InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Past, Present, and Future ❯ Demon's Nightmare ( Chapter 10 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: SilentTaiyoukai 
Shizuka sees her father's face. Sesshoumaru leaves again, but with purpose this time.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Drama | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 01.04.2010 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.2K | Visits: 334 | Status: Work In Progress
Shizuka sees her father's face. Sesshoumaru leaves again, but with purpose this time.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Drama | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 01.04.2010 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.2K | Visits: 334 | Status: Work In Progress
The last she remembered, she was being lifted off the ground by the serpent mononoke. She could remember Tetsusaiga falling through her fingers and transforming into its rusted guise. It was a blur of movement after that, and the painful tension of air being forced from her lungs. Then there was the merciful darkness that swallowed her whole.
She didn’t know where she was now. It looked like her village, but somehow it wasn’t the same. There were far less huts than there should have been, and the line of trees was different, thicker. It was as though she had stepped back in time a few years, when the village wasn’t quite so populated. But that wasn’t the only strange thing. Mist slithered across the ground, and it was difficult to tell whether it was night or day. It was light and dark, like just before dusk without the glare of the setting sun. No sun, no moon, no villagers. It was as though everyone had abandoned their homes. Everything was silent, and everything was strangely still. Not even the wind dared to blow through there. The air hung stagnant around the village.
“What the hell is going on?” she asked herself.
“Oi, Shizuka!”
The voice startled her. She hadn’t heard anyone approaching, and the strange nature of the air carried no scent.
“Huh?” she grumbled and turned around to face the edge of the forest.
One tree stood out from the rest, the big old tree with talismans hanging around its fat trunk. The scorch mark Bakusaiga left behind as it drove Inuyasha’s body against the tree was still there. To Shizuka’s horror, the tree was bleeding from that very mark.
Beyond the bleeding tree on which her father died was the Goshinboku, and just beyond the God Tree was her father’s grave. She had never known her father, and though her mother and uncle visited his resting place every now and then, Shizuka had never joined them. She had no attachment to him, and had never even seen his face.
Even so, she knew him when she saw him.
He stepped out from the trees with his arms crossed inside his sleeves. Tetsusaiga had somehow migrated to his hip.
“You’re just like me, kid,” he said.
Shizuka shook her head. There was no way this could be real. It had to be a dream, or perhaps…well, she didn’t want to think about it.
“You’ve been dead for thirteen years,” she said to him, and he smiled crookedly.
“Yeah,” he said, then hung his head and laughed.
Shizuka watched as ebony strands slowly crept into her father’s hair. She thought he was turning human, but his ears stayed atop his head and his claws remained. Black continued to consume white, and when he lifted his head he wasn’t himself anymore. Shizuka was left looking into her own eyes. She saw herself in her dead father’s clothing, the scarlet clothes he had been buried in.
This strange twin of hers smirked evilly and cocked an eyebrow.
“And that’s just about how long you’ve been alive, you little bitch,” her twin said. Shizuka felt like her head was going to explode.
“What the fuck is goin’ on? Where the hell am I?” she yelled, pointing a clawed finger at her double. “And who the flyin’ fuck are you?”
Her double scoffed. “What? I don’t look familiar? I’m just a little demon that killed her own mother. Not to mention her best friend,” she said, and Shizuka decided she had enough.
“Liar!” Shizuka yelled.
“I wouldn’t lie to myself,” her twin said, and Shizuka’s face fell.
She had fallen into the darkness her uncle had warned her about. She couldn’t remember anything after the pressure of the snake squeezing the life out of her. She couldn’t say for certain that what her double said was a lie. A fully demon soul in a mostly human body was a dangerous thing. Perhaps it was a mercy that she couldn’t remember what had happened. Of course, an absence of memory wouldn’t make the pain any less if she woke up to find she had murdered her mother and Shippo. If she woke up at all, and this wasn’t some sort of personal hell.
