chapter 23: Father Knows Best...
in the last chapter:
"that is why he's here, to ask permission for my hand."
Hirohito sat back in his seat. His little girl was growing up, he looked up at Kagome to see her looking at him with the most adorable big blue puppy eyes ever. His heart softened, and swelled with pride to see his eyes looking back at him on the face of his beautiful daughter. He then glanced at the demon next to her and watched as he held on to her.
"I.. I ..." he paused in concentration, his head dropping as he thought. he would not make a mistake, that would cost her dearly and he wanted to protect her from the world, but he also wanted her happy.
He looked up at his daughter "I..."
suddenly his eyes hardened as he looked up and with a steely resole he gave his answer.
"I can not allow such a thing to happen."
"What, Why?" asked Kagome as she pulled away from her inu and moved forward towards her father/
"I have my reasons and that is all you need to know." as he said this he looked away not being able to continue and stare hi sweet daughter in the face.
Kagome was furious, she looked back to see the light widening of Sesshomaru's eyes and the set of his jaw which showed how he was also caught off guard. Kagome didn't know what to do. And then she paused...
Sesshomaru was being bombarded with the feeling of betrayal and hurt as Kagome's father gave his answer. The bond that they shared was so strong that it took him a minute to compose himself from the emotions he felt coming from the little onna that had ripped her self from his hold, but then suddenly there was nothing as if all her emotions had disappeared.
She couldn't take this right now. First he's never around; only coming and going as he deemed fit and now this... deciding that he can run her life when he was a barely a part of it in the first place. She felt trapped: she wanted to do what her father asked her, being that daddy's girl she knew she used to be. However, she had been on an amazing journey and she had grown so much without the help of her father and the she could not escape the feeling of disobeying him and how the two contradicting urges pulled at her soul. One thing was clear to her, she needed a moment and she needed it now, but what should she do? What would anyone do in this situation? She didn't know how to react, so she did the only thing she felt she could; run.
She was gone. She had moved so fast, Sesshomaru knew that she could swim quickly but damn. If she had been an enemy and was going to attack him, he would be dead 100 times over. On land she was far from graceful, holding the same amount of grace as a one year old learning to walk: under water though, she was as graceful as a master dancer, or even a tight rope walker. She moved so fast that he didn't even see her, one second she was right in front of him and the next it was like she was never even there.
Hirohito sighed. He straightened his back and watched the shock fade from the young inu's face. He watched as the inu looked to him and shrugged as he went and sat down.
"I have no clue where she would go, there Is a whole kingdom at her disposal, and if she truly wishes to be alone then there is a whole ocean laid out in front of her, she will come back eventually."
"No she will not..."
hirohito turned, shocked eyes meeting the calm and reserved ones of his guest.
"And you can say this why?"
"Because, this is not the first time she has ran, she ran away from me once as well..."
"Why would she.."
"It was more like she miss-understood me and fled. She was in danger, I told her to leave and she refused me at first so in my urgency to see her safe, I raised my voice and I hurt her. She fled. The water was not deep and she earned many scrapes and gashes from the rock in the stream she was in, she got so far... I feared, I feared I would never find her again... that, that something might happen to her before I was able to reach her..."
"Did anything happen?" asked Hirohito, as he leaned forward, intrigued by the story and this new outlook on what his daughters life was like while he was not apart of it.
"Almost... I was almost to late, a second more and... I dont know what I would have done if something happened to her..."
hirohito watched the expressionless mask that the inu wore and heard how his voice contradicted what he saw. It held such care, but his face revealed none of what his words showed and he almost wondered if it was real.
"I will send out an search, but I fear that she has gotten her mothers legendary speed, even my speed can not compare to how fast her mother can move."
Kagome had never moved so fast in her entire life. She moved so fast, that it was like everything around her slowed down and she could see everything with such detail, every speck and particle was noticed and she was so caught up in the detail of everything that she hadn't realized that the kingdoms gates where right in front of her until she was about to collide with them. With a flick of her powerful tail she had almost gotten high enough to clear the gate, but it was still not enough. She brought her arms above her head as close as she could possibly get them and made her body as straight as possible as she readied herself to go through the pointed, jagged part of the upper part of the gate. All this happened in a split second as she forced herself again through a small opening that she couldn't possibly fit through. She could feel the burn as certain parts of her body touched the gate, and how the burn lingered when she cleared the gate.
