Chapter 2: Help

“No…NONONONONONONONONON!” He screamed in hysterics.

He knew that she was gone. There was a hollowness that filled him where she had once been. She had always been everything, even as he chased another.

He had always been a fool though. He had always thought that she would be there for him. He had never thought that she would be gone forever or that he wouldn’t be able to save her. He never thought of her pain caused by him; he had always been so selfish where she had been concerned.

Everyone had tried to warn him, even her own mother had tried but he brushed it off. His brother and their children had been the obstacle that kept her from him before.

It was Kikyo all over again. He stared at the healed stump that was his arm…what was the point of living now that she was dead?

“NONONONONONONONONONONONONONO,” he continued to scream as he stared at his stump.

Everything was gone. Everything that he had hoped for and dreamed of was dead. It was all cold in the ground like her.

But it didn’t mean that he could just dig a grave for himself and follow her in death. No, he couldn’t do that. He had to get revenge for her against his brother and their children. They did not deserve to live while she was cold in the ground, rotting away. He would give each a brutal death that they deserved for her death.

Then he would go to her grave and lie down with her until he died beside her.

oOo

She felt so warm and safe, lying there with her oldest baby in her arms. Kagome gazed down at Mizuki’s silver head; her sweet baby girl held onto some of her hair. It was like her daughter was scared to lose her. It would never happen though.

She would never let her children go again.

Her heart still ached for the simple fact that she had given her children that fear. She was their mother, who was meant to protect them from their fears and worries. She had only given them more of both when she had killed herself. She had never thought her actions would cause such distress to her babies.

She had never thought of them when she had taken Sesshomaru’s sword to her throat. She hadn’t been in her right mind then. Poison had filled her veins for the last two years under Sesshomaru’s care. Everything had been a poison to her mind, spreading through her flesh and corrupting her for it. She hadn’t been able to think or feel as she normally would have.

She hadn’t even been human.
Kagome had been nothing more than an animal. A broodmare for Sesshomaru; raped by him and his actions. A thing that he claimed to have feelings for.

But you did not harm someone you loved like he had her. Never had he truly taken her feelings into account with anything he did. It had all been meaningless words. Every promise had been so empty and hallow. She had never been able to trust him or herself when she had been with him.

A soft cry ripped Kagome from her dark thoughts; reminding her of the new place that she found herself in. She sat up in the raised bed that she found herself in. It was just like her mother’s king-sized bed back in the future.

There were beautiful golden cribs not far from the bed, care and detail put into each one. It took her a moment for her to find the strength to stand and walk. Each of her babies was in a crib of their own, all sleeping but one. Kagome smiled as she took Yume into her arms.

It felt so right to whole her beautiful little girl.

So different from her brothers and sisters but so beautiful for it. She was so like her father and uncle in appearance that Kagome could barely see anything of herself in her daughter. It was there though, hidden beyond the obvious.

Yumi cried softly even though she was being held. Her baby needed attention from her and Kagome was only too happy to give it to Yumi. Yumi told Kagome in the only way that babies could. How had she been able to let her baby go?

Kagome went back to the bed to find Mizuki quite out of sorts. It was rather funny to find Mizuki sitting up on the bed and looking rather cross with her. Barely a year old and her oldest was already so alike her father. She saw Sesshomaru in each one of them, there was more of their father and their uncle in them. How she had hoped before to see nothing but Inuyasha in her children.

Yet it was almost a relief to see so much of their father in them. She knew not if that was normal for a victim like her to hope for. It certainly didn’t feel like it should be normal yet that’s what she wanted.

Their father, her abuser, as well as a former comrade, was a proud survivor. The world was so cruel to all just as it had been so cruel to her in the last few years. She never wanted her children to suffer as she had.

Baring a breast, Yumi began to nurse from her.

It was always a powerful feeling for her to nurse her children. With only her body, she was able to protect and nourish the fragile lives that she had grown inside of her. It was something that she would never tire of doing for them.

Yumi smelled so sweet and clean to Kagome, a smell that was unique to her baby. A tear came to Kagome’s eye as she thought of how she had almost missed her chance. The chance to watch all her children grow up and live. She had been ready to let go.

She had been ready to give them to Sesshomaru.

“You’re awake.”

With a wipe of her hand, the tear was gone and Kagome turned. A beautiful woman in a red kimono stood at the door, her black hair was lovely with a bejeweled hairpin. There was a cautious smile on the woman’s face as if she was nervous. It reminded Kagome of herself when she had first come to this time.

Everything had been so new and frightening. She had put on a brave mask to make it seem less so for herself. She could not remember the last time she had just had someone sit with her.

Kagome gave a smile in return and motioned for the woman to join her. The woman did so with caution but stayed away from Mizuki as she sat down on the bed. It was as if the woman had been told to be wary of her and her children. But that made sense to Kagome.

She hadn’t been the most reasonable person in the past. She had been no different than a feral animal at times.

