Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha...sigh...
The Reckoning
Chapter 3: The Undertow
What do you remember?
Kagome studied his reflection on the gleaming, rich wood darkly and rubbed her neck with some drama.
She didn't want...to remember. It hurt and in her mind twisted to remember. She was drowning in apathy after having once more been filled with resentment at still breathing while her friends had...she had cheated them. Yet she was paying for her sin. Her position now...she was here, wasn't she? And she felt she was about to pay.
He was waiting on a thin thread, and she felt dangled. Kagome took a moment dressed in silence and drug up the images from the disaster. The floor was cool, and she was thankful for the feeling on her sore legs.
She wondered what the point was of his query was and why he was really keeping her alive. The Jewel had rejected the both of them, so why continue this game? She understood in a vague way. His very creation, his very being was sprung out of desire for the Jewel. Her purpose she was born with, the Jewel encased in her flesh, had tugged her heart and placed her in Sengoku Jidai. She had lost her purpose and so had he. But why fight it? Wouldn't it be better to fade? Would he not allow that?
She felt like beating her fists on the floor and screaming at him. Life seemed like a memory, an aftertaste.
"I remember Kikyo and the Jewel...taking on its own shape. I remembered when I saw it that I had sensed it before," she whispered to his image.
She wasn't going to mention Inuyasha anymore, and if he was smart, he wouldn't either. Despite herself, she was curious...what circumstances could possibly keep him from killing her?
None came to mind and that's what made the entire situation so...heavy like she was in the curtains of a dream. Kagome had felt his potent hatred of her numerous times during their encounters and it always...affected her strangely. For she had never been even remotely disliked and at first, she didn't want such emotions directed towards her.
At first, she was detached, having not been one of his victims. She bit her lip hard, piercing the skin, at the thought because on that level, she had been one of his first, hadn't she? When she was Kikyo...
Then during those intervals of confronting the dark demon, it became all about...becoming intertwined in mutual loathing. It became a thrill, something that pumped in her veins; whether Naraku was aware of it or not, he gave her power. She would face him and only him, and the others, her friends, were lost and behind her.
Just listening to you...makes me sick!
He would smirk and she would snarl. It was something of an unspoken, secret symbiotic relationship that only the two of them would possibly understand.
About this time though, it should have ended by her hand...by now...he turned his head slightly towards her.
"You've sensed this before, miko? And you did not..."
Surprise...almost non-existent and undetectable but yet he was surprised. She had caught him off guard.
"It's not like...I remembered, I mean," she growled, gritting her teeth in frustration. "When I saw it again, I remembered."
She would have told Inuyasha about the danger if she had remembered and if she hadn't been so stupid! She struggled to hold back a wave of tears because she absolutely couldn't show any weakness now.
"What good would it have done...knowing about what was hidden in the Shikon? I doubt it would have deterred you, Naraku."
She smirked at him, pleased at reminding him of his defeat, and hoped her eyes looked merely mocking instead of in torment.
"Kikyo knew, didn't she, and you did not...then you really are nothing but her shadow."
His...word hit, how could, how could he judge her, when he was only a collection of shadows!
She didn't know how she moved but she did in a blank motion, hearing her feet pound, and all she registered was her hands seeking to strike him. And she heard the crack of her fingers as he snatched her hands easily in a vise-like grip. She fell against him hard, holding back at cry of pain. Her feet dug at the floor in protest but failed as he lifted her off the floor mockingly.
"Desperate, aren't we, miko," he hissed. He paused to admire the scene before him. "To prove yourself...you know what you must do now."
Tears forming in her eyes, she looked at the empty ceiling, gasping.
"The Shikon...finish what she couldn't."
Her eyes widened. How she wanted...wait.
"N-n-no! You w-won't have it! D-do you h-hear me! I-It will never belong to y-!"
He set her down suddenly, almost gently, and she wanted to back away even though he still held her wounded fingers fast.
"Then all those who die...their blood will spill on the ground because of you, not me."
She thought quite the opposite when she saw that her hands were bleeding and staining his own. Like Inuyasha's robe disappearing into darkness...along with countless others. The truth! The truth of what he was saying...for once, Naraku was telling the truth. The darkness in the Shikon would never stop, never be satisfied until it covered everything and still...and still she had a duty, a responsible that shackled her.
She moved her thumbs, the only part of her hand that he hadn't gripped, and let them rest on his own hands.
"What can...I do? I don't know what..." she murmured helplessly.
"Don't be pathetic."
He sneered at her. She felt the comparison once more, the scale between her and Kikyo, and she lowered her head wearily. She also felt something else, thick in the air. He wanted her to ask him for his help. She knew by the increasing pressure on her already throbbing hands. As she watched the darkness gathering between her hands and his, she had the weird thought of some sort of dark bond, intertwining her to him. She wanted to rest.
"Yes."
Kagome sighed deeply, the cold in the room draining her, weighing down.
