Do do do dee doo doo doo!!! Do doo doo dee doodoo! Okay, sorry, but when you're listening to a song that has no words, you have to sing it in do dee doo style. Anyway, I just got money from my aunt and uncle, so I promptly spent it all on dinner, new pants, the Spiderman soundtrack, Harry Potter, and the Prince of Egypt. But I saved twenty dollars of it! That's right! I'm all frugal and shit!
Okay, important stuff right here: Calendar, she did NOT get raped. Just all beat up and shit. And maybe a little groped. But no sex happened. Sorry if I insinuated that. She's just upset cause she caved and gave up her dignity and all that. But I can see how you'd think nasty ass Naraku would do that. He's such a freak. Kanna'd probably help. Yeah, Madeleine, it is yucky. And Calendar, I guess for the rest, you'll just have to keep reading, ne? Oh, and Agent Kodama, I don't know if it does any good for you to review MY story, asking Purple Mouse to update, but knock yourself out honey.
VERY IMPORTANT!!!! Naraku is nasty in this chapter. Super nasty. I'm upping the rating cause he's just too scary for me. So yeah. It might give you nightmares.
*****
Fate's Reversal
Part 8
*****
"This is where Kagome has been keeping him." Sango showed Sesshoumaru to the door of the room, wringing her hands in his presence. He made her nervous, looking over her home so completely, taking in every speck of dirt, every frayed bit of floor mat, and never commenting on any of it. He looked just as he had when she had last seen him at Inuyasha and Kagome's wedding, so beautiful and icy all at once. He was so regal, it was impossible to forget that he was usually surrounded by servants, living in a lavish palace. Sango looked around her home, suddenly finding it very dingy.
"I'll do it now, then, if there's no problem." Sesshoumaru's deep, rich voice interrupted her self-conscious thoughts.
"As soon as possible would be the best." Miroku's arm draped comfortably over his wife's shoulder, telling her silently to relax. "Kaede says the urgency has increased."
"Yes, the children..." Sango looked around, wondering if any of the young ones were nearby. Of course, they were all in bed, and Shippo was checking just to make sure, but she didn't want Yoru and Mottomo to know that their lives might be in danger. "If we don't do it soon, Yoru and Mottomo will be...unborn." Sango explained. "It's a reaction to the reversal of the wish."
"Does their mother know about this?" Sesshoumaru asked, eyeing the door.
"She's in enough of a state as it is." Sango answered. "If possible, we'd like to keep this bit from her."
"Understood." Sesshoumaru nodded. "Shall we, then?"
"Do you want us in there with you?" Miroku asked.
"I assumed you would want to make sure I did only as you said." Sesshoumaru replied.
"We trust you, or we wouldn't have asked you for this favor in the first place." Miroku told the youkai lord. "I think we'll keep an eye on Kagome out here. I wouldn't want to upset her, and in the state she's in..."
"I see," Sesshoumaru eyed the hand on Sango's shoulder. "You miss your wife. I will not interfere." And with that, he opened the door, scooped up the sleeping woman next to his brother, and simply dumped her in Miroku's arms before going back into the room and shutting the door. Miroku's mouth was open the whole time, as he tried unsuccessfully to respond to Sesshoumaru's comment.
"He's very perceptive for someone who seems not to know a thing about emotions, isn't he?" Sango asked, helping him take Kagome to their own room and lay her in Sango's futon.
"You don't know the half of it, Sango." Miroku whispered to her, "When I went to the palace, do you know who I saw?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Rin."
"The little girl from Kagome's wedding? The flower girl?" Sango asked. "How is she?"
"Yes, that same girl. But you wouldn't know it was her now. I almost think it was actually some other woman with that girl's name. But the effect she has on Sesshoumaru..." Miroku drifted off.
"The only time I ever thought he had any feelings at all was when he looked at her." Sango nodded, smiling.
"Yes, but now she's grown up, Sango. A grown woman." Miroku sighed. "And she's such a weak thing now. Frail, like she's very ill."
"Oh no! Did Sesshoumaru tell you what was wrong with her?" Sango asked.
"I never asked him. It's not something I'm sure he'd like to talk about." Miroku told her. "I wouldn't want to talk about it if you were like that."
"But we're married! Rin's not...or is she?" Sango arched an eyebrow.
"I don't know, but they seemed very attached. He wouldn't leave the castle because she needed him. It took her agreement to get him to leave." Miroku told her.
"Is that so?" Sango asked, sighing as Miroku wrapped his arms around her, kissing her temple lightly.
"I missed you." he told her, deeply breathing in the scent of her hair. His fingers inched toward her ponytail, working the tie until her hair came loose.
"What do you think you're doing?" Sango giggled as he buried his face in a handful of her hair. "You're so ridiculous sometimes."
