.:All of My Tomorrows:.
chapter eighteen : shadows

She seemed to be floating in a sleepy haze of confusion. Bizarre shadows that moved in unnatural ways surrounded her on all sides causing her to feel strangely claustrophobic. Heaviness seemed to descend upon her and forced her to the ground. It pulled at her, leaving her feeling cold and exposed.

Soon after, strange sensations of pain filled her mind. Her hands throbbed with torment and the skin on her chest felt like it was on fire. There seemed to be something sitting on her, making it difficult to breathe and causing her to gasp. She flexed her hands experimentally and felt a cruel sting of pain move through her. She tried to cry out, but found she did not have a voice to do so.

A hand pressed against the burning part of her chest and rubbed painfully, "There, take a look."

Terror gripped her at the sound of the voice and she squeezed her eyes shut.

"I said look!"

Blue eyes blinked open hesitantly to see a man looming above her. A man she recognized from before, the man who called himself Yuji. She grimaced as he leered at her, his eyes trailing over her body.

"Mine," he said with a gleeful whisper. "You're mine."

• • •

Sesshoumaru maintained an outward look of calm as he watched his opponent shift from one foot to the other. Magatsuhi's eyes would dart from Kagome's unconscious form to Sesshoumaru and back again, a look of excitement and anticipation evident in his face.

"You filled her with your miasma."

Magatsuhi smirked, "Perhaps."

Sparing a glance behind him, Sesshoumaru quickly gauged the state of the woman-child and frowned. Her scent was steadily changing, warning the youkai lord that Magatsuhi must have poisoned her and the substance was working its way through her body. He could not identify the type of poison that Magatsuhi forced her to swallow; its scent was unlike any he ever inhaled before. The way her eyes darted beneath her eyelids and the spasmodic way her hands clutched at the soil told him that she was deeply immersed in nightmare. Her reaction to the venom was unusual; causing Sesshoumaru to theorize that it was a mind-altering substance that Magatsuhi filled her belly with and not something meant to actually kill her.

As he continued to examine her, he noted that her eyes were beginning to flutter open and a sense of relief filled him in that instant. She was fighting it. Loud coughs and gags sounded from her throat as Sesshoumaru turned his full attention back to Magatsuhi, though he still listened to the sounds the woman-child made behind him.

Magatsuhi's face did not change in expression as he watched Kagome gag and try to rid her mouth and body of the miasma. "They're more fun when they try to fight back, don't you think, Sesshoumaru?"

"It wouldn't be a worthy fight if they didn't."

A wide grin acknowledged Sesshoumaru's response.

"Though you seem to enjoy going after opponents that lack proper training and ability. That is typical of a coward."

"Ah, Sesshoumaru," the beast said with a friendly grin, "you don't know her like I know her."

Kagome's strangled gasps suddenly grew louder causing Sesshoumaru's reply to die in his throat. He spared a glance over his shoulder and saw her begin to claw at her neck as though she were choking, bringing the youkai lord to her side. Instinct and experience told him that she was still deep in the throes of the poison. Her eyes were glazed over and unfocused and her lips were starting to turn purple. She began to dry heave, her body becoming more urgent in its attempt to purge itself. The youkai lord hastily rolled her over onto her side as her body lurched once more and she vomited. Sesshoumaru had to repress a cringe when he saw the familiar black mucus pour out of her mouth and burn the surrounding grass beside her.

"That will do her no good."

Sesshoumaru ignored the cheery voice as he let his peaking rage boil over. He reached for the woman-child and cleaned her face with his sleeve before carefully laying her down a few feet from where she just vomited.

"Part of me is inside of her," Magatsuhi said matter-of-factly. "She belongs to me now. Always."

• • •

Kagome struggled against him with everything she had in her. She did not care that she was naked beneath him or how much physical pain he caused her; she knew those things were inconsequential. She knew he wanted to do something much worse to her than cause her physical pain.

He was after her heart and soul.

