The Siren and The Beast by Opal-Dreams

The Siren and The Beast

Disclaimer: I don’t own Inuyasha or its characters. Say hello to the very talented Rumiko Takahashi who owns him and the entire cast. Hello Rumiko Takahashi. Hehehe! The rating may be wrong but I did try to get it right.

By: year of the snake (at fanfiction) (aka.) crescentmoon (at mediaminer) And now Opal-Dreams on DeviantArt and Dokuga.

The Siren and The Beast

Sesshoumaru remembered asking his half-brother when inside their father's decaying body, “Why love them?” Them being human women.

He couldn't understand the obsession with them that threaded it's way in a haphazard pattern into the lives of his father, his half-brother... and even himself. He was curious what Inuyasha would say, what words could his half brother say to unravel this mystery?

Inuyasha never answered. Yet a battle had occurred over his words.

No demon he had ever come across who fathered a half-demon could answer the question. What was it in the humans that pulled at demons so, that called them, often like a siren's call to their doom? What made demons so susceptible to human women? Female demons for the most part were unaffected by humans, period. But the males... What was it?

Sesshoumaru had watched his father, the human, Izayoi, had called and Inu no Taisho's attempts at resistance had profited him nothing. When her final call came, along with Myoga's warning of her human jailers/protectors, he had rushed, zipped to his demise. Inu no Taisho had known it would be his end and he went. Unable as a child to rebuff her, even to save his own life. He had determinedly traded his life for the human woman he loved.

Sesshoumaru watched many such stories, that passed in varying degrees of the same tale. Love for a woman, a human woman, had killed many demons.

Still when he saw her he knew he would fall for the same trap, and he refused to be lured.

When he first saw her, Inuyasha sat petulantly at her side. An unhappy look graced his face. She sat serenely there. Her face was calm, her hair freshly cut, and her eyes, behind the calmness, laughed at the boy beside her. She talked to Inuyasha sedately.

Sesshoumaru had turned and left that day. He never returned until he heard of her death and Inuyasha's. The rumor was only half true. Inuyasha had only been sealed.

The next time he saw her, she had been reincarnated. She was again with his half-brother. It was during this meeting that he asked Inuyasha his question. When he couldn't or didn't answer he attempted to destroy the temptress and thus, at least temporarily, remove the threat to his own life.

Yet she lived.

That had surprised him at first. Then he realized that he would only be called by a strong human. Anything else wouldn't appeal to him.

So he tried to run as he had the first time he had seen a body enhousing this soul. But her call to him was stronger this time. He had interacted with her and it was impossible for him to not return time and again. He was caught in the cycle of a siren's call. The same call captivated his brother as well.

Sesshoumaru fought many battles with Inuyasha, under many different disguises. The true heart of the reason was that they were rivals for the same siren. Even if Inuyasha didn't know it. Even if Sesshoumaru wanted to deny the pull of this Kagome's soul. And to all appearances he did. But he knew every time he came back that he had lost another small battle and the unknowing, unsuspecting, human woman won another. Tangled him deeper into a web she didn't know she wove. He wanted to be angry with her, to hate her, wished he could draw out his dwindling desire to kill her, but when he called at it, pulled at it, it retreated faster than he could call, ran away swifter than he could pull.

That is why when given the chance to let her die at another's hand, as he had with the first incarnation he had met, he saved her, multiple times. Briefly he was allowed to be her hero. Briefly he almost touched her. He almost gave in to the nagging call that coaxed, 'Touch her, touch her. There will be no harm in a simple touch.' But knowing that touching her would race him faster down the road he was fighting against with every step, he managed to gather anger at the voice. Barely, the wish to touch her was subverted. He managed to leave. One of the hardest things he somehow was able to repeat.

Each time he rejected her call, refused to see it through to the end he knew would come, it grew louder, it sang more beautifully, it enticed more spectacularly, it drew him more desperately than it ever had before. It grew harder to ignore instead of easier. Was it not supposed to grow easier to bare over time?

He was no fool, Sesshoumaru hadn't lived for hundreds of years because of foolishness. As he observed, as he fought, rescued and relived the times he had seen her, he was constantly reminded of a fact that was second on his most desired to be forgotten, unremembered, untrue, Kagome was in love with Inuyasha. The other man she had spiraling in a whirlpool of siren's notes, even as she was completely oblivious to her power over the half-brothers. She had no idea she was leading both of Inu no Taisho's sons in a dance that almost always could only be stopped in death.

When the jewel she was seeking to repair was whole, he felt part of him mourn at the thought that now she would return to her home. She did not, and the deadly call continued. After the wish was made and the gem disappeared, again he thought, 'Perhaps she will go.' Again she did not, and the call continued. She planned to mate Inuyasha, and the mourning pain worsened. Still the call continued to surge, it rubbed the pain raw but he would allow her her choice, even if he hadn't let her in on all the options.

Before the mating could be accomplished the village in which Inuyasha and Kagome were settling was attacked, horrendously. Both Inuyasha and Kagome fought, side by side.

