In The Blood
By: Ryu Katanna
Beta:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter Sixteen
Kagome greeted Hiei and Kurama the next morning as if nothing had happened. She was dressed formally in an elegant kimono; clearly showing her status as a Lady of Makai. Her long hair had been done up into a style fit for the daughter of a King. Her clan Mark stood out prominently on her skin for all to see as the feeling of her youki spread out to encompass those around her in a casual display of power. There would be no doubting that this was not a casual meeting. The inuyokai standing a short way from her bowed when Kagome turned to look at her.
"Thank you, Kimi. Let Lord Sesshomaru know I am grateful to him for letting me borrow your services for so long. Please tell him I will be sure to visit him personally once this matter is sorted." Kagome said as the inuyokai bowed lower before speaking.
"It was my pleasure to serve, my lady. I will be sure my lord receives your message." Kimi said before Kagome waved a hand to dismiss her, and she left toward Gandara.
Kurama looked at Kagome with some curiosity. He knew that her own servants were never so formal. He had known she had a connection to the Western Lord, but he had not thought them close enough for the demon to have sent one of his own servants to assist her. Lord Sesshomaru had lived up to his name as the Killing Perfection over the centuries. Even he had been cautious of him as Yomi's second in command.
"Let us hope that Rekai can be reasoned with." Kagome said before turning to Kurama and motioning for him to do what he needed to do.
"Botan. We need that portal now." Kurama said after he flipped open the compact.
"Right away. I'll bring you out in front of Genkai's." The blue-headed reaper chirped before a black portal flashed into existence fifteen feet to the right of them.
Hiei darted through first, and Kurama nodded to Kagome before following. Kagome looked at the portal before taking a breath and straightening her spine as she followed. She stepped out and in front of Genkai's temple where she was greeted by the sight of Hiei and Kurama both standing with Genkai herself.
"Genkai. It is a pleasure to see you once again. I regret that it couldn't be under different circumstances." Kagome spoke to the old woman formally since this was not a social visit.
"Lady Kagome. You are welcome in my home. They are waiting for you inside." Genkai greeted her before sliding open the door and stepping inside with Hiei following.
"My Lady." Kurama said with a slight bow as he held up his hand in an offer to escort her.
"Thank you." Kagome said before taking his hand and allowing him to guide her inside.
They came into the room to slight gasps from those who were waiting. Kagome looked up to see that Koenma had gathered all of Yusuke's old group together for the meeting. A human man who Kagome remembered was Yusuke's best friend Kuwabara was seated next to Yukina with his sister Shizuna standing behind them. Yusuke stood gaping at her from the other side of the table where he had stood from his seat next to Keiko. Hiei had taken a place against the window away from the table where Genkai had taken a seat near Koenma. The Rekai Prince stood on the other side from Kagome in his teenage form with Botan just behind him. His face was grim and his posture stiff. Kagome could feel that he was not happy even though he had agreed to the meeting.
"Lady Kagome. Welcome to Ningenkai. Have a seat." Koenma's words, while formal, were short with repressed tension.
"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, Prince Koenma. We have much to discuss." Kagome gave a sharp nod in concealed displeasure at being in his presence.
She had not known the full extent of what Rekai had done when they had raised that barrier when she had first met him at the tournament. Then she had learned about how Inuyasha had died. After that, she had set out to learn more, and learn she had. Soon she had been able to draw a clear picture of the consequences of Rekai's actions. King Enma had tried to play Kami. He wasn't a true kami though. True kami would not have created such an imbalance.
Kagome allowed Kurama to help her to her seat. The heavy fabric of the formal kimono's layers splayed outward around her legs. She sat with her back straight and her head up. There was no way she would make him think he could use his station against her own when in reality they were on equal footing this day.
"I understand that this meeting is most pressing to Makai?" Koenma asked as he took his own seat with Botan following.
"Yes. Are you aware of the current situation in Makai?" Kagome asked knowing that he would have to be.
There had been too many demons that had managed to cross the borders to hunt for him not to know.
"I am, though Rekai has been assured that King Enki and the Council have been taking measures to stop the activity." Koenma hedged, and Kagome knew then that she would be meeting with resistance no matter what she said.
