Chapter 13: Frailty
Haruko's eyebrows knitted together in concentration. She already drank one-fourth of the horrible tasting potion to get back home. Now all she had to do was to perform the ritual to open the time portal. It was painful going through the time portal lat time; it was like having needles harshly injected into her body all at the same time. The first time she did it, all that was in her mind was her mother. Now, she was doing it again. But this time, all that was in her mind was her father. She wanted to go back to him, to run back into those loving arms of his that always held her whenever such betrayals would happen to her. Yes, this has happened to her more than once. Women talk behind her back almost every day and when she finds out…
The pain never numbed like it should. It was like a wound that would never stop bleeding. Haruko knew why…
It was night then, she was crying inside her room. She'd just heard a few girls in the castle talking and saying that she was a shallow spoiled brat who knew nothing but to look pretty. She ran from that hall and into her room, commanding Akito and Touya to stay out and not to bother her. No one was supposed to know what was wrong, why tears glistened in her eyes. But then her father, with that piercing gaze and scar on the neck (the one her mother gave him when he killed Inu-yasha) opened the doors with such great force. Rage was clearly seen in his eyes and she didn't know what to do.
He demanded to know what was wrong. She would never lie to him. She told him what happened. After which, his eyes softened and she started crying again. Never—since her mother's death, had she felt so loved as when her father came forward and held her small frame in his arms. He waited until she stopped crying, then he tucked her into bed, telling her that everything would be alright. She would never forget the murderous gleam she saw in those golden orbs as he left her in the dark confines of her room.
In the middle of the night, ear-piercing screams could be heard echoing the halls of the great Western Palace, startling the slumbering hanyou awake. She ran to the screams, pushing Shippou-sama out of her way when he tried to stop her. She pushed the doors to the dungeon open just as the screams stopped. Her eyes widened with utter horror. There, her father, her Lord and Master stood, looking back at her with crimson red eyes matching the crimson red blood all around and all over him. The two girls from earlier…their bodies were in pools of blood. Everything was too gory to recall. She'd never look at her father the same way again.
With the recollection of her father drenched in her enemies' blood, she stopped dancing. Her head hung low as her arms fell to her sides, the thunder boomed high above her. She could hear nothing else but the sound of the thunder; she could see nothing else but the lighting striking above her; she could smell and feel nothing else but the rain that drenched her.
She closed her eyes, giving in to the hollowness she felt inside of her. She didn't know what to do anymore. She was lost. Was this all just a mistake? Suddenly, she couldn't feel the rain anymore. She could still hear it, but she couldn't feel it. She opened her eyes and saw an umbrella. She turned around to see… "Shinta…kun…"
It felt so strange, seeing him stare down at her so hungrily. Her eyes widened as she realized he was panting, his chest heaved quickly as if there's a struggle he was having within himself. She started worrying for his health. "Shinta-kun, are you—"
But just as she started speaking, Shinta leaned down to capture her rosy luscious lips. Before he could, though, Haruko had already slapped him away. When Haruko finally registered what had happened in her stunned mind, her eyes widened and tears glimmer in those midnight blue orbs. Shinta was stupefied, having been slapped for the first time and having been denied of what he wanted for the first time. He turned his gaze to her and felt his heart clench at the sight of her.
She put her trembling fingers over the lips he had longed to kiss. A tear fell from those lonely eyes. A broken princess: a beautiful broken princess. It was his entire fault. She took a step back, out of the ensconced place he provided her under his umbrella. She was denying him and he finally understood why she was dancing in the rain. In the rain, her tears were invisible; no one could see her frailty. She was so beautiful. "I'm…I'm sorry…" she whispered weakly. "If I lead you on in any way…I'm so—"
"Iie." He interjected, shadowing his shamed eyes from her. "It's my fault." With that, Haruko turned and ran away. The umbrella he once held in his hands fell with a thud to the muddy ground. He felt so low now, so unworthy. A tear fell from his handsome face but it was invisible. He looked up the thundering skies, berating him for being such a fool. As long as he stayed under the rain, his tears would be…invisible.
Kagome walked out of her hut with an umbrella she borrowed from Mila. She set out to find Sesshoumaru and talk to him once and for all! She would tell him that they were leaving tomorrow at the break of dawn and that she would forget whatever it is that came between them that morning.
She soon found him where she normally found him, in the clearing with the lake. He was staring a the lake with the moon that looked much like the mark on his forehead shining down on him. It was raining and he was drenched. That baka! Didn't he know he could get sick?
His piercing golden eyes turned to her when he sensed her and she stopped for a while, and then gathered her courage to walk towards him. "Sesshoumaru," she started.
