InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Every Heart ❯ Chapter 21

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Author’s Note: I sincerely apologize for the sudden halt in updates to this story. I am currently in the middle of (literally) moving halfway around the world, and thus, my attention and energy have been focused elsewhere. Hopefully within the next two or three weeks everything will be settled, and I can resume the normal update pace on all of my stories, including (especially!) this one.

In the meantime, I am still posting stand alone oneshots that may be of interest to some of you, so please check them out :) I’d love to have your feedback! As always, you can also visit me at LJ for extended explanations, clarifications, and spoilers for all my work!

Disclaimer: The Inuyasha concept, story, and characters are copyright Rumiko Takahashi and Viz Media.

The characters Snegura, Ryûtatsu, and the villagers of the western lands are original to this story.

The title “House of the Moon” is original to Resmiranda’s Tales from the House of the Moon. It is used here in homage to said fantastic story.

This is merely one girl’s dream of life after “The End.”




Kirara landed softly on the ground, his occupants surveying the scene before them. Miroku and Sango slid from the demon-cat’s back, joining Kohaku, who had travelled on foot with their guides from the village.

Relieved faces met the weary yet determined group of travelers. “Oh, thank God you have returned!” one man said, stepping forward from the crowd that greeted them.

Their villager guides dropped to the ground in a formal bow. “We bring you the mythical taijiya,” Totomi intoned, raising one arm to indicate the armored trio behind him.

Miroku, Sango, and Kohaku bent slightly at the waist, giving this man – by all accounts, the headman of the village – the respect he obviously commanded. The crowd of villagers merely stood there, ogling them (and Kirara) with unmasked curiosity.

The headman nodded to them. “We owe you our deepest appreciation,” he said. “We feared the worst when you did not return earlier.”

The travelling villagers stood again. “Heiji did not survive the journey,” Totomi informed the headman. “We wandered aimlessly for months before finally finding our saviors.”

Sango swallowed convulsively at such praise. She still wasn’t completely certain this journey wasn’t a mistake.

The headman nodded. “I’m not surprised,” he said. “Heiji was quite old, and probably would not have survived the winter even if he’d stayed here. Either way, we’re all so happy to have you back!”

One of the women pushed forward from the crowd. “They have taken a child!” she wailed.

“What?” Miroku asked in a startled voice, though his question was lost in the erupting chaos.

The headman concentrated on regaining control of the crowd, turning back to address the demon-slayers a few moments later. “A human child was spotted on the mountain a few days ago,” he said, concern betraying his tone. “We would ask that you rescue her during your mission.”

“Consider it done,” Kohaku said, stepping forward and putting his hand on the hilt of his sword.

The chatter of the crowd of villagers grew once more at his declaration.

“When can you attack?” the headman asked, eyeing Kohaku closely.

Miroku stepped forward. “I believe you misunderstand us,” he replied smoothly, planting his staff in the ground an arm’s length away, blocking Kohaku from the headman’s sight. “We do not attack youkai unprovoked. We are a defensive force, not an offensive one.”

The headman stared at him. “What?!” he finally sputtered incredulously.

Miroku held firm. “I do not sense a demonic presence in this village,” he said. “We are prepared to wait until the youkai attack, but we will not actively seek them out.”

The headman turned his scrutiny to the men from the village. “Are you sure these are really demon-slayers?” he asked them, his tone harsh.

Totomi and his comrades nodded, looking just as confused as their leader.

The headman moved closer to Miroku, sizing him up. “They have kidnapped a child,” he said. “Are you still prepared to do nothing?”

Miroku leveled his gaze at his adversary. It sounded outrageous, but that was indeed the plan. Until they knew exactly what they were dealing with, he and Sango had agreed to keep a low profile – and keep Kohaku in check. They were not prepared to battle on half-truths and secondhand knowledge.

“We will stay here this night, and seek out the mountain in the morning,” he finally said, his tone even. “We will not deliberately attack an enemy, but we will defend your village should the need arise.”

