19: Strange Fashion of Forsaking
"Get out there and find her. And don't you fucking come back until she's with you!" Inuyasha roared at the army of men assembled in front of the throne. He was too mad to sit in the stupid chair coveted by so many fucking idiots. Instead, he paced, itching to get out there and bring her back himself.
"My prince, should we not search the palace first?" Sango said, the only one brave enough to voice her thoughts. "That's where she was the last time she left you."
"She didn't leave me," he said in a voice low and dangerous that few had heard and survived. "She was taken by that bastard Ryukotsusei."
The shadow didn't look the least bit concerned, instead rather annoyed by all the hullabaloo made over one slave. "How would she have even gotten to him? There were sacred wards and spells preventing anyone from entering that dungeon, even your lord father. And he escaped directly through the wall of his dungeon, so did not ascend to the higher levels of the palace. More importantly, even if she somehow did leave with him, what makes you think she's still alive?"
That made him stop entirely. No, she couldn't be dead. Not after everything. Shaking his head, he continued to pace like the mad caged dog he was.
"I don't fuckin' know how and I don't fuckin' care, Sango. Kagome was there, Ryukotsusei took her, and she's alive. That's how it is." That's how it had to be. "His godsdamned collar wore off or something, I don't know. Maybe the wards did too. Not like anyone would have checked."
She sighed and shook her head. It was more disrespect than she would have shown his father, and for that he almost struck her.
"Whatever the case, my prince, I will do my duty and lead the men in their mission to find your bedslave."
Inuyasha snorted a laugh. "You? Why the fuck would you be the one to head the mission? You're not gonna be involved at all."
The shock mixed with humiliation on her face. Snickers could be heard from the assembly of trackers and warriors behind her. Many had thought her favored by the prince simply because she was rumored to be one of his women and ignored the fact that she had considerable skills. It was like he was confirming that for all to see. Sango would have sooner welcomed a broken bone.
"And why not? I am your shadow; it should be me leading any mission of yours."
He took the steps down from the dais one at a time, stepping hard but stopping just short of stomping. His mother would throw the worst fit if he cracked her precious marble. Inuyasha got in Sango's face. They were close enough to kiss but it was obvious from the malice in his tone that intimacy wasn't on the agenda.
"Because the last time I trusted you, you withheld information and actively worked against me. You did a shit job and I won't risk you doing it again. Kagome was kidnapped and needs help from those who aren't invested in seeing her stay gone."
Sango laughed, looking upward like there was a god somewhere above them who would help her make him see reason. Inuyasha knew he was the highest authority in the heavens.
"She wants to stay gone! That girl hates you, Inuyasha." Gasps could be heard at her candor but she didn't care. Whether it was from her speaking so bluntly about the woman that all on the land, seas, and skies knew he treasured above all else or hearing her address him by his actual name for once, no one could say.
He looked at her. Just looked at her. No glare, no throwing equally hurtful words back at her and then some. It was like he was just done with her and didn't want to engage any further.
"Go back to your village," he commanded. "It's about time you left for a visit. Take a guard with you, if you want. Just stay out of my way."
Inuyasha shouldered past her and the group of men followed him, awaiting further instruction. All but one.
"I'm sorry," Miroku said, voice quiet even though the room was now empty.
"For what?" The words came out glued together. Her mouth wasn't working right with how her lips wanted to twitch downwards.
He ran a single finger down her cheek and she felt the beginnings of a shiver tickle her spine. "You're crying."
"Oh." Once he pointed it out to her, she wondered how she could have missed it. Sango tasted the salt and was reminded of her last time on the sea with her prince, of how she had wanted to rekindle their bond. She should have known the candle had already burned out then.
"Here." Miroku offered her a handkerchief. It was rough spun and seemed to have been used as a sweat rag and then poorly washed, but she took it gratefully.
"Do you want to come with me?" she asked, feeling like a fool. Why was she so shy so suddenly? It was just Miroku. The goofy eunuch. Even so, she couldn't help but to keep going, trying to sweeten the deal. "I would pay you for your services."
Miroku looked puzzled. "You need a guard? I've seen you fight; you don't even need a weapon."
She laughed and her tears stopped falling. "Not a guard. Just a…a friend."
The admission made her feel uncomfortably vulnerable and she wanted to slap him or something to make up for it, but he beamed at her so winsomely that she stopped herself before her fingers could do more than twitch.
"In that case, I'll start packing now."
O\o/O
"The princeling is a better fool than his brother," Naraku remarked over tea to his wife. "He should have been the one I targeted all along. I see that now."
"I don't care," Abi said. "Why are you talking to me? Go torture some imps or whatever it is you do until the divorce." She turned to coo at one of her hideous featherless birds.
"That thing should be in a cage."
"It's my home, too, and Suiko is free to go where she wants!" The bird squawked at him in admonishment.
"Wasn't talking about your pet," he muttered. Abi was already back at pretending she too was a hideous featherless bird—and if he thought about it, she really was. "Sesshomaru was the wrong choice. Too ambitious and eager for his father's recognition. I was overmuch reliant on Kagura to tame him. He is a classic noble taken to an extreme," he sneered. You could take the boy out of the slums but never the slums out of the boy, and he despised highborns almost as much as he strove to be like them. "The fool thinks he's too good for everyone. Of course he would end up in the mud alongside some human wench in his lust."
