Chapter 9: And the identify of the mastermind is revealed.
"... badness is only spoiled goodness."
- C.S. Lewis, excerpt from 'Mere Christianity'.
Kagome felt as if all the light in her world had died out. Her one-time nemesis, the one who had almost killed her and her friends, was currently standing right before her very eyes and pulling on his loose yukata while a gleeful smile bounded at the corners of his glinting eyes.
"Naraku..." She wished that this was a nightmare, and nothing else. She did not dare to imagine the evil plans that he had concocted in his head, and quivered at the very possible torture and torment that he would inflict on her and Sesshoumaru.
"Yes, but I have many names, none of which is important to you as much as my chosen Name," he bared his teeth a little and thought of how he would slowly drag the miko down the steps of Hell.
Her head slumped forward; she wanted to stand up to the evil guy, to show that she was not afraid of him for she had the Shikon no Tama in her even though she had no idea how to yield the power. But the loss of Sesshoumaru, the burden of her unborn child, the fact that Rin had revealed more than she could bear in her dreams, was crushing her spirit that no amount of fairy tales in her bookshop could give her the strength that she needed to pick herself up.
Not to mention that it was Naraku, who was the obvious mastermind behind all of these. Oh what had she gotten herself into! Would history repeat itself again? She felt as if her whole life was hung upon this rusty, persisting nail called Onigumo, and that the after-effects of his depraved, unrequited love for Kikyou spilled over into her present life, ruining and finishing in a full vicious circle. Despair was not even enough to describe what she was feeling.
He pulled another chair, sat like an undeclared king before her and licked his dry lips, "Now that you are here, do you want to know why?"
Kagome did not answer; she knew that he just wanted to derive sick pleasure from her yet she could not prevent it as much as she could prevent her mind from falling into the deep, dark gutters.
Naraku let out a small controlled breath at the strength that he was gaining just by being near her; the power of the Shikon no Tama was so delicious and ...
Tantalizing.
"I suppose that impossible girl has told you, all that he didn't tell you, in the dreams?"
Rin, Naraku was talking about Rin. The blood in her veins seemed to freeze; what had he done to her?
He rolled his eyes a little as he grew stronger and stronger feeding on the power waves rolling forth from the miko, "Her soul is weak, too weak. But her hatred and jealousy, were enough for me to feed on until I started to absorb other souls. Ah the beauty and sweetness of human debauchery and perversion..."
At the back of her mind, unbidden strength slowly rose up; he had used Rin. She was angry, very angry.
"Nothing is bad you know, Kagome. It's only spoiled goodness, and goodness in all forms are good for me," Naraku hissed.
"Its too bad... that Sesshoumaru had used you the way he had done to the little girl... but aren't men, all like that? I must admit that I'm not very different from him, since I do place myself before others too..." he continued.
"It's not true," Kagome closed her eyes, not wanting to see the smirk on his face and continued tonelessly, "You're only trying to drive a wedge in between us, I won't fall into it. Im not the old Kagome-"
Naraku tongued his teeth, "Say what you like, the facts are staring into your face and if you believe otherwise, feel free to."
She wanted to cut off his tongue, so badly that she bit on her own. Now she knew why Inuyasha had asked her to believe.
"Poor girl... thinking about her youkai lord, so intently and possessively even when she was dead and wandering on earth... One can only imagine how she felt when I showed her how he whispered sweet nothings into your ear and fucked you in wide open-"
"SHUT UP!" Kagome shouted and her blood boiled yet curdled at the same time.
His smile twisted into something else and he continued, "He brought this upon himself, and it's the same for you too. Humans, with their endless needs and puny strength... and you don't even have your arrows with you, so sad!"
She could not imagine her bright, pink spirit-filled hamaya anymore; Sesshoumaru had hurt Rin, Rin had hurt her, and she had hurt him back. How could things get so wrong?
"You'll give me the Shikon no Tama, because you'll want to save him."
Kagome looked up and thought of the chaos that would come if he got his filthy hands on the jewel again. She couldn't possibly allow him-
"When the useless girl cursed him, it was with a malicious intent, surely it's obvious enough?"
When she did not respond, he happily continued, "Seven and seven and seven times, she cursed him over and over and over again. Do you know what that means?"
She merely glared at him; he took that as a no.
"Three hundred and forty three times, she wrapped her curse around him, with my help of course... And as she undergoes through the same number of cycles, to be resurrected and die again and again in me, his humanity would eventually be taken away from him too. Do you know what that means?"
Her lips parted at his abject cruelty; she was sure that the real Rin, the un-warped part of her soul was weeping for her foolish mistakes.
"Yes my dear Kagome, your Sesshoumaru will simply turn into a senseless animal, with a human body as an outer shell and nothing else. Isn't that so deserving of him? He who had trampled others under his feet, he who had killed your friends and Inuyasha, you all who had split up my soul into so many parts that I no longer could return to my former self? Unless... " His voice trailed off purposefully.
Kagome could cry, but her tear glands had dried up. She could not think straight anymore.
"But you'll save him, no matter what had happened... unless your love for him is as weak as that little girl in me..." Naraku drawled on tauntingly.
She slumped into her chair, all her righteous anger disappearing at the inevitable, coming calamity. She was so confused, yet one part of her mind was very clear, because she believed Inuyasha. She never doubted her hanyou before, ever. She thanked God for the only seemingly strong anchor in her mind, and that was Inuyasha's parting words; she would believe in Sesshoumaru, she would try.
Although that didn't mean that the hurt would disappear like magic. What's done could not be undone, and the only thing she could do for herself was to forget, and to let go. But it seemed so difficult, so impossible and she wondered whether she could really face Sesshoumaru and pretended that nothing ever happened at all, anymore.