Sesshoumaru felt the completely familiar draw of danger and he was moving quickly before he could even contemplate not going to her aid. She wasn't his to protect, he didn't want the desire to protect her. Yet he followed the call.

He arrived after deadly blows had been laid on both of the other members of the triangled tango.

He could save her, he could save them both should he choose. He even drew his sword to do so. Then he returned it to it's sheath. He was determined this time not to heed the call. This siren would not be his end, as she had been Inuyasha's.

Yet before he walked away he again heard the voice, the urging, nagging voice, 'Touch her. Do it. What harm can it do now? She's dieing. It will do no harm.'

And he succumbed. Sesshoumaru stroked the whispering strands of her hair as she bled out and died.

Still that was not the end, as he knew it would not be. She was reincarnated again. So was Inuyasha. Her name this time was Kiki. His was Ivan. Sesshoumaru also went by a new name, although he still owned the same body, Shinichi.

Inuyasha was now a platinum blond, a human completely, though of mixed blood in another way. Kiki, his Kagome, was much the same, her hair was kept a little shorter and her eyes were a brighter blue but she still called a temptation that the penance for he would not accept.

So again he ran.

He kept tabs on her, even so. Inuyasha, Ivan that is, fell in love with her, still swayed by his eternal siren, he wanted to marry her when he got his leave. He died the first year of World War I. They never married.

Sesshoumaru was tempted, her call intensified with the boy's death, to return and take the siren, finally do as her persuasive call demanded. But he refused to ever be compared to Inuyasha or his soul again. He still refused to fall prey to the trap known as human woman. So he let this one slip away as well. She died of a illness that was misdiagnosed as consumption, not long after Ivan died. Even before news of his death reached her.

There were many more reincarnations, most of them died young, always Inuyasha's reincarnation found her before Sesshoumaru could. So he would leave. But he always knew when one or the other died. If Inuyasha died, the siren sung sweeter honey to him, if she died the song rested.

They, Inuyasha and Kagome, always parted before a marriage or consummation could take place. Usually it was through death and sometimes it was because of stubbornness, but always it was the same, Sesshoumaru, because of his refusal to be compared to anyone by his Kagome, denied the need to go to her, even after Inuyasha died or left. Leaving Kagome's soul alone to grieve love lost, or die.

Sesshoumaru also knew when Kagome's soul returned to mortality, a soft tinkling of the siren's music would begin. It would have no directional pull, so he couldn't follow it to the baby destined to ruin his existence. It filled his days with background music. Impossible to drown out but easy to ignore, usually. When puberty hit his human female the strength of it increased, but still had no direction. He knew from experience that if he waited the direction would sing out soon enough, but always too late. The song would pull urgently in her direction the very moment she was old enough to be physically attractive to him. Often that first pull woke him, he'd shoot out of bed like he had heard someone foolish enough to break into his home and be on his way to her.

He could no longer claim, even to himself, that he didn't want her. It was only his stubbornness to beet Inuyasha to her that continued to stop him from marrying, mating, her for the last six or so lives. If he ever met her first he would walk into the trap, fall into the siren's arms and drown, willingly, gladly. He had come to the point where being her mate, her husband, appealed more to him than the siren's call ever had.

He would surrender because he finally understood, truly it wasn't the call's fault the demons died. The call would alert a demon to the woman's presence but they chose to die, or risk death for their particular chosen human woman, because of the love they accepted when they caved under the strain of the call, when they accepted all the call promised them and returned the love they found there.

So he was not surprised when one chilled, starry night, a siren's call, strong as it ever was, slipped into his mind. It was as loud as a wake up bugle call, yet as beautiful, melodic and haunting as a harp, a flute or a violin.

He was standing out in his hall in a second. Thankful that he owned a house instead of rented an apartment, he returned to his room to change out of his pajamas, red silk ones his secretary had given him for Christmas last year.

His change was quicker than his wake up call.

He was surprised when the call didn't require him to leave the state, or even the country. It didn't even pull him out of the county. Just from his mountain valley home to the closest city. The city in which he worked.

In the suburbs on the far side of the city he slowed. His siren was definitely in this house. It was a modest two story, cookie cutter house. The only thing that distinguished this house from it's neighbors was the fact that the door was forest green, the rest were white or brown.

Sesshoumaru jumped into a tree near a likely window. He guessed correctly or the call knew even more than it had before. There she was, black hair messily fanning her pillow, her single bed and a desk she used as a place to do schoolwork and a dresser the only furniture he could see. He suspected he couldn't see a bookshelf that probably matched the desk.

The room was mostly clean, although the desk was cluttered and her blankets askew. There was a little brown fluff sticking it's paw out from under the bed. The most amusing thing was the clothes she had worn the day before littered the floor. Her pajamas were dark blue, plush fabric with pale, haloed, yellow moons speckling them. Her hair was almost as long as the incarnation Kikyo's had been.

