InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Torrent ❯ Unbreakable ( Chapter 22 )

~~Chapter 22~~

~Unbreakable~

 

Miroku sighed again, staring at the doorway with a longing expression. Sango ignored him and continued sewing. Kagome hid her grin as InuYasha rolled his eyes. Tajiko giggled as she reached for Kirara's tail, nearly tumbling off her father's lap. He caught her before she fell. Kagome swallowed the gasp before it came out. Shippou sighed.

 

InuYasha put Tajiko on the floor. The girl immediately propelled herself toward the fire cat.

 

“How are you feeling, Sango?” Kagome finally asked, satisfied that InuYasha was keeping an eye on their daughter. “Are you sure you're okay to stay up? Your contractions aren't too bad?”

 

“They're not bad,” the slayer commented, shooting Miroku a meaningful look. The monk sighed loudly in protest.

 

“Quit being stubborn and go lay down! I, for one, would rather not see you birth that pup out here,” InuYasha growled. Kagome rolled her eyes.

 

Sango stabbed the hanyou with a formidable glower. “Houshi-sama,” she said without glancing at her husband, “can you bring my Hiraikotsu?”

 

“Bring it on, taijya,” InuYasha countered.

 

Kagome smacked his arm. “InuYasha! She's going to have a baby, and you're not helping!”

 

“Oi!”

 

Heads turned toward the kitsune youth who was trying to hold onto the wiggling Tajiko. The girl was still trying to get to Kirara though, for the moment, she was being restrained. Kirara ran for the door and disappeared into the night. Kagome swooped up the child and kissed her cheek, eliciting a new round of giggles from the girl. “Come on, you. Time for bed. Say goodnight to Papa.”

 

InuYasha stood to take her but was sidetracked by Sango's soft moan. He settled for kissing her silvery hair before Kagome hurried off to put the child to bed. “Damn it, Sango! Get your ass in there---in bed---before you have that pup out here in front of the entire fucking village! Miroku! Do something, will you?”

 

Miroku shook his head slowly. “InuYasha . . . have you ever been hit by the Hiraikotsu?”

 

“Yeah, what of it?”

 

“Then you know why I'm letting Sango decide when it's a good time to lie down.”

 

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “You're such a pathetic monk!”

 

“The two of you are giving me a headache,” Sango growled, having gotten over the last contraction. She glowered between the hanyou and the monk as though trying to decide which of them should be beaten down first. “I'll go when I'm ready.”

 

“Hell's seven hounds, Sango! Why don't you act like you're about to birth that pup?” InuYasha remarked. Crossing his arms over his chest, he glared back at the woman.

 

“InuYasha!” Kagome hissed as she closed Tajiko's door behind her. “You're going to keep your daughter awake all night if you don't stop it. Sango will know when she's ready to lie down, okay?”

 

He didn't look as though he was ready to give up the argument. “Keh!” he finally said with a loud snort.

 

Kagome picked up a bucket and headed for the door. “I'm going to fetch water. You guys . . . keep an eye on Sango? I'll only be gone a minute!”

 

She marched out the door into the cool night with a sigh of relief. Sango would know well enough when she needed to lie down. At least the men were keeping her mind off her pain. She smiled to herself as she wandered down the path toward the river. `A million stars,' she realized, gazing above her head as she stopped on the small path. The stars didn't shine so brightly at home. She sighed and hurried along the path again.

 

It was hard to believe that her own daughter was four months old. The feeling of complete happiness that she'd carried home from her era two months ago had remained. InuYasha had told Kikyou that Kagome able to take care of things, and the other priestess had left with nothing more than a nod and a wan smile. Kagome hadn't sensed any reluctance from InuYasha as they watched Kikyou leave. Maybe that was the real reason that her happiness had grown.

 

`Sesshoumaru was wrong,' she assured herself. He was simply trying to upset her, to start trouble. `InuYasha was right. Sesshoumaru is nothing but an instigator.'

 

The gurgle of the flowing water offered her a sense of comfort as she knelt beside the stream. It was a picturesque night, a beautiful evening. Ribbons of satiny reds, of ambers, of gold, oranges and magentas faded in and out of each other, streaking across the skyline, reaching for the night. `Such a sunset . . . such wonder . . . have I ever seen so beautiful an evening?'

 

A voice called to her, whispered on the breeze. With a frown, Kagome left the bucket, stepped toward the voice. She couldn't hear the voice. A draw on her heart led her into the forest. Deeper and deeper she wandered. It didn't occur to her to question where she was heading. She followed only the voice.

 

“Miko, you wander far from your home.”

 

With a soft gasp, Kagome spun around, trance broken. Sesshoumaru stepped out of the shadows, staring at her, hedging nearer but not approaching. “Was it you?”

 

“I?”

 

“Did you call to me? Were you the whisper I heard?”

 

“Did you wish me to come to you?”

 

“You . . . wouldn't.”

 

His chuckle rippled through her, oddly warm, completely unsettling. “For you? I would.”

 

She narrowed her gaze as she stared at him, light and dark twisting around him, merging in him. She stepped away. “What do you want?'

 

“Have you reconsidered my offer?”

 

Kagome frowned. “Offer?”

 

“To free you from the hanyou, miko.”

 

“I don't need to be freed,” she remarked, her chin rising in defiance. “I am free. I chose.”

 

“You jest,” he scoffed. “You're bound to him as surely as you could be. Or do you not see it? A powerful miko such as yourself, yet you know not that you've been captured like a caged beast. Foolish little girl.”

 

He advanced on her. She retreated. He flicked his wrist. His glowing green energy whip flashed out, wrapped around her. It held her but didn't hurt her as he closed in. “Let me go,” she said calmly, controlling the rising trepidation in her voice. “I have to go back.”

 

Sesshoumaru didn't touch her. He reached out slowly, fingers idly lifting the necklace, the prayer beads. They glowed with a strange blue light. They burned his fingers. He dropped them with a soft hiss. He stared at her for a long moment, as though trying to decide something. Finally, he nodded. “I see. Miko's beads. You sought to purify me with that paltry bit of trickery? Tell me. Did you make those?”

 

“No,” she said slowly, face lowering as she stared at her own chest, at the opalescent beads that rose and fell with her breathing. Miko's beads? “InuYasha gave them to me.”

 

He chuckled suddenly, as though something made sense to him. “Of course he did, the baka. Did you ever ask him what miko blessed those beads? Or . . . cursed them?”

 

She shook her head in denial as Sesshoumaru's allegation sank in. “He . . . he wouldn't have.”

 

“Are you so sure?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Foolish little girl,” he said again, lifting his hand, stroking her cheek with his cool knuckles. With another flick of his wrist, the whip disappeared. Sesshoumaru turned and started away. “Call on me should you change your mind, Miko,” he called back.

 

Kagome stared at his retreating form. She lifted her hand, grasping the prayer beads, yanking on them, tugging on them, fighting with them. They wouldn't break. She tried to pull them over her head. They wouldn't extend above her ears. With a gasping cry, she let go, staring at the burned flesh on her palms.

 

Sesshoumaru's words came back to her. What, exactly, had he meant?

 

 

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A/N:

Taijya - slayer/exterminator … in this case, as used in regards to Sango, youkai exterminator.

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Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Torrent): I do not claim any rights to InuYasha or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al. I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize.

 

~Sue~