Disclaimer: All characters in this chapter belong to the lovely Rumiko Takahashi.


¸.·´¯`·»¸.·´¯`·» The Last Princess «·´¯`·.¸«·´¯`·.¸

A Fic by Eden

¸.·´¯`·»¸.·´¯`·» Chapter One «·´¯`·.¸«·´¯`·.¸
¸.·´¯`·» Memories and a Revelation «·´¯`·.¸




Kagome studied her reflection with a critical eye as she lightly fingered the two gold stripes on either cheek. Sighing, she averted her gaze to the crescent seemingly tattooed on her forehead. At the moment, the color matched that of her stripes. However, it had been known to notoriously change to blood red in the heat of battle, when her fury reached its climax—the first indication that she was in the primary stages of transformation. This was a bit odd considering that it was the eyes of most youkai that were affected. Their eyes bled red, while her eyes remained violet.

Violet eyes.

The eyes her mother used to look into with love.

As Kagome stared into the eyes of her reflection, she appeared to be transfixed as if she were sucked in. Sucked in to a memory.


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"Kagome-chan, would you like to take a walk with me? I have something I'd like to show you," Lady Yuki asked her daughter, an abundant ball of energy.

"Okay! But where are we going, Mama?" Kagome had questioned sweetly.

"I can't tell you that; it's a surprise," Lady Yuki grinned mischievously.



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Kagome's eyes began to burn as the infrequently familiar sensation of sadness overcame her.


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So they walked…

…and walked…

…and walked.

To Kagome, it had seemed like an eternity, when really it was only an hour. It wasn't as if she were tired. She was bored. Finally her mother stopped and turned around to face her.

"Okay, we're here," Lady Yuki informed. "But close your eyes."

So Kagome closed her eyes, and felt a tug on her hands as her mother led her somewhere.

"Okay, you may open them."

Opening her eyes, Kagome drew in a sharp intake of breath.

"Mama! It's so beautiful!"

Indeed it was. The sight before her eyes was an endless expanse of beauty and serenity. They were in a meadow surrounded by mountains. Vivid colors of the flowers seemed to beckon Kagome, as if saying, "Pick me! Pick me!"

And the mountains! So fitting they were to the scene that Kagome was surprised that birds didn't flock to them or that some celestial being didn't suddenly burst into song.

She started running, carefree and happily as a child should be. Picking flowers, she began to tire. As she made her way toward her mother, she sighed contentedly. As she sat down in her mother's lap, Lady Yuki began stroking her hair. Kagome's beautiful, silky hair, such an odd color. Gold and silver, evenly distributed. Much like her tail.

"Mama?" Kagome began tentatively.

"Yes, darling?"

"Will we be together forever?"

"Who, sweetie?"

"Daddy, you and me?"

"Of course, Kagome. We'll be together forever."

"Promise?"

"I promise."



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"So much for forever," Kagome snorted bitterly at the memory.

Her eyes roamed around her features in her reflection, finally settling on her now black hair. For some reason that Kagome couldn't quite explain, her hair and tail had turned black a while back when she decided it was too painful to see them in their natural shades. It reminded her too much of what she'd lost. After the thought crossed her mind, she woke the next morning to find them black.

A sudden pounding on her door claimed her attention. Sniffing the air, she scowled when she realized who it was, as she flicked her tail in annoyance. How dare that insolent fool disrupt her brooding!

"What?" she snapped.

"Just wanted to see if you were still alive," came Kouga's voice, humor evident in his tone.

"Go away, Kouga. You are not wanted here," Kagome said coldly.

Ignoring her request, the obnoxious wolf youkai barged into her home, ignoring the prominent growl emitting from her.

"Why Kagome-chan!" he began as he put his arm around her shoulder. "That's no way to treat your future mate!"

She growled louder sending him a look that promised immense pain if he didn't get off her. He stayed put. Whether he ignored the look or completely didn't see it was beyond Kagome.

"Remove your arm from my shoulder if you would like to keep the limb intact," she bit out slowly, her voice dangerously low.

For once, Kouga seemed to understand what she meant, and what would happen if he didn't comply. Removing his hand, he looked at her good-naturedly. Bowing, he left.

Once he was gone, Kagome huffed. She didn't want to brood any more, and she was tense. She needed to blow off some steam.

She winced at the reaction the youkai who just left would have at her request, but decided to go through with it anyway.

Gracefully, she walked to a room and gathered her swords and shurikens. Perhaps Kouga had his uses.


