InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Remnants of the Spider ❯ Onto the Precipice ( Chapter 49 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Lady Sianna 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 12.29.2009 | Pages: 2 | Words: 4.3K | Visits: 290 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 12.29.2009 | Pages: 2 | Words: 4.3K | Visits: 290 | Status: Work In Progress
Remnants of the Spider
Onto the Precipice
_____________________________________________________________ ___________
Smiling, Kagome looked up at the male who stood beside her, a sense of accomplishment shining in her eyes. Peng looked down at her, his own lips curving slightly at her infectious good humor. She was very pretty when she smiled.
“Wow,” she breathed quietly as she turned away from him to look back at the key. “I didn’t think it’d be that easy to get the next one.”
Peng was silent for a moment before asking, “So I take it the first one was difficult to procure?”
The question summoned memories of cave-ins, demonic bats and the largest, nastiest looking spiders she had ever seen, and Kagome felt herself shudder when she thought of them. “Well, that’s one way of putting it.” she answered quietly, her mind attempting to dispel the unpleasant recollections.
Peng rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I would have suspected as much,” he said sagely, and then added, “That is, if I had ever given it any real thought. After all, It was meant that the keys should be difficult to obtain.”
Kagome nodded understandingly before closing her hand around the key. She shrugged out of her back pack and carefully placed the second key together with the first. Once she was finished, she again situated her things on her back and with a bright smile, she turned back to her guide. “Well,” she said brightly, “I guess we should get going.”
Peng looked at her, a single brow raised as if in mild confusion. “Why the rush?” he asked with a nonchalant shrug, “I don’t have anywhere to be right now.”
Kagome smile faded in an instant and she scowled at him. “Well I do! I need to get back to my friends! Besides, didn’t you say something about this portal closing?”
He gave her an odd look. “The portal…closing…?”
The miko resisted the urge to smack herself on the forehead. It probably would have been better to smack him on the forehead instead, but she refrained in favor of saying, “Yes! You said the portal would be closing soon! We need to hurry and get out of here!”
The youkai shrugged leisurely and turned back toward the direction from which they’d come. Kagome immediately fell in step beside him. “If you recalled my precise wording, you would know that we made it here just in time to enter the portal.” he said after a moment of silence, “Surely you realize that it has already closed by now.”
The miko felt her brow twitch. Even though her heart was drumming in her chest, she very calmly asked, “Are you…” she cut him off, pausing in front of him so she could glare into his eyes. “Are you telling me that we are going to be trapped in here for six months?!”
Tilting his head to the side ever so slightly, Peng studied her adorable little face. She was even prettier when she was angry! When she’d spoke to him, her voice had been soft, but he could detect an icy edge to it, and edge that suggested, with no small hint of promise, that if he gave the wrong answer, things could go badly for him in a relatively short period of time.
She watched s his lips spread into a large, self-satisfied grin. “Is that a problem?” he asked and took a purposeful step in her direction. “I am certain,” he drawled, and Kagome noted how he raised a single brow, his eyes scanning her in a way that seemed less than innocent. “I am certain that we could find something to… keep us occupied.”
The miko’s eyes narrowed and to his surprise, the youkai felt a surge in her pure energy. It danced around her, radiating from her skin in dangerous, tantalizing waves. He took a moment to revel in the feel of it. It stirred a wealth of memories, and while not all of them were pleasant, the sensation itself caressed his senses in a way that was both perilous and strangely titillating.
“HEY!” the woman before him snapped, her small hands fisted at her sides as she attempted to eviscerate him with that blazing look in her eyes. “You’re not even listening to me are you?!”
Peng allowed his eyes to refocus. “Hn,” he said as if they were discussing nothing of great importance. “It seems that I was not.” he intoned flippantly. “But there is no cause for concern, I was merely teasing you. Do not take life so seriously Kagome-san, it will only kill you in the end.” he informed her. His expression was now blank, but she could still see an amused, mischievous light twinkling in his eyes. He smirked and brushed past her, leaving Kagome with a surplus of directionless anger and mild confusion.
“Oh,” she said quietly. She just stood there for a moment before she seemed to snap out of her daze. She gave herself a mental shake before she turned to follow him down the corridor. “So we’re not trapped?” she asked, feeling the need to hear him say for certain that they weren’t going to have to spend six months in this drab void of endless passageways.
He shrugged again. “As of now, there is no way to enter the passage, but now that we are on the inside, it is possible that we may yet be able to escape.”
“Possible?!” Kagome asked, her aura flaring again. Why did he feel the need to give her mixed messages?
The youkai didn’t seem concerned in the slightest. “I have never entered the portal at a time such as this, so there is really no way I can say for sure what will happen.” he glanced at her then, his expression mildly thoughtful. “If you are insistent on leaving this place, I will likely require your assistance in order to open the portal again.”
