Chapter 4
Defiance
Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-Yasha.
Author's notes: I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I tried to make it longer than the ones before it.
---
Something was coming this way.
The lots had fallen badly, and he felt something coming this way much like some can feel a storm approaching in their bones. The crops had produced nothing for weeks and his people were starving. All the prayers and offerings were in vain and the envoys for assistance from neighboring villages were fruitless.
The young lord, Nara Shimaru, had never believed in things beyond until the last seven months of his life...when she had saved him. Now it was the month of the Gods.
It was funny he remembered her now in the midst of his prayers in front of the solemn Buddha in a room of red, rich wood and burning flames like a pyre.
He breathed in the incense and prayed reverently, clasping his hands. The river had run low, too low. He frowned darkly, trying to fight superstition. Time was scarce. It was as if life was fleeing.
He was prepared to travel to the Asuka area to observe the Sakafune Ishi and its message
Then he would go to the island to get the scrolls. It was a necessity.
---
All the talk...the murmuring of rumors...of impossible things...
Souls of women disappearing into the night, abducted, and leaving an empty shell...marks on the trees, some which he had witnessed himself. He wished
His last envoy had turned around, spooked like frightened children, and he had journeyed in the rain to note this strange phenomena. His mount nearly threw him off when he had reached his destination. But he was no frightened child...
Patting the horse chidingly on the nose, he unsheathed his katana and prepared to enter the dark woods but was stopped by a hand intertwined in his armor. Nara turned suddenly with his sword raised. It was a small child with large, dark eyes holding a sakura blossom. Her eyes were solemn and her mouth down-turned with tendrils of dark hair stron down her face like a river. He was struck with her pallor and took an uncomfortable step back. Suddenly, his arm was yanked back by his mount as the horse tried to rear up. It was a moment of chaos but the child remained still in her crimson, saturated, and tattered kimono with her bare and cut feet drifting sharply into sight.
He almost didn't want to gaze upon her she was so...like a fleeting bird, like something wearing a mask. Her eyes were too dark, and he felt the large pools upon him, felt like drowning. And it wasn't the season for sakura blossoms...
He caught his breath and regained himself. The rain hissed down around them.
"Foolish child, why are you out in the rain? And bare-footed of all things? Where are your parents?" he scolded.
"Himitsu..."she muttered in a grave voice.
He stared at her, not hiding his shock. He might have thought she was being mischievous if it wasn't for her down-turned expression.
"You will answer me, girl. Don't you know whom who are addressing?"
She looked past him, hands tearing at sakura blossom like moths, and said, "Nara Shimaru..." in the emptiest yet most...dancing version of his name he had yet heard, the way the words seemed to declare misfortune.
It jarred him like a spear, and he staggered back, losing his grip on the reins. The horse fled into the mists, and he lay on his back, struggling to get up but his armor weighed him down.
Then he was in the woods, surrounded by the trees, the grass brushing his knees, and he was without his armor. In fact, he felt like he had been freed, torn from himself yet he was...in the woods. He glanced upwards through the gaps in the trees, the branches looming out like pleading hands, and he spun around, but the trees were much too close together. A glimpse of red in between the darkness of the trees...
He was appalled! That little girl, that little, conniving whelp had done something to him. Burned on the trees...himitsu...burning into him...that word carried on the wind, swept around him, blinding him.
The grass grew too long, and soon he was nothing. Night came and dew fell upon him, and he lay on his back, arms spread out. He felt like a boy again. The red moon was slashed and shone upon the marks on the trees. It was a secret, and he was waiting for her. A sakura blossom fell on his forehead. He didn't move, waiting, wondering...where was she? In his schooling, he was taught of the Void, where there was nothingness, so one must know many things to distinguish between nothingness, for principle had existence, skill had existence, and the spirit had nothingness. He believed, that truly, he was in nothingness.
Then she was above him, filling his sight, and he stifled a scream. Her eyes were much too large. She leaned close to his face, and she became a shadow. He only glimpsed the movement of her lips and the whisper of her false breath upon his face.
Eyes were pools...the white of her eyes like the purest paper...he was reminded strongly of a spider.
"She comes here...mark her. When the moon wanes seven times, she will come again with the Shikon no Tama. Mark her and do what she asks of you, Shimaru Nara..."
