Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Inuyasha: Sengoku o-Togi Zoushi. I am borrowing it for entertainment purposes only. No money is being made from the writing or reading of this story. Only original characters and situations belong to me.
I Want Tomorrow
©2001-2004 by Kei
IX – Divided by Combat
"Kagome!" Shippô exclaimed when the young woman carrying Inuyasha arrived in the small grove where the hanyou and the kitsune cub had made camp.
"Shh, shh," Kagome hushed him amiably. "Inuyasha needs to rest, so we need to be quiet, understand?"
Shippô nodded mutely, watching worriedly as Kagome gently laid the unconscious Inuyasha out on the cool green grass. She wrenched the annoying tsuno-kakushi from her head, throwing it aside along with all the pins and ornaments that had fastened her hair up. Then she divested herself of the bloodstained shiro-maku kimono and quickly threw on an extra set of her regular garments she had packed in her traveling satchel.
At last she knelt down beside Inuyasha and began tearing the unsoiled areas of the white wedding kimono into strips she planned on using to bind the grievous wounds the hanyou had incurred. She slowly extended her hands to grip the material of his kimono and tear it away so she would be allowed easier access to his wounds.
However, before her fingertips could even graze the surface of the blood-stiffened cloth, the half-demon's eyes fluttered open and caught Kagome's. The priestess reared back in surprise, one hand flying up to cover her gaping mouth.
While Inuyasha grunted and grimaced and cursed as he pushed himself up on his elbows, Kagome recovered herself and said, "You're injured, Inuyasha, and you should rest. Let me take care of you."
"I'm fine, Kagome," he spat, swiping at the blood dribbling from his fanged mouth. "I heal a lot faster than you humans do. That stupid wolf barely scratched me."
"Barely scratched you?" Kagome exclaimed, exasperated at his nonchalance. "He— and you were— I was— it didn't—" She sputtered on in disbelief for a moment until she felt the tears creeping from the corners of her eyes and rolling down her flushed cheeks. She blinked, taken aback by her own sudden, unbidden display.
"You stupid dog," she mumbled, turning away from the wounded half-demon and wiping her wet eyes. To her frustration, the tears would not cease. Shippô cautiously crawled into her lap, reaching up his short arms to brush her tears away. She smiled gratefully at the cub, but prevented any further intercession by cuddling him close to her chest, inside which her heart pounded like a drum. Inuyasha said nothing, only clambered up the nearest large tree and settled himself on a thick bough to spend the night.
When at last all the saltwater in her eyes seemed spent, Kagome laid out her bedroll, curled up with Shippô, and fell asleep before she could miss the soft wolf fur in Kouga's cave.
Kagome was a child. Though she couldn't see herself in a mirror, she could feel the shortness of her limbs, and the awkwardness of her carriage. Looking down she saw small, dirty hands and a rumpled blue kimono stained by dirt and carrying stray blades of grass. Farther down she saw the little feet in geta sandals standing in an expanding pool of blood deriving from the destroyed corpse of her father. His innards were torn out and scattered around his broken form. Shattered bones poked through burnt flesh. Limbs had been rent from torso.
"Papa," Kagome whispered, her childhood terror undiminished by ten years since this trauma.
"Kagome."
She screamed. The voice had come from the sundered gullet of her father's body. The bloody lips hadn't moved, but still his voice issued forth, carrying across the planes of existence to reach her in her dream.
"You are…not the only one…."
Shuddering involuntarily, Kagome stammered, "I-I don't under-understand…."
"There was—is—another…."
"Papa, please, you—"
"You will find the truth, daughter."
She could feel the edges of the dreamscape dissolving in her mind. "No! Papa, wait!"
"But even with that knowledge, you still have a long journey…."
"Ah, no—!"
She bolted upright, jostling Shippô, who rolled over with a whine before drifting into slumber again. Kagome's chest heaved and sweat trickled down her face. The night breeze chilled her perspiring body. She couldn't discern tears of anguish from her sweat. It was all saltwater when it reached her lips.