"As we have, but it is not a solution to the real problem." Kagome said before biting her tongue when Koenma responded.
"What problem is that? That demons are once again starting to prey upon humans? It was expected. Rekai decided to give you a chance to correct the issue. If you are finding the task too difficult then we will simply have to implement another barrier to protect the humans." Koenma said simply, and Kagome felt herself bristle.
"Protect the humans... and what of my people? Many are starting to starve. What of the demons who can only live from a diet of human flesh?" Kagome's voice was clipped as she noticed the humans in the room shift uncomfortably while the demons listened for a response.
Yusuke had a dawning look of realization when he heard that many were starving. He knew his sister well. She had a responsibility to those within the borders of Tourin, as well as Gandara for now. It was a duty she took seriously. She had been doing everything she could, but now her people were starting to feel the same starvation their father had inflicted upon himself. Something that she had gone to great lengths to ease the pain of as she slowly died.
"They will simply have to find another diet. That is, if you wish for the barrier between the two worlds to remain as it is currently." Koenma spoke as if what he was saying was common sense.
"You seem to be under the misconception that most of our kind can choose their diet. No, there are those who can only find sustenance through human flesh. My father was the best example of that." Kagome said flatly and Yusuke nodded in agreement before speaking.
"She's right, Koenma. Our old man was on a steady diet of pig for months before he died, but it didn't stop him from starving to death." Yusuke told him only for Keiko to make a choking sound.
"He ate humans?! You just said that he'd died, but not why!" She looked at him with a look of horror.
"I didn't think it mattered. He fell in love with a human woman hundreds of years ago and vowed not to eat another until he had seen her again. He never did. She'd died giving birth to a child before he went back." Yusuke explained while Kagome tried not to cut herself with her claws with how tightly she had clenched her fist at the interruption.
"How can that not matter?!" Keiko almost screeched before shifting her attention to Kagome as a deep growl could be heard throughout the room.
"This is a formal meeting between the representatives of two worlds. It is not the time for childish tantrums over matters that do not concern you. Though to answer your question; Yusuke is a demon. He may still act, think, and eat like a human, but he is not. On an instinctual level, Yusuke understands this. Humans are a food source for demons. His baser self knows this even while he does not consciously acknowledge it." Kagome told her before turning back to speak to Koenma.
"What? Yusuke would never eat a human! Would you Yusuke? Promise me you won't!" Keiko continued, and Kagome's head whipped to look at her brother to speak before he could.
"Do not dare make such a promise, Yusuke!" She snarled as the whites of her eyes flashed red with the heating of her blood.
"Kagome?" Yusuke asked as the room froze when her youki caused her Mark to brighten and glow as she pulled it back into her skin before it could do any damage to Genkai's home.
"I may not be happy with you for what you did two years ago brother, but I will not lose you. Not like we did our father. If you love him you would not ask him to swear such to you." Kagome glared at the girl her brother had left his own people for.
"What do you mean? Of course I love him! What does that have to do with him making that promise to me?" Keiko asked uncertainly as Kagome calmed before sighing slightly.
"There are many kinds of youkai. Yusuke and I are what are known as Mazoku; a race bred and born for battle and war. Mazoku, as adolescents, can be satisfied with most anything we eat. Yusuke and I would still be considered the young of our kind. Old enough to be on our own thanks to our human aging before our blood awoke, but still too young for our bodies to handle the full strength we are capable of. As adults, the biology of a Mazoku changes a bit." Kagome explained as she looked at the two of them knowing that while she'd had this talk with their father; Yusuke had been too focused on defeating him to take the time to learn more about himself.
"The old man told you something, didn't he?" Yusuke asked knowing that what Kagome was saying would be important for him in the future.
"He did. Yusuke, when your body finishes maturing you will crave as our father did. If you do not eat you will die as he did. I will also begin craving as an adult. Our clan all ate human flesh, though we may be able to live on a mixed diet since we were first born human." Kagome explained as gently as she could.
She had hoped to have this talk with him much later. After he'd had time to live Keiko's lifetime with her. This was not the place and time for it, but she had no choice. Koenma seemed to think that eating humans was a matter of choosing to do so but it really wasn't for some of their kind.
"How long until you mature?" Hiei asked in the silence that followed.
