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Strangled Time
Chapter 57
The storm remained still, right there on that windless winter day as the sun rose higher in the sky. Like the eye of a hurricane trapped in time, snow fell to calmness while a turbulent force played out around them.
Power, acrid and shocking, rocked the countryside. The humans of the city were mostly unaware, thinking the distant tremors to be nothing more than an earthquake or small landslides, but the rest of the land was on high alert. Beasts stirred from their hibernations in the forests of both the East and the West, bearing witness to the duel of extremes playing out along the border. Deer fled to lower plains. Birds flew in black schools overhead, seeking solace from the calamity and safety from the occasional flux of air bound energy.
Ultimately they found their safe space; right at the top of that hill overlooking the city of Chichibu. The one place in the wood where the battle did not reach.
They settled about in tree branches around the clearing, taking the place of the leaves that had long since fallen to the ground. Like thousands of tiny gargoylian courtiers they stood still, watching, observing.
Mourning.
She didn't pay them any mind or any bother.
She didn't pay anything any mind or any bother. Not in that undisturbable bubble of sorrow and silence.
Chaos was there, but it was background—a white noise static playing on a television in another room. But eventually someone turned down the volume and it faded even further away. The prickle of that familiar demonic tingle at the back of her neck lessened and lessened until it was nothing.
Numbness fell over the mountainside.
Then still reigned over all.
…
"So, this is where you've been hiding. With your aura masking the grounds, I almost couldn't find you."
Kagome didn't flinch at the unexpected sound of the stranger's voice. It was a strong voice, feminine yet deep and stern. Wiping her puffy eyes with her forearm, she turned where she was standing and placed herself protectively before Izayoi's headstone. "You're Tomboki, aren't you?"
The tall demon before her lifted her chin, assessing. She clicked her tongue. "Lord Tomboki. And you must be the priestess from the future."
"... You know about that?"
"My closest ally is a kilin who's mate had the unerring power of foresight. There are a lot of things that I know. It has been seventy years now since I have learned about you and your little tiff with..." Tomboki cut off and straightened, making her tall, robust frame all the bigger.
She had muted olive skin and her face was covered in green markings that curled across dark eyes. Those markings disappeared into wide, bony, green-grey structures on her forehead that looked more like a dinosaur's shield than a dragon's horns. Instead of stopping in spikes, they kept going, twisting and thinning into long soft ribbons that cascaded over her teased mane of oil slicked locks and down her back to float somewhere around her ankles. Her outfit had a long, ground sweeping blue and black vest cinched tight at the waist and closely tailored undersleeves. Black boots, black pants, black studded scalemale armor.
She was Toga's opposite in every single way possible, yet somehow her presence was oh so similar.
It was the presence of a powerful, fully fledged, Cardinal Lord.
Tomboki looked over Kagome's shoulder at the dog demon behind her, still propped against the stone with the child sleeping away in his cold lap. Eyebrows furrowed, softened, and then she turned away. "I've come to express my condolences... It does me good to know that he was with his son, at the end. Not the brat, but the cute one. He deserved it, after all he'd gone through to try and build a world for the boy."
"You mean that village he started, right?" Kagome asked, not giving in to her desire to look back at Toga. She'd only start crying again if she did. "The one Maki talked about, where humans and demons could coexist?"
"Yes, perhaps." The demon shook her head. "But more recently than that. The wound at his side. Future priestess, do you know how it is he got that wound?"
"He got it from Ryukotsusei—when he sealed the dragon in the valley."
"And do you know whythey were fighting?"
"Why? They were fighting because Ryukotsusei went crazy and started destroying everything. He was bloodthirsty and ruthless and Toga needed to defend his lands against him or else everything was going to be wiped out."
Tomboki grunted. "I assume the flea told you this?"
Suddenly feeling as if she were being scolded by a gym teacher, Kagome swallowed. "... And Totosai."
"Those two are useless." The dragon pressed her thumb and forefinger to her marked temple. "They should have been retired as retainers a century ago, but the damn dog was too attached to them. Their memories are selective at best. Even still they pick and choose around information; simplifying or neglecting events for the sake of easing their own burdens, no matter the consequence it has on anybody else. Only Togashimaru could ever find that an endearing trait." Tomboki took a sharp breath and gave her a side slanted look. "Did they even care to mention that he was my brother?"
