InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Of Gods And Demons ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

Author Notes:

Sessoumaru and Kagome are off on a whirlwind adventure and just having a grand ol' time...not really. Well, they are on a whirlwind adventure, but 'grand ol' time' might be a bit of an overstatement.

Anyway, the end part of this chapter is sort of dark, just to warn you. It's not like SAW gruesome, it's just not real uplifting. And you know what they say: if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen...yeah, something like that.

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Kagome was just a little overwhelmed.

And by 'a little overwhelmed', she really meant she had no idea what the heck was going on or how she had gotten here and it was seriously freakin' her out.

Okay, maybe saying she was freaked out was a better description of her current mental status...whatever. One minute she was going home and the next she was walking next to Lord Sesshoumaru in search of some magic spear. It was all a little mind boggling.

Was she on drugs? She really suspected that she might be on drugs and, she noted somewhat irrelevantly, that they were not all that they cracked up to be.

"So, uh...Lord Sesshoumaru...you know where we have to go to get this spear thingy, right?" Kagome asked. She wasn't really sure what she should call him, or even if she should speak to him at all, but she supposed they had to speak to each other sometime.

Plus, she was following his lead so, he better know where the heck he was going. After all, he might have centuries to wander about aimlessly and hope to stumble upon the spear, but she definitely didn't.

"You do know where you're going right?"

He didn't respond, but she had been figuring that in stubborn taiyoukai language, that meant 'yes'.

"And how come Izanagi couldn't come with us? It seems to me that this would be a whole lot easier with him around," she said, suddenly missing the chatty god even though he was sort of a jerk.

He merely gave her a look that she could only describe as being comprised of annoyed indifference. She wasn't sure how one could manage to be both annoyed and indifferent at the same time, but he seemed to pull it off fabulously.

"Look, you might as well answer me, because I'll just keep asking if you don't," she said tiredly.

Sesshoumaru considered his options and decided that she would most likely carry out that threat to fruition if he did not answer her. "It would be dishonorable for him to forcibly retrieve that which he rightfully lost," he said.

"So, he can't take it back, but we can take it back for him?" She wanted to know.

He ignored her and continued to stare blankly in front of him as though absolutely everything was resolutely boring, and seeing as there wasn't anything being eviscerated in the immediate area, Kagome suspected that it was likely the lord was just as bored as he seemed.

"So, our job is to take the spear from whoever has it, seeing as they probably wouldn't just willingly hand it over to Izanagi, and then we can give it to him and everything will be fine?"

Again silence.

Kagome scrunched her face in concentration. "So, let me get this straight. He can't help us because it would be dishonorable to steal it back, but somehow it's considered more honorable for us to steal it and then give it to him?"

It didn't make much sense to her, but then again, most things that had to do with honor didn't make sense. She had once met a Samurai who cut off his own hand because he had accidentally sliced off his comrade's hand in the midst of a battle. When she asked him why he had done it, he said it was the only way to regain his honor.

Kagome would've just gotten the poor kid some flowers and been done with it. Who needs honor when to get it you had to cut off your own hand?

"That's really kind of stupid, you know," she said distastefully. "I'm probably gonna get stuck in the middle of some huge, epic fight over a spear, aren't I? And it's all for stupid honor. Honor isn't even a real thing! Not like arms or legs, or all the other appendages I'd like to not have chopped off because some haughty lord doesn't want to give back his spear!" She ranted, her voice going shrill.

Sesshoumaru gave her a cold glare. "I would not expect one such as yourself to understand, wench."

Well, when you find someone who DOES understand, please let me know, she thought petulantly. Maybe you and the one handed Samurai can have a little get together and try explaining it to me sometime.

"And don't call me 'wench', I have a name," she said snippily, "I thought you might like to learn it, since we'll be traveling together for at least a few days."

Again, nothing.

"It's Kagome," she muttered, "just thought you should know."

He gave no acknowledgment that he had heard her or that she even still existed.

Kagome huffed and stuck her tongue out at him, squeaking in fright whe n his previously distant gaze focused on her to give her another cold stare. She gave an apologetic laugh and picked up her pace, happily noting that she was not a bloody mass of severed limbs and disemboweled pieces.

She guessed she would be safe with him...for now. She had heard Izanagi tell him that she was not to be harmed under his care or the god would mount the taiyoukai's head on his mantel, but she wasn't so sure that really made him any less inclined to kill her. But hopefully he valued his life enough that he wouldn't harm her, and perhaps she might even learn a thing or two about the cold, demon lord.

She was almost happy, that is until she fully realized that Lord Sesshoumaru, aristocratic assassin of the west, the demon who would kill you just as soon as look at you, was her new travel companion. Which was frightening enough without the fact that her usual protector and friend, Inuyasha, had no idea she was in trouble. He still thought she was studying for her calculus exam, 500 years in the future.

