Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

Higurashi	By : WillowCarlisle Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > Sessh?maru/Kagome > Sessh?maru/Kagome Views: 21294 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Chapter List
- 30
- 31
Slamming the phone down onto its cradle, Angie bit back a quavering sob.
"JUURO!!"
The name fell from her lips in terrified cry and she was grateful for the sturdy desk that she held fast to, or else her knees would have buckled beneath her and sent her crashing to the marble floor. Strong arms reached for her, and she clung to the man with desperate trembling hands, pushing him toward the lobby doors even as she leaned into him for support.
"We have to go now..." the woman gasped shakenly, her heart thundering in her chest. "I've alerted the guards. They're already on their way out of the city."
"Sesshoumaru?" the man asked calmly, shooing the doorman out of the way as he guided them both toward the company car a short walk from the hotel entrance.
A quick glance down at pained lines marring her tear-streaked face and he knew the answer.
"Get in," he ordered as he pulled the passenger door open. "We'll make it. Don't you worry. There's no way in the bowels of hell he'd let himself die before seeing an end to this thing."
Nodding slowly and biting her lip against the searing pain in her chest, Angie slid into the seat and pulled the door shut. She watched the man scurry around the front of the vehicle and closed her eyes, sweat beading on her brow. She could hear him settle in the seat besider her, the other door slamming shut only seconds before the engine roared to life.
"Do you.. remember..." she gasped around the lump that seemed to swell in her throat, "that time, long ago... when you promised to stay by my side...? You said, 'The two of us are the only ones that can protect our Lord Sesshoumaru', do you remember?"
She could make out the smile that creased Juuro's lips from beneath her lowered lashes.
"I remember," he murmured, turning the wheel and meandering easily through the traffic. "The look on your face that day..."
Angie couldn't help but smile at the memory. "We made a pact: that no matter where he went, and no matter how long it took, we would see to it that our Lord Sesshoumaru found his kingdom and his Lady to rule by his side..."
"And may no sickness or death stand in our way," he completed the vow, reaching a hand over to squeeze the woman's shoulder reassuringly.
"Do you think... after all this is over," her voice was nearly a whisper, "the magic will fade, and this will truly be the last time we get to see him? Our last chance to fulfill that promise...?"
Juuro frowned deeply, taking his eyes off the road to study his friend's features closely, weighing the thought in his mind.
"No," he shook his head slowly before veering ahead of a van on their left. "It took longer to find him this time, that's for certain, but I have faith in Lord Sesshoumaru. I don't know what power keeps us anchored by his side; what magic there is that brings the two of us again and again to this place. I know this, though: we are his most loyal friends, and even without magic to guide us, our paths would have crossed again in time."
Nodding slowly, she cast him a happy smile. "You've become much wiser than I ever would have given you credit for. That's so unlike you, Jaken..."
"You still doubt my wisdom, silly girl? You're always such a stubborn one, Rin! That's something I know won't change."
She chuckled at the old toad's off-handed compliment, looking up to see him smiling at her from behind the veil of this new human face. Nodding to herself, she looked out onto the road ahead.
Whatever it was that bound her soul to this place, she couldn't bring herself to be anything but thankful. Each new life she awoke into brought experience that could never be replaced, and a happiness unmatched by the previous existance. To be reborn, gifted with the memories of their lives passed, but also with the knowledge of their duty in the present... what more could she ask for? As she was, she could stay by Sesshoumaru's side forever... if fate allowed it.
It no longer mattered that their struggles to keep the taiyoukai safe over the past few centuries went unnoticed. It was agreed between them both that they would live in silence for that great and powerful demon; always near enough to see to his well-being, but never so close that their own inevitable passing and rebirth would be a hinderance to him.
"With your loyal servant, Jaken, I'll wait patiently," she murmured the lines from the song she used to sing so very long ago, wiping away her tears and breathing a deep sigh.
"I can see the lights up ahead," came the strained whisper from beside her.
Swallowing her fear, Angie lifted her head confidently. The waiting would soon be over. It was time that all would be revealed.
*~~~
Shenzu sighed, eyes wandering down to the peaceful face of his little sister as she slept on his lap.
