InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ In Death, Trust Me, as You Didn't in Life ❯ Divine Interference ( Chapter 48 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Chapter 48: Divine Interference

Satori stared out across the clouds from her seat on her palace's portico, and growled to herself.

She still hadn't gotten over her sheer rage at being subjugated before her son - though she knew better than to argue with the female that had done it.

True, she herself was more than a match for any living thing - but no one had more power than the kami, and though the girl was merely semi-divine, she still had far more power, and was an entirely different life-form, than a mere demon. She, Satori, would never be a threat to the girl, no matter how much she wished it so.

Now, if you were going to go up against a certain kami, you needed to have ties to another kami - one that opposed the same kami that you did. A divine ally, so to speak.

There was one in this case, as she'd heard with her mirror - but she wasn't stupid enough to ally herself with that one. Sosa would have no real need for her, not to mention she had no intentions of putting herself in on the same side as that stupid Ungai, and Sou'unga, anyway.

She'd always hated that sword...

So, that left her with no choice but to ignore the little divinity that her son had tied himself to, and find another to take her frustrated hatreds out on. And, come to think of it, she did have that new kaze servant...

With a flare of her aura, she yanked on the woman's collar, and Kagura almost fell over at the force of the call on the collar around her throat as she unwillingly moved towards her new mistress; hatred coursed through her towards the bitch that had put it on her - and towards the overall reason for her position now - Kagome. Yes, she blamed Kagome for her predicament - if she'd just backed off Sesshoumaru so Kagura could take her rightful place, none of this would have happened.

With a nasty smirk, Satori watched the expressions cross the female's face. "Would you like to see what my son is up to, woman? Since you seem to have such a thing for him, you know." With a wave of a languorous hand, the giant mirror behind her rippled, and a scene appeared there; Kagura's attention was immediately caught - the mirror was a giant version of Kanna's.

What was happening in it sent a shaft of pure fury through her - it was disgusting! There sat her demon Lord, obviously involved in a quite heated embrace with the stupid miko! Her face flushed with rage, red eyes flashing, and she glared at the woman sitting so calmly on her little throne, and enjoying her anger.

"How can you stand to see your son rolling in such human filth?!" she demanded.

A chuckle escaped plump lips, and Satori carefully hid her own ire at the woman in the mirror.

"You are ignorant, Kagura. That woman is not human. In fact," she settled back into her seat contemplatively, as she allowed her hand to run through the fur of her pelt, "her blood, mingled with my son's, guarantees that the children of this union will contain more power than any other demons ever have. The power of the inu clan is now supreme in all the lands."

Kagura looked taken aback. "What do you mean, she's not human? Is that what Sesshoumaru has told you?" She snorted disgustedly. "I've fought the wench before, and while she is a powerful miko, she is, I assure you, entirely human. And the children those two would create, would be nothing more than half-demons."

"While it is true that the children born of the two of them would not be pure demon, halflings of the nature that they would be have never existed; I daresay they would be more powerful than even full demons."

She glanced at the mirror, then turned a vindictive grin on the woman sputtering at her feet.

"At one time, the woman called Kagome was human; she is no longer. Look, Kagura, at what you have no hope of defeating - Kagome is a demi-goddess now... the daughter of Amaterasu herself - newly created." Her grin widened at the gaping horror on the face of the arrogant female wind demon, and then she actually laughed.

Yes, the female named Kagura made a most excellent whipping boy - or girl, as the case may be, and she could already feel her ire towards the mate of her son abating.

"B-but... how?" she gasped, not wanting to believe what she was hearing.

"The ways of the kami are not for us to understand," she said condescendingly, even as that fact burned her inwardly. She hated the plain fact that any creatures in creation were more powerful than she herself. "I showed you this so that you would finally let go of the unnatural fixation that you have with my son. Sesshoumaru is inu - and he has made his choice. He will never turn his back on her now - his instincts will assure that."

And then she sighed, and laid her chin in her hand, staring at the mirror idly. Tone loaded with sarcasm, she said, "Besides... he loves her. And here I thought he was incapable of such. I, personally, much prefer fighting to-" she waved the fingers of her free hand at the scene playing across the surface of the mirror, "-that sort of thing. I suppose this particular weakness comes from his father's blood."

Kagura's eyes were glued to the mirror with dismay as it finally began to sink in that the demon she'd wanted for so long was taken by another.

"Maybe I can still be a concubine, or something?" she asked plaintively.

Satori just laughed again. "Don't think so. She's a goddess. Do you think he will ever have need of another woman for sexual pleasures - or anything else?"

---wWw---

Kagome sighed morosely, her body slouched as she sat against the well and thought about everything that had happened to her recently - and what she was supposed to do about it.

Picking a bit of grass, she rolled the blade between her fingers as she stared fixedly at it; this whole thing was getting to be a serious mess, and she just wanted to go home and talk to her mom.

Sometimes, girls just need their moms - and this definitely qualified as one of those times.

She frowned, then, as something occurred to her, and she sat up, only to turn and stare at the well thoughtfully.

