Wounded
"Children, we need to talk."
Yumiko, Taisho and Toshio followed their mother inside the palace. They were silent. When their mother said that they needed to talk, they knew it was serious. They followed Karappo down the halls of the palace until they came to a set of black doors. She opened them and they followed her in. She told them to sit as she lit a candle. Karappo sat in a black chair while they sat on the black couch. As she sat there, her eyes changed color. Black to white, white to black. The sight scared Taisho and Toshio but Yumiko had seen her mothers' eyes in the dark before. They may creep her out but she wasn't scared anymore.
"What did you want to talk about mother?"
"For years now, you three have asked many questions about my past. Well, now I am going to answer them."
"Mom! Your eyes changed color!"
"Yes Toshio, they do that in the dark so I can see. I am after all a shadow demon."
"They scare me mother!"
"I'm sorry Taisho, like Yumiko, you two will get used to them."
"But mother!"
"Mom!"
"Silence, I wish to speak!"
"Yes mother."
"Ok mom."
"I am going to tell you everything you ever wanted to know about me and more. I think you all are old enough to handle it now."
Karappo leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. She watched her children's faces carefully. She waited for Taisho and Toshio to get over their fear before beginning.
"I was born to a human mother and a human father. I was born 200 years from now. You are probably wondering how, but I'll explain that later. I was raised in a shrine with my parents and grandfather. When I was young, my mother had another child, a boy. Soon after, my father died. I wasn't sad about his death. He had hit me and abused me and my mother. No matter what he had done, my mother cried for him. I just stood in the corner, laughing in my head."
Flashback
Mrs. Higarashi sat next to the bed, crying her eyes out. Little Sota was crying in the next room, Grandpa was trying to calm him down. Mrs. Higarashi clutched the cold hand of her dead husband. He had been shot in the head sometime during the night, the gun was in his hand. Blood covered the white sheets and walls. His eyes were wide open, glazed grey by death. Mrs. Higarashi continued to cry while screaming why. Grandpa walked into the room, having finally gotten Sota to sleep. He told her the police were on their way. Mrs. Higarashi then cried on her fathers shoulder. It was then she saw Kagome standing next to the door. She was only six years old.
Kagome stood there, staring at her dead father and crying mother. She didn't understand why her mother would cry over the death of that bastard. She stood there, wearing a black night shirt to hide the bruises that man had given her earlier that evening when her mother and grandfather were gone. On the outside, she was emotionless, no expression upon her face. On the inside, she was laughing and joyous. She was singing to herself.
/ A gun shot echoed
Through the hollow house
A bloody body fell
To the tile floor
A wicked smirk planted
On your face
I run screaming toward
The bloodstained door
You laugh manically staring
At your bloody hands
I shakily grab for
Your loaded gun
With a click planted
Between your eyes
I pull the trigger laughing
I have won /
End Flashback
"You killed him mother?"
"Yes Yumiko. I took the gun he had hidden and when he was passed out from drinking, I stood on the end of the bed. He woke up when the gun clicked and the minute his head was against the end of the barrel, I pulled the trigger. I then took his bloody hand and put the gun in it. Then I threw that night shirt away and went to bed. When mother came home, she thought he had killed himself. So did the police. No one knew it was me."
Karappo sighed before she continued.
"I eventually became a normal girl, at least that is what every one thought. I put up a façade like your father does but it wasn't a cold one, it was a happy one. I wanted every one to think I was ok. After a while though, people started asking. My façade had broken. They could see the real me. Because of this, my mother sent me to a mental hospital for a year. She did so to help me get better but it only made me worse. They released me when I turned 14. By then I had perfected my façade. It would no longer break or even crack. They didn't suspect anything."
Flashback
"Welcome home Kagome!"
That was how she was greeted upon returning form the mental hospital. She had spent a little over a year there for no reason. She groaned on the inside but smiled on the outside. She greeted everyone in a high pitched voice that didn't belong coming out of her mouth. She looked to see every one smiling at her. Inside she wished to kill them but on the outside she smiled back and walked up to her room with her suite case. She set it down and looked in the mirror. She cringed at her reflection. She looked to happy for her taste but that was what she had to do. She didn't want to go back there. And the only way to not go back was to be happy. Even if she died faking it.
End Flashback
"A year later I fell down the Bone eaters well. When I landed at the bottom, I was in the feudal Japan. That was when I met Inuyasha and learned about the Shikon Jewel. After I broke the Jewel into hundreds of pieces, Inuyasha and I had to collect them and put it back together before anyone evil got a hold of the shards. Along our journey we met many people and made many friends such as Shippo. Also along the journey I fell in love with Inuyasha. But he didn't love me. He loved Kikyo even though she was nothing but a clay body animated by a hateful soul. Since I looked like Kikyo, I was her replacement. To him I was nothing but a shard detector. But one day, he said he loved me. We shared a night together. But he didn't lay his mark on me. The next night I realized why. I found him in the forest with Kikyo, he had marked her and it broke my heart. It was then I ran to the well and never returned for 5 years."
Flashback
"That stupid bastard! How dare he! He used me! Damn him to hell! Why did he do that to me? Why"
Kagome ran into her house. She locked her door and cried into her pillow. It was well after night fall when she rose from a crying educed sleep. She sat on the edge of her bed and held her head in her hands. She had a head ache and she couldn't breathe through her nose. After she had managed to compose herself, she stood and changed her cloths. She dug to the back of her closet and found a black hoddie and baggy black pants. She quickly put them on then went out to the well.
