InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Lambent Passions ❯ anodyne ( Chapter 1 )

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Title: Lambent Passions
Author: Gladiel
Series: Inuyasha
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama
Rating: PG-13
Summary: AU – For every light there is a shadow and in passion, an equal malevolence. An emperor with a passion for war, a demon with a passion for domination, and a woman with a passion for revenge. Three beings found themselves tied by fate to a web of complexity, the disordered state of sensations, where passion may just be the most dangerous and dominant of all. (SessKag)

He had, for five days, been traveling by foot and he assumed he had finally entered the Yumikoshi Valley of the North. The change in climate was not yet distinctively evident for the valley laid in the southernmost division of the Northern Kingdom and it remained relatively warm. It had been twelve days since he had a proper bath (and a proper meal); he felt filthy beneath robes that were once very pleasing to the skin but was now stained with soot. He was sweating and an indication of fatigue was catching up to him. This was not the state he wanted to find himself in. He may have frequented such traveling but he preferred to keep a sense of general cleanliness. This gratification he was robbed of due to past unfortunate incidents. He now had the determination to find a river and bathe to his heart’s content.

The geography of valleys was not unknown to him and he knew there was bound to be a river somewhere. He had heard the sound of a falling river hence he decided to change the direction of his travel in order to gain the satisfaction of a proper bath. Upon his entrance to the valley, he was able to witness the splendor of a gift from a being far mightier than demons. He found no joy in the beauty of the forest, its obvious fecundity, and its evident potentialities. He found no joy in witnessing the thriving greenery, the beasts that lurked, and the general sensation of freshness it emitted. He could not comprehend why the gods would let that man be gifted with such land when he knew he himself would prove to be a better master.

The frustration that came forth from this masked disdain simply increased the negativity in his equanimity, thereby shortening his forbearance. He remembered the incident days ago as he was forced to take a direction separate from Jaken’s and the absence of his loyal advisor—or rather, subordinate—worried him slightly. He trusted the toad-like demon would meet him at his future destination, the capital of the North, and avoid troubles that he may collide with. He knew Jaken well and Jaken was a careful creature that the faithful imp would most probably encounter fewer problems than himself.

He could now perceive clearer sounds of a nearby waterfall. Because he found cleanliness an utmost importance he quickened his pace, but not with less care. The sight that greeted his senses was an embodiment of nature’s perfection: a river fell from higher ground into a pool of tranquil waters surrounded by the lushness of trees and a diversity of plants. Afternoon sunlight, welcomed by this opening, graced from the heavens and blessed the seen and unseen creatures that barely fought for its attention. He found himself comparing this abundance of magnificence to the barren deserts of the West, where the wealth of water was scarce. He remembered his own land, lacking the fertility of ancient trees and foliage, and felt envy. This was the ideal he wanted to achieve and at that moment, that aspiration seemed too distant to attain. However, he reminded himself that he was the Lord of the Western Lands, first son to the Inu no Taisho, and the lord demon who won his first battle at the age of thirteen. He had nothing to doubt regarding his abilities to achieve worldly ambitions. No, he would not let petty thoughts discourage him from a goal so immense, having equal importance.

Taking a swift scan of his surroundings, he spotted a woman emerging from the water and walking towards a pile of dry clothes on the opposite bank of the river, evidence of a recent bath still clinging onto her body. Her long, ebony hair covered what must be the whiteness of a smooth back. From his perspective, her body had not yet reached its maturity. She was probably at a young age of fifteen or sixteen and still at the stage of teenage puberty.

She probably felt a gaze directed towards her that she quickly covered herself with a loose robe and turned around, black crashing into gold. There was a slight gasp of surprise, having proved her suspicions about being scrutinized rather intently. A crimson blush spread over her child-like face. The mien of embarrassment was soon driven away by an angry glare directed at him. Apparently, the girl found his reaction to her presence rude. Her immediate reaction he found annoying rather than amusing for he found it ridiculous for a human girl to care for trivial things. It was she who was carelessly bathing in an open space, her actions certain of the absence of any foreign presence. It was not as if he had an evil intent at his approach. All things considered, he cared for nothing but a bath.

So now that he had that temporary goal at hand, he dismissed her presence and directed his steps toward a hill of rocks not too far from the waterfall. It would give him distance from the human girl as well as provide him with a much-welcome privacy. The ritual was done in a noble silence that the girl directed her attention and curiosity towards him. He was aware of her following gaze but since he felt neither desire to hurt nor any malevolent intentions, he left her alone. She was, after all, but a human girl. It did not take too long before her presence disappeared into the forest, in the direction of wherever her home was.

