Luna: CHAPTER 10! And thanks for the soup Akeranai. It was yummy! ((Hugs))
Veron: Hoorah!
Luna: ((Dances to Drunken Monkey)) I forgot I had this song!
Veron: Hn.
Disclaimer: Me own story! And Himawari, Hiroshi, and Reiko! So NYEH!
Chapter 10: Hanyou
" Betrothed?" Kagome asked, her eyes wide at the demoness before her. Reiko nodded, her face looking sorrowful despite her upbringings, her eyes echoing her pain and regret.
" I was promised to him when I was very young. I was angry at first that I had no say in the matter about who I was to wed but over time I grew to understand it. You could say I even began to have feelings for him. But, he fell in love with a human instead."
Kagome's eyes widened with surprise and Kikyo only closed her eyes with a slight nod.
" He became entranced by her the moment that he set eyes on her. Her every movement was something his eyes would constantly follow. Even when we were alone, I knew that his heart and mind was somewhere else, with someone else. It...was painful. I was angry and I demanded that my father break this contract between us both. But by then it was too late, so I did something else to free myself from the emotions."
The raven-haired teenager cocked her head curiously at the woman before her.
" What did you do, Reiko-Sama?"
" I killed my father."
Kagome gasped, her face paling to match the shade of her incarnation's.
" You...murdered your father!"
Reiko gave the shocked human a rueful smile.
" It is not uncommon for demons to slay their parents in order to obtain power. How else do you think I came to not marry Hiroshi and to control the Southern lands?"
Kagome only stared, her heart beating rapidly.
" Would you...kill other demons for their land?" Her voice was quiet and at that moment it became painfully clear exactly how naive and out of her element the young child was.
" No. But I know someone who would. He controls the Northern lands. Some say he had a close alliance with that hanyou scum Naraku. But it is only a rumor and no one dares to ask him directly."
Naraku...?
Kagome winced at the mention of the creature's name, the place above her heart now throbbing painfully. She doubled over, clutching her chest with a painful gasp.
Reiko's eyes widened.
" Your highness?"
Kikyo merely stared at the demoness before going to her reincarnation's side, watching cold beads of sweat slide down the young girl's skin.
Naraku.
With that, the girl collapsed once again.
"Houshi-Sama...she doesn't remember Inuyasha or anyone does she?"
Miroku gave Sango a sad look and shook his head, both sitting calmly on a bench in the courtyard. He chuckled softly.
" If Inuyasha knew we were staying with Sesshomaru, I do believe he'd wake up here and now to scream at all of us."
Sango smiled weakly at the thought of the irate man, thrashing about his gold eyes ablaze...she sighed sadly.
" I wonder how Shippo-Chan is doing. How the villagers are doing without us there."
Miroku's face took on a stern expression and he placed a gentle hand over Sango's. The demon slayer promptly blushed before realizing how serious the monk looked. Her blush faded and she looked at him, concern in her magenta pools.
" Houshi-Sama...?"
" I am...worried about the village. Demons are after Inuyasha's body for his half of the jewel. And if the attack on the Sakura province is any indication, Kagome's half is slowly awakening and broadcasting its aura, making this place a target as well. With only Shippo there with Lady Kaede, I am not sure how safe the village is."
Sango swallowed before squeezing the man's hand reassuringly, although her smile seemed ready to falter at a moment's notice.
" I'm sure...they will be fine. Shippo is growing stronger everyday. And Lady Kaede has protected the village with her spells before. Everything will be...fine." With this the young woman laid her head on Miroku's shoulder with a content sigh.
If only she believed her words...
Hello again.
Kagome shifted and looked about before sighing in annoyance at the fact she was in the room with the endless black and shimmering ripples of color.
" I fainted again?" Kagome huffed and crossed her arms in annoyance.
You do seem to have that habit of doing so. Tell me; have you any notion as to what caused it in the first place?
The girl pursed her lips together in thought, her eyes drifting closed. For a moment she stood there in complete silence. Her eyes snapped open and she gazed up towards the ceiling, her voice sounding venomous and cold without her knowing why.
"Naraku."
Very good. Step there.
A glowing ripple emerged before her; it was throbbed with a sick deep color of violet, crackling with black. Kagome stared at it hesitantly.
" Are you sure? It..." The very aura of the circle made her stomach churn and bile rise in the back of her throat.
Do not fear. It will not harm you.
"Speaking of harm..." She turned away from the ripple. " What is a hanyou? Why did Hiroshi's eyes look so familiar...why-"
I cannot answer your questions as of now.
" WHAT! Why not!" Kagome's eyebrow ticked with annoyance before she screeched as a force knocked her into the writhing purple ripples behind her.
" You cheating little-"
A hanyou is a half demon. Half human. Half demon.
Kagome's cries died in her throat as the answer surged through her mind as she felt herself become thrown into another memory.
Kikyo sat calmly beside the unconscious Kagome, delicately placing a wet cloth upon her forehead. The woman stiffened as she felt a powerful demonic aura approach, a cold smile curled at her lips as the door opened behind her, revealing the lord of the western lands.
" You want her soul. "
Sesshomaru words echoed in Kikyo's mind, knowing his unvoiced question.
Why don't you kill her now?
Why didn't she? After all, it was one of her desires, to hear the girl's gurgled shrieks as she felt the warm acid that keeps humans alive drip into her cold palms made of earth and grave soil. To feel her soul once more return into her body, make a heart that would calmly beat beneath her breast. To have Inuyasha in her arms as she dragged him down to their death. The death they should have shared over half a century before.
But she couldn't.
Without Kagome, her precious half demon would not awaken. That much was certain.
" She is useful to me."
Sesshomaru's eyebrow raised in silent question.
