InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Beyond the Mirror ❯ Beyond the Mirror ( One-Shot )

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Beyond the Mirror

As was often the case, Kanna was alone, sitting on the dark floor of Naraku's castle. She was alone, but she wasn't lonely. She wasn't wistful. She wasn't . . . anything.

She was the void. The emptiness. Devoid of all emotion, her heart as blank as the coloring of her fair skin.

Her mirror, which had the power to suck up the soul of any being who dared gaze upon it, lay on the ground beside her. But Kanna didn't have a soul, so she was the only being impervious to its power.

Still, she'd never tested this theory, having no wants of her own. She only did as she was told to do, and since Naraku wasn't there, she did nothing.

Unlike her sister Kagura, Kanna harbored no desires for freedom. For how can one long for freedom when one has no self? She felt no anger, no sorrow at being bound by Naraku's hand, but neither did she find joy in her servitude. She felt nothing.

She was Naraku's one perfect soldier, his only trustworthy vassal. No matter how many incarnations appeared after her, she would remain Naraku's crowning achievement. Juromaru, Kageromaru, Musou, Hakudoushi, Mouryoumaru . . . none could compare to the mindless loyalty of Kanna.

She was different. She stood apart. And if she was aware of her uniqueness, of what separated her from all the others, she made no qualms about it. One can't miss what one doesn't know they're missing . . .

Kanna herself didn't know what made her do it then . . . Perhaps it was the way a light seemed to glint off her mirror mysteriously . . . or perhaps some hidden force within herself was fighting to break out . . . but all of sudden, she did what she had never thought to do before. She looked into her mirror.

Nothing happened. Not at first. After all, she had no soul for it to capture. But perhaps the mirror had some other dark magic to work . . .

The reflection staring back at her from the mirror was hers. A young girl with pale skin and ivory hair, wearing a white dress and pearly flowers in her hair, her eyes dark and empty, her mouth drawn into an expressionless line.

But suddenly the image distorted and blurred, frothing like someone dashing their hand across water . . . and when the mirror cleared once again, Kanna beheld an extraordinary sight.

The girl in the mirror was changed. Her skin, no longer pallid, had a rosy glow about it. Rich ebony tresses replace her ivory ones, and nestled against them in striking contrast were vibrant pink flowers. And she wore a pink dress to match, the coral hues bringing out the blush in her cheeks all the stronger. Her eyes, no longer dark and dull, sparkled brightly like two dazzling rubies.

But what Kanna found most conspicuous of all was the expression on the mirror-girl's face. She was smiling. But it wasn't just that she was smiling. She was cheerful. She was joyous. She was exuberant. There was radiance in her eyes and elation on her face, and Kanna knew what it felt like to have neither.

And she sat there alone, and stared at the vision of this elseworld her, this mirror-girl who had something she could never have. This mirror-girl who had a soul.

And if Kanna could have, she would have cried then. She would have finally known what made her different from all the others, what set her apart. She would have finally realized what it was to know what she was missing. And she would have wept for this loss of self.

But Kanna couldn't do any of it. She could see the truth that lay beyond the mirror, but she couldn't comprehend it. She lacked the power to feel anything about it. And so she turned the mirror over, and sat alone on the dark floor of Naraku's castle, and waited for him to return and tell her what to do.

THE END

Author's Note: Written for iyfic_contest LJ community, Week #33, Theme: The Other Side. I interpreted the theme to mean the other side of Kanna's mirror.