Chapter Eight
Kagura reached the town in the evening. At that time when the work was finished and the crowds were gathering for the entertainment of preferred kind. The town was large enough for the appearance of the newcomer to pass unnoticed. Fortunately, the town had only one brothel and Kagura directed her steps there without delay. The establishment had no competition so they were clearly understaffed, thus welcomed Kagura with opened arms. She decided on the character of a woman who would do anything for money and who had a lot to offer.
Kagura recognized her target right away. The man named Kishimaru was of middle-age and could be considered handsome for women attracted to roughish warriors with battle scars. He was grabbing one girl after another and tossing them aside, as if searching for someone special. And Kagura planned to be just that special someone.
That night her fan dance was the best she ever did in her life. Her lips hold a coquettish smile, but she was crying her eyes out on the inside. Just as with her virginity, she wanted to give such dance to someone special. She kept repeating in her head that it was all worth it. Worthy of fifty years of youth, fifty years beside Sesshomaru, even if as the other's woman face.
Her dance was rewarded by the order to get upstairs, barked by Kishimaru. Kagura batted her eyelashes, hiding behind the fan to conceal her urge to gag, but mounted the stairs with no protest. That was a wise decision since Kishimaru's eyes were full of unsatisfied lust and rage that were ready to burst any moment.
And they did right after the doors to a separate room shut down. The next two days were the darkest nightmare Kagura could imagine. Kishimaru took her again and again ordering her to be his slave, because all women existed solely for that purpose. Kagura had to silently endure his curses towards his fiancée who rejected him in favor of a younger and richer Lord and how he wanted to kill them both, take the Lord's lands and become the worshipped ruler he deserved to be.
With endless beatings and rapings Kagura marveled at how she hadn't lost her sanity. Kishimaru definitely did lose it at some point of his revenge escapade and not because of the youkai possessing him. His rage towards the woman and her chosen one, who betrayed him, grew into hate towards the whole humanity who had to pay for his mistreatment.
Kagura was kept locked in the room, not even allowed to eat. The brothel's personnel didn't bother to confront the uncontrollable client since Kagura wasn't one of them, so it was her personal problem. And indeed it was, the problem she had only three more days to solve.
On the third day she was 'blessed' with demand to cry out Kishimaru's name. As loud as possible, for the perverted priest in the next room to hear how he could please a woman. Later that day, pretending to be knocked unconscious, which wasn't far from the truth, Kagura waited for Kishimaru to fall asleep. She rose on unsteady legs, grabbed the first sharp object – a broken bottle that was recently used on her – that was in sight and headed towards the right wall which was the only possibility to have a room behind it. She unceremoniously cut the rice paper with the bottle, moving practically on auto-pilot, her only aim – to find the priest and end the nightmare she dragged herself into.
The neighboring room's only occupant was a young man in a priest's outfit, who was muttering something without even pause for breath, obviously in deep trance. Kagura didn't think about her soul's internal sufferings in Hell for hurting or even killing a priest, nor did she think about the reasons such a person agreed to help a human in his revenge. She just raised the bottle and crushed it onto the priest's shoulder, eliciting a scream, with which the room became considerably darker – the barrier has fallen.
By the time Sesshomaru arrived with Inuyasha and Kagome in tow, Kagura was being punished by Kishimaru who was awoken by the priest's cry. She didn't fight back, just hoped to remain alive, which was harder and harder with every heavy punch from the man pinning her to the floor. Suddenly the pressure was lifted from her and Kishimaru was smashed into the wall, that didn't do him any harm of course.
"What an honor, Lord of the Western Lands came in person to stand before me," Kishimaru said with a mocking bow, but the voice definitely belonged to the possessing youkai. "Never would've thought you'd come into the red district. Fell so low, Sesshomaru?"
"It is you, who remained on the same level," Sesshomaru replied impassively. The green whip flashed in the air and Kishimaru's body fell to the floor cut in half. A transparent spirit of a silver-head youkai leaped towards Sesshomaru in the last hope to get his revenge, but Sesshomaru cut him in half with Tesseiga and it dissolved into the air.
"You had no right to kill that human, Sesshomaru," Kagome scolded the taiyoukai.
"That human had no right to live," he spat, gold turning red for just a millisecond. Sesshomaru neared Kagura's figure sprawled on the floor, her white skin purple with bruisers and dry blood, took her into his arms and left the room.
