InuYasha Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Breathless ❯ Something to do with it. ( Chapter 53 )

Disclaimer: I am not Japanese, my name is not Naoko or Rumiko, and I can't write kanji…Therefore, Sailor Moon and Inuyasha are not mine.

 

 

Chapter Fifty Two.

 

 

`Something to do with it'

 

 

“How do we get Sesshoumaru-sama?!” the boy snapped right back.

 

 

“..Eh?!!”

 

 

“Lord Sesshoumaru; …Rin said to get Lord Sesshoumaru, remember?” the young slayer grabbed the toad by his shoulders. “We must tell him that this happened, Mister Jaken! We must climb up that mountain and go look for him”

 

 

“Are you insane, taijiya?!” the youkai-servant said gasping, shrugging off from the human's grip, “You wouldn't survive the journey, and even if I did, without the dragon Ah-Un it'd probably take me ages!”

 

 

“But we have to do something!” Kohaku protested, and then it hit him. “Mister Jaken, listen! Can you summon Sesshoumaru-sama with your staff?!”

 

 

“Eh” the small demon considered this, “he's too far, though; I don't know if he'll hear it. But I…-I'll try”

 

 

“That will not be necessary…” a voice unexpectedly stated from behind them as a pristine figure landed near, along with Totosai, which in turn made Jaken instantly turn around, squawking in disbelief.

 

 

“M-mi…MILORD!!?!”

 

 

“Jaken” the Demon Lord's eyes gave a quick glance around before finally resting back on his servant.

 

 

“Jaken… where is Rin?”

 

 

“R-Rin, milord!? She... she's gone” the servant bowed his head with shame. “I'm sorry, milord”

 

 

“It was not Mister Jaken's fault” the taijiya boy tried to explain. “She mounted on Ah-Un and went to help Usagi-san, Sesshoumaru-sama… It appears she was in some kind of trouble…”

 

 

The Inuyoukai raised an eyebrow.

 

 

“And… where is Usagi?”

 

____________________________________________________________

 

 

`Ryuji! …Kaede-baba! …Yumi!'

 

 

A while later the winged figure that was bathed in light finally made it to some sort of destination, staying immobile in the air for a few moments before she slowly began floating towards the ground in a very subtle motion. It was when she was a hovering only a few inches above it when the brilliance enveloping her unexpectedly disappeared, making her fall the rest couple of inches down to the floor in a rather brisk fashion and forcing her to struggle to regain her balance.

 

 

If she'd been the old Sailor Moon, she might have failed and fallen on her butt anyway… But since she was not, she didn't. It was good to have her wings and at least some small bit of her power, finally active and back; even if she still couldn't do a complete or very great use of it yet.

 

 

Blinking her eyes several times; Usagi came completely out of the rather unaware trance-like state that the intensity of the light coming out of her body had temporarily threw her into, and became wary of her new surroundings.

 

 

`Where… where did I end up, where am I…?'

 

 

As she took a few steps forward, though, the pillars of smoke that she saw rising in the distance, from above the trees, threw any kind of doubts she might have had at the moment about what happened, down the toilet.

 

 

The burning fire…consuming the village.

 

 

“Oh no…no, no, no… Kami…” She had an idea where she was now.

 

 

The vision.

 

 

…Kaede's village being attacked by youkai.

 

 

Clenching her fists, her lips puckered into a thin line and her body trembled all over with overwhelming emotions as fear and dismay fought for dominance inside her.

 

 

Had the vision… truly been real?

 

 

`I…… I have to see it for myself'

 

 

Clenching her fists even tighter, she started the path that would confront her with the dreaded reality beyond that peaceful grove…

 

 

…She never saw the little spot that was the remote figure of a two-headed dragon and human child, approaching fast in the sky.

 

 

---

 

 

`At this pace, I'll be getting nowhere' a certain Dog Demon tought as he lost his patience for the others' slowness, vanishing his youkai cloud to summon a more effective way of travel.

