Daddada….I'm backkkkkkk
Did Ya Miss Me?
Anyway On with the story as always, thanks so much to everyone who reviewed! I was SO relieved to get that last chapter done, so now I can actually get somewhere….
So without further ado - Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, I present to you…
Disclaimer: I only put these in to save my ass - because no I do NOT own Inuyasha. However…sometimes…I like to pretend I do…giggle
Chapter Four.
Truth.
-x-
Not this…not this again…
And then it stopped. Sobbing in relief Kagome slumped down to the ground, feeling the clammy wetness of her blood run down her arms. Taking a last glance around Kagome noticed the doors to the dojo opening…Naraku's puppet exploding into a pile of dust…Ryoku going to look at Sesshoumaru and Shirou coming to inspect her.
And then she let herself slip away into the black folds of her unconsciousness.
-x-
"Ryoku, Shirou, fetch Kimigaru." Sesshoumaru commanded, ignoring the furtive glances between the twins.
"But Sesshoumaru-sama, you and Kagome-san must be attended too…"Ryoku started, only to wither off, hastily closing his mouth and looking away from the icy glare provided by Sesshoumaru.
Sesshoumaru hadn't been down for long, his restless mind and abject immunity to poison helping him to wake from his enchanted slumber. His wounds were no more than scratch to him, though he would have to get new armor, he had taken off the steel plate off as he had found it restricted his breathing because of the dent where the spear had struck him.
Now dressed only in his inner plain white haori without his armor he felt…peculiarly naked to the eye of the two taka. Indeed his physical appearance had changed; his lithe well toned body more apparent without the bulky metal breastplate.
Shirou and Ryoku sent off quickly to find his chemist, Kimigaru. Kimigaru was a snake youkai, very skilled in the ways of potions and poisons. His family also had an unusual trait, the ability to hypnotize the enemy. The proficiency for being able to control this talent and for his slight truthsayer skills were incredibly helpful to Sesshoumaru.
Picking up the girl, Sesshoumaru glanced down to see her arm. The skin or what was left of it was filthy, covered in the remains of sweat from her battle with Sesshoumaru, and the blood she had shed while attacking her arm.
Sesshoumaru had been rather confused about this, his groggy half asleep state had only seen her attack herself, but he had yet to find the reason why, other than the obvious motives for suicide.
Setting her down lightly once more, Sesshoumaru picked up his blood soaked outer silk haori, ripped off a length of clean fabric and unceremoniously wrapped it around her arm in pretence of stopping the blood flow.
I can't have her die yet…
-x-
"Kimigaru? Lord Sesshoumaru commands your presence! Kimigaru?" Shirou called out, his voice echoing the slightest bit as he traveled up the eerie staircase.
Kimigaru was known to be a bit eccentric. His entire family had died in a small skirmish against taka youkai on the border of Sesshoumaru's lands. After this he had become the image of all things occult. His hair which had once been a strong, deep poisonous green was now streaked with lines of gray and white. His long face was easily forgotten; his nose was in the right place and unbent, nothing strange about his features or proportioning either. In fact he would have been the most inconspicuous person had he not had his eyes; ever changing in color they seemed to swirl and darken, depending on his mood.
"Yesh…?" Kimigaru answered as Shirou pounded on the dark cherry wood of the demons door. The door creaked on its rusted iron hinges as Kimigaru poked his head out, only to glare down on Shirou.
Kimigaru had never liked Shirou; or Ryoku for that matter. He had never forgotten that it had been taka that had killed the rest of his family, and though he never admitted his grudge toward the falcon family, it was ever there, noticeable and timeless.
"The Lord requires your presence." Shirou commanded roughly, wishing that Ryoku was there, but they had both felt it best that Ryoku go and receive the doctor.
"Fine…I will be there in just a moment…what ish it that Shesshoumaru -shama requireshh?" Kimigaru asked, his lisp more pronounced in his aging years.
"He wishes for you to come and prove your family talents once more. He desires for you to use your skills against one Kagome, sister of Naraku." Shirou sped off, giving his instructions with a very military likeness.