The headman’s gaze shifted. “I’m glad to hear that,” he said, taking a step back and raising his arm, extending shaking fingers. “It appears we are being ambushed even as we stand here!”

Miroku, Sango, and Kohaku whipped around, each taking a battle stance, hands on weapons. A creature appeared in the dying light of the sky, shrouded in shadows as it loomed ever closer. Miroku concentrated on it, closing his eyes, projecting his spiritual powers, seeking out its aura.

The villagers circled around the headman, wielding farming implements. “It has two heads!” one of them screamed, causing a rush of fear among the crowd. “It’s heading straight for us!” another cried.

“Miroku!” Sango breathed, grabbing his arm. He opened his eyes, a small smile breaking across his face. Both relaxed their guard as the being descended from the darkening sky.

“Kagome!” Sango shouted, racing forward. She embraced her friend as soon as she crawled from Inuyasha’s back, and it was a good thing, too: the robed girl nearly collapsed as her feet found the ground once more.

“What is this?” came a grumbled whisper. Miroku slid a look toward the headman from the corner of his eye. The villagers were still cowering, though they appeared more unsure than afraid at present.

Surprisingly, it was Kohaku who replied to the urgent question. He turned to face the headman, bowing once again. “It appears our friends have arrived to help,” he said.

“You’re friends with youkai?” the headman asked, skepticism high in his voice. The man shuddered. “How do we know you aren’t youkai in disguise?”

Kohaku never blinked. “We were commissioned to protect this village,” he said, unwavering. “What you choose to believe beyond that is your business. We vow to uphold this commission, using whatever means necessary.”

He met the headman’s gaze directly. “We’ll find that girl. We’ll defeat your enemy.”

A long, silent moment stretched between them before the headman finally assented, nodding once. “Fine.”

Miroku put a hand on Kohaku’s shoulder as the tension in the air broke. They exchanged a small smile after the headman turned his back, hustling his villagers back inside their huts as the day drew to a close.

“Do you know who they are?” he asked the boy, indicating Inuyasha and Kagome.

Kohaku nodded. “I remember them,” he replied, casting a serious glance in the direction of his sister’s happy reunion. “Inuyasha spared my life, when he had all rights to kill me.” His expression clouded as his gaze fell on Kagome, but he said nothing, averting his eyes.

Miroku nodded. “Just remember to stick to the plan,” he said. “Demon extermination is inherently a defensive skill, not an offensive one. We do not destroy mercilessly.”

Kohaku closed his eyes, a wry smile gracing his lips. “I’ve had enough of that to last a lifetime,” he said, sounding far older than his years.

Kagome held onto Sango, grateful that her friend was strong enough to bear the brunt of her weight. She and Inuyasha had travelled nonstop for three days, following one of Myoga’s carrier crows after dropping Hachi off near Mushin’s temple. Inuyasha appeared no worse for the wear, but she was absolutely exhausted, her nerves fraying with the strain of knowing her friends were in danger.

“Thank goodness you’re safe,” she whispered, hugging Sango tightly. “I was so afraid.”

Sango pulled away. “I could say the same for you,” she replied lightly.

“I’m just glad we found you before you guys did something stupid,” Inuyasha commented, slipping his arms around Kagome’s waist, shifting her weight from Sango to himself. Kagome fell back against him, closing her eyes and sighing softly.

Sango raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“Heading up into those mountains means certain danger,” Inuyasha replied. “This is Sesshoumaru’s domain.”

Sango couldn’t resist a dig at him. She put her hands on her hips and glared. “How long did we travel together? How much of Naraku’s defeat was due to us?” she demanded.

Color appeared across Inuyasha’s cheeks. He knew the monk and the demon-slayer could take care of themselves. He would never admit it, but he was just as worried about their friends’ safety as Kagome. Finding them hale and whole was a relief. “You know what I mean,” he mumbled, his righteous indignation completely deflated.