"My lord!" He was being shaken, and he felt burdened once more. Hands were lifting him off the wet earth, and Nara Shimaru still felt like a child.
The fever raged on for weeks, and he could not sleep.
He laid on the futon, still feeling the wisps of her hair. The lions carved by the door of the room haunted him. Each night they stalk closer, looming over him and baring their fangs still stained with blood yet each morning they would return to their posts. The phoenix emblems in the wood burned. Their eyes were pools...children's laughter were needles in his spine. Madness kept his eyes open.
Each night he aged. His dark hair turned gray from powdered time, and he could not eat.
One day, the day of her coming, a child of his servant peeked into the room. In his mind, he was not alert, and he was startled as the child peered at him, shyly offering flowers.
His yells had brought the whole castle.
"Put the child to death! She has disturbed me!"
The girl hid behind her mother as the servant hastened to explain, holding up her weathered hands in supplication.
"My lord, she is but a child. She wandered away but it will never happen again! P-please she is my only daughter."
The woman feel before him wailing with the waif hiding behind her, clutching her plain kimono, and the guards at the post shifted in discomfort. Nara eyed them angrily, gaze fermenting into poison.
"WELL?! FINISH HER!" He pointed a shaky, crooked finger at the brown-eyed fiend. The men didn't move.
"I'll do it myself," he hissed and grasped his dagger tightly, staggering forward. He would punish them later, for such foolishness over a creature of no importance.
"There is no need for such a senseless act, my lord. The child has done nothing wrong."
Shimaru froze at that voice...whispering of the Shikon no Tama. He turned and the whispering, frightened men parted to reveal a pale woman adorned in miko clothing bearing an elegant, arched bow. Red...she shone into his gaze.
He pointed his dagger at her, enraged at being made the fool.
"How dare you speak to me in such a manner! You dare...GET OUT OF MY SIGHT, OR I'LL CUT YOUR WORTHLESS LIFE SHORT!!"
The moment of silence gave birth to something dark, and she smiled with her eyes empty and buried.
"Such threats do not apply to myself, my lord...I am here to purge you of the demon you bear," she murmured and soon flowed completely into his view.
Something inside of him recoiled, but he remained frozen. Her movements were much too flowing, like a dream, like something not of this world. Yet...she was very beautiful, like a kanji draw on rice paper. Yet his vision was blurred because he was deep within, under water, watching the ripples...
Soon the miko had reached him without his true awareness.
The thing that lurked inside him, coiled up, stared out at her to with predatory gluttony, waiting. Then, with her long fingers, she touched his forehead in the exact place where the sakura blossom once fell.
He screamed as something jolted through his nerves and attacked the curled-up thing viciously.
Yet...and yet he was slowly released from his underwater prison and glimpsed the fleeing thing; he knew it had left of its own will and not from any impetus from the woman. It had come to observe her.
He fell to his knees, shaking and cold, and she kneeled beside him with her hand on his shoulder and order the men to gather material for their lord. She stayed by his side the whole night and kept the lions away.
When Nara Shimaru awoke, the first object he saw was her, with her bow in her lap. He reached out timidly to touch the string of the weapon. She observed him indifferently.
"What beautiful silk...I admire your weapon, priestess. With such craftsmanship, this weapon tells of your virtue."
"Thank you. I have had it...all my life."
The next words were the very hardest to drag up because of his pride and because it was a woman who had saved him.
"I owe you my life, priestess, for you saved my very soul. I am ashamed...I can not give you a proper reward...nothing in this world could repay you for your kindness."
"You flatter me. It was not kindness but an obligation," the woman responded bluntly.
"Y-Yes, of course...I understand."
Never in his life had he been so caught off guard. Studying the woman, he saw she seemed above him, too pure and ethereal, too aloof, and he grew annoyed and suspicious.
"If you don't mind my asking, priestess, how did you know of my burden? I instructed my people to not let word of my illness slip past these walls, for I have many enemies who would have attacked us," he declared in a tone to match her own bluntness.
She looked askance at him but beyond that, had no reaction and he fell short of his goal.
"I was merely passing by, my lord, in a hurry to find shelter before the sun set, for the night births many evils...I believed that I sensed something I was looking for, but I was mistaken. There was a...strange energy hovering over your castle. When I entered the gate, which was not protected, I heard your shouts and the madness behind them. I realized the shouki I sensed must have sprung from you, my lord...so, to answer your question, no, I had not heard a whisper of your burden...and I must be on my way."
