Author: Nefertili
Fandom: Inuyasha
Rating: PG13
Pairing(s): Sesshoumaru/Kikyou, Sesshoumaru/OC
Genre(s): Romance, Angst, Adventure, AU
Warning(s): Battle scenes, betrayal, over-anger (if there is such a word), fluff... What more can I say?
Disclaimer: None of the characters, except perhaps some, are mine. They are owned by Rumiko Takahashi.
Summary: Kikyou, being saved from peril by Sesshoumaru, joins him in a quest against Naraku and one of his allies, who happened to share a past one-sided relationship with the Demon Lord. SesshKik!
A/N: Yes! Okay, Arwen, Dark Sorceress of Fate, thanks for your review and this chapter will answer a major question that's in your head, so don't hesitate to read on!
...o0o...
Dusk was falling when Sesshoumaru called them to a halt. They had left the plains, and had entered a forest once more. There was hardly a source of light, save for the occasional peek of a half moon among the branches.
Kikyou could not help but breathe a sigh of relief when the Demon Lord finally allowed them to rest. He had not talked to her at all the whole time, and not even so much glanced at her, but thanks to Rin, she somehow felt accepted in his group.
Rin and Sesshoumaru. Kikyou observed with keen interest as Rin dismounted from Ah-Un and went up to Sesshoumaru, who had sat among the strong roots of an oak tree. Her brow furrowed as though attempting to fathom what her eyes were telling her. She hardly knew of the whereabouts of the taiyoukai before he saved her from the Shinidamachuu; she merely knew him as the cold, cruel half-brother of Inuyashaoh, curse that hanyou for deserting her for her weak reincarnation in the form of Kagome!whose resentment for humankind was greater than anyone she ever knew.
Resentment for humankind? That thought is but a paradox to the reality she had just known. The trip to the forest was long enough to let Rin tell Kikyou how she came into Sesshoumaru's life. A poor orphaned girl who was mercilessly killed by wolves, Rin was unexpectedly revived by Sesshoumaru, whom she had taken care of when he lay injured in the forest after a bloody duel with his half-brother.
Kikyou was touched by Rin's loyalty to her Lord; the miko could sense that the foundation of that trust dug deeper than the Demon Lord bringing her back to the dead. The human child looked up to Sesshoumaru as a father figure, and it did not come as a small surprise to Kikyou. She did not understand how an arrogant taiyoukai could take an orphaned child under his wing, and a human girl at that. Did he not hate her kind?
Kikyou shook her head to drive away all the questions. She was certain that Sesshoumaru had a compassionate side hidden somewhere in his heart. If not for that, he would never have revived Rin; if not for that, he would have allowed her to become prey to the Shinidamachuu...
The miko then stood up, brushing dry away dry leaves that had fallen on her hair and garments. She laid her bow and quiver against a tree and she stretched her tired limbs. Rin had a mount, but she had chosen to walk throughout the trip, turning down all of Rin's requests that she ride Ah-Un with her. Kikyou would give away all personal comforts for the sake of children, and more than that, really. Sesshoumaru was on her mind throughout the time; she was still treading on thin ice around the silver-haired youkai, and she would not allow the Demon Lord to judge her harshly for not making good use of her feet.
Kikyou's eyes darted to Jaken, who was busy making a fire to ward off the chill of the night air. It was autumn, judging by the shortening of days and the appearance of the autumnal blooms such as her namesake. She chuckled slightly to herself as she wondered how ever could Sesshoumaru tolerate the presence of an annoying toad demon, but she turned serious to see Rin sitting on Sesshoumaru's lap, talking intently to the golden-eyed demon. One of Kikyou's eyebrows rose, for he did not even resist the little girl when she hugged the end of his furry pelt.
'Oh well,' Kikyou thought. 'First things should go first. I'd better summon my shinidamachuu to me. Heaven knows when I will need the sustenance of new souls.' Her mahogany eyes suddenly hardened. 'I have wished to be free of this burden, this suffering. The sooner we bring an end to Naraku's existence, the better.'
...o0o...