“I’m Kagome,” she introduced gently.

“I’m Haruto,” the woman returned. Her voice and her name made Kagome realize that the woman was a man. It had been so deep and male but Kagome could not stop from staring at the man’s chest.
There was no mistaking those breasts for anything else but what they were. “You’re a man, right?”

Haruto nodded nervously in the affirmative.

“Then why…the breasts?” Kagome questioned, blushing red hot as she did.

There was nothing wrong with a man wanting to be a woman in her mind. Still, it was clear to Kagome that Haruto was human; growing breasts should have been impossible. So it begged the question to Kagome’s curious mind of how had this man grown them?

“Oh, I’m a concubine in service to my master Saburo. He realized as soon as he saw me that…I hated my body, that I hated being a man.” The last part had been whispered as if it was a secret.

It filled Kagome with a pity that anyone would hate themselves in the flesh they were born in. It must have been so hard to live as something he wasn’t. It must have been terrible to be forced to live as society demanded him to. No one deserved to be forced to live as something they weren’t.

Everyone deserved to live as they were truly meant to.

“When I met my master, I was allowed to become the woman I am,” Haruto whispered. “Master Saburo gave me my breasts and when it is time, I will be one of the concubines that will give birth. Many of us look forward to giving him, children.”

“So you’re here to practice by tending to my babies?”

“Yes, my blooming flower has been tasked with caring for your children, Kagome.”

oOo

Saburo watched from the doorway, cautious of any change in Kagome’s calm mood. The two women sat and conversed as he watched, ready to step in at a moment’s notice. Haruto looked so good there with little Mizuki near her. It would not be long before he gave her children just as she longed.

They had been kissing when they had been alerted by a cry. Haruto had been unable to resist the sound and fled from his kisses. She had been too happy to tend to the children; to help tend to their sleeping mother. She had always been such a kind soul to others, even when they had been cruel to her for her true nature.

It only made him love her all the more.

It had been the right thing to do despite his fear. He had been…afraid of Kagome awaking. The memory of the crumbling throne that had survived thousands of years came to him. It had been falling all around them, how he had fought the urge to run. It had been so hard to fight it. Especially when he had been charged to protect the little life in his arms. Mizuki had deserved better than to see her mother as the monster Kagome had been.

It burned in him that his mother had never helped her. That Kagome had been forced to become that monster.

But it had been a relief to see her become human once more when she held her child. He begged Enma to be allowed to take care of her and all her children. He could not allow his mother around Kagome again. He could not allow her to ignore the woman that so desperately needed help.

He could not allow Sesshomaru the chance to have her again.

“So you’re here to practice by tending to my babies?”

He couldn’t stop himself at her words. “Yes, my blooming flower has been tasked with caring for your children, Kagome.”

She turned to look at him. He had expected to see the same hostile that she had given him before. Instead, there was a curiosity in her beautiful gaze; this woman was not the one that he first met. This was a stranger but still a possible danger.

He moved cautiously to Haruto’s side, who gave him a happy and cheerful smile. It filled Saburo with a desire to kiss the sweet lover that he could no longer ignore. Sweeter than honey as well as filled with the same passion that was always there for him. How he wanted to do more to her.

He wanted to pin her to the bed, unwrap her of the beautiful silk that covered her.

He wanted to touch his blooming flower’s milky white skin, to worship it as she deserved. His mouth was parched for the sweet milk that filled her breasts. He longed to stroke the part that was still male. To tease it to harden in one hand as he lubed the hole between her legs.

But he resisted and just gave her a sweet kiss. He could not take his sweet lover in front of Kagome. Haruto would have thought nothing of it; had enjoyed it in the past with their other lovers in his harem.
It would not do though with Kagome. Not when the trauma she had suffered still so fresh. He had little doubt that she had never been willing in her own…experiences.

That knowledge burned him like a brand.

“I met you before,” she said. Her cheeks were so red from watching them.

“Yes, I’m Saburo…How are you feeling?”

She gave him a shy, wary smile that told him so much. “Pretty good compared…to before.”

He grimaced at her words. She had been so different from what he had seen of her. She was damaged in ways that he hadn’t seen but knew was there. There were so many scars in her heart from everything. It only served to show him the debt his family owe her. They were meant to protect her, help her and his own mother hadn’t. She turned her back on her duty.

“I pledge to help you and yours for the rest of my life. My life for yours and your bloodline forever more.”

Kagome stared at him as if he had grown another head. He didn’t blame her for it. She had grown up with another culture, woefully different from his own. There was no need for her to know that the oath he gave her was everlasting. Or so binding that he would forever know when she needed him or protection. It would be the children with all her children as well as her descendants. His life was forever tied to her family.

He would forever be the guardian of her bloodline, knowing every member that would ever be born from her. But in truth, he was a servant to her in all ways just as he was to Enma. Unlike Enma though, she had no need to know that yet.

She would realize it herself when the time was right.