Chapter Eight: Avoiding the Mirror

"Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other."

-Francis Bacon

Kagome was protesting so much she growled when Byakuya put a hand over her mouth to muffle her...what the hell did he think he was doing dragging her against her will. He came to a much desired halt and pulled his hand away in undisguised shock when she bit one of his fingers. It hadn't been deep enough to draw blood but she'd nipped him fairly in her opinion. He didn't protest aloud but she knew it must of hurt, there were deep marks in the skin.

"Will you stop already!" Kagome pushed at his arm but he wasn't budging an inch on his grip. "How the hell is he so strong anyway? He's just a paper pusher...shouldn't his arms be weaker!"

"I apologize Kagome...but I can't let you interfere...you are aware of the hold of the Prince's orders for one of the court." Byakuya answered, returning to the quick style of movement now that Kagome seemed more capable of being vaguely stealthy instead of screaming bloody murder.

"You could fight a little harder to resist." She observed with a dubious tone, closing her eyes to avoid the nauseous feeling that accompanied being carried with flash steps with them open. "You didn't exactly take your time. We didn't even pack any clothes."

"There are clothes at the cabin." Byakuya replied with a easy shrug, smiling a little at the look she was giving him. "Besides, if the Prince wants to run off and be a brat while ordering me to take you on a vacation between just the two of us... Did you really want me to fight some real time alone together so badly."

"Everyone here is really manipulative." She reminded herself aloud and laughed then despite her concern. "I suppose that I'll try to look on the bright side of things. Even if I think you could be a little more against leaving him to do whatever you want."

"It's not like he left us much choice..."

""I wouldn't concern yourself for the High Prince Kagome." Byakuya commented, coming to a halt though as far as she could tell they were in the forest with no buildings she could spot nearby. "He is rather capable of taking care of himself. Which as far as I saw, you may have witnessed for yourself."

"Yeah...I guess thats true." Kagome agreed, steadying herself as best she could after he set her on her feet. Remembering the streaks of lightning that he seemed to wield at his command, it was a little scary when she thought about how often she told him off. "The woman...she said her name was once Midoriko but now it was Koridomi or something cause now it was backwards. Sestran was really irritated and thought she was trying to show him that face to torture him."

"Midoriko..." The name was too close to her old troubles that it was difficult to be happy. It seemed unlikely it was a mere coincidence.

Byakuya wasn't looking at her, he was instead scanning the woods carefully, as if trying to make certain of something behind them. She knew he had keen senses when it came to the matters of spiritual energy. "He'll be fine. The others will be able to come to a conclusion. How did your studies go before the interruption."

She rolled her eyes at the business mode he was giving her when no one else was around, following his eyes across the meadow. It was filled with various wildflowers along it's entire southern half and they were near that edge. The woods weren't too thick but the grass was high enough it tickled her knees, it would have been romantic if it wasn't for the circumstance for their retreat. "It was okay. I was hoping to learn how to heal people but all I did was fix a couple things after blowing up several vases."

"No surprise." He commented, keeping the smirk off his face when he noted her glaring out of the corner of his eye. Something was still close, which made him hesitate on going directly to the cabin, the holiday had just been the two of them together so he was skirting the meaning of the words but still following the orders as they were given. "Something is still close. As if one of them is following us."

Kagome was about to answer when she felt the flare of energy, a moment later and she was in the grass where Byakuya had pushed her out of the way. The arrow that had shot from the trees caught him in the right side just above his hip. The projectile had shot firmly through his kimono and bitten deep enough that he could feel the sticky warmth of his blood.

Losing no time Senbonzakura was in his hand and held in front of him, eyes widening slightly at the woman walking from the forest toward him. She was dressed in the traditional red and white robes of the priestess and already had another arrow knocked. That wasn't what surprised him though, she had an uncanny resembelance to the girl just now sticking her head back out from the grass.

"Kikyo?" Kagome blinked in shock of her own. She was certain she'd seen the priestess die for the last time. "I am in the underworld of sorts...but still."

"Oyikko." She returned coldly, but Kagome would have known her from anywhere. She couldn't help but have a slight twang in her heart at the reminder of everything she'd lost before finding Byakuya. "So it is you. I will not be as merciful as Koridomi."

