Spider, Part Nine "Shikon no Tama"
by Vega
~~~
That night Kagewaki left the grounds and I did not know where he went. I was served dinner by the servants and no one stayed to talk with me. I was feeling slightly lonely and very confused, but it gave me a lot of time to think.
I know I had heard a woman screaming out Kohaku's name in that battle all those nights ago. Then Sango had left on a mission with Naraku. Naraku had come back, because I had seen his silhouette against the rice-paper screens (or so Kagewaki told me), but Sango had not. I had heard nothing further about that.
Then Kohaku himself shows up, appears to be the warrior of Kohaku, and he's been out looking for Sango. And Sango, apparently, has hooked up with a group of thieves, including the Miko that betrayed Kagewaki's trust and stole his family gem.
Meanwhile, Naraku is still out there, searching for the pieces of the shattered jewel. That of course must be why he ended up rescuing me - the magenta glow on the floor in my dream must have been more pieces of the jewel, and he must have been there to collect them and had found me instead.
But what about the village burning outside of the hut? The women and old and children screaming? The things that were attacking them? Where were the men? The warriors? And why had Naraku (for I felt certain that this Naraku was the man in the silver cloak and skull mask) stopped me in the dream when I had tried to go to them, to help them?
Was it because they were already dead, as he had said, or... was it that he was the one who had attacked him?
And what about that strange dream about my great-grandmother? I hadn't thought about her in years, so why would I dream of that long ago last time I saw her now... here? How did Kagewaki know that I had? Had he really prompted the dream somehow? Is that what the heavy sandalwood smell meant - that he was somehow making me dream specific things?
If that was true, then it would explain why I was dreaming about parts of my own past - somehow either Kagewaki or Naraku was trying to figure out who I was and where I was from. I partially knew myself now: I knew I was from the future, from far away, but the exact dates I couldn't be sure of. I knew that while I had thought myself perfectly human and normal my whole life I possessed the blood fo a taiyoukai - I was the descendant of a Great Demon Lord, if only by a few drops of blue in my veins.
I had always thought that my eyes were just very vibrant, but thinking on the way that Naraku and the monster who'd hurt me eyes both glowed, it made sense to me why mine were so very bright.
Did that explain the flames dancing in the depths of Kagewaki's?
Could he, too, be possessed of some youkai blood? I would have to ask him when he returned from... where ever it was that he had gone. To see this Sango and his betraying Miko...
I wondered if he would come back alive, and was surprised to realize that I don't think I really cared one way or another. Kagewaki was taking care of me, yes, but I was almost strong enough to walk on my own and if need be I could find a healer in a village somewhere – I don't think I trusted Kagewaki anymore.
His kisses did strange things to me, made me trust and want to be with him always, made me want to do whatever he said - made me want to serve him. I hated it.
Yes, I determined - perhaps it would be best if Kagewaki didn't come back. But something in my heart twisted at the thought, and I wanted him just as badly as I had this afternoon under the tree.
Contradictory thoughts such as these tumbled through my brain all night, until sometime around dawn I finally drifted off.
When I slept, it was nightmare and memory free - it felt like the first real dream of my own in weeks.
~~~
The next day I awoke around evening to find the palace deserted. I had called for someone to help me get dressed and no one had answered. I called a few more times and began to get worried so I pulled myself to my feet and painstakingly, exhaustingly, walked down the inside corridor, holding myself up with the wall.
I peered into every room I passed and found them empty, with a thick layer of dust on the floor. That was ver perturbing because I knew for certain that I had seen other people here before - where were they now, and why was there no sign of their presence in halls and room that I had seen them in?
I was half-way to the other wing of the palace when I spotted Kohaku kneeling in a room at the far end of the hall before an open door, his head and hands on the polished wood.
"Kohaku!" I called out, and he sat up quickly and stared at me, as if startled. "Where has everyone gone?"
He turned his face back outside and as I stumbled closer I could hear the low buzz of conversation and realized he was conversing with someone. I saw a strange shadow against the rice paper screen - a mass of fur, it looked like.
"It's the girl," he said, "She's walking around."
"Hm. I didn't think she'd be well enough," said the answering voice and I recognized it immediately - it was the voice from my dreams.
"Sorry to disturb you," I said loudly, not really sorry at all. Whatever it was that they were conspiring had me ill at ease. "But where is Lord Kagewaki? Where's everyone else? I'm afraid I'm very confused."
There was a pause, then the voice said: "Take her to a room nearby, Kohaku. Sango will be here very soon."
Kohaku rose and grabbed me none to gently by the elbow and pulled me into the room beside the one he had been kneeling in. I was pushed down onto a musty futon and told to stay here and quiet by the boy before he turned on his heel and walked out.
I wanted to ask what the Hell was going on, why the voice from my nightmares was giving Kagewaki's warriors orders, but I heard a woman's voice ring out in the courtyard, and I immediately recognized it. It was Sango.
"KOHAKU!"
"First put your Hirarikotsu down," replied the deep male voice. I scooted up to the screen and moved it sideways slowly, just enough that I could peer out.
"Naraku," hissed Sango, and there was a brief moment of silence before a heavy crashing sound in the room above me told me something heavy had landed there. I fought back a scream and readjusted myself - there, I could see the girl pink and green on the wall opposite the gloomy, barren courtyard, flanked by a large white feline of some sort. A youkai, I thought.
She jumped down onto the hard-packed dirt and I was honestly surprised she didn't kill herself in doing so - it was quite the jump for a normal human. Maybe she was of youkai blood as well? Maybe she was a highly trained warrior - it was plausible, for she carried a very battered looking sword.
"Thank you for your trouble, Sango," the white-fur said again, and I angled my body to look at him. Yes, this was the man from my dreams! This was that voice... and Sango had called him Naraku. This was Kagewaki's servant. "Did you bring Inu Yasha's sword as promised?"
"Let me see Kohaku first! Then we'll see if I give you the sword."
I blinked and for a moment tore my gaze away from Sango to the room beside mine... Kohaku was... a hostage? But he seemed so... obedient. The whole situation was giving me the willies and I decided quickly that the moment Kagewaki got back I was thanking him for his hospitality and getting the hell outta here.
I didn't trust this Naraku.
Suddenly the wall that separated the room I was in and the one next to it began to glow red and I back pedalled as far away from the outer wall as I could, terrified. What the HELL was happening?! Then it occurred to me that Sango would be able to see Kohaku's shadow through the paper wall with him back lit like that.
