InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Drabbles and Babbles ❯ Beginnings and Endings ( Chapter 21 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Her first memory was of being cold. She lay shivering and naked, a newborn demon without a name or memories. Her mind was a blank state of panic; her breathing hitched and strained as unused lungs expanded for the very first time. Her very first emotion was fear.

The first touch she felt was a burning hot hand on her skin, sliding slowly up her belly to cup her breast. She flinched and looked into the face of her father. His expression gave neither comfort nor welcome, only veiled satisfaction as he squeezed her tender flesh.

“I name you Kagura,” he said, “for you will dance the dance of death upon the wind at my command.”

Then he dressed her, slid a feather in her hair, jade earrings in her ears. He placed a fan into her hands with a smile. He would show her how to use it, how to be powerful.

“Father,” she whispered, worshipful.

He struck her hard across the face, knocking her to the floor. “I am not your father,” Naraku sneered. “I am your master, you are my slave. For all that you were created from my body, you are no child to me. I made you and I will unmake you if you disobey.”

Then he squeezed her heart to prove his point and for the first time, Kagura knew pain. Obedience was to be her life, but the wind could know no master. How could she be a slave when she was born of the wild northern wind itself? She was no child, no puppet. She was born to soar.

For the very first time, within hours of her birth, Kagura knew hatred. And longed to be free.




He held her close at night, knowing that it made her feel safe. Kagura allowed her body to relax, preparing to sleep. She had everything that she could wish for; she had freedom, she had control over her own life. After enduring Naraku's slavery for so long, the taste of liberty was doubly sweet.

His hand brushed her neck, lingering in her dark hair. She smiled, her cheek resting on his bare chest as they lay together, limbs intertwined from making love. His pulse was strong and vital against her skin as his fingers trailed over her cheek and began to toy with the jade beads in her ear.

"Did Naraku give you these?" he asked, in the lazy-soft voice he'd use after sex.

She smiled, plaiting his long silvery hair between her fingers. "Yes," she answered at last. "I never asked him why."

He snorted and she felt his amusement. "Since Naraku is dead is reasons don't matter very much. He doesn't own you anymore."

For that she was grateful, grateful to him for finally putting an end to her enslavement, her captivity. Kagura sat up, straddling his hips. Slowly, making sure his golden eyes caught her intent, she removed first one, then the other earring. The jade beads clattered noisily as she threw them against the wall.

"I want nothing from Naraku," she said, her voice dark and sultry. "Everything I want can only come from you. For now and until both of our days end."

His hands came up, caressing her hips, the smooth soft curves of her. Kagura smiled when she saw the passion rising in his gaze again. He wanted her. Unlike Naraku, she could give him whatever he wanted, freely, as it was now hers to give.

They moved together, a slow undulating dance. Before him, Kagura had never known pleasure. She'd known the delight of battle, wrapping her wind around the helpless bodies of her victims. Those days were over. Like her earrings, she had thrown away fan and feather, cruelty and violence. Yes, the wind still danced to her command, but she'd never again raise it in anger or in desire to do harm.

His hands moved her urgently against him, Kagura loved the feel of his touch. He made her warm, he made her complete. In his hands she was no longer a weapon, a pathetic incarnation of a greater evil. No, by his touch, in his bed, she became a woman, a demon still, but a woman with a heart to call her own.

They lay quietly again, breathless with the afterglow of completion. His kissed her and she felt his smile. "The first time I saw you," he whispered. "I thought you were beautiful."

"Is that all?" she asked, teasing him. "You also knew I was made from Naraku and despised me. I could see it in your face."

"I thought you were my enemy," he said simply, stroking her hair. "How could I know that Naraku was capable of making anything but evil? But you were beautiful. And dangerous."

"So were you," Kagura murmured. It had seemed impossible that they'd find happiness in each other, not after so much pain. If she had suffered at Naraku's hands, so had he.

"The human girl who was your companion," she asked, "do you miss her still?"

He nodded absently, still tracing the line of her back with a single sharp tipped claw. "Yes," he answered. "I miss her."

"And your brother?" she asked, greatly daring. He didn't like to speak of his brother who had died in that final, bloody battle with the monster. Her eyes were drawn to the sword he'd taken from his brother's corpse, hanging next to its mate, each made from a fang of the great demon that had sired both himself and the brother that he had hated and yet barely known.

He didn't answer her question.

"I have a gift for you," he whispered into her hair. She felt him reach for something, then carefully place it around her neck. "Wear this for me."

Her fingers felt the rough stones, her eyes widening as she recognized it. A necklace, one he never removed for any reason. And now he'd given it to her.

"She gave you this," Kagura said softly, deeply touched. It was all he had left of the girl he had loved. The girl who had died in his arms,with his name on her lips, breathing her last breath as a kiss.

"She's gone now," he said, the heavy sadness in his voice that even their joy of each other couldn't lift. "She is gone and we are here. Wear it for me."

And for the very first time, Kagura knew what it felt like to love and to be loved in return. And she knew that she'd found peace and her home in the hanyou's arms.