Sesshomaru didn't know where to look, she had talked about the mountain range that she could see through her window and decided to head in that direction, and thats when he felt it, and saw it. There was a giant booming noise as the gate seemed to be pulled and released and as the shock wave traveled down the gate before it went back to its original position. At least he now knew what direction she had gone in, and by the looks of it, wherever she stopped, she was going to be very hurt. Which did not sit well with his beast. He had to hurry.
Naraku was furious. For days he had been trying to track that damned dog and the bitch that held his jeweled tear and pretty much everything he wanted. He would find them even if it killed someone, maybe Kagura has out lived her usefulness. They were being protected by something and it stopped him from being able to locate them, but they will slip up eventually. "Kanna!" he bellowed, and from the shadows the void child appeared.
"Yes, Master?"
"Bring up the girl, can you find her yet?"
"Yes." Naraku looked at the girl expectantly as she lifted her mirror and showed Kagome as she swam blindly toward an underwater mountain range. Naraku smiled, and he watched as Kagome's body bleed from many gashes along her body. "This might be interesting." Naraku smirked and at back as he finished speaking his thoughts aloud.
Kagome was growing tired as she swam and her speed began to dramatically slow, what ever rush was feeling began to ebb away as pain took its place. She feared that if she looked at herself she might be missing a piece, she sighed. She was always trying to fit herself through space she had no business being in, and even though she was the smallest of all the mermaids she should have at least tried to completely go over the gate. She was exhausted and quite a bit lost within the mountains. She spotted a small opening between two mountains and went to check it out. As she swam closer she noticed that it was a sort of passage way to something, and being the curious person she was she decided that it couldn't hurt to see what was down there and it would keep predators away from her in her wounded state. As she took the small tunnel downward she noticed that it forked off in three different directions. She went with the one farthest to the left and continued moving down until it opened up into a cavern. She moved deeper until she saw another opening which went up at about a 30 degree angle. After about ten minutes the passage she was following got smaller and smaller until it hurt to fit through. But it would be harder to go back then forward so she compressed herself as much as possible and snacked her way up using her tail to push her self up and her arms to claw at what ever lay in front of her. She eventually reached the edge and pulled herself up to her hips which got stuck in the hole. She placed her hands around her waist and pushed hard against the ground but she didn't budge. She was stuck. This was outrageous. How could she be stuck at the waist in a opening . The water above her was shallow and she was a sitting duck because the shore of something lay in front of her and she was tired. She could still wiggle her tail, but no matter what she did she didn't budge. She was stuck and by the looks of it she was going to be there for a while.
Sesshomaru looked around as he swam in the direction he knew his mate to be. He didn't care what her father said, he would face the whole ocean alone if he had to, he would destroy anything that stopped him from having her, she was his and he hers. As he drew closer he felt as if he was trapped and sighed. At least he knew she wasn't going to be going anywhere for a while, or at least until she figured out how to get unstuck from what ever she was in. it would be getting dark soon and he didn't know how he would fair in this underwater world, where he could start no fire and the temperature is much colder. He had to remind himself that this was where Kagome lived she should be able to take the cold of the ocean waters but something didn't sit well with him and he felt danger lurked around every corner, he felt like he was being watched and he assumed that it had something to do with Naraku. He hadn't shown his face in a while, it would be just like him to turn up now and use a situation like this to his advantage. It was going to be a long night. Thats when he heard his name being called and he turned around.
"God, bought time I caught up with you, I heard what was going on and came to help, why are you heading in this direction?" asked Ren
Sesshomaru turned back around and continued on in the direction he was heading Ren frowned as she continued to follow. He paused for a moment and spoke. "She held a curiosity for these mountains and if I know anything about her she has managed to get herself stuck in some kind of situation."
"Yeah, thats just like Kagome. Okay I'm going with you, as an outsider you will not be able to see well at night, much less defend yourself."
Sesshomaru kept on walking, he didn't have to prove himself to her, all he had to do was find his mate.
"I mean, you would probably have been crushed by the water pressure and drowned without Kagome's kiss anyways."