Kagome nodded. “I don’t really know what to do, but…”
He cut her off with a wave of his hand. “Do not worry lovely one. I have accepted the charge to act as your humble guide and therefore, I am honor bound to seeing it through and returning you to where I found you. I will do all that I can to ensure that this is accomplished in all due expediency.”
The miko blushed at his use of the words ‘lovely one,’ and gave him a small smile, suddenly feeling more confident that the youkai would be able to get them out of here.
The pair fell into fairly comfortable silence before the youkai suddenly asked, “You mentioned that you needed to get back to your friends?”
A note of caution returning due to the leading quality of his question, Kagome warily answered, “Yes. I got separated from them when I went through your barrier.”
“Hn,” he remarked dryly, “Well, they are probably not overly worried for you at the moment. I would not be at all surprised if they had been attacked by the Yajuu hi.”
“Yajuu…” she trailed off, “Ice monsters?!” He gave her a bland look. “You mean to tell me that ice monsters are attacking my friends and you didn’t think it was important enough to mention before?!”
He shrugged. “The creatures are not overly troublesome, their best attributes are their imposing statures and ability to cooperate in great numbers. How inept are your companions at protecting themselves?”
Kagome thought over his question for a moment. “Well, one of them is a professional demon slayer, one is a daiyoukai, one is a skilled monk and the other is a really powerful half-demon.”
“Ah, then they’ll probably do fine,” he told her, choosing to leave out the fact that the monk may have taken ill due to his barrier. Because the young miko had been strong enough to break through it, it was likely that it would no longer affect her so acutely. Briefly, he wondered why he was not cross with her for having done so but then decided that it was of no importance. Her presence turned out to be far less than burdensome so the fact that she had gained an immunity of sorts to his youki was of little consequence.
Giving himself a light mental shake, he resumed his previously discarded train of thought, “The Yajuu hi are quite territorial and tend to force other creatures and youkai into submission because of their size and numbers. Really though, they do not possess much power and are quite deficient in intelligence. They are however capable of sensing disturbances in energy fields, so it is likely that they sensed your broach of my barrier.”
Kagome made an unhappy face but decided to keep her mouth shut. Peng was mildly charming in his own weird way, but he could also be extremely tiresome to talk to. Based on what he had just told her, it was likely that her friends would fare just fine against whatever monsters called this place home. For now, she would just have to trust the albatross to get here out of her as quickly as possible.
Shortly after her train of thought had made it to completion, the pair had come to what appeared to be a dead end. Kagome felt slightly panicked upon seeing the bland, grey wall with no discernable way to move past or through it. She looked over to her companion, whose features had taken on an air of concentration. He held his hand to the wall, just as he had done when they entered and she watched as wisps of blue began to rise from his palm. In the dimness of the passage, the shimmering curls of his youki shone brightly. His hand was soon enveloped in an iridescent glow, the excess power thinning as it spread out to brush lightly against her skin. She was mildly surprised to note that it was not abrasive against her senses, but it did cause icy feathers to trail down her spine.
After a moment or two, the glow of his power began to fade and he turned to look at her. “You may join me at any time.” he said blandly though she could hear an undertone of impatience in his voice.
Kagome made an exasperated noise in the back of her throat. “How was I supposed to know what to do?! You didn’t even say anything!” he looked as if he would answer but the miko cut him off, not wanting to hear his no doubt nonsensical retort. “How are we supposed to do this?” she asked instead. “Won’t our powers conflict with one another?”
Peng stared at her for a moment. “Are you perhaps concerned that your miko powers will harm me?” he wanted to know, his voice a silken drawl. Before she could answer he gave a slight wave of his hand. “This Wei-Peng is immune to holy energy!” he announced imperiously, then he gave her a little wink. “But I do appreciate your concern Kagome-san.”
The miko made a face at him before placing her hand to the wall in the same fashion he had exhibited only a moment ago. Peng mimicked her pose and the pair summoned their powers. Together, the colors that exuded from their extended palms combined to create brilliant swirls of lavender and deep purple. For Kagome, the sensation was odd and only slightly unpleasant. She kept feeling as if she needed to overpower his youki with her own power, but the steady flow that emitted from him, helped to temper the urge.