He was aghast as the miko stood to go.
"Wait, I apologize for my rudeness. Surely, you will stay the night. It is much too cold for you to resume your journey."
"The cold does not bother me, my lord. I have placed seals around the room in case the spirit returns."
She stood by the entryway, moving aside the screen. He grimaced as he heard the wind rattling the tiles outside.
"Priestess, I demand you stay for the night."
"I can not. I have much to accomplish before I can rest."
She disappeared fully through the screen, almost like she had never been there at all, and he stumbled after her. Sliding the door open, he hissed at the biting cold and saw her ghostly red in the distance and her dark hair flickering in the slivers of light.
"AT LEAST TELL ME YOUR NAME, PRIESTESS! I MUST KNOW WHO I AM INDEBTED TO!" he called out against the wind.
"Kikyo."
Then she was gone, and he was left to wonder how he had heard her soft voice over the roars of nature.
"Kikyo...I shall see you again."
And Nara Shimaru did see his savior again...and she asked him to repay his debt.
---
Kagome had grown stiff from her long-held position and stretched a little bit before deciding to move. She grimaced. It had grown too quiet here and the air was too heavy, like being in mire. Where did her tormentor go to anyway?
Her body felt like it had been pulled by a thousand strings, and she heel-toed it to the doorway, carefully stepping around the ruins of the former weapon that perhaps she, in one shaded memory, used herself.
Holding her breath, Kagome slid the door open painfully slow, expecting something to dart out of the darkness at her for her earlier defiance. She peeked through the opening. Nothing was there, and she hissed as the floor, alive in dark tones, felt like ice. She couldn't see her hand in front of her face except for the few glimmers of light seeping through the rotting wood, giving off a ruddy glow.
She grew darkly somber as she noticed faint, gilded designs, painted in gold and a mirage of different colors, now seeming like a rainbow in an oil spill. Once there were people here...
She tiptoed down the hall, occasionally spotting suspicious-looking marks near the corners, engrained in the wood. Blinking and brushing back her hair, she squinted closer...was that...blood? THAT IS SO GROSS!
Kagome cupped her mouth in disgust and ran down the hall, occasionally jumping over the places where death once laid. Panicking and severely, abet quite suddenly claustrophobic, she searched desperately for a way out and slammed into a place where a raw sun peered at her through the murk. A vacant courtyard greeted her.
Kagome quickly stepped out bare-footed onto the ground and collapsed, breathing deeply and praying the ground wouldn't turn into quicksand. The former grandeur of the castle was not lost on her though the towers seemed like slumbering giants.
Overall, she was sure it had been quite a beautiful and majestic castle. It reminded her of a labyrinth, and judging by the scattered, faded tiles, it had once been white. And now it was vacant, and it seemed like she was alone. Eying each entryway suspiciously, she expected a dramatic appearance. Then she grew peaceful as what felt like hours passed. She took the time to study her sullied uniform without much thought and laid her head on her knees. Sighing, Kagome shut her eyes.
Then, quite suddenly, she was in a windstorm of tile, sand, and shouki that gripped her throat in a strangle-hold. Blinded, she held up her arms in defense as she was lifted off her feet entirely when the ground dissolved, debris biting sharp, stinging, and cutting off her breath. She clenched her teeth in the vain effort to keep the noxious material out of her mouth. Flipping weightless through the air, she hit the ground hard near the steps, just barely missing the sharp edge.
Something big and yellow crashed on the said steps, making her shriek. It took a little bit to process that the deadly thing was her bag. She sat up very slowly. Feeling pinpricks across her skin, she was vaguely horrified when she saw that he was adorned in his unnerving pelt. It just made the whole situation choke the spirit out of her as he looked completely soulless. She shivered.
As he gestured impatiently to the bag, she jumped a little at the motion then gazed nonplussed at the item.
"No word of thanks, miko? Such manners...that hanyou must have rubbed off on you," he sneered from underneath the lifeless face, and she grew cold.
Then Kagome noticed she was bleeding a little from the tile against her skin.
"Yeah, thank you very much for throwing me around the whole castle, I've always wanted to be cut to bits and slammed on the ground... I appreciate it. Such a manly thing to do..." she snarled and opened her bag...to find a besmirched knife. She fell backwards.
