InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Therapist ❯ Disturbing Discoveries ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: I don't own “Inuyasha”.

 

Hi Everyone,

 

Things have been really hectic for me back at home, so I haven't been able to come up with the kind of updates that I had hoped to provide. However, I hope to have more time to do so in the near future. Thanks for giving me all your encouragement and comments.

 

Word Translations:

 

Youkai - demon

Taiyoukai - great demon

Hanyou - half-demon
Ningen - human

Kami - deity

Kaze no Kizu - “Wind Scar” Inuyasha's most frequently used special attack with the Tetsuaiga.

Kitsune - a type of fox spirit, the same species as Shippou in the anime.

Miko - priestess

 

 

 

----------------------------------------------------

 

 

Sachiko's knees were shaking badly as she climbed out of the crack in the monolithic rock formation. She sunk down to the ground and felt the trickle of tears come down her face. Things had been pretty bad back in her old life before she entered this outlandish world of demons and strange magic.

 

In fact, she thought her life was over the night she climbed out of her apartment window. There were times when she wondered if she was indeed dead and this was hell, or the afterlife. After all, the last thing she remembered facing were the headlights of a car. However, this strange realm resembled no afterlife that resembled the descriptions given by priests and monks at the temples. Although there were demons everywhere, there was no grim-faced judge with a book of her life opened before him, and there were none of the prescribed punishments that were frequently depicted in religious drawings.

 

If she had somehow landed up in hell before the judge of the underworld, at least she would know how long she had to reside before reincarnation granted her release from her torments. She had no expectations of leniency from the powers-that-be for she knew that she was likely to suffer for her immoral deeds no matter the extenuating circumstances. Instead, she was thrown into a nightmare that resembled medieval Japan, but contained things that were never described in any history book, with no way of knowing how long she had to stay before returning to a world that was familiar to her.

 

At that moment, it seemed this nightmare would last forever.

 

When her silver `angel' appeared, he represented a kind of reprieve from her suffering. She had dreams of holding his hand as they flew towards paradise, compassion radiating from his kind face. Now, even this small measure of hope was cruelly snatched away from her. Fate had dealt her the unkindest cut when her `angel' shed his mask to reveal the cruel face of a monster.

 

“Why are you crying?”

 

Started, Sachiko lifted her tear-stained face and looked up into the innocent face of the little girl who was standing a good 8 feet away from her. Blinking and wiping her moist face, she tried to get up and move closer to the girl. However, the child started to inch away from her.

 

Drooping her shoulders with a sigh, Sachiko sat down on the soft grass and replied, “I tripped and fell.”

 

“Oh…”

 

“I got something for you,” Sachiko picked up the chain of flowers that she had made for the little girl. She held it out far enough and then dropped it on the mossy grass so the little girl could grab the gift without getting too close to her.

 

Reaching out shyly the girl took it and slipped it over her head. “It's pretty.”

 

“I'm glad you liked it.”

 

A few seconds of utter silence passed before the little girl opened her mouth again.

 

“Are you youkai?”

 

“No…”

 

“Oni?”

 

“Er, no…”

 

The girl wrinkled her brow in confusion. “Well, you can't be human.”

 

“Well, I am.”

 

The girl stared at her.

 

“You MUST be blessed by kami or have demon blood!”

 

“Well no, I've not been blessed; neither do I have demon blood…”

 

“Are you a miko?”

 

“No,” she laughed, “Definitely not.”

 

“Well, you have to be…”

 

“Why's that?”

 

“Sesshoumaru-sama once mentioned something about how the only humans with powers are the priests, monks and holy men…”

 

Sachiko's throat constricted when she heard the name. “You know this Sesshoumau-sama…?”

 

“Of course, everyone here knows Sesshoumaru-sama… he is the lord of this castle and ruler of the Western lands… at least that's what Jaken-sama says…”

 

The petite woman found it hard to suppress the “eep!” that sprang unbidden from her throat. Her throat was dry as she struggled to pull a smile to cover her fear. For some reason, the little girl seemed to be less afraid of her now and had taken a seat by her side on the soft grass while she talked endlessly about the silver-haired demon.

 

“Really? Tell me more about Sesshoumaru-sama… er… “ she suddenly realised that they had never really introduced themselves. “What's your name?”

