Chapter 7
Confessions
His eyes fluttered slowly open, and he gazed blindly up at a canopy of trees. For a long glorious moment, he felt numb, and his mind was blank, but that didn't last long. Pain flooded through his system in a heartbeat, and along with that pain, memory. His eyes widened and he bolted to sit up right, making a furious attempt to pull away from chains that just simply weren't there, and when he realized such, he let his hands drop to the ground. His gaze searched his surroundings quickly, and then awareness seeped back to him, and he noticed familiar scents. His vision cleared, and he could see them all now. He closed his eyes and sighed with relief.
Relief didn't last long, and he was forced to re-open his eyes and stare dully at the slightly curved sword blade at his neck. His spine went rigid, and he licked his lips nervously, looking up to see Inuyasha. He flinched lightly. "Wh-where am I?" He asked in a dazed tone, but he really was a bit too shaken up to be acting. I mean, first, he was chained to a wall, then he was supposed to kill somebody, now he had no clue where he was, and this so called friend was trying to kill him. Come on, that's got to be atleast a bit confusing.
Words were dulled to his still recovering, sensitive hearing, but he could recognize voices. The voices of Kagome and Inuyasha. They were arguing, he realized when he could hear better, and then he no longer felt the sword at his throat. This was one good thing. He was hauled up by his shoulders, and he grunted when he found his feet, but it didn't look like that would hold him up. He teetered a moment, and then collapsed backward, or was about to. Somebody was supporting him, and he turned his head to see, but his eyes only percieved another one arguing, and he couldn't tell who it was.
It took him a moment to realize he was now being adressed, and his hearing was still a bit fuzzled. He turned his gaze to Inuyasha, piecing together what the other was saying.
"He gave you a choice to kill somebody, and you picked KAGOME!" Inuyasha demanded, looking every bit a rabid animal only being held back by a piece of string. It made Nathan flinch to see Inuyasha like that, because in this state, he knew he'd never be able to defend himself.
"I... I had to" Nathan managed, wishing he could sit down or something. He was feeling tired, and being yelled at didn't help his slowly increasing hearing. "Even though she hated me... I had to." He muttered, hanging his head.
"What?" The white haired half demon screeched. "You put Kagome's life on the line to save some spoiled brat who hates you?" His question was greeted with a long silence, from the group, and Nathan, who hadn't moved, and needed to be fully supported now. It was hard to tell whether he was going through depression, or simply that weak. "You'd rather save some one who despises you, and let die your own friend?" Inuyasha inquired in a lower, more menacing tone now. His autum gold eyes burning with anger.
He grit his teeth. That question had hit, hard, and despite his weak knees, he pushed away from who ever supported him, and stalked towards Inuyasha, in a threatning stance, but he staggered diagnally more than stalked. "Be silenced filthy mut!" He shouted broadly, and was surprised to see Inuyasha take a step back, but that only broadened this new found courage. Or was it anger? "If you speak ill of her once more, I shall dislodge your tonngue from that soiled mouth of yours, and use it to bloody strangle you till your blue in the face and your eyes pop out of your head!" Nathan snarled, his eyes seeming to swirl between black and blood red for a moment. "And only then, will I let you savor the moment, that your death will be served in the most humiliating way, and you couldn't do a damn thing about it." He growled, and was quite surprised to see Inuyasha turn away. Brushing the threat off like a pointless joke.
"Gee, touchy aren't we? I still don't understand why you almost had Kagome killed." Inuyasha's glare turned back to a dim fire as he watched Nathan, supposing he might meet that challenge posed by the other's way of standing.
"She is family." Nathan admitted dully and turned as though he meant to leave.
"Wh-who? ...Kagome!" Inuyasha asked in shock, his face going blank.
Nahan rolled his eyes, spinning on his heel to face Inuyasha, but that almost sent him toppling over. "No! The girl you idiot!" He glared for a moment, but just shook his head, turning again. "I'm done talking with you," he admitted somberly. "I'll just get going, and you won't have me to drag you into affairs anymore."
Inuyasha watched him for a long moment, then growled at Nathan. "Hey! wait." He commanded, and went on like he expected Nathan to listen. "She's your family? You said you had no family!" He stated, wondering how Nathan would reply to that.
"Well I lied." He muttered, continueing on. "It happens all the time."
Inuyasha jogged up behind Nathan, easily catching up, and moving smoothly infront of him, stopping the other's treck. "So then why does she hate you?"
"You don't need to know." He muttered and went to move around Inuyasha.
"Well," the annoying white haired one piped up, "I want to, so speak up before I turn you into a rodents meal." The tetsaiga was brought in between the two, the tip pointing menacingly at Nathan's throat.
Nathan watched Inuyasha a long moment, his eyes burned defiance for a short moment, and then his shoulders drooped, and he downcast his gaze. "I would embrace this opportunity," He admitted, glancing around the camp to the other inhabitants. "But I cannot die, till she is safe. Only she has the choice to kill me or spare me, though none shall ever be punishment enough." He said regally as though making a grand speech, but then he once again stared at the ground. "I pray she slays me for vengeance."
"Wait..." Came an unused voice. It was Miroku, and he looked like he was pondering over something. "So you... want to die?" He asked, watching Nathan blankly.
