Supreme Conquest
By Danyealle
(MMF/FanFiction)
Chapter 14
Running through the cold, dark, misty Inuyasha’s forest, Kagome could sense and almost feel the being that was behind her, chasing her. No matter how fast she ran, she couldn’t seem to shake whatever it was that was on her tail. Though she wasn’t sure how she knew this was no demon but it wasn’t a human either. All she really knew for sure was that he was a serious threat to her and she was scared of him, very scared.
Then she hard her name called through the woods, ringing and echoing off the trees in a spooky, eerie way that made it sound as though it was the wind calling to her but she new it was a real voice. And it scared her so much her whole body broke out in goosebumps and a cold sweat. Her heart was hammering in her throat and mouth was as dry as the most arid desert as her fear pressed her to move faster than she ever had in her life. All she knew was she couldn’t let him catch her. If he did, she would wish she were dead she was sure.
…Naraku…Naraku…Naraku…
That name kept playing over and over in her mind. No, she hadn’t heard it before nor had she ever met anyone with a name similar but she knew he was real and she should fear him.
Once more, she could hear the wind whisper her name. He was calling her, wanting her to come to him. Now way in Kami’s green earth was she going to do that! She might not die but she was certain she would wish she were dead when he got done with her.
“Kkkkkkkkkkkkkaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggoooooooooommmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeee…” the wind seemed to call to her in a soft, mournful way. Then, in front of her, a being in a white baboon suit appeared, hand outstretched towards her.
“Come Kagome. Come and I’ll take you away from the mess your life has become. Together you and I will find all of the jewel shards much faster. Once we have it all complete I’ll take care of you forever. You’ll be my queen. Just come to me Kagome…” he said, voice soft and smooth as a river of the finest silk.
Shaking her head violently, she backed away from the being, eyes wide. A knot of fear forming in her stomach, she swallowed around the lump in her throat. “No! Get away and leave me alone!” Then she took off the opposite direction, trying to put as much distance between her and him as possible. Panic, she tried to think of what to do. Finally, she started to yell. “Inuyasha! Togaou! Sesshomaru! Someone help me!”
Suddenly, she felt a strong pair of arms wrap around her and a male voice call her name softly.
With a terrified scream, she desperately tried to pull away. She had to run, to get away some how!
…kst…kst…kst…kst…
Sesshomaru had been in a doze, about to slip into a deeper sleep, when he could feel her start to stir around. Opening his eyes, he waited to see if she was going to keep stirring around or settle back down and go to sleep. But, quickly, he began to feel her aura twist and swirl around as a thread of terror started to weave in it. Now, he knew humans had nightmares the same way youkai did but as whatever she seemed to be seeing grew worse and more pure terror began to entwine in her aura he began to wonder if it may be more than just your average, run-of-the-mill nightmare. Though he was no expert on miko’s or prophecy, he knew enough to know that in more powerful mikos, something that Kagome most assuredly was, would get prophecies or things similar in their dreams. No, he had no proof it was anything more than a real dream of some kind, he kept the other thought in mind while the nightmare she was having seemed to deepen.
Sitting there, waiting, as she began to thrash around in her sleep, the daiyoukai began to debate as to whether she should wake her or let the nightmare run its course. Finally, she yanked her hand away from Togaou, curled up in a fetal position then began to whimper in fear.
Of course, when her hand was yanked so roughly from his, the older daiyoukai woke up. Still fuzzy from sleep, he sat up, rubbing his eyes. “What’s going on?” He asked; voice a bit sleep-slurred and having a grumpy tone to it.
“She’s having a nightmare,” Sesshomaru told him shortly. Actually, he was rather glad his sire was awake. Now he could let him decide what to do about the situation.
Looking over at her, Togaou watched as she shivered, shook and whimpered in her sleep. Plus he was feeling what Sesshomaru was from her aura and didn’t like it. “Though nightmares are something that everyone has at one time or another, I think, in this instance, you should wake her.”
“I was just thinking about the same thing myself,” Sesshomaru nodded. Then, gently, he shook her a bit. “Kagome…” he said quietly, trying to rouse her. When that didn’t work, he shook her a bit harder and said her name a bit louder.
