Slipping through.
By: Lone Inuyasha
Disclaimer: The idea is the only thing owned.
The sword slid easily through hardened armor and leathery skin, slicing between ribs and burying deep into the soft flesh within; delivering with it a violent force that drove the Oni right into the ground and pinned it there! It's maw filled with rotten teeth opened wide, spending the last of it's breath with an agonizing howl! It's meaty hands grasping the weapon's unusually long blade. It had broken swords sturdier than this, but as the beast writhed and struggled the steel did not so much as bend under the pressure.
Nothing less could be expected of the Sou'ounga, a sword forged in the fires of hell itself. Wicked enough to part flesh and sinew like a hot knife and powerful enough to be sentient of its own blood lust. The orb that crowned the top of the hilt shimmered crimson in delight, but the steady hand holding it tightened that instant, quelling the sudden buildup of power.
For a brief moment the Oni's crimson eyes met the cruel blade's wielder, a youkai who stood a bit shorter than a typical mountain Ogre. He stood like a human and bore the features of one, but the silver hair cascading over bone armor far too heavy for any human to bear gave him away for the monster he truly was. A youkai that bore only a title for a name, The Dog General.
Golden eyes remained on the Oni, watching in morbid fascination as the life ebbed away from those crimson hues. Only then did he twist the sword to finish it once and for all before tearing it free. A merciful enough of a death for the foolish leader of this raiding party.
Leaving the beast to gasp its last breath he flicked the blood from his sword and took a moment to survey the battlefield. What had begun as an uneventful patrol turned into chaos when this band of youkai launched an ambush. The battle was fierce enough to reduce a once peaceful forest glade to utter shambles. The trampled ground was now littered with the corpses of three mountain oni amid snapped tree limbs.
A silence fell over the forest. Every last leaf and bird falling still with the final breath of his enemies. It created an atmosphere that sent a slight chill even up his hardened spine.
Something was off.
Sheathing the blade he let his gaze scan the immediate forest, a search that became a bit desperate after a few moments. A small knot of fear forming in the pit of his stomach.
"Sesshoumaru?" His deep baritone voice echoed through the glade, only to be met by a silence that further unnerved him.
Seconds ticked by without an answer and that knot of fear began to steadily tighten. "Sesshoumaru! " Practically snarling the name of his young son, he quickly began to retrace his steps through the battle field. In his mind he replayed the events of their ambush, of the Oni that came surging from the shadowy brush in an effort to overwhelm them.
It was there that he came to a stop, right in front of a thorny thicket where his son and himself once stood only minutes before. Here was where the attack had initially started and it was here that father and son had remained together for the first few seconds of the fight.
Retracing the steps behind his memories he stopped near the trunk of a giant oak, its roots bathed in the blood of the first victim to fall to his sword.
A few feet away and there was the second corpse sprawled upon a bed of churned dead leaves, right beside its severed head. The second of his victims dispatched in rapid succession, if only because the beasts were ganging up on Sesshoumaru!
It was right here that he last saw his son, the boy of only thirteen summers who still became enraged when his father began to best him.
Right here where he remembered calling a warning to his boy who was fighting out of anger and not faring well for it! Curse this marauding band and it's foul smelling leader who came barreling from the forest, distracting him at the worst possible moment!
Holding his breath he strained his ears for even the faintest sound, hearing nothing nor did he see any other corpses aside from those he'd personally cut down. That fear in the pit of his stomach swelled the point he released his breath with a soft curse. Fighting back the urge to panic he rubbed a hand over his face and grasped for his senses.
Perhaps the Oni turned to flee and being an egotistical child Sesshoumaru gave chase?
Instinctively he gazed off towards the path he felt his boy could have taken and was rewarded by the freshly laid scent the moment he broke through the brambles. Clutching the blade at the ready he proceeded carefully through the thicket if at the same time a bit too swiftly to really take much care. Not when he saw signs of broken branches as evidence of a wild chase.
Then the wind shifted and brought with it the scent of blood that was unmistakable, sweeping away all thought with a chill that made his blood run cold. Now spurred on by the sudden rush of fear he hardly looked at the path as he barreled through the underbrush. Plowing through bramble and branch without care as he raised his voice in a baying howl! "BOY! Where are you!?"
Yet nothing but the ever intensifying scent of blood answered his call and he frantically followed it into a small clearing shaded dark by the thick forest canopy. Grinding heels into the soft earth he skid to a halt as his eyes gravitated to the blood stained moss and followed its trail to the source.
Curled into a ball upon a bed of twisted roots and tangled lichens, surrounded in blood and broken armor, Sesshoumaru lay gasping desperately for breath. Hands desperately holding a wound that was so severe that the elder youkai could see the bones protrude from a distance away.
'Sesshoumaru was killed! I was careless for a few minutes and he was killed!' The thought cut through a panic stricken mind as rational shrunk away. Gripped by despair, the hell sword slipped through nerveless fingers as he stumbled towards the groaning youth. Trembling hands gathering him up from the blood soaked ground and into his arms. Giving him the first real look at the extent of the damage.
Sesshoumaru's head rolled back weakly as his jaws parted in a silent scream that still managed to send a shiver down his father's spine, at the same time his breath caught in his throat upon witnessing the organ and bile oozing between slender fingers. The wound had been carved through armor and flesh until it nearly split the young body in two!
