InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Sleeping Beauty ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

I want to thank all of you on A Single Spark so much for your reviews, and for the ratings you've given my story so far. I can only hope that it will live up to the wonderful expectations you have of it.

 

I plan on doing a whole series of fairytale spin-offs with Sesshoumaru and Kagome, so if you have a favorite fairytale, feel free to suggest it to me. Please include a link to a copy of the fairytale, or tell me of a book you know it's in. That way I can find it and read it and see what I can do to adjust it to fit Sesshoumaru and Kagome.

 

Chapter Two

 

To say that Sesshoumaru was annoyed would be speaking lightly. To say he was angry would be an understatement. Words could not describe his mood. He was snarling, his claws dripping the deadly poison he was so famous for. His demon sword flashed with deadly light as he swung it down; another yokai fell.

 

With a roar, Sesshoumaru raked his claws across the face of another creature. Near by, he could hear his half-brother making all sorts of ridiculous noises as he, too, fought to fell their enemies.

 

Sesshoumaru wondered why he even bothered to wake up some mornings.

 

Toukijin ripped through a yokai's stomach, spreading intestines and blood and gore across the ground. Avoiding it all with a nimble turn, Sesshoumaru turned to his half-brother who held his Tessaiga tightly in both hands.

 

“How was that, onii-san?” Inu Yasha asked.

 

“Well enough,” Sesshoumaru replied, flicking the gore from his blade. He glanced down at it. It would need to be cleaned later. Inu Yasha could do it.

 

Grinning like a foolish pup, Inu Yasha bounded over to his brother. “You really think so?” he asked, eyes sparkling at the slight praise Sesshoumaru had given him. “You think I did well?”

 

Sesshoumaru grunted. “At least you won't get injured as easily next time we have an actual battle on our hands,” he replied, walking along in a direction that would lead them to water. Toukijin was making a fuss about being sheathed while dirty, and Sesshoumaru wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to take the sword's whining aura. If he had known how much trouble the sword would be, he would never have sent Inu Yasha to fetch it for him.

 

Glancing at the mostly healed wound on his arm, a gash that went from shoulder to wrist, Inu Yasha laughed. “It's just a flesh wound,” he said jovially.

 

“That's what you said when your leg was nearly bitten off by a cat,” Sesshoumaru reminded him, sounding bored.

 

“Well, it—”

 

“And when a boar gored you on its horns.”

 

“But I—”

 

“And when that bear grabbed you by your waist and through you into a cliff wall. I do believe the indentation remains.” Sesshoumaru glanced back at his brother with a bored expression. “Shall we go visit that cliff again?” he queried.

 

Inu Yasha turned away, grumbling darkly. “I hate you, onii-san,” he muttered.

 

“I have told you that your opinion does not matter to this Sesshoumaru,” Sesshoumaru replied.

 

Inu Yasha stuck his tongue out at Sesshoumaru's back.

 

Sesshoumaru threw into Inu Yasha into several very large trees.

 

Groaning, Inu Yasha pulled himself out of the trees he had smashed through, hurrying to catch up with his elder brother. “Why don't you just let me fight you, Sesshoumaru, if you are so worried about me dying?” Inu Yasha asked, stepping up beside the older demon. “If I can survive against you, I doubt anything could kill me.”

 

“If this Sesshoumaru were to fight you, undoubtedly you would never walk again.”

 

“Well, you do always talk about how you'd rather see me dead than alive,” Inu Yasha pointed out. He grinned. “I think it's your way of showing affection.” He found himself eating bark again.

 

Plucking himself from another pile of trees, Inu Yasha bounded after his brother again. “Why do you keep doing that?” he demanded of his brother, giving him a glare.

 

“Because you are loud and obnoxious,” Sesshoumaru replied, not even looking at the hanyou beside him.

 

“I wasn't loud when you threw me this time,” Inu Yasha pointed out.

 

“You were obnoxious.”

 

Stepping from the forest, Sesshoumaru approached the stream where he had left Jaken. The toad jumped up from where he had been sitting, rushing over to Sesshoumaru and Inu Yasha.

