CHAPTER 35
THE FOUR SOULS
Part 1
Previously on The Call of Tenseiga
The monk turned to Jiro who was looking at him with intensity. "It's a disembodied voice and it's telling us to follow it."
Miroku rubbed his chin, deep in contemplation, "Follow where?"
Takuma suddenly sat up straight, his face pale. "To where Sesshoumaru is."
The Land of Rus [ancient name of Russia]
Small animals and insects that like the dark and dank places scurry about all over the rooms in the dungeon. But no matter how they love the ideal environment for their kind all of them seem to avoid one particular area of the dungeon where many of Rylanion's harvest were kept.
The dark covers the casements like a diabolical blanket while it glows and pulsate like faceted gems even in pitch dark but one can still make out what it bears inside the translucent coffin-like shapes among the hundreds contained right under the dungeon.
Not even Fate can tell whether the poor souls trapped within could escape...not even Fate...
The Guardian of Souls
'Hey Rylanion! Come back here, you asshole!' What the hell is this?! Is he faster than me? Oh no, you don't! She could hear him laughing as he evaded her attacks. With a fresh burst of speed from her wings the hybrid smirked as Rylanion's back was almost within her reach. "I got you!" With a mighty swing her claws raked the back of the evil youkai.
'Huh?!' Kagome quickly skidded to a halt as Rylanion vanished like smoke. 'What happened? Did I kill him? Is he dead?' but when she looked at her hand there was no blood on it. 'He..he wasn't even real.' she whispered with a shocking realization. Damn it!
'Rylanion! Ry...la...' The shout froze from her lips as the ground that she was standing on and the forest blurred and faded into white.
What the hell?
'It's this void again! I hate this void...why am I back here, again?' silver brows scrunched in confusion as she looked around the archromatic background. White...white...white everywhere; its stark colorless uniformity wearies the eyes but this place is familiar to the hybrid. She wonders whether what the whiteness has in store for her again. It was becoming cold and there's something else that's bothering her...
'Huh?!' she gasped, clutching her chest. 'OMG! I remember what happened! Dear lord, what happened to all of them? Where are they?' she began trotting to get to Sesshoumaru, Rin and Shippo and the rest of the humans that were caught in Rylanion's mad plans. He wanted the people to go with him, she doesn't know what his plan is for them but it's obvious that Rylanion can't be trusted.
'It's no use. I'm i'm just tiring myself,' she sighed deeply, frustration tainting her aura after sensing that she is not getting anywhere the void so she stopped. 'But,' Kagome nodded resolutely, determination hardening her eyes, 'I have to try. I'm bound to find them in here or I'll die trying.'
Before she took another step a loud chiming sound made her stiffen from where she stands, hands on her ears and when the chiming stopped the mirror tattoo felt warm up on her forehead. She reached up. 'What's happening up here?' The only time she heard that sound was when... 'When I got drawn up into the mirror!' The hybrid gulped nervously, 'Why are you active again, huh? What do you want?'
Incredibly, a ghostly apparition of the mirror appeared a few meters before her and within it she could see a faceted-shaped being with striking eyes. The same eyes looked sad and without a doubt Kagome knew who this is.
She gasped in realization, "Kagami? Is... that you?"
"Yes, Kagome. It is I. I want to help you, if you would let me."
'Uh...' she paused, ' I guess I could use some kind of help to find them. But I suppose, um, you need something from me in return?" Kagome asked with a measure of trepidation, stepping back.
"No, I don't want anything from you, Kagome. What I did to you was unforgiveable."
"Uh yes, about that," Kagome cleared her throat, "why did you do it?"
"When my mistress Zarianna was killed..." glassine tears welled up. "I felt so sad and all alone for a long long time. Zarianna was kind to everyone...and when I saw you in that other time in the future I...I..." Kagami buried her face in her hands, shoulders shaking.
"You wanted to bring her back..." Kagome filled in for the poor beleaguered mirror spirit. "...because you miss her."
"Yes. I was desperate to end this loneliness, Kagome. You don't know how..." Kagami sobbed.
"Believe me, I do." Kagome whispered sadly and touched the glass surface, not fearing the entity within.
"When Muchitsujo forced me to activate the portal I saw my chance to bring her back. But in my extreme loneliness I used and tricked you...I'm so sorry..." Kagami also touched the glass, eyes earnest. "I would understand if you could not forgive me..."
