All at once, Mizoshi's eyelids snapped open. Immediately, she was on edge. On alert. Her pulse rate beat rapidly in her ears. Her chest was taut from anxiety.
It was just a nightmare. Just a nightmare. I am…safe.
She could not recollect any monstrous details, but the dream itself must've been truly terrifying. Wetting her lips, she allowed full conscious awareness rush over her while her chest rose and fell without complaint. She quickly noted that the ache had left her lungs.
It's morning.
Somehow, she just knew. She always arose before the sun.
Which means I slept the entire night through. No tossing and turning. How long has it been since I have had a genuine rest?
Mizoshi flipped aside the white silken sheets and tentatively placed a hand on her forehead.
My fever has disappeared as well. The entirety of my sickness appears to have fled.
And she did feel better. Completely so. The strain had left her muscles, and she now moved them freely across the mattress. She was hungry, true enough, but that was all.
I have recovered. Physically anyway. Perhaps it is my demonic blood.
Still a bit shaky, Mizoshi clambered to her feet for the first time in nearly two days. However, as soon as she put weight on her sprained ankle, she involuntarily winced.
My illness may be gone, but my injury hasn't.
Yet, as she cautiously applied one foot in front of the other, even the cramp in her affected ankle eased. Soon, she ended up in front in the large wardrobe.
I must dress.
Looking down upon herself, Mizoshi saw she had been clothed in a plain pink yukata. She had no memory of wrapping the garment around her body.
Naraku must've…
A faint blush creeping along her cheeks, she flung the intricately carved wooden doors open.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. He has already bathed me. Twice if I remember correctly.
Naraku! That's right. I must find him.
Glancing through the kimonos, Mizoshi chose a pale green with deep purple floral designs. She obscurely identified them as irises. The fabric was sinfully smooth. Nothing like the other kimonos she had passed many uneventful days in.
I won't think of them. No matter what. My excursion in that place is finished.
Taking the initiative, she left the lonely chamber and walked out into the familiar, shadowy corridors once more. Even though her body was set on breakfast and was moving rapidly towards the kitchen; Mizoshi's mind was on Naraku and wherever he was passing his morning. Finally, against her better judgment, Mizoshi switched paths in the hollow halls and instead decided to visit the lord of the castle. In his own apartments.
If he does not wish to be disturbed, I shall leave. I simply can't wait anymore.
She hadn't seen or heard from the dark hanyou since he initially saved her in ice-encrusted forest. It was as if the spider were remaining cozily hidden in a far reach of his web; teasing those from his selected perch where none could find him.
I am the prey again.
Or, am I really?
In any case, it was better than being game for a certain ferocious dog to gobble and swallow.
Entering the fateful room, Mizoshi found her voice. "Naraku? Are you here?"
No reply.
"Naraku?" She wandered into the chamber itself. "Naraku?"
Silence was the only recipient of the conversation.
He is not here.
If not here, then where?
"Searching already, Mizoshi?" an acid tone leered.
Shocked, she spun around to face the form of the noblewoman-disguised demoness. She instantly composed herself.
"Kagura. Where's Naraku?"
The wind sorceress smiled. Elegantly, she tapped the end of her lethal fan against her delicate, powdered chin. "Naraku, you ask?"
She's toying with me. Either she knows exactly where she is or providing fleeting false hope.
At last, she lowered the cleverly concealed weapon, presumably have completed her fake musings. "I don't know, and I don't really care. I have no real concern for his whereabouts."
Mizoshi was unsure of how to respond. Kagura was in fact his servant.
How would I feel in her position?
"Anyway, I'd be relieved if I were you that Naraku is not here. You have, after all, intruded upon his sanctity. Or, was it the jewel you came for?"
This remark was more tangible than the force of a slap. "Certainly not! I have not even considered searching for it."
The wind witch merely raised her sculpted, raven eyebrows.
Mizoshi did not care for Kagura's smug, challenging stare. "You are the one who told me about the Shikon jewel in the first place!" she cried.
It was only after she spoke did Mizoshi realize what she had unwittingly alluded to. Immediately, she made the feeble attempt at an apology.
"Kagura, I--"
"Very clever, half-breed," she pronounced coolly. "You're learning quickly in the house, I see." The rage in the incarnation's scarlet eyes rivaled even that of her maker's.
