A/N: Ya'll are gonna kill me when I tell ya that this chapter has been sittin' around for a whole week. I've had so much HW I didn't have the time to type it up till tuesday and then, after all that rushing to get everything done, my Mom stole my flash drive for her college work so I had no way to get this chapter from my computer to the computer in the house that had an internet connection. Well, that's about enough of the excuses. I was just doing a mental check list and there really aren't that many chapters left. I'll try to get the story finished by the New Year. Anyway, have you noticed? 200 reviews! Yay!!!!! I'm very, very happy. I didn't think anyone would continue to read this story over such a long period of time. You'sums be'a 'prisin' me. Well, that's how we talk round here, so you best be glad I don't use talkin' grammer in my sit'n'ses. Enough randomness for one day and downward and onward!
Chapter 19
The group was making camp their first night away from Inutaisho's castle on their hunt for Naraku. Miroku and Sango were out collected wood to make a fire with so that they could cook supper, Inuyasha was out trying to get some fish from a nearby stream, and Kagome and Sesshomaru were left in the clearing alone. Or so they thought.
Sesshomaru sat down at the base of a tree while Kagome bustled about trying to get everything ready to cook supper.
"We need water," muttered Kagome to herself before using her demonic hearing (though her demonic traits were concealed with a necklace so that Naraku would not find out about her newer and greater powers) to catch the sound of a creek flowing right through the trees of the woods they were in. "Sesshomaru, I'll be back in a few," she said as she collected containers to fill with water.
The demon lord nodded. He knew he was close enough to prevent anything bad from happening to her. Of course, he didn't know about Naraku's newest incarnations waiting for their chance to catch each one on their own. The gray featureless creatures were well hidden by Dainigumo's power- neither aura, nor scent of the two could be found and Dainigumo was similarly hidden in a place where he could see both creatures slowly and silently stalking their prey. The gray creatures were curious creatures- like zombies in their movements, but without all the brain-eating. Instead, they were brain manipulators who could trap a person in their own head and make that person believe that they were seeing, hearing, feeling, and smelling the real thing as long as the person was in range for them to cast their spells.
Kagome made her way through some thick underbrush, being careful not to get stuck on the thorns. After an eternity it seemed of weaving through patches of brambles, she finally found the creek she had heard. She still had the canteens from her time that needed filling, and a large pot for cooking. She had finished filling everything and was now wondering how she would get it all back to camp without spilling it. It was at this time that she began hearing the crunching noise of dead leaves- someone was walking through the forest. 'It could mean danger,' she thought as she tensed, ready for action.
The crunching sound kept getting nearer, but she couldn't find its source- it had no scent, no aura, nothing. She couldn't really understand why she was so scared, she was strong wasn't she? Was it because Sesshomaru wasn't with her? Was she so dependent on his protection that she didn't know what to defend herself? She didn't have time to think about it because the bush nearest to her had started to shake- something was coming! She jumped back from the bush and raised a filled canteen threateningly wishing that she had brought her bow, but alas, that was back at the camp they had made.
The bush's shaking finally stopped and Sesshomaru stepped out of it. Kagome's shoulders slumped as she heaved a sigh of relief.
"Kami Sesshomaru, you scared me sneaking around like that with your aura hidden and then popping out like that."
"I was merely walking, not sneaking," he answered coolly.
"Well, it scared me. I thought you were staying back at camp? Oh well. it doesn't really matter, I was getting ready to call for you anyway. Can you carry the cooking pot back for me? I'll probably just end up spilling it if I try," said Kagome, her shock and fear subsiding as she pulled all the canteens into her arms from off the ground. Sesshomaru just stood there, unanswering, unmoving, and unblinkingly staring at Kagome.
Kagome shrugged it off and began trudging back to their camp. A clawed hand stopped her, digging into her wrist and making her drop all the canteens.
She looked up into Sesshomaru's golden eyes with fear in her silver ones. "Sesshomaru?" she whispered desperately. His grip tightened even more, drawing blood that trickled down to her elbow.
With tears in her eyes she cried, "Sesshomaru, stop! You're hurting me. Why are you doing this?"
His lip curled, revealing a sharp white fang. He growled, "Worthless human. Did you honestly think I cared for you? Do you think you could ever mean anything to me?"
Kagome collapsed to her knees as Sesshomaru finally released her from his claws. She stared at the ground not making a sound, her bangs covering her eyes.