She pushed back against him with a distressed grunt and forced herself to her knees, attempting to rise. Yuji lunged at her, causing her to scurry backwards as she tried unsuccessfully to get to her feet for a second time. With a strength no human should possess, he threw her to the ground, forcing the air out of her lungs. His hands clamped around her neck and squeezed hard, strangling her. As her lungs burned for oxygen, she saw several strange flashes in her mind of Sesshoumaru squaring off against an enemy lurking in the shadows. Kagome squeezed her eyes shut against the pain of asphyxiation and a flood of images filled her mind.

She realized in an instant that she was somewhere different from where she had just been. She was looking at an entirely different scene and she was outside of herself and looking down. She could see herself gagging and clawing at herself. She saw Sesshoumaru step toward her with a concerned look on his face and the echo of joyful giggles sounded in her ears. She looked toward the direction of the sound to see Magatsuhi, grinning madly.

The vision of Magatsuhi brought her back to reality and she opened her eyes once more to see Yuji baring his teeth at her as he squeezed her throat shut.

'This isn't real. This is all in my mind...'

Kagome's will to survive invigorated her and she clawed at Yuji while bucking her hips in an attempt to throw him off-balance. Her efforts were rewarded as his grip around her throat lessened enough for her to suck in a deep, lung full of air and she rolled her upper body away from him. He swore at her as he reached out to her again, pulling at her hair and wrenching her shoulder back.

"You're going to force me to keep hurting you," he hissed as he held her in his lap and forced her to look at him. "You can feel it, can't you? Call upon that power, Kagome-chan. Give into it."

"No!"

"I don't want to damage you, but you're forcing me to!"

"No! This isn't real," Kagome gasped. "You're not real."

"Am I not real?" A voice asked that Kagome recognized at once. The soothing quality of his voice causing her breath to catch in her throat.

• • •

A feral rage sparked within Sesshoumaru as he watched Kagome curl up into a fetal position. No longer was she twitching or coughing. Instead, she was staring off into nothingness much as she did when Sesshoumaru found her at his brother's grave. Whatever Magatsuhi forced into her was attacking her mind and with every passing moment the risk of permanent damage increased.

He could no longer wait for Jaken to bring the Tetsusaiga and Sesshoumaru wanted to transform. He wanted to clamp his jaws down on the thing in front of him and feel his bones crunch under her teeth. Sesshoumaru hoped that Magatsuhi was the type that was hard to kill, because ending his life quickly would be wholly unsatisfying. He wanted rip Magatsuhi's heart from his chest and shove it down his throat. He wanted to pull his flesh apart and toy with him as a child would pull apart and toy with an insect.

Such bloodlust was an unfamiliar thing to Sesshoumaru. He preferred the quick and efficient. He did not like to dirty himself with the act of fighting and killing lesser beings. When the situation allowed for it, he enjoyed being creative on the battlefield, but still when the time came to end the game and kill his opponent, he did so quickly. A slow death was in Magatsuhi's future; Sesshoumaru's rage demanded nothing less. He would delight in staining the earth with his blood.

Power radiated from Sesshoumaru as he let his eyes move from the woman-child to the thing standing only a few hundred yards away. The familiar pulse of the Tenseiga grew stronger against him, demanding attention. He knew at once what the will of the sword was and he slowly wrapped his hand around the hilt with great exaggeration so Magatsuhi would not miss what the youkai lord's intentions were.

• • •

Kagome's eyes grew wide with horror and disbelief as she stared up into the familiar golden eyes of Sesshoumaru. His features stretched into an expression she was still unfamiliar with as he smiled down at her.

"You can feel this," he said, as he drove two clawed fingers into the fleshy part of her shoulder between her armpit and the top of her breast, "can't you?"

Kagome winced and bit her lip as Sesshoumaru dug his fingers in a little deeper, the expression of calm on his face never wavering. She only cried out when he wiggled them, sending bolts of pain through her that left her gasping.

Sesshoumaru watched her intently as he held her in his lap and proceeded to lick the blood from his fingers. He smiled that same odd smile at her again when he noticed her tear-filled eyes upon him.

