InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Forbidden Love ❯ Chapter XII ( Chapter 12 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: rockthedragon7 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.27.2005 | Pages: 1 | Words: 1.9K | Visits: 265 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.27.2005 | Pages: 1 | Words: 1.9K | Visits: 265 | Status: Completed
Chapter XII
Izayoi let him lead her along the sun-drenched corridor, rows of fusuma on her left, a wall of glass shoji to her right. Beyond the window panes, a balcony followed at the castle’s side, built of ebony with railings carved in the appearance of dragons running atop the clouds. Beyond the ornate palings, she gazed out at the emerald forest, shining silver in the daylight as it flowed down the mountainside and stretched away to the horizon, and Izayoi felt as though she could stand on that veranda and look over the world as it lay beneath her. What a wonderful, weightless sensation it was, with even the blue of the sky below her.
Sugimi paused to open a fusuma, and bid Izayoi to enter, which she reluctantly did, unsure of who it was that waited in the room ahead. To her, it seemed as though the area was a sitting room, brilliantly decorated with colourful jomon, a low table, and a few small desks along two walls. Kakemono were hung on the walls, telling poetic tales of silver mountains, ashen cranes soaring by their snow-capped peaks, and golden clouds floating along against the blue sky. Wicks of incense, smelling of rain, were burning, filling the room with the scents of cloudburst. The shoji were opened to a balcony, gossamer drapes gently drifting in the soft mountain breeze. A lone figure was settled on the tatami near the ajar shoji, calmly combing his fingers through his lengthy silver hair as though he had not even realized that someone had entered.
“I give you my greetings, Sesshomaru,” Sugimi spoke softly when he had closed the fusuma behind him. Izayoi recognized the name right away as the ‘Master Sesshomaru’ that Myoga had told of. She bowed low, realizing that he must be of great importance. Sesshomaru did not reply, and Sugimi gave a chuckle. “Oh, come now, Sesshomaru,” the demon lord laughed. “Don’t tell me that you are still sore.”
The younger demon glanced over his shoulder, his cold golden eyes glaring. “Of course not, my lord,” he said. “I am not rebuffing of who you take as your company…I am simply bitter of what they are.” He set his glower over Izayoi, and she dropped her head in apology.
Sugimi went forward, his calm visage holding, to stand next to Sesshomaru as the younger demon got to his feet. “Sesshomaru, you are playing a game that I am quickly growing tired of.” His fierce gaze seemed to put his son back in his place. “I assumed that you would enjoy an audience with my guest.”
Sesshomaru slowly nodded. “Yes, Father.”
Izayoi was stunned. Father? Sugimi was Sesshomaru’s father? Now that she was quite aware of the blood relation between the pair of demons, she wholly noticed the uncanny resemblance among them. Golden eyes, silver hair, those streaks that decorated the skin of their faces. Sesshomaru, however, had an animalistic look about him, not the same gentleness and passion as the demon lord, and he bore a navy crescent moon on his forehead. While Sugimi had only one jagged azure stripe beneath each eye, Sesshomaru had two smooth crimson bands of colour. But they carried themselves in the same proud and imperial manner, those two great and formidable demons. When Izayoi recovered from her initial shock, she gave a polite bow, becoming conscious of the fact that the demon lord was introducing her.
“This is the lady Izayoi from the village to the south of the mountains. Izayoi, this is my aloof and petulant son Sesshomaru.” At that, Sugimi laughed. “But not always so. He can be quite the gentleman with a little time and patience.” The younger demon did not bow in return. He did not even give a nod of his head, or at least until Sugimi put a clawed finger against the back of Sesshomaru’s head, forcing it into a curt bob. “A little time and patience, indeed.” His frown was quickly replaced with a smile. “Come now. Let us sit. There is much that we may talk of.” The two demons and the human woman settled around the low table, and Izayoi made sure to keep a distance between herself and Sesshomaru as she knelt next to Sugimi, staying out of range of those nasty claws that she knew he had on every deceptively slender finger.
Izayoi felt envious of the fact that this demon lord was a sire, which by all means meant that somewhere in the wide, wide world he had a mistress. And what was worse, Sugimi had not told her. Was he truly baiting her? Somewhere in her mind a part of her was telling her to just turn around and leave, and run back home to her father and admit to him that he was right. Another part of her was flat out refusing. Perhaps her love for the demon lord was misguided, but that did not mean that there could still be companionship as friends, did it?
“Are you alright, Izayoi?” Sugimi asked quietly after a long moment. “You have not answered my question to you.”
