InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Acceptance ❯ A Lesson To Be Learned ( Chapter 5 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
Disclaimer: …^__^;
AN: Woo! Even more reviews…thanks so much! *big fatty hug* Okay, I understand there was some confusion about Sesshomaru having two/one arms/arm. However, I don't understand where I say that he has two arms, usually I just reference one arm doing different things. The arm was healed in the last chapter…so I wasn't sure what was confusing. Anyway… Enjoy!
During this chappie there is a long dream sequence, it will be all italicized so that you know that the information is pertinent to the dream and giving insight to why Kagome is having this dream.
I hope that isn't confusing…^__^;
"…" --dialogue…of course.
Italicized text-thoughts/flashbacks ^___^
Chapter 5: A Lesson To Be Learned
*RECAP!*
“You bitch. You'll never forget about him, will you!?” Sesshomaru yelled straight at her face. His eyes started to tint red. What was wrong with her thinking about Inuyasha? She still loved him, she deduced. Now she was pinned to the bed by a very pissed off Sesshomaru.
“I'll teach you how to behave while you are here, bitch.”
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Kagome struggled as Sesshomaru had her pinned down by her hips, straddling both sides of her body and glaring down at her. She was confused, scared, angry, anxious, worried…she couldn't describe how she felt as she peered up warily into bright red orbs. She trembled violently when he growled, and as he started to trace her cheek with a nail, making a slight scratch.
She tried to sit up, but was slammed forcefully back onto the bed, the top of her head hitting the headboard.
“SIT, BOY! OSUWARI! OSUWARI! …Osu…wari…” Kagome screamed in Sesshomaru's face, forgetting that she wasn't dealing with a little temperamental hanyou anymore, but a fully-fledged monster. That's when he smacked her. Her cheek stinging, she brought her hand up to caress it, her eyes betraying how stunned she was. She looked up at the monster she had to endure, the beast that was lurking under the calm façade. Tears threatening to fall, she turned away from him, only to be roughly jerked back.
“You will forget about that bastard. I am your protector now…but you see, there is no one to protect you from me. He abandoned you for that DEAD woman. A dead woman that you just happen to resemble.” He mocked her very existence. Kagome started crying, her sobs shaking her small frame violently even though she was held down by Sesshomaru.
“Use your miko powers, baka! ...But they won't function! Dammit!” Kagome argued with herself, emotion flashing across her tormented eyes as she withdrew herself into her own world. When…and would Inuyasha come for her? She calmed herself, the calm before the storm. Her breathing slowed as she prepared to use her miko powers to get out and away from the monster that held her captive.
Sesshomaru was pissed. The glazed look in her eye serving to stoke the flame of his anger as he saw her visibly calm down. She was no longer crying, and her breathing was no longer marked by erratic sighs and sobs. He lifted her up by her neck and threw her against the wall, making a sickening crack and an imprint to show as proof of what conspired in her guest room. She shakily rose to her feet, her eyes burning as if possessed. With one cry of anguish, agony, and pain, she shot her hands out in front of her battered form and fired several waves of miko energy at the shocked taiyoukai.
Sesshomaru quickly whipped out Tenseiga, a sword that would welcome the onslaught of pure energy, and use it to its advantage. The sword stood between the volatile miko and the enraged inuyoukai, serving as a buffer zone between the two auras that threatened to explode. When Kagome could no longer keep up her assault, she slumped to the floor, not even looking at her handiwork…she was only satisfied by the silence that graced the other side of the room where the once proud inuyoukai stood.
Damn, was she wrong. The taiyoukai put Tenseiga back into its respective sheath, and smirked as his held his sword in one hand, and his sheath in the other. This miko had healed him…but it would only serve to be her downfall in the end. With both hands, he could break her spirit…and make her forget about Inuyasha. She could scream all night, but the hanyou would never come. He was grateful, mind you, but wasn't about to show it.
He sauntered over to Kagome's limp form, and lifted her up by her hair. She let out a barely audible shriek, her voice damaged from her battle cry before attacking Sesshomaru. Lifting her up so they saw eye-to-eye, he proceeded to lecture her.
“Bitch” he was pleased when she raised her head up to look him in the eye “you are now my property. The hanyou will not be coming for you anytime soon, or ever. If you ever step out of line again, you will be punished or humiliated accordingly. You must know your place as a shitty ningen underneath my boots.” Here, he shook her for emphasis.
Dropping her unceremoniously on her hands and knees, he ripped off the sleeping kimono that he had one of his servants put her in. She screamed with new vigor, but he slapped her until there was not so much as a small whimper. Pleased with her compliance, he flipped her onto her stomach, not being wary about his claws which caused gashes across her torso and sides. When he had sadistically carved an “S” into her back, he almost chuckled as she struggled against his arms, kicking her weak legs and crying for help. She started to have trouble breathing and began hyperventilating due to all of the pain. He paused and waited for her to regain her composure, before dripping his trademark sickly green acid into the wound, making her scream until she couldn't whisper without causing her throat to ache.