Sesshomaru turned his head to see the girl smiling at him. "Yes, just like you would barely be able to walk let alone run on land. You would make a tasty snack for some low level demon."
Ren pouted as he continued to follow him, a knowing smile on her face. It was pitch black soon and Sesshomaru could barely see his own nose let alone a foot or two in front of him. He was completely lost and continued walking on pure instinct and feeling alone as he followed the tug of his necklace and the calmed emotions of his mate. They were just making it to the base of the very first mountain in the range, but he automatically knew she wouldn't be here. It wasn't nearly enough to quench the curiosity of his mate. She would have most definitely gone further into the range of underwater mountains then that, it was a given.
Kagome was tired of being stuck and she knew she wasn't alone. Well she was alone in the water for now except for the small number of fish that swam near her, but someone else was here, someone much bigger then the small fish that were of no use besides food. She was growing hungry and the fish stayed just out of her reach. Thats when it happened, feet entered the water in front of her. They were near the shoreline which was only six feet ahead. But the feet moved closer until the water was knee length. Kagome laid as flat as possible the water wasn't very clear and if she didn't move maybe what ever it was that owned those feet wouldn't see her. Sadly it wasn't to be because the feet continued to move closer and closer until they stood right in front of her nose. She didn't dare move, she had been caught and to top it off she was stuck and at the mercy of who ever it was that was in front of her. Hands reached into the water and grabbed her on both sides and pulled her into a sitting position and then with a huge tug that ripped at her sides he pulled her from the tight confines of the passage she had just recently been stuck in. the pain was excruciating. The air stung her many gashes and bleeding wounds. Her head rolled down and it was then that she noticed that she was literally in a pool of her own blood. She hadn't realized that she had bleed so much, it was no wonder that man was so easily able to see her, the pool that surrounded the small island behind him was clear except for the spot she occupied.
"Well what do we have here, a Mermaid? Damn, you don't look so good miss."
Kagome tried to find her voice a she looked up into green eyes, but she felt completely powerless and hung limply in his outstretched arms. She felt as he pulled her against him, bringing her head against his shoulder and moved his arms so that he held her to him more comfortably, her tail draping along behind easily in the cool waters. He wasn't as tall as her inu she noticed and was about the same height of the monk, if not a bit taller and, therefore, as a mermaid she was taller then him. He then knelt in the water near its edge and laid her down so that her bottom half was in the water. She laid there limp and unmoving. She watched as the feet walked away before darkness overcame her.
Sesshomaru paused, he knew she had moved and was sleep now, but he could have sworn it would have taken longer for her to move. She had given up, it was obvious from her emotions, she wasn't going to move by herself, unless someone else moved her.
"Whats wrong?" asked Ren.
"Someone has moved her, we need to hurry."
"Take my hand." Ren didn't wait for him to reach for him but grabbed his wrist and with a flick of her tail they were off. It was no where close to Kagome's speed. No Kagome was small and lithe and Ren was much larger and she was being weighed down by the inu who she pulled along with her. She would tire soon and she was not one to pull all nighters but she trusted the inu to watch her back and she needed to find Kagome, it was the second time she wasnt there for her.
"Try and keep a sharp eye out for any hiding spots you think she might squeeze herself into, she has a habit of doing that."
"Hn." Sesshomaru watched carefully, the light was fading fast and it seemed as if it was going to be pitch black down so far in the ocean, he was at that moment grateful for his demonic sight and how his youkai glowed in the back of his eyes giving him sight.
One thing Sesshomaru hated was being use less, and at this very moment that was exactly how he felt... useless. He didn't see her anywhere and he was deeply worried. He knew that in the castle she was protected but out here in the open who knew what trouble she could possibly get her self in.
thats when he spotted what seemed to be a small crevice and he felt as if he was being pulled to that very spot.
"Ren, there." he pointed and Ren nodded as she headed in the direction of the crevice, as they approached it they noticed that it went back a bit further between two rocks before it literally became a small whole in the wall.
"Yeah, crap, Kagome would try and wedge herself into that, I think I will just be able to fit but you should go a head of me just in case I cant make it the whole way and am forced to go back."
Sesshomaru didn't have to be told twice as he began to swim into the passage. As they went deeper in they came to a fork in the road and Sesshomaru paused.
