Traveling with Beelzebub
Sango didn't know how long they'd been traveling. Minutes. Hours. It was hard to tell. She learned very quickly that Time was skewed in this haunted, eerie dimension. It wasn't that the actual rhythmic seconds were warped, so much as all the signs that declared its passing weren't working.
She wasn't tired. She wasn't hungry. Her body didn't ache... And though such symptoms would have relieved her on any other day, at the moment they were nothing short of alarming.
What is this place doing to me?
Increasingly paranoid and feeling the weight of the ominous realm on her soul, Sango's eyes scanned the jagged, coal black path Sesshoumaru had chosen - one that had guided them out of the cavern - for deliberate movement…a shifting in the shadows. There was something following them. She knew it. She caught it flicker in her peripheral vision once or twice, only to disappear when she turned her head.
Cold chills spun down her spine like spiders, and she quickly redirected her attention to the heavy, white mane of the dog demon up ahead, noting for the hundredth time that even in the murky light of this realm, he seemed radiant. Celestial. So deceptive, she thought warily. That the most beautiful creatures are the most dangerous…
He walked at a brisk pace, but moved as languidly as water down a slope. She had every strand of hair, every movement of his stride, every fold of his attire memorized. After all, she'd been looking at his back almost since they arrived.
It's not that Sango wasn't accustomed to silence. She was.
But this annoying, uncompanionable, edgy quietude between them was getting on her already-frayed nerves. She wanted answers, but the only time the youkai acknowledged her was to give one-word commands. Sango grumbled inwardly. Self-centered, arrogant, aa-
"aahhss…!" Sango's foot caught on something, and her knee came plummeting down on a jag. It pierced cloth, skin and cartilage alike, sending tendrils of pain lancing through her leg. She bit back a cry and twisted to sit on the ground.
Sesshoumaru stopped, his form unmoving except to turn his head barely enough to observe her over his shoulder, a slight furrow in his brow.
Sango worried over her wound. It was deep. A nasty bloody gash. Stupid, stupid stupid! she berated herself heatedly. Looking back she couldn't even see what the heck she'd tripped on. It had almost felt like something grabbed her foot.
When she tried to straighten her leg, it protested painfully, and she hissed at the pain of it. Though Sesshoumaru said nothing, she could feel his disdain as clearly as she felt the severed…sin…news…
Wha…?
The pain lessened. She gawked in surprise as it started to mend itself, the torn edges of her flesh readhering, closing up until it was quite simply gone - leaving her with nothing more than a phantom pain. She bent it, then straightened it. Then bent it again. Then she hopped up on her feet and shifted her weight around.
"Amazing…" she muttered, looking down.
Sesshoumaru turned and started walking again. Sango's lips thinned in growing aggravation. Her body had just regenerated of its own accord, and here he was walking on as though it was nothing. It was time for a conversation, she decided, no matter how uncomfortable it made him.
"Something of importance just happened, you know."
A pause. "Your flesh has mended itself," he said without turning around. "In a spiritual realm, your body is governed by your spiritual strength. You should have expected a change."
"And you should have told me more," she hollered after his retreating form, "like where exactly you're taking us, for example!"
A slight hesitance in his stride, but that was the only sign that he'd heard her. She'd asked the same question earlier, and had gotten the same response. Nothing. Cocky youkai was really starting to piss her off.
"HEY!" she shouted with an aggression that the exterminator usually reserved for hunting. He stiffened, and she imagined if he had hackles, they'd be rising. His hand clenched into a brief fist, and he turned around slowly, his eyes narrowed to slits.
"Our destination is the rim of the realm…" he answered edgily, his lip twitching just the tiniest bit.
She blinked. That's a start… "Why?"
"Because it might be unstable enough to let us through." He paused as she absorbed it. "Are you finished?" he asked, and though his face barely showed emotion, the words dripped with aggravation.
"No," Sango unhitched Hiraikotsu and imbedded its end in the ground next to her, using it to casually lean on. "What is your vested interest in the Shikon no Tama?" she asked suspiciously. "Why did you try and stop me from rendering it powerless?"
That one elicited a whole snarl from the ever-composed youkai. He turned around and faced her. "Spare me such petty questions. Your concern is to stay alive so we can escape. Nothing else."