"Was that not real?"

"N-no."

Sesshoumaru smirked and roughly ran his nail around the edge of her shoulder wound, widening it, before letting his claw rake across her bare breast. "It hurts, does it not? Everything in you hurts."

"You- you're not real."

"I am," he said quietly as he cradled her closer to him. His touch was kind, if not loving. "I can take all the hurt away, Kagome. All of it. Forever. Or, I can make it much, much worse. For you and everyone you love."

"No."

"No?"

"You're not Sesshoumaru. You're a lie."

"A lie, am I?" An amused chuckle sounded from Sesshoumaru's throat, "I am not the one here who is a lie, you are."

Kagome opened her mouth to protest only to have Sesshoumaru's hand placed over her lips.

"I know what I am and I know what I want. You however, are the one who is misguided and pretending to be something you are not. You are the one living day after day not knowing what it is you want. You don't have to live like them, Kagome. You are not one of them. Give in to that power, embrace it -- use it. Let me show you."

Kagome shuddered within his grasp, knowing he was tempting her to give in to the darkness that followed the Shikon no Tama wherever it goes. He wanted her to become like him.

Another clawed finger pushed against the torn flesh of her shoulder and she recoiled. He pulled his hand away from the wound and smirked as he waited for her to recover from the pain.

"You're... Magatsuhi..."

"Does my form confuse you?" He asked innocently. "I can assume any form you wish. I choose this one because I thought it would be most effective."

Kagome felt his flesh shift beneath her, giving her a start. She looked back up at Sesshoumaru only to see the face of another. Her heart pounded hard in her chest and her mouth went dry as she looked at him.

"Is this better?" a gruff voice asked from a body that looked identical to Inuyasha. "I can be anything Kagome, because I know what I am. You think you're human but you're not. Would it make you feel better if I pretended to be human, too?"

His form changed again and Kagome found herself looking into the eyes of Miroku. "I'll pretend with you, Kagome-sama. Just do as I ask. You don't want to be powerless, do you? You don't want me to hurt you again, right?"

His flesh shifted once more and suddenly, he was Kouga. "It will be easier for everyone if you just give in."

A moment later and another shift, and he was Hojo. "No more pain for you to hide from."

A shift, and Kagome was in the arms of an adult Shippou. "Just peace, Kagome. Peace and control."

Kagome tried to push herself out of his lap, only to feel her injured shoulder scream in protest.

"Now, now my little Kagome-chan," a gentle voice chided. "Be careful. You don't want to make that wound worse, do you?"

Kagome blinked up at him and felt her world stop as she looked into the familiar eyes of her father. She felt her throat tighten and heard her voice break. "N-no please, no."

Her father smiled at her and brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes.

"Stop…"

"Stop what, Kagome-chan? Do you want the pain to stop?"

"You're not real."

"Kagome-chan..."

Squeezing her eyes shut, she worked to center herself. "Get out."

"Hmm?"

"Get. Out." A sudden flair of light was the only thing Magatsuhi was aware of as he felt his flesh begin to melt. Kagome pushed herself away from him, sending him sprawling back and cursing as he realized what she was trying to do.

"You can't… YOU CAN'T PURIFY ME!"

Kagome stood uncertainly as she turned to face him. One hand held her hurt shoulder as she glared at him and watched him shift back into his true form. The beast took a reflexive step back as he watched her begin to gather her power around her.

"Midoriko, you bitch," Magatsuhi muttered under his breath as he continued to examine her aura, searching for the long dead miko-warrior's distinct pattern. If he could find that pattern, he could attack it and cripple Kagome's efforts to force him out of her. His search became frantic as Kagome's power continued to grow and an unnerving feeling of shock settled in Magatsuhi's stomach. Midoriko was not doing this; it was Kagome herself utilizing her own natural-born abilities against him.

Kagome had given into her power without him being in control of her.

"I SAID GET OUT!"

