InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Unworthy One ❯ Chapter 4 - The Unworthy One's Transgressions... ( Chapter 4 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

**Not for Kikyou Lovers! This story contains violence, sexual content and rape! You are WARNED**

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nor any of the associated characters. But it ain't because I don't want or wish to do so.





Chapter 4 - The Unworthy One's Transgressions...


As he returned, he could sense a few of the lesser youkai, apparently having gotten close enough to catch the scent of blood that had bathed her. Not yet willing to give up his prize, although he kept telling himself that it was because he wanted the information locked away in her head, he quickened the pace of his flight to get to her before she could be damaged further.

He was just approaching the clearing, scanning around with his senses on high alert, trying to pin point where the threat or threats were coming from. He found three. One still just hidden in the trees along the edge of the forest he was approaching from, and two more that were even now just about to pounce on the wench. There was no way he could get to them before they had her. They were too close even for his youkai speed.

He didn't even slow his pace, taking out the youkai hiding in the woods, as he raced to get to her before the youkai near her had a chance to complete their actions. But to his amazement, a flare of bright light suddenly sprang seemingly out of nowhere. It blinded him for a moment, and as he closed his eyes, he felt a rush of air race past him. It set his nerves on edge, and his body a tingle. He suddenly felt very warm and his skin felt almost like it was burning and he found that he was unable to move.

At the thought of being purified, for that was what he was sure had happened to the two youkai that had been about to kill the onna, he growled. Growled viciously, letting all of his anger and frustration fill the area rebounding around the clearing. He would not sit by and let death take him, and most certainly not from this pathetic bitch of his brother's. He would kill her and be done with this mess.

Before he could do more than let the thoughts grace his mind, the light died away. He blinked, realizing that there were no longer any of the lesser youkai around, not even the remains of the one he, himself had just killed. What might have been the two that he had been trying to reach before they could attack her, was two small piles of ash that even now was being carried off in a light wind that had begun a short time ago.

The burning like feeling on his skin was gone, but the tingle in his body remained. He took a moment to look around him, trying to assess the situation for possible danger. Again, he was surprised. Something that he seemed to be feeling a lot of just in the past few short hours. Dawn would be arriving soon, as he could see the moon was almost set, and the easing of the dark in the east along the horizon.

There in the clearing where she had once sat in a pool of her own blood, was now a bed of flowers. The same fragrant blooms that he had followed back to the battlefield where his brother and companions now lay. A staggering path of those same blossoms left a testament to how she had dragged herself that last distance from the edge of the woods to the edge of the lake before her body had apparently given up being able to go farther, and she had collapsed.

Even now, she lay wreathed by these same flowers. Where she had continued to bleed, after he had cleaned her up, the blood no longer could be seen. Her wounds were still more than visible, and many of them still oozed blood. Her own condition remained pretty much unchanged. But everything else around her seemed to be affected by the unexpected wave of power and the flowers left their own signature to its passing.

Finding that more questions were piling up by the moment, the Youkai Lord reached to lay a finger to his temple and massage an ache that was threatening to form in his head. He was thoroughly frustrated with the lack of answers to his questions, and the frustration in and of itself was fueling a lot of his anger. He had to get a grip on this.....

Wait...

Grip...

What the....

How....

Why....

He stopped massaging his temple for a moment, his eyes widening in awe and wonder, his eyebrows disappearing almost into his hairline. He held the claws of his right arm in front of his face. He had been looking at his claws, something that he sometimes did, when deep in thought. An unconscious gesture, like resting his arm over his knee when he sat thinking. This in an of itself was not unusual and would have gone unnoticed. However, this time was different. Different because he was still massaging his temple while he was looking at his clawed hand.

He froze in motion for a moment, bringing the claws that were at his temple into his line of vision. There in front of him was the one thing he had longed the most for over the past nearly five years, but had finally given up the hopes of every having again. His arm. The same arm that his brother had removed with his own father's fang. The arm that he had tried several times to replace with the arms of others. The arm that he now flexed and moved, reveling privately at the feel and play of well toned muscles, marveling at how it looked like he had never lost it, even to the stripes on his wrist.