Kagome stopped short of defending the flea and sword smith. "...No." She breathed, blue eyes wide and uncertain. "They didn't mention that."
With a sigh, Tomboki turned and walked across the clearing to look out over the cliff. When Kagome didn't follow, she beckoned the priestess with a loose wave. "Don't fear that I took personal offense. Ryukotsusei was bloodthirsty; at the end he'd completely lost himself. But he hadn't always been that way."
Feeling a story coming on, Kagome was compelled to join her. She took small steps across the hill, each one pulling her further away from Toga's body and twisting her heart. But she needed do it—to walk away, to extract herself from that pit of emptiness that she was beginning to fall into. When she found herself standing at Tomboki's very tall, very inhuman side, she felt small and brittle. Like a six year old girl who'd just lost her papa.
The young woman needed to wrap her arms around her own waist just to keep herself from falling apart as the dragon wove her tale.
"Ryukotsusei was my brother and a prospective heir to the Eastern Lands. In our tradition, the title is fought for among the reigning Lord's children. Only the strongest of the royal brood may rule, and as my brother came to find out, this does not always mean the eldest."
Kagome kept her eyes on the frozen landscape. "What did he do when you won?"
Tomboki rested her hands on her hips. "He left. Of the five of us, Ryukotsusei and I were the only ones to survive the trial. And when I emerged the victor, holding both our father's title and position of Lord, he exiled himself to the West."
"And that's when he fought Toga?"
A look of surprise crossed the demon's features at the casual nickname, but she shook it away. "Not yet. He lived in the Western Land for a thousand years. Political relations between he and Togashimaru were strenuous for a time, mainly due to the dog's lenient attitude towards the growing human civilizations in his territory. But eventually the two maintained a tentative friendship and formed a truce. Since Ryukotsusei was the one to exile himself from my lands, I had no foul with him; in fact, I was the one who encouragedTogashimaru to build that bond, as it would ease a potential thorn looming behind both of our shoulders. It was on the day that they were going to formalize their allegiance that my brother snapped in retaliation and commenced that final battle. You see, future priestess, Togashimaru had unknowingly made a major mistake."
Kagome had a feeling she didn't like where this story was heading. She bit her lip. "Please tell me it wasn't because of Inuyasha."
"Not entirely." Tomboki didn't give her any sort of reassurance as she glanced up to the dull clouds. "You see, a few years prior to that agreement, Ryukotsusei's youngest daughter had returned home to the East. Three days before the signing of their treaty, Togashimaru heard news that the daughter had taken a mate and was expecting. As he himself was expecting a second child any day, Togashimaru was... more than enthusiastic to praise Ryukotsusei's good fortune. He had a gift prepared, a robe of blue and silver. Akin to yours and to Inuyasha's. A garment so aptly named The Robe of the Water Serpent."
Closing her eyes, Kagome felt a marble of dread drop into her stomach. "The baby was a half demon." She stated.
"It was." The dragon confirmed. "Ryukotsusei had grown accustomed to humans building ever larger cities in the Western Lands, so different from the scarcely settled forests of the East. He had even come to accept that other demons could form bonds with humans on equal terms. But his own flesh and blood? That was unacceptable."
"What did he do?"
"He killed them. The entire family. My niece, the human man she'd fallen in love with, and the babe that had not even known its first breaths. It happened right under my nose. When I caught scent of what he'd done, I chased him, but he fled back over the border." At her side Tomboki's hands gripped to fists, but the demon was firm and steady and did not even tremble. "The agreement that I had with Togashimaru forbade us from spilling our enemies' blood on the each other's land, so I was unable to pursue Ryukotsusei any further without breaking my bond. I could only send an envoy and hope that they made it to Togashimaru in time before the signing of the treaty."
"They didn't."
