Chapter 14

The Cross Scar

The next day, Serena woke up early. She could feel a soft pulsing coming from her jewel and she had a basic idea what was going to happen.

She carefully got up off of the fluffy boa Sesshomaru let her sleep on and quietly left the house. The sun hadn't risen yet, but there was enough light to see with. She went to the top of the shrine steps and saw the sun was barely coming over the horizon. After a few minutes of waiting for the sun to rise, a huge yet gentle pulse came from the jewel. The power radiated through her body as her demonic powers came back. Her hair faded from raven black to silvery white and her eyes from soft jaded green to fiery golden yellow. She looked at her hands and saw her nails grow out into claws.

The pulsing stopped and Serena felt her human ears melt away as her dog ears flipped up on top. She took a deep breath and felt safe again.

She walked back down the stairs and saw Shippo come out of Keade's house.

"Oh there you are!" he said noticing her come down the last few steps. "For a moment I thought that you had been captured or something."

"Nope." She said kneeling before him. "I was just watching the sun rise like I always do."

He jumped into her arms and asked, "Why do you always watch the sun rise Serena?"

Standing up she said, "I watch the sun rise as a way that I know that I've survived another day."

"Oh okay." He almost understood what she was talking about. He looked at her and saw there was a certain sadness in her eyes.

She then smiled at him, pushing the memories of the past away. "Want to go to the well and wait for Kagome to get back?"

"Sure!" he said happily.

She smiled again and carried the young fox demon to the well. The village was just starting to wake up as they made their way to the forest.

"Serena?" Shippo had a question he just had to ask her. "Why do you always look so sad when you think about we talk about your past?"

Serena looked down at him and asked, "Why do you ask Shippo?"

"Because you always seem to look depressed when Kagome talks about you when you guys were young."

Serena was silent for a while. When they reached the rice fields, she finally spoke. "You know how Inuyasha and Kikyo were fifty years ago and then all of a sudden Inuyasha wines up pinned to a tree by Kikyo?"

"Yeah. Keade told me the story a couple times already so I know it by heart now."

"Well that kind of happen to me when I was about 17 years old."

"Were you pinned to a tree?"

Serena laughed and said, "No I wasn't pinned to a tree. But my boyfriend did hurt me, pretty bad too. In fact, the pain he inflicted on me has become a constant nightmare for me."

"Why did he hurt you?" He asked as they reached the edge of the forest.

She wanted to explain in a way that he would understand. "Does Kikyo still love Inuyasha?"

"I think so. But she just keeps saying she's going to take him to the underworld with her."

"Well think of me as Inuyasha and Kikyo as my boyfriend. I know for a fact that Kagome likes him too, she's involved as well but as another guy."

"Okay." They walked past the tree and came into the clearing where the well was.

"Inuyasha starts seeing Kagome and Kikyo catches them together even though Inuyasha and Kagome are just old friends who just haven't seen each other for a long time." She sat in the shade of a tree near the well and continued. "Kikyo is a type of person who basically acts before she thinks about what she's doing."

"Kinda like how Inuyasha is all the time?" He said sitting on he lap.

"Exactly like that." Serena laughed at Shippo's comment about Inuyasha being reckless. "Kikyo suspects that Inuyasha is cheating on her to be with Kagome. So she does the most reasonable thing a person like her can do."

"Get revenge by pinning him to a tree?" He asked nicely. She nodded and it looked like he understood. He then asked, "But how your Kikyo hurt you?"

She went silent again. She had to show him the scar. She sat up straight and rolled up the sleeves on her left arm. On her upper arm was a large crossed shaped scar on her skin. One line of the scar went straight down her arm while the other line was at an angle and went across the muscle of her arm. "See this?"

"Yeah." He stared at the white mark on her flesh.

"This is what my Kikyo did to me as a way of saying that I was his and his alone. A way of saying that no one else could have me."

"That must have hurt a lot." Serena let him touch the scar. She was grateful that he had a very gentle touch.

"It did. He used a very sharp knife to carve that into my skin. The doctors said I could have died from blood lost if he didn't stop when he did." When he was done looking at the scar, she rolled the sleeves back down and said. "The funny thing is how I got him off of me."

"What do you me?" He was interest about her scar.

"All I remember is that I wanted him off me. I kept telling him to stop but he wouldn't listen. I then felt something powerful growing deep inside me. I think it was my priestess powers. Course I didn't know that I had them until last night."

"You have powers like Kagome?" Shippo was surprised that there was another priestess in the Higurashi family.

"Apparently. Anyway, I somehow sent Naruki flying across the room and finally got away. I manage to get to a phone and call for help. After a week staying in the hospital for the cut on my arm, I went to live with my friend, Seiya Kitsune, in the mountains so I could be away from Naruki and be able to protect my family in case he decided to hurt my family too."

"So that's why you left!" Said a voice from the well. Shippo and Serena looked at the well and saw Kagome sitting on the rim. Inuyasha was coming up behind her with her big yellow backpack. "I always wondered why you disappeared."

Serena stood up as Shippo ran over to Kagome. "I'm sorry I left like I did. I just didn't want my family to get hurt because of a over judgmental boyfriend."

"It's okay. I understand now." The sister's smiled at each other as Inuyasha put the backpack on the ground.