Until The Day I Die
Chapter Six: The Chosen One
By: Sci-Fi Raptor
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or its characters.
Why is it that I seem to dish out good fics during AP tests? What is wrong with me!
I'm not a perfect person
As many things I wish I didn't do
But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know
I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you
I'm sorry that I hurt you
It's something I must live with everyday
And all the pain I put you through
I wish that I could take it all away
And be the one who catches all your tears
Thats why i need you to hear
I've found a resaon for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is You
The Reason (Hoobastank)
Hermes could not have asked for a better find. In all his days of grave robbing, he had never encountered the tomb of a king!
"We'll see who's laughing now, boys," he said to himself bitterly as he sifted through the tomb's treasures. Too long he had been ridiculed as the one who would never make a name for himself. Now he would finally rise to fame, fortune. And most importantly, women, he thought to himself with glee.
The tomb was enormous. He knew royalty had lavish tombs created for their graves, but who would think it would be this big? (It was an underground cavern as large as Yankee stadium. Go Yankees!)
Hermes thought back to a few moments ago, when he was stalking breakfast. As he closed in for the kill, he stepped into a hole, which dropped him onto a pile of soft stuff nearby. When he collected his wits (and managed to light a torch, which was lying on the ground next to him), lo and behold, he was sitting on top of a mound of rare, imported silks. Upon further inspection of the room, he noticed that the whole place was adorned with jade, sapphire, rubies and jewels. All the streets (yes, it actually had streets in there) were paved with gold and the monuments were built of what seemed to be pure silver. Everything in there glittered, even the coffins.
There were two coffins, actually. He peeked in and saw that one had the crown of a king and the other of a queen. He happened to look at the north wall and realized that the remains of a large Inu-Yokai were hung as if it were the tomb's guard.
"Well, one man's grave is another man's treasure," Hermes muttered to himself as he started stuffing some of the valuables into his pouch. As he snagged things, he noticed that there was something out of place. There, atop a pedestal adorned in silk and gold was a crumbling piece of rock. He approached it, wondering what was so important about it. When he was close enough, he could see something unscripted on it in an extremely old language. Fortunately, he had learned much about that kind of writing on his grave digging exploits, and it read something like this:
The dark Lord will rise once again from that which I have sealed,
Too soon it will seem that the fate of all will be dealed.
The daughter will possess his soul, protecting he whom she holds dear,
The chosen one will protect them all, and vanquish all fear.
Truly, he will finally be vanquished, but only by that blade,
The Master of all swords that I gave to the King, the one of White Jade.
"What a bunch of rubbish," Hermes said to himself.
"Leave…" a deep voice boomed. Hermes dropped everything.
"Who said that?" Hermes demanded, frantically looking around for the speaker. "Its Jimmy, isn't it? Haha, very funny, now come out!"
"LEAVE!" the voice ordered once again. Hermes realized where it had come from. He turned to the north wall and saw the Inu-Yokai's remains once again. But this time, he screamed; its eyes were on fire.
"LEAVE!" it said again, the fires exploding.
"Yes boss," Hermes said in a tiny voice and ran away faster then a cheetah.
"I still got it," the voice said when the intruder was gone. The fires died down, and who else jumped out of the demon's skull except… Myoga!
"Watch where you're walking. I almost lost you again," Inuyasha said, fear evident in his voice. Kagome looked in front of her and saw a sheer cliff. "Don't scare me like that," he said, wrapping his other arm around her. Kagome turned her head to face him and saw something in his eyes she had only seen in her dreams.
"Inuyasha…" she whispered as their lips touched. This is what you meant, wasn't it K'shief? Kagome was never as happy in her entire life as she was right now. The only time when she ever felt that happy was when she thought of Tamago… Inuyasha suddenly pulled away, as if sensing her thoughts.
"Inuyasha?" she questioned. He turned her around so that they were facing each other, and gave her a hug, resting his head on her shoulder. She returned the hug, oblivious to what was going on in his mind.
"Because of the way I've been treating you this whole time, you probably won't believe me when I say this," he whispered into her ear, "but… it's been fun seeing you again."
"Inuyasha, what are you talking about?" Kagome said, surprised by this sudden confession. She suddenly felt an overwhelming presence.
