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Learning to Love	By : Ikaru Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > Sessh?maru/Kagome > Sessh?maru/Kagome Views: 22066 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Chapter List
- 24
- 25
- 26
Disclaimer: Me no own, me make no money, me cry now T.T

Ok so the time has come for Kagome and Ikaru to clash! Hope you all are ready! This will be an epic battle…tee hee…

Oh before I forget, some people have mentioned to me they are curious about Kagome’s new powers and I want to let everyone know that I am not planning for her new mysterious powers to be combat related so you will have to wait a while longer before they are revealed, sorry if that disappoints anyone.

Well with that little announcement I think that is enough from me….On with the show!!
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Izayoi slipped into Ikarus’ rooms at dawn the next morning to find Inutaishio reading quietly by the fire and both Kagome and Rin soundly asleep in the new futon that had been provided the night before by the maids.

She slipped past them to gently knock on the door leading to Ikaru’s bedchamber. When she heard nothing but silence, she quietly let herself in and stood there in shock at the sight before her.

Ikaru was laying there still soundly asleep with the sweetest smile gracing her features that Izayoi had ever seen. Inutaishio came up behind her and he too stopped short at the sight and stared for what seemed like the longest time. She hadn’t smiled like that since before her parents died.

“What are you both staring at?” Ikaru said not showing any inclination that she had awoken. She smirked when both Inutaishio and Izayoi jumped guiltily.

“Ikaru dear we were just coming to check and make sure you were awake to have time to get ready for the battle this afternoon.” Izayoi said trying to cover her embarrassment at being caught watching her sleep.

“Right well I’m up now, you are welcome to leave.” Ikaru said grumpily…she was sooo not in the mood for their foolishness this morning… “Im going to take a bath first before Kagome and Rin wake up.” She said walking past them.

As Ikaru was walking past Kagome and Rin she noticed that Rin was struggling to get away from the futon. Ikaru saw she was looking very uncomfortable and it suddenly dawned on her why. She quickly grabbed Rin and rushed off to the toilet. They made it just in time. Since Rin was already up Ikaru decided to take Rin to bathe with her. About thirty minutes later they both emerged from the steam filled chambers freshly scrubbed and changed. Inutaishio was gone by the time they emerged. Kagome was just beginning to stir when Ikaru deposited Rin back on the futon with her.
“What’s going on…what time is it?” Kagome said with a yawn as she sat up and stretched. Her stomach gurgled uncomfortably.

“It isn’t long past sun up. If you wish to bathe now will likely be your only opportunity.” Ikaru said getting ready to call the maids to have the morning meal brought in.

“Oh alright…Wait why is Rin’s hair wet?” Kagome said rubbing the last of the sleep from her eyes.

“She needed to relieve herself before you woke up; I was heading that way and decided I might as well bathe her since I was going to bathe myself anyway.” Ikaru said bringing a new dry towel over to Rin and sitting behind her. She began the process of vigorously rubbing the towel through her hair to finish the drying process, her own hair was still quite wet, but it was more important to dry Rin’s hair to keep her from catching a cold.

“Oh…alright I’ll go bathe quickly then, I’ll be back shortly.” Kagome said as she headed off first to the toilet, rather proud of herself for once again not emptying her stomach contents this morning. She then moved on to the bathing chamber, scrubbed down and took a quick but relaxing soak in the hot spring. When she emerged, the food had been delivered and Ikaru was finishing enchanting her goblet. Kagome noticed her hair was still soaked. She walked back into the bathing chambers and retrieved several dry towels. When she reemerged she went and knelt behind Ikaru and threw a towel over her head and began vigorously rubbing her hair down like Ikaru had done to Rin only a short while before.

At first Ikaru was stiff as a board when Kagome had begun the laborious process of drying her hair. Ikaru normally didn’t towel dry it just because of the amount of effort it took to finally dry her extremely thick locks. She eventually relaxed as Kagome made a valiant effort but finally gave up after the sixth towel was tossed aside completely soaked.

“I don’t see how you do this every morning! I’m worn out and your hair isn’t even half dry!” Kagome said in a huff as she took the offered goblet and downed a good portion of it. Rin had been watching trying not to laugh at the funny expression her mama was making while she tried to dry the pretty silver haired ladies hair. She was currently gulping down the bitter brown tea she had to drink before and after her meals before moving on to her rice with honey and milk.

“It’s quite simple Kagome, I don’t…I usually ring it out the best I can then sit by the fire for an hour or so and it is mostly dry by the time I leave for my morning workout.” Ikaru said smiling as Kagome huffed.

“Kagome dear let me help you with your hair it is still quite wet as well.” Izayoi said smiling as she grabbed some of the spare towels Kagome had brought with her. She then proceeded to rub her head down when Kagome nodded her head in acceptance. While that was going on Ikaru grabbed her portion of the morning meal and moved toward the fire to finish drying her hair and work on some paperwork while she nibbled on her food.