"Kitsune fully mature at a thousand years. What about apparitions?" Kurama asked looking at Yukina and Hiei.
"Seven hundred or so. It varies depending on our element." Yukina answered for them both quietly as she glanced at Kuwabara knowing that she still had many years to live before she fully matured after he would be gone.
"We are a race born for battle, and so Mazoku males fully mature earlier than most races at around three hundred." Kagome answered Hiei's question before looking at Yusuke as he tried to process what this all meant for him in the future.
"What about females?" Botan asked looking at Kagome and getting Yusuke's attention.
"Father wasn't so sure. Females were already rare before Rekai placed the barrier and King Enma hunted our kind to near extinction. He just told me I would know when I started craving." Kagome answered before going silent.
She would tell Yusuke more about the specifics that their father had told her, but not right now. Not in front of Koenma who appeared to be too focused on the topic for her liking.
"Are Mazoku the only kind of demon who actually need to eat humans to survive, or are there others?" Shizune asked as she thought about what Kagome was really trying to say when she spoke of the purpose of this meeting.
"Most species. Those who can take on a humanoid form especially. There are those who can choose because their bodies will accept other sustenance; like the Koorime. Mazoku can not. Lord Yomi and Lady Mukuro were right about that much when they opposed my father's views. It was the reason for the war in Makai. It shames me to speak it, but our father was a fool in that aspect." Kagome admitting quietly only to look up at Yusuke when he placed his hand on her arm.
"He wasn't a fool, Kagome. Just a jerk for love." Yusuke said as he remembered the story that Raizen had told him before Kagome had found them just before he died.
"Maybe so. It does not change the fact that our people are starting to starve. Human flesh is addictive even for those who do not need it. It is why some species will try to abstain from eating it if they do not need it to survive. As it stands, at least half of the population of Makai have gone hungry because of King Enki's law." Kagome said before turning her attention back to Koenma.
"I can not allow demons to hunt the humans of Ningenkai. Rekai has already made sacrifices to allow the barrier to be lowered. There is a balance and order that must be maintained." Koenma said firmly, and Kagome had been waiting for that particular opening.
"Balance and order for whom, Prince Koenma? For the humans, the demons, or just for Rekai? There was a balance before the barrier that your father placed almost five hundred years ago. There was order in the chaos of that time." Kagome told him and Kurama glanced at Hiei to let him know he would be finding out what he had been wanting to know.
"Why would you think that? It was well before your time. Demons wreaked havoc. Slaughtering and eating humans. Entire villages wiped out in a night. Rekai acted to set a balance." Koenma reaffirmed his opinion.
"It is called the natural order, Prince Koenma. Think about it. Humans are prey to demons. Your barrier took away the human's natural enemy. They have forgotten that they are not at the top of the food chain. They have spread through the world like a cancerous growth." Kagome growled as she thought about it.
"They are destroying the nature around them that provides them with all that they need to survive. They pollute the air, the water and the ground with the chemicals they have developed. They have no appreciation for their lives or those of others. They have grown so much in number that many starve because there is not enough food. They go to war, killing each other not for food or land, but for contrived differences in beliefs and ideals. They have grown arrogant, lazy and weak as a species."
Koenma seemed to shrink in on himself with every new point she made as the humans in the room were silent. Everything she had said was the truth. The demons watched Kagome avidly as they thought about Makai. Demons kept to nature. There was no pollution. They had war, but it was over food and territory. Demons had no use for fighting over religious beliefs or differences. Demons were beasts at the very base of their being. They fought for food, for territory, for mates, and to make themselves stronger.
"It is the demons who kept the human numbers down. Humans did not advance too quickly because they had a predator above them. They fought for things that were real issues because the demons were always a threat. Demons, on the other hand, have continued as they always have done. The only difference is that your barrier has kept them from their food source. So they had to become more crafty about the way they hunted." Kagome explained before her eyes grew even colder.
"Your barrier is not providing balance. The only order it keeps is for yourselves. It has saved the humans from the demons, but now they are killing themselves. It has led to the deaths of many of my kind. Including those born with human blood." The room was silent and still after Kagome had finished as many seemed to be at a loss for what to say.
