Doll by Butters

Doll

Doll

by theConcreteAngel

"Oh yes, good customer, there be a castle by that name over hill over there." The guide poited, and Sesshomaru eyed the Chinese man with distaste. He was most certainly not here by his own free will, most definitely not.

It had all started with his stupid half-brother Inuyasha, and his stupid death. Naraku had finally died, at the hand of several people, and while the world had been freed of the evil hanyou, it had come at what Sesshomaru had originally decided was a small cost to pay. But Kagome Higurashi held tight onto the hearts of her comrades.

So when she was sucked into the jewel with a screech of "Inuyasha," and much to his shock; "Sesshomaru!", the demon slayer, reunited with her brother, had broken down into tears, unconsolable by the monk, who had looked as if his family had just died. Inuyasha, who was tending to an revived Kikyo (wished back by the selfless reincarnate), had just stared, while Kikyo frowned and muttered as she inspected the purified jewel.

And then Inuyasha had gone and grown old with his mate, and on his dying breath, just days after Kikyo's, he had made Sesshomaru promise something, as he could not anymore. "Find Kagome, make her happy." And then he had died.

So Sesshomaru had searched. Miroku and Sango, dead by a couple years, had left behind a few leads, and their children and their grand children had continually helped Sesshomaru in his search. And then, about a century ago, rumors of an odd castle had begun to circulate through the hidden demon circles, kept secret as the last traces of youkai disappeared into the midst of the human race with the human's ever-advancing technology.

Apparently, this castle contained one thousand lady youkai, all guarding a Lady who held an artifact of such great power in her grasp, that anyone who found her would rule the world as a god. As a matter a fact, Hitler had even searched for this castle for a small amount of time, before hitting a dead end in China. Fifty-three years later, Sesshomaru, hiding behind the name of a business man had pulled a couple strings, and was now standing just east of the ever-infamous Jusenkyo springs, listening to some bad Japanese spoken by a guide as he rambled about the legend.

Leaving the old guide behind, he began to walk, his faithful dragon, Ah Uhn, still alive after all these centuries, followed behind him. Jaken was back in Tokyo, hopefully filling out stock reports under the guise of a slimy personal secretary. He had often left Ah Uhn in the care of the Musk dynasty, when he had too many visitors at his estate, or too many people after him at once, period.

Soon it turned dark, the Chinese landscape thick and tumbling with predators. Not that any would ever bother Sesshomaru, of course, but to anyone else...

It rose out of the gloom quite suddenly, the gates wrought iron, the stones of the great wall dark in the night hours. Sesshomaru walked straight up to the gates, and looked through them at the impassive structure ahead. Around his wrist lay the Shikon no Tama, still purified after all these years next to his skin. It had made Inuyasha and Kikyo wonder, and him too, though he never dwelt on the subject for long.

Quite suddenly, faster than the castle had appeared, a girl in armor, armor that seemed to be straight from the gate, appeared, leaving her to glare into stoic black eyes. Her hair was black, her skin black, and her armor was full, where there was not room for black metal, there was a tight black fabric. If Sesshomaru had not scented her to be some sort of youkai, he would have thought her part of the gate's obvious enchantment.

"Who are you, why do you come here?" the girl demanded, her voice harsh, not terribly unlike a door's hinge. Her Japanese was perfect, and she eyed Au Uhn with a curious eye, though only Sesshomaru could have noticed it.

"I am Lord Sesshomaru, once ruler of the Western Territories. I come seeking the Lady youkai, I believe she is someone I once knew." Sesshomaru was careful not to mention the treasure, though he and his brother probably would both call her a gift to mortals that they really did not deserve.

"I am Te, keeper of the gate. You may enter. But do not harm any inhabitant of this castle, nor will you touch them, unless permission is given." Sesshomaru nodded, and Te was gone, the gate squeaking open heralding her disappearence.

