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Reunion
But he sat still, stiff and cold; then little Gerda wept hot tears, which fell upon his breast.
Kirara was losing her breath. The exertion of flying so high, higher than she probably ever had to, was taking its toll on Kagome's faithful traveling companion.
"Just a little higher, Kirara, a little higher," she mumbled like a prayer, trying to cover her burning eyes with her hand. The wind was so cold that the girl couldn't feel her face anymore.
I did not travel this far to lose now, she thought determinedly. Kagome leaned closer to Kirara's neck, trying to make it easier for her to cut through the wind.
They suddenly entered the white clouds and couldn't see anything else. For a brief moment, Kagome was scared of being attacked right then and there by something or someone trying to protect the castle, but she reasoned with herself that Totosai didn't seem like he would send them to their deaths.
He said this place is impossible to find unless you know what you're looking for. Would it need defences? People don't know it exists anymore…
Even so, she only relaxed when they reemerged.
Kagome wasn't prepared for the sight that greeted her.
A long set of stone stairs ended on a terrace far above. She could see guards standing on each level leading to the terrace, spears in hand and eyes undoubtedly on her. To Kagome's despair, a few of them put arrow to bow, but she reigned in her panic when they didn't do anything else.
Kirara landed softly on a narrow platform where the stairs began. Kagome patted the cat's head and climbed down shakily, not daring to look behind her at the expanse of sky.
We're on a floating castle. My God, we're on a floating castle.
"State your business!" One of the guards on the first floor shouted to her. Kagome noticed he didn't seem worried about her presence.
Well, why would he be? She thought wryly. Kagome could only imagine how ragged and tired she looked.
"I-I'm here to talk to Lady Setsumi!" She yelled back.
"And what is your name?"
Kagome hesitated, afraid that the Snow Queen somehow knew who she was. What if she sends me away? Sighing, she realized she didn't have a choice; no demon queen would agree to meet with 'anonymous human peasant', after all.
"Kagome," she said firmly.
The guard turned to his companion and whispered something; with a nod, the other man walked away. Kagome understood then that the castle was actually well protected in its own unusual way: one word from the queen, and the intruder would be shot into the void.
The girl kneeled to Kirara's level, took off the red scarf Sango had given her and put it around the cat demon's neck.
"If the sun sets and I don't come back to meet you here, take this to Princess Sango." Kagome swallowed. "She'll contact my family and let them know—" I'm dead. The girl fell silent, unable to finish the sentence.
Kirara mewed in agitation, and Kagome instinctively understood the nekomata wanted to go upstairs with her. "No, Kirara." She sighed, patting the cat's neck soothingly. "If anything happens, I'll need someone to send them the news. I can't let them wait forever," she said quietly.
The cat huffed, but nodded.
"You may go see her!" The guard that had spoken to her shouted again. Kagome saw his companion was back beside him.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped away from Kirara and started climbing.
Looking back on the moment she arrived at that terrace, Kagome would be able to swear her heart stopped beating for a few seconds.
She vaguely assimilated that there was a long horizontal throne with a white-haired woman sitting on it. A whisper of rationality reminded her she should have been scared, but the whisper was silenced by waves of uncontrollable emotion.
All her senses were trained on Inuyasha, her favorite person, childhood playmate and best friend—hunched down only a few feet away. His position was so familiar to her, as were his hair and clothes, that she couldn't see anything wrong with him at first. Her mind was blissfully empty of all but the utter happiness of finally having found him, found him alive!
Kagome started jogging.
Halfway there, she noticed there were jagged purple stripes on his cheeks, and that the eyes that regarded her weren't amber; they were icy blue, surrounded by red. Getting even closer, she realized his hands and feet were stuck to the ground under layers of ice.
When she launched herself at the half-demon, the girl was breathless. She didn't pay any mind to the warning growl that escaped his throat, nor the narrowing of his unfamiliar eyes—no, none of that was important. Kagome was too busy cupping his face in her hands, feeling his skin under her fingertips and trying her hardest not to start bawling.
"Inuyasha! I-Inuyasha!"
What more could she say? There were no words.