Abi snorted, proving she was listening. "That's rich coming from a hanyō. Wasn't your mother a gang's whore? And a human." It was clear which she found to be more distasteful.
Naraku did not care if his mother was insulted, he had done plenty of that himself. If he could resurrect the bitch and kill her all over again, he'd do it. And it was certainly on his list now that he had the jewel. As soon as they completed the master plan, then he would be split from the spider and able to do as he wished.
"A hanyō like the princeling," he continued. "Inuyasha never denies himself anything. I've already made strides to make him one of ours. All I have to do is give him what he wants most."
"A brain?" she suggested.
That almost got a laugh out of him. Now he remembered why he married her in the first place, other than the title.
"A woman," he said, sneering on the outside. Inside, the spider mourned. How many would fall for the traits Tsukiyomi had passed down? He had to put an end to the bewitched bloodline. "I advised him of a loophole on how to free slaves and even title them. His bitch is going to marry that awful wolf barbarian. Then the princeling will kill him." Taking another sip of tea, he thought fondly on the next part of his plans. "I'll let them live a little bit together. Make sure he tastes happiness, corrupted though his soul may be. And then I'll kill his whore in front of him, and when he is only a shard of a soul from the trauma, make him an offer he cannot refuse."
"I can't wait," Abi said sarcastically. "Just like I can't wait for this fucking divorce."
She would definitely want to wait. His little wife wouldn't live to see this part of the plan. Not if she kept running her mouth like she was wont to do. He smirked at her over the rim of his delicate porcelain cup and anticipated what her screams would sound like.
O\o/O
"It is your father's one request, Inuyasha," Izayoi said. Her face was drawn, almost as though she too were suffering her husband's sudden illness.
"It's just a party!" he hissed.
The two of them had been arguing over his unconscious father for too long already. It had been a long time since he hadn't been able to do just what he wanted while at home. Inside, he felt like the child he had been bereft of a new toy and sent to his room after hitting a nobleman's son for saying he smelled different.
"Can't you see?" Izayoi said, pleading with him. "Your father could leave us at any moment. Even now his form is shifting before our eyes."
He took a closer look at the emperor. There, just a flicker of a second, but he saw how his father's humanoid appearance flashed and revealed his true beastly form, massive and frightening even when he had been struck down. If things had gotten so bad that he could not even maintain something that should have been as easy as breathing, the situation was far more serious than he thought.
"But she's missing," he said, throat tight.
"You are acting emperor. You need not be her champion when you have plenty of your own." Izayoi sighed and rested her head on her hand. "I cannot stop you, my puppy. As your mother and the one who knows you best, I know that much. I can only ask you. Please. Attend the ball, pick a worthy woman to pledge your troth to, and then you can go and do whatever you wish."
"…All I have to do is pick one of 'em and I can leave?"
She nodded. "Any of them. Sure, there are some we would prefer over others, but the choice is yours."
Those last words inspired a noise from him that was not quite a laugh. As if he ever really had a choice. None of them did.
Izayoi continued, "Your father would be able to—to rest knowing that the future of the empire is secured," she said, voice tremulous.
Inuyasha slumped back in his seat and stared at his parents. Even with his mind gone and body failing, his father turned towards his queen. He had always expected he'd find something like that. He didn't realize until just now that she would not be able to be his wife.
At least not without a lot of work.
"Just pick one," he said, already thinking of them not as people but as tasks, "and I can save her."
She nodded, tenderly wiping new beads of sweat from Toga's brow.
"This is gonna win a record for the fastest ball," he said, getting to his feet. "You need not attend, Mother. I know you prefer to be here. I'll handle it. And Father will be able to find peace."
"And me along with him," she said, almost too quiet for him to hear.
He put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll have a date for the wedding within an hour. And you'll dance with Father at the reception."
She smiled up at him briefly, a single tear falling from each eye. "How beautiful. And Kagome?"
"Will dance only with me, of course."
"For how long?"
Instead of entertaining any idea other than forever, he left the room.
Everything in him wanted to cut the ties that bound him to the palace and take to the streets looking for Kagome. The thought of her being out there, alone and calling for him, left him feeling sick and hollow inside. But she wasn't the only one he had a responsibility towards. His father needed him, and his mother even moreso.
When he arrived at the dancing hall, those who were waiting for him seemed almost surprised to see him. As though this whole charade was not something they were all forced to attend. It was only an illusion of choice, and then only for him. But since this choice could save Kagome's life, he was going to make it as quickly as possible.
"Acting Emperor and scourge of the continent and high seas, terrestrial terror and aerial hero, he who swallows villages and spits out gold, Inuyasha, second price of Inu."
Before the herald had even finished announcing him, Inuyasha was walking up to the first bitch he saw, motioning for the band to play as he did so.
"Your majes—"
Inuyasha yanked her forearm before she could complete her curtsey and began a lazy dance with her, much slower than the band's song called for. Others began to dance around them, following his lead. Being emperor was at least good for one thing. Even though all eyes were on him, he found he didn't care anymore. There was only one thing he cared about now.
"Name?" he said shortly.
