InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ What Next? ❯ The Wind ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]
(Based on Manga events, set as Kagura watches over Gouryoumaru but before Hakudoshi shows up at the end of Chapter 361)

Kagura's eyes moved from her charge and the bars before him to the rows of rakanzou which truly kept him in check. A sour look crossed her face and she expressed her frustration with a short puff of breath. She was as much prisoner here as he, set to this task as a means of keeping her and her loyalties under observation.

She pursed her lips slightly and thought of her driving goal - freedom.

Kagura's hand closed into a tight fist, and her expression deepened into a frown. She was no halfwit, it didn't take much to see that this farce they'd been forced to play out would soon be over. Naraku held most of the Shikon no Tama and soon he'd either use it and obliterate his opponents with the power it brought, or that mismatched group of do-gooders would do what seemed impossible and overpower him, taking it for themselves. The actual fate of the jewel was almost a secondary consideration for her - the only thing that mattered was her heart and what she might do if she could get it out of His clutches. Then and only then would she have that freedom.

Her expression relaxed somewhat and she raised her fan, resting it lightly on her chin as she lost herself to her train of thought. She chose not to consider that her Master might succeed; she chose this moment to focus on what might happen if, against the odds, he didn't. If her heart was truly her own, well...what then?

In all her scheming, in all her desire to rid herself of the yoke she suffered under, she hadn't really spent enough time considering what she might do afterwards - where her place might be. After all, the wind is fickle and subject to change.

She frowned once more and her brow creased as she began to weigh her options.

A youkai born of a hanyou, independent and willful. A child of the wind who was not of the kaze-no-kami. Which of the taiyoukai lords would accept such a creature into their service or even tolerate it within their domains?

It seemed the Lord of the West would sooner kill her as an annoyance or an extension of her master than accept her as an individual. The others were less personally involved, but they still had no cause to grant her the privelege of serving as their vassal. More to the point, could she even bear the obligation implied in such an arrangement? And if not, what then?

What then, indeed.

The wind is fickle, and subject to change. There would be time enough to revisit this once she actually gained her freedom.

Kagura smiled to herself with one last thought and she mouthed the word without giving it voice.

"Soon."