AUTHOR'S NOTES: Short chapter this time. I really couldn't spin it out more than I already did. Plus it's late and stuff. Me go sleepy-bye now.

SCROLL TWO: ONE'S TRUE PURPOSE

Kanna silently walked down the hallway towards Naraku's chamber, wearing her usual attire of a pure white dress, and her one adornment, a white lily in her hair. This white had nothing to do with purity; in Japan, white was the color of death, and death was something this innocent little girl tended to deal in. Perhaps even now.

She had been summoned. A bell did not announce this fact; she simply knew. Naraku had no desire to remind Kanna of her servitude as he did with her sister Kagura, for Kanna never held any desire to leave her master. In fact, Kanna never seemed to have any desires, period. She was made to serve, knew it, and thought nothing of it.

In her arms, Kanna carried a mirror. This mirror could do many things–trap souls, release them, even absorb weaponry and fire them back at their owners. In her first battle, Kanna had achieved what many foes could not–she had very nearly killed Inuyasha. Only a last, desperate arrow fired by the miko Kagome had kept her, Kagura, and Naraku from finishing the job on the Inu-tachi. The damage to her mirror had irked Kanna, though certainly it never showed on her face. After all, mirrors were not easy to come by in feudal Japan, and even demon magic could only go so far. One part of her, deep down, hoped that Naraku was summoning her to scry on Kagome and her little band of misfits, because, dammit, repairing that mirror had cost money. And Naraku only gave Kanna so much as an allowance. It may have been only a mirror, but it was the only mirror she had.

But if Kagome could grow in power, so could Kanna. And recently, she had gained the ability to look not only around Japan, not only into people's souls, but through time and space itself.

Kanna, of course, showed no emotion as she walked down the lonely hallway. She detachedly suspected that Kagura had gotten the griping side of Naraku's DNA. Or was it Onigumo's? No matter, Kanna decided, it wasn't her place to know. She lived to serve. In fact, as a silent mental command told her, she was on the verge of running late. Almost imperceptibly, Kanna quickened her pace.

She stopped at the threshold of Naraku's private chamber, out of respect and politeness. "I am here," she announced in a voice barely a whisper.

Naraku turned and scowled. "It is about time, Kanna." She said nothing; she had no control over when she was summoned, and she had never been late. "I hope you aren't inheriting your sister's rebelliousness."

"No, Lord Naraku."

"Good." Naraku motioned her to come closer, turning on his tatami mat as she did so. Pain shot up his sides and down his legs, and he gritted his teeth, making sure the ice pack was still settled on his groin. Damn that other Kagura, anyway! It had taken hours for him to recover and undue the damage caused by a rip in time, then another few hours to arrange his Kagura's punishment for daring to crack a smile at his predicament. He was sure that the other Kagura was one of Kagome's compatriots; it meant that the young miko was not only growing in power, but that she also possessed the ability to call in reinforcements from the Time-To-Come at will. That was most disconcerting.

Kanna sensed this discomfort and knew the reason. "Shall I show you the location of Kagome?" she inquired.

"No, Kanna. You know why you are here."

"Yes, Lord Naraku." Somewhere deep in the recesses of Kanna's consciousness, where even Naraku could not sense it, the tiny demon sighed in annoyance. They weren't going to do evil on Kagome after all. They weren't even going to do anything evil.

The silence of the chamber was suddenly torn by the blare of trumpets, and then the low, sonorous tone of strings and percussion. Naraku leaned back on the mat, his face relaxing from the contortment of pain and annoyance to satisfaction as the lines of text crossed her mirror, and then multicolored panels and shadows of people. The music increased in volume and tempo.

A voice announced from the mirror: "I think it's time we blow this scene...get everybody and his stuff together...okay, 3, 2, 1, let's jam."

Naraku reached behind him and drew out a bowl of ramen, slightly tapping his feet to the music.

A white eyebrow twitched ever so slightly, the only reflection of a deep, abiding, inner bitterness at her lot in life. This is what I am, Kanna thought. My true purpose.

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