A:N: I apologize for the extremely long break. There is no excuse except sheer procrastination, and my humblest apologies. I wrote the twelfth chapter much earlier, but I kept putting off updating. Which is absolutely horrid of me, and I do apologize. So! It has been far too long, almost so long that I've lost track of my plot. Almost being the key word there. I have an idea of how I want to do this chapter, so I'll just run with that and hope you guys are happy. Again, a resounding, "I'M SORRY!!" is in order. (And by the by, excessive punctuation shows an unbalanced mind.) Oh, and by the by, this summer I finally read The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Good book! I would say awesome, but the mythos in that book were really screwed up, and it almost made me cry. But no matter. It was a well-portrayed Troy and I did appreciate it (even if there was the "One Good and All-Loving Mother" theme… grr-arg). So, on with the story!
Disclaimer: Nothing, as per usual. Sorry, I tell a lie. I own the title and the plot. Sadly, I do not own InuYasha, although there was that very odd dream the other night involving Kagome, Inuyasha, and Shippou-chan… at my school, fighting youkai, of all places…. But other than that, nada y nadie.
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Kagome of Tokyo
Chapter 13
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Blood.
His head is crowned with blood; his hands, stained with it. His blank, inscrutable eyes are boring into her like a drill, making her uncomfortable in his presence. This face… the black hair that hangs down to his shoulders, so old-fashioned… it seems familiar to her memory.
He opens his mouth.
"Sango."
She startles at the sound of her name.
"I want you."
Suddenly the face becomes clear to her—he is the most dangerous man she knows, he is the kidnapper she has feared the most, he is the man her best friend tried to escape.
She screams as he opens her mouth again and blood rushes out. He blinks and falls forward, a dagger wound in his back.
Her best friend stands before her now, a vindicated and cold look in her eye. "Were you with him?" she asks, her voice devoid of the warmth and joy she has come to know so well.
"No!" she tries to scream, and struggles to move. She is struck with the realization that this is not her friend at all… rather, it is the other one.
The woman steps forward with the bloodied dagger. "You must die. He must die. She must die." Her voice rises in pain and fury. "For killing my daughter, you all must die!"
A girl walks up to the younger woman, blank eyes the crimson color of blood, the same color that stains her little shirt. The woman sobs and holds her arms out. "Kagura!" she cries, the rage in her voice replaced with endless pain, the pain of losing a child, the pain of betrayal, the pain that would last throughout death.
The girl tugs at her leg, making her recoil. "Rin must play with me," she says emotionlessly. "Rin will play."
"No!" she screams, wrenching her leg away from the child's grasp. "Don't take Rin! No!"
"Kagura!" the woman cries out, falling to her knees and reaching out to the dead child. "Please, my Kagura!"
"Rin will play," the girl repeats.
"Don't take her!"
"Kagura!"
"Rin!"
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Miroku awoke to Sango clawing at her sheets. "No, don't take her, Rin, no!" Her eyes were blank and she was convulsing. "See the blood, it stains the ground… oh, oh, save yourselves, do not die!"
He shook her. "Sango!" Miroku yelled in her ear. "Sango-chan, wake up, it's just a dream!"
She blinked at him with glassy eyes. "No, please, do not die, my love, my heart, don't die," she whimpered. A sudden swell of affection overcame him, and he hugged her fiercely.
"I will not die, Sango-chan, I promise," he whispered in her ear. "I would never leave you and Rin alone. I love you far too much to die on you."
Sango's voice rose in pitch as she keened, "But you will! Ah, my love, please don't fight in the battle that destroys; don't give in to the monster that eats men!" She broke away wildly and threw open the door.
"Sango, what—"
"Tachikawa!" she shrieked, her voice wild, her eyes blank and glassy. "Tachikawa, we have been frowned upon by the divine; and thus our future is no more!"
Inuyasha opened his door down the hall. "Sango, what are you talking about?" His sleepy amber eyes frowned at her.
Kagome burst out past Inuyasha. "A vision!" she breathed. She ran to her friend. "Sango, is it a vision?"
Sango stared at the girl. "You are covered in blood and fire," she whispered. "She will kill you, as she will kill her husband, as she will kill me!" Her friend flinched, but held her shoulders steady. "Miroku… ah, my love, Miroku will die by the hand of our youngest brother…" She collapsed in a pile on the floor.
"What is happening here?" a calm and steady voice asked. Kagome whirled around to face Tachikawa Sesshoumaru. His eyebrow was arched, his eyes were calm and modulated. "Why is Sango lying on the hallway floor?"
A little girl's face peeped out from behind Sesshoumaru, brown eyes wide. "Mama?" she whispered. "Is Mama okay?" At five, Rin was a precocious little child who had seen her mother go through her share of visions. But none of them had ever seen such a vision to drive Sango out into the hallway screaming wildly before.
Kagome looked at Sesshoumaru steadily. "Who is the youngest Tachikawa brother?" she asked, rather than answer his question.
Her question met a deathlike silence. Sesshoumaru averted his eyes. "Well?" she demanded, surprised at her own command of the situation. "Is it Inuyasha, or is there someone else? Because I know that Inuyasha would never kill Miroku."
Inuyasha suddenly held her from behind. "It doesn't matter, Kagome," he muttered fiercely in her ear. "Sango was just having a dream… sort of."
"No!" she lashed out. "Did you see her eyes? There was a seer that I once knew, in a gang that kidnapped me, and she looked exactly like that. We have to listen to her screams. Now who is the youngest Tachikawa?"
