DISCLAIMER: As always, I don't own the original story of the Inuyasha series nor do I own the characters and I don't own the Chinese fairytale that I'm basing this story on. But as far as I'm concerned I do own the idea of mixing these two things together :).
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Hey everybody! I'm catching up with the within 10 days limit. Please be patient
with me, I'm doing my best to update as soon as possible. The problem is that
I have to work full-time the whole month August so there won't be much time
left for writing fics. I'm sorry if I can't keep the 10 days promise. Anyway,
I still hope you will continue to follow this story to its end :).
'...Italic...': thoughts
-- --: locations
"...": spoken words
-.-.-.-.-: time gap
=capslocked words=: noises
-by Kittymui-
Uninvited visitors
Previously:
"You wouldn't let me heal the wounds of your torn wings and chain marks...why?"
he asked, looking slightly over his shoulder to her.
Kagome gave him a puzzled look. 'Eh...?' She had opened her mouth to ask the demon lord what he meant by that but no sound came out of it.
But before she could make any sound, the demon lord began to walk away again, leaving her no chance to form any words.
-.-.-.-.-
'Why did he ask me that...?' Kagome pondered as she gazed upon her clean wrists. 'Did he try to heal me...?'
"He did it, didn't he?" a voice suddenly spoke from the doorway.
It was Rin again, dressed in a fresh green yukata and smiling at her. "I can't believe Tenseiga actually managed to persuade Sesshoumaru-sama to heal you," she said.
Kagome gave her a puzzled look. "T-Tenseiga...?"
Rin nodded. "That's one of the two swords that Sesshoumaru-sama carries around his waist all the time."
"It's a healing sword. It's said to be able to heal any wounds, even fatal ones," she explained as she approached the bed.
Kagome watched how her serene expression suddenly saddened when she sat down on the edge of the bed.
A moment of silence took place before Rin suddenly spoke again.
"Who are you...where did you come from...?" Rin asked with a serious tone. "How did you do that? What did you do to affect him like that...make him look at you like that...?"
The last three sentences were almost inaudible to Kagome since they came out mumbling, but she didn't quite understand what she had meant by saying that.
"Rin-san...?" she called her name.
Rin snapped out of it and suddenly smiled again. "Oh, I'm sorry! I was just talking to myself," she said apologetically. "By the way, I heard that you like flowers very much."
Kagome give her a wide-eyed look. "How did you"
"Jaken told me that you sneaked out of your room earlier and ended up touching one of the flowers in the garden inside the castle," she explained. "Does your cheek still hurt?"
Kagome shook her head. "I think the Tenseiga healed it along with the gashes on my wrist."
Rin smiled. "Good!" And she grabbed Kagome's wrist. "Let's get you dressed up."
"B-but"
"No buts! You've been staying in this room for too long now, you'll need some fresh air!" Rin insisted and pulled her out of the bed.
-.-.- later -.-.-
Although she had already been in the courtyard before, Kagome still widened her eyes for the second time at its beauty as they arrived.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Rin asked.
Kagome nodded and took her first step into the garden on her brown sandals. She was now wearing a yellow yukata that had pink sakura blossoms embroidered on its edges.
A wide smile appeared on her face as she kicked off her sandals and placed her bare feet on the fresh green grass.
"You know..." Rin started, catching her attention again. "You look as if you have never seen these flowers and plants before...you're...not from here...are you?"
Kagome hesitated before shaking her head. "I'm...from a place very...very far away from here..." she replied.
"You're not human, are you?" Rin continued. "I saw those wounds on your back..."
Kagome's expression almost instantly saddened at this and she dropped her gaze. "I...I..."
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up," Rin apologized. "I'm going to make some lunch for Sesshoumaru-sama right now, you can wait out here for me and enjoy the beauty of the courtyard until I come back."
With that said, she turned and left Kagome behind, alone in the large courtyard.
Kagome watched the girl disappear into a large doorway. 'I guess it's normal for her to ask me that...'she thought to herself.
