InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Grey Eyes and Golden Nightmares ❯ Every Game has an End ( Chapter 2 )

Standard Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all belong to Rumiko Takahashi...

Grey Eyes and Golden Nightmares

~Every Game has an End~

Kagome was muttering to herself as she came over the edge of the well, wincing as her tired body protested the action. Mou… maybe I should have waited for Inuyasha to come back and help before I came home.  He's going to be pissed when he gets to the village and finds out I'm not there.

She stubbornly banished that thought almost as soon as it had come. Her already frayed temper straining a bit more over the imagined difficulty she'd soon be having with the over-protective hanyou.  He was always the worst after battles where any of them were injured, especially her. Even if it had been nothing more than some bruising and a bit of minor lingering pain.  It wasn't like this was the first time some youkai had slammed her into something, after all, and she doubted it was going to be the last.  She'd just have to sit the boy down and have a long, serious talk about these quirks in his reasoning.

"Three years and that jerk has yet to figure out that I'm not exactly fragile," she huffed, grateful to have foregone her pack in her current condition.  She still knew better than to go anywhere without her bow and arrows, both currently slung across her back. But despite her assurances to the others that she would be fine, the added weight of the bag may have very well made the simple act impossible.

She was looking forward to a hot bath, some good food, and a bit of relaxation. At least until her ever-present protector came barging into the shrine to drag her back.  Her thoughts already wandering in that direction as she gripped the shoji and carelessly shoved it open-

-Only to come to a perfect halt on the other side.

How she had missed the unmistakable pulse of the Shikon shard she would never know, yet it was there…  The sharp pang that arrowed straight through her soul amidst the unnatural stillness of the shrine's courtyard. Tainting the air with an oppressive feel at least ten times worse than the only other shard she'd ever sensed here, the Noh mask…

"No… oh no…" she whispered in horrified disbelief, her head snapping around to the source of the shard as her heart lodged in her throat.

Kagome didn't remember the process that brought her bow into her hand; she didn't remember stringing the arrow.

When her mind reconnected with her surroundings, the arrow was already fired, racing across the courtyard just as she found her voice to scream, "NO!!  Get away from them!!"

The sickle coming down towards her grandfather's collapsed body rang out with a sharp whine when her arrow connected. Knocking the weapon aside and disrupting the deadly swing.  Kagome was shaking violently, another arrow already in place as vacant eyes turned slowly to look at her.  Souta's eyes had snapped open at the shout, and he was already turning frantically to find his sister. The relief the filled his gaze was nearly painful, squeezing her heart like a vice as he yelled, "Nee-chan!!"

"Souta!  Get back!" Kagome called back, not daring to look away from their attacker.  "Kohaku,  get away from my family or the next one is going through you!"  Please.  Move away…  I don't want to do this…

The young taijiya straightened slowly, flicking the wrist of the hand still holding the chain to bring his weapon back into his hand.  Those blank, lifeless eyes met hers over the concealing facemask, sending a menacing shiver of apprehension trailing coldly down her spine.

"Nee-chan!  Behind you!" Souta screamed frantically just as Kagome felt an arm come around her throat. Her bow went clattering to the ground as her hands lifted on reflex to grab at the source of that restricting hold. Her fingers had barely brushed that arm when it slammed her back hard into something unyielding but… furry? 

Kagome's startled scream cut off at the sudden force against her windpipe. Her stomach turning when she heard the razor smooth voice whisper at her ear, "I'm so very glad you could join us, my little miko."

"N…ara…" she attempted to grit out the hated name. Choking off as her head spun, and she pulled uselessly against the much stronger force slowly depleting her oxygen supply.

"Amazing… You managed to hide an entire world from me," Naraku murmured as he lifted his head to look around the shrine traumatized by his attack.  The side of the house facing the well had been nearly decimated. Ripped apart and crumbling where they had broken through to drag her family out into the courtyard.  His lips quirked as he looked at the woman kneeling in front of Kohaku, her arms protectively around a young boy who looked terrified but angry at the same time.  "There is such a force of passion in your bloodlines…  And so many possibilities here!  I will have to come personally once you are destroyed.  See to this world where I sense so little youki... so very few to oppose me."

He smirked when he felt Kagome's gaze fall in that direction the same time her mother's did, following it down at the unconscious old man.  Human emotions were so easily manipulated, but only a true master knew when and where to push. "Or should I keep you alive?  Taint you as I did the jewel's guardian before you?  I would hate to waste such power… or such a direct connection to this strange place."

"Fu…ck… y…ou!" tears streamed from her closed eyes, steadily, helplessly.

This was just too unreal, like a nightmare.  This was her world, her time!  Naraku was a thing of the past… he just couldn't be here!  It was the one thing in all their travels that she had never thought possible, never gave so much as a passing thought to.  It had to be a dream, an illusion…  Anything!

"That could certainly be one way to taint you, miko," Naraku laughed coldly. Grabbing her chin roughly with his other hand, he forced her to survey the destruction of her home.  Satisfied with the way she stiffened, and the wetness spilling onto his arm, he turned her to face her brutalized family held captive by the glassy-eyed Kohaku.