How was it being done, though? There was no electricity, therefore no flood lights - but that's what it looked like. Was this... was it Naraku doing this?
When the light faded again I inched forward to spy once more and heard Sango yell, "Naraku! Turn Kohaku back to normal! Right now!"
So it was Naraku controlling this boy... but how? For what purpose? It left no doubts in my mind, however, that Naraku was the one who had been invading my dreams, that he was some sort of demon himself.
I heard Naraku chuckle slightly as Sango raised the battered sword in his direction.
"It won't do you any good," he smiled, "even if you kill me. I'm sure you're smart enough to have noticed that? This is what comes of the Shikon's curse." Shikon? The word seemed familiar to me, but I couldn't place it. But I didn't like the idea of being around Naraku and a curse. It made my skin goosebump all over. "Those Youkai wanted the Shikon Shards and attacked your village. The death of your father; the reason why Kohaku is trapped between life and death; it is all because of the Shikon's Curse."
"Nonsense! It was you who killed my father and friends!" Sango screamed, and I felt my head reeling. "You killed everyone because you wanted the Shikon's power for yourself!"
A curse? A curse that killed the villagers... the villagers I had watched burn... the Shikon Shards... the slivers of the gem sacred to Kagewaki's family that I had seen glowing magenta on the floor in my nightmare?
Was all this over that strange jewel? The... the Shikon?
"People die for the Shikon's Power..." Naraku was saying, but I found it hard to concentrate on his words. I was getting dizzy. "And people live because of it as well. You shouldn't despise it like that Sango. After all, it is what's keeping Kohaku alive." I wrapped my good hand around the shard hanging from my ear. I wanted to tear it out - but I needed it to understand their words. "Our agreement was to exchange the sword for Kohaku, yes? So what are you going to do?"
"Damn you!" she screamed, and I echoed her sentiments in my head. Yes - damn him, this Naraku. Killing that village like that, holding this boy that Sango so obviously cared about hostage to her will. "What agreement!?"
She leapt into the air, brandishing the blade at the seated from of Naraku and screamed, "Here is my answer!" She lunged, whipping the blade at Naraku, who leapt into the air and managed surprisingly to grasp it by the handle, rather than get hit. A blade sprung up from Sango's forearm, and I could tell that she had concealed it there.
The two weapons clashed together and somehow the two of them managed to land on the roof. I could not see the battle from where I was, but I could here their feet running around above me, her screams of rage and the clang of colliding blades.
I prayed that Sango would be victorious.
There was a slicing sound, and Naraku landed in the courtyard, facing Sango and I. The shredded scraps of his cloak were blown away in the breeze and I gasped.
Beneath the cloak knelt the Young Lord of this palace.
"Kagewaki," I gasped, and I saw his eyes narrow briefly at me, before returning to Sango.
My god!
Kagewaki WAS Naraku!
All this time I thought I had been safe, protected by this man, while he... he was soiling me, kissing me to control me, invading my dreams, murdering entire towns of people, destroying young boys, tricking me, hurting, biting, killing...
I hated him.
I wanted to see him dead.
"You are the Young Lord of this castle!" I heard Sango scream above me, echoing my own thoughts.
"Kagewaki was a good leader," the young man kneeling before us said. "He was the one who ordered the memorial service for your fallen comrades. He was also the one who saved your life... this Kagewaki Hitomi."
Yes, he had, I knew that - it was he who had told the servants (and I knew in an instant that they too had been fakes of some sort, youkai probably) to bind her wounds in the room next to mine.
"You killed him!" Sango screamed, and I knew she was referring to Kohaku.
"But I am this Castle's Lord now," Naraku continued. "Now I am Kagewaki."
"You bastard!" Sango cried and lunged for him, and I sat back against the wall, tears dancing on my cheeks.
So it wasn't Kagewaki. The Kagewaki I had first met... had somehow... I had no doubts that this man had killed him. This MONSTER had killed the kind, gentle Kagewaki who had been watching over me, the one to have kissed me the first time... and taken his body and place.
Somewhere deep inside of me something twisted sharply. Unable to stop myself, I leaned over and vomited.
There were the sounds of heated battle from outside, Sango's scream, shattering metal, a pain filled roar, Naraku's chuckling, but I barely registered it. I was shaking, shivering, unable to budge, unwilling to watch the fight.
I couldn't move.
My mouth was opening and closing, I was gasping for air like a landed fish. The spot inside of me was on fire. Tears pooled under my eyes, flowing freely down my cheeks.
Kagewaki was dead, and Naraku... Naraku had... had... to me...
I shook my head.
Then I looked over at the room Kohaku was in. I could save him, I thought. I could go over ther eand grab his arm and drag him away from her - find the Shikon shard and take it out of him, give his dead body to Sango, help her, do SOMETHING.
But I was too weak and I knew it. I was to sick to stand on my own, let alone fight with a seasoned young warrior like Kohaku. He was trapped. And so was I.
It occurred to me for the first time that I was a prisoner here.
It made me want to scream.
"How about this? Why don't you serve me along with Kohaku?" I heard Naraku say to Sango, and I wanted to charge out there and take off his head with my bare hands for the gall of it. Instead I turned my head back to the gap in the screen, my spy-hole. "Kagewaki told you to come back to the Castle, remember?"
"Stop talking nonsense," she panted in return, and I wanted to applaud her courage. "The only thing I want it to kill you, and avenge my father!"
"Kohaku," Naraku said calmly, "Come here." I felt my stomach drop. He was going to make the boy fight her. I wondered if he would demand such a heartless thing of me next.... if he did, would I be able to resist?
I watched with horror as Kohaku lifted his pick-like weapon above head and murmur, "Farewell, sister."
"Kohaku..." she whispered, and I covered my mouth to prevent a wail from escaping.
Now I understood - Sango wanted Kohaku back because he was her little brother. Thee tears began flowing again and this time I didn't try to force them back.
Sango screamed as Kohaku attacked, and she had no weapon to defend herself. She was getting very bloody, very quickly.
"Kohaku!" she kept crying out, "Snap out of it!"
I heard a creaking sound came from the roof and a large weapon - a huge boomerang of sorts - fell to Sango's feet, glowing the same colour of Naraku's eyes. This must have been the thing that made the loud crashing sound earlier.
