InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Devour Prometheus ❯ Labyrinth ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: These characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi and other associated companies.

 

 

Chapter Nine: Labyrinth

 

 

Rising to her feet, Kagome focused on the daiyoukai's strengthening aura. Powerful and overwhelming, it thickened the air with an unbridled intensity and prickled her tongue with every shaky breath. Hands rubbing over her sleeves, she began to soothe her tightening skin now covered with goose flesh. Never had she felt his presence so vividly, but despite its strength, the aura felt strangely sterile, lacking any hints of emotion that were often embroiled in it.

 

`It was Sesshoumaru, wasn't it?' she thought, taking her first hesitant steps toward the source. Even as she knew it was him and that he was a demon who prided himself on self-control and maintaining a detached regard toward others, he didn't emit youki so devoid of passion and spirit. No one did.

 

Her pace quickened and soon she rounded the farthest corner of the prison. Then a soft sigh left her as she stared at the towering building ahead. The one place she hadn't looked would be the place that made the most sense. Across the yard she walked, retracing her fleeing footprints back to the ominous silhouette of the pagoda. Into its dark shadow, she soon strode, her eyes focusing on the heavy doors of the entrance and staunchly avoiding the stares of the guards who haunted it.

 

Her socked feet came to a stop and with a gulp; she reached for the shallow groove of the door handle. Snaking out quickly, a large bony hand seized her wrist and the miko winced as its grip pinched her tightly. Looking up meekly, she found its owner, a tall man whose suspicious glare held her more firmly than his grip.

 

“I have to see Lady Kioshi,” Kagome blurted out a lie, hoping the silver moonlight and inky shadows would hide the telling blush the colored her cheeks. “I have the answer Lord Jianyu wanted.”

 

His grip lessened slightly as he mulled over her answer and she gritted her teeth in an effort to ease the tension wearing on her nerves. With the rhythms of foggy exhales and thumping heartbeats slowing, time seemed to pass at its own leisure as she continued to stare at the guardian.

 

“Very well,” he replied, his voice hollow and cold. Then he released her to reach for the door. Along the track, he slid it open and with an abrupt wave, he impatiently gestured for her to enter. Fingers seeking the hot flesh of her wrist, she massaged it gently as she passed through.

 

Then with a quiet, rolling scrape, the door sealed behind her and the priestess quickly began to walk across the massive room toward the stairwell. The oppressive youki around her swelled as she made her way through, its weight dipping her shoulders and bowing her back as its presence seeped through her to thicken in her chest. Coughing lightly, she tried to alleviate the tightening sensation, but it would not budge and only grew instead.

 

The dark, rust-colored stains slipped by under her moving feet and subconsciously she began to follow the dappled path they created. Up the stairs she climbed and into the thick fog of incense. Her legs ending with the vague notions of her billowing pants, the hazy wisps of smoke curled out of the way as she glided through.

 

Coming to the heavy door that offered entrance into the sealed up room, Kagome placed her hand on its thick wooden panel. Weak sensations of youki warmed the surface, but they were too muddled together for her to distinguish them from each other. Then another pulse of demonic aura drenched her in sweat and she twisted to face the stairwell leading to the next floor. He was up there.

 

Nearly tipping over the litter of jars that bore the thin, burning sticks, the miko rushed to the steps and hurried up them. Mirroring the previous floor, she hastily crossed the narrow pathway, wading through the smoke until she reached the door. She touched it for a moment before jerking away. Hissing under her breath as she gently rubbed her burnt palm, soothing away the redness as she swallowed hard. He was here.

 

A heavy, but simple sliding door, Kagome slowly sunk down as her hand hovered over the smooth wood. Systematic in her examination, she searched for any barriers or hidden magic that might betray her intentions. Finding none, she swiftly straightened up and reached for the handle. Her fingers though paused before she could grasp it, curling toward her palm in indecision.

 

`How much did he hate her right now?' she wondered silently, remembering the rage in his eyes when he realized the needle had pierced his side. If she saved him, he would most likely kill her. The memory of the lifeless miko he had ripped open to feast upon shoved its way into her mind, only now it bore her face and not that of Lady Nao. Would he eat her just like he had eaten that poor priestess? Did she deserve it? Or did he deserve to be eaten like those he had killed and eaten in his hundreds of years of life? Who was right? Or were they both wrong?

