Chapter 16
Rise and Fall of the False God
As she ran, she held the shredded pieces of her haori together. She could feel the blood that had poured from her back and slicked her back and legs. She knew that something was wrong, inside of herself, but she could not listen to that nagging voice. She had to get there, she had to run, and run for all that she was worth. She had to get to the tree. Blindly running through the woods, she had done this once before hadn't she? She did not remember how she had gotten there then, just as she now found herself standing before the scarred face of the God Tree still not knowing how she had arrived.
She fell to her knees in front of the crudely cut marker for InuYasha and started to dig. He did not have a casket. He did not have anything to protect him from the hundreds of pounds of dirt that were on top of him now. He only had her to make sure he didn't die in that hole again… if he was even alive. Again, the pain swept through her abdomen, she bit back, Naraku had done a good amount of damage to her, her body was rebelling at every move she made. Damn that summon! Damn him!
Tears fell down her face, she was so stupid, she came alone. She came alone and she could never get all this dirt aside without help. Tears. And suddenly the wind blew.
"Step aside child." The calm voice came. She looked back to the apparition of Saiuri standing beside her. "Step aside now."
Kagome complied, crawling aside, her arms wrapped around her stomach, knees trembling as Saiuri raised the fan and lowered it, the wind whipped and the dirt blew wild, but it didn't touch Kagome, it was repelled as if by a barrier of opposing wind.
"You are reckless." Saiuri said kneeling next to her. The slender clawed fingers touching the pain creased body.
The scream tore from Kagome, becoming a sob as the pain wracked her body again.
"Saiuri!" She sobbed tossing herself against the apparition of the woman that had called her daughter during battle.
"Sweet child." She said gently. "Innocent human girl. So easily you are wounded…" She said lovingly caressing Kagome's hair.
As the wind tore the ground up Sesshomaru watched from a distance. Kyo had him by the arm.
"You shouldn't go down there…" Kyo said softly looking at Kagome and Saiuri.
"Mother…" He said softly.
"She can give you a chance to say goodbye, let your mother be hers for now. She looks like she needs one, and her mother is still many generations away." Kyo said.
"She is digging up InuYasha…" Sesshomaru said carefully. He gasped when InuYasha pulled himself, alive from the whole in the ground. "He is… alive…"
"Lord Sesshomaru…" Kyo started, but it didn't matter, he was cut off with a quick motion from Sesshomaru, he was flying over the treetops headed back toward the house of the moon. Kyo looked once over his shoulder at the woman with the girl and sighed before spreading his large black wings to follow Sesshomaru.
"Kagome?" She heard his voice, but through the pains tearing through her she didn't realize that it was really him, thinking for a moment she was with another ghost. Her hand rose and reached for him, but she didn't go through him… no he could do that sometimes… He was covered in dirt… he was without his beads, without the fire rat… he was…
"Inu… Yasha…" She whimpered. He was alive. She braved the pain to pull forward entwining him into her embrace. Saiuri looked at the hanyou, her eyes narrowing and Kagome was afraid for a moment that this was going to be a short lived welcome home for InuYasha.
"You. Here. Now." She said clearly to InuYasha. He looked at her and blinked.
"And why should I?" He growled at her.
"InuYasha…" Kagome begged but he stood placing himself between her and Saiuri.
"You are ignorant hanyou." She said. "If you deny me the right to come close you deny her the right to live. I know what is wrong… you can not say the same."
"TELL ME!" He snarled flexing his fingers.
"Calm now…" She said. Her eyes as icy as Sesshomaru's, almost setting shivers through Kagome. She watched as the patches of darkness came under and around Saiuri, reaching out like tentacles at InuYasha who scampered back away from them.
"NO!" Kagome yelled at her. She turned her head to Kagome. "Don't kill him! I worked so hard to get him back…" She cried before the pain tore through her, causing her to curl up again. She was dying, that was it, plain and simple, it felt as if… she were dying.
"Take her to the hot springs… get her in the water and then for heavens sake boy, get a woman to deal with this." She growled. InuYasha nodded sharply to her. "And boy… I don't want to have to make threats, but I know your temper and your mouth, unless you wish to rejoin us… Do. Not. Tell. My. Son. Anything. Are we clear? I will deal with my son."
"Saiuri…" InuYasha said. He got flashes of her on the other side, but he didn't remember a lot of what happened. He shook it off. "You are Sesshomaru's…"
"Yes. Now go hanyou, use your speed." She said. "She hurts and is vulnerable… did you not swear to protect her…"
"YES!" He growled as if she had accused him.
"Then why are you still here?" She growled as Kagome felt herself lifted and moving at that speed she used to love and adore.
"You are strong Saiuri-sama." The soft tones floated through the air. Saiuri turned to look at the dragon hanyou sitting calmly on the rock with his blue wings tucked neatly behind him. "But not strong enough for this."
"I have no choice but to be strong enough." She said, her voice cracking slightly. "My son needs me."
"Then allow this lowly hanyou to be good enough to assist you my lady." He said softly, he came to his feet, his wings flexing.
"Muteki." Saiuri said softly stepping toward him.
