DISCLAIMER: Inuyasha and co. do not belong to me. I wish they did. But they don't.
SUMMARY: AU. Sesshoumaru/Kagome. Inspired by Inuyasha, the fanfic Yakuza, and various other stories.
WARNINGS: I'm going to make it simple: Don't read the story if you don't like it.
Author's Notes: So, I confess: I'm kind of stuck. So, I guess I'm writing in the realm of High Contemporary Paranormal...? But not only is the muse sulking at me for being busy with finals, I actually don't have an off period next semester. I guess I'll just try to update as often as I can, huh?
Don't read the above note. But you're probably going to anyways. I typed it when I started writing this chappie, but I haven't actually gotten around to finish it until now. (And the only reason that I can finish it now is because I'm stuck in a dorm in Moscow, and I've finished the only English book I brought--HP and tOotP.)
Sally, it's good to know that my fanfiction has (in a rather roundabout sort of way) helped you make a decision in life. I would prattle and rant, too--actually, I do, but I do it enough in my email updates, and then when I do it under Author's Notes, I sort of feel like I'm falsifying the word count of the story...
Kikyouhater101... interesting name. I have to agree, Kikyou is not the most likable person, and even as a character, she's kind of confusing. Anyway... I didn't actually get your email address... so I couldn't send you an update.
My story is only 22k words even with the 20 or so with all the babbling (so that would make it 19k without the inane babblings)...
So... Here the story goes...
by Ethidda
Written 6/18/05
Chapter Nine
Kagura dragged the tip of her fan down her delicate, pale cheekbone and sulked. "Why can't I just go and kill that little girl. I could do it so easily, with a mere wave of my fan, I could--"
"Enough," Naraku hissed in his side of the dark chamber. He did not remain in the dark because villains liked darkness, but he found it simply more convenient if the people he dealt with remained ignorant of his features.
Not that he couldn't make a new detachment--or even a new body--for himself at anytime.
He thought that the next time he made a detachment, it would be something quiet and malleable. Kagura caused too much trouble with her wishes and wants. Yes, Naraku thought, a young girl, nice and quiet, sucking the soul out of you before you even realized that she was there.
Sucking souls... Naraku's thoughts lingered for a moment on the interesting possibility before he turned his attention back to Kagura. "Sesshoumaru is mine, and I allowed you to play with him for me. But I don't want you to touch Kagome, because I think she raises some interesting possibilities. I'm more worried about the reunion of the two lovers... if it goes too well."
Kagura's laugh rang out shrill and mocking. "So, my dear hanyou master is still in love with the pure priestess."
"I am not in love," Naraku denied quickly enough. "Although, I have to admit that I feel a certain... lust for her."
Kagura wrinkled her brows in disgust. "What is with some men and frigid bitches?" Then, her face relaxed and she smiled knowingly. "Oh, I know, it's because they don't want the more experienced women to know just how... lacking they are."
Naraku smirked. "I think it's just that for all your experience, you have a very limited repetoire, Kagura. Men know exactly what to expect from you, and it's not much."
"Really now?" Kagura sashayed toward Naraku. "I just think that you're not man enough to handle it."
Naraku's expression became blank. "If I wanted to have sex with flesh of my own flesh, I would have created a toy who knows how to handle men."
Fury crossed Kagura's expression for a moment, but then her red eyes became serene again. "You are still stuck on that human priestess. Naraku, the human in you shows."
Kagura didn't have a chance to gasp before Naraku crushed her bloody, pulsating heart in his right hand. For a long moment, theirs was a tableau except for Kagura's trembles from pain.
"But you are still useful to me, Kagura," Naraku cooed as he eased his hold on her heart. "Even if you are rather lacking in the art of pleasing men. I will not force you back to oblivion. Yet."
Naraku dug his fingers into her heart before finally tossing it negligently to a jar behind him. "Now leave me."
Kagura stumbled out of the room and crumbled in a heap of pain.
Kagome sighed despondantly when the conversation died again. It wasn't that she particularly disliked silent tranquility. It was just that this silence seemed tense, full of distrust.
Turning to Sesshoumaru, she tried to start another conversation, "So, you don't quite like humans..."
Sango snorted derisively. "I'm putting away Hiraikotsu," she excused herself as she walked back up the stairs, leaving Kagome and Sesshoumaru in the living room by themselves.
"I don't dislike humans," Sesshoumaru responded evenly to Kagome's implied criticism. "I simply choose to not trouble myself and deal with those who are inferior to me."
For a moment, Kagome grounded her teeth so tightly in frustration that she couldn't even say anything. Then, she took a deep breath. "We are so not inferior."
Sesshoumaru shot her a speaking look with his golden eyes.
Kagome sighed. "Ok, so we live shorter, we are more vulnerable, we can't do all the magic stuff except for few who are born with it, but we... we... we are more emotional."
"And that is a good thing..." Sesshoumaru's tone scathed of skeptism.