"The truth," she murmured, her voice breaking. She realized that she still didn't know the whole truth Inuyasha had withheld from her. Kikyou, her self-professed evil twin, and her relationship with Inuyasha remained unknown to Kagome.
'I don't know if I can wait until morning to find out,' Kagome thought, lifting her gaze to the bough upon which Inuyasha had settled for the night. She blinked when she saw the space no longer occupied.
"What's wrong with you?" Inuyasha's gruff voice demanded from the shadows. Kagome willed her thundering heart to slow its pace before carefully extracting herself from the covers and making her way over to the hanyou so they could talk privately without disturbing Shippô.
"I had an unsettling dream," she told him, not meeting his topaz gaze, so sharp and unforgiving in the cold moonlight, even when the rest of him was concealed in shadows.
"Tell me." Not a request, an order.
"No," Kagome shot back. "You tell me. About Kikyou. I'm finished stumbling blindly through the dark. I've gone through a lot since you asked me to come with you, and I deserve an explanation."
"Fine," he said. "Three years ago I met Kikyou and thought I was in love with her. She lured me into her web and trapped me in a gruesome castle where she kept lots of youths to satisfy her revolting pleasures. I was completely hypnotized by her. Only a little before I met you was I able to think for myself again. I left when I could."
Kagome was not appeased. Inuyasha's words told only his story, not Kikyou's.
"But who is Kikyou? Or what is she?" Kagome queried.
"I thought she was a miko, like you, when I first met her. But after the time as her slave, I think maybe she's a demon of some kind, masquerading as a human," he answered.
"Why does she look like me, though? Why does she target me with horrid visions? Why did you even ask me to accompany you in the first place?" She was ranting now, oblivious with frustration and exhaustion. "Why did I agree? Why am I asking you? You don't know! You're just a stupid demon! And I'm an even stupider girl!"
"Shut up, Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled at her, shaking her violently by her shoulders. She gazed at him with wide, wet eyes.
"I've been living the past decade in a nightmare," she said, her voice hollow, her eyes seeing but not comprehending. "And it's not over. My path is still long and winding before me…." Then she crumpled forward into his chest. He hefted her into his arms and replaced her on her sleeping mat beside Shippô. Looking down at her sleeping figure, Inuyasha said, "You're wrong, Kagome. The end is very, very near."
Kagome rubbed her bleary eyes and slowly sat up. All the events of the previous day came flooding back and she winced involuntarily at the recollection. Saying the day had been an ordeal was certainly an understatement. She hoped Inuyasha wouldn't bring up last night's embarrassing conversation. Kagome wished she'd had more control and not made such an outburst about nothing in particular.
'He must think I'm losing my mind,' Kagome thought of Inuyasha, who had disappeared. She sensed his energy in the woods, presumably hunting up some breakfast. He returned a few moments later with a rabbit, which he quickly skinned and speared on a sharp stick. Kagome quickly prepared a fire, woke Shippô while the meat was roasting, and then the trio had a silent breakfast.
"Are you better this morning, Kagome?" Shippô inquired anxiously once they had finished eating. His jade eyes were large and glistening with worry about the girl, his favorite person in the entire world, and the closest thing to a mother he felt he had.
"I am, Shippô, thank you for asking," she lied, smiling warmly at him as she rifled through her pack to make sure everything was still there. Then she hefted it onto her shoulders along with her bow and quiver, welcomed the diminutive fox demon as a passenger in her arms, and followed Inuyasha out of the grove.
As they walked, nobody spoke, and Kagome turned her thoughts to the nightmare about her father.
'I am not the only one? The only one what? Well, I suppose I should first figure out what exactly I am…. A girl? Probably not. It goes without saying that I'm not the only female in the world. A miko? The same goes for that. Um, companion of Inuyasha? No, because Shippô is also. A traveler? No, everyone travels. Daughter of Higurashi no Hirofumi and Saeko? Not that, either, because there's also Kaede. That immediately eliminates being granddaughter of Grandpa, too. I can't really think of anything else. The only other thing I am is Kagome, and I will always be the only Kagome. There is no other me.'
