DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything, except parts of the plot...
SUMMARY: AU. Sesshoumaru/Kagome. Inspired by Inuyasha, the fanfic Yakuza, and various other stories. The plot has gotten thicker, with Miroku severely injured, Sango plotting against Sesshoumaru, and Inuyasha trying not to spill his guts. Oh, and Sesshoumaru promised to protect Kagome... O.O
WARNINGS: I'm going to make it simple: Don't read the story if you don't like it. And after this, there won't be any more warnings... I'm tired of them.
Author's Notes: Uh, in case you haven't noticed, Sango and Kohaku's house are in the outskirts of the city. Hence, it's a house, with backyard, trees, room to practice Hiraikotsu, and too far away from downtown for Sesshoumaru not to stay the night.
As usual, un-betaed... Spellcheck said "attentatively" and "unadornished" were wrong, but I don't know why...
by Ethidda
Written 6/23/05
Chapter Eleven
The simplest plan was the best plan. So thinking, Sango simply left Sesshoumaru a note where he would find it, telling him to meet with her outside that same night. She had important information, the note claimed.
Well past dinner, the sun finally set, after lingering in glorious shades of orange and pink and purple. Sango hid herself behind a tree, with one hand on the Hiraikotsu and both eyes on the house.
Soon, Sesshoumaru glided out of the house, towards where she was.
Sango crouched lower aimed carefully at the approaching figure. She knew she would only have one chance. Silently, The large boomerang twisted a couple of turns in dark night, and to any casual observer, it would have seemed to be hovering, waiting to strike.
Sesshoumaru had yet to change his gait or look around him. Sango watched attentatively as the boomerang completed its full arc to collide with Sesshoumaru.
At the last possible moment, though, Sesshoumaru side-stepped the boomerang. Sango watched in fascination as her boomerang sheared off a few strands of his silver hair before flying back to her.
Somehow, Sango managed catch her boomerang as silently as she threw it, but she began doubting just how secret her position was.
"Sango," Sesshoumaru's voice rang out.
Sango gave up hiding and stepped out from behind the tree. She would try to be cunning, but not cowardly. "What is it, Sesshoumaru?"
Sesshoumaru lifted his head imperiously, but waited for Sango to draw her own conclusion.
Under his hard, golden gaze, Sango began feeling uncomfortable. He had killed her entire clan, single-handedly. There were over forty well-trained man, who had all had decades of experience fighting youkai. Even the younger men who had fought him ha fought youkai much better than Sango could. How had she ever thought to take him on by herself?
Sango kept her eyes trained on Sesshoumaru, and when he took a measured step forward, Sango stumbled back. She had watched him interact with Kagome, and Sango had forgotten--so stupidly--that Sesshoumaru was not just another person. He was a youkai well established in the underground.
A warm breeze fluttered, lifting Sesshoumaru's bangs. For the first time, Sango saw his forehead clearly, as well as the unadornished crescent.
Realization hit suddenly. The man standing in front of her was Moon.
Kagome might never have heard of Moon, but Sango had. He had almost become a legend in her clan. Merciless, her father had always frowned when he told her about Moon, but Moon had yet to lose in battle.
Their clan had not targeted him only because Moon had not yet hurt innocent humans. He had only killed the worst kind of youkai, all of which had already been on the clan's get-rid-of list, some of which the clan had already fought against and failed.
Hysterical laughter filled the silent night. With a shock, Sango realized that it came from herself.
She had challenged Moon--Moon, himself!--to battle, and there was no way she was going to come out of it alive. Even worse, he couldn't have been the one who destroyed her clan, because her father had talked with Moon before and would have recognized Moon had Moon been the one who attacked the clan.
Sango remembered the words of her father. Recklessness had always been her downfall. Really, she supposed that she had no one to blame for her death but herself because she really did attack him unprovoked.
"Enough, woman." Sesshoumaru cut off her musings along with her laughter. "I have no idea what you imagine you are doing, but it looks rather like somebody is plotting against me."
Sango didn't know what to say as Sesshoumaru pinned her with a hard stare.
"But," Sesshoumaru continued. "Instead of finding whoever left me the note, I found you practicing with your boomerang." He lifted a sardonic brow. "It's fortunate that I managed to evade it, right?"
Before she could say anything, he said, "I will graciously overlook this 'accident' tonight."