But she quickly shook it off again and turned to the garden fully. 'Well, since I was brought here to view the garden, I should take this opportunity to enjoy it thoroughly.' she decided inwardly and headed deeper into the garden.
-.-.-
A couple of minutes later, Kagome was practically dancing around between the bushes and trees.
She was indeed enjoying it very much. Although her eyes remained shut, she could still feel the presence of life around her and avoid bumping onto any trees or squashing any of the beautiful flowers.
From a distance, Kagome really resembled an angel, who was dancing gracefully in a divine garden.
Or so the person thought as it watched it all from the sky.
"Well well, I didn't expect the great lord of the Western Lands to keep such a beautiful angel from the skies in his castle," he smirked aloud.
Kagome froze at the sudden remark and her eyes shot open. 'Who was that?' she thought panicked as she shivered invisibly from the eerie presence she felt.
Slowly, she turned to the voice and raised her gaze up to the sky as she shaded her eyes from the morning sunrays.
It turned out to be a middle-aged man with long black curly hair and creepy crimson-colored eyes. His body was the most disgusting things Kagome had ever seen. There were green tentacles sticking out of his back, and his torso and arms were covered with a strange gray armor that seemed to have a life of its own.
The man was grinning at her.
Kagome widened her eyes and quickly took several steps backwards on her bare feet when she saw that the man was decreasing his altitude and floating towards her. 'W-who is this man...? What is this cold and creepy feeling...why am I...so...afraid...?' she asked herself inwardly.
-.-.-.-.-
Sesshoumaru was sitting on a windowsill in his study. He had finally gotten rid of all the blood on his clothes and hands, but there was still something bothering the Taiyoukai.
He couldn't stop wondering why Tenseiga didn't heal the chain marks on her wrists and the wounds on her back.
Maybe the powerful healing fang his father gave him wasn't so powerful at all. But he quickly shook off that thought. 'It's the girl who refuses to be healed...but why...?'
He remembered what she said on the night she tried to kill herself.
"Don't you understand? I'm a disgrace!! I've disobeyed my mother and lost my wings! I don't deserve to be the seventh princess of Celes!! I'm a nuisance!! I don't deserve to live!! I should have died back then!!"
'She said she can't go back...but that doesn't mean she doesn't want to go back. Plus, she'll need her wings to do that...' he mused.
"Hmpf," he suddenly snorted. "They will come and get her eventually, so why bother myself with such trivial thoughts?"
Suddenly, a very familiar scent caught the demon lord's nose and he immediately jumped up from the windowsill.
At that moment, Rin entered his study with a tray filled with food in her hands. "Sesshoumaru-sama? I broughtw-what's wrong?" she asked, noticing the serious expression on the Taiyoukai's face.
Sesshoumaru turned to Rin and narrowed his eyes when he found nobody besides her. "Where is she?"
"She...? You mean Kagome? I left her in the courtyard and told her to wait for me until I have brought you your l" Rin explained but was abruptly cut off when the demon lord pushed her aside and dashed out of the room.
Rin lost her balance and fell to the floor with the food spreading all over the grand carpet.
= CLATTER =
"S-Sesshoumaru-sama!" she called out to him but wasn't spared a glance as Sesshoumaru disappeared around the corner within a blink of an eye.
-.-.-.-.-
When Sesshoumaru arrived at the courtyard, he was enraged by what he saw.
It was indeed the bastard Naraku who had dared to enter his castle. But what agitated him even more was the fact that he was holding one of the girl's wrists and got her cornered against one of the walls surrounding the garden.
Blinded by anger, Sesshoumaru pulled out Toukijin and sent a blue blade of light towards Naraku.
Naraku felt the incoming attack and jumped away fast enough. Unfortunately it didn't count for Kagome, who still had her arm stretched out and didn't retract it on time.
"Arck!!" Kagome cried out of pain and held her bleeding lower arm.
