InuYasha Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Breathless ❯ Enchantress ( Chapter 58 )

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN Sailor Moon, she owns me, seriously. Naoko Takeuchi… this is your entire fault! Yours and Takahashi Rumiko's… why did you two have to create such great anime/mangas? …Now I'm obsessed! * cries* :P

 

 

Chapter Fifty Seven.

 

 

`Enchantress'

 

 

“Usagi-san, will you listen to the Star Locket's song with me before I fall asleep?” the little girl asked as she leaned to lie down next to the older female.

 

 

“Oh? You really like that melody, don't you, Rin-chan?” the girl in the dress asked playfully.

 

 

“Hai! It's so calming, like a lullaby!” the child giggled, also in a good disposition for playfulness before bed-time.

 

 

“Alright; lie down and close your eyes, I will let it play for you…”

 

 

As he watched the silver haired girl lull the little girl to sleep as she hummed to the pace of the Star Locket's song, the Taiyoukai couldn't help but once again notice how perfectly in synch those two could look together. It was as if they knew they spoke the same language.

 

 

Females…

 

 

However, as he watched the way in which the woman's hair looked like pure snow under the subtle rays of the moonlight, he once more felt himself begin to be filled with the undercurrents of his growing uncertainty.

 

 

--“What a foolish thing,” he snorted. “Sometimes, woman…you talk like you want others to think you're the condemned holiest center of the goddamned world”

 

 

He didn't know why he had said that. It had just rolled out of his mouth. He did not know what had compelled him to say it… The way the Fang of Heaven once again was pulsing at his hip, sensing her distress; had the way it'd just start to drive him crazy been the cause he'd said those words? And once again, his crude words had failed to turn her against him, quite the contrary; the moment they were out of his mouth and he turned his back on her, he sensed the previous stress slowly ebbing out of her body… As if those very same words had caused it.

 

 

…Once again, she had puzzled him; he had been more of expecting, waiting for the opposite reaction…

 

 

--“Your friend is right, you're far too trusting”

 

 

“I know” it sounded almost as if she'd been expecting his words “though it is by choice”

 

 

The statement intrigued him. “How so?”

 

 

“I want to believe in everyone… that everyone has hope. Have faith in the inner goodness of people…that no matter where it may lay hidden, it is always possible to start over”—

 

 

What was it with his mere slip of a female that she no longer seemed to be even trying not to take offense or hold any grudge against him, no matter what he said? Not long ago, he would have chalked it up still to that same old manifestation of weakness in her character, the same god awfully annoying gullibility she'd showed since the early beginnings of their acquaintance; but now…

 

 

--“And I might have no problem with it, once you decide to do it. I will never forgive that guy for what he's done to people I care about”--

 

 

Now, things were somehow different. He knew she was pretty much capable of feelings of hurt and insult enough to birth hatred; the way she'd said she might not have a problem with him slaying Naraku after what he'd done to her people, proved to him that it was so; thus she wasn't dense or intellectually damaged enough not to recognize the undeniable evidence of the presence of true evil and ill will against her when it stood right before her… she wasn't blind not to see the world was not always as good and perfect as she would have liked to imagine… that not everyone was inherently good.

 

 

Yet the evidence hadn't been enough for her to allow herself the feeling of hatred, ironically. When he'd reminded her of her own recently-manifested verbal expressions of rage against the hanyou, she had felt ashamed, of all things. He couldn't understand it. She'd spoken about duty and a miko's obligation to protect, but the way she'd dropped her gaze and the unmistakable way she smelled right then had clearly told him she felt ashamed about what she'd said and was struggling to come to terms with a manner to reconcile the feelings of rage, and her good old beliefs, with her own new decision to go look for Naraku beside him. Like there was even the need.

 

 

And the question that'd come to his mind at the time was,

 

 

… …Why bother?

 

 

Why the shame?

 

 

Why not allow her anger to guiltlessly grow into hatred? Specially when due to the enemies' actions, it was more than justified? It'd all sounded as if she did not wish to admit that she could feel hatred…

 

 

However…

 

 

…could anger and resentment, just by themselves, truly be called something as stronger as hatred?

 

 

--“Your friend is right, you're far too trusting”

 

 

“I know” it sounded almost as if she'd been expecting his words “though it is by choice”—

 

 

Choice…

 

 

--“I can't bear to be the cause of their suffering… Others are always suffering because of me; I must stop him!!”--

 

 

It'd been almost as if...she was choosing to blame herself instead of fully indulging in the option of hating. …Something about the way she'd seemed to blame the entire incident with the village on herself had truly irked him for some reason. Not only because it appeared like wallowing in self-pity, a thing which he loathed, but also because blaming oneself for someone else's actions was foolish; it was useless. Didn't change the past or what had happened …so what was the use of it?