"Shh, not the right time Saiuri…" He said as he came forward and ran his blind claws over where her cheek should be. "This is not our time, and there is no barrier to protect us from the world. Come now. Take my body and we will go."
"Do you miss me at all?" She asked softly.
"Every day I breathe." He responded as she stepped into him. She spread Li's wings and they took to the night air together.
Sesshomaru hadn't uttered a word. He hadn't removed his pendant and had ignored the displeasure around him when he returned without Kagome. Kagome was safe; right now he needed to be here. He leapt the wall to the burial grounds with speed and ease knowing where to go without even having to look up. Kyo had tents erected around the area and Sesshomaru moved into them. He saw that the digging was already underway, but that didn't stop him from jumping into the hole and digging with them. No one here knew he was Sesshomaru, no one knew why he was so frantic, but they didn't get in his way.
The sound came, his nails scratching across wood.
"Get out…" He growled. The other men looked to Kyo who nodded and they left. Kyo stood looking at Sesshomaru, his wings, the impressive forty feet of black feathers sheltered the tent from view.
Thump, thump thump. At first he thought it was his heart that was beating but then he realized that it was in fact coming from inside the casket. His nails dug into the wood and he pulled the top half of the casket lid clean off to see a very scared Rin staring at him like he was a stranger.
"Rin… wants… SESSHOMARU-SAMA!" She screamed. He blinked twice at her before the startling realization came to him that he wasn't… to her… Sesshomaru right now. He reached up and roughly grabbed the moon shaped crescent and pulled, the ribbon snapping, he cast it aside, melting back into Sesshomaru before her eyes. Her body was shaking and frail as she lurched forward grabbing onto him. "It is you Sesshomaru-sama! You came for Rin! Sesshomaru-sama! You saved Rin again!"
He didn't save Rin, he simply removed her from the casket, but to this child it was as if he had never let her die to begin with. As if he had never made the horrible mistake of underestimating that boy in his court that day.
Sesshomaru knelt down on the remaining half of the wooden lid and coiled both arms around her, letting his head fall against her own, his silvery white hair veiling her, causing her to giggle as it brushed her skin. A tear fell from his eye.
"Sesshomaru-sama?" She asked looking up at him wide eyed. "Is Sesshomaru-sama sick?"
"No Rin." He answered.
"Is Sesshomaru-sama sad?" She asked.
"No Rin." He answered.
"Why are Sesshomaru-sama's eyes watering?" She cried out.
"Don't say such foolish things Rin." Sesshomaru answered. She smiled at him as she had that first day when he asked her if she were ok and nodded.
"Hai Sesshomaru-sama." She said proudly. "Sesshomaru-sama?"
"Yes Rin?"
"Can we get outta the hole now?"
"Do as you like." He responded, watching as she crawled out of the hole.
His nails tore the fabric off of Kagome's body, what little of it remained that was. He hid his fear in anger, and that anger was taken out on the offending garments that stood between Kagome and the hot water. His white shirt was stained with red from carrying her as her body refused to heal the wounds caused by the spider.
"Damn you Naraku!" InuYasha growled. Kagome wasn't with him, she had fallen asleep, or maybe shock had taken over. She couldn't feel him shaking; she couldn't feel his tears splashing on her skin as he pulled her clothes away from her. As his nails cut through the fabric of her obi they hit something with a gritting sound. He stopped for a moment to pull the item out of her obi.
The beads unraveled as he looked at them. His lip trembling, he felt them spark back to life in his claws and looked up shocked to see the old woman Kaede standing at the edge of the water.
"She… is bleeding…" InuYasha said, tears pouring from his eyes, ears flat back against his white hair. "I can't stop it! She is bleeding Kaede and I can't stop it!"
"Shh, InuYasha." The old Miko said. She came over and sat next to Kagome, shaking her head. InuYasha scampered back away from Kaede and Kagome. His eyes widely looking at his once loves little sister. He remembered when Kikyo and Kaede and he used to go for long walks together. He remembered that, he remembered being with Kikyo and his mother. He shook his head, Kikyo never met Izoai, there was no way. But still… he remembered it in a flash. A dream, it must've been a death dream.
"Can… can you save her?" InuYasha asked.
"It is not she that is in risk." Kaede said. "Kagome's body will heal, Naraku healed everything but this."
"WHY!" InuYasha growled as Kaede was taking off the last of Kagome's clothing and slipping her into the hot springs. "Why did he do this?"
"Because he is Naraku." She said softly. "Inviting the spirits out of the Shikon No Tama is a dangerous game to play."
"The Shikon? What does the Shikon No Tama have to do with this?" InuYasha said turning to look at her. He blushed seeing Kagome's naked body in the water and turned away. Kaede was in the water with her, washing her.
"Everything powerful that dies around the Shikon No Tama becomes part of it." Kaede said softly. "Think of your death dreams InuYasha. Do you ever remember seeing Onigumo there?"
InuYasha thought hard. Kikyo. Izoai. Saiuri. InuTaisho. Rin. Jakken. Sesshomaru for a moment or two. Miroku. Amniboshi. Suboshi. "No. No Naraku wasn't there!" InuYasha gasped.