Sango reached for it, hesitantly, and I heard Naraku whisper, "That's it, Sango. Kill him. Kill him with your own hands."
Sick fucking bastard!
His eyes were glowing, but his mouth... his mouth wasn't moving... how was it that I was hearing his words? Was it the power of the thing I wore on my ear? "Kill Kohaku," he continued, "have his blood all over you and defile the Shikon shard! Turn it's power to evil!"
I reached up again and wrapped my hand around the shard in my ear - was that why he kept kissing me, trying to seduce me? To defile the Shikon shard?!
"There's no way... no way I can kill you..." Sango said softly, and I was surprised to see that she smiled as she lowered her arm. She turned and started to limp towards her brother, and I had no idea what she was trying to accomplish - Kohaku would kill her for certain.
But, wasn't that a better alternative? Be killed by your brother than to kill him? I clenched my eyes shut, afraid to watch.
I heard her whisper his name, then the wump of her body falling onto the hard-packed dirt. My eyes flew open and I forced myself to look, to see if Kohaku had dealt Sango her final blow. If he had, I would run out there and try to attack Naraku myself. I would probably die, but that would be better than to live on as his... play thing.
"Sister..." Kohaku whispered, and then I was distracted by four others running into the courtyard screaming Sango's name.
Two were young men, one in red, the other in indigo, one a short kid with strawberry hair like my great-grandmother's, and one was a girl in... in a green school uniform?! I looked at her closely - yes! She was dressed in MODERN garb.
Here was someone else like me... someone trapped here, in this strange ancient place. I hoped that she may know how we got here, how we could get home. I wanted to call out, to run to these people, but that meant having to run past Naraku, and I didn't think I could be fast enough, not with my arm and my lingering weakness. Not with his will-sapping kisses, either.
A muted clang caught my attention and I turned my eyes back to Kohaku - he had dropped his weapon and fallen to his knees. The newcomers stopped and stared in awe.
"He made her brother do it?" the man in indigo said, horror in his voice.
"How..." the modern-girl stammered, "How could he..."
Beside her, the man in red began to tremble with rage and I could see that his hair was thick and white, that there were small triangular ears poking out off the top of his head like a dogs - ah! This must be the inu-hanoyu.... which meant the girl in the uniform, clutching a bow and a quiver of arrows, must be the betraying Miko!
"Naraku!" the inu-hanyou called, his voice bubbling with anger, "Where are you!? Come out!"
I looked around, startled, and noticed that Naraku had indeed vanished when none of us had been paying attention. Then I heard his voice, slightly muffled, as if he was hiding behind something:
"A girl who cannot kill her brother, after he killed her father and fellow exterminators... she must love her brother more than her own life." They were admirable words, but the tone was mocking. I heard the tell-tale tamp tamp of footsteps on the hardwood floor beside me and deduced that he had retreated into the room beside mine. "How can she think like that? I don't understand."
Below Sango was looking at the kneeling Kohaku, her head on the modern-miko's knees. Kohaku was slumped, defeated looking, while the indigo-clad man and the inu-hanyou searched frantically for Naraku.
"Inu Yasha!" the other man said, and I recognized his name. Sango had said it right before she had left Kagewaki's castle. "Isn't this the same as what happened to you? Fifty years ago?!"
"What?!" the Inu-hanyou snarled.
"He tried to make Sango hate her brother, to kill him..." the Miko whispered, and all eyes turned to her. "Then the Shard in Kohaku's back would be defiled. It's the same trap as when he made Kikyou and Inu Yasha hate one another! I won't allow this to happen again! Kikyou died because she didn't want to corrupt the Shikon no Tama. And now, Sango refuses to fight her brother. Stupid Naraku! Doesn't he understand? Sango couldn't do that! She cares too much for him..."
As the miko talked, she looked down into Sango's face and I could see there warmth and pity. It made my heart wrench and that firey spot deep inside of me cooled slightly. I eased my grip over my abdomen, and pushed back the door all the way - I wanted them to see me. I took in the breath to call out to them, to tell them that the murdering bastard was on the roof, but before I could a wind kicked up.
It was a vile purple colour, and rose from the ground in a menacing cyclone. The red-haired child picked up the demon feline - who had now shrunk into the size of a house cat, looking very injured itself, gasped and screamed, "It's a Shouki!"
I had no idea what a Shouki was, but I had enough sense to follow the lead of the others and cover my nose and mouth with my sleeve.
Some of the noxious air leaked my way and I pushed myself back from the door and tried not to breathe it in.
"All you little things!" I heard Naraku cry out, "Sink into my sea of Shouki!"
I heard voices from inside the growing, swirling cloud of horrid-smelling Shouki, but could see nothing they were doing. I began to worry for the others, even as the gas began to crawl along the floor towards me like living tentacles. Suddenly the place shook and the walls between me and the room next to me blew apart.
I screamed and ducked, covering my head with my good arm.
"Naraku!" I heard the Miko scream, and the twang of a released bowstring. Light gleamed all around me, seeping under my eyelids and I chanced a peek - Naraku stood there, shock on his face, a glowing arrow protruding from his chest, right below his heart. "You are a real bastard!"
"What is this girl?" Naraku whispered, his voice holding puzzlement and awe - he sounded in pain. "It's purifying all my Shouki and Poisons! This power is Kikyou's!"
"I won't let this be!" the girl screamed again and I managed to turn my head in time to watch her fire another gleaming arrow and the demon beside me before the creeping Shouki caught up to me.
I heard Sango screaming out Kohaku's name.
Darkness fell like a wet blanket and all I felt before I was totally gone was two sharp-nailed hands yank me against a hard body. I prayed that it was Inu Yasha or the other one that held me close, that they had seen me and jumped to my protection, but I ...
...I smelled the Sandalwood.
~~~
I felt the light growing against my eyelids, the warmth travelling slowly up my face, the hard rough texture below my back. It took a few groggy minutes before I realized that I was awake and staring up at the strangely patterned green roof above me.
It took several more to realize that it was not a ceiling above my head, but the leaves and branches of a tree.
I sat up quickly, my head spinning, and had to clutch and the rounded floor beneath me to keep from keeling over. I looked down, over my shoulder, and gasped - floor nothing, I was in a TREE.
I looked around frantically, searching for someone, anyone, but preferably the uniform-clad miko.