"Ayame." She drew herself up taller, green eyes sparkling with pride. "I am the last noble wolf bitch of the Northern tribe."
He was already looking around for someone else. This girl was young, too young. Kagome's age, probably. And he didn't want Kagome to look at him that way ever again, like she didn't know him anymore, when he did what had to be done for them to be together. Kōga was annoying and had done a ton of shitty things she didn't know about. No one would miss him. But this girl was just a pawn. No, he'd find some hag who had waged plenty of wars or was even worse, some useless throne-sitter who did nothing but profit off of abusing her people. Even someone as soft as Kagome would forgive him for that.
"I know I was sent here to try and be your bride," Ayame said, "but please, if you could overlook me and choose anyone else, I would do anything."
That was interesting enough for him to look back at her. "Why?"
Her cheeks colored and her eyes flashed to someone over his shoulder. "You know the story of how Prince Kōga of the mighty Eastern tribes came to be the crown prince's shadow, of course."
Inuyasha nodded. Years and years ago, some wolf bitch was having a difficult pregnancy and a runty young Kōga had written his father asking for the blessing of Tenseiga should the worst happen. His father obliged, the bitch was fine, but her pup did not take a breath. Tōga restored her to life and Kōga pledged his fealty and those of the rest of the tribes to Inu. The wolf went himself to be fostered at the court and Sesshomaru chose him as his shadow, not wanting a human taijiya as he believed them to be inadequate despite their track record.
"Well," she continued, eyes still on a fixed point behind him, "all my life I grew up thanking and praising prince Kōga more often than I did the gods themselves. It is due to his generous actions that I even live."
Inuyasha snorted. His father had more to do with that. "So you wanna marry that asshole?"
"I pray, do not be jealous, your majesty!" she said, looking panicked. "Of course, you are the emperor, so should you decide to take me to wife, I will be yours. But know that my heart will only belong to one man, the greatest wolf there ever was."
He didn't even want to waste breath correcting her. "Uh huh. Good luck with that. The idiot's in love with a human."
"With a human!?" she squealed, stopping the infrequent steps of her dance and holding a hand to her mouth. "Oh no! If only I were born a few years sooner, then he wouldn't have had to wait so long for me. To think of how lonely he must have been here with no female wolves of his caliber that he would somehow delude himself into thinking a human woman is an acceptable repository for his faultless seed!"
His nose wrinkled at that. "Uh, I'm gonna get some punch. You should hang out over there." He pointed at the other end of the ballroom, as far away from where he was going as possible.
"But Kōga's over—"
"Go."
She frowned but did as ordered. Yeah, he was gonna like this one part of acting in his father's stead.
A path parted for him as he made his way towards the drinks and assembled refreshments. He knew everything would taste like the inside of his mouth until he had eyes on Kagome again. Like an automaton, he ladled some punch mildly laced with Gula into a crystalline goblet. Then he just stared at it resting on the table, beads of perspiration tracking down its outsides the same way his own sweat ran down his brow.
He was gonna have to kill one of these women.
It wasn't like war. They weren't enemies in the sense that it was his life or theirs. This was a new kind of death he would bring, one that had not been asked for. But if Naraku was right—slimy or not, the guy knew his stuff—then this was the only way he and Kagome could be together legitimately. Then she would look at him the way he wanted her to. Like her hero. He didn't care about being emperor as long as he could be her savior. And his sweet reward would lie in the parting of her thighs and the closing of her arms around him as her lips whispered everything he deserved.
"You look like you're trying to explode that glass with your mind, shithead."
Inuyasha glared at the wolf. "And you look like your parents were cousins."
Kōga scowled at him. His parents had, in fact, been distant cousins. There was only so much land in the mountains and the living was hard, making wolves of noble blood even harder to match as there was such a high mortality rate among them.
"Surprised you showed up," he said. "Everyone expected you to go apeshit and lock us down again."
"I would've if the fate of the empire didn't depend on me busting a nut in one of these cows," he scowled, taking a sip of his drink and glaring over the rim at the assembly of women all trying to show off their assets without appearing to be trying to capture his attention.
"If she were mine already, there's no way in hell I'd be entertaining other women." Kōga picked up a piece of ham and popped it in his mouth, chewing gloomily. "Fuck, I'd be out there now if the wolf tribe hadn't made me an unofficial ambassador and required my presence at this fuckin' shitshow."
Inuyasha wanted to punch him. Just throw his fist at his shining white teeth with all the force of his rage until the fucking things splintered and embedded in their flesh. And he almost did, too. But then he thought of his father and his mother and his woman.
He was basically the emperor now. That meant he could tell any ambassador what to do.
"Ambassador Kōga," he said in his most official voice. The wolf just looked at him like he was trying to anticipate the punchline. "You are being dispatched to locate Ryukotsusei and attempt to broker a peace with him."
He dropped the ham. "You're shitting me."
Inuyasha shrugged in faux nonchalance. "Either that or I arrange your marriage to ginger stalker over there."
Kōga blanched. "I'm going to assume this is code for me bringing back Kagome or die trying?"
Inuyasha nodded.
His spine straightened. "I was gonna do that anyway, asshole. Thanks for getting me outta this shit, though. Enjoy the estrogen."