"Of course." Kagome was more confident now that she had something she could talk about. "It makes us warm hearted and makes us care. It makes-"
"Nonsense," Sesshoumaru cut her off. "It makes you irrational, especially in tight situations where you need to be rational. It makes you all sacrifice for each other so that none of you live. It gives you vulnerability when you already have one foot in hell." At her silent fuming, he arched a supercilious brow. "Am I wrong?"
Kagome knew that there was a flaw in his logic somewhere. She thought for a moment, then answered, "You're not wrong... but it's emotions that make our lives have meaning.
"You can live for however long you want, but it will mean nothing unless you cared for something, be it your parents, your friends, your family..."
"Or your money," Sesshoumaru finished for her.
Kagome frowned. "Not all of us are so materialistic."
"Right," Sesshoumaru agreed easily. "Some of you just want power."
Hard put to refute his claim, Kagome asked, instead, "How's that different from the youkai?"
Sesshoumaru looked out the window in the direction Kikyou had led Inuyasha. "To youkai, power and money mean something. We live for thousands and thousands of years. But for humans, they are nearly meaningless, because you never quite amass enough in your short lifespan for them to be useful, and it just becomes a pointless waste of energy."
"Well, what do you expect us to do then?"
Sesshoumaru turned and gave her a considering look. "Humans should spend their short lifespans doing something meaningful; They should serve us who are immortal."
Kagome snorted to hold back laughter. Really, she had half expected this answer. "No, thanks, I'd really rather not."
Kagome didn't know what Sesshoumaru expected, but he seemed shocked and puzzled at her flat refusal. "Don't you understand?" he asked.
"Oh, I understand quite alright." Kagome didn't know if Sesshoumaru would miss the sarcasm, but it was already as thick as she could lay it on. "Us mere humans are useless scum."
He refuted, "No, you have your uses."
"I don't hear you contradicting the scum part."
Kikyou tried to remain patient, but as the second passed by, her insides coiled up more and more and obnoxious impatience. She was a miko, and so should have positive feelings for all that alive, but it was hard to hold the negative feelings at bay as she stared at Inuyasha.
No, they had never been lovers in the physical sense, but Kikyou had given him her heart, and for a priestess, that perhaps meant more than the giving of the body ever would. Now, she was no longer dedicated to God, to the spirits, or to the welfare of the world. Now, the most important being in her heart was Inuyasha.
She had even given him the Shikon no Tama as a physical embodiment of all that she was willing to give up--and did give up--for him: her social acceptability... her independence... her life.
All that she had given freely for the love he claimed to have for her... the family he offered which she never had... another kindred soul in this uncertain, wavering world. She wasn't sure what hurt more, to find that he never truly loved her--for why else would he run away?--or that even now, he didn't deem her quite important enough to know the truth.
Bitterly, Kikyou reflected that she could never go back to her old life. She can never unlove Inuyasha, even if the Inuyasha in her heart was not the one in real life. She would never regain but a small percentage of her powers, and those would never warrant her a place in the world, not even an isolated but accepted one.
Kikyou would have laughed had she been alone. She was miserable... so miserable and pitiful. She could never live as she had, except as a pale ghost gazing into the past. Still, at least she would have this one victory.
She would still do her original duty and guard the Shikon no Tama. Inuyasha would not have the jewel. No, everything she could do to make him regret his choice of leaving her, she would do.
It wouldn't be fair, otherwise. It wouldn't be fair that he could wander and make friends and enjoy himself when every day, every hour, every second, Kikyou could think of nothing but the times they have spent together, see nothing but his golden gaze upone her, dream of noone but him. He had made her this way, and it wasn't fair that she was the only one suffering.
Hesitantly--Kikyou knew that Inuyasha was loathe to give up the power--Inuyasha took out the shining Shikon no Tama from his haori. "I hope," he said slowly as he handed her the jewel equally agonizingly slowly. "I hope that you have a good life."
This time, Kikyou snorted as his blatant hypocrisy. "No, Inuyasha, I wasn't meant for a good life, but I will have a purposeful life. I will let nothing else distract me from guarding this jewel."
For what else did she have?
As she tried to take the jewel from Inuyasha, though, something bright and soundless clapped, and a painful shock went through her arm to stop at her heart.
She stared at the jewel, still in Inuyasha's outstretched hand. "Are you alright?" She heard Inuyasha asked urgently.
No, she wanted to answer, but she was too proud to make her mouth make the sounds. No, I have just been deprived of the one last thing that would give my life a purpose.
Aloud, she demanded, "What have you done? Have you finally been corrupted by the power of the jewel?"
Inuyasha looked taken aback. "No, I haven't, I swear I haven't." His expression was one of bewilderment. "I didn't even think about it until just now." He winced. "Okay, I have thought about it, but I really haven't used it at all."
Then, he grew fearful. "Oh, no, unless its power-corruption thing is already in me... But Kikyou, I promise I didn't mean it."