"That is because he had touched the Shikon No Tama before he died, he was powerful, and so he was drawn into the Shikon No Tama when he died. The Jewel of Souls now had six souls in it rather than four." Kaede explained. He sat there, with his knees drawn up just listening to her, his white ears turned back to better hear her. He fingered the beads in his fingers and then sighed softly. "He got drawn in because she purified him and forgave him in the end InuYasha. That is the power of forgiveness and redemption."
"Is she going to be ok Kaede?" InuYasha asked softly.
"Yes." Kaede said softly. "She'll be alright InuYasha."
InuYasha chuckled softly and slipped the beads on over his head. If Kagome were going to be all right, she was going to need to have the beads there or she might look stupid yelling Sit at him.
"HURRY!" Sango cried out, tears pouring down her face as they dug. Three graves were being unearthed here. Amniboshi, Suboshi and Miroku. She was pacing as the youkai dug through the dirt. The first casket to be pulled up was Miroku.
She ran over and pulled the nails from the top before throwing it open. He was coughing and hacking, dressed in the white death robes as he sat up. She threw herself into the casket, holding Miroku tightly, tears pouring down her face.
"You're alive!" She cried out.
"Sango…" He said softly. "Oh Sango."
"Shh, no more, come on." She said, she took his hand and pulled him up as the second casket was brought up, no sooner had it landed than had the twin bladed balls tear through the lid, causing the Youkai to scatter. Suboshi was half blade demon and half music demon. One twin took the traits of one and the other the other. "GET BACK! Get Amniboshi up now!"
The blade demon halfling sat up, his eyes red; the pulse came from those spinning bladed balls that attached with tentacles to his back. A full blade demon had seventeen of them coming from its body, but he had two, and an otherwise human body.
Miroku grabbed a brush and paper from the youkai that was taking notes on the on goings.
"HEY!" He snarled, he ignored it as he started to write. Taking the strip of paper he held it up muttering as he did so. Suddenly deep blue chains appeared around Suboshi's arms, pulling them out to the sides, and around his legs, pulling them down. The weapons reeled aimlessly, trying to break the bindings, but there was no way that they could.
Sango ran to the tent and took out the small case she had hidden in there. As she ran out they had pulled Amniboshi from the grave and he stood watching his brother with tears running down his face.
"It is painful for him Amniboshi. He didn't have any mercy in his death…" Sango cried. She had shown him none, her anger getting the best of her when she had seen Miroku die. "Ease his pain…" The thrust the flute from the case into his hands.
Regenerating after being beheaded was what caused this momentary insanity. She hoped it did not linger. Slowly Amniboshi took the flute from her hand, his own hands shaking as he placed it to his lips. The song that came from it was beautiful. It sang of pain, and heartbreak. It sang of promise and future. And as it sang into the air, all there stopped to listen to the notes.
Kagome's eyes opened hearing the flute, and Kaede stopped to listen.
"It sounds like magic…" InuYasha said standing, his ears propping forward. His eyes starting to source of the music.
Li's flight was slowed by Saiuri as the music started to play.
"It feels like it is playing for us…" she said softly.
"That it does m'lady. The power of music is great." Li responded softly
Holding Rin in her tattered burial kimono as the music drifted over the lands, the great lord Sesshomaru stepped out into the light. His entire troops looked as if they had seen a ghost. Of course they believed that Suzaku's spell had returned Sesshomaru from the dead. And most would think nothing when Maru vanished into the sunset.
"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jakken croaked from behind him.
"Shh." He said softly, pulling Rin a little closer. "Listen."
All of them men turned and listened to the sweet tune of the flute that floated over the land.
Deep inside Kagome the monster listened. His job had been done. She had someone to hate. Someone to blame for what fate would have taken away from her. He clung to his web, where he was always meant to be inside the Shikon No Tama. The enemy of her enemy was her friend. Indeed he was.
"Momma… can you hear that?" Sota asked softly. It was faint, it was coming from the well.
"It sounds like a flute." Mrs. Higurashi said softly.
"No." Kouga said from behind her. "It sounds like…"
"Hope." Sota finished.
Yuki ran across the grounds, her sleek white body moving like lighting. She jumped up on a rock above all of those there and skidded next to a stop next to Kouga. Her head rolled back, ears pinning down and the most beautiful song of hope raised from within her throat and licked the air and mixing with the song of the flute, struggling to meet it's high points and then drop to it's lows.
Coiled into the warm wings of the firebird the pain was unbearable, and yet, he couldn't get the spider out of his mind. The last person to offer him an embrace had been Satoshi. He had tried to kill him then. Satoshi didn't think he knew, but there was something in a child that just knew what he was hated by someone so close to him.
"They are alive aren't they?" Rimiku asked.
"I had to take them away from Kagome." Suzaku said. "The only way too take the Ju On from the summoner is to bring them to life."
"Can you bring me to life?" Rimiku asked.
"You are alive Rimiku my child." The bird said, it's fiery wings coiling around Rimiku a little tighter.
"The spider? Is the spider alive again?"
"No, he is not dead, he lives inside Kagome." Suzaku said softly.
"The music hurts my head." He said covering his ears. "It sings of hope!"
"Is hope so bad?"
"Shut up… it hurts Suzaku!" He cried out. Suzaku pulled the boy closer.
