InuYasha Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Breathless ❯ Request ( Chapter 55 )

Disclaimer: Takeuchi Naoko and Takahashi Rumiko are the ones to give credit for this two anime/manga, I'm only using them to create a story of my own imagination.

 

 

Chapter Forty Four.

 

 

`Request'

 

 

“Mhm, so it was true, then… Tenseiga's being very affected by this young woman's emotions, without a doubt”the old man's voice offered, much to his annoyance,“Sesshoumaru…by the way it's reacting, it's almost like it wants you to use it”

 

 

“That's ridiculous” the Taiyoukai said with his mouth beside the blonde's very ear as he leaned down on her to check that she was still breathing, “How am I, Sesshoumaru, supposed to use a broken sword to do anything?”

 

 

“It's strange”Totosai finally admitted, “And you say you've never seen it acting in this manner? Somehow…somehow, it's like it wants you to use it to end this woman's suffering”

 

 

---

 

 

Despite his own reservations, the Demon Lord had to admit to himself inwardly that the old man was probably right. From the moment the girl had fallen, the sword hadn't stopped with its incessant disturbance. Once again, he found himself wondering what connection there was with this odd `human' woman and the Heavenly Sword.

 

 

She looked so fragile… laying there just inches above the ground, her weight being sustained by his only arm… yet he knew, she wasn't `just' fragile… He'd already learned the hard way that this seemingly quite ordinary ningen woman possessed powers unsuspected just under the surface. The fragile demeanor guise might be just that; a façade.

 

 

And now, as he held her there, looking down at her fainted form, he realized, once again, that this girl had yet again summoned a strength that he would have thought unthinkable, something not to be seen in a human, all just to come to this place... this place where there had been carnage.

 

 

Of all possible places…

 

 

And he couldn't fathom why.

 

 

Had she truly been trying to escape? For some reason, he could not fully accept that notion: she'd already been witness to his supernatural speed at least twice. First with the bandits, and then with the masked youkai… Had she actually been thinking he would not be able to catch her?

 

 

If that's what she had thought, then she was stupid; she had to be stupid… to be capable of such reasoning. However, Rin had told him of a vision that the two of them had shared previously, foreseeing what was happening to the human settlement, and she'd mentioned it was possible that this desecrated village had been the older female's former home.

 

 

Was it the truth?

 

 

Because if it was, then there was the chance that the reason she'd come here wasn't that of her running away… Staring down at the sadness in her features, he felt his own words in the recent past coming back to haunt him.

 

 

--“Just for something like this, Rin, I have let you die…To obtain this in exchange for Rin's life…isn't worth a thing!”—

 

 

--“Sesshoumaru… that was what you had to learn… that when your heart wishes to save a loved one, it must, at the same time, also feel the fear and sadness of loosing them… …Fear and sadness…” his mother had explained, “Your father said that too…”—

 

 

All of a sudden, he seemed to understand.

 

 

`Father…'

 

 

`Is that what Tenseiga wants me to understand…? …To learn of this woman's own fear and sadness?'

 

 

`Why…?'

 

 

`…What is it that makes her so special?'

 

 

An unexpected feeling against his right cheek brought him back from those thoughts. So immersed in this musings had he been, that he hadn't realized he'd been watching her from so up close… so close that one of the soft feathers from her mysterious newly-grown wings had come in contact with his cheek in a subtle caress… making him shiver.

 

 

…Reminding her of that time when she had also caused him to shiver before, when she'd so boldly reached out with her hand to touch his dark crescent moon sigil.

 

 

She hadn't been trying to escape.

 

 

She hadn't been trying to escape; she'd merely wanted to help her loved ones, the people of the village she had lived in.

 

 

She hadn't been trying to escape. She apparently was willing to risk greatly for those she cared about.

 

 

She hadn't been trying to escape and he was …relieved?

 

 

He didn't know why that notion brought upon him an odd sense of liberation. It was almost… like he didn't want her to harbor thoughts of escaping.

 

 

…

 

 

…Strange.

 

 

 

 

To everyone's surprise, that was the moment the young blonde unexpectedly came out of her shock, her eyes blinking several times before they fully opened. When they finally did, she glanced casually to Sesshoumaru's right side, at the broken Sword of Heaven.

 

 

At the sight of the young woman slowly sitting up, Kohaku, Rin and even Jaken gave a long relieved sigh.

 

 

“Usagi-san?! How are you feeling? Are you okay?” the little girl asked the blonde when she saw her blink her eyes. However, just as before, the older one didn't answer; she was too entranced looking inside the golden orbs of Sesshoumaru.

 

 

The blue-eyed girl closed her eyes for a while, swallowing. “I heard what he said” she said, gesturing to Totosai, “and Tenseiga… it…-- it talked to me”

 

 

Raising the usual eyebrow, the Demon lord's gaze became a combination of surprised and skeptical. “Oh?”

 

 

She stared at him once more, her head slightly tilted as if pondering her next words. “You can revive them, with Tenseiga … …can't you…?”

 

 

He merely stared back at her. He didn't need to ask who she was talking about, or what she meant by her question of whether he could revive them, for the desperation in her eyes told it all: she was asking him to bring back the people of the village. Somehow, as surprising as it was, she apparently knew, she'd found out about Tenseiga's secret power.