 

“Rin”

 

“I'm Sachiko…”

 

-----------------------------------------

Meanwhile…

 

The night sky hung serenely like huge silken tapestry studded with glorious, sparkling stars. Even though only the barest slip of a moon shone in the darkness, Sesshoumaru's remarkable night vision allowed him to appreciate the beauty of the nocturnal countryside. Walking under a delicate lattice of branches formed by the bare autumn trees, he smelled the delicate scent of pine needles which he crushed underfoot while he strolled around the forest that lay just beyond his palace.

 

Snap.

 

His keen ears instantly picked up the sound of someone stumbling around in the darkness about a hundred feet from him. Swiftly and quietly, he sped along the leaf-covered ground, his amazing agility allowing him to move without sound, even on a carpet of dried leaves. Even before he was able to see his prey, he knew who it was. He could smell her distinctive, jasmine-like scent from a distance. Growling angrily, he wondered how his brother's miko could have escaped from the special prison that his father had constructed for priests and other holy men.

 

Soon, he saw her stumbling around in the dark forest. She was now clad in the yukata he had his servants swap for her previous indecent attire. With a leap, he sailed effortlessly through the air to land in front of her as she practically bumped into the breastplate covering his chest. As soon as she caught her wind after colliding unceremoniously into him, she gave a small scream and ran in the opposite direction.

 

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes. This was almost too easy. Like the invisible wind, he sped up towards her retreating form and grabbed her at the shoulder and waist from behind. The force of the momentum caused both of them to fall forward. They fell with a “frump” on the leaf-covered ground. The girl screamed and turned, trying to use her hands to push him away. A glowing light, which was by now familiar to the taiyoukai, formed in the space between her struggling hands. When he saw it, it was a bit too late to avert from the miko's purifying energy. Steeling himself against certain pain, Sesshoumaru held onto his quarry.

 

He felt a stinging sensation and knew that searing pain was sure to follow. As the glowing light increased in intensity, he felt his fangs elongating, his eye turning from gold to red as his primal, demonic nature rose to the surface to meet this challenge. There was a smarting, almost blinding pain as the light filled his entire field of vision. When it cleared, he saw that although the light had again shattered his armour, he was completely unhurt.

 

He blinked and instinctively pinned the miko to the ground. The girl's mouth rounded to an “O” as she screamed and turned away from him as though he was going to lunge at her next with his elongated fangs. Half confused by the pain he had experienced and egged on by his own primal instincts, Sesshoumaru drove his face and fangs towards her neck; the thought of tearing out her throat was foremost in his mind. However, he stopped as his fangs grazed her skin, drawing a bit of blood.

 

His sensitive nose caught a whiff of her delicious scent. A smell that was heady and intoxicating. Closing his eyes as he inhaled the scent, he felt his tongue flick outwards, tasting the tangy blood that seeped from the small cut. The taste of the blood was sweet and excited something inside of him. He bent closer and started flicking his tongue against the soft skin of her neck, nuzzling her cheeks with his nose.

 

A feeling of bliss spread over him as he heard a moan escape from her lips. Soon, he felt the cloth of the yukata slip from her shoulder and as the red faded from his eyes, he was brushing his lips against her beautiful ivory shoulders.

 

Small, delicate hands pressed against the white silk of his chest as the girl beneath him gasped breathlessly, “What are you doing to me?”

 

Reaching out with his hands, he pushed the miko's away gently and pinned them firmly but carefully on the leafy ground beside her head.

 

Wait a minute, his hands?

 

Sesshoumaru stared at them incredulously; two slender hands and arms marked with magenta stripes. He blinked and shook his head violently.

 

He jerked forward, almost falling over as he awoke from his meditation in his dimly-lit study. Although it was still dark outside, Sesshoumaru's keen perception told him it was nearly dawn. Demons of his stature needed little or no sleep. Some of them spent the night in study and contemplation, others used the unearthly hours to wreck havoc on an unsuspecting world, and yet others spent the time disciplining their own mind through meditation.

 

The demon lord bristled with annoyance. Never before had he fallen asleep while meditating and he certainly didn't intend to dream about his brother's miko and himself in a compromising position!

 

Picking up a small bell, he rang it to summon a servant. Within a few seconds, the door to his study slid open as a youkai servant bowed low to receive his orders.