What a disaster this had all become...
In the space of a few hours, they'd gone from being a step away from freedom, to being in the midst of the biggest awakening the realm had ever known. In total, there were now fourty-seven guardians in need of replacement. The time spent in seeking out and awakening these souls was time he just didn't have to spare.
Time lost from our Cause, the thought came, unbidden.
"You're right," Shenzu murmured to the voice that spoke into his mind.
He turned his face upward to greet the flitting speck of shadow he knew hovered just above them. He could make it out easily as it danced between the cracks in the wooden ceiling of Poteto's small shed. He lifted a hand, some strange part of him begging for this entity's attention at the same time he could feel revulsion toward it.
"Please..." he murmured.
The shifting black mist seemed to draw near for the fraction of a second and then, as if laughing at his efforts, it withdrew again.
There's work to be done, the thought came again.
Stamping down the feeling of dejection, Shenzu nodded slowly. "For our freedom."
He eased himself to his feet, carefully positioning the young guardian's head against the soft pile of leaves and walking toward the door. He turned to look back at her, smiling slightly as she mumbled something in her sleep. The shadow stayed behind. It hovered above the girl's form for a moment, and then it was gone.
Closing the door quietly, he bit down on the inside of his cheek, not surprised in the least that it drew no blood.
It was a warning, he knew.
Gathering the energy around himself, Shenzu began his flight back toward the boneyard. Whether the demon lord had been weakened enough to allow the tether to his soul to disipate was no longer an issue. The shadow now hung over his precious P-chan... If he failed to take Sesshoumaru's power into himself and use it to open a rift into the world of the living, she would be taken from him. Her gate would be the next to lay in wait of a new guardian, and while they waited, more and more souls bled into this world that didn't rightfully belong.
Schooling his features carefully, he pressed on. He was the only one that knew the truth after all. While his brothers and sisters had fallen easily into the farce of a "world redemption," he knew the beings that controlled them by face, if not by name. The freedom they sought from the chains of this world weren't the same that he, Shenzu, sought out. While these so-called gods moved to dominate, he moved simply to feel. To love. To live.
He, like so many others, had awoken a millenia ago with no real purpose but the duty of overseeing the souls of the dead. Over time, he'd grown separate from his responsiblities. He'd begun to venture into the living realm; to question his position and the powers that governed not only himself, but each and every guardian he'd known as "sibling." He'd tasted free will, and it was of such a flavor he couldn't come to forget.
They knew, these spirirts.. these demons professing themselves to be gods. They knew where his thoughts took him and what his plans were before he could make them; and in that time when he was blind to his own weakness, the scheming began. Have your freedom, they said, so long as ours comes first.
He could make out the pulsing glow of the demon lord's soul just up ahead. Alighting on the forehead of some great fallen beast's skull, he looked down to the earth below him and the still slumbering shape of the dog demon's spectral form. He wasn't certain what feeling it gave him, seeing the answer to his wishes laying so calmly in a field of bones and petrified flesh.
He knew only what the voices of the Shadow foretold. To succeed would mean the end of this pointless struggle. There would no longer be a need for the guardians of this realm, once the great daemons were unleashed upon the human world.
*~~~
Sesshoumaru was growing impatient with the constant wait. His eyes had never left his brother's face as the demon continued to claw and strike at the barrier standing between them. As time ticked past, his patience grew nearer to its limit.
There was little left here, he noted with a grimace. They'd kept Inuyasha away from the humans, but a fleeting glance at Tsuyako's panting figure and Shippou's equally exhausted frame huddled at the center of the barrier was enough to tell him they wouldn't last long enough for help to come. They would be forced to fight, once the shield fell, and the only thing left at their disposal were broken beams, slabs of stone, and their own bare hands.
He took a steady step forward. Enough was enough.
"Inuyasha..."
Eyes wide in disbelief, Sesshoumaru spun toward the voice that called his brother's name.
"Kagome..." he breathed as he nearly slid to his knees in relief, "you're alive..."
