Title: Childlike
Fandom: Inuyasha
Author: Melee
Summary: Inuyasha and company hear rumors of a little demon attacking villages. Rin gets mixed up as well, dragging Sesshoumaru into the mess.
Notes: This story contains SPOILERS for the Hakureizan plotline.
Hakureizan - the holy aura around this mountain is enough to purify even a demon like Sesshoumaru.
Childlike
"A small youkai you say?" Miroku smiled widely at the woman with her yukata tied so nicely around her narrow waist above the swell of her hips. She was a sweet thing to watch when she smiled so pleasantly back at him.
"Yes, I believe that's what he told me," she said, pausing in the middle of the road and tilting her head to the side in the most adorable look of mental strain, dirt smudged artfully across one cheek. "It was small, yes, but it destroyed an entire village. Two, I heard."
"A surprise attack?" Miroku asked, tracing the line of her calf with his eyes to the hem above her knee.
The woman hesitated, perplexed. "No, that's not it. Somebody said something about the villagers trying to help the youkai, but I don't know why anybody would want to help a youkai."
"Not all youkai are evil," Miroku told her wisely, "but I wonder how..."
"Youkai?" a voice asked, soft and girlish. Metal wheels and gears creaked at Miroku's back, the pink bicycle rolling to a stop. Heavier foot steps behind and a disgusted snort said that Kagome didn't come alone.
"Hai, Kagome-san," Miroku said, turning. "A youkai whose size belies its power. Somehow it convinces its victims that it means no harm and then attacks."
"How cruel," Kagome breathed, her hands closing tightly around the handlebars of her bike. Inuyasha grumbled, standing behind her in his bulky red robes, already intimidating enough in his claws and his inhuman eyes. He was frightening to the uninitiated, but Miroku noted that Inuyasha looked away into the trees rather than meet Kagome's angry glare.
"It doesn't even have a damn shikon shard," the half-demon muttered. Kagome took offense, and he glared over her dark head, his arm thrust out and pointing imperiously. "Ask her!"
"Y-youkai," the woman said stupidly, gaping at the ears peeking from Inuyasha's thick white hair.
Miroku raised his hands soothingly while she blinked round eyes at the pale-haired hanyou and the girl beside him in her unusual dress, five hundred years before its time. "Kagome-san hasn't sensed any shards since Hakureizan, Inuyasha. This is as good a place to look as any..."
Miroku did his best to speak reasonably against the dog demon's amber stare, but in the end it was Kagome who decided the matter, thrusting her chin stubbornly at Inuyasha's sneer. A fwoomphfas Kirara landed in a burst of flame, and all that was left was to tell Sango and little Shippou their new destination.
Far away by the standards of a world without cars or trains and only one pink bike, there was a hill near a village where the flowers were small and yellow. In special hidden places, the flowers turned orange or even a deep red, but they were hard to find, tucked in the shade between a rock and a tree or behind a dip in the earth. A lesser girl might have given up, but Rin truly understood such pointless determination.
Jaken sat on a rock above her, pouting. "One day!" he cried, gripping the gnarled staff he carried between his slick amphibian's hands. "One day Sesshoumaru-sama will be tired of you, Rin! And then," he swung the staff's entwined heads, young woman and old man, at the cloudless sky, "only I, Jaken, will receive Sesshoumaru-sama's gaze!"
Rin giggled at the glossy look in the toad demon's eyes, skipping through the wildflowers towards the village she had seen from the edge of the woods. Jaken stared into endless sky, imagining a day when he and not a little human girl would spend the night pillowed on the soft fur of the Lord of the Western Lands.
Across the field, two tattered villagers looked up when Rin threw herself into a patch of blooming flowers, giggling with delight. Strangely, the men did not smile at the small girl, their faces gone pale and tight with fear with the sound of her laughter. They turned to each other, whispering fiercely and clutching the rakes they carried as hasty weapons.
"What is it?" the first whispered anxiously.
"A child..." the other replied, his voice trembling with ill-contained terror.
They watched her silently, faces dark until the first one spoke. "Call Oshou-sama," he said, and the second hurried away. The first stepped forward, putting aside his weapon and unfolding the bundle of food his wife had given him that morning with shaking hands.
Sometime later, Jaken would come back to reality and wonder where the girl had gotten too.
Rin did not understand why the man who had offered her rice balls and sweet water to drink had suddenly taken her arms in his ungentle hands, dragging her away to his village, or why a frightened woman with a bloody cloth around her face was pressing the rake against her neck. Rin began to cry.
She called loudly for Sesshoumaru-sama, but it brought no help, only the attention of the other battered people living in the remains of their broken houses and a warning pressure from the woman with the rake. They were standing in the center of what Rin had thought to be a happy village before the farmer had coaxed her to him with the temptation of food.