"What happened?" asked Ren.
"There Is a three ways this forks into."
"Go left..." Sesshomaru looked back at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Kags is left handed and tends to just pick left when she comes to a fork so im hoping she will do the same here, its subconscious so I dont think she would have noticed, but she has been doing it since she was little so yea, its something."
"Its enough." they took the path farthest to the left with hopes of finding kagome. He could feel from the necklace that she was dead ahead, but he did not know if this particular passage would continue onward or not. They soon swam into a large underwater cavern. They looked around but saw no sign of kagome.
"Maybe we should head back and take another passage, she's not here so..."
"Wait, not yet, check the walls there might be another opening somewhere." said sesshomaru as he cut her off. Ren closed her mouth and swam up to the top to check for openings and make her way down as sesshomaru did the same for the bottom, but instead worked his way up.
"Ren, here." he had found an opening. "It moves upward, she might have gone in here." without another word sesshomaru was up and moving with Ren hot on his heels. As they moved upward the tunnel began to get smaller and soon Ren wasnt able to continue and told sesshomaru she would be waiting in the cavern. Sesshomaru then began to use his poison and acid to help him fit through the cavern since he too was to big to fit as well. But he could tell, she was near her blood was fresh in the water and they had been heading in the right direction.
She could feel hands on her body, instantly she knew they were not the hands of her inu and she tried to jerk away from the unwanted touch. Her body screamed its disdain for her vain attempt at moving and rewarded her with shocks of pain that shot up her body. She rolled over and pulled her arms underneath her in an attempt to pull herself away, but it was no use her strength failing her she laid weakly on the ground. She felt the water push up her bare back, and an idea struck her at once, that was till she realized the man was talking to her.
"Hey, miss, listen here, i aint tryin to hurt yuh, but you got to stop that thrashin. I put some cream on yuh wounds to help the healin process along abit, but if yuh gonna be movin around like that all my hard work would be for naught." she opened her eyes and looked over her shoulder to see a shaggy black head with green eyes looking at her with a frown on his face. His skin was golden and his eyebrows thick and he had a muscled frame and his hands were large with thick fingers, unlike her inus nimble long and thin ones. She missed her inu already.
"good, now do you have a name miss, because i sure am getting tired of calling yuh that."
"Kagome."
"Its pretty enough, for a name, it suits yuh, my name is Kuroi, nice to meet yuh Kags, you dont mind me calling you that, eh?
"Uh, no, Kuroi right, um, why are you living in the middle of this mountain?"
"Yeah, um, well actually to tell you the truth, i kinda got stuck in here." and he began to chuckle as he continued while scratching the back of his head. "I reckon i've been here about ten decades."
"What happened?"
"Actually, I dont quite know, one day I was walking along some mountains and then next thing I know I woke up here, I might have fallen or something, not very sure what happened."
"Oh..."
"Yeah, well, i'll be right back, gonna get you something to wear miss Kagome."
Kagome laid in the sand her back facing what ever light source was lighting the area. This place was weird, it seemed disconnected from the rest of the ocean. It was, simply put, different. She stretched slowly and felt the sand under her fingers and her tail lapping at the cool water that covered her from the waist down. The water was calming and he began to hum a happy tune. He could feel the water as it slowly moved up her body, but her mind was else where as she let the pull of her powers wash over her.
He was leaving his door when he glanced over at his unexpected guest and saw something... interesting. He watched star struck as the water around his small home seemed to take on a mind of its own moving in a back in forth motion over to where the mermaid laid humming an ethereal tune that he couldn't quite place. Her eyes glowed with a blue light and he could feel the shear magnitude of power that radiated from her being. He watched a tendrils of water came up and wrapped around her body moving up her in person in a back and forth motion. It was hypnotic in a way that he couldn't take his eyes away from the spectacle and it was as if she was oblivious to his presence. He slowly moved closer to her to get a better look and noticed that the tendrils of water had branch like tendrils coming from it that also wrapped around the small mermaid, almost web like in design and appearance. The tendrils began to glow softly and as they covered her wounds; healing everything that they touched. It was magnificent, the feel of her powers as they intensified and washed over him the closer he drew.
