InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Therapist ❯ The Great Deception ( Chapter 12 )

Disclaimer: I don't own "Inuyasha".

Word Translations:
Youkai - demon
Taiyoukai - great demon
Hanyou - half-demon
Ningen - human
Kami - deity
Miko - priestess
Shikon no Tama - the Jewel of Four Souls. The same jewel that everyone is after in the series.
Oni - a kind of ogre-like demon



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The letter simply appeared one morning, smoothly wedged in between the wooden front doors of a large house that Naraku maintained as part of the numerous abodes he lived in when he moved around. It was discovered soon after when the demon and his entourage arrived at the house.

"… we humbly hope that you'll pay us a visit three days from now," reading its contents aloud, Sachiko noticed the crisp, smooth quality of the paper and elegant script the letter was written in.

"Who is this Azumamaro anyway?" Kagura echoed the question that was on everyone's mind.

Naraku pondered for a moment. "A demon lord. And an unsavory character, from what I hear."

"Will you meet him?" Sachiko asked.

The dark-haired demon sighed, "Might as well. We'll see where Fate leads me."

Three days later, Naraku left alone for his meeting with Lord Azumamaro, the ruler of the East. Speeding through the clouds, his baboon pelt flying in the wind behind him, Naraku soon arrived at the abode of the Lord of the East. As he slowed down and descended into the mountain abode of the demon lord, Naraku found himself surrounded by clouds lined with the warm pink, lavender and golden hues of a sunrise. Beyond the layers of cloud and mist, he stepped into a garden-like world where time seemed to be perpetually frozen at the height of spring when cherry blossoms continuously flower, their tender pink petals falling gently on the mossy ground.

A marvelous mansion with roofs of gold rose out of this surreal garden high in the mountains. The rocky outcrops and boulders of the mountaintop were reshaped by demonic power into a kind of fortress wall, keeping out intruders. Strolling calmly to the large, gold and ivory inlaid doors of the mansion Naraku's keen eyes took in every detail. Although there were no visible servants to announce his arrival, the gold and ivory doors opened of their own accord. He was met at the other side by an old oni with a long, green beard who quietly showed him inside.

A strange hushed silence pervaded the halls of Lord Azumamaro's mansion as Naraku strode across near empty corridors with highly polished wooden floors. His keen eyes caught the movement of servants who seemed like ghosts, flashes of colour that appeared and disappeared as they went about their business. Just beyond the edge of human hearing and perception they only spoke in hushed whispers which the dark-haired demon picked up with no difficulty.

Deciding to refrain from comments about the mansion’s eerie serenity, he followed the green-bearded oni till he was shown into a simple but elegant room with sliding doors that opened up onto a carefully cultivated garden. Sitting down cautiously in front of a kettle suspended over a heath sunken into the floor, Naraku saw a teacup filled with fragrant tea fade into existence beside him. Glancing casually at the teacup he looked up again calmly when he heard the rustling of silk. Seated across from Naraku as though he had always been there was a young, handsome demon with golden hair and eyes that resembled the sun rising over the horizon at dawn. Naraku noted with some amusement the similarity of this demon lord to Sesshoumaru. With the exception of his golden hair, a somewhat cunning demeanor, the lack of magenta stripes and a crescent moon, this taiyoukai could have been the Lord of the West’s older brother.

"I welcome you, Naraku, to my humble abode," the tenor voice of the Lord of the East was soft even though it had a remarkable timbre that pierced through the silence of the mansion.

"Why have you requested this meeting with me?" there was a haughty tone in the demon lord's voice that was starting to irk Naraku.

Azumamaro laughed, "Direct as ever. Very well, I shall come to the point. I have called you here to propose an alliance with you."

"I have heard of you, Azumamaro. And I am aware that there were instances in the past where an alliance would have been beneficial to you, but you have taken no allies. Why now of all times? And why choose me?"

Azumamaro picked up his teacup with a dainty hand and sipped the steaming liquid. "It has always been my intention to ally with you. Your powers and cunning are known throughout our world. However, till very recently, you have sunk yourself in pursuit of the Shikon no Tama. I could not therefore approach you with my offer."

Naraku frowned. "Why should my pursuit of the Shikon have any bearing on your decision to ally or not?"

"What I have to say to you next may sound impertinent, but I ask you to hear me out," Azumamaro placed his teacup on the tatami mat floor beside him and brought his hands together, the tips of fingers pressing against each other in a firm gesture. "While your mind was clouded by the pursuit of this tempting but deceptive gem, I could not share with you certain specifics that I have uncovered through years of investigation."