Without realizing it, Mizoshi knew she had made Kagura worse of a bitter enemy.
"I won't tell him," she said quietly. "Besides, why would you get into trouble because of your telling? Is the Shikon jewel supposed to remain a secret?"
"Figure it out for yourself. But, remember, I too can let words slip to gain favor with the master."
After several agonizing seconds, the demoness glided away, frankly bored with her conversation of this half-hanyou girl and her lovesick desire to see her creator and tormentor. Reddening in embarrassment and fear, Mizoshi hastily left the vast chamber. Naraku was not here. There was no real point staying and attracting more attention.
Without much thought, she marched through the winding halls and crossed the threshold into the narrow interior of the food preparing area. Mindlessly, she lit the stove and rummaged for the rice bag.
How well I still know the routine here. I should be content. But, why does that make me depressed?
After breakfast had been cooked, Mizoshi decided to eat out on the porch, heedless of the heavy autumn chill. Winter was mere weeks away, and here is where she would most likely remain.
Here. Always here or always in a village. Never fully accepted.
A little moodily, she raised clumps of the rice grains to her lips and ate until there were merely a scattering of grains at the bottom of the bowl. Thankfully beyond her range of hearing, the demons that guarded this miasma-infused barrier had taken their "games" to the outer fringes. She was sure their shrieks could be heard for miles around.
Am I…like them? I'm waiting for the dark hanyou as well. Is it my utter, unquestioning obedience that allows me to live? Does he still lust after my buried fire power? Or does he actually care…
Picking up her now empty bowl, Mizoshi permitted the cold gusts of wind to toss her ebony mane about. The locks of hair were unrestrained and free, no longer bound and covered as it had been in the village.
After carefully washing the porcelain bowl in the convenient washbasin, Mizoshi now sought to explore the castle grounds. Perhaps she would even meet Naraku in some distant passageway. It was a slim hope, but a hope nonetheless. Idly, her feet trod every surface she could explore. Her left foot and right foot padded across both the wooden floors indoors that constructed the many corridors and empty, musty rooms and the stony paths that wound around shriveled, dead vegetation. It was here Mizoshi ceased her meandering. Privately, she was looking for someone—anyone—to speak to. The incarnations excluded, of course.
Kohaku. Where is he? Does he not visit this garden as he used to?
The demon slayer boy was akin to a phantom, haunting different parts of an already ghostly castle.
No one is here. Kagura, thank the gods, is attending her duties. Kanna is preoccupied. As for the master…
Quietly serene on the wooden bench that was situated under the lone dogwood tree, Mizoshi craned her neck up to witness more blood red leaves falling about her. Patches of bare branches were showing. In less than week, nothing would remain save for the skeleton of a once vibrant living thing.
Rising from the damp bench itself, Mizoshi marched over to where the sapphire snapdragons and silky peonies had grown. Now, only stalks of rot stood where the sweet-scented blossoms had been.
It's no longer a garden. It's a graveyard. Everywhere around me is death.
A horrible suspicion forming in her mind, she sidled over to the great tiled fishpond. Without interference, her cursed eyes widened in astonishment, for the koi fish were gone.
Where could they have disappeared to? Fish can't jump out of their watery prisons.
A strange taste slid across the back of her throat as she remembered the rather large quantity of fish she had been served yesterday.
I think want to return to my own apartment.
Knowing full well the filet of steamed fish she had eaten couldn't possibly be from the meat of small, silvery-orange koi, in her irritable state, she cared not.
I just want to stay in my room. If Naraku doesn't wish to see me, he can stay away.
However, as soon as she entered "her" tiny piece of the castle, Mizoshi saw she was not be alone as she had originally desired.
"Kanna?" Mizoshi called out.
The void child's soulless eyes fastened on her. "Naraku-sama instructed me to give you your painting instruments," she whispered, "and I have done so. Use them if that is your will."
Indeed, the paints, paper, ink, and brushes were neatly arranged on her neatly folded bedding.
"Thank you, Kanna." The words came to Mizoshi easily.
The ghostly little girl merely nodded before shuffling her feet once more, presumably to receive more orders from the enigmatic, invisible lord.