Who I found made my stomach sink and twist.
Kagewaki was seated in a branch above me, looking very upset. He heard my little inhalation of terror and turned his fiery eyes to me.
"Did you hear what you wanted last night, eavesdropper?" he hissed, and I recoiled slighlty.
"I... I wasn't..." I stammered, but he leapt down from his branch onto mine and bared his teeth at me. How could I not have noticed before? He had fangs! Fangs in the same place as the punctures in my wrist - it HAD been Naraku that had bitten me!
Before I could do anything his hand lashed out and I was slapped so hard on the cheek that my head turned. Tears rose in my eyes at the implied insult of the strike, rather than the pain.
"You will do as you are told," he said coldly, and I nodded, keeping my eyes on the ground far below us. I didn't dare look back at his face. "Until I learn how you were able to appear in the Exterminator's Village so suddenly, where your taiyoukai blood originates, and why I can sense a Shikon Shard inside of you."
I gasped, my eyes widening - I had... a Shikon Shard INSIDE me?
THAT must be the reason why ... why he had been going through with this elaborate charade. It had all seemed like too much work to just fuck around with my emotions and mind. He wanted that shard – and he wanted it defiled.
I shuddered and he took my chin in his hand and turned me none-too-gently to face him. "Do you understand me, girl?" His red eyes narrowed and I felt the tears slipping down my cheeks. He gave me a rough shake and repeated, "Do you understand!"
My mouth opened and closed a few times, no sound coming out.
He leaned forward and kissed me hotly, and I again his tongue entered my mouth. When he pulled away I could taste the strange dustiness on my lips when he withdrew. A wave of irrational trust ripped through me and I heard myself respond from a distance, "Yes, My Lord."
"Good," he snarled and grabbed me by my good arm, and jumped from the tree. We fell slowly landed more lightly than I would have expected and I didn't even hurt myself. It was terrifying. "Follow me. Kohaku," I turned my head to see the boy standing in the shrubbery beside us, his face and eyes eerily blank, "you too."
And then he began to walk, and I had no choice but to stumble after him, shoving the pain into the back of my mind, and trying to salvage what little hope I had left.
~~~
Author's Note:
Hallo everyone!
Just wanted to, at the 'turning of the tide', just give a general shout out adn thankyou to all those who have been following the story faithfully. I am honestly surprised it's gained such a wide audience when it's obviously so shrouded in the Inu Yasha universe that it's hard to even tell that it IS in the universe at all!
For those of you who think the above scenario was familliar, I suggest re-watching episode 30... this is practically a transcription of it (which had me spending HOURS playing-pausing-writing), with some lines changed slightly or compressed to make them sound like good grammer and less like 'Engrish'. I am, of course, using the fan-subbed versions of the episodes as I find the English Kagome annoying and whiney, while Inu Yasha sounds like a whimpering preppie whose daddy took away his car. _
Yes, there is more coming of the story - at least another ten chapters, as I have it planned. There may end up being more, or less, but right now the final chapter is 19 and already written. ^__^
InuyshazFukaiMori - No, Sango is not dead, but our character doesn't know that. Again, please refer to episode 30 of the Anime. Also, "curiouser and curiouser" comes form Lewis Carroll's "Alice Through the Looking Glass" -- an appropriate allusion, don't you think? ^_^
Clawed - yes, I know the "intro info" was a little much for each story - I picked up the template from Scribe and liked it a lot, but realized with such purposefully short beginning chapters, they wieghed the action down. The point was to make the chapters coniside with her moments of consciousness.
Sashlea - Thank you! I try! (no if only a movie studio would buy my MOVIES)
Julie - I know the first couple chapters were confusing, I hope it all makes sense to you now!
Raylee - Thank you so much for all your long, thoughtful reviews. It really means a lot to me. Especially knowing that you're all but pouncing on the new chapters as they arrive! I'm so happy you're enjoying it!
Stephanie - I hope I'm updating fast enough for you. ^_^ I'm getting roughly one a day finished, although it's been less lately because of Exams and computer problems. Hopefully those should be fixed soon.
hrfuzzy - Yes, that is something that bothered me with other Mary-Sue Anime stories - most are set in Japan, and most English fans are not very fluent (*laugh*, "Baka" doesn't count!) I wanted to play with that idea.
cyberwolf - I'm glad that you're finding it really intersting. I have to struggle each chapter to try to keep my character out of the 'camera's view' of the main story so it's beleiveable that she could exist there along with everyone else without Inu Yasha et al. knowing. I'm trying to create an alternate universe that changes nothing, and it's rewarding to hear comments like yours.
Kori - I hope everything is clearer now.
Hawkeye - Yay for singed flesh! I protect my right arm now while I'm writing in character - gah, am I an actor or what?
DemonLady1 - *whines* I'm trying! But I HAD To go see Return of the King, you understand! It was a well-deserved break, right?
Bonessasan - what a cool name. I'm glad that the pieces are falling into place now. It was frustrating hearing people say "What has this got to do with Inu Yasha?" while I was building up chapters. I mean, I gave the name Kagewaki right away... anyone wanting to coudl have just looked for that character on an info website and realized it was Naraku in disguise. ^__^
me - I'm glad your friend is enjoying it as well.
distorted-desire - I'm glad that this is a loveable mystery. It's mostly about Naraku, so there's very little about everyone else. I also remembered that you wanted more details of how they looked so I added that in chapters 7 and 8 - hope that's what you wanted. Say, you wouldnt' happen to be an artist wanting to do fanart...
laura - thanks for reading!
Spinereader - I'll try to find that strange word. The text is getting less poetic as I go on on purpose - she's in less of a fog, so the world is becomng more realistic to her.
Sashelea - ... you'll see! For a spoiler - "He can't get at it"
RedHerring - Aren't you Trin? *g* I'm glad that everyone, especially you, is enjoying my detail to her inguries - morbid gruesome lot that you are! I'm happy that you find it usefully original. I like doing original things that are slightly confusing!
Aki Hisu, Nameksei-jinn-Hime - I'm not sure if my Japanese is right or not. Anyone? "namae" looks like an English word, so I'm warry.
Astarte Katz - It's nice to hear that I gave you the shivers!
