InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ In Present Company ❯ Chapter 8

“Oh look! A village!” Kagome said as they crested a hill. Sesshomaru had known it was there ages ago, when he had smelled it, and had begun walking towards it. They hadn't come across a village in a long time.

 

Kagome sighed, relieved. “I am so hungry! Let's go see if anyone will give us some food.” The last village they had visited, four days ago, had had a minor yokai problem, which Kagome had taken care of single-handedly, much to Sesshomaru's surprise. They had given them provisions and money in return. The provisions had run out the day before. They walked towards the village—or rather Kagome ran, and Sesshomaru continued at his previous pace after her—but when they arrived, it was sparsely populated. It appeared that they had a yokai problem, too, but it wasn't in the village.

 

Since they had plenty of food to spare due to the lack of population, they were more than happy to feed Kagome. As she ate, the village elder tried to talk to Sesshomaru.

 

“In what direction are you headed, my lord?” he asked respectfully.

 

Sesshomaru just stared at him.

 

“South,” Kagome said around a mouthful of rice.

 

The elder ignored her, imagining that it was Sesshomaru who had answered. “You must not go in that direction, my lord. You must go around the mountain to our south, or you risk your life.”

 

Kagome stopped eating, suddenly more interested in the problem than her food. “Is that why you guys are missing so many people?” she asked.

 

The elder did not look at her, but continued to stare at Sesshomaru. “I'm afraid so. At night, a strange mist comes down from the mountain. In the morning, people are missing from their beds. The bodies are found on the mountain, with no blood in them.”

 

Kagome swallowed. “What on earth?”

 

“You see,” the elder continued, “There are succubae on the mountain. No one knows what they look like, for no one who has ever seen them has lived to tell about it.”

 

Kagome looked to Sesshomaru, who looked decidedly non-plussed. “I think we could handle that, don't you?”

 

Sesshomaru closed his eyes. “It is the shortest route to our destination.”

 

Kagome turned to the elder again, even though he never looked her way. “We can handle it. If we come across them, I'm pretty sure we could get rid of them for you.”

 

“We would be forever indebted to you, my lord.” The elder bowed, and then left the room.

 

Kagome began eating again, pensive. “What a weird guy. It was like I didn't exist at all. He must not like women or something.”

 

Sesshomaru looked at her. “He was completely blind, and almost entirely deaf. He most likely couldn't tell our voices apart.”

 

Kagome stared at her food for a long moment, blushing. “Oh.”

 

There was a short and uncomfortable silence between them. “We should leave soon,” Sesshomaru advised.

 

“Right!” Kagome attacked her food with greater vigor.

 

Once she had finished, they headed straight for the mountain. Many people whispered as they passed, and some even made a sign against evil at them. No one had survived the trip up the mountain, and no one had gone of their own will in many years. These foreign travelers must be stupid or crazy.

 

Sesshomaru ignored them, and Kagome was used to it. At last they reached the foot of the mountain, and Kagome had to tilt her head almost all the way back to look up at it. “This is really steep… I'm not sure I'm wearing the right shoes for this…” Kagome stared down at her loafers, wishing she had some cleats.

 

“If you think you might fall you may walk ahead.” Sesshomaru was not going to offer help openly, but he knew Kagome was smart enough to figure out that if she fell, he would catch her.

 

And hour later, Sesshomaru decided that this was probably a bad decision on his part. Kagome had only fallen once, but the mountain was very steep. Which gave him an excellent view up Kagome's skirt. Time and time again, he found himself looking for a flash of white cotton and cursing himself. This, he thought sullenly, is a most undignified way to torture oneself. But he couldn't bring himself to change the situation. As they ascended higher, though, the mountain began to level out. Soon they were on flat ground, and they stood a moment so Kagome could catch her breath.

 

“It's too bad it's so humid out,” Kagome said between gasps. “we might be able to see what lies ahead of us for a long while from here.

 

Sesshomaru nodded. As they had gone up the mountain, the humidity had shot up, until little beads of condensation rolled down Kagome's neck. It was very strange, and Sesshomaru wondered if there was going to be a storm. Even now, it seemed to grow thicker and thicker. It was misty, even in the middle of the day. He turned to see if Kagome was ready, but she wasn't there. Alarmed, he tried to judge where she was by scent, but the mist was so thick it interfered.

 

“Kagome.” No answer. “Kagome!” he said a little louder.

 

“Over here,” came a faint voice, and he followed it. He found Kagome, refreshed.

 

“Thought I lost you there!” she said, and continued south. After walking for less than a minute, though, she stopped.

 

Sesshomaru was about to ask what her problem was when she turned around to face him, a strange look on her face.

 

“Sesshomaru…” she breathed, blinking slowly. She closed the distance between them, reaching up to wind her fingers in his hair, pulling him down to kiss her before he could react.

 

The problem was, he didn't know how to react. Part of him was curious where this would lead, part of him was annoyed with her change in behavior, and the defensive part of him argued that he should stop her right now.

 

“Kagome…” he said, a warning tone in his voice.

 

“Shhhh…” She placed a finger to his lips, and he noticed that it was cold. So were her lips. Strange, that she was so cool when it was so warm out. She reached up and kissed him again, before embracing him tightly. Unable to resist, he buried his face in her hair, breathing in her scent.

 

Except she had no scent.

 

Suddenly Sesshomaru felt a prick at his neck, where Kagome's face was. He grabbed Kagome—who was not Kagome—by the back of her shirt, and threw her to the ground. She began to pout, but then saw the look of fury on his face. She was about to get up to run away, but she was dead before she got off the ground. As the body fell to the ground, the illusion of Kagome vanished, leaving behind a large bat. Sesshomaru felt his neck, his hand coming away with a drop of blood on it. He had almost fallen for it, he thought.

