Warning: Rather sensitive and violent subjects are discussed in this chapter, please take the rating seriously.
Chapter Two:
Kagome frowned as her daughter's pale brows furrowed as she whimpered incoherently. Twenty minutes had passed since Mitsukai's confession and the surge of anxiety that left her in a deep sopor. Mitsukai's long silver hair tangled about her shoulders and face as she quivered and writhed on the rough pavement
She moaned and whimpered as if trapped within a horrid nightmare. The magenta stripes on her face and limbs became harsh jagged as poison dripped from her elongating fangs and claws. Her claws scored the pavement, cutting savage gouges into its unforgiving surface. The distinct floral scent of Mitsukai's poison became a pernicious stench as it melted the pavement it contacted.
"Misty-chan, wake up," Kagome whispered as she shook her daughter's shoulder, her voice laced with panic.
Tears sprung into Kagome's eyes as she shook her daughter ineffectively. The miko chewed her bottom lip as she brushed the hair from Mitsukai's cheeks, in what she hoped was a calming gesture. Mitsukai settled and Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. Her relief was short lived for just as suddenly as she stilled, Mitsukai convulsed, her head striking the cement carelessly as she thrashed.
Kagome uttered a panicked cry as she flung herself on her child in effort to cease her flailing. She straddled the girl's waist and pinned her by the shoulders.
"Mitsukai, please stop," Kagome pleaded, hopeful her voice would somehow reach her daughter.
Dark energy coursed around her daughter's slender frame. Kagome recognized the energy as youki. She had felt this power before, it was the violent surge that occurred moments before a youkai transformed.
"Mitsukai, sweetie listen to me," she pleaded, praying to long forgotten gods that her daughter would respond.
Her daughter's youki lifted their hair about as if blown by an ill born wind. Silver-white strands mingled with ebony as Kagome tighten her hold on her daughter as she continued to buck and flail.
Kagome winced as her daughter's youki poured over her like frigid waves of an unrestrained sea. The proximity to such a degree of dark energy was nearly overwhelming. She felt as if she were suffocating beneath a torrent of pure unbridled power.
Instinctually Kagome's innate power rose in an answering echo to combat the dark energy. The same holy power that once tried to purify Mitsukai in the womb leapt, insistently sought to purify the youki of the fragile seeming young girl.
Mitsukai uttered a pain filled shriek as muscle and sinew snapped beneath her pale skin. In her haze of anxiety and pain, she saw not her mother, but her attacker pinning her against a filth-covered wall. Pain from her mother's holy power merely fueled her delusion. She did not feel the burning warmth of the purifying light but her assailant's rough fingers. Rough, violating hands intent on causing pain scoured her body possessively.
"Stop…..Don't……Please," she wailed brokenly as she turned her face in effort to avoid the imagined advances.
Kagome watched in morbid fascination as a fine layer of silken white fur began to cover her daughter's body. Anger welled deep within her both at the now dead man who harmed her child and her own powerlessness. Mitsukai's body was straining to transform and there was nothing she could hope to accomplish. Tears ran down her face like scalding trails of wax. Once again someone she loved would fall to the beast within.
Had she been a fool entirely? Was it sheer naivety to believe she could rear a youkai daughter in modern society? Mitsukai's burgeoning powers began manifesting when she was very young. Discovering her superior speed, strength and agility gave her a decisive edge over the adults that wish to lay her down for a much-needed nap.
She would often leap into high trees or jump from great heights much to Kagome's dismay. It would not be until Mitsukai turned five that she would discover her capacity for creating deadly poison. Poison that she never used maliciously but rather to melt various objects, usually the coveted belongings of then teenaged Souta.
When they confronted her actions she would smile innocently and say, "but it smells pretty." Faced with such innocence it was difficult to punish her, unfortunately Souta was not as easily swayed. He loved her of that there was no doubt, they all loved Mitsukai for she was the very epitome of her name. Mitsukai was a beautiful precious thing both in mind and body. Kagome shook her head. She loved her daughter too much to just give up. She would reach her somehow that she vowed.
