Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

A Fool's Redemption	By : Grumblebear Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > InuYasha/Kagome Views: 23728 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
(Note – Updated to version 3 on 08/02/11)
Chapter 5 – City of Light and Illusion
At half-past nine, Kagome's phone rang. It was Sango, letting her know she was on her way. Her friend threw out a quick “Dress nice,” before hanging up.
Kagome smiled, shaking her head as she set the phone down, then turned to her closet and began pulling clothes from the hangers. A few minutes later, she stood in front of the full-length mirror that hung in her bathroom, admiring her outfit. She'd chosen a pair of low slung black pants, a white button-up shirt with a high collar, and a green flare-waisted corset. Black boots finished the outfit. She’d never worn anything so fine, and she could feel her shoulders fall back and her chin lift proudly, even though she still didn’t know what occasion the fancy clothing called for.
Finally, a knock sounded at her door. Opening it, she found Sango standing before her, dressed in an equally impressive outfit comprised of a long red skirt, pulled up to her thigh on one side, and a tight red and black top with jewelry of black stone to match. She looked over Kagome's clothing and nodded.
“Very nice,” she said. “Ready to go?”
Kagome gave her a ready smile as she stepped into the hallway. “Yep. Now let’s see what your big surprise is.”
Sango grinned and turned, and together they headed toward the elevators.
Right away, Kagome noticed a difference in the level of activity from earlier that day. While there had been only a few people around during her tour, it now seemed as if the entire populating of the city had come alive. There were people everywhere, wandering through the halls, leaning along the balustrades, talking and looking out into the atrium. She was relieved to see they were all dressed up just as much as she was, if not more so. While they walked, several people greeted Sango, and when the older girl stopped to return their greetings, she took the opportunity to introduce Kagome as well.
Sango, at Solomon's insistence, had been introducing Kagome using only her first name since her arrival in Alduray. He wanted to make her transition into the city as smooth as possible, and was afraid that if people found out Kagome was his niece, her arrival might become sensationalized, drawing unwanted attention her way. So far however, no one had asked for her last name. Of course it was eventually going to get out that one of the king’s relatives had secretly moved into the city. But for now, Kagome was enjoying her anonymity as just another new face in the crowd.
After exiting the somewhat cramped elevator at the ground floor, they crossed the atrium and headed toward the dark, roped off corridor that Kagome had wondered about earlier in the day. The ropes were gone now, and as they approached she was able to get a clear view of it. What looked to be a wrought iron sculpture crafted to resemble vined foliage twisted and wound its way around the frame of the passage. The hint of sparkles she had noticed earlier turned out to be tiny beads of light, flowing along every branch, much brighter now than when she'd seen them before. They seemed to run along the metal like drops of water, falling from the leaves here and there to descend in tiny points of light, fading quickly as they fell through the air. Kagome paused to watch for a moment.
“Volumetric imaging,” she observed, her mind dredging up the term from some long ago college science class. It was still an emerging technology. She'd never seen it used with such precision. Glancing up, she noticed a plaque posted over the door.
“Ad astra,” she read. “That’s Latin, isn’t it?”
“It means ‘To the stars’,” Sango explained.
Kagome turned her eyes back to the passage ahead. A flight of wide stairs led downward, lined on either side by large, round mirrors. Ornate iron lamps hung overhead, the light from which provided not by electric bulbs, but by brightly glowing moths fluttering about. The vines extended into the passage, carrying their curious lights as they crept across the walls, as if leading the way to something. Taking a deep breath, Kagome stepped in and followed them.
The stairs ended in a landing, then curved right to another flight that emptied into a large room. Here the vines seemed to spread out in every direction, covering the walls and stretching across the ceiling. They congregated directly above the middle of the room, then tangled and twisted down, dripping their lights into a round, shallow pool on the ground below. Glancing in, Kagome watched as the lights floated along the water’s surface, then began to sink, but the depth of the pool seemed to go on forever, so that she felt as if she was staring down into a sky full of stars.
On the far end of the room, set into the wall, were three identical elevators, each one an intricately latticed cage of iron and glass. They reminded Kagome of huge birdcages. Half of the crowd waited patiently to board, while the other half continued toward another flight of stairs off to one side. All were strangely quiet, speaking only in soft voices, as if in anticipation of something. Sango stood next to her, a patient smile resting on her lips. Finally, they entered one of the elevators, and Sango lead her to the far side, where there was another pair of doors that appeared to look out on nothing but the stone wall of the elevator shaft.
