For the Best
...OOO...
Inuyasha trailed them all the way back to the ruined castle where, upon landing he drew out Tetsusaiga again to make a mock display of slashing at Sesshomaru who didn't have to try very hard to dodge out of the way.
"Come on," Inuyasha challenged, jabbing the tip of Tetsusaiga directly at him. "Let's go right here, right now!"
"Inuyasha!" Kagome's shrill voice interrupted. "What do you think you're doing?"
But he just brushed her off, "Not now, Kagome. Me and this jerk here have some business to finish."
A huge vein popped on Kagome's forehead.
"Inuyasha," she warned darkly. "SIT BOY!"and unwillingly Inuyasha came crashing down.
"What the hell?" he snapped, glaring at Kagome but still glued to the ground. "What was that for?"
"This is no time for you to be hashing it out with your brother," Kagome reprimanded sharply. "We have bigger things to worry about right now, okay? So will you two cool it for just a minute?"
"He started it!" Inuyasha argued.
"Inuyasha!"
"Ok, ok," he muttered, sensing another 'sit!' coming. "I won't pick anymore fights," and under his breath he added, "'sides, that guy can't handle it anyway."
"I wouldn't make such claims, little brother," Sesshomaru clipped not letting go of Kikyo, "as you are the one who is currently incapacitated. To think that a son of my father is made defenseless at the command of a human woman." With that he whirled around to walk away paying no heed as Inuyasha cried out, "Hey, wait! Where do you think you're going with Kikyo?"
Kagome was the one to answer with another, "Sit!"
For lack of knowing what to say in such a situation, Kikyo had stayed silent, but when they left Inuyasha and Kagome she finally asked, "Why do you like to tease him so?"
"Who said I was teasing?" he replied.
Scoffing at the transparent attempt to hide his motives, she stated, "Any fool can see that if either of you had been serious enough, one of you would be dead already."
Sesshomaru conceded her point, "He needs to learn. I will not allow someone who shares my blood- no matter how tainted- to fall by the hands of any other save myself."
"Do you really intend to kill him?" she asked.
Truthfully he really did not know anymore, but rather than admit that he answered, "Yes. One day I will."
"Why?"
"Because he is not fit to call himself my brother," he answered curtly.
"Do you really believe that he is 'tainted' because his blood is half demon and half human?" she inquired curiously. "Do you really believe we are who we are by the blood that runs through our veins?"
"What else is there to determine our standing in this world?" A small grain of bewilderment was working its way into his thoughts. What was her point?
"So you believe that if you were not the son of your father, that you would not be who you are now?"
The observation stopped him short. No one had ever questioned the validity of his opinions so thoroughly before- opinions which he had always been able to defend as facts.
"What are you trying to say?" he demanded slowly.
Coolly she answered, "You scorn me because I bind myself to my fate, and yet here you define yourself by the blood which you were given without control or consent. Tell me- is there really such a difference?"
She caught his eyes with a steady gaze commanding an answer.
A low growl escaped his throat, but he was speechless. What answer could he give her without contradicting himself in one point or another?
Seeing his disconcertment, however, she let her eyes drop and smiled smally.
"You know," she spoke, "my veins may be dry, but I am still capable of walking."
Startled, he looked down in surprise, as if unaware he had been holding on to her the entire time. He frowned slightly, but did not let her go.
Instead he asked, "Why do you insist on loving him when he has done nothing but hurt you so much?"
This time it was her turn to look surprised, caught off guard by the question, but once again she smiled as she gently pushed herself away from him and answered, "Love isn't what another can do for us, it's what we can do for the sake of another. You should know," she added thoughtfully. "Rin does nothing to benefit you, and yet you still keep her do you not? That is love."
That word irked him.
"Do not accuse me of displaying such foolishness," he warned her.
"I don't understand you," she admitted. "Why is it so wrong to love someone? Because it is not in your interest? Because it is a weakness? I suppose it is, but even by your logic you believe we are given only that which we can obtain for ourselves and defend by our own might. I never thought you to have so much doubt in your own strength that you do not love because you fear you cannot defend it."
Once again he was at a loss to a response.
"Do you enjoy twisting my reasoning?" his hardened voice asked threateningly.
"Does my reasoning disturb you?" she countered.
After several seconds of defiant silence on both ends, he finally gave up the stalemate and ordered, "Stay here. I will return with more appropriate attire." But before he could disappear, she called him back.
"Sesshomaru..." she waited until he paused to listen before continuing, "I have decided- tomorrow I will leave... it's for the best."