He relaxed under the slow current of the water. His body, now submerged, welcomed the coolness of the sapphire basin and for a while felt content. Silver strands of hair stuck to his forehead, the attraction caused by water, and made way for imperfection in his vision. As he lifted his right hand and pushed his hair backward, he felt an alien presence in the vicinity of the area. However, the noise of the falling river as well as vagueness of scents caused by water weakened the lucidity of his senses. He jumped to the pile of rocks in order to have a better view of his surroundings.

There was a sudden splash and he saw the girl again, a meager being emerging from the thickness of trees, running then soon swimming in the very same body of water as him, a swift density of blackness following behind her.

Foolish girl. She was an idiot for leaving the security of her home, facing the many possibilities of encountering predators that loved to feast on humans, especially young virgins.

But soon he noticed that what had once seemed to him a swift density of blackness was now a floating blob of stretched darkness in the water, obviously struggling to avoid being swept away even by a slow current. Ah, so the demon’s weakness was water. It was not an unseen blur anymore for its speed greatly decreased to a slow pace similar to a snail’s. It was, however, stubborn and driven by hunger that it continued to pursue the girl. Although, he knew, by the time it reached land, the girl would have already escaped and hid herself in some haven.

The girl, he noticed, was still swimming with little difficulty and was headed towards the bank opposite the side she came from—the very side where he now stood. He wondered if she purposely did it or if it was one of those things humans did because of danger.

Certainly, no human would purposely approach a demon.

Because the girl for a moment held his attention, he did not react fast enough to a sudden attack from behind. Slightly slowed by the weight of his wet hair (and asking himself for the fourteenth time why the hell did he keep his hair long), the black thing managed to scrape his arm.

So that dark density chasing the girl had a companion? Those inferior beings may not be so stupid after all.

He admitted that it (for he was unfamiliar to the nature of this demon, having spent almost all of his life in the West) had speed that amazed him. He was from the race of dog demons and although they prided themselves with outstanding agility, there still exists a few who could be able to outrun them. Apparently this demon was one of those few.

But speed alone won’t gift any demon victory. Preparing to strike, he readied his claws, evading the sudden offensive attacks from his opponent. He tried to constrict its movements with his tail-like extension but he was too slow.

He was too slow. The fact was so damnable, it irked him to no end. He swore he would definitely put an end to that problem, come a proper time.

His opponent, it seemed, only had sharp teeth for attacking. He did not notice any claws or weapons. Not that he was able to make anything out of that black blob. He couldn’t even distinguish where the head was positioned.

He regretted losing his Tenseiga in a previous fight from the Northern Emperor’s spies.

He had to think of a strategy. He could not go to the river; the other demon was driving him back to the forest, attacking his left and right, as well as his front in order to limit his movements and direction. Sensing a great tree behind him, he waited for the expected charge from his opponent. He evaded at the exact time and the concentration of blackness collided with the strength of a very thick tree trunk. In a swift momentum, he thrust his claw into the unmoving darkness.

He was greeted with an explosion.

Kagome had just emerged from the water. Her predator won’t be reaching the side where she stood until after two or three more hours. Just when she thought she could now go back and perhaps, give herself the privilege of sleep, she heard a the sudden outburst of an explosion. The ground shook; birds screamed and flew towards the heavens in a frantic craze, desperately trying to escape the claws of danger.

“Dammit.”

It must have been the other demon. She saw him fight one of those black demons that had no face, no body, except for a mouth. She assumed the other silver-haired demon (who, she remembered, rudely scrutinized her person) was a foreigner from the East, West or even from the South. She was certain he or she, or whatever its gender was, not from anywhere near the valley. Everybody knew that Okoros explode when its heart is pierced by anything. That foreign demon must have unluckily hit the jackpot.

She wanted to leave him there. She may not hate all demons but she distrusted them. However, she felt compelled to help. She felt indebted for if he had not been seen as a suitable meal by the other Okoro, she would have been lying deep in the stomach of one of those things by now.

An explosion from an Okoro is enough to kill a human but she knew not the effect on demons. She headed towards the place where the sound came from and decided that if he was alive and in need of another’s help, she would be of use.

She found him sprawled on the ground, surrounded by green and black derbies, some from the Okoro while others from plants as well as any unfortunate animal hit by the accident. The space was cleared of trees and the ground, which from perfection transformed into an uneven shallow basin. She had a better view of the demon’s face and realized that he really was a he. He emitted a grace of elegance but that face was surely of masculine beauty.