“We know you aren’t stupid,” Kagome said quietly. “We just figured you didn’t know the whole scope of the situation.”

“And what might that be?” Miroku asked. He and Kohaku approached their group, joining the conversation midway.

“Koga’s at the House of the Moon – Sesshoumaru’s castle,” Inuyasha said. “We’ve heard his clan might be the cause of this village’s woes.”

Miroku nodded. “We’ve decided to investigate the mountain tomorrow,” he said. “If it is Koga we’re talking about, it’s going to take a lot to defeat him.”

Kagome shook her head. “I can’t believe he’d ever go back to eating humans,” she remarked.

Absolutely no one was surprised to see Inuyasha’s grip tighten possessively across her waist.

Kohaku shrugged. “I don’t know,” he mused. “The villagers spotted a human girl up there.”

“It’s Rin,” Inuyasha informed them. “She’s under Sesshoumaru’s care once again.”

The group fell into silence at this; Inuyasha and Kagome appeared weary, whereas the taijiya digested this information about the so-called kidnapped human girl. Kohaku appeared especially thoughtful, as if another unwanted memory was surfacing in his mind.

Sango shook her head. “Even if it is, we have to check out the villagers’ claims,” she said. “Let’s call it a night and head back out in the morning. You two look ready to drop.”

Miroku cast a glance behind him at the village. “I doubt they will welcome you with open arms, Inuyasha,” he intoned. “Let’s set up camp out here.”

Inuyasha was taken aback at the suggestion. “You don’t have to do that,” he said. “We’re perfectly fine by ourselves!”

Miroku and Sango exchanged a glance. “Do you want us to leave you two alone?” she asked slowly.

Inuyasha turned away from them, saying nothing. The deep red flush across his face told them everything they needed to know, however.

“I’ll go back to the village,” Kohaku piped up. “It will reassure them that we aren’t plotting to kill them in their sleep or something.” He turned and began to walk back toward the village center.

Sango watched him go, her mouth set in a firm line. His was a perfectly legitimate excuse to leave their group, but she felt there was more to his desire to stay in the village. Will he ever feel completely comfortable in my presence again? she wondered.

Koga sighed, propping his feet up on Sesshoumaru’s desk and casting a bored glance out the window of his office. “What’s taking him so long?” he muttered. “He told me he’d only be gone for a few days, tops! How long does it take to sign a marriage contract, anyway?”

Ginta and Hakkaku exchanged a glance. “We’re worried,” Ginta said, looking out the window as well. “Something doesn’t feel right about this.”

Koga shrugged, a wolfish grin dashing across his face as a new thought occurred to him. “Maybe he’s finally getting some,” he laughed.

Ginta chuckled, but Hakkaku looked confused. “Getting some what?” he asked, which only caused his comrades to laugh harder.

Shippo rolled his eyes and stepped back into the hall, closing the door quietly. He was hoping to learn of some news to share with Rin; the girl had become more and more impossible to live with of late. She was absolutely inconsolable that Sesshoumaru left without her, not to mention the reason why he was gone.

So much for spying on Koga, he thought with a sigh, beginning the long trek back to his rooms. Maybe Jaken will know something…

“Shippo! There you are!”

Shippo closed his eyes and squared his shoulders, preparing to be pounced upon. He wasn’t let down; Rin grabbed him and picked him up, setting off in the exact opposite direction from where he was headed. She squeezed him tightly as she ducked outside, before letting him go and wandering through the courtyard toward the castle walls, her eyes trained skyward.

Shippo furrowed his brow. It was only in the last day or so that she’d started acting weird; sure, she had cried when Sesshoumaru left, but she was back to normal the next day. Lately, though, she’d been mooning over his absence with high drama.

It had been enough to drive Jaken up the wall; the little imp was avoiding her – and Shippo – like the plague.

“When is he coming back?” Rin sighed, breaking into his thoughts. “I just hate it when he leaves me like this!”

