InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Truth About Cats and Dogs ❯ Kirara's Destiny ( Chapter 34 )

Recap: Kirara could not fully decide whether or not return to a cat, but as she considered Midoriko's message to her and the nature of Midoriko's spell, Kohaku wished for Kirara to become a cat again, which meant that...

 

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Chapter 34 - Kirara's Destiny

 

“We did our best,” Momiji said softly, turning to Botan.

 

Botan nodded, and the two stepped back into the temple grounds, closing the gate. Once they were out of sight, Sesshomaru stepped out of the shadows, his eyes fixed on the little cat they had just released. Gulping anxiously, he started towards the cat, something inside of him twisting as he saw the familiar sight of the fluffy little cat Inuyasha's human demon-slayer friend usually carried around in the crook of her arm.

 

Sesshomaru stopped by the little cat, letting out a breath he had not been aware that he had been holding in. In one smooth movement, he reached down and grabbed the little cat up by the scruff of its neck, his face twisting as he saw the dull, expressionless look on its face. Surely this was not the same creature who, barely a few days earlier, had been fighting Naraku and bravely risking her life as she tried to save the human boy she cared so much about?

 

Sesshomaru slowly turned the cat around to look it directly in the face. He felt her skin tighten beneath his grip as he met the cat's eyes, his concern fading somewhat as the little cat began to growl. It was a pitiful, miniscule sound, but the cat's hackles were up, and she was bearing her little fangs at him.

 

`Some things never change,' Sesshomaru thought to himself, his face relaxing back into its usual, expressionless look. `She still wants to fight with me.'

 

Sesshomaru slowly placed the cat back down onto the ground, taking a step back from her, one eye twitching slightly as he saw just how pathetically small and insignificant she looked in that form. Before Sesshomaru could give her small cat form too much thought however, the little demon leapt into the air, hissing at him.

 

Sesshomaru could not stop his eyebrows from dropping into a frown as the cat grabbed onto his fur boa, opening its jaws wide and biting down into the fur.

 

“Kuroro!”

 

“Wha-?” Sesshomaru grunted, turning his head back towards the direction he had just come from, finding a young human girl, apparently not much older than Rin, running towards him with her arms open.

 

“Kuroro!” the girl said again.

 

“I am not a “kuroro”,” Sesshomaru said flatly, narrowing his eyes at the girl at his side.

 

“I was talking to my cat!” the girl replied, planting her hands on her hips and pouting up at him indignantly.

 

“Your cat?” Sesshomaru asked, glancing at the fire-cat on his shoulder, who was still chewing angrily at his fur scarf.

 

“The nice lady helped me find her,” the girl explained. “I've been chasing her for days. Now give her to me.”

 

“No,” Sesshomaru said coldly, grabbing the cat off of his shoulder and holding her up in the air away from the little girl at his side.

 

“Give me back my cat!” the girl yelled at him.

 

“She is not your cat!” Sesshomaru growled.

 

Seeing that the girl was genuinely angry with him and apparently unfazed by - or perhaps just unaware of - the fact that he was a powerful demon, Sesshomaru momentarily wondered if having a female human living with him at his castle was making him become as weak and pitiful as his father had become after taking in that wretched human woman who eventually became Inuyasha's mother.

 

“She is my cat!” the girl argued tenaciously.

 

“She is not!” Sesshomaru argued.

 

“She is so!”

 

“She is not!”

 

“Is so!”

 

“Is not!”

 

Sesshomaru paused as he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat loudly and deliberately. Looking up, he saw a figure standing by the edge of the forest smirking at him in apparent amusement at his predicament.

 

“Give the little girl her cat, Lord Sesshomaru.”

 

Sesshomaru looked at the cat in his hands one more time, finding that she was still hissing and spitting at him angrily, before turning back to the woman standing with her arms folded, her green eyes bright with amusement as she watched him.

 

Sesshomaru slowly lowered his hands, passing the little cat to the human girl at his side.

 

“Thank you for your help catching Kuroro, Miss Kirara!” the girl called over to Kirara, waving a hand at her.