She opened her mouth to retort when his eyes fixed on something behind her and widened in alarm. Before she could ask, a burning sensation enflamed her skull. A hissing intake of breath escaped her lips as her vision spun. The thing, whatever it was, was probing her mind. She could feel it. Running through her most guarded secrets like a thief in an unguarded castle - opening closed doors, snatching precious memories... She'd never been mind-raped before, and decided it was the most terrifying experience she'd ever had.
With her consciousness caught up in a vortex of panic, Sango was vaguely aware of a disturbance in the air beside her, followed by a grunt from the dog demon. An arm hooked around her waist and yanked her forward, dislodging the attacker from her head. Her vision cleared, and she found herself bracketed against Sesshoumaru's chest. His heart thumped wildly under her palm, and his sword was unsheathed and upright in his other hand. His stern face was locked straight ahead, and when Sango twisted in his grasp to see, she nearly screamed.
It wasn't the thing's elongated body that dangled below it, or the icky green haze it emanated that unnerved her so. And it wasn't the fact that it flickered on and off like a firefly on the blitz, or that it had no other appendage save for a tail. It was that, bobbing at the top of it like a duck in a pond was a head.
Miroku's head.
"Sango-chan," it said in her friend's soft, soothing voice that usually left her heart fluttering. She watched in horrified denial as the remainder of its body billowed out like curling smoke until it filled in as the rest of the monk's body, complete with black and purple robes - a perfect image.
A perfect mockery.
The thing that was Miroku held out the hand with the kazaana, an earnest expression on his face. His large calf eyes shimmered with palpable sincerity. "I love you, Sango." He took a step towards them, and Sesshoumaru's claws absently dug into Sango's ribs. "You're all I can think about. I swear. Please be with me. My heart belongs to none other…"
She felt the fraud oozing off the creature like a thick fog. She knew it wasn't Miroku. Knew it. But the thing looked just like him. Sounded just like him. And saying the words she was so desperate to hear, no less. Sango froze, hating herself for wishing it was real. She didn't even know she'd been leaning towards the clone until Sesshoumaru angrily flung her behind him, and leapt at the perfect replica of the monk.
"TENSAIGA!" The only evidence that the dog demon had moved was the angle of his sword, a slight rustling of his hair - and a lightning-white trail blazing through the creature's torso. Its visage - Miroku's visage - twisted in a maniacal grimace before it dispersed into the air, leaving nothing but a thin cloud of dust-like matter.
Sango didn't realize she'd been holding her breath until she exhaled. Sesshoumaru faced her, his unvoiced thought evident in those narrowed, condescending eyes.
Humans and their petty dreams…
She wanted to curl inside herself. She hadn't shared her sentiments for Miroku with anyone. Anyone! And to think that someone as heartless as the youkai now knew about them made her stomach churn. He'd spit on the pearls of her soul, damn him. Unable to deny or retract it, Sango could only retaliate, as though it was his fault her mind had been violated. "Stop looking at me like that. What you saw was none of your business, demon…"
"Fool," he said, with about as much dynamic as a humble prayer. "One attack, and you were as useless as a child."
A lump grew in her throat, but she pushed through it. "It's not like you took the time to tell me they fought with mind games, you know…"
"The beasts of a spiritual realm can only feed on the body after they've broken the soul. If you freeze up at such nonsense as this," he made a general motion at where the mockery of Miroku had been standing, "then it would be better for me to knock you unconscious and carry you out."
Sango turned away from him and stomped over to Hiraikotsu, yanking it out of the ground. "And you think you'd fare better, youkai?" she asked, wondering how big he'd be talking if he'd been the one who was mind-raped.
The dog demon didn't get a chance to answer, for as soon as she'd asked the question, something lunged at him from behind.
"LOOK OUT!" Sango screamed.
Quick on the uptake, he ducked and whirled around, but it was too late. What looked like a giant, ghost-like tadpole had lodged its upper body in Sesshoumaru's head, tail wriggling frantically to keep hold.
He grunted, and fell to his knees, clutching at his face. His claws had passed right through his attacker. Sango leapt, and swung Hiraikotsu, but it also swiped clear through what was visible of the creature's body.
