InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ New Dawn ❯ Shattered Reality ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Sesshomaru or anyone from the hit anime/manga series Inuyasha. I do own all original characters in this book.


Chapter Three: Shattered Reality

Sesshomaru was running. He didn't know how he had escaped only that he was out and he wasn't going back. Memories of the past few weeks, (had it really been that short a time?), kept rising in his mind spurring him on to greater speeds.

He awakened to a bright light shinning in his eyes. He tried to raise a hand to shield his eyes from the offending rays but found he couldn't. Several attempts produced nothing and it wasn't just his arms, his legs, his torso, and even his head weren't able to move.

He was helpless.

Fear once again made its presence known as he struggled to free himself. He could feel the restraints that held him immobile. He then registered a beeping sound, a strange tone that sounded harsh to his sensitive ears. It was occurring faster now. Rapid footsteps approached and the dog demon pulled all the harder at his shackles, ignoring the pain in his determination to break free. His nose barely detected anything, having been burned by the chemical scents in the air, but it did tell him the approaching being was human.

His shackles didn't budge a millimeter. He closed his eyes as he gave one last mighty tug. A popping sound greeted his last effort then he gasped and his pale skin became slick with sweat as pain lanced through his body. He had successfully dislocated his left shoulder. He stopped and panted from his futile effort.

A shadow crossed his eyes and he opened them. A masked face looked down at him and he stared back in defiance. The human's eyes were the only thing visible through the white cloth that covered head, mouth, and nose. The human said something that meant nothing to Sesshomaru and he remained silent while glaring death at his captor. The human repeated his statement that still was untranslatable and the demon remained silent. The human shook his head and Sesshomaru saw his brown eyes narrow as if frustrated.

He felt the human begin to probe his injured shoulder with less than gentle fingers and suppressed an urge to wince. He couldn't help the gasp as the joint was roughly pushed back into place. The human said something else; there was more force in the words, more command, but it still meant nothing to the golden-eyed demon. He kept quiet. The human shouted angry words at the snow-haired demon, still nothing. The human said one more thing, it held a threat, the demon could here it in the tone, but still he could not answer. He still had not idea what the human was muttering, maybe if he took off the mask...

An unbelievable pain shot through Sesshomaru's body and he screamed. Nothing in his life, nothing, had prepared him for the agony that ripped through his body. Not the time he had his arm cut off during the battle for Tetsusaiga, not the time he had been hit by the Wind Scar while fighting his younger brother, not the time he had been hit by the Dragon Destruction Wave while fighting Shou'unga, nothing had prepared him. For the first time in his life, the Lord of the Western Lands begged for mercy.

And he got it.

The pain ended as abruptly as it had begun. The human approached as Sesshomaru gasped, every nerve tingling from the shock. He looked down at the demon and asked a question, Sesshomaru could hear the smugness in his speech. He didn't care, he now knew what the human was capable of, that still didn't change the fact he couldn't understand a word the human was saying.

"What do you want from me?" he asked his voice hoarse. The human glared and snarled something. The dog demon responded hurriedly, "I can't understand you!" It didn't help. The pain returned until Sesshomaru slipped once again into the folds of unconsciousness.

*******--------

Sesshomaru sat curled up on the cot. They had moved him from the "interrogation room", as they called it, and put him in here. Someone had finally figured out that there was an honest language barrier and stopped the attacks, but not before the arrogant demon had been rendered to groveling coward, begging to be spared the agony they inflicted when he couldn't answer their single question. He had figured out sooner the human couldn't understand him but the human had had to be told that Sesshomaru couldn't understand him.

'I'll kill him!' he thought. 'I have the human's scent. I'll know him when we meet again and I'll kill him!'

He stared at the barrier from over the large pillow he crushed against his chest. He now wore a plain white kimono of a style that forced him to pull it over his head rather than slip it around his shoulder. The strange white hakama had a stretching waistband that didn't need to be tied in place. He wondered what happened to his clothes and his sword Tenseiga. He was sure he still had it when he was dragged out of the ocean.

'It better still be intact,' thought the demon as he growled into the pillow.

The barrier he was staring at was no more substantial than air except that it had a faint red glow. He was surrounded on five sides, three walls, a ceiling and a floor, by a material harder than stone. The fourth wall was open except for the barrier that prevented his escape. He had tried it the first day and had been hurled backward into the wall, body twitching uncontrollably for several minutes.