 

“Will you be alright finding your way home from here?” Kirara called back to her as she started to walk off carrying her little pet fire-cat.

 

“Yes, thank you!” the girl called back.

 

Kirara waved one last time to the girl, before slowly moving her eyes back to Sesshomaru, her smirk widening.

 

“Lord Sesshomaru…” she began, unable to hide the sarcasm in her voice. “You didn't… You didn't think that that cat was… Did you think that that cat was… Me?”

 

Kirara's smirk widened into a grin that exposed her fangs to the moonlight as she saw Sesshomaru's eyebrows flicker slightly, a movement barely noticeable to most, but an expression of just how humbled he was to Kirara.

 

`Idiot!' she thought to herself in delight. `Now he finally knows how I always feel in his presence! For once, just once, he's the one who looks like a complete fool, whilst I can stand here and be the one who is all smug and pleased with myself for being smarter and better than him!'

 

“It's not nice being made to feel like a fool, is it Lord Sesshomaru?” she asked.

 

Holding her head high in the air and feeling really rather proud of herself, Kirara started to walk towards Sesshomaru, only to stub her toe on a rock and trip right over it, landing hard facedown.

 

“Damn it…” she growled quietly into the ground, curling her hands into fists at her sides. “I knew it was too good to be true!”

 

Kirara sighed, feeling like even more of an idiot than she ever had in Sesshomaru's presence: another good reason to hurry to the two priestesses and have them cast their spell. It had all but broken Kirara's heart in two when she had heard Kohaku wish for her to become a cat again. The only thing had kept her from crying had been the appearance of the little fire-cat called Kuroro and the human girl who was chasing her.

 

Kirara slowly lifted her head, gasping and crossing her eyes as she saw something in front of her face. For a moment, Kirara could do nothing more than stare at Sesshomaru's hand as it hovered before her, her mind too shocked to even consider what to do next. Once her initial shock had lessened sufficiently, Kirara slowly ran her eyes up the length of Sesshomaru's arm to his face, finding him leaning over her with that usual, blank expression on his face.

 

Keeping her eyes fixed on his, Kirara slowly slid her hand into his, mewing as he pulled her to her feet more forcefully than she had expected him to. She stumbled as she tried to regain her balance, inadvertently bumping into Sesshomaru's chest.

 

“Sorry,” she quickly said, taking a step back from him.

 

But Sesshomaru, who was still holding onto her hand, tugged her back, forcing her to stagger into him again. Kirara met his eyes questioningly, instantly blushing as she saw just how close their faces suddenly were.

 

“Um…” she began awkwardly. “Thank you?”

 

Kirara waited for Sesshomaru to say or do something, but he remained perfectly still and silent. She began to frown, a small part of her wondering if he was even still breathing; he was so still it was hard to tell.

 

“Did…” she began slowly. “Did you honestly… Did you really think that… Did you honestly think that that cat was me? Couldn't you tell that it wasn't me by its scent?”

 

Again, Kirara's words were met with silence, and a stare that was beginning to bore into her and make her want to squirm, Sesshomaru's firm grip on her hand being the only thing that stopped her from turning away or taking a step back from him.

 

“Because if you had checked its scent, you would have realised that it wasn't me,” Kirara added. “Surely that would have been the logical thing to do?”

 

“I wasn't thinking logically,” Sesshomaru quietly replied, his words a little more hurried than usual.

 

“Oh…” Kirara said slowly, her eyes lowering from Sesshomaru's to the wet, chewed patch on his fur boa, the sight of which made her want to laugh.

 

Fighting the urge to give in to her amusement, Kirara forced herself to think of Kohaku's wish, sobering her thoughts as she remembered why she was at the temple in the first place. Kirara slowly moved her eyes back to Sesshomaru's intense, golden glare, faltering slightly at the moment that their eyes locked. She bravely held his gaze for a moment as her mind tried to focus on Kohaku, before she remembered the two very important things she had longed to say to Sesshomaru before she lost her voice.

