InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Bearers of the Shards ❯ Whom the Heavens Chose ( Chapter 13 )

Yamisui: At last, the final chapter! For THIS story, anyway. . . kukuku

The Bearers of the Shards

Chapter 13: Whom The Heavens Chose

As the kirin knelt before him, it seemed to him that all the world melted away, and it was only the two of them together, surrounded by a circle of light. He supposed the beast had cast some kind of spell, and his supposition was confirmed when it spoke to him. The kirin had no human voice, but its speech in his mind was like the pealing of bells; thunder ringing in the heavens. For the briefest of instants he felt small and insignificant, a drop in the ocean---too overcome with wonder to do anything but listen.

But when the kirin's first words fell silent, he became angry.

"No!" he hissed. "NO!"

The emotions warring in his heart were almost too much to bear. One hand clenched into a fist at his side, nails digging into flesh so hard that blood ran down his palm. He could speak no further; the blood pounded in his chest and rushed in his ears, threatening to deafen him.

But the kirin did not seem to care that he was angry. It did not rise from where it knelt, but its eyes, luminous as twin stars, rolled upward toward him. Its regard was not without pity, but it was also hard and unyielding.

Once the kirin had chosen, the choice could not be unmade.

<You ARE.> The clarion voice rang out in his head. <There is no denial. From a star of the heavens I was born, plucked from the dance of the firmament to descend. For you, I have come. For you, I kneel. You ARE.>

"WHAT am I?" he demanded, "that the heavens should play this cruel game with me? Go! Choose some other if it pleases you. But do not bind me to that which I am loathe to be bound!"

The gaze of the white beast did not waiver.

<Your father before you bound himself to these lands, and so to Reiyama. Now your time has come. If you do not accept it, then They shall.>

Abruptly, his mind's eye was flooded with images of gray robes, of an army of sorcerers pouring forth from the valley and into the world with their legions of the enslaved. There was no need to ask who "They" were.

The kirin tilted its silken head to one side, giving him the impression that it knew his reasons and did not care.

<Accept it in hatred, if you will. They are yours, to destroy or to defend. You have been ordained.>

"I have. . .power over them now," he said softly. A sense of this power stirred in his chest, warming him. "True power. With it. . .they can no longer threaten with their sorcery. If I choose to wield it. . .there are none left to stop me."

The light around him seeming to quicken its current, like wind rising, and the kirin's eyes flashed.

<Mark well: to become as your father was, you must cast aside this anger or it shall consume you and the ones you rule.>

He was too incensed to fear the kirin's wrath, and spoke down to it harshly.

"My FATHER'S nobility earned him the peace of the grave while the Wise made slaves of his children! I will NOT guard them!"

The kirin's horn lifted from the earth, glinting in the light.

<It is not required that you withhold justice from those who have wronged you. Only take care that you do not follow the path of the sorcerers. . .>

Once again, images flowed through his brain: moving through the city streets, so strewn with the dead that it seemed paved with them; gray robes moving through the empty streets, populated by naught but souls entrapped---human and demon souls alike. And for the first time in many years, his heart was filled with horror at the sight. The sorcery of the Tatesei was an evil that should not be allowed to spread.

In this moment, he finally understood the magnitude of what it was that he was being asked to do.

"No, not asked," he murmured aloud. "Chosen. Is this not what I have always desired? That I should be chosen?"

<To be a ruler is to avoid being ruled by your desires> the kirin warned. <Mark this well, if you would accept the power and the burden your father bore.>

He lowered his head, so that his silver-white hair shaded his brow, and only the grim line of his mouth was visible. In this moment, with his mind laid bare before the kirin's purity and wisdom, a strange peace settled over him like a mantle.

`I have forgotten my father's face,' he thought. `But I will not do so again. It is not befitting that the son of so great a Youkai let his darker passions sway his heart from its true course.'

Slowly, he lifted his head.

"Rise, Kirin-sama," he said softly, "for I accept."

Gracefully, the white beast unfolded its slender legs and rose to stand before him. Standing thus, it was as tall as he was.