"Care to tell me, Kagome, what has just happened?" Inuyasha asked, flabbergasted by the happenings in front of his very eyes. The way Sesshomaru touched Kagura was beyond caring, it could be even called tender.
"I really don't know. I just know that something is going on and we shouldn't interfere. It will work out this way or the other. Wasn't Kagura muttering something?"
"Something about 'take the fans'?"
Kagome looked around in search for the unusual items and found them discarded in one of the corners. The moment she touched one of them a shock of recognition made her lose her hold of the fan. The texture of the material was painfully familiar, her hands went through it every single day.
"Inuyasha, are those what I think they are?"
"Bloody Hell, no wonder he rests so much."
"What do you mean?"
"Let's get out of here first."
Inuyasha remained silent the whole process of Kagome's negotiating with the head of the establishment about the conditions to remove the corpse and pay for the damaged wall. Kagome was not surprised by such disposition, he always let her deal with everything related to human interaction. However this time he looked particularly thoughtful.
"So those fans are made from Sesshomaru's hair, correct?" Kagome dared to ask once they left the vicinity of the town.
"And blood," Inuyasha grunted.
"Care to explain what were you saying about Sesshomaru resting?"
"I don't know if I should."
"What do you mean?"
Inuyasha took a deep breath then released it, as if coming to a very important decision. "It is the greatest secret of inuyoukai."
"Something even I, your mate, don't know?"
"Yeah."
"And you are not going to tell me?"
"What do you want, Kagome? It isn't the deepest secret for nothing!"
"If you don't tell me you'll be sleeping in the west wing for a year."
"But it is opposite from our bedroom!"
"Exactly, so spill."
Another deep inhaling from Inuyasha. "Our hair is our power. If it is cut off, part of inu strength goes with it."
"Like with Solomon?"
"Who?"
"No matter. What you want to say, is that Sesshomaru deliberately reduced his power to make fans for Kagura?"
"Exactly! And we both know how power crazy is Sesshomaru! Getting ultimate power is the goal of his existence! Power is all he cares about!"
"Well, it seems that now Sesshomaru found something, or I better say, someone else to care about."
…..
Kagura woke up with a start, feeling someone's hand on her shoulder. By instinct she dashed backwards to somehow minimize the pain of yet another hit she had been dealt to during the last two days. There was no need to be alert however, since her surroundings were different from the brothel – Kagura was back to Sesshomaru's palace, in the room she was given when they arrived three days prior.
"It's over," came Sesshomaru's calm voice from somewhere above.
Kagura turned her head to the right (any other movement resulted in pain) to see him sitting cross legged by the futon she occupied. The room was covered in semi-darkness, indicating the late hour, so his white figure stood out even more. It seemed for Kagura that they were the only existing creatures in the whole world covered in darkness.
"Did you kill the bastard?" she asked weakly.
"Yes."
"Good," she said with another tired sigh. Kagura was about to close her eyes to go into obliviating sleep, when her shoulder was touched once again.
"If you fall asleep, you die. You must receive your reward first."
"What could you mean-" Kagura's words died in her throat when Sesshomaru's forearm stretched in front of her with a cut that let a thin rivulet of blood stream onto her already blood stained clothes.
"Drink."
"But I can't possibly-" Kagura began to protest, but her eyes remained fixed on the racing crimson liquid. There was something enchanting about it, something sinfully pleasurable.
"My blood will heal your wounds and prevent you from ageing as was agreed between us."
"Okay." Kagura concentrated her glance on the wound, unsure how to proceed. Sucking other's being blood surely wasn't a common practice. Sesshomaru solved her problem, by bringing his arm right in from of her lips. Cautiously she licked on the blood, but then couldn't stop. The blood tasted like some warm candy enriched by the feeling of immense power feeling her every cell. A few minutes later Sesshomaru took his arm away, and Kagura involuntarily moved forward unable to let go.
"That surely can get addictive," she remarked in a much steadier voice.
"It is. Youkai blood is a valuable trade item, if it is obtained and stored properly. Haven't you heard about it from the slayers?"
"Just bits and pieces, I don't really listen to their bragging," Kagura said, stretching on the futon and finally settling in a comfortable position. Yes, healing power was indeed inside her, but her body cried for relaxation. "Why don't you tell me?"