She felt her eyes pricking. He snapped his jaw at her, forcing her to retract her hands—but she didn't move away. She wouldn't move away from him ever again if she had any say in it.
"It's m-me, Inuyasha!" She said urgently, her brown eyes begging him to see her.
"He doesn't know who you are," a bored female voice said. "He might not even know who he is anymore."
Kagome turned her head to the side to be able to see past Inuyasha's white mane. She furrowed her brows upon meeting the woman's gaze.
"I would ask how you got here, girl, but I doubt you'd tell me."
Kagome slowly stood up, taking in the Snow Queen's rich indigo kimono, her fur mantle and her cold golden eyes.
"What happened to him?" She asked, trying to control the blatant aggressiveness in her voice. She didn't step away from Inuyasha, who was left staring at her middle—still growling.
"He lost himself to the power of the Shikon no Tama," Lady Setsumi said, standing up from her throne and stepping a little closer. "Do you know what that is?"
"Yes," Kagome answered promptly, satisfied to see the demoness raise her eyebrows. "I'm here to ask you to free him from it—and from yourself."
The girl distantly wondered why she sounded so brave and confident; she certainly didn't feel it. Kagome put one hand on Inuyasha's shoulder for moral support.
He left it there for a second before trying to bite her fingers off.
The tears were back, making the Snow Queen seem like a white and purple blur in front of her. Kagome blinked them away, clenching her jaw.
"Will you not ask me why I brought him here?" Setsumi's voice sounded a little softer, maybe even a little motherly.
It occurred to Kagome that the Snow Queen might pity her, but she wasn't sure how to feel about it, so she dismissed the notion.
Do I want to know why she brought him here? The girl mused. Is there anything she could say to justify her actions? Is there anything that could make her look better in my eyes? Kagome looked down at Inuyasha's head, noticing how uncharacteristically stiff his ears were. Is there anything that would make me hate her less?
"I don't care," Kagome blurted. "I don't care why you kidnapped him. I don't even want to know how he got the shard in the first place—just undo it." She bit the inside of her cheek and closed her eyes. "Please."
Inuyasha was getting agitated, sniffing the air and trying to free himself from the unusually strong ice. She couldn't stand to see him like that, bound to the ground as if he were a mindless beast. Rage made Kagome's blood boil—it was unlike anything she'd ever felt.
Lady Setsumi smirked.
Sweet, innocent Kagome saw herself pushing the woman from the floating castle—and she wanted to do it so badly.
"I thought humans were curious creatures," the Snow Queen remarked. "I thought 'why' was your favorite question word."
If Kagome's nails weren't blunt, she'd have digged holes in her palms. "I'm curious to know if you'll help him." Even though she was trying to keep her courageous façade on, the girl's shoulders slumped. "I wanna take him home."
Setsumi's expression grew pensive. She lifted one delicate white eyebrow.
Without warning, the Snow Queen turned around and walked past her throne to the short set of wooden stairs that led to the sliding doors.
"W-Where are you going?"
The door closed in her wake with a soft thud, leaving Kagome alone with Inuyasha.
Kneeling in front of him again, the anxious girl touched his face. There was no recognition in his eyes, but his brows were furrowed.
"You know me," she said, offering him a small smile. "You've known me all your life."
Kagome traced his thick brows with her fingertips. Inuyasha grunted, but the sound came out a little soft. His icy blue pupils were boring into her; it made her shudder to realize he wasn't blinking. Noticing his tangled mass of hair, she sighed.
"You used to let me comb your hair when we were younger." She held a strand, twining it between two fingers. One of his ears twitched. "You got too dignified for that, I guess."
He huffed.
Kagome's eyes snapped up to his at the sound, desperately searching for a sign of emotion. He tugged impatiently at his bound hands, snapping his jaw at the girl again and missing her neck by a hairsbreadth.
It was the last straw.
Kagome grabbed his forelocks and made him look her in the eye.
"STOP!" She yelled, her face contorting from the want to cry. "You would never hurt me—don't you know that? Did you really forget everything?"
He was even more agitated by her words; judging from his expression, he seemed to be in deep pain. The thought made her chest hurt.
