InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Condition of the Souls ❯ Visiting the Western Castle ( Chapter 4 )

Hey- I'm back everyone. I am so sorry that it took me so long to update but I got bronchitis and then I caught the Norwalk virus from my parents. Uh I have been majorly sick for a week and a half now but I am finally feeling better- hopefully I won't contract something else. Anyway, here is a little update- not as much as I wanted but I really wanted to put something up, you know what I mean. Ok, don't get me wrong- it's not that bad.

 

I wish I had time to do fuller thank you's but I am still sick and so I just want to mention the names of all my wonderful reviewers. I love all the readers too but the reviewers- y'all(oh forgive me please my Southern upbringing and the love of the word y'all which I prefer to you guys) I hold particularly dear. So thanks to: inulover, ChibiJenn, IceRayven, Angelstars and caj-trixie- you all rock my world! I'll do my best, so I hope you'll all keep reading and enjoying the fic!

 

Pt 4- Visiting the Western Castle

 

After a short flight, the small group arrives at Inutaisho's castle. Granted, Kagome has some ideas of what it might look like, but her assumptions were not entirely correct. Her first reaction when she hears the word castle is a structure that mimicked the many-towered Disney fairy tale castles or a grand and imposing fortress, but she finds that it appears to be more like a large and elegant estate. I would have imagined that any place this grand would seem cold and not just a little bit overdone. Instead of being ostentatious, the clean lines of the architecture make the place seem even more beautiful and welcoming. Still, I would not imagine that such a powerful family would desire a home that seemed welcoming. This place might be difficult to defend in a siege.

 

The Lord of the manor sets his paws down and allows all of them to disembark before he returns to his humanoid form as Sesshoumaru scampers off in one direction. With a grin, Inutaisho notices Kagome's awe as she examines her surrounding. She takes a moment to glance at Inuyasha to see his reaction. Meanwhile, Inuyasha is trying to hide his own wonder, but fails miserably. Both Inutaisho and Kagome can see the surprise in the young hanyou's eyes. Inwardly, Kagome frowns sympathetically while she outwardly maintains an image of enthrallment. She feels sorry for him as she realizes that he must not remember this place or may never have had the opportunity to visit in the first place.

 

“Welcome, Kagome-san and Inuyasha, to our family home.” They nod. “How silly of me; you must be wondering why you have never seen this place before. Our home is protected by a spell so that no unwanted or unexpected visitors may enter or find this place. When the main house was built about a couple thousand years ago, my ancestors were not as worried about the dangers of an open or unprotected house, as evident by the style of architecture. Sadly, soon afterwards, the shield became necessary. But, alas, I am getting ahead of myself, because we will discuss this in more depth at dinner. For now, you both must be tired and hungry after your journey.”

 

Questions lurk in the back of her mind, but Kagome hopes that her prospective memory is good enough. She nods to their host. “Yes, we are incredibly honored to be here, Inutaisho-sama. You are also correct- I am a little tired and hungry.” She smiles slyly and nudges Inuyasha with her elbow. “I know for a fact that this bottomless-pit son of yours is most likely starved.”

 

Inuyasha growls at her. “Keh, Kagome. You didn't have to add the last part!”

 

“Oh would you rather me continue and inform your father about your table manners? Hmm?” He growls at her. She sighs. “I'm just kidding, Inuyasha. Can't you take a little joke?”

 

“It's not just a joke, wench!”

 

Darn him- he deserves this. “Inuyasha, don't call me that! Osuwari osuwari osuwari!” As usual, the pleasant sound of Inuyasha being pounded into the ground fills their ears. She hears a slight giggle down beside her and looks down to see Sesshoumaru holding up a couple of white and yellow flowers to her. She replaces his image with that of the older Sesshoumaru for a moment and tries to keep herself from laughing. If the older Sesshoumaru remembered this, he would be mentally kicking himself.

 

The young woman smiles at the young youkai. “Arrigatou, Sesshoumaru-sama. You are too kind. The flowers are beautiful. Why did you decide to give me flowers?”

 

He smiles back at her. “I always give flowers to Mika-san. You are pretty like she is and so I thought that you might like them. Oh, could you please call me Sess-kun?” She gently nods. He inches closer and whispers, “Can I call you Kagome-nee-chan?”

 

She winks at him. “Of course you can call me that- I would greatly honored, Sess-kun.”

 

Meanwhile, Inuyasha eyes them with a complete priceless look on his face. Kagome tries not to laugh and somewhat manages, but she can tell that the hanyou can hear her inner laughter. Sesshoumaru notices that Inuyasha is watching them and walks over to his brother and smiles. “Inuyasha? Can I ride around on your back?”

 

Kagome enthusiastically dashes over to them. “Oh a piggy-back ride- that's a good idea.” Both of them look confused, but she shrugs it off. She tells Inuyasha to bend down and she lifts Sesshoumaru onto his back. “See, Inuyasha, it's just like when you carry me around.” He gives her a look that says that this is different because of the passenger. However uncomfortable he feels, Inuyasha runs around the immaculate grounds with his older brother on his back. Kagome sighs and grins as she watches Inuyasha relax and enjoy himself along with a thrilled Sess-kun.