 

“Sesshoumaru-sama!” he exclaimed with a bow. “I trust training went well?”

 

Sesshoumaru did not deign to answer the toad creature, instead sweeping by him and approaching the stream. Kneeling, he withdrew Toukijin from its sheath and dipped it in the water, watching as gore came lose in the current.

 

“Inu Yasha.”

 

At his brother's voice, Inu Yasha bounded over and withdrew Tessaiga from its sheath as well. He placed it in the water as Sesshoumaru had taught him, helping to clean it by scratching at some of the gore.

 

As he worked to clean his sword, Inu Yasha glanced at his older half-brother out of the corner of his eye. Despite the fact that, more often than not, the two wanted to kill each other, Inu Yasha had a deep respect for Sesshoumaru. And Sesshoumaru, in his own little way, seemed to be at least minutely concerned for Inu Yasha's own safety. He had, after all, taken Inu Yasha when his mother had died.

 

Inu Yasha suppressed a shiver. His mother had died when he had been very young, only about three years old. A three year old hanyou had no defense in the human courts his mother had lived in. For nearly six months, he had been kicked around, beaten, starved and tortured by the humans his mother had lived with. During one particular beating by the lord of the castle, when Inu Yasha thought he would surely die, Sesshoumaru appeared out of nowhere. After cutting the lord into several pieces, Sesshoumaru had reached out his clawed hand to the hanyou and told him to come.

 

Inu Yasha had never met his brother; he had no idea who Sesshoumaru was. But when he had looked at the yokai, he remembered the stories his mother had told him of his father. Sesshoumaru had looked very similar to how Inu Yasha had imagined his father, so he had reached out and taken the yokai's hand. Smiling slightly, Inu Yasha remembered calling Sesshoumaru “chichiue” for the first two years they had been together. Sometimes he still did. But only if he was in fairly good shape and thought he had a chance at surviving.

 

“Where are we going now, onii-san?” Inu Yasha asked his brother, looking over at him.

 

Sesshoumaru said nothing as he swept Toukijin from the water and stood all at once. The yokai examined his blade and then dried it on his sleeve, sheathing it with ease that spoke of years of familiarity.

 

“Onii-san,” Inu Yasha whined. “Where are we going now?”

 

“This Sesshoumaru has not decided yet,” Sesshoumaru replied. “We shall walk until we find something of interest.”

 

Inu Yasha groaned as he stood up, wiping Tessaiga dry on his haori sleeve. “Onii-san… Why did we even have to leave?” he asked, still whining. “You just up and left three weeks ago, hauling me with you, and you haven't even said why.”

 

“Do not question Sesshoumaru-sama's ways, foolish hanyou!” Jaken cried, leaping to his master's defense.

 

Sesshoumaru glanced down at the toad-like yokai and then returned his gaze to the forest before him. Turning, he began to walk, following the edge of the forest.

 

“Don't call me that, you damn toad!” Inu Yasha snarled back, leaping at Jaken's head.

 

Sesshoumaru did his best to ignore the quarreling idiots as he walked. They danced around him as they usually did. Inu Yasha was on all fours, bounding after Jaken like the dog he was, and Jaken was running away, flailing. They would continue their little dance until Sesshoumaru put a stop to it out of sheer annoyance. As his temper was decidedly short, their dance probably wouldn't last much longer.

 

As he walked, Sesshoumaru began to think of all the places he could go. There was no where in particular he wanted to go; he merely wished to get out of his palace. He was positive the lack of diverse scenery was the reason he had recently started to see things that did not truly exist.

 

He had been reading over some important piece of information when he had seen her first. She had appeared in his study out of nowhere, standing with her back to him and posed as if looking for a scroll on a library shelf. Her body was translucent and pale pink, and her dress seemed to be that of a miko.

 

After she had stood for a few minutes and shown no intention of leaving, Sesshoumaru had stood. He had fully intended to remove her presence from her study, but when he took a step toward her, she abruptly vanished.

 

Sesshoumaru hadn't appreciated that.

