InuYasha Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Cry of the Wolf ❯ Interlude one: Kagura's story ( Chapter 11 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Cry of the wolf
Interlude one: Kagura's story
By
Lance the Flamesniper
 
“I suppose I should have expected you'd come sometime,” Kagura sighed.
 
“Naraku wishes you to return with me,” Kanna monotoned.
 
Kagura offered her elder sister a wan smile. “Still daddy's little puppet I see. Still that Bastard cannot have me. Even now I am beyond his reach.”
 
“Yet you remain,” Kanna said.
 
“I remain only to protect my pack.”
 
Kanna raised an eyebrow at that.
 
“I suppose I should explain,” Responded the ghostly kaze youkai. Though I doubt what I will tell you will allow you to understand. Kagura mentally added dourly.
 
>Flashback<
 
She watched the wolf demon cubs from a distance. Ever since she'd fled Naraku's tomb with her heart, she'd been on the run. Shippou the fox had become the Eastern Lord and at his side was his allies Inu Yasha, That tramp of a priestess, the damned Taijya and that lecherous monk. The western Lord had likewise made it clear that her presence in his land would be `most unwelcome' as he put it. She didn't know enough about the southern Land or it's taiyoukai, which only left one place to hide.
 
So she watched from a distance. Everyday she watched hoping to somehow find a way to make a new ally out of an old enemy.
 
By all rights the wolf prince had every reason to kill her on sight. She'd slain his part of his pack, she'd tried to kill him more than once and most likely would have taken a shot or three at his new mate of only a few months, Ayame, if she'd known about her.
 
Kouga looked over his shoulder from where he was training with one of the older cubs. He'd known that Kagura was nearby for about four months now. He'd spotted her scent upon returning from Kagome and Inu Yasha's wedding. He smirked as he remembered the look of shock on Inu Yasha's face when he offered Inu Yasha his congratulations. It was an olive branch that the hanyou never expected. His amusement disappeared as his mind returned to the matter at hand.
 
He had no idea what the wind bitch was up to. The Baboon was gone, praise the Tsuki no Kami. Ayame however had a solution: Go ask her. The idea was so simple and so direct, that he'd wondered why he didn't think of it himself. In a whirlwind of speed, that he was still trying master completely, Kouga took off.
 
Kagura blinked as she felt a breeze behind her. She slowly turned to find herself face to face with the last person she wanted to confront at the moment. He was clearly trying to keep his face neutral but it still looked like he was scowling and, from the way his claws were twitching against his folded arms, barely keeping from ripping her throat out.
 
“Kagura,” the wolf prince seethed.
 
“Greetings lord Kouga,” Kagura responded. “You may rest assured that I have not come to fight you.”
 
“Is that supposed to make me feel better about you being here?”
 
“I would hope so,” Kagura responded as she bowed. “I have come to you, Taiyoukai of the North, to ask for asylum.”
 
There were many things that he could have expected. A battle to the death, some plot to kill more of his pack, just about anything would have made sense. But this? This caught him completely off guard. “Excuse me?”
 
“I am alone in the world and wish to atone my wrongs to your clan. Allow this me to so,” Kagura stated elegantly.
 
“And I'm supposed to trust you?”
 
“I don't really care if you trust me. However, if I wished you dead, we would not be having this conversation.”
 
“You're good but you ain't that good Kagura,” Kouga taunted.
 
Before Kagura could retort there came a scream from the clearing. Both Demons turned in time to see a massive Bear Youkai slaughter the guards and poise its gigantic claws do the same to the cubs. Kouga's muscles tensed as he prepared to charge the bear. Kagura however was faster.
 
“Dance of Blades!” Kagura called out as her demonic blade flew toward the enraged youkai. The blades' aim was true as they cut the titanic creature's arm off.
 
Kouga knew he had to act fast, in a tornado of speed Kouga grabbed up the two young and terrified cubs as Kagura fended off the enraged beast. Once the cubs were safe he returned his attention to bear. He needn't have bothered.
 
“Dance of the Dragon!” Kagura called out as a tornado-like wind knocked the bear off a nearby cliff.
 
“You saved them,” Kouga stated, his eyes wide in disbelief.
 
