BY captain obvious
Disclaimer: Is this where I state the painfully obvious?
He is innocent of the crime, yet he is evil. Does Kagome defend the devil against pure souls, all because he did not commit this particular crime? {Nara/Kago}
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Kagome sat next to the door, as tears streamed down her face. She wanted to understand, but she could not. Why had this happened? And, why was she given all of this horrible, horrible truth?
"Mother?" she whimpered, as she looked up at the older woman. "Why?"
"To tell you now would be a sin against you, daughter." Kagome looked up at the woman standing over her. He mother's hair shined in the dim light of the room, and Kagome felt as if she were meeting an angel. She felt so wonderfully horrible. Wonderful that she was finally with her mother, and horrible because it seemed that she was slipping away, just as quickly.
"Please, then milady, sin against me. Give me my sin. For this I must understand." The young girl clutched on to the other woman's sleeve. Looking into her brown eyes, begging for knowledge.
"Please Mistress." Kagome begged, reverting back to the formality she was taught to show to her betters.
The other woman reached down and softly stroked Kagome's cheek. "The time for knowledge is not now. Darkness shall reign, for the present. But, remember you are the light, the only light. Those who may seem pure have a secret to hold. You are the truth, the only. They know this. They can feel it, and for that, they will hate you."
Instead of trying to decipher her lady mother's words, Kagome went another route. "But why do you have to go?"
"Because there can only be one truth. I realize that now. We are two of a rare kind you see. And, there must be a balance. In this dark world, there must be a balance. That balance is I."
"Then why do you go?"
"Because it is time to pass the torch."
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ONE
The sun was just beginning to set, and the cool night breezes were beginning to make their nightly rounds. The small town was getting ready to slumber, and rest for one more night. The streets that only a few moments before were filled with people, were now sparse and only a few straggler's and tired shop owners remained. Among these few, was a girl, a girl who was distraught and alone.
Her clothes told tales that no words could tell. Her clothes were drenched in various smells and stains. She smelled of a strong cleanser, dirty, filthy reused water, and the sweat of her body and that of others. Her clothes had stains that had patterns and lines, the tell tale spots of grease and grim dotted all over her ruined uniform. Her clothes were rumpled and torn in spots, and her stockings, her terribly expensive stockings, had holes and runs in them like no body's business. Smelly, filthy, dirty, grimy, and those were just her clothes.
She was hugging herself, as moved her head from side to side, looking around, as if someone were watching her. She paid no mind to anything, and excused herself when she found that she had bumped into another person on the street. She paid no mind, when a boy with secrets of his own rammed into her. He pushed past her with force, and did not stop to help when she began to tumble. When she cried out, the child paid no mind to her either, and he continued to race down the street, or at least he tried.
A man, who had been watching the girl for sometime, seemed to magically appear, in quick swift motions, he caught the girl and also in that same time span, pulled on the boy's tiny ponytail, trapping them both.
"You should watch where you run, boy. I've never found it polite to push down a woman, and would hope that that same lesson would be learned and followed by the next generation." The young boy, Kohaku looked up at his captor and gasped, as did the girl beside him. Mr. Naraku. The Naraku had caught him; oh the gods were cruel to him.
"And, you" The tall man said, as he turned his attention to the girl, "should watch where you are going. It will be of no good to you, to look over your shoulder, if you can't see what's directly in front of you."
"Yes Mr. Naraku." They both answered in monotone. None of the three of them knowing that just by meeting, at that spot, at that place, that they had unknowingly changed their futures.
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Mr. Naraku held on tight to Kagome's wrist, and for a moment she was grateful. Had he not grabbed her hand, she would have fallen on the hard ground, and lied there for all of the night. No one would have helped her until morning. But, after the initial save, Kagome would have been obliged for him to let go of her hand.
"Now you two go about your own ways, and try not stay out of trouble." Mr. Naraku winked at them, and chuckled with mischief, before letting go of both of them, and walking in the other direction.
After he had gone, the two teenagers looked at each other with bemused looks. "Sorry Kagome, I didn't mean to push you." Kohaku said with embarrassed red cheeks.
"That's okay." She whispered.
"You won't tell my sister? She'd be awful disappointed in me."
"I won't Kohaku. Now, you get going, before the sun completely sets, I know your sister is going to want you home."
The younger boy smiled, and then began to walk away, "Hey thanks Kagome! I'll see you-" Before Kohaku could finish his statement, a feminine shriek ripped through the night air, and an eye burning pure (white) light pushed out all over the area.