…kst…kst…kst…kst…
Struggling and screaming, Kagome tried yanking away from whatever had a hold of her. Terrified, she tried to think of something, anything, she could do to get away. Then, suddenly, she heard another voice softly calling her name.
Stopping the struggle and screaming, she focused on that, trying to figure out whose it was. It only took her a few moments to recognize who it was then relief flooded her. Turing her head the direction she thought it was coming from, she shouted, “I’m over here Sesshomaru! Help me! Someone has a hold of me and won’t let me go!” Though she tried to keep the absolute panic, she was feeling out of her voice she couldn’t quite manage it. To her ears, her voice sounded a bit quavering and hysterical. That wasn’t what she wanted. She didn’t want whoever, or whatever, had a hold of her to know just how scared she was.
After calling for the daiyoukai, she felt the hand on her grip her tighter then pull her against a broad chest. Almost immediately, her skin began to feel like it was trying to crawl off her bones. There was something about the body that didn’t feel ‘right’ and it gave her the creeps, big time. With a scared “eep”, she once more began to struggle and try to pull away desperately.
“Kagome…” that voice once more purred in a sultry tone. “Just say you’re mine and I’ll love you for all eternity. You and I together will be a powerful team that will be unstoppable. No person or persons will ever be able to give you what you truly want. Only I will be able to do that for you. I will give you everything you heart desires and more. All you have to do is say yes and you’ll be treated like a queen. Say it Kagome, say you’ll be mine.”
Heart hammering in her chest so hard she was sure it would explode; she tried everything to get out of the steel-like grip that held her. “Sesshomaru! Please help me! He won’t let me go! Please HURRY!” She screamed hysterically, tears of fright springing to her eyes and starting to drip down onto her cheeks.
Just when panic, hysterical sobs were about to erupt, she felt a hand on her, shaking her gently, “Kagome…” she heard him say again.
“Sesshomaru!” She all but sobbed out in relief.
…kst…kst…kst…kst…
Bolting upright in the bed, the little miko bit back another scream as she felt herself still shaking violently.
“Kagome? Are you alright?” Sesshomaru asked her quietly, one hand giving her shoulder what he hoped she would think was a gentle, reassuring squeeze.
Looking up and meeting the inuyoukai’s gold ones, she felt a wave of relief so big that it was like a tsunami. Throwing her arms around his waist then buried her face in his chest and let out a sob of pure relief. “Oh thank Kami!” she whispered in a bit of a watery voice.
Unsure what to do, Sesshomaru slipped an arm around her waist and held her close to him. “Shh…It was just a dream Kagome,” was his quiet assurance to her. Then he glanced over at his father for a bit of help. In cases like this, he didn’t know what to do beyond what he really was at the moment. Even with that it had come about from the logical assumption that she knew how strong he was and that she was under his protection so being close to him might have a bit of a soothing effect on her.
Watching the two on the bed, brow furrowed a bit, Togaou stayed quiet. Yes, his first instinct was to slide on the bed and comfort her. But he restrained himself. He wanted Sesshomaru to attempt that first then he would help.
What he saw from his pup pleased him greatly. Not only was he going about it the right way but she was responding to it correctly. Then there was what she was doing. That, most assuredly was a good sign.
Waiting until she started calming down, the older inu then slid up onto the edge of the bed and put a hand on her back. “Everything will be fine Kagome. It was just a nightmare is all.”
Sighing, she nodded then looked over at the older daiyoukai. “I know. But it was very realistic,” she admitted. Though she was much calmer than she had been, she refused to let loose of Sesshomaru.
Even now that she was awake and knew that it was ‘just a dream’ the emotions from it and how it made her feel wasn’t easy to shake. Yes, like every other person in the world, she’d had nightmares before but this one felt different than the ones she’s experienced in the past. It had been far more realistic than any dream she’s ever had, that she could remember anyway. There was also the very creepy feeling she was getting that this was no dream at all but someone sending her a message of some sort. To her, it felt as though someone had ‘hacked’ into her dreams and put it there on purpose. That wasn’t a concept she liked at all.
