This chapter is dedicated to LowellBates! Thank you for all of your reviews–I had so much fun reading them!
Chapter 22
There is a certain phenomenon that occurs whenever two people exchange a glance after all their secrets have finally passed between the two of them. It is a look that conveys each person's vulnerability, and subsequently, their heightened awareness of it. They cannot take back all that was shared. Neither can. It is impossible to forget; impossible to overlook; impossible to make light of.
There is not yet a word for this occurrence, but if there was, it would have perfectly described the look that passed between Megumi Madarame and Katsumi Kuramiya.
And for a moment, they stood motionless. Even Rin found herself frozen, transfixed to the ground on which she stood as she watched the elder women. And truly; what were they supposed to say? Decades' worth of memories were in their hands once more. To process all that had been restored to their minds was not something that could be done in mere minutes.
Katsumi's eyebrows twitched as they bent forward in a nasty glare. "So it was your fault, then. You're the reason my revenge was stolen from me."
Or, perhaps not.
Megumi's mouth dropped open. Her mind was still reeling from all that she had seen. How had Katsumi already fixated on a singular memory? Especially after all of the curveballs the complete picture had thrown her way?
Katsumi's lips pressed against her skin . . .
. . . Spider . . .
Toga's soul . . . cursed twice . . .
. . . I loved you.
There was far too much for Megumi to wrap her head around. Perhaps almost selfishly, she was relieved that she hadn't been the only one to alter Toga's fate. At least now, she knew she wasn't alone. It was a huge weight off of her shoulders to be able to remember the exact motives that had fueled her actions. Her choices didn't feel as malicious as they did before: she was making the best out of a bad situation. Part of her grew especially hopeful because if she knew the truth and felt better, then perhaps . . .
. . . just perhaps . . .
Sesshomaru might feel better too.
Of course, explaining all of this to Sesshomaru required getting Rin out of here safe and sound first. And with the way Katsumi was looking at Megumi right now, it looked like she wasn't exactly itching to let Megumi and Rin walk away peacefully.
"Can't we talk and work this out?" Megumi almost winced at the irony of her word choice then. To her, it sounded almost the same as everything she tried saying before. If it hadn't worked then, what proof did Megumi have that it would even work now? For better or worse the Twin Dragons were completely different people now. Each had suffered, triumphed, grieved; and throughout it all, each had changed. If Megumi's pleading words hadn't been able to reach Katsumi only years after her disappearance, then what chance did Megumi's words have now? Time had hardened the woman that used to be her best friend. Megumi wasn't even sure that Temperament's spirit even carried traces of that young girl anymore.
Almost as if Katsumi could see the path down which Megumi's thoughts were determined to wander, her scowl deepened even further. "Megumi, you don't really think you can 'save' me, can you? I have made my choice. I made it long, long ago. I have never once regretted it. Toga deserves to pay for what his carelessness and so-called 'love' did for me. My only regret is that his family's suffering was cut too short for my taste–a regret that was dealt to me by your very hands."
Just like it had been on that fateful day, Megumi once again watched as Temperament's spirit began gathering in Katsumi's fingertips. Except it was so different from the spirit she recalled from centuries ago: this time, Temperament was sharp. Temperament was honed, like a deadly weapon refined over countless hours spent in a forge, lethally prepared and almost itching to spring.
Temperament was perfectly in sync with its host, and Temperament was angry.
"You cannot fault me for my choice," Megumi countered. "I did what was necessary. Toga took us in for years, and that was how you repaid him? You know him. I'm sure that if you had just talked to him, even for a minute, we would have been able to solve things. I'm sure there was a misunderstanding; you were just too stubborn to see it. Just as you are now."
Katsumi snarled, and whip-like tendrils of her power lashed out to strike the stone beneath her feet. Tiny flecks of stone propelled themselves in every direction, accosting the air between the pair. "Don't you dare assume to know me as I am now. Yes, you may have known me once; but that was centuries ago. I have changed. I've had experiences of the likes of which you could never pretend to comprehend."
