New bonds
Annabelle's visage, graced by her tenuous white aura, dressed a kimono borrowed by Sango, with her back leaning against a big stone, while she was massaging her bandaged ankle, reflected within the curious eyes of a fox demon child. Meanwhile, the group of friends were sitting around a small fire pit, discussing about the late occurrences.
"One of the times we met this girl, she said she knew a way to defeat Naraku, but that bastard is still alive, and Sesshoumaru suspects it has something to do with her." Inuyasha made his point of view very clear to his companions, speaking in an honest and serious tone, while crossing his arms and legs.
"Inuyasha, I don't know. I don't feel Annabelle is a bad person. We must remember that in our last encounter, her sister wanted to kill her!" Kagome spoke softly, almost whispering. They all were trying to be discrete, so Annabelle wouldn't notice they were talking about her.
"I understand Inuyasha's point" Miroku said, with his hand supporting his chin, and eyes staring the orange flame in front of them. "That woman isn't common, she has a singular power, and is more than obvious that Naraku is interested in taking it. What we don't know is if she really wants to destroy him, of if she is his ally."
"I am at Kagome's side" Sango finally pronounced herself. "I saw how Anna-himme felt when she knew Naraku assumed the young master's features. I think she was in love with Kagewaki Hitomi and..."
"Yes." Annabelle broke her silence. Even at that distance, she could hear their conversation, and decided to participate at last. Her sudden intervention surprised everyone, yet, Anna continued her speech: "Yes, I loved Hitomi. We had plans to travel around the world..." The mysterious highlander smiled discretely, even if traces of melancholy remained inside her jaded eyes, and then she raised up.
"Careful!" Shippo was alarmed as soon as he saw her limping towards them."Your leg..."
"No need to worry, little one. This inconvenience is solved, thanks to Kagome" the Scottish lass explained, as she seated by his side and caressed his coppery bangs, making his cheeks redden intensely. After that brief moment of tenderness, Belle resumed to face the others in seriousness, noticing all those gazes full of expectations. So, she spoke: "You all have many doubts about be, nevertheless you sheltered and helped me..." and she sighed, feeling some warm in her heart and weight over her shoulders at the same time.
"You? Not You! Give Thanks to Kagome!" The hanyo snorted in his grumpy usual way.
"Argh, Inuyasha!" Kagome complained, their routine was just like that.
"You deserve to know and I will tell everything, even if it is so hard to me." Anna persisted speaking, interrupting the possibility of an arguing between the halfbreed demon and the girl from the future. "When I left without saying goodbye in that dawn, I was ready to die, and I was ready to murder Naraku with the dagger you saw me conjuring with my sister's help".
"Your sister, that crazy woman that wanted to kill you?!" Shippo trembled in fear.
"Easy, I am going to get there, little one." Annabelle smiled sweetly to him, making the big green eyes melt, and soon the child's fears had faded away. Seeing him already calmed down, Belle returned her attention to those inquisitive golden eyes falling upon her, and proceeded explaining: "So, I left to Naraku's castle. The dagger I had in my hands was a weapon forged to prison evil spirits and wicked energies. As soon as it pierce it's victim flesh, the holy dagger takes its power and seals it. Says the legend, in my homeland, that this kind of blade was used to hunt mythological entities. Yet, little by little, with the witch hunt spread around the continent, most people lost their courage to cast the spell, and not all experts in white magic are willing to cooperate with someone devoted to the dark forces. At last, the only weapon I new to be capable of reaping Naraku's life was that one, and to be able to get it, I needed my sister's help." She paused to catch her breath. "I didn't see Ailyn since I used the concealing spell..."
"Concealing spell?" Kagome asked.
"Yes, I keep my powers hidden most of the time because of this," and she held the crystal moon garnishing her neck. "This stone belonged to my mother. When I manifested the gift my father delivered it to me. It can make a kind of 'cloak' surrounding me, so it hides my, well, supernatural energy, or whatever name people call it. My power shows only when I am in need to use it. Most part of the time it is kept within this jewel. My sister always wanted to have my mother's gift, yet, unfortunately only I inherited it. So, she decided to hunt me down wherever I would go, and she would find a way to take this power for her. It's such a pity, I never wished things would be like this..." Anna breathed deeply while her eyes went down to her hands tightening her knees. "You know, there was a time when Ailyn and I were inseparable... Though, since my father met my stepmother, my sister began to change towards me." The more Annabelle was revealing subjects of her past, bitterness grew in her voice. "That wicked woman filled Ailyn's head with wrested ideas, for her sake my sister knew the shadows path and..."