Shippo was startled to smell tears. He looked at her curiously, unable to reply to her laments. She was pacing back and forth, directing her conversation as much at the walls as at him.

“And – a bride!” she screeched. “Why didn’t he tell me? Doesn’t he trust me?”

“Maybe he didn’t want to upset you?” Shippo guessed, tracking her movements carefully.

She plowed on, ignoring his response. “What does she have that I don’t?” She threw her arms up, facing him fully, as if expecting a reply.

Shippo’s jaw dropped. “Uhh…” How exactly did one answer such a question?

Rin froze in place, raising her head with suspicion. “What’s that?” she whispered, gazing with renewed focus at the sky.

Shippo cocked his head, his mind spinning from her mood swings. “What?” he asked her, following her line of vision.

She ran toward him. “Don’t you feel that?” she asked urgently, her eyes a bit wild.

That’s when it hit him. Dark waves of youki permeated the air, causing his heart to momentarily stop before pounding powerfully against his ribcage. The sky hastily darkened above them.

Jaken appeared at the doorway of the castle. “Get in here, you two!” he called, waving his arms to catch their attention.

The pair didn’t move, their attention on Koga, who was leaning out the window of Sesshoumaru’s office in the west tower. “What the fuck is going on?” he said, watching the dark clouds roll in with merciless force. Seconds later, his head disappeared back inside the building, his answer apparently found.

A shadow loomed over Rin and Shippo, growing larger and larger with each passing moment.

“Run for it, you two!” Jaken screamed, scurrying for safety.

Slowly, the two turned around, their eyes widening in horror as they saw what was heading for them…

Sesshoumaru closed his eyes, willing his head to stop pounding. He was growing more and more irritated by the second. “Woman, you’re testing my patience,” he grunted.

The lack of response did nothing to help his mood.

He stood in the back parlor of Snegura’s home, his back to the fire burning brightly in the pit, yet also facing away from the woman herself. She sat with apparent calm and grace by the fire, continuing her handiwork as if unaware of the serious danger she was casting for her life.

He had been here for the last week, attempting to discern Ryûtatsu’s whereabouts in order to fulfill his part of their marital bargain. After discovering she was indeed projecting a barrier around her castle, he had demanded that she drop it so that he may go in search of their mutual enemy.

She did ask he’d asked…in part. He was free to move about her holdings, but the weather was as fierce as ever, especially as he neared the borders of her territory. That was maddening enough; what was worse, however, was that there was absolutely no sign of the dragon taiyoukai.

He’d gone to every point of her little kingdom, extending some force of his youki out beyond even that, and he never once found so much as a trace of Ryûtatsu. A week he’d searched; a week he’d wasted.

He was not happy.

To make matters even worse, he knew her powers were growing weak from constant, uninterrupted use. Even now, sitting quietly in her chair with her sewing, he could sense her youki struggling. He knew she was concentrating far harder on keeping the weather up and going fifty miles away, than on whatever she was working on in her lap; she’d pricked her fingers several times.

Something about the whole situation sat uneasily with him.

He turned to face her, studying her for a moment. Her head was bowed in seeming deference, her eyes focused on her sewing. Some length of cloth spilled out of her lap, covering the bottom half of her like a thin blanket. She worked steadily, fingers weaving in and out of the material.

“Stop it,” he commanded after a moment.

She looked up at him. “Excuse me?” she asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise.

“Stop the weather. You’re making yourself weak for no reason,” he replied.

She stared at him, her lips parting slightly. Her hands trembled as she clutched the material in her lap. “I am not weak,” she asserted.

Sesshoumaru smirked. “I’ve traveled the length and breadth of your lands. Ryûtatsu isn’t anywhere near here. He’s already escaped whatever prison you thought you had built.”

Snegura’s heart seized at his words. No, that can’t be true, she thought. She worked to keep her worry from showing. Taking a deep breath, she resumed her work, letting her gaze slide down to her hands once again.

