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 :).
'...Italic...': thoughts
-- --: locations
"...": spoken words
-.-.-.-.-: time gap
=capslocked words=: noises
-by Kittymui-
Returns, departures and encounters
Several days have passed since the beginning of the storm and it seemed like it was going to end today.
Kagome stood on Sesshoumaru's balcony and watched how the wind from the South carried the dark clouds with it towards the North. 'Tonight I'll finally be able to see the moon and stars again.' she thought relieved. 'Sesshoumaru-sama...you'll probably be watching them too tonight...won't you?' Her facial expression saddened at the thought of the demon lord.
Not long after that, she felt a soft breeze coming from behind her. At first, she thought it was just a normal breeze, but she was wrong when a stern voice suddenly spoke.
"What are you doing here?"
Kagome jumped up of shock and quickly turned to the voice.
There he was, standing right in front of her on the balcony, with the same blanc expression on his face. His garment was shred into pieces at his sleeves and hakama and his armor didn't look very unharmed either.
She widened her eyes. "Sess...Sesshoumaru-sama!" she gasped.
In a split second, Kagome ran to him and landed onto his chest. "You're safe!!" she cried into his chest. "Thank God!!"
But the demon lord did not hug her back; he merely stared down at her.
Kagome widened her eyes when she felt his full weight leaning onto her. She quickly pulled back, only to realize that the demon lord had lost consciousness.
"Sesshoumaru-sama!!" she cried worriedly as she went down on her knees, taking Sesshoumaru with her.
It was then that she became aware of the fact that her blue dress and both her hands were tainted red. When she looked back at Sesshoumaru, she saw the horrible wound in his stomach and gasped. "Somebody!! Come quick!!" she yelled into the castle and held the demon lord close to her. "Sesshoumaru!! Please...please don't die!! Don't leave me alone!!"
-.- that night -.-
After Jaken finished bandaging his lord's wound and changing him into a clean white kimono, he turned to leave the chamber.
He stopped when he saw Kagome at the doorway.
"Can I see him?" she asked meekly.
Jaken frowned. "Sesshoumaru-sama's asleep. You better not wake him up or I'll"
"I promise," Kagome cut him off, her eyes shifting towards the occupied bed at the end of the room.
She entered the chamber after letting the servant pass and closed the door behind her.
The bottom of her white night-dress softly caressed her ankles as she quietly tiptoed on her bare feet towards the bed.
She even tried to breath as soundlessly as possible when she arrived at the bedside.
Kagome watched the calm expression on his face as she slowly sat down next to him on the edge.
When she saw that some silver bangs covered the dark-purple mark on his forehead, she reached out her hand to push them aside. She was glad that she hadn't woken him up by doing that and slowly retracted her hand.
But her hand suddenly stopped halfway back.
Mesmerized by his sleeping face, Kagome reached out her hand once again and began to stroke his cheek.
Her delicate fingertips traced the dark stripes just below his closed eyes as she whispered his name. "Sesshoumaru..." Not even realizing that she had dropped the '-sama' for the second time.
'What...am I doing...?' she wondered, slowly pulling back her hand. 'I shouldn't...do this...'
She got up to her feet again, but just when she was about to walk away from the bed, something grabbed her wrist and stopped her.
When she turned to her side, she saw that Sesshoumaru was fully awake now and that he was holding her wrist with his clawed hand.
"S-Sesshoumaru-sama!" she gasped surprised.
And so, the staring competition had begun with the demon lord lying there and the girl standing next to him in silence, eye to eye.
Kagome swallowed hard and placed her other hand on her chest. 'Why is my heart beating so fast?'
"Sesshoumaru-sama...I'm sorry...I didn't mean to wake you u" she apologized but stopped when she saw him reach into his sleeve with his other hand and took out something.
Without saying anything, the demon lord put it into Kagome's hand and let go of her wrist.
Kagome looked down at her hand and saw a purple marble-shaped jewel. "This is..."
"The Shikon no Tama..." he said with a weak voice.
Kagome looked back at Sesshoumaru in surprise. 'He really found it...' she thought, recalling Jaken's words. "B-but why...?" she asked.
He didn't reply her question; instead, he just looked at her with the same indescribable expression.
'He's really got beautiful eyes...' Kagome thought inwardly.
She snapped out of it when the demon lord suddenly averted his gaze to look outside through one of the windows.
"Use it to recover your wings," he finally said after a moment of silence, without looking at her.
Kagome widened her eyes. "...Eh?"
'My w-wings...??' she thought, instantly remembering the large scars on her back. She had almost forgotten that she used to be a winged one that could soar through the skies on the Moon.