And here was where Megumi made her first mistake: her eyes softened.
And when they softened, they told Katsumi what Megumi had yet to: that she knew. To what capacity, Katsumi could not tell, but it was undeniable now that Megumi knew, and Megumi understood.
It is a horrible thing, to be seen by someone you'd rather hide from.
Katsumi's fists clenched and unclenched. "Fight me." For a moment, Megumi was too surprised to say anything. Her silence stoked the flames of Katsumi's white-hot rage, and when she spoke next, Megumi found herself taking a small step back from the oncoming swell of power brimming and churning within her rival's vessel. "You were a coward back then. You wouldn't take me seriously. Even at the end, after I did that to Toga, you refused." Katsumi's face twisted with pain even as the hard set of her eyes sliced the air between them.
But still, Megumi said nothing. Conflict was brewing inside of her and it was taking every ounce of her self-control to subdue it. And still, Katsumi pushed.
Why was history so bent on this? Why must she be in this position again?
"Fight me, damn it! You fucking coward!"
Megumi could feel her fingertips start to shake as power started to slip into her hands like rain into the earth. "I refuse."
Katsumi snarled, advanced, and then stopped.
And a wicked grin split open on her face.
"You're pitiful, Timidity. Just as your Draconic title suggests."
"Excuse me?"
When Katsumi started advancing again, her power snaked around her hips leisurely. It was neigh predatorial, but in a way that immediately had warning bells ringing off in Megumi's ears. Still, Megumi did not fight, nor did she back down as Katsumi finished her advancement and stopped just by her side. Megumi imagined that she could see the corner of Katsumi's dark red lips parting and curling upwards. Megumi imagined that she could see Katsumi's cherry-blossom pink tongue slip past her teeth to scrape the jagged edge of her canine like the fleshy muscle was already searching for the taste of her prey.
"You are not the only one who saw . . . Meg."
Oh.
Why hadn't she considered that before? Why hadn't she realized, that if she was taking her mind to a neutral location, that it would be just as unguarded as the rest of the consciousnesses there? But before she could properly panic about what Katsumi could have possibly seen, it finally hit her: Meg. Katsumi had called her Meg.
And she had said it like it was the most repulsive word in the world.
All the pain and frustration, anxiety and panic finally snapped and pointed towards a single direction: anger. Megumi bristled–
And Megumi struck.
Katsumi was prepared, though. The younger woman followed Megumi's motions with her own body, narrowly avoiding the icy blast of power Megumi had lashed out with. Katsumi flowed like lava: patient and lethal, it was as if Katsumi was an unstoppable force that needed but to bide time before all forces opposing her crumbled. Katsumi's counterattack was swift, precise, and would have been a threat on her life if Megumi hadn't deflected it away enough to turn it into a minor laceration across her forearm.
As emotional as Megumi felt, her goal remained clear in her mind: save Rin. If she could only get Rin out of here, then she could leave. Then she wouldn't have to face this anymore. She was always better at running, at giving in, wasn't she? All those centuries of training were trivial compared to the years she'd spent captive.
The years that Katsumi had seen her suffer through.
Humiliation pushed another strong wave of Timidity's spirit through Megumi, and the lethal thrust of Megumi's wrist towards Katsumi's heart was enough to finally put her opponent on the defensive. Katsumi grinned malevolently as she leaped, and Megumi didn't understand why, until Katsumi didn't touch down again.
A great crimson dragon plagued the air currents circulating above them, twisting and spiraling upwards. Megumi had but a second to launch herself into the air after Temperament before Katsumi recognized the obvious advantage of fighting a humanoid opponent whilst in draconic form. A streak of pearlescent white splashed into the sky a moment later, colliding with the deep red snaking about the clouds, and the force of their impact sent the two bodies crashing into the mountainside above the shiro.