Izayoi bit her lip, realizing that he had been talking to her the whole time she had been lost within her own head. Perhaps her new knowledge of the demon lord’s social life had her far more upset than she would have liked to believe so. She gave a quick bow of her head. “I’m sorry, my lord,” she said very softly, before she stood and moved for the fusuma. “I am not feeling well.” Sugimi glanced at Sesshomaru, who was looking indifferent as usual, and the demon lord leapt up to follow the young girl.
She was stepping quite quickly down the hall, her head down to hide the tears she knew were forming in her eyes. Why did she feel so utterly deceived? Why did it feel as though her heart was cracking? Maybe her love was not good enough for the demon lord. Maybe she was never meant to be in love with one so perfect as he. After all, she was just a filthy human.
Sugimi caught up to the fleeing girl halfway down the windowed corridor. “Izayoi. Izayoi are you alright? You left in an awful hurry…”
“I’m fine,” Izayoi retorted, a little more sharply than she had intended, and the demon lord halted in his steps, a shadow of doubt passing over his features.
Sugimi gently, but forcefully, seized her wrist and spun her about to face him. “Tell me what is wrong, Izayoi,” he demanded in a voice that she thought he might have used if he was ordering something out of a beloved servant.
Izayoi was silent for a long time, keeping her head bowed and her eyes averted, but she took a shaky breath. “I did not know that you had a son, my lord. It came as a bit of a shock.”
Sugimi creased his brow. “This has upset you so?”
“No,” Izayoi forced herself to say around the lump in her throat. “It is the fact that you have a mistress, whom I did not know about.”
There was a moment of quiet, before Sugimi gave a hearty chuckle. “Is that what this is all about?” He lifted her chin with a clawed finger, saw the tears in her eyes, and though he hated to see her miserable, he smiled. “You are mistaken. She departed this life many decades ago. Dead and gone for ninety-one and one hundred years.” The demon lord brushed away a stray tear that had fallen down the girl’s cheek with one thumb. “Do not shed tears, Izayoi. It does not do my heart well to see you cry.” Izayoi wiped one eye with a delicate sweep of her fingers, but did not say a word. Sugimi took her hand. “There is something I wish to show you. Perhaps it will cheer you,” he said gently, and he started away down the corridor.
Through winding passages and hallways he led her, and stopped before a shoji. Just beyond the doors she could hear birdsong, and she could already feel her heart lightening. Sugimi turned to her with a grin on his lips. “Close your eyes.” She did so, and couldn’t help but allow a smile tug at her lips. “No sneaking looks,” she heard the demon lord command, and the shoji slid open. A great draft of cool, sweet-smelling air washed over her, and Izayoi felt her grin grow as Sugimi’s hand found hers, leading her through the portal.
“Can I open my eyes?” Izayoi asked excitedly.
“In a moment,” Sugimi’s voice answered, and he stopped. She could hear him move behind her, and she clasped her hands in front of her impatiently. “Alright. Open your eyes.” Izayoi’s eyes flickered open, and went all the wider as her breath caught in her throat and her heart seemed to stop in her chest. Before her was the most beautiful, most incredible, most wholly breathtaking garden that may have ever graced the planet’s soil.
At maybe twenty acres in size, the garden consumed much of the mountainside in sprawling emerald lawns, lofty jade trees, flowers of every kind and colour her imagination could conjure up, and ferns and hedges dotting the landscape. Paths of silvery stones wound their way through the terraces, disappearing beyond her sight into the magnificent garden’s vibrant depths. Izayoi forced her feet to take a couple of steps, and she placed a hand against her chest, wishing that she could still her rapidly beating heart, brown eyes open and glittering with amazement.
Sugimi smiled and tucked his hands into his sleeves as he watched her spin around, drinking in every ounce of colour that she could see. “One may wander for years along these paths and never see the same thing twice,” the demon lord said lightly.
“It’s fascinating,” Izayoi managed to whisper, and Sugimi, with his hypersensitive hearing, caught the sound easily.
The demon lord came up beside her, holding one clawed hand out to her. “Shall we, my lady?” Izayoi took his palm in a grip that more than expressed her thrill and enchantment. She gathered up the hems of her kimono in her opposite hand, and rushed off down the great stone flight of stairs before her at a fast pace, pulling the demon lord along excitedly.
“Do show me everything!” Izayoi cried delightedly, like a child on her birthday. “I wish to explore the whole garden!”
Sugimi chuckled. “The whole garden? Why, that will take months, Izayoi!”