He arched an eyebrow at her in exaggerated disdain, urging her forward. She was falling...somehow in her head, blooming behind her eyes, webs around her heart, her soul turning into lead, couldn't avert her eyes from her own blood, he was...magic, this was magic. At one point, she could have fought it, pierced with her will. But not now...and never again...
"I need your help."
"And in return?"
Placed on a cliff, waiting to fall, with beautiful potential...she tossed it into the abyss and watched it drop, waiting but never hearing the landing. The wind tugged and she followed it because she wanted to see where it would end.
"I..."
She was going to find where it went, burning eternally in her, itching like fiberglas, she was going to find it, had to, and she moved through the deeps that flowed through her hands like silk tingling, obsidian, sand, like time, only to fill the hole she had dug. Yes, it was obsidian, cooling from the chaos, because it cut and bit.
"I will..." Her eyes...he was blurring, everywhere, burning, searing seal onto parchment.
"I will follow you..."
And she found it.
"Higurashi! HIGURASHI!"
She jerked up as a bang shattered to a blinding light. The sun was streaming into her eyes, and she blinked up to see her...math teacher who had dropped the geometry book near her sleeping face.
"Glad you could join us, Higurashi. You have held us up long enough."
The gray-headed, withered man, his mouth tense with anger, motioned wildly to the rest of the class who had their pencils posed above their desk, faces down, hair covering their faces...she couldn't see her friends...who were these people?
Kagome gripped her desk, her hands slick with sweat, trying to breath, and there was Hojo, near the front. Yeah, brown hair...he turned. She almost cried with joy. He was smiling at her! It had been a dream, a horrible dream, Inuyasha was still...
Inu...in...her mind went blank. She searched frantically for a name, a face slipping through her cupped hands like water. A dream...
She couldn't see her teacher's eyes, glasses dancing with the fierce glare of the afternoon sun, and he harshly shoved a paper onto her desk and slapped a wicked-looking pen next to it dramatically. The sound reverberated in the silence, and no one moved.
In huge letters on the board were the words proclaiming her doom:
FINAL EXAM
She started to sweat for real, mind reeling. Had she studied, what were the chapters over...
Kagome glanced at the packet, scanning quickly, and her stomach churned. Geometry, sharp triangles, the entire test was over geometry.
She gaped in horror at the man before her, but he turned in back on her, gray-moth eaten coat slapping against her desk.
"Begin."
The scribbling of pencils bombarded her hearing. Kagome gazed around in horror, breathes coming short, as she saw the pages turning, their pale hands barely touching the paper, the pages were snowing, blurring...she shook her head and tried to start the first problem. Angles...what was the formula?
9, 9 what? 9...I...
Why was she writing letters?! Her hand shook...she tried to write another, 14, N! She needed an eraser! She frantically scrubbed at the ink, but it smeared everywhere. She raised her shaking hand, waving it at the professor's back.
"Yes, Higurashi?" He knew...she was failing!
"Sir, I-I need a pencil."
"This was all that was left for you. You know...some mistakes cannot be erased. Continue, Higurashi, or I'll fail you."
Fighting back tears that only ruined the crumbled paper, dark on the edges, dirty, how had this happened?! She placed the pen to the paper and wrote only to find there was no ink. The marks from the point spelled out...she couldn't stop writing. Kagome squinted at the message etched into her exam. Why arrows are for cowards...She lost control. Kagome shook the pen violently, and no one looked. The scratching continued...always continuing...she would not fail!
Kagome gritted her teeth and slung the pen in the air...something hit her face, on her lips. The pen had exploded. Ink everywhere, on her paper and uniform. So much...it soaked through her socks, and she tasted it. No one looked up, and everything else was clean except her. She sat with her hands up in a gesture of shock.
A ruler hit her desk, jarring her, and she looked up at more red. A red material, a faded robe, with white hair sprinkling down in ivory age...it blazed against the red like a yew tree, branching out eternally. Claws cracked the wood of the ruler and it splintered.
"What could you have done differently, Higurashi? So many things...yet you failed! You are nothing like her!"
No...she shot out of her desk, slipping onto the floor.
I WON'T LOOK! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!
The scribbling continued.
Kagome shot towards the door, grasping the handle, and darted through. The hallways were empty, filled with her haggard breathing. She leaned against the wall and used it as support. She had to get out of there. Kagome stopped for a moment, determined to look behind her...to see if he had followed. Whiteness except for her handprints, a brush on a canvas beginning a new kanji...the halls were empty. The sun warmed her face, and she was thankful for some warmth. She turned to look outside but saw...her reflection in the glass. Unforgiving and cold, skin like papyrus...no...it was contorting, snarling at her. She froze.
"Get out..." The woman hissed, her eyes shrouded and face sprinkled with bits of darkness...like hers was.
"THAT'S MY FACE! WHO ARE YOU?! GET OUT!"
