InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Caged in Her Heart ❯ Determined ( Chapter 3 )

Caged in her heart

 

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Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha and I do not make money out of writing this story. And I don't own Lady Misil either, but she's so amazing.

 

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Summary: Higurashi Kagome, the one who aspires to become Empress, the one all love and fear. She is capable of hurting everyone who stands between her and her goal, but will things stay the same as the Emperor tries to resist her?

 

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At Ginjiro's request, Kagome didn't take Inuyasha with her. People had started talking, spreading disturbing rumors, and if there was one thing that really angered the head of Fujiwara-shi, that was being the subject of gossip. Unfortunately, it was happening a lot lately.

 

`Intolerable.'

 

The alliance with Higurashi Kagome and her faithful General, Tachibana Inuyasha, had brought many stories about how the experienced man had wanted to help his supposed son. Ginijiro was having none of that, so Kagome was sure this was the reason she had been asked not to bring Inuyasha. However, she couldn't have possibly predicted something like this.

 

Kagome desperately tried to keep her smile, and for one of the few times in her life, her strategy wasn't quite working. “You cannot be serious,” she said politely, kindly, hoping that her light-hearted attitude would change his mind. Her charm always worked.

 

She really needed the support of Fujiwara-shi right now.

 

“I'm not comfortable asking you this either, but I'm afraid it is the only way.” This time, Ginjiro was with his wife, Fujiwara Masami, a beautiful woman with surprisingly white hair, like her husband and son's. They were so very unusual, exactly like Inuyasha.

 

“We will not be subjected to such stories,” the cold woman stated, feeling that it was necessary to emphasize just how much it irked her to be seen as the step-mother of the Imperial General. Masami Hime was a very detached and generally heartless person, and if it wasn't for the fact that Kagome sometimes admired her intelligence, she would have hated her intensely. But seeing as the woman actually had some guts, Kagome could surely use that to her advantage. That was if Fujiwara-shi were on her side.

 

Which brought her to her current heartbreaking dilemma.

 

“Either you dismiss your Great General, or you will not have our support,” Fujiwara Masami declared indifferently, looking at her husband who merely nodded at her.

 

Dread crept inside Kagome's bones - how many times would she have to go through this?

 

But she was determined, she would become Empress.

 

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It was midnight and Inuyasha couldn't sleep. Kagome was still not back. Honestly, what could take her so long? If it wasn't for the fact that he didn't want to anger her by ruining her recent alliance, he would have raced to Fujiwara's house and taken her back himself. But the man seemed to have a problem with him. Well, it was understandable, since everyone kept saying that they were father and son. Sometimes, even Inuyasha could see the similarity, but the man's extremely changing behavior spoke against any blood ties.

 

He got up from bed in a flash when he saw a dark figure enter his bed chambers. Nervousness gripped his entire body, adrenaline rushing up and down his cold veins. He was itching for a fight, anyway, and who dared defy him now was dead meat. Without stopping to think he grabbed Tessaiga and swung it gracefully, hoping that the swishing of the blade in the air would scare whoever was out there away.

 

Tendrils of relief washed over him when he saw Kagome's figure walk elegantly towards his bed. There was a tight desperation in her eyes, but he didn't question it. It had probably been a rough day for her.

 

Unpredictably, the deceiving, amused glimmer appeared in her dark orbs, hell-bent on devouring his soul.

 

He shuddered.

 

“Did you wait long?” she asked seductively, playing with his night garment. Desire sparkled in her eyes, drawing him in deeply, making him want to twist his entire body according to her wishes. No sound left his lips, no breath passed his lungs as he regarded her in the dim, walls-crawling light of a few flickering candles. Her hair was as perfect as ever, her skin still silky-smooth even after he constantly wore her out, and her slyness was ever so alive.

 

“No,” he lied, worrying his bottom lip for a second. He didn't know whether to just ravish her or to wait and see what she had in mind for him. “It was nothing.” His own words were like knives twisting in his stomach - he knew he could simply not stay away from him for too long.

 

For a second, he saw her look through the open window. But that was for just a second. Curious, Inuyasha followed her gaze and thought he saw someone look back at him. But that impression disappeared when the only thing his eyes could grasp was the darkness around them. It could have been a guard.

 

The look on Kagome's face was impenetrable, but he figured he shouldn't worry. There was nothing new about her detached expression. Perhaps she really was only tired, keeping her barrier up.

