Edge of Paradise | By : QueenoftheDream Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > Sessh?maru/Kagome > Sessh?maru/Kagome Views: 5325 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nor the characters from it. I made no money in writing this fiction. |
The trio continued their trek toward the west in a nondescript manner… or at least what was deemed to be nondescript by Sesshomaru. His idea of "nondescript" was to walk in the middle of the road, shining like a beacon with his white kimono and polished armor, while Rin and Kagome were made to walk next to the road in all of the tall foliage and muck.
Kagome shot a scathing glare at the back of the demon's dazzling head. Despite his explanation, being, "keeping you lowly humans out of danger while having a clear view for observation of the surrounding area," Kagome knew posturing when she saw it. It seemed that his new clothes and armor brought out a new boldness in the already-haughty demon that she didn't know existed. He was already so conceited and condescending before…
With a sigh, she looked ahead on the path. Looming another day's walk ahead of them lay Fuji-san and her home shrine.
"Where are we going, Kagome-miko-sama," Rin asked softly after making certain that Sesshomaru was out of earshot.
"We're going to a shrine at the base of Fuji-san. You see that tall mountain ahead of us?" She gestured ahead of them at the cloud-blanketed form of the mountain. "That's where we are going. There are people there of great power that Sesshomaru-sama and I wish to speak to."
She looked over to Rin, who was walking beside her, serious eyes downturned to gaze thoughtfully upon her feet. "People who can help Sesshomaru-sama," she inquired quietly.
Kagome was almost taken aback. It had been an unspoken rule not to speak of Sesshomaru's "predicament" in front of Rin for fear of frightening or confusing her. Then again, Rin, while energetic and always moving, was also quite sharp and perceptive to a degree that impressed the priestess.
"…Yes, Rin-chan. People who can help Sesshomaru-sama." She didn't have the heart to admit that she wasn't entirely sure that the elders at her shrine would indeed be able to aid the seemingly cursed demon that walked so confidently in front of them. His situation was so peculiar that she was beginning to think that there wasn't much hope of finding anyone anywhere that could lend a helping hand.
It was midday when Kagome saw the set of Sesshomaru's shoulders stiffen as he walked, and his hand ghosted over the larger sword at his waist. She surreptitiously glanced over at Rin, who seemed to have noticed nothing and was hopping amidst the tall grass as was normal for the child. Kagome herself could sense no threatening auras or reiki in the area. When she raised her head once more, she saw that Sesshomaru's hand had returned to his side, but his torso was still held rigidly.
"We shall reach this temple of yours by nightfall, miko. Be prepared."
A bright ray of hope shone through Kagome's heart, and she excitedly began thinking of questions to ask the head priest and priestess at the shrine. They were sure to be able to think of something to help this demon, weren't they…?
The day seemed to drag on endlessly before the sun set behind the horizon, and shortly after, the first of the many torii of her temple came into view from behind the trees.
"We shall make camp here," Sesshomaru declared commandingly as he jumped onto a bough of a nearby tree. Kagome was simultaneously irked and perplexed.
"But we're near the shrine! You can't be so blinded by your sense of superiority that you missed the bright red gate." She got no response. "Surely, my superiors will not deny you a place to stay; certainly not Rin-chan," Kagome protested as she pulled a strip of dried meat out of her furoshiki to hand to Rin, who had set up against the bark of a colossal maple tree and was tiredly rubbing her eyes.
From up in the tree, Kagome could see Sesshomaru's golden eyes narrow. "You may see to the people at your shrine. There is nothing they can offer me," he lowly said.
She cast her eyes over to Rin, who had devoured the piece of jerky and was dozing peacefully in a hollow in the tree trunk. Seeing that the child was soundly asleep, she whipped her head back up to the demon.
"I will not leave her here with you. You've made it plenty obvious that you despise the poor girl. Why on earth would I leave her with you," she hissed scathingly. At that, Sesshomaru slid out of the tree and landed almost noiselessly on his feet. He cast a withering glare down his nose at her.
"Do you think me a man without honor?"
"You're technically a "man" at all, so that's not really a valid question, is it?"
His nostrils flared and his upper lip lifted into a snarl. With a deadly low voice, he hissed, "You will go up to your shrine if you insist, but know that you will not receive the warm welcome you have been expecting." Leaving Kagome with his infuriatingly enigmatic response, he leapt back into the tree and settled in amongst the leaves, gazing impassively down at the fuming priestess.
"Fine. I will return when… well, I don't know. I'll report back to you as soon as I hear word, and we'll go from there I suppose," she whispered testily. With a swift turn, she marched past the torii and up the long and winding steps to her home.
As she reached the top of the stairs nearly a half an hour later with a heavy exhale, she felt a fundamental sense of strangeness, as if a veil of wrongness had blanketed the area. Nothing, it seemed, was visibly out of the ordinary, so Kagome merely attributed the feeling to nerves. However, sneaking around the shrine in the dark made her feel uncomfortably like some sort of thief or criminal. The atmosphere seemed heavy and eerily quiet, and not a single light shone throughout the entire grounds. The darkness gave the impression of a covering of unnaturalness.