"I'm not interested on hearing about the story of your life!" Inuyasha interrupted her abruptly. "I want to know why you failed to kill Naraku!" he demanded, visibly impatient. However, all his friends stared him with disapproving looks. Unlike Inuyasha, everyone were involved within such tales about distant lands, different people and culture.
"The moon pendant was not enough to keep my presence unknown to my sister, though" the foreigner lass didn't care about the hanyo's intervention. She persisted on her story, it was needed. For so long she kept it all locked in her heart, having no one to share, to unburden. Now, words were slipping from her tongue like a cascade. "I don't know if consanguinity has something to do with it, but the fact is that I had to cast a spell that would make me invisible to her. So I spent years of my life as a pilgrim, wandering through far away lands, and we never bump around." It wasn't clear if Annabelle felt relief or sorrow for not seeing her sibling in years. "However, recently I unmade this spell, and returned to be catchable for Ailyn" Belle was talking about the ritual she made, when she did a cut on her palm and spread her blood on a lake. "Now, she can find in wherever edge of the world and come to me instantly. I needed to open up to her again, so we could conjure the dagger and I would finally accomplish my mission – to kill Naraku. In return, after my work was done, I would give my life to Ailyn and she would finally have what she wanted the most. Power."
Annabelle pronounced every single word firmly, facing Inuyasha in the eyes without a blink, and her tone turned even more severe as she said: " I pierced Naraku with that dagger, I stabbed him in the back, like that coward does with those who cross his path. And then, I punctured his chest with all the fury I had, while I was seeing him get undone, right there, in front of me." Her trembling fingers clutched the fabric covering her thighs, and she bit her lower lip.
"He would die, he was dying..." Suddenly, those turquoise pools lost focus and stared into the void, as her spirit wasn't even there while she was describing the terror. "I saw him, in his completeness, what he really was. A miserable and sad creature, without any reasons to live. In fact, killing him would be an act of mercy. He was suffering..." A thin, discrete tear rolled by the corner of one eye.
"You couldn't do it because you were seeing Kagewaki through him, wasn't you?" Sango gently touched her shoulder.
"No!" Anna almost screamed with the impulse. "No..." and then she whispered, shaking her head lightly, in denial. "No, there was no more Hitomi, it was him, his sordid and melancholy essence. A simple existence of a creature that never knew what is goodness, what is beauty, what is hope... I saw his very soul and... "She rubbed her eyes, forcing them to stay dry. Yet, Anna could feel her throat as it had a ball inside closing it, making her voice lower, deeper. "I felt pity on him. Couldn't go any further, feeling myself a worst being than him, coward and selfish. His life was not mine for the taking".
"Ridiculous!" Inuyasha was so angry about her explanation that he stood up. "Pity? On Naraku?! Sesshomaru must bu right, this girl definetely has something with that jerk!" he pointed the index finger right to her face.
"Yes it is ridiculous, you are right." Annabelle was so focused on Inuyasha that she didn't seen the others' reactions. Gazing at the hanyo, she spoke even loudly than him. "But I assure you I have no bond with that creature, and neither intend to have! The fact that I wasn't able to murder him because, yes, my heart is too soft, does not make me is ally!" Then she got up as well, saying every word in his face, without showing any doubt or fear. "I pray for you, or anyone of this group suceed on making justice and giving him what he deserves, what I wasn't able to do by myself." Finally, she turned to Kagome, and seeing the apprehensive girl, Anna softened her voice. "It is not easy for me, Sango has a point. To look to that monster and have to recall Kagewaki's features is like a living hell. Still so, I cannot use that as an excuse, it was not for that reason that I didn't kill him, I'm sorry." At last, the White Rose sighed and relaxed her shoulders, trying to calm down her spirit so she could turn again to Inuyasha and say: "I am not worthy of your companionship". With that, she started to take some steps away, even if her ankle was hurt, she was ready to get her wet dress and put it anyway.
