…From the Ashes the Phoenix Rises by Danyealle-sama

Chapter 1

…From the Ashes the Phoenix Rises

By: Danyealle

Chapter 1

Phoenix:

A legendary Arabian bird said to periodically burn itself to death and emerge from the ashes as a new phoenix; according to most versions only one phoenix lived at a time and it renewed itself every 500 years

Clutching her school books to her chest tightly, her hand was over her mouth.  With her heart hammering in her chest, eyes widened, all she could make out in the washed out, bright light was a flicker of moonlight kissed hair as the being stepped out of the well house.  Already she was shaking badly and having problems breathing as her chest seemed to contract tightly, in response her anxiety level soared into the stratosphere.  “I can’t deal with this!”  She moaned softly.  “No, no, no, oh please Kami no!”

When the being stepped out of the shadows and she could finally see him completely and clearly she almost sobbed in relief when the pristine white silks were there instead of the red fire rat she had expected.  “Thank you!”  She whispered reverently to whatever Kami was responsible.  Sitting down on one of the benches closest to her, sure if she hadn’t her knees would have given out; she waited for the demon lord to make his way over to her.

xXx

From the second he appeared in the bottom of the well in what he assumed was the place the miko, Kagome, came from all his senses were under assault.  The audible and olfactory assault he was under was almost overwhelming and it took him several minutes until he could adjust.  Finally, with a practiced ease he took one leap and landed on the floor.  After that ordeal he easily found the door to the shack. He took a few deep breaths before opening it.  He was trying to take in all the visual and scents that were bombarding him. Somewhere mixed in with the plethora of new smells was the very familiar smell of the little priestess.  When he stepped out of the shadows of the hut he could feel her anxiety start to slip away.  Once again he had sensed some pretty odd things and wasn’t sure what they were.  Looking around, he saw her in her usual green short skirt and top.

Ignoring all the unfamiliar things and honing in on her scent he then walked towards her.  When he made it to where she was sitting, he crouched down before her so when they talked they would be eye to eye.  Being this close to her he was bombarded with those unfamiliar things.  Looking into those big eyes of hers told him what at least part of the unfamiliar thing emitting from her: the miko was taking drugs of some kind.  Her dilated pupils, overly large and wide open eyes were something he had seen many times in the past. But he wasn’t going to any jump to any conclusions.  Reaction like this could also come from some medicines healers used.

Not one to be subtle or beat around the bush, he asked, bluntly, “What drugs are you on?  Who gave them to you?”

“My doctor…a healer, he put me on them.  They are supposed to help me cope a little better,” she explained to him automatically.

He nodded.  There was no trace of deceit in her aura, he honestly hadn’t expected any.

“Why are you here Sesshomaru?” she asked quietly.

“The monk and slayer are quite worried about you,” he told her gently.  Though he couldn’t detect any illness in her scent and aura he did sense that there was something wrong with her, very wrong. 

Suddenly a voice called out, making both of them jump, “Kagome dear, is everything alright?”

Both looked at the direction the voice had come from. He could see a woman standing there, watching them. It was the young miko’s mother.

“Everything’s fine, mom,” Kagome called back.

“Is that…” was all she was able to get out before her daughter interrupted. 

“No mom.  This is Lord Sesshomaru.”

“OK dear.  If you need anything let me know.”

“Don’t worry, I will.”

He could sense some of the anxieties leave her mother after the priestesses answer.  Though she had gone into the house he could still feel her watching from one of the windows.  Focusing back on the onna in front of him, he tried to formulate the best way to go about it.  Before coming he had a plan in place as to how he should go about things but was quickly shunted aside when he had gotten a good fix on just what kind of shape she was in.  Now he had to rethink things and figure out a way to approach her with the topic.

After a quick mental debate he looked back into her eyes, though the flat, emotionless look in them disturbed him.  Hitching a deep sigh, he said, “We all understand that you and the half-breed had another argument.  We also understand that you needed time away…”

“An argument?” she interrupted, a puzzled look on her face.

Nodding, he replied calmly, “Yes Kagome.  He told us you and he had another of your infamous rows.”

Heaving a great sigh, she looked at the ground and shook her head. “Why am I not surprised?” Her leg started bouncing up and down in agitation then she looked at him.  “He lied to you,” she stated bluntly.

Feeling a muscle in his jaw starting to tick he could feel his ire start to climb.  Deep down he had known the boy lied.  When first questioned about what happened to the little miko that would once again precipitate her going home he had detected deceit and guilt wafting off the hanyou.  He didn’t detect any of that from Kagome but he did sense a great deal of pain and sadness.  Keeping his rising anger out of his voice, he asked, “Could you tell me the reason you left please?”

Taking a deep breath, she shut her eyes.  She most certainly didn’t want to go back and relive all that crap.  On the other hand, she most definitely didn’t want Inuyasha’s lies to be the only thing they heard on the topic.  Sighing again, she swung her feet back and forth then began to tell him what had happened.

“The plan had been for me to go home for the day.  We needed supplies and few other things and I had some stuff to pick up from home.  I was going to be back about sundown so we could get everything ready and take off in the morning to hunt jewels and spiders.”

“When I left Edo Inuyasha wasn’t anywhere to be seen. At the time I thought it was great.  That way we wouldn’t end up arguing.  That was fine with me!”