Kimigaru's eyes glinted as he looked at Shirou, bony fingers flexing in an animalistic reaction.
"Lead the way then."
-x-
"Mhhmmm…." Kagome mumbled incoherently in her troubled slumber.
Sesshoumaru paid her no attention as he slipped on another haori, almost identical to his last one, the small red flowers inside the geometrically shaped outlines, though this time the rest of the material was an inky black.
He had placed Kagome in his own private quarters, he had no wish to trouble himself with an unnecessary wait to have one of his old guest rooms refurbished. Neither did he want to spend so much of his time down in his dungeons. The place had given him an unwanted permanent feel of damp.
Looking back to the unconscious Kagome on his divan, Sesshoumaru noticed how very similar she was to her half brother - in appearances albeit.
Their hair was the same deep coal black with the same streaks of blue where the light would play on her satin hair. Kagome was perhaps a shade more pale skinned, in deep contrast to her hair. And lastly her eyes, opposite in all meanings of the word. Hers, the deep jade green of grass after a rain when the dewdrops make the color shimmer. And then there was Naraku, with his sleep-deprived crimson eyes filled with nothing but hatred and sin.
The sudden realization that they were nothing much alike in appearances either made Sesshoumaru give a sudden double take on his previous encounters with her.
Her smiling face with the sad eyes…the defiance that was carefully hidden underneath the cloak of submission…
He was wrong.
She was nothing like Naraku.
His door being opened with a strident boom was a timely distraction from his wandering musings.
Kimigaru's piercing eyes immediately locked onto the bundle of rustling clothing on Sesshoumaru's bed.
Giving a questioning glance Kimigaru walked forward and turned Kagome over.
Her face was contorted in the smallest of frowns, whimpering slightly as beads of perspiration rolled down her forehead.
Turning back to the taiyoukai, Kimigaru had only one question.
"Is thish her?"
"Indeed." Sesshoumaru replied with a quiet growl.
Looking at his surroundings swiftly, Kimigaru gave a low inward whistle at Sesshoumaru's room.
The room, being made of a dark marble timber, was simplistic with a subtle hint at luxury. A small stone made fireplace was located on the wall opposite his low set futon. The floor was marble, ivory and cold to the touch. Images of past rulers and members of the royal family adorned many of the walls, and a diminutive library filled the wall adjacent to the daybed.
Looking back to the half sister to the one some feared to name, Kimigaru sized up what he had to do.
Looking to Sesshoumaru he said "I will need shomeone to hold her eyesh open for a moment." His lisp was becoming more pronounced as he spoke more hurriedly.
Sesshoumaru nodded to Ryoku, the youngling hurrying over to Kagome's side.
"Shirou, fetch the scribe." Sesshoumaru ordered, knowing full well he would have to go over what was said to find if there was anything Naraku was plotting against him.
A few minutes went by as Shirou ran to fetch the scribe, a young-ish neko hanyou, who was good with paper and pen.
Coming in, the neko half breed bowed hastily towards Sesshoumaru, and took a seat near the books. Flipping a lock of her unruly blonde hair back, she looked up with an expectant expression.
Sesshoumaru looked towards Kimigaru and nodded his confirmation; they may begin.
Ryoku grasped Kagome's head with one hand, and used the other to force her eyelids open.
Kimigaru sat down at the foot of the bed, mumbling a short trance, unheard even by the keen sensitive ears of the youkai around him.
Closing his eyes for a moment, Kimigaru reopened them to look into Kagome's own forcefully opened eyes.
Sitting tensely for a moment, he stared on into Kagome's eyes, waiting for his spell to work.
Kagome, who had been quiet for the most place, began to shudder slightly, her pupils shrinking as she looked on in fear. The shaking became more violent as Kimigaru stared on, until Kagome began to convulse, though her eyes were never taken from the nyoka youkai's.
And then it stopped, Ryoku let her eyes closed with further orders from Sesshoumaru, who had seen this procedure before.
With a small sigh, Kagome seemed to rest on peacefully unaware of everyone around her.
"Awake…" Kimigaru commanded, his voice taking on a very snake like hiss.