"You once made me promise I would bring you back if you ever went crazy," Kagome said, losing the fight against her tears. It was all too much. "Y-You made me p-promise! I did all I could—I'm still doing it. I could n-never give up on you, Inuyasha, so—" she took a deep breath to calm herself, but it was too late for that. Throwing her arms around his neck, she held him tight, his arms stuck between them. "So please, p-please don't give up on me, Inuyasha. Not now, not now that I have you back!"
Not ever, she silently wished. Come back to me, please, just come back—I can't do this anymore—I'm so tired—
"Don't cry."
She leaned back with a start.
His cheeks were still marked by jagged stripes and his eyes were still red, but the pupils were golden now. The red was dissipating under her expectant gaze; his face went from stoic to soft.
He tried to smile, he really did.
She made a strangled sound, cupping his face in her hands and bringing their foreheads together.
"Is it really you, Kagome?" He asked in a roughened voice, so different yet familiar at the same time. "Are you really here?"
"Y-Yes, Inuyasha!"
She held him and he lay his head on her shoulder—it was the only way he could reciprocate the gesture. His earthy smell surrounded her, making her feel complete in a way she hadn't for almost two seasons.
Someone cleared their throat.
Kagome looked up to see Setsumi standing there, closer than she had been before. It didn't surprise the girl that she hadn't heard the woman approaching, but she was startled nonetheless.
Setsumi was holding something long and frozen in her hands.
"You were able to bring him back without the sword, but it won't last," she stated. "His father's blood is too strong for a half-demon to handle."
Kagome frowned at the implication that Inuyasha was weak. The girl wanted nothing more than to punch the purple moon on Lady Setsumi's forehead until it was faint.
Inuyasha turned his face to the side to glare at Setsumi, too, but he didn't seem particularly angry with her—just annoyed.
"He only has moments of rationality," the woman resumed, ignoring Inuyasha's growl. "He was so violent I had to restrain him—he could have hurt himself otherwise. That won't be necessary if he has the sword."
Kagome got up with an anxious expression on her face. "So you-you'll help?"
"Keh." Inuyasha was smiling without humor. "Don't trust anything she says," he rasped, sounding very tired. "She wants me to stay. There's no other heir to this shithole." He let his head fall against his chest, breathing raggedly.
Looking from Inuyasha to his stepmother, Kagome clenched her fists.
"You brought him here because there's no one else to inherit your castle? Are you serious?" She spat. "Where were you when he was being humiliated, isolated and unjustly feared?" The girl was shaking; she could feel her blood boiling. "Where the hell were you when Lady Izayoi died?"
"Watch your tone," Setsumi said quietly—much too quietly. Kagome shivered involuntarily, but managed to hold her ground. "I don't owe you an explanation."
Kagome stared at her with disgust.
"Inuyasha's father told me to give him this sword if he ever succumbed to the madness of the blood." Setsumi extended her arms. "I knew Inuyasha would want to go back to you as soon as it did its job, so I kept it to myself, but seeing as you are conveniently here…" She paused. "The sword has a spinning dial on its scabbard, right above the handle." One white long finger touched the frozen surface to show where it was. "I will defrost it and toss it to you, girl. Spin the dial until you find the password—I don't know what it is."
Kagome frowned. She didn't understand why Setsumi didn't seem to want to touch the sword, but there were other pressing thoughts demanding her attention.
Why isn't she worried we'll leave as soon as Inuyasha is himself again? Kagome wondered.
She tore her eyes away from the sword to look at Inuyasha. He lifted his head slowly; they locked gazes. The white in his eyes was pinkish, slowly reddening again.
"Go home, Kagome," he said in that strange voice. "Go home while you still can, or she'll keep you here." He snorted. "She'll keep you here so I won't leave. Either way, I fucking stay—as a demon or not."
"I'd rather have a sane heir, of course," Setsumi interjected.
"I don't care what you want," he spat. "Leave Kagome OUT of your damn ploys!"
Inuyasha was shaking.
The Snow Queen's eyes seemed to shine. "What happened to your frozen heart, boy?"
