Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction / Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Mayakashi ❯ Chapter 39 ( Chapter 39 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, Bleach, or YuYu Hakusho, or any of the anime/manga characters.

Warnings: Angst

The Road to Hell

 

Kagome quickly got over her stupor, twisting her head to glare up at the ceiling.

“I don't care why he was exiled. He's dead, and I'd really not dwell on it.”

“I can understand that. But it's pretty interesting, and it might actually be relevant,” Urahara quipped.

“I thought even mentioning his name was forbidden.”

“In the Soul Society. We're not exactly on their roster anymore.”

With a sigh, her head fell back, once again meeting his eyes.

“You're going to tell me anyways, aren't you?”

“Ah, you know me so well,” he said with a smirk.

“Fine. Then I'll bite. What was Kazuma exiled for?” she asked, sighing again.

“He was marked a traitor for saying that the Spirit King may potentially not be as god-like as we thought. Kazuma said that he thought it was possible that the King was using everything from Shinigami to Hollows and possibly even some unknown groups as his puppets.”

At that, Kagome's eyes widened.

“So… before I was even born, he suspected Enma of something?”

“Certainly puts his plans in perspective, doesn't it?”

“Maybe…”

Kagome's eyes widened further then as she remembered his attempts to kill both her daughter and herself, and a hard edge filled her gaze.

“Whether he was a traitor because of good intentions or not, he's still an unforgivable piece of trash that attempted to fucking abort me with a sword and kill me, and then tried to seal me off with a forbidden Kido when the first two plans failed. The world's a better place without him, and that's the end of things.”

There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence as Kagome glared a hole through the table, before she realized that Yoruichi looked very uncomfortable.

“What're you thinking?” she asked, breaking her friend out of her revelry.

“I… knew Kazuma, and you're not wrong. He was a sadistic, cruel prick, even when he was a kid. He may have been branded a traitor because of his radical views of the Spirit King, but if he hadn't done that, it would've been only a matter of time anyway. He got off on abusing his Captain status-gained powers… But he wasn't stupid, either, and neither was Yamamoto.”

“Yeah, I get that he was a good fighter,” Kagome sighed.

“You don't have a clue. I still think you could fight him if he'd taken you on with everything he had, but… He didn't happen to use his Bankai, did he?” Yoruichi asked.

A pain lifted through Kagome's body and squeezed her chest, her eyes wide.

“Bankai?”

“Kazuma was a tactical genius, and achieved not just becoming a Shinigami and Shikai, but mastered his Bankai at the age of 16. Not that a single Shinigami that knew him could speculate as to what, exactly, Asakyohaku's Bankai could even do.”

At that, the pain in Kagome's chest increased and she had a horrific sense of… something. Ignoring it as best she could, she turned her attention outward, frowning.

“He may have been a genius, but so were Naraku and Aizen, and in the end, they all met the same fate. They're dead, and that's the end of things… hopefully.”

When both Shinigami tensed, Kurama frowned right along with Kagome.

“What is it?” he asked, seeing Kagome beginning to shake as her distress filled the air, the scent hitting him hard.

“What aren't you telling me?” Kagome asked, clutching at Kurama's hand for comfort, not caring that it meant he could tell she was distressed.

“You're not going to like this,” Urahara started. “First of all, you should be made aware of a rather… uncomfortable fact.”

“What?” Kagome asked, dread rising to a crescendo in her chest.

“If Kazuma had really tried to seal you off with a forbidden Kido, there's only one I can think of. It was meant to sever dimensions, right?”

Slowly, Kagome nodded, staring into his dim eyes and hoping his thoughts weren't as bad as they sounded.

“If he used that technique, and failed to seal you off, then he didn't fail on accident.”

“I ripped open a dimensional tear right into it.”

“That would make sense, though I didn't know you'd gained that power. But that seal is impervious to any kind of force, internal or external, unless the caster allowed it to break or was a single second from dying, when the barrier goes from being held by the caster's energy to sustaining itself through the caster's lifeless body. You're lucky, but nobody has that kind of luck.”

“He didn't die until after the barrier was broken. When I blasted him to ashes,” Kagome stated, heart beating a frantic tempo against her ribs.

“Then that confirms it. This is the bad part… Where Aizen and Kazuma were, not only was Aizen's body not there, but there wasn't a trace of their energy. No body, barely any blood, and that can mean only three things.”

“Aizen was dead before we left, I can assure you,” Kurama stated calmly.

“Yeah, we figured. Option 1, hopefully some youkai happened across there and ate him. Option 2 is that someone came and took his body, as well as Kazuma's ashes, which would be bad. Or, option 3, they weren't there to begin with.”

“An illusion?” Kagome gasped.

“With the power of Aizen's illusions and Kazuma's abilities, both known and unknown, amplified by the Hogyoku, it's not impossible that the two working together could possibly make something to make everyone concerned believe they're really dead.”

The dread had become a full-fledged, rock-solid knot in Kagome's chest, and she felt the beginnings of tremors taking her.

“I really hope it's option one or two. I'm sick and goddamned tired of killing people more than once!”

