Disclaimer: All characters in this chapter belong to the lovely Rumiko Takahashi.
"Mother?" Kagome whispered in disbelief. "Is it really you?"
Lady Yuki smiled benignly at her gaping daughter. "Kagome…my beautiful Kagome. At last I can speak with you."
"How…what…?" the Kagome sputtered.
Her head dropped to her hands and Kagome exhaled, gathering her thoughts. When they finally came together, she tried again.
"How is it you're here?" asked the princess evenly.
"Remember a long, long time ago…when you were but a pup? Naraku's forces attacked our palace," began Yuki.
Kagome's eyes clouded at the memory and she bowed her head. How could she forget?
"I know you saw what happened to your father and me," Yuki continued. "But before I go any further, there is something you must know, though I'm sure you've figured it out already. In your soul rests a dormant power."
Kagome's head snapped up at her mother's statement. "What…?"
"It is a power you were born with," Yuki went on, "and only you were born with it. No one else has ever possessed power such as this and our family goes back thousands of years."
Kagome gaped at her mother.
"Anyway let me continue," Yuki said. "Then you may ask whatever you wish.
"When I died, your soul beckoned to me. I am now the entity of your power, so to speak. Basically I act as the mediator between it and you. I send it to you in such a way where it will not harm you.
"The reason you were unable to sense its presence with your conscious mind is because you hadn't ever needed it. When you finally did, it surged through you, causing you to black out. My spirit had settled into your soul moments before your power surge so I was able to act as a medium through which it travled, leaving you unharmed.
"Until you perfect summoning, controlling and using your power, I will be here."
"I see…" Kagome replied quietly. She felt completely helpless.
"Now I must warn you of something else," Yuki started again. "Naraku is after you. His initial desire was acquiring the Shikon no Tama, but he now lusts after you; he wants you."
Kagome grimaced in disgust. Just thinking of the twisted hanyou laying even a hair on her made her cringe.
"Be especially wary now, my pup. He has seen your power first hand and will try to obtain you at any cost. He will stop at nothing."
"I shall be careful, mother…but how am I to control my power?"
Lady Yuki smiled. "I shall teach you, my child. To begin with, you must learn to tap into it. To do so can be initially achieved through meditation."
"Okay…so I just meditate?"
"Yes. When you meditate, you can reach into the core of your being and harness your power, thus becoming acquainted with it. Once you get to know it well enough and become comfortable with it, you can summon it consciously. Basically, meditation allows you to get a feel of what it is like inside so you can use it outside."
"I get it," Kagome clarified. "Basically by meditating, I'm getting to know my power enough to be able to use it when I want or need to, eventually without meditating."
"Exactly," Yuki smiled at her daughter.
"How did I get here?" Kagome questioned, her eyes scanning the cavern.
"After the last fight you had with Naraku's youkai, you disappeared to here. I used your energy to send you here, much like when you were a child."
"How come you never came before?"
Yuki sighed deeply. "You weren't ready yet…you hadn't gained the knowledge you have now and I knew you wouldn't be ready for such revelations, and I knew you weren't ready to see me."
The princess only nodded.
"Now what else would you like to know?" Yuki asked gently.
Kagome ran her fingers through her hair and took note of its ebony hue. "Why is my hair and tail black?"
"Oh, I did that. I noticed the pain it caused you, remembering how I used to play with your hair, so I changed it. Actually that's the first thing you could start with…change your hair to whatever color you wish. You could even turn your hair pink."
The princess laughed as another question came to her mind. Pulling out the half of the Shikon no Tama she possessed, she showed it to her mother, who gasped at its broken state.
"Mother, how did this come to be inside me?"
"Kagome! Where is the other half?" Yuki inquired frantically.
"Naraku has it. He sent one of his minions, a centipede youkai, after me, knowing it was in my possession. It wasn't the first time…but I didn't know where it was until the centipede yanked it out of my side."
"I see…" Yuki responded. "Six months after you were born, your father and I decided it would be safest if kept inside you. We figured it would be well protected because of your strength and power, so we had it imbedded in your hip. At the time, it was the size of a marble, but as you grew, it grew along with you."
"Oh…" Kagome said confused. "But if you were in my soul, then how come you didn't know?"
"I sleep along with your power until you need it, and me. Though I am awake at times, I never noticed it's presence missing. Even when it was inside you, it was…dormant…so to say, so I wouldn't have been able to tell whether or not it was present," Yuki smiled softly.
The two were silent for a moment. A low chuckle suddenly sounded from Lady Yuki causing Kagome to look up questioningly.
"What's funny?" she asked.
Laughing, her mother smirked, "So I see you're quite taken with the young Lord of the Western Lands, much as you were when you were a baby."
"Sess…SESSHOUMARU??" Kagome screeched.