His eyes narrowed in concentration, Peng tuned his senses to the weak point in the portal, the section that would hopefully allow their escape. He could feel its power gradually weakening and so he summoned a higher dose of his youki to destabilize it further. The miko beside him responded in kind and soon the wall began to crack. Like strands of fine hair, miniscule fault lines spread up, down and out in all directions. The cracks widened within moments allowing thin beams of sunlight to seep in. Kagome squinted against its relative brightness and then gasped when a powerful arm suddenly wrapped around her waist. Protectively tucking the woman into his side, Peng turned his free shoulder to the weak point in the portal. Then, with a burst of demonic strength he burst through the wall and the pair was suddenly bathed in brightness and the crisp clean air of the outside world. They landed in a bank of soft, powdery snow. Before her brain could fully register what had happened, Kagome was abruptly released. Not having had the opportunity to steady herself, the miko toppled over, the thick snow cushioning her fall.
“What the--” she was about to ask, but immediately went still when Peng moved to stand in front of her. Years of traveling with Inuyasha told her that he was shielding her from something so she immediately scrambled to her feet. If ice monsters had come to attack them, she wasn’t about to be caught sitting down.
“Who are you?” she heard the albatross ask, his voice strong, sure and edged with danger.
When no answer seemed to be forthcoming, Kagome stepped from behind the male to see what was approaching.
“Sesshoumaru!” she cried happily. She almost ran forward to dive into his arms but was halted by the intense look in his eyes.
Now understanding how the miko had managed to move so far away in such a short period of time, Sesshoumaru allowed the weight of his gaze to fall upon the other youkai.
Sensing tension between the pair, Kagome moved to place herself between them, her eyes fixed on Sesshoumaru.
“Sesshoumaru,” she began carefully. “This is Wei-Peng. He… he helped me find the white key. We can leave now.”
The inu lord gave no indication that he’d heard her, his eyes still fixed on the other male. Cautiously, Kagome took several more steps toward the silver-haired demon, unsure why he suddenly seemed so edgy. “Sess… Sesshoumaru?” she asked quietly, her eyes fixed on his steely gaze. She carefully reached forward hoping to gain his attention but was surprised when his large hand circled her wrist. An insistent tug had her stumbling forward and she just barely prevented herself from colliding with his armor.
He looked down at her then, and to her, it seemed that his eyes softened ever so slightly, though she couldn’t say for sure. Something about the way he was looking at her made Kagome feel extremely warm and yet oddly chilled at the same time. She clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering and attempted to decipher what he was thinking. The way he’d pulled her to him seemed oddly possessive and the way he stared into her eyes made her feel as if he was trying to determine something of great importance, though what that could have been, Kagome could not begin to imagine.
“Ah,” Peng spoke up, breaking the odd trance into which the pair had apparently fallen. Their attention was drawn back to him only to find a knowing smirk upon his lips. “So this is the fortuitous young daiyoukai who has captured your heart, eh Kagome-san?”
The miko felt a rush of color flood her cheeks at the unfettered statement and her heart nearly burst from her chest when said daiyoukai’s grip tightened against her wrist.
“That,” the demon lord spoke up, his deep voice vibrating the air around her, “Is not your concern.”
To her surprise, Peng allowed his smirk to spread noticeably, his expression now the perfect presentation of unapologetic insolence. “Perhaps not,” he conceded airily, “Though it is advisable that you keep a close eye on her in the future.” then he gave the girl a mildly lascivious glance. “She’s quite lovely after all.” he pressed on, ignoring Kagome’s scandalized expression and the nearly inaudible growl from the other male. “Fiery too, and there are some who would gladly disregard her humanity for the permanence of her… camaraderie.”
The miko’s countenance was a passable imitation of a fish out of water. Almost frantically, her brain was attempting to make sense of the last few moments and despite its valiant efforts, Kagome still couldn’t decide if she was flattered or offended by what the albatross had just said.
Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes at the audacious bird. His words could be taken as a challenge for courting rights, a transgression that could easily be corrected with an unhealthy dose of toxic green poison. It was an option he briefly considered until he was struck with the rather inconvenient knowledge that he had never actually discussed any such intentions with her. It was an oversight he was not certain he was prepared to correct, but the notion that the miko might consider a suit offered by this obscenely presumptive male did not sit well with him. Not at all.
“Peng-san…” Kagome spoke up, her soft utterance bringing an end to his train of thought.
The other demon held up a stilling hand, his dark eyes again fixed on the miko. His smile morphed from a haughty smirk into something markedly more affable and with a grace that belied his sometimes less than refined manner of speech, he gave a curt bow. “It appears that you are safely returned to your comrade and so I will now take my leave. Though our time together did not last as long as I would have preferred, I found that it was a pleasure sharing your company. Perhaps we will meet again.”
The words grated on Sesshoumaru’s already frayed nerves and he felt a jolt in his muscles, the underpinning of a movement that probably would have ended in bloodshed if the male had not stayed true to his words and taken to the skies. With a simmering golden gaze, the daiyoukai watched as the male’s form shrank and faded against the gradually sinking sun.
