Mission Completed
Sakura's Note: Can you believe it? The fact that this update was posted in such a timely manner must be a mystery to you. But, this is how it's going to be from now on. High school is very busy, with homework in all my classes everyday. Even though I only have four classes a day, and have two days to do everything, there is still enough homework to make me cranky.
I consider writing for you wonderful people out there in the World Wide Web a stress reliever. It's amazing what writing another chapter can do for a person! Ha ha. Well, this chapter should have a bit more fluff between all our couples, but Kagome and Inuyasha's relationship will not be the usual 'I love you, Inuyasha! I love you, Kagome! Happily Ever After - the end.' Sorry, I know it's what we all want, but not this time. Keep in mind; neither had admitted loving the other just yet, which is totally different than usual for me.
Let me stop rambling, because half of you have already tuned me out already.
Enjoy and R&R!
-.-
Chapter 8: Cursed
-.-
"That went well." Inuyasha ignored her, and began to pound on the door again, causing about four lights from deep inside the mansion to come on. Kagome took this time to ring out her hair, allowing the mixture of mud and rainwater to dribble down her arm to her elbow, and then splatter onto the ground.
"I'll kill him. When they open the door, the toad is mine!" Inuyasha roared. He looked especially menacing, covered in slimy grime making him look like some dog-like, handsome yet grimy, swamp monster/half demon.
"Inuyasha, didn't anyone ever teach you the saying 'ladies first'?" Kagome chided tenderly, peeling a drying clump of mud of the agent's shoulder.
The hanyou smirked, "Nope."
Kagome stuck out her tongue, pulling down the skin beneath her right eye as she did so.
"You know, if someone else saw you right now…"
"They'd think you were a mentally challenged five year old." Someone finished.
Both agents jumped, despite all their years of training, and whirled to find the source of the voice.
Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes from the dry haven of his entrance way. "You two are pathetic. It is remarkable someone other than me has yet to point it out to you." He turned, leaving the door open in a customary 'Sesshoumaru Welcome'.
Jaken, upon seeing that the two angered agents were being let into the house, bounded up the stairs. "Master Sesshoumaru! How could you do such a thing to me? They will surely skin me alive! What have I ever done to you?!" He raced past a very tired and ruffled looking hair demon on his way up the stairs.
"Other than burning down the kitchen yesterday?" Yura drawled, her voice rough from sleep. Jaken just huffed, running around her legs to make it onto the second floor safely. "Must have been something I said…" She shrugged and traipsed down the stairs in a two-sizes-too-short silk robe.
"Are you supposed to be here?" She asked dazedly, staring at the two soaked agents curiously. "And are you supposed to look like two dogs who ran through a swamp trying to catch a Frisbee?"
Kagome bristled more so than the dog hanyou next to her. "Excuse me, but we were dragging a car down the highway for half an hour!"
"I hate to be the one to break it to you, but cars can be driven places – it's much easier that way." Yura yawned, then a look of horror dawned on her face. "Rin better not be with you." The old tone from her assassin days was evident in her voice.
The agents, who had given up on trying to explain anything to this woman, just shook their heads.
"What are you two doing here?" Sesshoumaru inquired, his arms folded stoically across his fluffy-robed chest; his terrorizing glare didn't seem to have the same effect when he was in his nightwear.
Towels flew at the two dirtied agents, one hitting each stomach and each face fully unfolded. The gust of wind that had carried the fluffed towels died down as Kagura entered the room looking quite proud of herself.
"I ask again: what are you doing in my house at four thirty in the morning?"
Kagura, always regal in her own right during the daylight hours, was a bit disheveled. Her hair was down, something rarely seen by anyone but Sesshoumaru, and her usually alert eyes still seemed a little fogged over. It was, after all, the early morning hours, and even demons needed their sleep. Especially those like herself.
"SJH." Kagome answered, standing on one of her towels to soak up the moisture.
Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes. "We're listening."
"Kagura?" The woman in question perked up at her name. "Did Naraku make any others like you?"
"What do you mean by that?" Kagura quirked a brow. "Wind youkai?"
"No, detachments – experimental offspring. Like Kanna, Juuroumaru, and Kageroumaru." Kagome watched the emotions play across the woman's face, then her eyebrows knitted together as if she was in pain."Kagura?" Sesshoumaru stepped forward, watching as his mate's eyes rolled back into her head and she fell forward. With his demonic speed, he reached her before she could hit the ground. But one thing was clear.
Something was wrong.
Definitely wrong.
-.-
"Get it over with!" The darkness made it impossible to see what he looked like, but she knew. His face had haunted her nightmares since she could remember. Secretly, she was happy it was so dark. Darkness meant he couldn't see where she was. Which meant she could try and get away– "ON WITH IT!"