Yukina had heard the raw emotion in Kagome's voice though none could be seen in her eyes or expression. There was a pain and hatred for Rekai there that she couldn't understand. This was not a hatred over something recent. She just couldn't figure out what had caused it.
Keiko, Kuwabara, Shizune, and Genkai all thought about what the demoness had said. They knew that she was right in many ways when she spoke about humans. There was no way to deny the claims as they were not baseless. At the same time, Shizune, Kaiko, and Kuwabara were left feeling chilled at the lack of humanity in those cold brown eyes. Genkai was not for she knew that the demoness, while she might have been human before her change, had shed her humanity willingly.
Hiei watched and listened intently as his mind worked through the hints there were in what she said. This female knew too much for someone seemingly of her age. He had known there was more to her. The pieces were there, but they just didn't seem to fit to make the whole puzzle. There was too much missing.
Yusuke really looked at his sister for the first time since they had been reunited. He had seen the obvious changes that had happened when she had become a demon, but he now started to recognize a lot of things that had been underneath the surface. She had told him about her past, but he was only now starting to comprehend what she had been trying to tell him for so long. She had lost everything by the time she had come to Raizen.
Their mother had failed her from the day they were born. She had been raised out of obligation by their Aunt and her family. They had come to love her, but she had grown up with the knowledge that her real parents didn't give a damn. Finally, she had been pulled into the past to a time that it was hard for a human to live.
Even so, Kagome had thrived against all odds. She had found somewhere she was accepted. Humans and demons who had cared for her as much as she had cared for them. She had found her own reasons to fight in both her duty as well as her love for her friends. Met a demon child who she grew to love as her own and had adopted him. She had found a place to belong only to be torn from that too when she was forced back to their time.
Her humanity had been stripped from her as everything else had. Their Aunt and her family would be taken completely from her too, in time. She had accepted it all. She knew what she was and just continued on, taking everything that was thrown at her along the way. All while she grew to love their demonic father who she knew she could not save, looked for those she cared for, and tried to help him. Her stupid and ignorant brother who had taken everything for granted.
'I'm such an idiot...' Yusuke thought as he remembered bringing her back to Ningenkai just after she had found out about the death of her best friend.
Wait. Inuyasha.
"Those with human blood... How is Rekai responsible for Inuyasha's death, Kagome?" Yusuke's voice broke the silence.
"Who is Inuyasha?" Kuwabara asked seeing Yusuke's expression turned serious and knowing that she must really have a reason for her obvious dislike of Rekai.
"Inuyasha was my best friend. A hanyou, and Lord Sesshomaru's brother." Kagome said as Hiei and even Koenma focused on her at the mention of the Lord.
"Hanyou have one night a month when their youkai blood is dormant. They are rendered fully human. The demons were starving until they started to find ways around or through the barrier. Inuyasha was killed by our own kind on his human night by those who were mindless with hunger after he had been trapped by the barrier. He was only the first that I found out about." Kagome told them knowing that it was now only a matter of time before the reality of who she was came spilling out when they realized how she could know the things she did.
"The barrier was raised almost five hundred years ago. How could you have had a friend who died that long ago? There's no way!" Botan said as she tried to find some way to deny at least one of Kagome's accusations toward the Rekai.
"I knew Inuyasha because I was there five hundred years ago." Kagome said only for Yusuke to yelp.
"You weren't supposed to tell anyone, Kagome!" Yusuke exclaimed with some worry knowing that Raizen had said Kagome would be in danger if others knew.
"Father said that to protect me, Yusuke. He can't protect me anymore. Kurama already knows a part of it. As does King Enki and the rest of father's old friends. Father and Inuyasha are gone. You are absent for now. It is only a matter of time before others start finding out or at least suspecting. Hiei already suspects something. It's time I protected myself." Kagome said as she shook her head and Yusuke shifted closer to her protectively.
"Before I was a demon. I was human. Just as Yusuke was. I lived at a shrine that had been in our Uncle's family for generations. I was pulled down the Bone Eaters Well on my fifteenth birthday." Kagome told them as Kurama moved to sit down next to Kagome; knowing that she had said she would be telling things that she had left out when she had told him.
"I did not know it at the time, but I was a Miko, and I had been born with a powerful artifact inside my body. It was a powerful jewel created by a Miko named Midoriko, and it caused the well to act as a portal through time." Kagome said only to see Koenma's face drain of all color.