Pallas Athena - Best for Last! Thank you so much for your encouragement and commentary. I've thought long about a lot of what you've said, and it's been very useful. I appreciate it. Thank you!
by Vega
~~~
That night Kagewaki left the grounds and I did not know where he went. I was served dinner by the servants and no one stayed to talk with me. I was feeling slightly lonely and very confused, but it gave me a lot of time to think.
I know I had heard a woman screaming out Kohaku's name in that battle all those nights ago. Then Sango had left on a mission with Naraku. Naraku had come back, because I had seen his silhouette against the rice-paper screens (or so Kagewaki told me), but Sango had not. I had heard nothing further about that.
Then Kohaku himself shows up, appears to be the warrior of Kohaku, and he's been out looking for Sango. And Sango, apparently, has hooked up with a group of thieves, including the Miko that betrayed Kagewaki's trust and stole his family gem.
Meanwhile, Naraku is still out there, searching for the pieces of the shattered jewel. That of course must be why he ended up rescuing me - the magenta glow on the floor in my dream must have been more pieces of the jewel, and he must have been there to collect them and had found me instead.
But what about the village burning outside of the hut? The women and old and children screaming? The things that were attacking them? Where were the men? The warriors? And why had Naraku (for I felt certain that this Naraku was the man in the silver cloak and skull mask) stopped me in the dream when I had tried to go to them, to help them?
Was it because they were already dead, as he had said, or... was it that he was the one who had attacked him?
And what about that strange dream about my great-grandmother? I hadn't thought about her in years, so why would I dream of that long ago last time I saw her now... here? How did Kagewaki know that I had? Had he really prompted the dream somehow? Is that what the heavy sandalwood smell meant - that he was somehow making me dream specific things?
If that was true, then it would explain why I was dreaming about parts of my own past - somehow either Kagewaki or Naraku was trying to figure out who I was and where I was from. I partially knew myself now: I knew I was from the future, from far away, but the exact dates I couldn't be sure of. I knew that while I had thought myself perfectly human and normal my whole life I possessed the blood fo a taiyoukai - I was the descendant of a Great Demon Lord, if only by a few drops of blue in my veins.
I had always thought that my eyes were just very vibrant, but thinking on the way that Naraku and the monster who'd hurt me eyes both glowed, it made sense to me why mine were so very bright.
Did that explain the flames dancing in the depths of Kagewaki's?
Could he, too, be possessed of some youkai blood? I would have to ask him when he returned from... where ever it was that he had gone. To see this Sango and his betraying Miko...
I wondered if he would come back alive, and was surprised to realize that I don't think I really cared one way or another. Kagewaki was taking care of me, yes, but I was almost strong enough to walk on my own and if need be I could find a healer in a village somewhere – I don't think I trusted Kagewaki anymore.
His kisses did strange things to me, made me trust and want to be with him always, made me want to do whatever he said - made me want to serve him. I hated it.
Yes, I determined - perhaps it would be best if Kagewaki didn't come back. But something in my heart twisted at the thought, and I wanted him just as badly as I had this afternoon under the tree.
Contradictory thoughts such as these tumbled through my brain all night, until sometime around dawn I finally drifted off.
When I slept, it was nightmare and memory free - it felt like the first real dream of my own in weeks.
~~~
The next day I awoke around evening to find the palace deserted. I had called for someone to help me get dressed and no one had answered. I called a few more times and began to get worried so I pulled myself to my feet and painstakingly, exhaustingly, walked down the inside corridor, holding myself up with the wall.
I peered into every room I passed and found them empty, with a thick layer of dust on the floor. That was ver perturbing because I knew for certain that I had seen other people here before - where were they now, and why was there no sign of their presence in halls and room that I had seen them in?
I was half-way to the other wing of the palace when I spotted Kohaku kneeling in a room at the far end of the hall before an open door, his head and hands on the polished wood.
"Kohaku!" I called out, and he sat up quickly and stared at me, as if startled. "Where has everyone gone?"
He turned his face back outside and as I stumbled closer I could hear the low buzz of conversation and realized he was conversing with someone. I saw a strange shadow against the rice paper screen - a mass of fur, it looked like.
"It's the girl," he said, "She's walking around."
"Hm. I didn't think she'd be well enough," said the answering voice and I recognized it immediately - it was the voice from my dreams.
"Sorry to disturb you," I said loudly, not really sorry at all. Whatever it was that they were conspiring had me ill at ease. "But where is Lord Kagewaki? Where's everyone else? I'm afraid I'm very confused."
There was a pause, then the voice said: "Take her to a room nearby, Kohaku. Sango will be here very soon."
Kohaku rose and grabbed me none to gently by the elbow and pulled me into the room beside the one he had been kneeling in. I was pushed down onto a musty futon and told to stay here and quiet by the boy before he turned on his heel and walked out.
I wanted to ask what the Hell was going on, why the voice from my nightmares was giving Kagewaki's warriors orders, but I heard a woman's voice ring out in the courtyard, and I immediately recognized it. It was Sango.
"KOHAKU!"
"First put your Hirarikotsu down," replied the deep male voice. I scooted up to the screen and moved it sideways slowly, just enough that I could peer out.
"Naraku," hissed Sango, and there was a brief moment of silence before a heavy crashing sound in the room above me told me something heavy had landed there. I fought back a scream and readjusted myself - there, I could see the girl pink and green on the wall opposite the gloomy, barren courtyard, flanked by a large white feline of some sort. A youkai, I thought.
She jumped down onto the hard-packed dirt and I was honestly surprised she didn't kill herself in doing so - it was quite the jump for a normal human. Maybe she was of youkai blood as well? Maybe she was a highly trained warrior - it was plausible, for she carried a very battered looking sword.
"Thank you for your trouble, Sango," the white-fur said again, and I angled my body to look at him. Yes, this was the man from my dreams! This was that voice... and Sango had called him Naraku. This was Kagewaki's servant. "Did you bring Inu Yasha's sword as promised?"
"Let me see Kohaku first! Then we'll see if I give you the sword."
I blinked and for a moment tore my gaze away from Sango to the room beside mine... Kohaku was... a hostage? But he seemed so... obedient. The whole situation was giving me the willies and I decided quickly that the moment Kagewaki got back I was thanking him for his hospitality and getting the hell outta here.
I didn't trust this Naraku.
Suddenly the wall that separated the room I was in and the one next to it began to glow red and I back pedalled as far away from the outer wall as I could, terrified. What the HELL was happening?! Then it occurred to me that Sango would be able to see Kohaku's shadow through the paper wall with him back lit like that.
