InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Crescent Moon On The Brow Of The Sky ❯ The Miko's Tears ( Chapter 5 )

Ok, ok I know... I'm so bad at keeping up with my updates! I know, I know, I'm terrible!

I do have school, and I am just plain lazy... so no excuse of mine can work, eh? I was sick for a while... I think I had mono, I was tired... but I feel a little better now! I'm sorry! Thank you for reading! Oh, and it FINALLY snowed. Jeesh! It's supposed to be CANADA!

Oh, yay, reviews! I love you all!! He he he!

keosis-chan: HURRAY FOR CLIFFIES! THEY ARE MY MINIONS! MUHAHAHAHA...cough. I read your story and I think its great! :) Thanks for the 10/10! I know, I really great! (cough) not...

KawaiiDemons: I'm sorry! I should update more often, should I? (dodges rotten fruit) OK THEN! Thanx for reviewing!

Yohko no Gothika: Thanks! Such high praise! (bows) I'm glad you like it, even if you don't like the pairing, that's ok. Its a free country! (at least in Canada, LOL. I'm kidding!)

kagome of the western lands: Thanks and I will! Thanks for reviewing! I luv ya!

Bob-sama: Thank you! You are nice! Yeah, I am trying to make it as in character as possible... I'm not going to suddenly make Sess have "feelings" that he is confused about. Feh. If he did have feelings, I'm sure he wouldn't be confused about them...at all. I am also not going to bring Kagome to his castle. It is stereotyped, and a tiny bit annoying...

distorted-desire: Yeah. About the abrupt change of character in the last chapter... an uploading problem. There's supposed to be signs in between, and they didn't show. So I reloaded it and put 8's instead. 8's worked! LONG LIVE 8'S! Thank you for reviewing!

Ok, less reviews than last time, bu, whatever... (sniff) come ON, people! Review! Please?

DISCLAIMER! : I DO NOT OWN INU YASHA. If I did, I would murder Jaken.

(Evil grin)

Jaken: Like you could, worthless human.

Kermit: I'm bigger than you! I'm higher in the food chain than you! GET IN MY BELLY!

OK! HERE WE GO!

The Miko's Tears

The world was a dark and changing abyss; it was cool, and empty, and unending- it mirrored the blue sorrowed heart. Where was it? Where had it gone? What had it become? The soul was aware of nothing, and was part of the nothing that grew and blossomed and pulsed around it. The fear pulsed in the spirit, the fear pulsed in the incorporeal form- as if it was the echoing of a beating heart long since ceased.

Vague recollections flooded through a vanished mind, begging for attention. Bright lights, loud sounds, blood, faces, the memory of a love lost forever. The soul was part of nothing, and everything- and that was a comfort and a deep sleep. It felt nothing, felt everything, knew nothing, knew everything, loved everything, loved nothing. It was free.

Thoughts. Those dread things, slivering in the unconscious and pooling there like dark and vengeful snakes. They did not form words, however; enough of the soul was gone for it to forget words or the use of them. Soon, soon, soon, the rest of the soul would join the rest, and it would be complete.

The hunger for completion flared suddenly in the spirit. Anger, and love, and rage, and sadness- all those feelings returned to the soul in an overwhelming tide. Fear followed soon after, piercing the remains. A light, flickering, teasing in front of it, and if it had had eyes, it would have seen the promise inside. A light as bright as a sword. A pressure built inside of the soul, pushing and pulsing and writhing, seeking means for escape. It fought desperately for control.

I know what I am, the soul murmured to itself, words it did not hear. Soon, the memory of self disappeared, and the light burned all the brighter, insistently, almost angered by the soul's defiance, angered by its sloth.

Kagome. My name is Kagome. The soul suddenly knew, and then light erupted in her eyes, exploded in her senses, and made her heart erupt wildly against her ribs.

The world danced in front of her eyes, fear made her throat clench. She tried desperately to open her eyes, but the lids were heavy, and all she wished to do was return to the place where she had come. The darkness, the coolness.

Snowflakes were damp upon her cheeks, like the hollow tracks of her dried tears. Her face felt cold, and dry, and so did her heart. She lifted her hands to her face, her muscles screaming at the movement, and dropped them uselessly to her sides.

The pain. The red eyes. The claws sliding into the heart. Kagome flinched as she remembered. How had she survived with his claws deep in her heart? She had felt the stopping of her heart, felt the dipping of her stomach, felt the bending of her knees as she had crashed to the ground. After that, no pain, none- as if she had misplaced her ability to feel.

She licked her lips, which were dry and chapped. She found her voice, before she could open her eyes, and spoke in a whispery shadow of the former prowess of her speech. "Where am I?"

For a long time, there came no answer. She could hear the snow falling, its silence, the wind gently whispering through snow-laden trees. There was a hissing and a crackling, and that and her nose told her that a fire had been kindled somewhere near her. She shivered, deeply cold nonetheless. Her gloves were stiff against her hands, strangely rough. Suddenly, silence reigned, uncomfortable, and a drifting shadow crossed hers, throwing her into more darkness. Her speech still burned in her throat, unanswered.