And far below them, as the rocks set loose by their impact hailed down upon the roofs of the shiro, a girl screamed.
Even in her beastly form, Megumi could identify Rin as the source of that cry of distress. The dragon whose talon was firmly embedded in Megumi's gut understood this as well; a greedy glint fogged over her eyes as she attempted to worm free of Megumi. Her talon was still stuck in Megumi's abdomen, and as Megumi writhed and wriggled in a desperate attempt to break away and get to Rin, Megumi's own claws scraped bloody tracks into the tender underbelly of Katsumi's scaly hide. Each dragon roared with pain when finally the talon slipped free, unplugging the wound like a spile pulled from a maple tree. Katsumi began her descent first, free-falling as she turned her snakelike body about in an attempt to right herself before falling upon her prey. Though Megumi lacked the head start, she had the fortune of pushing against the mountain and pouncing into the air right side up, allowing for her to enter a straight and speedy fall that had her caught up to Katsumi within a millisecond.
Megumi was so focused on reaching Rin before Katsumi, that she hadn't even considered that Katsumi's end goal might be her.
And that mistake cost her dearly.
The instant that Megumi had surpassed Katsumi fully, Temperament struck. Megumi's senses were all honed in on the tiny human watching the approaching dragons with wide, wide eyes; and so she was completely thrown by the sharp explosion of raw pain on her back. Teeth and claws sank deep into her flesh as Katsumi's jaws and front paws latched onto Megumi from behind. Rin's scream was quickly drowned out by Megumi's great roar. Timidity had enough sense to alter her course by just enough to narrowly avoid colliding with the very ground Rin was now cowering on. Pain practically numbed her thoughts as she fought to come up with a new plan of action before losing herself completely. Megumi had learned the hard way before that once she took too much damage in this form, her rational thought would be overridden by the near animalistic thought of the beast that lay dormant within her. That beast would fight, careless of who it harmed until she was victorious. And as Katsumi's forked tongue probed into one of the puncture wounds left by her teeth, Megumi understood what must be done: to save Rin, she would have to leave her. It wouldn't be safe for the great dragons to continue their battle here, in such a precarious location.
Megumi twisted around a column and wormed her way over a wall upside down, forcing Katsumi to dislodge herself fully to avoid crashing against the unforgiving foundation of her home. Katsumi was quick to recover from Megumi's ploy, though, and by the time Megumi had soared clear beyond the shiro's grounds Katsumi was once again biting the air between them. In order to lure Katsumi far, far away, Megumi leaned into the defensive; ducking into whichever clouds blotted the mountainsides and pushing herself to always be just a tail's length ahead of the other.
Katsumi's roar of frustration vibrated the thin air they rode, but still, Megumi pushed on. Her destination mattered not so long as their battle would ensue far from any inhabited land.
Megumi could not see the pearlescent sheen of her scales slowly painting itself over in a crimson akin to the pelt of the dragon behind her.
As Sesshomaru approached the gates, he wondered what exactly he would do should he find what he was looking for. He didn't understand what was running through Megumi's head. He was angry, though, to learn that she had been keeping so much from him. How long, he wondered? Just how long had she known what–who–the root of Rin's sickness was?
Unbidden, Sesshomaru's mind thrust him all the way back to the night those usagi demons had attacked. What was it that the last attacker had said? Something about the person that had sent him, right?
"We were supposed to see if the seal worked," he had said.
Megumi had seemed to know exactly who had sent those attackers then. Sesshomaru chided himself for never getting her to confess to that secret. And the more he thought, the more he realized there was much they ought to have discussed before . . . their fight. Shouldn't he have asked her what she saw in Rin's head? Would it have matched up with what Rin herself claimed to have undergone? Would that information have been enough to prevent her disappearance?
But still, Sesshomaru reeled in his thoughts. It was not fair to fault himself for the lack of questioning. Both of those events occurred just before she was to learn that his father was no longer of this world.