"Even after you fail, was you willing to give up your life for your sister's sake?" Miroku asked, standing up too.
"Yes, I gave her my word." She let a discrete and bitter chuckle out, not facing them. "And, in the end, it would be a relief being able to rest, to move away from all of this. It would be a bliss moving away from the tragedy, from the shame of my inability of making justice with my own hands." Again, there was she unburdening her griefs with such a naturalness that she wasn't even aware of doing so. "But of course he was not going to let it happen, he wants me alive so he can keep tormenting me!" She chided, while her fingers were massaging her temples. Yet, that rage didn't last long, soon her angry features changed into confusion traces. Annabelle still remembered how Naraku stared at her when he took her from the waters. Oh, that spark on those ruby spheres, never before seen...
"I feel so sorry for you, Anna-hime..." Sango got close. "Even you denying it, Naraku having the appearance of the man you once loved confuses you, I say it for my own experience. That Kohaku Naraku has in his power is not the same that I knew. He is a cold assassin, and even I knowing it, I just can't kill him." The demon slayer's voice was serene and sad at the same time.
Annabelle slowly turned her face and found Sango's tender gaze and frendly smile. Something inside made her chest ache, What was supposed to make her comfortable, made her anxious.
Hitomi... She remembered him, once a handsome young man, filled of glow, now lost within an unknown field of afterlife, forever waiting for her.
Annabelle covered her mouth with one hand, smothering a moan. Her eyes closened, already burning with tears, out of control. Soon, her cheeks got wet and rosy. So, arms entwined around her tenderly. Her soaked eyes opened still blurry, however she was able to decipher from whom such benevolent act came from. It was Sango sheltering her, as Kagome did one day. The Demon Slayer was silent, only caressing those orange locks till the Scottish lass calm down a little. That was the way Sango understood it would help Annabelle feeling free to unburden all the rest of pains hurting her so much.
Inuyasha's harshness fell apart as soon as he beheld the despair and the helplessness marking the woman who was shrunken within Sango arms. Kagome, beside him, touched her fingers on his, it was like a silent request for kindness. Brown and Amber orbs firstly crossed, and then flikered the reddish light of the fire, reflecting the forms of Sango embracing Annabelle, with Shippo and Kirara around. Miroku, then, looked to the couple and nodded his head. Sango, at last, smiled, her chin over Annabelle's head. In those quiet gestures, they all agreed.
There it was the most new member of their group.
To be continued...
Look who is back, after YEARS of abandoning this project. I'm SO sorry!
I don't even know if someone still have interest on this fic, but I decided I'll come back here whenever I can. I don't want to give up on Web of Lies anymore.
Must confess to you that I got discouraged, not only for the time I spend to translate just one chapter, but also because I was feeling this fic wasn't exactly having the reception I hoped. Just a few people reviewed – wich I'm VERY thankful, guys – so I got a bit frustrated and chose to dedicate my endeavors on another projects. On Portuguese, this fic is already finished, and it has 46 chapters (and just NOW I noticed that I forgot to publish the last chapter on FFNET LOOOL).
In english, though, you'll got even more chapters, because I consider it's better divide the next ones into parts, because, believe me, they are HUGE. Some of them got more than 8.000 words.
So, I'll try my best to bring up chapters more fluid to you, so that you don't get tired of reading, or get lost at some point. I tend to be overly detailed sometimes.
Now, before I finish, must share with you the biggest reason for me to return with Web of Lies. It is called Miasma, an INCREDIBLE fic that I found out about on last weekend. PLEASE if you love to read stories about Naraku/OC/Kagewaki Hitomi go check it out, it's just PERFECT, I started to read and simply couldn't stop, such amazing it is! It's Miasma by Honeycomb Milkshake, and it is here, on Ffnet. S2
Please, please, please read and let some reviews, the ficwritter deserves every treats, really!
It may seems a futile thing, but believe me, reviews are always the greatest incentive you can give to encourage the authors. Many give up on some fics because the lack of feedbacks...
But be assured, that will NOT be the case in here.
See ya soon (I hope)
A very nice week to everyone, kissuuuuus! :3