"By her hand, so she will it." Nathan replied calmly, his ear twitching as his gaze turned to Miroku. But more questions were to come unfortunately.
"What did you do that you're willing to die for?" This time, it came from Shippou, and he was watching Nathan in a new light. As though unsure whether he were a puppy needed help, or something to be feared.
"It's none of your business!" Nathan snapped and glided away from the Tetsaiga, and it's posesser, moving further away from all of them. "You don't need to know!"
Kagome was the only one who followed his treck, her glimmering eyes seeming to plead with her begging tone. "Nathan, please tell us?"
He had to pause, watching the girl for a long moment, studying her carefully as though it could be a trick, then sighed. "Yes... for... for Kagome." He muttered. "She has a right to know... I presume." He eyed them all for a moment before going on. "She's my niece of only seven years. A child of my younger sister."
He heard confused murmers among the other's, but didn't bother looking up. Instead, he just continued. "She was... taken advantage of when she was fifteen... I killed the culprit to make sure it wouldn't happen again, and later on... I took her life. I... I couldn't find Heron after that night." He said in a lost voice, staring ahead, and dazed with memory.
She laid limp in his arms, glazed eyes staring up at him from a young, sunken, pale face. Her lips were bloodless, and parted as though she had meant to scream before claws were lodged into her chest. Her chest, where the gaping wound lay, oozed with blood. Her blood, and he was drenched in it. The smell was so strong that it made him nautious, but he couldn't leave her. Not his sister. There was no pulse, there was no familiar rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. There was no heat. She was cold. As cold as death... so much blood... so... cold...
He was called out of his downward spiral of memory by Inuyasha's voice. "Keep going." The half demon spat at him, and Nathan nodded somberly, wrapping himself in memory again as he spoke. Reliving his words.
"I tried so long to find my niece. My only... no the only true Quosaith, after my sister's death. I recieved a notive, from my father... Moridin, that he had found her." He heard a distant gasp at the mention of the name. He assumed it was Kagome. "He made me take oaths to serve him. In return he would gaurantee the well being of my niece... and to be sure I would stay true to my side of the bargain, he equipped me with a collar..." He watched them warily, and never before had the black steel around his throat ever weighed so much. It weighed him down with obligation, duty, and the need to obey. "My last orders were... to... to gather the jewel shards, and kill their posessors. And then he found out about you... about my broken oaths, and then I had to choose." He spoke like it made perfect sence, though Kagome might be the only other who understood what he meant about choosing. "I had to save her. She's only a child, and now... she's probably dead anyways."
He felt an hand laid on his arm, as though for moral support, but he flinched away. Keeping his back to the speaker. "What was your sister's name?" It was Kagome, he realized, but he didn't care.
"Folara... Folara Ona Quosaith." He admitted soberly, though the words sounded forced.
"And your niece?" This time, he was sure it was Sango.
"Heron Zaida Quosaith." He said in an even smaller tone.
Then he heard Miroku's voice. What is this? He thought to himself, twenty questions? "You told us your name was Nathan Baka Bishiounen... What's your REAL name?"
The question almost sounded mocking, and it taunted him, but he replied anyways. His tail submissively tucked between his legs. "Nathanael Mishoru Quosaith."
Then guess who just had to pipe up. Inuyasha. "Hmph, he's lieing!" The half breed announced. "That story is a load of bull. It's out of whack... just like you."
Nathan didn't even give the other a chance to balk in his claim. Before anybody else could move for that matter, he had turned on Inuyasha, and despite the Tetsaiga, he looked like he would tear his near double to pieces. "Excuse me?" He questioned, but gave no time for an answer. "You think my life is just a... a mindless fantasy!" He asked, and stalked a step forward, causing the other to stubbornly stand his ground, and he still didn't give out a chance to reply. "My family is dead and dieing because of what I am. My mother, killed by my own hands. My sister, dead to keep my sanity in tact.. My niece, most likely dead beacuse of a miserable excuse of filth with a big knife!" He had stalked towards Inuyasha through out the whole statement, but he wasn't done yet. "What do I have left? A deranged father, and you useless friends as you call yourselves! Bloody hell, I've got nothing but the knowledge of what I am. Why don't you just slather me now, like the murderer I am?" He demanded, now standing right in front of Inuyasha. He knew there was tension within the group, but that was what he wanted to provoke.
"Gladly!" Inuyasha snapped back and raised the Tetsaiga, only to be stopped by a scream from Kagome. He turned to face her and gestured towards Nathan. "He's a murderer! Can't you see? A curse! Bad luck! It's only right to get rid of him." Kagome had tried to make an interruption, but Nathan spoke right over her.
"Kagome. Let him. Please. Can't you see it's right?" Nathan pleaded.
"No! I won't let him! Now you," She addressed Nathan in a scolding tone, "Will snap out of it right now!"
Nathan paused for a long moment, then moved quickly, so that he was but a blurr to the eye, and was before Kagome, siezing her throat in a hand, and lifting her off the ground, looking like he'd snap her neck any instant. The girl's eyes widened in terror and she clawed at Nathan's arm with a gurgled shriek. "I'm murderous, Inuyasha," Nathan said blandly, "Kill me." He said softly. Watching, waiting, expecting.
