Hai Guys! Welcome back to Memoirs where everything is made up and the time skips don't matter!
I'm your horrible host, Xera!
Chapter 43: Trapped
Sesshoumaru approached the charred remains of the slayer village, both the Tenseiga and Soum in his possession. The "Soum" was his gateway into the netherworld, an iron prong with horn-like coiled ends—entranced by a magic far older than himself—that summoned the souls and their keepers, so the healing powers of Tenseiga would have effect. A revived soul with no body is quite the predicament, but the Soum would reform the body from the soul, rebuilding it from the core. The old tree hermit, Bokusenou, ensured its reliability when he bequeathed it to him upon his inheritance of the Tenseiga—and Sesshoumaru had no reason to question such magic far older than he.
"How foul," he muttered to himself, inhaling the sharp stench of death littered about the Slayer Village's gravesite. Chiseled rock after rock lay strewn about, jutting out of the earth like dozens of silent pleas, but he was here for only one of them. Laying eyes on the kanji of the lost slayer's tombstone, he frowned. He found what he came for, but his heart ached in a novel and annoying fashion. Guilt was unbecoming for a demon of his stature, and with that thought, he separated himself from it; from this act created by and for vengeance, and vengeance alone. Placing the Soum upon the gravesite, and relieving Tenseiga from its long slumber, Sesshoumaru watched as the guardians of the underworld presented themselves to him, a dare to tamper with the natural order.
Sesshoumaru sneered.
Soon, Naraku would be nothing.
Rin sat in high spirits within the beauty of her bedroom, one that Sesshoumaru-sama, the ruthless dog lord of the West, had given to her. She ran her fingers over the soft, luxurious fabrics of her bed, of her clothes. How simple was she to find these things so enthralling, when surely her lord saw nothing in them but utility. Still, she was grateful. A lingering happiness coated her heart as she fixated on the budding tree outside her window, the one that let in fresh daylight and air—something she took for granted all her life.
Was she to live out the rest of her life here? After her conversation with Sesshoumaru, she wondered. Prior to this day, surely she would be cast back out to the village, back to the life of a Geisha. Even if he had some feelings for her that were not unfounded, the demon ruler of a demon castle couldn't possibly keep a human woman in his midst, could he? Rin frowned as she contemplated her own feelings. And what of her? Did she want to stay here? And as her thoughts flew to the icy-nothing spirit that was Kanna, the same, haunting child appeared before her—at her bedside.
"You summoned me?" she breathed out in an ominous monotone.
Rin's eyes widened at the sight and sound of her, throwing herself against the headboard, pushing back. "I-I did not."
"I heard it through the void," the girl whispered, "through the strings of your heart. Do you wish to flee this world, Rin?"
Something fastened to Rin's soul; a concept, of sorts. Did she desire death? Just yesterday she admitted to such. Those feelings still loomed over her, in the background, but something else held her to the concept of life. How Sesshoumaru-sama kissed her last night, for instance. Rin wanted to see what that meant, to live to understand it all. Is that all life was? A series of desires to see what happened next?
"I want to live," Rin uttered above the churning of her heart; her fingers curled into the headboard, bending and cutting into her nails. She clarified, "I don't want to die."
"No one wants to die," Kanna chuckled eerily, "But some people want to be dead… the process of death is the most fearsome of all. I—"
"That's not what I want." Rin cut her off, fear consuming her slightly, as Sesshoumaru's luminous figure appeared across her feverish gaze.
Kanna's taut mouth upturned slightly. "If only love were so simple."
Rin's brow furrowed. "What?"
"Here, let me show you." The icy girl simpered as she lifted her disastrous mirror.
Rin's heart threatened to stop as she laid eyes on the figures emerging from the strange reflection. A woman, Sesshoumaru, and… Kohaku.
He had the boy by the hair when he pushed him against the bars of the cell door.
"Proof enough?" Sesshoumaru asked, but the slayer was incapacitated by shock, it seemed. Surely, she recognized Kohaku. The boy was only slightly taller, with longer hair—more developed. The Soum rebuilds the body according to the age of the soul. About nineteen or twenty, he would guess.
"S-sister?" Kohaku asked, his voice deep and scratchy.
"Kohaku," she muttered.
"What's happening, who is—" the boy's voice weakened as Sesshoumaru tightened the hold on his nape.
"We had a deal," Sesshoumaru near whispered. "Here is your end of the bargain. Now, for mine."
Sango eyed him skeptically. "How did you—"
"Where's Rin?" Kohaku asked, and Sesshoumaru's eyes widened against his will.
Sango glanced back down at her younger brother. "Who?"
"Rin," Kohaku murmured as he gazed down with disbelief at his hands. "I had left her at the… what year is it?"
"Rin is no longer of a concern to you," Sesshoumaru responded, a hint of ice lining his tone. "You will leave with your sister and head east, never to return to this province… provided she keeps her promise to me."
Sesshoumaru drew Bakusaiga, holding its sharp edge to Kohaku's throat. Gazing down over his nose at the gasping demon slayer, he demanded, "Tell me, or else."