Sesshoumaru had on an impassive look on his face as he listened to Rin's chatter about Kikyou. "She's such a lovely person, Sesshoumaru-sama!" "You will enjoy talking to her, Sesshoumaru-sama!" Such were the words he heard from the little girl. Deep inside, however, he did not know whether to laugh at or to be annoyed with her innocence. Whatever did she see in the Undead Miko? Or is it simply because the raven-haired priestess had the knack of winning the love of any child she runs across to?
Just as Rin talked to Kikyou during their journey, Jaken constantly badgered him with questions as to why he accepted the priestess in their company.
"Why did you give in to the foolish demands of Rin, my Lord? She doesn't know what she's thinking!" "She probably just wants to betray us to Naraku, Lord Sesshoumaru!" "She's a miko, Sesshoumaru-sama, why ever did you allow her to come with us? Who's to be sure she won't seal us to a tree when our backs our turned, like what she did to your half-brother?"
At the last question, Sesshoumaru had fingered the hilt of the Toukijin, thus effectively silencing his retainer. Though he turned his face away, his amber eyes were blazing. Can't the brainless toad see that the taiyoukai himself doesn't know what had crossed his mind? Yes, he had thought twice about making that difficult decision, like he did in the past, but deep inside, he knew it was not only Rin that motivated him to do so. Alas, what had possessed his mind?
Sesshoumaru looked past Rin to Kikyou, who's standing there motionless, as though deep in thought. 'Only a fool would fall in love with my dear brother,' he thought to himself. If not for her relationship with that brash hanyou, Naraku wouldn't have found a breach in her powers. If Naraku hadn't found such weakness, she wouldn't have died, and in dying be resurrected fifty years later by some old crook to live a half-life that tormented her as much as her past stabbed at her.
The Demon Lord tilted his head slightly as a wind passed over them, making the priestess' hair flutter in graceful arcs. He, however, drove a thought that was forming in his mind even before he can understand it.
'She is your ally in destroying Naraku, nothing more. You will have nothing more to do with her when our quest is over.' Abruptly, his amber eyes softened slightly in sadness. 'But if she only knew... we do have a common trait: we are both tormented by our distant pasts.'
...o0o...
Rin gasped in astonishment as white winged insects resembling eels appeared out of nowhere and began to circle their little group. Jaken slightly went closer to the fire as though to keep the soul-snatching demons from reaching him. Sesshoumaru had not so much glanced at them. The little demons were avoiding him, obviously feeling his powerful youki. Rather, they hovered close to Kikyou, who petted a few of them.
"Are they yours, Priestess Kikyou?" Rin asked with interest, eyeing the red-eyed demons. She was munching on a few nuts that she and Kikyou had gathered for food. They were fortunate to find them in the dim light.
"Yes, Rin," Kikyou smiled, and she commanded one of the shinidamachuu to come up to Rin, who held it close to her face to examine the white demon. It gently brushed her cheek with its tiny wings and was quite friendly.
Rin let out a pleased squeal and said to Kikyou, "He's so cute, Priestess Kikyou! What's his name? What does he do?"
Kikyou slightly lost the smile on her face. She couldn't hide from the little girl the dark reason why she kept the demons as her pets. Sesshoumaru might tell her anyway, or Jaken. That toad demon was even more suspicious about her than his master is. "Rin... they're called shinidamachuu, and... I don't give them individual names. They have the ability to gather souls."
Rin stopped chewing nuts to seriously stare at Kikyou. Kikyou could see that she was rather frightened by the prospect of having her soul taken away by the little demons. "What do they do with the souls they get, Priestess Kikyou?"
This question, Kikyou couldn't answer. She stared at the crackling flames of the fire with sorrow. Rin might be repulsed when she finds out that Priestess Kikyou, the kind Priestess Kikyou, orders the cute shinidamachuu to steal souls to keep her clay body moving. She does not deny to herself that she feels guilt at having to live that way. She was a miko, and it was a miko's duty to save human souls from demons, not the other way around, or to exploit souls for her own personal welfare. But she had to live, she had to...