At that point, he began to look at the onna from a slightly different perspective. He still cared nothing for her, other than the information that she could and would give him. At least he kept telling himself that, although his inner beast seemed to feel otherwise. She was powerful, almost beyond words. To have not only purified the youkai that had threatened her life, but in the same wave of power, to have avoided purifying him, and to have returned his arm, was one of the most amazing sights he had ever experienced. He knew no one who had that kind of power, whether youkai, hanyou, or ningen.

It also, meant she was dangerous. She had done all of this, and she was totally unconscious, still not having moved from where he had left her lying in the spot he had lay her to clean her wounds. Considering the amount of power and control such an action needed, he could not figure out how someone who was not even aware, could do such a thing. And if she had intentionally done this, why had she not healed her own injuries? Not to mention, if she had done this without any conscious effort, how dangerous could she prove to be when she was conscious? The thought sent a chill running down his spine for a moment. It angered him to think anyone could make him feel this.

He approached her with more caution, alert for any signs that her power was going to flare again. But she remained unmoving and unresponsive, even as he reached her side, and leaned over to look more closely at this strange and mysterious creature. A slight quickening of her breathing, heralded her approaching wakefulness. He sat back, setting his packages from his night's journey to one side for now, and waited for her to regain consciousness. Shortly after that she moved just enough to return to the same sitting position he had originally found her in, and then sat with the same lifelessness that she had, had since he found her.

"Gomen nasai, my Lord," she said, for the first time initiating the conversation.

"Doshite (Why)?" he asked. Why was she apologizing to him? She had done nothing. Nothing other than give him back his arm. Perhaps she was apologizing for not being more forthcoming with the answers he sought.

"This unworthy one spoiled my Lord's happiness," she said, still in the toneless hushed whispery voice she had sported all night.

"How?" he asked a bit confused by this revelation.

"My Lord had indicated that he would take pleasure in hearing this one scream in pain, and delight in the spilling of my blood," she intoned. "While I still seem to be bleeding sufficiently to appease your delight in my blood, I unfortunately, didn't remain conscious enough to please my Lord with my screams. If you wish to repeat your earlier attempt, I will do my best to not lose consciousness this time."

She truly had to be insane. She was sitting here, apologizing for not having stayed awake and continuing to scream until HE was satisfied with her torture? What had truly happened back at that battlefield? What had caused this fiery spirit to break after all of these years? Was there more to this whole thing than just what happened at the battlefield?

"It is of no matter to this, Sesshomaru," he replied coldly, "what you do or don't suffer, wench. What does matter is that you will give me the answers to my questions until I am satisfied. You seek death, but until I have what I want, death will not take you, even if I have to find more effective means for torturing you until I have them."

"As you wish, my Lord," she responded. Why did he have a feeling that she was accepting his offer to torture her? Why would she want to be tortured? Didn't she know what he could do to her? Or did she know and not care, but actually want him to inflict the pain on her? Why?

He just sat and stared at her, something that was not unusual for him to do to anyone. In fact, it had proven to be most useful on many occasions, as just sitting and staring often made people uncomfortable. Normally, she would have been fidgeting by now, getting antsy, and nervous. She should have been feeling the first lingering doubts of fear, but if her scent was anything to go by, she felt nothing. At least not the expected things.

Her scent, ever so intoxicating as it was, especially with all of the blood, was laced with pain, sadness, and despair. But there seemed to be an underlying sense of acceptance and over all a purity like none he had ever known in a being before, with the exception of Rin.

Acceptance of what? Her plight? Was she accepting her pain, as she had said, as something she deserved? What could she have done to deserve such torment? Because in all honesty, Sesshomaru knew that she was tormented, and was asking for the punishments that he had mentioned.

Mentally, he shook himself out of his trailing thoughts. Why did he even care? What happened to her, or how much she suffered meant nothing to him. Right? His Youkai, growled in disagreement. For some reason what happened to the wench meant something, but he was afraid to analyze that part of himself, too closely. Some how, he felt that he might not like what he found if he did.