 

But Kagome could still see right through him.

 

“I am fine,” she intoned; her warm, inviting smile turned salacious and he stepped back, gulping quite loudly. Her hair… and her eyes, they were doing things to his already hardened length.

 

“Are you?” he asked, stalling, though unsure of the reason behind that.

 

“Are you?” she diverted the question.

 

Her lips found his neck and he was rendered motionless. Notion of time was neglected as he surrendered to the playful, delicious nips she hungrily placed. His erection throbbed tauntingly, making his eyes roll back into his head with unkempt desire. The noises Kagome made as she devoured him, the comforting smell of her skin, the feel of her in his arms, dominating him, taking from him what she needed made him dizzy with pleasure.

 

His head tilted back a bit when she licked his Adam's apple and he decided to be active. One of his hands fought with the many layers she wore until it reached her erect nipples and he rubbed sensually, delighting in the way it affected her. Her ministrations became ore erratic, more primal, more her.

 

This was how he wanted to see her.

 

“All of you,” he whispered in the night, reasoning with himself that she couldn't care less what he meant. Instant surprise shot though him when she paused momentarily, though he couldn't know the reason behind it, since she recovered quickly and undressed him slowly.

 

Her hands and lips were everywhere on his body, fueling his already blazing desire. As if this torture wasn't enough, she was soon naked herself, tantalizing his senses.

 

Without him noticing, she pushed him back on the bed and kept him busy by kissing him with her tongue fighting his frantically as she impaled herself on his aching shaft. Grunts of shock and pleasure were torn from his throat; he couldn't breathe for a second, couldn't move. When she raised her hips as she placed her palms on his shoulder and tilted her head back in abandon, he closed his eyes, letting rapture envelop him in sinful waves.

 

This was their sacrilege.

 

His golden eyes were dark behind his closed pupils and he bit her neck callously while raising his hips upwards to meet hers in a pseudo sacred dance.

 

This was how they always angered and mocked the Kami.

 

“I love you,” he meant to tell her, but instead said, “You're mine.”

 

Whatever had changed inside him, he had no time to complain. The climax came fast and obliterating and he didn't even wonder why Kagome didn't disagree with his hazy statement. Her inner muscles clamped around his length, taking him ever higher.

 

“Inu…”

 

Her breath brushed abrasively against his sweaty, lean chest.

 

“…Yasha.”

 

His name came as a prayer and he wasn't sure how much he liked this tone coming from her lips. But the mad twinkle in her eyes was back and he felt all the love for her mature immensely in just a second.

 

He rose to meet her lips then fell with her against the silky sheets, drenched in sweat. Her head rested contently on his chest as she drew invisible patterns on his bare chest, kissing it once in a while.

 

“Wow,” he said after a while, when he restarted trusting his voice.

 

“Do you know why people fear me?” she asked in a strong, demanding tone, showing him once again that she feared nothing. Even Death was a vague concept to someone like Higurashi Kagome. It was something ridiculous to think about.

 

“No,” he said, though for a second it crossed his mind to answer in a different way. She was a monster, a woman that stopped at nothing to get what she wanted. Higurashi Kagome was insane, but he loved her so much.

 

“It's because they cannot see beyond what appears.”

 

And it made sense, too. How many times has she used trickery to make them believe she had some sorts of unbelievable, godlike powers? How many times had she been lucky enough to guess things that made her appear a Kami?

 

His breath quickened for some reason.

 

“What did you tell me during that mutiny half a year ago?” Kagome asked him, her voice muffled because her lips were on his skin, raking his nerves pleasurably.

 

He honestly could not remember. There were many things she had told her, and most were quotes that did not belong to him, but could be easily and successfully applied in everyday life.

 

“If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose,” she recited and he smiled for a moment. The Art of War. The fact that she memorized by heart what he'd said warmed him. “If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.”

 

Her meaning was cryptic, as always, and he couldn't help but become intrigued.

 

“It takes one to know one,” she said next, smiling against his chest. “Once you know what lies in a person's heart, either use it against them or to their advantage,” the woman advised. “If you know yourself and your enemy, there is nothing that can stop you. But sometimes the enemy can be your biggest friend. Embrace change, Inuyasha.”

 

Where was this coming from?

 

There was surely something he was missing.

 

“What are you saying?”

 

“I love you,” she replied without hesitation and he froze.