Izayoi turned around when they reached the bottom of the steps, and took both of his hands in hers with a smile so wide that it might have taken in her ears. “Then for months I want to stay here!”
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Izayoi let him lead her along the sun-drenched corridor, rows of fusuma on her left, a wall of glass shoji to her right. Beyond the window panes, a balcony followed at the castle’s side, built of ebony with railings carved in the appearance of dragons running atop the clouds. Beyond the ornate palings, she gazed out at the emerald forest, shining silver in the daylight as it flowed down the mountainside and stretched away to the horizon, and Izayoi felt as though she could stand on that veranda and look over the world as it lay beneath her. What a wonderful, weightless sensation it was, with even the blue of the sky below her.
Sugimi paused to open a fusuma, and bid Izayoi to enter, which she reluctantly did, unsure of who it was that waited in the room ahead. To her, it seemed as though the area was a sitting room, brilliantly decorated with colourful jomon, a low table, and a few small desks along two walls. Kakemono were hung on the walls, telling poetic tales of silver mountains, ashen cranes soaring by their snow-capped peaks, and golden clouds floating along against the blue sky. Wicks of incense, smelling of rain, were burning, filling the room with the scents of cloudburst. The shoji were opened to a balcony, gossamer drapes gently drifting in the soft mountain breeze. A lone figure was settled on the tatami near the ajar shoji, calmly combing his fingers through his lengthy silver hair as though he had not even realized that someone had entered.
“I give you my greetings, Sesshomaru,” Sugimi spoke softly when he had closed the fusuma behind him. Izayoi recognized the name right away as the ‘Master Sesshomaru’ that Myoga had told of. She bowed low, realizing that he must be of great importance. Sesshomaru did not reply, and Sugimi gave a chuckle. “Oh, come now, Sesshomaru,” the demon lord laughed. “Don’t tell me that you are still sore.”
The younger demon glanced over his shoulder, his cold golden eyes glaring. “Of course not, my lord,” he said. “I am not rebuffing of who you take as your company…I am simply bitter of what they are.” He set his glower over Izayoi, and she dropped her head in apology.
Sugimi went forward, his calm visage holding, to stand next to Sesshomaru as the younger demon got to his feet. “Sesshomaru, you are playing a game that I am quickly growing tired of.” His fierce gaze seemed to put his son back in his place. “I assumed that you would enjoy an audience with my guest.”
Sesshomaru slowly nodded. “Yes, Father.”
Izayoi was stunned. Father? Sugimi was Sesshomaru’s father? Now that she was quite aware of the blood relation between the pair of demons, she wholly noticed the uncanny resemblance among them. Golden eyes, silver hair, those streaks that decorated the skin of their faces. Sesshomaru, however, had an animalistic look about him, not the same gentleness and passion as the demon lord, and he bore a navy crescent moon on his forehead. While Sugimi had only one jagged azure stripe beneath each eye, Sesshomaru had two smooth crimson bands of colour. But they carried themselves in the same proud and imperial manner, those two great and formidable demons. When Izayoi recovered from her initial shock, she gave a polite bow, becoming conscious of the fact that the demon lord was introducing her.
“This is the lady Izayoi from the village to the south of the mountains. Izayoi, this is my aloof and petulant son Sesshomaru.” At that, Sugimi laughed. “But not always so. He can be quite the gentleman with a little time and patience.” The younger demon did not bow in return. He did not even give a nod of his head, or at least until Sugimi put a clawed finger against the back of Sesshomaru’s head, forcing it into a curt bob. “A little time and patience, indeed.” His frown was quickly replaced with a smile. “Come now. Let us sit. There is much that we may talk of.” The two demons and the human woman settled around the low table, and Izayoi made sure to keep a distance between herself and Sesshomaru as she knelt next to Sugimi, staying out of range of those nasty claws that she knew he had on every deceptively slender finger.
Izayoi felt envious of the fact that this demon lord was a sire, which by all means meant that somewhere in the wide, wide world he had a mistress. And what was worse, Sugimi had not told her. Was he truly baiting her? Somewhere in her mind a part of her was telling her to just turn around and leave, and run back home to her father and admit to him that he was right. Another part of her was flat out refusing. Perhaps her love for the demon lord was misguided, but that did not mean that there could still be companionship as friends, did it?
“Are you alright, Izayoi?” Sugimi asked quietly after a long moment. “You have not answered my question to you.”