His ears rang every time her shrill voice would break through the silence (silence meaning the sound of her burning flesh) and bounce off the walls. This was her torture chamber, and her friends could do nothing about it. She wasn't welcome anywhere, she concluded to herself. She was an outcast…with no place to call home, or be accepted. It was what she truly desired. Acceptance.
Before he left her with a servant that would bandage her many wounds, he spit onto her, which caused her to groan in self-humiliation and pain; pain of a thousand years, of hundreds of generations. No one would know of the agony she went through, of the loneliness she left at that moment.
“Filthy ningen” were the words that he left her with.
~~That night~~
Kagome ran through the forest, the twigs scratching at her bare legs, and pebbles embedding themselves in her already swollen feet, as she tried to get as far away as possible. How long had she been trying to escape? What exactly was she trying to escape? She didn't know how long she would last in this uncharted territory, and whether she would escape or not…
That was when a red figure lunged at her from the side. The blood red eyes scanning her semi-unconscious form after the wind was knocked out of her and her head hit a fallen log. This is what she was trying to escape. Something, or rather, someone that was holding her back from feeling true happiness. Someone that would not let go of her no matter how hard she tried to escape him and his selfish ways. It was Inuyasha.
She certainly didn't want to go back. He had Kikyo now, which was as clear as day, and she now saw the truth with immense clarity. She didn't belong there anymore…nor had she ever belonged there. It was for the best that she fled, and escaped the pain…but it only brought more when she had an encounter with the merciless taiyoukai. Sure, she would miss the lecher monk who treated her as an equal; the brave taijiya that loved her as a sister; and the loveable kit that seemed attached to her by the hip. However, she would learn to move on—this transition was for the best. She would hunt down jewel shards if it was the last thing she did, but do it without them for once.
Although she hated to admit it, it was time to part separate ways.
However, a certain hanyou did not want to accept her departure…the hole that she left right in the middle of his heart, a space that his now dead lover used to fill. Although he satisfied his physical need with the dead corpse, he would stop at nothing to keep Kagome by his side, until he matured as was old enough to recognize Kagome as his true love. His only possible love, besides loving a lifeless and cold corpse. This was Kagome's nightmare. A roadblock from achieving true happiness was the nightmare that she would wake up screaming about. It seems that she had finally learned to leave him and her familial companions, but was only brought into a more oppressive relationship.
In her nightmare, Inuyasha would keep her from escaping, physically abusing her until she couldn't move and felt trapped inside her mortal body. However, this nightmare on this particular night was different. As Inuyasha began to slash her with his claws, she began screaming, both in the dream and in reality. The pain was immense, and as she tossed and turned on her bed, her real wounds were causing the pain to increase tenfold. She panicked as her vision seemed to fail her and her lungs refusing to accept the life-giving oxygen—she thought that she was being suffocated. Thrashing about on the bed, she was restrained by strong, warm, arms that encircled her trembling form, forcing her to stop moving, and calming her tortured soul.
In the dream, a white figure flashing through her line of sight before she blacked out immediately. The same familiar strong arms wrapped around her battered frame, and seemed to heal her every ache and pain. She looked up and saw concerned golden eyes staring down at her, assessing the damage done to her small body, and gingerly carrying her back through the woods.
Kagome jerked up, and tried to sit up in bed, but was secured by two very relentless arms. She froze. It was Sesshomaru. What was he going to do to her this time? She involuntarily shivered, which did not go unnoticed by Sesshomaru. He only tightened his hold on her, obviously forgetting about the burns on her back.
Kagome's eyes jerked open as she screamed in pain, shattering the silence as Sesshomaru unknowingly pressed his fingertips into her wound…the wound inflicted by him. Tears sprang forth immediately and trailed her cheeks, but she didn't let herself sob…lest he do something to her for being so weak. She tried to hide her pain, but it was as plain as day to the inuyoukai, who could clearly smell the salty tears.
“K-Kagome…” Sesshomaru said apologetically. For once, it didn't come out as miko, bitch, filthy ningen, or girl. It was who she was, Kagome. “Kagome, I will never hurt you again. Do you understand?”
“Sesshomaru…then…why did you hurt me earlier?” She questioned as he held her against his chest; she let go of her shyness and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders, accepting his embrace. It was compassionate, and sympathetic…she knew that he hadn't meant to hurt her back when he was holding her, but she still had questions as to why he did it in the first place.
“I was angry.” He stated plainly, pulling back from the embrace to look her in the eye. What would he tell her when she asked what he was angry about? Could he bring himself to tell her, a ningen, how he was jealous of his younger half brother? However, these questions and answers would have to wait, as Kagome drifted into a light sleep against the taiyoukai's chest.
She certainly didn't know what was going on, but Sesshomaru realized that she did not need a lesson in courtly behavior, but that he needed a lesson in love.
AN: I'm so sorry this chappie took so long! I've had to study for finals…
Well, please tell me what you think and continue reviewing! I look forward to reading your comments everyday!
ARIGATO GOZAIMASU!
-Your humble wittle fanfic writer
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