“Yes. Now do you believe me?”
 
Kouga said nothing as Ginta and Hakkaku, having heard the sound of battle, brought a troop of guards to surround her. Kagura watched them, knowing that at any moment there could be bad ending to her gamble.
 
“I can snap my fingers and make you a bad memory,” Kouga said as his soldiers pointed their pikes at her.
 
“You could snap your fingers, and the only bad memory you'd have is the sight of me putting all these loyal wolves to their deaths. Then you might be able to kill me,” Kagura responded with a half-smirk.
 
She would have said more only Kouga was on her in less than a heartbeat. His hand was clamped around her throat as he lifted her into the air. His lips where curled into snarl but his eyes were quickly filled with surprise as Kagura tilted her chin back to expose her neck.
 
S-she's submitting to me? Kouga thought incredulously. He carefully drew back his free hand and flexed his clawed fingers allowing the joints to pop audibly.
 
“You have me in quite a spot wind sorceress,” Kouga began. “On one hand. You, at baboon boy's command killed parts of the Great Pack. On that same hand you've also tried to kill me.”
 
Kagura said nothing. She'd watched the wolves long enough to know that her role, if her plan for asylum were to work, was to hold the pose of submission. Meanwhile all around her were wolves who were all offering really nice ideas about how their lord should `dissect' her, whatever that meant.
 
“I have every right to cut out your heart, gut you, and place you damn head on a stake,” Kouga's said features turned from a glare to a softer one. “However, you've also helped save two of the pack's cubs.”
 
A murmur of surprise rippled through the gathered wolves, Ayame among them. Everyone hung upon Kouga's next words and actions.
 
“I am going to do something that I will pray you don't make me regret. I'm going to give you a chance,” Kouga replied as he released her from his death grip. “Do not make me regret this Kagura. Or there will be no place you can hide.”
 
>End Flashback<
 
“He let you join them,” Kanna said flatly.
 
“Yes. It was difficult at first and Kouga didn't make things easy for me. But after many years I earned his trust and his respect. His children loved me, the pack's other cubs loved me and by the kami, I enjoyed spending time with them as well. He taught me a lot about loyalty, as well as what it means to belong somewhere.”
 
“You belong with us,” Kanna whispered.
 
“I belong here! I was felled in the third battle with the Crystal ships! I died the retainer of Kouga, and in the end,” Kagura replied wistfully. “I died defending my best friend and his surviving children. I have no regrets. Be gone Kanna! There is nothing for you here.”
 
Kanna gave Kagura a look. “Even as a spirit, you defy master.”
 
“You're damn right I do!” Kagura yelled in a moment of uncharacteristic anger. “All he ever gave any of us was pain and suffering. Yet you, who are his eldest child, never tried to face stop him. It was you who stood by his side and allowed him to see when I disobeyed! It was you who allowed him to torment me to the point of rebellion! And then you have the gall to tell me where I belong?”
 
Kanna merely nodded.
 
“I should expect this. He never gave you a soul. He made you, a munashii youkai, for the purpose of feeling nothing. When you are hurt, sad, happy, none know it. Not even yourself. I pity you, `sister.'”
 
“And what shall I tell master when I return?” Kanna's flat voice asked.
 
“Tell him the truth Kanna, that I am dead.”
 
Kanna nodded again and turned to leave. Kagura watched until her creepy elder sister was out of sight then sighed. Kouga knows I still guard this tomb, but I fear he may be in trouble wherever he has roamed. If only I were permitted to aid him.
 
 
As the sun began to set at the club Minako had dragged Kouga to, no one noticed the strange insects flitting around the window. Had Kouga spotted them he'd have known them on sight if not by scent. They were the Shinyosho: Naraku's hell wasps.
 
Unfortunately Kouga didn't see them. Minako was too busy trying to drag him onto the dance floor. Not that Kouga couldn't dance, quite the contrary, but he didn't like the music being played. He'd have given anything to get the music to stop.
 
The wall being smashed in covered that nicely.
 
“Kouga! Prepare to die!” a gruff voice called out as people began to run.
 
“Oh yeah, looks like the fun's just starting,” Replied Kouga as he cracked his knuckles.
 
TBC