Izayoi bit her lip, realizing that he had been talking to her the whole time she had been lost within her own head. Perhaps her new knowledge of the demon lord’s social life had her far more upset than she would have liked to believe so. She gave a quick bow of her head. “I’m sorry, my lord,” she said very softly, before she stood and moved for the fusuma. “I am not feeling well.” Sugimi glanced at Sesshomaru, who was looking indifferent as usual, and the demon lord leapt up to follow the young girl.
She was stepping quite quickly down the hall, her head down to hide the tears she knew were forming in her eyes. Why did she feel so utterly deceived? Why did it feel as though her heart was cracking? Maybe her love was not good enough for the demon lord. Maybe she was never meant to be in love with one so perfect as he. After all, she was just a filthy human.
Sugimi caught up to the fleeing girl halfway down the windowed corridor. “Izayoi. Izayoi are you alright? You left in an awful hurry…”
“I’m fine,” Izayoi retorted, a little more sharply than she had intended, and the demon lord halted in his steps, a shadow of doubt passing over his features.
Sugimi gently, but forcefully, seized her wrist and spun her about to face him. “Tell me what is wrong, Izayoi,” he demanded in a voice that she thought he might have used if he was ordering something out of a beloved servant.
Izayoi was silent for a long time, keeping her head bowed and her eyes averted, but she took a shaky breath. “I did not know that you had a son, my lord. It came as a bit of a shock.”
Sugimi creased his brow. “This has upset you so?”
“No,” Izayoi forced herself to say around the lump in her throat. “It is the fact that you have a mistress, whom I did not know about.”
There was a moment of quiet, before Sugimi gave a hearty chuckle. “Is that what this is all about?” He lifted her chin with a clawed finger, saw the tears in her eyes, and though he hated to see her miserable, he smiled. “You are mistaken. She departed this life many decades ago. Dead and gone for ninety-one and one hundred years.” The demon lord brushed away a stray tear that had fallen down the girl’s cheek with one thumb. “Do not shed tears, Izayoi. It does not do my heart well to see you cry.” Izayoi wiped one eye with a delicate sweep of her fingers, but did not say a word. Sugimi took her hand. “There is something I wish to show you. Perhaps it will cheer you,” he said gently, and he started away down the corridor.
Through winding passages and hallways he led her, and stopped before a shoji. Just beyond the doors she could hear birdsong, and she could already feel her heart lightening. Sugimi turned to her with a grin on his lips. “Close your eyes.” She did so, and couldn’t help but allow a smile tug at her lips. “No sneaking looks,” she heard the demon lord command, and the shoji slid open. A great draft of cool, sweet-smelling air washed over her, and Izayoi felt her grin grow as Sugimi’s hand found hers, leading her through the portal.
“Can I open my eyes?” Izayoi asked excitedly.
“In a moment,” Sugimi’s voice answered, and he stopped. She could hear him move behind her, and she clasped her hands in front of her impatiently. “Alright. Open your eyes.” Izayoi’s eyes flickered open, and went all the wider as her breath caught in her throat and her heart seemed to stop in her chest. Before her was the most beautiful, most incredible, most wholly breathtaking garden that may have ever graced the planet’s soil.
At maybe twenty acres in size, the garden consumed much of the mountainside in sprawling emerald lawns, lofty jade trees, flowers of every kind and colour her imagination could conjure up, and ferns and hedges dotting the landscape. Paths of silvery stones wound their way through the terraces, disappearing beyond her sight into the magnificent garden’s vibrant depths. Izayoi forced her feet to take a couple of steps, and she placed a hand against her chest, wishing that she could still her rapidly beating heart, brown eyes open and glittering with amazement.
Sugimi smiled and tucked his hands into his sleeves as he watched her spin around, drinking in every ounce of colour that she could see. “One may wander for years along these paths and never see the same thing twice,” the demon lord said lightly.
“It’s fascinating,” Izayoi managed to whisper, and Sugimi, with his hypersensitive hearing, caught the sound easily.
The demon lord came up beside her, holding one clawed hand out to her. “Shall we, my lady?” Izayoi took his palm in a grip that more than expressed her thrill and enchantment. She gathered up the hems of her kimono in her opposite hand, and rushed off down the great stone flight of stairs before her at a fast pace, pulling the demon lord along excitedly.
“Do show me everything!” Izayoi cried delightedly, like a child on her birthday. “I wish to explore the whole garden!”
Sugimi chuckled. “The whole garden? Why, that will take months, Izayoi!”
Izayoi turned around when they reached the bottom of the steps, and took both of his hands in hers with a smile so wide that it might have taken in her ears. “Then for months I want to stay here!”
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