And then, she remembered the cold, solid weight of her Zanpakuto in her pocket, and she fought the rising bile at the thought that occurred to her.

“Kisuke, would it be potentially possible for a faux body to have an escape hatch of sorts, for if the Shinigami inside were about to be… say… blown to less than ashes?”

Frowning in thought, Urahara sat back, staring at the ceiling.

“It could be theoretically possible, I suppose. But the user would have to be extremely skilled, and a master of Kido… And Kazuma was a member of the Kido Corps, as I'm sure you guessed,” he finished, catching on.

Slowly, Kagome brought out her Zanpakuto, staring at the cold steel as tears began to fall.

“Theoretically, would a powerful Kido master be able to swap souls in a faux body at the last second?”

“Why do you ask?” Yoruichi asked, seeing her tears growing more rapid.

“Kazuma broke my Zanpakuto in our fight, and ever since then, Kumori hasn't been here.”

“That's impossible. I might have an explanation for that, and if we're assuming the worst case scenario, let's assume that Kazuma made some form of escape, as he could hardly pull a soul out of a Zanpakuto.”

“There's another possible explanation for it?” Kagome asked with wide, hopeful eyes.

“Of course! You've clearly got more youki in your veins now. It's more likely that Kumori is still in the blade, but just can't contact you. You advanced, and as there's no further step than Bankai, Kumori couldn't evolve with you. But she's probably still there. Unless you feel absolutely nothing in the steel?”

“No, I feel the power, but… I can't sense her,” Kagome said with a frown.

And then, an idea occurred to her, and her face morphed into one of absolute optimism, the change so sudden if made her friends worry about her mental state.

“Kurama, could you go get Totosai? I… don't want to go back down there unless I absolutely have to,” she added with a shudder.

“You have need of him again?”

“If my Zanpakuto is too youkai-slayer for my new powers and energy, I'll adapt the blade to be stronger with a fang.”

At that, Kurama's eyes widened in surprise, and an impressed gleam filled the orbs as he smirked.

“That is an incredibly resourceful idea. I'll be back shortly.”

With a short, sweet kiss that left the other two occupants of the room stunned, the kitsune took off, his energy rapidly fading from the castle.

“Well, that was interesting,” Urahara said with a smirk.

“I take it you're over the idiot, then?” Yoruichi added, also smirking as her friend blushed beet red.

“You could say that,” Kagome muttered.

“Good for you!” Urahara said with a broad smile. “Now then, I'd simply love to know what you're planning. What's this about fangs and a youkai named Totosai?”

“Totosai's an old friend, from when I was in the Feudal Era. He's an amazing forger. The one that made Inuyasha's and Sesshomaru's swords. He made them with a fang, first from their father, and later from Inuyasha's, though Sesshomaru's sword is kind of hard to explain. I thought that, if I can't decrease my youki now that I've accepted it, and I can't rebuild my reiatsu, then maybe I can have Totosai re-forge Kumori's blade with one of these,” she said, lifting a lip and pointing at one of her new fangs.

“Well, that's a pretty good idea,” Urahara commended.

“Of course, we'd expect nothing less of you. It's good to see you again, Kagome,” Yoruichi sighed, appearing next to said miko and wrapping her in an affectionate hug.

“It's good to see you, too,” she said, returning the hug.

Yoruichi let out a small gasp as, the second Kagome made contact with her skin, the gash on her arm began to knit itself shut at an incredible rate. Seconds later, she fell back against the chair, sighing in relief as a warm feeling went through her arm.

“Damn you're good at that,” Yoruichi practically purred, making Kagome and Urahara smirk.

“Of course. Healing's an important skill. Can't let it go lackluster, even if I was always working on other thi-”

Suddenly, Kagome's eyes widened and her entire body went rigid, her head swiveling randomly and her eyes narrowing. Without a word, she vanished from the room, leaving the others with a strange silence.

Seconds later, though, a muffled scream came from above them, and the Shinigami took off as well.

When they came to a stop, they found Kagome, in a large room. In her arms was a screaming Tsuki, and on one of the two beds in the room, there was a small blood stain. When they realized that the blood appeared to have come from something other than the baby, they followed Kagome's horrified gaze, and then they, too, were staring in horror.

On the wall, carved with what could have been a sword, was a message addressed to Kagome;

“You can't kill hate, and you can't kill me, dear daughter. I could take the jewel, but thanks to you, I have no army to use it on. I would simply kill it, but that doesn't seem adequate. I want to make you suffer. So, I'll be in the tournament as well. If you don't kill me, I'll return for its head.

With hate eternal,

Kazuma”

Kagome simply gave a disgusted growl, energy rising until the wall, and the message, were scorched and obscured.

“I'm really tired of re-killing these bastards.”

With that, she turned and stormed back down to the room they'd been sitting in, cooing gently to Tsuki as she went…

 

A/N:

So, yeah. Kazuma's not really dead. Like any horror movie villain, he needs to be killed a few times before he'll stay down. I have way more in mind for this character's story, but I promise Kagome really will get a break now. I think I'm angsted out for a while now, so be sure to look forward to more character development! As always, hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and will continue to do so. Also as always, be sure to leave your opinions, be they good or negative. See you next time!