The people were whispering among themselves, frightened and angry both. They quieted suddenly, looking up at the man who now approached, old and wise in the robes of a priest. Rin tried to stop crying since the priest looked so respectable and important, but she sniffled and couldn't wipe her nose with her small arms held in the rough hands of the men of the village.
"This is the same child as before?" the monk asked, staring down at her with serious eyes.
"No, not the same," a man spoke up, holding his hand against his opposite arm, broken and slung across this chest. He addressed the other villagers gathered there. "What if she's just an ordinary child?"
"I lost my sons to this youkai," the man at Rin's left snapped, "I won't fall for it again just because it found a new disguise!" The other villagers nodded their agreement, eyeing Rin fearfully.
"I'm not a youkai," Rin tried to say, tears starting to fall again, but the woman with the rake pushed it harder against her neck. The tool was well used and blunt, but it hurt.
"Oshou-sama?" another woman asked, watching Rin with hidden sympathy.
The monk frowned. "I feel... a great youki about her... but..." He trailed off uncertainly.
"What should we do? Oshou-sama?"
The priest straightened, the rings on his staff chiming with the shift in his weight. "You must not attempt to kill it!" he announced to the gathered people. "Like any cornered animal, it could be provoked to hidden power." He thrust his staff towards her. When Rin shied away from it, the villagers nodded in satisfaction. "My powers shall seal it!"
Cheers broke out and sighs of relief. "Thank you! Thank you, Oshou-sama!" the villagers cried.
"Who did this?" Kagome breathed, staring at the dying fires in the village that no longer stood.
"More like what did it," Sango said flatly beside her, but her eyes were sad.
Wind played with the flames lingering among the charred homes. Nearby, Inuyasha picked through it, irritated. Kagome called out to him, "Inuyasha – " she hesitated, " – are there... bodies?"
He kicked aside a smoldering board, making a disgusted sound deep in his throat. "No, none. Anywhere."
"Maybe no one was here?" Kagome suggested. She felt Sango's hand tighten on her arm, saw the demon hunter shake her head. Inuyasha turned his head towards them, lifting his chin as he scented the air.
"There's blood," he said simply, his ears swiveling to the left as Miroku called from a little way away, "Inuyasha!"
Shippou appeared, bouncing over the wreckage to Inuyasha, his tail twitching anxiously. "We've found a... a person…" he managed, out of breath in his haste, latching onto Inuyasha's sleeve. "She's still alive, but Miroku can't get her out."
Inuyasha growled, "Why didn't you say so, you stupid fox?" He kicked off the ground, jumping between the broken houses to the monk's side. This house wasn't burned, merely destroyed. Miroku nodded when he saw Inuyasha and pointed.
"There," he said. Inuyasha grunted, wading into the debris to lift the fallen wood from the small figure barely visible underneath. He flung it aside, the beams and boards clattering loudly against the rest of the remains of the house. Kagome and Sango appeared from behind another half-standing house, Kirara in Sango's arms.
"Oh," Kagome said, stricken.
"She's just a kid..." Shippou whispered, staring at the small body Inuyasha held.
"Don't worry about it," the hanyou said gruffly. "Nothing hit her. She'll wake up." With the girl in Inuyasha's arms, they walked away from the devastated village to find a happier place to camp.
The Lord of the Western Lands returned at dusk, startling the harried toad demon pacing back and forth between the trees. He looked in many ways nearly like a man, if man could approach his surreal beauty.
"Jaken," Sesshoumaru said, his voice deep, iconic as he stood over the cowering toad demon, tall and pale.
"Ses – Sesshoumaru-sama!" Jaken stuttered, nearly dropping the staff. He froze in the middle of the clearing where Sesshoumaru had left his servant and his Rin two days past. Ah Un stood at the edge of the trees, his two heads bent and snorting softly.
Gold eyes lined in black moved across the clearing slowly, showing nothing. "Where is Rin?"
"I – I don't know, Sesshoumaru-sama." Jaken squeezed his eyes shut against the expected blow. "She ran off, Sesshoumaru-sama, and did not return!"
The great dog demon stood silently. The wind that had stirred in the last part of the day ruffled the soft fur wrapped about him, sending ivory hair flicking across his face where the sharp markings of his exalted blood stood out like wounds.
Sesshoumaru frowned. At length, he said, "Naraku... is not here."
"Eh?" Jaken said, startled. He peered at his lord from behind the staff of heads. "Rin... uh... merely wandered off, Sesshoumaru-sama... This lowly Jaken did not see her taken." He bowed frantically, his small hat brushing the ground.
When Sesshoumaru did not kill him violently, the little demon gathered his courage, declaring at the top of his lungs, "Ungratefully, she has run away! How dare she, a human child, make the great Sesshoumaru-sama wait!"
