InuYasha Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Breathless ❯ Moonlight ( Chapter 59 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimer: If you think I own Inuyasha or Sailor Moon, you're mistaken…Takahashi Rumiko and Takeuchi Naoko are the ones that do that.

Chapter Fifty Eight.

`Moonlight'

--“…Will you nurture me?”

“You may call me… …Serena…”—

Serena…

With a hitched breath, the Taiyoukai opened his eyes. Looking at his surroundings, he saw the others lying around, sleeping.

It was still night.

And he realized then what had happened to him.

Another vision…

`What is the meaning of this?!' Sesshoumaru thought angrily to himself after he woke up, `Was she actually trying to pull something?!'

Flustered beyond what he would have wanted to admit, he gazed to his side towards the place were she and Rin were sleeping; the child gently wrapped in the numerous folds and layers of the older female's pristine dress like a baby tucked in soft warm bed sheets.

He didn't like playing this sort of games… he detested being subjugated to any form of manipulation. The woman in the dream, she'd looked exactly like her…

…And what did she mean by nurture her? Did she have any other secret agenda she was keeping from him? His golden orbs narrowed on her.

..Perhaps, he thought sourly, he'd done wrong in beginning to trust her…

---

“How is she, Hitomiko?” the wizened monk, Ungai-sama asked as he entered the hut where the young miko was attending to the convalescent older priestess.

“She's still feverish, but she's doing a lot better now, I believe; though she still hasn't woken up yet, she has reacted favorably to my medicinal herbs”

The older man nodded. “That's good to hear… Will you stay up all night watching her?”

“Yes, I will. She's not received a great amount of poison; however…” she leaned down to pull the blanket further up to the unconscious priestess' shoulders, so it would keep her warm, “I've never seen demon venom quite like this: such a small amount of it has made so much damage over the human body… as if it was corrosive,” she murmured in deep thought, looking down at the older priestess' resting face, “The villagers that showed me to her hut told me her name is Kaede…she is so old, Ungai-sama… why would a demon even bother to attach an old lady like her, only to leave her for dead instead of devouring her unconscious body? She keeps murmuring names in her sleep…” she explained in wonder, “Something about a person named `Usagi', mostly, but also about someone called `Naraku',” she looked up at the monk, “Do you think those could be the names of some of the demons that participated? The second name, `Naraku'…” she trailed off in a whisper.

“I know, I understand your concern. The name `Naraku' means `Hell'… certainly fit for the name of a very spiteful youkai, capable of misdeeds like this one,” his lips puckered, “This is why the other monks and myself will stay up all night as well, placing wards. This town's suffered enough; they don't need a second demon attack to happen after dark”

“I still don't understand it,” the miko mumbled, stricken. “There's just no logic to it at all. …Why attack this village? …What could they possibly have been looking for? Why kill all the villagers, only to bring them back to life afterwards?” she bit her lip, glancing down as she shook her head with contrariety, “I truly don't know… We were worried that corrupted youkai spirits had done this in order to take over the bodies of the villagers after they'd killed them, to use them to do something despicable… but even though we checked many of the inhabitants many times, we haven't been able to find any signs of demonic possession. I just… I truly don't know what to make of this, Ungai-sama; to my knowledge, youkai have never quite behaved in this manner before”

The monk held in a breath at the silent question, “Whatever happened here, though, all that we can be sure of is it must have something to do with the three peculiar beings that were seen after the attack, at the moment the people were resurrected”

“You mean, that winged woman those two mentioned earlier?”

“Yes, but also the other two: the old man in a three-eyed cow, and the Chinese-looking war lord with silver hair and the appearance of an aristocrat…demons all of them, without a doubt,” Ungai's jaw clenched, “What's more, the second one's description's, that of the war lord accurately matches the one of a being I've encountered once before… a very powerful and dangerous Taiyoukai”

`That little girl had called him… “Sesshoumaru-sama”…'

“Is that so?” Hitomiko stared up at him in worry, detecting the look in his fathomless eyes.

“He was ruthless enough to bewitch a non-the-wiser innocent child and take here away… probably to eat her. He was… too foul,” he muttered ashamed, “his spell on her was too strong. I wasn't able to save her”

“Ungai-sama…” Hitomiko murmured with sadness. She knew what it felt like, to be a person blessed with strong spiritual powers and entrusted with the mission to protect, yet still finding one self thrown in the situation of being unable to save someone. It had happened to her too; in fact, that was exactly how she and the old Buddhist monk named Ungai had met.

Years back, a single rogue demon's attack had endangered her own hometown and many people she'd grown up with had ended up killed. Hitomiko, who had just become the local priestess, still hadn't known how to control her powers well enough to vanquish it, but Ungai and his group of wandering monks who were passing by had helped her eradicate the menace for good, something for which she would always be grateful.