She could not stop herself. "Kanna, where is Naraku? Am I to see him?"
The incarnation looked up blankly. "He has not made made any such plans," she replied.
For the second occasion that morning, it was if she had been slapped. Hard. This bruise would form under the skin, and it may never heal.
Has he forgotten about me totally?
Not bothering to watch the white form glide out of the room, Mizoshi immediately inspected her paints. They would have to do.
Now, I can create more pictures if I need them to sell.
Her thoughts grew undeniably more bitter as she set herself to work.
He throws me paints like a ball thrown at a dog. Play with them, but don't bother me
Still, Mizoshi decided to put her creativity to good use. Almost involuntarily, her fingers depicted the item that had been spinning inside her brain ever since it had been mentioned.
The Shikon jewel.
As the minutes flew by, illustrations of many jewels graced the pages; brought out of the treasure chest of her creativity by her dexterous limb. There were rectangular gems, oval gems, and lumpy gems that resembled mere stones of any color she could mix including crimson, violet, azure, and viridian.
No, the jewel wouldn't be green or blue. These colors aren't bold enough for such a bearer.
Red. It must be. A great sparkling red ruby with licks of fire, just like his eyes.
Eventually, Mizoshi's hand grew tired. Stifling a yawn, she let her three papers and all seventeen "Shikon jewel" designs dry. She wanted to hide them as soon as possible under her mattress. No doubt his cunning, analytical mind would piece together what her drawings were attempting to illustrate.
For the rest of the day, Mizoshi recovered from the last lingering remains of her illness. And for the rest of the day, the dark hanyou did not appear.
Resigning herself to this, she slid under the sheets that covered her bedding and promptly plunged into an untroubled sleep. That is, until she was jolted awake by an odd scraping sound. Trying to remain silent, an inky figure had slid aside the rice paper screen and was now rapidly approaching.
Can it be?
Scarcely daring to breathe, Mizoshi went rigid as the figure's weight was serendipitously added to the mattress. A familiar chuckle broached the still air. Arms were threaded around her blanketed body. A face was pressed into her neck. Long, silky tresses tickled the bare, vulnerable flesh there. No longer could she deny her consciousness.
"Naraku?" she gasped.
Again, he chuckled. She could almost hear the characteristic smirk in his tone. "I knew you were not asleep." Her eyes opened completely when his lips pressed against her neck.
What is he scheming?
"You are recovered, I hope," he murmured.
"Yes," Mizoshi replied tensely as she was currently under siege.
This is so soon. Naraku and I were not on the best terms when I was "released," and now, he's in my bed. How should I react?
"Tell me everything, Mizoshi," he whispered.
She was confused. "Everything?"
"Everything what transpired when you left my domain and entered the peasant village life."
Sighing partly from tiredness and subtle reluctance, Mizoshi recounted her tale.
"Your own brother sought to murder you?"
"I know not what his intentions were. He slipped past me and ran into the village itself. I then disguised me in the winter kimono you gave me and slipped away into the forest."
He snorted. "This brother of yours sounds like a fool," he hissed. "Obviously, he does not accept his demonic heritage. I'm surprised he's related to his sister."
Though this was meant as a heavily veiled comment, she couldn't help wondering.
Is that something to be proud of? Ken can hide his deformity and his dormant fire power for the rest of his life. Marry Kita: a good, obedient, friendly girl of fine countenance. Have children. The children would nearly be entirely normal. What of me? Here I am, in a thin yukata, with a red-eyed demon looming over me. There will be no proper marriage for us. As for having children, I quake at the very notion.
But, then again, what man would choose the outspoken, sullied maiden with the cursed golden eyes? No rightly sane, full human man would. Women should be like Kita. Perpetual smiles slashed on their perfect faces with no complexities in their natures. At least Naraku accepts me.
Suddenly, the dark hanyou's hot breath passed into her ear. "I should really pay him a visit."
Pure horror overcame her. "Please Naraku, don't hurt him. He's…"
"As if I would." Haughty derision laced his words. "I have more…interesting matters to attend to."
Ironically, one of those matters happened to be her. Akin to the spider that was inherently in his disposition, Naraku draped himself over her body. The web was now being spun over her cocooned form. The time for talking had apparently passed. Stealthily, in seconds, his fingers crawled beneath the sheets and were upon her shoulders…and drifting lower still. There was no longer any mistaking his intent.
