InuYasha Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Breathless ❯ In dreams ( Chapter 60 )

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

Disclaimer: Takahashi Rumiko owns Inuyasha, Takeuchi Naoko owns Sailor Moon, and I'm not either one of them; therefore I don't own these anime/manga.

Author's Note: I wrote this chapter while listening to several songs, one of them being “Fallen”, by the group `Delerium'. I highly recommend listening to that song after (or during) the reading of this chapter… or any time you find possible… That song is simply amazing, and the lyrics go well with this chapter, I think. The title of this chapter was even inspired in one of the parts in the lyrics of that song.

Chapter Fifty Nine.

`In dreams'

“Look, Usagi-san! …A field of flowers!” Rin exclaimed with mirth as she ran towards her beloved flower buds.

“Oh, I see them,” the silver haired girl assented. “They're so pretty,” she added as she walked forward to join the little girl in her seat among the flowers.

Rin turned to her with a big enthusiastic grin on her face. “Let's make flower crowns!!”

The silver haired young woman laughed. “You really do like making those, don't you Rin-chan?” she asked as she took a seat beside her.

“Hai!” was the last thing the raven haired child said before she quickly set to work on her favourite pastime. Usagi watched her amused for a few moments before turning to take the constricting shoes off her feet, sighing with deep relief.

`And to think I was worried the `dress' would be a bother… I should've realized `the shoes' were what would become my newest nightmare… Never talk about walking around in the wild with high heels,' she thought with a grimace.

She then noticed Rin had turned around back to her and was watching something lying on the grass with unveiled interest. Quite intrigued as to what could have caught the little girl's attention away from the flowers, Usagi looked down and stared at the `object' in surprise. It was her hair.

“…What's the matter, Rin-chan?” Usagi asked feeling a tad-bit concerned that the child would seem so preoccupied by such a trivial thing like her hair. Yes, it `had' changed colors, but that'd been the previous day and Rin had seemed like she'd gotten already used to it when they went to bed last night… so why?

“I… I've never touched silver hair before” the little girl said in wonder, still staring at her hair, “I wonder what it feels like… Usagi-san, would you let me comb your hair for you? I've never dared to brush Sesshoumaru-sama's… he said it's improper of a warrior”

Being caught by surprise with Rin's last statement, the older girl lifted her head to throw a rather astounded glance at the Demon Lord, who was once again watching them, and Usagi thought he was looking a bit taken aback. Amusement began to grow then and rise from the young girls' chest and stomach, and she couldn't stop herself from giggling merrily as she was staring at an apparently embarrassed Sesshoumaru who had narrowed his eyes at her as if offended.

She couldn't help it; there was something about the way he puckered his lower lip that made it look remarkably like a pout, and she thought she noticed a faint red tint on his cheeks..

The truth though, was the Taiyoukai was himself surprised at his reaction at her laughter . There was something about the fact that the two of them would turn to stare at him at the same time that he found unnerving, which was surprising. A female's stare was something he would usually shrug off very easily as something of no further consequence, and if he'd been anyone else but Sesshoumaru, he would've thought it was perhaps the blatant discussion of his looks in his presence, the blatant stares he was now receiving, or the fact that it'd be somehow beneath him to say anything what made him so unnerved. He might also have considered it made him that way, perhaps even more so, that Rin would bring up his own words so out of context, for he had never known she harbored such a wish such as touching his hair before.

Or may be it was the fact that he might know nothing of the world's old preocuppations of the female mind.

Such a 'girlish' manner of talk would've had no consequence for him, usually, but his reaction this particular time puzzled him; Sesshoumaru didn't know whether to be annoyed, to dismiss it completely, or to admit he was the slightest bit curious.

The silver haired girl's laughter sounded like the jingle bells of Heaven almost, for a moment there. It reminded the Demon Lord of Rin's own free-spirited laughter. It was like the honest, non-embittered laughter of a child in a woman's mouth, and just like a child's, it was soothing.

`It sounds… beautiful…' the Taiyoukai thought, before he could stop himself. When he did, he immediately berated his mind for producing such a ludicrous thought.

Naïve, soft, innocent…; these were all things she certainly was, together with exotic and alluring. But she wasn't beautiful…

…She wasn't. Besides, thinking of such things was a stupid idea.

“Why you, of `course' it's improper of a warrior!” Jaken reprimanded the little girl as if she had unwisely insulted him, and not Sesshoumaru, “Youkai hair doesn't require the same treatment as fickle human hair… Milord does not need to have his hair brushed to look presentable,” he finished with an air of superiority, crossing his arms and puffing out his chest, closing his eyes and raising his chin at the two very amused females.

“Jaken-sama…” Rin giggled at the spectacle.