 

 

“Mhm…seems like Sesshoumaru is not going to wait for us” mumbled Totosai when he felt the gust of wind generated by the Taiyoukai's new speed brush by him, and they all saw the ball of light that was the Demon Lord disappear in the horizon. Looking down, the old weapon-smith sweat-dropped at the great efforts his poor three-eyed cow was doing to keep a steady flight with Jaken, Kohaku and him all mounted on top of it; for they'd been flying for a very long time and distance. “…Just a while longer, Momo”

 

 

“It doesn't matter, as long as we get there in time to help in case anything's happening” the taijiya boy answered, sweeping his bangs adamantly out of his sight to set his gaze firmly in the direction where he'd seen their leader disappear.

 

 

“Yes but I wish these human females would stop giving us so much trouble to milord and I” the toad groaned from the taijiya's lap. “It's because of them that I have to ride with you people, since Sesshoumaru-sama's once again forgotten all about me. It's not fair that he would subject his loyal servant to this kind of humiliation”

 

 

“Cheer up, Mister Jaken” Kohaku tried to comfort him, assuming it was just his master's abandonment that he resented, “We'll be reunited with them again in no time”

 

 

“I doubt that will solve anything…” the servant merely sulked in response.

 

 

---

 

 

Meanwhile, a certain blonde was finally stepping out of the grove to inspect the human settlement she'd used to reside in.

 

 

`Oh God'

 

 

For a few moments, she stood there petrified at what she saw.

 

 

Burned cottages.

 

 

`…Tsumi…'

 

 

Devastated rice-fields.

 

 

`…Byakuya…'

 

 

And then there were the still lingering monsters… feasting on the corpses…

 

 

Apparently, she'd been to late… and the most terrible part of the attack was over.

 

 

This people…

 

 

…even though she could not spot the children or Priestess Kaede anywhere…

 

 

`Oh God'

 

 

All the way there, she'd been hoping it was all just a bad dream. Even though she'd been unconsciously preparing herself for the worst, she'd dared hope that it was…

 

 

`No…'

 

 

 

…a product of her wild imagination…

 

 

But it wasn't.

 

 

`…Why…'

 

 

Standing there and seeing it with her own eyes, she realized the undeniable truth that…

 

 

`Oh God, why…?'

 

 

…it wasn't.

 

 

The burned huts, the smoking buildings, the ruined crop fields and the still lingering monsters feasting on the corpses and making disgusting slurping noises as they ate weren't a dream…

 

 

`How could you two…'

 

 

The whole scene wrapped in a mantle of ashes and rising columns of thick smoke that darkened the heavens above wasn't an illusion.

 

 

It was…

 

 

…Awful and…

 

 

…

 

 

…Real.

 

 

…So very real…

 

 

`How could you two… `do' this?!!?!!!' Feeling horrified once again, the blonde covered her mouth with her hands to hold back a hysterical shriek.

 

 

Taking a few steps forward, she was stopped by sudden a growling hiss.

 

 

“Where is she?”

 

 

Usagi looked blankly at her side. It was Him.

 

 

…She'd never even heard him come…

 

 

“…Whom?” she uttered in a very small whisper, though it was not a whisper of fear, something that surprised Sesshoumaru.

 

 

“Rin” he growled again, narrowing his gaze at her as he stood to her right glaring coldly. Who else could he have been talking about? “Where's Rin?”

 

 

“I… I don't know…” she whispered again, and the newly arrived Demon Lord was taken aback by how emotionless and detached her voice sounded, as if she couldn't understand who he was referring to, and how expressionless her usually honest eyes looked right now; as if she wasn't really seeing him, despite the fact that her sight was casually trained right in his direction.

 

 

“What's wrong with you?” he asked, truly perplexed by her flaccid posture. …Was this the same rather wimpy human girl that he'd once seen crying and screaming at the bandits, then him, then at anything that merely `looked' threatening? Given they were standing right in the middle of a desecrated village, he thought she was appearing way too calm.

 

 

It was suspicious.

 

 

 

Besides, `Jaken was right… …she's actually grown wings?'

 

 

“Why do you suddenly have wings now?” he decided to ask her this directly, scalding her with his glare.

