Shigata Ga Nai by Khylaren

Chapter 1

Shigata Ga Nai

by Khylaren

Authors Note: the title comes from the Japanese phrase which means, roughly, "it can't be helped" or "nothing can be done about it".

* * * * *

The Miko will be your undoing.

The last words of the dying seer lingered in the musty, dank air of the cave and hung like a miasma around his head.

Naraku was not a creature who induldged in self-doubt. He was far too confident in his ability to plan far ahead of his enemies, to consider every eventual outcome, to know the minds of those who set themselves against him. Still, he found himself wishing he hadn't been quite so hasty in killing the troublesome old woman. Though he was mostly convinced the seer had told him all she had seen, he wondered if, perhaps, he could have persuaded her to reveal a bit more of her vision. After all, Naraku was nothing if persuasive when he wanted to be, and something told him that there was more to her vision than 'Beware the Shikon Miko'.

Kagome.

The young reincarnation of Kikyo had proved decidedly difficult to eradicate and displayed an annoying propensity for showing up at exactly the wrong moment and ruining even his best laid plans.

Her and that stupid hanyou. He hated them both.

Naraku shrugged the irritation away and dismissed it as unimportant. The past was unimportant. Only the future, the future he desired, mattered.

He sensed, long before he heard the tell-tale rustling of silk kimono, the arrival of Kagura.

"So?" she asked, her tone just shy of sullen. "What did you learn?"

He didn't bother turning around to look at her, preferring to follow his thoughts to see where they led him.

A plan, not yet fully formed, had been percolating in the back of his mind since his last annoying encounter with Inuyasha and his Miko. He'd tried to destroy them, yet once again they managed to defy all odds and beat him back. With each enounter, it seemed the partnership between the human and the hanyou, the taijiya and the houshi, grew stronger than before; it was if they drew their strength from their bonds with one another.

Somehow, he needed to irrevocably break those bonds.

Idly, he considered simply killing one of Inuyasha's group, but dismissed it as a bad idea, ignoring the fact that all his previous attempts to kill them had utterly failed. Killing one of them now, he reasoned, would simply make them stronger. The survivors would no doubt fight all the harder to avenge their fallen comrade.

The Miko, Kagome, was the key. She was the glue that held them all together. If he could somehow break the trust and friendship and (here he barely repressed a shudder of revulsion) love between them....but how?

"Kagura." He finally turned to look at the wind sorceress. "Tell me, what is the one thing that Inuyasha desires above all else?"

She frowned, idly tapping her fan against one silk-clad leg. "Power," she answered finally, thinking back on her previous encounters with the volatile hanyou. "The power to defeat his enemies."

Naraku nodded once. "And what does he despise?"

Kagura snorted, still managing to make the sound delicate and lady-like. "Besides you and his half-brother?" She shrugged carelessly. "Anyone who is more powerful than him."

He stared at her with hooded eyes, a faint smile curving one corner of his mouth. "And what is more powerful than a half-demon?" he asked, his voice as smooth as honey.

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "A demon."

Naraku's smile became full-blown. "Precisely."

Kagura frowned, puzzled. "And?"

He chuckled quietly, menacingly, as his plan finished forming. "I have a task for you, Kagura." He waited until he had her full, undivided interest. "Find me a witch."

* * * * * *

Etsu wasn't a witch; she was something better: a black priestess.

Unlike Tsubaki, the only other black Miko Naraku had come across, Etsu was neither young nor beautiful. Her lack of good looks didn't concern her overly, but she was worried about the rapidly approaching end of her own existance. Simply put, Etsu was afraid of death.

It was so utterly typical, Naraku thought, smirking behind his baboon mask.

"Grant me my request, Etsu-sama, and I shall give you what you ask."

The old Miko eyed him with open skepticism. "So you say, Naraku," she replied harshly, deliberately leaving off the honorific. "So you say. But I have heard of you and your exploits, even here, in the barren lands. And I do not trust you." She spat on the ground between them, black eyes narrowing into tiny slits. "Why should I trust a half-demon who hides his face?"