"Amni… boshi…" Suboshi said softly as the balls dropped to the ground behind him. Amniboshi nodded and walked to Suboshi's side as Miroku released the spell and slowly Suboshi came to stand on the ground next to him.
"AMNIBOSHI!" He cried out throwing himself into his brother's arms, sobbing into his shoulder.
"Shh, Suboshi. I know it hurt, but the pain is gone now Suboshi." Amniboshi said softly.
"I killed him! I killed Miroku and there was nothing I could do to stop myself!" He sobbed. "I killed him. I killed him. I killed him!"
"I am right here." The monk said stepping forward. Suboshi jumped and spun to look at Miroku. The tears still in his eyes as he threw himself then into Miroku's arms. "No harm Suboshi. This time we will do it right…"
Kagome closed her eyes as the music stopped. InuYasha was standing close, ears still standing, straining to hear the song that had ended. Her tears fell as she reached out, her fingers gliding over the bare foot of the half demon. InuYasha jumped and turned his head to her, and then away quickly.
"You're alive." She said softly. "They are all alive. All those that could be alive. I can't… feel them anymore…" A tear fell, suddenly she felt very alone inside of herself. Very alone and vulnerable, her fingers coiled around the fabric of the red pants.
You are not alone the voice in her heart said to her softly. She shut him out. She wasn't ready to talk to him yet. She had never 'talked' to him, no he had put thoughts into her mind, she had always known he was there, but 'talking' to him would go to a step that she was not ready to take. 'Talking' to him would leave her feeling on the border of insanity.
"What do you mean?" InuYasha asked.
"Rin, Jakken, Amniboshi, Suboshi, Miroku, you, the wolf clan, Kagoura, Kanna… they are all alive again." She said. "And all that the fates asked for, was…" her hand rested on her belly in the bloodied water, the tears falling. "I feel empty…"
"It will pass." Kaede said softly. "Not today, or tomorrow, but it will pass."
InuYasha kneeled and rested a hand on her shoulder and she shirked out from under his touch. She didn't do it thoughtfully, but she didn't want be touched. InuYasha looked as if she had struck him, his ears falling, and eyes wide.
"No InuYasha." Kaede said. "Give her time."
"Time…" InuYasha repeated, not a question, just a word. "Time…"
"I know it is hard InuYasha…" Kaede said. He simply shirked her off and sat down with his back facing the water. Kagome bit back tears that shouldn't be coming. She knew that he wasn't mad at her, he most likely, wasn't even mad. He was just… InuYasha. Her eyes closed and she sobbed softly, InuYasha's ear twitched but he didn't turn to face her. He was giving her privacy, not wanting to look at her naked, which was good because she most likely would have, just so that she could act out her hate, 'sat' him into the next century.
"InuYasha…" She said softly. "I… missed you."
"Keh." He responded. She grinned, she had the Idiot's Guide to Understanding Sesshomaru given to her. But the InuYasha for Dummies? That one she had written. He wasn't going to be emotional and admit that he missed her because Kaede was there. She closed her eyes and sunk a little deeper into the water. She remembered idly how that used to get her so angry when he wouldn't talk about his feelings because of someone else around. But now, now it just felt… right.
"Sesshomaru-sama." The voice of Li entered his tent. Sesshomaru looked to the door. Rin had gone off to bathe, insisting that she was fine to do it on her own. He had been hesitant to let her only because she had just risen from the dead, however she could do as she liked, and right now she liked the idea of bathing alone.
"Yes Li." He answered, started out of his silent contemplations of everything going on to turn those golden orbs to the bright blue eyes of the dragon hanyou.
"Might I a moment of your time…?" He asked, a grin on his lips that Sesshomaru wasn't sure he liked, not to mention it showed off that maw of teeth.
"Where is Kagome?" Sesshomaru growled. "You are her guard…"
"She has another guard." Li informed him.
"This Sesshomaru doesn't recall this occurrence." He answered sharply.
"That is because This Sesshomaru was not present." Li answered. Still calm, and almost cheerful sounding. He always sounded that way… he always had a grin on his maw, but why was he so happy now! Yes, everyone was living again, but he knew that his brother was alive, he had seen that, and undoubtedly the hanyou was the one guarding Kagome…
"Careful sire…" Li said interrupting his train of thought. "I was a hanyou as well defending your mate." This time his voice was stern. "I have someone with me that wishes a moment of your time." He said, his face remaining grim, odd. He had just thought he wanted the dragon to be grim, but now that he was he sensed that this was all wrong.
"Bring them in." Sesshomaru said with a hint of impatience.
"Very well." Li let his clawed hands cross before him and the wind whipped up around him, suddenly the image of Li melted into that of Saiuri.
"Mother?…" Sesshomaru gasped, he was on his feet and moving, his hands coming to either side of her face, it felt like her, it wasn't just an illusion, he was confused, but not so much that he didn't pull her body in against him. Inhaling deeply the familiar scent that he had always acquainted with safety came to his nose. A scent, he thought, that smelled a lot like… Kagome… only not so calming.
"Hush now Pup." She said softly, her nailed hands running down the back of his hair. "Look how you have grown my son."
