Toxic Antidote by Ruriame

Toxic Antidote

DreamWalker’s Poison Challenge

Prompt Break-down:

1) Kagome is poisoned by some means (has to be explained somehow in the story and can't be from Sesshomaru).

2) Through some method, up to the author, Sesshomaru is involved in the process of curing Kagome.

3) Try to keep Sesshomaru in character, with perhaps a slightly warming of his character towards Kagome.

4) They don't have to end up together.

5) Have a minimum of 3000 words at least.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Inuyasha.

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Sesshoumaru stared at the white girl across from him, her lifeless black eyes staring into nothing and the mirror she held glimmered from the reflection of the stars and moon in the night sky. He didn’t know what Naraku was up to this time, but if killing the girl of the void would get him closer to defeating his enemy, he would deal with the insult of only being sent an incarnation. Sesshoumaru was not one for talk and immediately started attacking.

While the girl had not started any offensive techniques yet, she was annoyingly good at dodging his attacks. The death of the child was not necessary, but if she stood in his way, he would obliterate her. As the continued game of cat and mouse went on, Sesshoumaru found himself getting frustrated. Why would she appear at all if the only thing she would do is run away? He narrowed his eyes. What was her goal?

It couldn’t be Rin again since she wasn’t around and Jaken should have come bounding from their hiding spot by now if she had been taken. Brown noser as he was, he was usually reliable most of the time in that sense, particularly since he knew what would happen if Rin was hurt under his charge.

Suddenly, the mirror started to glow a bright white color, spilling light all around, surrounding him. His senses were overpowered and he had to shut his eyes to block it out.

“Sleep, Youkai Lord,” the soft lofty voice of the girl commanded, “and awake when we have returned what is yours.”

Through a force that was not his will, Sesshoumaru felt his body obeying the order of the girl and collapsed on the ground into an enchanted deep sleep.

The mirror sucked in a mist of green before the light completely faded into the surface of the glass and there was darkness once again in the presence of the mirror. Kanna turned and walked away, leaving Sesshoumaru where he was, her task done.

***

In the bright shine of the sun, Kagome stretched out of her sleeping bag. It had been a while since they had found a village with an inn that would allow Miroku to work his “skills” on the people in order to wheedle food and shelter for a night or so. If not for the hot spring they stumbled on the day before, she would have been absolutely filthy. Kagome sighed. It was virtually impossible to stay clean for any length in this time period.

But the vastness of the greenery and the feeling of closeness from the stars at night made up for the troubles of their travel. There was no doubt that there was a sense of freedom in the nature that surrounded her when she knew in her time most of those forests were long gone and the city lights blocked out the light from the heavens at night.

She walked over to her trusty big yellow backpack and looked into it to check the supplies once more. There was only one bag of chips left when she was sure last night there had been two, which meant only one explanation. Kagome glared in the direction of the hanyou sitting against a tree, holding the Tessaiga to his chest like always. Since it had been a while since she had taken the journey back to the well to get home, the only food really left was the ninja food, AKA instant ramen. It was a wonder she could handle eating so much of it at this point without getting sick. It wasn’t like the stuff was healthy. It was useful, but certainly not healthy.

Hidden in the shade of the trees, a lone youkai looked on at the scene. Naraku had promised him great power for the pittance task of using the poison temporarily infused within his claws to fatally wound one of the members of the ragtag group in front of him. He smirked. It almost wasn’t worth his time. They looked to be a harmless bunch. He had been warned that the girl in the strange green and white attire was a miko, but she was vastly untrained. He almost chuckled. The girl must be weak indeed if she couldn’t sense his demonic aura. His only complaint was that it would be too easy.

The poison that he held was really strong, so it would have been able to kill the hanyou, but Naraku’s instruction had been to kill one of the humans. He could kill whoever he wanted, but the miko was probably the best option because she seemed the weakest and was closest to the hanyou, but he didn’t want to waste his time on her. The taijiya and houshi looked like more formidable opponents.

He had also heard about the houshi’s Kazanaa and decided he really didn’t want to be on the opposite end of that. With that in mind, he chose to focus on the taijiya. Since most of the members of the group were still sleeping, he decided to take his chance.