Boy is he gonna go crazy when he finds out what really happened to me, she thought giddily, distracting her enough that she tripped ungracefully on a protruding root and landed awkwardly on her ankle.

"Ow," she groaned as she stumbled a few steps forward to regain her balance. She heard him...well, not really laugh, but huff in an amused sort of way.

Her face blushed bright red.

She imagined that she had probably looked embarrassingly clumsy, or possibly mentally incompetent, she wasn't sure which was better. And there he was, right behind her to witness it, all perfect and graceful and would never ever trip unless he did it on purpose, which he wouldn't because he was far too dignified and whatnot.

She wanted to stick her head in a hole and never come out. Traveling with someone so pristine was gonna give her some sort of inferiority complex, she was sure of it.

"So, uh...where's Rin and Jaken?" She asked, hoping to distract him from her humiliation. She tried not to cringe as she continued walking as if nothing happened.

He shrugged, not caring to explain their whereabouts. They were obviously not here, why should she care where he had told them to await his return?

"Okay..." She said awkwardly. "It's just weird to see you without them, I mean, aren't you wondering where Inuyasha is?"

Again he just shrugged, as if to say, 'it is of no consequence where my vile half-brother has decided to rest his pathetic body. As long as he is not fouling up my air, I am content.'

Kagome wanted to slap him.

"Well, it's a good thing you're not curious, because I have no idea where he is anyway," she mumbled to herself. She hadn't really thought about it until now, but he was going to be worried when she didn't return in a few days like she promised. How was she going to let him know she was okay? "This is all that stupid well's fault, I was supposed to go home, but it let that jerk through instead," she grumbled.

Sesshoumaru raised a brow as he glanced at her from the corner of his golden eyes. The things she was saying were strange and he very reluctantly felt an unwelcome curiosity bubbling in his chest. "You live in a well?" He asked blandly.

"No, of course not," she scowled before realizing that he wasn't trying to be mocking or funny, but that he truly did not know of the powers the well possessed and how she used them. "My home isthrough the well, I'm from the future...you didn't know that? Weird, I guess I just always thought you would have figured it out somehow."

Now that she thought about it, why had she figured he would know she was from the future? It wasn't exactly a deduction one commonly made on their own.

I say, that girl is quite strange.

Yes, I concur.

She must be from the future!

Undoubtedly!

Kagome mentally shook herself and vowed to stop having fake conversations in her head.

"You speak nonsense," Sesshoumaru decided after a moment's contemplation. A well that delivered this annoying girl from the future? Impossible.

Kagome huffed. "I do not! I really am from the future, why else do you think I dress and act so differently from you?"

"Hn," was the only response he gave her. He had never exactly given the matter much thought, she was never more than an irritating bug that would not be squished in his eyes, obviously not worth any sort of strenuous thought. He had always just figured she was not quite right in the head.

Somehow, Kagome felt as though he thought her insane...and come to think of it, maybe she was. Surely anyone who thought it was a good idea to make conversation with a taiyoukai about their time traveling tendencies couldn't possibly be in their right mind.

Oh good, she thought brightly. Maybe I really am insane and tomorrow I'll wake up in a nice padded room with barred windows.

She giggled to herself and limped along after Sesshoumaru, not bothering to notice the mildly perplexed look on his face.

***

Smoke curled across the ground like a deadly veil, making everything around her nothing more than a silhouette against the haze. She wanted the smoke to disappear, but perhaps it was better this way, if she could not see the destruction then maybe she could pretend it wasn't there.

Suddenly a shadow appeared in the smoke, a dark form growing larger and larger as it drew near. She knew who it was before he even came close enough to let her see his face, he was the one who had caused all this, he was the one who had destroyed everything.

And now he had come for her.

"Please do not kill me," The trembling girl begged at his feet. Her wide, tear-filled eyes did not meet his, as though his gaze would turn her to stone. Which of course was ridiculous, but he could not fault her much, he was quite terrifying to look upon after all.

Shigeru thrust his sword into the dirt by his side and leaned against it casually, picking an imaginary piece of lint from his haori sleeve. "No? You do not wish to die?" He asked as though completely surprised by this announcement.

"N-no, p-please, I will do anything!" She cried, burying her face in the long, billowing robes she wore.

Shigeru shook his head sympathetically and walked over to the sobbing hime. "There, there, I am not going to kill you," he assured her, his fingers finding her chin and lifting it so that it was no longer hidden in her robes. "A beauty such as yours should not be wasted."

"T-thank you," she sniffed, trying to pull her head from his grasp, but he would have none of it. His hold only tightened, his claws digging into her soft, pale skin. She whimpered and ceased her struggling.

"Now, is that anyway to repay such generosity?" He asked in a deadly sweet voice. "Trying to escape from the one who has so kindly spared your life?"

