InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Consanguinity ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

Full Disclaimer for story: I’ve checked my books for the millionth time and still there is nothing in there saying I own Inuyasha… or Ceres from which part of the inspiration came from.

a/n: I've been sitting on this for a more than a few months. Tell me what you think...really. I choose such an odd title because well...it fits the story. Thanks for reading.

con·san·guin·i·ty
n. pl. con·san·guin·i·ties
1. Relationship by blood or by a common ancestor.
2. A close affinity or connection.

Consanguinity

Prologue:

Simply a Scared Girl

A young girl sat staring at the false light of the city. The neon reds and blues of jumbo screens and building signs blending together to create a sun that was coolly unrelenting; overwhelming in its size yet calming by its subtle nature –its ever-presence. The artificial daylight was the only thing keeping at bay the darkness that had settled in her compact hotel room. The glow of the train station below her window was another dim light for her to see the wall clock tick idly by.

11:12

The young girl could faintly hear the brakes of the trains as they pulled into their last run; carrying cart after cart of people in their own lives. Caught unawares of the danger that sat above them. But every one of those people, at the moment, did not matter because they were not the one she was searching for. She stood and leaned against the windowpane ignoring the slight sting of cold from frosted glass. She yearned to see through steel of walls, of pipes, rubber of electric lines. She yearned to see him.

11:15

Train schedules, bus routes, time slots, line after line of city name flitted through her mind. She was waiting for the next ten minutes to end. 11:25. He would be there and then she would be able to sleep, she wouldn’t have to worry about his death until the next morning. Many times she questioned him, why he had to try to throw his life away. She had asked him if living was something he wanted. Every action, every plan he came up with always had him in the center waiting for death. And her on the sidelines just watching.

Staring out unto the city, the damage of weeks past could have barely been seen. Nearly unnoticed amid the skyscrapers and giant screen advertisings –the light doing its job and swallowing every mark of her destruction.

He never blamed her for the bouts of violence that seem to erupt from her being. He stopped telling her just how weak she was and instead kept to himself every time she let it take her over. She had tried to get him to understand just how easy it was to let the black overcome her. But she had never told him just how much she couldn’t remember when she opened her eyes. She had never spoken a word about how comforting the black was; how, many times, she didn’t want to come back.

What was there to comeback to?

A family that wanted her dead? The people that were hunting for them as she sat motionless waiting? Or maybe the ever increasing fear of running out of money? Or not having a place to sleep or food to eat? The pressure, the frustration of knowing time was running out for themselves and the others that would come after them.

When she had asked him that question, his answer had been simple but hesitant. He needed her. Even though he never showed it. She was the only one that wanted him. She was the only one that kept him from jumping off that cliff he seemed to be perched on at all times. She was the only one who kept his nightmares at bay.

It was the last time she let the black consume her.

Sitting there thinking of just what her life had become, the young girl couldn’t help but remember what it once was. The love, trust, and family that were the center of her life had been replaced with revenge. Many times, she could feel it twisting inside of her, disfiguring the person she used to be. The young girl that laughed at almost any situation, and could find the light in any person had been pushed aside. There was no time for silliness amidst a battle.

And even though she had grown up more in the past three weeks then in all of her twenty years she still wanted someone to protect her. The photos of her mother and father blinked past her.

She remembered the story her mother would tell her, she remembered thinking just how sad the story was. Maybe if her mother had told her just how true the story was, maybe if she had tried to change something… she would still be alive.

Once upon a time before skyscrapers hung in the sky, when the light of the sun and moon were held in the highest of respect and deities were ancestors, lived a man named Onigumo.

Onigumo was a proud man. A man who worked hard for every grain of rice he ate, from sunrise till sunset any person in the village would see the young man working in his patch of field. People in the village thought this was a great trait, hard work and determination—the foundation of a strong man and later a great leader.

Now being so determined and working so hard gave Onigumo the best harvest any farmer could pray for. And he was not selfish with his food, giving it to anyone who did not harvest enough food for his own family. Such kindness and selflessness put Onigumo in the highest of regard in the whole village. He was the man who solved problems, who became the leader of the village.

But what people in the little village didn’t know was that Onigumo was also a lonely man.

He wasn’t married and no woman in the village, and there were many, could offer him anything he saw as worthy of the life he could give them. All this praise and love the village showered Onigumo with had only caused the man to see himself as more than he truly was: a man who, although generous and hard working, was no less average then any other person.

But nothing ever stopped Onigumo and he promised himself that he would find a woman worthy of him and they would be married.

One day while walking in the dense forest that surrounded the village; Onigumo came upon an oasis. A waterfall and a lake graced this small paradise. But the shining sun that was reflecting from the smooth lake and the cool air radiating from the waterfall were not in the forefront of Onigumo’s mind right then.

Instead it belonged to the woman sitting upon a boulder to the side of the glass like lake. Her back was to him and she sat so still, the young man couldn’t help but wonder if she was made of stone. Stepping towards her, Onigumo didn’t see the tiny dip in the Earth. He closed his eyes before the rock struck his head and his mind switched off as he tumbled down a small hill.

