Author's Note: Kind of a longer chapter than the others, but I couldn't find a good place to tie it off earlier. Enjoy!
Author's Note v.2.0: This chapter was edited and uploaded on 11/12/17. Please bear with me as I slowly update each chapter. My goal is to have a final edit by the time the final chapter is posted.
Awesome Betas: Penthesileia, Not_Towa_Wakasa, Jennie Johnson
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Chapter 3: Youkai in the Mirror
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Inuyasha
Inuyasha growled deep in his throat. Every day. Every fuckin' day it was the same damn thing. People came and they stared up into his mirror, sometimes with boredom, sometimes with extreme interest. Their stupid, human faces making their stupid, insignificant human expressions. Then they moved on and others stepped up to take their place.
They made him sick.
Just this afternoon another big group of older teens had come stomping through. He imagined what they'd do if he showed himself. He glared out at them from inside his own, personal prison, watching each and every one walk past. He burned their image into his brain.
Sometimes he imagined what it would be like to walk among them as one of their own, his golden eyes a boring, blackened shade, his long, silver hair cropped short and shaved close, as was the style, the pointed, white ears that sat atop his head down at the side and not covered in soft fur.
He'd watched, after all, for the last three hundred years as humans and youkai alike changed over the centuries. How society had developed. He watched as he was passed from collectors' hand to collectors' hand. Sometimes he spent twenty years in one spot. Sometimes he spent only six months in another. But he was always trapped, always stuck in this stupid cell of his.
He spent the first one-hundred years of his entrapment going over and over in his head the events that led him to be captured, but after a while he got bored. He couldn't change what had happened. All he could do was plot his revenge.
Which is why when that bitch, that cursed priestess that had first entrapped him here three-hundred years ago showed up with a group of students, his rage blinded him. He'd jumped up and stalked towards the glass. He'd almost shown himself.
"Kikyou…" he hissed. He watched as she gathered around with the rest of the humans, pretending to be one of them, pretending as if this was the first time she'd seen his blasted mirror. Pretending like she wasn't the most powerful witch in all of history.
He didn't understand. What the fuck was she trying to do? She had to be playing some stupid game with him, he just couldn't figure out what. Wasn't it bad enough that she'd trapped him in the first place? Wasn't it enough that he was, basically, granting her immortality?
Of course, if it were up to him, she'd be dead. But at this point, Inuyasha was used to not getting his way.
And it pissed him off even more.
He growled as Kikyou stepped closer to the mirror, the rest of the humans moving on without her. His eyes raked over her as she peered into the glass. She was dressed in modern clothing. She wore her hair different. She had that modern makeup on her face, although not much of it. He kept hidden but braced himself, ready for whatever it was she was planning to do with him.
"Kagome!" Someone called. Kikyou whipped her head around, as if the name were meant for her and moved off towards the voice without even a backwards glance. It almost pushed Inuyasha over the edge.
Stupid bitch, what the fuck is she playing at? I'll kill her.
He watched until she was out of his line of sight and cursed the fact that he could only see so far in either direction outside of his cell.
Nothing to do now but wait. Why she decided to drop in off her normal schedule was beyond him. It was only the afternoon. He could tell by the number of tours that had passed by as he sat there, having nothing to do but count them. He waited. And waited. The group she had arrived with left, as did the other humans throughout the rest of the day, but Kikyou never came back.
For a while he sat and wondered if he'd really seen her, or if he was actually starting to crack at this point. Three hundred years, after all, was a damn long time to be stuck in a mirror.
Just when he thought he was indeed, finally, going insane, she showed up again.
Inuyasha's ears perked up. He moved closer to the barrier, to the point just before he would be shown, and watched her. She looked up at the mirror for a while, showing no recognition at all. Again, Inuyasha fought the urge to show himself. He refused to do it until he knew what she was trying to do. He stayed hidden as she took one of those mechanical talking things out of her pocket and messed around with it, then put it up to her human ear.
He could hear her one-sided conversation. Being alive so long, living so many years as he did, he'd passed some of the boredom by studying the little details that had changed along the way. The contraption she was using was called a 'cell phone', and there was someone, somewhere talking into another 'cell phone' with the other half of the conversation.
At first when those little things started to appear he'd thought humans were going crazy, walking around and talking to themselves. Then he'd thought they were talking to people stuck in other dimensions, like he was. It was a while before he figured out that they used the contraptions to communicate when separated by long distances. He longed to touch one for himself. To hold it in his hands and open it up and finally understand how they'd gotten voices to travel through the air so quickly.
It was only one of the many things that fascinated him about the current time.
He watched as she closed her phone and headed towards the entrance of the cave. He wondered why she didn't talk to him. She knew he was here. What the hell was she doing?