About an hour later, Rin had been taken to Hanaka for her to watch over while the fight was taking place. Kagome and Ikaru were being escorted to a dojo that had been separated from the main palace by Lady Izayoi.

Upon entering the dojo, Kagome noticed two screens had been set up on each side of the dojo.

“We will each choose a screen and change into the traditional outfit; you will find there are numerous areas to hide weapons and such. A selection of the weapons we have agreed upon have been provided for you to choose from as well. When we emerge we will greet each other and share a cup of ceremonial tea and then pray to the gods at the altars in our respective corners. Then we will be escorted out to the ring by my father who will announce us. When he leaves the ring and assumes his seat, it will be his call when the battle starts and ends.” Ikaru explained. Kagome nodded and proceeded to her screened area where a maid was waiting for her to help her change into the fighting outfit.

The outfit was similar to a very short yukata. It was royal purple in color with a blood red obi. It came to about mid-thigh on her legs, and the sleeves only came to about the middle of her forearm. As Ikaru had said there was an array of weapons laid out before her to choose from and many places to hide them in the small outfit. As the maid tied on the extremely comfortable, thick, leather slippers, Kagome looked over the wide array of daggers. The maid bowed and left Kagome to choose her weapons when her task was accomplished.

Kagome first went over to choose her bow. There were about ten bows of different woods and styles, as they were fighting in a ring she decided to go with a smaller bow. There were also a variety of arrows to choose from, she made her decisions quickly, then picked a quiver and filled it to the brim. After securing her bow and quiver she moved over to the daggers she had been admiring and began choosing several different kinds and hiding them throughout the outfit. It surprisingly held about thirty daggers comfortably. Finally she moved over to the katana that had been laid out. She drew out each one from its sheath and finally found one that felt right in her grip.

The screened area had enough room to move about in so she took a few practice swings in the outfit testing how it felt. She then went through her warm up routine and found the outfit provided the perfect amount of flexibility without being cumbersome even loaded down with weaponry. It also stayed in place, keeping all of her private areas covered as well. She would have to thank Ikaru later for sharing some chest and hip bindings with her, as they also added an additional layer of coverage which helped her concur the minor modesty issue she was having thinking about being in front of a group of strangers, and demons no less! Finally happy with her setup she moved to leave the screened in area.

Ikaru was stepping out at the same time; Kagome noticed the outfit was even shorter on Ikaru than it was on her; apparently it only came in one size. They met in the middle of the dojo and bowed formally to each other and then knelt and accepted the tea brought to them by Lady Izayoi.

“This tea will ensure the rules you have agreed upon are followed, drink until it is gone.” Izayoi explained.
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The tea was exceptionally bitter, but Kagome followed Ikaru’s example and sipped it slowly. When the large cups had finally been drained of their contents they went to their respective corners and altars and began sending prayers up to the gods.

About thirty minutes later Inutaishio showed up and announced it was time to leave for the battle. Both he and Izayoi were dressed in extremely formal outfits which limited their movements to very small steps. It took a good ten minutes to finally reach the ring. Izayoi was escorted by one of the generals to her seat when they had reached the edge of the ring while Inutaishio paused at the edge until she was seated and then continued on until they were at the center of the ring. During this whole time Kagome’s nerves were starting to wear thin. It didn’t help that the crowd was already rowdy and throwing insults her way. That all stopped though when Inutaishio raised his hands. When everything was finally quiet he gave a wink to Kagome and Ikaru, and started to announce the battle.

“Welcome everyone, as I am sure you are all aware this battle is to decide worthiness of this female to mate with my eldest son. The Lady Ikaru has kindly offered to be her opponent, so this should be a spectacular battle for the ages. I do not know about all of you in the audience but I am extremely interested in the outcome of this battle, so now I will take my seat so the battle may begin. Ladies when I am seated feel free to start at any time.” Inutaishio smiled and started to work his way over to his seat beside Izayoi.

Time ticked by slowly. Each step Inutaishio took seemed like it took forever to complete, but finally he reached his seat. He turned around to face the battle then slowly sat down. Both women tensed as he descended upon his seat, and the second his rear made contact with the chair both of them disappeared from the center of the ring.