"Wait!" He interrupted only to receive glares from most of the people in the room.
"The jewel was known as the Shikon No Tama. Midoriko was a powerful Miko who found her match in a demon named Magatsuhi. For days they fought. Finally, in an act of desperation, Midoriko acted to seal Magatsuhi within her own soul. The jewel that resulted become her own prison as well. Midoriko found herself locked in battle with Magatsuhi for as long as the jewel existed. The jewel of Four Souls could grant any wish and greatly enhance the holders' power. Demons sought it out for the promise of it's power while humans wanted it too, in their greed." Kagome nodded to affirm Koenma's suspicions as well as that of Hiei, Kurama, and Yukina.
"That's a legend!" Keiko said before cringing at the look Kagome gave her at being interrupted again.
"Yokai are thought to be myths by humans. Most of your myths and legends are based on real events." Kurama said before prompting Kagome to continue.
"The Shikon No Tama has a bloody history. One steeped in suffering, death, and greed. More than that. It is my past. It is how I have come to be as I am." Kagome said as Yusuke reached out his hand the place it on her arm and provide some comfort; knowing that this story had been hard for her to tell when it had just been him and Raizen.
"I was taken back over five hundred years into the past. Before the Rekai had placed their barrier. It was a dangerous time for a normal human, mush less one raise with the modern conveniences of this time. It was there that I learned that I was the reincarnation of the previous protector of the Shikon. Her name was Kikyo. She'd had the jewel burned with her body upon her death, and so I was born with it inside my own. A fact that was unknown to me until a centipede yokai had torn it from my side." Kagome said as she raised her hand to place it over where the scar was hidden under the folds of her kimono.
Everyone who had seen her in her training gi at the Tourin strong hold knew what it looked like. She had many scars that spoke of her as a warrior, but that one had been the one to remain the most visible to this day. Not even her death had caused such as it had been healed as she had awoken.
"It was that day that I met Kikyo's lover, Inuyasha. He was an Inuhanyou who had been pinned to a tree by Kikyo after they had been deceived into believing they had betrayed one another. She had died from her wounds while he remained sealed to the tree in slumber for fifty years; until I arrived. My presence woke him as I was being attacked by the centipede demon. He mistook me for Kikyo at the time. Threatening me for her betrayal." Kagome shook her head lightly at the memory, and what that day had led to before continuing.
"The Shikon No Tama was ripped from my side then. The yokai swallowed it. It increased her strength and made her a real threat. In my desperation, I broke the arrow that had bound Inuyasha to the tree, and he killed the yokai. The old Miko of the nearby village was Kaede, Kikyo's younger sister, and she called for me to find and take the jewel before the demon could regenerate. Inuyasha, still believing me to be Kikyo, attacked me for the jewel once the more immediate threat was gone." Kagome smiled a bit in remembrance as she thought of the first time she had 'sat' her friend.
"Kaede enchanted a rosary with a subjugation spell and bound it to Inuyasha. It had been keyed to a command I could speak that would cause him to be slammed down and held to the ground to protect me from him. It was days later, and Inuyasha was still hanging around me. He was waiting for a chance to steal the jewel. He didn't manage it, but a crow demon did. That was the first time I used my reiryoku by using a bow and arrow. In trying to get the jewel back I became the catalyst for the deaths of hundreds; maybe even thousands of humans and demons alike." Kagome looked up as Yusuke squeezed her arm comfortingly.
"Now I'm sure that's not true." Kuwabara said in an effort to comfort the woman only for his eyes to widen in shock when she looked at him sadly.
"Oh, but it is. For it was my arrow that shattered the Shikon No Tama."
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Well, there is chapter 16. I'm working on this one as well as a few others so updates will come when I can. I hoped you liked it, and let me know what you thought with a review. Feedback does help motivate me to work on my stories though reviews with the single word of 'update' will be ignored. Those actually irritated me as they come across as more of a demand, and I write for fun. I'm not going to be pressured to update any faster just because someone tells me to. Anyway, I hope you're all staying safe and healthy out there with the current COVID pandemic going on.
~Ryu
Edited: 06/22/2023