"Mother…" He said again. His head coming down and nudging lightly against the side of her head. She raised her chin slightly and nudged him back.
"We have to talk my son. I am afraid the dead are not permitted social visits." She said gently as she stepped to him and sitting him in the chair her fingers still running through his hair and down the sides of his face as he looked up at her. The smallest of whimper came from him as he nuzzled against her hand.
"Sesshomaru." Saiuri said pulling her against him now. "Think my son, what did Kagome do in the final stages of the battle."
She summoned as she had been all along. She summoned his mother and father as Genbu was summoned, she attacked Rimiku and then protected the archers, and father killed the turtle, then Kagome…
"No…" He said softly. She summoned Naraku. "No…" He repeated… she had summoned him and the demons had entered her. "NO" The growl came, Saiuri held him closer. The demon… the ghost had come from within her… it had killed…
"Wouldn't this make you happy my child?" Saiuri asked coldly. "It was you who said you would never breed a hanyou. Never love a human."
He growled and pulled free from her, she came around her hand connecting cleanly to his cheek, the cold spreading as she hit him to consume the entirety of the tent as he hit the floor and remained staring up at her. "That is what your mate is thinking. She thinks that it is better that then have any child given to her by Suzaku to be killed at birth."
She might as well have hit him again. "And…" She continued. "The death of that blessing gave you back Rin. And everyone else." She glared hard at him now. He knelt there shaking, a soft whimper coming from him, he could see his breath and the horror of the situation suddenly struck him as she stared down at him. One thing he had to remember…
"I am dead Sesshomaru. Remember that…" She said softly. He closed his eyes and whimpered again. You are still alive. Do. Not. Forget. That. You still have time to fix that which you have unknowingly wronged. You yourself stated that you could not love a human."
"I do mother…" He said suddenly as if defeated. She looked icly at him, as if her looks could cut him, and they had, they had cut him deeper than even he thought her disappointment could. "I do love a human…"
"That blessing is spent, it is gone. But the human is not." She said suddenly the room warmed again and she touched his face once more. "Remember that Sesshomaru. She is alive and you are alive. You both have back what you wanted most, and it cost only one blessing from Suzaku. You go to your mate, I will take the blessing with me."
Sesshomaru nodded and stood.
"Jakken. Watch Rin." He said clearly and he was gone.
"Where is she…" The growl came from outside of the hut. Kagome knew that growl, and she cringed.
"What the hell do you care?" The second growl came. She knew that growl too… she cringed more. Her and Kaede shared a look.
"That is your mate?" Kaede asked. Kagome nodded solemnly.
"I want to see her now brother." Sesshomaru stated. The Idiot's Guide to Sesshomaru-she is injured and he would go through InuYasha to get to her.
"Go to hell." InuYasha responded. InuYasha for Dummies-She is injured, I'm guarding her… and I'll be a very unsuccessful wall between you and her.
"You think they are going to fight?" Kaede asked.
"Undoubtedly." Kagome said trying to sip her tea.
"Step aside or die." Sesshomaru growled.
"Keh!" InuYasha retorted.
"You going to let them?" Kaede asked.
"No." She sighed setting down the tea and standing walking over to the door, her belly still hurt but at least she could walk now.
"Now." Sesshomaru growled.
"AWAY!" Kagome screamed and Sesshomaru's hand lit up and he went careening into the tree near by. InuYasha started to laugh. "SIT!" She yelled and InuYasha face planted into the ground. She smiled and sighed contently at the silence and walked back in, sitting down and picking up her tea.
"Good job dear." Kaede said warming it up for her.
"Thank you." Kagome said sipping her now warm tea.
Sesshomaru went over all of this in his head. He was trying to figure out, exactly how it was, he went from standing off with his half brother, to punching a tree. InuYasha, who was once staring down with him, was now… eating the ground. This was perplexing.
"How did you end up with these things?" Sesshomaru asked conversationally as the spell finally released his hand from the tree. He flexed it, cracking his knuckles back in place.
"Day I met her… you?" InuYasha asked as he sat up now able to and cracked his neck. Sesshomaru nodded knowingly.
"Tried to kill her." He responded. InuYasha nodded knowingly.
"Yeah. Me too." InuYasha said. "Thought she was Kikyo."
"SIT!" came from inside the hut and he flew face first into the ground again. Sesshomaru managed to stifle a chuckle. "AWAY!"
"What did I do?" He growled.
"It was for good measure." Kagome responded. "So you didn't kick him while he was down." Again she vanished inside.
"What is she doing in there?" Sesshomaru asked, again conversationally.
"Tea." InuYasha said spitting out the dirt in his mouth. "Rest."
"Hn." Sesshomaru responded.
"Wait!" InuYasha said standing up, looking around panicking for a moment and not seeing Kagome there to sit him again. "Why do you want to know anyway?"
"Because This Sesshomaru does." He answered.
"Do I need to tie you down to the bed again?" Kagome called from inside. Sesshomaru said nothing and looked stoically at InuYasha who had his head canted, one ear up and one ear to the side like a very comical confused dog.
"Huh?" He asked.
"Never mind." Sesshomaru said starting to walk past InuYasha.