"How do I get it out?" she cried.
Sesshoumaru began to tremble, his growls crescendoing. She saw his porcelain features twist in a grimace of pain as his hands shifted about his face. He couldn't concentrate enough to hear her, so she tried her blades, then her armor. All, just as useless.
Then, unexpectedly, the ghoul dislodged itself from him, trailing off with a wicked cackle. Sesshoumaru looked up from his kneeling position on the ground, panting, his eyes strained, his mouth curled down in a frown. He looked anxious, stressed…
Vulnerable…
Oh no…
Sango turned just in time to see the creature take shape of none other than a human girl. The human girl that traveled with Sesshoumaru as what everyone assumed was his servant. Her larger-than-life eyes disappeared in a contented smile when she saw him, and she clapped her hands and jumped up and down with all the exuberance of youth.
"SESSHOUMARU-SAMAAAA!"
He shuddered at his name. "Rin..."
A small, glowing orb appeared above her little head, and she peered up at it curiously.
Sango blinked at the image. The Shikon no Tama?
It descended, engulfing the girl in an aura of red light. She gasped, her face terrified as black stripes formed on her cheeks. Her rounded, human ears slid into points through her hair. Her eyes grew golden and feral, and little fangs slipped out from under her lips.
Sango gaped in appall. "A demon?" she snapped at Sesshoumaru. "You were going to use the Shikon no Tama to strip the child of her human heritage and turn her into a DEMON?"
He flinched at her words, but kept his gaze locked on the girl, his breaths hissing in and out of clenched teeth. He stood shakily to his feet and clutched at his sword.
"Sesshoumaru-sama! Sesshoumaru-sama!" The look-alike held her arms out and ran towards him. Instead of swinging, he took a step back, a small strained noise emanating from his mouth.
Sango swiped her blades through the creature, but just like earlier, they passed right through. She looked to Sesshoumaru who was still backing up. Why was he hesitating? "Use your Tensaiga and be done with it!" she yelled. His lips set in a determined line, and he swung…
…with his eyes closed.
Wha…?
The girl screamed and dissipated like the one that had mimicked Miroku, but Sesshoumaru looked as though he'd just killed his own mother. Considering how well he'd perfected the art of reticence, Sango could only assume it was because he was horrified at having his ever-guarded thoughts invaded.
He couldn't have possibly cared for his human servant. Not if he found her humanness so despicable that he needed to purge her of it. His intent made her sick all over again.
He's bought so completely into his own superiority that he actually thinks his presence is tainted by us. Sango grit her teeth, surprised that she could like him even less than when they'd started. Of all the people to be trapped in a different realm with…
"Come," he ordered without looking her in the eye, his voice haggard. "The lighter territories of this realm should be safer."
"Lighter territories?"
He motioned towards a nearby mountain, and Sango noticed a patch of light at its base - a sectioned off area that glowed against the darkness like the end of a rainbow. She remembered something Kaede said about the inherent forces of the Shikon no Tama - more evil than good. Perhaps this was how they were manifest within - territorial sections that didn't mingle, nor blend.
Sango shivered. Her blood still ran cold from the encounter with the realm's mimic ghouls. She sheathed her weapons and stepped after Sesshoumaru's retreating form…
…only to be snatched from behind. She cried out in alarm as oily, black tentacles snaked around her legs. It whipped her feet right out from under her, and started to drag her back. A gurgling moan sounded from her unseen captor as Sango struggled to gain purchase, and she screamed again.
Sesshoumaru spun around, and materialized before her with his sword. He hacked at it, sliced at it, stabbed at it, but Tenseiga bounced off its skin, not leaving so much as a puncture. The dog demon growled. "It's alive," he said, sidestepping similar attempts by the multi-armed beast to ensnare him.
"Nngh!" Sango clawed at the ground, feeling her nails rip on its rough texture. She really really didn't want to see what was attached to all these limbs. Another oily appendage curled around her waist and hauled her back at twice the speed. Sesshoumaru lunged and reached for her.
And she could have latched onto him. Both hands were free. But in the frenzied panic of the moment, she saw herself between two monsters - not wanting to end up the clutches of either. It clouded her rationale. Made her hesitate.