 

Later, he had been readying himself for bed when she appeared again. This time, she sort of faded into existence, as if she wasn't sure of herself. Again, her back was to him, but this time she seemed to be looking for something she had misplaced. Half-clothed and irritable, Sesshoumaru had snarled at her.

 

Eyes wide, she had turned to him. A small hand covered her open mouth before she vanished with a squeak.

 

Sesshoumaru hadn't appreciated that, either.

 

The next morning, he had hauled Inu Yasha and Jaken off for a walk. They had, as Inu Yasha pointed out, been walking for three weeks, and Sesshoumaru had no intention of returning to his home. Not until he was sure that his phantoms weren't going to appear again.

 

He would give it another month. Maybe two. It all depended on how much Inu Yasha pissed him off, and how quickly the little half-breed managed it.

 

“The next one of you to speak dies,” Sesshoumaru said, his tone flat and bored, as he stepped over a log.

 

Inu Yasha and Jaken fell silent almost immediately. They glanced at each other and then away, a mutual understanding on their faces. Sesshoumaru had become snarly, and a snarly Sesshoumaru was generally not a pleasant Sesshoumaru.

 

Some time later, Sesshoumaru finally called a stop to their walking. He glanced behind him at the wheezing Jaken. Inu Yasha wasn't breathing hard, but Sesshoumaru could hear a slightly elevated heart rate. Glancing at the setting sun, he decided they would rest for the night in his usual way. He turned abruptly away from them.

 

Making his way much more quickly through the trees at a speed neither Jaken nor Inu Yasha would be able to keep up with, he left the two to their own devices to buy himself some time alone. After moving several miles away, he changed direction, arriving at a hot spring a few moments later. Landing quietly on the ground, the taiyokai stripped off his armor, then his haori, then his hakama, laying each piece of clothing carefully on the ground. Naked, he strode into the spring.

 

Seating himself on a rock outcropping, Sesshoumaru leaned back and closed his eyes, letting the warmth of the spring loosen his taut muscles. Hot springs were, possibly, one of the only things he truly enjoyed in life next to maiming annoying yokai and beating his hanyou brother.

 

“Is he really naked?” a wondering voice asked.

 

Sesshoumaru's eyes flew open. There was no one in his direct line of sight, and he couldn't smell the presence of another creature either. A sinking suspicion had him believing the voice belonged to his phantom.

 

“He's really naked,” the same voice said. “He's not wearing any clothes. At all.” A girlish squeal issued from the region about his head. “This is better than last time!”

Without thought, Sesshoumaru lunged upward, reaching for the little phantom that hung above his head.

 

The miko watched him pass right through her body, eyes wide with curiosity. “You can see me?” she asked, staring at him.

 

Grabbing a branch and landing on another, Sesshoumaru snarled. “Of course I can,” he growled at her, lunging again.

 

She watched impassively as he went straight through her again. Turning, she watched him crash rather gracelessly into a rock.

 

“No one else can,” she said, looking down at his naked form.

 

Sesshoumaru turned and snarled at the girl. “Why do you keep bothering me?” he demanded in a low growl, his eyes starting to bleed red.

 

Her eyes widened. “There's no need to attack me,” she told him. Suddenly, she whirled around, her back to him. “Um… Could you put clothes on? Or get back in the water?” she asked, her voice sounding weak and strained.

 

A nasty smirk slithered across Sesshoumaru's face. “Does my state of undress cause you distraction?” he asked, allowing himself a moment of self-appreciation. Then he snarled to himself, wondering why he would ask that question to a stupid human.

 

“Yes, because I don't want to see your man-thing waving at me in the breeze,” the girl muttered.

 

Sesshoumaru's eyebrow lifted significantly. Man-thing? he asked himself. With a roll of his eyes, Sesshoumaru glided back into the hot spring, settling himself in a place where his lower body would be submerged.

 

“You may turn around, girl,” he told her.

 

The girl turned on her branch and looked down at him. She sighed, perhaps out of relief, and then floated down to a rock across from him. Her body passing through the water didn't disturb it, and her clothing did not float. Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed.