Even Kohaku's expression was looking as if he deemed the whole scene hilarious, for it was quite evident to all that, in praising his Lord's `great' achievements and good looks, Jaken was consoling himself for the fact that he didn't have any.

“Mister Jaken” Usagi said then, imitating the way Kohaku usually addressed the toad demon, “you do know a lot about youkai… don't you? Can I ask you a question?”

The toad cracked an eye open. “As a matter of fact I do,” he said with pride. “What do you want to ask, woman?” He questioned, calling her by the same epithet that Sesshoumaru used. The Demon Lord wanted to roll his eyes… and if he had been any more distracted by his thoughts of the previous night, he might have. The others didn't seem to notice yet the unusual state of restlessness he'd been in since they'd awoken.

“Last night I had a very strange dream… I don't even know whether it was a real dream at all,” Usagi said with her hand to her chin, looking down preoccupied. The statement made Sesshoumaru's eyes concentrate on her meditative profile with the sting of a thousand needles, even though the silaver haired girl once again didn't seem to notice the sharpness with which he was looking at her…

Here he was, still not having decided upon what to do about the so-called hallucination…He himself hadn't yet decided on whether what he'd dreamt the previous night was a figment of his imagination or a real induced vision that someone else had purposely slipped into his mind… …and here she came, the day right after, saying exactly the same thing about herself.

It was logical the deed would call to his attention.

Was it truly some kind of game of hers?

“What kind of dream, Usagi-san?” Kohaku asked with a slight frown.

“I dreamt about… a creature… a being the likes of which I've never seen before in my life… It was soaring through the skies last night, under the rays of the moonlight, and it made him looked so… It was obviously youkai, so he should've looked frightening, but in my eyes the light of the moon made him look so …beautiful… so… perfect…” Everyone noticed she had a very weird look on her face, as if she was almost entranced and…

…giddy?

“Usagi-san?” Rin looked up at her strangely.

“It doesn't matter” the girl shrugged, still of in her own little world. “It couldn't have possibly existed, it was too beautiful to be real; I couldn't have truly seen it. I must have imagined it”

Sesshoumaru sucked in a breath. Don't tell me she's talking about…

Never in a million years would the Taiyoukai have thought she would awaken and actually see him in the middle of that night in his true form as he was flying.

“Um… What kind of creature, Usagi-san?” Kohaku asked with a bit of dread in his voice as he awaited patiently her reply, as if he already had an idea what she was talking about, unlike the two others.

Unbeknownst to the other three, Kohaku indeed had awoken in the middle of the night to see Lord Sesshoumaru in his true form flying up in the sky. For a few moments, he'd been terrified that the girl with the silver hair would wake up too in time to see it; fearful of the frightened state she might get in or that she even fainted or screamed, leaving only he and Rin to handle the awkward situation (for he knew for a fact Mister Jaken wouldn't bother much with it and even take it as a new source of entertainment). But one look at the young woman sleeping with the younger child had eased his mind and apprehensions; the girl had been in such a deep slumber, it was unlikely she would rise the next morning with the barest hint of what'd been happening above them the night before.

…Evidently, Kohaku'd never counted the possibility that she would dream about it, because honestly, were she to remain asleep as she was and caught up in her own dreams of nighttime… …what were the chances…??

“A greatly big, beautiful white dog spirit with red eyes like fire”

Apparently, they were many.

---

“I'm telling you, guys, it was no simple dream! …I swear that I saw my own reflection in the water, grab me by the wrist and pull me underwater last night… and when I was underwater, I saw a vision of the Shikon no Tama, all tainted in Naraku's grasp with the exception of a missing shard, an a point of light in the centre… then I heard Kanna's voice distinctively saying: `The Light will kill Naraku'… and when I woke up this morning, I had this in my hand” Kagome showed the mirror shard she held on her right palm up to the other shard hunters.

Sango gave a sharp intake of breath. “But that is…!!”

“A shard from Kanna's mirror demon, without question,” Inuyasha nodded. “It smells like Naraku even now”

“But then that means… do you think Kanna could have given it to Kagome in her sleep? Does it mean that she's still alive?” Shippo wondered out loud, voicing everyone's thoughts.

“I thought she could've just… disappeared out of existence during the cataclysm” Sango agreed, dumbfounded. “We all thought the same thing”

“Well, it seems we were wrong” Miroku replied with a hand clutching his chin, his ever analytical mind trying to make sense of the last events. “We only saw her fade out of our sight; for all we know, she could've teleported to another place”

“I didn't think Kanna had that kind of power” interjected the demon slayer, sounding a bit skeptical. “Nor can I believe that Naraku would've given her that ability and let her run away from that fight so easily; it'd appeared to me he was quite willing to sacrifice Kanna's life in order to shatter Testusaiga”

“It might have been merely the kind of impression that Naraku `wanted' us to receive” the monk reminded them, “since we can't say for sure whether `he' was not the one to cause the cataclysm in the first place, instead of that young girl that Lady Kaede mentioned as just another possibility… On the other hand, if Kanna is indeed dead, who else could have given that mirror shard to Kagome-sama?”