Sesshoumaru almost instantly cursed himself for such a reckless act but knew he had to deal with the consequences later since there was no time for regret at the moment.
He quickly jumped into the air and landed between the hanyou and the girl. "Leave," he ordered with a low voice as he shot a death glare at Naraku.
"My my...wasn't keeping the Shikon shard your way of inviting me to your castle?" Naraku grinned.
"You won't be getting the shard today, now leave," the dog demon growled.
Naraku smirked in reply. "Oh? Well, I've changed my mind now. You see...another treasure in your possession has caught my attention today," he said as his eyes traveled to Kagome, who stood behind the dog demon.
Sesshoumaru saw where the hanyou was looking and growled. "Why are you still here? Go back into the castle."
This time, Kagome became angry. "Well excuse me for being injured! No thanks to you!" she spat.
"Go! Or I will injure your other arm as well!" Sesshoumaru threatened without turning around to her.
"Why did you save me with your sword if you won't even hesitated to injure me like this? You could just end my life right here right now!" Kagome argued.
Finally, Sesshoumaru turned to her fully with a very annoyed look on his face.
But before he could give her a piece of his mind, a life-threatening object moved in the peripheral area of the dog demon's eyes, catching his attention.
It turned out to be one of Naraku's tentacles and it was moving in to them at a very high speed.
-.-.-
Kagome had expected an angry reply from the demon lord, but what actually happened came totally unexpected.
Sesshoumaru suddenly grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to him as he turned around. The next thing she knew was hearing the sound of armor being broken and feeling how the grip on her shoulders tightened.
Kagome could hear how the breathing of the dog demon became soft pants and she slightly pulled away from his protective embrace. She widened her eyes when she realized what had happened.
She watched horrified how the tip of a green tentacle was being pulled back from the demon lord's stomach, leaving a hole behind, which was starting to bleed immensely.
As soon as the tentacle left his body, Sesshoumaru collapsed to his knees with his left arm covering his injury.
'H-he protected me from the attack...!?' Kagome realized shocked. "S-Sesshoumaru-sama!" she called his name and knelt down in front of the demon lord.
"Return...to the castle...go..." the Taiyoukai ordered with a mouth filled with blood and pushed her aside, revealing a very arrogant Naraku standing in his line of vision.
"Who would have thought that the great Sesshoumaru would get himself lethally wounded in order to protect a girl," he chuckled, retracting his tentacle to his side. "I wonder how you are going to deflect my next attack with the state you're in..."
"Die!!!" he cried and sent a large stream of dark purple gas towards Sesshoumaru.
Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes as his vision started to fail him. 'Is this...the end of me...the lord of the Western Lands...?' he thought ironically.
He was totally surprised when he saw a sudden flash of raven-black. When he dropped his gaze, he realized that the girl was holding onto his haori and burying her head into his chest. "W-what are you" he began with a hoarse voice but was cut off when she suddenly started to apologize.
"It's all my fault!! I'm sorry!! Don't leave me behind!!" she cried in his chest.
Sesshoumaru wanted to push her away, but realized that the incoming danger was already too close to avoid.
"Stupid girl," were the only words he muttered as he looked down at the girl once again.
-.-.-.-.-
Kagome slowly pulled away when she heard the demon lord mutter something and looked upwards, only to meet two beautiful golden eyes that were looking back at her.
It was then that Kagome noticed something different in the way he looked at her. It wasn't the normal icy glare or stoic look that the dog demon was famous of. No, it was different. It was softer...almost gentle if you had to put it into words.
Then Kagome suddenly remembered what Rin said before.
"How did you do that? What did you do to affect him like that...make him look at you like that...?"
Her grip on the demon lord's haori suddenly tightened and she leaned her head onto his chest once again. 'I don't want to die!! I...don't want him to die!!' she screamed in her mind.
"I want to live!!!" she cried in his chest.
Kagome squeezed her eyes shut as she repeated the same thought over and over again.
Suddenly she felt a pulse from an unknown source.