He watched as, again, she came into view. This time she was running, though, and her eyes were wide and she was breathing hard and she was coming right at him.
Inuyasha growled, ready for her to finally acknowledge him. Instead, she hopped right over the velvet ropes that kept all the humans at bay and dove around the corner.
He opened his mouth. Unbelievable. What the hell was she doing now? Seconds later the sound of heavy steps approached, keys jangling, flashlight bobbing around, and it hit him. Kikyou was actually running from the guards. As if she was afraid of being seen.
Inuyasha scoffed. Was she out of her mind? Kikyou didn't run from mere humans, she wasn't afraid of being seen. She had no qualms about casting memory spells, or any other sort of spells that she thought would aid her in her mission. That was the whole reason she kept him in here, after all, the bitch.
Still trying to sort it all out he waited patiently as the guard strolled through the room, the flashlight bobbing over the mirror, circling the area. Deeming everything in order, he turned on his heels and moved on to the next section, leaving Inuyasha alone with a conniving, crazy priestess who was trying to trick him in some unfathomable way he just couldn't figure out.
Kikyou gingerly stepped into his vision again and breathed a visual sigh of relief. Then she turned to the mirror.
Ah-HA, he knew it. Whatever she was planning to do, she was going to do it now.
She bowed.
"Sorry museum gods," she said in a soft, low voice. "I'll stay on this side of the ropes from now on. …Unless the guard comes back."
His jaw dropped. What?! Was she kidding? Was she fucking kidding? He fisted his hands at his side and felt the anger boiling inside. Thoughts of ripping her throat out danced through him. How dare she make fun of his entrapment! How dare she fool around like that!
He watched, stunned into silence, as Kikyou stepped back and looked the giant mirror up and down, paying close attention to the golden frame she'd inscribed the spell into herself. She sighed again, shrugged, and then finally, finally walked towards him. But she wasn't looking at him. No, she was checking herself out. She made one of those stupid kissy faces he'd seen girls make over and over during the decades, and she looked herself up and down, spinning in place, smiling at her reflection.
Inuyasha took a step back as she laughed. Laughed. He'd never heard Kikyou laugh before, not even one of those evil, maniacal laughs he'd have thought she'd develop over the centuries of not having a soul anymore.
This laugh was light and breezy and said she didn't have a care in the world. That she wasn't a three-hundred-year-old evil priestess, with spells to cast and innocent hanyou to keep locked up inside prison mirrors.
She leaned in then, placed her hands on the mirror and said: "Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" and she smiled.
Inuyasha snapped. "Dammit wench!" he growled, stepping out to reveal himself. "Could you be any more vain?"
He watched as her head fell back. As her eyes widened. As her mouth went slack. She inhaled sharply and then reared back and let out the most agonizing scream he'd ever heard.
He quickly flattened his sensitive ears against the assault, and he growled deep in his chest. "What the hell, wench, stop! Stop!"
She drew in another deep breath and did it again, taking two or three steps back away from the mirror.
He had to clamp his hands over his ears this time. Dammit, what the hell was she doing? She was going to call the humans back. "Shut up!" he yelled.
She obeyed. Her mouth snapped shut and her body went rigid, her eyes still wide as saucers. Her chest rose and fell; he could hear her breathing quickly through her nose.
"Wha-" she stuttered, "What's going on? What are you?"
Inuyasha barred his teeth. "Stop playing games, you stupid bitch."
Her mouth fell open. "I don't- I mean, I'm not…." she shook her head, as if she couldn't believe what she was looking at. "What are you?" she repeated.
"I'm not playing along, Kikyou," he spat. "It's almost midnight, just get the stupid spell over with."
"Wha- what spell?"
He let out a roar then; felt it pour out of him. She made him so mad. The way she cowered gave him a little thrill. She was scared of him? Good. It was about damn time. "You know what spell. I don't know what you're playing at, but I'm not humoring you. Just get it over with." He frowned. "Where's the rest of your zombie posse, anyway? It's not like you to travel alone. Even to see little ol' me."
She shook her head again, her hair swishing around past her shoulders. He realized then why her hair was so different. It was shorter. "What the hell did you do to your hair?" he bit out. "It looks terrible!"
She jerked back as if she'd been slapped and her hand reached up to self-consciously touch her hair. "I- I've always had it this way!" she said, shaking her head again.
"Whatever," growled Inuyasha, "just get the spell done with, I'm bored of this conversation. Also, I hate you." He added for good measure.
His ears twitched when he heard the hysterical-like laughter bubble out of her. Her hands came up to cover her mouth as she continued to giggle into them.
