InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Fate and Free Will ❯ Revelations of Fate and a Youkai's Thoughts ( Chapter 3 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Chapter 3 – Revelation of Fate and a Youkai’s thoughts.
Akari awoke to the sound of her name being called but when she opened her eyes it was not Kagome’s face that greeted her. Akari sat bolt upright, skittering back from this new person. It was a woman of incredible beauty, dressed in long and flowing robes of blue-black with shimmers like stars in a night sky. The woman smiled at her and Akari noticed that her eyes kept shifting and swirling with all the colors known to the human eye. The woman’s hair, long and thick was also going through the same constant shifting. “Who are you?”
The woman smile did not fade. “I have as many names as there are languages child but for simplification you may call me Fate.”
“Where am I?” Akari asked looking around. Beyond Fate and herself was nothing but inky blackness.
“In your dream child,” Fate responded.
“I’m not a child,” Akari replied indignantly.
Fate laughed. “Maybe not to the standards of man but to me you are a child.”
“Why am I here? Or why are you here?”
The woman’s face became serious. “You have a very important task to accomplish child. All existence is in your hands.”
Akari stared wide eyed. “What do you mean?”
Fate waved an iridescent and slender hand. All around them golden lines of light flared into existence. “This is time. No one is truly bound by me. There are choices to be mad. Free-will was given to all creation and must never be taken away. Time is not linear, there are multiple times, as there are multiple consequences to ones choices.”
Akari watched the golden lines spread out around her, some twisting to interconnect with others, some branching away from existing ones. Fate continued. “One choice was made that had catastrophic consequences.”
All the lines began to converge into one then disappeared in a flash of golden rain. “I thought each time was different.”
Fate nodded. “Yes it is but in each time this particular choice is made. You have been chosen to stop it in this one.”
“Why me?”
“Is that really important?”
Akari stared at the woman, “So what happens if I don’t?”
“Then the times converge, creation is bound to its fate, free-will is undone and existence ceases to be.”
She felt like someone had slapped her. “Why are you so concerned about free-will? You are Fate right?”
Fate smiled wryly, “You have your choice of door #1, door #2, or door #3 but I am the one who gave you the doors.”
Akari suddenly felt used and manipulated. “What about my free-will?”
“You still have a choice but there are only two courses that will follow: continued existence or nothingness.”
Akari was silent as she pondered. “So what is it I’m supposed to stop?”
“I can not tell you that now. I have come now to tell you that you must not interfere in any of the events unfolding before you. I will come again to tell you what your task truly is.”
“Is that why they only hear ‘holy shit’ when I try to warn them?”
Fate nodded. “I knew you would try to prevent other things so I put a spell on you. It will fade when the time is right. Goodbye for now Akari.”
Akari sat up with a gasp, around her the night sounds continued peacefully. ‘Was that real?’
She heard a soft sound, as Inu Yasha landed beside her, staring at her with amber eyes. “What is it?” he asked quietly. He looked ready to attack.
“Oh…it’s nothing…a bad dream.”
“Feh,” he replied, bounding back into his tree.
Akari looked over at Kagome, who slept undisturbed in her sleeping bag. She pulled her knees up to her chest to ponder her dream. If the dream were real, what could it be that Fate wanted her to do? Would Fate return her to her own time when this was all over? Was this past another time line’s past or her owns? So many questions and so little answers. She sighed. She would have to watch everyone get hurt. It was okay when it was just a story but now that they were all real could she just sit by and watch it happen? Did she really have a choice? ‘It’s not fair,’ she thought, stinging tears threatening to spill over onto her cheeks. ‘But everything will turn out all right in the end. Nobody dies.’ That thought encouraged her and she lay back down on the extra sleeping back Kagome had brought, trying to get some rest. Tomorrow they would meet up with Nobunaga and the toad youkai.
He walked majestically across the moon light meadow, skittering behind him was his “faithful” servant, who was worrying under his breath. He stopped, Jaken running into his legs. “What is it Sesshomaru-sama?” he asked, nervously.
“I can hear you Jaken. I am fine. The loss of an arm is not going to kill me,” Sesshomaru said softly without turning around.
“Oh of course Sesshomaru-sama. Of course you will be fine,” groveled the little toad.
Sesshomaru continued walking, allowing his thoughts to once again return to that day. Damn his hanyou of a brother to the seven hells. Worthless piece of kuso that he was and still able to use the Tetsusaiga. Though no indication passed over the handsome face, the taiyoukai was seething. The fool was even traveling with two ningen females. Kagome had insinuated herself in the battle encouraging his brother and making a pest of herself. He was somewhat impressed that she had survived his poison claws but then it was the Tetsusaiga which had saved her. Yet it was not the miko, for that is what she reeked of, that occupied his thoughts, it was the other. The one who had remained more or less silent during the battle. She had only spoken to warn Kagome out of the way when the battle became more intense, as if she had known what was to happen. He remembered looking up to see her green-brown eyes following his every movement. Why had she been so intent upon looking at him? What was the emotion he had seen in those eyes? Moreover why did he really care? What was a ningen female to him? Sesshomaru pushed aside his troubling thoughts and continued his search for a replacement arm.