"Unhand that maiden, evil demon!" a familiar voice commanded. Kagome looked past Inuyasha's shoulders to see someone she didn't expect. Inuyasha calmly let go of her and stood before her, going into an offensive stance.
"Bastard, who do you think you are to command me?"
"I am Prince Naraku and I have come forth to save the beautiful princess from your clutches!" Naraku boomed.
"Come and try me!" Inuyasha said in his usually cocky attitude. Naraku leaped forward and attacked Inuyasha with his jewel-encrusted sword. Inuyasha blocked with Tetsaiga using his lightning-fast reflexes. Unfortunately, he was struck down with Naraku's superior force and fell off of the cliff.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome shrieked, just reacting to what was going around her.
"Come Princess Kagome, time is running out. We have quite some distance to travel to make it to the Temple of Kings in the short time which we have until the planets align," Naraku said. He whistled and a horse came.
"But," Kagome started, too confused to act. She wanted to stay and see if she could help Inuyasha, but some outside force was prodding her to follow Naraku.
"We have to go Princess," he said. Another deeper, eviler, voice echoed what he said in her head. "Now." She submitted, walking towards him, trying to remember why she wanted to stay in the first place. He lifted her onto his horse once she came up to him. "You must think of your duty Princess Kagome," he said softly. "Many lives ride on your actions."
"That's right…" Kagome said, thinking back to when all of this started.
[Flashback]
"This is known as the Shikon Jewel. It is said that the Jewel holds great power within it," the Queen said, then darkly "…among other things. It is one of our kingdom's biggest secrets and is never taken out except for certain days."
"But what does that have to do with me?" Kagome asked.
"In two weeks," the Queen continued, "all the planets and our moon will be aligned. 'If the jewel is not in its mount within the Temple of Kings, great misfortune will befall our land,'" the Queen said ominously, as if quoting a prophet.
[End flashback]
Before Kagome knew it, she and Prince Naraku were galloping past the land at the horse's fastest pace. Along the way, Naraku swapped horses so that they wouldn't be riding an exhausted horse the whole way. By dawn of the next day, Kagome could see the temple off in the distance. For some reason, she could tell that Naraku had become disturbed or anxious sometime the day before, but he didn't comment about it.
"Bravo, bravo Inuyasha," someone clapped. "I never thought you could have survived that kind of fall," Kagura said to Inuyasha. They were back on the edge of the cliff where Inuyasha 'lost' Kagome to Naraku.
"Kagura, I'm insulted. After seeing the kind of fighting I did against the gods and other pesky demons I've fought along the way, I thought you would have given me more credit," he sneered.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't give me that. I know Naraku has had you tailing me this whole time," he snarled.
"You caught me," she said, expressing dismay. "But I never did get to see you fight these 'gods' you speak of. There was a barrier blocking the view."
"That's right," he said, slapping himself on the head. "I had almost completely forgotten about that barrier."
"You knew about it? Why didn't you tell us?" she demanded.
"Because," Inuyasha said with a thin smile on his lips. Faster than the eye can follow, he was behind Kagura with a dagger across her neck.
"Inuyasha, what are you doing!? If you don't let me go Naraku will surely kill you! Anything you do to me will come back to him."
"See, that's where you're wrong. Naraku can't see a thing that you can," he said, his smile stretching. "Since I noticed you I've put up a barrier. Right now he thinks that a wolf Yokai has just mangled you."
"Since when could you make barriers?" she asked surprised. "Naraku didn't say you were that powerful!"
"Oh that's simple. Ever since I made those ones protecting the gods."
"Why are you telling me all this? Aren't you going to kill me?"
"I'm waiting for you to ask the million dollar question," he said darkly.
"Which would be?"
"How could I possibly scale that cliff so quickly?"
"… you couldn't…"
"Bingo," Inuyasha said and made one quick movement with his hand. My way is way cooler then you and your dumb feather's.
Simply put, the world was going mad! Farleigh thought he was going to die, but not a few minutes ago. There he was, on his way to the Chamber when suddenly some… person came barging into the Hall. The interaction went something like this:
Farleigh walked with ump in his step on his way to the Chamber. The Queen was finally going to address the many questions the Council had about the abduction of Princess Kagome and the future of the kingdom.
As he drew closer to the Chamber, he heard a commotion come from behind him.