He then learned that they put the barrier down when someone else needed to enter. They only entered when they thought he was asleep and clear out what ever mess there was in the room. There never was much of one. Sesshomaru couldn't stand living in filth. He let them come in without stirring, watching them through his eyelashes. Then one day he had launched himself out the opening. He didn't get far before a stifled sound carried through the air at the same time a sharp pain blossomed in his legs. A couple bloomed in his abdomen and one in his shoulder. He staggered and his legs took a few more hits before he fell forward. A whistle and sharp pain in his neck was the last thing he felt before falling unconscious.

They had healed his wounds then strapped to the hated table for another round with the nameless agony. This time they were reminding him who was in control. It defied all logic! Demons at the mercy of humans, it was an outrage but, at that moment, it was fact. He gripped the pillow harder as he tried to figure out how humans had been allowed to advance so far. How had they become greater than demons? He had no answers, it was just a fact.

He stared at the barrier; he could see the guards with their strange weapons he knew were very dangerous. He glared death at them, they didn't even squirm. They had no fear of him, they knew they were in control, and it only served to anger him more. 'I kill them all!'

Someone stepped up to the boundary and it went down. The dog demon blinked in surprise, it was a priestess and she was properly dressed for her station with a white kimono and red hakama. Her black hair, laced with gray, was tied back. Spiritual energy radiated from her form, she was powerful. She stepped in as the guards pointed their weapons at Sesshomaru. He focused his attention of the priestess, wondering what she wanted.

"Greetings, Lord of the Western Lands," she said. "I am Akima Higurashi, head priestess of Higurashi shrine." He blinked at her, her accent was barbaric and her pronunciation horrific but she was at least speaking his tongue. She even seemed to know who he was.

"What business do you have with me, Priestess Higurashi?" he demanded as he sat up straighter. It was her turn to blink as she realized the differences in pronunciation and accent but still she understood him, or at least enough to answer.

"Many priests and priestesses were summoned in attempt to find out what language you spoke so that those holding you here would be able to talk to you, Sesshomaru."

"You did not answer my question, Priestess."

"I am here to tell you the way things are in today's world."

"You mean you are here to tell me humans are superior to demons," snarled Sesshomaru, gold eyes flashing anger.

"Unfortunately, yes, I am," she replied, her expression on changing, though, her words held disgust.

He was surprised. 'Does she think it wrong, as well?'

"Sesshomaru, I must ask you to restrain your anger. As humiliating as this is, you must bide your time and act decisively when the opportunity arrives. The people here are taking their orders from someone else." She turned to leave as he stared at her in surprise and wonder. She paused and said over her shoulder, "I will be taking Tenseiga to the shrine. It will reside there with its brother until needed."

She then left without another word.

*****-------

He was back on the table.

They had come into his room and stunned him, and now he was back on the table. He didn't know why and he was ashamed of the sense of terror he felt rising in him. He had been following Priestess Higurashi's advice; it was perfectly logical and he almost hated himself for not remembering it earlier. He could bide his time, what was time to a demon anyway? However, was he going to be given the time to bide?

They put a clear, stiff mask over his mouth and nose. The annoying beeping was back but it seemed to be the least of his problems. What the hell were they going to do to him? A prick in his arm followed by the sensation of something entering it caused him to growl. It was an empty threat; they knew he couldn't do anything to them. Slowly consciousness left him as humans, dressed like the first, leaned over him.

'What are they going to do?' he thought as everything faded away.

He awoke back on his cot but felt sick and dizzy. His head hurt and his mind was in a stupor. He tried to get up but fell to the floor instead. The room spun around his head and the only thing he attempted was to get back on the cot to wait out the sickness.

He couldn't find it. He reached to where he saw it only to miss. He was sure he looked ridiculous as he tried to return to his bed and was certain he heard laughter from the other side of the barrier. He didn't care; he would get his revenge but now was not the time. Let them laugh for now, one day they would cringe at the mere mention of his name again. One day they would be sorry. He managed to grab hold of the cot's edge, (how did it get to be so far away?), and pulled himself onto it. He fell into a restless sleep.