Hiding his smirk, Naraku drew back the baboon pelt that covered his face and met her gaze evenly. "Does this please you, priestess?" he inquired smoothly. "Now, can you do it?"

She grunted, reaching across her ample body to grab a handful of dried herbs from the bowl beside her knee and tossing them into the fire. Fragrant smoke wafted up, filling the rude hut with the scent of burnt amber and dragonsblood.

"I will teach you this curse," she said finally, pinning him with a gimlet eye. "But you will only be able to use it once."

Naraku gave her a faint nod. "Once is all I require," he replied, hiding his disappointment behind a neutral mask. It would have been a useful curse to have at his disposal, but it didn't matter.

"Good," she replied shortly, rubbing her blunt and wrinkled hands together over the flames. "Now, my payment. Surely a being as powerful as yourself is capable of achieving something so simple, neh?" Her puckered lips drew up in a parody of a grin.

Naraku's answering smile was equally mocking. "Of course. I will grant your request after you teach me this curse."

"Oh no," she said, shaking a yellowed-nailed finger at him. "You will leave me old and withered the moment I place the knowledge of the curse in your mind. I may be old, but I am no fool."

He arched an eyebrow at her. "Very well. But know I can simply undo what I have done and leave you to die should you think to betray our agreement."

Etsu bowed slightly in his direction. "You have my most solemn word, Naraku-sama."

They both knew exactly how much that was worth.

Naraku reached inside his kimono and pulled out a small, palm-sized mirror chased in silver and pearls. Drawing it close to his face, he closed both eyes and blew a soft breath across its shimmering surface.

"There," he murmured. Without opening his eyes, he handed the mirror to Etsu. "Look."

She took it from him gingerly, as if she expected it to bite her, and looked at her reflection. She was unable to prevent a gasp of surprise and delight from escaping her. Her hands, no longer gnarled and wrinkled, reached up to touch her smooth, pink cheek. Slender, delicate fingertips traced the graceful arch of one brow, caressed the moist, softness of her lips.

"I...I...you made me beautiful," she whispered, her voice no longer the harsh caw of a crow, but the soft, sweet notes of a young maid. "I am young again, and I am beautiful." She turned to look at him with shining eyes. "It is more than I asked of you!"

Naraku shrugged and inclined his head towards her slightly. "It was simple enough to return your youth. I thought perhaps you might enjoy being lovely as well."

Etsu's gaze had already returned to the mirror, and she smiled at her reflection, marveling at the whiteness of her teeth, the dainty curves of her ears, the slenderness of her neck.

He waited patiently, hiding his amusement. It had been so very simple to grant her request. He even toyed with the notion of allowing her to live after she had given him what he wanted, but decided against it. After all, if she could twist the curse he requested, she could probably untwist it as well. The last thing he wanted was someone alive who could undo what was about to be done.

"Etsu-sama," he finally said, interrupting her preening. "Perhaps it is time you upheld your end of the bargain?" His voice was honeyed-silk, belying his eagerness, his impatience to finish this business and set his plan, his final plan to undo the Miko and her companions, into motion.

"What? Oh, yes," Etsu said, putting the mirror aside with obvious reluctance. "There is no question you have done as I asked. Therefore I will teach you what you wish to know." She pushed the mirror behind her, as if its presence beside her was too much for her to ignore. Reaching for another handful of herbs, she cast them into the fire and took a deep breath.

"Give me your hands, Naraku-sama."

He complied, and closed his eyes when she indicated he do so.

"A curse of unmaking and of making," she murmured, her soft voice thrumming with power. "Whisper it upon the wind on the night of the new moon to cast it from afar upon your foe. The next time she uses her holy power will be her last; it shall be lost to her forever."

He could feel Etsu's words, the words of the curse, in his mind and taste them like bitter ashes upon his tongue. Unmaking. Making.

The Miko will be your undoing, the seer had told him.

Not if she was a Miko no longer, he thought, and smiled.