Still, she was here, and she had the answers to the questions he had. She would give him those answers, even if it meant her slow and torturous death. He looked at her again, such a weak and pathetic ningen. She certainly didn't appear to be anything special, and there was nothing really attractive about her either. Well, except for her soothing scent, and the smell of her intoxicating and power filled blood, and her long raven locks, or they would be if they were not so lackluster from her obvious poor condition, and there were her eyes. Her oh so expressive eyes, well when they were not so lifeless.

Catching himself again, his train of thought straying from his central focus, he growled at his Youkai, and looked once more at the onna. The wrappings that he had put on her feet, were completely soaked through in blood, the infection in her feet more apparent now as dawn approached and the sky lightened. Even the scent of them stank of the infected flesh, and he marvel to think that the girl had to have walked, barefoot for nearly seven straight days to get from the battlefield, where his brother and her friends currently lay, to sit beside this lake before she could not go further. Not even a youkai could have done that in the condition she was in.

"Stand, ningen wench," he ordered her. For long moments she neither moved, or gave indication that she had heard his command. He was just about to reach out and yank her up, when she suddenly leaned forward. It was a very slow motion, but one that obviously cost her greatly to accomplish. But still she made to comply with his request.

She continued to lean forward, until she could put her hands on the ground in front of her, uncaring that there were sharp stones beneath her palms, or that they were even now cutting into her skin, making her palms bleed. She shifted her weight for her arms to take, and gradually pulled her knees up, bringing her damaged feet flat beneath her. Her first couple of tries to stand failed miserably. But she was given a command and she continued to make every effort to comply. She had no strength to both work at standing, and spare breath to speak, so he just sat and watched at her determined attempts to stand.

He as sure she would fail. There was no way she had it in her to succeed. She was too badly injured, had lost too much blood, her feet too injured to support her. She had almost no strength, but still she continued to try. Much to his surprise, after the fifth attempt, she did succeed in making it to her feet and standing before him.

"Gomen nasai, my Lord," she spoke. Her whispered voice even harder to hear now than it had been before. "I will try to be Pickering with your next command."

Not being able to think of anything better to say, especially to someone so set on the idea of making him happy by letting him torture her, he simply stated, "See that you do."

"Hai, my Lord," came her reply.

"I have seen the battlefield that you speak of. My brother's body and those of your friends are still there. How did they die?" he asked.

"Naraku killed them, my Lord," she said.

"I grow tired of your refusal to give me the answers that I seek," he said letting some of the anger and frustration leak into his voice. As he watched, she moved her hands slowly, bringing them to the obi he had used to secure his now ruined inner haori around her cold and bleeding form. As he watched, she untied it, and removed both it and the haori, then carefully and oh so slowly held it out to him.

"Forgive this unworthy one for having been the cause of the damage to your clothing, my Lord," she said tonelessly. "It was kind of you to place it upon me, but I am undeserving of such comforts. As it seems that I still displease you, I do not wish to see your garment further sullied with my filthy ningen blood. It would offend you, although I am unable to do anything about the scent already on it. If you wish, I could try to clean it for you, though I do not currently have the means to mend it of the damage.

If it would help to pay for the damages and appease your disappointment in me, my Lord, I offer myself for whatever punishment you see fit to repay you for the small kindness you have shown this pathetic, weak, and filthy ningen," she whispered.

He ignored the offered garment, and she just stood there with her arm outstretched to give him the blood soaked and dirty cloth. She made no move to cover her naked form, and even standing there in front of him so, she seemed to be unphased. Totally and completely unphased at being naked and standing next to a male. That in itself was not normal.

"How did the undead bitch finally cease to function?" he demanded choosing to ignore the offered garment and her offer of accepting his punishment for his kindness to her.

"I purified her, my Lord," was the response.

"How did Naraku kill my pathetic brother?" he asked.

"He knocked aside Tetsusaiga, and ran him through with one of his miasma filled tentacles," she explained. Finally, he was getting more of the answers he was looking for. Maybe it was a matter of the way he asked him questions. Perhaps he just needed to be more specific.