Deep down he knew that one day he'd face a moment like this, but nothing hard prepared him for the reality of it. No longer did his son's face bare the mask of a proud warrior, with cold calculating eyes that never betrayed a single emotion. In this moment of struggle, all he could see was a frightened thirteen year old boy's face silently pleading to his father for help.
That look shook him to his very core, bringing him back from the edge of darkness and right into the face of hopelessness. Suddenly the crushing weight of emotion was shrugged away like a kimono; leaving only calm and calculating thought in its wake and allowing him meet those pain filled eyes without a grimace. A wild idea coming to mind, one that was possibly life threatening in itself, but he could not sit there idly without trying to save him!
Swallowing back a curse he cradled his son's head in the crook of his arm and leaned down to speak directly into a pointed ear.
"Sesshoumaru, focus on me!"
The words rolled off his tongue with a tone that was as soft yet urgent, "I need you to transform!"
It was a strange order and he knew the boy would not understand it even on the best of days, in fact it was against everything he'd taught his son. But now was not the time for explanations, especially while he could not tell if the words were even reaching the boy! Sesshoumaru's eyes now had a distant look and each gasp for breath was more labored than the last, threatening to fray his recently steeled nerves once more.
"Damn it boy, transform!" Frustration hissed between his clenched teeth, however cool thinking prevailed as he closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. Youki was their aura, their magic and much like chi it rose from deep within and expanded outward. Flowing through the air like a dense fog that shimmered with a faint blue-green light, it surrounded father and son. It's rolling yet gentle current picking up blood anointed leaves, silvery hair and the echo of an unspoken coaxing.
Behind that soft caress however was a build up of raw power and without warning it abruptly grew stronger, bringing his own transformation roaring to the surface. Only to be brought to heel at it's very cusp, a difficult feat but one he'd mastered through careful discipline. There was a purpose behind this though, as he counted on the surge of power to reach his son through the pain and encourage him to succumb to the nature of the beast and it's primal will to survive.
Suddenly a wave of youki erupted from his wounded body, shimmering with green venomous hue and churning like a violent storm. A haze of crimson swallowing those distant eyes, but just when Sesshoumaru's body began to vanish into the ever brightening light of his youki, the elder youkai's aura came down over him like a heavy blanket! Bringing the younger's transformation to a violent halt as sparks flared around the nearly incorporeal form!
The elder suddenly gasped as pain shot through the back of his head, eyes swallowed in dark crimson opening to the blinding light that surrounded him. Perspiration began to stream over the elder's bushy brow. Controlling another youkai's magic was an amazingly difficult feat, one only a Daiyoukai with hundreds of years to hone his own youki could even dare to attempt. Not without a price of course, the effort and sheer will needed to execute it was taxing him heavily, but to release it too soon would bring a swift end to his son's life!
A primal scream rose from an incorporeal throat as the churning green youki collided with the immovable force of that ancient aura. Struggling violently to expand outward and allow the young youkai to transform! From the blinding light a clawed hand manifested enough to grasp ahold of his father's armor, while a snarling face formed in the green mist mere inches from the elder's nose.
To fight back that parental instinct to ease his pain and look on helplessly was the hardest thing he'd ever done. To manage this in the wake of his own growing terror was harder still, time seemed to slow down when one hands on every second of it. Sesshoumaru had been caught in mid transformation for such a long time now. Too long. With no room to expand Sesshoumaru's youki should have shifted him back to human shape.
Yet as fear that this gamble would cost him dearly began to sink into his heart once more, it weakened his resolve with visions of the young child. The child who had clung to his furs begging to be brought along on his travels and who had questioned his father about the world and everything he stumbled upon along the way.
The child who later became cold and calculating as he grew into a warrior. Holding steadfast to his pride and principals despite clashing with his father. The child he feared he was losing the moment he bared his fangs upon his father for the first time. Thirsting for power, lusting after strength and hardly listening to his father's words even at the most crucial of times.
And now that child lay in his arms struggling in vain, dying despite all his efforts to save him! In this first crack of despair his own aura wavered and his son's began to swell, a terrible mistake that he quickly grasped. However as he struggled to regain control, Sesshoumaru's youki suddenly began to recede and before his eyes the horrible wounds that resurfaced were in the midst of mending!
It was far from a clean healing though as flesh was knitted together so forcefully that blood practically squirted out as it closed. Loops of bowel exposed and hanging were drawn back into the body cavity where raw flesh formed to seal them back where they belonged. Meanwhile bones crackled as they set themselves and a fresh layer of raw red skin formed under his son's bloodied hands.
The heavy fog that surrounded them began to lift in tune with Sesshoumaru's lessening throws, the young demon's body sagging limp in his father's arms, exhausted and unconscious. Still bearing a serious wounds, but otherwise whole once more.
Relief swelled in his heart as the last of his own youki dissipated like a swarm of fireflies, just to be tempered as all the emotion he'd held back for so long came crashing down. Exhausted himself he hung his head and breathed a shaky sigh. The sound of the boys beating heart, weak as it was, somehow cutting through the inner turmoil.
Twin furs gathered around him for support as he too settled in for a much needed rest. Focussing on that faint heart beat and finding in it a sense of peace and calm, no longer dwelling on how close his only son had come to slipping away.
End.