 

“Ah…” she began awkwardly. “Your um… Your little… Jaken. He told me that Kagura told you that she was the one who arranged for your arm to be restored-”

 

“Jaken already told me that it was really you,” Sesshomaru interrupted her, his voice back to its usual calm, unhurried, flat tone.

 

“Oh…” Kirara responded, nodding her head slightly. “Well good. I wouldn't want you to think that I was indebted to you at all.”

 

“I have never thought that,” Sesshomaru plainly replied.

 

“Oh…”

 

Kirara bit into her bottom lip, her eyes wandering down to the chewed patch of Sesshomaru's boa again as she tried to recover from his apparent lack of concern for something that she had been losing sleep over.

 

“I should have known of course that Jaken would have told you everything already, he was spying on me for some time, and I know how he loves to repeat the outcome of all his under-handed little tactics to you,” she said quietly.

 

“Yes, you understand then why I keep him around,” Sesshomaru replied.

 

Kirara met Sesshomaru's eyes again with a frown, wondering for a third time if he had just made an attempt at humour. Again, she thought miserably to herself as she allowed her eyes to fall away from his, it was another facet of his personality that he kept guarded and hidden, a part of him she longed to know better but never would.

 

“And there is just one more thing,” she added firmly, lifting her eyes back to his with purpose. “It's about Kohaku. I saw what you did the day that we fought Naraku, and I heard what you said to Inuyasha. You saved Kohaku and Inuyasha, and you let Inuyasha take the credit for your actions. You made him believe that he was stronger than he was, and I know that that can't have been easy for you to do, knowing how much you despise him. I've never spoken to the others about it, because I assumed that you didn't want them to know that it was really you who saved Kohaku from Inuyasha and Inuyasha from the jewel shards. Maybe you were concerned that they would view your helping Kohaku and your brother as a sign of weakness - whatever your reasons, I want you to know that I respected your wishes, and I remained quiet on the matter.”

 

“I had hoped that you had not seen or heard what happened,” Sesshomaru said.

 

“But I did,” Kirara insisted. “I saw and heard it all. And please, you must allow me to thank you for what you did. You saved two souls I care dearly for. Were it not for you, neither Kohaku nor Inuyasha would be alive today. Well, Inuyasha might have survived, but he would be in a terrible state, and the jewel would not have been completed, because he would still have some shards, and Kikyo wouldn't have been able to banish Naraku to hell, and he might still be alive, and that would mean that…”

 

Kirara gulped, smiling awkwardly as she looked up into the completely blank face of Sesshomaru standing over her.

 

“I'm sorry, I'm talking too much again,” she said quietly. “But I feel I have to, because you just stand there and say nothing.”

 

Kirara waited to see if her remark might encourage Sesshomaru to say something - anything - but still he remained silent and impassive.

 

“Anyway,” she continued. “Thank you. And please, allow me to thank you on behalf of Sango, and Kagome and all the others, since they don't even know that they are really indebted to you.”

 

“They are not indebted to me,” Sesshomaru said.

 

Kirara's eyes widened slightly as she found herself so pleased that Sesshomaru had finally answered her, she did not even bother to think about what he had actually just said.

 

“If you must thank me, let it only be for yourself,” he continued, his face still as blank as ever. “For I believe I thought only of you when I acted.”

 

Kirara's jaw slowly opened, and she was certain she had been about to answer Sesshomaru; yet words failed her, and her mind suddenly went blank.

 

“You cared for the boy, didn't you?” Sesshomaru added.

 

“Yes,” Kirara managed to reply.

 

“Indeed.”

 

Kirara slowly closed her jaw again.

 

`He saved Kohaku because he knew that I cared about him?' she thought to herself. `He did all that just for me? But that doesn't make any sense!'

 

“I have not forgotten our exchange the day that I asked you to be my mate,” Sesshomaru said, interrupting Kirara's thoughts with a start.

 

Kirara blushed again, letting out a small, nervous laugh as she struggled to maintain eye contact with Sesshomaru.

 

“Oh please,” she said quietly. “Please don't mention that, I was very rude that day-”

 

“As was I,” Sesshomaru interrupted her. “Thinking upon the matter, as I have spent a great deal of time doing, I believe that you were justified to be as abrupt with me as you were.”