More or less. He was on the way to where his body rested, after all.
Sesshomaru wondered how long it would take Megumi to find whatever it was she was looking for. With the seal removed, he had no idea how long it would take her powers to restore themselves or what exactly she would be capable of now. It had been nearly a week since she left Inuyasha's village according to the hanyou–would that be enough time for her? Sesshomaru found that he severely disliked the number of questions he posed that remained unanswered. If only he could pry into Megumi's head and drink his fill of all that she kept hidden in there.
Before he knew it, Sesshomaru found himself standing before the great gates that guarded the only entryway to the place where Toga's body lay. Just as before, he was permitted entry, and just as before, he passed through alone.
As he made his way to the valley he couldn't shake the curious feeling settling over him. No sign of Megumi yet . . . was she still dealing with the source of Rin's curse? Sesshomaru couldn't pretend to know where she was going, or what awaited her upon her arrival there. It was possible that wherever Megumi was, Rin was there now too. So maybe she had been held up due to something with Rin?
"She said that after she dealt with Rin's shit, she was going to stand before Toga again."
Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed, and he pushed forward with greater urgency.
"She knows the old man's dead . . . right? What the fuck did she mean by that?"
It was just a hunch. Just a hunch, but maybe, when Megumi had said that, maybe she was referring to Toga's grave.
It wasn't like Sesshomaru had any other leads, at least. The direction that Inuyasha had pointed him in had led him absolutely nowhere. Her scent was already days old to begin with, and when the trail ran cold in a clearing, that was it. Sesshomaru truly had nowhere else he could try to look other than here. Sesshomaru stopped in his tracks.
Just how long had it been since he'd been here, anyway?
The birds above his head seemed restless. The sky was blotted by a gentle spread of stratus clouds, spread thin by the wind that had descended into the valley these last few minutes. Sesshomaru couldn't explain it, but something about this place was starting to unnerve him. It was different, yet he couldn't place why. Everything looked the same as it always did, but it didn't feel the same. All that was living in this land was putting him on edge, and he was certain that should he stay here further, it wouldn't be long until even the rocks and clouds began to perturb him.
Sesshomaru was uncertain of how long he spent there, observing the land before him and debating how long it'd be before he started to feel truly wary of it. Perhaps he hadn't been there long at all. But he knew, searching the ground laid out before him, that he was the only one to come this way in quite some time.
Perhaps she was planning to come through a different way? Over the years, there had been an influx of alternative routes to take in order to arrive in this place.
Sesshomaru's spine stiffened. Or perhaps . . .
"Unless she intends to join him."
Those had been his exact words. Sesshomaru hadn't truly given weight to what he had told Inuyasha, but what if there was truth to it? He couldn't be certain that Megumi wasn't thinking of it. And truly, Sesshomaru did not fully understand what Megumi had volunteered to put herself up against. Was it a suicide mission for her to have gone on her own? Did she know that, yet push forward anyway?
The inu daiyoukai very nearly grit his teeth out of frustration.
And that was when they came crashing through the gates.
A twin pair of streaks darting through the sky, hissing and growling in both pain and anger. Sesshomaru's sharp ears could pick up the sounds of fangs and talons ripping into flesh and clacking against each other as the blobs of color wormed their way in his direction. Sesshomaru was alert instantly, all senses honed for battle, and yet it appeared like his presence was neither needed nor noticed. The Western Lord's hand wavered above the hilt of Bakusaiga once he realized that the annoying beasts above him, one a great flash of red and the other of white, seemed perfectly oblivious to their surroundings. He wondered if they even knew where they were. Either way, they were obnoxious. Their fight drowned out his thoughts.