She could feel the frustration radiating from him, but she did not give him the satisfaction of cowering under his scrutiny. Instead, she concentrated on this project: she was creating a special cloak for him, her wedding gift to him, which she had begun shortly after agreeing to their alliance. Once finished, it would be a magnificent piece, and it would protect him from any and all naturally-developed harm.

One day, the combination of her innate and inherited powers would explode, creating a natural disaster the likes of which the world had not seen in millennia.

This was her way of protecting him, as was his due as her mate.

She knew he had detected her weakening youki, but felt no need to address the issue. Yes, part of it was because she was directing such heavy weather, so far away, for such a long period of time. But there was something else in it, too, something she couldn’t yet admit, even to herself.

It was the reason her parents had died so young, why she had been the only heir to her grandfather’s power and wealth.

No one else had been strong enough to resist the temptation. No one else had protected their heart so fiercely from invasion, from unwanted feelings and desires.

She knew if she ever fell so helplessly in love – as her parents had – or if she ever completely allowed herself to feel compassion, sympathy, empathy…

…she would melt. Her life would be swept away, like so many snowflakes in the wind. The global taiyoukai balance of power would be permanently disrupted, casting her holdings into total chaos.

No. For the good of her lands, her people, herself, she had to keep ever-close guard of her heart and soul. If that meant having this magnificent, powerful, beautiful creature angry at her, she could – and would – stand up to his scrutiny without waver.

The tension grew with each passing, silent moment, but Snegura forged on. She would allow his anger, but she would not provoke it unnecessarily.

There was a knock on the door. Her maid entered and curtsied. “A message has arrived for you, my lord,” she informed them.

Sesshoumaru nodded, leaving the room without so much as a parting glance to Snegura.

He followed the maid down the hall to the grand entrance, where a carrier crow sat on the floor, its eyes following all of the movement around it. He stared down at the bird, trying to discern if this was the message, or merely the vessel for the messenger.

“My lord!” Myoga called, jumping up from the crow’s back and landing on Sesshoumaru’s arm. He hastened up to his shoulder, settling himself on the metal of his armor.

“What it is, Myoga?” Sesshoumaru demanded, still eyeing the bird.

“Rin is in trouble!” he said breathlessly. “The House of the Moon is under attack!”

Sesshoumaru held himself very still as this information soaked in. “By whom?” he finally muttered, his hands clenching into fists.

Myoga swallowed, closing his eyes and coiling back in anticipation of sudden movement. “Ryûtatsu,” came the choked response.

The flea didn’t have time to even think about falling before he was already flat on the ground, mere inches from the crow’s beak. He felt Sesshoumaru’s thunderous footsteps echoing down the hall, and heard the door slam back against the wall.

“What have you done?” Sesshoumaru raged, glaring absolute ice across the room at Snegura.

“What are you talking about?” she replied, returning his gaze with equal force.

“Why did you let that bastard escape?” he said, moving across the room in a flash. He gripped her arm, shoving her hard against the chair.

She held her ground under his intense anger. “I’ve done nothing wrong,” she said through clenched teeth. “I’ve protected what is mine! You said so yourself, he has not crossed the lands!”

His grip tightened on her wrist, and she felt a sickening ring of fire bloom under his claws. One glance would tell her that he was burning her with his poison, but she didn’t dare shift her attention away from his.

“You selfish bitch,” Sesshoumaru snarled. “If I find out you are in league with him, there will be hell to pay. If anything has happened to my holdings while I’ve been away – you will pay!”

He was gone as fast as he had arrived; only then did she dare to drag in a ragged breath. She looked down at the charred flesh of her arm, ignoring the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her fingers curled into the material on her lap. I could withstand anger, frustration, absolute hatred, she thought as she watched the wound burn, then heal. But this – this I will not stand for.

“I would never be an ally of one who killed my grandfather,” she vowed. “You are wrong about this, Sesshoumaru. I will prove it to you, to my dying breath if necessary.”