 

Her hand found her forehead and she began to massage her temples gently. A budding headache brewed there, spiking with the toxic mixture of smoke and the dubious fate of demons to aggravate it. Shuffling lightly, the sound of footsteps on the floor above her creaked and her indecision evaporated. Grabbing the hot handle with her fingertips, she slid the door open and blindly stepped in before spinning around to shut it hastily. Torrents of youki churned in invisible waves around her as she waited by the door, listening earnestly for the approaching steps she was sure would follow.

 

“So, now you have accepted their attire,” a deep voice accused darkly and she froze. A fresh fear coursed through her and she clasped her hands together, hoping to stop their trembling. “How does it fit? Well, I imagine.”

 

Heart straining in her throat, she slowly turned around. Downcast upon the floor, her eyes lingered at first on the trail of familiar stains and slowly rose as they led her to the fresh blood that hadn't yet browned with time. At the center of a red pool, she then found an enormous slab of granite, ground flat along one side. Sticky with trickled blood, her vision traveled up the rock and she met blood-smeared skin and raw flesh. Quickly, she turned her face away; her eyes squeezed shut and begging to forget.

 

“Do you fear the consequences of your actions, miko?” the daiyoukai growled icily. “Look at me and see what your betrayal has fruited.”

 

She remained still.

 

“Look at me!”

 

With his seething roar, she looked up, unable to deny him any further. Elaborately knotted rope biting into his arms and legs, Sesshoumaru hung from the front of the boulder with his bare, limp body displayed shamelessly before her. Hair once as silver as moonlight reflecting on a calm lake was now drenched crimson and clung to his skin in thick mats. Thin and glinting amber in the light of the burning lamps, a dozen acupuncture needles protruded from him with clusters of bells dangling from their ends. Deeply sunk into his tissue, rivulets of blood seeped where the needles pierced him, drawing delicate designs along the hard lines of his body before dripping onto the floor.

 

Then her breath hitched and the sour flavor of bile surged up her throat. Just below the ribs on his right side, a cruel, black opening gaped. Skin and muscle sliced, his flesh was peeled back and pinned above to his lower chest and below to his abdomen. Inside the wide gash, she could see his exposed organs. Glimpses of his stomach and intestines glistened along the edges and in the center a strange emptiness floated, bloody and dark.

 

“Justice, would you not say?” he spoke up, noticing where her attention now hovered. “A fitting punishment exacted upon me for my crime this evening.”

 

“They cut out your liver,” she whispered, the urge to retch keeping her voice low. Thick and swollen she swallowed the salty lump in her throat and her hand found her mouth as she took a step toward him.

 

“Yes.”

 

“They did this to you for revenge? For what you did to Lady Nao?”

 

“They did this to me for you,” he corrected.

 

“For me? I-I didn't ask for--”

 

“For all of you,” he interrupted and then his hoarse voice turned to acid in her ears. “For the lives of humans we are cut up and made into paste.”

 

“You knew about them before tonight?”

 

“What demon with a modicum of sense hasn't? Youkai poaching is an ancient trade much like the medicine we are butchered for. That I believed they would never have the gall to attack a daiyoukai was a failing on my part. A fatal one.” Then a dark chuckle rumbled from him and she finally looked at his gaunt face and the thinly veiled blend of rage and agony that resided there. Sunken in their bruised sockets, his bloodshot eyes pierced her deeper than his dying, hollow laugh. And then he spoke again. “Now I realize that the defeat of Naraku was not a victory at all and that is perhaps the deepest of wounds.”

 

“That's not true! We saved all of Japan when we killed him and wished away the Shikon no Tama, humans and youkai alike.”

 

“Ignorant, little human,” he rebuked in disgust, “You wear their clothing and perhaps now you heed their fox tongues. So certain are you? Then enlighten me with your infallible truth.”

 

Kagome stood silently, her words drying up with the saliva in her mouth.

 

“Then tell me the truth. Why wasn't Naraku's death a victory? I don't understand. We killed him.”

 

Staring at her for a long time, the youkai lord made no reply as he debated the earnestness behind her request.

 

“Hn,” he finally snorted, “The act of slaying Naraku was not the failure. His death was a feat worth a good measure of pride, but it came too late. I told you what has become of our numbers over the course of that vile half-breed's reign.”