"Kagome," Shippô whispered in a quavering voice. "It smells strange. I don't like it."
Kagome, not possessing the same sense of smell as her companions, chose instead to examine the area with her power. All she felt was an odd, disconcerting deadness about the place. Not even the tiniest insects buzzed around in the section of forest they had entered. All the plant life looked healthy enough for the season, but there was no animal activity to be detected.
"It'll be okay," she told her friend, though she knew the reassurance to be hollow. She continued to follow Inuyasha, praying the unpleasant sensation of the landscape would soon evanesce.
Suddenly the trees began changing. The tough brown bark started crisping, as though burnt, into black, sooty material. The tree limbs lost their leaves and turned into gnarled skeletons. Shippô cowered and hid his face in Kagome's hair.
The grass thinned and vanished as they moved farther forward. The soil was black, not littered by rocks or plants of any kind. It was just the tall, black tree corpses growing out of the dead, black soil. In the distance an ominous structure started emerging into their view. It was unlike anything Kagome had seen before. Constructed entirely of black stones, it rose into the cloudy sky with crumbling turrets and tumbledown battlements. Mysterious fog encircled the building's perimeter, and the entrance was closed by an iron gate that stabbed the ground when closed. Kagome had only heard about edifices like this, built in Western lands by white-skinned barbarians. No true Japanese castle looked like this architectural horror.
'It's wholly unnatural,' Kagome thought, shuddering involuntarily. 'Why have we come here? Don't tell me Inuyasha's parents dwell in this…place….'
"Come," Inuyasha ordered gruffly, storming onward. Kagome didn't know what else to do but follow. She knew Inuyasha wouldn't lead them into any real danger.
The dog demon stopped right in front of the menacing, rusty iron gate. He said nothing, simply stood before it, but it lifted to admit him. Kagome scurried into the courtyard behind him, jumping when the knife-points of the gate crashed into the ground, trapping the three inside the rock walls.
"Inuyasha, what—," Kagome tried to say, but was rendered into stunned silence when he whirled around to face her, his eyes devoid of emotion, and snapped, "Shut up."
"Don't talk to Kagome like that!" Shippô exclaimed, still burrowed into Kagome's jet mane. His voice shook with fear.
Inuyasha started laughing, then. Kagome's blood seemed to freeze in her veins when she heard the ugly sound. It wasn't natural. It was wicked.
Suddenly, another laugh joined his, growing louder as his diminished into noiselessness. Kagome watched as Inuyasha's eyelids shuttered and his shoulders slumped down. He looked asleep on his feet, but Kagome knew he was not slumbering.
The second laughter had floated eerily from within a dark, open doorway several strides from where the trio was. It grew louder as its owner slithered closer to the exit and finally appeared. Kagome felt like she was in one of her nightmares, but knew what she saw was absolute reality.
"Welcome, twin. I've been waiting a long time for you," Kikyou said, a bloodthirsty grin on her face.
"What have you done to Inuyasha?" Kagome finally managed to choke out, her hands clenching into fists.
"Dear Kagome, I've done nothing," Kikyou replied nonchalantly. "He came to me willingly. That he became entangled in this master puppeteer's strings is not my fault."
"Who are you, really? What do you want with me?" Kagome demanded.
"Now, now, sister, you'll not the one asking questions here," Kikyou told her, sharpened steel underlying her coolly spoken woods.
Kagome glared at the other woman, but said nothing. Perhaps if she didn't speak, Kikyou would tell her what she wanted to know.
"Let us engage in a little game, shall we?" Kikyou inquired chirpily. She slunk over Inuyasha's drooping figure and draped her thin arms over his shoulders, fingering his white hair and slowly rubbing her body against his. Kagome's stomach wrenched at the obscene spectacle.