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The two youkai stood opposite each other, each in a battle stance, Kagome's the more graceful of the pair. Her swords in hand, she began the fight. Surprised at her sudden, agile movements, Kouga barely blocked her attack when she landed a swift kick to the inside of his knees, knocking him onto his back. Thrusting her sword toward Kouga's chest, she would have impaled him, had he not rolled out of the way. Instead, her blade sunk deep into the ground as Kouga leapt up. In frustration, she yanked her sword violently out of the ground only to be plowed onto her back as Kouga took advantage of her distraction. Lashing at her, his claws pierced her cheek, drawing blood. Kagome felt the warm substance ooze down her face and began getting angry. As Kouga prepared to attack again, Kagome struck him in the ribs with a shikan-ken style punch successfully knocking the wind out of him. Gasping for breath, he staggered back as Kagome fluidly lifted herself up. She swung the sword in her left hand toward his neck only to meet air. Kicking her feet out from under her, Kouga once again had her on her back. Kagome arched her two blades toward his middle. As she predicted, he jumped out of the way. Deftly firing three shurikens, she was pleased as they grazed the right side of his face, leaving three thin but semi-deep cuts across the whole of his cheek. Grabbing his face, he growled at her, only to have her on her feet growling back. Once again they were facing off, neither demon moving, when Kouga suddenly launched himself at her. Kagome jumped over him and landed behind him. Turning around in surprise, a full-fisted punch sent him on his back. Kneeling over Kouga, one knee digging into his stomach, the razor-sharp blades of her Masamune and Murasame resting against either side of his neck, Kagome smirked. Had it been a real fight, or had she hated the currently helpless youkai, one simple "X" motion of her arms would have cleanly sliced off his head. His ragged breathing slowly began to return to normal.

A smile began playing at her lips as she lifted herself off the clearly edgy youkai. "Ahh…a much needed stress releaser," she said lightly.

"Yeah, yeah…" Kouga grumbled. "You just got lucky. Everyone knows I would have won if you weren't being so bitchy."

"Learn to lose gracefully, Kouga. It's not my problem you don't know how to fight," she smirked.

"Graceful my ass." he mumbled.

They were both immersed in the quiet, taking a much needed rest.

"A bath sounds nice…" she suddenly murmured to herself.

She began walking away, only to turn around and growl, "Don't follow me…I can tell the nature of the nasty thoughts flying through your perverted head."

Before he could answer her, she was gone.


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When she finally reached her home, night was already settling in. Something about the evening held an air of eeriness, something she couldn't quite explain. But it made her uneasy.

Oh well, no use worrying about it, she thought as she advanced toward the hidden room of her home. Her weapons were stored in there. She had many, which would have caught any man, with the exception of Kouga, off guard. She practically had an arsenal in her home—something unexpected for someone with her grace and nobility.

Among her weapons were a pair of ashiko, a pair of shoku, a short bow and many arrows, a chigiriki, an ample quantity of darts, a fukiya, a jo, a kakute, a pair of kama, ten neko-te, a manriki gusari, an ono which she was surprisingly strong enough to weld, a shobo, an endless supply of shurikens, a tanto, a pair of tessen, many tetsu-bishi, and, of course, her swords, Masamune and Murasame.

Thought she had all these items at her command, she only used a few of them. The weapons she actually did use were the short bow and arrows, her darts, the fukiya, which was probably one of the most useful items she had, the manriki gusari, the shurikens, the tanto, her pair of tessen, which had once belonged to her mother, the tetsu-bishi, and her swords. The cool thing about having the darts, arrows, shurikens, and the tetsu-bishi was that she could dip them in the lethal poison her body produced, making it already too late for her target to survive once they struck their mark—the poison would have already entered her victim's blood. The other items just weighed her down as she had no use for them. Kagome didn't even know why she kept them. (A/N: At the end of the chappy, I posted a short thing about the weapons, telling what they were.)

Inspecting each weapon individually, she found them to be in virtually perfect condition. When she finally came to her swords, she ran her fingers along the smooth, cool metal. The blades of Masamune and Murasame were razor-sharp; not totally dull, like most ninja swords. No, she liked hers sharp; in fact it was so sharp that it could cut through the flesh of her opponent, slicing him in half, even through armor. Good thing she had control, or many of her sparring partners would be dead.

Suddenly her ears picked up the sound of muffled voices outside her home. Sniffing the air, she picked up the scent of youkai. Judging from their scent, they weren't from the area. She could tell they were weak, but by the sound of it, there had to be about four, maybe six.

Quietly she picked up her swords, her tessen, and grabbed a few shurikens, saturating them with her poison. Stealthily she exited the room and crept through her home, not making a sound. As she neared the voices, they grew louder. Someone was breaking in.

"Shhh!! Quiet, you fool! She'll hear you!" one whispered harshly.

"Oh be quiet, you mangy half-wit. She's asleep! This might not even be the right house," the other snapped.

"You don't know that! She's an inuyoukai! They have good hearing…" one trailed off.

"Ahh who cares. If she wakes up, we can gang her," a new voice murmured.

Kagome suppressed the urge to snarl. They disgusted her.

"Yeah. Anyway, thisss is the houssse Naraku mentioned! Ssso let's go!" a final voice hissed

At this Kagome lifted an eyebrow. What the hell is Naraku doing, sending his thugs after me…?