"Hey you! You can't go in there!" a guard behind him yelled. He turned back to rebuke the guard for the insult of confusing him for a commoner, but realized that he wasn't being addressed. His eyes went wide open as he saw a man draped in white garments incapacitate each guard in his path. Within moments, he was standing in front of Farleigh, who was frozen with fear.
The man simply stared at Farleigh, as if waiting for some kind of response.
"Please don't hurt me…" he finally managed to say, almost soiling himself. The man's cold, piercing gold eyes lit up as he gave a maniacal laugh. He walked past Farleigh, still chuckling and simply annihilated the Chamber door. He walked through it and said: "The new guards never cease to amuse me," obviously referring to him.
When he realized that he was in no danger, he rushed into the Chamber, dreading that the man had done something to the Queen. Fortunately (at best), the man was actually kissing her hand. Farleigh calmed down, sure that he was loyal to the Queen. But he was perturbed; why was he never told about him. Then again, he wasn't told about Naraku or this son she mentioned. He was tired of being out of the loop. He took a seat behind the council.
"As I mentioned before," the Queen said after he stood next to her, "there was someone I wanted to introduce to you. May I present, Master of Intelligence, Lord Sesshomaru."
"Master of Intelligence?" one of the councilmen started. "I thought Sir Hermes was the overseer of intelligence."
"That is true, noble Councilman, but I head a black ops division know as the D-Knights," Sesshomaru said.
"D-Nights? As in the group who annihilated the demon horde some years ago?"
"Yes, that is exactly what he is talking about," the Queen said.
"But we were told that the D-Knights were a division of the military," another councilman said.
"That is how secret our organization is," Sesshomaru said. "We couldn't even disclose our true existence to even the Council."
"Then who knows about it?"
"The Queen, myself, a few of the Councilmen and those already in our organization."
"Exactly how many people are in your organization? And who?"
"I'm sorry, but I cannot disclose that kind of information. I can say, though, that the missions that we undertake have less then a 40% survival rate, which is why I must emphasize secrecy of anything that you hear today. Our lives may depend on everyone keeping whatever happens today, in this room." The Chamber was filled with an eerie silence. A councilman got the courage to speak up.
"Well then, what do you want us to do?" The room was filled with sounds of assent.
"First of all, the Council must first be informed of how our present kingdom was formed." Sesshomaru said.
"What does a millennia old story have anything to do with what the D-Knights are doing?"
"Nothing," the Queen replied. "The story he's talking about was from when the former kingdom was merged with the Western Lands."
"When you became Queen," one of the councilmen said, making the connection.
"Precisely. As you all know, my bloodline is of a different lineage then that of those who ruled before me. I took over for the former king and united the Western Lands and this kingdom."
"And everything surrounding that has been shrouded. Will you finally disclose how it all happened?"
"Yes. The first thing that I must say is that Kagome isn't my daughter." The crowd made a collective gasp. "But she still is a princess because she is the former King's daughter. I however, had a son, who is known by many as Tamago."
"Then how did our kingdoms merge?"
"That's where all the problems start," she said, putting a hand to her head. "The day that Kagome and my son's marriage was arranged, my former husband, and the old king and queen were murdered by a creature known as Naraku."
"Are you referring to Prince Naraku?"
"Yes, but he is no prince. He is a creature that was fabled to destroy the world. We thought that the legends meant for us to stop him, but it seems that it was our children's duty, not ours."
"What do you mean?"
"The day we arranged our children's marriage, Naraku escaped from a seal he was put under many millennia ago. He attacked us, thinking that our children were with us. My husband valiantly fought with him, and succeeded in sealing him again. Unfortunately, it seems that Naraku had somehow taken the place of our neighbor's son, something that I had just recently found out. He also managed to kill the former king and queen before my husband sealed him. My husband died from using up all of his energy trying to seal him."
"How is it that your husband was able to fight this Naraku, but ours seemed to be helpless?"
"Its simple. My husband was the Demon Lord of the Western Lands." The room became excited with energy with this revelation.
"You mean… your son is a Hanyou!?" someone managed to say over the noise.
"Yes," she said. All eyes turned to Sesshomaru.
"You think that I'm a hanyou?" he said in disgust, cracking his knuckles.