Suddenly remembering the reason why she came, she kneeled down beside the knocked-out body, ignoring the fact that she would once again be dirtied soon after a bath. He was breathing heavily and his left side, somewhere below the ribs, was bleeding badly. He may have tried to evade the Okoro’s organic bomb but was, unfortunately, unsuccessful. He had small other wounds but nothing as serious as the one at his left. His clothing was in a bad condition, some parts in shreds or was cut, but a good portion of it was still intact and served its purpose. Whatever it was he wore, another who was as powerful enchanted it. His armor, however, remained intact.

He did not want to die. That much she knew. She could feel the fierce tug of her gift as well as the life energy around her. He was, she assumed, a powerful demon with great importance for she felt herself automatically submitting under his body’s natural demands. It demanded for life and that life she could help heal.

“I just wish I won’t faint,” Kagome muttered to herself. “To my pride, it would be most hurtful.”

The process of healing, she thought, may possibly take hours. This was the first time she tried to heal a demon this fully-grown. She hoped that the current would drag the Okoro she left in the river. She folded her knees, straightened her back, and closed her eyes. Her senses heard the falling of the waterfall and the stillness in the surrounding area. The death of the Okoro has driven most of the inhabitants of the forest in fear. She could feel the trickle of water behind her back, the dampness of her skin, bloodstained ground, as well and the arrival of the arrival of cool breezes. She tried to clear her mind and focus her aura into reaching out to the demon’s.

The events that happened next were a blur for her. She felt released from the traps of time, giving her the sensation of freedom as well as death. The moment the essence of her soul touched his, a shock reverberated throughout her body, followed by a jolt of pain and a forceful tug of her very life force. There was an instant second where she was deprived of the liberty of taking in air that she felt his determination to live was too much for any mere human to handle.

The pain, the exaltation of life, and the visitation of death happened simultaneously and it was over in an instant. Her eyes opened wide and for the second time, met with a pool of golden ones. She was greeted with a gaze indifferent and cold and all she could reply was, “My debt is…paid.”

Then the demon witnessed her body lose its strength and collapse to the ground.

In his unconscious state, he felt ware of the brimming grace of life that waited to overflow beside him. He had not experienced such terrible distress in a long time. He was in no condition to move and a staggering pain at his left almost overwhelmed him.

He could not die. Not yet. He had a dream to fulfill and there was no glory in dying defeated by another who was as good as dead. He stubbornly tried to pry open the bottled life that hovered beside him. He needed a healing. He desired life with determination that when the bottle was opened, he drowned himself with it.

Life strangled him, forced him to submit, outshined him, and strived for dominance over fatality. He welcomed it, bathed under its goodness, unaware of a suffering being paying for his recovery.

The moment he felt he could open his eyes, he immediately tried to do so. He had to exert a little effort for his sense of sight to come into realization. The first thing he saw was the wideness of another pair of black ones. It was followed by the remark, “My debt is…paid,” before he saw her body fall on the ground. It was the girl whom he saw earlier. He was unsure of the events that happened concerning her but right now, his recovery was most important.

He moved his fingers then stretched his arm. He brought his hand to the location of his former wound beneath his ribs. His clothing was shredded and the bleeding stopped; there was only a slight lingering pain in the area. He noticed minor cuts on his arm and body had disappeared and when he made the attempt to sit up, he was able to do so.

He questioned his miraculous recovery. Was it because of the girl now lying beside him? The speed of healing varies per demon and in his case, it usually took three or four days for wounds such as those he recently received to heal.

He felt a renewed disgust at his weakness. He found no comfort in the realization that a human helped him, much less the fact that he, a demon lord, owed a human something.

He had no obligation to help the girl. Did she not say herself that her debt was already paid? Why could he not dismiss the feeling of being compelled to bring her, at, least to safety from the other black demon that she was once fleeing?

Desperate to silence a screaming conscience, he stood up, lifted the girl, and pulled her ungraciously over his right shoulder. He felt a temporary rejuvenation of his strength spreading all over his body that his first attempt to use his legs with speed was a success.

His direction was to the other side of the river. Regardless of the possible presence of the other black demon, he went back. It was nowhere in sight and since he could not feel the demon’s presence any longer, he concluded that it was drifted away by the current.

From the hill of rocks, he jumped across the wide azure hue. He continued on running at a swift pace until he chanced upon a hut. Afternoon was soon to hand over the command of the sky to Evening. He was aware that, despite having the strength to run with a girl on his shoulders, he was not in the condition to fight. His body still fatigued by the afternoon’s events demanded rest. He decided that for that one day, he would not mind spending the night at a hut inhabited by a human.

The wooden shed was cold but it did not bother him. Warmth was something he did not exactly need at the moment. He entered the uninhabited hut, ungentlemanly dropped the girl on the ground at the farthest corner of the room, and sat down near the door. Soon, he submitted to the lullabies of a deep slumber.

Outside, the screeching of crows could be heard.