And why can't I go through the well? So, it wasn't working anymore - but I'm not exactly a human now, am I? She cast a glance behind her at the elegantly sprawled form of her lover, meeting his golden gaze, then looked back at the wooden structure that had meant so much in her life. Plus, I want mama to meet Sesshoumaru so badly... and like I keep saying, if I'm stuck doing this goddess thing, then I'm gonna make the most of the perks.

That includes going home when I damn well want.

She nodded firmly to herself, then stood up, and turned to Sesshoumaru. "I'm going home."

He stared at her, frozen for a moment, then his eyes rimmed red and he was suddenly looming over her, growling. "What did you just say, miko?" he whispered menacingly.

She opened her mouth to yell at him, then caught the flash of hurt in his eyes, and realized he'd taken it the wrong way, jumping to conclusions before she'd been able to finish. She lunged upwards at him, wrapping her arms around him and humming soothingly as he reacted by holding her to himself tightly.

"Sesshoumaru, calm down. You didn't let me finish. I want to go visit my mom - and I want you to come with me."

He nuzzled into her hair, inhaling her scent; she was speaking truthfully, and he felt a knot of something loosen inside with relief. But...

"And how will you do that, miko? Do you plan to walk the paths of the other realms?"

She pulled away, smiling up at him brightly. "Nope, there's a faster way. Right through this well here," she said as she patted the aged wood affectionately.

A startled brow quirked. "The well is closed, is it not?"

"For a human... yes, it is. But..." she trailed off, and he finished, "... you are no longer human. I see."

He looked down into the depths of the well for a moment, then turned and beckoned his little vassal to him, instructing him to care for the children - they had several hours yet before they needed to return to the meetings in the meadow, and he would indulge his mate in this.

It would only do her good to see her parent.

Kagome smiled up at him happily as he rejoined her, and then looked down into the well and said, "Okay, my friend, time to let us through." And as she spoke the words, they hopped in, her will swelling around them as the blue lights she'd been missing so much lately came up and grabbed them, leaving her feeling warm and content as though she'd been embraced by an old friend.

Sesshoumaru noted all of the sensations that accompanied the blue lights, curious about the purpose and usage of the old well - and wondering how it had come to be.

When taken and looked at objectively, his little mate's presence in his era was decidedly odd - as was the vehicle of her arrival. It was, indeed, a miracle, that he'd ever met her.

He couldn't help but wonder, however, about the time he'd just left - and as they landed on the bottom of the well in her birth era, he hoped that time here was actually in limbo, and that nothing important would happen until the got back.

---wWw---

Inuyasha scowled as he caught sight of Touran and the other panthers, and she glared back at him for a moment, then waved it off.

"Get over it, puppy - that monk is a problem for all of us. For right now, we've got us a truce - but if you want to argue after this is all over..." she trailed off suggestively, and he growled at her, before folding his arms across his chest sulkily.

"Fine. Truce - for now. But afterwards-" he broke off as Nyoko came up from behind and smacked him on the back of the head.

"Bad Inu. Be nice, or else I'm gonna charge that collar around your neck and do what I did earlier."

He leapt away from her as he ran a hand through his hair; he was still smoothing it down from the shock he'd gotten earlier and he growled loudly at her. "Wench! Stay the fuck away from me!"

Nyoko ignored his growling and turned to look at the panther demoness. "Don't mind him, he's more bark than bite, really."

Touran chuckled as the other panthers snickered. "And you are..?" she asked.

"Oh! Sorry about that - names Nyoko. I'm a sorceress."

"Ah... I've heard of you - some of the things that you've done to that stupid monk and his army were highly entertaining. It's too bad I wasn't able to watch."

At that point, Nyoko got a sly look across her face, which piqued Touran's natural neko curiosity. "What is that look for?"

"Well... you see, I have this little spell in my pouch here," she patted it, "that I need to go visit the area where we will be fighting so that I can prepare a surprise for our mutual enemy. You could always come with me - it's still several hours before we must be back in that meeting."

With an interested smile, Touran looked over at her family, and they grinned back, so she turned and nodded. "We'd be quite happy to escort you, Lady Nyoko." They all turned and began to move off, leaving Inuyasha to stare after them with something akin to horror plastered across his face.

He had the feeling that allowing them to meet had been a very bad idea.

Suddenly intent on keeping an eye on them, he followed along behind, listening as the sorceress explained what she was going to do...

And he had to admit, it was not only a hilarious idea, but it would come in very useful - as long as they and all their allies stayed out of the area she was getting ready to prepare.

I can't believe a stick up the ass like Sesshoumaru has known her for so long - she had to have driven him crazy.

Hell, she drives me crazy, and I can take it better than he can.

Then again, he's stuck with Kagome, and she's just as frustrating as this wench is...

---wWw---

It turned out to be a good thing that Touran and that rather large group of her panthers came with Nyoko to the battlefield - because they ran into what seemed to be an advance party from Ungai's army - or maybe it was a scouting party, but whichever it was, there was a lot of samurai... and two monks.

