InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Fire of Life ❯ Part II ( Chapter 2 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

A.N.: Right, here we go, part two…

Disclaimer: Please, refer to the beginning of part one.

Fire of Life (Second Half)

Thirty years of honor become ashes and dust;

A journey of eight thousand leagues rendered moon and wind.

Will we linger until silver hairs displace the vivacity of youth

Only to find emptiness and sorrow?

- Excerpt from "River Awashed With Red"

Shivering moonlight suspended itself in the air behind him, weaving its way through a curtain of silver that cascaded its way down his back.

There was something not quite right about his current surroundings. Something that was pacifying his pride and leaving him devoid of all desire to slash out at the woman who was addressing him in so rude a fashion.

"That sword is yours now."

One last smirk, and she was gone.

Even as he reproached himself for lingering upon things that should not have concerned him at all, his current train of thought persisted with all of its maddening irrelevance.

Detachment or no, the demon wench is decidedly unlike Naraku…

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To request for help - to voice a plea for aid…long years of experience had taught him that such were the tactics to which only the weak would resort. One could not hold onto what one had, in the first place, been unable to accomplish for oneself.

Natural order dictated that people see their individual affairs out for themselves. The same judgment applied to all beings in the living world - even those who exhibited a desperation or passion as intense as this woman before him.

Just as always, he did not hesitate in formulating his decision, and knew that he would not regret its consequences.

"A pity, but I have no interest in your offer…"

Would he?

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The swirls of youki pooled at his feet, lifting him towards the shimmering night sky.

Below him, the hanyou was yelling something incoherent, and he focused upon the task at hand in order to suppress his still turbulent anger.

Even as his opened his senses to Rin's presence, he was made briefly aware of the wind witch - Kagura - still hovering close by the battleground, broadcasting an aura of annoyance not entirely unlike his own.

Angry that Naraku had managed to escape, he supposed. Strangely enough, he could identify with that particular source of irritation.

What did puzzle him for a brief second was a different sentiment that she had profusely radiated throughout the course of the battle. If the woman would have gladly seen Naraku's death, what had there been to merit her concern?

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He had already alighted upon the rock not three feet in front of her when he came to his senses, and mentally cursed himself for his carelessness.

His heightened perception, his perfect self-discipline - had he just forgotten it all?

He realized, however, that it really had not been necessary - after all, his lack of wariness had led neither to injury nor to death. Although his carefully cultivated sense of self-control was screaming otherwise, his instincts were telling him that there would be no harm in trusting this woman that stood before him.

"This entrance you speak of - where is it?"

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Basked in the light emanating from the creaking doorway, he was once again aware of Kagura falling sharply into the same state of mind that she had possessed that day, not long ago, at Naraku's castle.

"Stop! The light from the doorway turns all it touches to stone!"

He could surmise, for a fact, that it would not turn him to stone - the manner in which the gate guards were currently acting clearly indicated that they had conceded to the authority he held through Tenseiga. The fact that she had issued the warning, though, was a more puzzling matter - unlike most of the females he encountered, she did not seem the type to go about screeching things at random.

She was surely not concerned about his survival…

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"Kagura, are you trying to use me in this?" He spoke in his usual manner, precise and direct.

She glared deftly back at him. "Without someone of your caliber, killing off Naraku would be impossible. In both skill and power, there are none who can match you."

He did not quite know what to make of her words. His first thought was that she appeared quite sincere. His second was to wonder as to whether he was growing progressively gullible.

A part of him felt that a response of some sort was necessary, but her hasty departure left him no opportunity to make one.

Looking back at the crystal fragment where it lay in the grass, his mind settled into an acceptance that was becoming uncomfortably familiar.

Once again, it would not hurt…

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He had long since sensed something approaching their current location by means of the river, but was a bit unsure as to the medium through which it was traveling. It was only when the object in question cascaded over the falls itself that he was able to identify it all in an instant.

"If you wish to defeat Naraku, you must do so with your own strength." Those had been his own words.

Long years of habit caused him to turn immediately, resolutely from the offending waterfall. It was only a few seconds later, however, that Kagura's unconscious form came into view in the rushing waters at its foot, and caused both his followers to look appalled.

"I am only saying…I have no obligation to help you."

"Never mind. We are going." He told Jaken, yet did not move from his vantage point from where he stood upon the outcrop of rock.