She looked down at the jewel in her hand. 'With this...I can get my wings back? And then...then'
"And go back to your home," the demon lord suddenly added, cutting off her thoughts.
Kagome's eyes immediately shifted back to Sesshoumaru and widened. She had opened her mouth but no words came out of it.
'Did he...just told me to go home...? Back to the moon??' she thought disbelievingly. 'B-but then...I might never come back again...and never see Sesshoumaru-sama again...'
"But..." she stammered, not being able to find the right words. "...but I"
"You do not belong here," Sesshoumaru cut her off.
"Sesshoumaru-sama, I"
Sesshoumaru sighed and turned away from her completely to lie on his side. "I'm tired...leave me."
Kagome's face dropped. She knew there was no way she could argue with him once he had ordered to be left alone, so she turned around and left, with the jewel locked inside her palm.
-.- back to her chamber -.-
Kagome was sitting on her windowsill and looking up at the starry sky through her window.
She was still pondering about the one word that had been haunting her ever since she exited his chamber.
Why?
Was she not welcome here anymore? Was she becoming a bother?
But no matter what, she still couldn't believe the fact that Sesshoumaru gave her the Shikon no Tama, the jewel he had risked his life for to get it.
She looked at the jewel that rested at the center of her palm. 'In search of this thing, he had gotten himself severely injured...'
His words still echoed inside her mind.
"Use it to recover your wings...and go back to your home..."
"You do not belong here..."
A sad expression formed on her gentle face. 'How can I leave you behind after all that you've been through...to find this jewel...in order to give me back my wings...?'
And then, something outside the window caught her attention and she raised her eyes up to the sky.
Several stripes of white light descended from the dark sky and disappeared before it reached the horizon.
'Shooting stars...they're so beautiful...' she thought dreamily. 'If I was granted a wish for witnessing this, I would wish...to be able to stay by his side forever...'
Kagome jumped up from the windowsill. 'Whether he finds me a bother or not...there's still something I have to do first...'
With her decision set, she hurried out of her room into the long hall.
'I'll use Tenseiga on Sesshoumaru-sama again...and then...then I'll tell him that I want to st'
Her thoughts were cut off when a voice halted her in the middle of the hallway.
"Where do you think you're going?"
A shadow moved out of the darkness into the moonlight and towards Kagome.
It was Rin. She was wearing a simple yellow yukata, with her long black hair tied into a thin braid resting on her left shoulder. Her expression was serious.
"R-Rin-san," Kagome said surprised. "I was just planning to go to Sesshoumaru-sama's cha"
"Sesshoumaru-sama is none of your concern anymore," Rin cut her off.
"Eh?" Kagome gave her a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"
"What do I mean?!" Rin spat angrily. "You're the one responsible for Sesshoumaru-sama's injury!! If you had never existed or come here in the first place, he would never had risked his life to complete the jewel!!"
Kagome widened her eyes. "B-but I just wanted to"
"After you came to live here, everything's been a mess!! Sesshoumaru-sama has been injured twice already for your sake! Aren't you satisfied with that?!" she continued, with tears stinging her eyes and a trembling voice. "Why won't you just leave him alone?! Does he also have to die for your sake???"
Kagome was shocked deeply by her sudden outburst. She was completely at a loss for words. The human girl did exaggerate at some point but what she said was true.
A powerful demon like Sesshoumaru had been severely wounded twice because of her. No excuse could ever cover up this fact.
Both stood there in silence, facing each other, until Rin averted her gaze and turned around to hide her teary eyes.
"If you want to see Sesshoumaru-sama so badly, I won't stop you," she said, a lot calmer than before. "But if you truly care about him...you'll know what you should do."
With that said, she walked away, leaving Kagome alone in the quiet hallway.
-.- later that night -.-
"Use it to recover your wings...and go back to your home..."
"You do not belong here..."
Was he too harsh on her by saying that?
The demon lord kept asking himself the same question after the girl left him alone just as he had told her to.
He knew it was for the best if she got her wings back and went home. She would have to go back eventually, when the moon reaches the right shape.
But why did his heart feel so empty at the thought of Kagome returning to the moon? Did he honestly want her to leave?
Why couldn't he give a proper answer to such a simple question?
"Jaken," he called.
His loyal servant soon appeared next to the bed. "Yes milord."
"Have Kagome summoned to my chamber."
"Euhm...Sesshoumaru-sama...the girl...," Jaken stuttered.
Sesshoumaru raised a brow. "What about her?" he demanded.
"Well...she...she left milord."
He widened his eyes at once and jumped up from his pillow.
"WHAT?!!!"