"Look at it, Kagome," he eased off just enough pressure on her throat to make sure she didn't pass out yet.  "Destruction, pain, fear…  Can't you see how beautiful it is?  How pure?  There is nothing in all the world that is more honest than this."

"Let them go, Naraku," Kagome's voice was harsh, rough from her near asphyxiation by the changeling hanyou.  She had to pause when her throat protested with a fit of coughing before she could force out in strained gasps, "They… aren't a part… of this."

"Of course they are, miko," he smirked cruelly, jerking her face up and around to meet his scarlet eyes.  "They are a part of you, are they not?  You are the heart of all of this…  The Shikon-no-Tama reappeared with you."

"They have nothing to do with the past!" she protested fiercely.

"Then you should not have left such a convenient portal for me to find," the smirk turned sadistically arrogant as he turned his own gaze up to Kohaku.  "The Shikon-no-Tama is mine, miko, and I will kill any insignificant creature that stands in the way of me attaining it.  Human, youkai, or hanyou.

"And to prove it to you, I will start with your family," he turned her face back.

Without the slightest warning or provocation, even before Naraku had stopped speaking, Kohaku raised his sickle and knelt, sinking the blade through the back of her grandfather's neck.

Kagome had no idea who screamed.

It may have been Souta, her mother; herself… it may even have been all three of them at the same time. She couldn't have said if her life depended on it.  All she knew was that the breath of stunned silence that followed Kohaku's action was violently shattered by the most heart-wrenching scream of pain, denial, and rage that she had even heard in her lifetime.

However, in the same moment when Kagome felt her entire world turn upside down, she had a flash of crystal clarity.

Followed by a staggering rush of scorching heat.

Kagome gripped Naraku's restraining arm with a low cry of rage, feeling her magic rushing through her like a tidal wave.  It was a rush of such thick, dizzying force that for a split second, Kagome nearly passed out. Her head swam with a surreal sense of disconnection.  She held it at bay when the puppet's arm melted under her hands, stubborn determination restoring her equilibrium in a heartbeat.

She whirled around once the force holding her captive was removed, slamming her burning hands against his chest with a snarl.  For a second in time, she had the perverse gratification of seeing the puppet's face -Naraku's face- fill with shock and even a hint of fear as the massive excess of purifying magic burned him away to nothing.

The relief was short lived when something lanced hard across her face, crashing her backwards to slam against the ruined exterior of her home.

Kagome heard the blood pounding in her ears, her entire vision losing focus and bleeding into a hazy mix of grey and bloody red as she pushed herself up.  So intent was she on the source of the unexpected attack that she failed to notice the way the stone melted beneath her hands, traces of flame snaking out from her aura striking the wood and beginning to smolder.

She saw only Kohaku.

She suffered a faint blink of confusion when she saw the pale flames clinging to the dark fluid staining his sickle. The bizarre sparking staying with the droplets as they spattered to the ground.  Her eyes followed the sizzling spots of what she figured had to be blood, despite her bizarre inability to tell what color it was to her black and white vision.

Her eyes widened with sudden realization, blackened fingers lifting to touch her face before bringing them back into her line of sight, `My face…  But I… I don't feel anything…'

Kohaku turned, lifting his weapon towards her mother and Souta. The motion snapped her out of her shock with a sharp, furious snarl.

The taijiya's pause was all she needed to launch herself across the courtyard. Ducking her shoulder to crash her slight weight into his stomach and send them both to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

They rolled, both grappling for control of the sickle blade until Kohaku dragged them forcefully to a halt with unnatural strength.  Straddling her waist, he put all of his weight into pushing the point of his sickle inexorably closer to her heart.

Kagome's hands were bleeding freely where she gripped the razor edge. Arms shaking with the effort to keep it at bay while she felt the weight of the point touch her sternum.  Whatever it was, adrenaline, magic, something else… she just hoped that the reason for her numb state didn't give out on her anytime soon.

The point pressed deeper, and Kagome's heart froze at the sudden scream from her right, "Get off my sister!"

"Souta, NO!!" Kagome reared up just as Kohaku twisted his wrist to catch the long chain. The taijiya expertly snapped the weighted end out to catch her brother around the neck and yank him to the ground.

Seething with even greater anger, Kagome leaned up the rest of the way to grab hold of Kohaku's throat. Heedless to way the sickle rent her shirt and sliced through the skin down her chest.

Kohaku made a choked sound, giving the chain another yank to send Souta back into their mother. Making sure there was enough force that both went smashing back through the broken wall to the ruined living room.

Kagome's magic had already been arching in bright flames. But the mindless energy flared even hotter as tears poured down her cheeks, her eyes on the crumbling wall.  She had never felt pain like this, pain from so very deep in her soul as her attention was pulled back to the taijiya trying to rise in an effort to escape the deadly purification.

"No," Kagome threw all her weight and magic forward. The wide-eyed look on Kohaku's face seared itself into her subconscious with agonizing intensity as the Shikon shard gave off a discordant ping and broke loose.

The stones beneath her were melting again. Whiplashes of flames jumping crazily around the courtyard for the moment life, realization, and fear filled the young boy's eyes…

For the moment Kagome's magic burned his body to ashes.