With a snarl, her double lunged at her. Her double’s eyes bled a violent red, the pupils small and blue. Her fangs grew long over lips. Shizuka stood her ground and readied herself to fight. When Shizuka bared her claws, she realized they were nothing more than blunt human nails. She traced one of those blunt nails over the cup of her human ear.
Instead of a complete medium between the demon and human worlds, she was split into the worst of each.
Her demonic double grew transparent as she charged forward, and instead of the sharp sting of claws, Shizuka felt strangely hollow as her double passed clean through her. She felt her legs lock and her eyes close and roll back in her head. The world faded away into darkness. She felt herself falling, though she never hit the ground. She had to open to her eyes. It was the only way to unlock her limbs, and her demon self was still behind her, still watching, readying to charge at her again…
Shizuka ripped open her eyes and found a roof over her head.
She sat up quickly and clutched at her chest. Her heart was beating much too fast, and it hurt…Everything hurt. Her bones ached, her head swam in a terrible fog, and even moving her eyes from the ceiling to the sleeping boy at her side made her headache infinitely worse. She held her hands up to her face and was pleased to find them tipped in white claws.
She was alive, whole. And so was he. Shizuka felt her throat tighten, and Shippo screamed himself awake when she threw her arms around his neck.
“Shippo!” she yelled and cried, and the kitsune was too shocked to move for a few moments.
“Shizuka…” he said in near disbelief, and Shizuka began to cry harder when he closed his arms around her. “You’re okay!”
“Ye--ye-ahh…” Shizuka said between sobs, and Shippo patted her back in comfort.
Neither of them noticed the demon watching them from the doorway.
Kagome awoke to a gentle voice in her ear and a hand lightly shaking her shoulder.
“Kagome,” Sesshoumaru whispered, and she sat up so quickly that her head nearly collided with his chin.
“Is she awake?” Kagome asked, and Sesshoumaru nodded.
Kagome threw off the covers and nearly ran into Shizuka’s room. She fell on her knees before the two children, who were still locked in each other’s arms.
“Shizuka?” she said tentatively, and Shizuka slowly lifted her head from Shippo’s shoulder.
Shizuka’s eyes immediately went to the swollen cut on her mother’s cheek, then to the scratches that crept out from the shoulder of her yukata. She could feel her eyes brimming again, and she rushed to hug her mother before they overflowed. Kagome crushed her daughter to her and couldn’t keep herself from tearing up again. She barely noticed when Shizuka gave a pained groan.
“Ma, my bones hurt,” Shizuka whined.
“Oh,” Kagome said and loosened her grip on her daughter. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Ma, did I-?” she began, but couldn’t finish. Kagome kissed her daughter’s forehead.
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”
“I’m sorr--”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Kagome said, and Shizuka smiled weakly. That sure as hell didn’t feel like the truth.
“Just rest, hun. Are you hungry?”
“No,” Shizuka said, and as soon as she said it her stomach began a loud grumbling. “Maybe a little.”
“Shizuka,” Sesshoumaru said sternly, and Shizuka quickly met his gaze. “You must not let this happen again. You must not separate from Tetsusaiga in battle.”
“It won’t happen again,” Shizuka said, and Sesshoumaru nodded her way before following Kagome out of the room.
Shippo handed Tetsusaiga back to her, and she placed it back at her hip. The two sat amongst an awkward silence for a few moments. Shizuka looked at him from the corner of her eye. She hadn’t noticed the cut across his forehead until now.
“Sorry I almost killed you,” she said.
Shippo scoffed and dismissed her with a slight wave of his hand. “You didn’t even scratch me.”
“Yeah, that’s why you got a cut on your head,” she said.
“That’s nothing,” he said. Shizuka cocked an eyebrow at him, then reached out and ran a claw over his scab. Shippo hissed and leaned away from her. “Oww.”
Shizuka laughed hollowly. There was more silence.
“Hey Shizuka?” Shippo asked finally.
“Yeah?”
“What were you dreaming about?”
“Keh, nothing,” Shizuka said. She laid down on her side and rolled over to stare at the wall. It was awhile before she spoke again. “You really wanna know?”