While the water started to boil, Kagome heard a rustle that made her turn her head to the right and saw a demon quickly approaching their campsite.

“Youkai!” Kagome yelled and everyone else immediately awoke from their slumber. But her warning came too late as the youkai was moving very fast. They wouldn’t be ready on time. With her bow and arrows too far away and the youkai quickly heading towards the unarmed and still groggy group, Kagome grabbed the first thing she could, which was the pot of boiling water.

The hot water didn’t hurt the demon much more than a small sting, but the fact that the human miko had dared attempt to attack him in the first place was crime enough and he acted on impulse and struck her with his now powerful claws, creating a deep cut along Kagome’s left arm.

So he ended up hitting the miko anyway. The demon shrugged, feeling the borrowed poison leave the tip of his fingers, entering the miko’s body through the gash. No matter. He had still completed his task and that was all that mattered. He hastily fled, feeling the hanyou quickly approaching.

InuYasha had left shortly after Kagome had started preparing breakfast and was a little farther away from camp, sniffing around and trying to find some leads on Naraku and the Shikon no Tama shards. It was very common for InuYasha to sense youkai nearby since it wasn’t as if there were a small number of them. So when he sensed one nearby, it wasn’t exceptionally powerful and not much of a threat so he didn’t think anything of it. He hadn’t thought the demon would be stupid enough to attack in the first place, but if it did, Sango and Miroku could have handled it.

They all rushed to the fallen Kagome’s side. She wasn’t making much noise but her face was contorted in pain. He growled. InuYasha hadn’t felt Sesshoumaru’s presence but the evidence in front of him was damning. There was only one being who had that type of poison. Many different demons had poison, obviously, but each demon had a distinctive type and the one that was coursing through Kagome was undoubtedly Sesshoumaru’s poison.

InuYasha sniffed the air and growled louder, seeing his half brother walking closer to the group. So he decided to make an appearance, did he? InuYasha immediately took out Tessaiga and held it in the direction of the approaching Daiyoukai.

Sesshoumaru had been following the scent of his poison and found it ended here. Of course, to make his day complete he had to run into his annoying excuse of a half brother. Sesshoumaru had been fighting the enchantment Kanna had put on him since he had lost consciousness and finally broke free. His poison was still gone and it was a hindrance to have to go after it, but he couldn’t let someone else take advantage of something that was rightfully his, even for a short amount of time.

“Sesshoumaru! How dare you attack Kagome, you bastard!”

“Hanyou, I believe it is you who is the bastard if I am not mistaken.”

“Shut up! Why did you hurt Kagome?” InuYasha demanded.

“I did no such thing.”

“Liar, the smell of your poison is all over her!”

“That is because she was attacked with my poison.” Sesshoumaru stated matter-of-factly.

“Keh, so you admit it now.”

“The limit of your intellect astounds me. Although the only explanation possible in that tiny brain of yours is to believe me to have done the deed, it is possible for someone else to use my attacks if they stole my poison. There are youkai capable of such a feat.” InuYasha narrowed his eyes at Sesshoumaru’s statement, not lowering the weapon even a little.

“Naraku?” InuYasha questioned.

“The white child. Her mirror steals souls, does it not? Who is to say it cannot steal anything else?”

“You’re lying.” InuYasha grit his teeth.

“You tell yourself that, hanyou, as you watch your miko die. There is precious little time left for her as you stand here arguing with me.”

InuYasha immediately turned his attention to the weakened form of Kagome on the floor, half held by Sango and looked over by Miroku and Shippou.

As much as he despised having to sink low enough to ask his half brother for help, InuYasha knew that Sesshoumaru was the only one who could heal her because it would take too long any other method and he knew his own poison the best.

“Can you heal her?” InuYasha asked. Sesshoumaru almost showed surprise at the question. The hanyou was asking him to heal a human?

“And what makes you think she’s worth my time?”

“She’s the Shikon no miko! We need her to defeat Naraku!”

“Oh? And what of your last miko? Was she not also the Shikon no miko?”

“That’s not the point, Sesshoumaru!” InuYasha yelled, the words hitting the mark.

“Isn’t it?”

