InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ No more, Please ❯ Chapter 8

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

Sorry it's been a while, I've been very sick, I tend to get very weak and have chronic headaches in the wintertime so I am very happy spring is on it's way. And a family member is now dying in the hospital because of brain cancer so I just didn't have the energy to write with that on top of everything else.

I have had this chapter done in my notebook for a while, just didn't have the energy to type it up.

First of all since this is going to be discussed in the first paragraph I am going to explain about the Winter solstice and it's significance in ancient Nippon (although the celebration is just barely touched on in the story but I am a nerd so :P).

Yes, another thing I researched on wikipedia. ALL HAIL WIKIPEDIA!!!!!

Disclaimer: this info right here belongs to wikipedia and to whomever wrote it for us to read ^_^
winter solstice occurs at the instant when the Sun's position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observer's hemisphere. The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in the reversal of the gradually lengthening nights and shortening days. (in english: the shortest day of the winter and the longest night)
In the Japan they held the Amaterasu celebration, Requiem of the Dead (dates back to the 7th century). In late seventh century Japan, festivities were held to celebrate the reemergence of Amaterasu or Amateras, the sun goddess of Japanese mythology, from her seclusion in a cave. Tricked by the other gods with a loud celebration, she peeks out to look and finds the image of herself in a mirror and is convinced by the other gods to return, bringing sunlight back to the universe. Requiems for the dead were held and Manzai (style of stand-up comedy in Japan, which usually involves two performers–a straight man, called a tsukkomi, and a funny man, called a boke–trading jokes at great speed. Most of the jokes revolve around mutual misunderstandings, double-talk, puns and other verbal gags. ex. Abbot and Costello) and Shishimai (ritual dancer[s] wearing a lion mask) were performed throughout the night, awaiting the sunrise. Aspects of this tradition have continued to this day on New Years.>
So there is your Japanese history lesson for today since this celebration is roughly 1400 years old ^_^
Disclaimer: I don't own the Inuyasha characters, the ones I made up are mine though :)

Well here's the next chapter in my story.

Now on with the show.

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She hated being human. That had been her silent declaration every time she turned human. She hated it. Hikari didn't mind the darker hair, the poor human eyesight, the weakness of her limbs, the inability to retain body heat. What she hated was sitting in her room for fourteen days, the winter solstice dead center in the middle of them, unable to even go out of her room for fear someone would try to kill her now that she was unable to protect herself. Therefore missing out on all the festivities and plays and parties that she would have otherwise joined in on.

They had left the Western fortress in the morning, just like her father had told her they would. She didn't see Lord Sesshoumaru all morning, and she really didn't want to. Hikari was almost afraid she would hit him again out of anger. She had never lost control of her temper before, she had infallible patience and the fact that she lost it and slapped the lord of the Western lands scared her a bit. She had hugged Rin goodbye and promised she could come visit her whenever Lord Sesshoumaru allowed. Her father hadn't said much during the trip home but he had said to her that he was not overly disappointed since it would be neigh impossible for any female, youkai or hanyou, to gain the affections of the Western lord. So much to her relief, for once she was not punished for failing to secure a mate.

Hikari sighed for the fifth time that morning, laying on her stomach on the floor in front of the fireplace, attempting to write in her journal. She had already filled the pages with the time she had spent with Sesshoumaru and Rin. Even including her rather uncharacteristic loss of temper, aka, slapping Sesshoumaru. So now Hikari was trying to think of what she could write about next to further occupy her time.

With another sigh after a few more minutes, this time in defeat, she grabbed her journal and slid herself across the smooth stone floors until she was under her bed. Giving a small grunt she pushed a large floor slab out of the way to open up her special hiding spot. Counting the journals that were lined up neatly with her fingertips, she placed the one she had been writing in on the end and crawled to the other side of the slab to push it back over the hole before crawling out from under her bed.

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"Hikari? Where are you?"

She did her best to stifle a giggle as she popped out from under her bed and nipped her big brothers' ankle.

He merely laughed and picked her up, swinging her around before resting the little child on his hip. "What were you doing under the bed little lady?"

"Hiding things."

He gave her a raised eyebrow, "hiding things? Now what could you have that needs hiding," he gave her neck a tickle, "come with me, your mother has been looking for you, you shouldn't worry her, it's time for lunch."

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She shook her head, her dark brown hair shaking with the abrupt movement, brushing away the sudden feeling of dejaveu and a childhood she would give anything to relive.

"I miss you brother," she whispered to herself as she grabbed a blanket and huddled up by the fire to wait out the next several days of solitude in her human form before having to endure another of her fathers attempts in helping her find a mate. She wasn't sure what she hated more, being human or being unwanted as a mate.

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"Ah, here is my lovely daughter!" Her father exclaimed as she walked into his library.

'Not the least bit rehearsed,' she said to herself sarcastically. On the outside she simply smiled politely, batting her eyelashes ever so slightly in feigned shyness.

Hikari did her best to pretend to be interested in this lord her father had invited over, to meet her of course. She smiled politely and bowed when introduced to the lord, sat quietly on the cushion next to her father where she always sat and pretended to be interested in their conversation. It was a routine that had become tiresome.

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Hikari felt so rediculously nervous. Her father had said that he had someone he wanted her to meet, a male someone, specifically a male someone who was curious about her and 'interested' in having her as their mate. Just that thought alone made her stomach churn. It had only been five years since Temero died and already he was trying to find her a mate. Five years was not nearly enough time to grieve in her opinion.