If anyone else had approached that clearing, they would only see Kagome standing there where she had just turned around and heard the crunching sound, a blank expression on her face and open yet unseeing eyes. For it was then when she entered Naraku's incarnation's spell. To Kagome, everything seemed real- looked, felt, smelled, even tasted if she dared to try, but it was not truly real. It was a fake reality, the power of Naraku's gray incarnation to force into a person's mind and manipulate their senses as they pleased.
Puncture marks appeared on Kagome's wrist- the brain read her pain from the false reality and made it real. The culprit, the gray incarnation, stayed safely hidden in the thick underbrush, casting its power over Kagome and trying to break her will, to break her heart.
Kagome was trapped inside her mind. The false Sesshomaru continued to narrate his bitterness toward Kagome. "You know what you are?" he asked her, not waiting for a response, "You're a tool to be used a then tossed aside. I used you for my pleasure, but now, your usefulness has expired." He gave a cold chuckled, one that would fill anyone's heart with terror. The fake Sesshomaru continued, "How ironic that your entire life has been spent as a tool. With Inuyasha, you were just a jewel-detector, a mere shadow of a woman he used to love, a shadow he could never see as a different person. You were just a cheap imitation. And now, look at you, you're a weak insignificant human, not even worthy of my attention. Pathetic." Scorn and hatred were evident in his voice.
Kagome still stared at the ground. Naraku's incarnation was peering into her very mind, trying to see how she was reacting. Had it pushed her far enough yet? Had it broken her spirit yet? When she finally looked up at him, her expression startled him. She had a smile on her face, as if she had an ace hidden up her sleeve and as if she was about to win.
Her voice started as a chuckle before turning into a full-blown laugh. The gray incarnation was baffled. Everything was perfect, every spell he had cast was doing its job, she couldn't tell that she was in a fake reality and there could be no way that she could know that the Sesshomaru before her was also a fake. Was this miko insane?
Kagome's laughter died down to be replaced with a fierce determination. A frightening fire burned in her eyes as she looked upon the unreal Sesshomaru. "I may not be the brightest star in the sky, Naraku, but I know this is not my mate. Do not misjudge me so easily to be taken by a trick like this! I know that this is your doing and I will not fall for it. You've tried this trick before- on Kikyo and Inuyasha- and let me inform you that I am no cheap imitation! I am Kagome, Ka-go-me! Not some shadow of a dead woman! I have my own thoughts, my own feelings, my own beliefs, and my own heart that cannot be tricked by the body and voice of my mate. Inuyasha and Kikyo never had what Sesshomaru and I have- complete love and trust. Your tricks will not work on us and you can never break us apart. Our relationship will last, despite your futile meddling. Leave us alone!"
With Kagome's words, her determination increased, putting pressure on the gray incarnation's invading presence. Her realization of the truth countered the dark spells that captured her mind and tore them apart. With her flare of anger at Naraku, the gray incarnation's spells broke apart completely, and the false reality was shattered.
Kagome fell to the ground as she was released and she came to herself. She cast her senses, demonic and miko, over the area trying to find whatever had ensnared her mind. Finding nothing, she rushed back to find Sesshomaru, heedless of the thorns and bristles that littered the forest floor. She was sure that whatever had attacked her mind would've also attacked Sesshomaru.
O0o.o0O
The taiyoukai of the Western Lands watched Kagome go to fetch water. Something didn't feel right, though all of his demonic senses told him everything was fine. He was about to get up and follow Kagome, just in case, when she stumbled back into the clearing, her aura hidden.
"Weren't you going to get water?" he asked her with a quizzical brow. He noticed the absence of the water containers she had left with. She shrugged noncommittally. By now, Sesshomaru was suspicious. Kagome was weird, to say the least, yet this was weird to a new level for her. He had an eerie prickling at the back of his neck- his hairs were standing on end.
He couldn't sense it, but the other gray incarnation of Naraku was hiding behind the other side of the tree he was sitting against. It too was manipulating Sesshomaru's senses, weaving lies into a fake mental dimension.
"Kagome?" he asked, trying to find out the problem. She looked angry, and an angry Kagome was not a person he wanted to mess with. Perhaps she had found out about his scheme of keeping her out of the fighting by purposely getting her pregnant, he thought. If she had, he should guard his posterior vigilantly or she would purify it.