Kagome opened her eyes, showing to the rest of the audience that they were coal black, dead with out the slightest hint of emotion to anything.
"What is your name?" Kimigaru asked lisp magically disappearing, his eyes not daring to shift away from hers.
"Kagome." Was the sullen reply, her voice as dead and detached as her appearance.
"Lord Sesshoumaru, you may ask her anything now." Kimigaru stated, still not straying from his hypnotizing gaze.
"Girl, why did you attack this Sesshoumaru?" Sesshoumaru asked; little curiosity in his voice.
"You were going to kill the ningen." was the sullen reply.
"What does that matter to you?"
"I swore never to kill a human again."
Sesshoumaru gave a low vibrating growl at her short replies.
"Why did you vow never to kill a ningen?" Sesshoumaru asked, annoyance leaking into his voice.
" I swore never to kill again after I slaughtered the slayer village."
"Which village?" Shirou asked curiously, backing down when he saw Sesshoumaru glare at him. The scratching of quill on paper was heard as the hanyou continued to write what was going on.
"The village where the girl Sango came from."
The air in the room became tenser as everyone waited for someone to ask the inevitable question, but Kagome started again without prompting.
"Naraku…when we were little I raised him. I was the older sister from the failed mating and he was the hanyou from the adultery by my mother. So when we were little I promised I would take care of him forever…that I would help him no matter what. He was teased so much by the other children in our village. Many of them were human, the youkai were too old to care about us enough to help us out. The children feared me for being a demon, but the laughed at Naraku…they thought…they thought he was too weak to fight back."
Kagome paused for a second, shifting her position on the bed ever so slightly.
"So I taught him to fight. I taught him not to fear the other children, not to be worried about them…I taught him not to care. But as he grew older his mind became twisted. He remembered everything I had ever said even as a child and held me too it…even to the simplest sayings like 'I love you'…."
Kagome drifted off again, her hand twitching restively as she continued to gaze into Kimigaru's eyes. The rest of the room had fallen deathly silent, all except for the neko girl with her scratching sound of her pen.
"When mother was murdered by the townsfolk, Naraku became truly wicked. He despised the humans for killing our mother, Tsyosa, and despised her for not defending herself, and he despised him self for not saving her.
"He began to stop sleeping, and he would have random fits of rage against innocent people. I found him one day, at the river, blood was flowing through the water staining it red. He was covered in blood too, the bodies of several humans and demons alike on his hands. And he laughed.
"Then he started to get me to help him…murdering…thieving."
The room was so silent, everyone trying to keep up with Kagome's fast speech, Kimigaru merely trying to maintain his trance.
"That was…what I thought I was supposed to be doing. I would tell myself I had to protect him and this was the only way to do it…and when one day I became injured by poison, Naraku made me intake poison everyday…until my body had such a huge resistance to any poison that I could no longer be affected by it. That is when he first thought of his poisonous insects.
"And then…he began to feed off of my energy. He would take my youkai to strengthen himself…but it hurt me so much, to have my essence stolen from me."
Here Kagome squirmed a bit, as if even mentioning the process made her uncomfortable.
"I thought that this was normal…this is what I had to do but…I couldn't do it anymore after the village. Naraku asked me to go and do this one little thing for him…reminding me that I had said 'I will do anything for you'.
So I did it. I went to the village like he told me, the little boy was there…he was so easy to manipulate. And after that I brought him back with me to be Naraku's slave…but I could never have a clear conscious again. SO I vowed never again to slay a human, to never slay again."
It seemed Kagome had stopped now, her eyes slowly drifting closed, her head slumped against her chest though her gaze was still locked with Kimigaru.
"How did Naraku feed off of your youki?" Sesshoumaru asked, killing the hush that had enveloped the room with his cold voice. "I understood that that could not be done without a very powerful enchantment."
Kagome turned to look at him, her eyes drifting back slowly to their normal green hue.
"My brother stole my soul."
There we go ) update finished, today as promised. Sorry it's a little late but yes, I do have a life filled with homework its true.
So thank you all for your reviews, I appreciate it.
Keep 'em coming.
Ja Ne Minna!