 

Inutaisho, who has been watching their actions with great amusement, stands next to Kagome. “I can imagine that this might be a strange sight. I'm amazed that you haven't laughed yet.” Inutaisho-sama, you have no idea how strange a sight this truly is… and I have no desire to explain the full extent of my amusement at this time, or hopefully ever. If you could only get those two to get along so we could work together without the tensions… that'd be amazing. More than that, why does Sesshoumaru hate Inuyasha and humans so much? He seems sweet and congenial like his father for now. Still Goshinboku-jii-chan made that comment about whatever happened to Sesshoumaru's mother- maybe that's the key. Oh well… it's still hilarious to see them getting along.

 

“Oh yes, naturally I want to laugh, but you see, I don't want Sesshoumaru to get the wrong idea. As for making Inuyasha mad, who cares, but Sesshoumaru is just a child…”

 

“So you know Sess-kun in the future don't you?”

 

She sweatdrops immediately. “Oh yeah, I said I'd call him Sess-kun here, didn't I? As for the future, you could say that I have met him- in Inuyasha's time anyway, not in mine, Inutaisho-sama.”

 

He nods and notices that his two sons are now out of sight or out of sight for her- she has no idea if the same is true of Inutaisho. “I understand. Well, enough small talk I suppose. You look tired and dinner will be ready soon. Would you allow me to escort you to your room and leave the brothers to entertain each other?”

 

“Yes, Inutaisho-sama, that would be lovely.” He gestures to the center atrium, a beautifully landscaped area that contains a pool full of water lilies and fish. They walk to the back of the atrium. As they reach an open-air hall, he turns right to go up a flight of stairs; Kagome follows him up to the second floor. A few doors down, he stops and opens the door for her to enter.

 

“Kagome-san, here is your room. You are always welcome to have this room whenever you stay here or are nearby. Your presence is always a blessing- and it seems that it will also be the wish of my older son.” Yeah right- Sesshoumaru welcoming me to his home- umm, if you only knew… that will probably never, ever happen. He pauses for a moment. “Well, can you please tell me a little more about your relationship with my other son? I am curious about his reaction to the question earlier.”

 

“My relationship with Inuyasha?” The Lord nods. “Oh well, Inuyasha loves Kikyo- she's the miko who sealed him to Goshinboku 50 years ago… that is from his point of view. Our enemy, Naraku, tricked them into hating each other. He is also a hanyou who wanted to poison the Shikon no Tama with hatred so that it would have more negative power. As a result of his tricks, Kikyo died and Inuyasha was sealed. 50 years later, I arrived in a well from 500 years in the future and had the Shikon no Tama hidden inside my body. I freed Inuyasha so that he could save me, but after he did, he tried to kill me so that he could steal the Shikon no Tama and become a true youkai. Minutes later, Kaede-baa-chan put a spell on those prayer beads to bind them to him; it is that necklace that allows me to subdue him with that command. Since I accidentally shattered the Shikon no Tama, we are traveling around with our other friends and collecting the shards before the enemy can get them.”

 

Although the monologue is long and confusing, as time-travel stories tend to be, he seems to understand, to her great relief. “Mmm, I see. He still loves her… but how can he love her if she is dead?”

 

“Urasue used her powers to bring Kikyo back to life, well somewhat. Kikyo hates Inuyasha now and wants to take him to hell with her. You must understand- he doesn't have any feelings for me, Inutaisho-sama, not really.” But I wish that he did…

 

The Inuyoukai smiles at her and puts his hand on her shoulder as she looks down. “I would beg to differ. I may not know my son very well, but he is still my flesh and blood and I believe that he does love you very much, Kagome-san. We shall see about that; he is dense, just like his uncle.” She looks up in surprise and Inutaisho winks.

 

“You have a brother, Inutaisho-sama?”

 

“I used to, but he was unfortunately killed in an accident a few years before Sesshoumaru was born.” He sighs with obvious regret.

 

Kagome looks up at Inutaisho with her compassion showing in her eyes. “Oh I'm so sorry; that must have been particularly difficult.”

 

With an air of cloaked sadness, he nods and shakes off the feeling. “Yes, but it was years ago. That is the way of this type of life. Oh well, I have badgered you enough for now, but perhaps we will get a chance to discuss this matter at a later date? After all, I will be able to get to know Inuyasha and you, my dear, better than I do at this moment in time and hopefully I will be better equipped to give advice to you both. Would that be alright with you?”

 

“Oh yes, that would be wonderful. I don't mind.”

 

“Good! I had hoped that you would not mind. I do so want my sons to be happy.”

 

Kagome inwardly sighs. You wouldn't be happy to see them as they are in the future. Their interactions wouldn't please you; I'm sure.

 

“But for now, I will leave you to get ready unless you have any questions.”

 

“Inutaisho-sama, can I take a quick bath and do you have any clothes that I could borrow perhaps?”