• • •

Sesshoumaru did not know if the sword would heal Kagome. He never tried to use it to heal someone who was still alive before. The only time Sesshoumaru used it on a living creature was when he had slashed Jaken. He had used it as a demonstration to show why he was unsatisfied with his inheritance. Every other time Sesshoumaru used the sword it was to resurrect the dead. Kagome was not yet dead, but he felt the Tenseiga increasingly demand him to use it.

The look for delight in Magatsuhi's eyes immediately changed as Sesshoumaru wrapped his fingers around the hilt of the Tenseiga. The shift in his expression was enough to prove to Sesshoumaru that giving in to the demands of the sword was the correct course of action.

He held the hilt tighter as it grew warm within his fist, urging him to use it. With a half step toward the fallen girl, Sesshoumaru unsheathed the Tenseiga and slashed at her in one swift motion. The moment the sword made contact with her skin, a delicate crackling sound could be heard, followed by a visible line of light that quickly disappeared.

Sesshoumaru watched her expectantly while keeping his ears trained on Magatsuhi. If either moved, he would know it in an instant. The Tenseiga felt much calmer in his hand and Sesshoumaru immediately sheathed it while waiting for Kagome to awaken.

"You haven't stopped me," Magatsuhi called out as he watched the scene from a distance.

"I do not presume to think so," Sesshoumaru replied as he watched Kagome's eyes slowly blink open. She winced at the brightness of the sun before letting her eyes fall on the youkai lord. The two stared at each other for a long moment before Kagome finally looked down at herself, inspecting her body for injuries and pulling her kimono tighter around her.

"Stay where you are and rest," Sesshoumaru commanded her quietly when she struggled to stand. "The Tetsusaiga is on its way here, but I may be finished by then. If not, you need to figure out how to break the seal."

Kagome swallowed hard and nodded hesitantly.

Golden eyes narrowed as they examined her and Sesshoumaru wondered if the venom Magatsuhi filled her with had done something to her that the Tenseiga could not heal. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yes," Kagome whispered. "You resurrected us?"

"No, you were not dead, though he did fill you with a noxious poison. You were under his influence for only a few minutes."

Sesshoumaru tilted his head as he looked at her. He could feel a strange current of power within her, a power that was uniquely her own. Concentrating on her, he tried to feel the presence of Midoriko within her. The woman-child was referring to herself in the third person, indicating that Midoriko was awake, though Sesshoumaru could not sense her power within Kagome.

"Are you certain you are alright? You are acting strangely."

"Yes, I'm sorry," she smiled weakly. "Kagome had several strange visions and we—"

Kagome was cut off as Sesshoumaru suddenly grabbed her and leapt into the air, dodging an onslaught of tentacles. She held onto Sesshoumaru tightly, her eyes wide and they watched Magatsuhi's tentacles change their trajectory to follow them.

Worry gripped at Kagome's heart as she watched Magatsuhi continue to attack them. His speed rivaled that of Sesshoumaru, preventing the youkai from changing into an offensive posture. She heard Sesshoumaru curse under his breath as they fled and knew he was frustrated. He could do nothing to stop Magatsuhi as long as Kagome was in his arms.

"Put us down."

"Do not distract me."

"Put us down! You can't do anything as long as you are protecting us."

Another high leap and Sesshoumaru spared the woman-child a brief glance but said nothing as he summoned them both high into the air. A tingling sensation filled Kagome's mind and she scanned the rapidly retreating ground beneath them.

"The Tetsusaiga is here!"

"I know," Sesshoumaru said as he regarded Magatsuhi from afar and sighed. "I have underestimated his strategy. He meant to distract me and I let him. He intends to keep me from the sword." Sesshoumaru turned his eyes back to Kagome; "You will have to be on guard while I retrieve the Tetsusaiga. I cannot do two things at once with this opponent."

"I understand," Kagome said softly, recognizing the intense look in Sesshoumaru's eyes. Her grip on him increased as they quickly descended. She closed her eyes as she hugged herself closer to Sesshoumaru and buried her face in his kimono, allowing herself a moment of comfort before the real battle began.