KAWAAKARI

"The river that glows amidst the darkness."

.

Part I

Chapter II

.

Of all things InuYasha had expected to find that afternoon, the one he less imagined was precisely the one he was staring at, through the window, inside that shop. It was a place dedicated to the trade of occidental clothes, one of the many spreading throughout the old Edo. She was there, standing alone yet seemingly waiting for someone; he couldn't make up all of her features due to her being inside.

The first thing he noticed was a scent, which made him stop to discern who it belonged to, perceiving his youkai blood starting to boil through his veins, slowly, gradually, like the heat of a hearth warming a pot in the distance. So strange, so extraordinary a sensation it made him stand still on the other side of the street, curiosity leading him to try and discover what it may mean. Almost unaware, caught him the glow of her hair beneath the shop's light, filling his mind with the desire of witnessing how the moon would reflect on her night-like strands.

Maybe, if he were to play his hand right, he could take her home. It shouldn't be difficult, given she was but a human.

It didn't take him long to discover her name was Kagome, and as the dialogue between her and her friend spoke of mundane matters, he began to shape a small plan. However, his mind was pulled into the conversation of those two women when it was mentioned something about a gathering, and the name of a suitor. A growl was born in his chest then, one he managed to hold back before it could be heard by a passerby.

Humans joined together, copulated, then turned this world into an even more insufferable place. To his mind came a different time, a past time, back when the floor he was stepping on was but a village with just a few of them.

He had to wait a long while, only able to listen to them talking about the dress she would wear to the gathering in her friend's house, whose name InuYasha allowed himself to remember. He waited until it finally seemed they were about to leave, to then step back, seeking the shadow's shelter, casted by the building behind him, in order to not draw attention to himself. From there, he witnessed a jinrikisha about to crash into her. In that instant, a rebellious instinct threw his thoughts about humans aside, urging him to push her out of the way, yet he never had to. His gaze followed her figure as she crossed the street, avoiding the vehicle with grace and confidence; an act he couldn't quite discern if it had been predetermined, or if she had sensed it before it happened…

Maybe it was precisely that doubt what gave his interest for her a slightly different tint.

The usual racket of the streets didn't seem as annoying now, not in the same way it used to at least; his senses were focused on a new prey, after all. His desire began to become more intense, he even seemed to be able to feel the iron-like taste of blood on his tongue, and the pulse of flesh against his lips and fang, the palms of his hands sweating as he stalked his prey.

There, he caught her figure nearing a small crowd, and from there, he was able to smell the scent to putrid flesh as it was pulled from the river flowing down the shore. Covering his nose with a hand, his gaze followed the woman, whose eyes he found himself yearning to meet, and to discover their color in detail.

As an officer began to light up their lamps, replacing the dimming light on the horizon with the one born of flame, InuYasha thought, "look at me, woman."

It should have been easy, to influence the simple mind of just some human woman… yet she didn't react. It vexed him, yet he quickly surmised it must have been because all of her attention was on the gruesome crime scene in front of her. So, he tried once again, with the same words repeating over and over inside his head, yielding the same indifference as a result. His disappointment was starting to turn into anger; it just wasn't possible someone could resist the attempts of a superior being like him.

He took a deep breath, then wielded his influence once again, only that this time, he whispered the words while adding her own name as well.

"Look at me, Kagome."

He saw her turn around, he saw her search for him… until their eyes met.

InuYasha only knew one moment where his actions could excite him; one act, really, preceding climax.

To kill.

Yet… in that brief instant, he felt that there was something hidden inside her, something that intrigued him and that led him, in a different way, to desire her.

.

.

Kagome was keenly aware of how alone she was as her steps lead her through that street. The night watchman had turn on the lights a long while ago, the same amount time she was running late in arriving at her home, a Shinto temple that had existed for centuries at the top of a hill, just outside the old Edo. The sound of her heels against the cobblestone of the recently reworked street was the only thing she had for company, together with the fear that seemed to stalk her, as if it were an entity she couldn't name.

I should have made my way back earlier. She thought.

And the scene she was submerged in, changed. There, she saw the members of a man, spread about the cobblestone, like a silent witness of the horror. Then, a sound behind her, the steps of someone walking confident, not in a hurry, as if they knew they could catch her any time. In her mind, a man appeared, a man she could remember.

Kagome opened her eyes, and found the wooden beams of the ceiling under the light coming through the rice paper doors, or shoji doors. She brought a hand to her chest, instinctively, as if such an act could somehow calm her perturbed heart. Laying there, sleep eluded her, however; her mind chased it away, conjuring images of that one poor soul whose body had been ripped apart. The world's miseries weren't unknown to her, for her own father had died to the crossed swords of two groups of samurai, when she was but five years old.

Nodding to herself, she decided to stand up and seek fresh air; it would probably do her well, for staying in her room was making her feel claustrophobic.

She tightened her yukata so that it better covered her chest and neck, then slid open the delicately painted rice paper panel. The sounds of the night could always soothe her, an effect she found in little else. Kagome knew herself to be different, albeit she would never mention it; she could feel the jinrikisha before they entered her senses, she could know when a room was occupied, or when someone was approaching her from behind. Kagome knew things, something that wasn't the usual among the common people. She learnt so the day she told her mother Mrs. Takada had bruises beneath the sleeves of her yukata, only to find out two months later that she died, supposedly from taking a bad step in the interior garden of her home.

Kagome took a deep, greedy breath, filling herself with the night's fresh air, the cold grazing her barely exposed skin, relieving her of a burden that right now she couldn't quite describe. The dream that woke her up had some logic, if she thought about what she had witnessed a few days before; however, the sensation repeating inside her from that point on was something she couldn't even begin to elucidate. Even now, inside the safety of her home, she could feel a threatening presence… that, against all reason, attracted her.