After watching her breath calmly for half an hour he managed to force himself to leave. Instead of returning home he went to his office. It was closer, perhaps that would appease the sweetly singing call until the time was later and he could contrive a reason to meet her again. He also needed to find out where Inuyasha was.

The nagging that gripped Sesshoumaru's mind made work difficult. Sesshoumaru almost thought that the work day was too long. He normally stayed and worked through lunch, so Robin, his secretary, was surprised when he left early for lunch. “Have a good day sir.” she murmured in surprise.

As he was trying to not reveal his demonic heritage to the humans, he attempted to redirect his thoughts. Robin was the reincarnation of his beloved 'daughter', Rin. He had found her multiple times in his life. She was an Asian-American this time, a sweet young woman. Her husband was as always, at least the times he'd found her, a reincarnation of the slayer child, Kohaku. He was a furrier now days, mostly dealing in mink and rabbit skins. His name was Kirby or something like that.

She had two sons and was three months pregnant, they didn't want to know the sex. Both of her sons were people he had known in the past. The eldest, Jacob, was Jaken, and her other, Sterling, was Shippo's soul.

Sesshoumaru as mindlessly as he could walked through the city. Nine cold, gray blocks from his work he turned in from the sidewalk. The building he was walking towards was made of orangery-red brick. 'The hospital?” he wondered. He shrugged it off and returned to letting the impatient tugging guide him.

He journeyed up a flight of stairs and down four different halls. Then he saw her.

She was cleaning puke from off the floor and gently, sweetly telling the crying, apologetic child hugging her side that it was okay. The child was a little girl.

Sesshoumaru stared at her. Finally the child went back to the table where other children were making coasters to send home to their families.

She was taller then he remembered her ever being. But this was also probably the oldest he had ever seen her. Perhaps she was twenty-four, but most likely she was only twenty-three.

She looked up at him, her eyes were paler blue than ever, a little undistinguished. She ignored him to put the mop and sanitizer away. He kept her in sight. Eventually she twitched and asked, “Can I help you?”

He nodded. “I'd like to volunteer.”

“That's great.” She smiled brightly at him. “Have you signed in?”

The tall Asian man shook his head.

“This way please.” She led him to the nurse's station. She explained to the nurse stationed there. After he signed in he joined Kagome at the craft table. She was setting up for the next round of kids to do the craft she organized. “Just put these coasters on the counter over there to dry.” She gestured to the counter and continued cleaning up glitter.

Sesshoumaru did as instructed. When they were all cleaned up and the new coasters ready Kagome nodded to the nurse at the desk. The nurse called for the next batch of kids over the intercom.

“I'm Karen Higurashi.” This was the first time her last name ever repeated. She held her hand out to him with a smile.

His heart paused, then bounced like a school boy on the last day before Christmas Break. He looked at her hand. He had never touched her skin before. If he did he understood at his core, there would be no turning back. This would be it. Nothing would ever, could ever be the same.

He stared at it so long Karen was beginning to withdraw the offer when he moved. He swooped in and grasped her warm retreating hand in his warmer one. “Shinichi,” he rasped. “My name is Shinichi Tanaka.”

Karen looked up at him startled. Then down at their joined hands. Returning her gaze to his face she smiled at him again. “Shinichi.”

He was right, already he was lost, everything was changing quickly. Nothing would be the same now that he held that somewhat calloused, warm, long-fingered hand.

Sesshoumaru spent that day at the hospital, volunteering his time, so he could stay near Karen, Kagome's newest name. He learned she was only a volunteer here as well. She volunteered nearly everyday, as she was taking a break from school and couldn't find a job. He had even got her to laugh once. It was a day he would never forget.

As they parted Karen said, “I really wish we could spend more time together, so maybe I could figure out where this deja vu came from, but my parents are expecting me for dinner.”

“Do not worry. We will meet again. I plan to volunteer often. Will you be here tomorrow?”

Karen nodded, “Yes.”

“I have to work but may I take you out for dinner tomorrow?”

“I'd like that.” That was all the answer he needed. He smiled somewhat. He knew by that answer that she didn't know Inuyasha now. 'But have they already met? Does it matter anymore?' Sesshoumaru thought back to their handshake. 'I'm not sure anymore.'

So he met her the next day and on days that he couldn't volunteer or set a date with her he stole seconds, minutes, of time just to watch her. He never let her catch him, but after that brief touch Sesshoumaru couldn't ignore the siren call she unknowingly emitted.

They spent two months dating before the embarrassed Karen could admit that Shinichi was her boyfriend and not just potential.

It was another month before he asked, “Do you have any objection to me kissing you?”

Her eyes were more vibrant than when he first met Karen. The dark hair of her head surrounded a merrily reddening face. Yet she allowed the kiss. It was simple, chaste, almost something you might expect to share with a family member, that is if it weren't for a zing that jolted through the both of them.