Now that they were alone, Kagome felt the weight of the inu lord’s presence. It pressed down on her in a way that was not entirely pleasant and absently, she realized that his youki was in a state of unrest. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt irrationally accountable for the things Peng had said and was less than pleased that he had simply run off and left her to deal with the fallout.
Her mind slowly, deliberately piecing together the scatterings of the situation in which she suddenly found herself, Kagome took a deep breath that was only slightly calming. It was… remotely possible, she realized with a detached, almost frivolous sense of awe, that Sesshoumaru just might be slightly unhappy about some of the things Peng had said.
Bravely pushing her reservations aside for the moment, she turned back to him hoping against hope that he would look more at ease then his heated youki would suggest. He didn’t. He was staring down at her, his expression not quite as bored as normal and lined with an intensity that stirred old memories; made her think to shrink away in instinctual self-preservation. She just barely managed to keep herself still and even though she really didn’t know what to say, she refused to look away.
“Why did you run away?” he asked abruptly, his voice stern but not quite menacing.
Startled, it took the miko a moment to understand what he was talking about. When she was struck with the recollection of the flight that would carry her through Peng’s barrier, her brow furrowed in mild confusion. Why had she run off like that? “I… I’m not really sure.” she said, befuddlement clear on her face. “I just felt this weird impulse. Like I had to get to… get somewhere as quickly as possible or I wouldn’t be able to…” she trailed off, her eyes glazing over as she was struck with realization. “The dragon!” she remembered suddenly. “Peng told me that because I already touched one of the keys, the dragon might be able to communicate with me telepathically. It’s kinda hard to explain, but I think the dragon knew that I had to hurry and get the second key. It was hidden in a portal that was about to become inaccessible for the next six months.”
Her words washed over him in a rush and Sesshoumaru was only able to glean a few critical pieces of information. Paramount among these, was that the dragon apparently had gained the ability to communicate with her. This… did not seem like a good development and he subconsciously shared his further displeasure with her through the slight downward turn of his lips. “The dragon is capable of speaking to you?” he asked, needing to hear confirmation of his thoughts.
She looked away from him then, her eyes darting off to the side. Belatedly, it struck her that he might not take this information with any measure of good humor. “Well, not… not exactly.” she told him and the demon lord quickly decided that he did not care for the uncertainty audible in her voice.
“It seems,” he began, his voice low but traced with a hard edge. “That this quest of yours becomes more perilous with the location of each key.”
She looked back to him then, her lips parted as if to protest. His eyes narrowed and the miko snapped her mouth shut, wanting to hear what he would say.
“Until now, I have not interfered with any of your decisions, but as of this moment I find it necessary to inform you that you will be calling and end to your search.”
Before he could say anything further, the miko’s loud, incredulous retort rang into the air. “What?!” she demanded heatedly, brows creasing in a thunderous scowl. “Do you really expect me to abandon this mission?!”
The weight of his gaze bore down on her, yet the woman refused to show any signs of either fear or acquiescence.
His hand, which had remained fixed around her wrist all this time, tightened slightly and he pulled her even closer, seemingly unconcerned when she fell against his armor. “Do not oppose me on this matter. It is not my wish to force your capitulation, but know that it is not above my means to do so should I deem it necessary.”
This heavy-handed approach was just the sort of thing Kagome held little tolerance for and in a flash of impassioned ire, Kagome attempted to snatch herself away from him. When her efforts proved unsuccessful, she settled for glaring at him instead. “And since when do you have the right to make my decisions for me?! It is not your place to do so!”
She was right of course, but Sesshoumaru had no real intentions of letting such a trivial matter interfere with his decision. “Look,” she spoke up again. “I realize you’re a lord and that you may be used to giving orders and getting your own way, but I am not one of your subordinates Sesshoumaru.” when he still did not answer, Kagome sighed deeply. She was feeling mildly frustrated and only slightly defeated. Logically, she knew that if he wanted to, Sesshoumaru could, quite literally force her hand in this. She really didn’t want to be at odds with him but she was also determined to see this through.
“It’s not,” she began softly, but then took a moment to consider her words. “I am honor bound to finish this and you shouldn’t make me choose between my honor and our friendship. It isn‘t fair,” she trailed off thoughtfully. Echoing softly through her mind, the word friendship played over and over and no matter how many times it did so, how many different inflections her internal voice used, the miko noted that this no longer seemed to be an accurate summation of their connection. It was a strange, faintly startling revelation; one that caused her heart to skip several beats.
“Unless…” she faltered pensively, their previous discussion all but forgotten. Swallowing dryly, the miko was suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of wary determination. If nothing else, experience had taught her that silence could turn out to be more detrimental than any momentary uneasiness or embarrassment ever could. She took only a moment to brace herself before she hardened her resolve and stepped onto the steep precipice she had always known was there; the one she had so tenaciously tried to ignore.