"W-W-WHAT?!" Kagome stammered out.
"Oh, some common thieves found your bag before I did. It was very amusing..."
She sincerely felt extreme pity for the poor souls who had had the misfortune to come upon her things.
"I'm going to be sick, just..." she growled to no one.
"Miko..."
Something taunting was in his voice, and turning to look at him, she saw that, in his hands, he held her bow, her own bow.
"Where did you find it?" she murmured. She knew it hadn't been with her bag, and she didn't bring it with her to the fight.
He was silent, and she felt pulled towards him, walking jerkily. Soon she walked of her own will, feeling indifferent to everything but her bow. It was from when she was stronger and when she was with her friends. She touched the weapon lightly and reverently.
"Where did you find it?" she asked again in true curiosity.
"The monk," he answered in an offhand voice, pulling her along.
"B-by his..." she removed her hand quickly at this news, seeing a horrible picture in her head. She needed...to bury them somehow, put them to rest. But he wouldn't...she needed...
She saw a glimmer of red behind his mask.
"No, miko. It was not by his body at all...in fact, there is no trace of his remains."
She lost her voice, and she thought he enjoyed watching her emotions.
"He brought it along with him before, with the foolish idea it would make a difference...I knew it would be there."
"B-but what about...why, WHO WOULD..."
"Girl, do you actually think, or did the hanyou give you that trait as well? It is most obvious that the Shikon devoured their bodies while it found this weak wood not to its liking."
He dropped the bow harshly into her hands, and she could not hold on to it. It slipped out of her grasp. Suddenly he did lash out, pushing her down, and Kagome dove to save the bow before he crushed it.
Shaking, she glared at his face that was leering at her.
"I've wasted enough time dealing with your frailties, miko," he drawled. "We will be leaving soon, and for the sake of your sanity, you will be ready. Otherwise, I will test the limits of your pain threshold."
She grasped her bow in longing, wishing that she could strike the demon, the hanyou, down. Kagome made a silent vow that she would not allow Naraku to use the Shikon no Tama. Instead she would wait...and she knew he knew her thoughts. He chuckled and grasping a handful of her hair, pulled her face up to look at him.
She decided to break the silence first.
"The Shikon is completely contaminated now...I don't know if I can find it as quickly as you wish. It's shielding itself from me, I felt that when I stepped out here even with your barrier. I have to wonder what you have in mind. Perhaps only you can find it now."
It was a possibility and made sense to her. Something wicked could sense another wicked thing. Because, in the past, even if the Shikon shards were miles away, she could fell the tug deep inside her. Now there was nothing at all.
A strange look rose to his face. Kagome was taken back because she was used to the only expression he ever wore, which was arrogance immersed in arrogance.
"It's hiding itself very well. That's why I must obtain something first..."
He loosened his hold. Looking after him, Kagome felt a very un-numbed fear. It was sharply circulating around the Shikon...for what if it found them first.
---
The light flickered behind his eye lids, and he sought peace, waiting for an answer. None came.
"Lord Nara..."
His meditation was broken, and he narrowly avoided cursing. Gripping the mat tight in his anger, he glared towards the doors.
"Yes? I was not to be disturbed..." he said in a low voice that, to those who knew him well, meant he was very angry.
"Forgive me, my lord. But it is a miko...and her companion. She speaks of having a tie with you."
His mouth went dry as memories of that unforgiving month arose in his mind.
"What is her name?"
"Kikyo."
He stood quickly, almost tipping over the small candles to his left.
"B-bring her in."
Nerves cracking, he straightened his garments hastily as the door slid open. In the gloom of dusk, he could just make out her limber figure. This time she didn't seem as unreal because the wind did not touch this northern area of the castle...still the hairs on his arm stood up.
"Do you not remember me, Lord Nara?'
It would have been a playful question had her voice not resembled a void. Folding his hands behind his back to keep them from shaking as something dark and instinctual filled his mind, he managed to regain his voice.
"Of course...Kikyo. Please come in, there is much to discuss."
"Indeed there is."
The flames flickered as she entered the room and suddenly it felt like there were too many people in the hollow place...more like someone who shouldn't be there. Then Shimaru spotted her white-haired companion behind her who was...
"Demon..." he unsheathed his sword. "Priestess, what is the meaning of-!"
"Calm yourself. He is of a pure nature. He will not sully this place."