And he was gone.
Inuyasha tried not to hate Kōga—and himself. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes for a moment. Just a moment to himself. Where he remembered the feel of her smiling cheek in the crook of his shoulder. How her eyes sparkled when she wanted him to kiss her. How her hands grasped him so tightly, so completely perfectly, and how he would die before they went cold.
Kagome was still out there. Kōga was the unfortunate means by which they would be reunited.
And then the two of them would marry different people on the same day, and their spouses would meet a grim fate months later, and they would marry one another once enough time had passed.
Inuyasha opened his eyes, at last able to smile at the women around him. This was what it took, and he had vowed to do all it took. Even if Kagome hated him at first.
O\o/O
"…So that is how I came to be held captive by the Inu," Kagome said for maybe the thirtieth time in two days.
Ryukotsusei looked at her with both his dragon eyes and his weird mask face. She wasn't sure if he could see out of both and kept glancing back and forth between them so as not to be rude. Though why she was concerned about being rude to her abductor was anyone's guess.
"Lying again," he said, sounding bored. "But that is fine. I have been deprived of company for ages now so some entertainment is appreciated."
"I would be happy to connect you with people—or creatures?—who share your interests," Kagome offered. "But I really must be going. Visiting with you has been fun, but I have a lot of work to do."
The dragon made a noise that she had come to recognize as a chuckle, but it really sounded like the grinding of boulders into dust.
"Not quite. You are the most priceless treasure among my hoard, not just for what you mean to the Inu, but for what you yourself do not know you hold." Suddenly, his great neck craned down and she was face to face with his approximation of humanity. "You have a great power," he revealed. "It has been sealed by the magic of generations, but the lock for which there is no key has all but broken away. All it needs is one little push."
That was news to her. A great power? She could certainly use that to reinvigorate Higurashi and finally defeat the Inu. "Like what?"
"I could eat the young prince's head in front of you," he offered with an air of magnanimity. "That would spark the quality of sorrow that would unlock it."
"Ew! That's gross!" Kagome said, even though she herself had entertained visions of becoming a human preying mantis and severing Inuyasha's head from his body. Those were dark moments. "And who says I care whether that beast is devoured by another? I just wouldn't want to see it."
That grinding noise again. "I have ascended beyond romantic love, but even one such as I knows the two of you are appallingly enraptured by one another."
"Let's change the subject," Kagome said, glaring at one jewel-encrusted wall of the cave. "When and how are you going to free Rin? We had a deal."
He swayed in such a way that suggested a shrug. "I'm not."
"But you promised!" This was what she had feared most. That she had gone and ruined everything again and didn't even have anything to show for it. Even if she had been abducted and held captive in some gloomy cave for the rest of her days, if Rin had been freed from the dungeon, that would have made it all okay. But she had done what she did best and made everything worse.
"That promise means nothing," he said. "I am halfway to godhood. You mortals are better off not having your problems solved by us."
"Halfway isn't all the way," she argued. "It means you're as close to a terrestrial identity as you are to a heavenly one."
That seemed to irritate him though his expressions didn't change at all. "Yes. So I fulfilled half my promise, did I not? I got you out, minus your friend."
Kagome turned her back to him and he sighed, the whirring noise he made when soaring through the air and leaving to plunder the countryside sounding loud in the giant space. Once again, she tried to examine her hopeless surroundings with an eye for escape. On every side, they were surrounded by mountains of once-luxury decaying goods, silver and gold objects, and coin of every kind. The coins would slide whenever she moved too suddenly and it was far too easy to envision being buried alive in a golden grave. She wasn't sure, but she thought she saw some skeletal remains under a jewel-encrusted palanquin. Whether it was human or demon could only be ascertained if she was willing to look directly at it, and there was no way in hell she was doing that.
Aside from the treasure cavern they sat in, there were several caverns high above her head. Most were accessible only through the power of flight, and the dragon took a different one each day, but some she knew she would be able to access if she could find a sturdy foothold in the ever-changing landscape of treasure. From there, though, she wasn't sure. Their light came from fiery orbs that Ryukotsusei controlled at will. She could travel blindly down the dark and twisting corridors, assuming she was not crushed by the riches around her, but she had no idea how to find her way out from there. She could die alone in the dark, or be devoured by something, or any other hundreds of horrifying scenarios.
If only she had Inuyasha's nose…
Kagome cursed and hit herself on the side of her head with a closed fist. No more thinking about him. She already had a bruise in the same spot from punishing herself. It seemed like the more she told herself not to think of him, the more she did. Even the throbbing of the bruise made her remember the sting of the crop and how her welts sang for his kisses. The prick of his fangs between her thighs when sweet sweeps of his tongue turned frantic and animalistic. The heat between them that roused her to action and soothed her to sleep.
Sighing, she leaned back against a collapsed carriage, the filigreed spokes of one of its wheels poking into her back. Maybe she would find some diamond knitting needles and take up trepanning so she could locate the part of her brain that was obsessed with Inuyasha and turn it to slush.
Even such drastic measures were of no use, she knew. He had found a way into her heart. The only cure for that was death. Whether it would be his or hers remained to be seen.
An indeterminable amount of time passed and then she heard the whirring noise again. Her captor had returned and he was bearing gifts, as per usual.