"Sango is the youngest," Sesshoumaru said abruptly. "It is I, then Inuyasha, then Sango. There are no more."
"Then you saying that Inuyasha will kill his sister's husband!" Kagome yelled. Inuyasha tightened his hold on her. "Please…" she whispered, the fight suddenly gone out of her as she sensed Inuyasha's distress. "Please, tell me that there's another Tachikawa, somewhere."
But Sesshoumaru refused to even look at her. "Miroku, take care of Sango," he said quietly. "She has seen things that I would not wish on even our enemies. She should spend the rest of the day recuperating in her room." Miroku nodded wordlessly and silently lifted up the lifeless form of the woman he loved. As he entered their room, Inuyasha shut the door behind them. Kagome turned away to enter hers and Inuyasha's room, but she was not so lucky. "Kagome," came Sesshoumaru's even and ever-calm voice. "I would like to talk to you privately."
Kagome turned back around and shot a supplicating glance at Inuyasha, but Sesshoumaru said evenly, "Alone, if you please." Inuyasha's amber eyes flashed at his older brother in irritation, but even he held his tongue. Silently, Kagome glided after Sesshoumaru. The eldest Tachikawa brother may infuriate his half-brother sometimes, but they were always civil, at the least, to each other, and Sesshoumaru had treated Kagome herself with nothing but kindness. She thought of him as a brother… a bit like Houjou, just quieter, and with an inner Souta. Thinking of her brothers now made Kagome's eyes water, so she determinedly wiped her mind of the Higurashi family and followed her lover's brother into his room.
Sesshoumaru shut his door as Kagome sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk. He took a seat behind the desk. "Now, Kagome," he said in that serious and quiet voice, "there's a lot about the Tachikawa family that not even Inuyasha has told you."
She intended to flare out, "How do you know?" but kept quiet instead. There was an intense and strange air in the room, thicker than even in the hallway this morning.
"I want to tell you this because I think you deserve to hear it from me." He paused and sighed. "Since Sango and Inuyasha shared both parents with him, they're even more biased than I am."
She waited.
He took a deep breath. "No one wants to mention it around Sango or Inuyasha, because this cut them deeply. It was a grave occurrence for all involved, including myself. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I've berated myself for letting this happen." Sesshoumaru paused, then continued, "There is another, younger Tachikawa brother. He was born a few years after Sango and he was cherished dearly. Unfortunately, two years after he was born, their mother became very ill and died."
Kagome covered her mouth in shock. Inuyasha had never told her about his mother, only that when she sang, she sounded like her. Suddenly she realized the comfort in that.
"Our youngest brother was loved and cared for. He was a colicky baby, but soon he grew out of that and was a fine, healthy young boy. Inuyasha and I were even teaching him the basics of fighting so that when he grew older, he could make a fine contribution to the gang. Sango was closest to him, I suppose as a mother figure. She talked to him, took care of him, nursed him back to health, and wrapped his wounds when he got hurt."
Fondly, Kagome remembered Kohaku. He had clung to her like a son, and she had loved the young boy as if she was his blood-sister. A memory floated through her mind—Kohaku had heard some boys trash-talking his "sister" and had fought for her honor. Just like Souta and Houjou had done, she thought, a bittersweet smile threatening to push through.
"One day…" Sesshoumaru hesitated. "I was too harsh on him. I was training with him and snapped at him because he made a wrong move. The boy was always impulsive and did things without thinking, and that was what got him into this mess. He argued back, and it got to the point where he took his things and ran off in the dead of night without even telling Sango where he intended to go."
A long silence ensued. Kagome finally broke it by saying, "Sesshoumaru, it wasn't your fault."
A bitter look crossed the man's eyes. "But if I hadn't argued, then he wouldn't have left, Kagome."
She shook her head vehemently, but he ignored it and went on. "The next I heard of my brother, he was with a very dangerous man. Actually, a former ally of mine who turned tail and refused any alliance with any gang whatsoever."
Sounds like Naraku, she thought bitterly.
"Apparently the story was that the boy was with him because he couldn't remember his past. This man was said to have told him that he didn't need to worry, because he would take him in and he would never need to worry again about any of his past." Sesshoumaru closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again calmly, emotionlessly. "The boy agreed and has stayed with him since. He doesn't remember us at all."
Her throat closed as a lump rose in it. "I'm so sorry," she managed to whisper.
He inclined his head slightly to accept her sympathy. "I have not seen my brother Kohaku since that last day," he began, but was immediately cut off by a shocked shriek. He looked up to see Kagome standing, a horrified look on her face.
"Kohaku?!"
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A:N: Wow. o.o That was actually pretty good. Again, I never intend for these to end up the way they do… actually, they kind of run away from me. I didn't want Kohaku's identity to be revealed until he had—er, well, until much later in the storyline. I'm sure you guys can see where this is going, but I still don't want to reveal anything before I have to. Heh. Anyway! There you have it, the thirteenth chapter. Fourteenth will come soon and hopefully shall have some surprises in it. And a few people have e-mailed me asking if I can go into the original characters of Troy and Greece during the Trojan War. What do you think? If I do, I'd like to start off with Paris. Actually, I despise all of the Greeks except Menelaus and Clytemnestra, and I adore all the Trojans except Paris. (Helen counts as a Greek.) So it's up to you now. Ciao, bella! (Now, going from Italian to Japanese…)
Sayonara,
Akai-Sakura