Laughing harder, Lady Yuki answered with a twinkle in her eye, "I noticed how you looked at him when he wasn't watching. That was one time I was awake."
"Mother! Please! Spare me the drama. I'd never like him!" Kagome adamantly denied.
"Oh? Why not?" Yuki asked as a knowing smile played at her lips.
"Oh, I'll tell you why," Kagome began, her voice rising. "He's a cold, emotionally constipated, arrogant bastard who gets some sadistic pleasure from watching people, particularly those who've just realized who he is, tremble in fear. And he can never pass up an opportunity to insult me."
Yuki grinned. "So if you don't like or care about him, as you say, why do his insults bother you so much? And why do you think about him so often?"
"I don't!!" Kagome whined.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Okay, okay! Maybe I do…but I can assure you, only a little," the young woman finally complied.
"I knew it! I knew you liked him the first time you laid eyes on him when you were a puppy," Yuki said smugly.
"Keh," Kagome huffed. "Like him or not, I can still kick his ass."
"Hmm, I don't know about that, but I'd say you two were even," Yuki said dryly.
Kagome huffed. "I swear! You're conspiring against me!"
Yuki only smiled and she suddenly pulled her daughter in a tender embrace.
"I must go now… you have much you must do. I will always be here, Kagome. In your heart, and soul. If you ever need me, call me; I will reach you in one way or another."
"I love you, mother," Kagome whispered as her eyes began to moisten.
"And I love you, my beautiful Kagome."
Yuki pulled away and stepped back. Kagome watched nostalgically as her mother's image swirled into a sphere of ice blue light. As a tear ran down her cheek, the glowing orb floated toward her.
"I love you, my Kagome…" Yuki's voice faded as the ball that was she entered Kagome's soul.
"I love you too, Mother," she whispered.
Though her mother was physically gone, Kagome felt warmth inside her that she hadn't felt in so many years.
Naraku stormed into his chambers and slammed his fist against a mirror in a fit of rage, shattering the defenseless object into millions of tiny pieces. He had returned to his castle in a state of fury and found Kagura mocking him, which only succeeded in fueling the fire more. Angrily, he smashed his fist into her temple and left a gaping wound. But she was youkai; she'd soon recover. Naraku's anger, however, was a different story.
Never in his life had he been so humiliated. Things were going so well, up until Sesshoumaru showed up. From there, everything had gone downhill. The hanyou especially wasn't counting on the Guardian's power. He had been bested again…and by a woman. Not once, not twice, but a total of five times. Each time he had failed miserably, the most recent being the cream of the crop.
As his anger began to simmer down, Naraku began scheming more ways to obtain what he wanted, each scenario in his mind becoming more twisted and seemingly more complex.
This time, he growled to himself, I will not fail.
Kagome's concentration was on her twin swords. Staring intently at the blades, the ninja willed Masamune and Murasame to come to her. The pair gently rose into the air and floated toward the princess. As Kagome grasped the hilts, a smile graced her lips.
She'd spent four days in the cavern, straining her mind and spirit until she'd finally perfected using her power. Though Kagome had mastered her skills, she had yet to gain the knowledge of spells and was thus limited to very little from her arsenal of abilities; telekinesis and telepathy were two of which she was able to perform.
The princess took one last look around the room and decided it was time to leave. But how to get out?
Her eyes scanned the room and came to rest on the full-length, satin gold mirror which had been forgotten during her training. She walked toward the structure that had grabbed her attention during her initial arrival and inspected it, her eyes tracing every part of the mirror, up and down until they finally rested in the center, where her family crest was engraved. Kagome stared hard at the design and was about to look away when her perfect vision picked up something that would have been invisible at a glance—a very faint handprint in the background of the crest.
Kagome looked down at her own hand for a second before once again peering at the trace on the mirror. Slowly she lifted her hand and pressed against the gold. The structure began to ripple and the princess' hand slid through.
She gasped and quickly pulled back her hand, inspecting it for damage. When she found none, her eyes once again turned to the still-rippling mirror and watched in fascination as it began to solidify. Kagome touched the mirror again until it began to ripple and, with a deep breath, jumped through. She landed at the bottom of a well not far from Kaede's Village.
Picking herself up, Kagome dusted herself off and climbed out of the well, intent on seeing her friends.
Sesshoumaru sat quietly at the desk in his study, eyes fixed on the papers before him. The Lords of the Southern and Eastern Lands requested audiance with him to discuss boundary matters regarding the Guardian Lands. The young lord had read and reread the same paragraph about six times and still had yet to digest the message it was conveying.
"Our attention is set on the Guardian Lands and it's absense of government..." the paragraph read, but the prince found his mind wandering toward Kagome.