Naraku folded his arms, "The Shikon no Tama is a powerful artifact. It increases the power of the demon who wields it. Does it not then stand to logic that every demon alive would want to lay his hands on it?"

"The Shikon no Tama tempts by offering to fulfill the wish of any who possess it. However, the same magic that makes it so enticing also prevents it from finding any true owner. Were you still in pursuit of it, you would certainly find yourself almost… always almost having the gem completely in your possession, but forever having it slip from your grasp at the very last minute."

Naraku was silent. The taiyoukai's observations were not untrue.

"The Shikon, you see, was never meant to belong to anyone. It was made to create chaos wherever it goes. Specifically… it was intended to create chaos among all that have demonic blood," Azumamaro leaned back as he tried to gauge the dark-haired demon's reaction.

"Your theory is interesting, but chaos is to be expected when so many want a single thing," Naraku began to wonder if Azumamaro was also prone to paranoia.

"Not merely a theory. I have proof, but I'll come to that later. There is more that I have to tell you about the Shikon," the taiyoukai ran his finger along the rim of his teacup deliberately. "Round about a thousand years ago, some celestial beings… kami… became dissatisfied with the state of the world. They looked down from the high heavens and saw a terrible blemish on the world that they thought they had created. That blemish – our demonic race, they saw as a terrible scar."

"Although they lamented over this, they did nothing till one of their own was cast from the heavens for a minor infraction of their tedious rules. Although this type of banishment is not unheard of, what really caused them to truly fear and despise us was the fact that this same kami forsook all ties with the celestial world and became a youkai with no intention of seeking redemption and returning to the celestial world."

"That any kami could turn away from their holy heritage and live in demonic debauchery was unthinkable - a complete abomination. There was naturally an uproar in the high heavens and half the kami swore that they would purge creation of all youkai to prevent the taint of our influence from spreading," Azumamaro laughed.

"And what did the other half say?" the story might be a complete fable, the fabrication of the demon lord's twisted mind, but nothing else of late had amused Naraku this much.

"True to their nature as kami, they sat back and did nothing, waiting for time and circumstances to take their course," Azumamaro grinned.

The Lord of the East continued with the account, "Exercising their influence over the threads of fate and destiny, they caused the emergence of demon slayers and priests who saw it as part of their duty to exterminate us. However, after a few hundred years or so, it became evident that they couldn't merely depend on humans to do their dirty work for them. Their ningen servants were too weak and youkai continued to flourish all over the world. So they had one of their kind mate with a human female and through this mating, twins were born. One male, one female."

"The female child grew in strength and power and became the miko Midoriko. As a slayer of demons, she was second to none… At last, heaven had a warrior that could turn the tide in their favour. And turn the tide she did, for many years. However, some of the youkai hatched a plan to finish her once and for all, and trapped her in a cave where they attacked her in vast numbers."

"The youkai were led by a powerful demon dragon who was her equal in terms of skill and power. However, as it turned out, luck smiled on the dragon and it managed to land a fatal blow on Midoriko,” for a moment, there was a kind of ruthless joy in Azumamaro’s eyes as he recounted the miko’s defeat. “In order to prevent the youkai from achieving a complete victory, the gods caused a gem to be born from the energies of the battle between Midoriko and the demons."

Azumamaro paused to pour more tea into his cup, and then looked up into Naraku's blood-red eyes, "I know you have probably heard from your sources that Midoriko had created the gem by trapping the souls of the dragon and herself in it, thus stalemating their last battle. This is not true. Although she was a great slayer by human standards, she wasn't much of a strategist. As she lay dying in the coils of the dragon, heaven itself intervened to create the Shikon. From the auras and powers of the miko and those she fought, the gods made a chaotic thing that attracted the attention of evil men and of course… youkai."

"Interesting... divide and conquer. I didn’t think that kami were capable of such underhanded manipulation," Naraku had decided that the taiyoukai was indeed an excellent storyteller and was actually starting to enjoy himself.

"Indeed. But I have not yet fully explained the depth of their machinations. The twin of Midoriko, did not become a priest, instead, he took up farming and had a large family. Fortune smiled on some of his descendants and they became landowners and later nobles. The other half of the family continued on as farmers.”

“A few hundred years ago, the enemu orchestrated an event that shook the demonic world. A certain taiyoukai, one whom they called Inutaishio fell in love with a mortal woman, who was incidently a descendant of Midoriko's brother. From that union was born a son, I believe you know him well as the hanyou Inuyasha..."

Naraku raised an eyebrow. This was certainly getting more interesting by the minute.

