Chapter Eight- Acceptance
-The Next Morning-
Kagome lay in her queen sized bed entangled by soft sheets. Feeling something tightly wrapped around her throat, she tried to remove the weight away. Kagome tugged on the sheet that seemed to be skillfully tied around her neck. Unable to lessen the tightness, she rolled around and shifted. Yet still half-asleep, she couldn't unlock herself from what seemed like an impossible knot. She released a tired groan as she slumped against her bed in defeat.
"Lady Kagome," a female voice called out past her room door. Grunting, Kagome heard her maid enter. Hearing her maid snicker at her state, Kagome blinked open her eyes.
"Pfft," her maid continued to snicker, "I wouldn't be surprised if you died from suffocating in your blankets one day, Milady."
Closing her heavy eyelids, Kagome grumbled sarcastically, "Thanks for predicting my future death, Emiko." Sensing her blankets shift around her, she blinked open her eyes to see Emiko help her out. Sleepiness slowly disappeared from her eyes as she sat blanket-free on her bed.
"Thanks," she whispered out with a sheepish grin.
Folding the remaining blanket, Emiko then said, "Well, then be a good girl for me today while I get you prepared for the afternoon ceremony." A smile remained on Kagome's lips as she was always reminded of her dear friend Sango through Emiko. She quickly bonded with Emiko the first day Inuyasha had left the Western Castle on patrol.
"I wonder why you weren't assigned to me from the first day I arrived at the Castle," Kagome thought out loud. Standing before the full length mirror, she felt Emiko dress her as she heard her speak.
"Well, it is tradition for mates to help dress each other every day, Milady," Emiko explained.
Red color tinted Kagome's cheeks from the information. She had almost forgotten that Inuyasha would soon become her real mate.
Emiko continued to explain, "And I guess Lord Sesshomaru thought that Prince Inuyasha would help dress Milady, since you are his intended mate. But after Prince Inuyasha was sent on duty, Lord Sesshomaru assigned me to assist you."
A smile lingered on Kagome's face as she felt warmed by what she thought was Sesshomaru's way of acknowledging her as Inuyasha's chosen mate. She knew that Sesshomaru had every right to deny Inuyasha's choice of mate because they were to live together in the Western Castle. At least she seemed bearable enough to be around, Kagome thought.
"All done!" she heard Emiko exclaim. Nodding her head in thanks, Kagome headed out to find something to do before the afternoon ceremony. But the moment she opened her room door, she felt two arms grasp onto each side of her arm.
Shocked from the sudden attack, Kagome only heard Emiko yell, "Unhand Lady Kagome! How dare you!"
"Lady Kagome! Forgive us!" Kagome snapped her attention to Akihiro who was standing before her.
Calmed by his appearance, she asked gently, "Did the elder request for me?" Seeing Akihiro nod his head violently, she let out a light chuckle.
"I guess my actions of running away from you guys pushed you to perform this," Kagome said teasingly. "Well! Drag me to him!" she shouted playfully.
Making her way past several corridors, she noticed the scholars and Akihiro stop in front of a door. Entering into the room, she saw the entire 'Mu' ranked scholars surrounding her while the elder stood in the middle.
"Welcome, Lady Miko. I apologize for using such extreme measures," the elder said.
Feeling her arms set free, she answered, "That's quite alright, Elder." As soon as she finished her sentence, Kagome saw the entire 'Mu' ranked scholars along with the elder bow respectfully towards her.
She stood frozen in her spot feeling confused.
"We wished to express our gratitude for saving our elder, Lady Miko," she heard one of the younger scholars say.
Another voice exclaimed, "We also wished to express our sincerest respect for your honorable actions of lying on behalf of the 'Mu' rank."
"You may not have known, Lady Miko, but your deed was great help. The 'Mu' rank is constantly up against the 'Gon' rank. If our rank was shifted below that of a 'Gon' then it would definitely affect the importance of knowledge and intelligence," the elder said.
"Our elder plays a huge role in keeping up our rank. The fact that you have saved him from leaving the rank means that you have saved the entire history of the 'Mu' rank," another scholar input.
'Woah' Kagome thought to herself. It was the only words that seemed to explain her feelings at the moment.
Shaking her head from the shock, she asked, "Weren't you looking for me to ask how I knew of the answers?"