“Yeah,” he said, and Shizuka rolled over to face him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ev en though she claimed to be only a tiny bit hungry, Shizuka shoveled a whole bowl of rice into her mouth like she hadn’t eaten in years. Shippo’s manners weren’t much better. As Kagome worked on getting them second helpings, Sesshoumaru’s shadow fell over her.
“I will be back,” he said, and Kagome whirled around to face him.
“Where are you going?” she asked, catching him just as he was pulling back the bamboo curtain.
“Out, for a moment,” he said, and Kagome’s face fell.
The stirrer she had been mixing the rice with nearly fell from her fingers. Only a moment sounded like an eternity to her. She had almost lost him and her daughter the day before. He couldn’t leave, not even for another day.
He went to her then, taking the utensils and bowl from her hands and laying them aside. He brushed away her bangs and laid his forehead against hers.
“Rin’s garden has medicinal herbs, no?” he asked, and Kagome sighed.
“Yeah. There would be something there to help Shizuka,” she said. “I’m so frazzled I forgot.”
“Stay with them,” he said, and kissed her gently. “I will return soon.”
“Make sure Kirara’s doing okay,” Kagome said with a smile as he left.
It was another bowl and a half of rice later that he returned. By then, both Shizuka and Shippo had drifted back to sleep. Kagome found herself quite amused at the way Shippo had fallen asleep sitting up again, this time with Shizuka leaning heavyily on his shoulder. Kagome was sitting by the fire pit when Sesshoumaru came home, a large bundle of herbs in one hand. To her surprise, that wasn’t all he had brought home.
“What’s that?” Kagome asked as he hung the bow up the hooks that Tetsusaiga had once rested on. He slung the quiver of arrows off his back and hung them there as well.
“Your weapons,” he said, and Kagome shot him a strange glance.
“My weapons?”
“You are an archer, are you not?” he asked, and handed the herbs to her.
“I used to be,” Kagome said. She had barely touched a bow since she had been back in this era, and hadn’t owned one of her own since she was only a girl hunting the Jewel Shards. She doubted whether or not she could even find the strength to pull the string back anymore. “I’m way out of practice. Why are you giving them to me anyway?”
“For another day,” he said cryptically, and Kagome decided to work on preparing the herbs instead of prodding him about what he was talking about. She would find out soon enough.
She didn’t know where she was now. It looked like her village, but somehow it wasn’t the same. There were far less huts than there should have been, and the line of trees was different, thicker. It was as though she had stepped back in time a few years, when the village wasn’t quite so populated. But that wasn’t the only strange thing. Mist slithered across the ground, and it was difficult to tell whether it was night or day. It was light and dark, like just before dusk without the glare of the setting sun. No sun, no moon, no villagers. It was as though everyone had abandoned their homes. Everything was silent, and everything was strangely still. Not even the wind dared to blow through there. The air hung stagnant around the village.
“What the hell is going on?” she asked herself.
“Oi, Shizuka!”
The voice startled her. She hadn’t heard anyone approaching, and the strange nature of the air carried no scent.
“Huh?” she grumbled and turned around to face the edge of the forest.
One tree stood out from the rest, the big old tree with talismans hanging around its fat trunk. The scorch mark Bakusaiga left behind as it drove Inuyasha’s body against the tree was still there. To Shizuka’s horror, the tree was bleeding from that very mark.
Beyond the bleeding tree on which her father died was the Goshinboku, and just beyond the God Tree was her father’s grave. She had never known her father, and though her mother and uncle visited his resting place every now and then, Shizuka had never joined them. She had no attachment to him, and had never even seen his face.
Even so, she knew him when she saw him.
He stepped out from the trees with his arms crossed inside his sleeves. Tetsusaiga had somehow migrated to his hip.
“You’re just like me, kid,” he said.
Shizuka shook her head. There was no way this could be real. It had to be a dream, or perhaps…well, she didn’t want to think about it.
