Miko to Taiyoukai no Monogatari
This chapter is dedicated to Won-Won-Weirdo.
Hana no you ni hakanai no nara (If my life is transient like a flower)
Kimi no moto de sakihokoru deshou (I'll be in full bloom by your side.)
Soshite egao mitodoketa ato (And after watching you smile)
Sotto hitori chitteyuku deshou (I'll fall alone, quietly…)
Tori no you ni habatakeru nara (If I could flutter like a bird)
Kimi no moto e tondeytuku deshou (I would fly to you)
Soshite kizu wo otta sono se ni (And offer you my wing)
Boku no hane wo sashidasu deshou (To your wounded back)
Kaze no you ni nagareru no nara (If I could flow like the wind)
Kimi no soba ni tadoritsuku deshou (I would reach you)
Tsuki no you ni kagayakeru nara (If I could shine like the moon)
Kimi wo terashitsuzukeru deshou (I would keep shining on you.)
-Moments, by Ayumi Hamasaki
Chapter 21: Moments
Jun held her breath, staring at the test tube intently, eyes narrowed into slits.
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Sesshoumaru marked the pqge where he stopped reading with a simple bookmark, before laying the nondescript tome aside. He rubbed at his eyes with a hand, blinking the sleepiness away. That simple action only brought him back to the same train of thought.
Kagome.
How had the miko achieved the feat of bringing back his arm? He had traveled the length and breadth of Japan, searching for a way to retrieve the lost limb, but to no avail. And yet, this dimunitive miko had just stepped in and regrown it, without any fanfare! It was simply amazing, and yet at the same time, frightening. Did she know the limits of her power? Could anyone fathom exactly what she could do and what she couldn't?
Sesshoumaru pressed his fingers to his temples, trying to avoid an oncoming headache. It was foolhardy to allow Kagome to do as she pleased, really – the demon who won her as a mate, if any succeeded at all, was sure to try and usurp his position of Lord sooner or later, and if Kagome backed him, they were sure to win. He should have considered more closely before agreeing – what on earth had possessed him to make that split-second decision?
And even now, his people were being attacked for no reason whatsoever. The scene of the murder had revealed no clues at all, not even a scent to track by, not even a tiny scrap of clothing. It was likely that the murderer would leave the castle if Sesshoumaru and Kagome left. Perhaps it would be better to face Kariyu head-on, rather than hanging around to wait for the mate contest to be concluded. The assassination attempt on Kagome had shocked him greatly.
His mind made up, Sesshoumaru resolved to leave the castle and search for Kariyu once Kagome had recovered from the poison. He could not allow any more innocents to die.
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Jun watched a clear liquid float to the surface before grinning widely.
'Finally…'
She skimmed the poison off carefully before ladling up the mixture in a cup. Kagome's cure was at hand.
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"Here, help Kagome up," Jun directed. Shiruka supported the dimunitive miko as Luria stacked up the pillows to form a backrest. Kagome reached out a hand for the cup.
She made a face as she swallowed the bitter solution, as Luria smiled in anticipation. It had been extremely unfortunate that Kagome had been poisoned immediately after meeting her for the first time.
-----Five Days Later-----
"All right, you have a clean bill of health," Kiria congratulated Kagome, who beamed in delight. "It's great to be okay," she smiled.
She had heard about Kouga's antics from Luria, who had derived a lot of amusement from his reaction when it was reavealed that she had been poisoned. Luria's descriptive powers were strong, and Kagome could just imagine the look on the wolf demon's face. The two had laughed and laughed and laughed, while Shiruka's lips curved up in a small grin. Jun had stared in confusion, as she did not know Kouga.
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"My dear Kagome, is it true that you've cancelled the competition?" a visibly annoyed wolf demon burst through the door without so much as knocking. Kagome turned around, eyebrows rising.
"I did no such thing, Kouga." Kagome answered perplexed. "And also, please knock before you enter next time!" she reprimanded.
"I was the one who cancelled it." A cold voice interrupted from the doorway. Sesshoumaru was poised there, arms folded across his chest.
"We are leaving. Pack your things." He ordered. Kagome stared at him, brows knitting in consternation.
"But…" her protest went unheeded, as Sesshoumaru turned on his heel and strode away without gracing her with a reply.
"My dear Kagome, you'll always be in my heart no matter what," Kouga said gallantly, catching her hands up in his own.
"That's nice. Could you leave now? I'm afraid I'm going to have to pack my stuff…" Kagome said absently. Kouga sighed, shooting her a mournful glance before slipping out the door.
"Shiruka, do you know what's up with Sesshoumaru? Is he PMSing or something?" Kagome asked, lips quirking.
"PMSing?" Shiruka questioned, unfamiliar with the modern term.
"Ah… you know, when girls have 'that time of the month', they tend to be a little snappish? Yeah, people in my time refer to that as PMSing." Kagome clarified, smiling.
"Oh, I see. No, I don't think Sesshoumaru-sama is going through that," Shiruka shook his head. Kagome laughed.