Days ago, when she was visiting an old relative in another town, she'd come once again across the old spiritual man and he'd offered that he and his group escort her back to her own village, to which she had readily accepted.

One could never be too careful these days.

“But then, Ungai-sama…” she began again, “if you do happen to know one of these being these people have described, what is it that you and the other monks are you going to do? …Are you going to pursue it?” She was almost unwilling to admit how much she dreaded hearing the answer to this question. More often than not, a Buddhist monk's path, and a Shinto miko's path regarding spiteful youkai were usually the same… and to deny her help, act selfishly and say no in the case he decided to track down this youkai and requested her assistance in orde to defeat it; to say no in that situation would make her seem unkind and not caring for others' wellbeing… something a Shinto miko like she could never indulge herself in.

Almost bitterly, she accepted this for a fact as she watched the old monk's jaw become set.

`You're not getting away with striking defenseless humans this time around… “Lord” Sesshoumaru…' Letting out another breath, the older man assented to the young spiritual woman.

“…We are going to find him…”

---

Perhaps it was time to give up. He'd hoped, almost against hope, that one of the villagers of Kaede and Kikyo's old hometown could be able to tell his servants where SHE was, but he'd been wrong.So grievingly wrong.

`Perhaps…she had truly died during the cataclysm…' he had thought to himself when he realized the options he had left were slowly but surely decreasing in number, `perhaps… she's even returned to her own world, the one she had come fromin thevery beginning'

His Butterfly…

…He couldn't believe he had let her through his fingers and lost her. Closing his fists tight in what was a fitof some uncontrollable foreign emotion, Naraku made a desperate attempt to get a grip on himself and come to terms withthe harsh realitythat she maybe, just may be…she wasn't coming back.

“Why. Why do I feel this way;what is this strange unwelcome sense of loss that I'm feeling?…She was just a puppet…”he mumbled, distraught;fingers spread out like deadly talons, clawing at the wall he was leaning against,like sharp nails.

This terrible sense of loss…

Just a puppet…

Nothing more.

Then…

…why?

Nooneinthiscondemnedworldcaresaboutme

“…Usagi”

`You made me weak, and then… you'vehurt me…'

`…Just like everyone else;just like Kikyo, Usagi, you've seen as somethingbeneath yourselfin the end and chosen to abandonme. In the end, you've proven to be as selfish and uncaring as everyone else and chosen to do without me; Iwassoincredibly stupid…I should never have let myself become so attached to you…to anyone'

Inthiscrazed,corruptedworld, youcanonlycountondarkness…

…It just isn't worth it to love someone.

`Emotions become a weakness… Loving someone makes you stupidand vulnerable,'thiswas something he had always known.

His love for her was…`had' been no different.And now that she was gone,Naraku realized… he should actually feel relieved:

No more haunted feelings of guilt; no more distractions.

He would continue on with his plans concerning the Jewel, as if Usagi had never existed.He would just have to eraseherfrom hisweak humanheart and mind, together with this foreign, unwelcome sense of grief that threatened to consume him.

`Damn you to the deepest pits of Hell, girl…'

“…I wish I'd never met you”

Hidden behind the door, a girl with lavender hair was feeling self-content and smiling

---

Byakuya had come to see Naraku.

Interestingly enough, the Hanyou Lord didn't even glance his way, he merely asked a simple thing.

“Have you found it?”

“I did, and just in time too. Inuyasha's group was almost to the place when I went to retrieve it; it was fortunate they didn't spot me”

---

(Three hours earlier…)

Kagome couldn't sleep. So many things had happened in the last few days she just couldn't find her sleep. First it'd been Kikyo's death and the unfortunate event of the loss of Kouga's s shards to the evil hanyou that had caused her death; then, when they'd been searching for Kohaku they'd come upon a village and heard reports of a strange shine that was seen at night on one of the lakes nearby and they'd gone to investigate, the circumstance resulting in a mortal fight with a mirror demon and Kanna; then they'd gone back to Kaede's home and heard from the priestess' mouth about that strange girl with great untapped spiritual powers who could have been the one to cause the cataclysm… and finally, as they were heading the day before for the place where Kohaku and Kikyo had last been seen together, in order to track down the young now-left-unprotected taijiya, they'd ended up coming across the same village as before (the one by the lake where they'd fought Kanna) and heard reports of human bodies being found in the first hours of the morning with no bones, surely as part of some demon's doing. So, being the sympathetic people that they were, of course her group had agreed to help.

But there'd been one tiny and relevant problem: the attacks only happened during the night, so in order to get this demon they would have to pursue that very night…

Which was, coincidentally, the night of the new moon.