When she heard the door creak open, she fluidly jumped onto the rafters supporting the roof to keep from being noticed. As they entered her house, she counted five. What appeared to be the leader was a snake youkai. Two were rat youkai, one was a hawk youkai, and the one behind the rest was a centipede youkai.

The centipede closed the door, careful not to make a sound, causing him to fall behind the rest. When he was far enough pass the rafter she was perched on, she hurled a poison-dipped shuriken at him. As the shuriken deeply imbedded itself in the small of his neck, Kagome jumped down and landed softly on the floor, catching him before he fell. Letting him down gently, she silently caught up to youkai at the end of the line, which was the hawk. Quickly, she snaked her hand out in front of him and caught his mouth with her left hand, while her right plunged the sword into his back. Removing her sword, she lifted the body over her shoulder and carried him back to where the other, now dead, demom was.

Near the back of her home, Kagome could hear the sounds of the remaining three rustling through objects. Apparently they were looking for something. Quickly and quietly she crept along the length of the hall and into the room the three youkai where rummaging through things. There, she jumped, once again, into the rafters careful not to make any sound.

"Where is it?" the apparent leader whispered impatiently. "Find it! I'm going to sssearch another part of the houssse."

And so he left, leaving the two unsuspecting rat youkai in the room.

Deciding she finally had enough, she drew her tessen and leapt down from the rafter, slicing the nearest rat in the back. By then, the other rat noticed her presence and hissed in attack. Lifting her claws, Kagome slashed his face, leaving them alive, but in a messy heap on the floor.

The leader, hearing the commotion, returned to investigate. Upon seeing Kagome, Murasame in one hand, one tessen in the other, he drew his weapon, a glaive. Before he could strike, however, Kagome was behind him, Murasame drawn to his neck.

"For whom do you work," she questioned coldly, "and what were you looking for?"

When all she received in response was a hiss, Kagome roughly turned the snake youkai around. She was getting murderous.

"I'm going to ask you again. What are you looking for?"

This time, her response was spit in the face. Wiping it off, she backhanded the snake as her crescent started to bleed red.

Seeing this, fear enveloped the snakes being, though he tried to hide it.

With a feral grin, Kagome snarled, "I can smell your fear, weakling."

"Kill…her…" one of the rats choked out.

Kagome looked down at the one who spoke and threw a shuriken at him, then looked back up to the snake. "So, you wish to kill me, do you? Tell me what business you have here, and maybe you'll be more fortunate than these pathetic creatures here."

Unwillingly complying, the snake finally stuttered, "Naraku s-s-sent usss. He kn-kn-knowss of your existence, and the j-jewel you p-protect. He wants you d-d-dead."

"And what jewel is this?" she inquired, eyes narrowed.

"The Shikon no Tama."

At this, Kagome was startled. The Shikon? I don't even know where it is…

Pondering, Kagome finally answered. "Tell this, Naraku, that I possess no such jewel. Now leave, before I kill you."

With that, she threw the snake on the floor, where upon he went scrambled out the door.

The Shikon no Tama…what could he want with it? Why does he think I have it? And why does he want me dead?






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A/N: Hmm…I don't really like this chapter. Well, I liked the very first paragraph, and the sparring scene, but the rest? I dunno. How about you guys? Oh, if you're wondering, here's what some of the Japanese terms mean:

Shikan-ken punch: The shikan-ken is the fundamental fist of the Togakure-ryu. It is used against hard, broad surfaces of bone structure. The fist is formed with the fingers half-folded, leaving the middle knuckles protruding. The striking points are the knuckles, which may be applied to the facial bones, breast-bone, and sides of the middle ribs.

The punch goes straight in, bullet-like, with all the force behind the striking points. The elbow should not rise along the outside of the fist's path, or the punch will bend and hook. The elbow is kept close to the ribs, forcing the punch straight into the target. The teacher warned that the fist is not flipped into place and withdrawn, but used to knock the adversary back. The thrust of the punch continues through the impact with the target.

Ashiko: Spiked claws worn on the feet.

Shoku: Spiked claws worn on the hands.

Chigiriki: Uhh, kind of like a morning star. The chains could be tucked into the hollow handle and then used as a mace,

Fukiya: Blowgun (used for blowing darts and such).

Jo: Hollow piece of bamboo used for various weapon functions and could easily be disguised as a staff or walking stick.

Kakute: Metal type rings used to strangle an enemy.

Kama: Sickles.

Neko-te: Iron, claw-like fingernails used by female ninjas.

Manriki gusari: Chain.

Ono: Battle Axe (very heavy; you needed a lot of strength to weld it).

Shobo: A ring fitted to the middle finger with a piece of dull wood attached. Used for pressure points.

Shurikens: Throwing stars, sometimes dipped in poison.

Tanto: Knife.

Tessen: Folded fans; the blade of the fan when open was often razor-sharp).

Tetsu-bishi: Uhh I don't really know how to describe these…

Go to http://www.entertheninja.com for more information on these weapons. It's actually pretty interesting stuff.

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