The courtyard was filled with vegatation, Sesshomaru realized as he heard the gate click behind him, Ah Uhn scuttling out of the way. For a moment, he stared upward, into the almost full moon. When he lowered his eyes to stare about himself once more, he was startled yet once again as a lady seemingly appeared out of nowhere, her long slender legs, pale skin and dress, and especially her silver hair and soft grey eyes blocking his view completely.

"Hello," she greeted warmly. Again, Sesshomaru could tell she was youkai, though he could not descern which kind. "What brings you to our home?"

"I seek the Lady. I believe she was someone I knew." Sesshomaru stared as she raised a pale hand to the left.

"I am Yui. If you follow the stairs down, your mount will be serviced, and directions will be given." He nodded, and then blinked. She was gone, fading into the moonlight on the courtyard ground.

He turned towards the stairs she indicated, passing a bubbling fountain, that was huge, large, like a pond. For a moment, a mermaid was seen, blue hair swirling about her like warter, her skin blue, blending in with her scales. Her eyes, creepy and almost evil, like two glowing orbs of ice, smiled at him, purple lips tunred in a smirk. Then he closed his eyelids for a second, and she was gone.

As he passed a path that led down, to what looked like dark waters, a lake of some kind. Mist began to rise about his feet, and in the thick of it, yet another youkai girl ran past, just slow enough for him to see her short, curled white tresses, and her misty gray dress that floated like gossamer about her as she seemed to fade with each step, only to reapear as her foot touched ground.

He walked on, finding at last the stair case Yui had spoken of. Surrounding it, slithering over stone walls and stairs, was a huge vine. Ah Uhn held back, and Sesshomaru frowned, turning slightly towards his beast, only to turn back to find a woman decked in green and white, the same colors as the vine and its buds, standing before him, green bracelets jingling where cloth did not, a white star painted on her forehead.

"Where does the beast stay?" she enquired. It was a high voice, but so soft it could never be annoying.

"I am merely taking it down in search of some hay," Sesshomaru stated, "then I shall continue on through the halls alone." The youkai nodded, and seemed to shrink back into the vines. Ah Uhn did not hesitate now, and Sesshomaru led him down, the occasional scrap of scales as Ah Uhn bumped his tail against stone walls.

Seconds later, they were facing an enclosed inner courtyard, with stables, already filled with steeds of many breeds; horses, pack beasts, mononoke's much like Kirara, and even a dragon-beast like Ah Uhn. Sesshomaru was already half-expecting the sudden appearance of a youkai lady, and was not disappointed as one appeared before him, dressed in furs. Odd that the one to take care of the animals was a wolf-youkai, but...

She was pretty, though plain. Her sliverish hair was marked with three red streaks, all on one side of her head. Her eyes were a pretty yellow mixed with blue, and her outfit was made primarily of fur, as most wolf-youkai found most comfortable. She immediatly bowed to Sesshomaru, taking the reins from him without saying a word, and leading the beast to an empty stall, already filled with hay and food.

She was mute, Sesshomaru realized, a scar he had not noticed immediatly ran thrice about the front of her neck, and ended somewhere beneath her furs. She bowed again, and pointed towards a stair case that ran up in the opposite direction as the one they had come down. He nodded to her politely, and began his way up.

At first, there were just empty halls. And then, slowly, as he passed open room after open room, he saw flittings of females, different species, many he could not identify, all dressed in an array of colors, with so many different sizes and colors that soon he was dizzy, as they seemed to blink in and out of existance.

Then, as suddenly as the rest, one stopped a few feet in front of him, coming out of one of the many open rooms. She was beautiful, dressed in a all black kimono that was dull so it blended with the shadows. Her eyes were black, all black, with no whites, and her skin was creamy but tan. Her nails were long, and her dark lips touched them as she brought them to her face.

"Oh!" She said, her voice quite normal compared to all those he had yet heard. "Are you lost?" Just as suddenly as she had appeared, one who appeared to be her opposite, with pale skin that glowed, bright yellow eyes that had not whites, and wearing a yellow kimono that was almost white, blinked right by her.