So she asked, despite that she knew the answer in a weak, faltering voice, "What do you want?"
Naraku smiled again, he wanted everything; her torture, his torment, the jewel and many more. But it would be good to give her some useless, pitiful hope, since he was not an unkind person.
Just a good man gone spoiled, he thought and replied, "You'll get to see him. I can assure you of that."
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"Rin!" Kagome cried out when she saw the young girl sprawled on the ground with dark blood pooling in between her legs. Her long, black hair was disheveled and she was as naked and white as the moon she saw on that summer night she met Sesshoumaru.
She smiled helplessly at the elder woman and whispered weakly, "I can't help myself anymore..."
The miko ran and ran, but her legs did not seem to carry her forward at all, "It's alright Rin! Just keep reaching out to me, I'm not afraid of you!"
The corners of her large, soul-less eyes turned downwards and away as she rolled onto her side and crouched inwards, "Go away... I feel ashamed when you are here..."
Kagome did not stop running, for something exploded in her mind like fireworks in the jet-black skies, "Rin! I know how I can get you away from him!"
She turned her young, changing face to her and growled like a beast, "HOW!"
Kagome flinched a little at her sudden-manly voice and wept, "I'm sorry Rin, I'm sorry... it's all my fault..."
The dying Rin's face softened a fraction at her apologies, "I don't want to hurt Sesshoumaru-sama... but I can't help myself anymore..."
"You can, you can!" Kagome brushed away her weightless thin tears, "You love Sesshoumaru-sama as much as I do, right? Rin?"
The young Rin, with her sideway ponytail glanced over her shoulders and started to walk away as she hung her head down. Her transformations were getting faster and faster and Kagome wondered how many more times Rin would have to die before Sesshoumaru's sanity and life gave out.
"I can give you something to hold on to! Don't go Rin! Don't do this anymore, Naraku is using you to hurt him!" Kagome shouted desperately as the space before her tumbled and twisted away in a spiral.
And just before a dark, solid wall hurriedly clamped down between them, she saw her slightly-shocked face turning around to meet her eyes for that split second. When Kagome woke up, she knew that she had found a seam in the curse, although her heart still throbbed painfully at the sight of broken Rin and everything else running in her head.
Nothing would be able to heal the wounds in her heart, and Kagome tried hard not to think of Kikyou, who had nothing to hold on to other than hurt and pain and everything else dark and negative.
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Naraku woke up with a angry jolt and cursed, and cursed and cursed; Rin, Sesshoumaru, Kagome, Inuyasha, Kikyou...
The cycles sped forward like a bicycle wheel without its restraining chain and he tightened his fists as he sent Rin into a torture-frenzy. He would not lose to Kagome, no matter what.
He had waged much on this. Revenge would be his.
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"Sesshoumaru-sama..."
The once Youkai Prince froze in his tracks; that voice brought a jolt of aching heartache through his very old heart.
"Rin is sorry..."
He swiveled around, with a shocked look on his face as he stared at his once living human ward. She was standing there all alone, amidst the early morning fog, under the dark canopy of trees in her cream yukata that she had worn before she died. Her hair was loose, draping all over her shoulders and he noticed that she was bare-footed.
He said out loud the first thought that came to his mind, "Rin, sandals. You cannot walk around bare-foot." To which, she smiled sadly at him and nodded her head. The bluish morning light cast an unearthly glow on her pale, thin face and he recalled the rosy cheeks that she once had every time she blushed around his presence.
Sorrow and woe and grief filled his throat up so quickly, choking him and as he fell to his knees silently under the weight of his past sins, he whispered hoarsely, "I'm sorry, Rin... I'm sorry..."
But she heard his apology, and that broke one big, heavy chain that had bound itself around her soul for so long.
"Rin cannot stay here for long Sesshoumaru-sama..." she paused for a while and timidly lowered her face, "Do... do you love me?"
The youkai lord lifted his tear-streaked face and looked at her for what seemed like eternity as he pondered over her question. The dim light was gradually getting brighter and he could see how white and fragile her skin was with the blue veins running beneath it. Time was running out for her, and he knew it; "As a child, Rin. I love you as my child."
Her white lips parted at his honest answer, feeling so heartbroken and relieved that she cried and smiled at the same time. But her ghostly tears would not fall in the human world, the world that she was not allowed to stay in anymore, and she knelt and bowed her head.
"Rin is sorry, Rin cannot bring herself to part from you my lord..."
He did not understand what she was talking about, but it did not matter to him. He was glad that he could see her again, "It's alright Rin, you can stay by my side forever if you want, if you want..."
Tears and emotions smothered his words and he could not go on anymore; the wheels in his head were turning back so fast, so hasty, so abrupt that he could feel the burning friction of it. And like a flung-opened rotting scroll, images of Rin growing up, blossoming into a fine young woman, her love for him unconsciously revealed in her everyday actions, her joyous laughter and cries, her screaming and quarrels with Jaken, her desperate calls for his attention, increasing desires for reciprocated love back-
"Sesshoumaru-sama... Rin... is very sorry..." She got to her bare feet, cold and small and bloodied, and turned to walk away.
He lifted his hand, wanting to stop her, but found himself collapsing forward from fatigue and heavy heart and many, many other things that he did not have the courage to tell her. Tenseiga was so silent, too.
In his dreamless sleep, he saw a crying baby and that image pulled at his heart so very hard.
Go figure about that crying baby. :P
I won't say more; the next chapter will be the last and there'll be no sequels or epilouge or whatever. Chapter 10 will be the end.
Reviews are much appreciated. I love them, I live on them, they are oxygen to me. So c'mon, send a review to me. :D