"Never mind what they do, Rin," Sesshoumaru's authorative voice spoke up. He fixed his gaze on Kikyou, who looked up in surprise and relief to hear Sesshoumaru defend her self-respect indirectly by driving Rin from finding out the dark side of Kikyou. "Keep your pets away from my sight unless you really need them." His amber eyes flashed with warning before closing again in contemplation.
Kikyou got his hidden message by what he stated as 'unless you really need them', and nodded. He does have a fine way of expressing hidden words. Sesshoumaru was beginning to confuse her. Why is he defending her so? He could so easily foil Rin's affection for the miko by simply divulging the truth of her existence which he knew so well, but he chose otherwise. At the corner of her eye, she saw Jaken shaking his head in utter disbelief. So, he didn't understand Sesshoumaru's reasons as well? The Demon Lord was trapping her in a maze of questions.
Just then, a melodious sound began to fill the air. Rin's eyes opened wide, and Jaken stood up at once and looked hastily around for the source of the music. Sesshoumaru gradually opened his amber orbs as his sharp ears picked up the tune. It was so awfully familiar... and so was the powerful demon aura and scent that suddenly assailed his senses.
Kikyou herself was alarmed by the mighty aura her miko powers detected that she hardly heard the haunting beauty of the music. All the while, she had thought her bow and arrows would come of no use for a while, as Sesshoumaru, being the Lord of the Lands of the West, could easily drive away demons by his mere passing, but this new youkai energy seems strong enough to challenge his own power.
"What's that?" Rin asked, nervously glancing around the forest, the evenly measured tunes reverberating among the trees. "It's lovely... but oddly, frightening."
"It's coming from a koto, no doubt," Jaken answered after a while of thinking. "Whoever must be playing must be a master of the instrument. And Lord Sesshoumaru... doesn't it sound like we have heard it before?"
"Jaken, stay here with Rin," Sesshoumaru commanded after a period of silence, standing up unhurriedly and he began to walk among the gaps of the trees to trace the source of the powerful aura. At the extremely serious tone of his master and apparently terrified by the demon energy emanating from within the woods, Jaken did not dare counter the order.
"Just wait in here and help Jaken protect Rin," Kikyou ordered her own shinidamachuu as she slung her quiver across her back and carried her bow in one hand. "I am going with Sesshoumaru-"
"What makes you think you're coming?" Sesshoumaru snapped, stopping in his tracks and looking over his shoulder to meet the determined eyes of the priestess. Surprisingly, there was an apprehensive look printed in his eyes.
"I feel a demon's aura, and I am a miko," Kikyou replied coldly to counter his retort, her dark eyes flashing in return. "And nothing is stopping me from going to it."
"And if I say that you could not go?" Sesshoumaru demanded with a haughty edge in his voice.
"I am not like your toad servant whom you can order around," Kikyou said with a laugh of challenge, making Jaken tighten his hold on the Staff of Heads and to pucker his mouth in anger.
Sesshoumaru's eyes pierced Kikyou's face, but she did not look away. He then looked farther behind her and saw Rin, who was attempting to make Jaken cool down from Kikyou's derisive remark. The music of the forest increased in intensity, the sound of the fingers plucking koto strings already very evident and Kikyou could sense herself becoming impatient. Strangely, the edge of his mouth curved in a smirk. With a snort, he waved his clawed hand in the Priestess' direction, and he went on his way.
Kikyou, realizing that this is a gesture of consent, wasted no time in rushing to catch up with the retreating figure of the Demon Lord. In time, they vanished among the trees, and still, the music of the unseen koto carried on.
...o0o...
'Stubborn woman...' Sesshoumaru thought exasperatingly to himself as he concentrated on tracing the source of the youki. Kikyou was on his heels, an arrow on her bow and alert, ready to fire at anything that dared to stand on their way.
'Stubborn demon...' Kikyou secretly thought in her mind as she followed the gleam of Sesshoumaru's platinum hair. The forest sounds had gone silent, and all that their ears heard was the eerie music of the koto. Sesshoumaru was unusually tense, and Kikyou could not help but be uptight as well, as though their emotions were linked.