 

Kirara's jaw dropped open again, and again words failed her. She could have sworn that Lord Sesshomaru of the Western Lands had just admitted that he was wrong…

 

“I had no right to make such rude and unreasonable demands of you,” he added.

 

`Right…' Kirara thought silently. `He definitely just admitted that he was wrong that time, which is very unlike him. What is he thinking? His face is so blank I can't even begin to guess!'

 

“I am a man of principle, and there are two rules I have always abided by in my life,” Sesshomaru continued, his voice and face still emotionless. “I never repeat myself and I make my decisions with my head, based upon logic and good sense.”

 

Kirara's eyebrows shot upwards as she found herself hanging onto Sesshomaru's every word. Each word he uttered was leading her further down a path of confusion and yet drawing her into a deeper trance. The only two things she wished for were that he would speak quicker to reach his point and that he would at least show some sign of emotion on his face to give her some indication of what he was trying to say to her.

 

“And yet as I stand here before you today, I find myself in direct contradiction of both of those rules,” Sesshomaru continued, speaking each word as slowly, clearly and emotionlessly as ever, much to Kirara's irritation. “It was not a logical decision made in my mind that brought me here tonight.”

 

Kirara waited for Sesshomaru to continue, almost holding her breath in anticipation. When he remained silent, she hurriedly blurted out a word in the hope of prompting him to continue.

 

“No?” she said, her voice louder than she intended in her anxiety.

 

“No,” he confirmed, maintaining his cool, calm aura as he spoke. “It was a longing in my heart that brought me here.”

 

“A…” Kirara began, stopping as she realised that she was not even sure what she had been about to say.

 

“I have never repeated myself before, but I will make just one exception tonight,” Sesshomaru continued once Kirara had closed her mouth again. “But I should tell you that I will not repeat myself again after tonight, for just one word from you tonight will silence me on this matter forever more.”

 

“Oh…Ah…”

 

Kirara's eyes dropped to Sesshomaru's hand as he moved it around, holding her hand up in front of his face. She began to blush at the sight of him holding her hand, feeling oddly exposed as she stared at her own hand curled over his.

 

“Kirara.”

 

“Mew?”

 

Kirara sharply shifted her eyes to Sesshomaru's, barely able to believe that he had just spoken her name. She had often wondered if he even knew what her name was, since she had never heard him say it before.

 

“Would you do me the very great honour of accepting me as your mate and become lady of my home and my kingdom?”

 

“Uh?”

 

Kirara froze, every part of her body and brain failing to function as she reeled from what she had just heard.

 

“It is not a complicated question,” Sesshomaru calmly pointed out. “I did say that just one word from you was all I required.”

 

“Bur… Guh… Meh… Frr… Kah… Mew?” Kirara muttered helplessly.

 

“A simple yes or no will suffice,” Sesshomaru plainly replied.

 

“Se… Kee… Ra-ma-ha…F-f-fa…Mew…”

 

Kirara clamped her mouth shut to stop any more incoherent sounds from escaping her lips, staring up at Sesshomaru with wide, shocked eyes. She held his gaze for a moment before slowly turning her head, casting a glance over at the temple that Momiji and Botan lived and trained in.

 

“Regardless of how you feel about me, please do not have them turn you back into a little cat,” Sesshomaru said, causing Kirara to turn sharply back to him.

 

`Did he just say “please”?' she asked herself silently.

 

“I don't think I could bear to see you reduced to such a lowly-”

 

“Yes.”

 

For the first time since helping her to her feet, Kirara saw Sesshomaru's expression change, as he narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.

 

“Yes?” he asked.

 

“Yes,” she confirmed, nodding her head.

 

“Yes you will not have them turn you into a cat again, or yes you wish to accept my proposal?” he asked.

 

“Yes,” Kirara said again.

 

Sesshomaru's face slid back into its usual blank look, and Kirara momentarily found the sense of mind to explain herself more clearly.

 

“Both,” she said hurriedly. “Yes to both.”