A red arrow broke through the glass and it danced into pieces, danced into obsidian. She felt the shaft pierce her even as she grabbed for it, feeling the feathers slip through her fingers.
Her fingers...someone's fingers were brushing against her hand. Kagome jerked her hand back as if she was bitten and hit wildly towards the source of the touch. She was pushed back and her eyes flew open...to meet crimson. Kagome screamed and thrashed towards freedom but she was held down.
"I won't have you harming yourself, fool, before you can be of any service to me."
Kagome sank backwards onto the futon, eying the dark hair that floated about her. His face was inches way, smirking of course. His eyes were like the ink in the dream...and she shivered, trying to move away, but he kept her pinned down. Kagome distantly realized she was still in her school uniform that was dirty...the fabric of his clothes brushed against her legs, tickling her skin. She glared up at the demon whose hands held her arms down like they were fused to the floor. His thumb was tracing something into her skin, leaving a sensation...Kagome held her composure.
"You can get off me now. I'm awake."
Kagome was amazed at how even her voice was with him this close to her. He tilted his head, eyes studying her with a slight...deviation to his expression. He pretended not to hear her, his smirk growing exponentially. Her heart stopped as he leaned closer to her and smiled into her neck.
"GET OFF ME!" She couldn't hide her hysteria.
He released her.
And she backed away from him. She was going to start crying and never stop.
"Why...why did..." she stuttered to a halt. He rose silently, turning his back on her.
"How...How could you! You are the lowest thing that ever...how could you send me that horrible-!" she rasped out, still feeling like the shaft was embedded in her shoulder. She didn't expect him to stop.
Naraku turned with annoyance written every detail of his face.
"I merely mended your hands while you slept, miko. You're no use to me injured...I believe the only weapon you can wield is a bow." His tone was degrading, and she saw that etching once more.
"You...made me see him again...you won't stop..."
Kagome hated that she felt streams running down her face but she couldn't help it. She shook and covered her face
"Are you breaking apart already?"
He was close once more, trying to remove her hands, and he succeeded. He was studying her again, and Kagome felt...something different. This was something different now yet she couldn't know...she looked away.
"You sent me that nightmare knowing what it would do..." she mumbled, in confusion at his behavior.
"I did no such thing. Your own weak, human soul devoured your dreams."
He cast her hands away in disgust and disappeared into the corridor.
Kagome faltered; he had seemed...sincere.
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A small, white slip of paper floated in the basin, fighting not to sink, and Kikyo plucked it from ruin, just in time. She had saved a bit of the material that had clung to Inuyasha for this purpose. The green threads were nearly undone.
The miko placed her hand over the material, almost touching the rippling liquid that was still boiling in chaos.
"It is time that I regain what you have taken...thief, nothing but a mere reflection. In time...I shall unravel you, Kagome."
Kikyo placed the doll in Inuyasha's lifeless hand, staring at him challengingly. He clasped it harshly, and she tore it away from it before it was crushed.
She shook her head in weariness and held his hand gently, leading him along the path...where a voice echoed throughout the darkness.
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Kagome jumped as something was thrown at her feet. She shrank in horror as she saw it was a bow, woven in a familiar red and fine etching. It was one of Kikyo's...
"I won't touch anything that belonged to her," she stated coldly.
"Yes, you will."
She glared up at him and couldn't see his face in the shadows but she could very well imagine...his eyes. She drove that thought away and crossed her arms, kicking the bow with her foot harshly. It clattered across to where he was standing.
"No, I won't."
Kagome grimaced at the childishness of the entire situation but touching a bow after she was just shot with one of the same make (no matter if it was a dream or not)...it wasn't going to happen. Then she felt her arm move...without her willing it to. She struggled frantically but something was pushing her up, shaping her body, and she was walking towards the repulsed weapon. Her back was forced down and her hand reached out to grab the bow, fingertips brushing against the design.
She was...drowning, lulled by a voice from that deep well inside, but when she felt that design...
Kagome jerked back and feeling a jolt of pain, fell to her knees.
"Grasp the bow now..."
Naraku's voice was menacing, laced with poison and threats. She shook her head, unable to speak.
He gripped the bow and thrust it into her hand, forcing her trembling fingers to grasp the weapon she so despised. Naraku gripped her chin to force her to look at him...and faltered at the emptiness...that her eyes held.
He allowed the bow to fall and tensed in anger. The girl had rebuffed him...even after he had bound her with magic. Kagome awaited his rage but it never came.
He disappeared once more into the shadows, and when she was sure he was gone, she stomped on the bow, finally cracking it. She left it where it lay in pieces and waited for him to return.
Author's notes:
Sorry for the delay. Thanks for the reviews: profiler120, Heavenly Faye-Faye naroki, sess'sgirl, and Yuki Haitani who all have absolutely wonderful stories!! I highly suggest checking out their work.