*****--------

It had been a harrowing escape for him. For some reason, the power had failed in the building. The dark had not bothered him and, realizing the barrier was down, he had fled into the hall searching for the exit. It had been easy to get past the confused guards; they didn't dare shoot in the dark for fear of hitting their comrade. He eventually found a window and shattered it with his energy whip that he summoned with his demon power.

He grinned, that was something they couldn't take from him, his power. He had landed on the roof of another building and ran. He barely noticed the dome over the strange vertical city, he just ran for the edge of it. He crashed through a check point that had been left without power as well and fled into the land beyond. The confused security never knew what hit them.

Sesshomaru was running. He ran through the strange plants that grew beyond the road. Their huge leaves slapping him in the chest and face as he ran. He wasn't going to stop; he wasn't going to go back to that place. He would keep running until he found Higurashi shrine. How far away could it be? He would go there and retrieve Tenseiga and claim Tetsusaiga; she had said Tenseiga's brother, Tetsusaiga was there, as well. He wondered if the sword would accept him this time. He remembered the first time he had tried to claim it, the sword had rejected him. A spell on the sword caused it to burn the hands of any full demon who dared to touch it. Was that spell still on the sword? Would he be able to wield it?

He shook his head of the troubling thoughts. 'I will deal with that when I reach Higurashi shrine,' he thought, 'and not a moment before.'

As dawn broke the leaves of the strange plants reached to the sky and then curled up into a small, tight ball. Weird silver-blue base leaves closed over the curled black-blue leaves. When the sun broke the horizon it saw nothing but a barren plain uniformly littered with silver-blue balls. Sesshomaru was shocked and stopped to look around. The city was no longer in sight, nothing was in fact. Barren land and silver balls were stretched from horizon to horizon.

Absorbing the horrifying image he started forward again. What else could he do? He couldn't go back, there was only forward.

*****--------

"Is he away?"

"Yes, Priestess Higurashi."

"Does Lord Augustus know about our involvement?"

"No, we were careful."

"Good," said Akima as she turned from her acolyte.

"Priestess Higurashi?" started the acolyte and she nervously pulled on a lock of brown hair.

"Yes?"

"Will he survive? The sun is up."

Akima looked out her window at the domed city. Filtered sunlight danced through the city streets as people went about their business. She saw a kitsune barely dodge a speeding vehicle that had run a red light. She glared at the vehicle and seethed. She despised the society that had regulated demons the underclass; the ones that were always abused but never had a voice to speak against such abuses.

"He will survive, Annette," she replied. "He is a true demon. He will survive what we and the demons cannot. He will change the world; for better or for worse, justice must be served."

"Ay, Priestess," Annette responded and bowed her head.

"Mind you, Sesshomaru, the revenge you seek will not come for some time and you will face many trials before it happens. You cannot master this world alone, and in the end you will want something different from what now desire," she whispered in the ancient, forgotten language of the lost islands of Japan.

*****-------

Sesshomaru didn't think he could go on any more. The sun brutally stole moisture from his skin and the silver leaf balls reflected the punishing rays beneath any attempt to shade his face. He was no longer running; he was barely standing as he staggered forward. Finally his strength gave way and he collapsed.

'What has happened to this world?' he wondered. 'Where am I? Where are the forests? Where are the rivers? Where are the mountains?' He felt his mind leaving and knew if he fell asleep he would never awaken. As his vision faded something appeared. A pair of feet stood before him, then the person knelt down and he looked up and saw her face.

"Rin?" he gasped. She touched his forehead, it felt so real, and then she stood again, reaching a hand down to him to help him up. Sesshomaru pushed himself up and stretched to meet her hand with his. He staggered to his feet as the vision of Rin disappeared. He looked around for her. 'Was I dreaming?' he wondered then he saw something in the distance. He saw a shadow in the shimmering heat.

It was enough. He moved as fast as he could toward the shadow that slowly grew larger as he approached. It was very large. The white hull of the strange thing that looked like a mockery of an eagle was as big as his true demon form, but what he had seen was the hole in the hull that offered shade from the unrelenting sun. Without a second thought, to heat addled to think of what else might be inside such a refuge, he entered the behemoth. The shaded interior seemed a hundred times cooler to his sun-scorched flesh and, after retreating to the darkest area, he collapsed and fell unconscious.

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