The half-demon didn't answer. He kept staring at Kagome. Setsumi chuckled; to her, that seemed to be answer enough.
"Like father, like son."
Inuyasha was silently fuming, Kagome could tell.
"If this sword can help you, Inuyasha, I'll open it," the girl declared. "And don't worry about us staying here—we won't." She looked at Setsumi and lifted her chin. "We'll escape, even if it's the last thing we do."
The Snow Queen smiled satisfactorily. The ice enveloping the sword started to melt, wetting the floor.
"Don't be stupid, Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled. "Just go already—I bet your mom doesn't know where you are!"
"Not without you!"
"Catch."
Kagome managed to grab the sword before it hit her face. Holding it tightly against her chest, she kneeled in front of Inuyasha again. He stubbornly turned his face away.
Setsumi went back to her throne and sat down, resting her chin on one hand. She seemed to be scrutinizing the sky and sniffing discreetly.
"This could be a trap," Inuyasha mumbled. "She didn't wanna touch it."
His eyes were almost completely red.
"No… She wants you sane and she wants you here." Kagome touched the tip of her finger to the black wooden spinning dial, feeling the engraved kanji it currently displayed. "It's a good thing I don't have to know how to read to find the password…"
Inuyasha sighed, looking back at her. "I don't know how you got here, but you shouldn't have come."
Kagome winced at his words. Little could have hurt her more.
"How-How can you say that?" She stuttered. "If I disappeared during a blizzard, wouldn't you have searched for me? Wouldn't you have tried anything in your power to find me again?"
"You know I would," he muttered.
"Well, that's it, then!" She rolled her eyes. "Let's open this sword and see what it does to help you. Then, let's make this so-called Snow Queen release us—and go home!"
Inuyasha was looking at her in awed silence, his eyes completely red with golden pupils. Before she lost her nerve, Kagome leaned forward and pecked his cheek, blushing profusely.
She tried to ignore Setsumi's distant snort.
"I wanna go home with you, too," he blurted. "I've wanted to go back since I got here—I just want you to know that, in case I can't say it later."
In case this doesn't work and he loses his mind permanently.
"I knew you weren't yourself then," Kagome smiled, trying to make him stop talking so she wouldn't start crying again. "Let's get this over with, alright?"
The girl turned the spinning dial once.
Before Kagome could do it again, Setsumi jumped up from her throne without warning. She was staring at something behind them.
The girl turned her head.
Standing there at the end of the staircase was another white-haired, golden-eyed demon. He also had a purple moon on his forehead, though the twin magenta stripes on his cheeks were different from Setsumi's. He wore a spiked armor and a strange fur pelt over his shoulder.
The strangest thing he had on him, though, was an unconscious human girl in his arms.
"Hello, Mother."
"Sesshomaru."
The demon walked gracefully to her, sparing Kagome and Inuyasha only a fleeting glance, as if they weren't worthy of acknowledgement. He stopped in front of Setsumi before walking to the side and depositing the sleeping girl on the throne.
"Tenseiga isn't working," his baritone voice intoned. "Explain."
Setsumi seemed slightly taken aback. Inuyasha's face was turned to the side so he could look at the newcomer, his eyes wide and unblinking.
I thought she said Inuyasha was the only heir, Kagome thought. Was she lying? Why?
So much for not wanting to hear her explanations…
"Is this what you have to say to your mother after all this time, son?" Setsumi stiffened her back. "I thought you were dead."
"You did not." He tore his eyes away from the little girl to look at the Snow Queen. "You knew I was alive, otherwise you wouldn't have brought the half-demon here."
Setsumi didn't react to his statement in any way Kagome could tell. Both mother and son were the true image of stoicism, standing there facing each other.
Sesshomaru smiled. It was a small, cold gesture. "You brought him here to lure me back to this castle. You thought I wouldn't allow someone like him to be the heir, even though I didn't want to be it myself."
Inuyasha's ears twitched and he growled low. Kagome knew the only reason he didn't interrupt them was because he was interested in the conversation. It wasn't like him to keep quiet after hearing he was probably used as bait.
"Did I, now?" Setsumi sighed. "And how could I have been sure that the news of his presence here would reach you, may I ask?"