"Shatter. Senbonzakura." Kagome glanced back to her husband at the now familiar words to release his blade. Watching the sword vanishing into a flourish of microblades that flickered and waved in the light like cherry blossoms. Then jumped behind him when they cut apart a second arrow that had been shot her way.

"What are you doing Kikyo!?" Kagome exclaimed, she knew the girl had never liked her but she'd assumed that killing her had fallen off her list. "My mistake."

Byakuya was letting them speak, observing and gaining information of his own while letting Senbonzakura dance lazily around them in a protective circle of petals. Watching the colder woman now that he'd resolved his moment of surprise at the great resemblance between the pair.

"And this is your latest protector then? You left Inuyasha waiting for you for years after you got between us." Kikyo's eyes narrowed painfully, hatefully, as she drew another arrow. "So once you disappeared you got over the boy you claimed you loved?"

"It's not..." Kagome broke off at the words. She'd always assumed with her gone and stuck in her time that Inuyasha would return to Kikyo, not that he would have suffered or waited for her return. It was deeply disturbing that he'd waited for so long and she'd not only moved on to rarely thinking of him, she'd found someone else...

"Liar." Kikyo let another arrow fly, but it was snatched from the sky even faster than the last and a line of pink blades cut her cheek and took off several strands of hair before she rolled away from the mild attack of Byakuya's blade.

"Why is your group attacking Kagome? What is it that she possesses that threatens you so?" Byakuya ignored the deeper topic of her past relationships. They'd spoken very little of her time travel and she'd always seemed sad so he'd never pressed the topic. He'd known she cared deeply for her companions then, but it was perhaps time for them to discuss such matters more once he'd decided what to do with the woman attacking them.

"She doesn't threaten us." Kikyo replied with a dark smile. "At least, not only us, she could unmake you just as easily, you saw it did you not. You were the one there that day in the tunnel with the soul cleanser. You were just the first of many to come that will witness her slow destruction."

Kagome frowned a little, she couldn't remember that too well, but there was something odd about the way she'd fainted and they'd still gotten free safely...she'd not pressed for information cause so much had been going on but was Byakuya hiding things from her about herself?

"Kagome will survive fine. You I cannot speak so highly of." Byakuya was more than a master for Kikyo's cool behavior, he didn't mirror it, he was an arctic chill next to a mild breeze.

"Kikyo...why didn't you stay with Inuyasha?" Kagome couldn't help but ask, settling a hand on Byakuya's shoulder. The silent signal enough to get him to hold his hand for at least a short while.

She winced just slightly at the question. "That wasn't an option for me. I had lived several lifetimes, it was time for me to finally move on. And what did I find in the afterlife? Hueco Mundo, a hellish wasteland full of more demons to fight. Priests and Priestess's are reborn only rarely into the Soul Society. Our energy is too much and it threatens them, so they instead long ago decided to send most of us to hell instead."

"But, Midoriko came here. She lived with the Prince when he was young..." Kagome commented, though a frown was firmly in place. "Why is she working with you then?"

"Eventually we all run out of power, it's the natural order of things. We pull ourselves too thin and most of the time we go out in an explosion of awesome energy that's beyond even your good friend there." Kikyo commented with a smirk. "You see Kagome, thats what you have to look forward to. You will die and spend ages rotting in that hell dimension...but when you die there, you don't return to the land of the living...a part of you goes away, moves on. My part was reborn in you as Midoriko's was long ago reborn into another and eventually me."

She was walking slowly, eyeing them as if searching for an opening while she spoke. "Yet, we never truly get to die. Even if we lose a battle we'll just keep appearing in the hell dimension, dying over and over through the ages until eventually we revert to a hollow and cease to exist. So dangerous we are, beyond occasional breeding stock for the nobles, that we are cursed to be beyond the borders of any place human."

"That can't be true..." Kagome was blinking slowly, it all seemed so unfair. How long ago had Midoriko lived? Kikyo even? Hundreds of years they spent fighting in Hueco Mundo? Eventually becoming hollows? It had to be some story, it had too!