"I just love that smell." he told her, dropping the hair and combing out the black silk with his fingers.
"What smell?" she asked, leaning forward to kiss his chin softly.
"Your smell. You smell like home to me." Miroku told her, his hand stroking the side of her face. "Even before we lived here, you know. As long as I've known you, I knew my home was wherever you were."
"You're lying." Sango smiled up at him, wrapping her arms around his neck as he lowered himself for a kiss. "But it's still sweet."
"How are the babies?" he asked her, kissing along her jaw lightly.
"All of them are fine, except the twins." Sango answered. "They ran off the day you left."
"Boys." Miroku sighed. "How many times have they run away now?"
"I've lost count." Sango answered, making a soft noise as Miroku's mouth worked down over her throat. "Miroku,"
"Mm," he answered, continuing his work.
"I missed you too, sweetheart, but we're supposed to be watching Kagome." Sango pushed at him halfheartedly.
"She's asleep." Miroku answered, his hands somehow already working at Sango's obi. "We'll be quiet. She won't know."
"But Miroku..." she hesitated.
"Sango, I love--" Miroku was cut off by a loud yell coming from where they'd left Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha.
"What now?" Sango's hands trembled to refasten the bit of cording that Miroku had worked loose as they both raced back to where they'd left him, sliding open the door to reveal both Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha lying on the ground, staring up at the ceiling as though they were awake, but with eyes empty of life.
"What happened?" Miroku asked no one in particular, moving to check the vital signs of Sesshoumaru as Sango did the same for Inuyasha. "Sesshoumaru's alive, but he's unconscious." Miroku spotted Tensusaiga, imbedded in the floor near Inuyasha and moved to retrieve it as Sango made her report.
"Inuyasha's exactly the same. Whatever happened, it didn't help." Sango sighed, just as Miroku yelped in surprise and pain after reaching to touch Tensusaiga. "Did you cut yourself?"
"No," Miroku told her, looking to her with confusion thick in his purple eyes. "It's hot. Like fire."
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"Haruka, you should try to get some sleep." Yuki kneeled over the silver-haired girl crying in her futon silently. "You've been crying for days now." he sighed, upset that he could do nothing about the humiliation that Haruka was suffering through.
"What do you think of me now?" Haruka whispered softly, not wanting to wake up the other prisoners as it was late at night. "Now that I'm his little toy, what do you think of me?"
"I think you need some sleep, Haruka." Yuki patted her head softly, trying to calm her down.
"I gave up. You know why?" she asked him. "He said...if I didn't do it, they'd take Amai and make her be their maid."
"Amai? In that outfit?" Yuki growled. "She's barely a woman!" he hissed angrily.
"She's only a girl still." Haruka told him. "I wanted to protect her."
"And you did. You should be proud of yourself." Yuki stroked her silver hair softly.
"Yuki?" Haruka spoke up after a while. "I think you'd be a good father."
"Wh--what do you mean?" he stuttered.
"You always know how to take charge, and even though you were captured, the others still look up to you." Haruka told him. "And now...you're being so nice to me."
"I couldn't be your father." Yuki reminded her. "You're older than me."
"Yuki, I'm glad I met you." Haruka told him. "This situation is terrible, but I'm glad that I got to meet you."
"I'm glad too." he paused, moving some of the hair out of her face as her yellow eyes gleamed up at him. "Haruka?"
"What?" she asked.
"I know this will sound stupid...but do we know each other?" Yuki asked her. "Sometimes, I think that you remind me of someone I met once, long ago."
"I don't know, but I feel the same way." Haruka told him. "Maybe...hmm...maybe our parents are friends or something."
"Wouldn't that be strange?" he laughed slightly, shrugging.
"Yuki?" Haruka asked after a while. "Would you...would you tell me a story?"
"Sure." Yuki nodded, thinking for a bit before nodding sharply. "I know a good one. It's a legend my father told me when I was still just a pup."
"What's it about?" Haruka smiled, feeling a bit foolish at asking someone younger than her for a bedtime story, but still eager for the sound of his voice lulling her to sleep.
"Actually, it's about my grandparents, Masurao and Shuryou." Yuki told her.
"There's a legend about your grandparents?" she asked skeptically.
"Yeah, because how they met...was a little unconventional." Yuki explained. "You'll see."
"All right, on with the story then." Haruka cuddled deeper in her blanket, blinking up at the youkai boy.
"Well, it all started long ago in the wolf youkai tribe that lives in a region far from this one, over the mountains and next to a great volcano." Yuki began. "There was a tribe that was very prosperous. In fact, the leader of the tribe had no less than twenty children with his mate."