 

 

“I don't know… I am so tired…”

 

 

Her baffling reply made him pause. What was she talking about?

 

 

“You're not a youkai; I am certain… yet you're not completely human either. What kind of being are you?”

 

 

“Am I?” she seemed to ponder on this while still off on her own little world. Lowering her strangely turned-expressionless eyes, she simply repeated the same statement as before. “Am… I…”

 

 

“Are you making fun of this Sesshoumaru?” he countered sharply.

 

 

“I… don't know…”

 

 

Sesshoumaru wanted to strangle her. “You are making no sense at all” he told her blandly. Together with her strange disposition, the whole new turn of the conversation sounded almost surreal.

 

 

Realizing this, he started to walk towards her. He finally ceased his strides to finally stand in front of her. Glancing down at her, golden eyes met with glassed-over blue. They looked so… vacuous, so empty and pupil-less… It was as if she'd suddenly turned blind.

 

 

`Hn…she's in some kind of shock'

 

 

His glance turned from threatening to sour.

 

 

“Wake up… or I'll make you” he drawled in warning.

 

 

He didn't have time for this, he had to find Rin… and this girl was the only person that could tell him where she was.

 

 

“I don't want to wake up, not yet… I want to stay in this haze of nothingness…without remembering” out of the blue her voice had become older, matured. It was no longer the voice of a girl; it was the voice of someone who had lived… The voice of a woman, he realized wryly.

 

 

“I recall you gave me your word you wouldn't try to escape, before I left” he snarled “and by the looks of it, you've broken it”

 

 

“…I am sorry…” the reiterated apology, uttered in such an oblivious state, actually made him scoff. But before he could deign himself with a retort, though, something else distracted them.

 

 

“USAGI-SAN!! SESSHOUMARU-SAMA!!!” a childlike voice then called, and the Demon Lord turned around to see his ward running towards them, followed by Ah-Un...

 

 

Likely with the use of his pure-energy form, the Taiyoukai had managed to increase his speed of travel enough to arrive to the place long before the youkai pet-dragon.

 

 

“Rin…” the still in-shock blonde murmured. …She would have so much preferred that a child like Rin was spared from reliving a scene like this.

 

 

“Rin” Sesshoumaru addressed the little girl curtly, “what did I tell you about running off on your own?”

 

 

Gasping, the child paused and bowed her head guiltily. “I am sorry, Sesshoumaru-sama… it's just that, that I couldn't let Usagi-san come here all alone!” she pleaded, “I knew she was coming to a dangerous place”

 

 

“…Why did you follow her all by yourself then?” the Dog Demon asked her in a tone that requested of her to further explain herself.

 

 

“My Lord, I… I don't know how to explain it but, we saw it in a vision! That's why we came…We saw the people being attacked by the demons and this entire village collapsing in flames!”

 

 

“A…vision, you said?” the Taiyoukai raised an eyebrow, somehow reminded of the one vision he had had, not so long ago, about a woman that had called herself the Queen of the Dead Moon, `Queen Neherenia'.

 

 

Shifting back towards the secretive blonde with newborn curiosity, he mused profoundly about this. `Could that vision of that time… have had something to do with Her?'

 

 

Interesting.

 

 

Meanwhile, Rin nodded, unaware of the path guardian's thoughts were taking. “That's right. I just touched Usagi-san's arm because she'd started looking very sick, and out of the blue it was like I'd been transported to a completely different place. Not long after that, I was back in the meadow and realized that it'd been all some kind of mirage…but, my Lord, it had looked so real! Like I was right here” she gestured to the scene all around her with her arms flailing wildly, “when it was occurring! …What happened to this place, Sesshoumaru-sama? Why did Naraku's followers attack this village?”

 

 

`…Wha-?' Usagi's blonde head snapped up at that moment.

 

 

`What does she mean, Na-“Naraku's” followers…!??'

 

 

…If the vision they'd shared had shown Byakuya and Tsumi had been the ones who'd done this…then why was Rin all of a sudden saying that this Naraku person had something to do with it?

 

 

To Be Continued.