Kagome and Kohaku turned to the sound of the shriek, despite the light, only to see two people only a few feet away. They saw the figure of a man with long wavy hair crouching beside a young woman. The woman was bleeding, badly, and the man's hands were covered with blood, and his hands were suspiciously close to her neck. The woman was already dead, but the man was beginning to shake her. The two teenagers ran over to the pair, and watched with horrific fascination. The young woman was slowly beginning to change.
Her soft and youthful face was losing less of its glow, as the unidentified white light was beginning to fade. The softness of her face was waning, and her skin was becoming tighter, and age lines began to appear. Her youthful appearance was also beginning to fade, and the effects of time were showing on her skin. She was getting older, as the white light dimmed. After another minute, the light vanished, as did the woman's youth. The woman was old now, shriveled and wrinkled, dotted with age spots, and transparent skin.
Kagome heard Kohaku's sharp intake, but Kagome stood with no motions. She watched with large and blank eyes, as Mr. Naraku turned to them from his crouching place, beside the dead woman. "Go." He whispered with such intensity that Kagome was uprooted from her spot, and she blindly ran away. So blindly, that she did not watch where she placed her feet. So blindly, that she did not see the carelessly abandoned toy doll, of which she tripped over.
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"I say he done it, Judge. I mean the man's hands were covered with her blood. If that don't say that he's a murder, than I don't know what does." A large crowd then began to bellow and scream in agreement.
"Naraku is the killer, Judge Sesshomaru. It's sure as I'm standing here."
"Yeah Judge." Another man yelled.
A large group of the town's men were gathered in the Judge's large home, voicing their opinions. Sessomaru sat in front of the men, hearing what the town council had to say. "So, you all believe that Naraku did kill the woman, Kikyo."
"Yes!" They all bellowed.
"Well, a fair trial must be given to him, regardless."
"That evil man doesn't deserve a trial." One man called out, and a ripple of agreement followed through the crowd.
"That may be true, but he is still entitled to it. His trial will be set four days from now. We will try him at the lake. Do not worry gentleman, I have every faith that he will not succeed when he is tried. Mr. Naraku will come to his well desereved watery end."
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Kagome watched as the men laughed at the judge's words, and shook her head. She walked away from the room, and made her way back to the kitchens. She rubbed the ever present bump on her head. The swelling had reduced greatly, and she could now cover up the bump with her hair. She remembered how she had gotten the bump, and again shook her head.
She had been there, the night that the Lady Kikyo had died. She had seen Naraku there, with the blood on his hands, or so she was told. Kagome could only remember bits and pieces of the night, and Kohaku had filled in the gaps. But, Kagome was still not sure of everything she was told. That night's events had been slanted, by Kohaku, and Kagome did knew that she wasn't being told the whole truth.
Kagome had a gripping feeling that Naraku was not in fact the killer. Whenever the word 'kill' or 'murder' were associated with the wealthy land owner, warning bells would go off inside her mind. Something told her that Naraku had not killed Lady Kikyo. The only problem was she could not really prove it, in her current state. And, also, even if she could, would she?
Naraku was an evil man. There was no discussion about that. He was a demon that snatched the life out of a everything he could get his hands on. Malignant to the end, and spiteful to the core was he. Mysterious and dangerous and horribly lethal, Naraku was no man to toy with. He had commited countless heinous acts, but no one could ever prove that he was ever involved. His record was clean and sparkled innocently, but his reputation was dark and torn. The town had been waiting…watching…hoping for the smooth Naraku to slip up, and reveal his true nature. Now that he was finally caught in a bad situation, the town that he had worked hard to build was turning on him. They had finally caught him, not caring that he was not the one they should have been pursuing.
So, here lied Kagome's plight. By all moral codes, and her mother's conscience, Kagome should stand up for Naraku and tell the council that she knew that he did not commit the crime. But, Naraku was evil and sneaky and had probably done much worse than kill a woman. Would she not be doing the world a favor by letting him face his trial? Would it not be for the betterment of the world?
"Innocence is a difficult thing to achieve, Kagome. The line between a innocence and evil is hard to find." The voice of Kagome's sainted mother, Kaede, drifted into her mind.
"I do not think that I could, in good conscience, keep a man down, if I had the power to raise him up." Kagome closed her eyes, and tried to block out her mother.
"Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse."
"Child, ye will face too many decisions in life. And, not one of them will be easy. And, most of them will end up with one person flying in the air and the other lying on the ground. The only trick is to decide which person takes which role."
Her mother's conscience was instilled with in her, and Kagome knew that she would never live to forget the shame of letting her mother down. Kagome had to decide if could live with the guilt of that or not.
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Confused? You should be.
captain obvious
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===I know people usually make excuses for their other stories, but I don't want to do that here. Questions about Chivalry will be on bio page. Not that I think any of you are interested........
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