“Sesshoumaru… what, what am I to you?”
___________________________________________________________ _____________
Onto the Precipice
_____________________________________________________________ ___________
Smiling, Kagome looked up at the male who stood beside her, a sense of accomplishment shining in her eyes. Peng looked down at her, his own lips curving slightly at her infectious good humor. She was very pretty when she smiled.
“Wow,” she breathed quietly as she turned away from him to look back at the key. “I didn’t think it’d be that easy to get the next one.”
Peng was silent for a moment before asking, “So I take it the first one was difficult to procure?”
The question summoned memories of cave-ins, demonic bats and the largest, nastiest looking spiders she had ever seen, and Kagome felt herself shudder when she thought of them. “Well, that’s one way of putting it.” she answered quietly, her mind attempting to dispel the unpleasant recollections.
Peng rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I would have suspected as much,” he said sagely, and then added, “That is, if I had ever given it any real thought. After all, It was meant that the keys should be difficult to obtain.”
Kagome nodded understandingly before closing her hand around the key. She shrugged out of her back pack and carefully placed the second key together with the first. Once she was finished, she again situated her things on her back and with a bright smile, she turned back to her guide. “Well,” she said brightly, “I guess we should get going.”
Peng looked at her, a single brow raised as if in mild confusion. “Why the rush?” he asked with a nonchalant shrug, “I don’t have anywhere to be right now.”
Kagome smile faded in an instant and she scowled at him. “Well I do! I need to get back to my friends! Besides, didn’t you say something about this portal closing?”
He gave her an odd look. “The portal…closing…?”
The miko resisted the urge to smack herself on the forehead. It probably would have been better to smack him on the forehead instead, but she refrained in favor of saying, “Yes! You said the portal would be closing soon! We need to hurry and get out of here!”
The youkai shrugged leisurely and turned back toward the direction from which they’d come. Kagome immediately fell in step beside him. “If you recalled my precise wording, you would know that we made it here just in time to enter the portal.” he said after a moment of silence, “Surely you realize that it has already closed by now.”
The miko felt her brow twitch. Even though her heart was drumming in her chest, she very calmly asked, “Are you…” she cut him off, pausing in front of him so she could glare into his eyes. “Are you telling me that we are going to be trapped in here for six months?!”
Tilting his head to the side ever so slightly, Peng studied her adorable little face. She was even prettier when she was angry! When she’d spoke to him, her voice had been soft, but he could detect an icy edge to it, and edge that suggested, with no small hint of promise, that if he gave the wrong answer, things could go badly for him in a relatively short period of time.
She watched s his lips spread into a large, self-satisfied grin. “Is that a problem?” he asked and took a purposeful step in her direction. “I am certain,” he drawled, and Kagome noted how he raised a single brow, his eyes scanning her in a way that seemed less than innocent. “I am certain that we could find something to… keep us occupied.”
The miko’s eyes narrowed and to his surprise, the youkai felt a surge in her pure energy. It danced around her, radiating from her skin in dangerous, tantalizing waves. He took a moment to revel in the feel of it. It stirred a wealth of memories, and while not all of them were pleasant, the sensation itself caressed his senses in a way that was both perilous and strangely titillating.
“HEY!” the woman before him snapped, her small hands fisted at her sides as she attempted to eviscerate him with that blazing look in her eyes. “You’re not even listening to me are you?!”
Peng allowed his eyes to refocus. “Hn,” he said as if they were discussing nothing of great importance. “It seems that I was not.” he intoned flippantly. “But there is no cause for concern, I was merely teasing you. Do not take life so seriously Kagome-san, it will only kill you in the end.” he informed her. His expression was now blank, but she could still see an amused, mischievous light twinkling in his eyes. He smirked and brushed past her, leaving Kagome with a surplus of directionless anger and mild confusion.
“Oh,” she said quietly. She just stood there for a moment before she seemed to snap out of her daze. She gave herself a mental shake before she turned to follow him down the corridor. “So we’re not trapped?” she asked, feeling the need to hear him say for certain that they weren’t going to have to spend six months in this drab void of endless passageways.
He shrugged again. “As of now, there is no way to enter the passage, but now that we are on the inside, it is possible that we may yet be able to escape.”
“Possible?!” Kagome asked, her aura flaring again. Why did he feel the need to give her mixed messages?
The youkai didn’t seem concerned in the slightest. “I have never entered the portal at a time such as this, so there is really no way I can say for sure what will happen.” he glanced at her then, his expression mildly thoughtful. “If you are insistent on leaving this place, I will likely require your assistance in order to open the portal again.”