The crowd remained silent for a moment and then screams were heard as arrows flew out of the wooded area of the ring coming dangerously close to some of the members of the audience. The next instant Ikaru was jumping out of the forest dodging the speeding arrows. She made to jump into the sky when two arrows hit home in her calf and shoulder, she landed on the ground with a grunt. Cursing, she quickly rolled away behind a tree where she broke the shafts of the arrows off. Growling she pulled her own bow off her shoulder and loaded it. When she rounded the tree Kagome was nowhere to be found. Ikaru looked all around her but saw nothing. The next instant the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She whirled around and looked up to see Kagome taking aim from a high tree branch. When Kagome released her arrow, Ikaru did as well. The arrows met midair and shattered. Ikaru reloaded her bow more quickly than Kagome and managed to land a hit in her shoulder as well. She heard Kagome curse as she lost her balance on the tree, but she recovered by grabbing another branch and swung herself into the air where she took aim and shot at Ikaru again.

Ikaru managed to dodge the amazing shot, and watched with a smirk when Kagome acted like a monkey swinging down the rest of the tree only to hide behind it as well. When she heard the grunt and the snap, Ikaru knew the next attack was soon to be coming.

‘Bring it on little one, show me your determination!’ Ikaru thought as she readied her bow again.

As she expected Kagome rounded the tree the next instant and began shooting the last of her arrows. Ikaru matched her archery, breaking every one of Kagome’s arrows with one of her own. Soon they were both out of arrows, and tossed their bows and empty quivers aside.

“Getting tired yet little Kagome?” Ikaru teased with a sneer.

“Hardly…” Kagome said with an impressive impression of a growl.

Kagome lunged at Ikaru pulling one of her many daggers from its hiding places and managed to make a cut on her thigh, but Ikaru had managed to make a deep cut on Kagomes’ shoulder in return. Kagome didn’t even act fazed as she pulled another dagger out and lunged back at Ikaru. Ikaru pulled out two daggers and managed to disarm Kagome. Kagome quickly grabbed Ikaru’s wrists and hit the pressure points causing Ikaru to lose her grip on the daggers she had been holding.

Growling Ikaru drew her katana and made a slash at Kagome, she managed to cut Kagome’s yukata and leave a gash in her side. Kagome returned the attack with one of her own. She managed to sneak into Ikaru’s defenses and stabbed a dagger into her side. They broke apart, and Ikaru pulled the dagger out of her side with a hiss before jumping back into the trees for cover, before Kagome knew what hit her she had three small daggers sticking out of her right and left legs. Her legs buckled and she hit the ground hard. She gritted her teeth and quickly pulled the daggers out.

Panting she tried to see if she could sense where Ikaru was hiding in the trees. She caught the faintest bit of movement in one of the trees, so she reached in her yukata and took out five daggers in each hand. When she saw the movement again she managed to sit up and throw all ten daggers at it.

When she heard a chuckle behind her she realized she had been tricked and pulled out her katana just in time to block Ikaru’s slash. She managed to push Ikaru back for the precious few seconds she needed to get off of the ground. The clash of steel was all that could be heard after that as they had both run back into the cover of the trees. A few seconds later Kagome came running out of the tree cover missing her katana and armed only with a dagger. Ikaru jumped out of the brush holding both katana, and made a dash at Kagome. Kagome managed to make a decent defense for a short while with her daggers, she even managed to wound one of Ikaru’s hands making her fling the katana back getting it stuck in a tree.

The battle was coming to a climax; both women only had a few weapons left. Ikaru still had the one katana and a few daggers, and Kagome had a few daggers left. It would be down to how well the women used what they had left as to who the victor would be. Both had sustained roughly the same amount of damage and both were bleeding profusely.

Kagome made her move and used one of the last of her daggers to get the katana out of Ikaru’s hand. Her maneuver worked and the katana went flying into the wooded area. Ikaru threw the last of her daggers at Kagome, and it turned into a knife throwing competition. Soon both women were sporting several new wounds, and the last of the daggers was lost in the battle field. Both women were panting, but the battle wasn’t over quite yet, now it was down to a fist fight.

“It seems the end is near Kagome, what do you say we end this the old fashioned way?” Ikaru said cracking her knuckles.

“I could not agree more.” Kagome said panting a little as she too cracked her knuckles in preparation.

Ikaru lunged at Kagome, who barely managed to dodge the attack. Kagome swung around and managed to land a powerful blow in Ikarus’ side where she had stabbed her with the dagger. Ikaru grunted painfully but managed to swing an uppercut into Kagome’s stomach. Kagome coughed and spit up some blood from the force of the blow. They staggered back and both took a few deep breaths.

Kagome lunged forward and landed a punch on the side of Ikaru’s face that made her ears ring. Ikaru, though slightly dazed, managed to bring her fist up into Kagome’s chin landing a solid blow. Both women stumbled back a few paces before making a final lunge at each other. They both managed to land their blows to the faces of the other, then both collapsed falling backward and landing with loud thuds at the exact same time; neither rose again as they had both blacked out.