"Mitsukai. Stop. It. Now," she said in stern determination, sounding every bit the mother she was.
Mitsukai's eyes snapped open wild and unseeing; their golden depths filled with pinpricks of scarlet. She growled viciously but Kagome remained undeterred from her course. She forcibly pulled back the holy power, swallowing it like bits of broken glass.
"Please Misty, please. I love you. Please come back to me," she begged reverting back to her daughter's more affectionate nickname.
In the midst of her anxiety a soothing voice called to her snapping back to reality. The beast she battled crumpled beneath the power of that voice. She did not understand the words, but their meaning was clear, she was safe her mother would protect her. The red faded from her vision as her eyes returned to their normal gold. She blinked at the stars that had begun to appear in the night sky. Her mother sighed in relief and looked at her with tear filled eyes.
"Mommy?" she whispered in the heartbroken voice of a much younger child. She sat up and threw herself into her mother's arms.
She panted for a few moments before signing in contentment as her mother's arms tighten around her slender form. She nuzzled into her mother's warm embrace. Her troubles, at least for the moment were ended. Mitsukai lay her cheek against her mother's breast and entangled a clawed hand in her mother's ebony hair.
She had always loved her mother's hair, with its dark hue and its fragile waves. Her mother's hair was the color of deep nighttime water, black with just the barest hint of blue. It was a complete contrast to her perfectly straight silver white locks.
Her mother's hair had a different texture coarse but soft, smelling slightly of rose oil. Her mother always wore rose oil when she had to go to work. She breathed deeply, inhaling the gentle fragrance. Although she wanted desperately to be held, she felt she should remind her mother of her obligations.
"You're going to be late for work," she whispered drowsily; lulled to sleep by the soothing rhythm of her mother's heart.
She felt her mother's chest shake in gentle laughter. She hugged her mother tighter, careful not to crush her mother's fragile form.
"You worry about the silliest things Misty-chan," Kagome said with a chuckle as she traced the delicate tip of her daughter's pointed ear.
Kagome stifled a small laugh as Mitsukai squirmed. "Mama," she whined as she playfully slapped at her mother's hands. "Stop. That tickles," she demanded sternly while fighting off a bout of laughter.
Kagome smiled broadly at her daughter's commanding tone and playful antics. Her daughter's sudden return to normalcy brought her much relief. However, she understood it would take a while before Mitsukai was completely herself. Mitsukai had been attacked in one of the most debasing ways imaginable.
Kagome licked her lips as she fingered her daughter's ripped blouse. "Mitsukai," she began but was interrupted.
"He didn't," her daughter answered with a sigh, anticipating her mother's question.
Kagome nodded in comprehension as a wave of relief swept over her. In Kagome's mind, the filth that could do such a thing earned his fate. It would take a long time to convince Mitsukai that her actions while severe, were justifiable. However justified, it did not change the simple truth, Mitsukai took a life.
'What's going to happen now?' Kagome wondered as her fingertips grazed the now smooth magenta stripe on her daughter's cheek.
Kagome knew that should the populace discover Mitsukai they would take her lock her away. They would not understand. Had she not done similar crimes to this child she loved more than life itself? Mitsukai had already spent the short years of her life locked within the shrine. Always they kept her safely within the shrine grounds, completely hidden from the outside world. She was a prisoner whose only crime was to be born long after her time.
Kagome had cloistered herself in the shrine through her pregnancy and much of her daughter's early childhood. During which time she became estranged with majority of her friends. Even Hojou eventually quit visiting. It was all to protect Mitsukai, but in retrospect in was only to protect herself.
She could not to face reality nor did she wish too. Her real friends, those in the Sengoku Jidai were dead and she was carrying the child of a man she did not love. A man, that was once one of her most feared enemies. They had spent a single night together, in which they each vented their frustrations on the other.