Sango opened her mouth to say something, but no words came to mind. She couldn't quite believe that he was letting her off the hook, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
"I won't forget this, though," Sesshoumaru whispered harshly, startling her. "Rin is under my protection. Her happiness depends very much on your brother's. But be sure that if and when your brother no longer matters to Rin, I will extract the price for your foolishness."
Without another word, Sesshoumaru walked back toward the house.
Sango found herself leaning on the tree, until she was sitting, her back against the tree. She couldn't help but smile at the irony.
Her longevity now depended on her brother's relationship.
Kagome set a steaming cup of tea in front of Sesshoumaru. "Tangerine tea," she explained. "It's good for you."
Beside Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha yawned widely. "Why don't I get morning tea, too?" He complained.
"You didn't ask," Kagome said simply, as she went to get porridge from the kitchen.
She had set the bowl of porridge in her left hand in front of Sesshoumaru when Inuyasha whined, "But Sesshoumaru didn't ask either."
Kagome glared at Inuyasha and then put the other bowl of porridge in front of Sango, skipping right past Inuyasha.
The second time round, she brought porridge for Souta and Inuyasha. She brought porridge for herself last--Rin and Kohaku had left bright and early for their classes and Kikyou was still in her room. In her other hand, she held another cup of tea, which she promptly placed in front of Sango.
"She didn't ask for it, either," Inuyasha complained.
Kagome gave Inuyasha a speaking look.
Souta piped up to explain, "She'd get you a cup if you just asked her."
Inuyasha growled quietly, but everybody at the table heard it. "Fine," he said. "Give me a cup of tea, you evil wench."
Kagome sat unmoving for a moment. Then, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Finally, in a loud voice that started everybody, she shouted, "Sit!"
Everybody jumped, except for Inuyasha, whose face fell right into his bowl of porridge. He lifted his face up to scowl at Kagome.
"Sit!" Kagome said again, and Inuyasha's face fell promptly back into the porridge bowl. "I can't believe--sit!--you said that! You are so--sit!--rude. Sit! I can tell that neither Sesshoumaru--sit!--nor Sango slept well last night, but you--sit!--seem just fine."
Kagome breathed deeply to continue her diatribe. "'Evil wench!' I'll give--site!--you evil wench. Sit! You want to know what--sit!--evil wench is, see Kagura!"
Sesshoumaru's gaze sharpened. "How do you know Kagura?"
"Huh?" Kagome's expression was one of utter confusion. "Did I say that?"
A moment later, Inuyasha was lifting his head hesitantly out of the porridge. He face was red from suffocation, and he took a long, deep breath, the porridge still hanging all over his face.
Sango commented, "I'm sure Souta meant 'ask nicely.'"
"Nah," Souta said and smiled. "I knew he was going to do this."
Inuyasha stood up from his seat and leaned menacingly over the table and over Souta. "You little e--" He stopped suddenly and snuck a look at Kagome. Noticing her narrowed eyes, he thought better of whatever he was about to say and sat back down.
"How do you know Kagura?" Sesshoumaru repeated his question patiently.
Kagome furrowed her brows. "I'm sure that I don't know the same Kagura as you do."
"Go on, tell me anyways," Sesshoumaru ordered.
"Well..." Kagome sighed. "Sometimes, I dream..." She found her face heating up. "Everybody dreams. Anyways, I've had several dreams where Kagura's in it, and she's not very nice in the dream. She's the first woman I thought of when I thought 'evil.' That's all."
Sesshoumaru wouldn't drop it, though. "What's she like?" As Kagome started to protest, he said, "I know it's just a dream, but tell us what she's like anyways."
"Well..." Kagome thought for a moment. "She's kind of young. She's always wearing a kimono and holding a fan in my dreams. She has black hair, I think, or some kind of dark hair. I'm not sure if my dream was in color, but I do remember one thing. She had bright, red eyes."
"Ah," Sesshoumaru said before he turned pensive again. "You are going to have to tell me about your dreams one day."
Kagome flattened her lips. She muttered, "They're more like nightmares." She didn't understand Sesshoumaru's sudden interest in the things her mind made up, and she certainly didn't appreciate him tell her that she would have to tell him. She only acquiesced this time because she knew he was in a bad mood already and didn't want to make a scene.
Otherwise, Kagome thought, she wouldn't hesitate to take a stab at that puffed-up male pride.
"So," Inuyasha said. "Who is Kagura?"
Sesshoumaru turned to Inuyasha and grabbed Inuyasha's wrist. "We're going outside to have a talk," Sesshoumaru explained to Kagome, Sango, and Souta.