And that was all it took. Sesshoumaru shrank in her vision, held back by a flurry of gnarly slapping tentacles, as she was swallowed whole by something thick, wet, heavy...
Everything blacked out. She was rendered immobile, crushed by the pressure of the thing's belly. It pressed against her mouth, pinning her limbs in place. She was unable to move. To breathe... Is this the end? she wondered, simultaneously realizing that the notion of dying wasn't nearly as terrifying as she'd thought. Hn. I'll get to see my father again. And Kohaku…
A deep, throaty roar reached her ears through her predator's sluggish flesh. Even in the confinements of the creature's gut, Sango felt a shiver run down her spine. Whatever was out there was massive. Sesshoumaru would no doubt meet his end as well. Besides, it wasn't like he could escape without her-
"Mph!" Sango felt her weight pitched back as the thing she was inside screeched. It was abruptly followed by the uneven vibrations of ripping skin. Two seconds later, she was out. Covered in goo, granted, but out. When Sango wiped the brownish muck away from her eyes, she nearly turned and crawled back inside the carcass.
It was a hound. A raging white hound, twenty times the size of Kirara. Its fur danced against its body like flames, and its muzzle was lined with sharp, nasty teeth. It was both beautiful and terrifying. Though futile, Sango unhitched Hiraikotsu to fight it. Her conditioning permitted little else.
"Come on then, pup," she said, slipping into a well-practiced crouch, resigning herself to die.
The massive canine narrowed its eyes and growled, and it struck her as funny that such an awesome creature would take the time to look annoyed…
Wait…
She squinted, taking in its condescending posture, and radiant appearance. Both beautiful and terrifying… Sango's jaw dropped. She put Hiraikotsu back, cocked her head and placed her hands on her hips.
"That's your demon form?"
The mighty dog ignored her in typical Sesshoumaru fashion, and bowed its head for her to hop on. She obliged, with a moment's regret for getting gooey monster muck all over his clean white fur.
"What I don't get," she said as she straddled his thick neck and entwined her fingers in his glossy hair, "is why you spend so much time looking like a woman, when you could just as easily look like this…" She patted him for emphasis, duly impressed.
He turned his muzzle to glare back at her, his lips peeling off his fangs in a rumbling snarl. It gave Sango the distinct impression that he'd rather be sharpening his teeth on her bones than rescuing her from the bowels of a monster.
As though in retaliation, he sprung to the air without warning, nearly throwing her off. She swore and clamped down with her thighs, twisting her fists in his mane. It made riding Kirara feel like a float across the lake - rough, uneven…dizzying. She tried to focus on their destination ahead, that grassy, illuminated oasis in the dismal realm. It bounced crazily in her vision, but grew rapidly thanks to the dog demon's amazing speed.
When they descended down onto it, Sango felt the resistance of a barrier. It washed over them both completely - not unlike being submerged in water. Then there was a slight wind on her face as they came through the other side, and she looked at her hands, and noticed that they were clean.
The creature's brownish slime was gone. Wiped off her clothes, her skin, cleansed out of her hair... She turned around and saw a brown streak sliding down the outside of the dome-shaped barrier, plopping on the outer edge in a sick, oozy pile. Apparently the two territories didn't mix. At all.
Sesshoumaru thumped down on a soft, grassy slope, and bucked her right off. Sango swore as she half-turned in the air, and landed in an unbalanced crouch. She huffed, ready to reprimand him, but her words got caught in her throat as he transformed before her eyes.
The mighty hound was enveloped in a foggy aura that crackled about his form like lightning. The lines of his body blurred, and he began to shapeshift, downsizing until he solidified once more into the humanoid that she detested.
Sesshoumaru…
He sat down not far from her, folding his arms in a fashion that reminded her of Inuyasha.
Sango marched over to him, and folded her arms tightly. "Mental attacks, physical attacks, light and dark territories... If there's anything else about this realm that you're not telling me, I swear, I'll-"
"Leave me," he snapped, without looking up.
Sango studied him - hunched shoulders, sagged form, rapid breathing. If she didn't know any better, she'd say he was actually tired. "The transformation drained you, didn't it..." she stated more than asked.
