InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Serendipity ❯ I will not succumb! ( Chapter 1 )

Ok! I've finally found time to write more of the story, thank you all who reviewed the Prologue, nice to know it didn't suck >.< (My English teacher is extremely harsh, she literally analyze and diss our essays to pieces T___T doesn't do much for a girl's confidence in her writing skills u__u) Replies to reviews will be at the end of the chapter ^^

Note: For some reason the italics is screwing up here on mediaminer, could someone kindly tell why what is that? It might get confusing without the correct italics >.< (Why is some working but some is not?) For the good copy please visit http://www.fanfiction.net/~kurasama for the copy with the italics on it ... when ff.net actually decides to show the chapter >.< (it still says there's only chapter one, even though I uploaded chapter two. Must the sites hate me? T___T) Or you can visit: http://kagsess.forsaken-faith.org/fanficread.php?fid=210&cid=1 where I'm pretty sure it'll be fine.

Rating: Ahem! The rating has now gone up no PG-13 >.< (I think that's high enough ... for now...) Nothing explicit happening, but there's implied rape, implied brutal slaughter, and for some language.

Italics - dreams / flashback
"Italics" - thoughts [blahblah] - author notes or translations (for if I write whole sentences in Japanese ... Sometimes I just think it's more emotional that way? >.<)

Terms to know (only the new ones, refer back to prologue for others):
Okaasan - mother
mama - familiar, or more childish way to call mother
Ji-chan - familiar way to call grandfather
Katana - Japanese sword
hanashite - Let go

Serendipity
~ sometimes blessings are disguised in the most unexpected ways ...

Chapter 1
I will not succumb!

Fire ... fiery hungry flames licking at everything, burning ....

Burning all she knew, all she had, all she loved in her short 10 years of life into a crisp ...

"...Souta! Okaasan! Ji-chan!..."

"Souta! Okaasan! Ji-chan!" Kagome screamed desperately, despair filling her soul, fear tearing at her heart.

"Where are you!!!" she screamed from the broken pieces of her heart, of her soul, of her life.

"...no...don't leave me...Noo!!"

"Noo!! Don't leave me, don't!! Where are you??! Okaasan!!" She frantically searched the blazing ruins of her beloved village, but everywhere, everything she could see was in flames, and all she could hear was the angry roaring of the hellish inferno and the anguished moans and desperate screams of the other villagers.

Kagome crawled to the charred remains of her humble little shrine, which had been her warm, loving home for the past decade. Weakly pushing herself onto her knees, she looked around for her family. Her eyes widened at the still form of her grandfather sprawled on the wooden floor of the shrine, the shrine he loved so much and fought to his death to defend.

"Ji-chan...? Ji-chan!!" Kagome frantically rushed to his side, awkwardly crawling across the ruined room. She shook him, her innocent mind unable to comprehend why her dear grandfather would not answer her. She stared dumbly at the katana protruding out of her grandfather's body where his heart would be, and the pool of blood she is currently sitting in.

Horrified, even if she did not truly understand what was happening, she backed away slowly, tripping over her own blood-soaked kimono in her blinding fear. She didn't even notice when her shoulder banged against one of the upturned table's wooden leg painfully, or when her hands were cut by the broken pieces of the vase on the floor. All she was aware of was the stillness of her grandfather, reminding her so much of when her father left and never came back; when he became so still nothing she did could arouse him; when he stayed unresponsive while she screamed her heart out and her throat raw. Then they took him away in that hateful wooden box they called a coffin, and she never saw him again.

Suddenly, Kagome heard a familiar voice screaming desperately. Spinning around to face the voice, Kagome's eyes impossibly widened even more at the sight of her mother being pinned down by bandits and her baby brother Souta being torn out of her mother's arms and thrown aside in the shrine's yard.

"...Okaasan!! Let my mother go! Okaasan o hanashite..."

"Okaasan!! Watashi no okaasan o hanashite!! Onegaishimasu!!" [Mother!! Let my mother go!! Please, I beg you!!]

Kagome shot up, not feeling the pain in her petite body as she ran to her mother. She tried to batter away the man on her mother, but he just laughed and ignored her pitiful attempts. The other two bandits just leered and looked on, their eyes darkening with lust. Finally, Kagome could not stand the brute tearing the remains of her mother's tattered kimono off; she placed her little hands on his shoulder and bit down viciously. The foul taste of his blood and sweat assaulted her delicate tongue, before she could even respond in any way she was flung across the yard. She hit the ground hard, scrapping her tender skin against the rough ground.