"Ah! A guest," she exclaimed, her voice exactly like her opposing twin. She bowed. "My name is Ai, and this is Zi," she introduced, pointing to the black-clad youkai beside her. "Who is it you do seek?"

"The Lady," Sesshomaru explained once again. He did not know why he did not speak her name, he only just realized that he had not used it once since entering this place.

"Ah," sighed the on named Zi. "The Lady is in the courtroom. But first you must go to the white-room, where the old harem still sits, and have one of the old concubines lead you there."

He nodded, and Ai continued. "The harem rests at the end of this hall, so do not turn anywhere. When you see a pair of gilded doors, then you must knock three times, then wait, then knock twice, then wait for an answer."

Sesshomaru sighed inwardly. Such an odd place.

He opened his mouth to speak his thanks on the two, but they were gone, flickering out of existence.

He walked a ways, sometimes stopping to gaze at a potrait of a girl, for that was all that was painted, it seemed.

Soon after the last portrait, one of a sweet girl who reminded him of Kanna, only with red eyes instead of blank black ones, he came to the gilded doors, the whole section of hall way was laticed, giving it a special look. He knocked on the heavy looking doors three times, his raps short and to the point. He waited several moments, and then knowcked again, twice. A giggle was heard, and after a moment, the door was opened. Sesshomaru stayed in the threshold, amazed. He had never seen so many concubines in a single space before.

There were doors leading off to chambers all about the room, girls were going in, going out, but there were still so many! They were all hanyou, he realized after a short moment. Lizard, deer, zeebra, giraffe, horse, rabbits, cats, dogs, kitsune, mouse, bird, yes, there was even a huddle of flower hanyou over in the corner, chattering as they sewed something. The one who had opened the door was tiny, a mouse hanyou with the thinist ears he had ever seen. One was peirced, and her white sundress was identical to ever other girl's clothes.

"Hi!" That brought the work to a halt. The girl looked about her with an odd look over her gentle features before her smile broke out again, all the girls watching her and the strange taiyoukai in the doorway obviously made her nervous. "So you need something?"

A hayou whose species he could not identify came forward, her long purple hair swingling widly as she drifted forward. She had the symbol of an eye tattooed on her forehead, a bright red symbol that seemed to gleam. "He seeks a guide to the Lady," the woman's voice was soft and full.

Sesshomaru nodded, and the mouse hanyou nodded. "That's Juikaramari, she's a seeress. If you want a guide, though, you'll need Heshia or Makua-" she looked about the room, "..who're not here presently, how odd." She gestured to the deer hanyou. "Guia, if you could..." Guia left, her miniture hoof-like toneails clipping against the stone floor as she disappeared behind a door, showing Sesshomaru for a second a network of chambers and passage-ways he realized belonged to the harem only.

Almost immediatly, the door swung back open, and Guia was back, a pretty rabbit hanyou with her. Heshia had pink hair, and adorable brown eyes, reminding Sesshomaru of Rin by her smile.

"Let's go," she said sweetly, almost dragging him by the arm out the gilded entrance. The mouse hanyou giggled. "Silly anti-social Heshia..." her voice faded as they turned several corners. Heshia had long since let go of Sesshomaru's sleeve, and continued for a good many minutes to lead him up stair cases, through a maze of passage-ways, and around doors, until they came to a stop in front of a pair of silver doors.

Heshia patted his arm. "Raka will lead you from here. Bye." She blinked out of existance. But Sesshomaru was not paying heed to her. He was busy looking at the girl who had not popped in through thin air as the rest of the inhabitants of this castle did, she came through the wall , as if she was intangible. And, Sesshomaru found, as he tried to brush her shoulder, she was.

Raka giggled. "Betcha never even heard of a ghost youkai before?" Sesshomaru nodded, his gold eyes following her as she opened the door, regardless of whatever intangibilty she had seemed to have beforehand. "We're technically simply ghosts, except we've been like this since birth... so." She continued the rush that Heshia had before created, making walls blur about Sesshomau.

"So you want to greet our Lady?"