<I ordain thee, then, passing on to thee the rights granted to thee by blood and by honor> the kirin said. <To thee, Sesshoumaru; Lord of the West.>

# # #

All assembled parties---the two princes, the Wise, Inuyasha, Miroku and Shippou---watched in shock as the kirin knelt before the tall, bloodstained figure. As they gazed at him in speechless confusion, he seemed to be undergoing some kind of internal struggle. His fist clenched; his face contorted, going from wonder to rage to bitterness to calm. Through all of this the kirin knelt patiently, apparently awaiting some kind of answer from him. Then, at the last, he said in a soft, even voice: "Rise, Kirin-sama, for I accept."

Muttering broke out among the Wise, outraged and fearful.

"A Youkai has been chosen. Why? Why?"

"Is this heaven's judgment, visited upon us by the son of our enemies?"

"What the HELL?!" (This last was Inuyasha's.)

"It's---it's chosen Sesshoumaru?" Miroku had come to stand beside Inuyasha. "Amazing. . ."

"Stupid!" Shippou breathed, peering around Honechi's robes. "Does it WANT the Tatesei to be squashed like bugs?"

Yaburenumaru was the first to break the spell of stillness that had settled over them all. He could not speak because his demon form could not speak, but he let out a bellow of rage that clearly meant: "NO!" Then he lowered himself onto all fours, and his body convulsed. The kirin's head turned to glance at him, and Sesshoumaru looked too, as if aware for the first time of his surroundings. The white demon stood calmly as the ball of flame surged toward him, scouring the ground and sizzling the air. Then, when it had come within one meter of him, he brought up his hand and held it there, palm out. His hand flared green as the fire broke upon it and disappeared.

Then Sesshoumaru turned toward the Wise, not even waiting to see Yaburenumaru retreat a few steps backward, subdued. The sorcerers drew back, very much afraid. To the Wise, he said, "I am ruler here; you are bound to me. Release the souls."

Though his comrades' expressions were nervous, Honechi's face went dark with hatred. He glared at Sesshoumaru, and it seemed for a moment that he might dare to defy even his own king. But after a moment he said through clenched teeth, "As you wish." To his companions, he said, "Let it be so." The red light pulsating between his hand and Kagome's inert form flickered and dissipated.

The faces of the Tatesei sorcerers were very pale and frightened now. Their eyes were wide with new terror.

"Why are they so afraid?" Miroku mused. "Sesshoumaru's only ordered them to use their magic. After all, his rage seems to have abated. . ."

"'Cause they're gutless little goat-fuckers," Inuyasha snapped. Then, abruptly, he made a dash for the bank of the lake, heading for Kagome. "Outta my way!" he ordered Honechi, who readily stepped aside.

The High Priest nodded to his underlings and then raised his voice in song. At first he sang alone, rich tenor echoing through the air against the stirring of the souls.

"Kagome," Inuyasha murmured, kneeling in the mud and reaching for her.

Honechi's comrades began to join him, hesitantly at first, but then with growing strength. The souls, already restless since Sesshoumaru's ordination, shifted and blurred as if caught in some wind.

Miroku hastened to Inuyasha's side.

"No," Inuyasha murmured, squeezing Kagome's wrist and pulling her into his arms.

"Inuyasha, give her to me," Miroku insisted. "I know a technique that might---"

"Kagome," Inuyasha said softly. Ignoring the monk, he pressed his face into her hair.

"He's not listening to you!" Shippou wailed, beating at Inuyasha's side with his tiny fists. "You've gotta make him listen!"

"Kagome," Inuyasha repeated brokenly.

"INUYASHA!" Miroku's staff descended over the hanyou's head, landing with a thud. The unexpected blow left Inuyasha temporarily stunned, and the monk was able to wrest Kagome from him.

He laid her down on the cold, wet earth and knelt to push on her chest. Then he bent and pressed his lips to hers.

"HEY!" Shippou cried, now pelting Miroku with a rain of tiny punches. "You're supposed to HELP her, not MOLEST her!"

Miroku ignored him and repeated this process a few more times.

"She's still breathing," he told Shippou, when he came up for air. "But we have to get her conscious again or the cold water in her lungs will kill her."

The monk's reward for his services was a swift and unexpected punch delivered to the back of the head. As he toppled sideways, Inuyasha grabbed Kagome again and crushed her tightly against him.

"Hands OFF, hentai," he snapped.