"You know I make it my business to be well informed at all times, Mother," Sesshomaru stated. "And the lowlives who serve you are prone to gossip, in spite of what you may think." He looked at Inuyasha and Kagome. "I wonder what you will do next…"
"Well, you are here, aren't you?" Setsumi smiled. "If I planned to lure you, I unquestionably succeeded."
"I did not come back to stay," Sesshomaru said, regarding his mother once more. "I still have no desire to be stuck in this castle indefinitely, like you." He lowered his head to the unconscious little girl. "I am here to ask why Tenseiga isn't working."
Kagome was trying to follow the conversation, but she knew it was no use; there was too much she didn't know. Inuyasha was giving signs of being in pain again, so she decided to worry about him instead.
"Inuyasha," she called in a whisper.
"As I recall, you used to despise humans," Setsumi commented, lifting one eyebrow. "And yet here you are with a human child in your company."
Sesshomaru didn't reply.
She huffed. "Have you already used Tenseiga to revive her once?"
The demon lord frowned slightly at her question.
"Sesshomaru, have you come to believe you're a god, perhaps?" Setsumi clicked her tongue. "Tenseiga can only call a person back from the dead once."
Call back from the dead? Kagome tightened her hold on the sword she held. If Sesshomaru's sword could revive people, she didn't doubt this one was truly powerful, too.
It can help us, I know it can!
"Kagome," Inuyasha rasped. "This won't end well—I just know it." His breathing came out ragged. "Go away."
"I won't leave you. Don't make me say it again!"
Sesshomaru and Setsumi still stared at one another.
"This will be her last chance," the Snow Queen warned suddenly. "Life isn't limitless, son." She fingered the pearl necklace on her neck, which had a round golden pendant with a purple stone. "Now, to show your kind mother your gratitude, you could take your place as rightful heir and stop this mindless search for power you do not need."
Sesshomaru's features hardened. He looked from the dead child to his mother, his mind apparently racing.
Kagome felt sickened by the Snow Queen, using a girl's life for bargain.
"She won't need me anymore," Inuyasha murmured to Kagome. His pupils were turning blue. "You're not safe, Kagome—call whoever brought you here and go!"
Kagome resumed spinning the dial, her sweaty fingers sliding over it. She wanted them to have some defense, any defense, just in case…
Mother and son seemed to have reached a silent agreement. Sesshomaru abruptly turned away from Setsumi, his expression clouded by a silent kind of rage, and started walking toward Inuyasha and Kagome.
Under the morning sun, the white silk of his clothes shone like his hair; a beautiful sight, but it didn't deceive Kagome—ethereal as he might seem, he was lethal, she knew.
The demon silently stood behind Inuyasha, looking down at Kagome's panicked face.
Inuyasha tugged at his hands again, and the ice finally started to crack. He regarded her urgently through those red eyes, still willing her to move away and save herself.
"The rumor is true, I see," Sesshomaru said quietly. "Where is the jewel shard?"
"I think it might be in his chest," Setsumi guessed. The demoness had the look of a winner on her face, and Kagome thought she would have given anything to erase it—permanently. "I've seen him put his hand over it many times."
Sesshomaru cracked his knuckles. "There's only one way to be sure."
Kagome spun the dial again.
Several things happened at once. The scabbard clicked open when she found the password; Inuyasha managed to free his hands from the ice; and Sesshomaru leaned down, brutally thrusting his hand through Inuyasha's back.
The gurgling sound, followed by a snapping one, made her taste bile in her mouth.
"INUYASHA!" She screamed, and the sword hummed as she let go of it.
Inuyasha exhaled. "Kagome…"
A/N: So, Inuyasha and Kagome are FINALLY reunited! I tried to give you some much needed inukag fluff... Did I succeed? :3
I think the reader can decide if Setsumi were just using Inuyasha as bait all along or not. I still have some explaining to do, but I like her character a little ambiguous. I hope that's okay with you!
This story is almost over, guys. Review and tell me your thoughts, pretty please. Thanks for reading, see you next time!
Ps: If you know the fairytale, you already know the password. ;)