Sesshomaru replied with a curt "hn", he did not understand how the girl could talk so much traveling at such a speed.

Quite suddenly, they were stopped again, and Raka knocked on a gold pair of doors that were hidden completely by shadow, before walking through the opposite wall, leaving Sesshomaru alone.

The doors opened of their own accord, and Sesshomaru walked in.

He was in something of a throne room. It was dark, swabbed in red drapes that hung about every survace, dangling and sweeping elegantly all over the darkened room. But, on the throne, was what easily caught so much attention, in such a dark room. It was a doll.

She was beautiful. Her eyes were blue, like glass oceans, never blinking, never wavering from staring at those doors that Sesshomaru had just walked through. Her plump, glossy pink lips were slightly opened, and though he could hear air actually go in and out, the doll's chest did not move, nor did any other body part.

She was wearing that ridiculously short green skirt, and that immodest white sailor top, but the red tie was missing, and while her socks where still on her feet snuggly, the once odd shoes were gone.

Her hair was a midnight black, so beautiful that it framed her face perfectly, the way it contrasted pale skin that looked like porcelain.

Kagome was beautiful.

Stepping forward, Sesshomaru watched her for any waver of the eyes, any movement of the lips. Nothing.

He frowned, going all the way up to the seat, where she sat up straight, her arms relaxed and her hands folded in her lap.

But it was not Kagome, because Kagome had been so full of life. This doll was perfect, a perfect imitation, but this was not Kagome.

"Kagome." He spoke her name, hoping she would appear from one of the antechambers about the room. Yet another youkai appeared at his side, dressed in red, her long green hair cascading down her back in waves, her icy blue eyes saddened as she stared at the doll.

"Yes," she agreed, sighing, even as Sesshomaru turned his head to look at the new arrival, "our Lady. She was so beautiful, we could not bear to kill her, because though she is obviously dead inside, she is so, so wonderfully beautiful, and so powerful... so we keep her up here."

"She is dead?" Sesshomaru reached out to touch a pale cheek, frowning as he found it cold, like touching a moonstone.

"No."

"Who are you?" he asked, withdrawing his hand, letting his talons graze her cheek gently.

"Saimarukasanoda. Saimaru for short, but everyone calls me Sai. I am the Lady's handmaid, though I do not do much except clean her rooms that do collect dust, and care for her appearance when it gets mussed."

Sesshomaru frowned once more, looking at his beautiful Kagome. Yes, his, he decided, as soon as she woke up. "-make her happy" Inuyasha had told him

"How did she come to be here?"

Sai smiled, the sadness touching the dimples that appeared. "After our lord fell, we were going to leave these grounds forever, but then a plague attacked us, and while all the men died, many woman did not, though some of us were attacked. There were some human maids here, but after the plague, if you had survived it, then you were youkai or an immortal hanyou. The whole harem survived, right down to the last half-breed, for that was all the lord would bed with out of marraige.

"Then one day, the day after the demon Naraku was struck down at last, I believe, a bright light filled the castle, and a barrier was strung up about it, made of nothing but pure air, it somehow reflected man and demon for a good hundred years. In its place, is Te, who used to be a foreign human who served under our Lord as a body guard for some time. She blends in so well with her armor, and her black skin...

"But with the coming of the sheild, came our Lady. She would not respond to anything when we found her, her eyes were not blank but they held no life, just as they do now. She was found in the courtyard by Ikia's fountain, just lying there. As I said before, we could not bring ourselves to kill her. We found that with the barrier, which stretched all the way across the lake, and the inner castle grounds, which are quite extensive, we lost the need to eat, though when a merchant comes, we allow him in in exchange for food, for we still enjoy the taste.

"Now we just wait here, to men, blinking in an out of existance as we please, to woman, just normal youkai ladies. But if you know the Lady, then perhaps you can awaken her..."

Sesshomaru 'hn'ed. "Please, allow me a few minutes on my own." Sai bowed, and was gone.