Kikyo hid a smirk beneath her hand as she dipped the linen back into the bucket of water, wringing the fabric and placing it on Kagome's forehead once more.
Her voice turned cold, calculating.
" I know that having so many humans in your presence must be...aggravating." Her stoic expression didn't change as she shifted, turning her head to gaze deeply into the stern gold depths of her love's older brother.
" If you want us to leave. All you have to do...
Is revive me."
With this said, the priestess stood, holding the now empty bucket of water beneath her arm and calmly walked past the infuriated demon lord. Not once looking back.
Kagome was surprised; she could see everything clearly in this image. She felt relieved, she could make out everything. Everything...the young boy with soulless brown eyes that Sango clutched to her chest. Miroku...a small kitsune with a mass of orange hair tied in a ponytail with a teal ribbon. Her eyes drifted to a man with silver hair and a curved sword, dressed in fabric that mimicked the color of blood. He seemed to be yelling at someone...
Once again, she couldn't make out the words. But she felt a familiar tickling sensation; it felt warm, like as if she had just returned home.
The feeling...the glow...
was there.
She turned and cried out, her body trembling with fury and inner pain. She pulled the bowstring back, the odd purple miasma dissipating quickly as she released the arrow. The glowing arrow pierced the glow's body.
An explosion...and the man clad in red tackled her to the ground, protecting her from the debris and harsh winds. She turned to look up at him, even though her real body didn't.
His face was blurred.
But that same color of gold was there, narrowed and full of hatred, glowering in the direction of where the glow had been.
Hanyou...Kagome awoke with a choked gasp. She panted before freezing at feeling a cold presence beside her; she glanced up, only to come in contact with Sesshomaru's cool gaze.
" Ah...Sesshomaru-Sama!" She bowed her head before growing confused. "What are you doing here...?"
His eyes narrowed at her coldly before he turned on his heel and strode off down the hall, never once giving her a reply.
Kagome huffed at his rudeness before standing up, wavering slightly. She blinked before sighing at the soft glow of pink that came from her lower abdomen. It was glowing again...stupid thing. The girl froze, swallowing.
This is what happened before...before my home was attacked. Then...
Kagome yelled for Sango, Miroku and Kikyo. Anyone...the glow grew brighter and Kagome felt tears fill up her eyes and make the environment blurry.
"KIKYO!"
Kikyo paused, feeling a heavy aura of youki coming towards the building. Mindless hoards of demon salivating and lusting after something.
The priestess stood, seeing the pulsating black mass at the horizon, approaching with urgent speed. She felt her lips curve into a cool smile.
Idiots. These creatures were so overcome with their desire for the half of the shikon jewel that they even would go so far as to attack the western land's palace to obtain it.
Fools.
Hearing Kagome's cry, she left the wooden pail at the side of the well and silently walked back into the palace. Jaken stood up ahead, trying to reach his staff of heads from the mischievous young Rin. The human ward that had been saved by Sesshomaru a few years back.
Both persons stopped, Jaken feeling both the dead woman's presence and the demons.
" Demons are coming." Kikyo held Rin's gaze with a cold look. " You will want to hide."
Not saying another word, she slipped inside Kagome's bedroom, fully intending to protect the girl until she fully awoke. She was a tool. Nothing more. And that is the exact phrase Kikyo would continue to repeat to herself until she believed it.
" Do not forget what I taught you." Kikyo shoved a quiver full of white fletched arrows and a bow into Kagome's shaking palms. " You have fought demons before, this should be simple for you. The only difference between this encounter and the previous one is their numbers. Understood?" The priestess's cold gray eyes locked onto her reincarnation's tear-filled pools.
Kagome nodded and stood, slinging the quiver over her shoulder and following Kikyo's brisk pace down the hall and out into the front courtyards where the various demon monarchy she had seen earlier preparing for battle with their weapons. Her eyes widened as the small cat that Sango kept with her transformed into a larger size, fire blazing from around its ankles, it's fangs long and sharp. The demon growled low as it's large red eyes narrowed at the demon mass on the horizon. Sango stood in her battle armor, her boomerang at her back, her eyes narrowed and filled with confidence, experienced in this motion. The priest stood beside the young demon slayer, his holy staff positioned in defense before him.
" Kori-Hime."
The young girl blinked and stared up at Kikyo, surprised that she had begun to use the dead princess's name. Before remembering they were surrounded with high-class demons that weren't exactly their friends.
" Hai?"
" Aim."
Kagome swallowed before doing as she was ordered, pulling an arrow from her quiver and running her fingertips along the slender dowel, notching it and pulling the bowstring to her chin. Her eyes drifted shut for a moment, feeling the familiar sensation of her miko powers running through her and surrounding the arrow shaft. Her eyes opened and hardened as the bodies of the mass of demons became more and more detailed.
"Fire!"
With that, both priestess's released their glowing projectiles into the fray, making two clean cuts into the hoard. Sango and Miroku boarded Kirara, Sango's war cries becoming synonymous with the growls of the other demons. Sesshomaru boarded Ah-Uhn, diving into the fray with Tokijin as Jaken used the staff of heads to burn the lesser monsters that managed to get past the hierarchy of demons.
The battle went on until the next dawn.
Luna: I know I'm cutting it just a tad short then my normal full chapter of five pages, but I liked ending it there.
Veron: Sure...ne, Where's Angst anyway?
Luna: Ai's bribery didn't work...((Floodcry)) I need to sick Warrior on her.
Veron: Or Abunai...but he doesn't hit girls.
Luna: Well a lot of good that does me! And I threw in some Sango/Miroku in there, I'm proud of myself. I normally don't do them...
Veron: ((sigh)) Review onegai!