As he dug his way forward he felt it. This immense power washed over him and his eyes rolled back at the familiar and sensual feel of the energy that covered him. It was Kagome, his Utako, his mermaid, his Mate. Thats when he broke through and as he stood in the water he saw an unknown figure loom over his unmoving mate. Instantly his eyes bled red and the blood curling growl that left his throat was enough to catch the demons attention. His eyes narrowed to mere slits as he noticed that the demon did not move away from what was his, and made one fatal mistake; he touched her.
Sesshomaru was upon him before the poor demon had time to blink and had grabbed him by the face and thrown him. He skidded through the water and hit the rock wall that encased his home. As soon as his back connected with the wall he had rolled over and jumped in the air barely missing the deadly, glowing claws that would have embedded themselves in to his stomach. He landed in the water as gracefully as he possibly could with an aching back and head. This demon was obviously related to Kagome in some way, and was obviously being very protective of her. He had to make himself look less like a threat and more the friend he was trying to be.
"Um, its not what ever you maybe thinking, I am not tryin to hurt miss Kagome over there, I just wished to place some clothes on her so she wouldn't catch a chill, it gets cold this time of night, and I figured she wouldn't be movin any time soon so, if you would like to do it yuh self, be my guest and go right ahead. The clothes I brought are over there next to her." as he said the last part he pointed in the general direction of Kagome and some light blue fabrics. Sesshomaru only glanced over for a second and in the next instant he was kneeling next to his mate. He looked her over worry on his face. He didn't know what was happening and the other demon there made no move towards him, which was in his best interest after all, considering Sesshomaru did not trust the strange demon with his small defenseless mate. But then suddenly the water tendrils that coated her body like a web melted away as her song ended and the glow left her eyes as they focused on Sesshomaru.
Her eyes widened as she looked upon the familiar face of the man, rather the demon that she loved.
"Sesshomaru?"
as soon as his name left her lips something in him broke and she was up and in his arms in seconds. Her tail vanished in mere seconds as Sesshomaru pulled his Utako into his arms and cuddled her body to his bare chest, his face and nose pressed against the pulse point on her throat as he breathed in her intoxicating scent. He was in heaven and happy and slowly the red in his eyes dispersed. As he pulled back he looked his smiling mate in the face and then noticed her state of undress. Then when he looked passed her he noticed that the demon male from earlier was staring him in the face as he held out a light blue cloth in his outstretched hand.
"Here, take this, dress her." he gave him a knowing look and smiled.
Sesshomaru took the cloth and the demon turned and walked away in to the small house. He placed the young woman on her feet and looked into her eyes.
"You are well?"
"Yes, I am well."
"Good, here let me help you into these."
with that Kagome accepted Sesshomaru's help and they quickly put some clothes on her.
"Oh Sesshomaru, I have missed you, I am so sorry for running away also and you must speak to Kuroi, he is the one that freed me from the passage that I had gotten stuck in."
"Is that so."
"Yup, I helped the young miss out, you can come inside and have a seat if yuh like?" said Kuroi as he stood at the door way to his home. Sesshomaru looked towards the voice shocked that he had not sensed the man at all. He was obviously demon but his youkai was undetectable and there was something mysterious about the man. He didn't trust the demon but his little mate obviously did if he could tell anything from the furious pulling of his arm as he was lead into the home of the mysterious Kuroi...
Naraku watched as Kagome disappeared into the mountains and then the screen went blank. She was gone again and out of hi sight. He then brought up the image of Sesshomaru and the other mermaid that he was with and when they neared the mountains they also disappeared. Naraku growled and slapped kana in his anger knocking her away from him.
"They are being protected by something again, but this time in the mountains, fuck! I hate not knowing what Is going on." he stood suddenly and began pacing. Then he kicked a table over and sat heavily into his chair.
"We will just have to wait then, and if anything I will let my anger fuel my hate for him, who has everything that I want. It will be so much sweeter when I take it from him." Naraku then smiled darkly as he sat back comfortably in his chair resting hi head in his hands that where behind his head. Kana slowly left the room as to not disturb her master.
well you guys that is all for now sorry for the long wait... but you know... life... ghhhh, why i cant just live the rest of y days as a hermit in complete solitude except for my laptop aand internet!
oh yea bcus i would die of boredom lol
well till next time in chapter 24 Father knows best... part II