The force with which Inuyasha had clasped Kagome to his chest put quite a bit of pressure on her diaphragm. Even as he spoke to Miroku, she spit up a great gout of icy water over his shoulder and into his hair. Inuyasha was too relieved to be disgusted. He wound both his arms around her shoulders and held her close as she proceeded to spit all of it out.

"Inuyasha," Miroku protested, sitting up and rubbing his head. "Stop being so violent! The technique was meant to expel the water from her lungs and to get air into them!" He paused, laying a thoughtful finger to his chin. "Though. . .I can't say I didn't enjoy using it, either. . ." he added.

"That. . .song. . ." Kagome gasped, peering over Inuyasha's shoulder to see what was going on. "The. . .Wise. . .are. . .?"

"Try not to talk just yet," Inuyasha advised her.

"The kirin came," Shippou piped in. "It must have its horn on crooked or something, because it ordained Sesshoumaru! He's making the Wise set the souls free!"

"Oh," Kagome breathed, frowning. "So THAT'S why I. . ." She broke off into a coughing fit.

The song of the Wise rose in intensity and began to resonate in the hearts of all present, living and dead alike. It was not like the sorcerers' other spells of binding or destruction, but there was a strange, soaring sound to it that was so pure as to be almost gut-wrenching. The Youkai souls swirled around their captors, hissing and glowing. The faces of the Wise turned upward, and their eyes began to glimmer with a fey, golden brilliance.

Sesshoumaru watched silently, with a face devoid of bitterness and anger. The kirin still stood at his side, as if awaiting some further command from him. Asano stood listening to the song, unaware of the tears streaming down his cheeks. Yaburenumaru, who stood apart from the others, cried out suddenly and sank to his knees, clutching at his arms with both hands. He had regained his human form. The spirit of the salamander Youkai had come out of him, now exuding the same ghostly, green translucence of the others the Wise had enslaved. Its body surrounded the boy, and did not rise into the air as the other souls did.

"NO!" Yaburenumaru cried. "Don't leave me!"

The very flesh of the sorcerers was glowing now. Their faces shone eerily from the depths of their gray hoods. The song of the Wise soared into a crescendo, and then the Youkai spirits rose with it. Their forms blurred and melded into a swirling cloud of light, and the cloud rose higher and higher, until it disappeared through the veil of clouds.

Sesshoumaru, watching them, let out a long, slow sigh.

"NO!" Yaburenumaru repeated, stretching his arms upward toward the salamander spirit, which was rising to follow the Inu Youkai. He squeezed his eyes shut and shouted, "I WILL NOT BE DENIED!"

And then the Youkai spirit vanished.

As the light of the Youkai souls disappeared beyond the clouds, the skin of every sorcerer who had taken part in the casting of the spell glowed a brilliant white, outshining even the gold glimmering in their eyes. Though his comrades' faces remained upturned, Honechi lowered his head to glare at Sesshoumaru.

"THIS ISN'T OVER YET!" he cried. "THE TATESEI WILL ENDURE, BECAUSE YOU WERE NOT THE ONE CHOSEN TO---!" Honechi clutched at his chest as if in intense agony, unable to finish.

Sesshoumaru started toward the sorcerer, anger returning to his eyes for reasons that no one else save the kirin understood.

But then, abruptly, the light faded, and every one of the Wise collapsed to the ground, and the white demon stopped his advance.

Miroku went over to look at Honechi and then announced to all present, "Dead." The monk surveyed the other sorcerers, lying prone on the ground. Their eyes had rolled back into their heads, flashing a sickly white. "All dead." He glanced over at Inuyasha and Kagome. "The Wise died because of the spell, I think. They had bound the souls to themselves so completely. . .that setting them free meant death."

"But why isn't Yaburenumaru dead?" Shippou asked, pointing to where the Tatesei prince stood. The boy's head was lowered, so that his lanky hair obscured his eyes. "He's used the same magic as the Wise. . ."

Sesshoumaru, upon hearing this, turned and flew at the prince so fast that his body blurred. But he stopped short as a small, slender form imposed itself between them.

"NO!" Asano cried, spreading out his heads to block Sesshoumaru's access to his brother. "Spare him! Please!"

Sesshoumaru did not lower his claws.

"Do you think me merciful?" he asked softly. "Do you think me a fool? That boy is a sorcerer as well."