"I get it!" She said, throwing her head back and laughing some more. "This is a dream. It has to be. I'm still tied up in the janitor's closet. Hiromi knocked me out after she threw me in and I'm still in there, dreaming." She started to pace back and forth in front of the mirror.
Inuyasha growled. "You're not dreaming."
"No?" she asked, turning on him. "What do you call this then?" She waved her hand over her head. "This is crazy. This isn't real. You," she pointed a finger at him, "are not real."
He bared his teeth. "I'm as real as you, bitch," he said. "I'm also as real as security coming back to see what all the commotion is about."
She whipped her head around to the stairs. "I don't hear anyone."
Inuyasha pointed to his ears. "Excellent hearing, but you knew that already."
Her eyes shot up to where he was pointing, and she looked shocked all over again, as if she hadn't noticed them poking out from the top of his head the last million times she'd seen him.
"If this is a dream…" she said, "then they won't see me, or they'll leave me alone."
"Well," Inuyasha said, glaring down at her as he stepped back into his cell, "just spell them to forget. It's not like you haven't done it before." And then he was all the way back, invisible once more.
"Wait!" Kikyou cried, pressing her hands against the glass again. "Where did you go? Where did you-?" She snapped her head around, finally hearing the guards approaching herself, and Inuyasha watched as she quickly hurried behind the mirror once more.
"I'm tellin' you, Shou," Inuyasha whipped his ears around to catch the guard's conversation. "It came from down here."
"Whatever man, you're just scaring yourself. No one is here."
"I heard it through. Screaming."
"Well, make it quick and then let's get back. I've got my dinner on the way, I don't want to miss the delivery boy."
Inuyasha watched as they circled the room and came up empty. They left, the smaller one taking one last sweep with his flashlight, his eyes narrowed, before disappearing back up the steps.
"I don't get it," Inuyasha said, showing himself again. He leaned his forearm against the glass and waited for Kikyou to come out of her hiding spot. "Why didn't you just spell them?"
He heard a grunt as she emerged from behind the mirror. "I don't know what you're talking about, I can't 'spell' people, what do I look like, a witch?"
"You look like yourself, Kikyou." He rolled his eyes.
"You keep calling me that," Kikyou said, brushing dust off her shoulders and out of her hair, "but my name isn't Kikyou. It's Kagome."
His eyes narrowed. "It doesn't matter what you call yourself now, you'll always be Kikyou to me."
"My name is not Kikyou," she repeated, voice stern. "It's Kagome. Ka. Go. Me. You have me confused with someone else."
"I'd never confuse the face of the woman who ensnared me," he spat.
"Well you obviously have because I'm not her," she spat back.
"I hate you," he said.
Her eyebrows knotted together, and she walked right up to the glass, tilting her head back and glowering at him. "Listen up," she said, "I don't know who or what you are, and I don't know what you think I've done, but I've never so much as laid eyes on you before. I've never been inside this museum and I've never trapped anybody! What I have done is been jumped by a gang of girls, tied up, thrown into a closet and now I have a concussion or something, because that's the only reasonable explanation for what is happening to me!"
Inuyasha stared down at her as she finished her tirade. His mouth fell open. He'd gotten a good whiff of her half-way through and his mind had crawled almost to a stop.
What. The. Fuck.
That wasn't Kikyou. The girl looked like Kikyou. Her hair color was Kikyou's color and her size and shape were all Kikyou. But it wasn't her. She smelled wrong. This girl didn't smell like death and dirt and old bones. She smelled alive and flowery and human.
Holy shit, she'd been telling him the truth. This girl, this Kagome, as she called herself, wasn't Kikyou. He'd shown himself to a human.
"Fuck," he said.
"I know!" The girl named Kagome wailed, "and it's not even my fault!" She was obviously unaware that Inuyasha had realized anything. "Hojou liked me, he asked me out, he started it! If Hiromi should be mad at anyone it should be Hojou!"
"You're not her," Inuyasha growled.
"What?" she asked, teary, blue eyes looking back up at him.
He watched her step back and realize that he wasn't talking about whatever stupid, girly thing she'd been going on about.
"That's what I've been saying. I'm not her. I'm Kagome."
"Fuck!" he said again.
Kagome frowned. "You're not very polite."
But Inuyasha couldn't hear her. His heart was lodged in his throat. Adrenaline coursed through him. This was his chance. The possibility of a reincarnation coming into the museum, and stumbling upon his mirror… it was almost impossible.
Had it really been that long? Had enough time passed that Kikyou's spirit had been reborn?
...If he could just get this Kagome girl to draw him out of the damned mirror he'd be able to find a way out of his entrapment, sooner or later. He'd convince her to release him, and since he'd have no use for her anymore, he'd kill her.