"Here," he said, nudging a pallet of wine in her direction. "Humans like to indulge, I am told."
She stared at it with eyes that felt full of tears but too tired to let them fall. "Not even I am miserable enough to drink alone."
Nothing for a moment. Then a bright flash of light blinded her. When her vision was normal again, in the dragon's space stood what looked like a life-sized marionette with Ryukotsusei's attempt at a human face, one identical to the one he bore on his dragon form.
"Fear not, it is I, Ryukotsusei," he said unnecessarily. "I have transformed into this handsome human squish man to keep you company."
"You can change shapes," she marveled. He wasn't that great at it, obviously, but this was something new.
"Yes, though I don't know why anyone would want to look like a human."
She bit her tongue and did not tell him he wasn't even close.
"Do you enjoy wine often?" she asked, the beginnings of an idea firing up her brain.
He shook his head. "Gods only imbibe on their holiest of days, and as I have not yet ascended, I do not partake."
"Not even to practice?" she asked. "If you're unaccustomed to alcohol then you might make a fool of yourself in front of your worshippers."
His initial reaction was to bare his teeth at her, but then he paused. "What you say makes sense. Very well." He nodded and settled himself on a moth-eaten cushion of gold cloth. "Pour the wine and dance for me like the holy maidens will do at my temples."
Kagome tried to keep the grimace from her face as she uncorked the bottle. If she could make it through being her worst enemy's slave and degraded in every way possible, she could make it through this nonsense.
She grabbed a bejeweled chalice from the pile nearest her and luckily there was only minimal collapse of treasures. She filled it up nearly to the top and handed it over to the dragon man with what she hoped was her most charming smile. His unblinking eyes watched her as he sipped, and he grimaced, putting the cup down.
"It's an acquired taste," she said quickly. "You have to keep drinking it and work hard at it."
"Dance for me and that may well make the drink more palatable." His black tongue slimed out of his mouth and licked whatever drops of liquor were on his thin, pale lips.
"…I don't know how," she said. When he just stared at her, drink untouched, she decided this could not be a worse humiliation than what she had already gone through. "But I'll try. So I can be the one human who boasts of having met a god," she continued with the smile that felt more false with every word.
Luckily, Ryukotsusei did not seem to notice. "I shan't ascend until your bones have long turned to dust," he said, almost offended by her seeming ignorance of the finite amount of years humans were granted.
Kagome got to her feet and swayed a bit. She had never danced without a partner before. Usually a clumsy Hojo who giggled apologetically every time he stepped on her toes but never actually said the words. She remembered there were rites the priestesses used to celebrate the goddess, but as someone from a powerful line born powerless, she had never been privy to those. Kikyo had showed her the steps, once, and she had seen Kaede in her elaborate garments, so she vaguely knew how the dance was to look.
Arms outstretched to the sky, becoming the east and west for the celestial bodies to rise and fall as they must. She stepped and made sure her toes were pointed delicately to match her graceful movements, small steps of her feet and larger sweeps of her arms. Kikyo had said it was a very precise thing with very particular movements that she knew she was not performing, but it's not like the delusional dragon would know any better than she did.
"You know what it takes to be a god?" he said, beginning to sound like the drink was having an effect on him. "Three-thousand years of celibacy. Never once have I strayed from my path. And it's not like there haven't been offers! Many a dragoness has longed to rub cloacas—or however it's done—in the skies with me."
Kagome opened her mouth to correct him but then realized she really didn't know how dragons made more dragons. She hadn't even known how humans made more humans until this year.
"Your prince, the young one, Inuyasha," he said, his tongue tripping on the name, "seems willing to give up an empire for the palace he's found between your legs. But to give up godhood seems foolish indeed."
"No one's asking you," she muttered.
"And not one temptress shall prevail against my rock hard will!" he shouted, making her jump. "If I do not retain all three thousand years of my emissions, I shall have to start anew! Or worse, live like a common dragon and lay dozens of eggs out of my impure cloaca every year."
Now she was more confused than ever about dragon sex.
"Human girls are the worst," he ranted on, "Looking so soft and pure, like celestial maidens. But every one of you is just an opportunistic slut. Even you! The dogs destroyed your kingdom, your people, your very soul, and continue to hold the ones you love captive, yet you gave yourself to their bloodthirsty leader like your cloaca was of no value—"
"Stop saying cloaca!"
Kagome shot out a hand and grabbed him around his shifted throat. A pink burst of light blinded them both and she pulled her hand back in shock. It was one thing for her to be defiant with Inuyasha. Even from the start, there had been something there that let her know she could do it. Chemistry. But this was different. Ryukotsusei did not have a human heart. Plus he was insane.
The dragon's eyes flashed red and he growled at her. She saw the lunge in his face, the desire for her blood, but nothing happened. Then she saw the confusion followed by fear.
Ryukotsusei could not move.
"Oh ho ho," he laughed, the bitter wonder clear in his tone. "What a treasure you continue to be, princess. You have collared me without even an anchor to support the spell. Not even Tsukiyomi herself could manage that."
"I don't have time for any more of your ramblings, you involuntarily celibate idiot," she hissed. "I'm getting the hell out of here."