"Twenty? What kind of woman would ever want to have twenty?" Haruka's eyes goggled.
"It happens, trust me." Yuki thought of his own mother with a smile. "Anyway, this was good, because it meant there was going to be an heir to lead the tribe, and they wouldn't have to worry about that heir being killed because another could replace him, and another, and so on."
"That's terrible!" Haruka gasped.
"Well, obviously the leader didn't love his children very much. You'll see." Yuki told her. "In a wolf tribe, the children of the leader are more powerful than others their own age, but the power they receive is split between all of them. The eldest gets the most power, since he is the heir. The second gets quite a bit still since he's second in line, and on down like that. Now, the women children aren't ever going to be leader, unless all their brother's die and they have no male cousins, so they don't have nearly as much power."
"That's ridiculous." Haruka huffed. "Stupid backwards Feudal age."
Yuki furrowed his brow at her comment, but continued anyway. "So anyway, the least powerful of all the children was the youngest girl, of course. Her name was Masurao. So little power did she have that it was almost as though she was a normal girl, without parents of any real importance. Now, Masurao didn't like her life as the least powerful, least important child. She wanted to make a difference in her world, but she had no sway over her siblings or her parents. So she made up her mind one day to run away and start over with a different wolf pack."
"Good for her." Haruka nodded sharply.
"I knew you'd like this story." Yuki chuckled. "Now, Masurao was tough, but no one really knew that she had secretly spied on the men of the tribe, learning how to fight. Masurao wanted to be a warrior, but sadly, she couldn't do this because she was a woman."
"That's stupid. Women should be able to do whatever they want." Haruka crossed her arms in a sullen movement.
"Not everyone thinks that, though. So Masurao, when she started over, she wanted to become a warrior. She knew that if she wanted to do this, she had to become a man, so that way she could do whatever she wanted and make a difference." Yuki explained. "She disguised herself as a man, wearing armor and furs so that no one would be able to see what she really is. And when she found a new wolf pack, one that she'd never seen before, she introduced herself to them as Masurao, a young lone wolf who was looking to join their tribe. Masurao was accepted into the tribe, at that time led by Shuryou's father, and she joined the ranks of the warriors, scouting the territory and helping to expand it." Yuki paused. "Now, you aren't a youkai, so you don't really understand this part, but there was more to Masurao's ruse than simply dressing up. Wolf youkai have a very strong sense of smell, and...there are certain times...when a female becomes fertile...that the smell of that youkai gives off their gender more clearly than the appearance. So Masurao always made sure that at those times, she was sent off on lone scouting missions or anything that would end with her alone so that she wasn't found out. Now, this worked out fine, and Masurao was actually a more than competent fighter. She soon became close friends with Shuryou, and it was rumored that he trusted Masurao as his future advisor. And then there was a great attack from a tribe of strange vulture youkai. Many of the wolves were killed or injured, even though the fight was eventually won by the wolf pack. In this battle, Shuryou was almost killed by a sneak attack from a vulture youkai, but Masurao saw it coming and took the hit herself. Now, of course Shuryou was devastated that his closest comrade was so terribly wounded on his account. He was constantly at Masurao's side as she slowly recovered from the nearly fatal wound, and that's when her secret came out. When she went into her cycle, she was still grounded by her injuries, but she was coherent enough to know that if she didn't get away, Shuryou would figure her out. So she tried to escape, waiting until he was asleep and sneaking out of the cave. She planned to find a nearby shelter and wait out her cycle before she went back to the tribe. But she didn't realize that Shuryou would come after her, thinking she was still too weak to be wandering off by herself. And when he found her, he could smell what she was, and he finally knew the whole truth. The man he trusted and was so close to wasn't even a man! Shuryou was furious, but he didn't want to leave his friend in the woods by herself. He may have been angry, but the fact that she was a woman only reinforced his need to protect her. So he took her back. While they were returning, something happened between them. It changed how Shuryou thought, and in the end, he fell in love with Masurao, who admitted that she had actually been in love with him for quite some time. And so, they were mated and Masurao helped Shuryou lead his pack, finally as important as she'd always wanted to be."
"Mmm," Haruka yawned, "That's a nice story." she smiled sleepily up at Yuki, who couldn't help but smile back down at her. "I liked the happy ending."
"I thought you might." he told her, reaching up to stroke a silver lock of hair out of her face. "Now, go to sleep."
"I will," Haruka assured him, "thanks for taking care of me."
"It's nothing." he told him. "Thank you for watching out for my sister."
"You're welcome." she smiled sadly, yawning again, smiling softly as she fell asleep under Yuki's protective watch.