The Hime dropped her eyes to the ground in resignation. She wanted to spit in his horrible face, tell him that if it were not for him her life would not need sparing, but instead she said, "n-no, my apologies, youkai-sama."

"Ah, no harm done, my beauty," he chuckled darkly and released his hold on her chin to pat her unceremoniously on the cheek. She flinched and then gasped, realizing she had possibly offended him again.

Shigeru only smiled at the girl and pulled her to her feet by her forearm. "That is quite alright, my sweet, soon you will relish my touch. Yes, quite soon," he promised, the malicious edge to his words making her shiver in fright as he dragged her along with him.

He led her out of the smoke where everything was laid out bare for her to see. They passed by several of her slain servants, stepped over two of her lifeless guards, and brushed past her overturned carriage. Behind it the wagon that had held all of her worldly possessions was ablaze; the source of all the smoke.

She had been on her way to her future husband's manor when he had attacked. A lone youkai he did not seem to be such a threat, she had more than enough guards to dispatch one demon. But she was wrong, her guards had been slain, the horses that had pulled her carriage were suddenly gone, and her carriage had been toppled in the mayhem. She had climbed from the wreckage, but the smoke was already thick and she did not go far before collapsing on the ground. How cruel it was that her wedding day should be tomorrow, and now, it seemed she would never see it.

"Do not be sad," Shigeru told the girl as he noticed her silent tears and disheartened look. "Soon you will grow to love me, they all do."

She wanted to ask who 'they' were exactly, but she did not have the time. She gasped as a ghostly carriage descended from the sky right before her eyes, she barely glimpsed the haunting, scaled beasts that pulled it before she was thrust inside.

Shigeru clapped his hands together and went to sit at the head of the carriage. Another task completed, another beauty won. And she was a beauty, she smiled wickedly, he would have to celebrate.

"Up," he commanded with a flick of the reins, and the carriage ascended into the night sky.

The hime, having just been thrown into the cab without the least bit of respect, collapsed onto a pair of silk-clad legs. She blinked away her fear and indignity and looked up.

"Ah yes, you are quite beautiful," the auburn-haired girl she had fell upon said mournfully. "His taste is exquisite."

A firm pair of hands lifted her floor into a more appropriate position. "Do not complement that beast!" The woman who had helped her up said to the auburn-haired girl.

She shrugged. "I was merely making a statement, Kiya" she sighed as though all joy and happiness had gone from her soul.

She had such marvelous hair, the hime thought in awe, such a color was rare and it shone like silk even in the dark. In fact, the girl herself was beautiful, though, her eyes were as dull and lifeless as a corpse.

The hime could not help but shudder at the shell of a girl before her. "W-where am I?" She asked. Looking around she noticed that there must have been ten other women in the carriage including herself, all devastatingly beautiful, but all with that same dead look upon their faces. They didn't even seem to recognize that she was here, they just stared blankly at anything but each other.

In fact, the only beings that seemed to have any lucidity left in them were her, and the two woman that had greeted her.

The woman named Kiya, a tall girl with dark eyes and jet black hair, shook her head sadly. "What is your name?"

"I am called Amaya," the hime said wearily, her eyes once again filling with tears as she looked at the desolate faces of each of the silent women that shared these quarters. "W-where am I?" She repeated in barely a whisper.

"Amaya," Kiya repeated with the faraway look of someone not quite all there. She shook herself and turned back to Amaya with a dark look upon her face. "How does it feel to be the newest bride of Shigeru? Tell me, for I have quite forgotten what it is like to feel at all."

Amaya's silent sobs were Kiya's only answer.

Outside the carriage Shigeru was in a grand mood. His new bride was quite possibly the most exquisite in his growing collection and he indulged in a rare smile.

"Where to now, my lord?" The scaled, lizard horse hissed from it's harness as it galloped through the dark, night sky.

Shigeru's smile fell, where would he go now? He had spent so many days searching for the newest pearl to add to his cloister that he had not even thought about what he would do once he had her. He thought that maybe this time he would feel complete, maybe this time he had finally found enough gems to satisfy, but he still felt empty.

He could not rest feeling so empty.

Shigeru closed his eyes and inhaled. He could smell the putrid human village nearby, the stink of the rotting leaves of the forrest below, the crisp, biting cold of the wind as it descended from the mountains, and the...

"Ah," Shigeru smiled wickedly, opening his eyes.

"What is it, my lord?" His servant asked. "What do you smell?"

Shigeru grabbed the reins and pulled to his right. "I smell...beauty."

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Chapter Notes:

Enter the Maiden Snatcher. See, not an uplifting ending to this chapter, but it can't always be grins and giggles. Or smirks and awkward laughter in Kagome and Sesshoumaru's case.

Well, whatever, review!