The song that drew him to her, let him off the hook for the rest of the night. Yet he was unable to sleep or rest. That something that had raced through him, it was like magic, yet unlike magic. He was able that night to judge his feelings for her without the hypnotic pull she had on him. Sesshoumaru had not found them lacking.

Three more months passed. Sesshoumaru was happy, Kagome, Karen, was happy.

Sesshoumaru's idea of a long courtship, his ideal, had to be given up, the tempting call of his siren was too unrelenting. He refused to dishonor her by bedding her before completing the strange human custom of marrying the temptress.

The night he planned to ask her, he waited for thirty minutes. She didn't show up. So having to know why, to know what was wrong he floated along the lines of the pull.

He found it strange to be led to the hospital at night. Even so he entered the door and surged up two flights of stairs.

He found her drugged to sleep, drip IVs in her veins, blanket pulled up to her armpits in a hospital bed. It was way after visiting hours.

The next day when she woke up Sesshoumaru, Shinichi to her, was still there. “What happened?” he asked quietly. It was still before visiting hours but he didn't care.

“I'm sorry Shinichi. I took quiet the tumble yesterday, bruised a bunch of places and fractured my hip.” She looked down.

“What are you not telling me?”

“When they did the x-rays they found cancer. It's so far gone that chemo wont help and surgery is out of the question. They give me a week to a month to live. Shinichi...” She looked at him in the eye. “I want you to walk out that door and not come back. I don't want you to remember me in this bed.”

“But you won't be leaving it.” he stated his question, in his heart already knowing the answer.

She shook her head. “No.” was her simple answer.

“Then I will stay, and when I leave I will always return.”

“Why?”

“Because I cannot ignore your siren's spell, nor do I wish to. All I desire is to be around the siren I love.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

Karen wrapped her arms around Shinichi. “Then I will not deny you your time with me.”

Three days later Robin was in the hospital as well. Joyously her reason was a better one. She bore son number three. They named him Ignatius.

Ignatius' birth gave Sesshoumaru an idea. He got permission and with the unneeded help of a nurse he took Karen down the hall to look at all the babies in their plastic, little cribs.

Her face lit up at the sight. He pointed to a bald, sleeping little baby. “That is my secretary's newest. His name is Ignatius.” As he pointed to the babe, the boy awoke. Sesshoumaru was stunned at who he saw in those innocent, sleepy eyes.

When the nurse decided Karen was tired, she began wheeling her back to her white and yellow room. Shinichi sent them along ahead.

“Well Inuyasha, looks like I truly did beat you.”

The baby waved a fist he was unable to uncurl at him. Sesshoumaru got the message.

“Why would you do that for me?”

The little newborn tried to tap the edge of his basket but couldn't reach. Still Sesshoumaru seemed to understand. 'Why can't you just say, 'Thank you' indeed.' he huffed to himself. All the same aloud he whispered, “Thank you.”

Ignatius fell swiftly back to sleep.

Shinichi retreated towards Karen's room. 'I'll have to arrange a meeting in which Kagome can hold him before she dies.'

As he drew near he heard Karen explaining to her mother and father her trip to see the babies. How Shinichi was thoughtful enough to think of it. Sesshoumaru had never met Karen's mother, although he met her father at ask for permission to seek Karen's hand.

He left the hospital to allow Karen and her parents time alone together. Shinichi walked to his work. People bustled in and out. He smiled, sales like the back to school sale brought big money in. Then he frowned, no amount of money would rescue the girl, the siren, just a few blocks away. There was no sale of replacement parts for dieing humans within the gray and blue painted store. There would be no help for her but the drugs to dull the pain of dieing. What did money or even the store mean then?

He had always been so proud of the businesses he had raised from the ground or even from the ashes of someone else's failure. 'But what profit, what comfort can they give now?'

Still he entered the well maintained structure. For a moment he watched children and teens, mostly under the supervision of a haggard mother, dash around the store. Everyone of them was looking for the prefect shoes, bags, pencil boxes, clothes or other school bound article. It was a confusing mess of people.

When he first held such a sale and witnessed it's mayhem, he had been shocked. He had wondered with their limited sense of smell and memory if all the children had truly gone home with the right adults. He had never had a complaint, so either each parent had felt they traded up or they had taken home the right child.

Sesshoumaru wandered aimlessly. Somehow he ended up in the toy section when he took notice.

Nearby a little girl was begging for a fashion doll. In another aisle a pair of boys set off every battery powered toy they could find. Close to the bikes a mother with four kids dripping from her cart was explaining why they couldn't afford any toys today. Her children were not taking it well.

Sesshoumaru walked down a newly unoccupied toy aisle. On one side was soft stuffed animals, on the other was board and card games of all kinds. He looked back and forth between the items, not sure what he was looking for.

That's when he took note of it, a large white bear, stuffed in between and behind the long boxed, askew board games. He pulled it out and studied it indifferently. Someone had been negligent when sewing it's face on. Instead of the comically smiling expression it should have, the bear looked more grumpy than happy. Even it's shining plastic eyes seemed to twinkle unhappily.