 

“What are you and why do you keep bothering me?” he demanded.

 

The girl chewed her lip as she studied the water before her, seemingly refusing to meet his eye. “I'm Kagome,” she told him. “Higurashi Kagome.”

 

Sesshoumaru waited.

 

Kagome looked up.

 

Sesshoumaru waited still.

 

Kagome heaved a sigh. “Higurashi Kagome, Princess of—”

 

“You are a Princess?” he asked, interest piqued ever so slightly. An intangible princess spying on a taiyokai was a source for some amusement. He figured he might as well take the amusement where he could. He found so little of late.

 

“Yes. A cursed one,” Kagome muttered.

 

“This is not a surprise,” Sesshoumaru replied, eyeing her translucent state.

 

Kagome wrinkled her nose. “No, it's not. But you're the first person who has ever seen me. What's your name?” she asked.

 

Sesshoumaru stared at her, trying to hide his annoyance at how suddenly she jumped from one topic to another. “My name is of no importance,” he said dryly.

 

“Yes, it is.”

 

“What makes you think that?”

 

“Because you're the only person who can see me.” She smiled at him. “And I plan on following you until I find out what your name is.”

 

“I am called Sesshoumaru,” he said, a bit too quickly. The prospect of her following him wasn't thrilling.

 

Kagome watched him, head tilted slightly to one side. She tried his name on her tongue, the syllables somewhat strange and unfamiliar to her. Killing perfection. Somehow, she doubted the meaning was irrelevant. Yokai. Yokai were not men.

 

Looking up, Kagome eyed him. “You have a funny accent. You speak weird,” she said abruptly.

 

Sesshoumaru's eyes just barely narrowed. He would have made the same comment, but never out loud. Her accent was just as odd as she found his. Her words were different, her intonations strange. Lips twitching in a slight frown, Sesshoumaru eyed the woman. His father had forced him to learn many languages and many dialects. Over the years those dialects and languages had changed.

 

She spoke like she was from the past.

 

“You are dead,” Sesshoumaru said.

 

Kagome stared at him for a moment and then burst into laughter.

 

Sesshoumaru stiffened, rage rushing through his body. Her laughter was brash, loud, and grating. The fact that it was directed at him made it all the worse. He wanted to rip her throat out and then her heart, devouring the life-giving organ.

 

“I'm hardly dead!” she exclaimed around her laughter. Finally sobering, she looked up at him. “I'm cursed,” she reminded him.

 

“Cursed,” he repeated. He wouldn't make it a question, asking a question of a human seemed, to him at least, a lowering of himself. However, the repetition of the word would work to convey a sense of wanting more. And the sense of wanting more was achieved. If Sesshoumaru had been anyone else, he would have sung his own praises.

 

“When I was young,” Kagome said, “I was cursed. Well, when I was born, really. My parents slighted a dark miko.”

 

Sesshoumaru nodded. He could identify, to some extent, with what she was saying. Thought he doubted there would be consequences for himself, he would never willingly risk the wrath of a miko of any kind.

 

Kagome sighed, looking up towards the darkening sky, and Sesshoumaru looked at her in turn. As he regarded her, he mused over how much the girl was like a lost, wandering spirit. She didn't disturb the water when she moved, her body had no scent, he could see right through her to the rock he supposed she was sitting against.

 

He was, however, nearing a point where his temper was fraying again. He wanted to her to continue with her story, although he didn't quite know why. Sesshoumaru's brow furrowed. No, he did know why. If he was the only one who could see her, she would follow him, regardless. If she was going to follow him, she would undoubtedly bring her own, personal baggage with her. And he wanted to be very aware of that baggage. He wanted to be so familiar with it that he would be able to predict the words that would come out of her mouth before she spoke them, as he could do with Inu Yasha and Jaken.

 

Before his temper snapped completely, which would have resulted in him attempting to maul air, Kagome spoke again.

 

“The miko cursed me so that, when I turned eighteen, I would cut my hand on a yokai blade and die,” she explained, looking at her hands through a small distance of water. “After she left, one of the miko who had been at the party, the one who had helped my mother become pregnant, she eased the curse. Instead of dying, I would sleep until a yokai came to take the poison from my body.” Kagome sighed heavily, clenching her hands beneath the water.