She heard his breathing deepen, and his voice lower its timbre. "Do I need to show you again?"
Would it buy her time…?
There was an irritated grunt, and then there he was. Except, he wasn't there. Tentacles of brown crawled with lives of their own beneath him where his feet should have been. His eyes glowed red, his arms lengthened, the black wife beater he wore underneath his leather jacket ripped, spikes exploding all over his back.
She screamed.
"What is it with you? Why don't you ever talk?!" The demonic being in front of her growled and hissed, wanting to hurt her. She knew it. She could feel his breath on her back even though he was in front of her. She could feel the rumbling in his throat in her own. "Foolish child."
Suddenly lights flooded her vision, and a stinging pain broke out on her cheek. It wasn't from a hand… it was from whatever it was that had replaced it. Long tendrils of black wrapped around her, choking her, scratching her, slicing her, burning her.
Everything was happening so fast, everything was dimming…
But if it was getting darker… then there must have been light…
She forced her stinging eyes open, finding herself in a room of white. Everything, everywhere, was white."Failure… weak, pathetic, low life, failure!"
A door slammed far off, then the scraping of metal. She craned her head around, looking at her surroundings. Was there any color? Had color ever existed? Or was it just a dream?
Screaming.
It was coming from everywhere. Covering her ears didn't seem to help – nothing helped. The scraping and screaming rose in volume, making it impossible to figure out where was safest. Nowhere was safe anymore.
Wait.
Red; something had color!
She crawled for it, knowing it would dart away from her. But it didn't. Her cool fingers wrapped around it, finding it to be a fan.
Flames. Screaming. Sirens wailing in the background. She looked around and could see and feel the fire lapping at her feet. It barely even stung.
"Kagura."
That was her! Someone was calling her! She turned, seeing the emotionless face of a pale girl. Kanna… She wanted to say it, let her know she was there… but nothing was working.
How desperately she wanted to scream "I'm right here!" but she couldn't.
"Where is she?"
"I cannot find her."
"What do you mean you cannot find her?"
She recognized that voice…
Her partner… the one who had helped her do this… the flames, the killing, the destruction. Where was he?
Then, out of the flames, he appeared.
"What are you doing just standing there? We have acquired what we came for, it is time to go." His golden eyes narrowed. "Kagura? What is it?"
She opened her mouth–
Bright lights.
"Finally. Success. After so many trials and errors."
She felt herself going forward, then turning down a shell-colored hallway. A baby cried in the distance, then another.
There was a door, open just enough to see inside.
Two babies, one with the coldest eyes she'd even seen, were being examined. Shattered glass littered the tiled floors.
"Wait. I sense someone."
Another person looked up, scanning the room for intruders. She knew; she'd done it herself before. "There." Two pairs of eyes instantly focused on her, making her jump away from the door and down the hall.
She got up, tripped, and braced herself for impact. But it never came. Instead, she was falling, farther and farther into the darkness.
When she felt her feet touch solid ground, she still knew where she was. The hallways of the living quarters. The yelling and beating around stopped inside Naraku's office, and Sesshoumaru appeared, storming down the hall with tinges of red invading his irises.
"What happened in there?"
Sesshoumaru didn't answer as he angrily walked down the hall.
She knew he would show what was wrong, not speak. He was too angry, and she knew if he did say something she would rather he hadn't.
Sesshoumaru turned the corner, walking towards a door at the very end of the silent hall. As he slowly opened the door and entered the woman paused. With a deep breath she entered…
…unable to comprehend what she saw.
Rin, blood covering almost her entire body. Stains seeped through onto the bedspread, staining her once pink yukata red.
Naraku had always loved ancient Japanese clothing for Rin.
"Sesshoumaru, what did he do to her?"
"More than I want to know…"
"No… he didn't– "
"No. He didn't. If he would be hanging by his intestines right now."
The conversation was fading, she couldn't speak, but she heard her voice. She saw Sesshoumaru walking away, but their words continued.
"I wasn't here to protect her. She refused to kill an assassin who had directly violated Naraku's orders."
"So sick…"
"Are you coming with us, Kagura?" Rin's voice.
"You're leaving…?"
"I'll be damned if I let her breathe another breath here."
He disappeared from view. "I'm sorry Kagura."
There was a laugh off in the distance; it didn't fit into anything else. It made no sense. Kagura looked around her, trying to find her way in this faded world. Then there was Naraku's door. She opened it, yelling questions… then there was nothing.
-.-
"Well, what does that have to do with me?" Kouga hissed into the phone. "I don't even know the her, I'm barely even on the case." He angrily stomped down the hall, regretfully distancing himself from the sickly wolf demon in her room.