How was it being done, though? There was no electricity, therefore no flood lights - but that's what it looked like. Was this... was it Naraku doing this?
When the light faded again I inched forward to spy once more and heard Sango yell, "Naraku! Turn Kohaku back to normal! Right now!"
So it was Naraku controlling this boy... but how? For what purpose? It left no doubts in my mind, however, that Naraku was the one who had been invading my dreams, that he was some sort of demon himself.
I heard Naraku chuckle slightly as Sango raised the battered sword in his direction.
"It won't do you any good," he smiled, "even if you kill me. I'm sure you're smart enough to have noticed that? This is what comes of the Shikon's curse." Shikon? The word seemed familiar to me, but I couldn't place it. But I didn't like the idea of being around Naraku and a curse. It made my skin goosebump all over. "Those Youkai wanted the Shikon Shards and attacked your village. The death of your father; the reason why Kohaku is trapped between life and death; it is all because of the Shikon's Curse."
"Nonsense! It was you who killed my father and friends!" Sango screamed, and I felt my head reeling. "You killed everyone because you wanted the Shikon's power for yourself!"
A curse? A curse that killed the villagers... the villagers I had watched burn... the Shikon Shards... the slivers of the gem sacred to Kagewaki's family that I had seen glowing magenta on the floor in my nightmare?
Was all this over that strange jewel? The... the Shikon?
"People die for the Shikon's Power..." Naraku was saying, but I found it hard to concentrate on his words. I was getting dizzy. "And people live because of it as well. You shouldn't despise it like that Sango. After all, it is what's keeping Kohaku alive." I wrapped my good hand around the shard hanging from my ear. I wanted to tear it out - but I needed it to understand their words. "Our agreement was to exchange the sword for Kohaku, yes? So what are you going to do?"
"Damn you!" she screamed, and I echoed her sentiments in my head. Yes - damn him, this Naraku. Killing that village like that, holding this boy that Sango so obviously cared about hostage to her will. "What agreement!?"
She leapt into the air, brandishing the blade at the seated from of Naraku and screamed, "Here is my answer!" She lunged, whipping the blade at Naraku, who leapt into the air and managed surprisingly to grasp it by the handle, rather than get hit. A blade sprung up from Sango's forearm, and I could tell that she had concealed it there.
The two weapons clashed together and somehow the two of them managed to land on the roof. I could not see the battle from where I was, but I could here their feet running around above me, her screams of rage and the clang of colliding blades.
I prayed that Sango would be victorious.
There was a slicing sound, and Naraku landed in the courtyard, facing Sango and I. The shredded scraps of his cloak were blown away in the breeze and I gasped.
Beneath the cloak knelt the Young Lord of this palace.
"Kagewaki," I gasped, and I saw his eyes narrow briefly at me, before returning to Sango.
My god!
Kagewaki WAS Naraku!
All this time I thought I had been safe, protected by this man, while he... he was soiling me, kissing me to control me, invading my dreams, murdering entire towns of people, destroying young boys, tricking me, hurting, biting, killing...
I hated him.
I wanted to see him dead.
"You are the Young Lord of this castle!" I heard Sango scream above me, echoing my own thoughts.
"Kagewaki was a good leader," the young man kneeling before us said. "He was the one who ordered the memorial service for your fallen comrades. He was also the one who saved your life... this Kagewaki Hitomi."
Yes, he had, I knew that - it was he who had told the servants (and I knew in an instant that they too had been fakes of some sort, youkai probably) to bind her wounds in the room next to mine.
"You killed him!" Sango screamed, and I knew she was referring to Kohaku.
"But I am this Castle's Lord now," Naraku continued. "Now I am Kagewaki."
"You bastard!" Sango cried and lunged for him, and I sat back against the wall, tears dancing on my cheeks.
So it wasn't Kagewaki. The Kagewaki I had first met... had somehow... I had no doubts that this man had killed him. This MONSTER had killed the kind, gentle Kagewaki who had been watching over me, the one to have kissed me the first time... and taken his body and place.
Somewhere deep inside of me something twisted sharply. Unable to stop myself, I leaned over and vomited.
There were the sounds of heated battle from outside, Sango's scream, shattering metal, a pain filled roar, Naraku's chuckling, but I barely registered it. I was shaking, shivering, unable to budge, unwilling to watch the fight.
I couldn't move.
My mouth was opening and closing, I was gasping for air like a landed fish. The spot inside of me was on fire. Tears pooled under my eyes, flowing freely down my cheeks.
Kagewaki was dead, and Naraku... Naraku had... had... to me...
I shook my head.
Then I looked over at the room Kohaku was in. I could save him, I thought. I could go over ther eand grab his arm and drag him away from her - find the Shikon shard and take it out of him, give his dead body to Sango, help her, do SOMETHING.
But I was too weak and I knew it. I was to sick to stand on my own, let alone fight with a seasoned young warrior like Kohaku. He was trapped. And so was I.
It occurred to me for the first time that I was a prisoner here.
It made me want to scream.
"How about this? Why don't you serve me along with Kohaku?" I heard Naraku say to Sango, and I wanted to charge out there and take off his head with my bare hands for the gall of it. Instead I turned my head back to the gap in the screen, my spy-hole. "Kagewaki told you to come back to the Castle, remember?"
"Stop talking nonsense," she panted in return, and I wanted to applaud her courage. "The only thing I want it to kill you, and avenge my father!"
"Kohaku," Naraku said calmly, "Come here." I felt my stomach drop. He was going to make the boy fight her. I wondered if he would demand such a heartless thing of me next.... if he did, would I be able to resist?
I watched with horror as Kohaku lifted his pick-like weapon above head and murmur, "Farewell, sister."
"Kohaku..." she whispered, and I covered my mouth to prevent a wail from escaping.
Now I understood - Sango wanted Kohaku back because he was her little brother. Thee tears began flowing again and this time I didn't try to force them back.
Sango screamed as Kohaku attacked, and she had no weapon to defend herself. She was getting very bloody, very quickly.
"Kohaku!" she kept crying out, "Snap out of it!"
I heard a creaking sound came from the roof and a large weapon - a huge boomerang of sorts - fell to Sango's feet, glowing the same colour of Naraku's eyes. This must have been the thing that made the loud crashing sound earlier.