"...mama..." she whispered brokenly, her whole frame shaking uncontrollably as her body was wreaked with a fit of painful coughing. Pushing herself up slightly, she turned to where her mother was.

"No! Kagome, don't look! Run away, Kagome, ru-" her mother's cries were cut off abruptly as the man slapped her hard across her face, and Kagome could see blood dribbling from the side of her mother's lips.

Kagome was frozen, she could only stare at the scene of the man ramming in and out of her mother in grotesque fascination, the way one would stare at a mutilated corpse: disgusted, terrified, yet unable to turn away. Her young mind did not know what he was doing, but she knew it was bad and it was hurting her mother. For the first time in her loving heart, she felt an ugly dark streak of hate.

She looked back to her grandfather's body, her vision zooming in on the protruding katana. A broken shriek from her mother caused her to jolt nauseatingly, and she whipped her head back to her mother. She thought she would thrown up, as she saw the man on her mother roll off with a content look and moved aside as one of the other two loosened his pants and grabbed her mother's long legs. Her mother shrieked again as he thrust into her brutally.

Her mind made up, she moved silently to his grandfather's side. Her hands closed firmly and purposely around the hilt. With a sickening sound, she yanked the katana free from it's bloody sheath. She looked hatefully at the men causing her mother pain; they were too intently watching her mother to notice her movements. She remembered during her archery lessons from her Ji-chan that shooting the head, neck, or heart was the most effective way to quickly kill someone. Of course, she was a miko in training and her job was only to kill evil youkai, but at that moment, she understood that evil is evil, no matter what form it may take.

Holding the blade confidently, she walked to the first man to hurt her mother. He was about two feet away from the others, eyes half closed in a sort of dazed look, watching absently as the other man hurt her mother. She looked at his exposed neck, then lifted her katana. The man seemed to finally notice her, as he turned towards the glint of the steel blade. His eyes widened, pure utter fear flitted across his face for a moment before Kagome severed his head in one smooth, determined stroke. His strangled cry efficiently cut off. Kagome smiled, glad that she was able to put an end to the reason of her mother's hurt.

The other two did not notice what had transpired only two feet away from them at all, so focused they were on hurting her mother. Kagome frowned, she felt the streak of hate in her heart growing, consuming her whole body in a hideous black haze. It was almost tangible, like a dark cloud around her. She padded silently behind the one standing there, watching her mother. Jerking her hands up, she thrust with all the strength of a desperate 10-year-old little girl, plunging the hard steel into the back of the monster in front of her, where she knew his heart would be. The man shuddered, grabbing the end of the blade protruding from his heart, staring at it in disbelief. His body convulsed as he fall, turning around to pin her with a scathing look of hatred.

Letting go of the blade, Kagome felt slightly uneasy at the look in his eyes, and the blood now scattered on her face and arms. However, any thoughts she might have had disappeared as a hand roughly grabbed her by her neck and hauled her abruptly forward to stare into the eyes of the man on her mother.

"You!" he spat out. "How dare you!" he shrieked in rage as he proceeded to strangle her.

"No! Let my daughter go!" her mother cried desperately. The man loosened his hold on Kagome slightly, only to backhand her mother.

"Shut up, whore!" he roared as he reached for the katana at his side and slashed across her mother's throat.

Kagome went rigid in shock, as her beloved mother's blood splattered onto them. For a moment, everything faded into the background. All she saw was her mother's blood, a dark red haze clouding over her mind.

"MAMA!!!" Kagome screamed in anguish.

"MAMA!!!" Kagome jolted awake, staring unseeingly at the blank gray wall in front of her. She sat like this for a while, caught up in the pain of the past.

"Hey, you there! What are you thinking, screaming like that in the middle of the night! Some of us are trying to sleep you know!" came the annoyed shout from the slave in the cell beside hers.

Kagome was jolted out of her daze, and she sheepishly apologized. A snort was all she got in response as she heard whoever it was shift and go back to sleep. Kagome sat on the cold floor of the dank cell, shakily wiping off the tears on her face, shivering slightly from the reoccurring nightmare. She remembered passing out after witnessing her mother's slaughter, and when she woke up it was a week later in the possession of a group of slave traders. From what she gathered, the slave-traders happened upon the ruins of the village by chance, and found her unconscious body. She was the only survivor.

However, what she did not understand was why they said the entire village was obliterated in a shallow, but large circular crater, with not even as a single blade of grass on it. There was no other bodies, though there were a lot of blood stains on the ground. They found her lying in the middle of the crater, unharmed though bloody. She had remained unconscious for a week after they took her in. The slave-traders took care of her well, though that was only because they did not want to waste such a good catch as a young, pretty little girl slave. She would fetch a good price, thus she was not to be damaged in any way before she could be trained and sold.