"Is something wrong?" he ventured, not going to give anything away unless she already knew it.
"You! You demon filth. Despicable, unrespectable, evil youkai of a damned bitch! Did you think that I could trust you? That I would love you? Despicable," she spurted off, rage in her voice and fire in her eyes. Sesshomaru was taken aback. How could this be his mate? Her words hurt- she was the first one he had ever trusted with his heart, and now this? She spat the word 'demon' like it was a curse word. Had she forgotten that she too was a demon, (though concealed presently by the beaded necklace so that Naraku would be a step behind them) and that she had chosen to become a demon so that the two of them could be together forever? Kagome's harsh words continued, "Miserable piece of existence. I should rid this world of you." The false Kagome pulled an arrow to the string of her bow. Somewhere in Sesshomaru's subconscious, he registered this as impossible, because Kagome hadn't taken her bow with her when she left. Yet that thought was quickly pushed to the side and his mate aimed her purification arrow at his heart.
Sesshomaru's body tensed. This is how his brother was pinned to a tree for 50 years. His pleading orbs looked up at the attacking miko as he asked, "But why? Why this? I thought we had something."
"You loathsome creature. You were just a fall-back guy- you look frighteningly similar to Inuyasha, have you noticed? Consider yourself his cheap replacement for when I couldn't have him. But now, I tire of you and anything I might have wanted from you- like the title of the Lady of the Western Lands- is already mine. Once I kill you, it will all be mine. Imagine: the western lands under the control of a human. That is how it was meant to be."
Sesshomaru considered his options. Either Kagome had gone insane, she was telling him the truth, or this was not Kagome. The former two couldn't be true. She had never shown any sign of being insane and she was defiantly not ambitious enough to want to rule an empire. The third option must've been it- this wasn't Kagome. Even as that thought passed through his mind, evidence upon evidence jumped to that conclusion. She talked as if she wasn't a demon, something his enemies wouldn't know. She spoke as if they were just bed partners, not two true mates that were expecting their first child; nobody except Kagome, himself, and the kids knew about that. Naraku had tricked his half-brother and Kikyo this way hadn't he? Was he so stupid as to think it would work on this Sesshomaru?
His anger and pride flared as he finally responded, "Fool! Do not take me as dimwitted as my half-brother. I know my mate when I see her and this is not her. You are cowardly to hide behind her appearance, Naraku. This will not work. A face does not make my mate and I will not be fooled by you! You will never be able to imitate half of her worth! We will be forever while you will be destroyed as soon as we reach you. Naraku, end this now!"
His mind forced the invading presence out and he regained consciousness. He was insulted that Naraku thought he would be deceived by something the hanyou had played before. This Sesshomaru is more intelligent than that! Sesshomaru took off in the direction he saw Kagome take off in. He would not allow his senses to deceive him again. He barely got two steps into the surrounding trees before a frantic Kagome barreled into him, knocking them both to the ground. Sesshomaru quickly twisted his body so that he was the one taking the impact of the ground.
Kagome, on top of him, looked him in the face, forest in relief, but then it turned to suspicion. "Sesshomaru?"
"Hai," he nodded, still suspicious himself.
"How do I know it's the real you?" asked Kagome, searching his eyes for something unfamiliar.
"Ask me a question," offered Sesshomaru.
"Umm...okay...Who guards the Tree of Emoceba Anomede?"
Sesshomaru's lip curled in remembrance of the guardian who gave him so much trouble as he answered, "Sasarg."
"It is you! Oh, ask me a question then."
"Not necessary," said Sesshomaru.
"But then how will you know if I'm me?" protested Kagome.
Sesshomaru inwardly sighed. He could never figure out how this girl on top of him could quickly switch from being a near-genius to a ditz and then back again all in one conversation. "Mate," he whispered, "if you weren't my Kagome, how would you know about the tree of Emoceba Anomede?"
Kagome mentally smacked herself for her stupidity. Over and over again. She was stopped by Sesshomaru who kissed her passionately, which she deepened until they both had to part for breathe. Sesshomaru whispered breathlessly, "We should find who's responsible for this."
"But I can't sense anyone. They must be protected by a really strong barrier or something," voiced Kagome.
The two fell into silence thinking. Kagome's mind raced. 'There has to be something we've overlooked- a different way of handling this, something no one has thought of before. There has to be something we've missed: missed!