Mind made up once more, Sesshomaru reached for Bakusaiga to quickly end the unfamiliar creature's squabble. Distantly he was curious as to how such large youkai had gone unnoticed for so long, but he figured if they had merit enough to survive his great blade's bite then he could examine them further later. As he moved to slip his hand around the hilt, his wrist brushed gently with Tenseiga. When it did, Tenseiga pulsed with an urgency that Sesshomaru had seldom sensed from his father's fang.
Strike them down, it seemed to command.
Suspicion blossomed up within the Cardinal Lord as he watched the tangled mess in the sky above him narrowly miss the face of a mountain. He squinted, looked closer, and his heart froze–they looked like dragons.
And as the dragons soared ever closer, finally reaching the air above him, Sesshomaru's deft arm moved and sent Tenseiga in a graceful arc intersecting their path. The minute Sesshomaru's swing struck the air about his person, a great BOOM! Flooded the valley. The dragons cried out and slipped out of the sky, falling steeply before landing like great meteors at the foot of the Inu no Taisho's sacred bones. They squirmed in pain–then disappeared.
Sesshomaru tucked his blade back into its place at his sight and set towards advancing on the spot where he saw the demons last.
It was time to join them, he decided.
Katsumi groaned. Megumi had definitely done a number on her, that's for damn sure. She was in so much pain she wondered if she could even stand up. Her right side felt all limp and tingly against her, and though she hadn't even opened her eyes yet, there were enough white spots dancing in front of her field of vision to make her wonder if she wasn't just staring directly at the sun. She was sure of at least one thing, though: if she was able to think this clearly after all that fighting, then she probably wasn't in her draconic form anymore. Part of her was thrilled with the notion that there was still someone who could give her chase enough to make the simple thought of fighting her only conscious focus, and part of her was annoyed that she would have to do damage control now that she was finally coming to.
Or would she–Katsumi knew she had definitely landed more hits than Megumi; it was likely that her opponent was cold in her grave by now.
Katsumi felt her tired muscles relax fractionally as she entertained the thought of victory. Even for her great strength, Katsumi knew that the gravity of her injuries alone would keep her rooted to wherever she'd landed for several days. It would take weeks to restore the sheer quantity of power that she'd lost from this fight, especially considering that she would be recovering it at a much slower rate in order to heal her body as quickly as possible. Katsumi hadn't had a chance to properly examine her faculties, but she knew that she'd lost a lot of blood already.
And from the audible discomfort in the moan that resounded from her side, her opponent definitely had too. So she was alive, then. Good for her. It would have been disappointing if Katsumi's rival had passed on so easily. Katsumi cracked an eye open, wide enough to let the smallest amount of light that she could stomach filter in through the defensive wall set up by her lashes. It was bright as fuck outside. Why couldn't they have landed in a nice, shady spot?
Before she realized it Katsumi's hand had left her side to shield her eyes from the harsh light. The movement surprised her–she thought for sure that she wouldn't have been able to move her body for some time if they'd spent enough power to collapse and transform back. But if she was able to move still, and Megumi wasn't dead, then what had stopped their fight? Temperament's eyes narrowed and her body tensed up.
Something must have interfered. Something strong enough to cross their path without dying, at least. Katsumi didn't like that in the slightest. If there was something strong enough for that sort of interruption, then it was unlikely that Katsumi or even Megumi would be able to fend such a thing off now that they'd transformed back. To turn dragon once more when her levels were already so low was to willingly throw herself at death's door; surely Megumi knew the same.
After all, it had been Megumi herself that told Katsumi that they could not live without the spirits within them. To drain them completely was to die.
Katsumi let her hand drop as her head fell to the side. And how was Megumi, anyways? Katsumi forced her eyes open enough to try and see where the other woman was.