Not a single light…?
A cold ball of icy dread formed in the pit of her stomach. At all times of the day or night, there were always candles or torches burning on the grounds. Creeping through the shadows with a death grip upon her bow, she approached the shrine. A familiar doorway came into view through the darkness, and Kagome felt her blood run cold.
Protruding from the doorway lay a dainty pale hand surrounded by a black puddle. Blood. Before she could comprehend her actions, she bolted toward the pallid upturned hand, attached to which was the head priestess of the shrine. Her sable eyes stared glassily at the ceiling. Kagome's breath hitched in her throat as she bit back a scream and stumbled backward. The paneling around the room was splattered with blood and had deep parallel gouges marring the wood. Claw marks…
A faint dripping noise could be heard overlaying the thick silence, and her head whipped around in an attempt to identify the source as her pulse skyrocketed. With as quiet of steps as she could manage, she tiptoed around the space. There was no possible way that the sound could be coming from the room itself, so with building dread, Kagome raised her face to look at the ceiling. Before her eyes could adjust to the darkness above, a droplet of liquid fell to land just below her eyelid, and she quickly wiped it away with her index finger. It came away red. She looked up once more. To her horror, she saw that, draped across the thin rafters, lay the battered form of the shrine's priest, rivulets of blood streaming from countless wounds. Another droplet of blood fell upon Kagome's upturned cheek as the priest slowly turned his head to look at her.
"Kagome-san," his weak moan seemed to drown in the oppressive stillness of the place. She could feel the bead of liquid sliding down her cheek, but she dared not break eye contact with the grievously injured man.
"Kagome-san, the novices. Behind…" His eyes fluttered to half-mast.
"Kannushi-sama," she cried out, bringing him back to the brink of consciousness, if only barely.
With a rattling breath, he tried again. "Behind the building… Kagome-san, you must help… the children…" A gurgling breath left his chest, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head, showing the bloodshot whites. With no tension to support his form, the body slid down from the rafters and landed with a wet thud upon the blood-slicked wooden floor in front of her, his broken limbs twisted grotesquely beneath his torso. The blood from the floor splattered up to mar her hakama.
Chest heaving with panic, she fled from the structure and out into the open where she tried to force fresh air into her burning lungs. Using the outer wall to guide her, she walked toward the back of the shrine where a small copse of old camellia trees grew. Upon walking into the shaded grove, her stomach heaved at the sight before here. Sprawled in every direction, some on top of each other, were the brutalized and bloodied corpses of the young miko apprentices. Mere children, all slain as they presumably ran for their lives to find cover under the trees. The back of Kagome's throat stung as viciously as her guilt as the contents of her stomach were forced from within her to lie upon the ground next to the very proof of her inadequacy. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and steeled herself. She would not defile their memory of their sacrifice with her selfish tears. Walking back to the main building, she retrieved a shovel and set to work.
In the small hours of dawn the next morning, Sesshomaru glanced up from Rin's small sleeping form and saw Kagome descending the shrine stairs with a larger load in her furoshiki than she possessed before leaving the shrine. She passed the last torii with rigid shoulders, and he saw that her eyes, which normally held the serene stability of a clear brook, had turned to hard chips of ice, unyielding and closed off. As she approached, the smell of sweat, blood, death, and the faint trace of youki surrounded her like an invisible cloud. She looked up at him, eyes tired and mouth pressed into a thin line.
"You knew."
He stared at her, expression unchanging.
Understanding, she nodded. No words were necessary.
Upon hearing Kagome's sandals pad across the dry foliage underfoot, Rin sprang to life, bowing to the weary priestess.
"Ohayou, gozaimasu, Kagome-miko-sama. Were you able to find help for Sesshomaru-sama?" She rubbed at her eyes with small fists.
Kagome was silent for a moment before replying, "No, Rin-chan. Unfortunately, nobody in the shrine was able to help. We'll have to move on, ne?" She plastered what she hoped was a smile upon her face as she began preparing their morning meal over the fire Sesshomaru had kept alive through the night.
The food was eaten in silence, and they promptly set out on the road for some destination unknown to either female in their troupe. Kagome forced herself to put one foot in front of the other as they continued heading west. She was bone-tired, both physically and mentally. As Rin dashed ahead of her to inspect something that piqued her interest, Kagome felt her heart grow heavy at the sight.
Earlier, when she had buried all of the inhabitants of the shrine, she had dug a separate grave for the apprentices in the camellia grove. She laid each girl into the grave with care: Sayo, Koharu, Momiji, Hitomiko, Mizuki, Tsuyu, and little Satsuki. Each small body caused her guilt to grow further, for despite knowing all of the novices, for Kagome, each girl bore Rin's face, still and unmoving in death.
*Kannushi= the head priest of a Shinto shrine said to (in olden times) be able to perform miracles and such. His female counterpart is the miko.
*Ohayou gozaimasu= the polite way to say "good morning." "Ohayou" by itself is only used colloquially and not among superiors.
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