It would take some acting on his part, though. He saw the way Kagome blushed, saw the way her eyes moved across his bare chest, the way her heated gaze met his own. Inuyasha knew the effect he had on humans. He'd have to switch his approach. If he was lucky, she was a girl that read romance books. It would make his plan easier to execute.
He tried to hide his grin as he knelt down so he could look the Kikyou-look-alike straight in her eyes. If he was going to be successful he'd have to do this right. "Kagome," he said, his voice softening. She took a half a step back, but her eyes locked onto his, and they didn't waver once. "I need you to help me."
Her back stiffened.
"I need you to get me out of here. I've been in here for a really long time, and the witch who trapped me here is coming soon. Can you help me?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Aren't you a youkai? The guide said that you tried to destroy the world a long time ago."
Inuyasha kept his face tightly controlled, even though what he really wanted to do was bare his teeth and let out a growl. "I'm not a youkai, I'm a hanyou," he said, keeping his voice soft. "I'm half youkai and half human. Human. Like you."
Kagome leaned in close, her eyes wide again. "Why did this Kikyou girl trap you inside?"
He couldn't help the growl that made its way out this time. He had to give credit to this Kagome girl though, she held her ground. "Does it matter?" he asked.
"Of course it does. You could kill me if I let you out."
He cocked his head to the side and smiled. He drew that smile out slow, lazy-like, and stared right into her. "Kagome," he said, "I could kill you, it's true. But this is a dream. And since this is your dream, do you think I'd be more likely to kill you, or more likely to kiss you?"
A slow blush crept up her neck and blossomed over her cheeks. Her eyes darted down, and then back to his again.
Inuyasha had played his cards right, and he knew it. Kagome was a romantic. Good, that would make things so much easier.
"Um," she said, a hint of shyness now in her voice. "What do I have to do?"
"You have to kiss me," he said, his voice so low she was forced to lean closer to him. "Press your lips against the mirror, Kagome."
She inhaled sharply, and he could smell the change in her. Smell the blood pumping quickly through her veins, smell the way her body warmed to him. She leaned in, her gaze steady. Slowly, slowly, centimeter by centimeter she moved closer, her eyes closing as she pressed her lips against the mirror.
Inuyasha swallowed a shout of triumph as he quickly pressed his lips against hers on the other side. At first all he felt was glass, cold and hard and unforgiving. And then her lips were on his, and he felt a tug. A soft, insistent pull against his body, navigating him out of his prison.
His head was free now. His shoulders. His hands.
He had every intention of killing this girl. Every. Intention. He raised his hand, his claws lengthening, sharp and ready to strike.
But her lips were velvety soft against him, hot and electrifying. She opened her mouth to him, inviting him in, and before he could stop himself, before he was even aware of what he was doing, his clawed hands buried themselves into her hair, wrapping his fingers around the soft, velvety strands and deepening the kiss as he stepped fully out of the mirror.
He pulled her flush to him, a growl rumbling in his throat. She moaned against his lips. Fuck, it felt so good to hold her. To touch her. He hadn't realized how much he'd longed for the feel of a woman. It had been three hundred years since he'd kissed anyone, since he'd done anything other than kill on-demand, and he was now determined to make up for it. He mumbled something, he didn't know what, he was too focused on her lips, on her tongue, on her breasts pressed up against him.
His hands left her hair and moved to her waist, picking her up. She wrapped her legs around him and he groaned against her, turning them around and pushing her back up against the mirror. He nipped at her tongue, at her lips. He trailed hot kisses down her chin, her throat, nipping at her soft flesh.
"Oh god," she breathed, and she bucked against him.
He growled again. She wanted it rough? He could give it to her rough. He found her mouth again and ground his hips against her. He felt himself straining against his clothing. He needed to get her naked and finally, finally get the release he hadn't had in centuries.
Then he could kill her.
He moved his hands to her shirt, ripped the flimsy clothing down the front and let out a little whine to see she had another smaller, tighter piece of clothing underneath. He moved to rip that one open too, but suddenly, he could smell her.
He dropped Kagome on her feet and turned around in a flash, his back to her, pressing her between himself and the mirror.
"Kikyou," he growled.
With a flick of the light and the barest hint of wind, she appeared. Looking as she always looked. Regal, priestess-ly, her nose up and her mouth tight. She was beautiful. And looking at her now, he wondered why he thought the other girl was her twin.
They looked damned alike, that was still true. But Kikyou had an air about her that the other girl just didn't possess.
"Well," Kikyou said, her voice like satin. The corners of her lips turned up into an icy smile. "What do we have here?"
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Please review, I'm serious about my writing and my stories, and if you have anything to comment about or anything to mention or anything to say, I would love to hear it.
Hope you guys enjoyed! See you in the next chapter.
~SugarRos