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Haruka stood in the darkest corner of Naraku's chambers, not wanting to be seen or noticed in the slightest. She'd made him breakfast and served him, but he had ignored most of the neatly presented meal and had moped silently all morning. Haruka didn't know why he seemed to be in such a touchy mood, but when Kanna had attempted to massage his shoulders, he had slapped her across the face and told her to get out of his sight. Haruka wanted nothing more than to leave the room as well, but she knew she'd be in trouble if she left. She tried to keep her mind off of her situation by looking out the window, trying to judge where the sun might be in the sky. Once it entered the window, she'd only have an hour or so before Naraku typically sent her back to the dungeon. Haruka supposed that the situation could be worse. After all, at least she was the only prisoner forced to suffer such a lack in dignity. Also, even though Naraku was frightening, and he did hit her on occasion, she had been afraid he would try far worse things, judging from the outfit she was made to wear.
Haruka wondered idly if her old clothes were still somewhere in the castle, or if Naraku had destroyed them. It was probably the latter, and that would be a shame. First of all, if she was going to ever escape from this place, she didn't want to tromp through the forest in the skimpy, useless outfit she wore now. Secondly, she had to buy those pants herself, and they were expensive. She didn't want to have to pay to replace them. Also, she hated how Tsuyo kept trying really hard not to stare at her, but only succeeded in ogling her only when she wasn't looking. Yuki wasn't staring at her all the time, and they were in the same cell. What was it about Yuki that made him so much more mature than Tsuyo and Sekatsu, even though he was a year younger? Perhaps the fact that he was a youkai had something to do with it, but Haruka wasn't sure. Maybe if she knew where it was she had seen him before...
"You, girl, come over here." Naraku suddenly spoke up. Haruka shuddered slightly before walking over hesitantly. She waited for his instructions as he looked her over carefully, his eyes making her feel dirty as they caressed her scantily clad body. "Come closer." he told her, beckoning with one hand. Haruka bit her lip nervously and moved a step closer, so that if he reached out, he could easily hit her. "Closer." he ordered, pulling her by her wrist so that she almost fell on top of him. He didn't let go of her wrist, but his other hand rose to cup her hip firmly. It wasn't quite a grope, but Haruka felt as though she'd vomit if he didn't get his hands off of her. "Girl," he addressed her.
"Yes?" she purposefully left off saying "master" whenever she felt she could get away with it.
"Do you like the little wolf boy?" he asked, yanking on her so that she was forced into his lap. He held her there in an iron grip, though Haruka wriggled in an attempt for escape.
"Little...wolf boy?" Haruka's mind was in a panic, she couldn't think of what he meant. She didn't want to be here, she didn't want to be near this disgusting creature and his creepy servant. "You mean...Yuki?"
"Yes, that's the one." Naraku smiled evilly. "Do you like him?"
"He is a good man." Haruka wriggled again, hoping that perhaps Naraku would relinquish his grip on her.
"But you don't like me?" Naraku asked. "That is funny."
"Why is it funny? You're nothing like Yuki." Haruka hissed at him.
"But without me, he wouldn't be alive." Naraku told her. "My blood runs in his veins. Didn't you know that?"
"What...do you mean?" Haruka asked him.
"His mother was born from me, much like Kanna. He is tied to me and is my own child now." Naraku laughed at the look of terror on Haruka's face. "He is mine, and now you are mine."
"No! I'm not! None of us are!" Haruka struggled in his arms.
"Why do you fight me? What if these arms were his? Would you fight? Would you let him have you?" Naraku asked. "He is only a piece of me, and he is no different from me. When he touches you, like this," Naraku held the girl still enough to brush a hand over her cheek, "it is my hand on you. When he tastes you, like this," Naraku ignored her flailing, crying resistance to crane his head over enough to lick and bite her throat, "it's my tongue on your flesh. And when you press against him, panting and begging him, it's me there, hot against you. It's me that enters you, my blood boiling with yours, my heat that you crave."
"What the fuck is your problem, you goddamn freak?!" Haruka screamed, tears spilling down her cheeks as his hands pressed into her soft flesh, digging and bruising. "Let me go! Let go of me now!" Haruka shrieked, kicking and flailing blindly as she sobbed.
"Still, you fight me?" Naraku laughed at her pain. "So you changed your mind about the wolf boy? You don't want him?"
"I don't want you! I don't want to be here! You dirty fuck! Let go of me!" Haruka cried, finally escaping as Naraku tossed her aside.
"Fine, resist me." he hissed. "I suppose Kanna will have to keep me satisfied for now. But I won't wait forever. Your flesh is warm, and hers is like ice. I want heat."
"I hate you!" Haruka climbed to her feet shakily, "I'll never be your whore!"
"Go back to your cell." Naraku glared at her, his eyes boring into her as she left.
*****
The End (Of Chapter Eight, That Is)