"The aura couldn't have come from Naraku," she said, attempting to build a conversation with the distant taiyoukai.
"You should have known Naraku well enough to know that the youki is that of a full demon, not of a hanyou," Sesshoumaru immediately countered.
"I know," Kikyou said under her breath. Can't he open up to her? After a while of silence, she said, "However, I have to admit I never felt such strong demon energy before. It...almost equals yours in power..." Kikyou broke off. She wanted to voice out her thoughts to Sesshoumaru in an attempt to somehow break his walls, but she doubted if she could express herself in words that Sesshoumaru's logic could accept.
Sesshoumaru looked at her and he sensed her uncertainty. He was amazed when he sensed her fear that she would offend him with her words. "Worry not, miko," he replied less coldly, but still with an edge of authority. "Your calculations are correct; this demon's energy rivals mine greatly, and my nose just picked up its scent...and I just know who it is." To why he was trying to ease her awkwardness, he didn't know. He usually enjoyed planting fear into the hearts of others, but this was one of the few exceptions.
"You do?" Kikyou said in surprise, slightly lowering her bow. "Who is it, then?"
"You shall see," he replied, and noticing that she had lowered her weapon, said, "Keep your bow in attention. I do not know why the giver of this aura had chosen to be active again. She can be a challenge, even to a miko."
Kikyou slowly searched Sesshoumaru's face, but he turned away upon noticing her scrutiny. Letting out a silent curse, Kikyou drew the bowstring taught and stood guard. She? A demoness possessing such a powerful aura? It was too incredible to be true.
...o0o...
Miko and taiyoukai had walked for like miles within the forest before finally finding the source of the aura. Sesshoumaru slowed his steps, and Kikyou followed suit, her fingers clasping her bow and arrow in a sweaty grip.
"She's near," Sesshoumaru whispered, and Kikyou nodded. In time, they came to a break in the trees, and their eyes caught sight of a slender female figure stooping beside an ebony black koto with silver strings that dazzled in the half moon.
She was a youkai, no doubt by her pointed ears strangely resembling that of a doe, with black tips. On her brow, nearly hidden by her bangs, were two black sharp markings resembling arcs just above her eyebrows. Long fawn hair graced her head, reaching below her knees and lying spread on the mossy ground like a river. Her hair was tied in a loose plait behind, but a long lock of her bangs dangled in front of her right ear. Another large lock of her bangs was rolled around a blue hair stick that had a tiny glass chrysanthemum and green tassel on the top just above her left ear. Like Sesshoumaru, her eyelids were tinted, but unlike his, hers was of a dark brown, and not red.
She was clad in a kimono in various shades of earth colors deepening from the waist to the hem and from her arms to the very bottom of her sleeves. Orange-red flower patterns were scattered randomly on the hem of her kimono and on her sleeves, which was tied back from her arms by a black ribbon wound from her shoulders and crossing her back, much in the same way as women from Kikyou's own village do when they work or when they had to fight, exposing pale arms that had a graceful snakelike brown markings on them.
She also had a shawl the color of yellow ochre, the same color as her sash, wrapped around her arms, and a small red box dangled from her sash on a piece of black twine. She was rather beautiful, and Kikyou had to admit that the vision of this seemingly elegant girl, with her eyes closed and playing the koto skillfully with her fingers, was on the contrary to what she imagined as a fearsome demoness that had on a form too hellish to describe.
They just stood there like statues, seemingly caught in place by a web that the female youkai cast upon them by her intoxicating music. Abruptly, the music stopped and they were driven out of their stupor. The girl removed her fingers from the silver strings and opened her eyes, revealing orbs of deep green. Without facing them, she muttered in a cold tone, "So, taiyoukai, you come to me after all these years...and you even dare to further deepen my hurt by bringing a miko with you?"
At these cold words, Kikyou drew her bow, but Sesshoumaru stepped forward and said, "Kikumo...we meet again."
