
Getting answers was probably a good idea, even if it would probably suck—but now was not the time, and here was not the place to seek them.
The village lay to the east, nestled along the curve of the river a few miles upstream. We jogged there, no stamina left to run, too wary of attack to walk. Keiko allowed me silence, which of course I used to not think about the incident with the white light. Instead I just sang the Sailor Moon theme song in my head, timing the lyrics to the beat of my running feet, hoping to hell we'd put off discussing the whole possession situation for another day.
When I got to the part where Sailor Moon is "never running from a real fight," I picked a different song.
When the village appeared around the river bend, Keiko let loose a psyched "yes!" under her breath. Her pace picked up, longer legs carrying her fart ahead of me. I willed myself to run faster to keep up—but in the process, I nearly slammed into her when she screeched to a halt, bare feet skidding over the short grass just outside the village gates. I started to ask what was up, snark at Keiko for causing a wreck, toot-toot, get a move-on—but then I looked past her, and the words faded like ink in sunlight.
Before us stood the priestess Kaede, hands shoved in the pockets of her robes. A group of village men, maybe twenty in all, stood behind her, staring at us and whispering behind their hands.
At their side lay the wooden sled, burdened with crates full of their treasured paper.
Keiko gave a little gasp when she noticed it (and so did I). Kaede appraised us in silence. Keiko said nothing, and I followed her lead, shrinking into her shadow because oh my god, no, Kaede couldn't see me yet, it was too soon! Eventually Kaede cleared her throat and looked at the men behind her.
"Are they the ones?" she said.
After a moment's hesitation, the men nodded. She grimaced. Her lone eye held—I'm not really sure what emotion that was, actually.
It's not like she was my sister or anything, reincarnation or no reincarnation.
"You two," Kaede said. "Come with me."
Call me nuts, or whatever, but I had to wonder who was more dangerous: the demons who could rip us to shreds, or this woman who might think I was her sister, when I most definitely wasn't.
NOTES:
For those wondering how Kurama might not have recognized Keiko in the future, hopefully this chapter shed some light. He was much more focused on Kagome, only saw Keiko from across a field, and wrote her off as a pawn of Sesshomaru. Also he doesn't give a crap about humans, so why dwell on them? I truly don't think he'd have a reason to commit her face to memory, much less suspect she reappeared at his high school 500 years later.
Also, 500 years between meetings. That'll tarnish a memory!
So…yeah! Hope that helps!
Those of you who are only really reading this to get background for chapter 56/57 of Lucky Child should feel free to skip to the final chapter (once I get it posted, though at the time of this chapter's publication it's not available). We haven't seen the last of Youko or Sesshomaru, necessarily, but they're not the main focus of the story from here on out, so that's that.
I've outlined the rest of this story, and unless I wildly overwrite, we're looking at a total of 15 chapters.
Many thanks to everyone who chimed in after the previous chapter went up: MissIdeophobia, Saj te Gyuhyall, Lady Ellesmere, xenocanaan, disenchanted love, rya-fire1, potatoqueen, Counting Sinful Stars, Alya Tinuviel, Fish, KuramaG33, sousie, A, Kaylamarie517, Sky65, SesshomarusLuvr, WaYaADisi1, Kaiya Azure, ahyeon, MyMidnightShadow, wennifer-lynn, Viviene001, Miqila, Gwen F Katana, shisenxlll, Aka-chansama, FreshToDeath, Laina Inverse, buzzk97, and two guests!