InuYasha Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Breathless ❯ A Sword's calling ( Chapter 54 )

Disclaimer: Inuyasha is not mine, Sailor Moon either. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Naoko Takeuchi.

 

 

`A Sword's calling'

 

 

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?

 

 

 

“Was Naraku…the one who did this?” she asked all of a sudden still in that empty voice.

 

 

Looking rather bemused at that odd gloomy tone in her voice, Rin nodded to her hesitantly. “The truth is I'm almost sure the monsters that attacked this village were Naraku's servants, Usagi-san”

 

 

“Naraku's scent is spread all around this village like that of rotten carcass,” the Demon Lord assented then, looking around in distaste, giving the impression that his nose had seen, or should we say, `smelled' better days .

 

 

“Usagi-san, are you… are you feeling alright?” Rin added because she'd noticed that the older female was looking.

 

 

But the blonde was no longer quite listening. Her mind had been totally, utterly blown by this most unforeseen revelation, and she did not answer.

 

 

“U-Usagi-san!?” Having finally noticed the emptiness in her look, the child faced her guardian with great alarm, “S-Sesshoumaru-sama, w-what's wrong with Usagi-san? W-Why do her eyes look like Kohaku's when Naraku was controlling him!!?”

 

 

`Why do her eyes look like Kohaku's when Naraku was controlling him?' The words entered like a distant echo inside the older girl's fogged up mind.

 

 

Everything around her seemed to slowly fade away and disappear.

 

 

Kohaku…

 

 

Naraku…

 

 

Sesshoumaru had said earlier that this half-breed, Naraku, had possessed a human and taken him under his control in order to kill almost everyone in Kohaku's clan… …Had that human person been, Kohaku himself?

 

 

Oh… God.

 

 

Oh, God.

 

 

Oh God...

 

 

Kohaku…

 

 

Had he actually `been' the one that Naraku made kill his own people? Was that why Rin was saying he'd once been under Naraku's control?

 

 

But if that was so…!

 

 

If that was true…!

 

 

If that was true, could it mean that this `Naraku' had also managed to possess Byakuya or Tsumi, to have them attack this village?!!

 

 

`Byakuya… Tsumi… one of them…one of them, or may be even both, are following Naraku's orders?!?!?!!!! But…if that is what they are doing, does it mean that this could that be the reason why they did this???!!!' she was thinking to herself.

 

 

Flashback

 

 

―“What do you mean, `we'? It was you who got all carried away” Byakuya protested, “It wasn't like I got to do much. Besides, it's not like any of these people seemed to know where Usagi is” At those words, both the blonde and little girl watching them gasped.

 

 

End flashback

 

 

But, they hadn't' been brainwashed… or had they? They hadn't looked like it. In her still rather trusting, stubbornly naïve and good-natured mind, she wanted to think there was no other possible way to explain it…But no; in the vision she and Rin had had, both Byakuya and Tsumi had looked like they were pretty much doing all that massacre of their own free will.

 

 

On the other hand, if this new enemy by the name of `Naraku' had indeed been the one who ordered the two half-breeds to attack the village because, as Sesshoumaru had once mentioned, he was after Usagi herself…then why attack the village, and not her directly? What could he possibly be intending to obtain by doing things this way? Was it that this Naraku actually ignored where she was? Or…had this new enemy of hers done this as a way to lure her into a trap, towards him?

 

 

Somehow, she wondered, this whole situation reminded her keenly of the countless ones she had lived before…

 

 

Flashback

 

 

―“Serenity… all this that we've been doing, all these attacks against the Earth, it was all part of Diamond's twisted strategy just to lure you in! It's your fault my brother's acting strangely” Prince Sapphire yelled at her enraged “and I will make you pay! …You awful woman!!! It's you, you and the Silver Crystal's existence that have upset this world's history!!”