Giving an internal sigh, she tried to push that dream and what had come with it aside into a pile to deal with later. Now she just wanted to try to calm down and go back to sleep.
Loosing up her death grip on Sesshomaru, she let out a soft sigh. “It was just a dream,” she said more firmly this time, trying to convince herself of that rather than telling them that.
…kst…kst…kst…kst…
Waiting for the servant to leave the room, Naraku laid on his bed, pretending to be asleep.
When he heard the door slide shut, his eyes opened then he sat up. Opening his hand, he gazed down at the small chunk of the Shikon no Tama he possessed. In the low light, the blackened jewel seemed to glisten and sparkle from some internal source.
After a long look at it, he once more closed his hand then slipped the priceless gem into a hidden pocket on the interior lining of his kimono. Sliding over to the window, he sat down and gazed up at the quarter of the moon that was visible. Eyes locked on the orb that had transfixed and frightened so many for eons, he allowed himself to let his thoughts wander.
Of course, the first place it migrated towards was the little miko whom he had just paid a visit to. No, he didn’t expect the dream message to work and had anticipated the reaction she had but he was pleased with how things had gone nonetheless. At least he had opened the door a crack. That was really all he intended when he decided to do a bit of dream walking.
Already, since it had reappeared, he had collected quite a few of the shards but there were many more out there as he well knew. Yes, he had confidence that he would be able to find them himself but if he had the help of Kikyo’s reincarnation retrieving them would go faster and easier, so he had to convince her that she would be with him, not the two inus that had their designs set on her. That, he was sure, was going to take quite a bit of work and some pretty fancy footwork on his end.
Focusing on her face with his mind’s eyes, he grudgingly admitted that she did indeed look a great deal like his beloved/hated Kikyo. From what he had heard so far about Kagome, she was Kikyo’s reincarnation. That was a line of thinking that he tended to believe. Not only was there a strong resemblance between the two but this miko seemed to have the same kinds of spiritual powers as Kikyo had, when she was alive of course. All those things had been enough to grab his attention and interest when he first heard about it.
He was big enough to admit to himself that he had been fixated on and loved Kikyo when she had been alive. So much so that he had given up his humanity so that he could have her. But she had been gone for 50 years so he needed to move on. Now he would pursue and have her reincarnation. No, they weren’t the same being but there was enough of his beloved Kikyo in Kagome to warrant that she would become his like Kikyo in the past. But there was an obstacle to that, well two of them really: Togaou and Sesshomaru.
Though most in Japan and beyond had never even heard his name, he was powerful. But both Sesshomaru and Togaou, mostly the father though, had a great deal of power in their own right. That meant that he was going to have a bit of a rough time on his hands getting the miko away from him. Even without that in the mix there would be plenty of obstacles because of the nature of the beasts, so to speak, and what inus were like when it came to their onnas. Combine the two, and he was going to have to do some serious work to get what he wanted.
Since he had first heard of her, he had been trying to work out just how he was going to go about this. The easiest way would have been to just kidnap her but he had rejected that outright even though it had been tempting. To get what he wanted, he wasn’t going to be able to use force. She was going to have to come to him willingly. That’s the only way it was going to work. So he was going to have to entice her into coming to him. But he was sure he would be able to accomplish that without much of a problem. It was just going tot take time and patience was all. Both things were something he had in abundance.
But to work with it he had to know some things. Though there were many things on that list, the one on the top of it was just what her relationship was with the two inus. Yes, he had already heard she was going to become their mate so he didn’t mean that. What he was talking about was her personal relationship with them and whether or not this was an arranged mating. If this was to come about because of feelings she had for the two of them then it was going to be harder to lure her away. But if it was arranged in some way, he may be able to offer her a way out of the situation she found herself in. Since he knew Togaou had only returned to this realm a short time before he was going to work on the assumption that this whole thing was arranged. But he was going to prepare for both just in case.