 

“Don't lie,” he demanded bitterly and was hurt to hear her giggle mirthfully in the chilly night. It was the last sound he heard for a while.

 

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The spy bowed reverently, looking quite determined.

 

“Well?” his master asked impatiently, “Did you follow her?” Fujiwara Ginjiro would not be deceived. Fujiwara-shi was the most respected clan and he was damned if he would let anything change in how people regarded them.

 

“She went to his bed,” the spy explained. “She is still there at the moment.”

 

The head of the clan scrunched his nose, but nodded firmly. “Good. She's saying goodbye.”

 

The spy wanted to shrug - it was none of his business really - but he found himself nodding instead. No one shrugged nonchalantly in front of Fujiwara Ginjiro, no one dared try. It wasn't that he was particularly scary, but he exuded a strength that could not be ignored.

 

“Continue following her, and report back as soon as you can. Take three others with you and divide yourselves into one-person groups.” Those were the orders.

 

“Yes, Fujiwara-sama.”

 

That was the promise to follow her.

 

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His heart beat insanely fast as blood rushed to his cheeks. They were on their sides facing each other as Kagome was leaning to whisper something in his ear.

 

Inuyasha hadn't thought that after all this time he could still blush.

 

He didn't have time to protest, though, because a brutal growl escaped him without notice when the dragoness of a woman thrust herself against him, effectively receiving him inside her. He stretched her in the deepest way a man could stretch a woman and it felt so intimately close for both of them. Her head rested against his chest and it was a strain for their muscles to carry out their preordained torture. No, it wasn't a torture, it was sheer agony. Sweet pain that crawled underneath their skin and laid eggs there, settling inside forever.

 

“K-kago…”

 

She moaned and cried out, trembling against him.

 

It felt so good.

 

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He snickered in deep amusement. Kagome-san would have to see this. Such a pathetic plan, such pitiable creatures. The Emperor held no true power. Of that Minamoto Bankotsu was sure. How could he compete with them? How could Kimura even dream of competing with Higurashi Kagome and defeating her? Especially now that three of the most important clans were on her side.

 

She had Fujiwara-shi. Ginjiro and Sesshomaru were beasts.

 

She had Minamoto-shi. Bankotsu and his wife were soulless creatures - oh, how they loved fights.

 

She had Tachibana-shi and, even if Bankotsu hated to admit it, Tachibana Inuyasha was perhaps her greatest asset. The man was merciless and nothing could truly stop him from doing what he wanted. Except Kagome herself. She was his only weakness.

 

Everyone knew it.

 

But seeing as it was impossible to get to Kagome without going through him firstly, there was nothing that could hurt him really. Kimura and Taira-shi were surely aware of it, the cowards.

 

“Renkotsu-sama,” Minamoto Kaguya had said, not without a trace of disgust, “is a child.”

 

But he wasn't. He was truly powerful and skilled when it came to fighting. It was as if fire obeyed him. He was also surprisingly intelligent, but it mattered not. Kagome-san was always many steps ahead of him and there was nothing he could do to change it.

 

The princess, however…

 

Bankotsu had the feeling that she was plotting something.

 

`Fucking virgin.'

 

He hated Kikyou-Hime. He despised her with a passion.

 

“There is something in your eyes,” Kagome-san had once remarked. She had been quite young then, a child, but she had seen right through his defenses. “I saw that look at the Court today,” she added. “I know how you feel.” Her picture perfect smile made him crumble and set the fresh, fragile-looking High Priestess on a new pedestal. It was then when Bankotsu had sworn to be in her service until he died. He didn't mind being a mere pawn on her chess table.

 

Once, he had loved Kikyou-Hime.

 

Of course, his whole clan had had to serve Kagome now, too, but they didn't mind.

 

Higurashi Kagome was thousand times the woman Kikyou was.

 

“Don't stop loving her,” Kagome-san had said with that strange, mystifying sparkle in her dark orbs, “just learn to hate her, too. At least this much,” she had suggested, showing him with her thumb and index finger just how much.

 

Bankotsu was the first who'd applied for this particular assignment that Kagome considered absolutely necessary. His wife Kaguya had not been too happy. But he didn't care.

 

He would find Kikyou-Hime's weakness even if it killed him.