"We need the news relayed onto Ayame. Her cell is off."
"Kagome, you know I love you." Kouga heard what was most definitely a protective growl coming from somewhere on Kagome's end of the line. "But Ayame hasn't slept in days because of this case. She needs some sleep. Can't you wait 'til tomorrow?"
He could hear the disappointment and concern both evident in her voice. "Alright, Kouga-kun. Please, when she wakes up, tell her that we need to get in touch with her."
"Yeah, alright." With a meaningful look back in the direction of Ayame's bedroom, Kouga hung up. "Maybe the news will liven her up a bit."
He turned to head back, but stopped, leaning on the wall.
I won't… lose her will I? His hand trembled.
"Kouga?"
"Yeah?"
Ayame turned over on her stomach, propping herself up with her elbows. "What's your favorite thing about life?"
The fifteen year old cocked his eyebrow. "Only a woman would ask something like that…" he mumbled, earning him a light slap on the arm.
"I mean it." Ayame swung her bottle green eyes to the moonlit sky with a smile. "I think it'd have to be color for me. What would life be like without it? I'd have never known what color the ocean was, what color the sky was, what color your eyes were."
Kouga looked over at the girl beside him, surprised. "I've never heard that one before."
She quickly averted the comment. "What about you?"
He noticed her change in subject, but thought about an answer anyway. Humoring her wasn't all that bad, actually. Sometimes, he actually found out stuff about himself he didn't even know he had, all because she asked him questions only a girl could ask.
After a thoughtful pause, he looked up at the cloudless night sky above. "Smiles."
Ayame did just that, "Smiles?"
"Yeah, smiles. Imagine if no one ever smiled, it'd be a pretty screwed up place." Kouga shrugged. "Plus, I wouldn't get a reward every time I made you laugh, if there weren't any smiles."
She looked like she was hiding a blush. "I guess not."
Kouga smirked, closing his eyes. His breathing steadied.
"I'll always be there to smile for you, Kouga-kun…" With that, she too fell asleep under the stars, not knowing he had heard every word.
-.-
He glowered in his sleep.
Everything was burning. The flames he felt he couldn't see and the flames he could see he couldn't feel. The only thing he knew true was that his whole body burned. His flesh stung, burned from the inside out, the smell of burning chemicals dizzied him.
There was a groaning of the wood, and he could have sworn he heard a beep.
Darkness.
And a scream that he was certain was his own.
-.-
"He's coming too." A vaguely familiar voice bounced off the walls of his mind, echoing over and over.
"Wonderful." His voice was cold, made that way by his creator to strike fear into anyone who angered him. He was anger; Naraku had wanted it that way. "Bring her."
There was a chuckle, then the rustling of cloth as foots descended somewhere.
"What…?" Naraku groaned, his pain rushing back to his nerves like nothing else he'd ever experienced.
Someone silhouetted by the light coming from a distance shook visibly with malevolent laughter. "It's very good you can speak already. It wouldn't be the same with your mute. The burns healed well, too."
Naraku coughed, his lungs still internally damaged. "What… kind of disrespect is this?!" he growled. The rumbling brought bile to his throat. He forced it back down painfully.
"Shut your mouth; you don't even deserve one." The figure spat. "I run things now – the way I want them run. You had your chance – you failed. Miserably."
"Where is she? Where is Kikyo?" Surely the aforementioned 'her' couldn't have been anyone else.
The white haired male smirked, showing a blunt fang and a cruel red eye gleamed. "You want to see her?" With a snap of his fingers a light ahead turned on to reveal a woman in her early twenties, raven hair in strings around her dead pale face.
"Kikyo."
Right next to her was Musou, looking as smug as ever holding the limp woman in his arms. He had liked the woman ever since he had matured – rapidly even by demonic standards – to an adult. Once he was deported with his brother to America, he had become especially bitter towards his father.
Now was his chance at payback, thanks to his little brother.
Naraku jerked awake, a light sheen of sweat added to the many layers of grime he had already acquired.
They would both die by his hand soon… very soon.
-.-
Kagome slid down the wall. She was having one of those moments again. Had she really helped kill her sister… all for a tiny jewel? The thought made her sick.
Her own flesh and blood had turned on her; the only family that she could remember. Her mother's face, her baby brother's… both faces would flash by from time to time, but when she tried she couldn't see them. And her father? She didn't even know where he was, or if he was still alive.
Memories of when the two of them had run around playing in the backyard, or when she'd had her first day of first grade and Kikyo had taken her to class. Where had the sister she knew and loved gone?