“Please, Sesshoumaru-sama, she was trying to save us. It was our fault that we weren’t prepared. Don’t let her die from our mistake.” Sango pleaded the youkai lord.

Sesshoumaru looked to the feverish girl who was getting paler and hotter as time went on, the sickly green color of the poison showing through her nearly translucent skin. Although it was Sango that had spoken, Sesshoumaru addressed his half brother.

“There is no glory in trying to save other people. If she had been smart she would have let the others fend for themselves and hid herself for her own safety.”

“But Kagome-sama isn’t like that. She wouldn’t abandon others to save herself.” Miroku jumped in.

“It is no fault of mine that she endangered herself. She should suffer the consequences of her own actions.”

It wasn’t that he hated her or wanted to see her death, Sesshoumaru just felt the human miko was weak and there was no worth in saving her life. Always having to be protected by others, the miko couldn’t stand with her power alone. Even if he took the poison out of her body, who was to say that she would live through the whole ordeal? The poison had been in her body too long, even if he acted now, she would never fully recover. Would she be able to deal with the complications of surviving? Sesshoumaru would not save someone only for them to end up dead again later.

“Sesshoumaru, you asshole! Heal her already!” InuYasha screamed.

“InuYasha…” Kagome breathed so softly it was difficult to hear.

“Yeah?” he asked, turning to look at her.

“Osuwari.”

Even if the word was barely audible, the result was still the same as InuYasha face planted into the ground, creating a nice InuYasha-sized crater.

“What the hell was that for?” demanded the hanyou when he stood back up.

“If he…doesn’t…want to…help…don’t…force him…”

“But Kagome, you’re dying.”

“I…can…fight it…on…my…own…” her voice trailed.

Kagome smiled weakly. She was pretty certain that this would be her death. The poison was very painful and she could feel it flowing through her veins. Her miko powers were still fighting, trying to purify the youkai poison, but in her weakened state, there wasn’t much she could do. It was spreading too quickly and her purifying powers were not strong enough. The forces fighting within her only made it hurt more. Kagome knew it would make her death less painful if she stopped fighting, but she refused to. She still had something to do, something worth living for. She had a purpose to fulfill. Even if she was sure she would die, she couldn’t give up for those reasons.

She could feel herself slipping more and more away from reality. Purification was draining all her energy and soon she would have nothing left to fight with. The lack of energy would kill her before the poison did. Just as Kagome felt like she would slip under again and not be able to come back, she heard a deep voice very faintly.

“I shall revive her.”

Everyone turned to the youkai lord in shock.

“She will ask for water, but do not give her any. It will dilute the poison, but it will also make it spread faster. The goal is to isolate it in one spot.” he continued.

Far was it from compassion that made him decide to change his mind. Although he would never admit it out loud, Sesshoumaru was somewhat impressed with the miko’s determination. He could see that she wouldn’t have much longer if something wasn’t done. By being willing to let herself take her life by fighting until the end instead of letting the poison consume her, she had earned his intervention to prolong her short human life.

Sesshoumaru was well aware of how painful the experience was. When he was younger and training under his father, he had to undergo the torture of taking his own poison. He had to endure it for about the same amount of time as the human girl was doing at that moment. His whole body had been on fire and throbbed from the relentless heat and scorching sensations that were consuming him. He had wanted anything to quench that hellish fire.

 “Feel the pain, Sesshoumaru. By witnessing the pain firsthand, you understand how your opponents will feel and that gives you an advantage over them. By understanding your natural weapon from all angles, you can better master it.” his father had said.

Inu no Taishou’s idea had been that making Sesshoumaru feel the effects of the powerful poison was a means to make him stronger. Knowing how the opponent would feel would let Sesshoumaru know how that being would behave and react in that condition. Therefore there would be no surprises and he could prepare for everything that could happen under the circumstance that he poisoned his enemy.

Sesshoumaru focused his mind again on the present. He walked to the girl and knelt down, grabbing the arm that held the gash, assessing the damage and the movement of the poison through her body.

“Water…” the girl whispered with a pleading look in her eyes. She was getting closer to the right stage where he would be able to intercept the poison.