 

 

He knew that from personal experience.

 

 

…That's what he would have wanted to think.

 

 

He would have wanted to think that the painful truth that he'd always been invisible, rather unworthy and insignificant before his Father's eyes hadn't been his fault, but his Father's. However, deep down he knew that he had never believed it.

 

 

Otherwise, how could he have hated his hanyou of a brother, Inuyasha, so much?

 

 

--“No matter what he's done, Sesshoumaru, you shouldn't hate him… Hatred is a dangerous thing. … Nothing good will come out of it”—

 

 

 

Raising his head to look up at the moon, he remembered the similar words he'd heard coming from his mother's lips not long ago, that time when Rin's life had almost been stolen.

 

 

--“Fear and loneliness, Sesshoumaru… your Father spoke about them … Tenseiga is a healing sword… even when used as a weapon, you must learn to cherish the value of life… and harbor a compassionate heart when sending your enemies towards Death”—

 

 

Fear and loneliness…

 

 

Compassionate heart… for an enemy…

 

 

`Father… have I finally understood it? Is this what you wanted me to understand…Is having experienced loss and despair supposed to teach me to hold a compassionate heart for even those I wish to slain?'

 

 

But how… how did Rin's almost death lead to him feeling compassion for his enemies. That was something he could not yet comprehend.

 

 

--“You shouldn't hate him, Sesshoumaru…”—

 

 

--“Hatred is a dangerous thing”—

 

 

The words that the silver haired girl had whispered, echoing through his mind, made him take this new decision:

 

 

The sword reacted to her sadness.

 

 

His Father approved of her…

 

 

Because of that little trait, everything that she did and said greatly impacted on him.

 

 

--“Whoever my Great Master approves of, this Totosai approves of as well”--

 

 

It was only for that reason… wasn't it? He was restless, because his Father approved of her… because his spirit thought there was something she could teach him?

 

 

His Father approved of her, and the while affair was beginning to turn into an unnerving puzzle, it was a puzzle that he wanted to solve; that he would solve, in due time…

 

 

The Inu Lord shook his head; he certainly was feeling strange tonight. All of a sudden, he was feeling awfully tired.

 

 

Even thinking of these things, was taking a great effort.

 

 

Deeply immersed in these thoughts, he didn't even notice when he unexpectedly dozed off after he closed his eyes.

 

 

Lulled to sleep by the silver haired girl's singing.

 

 

Like slowly drawn into her spell.

 

 

---

 

 

--Once upon a time, long ago, people say, there were a father and child, the King and Prince of a faraway land who did not have anything in common. This was, at least, what the child believed; so he yearned with all of his soul that he would be able to overcome this, to show that he was worthy and be able to become like his father. He would dream all the time with the day when he'd be an adult and become what he thought that everyone in their court was wishing; to make his father, the King, proud once he finally managed to resemble his vast greatness…

 

 

…So it was that one day the child gathered enough courage and decided to go roam the lands of the kingdom with his father.

 

 

One day, the Prince came up with a quite singular question.

 

 

“Tell me, Father, what is hatred?” the young Prince asked this of his sire one of those nights when the two had gone out patrolling, holding his breath in as the two of them had leaned down to sit and look up at the full moon.

 

 

The King's gaze became frowned and then looked at his son inquisitively. “Hatred is… desire for revenge, when you feel that someone has given up reconciling their differences with you, and chosen to make you suffer… Hatred is the lack of compassion; it's when you want others to hurt as much as you do, because you're overwhelmed by sadness”

 

 

Hearing this, the young Prince blinked. “Is that so? But if someone's done something to hurt me that deeply… how can I not wish for that other to feel the same, so he can understand it?”

 

 

“Because,” the father said, “there is always another way; a path to reconcile those feelings…, …the right choice. And I believe, son… someday you will understand…; that you will find it.