"He has faced worse injuries, and not died. How did such a simple injury kill Inuyasha?" he almost spat the name in contempt for his half-breed brother. Still, he was family, and honour demanded that he learn of his death to be recorded in the family records.

"Hai, my Lord. He would have survived with only a few days needed to recover," She intoned, "however, another interfered in the battle. She sided with Naraku, and she struck him with an arrow when he was not aware of her intent."

"You speak of the undead bitch, do you not?" he stated more fact, than question.

"Hai, my Lord," she replied.

"The jewel, exactly where is it? Who has it now?" he asked, trying to be specific.

Again she place her hand to her chest between her breasts and spoke.

"It is here, my Lord. I am the one who possesses it," she spoke.

"If you possess it, why are you not wearing it now?" he demanded heatedly.

"I do possess it, even as I stand here before you, my Lord," she spoke. "It can never leave me again."

"Again? Explain yourself, bitch," he growled.

"I was born, or rather, I will be born, with the Shikon no Tama embedded inside my body," she spoke cryptically. "The jewel has just returned from whence it came."

"Will be born? You make no sense," he told her. "You are here now, how can you not have already been born?"

"I am to be born, my Lord, in what will be the year 1981, in the area now known as Inuyasha's Forest, but will become the great city of Tokyo almost 500 years from now. Unknown to me, the Shikon no Tama will be returned to this world at the time of my birth, only to be brought back here, to this era, on my fifteenth birthday, when Mistress Centipede makes an attempt to possess the Jewel of Four Souls once more, and drags me back through time to meet Inuyasha for the first time." she said.

Just as he thought he was making progress, she hits him with a mountain, leaving the Great Lord even more confused and filled with more questions. Surely she could not be serious. None of this made any sense at all. She was standing before him, obviously alive, well at least breathing, and she could not be much more than 19 or 20 years old in ningen years.

And yet, she insisted that she had yet to be born? Nearly 500 years in the future? But that was impossible? Wasn't it? But it would explain much of the strangeness of the girl. Her odd clothes, that strange bag she always carried, her odd expressions. If she came from a different time where onna were not treated as possessions, as was most common among the ningen of today, it would explain a lot about her behavior. She was daring almost to the extreme, defiant, even to her betters, seemed to accept ningen, hanyou and youkai all alike, as people not as beings of differences that warranted ridicule because they were not acceptable to others.

That was when it struck him. That was why she didn't fear him. All of those times in the past when he had tried to bring out her fear and wanting to see her cowering before him. She didn't react the way he had thought she would, because it didn't matter to her that he was Youkai. She respected his differences and accepted them just as she had accepted Inuyasha, the kitsune, and every other being she had come acrossed. To her, they were all people. People that had a right to exist and enjoy life.

Maybe she was telling him the truth. It would explain much, even though it was difficult to accept her words. Were there not times when she would disappear for long periods, and what was with his brother hanging around that clearing in his forest, near that old well the ningens used to discard youkai bones? Sometimes, he seemed to be almost protective of that old well. Was it perhaps the means by which she traveled in time?

Setting the numerous questions that raced through his eager mind aside for the moment, he brought himself back to his original line of questions.

"So the jewel is now back inside your body?" he asked her.

"Iie," she replied.

"Onna, you strain my patience. Explain, NOW!" he yelled at her.

Unflinchingly she responded no different than she had all night. "It is no longer in jewel form, my Lord."

"What form is it in now, pray tell?" the exasperation clearly evident in his voice.

"It has become one with this unworthy one, my Lord," was her response.

Then it dawned on him what her words had meant. The jewel in some fashion had fused with her body, becoming a part of her, actually being absorbed into her very flesh and bones. She WAS the jewel now. That would explain why she was able to protect herself so easily while she was unconscious.

"So the jewel has fused with your very flesh and bones?" came the question seeking to confirm his suspicions.

"Hai, my Lord," she confirmed.

"Doshite?" he asked.