"No, Lady Miko. We do not focus on how we attain knowledge," the elder said. Remembering Sesshomaru's words about the lack of care on the procedure, Kagome slightly felt down.
The elder once again piped, "But if you don't mind me asking, I would like to know why you would allow me to take advantage of your knowledge."
Brightly smiling at the elder, Kagome replied sweetly, "You weren't taking advantage of my knowledge, Elder. I was sharing my knowledge with you." She heard the entire crowd of scholars whisper amongst themselves in confusion.
"Sharing…knowledge?" the Elder echoed with interest.
"Yes, if you think about it, wouldn't you gain more knowledge by sharing information amongst each other? There is a saying that two heads are better than one. Two people can definitely answer and find more information better compared to one," she said.
Hours passed by as Kagome discussed many things with the scholars. She brought to them the idea of gathering all the information and compiling them into a book. Through this, other demons can gain a standard knowledge. She truly admired the scholars for they accepted her ideas. Kagome had always thought she would never get to explain and discuss any of her knowledge attained from the future with anyone anymore in the feudal era.
She no longer felt weird for holding such intelligence.
"The afternoon ceremony has already begun," one of the scholars reported.
For the second time, Kagome entered into the ceremony hall with another person. In this case, the entire 'Mu' rank. She gained a lot of attention for entering in with the scholars, especially Sesshomaru's.
Golden eyes flickered with amusement as he watched Kagome speak with the scholars. He noted the respect they held in their attitude towards her. Her honorable action that was acted upon without calculation ended up receiving the 'sincere' respect of the entire 'Mu' rank.
Kagome scanned the crowd to meet eyes with Sesshomaru's. For a second she thought she had seen admiration flash across his face, but doubted her eyes had seen correctly. Excusing herself from the crowd of scholars, she made her way towards Sesshomaru.
Sesshomaru saw the Miko walking towards him until her attention diverted somewhere else. Her path changed into another direction. A slight furrow between his brows unconsciously appeared as he watched her greet the 'Tsu' ranked demonesses.
"Hello there, I didn't get to catch your names last time, I apologize," Kagome said to the demonesses.
The oldest looking demonesses pointed at each demoness as she said their names, "Etsu, Ami, Hana, and I am Chika."
"And I'm Kagome," she introduced herself with a smile. Staring at Chika she asked, "Does this mean we are friends now?"
Chika felt the rest of the demonesses staring at her to see how she would answer. She had always been Lady Kura's right hand partner, but hated doing what Lady Kura instructed her to do. It hadn't been until Lady Kagome's appearance that gave her hope.
Kagome saw hesitance behind Chika's eyes and knew she shouldn't rush or force anything. Sending them a gentle smile, Kagome said, "No need to rush your decision. It will probably be hard to be friends with me since Kura would hardly allow that. Take your time."
After reassuring them, Kagome turned around to leave them. Seeing that Sesshomaru was surrounded by a few demonesses from other ranks, she smirked. But as golden eyes captured her blue ones, she watched with surprise as he ignored the others while making his way towards her.
"Miko, come," he ordered with a hint of annoyance. Lightly giggling, Kagome followed beside him as they headed towards the gardens.
Kagome glanced at Sesshomaru with a smirk and teased, "You must love being popular amongst the demonesses."
"Unnecessary annoyances," Sesshomaru said coldly. He knew that the Miko's first confrontation with the 'Tsu' demonesses had to do with him. The knowledge of this unsettled him.
Stopping in his footsteps, Sesshomaru said stoically, "It is unnecessary of you to befriend the 'Tsu' rank. Their opinion of you does not affect your chances of being titled as 'Hime'."
His chest seemed to tighten.
He was sure the 'Tsu' demonesses would only befriend the Miko to get closer to him. Anger simmered beneath his stoic mask at the naïve Miko who did not see the trap she would fall into. She did not seem to understand that the demon society held no warmth or friendship.
"Sesshomaru," Kagome voiced in a serious tone, "I did not befriend them because of the title of 'Hime'." She stared into his hardened eyes that slightly narrowed.
"Then you are foolish to think that they would befriend you with pure intentions," his stoic voice cracked to reveal a hint of his anger.
Kagome noted his stiff posture and cold calculating eyes. But she also noticed the anger that broke through his stoic mask and immediately understood what caused this. Softening her blue eyes to look into his, she said tenderly, "Thank you for worrying, Sesshomaru. I will be careful."