The first thing Onigumo saw when he opened his eyes was the love of his life. She was sitting above him, her midnight hair gently cascading down shoulders to tickle the tiny sensors of his skin. She wasn’t looking into his eyes but above them at his forehead, her expression was blank but her eyes held the concern she felt for her patient.

At least this is what Onigumo saw.

The young man had always hoped to have words of love and longing for the woman that was to be his. But instead of a voice speaking of his gratitude for her care, he groaned making her eyes twitch to his and a gentle smile curve her lips.

“Hello” she simply said while patting at his forehead. She had spoken and Onigumo swore that an ocean wave couldn’t have sounded more calming and welcoming.

And they talked. Many, many times throughout the days and weeks after meeting, Onigumo would take the same path to the same small paradise that he called his own. And everyday there she would be silently meditating or swimming or just sitting upon the boulder unmoving. Onigumo would bring her things and each time, she would decline and say that such earthly, material possessions would do her no good every time she went home.

Because Kikyou was a miko.

A miko was a mystical being that didn’t belong on the mass of dirt and fire called Earth but in the heavens, watching and protecting those that deserved it. But being in paradise can at times get boring and it was not unusual for a miko to go to Earth and play before transcending back to the heavens and returning to her sacred work. The only reason that any miko would be able to travel between the two would be because of the Shikon no Tama. Each miko had the ability to concentrate her powers into one single jewel and that jewel would hold the power to move between Earth and the heavens.

The thought that Kikyou could at will be able to leave, scared Onigumo greatly for he had decided that she would be his and Onigumo always got what he wanted.

One day Kikyou said that she would soon be leaving for good and she thanked the young man for entertaining her during her stay. Onigumo asked her not to leave, tried to bargain with her and soon even asked for her hand in marriage but all was declined by the miko.

A miko doesn’t give up her duty for love.

And it was that lonely night that Onigumo decided that he would steal the Shikon no Tama. It was the jewel that would let her leave. It was because of the jewel that he would be lonely.

The thing about loneliness is that it begins as longing for someone to love and have by your side. But loneliness held for a long time can become twisted; mutated to something less pure and more vile. This longing is changed to wanting to posses someone—to own someone. Because owning a person means never having to let them go, always having them by your side.

And Onigumo did steal that jewel when Kikyou was foolish enough to go swimming in the lake of the paradise that she said belonged not to her or Onigumo but to the land and all of man.

When Kikyou realized that her jewel was gone she knew whom to suspect.

“Give me my jewel.” She sternly said her eyes holding a fire the young man had never seen.

Onigumo gave excuse after excuse explaining why she couldn’t leave him, why they had to be together. And with every excuse, the miko gave a counter reply trying to get the young man to understand why they could never be together.

“I care for you why won’t you stay.”

“You are just human I am not. We can’t be together.”

“I live for you. I would die for you. You won’t find that anywhere else.”

“Why won’t you let me live the life I wish? If you loved me you would let me go. You would let me be happy.”

And the days, the weeks, months passed and still Onigumo would never tell her where he hid the jewel. And Kikyou slowly died in the tiny paradise that was shrinking each day because of the sorrow she carried with her. Although his love (or lust) for the miko blinded Onigumo, he couldn’t ignore how weakened she was. That she stopped swimming and meditating and instead sat on the boulder in silence never looking at him but through him. And even he could see the damning she was putting upon his selfish soul.

Bargains were struck. Onigumo asked that she give him children so that he would be able to look upon her beauty in their eyes and never forget her even when she left and he was an old man.

Kikyou did give him children but she never left because she never thought she herself would love her children so much. She never told her children just why they were so strong and beautiful. She still asked for her jewel because she never trusted Onigumo, who never understood the magnitude of the jewel that he possessed.

Kikyou gave herself to a man she never wanted or loved for the tiny children she said she would give him. She truly understood why miko were never to have children- never to love another. And in the end, she slowly let her life slip away.

And Onigumo lived happily ever after in a village that held him in the highest of respect for he was a kind, selfless, and hardworking man.

The chime of the wall clock striking midnight broke the young girl from her thoughts. Even though it hadn’t happened to her she could still remember. It was enough to know what his hands felt like, the callous from working in the fields. The rumble in his voice, the cadence of his words that at one time had wrapped around her –soothed her. She always kept to herself just how much of the past would slither through her mind. She refused to think just how much it had poisoned her.

"Inuyasha," she called softly into the oppressing silence of the hotel room. Her voice quickly dying; swallowed by the dark. She hoped he would step out of the tiny bathroom, she hoped she would hear his voice call to her.

As nothing but silence answered her call, she looked at her reflection once again; letting her eyes fall upon the scar that now marred her once smooth face. Starting below the outer corner of her right eye before curving awkwardly to stop at the right corner of her lips. Even though it was but a scratch compared to the suffering Inuyasha had procured, it was just enough; as the man who had given it to her had intended.

It had become her constant reminder that the man would die even if it took her last breath.