 

 

Had the sword actually been talking to her, as she had said… the same way it talked to him?

 

 

“I don't know how you've learned about it, but what you ask is impossible. As you already know, the Sword of Heaven is broken” he reminded her in his dead-pan voice.

 

 

“We can fix it” This brought the others' attention. Everyone was looking at the blonde flabbergasted.

 

 

“…What!?”

 

 

However, she ignored the other onlookers' cries of astonishment to focus her attention on the Demon Lord. “Tenseiga… your sword's told me that we can mend it back together, Sesshoumaru… if we just join our powers on it. But I need your help” she tried to keep her voice steady as her tone belied her plea, “If you agree to use it to bring back the people of this village… then we can repair it” she finished with a breathless murmur. “…Please…”

 

 

Mend it… with their joined powers…? It took the Inuyoukai a few seconds to recover from his initial shock.

 

 

“You…” he hissed and his eyes started to become dangerously red as he wrestled with the enraged surge of his power, “All this time… Woman; are you telling me that all this time there was a way to fix it… …and you dared not tell me?!” He was positively growling now, his voice filled with threat zeroed on her.

 

 

Gasping, the blonde scurried away and hurried to her own defense. “I…! I didn't know until now! Tenseiga's `just' told me!” she mumbled, afraid at the way his great demonic aura had started to lash out all around them. “I would have mentioned it sooner if I had known about it!” she said, tried to convey all of her sincerity into those words.

 

 

Yet that didn't seem to calm his rage too much. He was still positively livid. “Why should I?” he snarled, his gaze slightly narrowed, “Why should I, woman, make use my own power to resurrect your dead? This people have nothing to do with me”

 

 

He watched her take a deep breath.

 

 

“I will… I will tell you who I am” He felt his own eyes widen at her statement. “I know it's been bothering you” he heard her rush to add, “and if you agree to save them I… I will tell you…all that there is to know… a-about me” To his surprise, she looked down; portraying the deferent posture of the supplicant's. It was when he realized.

 

 

Offering such exchange was something very hard for her.

 

 

`Why…, though? …What is it that she thinks she needs to keep hiding so badly?' Continuing to be rather taken aback, he just remained silent, watching the winged woman kneeling so desperately before him.

 

 

Should he give in to her request? Sesshoumaru inwardly shook his head at this notion. He might not know what was best, but he did know one thing.

 

 

“You, who have gone back on own word, fleeing away to this place; you, who have so blatantly disregarded our deal… you, dare to ask this `favor' of me?” He was satisfied when he saw her look away in shame; for he was angry.

 

 

He was angry at the way some people, like Inuyasha's ragtag group and even his own wench, acted so much like they felt they had the right to expect, to demand such generosity from him even though they hadn't done anything remotely close to being deserving.

 

 

He answered to no one…

 

 

Then this fair-haired girl showed up in his life and attempted to do exactly the same…; forgetting his previous sympathy for her apparent sorrow at the death of loved ones, he was angry at her now, for daring to believe she could so shamelessly make such a bargain after the way she'd gone back on their previous agreement. But more importantly, deep down an insolent voice taunted that he was actually angrier at her imagining what could have happened if he'd never found her, if she had succeeded in her rather incidental `escape'. The chance that he could have permanently lost track of her, had he not given chase, suddenly made him extraordinarily irritated under the surface like he hadn't been in a `long' time. Once more, he felt like he wanted to punish her for something, and for the world of him he couldn't figure out exactly what was that grave wrongdoing of hers thathad wronged him so personally.

 

 

…Which served to make his mood all the more sour and unwilling to grant her wish; the retaliation and cool reaction of a state of undercurrent fury.

 

 

“I think you should grant her request, Sesshoumaru; `might be the only chance to repair the Fang. Besides, the Tenseiga itself seems to want it that way” the old sword-smith chose that moment to intervene, his voice tearing through the haze that was the Dog Demon's mind, bringing his attention back on the still pulsing sword at his side and making him realize just how completely absorbed he had been on the female till that moment. He had even forgotten that the others were still there.

 

 

…What was it about this mere slip of a human that managed to distract him so damn much?

 

 

“I do not recall asking for your opinion, Totosai” he snapped with his jaws clenched, very displeased with the senior demon's unwanted meddling. Why couldn't the senile demon be like Kohaku, Rin and Jaken, and know when `not' to interfere?

 

 

“Think about it, though” much to his chagrin, the old man tried to insist, no doubt feeling sorry for the golden-haired girl. “If you fail to do it, you may never find out why Tenseiga's been reacting to her in this way, or why is it that it wants you to do this. You might never find out whether there is a true purpose behind this”

 

 

The Taiyouka's amber eyes shifted to him in deep thought, He knew he was right. On the other hand, if Tenseiga's reactions, from the start, had pointed to this woman's feelings…what if there was a good reason? Besides, he could always deal with the female later, and if he did comply with her wishes, she had already said that she would finally, at last, tell him enough to solve this series of mysterious events.

 

 

He was finally going to get his sword back. In comparison, it was a rather small price to pay.

 

 

Scowling, he gave his final answer.

 

 

“Very well”

 

 

To Be Continued.

 

 

A/N: Keep in mind that this was solely from Sesshoumaru's Point of View. Usagi's and the others' will probably come in later.