"Well," Kagome said to Sango as the door closed after Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. "Aren't you going to confide in your very best friend?"
Sango smiled a little at Kagome's forwardness. "Don't you know Moon's reputation?"
"Uh..." Kagome hesitated.
"No, she doesn't," Souta answered very plainly for Kagome.
"That's what I thought." Sango continued, "I knew there was a reason that you act so... bluntly around him."
"Blunt?" Kagome asked. "I'm never blunt."
"My point exactly," Sango muttered under her breath. Then, louder, "Don't you think you ought to be more... cautious around him? You don't know him that well, and he is a fairly powerful youkai."
Kagome looked at Sango strangely. "What's gotten into you today?" Kagome smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry. There's four of us who don't cower around him, and only three of you who do."
"Well..." It was actually three and three even, Sango thought, because Kagome's blind faith really shouldn't count. However, logistics hardly counted when arguing against Kagome.
Sango didn't know exactly how she was going to explain it to Kagome without Sesshoumaru knowing. Sango knew that if Kagome asked Sesshoumaru any questions, it would become immediately obvious to him who had warned Kagome away from him. Sango doubted that that raise his esteem for her.
Nevertheless, Sango couldn't in good conscience let her friend walk right into Sesshoumaru's dangerous trap, whatever it was.
Before Sango could think of how to caution Kagome, though, Kagome said, "Rin's really fond of him. So, he can't be that bad."
"Rin's under his protection, though," Sango explained. She knew she was only alive because Rin was under Sesshoumaru's protection.
"That's okay, then," Kagome said readily, shocking Sango. "Because I'm under his protection, too."
"You are?" Sango asked stupidly. "I mean, it doesn't automatically just extend over anybody living under the same roof."
"It was a male ego thing." Kagome rolled her eyes. "Kouga said something about something, and Sesshoumaru just had to puff up his chest and prove that he can protect me, and then he told me he will protect me."
Sango closed her eyes in relief. "That's good."
"Good?" Kagome looked skeptical. "That was totally chauvinistic. I can protect myself just fine, thank you very much. If he really wanted to protect someone, he should protect Souta or something."
Souta became indignant. "Hey! I'm already fourteen. I don't need protection."
Kagome glared at Souta. "Which is why, of course, I'm still currently working for Sesshoumaru."
"You're working for Sesshoumaru?" Sango asked, not sure if this was good or not.
"Long story." Kagome waved it off. "Maybe I'll tell you some other time. Right now, I have to do the dishes."
"We can do it together," Sango offered.
"That's okay." Kagome thought for a second. "If you really want to do me a favor, you can take the little boy with you to the bookstore."
"Yeah, yeah," Souta agreed whole-heartedly, overlooking the comment about 'little boy.' "Let's go now."
"Sure." Sango piled the dirty dishes together. "I have to go to a specialty shop downtown anyways."
"Oh, and Sango?" Kagome called from the kitchen. "Sesshoumaru seems like a good guy. Don't lose sleep over him, 'kay?"
Sango smiled at Kagome's optimism. "Sure."
Inuyasha's ears pricked up as they walked to the backyard. "What did you want to tell me?"
Sesshoumaru looked at the blue sky. "Have you heard of Naraku?"
"Naraku?" Inuyasha repeated dumbly. "Uh... no. Am I supposed to know him?"
"I thought you knew." Sesshoumaru shook his head. "I knew. Kikyou knew. I thought that even if she didn't tell you, you would have found out where she went in all those hours she was not with you."
"I know where she went. Don't try to break us again with lies," Inuyasha defended stoutly. "She went to heal the sick."
"The sick..." Sesshoumaru paused, as if in thought. "I suppose so. It was only one person, though. It was Naraku."
"Nope, never heard of him," Inuyasha denied adamantly.
"He used to call himself Onigumo..."
"Still never heard of him." Inuyasha ran a hand through his hair. "Does it really matter? I mean, Kikyou was spending lots of time healing a sick guy, for free. That just shows how good she is. Only a sick bastard like you would turn it against her."
"Let me tell you a story, then," Sesshoumaru insisted, as he turned to look at the bright morning sky.
Inuyasha snorted but folded his legs and sat on the ground.
"I have always had youkai trying to usurp my place," Sesshoumaru started. "But about four or five years ago, one youkai started insistently undermining my power. At first, it was little things: fighting in a bar, robbing somebody I employed and therefore under my protection, dine and dash, vandalizing my buildings...