= PULSE =
'What was that?' she thought puzzled. But then she decided that it wasn't the moment to analyze some strange pulse.
Patiently, she waited for the dark energy to reach them. But nothing came.
Kagome slowly opened her eyes again. 'Huh?'
She and Sesshoumaru were still standing near one of the castle walls in the courtyard, unharmed. Kagome eyes darted around and realized that a blue transparent barrier surrounded the both of them.
Her gaze then shifted to Naraku, who had an annoyed look on his face.
But then a smirk appeared on his face. "You were lucky this time. I will definitely come back for you!" he chuckled. "You better prepare yourself because next time, there won't be a dog demon to save you anymore!" [AN: He's saying that Sesshoumaru will die from the poisonous injury he inflicted on his body.]
With that said, Naraku rose from the ground and disappeared into the skies.
Kagome wanted to make a disgusted face but didn't get the chance to when the felt an increasing weight leaning on her from the front.
'Sesshoumaru-sama?!' she thought alarmed and quickly turned to the demon lord. She watched how he closed his eyes and started to lose consciousness.
Unable to put up with the full weight of the Taiyoukai, Kagome fell onto the grass with him.
"Sesshoumaru-sama!!" a shocked voice cried from a distance.
It was Rin.
She ran to Kagome's side and knelt down. "What happened!?" she asked wide-eyed.
Before Kagome could even open her mouth to answer, the girl already spoke again. "Explain to me later. We have to get Sesshoumaru-sama to his chamber first!"
Kagome nodded and together, they lifted the dog demon from the grass, each of them supporting one shoulder.
And carefully, they brought Sesshoumaru back to his chamber.
-.-
It was a space twice as big as Kagome's. The walls were white as snow and the floor was graced with a soft burgundy carpet.
Imagine yourself at the doorway and the door to the balcony, together with the windows, would be located in the wall to your left. A huge wardrobe could be seen standing against the wall on your right and a king-size bed would be standing at the far end of the chamber in front of you. A small brown nightstand was present next tot he bed, together with a small table and a pair of armchairs.
After putting Sesshoumaru on his huge white bed, Rin ran out of the room again, leaving Kagome behind with the unconscious Taiyoukai.
Her eyes never left the demon lord after the incident. Although he looked as though he was sleeping, the sweat drops on his forehead, which seemed like shimmering stars around the crescent moon-mark, and the restless respiration proved otherwise.
'He's in pain...' Kagome thought worried as her eyes traveled to the red part of his outfit.
Carefully, she removed the broken armor and pushed aside the bloody fabric, revealing a nasty wound just below the stomach. There was also some strange dark purple liquid plastered against the edges of the hole.
'Is this...poison...?' Kagome wondered, narrowing her eyes. 'Whatever it is...it's preventing the wound from healing and the bleeding to stop.'
'It's all my fault...' she blamed herself, dropping her face. 'If only I had gone back into the castle like he told me to...'
'Isn't there anything I can do for him?'
Suddenly, she could feel a pulse again.
= PULSE =
Kagome widened her eyes of surprise. 'It's the same feeling again...!' But this time the pulse seemed stronger than before.
Kagome searched around for its source and her eyes fell on a sheathed sword that was attached to Sesshoumaru's waist with the yellow sash. 'Tenseiga...?' she recalled how Rin called the sword that the demon lord used to heal the wounds of her suicidal attempt. She bowed over Sesshoumaru's body and slowly reached out to touch it.
She retracted her hand instinctively out of shock when the sword pulsated at her touch.
= PULSE =
'You want me to use you on your master...?' she asked with her thoughts.
= PULSE =
It was as if the fang responded to her thoughts.
Kagome swallowed hard and reached out for the hilt of Tenseiga.
As if the sword was happy to be used on its injured master, it pulsated again when Kagome began to pull it out from its dark-brown sheath.
'It's really heavy...' she though as she barely managed to keep it in the air. Not to mention she was injured at her arm of Toukijin's attack.