"I will ask you three questions, and if you answer at least two correctly, I'll let you go free. Mind you, I will keep my beastly little toy Inuyasha, but you and the cub will be released," Kikyou explained. "However, if you fail to answer two or more inquires correctly, you will not leave here alive."
Thunder boomed in the distance, and Kikyou chuckled. "A storm, how fitting!" She seemed almost elated in her own dark way.
"Now," she said seriously, stepping away from the listless Inuyasha. "First question: How many siblings do you have, Kagome?"
"Two," she answered firmly.
Kikyou clucked her tongue mockingly. "Wrong. Next question: Who murdered your father?"
Kagome's eyebrows furrowed in anger and confusion. Her only siblings were Sôta and Kaede; she knew that for certain. How dare Kikyou tell her that she had given an incorrect answer?
"A rampaging demon murdered my father," Kagome replied. Kikyou's smile chilled her to the bone.
"You are an ignorant child," Kikyou said patronizingly. "There is no point in my asking another question, for you have already given two wrong answers. As I promised, you'll not leave here alive."
"What do you mean? Speak clearly for once!" Kagome shouted over another bellow of thunder.
"It means that my hanyou puppet is going to kill you now," Kikyou said simply, and Inuyasha's eyes shot open. The gold color was completely gone, and his eyes were like bottomless pools of inky black darkness. He bared flesh-tearing fangs at Kagome and brandished his claws before him. Kikyou merely stepped away to give the dog demon space to mangle Kagome and Shippô.
When Inuyasha lunged, Kagome shrieked and dove out of the way at the last moment. She and Shippô thudded painfully to the ground. Kagome ordered, "Shippô, go and conceal yourself with my pack somewhere. Kikyou wants me, not you. I will fight Inuyasha, and I don't want to risk you getting injured."
Shippô didn't question her, but grabbed her pack and slid with it off her arms before scampering to a corner of the courtyard and watching fearfully as Kagome and Inuyasha faced each other under a brutal sky.
A band of lightning flashed brilliantly before the heavens opened up and rain started pouring down. Kagome could hardly see for the sheets of rain surrounding her. Only the tiniest whoosh of air in front of her signaled Inuyasha's deadly swipe of claws. Kagome reared back just in time and stumbled backward in the squishy mud. She didn't want to hurt Inuyasha by taking the offensive, but this weak defense wouldn't preserve her life for long.
When he came at her again, she flung a small, crackling ball of energy at his chest, hitting him squarely and knocking him on his rear. Her power was rather weak, for Kagome was malnourished and sleep-deprived. Even the insignificant exertion of forming the sphere depleted a lot of her energy.
Out of the corner of her eye, Kagome saw Kikyou's hand pressed against her chest on the spot identical to the point on Inuyasha's torso where Kagome's attack had exploded. Before the priestess had time to contemplate the action, however, Inuyasha was yelling unintelligibly over the crashing of the storm. Then Kagome felt the same power patterns as she had when she first saw Inuyasha in battle back at the Higurashi shrine. It was the Soul Shattering Iron Claw, whipping through the air straight at her.
Shrieking, Kagome held her crossed arms up in front of her face and threw herself into a crouch. The shining blades flew deadly above her head and demolished part of the wall behind her. Kagome thrust one hand out and guided a bolt of energy toward the dirt at Inuyasha's feet. He was forced to leap backward to avoid the blast, giving Kagome a tiny window of opportunity to glance at Kikyou. The woman was making curious motions with her hands, movements that mirrored Inuyasha's, though on a smaller scale. Kagome realized what exactly was happening.
"It's you!" she burst out, rising abruptly to her feet, momentarily forgetting about everything else around her. "You're controlling him!"
Kikyou threw her head back and laughed uproariously. "It's taken you that long to figure it out, Kagome? You're such a fool, sister! That pitiable half-breed is my puppet! All his love, kindness, concern—a fraud! Only through my machinations did he act so. Sooth, the dog cares for no one, you least of all!"
