II
Ad Lucem
That light, the spiraling consequence of energy that is the last thing Kagome sees, is the first thing in months to attract Kouga's attention, to interest him. He is Ookami, youkai, powerful, the Alpha of the packs of wolves that roam the forests and lands of the East that surround Edo – Edo, which will one day become Kagome's Tokyo.
It is Sengoku Jidai, the feudal era of warring states, and youkai, too, seek power and dominance just as men do.
The glare catches his attention because it is distant, but powerful – it is pink and enormous, a shining energy that pulses low on the horizon and then explodes outward. It washes over him, a tingling purity that isn't strong enough to burn, but certainly is warning. Its scent lingers; fruit, flowers, incense, wood-smoke. Kouga contemplates for only a moment, and then turns and runs for the center of the explosion; behind him, the pack runs in a yelping file, spread out through the trees and howling just for the glory of it, howling to frighten flocks of fleeing birds from the ancient trees.
"Kouga-sama – Kouga-sama! Where are we going -"
"Kouga-sama, the cubs can't keep up -"
"You two come with me then, and tell the rest to wait. I'm going to see – what's going on in the south. That light - I want to know what it is, that light!"
There is still a glow, though it is fading; Ginta and Hakkaku turn their eyes to it, not nearly as curious as their Alpha but resigned to their duty, the responsibility of beta that they share.
They pass the message back quickly to grateful Wolves, and then turn and follow Kouga into the trees, following not the light, which is gone now, but the presence that erupted with it. They are both young, barely past their first century, but Kouga is older and he knows this feeling, has felt it before but was not strong enough then to challenge for possession of what he knew he was sensing.
Shikon no tama. A jewel of power – the jewel of power.
While he runs he contemplates how glorious it will be to have a wish of unlimited power, and yet as much as he tries he can't think of what that wish would be. The only thing he wants, as he has always wanted it, is to rule and grow, to protect his pack and expand their territory, to become stronger, better, the master of more lands, the alpha of all wolves, alpha of alphas...
But not because of a monkey's paw; not because of an effortless wish.
He wants to win the world, not be given it; he wants to know that everything he possesses is something he has earned.
It is with these thoughts on his mind that he finds himself suddenly in the midst of a clearing that has become splintered carnage.
The presence of power is strong here, stronger than he had expected, but strangely distributed – there is a woman on the ground, a human – there is a dry well, its sill cracked and broken as if something had exploded within it – there is a hanyou, deeply enchanted, slumbering beneath a twisted web of vines, bound by an arrow that carries the breath of a miko's power.
He notices two things that matter in that first moment. The girl on the ground is bleeding, and she is the source of the scent that he knows is the scent of power; a shard of pink flicker is buried in the ground an inch from his foot.
He bends and plucks it from the dirt, feels it pulse in his fingers, calling to him, tempting him; he knows what it is and grins.
"Ginta, Hakkaku, search this clearing. Find every single grain of this that you can – look."
He holds out the shard between his fingers, lets the light glitter over the surface.
"It's a piece of the shikon no tama. It's been broken; that was the light, the explosion of power when it shattered. I wonder...how it happened?"
There is noise as Ginta and Hakkaku obey his order and begin to search the clearing for shards; there are many, driven deep into the trees and the ground and Kouga sees more, pink blazons driven into the flesh of the girl. He crouches over her, reaches out and turns her, and she moans faintly, gives away her breath to the air. He sees the wound on her side, bleeding still and freshening its flow as he moves her; he shakes her shoulder and calls to her.
"Woman – woman!"
She does not move, does not answer, does not wake up.
And she is the only witness; only she knows what happened here. And her scent – her scent and the scent of her blood is the same as the shikon no tama– why would that be?
"Who are you, girl? Who are you, and what is your power?"
A/N: Chapter two for your reading pleasure. The title of this chapter, "Ad Lucem", means "To Light" - to as in move toward. More tomorrow, my dears!
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