 

 

“An awful woman…me?!?” the moon princess thought, shocked beyond words by what Sapphire was saying, “Is it all the fault of my existence?!?”―

 

 

― “Galaxia… all that she's done, all the innocent people she's hurt…she's done it all just because she was after me? After `my' star seed…?” This was what, years later, Usagi was thinking to herself after what Seiya had told her. “…Why… why am I always dragging other people into my problems?”―

 

 

―“Eternal Sailor Moon, the power of the Silver Crystal you possess is what attracts so much conflict inside this galaxy,” one of Sailor Galaxia's subordinates, a distraught Sailor Lethe, had explained to her with resentment, “Unless you're gone from here, the wars will never cease, and peace will be unattainable… Therefore…Sailor Moon, to us, you are the cause of all disasters…you're the true enemy!”―

 

 

―“Oh God…Byakuya and Tsumi…they were looking for me?” the blonde hugged herself shaking “Oh my God!”―

 

 

End flashback

 

 

“This Naraku…he… he too…” she murmured as she clenched her teeth, “He too has hurt innocent people just because he was looking for me”

 

 

Once again, because of her…innocent people had suffered.

 

 

Once again, it'd been her fault.

 

 

“Oh God, oh God, oh God…” The blonde clutched her heart as it was once again overcome by pain as new memories of her previous lives assaulted her brain one after another, her shaking form kneeling on the blood soaked ground and shutting her eyes tight as her head shook in fierce denial.

 

 

What was the truth, and what was the lie? Had Byakuya and Tsumi done this of their own free will, or were they being controlled and manipulated?

 

 

She didn't know what to think…

 

 

Out of the blue, she felt herself falling.

 

 

“Usagi-san? …Usagi-san! Oh no! Something's terribly wrong with her, Sesshoumaru-sama! This is exactly how she looked like right before we shared that vision!” Rin's frantic voice once again was coming to her like a distant echo, but despite no matter how she tried, she couldn't see her, nor could she see whose arm was it that had shot out to catch her fall, or who it was that was coming to them running, causing the sound of rushing footsteps…

 

 

Everything around her had turned into a blur.

 

 

“Rin! Lord Sesshoumaru… is everything alright?”Kohaku yelled as he came running along with Jaken and the sword smith “Did something happen to Usagi-san?!”

 

 

“She's fallen into shock,” the annoyed Taiyoukai mumbled, when he felt something burn at his side.

 

 

The Heavenly Fang was shinning.

 

 

---

 

 

“Oh my… what happened in thisplace? Oh…Sesshoumaru? Who is that?” Usagi suddenly heard the unfamiliar voice of a very much older male asking.

 

 

“That's her! That's her, Totosai! See? That's the human girl that broke Tenseiga!Look, even now, the sword is pulsing!!” another croaky voice (was it Jaken's?) told the other one.

 

 

“Rin, are you okay?”

 

 

“Yes, I am… but,Usagi-san isn't!Her home was just attacked by Naraku!”the little girl's tone had turned regretful; “She was calling someone's name earlier. Kohaku, I think…- I thinkthis is Usagi-san's village”

 

 

“Wha--? Oh no; that's terrible… So thatis the reason she came here…It's no wonder she's in this state”

 

 

---

 

 

Meanwhile, inside her shocked state, Usagi's mind was screaming.

 

 

`Byakuya and Tsumi… is it true that they were brainwashed? Why… WHY would they follow this Naraku person's orders? They were supposed to serve Niraya-sama! … `HE', and not someone else by the name of `Naraku', was supposed to be their only master!'

 

 

They couldn't have…`chosen' to help this enemy to hurt the people of Kaede's village; could they? Had they actually betrayed Niraya-sama to serve under this Naraku person secretly, and actually go and do something as unforgivable as this? How could they just… betray someone behind their back and lie to them like this, by secretly allying themselves to someone other as well, and carrying out their evil deeds!? `Oh God, it can not be…It can not be, It can not be, It can not be, It can't!!!' her mind canted again and again, `…H-How, how`dare'they !?!' she thought yet in disbelieving outrage and confusion.

 

 

---

 

 

“Why won't she wake up?” the young boy slayer, Kohaku, wondered “She looks so angry”

 

 

---

 

 

That was when she felt it.

 

 

Someone calling to her…

 

 

`Who is it…?'

 

 

`…how …'

 

 

`…T-Tenseiga…!?'