"They didn't." Tomboki slowly shook her head. Her iridescent hair swayed. "In a stroke of poor luck, the Lady Izayoi went into labor that same day, making Togashimaru excitable and inattentive. Not having heard what happened, when Ryukotsusei arrived Togashimaru happily announced that the treaty should be in honor of a new generation—of new blood in both the East and the West. Of unions between humanity and demon kind. And at that my brother snapped. He proclaimed his crimes aloud and publicly admonished the Western Lord for having a half human child. He claimed that the West was become weak because of the dog and his love, because of Togashimaru's ready acceptance to dilute proud demon blood. Then he attacked, losing himself to his inner beast and his more baser primal instincts.
"Togashimaru had been on a crusade to change the minds of his kin, but he had taken to his human's footsteps and trusted too easily. Whether or not the world will ever be ready for such idealistic dreams, I'll never know. But Ryukotsusei? He wasn't ready."
"...What about you?" Kagome ventured when the dragon woman fell quiet.
Tomboki's face stayed steeled. "I do not care one way or another."
"But... but you've been harboring Inuyasha in your lands and keeping him safe. The city knows you as their Goddess Tomboki because you've been watching over them. Why? If you don't care, why do that?"
Crossing her arms, Tomboki gave a heavy sigh. "I do it because I loved my niece and Togashimaru was my ally and friend. It is what they would have wanted from me."
"You know..." The priestess' voice cracked. "He's alone now. Truly alone. Now that he's got nowhere to go... maybe you could—"
"I cannot bring that boy into my home."
Kagome spun towards her. Her face was red and hot and her hands clenched in the fabric of her baggy green pants. "Well why not? You just admitted that you were protecting him."
Tomboki didn't look at her. "My house is in a silent turmoil. My brother's remaining children would have me cut off all ties with the Western Lands, and more than one is planning to overthrow me. If I took Inuyasha into their den, he would be dead within the week, regardless of my efforts."
"Then couldn't you just look out for him from a distance? Like you've been doing?"
"I had no intentions to cease. My actions will not change just because a prediction has come and past. When the boy is within my lands, he will not need to fear death. I cannot ensure kindness or gentle receptions, but I can ensure that his life is not in imminent danger. That is the most to which I can commit."
Embarrassed by her jump to conclusions, Kagome looked down to the grown between them. Tomboki's shoes were massive next to hers. Inuyasha was still going to be chased and antagonized, but even so, knowing that he would never be in any true danger as long as he stuck around the East was a huge relief. "Thank you." She whispered as a tear tracked down her cheek.
"In return..." The priestess jolted as the demon started to speak her terms. "I shall call upon you, should I come across a matter that could benefit from your assistance."
"Ah! But I'm not from—!"
"I will be keeping my ear out, future priestess, for the time when you name can be heard upon the wind again."
With that Tomboki stepped up to the very edge of the hillside, to where reality dropped off into nothing.
"Wait!" Kagome jumped. "What happened with Sesshoumaru?"
For the first time she arrived, Tomboki laughed. It was curt but hearty, and once again it reminded Kagome of her high school track and field coach.
"That tempestuous little cur?" She asked with a dark grin. "You've riled his pants into a right twist. I've made sure he knows better than to step foot into my lands unannounced again, but if you intend to return through the West… You'd best be careful."
"Then how am I supposed to get home?"
"I don't have anymore answers for you. If you have questions, you should do what I do. Request an audience with the kilin." Tomboki said. Then she glanced over to Togashimaru's body one last time, closed her eyes, and fell forward.
"Wa—!" Kagome gasped. She ran over to try and grab the hem of the demon's vest, but she was to late. Tomboki was gone, tumbling over the edge of the cliff. Only she wasn't. Just then the huge form of a colorful dragon surged up from the land below. It brushed past Kagome's still outstretched hand, and flew away into the afternoon like morning stardust.
"But... I..."
The flustered young human girl fell to her knees and watched as the distant sky snake disappeared behind a cloud.
"...How can you listen for my name... if you didn't even ask it?"
…
"You heard that?" Kagome asked as he crept poorly up behind her.
"I heard talkin'." Saburo said. "So... yer from the future." That explained almost every question he ever had about the strange woman. When she remained quiet, he knelt down beside her. "Look, I get it. I won't be askin' questions. I'm sorry, I—that was stupid. I should be askin' if yer okay, not pryin'. But, ah, here..." Carefully, the blacksmith pulled the black cord from around his neck and held it out before them so that she could see it. "He said yer supposed ta know what to do with this?"