"I do not know, my Lord," she replied. "Gomen, but the jewel has not yet told me."

"It speaks to you?" he asked wondering once again about her state of mind.

"Hai, my Lord," she spoke, then seemed to pause a small frown appearing on her face, as though listening to something. "The jewel is...was the repository of the souls of two powerful beings. One, a youkai of great and terrible power, much like Naraku. The other the honourable and legendary Midoriko. As I was born to be the one who could purify the jewel and chosen to protect it, Midoriko became the more powerful soul. It is she who speaks to me from what was the jewel."

The more he learned of the jewel, the more questions he was ending up with and the information was just not coming together quickly enough to suit him, nor organized enough to make complete sense. He had known that the great Midoriko had been the creator of the jewel, but had not known that it was a part of her soul that was housed in the jewel, nor that there was a part of a youkai soul with in the jewel as well.

It would explain why the jewel was eagerly sought by those of evil design. If the youkai soul within was even half as evil and powerful as Naraku had been, it was no wonder the jewel gave those of evil intent so much power. It should do the same for those of good, as well, except that to use the good, one had to be pure of heart and soul. But then, if that was the case, why could Kagome not use the jewel? In fact, why didn't she use the jewel?

"Why do you not use the power of the jewel to heal yourself?" he asked, now more curious about this onna that he had ever been before.

"That is a privilege that must be earned, my Lord," she said. "Only if I were worthy could I ask it to heal me. As I am not deserving of such kindness, and comfort, it not my place to ask the jewel to help me. It would be wrong of me to be so selfish."

"Surely the jewel would want to protect its protector," he replied. He was gratified to see that she really took a moment to consider his statement before she replied, a frown once again appearing on her otherwise inexpressive face.

"That is true, my Lord," she said. "but for one such a I, who has not sufficiently paid for her past crimes, such a luxury would not be fitting."

There she was again, with that idea of having to be punished and suffering pain for some unknown crime.

"What crimes do you speak of?" came the question.

"My crimes, my Lord are many as I was often told, but refused to listen," she stated. "For my failure to heed the truth, I must now pay in pain and blood."

"Again you fail to adequately answer my question," he stated heatedly. His anger and frustration got the better of him for a moment, and he reaching out with the claws of his new hand, he took one claw, dug it into the skin along her right shoulder, and began to drag it downward diagonally running between her breast, and down her stomach to her lower left hip. He watched as the blood freely ran from the cut, and looked on as she tried to scream in the pain he had just inflicted on her already battered body.

The smell of her freshly spilled blood rushed to his head, and he had to force himself to not continue his hand's downward journey. His beast was snarling viciously that he had cut her, and had fairly begged him to instead caress the sweet flesh under his fingers, and take pleasure in the morsels that were exposed and calling to his own desires, standing right before him.

Her scream never came out as more than a soft hiss of air, escaping her parted lips. Her vocal cords so badly abused from her screams of earlier, and even from injuries she must have suffered in that last battle, that she no longer had the voice to scream with. Her shaking body, panting breath, and the tears freely pouring down her face, were the only other indications that she had indeed felt the pain. She forced herself to stay on her overly swollen and infected feet. She fought for breath as the pain eased.

"Arigato, my Lord," she whispered in the only voice she had remaining, tears still streaming down her face. "Gomen nasai that I was unable to scream for your pleasure, Master. But I do not seem to be capable of that now. It is my hope that my bleeding for you will appease the displeasure of not being able to hear me scream."

Even with all she must have suffered and everything he had done to her up to now, she still thought of his pleasure, not her pain. She accepted her lot, and even asked for more. For what had she not listened to, that now made her believe that this was the best she could hope for and all she deserved?

He chose to ignore her statements and fought back on his Youkai's desires. Something that was getting more and more difficult to do. Her sweet scent had spiked when he had cut her, and the smell of her freshly spilled blood almost did him in.

"What are your crimes?" he asked her again.

She paused for a moment, clearly considering his words. Again that slight frown on her face as she thought for a moment.