Her blue eyes seemed to look into his soul once again.
Had his anger been worry?
How was it that she seemed to know him better than he himself did?
Unnerving.
A light growl filled the silence. Sesshomaru walked away from the Miko scoffing at her assumption that he was worried.
No, he was simply annoyed that the Miko chose not to adhere his warning.
-Evening Ceremony-
Standing in the ceremony hall with Akihiro, she heard him say, "All the scholars are fighting against each other to read my book, Lady Kagome. It's all thanks to you."
Akihiro's adorable words made her smile as she replied, "No, your book definitely deserves to be fought over." She then chuckled at the sight of Akihiro's blush.
Returning to her thought of this afternoon, she wished to confront Sesshomaru about several things. Yet, she had scanned through the crowd and noticed he was not present. Abruptly, a loud shout rang through the ceremony hall causing Kagome to break away from her thoughts.
"Kur-a said I can have any of her guu-urrls! Co-ome heere," Kagome saw a drunken demon stumble with his words. The drunken demon grasped onto Chika's wrist and pulled her against his chest. By the looks of Chika's distraught expression, Kagome knew she had to help.
Akihiro, who caught onto her determined expression, voiced quietly, "He is the leader for the 'Gon' rank, Lady Kagome. Be careful." Stiffly nodding her head towards Akihiro, she stalked towards the drunken demon.
Kagome watched in horror as the drunken demon began to tear Chika's kimono off. But what made her angry was the fact that she was the only one moving towards the disgusting crime scene as the rest of the other demons remained watching.
Her anger did not last long for one demon caught her eye though. A demon of the 'Tsu' rank held eyes flickering from red to silver as his hand were clenched tightly. She also noticed the other 'Tsu' demonesses were grasping onto each other for comfort as they looked to their friend with tears. Chika was now sprawled onto the floor with unfeeling eyes of hopelessness. Just as the drunken demon was hovering on top of Chika to kiss her, Kagome kicked the side rib of the demon enforced with a bit of her powers. As the drunken demon crashed onto the marble floor to create a dent, it howled in pain. Kagome took off her outer haori and placed it over Chika to cover up her ripped kimono that no longer covered anything.
Seeing that the 'Gon' leader was sobering up, Kagome heard him yell, "How dare you!"
Narrowing her blue stormy eyes, she released her purification powers to surround her.
"You were harming my friend," Kagome voiced icily as she slowly stepped closer towards the demon.
The 'Gon' leader felt the immense power of purification burning against his skin. He voiced frantically, "B-but Lady K-kura allowed it! I w-was only-"
"Don't you dare touch anyone of the 'Tsu' rank for they are now my friends," Kagome snarled as she stepped even closer to the 'Gon' leader. His skin was now sizzling at the closeness and saw sweat pooling down his face in fear.
Glaring at the 'Gon' leader, Kagome threatened in a cold voice, "If I hear or see anything of this sort again, no matter what Lady Kura has said, I will purify you slowly so that you feel pain in every inch of your body."
She made sure that everyone in the ceremony hall heard her warning. No longer would she allow the 'Tsu' rank be pushed around by the demon society.
Returning her attention to Chika, she saw that the 'Tsu' rank already huddled around Chika with tears. Kagome neared the group, which caught Chika's attention. Silently reassuring others that she was fine, Chika then walked towards Kagome and bowed.
"I first thought you were stupid to anger Lady Kura," Chika said bluntly as she continued, "but you somehow figured out about her corrupted actions." Chika knew from this that the Miko held more intelligence then she appeared.
"Then I thought you were joking about befriending us, but you went out of your way to look for us and speak with us," Chika knew many demonesses of higher rank who tried to use them for their own benefit. But, the Miko had once again proven to be different.
Sincerity shined through her smile as she finished saying, "After that I thought you were naïve to befriend a different and lower rank, but all I see now is a confident woman who does not care for what others say. Thank you for saving me. I would be honored to be your friend, Lady Kagome."
Kagome heard Chika's sincere words and knew she did not have to worry about any evil intentions. Immediately thinking of Sesshomaru, she let out a soft smile.
She couldn't wait to tell Sesshomaru what had happened to rest assure his worries.
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