His eyes opened at her insight, but stayed fixed on the ground. He confirmed her inquiry with his silence.
Sango pursed her lips. "How long?"
"I don't know."
She turned her back to him and clasped her hands behind her neck and tilted her head. Dark forms fluttered on the outside of the sanctuary, hovering curiously. But none came near the barrier. She imagined she would have taken more comfort in the respite, had she not been trapped with an arrogant, incommunicable demon. As it was, she was almost anxious to continue the trek, just so she could escape from this realm, and escape from him.... With a heavy sigh, Sango laid down in the grass with one knee bent, not far from him.
"You didn't take my hand."
Sango startled. It was soft. Almost inaudible. She looked over to the enclosed demon, his lustrous hair blanketing his shoulders like silk. He hadn't moved. She frowned and propped herself up on her elbow. "What?"
He turned his head slowly, and underneath his heavy bangs she could make out the slightest furrow of his brow. "You didn't take my hand when I reached out for you," he said again. "Why?"
She blinked, recalling that crazy moment of indecision that had resulted in her being swallowed by the tentacled realm beast. She didn't know where he was going with the question, but Sango was nothing, if not honest. Besides, it wasn't like their forced fellowship could get any more strained. She looked down at the grass, twirling her fingers absently around a blade.
"Because a part of me would rather be swallowed by that thing, than be touched by you."
Silence. Probably the worst lull between them since they'd started out. She felt the heat of his gaze like the noonday sun, and fought the urge to go and hide behind a rock.
"Hn. So you would rather die," he said not quite evenly, giving Sango the impression that her words had penetrated more than he was letting on. "Pathetic human."
"Pathetic?" she asked, and met his gaze with a heat of her own. "At least I'm not afraid of death, demon."
He studied her for a moment. "You're afraid of life."
It was her turn to stare silently. How dare he… How dare he suggest so much, when he knew so little. Downplaying her resolution as though it were an immature weakness, and not a brave perspective on passing. She was beginning to think she liked it better when he didn't speak at all.
"I have nothing left to live for. There's a difference," she said, her voice rough with emotion. "Everything...everyone...that I loved was taken from me in the worst manner possible. My family. My village. Slaughtered by Naraku. I am the last."
She was trembling, so caught up in her own story that she almost failed to notice how his expression had changed. That he actually had one. And he looked at her not with loathing, or disdain…but rather some sort of bitter familiarity.
Sango shook her head. Hn? She must have been imagining it. "Hence, my happiness awaits me in the next dimension. Though I'm sure my words are wasted on something like you, since you couldn't possibly understand. Much less, care."
"You don't know me."
"I know that you seek your own brother's death. I know that you hate humans enough to rob your girl servant of her human heritage. And I know you'd rather kill me than look at me. Does anything else matter?"
He frowned and looked away. "I don't have to explain myself to you."
"Figures," she said, wiping the water from her eyes with the backs of her hands. This conversation had gotten way out of control. The last thing she'd intended to do was to rip her own heart out and show him the scars on it. "I doubt there's much more depth to you, anyhow-"
"You think only humans suffer?" he asked, and though his voice didn't fluctuate, it carried the impact of a hundred angry exclamations. It made her look up, and his face had darkened…backed by some memory, no doubt, that burned at the forefront of his mind. "You think that you're the only ones who have lost kin and clan to the steely claws of the enemy?"
Sango was taken aback. She'd never considered that the dog demon had ever cared about anyone but himself. Foolish, now that she heard the pain in his words. Even Sesshoumaru had been a baby once…a child who needed his mother.
"You're wrong, huntress," he said quietly, and looked out to the dark realm beyond the barrier. "Perhaps we have more in common than you think." His last words were barely more than a whisper, and Sango wondered if he'd said them out loud for her, or himself. Either way, she felt his sincerity. And if he was indeed weathered to the kind of loss she had suffered, then...
"What do you do," she asked, remembering with an ache in her chest Kohaku's smile, and her father's hearty laugh, "when you want nothing more than to be with they who have passed?"
A brief pause, and he met her stare with crinkled eyes. "You live, Sango. On their behalf."