"I got it Sesshomaru!" she exclaimed joyfully, making her voice pitch to the point that it hurt her own ears. Sesshomaru winced, but patiently waited for her to continue. "We missed it!"
Sesshomaru's eyebrow arched in confusion. "What have we missed, mate?"
"Exactly!" squealed Kagome, "We've been looking for a presence or a smell or something to lead us to the culprit! We need to be looking for an absence of all these things! If the barrier is preventing us from finding their traces, then we just have to find where there are no traces of anything and then we've found them, barriers or not. Do you get it?"
Sesshomaru silently contemplated it. It surprisingly made sense. If they find a place, a space in the air, where there is no smell of anything, no aura of anything, nothing at all, then they would find the person who tried to trick them. The barrier that protected them would cover all these things up so it would become an unnatural hole in the air.
He looked at Kagome (who was doing a victory dance at her epiphany) and said, "It seems logical enough. We might as well give it a try."
The two stood back-to-back, Sesshomaru silently wondered at how well they had begun to work together. Words hardly needed to be said anymore for they each knew what the other needed or was thinking. It was even almost scary for a taiyoukai prided upon being mysterious. Both of them expanded their demonic senses through the woods searching for the 'hole in space.' It sounded overly-science fiction to Kagome and she suppressed a giggle over the impossibility of this actually working. 'Maybe,' she thought, 'maybe I can write a book about this later.'
It is important to realize that everything living has an aura- from the plants to animals, bacteria, fungi, the insects in the ground, and humans themselves. The most latter of these living things is the easiest to sense and therefore the sense that is often most used. But the other things put off an energy signature of their own, it just takes a lot of concentration to be able to find it. Smells are similar in that matter. Everything has a scent and to keep from becoming overloaded in sensory information, humans block most of this smell out. But now, Kagome and Sesshomaru were deliberately bringing these unused senses to the forefront to help find this hole.
After a quiet few minutes, Sesshomaru seemed to vanish from behind Kagome only to reappear with two gray figures in his claws in front of her. He threw them to the ground and Kagome caught sight of one of their backs- the spider-like scar shone there in a dull pink against the gray, dirty skin. There was no doubt in either Kagome's nor Sesshomaru's minds that this was Naraku's doing.
Sesshomaru pressed his foot on one of their necks, causing a gurgling hiss to erupt from the gray figure's mouth. His weak gray hands clawed at the dirt floor of the forest trying to get air. Kagome turned her head away- she couldn't bear to watch the suffering of others, even if those others deserved it. She tried to bring peace to herself by reasoning that this was the only way to get answers, answers that could save someone who deserved to live's life.
"What else does Naraku have planned?" the taiyoukai growled. He would not be caught unaware again, he promised himself. This time they were lucky that Naraku didn't know everything about them and their relationship. Next time, however, they might not be so lucky.
The gray figure only gurgled some more but nothing coherent came from his mouth. It didn't look like it was capable of speech, or maybe, thought Sesshomaru, it just didn't have enough motivation to speak yet.
He visibly flexed his claws and, whether by intent or just coincidence, the waning sun caught them and they flashed dangerously in the light. "Speak," commanded Sesshomaru, promise in his voice, "or I will tear you slowly limb from limb and piece by piece until you give me the answers I seek."
The gray figures redoubled their efforts at crawling away from the fierce demon lord only to find that they still couldn't escape- all of their strength laid within their minds and their spells. They had little else, physical strength included. Sesshomaru's poison whip snapped around their ankles securing them into their positions and burning into their flesh. Their nearly sightless eyes and their featureless faces, like mannequins with nothing defined except for tiny flat eyes and a lipless mouth, contracted with fear. Sesshomaru tightened his poison whip more and one of the creatures finally let out a screech.
It was a bloodcurdling screech, that seemed to gurgle in the back of his throat. It sent a shiver down Kagome's spine. The screeched turned into a rasp hissing voice, evilly spitting, "Our master will -..."
He was cut off by an arrow in his throat which quickly disintegrated the rest of his body- a purification arrow. Sesshomaru swiveled to Kagome expecting to see a bow held ready after the release, but he found that she didn't even have her bow with her.
The other gray creature used Sesshomaru's lack of concentration to work his way out of the now slackened whip and to try to scramble into the cover of the trees. He nearly made it before a hissing arrow struck it in the back and it was purified into oblivion with a painful shriek.