I've just recovered, and already he wants this. I do not want this. At the moment, I do not desire his intimacy. It's too soon.
But, how can I ever hope to reject his advances?
Mizoshi miserably surmised the consequences of pushing him away. There would be hell to pay.
What would it be? Three days in the dungeons? A week? A week and a half? A month?
I have no power to stop him. However, perhaps I can delay him.
"Naraku," she called out his name while his lips ran across her collarbone, "what is the Shikon jewel?"
He stiffened. All motion halted. Warningly, his shoulders tensed under his robes as his arms snaked swiftly around her middle. She gasped at how tightly he was now "embracing" her.
Commandingly, he positioned his burning eyes over her own orbs of yellow and shivered. They were glowing.
He's…mad. Infuriated would be more appropriate.
"Where did you hear that word?" he growled.
Oh, Kami-sama, help me.
Dare I say Kagura's name? Would the wind sorceress turn on me next?
Yet, the answer left her mouth as smoothly as if it had been rehearsed. "I heard of it in the village. What is it, Naraku?"
Her efforts at delaying Naraku had worked too well. How quickly his emotions switched from playful lust to serious rage.
"You wish to know of it, Mizoshi?"
Anxiety pulsing through her veins, she feebly clutched at Naraku. Maybe he would be deterred once he took note of her willing touch.
"You really wish to learn of it, Mizoshi?" he breathed. Those crimson eyes of his sparked in the suffocating darkness.
"Naraku, please," she whimpered.
"Why only hear of it—when you can behold it?" he rasped.
At once, the aching pressure was removed from her chest as Naraku elegantly rose, either to his feet or a sitting position. Terrified, Mizoshi searched in vain for the dark hanyou.
I can't see a blessed thing in this room. If he'd only light a candle…
As it turned out, radiance did grace the pitch-black chamber in the form of an eerie violet light. In its rays, Mizoshi saw the outline of demon lord. Grinning, his flickering eyes wandered to the object he held in hand. Mouth opened in wonder, she stared unblinkingly at what was called the Shikon jewel.
Glowing. So unearthly…
Mizoshi's idea of red ruby was quickly replaced by an oval of purple luster. Still, the jewel itself was irregularly shaped. Ragged edges surrounded the end of it, as if the jewel was left incomplete in its creation.
Almost lovingly, Naraku gazed down at the luminescent jewel.
This is what he prizes most of all. Not even his own incarnations can compete.
Reflexively, Mizoshi had the urge to touch it, but immediately dismissed the idea.
He would slaughter me. His fascination in this object is absolute. Nothing can compare.
Indeed. Never had such a look of total adoration creased the dark hanyou's features. His eyes never left it.
"This is the Shikon jewel. Beautiful, isn't it?" Those wicked eyes of crimson collided with her own.
"Yes…it is. Certainly so."
She could not hide the awe in her tone. This made Naraku's smile wider.
"Now, dear Mizoshi, allow me to tell you the history of the Shikon jewel before someone else corrupts your tender ears with lies…"
Ooh, manipulation time. Yes, there will be more romance. Mizoshi and Naraku will warm up again slowly and Naraku will eventually give into his feelings. (Kind of. He will not lose character though. No one may lose character!) As a preview, there will be new characters included, namely Kouga, Band of Seven members possibly (I'm leaning towards Bankotsu and Jakotsu), and one more OC possibly. (No Inuyasha though. Sorry, but I honestly just can't write him or his gang well.) Also, Kikyou won't be showing up either. (And I can promise that! Not that I hate her, but I just don't think she would fit well with the story.) Recurring appearances will be made by Kagura, Kanna, Kohaku (possibly), and of course, Kuro. :) Everyone likes that spider. :)
Kagamoesiun: Yes, indeed there will be. It wouldn't be a romance without him. ;)
Jeanne: I'm aware of the story in question, and I patched things up with the author. I noticed there were similarities and complained, but they cleaned it up some. I'm not too concerned because the fics aren't the same plot-wise. (There's bound to be some simularites between Naraku/OC fics.) I'd only get upset if they were copying whole scenes or character designs. (Like another phoenix hanyou.)