 

“Oh,” Sesshomaru said quietly.

 

“Yes,” Kirara said again. “Yes to both of your questions. Yes… Please… Yes…”

 

“Thank you,” Sesshomaru said softly, lifting Kirara's hand upwards and lightly touching his lips to his knuckles.

 

Kirara whimpered softly as she watched his act of tenderness, only moving her eyes back to his as she felt the warmth of his lips leave her skin. Still slightly stunned by her disbelief of the outcome of events - Kirara had rather expected to be locked into the form of a small cat that night, and yet she found herself still in her human form and betrothed to Sesshomaru - Kirara found that she could to nothing more that stare into Sesshomaru's eyes, her mouth slightly open.

 

For a moment, the two stared blankly at each other, before one corner of Sesshomaru's mouth curled upwards slightly, the hint of a smirk on his features causing Kirara's eyes to widen in surprise. Tightening his hold on her hand, Sesshomaru slid his other hand around the back of her neck, tilting her head backwards and bringing his lips down against hers. Kirara moaned into his kiss, allowing her eyes to close and her muscles to relax against his grip, her mind slowly drifting back in time to a day that seemed like it belonged in another lifetime when compared to the moment she now found herself living.

 

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Kirara dropped to her knees, looking down at her hands, struggling to focus on her fingers. Her hands were shaking so badly and her eyes were blurred over with tears, making her fingers look like nothing more than a crimson band of colour before her.

 

“I'm sorry!” she whispered, her voice barely audible to even her own ears. “It was a mistake, I fell!”

 

Kirara closed her eyes, tears sliding down over her cheeks. Her words sounded like pathetic excuses to even her own desperate mind.

 

“Open your eyes and look at me, Kirara.”

 

Kirara gulped, before obediently opening her eyes and lifting her head to look up at Midoriko, who stood over her, her face stern and determined. Kirara slowly moved her eyes to the bloody gash down Midoriko's arm, fresh tears welling in her eyes as she remembered the feeling of her own claws tearing through her best friend's skin.

 

“Please,” she sobbed. “I was trying to hit the demon, I had no idea you would move forwards, I would never hurt you-”

 

“Say no more,” Midoriko said, her tone flat and emotionless, making Kirara's insides twist into a knot. “We have fought many demons together, but I do not truly believe that I can ever fully trust you not to betray me.”

 

“I would never betray you!” Kirara gasped.

 

“There is only one way for me to be sure of that,” Midoriko replied. “In order to ensure that you will always remain faithful to me, I am going to cast a spell on you, which will mean that you will no longer be able to take a human form.”

 

“What?”

 

“The spell will force you to turn into a small, two-tailed cat when you are not in your fighting fire-cat demon form.”

 

“I-I don't understand. Why do you have to do such a thing?”

 

“It is the only way. But I do promise you that if you stay good and true, one day a human will free you from this curse. And if there is a soul who cares enough for you and comes to need you more in your human form than in your cat form, you will be freed from the curse entirely, and your human form body will be returned to you.”

 

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Kirara opened her eyes, looking up at Sesshomaru as he drew back from her. She gave him a small smile before lowering her head, feeling suddenly very self-conscious. Sesshomaru moved his hand against her neck, pushing his thumb against the underside of her chin, forcing her to look up at him again. Kirara smiled wider as she met his eyes, but she could feel her face growing hot.

 

“I have to go,” he said softly.

 

“Oh…” Kirara said dumbly. “Right…”

 

“Back to the village,” Sesshomaru added. “Will you join me?”

 

“Oh yes of course!” Kirara hurriedly replied.

 

Sesshomaru nodded his head, his hands sliding from Kirara. She turned her back on him and began to walk back in the direction of Kaede's village, failing to notice that Sesshomaru was not following her.

 

“It is much quicker if we fly, Kirara.”

 

Kirara stopped abruptly, again stunned by the sound of Sesshomaru speaking her name.

 

“Fly, right,” she said, nodding her head.