"Sesshomaru is my step-son. My husband had him with one of his subjects," the Queen said, as to make everyone not think that he was a hanyou and simultaneously save them from his wrath of such thoughts. A collective sigh could be heard from the whole group. There was no way in heaven that the king could be a demon. A hanyou was okay, but a demon was impossible.
"That was informative, your majesty," one of the more hot-headed councilmen said, "but what was the point of this early discussion?"
"Well, presently, Naraku has possession of the Princess and means to remove the seal placed upon him. However, we have managed to manipulate his movements so that he will deliver the Princess to exactly where she needs to be to get rid of Naraku permanently. The problem is, the legend says that he may only be killed by the Chosen One, and only by using the Master Sword."
"The sword of the first king?"
"Yes, that sword," Sesshomaru said.
"Wait, how do we know he is this 'Chosen One'?"
"Naraku took something from me which I hold most dear," Sesshomaru said. Then he slit the Queen's throat. The room burst with anger at what he had done. He just stared them down as if it were something he did all the time. He drew out a sword and slashed the Queen again. Miraculously, she was untouched.
"As you can see from my son's… demonstration, he has the power to bring the dead back to life."
"And it has been so all the time, except for one case." The Council neednt any more evidence. It seemed obvious to them that the Queen and Sesshomaru had everything planned out and the Council just had to get the ball rolling.
"So you wanted the Council's approval before you took it?"
"As the mandate requires," the Queen said. "And the faster we get this done, the more likely that we will finally get rid of Naraku."
"All in favor…" one of the councilmen said.
"I," they all said in unison.
"There is one more matter," the Queen said before the Coucil lost focus. They all quieted down. "It is conciveable that when Naraku is killed, the nation that he ruled over will retaliate, so I also move for the military to be mobilized for a preemptive strike on his nation."
"I would also like for a unit to be sent with me to handle other matters," Sesshomaru added.
"All in favor?" the Queen said. Not everyone said 'I' (actually, it was the hotheaded guy, but a smack to the back of the head fixed that).
[Day of planetary alignment]
It was quickly approaching sundown and Kagome started feeling anxious. What would happen with the Jewel once the planets aligned? She also had a nagging feeling that she was forgetting about something. It started with an 'I,' she was sure of that.
"Lady Kagome, its almost time," Naraku said, walking up to her.
"Yes," she said, and the two walked into the temple, hand in hand.
The Temple of Kings was a very dark place. Naraku lit a lot of the old candles in the temple, causing strange fumes to go into the air. Kagome coughed.
"Easy there, Princess," Naraku said coldly.
"Sorry," she apologized for no particular reason. Kagome went deeper into the temple and found a pedestal. Naraku had been breathing down her neck the whole time, but he stopped a few feet before the pedestal.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
"Its okay, just keep on going." Kagome slowly approached the pedestal and pulled the Jewel out. It was glowing intensely, as if eager to be put into its holder. Kagome saw a depression that was probably the Jewel's holder and gently placed it on there, as if giving it too much of a jolt would cause it to shatter. What was that I just remembered? Kagome thought when she saw someone dressed in red in her mind. She dropped it in its nook and moved away to see if anything would happen. She waited for a few minutes, but nothing.
"Don't worry Princess, the planets won't align until a little bit before sundown."
"Oh," she said. "Well, I guess there's nothing left to do but wait."
"Actually, Princess, there is something," Naraku said in a sinister voice.
"And what may that be?" Kagome asked, oblivious of what Naraku was. Naraku seemed to explode; Kagome screamed her lungs out. Unfortunately, all he was doing was showing his true form.
"I hope I'm not too late," Sesshomaru thought as he finally reached the Temple of Kings. His keen demon senses told him that the planetary alignment would happen within a few minutes, and if he didn't kill Naraku, he would completely unseal himself. Be the time he reached the temple, his senses told him that the alignment happened. Within mere moments, the temple disintegrated and blew away with the wind. Sesshomaru saw something that made his mind blow away with it: the ground started rising. Sesshomaru jumped on before he was left behind.
When he could finally grasp what his senses were telling him, he saw a sick (both meanings) looking demon and the princess strapped, laying on the ground in the middle of a circle with some incantations on them.
"Sesshomaru, what are you doing here? Didn't I send you off to do an errand to repay me for destroying my minion?"
"Bastard, do you think I would ever take orders from you?"
