Hi all, thank you for your patience. I managed to churn out another chapter ASAP. Please continue to read and review. Also, feel free to post questions if you have any and I will answer them to the best of my ability. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Happy reading!
Disclaimer: All the Inuyasha characters do not belong to me, they are the exclusive property of their creator. However, I do own the original ideas and characters invented.
Chapter 3 - Shinjitsu
"Whoa! What a dream!" Kagome sat up in bed, her heart racing as she fanned her face. The blush intensified as she recalled how in this dream, she was the one to take initiative. She had no idea what came over her but she had been extremely playful and it was sort of revenge for him teasing her the dream before.
Strangely, her teeth ached and she could almost make out a coppery taste in her mouth... Oh my! She bit him! She remembered feeling intensely satisfied when she sank her teeth into his shoulder. She felt... Complete. But now, she was empty again.
"I'm not turning into a cannibal, am I?" Kagome wondered aloud, thinking nothing more of her dream as she drifted to sleep again.
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"Nee-chan!" You're gonna be late for school!" yelled a small boy as he jumped up and down on the huddled bundle on the bed.
"Souta! Stop disturbing your sister and come down for breakfast! It's the start of her break!"
"Oh!" Souta gasped as he stopped jumping immediately. His body tense as he dared to glance over his shoulder, praying fervently that his sister was still asleep. "Heh heh..." He chuckled nervously as he made out a pair of red eyes glaring at him evilly from under the covers.
"AH! Mama! Save me!" Souta cried as he leaped off the bed and tried to make a break for the door and heard the blankets flap. "Kago-mon is after me!"
A loud thud was heard followed by a pain filled yelp.
"Kagome, since you're awake, why don't you come down for breakfast?" Mama yelled, shaking her head at the antics of her two children.
"Coming..." Was the muffled reply.
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Souta looked quite miserable as he ate his breakfast, wincing occasionally as his mother probed the tender spot.
"Kagome, you didn't have to throw an alarm clock at Souta's head."
"Well, it's his fault. He knows I hate to wake up early when I'm on break," Kagome said nonchalantly as she snagged a slice of tamago off her brother's plate.
"Both of you apologise to each other now," Mama demanded as she released Souta's head from her ministrations and replaced the tamago slice she saw her daughter take.
Two reluctant "gomenasai" were uttered as the two youths glared at each other.
Silence reigned for a few minutes as Mama cooked up Kagome's breakfast when a loud honk was heard outside.
"Souta, Kiyoshi's parents are outside. Remember to behave yourself at camp," Mama said as she watched her son scramble to pick up his bags.
"Ittekimasu!" Souta yelled as he exited the house with the force of a hurricane.
"Mama..." Kagome began.
"Hmn?"
"I have been having dreams lately..." Kagome said as she ate her breakfast, failing to notice how her mother stiffened at the mention of dreams.
"What about these dreams, dear?" Mama asked nonchalantly as she pulled out a chair to sit.
"Well... I've been having them for sometime..."
"How long?" Mama interrupted, insistent.
"Huh? Forever, I guess. But lately, I've been having them everyday. And it's always about this boy."
"Maybe it's telling you it's time to start dating. After all, you are nineteen and in university. I met your father when I was your age," Mama teased, her smile strained as her eyes clouded with pain at the memory of her husband, the love of her life.
Tapping her fingers nervously, she waited for Kagome to finish her breakfast and as usual wander off to her room to continue sleeping as she was wont to do during her uni breaks.
Rushing to her father's room, she quickly slid the bamboo door shut as he watched her in astonishment, her behaviour out of character. She turned to face him and uttered the sentence that would change their lives, "Ji-chan... She's coming of age."
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After pacing his room for what seemed like the umpteenth time, Ji-chan plonked himself down in front of his pale-faced daughter and said, "We must notify the Rose Council."
Immediately she stiffened and her eyes grew wide with panic.
"Chiharu, it is in Kagome's best interest that we notify them. They will know how to manage this. And besides, it is time for her to learn about her true heritage. We cannot protect her forever, not when she is born the Seventh of the Seventh. We are bound by Masato's promise to the Council," Ji-chan reasoned, clasping his daughter's white knuckled fists and opening them gently. Softly, he soothed the red crescent imprints her nails had created as they dug into her flesh.
"But they let him die!" she whispered, her voice thick with the tears that were threatening to spill over.
"CHIHARU!" Ji-chan roared angrily, startling her. "Masato died protecting Kagome. Do not lessen what he did out of love. We will notify the Council when you are calmer," he whispered as he engulfed his daughter as she wept for her lost love, her soulmate.
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"I feel... A stirring in the threads," the hoarse whisper came from a huddled figure sitting in front of the loom, its slender white index finger skimming over and plucking at certain threads.
"Oh? I wonder... Could it be what I have been waiting for?" A tall lithe youth cocked his head to one side, his handsome face scrunched up in thought. His long raven locks flowed past his waist and his alabaster skin shone like the moon in the dark room that he stood in.
A whimper brought him back to the present and he crouched down to the bleeding and bound naked body at his feet.
"Oh hush, worthless worm, before I kill you," he muttered absently, tapping the handle of his whip on his bottom lip, still deep in thought.
"Gather the Seven Seals and sacrifice their blood and souls at the Prism altar to release the Akuma no Kagami. Six seals have been formed, await the Seventh seal. Do not rush or your attempt will result in the failures of the past," the monotonous drone spilled from the huddled figure, completely at odds with the husky melodious tone of before.
immediately, his handsome visage morphed into pure evil as he yelled in a murderous rage, "DO NOT TELL ME WHAT TO DO, ORACLE!"
Grasping the blood soaked locks, he pulled up viciously, wringing a strangled shriek of pain from the body beneath him. She spat blood into his face as he brushed her hair aside to reveal her crimson glare, he grinned in pure pleasure at her resistance. Turning her to face the huddled figure at the loom, he gripped her face forcefully.
"What say you? Should she live or die? What do the fates show you?" He jeered cruelly.
"Please, don't..." The huddled figure pleaded, her voice thick with tears and hoarse from screaming. "I'll tell you everything."
"Kanna! Don't beg him," the crimson eyed girl forced out through gritted teeth as she struggled to stand to take the weight off her hair.
"Still so full of life, even after all you've been through. I must not be working hard enough," he mused as he heaved her battered body higher against him. "Tell me, Kanna. Does Kaguya live or die?"
Crimson meets unseeing luminescent white and a look passed between them. Understanding, resignation and grief. With an almost imperceptible nod from Kaguya, Kanna whispers, "She dies."
Without wasting a breath, he snaps Kagura's neck like a toothpick and drops her lifeless body to the floor. The life in her glittering crimson orbs fade to a dull murky brown.
Wiping his face clean of the blood, he beckoned to the shadows lurking in the corner. "Take that back to the cells. Alert me when she revives," he said, gesturing to Kaguya's body.
"Now Oracle, find the Seventh Seal!"
"Yes Naraku," her tearing eyes glowed with unearthly light as she perused the threads Of life.
AN: I know... So surprising that it's Naraku. Not.
Although the name is the same as Kanna's "released" form in the series, the Akuma no Kagami here is completely different. Let me clarify, if it is not already obvious, Kanna is a separate entity and will not be turning into the Akuma no Kagami.
That's all! Hope you guys enjoyed this and please spend a few moments to comment on the progress of the story so far.