"No," Asano protested, shaking his head vehemently. "The fact that he's alive proves that he wasn't consumed by the evils of the Wise. He wasn't so bound to sorcery that losing it meant losing his life!"

"Do not think that the freedom of my kin has made me soft," Sesshoumaru warned. "If I must take your life to take that creature's, then so be it."

"He is foolish," Asano murmured, refusing to move from where he stood. "He has let himself be seduced by the Wise. He's come all the way here to kill me, just to get the one thing he was never meant to have." The prince paused, swallowing hard, then said, "But he's my brother."

Slowly, Sesshoumaru lowered his hand. His gaze shifted over the boy's shoulder to the face of the prince behind him. His eyes narrowed.

"Thank you, Asano," Yaburenumaru said in a low, hoarse voice. "But I don't deserve this loyalty. For you are wrong, Asano, about one thing." He lifted his chin, and his hair fell away from his eyes. His face was hard and cold, and his eyes were red and full of malice. "I would never call a soft little brat like you my brother."

Fire flared outward from every pore of his flesh, reflecting in Asano's wide eyes and illuminating his shocked face. With demon speed, Yaburenumaru reached out with both arms to enfold his brother in a fiery embrace.

With demon speed, the blow knocked Asano to the ground. He hit the earth so hard that it stunned him, and for a moment his vision blurred. When he looked up, he saw what had happened. Yaburenumaru sank to his knees, looking down to see Tetsusaiga's enormous hilt protruding from his chest. Inuyasha stood not twenty feet away, arm still raised from flinging the sword. Standing between Asano and his brother was Sesshoumaru.

"You---" Asano gasped, but Sesshoumaru wasn't in the mood for explanations.

Instead the white demon bent down, stretching out a hand toward Tetsusaiga.

"HEY!" Inuyasha bellowed, rushing toward them.

With one vicious tug, Sesshoumaru yanked the blade free of Yaburenumaru. However, even as he did so he let out a gasp as electricity crackled around his hand. Tetsusaiga clattered to the ground, its transformation reversed because he had touched it.

"HANDS OFF, JACKASS!" Inuyasha hollered at him, swooping down and catching the sword up again. Now that it was in the hanyou's possession, the sword blazed into life once more. Sesshoumaru straightened but made no move to take it back. He merely stared at it, evidently mulling something over.

"I have been named lord of the West," he murmured, "and still the sword does not choose me."

"You're damn right it doesn't!" Inuyasha affirmed. "You're a real piece of work, you know that?! You've been named lord of the West and you still want the only thing I'VE got!"

"Hey!" Kagome called indignantly from the bank. "That sword's NOT the ONLY thing you've got!"

Shippou snickered at this, and Inuyasha blushed a little.

"Yaburenumaru," someone said softly.

Inuyasha half-turned to see Asano kneeling in front of his brother, clasping the dying boy by the shoulders. Yaburenumaru neither attacked him nor pushed him away, but slumped into his arms, already weak beyond supporting his own weight. His head fell onto Asano's shoulder.

"Yaburenumaru," Asano repeated, taking one of his brother's hands in his own and clenching it tight. "I wonder. . .if. . .I wonder. . ."

"What is it you wonder?" Sesshoumaru asked dispassionately, looking away from Tetsusaiga and gazing at the city across the lake as if to look anywhere BUT at the sword.

"I wonder," Asano said with sudden anger, glancing up at the white demon, standing with his beautiful, cold face averted. "What would have become of him. . .had you not brought him to this. . ."

Sesshoumaru said nothing. The kirin was approaching him, silver eyes alight with wisdom---or was it judgment? A wind stirred between them---white beast and white demon---and for the briefest of moments Sesshoumaru's face darkened, as it had when the kirin first spoke to him.

"Do you know, Asano. . .why I killed that child in the northern village?" Yaburenumaru asked, his voice shaking from lack of breath and muffled against his brother's shoulder.

Asano's brow knitted, and his mouth tightened with pain, but he only answered, "No."

Making a faint noise of scorn or disapproval, Sesshoumaru turned his face away from the kirin's blazing regard.

"Ahh," Yaburenumaru sighed, struggling for breath. "I. . .destroyed his face. . .because it resembled yours. . ."