 

“There are fewer of you.”

 

“Thousands were absorbed or used as fodder in battle by him. Small and weak-willed, they could not escape his control or his hunger for power. Unfortunately, these same youkai were also the game for stronger demons who managed to elude his lure. Without their accustomed food source, they were forced to seek it elsewhere. To seek humans.”

 

“The attacks on villages lately.”

 

“Yes and with it we have the emergence of hunters like the ones who harbor you at this very moment. The easier demons that had been killed for the trade are gone and now they must pursue more dangerous prey. Too dangerous for the gold they're willing to part with, so these sly merchants now hide behind guises of righteousness to convince the foolish. Thus what remains of our kind is purged to fill their purses.”

 

“They said what they did was the will of the gods. That the gods despised youkai and that's why we can purify them.”

 

Sesshoumaru's unnatural chuckle rose again and the priestess shifted nervously as it slowly died away.

 

“Indeed, they likely do, but who are you or they to decide if we deserve to perish? Humans are not gods even if they lend you a spark of their power.”

 

“All the same, even if the gods haven't explicitly decreed it, some demons are just evil,” Kagome argued. “They don't hunt a human here and there to keep from starving. They slaughter indiscriminately and when they do, they enjoy it.”

 

“Are you imagining me as you speak this?”

 

Swallowing dryly again, she didn't reply.

 

“No doubt,” he answered for her and a subtle, crooked smirk teased the corner of his cracked lips. “But, I have told you before not to hold me to the standards of humanity. The ways of a demon lord are not the ways of a human.”

 

“But, you affect humans.”

 

“I affect everyone,” he corrected and then his disdainful expression became twisted with shadow. “Am I evil for it? Perhaps. If the countless lives I have taken are the testament of my nature, then so be it. I am evil, pure and sadistic.”

 

“Then do you deserve to die like any other evil demon? Purified away like those who destroy villages or in this case, be used for medicine to save those who could survive?”

 

“Again you insist on binding me to human law,” Sesshoumaru sighed faintly, “I tire of this direction, but if you must entertain it then I suppose for the purposes of this conversation, I shall as well. If what you speak is the fate of those who are evil, for those who kill then it is inevitable that I would find myself here, hung like a boar and bleeding out before being butchered. However, if I am being held to these standards, then so should you.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“For all the humans I have killed, you have killed nearly as many youkai. If we demons are bound to the rules of humanity, then your slaughtering of us should be bound to them as well.”

 

Speechless for a few breaths, she stared at the daiyoukai in near disbelief.

 

“I'm not evil.”

 

“Are you?”

 

“A-Any youkai I've purified was to defend innocents being killed,” she argued vehemently while whispered doubt shuddered her voice. “I had to kill them to save the people they were attacking.”

 

“And I am not permitted to defend myself or my followers? I should instead allow legions of samurai to assault me, because if I kill them, it shall make me evil. I think not.”

 

“But you enjoy killing them.”

 

“What difference does one's emotion make to the dead? Whether I am pleased or saddened by my acts, it has no bearing on those who can no longer witness it.”

 

Hands cupping her face, Kagome rubbed gently, her mind lost in a labyrinth of thoughts with each path leading her to a dead end. Soon, a sinking weariness weighed on her and the idea of finding a place to lie down drew her desire. More than anything, she wanted to sleep away what remained of the night, so that she could wake up and dismiss it as some cruel nightmare. So that she could continue on blindly with her simple life. How easy it would be.

 

Then the image of thick, white hair and firerat fur ghosted through her vision and she knew there was no simple life to return to after this. He was still missing and if her thoughts dwelled on it too long, tears began to burn in her eyes.

 

“I don't know what to do,” she murmured. “I don't know what is right or wrong. I don't know what to choose anymore.”

 

“But, you must choose,” Sesshoumaru replied, “Ignorance is no longer your guide and you cannot travel both paths.”

 

“But, I don't want to!” she half-cried, her voice cracking and the tears she desperately held back began to spill down her cheeks. “Humans or youkai. I don't want there to be a difference in how I think of them, because he's… he's both. And I… I love all of him.”

 

“Then do not choose between human and youkai,” he answered with an almost imperceptible kindness. “Choose between life and death.”

 

“What?”