The surprise that each party garnered upon seeing the other group didn't last long, and suddenly, fighting was breaking out all around as the first skirmishes of the soon to come battle broke out.

Nyoko immediately went after the monks herself, as they couldn't harm her with their sutra nor their reiki, and before the two monks knew what was up, they found themselves getting a firsthand look at a basic form of the trick that the sorceress was out here leaving for their brethren - quicksand... sort of.

Whatever you wanted to call it, it didn't really seem to matter, as the two monks soon disappeared into the ground, never to be seen again.

And despite the battle raging around them, Inuyasha shuddered as he caught their despairing screams and spun around to catch their fate - he was completely caught off-guard at the hard look on the sorceress' pretty face, and he shivered as he twisted back around in time to catch a sword hilt on the Tessaiga's blade.

She was certainly deadlier than he'd imagined.

Touran and the other panthers were by now changing forms and taking on the remaining samurai, and between they, and Inuyasha with the wind scar, it was only minutes before the bloody skirmish was over, and the remaining samurai were running, deliberately allowed to escape to take back information to Ungai and their commanders about the battlefield and its whereabouts.

After all, they wanted him to know to come here.

He wasn't to know, however, that he would not arrive first, and he wouldn't have the high-ground position.

In this, they were lucky that they were facing Sou'unga - powerful evil spirit he may be, but he never took into account limits - he just threw more and more people at the problem until he'd conquered it.

He hadn't really realized that he didn't have that option this time - his resources were large, but still limited.

The panthers drifted around the small battlefield, making sure that all enemy were indeed, dead, as the ground began to soak up it's first small allotments of blood.

Even five hundred years into the future, Kagome felt it - and shuddered.

It was only going to get worse.

Nyoko ignored everyone else and went about finishing what she'd come here to do - by the day of the battle, all she'd have to do is speak the keyword of the spell...

And a nice little chunk of Ungai's army would disappear into the suddenly softened ground, their dying screams cut off by soil and rock that would once again harden after taking its pound of flesh.

What an ugly way to die... but that was the consequences for picking the wrong side of this fight.

---wWw---

Sosa no Wo watched as the panther's and the dog destroyed part of his force, and frowned, becoming irritated at his general.

Sou'unga might not realize it, but that's exactly what he was.

However, it seemed as though he'd made a bit of a mistake in choosing the hell-born spirit - sure, he'd conquered much in his days as a sword, and left ravaged lands behind him with the stink of chaos and death...

But...

It seemed that he wasn't overly intelligent, when it came down to cases.

Unfortunately, it was a little too late in the game to change things now, so the only thing he could do is cheat.

He would have to start taking basic control of Sou'unga's mind - though that wasn't really allowed in his fights with his sister, what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her, now would it?

That decided, he turned his attention to another matter - the girl.

Amaterasu's newest daughter... I suppose I should prepare a warm welcome for her, after all, she's now family...

He chuckled nastily as he considered all sorts of things that he could do to her.

It never occurred to him to actually go take a look for himself at his sister's champion...

Perhaps he should have.

---wWw---

Kagome was having a hard time not laughing at the look on Sesshoumaru's face as the smell of her era kicked in; she had to admit, though, with her new divine senses, it was indeed, atrocious - and once more only affirmed her thoughts that changing things was only going to be for the good, in the end.

She just hated that the responsibility was going to be hers, in the end.

See? And I wasn't listening earlier - when Amaterasu first changed me, she told me I was the 'goddess of balance'... but I didn't pay attention. Maybe I could have changed her mind somehow - gotten her to give me something else? she thought with annoyance.

As Sesshoumaru got his senses under control, he looked over at his miko, only to find a peculiar look on her face, and he wondered what had put it there.

"What is that look for, Kagome?"

"Balance," she muttered sourly.

He glanced around, then nodded, understanding what she was saying without the need for words.

"Why me?" she whined, frustration plain in her words.

He caught her gaze with his own. "Do you know anyone else that you would trust to fix this?" he asked.

She stared at him, astounded.

How simple it all was.

No, there wasn't anyone else she would trust this mess to - she'd go nuts worrying over something that she had no power to change...

But now she did have the power to change things - so she just needed to stop complaining and get on with it.

Dammit! Why's he always right? she groused to herself as she led him out of the well shrine and over to her house.

It's not fair! I'm a goddess, and he's still one-upping me!

---wWw---

A/N: I apologize on the wait for this chapter... things are kind of piling up for me, and I've been trying to finish up the last six chapters of another story I'm working on, hoping to get it done so I have less on my plate. I've managed to get three of those chapters out of the way, and part of the next, so hopefully, it'll be done soon.

Anyway, some people are getting very anxious for the battle, so fair warning - it's not time for that quite yet. A few other things are going to happen first, but it's getting close, so don't give up hope. This story still has a ways to go, and I don't want to shortchange it so a few people can read their battle scene and be done with it.

As always, hope the chapter is enjoyed!

Amber