“Have you been caught in the painful cycle of a siren's spell also?” Sesshoumaru inquired flatly.

He was about to put it back in it's proper section when he remembered the battered, brown paw he had seen beneath Karen's bed that first night of the directional call. “My siren would like you.”

He turned and grabbed two board games and a deck of cards. He and Karen could play a few games. He knew how bored she got at times, particularly when he could not say what he wished, be it from lack of words or not knowing what it was he longed to say.

He returned to the hospital that evening. He passed the watch dog nurse at the nurse's station without arousing a thought that a visitor had come after hours.

Karen gladly made her tv cease it's noise and color. She greeted him with a big smile. Her smile grew a little amused when she noticed he had come bearing gifts. She hugged and fluffed the bear before naming it Ichi. Shinichi frowned and pretended he didn't know she was naming the grouchy thing after him. Placing the ungrateful bear beside her she offered him a hug as well.

He on the other hand gratefully accepted the lovely siren's affection. Before releasing him she kissed his forehead. The human facade he wore hid from view the markings that her soul, just perhaps, remembered were there. Then resting her forehead against his own she brushed her thumbs along his cheeks. She smiled, slowly, happily. Finishing with an Eskimo Kiss she let him straighten. “I had a strange dream while you were gone. Probably drug induced. For the life of me I can't remember it. All I remember is that you were in it, you old sourpuss.” She berated him affectionately. “And you were unhappy...” She stopped there.

Shinichi knew something was coming, she was building up to something. So he waited.

“Promise me something...” She paused again. Karen looked at him almost sternly, in her affectionate way. Still he said nothing, knowing better than to fall for a simple trap, laid by his siren or not. She sighed. “Promise me you will love again.”

He nodded. “I can escape love no longer. The desire to do so is gone.”

“You make it sound like some kind of hunter.” She laughed, accepting his odd pledge.

He looked seriously into her eyes when she left the laughing behind. “I have long been trapped by the huntress.”

Karen blushed, while she didn't quite smile, it was a happy, embarrassed and somewhat dazed look.

When she seemed at a loss for words for an extraordinary amount of time he inquired if she would enjoy playing one of the games he'd brought.

She shook her head. “I'd be asleep before it was over. Perhaps...” Karen paused looking away with a slight blush. “Perhaps you could tell me a story. Something tells me you know a great one.”

He thought for a moment. “Yes, I do know one. My... grandfather first told it to me.” Shinichi briefly stopped and helped her snuggle down to listen. The sleepy, excited smile told him a story of a little girl whose favorite part of bedtime was a tale to dream on. Her eyes though tired seemed more intense than the last time he'd noticed.

The story begun that night started with a priestess and a half-demon and a demon who watched from afar as the girl talked to the half-blood boy. He told of the song, the unexplainable pull the demon, the brother of the half-demon, felt towards the girl. He touched on the first two's deaths. Then he told of how the demon again met the girl, he reincarnation, along side his brother, who was released from his sleeping death.

When he came to his question the girl on the bed answered for him, breaking the flow of the story. “Maybe,” her smile tired grin explained, “there's not a single reason.” She rubbed one eye.

“What?”

“Maybe there wasn't just one reason, but many put together to look like it should be one.”

Shinichi was startled by the simplicity he had never considered. “I will have to think on that.”

Karen nodded. “So what happened with the demon then?”

“When his brother failed to answer he threw the acid in his claws at her.”

His siren gasped, “Why?!?”

“He thought that if he rid himself of the siren the pull would stop and he would be free.”

“Was she horribly deformed?” Somehow she knew the young priestess had not died.

“The rib bones behind her melted over her but she was unharmed. The sword protected her.”

He continued his tale. By the time he reached the part where the demon's own sword transported him far away from the battle to save his life Karen was asleep.

The next day he got Robin to bring her new little one over to visit.

Karen cooed and held the baby. She breathed in that 'fresh from heaven smell.' While the baby was still too young to smile he seemed very happy in her arms.

“I always knew I wouldn't have children, no matter how much I wished to.”

“Why's that dear?” asked Robin.

Shinichi sat in a chair listening.

“I was a sickly child. If anything was going around I'd catch it, and I'd get it worst than anyone around. Some force inside me said I would never have children. I used to blow it off as the bad feelings you get while sick. Now it's proved to be true.” Karen stroked the babe's head.

“I'm so sorry.” whispered Robin.

Karen waved her off. “Don't be. It just wasn't a trail I drew.”

All Robin could think of to do was nod sadly.

After Robin left with Little Ignatius Karen asked Shinichi, “Do you want Ichi back when I die?”

“I will not require him.”

“Would you mind giving him to Ignatius?”

Shinichi nodded, “I will do as you ask.”

That night when he snuck back into her room she asked him to continue the story. So he did, right from where he left off.

Karen managed to stay awake for a very long time. She slipped into slumber just before Kagome's, the siren's name, and the half-demon's, Inuyasha's deaths.