Sesshoumaru could sense the fidgeting of the people around him and reminded them to ignore her entreaties. He had to make himself clear because if any of them interrupted him, they would risk her death as there was a very short amount of time between when she could be saved and when it would be too late.

Using his youki, Sesshoumaru pushed the poison in the direction of his choosing, clumping it together into a single ball of poison. As he moved his hands up her arm to her throat, the noxious material followed. Soon he had gathered it all at the base of her neck and Kagome began to choke repeatedly, worrying the onlookers.

He had to do the next part quickly once it was all in one spot because if he left it there too long, the concentration of such a strong toxin in a vital body area would surely kill her. Without warning, Sesshoumaru made his move to extract the poison from her body and pressed his lips to hers.

To the shock of everyone around, it looked to them as if he were holding her in a loving embrace and kissing her, but they knew that he wouldn’t do such a thing for no reason. Sesshoumaru stayed like that for a span of several seconds and when he lifted his head, traces of green vapors could be seen being sucked into his mouth.

Sesshoumaru gently moved the miko’s body off of him and laid it on the ground, rising. He turned to the others.

“She will still have to recover from the effects the poison left on her body, but with rest she will be able to heal almost completely.”

“What do you mean almost completely?” InuYasha insisted. Wasn’t the point to heal her? What was this ‘almost’ crap? Sesshoumaru’s eyes bore into Inuyasha’s defiant ones.

“The poison is meant to kill, hanyou. It was not made to be healed. The fact that she is alive at all should be enough. She will not recover fully so I will come when she is better to let her know what to expect from surviving.”

With that, Sesshoumaru left the group alone without looking back.

About two weeks later, Kagome jumped into the well back to the Sengoku Jidai. It had been unanimously decided that to recover to the best possibility, Kagome should return to her time and maybe modern medicine would be able to cure more than what Sesshoumaru had implied.

Although she was not one hundred percent, Kagome felt like she was in good enough health to travel around again. Naraku was certainly not going to take a vacation just because she was sick. Besides, one of the reasons she had wanted so badly to live was so she could rid the world of his evil presence. Staying at home to heal would be defeating the purpose.

When Kagome climbed up to the other side of the well, she almost fell down it again from the sight that greeted her.

There stood the youkai lord leaning against a tree, staring right at her. She tried to keep herself composed and got out of the well as gracefully as possible (which wasn’t really graceful at all).

“When you were nowhere to be found, I was about to leave when I heard the hanyou mention something about a well in this forest.” he answered before she even asked. Kagome nodded in understanding.

“Thank you for what you did, Sesshoumaru-sama.”

It was not lost on him that she now decided to use the honorific when addressing him.

“Do not expect me to do so again.”

“Of course not.” she replied. There were a few minutes of silence. Kagome cleared her throat. “I hope I’m not being rude by asking this, but what are you doing here?”

“To tell you the condition of your life.”

His word phrasing had been weird so Kagome asked for an elaboration.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m sure you have been told by now that you will never be exactly the way you were before this incident.”

Not trusting her voice, Kagome nodded again.

“There will be moments when you think the pain will return but it stops right before you feel it completely. These are ghost reflexes as your body remembers the trauma from the event. Some episodes will be worse than others.”

Kagome gave a sigh of relief.

“Is that all?” she asked.

Sesshoumaru lifted an eyebrow at the girl’s insolence. Had she already forgotten the fiery pain of suffering she had endured? Even he dreaded those times when he felt those sensations. It was usually what made him so grumpy all the time. Waiting for the pain to return, cursing internally when they did. It was something he had to deal with all the time.

Seeing his expression, Kagome temporarily panicked and started speaking again.

“I meant no insult, Sesshoumaru-sama, it’s just that I noticed that feeling before and I took some medication to make it go away when I was still recovering.”

“There is no medicine in existence to dull the ache of such bodily abuse.” Sesshoumaru declared.

While she had been recovering, Kagome had guessed the reason why he knew so much about the effects of the poison (and it wasn’t just because it was his poison). To show that she was not threatening him, Kagome moved slowly to take something out of the worn-out and much used yellow bag. She pulled out a container of pills and held it up so he could see it. Sesshoumaru stared at the bottle stoically.