The crowd was initially very vocal at the beginning of the battle, but as it wore on, slowly silence fell on the stunned crowd as they watched their princess and the new woman match wits and blades in the ring. By the time the battle had been reduced to a fist fight not one soul dared utter a word. When both combatants fell, it was Inutaishio who stood, looking rather subdued as he started to clap, signaling the end of the battle. Stretchers were brought out into the ring immediately and both women were rushed to Hanaka for treatment. True to her word Hanaka was more than ready when the battered and bleeding women were rushed into her.

Like a well-oiled machine she barked out orders and soon Hanaka was extracting the remains of arrows, sewing up lacerations, washing out dirt filled wounds, applying her special ointments and bandages and even resetting a few bones. It took well over four hours but finally both women were resting comfortably looking more like mummies than the fierce warriors they were a few hours before.

Just before they had been rushed into her Hanaka had sent little Rin off with one of the nurses to the kitchens to prevent her from seeing them in such a shape. She would have to see about Rins sleeping arrangements this evening as it was obvious that neither Kagome nor Ikaru would be in any shape to properly care for the child. Inutaishio and Izayoi entered the medical wing about an hour later to check up on everyone.

“Well Hanaka how are they?” Inutaishio said trying not to think about how hard it had been seeing his daughter fighting and covered in blood…it brought back some very unpleasant memories of times long past.

“I wouldn’t worry about these two overly much milord. They are both strong girls and will recover in no time. Other than a few deep lacerations that required some stitches there are hardly any wounds that won’t be almost completely healed in a few days. The worst they will have to do is rest in bed a day or two.” Hanaka said smiling at the lord to ease some of his tension.

“What of Sesshoumaru?” Izayoi asked looking over the two heavily bandaged women.

“He should awaken sometime tomorrow, the morning after that at the latest.” Hanaka said. “Tell me milord; from the wounds these two are sporting I would imagine it was quite the battle. Did the princesses plans to help this girl work, or was it all for nothing?”

“No Hanaka, for once there was not one objection to the fact that Kagome was indeed on equal terms to Ikaru and thereby worthy to be Sesshoumaru’s mate. Even the council agreed and will be happy to accept her into the pack once she is able to be presented to them.” Inutaishio said running a tired hand through his bangs.

“Well that is wonderful news; at least the poor thing can rest easy now.” Hanaka said, a relieved smile filling her features before she barked out some orders at the nurses to change all of the bandages on the two of them. Inutaishio choose to hang back for a while as Izayoi went to see to the guests that were staying in the palace for the night, watching as the nurses unwrapped both women and seeing some of the extent of the damage.

Both of them had numerous red lines covering their arms and legs that had once been the smaller cuts they had received. They were already well on the way to being healed thanks to Hanakas’ special ointments. Both were sporting a healthy amount of bruising as well, but those too were rapidly fading. Before the nurses revealed too much of their bodies a screen was put up hiding them from view. Suddenly Inutaishio remembered Kagome’s condition and quickly called Hanaka over to ask about it.

“Hanaka it is very important for Kagome to eat and drink as soon as she is able to. We can’t have her weak when my son wakes up. I should warn you she has an aversion to the taste of blood so you will have to find a way around it; the same orders for Ikaru they will both need their strength to face him.” Inutaishio said, trying to cover the fact that he had about revealed Kagome’s pregnancy.

“Milord, do not take me for a fool. I am well aware of the girl’s condition, and you can rest assured if she cannot drink the blood I will get it into her somehow, the same for the princess.” Hanaka said. She had noticed the faintest traces of Ikaru’s magic lingering on the girl especially around the womb, but she decided not to share that bit of information. She had a knack for sensing the princess’s magic, it was such a subtle thing it took a very close examination to get even that off of the girl.

Inutaishio nodded to Hanaka feeling rather foolish, he ran his hand through his bangs again before bowing to Hanaka and thanking her.

“Oh Hanaka, where is Rin?” Inutaishio turned and asked before he made it to the door.

“She should be in the kitchen milord.” Hanaka said.

“Thank you…she will be staying with my mate and I tonight, so there is no need to worry over her, please just make my daughter and Kagome as comfortable as possible.” Inutaishio bowed again and began to walk back out of the medical wing.

“Yes milord I’ll have her teas delivered with her meals!” Hanaka yelled after the retreating back of Inutaishio who waved his hand to show he had heard her.

Hanaka made her way over to the two battered females that would be her charges through the night. They smelled strongly of her special ointments and were covered in a fresh set of bandages. From the way things looked the bleeding had completely stopped on both girls. Hanaka smiled and patted both of their hands before pulling up a chair and grabbing a book to read. She would monitor them though the night and in the morning both would most likely be in good enough shape to be moved to their rooms.

Evening gave way to night and the excitement of the day wound down as the residents and guests of the castle settled down for the night.

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Well that’s it for the chapter folks, what did ya think?

You know the drill by now folks, please leave a review to let me know what you think!

Later all!
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Learning to Love