For the first two days, Sesshoumaru stayed in Kaede's Village with the others awaiting the Guardian Princess' return, much to the surprise of the small group. The whole time had been hard on everyone. Though Kaede, Sango and Miroku had only met the princess only a short while before, they felt an oddly close bond with the girl. Inuyasha sat quietly alone, he was so worried. He had grown to respect demon princess as a battle ally. The hanyou didn't even reprimand Shippou like he normally would have when the kit sobbingly attached himself to Inuyasha like a third limb. Instead, the hanyou gently patted the kit on his head—that was definitely saying something.
Sesshoumaru had quite possibly been the worse for wear. The normally calm, collected, youkai who almost never showed emotion had worry clearly written in his eyes. His voice had been strained when speaking to anyone, his body was tense all over, and he had to use every ounce of control he possessed to keep from backhanding anyone who spoke of Kagome as if she were already dead. By the third day, Sesshoumaru had had it, and he abruptly stalked out of the hut, startling everyone as he slammed the door.
Was she safe? Was she okay? Was she even alive?
Sesshoumaru snorted.
Of course she was alive and he knew it. But still, that didn't calm his unease regarding her well-being. For all he knew, she could have been lying half-alive hundreds of miles from anywhere even remotely civilized. But he quickly dismissed that thought—she youkai and a powerful one at that.
So there he sat in his home, pouring over political matters as his mind strayed toward the Guardian Princess.
"Return safely, woman," Sesshoumaru whispered to himself. "There are people who need you."
A/N: This chapter was shorter than normal, and I kinda liked it...I'm happy with how it turned out. Hehe I had to put the well in somewhere...so I thought that was the best place. And the structure Kag walked through is not a mirror, but it was a lot easier calling it that rather than saying "the mirror-like structure" as I did last chapter ^_^
Anyway, when Sesshoumaru said "There are people who need you," he is referring to Inuyasha and the gang, not himself. Yes, he's beginning to fall for Kagome, but he's unaware of it and he's only starting to care a little bit so he doesn't really have many feelings for her at the moment.
Don't worry though...a few chapters from now is when I'll really start to make things happen (no lemons though...I've never written one and I'm not about to try with this story). ^_^
Big thanks to ShellBabe for being my beta reader for spelling! Speaking of beta readers, I need one, maybe two for grammer and stuff...if anyone is interested, e-mail me: LiaTheLovely@AOL.com and I'll give you more info (think of it as an advantage because you get to read my chapters before everyone else ^_~)
|[ Review Responses ]| Yay! I broke 100!
|[ shikome kido mi ]| Hey thanks for reviewing...and yes, I understand how you feel with Sesshoumaru conveniently showing up...I agree. But I had to find some way to get him into the chapter and I couldn't think of any other way :\ I didn't really even like chapter 6...*sigh* oh well, though! I think this chapter was better than the last.
|[ Renangel ]| Thanks for your review :) Don't worry...Sesshoumaru and Kagome will get together soon...kinda. I'm estimating around chapter 11 or 12 (I know it's kinda far...b
|[ SimplyTurquoise ]| Thank you for your review! I never thought of overconfidence as being a weakness...but it sounds good! Thanks so much!
|[ Nymph ]| Hey! Thanks for your review!! It really made me smile :D
|[ SapphireStar ]| Thanks for your review :) but what did you mean "When will Kagome get her true colours back"?
|[ thekiit ]| Hehe, yes her father died...as for her mother,, well that was explained this chapter. I hope I didn't confuse you! But what will happen to Kag and what will happen with her and Sess and how will it end? Only time will tell...^_^
|[ Clow Angel ]| Thanks for your review!! It really makes me feel good when people say my story is one of the best they've red...and this is my first fic!
|[ diamond (raine182003@yahoo.com) ]| Hey thanks for your review :) if you're asking if I know of any other good Sess/Kag stories, yes I do. If you click on my username (Eden) adn then click on my favorite stories, there will be a list of stories with Sess/Kag pairing. Also, all of my favorite authors except Clara write Sess/Kag stories. Oh and by teh way..have you ever played Final Fantasy VIII? Your e-mail address makes me think of a minor character from that game :)
|[ Brian Hahn (bbangisyummy@hotmail.com) ]| Hey Brian thanks for reading my story :) Now hurry up and review the other chapters!! Ahh...I miss the good ole days when you used to live by me and we used to hang out...I had a dream I went skiing! :D Anyway come visit us soon and stay with Jerrin. I miss you!
|[ MajinTrunks ]| Hey Kris, thanks for reading my story :) even if it did take you nearly a million years...
|[ TO EVERYONE ELSE ]| Thank you all so much for reviewing my story and giving me the ideas for Naraku's weakness!! I'm sorry I didn't respond to you all individually...but blame the mind, not the heart. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!