'But then I'm not allowed opinions anymore am I.' She thought to herself angrily, 'I am just supposed to look pretty and say and do the right things like father told me to.'

She sat quietly as the servants fixed her hair, face paints, and kimono. All the while silently wishing that she could suddenly fall ill so that she could avoid this male her father had invited over.

Unfortunately she did not fall suddenly and unexplicably ill and had to make her way through the halls to her father's library.

She didn't mind Lord Haruko, he was curteous, charming, and fairly handsome. He even tried to include her in the conversation between him and her father, asking her opinion from time to time which was a nice change. Although he was a little forward, holding her hand for most of the afternoon, but she excused it as him perhaps simply having an affectionate nature.

So that evening, the first evening he was there, Hikari decided to think nothing of it when he chose to escort her to her chamber after dinner. She did however notice that his grip on her arm was unusually firm, as if he expected her to run away from him. That confused her, he had done nothing that would repel her in any way. If her father intended for her to be this lord's mate she would have little argement against.

When they walked past her door, him nearly pulling her arm from it's socket when she stopped and he didn't, the warning bells started to go off.

"My lord that was my chambers we just passed. I would like to retire for the night," she told him as softly and as meekly as she could, she didn't want to insult him after all, perhaps he simply did not notice her stop since he was so much stronger than her.

He smirked at her and turned to take them down the hall that lead to his rooms.

"My Lord it would be improper for me to be in your chambers at such a late hour," she objected quietly as he 'encouraged' her into the room.

He shushed her and led her to the pile of cushions in the corner and sat her down next to him. Hikari was about to put forth another objection when in about a blink of an eye she was underneath him with his fangs pressing against her neck, preventing any large movements from her.

Hikari felt a sort of shock at his actions and for a moment laid very still, trying to understand what had just happened. The hands roughly groping her and opening her kimono woke her from the shock and brought in the panic. She tried to squirm away from his hands but quickly stopped that as he pressed his fangs harder against her jugular.

Hikari squeezed her eyes tight and laid still, flinching when he ripped open her kimono, not caring if he scratched her in the process. She cracked an eye open when he removed his teeth from her throat and put his hand in its' place. He looked down to undress himself and Hikari wasn't about to waste a chance. She bucked her hips up, surprising and dislodging him slightly, just before turning her head and digging her fangs into his arm despite the feeling of his claws pricking her throat.

He jerked his arm away from her mouth, freeing Hikari from his claws, and with one more hard buck from her hips she shoved him off and ran out of the room. Speeding down the halls while trying to hold her kimono closed.

She fled to the only sanctuary she had left, her father.

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Hikari sat at the dinner table and smiled in a melancholy sort of way. She learned very quickly that she was not to deny the potential 'suitors' anything. Her father had locked her in a dank room she did not even know existed. A room with four stone walls and no windows, a big thick wooden door, and the only furniture was a weathered old table and a bucket. Sleeping in there for several days was something she was not keen on doing again.

She quietly let the Lord lead her to his room and to his bed. She was used to this now, and merely retreated to her memories, they had never cared on whether or not she actively participated and Hikari had become so good at retreating to her memories that she hardly felt a thing.

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Lord Toro... Toro-something flopped onto his back off of Hikari and she suppressed the urge to glare or sigh and roll her eyes. she knew she shouldn't be so surprised that she had been left sore and feeling used.

She had chosen to relive a more recent memory, instead of an older one of her brother like she usually did, one of her and Lord Sesshoumaru in his private library. He had, after a little prodding, consented to tell her the story of the battle with Naraku. she remembered so clearly his voice, the way the expression in his eyes would change ever so slightly as he got to certain parts of the narrative. And especially his scent, how the whole room smelled of him.

Lord Full-name-not-important-enough-to-remember finishing was not what had brought her out of her reverie, sometimes she would remain in her memories for hours afterwards. Him speaking had drawn her attention and interrupted her thoughts, which was very rude in Hikari's opinion.

"...so I shall speak with your father in the morning."

Hikari blinked and turned her head to look at him, "hmm?"

He laughed, "perhaps I should have spoken after you came back down, hmm? Glad to know you enjoyed yourself."

'Sure, you think that,' Hikari thought, along with several profanities she had learned from Temero. She smiled and looked away, feigning embarrassment.

He grinned and laughed again. "I was saying that I already have an heir that is a full youkai. And although you are only a hanyou, and any pups from us would have to be disposed of," he said as if it were nothing, "your body is pleasing to me and you are very well-behaved. So I shall speak with your father in the morning to arrange when we shall have the mating ceremony and move you to my home in the mountains." He rolled over putting his back to her and was almost instantly asleep, snoring loudly.

Hikari felt her heart slow and the blood drain from her face. 'No' she felt panic rising within her, 'please no'. the cuts from his claws and fangs began to throb, letting her know just what she would get for the rest of her nearly immortal life. Generally she waited until her bath afterwards to do an inventory of her injuries. Suddenly she was acutely aware of them. being his mate meant more nights of this, of being left hurting and unsatisfied.

She quietly got up and left for her room like she always did. 'Please no, no more of that.' Hikari lowered herself into the bath a servant had just finished preparing. She hissed as the soap made contact with one of the bites. 'Will I ever even heal if I'm his mate?' She knew the answer to that. She was in for a life of being talked down to and treated poorly because of her human blood. Having servants that hated her, the ones here were only kind to her out of respect for her brother.

She buried her face in her knees and cried.

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Oookay...... that felt depressing, for me at least, I dunno about you guys. don't worry though, things'll get better for Hikari. Please don't be mad at me *cowers*