“…What about that Byakuya guy?” suggested the red-clad hanyou, “I get the impression this is all a trap”

“I think you might be right, Inuyasha” assented Miroku, “Until we know what this is about, we should all be the utmost careful”

“Does it mean we're going to continue our way to Totosai's mountain?” Kagome inquired, and when he answered that they should she added, “Have you recovered from the posion, Miroku-sama Are you feeling better enough to travel?”

“Yes, fortunately I am, Kagome-sama” the monk smiled kindly, though to Kagome it looked a bit forced, like the attitude of someone desperately trying to look like he wasn't hiding something. “…I appreciate your concern”

Kagome frowned; she wasn't fooled. For a second there, she'd gotten the feeling that something wasn't right.

Could Miroku… actually be `hiding' something? But that was not possible… was it? That wasn't like Miroku at all.

“That's good. I'm glad for you and Sango-chan, Miroku-sama” the miko smiled tentatively in return, deciding she was just probably imagining things. At the moment the monk appeared like he was feeling quite alright and if there was something wrong with him he would have told them, wouldn't he? She was just being paranoid…, Kagome reasoned. Besides, there was another pressing matter that she should present with the others before she forgot.

Turning to the rest of their group, she raised her hand with the mirror piece, “By the way guys… What do you think I should do with this, should I keep it? Do you think it might become handy?”

The others looked amongst themselves.

“I… I don't feel comfortable having a piece of Naraku here with us” Shippo admitted fearfully, “I really think we should get rid of it”

Inuyasha found himself saying the same with furrowed eyebrows. “Even if it's just an incarnation's, even if it's just Kanna's…who knows what that thing might do when we're all asleep… it would be a constant threat. It could even begin to manipulate you in your dreams, Kagome;” hearing this, the fox kit on Kagome's shoulder squeaked. “I don't like it one bit”

“…I-I guess you have a good point” the girl from the future nodded, now grimacing and growing slightly apprehensive.

Sensing everyone else agreeing on this subject she thought the matter was settled, so throwing the shard high up in the air she proceeded to shoot it with a sacred arrow, purifying it and shattering it into a raining glitter of thousand inoffensive minuscule pieces.

---

--“A greatly big, beautiful white dog spirit with eyes like fire”—

The moment she'd said those words, was the moment Sesshoumaru resolved that she was playing.

--“It was obviously youkai, so he should've looked frightening, but in my eyes…”--

Sesshoumaru suppressed another involuntary shiver…

…exactly the same as the many others that she had caused him before.

Intolerable.

--“…the light of the moon made him look so …beautiful… so… perfect…”—

This was all just a game to her…

`…She's trying to drive me insane'

--“I couldn't have truly seen it… I must have imagined it”--

It was making him mad and she knew it, of course; all women knew and possessed the ability to tell whenever they had that kind of power over a male… His own mother had once had that kind of ability, and relished on it thoroughly… Inuyasha's human mother had had it too, and used it to ensnare his Father into her web, bringing upon a weakness in him which would later bring forth his death; now he realized that `she', this fearsome girl with mysterious powers and an even more mysterious nature must have ittoo…

…For she was successfully bewitching him.

--“It couldn't have possibly existed, it was too beautiful to be real”—

Distasteful… this was why he didn't really like most females. They were all vain and manipulative.

Just like fraudulent male individuals the likes of Naraku.

He was such a fool.

“Is something wrong, Sesshoumaru?” his body tensed immediately when he heard her gentle voice as she came running behind him, clutching at the skirts of her abundant layers of dresses. “Why did you suddenly walk off like that?”

Usagi didn't understand what was happening: one moment he'd been there sitting with them and he had seemed alright; then the next he'd gotten up and disappeared through the woods like the air in the clearing had suddenly turned unbreathable.

…What was happening?

Once she saw him stop in his strides as if forced, his back still to her and his head slightly bowed, she finally realized how on edge he was and realized that, whatever was happening, it wasn't good.

This was only verified when he finally turned to face her stiffly and she was allowed to see the look on his face. His face looked so strained… his brow was moist with beads of perspiration and he was pale to the point of looking greenish, as if he was feeling very sick and struggling with something.

However, at the same time, his eyes were looking as hard as stone.

Instantly growing very anxious, the sight made Usagi hold her own breath in alarm. She immediately ran to him and made an attempt to touch his cheek in profound worry…

“What's the matter, are you sick? …Is something going on?”