"But then it turned into bigger things. A couple of people were driven crazy, and to this day, I still don't know why. Although, I can guess. A dancer started shooting in the middle of her performance. Only, she was already dead and reanimated. Poison gas, found right in my own office, which only affects humans and kills them after they walk out of my office. So that it looks like I killed them."
Sesshoumaru turned his golden gaze on Inuyasha. "Don't you know what this means? Somebody is purposefully, consistently, and underhandedly trying to sabotage my position. It was a blow to my pride and a danger to my position. Furthermore, I do not want innocents harmed--"
Inuyasha scoffed.
"--despite what you may think. I investigated the incidents, and they all traced back to one person: Naraku."
Here, Sesshoumaru paused in his telling. When Inuyasha did not react, though, Sesshoumaru kept on telling the story. "Naraku was a hanyou. He was born from the man named Onigumo, whom Kikyou healed."
Sesshoumaru cut off whatever objections Inuyasha was about to make. "But, that still wouldn't have made me suspicious. After all, healing madmen is not a crime, not even in my book. But Kikyou had not stopped seeing Naraku after his rebirth. I was informed of at least two meetings, and attended one myself.
"The two did not sound friendly, but the did sound as if they had reached some sort of agreement. Naraku's rebirth was just months after she started showing interest in you. I couldn't help but think that Kikyou had a hand in Naraku's rising."
Inuyasha gazed hard the ground, and picked absently at the grass. "But--"
"I just want you to think about it." Sesshoumaru paused, silently debating whether or not to tell Inuyasha about the next part, but he decided that he might as well. "I tried to protect you from human treachery, but I think it's time that you start thinking for yourself. You can still choose to waste your life away on a human woman, but I will choose to divorce myself from your problems."
Inuyasha opened his mouth, as if he had some objections, but he thought better about whatever he was about to say and shut his mouth again. Finally, he said, "Sure, I'll think it over."
Sesshoumaru nodded.
Inuyasha found himself sitting in the yard for a long time after Sesshoumaru went back into the house.
Kikyou frowned as she continued her prayers. She prayed every morning, partly to renew her own priestess powers, and partly to reassure herself that the city or town or village--whichever she stayed in--was safe.
Since she had come back to Tokyo, her morning prayers had become three times as long, she had to cover a greater area and population. The city, especially downtown, was so dense was people, that sometimes, Kikyou had difficulty verifying each individual soul. They all seemed like one big mass.
Today, though, Kikyou was pretty sure something was wrong. She found one pocket of souls, crowded together, almost indistinguishable, and constantly merging and separating. What disturbed her more, though, was a hole without souls.
It wasn't a big gap, and just on the fringe of the city. With the population and bizarre migration patterns of Tokyo, Kikyou might have even missed it.
However, Kikyou had a contact in that part of Tokyo. She had ran across Shippou when she had first started training to be a priestess, and he had been in trouble. Too confident of her own powers, Shippou had had to divert some of his attention and energy to keep her safe, and had gotten hurt in the process.
Kikyou had patched him up after that, and it was one of the few things that she felt guilty about in his life. They still occasionally contacted each other, and for the most part, Kikyou felt that it was part of her duty to keep him safe.
The gap came perilously close to where he lived. Kikyou had tried to sense his soul, but she couldn't, and she felt a rare bout of panic at this realization.
Quickly, Kikyou slung the quiver of arrows over her shoulder and grabbed her bow. Just as she was about to leave the room, though, Inuyasha burst in the door.
"Do you know Naraku?" He demanded.
Kikyou looked at Inuyasha, and thought about what to answer. While she felt that she may owe him some answers, the situation with the gap of souls was much more urgent.
Finally, she said, "Come with me, and I'll explain."
Now, why does it feel like I'm writing a soap opera?
And, Sesshoumaru leaves people thinking an awful lot, doesn't him?
Oh, and for anybody who expects a good sex scene, don't. Unless for some reason I actually get laid before the end of this story (which is possible, but not likely) I don't plan on writing something I know absolutely nothing about as readers pick at the implausibility of the scenes I write. (Don't even mention the Kagura experiment.)
Coming up next: Inuyasha decides to leave Kikyou (for good?), Souta finally gets a Garfield book (huh?), and we meet Shippou (all grown up). Oh, and some SeKag fluff. (I'll try, anyways.)