The next day she couldn't wait for bedtime. Sesshoumaru humored her and started in on the story at mid-day. First he teased her with a recap, she sulked through it. Then he told of Inuyahsa's and Kagome's deaths and how the demon could have saved them but didn't save either.

“Why? Why didn't he save her? Save them?.. And you still haven't told me his name either.”

“His name was Sesshoumaru. And he was a cold demon, running in fear of a siren's song, although he would never have admitted it. He let them die because of that fear. But the story isn't over, would you like to hear the rest?”

She nodded eagerly for all her grumpiness over the story demon's actions.

So he did. Shinichi continued to story, the fairy tale. How the demon encountered again and again the souls of his half-brother and the priestess, his siren singer. He named all of their various names until he came to the last ones, those he simply returned to the names Kagome and Inuyasha for.

“Then one chill night Sesshoumaru again felt the desperate first pull of his siren. He found her not too far away.”

He explained how his first hand shake with her had doomed him. Told of how he knew she had not yet met Inuyasha in this current life. Of how they had courted and how she fell terminally ill on the night he had planned to propose. Never showing up. How he followed the song he knew very well to find her. Of the day she held a baby in her arms, a baby who housed the soul of Inuyasha. Briefly he touched on the conversation he had had with baby Inuyasha.

Then he just left off.

“Well what happened next? How does it end?”

“I don't know. Grandfather never finished the story. I am waiting for the ending to come to me.”

“Will you let me know when you know?”

“Yes. Wherever you are I will be pulled, for you are my siren. I will tell you the story in heaven if I have to.”

It was then he knew why the increasing vibrancy of her eyes mattered. She had finally fulfilled her mission on earth. Kagome's soul would never be reincarnated again. He gazed again into her blue eyes and for the first time he could recall silent tears rolled down his face.

Karen was shocked. She did her best to comfort him without really knowing how. He had always appeared so unbreakable.

Shinichi sat on her bed, took her in his arms, carefully, wishing to squish her to him and make it so she could never leave him again.

“There, there, my big, strong man...” After that she could whisper no more, nothing else would come. In the end she just held him and mourned with him. Karen couldn't find any tears for what she would never do, never experience. All her tears were for the man who called her his siren, the man she loved. For the pain he was in that was due to increase any day now. So she held him as tight as her draining limbs could. Still before he could bare to let her go, she cried herself to sleep, nestled in his arms.

Sesshoumaru spent every minute that she was alone with her. Awake or asleep, it didn't matter. He drank in every tiny breath, every twitch and adjustment, just plain everything that signified life.

When she was awake her eyes continued to get more vibrant, more colorful. And her body continued to deteriorate. Even her mind was being lost in translation. It was painful to watch, the pain fate decided was the pitfall of his siren's trap. Yet he couldn't leave, couldn't walk away, couldn't love her no more. He wasn't lying when he told her he could no longer escape, that the desire was gone.

He watched her rapid deterioration for days, 'til she woke up late in the evening of the second day. “Sesshoumaru,” she called to him, not using the name this body knew him by. He came close to her.

“Sesshoumaru,” she whispered again, “you need to let me go.”

His face contorted in pain. Sesshoumaru leaned his forehead against his dear Kagome's. “I don't want to.”

“I know.” she rasped. “This body is in a lot of pain and I will die, whether you let me or not. Please let me wait for you in peaceful rest and not anguish. Let me go.”

He closed his eyes, still holding his forehead to hers. “Go Kagome. I will let you.”

“I love you Sesshoumaru.”

“And I you.” He pulled away.

Then walking into her bathroom he made a phone call. It was the hardest one of his entire life. He was giving Karen's, Kagome's, last few moments away to someone else who loved her. After years as a warlord, living through wars, diseases and death of all kinds, he knew the signals well.

“Hello?”

“Come to the hospital. Your daughter is awake, but will not make it through the night.”

“Oh! Oh! We will be there!”

He stayed with Karen, holding her cold, clammy hand and stroking her hair, until her heard her parents approaching the room. Silently he left before they arrived. He listened to their greetings, then left the building. He was too close or too far away to stand while she lay dieing.

After bidding a fond goodbye to her parents, Kagome's soul left her last mortal body.

A few days later the funeral was scheduled. Both he and Robin attended. Her sporting her newest little man in his car-seat.

There were flowers everywhere. Most commissioned by him. He had another surprise for his siren's parents. A mysterious benefactor had paid for Karen's hospital stay, her coffin, funeral, headstone, everything. They didn't know yet. She was his and he aways took good care of what was his.

Her parents and an old school friend spoke at her funeral. An aunt sang her favorite song, Put on a Happy Face, while another played the piano. The aunt who sung choked on emotion twice during the song.

It was a nice funeral. Sesshoumaru couldn't bare to go in and see her dead, during the viewing, so he hadn't been there for that part.

After the procession made it to the cemetery a few more words were said. Along with a prayer for her loved ones left behind and her own soul. Sesshoumaru had no worries for her soul.