 

Kagome!

 

His mind raced. If this succubus was not Kagome, then Kagome was… with another one! He looked around, but the mist obscured his view. He tried to find a trace of her scent, but the moisture in the air made that impossible. He forced himself to calm down, turning to his last keen sense. He knew the mist would deaden it, and so he held very still, waiting for the smallest sound to reach his ears.

 

When it came it shot him through as sure as any sacred arrow. He felt rage, desire, and jealousy. He heard the sweet sound of Kagome moaning. He raced towards the sound, as silent as the mist. When he reached the clearing she stood in, though, what he saw made him freeze in his tracks.

 

“Oh, Sesshomaru…” Kagome said, pent-up longing released in her voice. She stood embraced by a perfect replica of himself, who was doing something he would very much like to do himself. One hand was on her back, beneath her shirt, the other cupped her chin as he delicately kissed her.

 

“I'm so sorry about before, I should have said something, I shouldn't have mentioned—” Kagome silenced as the imitation-Sesshomaru licked her bottom lip slowly. She blushed, but kissed him. From there, he began to work his way down her cheek.

 

Kagome had a torn expression on her face. “Sesshomaru… I don't… I don't care if you don't have feelings for me.” She smiled bitterly. “I can make up for the both of us, right? I just… want to be with you… because…”

 

Sesshomaru was dying to hear what she had to say, but was suddenly keenly aware of where his imitation was headed: Kagome's neck. He shot forward, grabbing his imitation by the back of his neck. Kagome screamed, and became suddenly very confused. Sesshomaru quickly killed the succubus, dropping the now un-illusioned body to the ground.

 

Kagome stared at it, going very pale. She looked up to Sesshomaru, wide-eyed and frightened, and opened her mouth to say something. She didn't say it, though, because she suddenly found herself surrounded by his arms, held tightly to him. From somewhere in her fear- and desire-stricken mind, a thought came to her.

 

Is Sesshomaru hugging me?

 

Kagome frowned. That wasn't right…. But sure enough, she looked up to see him staring down at her, a very concerned look on his face.

 

“I thought… that I had lost you…” he said, barely a whisper.

 

Kagome was unsure what he meant, but she shook her head.

 

Sesshomaru lowered his head as if to kiss her, but froze. All around them was a sudden screeching. “They found the body,” he said, and reached for his sword. He realized quickly though that there was no way to attack in all directions with Kagome there. He scooped her up, much to her surprise, and shot into the air. 20, 30 feet and finally he cleared the mist. Moments after he had reached the air, hundreds of giant bats came swooping towards them.

 

“Oh my god!” Kagome screamed, amazed at how many there were.

 

Sesshomaru touched down on the top of the next hill, which was clear on top. He set Kagome on the ground and then stood in front of her, drawing Tenseiga.

 

“MEIDOU ZANGETSUHA!!!!” He swept his sword in the direction of the bats, holding his position as he waited for the crescent-shaped path of darkness to appear.

 

Instead, there was suddenly an enormous circle where the bats had been. With a rush of air that stole the breath right out of Kagome's lungs, the bats and all of the mist were sucked into to abyss, which quickly slimmed to a tiny sliver and disappeared.

 

Kagome stood open mouthed. Was that…?

 

Sesshomaru stared at his sword. At last, he had perfected the attack. Why so suddenly, when it had taken years for him to reach the half-moon shape?

 

“Wow…” Kagome breathed.

 

And then it hit him. He sheathed his sword, frustrated, and began walking south. “We'll have to keep going.” He said simply.

 

“Wait a minute! You just perfected your attack, didn't you? Shouldn't you be… I don't know thrilled or something???” Kagome yelled after him.

 

Sesshomaru did not answer for a moment, but continued walking. “I have just lost an argument I had over two hundred years ago.”

 

Kagome caught up with him quickly. “What? What are you talking about?”

 

Sesshomaru stopped and stared at the girl whose life he had just saved. “Before he died, my father told me I would never know true power unless I had a need for it—and that need must be something to protect. I told him that was weak and ridiculous. He left, and I never saw him again. I thought I had won, that his death had proved my point.”

 

Kagome thought about that for a moment. As usual, Sesshomaru wasn't saying everything, expecting her to work it out. So, he was angry because his father had been right and the only reason he had perfected it was because he had been protecting her?

 

“Isn't that just how the sword works? Like, you can't wield tetsusaiga properly unless you're protecting someone? It wouldn't even transform for InuYasha until he said he would protect me.”

 

Sesshomaru snorted delicately. “InuYasha would like to think that, but as you yourself have witnessed, I was perfectly capable of performing the Kaze no Kizu without any intentions of protection whatsoever.”

 

Kagome remembered that, a little too clearly. With the aid of a human arm given to him by Naraku, Sesshomaru had nearly killed her, InuYasha and Miroku in one fell swoop. “But I thought…” she was very confused.

 

“The tenseiga and tetsusaiga are very powerful swords, and difficult to wield. Only by protecting you was InuYasha capable of the merest use of its powers.”

 

“Oh.” So it was not the sword, but the person holding it which gained power by protecting. That would explain how InuYasha had continued to increase his abilities, even after she no longer technically needed protecting. He just got better the hard way. Kagome looked up to see that Sesshomaru had continued walking, and was now far ahead of her. She still didn't understand why he wanted to leave all of this behind so quickly. She remembered the look on his face after he had rescued her, and wondered where that had gone. Had he forgotten? Or maybe he regretted it, and hoped she would forget? She sighed, giving Sesshomaru a good distance as she contemplated the emotional rollercoaster traveling with him had put her on.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

AN

 

If you couldn't tell from the presence of a certain now-deceased character,(I won't spoil it) it is now terribly obvious that this story is not current with the manga. Honestly, I don't care.