He was spared further contemplation of the matter by Rin's next actions - a certain rescue attempt that eventually resulted in his having to fish both her and Jaken from the river.

And seeing as both were clinging to the wind witch's unconscious form, and that he only had the use of a single arm, he decided that it would only be logical to pick her from the water while the other two held on.

And so he did.

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He had not expected a word of thanks from the woman, and indeed had received none.

Yes, it had been the longest conversation he had held in awhile with any living being, but it was not as if he had cared about what she had to say - he had been rendered interested primarily by the mention of Naraku's heart. He had also found it irritating that the witch was so blatantly naïve in assuming her own immunity to danger, and thus felt somewhat obligated to set her straight.

"Don't let me bother you any longer," she said afterwards. "I'll be going now."

"Wait." It was Rin, who had thus far refrained from speaking. "But didn't you come here, because you wanted Sesshomaru-sama to help you?"

"It's not like that." Kagura answered quickly, yet seemed to leave a thought unfinished.

With a gust of river wind and the wave of a feather, she was once again gone.

And, as he glanced after Kagura's receding figure, he realized that perhaps she was not the only one who had been impossibly naïve, but that in any case he would likely not see her again now that Naraku was indeed becoming increasingly aware of her attempts at independence. And that, despite the irrelevance of it all to his purposes, it would prove rather disappointing if she happened to perish.

"She left," murmured Rin, stating the obvious.

At his side, Tenseiga was silent.

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He felt all this, and more, pass through his mind in the fraction of a second that it took him to sense a faint presence hovering at the far edge of the battle-scarred field - a presence that, despite the initial impressions it left, he had come to recognize as being different from that of Naraku.

He turned, and saw Kagura, lying on her side in a slight depression in the ground; Unmoving, lifeless.

Too worn from his own battles to question the rationality of his actions, Sesshomaru moved steadily across the battleground towards her. Coming to a stop before her, he took in her blood-stained clothing, the ragged hair that obscured her face, and the broken fan that lay in the dirt beside her.

He was by no means surprised by the outcome of her struggle - had already known that it would come to this that day at the foot of the waterfall - but nor did he see any tangible reason to reverse it. At the very least, she would not even be able to tell him Naraku's whereabouts, if recalled to life. It would be difficult for her to know of it, seeing as she was dead at the time of his departure.

He had always had his reasons, all those times before. He always told himself that he had brought Rin back to life because he had wished to test Tenseiga's properties. That he had resurrected Jaken once because he was at the time in dire need of locating Kaijinbo the swordsmith. And with the father of that otter pup…he had merely been answering the sword's call. Seeing as Tenseiga had been so highly esteemed by his own father, he trusted its instincts…

Perhaps he could also trust his own…especially since they were being quite insistent at the moment.

He reached back down and drew the more ancient of his two swords swiftly, silently - he was not one to hesitate after he had reached a decision.

So at last, I use Tenseiga without valid reason.

A certain Inutaisho would have been very proud of him…

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes, saw the ghostly messengers descending upon the lifeless form before him, and was strangely annoyed by them - more so than he had ever been in the past.

He swept the sword horizontally in one fluid motion, cutting through their diminished forms -

- and stood still, with arm still outstretched, as the imps continued to creep towards Kagura, without paying him any heed.

The stroke had not affected any of them at all.

Her heart - Naraku had destroyed it…

She could not be resurrected.

He was not aware of having lowered his arm, nor of having slid Tenseiga back into its sheath.

A useless sword, indeed…

If he lingered, Rin and Jaken would surely arrive.

And so Sesshomaru turned, and stepped deftly away, retracing his previous path. The stoic golden eyes, obscured by volumes of churning silver hair, did not once look back.

Behind him, the wind speed across the dust-blown battlefield, and into the blood-red dawn.

-Owari-

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I know, I know…I really apologize for turning this into a depressing ending. It was not planned this way originally. All of a sudden having Sesshomaru save Kagura just seemed very cliché… Flames are okay, I suppose… though I'd much prefer a coherent review.

Again, "Spring Winds" will be up, and will be much happier.

On the side, the poem at the beginning of this chapter is from "River Awashed With Red", a war ballad by Yue Fei, a famous Chinese general from the Song dynasty. I just thought that this particular segment suited Sesshomaru well. Well, except for the fact that he's silver-haired to begin with…but one can use his (or her) imagination on that…

Thank you all for reading.