"For being inadequate, my Lord," she replied, "and for being selfish in thinking of my own desires. Also, for being in possession of something that I have no right to keep, and for not better protecting my friends and family."

The girl was more and more confusing by the moment. He had to fight the urge to not just take out her throat and be done with her. He only won out, because his damned Youkai refused to let him act upon his desire. Why did his beast want the girl? Why was his blood beast craving her? Why did he feel a pain in his own chest at the pain he had just inflicted on her already abused body? What was it about her that seemed to call his very soul? Even more, what on earth did the onna mean by her statements?

"What possession have you stolen?" he asked. Considering that she was butt ass naked, and there was nothing that could possibly have been hidden in what was left of her clothing, he found it hard to believe that she possessed anything of value.

"A soul, my Lord," she intoned to his shock.

"Explain!" he commanded.

"Months after I first met your half brother," she said, "the witch Urasue used the bones, and graveyard soil to bring Inuyasha's former love, Kikyou, back from the dead. To animate the body she created, she required Kikyou's soul. The very soul that inhabits this body. It worked, but just as Kikyou was about to kill Inuyasha, I called the soul back to my body. All but a small portion of it returned, stopping Kikyou's sacred arrow from killing Inuyasha.

The part that remained with Kikyou, and sustained her life, although it gave her no strength was the anger and hatred that she had died with, believing that Inuyasha had betrayed her. She spent much of the last four and a half years, devising ways to be rid of me, and to take back her soul. Because I always found the means to escape her efforts to kill me, I remained in possession of her soul and she was unable to return to the living, and be with Inuyasha."

"She hated my half brother?" Sesshomaru asked. "But it was her who betrayed him, was it not?"

"Iie, my Lord," Kagome replied. "Not long after I met Inuyasha, we found that it had been Naraku that had plotted Kikyou's demise. In his former body, he was but an evil and severely injured thief. Kikyou, as a priestess, took pity on his injuries and took care of him. But his soul was red with evil and he traded it with the lesser youkai in the area in exchange for their mobility and strength. He lusted after Kikyou and wanted the Shikon no Tama for its power.

Kikyou had fallen in love with Inuyasha, forsaken her responsibilities as a miko and chosen protector of the jewel, and failed to realize the dangers that had crept closer to the Shrine. She had told Inuyasha of her wish to live an ordinary life and told him that he could use the jewel to wish to become ningen, and then he could be with her. She told him that if he made a wish upon the jewel to become a ningen, they could be together, and the jewel would probably disappear forever, freeing her of her responsibility as Guardian of the Shikon no Tama.

Naraku was able to disguise himself as Inuyasha, making Kikyou believe that your half brother had betrayed her to get closer to the jewel, and inflicted mortal wounds on her in the process. He then disguised himself as Kikyou and tricked your brother into believing that Kikyou had betrayed him.

In the end, she sealed Inuyasha to the Goshinbuko. As she lay dying, she told her sister, Kaede, the current miko of the village, to burn the jewel with her body. She chose to take it into the afterlife with her, thus hindering the designs of Naraku and leaving your brother pinned to the tree for the next fifty years."

"So Naraku was the instigator of all that has happened over the last fifty five years. But tell me," he spoke to her. "Would not having accepted her death the first time, not mean that Kikyou also relinquished her rights to the soul you find yourself in possession of? After all, if you were born more than 500 years from the time of her death, then her soul would have passed on into other lives. The one last born with it, would be the rightful owner of the soul, would it not?"

"I had once thought that way, my Lord," she replied tonelessly. "But have often been told, that I was wrong for that assumption. Just as I was also, rightfully informed that I was neither strong enough, powerful enough, skilled enough, intelligent enough, good enough, nor as beautiful as the one for whom I am just a copy."

"By whom were you told these things?" he asked feeling sure that he knew, but wanting to hear the words that would mark the one who said them for the complete and total fool he had to have been.



**Not for Kikyou Lovers! This story contains violence, sexual content and rape! You are WARNED**

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nor any of the associated characters. But it ain't because I don't want or wish to do so.