"Can't go in there…" InuYasha said. Sesshomaru refused to argue anymore, instead he walked over and reached for the door. "No really Sessho…" He was cut off when the air turned to fire around his hand and he hissed backing away from the barrier. "Youkai can't go in Kaede's hut." He said with a satisfied smile.
"Why are you smiling?" Sesshomaru growled. InuYasha shrugged as if it were nothing and turned around, opening the door he walked into the hut. Leaving Sesshomaru stewing out on the lawn.
"He wants to talk to you." InuYasha said looking at Kagome. She smiled slightly and sighed softly. She knew that, now that her tea was done, if she were going to talk to him, she had to go outside to do it, a full youkai couldn't enter a Miko's tent. She sighed softly and came to her feet. "Why are you going out there… he doesn't need to talk to you!"
"InuYasha, there is a lot that you don't understand." Kagome said looking away. She sighed softly and walked out the door. She could hear InuYasha fighting with Kaede as she made him stay there and drink 'liquid shit' with her.
"Kagome…" Sesshomaru said softly as he came to his feet. His eyes were slightly panicked. He thought he was going to have to wait it out, so he had been resting against one of the trees.
"Saiuri told you?" She asked softly. Sesshomaru nodded. "Damnit."
"What?" He asked now stepping closer.
"It would have been better if you didn't know." She said averting her eyes from him.
"How can you say that?" Sesshomaru said canting his head slightly.
"Because, it would have been hanyou if we conceived from the blessing, had we been able to conceive at all," She said, tears falling from her eyes. "And you would have killed it anyway."
Sesshomaru's eyes turned away this time. She wasn't sure the emotion that showed on them, it wasn't anywhere in the Idiot's Guide. She stepped down the one step and slipped down to a sitting position.
"It was bad enough that I forced you to bite me, which forced your hand in the inn. I was supposed to use Suzaku's blessing to conceive. I didn't. I used it to bring the other's back. This is my penance." She said softly looking at her knees.
"No…" Sesshomaru said stepping forward, he reached for her and she slipped sideways out of his grip.
"Don't touch me…" She said letting her head fall on her knees. "I am a dirty human… weak… poison to you… I am your undoing… Just leave…" She sobbed. He stood there still staring at her, it was infuriating, didn't he understand. "You have the House of the Moon back… go to it!" She sobbed looking at him. "You have Rin!" She screamed standing up. "Now get out of here! Get OUT!"
Still he stood there staring at her. He didn't move. He wouldn't leave. Her temper spiked and she grabbed a rock throwing it at him.
"LEAVE!" She screamed. Another rock was thrown; this one hit him in the chest. "GET OUT OF HERE!" She sobbed, another thrown, this one hit his jaw. "JUST LEAVE!" She sobbed. "AWAY!" He fought it, every muscle straining as it started to pull him, but he couldn't fight it, it pulled him and he went back into the tree. "GO AWAY! AWAY! AWAY! AWAY!" The tree broke as he flew back into it again and again, and on the last away a new tree had been struck. She collapsed, her knees together, her feet out to the sides, her arms around her stomach that was waving in pain and sobbed. Her hair in her face.
"I am not leaving." He said softly.
"Why…" She sobbed. "Just leave… why won't you… go…?" He stood still and canted his head, she saw the blood trickling from his knuckles but still he stood. "You don't need me anymore…" She sobbed.
"Is that what you think?" He asked her. She looked up at him. His face was unreadable, stoic and calm, but there was something in his eyes, something burning. "Do you honestly believe that?"
She said nothing, no words could form in her throat as she turned her head away from him.
"You said that you wanted me to love you…" He said. She looked back at him.
"You said you didn't know what that was!" She growled. He canted his head slightly, she would have thought he blew her off, but he didn't he was thinking. The pause was long and tense until he spoke again.
"Do you not give This Sesshomaru the doubt that he might have learned?" Sesshomaru asked. Why? Why did he always revert back to that? The Idiot's Guide had the answer. He was getting emotional, if he had to think about his name, it would give him something to focus on. Still she didn't answer. "I told you once that I wasn't leaving and I meant it. Shun me as you will, push me away, throw things at me, or use these beads, as long as I am still breathing, I will still be here." He said clearly, his eyes glanced up for a moment, but she didn't look to see where he was looking.
"What changed Sesshomaru…"
"You." He said looking at her. "You changed all of it." She couldn't grasp those words. She couldn't resist him as he came forward and knelt before her so he was eye level with her, taking hold of her shoulders. "You walked into my life Kagome and you never feared me, and you were willing to help me, to put your own life before me. You taught me that it was all right to feel, to fear, to talk, to cry. You taught me how to love and what love was… mine…" He said softly. He leaned forward and whispered softly in her ear. "And I would have wanted any child that came from you. To hell with the rest of the youkai… it would have been a piece of us."
"But I wasted the blessing…" she said.
"You wasted nothing," he said flatly.
"SHE DID WHAT!" She heard from inside and started laughing, InuYasha always did know how to ruin a good moment. She laughed so hard that she tipped over against Sesshomaru. Her arms coiling around him, her face buried in his fluffy just laughing. It was insane that of all the things to break her, the enraged scream of the man that she had once loved more than life itself would have done it. But she did. She laughed because she couldn't cry anymore. She laughed because she couldn't scream. So she just laughed until she couldn't laugh anymore, the cramps tore through her body and she couldn't sit anymore.
