The goal had been simple. Though the demon lord known as Sesshōmaru had previously gotten in his way, Naraku had his eyes on something and was known to be very set in his ways. The reincarnation of Kikyō was capable of detecting fragments of the sacred jewel, much to Inuyasha's convenience. The convenience should have been his to have, rather than the simple-minded and easy to anger hanyō. His aspirations were much more worthy of her gifts, and without her Inuyasha was admittedly useless. Separating the group of friends to some degree would do him some good, and prevent them from further sullying his plans. And what better way to execute his plans than to steal away the priestess, and bestow them all with tragedy and the winning sensation of their despair and utter failure.
By now it was the crack of dawn, and Naraku had stolen Kagome away from her place of rest amongst her allies. He had moved her with enough swiftness to not interrupt her slumber, until a sharp pain racked her body. The dark-haired teen choked on an inhalation, eyes rolling back as she was forced into consciousness by a crippling injury to her side. She could feel someone's fingers deep inside of her waist, curling inside of her and creating a gruesomely wet noise. Her exhalation came out choppy, and her arms flung out to grip what seemed to be very old wood beneath her body. It was impossible to tell what was going on, tears filling her eyes and blurring her already groggy vision.
Disgusting laughter of her enemy filled what sounded to be a small and empty room, echoing off of the walls. His plan was now set in motion. A man as wicked as he found no trouble in tainting one of his own shards of the sacred jewel, turning it to a lurid black-violet. Naraku then yanked his fingers out of Kagome's side, humming in pleasure as she let out a final shriek before her body seized it's trembling, succumbing to the mind numbing pain and allowing her body to fall limp. Though she had just woken, she could feel herself drifting in and out of consciousness. Her eyes rolled around in a desperate attempt to identify her surroundings further, the double-vision giving her insane nausea. She could just barely make out the sight of Naraku, and the two who stood behind him. The small girl Kanna, accompanied by Kagura. Their expressions were unreadable. Undefinable. There was hardly anything to make of their faces, no purpose in calling out for any form of assistance. But she found herself trying, trembling lips desperately trying to achieve some sort of sentence. Even one word would do. But those efforts were in vain. She would not be heard.
After what felt like an eternity of drifting in and out of consciousness, Kagome finally began to feel somewhat better. The pain had started to disappear, and though her body ached she could finally achieve something. Bringing herself to sit up, she pressed her pale fingers delicately to where her wound was. Or should have been. The jewel was already working it's costly magic, making her realize that the only reason she was recovering so quickly was due to it's power. A part of the jewel was inside of her, like it had once been before. Only in this moment, it made her feel sick to her stomach. Her body and mind was pure, but she could feel the jewel rummaging around inside of her in hopes of consuming any darkness in her heart. In her weakened state it was with no struggle that the power of the shard would overcome her, and take hold of what she harboured. Jealousy. Just the other day like every so often it had come up, a grim reminder that the man she had begun falling in love with did not look at her. And whenever he did, he looked directly through her and at someone long since gone. Someone dead, who he often prioritized and chased after even in her presence.
In front of her, Naraku sat patiently. How long had he been waiting for her to collect herself enough to sit up before him? The thought sent a shiver down her spine, but despite that her gaze was harsh. Kagome would not avert her determined hues from him, biting down on her lower lip furiously.
"I will eventually purify this shard, and you know that!" Kagome snarled, moving her hands from her waist and gripping the floorboards beneath her in a battle for dominance over herself. "You can't keep me here!"
"I'm quite sure you will." The villain mused, seemingly entertained by the entire scenario. "So why don't I return you to Inuyasha, hm? I'm sure he will be delighted to see you." To this statement, Kagome was not sure how to respond. There was without a doubt something more to his ghastly plan, but if he was truly going to return her to Inuyasha, certainly there was a way her and her friends could get through this. She would obtain the upper hand in the long run. She had to. But something wasn't quite right.
"Take me back." The priestess demanded. And with that, Naraku swept her up from where she sat without hesitation. She could feel his grin beneath that distasteful disguise of his as he manhandled her, swallowing her fear and recurring nausea as he took off with her all too quickly, leaving her unable to get a good idea of where exactly he had taken her.
- II -
Meanwhile, Inuyasha had already run off on his own in search of Kagome. But in his search he had begun to spot souls of the dead, floating through the trees and deeper into the forest. As he had no leads on Kagome and no awareness of her danger, he succumbed to the urge to seek out the source that he knew all too well to be Kikyō. His secondary search was not in vain- running at an inhuman speed to wards his destination deep within the forest, spotting his previous lover and stopping dead in his tracks. The deceased woman was surrounded by souls, which she was collecting through her Shinidamachū. The two stared at each other in silence for only a brief moment as Inuyasha could not contain himself, acting on his usual impulses.
