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Kagura (left) and Kanna (right) commission by tmetta
If I just had my heart, I could be free.
Kagura never let herself get beyond that thought, because there was no point. That thought was the last thought, honestly, because the only way she would feel her heart beating inside of her chest was if Naraku had either killed her or broken her.
Her heart was her dream. One that she knew she could not reach by herself.
One that sometimes guided her thoughts to the daiyōkai who might take down her master.
Never to her siblings, created to serve Naraku. Used until they were no longer useful. Kanna, her older sister, more useful than the others, devoid of emotions, motives, was the perfect thrall for Naraku.
Or so Kagura was led to believe.
Because Kanna’s blank eyes looked back at her, and her fragile white hands cradled something even more fragile, even more precious: her heart.
“K—Kanna?” Kagura snapped her head around, searching for the red eyes in the black, listening for the buzzing of the saimyōshō spies waiting for her to fall for the temptation; she stretched every one of her senses, seeking the explanation to Kanna’s presence, to Kanna’s present. “Why do you—why do you have that?”
Kanna extended her hands into the space between them, holding Kagura’s heart as an offering.
“For you to be free,” Kanna whispered. For the first time, Kagura could swear she saw something twinkle in the depth of Kanna’s black eyes: a flicker of soul in the presumed soulless incarnation.
Kagura knew to be wary of a trap—Naraku so loved playing games with them, after all—but this… did not feel like a trap.
Kanna had chosen to return Kagura’s heart of her own free will. Kanna had chosen this moment to make this offering.
That afternoon, Naraku had sent Kagura away from his palace, and retreated to somewhere hidden.
Like the last time.
Could Naraku be human right now?
That certainly would explain the absence of his spies, and the lack of guard around Kagura’s heart. Naraku trusted Kanna. He would not think to send her away as he had Kagura.
“How did you get my heart?” Kagura asked. She never could read Kanna’s blank eyes; perhaps no one could.
“He instructed me to guard those things he values,” Kanna whispered. “So he could hide himself—the thing he values most—on this night of vulnerability.”
At least that answered the how, but it certainly did not answer the why.
Kagura always prided herself on her survival instincts. She knew when to fight, she knew when to fold… and she knew when to hide.
Even bearing the brunt of Naraku’s punishments was worth it, if it meant that Kagura could survive another day. She would keep finding those moments—those opportunities—to come closer to her goal: living as free as the wind.
And instead of her having to find the moment, this moment found her.
But Naraku was the master of traps, and he had already caught Kagura once on his night of vulnerability. She was a survivor, yes, but the thought of another month chained in a dungeon alone was enough to hold her back.
Why were her instincts not screaming at her right now? Kanna was Naraku’s perfect underling. She was the oldest, the most loyal: a soulless follower without a will of her own.
Yet… yet…
Kanna was here, holding Kagura’s heart, most certainly against Naraku’s wishes.
Undeniably acting of her own will.
“What do you want in return?” Kagura asked; she’d taken a step forward, toward Kanna, toward her beating heart.
“To be free,” Kanna answered, her voice smaller even than in her description of her betrayal. “As you are free.”
Kanna was a void, bereft of feeling, of will, of soul.
Kanna would passively die if Naraku ordered it so.
Kanna protected her master, with no other purpose.
Kanna wanted to be free, and she was offering Kagura the chance to be free.
Everything that Kagura had been led to believe about Kanna was wrong.
Kagura could grab her heart, and, with a swish of her fan, flit off into the darkness. Kagura could ride the wind away, far away, out of Naraku’s reach, leaving Kanna to explain what she had done to Naraku. Leaving Kanna to bear the brunt of the punishment.
But Kanna was not a void. Her eyes twinkled with a nascent soul. Her offering to Kagura came from her will, her desire, the one she shared with Kagura.
To be free.
That was why she was here. Because Kanna saw a kindred desire flicker in Kagura’s eyes. Because there was a moment in time that Kanna could grant Kagura her deepest wish. As if—as if—Kanna were rescuing a friend. A sister.
There was still time for Kagura to refuse this gift, to allow Kanna the cover she would need to return it to wherever it was that Naraku kept it, to wait for another opportunity to steal her freedom.
But the moment that she took her heart from Kanna’s hands, and settled it into her chest, there would be no turning back.
Kagura would have to make a choice.
To flee or to fight. To save only herself or to help save Kanna.
Kagura was a survivor. She was supposed to put herself first. She was supposed to make the choices that maximized her chances of staying alive, to be as free as the wind. She was supposed to tear her heart from Kanna’s hands and run. That would give her the best possible chance.
And yet…
Kagura took the last step forward, close enough now to reach out and take her heart in her hands.
“Kanna,” she inquired. “You really want to be set free?”
More light ignited behind Kanna’s black eyes, flickering on like stars appearing in the night sky. As if Kanna’s very soul were waking up.
“You will—you will help me?” Kanna asked, her expressionless lips curling so slightly that Kagura nearly missed it. Kanna’s first smile.
Kagura sighed. Helping Kanna would assure her death, she knew this, yet she could not refuse. No, she did not want to refuse.
If this first act of defiance had birthed Kanna’s soul, then Kagura could only imagine what might be on the horizon, as Kanna made more and more of her own choices. Kagura… wanted to be there to witness it. Kagura… wanted to protect her sister.
“Yes.” It was foolhardy. It would mean death. It was a betrayal so great that neither Kagura nor Kanna were likely to survive for long.
But it was a choice that they were free to make.
And that freedom meant everything.
“Then please take your heart,” Kanna’s trace of a smile spread from her lips to her cheekbones. “So you can truly be free.”
Kagura finally assented, feeling its warmth as it fluttered in her hands. She then pressed it into her chest, letting her body welcome it home. For the first time ever, Kagura was whole.
“Thank you,” Kagura said, feeling her own lips curl into a bright smile.
Kagura was a survivor. Her best chance was to run away and wait. For Naraku to be defeated. For Kanna to be forgotten.
But that was not what Kagura would do.
There were more important things than survival, after all.
“What comes next?” Kagura asked, pulling her feather from her hair. “What must we do to free you from your bonds?”
The smile on Kanna’s face was all Kagura needed to see for her to know that she had made the right choice.