"You must have done something to it," Kikyou said desperately. "Otherwise, why would it reject me?"
But Kikyou was such a hypocrite. She knew why. The jewel always rejected those less pure, and the only way to overcome the pain was to lust desperately after the power that the jewel offered until one's selfishness overcame one's compassion.
It was official, Kikyou thought in despair. Everything she ever had was gone, and she didn't even know how she became this way, where she went wrong, because she could no longer fault Inuyasha, as the jewel just proved.
She never should have fallen in love.
But it was too late... too late... too late now.
The lightning--more, the sudden release of power--startled Sesshoumaru out of whatever he was about to say.
"Shikon no Tama," he whispered under his breath.
Every youkai knew about the jewel, said to have aided numerous youkai's rises to power in the past. It was supposed to give any who held it unbelievable power. Of course, there was the slight draw back that every single one of those youkai had been evil, but Sesshoumaru was sure that it was only their inability to handle power.
He, on the other hand, was used to power. In fact, the only reason he truly wanted the Shikon no Tama was to prevent others from using it. After all, he was already the most feared of all youkai.
"That was the Shikon no Tama?" Kagome asked.
Sesshoumaru nodded, still concentrating on locating the source of the energy. It seemed to come from Inuyasha and Kikyou's direction, but that made very little sense.
Surely, if Kikyou had the jewel, he would have sensed it. Even if the aura of the jewel was cloaked, he still should have been able to sense her priestess power protecting it, but in the numerous times he had warned her away from Inuyasha, he had not felt a single abnormality in her priestess powers.
It was even more ludicrous to think of the jewel in Inuyasha's hands. As one of the most insecure people he had ever known--who else would actually fall for Kikyou's charade?--Sesshoumaru knew that Inuyasha had many wishes he wanted granted. Not the least of them was to become a full youkai.
Although, for a while, he did foolishly wish to become human. Either case, though, Inuyasha would have done much for himself had he had the jewel, and Sesshoumaru would have sensed its presence when it released power.
But it had been hidden, until now... For a mere moment, Sesshoumaru doubted his judgment, but then shook off his doubts resolutely. It didn't matter what had happened. What was important now was that nobody be allowed to use the power of the jewel.
Unless that person was Sesshoumaru himself.
The explosion of energy woke Naraku from his sleep. He didn't like being disturbed, but he enjoyed memories of Onigumo even less.
One day, soon, he was going to prove to the world that he wasn't dirt everybody could ignore. He wasn't just petty thief, or Kikyou's little pity case. One day, soon, he was going to be feared.
One day, soon, he would acquire the Shikon no Tama.
Naraku's hand clenched and unclenched at the thought of the jewel. It looked like today was his lucky day, because the explosion that had woken him up was definitely from the Shikon no Tama.
Unfortunately, his plan must change again, but all for the better, this time. He had thought that Sesshoumaru had the Shikon no Tama, which was partly why he went after Sesshoumaru so doggedly. But Sesshoumaru would never let the energy leak out of the jewel so wastefully or loudly.
Anybody was an easier adversary than Sesshoumaru, and Naraku ought to know as he had been trying to manuever against the youkai for years and years.
He would be the Taiyoukai soon, with the power of the jewel, and even Sesshoumaru's power would not hold a candle to his own, much less anybody else's. Nobody would dare insult him for being a half-blood.
And Inuyasha...
Kikyou would no longer tell him how great... how wonderful... how loved Inuyasha was. No, Naraku would soon be better than all the youkai, all the half-bloods, and all the humans.
And he would have Kikyou as his prize.
He was going to do all this anyways, but the reappearance of the Shikon no Tama would make everything faster. For one thing, he wouldn't have to be patient to unseat Sesshoumaru from his throne of power to prove his omnipotence.
He looked over at the gurgling mass that was him, and a part of it detached itself. Slowly, it started to shape itself into a humanoid form.
Yes, he thought, a nice, quiet little girl, sucking souls out before she's even noticed.
She opened her pale eyes and stood silently still.
Much better, Naraku thought. "Go, Kanna," he ordered her. "Go and find the source of this energy, and don't hesitate to use your powers."
Kanna nodded, but remained blessedly quiet. Then, she disappeared without even a breeze.
Naraku sat back and smiled. Depending on how well Kanna did this job, he just might not have to endure Kagura anymore.
I really don't know Kanna's eye color, so I apologize if they are not pale. (The rest of her is pretty pale, though, that much I do remember.) I'd happily correct this, if it's a mistake.
So, yes... I write. You review. Good system, ne?
Well, I really enjoy reviews, and they motivate me a lot. And if you have a conjectures or suggestions or anything, I'd love to hear them. As long as it's not just groudless insults, I'll be fine.
Actually, groundless insults are better, because I can just ignore them, and pretend I'm mature, and you'll just be a "stupid prat." (
"I'm a big girl now."