"The... necklace?" She looked at it, confused. Then she looked back at him.
"N-no. Not that." Ruffled, he brought the necklace close again to snap the string, then he pulled off each of the gems, one by one. They were burning hot now, almost unbearably. "These." He clarified, pressing stones into her palm.
When Kagome opened her hand she saw two little white orbs. Saburo pocketed the jade piece.
"I don't understand... Why—why do they have his aura?" The priestess stood up and her eyes widened. "Saburo, they're changing."
"He said they're some sorta link or somethin'."
Saburo got up and followed Kagome to the center of the clearing. The closer that they got to Togashimaru's body, the cloudier the pearls became. Grey tendrils like smoke curled around their outer shell, tainting the pure white beneath. By the time they reached the demon's side, they had gone pitch as ink.
"They're black pearls." She said, voice quiet with awe. "The black pearl is a portal to Toga's tomb. Saburo, what happens at moonrise?"
Relieved that she really did know what they were and the General wasn't just full of total bullshit, Saburo pulled back to what little the demon had told him. "Moonrise. His body disappears. He's got some sorta spell set up already that'll move him to his final restin' place after he dies. Had that done a couple months ago when he got his swords commissioned. It's so that no one could... harvest his parts ta make stronger demon weapons."
It seemed to click for her instantly. Her lips parted. "That was why Myoga and the others thought he died fifteen years ago. They didn't find his body, so they must have thought he'd already disappeared. So then this..." She picked up the two pearls from her palm. Two, not one. He could see her mind calculating like a buzzing wasp. "Saburo, if he said that they're a link, then I don't think the black pearl is just a portal to the the other world... I think the black pearl opens a portal... to the other black pearl. It's a link."
Her gaze fell beside them, to the snow dusted body of Togashimaru and the little Inuyasha curled up against it. "If he's going to be moved to his tomb then..." She mumbled as she knelt down, rolling pearls in her hand. Taking just one of them, she carefully and hesitantly extended it forward. Over Inuyasha's head, to the place where his Toga's silent heart sat, Kagome touched the dark little gem to his chest.
As soon as it made contact, the black pearl began to glow. White? Maybe a white glow, but definitely a glowing type of glow. One that even Saburo could see. He jumped back and watched in a morbid fascination as the crusty old sea booger sank beneath the folds of the demon's haori and straight into flesh.
"What th—" He sputtered quietly. "Did... did that just?"
"Yeah."
"I saw it. The light, the magic, the—what the hell."
"Putting it in... was a lot easier than taking one out." She was shaking, even her voice was quivering.
"Okay, well... what are ya supposed ta do with th' other one?"
Kagome swallowed. "Seeing, but never seen; protected, yet never known to its protector."
"...I'm not any good at riddles. What does that mean?"
"It means that I know where the stupid pearl goes, Saburo." The priestess hissed.
He flinched, but had to ask. "...And?"
"And I need to think about it, okay?"
Saburo backed off a couple paces and gave her space. He raised his hands to show that he wasn't a threat. "Okay, Miss Kagome. Whatever ya need ta do."
She pulled her swollen eyes away from him to look down at the little half demon, still deep in his sleep. "I... I'm going to take Inuyasha back down to camp."
"Alright."
"He shouldn't wake up to this."
"Sure."
"You'll... watch over him while I'm gone? Keep him safe?"
She wasn't talking about Inuyasha anymore.
Saburo couldn't get himself to look at Togashimaru, knowing what he needed to do next. He couldn't look at Kagome either, knowing how much it was going to hurt her when she found out what he'd done.
Hating the soapy taste of the lie on his tongue, Saburo nodded.
"Of course."
…
Kagome paced back and forth past the unlit campfire pit. She looked at the black pearl clutched in her fingers then back down to the peacefully sleeping pup.
She had a decision to make.
Either she could put the pearl where it was supposed to go... or she could not.
What would happen if she didn't do it? What if she put it somewhere else?
Well, putting it somewhere else might give Sesshoumaru the opportunity to find it sooner. He could find it and then discover some other way to take Tetsusaiga before Inuyasha was ready. Or it could be moved and they might lose it forever, leaving Inuyasha Tetsusaiga-less and victim to his demon takeover side.
