Memories of Love

Dedicated to eila, Lady Momo, Katana, and kags. Without the reviews, this chapter would still be lost somewhere in my mind.

Chapter 3

The palace was surrounded by water, and hundreds of boats were there to take guests to the main building. Much like her own home, gardens of exotic flowers were everywhere and magnificent birds stood amongst them. ‘I wonder how they manage to do that?’, Kagome murmured to herself. ‘I personally think they’ve hidden some food there, if you ask me’, Reiko said in a joking manner.

‘Don’t be silly. Lord Sesshomaru would not do that. Well, I don’t think he would do that…’. Kagome burst out laughing at her father’s comment, only to have a few demons look their way. ‘Ahh… Lord Takeshi, Lady Reiko! Who is this stunning jewel you have brought?’.

From behind, they saw a man with long black hair and deep red eyes approach them. ‘Oh, Naraku, this here, is our daughter, Kagome’. When his boat was alongside theirs, the black-haired man reached out a hand and bowed, ‘A pleasure to meet you, Kagome-sama. I must ask you though, where have your parents kept such a beautiful demoness such as yourself, hidden for so long?’.

Kagome blushed, and replied, ‘Well, Lord Naraku, you could say I’ve been overseas. My parents thought best of it for me to go elsewhere during the war. Naraku nodded solemnly, but gave her a warm smile anyways. ‘Please, if you don’t mind, would you give me the pleasure of being your escort for the evening?’.

‘Excuse me for interrupting, but Lord Naraku, Kagome’s taken for tonight’s event, but I assure you that you will have future opportunities’, Takeshi said. ‘I understand. I must be leaving now, but I look forward to your performance’. With that, Naraku left the family of three, making his way towards one of the smaller buildings.

When they finally arrived at the main building, Kagome could only gasp at the sight before her. Hundreds of demons and demonesses were gathered in a great dining hall and at the sight of her family, immediately bowed down with respect. She saw her father give a curt nod, and saw them stand back up and continue their conversations. Those that were closest to them, came forth to greet them and Kagome was the topic of conversation.

Sesshomaru stayed behind the doors of his study, waiting for his soon-to-be mate to finish her preparations. He had felt the auras of Takeshi and Reiko, but with them, came a third aura, which was exactly like theirs, but was even stronger. He didn’t understand who it could be, but perhaps it was Lord Takeshi’s brother. Anyways, he would find out soon enough, just exactly who it was with such a strong strength.

‘Sesshomaru-sama… I’m ready. Should we go to greet the guests?’, Sarah asked. Her heart was pounding against her ribcage so hard that she had a feeling Sesshomaru could hear it. All her life, she had had a crush on him, and now, it seemed like a huge turning point in her life, and all her dreams were going to come true.

The white-haired lord did not respond verbally, but came out and merely walked past her. Sarah quickly stood up and followed closely behind him, hoping that she didn’t do anything to anger him. They made their way into the dining hall, the whole way, not a word was spoken.

When they arrived, horns sounded, and the entire hall was silent. Everyone bowed down before him and was soon seated after he nodded with approval. ‘I thank you all for coming to attend my mating ceremony. As my late father specified in his will, Inuyasha and his mate will be mated tonight as well. When the moon is directly above us, we will begin the ceremony. Until then, please enjoy yourselves’.

He spoke this, all in his regular monotonous voice, not loudly, but there was the quality in his voice that demanded all attention, much as his father’s did. As soon as the babble of talk broke out once more, Sesshomaru strode briskly to where he felt Takeshi’s aura. Not wanting to be left alone, Sarah tagged along.

‘Ah, the demon of the night!’, Takeshi announced as he saw Sesshomaru approach, ‘So, how are holding out so far?’. ‘Well enough… for now…’, Sesshomaru replied. ‘I thought I felt a third person arrive with you today. The aura was quite impressive… Family?’.

Takeshi chuckled and grinned. ‘As a matter of fact, this person is family. Let me go break her free from the swarm of demonesses’. Sesshomaru searched in the group Takeshi was trying to break into, wondering who exactly it was.