It was announced that the church ladies had prepared a meal for the funeral attendees.

Everyone that wanted one took a flower from her coffin to press or dry in memory of her. Only the few children in attendance took one for a different reason.

Still by the time everyone except himself left the bouquet was still large and beautiful.

Hours later her parents returned. Her father sat down in a chair that hadn't been taken down and loaded up. He stared at the coffin encasing his daughter. Her mother on the other hand approached him.

“You're her young man aren't you? Shinichi right?”

He nodded.

“I thought so. I wish we had met before this. Karen spoke so highly of you, and very often. She said you were almost always with her when she was in the hospital. I'm surprised we never saw you.”

“I thought you would like your time with your daughter alone.”

“Thank you, for everything you did. We would have stayed with her but she didn't want us to.”

“She tried to send me away at first as well.” he comforted stiffly.

The mother laughed sadly, longingly. “That's my Karen, other's first.”

He nodded. That was something all her lives had in common.

Then the woman's eyes dawned in realisation. “You're the one who called us the night she died, aren't you?”

He looked vaguely uncomfortable. Again he nodded.

“Thank you.” Tears were in the childless mother's eyes.

Shinichi turned to leave. Give them time with their grief. His own could wait for a while.

“She truly loved you Shinichi.” said the mother quietly. She trailed off, what she left unsaid clattered in his ears. The words, 'And you loved her.' cried through the mother's silence.

Shinichi halted and nodded with his back to the woman who had once birthed the siren he'd loved, seemingly forever.

Then he pulled his long, dark coat closer around him. The demon was not used to the cold that was bitingly at home inside him. He walked away without another word.

All he had now was the dreadful silence. Not even a little of her call remained to comfort him. But why should it? She would never return and the song strumming in his head would be as painful a reminder as the lack of it.

Shinichi returned that night.

Her grave was now covered, the coffin was beneath the dirt. Her tombstone hadn't arrived yet. He stared at the brown earth for the longest time. Then he sat down, above her heart to keep watch. If he couldn't escape love for her, then he would be with her the only way he could.

He wandered the cemetery when the headstone was installed and flats of grass replaced on her grave. When the men where gone Sesshoumaru returned to his spot. If you looked at just the year of her birth and death you'd think she was twenty-five, but that was not the case. Karen died exactly a month before her twenty-fifth birthday.

Shinichi was missing for two days before anyone realized he wasn't around and should be. Robin was the one to notify the authorities.

Then four days later Robin was also the one to find him. She had a how-stupid-can-a-person-get? moment.

At the cemetery she sat beside him. “Shinichi, have you been here since she was buried?”

“No.”

“How long were you gone?” she questioned, not fooled.

“A couple hours.”

Robin sighed. “You have people so worried about you, Shinichi.”

“Do not lie Robin. You are the only one worried about me.” he stated, not at all hurt by the fact.

He ran a finger inside the carved name on the headstone. It might as well have said, 'Here lies the only other person who cared about Shinichi/Sesshoumaru.'

“She wouldn't want you acting like this Shinichi.”

“I finally gave in to my siren... and she died. I cannot go back to life as it was before.” He didn't look away from the marker.

Robin shifted. “Then don't. Yet return to life, a different life. It can still be a good one.”

“Hnm.” For the first time in years Robin didn't know what he meant by that. She decided that she had given him something to think on and thus needed to give him time to think on it. This conclusion reached she left him be.

She returned later that day, around lunchtime, holding a picnic basket in one hand and Ignatius' car-seat in the other. She set both on the ground and taking a blanket she spread that before setting her son belly down on it.

While his mother set out food for herself and Shinichi, Shinichi and Ignatius looked at each other. Ignatius then patted the ground beneath his blanket. Purposefully he returned his look to the old demon. The demon understood and nodded. Looking back down he again tapped the ground. Shinichi nodded more solemnly when the baby's stare returned to his own.

Pointedly the baby stared at him. This time he pawed his blanket without looking away. Sesshoumaru again nodded.

Inuyasha unhappily accepted his brother's answer with a floppy nod of his own head. Then unable to maintain control very long the babe did what all babes do when unhappy. Ignatius wailed loudly. Voicing his opinion of the plan to the world.

His mother was startled. She asked him, “What's wrong?” knowing he couldn't answer. Following that she picked him up, humming and rocking him along with his Itchy Puppy. (Ichi) She kept it up until her little man was asleep.

Robin placed her son in his car-seat gently. Then she ate, encouraging Shinichi to do likewise. He did not. But upon remembering that she had never seen him eat, Robing concluded that he was uncomfortable eating around others. So leaving the bulk of the food she gathered the rest of her belongings and retrieving Ignatius left him alone again.

She visited the next morning and found he had left the food untouched. This worried her greatly, concern for his health prompting her to call the hospital and the police to get him moved, as she couldn't, into the mentally ill wing of the hospital. She warned them of her suspicion he was starving himself because his love died. Robin suggested they place him under a suicide watch.