Or what if she just took it with her to the present, bypassing its original timeline altogether?
Again, same problem, they needed Tetsusaiga all that time. And if the pearl wasn't there? What would happen to Inuyasha when Sesshoumaru came looking for it and it just didn't exist? Would he have hesitated to kill them at that point?
However... if she put it where it's supposed to go, Sesshoumaru will still lose his arm in that fight.
Why she cared so much about that now though, of all times, she had no clue! It was probably just a side effect of learning that Sesshoumaru hated green onions.
Tearing up over the green onion fact, Kagome held her tongue back from screaming. She wasn't in the right emotional state of mind to be making such a big choice!
Pearl in hand, she spun to face Inuyasha, lying there all cute and innocent.
…It already happened, right? Technically, from her perspective it did. They got through it, they all did. Even Sesshoumaru. Especially Sesshoumaru. If he hadn't lost his arm, he might not have ever met Rin. And if he never met Rin, would he have even started changing for the better in the first place? Probably not.
This was the right thing to do.
She needed to just do it
Just. Do it.
Shivering, Kagome bent down to the bedroll where Inuyasha was curled. She gently shifted him from his shoulder to his back and hovered there over him, his literal fate in her hands. Then slowly she lowered the pearl over his closed eyelid.
Just like with the first one, it began to glow.
Just like with the first one it began to sink magically into his flesh.
But this time, very much not like the first one, the recipient of her pearl began to scream.
Kagome gasped and pushed the pearl in the rest of the way as the little half demon woke and thrashed. He clawed at her hands and wrists in his panic and wailed in pain. The act of holding him there as if she were drowning a sack of kittens made her feel like the most evil human being on earth.
The instant she felt that the pearl was gone, she let go. He scrambled up and back, unsteady. Tiny hands pawed at his face, at his eye.
"Oh my god, I'm sorry!" She cried with him. "I didn't know it would hurt! Inuyasha? Inuyasha, stop!" She grabbed his arm to keep him from gouging his own eye out.
His pupil looked wrong—too wide, too black—but she knew that was only temporary. There were tears streaming down his cheek, red with blood, but only from that right side. Kagome felt tears of her own, rolling in hot and fierce.
Then look he gave her was of absolute betrayal.
She was a monster.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to yell." She tried again in a calmer voice.
He just fell back down, too defeated to even yank from her grip. "It hurts." He told her, exhausted and sobbing. "You made it hurt. It hurts so bad. Stop it hurting."
"I—I can't. I don't know how. I'm so sorry, I can't take it back." A hiccup. "It'll go away soon, I promise. It'll stop hurting and your eye will go back to normal, it will."
"My eye's weird?" Terrified, he touched his cheek. This time when he pulled his hand back, he saw his own blood.
Inuyasha shrieked.
Kagome dropped his wrist as he reverted back into that awful, traumatized state that she'd originally found him in back at his shack. The blood, like his mothers blood beneath his fingernails. He was a mess. When she tried to reach for him again, to sooth him, he flinched away from her touch.
The priestess froze.
When Inuyasha backed away from her like a terrified baby bunny with its eyes on the gaping maw of a wolf, she could only watch.
And when he ran away into the woods, she let him go.
That was his destiny, after all, to be scared and alone, distrustful of all.
What have I done? She asked herself. I didn't know it'd hurt. I didn't know!
She was about to go after him, to try and fix the bond of trust she'd just shattered so irreparably. But instead she felt something strange. Something wrong. An aura that didn't belong.
...Toga?
They were supposed to have until moonrise!
…
She ran up to the top of the hill as fast as her legs would take her. "Saburo!?" She shouted. "Toga?!"
But he was gone, they were both gone. Izayoi's tombstone was bare, save for a large, dark pool of blood.
From than blood there were tracks, drag marks leading back and away in an odd direction. Panicked, she followed them. The blood led to the trees that lined the clearing opposite the cliff, a treeline that she had never before crossed. She followed them deeper into that foreign new forest, worried that she might have overlooked Sesshoumaru's aura at some point in her time down at camp.