Sango reached for it, hesitantly, and I heard Naraku whisper, "That's it, Sango. Kill him. Kill him with your own hands."
Sick fucking bastard!
His eyes were glowing, but his mouth... his mouth wasn't moving... how was it that I was hearing his words? Was it the power of the thing I wore on my ear? "Kill Kohaku," he continued, "have his blood all over you and defile the Shikon shard! Turn it's power to evil!"
I reached up again and wrapped my hand around the shard in my ear - was that why he kept kissing me, trying to seduce me? To defile the Shikon shard?!
"There's no way... no way I can kill you..." Sango said softly, and I was surprised to see that she smiled as she lowered her arm. She turned and started to limp towards her brother, and I had no idea what she was trying to accomplish - Kohaku would kill her for certain.
But, wasn't that a better alternative? Be killed by your brother than to kill him? I clenched my eyes shut, afraid to watch.
I heard her whisper his name, then the wump of her body falling onto the hard-packed dirt. My eyes flew open and I forced myself to look, to see if Kohaku had dealt Sango her final blow. If he had, I would run out there and try to attack Naraku myself. I would probably die, but that would be better than to live on as his... play thing.
"Sister..." Kohaku whispered, and then I was distracted by four others running into the courtyard screaming Sango's name.
Two were young men, one in red, the other in indigo, one a short kid with strawberry hair like my great-grandmother's, and one was a girl in... in a green school uniform?! I looked at her closely - yes! She was dressed in MODERN garb.
Here was someone else like me... someone trapped here, in this strange ancient place. I hoped that she may know how we got here, how we could get home. I wanted to call out, to run to these people, but that meant having to run past Naraku, and I didn't think I could be fast enough, not with my arm and my lingering weakness. Not with his will-sapping kisses, either.
A muted clang caught my attention and I turned my eyes back to Kohaku - he had dropped his weapon and fallen to his knees. The newcomers stopped and stared in awe.
"He made her brother do it?" the man in indigo said, horror in his voice.
"How..." the modern-girl stammered, "How could he..."
Beside her, the man in red began to tremble with rage and I could see that his hair was thick and white, that there were small triangular ears poking out off the top of his head like a dogs - ah! This must be the inu-hanoyu.... which meant the girl in the uniform, clutching a bow and a quiver of arrows, must be the betraying Miko!
"Naraku!" the inu-hanyou called, his voice bubbling with anger, "Where are you!? Come out!"
I looked around, startled, and noticed that Naraku had indeed vanished when none of us had been paying attention. Then I heard his voice, slightly muffled, as if he was hiding behind something:
"A girl who cannot kill her brother, after he killed her father and fellow exterminators... she must love her brother more than her own life." They were admirable words, but the tone was mocking. I heard the tell-tale tamp tamp of footsteps on the hardwood floor beside me and deduced that he had retreated into the room beside mine. "How can she think like that? I don't understand."
Below Sango was looking at the kneeling Kohaku, her head on the modern-miko's knees. Kohaku was slumped, defeated looking, while the indigo-clad man and the inu-hanyou searched frantically for Naraku.
"Inu Yasha!" the other man said, and I recognized his name. Sango had said it right before she had left Kagewaki's castle. "Isn't this the same as what happened to you? Fifty years ago?!"
"What?!" the Inu-hanyou snarled.
"He tried to make Sango hate her brother, to kill him..." the Miko whispered, and all eyes turned to her. "Then the Shard in Kohaku's back would be defiled. It's the same trap as when he made Kikyou and Inu Yasha hate one another! I won't allow this to happen again! Kikyou died because she didn't want to corrupt the Shikon no Tama. And now, Sango refuses to fight her brother. Stupid Naraku! Doesn't he understand? Sango couldn't do that! She cares too much for him..."
As the miko talked, she looked down into Sango's face and I could see there warmth and pity. It made my heart wrench and that firey spot deep inside of me cooled slightly. I eased my grip over my abdomen, and pushed back the door all the way - I wanted them to see me. I took in the breath to call out to them, to tell them that the murdering bastard was on the roof, but before I could a wind kicked up.
It was a vile purple colour, and rose from the ground in a menacing cyclone. The red-haired child picked up the demon feline - who had now shrunk into the size of a house cat, looking very injured itself, gasped and screamed, "It's a Shouki!"
I had no idea what a Shouki was, but I had enough sense to follow the lead of the others and cover my nose and mouth with my sleeve.
Some of the noxious air leaked my way and I pushed myself back from the door and tried not to breathe it in.
"All you little things!" I heard Naraku cry out, "Sink into my sea of Shouki!"
I heard voices from inside the growing, swirling cloud of horrid-smelling Shouki, but could see nothing they were doing. I began to worry for the others, even as the gas began to crawl along the floor towards me like living tentacles. Suddenly the place shook and the walls between me and the room next to me blew apart.
I screamed and ducked, covering my head with my good arm.
"Naraku!" I heard the Miko scream, and the twang of a released bowstring. Light gleamed all around me, seeping under my eyelids and I chanced a peek - Naraku stood there, shock on his face, a glowing arrow protruding from his chest, right below his heart. "You are a real bastard!"
"What is this girl?" Naraku whispered, his voice holding puzzlement and awe - he sounded in pain. "It's purifying all my Shouki and Poisons! This power is Kikyou's!"
"I won't let this be!" the girl screamed again and I managed to turn my head in time to watch her fire another gleaming arrow and the demon beside me before the creeping Shouki caught up to me.
I heard Sango screaming out Kohaku's name.
Darkness fell like a wet blanket and all I felt before I was totally gone was two sharp-nailed hands yank me against a hard body. I prayed that it was Inu Yasha or the other one that held me close, that they had seen me and jumped to my protection, but I ...
...I smelled the Sandalwood.
~~~
I felt the light growing against my eyelids, the warmth travelling slowly up my face, the hard rough texture below my back. It took a few groggy minutes before I realized that I was awake and staring up at the strangely patterned green roof above me.
It took several more to realize that it was not a ceiling above my head, but the leaves and branches of a tree.
I sat up quickly, my head spinning, and had to clutch and the rounded floor beneath me to keep from keeling over. I looked down, over my shoulder, and gasped - floor nothing, I was in a TREE.
I looked around frantically, searching for someone, anyone, but preferably the uniform-clad miko.