For a moment he did not answer, as if evaluating her proposition, but then he declared firmly, "No."
Angered, she replied, "It is not for you to decide."
"Nor is it for you," he returned cool but determined. "So long as Naraku remains a threat, you shall stay where I can reach you."
"It does not concern you anymore," she shot back. "Any of you. He wants only me, and I will not continue to endanger others by my presence. I will handle the situation on my own."
"'Endanger?'" he repeated, an edge of sarcasm in his voice. "You don't believe I am capable of defending you from him?"
"No!" she declared heatedly, losing her temper. "You are not! Can't you understand? There's nothing you can do- this is beyond you-" she froze, suddenly aware of her words. "What I mean to say," she corrected, lowering her voice, "is why would you wish to?"
But it was too late.
Ignoring her last statement, he turned his back and answered coldly, "If you are so determined to be rid of me, then so be it. Do what you like." And he left.
"Wait, Sesshomaru," she pleaded, but he brushed it off. A part of her wanted to rush to him, wanted to hold him back and beg him to forgive her, but she forced herself to stand still. This was for the best, she reminded herself. For the best.
...ooo...
Her words had stung his pride deeply because she had voiced that which he had known- that he was incapable of aiding her. If Naraku were still flesh and blood, Sesshomaru was more than confident in his physical superiority, but Naraku wasn't. He struck her where Sesshomaru could not reach- her mind. Whatever battles she and Naraku fought were restricted to them alone, and there was nothing he could do to help, no matter how much he might have wanted to.
But why should I want to? He argued vehemently. She was right, after all- it was none of his concern. To him and to the rest of the world, Naraku was dead. He existed only to her. So why did it bother Sesshomaru so much?
Why does she always make me feel so damn helpless? He wondered angrily, more at himself than anyone else. Perhaps she was right in deciding to part as well, he thought. It was not really in his self-interest to keep her around, anyway. Yes, it was for the best, he concluded. As it was he had wasted enough time in this fruitless endeavor. With her gone he could forget about her and her philosophies and return to normalcy. For the best, he reassured himself.
...ooo...
Kanna was lying on the bed, her eyes closed, letting her thoughts wander. She was free now after having fulfilled his last request, and now that the mirror was gone, their link was severed. She had no heart, no soul, and hence had no emotions for him to root out and manipulate. She was lost to him.
How ironic, she thought languidly, that the nothingness which had bound her to him was now the very thing which kept him from her, granting her a freedom she never sought nor wanted nor felt.
Feelings...
That was what would lead them all to destruction, she reflected. Because they felt everything- even those which they denied to themselves.
During her existence she had watched them detachedly, and she understood them more than they would ever care to know, because even though she could not feel them, through her observance Kanna had come to know quite well exactly what emotions were, what desires were, what needs were. And perhaps it was because she was not subject to them that she learned just how much power they did hold over all those that they enslaved. Even Naraku who was so adept at manipulating the hearts of others did not fully comprehend his own.
But she did. She understood everything because she herself was nothing.
She knew what it was he had always yearned for, and although she had obeyed him without question or reservation, she had always known he would not succeed. Just as now she knew he would fail again. He would never obtain his desire because he did not know how. But she knew. She always did.
The ghost of a smile crept to her lips as she mused on her decision to act. She could do it- she knew she could. It would not even be that hard of a thing to accomplish. All it needed was for her to set it rolling.
The unmoved mover, she thought. A goddess by her own right. The nothing which would grant them all that which they desired most...
"Kagura," she called softly to her nearby sister.
Kagura looked up surprised that Kanna was still able to communicate.
"Yes?" she asked, kneeling beside her.
"Kagura, how would you like to be free? Forever?"
"What? What do you mean?" Kagura replied, taken back by such an offer.
"Give Naraku a body," Kanna answered plainly. "You have your heart, rid him from your soul- give him his own."
Bristling at the thought of resurrecting Naraku, Kagura asked, "And how do I know that this is not another of his tricks?"
Kanna took no notice of her sister's suspicion.
"Our link was severed the moment my mirror shattered. What I do now, I do simply because I can."
"Kanna..." for a moment, Kagura was at a loss for words, but finally she replied, "What do you need me to do?"
"I must see that priestess."
"What? What does she have to do with this?"
Vacant black eyes met her passionate red ones.
"Did you believe," Kanna asked, "that it was mere coincidence that both she and Naraku survived where both should have died?"
Again Kagura was disconcerted by her cryptic words, "I don't understand..."
"You do not need to."
...OOO...