"I see… so you are the chosen one," Naraku said, spitting the word like acid.
"Yes, and I will destroy you!" Sesshomaru said, jumping at him and slashing with his sword. Unfortunately, there was a barrier. The Master Sword simply bounced off of it, causing Sesshomaru to be flung back a few feet. When he got back to his feet, he had to wait a few seconds for the blade to stop oscillating.
"Bastard, come out of there!" Sesshomaru growled.
"Know your place, minion!" Naraku said and send a wave of miasma at him. Sesshomaru covered his face, but the high concentration of poison burned his skin. Sesshomaru managed to shake the poison off and attacked the barrier again. Again, he was flung back.
I don't understand. Why aren't I slitting his throat? Sesshomaru thought angrily. Frustrated, he took out his whip and attacked from a distance. The sharp cracks must have woken up the princess, because she suddenly started screaming.
One would have thought if a person suddenly woke up to find herself strapped to some weird incantation circles, one would scream. One would have thought if a person suddenly woke up and see someone that they knew as a thing made of many demon parts, one would scream. One would have thought if a person suddenly woke up to find herself in the middle of a battle between two non-humans, one would scream. But the aforementioned situations were not what made Kagome scream. It was the bright light in the sky that seemed to come closer and closer.
Before the impact, she could distinctly hear someone shout 'Entei' really loudly. After the impact, all that stood was everything inside Naraku's barrier and Sesshomaru who had miraculously survived the attack. Everything else that remained on the rising piece of land was flattened and charred.
As the fires burned down, Kagome could see something slowly approach from the sky. She could eventually make out a horse-like shape among the fires, which hid the newcomer and Sesshomaru (whom the person had landed next to).
Sesshomaru followed the Princess' gaze and saw the white pinpoint. He knew what it was and didn't think he would ever be on the receiving end of it. Immediately he started chanting the protection incantation. The bright light surrounded him just as he finished the chant and he saw everything go ablaze. From far away it seemed as if a micro-atomic bomb had just exploded.
In a few seconds, the attacker landed next to him. He was riding on his flying horse, Entei.
"Tamago… your orders were to protect the Princess from long range. Not assist me on eliminating Naraku." Sesshomaru said accusingly.
"Well, if I let you fight alone any longer, this operation is over along with your life."
"Listen to me for once. The only reason we even allowed you to protect the Princess from long range was so we could have our men protecting you. You are too valuable to the humans to die. Don't make me have to order you to leave," he said coldly.
"How can I stay back when Kagome is in the front lines?" Tamago growled.
"Listen to reason…"
"Sesshomaru, my comrade. I have known you since that demon invasion. We've gone through a lot together. You know me. And you know I can't leave her," he said soothingly.
"But your duty…"
"Sesshomaru. Why are you doing this?"
"Doing what?"
"Why are you even wasting your time here? We both know you hate humans. Why are you risking your life for one?"
"…because. Because of what he did to Rin," Sesshomaru said angrily, clenching his hands.
"And that is exactly why I can't leave. I couldn't bear for Kagome to share the same fate. Besides-"
"Fools!" Naraku boomed in a sinister voice. "The hour of this world's doom is at hand. While you two have been wasting your breath, the planets have finally aligned!"
The fires had died down a lot, so everyone looked at the Jewel. It had risen a few feet from its pedestal. A bright peach light shot up from it and headed in the direction of Mars. In a few moments, it started shaking, calmly at first, but then very violently. It started shaking so much that it exploded, but instead of dispersing like last time, the fragments formed a larger sphere and seemed to turn into a field of light and energy.
"Now that the Jewel is activating, I have made the Princess take down the seal that has kept me from the Jewel. Now that nothing stand between me and it, I can finally break the seal that has been keeping my powers dormant for so long!" he said and walked towards the Jewel. There was a barrier present, but a move of his hand (and the Princess giving a bloodcurling scream which exhasted her) shattered it. He walked up to the Jewel and put his hand into it, letting him leech off of its energy.
"Besides," Tamago said, as if nothing were going on around them. "I am the chosen one, not you."
Hey, didn't Tamago die last chapter?
Oh yeah, Tamago's back! Will I reveal what happened to him all this time? Or will I be evil and let Naraku win? (don't you get tired of good winning over evil over and over and OVER again?)
Stick around for the final chapter and see!
XP