Sitting elegantly on the mat opposite him, she motioned for him to do the same.
"Please, my lord, time is short."
Keeping his grip on his weapon, he lowered himself down on the mat, ready to spring up in case the demon attacked him. The light changed as he kneeled down, and that's when he noticed it. The lack of movement in the Halfling's eyes...the flames caused no movement, merely bouncing off the animal's eyes back at him. Something was not right...
"Although I question your choice for a traveling mate, my lady, I have to ask...is he well?"
"He is fine," she bit out sharply, voice shaking with unused emotion. He hurried to rectify the situation.
"I'm sorry. I meant nothing by it. What brings you here? I trust you had much luck on your journey." Shimaru congratulated himself on the tactful change of subject.
She paused.
"Yes, much luck...but there is still much to be done, my lord, and I have come to ask for your assistance. You remember you oath to me."
"Yes, priestess, and I stand by it whole-heartedly. What must be done? For the season has rotted early and nothing grows in my lands nor anywhere...souls are being plundered from young women, and I have heard talk. Rumors about a demon corrupting the Shikon no Tama...my monks confirmed this by looking into the lots and-"
"Oh, yes, it is Naraku you are referring to. But he is no longer a concern...it is another."
"Who, priestess?"
"I regret to say it is a former miko, a young girl with deceptive powers, who now threats the state of things. She hides her powers like a snake, and I do not know how I will fare against her in battle. That is why I must ask this of you, Nara Shimaru, of the Nara line. I have heard of your ancestors' skill in magic and prayer. I have heard of the Nara scrolls, my lord, and I beg you, lead me to them."
"Priestess..." A huge sorrow welded up inside of him because the first thing she asked he could not give her. "I can not."
Shimaru was jolted as the gentle woman focused a predatory gaze on his being.
"You can not or you will not?"
"Both, and I do this not to slight you. If you know of the legends, then you know of the dark use of the scrolls that eclipsed them forever. The only time they were used again was by a great miko to seal many demons that plagued the land. She would have managed to purify the horde if it wasn't for the corruption in the words from that past mistake. Some say that the words contain a demon from the beginning of time sealed within them, in the very ink, and it is to the greatest shame of my family that the great miko perished in her pursuits. I heard tale that...it was this use of those words that helped create the Shikon no Tama. Such a thing...and the Nara family sealed up the scrolls, and I am bound never to reveal their location."
"You were going to use them, my lord, you were going to use the words..."she whispered, closing her eyes in mockery.
How had she known? Something wasn't...he stood.
"Miko...what is your true business here? I demand that you tell me at once!"
She opened her eyes and he saw...that girl, that fiend from the forest. He tried to scream out, but she blocked his voice with a wave of her hand. A strange smile was shifting over her once-beautiful features, like a whisper from the wisp of that demon.
"You can see, Nara Shimaru, that I am different now...she is my child now, not his. She chose me, this child of the Shikon no Tama."
Darkness started to gather towards the miko, and his heart sped up, propelled by another force in the room with them. It was suffocating him, and he fell back towards to the statue for refuge.
"W-what have you done to yourself, priestess?"
"Done to myself? Can't you see that this is my destiny? I was marked from the beginning, Lord Nara. I was born the exact month, day, and hour that the great miko, Midoriko, was born in the past. I was picked to guard the Shikon no Tama, and I was cursed as well...to fall in love and die an unnatural death. In my life, I was misguided, not seeing the beauty within the extremes. Now I see the truth and get to live again while that girl can harbor this demon."
The stands of death were completely filled and intertwined around the miko as the hanyou remained indifferent. They reached towards him, and he dove towards the sacred seals at the foot of the statue. Trembling, he held them out in front of him.
"Nara Shimaru...I think it is time for you to meet my other companions."
Figures emerged from the shouki. One of a young girl and one of a man...
"What magic is this?" he whispered.
"It is only their souls, my lord, and you will join them."
---
"No way! I'm not coming near those things!!"
This time she was going to be sick, her insides were churning. Because, right in front of her with skin hanging off the yellow bones, were the remains of horses, skeleton horses, and they were definitely demonic horses...They were chained to a dark wooden carriage with heavily chiseled letters foreign to her in the sides. The most eye-catching detail of this decayed picture was the cage in the back, besmirched and rusted, with a chained mask and muzzle hanging down from the top.