"I forgive you." Kagome whispered tearfully.
Kagami sobbed, "I remembered you were that priestess that was with the half-youkai who killed Kanna. You and my mistress were similar; both kind and nurturing."
"Inuyasha..." Kagome gasped as pain long forgotten surfaced at the mention of her friend.
"Ah yes, Inuyasha." nodded the mirror spirit. "Bless him...Oh, Kagome? Why?" Kagami reached over beyond the mirror to clasp Kagome's hand.
"My friend...Inuyasha...he was taken from me." she choked.
"Oh, Kagome. I grieve with you..." the mirror entity gently wiped the tears from the girl's cheeks. "I don't want to lose people again. Your friends have become a part of me too. Please accept my help and let us free them." Kagami looked at the girl, sensing her hesitation. "I never wanted to be used to kill people but Naraku did something to me. He trapped me in my own home and filled it with the souls of people he killed..." Kagami's eyes looked far away, remembering the past. "It was horrible to witness! That child Kanna was a monster. And worse of all Mutchitsujo found what I did and tortured me to free them. But now that they're gone you are now my mistress and I will do everything in my power to help you and the people you love, Kagome."
*{O}*
The Lord of Souls
"What an irritation,' Sesshoumaru sniffed in infuriation looking around; there is nothing to see but a blank 'Is this a way to cage me? Does this stupid low level sorcerer think that he could bind me in this manner? I am not so feeble minded as to be taken in by this cheap trick.' the tall taiyoukai clacked his finely tapered fingers wishing for the soft neck of that Rylanion to wrap it around in.
He was about to slay the stag he was hunting when suddenly it disappeared as it leaped over a ravine, it missed his neon whips by a hairsbreadth. It perplexed him when the entire forest began to transform before his very eyes his perfectly trimmed brows almost met into a 'V' under his crescent moon tattoo.
"What a despicable villain!" he spat as his true prison was revealed in the form of this sweeping emptiness.
"To resort to this step in imprisoning this Sesshoumaru would prove to be his biggest failure." As the prison neither has sound nor smell to get his bearings on the taiyoukai released his neon whips and swung it to its maximum length to ascertain what is around him. But the ends that reached about a hundred feet could not find any solid shape to hit or latch on to. In disappointment the poisonous ribbons retract to their home under his nails.
The Cardinal lord pulsed is youki in ever larger circles but his aura also came up empty. "Hm, a shame that in this phantom cage my swords were left outside."
He noticed, far beyond the 'horizon' he could barely see some vague shapes but could not be certain if it is solid or just a figment of his imagination.
Yes, it might be his imagination but one of the shapes seem to be as small as...
Rin.
Wide-eyed and breathless as if he'd been slammed on a wall, the taiyoukai forgot his diatribe at the thought of his daughter and her possible condition. Where is she? What has happened to her? Is she trapped as well? Where did that fiend take her?
Never in his life is the word fear familiar to his nature until a tiny brown-eyed girl came under his protection. He found the pitiful lifeless body on that forest after following the scent of her blood. He already knew that nothing could be done for the girl who tried her best to provide what meager food offerings she could scrounge up so he could get his strenght back. If only he was not so enraged at Inuyasha then perhaps he would not have snarled at her approach.
He was stopped in his tracks when the sword woke and pulsed. What is this? Another experiment for Tenseiga? Well, why not? He questioned why of all people would his father's sword pick this human to test Tenseiga with. Of course, Tenseiga, like his long dead sire had left him with another mystery for him to gnaw upon.
Rin was like a tiny seed planted in the arid soil of his heart where her presence in his life spread like fragile tiny roots until one day he found that his heart and his existence has been softened and nourished by her gap-toothed smiles and quirky giggles.
But softened heart or no his ruthlessness would bare its fangs to anyone foolish enough to harm her. Rin may not have come from his own flesh and blood but it matters not because she was more than his flesh and blood; she is a part of his soul.
She was chosen by Tenseiga, his father's fang.
"I will rend that foul Rylanion from head to toe if he even touches one strand of Rin's hair!" he roared inside the emptiness. The echo came back at him like a wave when a rock hits still water.
The wave spoke.
*{O}*