“You’ve been dead for thirteen years,” she said to him, and he smiled crookedly.
“Yeah,” he said, then hung his head and laughed.
Shizuka watched as ebony strands slowly crept into her father’s hair. She thought he was turning human, but his ears stayed atop his head and his claws remained. Black continued to consume white, and when he lifted his head he wasn’t himself anymore. Shizuka was left looking into her own eyes. She saw herself in her dead father’s clothing, the scarlet clothes he had been buried in.
This strange twin of hers smirked evilly and cocked an eyebrow.
“And that’s just about how long you’ve been alive, you little bitch,” her twin said. Shizuka felt like her head was going to explode.
“What the fuck is goin’ on? Where the hell am I?” she yelled, pointing a clawed finger at her double. “And who the flyin’ fuck are you?”
Her double scoffed. “What? I don’t look familiar? I’m just a little demon that killed her own mother. Not to mention her best friend,” she said, and Shizuka decided she had enough.
“Liar!” Shizuka yelled.
“I wouldn’t lie to myself,” her twin said, and Shizuka’s face fell.
She had fallen into the darkness her uncle had warned her about. She couldn’t remember anything after the pressure of the snake squeezing the life out of her. She couldn’t say for certain that what her double said was a lie. A fully demon soul in a mostly human body was a dangerous thing. Perhaps it was a mercy that she couldn’t remember what had happened. Of course, an absence of memory wouldn’t make the pain any less if she woke up to find she had murdered her mother and Shippo. If she woke up at all, and this wasn’t some sort of personal hell.
With a snarl, her double lunged at her. Her double’s eyes bled a violent red, the pupils small and blue. Her fangs grew long over lips. Shizuka stood her ground and readied herself to fight. When Shizuka bared her claws, she realized they were nothing more than blunt human nails. She traced one of those blunt nails over the cup of her human ear.
Instead of a complete medium between the demon and human worlds, she was split into the worst of each.
Her demonic double grew transparent as she charged forward, and instead of the sharp sting of claws, Shizuka felt strangely hollow as her double passed clean through her. She felt her legs lock and her eyes close and roll back in her head. The world faded away into darkness. She felt herself falling, though she never hit the ground. She had to open to her eyes. It was the only way to unlock her limbs, and her demon self was still behind her, still watching, readying to charge at her again…
Shizuka ripped open her eyes and found a roof over her head.
She sat up quickly and clutched at her chest. Her heart was beating much too fast, and it hurt…Everything hurt. Her bones ached, her head swam in a terrible fog, and even moving her eyes from the ceiling to the sleeping boy at her side made her headache infinitely worse. She held her hands up to her face and was pleased to find them tipped in white claws.
She was alive, whole. And so was he. Shizuka felt her throat tighten, and Shippo screamed himself awake when she threw her arms around his neck.
“Shippo!” she yelled and cried, and the kitsune was too shocked to move for a few moments.
“Shizuka…” he said in near disbelief, and Shizuka began to cry harder when he closed his arms around her. “You’re okay!”
“Ye--ye-ahh…” Shizuka said between sobs, and Shippo patted her back in comfort.
Neither of them noticed the demon watching them from the doorway.
Kagome awoke to a gentle voice in her ear and a hand lightly shaking her shoulder.
“Kagome,” Sesshoumaru whispered, and she sat up so quickly that her head nearly collided with his chin.
“Is she awake?” Kagome asked, and Sesshoumaru nodded.
Kagome threw off the covers and nearly ran into Shizuka’s room. She fell on her knees before the two children, who were still locked in each other’s arms.
“Shizuka?” she said tentatively, and Shizuka slowly lifted her head from Shippo’s shoulder.
Shizuka’s eyes immediately went to the swollen cut on her mother’s cheek, then to the scratches that crept out from the shoulder of her yukata. She could feel her eyes brimming again, and she rushed to hug her mother before they overflowed. Kagome crushed her daughter to her and couldn’t keep herself from tearing up again. She barely noticed when Shizuka gave a pained groan.