'A third incarnation,' thought Sesshomaru as he spun around trying to find the culprit. He then remembered Dainigumo, an underling of Naraku with priest's powers. He searched the woods, but the mixed creation was gone. Sesshomaru gave a final warning growl and brought his flaring youkai back into control- his eyes had been staring to turn red in his anger. Losing himself would not help him in this situation, he reprimanded himself.
"We'll have to be careful. Our every move is likely being watched carefully for a chance to deceive or destroy us," he told Kagome as he began walking back to the camp they had made earlier that evening. Kagome didn't move to follow, so Sesshomaru took her into his arms.
"Kagome," he whispered into her ear as he nuzzled her neck with his nose, sending a chill through the miko, "what is wrong?"
She leaned into his touch but didn't answer for a while. Sesshomaru patiently waited. She answered after a few minutes of silence, "We could've ended up like Kikyo and Inuyasha. We could've turned against each other. I could've attacked you or you attacked me."
"But we didn't. We have something more than Kikyo or Inuyasha ever did. You are not Kikyo's cheap imitation and I am not my half-brother. We will not be deceived so easily."
"But the only way we saw this one was because Naraku didn't know everything about us."
"Do you think that was the only reason?" questioned Sesshomaru, drawing back from Kagome to look into her eyes.
She searched his golden orbs for the merest of a second then shook her head. She knew it was a rhetorical question, but she answered it anyway, "No. You're right. I trust you, more than anything or anyone. I would've been able to tell it wasn't you."
"KAGOME! SESSHOMARU! WHERE ARE YOU?" came Inuyasha's hollering voice interrupting their romantic moment and completely ruining the mood. Kagome and Sesshomaru pulled apart and made their way back to camp where everyone else had already returned from their chores.
"Sneaking off to make out in the woods, you two?" teased Inuyasha. Neither Kagome nor Sesshomaru answered leaving a dumbstruck Inuyasha fumbling for something to say, "I was only joking...you...two...weren't really...?"
Sesshomaru sent him a cold glare and paused for effect. The hanyou nearly passed out in anticipation. Inuyasha would tolerate Sesshomaru with the woman he loved, by golly, he may not like it, but he would tolerate it. However, asking him to tolerate them displaying their affections in front of him was out of the picture. There was no way he'd let them do that. It was bad enough smelling what they had been up to on their clothes at the castle, much less seeing it too.
Sesshomaru finally spoke, "Relax Baka. Kagome and I were attacked by Naraku's newest incarnations, ones that we couldn't sense because they had a type of holy protective barrier concealing their smell and aura's. They were trying to deceive Kagome and myself, much like Naraku did to you long ago, Inuyasha. We will need to be on alert from now on. Naraku is getting sneakier."
The group of friends look around warily as if suspecting Naraku to pop out from behind a bush. When the evil hanyou failed to make an appearance, they gradually loosened up and began getting supper ready. They were ready to end this thing and get on with their lives.
O0o.o0O
The samiyoshu hummed in the air, one alighted on Dainigumo's outstretched hand. He had fled upon seeing the Miko work out how to find someone in his barrier. The underling still had no orders to kill the taiyoukai and the Miko from Naraku- Naraku seemed to especially want to do that himself. Maybe it was because they had found something that Naraku had wanted as a human. The nearly full-demon still seemed to have retained part of his human heart, or perhaps it was his human emotions, from where he had tried to expel it all into creating Dainigumo himself. 'Naraku is jealous,' thought Dainigumo with little pleasure in his mind. After all, Dainigumo had been human and had been Naraku. He felt the same yearning and the same loathing. The samiyoshu relayed Naraku's order to come back to the castle- there was nothing more for the underling to do. Kagome and Sesshomaru could see past all of his barriers, or at least had some trick to find people he presumed protected. Naraku, for once, had to retreat to lick his wounds and play the waiting game for Kagome and Sesshomaru to come right to his doorstep. Trap or not, they would show up, and one way or the other, Naraku would kill the taiyoukai, but overall, he would destroy the miko that liked to meddle in his plans and dared looked like his past lust interest. Yes, Naraku would play the waiting game, for Naraku never lost the waiting game. All his evil would come in good time.
A/N: Sooooo... what'd ya think? If you could, drop a line or two in the review box on your way out. Critique, flames, or encouragement. It's nice to hear from the readers.
Cornily saying, "Beam me up, Scottie,"
Tiki Rane Gobell