-.- meanwhile -.-
Beyond the demon lord's knowledge, a group of intruders had successfully arrived on Earth (remember the shooting stars before?).
They all hid themselves in the part of the forest with the highest density of greenery and waited patiently for the right moment to take action.
Queen Moira was looking around and trying to sense her daughter's presence. But she had no success at all.
One of the gold-armored imperial guards returned from his exploring and knelt down behind the queen. "The area is clear, Moira-sama."
"Good," she approved and turned to her six daughters. "Remember what your father had told you. Take no action before you've found out about Kagome's location," she said.
Five of her daughters nodded but one of them just dropped her gaze to the grass at her feet.
"Kikyou?"
Kikyou looked up, only to find her mother standing in front of her. "Y-yes mother?"
"I know you want to search for her too but it's for the best if you paid more attention to your wedding," Moira told her.
"I know mother," she sighed.
The remaining princesses went to their big sister. "Don't worry onee-sama, we will bring her back safely," they reassured her.
Moira put her hand on her shoulder. "Let's go."
Kikyou nodded. "Be careful," she said to her sisters and summoned her white wings together with the queen.
And the both of them disappeared into the dark sky.
At the same time, three imperial guards returned from searching for leads involving Kagome's whereabouts. One of them knelt down before the second to oldest princess. She had long brown curls and blue eyes, just like queen Moira, and was wearing a long brown robe with a wide hood attached to it. Her younger siblings were standing behind her, all wearing the same kind of robe-like garment, only in different colors.
[AN: There are seven imperial guards in total because Moira and Kikyou took 2 more with them when they arrived to Earth.]
"Kururo-sama, we've found a clue leading to Kagome-sama," the guard reported as he handed something over to the princess.
Kururo widened her blue eyes and gasped.
After a short moment, she managed to speak again. "C-continue to pinpoint her exact location...we will await your return," she ordered.
"Yes princess!" the guards acknowledged and they departed again.
After watching the guards disappear behind the trees again, one of the younger princesses stepped forward to Kururo. "Nee-sama, what kind of clue did we find?"
Kururo turned around to her younger sisters to let them see what she was holding in her hands.
Everybody gasped and widened their eyes in shock.
"N-nee-sama, these...these are..."
Kururo put up a serious expression as she looked down at the beautiful pair of feathered wings in her hands.
"Kagome's wings..."
-.- meanwhile -.-
At the other end of the forest, wandered a lonely girl. Her loose raven-black hair danced as the cold breeze from the South kissed her goodbye. Her light-blue yukata didn't offer her much protection against the low temperature of the night, but that didn't stop her from walking deeper into the forest.
Her lips formed a sad smile as she tightened her grip on the marble in her palm. 'I'm lost...but...how can I be...if I have no destination at all?' she sighed inwardly.
'Why don't you go back?' a voice in her head asked.
Kagome dropped her face. 'I can't...just like Rin-san said...I'll only cause trouble to Sesshoumaru-sama. He might die the next time protecting me.'
'If you have no place to return to and nowhere to go on this planet...why don't you use the jewel you're holding in your hand?'
She stopped walking and opened her hand to look at the jewel. 'I can use this to recover my wings and go back to Celes...but...'
'But you don't want to leave, right?'
Kagome held the jewel close to her chest. She was surprised at realizing what she really felt but she wasn't happy about it.
'Since when have I become so used to being by his side?'
She snapped out of it when a voice hissed from behind her.
"Ssssssshikon no Tama..."
Kagome quickly ran forward and turned around, only to meet a pair of yellow eyes with slit black pupils.
Her eyes widened in fear as she watched the pair of eyes rise into the air above her.
The black shadow reflected the moonlight and took the form of a huge snake. The pale color of the moonlight made it look like a white snake with a black striped pattern on its back.
"Ssssshikon no Tama...give it to me," the creature hissed, its thin split tongue nearly touching Kagome's face.
"No!!" Kagome refused and backed away.
"Impudent girl!" the snake said and crawled forward while raising its huge head higher into the air above the girl.
Kagome watched in terror at the huge youkai in front of her as its shadow slowly swallowed hers and those of her surroundings.
"I'll devour you together with the jewel!" And the snake opened its huge mouth, revealing two razor-sharp teeth.
Kagome wanted to run away and cry for help but somehow she couldn't. Her legs wouldn't listen to her and her voice refused to work.
Right before she could feel the sharp teeth digging into her flesh and the deadly poison seep into her veins, a loud cry echoed in her ears.
"SANKON TESSOU!!!"
She held in her breath when the snake's blood splattered all over her in a split second. Without blinking, she witnessed how the cold-blooded creature became sliced apart and how the pieces cascaded to the grass.
