DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and places are the sole property of Rumiko Takahashi. Any resemblance to any actual events, locales, organizations, or person, living or dead is entirely coincidental.
A/N: Another SessKag story but is dedicated to YoukaiYume, who got me started on this pair. This is early birthday gift from me to her for all the beautiful art she has bestowed upon my life and eyeballs. There is a happy ending version but I'm debating on rather or not to post it. I kind of like it, with the angst ending. Comments and reviews welcome. If I get enough, I may put the happy ending up.
Also, her birthday is September 21 (At least that's what it says on her DA page. Stalker much~) so go thank her for this wonderful and sad story.
Enjoy the story~
500 years has passed since the defeat of the vile half-demon. A little over 400 since the death of his ward, 300 since the start of his empire and 150 since the end of it. In the time he had, he only had one regret as he stared out the window, mindlessly observing the rain splattering against the glass.
The weather was much like his inner turmoil. Sad. Depress but most of all, lonely. There wasn't a single person in the world who wanted the rain and yet it continues to pour from the sky, catching anyone unfortunate enough to be unable to escape from it's wet clutches.
On this particular night, it was the worse for he knew what will come in the morning. When the light first hits the horizon, hinting to the occupants of the land to rise to begin their day, he could image how her reaction would be. Light peeking through her curtains to shine in her closed eyes as she struggles to keep the offender away. Losing the battle, she would reluctantly rise, stretch her generously luscious body free of it's nighty imprisonment and start her daily routine. When completed, she would realize she was late for her final day of academic studies and rush to appear for her own graduation, celebrating with her friends on finally being able to graduate from high school after her ordeal of illnesses in middle school.
Days of her younger years filled his mind as he thought back to the long and lonely years he lived after she returned. It was something he carved and cursed. Back then, he didn't have a particular fondness for the human woman but he did hold some level of respect for the being that took down his hated enemy and mellowed out his younger brother.
Thinking back on that subject, a bitter laugh escaped his lips.
That half brother of his always have what he wanted. 700 years ago, he demanded his father's fang only to be denied. 200 years later, he was once again rejected by the sword when it choice his pathetic excuse of a sibling as it's owner and yet again when he finally understood the swell of emotions that arose from him when she was near.
Many times he has wondered why he was so foolish to not realize the truth of her gesture. Was he still so prejudice that even as honorable as he, he was blind to the true value that she was worth? Perhaps so if he was suffering from the pain of having his heart being ripped out from his very chest and being crushed under the weight of his sorrows.
As often as he thought about her, he thought about changing history. If she could travel between past and present, why can't he shape his future into the form of something or someone he desired? When he first met her again, he thought her an illusion. How could she still be alive after disappearing for three years and living through nearly 500 years since he last saw her? Naturally, being the oppressing demon that he was, he grabbed her from the group of females she was traveling and conversing with, brought her to an ideal abandon but not so disturbingly disgusting and immediately began questioning her.
Imagine his surprise when she didn't quiver at his dominating presence but glared daggers at him, nearly purified him while claiming that even within five minutes of their reunion, he was still the biggest asshole she have ever known.
Now, the him from the past would never have taken such disrespect and would have instantly killed her but his survival throughout the years taught him a few things. One, humans no longer believe in the existence of demons since they went into hiding after being prosecuted harshly by humans of all kinds of holy power. Two, in the time he lived now, women had as much rights-though not treated as such- as men do. Three, mindless slaughtering was now frowned upon by society and he was sure that with her dead and no body found, numerous reports will appear all over the news, he would have to live the rest of his life knowing he had killed the one thing that remains from his past.
The toad he kept in service had left the world sum 150 years ago, along with his two-headed dragon. It was one of many moments in his life that he never forgot, no matter how often he tried. He was patrolling the Western Lands as he always have when the attack happen. At the time, priests and priestesses had started coming together to rid the world of their "tainted presence" as they called it. A cold shiver had ran down his spine and he knew straightaway something was wrong. He returned to the home he built for himself only to see it in flames, screams and shouts rang loudly through the air as the smell of death, gun powder and holy power reign supreme in the area.