Then he breathed his last, and the fire went out of his eyes. Asano clutched Yaburenumaru even more tightly against himself as the demon spirit the prince had held inside him to the last shot toward the heavens in a glowing column of green. The force of the Youkai soul's exit stirred the robes of both boys---Asano's rich and kingly raiment; his brother's worn to rags and stained with filth and blood. And then, with the demon's passage, the light died.

With a sigh, Inuyasha sheathed his sword, while Sesshoumaru turned toward Asano.

"Stop your weeping, boy," Sesshoumaru admonished sternly. "Don't waste your tears on one who would not have wept for you."

Slowly, Asano loosened his hold until the dead prince had been lowered to the ground. In death, Yaburenumaru's face looked young, and very small.

"Will you kill me now?" Asano asked without looking up. "Am I, too to be prey to your vengeance?"

Inuyasha's hand went to Tetsusaiga's hilt again, and he glared at his brother. There was a brief, tense pause.

Then Sesshoumaru answered, "No."

Asano raised his head to stare at the white demon in surprise.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed, and he repeated, "No." The kirin backed away slowly, inclining its luminous head. The white demon's expression was calm. "It was not myself that I wished to avenge. And that is done, for my kin have been freed. But I. . ." He frowned across the lake toward Reiyama, where some of those who survived his massacre had come to see what had transpired. "I have no desire to be king to a race of humans whom I detest. And so. . ."

Inuyasha's hand moved away from Tetsusaiga's hilt.

"And so," Sesshoumaru declared, "I name you king here in my stead. You, boy, will rule the Tatesei as you like. However. . .do not think that Reiyama will ever be as it was. These lands are now mine; Reiyama is mine. I will watch you, prince of my enemies. I will leave the city, and return in the hour when you least expect me, and then if I should see one trace of the sorcery that has wrought so much evil. . .I swear to you that not even the innocent will draw breath when I have dealt with you."

Solemnly, Asano nodded, ignoring the tears that ran lines down the dirt on his cheeks.

"I swear to do as you say," he replied. Then he seemed to draw himself up, straightening into the regal figure his people would expect of him. "I will return to the city," he said. "And tell them all that has happened here. I will take these brave travelers with me." He nodded toward Shippou, Miroku and Kagome, who were still sitting on the bank.

The kirin, which had been watching silently throughout Sesshoumaru's proclamation, now lowered its head before him once more. This time, the jewel shard fell from it. It landed at Sesshoumaru's feet in the mud, where it glinted all the brighter. The white demon stared at it a moment, then picked it up and held it between the nails of his thumb and forefinger.

"Hey!" Kagome cried, running toward them.

"Kagome-sama, don't be rash!" Miroku cried, chasing after her. "You can't FIGHT him for it!"

"Wait for ME!" Shippou shouted, chasing both of them.

Kagome attempted to come to a halt at ten feet away from them, but instead she skidded in the mud, went flying, and landed on her rump only five feet away from Sesshoumaru.

"Er---" she stammered, intimidated now that her proximity was closer.

Sesshoumaru glared down at her, and Inuyasha stepped toward them both, gritting his teeth and preparing for the worst.

But after a moment the white demon only made a scornful noise and flung the shard down at her feet.

"I'm through wasting time with these fools," he announced. Then he pulled a sharp about-face and stalked off, long white hair stirring as he went.

Kagome and Inuyasha bent to pick up the shard at the same time and knocked heads.

"Ow!" Kagome exclaimed, but she was already pocketing the jewel fragment.

"Damnit!" Inuyasha swore. "You're so CLUMSY! I don't know WHY I put up with you!"

"Oh, REALLY?" Kagome said, turning up her nose. "You had me in your LAP earlier. . ."

Inuyasha became extremely flustered and red-faced and backed away from her hastily.

"Well, I wouldn't' have had to SAVE you if you weren't so STUPID!" he retorted, folding his arms and looking sulky. "Going diving for Tetsusaiga! You could've been KILLED!"

"Hey, Inuyasha, your head looks like a tomato," Shippou observed.

Fortunately for both Kagome and Shippou, Miroku was ready and managed to lock Inuyasha's arms behind his back to keep him from attacking.

Distracted as they all were by Inuyasha's outraged flailing and swearing, only Asano noticed that the kirin had vanished.

END OF CHAPTER 13