She stood in front of it, a sutra in her hand. She placed a wood board over the mouth of the well and nailed it down. She then put the sutra upon it. She sighed, Inuyasha would never come for her anymore. She then went into the shed and pulled out a bag of concrete and a box of bricks. She spent the rest of the night bricking up the opening where her window was. By morning, she was done. She then put wall paper over the brick to hide it. She collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep reassured that Inuyasha would never come again.
End Flashback
"After that day, I changed. I began to mutilate myself. I cut my arm every time I remembered him. Soon, the soft sides of my arms were covered with scars. I wore long sleeves to cover them. I burned every memory I had of him. I painted my room black. I dyed my cloths and sheets black. I painted my furniture black. I covered my light with a black cloth. I wore only black and put black make up upon myself. Every were I went, I took a blade with me. Just incase I needed to cut. Soon, it became too much and I slit my wrists. I danced around my black room, my blood coating everything. I wrote on my wall,
"Nazenara no Kare Watashino Jigen Imi Wananimo Desu." (Because of him, my suicide will mean nothing.)
"I danced until I couldn't see straight. Then I collapsed onto my black floor. As my vision became blurry, my mother found me. I then fell unconscious. I awoke in the hospital a few days later. I thought that the last 4 years of my life were just a dream I had and that I had fallen unconscious when I fell in the well. But then I saw the bandages on my wrists. No matter how hard I wished it wasn't true, it was. When I was sent home, I began reading about dark magic and how to become a dark priestess. After a month, I captured a shadow panther. I planed on fusing its soul with mine. That was the only way to become a dark priestess."
Flashback
"There, perfect."
Kagome had just finished drawing the fusing circle upon her floor with chalk. She had and unconscious, caged, shadow panther demon at the center of the circle. She grabbed the book and stepped into the circle. She then flipped through the pages to find the incantation to make her a dark priestess. She soon found it. She read it in her mind so to memorize the words before she spoke them aloud. She grabbed a vile of mashed up black rose petals. She spread the broken petals around herself and the panther. She began to speak.
"Dark gods of the depths of hell, hear my plea. I wish for your grace. May you bless me with your gifts as I spread my blood upon your servant. May you taint my soul with your glorious presence. May my humanity be the sacrifice as I fuse myself with this being. Your servant I will become. I will do your bidding until my days are done. Until you have no use for me. Make me one with the shadows and the night. Make my name frighten even the fiercest of warrior and demon. Please, answer my plea. Make me one!"
With a flash of light and a scream, Kagome was transformed. She lay unconscious upon her black floor. She sat up and went to the mirror to see her new face. She was shocked at what she saw. She had whiter than white skin. Her eyes were a solid black. She had a permanent black marking that was around her eye. Like eye liner except under her eye, it made a Celtic design. Her lips were black as well. Her hair had grown straight, down to her ankles. Her white hands had long black claws upon them. As she inspected herself, something long and fuzzy hit her hand. She grabbed it to see a long panther tail. She gasped, revealing her long fangs and cat like tongue. She liked this very much.
End Flashback
"I trained and perfected my abilities in less than a year. It was then I returned to this era. I was determined to kill Inuyasha for what he had done to me. I also wished to complete the Jewel and kill Naraku. I attacked Inuyasha and Kikyo but I only managed to kill her because Naraku was near at the time. I was traveling and that was when I encountered yoru father. We made a pact. We would assist each other in killing Inuyasha and Naraku. We encountered Inuyasha many times after that, he escaped alive each time. Then, I was kidnapped by Naraku. He took me to his palace and rapped me. Your father saved me but then we had an argument and went our separate ways. It was months until we saw each other again. He had found me in a hot spring, my wrists slip open and the water crimson from my blood. He took me back to his camp. He and Rin tended to me while I recovered from my second near death experience. After about another month of doing nothing, your father and I went to battle Naraku for the last time. During the battle, I lost control of the dormant power within me. The power killed everything except me and your father. It impaled Inuyasha, through the heart, on metal pole. It took back Naraku's portion of the jewel and caused him to explode. All it did to your father was heal his missing arm. After we awoke on the battle field, we returned to the palace and you know the rest of the story."
Karappo looked at her children. Their reactions were all different. Yumiko had burst into tears, the tale was too much for her. Toshio was frozen with shock. His eyes wide and his jaw dropped. Taisho had tears in his eyes. A look of sorrow in his golden eyes. Karappo then stood and hugged her children. Telling them she was ok, that she was better. What they didn't know was that she would never be ok, a piece of her will forever be haunted by the pain of her past. A pas that was full of so much pain, a normal being, human or demon, would have never survived. She held her children close, feeling their warmth. She held them close, never wanting to let them go. She released them and told them to go and get ready for bed when she felt a presence behind her.
Karappo felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist when the children had left. She leaned into the warm embrace. She knew who it was, she could tell by his scent. She knew SesshoMaru had been there the entire time. He had heard her tale and was also sad for her. He held her as close as he could, never wanting to let her go. He didn't want her hurt again. He wanted her to be happy, to feel loved. She turned to face him and shared a loving kiss. When he released the kiss, she began to tear up. He then held her close, rubbing her head and back. Whispering that everything was ok. He rocked them back and forth, continued to rub and whisper to her. When she had finally calmed, he picked her up and carried her to bed. She fell asleep in his arms. He laid her in the bed and laid next to her. He pulled her to rest against him. He kissed her forehead before he joined her in sleep.