 

She crouched down, ready to jump into the air and transform mid-leap; but before Kirara could push off the ground, Sesshomaru grabbed an arm around her waist and she was suddenly lifted from the ground. She gasped in alarm, watching the ground get further away from her as she rose through the air. After her initial shock had passed, Kirara turned her head slightly, gasping again as she saw clusters of small, translucent clouds around her feet.

 

“Wow…” she muttered, turning to look up at Sesshomaru.

 

Kirara was certain she caught a hint of a smile on his face before he met her eyes.

 

“It can get cold up here,” he said quietly, lifting off his fur boa and gently placing it over Kirara's shoulders.

 

Kirara smiled, gripping her hands into the warm fur around her. She looked up at Sesshomaru again, but he appeared to be looking ahead of himself. Unable to resist the childish feeling of glee within, Kirara grabbed her arms around Sesshomaru's waist, nuzzling her head against his shoulder where the fur scarf had been resting only moments ago.

 

To her joy, after a brief moment, Sesshomaru snaked one arm around her waist, holding her against his side.

 

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“How strange!” Botan muttered, frowning at the watery image suspended in the air before her.

 

“What's the matter, Botan?” Momiji called to her.

 

“I've just discovered what it was that broke the final part of Priestess Midoriko's spell on Kirara!” Botan called back to her.

 

“You have?” Momiji asked, backing into the room to frown at her questioningly.

 

“Well, Priestess Midoriko said that a human had the power to break the spell, and it was Sango's wish that allowed Kirara to have her human form returned to her,” Botan explained. “But the only reason she would be allowed to break the curse was if she could find a soul who needed her more in her human form than in her cat form.”

 

“Which was Sango?” Momiji asked.

 

“No,” Botan replied, shaking her head. “Sango no longer felt the need for a human companion when she learned of the monk Miroku's true feelings for her.”

 

“So what are you saying? Kirara was a cat again, remember?”

 

“That wasn't her. Luckily for her, the one who needed her in her human form didn't give up. Look.”

 

Momiji turned to the watery image in front of Botan, tilting her head at the sight of Kirara clutching onto the demon whose arm they had restored.

 

“How strange,” she muttered.

 

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“You're what?!” Sango roared, her eyes growing impossibly large and her face paling.

 

“Um…” Kirara began awkwardly, avoiding her friend's eyes.

 

“Engaged…” Sango said slowly, speaking the word as though it was poison in her mouth. “To Sesshomaru?”

 

“I suppose you could call it that…” Kirara said quietly.

 

“Are out of your mind?” Sango gasped. “What were you thinking accepting his offer like that?”

 

“Sango…”

 

Kirara met Sango's eyes, her face creasing with worry.

 

“If you can't accept it, how will the others react?” she asked softly.

 

Sango glanced over her shoulder at the others. Shippo, Soten and Koru were slouched sleepily by the doorway of Kaede's hut, Kohaku was sitting talking with Rin, Miroku, Kagome and Kaede were standing quietly discussing something, Jaken was standing by Ah-Un, looking mildly nauseous, and Inuyasha and Sesshomaru were standing glaring silently at each other. Sango sighed, turning back to Kirara.

 

“I thought you hated him, Kirara,” she said quietly.

 

“I did,” Kirara replied.

 

“And now you love him?” Sango asked. “Just like that?”

 

“No, not just like that…” Kirara slowly replied. “It happened gradually. But it didn't take long before I knew that I was in love with him. You understand, don't you? You're not angry with me?”

 

Sango smiled, reaching her hands out to Kirara's shoulders.

 

“If you're happy, then so am I,” Sango assured her. “You've been an excellent friend, and you served me well in past battles. If this is truly what you want, then I am happy for you.”

 

“Thank you, Sango,” Kirara said, smiling again.

 

“Just don't expect Inuyasha to be too enthralled with the whole idea…”

 

Sango looked back over her shoulder again, and Kirara leaned past her, moving her eyes to the two brothers, who were still staring at each other in silence.

 

“I'm sure he'll learn to accept things as they are now,” Kirara said confidently.

 

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Next Chapter: Ten years on, what has become of Inuyasha and the old gang? Typical Disney fluff from Lucretia. Epilogue.