"It hurts Sesshomaru…" She whispered.
"I know." He said picking her up. He turned his back on the hut, and looked back to see Kaede standing in the door, behind her he could see InuYasha bound and gagged in the back of the hut. He canted his head slightly.
"Get going you crazy kids. I'll let the mutt go when you have a head start." She said smiling. Kagome smiled back and clung to Sesshomaru's fluffy as he coiled up his muscles and leapt into motion.
"I hate you." InuYasha growled.
"I know." Kaede said. The others had been gone for about twenty minutes now. "Go on InuYasha. And go easy on them."
"Keh." He grumbled and he was gone.
"Where am I?" She said to the empty room. It had nothing in it, only a room with a table in it. It was an old style pagoda, she could smell the jasmine and sakura trees all around it. The musty smell of earth filled the place as the shoji slipped open. She didn't even look over, hearing the shoes of the other removed and the figure of Naraku slipped into her vision sitting across from her in a very modern looking suit. The kind of thing she could have imagined him wearing in her time. He was completely human. The beautiful creature on the outside. The monster lived under.
"You are here. That is all you need to know." He said, his soft deep voice filling the room. His black eyes looking, almost seductively across the table at her.
"You're… human?" She gasped. He let his elbows rest on the table and his hand clasp below his chin. He chuckled.
"Of course I am silly girl." He crooned softly. "You purified me remember?"
"Oh… yeah… huh." She said nervously rubbing her head. "WAIT! You're dead!"
Again he shook his head and chuckled.
"No, those of us that truly touch the Shikon No Tama don't die." He said softly. "We live on in one way or another. I live in you."
"Well that's a relief, for a moment there I thought that you were alive and well and living in modern Japan running a multibillion dollar business in that Armani that you are wearing." She said as a wave of relief whisped over her. "So does this mean I'm not insane?"
"No Kagome. You are not insane. You are probably, including myself, saner than anyone I know." Naraku said passively rolling a hand in the air as he spoke. He was graceful; it was annoying actually how attractive he was. Wait… I can ask him… anything! No one is here, this is a dream… it has to be… either that or I have finally gone completely mad in the recesses of my own mind. She thought.
"Why… would you… make yourself… so…nasty… when you had this very pretty form." She asked. He rose a brow at her and a grin touched his lips.
"I wasn't so pretty when I made this deal dearest." He said softly.
"D…dearest…?" She stammered. "Oh GODS! Tell me you aren't thinking of me as Kikyo too!"
"No. I am not." He responded with a passive sigh. "There was a day… but not anymore."
"Than what do you mean? Dearest?" She asked.
"You are very dear to me Kagome." He said, again rolling his hand. "Without you, I die. As does Midoriko and the others trapped in here."
"Here?" She asked. He chuckled at her as if a child had said something amusing.
"The Shikon No Tama dearest." He crooned. "Inside of… you."
"ME!" She gasped blushing furiously, the sudden thought of having anything of Naraku inside of her made her feel very perverse indeed.
"Stop that now. I am not talking like that." He crooned gently. But that crooning kept dragging her there. She sighed. "I mean that…"
"The Shikon is in me." She said.
"No." He answered. She started slightly. "Let me finish. The Shikon No Tama is not inside of you, it is you."
"What?" She gasped. He sighed impatiently and then looked back at her. "Waitwaitwaitwaitwait!" She said waving her hands in front of her. "Are you saying that I could summon you looking like this rather than the big spider?"
"Of course dearest." He said softly looking, almost affectionately across the table at her. "But until now you didn't know who Onigumo was. You only knew his name, not his face, this is not even his face… this is the face of the lord that I killed. But you like it, so I shall keep it."
She crossed her arms and thought. Then a blush crept over her cheeks.
"Ok… I do like it… but why this…" She wisped her hands around the suit.
"Again, it was something that you were comfortable with. Something from your time. I am for you what you need me to be Kagome." He said softly, those black eyes seemed to be staring into the deepest regions of her soul.
"How do I know that this isn't a trick!" She sighed. "You were always so good at tricking us!"
"You don't." He answered plainly, kicking his feet up on the table. "One day you will free me, or you won't, until then we are in very close quarters dearest, should we not get along?"
"You are in my body…"
"Right. Close quarters. We both share this skin." He crooned. Again, she blushed, pushing that thought all wrong. Damned her imagination. Damned him for being pretty damnit!
"Wait! What do you mean free you?" She gasped.
"Only you can release me. As a human, as a hanyou, that too is your choice." He said softly. "When you feel I have served my time, or when you feel the world is ready for me than your body will expel me and Naraku will live again. Plain and simple."
"But…" She said. "How would I know…? You hurt so many people. You killed so many people."
"But you forgave me." He said his feet coming to the floor and he pushed back, walking around the table until he stood, a good foot higher than she, in front of her. "You gave this tattered soul redemption Kagome."
"What does that mean for you? How would that change you?" She asked.