There'd been no way round it: without his own youkai power, Inuyasha was forced to stay behind in this battle; Kagome had decided to stay with him together with Shippo, and thus Sango and Miroku, along with Kirara, had gone in search of the bone stealing youkai…

The battle had almost cost them their lives. It had turned out the creature they were facing was actually a demoness with the rare ability to manipulate bones, since she herself was made of them, and somehow like Princess Abi she'd also been killing humans in order to help her sick father, who needed to eat many bones, of all things, to get back to health. As soon as she'd seen Sango's weapon “Hiraikotsu” made with youkai bones, the girl had realized it was just what they needed and devised a scheme together with her father to kill Sango and her monk companion, just so they could take it from them; they'd even filled the room they had lured them into with poison, to leave the monk incapacitated, so to save Miroku's life and her own eventually Sango had had no choice but to resort to desperate measures in the form of a lethal poison for demons… and douse it over Hiraikotsu…

Just as she had intended, the demonic father had tried to eat the boomerang in order to regain his strength, at the same time swallowing the terrible poison that Sango had drenched it in and dying… but from the very beginning Sango had known that the poison she'd used was too strong for any youkai bones to be left unscathed, that not even her strong boomerang would resist it; she'd known from the very beginning that her stunt to save herself and Miroku required sacrificing Hiraikotsu.

Therefore, Sango was now, for all instances and purposes practically weaponless… they're only hope was to go see Totosai and see if he could do something to repair the damage done to Hiraikotsu; though not even Inuyasha was sure if the man would be able to do it. Twenty four hours afterwards, the night following the one of the new moon and the battle with this dreadful youkai, they had opted to wait out for Miroku to rest and recover from the poison before continuing on with their journey, and set camp by the very lake where they'd fought Kanna a few weeks prior. It'd been decided they would head in the direction of Totosai' s mountain the next day, so Kagome certainly needed her sleep, but she was having a difficult time getting it.

Why, she thought as she got out of her sleeping bag and stood, why was it she couldn't manage to fall asleep? Everyone else was sleeping soundly, they didn't seem to be having the same problem. She knew Inuyasha well enough to predict that he wouldn't allow her any few extra hours of slumber the next morning… besides, Sango'd been left so heart broken at the loss of her boomerang that Kagome couldn't bear to delay the reunion with Totosai any further. They `had' to get the old man to repair Sango's boomerang, for without it the slayer was rendered powerless in battle; this was something Kagome was pretty much aware of… so why?

Then, whilst walking towards the lake she realized: this was the place where Kanna had disappeared. It was only natural that this place made her uncomfortable; after all, they'd never been able to come up with an explanation for that disappearance.

She could still see it in her mind as if it'd just happened yesterday: the way Kanna had fadedout of sight just before their incredulous eyes. …What had happened to her, though? Had she truly gone back to Naraku? Even Byakuya had seemed surprised when he'd noticed she was missing…

May be, just may be, Kagome thought as she bent down to touch her own reflection in the lake's water; …may be Kanna had actually run away. So focused in her own thoughts, she didn't have the time even to scream when her own reflection grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her underwater.

---

He hadn't told her as of yet, but part of the reason he still hadn't downright demanded she fulfill her end of the bargain, and reveal everything about herself and mysterious identity, had been at the last minute he had thought better of it and decided it was better if she still owed him a favo and remained in his debt, till `he' decided when and how she would repay him.

But now that this had happened, he wasn't sure this was a good idea anymore…he no longer knew whether he trusted her enough to make any more attempts at any sort of arrangement.

What's more, he was becoming increasingly upset with the fact that he was still unable to figure her out… her very nature, at least. Was she youkai? …Human? …Something else? How was it that a Taiyoukai of his station couldn't realize what creature she was merely through the use of his superior heightened senses? How could someone like he, the pureblooded son of the Great Demon of the West, be so easily led astray? How was it that this woman could so easily make him have hallucinations about hearing her voice when she wasn't even there and seeing beings and things that weren't there present?

His mind was his! Anyone who'd dare play tricks with it in such an underhanded fashion would get what they deserved, no matter if it made Rin sad…`She' was getting out of hand, too much and too fast. He'd been more or less patient up to this point; however, would definitely need to do something about this the next day, though for now he knew the two other humans in his group actually needed their rest and causing a ruckus by confronting the female at this hour of dark simply wouldn't do. He would have to do something else to appease his increasing discomfort and anger until dawn.

…That was it; a flight under the moonlight in his true form usually helped. He'd already discovered it sometimes was the best way to deal with his ever present fury…

The light of the moon usually worked wonders to calm him.

To Be Continued.