"I will tell you!" Tears lined Sango's eyes as she jumped up, throwing herself to the cell bars. Though Sesshoumaru had already pulled Kohaku back an arm's length. Sango relented. "Naraku is heading in the direction of the Ox Tiger…"
"For what reason?" Sesshoumaru accused.
"He hopes to complete the Shikon no Tama to build his own empire," Sango explained, "…to defeat you."
The dog lord smiled wickedly. "How flattering, yet pathetic."
He withdrew the sword from Kohaku's throbbing neck, leading him out as he thrashed against his hold.
"What are you doing?!" Sango threw her fists against the cell bars, pounding on them, alighting the dark, cavernous dungeon with impetuous echoes.
Sesshoumaru responded lowly, "I will ensure that the guards lead you to the eastern gate. There you will find Kohaku waiting for you. Mark my words, if I scent either of you in my territory after tonight, I will have no mercy on your souls."
The two mortals silenced their qualms, dryly swallowing the threat.
"Please, tell me what happened to Rin," Kohaku barely uttered, fear trickling in from behind his beg.
"She's dead," the dog lord replied with neither hesitance nor more emotion than a statue, lending Kohaku the devastation of his perfectly-crafted lie, instead.
Rin's cheeks were stained crimson with tears, rubbed raw by her tired palms. She sobbed, because she knew what it meant.
"Love is selfish, hm?" Kanna mused. "It seems Sesshoumaru-sama does not want you to reunite with your lost friend. How awful of him. Dog demons are known to be quite possessive, you know?"
"How could he do this?" Rin whispered, but truly, she knew how. She always knew what he really was… a monster. Sesshoumaru was a monster, and how she had deviated from that conclusion, was nothing more than a naïve, insipid hope.
"I can take you to him," Kanna's voice cut through her thoughts.
"I don't want to go to him," Rin sobbed harder.
"No… I can take you to Kohaku," Kanna clarified.
Rin curled her nails into her face, trying to make the pain more unbearable than the kind throbbing within her heart.
"Yes," she said under her breath, so angry she couldn't bring herself to care. She would take her chances with this angel of death. "Take me to him… take me to Kohaku. I can't stay here for another moment."
The girl's devious smile curved ever-upward. "As you wish. Just look into my mirror."
Whether she expected to feel pain, pleasure, or nothing at all while in transport to Kohaku, Rin couldn't have predicted she would feel so numb; so out of control. Her eyes reluctantly opened to dark, planked wood—flooring. Her body was heavy, like burlap sacks of rice; as foreign to her as freedom. Chimes of clanking, hollowed vertebrate ricocheted from somewhere outside, sounding so near, yet so far away. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came. Was she drugged? Where was she? She then remembered Kanna and the mirror, and then everything else. How Kanna should have taken her to Kohaku…
…but something wasn't right. An ominous feeling deep in her gut awakened her senses, allowing her to move. It signaled that she made a mistake, that none of this was real, that Kanna was a liar. And just as she mustered enough energy to prop herself up on her palms and thighs, a figure emerged from the corner of the room.
"Please no," she whimpered in disbelief as his face emerged from the darkness.
Naraku smiled down at her in such a sinister way that it coiled Rin's stomach.
"I know," he said while kneeling down before her, drawing his index finger lightly across her cheek. "You poor thing. It's nothing personal…" His eyes narrowed devilishly. "I just really hate that Sesshoumaru wants to keep you all to himself."
"You made a grave mistake," a sultry, yet familiar voice presented itself from behind a distant tree.
Kagura. Sesshoumaru's eyes trailed toward its source.
The demoness was leaning against the trunk, eyeing him doubtfully as he indulged. "Oh?"
She smacked her fan against her palm in a 'tsk tsk' fashion before enlightening him. "Don't you know that Naraku has the means to keep an eye on you from afar?"
Sesshoumaru glowered, reaching for Bakusaiga. "Hmph. Is that supposed to mean something?"
The corner of Kagura's mouth lifted slightly. "It means… he knows when you leave her alone."
A thin thread of fear drew taut, lacing through and deviating Sesshoumaru's composure.
"Perhaps if you would've been honest with her, she wouldn't have ended up so helpless on Naraku's floor."
Eyes and markings bleeding red with pure rage, Sesshoumaru released the power of Bakusaiga in a swift and powerful swing, but Kagura dodged—taking to the skies upon her enchanted feather.
"I wouldn't follow me if I were you," she suggested with a wink. "You might stumble upon something you don't wish to see."
Anger and fear latched onto the adrenaline pumping through Sesshoumaru's veins. How had he been so careless? How had he underestimated Naraku's manipulation? Gritting his fangs, Sesshoumaru took to Kagura's trail, keeping her pace and letting her lead him to her master. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't trust Naraku's bitch, and this very well may be another trap… but she was heading in the direction of the Ox Tiger, and for once, Sesshoumaru had no other option.
Thanks for reading guys! Three months til my book is released! It's called A Violet Fire if you don't know, and it's lightly based on this pairing!
I'm such a ball of paranoia and anxiety right now. :D Tell me good things? Or not, it's cool. LOVE YOU.