A clay cup filled with cool water was pressed gently to her lips, held by a child's hands. She drank slowly, savouring every drop as though it was the breath of her life. Before her fiery thirst was quenched, the cup was pulled away. She licked the wetness from her lips, feeling the coolness of her life begin to seep back into her limbs. How had she survived?

"Inu...Inu Yasha?" She ventured weakly, hoping for a response, a beg evident in her tone of voice. What were the last things she had said to him before she had lost consciousness? Had she told him she loved him? Her throat clenched, though this time not from thirst, and sobbed deeply, wretched emptily. Small hands rubbed her back in quick circles, a child's voice murmuring in her ear. She felt heavy, almost as if she was going to die. In her chest, his claw marks still burned, the pain intense in her sadness.

"Weakness." came the hiss, soft and monotone, yet all the same hard. Kagome's breath caught in her through, choked there. The child's hands stopped moving upon her back, and hovered hesitantly there. With all of herself, she felt the taiyoukai's aura as quick and as painful as a strike. Her eyes drifted over to where the silver shadow of the youkai sat, straight-backed and cross-legged, across from the fire, watching her intently with his amber glare. She gasped raspily, trying to rise, but weakened and helpless. "Sesshoumaru?"

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Snow fluttered feather-light upon two identical faces, two identical eyes, two identical smiles. Concealed by the darkness of the night, they left no evidence of their presence there. They were the winter. They were the night.

A flash of a smile, sharp-toothed, shone in the shadows, filled with pleasure and recognition, something that could vaguely be called triumph."The Miko seems to be awakening from her death."

Another smile, the same, forever the same, shone as bright as the last."Hai, Tsusimaru. Awakening so sweetly from her last slumber."

A frown made the smile fade away, as quick as the death of a flame. A question passed forth from the pouting mouth, something strange and childlike."Do you think she will remember us?"

The red eyes traveled to the frowning face, fixed, and the mouth grew hard. "Do you think not? We are not something that can be forgotten as such."

The frowns on both the faces smoothed abruptly away. Hitsumaru continued, his voice emotionless and yet still wild. "There is planning here that we cannot comprehend."

The other nodded, his eyes strange."Yet everything is going as planned.We see in her the emotion that will destroy her. Fear. Sadness. Doubt."

And in one voice, they said together: "Love."

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For a moment, the miko and the taiyoukai stared at each other. The youkai's face was as soft and as emotionless as the snow that twined into his white hair. The moon sailed high above them, a waning ship that cast shadows upon shades in the clearing where they sat. The miko, though afraid -he could smell it- said nothing, only sat at stared at the blood that was long-dry upon her hands.

He smelt her blood upon her, hers and no one else's. He also smelt her youth, and her death still lingering on her. His amber eyes alighted, coldly, curiously, upon her. There she sat. Miko, human, the embodiment of weakness. His pointed teeth gleamed briefly with his malice, and then faded away to nothing.

Kagome shivered, frightened. His eyes were burning upon her, two icy suns- wherever she turned her head, however hard she hugged herself, she was pierced by the sword of his attention. A tear slivered down her cheek, shimmered in the firelight, and then was roughly and abruptly rubbed away. She would not allow herself to be humiliated in front of the beast. Never. It would be like exposing her neck to him, exposing such weakness. She held her chin up bravely, and met his gaze, but her chin and lips trembled. She had almost forgotten how beautiful he was : the curve of his cheek, his soft mouth, his golden eyes, his silver hair. The eyes narrowed, slightly, ever so slightly, and her nerve was lost. She lowered her eyes to her gloved hands once more, watching her breath twist up and away.

She was silent for a long time, listening to the deep breathing of the little girl and the raspy croak of Jaken as they both slept profoundly. She could hear the steady, even, quiet breaths of the taiyoukai, and that filled all of her hearing. His eyes still dug into her, almost as if she could bleed beneath their pressure. A gasp shot forth from her, and she bit her lower lip. Never in her life had she felt so frankly and obscenely observed.

The weight of the gaze was miraculously lifted, and the silence that followed at its heels was a sweet mercy. Her mouth parted, and without her willing them raspy words leapt forth. "Lord...Sesshoumaru. What do you need me for?"

His anger seemed to stiffen his shoulders, silver with moonlight and snow. "I would never need a ningen." He said coolly, emotionlessly.

Kagome leaned forwards, her hands grasping vainly and tightly upon the snow. "Then why do you keep me here? Why do you keep me from my friends? From... from Inu Yasha? Why?"

Sesshoumaru's pointed ears heard, curiously, the break upon the hanyou's cursed name. The hanyou, who had cursed his claws with this human's blood. "You love him." He said, disgusted, still emotionless. The weight of his eyes once again crushed her, smothering her aura, like a moth caught helpless between his hands.

The miko lowered her eyes to her lap. "Yes," she said so quietly, so softly, it might have been the brush of her eyelashes as she bent her head to cry. Her shoulders rocked as she sobbed, as the hot tears burned down her cold cheeks.

Sesshoumaru murmured, his voice cool with an underlying bitterness, that the hanyou was not worth half of the miko's tears. She did not hear him, so caught up in her anguish, so he lifted his gaze from her, his eyes full of the flame of the fire and his nose full of the salt of her tears.