Her lifesaver landed onto the green carpet as well at a distance from her.
She could faintly see that the shadow was starting to walk into her direction.
"No need to thank me, now hand over the Shikon no Tama," the person spoke.
Kagome took a step backwards, holding the jewel ever so tightly against her chest. 'H-he's after the Shikon no Tama too??' she thought scared.
The shadow stepped into the brighter area and stopped.
Kagome narrowed her eyes. 'Silver hair...white dog-ears...red outfit...huh...wait a minute!'
"I-it's you!!" she gasped aloud.
Now the stranger narrowed his eyes. "Y-you are...?"
Sorry for another cliffhanger. School is starting tomorrow and I'm getting quite busy now. I can't promise you anything about my pace of updates but I'll still try to update within 10 days. Please forgive me if I can't update within that time limit. Anyway, hope you liked this chapter and please do look forward to the next one!!
Lots of greets,
Kittymui
Next chapter: Sorry...haven't thought about an appropriate title yet.
No doubt, Kagome's lifesaver is Inuyasha :). We'll find out something about the reason behind Kikyou's hatred towards our main character. And then...the moment you've all been waiting for...Kagome will bump into the humans again who had dared to torn off her wings. What will happen next? Look forward to the next chapter!!
-.-.-.-.-
Vocabulary:
(o)nee-sama: big sister
sankon tessou: soul-shattering iron claws, a claw-attack used by Inuyasha
REPLIES ON REVIEWS:
Wake-Robin: Thanks! I had fun writing it! What would happen next? Just wait and find out yourself ne?
CryingDeath: Thank you!! I'll try to update as soon as possible!
Techi 0263: I'm glad to hear you like it so far :). And you're welcome about the e-mails. Don't worry, I won't let one of my main characters die hehe.
Avid Reader: Hahaha yeah, no doubt about it :). He's just still in denial.
anime-lavuh: Yeah pretty fast, but then again, I don't like dragging things out because it would be bored for me to write. Hope it wasn't too fast in your opinion.
Kirei Baka Kasumi: Thank you!! So many question... haha, they will be answered, it's only a matter of time so please be patient with me hihi.
delusionalck: No not at all, I should be thanking you for telling me those things. But I still want to respond to your remarks though. First of all, yes my story is based on a Chinese fairytale, but I never said it would be completely following elements of the fairytale. I just gave the winged ones clothes that I find beautiful. In the fairytale, they never really described their clothing so...I just used my imagination. Yeah, someone else told me about the "dogdemon" and "demonlord" mistake so I've told myself not to make the same mistakes again (but I was just to lazy to correct them in the earlier chapters). And about the choice of names, I just chose them because I like to, I mean, it's just a fanfic...so I didn't really thought about the origin of the names and such. It's true that I've used the wrong elements that doesn't fit in the era I used to write my story in, this is something I will prevent in my following stories. You didn't offend me at all :). At least, it didn't sound as a flame to me at all haha. Thanks for telling me these things, I'll be sure to think about them thoroughly next time I start a story!
Destiny's Avenger: Thank you very much!!
Why?What?Shutup: I'm happy to hear you like it!
SkyBlueSunShine: Hahaha, readers are really not very used to reading Rin being bad, but that's normal I guess :).
Hieis/Kuramas-Angel: I'm so happy that you still decided to read the story despite of the summary hihihi. Thanks for reviewing!
stoictimer: Thanks! I enjoyed writing it hihihi, hope you will keep reading this story :).
DarkAngelB: I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm glad that reading my story cheered you up hehehe. About the promises he made to Kikyou...he won't really be able to keep it...I guess you've realised it after reading this chapter. But don't worry, she won't die. Thanks for your review!!
dragon of hope: Thanks! I will update as soon as possible!
Jirurianu: Thank you very much! I'm glad I managed to write a good fighting scene because I really had trouble with it (despite the fact that I like writing these kind of scenes), especially with choosing the right words and such.
corrupted-miko: Haha don't worry, those three words will come later on. Why Kikyou hates Kagome so much? That will be explained in the next chapter, a part of it hehe.
Guardian-of-the-night: Thanks thanks!! I like it when readers tell me which part they liked of the chapter hihihi.
just 1 girl: Thanks!! I would indeed ruin it with a lemon. Yes, a kiss wouldn't hurt but I still need to "prepare" them for that scene hehe. It would be strange for a reader if I suddenly put in such a scene while the both of them are still denying or oblivious of their feelings for each other, right? Hope you're still following me haha or am I just delusional?
drow goddess: Thank you!!
Posted: 6 September 2004
Last Edited: 6 September 2004
Spelling check: YES