"That's where the demons go as well, even the half-breeds." Kikyo commented darkly, grinning at the horrified widening of Kagome's eyes. "Inuyasha...I saw him once, but he'd fallen completely into his demon half, he eventually was downed by a legion of hollows...he killed a large portion of them no mistake. I couldn't bring myself to shoot him even then, thats why I decided to work with the rest of the shadows of faith that still retain enough sanity to stand against the soul society."

Kagome couldn't reply, it was so much information, she didn't even know what was truth and what was fiction. There was no real way to know or prove it til she died herself, and that seemed a fate all the more worth avoiding now. She was holding her hand against her chest, it felt tight, her stomach was turning and her heart was heavy, it was nauseating.

"Oh I should warn you. Those other shots..." Kikyo drew the arrow back and was aiming before taking the shot, the arrow blooming to life with blue fire. "...had no holy energy."

The arrow cut through the blades of Senbonzakura that had paused it previously, moving swiftly toward Kagome as the target. She didn't have time to react but then she was being knocked to the ground as Byakuya was forced into her from the impact to his back. He took the shot for her though had barely managed to interrupt it's path.

"Byakuya!" She was brought immediately back to present. Inuyasha and his fate had to be something to mourn later, she had someone here and now she loved that had just saved her life again.

"Stay down Kagome." His voice offered no signs he would broke an argument as he rose back to his feet. Senbonzakura had re-taken it's physical form. He held the sword pointed toward the ground in front of him.

"There's nothing you can do when my arrows can cut through your tiny swords." Kikyo commented with a chuckle, drawing another arrow and nocking it.

He dropped the blade and even Kagome was blinking curiously, she hadn't seen him do that before...it didn't seem like the best plan to do something useful. Then it vanished into a ripple it created in the ground, the spiritual pressure suddenly enough to keep her from wanting to get up, pulling at her muscles.

"Bankai."

Giant blades cut through the sudden darkness and went up in a pair of rows going back in what seemed an infinite number of pillar sized swords. It was difficult to take it in, then they began to glow like the sword did when it was about to release.

"Scatter. Senbonzakura Kageyoshi." He intoned the command coldly, aware that it was going to leave Kagome with a headache, but noting that the sly woman's stance had grown more unsure.

What was once thousands or tens of thousands of petals had changed in a moment to billions and the horizon shifted from blue to gentle pink as the flowing attack curled toward Kikyo. Racing after her when she attempted to sidestep and instantly reforming around the hole she made with a holy arrow, a flying flowing pink river of promised death if you were to allow yourself to get caught in it's current.

She screamed as it curled across her arm, leaving it a bloody mess and without the sleeve of the kimono before. She ceased trying to aim at Kagome though and started running.

"She'll die, even if it's not by my hand." Kikyo called back as she dashed from the clearing, trees falling and dust curling into the air after her as Senbonzakura chased after her. It was by far faster than her and was close when Kagome reached up and tugged at Byakuya's leg weakly.

"Don't..." Kagome barely managed the whisper, and likely only because she was touching him, that somehow offered her vague protection from the amazing spiritual energy he was giving off. She couldn't finish the statement though before she passed out, assuming that Byakuya would listen to her request she didn't see Kikyo disappear a moment later beneath the river of petals, or hear the scream get cut off as they flowed into her body to grind her apart from the inside.

End Chapter

Byakuya's a tad vengeful eh? I luvs him. It's been so long sense I've worked on this. I haven't forgotten it I just was stuck for a really long time as to what to do with this chapter. Finishing a crossover AMV I did for the couple inspired me to finally suck it up and work it out.

-Aura

To my reviewers:

Veil of Flesh - So yeah, plotline galore man...and some Byakuya badassness.

Sugar0o - Much was explained this chapter, other things will be explained in future chapters. Sorry for the long delay.

Kathy - *snerk* You can't hunt Kagome right now, your license expired!

Tsukiei - I think she's been kidnaped more than Mokuba...and if you know who that is, it's saying something.

ason - Yeah, byakuya is jealous of the Prince sometimes but he's good at covering things and it's usually only a little.

KaneRyuMoon - Yeah, I'm still not sure how I'll do the Kenny/Sesshy fight. Without them destroying half the city at least.