InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Windows on the West ❯ The Power of a Weakness ( Chapter 2 )

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

Disclaimer:  I do not own the characters of Inuyasha.

~oOo~

Sesshoumaru had been watching the two humans in his care for days, now – ever since he'd saved Kagome from the betrayal of the half-breed he was forced to acknowledge as blood kin.  And despite the physical, and mental, pain that the whelp had caused her, she still continued on, never once failing in her duty – or allowing her misfortune to taint her soul.

He did not understand her.

She had been attacked by the undead miko, and abandoned to her fate by the wretch his father had sired before his death, and she still had such a lightness about her soul.  How could such things not darken that light?

He watched as they walked, and he watched as they rested, kept her under his observation as she entertained Rin, and once again, he noted the odd similarity between the two humans.  At one time, he would have merely taken it to be their status as members of the same race – but he'd never known any other humans like them.  Ever.  Not in the several hundred years of his life.

Finally, he decided to simply ask the miko, and see if she could explain why she was so different – why she was the way she was.

“Why do you carry such light within you – even after Inuyasha's betrayal?” he asked bluntly.

He was taken aback by her answer.

Kagome looked up at him with a bright smile, despite the shine of tears in her eyes, and said,  “Love.”

He stared at her, then scoffed.  “Love?  Such a ridiculous weakness is what you claim gives you strength?  That makes you different from other humans?”

“Weakness?”  Kagome mused thoughtfully.  “Is it really weakness to be memorable?”

Eyeing her askance, he asked,  “Memorable?  What do you mean?”

She smiled even brighter for a moment, before looking up at the sky wistfully.  “Tell me, then, Sesshoumaru – will you forget about me once I'm gone?  Five hundred years from now... who will you remember – me, or some faceless opponent that you defeated on yet another endless battlefield?”

Sesshoumaru fell silent at that, as he remembered a certain question that Rin had asked, once.  

“Sesshoumaru-sama, will you remember Rin when she is gone?”

Rin... loves... and I will remember her over almost any other.  The miko is the same.  I will not forget her.  

A soft voice came to him once again, breaking into his thoughts.  “You claim that you do not love, that it's a weakness that a warrior doesn't need.  And yet... who will remember you, Sesshoumaru?  Without Rin's love, you would be lost to time – forgotten.  And since I come from the future, I can say with surety – your deeds have all been forgotten... but there is a legend of the youkai Lord of the West – who was loved by a simple human child.  So you see... it is love that will be remembered – that will withstand even time.  True power found in the heart of what you call a weakness.  Strange, isn't it?”

Sesshoumaru had no answer for her, and simply kept silent, considering all she'd said to him.

It was contrary, and against everything he believed in.

How could there truly be strength, found in a weakness?  

And yet, he could not deny the strength implicit within the two tiny human females he traveled with – no matter how much he might wish to.

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