"Kikyō." He spoke her name fluidly, lost in the name and connection to his past. After all, he had been something akin to sleeping for all that time. He had not moved forward. The betrayal he knew and the despair that came with it were always fresh in his mind whenever he encountered her. It flushed away Kagome to the back of his mind, unable to see past his history when in her presence. But she said nothing to him. Not a word came from her, and she simply looked away from him. In earlier days she could only feel hatred for him, but had come to love him once more. But she vowed not to rekindle that love, knowing she was deceased and nothing could possibly come of it. He on the other hand was not as capable and selfless as the priestess, and the look in his eyes spoke a thousand words that she made every effort to ignore. But he came closer, reaching out a hand to clasp over hers.
"Inuyasha..." She replied monotonously, lifeless hues returning his gaze. But they did not hold the intent that his did. Kikyō simply could not satisfy his long lost hopes and desires. It had been quite some time since she had accepted this fact while he delved deeper and deeper into dust-filled memories.
And that was when Naraku's plan really started to turn it's gears, coming into motion with ease and hellishly fast. He had brought Kagome here with no trouble, setting her down on a high branch of one of the surrounding trees and disappearing. Despite Inuyasha's astounding sense of smell, he was so enticed by his previous lover that he had not noticed Kagome's presence. This alone was enough to fill her with heartache, let alone the sight of the two and their tortured romance. And it was exactly what Naraku wanted her to see. Her heart skipped a beat, breath hitching in the back of her throat. The jewel pulsed in her side, sending her into a haze. She couldn't see this another time. She lost her balance, body swaying on the branch and giving way to gravity. The teen's body hit the ground at a most unfortunate angle, leg twisted underneath her and receiving most of the impact as she hit the forest floor. But she could hardly feel the pain, consumed by a variety of emotions and petrified of the stare that had been drawn to her. Both of them were looking at her, Inuyasha's hands dropping from Kikyō as she backed away.
Inuyasha never failed to tear her heart from her chest each time she managed to accept his split feelings a little more and overcome her jealousy. It was proof of her love, was it not? But that hopeful thought was trampled on time and time again, the thought of this sight putting her in a bad mood. The actual sight of it; putting her on her toes. Despite her condition Kagome sprung back up onto her feet, nearly toppling over on her injured leg that was now beginning to gradually swell up in a brilliant mix of blues and blacks on her pale skin. In her fury she wasted not a single breath on the Hanyō, taking one step in the other direction and screaming out in pain. The adrenaline kicked in, and she delved into a full sprint in the opposite direction of the star-crossed lovers with tears streaming down her face. She couldn't take it anymore. She had to get as far away as possible, and ran without any destination. Enough was enough.
- III -
The sun was poking through the forestry, but all she could feel was darkness as her body slowed as it became unable to run any longer. She pushed herself to the limit, adrenaline coming to it's end as suddenly as it had begun. Her eyes fluttered as she attempted to keep her consciousness, swaying back and forth until there was nothing left of her to support her own weight. Kagome's body hit the ground rather dramatically, smacking her skull onto the surface of the Earth with a resonating 'thud' that caused birds among the trees to fly off in response to the disturbance; the impact rendering her unconscious.
It was then a small girl crossed the path of her unconscious body, a hand coming up to her lips as she gasped at the horrific sight. "Lord Sesshōmaru!" She called out, rushing to Kagome's seemingly lifeless body in determination to help. In a few moments, the Lord stepped out from the trees with a look of distaste on his porcelain features.
"...What is this?" He asked, though the question was mostly rhetorical. The demon could already see what Rin desired from him, and though he had no interest in helping the nuisance of a mikō for a second time he did not wish to waste any more time in his travels trying to reason with the young girl and having her put up a fuss. Those thoughts coming to mind, he went ahead and stepped closer to inspect her body. She was in quite the condition, and he could most definitely sense something off with her scent. So many other things were in the mix: Naraku's disgusting variety of smells, a deceased woman all in addition to the ever lingering scent of his useless brother. All of these scents caused a slight irritation in him, brow twitching. "Interesting..." His voice was soft but stern, not giving away much of what he was thinking on the matter. Kneeling down and effortlessly pulling her up over his shoulder with his only hand, he motioned for Rin to follow along while ignoring her babbling about the other worldly woman's nearly fatal injuries, and something else about 'having to help her' and 'pleaaaase Lord Sesshōmaru!'. Given his regrettable sentiment towards Rin, he often tried to dismiss a great deal of her speech as it clouded a lot of his usual cold and ruthless judgement on many situations he encountered. Though he ignored the young girl, she smiled childishly- with a dash of knowledge. Her Lord was no evil man and she couldn't help but skip alongside his much taller figure, content with his silent decision to take her along and help the orphan tend to Kagome's wounds. (Much to his regret, of course.)
- TO BE CONTINUED -
A/N: It's literally been a few years, but tonight I had just a smudge of inspiration to write some more of this recreation of a very old fanfiction of mine. If you have enjoyed the story thus far, please follow it and/or review it. Give me a sign that you want to see more of it, and it might motivate me to get back into it!