 

Sesshoumaru tried to stamp down the itching curiosity. He wouldn't ask her a question. He refused to demean himself by showing her that he was actually curious about her life. About a human life. He wouldn't do it.

 

“If you are sleeping, then how are you here?” Sesshoumaru asked. “This Sesshoumaru was unaware of a miko's skill to send her soul out of her body.”

 

Kagome looked surprised. “Is that what I'm doing?” she asked. The shock that exuded from her and the utterly perplexed look on her caused him to nod.

 

Sesshoumaru decided that hating the miko would be the easiest course of action.

 

“That's amazing,” she murmured, pressing her hands to her translucent shoulders. She looked up at him. “It's not something most people can do then?”

 

“No. It takes too long for a human to learn.”

 

“Oh,” Kagome replied, stretching the word out. “Well, I've had a long time to figure it out.”

 

Sesshoumaru arched an eyebrow.

 

“I've been asleep for about five hundred years,” Kagome explained. Her brows knitted together. “I think. I started trying to see things in dreams after about one hundred years. After three hundred years, I realized it wasn't working, but the harder I tried, the more I could see of my room. About ten years ago, I finally managed to get out of the palace I'm sleeping in and wander around. I've actually been looking for two of my friends, but I keep running into you instead.” She eyed him curiously. “I wonder if you could be the yokai who will wake me.”

 

Sesshoumaru snorted. “This Sesshoumaru would not lower himself to such a demeaning level,” he replied, standing.

 

The miko shrieked and whirled around. “Stop doing that!”

 

“Doing what?”

 

“Being naked in front of me!” Kagome squeaked.

 

Sesshoumaru snorted again. “Perhaps I should ask you to stop being clothed in front of me.” Only after he had spoken did Sesshoumaru realize what a mistake it had been to say those words.

 

The miko screamed, throwing her hands over her head. “I just had a taiyokai tell me to get naked!” she cried out, her voice shrill.

 

Sesshoumaru resented her for having no physical form. His claws would have quieted her quite nicely.

 

“A taiyokai just propositioned me!”

 

“This Sesshoumaru did no such thing,” Sesshoumaru growled, looking over his shoulder at the miko as he pulled on his hakama and haori.

 

The miko suddenly appeared right before him. She poked at his chest, although her finger passed right through him. “Just for that,” she snarled in a dark tone, “you had better take this damn poison out of my body.” With that said, she vanished.

 

Sesshoumaru stared at the space her ethereal form had just occupied for a moment before picking up Toukijin and Tensaiga and walking back to where he left Inu Yasha and Jaken.

 

As he walked, he decided he wasn't going to wake up in the morning. He simply wouldn't do it. He would fall asleep and refuse to wake up until some unfortunate yokai had taken care of the phantom miko. She would not be his problem. He wouldn't let her be his problem.

 

Sesshoumaru stepped into the clearing where Inu Yasha was sitting with Jaken, devouring some forest animal. The miko was floating beside his brother, smiling pleasantly at him.

 

Sesshoumaru, it seemed, didn't have the slightest say in whether or not the miko was going to be his problem. He decided, as he sat across from Inu Yasha and the miko, that he hated life, the universe, and everything in it even more than he had when he had woken up that morning.

 

 

 

Does Kagome seem out of character? She seems out of character. Maybe it's because I'm trying to convince her to be somewhat more of a princess from 600-ish A.D. and wants to be a school girl from the late 1990s. Bah. Sango and Miroku will appear in the next chapter. I believe Shippou will also make his debut there. Rin will probably turn up in the following chapter, which means Kouga will be there, too.

 

In other news, I need a beta. If anyone wants to volunteer, I would love them forever and ever.

 

Favorite part of chapter two: Most of Sesshoumaru's thought processes and lines of dialogue. For a taiyokai who rarely talks, he is quite witty when he chooses. Other times, he just sticks his foot in his mouth.