Kagome raised the sword into the air. 'All right...all I have to do is swing it once...right?'
= PULSE =
Right after the pulse, a strange light blue cloud started to envelope the blade of the sword. At the same time, Kagome felt as if her strength was being sucked out of her body.
'Here goes nothing!!' she bit her lower lip and swung Tenseiga over Sesshoumaru's body, using all her strength and ignoring the stinging pain coming from her lower arm.
After swinging the fang, Kagome immediately let it fall onto the carpet and collapsed to her knees.
= THUD =
'Why is my body so weak all of a sudden...?' Kagome thought exhausted. But then she reminded herself of something more important. She quickly pulled herself closer to the bed and pushed herself up with her elbows on the bedside.
She let out a sigh in relief when she saw no wound in his stomach anymore. Even the dark purple liquid and the blood on his garment and body had vanished without a trace.
"Yokatta..." she said with a weak smile, which sounded more like a whisper because of the exhaustion.
And before she knew it, she had let herself fall on top of Sesshoumaru's bare chest and into a deep slumber.
-.-.-.-.-
A couple of minutes later, Rin came back running with a basket filled with bottles and cloths.
She came to an abrupt stop when she saw that the injuries on Sesshoumaru's body had completely disappeared.. But what shocked her even more was the scene altogether.
The unsheathed Tenseiga was lying on the carpet. The wound in the Taiyoukai's lower torso and all of the blood were gone and Kagome was sleeping like a rose with her head resting on Sesshoumaru's chest and her lower body on the floor.
Rin set the basket on the floor and slowly approached the bed. 'What on Earth happened here...?' she thought bewildered.
Her eyes traveled to Kagome and narrowed with suspicion. 'What have you done...??' she asked in her mind and reached out her hands towards her shoulders.
"Rin," his low voice spoke, instantly making her retract her arms and stand up straight.
"S-Sesshoumaru-sama! My God, I'm so glad you're okay," Rin said happily and relieved. "I thought you were"
"Enough," Sesshoumaru cut her off with an exhausted expression. "Leave me."
"But what of Kagome?" she asked puzzled.
Her answer was an annoyed look coming from the demon lord.
"I understand Sesshoumaru-sama. Please rest well," she acknowledged reluctantly and made her way to the exit.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Sesshoumaru watched the door close and shifted his gaze to the girl who was sleeping on top of his chest.
Her face was facing him, giving him the opportunity to study her facial features from a closer perspective.
'So your name is Kagome huh?' he thought. After studying a short moment, he slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position on the bed.
His eyes immediately fell on his unsheathed sword on the floor and widened. 'She used Tenseiga on me?!?' he thought disbelievingly.
Sesshoumaru turned to the girl again. This time he realized that almost the entire lower part of her yellow yukata was stained with blood...his blood.
The entire scene was familiar. Only this time, the one who played the role of the healer was playing the roler of the injured one instead. 'Who would have thought that there is someone else who could use the powers of my father's sword.' he smirked inwardly.
This girl sleeping on his lap was truly starting to amuse him greatly.
He could vaguely remember how the girl clutched onto his haori and exclaimed that she had the desire to live.
'Tenseiga reacted to her will to live and erected a barrier to protect her as well...hmm...' he mused.
But what he found most surprising was the fact that Kagome had actually placed herself between him and the bastard to shield him from the miasma-attack.
Which also reminded him of his reckless behavior before that ended up injuring her arm instead of Naraku.
Sesshoumaru lifted up her injured arm and caressed the skin around the shallow gash as he studied the seriousness of the wound.
Without further thinking, Sesshoumaru turned his attention to Tenseiga on the floor and stretched out his hand. "Come Tenseiga."
In a split second, the sword flew directly into the demon lord's hand.
Carefully, Sesshoumaru hovered its blade over Kagome's lower arm once. Much to his relief, the gash disappeared a short moment later.
'Now...we're even...' he thought and put Tenseiga on the bed next to him.