"Anyway, looks like I've got to oblige his Mighty Highness this once…"
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The next morning found a grumpy Kagome, an implacable Sesshoumaru, an overly cheerful Rin and a few other people in the courtyard. Rin was not allowed to come with them. Instead, Sesshoumaru had decided to send her to his private house, accompanied by his most trusted guards and soldiers.
"Goodbye, Sesshoumaru-sama! Come back for me soon!" Rin wrapped her arms around his leg, still too short to reach his waist. Sesshoumaru only rested one clawed hand on her head before withdrawing stiffly.
Kagome knelt down to embrace the sunny little girl. "See you, Rin-chan. Behave, okay?" Kagome advised, tapping her on the nose playfully. Rin laughed before backing off.
"Bye, Luria. Thanks for all the help. You too, Jun. I could never have recovered without the two of you," The three women engaged in a three-way hug, as a smile creased Luria's face.
"You're welcome. You've changed us, Kagome… your influence does more than you can possibly imagine," Jun spoke up quietly.
"Shiruka… thank you for guarding me so faithfully," Kagome grinned up at the demon who was so much taller than her.
"You're welcome." Shiruka inclined his head.
"If you're done with your womanish goodbyes, we can leave now." Sesshoumaru interrupted coldly.
"Fine, Ice Man… let's go."
Sesshoumaru turned, ready to jump over the wall and be gone.
"Please wait, Sesshoumaru-sama!" a feminine voice called. A slender lynx demon came stumbling towards him, one hand holding up her skirts awkwardly. She held an intricately carved box in the other.
"Sesshoumaru-sama, my family and I would like to present you this gift in hopes that it will assist you on your journey," she gasped out, blushing a little at his proximity.
"Thank you." He replied emotionlessly, taking the box from her.
"Who's that?" Kagome murmured to Luria, whose eyebrows had risen into her hairline.
"It's Inoue. Her family is a very prominent one, and they want to mate her with Sesshoumaru-sama," Luria whispered back. "Aren't they being a tad forward, offering a gift like that?"
"Yeah, it's kind of weird…"
"Let's go." Sesshoumaru once again interrupted their soft chatter rudely. Kagome shot him a glare.
Kirara transformed in a burst of flames, causing Inoue to step back in surprise. Kagome sent her a wolfish grin, then vaulted onto Kirara's back easily. Fire gathered around her paws, and she easily ascended into the sky with great bounds and leaps. Sesshoumaru's sparkling cloud of youki gathered beneath his feet, and then he, too, rose out of sight.
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"Hey. Care to explain why you decided we had to leave without discussing it with me first?" Kagome prodded the chilly demon lord impatiently. She had wanted to spend more time with Luria and Jun, getting to know them better. They seemed to be rather nice people…
"This Sesshoumaru does not have to answer to the likes of you." He replied bluntly. Kagome frowned.
"You haven't spoken to me like that for a long time. What's with the 'this Sesshoumaru' stuff? Get off your high horse." She complained.
"This Sesshoumaru feels that being in the castle is too dangerous for the inhabitants," he allowed after a short lull in the conversation between them.
"Didn't know you were so kind, Sesshoumaru," Kagome tangled the fingers of one hand in Kirara's ruff, and tickled the fire cat's ears with the other, laughing when Kirara twitched it warningly.
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Sesshoumaru guided their journey. They had no idea where Kariyu's den was, and so they had to search area by area painstakingly. So far, they had seen no trace of a castle other than the ones which Sesshoumaru already knew of.
They had searched the whole morning already, and Kagome was starting to feel hungry.
As she opened her mouth to tell Sesshoumaru that she wanted lunch, she caught a flash of red and silver in the corner of her eye.
"Did you see that? I could've sworn I saw…"
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A/N: I apologize for the shortness of this chapter, I know it's about seventy words shorter than my minimum, but please try to understand.
Although it is holiday time for me now, my father has been warded in hospital due to heart problems. He has four blocked arteries, and he needs to go for a bypass operation. Originally, we had thought that his condition was not serious, and that he only required a stent to keep the artery open. However, it seems that one of the blocked areas is at a T-junction, and so a stent cannot be placed there, as that junction supplies blood to two main arteries. If the stent was placed there and it collapsed, that would be fatal. So, my father will be going for his operation on Thursday morning. Please pray for him. I have been using the time I would usually use to write to accompany him, because he is feeling extremely bored in hospital. He is the active sort, and he doesn't like being cooped up. So please, bear with me.
The next update will probably be late. After the operation, we'll have to make sure someone is with him at all times for at least another week. We're all going to take turns to do that, so… I will be very, very busy.
Well…okay, the reviewer I have picked this time… is…. Uh… let's see… Won-Won-Weirdo! Why? No reason in particular… I just remembered her username all of a sudden.
Please continue to support me, everyone. Is it just me, or is my review count dropping/hint hint/
Yeah… see you. I have to go for a Literature lecture in school soon…. :( I'm very sad. And then I'm going to see my primary school friend whom I haven't seen for more than a year… and then I'll probably go to the hospital to visit my father. What a busy day….
This chapter is un betaread because I wanted to rush this out.
Windborne signing off.