Even now, she still did not know what happened before she lost consciousness. She had refused to eat or talk during the first week of her capture after she woke up. That particular group of slave traders were not cruel, they did not treat her overly badly. She was treated decently, for a slave. Mainly she had been just locked up in a room the size of a oversized closet while she stayed unresponsive and curled into a tight ball.

The necklace from her mother as her tenth birthday present was still intact and around her neck through the ordeal, and she drew comfort from the last bit of her mother, of her family that she had left. It was a simple, but pretty blue gem on a plain silver chain. She knew her mother must have spent a lot on it, far more than she should have, for her family was poor even if they were able to get along. However, her mother only smiled and said that her baby was worth more than anything in the world, and told her that as long as the necklace was with her, she would watch over her always with her love. [A/N: I know there's too much "her" in the sentence, hope it's not too confusing ^^;;]

"Do not wallow in your misery. Even if the world is against you, and everything seemed bleak and hopeless, believe in yourself and a better tomorrow. Have faith in life, Kagome, always have faith in life. Smile at your fears, and eventually, you will learn to overcome anything and everything. Believe in yourself, the way I believe in you." Her mother's words had resounded in her clouded mind, clearing away the pain and despair. Her mother had said this to her, time and again, when she was heartbroken over her father's sudden death. Her mother had wanted her to always have hope, and always believe in life.

For 10 days Kagome had curled in the closet-room, ignoring everything and everyone. However, she had slowly broken out of the prison of her anguished mind. On the 11th day, her eyes had cleared and she actually managed to see past her despair.

"Mother wanted me to believe in myself, believe in life, believe in a better tomorrow. She would have wanted me to keep living, no matter what happened." Kagome had made her decision then: she would live her life to the fullest, not matter what life may bring, and what cruel jokes fate might choose to play on her. She would not disobey her mother, and make her sad even if she was not with her anymore.

Kagome sighed, shifting slightly on the uncomfortable ground. It had been 5 years since she became a slave. 5 years since she lost her loving shelter from the harsh realities of this world. At first the slave-traders has tried to train her into a bed slave because of her pretty face; she would fetch an even higher price because she would be an untouched, young, and pretty bed slave. However, when they came up close and personal with her fiery temper and rather sharp teeth, they had to rethink their decision. They could not very well train her using whips or other forms of physical punishment, for fear of scarring her pretty skin. Bed slaves could not have any flaws in their physical appeal.

Thus, she was trained to be a house slave: sewing, cleaning, cooking, etc. She had been exceptionally good at what she did, especially cooking. In fact, she had been so good at being a house slave that the group of slave traders decided to keep her to clean their own den. Also, as she is now a house slave, she would fetch a higher price when she was older. The customers did not often want children as house slaves, many of them would rather have them in bed.

She had stayed with them for two years, until one day a visitor from another slave-trader group set their lustful eyes on her. Apparently, they had found her to be a beauty and would be wasted as a house slave. They bought her off the other group, and set about to train her to be a bed slave again. This time however, they had other means to torture her.

Kagome fingered the solid, dark iron bands around her neck, wrists and ankles, shuddering slightly at the memory of the pain they could cause. The second slave-trader group had been cruel and relentless in their training. The iron bands on her hold powerful spells of torture; it was worse than anything she could imagine, red hot spikes of pure agony tearing at every cell of her being. This torture would leave no scars, and hurt more than any physical pain one could possibly deal. This pain would tear at her immediately at any open disobedience, or when her master say a word of command to punish her.

She had been taught all the possible ways to pleasure someone, female or male. She was almost glad that a virgin would fetch a higher price, for it kept her from being violated during her trainings. It had taken almost a year to train her into the perfect bed slave, for she had been extremely difficult every step of the way. It had just caused her more pain, but she refused to be submissive, nor would she be broken. Even though she was forced to endure this shame, she was determined to survive whole, in both body and mind.

At first, the slave-traders had been worried that her fiery spirit might cause trouble. However, they reasoned that it might actually make her more valuable, since many of the customers were getting tired of dull broken dolls, or too submissive slaves. She would be something new, something of interest.

As soon as her trainings were done, word was sent out that they had the perfect fiery bed slave for auction. She had been made to strut to and fro in front of countless lustful lords. However, fate had been merciful that one time, she had not been bought by some ugly cruel lord to play with.