Once the last person entered, the doors shut and the elevator lowered into the ground. Darkness set in immediately, and Kagome briefly panicked at her sudden blindness, until she noticed that the stone wall sliding past them was beginning to glow a soft blue-green. Looking closer, she found that it wasn’t the actual stones glowing, but large patches of phosphorescent cave lichen growing here and there, numerous and bright enough to softly illuminate the inside of the elevator. She could hear a steady thumping, like the beat of a drum, growing progressively louder and increasing in cadence.
She was so interested in watching the strange lights float by that when the wall suddenly passed away, left above as the elevator continued downward, she was caught completely off-guard by the scene that lay beyond the glass. A tremendous hall, as big as a sports arena, stretched out before her, nearly as wide as it was long. Lights flashed and shot through the air, and the thumping had turned into the exhilarating beat of a song. Far ahead, she watched as sea of people danced to the steady rhythm.
The elevator slowed to a stop, and as the doors in front of her opened, Kagome stepped out and gaped up in wonder at something that just didn't seem possible. Where there should have been a ceiling, she instead found herself staring out into the depths of space. A thousand stars blinked down at her as colorful planets drifted slowly by in the distance. Rivers of glowing gases flowed through the sky between them, trailing off to unseen points behind the towering rock wall that formed the sides of the hall. It was as if they'd been transported to some fantastic corner of the universe, and she now stood at the base of a massive amphitheater carved out of stone.
“Unbelievable,” she breathed.
Sango stepped next to her and followed her gaze. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” she said wistfully.
“Holographic images can’t be created that big, that realistic,” she said, finding that despite the music—probably through some trick of the acoustics—she didn’t have to yell to be heard. “How's it possible?”
Sango smiled. “You’ll find a lot of things are possible here that aren’t possible anywhere else. This,” she gestured over the expanse, “is our sanctuary. This is where we can create anything we want, with the help of our engineers. We provide the ideas, they provide the technology. You can’t find a place like it anywhere else in the world. Wait until you see it on a night when there’s a special occasion.”
They stood at the top of a small landing that provided a raised view of the entire hall. Before them, just beyond a cascading stairway, was a wide area full of people meandering about.
“Our movie theaters are over there,” Sango said, pointing at a passageway to their right, then turned to a large open room set into the left wall, with a vaulted ceiling and a long sheer curtain that partially covered the room from view. The jazzy notes of a piano floated toward them from its direction. “That’s the lounge. Nice place to relax when you get tired of dancing. Just to the right of it, through that entrance there, is where the punks and rockers and such hang out. Music in there is pretty hardcore.”
They walked down the stairs, Kagome still gaping about, trying to take everything in. Beyond the wide area in front of the elevators, more stairs led down to another landing, this one looking out over the dance floor. Sango pointed up and Kagome followed her gesture, finding three huge platforms suspended high overhead, lining the right side of the hall, mirrored on the opposite side by a single, slightly larger one. Curving down from each was a narrow, ornate iron stairway.
“Those are the prince’s terraces,” Sango said. “It’s the other perk they get with their position—their own private places to relax. The first one is the red prince’s, the second one is the black prince’s and the third and farthest one belongs to the gold prince. That big one on the other side belongs to the king.”
“What are the colors for?” Kagome asked.
“It's just a way to distinguish them from one another. When someone's chosen as a prince, the people decide on a color that best seems to suit their personality,” Sango explained, staring up at the terraces. “Sometimes, they get it so right, it's frightening,” she added, her pleasant expression clouding for a moment.
“What do you mean?”
“It's nothing,” Sango replied, shrugging off the question. “Human intuition is fascinating sometimes, that's all.”
Kagome nodded, and returned to surveying the hall.
Beneath the terraces, on either side of the dance floor, were lavish sitting areas filled with chaises and couches, dimly lit by silver table lamps and baroque chandeliers hanging overhead. Placed on low tables around the furniture were hookahs, their colorful glass bases glowing brightly, illuminated from beneath. Large, overstuffed pillows lay scattered about, some big enough to hold more than one person. Oval-shaped liquor bars sat directly below each terrace, and already there were crowds gathered around them.
The music changed, and she felt Sango grab her wrist. “I love this song!” her friend exclaimed, taking off toward the dance floor. “Come on!”
“Wait!” Kagome said, but the hand around her wrist was insistent, and so she half ran, half allowed herself to be pulled along, the people they rushed past nothing more than a blur as Sango twisted and dodged through the crowd. It was too fast, and Kagome wanted to slow down. She hadn’t seen everything yet.
“Sango! Wait a minute!” she called out, but Sango only glanced back at her with an impish smile. As they reached the stairs that led down to the dance floor, Kagome grabbed the railing, pulling herself to a stop. Sango’s hand slipped from her wrist and the older girl turned, that smile still on her lips as she began moving with the crowd, eventually disappearing into it.