She sat on the elevated wooden floor from the exterior corridor she was in, deciding to direct her mind to some other matters, like the dress she had bought and for which she would need to return to the shop to see how the adjustments are going; Sango will most probably go with her, to inquire about her own. Kagome knew that for these things one needed to think ahead, for the occidental fashion was but very recently spreading throughout the country, albeit it happened in just a few years and all thanks to the insisting wishes of the Emperor Meiji to dress like that. And so, to the families close to him, and to those pretending they were, it seemed a must to appear more occidental, even if then they would walk through the same traditional gardens. Kagome would admire the one in her home, every day as soon as she was out of her room, as it felt like part of the typical Japanese infrastructure. In the last few years, there were those who ordered to have occidental houses build, she knew, with stone, and that some of them were even government buildings. The old Edo was changing; Tokyo, it had to be called now, albeit that was just one of the many things that still needed to take root.

Her thoughts were interrupted then, for she felt observed once again. She stood up, and gathering all of her courage she started towards the center of the garden, to be able to see the roofs. At some point of those last few days, she even came to believe such presence could be a yūrei; it was the most likely cause. A ghost was something she could fathom.

Strange events could happen, after all.

"Who is there?" She asked, holding her voice back in order not to alert those sleeping.

Silence was the only answer she received for a long while. She would have thought everything was but her imagination if it weren't because of the certainty clutching her heart.

Finally, she heard a rustle coming from the roof; something so irrelevant it could have been unreal.

.

.

InuYasha arrived at his home late at night, and entered through the window rather than through the long interior corridors, his naked feet leaving moist earth marks on the rug. On his way to the bathroom, he took off his white shirt, or what was left of it after his run through the middle of the forest, then threw it somewhere and pulled from the calling string by the bathroom's door, knowing a house-servant should appear briefly. He needed to feel a hot stream of water on his body before falling on his bed, after two days without sleep.

He felt uncomfortable, annoyed even, in such a particular way its name was unknown to him. He had been observing that woman for days, looking for the chance of charming her and bring her closer without being seen; it couldn't be denied he could be quite persistent when he had a prey withing sight. However, the very few times when he had been able to influence her small human mind, she had resisted, a fact that made him question the cause, for it had never happened before.

Shaking his head, he stood in front of the half-body mirror on the wall, and upon looking at his appearance, it struck him as far too soft, even gentle, an image he didn't desire for himself. He made a gesture with his mouth, showing his fangs, making him look fearsome, yet it wasn't enough.

He was tired of that appearance, and of how tamed he seemed to be.

A growl vibrated in his chest then, a mix of frustration and reassurance; he had never been able to show weakness.

With the tip of his fingers, he touched a small tattoo he had on the front part of his left shoulder; it was a circle not larger than a silver yen, with a drawing inside of a serpent biting its own tail, a symbol belonging to the witch who tattooed it. Sharpening a claw, he traced a line over the drawing, cutting it in half and with enough force to draw blood, and then, before him, he witnessed how his human ears began to fade, and how two appendages grew from the top of his head, covered by silvery hair. He moved them in all the forms he was capable of, recognizing the ears as the source of his auditive sense. He would always hear through them, even when not visible, yet to see them and recognize his real appearance felt liberating. To keep them hidden had been one of the costs of living among the humans, a price he could tolerate, but wasn't content with.

He heard a few steps then, nearing the door, followed by two consecutive knocks on the wood that served as a warning of it being about to be opened. He didn't need to go out of the bathroom to know who it was.

"Master InuYasha." The elderly man spoke, a servant who had been by his side longer than one could count. "I don't know if to say good night, or just good morning straight up." He mentioned in a carefree tone InuYasha excused him, due to that aforementioned time.

"Don't bother, Myoga." He put a stop to the politeness.

"I see, they aren't good." The man continued in his usual manner, as he neared the tub and opened both hot and cold taps.

The sound of the air running through the waterpipes, reverberated throughout the greater part of the house, until it whistled through the bronze faucet's mouth.

"Today, you seem to be alone." The elderly man tried, once again, knowing just how guarded his master could be.

"Don't, Myoga." His voice was tainted by a grave warning that the servant did well in heeding.

Silence seemed to fill the room then, in the same manner the water was filling the tub. Finally, the elderly man tested its temperature, then nodded in assurance.

"Do you need anything else, master?" He inquired as he wiped his hand in a small towel meant for that.

"No, you can go." InuYasha dismissed him, as he started to unbutton his mud-covered pants.

The man started towards the door, which was almost as wide as the whole bedroom.

"Just one last thing, my lord, if you allow me." He mentioned.

"Speak."

"You've received an invitation this afternoon." The elderly man brought forth a long, sealed envelope of an ocher color.

InuYasha approached him to take it, fast, so much Myoga reacted by leaning backwards out of the strength in that single move. As soon as the envelope was in his hands, he knew by the smell who it was from. He cursed, in his mind, for he didn't like that it came from that side of the city, and it was one of the reasons why he lived so far off in the mountains.

He opened it, and inside he found what he already expected, a perfect circle drawn by brush, with the seal of the Lord of the West inside, easily recognizable by the symbol of a cloud ridden by a great dog. He crumbled the paper and threw it together with the clothes he knew in a few hours would be burning. The message carried no written words, just the meaning InuYasha understood perfectly; you must come on the designated date.

Exhasperated, he sunk into the hot water all the way to his head, trying to drown the sounds, the anger, and everything that right now just seemed to seek to explode inside him. However, and to his surprise, what he found in that muffled state was but the heartbeat of that woman; a memory of Kagome.

.

To be continued.

.