Then, his eyes widened. The pure black hair caught his eye, amidst all the demonesses. She turned to face Takeshi, her green eyes sparkling with life and joy. There was a click, somewhere deep inside his mind, though he didn’t understand why. When she looked over at him, emerald green eyes met his golden ones, piercing through all the walls he had built around his mind and soul.

Kagome could only stare when she saw who Sesshomaru was. Her breath disappeared, and for a brief instant, so did everything else. It was just her and Sesshomaru, staring into each other’s eyes. Her heart skipped a beat, and his golden eyes just drew her in and held her captive. When Takeshi touched her arm, the spell was broken and Kagome looked away and took a deep breath, not knowing what had just come over herself.

‘Sesshomaru, I’d like you to meet Kagome, my daughter’, Takeshi introduced proudly. Remembering her manners, Kagome quickly bowed down and said, ‘A pleasure to meet you Sesshomaru-sama, and congratulations’. When she rose, Sesshomaru didn’t dare look into her eyes, but gave a slight indication that he had heard.

‘Takeshi, there are some business matters I would like to…’. ‘…We can discuss those later! It is your mating ceremony and a time for you to be relaxing. Go, you and Sarah, sit at your seats. The moon is out, and Inuyasha should be here soon, so Kagome and I will start our performance for your ceremony’.

Knowing that Takeshi was going to have it his way, Sesshomaru let himself be pushed down into a chair, and waited to see what Takeshi was going to do. ‘Sesshomaru, would you like a drink? Is there something I can get you? Are you feeling okay?’, Sarah questioned. ‘I am fully capable of feeding myself and if I wasn’t feeling ‘okay’, I would be fully capable of telling somebody, so leave me be’.

Sarah knew that was sign for her to sit back and be quiet. She could feel butterflies in her stomach as time slowly passed by, second by second, minute by minute, the mating ceremony drew closer, and as it did, Sarah grew more and more nervous. She didn’t know why, but something seemed wrong…

Kagome quickly changed into black dress that Higurashi-san had bought for her as a gift. It was tied behind her neck, revealing her muscular form and luscious curves. ‘Kagome… Don’t forget to breathe’, Reiko said jokingly, seeing her daughter tense at the sight of the audience.

Her father held out a hand to her, which she gladly took, and walked calmly onto the stage. There was silence as they positioned themselves in the center of the stage. As soon as the music began, Kagome felt the fire burn through her body as she felt her body move with the notes. All her fears disappeared and a gentle smile graced her lips as she and her father gracefully glided on the stage.

He didn’t dare look, yet the golden betrayers moved to the form and would not leave it. Every move, every step only drew him closer to her. Her pale skin glowed against the dark fabric, making it seem dull in comparison. Her form was dancing in front of him, taunting him to no end. Green eyes flashed with fire, energy, and compassion as she moved, sending chills down his spine.

When the last note sounded, there was a brief silence and then applause burst forth from the audience. Kagome held her pose until her father lifted her up for a bow. She flashed a charming smile before leaving the stage to get changed.

‘Oh, father, you were amazing. Thank you so much… That meant a lot to me’, Kagome said to Takeshi. ‘Anything for my Kagome’, he replied, grabbing her into a bear hug. Kagome reached an arm out and grab Reiko into the hug, all of them full of smiles and laughter.

Sarah had seen the look in Sesshomaru’s eyes when Kagome was dancing. He seemed lost in his own world. His eyes were glued to her, and it seemed as though he didn’t even blink once during the entire performance. He couldn’t take his eyes off Kagome, yet, not once had Sarah seen his eyes come to her.

Still… It brought comfort to her when she remembered that Sesshomaru was getting mated to her tonight, and once that happened, no one could come between them.

‘Sesshomaru! When is the ceremony going to start?’. The white-haired lord didn’t even have to look, knowing that it was his weakling half-brother, Inuyasha. ‘It’s… going to start now’.

‘Why is my heart pounding like this? It’s not like I’m getting mated, so… why?’, Kagome thought to herself as she looked up at Sesshomaru. It had been no more than an hour since she met him, yet, her heart told her otherwise. It was as though they had known each other for a long time, but then again, she knew nothing about him…

Sesshomaru could feel all the attention at him, but out of them all, only one person’s mattered. Kagome. Only hers mattered. As he painted the mating circle, he looked out into the sea of faces and found hers, only to have her green eyes stare right back at his, crushing the fortress around his hidden feelings. They brought something out of him that no one else did, but none of which he could understand.