The demoness slowly turned her head in their direction, her eyes narrowing and a hateful grin began to dance on her mouth, marring the gentle beauty of her face. "And who is this miko? I am surprised that Lord Sesshoumaru of the Western Lands, the enemy of humans and hanyous, is in the company of a human priestess! Alas, it seems he had twisted his sensibilities as the years passed..." A vengeful laugh followed her mocking words.
Kikyou thought Sesshoumaru might have drawn the Toukijin right then and there, but to her surprise, he remained still, his face neutral and silently taking in all the insults being thrown upon him. Kikyou then stepped forth and drew the bowstring to the fullest, saying, "Demoness, I am surprised that you know me not, having such a powerful youki and all. I am Kikyou, and do not underestimate me, for I have the power to send you to decay in hell."
The Demoness widened her smirk and a dark shadow seemed to be cast over her mossy eyes as she said, "Well, Priestess Kikyou, I am happy to meet you. I am Kikumo, a daughter of the Deer clan. Rather, I think you should rephrase your words. You are the one who should not underestimate me, for I am who they call the Flower of the Deer clan, the most powerful of them all."
Kikyou felt her face becoming hot with anger at Kikumo's proud tone. It so betrayed her previous gentle-looking appearance. She heard herself shouting back, "I have no time to listen to your titles, Kikumo. You did not come to this forest just to play your useless koto, did you? Why have you come?"
Kikumo let out another laugh before saying coolly, "Look who's speaking? It seems Sesshoumaru had acquired a woman to voice out for him!" Her face then lost the evil smile, becoming serious and her eyebrows began to contort in an angry way. "Miko, that taiyoukai, that inuyoukai who is with us tonight, had wronged me greatly. He was there, strutting his way around in the Western Lands, while I, Kikumo, alone, unthanked, rejected...wanders this world bearing a gash that is impossible to heal."
At the turn of her words, Kikyou turned her head to look at Sesshoumaru. He was still motionless, but she could tell that he understood what the deer youkai was talking about. He was locking his amber eyes with Kikumo's green ones in a composed yet docile way that he had never showed Kikyou or Rin. Kikyou suddenly felt an unnatural feeling coming to her heart, as though she was being pierced by her own purity arrows.
"And what do you want?" Sesshoumaru asked her quietly.
Silence followed for like an eternity. Kikumo had placed a hand on her koto and hid her eyes within the shadows of her bangs as she gave an audible whisper that spoke of all the bitterness in her heart, "Revenge...that is what I want."
Kikyou felt her feelings explode within her as she fired her arrow at the sitting demoness. But Kikumo had at once plucked a string of her koto, and the arrow was dissolved a mere few inches from her face. Kikyou gasped in amazement and dismay, and Kikumo's lips broke into another smirk as she said, "You were a fool, miko, to assume that my koto is of no use to my youkai powers."
Her hand then plucked a series of notes, and Kikyou gave a scream as she felt as though her body was being seized up as numerous points of white light erupted from her body as one. Kikumo was using her koto to summon up the souls from her body. She fell to the ground, gasping for breath.
At this, Sesshoumaru shed his indifferent outlook. He drew the Toukijin from his waist and all that he had to do to send a power wave at the other youkai was to slash it across the air, which he did.
"Leave her alone, Kikumo," he said.
But Kikumo had successfully deflected the blow of the Toukijin using the ebony black pole of her weapon, a naginata which was her koto transformed, the silver strings converging and widening to form the curved blade and its pointed metal counterweight at the other end of the weapon. She pointed its blade at Sesshoumaru before saying, "This won't be our last meeting, Sesshoumaru."
With that a wind passed over them as she transformed into her youkai form of a deer and she sprinted away into the forest in such speed that she was invisible. All that marked her passing was the rustling of leaves and the breaking of twigs beneath sharp hooves.
...o0o...
Mwahaha! An evil gal, isn't she, this Kikumo? I have managed to draw her, and if you wish to see it, use the URL I posted in my profile. I know, she may look gentle, but alas, it seems her desire for revenge has rotted her heart. What do you think transpired between her and Sesshoumaru in the past? ;)