 

“Tell Goumonguro that I wish to speak with him.”

 

The servant nodded and closed the door. Within a few moments, he returned with an inuyoukai that had striking metallic-green hair. The inuyoukai bowed low to his lord as he entered Sesshoumaru's sparse, neatly organized study. Goumonguro was skilled in all things that pertained to the mystical world and specialized in extracting information from the foes of his lord.

 

“Have you discerned the source of the miko's powers?”

 

“I humbly apologise my lord, for this unworthy servant has failed to find out more about the source of this ningen's unusual powers,” Goumonguro replied with a face almost as stoic as that of his lord.

 

Sesshoumaru tilted his head slightly at the apology. “And her story is still the same?”

 

“Yes, my lord. She still claims to come from the future, even after our spies have investigated the bone-eater's well and found that it leads nowhere.” The green-haired demon paused for a bit, allowing his lord to consider the information that he had provided. “Although I know that you have forbidden it, my lord, but there is no way to extract any more useful information from this ningen unless some physical or magical force is applied.”

 

“I will consider your words, Goumonguro,” the taiyoukai said. “Return to your other duties. No more information do I require from the prisoner at this current time.”

 

Goumonguro bowed and left the room soon after.

 

In the quiet study just before first light of dawn, the demon lord considered his predicament. He had not originally intended to capture his brother's wench, but since Fate and chance had placed her in his hands, he had made what he considered the logical choice. Clearly the girl had tremendous power, but almost no formal training. Moreover, she was also much much stronger than a normal miko. In fact, she was much stronger than any human that ever lived, even surpassing the famed Midoriko, who was supposedly the most powerful miko who ever fought his kind.

 

It was only logical then that as a taiyoukai, he would try to find out where her powers came from and perhaps even harness it for his own purposes. He DID intend to rule the world one day… or did he?

 

Sesshoumaru crinkled his flawless brow. Something was indeed not quite right here, but for the first time in his life, he had no idea what it could be. He mentally ran though the events of the past few weeks from his two unfortunate meetings with his brother's miko to his recent conversation with Goumonguro, looking at them from different angles.

 

Suddenly his eyes snapped wide open. A tremendous “NO!” welled up from inside of him. All of his experiences with the miko and his own reactions pointed to only one conclusion.

 

“IMPOSSIBLE!” he thundered.

 

Despite maintaining a carefully cultivated appearance of emotionless detachment, the demon lord certainly wasn't dense when it came to recognizing affairs of the heart. His many years of experience as a ruler and politician had taught him to recognise different behaviour patterns in those he met, reading their hearts from their words, faces and actions. His constant efforts to cultivate a supreme level of self-discipline coupled by intense introspection to weed out any weakness in his psyche had given him a measure of self awareness.

He knew that he could feel desire, and even fell in love once in the long years of his existence. He didn't necessarily think of emotion as a weakness, although his own personal standards with regards to his paramours were high. Thus, it confounded the great Sesshoumaru to find himself feeling a measure of desire for a ningen wench. For surely, if it were only a matter of some wanton craving on his part, any demoness of a reasonable stature could take on a form that far exceeded the miko in terms of beauty and sensuality.

 

In the light of the facts that confronted him, Sesshoumaru could only come up with three likely explanations for the behaviour he was getting from his own subconscious mind. One, that he had somehow grown perverse over the long years, or two, he was under some kind of spell, probably cast by the miko, or three, he had unknowingly fallen in love with his brother's wench.

 

He dismissed the third possibility immediately because there was almost no commonality between himself and the miko to permit love to blossom. Based upon what he had seen of her, he judged her to be overly emotional, reckless, silly, loud, abusive (to his brother), lacking in social graces and unintelligent. Moreover, she was far too young and immature for his liking. In fact, if he were to compare all the human women he had ever come across, the hugely outrageous harlot who had saved his Rin came closest to matching him in terms of strength of will, cunning and valour.

 

He shuddered at that thought.

 

Since, he was SURE that he wasn't getting perverse with age, Sesshoumaru had to conclude that someone or something, maybe the miko herself had unknowingly cast a spell on him. He rolled his eyes at the thought that the silly ningen would ever have the guts or gumption to knowingly try and seduce him.