"Such a shame to see all that raw power go to waste before it could be properly trained," he said in faux nonchalance as she panic-climbed one of the slipping treasure piles. "You'll die before you ever leave this mountain. I made the caverns with my own blessed body and only I know the way."
It wasn't until Kagome had been gasping and running in the dark for hours that she started to think. Her first thought was she really might die in what she kept trying to trick her mind into thinking was just the dark from herself closing her eyes. The second was that she could have bided her time like Kikyo and lulled Inuyasha into an even greater false sense of security before making her escape on a mission outside the palace. The third was that she could have grabbed the idiot dragon by the neck again and forced him to show her the way out with false promises of freedom.
"It's never too late to come back, princess," Ryukotsusei's voice said.
Kagome jumped. It had sounded like he was right next to her. Had she really been just going in circles? Then he laughed and she knew he was pulling some kind of magic to mess with her. Hurriedly, she continued on her way. If she just kept going straight, if she just stopped thinking about what this was and let her body take over, then she would surely find her way back to the light.
It felt like days that she wandered in terror, sometimes running, sometimes just standing still, sometimes huddled and holding back tears of desperation. This was wrong, all of this was wrong. everything she did resulted in the worst things for everyone around her. She deserved this. Death in the dark.
With a sob, she stumbled into yet another wall, and wondered if she had the strength to turn back and find another false tunnel or if this was it.
"Fuck, I finally found you," the not-quite-a-wall said, arms closing around her. "And I'm never letting you go again, Kagome."
Too grateful to lash out at the unwelcome voice, she instead clung to him and let herself melt into his embrace as he lifted her, carrying her like a child to yet another danger she was fleeing.
O\o/O
Kikyo dabbed the beads of sweat from Ayumi's forehead with a cloth of silk.
"You've served your country well," she said truthfully.
"I did nothing but keep a secret for my betters. For my friend." Her voice was as weak as her smile, but both were stronger than her powers had ever been.
"You've done a great deal more than you know. Not your sister, and I would even dare to say not one of your ancestors has been as heroic as you have."
At that, she opened her eyes in puzzlement. "Surely not, my Queen. One of my line fought to secure Higurashi in its origin battle and my great-great-grandmother took several arrows for the queen and still managed to kill the traitor soldier who had fired them."
"Yes, but you're still different. They fought on their own merits. You, my loyal subject, are a martyr. A sacrifice." Gently, she supported Ayumi's head and lifted it slightly for a sip of tea, the only thing she had been strong enough to stomach these days. "The Kappa's Grip herbs that have been brewed with your daily tea for weeks now are making sure you serve Higurashi like no one before you."
Ayumi sputtered and gagged, but it was too late. The poison had been circulating in her system in incrementally larger doses for a while. She did not even have the strength to push the cup away.
"The prince received a letter from you," Kikyo said, carefully laying Ayumi's head back down on the pillow and making sure her curls were arranged just so. "You've finished the sculptures of Kagome as I bade you, and now you are beckoning him to come see your work. It is your dying wish to hear him praise you in person."
Her pale upper lip trembled, drawn back from her mouth and showing her teeth along with her near-bloodless gums in her dehydration and pain.
"You could have asked me to pretend," she croaked. "Or used anything to mimic symptoms. You didn't have to—"
"I have suffered your kind to live long enough already," Kikyo said, eyes turning to iron. "Coddled and useless, it is because of weakness that my kingdom and all I loved within it are gone. No more. I have exchanged my human heart for one of stone, and I am to act as a proper queen at last."
Some fight entered into the dying woman's eyes. "What do you plan to do with the princess? You know he will not allow it. He would die first."
"He won't have to—not yet, anyway. Just you."
All pretense of being a nurse thrown aside for the moment, Kikyo grabbed the thickest of the many pillows that littered the bed and held it over Ayumi's voice, counting down until she was sure she had been smothered into unconsciousness but not death. She'd drown in her own blood later tonight thanks to the poison, no need to rush.
She waited, games of Go long past played by ghosts in front of her unfocused eyes.
"Didn't take you for the nurturing type."
Kikyo almost jumped. How long had she been staring into her memories? Here in the palace on a cloud where it was impossible to keep track of time via the sky like she was used to, she had no idea.
"I will apologize on her behalf," Kikyo said as Inuyasha looked mildly discomfited at the sight of the dying woman. "She was very anxious to meet you and she must have tired herself out with all the waiting."
"Not like I can drop everything and come whenever the harem calls," he grunted. Strolling over to the shelves on which rested her work, he whistled low. "Beautiful," he said, picking up one of the figurines made of Kagome. His entire face softened and a kind of gentleness that would have made him beautiful to anyone else glowed from the outside in. "There's a life-sized one in storage somewhere, they told me. Perfect. I will have our artists make hundreds in its likeness."
"And how is my sister?" Kikyo asked, pretending to focus on nursing Ayumi. She was fading faster than she'd anticipated.
Instead of the lovelorn rants she had been expecting, he turned his back to her and put the figurine back on the shelf, shrugging his shoulders stiffly.
