InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Remember Me ❯ Full Circle ( Chapter 5 )

Full Circle

 

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“Why her?”

 

“Because I loved her first”

 

“And me? When did you love me?”

 

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Hell. That's what this was. That was what she had decided. She was in hell.

 

The beautiful land Kagome had once fallen in love was now black, burned, and lifeless. Victim to the ruthless savagery of an evil that had yet to reveal itself. It was there, hiding in the shadows, waiting, watching.

 

Kagome never thought that after all this time she would be back here again. Back here to once more reassemble the Shikon no Tama. A fated jewel which destroyed so many lives, including her own.

 

She too was waiting. Waiting for that familiar tug, that hypnotizing call that would lead her to the treasure she sought. It was all to familiar this situation she found herself in, too painful in the memories it evoked. This era was filled with the ghosts of another lifetime, and the pain she still hadn't forgotten. He hadn't chosen her, had never intended to. She knew that know, had always known.

 

Her heart had just refused to believe.

 

But she was back in the place she had sworn to forget, and it was the past all over again except this time she was alone.

 

Alone.

 

Perhaps it was for the best, perhaps it was better that this time there would be no one to worry about, no golden eyes to watch her during the day, and haunt her each night.

 

Except she was haunted. Haunted still by a pair of golden eyes she could not forget. Haunted and terrified by a man she had believed she would never see again. But fate had intervened, took her life and flipped it upside down.

 

Now here she was again, a human, a miko, a woman so out of place in an ancient world which desperately needed her help. She had saved it once, she had tasted that intoxicating power, and once upon a time she had been revered by all.

 

Yet here she was, terrified as she trudged through the blackened land, terrified because she knew that somewhere there was a silver haired demon patrolling his lands. A powerful lord who had once held her in the stillness of the night and spoke so softly.

 

She was terrified, what would she see when she looked into those golden eyes again?

 

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“He hurt you”

 

“Yes”

 

“He's stupid”

 

“Yes”

 

“You love him”

 

“Yes”

 

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Screams. That's what he heard, all that he had heard every night for weeks now. They were blood-curdling terror filled screams of death.

 

Sesshoumaru fought the urge to hunt down the evil causing such chaos. He was not an irrational person, he would not rush into a fight without knowing first who his opponent was.

 

But it was hard, to sit idly by while so many died. But to fight now was a risk he could not afford, no matter how much he longed to rush headlong through the night with a sword in hand and fury in his eyes.

 

But for the first time in his life he wanted to, wanted to be irrational, wanted to act on his emotions and damn the consequences. Once, not long ago he wouldn't have cared what happened to this world, wouldn't have cared what happened to those who lived beneath him.

 

But now he cared.

 

Rin. She was just a child, harmless, defenseless, innocent. If this world was destroyed, tainted, what would become of her?

 

She would die. It was a certainty. And he couldn't allow that. Not now, not ever. Once he wouldn't have cared. But things change.

 

There was only one thing to do. Once, not too long ago the world had faced an omnipotent evil, and once they had devised a way to defeat it.

 

Putting a hand on the sword at his side, Sesshoumaru turned away from the deafening screams and headed in a different direction. One he hadn't traveled in a long time.

 

It was time to re-unite old alliances.

 

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Inu Yasha ran. He could smell it, the new scent which floated on the air. He ran because he had to get to it, had to get to it now.

 

Lavender and roses, the smell of midnight. That had been her scent, Kagome's. She was back, he knew it, he could feel it. So he ran, ran as fast as he could to the tiny old village, ran, not bothering to stop until he came to the surprised face of an old woman.

 

Kaede.

 

“Where is she?” Inu Yasha demanded impatiently. Not caring that the last time he had seen Kagome he had broken her heart, not caring that the last time he had seen her there had been tears in her eyes. All he cared about was the fact that she was back and all his impatient and stubborn heart knew was that he wanted to, had to see her again.

 

But Kaede just shook her head as if to say he was too late.

 

“Kaede I...” Inu Yasha began, as if to explain the past but not exactly sure what he would say. What could he say?

 

“I know”

 

“I made a mistake”

 

“And you cannot change it” Kaede said as she reached for her bow and arrows.

 

“What are you doing?” Inu Yasha asked, suddenly realizing she was not the only one reaching for a weapon in this once peaceful village.

 

“I'm preparing for a war Inu Yasha, and you should as well”

 

“But-“Inu Yasha began frantically as Kaede walked away, still needing an answer from the old woman.

 

“She is gone Inu Yasha” Kaede snapped, clearly tired of the hanyou's interruptions. She turned around to face the half demon. Seeing the quick flash of pain in his eyes she finished in a softer tone.

 

“She was always yours, you let her go, and you cannot change that. The past is the past Inu Yasha, but the future is not too far and it is time to fight.”

 

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“Miko”

 

Kagome spun around, sleeping bag in hand and met the fiery red eyes of her former enemy.

 

Kagura.