Who I found made my stomach sink and twist.
Kagewaki was seated in a branch above me, looking very upset. He heard my little inhalation of terror and turned his fiery eyes to me.
"Did you hear what you wanted last night, eavesdropper?" he hissed, and I recoiled slighlty.
"I... I wasn't..." I stammered, but he leapt down from his branch onto mine and bared his teeth at me. How could I not have noticed before? He had fangs! Fangs in the same place as the punctures in my wrist - it HAD been Naraku that had bitten me!
Before I could do anything his hand lashed out and I was slapped so hard on the cheek that my head turned. Tears rose in my eyes at the implied insult of the strike, rather than the pain.
"You will do as you are told," he said coldly, and I nodded, keeping my eyes on the ground far below us. I didn't dare look back at his face. "Until I learn how you were able to appear in the Exterminator's Village so suddenly, where your taiyoukai blood originates, and why I can sense a Shikon Shard inside of you."
I gasped, my eyes widening - I had... a Shikon Shard INSIDE me?
THAT must be the reason why ... why he had been going through with this elaborate charade. It had all seemed like too much work to just fuck around with my emotions and mind. He wanted that shard – and he wanted it defiled.
I shuddered and he took my chin in his hand and turned me none-too-gently to face him. "Do you understand me, girl?" His red eyes narrowed and I felt the tears slipping down my cheeks. He gave me a rough shake and repeated, "Do you understand!"
My mouth opened and closed a few times, no sound coming out.
He leaned forward and kissed me hotly, and I again his tongue entered my mouth. When he pulled away I could taste the strange dustiness on my lips when he withdrew. A wave of irrational trust ripped through me and I heard myself respond from a distance, "Yes, My Lord."
"Good," he snarled and grabbed me by my good arm, and jumped from the tree. We fell slowly landed more lightly than I would have expected and I didn't even hurt myself. It was terrifying. "Follow me. Kohaku," I turned my head to see the boy standing in the shrubbery beside us, his face and eyes eerily blank, "you too."
And then he began to walk, and I had no choice but to stumble after him, shoving the pain into the back of my mind, and trying to salvage what little hope I had left.
~~~
Author's Note:
Hallo everyone!
Just wanted to, at the 'turning of the tide', just give a general shout out adn thankyou to all those who have been following the story faithfully. I am honestly surprised it's gained such a wide audience when it's obviously so shrouded in the Inu Yasha universe that it's hard to even tell that it IS in the universe at all!
For those of you who think the above scenario was familliar, I suggest re-watching episode 30... this is practically a transcription of it (which had me spending HOURS playing-pausing-writing), with some lines changed slightly or compressed to make them sound like good grammer and less like 'Engrish'. I am, of course, using the fan-subbed versions of the episodes as I find the English Kagome annoying and whiney, while Inu Yasha sounds like a whimpering preppie whose daddy took away his car. _
Yes, there is more coming of the story - at least another ten chapters, as I have it planned. There may end up being more, or less, but right now the final chapter is 19 and already written. ^__^
InuyshazFukaiMori - No, Sango is not dead, but our character doesn't know that. Again, please refer to episode 30 of the Anime. Also, "curiouser and curiouser" comes form Lewis Carroll's "Alice Through the Looking Glass" -- an appropriate allusion, don't you think? ^_^
Clawed - yes, I know the "intro info" was a little much for each story - I picked up the template from Scribe and liked it a lot, but realized with such purposefully short beginning chapters, they wieghed the action down. The point was to make the chapters coniside with her moments of consciousness.
Sashlea - Thank you! I try! (no if only a movie studio would buy my MOVIES)
Julie - I know the first couple chapters were confusing, I hope it all makes sense to you now!
Raylee - Thank you so much for all your long, thoughtful reviews. It really means a lot to me. Especially knowing that you're all but pouncing on the new chapters as they arrive! I'm so happy you're enjoying it!
Stephanie - I hope I'm updating fast enough for you. ^_^ I'm getting roughly one a day finished, although it's been less lately because of Exams and computer problems. Hopefully those should be fixed soon.
hrfuzzy - Yes, that is something that bothered me with other Mary-Sue Anime stories - most are set in Japan, and most English fans are not very fluent (*laugh*, "Baka" doesn't count!) I wanted to play with that idea.
cyberwolf - I'm glad that you're finding it really intersting. I have to struggle each chapter to try to keep my character out of the 'camera's view' of the main story so it's beleiveable that she could exist there along with everyone else without Inu Yasha et al. knowing. I'm trying to create an alternate universe that changes nothing, and it's rewarding to hear comments like yours.
Kori - I hope everything is clearer now.
Hawkeye - Yay for singed flesh! I protect my right arm now while I'm writing in character - gah, am I an actor or what?
DemonLady1 - *whines* I'm trying! But I HAD To go see Return of the King, you understand! It was a well-deserved break, right?
Bonessasan - what a cool name. I'm glad that the pieces are falling into place now. It was frustrating hearing people say "What has this got to do with Inu Yasha?" while I was building up chapters. I mean, I gave the name Kagewaki right away... anyone wanting to coudl have just looked for that character on an info website and realized it was Naraku in disguise. ^__^
me - I'm glad your friend is enjoying it as well.
distorted-desire - I'm glad that this is a loveable mystery. It's mostly about Naraku, so there's very little about everyone else. I also remembered that you wanted more details of how they looked so I added that in chapters 7 and 8 - hope that's what you wanted. Say, you wouldnt' happen to be an artist wanting to do fanart...
laura - thanks for reading!
Spinereader - I'll try to find that strange word. The text is getting less poetic as I go on on purpose - she's in less of a fog, so the world is becomng more realistic to her.
Sashelea - ... you'll see! For a spoiler - "He can't get at it"
RedHerring - Aren't you Trin? *g* I'm glad that everyone, especially you, is enjoying my detail to her inguries - morbid gruesome lot that you are! I'm happy that you find it usefully original. I like doing original things that are slightly confusing!
Aki Hisu, Nameksei-jinn-Hime - I'm not sure if my Japanese is right or not. Anyone? "namae" looks like an English word, so I'm warry.
Astarte Katz - It's nice to hear that I gave you the shivers!
Pallas Athena - Best for Last! Thank you so much for your encouragement and commentary. I've thought long about a lot of what you've said, and it's been very useful. I appreciate it. Thank you!