“It’s medicine, the same one I’ve been taking every time the pain comes back. You don’t have to take it if you don’t want to, but I’ll give it to you in case you decide to try it. For saving me, this is the least I can do for you.” Since she had already declared her actions, Kagome felt it was safe for her to advance towards him.

For a while, she just stood in front of him as he made no motion to move. When Kagome finally decided to leave it on the ground by his feet, his hand suddenly reached out towards the bottle she held. She quickly released it when she felt a brief contact from the skin of his hand. She blushed lightly, remembering exactly how it was that he had saved her. Kagome knew that it hadn’t really been a kiss and he had done it just to remove the toxins from her body, but she still couldn’t help it because it didn’t change the fact that his lips had touched hers.

Realizing the train of her thoughts, Kagome blushed even deeper. She realized that she had been awkwardly standing there and was about to turn to leave when she heard his voice again.

“Miko, why are your cheeks inflamed? Are you sickly already?”

Kagome was mortified that he had noticed her reaction and stepped a little more backwards.

“Oh, no. I’m fine.” she replied quickly. He looked skeptical. “Really, I’m fine. Just a little flustered is all.” Kagome’s eyes widened and put a hand over her mouth. Flustered? Flustered? Could she have chosen a stupider word than that?

“I see. And what is it that is…flustering you?”

Why was she having this conversation with Sesshoumaru? She was just going to give him the medicine and go. This was not supposed to be happening. Kagome had not planned to be talking to him so long. Why, of all times, did Sesshoumaru have to decide to be more talkative now? She didn’t know how to deal with the situation.

“Well, I…I should be going now. The others will be worried about me…”

Hoping he would take that as a cue to leave, Kagome turned and tried once again to head towards the village, but to her dismay, Sesshoumaru didn’t seem to take that hint.

“Could it be that my presence is bothering you, miko?”

With her back still facing him and not daring to turn around, Kagome attempted to laugh.

“Ehehehe, whatever gives you that idea, Sesshoumaru-sama?”

Suddenly, she felt his hand graze her arm and she jumped backwards, only to collide into his chest. She turned around immediately and found her face was very close to his, and if it was possible, her blush deepened.

“Because you flinch when I touch you.” Sesshoumaru stated. Kagome again tried to laugh it off and slowly backed away.

“You must be imagining things.” But every time she took a step back, he took one forward, impeding her progress.

“But you are not afraid.” he continued saying as if she hadn’t said anything.

“Of course I’m af-afraid.” Kagome stammered in denial.

“No.” he said simply, still following her backwards motion. “You are not afraid of me.”

Kagome felt her legs bump into the well and knew her escape route had been cut off. And then he was just as close to her as he had been before she had started moving away. He was so close that she could practically feel the body heat radiating from his figure.

“I wonder then, miko, what it is that you are afraid of.”

Why? Why was his proximity making her weak? Kagome’s breaths had become shallower and faster and she felt like she had run a mile when she only walked a few feet, a few yards at most.

“KAGOME!” InuYasha’s familiar voice called, breaking her out of her reverie. She turned her head towards the direction of his voice and when she looked forward again, Sesshoumaru was unexpectedly several feet away from her.

Then he did something she didn’t expect.

He smirked.

“We shall meet again, miko.”

And then he turned and walked into the forest, disappearing into the trees.

The End

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A/N: This challenge is kind of old but there was no deadline and an idea struck when I saw it so I decided to do it.

I like to use the Japanese terms as much as possible, but if you don’t know what I’m referring to, you can always message me and I’ll tell you. I find that a lot of people usually know the Japanese terms anyway so hopefully it won’t be much of a problem. If enough people ask, I’ll put a glossary of terms later.

Although it was kind of annoying to only call him “him” or “he,” I decided not to name Naraku’s minion that had Sesshoumaru’s stolen poison because I didn’t think he was important enough and a name would give him too much of an identity. I hope that wasn’t too confusing for you to read so many times.

And in case you’re wondering if you didn’t figure it out, the kiss was much like CPR when you go mouth to mouth to provide air, only in this case, Sesshoumaru did it to suck the poisonous vapors out of Kagome’s body.

As always, thanks for reading and sorry for the long comments :)