"We do not get much news here in the harem," she said, suspicious now and trying not to panic. The eunuchs were her eyes and ears outside the walls of her prison, but even they had been tight-lipped regarding Kagome. It seemed like she was shut up most of the time, but had attended a party, and then she hadn't heard anything again. "Might I give her a letter?"
"…I don't think she has the time to read it," he said in a tight voice. "I keep her pretty busy."
"Do you mean to tell me that an acting emperor has more time for a bed slave than a spare prince?"
He whipped around, cape swirling scarlet. For a second, she thought his eyes were the same color, but no sooner than she thought that did she realize they were the same old amber.
"A dragon ran off with her, okay? And this emperor shit has me pulled in every direction but the one she's in, dammit!"
The heart she denied was in her throat. "One of your horrid pets has eaten my sister?"
"No! It's a different kind of dragon," he said, beginning to pace. "He only eats virgins or with virgins or something to do with virgins, I don't know."
She rose to her feet so fast she toppled over her chair and put a hand to his neck, trying to purify him and forgetting that she no longer could.
"You will release me from this collar so I can go after my sister and you will do it now," she hissed, tightening her grip until her nails indented his skin. If he were human, she knew she would have cut him.
He grabbed her wrist until the bones within touched and she released him without a whimper though she was sure she would have trouble using that hand for weeks if not months going forward.
"Look at you," he said with a sneer. "Recovered from your walking coma just in time to realize how you failed her. Too late, Kagome is mine now."
"For the first time in my life, I know who I am," she said, voice shaking not from fear or sorrow but from rage. "And that means I know who Kagome is, for we are forever linked. She is not and never will be yours."
"I have my best trackers after her," he said.
"While you lounge in your harem forgetting about her!"
"I could never," he said, anger deflating while a suspicious sheen made his eyes shine. She saw the shadows beneath his eyes and the tension in his muscles. It made her feel conflicted. On the one hand, he was her best ally when it came to keeping Kagome safe. On the other, he was that which was most dangerous to Kagome.
Her plan had been simple. Use Ayumi's illness to lure him to the harem and then slit his throat. It would not have killed him, but the blood loss would have made him weak enough that she could cut off both legs and one arm, leaving him with a single hand to free her and the rest of the women from their cursed collars. Then they would transport the mutilated prince in a chest and have him free Kagome, grab dragons, and ride to freedom, dropping him in the chest into the sea. It was elegant and flawless and certainly something she could have pulled off.
But that was before she knew about Kagome. Kagome, who was integral to the next part of her plan.
"I could never," he repeated. "She's my wife. Or wait, I'm her husband. Or something. I dunno how you barbarians do it, but she belongs to me."
Kikyo scoffed and felt the weight of her blade heavy in her sleeve. "The insanity of the Inu is unparalleled, even among demons. Not to mention your ignorance and stupidity. Kagome is no one's wife. She cannot wed without her family's permission, and I would never grant it." Crossing the room back to Ayumi, she thought for a moment whether an antidote would be any good or if she should just count the whole thing as a loss. "If you will not release the one who loves her to find Kagome, then you should do it yourself. At least you have an investment to protect. Your trackers will not share your enthusiasm."
"This one might," he grumbled.
"If our roles were reversed and I was a sociopath obsessed with her—"
"You're not?"
"—then I wouldn't trust anyone to look for her. What would it serve them to bring back the acting emperor's greatest distraction? Why not just let her stay lost? Let the dragon eat her. Let the elements overtake her. Let her die."
His face blanked and he paled a bit. He stood very still before bursting into action and grabbing her by the wrist, dragging her out the door. She thought for a moment that he was going to keep walking and throw her off the edge of the cloud, as she had heard was a punishment and also how they sometimes disposed of refuse depending on what they hovered above. The thought brought her a disturbingly profound comfort. No longer would she have to struggle and do things that would continue to change her. She could meet the hard ground and shatter and forget everything and be forgotten by everything in turn.
Peace.
They passed a gaggle of servant imps and he barked out, "Ready a carriage immediately. We will need provisions and might be gone for weeks in various wildernesses."
He didn't break his stride and continued to walk until they came to a set of doors and Kikyo breathed fresh air for the first time since she had entered the palace. The air could have been fresher, as the scent of dragon dung became stronger the longer they walked and then she realized they were at the stables.
A demon came up to them and though he spoke to Inuyasha, he stared at her unblinkingly. "The servants say you are going on an excursion. That will not work with your schedule, sire. But who is this you are bringing along?"
"A whore," he said shortly. "I have a mission of utmost importance and need you to cover for me. It's about, uh, the Higurashi royals. They and their weapon have been spotted."
The man continued to stare at her with an unnerving intensity that almost made her want to walk off the edge of the cloud herself.
"And I suppose now that your favorite slut has been killed you have chosen to replace her with another Higurashian?"
"She ain't dead!" he shouted, just this side of desperate. "The best trackers in the empire are after her. This one just knows the area the Higurashi women have been spotted in."
"I cannot in good conscience allow you to leave on this elite mission without at least a shadow. And since there seems to be some discord between you and yours, I shall loan you one in training from my own household. Here," he beckoned at the shadows. "Come, Kohaku."
A boy between childhood and proper adolescence knelt in submission before the prince.
Inuyasha raised a brow. "Is that Sango's kid brother?"