Darkness clouded his vision as red bled into his eyes and "KILL" was all that could be heard in his mind. He didn't know how much time have past since his demon overtook him nor did he care but his chest felt light. Laying on the blood soaked ground, surrounded by liters and liters of corpses, he raised his right hand and placed it on the left side of his chest. The thumping was slow but strong and yet it felt as if there was nothing there. Climbing into a sitting position, he surveyed the damage done.
His home was gone. Completely destroyed. He didn't see a single living being, which meant that in his daze, he must have slaughtered everyone, friend and foe. Disgust filled him as he realized the extent of the damaged done. He had killed his own people. Citizens and soldiers that looked up to him for protection but all he did was ensure their demise. 'A leader that caused the end to his lands. Pitiful.' he thought to himself.
Though he felt disgust over his actions, it didn't compare to what he felt next. As the lord and only survivor, he had to pick up all the bodies of his men, servants and enemies and piled them up. Limping throughout the grounds, he gathered all the bodies he could find, avoiding falling lumbers and scattered flames threatening to burn him alive. When he thought he had them all, he burned their bodies, silently praying to the gods to send their souls to whatever place they deem them worthy of. For his enemy, he merely melted their corpse, not even giving them the honor of an honorable death. They didn't deserve it anyway.
Although he burned their bodies, he couldn't bring himself to burn the two figures he kept separate from the pile. Them, he personally moved to his ruined garden and placed them under the cherry blossom tree he had grown for her and headed for the one object not destroyed in the chaos.
A shrine of beautiful décor and spell upon spell that not even the mightiest of holy people could break. Looking at the building, he thought of his little ward. When she got older and started showing signs of illness, he demanded from the aging priestess to heal her but at the time, there was no medicines to cure the disease. He blamed her for not saving her. He blamed himself for not saving her. He just blamed everyone.
After her death, he took her decease body, washed and clean, dressed in fresh garbs and placed in the shrine he built for her. In a coffin lay a girl of perhaps twenty year of age. With humans, there age mattered not to him for they grew faster than he.
Now with the death of two more of his most trusted companion, he walked inside, carrying his bundle and setting them down. Returning outside, he gathered wood and tools needed to built two more coffins. He did not worry. They would still be there when he return. It took hours for he was a man who never had the skills for such a task but he finished. Returning to the shrine with makeshift coffins in hand, he nearly gasp at the sight. The two headed dragon lay above the only coffin as the toad lay to her left. An image of a sleeping dragon with a girl leaning on it's side and the toad sleeping by her side nearly became his undoing but he gathered the strength to continue. He was a man on a mission. A mission he will see through. Placing the corpses in their coffin, he arranged them in how he saw them. Just like they always were, the dragon standing tall, protecting his ward and retainer.
A ping was heard but he didn't know where. Then again the sound came but it sounded more like splashes. Looking down, he saw water droplets and wondered his there was a leak in the roof. Looking up, he saw none but he felt the wetness of water running down his face. Closing his eyes, he shook his head. He would not acknowledge it. It was a weakness and he despise weaknesses. Walking away, he replaced the spell, this time adding another and watch as it disappeared from reality as if it never existed.
He wandered a bit more, refusing to return to such a dead zone until one day he felt a pull. A pull that told him to return home. His beast was also craving the touch of familiarity so home the went only to come face to face with her. It appears she was waiting for him but he knew it was not possible. She was human and she died long before the war between demons and humans so how was she here? It didn't matter. He was not here for her. Intending to walk pass his illusion, he was surprise when she grabbed his sleeve, proving to him she was real. He turned to grab her in return by she merely sidestepped him.
She then walked passed him and he was helpless to follow. He walked and walked over the ruins that now sprouted new plant life. So absorb was he in the surrounding that when he did focus, he became startle. There in front of him was his brother's priestess on her knees bowing and praying to nothing but he knew. She was praying to the residents in the shrine he had hidden from the world. He grew angry. How dare she do such a thing?! Though he knew that what she did did not merit any hatred on his part, he couldn't prevent the growl that erupted from him. She merely turn and smiled at him before placing a handful of daffodils on the ground.
His eyes widen when he looked closer. The entire area was covered in all types of flowers! Flowers of every color grew from the ground, giving life to new plants to continue the endless cycle. Suddenly he knew the truth. The truth for why she was there. She was there to help him heal. To move on pass the lives he couldn't save. He didn't want to accept the offer from her but she gave it to him all the same.