He left with them easily. Sesshoumaru wouldn't risk his siren's grave being disturbed in a struggle.

He was placed in a double room with a boy who tried to overdose on insulin. The boy was seventeen. Shinichi melted some of the food they brought him so they wouldn't try to attach a food tube to feed him. He hadn't eaten since before he realized that Karen would die and that would be Kagome's last body.

He just laid in the bed, his face so guarded that Robin, Rin's soul, couldn't tell anything he was feeling or thinking. Robin visited him and tried to explain her care for him and Karen's wish he be happy. She wasn't even sure is he listened and he always had before then. So she prayed he still did.

Robin hugged him tightly before she went to get her middle son from daycare and make a snack for her eldest when he got off the school bus.

All was peaceful that night. The nurses made their rounds. Most all the patients were sleeping. Quiet swept the hospital in waves.

About fifteen minutes following the nurse's visit, in which she found both males sleeping deeply, the alarm went off. On of the patients was no longer attached to the machines.

She ran down the hall. The bed closet to the door was empty and the machines were blinking and screaming. His roommate was holding his ears and trying to stop his startled tears from falling.

Calling security and all the staff looking did no good. The man, Shinichi, was gone. Not an inkling of a trace was left behind. Nothing but his records and the blinking machines indicated he was ever there.

When she was called Robin abandoned her husband in their bed with a brief explanation and rushed to the hospital. The police were there. They questioned her and she told them she had only one idea of where he might be.

She led them to Karen's grave. “I was surprised how much he loved her. I didn't ever think he was the type to love in any way but platonically.”

“He's not here.” a policeman growled.

“But he was.” asserted Robin. She gestured to a sakura branch at the base of the stone. 'Where did he find that this time of year?' she wondered.

The cops searched the area. Not a clue. Nothing but the branch said he had even been there that night. Even the dog they brought in seemed to find nothing but his scent at the grave and nowhere else.

The uniformed men left after extracting a promise of information if she thought of anywhere he'd run to or if he contacted her.

Rodin stood in front of the grave. She was thinking, not seeing the marker her eyes rested on.

“Robin.” the deep voice called as he landed beside her.

She turned, “Shinichi?”

“Don't worry about me. I won't be caught again. This is where I belong.” He touched her shoulder as he passed her to kneel before the standing stone. His reverent touch on the cold, polished stone finally sunk the truth into her. A truth she wished to rebel against. Tears immediately raced down her face.

Robin gripped his shoulder. Then she fell down at his side and cried frantic, scared, loving tears into his side in great sobs that shook her like a rag-doll in an angry child's hands.

He let her cry into him. When she started to run short on tears he stated, “It is not normal to cry over your boss.”

She laughed bitterly. Then tears came out in a stronger wave.

Finally, when no more tears could be summoned, she left.

That was the last time she saw him. Yet her hope had her bringing him food everyday. She did so for nearly half a year. Then one morning before she left she watched the news.

It proclaimed that a cemetery caretaker found a strange corpse on a young woman's grave. A mutant, that's what they called the corpse. A photo of the mutant appeared on screen. There was Karen's grave in the background. The mutant corpse struck her with sadness and pain, and she didn't know why.

It looked like a dog, a giant dog, with long silver-white, silky fur. It was mixed horribly with a human in a malformed, experimental abomination. Yet she knew as if it was some sign, that no longer was Shinichi with them.

Robin cried again. And again when she found out later that day that Shinichi had returned for a few days to sign over everything he owned to her. Telling the man that he would be 'returning home' soon. Everyone else assumed he meant Japan but she knew better.

The remains of what became known as 'The Beast of the Woman's Grave', was placed in an oddity museum. From which it disappeared within the first week. They were suspected as being sold on the black market.

The news story inspired two Hollywood movies, one a horror story, where the girl was 'a victim of the beast', that he couldn't stop himself from visiting after her death. The other a love story, somewhat like beauty and the beast.

Robin huffed as she patted the ground flat with a shovel. The extremely rocky ground on the edge of the property that Shinichi gave her was a pain to dig into. But the job was finally done. “Rest well Shinichi. I buried you as close to her as I could.” she whispered to the sky. She could never tell anyone that she stole The Beast of the Woman's Grave, or that she gave in the best burial she could. Or that while she wasn't sure she thought it was Shinichi.

“Rest well Papa.” She cried for the closet man to a father she had in this life.

So Sesshoumaru finally fulfilled the curse of the siren's song. He finally died.

And nothing would stop him from fulfilling his promise. He tracked Kagome's soul in the afterlife. Drawn again, still to his siren.

The story finally ended, and the siren was entertained by her love's taling.

'Cause after all, she was his woman and he was her demon, she was his human and he was her dog, she was his siren and he was her sailor. The eternal call and the eternally called together at the last.

The End.

 ~~~~

Please let me know what you think. This story would give me no rest and I'm nervous about sharing it.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all that jazz. =D