‘Kagome is not the one. She is a temptress, nothing more…’. He pushed the black leopard demoness from his mind, but when he looked at Sarah, the only face he saw was Kagome’s.

Before another thought could come to his mind, white light engulfed him, and signified the unity of his family and Sarah’s. The scar on his chest pulsed, but it wasn’t right… It wasn’t disappearing, but rather, growing even faster.

Sesshomaru let out a deafening roar before disappearing from everyone’s sight. On the stage, Sarah stood alone, not knowing what had just happened. Unable to bear the questioning stares, she ran off, not wanting to see anymore.

A murmur broke out and everyone was wondering what had happened. Beside her, Takeshi nodded knowingly, and merely said, ‘He found the wrong one…’. Kagome gave her father a questioning look, and he merely said, ‘I’ll tell you when we get home’.


‘No… This can’t be happening… There’s no one else…’. Sesshomaru collapsed in pain once again as the scar grew larger and burned its way across his chest. He didn’t know how much longer he could take it, but he was going to have to reverse the mating ceremony effects soon.

There was a knock on his bedroom door before it slid open to reveal Sarah. ‘Why…? Why did you leave me? I thought you said that we were destined to be together?’, she whispered. ‘There was a mistake…’. ‘Is that all you can say? How come you didn’t say anything before?’. Sesshomaru smell her tears more strongly as she moved closer, but he did not reply.

‘Why…? Can you just tell me that?’. Sesshomaru looked over to her, but the face that showed up was that of Kagome’s. He could only see Kagome’s face, filled with sorrow, only Kagome’s green eyes welled up with tears.

Without another word, Sesshomaru walked past Sarah, determined to find what who exactly ‘Kagome’ was…


‘Sesshomaru’s father put a curse on him and his half-brother Inuyasha, knowing that both sons were quite stubborn and might not mate. Basically, what happens is that they both have scars on their chest that continue to grow and bring quite a lot of pain to the brothers, and the only way to cure it, is to have them mate the right person. In Inuyasha’s case, it seems as though he has found his chosen one, but… I’m not so sure that’s what happened with Sesshomaru’.

‘But… How are they supposed to find the right person?’, Kagome asked. ‘In Sesshomaru’s case, he was supposed to mate to the most powerful demoness there was, so he held a battle and the winner was Sarah…’, Takeshi explained. ‘It just seems so cruel…’, Kagome said softly.

‘If he really didn’t want to mate, which he doesn’t, he has the choice to have the scar removed, but it comes with a price. He has to be willing to sacrifice his most important possession, and from the looks of it, it must be pretty valuable to him’, Reiko added.

Kagome felt so bad for the couple, but knew that it would probably be best if they worked things out on their own. ‘I think… I’m going to go out for walk, if that’s alright?’. ‘Sure… We have business to take care of anyways, so have fun!’.

The demoness found herself walking to the small grassy field. Plopping herself down in the middle, she looked up into the starry night, remembering the nights she had spent with Hojo under the stars. They would just sit and watch, nothing needed to be said. She knew that Hojo wanted to be in a serious relationship with her, but… Kagome thought of him more as family and couldn’t see him as a lover.

Love… Her mind wandered right back to Sesshomaru, and it frustrated Kagome. She had had crushes on guys before, but… It seemed so different. It felt so much stronger… So much deeper… She felt as though she knew him from somewhere… ‘Geez, Kagome, stop hallucinating, how could you have known Sesshomaru!? He’s a demon… It will never happen…’. Sighing, she closed her eyes and pushed all of it away and fell into light sleep.

Sesshomaru ran through the forests, his demon side beginning to take over. He was going to ask Takeshi who Kagome really was and settle once and for all. She would take her spell off of him, and he would be able to think straight. He would be able to find ‘her’…

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Chapter 3 is finally up =) I hope you all enjoy it. I will try my best to get one more chapter up before the New Year!

The more reviews, the faster the next chapter can be written =P So, review! XD

Wishing everyone nothing but the best for the holidays,

~Endless Sorrow