 

“There are many clothes in the closet. Of course you may have a bath or a shower if you prefer. There is running hot and cold water in the bathroom. You might want to show Inuyasha how that works later on- I assume that he does not how to use such devices.”

 

She cannot mask her shock. “What! Hold on a moment, please, Inutaisho-sama! How is that possible?”

 

“Well, you have studied western civilization, haven't you? Do you remember the Romans? They flourished long before this time and yet they had running water. So many people forget that simple fact, but more than that, I have visited many supposedly undiscovered places and brought back a couple of useful inventions. I even went to America once.”

 

“So you have traveled through time a great deal?”

 

He nods. “Well, I did travel several times after completing my training, but I have many obligations here and so for the most part I don't find it necessary or important to use that power now. But speaking of such complications, there are few matters that I need to attend to and so I will see you at dinner, Kagome-san.” Gracefully, he walks out and softly closes the door behind him.

 

Wow, that was really something else. All I used to know about his was that he was the Lord of the Western Lands, that he was Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru's father, that he gave them swords, that he married a human and that he was well respected and strong. I did not know that he had a sense of humor… I get to take a warm bath! Oh this is going to be awesome!

 

Kagome walks into the private bathroom and stares unbelievingly at the sight before her. There is a bathtub that takes up and lines the wall to her left, making it about 15 feet long at the base. It is made entirely out of extremely smooth black marble. It is very high off the ground- the walls of it are taller than she is. She sees some stairs carved out of the marble and so she begins to walk up them. It is now that she realizes that the ceilings in here must be at least 16 feet high. As the stairs turn the left slowly, she begins to see the pool. It is about 12 feet long, 6 feet wide and 8 feet deep in the middle with stairs and seats carved into the base around the edges. But as if that is not enough, a huge rock ledge hangs from the ceiling and as she turns the knob for warm water, the hot liquid begins rushing over the ledge.

 

There are scented candles in strategic places around the bath and a pile of towels waiting for her. As she explores and marvels at the wonderful bath/lounge area, the bath fills in about 15 minutes. She undresses impatiently and then eases herself into the water as if to savor the moment. She turns the flow of water down so that it won't spill over and swims back and forth underneath the waterfall.

 

“Kagome? Where are you? I need to talk to you!”

 

Wait is that Inuyasha? “Inuyasha? I'm right up here, but wait just a second before you come up here.” Quickly, she rummages for a robe.

 

Finally, she's ready. “Inuyasha, you can come on up now.” He jumps up the stairs with a sour expression on his face, probably because of his games with Sesshoumaru. As he comes around the slight bend, his face becomes redder as he realizes that she's getting ready to take a bath.

 

“So aren't you going to, um, say the word? This conversation can wait until after dinner, but you aren't going to…”

 

“No. This is fine, besides, your father asked me to show you how to use the bathtub.” She quickly explains until he understands.

 

He nods. “I think I understand now. Thank you for showing me. It would have taken a long time to figure out.”

 

“I'm sure that you could've figured it out, but I'm glad to help.”

 

“Well, I'll leave you to your bath and see you later.”

 

“Enjoy your own bath, Inuyasha. I'll see you at dinner.” He nods and walks down the stairs and out. His face was the same color as his haori when he came in! She giggles quietly in remembrance. Then, she glances around the room with appreciation and happily gets back in the bath for another ten minutes. This is amazing, but I am afraid that I am running out of time. She looks down at her wrinkly fingers and decides that bath time is over.

 

She grabs a cream-colored fluffy towel and wraps it around herself. Next, she walks into the walk-in closet and finds a bunch of beautiful high-quality silk kimonos waiting for her. There are so many to choose from! After a few moments of deliberation, she finally chooses a purple one with white cranes flying on it. She glances at her watch and quickly towel-dries her hair and brushes it into place.

(break)

 

Finally, she's ready for dinner. She looks at her reflection in the mirror and smiles. She turns around a couple of times and admires the beautiful piece of clothing. Suddenly, another reflection appears behind her in the mirror.

 

“Kagome-nee-chan looks very beautiful!” Sesshoumaru hugs her from behind. His head only comes up to my elbow- what a change from the tall youkai that he will become. She exhales and laughs just a little bit. When we return, I know that I will give him strange looks and he will think that I have lost my mind. She hugs the young demon back. “It's time for dinner. A servant was going to come, but no, I wanted to come get you. May I, uh, escort you to the table, Kagome-nee-chan?”

 

She smiles brightly at him. “You are very kind, Sess-kun. I would be delighted if you would escort me to dinner.” She makes a little bow and he giggles.

 

A/N- Yes I know that the hidden castle thing has been done but I have an unusual explanation for it in the next chapter, so please try not to roll your eyes at me too much.

 

Ok, that's all for now, but stay tuned because I have a great chapter planned for you next time- we'll meet Mika, Inuyasha's pregnant mother… we will learn the basics of the Shikon no Tama… not to mention hear about the first four souls! So I'll have that up ASAP! Please review!

 

BTW: Prospective memory is the part of memory that you use when you try to remember to remember something for the future. For example, Kagome wants to remember to ask her questions when they return to this conversation at some point.