When he felt a pressure on his chest, he looked down and saw her hand where his heart lie. Gold met blue. Amber to sapphire and he was lost to the emotions that swayed in those hypnotizing eyes. Looking up once more, he gaze down only to met nothing but the warmth of her hand was still there. The emptiness he felt for years had vanished as if it was never there.
Snapping out of his memories, he watch as the rain started letting up, his amber eyes distant from reality but still there. Perhaps that was why he adored her so? In his time of need, even in the land of dead, she came to him and not his brother, whom she loved when living. That was most likely what started the demon lord on this path. The path his father walked so long ago.
Standing from the chair he sat in, he looked at his reflection and the dark sky. How he wish the morning never come. He spent the last two years in her proximity and he can honestly say to himself that he love the woman beyond comprehension but it wasn't met to be. In a few more hours, she would rise, celebrate and then leave him for other. Although she did not know of his feelings or the depth, he knew she would miss conversing with a version of him that didn't consist of only "hn" or glares.
The hours flew by and the sun rose, shining it's glorious rays, taunting him of the upcoming dread. She had invited him to go but he couldn't. Why would he go when he knew he was about to lose her? Was becoming her friend in the last two years a mistake on his part. 'No.' he thought. It wasn't a mistake. It was a lesson. A 500 year lesson that was killing him inside.
He grew and learn and now own one of the mot powerful companies in Japan and yet, no amount of riches could get him what he really wanted. Glancing at his wristwatch, he saw it was three in the afternoon. Had he really been spacing out for that long?!
Against his better judgment, he ran out the room, got into his car, mindful to place a spell to hide his marking and sped down to her home. All without getting ticketed by the police. When he reached his destination, he ran out the car, not bothering to close the door or taking out his keys from the still running engine as he descended upon the stairs in a speed he haven't used in nearly a century. Rushing past obstacles, he went straight to the well house, owning that he would find her there. Hands ready to rip the door open, he stumbled when it opened, revealing the mother of the woman he was about to never see again. He must have looked frantic for she simply looked at him, gave a single nod and walked away, head held high as she walked about into her home, waiting until all was asleep and quiet to cry her sorrow at her own lose.
At the door, he saw her look at him in curiosity but then she smiled. A smile so bright, it was literally killing him. They had already said their goodbyes but as he watch her swing her feet over the edge of the well, he ran forward.
Gone was the noble demon he displayed himself to be in the two years they've been together. The prideful demon that had no fault whimpered out his broken reply. "Don't..." he begged her. "Don't go...please."
He knew how the story to their tragic play would end; he has seen it first hand and through the many centuries that passed but still he reached for her, encircling his arms around her body, spell long gone in his desperation to have her. Shining blue light engulfed her in it's magical radiates as it called her to a time he no longer belong to.
"Sesshomaru?" Gods, how he loved how his name came from her lips. Hungrily, he took in her scent, memorizing the already memorized scent of his beloved priestess. Here, locked in his loving and strong embrace was the woman he wanted and it filled him with regret knowing that this was the first time he truly touched her. The first...and the last.
He disregarded Fate of it's importance and now Fate will take her away; showing him the cruelties they were infamous for but still he tried. One last futile attempt to defy them in his quest. Burying his noise into the nape of her neck where his mark would have been, he nuzzled her silky raven hair in all of it's glory. "Please don't go." Pride long forgotten as he begged once more for the impossible. "I love you. Don't go."
Hearing her gasp in shock at his sudden confession, he waited for a reply of any sort. His life was hanging in the balance of one tiny woman and she was about to jump right out of it. The familiar sound he heard long ago sounded in his ear. He felt the splash as it fell onto his arm but he didn't care. If the gods would let him, it would be the only time he makes her shed a tear.
"Sesshomaru... I-"
Before she could finish her sentence, glowing blue light flashed strongly, blinding both people in the structure of the well house until he felt her slip from under him. Eyes wide and disbelieving, he watched helplessly as he spiral down the time stream that connected this time from the past. She reached out her hand, mouth opening, calling out his name as he extended him, intent on grabbing her but was met with nothing. So there he stood, no longer did any blue light shine. He with half his body with the well, reaching for something no longer there.
Falling to his knees, splashing echoed loudly through the well house once more as he asked once more to the space that should have been her. "Don't go...Kagome..."