“Ma, my bones hurt,” Shizuka whined.
“Oh,” Kagome said and loosened her grip on her daughter. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Ma, did I-?” she began, but couldn’t finish. Kagome kissed her daughter’s forehead.
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”
“I’m sorr--”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Kagome said, and Shizuka smiled weakly. That sure as hell didn’t feel like the truth.
“Just rest, hun. Are you hungry?”
“No,” Shizuka said, and as soon as she said it her stomach began a loud grumbling. “Maybe a little.”
“Shizuka,” Sesshoumaru said sternly, and Shizuka quickly met his gaze. “You must not let this happen again. You must not separate from Tetsusaiga in battle.”
“It won’t happen again,” Shizuka said, and Sesshoumaru nodded her way before following Kagome out of the room.
Shippo handed Tetsusaiga back to her, and she placed it back at her hip. The two sat amongst an awkward silence for a few moments. Shizuka looked at him from the corner of her eye. She hadn’t noticed the cut across his forehead until now.
“Sorry I almost killed you,” she said.
Shippo scoffed and dismissed her with a slight wave of his hand. “You didn’t even scratch me.”
“Yeah, that’s why you got a cut on your head,” she said.
“That’s nothing,” he said. Shizuka cocked an eyebrow at him, then reached out and ran a claw over his scab. Shippo hissed and leaned away from her. “Oww.”
Shizuka laughed hollowly. There was more silence.
“Hey Shizuka?” Shippo asked finally.
“Yeah?”
“What were you dreaming about?”
“Keh, nothing,” Shizuka said. She laid down on her side and rolled over to stare at the wall. It was awhile before she spoke again. “You really wanna know?”
“Yeah,” he said, and Shizuka rolled over to face him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ev en though she claimed to be only a tiny bit hungry, Shizuka shoveled a whole bowl of rice into her mouth like she hadn’t eaten in years. Shippo’s manners weren’t much better. As Kagome worked on getting them second helpings, Sesshoumaru’s shadow fell over her.
“I will be back,” he said, and Kagome whirled around to face him.
“Where are you going?” she asked, catching him just as he was pulling back the bamboo curtain.
“Out, for a moment,” he said, and Kagome’s face fell.
The stirrer she had been mixing the rice with nearly fell from her fingers. Only a moment sounded like an eternity to her. She had almost lost him and her daughter the day before. He couldn’t leave, not even for another day.
He went to her then, taking the utensils and bowl from her hands and laying them aside. He brushed away her bangs and laid his forehead against hers.
“Rin’s garden has medicinal herbs, no?” he asked, and Kagome sighed.
“Yeah. There would be something there to help Shizuka,” she said. “I’m so frazzled I forgot.”
“Stay with them,” he said, and kissed her gently. “I will return soon.”
“Make sure Kirara’s doing okay,” Kagome said with a smile as he left.
It was another bowl and a half of rice later that he returned. By then, both Shizuka and Shippo had drifted back to sleep. Kagome found herself quite amused at the way Shippo had fallen asleep sitting up again, this time with Shizuka leaning heavyily on his shoulder. Kagome was sitting by the fire pit when Sesshoumaru came home, a large bundle of herbs in one hand. To her surprise, that wasn’t all he had brought home.
“What’s that?” Kagome asked as he hung the bow up the hooks that Tetsusaiga had once rested on. He slung the quiver of arrows off his back and hung them there as well.
“Your weapons,” he said, and Kagome shot him a strange glance.
“My weapons?”
“You are an archer, are you not?” he asked, and handed the herbs to her.
“I used to be,” Kagome said. She had barely touched a bow since she had been back in this era, and hadn’t owned one of her own since she was only a girl hunting the Jewel Shards. She doubted whether or not she could even find the strength to pull the string back anymore. “I’m way out of practice. Why are you giving them to me anyway?”
“For another day,” he said cryptically, and Kagome decided to work on preparing the herbs instead of prodding him about what he was talking about. She would find out soon enough.