"For one… I am human here and now. Unless you call those demons to me, and ask them to take me, I can not become that creature you summoned on the field." He said taking her face in his delicate hands. "I am quite simply your toy now, your puppet. Oh how fate is a cruel bedfellow. You were my puppets for so long, and now I am yours."
She swallowed hard. 'Too close too close too close!' She thought to herself before opening her eyes to look at him, fighting back a blush that she couldn't control.
"But I don't want puppets." She said.
"Ah but you have them now." He said gently.
"NO! I don't want you to be a puppet." She cried out.
"Than… we shall have to work at becoming friends wont we." She held her breath when he leaned in and brushed his lips over her cheek before backing up and moving back to the table. "Tea?"
She sat down and looked across at him.
"I am always inside. I am always here. I know your thoughts, passions, fears, loves, lusts and everything else that defines you Kagome Higurashi. I even know about that birth mark right below…"
"Enough! Point gotten!" She said blushing.
"And I know how to make you blush." He crooned. "I also knew that you always found my form attractive even if I was emotionally repulsive. So now you are a bit jittery because I am being friendly. Well, the enemy of the enemy right?"
"Right." She said nodding.
"If you listen, to the thoughts at night, just close them, not to voices or words, but feelings. You will know the same of me. You can tap into that wave between us. How do you think you manipulated Sesshomaru into biting you. Didn't that seem like an odd wave of genius for you?"
"Yes." She admitted.
"That is because it wasn't. I had been thinking about that since he appeared in the well. When it was perfected, I gave it to you." He said.
"Do you always take so long to plan everything out?" She asked shocked.
"What else do I have but time." He said. "Would I have survived out there so long if I have been impulsive? This started long before you were ever thought of, not in the fact of time, but the sequence of things."
"So what should I do about InuYasha." She asked him. "He is going to hate me for mating Sesshomaru."
"Oh, undoubtedly. So find someone for him to find comfort in. Be picky; remember that this person has to replace you. He had not fallen out of love with you." Naraku said softly.
"I haven't fallen out of love with him either. But we can't be together like that…"
"Sesshomaru would kill him. He is not just a consort, he is Sesshomaru's blood." Naraku finished. "So set him up with my blood."
"WHAT!" She gasped.
"Kagoura. She always fancied Sesshomaru, so get her to fancy InuYasha, if you could go from loving on to the other. Why couldn't she?" He asked. "They are both free, but InuYasha is more like the wind storm and less like the still and glassy lake. It would make sense for her to go to him. It won't be easy mind you… but between us, I think we can manage."
"I think I might like having a devious side." She said smiling softly.
"I think I might like you liking it." He responded with that seductive smile on his lips.
"Keep being so damned sexy and I am never going to let you out!" She growled.
"And why not?" He asked, still grinning.
"Because then I won't be able to trust myself around you!" She said. "And I know you too well."
"Every woman needs a consort." He purred.
"I knew you'd say that." She snarled. "I swear to all the Kami, that will never be you."
"I knew you'd say that."
"I also know that without open communication, the sneaky side of you is going to make me doubt all I do," she said with a very serious look on her face. One so much more mature than he had ever known from her. "Your games will not work, because I will doubt all you do. No more games. Your communications to me are open, you tell me they are from you. If you do not, I will stop listening," she promised.
A smirk crossed his lips. "Fine. If I ever want my freedom there is never going to be any tricking you into it. This will be interesting. I have never been out for anyone but me and my own power before."
"You still are, but now you know how Kagura felt," she said. "This whole situation has my head spinning."
"Let me enlighten your burden then," he said. "You just were the pawn of a great game of the Beast Gods. Not even a new one, if I may add. Suzaku, who cannot act against Rimiku, blesses your womb with the potential to create a child with Sesshomaru. Then gives you the means to do so. The Blessing. Then he tells you that if you become a problem with your summons, he will have to take them away from you."
"Rigght?" she said waiting for him to get to his point.
"So you, being the smart one, goes headlong into battle, using your 'forbidden powers' as a Daiyoukai Miko Mate and summons galore on the battle field. You did exactly as Suzaku wanted you to. You carried that power, or blessing, onto the battle field. When we became a problem, he could pull that blessing and use it to take your summons away from you. Bringing them to life. You get all that died back, and he has still obeyed Rimiku," he said plainly. "Kagome, there was never a baby involved here. I doubt anything was able to conceive inside that blessing. But it had to be disguised as such so Suzaku was obeying his master," he said simply. "Your excessive cramping is because the blessing was taken suddenly and it isn't exactly a little thing to remove from your body. It was probably the size of the Tama. You'll heal and you'll conceive when the time is right."
She thought that through and sighed. He was right, of course, the master manipulator would figure it out.
"You do know that will never be you, right?" Kagome said crossing her arms over her chest.
"Well, you cannot blame a man for trying to be with that which he sought for the better part of a century," he said with a shrug. "I have different hopes for my future, but for now, I will assist you to get the timelines fixed. If I don't, none of us have a future. The key to killing the boy, is to kill his gods."
Kagome awoke with a start next to Sesshomaru. Her belly hurt again but there was such an odd scent in the air. Like… the Jasmine and Sakura she smelled in the pagoda. She sighed and rolled to her side, spooning against Sesshomaru's sleeping back.