Kagome nodded. “I don’t really know what to do, but…”
He cut her off with a wave of his hand. “Do not worry lovely one. I have accepted the charge to act as your humble guide and therefore, I am honor bound to seeing it through and returning you to where I found you. I will do all that I can to ensure that this is accomplished in all due expediency.”
The miko blushed at his use of the words ‘lovely one,’ and gave him a small smile, suddenly feeling more confident that the youkai would be able to get them out of here.
The pair fell into fairly comfortable silence before the youkai suddenly asked, “You mentioned that you needed to get back to your friends?”
A note of caution returning due to the leading quality of his question, Kagome warily answered, “Yes. I got separated from them when I went through your barrier.”
“Hn,” he remarked dryly, “Well, they are probably not overly worried for you at the moment. I would not be at all surprised if they had been attacked by the Yajuu hi.”
“Yajuu…” she trailed off, “Ice monsters?!” He gave her a bland look. “You mean to tell me that ice monsters are attacking my friends and you didn’t think it was important enough to mention before?!”
He shrugged. “The creatures are not overly troublesome, their best attributes are their imposing statures and ability to cooperate in great numbers. How inept are your companions at protecting themselves?”
Kagome thought over his question for a moment. “Well, one of them is a professional demon slayer, one is a daiyoukai, one is a skilled monk and the other is a really powerful half-demon.”
“Ah, then they’ll probably do fine,” he told her, choosing to leave out the fact that the monk may have taken ill due to his barrier. Because the young miko had been strong enough to break through it, it was likely that it would no longer affect her so acutely. Briefly, he wondered why he was not cross with her for having done so but then decided that it was of no importance. Her presence turned out to be far less than burdensome so the fact that she had gained an immunity of sorts to his youki was of little consequence.
Giving himself a light mental shake, he resumed his previously discarded train of thought, “The Yajuu hi are quite territorial and tend to force other creatures and youkai into submission because of their size and numbers. Really though, they do not possess much power and are quite deficient in intelligence. They are however capable of sensing disturbances in energy fields, so it is likely that they sensed your broach of my barrier.”
Kagome made an unhappy face but decided to keep her mouth shut. Peng was mildly charming in his own weird way, but he could also be extremely tiresome to talk to. Based on what he had just told her, it was likely that her friends would fare just fine against whatever monsters called this place home. For now, she would just have to trust the albatross to get here out of her as quickly as possible.
Shortly after her train of thought had made it to completion, the pair had come to what appeared to be a dead end. Kagome felt slightly panicked upon seeing the bland, grey wall with no discernable way to move past or through it. She looked over to her companion, whose features had taken on an air of concentration. He held his hand to the wall, just as he had done when they entered and she watched as wisps of blue began to rise from his palm. In the dimness of the passage, the shimmering curls of his youki shone brightly. His hand was soon enveloped in an iridescent glow, the excess power thinning as it spread out to brush lightly against her skin. She was mildly surprised to note that it was not abrasive against her senses, but it did cause icy feathers to trail down her spine.
After a moment or two, the glow of his power began to fade and he turned to look at her. “You may join me at any time.” he said blandly though she could hear an undertone of impatience in his voice.
Kagome made an exasperated noise in the back of her throat. “How was I supposed to know what to do?! You didn’t even say anything!” he looked as if he would answer but the miko cut him off, not wanting to hear his no doubt nonsensical retort. “How are we supposed to do this?” she asked instead. “Won’t our powers conflict with one another?”
Peng stared at her for a moment. “Are you perhaps concerned that your miko powers will harm me?” he wanted to know, his voice a silken drawl. Before she could answer he gave a slight wave of his hand. “This Wei-Peng is immune to holy energy!” he announced imperiously, then he gave her a little wink. “But I do appreciate your concern Kagome-san.”
The miko made a face at him before placing her hand to the wall in the same fashion he had exhibited only a moment ago. Peng mimicked her pose and the pair summoned their powers. Together, the colors that exuded from their extended palms combined to create brilliant swirls of lavender and deep purple. For Kagome, the sensation was odd and only slightly unpleasant. She kept feeling as if she needed to overpower his youki with her own power, but the steady flow that emitted from him, helped to temper the urge.
His eyes narrowed in concentration, Peng tuned his senses to the weak point in the portal, the section that would hopefully allow their escape. He could feel its power gradually weakening and so he summoned a higher dose of his youki to destabilize it further. The miko beside him responded in kind and soon the wall began to crack. Like strands of fine hair, miniscule fault lines spread up, down and out in all directions. The cracks widened within moments allowing thin beams of sunlight to seep in. Kagome squinted against its relative brightness and then gasped when a powerful arm suddenly wrapped around her waist. Protectively tucking the woman into his side, Peng turned his free shoulder to the weak point in the portal. Then, with a burst of demonic strength he burst through the wall and the pair was suddenly bathed in brightness and the crisp clean air of the outside world. They landed in a bank of soft, powdery snow. Before her brain could fully register what had happened, Kagome was abruptly released. Not having had the opportunity to steady herself, the miko toppled over, the thick snow cushioning her fall.