The girl stood barely within the reach of the garish light from overhead, head bowed and body slumped as she leaned heavily against the side of the building. He clenched his teeth at the sight. Her blouse clung damply to her skin, blood glistening wetly where Inuyasha's claws had pierced her flesh. He could feel his stomach lurch as she took a shaky step forward, the gash at her midsection yawning wide, blood splattering the grass near her feet. Every fiber of his being screamed for him to go to her side, but a hand came up to take hold of his wrist, reminding him of where he was.
"Don't," Shippou's voice was a warning as his grip tightened fractionally.
"You have to stop... Inuyasha..." she gasped, slumping suddenly, her small chest rising and falling rapidly. "Please... Don't do this..."
The hanyou spun to her, his assualt on the barrier momentarily forgotten as charcoal eyes found a new target.
"We thought this human was already dead..." he hissed, head lolling to the side, spittle dribbling down his chin as he spoke. "We must dispose of this human... First one... and then the other..."
Sesshoumaru watched in horror as the hanyou slunk toward his mate. Stumbling forward, he tried to rush to her aid, only to be caught about the shoulders by a heavily panting kitsune.
"No, dammit!" Shippou growled. "I want to help her as much as you do! It's eating away at me to see her like this, but you have to stay away, Sesshoumaru. There's a way back, as long as you don't go to her!"
"You would have me watch her die?!" he roared, thrashing uselessly in the man's hold. "Sever the ties, and I would eagerly take her place, kitsune! Unbind her from me, and I will die before I take the coward's path and allow her to fall for my sake!"
"So eager," Inuyasha hissed giddily with a quick backward glance. "You will die soon enough, once this human is taken care of..."
"You-"
"No," Kagome gasped, rising finally to her full height. "Enough... is enough..."
Light flashed against steel as she pushed herself away from building and raised her arm up from her side. Breath caught in his lungs and the world ground to a halt as Sesshoumaru saw the demonic aura spiraling like a vortex along the girl's arm. It blazed: a raging wildfire across her skin, consuming her entire form in the blink of an eye. Even his human ears could hear the sound of her flesh crackling as it burst into flames.
"Sou'unga..." the word rushed from him in horrified disbelief.
"Sou'unga?!" Tsuyako's voice was filled with fear as the woman stumbled to her feet. "How? Why?!"
As though giving way under the weight of the miko's distress, the barrier began to waver and crack and Sessoumaru found himself free of the kitsune's hold as the man rushed to his wife's side. Inuyasha's back was to him, now, as the boy made to move toward Kagome. Now was his chance.
Running the few steps forward, he threw his body into his brother's back, knocking the demon to the ground and driving an elbow into the sensitive curve of its neck. He could feel the muscles beneath him spasm at the impact, and reared back for second strike, but found himself sprawled on his back an instant later, the wind knocked from his lungs. Looking up in disbelief, he saw his brother rise, completely oblivious to the taiyoukai he'd just thrown to the ground, his attention still on the girl that swayed under the pressure of the hell sword's blazing aura.
"The human must give us the sword!" the hanyou growled as he barrelled down on the girl. "Give it back to us!!"
She stood before them now, hair aflame and eyes aglow, the demonic blade roaring hysterically as she raised it slowly above her head. The hanyou reached for her, claws extended, releasing a sharp yelp as he was thrown back by billowing waves of jyaki. The fury had grown nearly too bright for Sesshoumaru's eyes to bear, and yet he looked on helplessly. He watched as tears streamed down Kagome's cheeks, sizzling against her burning skin; saw as she shook her head slowly, eyes clenching shut as Inuyasha flung himself toward her once again.
"It shouldn't have ever been like this," he heard her whisper sadly. "It was never supposed to be like this."
Sesshoumaru grew still, watching her eyes pass over the charging hanyou. Her arm drew above her in an arch and he could feel the breath rush from his lungs as the serpentine heads of the deadly ougi roared upward into the sky, maws agape, howling their freedom. Her lips parted and she drew a breath, the rasping of air against her parched throat suddenly coming as loudly and as clearly to him as the thundering roars that continued to shake the heavens and the earth surrounding them all. That same breath was released softly an instant later upon the misery of a single, deadly word.
"Gokuryuuha..."
- 30
- 31
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Higurashi