 

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Kagome was enjoying the pleasant morning wind. How had it come to this again? She remembered Soga and pain almost crippled her. Her eyes narrowed in sorrow as her brows furrowed - the closest sign to true dejection she could allow herself to show. If everyone saw her… no, no one could see her like this. Especially not Inuyasha, he would suspect something.

 

She couldn't help but compare the situations.

 

“Higurashi Kagome, High Priestess of the Buddhist Temple, if you wish to become Empress you shall kill Soga Menomaru of Soga-shi, who has defied the Emperor himself by refusing to do as told and plotting a mutiny,” Onigumo Naraku, the Emperor, said loudly, relishing the young girl's horrified face.

 

“B-but, Onigumo-sama…”

 

She was at a loss.

 

“You cannot have me do that, I-”

 

So many kisses, promises, so much love between used sheets, under forest leaves. So many words filled her mind.

 

“It is the only way I will agree to marry you. You are not a noble woman, Kagome.” His formality did not escape her. “Let's talk without reservations,” he invited. “You are the secret lover of Soga Menomaru.”

 

Gasps and whispers filled the Imperial Hall Room. Even Kagome herself looked stunned. Emperor Onigumo was always full of surprises.

 

“You are the only person he wholeheartedly trusts. And you will break that trust if you want to become Empress.”

 

His command had been law, because above her love, above her life, she had wanted to become supreme ruler. She would stop at nothing.

 

“Why?” she read on his lips and stopped the tears from flowing. She could do this, was her mantra as she pointed the arrow at his heart. If she let it go, she would not miss.

 

“I will be Empress,” she declared.

 

“People respect you, admire you. Isn't that enough?” he asked, sorrow filling his eyes. He'd let himself killed because he loved her too much to fight her dream.

 

“It will never be enough,” she whispered as she watched her arrow pierce her lover's heart.

 

But it had all been in vain, because not even a week after, Kimura-shi had risen against the Emperor, dethroning him and forcing him to leave. Her chance to become Empress had been shattered. Nobody knew where Onigumo Naraku was, but it was then that Kagome had started this war against the Imperial Family.

 

In her mind, they had gotten her lover killed.

 

She could never bring Menomaru back.

 

And now it was happening all over again. With Inuyasha. She hadn't allowed herself to love Inuyasha, this was what she kept telling herself. It sounded like a lie, but if she didn't acknowledge anything she could go on.

 

It was more like a habit than anything else.

 

Kagome smirked cruelly at the sky. It couldn't help her and she didn't need its help, either. Higurashi Kagome needed no one's help. She would keep being herself and winning no matter what the circumstances.

 

Steeling herself, she summoned Gatenmaru and told him exactly what to do. The man couldn't have been more stunned at her orders. At the beginning he had looked like he would not carry them through, but he had relented.

 

“As you wish,” he had said.

 

And now she was watching her restrained lover frowning incredulously at her, hurt shock shining in his eyes.

 

“You knew this day would come,” she told him sweetly, the same way she talked to those she would murder afterwards. It gave him twisted shivers. Inuyasha couldn't speak because he was gagged, but the murderous glance he shot at her spoke volumes about his current feelings. Still, her deceivingly sugary voice and cruel intent persisted, suffocating him.

 

“I suppose you weren't expecting it to be so soon,” she commented further, looking at her side for just a second.

 

`There he is.'

 

She smiled. What a show…

 

Her gaze settled on her restrained lover once again and she nodded her head at the four guards keeping him steady. They twisted his arms at odd angles, but he refused to make a sound. Her left eye twitched once, and that was the only unpleasant sign on her face.

 

“Don't forget anything that I have told you so far,” she suggested. “It might come in handy.” The last sentence was meant to mock and hurt and he felt it in his heart. It blistered.

 

“Take him away,” she told the guards, turning on her heels. She had intentionally failed to mention the reason she had eliminated him from the game. Telling him about Fujiwara Ginjiro's condition would direct Inuyasha's anger towards the clan's head, and that was unacceptable. It was better if he hated her.

 

After all, he was just another pawn.

 

`One more.'

 

But she couldn't stop thinking about her cruel betrayal.

 

`It doesn't matter.'

 

Yes, it didn't, because now she had to start preparing. Hope gripped her innards, but she brushed it aside for the moment. She would deal with it at night, when she'd miss her lover's warmth.

 

Now she had Fuijwara-shi. Now, what she had in mind was to play with the Imperial family a bit. Maybe startle the snake by hitting the grass.

 

She was determined.