 

 

“You, my son… someday, you will be the on to find it”

 

 

But it wasn't till many years later, and when the father was dead and the son in turn had become the new monarch, that the Prince at last understood the meaning behind the words of `right choice' that his father, the old King, had once upon a time spoken… --

 

 

-------------------------------------

 

THE SEDUCTRESS

 

 

It was quite a few hours later into the night that Sesshoumaru was raised back into awareness. He didn't know what had called to him, nor had he had any recollection of falling asleep. Blinking hard to get the veil of slumber out of his eyes, he looked all around him and saw mist. All that he could see surrounding him was the darkness and fog covering that pat of the forest; but he was alone. This wasn't the place where he and the others had set camp for the night.

 

 

…Where were the others?

 

 

Looking up at the sky, he saw the full moon coming out of the clouds, giving off its mystical shine, but there was something wrong with it; the moon was…

 

 

…Grey?

 

 

What was happening? `Is this a dream?' he thought to himself. The only time before that he recalled to have had a similar experience, of unexpectedly finding himself in an unknown place, without recollection of how he had gotten there, was when he'd had that vision about that woman named Neherenia… It couldn't be a dream... he wasn't one to dream, the scarce moments that he slept.

 

 

He heard a sound close by.

 

 

Rising up from his resting place he immediately tensed, once again expecting unwelcome company. Getting up to his feet, his hand automatically reached to his side for Tenseiga, decided to send whoever it was that had decided to mess with his mind this time, directly to the Underworld.

 

 

The sound was heard again, and it sounded like… chains?

 

Squinting he made out something out there in the middle of the denseness of the foliage and thick vegetation, and walking slowly closer, he eventually was able to distinguish a transparent see-through ghost with black feathery wings, who had its back towards him as it was leaning down to peer at the face of another dangling shadow before them. As if alerted to his presence, the ghost briskly ceased its staring of the other one to turn around and he was met with the silver eyes and grayish loose hair of a woman with black wings; but before he could see anything else, the ghost faded away leaving only he alone with the dangling shadow.

 

 

The moon became brighter, and Sesshoumaru was finally made allowed to see who the dangling shadowy figure was. He immediately recognized the silver hair and fair skin…

 

 

The one named Usagi.

 

 

What was she doing here?

 

 

Studying her stringed up form he noticed that her white winged, currently nude body that was only covered by her hair, was being held up with her arms outstretched by some kind of chains and handcuffs around her wrists… even though the chains weren't fastened to anything… they were just there, like materializing out of nothing.

 

 

“Woman…” he tried to call her, though her eyes did not open.

 

 

“She can't hear you… she's too much out of it,” a feminine voice said near him, making him turn to the side.

 

 

It was the black winged ghost from before… the woman with the loose grey hair, black feathery wings and brilliant silver eyes. She looked like an older Usagi… and she was giving him a faint smile.

 

 

“Have you done this to her?” he questioned, wary of who this woman might be, who looked so much like the other one with white wings hanging right there before them.

 

 

The ghost's smile widened a little. “In a way, yes. It's been my absence what's let it come to this,” gesturing towards the handcuffs, she continued. “These are the chains of fate… that is why they're of a red color like blood”

 

 

“What are you?” the Demon Lord demanded, not willing to put up with any nonsense, “You have no scent or aura and your form is translucent, like a projected illusion” Not even the spirits of the dead could hide their auras from one such as he, so what was she?

 

 

It was like she wasn't even there.

 

 

The grey-haired, silver-eyed apparition slightly skewed her head. “I am the one who's suppressing her powers, because she really doesn't want to leave here… I am the last hidden facet of the moon, the ultimate secret, third and last part that Usagi has yet to see; I am neither good nor evil… Together with Darkness, the two of us form a triad. I am the only one who can break those chains… but for that, I need you to nurture me, Sesshoumaru…” she raised her head and stared intensely at him, her tone enigmatically questioning “…Will you nurture me?”

 

 

“…Who are you?”

 

 

“You may call me… … Serena…”

 

 

---

 

 

 

With that farewell prior to depart, the Demon Lord was startled awake.

 

 

…

 

 

…Finally.

 

 

To Be Continued.

 

 

A/N: Weird chapter, I know. I'm kinda trying a new path; this wasn't supposed to happen till much later, but I decided to give you guys a little taste before continuing, to give you a hint of what's going to eventually come. Besides… this way things that happened in the first chapters of the story have finally become a lot clearer now, haven't they? (Regarding the encounter between Kikyo and the black winged woman) You guys tell me how you liked it… Don't worry, though; the next chapters will continue the same line as before, sort of; we'll learn more about Serena/Usagi's point of view and see her do a few of things unexpected. Hopefully, we'll get to see more of this `grey-haired beauty' not too much later on… (Amused winks)

 

 

So tell me what you think!