The truth was more painful than Kagome expected. She had fallen in love with a lie. She didn't know the real Inuyasha at all, and this entire journey, taking her away from home and into the dangerous unknown, had been for naught.
"KAGOME!" Shippô screamed, but Kagome was too late to protect herself as she spun around to meet Inuyasha's talons. Four gashes ripped her middle open and blood spurted over Kagome and Inuyasha. Kagome's bottom jaw dropped in excruciating pain, and she fell to her knees. Inuyasha stood over her as she wavered and collapsed backward into the mud. Her bowstring and the strap of her quiver had also fallen victim to Inuyasha's claws, and fell uselessly to the ground near Kagome. Above her, the hanyou's face remained expressionless and his eyes like endless unlit tunnels.
Raindrops splashed into Kagome's open mouth, her wide-open eyes, her slashed belly. She couldn't speak, could hardly think. She felt so foolish not to have seen it all along, and to have dropped her guard long enough for Inuyasha to kill her. She wasn't dead yet, but knew she soon would be.
Kikyou strolled over and knelt in the mud beside Kagome's head. An odd glow of what appeared to be regret shimmered in her eyes, but faded as soon as it had formed. Now she was blank, staring deep into Kagome's bloodshot eyes.
"I really am your twin, Kagome," Kikyou said seriously. "I was born just several breaths before you. Your mother and father were walking together in the woods when you and I began to be born. As soon as I emerged from the womb, as soon as I inhaled for the first time, a demonic force entered me. Your father was quite a perceptive man, and a powerful spiritualist. He saw the demon right away and hid me from your mother, telling her the first child had died. In reality, he threw me in the river, thinking I would drown. But the power in me wasn't ready to die just yet, and so I floated far, far away while you grew up blissfully ignorant.
"The force took over my entire body, until it became me, Kagome. I am the demon, it is me. I sent the demon to kill your father ten years ago, as revenge for the life he stole from me. I bided my time before I went after you, to take away that beautiful life. When Inuyasha started growing restless, I pretended to lose power over him, letting the little idiot think all his actions were done with free will. But I have been behind everything. I tricked him, and I tricked you. It has been a wonderful game, Kagome, and I thank you for playing. Now, however, I believe it is time for you to die. It is quite a lovely thing, watching your life ebb away as your blood leaks out."
Kikyou relaxed then, content to watch the crimson liquid escape the confines of Kagome's flesh. What the demon woman didn't see was Kagome's pale, outstretched fingers closing around the shaft of an arrow that had fallen close by. Though it pained her to do so, Kagome raised her arm and plunged the glinting arrowhead into Kikyou's throat. The evil woman burbled incoherently, lifting already deadening hands to scratch at the shaft protruding from her neck. Blood trickled down from the fatal wound and mingled with the blood in Kagome's slashed abdomen.
"You shouldn't have underestimated me," Kagome panted, very slowly pushing herself into a kneeling position. "My father was a powerful spiritualist, and he passed all of his gifts on to me, Kikyou. No matter that we were born from the same womb, you are not, and have never been, my sister."
Kikyou's body crumpled into a pathetic ball, and steaming black mist smoked over it for a moment before being washed away by the lessening rain. Kagome looked blankly at the corpse for a minute and then turned to look at Inuyasha, who presumably would be freed from Kikyou's power after her death. His eyes were like jewels again, and his face held an extremely confused expression.
"Kagome?" he murmured. "What the hell's happened?"
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NOTES:
I'm not gonna do individual thanks with this update, 'cause it's been over a year since I last updated, and thus quite a while since some readers were kind enough to review. All your comments mean so much to me, and rereading them just, I dunno, is wonderful, truly wonderful. I don't know why it's taken me so long with this one. I sat down today and churned it out, just kept going and going, rather like the Energizer Bunny. Why I wasn't able to do that eleven months ago is beyond me. For my returning readers, all my gratitude for sticking with this thing, despite how hella long it takes me to write it. For new readers, thanks for giving this story a chance.
Until next time, then? I hope so. Thank you again.
—Kei