"You're going to have to go on without me," Kagome stated firmly, crossing her arms.
Still covered up in fur, she couldn't see his expression, but she could tell he was ignoring her, conjuring a black flame to hover near the carriage. Yeah, that topped it.
"So good luck and everything."
Fiddling with the straps of her book bag nervously, she turned around with determination.
Only to be pulled backwards by invisible hands...
"You really are slow, girl. It is starting to bore me. And here I thought the hanyou was the stupid one..."
Tightening her fists in anger, she opened her mouth to tell him off but choked it down as one of the dead steeds turned its head in her direction, a corroded eye looking down at her. She settled for a whisper.
"Look...just stop mentioning him okay. He's not involved in this anymore. Inuyasha's dead, can't you be satisfied with that?"
"He didn't die by my hand..." he hissed and threw her into the carriage.
Before she could gather herself and leap off, he had jumped on and the horses had started to run...too fast. She was pushed back against the cage and could only watch in dismay as they burst through the courtyard and bolted towards the stone wall of the castle.
"N-NARAKU!! WE'RE GOING TO-!"
She shrieked and shut her eyes tight as the horses made contact with the stone...and went right through. She opened her eyes just in time to go right through herself...instead of being crushed, she was in one piece, just left with the sensation of one who has been doused in cold water.
Climbing painfully back onto the seat, she glared at him.
"You could have warned me, you know..."
Kagome caught a glimpse of his smile underneath the mask and sighed. This wasn't going to get any easier. For as long as she was with him, he would continue to torment her.
"Where are we going anyway?"
"You'll see..."
"Does this carriage have your barrier around it too? Can other demons sense us?"
He pointed towards the flames along side them...and she had to admit that those flames were rather beautiful in a lotus-like fashion.
"Oh...well, what are we looking for—."
"Are you ever silent, girl?"
Biting her lip in restraint, she folded her arms and leaned back against the seat, looking at anything else but him. It made her dizzy to do so because the horses were practically flying now, barely touching the ground. The only thing she could tell is that it was growing dark as she watched the silhouettes of the trees grow. The chain banged noisily against the bars of the cage.
"So...your hatred won't let him go?" she murmured, more to herself than him because she expected that he wouldn't answer. But the idea was interesting.
"I have no attachment to anyone, miko," he responded sharply.
"Oh, but you do. You're attached to yourself...and the Shikon no Tama."
She didn't turn to face him while saying this, feeling joy that she had gotten to him...somewhat.
"Bold, eh, girl...surprising when you are just an accessory. Tell me, miko, where have all your self-righteous sacrifices gotten you? All of your pointless emotions that you believed would bring you admiration...your companions abandoned you. Who did the hanyou chose in the end? You were always replaceable, the distraction from their collective grief, you were the faux sibling, the mother, and the sought love, all roles that I myself created for you... and even when you remained living, you were tossed aside, an effigy of another, a puppet with no substance. The truth is that they resented you and what you were, a blind, foolish, little girl who knew nothing of the world."
Kagome gripped the sides of the carriage hard, focusing her rage into her hands, and was determined to show no other reaction to this attack at all. But, in her mind, she wondered if his words were not some skewed form of the truth. After what had happened... Inuyasha and Kikyo appearing together, bound together. Her role with all her friends, true, she filled a need...that he created. This obvious revelation and his mention of a puppet...did he really think that he...had formed her being as he perceived it?!
"What I was...don't you mean what I am?"
Her question came out of nowhere, and she didn't see why it mattered.
"He changed you from what you were, and now you are just a fool."
A dismissal lurked in his voice, and Kagome felt strangely...lost. The bag was jostled against her feet by the vibrations of the travel, and the colors of her old, childhood kimono poked through the slightly open flap.
Her mother...her mother had said that...she was special. Then Kagome knew what he wanted, to see her crack. She wasn't raised to give up so quickly. Her mother would be so disappointed.