“While walking to the well I heard both Inuyasha’s voice as well as Kikyo’s.  I did NOT go looking for them.  I did NOT follow him or anything else like that. They were sitting at the base of a tree right along the side of the path.  I know for sure Kikyo saw me because she looked directly at me, smirking.  Because I could see his ears twitch and know how sensitive he is to noise it’s a pretty even bet that he heard me…”

“…Anyway… Kikyo was asking him when he was going to get rid of me so they could be together all the time.  He told her he couldn’t do that.  Because Kikyo couldn’t detect shards as well as I can he needs me.  So he told her that he has to keep pretending that I mean something to him and he wants a relationship with me until we find all the shards and Naraku is gone.  When that happens he’s going to destroy the well so I can’t come back.  He also told her that he couldn’t understand why she thought he saw anything in me at all.  To him I was nothing but an ‘uptight virgin bitch that he was disgusted to even touch’.  He also told her that no one else in his pack likes me either, that they just tolerated me because I could find the shards,” stopping, she put her face in her hands and began to cry softly, body shaking.

No sure what to do, feeling the hurt and pain radiate off of her, he did the only think he could think of; putting a hand on her bicep and rubbed it softly.  Aside from that he was absolutely livid!  Yes, he had always thought the boy was a cretin but what he had just heard, and there was no doubt in my mind that the miko was telling the truth, proved to him that the hanyou was the lowest form of life on this planet.  In order to be with a being that is the walking dead he had intentionally hurt the little priestess, someone that would have done anything for him, up to and including dying.  Not only that, Inuyasha had made sure that he had done so in one of the cruelest ways he could.  With his teeth so tightly clenched he was sure they would snap off soon, he was snorting like an enraged bull.  However, the reaction from his beast was even worse. It was snapping, snarling and howling loudly for the boy’s death. The taiyoukai had always had a soft spot for the miko and Rin; it was pretty obvious to anyone that had seen them.  To have cruelly gone out of his way to hurt the priestess the boy was putting him in the same vileness category as Naraku.  In fact he was fairly certain that this was the kind of thing the spider would have planned.  It worked too from the look of things. He vowed to himself and his beast that he would make the boy pay for it this time.  He also guaranteed that the next time he came across the walking corpse he would be sending her to the next life where she belonged.

He was pulled out of his musings by her squeak of fear while she started pulling away from him.  He, of course, understood what was frightening her.  Immediately he tried to reign in his enraged and crackling aura.  Putting his hand back on her bicep he gave her arm what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze then told her, quietly, “You’ve don’t have any reason to fear me Kagome.  I vow that neither I nor my beast will do anything to harm you.  Yes, I’m angry but not at you.  You’ve done nothing to warrant or earn it.”

Though she heard his words and they did help she couldn’t help being a little frightened.  She knew when the red began to mix with the gold in his eyes and the stripes on his cheeks were jagged his demonic side was starting to take over.  Combined with the rage in his aura that was humming against her skin like a white hot swirling mass she was no longer able to control her own fears even with his reassurances.  Like anyone who had seen his bestial side at work and knew what it was capable of, fear was a natural response.

“Miko,” he said a bit softer than before, “I give you my word of honor that you have nothing to fear from me and I won’t harm you in any way,” fear wasn’t something he wanted from her.  In order to accomplish his goal her fear was the biggest detriment. 

“Though we don’t each other that well you know I keep my word, right?”

Nodding, she felt her fear slowly starting to wane.

“Look at me please,” he told her.

With a bit of trepidation, she raised her eyes to his.  Not seeing any more of the crimson in the golden pools, she began to relax.

Taking a deep breath, he began to quickly try to order his thoughts; he started where he thought was the best.  “I have no doubt whatsoever that you told me was the truth and what the half-breed spewed was an out and out lie.  Like you I’m pretty sure that he intended for you to overhear everything.  But, remember Inuyasha is a liar.  Part of what he said to you or about you is a lie.”

“Since you’ve been gone I’ve been traveling with your pack from time to time and I can assure you that the kit, slayer and that hentai monk care about you a great deal.  Because you’ve been gone for so long they are worried sick about you.  There have been many nights that the slayer and kit have cried because they know something’s wrong.  Even the ookami and his pack are worried about you.”

Yes, he had told him the truth but there were quite a few things left out of the discussion.  They all knew Inuyasha was involved in the mess some how and was probably the cause behind her leaving.  Kouga was stomping the hell out of the hanyou at least once a week to force him to tell what had happened.  So far the half-breed hadn’t given it up.  But even Inuyasha looked worried when the topic of the priestess was brought up.  He wasn’t just worried; there was a lot of guilt involved as well.

Sensing that she was starting to calm down he asked, “There is something else I would like to know.  The half-breed said he has come to see you a few times, hoping to convince you to return to us.  Then, a bit later on, he said he could no longer get through the well, that it had lost its magic.  Is that a lie as well?”

Rubbing her face, she shook her head a bit.  “It’s a lie.  Since I’ve been home he hasn’t once shown up.  No, it isn’t broken either.  If you could get through it then so could he,” she harrumphed gruffly.

Once again he was grinding his teeth; sure they were powdering in the gums from the force.  He was beyond pissed!

As he was about to resume the discussion a voice called out from the house, “Kagome dear!  I made some tea. Why don’t you bring your friend too,” the elder Higurashi called out.

“Alright mom,” Kagome called back, sighing.

“I would prefer to finish our talk alone miko,” Sesshomaru said quietly.

Giving him an ironic smile, she said, “Mom didn’t ask a question.  That was an order phrased as a question,” standing, she hugged her schoolbooks to her chest then led him to the house.