Kagome smiled slightly in her wistful reverie, thinking of the almost happy times she had spent with her first lord. She had been bought by a powerful human lord from the Southern lands, as a gift to his son as his 16-year-old birthday present. Young Lord Hojo had been horrified that his father had bought him a slave, and a bed slave at that. When she was sent to wait on him in his chambers that night, Hojo had been red as a tomato and stuttering uncontrollably. Kagome was immensely relieved that Hojo did not want her services at all, and gladly told him so. He had been a bit surprised at first, but understood when she explained how she came to be a slave. They became good friends immediately.

However, the good times did not last nearly as long as she had wished. Two years since she was bought into Hojo's household, their lands were attacked. As they had been near the borders of the Eastern and Southern lands, they were regularly subjected to raids from bandits from Naraku's domain. Normally, they had no trouble defending themselves as they were extremely powerful, but that time it had been a mostly youkai invasion.

A tear slid down Kagome's pale, already tear-streaked cheeks, her heart full of sorrow at being separated from the first and only true friend she had since the destruction of her village. The lord of the household escaped with Hojo, bringing along a handful of loyal guards and only a few close personal servants. Slaves were not worth the trouble, and no matter how Hojo begged his father, they abandoned her to fend for herself in the deserted castle along with the other slaves.

Most of the slaves did not bother to try to run for it, for they knew if they ran they probably would just be killed. Normally, invading forces did not kill the slaves, they much prefer taking the slaves for themselves; the slaves were considered property, just like the castle and land they were taking over. No point in destroying their own spoils.

That was how she ended up here in this dungeon cell along with the other slaves. She had purposely made herself dirty and disgusting with the soot and oil from the kitchen, purposely marred her beautiful face with dirt so that they would not noticed her and take her as a bad slave, the very fate she had been trying to escape from ever since she became a slave.

Kagome frowned at how dirty she was, she felt so extremely ... icky.

"Oh well" she thought, "at least it kept me safe". She did not doubt for a second that if she had not made herself so disgusting, she would have been taken to be some ugly youkai's fuck toy like the many of the other female slaves taken. Almost all the young females were taken, except for her and a few others who were also smart enough to try to disguise themselves.

Kagome drew her knees close to herself, and stared forlornly at her feet. She pondered on the meaning of the nightmare, "I haven't had that nightmare in such frequency in a while now ... could be it a sign of something bad to come?"

In the first few months after the destruction of her village, she had had this same nightmare every night without fail, always leaving her feeling terrified and wretched when she woke up. As time passed, the nightmare decreased in frequency, it came every other day, then a few times a week, slowly decreasing into once a week, until she only had it about once per month. She had also grown accustomed to having the nightmare, it no longer tore at her the way it used to. However, the few moments of pure terror she would always feel right before she woke up never diminished. It never failed to leave a cold, nauseating lump in her stomach.

" I wonder what happened to the village when I went unconscious, I wonder why was I alone left alive and unharmed in that crater." Kagome's thoughts once again drifted to why she was still alive. In a way, she felt guilty for being the sole survivor, and also slightly guilty for killing those 2 men. However, she did not regret it, they deserved it for hurting her mother.

"Mama...Ji-chan...Souta...I miss you so much..." Unable to control her tears, she silently cried herself into an uneasy, exhausted sleep. Just before the darkness of sleep blanketed her, her mind drifted to the inevitable question hanging heavily over her,

"I wonder, what will happen to me now?"

Whew! I managed to get another chapter done! This chapter is to mainly explain Kagome's past ... and how she became a slave. Hope it was not confusing toggling back and forth from her thinking about her past and her present state. (You can tell that she's sitting in the cell reminiscing ... right? ^^;;) Hope it was satisfying! ^____^

Again, please review ... to boost my confidence a bit? ^^;; It's nice to know someone's actually reading this, gives me incentive to write faster~

Review Responses [Fanfiction.net]:

CometsChaos & Aaringo: I'm glad you thought my story interesting!

Garnet-Crystals: Yes, it will end up being Kag/Sess eventually ... ^^

conscience fairy : I'm glad you think my writing is good ^___^ There will be hinted Naraku/Kagome, but in the end it will be Kag/Sess >.< I love Naraku/Kagome too, but this fic was meant to be Kag/Sess. I most probably will write another fic featuring Nar/Kag!

Again, thanks to all those who reviewed! Those that reviewed from A Single Spark I'm sorry, but it got sent to junk mail and I forgot to put it into inbox and got lost when the Junk folder cleared itself >.~Kura

Next Chapter: Kagome finds herself under a new master, who is very interested in her, and just might forcefully take her as a bed slave, what will she do?