Next, he focused on the two inus. That part, he knew, was going to be the roughest. Both were formidable opponents in every way. Sesshomaru was the one he knew more about. The Ice Lord, as he had heard him referred to quite a bit, was a deadly opponent. If you did anything that he would see as an insult to his honor then he would come at you any way he could and wouldn’t stop until he had exacted his revenge. Not only that, but he was a master of weaponry of all kinds. Togaou he didn’t know as well and what information he did have were from past exploits and so many of the old stories that floated around about what he had been like when he was alive. Yes, he knew they were probably embellished a bit but even if a 10th of them were true that made him powerful enough that he would need to tread lightly around the inu patriarch. But, with him, at least he may have something that could help if push came to shove. The old dog had plenty of enemies around still, some quite powerful. If things began to look rough for him, he could easily start making alliances with a few of those. In the end that could be what got him what he wanted.
Once more, his mind circled back to what really was the start of the whole thing: Kagome. Though, by now, he knew he loved her and that she was his, she just didn’t know it yet, but there was another side to it as well: he hated her just as much as he loved her. The big part of that was that he felt his all consuming passion for her was a weakness, something he most certainly didn’t want. To accomplish what he wanted to do he couldn’t have a weakness such as that. To have such a thing could be exploited as he well knew. That wasn’t something he wanted and he hated and resented her for it. But he wasn’t able to force himself to give her up. Another thing he hated her for.
Sighing, he pulled himself back from that thought. He couldn’t allow himself to go down that path. He loved her and he had to focus on that, not the negatives. Once she was with him then he would be more powerful than any other being in Japan. That was what he had to focus on, not any of the other things. He couldn’t allow himself to focus on the negative when there was so much planning to do and so much to work out. What was to come was complex and complicated to work with that he had to fully focus on so he had no time for the negative. To do all this he had to keep the goal of being with her in the way he had never managed with Kikyo in mind and fully focus on that. That would be the only way he was going to succeeded in this.
Firm and resolute, he forced himself to focus on the plans he had already made all he had to do before he did any more.
…kst…kst…kst…kst…
It took about an hour for Kagome to relax enough to finally drift back to sleep. Though she had said it was just a dream it had apparently spooked her enough that she had a problem falling back to sleep. In fact, it was a good 10 to 15 minutes before she would let go of Sesshomaru. Finally, with a bit of persuasion, Togaou was able to get her to talk about it a bit and tell them what part was bothering or scaring her the most. His intent was that, he hoped, by talking it out it may well exorcise it in a way and banish any of the residual fear that was left over by it.
But something odd happened. Yes, it did act as a catharsis for her but both inus became more apprehensive the more she talked. Though it was a dream she had, to both of them it sounded more like someone was trying to communicate with her in some way. A dark priestess or anyone else who had any training in such areas would be able to pull such a thing off with relative ease. Both of them had seen such things before in their lifetimes. Though they wanted to question her a bit more intensely about details of it they didn’t. All that would end up doing was upsetting her all the more. Instead, they both quietly decided to discuss it later, after she was once more asleep.
Once she finally fell back to sleep in the same position she had been in before being disturbed both inus watched a bit of TV until they were certain she was once more soundly sleeping.
Once he was sure she was out cold, Togaou muted the volume on the TV then sat up a bit and looked at his pup. “What do you think Sesshomaru? Was it just a dream or do you think it could be something else?”
Without event thinking about it, Sesshomaru replied, “From my perspective, I don’t think it sounds like a dream. To me, it sounds more like it was something that was planted.”
“I agree,” Togaou said with a nod. “Yes, one would expect to have bad dreams after what she’s gone through but this doesn’t sound like one she would have.”
“Agreed,” Sesshomaru concurred.
“Have you ever heard of anyone named Naraku? “
Thinking, brow furrowed a bit, Sesshomaru tried to see if he could place that name. Though it sounded familiar in some way, he couldn’t remember ever hearing it before. “No,” he finally conceded, “It does sound familiar in some way but I’m not sure where it comes from. Maybe someone could have mentioned it in passing to me at some point.”
“Alright,” Togaou said with a nod. After a glance back at her, he added, “When we get back I think you should put out some feelers to see if there is such a being. If nothing else and nothing comes of it, it will give her peace of mind and let her know it was just a dream. Same for us.”
Nodding, Sesshomaru agreed, “I will do that. It can’t hurt anything.”
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