…but she could not, for the attempt was cut short immediately when Sesshoumaru's hand rose fast and caught her wrist in a tight hold, stopping her hand before it made actual contact.

“Why don't you tell me…, `Serena'?”

The name, along with the constraining hold on her wrist which was beginning to cause her pain, made the silver haired girl gasp. Before she could say anything though, Sesshoumaru'd already taken advantage of his hold on her wrist to push her backwards and throw her off of him, sending her away stumbling.

…Stunning her beyond all reason.

“W-what?” she stuttered once she finally regained some of her breath at the same time she regained control of her feet in time not to fall over.

“Are you going to act, once again, like you don't know any of this?” she heard him snarling at her acidly, “How very predictable…”

“But I…” she didn't know what to say; his new complete change of attitude had stunned her speechless.

…Just when she thought he'd finally begun to see her as someone from whom he might receive collaboration and friendship.

Just when she was beginning to understand him…when they'd begun to understand each other...

Why? Why was he acting again like she was a traitorous enemy?

`Why…what is this all for?'

“I…” `This is getting old' “You surely must know this is getting very frustrating, Sesshoumaru…” she told him angrily. She just couldn't deal with his rollercoaster of a mood swing anymore… `She' was the girl here, yet `He' was the one acting like he was on his period or PMS-ing… She resisted the urge to borrow some of Aku's vocabulary and ask him what had crawled up his butt and caused a commotion this time.

But she was feeling too hurt to find the situation humorous. She didn't even understand why.

Why does he affect me so much?

The Taiyoukai looked at her with intimate provocation and one of his cruel, vicious smiles. “`Frustrating', you say?” he chuckled, then lowered his voice to the lowest whisper, “Frustrating… Believe me, girl; you haven't any idea…”

He sounded almost… bitter? In his eyes there was an expression that she'd never seen before.

“From the moment we encountered eah other, you've been doing nothing but play games with this Sesshoumaru, and I grow tired with them”

What? Usagi tried again to reach out to him. “Sesshoumaru, I...” But the steely gaze in his eyes did not waver, so the girl's intent this time died long before the gesture could be completed.

For the longest of seconds they just looked at one another, each trying to decipher the other one's thoughts.

And……failing.

And as they stared at each other like this: Usagi with hurt, betrayal and the beginnings of resentment if things kept on as they were, and Sesshoumaru with the hardness, anger and fury of someone who thought he'd been taken for a fool by a certain someone else for the last time; unexpectedly the Taiyoukai's eyes became half-lidded, though not with concession…or absolution; but with the air of someone who'd reached, at last, to a long-time delayed decision and were proceeding to tell it with cold detachment.

“You've become too much an inconvenience; …you will no longer continue traveling with my pack”

The words made the girl's eyes grow wide. “…Wh-wha??! ”

“I shall not allow you to waste my time like this. Tomorrow morning” he continued with a tone of definiteness, “we'll be walking the path back towards your village, and leaving you there...--”

`No…'

“--...for good”

It was in that moment Usagi experienced an unwarranted, new and different sort of dismay, the likes of which she'd never felt before in this current life: the panic and dread of being pushed away, unwanted, by someone she'd not known how and when she'd grown to care truly about.

To Be Continued.

A/N: Here you go, guys; more than three thousand words… probably my longest chapter as of yet, I truly hope you've found it satisfying. But I'm not gonna talk about the events in this chapter now (I'll leave this to the ones among you who'll be so kind to address them in a review, hehe); I've got an announcement to make: college term has officially started again where I live and this means I'm going back to school, which means I won't have as much free time (Jay's cries in tears) and I might (key word being `might') not be able to update as often… But don't you guys start having a heart-attack yet! I'm not like, `d--ng' or something! (laughs good-naturally) Alright, that was a CRAPPY joke; sorry…

Anyway, you know what encourages a fanfiction author's desire to keep returning to their fics even after school's already started? That's right: feeling the love of the people here, including readers. So… tell me, after sixty chapters, long and short, are you guys still with me? Has this story become impossibly long, has it become too monotonous? Are there truly people among you that still want me to continue…? (I'm no psychic, that's why I'm asking this question)

Regardless of the answer, though, rest assured that I will. For all I know, my muse might pester me and the next chapter of this story might even be posted tomorrow… I love writing and I love this story too much to leave it abandoned, so I won't, you have my word. Just wanted to tell you: to the people in the three sites where I post this story, thank you all for your fantastic support, and for all of your patience… (especially regarding my far-from perfect English, the typos, mistakes and such)

Take the `announcement' more as a `just in case' warning. Don't take it to the heart cause I don't know whether this is going to be the case or not... so take it as a 'what if' warning.

So...till the next chapter!

One big hug,

Jay FicLover