"You can only judge by what you know, and you, Naraku, don't know me...and I wasn't such a side-show when I faced you for the first time. Miroku told me of your past, when the Shikon was out of your reach. You were the mimic who fed off people and the emotions you claim to despise. With my friends, I undid your work; you sought to destroy them, but you couldn't. That's because you don't understand anything about true friendship, you couldn't have understood what we were, and you never will, not even if you live forever. And your obsession with the Shikon almost killed you! That's what all your cruelty and lies got you, your own malice almost killed you, idiot! If anything, the Shikon no Tama manipulated you! SO LIKE YOU'RE ONE TO TALK! "
Her triad had started lightly then evolved into a full-blow screaming, complete with shaking fists. Of course she wanted to say more for all the despair in her had gone through the crucible of her temper and burned the tip of her tongue. But she halted as the carriage halted, and he was right in her face, cutting off her voice with his hand around her neck. It seemed very sudden, and her bravery melted at this very inconvenient time.
"When this is over..."
She was petrified. He could hardly utter his threat, so enraged he could hardly speak, and the very worst thing was that she could feel his boiling presence in her. No...yes, it was there, showing its teeth. What had he...she was practically hearing all of him, all the demons that made Naraku yet he was one. It was very...it was something she never imagined, that quite simply he was beyond her. A labyrinth of thoughts spinning one boundless entity...it was very strange...daunting, dreadful, and beautiful all at once. For one moment, she saw him very clearly.
Then he pulled back from her mind for she felt his hasty exit. She wasn't meant to get that close. He maintained his grip on her neck, just loose enough to allow her to breathe but only just. He brought her close to him in one fluid motion.
"I will break you."
She didn't hear him, consumed by what she had been connected to, and then she was tossed into the air. Surprised and still struggling through layers of shock, she lightly braced herself for the expected impact...that never came. Instead she received another shock from an external force. She was suddenly neck deep in a river of blackness. Suddenly she saw rotten trees and marshes and no star in the sky...she saw him all in white upon the monstrous carriage.
Kagome would have screamed at him but the cold pouring through her unprepared body made it difficult. Something grasped her ankle and pulled.
"NARAK-!"
She was pulled under and couldn't breathe. Spots appeared before her eyes. But, before her chest began to hurt, she could breathe although the air was strange. The ebony river twisted above her, a replica of the night sky.
A river was flowing...but gravity...
Sure, why not? Everything else is upside down so why not?
As she studied the phenomena with curiosity, something sharp rested at the base of her neck, and her arms were pulled from behind her. Kagome gasped and tried to fight her attacker off but...her arms were being tied by slim shapes of...shadows. Literally, just shadows of arms, emerging from a bigger shadow of a massive demon. The only thing she could see was his eyes, baleful, white slits.
"Who has entered the gate from the Ether?"
A voice came from the shadows, a cold voice full of reflections of bete noir and disease.
"It's a human, a human female!" her captor hissed as a tongue darted out of his sneering, sanguine mouth.
"A human has found the entry...impossible. She must be a demon in disguise. Bring the creature to me."
The demon shadows tightened its grip and drug the kicking girl away from the entry while she looked frantically over her shoulder. Kagome saw that Naraku had not followed behind her and felt unexpectedly betrayed. She should have expected this but for some reason, she hadn't. Even in their opposition, the Shikon had them bonded, for hadn't she just glimpsed him? Now she was alone and defenseless.
Kagome braced herself for the worst and could only hope that even he could have enough decency in his being to not abandon her here.
Author's notes:
Thanks to all those who reviewed!
Naroki-Thank you for your support! You're the one who encouraged me to try an Inu fic. I loved your story 'Love for Evil' and the rest of your work rocks! Keep updating 'It's My Life" I'm looking forward to it.
The Bloody Queen of Hearts-Thanks!! I'm glad you like my fic! I hope I don't disappoint!
Golden-Eyed Girl-Thank you!! You really encouraged me on this fic. I have to say I am eagerly awaiting your update to your fic 'Naraku's Shocking and Final Creation'. So update soon!
Yuki Haitani-Your dramatic fics are beyond good! I love your stuff and I'm glad you like my story.
Aspen Snow-Thank you so much for your kind words! But your writing style is amazing...Crimson Roses and Crystal Rain contained the most beautiful imagery ever. I can honestly say it drew the reader in completely!
Elementsofmine-I'm glad you liked that line! Your Naraku is always so well portrayed so that means a lot!
Raihu-Wow, thank you so much! Actually you are the first one to tell me that, and I truly appreciate it because I never really know about my own stuff. Your fic 'Death Comes Swiftly' was beyond belief and very powerful, one of my favorite stories. I took your advice and tried to focus more on the scenery.
Please review.