Just when the demon lord wanted to look at her sleeping face a little bit longer, an extremely familiar scent caught his attention.
A scowl appeared on Sesshoumaru's face and he bared his fangs.
'Bad timing, Inuyasha...'
Oehh...more uninvited guests...how will Sesshoumaru take care of this? This chapter is really long compared to the other ones, I hope you liked it!! Please leave a review behind to tell me what you think ne? Thanks!!
Lots of greets,
Kittymui
Next chapter: Hidden power and exposed jealousy
-.-.-.-.-
I can't give you the exact content of the next chapter, but I can tell you a rough summary :). Here we go!
Inuyasha traced Naraku's scent to Sesshoumaru's castle and goes there uninvited together with Kikyou (not Kagome's sister!!). Eventually, the argument becomes a fight between the half-brothers, until a pack of saimyoushou suddenly caught the demon lord's attention. With that he realizes that Kagome is in danger and pulls away from the fight, hoping to arrive at his own chamber in time.
The main question is...how did Naraku know the location of the sleeping Kagome?
Please look forward to the next exciting chapter!!
-.-.-.-.-
Vocabulary:
Taiyoukai: big demon
yokatta: rougly means 'I'm glad'
-.-.-.-.-
REPLIES ON REVIEWS:
hellokitty-sayhello: Thanks for reviewing and telling me about the spelling mistakes. I'll be sure to remember them for the coming chapters!
robin's-hope: I hope this chapter came soon enough and was long enough hehe, took me a lot of time to finish it :).
Reader: Don't worry, I'm not intending to quit writing this story hehe. Thanks for reviewing! As for Kagome's wings, sorry can't reveal anything about that yet hehehe, I can only tell you that they won't grow back on their own. And as you have already noticed, Inuyasha will appear in the next chapter :). Kikyou's wedding is a bit trivial, I'm not planning to mention it greatly throughout the story, but thanks for reminding me that I haven't mentioned the moon-people for a while now hahaha.
Mistress Koishii: Happy birthday (belated)!!!
kang: Thanks!
demonswty: Thanks!! I'll update as soon as possible!
Salster: You guessed it right with your first two guesses! Bravo! I watched sleepless in seattle a couple of times and it's still very nice and romantic haha. Thanks for reviewing again!
Shadow62: Thank you very much! I hope you liked this chapter as well!
bad-girl4: Hmm, you're very close to the answer to the question of the next chapter hehe. Kagome's wings won't grow back on their own, that's the only thing I can reveal right now hehe.
Inukamisashi: I will!!
Guardian-of-the-night: How long this story will be? I think 20 chapters at maximum, but I'm not really sure hehe. Thanks for reading my other stories! I'm glad you liked them and like this story so far!
Shadow-Demon14: Don't worry about that :). Reviewing once in a while is better than not reviewing at all, right? I'm sorry to hear that you're grounded but since you could still go online when your parents aren't home, it's cool huh? haha.
Kayrin: Welcome back! The summaries are really the toughest part of the story since won't give you enough space to write a lot hehe, at least, that's what I think. I'm happy to know that you liked the summary and the story so far! Thanks for reviewing!
silverstargazing: Yeah it's been a while, but I'm back!! I'm glad you haven't forgotten about me :). Thanks for reviewing!!
tsuyoi-84: Thank you very much. I'm very happy to hear that from a reader. I should be the one thanking you actually :).
Madam Sorceress: Thanks! Well, I have to start somewhere if I want the two to be together, right? Hahaha.
Tenshi Youkai no Yugure: I'm happy to hear that! Thanks!
CryingDeath: Had enough fluffiness yet? Haha, if not, then trust me and wait patiently :).
Dragon of Sesshomaru: Thank you very much. The title of the chinese fairytale is called "Ngauw Long Tjik Leu". In English, it literally means "The Cow-boy and the Sewing-girl".
Posted: 25 July 2004
Last Edited: 25 July 2004
Spelling check: YES