“What the--” she was about to ask, but immediately went still when Peng moved to stand in front of her. Years of traveling with Inuyasha told her that he was shielding her from something so she immediately scrambled to her feet. If ice monsters had come to attack them, she wasn’t about to be caught sitting down.
“Who are you?” she heard the albatross ask, his voice strong, sure and edged with danger.
When no answer seemed to be forthcoming, Kagome stepped from behind the male to see what was approaching.
“Sesshoumaru!” she cried happily. She almost ran forward to dive into his arms but was halted by the intense look in his eyes.
Now understanding how the miko had managed to move so far away in such a short period of time, Sesshoumaru allowed the weight of his gaze to fall upon the other youkai.
Sensing tension between the pair, Kagome moved to place herself between them, her eyes fixed on Sesshoumaru.
“Sesshoumaru,” she began carefully. “This is Wei-Peng. He… he helped me find the white key. We can leave now.”
The inu lord gave no indication that he’d heard her, his eyes still fixed on the other male. Cautiously, Kagome took several more steps toward the silver-haired demon, unsure why he suddenly seemed so edgy. “Sess… Sesshoumaru?” she asked quietly, her eyes fixed on his steely gaze. She carefully reached forward hoping to gain his attention but was surprised when his large hand circled her wrist. An insistent tug had her stumbling forward and she just barely prevented herself from colliding with his armor.
He looked down at her then, and to her, it seemed that his eyes softened ever so slightly, though she couldn’t say for sure. Something about the way he was looking at her made Kagome feel extremely warm and yet oddly chilled at the same time. She clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering and attempted to decipher what he was thinking. The way he’d pulled her to him seemed oddly possessive and the way he stared into her eyes made her feel as if he was trying to determine something of great importance, though what that could have been, Kagome could not begin to imagine.
“Ah,” Peng spoke up, breaking the odd trance into which the pair had apparently fallen. Their attention was drawn back to him only to find a knowing smirk upon his lips. “So this is the fortuitous young daiyoukai who has captured your heart, eh Kagome-san?”
The miko felt a rush of color flood her cheeks at the unfettered statement and her heart nearly burst from her chest when said daiyoukai’s grip tightened against her wrist.
“That,” the demon lord spoke up, his deep voice vibrating the air around her, “Is not your concern.”
To her surprise, Peng allowed his smirk to spread noticeably, his expression now the perfect presentation of unapologetic insolence. “Perhaps not,” he conceded airily, “Though it is advisable that you keep a close eye on her in the future.” then he gave the girl a mildly lascivious glance. “She’s quite lovely after all.” he pressed on, ignoring Kagome’s scandalized expression and the nearly inaudible growl from the other male. “Fiery too, and there are some who would gladly disregard her humanity for the permanence of her… camaraderie.”
The miko’s countenance was a passable imitation of a fish out of water. Almost frantically, her brain was attempting to make sense of the last few moments and despite its valiant efforts, Kagome still couldn’t decide if she was flattered or offended by what the albatross had just said.
Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes at the audacious bird. His words could be taken as a challenge for courting rights, a transgression that could easily be corrected with an unhealthy dose of toxic green poison. It was an option he briefly considered until he was struck with the rather inconvenient knowledge that he had never actually discussed any such intentions with her. It was an oversight he was not certain he was prepared to correct, but the notion that the miko might consider a suit offered by this obscenely presumptive male did not sit well with him. Not at all.
“Peng-san…” Kagome spoke up, her soft utterance bringing an end to his train of thought.
The other demon held up a stilling hand, his dark eyes again fixed on the miko. His smile morphed from a haughty smirk into something markedly more affable and with a grace that belied his sometimes less than refined manner of speech, he gave a curt bow. “It appears that you are safely returned to your comrade and so I will now take my leave. Though our time together did not last as long as I would have preferred, I found that it was a pleasure sharing your company. Perhaps we will meet again.”
The words grated on Sesshoumaru’s already frayed nerves and he felt a jolt in his muscles, the underpinning of a movement that probably would have ended in bloodshed if the male had not stayed true to his words and taken to the skies. With a simmering golden gaze, the daiyoukai watched as the male’s form shrank and faded against the gradually sinking sun.
Now that they were alone, Kagome felt the weight of the inu lord’s presence. It pressed down on her in a way that was not entirely pleasant and absently, she realized that his youki was in a state of unrest. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt irrationally accountable for the things Peng had said and was less than pleased that he had simply run off and left her to deal with the fallout.