Just then, Sesshoumaru swiftly turned to his right, turning away from her. Feeling insulted, Kagome put her hand on her hips and said, "Well, I never! How can you be so childish as to ignore me! This is very important Sesshoumaru, so why don't you just grow—"
Sesshoumaru put up his hand to silence her and he said, "Someone is trying to enter my castle. They're trying to break my barriers." Kagome's eyes widened with worry and she struggled for something to say. He turned to her with those stoic eyes and said, "I'll be back." With that he jumped away to the Western Lands, leaving Kagome staring up at him until he vanished in the darkness of the night sky.
She ran back to the huts as silently as possible. Everyone seemed to be asleep now and she went up to her hut in hopes that her mother wasn't waiting for her. Thankfully, she wasn't. Unfortunately, it was someone else. "Get out." She commanded sternly, banishing her tears.
He looked up at her from his sitting position. He had been following Kagome's scent all day, looking for the girl so that he could talk to her about the Chief's invitation. That was when he smelt the onna's scent here but what was stranger was it was mingled with Sesshoumaru's scent. His jealousy stirred but he didn't want to jump to conclusions again and cause Kagome to subdue him until she sees that his face was finally a bloody pulp on the floor. So he sat there, mulling over the many reasons why Kagome's scent would be mingling with Sesshoumaru's in Haruko's bed.
That was when Haruko came barging in and demanding him to get out. When he looked up at her, he was already prepared to talk back to the insolent girl but faltered when he saw the lonely look in her eyes. He knew that look all too well. It was the look Sesshoumaru used to have when they were still pups. It was the look of pain, clandestine pain.
His eyebrows furrowed in worry and he stood to come to take a look at her. "What's wrong?" he asked gently. He was never good with crying women and so he did his best to be gentle like when Kagome would be with Shippou.
"Nothing. Just get out." She demanded sternly. She was stubborn, just like Kagome.
"Tell me." He softly said.
"Just get out, you bastar—" she was surely spiteful, like Sesshoumaru.
"I know that look. Sesshoumaru used to have that look when we were kids." Haruko looked up at him then, calculating if she should trust this man she hardly knew. Inu-yasha felt conscious then, feeling stupid and unconvincing. He then grinned uncomfortably and tried to crack a joke. "he used to have that look whenever I'd beat him up."
Haruko scoffed with a softened smile then did what she thought she would never do to someone like Inu-yasha. She hugged him. She needed someone to hold, no matter how much she tried to deny herself of it. Inu-yasha was shifty at first but soon eased and wrapped his arms lightly around her. She cried on his shoulder for a long while. It was a long time since she'd cried and it felt like her bottle of emotions had just shattered. And no one but Inu-yasha was there to witness her true weakness, her frailty.
"Inu-yasha?" she said in a weak whisper. He tore his gaze from the window at the pouring rain and turned his eyes to her form sitting in a lady-like manner beside him. He leaned against the wall and raised his brows to signal that he was listening. "I just wanted to ask something I've been wanting to know for a long time now." She said.
"Yeah?"
"Did you…ever really love my mother?"
"Kagome?" if Kagome was there, he would have harshly denied it. But since this was such an anomalous occasion, he decided to let the cat out of the bag. "Yeah, I guess at some level, I do love her."
"Did you ever think of being engaged to her?"
"Mmm…no, not really."
"Was father ever engaged to anyone?"
"When our father made the engagement, the woman he was supposed to be engaged to suddenly died of poison. No one knew who did it. It was supposed to be an engagement to unite the wolves and the inus. But because of the wolf princess' death, the feud became even worse. Funny though, I never saw any remorse in Sessho's eyes." It was then that he asked, "Why do you ask?"
She only gave a mysterious smile, "When I first met you I thought you were an ass, Inu-yasha. I didn't know you and I judged you. I'm no better than—" she took a breath to collect her bearings then quickly shifted. "I'm just glad you're not who I thought you were. Thanks."
Inu-yasha wanted to ask what she was talking about but decided to just let it go. He just got complimented about his behavior in a positive light and he wasn't just about to ruin that. He smiled with that and stood, dusting his pants off of imaginary dust out of sheer habit. "Yeah, well don't get used to it. Ja ne." with that he left a smiling Haruko feeling much better and less alone. Thanks to Inu-yasha.
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karen12: oh, sorry if I confused you. Sango was referring to what happened in chapter 11: brewing. And the characters involved so far are: Sesshoumaru, Kagome, Haruko, Shippou, Sango, Miroku, Inu-yasha, Shinta (the eldest son), Mila (the second son), Kayo(the youngest of the three), Chief, Arisa (the ne that had a crush on Shinta) ad the village women. I think that's about all of them for now. Thanks for waiting so long!