She followed those tracks out to a clearing that she hadn't known was there. A clearing far larger than the top of the hill and secluded from the gaze of the city.
And in that clearing, there they were.
The back of Saburo stood quivering and minuscule before the still body of a gigantic dog. It was the size of a small mountain, in it's own regard, and had curly, ivory fur.
A gleam of metal in the light brought Kagome's attention back to the blacksmith.
"Saburo!" She screamed and lunged forward. Grabbing two fistfuls of his top, Kagome yanked him back. Already unbalanced, Saburo went tumbling to the ground. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"
He stared with wide eyes at the knife held in his hands. Lips flapped for words but made no noise. His look of panic was raw. He looked up and up at the fallen demon skyscraper and then to the woman standing over top of him. The entire time he'd been shaking his head.
"I—I can't do it, Miss Kagome. He told me—I knew—He said he was gonna change back at some point, but, but, but this. It's—I can't." Saburo gripped the cold steel handle of his dagger and dug grooves into his palms. "H-He said I had ta. He didn't want you… didn't want ya seein' 'im like this. Like—he didn't want you ta have ta be here for it. He asked me ta do this! I've gotta. But I—I don't think I can do it."
"Do what, Saburo!? Kill him?" She sobbed. "He's already dead!"
"N-not kill 'im. The… The hide."
"The…?"
"The fur. He said it was important. Somethin' about titles and honor. I don't know. I can't remember."
Kagome stared at him, horrified. "You were going to skin him!?"
"Y-yeah, but no. No! I can't. I can't even skin a goat!"
"What the actual fuck, Saburo?!" She tore the knife from his hands and held it to her pounding, swelling, hyperventilating chest. "You don't… You don't skin people, Saburo! I—" She gripped her free hand to her hair. "What is even happening right now!?"
"This… Miss Kagome, this is why he… He knew you couldn't—you can't separate the man from the beast. He knew it'd just hurt ya. S-so he asked me ta do this. He asked. The Lady Ma Kilin—she told me I had ta do what he asked!"
Kagome tried to breath. It hurt so bad to breathe. "Maki told you?"
"Ta follow through with his wishes."
"And… this?"
"I know it sounds crazy."
"You're right, it does sound crazy."
"—But he asked me ta do this, so that he didn't have ta ask you."
"Why?…Why would he even want that?"
Saburo was finally starting to calm down. Crossing his legs he rested his hands on his knees and took a long breath. "Fer his sons." He explained. "Now I mighta gotten some o' this wrong. He said his older kid earned his princes' pelt once he proved himself a suitable heir, but that th' boy never won his full pelt and th' title that came with it. He's th' Lord of th' West, but he ain't the General. He's always gonna be looked down to as a kid by the stronger demons, 'cause... because he never fully took the title from his father. He didn't have the proof of his father's defeat."
"Right. Togashimaru… He killed his own dad when he took over the lands. That was their tradition." Kagome thought about Tomboki and Ryukotsusei and their own tradition in the East to fight among their siblings, to the death. "The furs that he wore…" Those furs that she threw into a ditch that first night she'd found the dog crumpled at the bottom of the well. "They belonged to his father. And Sesshoumaru... That was the entire reason why he wanted to kill Togashimaru."
"He wants his kids ta be recognized, even though they weren't th' ones ta kill 'im."
"He's changing tradition and passing along the torch his own way."
Saburo nodded. "He's passin' it along willfully. Not by force. That's why I gotta do this, Miss Kagome."
The priestess looked up again at the dog demon. Dead and immense. He was just as huge as she remembered his bones being in his tomb. She could visualize just how powerful he'd been.
He was beautiful.
His fur was thick and lavish. His ears long. His eyes closed.
He could have been sleeping.
Oh gods, she'd fought against his son in his chest cavity.
"Miss Kagome?"
Kagome gave a start. Wiping away the fresh tears in her eyes she shook her head.
"No."
"No?"
"No." She repeated. And then she handed him back his dagger. From her hip she unsheathed her wakizashi short sword. She sniffed then looked up at the sky to blink away the wrongness. "That's why we need to do this."
Saburo stiffened. "Are you sure?"
"No." She squeaked and shook her head. "I'm not sure of anything anymore."
Chapter End