Her mind slowly, deliberately piecing together the scatterings of the situation in which she suddenly found herself, Kagome took a deep breath that was only slightly calming. It was… remotely possible, she realized with a detached, almost frivolous sense of awe, that Sesshoumaru just might be slightly unhappy about some of the things Peng had said.
Bravely pushing her reservations aside for the moment, she turned back to him hoping against hope that he would look more at ease then his heated youki would suggest. He didn’t. He was staring down at her, his expression not quite as bored as normal and lined with an intensity that stirred old memories; made her think to shrink away in instinctual self-preservation. She just barely managed to keep herself still and even though she really didn’t know what to say, she refused to look away.
“Why did you run away?” he asked abruptly, his voice stern but not quite menacing.
Startled, it took the miko a moment to understand what he was talking about. When she was struck with the recollection of the flight that would carry her through Peng’s barrier, her brow furrowed in mild confusion. Why had she run off like that? “I… I’m not really sure.” she said, befuddlement clear on her face. “I just felt this weird impulse. Like I had to get to… get somewhere as quickly as possible or I wouldn’t be able to…” she trailed off, her eyes glazing over as she was struck with realization. “The dragon!” she remembered suddenly. “Peng told me that because I already touched one of the keys, the dragon might be able to communicate with me telepathically. It’s kinda hard to explain, but I think the dragon knew that I had to hurry and get the second key. It was hidden in a portal that was about to become inaccessible for the next six months.”
Her words washed over him in a rush and Sesshoumaru was only able to glean a few critical pieces of information. Paramount among these, was that the dragon apparently had gained the ability to communicate with her. This… did not seem like a good development and he subconsciously shared his further displeasure with her through the slight downward turn of his lips. “The dragon is capable of speaking to you?” he asked, needing to hear confirmation of his thoughts.
She looked away from him then, her eyes darting off to the side. Belatedly, it struck her that he might not take this information with any measure of good humor. “Well, not… not exactly.” she told him and the demon lord quickly decided that he did not care for the uncertainty audible in her voice.
“It seems,” he began, his voice low but traced with a hard edge. “That this quest of yours becomes more perilous with the location of each key.”
She looked back to him then, her lips parted as if to protest. His eyes narrowed and the miko snapped her mouth shut, wanting to hear what he would say.
“Until now, I have not interfered with any of your decisions, but as of this moment I find it necessary to inform you that you will be calling and end to your search.”
Before he could say anything further, the miko’s loud, incredulous retort rang into the air. “What?!” she demanded heatedly, brows creasing in a thunderous scowl. “Do you really expect me to abandon this mission?!”
The weight of his gaze bore down on her, yet the woman refused to show any signs of either fear or acquiescence.
His hand, which had remained fixed around her wrist all this time, tightened slightly and he pulled her even closer, seemingly unconcerned when she fell against his armor. “Do not oppose me on this matter. It is not my wish to force your capitulation, but know that it is not above my means to do so should I deem it necessary.”
This heavy-handed approach was just the sort of thing Kagome held little tolerance for and in a flash of impassioned ire, Kagome attempted to snatch herself away from him. When her efforts proved unsuccessful, she settled for glaring at him instead. “And since when do you have the right to make my decisions for me?! It is not your place to do so!”
She was right of course, but Sesshoumaru had no real intentions of letting such a trivial matter interfere with his decision. “Look,” she spoke up again. “I realize you’re a lord and that you may be used to giving orders and getting your own way, but I am not one of your subordinates Sesshoumaru.” when he still did not answer, Kagome sighed deeply. She was feeling mildly frustrated and only slightly defeated. Logically, she knew that if he wanted to, Sesshoumaru could, quite literally force her hand in this. She really didn’t want to be at odds with him but she was also determined to see this through.
“It’s not,” she began softly, but then took a moment to consider her words. “I am honor bound to finish this and you shouldn’t make me choose between my honor and our friendship. It isn‘t fair,” she trailed off thoughtfully. Echoing softly through her mind, the word friendship played over and over and no matter how many times it did so, how many different inflections her internal voice used, the miko noted that this no longer seemed to be an accurate summation of their connection. It was a strange, faintly startling revelation; one that caused her heart to skip several beats.
“Unless…” she faltered pensively, their previous discussion all but forgotten. Swallowing dryly, the miko was suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of wary determination. If nothing else, experience had taught her that silence could turn out to be more detrimental than any momentary uneasiness or embarrassment ever could. She took only a moment to brace herself before she hardened her resolve and stepped onto the steep precipice she had always known was there; the one she had so tenaciously tried to ignore.
“Sesshoumaru… what, what am I to you?”
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