He nodded. "Newly graduated and comes highly recommended. You know my lady wife would settle for nothing less."
"I thought you went to an academy," Inuyasha said, narrowing his eyes at the adolescent boy kneeling before him.
"I chose to honor my ancestors by serving the empire," he said, head remaining bowed.
"You can leave the woman with me," the demon said. His smile seemed greased with the ready ease by which he deployed it. "I have maps from my time as ambassador to the barbarians you may use."
The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood up.
"Even if I'm not using her, she's still my woman," Inuyasha said, yanking her towards a carriage that was pulling up. "Get your own whore, Naraku. And c'mon, Kohaku, we're leaving now."
The name had her turning back to look at the man and she was unsurprised to see him still staring at her. Ice needled at her gut. He was unchanged, and yet there was something different in his eyes.
For the first time, she was grateful Inuyasha had claimed her as his own.
O\o/O
When Kagome awoke, she was the kind of warm that could only mean a fire, and she opened her eyes so fast it made her dizzy, but she desperately needed to see light. And there it was, a happily roaring fire warming her up and cheering her soul.
Helpfully, it also illuminated her surroundings. While she still appeared to be in a cave, there was no treasure to be seen, and her body didn't feel the effects of elevation quite as much as before. There was no chill in the air, no resounding monstrous laughter that always seemed to be just a few breaths away.
She had done it. Somehow, she had done it. She was free of the dragon. Free of the Inu.
"At last," came a familiar voice. "How I've longed to see those beautiful eyes again."
Kagome froze. Oh gods. No, it couldn't be.
But it was. "Sir Kōga," she said, smiling politely. Just in case, she glanced down under the furs that covered her, relieved to see she was still dressed.
"Oh, my love," he said, sitting at her side with a face full of tender concern. "You look horribly malnourished and dehydrated. I should go back and kill that fucker right now."
She was more than a little bit insulted as now that she had her bearings about her she realized she had only been wandering the tunnels for a few hours at most and the treatment in that mountain, while boring and infuriating at turns, had been a far sight more elevated than this dog pile hole.
"Ginta! Hakkaku! Come and meet my bride to be."
Two wolves appeared in the arched entryway she had yet to notice. Kagome waved at them in reflex and they smiled at one another, gasping as though starstruck.
"You are to guard your future princess as though she is me." Kōga turned to her and somehow her hands were in his though she swore they had just been clenched under the blankets. "Kagome is my heart, and should anything happen to her, I would surely die. So everything would be better if one or both of you were to die instead, yeah?"
They nodded in unison. "Yeah!"
"Leave us. We have a wedding to plan."
And they were alone.
"Look, Kōga," Kagome said, tugging her hands away at last. "I don't know what happened while I was gone, but I never agreed to marry anyone." Aside from that, she was already married and bigamy was not something the goddess tolerated.
He grinned at her and for the first time she realized he had a nice smile. And kind eyes. "That's okay, Kagome. I know we don't really know each other, but things are different out here in the tribal lands, and I wanted to make sure you were safe."
Her face colored at the misunderstanding. "T-thank you."
"Our engagement was decreed right around the time you were taken," he continued. "So I didn't get to court you and ask your hand the way I would have. But that does not mean my ardor for you is also something ordained and not something I really feel." His hand had somehow snuck hers again—how did he even do that? But she let him keep holding her. It wasn't that bad. "From the moment we met, I knew you were special. You are a woman I will grow to love given time, and the way I feel right now, it's not going to take long at all."
"Thank you?" she squeaked out again. Kagome was used to declarations of love from Hojo and the overwhelming obsession of Inuyasha, but this was something different and she didn't quite have a grip on how to handle it yet.
"You love the prince," he said, face screwed up as he obviously battled through his disgust to give voice to what he believed to be fact. "And he is very attached to you for now, but I've seen him discard women of rank and simplicity alike, and have no doubt he will do the same to you sooner rather than later. But I'm not saying that to hurt you or try to make you feel any differently." His blue eyes shone with a sincerity that made it hard not to lean towards him the way he was leaning towards her. "I'm saying that to let you know that I vow to be here and love you when he leaves you. This is more than a temporary lust. I want you. For real and for always."
When confronted with such passion that seemingly expected nothing in return for weeks or months or even years, Kagome felt herself get a little flustered. For a moment, it didn't matter that she'd had plans to flee to Higurashi and raise up a proper rebellion and exterminate the Inu from their lands once and for all. It didn't matter that she was a true princess in fear for her life and on the run. It didn't matter that she burned with hatred and a need for vengeance against a man she had almost married and felt pierced by sorrow thanks to the man she had actually married.
In that moment, Kōga saw her, and he saw her as a girl who was tired and scared and wanted to return to a home she knew would never await her again. He saw the girl she had hidden even from herself.
It wasn't her intention to kiss him, but when he kissed her, just the barest of pecks, the smallest brush of warmth, she made herself accept it. Why not allow herself to be held and comforted? Why not let someone take care of her? Why not—
"I'll fucking kill you, wolf!"
Note: So it's definitely been a while and I'm sorry! I've been busy raising a puppy and working my sucky job and also I'm getting married next year so that's eaten up a lot of my time. I'm nowhere near abandoning this or anything else though!