Kagome watched her go, clutching the rail tightly. She stared out over the sea of dancing people as the intoxicating music pulsed through her body. The steady rhythm of snare drums began beating faster, and a woman’s voice sighed in time to the music, accompanied by a chorus of violins and a delicate chime that provided the melody. The lights flashed around her and she looked up again at the stars overhead. The entire experience was so overwhelming that she felt as if it might drown her.
Without warning, the lights went out and the music dropped. Only the small chime, continuing its melody, remained. The only thing visible was that impossible sky above. As she stood there gazing up, thousands of tiny points of light appeared, each brightly defined, and floated down from above. It reminded her of snow. As they fell around her, she reached up to catch one, but it passed without feeling through her hand. She turned her eyes out over the crowd, the entirety of which had calmed and extended their hands up toward the lights, as if welcoming them. Violins softly joined the chime, building together in crescendo, and she found herself holding her breath in anticipation as the melody reached the height of its gentle verse and then stilled.
Suddenly, the drums pounded in her ears—three loud beats—and as the music erupted again, a rush of air from along the outer edges of the dance floor raced up to engulf her, carrying with it thousands of tiny pieces of silver confetti. The crowd surged back into a frenzy as beams of light shot through the air, reflecting off the swirling metallic paper. Whereas she had stood in a gently falling snow before, she now stood in the middle of a blizzard, the wind lifting her hair and ruffling her clothes. The music continued on, louder and more urgently than before. She let her head tilt back, feeling the wind and music pass through her as she stared up through the sparkling storm.
It was as if the city was embracing her, welcoming her.
Kagome took the last few steps down the stairs and joined the mass of people moving without restraint to the thrilling music. The sky above seemed to swirl around her, and she raised her hands toward it, smiling. She was free here. She was safe here. And this is where she wanted to stay. Laughing aloud, she danced with the crowd as the song reached its peak in a flourish of drums and violins, and then began fading.
She turned her face up to watch the confetti slowly floating back down, and then froze as her eyes caught a flash of white on the edge of the terrace above. A man stood at the railing, staring out over the crowd, shining white hair falling over his shoulders. Two cat-like ears crowned the top of his head. There was no mistaking him, and her heart skipped at the sight of him again after so much time. She stepped forward as if to call out, but thought better of it before his name could escape her. He wouldn't have been able to hear her, anyway. As she stood there, a brunette appeared behind him, seductively wrapping her arms around his shoulders, and whispered something in his ear. Kagome watched as Inuyasha smiled and turned, hooked an arm around the woman’s waist, and then disappeared from sight. All she could do was stand there, staring up at the spot where he had been, unmoving as the last of the song died away with soft violins and the haunting sigh of a woman.
Kagome saw no more of Inuyasha over the next couple of weeks. She knew she could go to him if she chose to. But she was scared. After finally seeing him again, she felt heavy. She knew it was her guilt returning, weighing her down. She just couldn’t bring herself to face him yet.
Within the span of those first two weeks, Kagome managed to settle into her new life nicely, and her uncle was overjoyed when she told him that she'd decided to stay. She started her new job two days after her tour, and Sango had been right: she did like it. Her main responsibility was to test the soil in the dome and all the greenhouses, looking for any irregularities in the ecosystem's delicate balance. She carried with her a small computer that had an attached wand that she inserted deep into the ground. The device automatically ran all the necessary tests and gave her readings on its screen. It was easy enough, and getting to spend most of her day out in the fresh air was invigorating.
Sango quickly became her best friend, and they spent almost every evening together in the underground hall. One thing Kagome quickly discovered about the immense room was that the entire place, even the floor, was capable of transformation, using the same technology that was used to create the images overhead. They could make illusions of almost anything anywhere in the room—the falling lights she had seen on her first night; plants growing wildly and hanging from every staircase, balcony and overhang; ‘water’ filled with hundreds of brightly colored fish that flowed up from under their feet to fill the entire hall. It seemed the only limit on what could be created was the human imagination.
At first, the libidinous attitude of the city's residents intimidated Kagome. She certainly wasn't an innocent. She'd had lots of boyfriends before her days in the lab. But she didn't consider herself to be unrestrained with her desires, either. The dangers of casual sex that once existed long ago hadn’t been a threat for decades now, thanks to advances in medicine. But public opinion in the rest of the country remained cautiously prudent, and sexual indiscretion, while becoming more accepted, was still highly stigmatized. After living in such a restrained atmosphere for so long, it was natural that she felt uneasy at first.