The moment she laid eyes on her, Katsumi fought the urge to wince. Megumi laid on her stomach, limbs cast about carelessly. It was likely that she hadn't shifted at all since the impact that brought them to the ground and turned them into their human forms again. Megumi's clothes weren't all cut up and shredded since she'd only sustained minor damage as a human, but all the wounds of a flesh that'd carried through post-transformation were working overtime to soil the expensive fabric by soaking it a deep red. Katsumi could only wonder how many wounds she'd inflicted, but with the amount of red littering the robes and the ground surrounding Megumi, she was definitely worse off than herself. Katsumi was right. Had they been able to continue their fight sans interruption, she wondered if she would have been able to properly finish Megumi off and emerge victorious.
Never mind all the hidden wounds, though: Katsumi could see as clear as day where her claws and talons had gouged into and shredded Megumi's back. Poor thing. She was likely to bleed out at the rate her blood seemed determined to flow from that wound. It wasn't Katsumi's concern though. All Katsumi wanted to know was where they had fallen.
As she struggled to sit upright, Katsumi's eyes adjusted to the light enough for her to get a decent picture of the land surrounding her. Frustration burned within her when she couldn't immediately locate any identifying landmarks in her surroundings that could have offered her a clue as to where she currently was. She did, however, notice the fast-approaching figure. As soon as Katsumi could make out the long silver strands of hair and the cruel, hard look in the stranger's yellow eyes, all of her senses leaped back to attention.
Sesshomaru.
What the hell was he doing here?
Katsumi risked a quick glance over to Megumi, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. Had she known? Had she planned this all along? It wouldn't matter if she had bested Megumi in a fair fight; if she had brought reinforcements in the form of the Western Lord, Katsumi was officially fucked.
Sesshomaru's cold eyes observed her without any change; Katsumi betted on the fact that Megumi hadn't described her appearance to the inu. If so, it was unlikely that he wouldn't connect her face to Rin's disappearance given that he had yet to see her. When Sesshomaru's calculating stare fixated on the woman still flirting between consciousness and unconsciousness, his eyes changed completely. Katsumi wondered if he was even aware of the way his shoulders went rigid before his feet shifted incrementally to point towards Megumi's body. His nose twitched; undoubtedly, his sensitive dog nose was overwhelmed with the sharp tang of copper emanating from their direction. With how much of it there was, even her own blood was starting to irritate her nose: it was likely a thousand times worse for Sesshomaru. What intrigued Katsumi though was the way that despite seeing Megumi on the ground, bleeding from an assuredly fatal wound, the Cardinal Lord made no moves to approach her.
Katsumi's head whipped to the side to take a closer look at Megumi. Was she already dead? And when the Twin Dragon of Temperament's head swiveled all the way to the side to get a better look at Megumi, she saw what had prevented the daiyoukai from advancing any further.
Bones.
Very, very big bones.
Moving very very quickly.
A tornado had started to brew just behind the three of them, uprooting the bones that looked like they'd been there for ages. Heavy, rusting armor crumbled to meet the earth as the bones that once held it aloft soared into the sky and disappeared into the swirling mass of air. Shrubs and vines that had grown along the ivory walls and bore straight into the very marrow were hauled into the sky as well, spewing chunks of dirt and clumps of leaves as they were uprooted. Birds jarred awake from the sudden upheaval of their homes squealed angrily in protest before fleeing the scene.
And just as suddenly as it started, the twisting column of air, bones, and earth vanished completely.
And in its place stood a man. He was tall, with a proud set to his shoulders and jagged blue streaks adorned his cheeks. He wore the traditional robes representative of a man of his stature; so close in likeness to the ones worn by the man he stood across from. And so similar too was their hair–silver like moonlight, shiny and flowing like fine streams of spring water. His eyes were close, but not exactly like those of Lord Sesshomaru's; his were more like molten gold and the stranger's was closer to a deep yellow.
Katsumi almost snorted at the thought; this was no stranger.
This was the man that died more than a century ago; the man that destroyed her life; the man that she had sworn revenge against.
This was Toga, former Lord of the Western Lands.
And he looked very much alive.
Author's Note:
SURPRISE!
That's all I have to say.
SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE!
Are you sufficiently hooked yet?