Everyone who met with the jewel led a very painful life. Sango, her entire family killed all for her brother. Her brother that was used for years as a slave to the sick demon Naraku. Miroku, whose father and mother had been killed in very much the same manner's as Sango's all because his father was from a line of monks. Kagura brainwashed to become a killer. Sesshoumaru and Rin, forced to lead a carefully constructed life of secrecy. Juuroumaru; losing his brother Kageroumaru. Kanna, thought only as an obedient minion because of how she was created…
And Inuyasha, who was an orphan since he was just a boy. Having to hide who he was completely alone, creating one of the hardest exteriors. If it hadn't been for him becoming an agent to avenge his family, would he have grown up different? Would he always be the guy that she only saw glimmers of when he let his guards down? Would he even need walls of protection for himself?
She felt a familiar stinging in the corners of her eyes. Kagome sniffed and wiped at her eyes furiously to stop the threat of her oncoming waterworks.
"Well, where would you want me to stand, asshole?! I wasn't in the way! Keh!" With a violent slam of the door, Inuyasha looked down the hall. "…Kagome?"
Kagome took a deep breath. Maybe for once in his life Inuyasha wouldn't notice she'd been about to cry –
again.
When had she become such a crybaby, anyway?
"Oh, hey, Inuyasha!" Kagome smiled convincingly.
He frowned and loyally came to her side at the end of the hallway. "What's got you so worked up that you're crying in the hallway?" His words were gruff, but his voice was gentle.
She wasn't going to tell him. To tell him would mean mentioning Kikyo. He'd get that distant look in his eyes; she'd be refreshing his memory to his first love. But, in the end, she loved him, too. How could she lie to him to keep from hurting himself? It was selfish, and she couldn't do it.
"Everyone gets hurt."
Inuyasha jumped at her voice, figuring she wouldn't answer after waiting two whole minutes. "Huh?" Oh, yes, Inuyasha, that was very intelligent…
"The jewel isn't a good thing to have, Inuyasha. It's a curse. A curse that causes death wherever it goes." Kagome rigidly sighed and looked straight ahead. "Look what it does to sisters." With a light, emotionless, laugh, she explained. "Makes one so blind with greed that she make a deal with a devil and bring grief to how many people now? Let's see… there's Sango, Miroku, Ayame, and Kouga… Let's not forget little Rin! Or Kohaku!"
"Kagome– "
"Wait, there's more! Kagura, Kanna, Sesshoumaru, Yura…"
"Kagome."
"My mother, my brother –
wherever they are, innocent families that we don't even know about…"
"Who else, who else…? Me, I guess. Oh! We can't forget the most important of all…" Her voice softened.
"KAGOME!"
"You."
Inuyasha froze. That one word had held so much sadness, so much regret, that he couldn't bear to hear anymore.
"She killed everyone you cared about. Everyone that accepted you for who you were and didn't want to change you. Your father, your mother…"
He hissed, not threatening, but pained. He hadn't spoken of them for years. "Izayoi."
"What?"
"Izayoi. My mother's name was Izayoi." He closed his eyes and saw his mother smiling as he ran towards her through the garden.
She had loved that garden…
"It's a beautiful name…"
Inuyasha nodded. "The best." He smiled, leaning his head back onto the wall. "She fit the name perfectly, too. My dad told me no one else had that name, not for at least one hundred years. I knew he was lying, how could he know? But, still, she owned that name."
Kagome felt something in her soften, reaching out to him. She rested her head on his shoulder as he kept talking, his eyes looking off into the past.
"She smelled like… crushed flowers I guess. The scent never went away, no matter what. She was perfect. She was like an angel when she sang or danced… everything she did was the best I'd ever seen. There was this one time when the neighborhood kids were picking on me, trying to take something. She came out and chased them all away. I was crying, but when I looked up at her she just smiled… and told me everything was ok. I heard her crying that night. The next day… was the last day I smelled her scent."
He had never spoken of his mother, or exactly how he and his parents had been separated. All Kagome could seem to process was that her sister must have done this as a child… How could she have told someone to kill someone else's parents so young?
"She did it herself." Inuyasha whispered, sounding like he was thinking the same thing. "I just don't get it. How does a preteen personally kill anyone so easily?" His voice was hoarse; he was fighting back the tears.
Kagome shook her head, feeling her own tears resurface, over spilling onto her cheeks and onto his muddy shirt. "I'm so sorry, Inuyasha."
He paused in his deep breathing to look over at her comforting stormy blue eyes, realizing for the first time just how much he really hated seeing them wet with tears. He knew he loved her as a friend, and as a woman, but not until now did he truly realize just how much he wanted her to be his forever. He was deep in a hole, one he could never get out of, and he found that he didn't want to.