It took a little while, but eventually she became used to the debauchery, especially after catching a few glimpses of the activities that tended to take place in the wings of the underground hall each night. Though it didn’t bother her, she did still feel a bit detached from it. She'd been approached, of course, but she felt that it was just too soon for her to begin thinking about things like that. She wanted to make sure she was good and settled in before getting involved with anyone. She had so much to deal with already. Sex and relationships would only complicate things further.
The anxious thoughts of Inuyasha always stayed in the back of her mind, and that awful dream of the lab had returned several times since her arrival. As compacted as the city was, it was ridiculous to think she could avoid him forever. She knew Sango could tell something was wrong, but she didn’t want to tell the older girl her story just yet. And for her part, Sango never pressed the issue.
The night that began her third week in the city was spent once again in the underground hall. Tonight it had been transformed into a volcano. Red lava shot through the air overhead and dripped down the walls, while a warm breeze drifted across the dance floor, joining the sultry music in encouraging Kagome to relax and put her troubles aside for a while. Sango had wandered off to rest for a bit, and Kagome eventually found herself dancing alone in an empty corner. She didn’t glance up at Inuyasha’s terrace, and found that she had no urge to do so. She'd noticed a huge gathering of people up there earlier in the evening, and Sango, following her gaze, had told her there was a party being held for the red prince’s twenty-sixth birthday. Kagome had passed it off with a shrug, pretending like it didn’t matter.
Now, as she moved freely with the music, she felt someone come up from behind to place their hands on her hips, swaying gently with her. It wasn’t unusual. There was always a fair amount of touching and groping going on, especially out on the dance floor. It was normal here. And she couldn’t deny the fact that she enjoyed the attention. Though, with her, things never went any further than just petting.
Kagome didn’t need to glance back at him—she could tell from the form of the body brushing against her that this person was a man. She allowed herself to move with him, feeling his hands flexing on her hips, then strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer. She felt his warm breath at her ear, followed by soft lips that trailed at a delightfully slow pace past her hairline, down to the nape of her neck, leaving the moisture from his kisses across her skin.
This is better than normal, she mused. Normally they just danced with her, but this one was much more bold, and she found that boldness exhilarating, deciding to let him continue on how he wanted. A hand pressed against her stomach, securing her against his chest, and she smiled at the intimate gesture. She looked down at where his hand rested against her skin, just as a shining lock of white hair spilled into view.
She eyed it dumbly for a moment. Then her movements slowed to a stop, and she felt her heart drop into her stomach. A sudden roar, like frantic wings, filled her ears, threatening to drown out every other sound. As he lowered his head and turned his attention to her shoulder, she pulled her eyes up, finding a white triangular ear hovering next to her cheek. His mouth was on her skin again, and before she could stop herself, before she could rationalize the situation, his name escaped her lips.
“Inu…yasha…”
The man behind her froze, his gaze snapping up to stare in disbelief at her with a striking golden eye. They stood there for what felt like an eternity, neither one moving. Suddenly, the shock seemed to clear from his eyes, replaced instantly by rage. He shoved away with a vicious snarl, and she stumbled forward. Barely managing to catch herself before she fell to the ground, she turned toward him, a look of dismay on her face, his violent reaction filling her with dread. No, she thought. Not this way…
Inuyasha stared at her, his expression a mix of anger and confusion. He took a step back, then another, balling his fists and shaking his head as if in denial of what he saw in front of him.
“Wait,” she pleaded, reaching out, but he turned and ran off into the crowd. She rushed after him. “Please!” she called, but he was too far ahead. By the time she got to the top of the stairs, gasping for breath and looking around desperately, he was no where to be found.
Continued in Chapter 6 – Bad Blood
A/N: Thank you for the reviews! And I agree with you Duke-of-Spades, I would certainly love to see more reviews on this, but I think the reason there are so few is mostly due to the fact that since all the IY fics are lumped together instead of being categorized, it’s hard to keep your fic near the top of the list where people will notice it. For instance, I posted chapter 4 at 4am on Sunday morning, and by 10am it had already been bumped all the way to the bottom of page 2. It’s got lots of alerts and favs though, so I know people are reading it, would just be nice if I could get a few more people to let me know what they think of it :)
This chapter was inspired by a piece of music from the soundtrack for the anime Gankutsuou, called Kaishou. It’s the piece I listened to while writing about Kagome’s first night in the city and is basically the soundtrack for the first half of the chapter. It’s also the piece of music that, along with the stunning imagery from Gankutsuou and an EXTREMELY weird dream, inspired this entire story. It’s an awesome piece, so I just thought I’d gush about my muse!
Music for this chapter
Kaishou – Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo OST
Song for Holly - Estero
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A Fool's Redemption