"Youkai healing powers as well as strong immunity is caused mostly by their blood, but it works only inside youkai's body. If youkai blood is taken from a dead body, it is totally worthless. But even if it is extracted from an alive youkai, which demands a slayer of high skill, the blood clots and doesn't work. With time different sorcerers discovered herbs that prevent blood from drying slightly reducing its powers. Liquid youkai blood is more valuable than gold, but you never know if it is real until you use it."
"Haven't anyone thought of capturing one alive and draining him continuously?"
"That works for some time, but youkai die quickly in captivity, we are beasts by nature, we can't be kept on a leach."
The silence stretched while Kagura was thinking over the newly received information. Just now she has been given something very precious to its owner, and valuable to everybody else. Was it because she was somehow special or just because of the business agreement?
"Hey, Sesshomaru, do I qualify now? To be someone you trust? Those two days did feel like descending to Hell for me."
"Why do you want a youkai's trust?"
"Why do you always twist my words? That wasn't what I was asking about."
"Why do you need this Sesshomaru's trust?"
Kagura turned over to lie on her back and stared at the ceiling in attempt to find the answer there. There was none of course. "Hell if I know. I managed to straighten my life in the recent years. I do my share of chores in the house, I do everything to bring up Rin properly – play with her and teach her stuff, I help Hitomi with her son, I've friends among women in the village. It's mostly routine, but I find something interesting in everything I do, so my life is pretty good right now. But then the air shifts and you appear on the doorstep, and I don't know what to do with myself. Why do you think is that?"
"This Sesshomaru won't visit anymore then."
"No!" Kagura cried out, bolting up and instantly regretting it – her body was still weak from bygone abuse. The pain was strong enough for her not to notice that the great taiyoukai made a concession just for her not to be distressed.
"You need to rest. But before that a bath is in order to clean this stench," Sesshomaru said, his nostrils flaring in disgust.
"I wonder, if I manage to clean myself completely one day. Those rapists must've cursed me; whenever I get close to a man, he rapes me." Kagura slowly sat up and tried to stand up, but fell back onto the futon. "Dammit, life sucks."
"Just a moment ago, you were saying your life turned out to be quite good," Sesshomaru noted, taking Kagura into his arms with no visible effort.
"But such experiences can spoil everything you've been building up for years."
"Now you have additional fifty years to build anything you want."
"Yeah."
While Kagura was cared through the house towards the hot springs she thought that such way of moving around was quite addictive too.
…
"How is Kagura?" Kagome asked the next morning during breakfast, noticing that there were only three of them at the table. Rin was mysteriously absent too.
"She is resting," Sesshomaru replied in a tone that indicated no wish for further discussion.
"We brought the fans she asked for. You should've taken them with you, you obviously can't afford another pair," Inuyasha remarked with a knowing smirk. "The maker must've had a field day – hair of an alive inuyoukai! What fool could possible give his hair away? Did you kill the maker so he wouldn't tell other youkai about you becoming much less powerful? So weak actually that you can't enter a purifying barrier set by a single monk?" Inuyasha continued with his taunting. Even if the fans' maker didn't have a field day, he definitely did.
To Sesshomaru's credit, he didn't lose his composure (as if he ever did). "If you think that you can kill me in my current state, you are sadly mistaken, Inuyasha."
"Keh." Inuyasha would've said a lot of other words about him being ready to take on Sesshomaru any day, but the door slid open and Kagura stepped in with Rin by her side.
"We are ready to go," she announced.
"Impossible," Kagome gasped, looking Kagura over. The woman looked completely recovered, which was not possible with ordinary healing means used. As far as Kagome knew Kagura had received no medical treatment at all. Sesshomaru simply prohibited Kagome to step into Kagura's bedroom.
"Will Rin fly with Sesshomaru-sama? You promised!" Rin exclaimed, grabbing onto Sesshomaru's long sleeve and pulling towards the door.
"Will you come visit, Kagome, Inuyasha?" Kagura asked, taking the fans from the table, closing and tacking them into her sleeves.
"We were just thinking the same thing," Kagome replied sweetly, elbowing her mate who was about to protest.
"What was that about?" Inuyasha grunted on their way to Inuyasha's village, hopping from one tree to another. "Why should we go to Naruki's?"
"Don't you want to know what is going between Kagura and Sesshomaru? We will come exactly when he is there and see everything with our own eyes!" Kagome explained full of enthusiasm.
Inuyasha only kehed in response. In his personal opinion Kagome was talking nonsense. What could possibly be between a human woman and a taiyoukai who doesn't feel anything, especially towards humans?