"I don't believe for a minute that a demon as powerful as the dog general would actually fall for a frail, simpering woman, no matter how noble her heritage. From what I understand, they had manipulated the threads of fate to bring Inutaishio and the woman together and caused him to fall for her. They chose the dog general not only because they wanted to get rid of the most powerful pure-blooded demon lord ever born to our race, but also because of Inutaishio's history with their kind."

"They then arranged for the hanyou to meet the miko Kikyo, who was also descended from Midoriko's brother. Although by this time the kami blood in her was very thin, it nonetheless made her a lot more potent than any other normal, fully human miko. This was why Kikyo, and not Tsubaki, was chosen to become the guardian of the Shikon when it fell into the hands of the priest who trained the dark priestess. It had nothing at all to do with Kikyo's purity or personality, but as you know, Tsubaki never figured that one out."

Naraku remembered Tsubaki and snorted at the tragic irony. "It did seem strange when I first heard Tsubaki's account of her life. She was a priestess who was of higher prestige than Kikyo and yet she was not chosen to be the Shikon’s guardian. At that time, I wondered if there could be another reason for the strange choice but I didn't really probe further."

"I see you are starting to understand the depth of this conspiracy. However, some time after the Shikon was created, the ruler of hell decided that he had enough of those celestial fools. He then conceived a plan to defeat them, and sent an agent from the realm of demons and the dead into our world, to seek a champion to lead our side when the time comes for the final battle between the world of youkai and the celestial realm."

"An agent you say... Do you know who this might be?" Naraku didn't quite believe what he was hearing, but something made him pay attention to the last part.

"It is not known what form this agent will take, except that when chosen, the champion will have the strength to fight kami and perhaps even rule all of creation - heaven, earth and hell. I obtained this information from an imp who sometimes crosses over from the netherworld to our earthly realm."

Naraku smiled. "Naturally I assume that YOU want to be this champion."

Azumamaro smiled, "Naturally."

"So why ally with me? Why not someone like Sesshoumaru for instance? He is a powerful demon lord, is he not?" Naraku asked. "Moreover, did it not occur to you that I myself might be interested in becoming this champion?"

Azumamaro laughed. "I hope that you'll pardon my bluntness, but I don't believe that it interests you much to become a champion for the entire youkai race. Fighting for others aside from yourself simply isn't something that you find worthy of your attention. Neither is ruling the entire universe. It would become... tedious after awhile, denying you the freedom that you enjoy."

Naraku had to restrain himself from flinching when he heard Azumamaro's assessment. Although he never quite admitted it, even to himself, he had no real interest in conquering the world or anything of the sort. After all, what on earth would he do once he had the whole world at his feet?

"You make some very bold assumptions, Azumamaro," he coolly replied.

Azumamaro smiled. "In answer to your other question. No, I have never considered Sesshoumaru a possible ally not because he might be a potential rival, but because he and his entire family are tainted. In fact, I don't even think he qualifies because he is one of them."

Naraku pondered. "It seems rather harsh to judge a youkai by the flaws of his father."

"These are harsh times that we live in," the taiyoukai replied.

"For the sake of... argument, I have to point out, Azumamaro, that you are not the one setting the criteria of selection for this agent that you mention," Naraku knew that there was definitely something amiss here. There was something that the Lord of the East was not saying. "Perhaps hell has a different view as to what qualities they require in a champion. Perhaps a demon as powerful as Sesshoumaru might indeed be what they are looking for, regardless of the extent to which the enemy has tainted his family."

Azumamaro simply smiled. "I do not think so. One does not choose one's enemy to lead one's army. Besides, my spies inform me that our enemy have begun to work their manipulations on our inu friend."

"I see," somewhere in the recesses of Naraku's mind a connection clicked into place.

"And now, I will show you the proof of what I have said," Azumamaro clapped his hands. "Remember I told you that this entire struggle started because a celestial being had turned and become one of us."

"I have heard stories of kami who visited the mortal world but never one where a god became a demon," despite his best efforts, an incredulous look formed on Naraku's face.

The door to the room slid open, and the green-bearded oni entered, bearing a small wooden chest, which he placed before Naraku.

"What is in this chest?" the dark-haired demon asked.

"Proof that the impossible happened," the taiyoukai simply answered.

Carefully, the dark-haired youkai opened the unlocked chest. As the lid flipped open, a shimmering garment that resembled a very long shawl made of silk, gossamer and light came into view. Although Naraku had never seen one before, he instantly recognized it from stories that villagers told.

It was the garment of a celestial maiden, and it exuded the distinct aura of a demon.