 

“Be willing to kill youkai and humans alike or vow to never kill another demon again. Hold everyone to your human standards or none at all.”

 

“Kill humans?”

 

“Those arrows of yours can pierce more than youkai, miko.”

 

“No, I can't. That's wrong. I can't even… No.”

 

“Then never kill anyone again,” he growled harshly, “This world does not need another hypocrite. Another fool who is too blinded by ideals to see the reality stumbling their feet.”

 

The last insult too much, Kagome stormed up close to him, her sight too scared to waver from his piercing eyes.

 

“I am not a hypocrite,” she ground out.

 

The youkai lord paused, his perpetually pained expression becoming vaguely quizzical as he carefully sniffed the air, another scent rising slightly above the metal of his own blood. Then a fog of red tinted his eyes and his aura surged wrathfully. Brightening to molten white, the needles impaling him glowed hot as they seemed to effectively route the burning youki swelling in his body. Fleshy tendrils of purple tissue grew and attached within the empty cavity in his abdomen, but their surprising appearance was beyond the joint notice of the miko and the daiyoukai.

 

“Treacherous bitch,” he snarled, the uncouth name rolling off his aristocratic tongue as his fangs flashed. “That I thought perhaps to spare your death once I attained freedom. Now I am relieved that that is one imprudent act I shall not make the mistake to do.”

 

Rising up, Sesshoumaru pulled hard on his binds, the ropes sparkling pink as he struggled. Sweet and slightly acrid, his skin sizzled and blistered as he yanked, causing bubbling blood to trickle down his arms and feet. Dizzying and excruciating at first, he locked the pain away with an experienced warrior's ease until it was as numb as a bad memory.

 

Stumbling back, Kagome watched in stunned horror as he continued to fight.

 

“To spout your love for him after what you have done,” he added with a cold, lethal rage, “You will die and I, Sesshoumaru will be the one to kill you.”

 

“Inuyasha?” she asked, blinking away her shock. “What do you know about him?! Where is he?!”

 

“Your deceitful words hold no meaning now, woman. Do not feign ignorance. It will only serve you a more torturous death.”

 

“What happened to him?!” she yelled, the drive to escape from his deadly promises suddenly overwhelmed by the bout of wild fury now pulsing through her. “Tell me what you know! Tell me where he is!”

 

“I have entertained you enough for one evening. Now pray to your precious gods. It will be your last opportunity.”

 

“You're going to tell me!”

 

Ignoring his threatening claws and menacing, blood red glare, she darted close to him. The ropes held tight and somewhere beyond the vows of a sure death, she knew hers would not be by his hand in that moment. Grabbing a needle, she pressed it in.

 

“Tell me where he is!” she yelled again, driving it in deeper, desperate for an answer and willing to do what it took to get it.

 

Grimacing slightly, the youkai lord accepted the pain like he had the rest and his tongue fell silent.

 

“I need to know!” she nearly begged, her vision blurring as she pushed in another needle. Blood gushed out from the wounds she worsened. “Where is he?! I need him! Just tell me where he is!”

 

The world becoming more shadow than light, Sesshoumaru slowly began to slump, his youki tapering and the magic of the ropes dulling as his struggle to break them ended.

 

“Where is he?! Tell me!”

 

“He is like all youkai,” he managed to whisper before succumbing to the black, “He is under your feet.”

 

Head bowed, he then hung motionless on the rock and Kagome backed away, her blood-stained hand over her mouth. Had she been able to think, to find reason amid the tangled views and decisions that swarmed her mind, she never would have done it. As it was though, the only clarity amid the mess was the purpose of her being there to begin with, to find Inuyasha.

 

Pulling her hand away from her face, she stared at the daiyoukai's blood. Blood that she had spilt. Then the burn of guilt swiftly began to corrode her insides. What had she done? Her body numb, she collapsed onto the floor. This couldn't be real. A surreal haze fell over her senses and her sight drifted over the old bloodstains that tainted the wood until it came to rest on her bandaged ankle.

 

“He is under my feet,” she murmured, running her finger along the contours of the thin strip of wound fabric until a clump of salve stuck to it. Rubbing the oily paste between her forefinger and thumb, its red tones smeared beside the blood of the youkai lord still on her hand. Then she was quickly wrenched from her daze with what color that was still held by her cheeks draining to a white pall.

 

Inuyasha was the salve.