 

So it had begun. Kagome glanced to her left where she had foolishly left her only weapon, her bow and arrows, lying against a tree. Some things never changed.

 

“You will not need those miko, I come in peace” Kagura said, clearly reading Kagome's desperate glance to her useless weapons.

 

Kagome hesitated with her next words, not sure what to say, not sure what to believe. Kagura had been a formidable enemy, she had almost killed her and her friends many times. And now, now she was claiming to come in peace, could she be trusted?

 

“Why?” Kagome asked, needing to know what would have persuaded the wind sorceress to seek her out with no violent intentions.

 

Kagura merely smiled, an action which drastically changed her features, when she smiled she almost looked friendly, when she smiled she almost looked like any other woman Kagome might encounter on her journey.

 

“Because you killed him” Kagome heard her say, and then she knew. Kagura was just a woman. A battered and bruised woman tasting freedom for the first time, a lonely woman who had finally escaped the ruthless hand of an evil master.

 

Naraku. Kagura had been a prisoner.

 

“I want to help” Kagura said suddenly, snapping Kagome out of her thoughts.

 

“You know what I am doing?” Of course she did, Kagome thought. It was too overpowering, the nightmare that was slowly taking over the land, it was everywhere, in everything.

 

Kagome studied the stoic demon who stood before, those eerie red eyes, the feather in the hair, the powerful hands lying restlessly at her sides. She wanted to fight. Kagome could see the desire in her eyes, the rage tightly controlled.

 

She wanted to fight on her own, Kagome realized. Kagura wanted to fight without a master controlling her and she wanted revenge. Revenge she couldn't have, for Naraku was already dead. But to pick her own battles and fight them, to align herself with a powerful miko once hated by her former master, to live her own life, that was revenge enough. Would have to be, and that Kagome could understand.

 

So Kagome simply set down her sleeping bag and began to lay it out. Her silent acceptance of her new ally. Behind her Kagura let out a sigh, as if she had been holding her breath while Kagome contemplated her answer, and then she spoke.

 

“This new evil, it's not what you think”

 

Kagome spun around quickly once more. A million questions already running through her mind. What did Kagura know? What had she heard? What had she seen?

 

“Then what is it?” Kagome demanded.

 

 

“It's worse”

 

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Sesshoumaru walked into the old human village and was met with chaos. Men frantically collecting spears, swords, bows and arrows, and whatever other weapons they could find and women collecting the children and food and abandoning their homes.

 

They were preparing for war. Perhaps humans weren't as stupid as he once believed. They would die. He knew this. They were insignificant, weak, useless. They would be the first. They had to know this, had to know that their strength was not a match for the evil now growing. They had to sense that their death was imminent and inescapable.

 

He knew that they knew this, because he could smell the fear and the desperation. Yet still they fought, still they tried, still they believed that maybe they could save themselves.

Perhaps there was some dignity in the human race after all.

 

At the edge of town Sesshoumaru found what he had come looking for. Standing there, alone as people rushed by him, was the silent figure of his half brother.

 

Inu Yasha. Once Sesshoumaru had hated him. Hated him for his weakness. Hated him for the life he lived and the passion with which he lived it.

 

Envy. Such a disgusting emotion, pitiful. Yet he, the almighty Lord of The West felt it nonetheless.

 

But things change, people change, Sesshoumaru changed. Changed by the same hand that had saved Inu Yasha. And perhaps that was why he no longer hated his younger brother.

 

They were tied together, bound by their common longing for something they desperately wanted, needed, but could never have. She had touched them both.

 

Sesshoumaru stopped beside the still figure of his brother and they both watched the

madness around them.

 

“Inu Yasha” Sesshoumaru said, breaking the silence.

 

“Sesshoumaru”

 

“Are you ready?”

 

“Yes” Inu Yasha replied, cracking his knuckles, already anticipating the battle ahead.

 

And then he turned toward Sesshoumaru, a quiet, solemn look in his eyes.

 

“She's back you know” And although Inu Yasha did not speak her name Sesshoumaru knew the one of whom he spoke.

 

Kagome.

 

“Yes” he replied to his brother's softly spoken statement, his own firm answer startling Inu Yasha.

 

“But...how?”

 

Sesshoumaru closed his eyes. Now was not the time for this, at this moment Kagome was a distraction neither one of them could afford. But, Sesshoumaru realized, better now than in the midst of a battle.

 

“I've seen her” he reluctantly admitted, fully expecting an angry outburst from his temperamental brother. But he was surprised when Inu Yasha only shook his head and sighed.

 

“How is she?” Was his only question.

 

Sesshoumaru recalled the image of Kagome tiredly hiking across a barren land, her hair fluttering in the wind and her eyes shadowed by fear and grief.

 

“How is she?” Inu Yasha asked again when Sesshoumaru continued in silence.

 

“Alone”

 

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“Is it lonely?”

 

“What?”

 

“Being you?”

 

“No”

 

“Liar”

 

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