"Kagome," Sesshomaru's deep voice wavered for an instant. "Kagome, I miss you. They all missed you, they all searched for you before they died, Kagome, listen, my sweet kagome..."

She was so quiet, so empty, he longed for her laughter, her joy, even her sadness might be welcome more than this horrible void. She was just a doll, he thought miserably, just like Naraku had wanted her to be, just a doll, a tool, a puppet with an evil puppet master...

He kneeled before her, and let silver locks fall across her bare knees, whispering softly as he raised a hand to grasp her cold cheek. "Kagome, Kagome, wake up, fight it, you're not alone, I'm here... I'll protect you, I'll love you, please Kagome..."

She did not stir. Her beautiful blue eyes that had once held so much fire within them as they danced the dance of independance now stared so silently out into nowhere. He lowered his hand, and rested his head on her knees, breathing in her still-sweet scent.

"Kagome..." it was a broken whisper. She was all he had left beside Jaken. He had searched for her for centruies, under the watch of his brother's spirit, and his promise, slowly falling in love with the single girl he could not find.

"Kagome... come back, please Kagome, come back to me..." He needed to talk to her, listed to her sweet voice, listen to her singing, her beautiful voice that loved everything.

A single tear escaped his eye. Where had his beautiful Kagome gone?

Rising, before another hot tear could escape golden eyes, he gently brushed his cheek against hers, watching as she did not even twitch. How could she? It was as if she was made of porcelain.

Swearing gently in his mind, he brushed his lips against hers, watching as they remained partly open. For a moment, he thought it had worked, like in the stories, the movies, everywhere.

But Kagome still sat, staring at nothing over his shoulder. He wept, then. He was so tired, and he had searched for his Kagome because she was worth it all, she was so worth it... but now...

"Kagome, please... Kagome come now, come back to me." But she did not come.

He lifted her almost stiff form into his arms, gently, bringing her closer than he ever had before, close to his un-armored chest, close to his warm heartbeat. The doll, the perfect china doll, merely lay in his arms, as he walked out the door. Sai bowed her head, and kissed the doll's forehead, she knew now it was hopeless.

Sesshomaru carried her through the million courtyards, through the weeping youkai, who were still blinking in and out of existance, still hiding from the thing that Kagome had hid them from. He wrapped the Shikon about her neck, and it pulsed, but still, she was just a doll.

Such a beautiful doll.

He put her on Ah Uhn, led out by the plain wolf-youkai in her plain clothes, and was there for her to lay her porcelain head on.

He led Ah Uhn out of the wrought iron gates, that clanged shut as Te hid her grief by slamming with such force that they reverberated the sound throughout the whole castle.

"Bring her back," she whispered through the bars, "bring back our beautiful Lady... please."

Sesshomaru did not resond, as he flew home.

"Kagome, Kagome!" The two children stared at the silent girl as she sat in the chair, the huge, throne-like chair. They were Miroku and Sango's great-great-great-great-great grandons, and the story of the beautiful guardian of the Shikon no Tama had been passed down to them just a few months ago, as they came of age. Their parents wept behind them, "Oh, Kagome, Kagome, look at us!" they pleaded.

"Why does she look like a doll?" the sons asked.

They left in tears. Kagome would not wake for them. The girl that had been spoken of for centuries would not wake, even though the Shikon called to her from her own throat.

"Kagome," whispered Sesshomaru, as once again he lay on her knee. She was so sweet, even as this... imitation, this life-like doll.

"Kagome, wake for me, please," he whispered, one last time.

He would use Tenseiga, but she was alive. Her spirit was dead, but she was still alive, and the word could not heal the spirit.

"Wake up..." he ordered, so softly. Her hands were still folded, her legs still unmoving, her back rim-rod straight. He rose, about to leave.

The Shikon gave up, its pulsing had stopped in a single hard beat.

As he turned his back, he heard something. It was a sharp intake of breath, not more than a whisper of wind against vocal cords.

"Sesshomaru?" Her sweet voice, just as he remembered it, drifting across the room.

"Sesshomaru, where am I?"