The next morning he kissed her forehead then pulled her close, crushing her to his armored chest. He held for a moment then shoved her away harshly, causing her to stumble. Her eyes flashed angrily and she prepared to make a scathing remark but the raw pain she had seen in his eyes stayed her tongue.
Once again Sesshoumaru's parting words echoed within her mind. "Put this behind you, Kagome."
Kagome stifled a snort as she hugged her daughter closer, the child that she loved and resented. Mitsukai prevented her from having a normal life. Prevented her from following the command of her child's father; the almighty taiyoukai of the western lands. It would prove impossible to put the past behind her, with such an obvious reminder. Kagome guiltily stroked her daughter's silver hair.
Through half lidded eyes Mitsukai watched the emotions flit across her mother's face. Although she did not doubt her mother loved her, she often wondered if was not a burden as well. Never did she feel deprived of affection for her mother lavished it upon her. It was almost as if her mother was compensating for the lack of a father. Her mother simply loved enough for both parents.
She had never asked her about her father or the scars her mother bore. Her mother had been victim to an attack by a vicious animal, a monster with clawed humanlike hands. Guiltily she flexed her own claws as her mind flashed back to the man who attacked her.
She shuddered as she recalled how easily her talons slid through sinew and bone. If her attacker had survived, he would have bore similar scars to her mother. Mitsukai winced as she painfully swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. She had never questioned why she was different from the rest of her family. The differences never mattered to her, at least until now. Who and what was my father? She knew his name or at least she thought she did. It was the name her mother often cried out in her sleep.
"Who's Inuyasha?" Mitsukai asked quietly, startling her mother.
Tears sprung to Kagome eyes at the mention of the hanyou, turned youkai's name. The person that destroyed everything she held dear with a single wish and swipe of his claws. In the end it was she, with the aid of his brother that brought his mad rampage to a halt. Once again guilt flooded her being. It was all her fault; if she had not given him to Shikon no tama…
"I'm sorry," Mitsukai said as she extracted herself from Kagome's embrace and rose to her feet. "You say that name sometimes in your sleep. I thought maybe…"
Mitsukai looked wistfully at the night sky. The pale streetlight creating a nimbus around her form and for an instant she looked like the creature she was named. Radiance and purity exuded from her being; an angel with moonlit hair and shining cheeks.
Mitsukai traced the mark on her forehead. The mark, like the stripes on her body meant something. Mitsukai closed her eyes and exhaled a shuddering breath. She was vaguely aware of her mother's hiccupping breaths and the slight salty scent that permeated the crisp night air. She swallowed hard as she forced herself to continue, her mother's pain nearly enough to sway her from her course.
"Inuyasha is… Is he my father?" she asked tentatively, her voice strangled.
She turned to face her mother, who was now kneeling with her head bowed. "No," Kagome whispered as she rose to her feet shakily.
"Then wh-", she was interrupted when Kagome shook her head sadly. "Please Misty, I can't not now," she said her voice quivering.
"But," Mitsukai said began.
"Don't argue…Just.. Just go home and stay in your room until I get home from work," Kagome stuttered harshly, her voice sounding angrier than intended.
Mitsukai hissed as she spun on her heel, unwilling to look at her mother. Kagome reached out to put her hand on Mitsukai's shoulder but let it drop inches from its mark. Mitsukai uttered a small cry of rage before she dashed away in the direction of the shrine. The moment Kagome was certain Mitsukai was out of hearing range she collapsed to her knees, hugging herself as she wailed heart breaking sobs.
**
A/N: Well, that's chapter 2. It's also like chapter 1 unbetaed, since I still am unsure if I like this story. It is beginning to grow on me…like mold. I did proofread, but basically consider this the prebetaed edition. I had a bit of rage when I wrote this chapter. Rage at the authors out there who think a woman can recover over night from rape. In many cases the attempt of rape is just as traumatic as the actual deed. Hopefully I did a decent job in conveying that. I also want to add that this story is not about rape. It's about coming to terms with painful events in one past in order to become a better person. Suffering does not make you a better person; in the long run it destroys you.