The tall demon turned and began to walk away. Jaken faltered, "Sesshoumaru-sama...? We won't... wait?" The toad demon stared at the girl's empty spot underneath the trees and then at the straight back of his master leaving him.
Sesshoumaru did not turn, striding away through the trees. "If she has not come back, she has made her choice."
"Of – Of course, Sesshoumaru-sama!" Jaken followed him, clutching Ah Un's reins as the two headed dragon ambled along behind him.
In the middle of a country road not so very far away, Miroku looked up, startled.
"Houshi-sama?" Sango called from the front of the line, the rest of the group slowly coming to a stop as she spoke. Miroku blinked at her as if at the sun, for a moment uncomprehending.
"...I suddenly felt we were back at Hakureizan," he said. He saw the others looking at him curiously and shook his head to clear it, putting on a sweet smile. "No, it's nothing."
Sango frowned, but they moved on.
Sesshoumaru traveled away from the broken village, ignoring or not noticing the fidgeting toad demon behind him.
Tottering along on tiny legs, Jaken muttered to himself distractedly, "Left her behind. As he should, as he should. Very good. A nuisance, a nuisance." He wiped at his eyes with his sleeve. "Always bothering me, telling me she liked me. Good riddance. Yes, good – eh?" He cut himself off, colliding with the soft silk and the fur of his master's clothing where the youkai had stopped abruptly.
"I'm sorry, Sesshoumaru-sama! My apologies, Sesshoumaru-sama!" Jaken put his face to the ground, bowing repeatedly but retaliation did not come. He peeked cautiously at the dog demon's unmoving back. "Sesshoumaru-sama...?"
"This is her scent," Sesshoumaru said flatly, unshakeable like a mountain. His voice turned lethal. "This is her fear."
He stepped suddenly from the path, striding unstoppably after some invisible but lingering scent. Jaken tried to follow with Ah Un after him, but there was a power there that threw them back, tearing violently at youkai flesh that was unable to withstand the holy barrier it had tried to cross.
Ahead of them in the morning mist, Sesshoumaru walked on, not deigning to acknowledge the flashes of hostile power that flickered across his body, little by little purifying his powerful youki.
"It's nearly as bad as Ayame-chan's village," Kagome said when no one else ventured an opinion. She stood on a small rise, staring sadly down at the destruction that had taken out many of the small homes and half of the headman's house. The image of it was clear to her eyes, the sun still high in the empty sky. Next to her, the small girl Inuyasha had saved whimpered softly, pressing against the older girl's side. Kagome grasped her hand, smiling reassuringly into the child's big, dark eyes.
The others watched what was left of the men and women who lived there as they worked to rebuild it. "Very like Ayame-chan's village," Miroku said quietly, brow furrowed in thought.
Inuyasha snorted, striding down the hill through the pretty yellow flowers that covered the countryside around the village. "Are we going or not?"
Kagome nodded, moving to follow, but the girl screamed, ducking behind Kagome's legs. Inuyasha gaped at her. "Ehhh?" he spluttered, frozen in mid step.
"Ayame-chan?" Kagome asked softly. The little girl shook her short hair, crying but saying nothing. Sango crouched in front of her, reaching out to stroke the girl's head reassuringly.
"Are you afraid of the youkai, Ayame-chan?" Sango asked kindly, her fingers on the short dark hair.
"...yes," the girl whispered, shaking.
"Don't worry," Sango said. "It's gone now. It won't come back, not with us here to protect you." She held out her hand. "Can I walk you down?"
The child burst into tears, letting out a loud wail. Miroku winced, and Shippou stuck his fingers in his ears. "Ow..." the little kitsune said.
"Make her shut up," Inuyasha moaned, hands clapped over the top of his head.
"Stop it, Inuyasha - she can't help it!" Kagome glared with her hands on her hips, shielding the girl whose fingers clutched her green skirt.
Miroku smiled weakly, holding up his hands disarmingly. "Why don't Sango and Shippou and I go down to the village?" he offered. "If Ayame-chan doesn't want to go down, she can wait with Inuyasha and Kagome-san."
"Ehh?" Inuyasha cried again. "Why do I have to stay?"
"Inuyasha, you're the strongest. You'll have to stay to protect her," Miroku said like it were the most obvious thing in the world.
The hanyou's eyes flickered to Kagome before snapping back to the monk, his cheeks red. "Which her?" he demanded stubbornly.
Miroku blinked, unexpectedly stumped. "Ah, well... whoever needs it, I suppose," he said vaguely. Sango frowned at him, hearing some suspicion Inuyasha didn't, but the monk had turned and begun walking down the hill. Kirara leapt from Sango's arms after him.
Sango looked to Shippou with a question on her face. The little kitsune shrugged. "I guess we're going down," he said and dashed off to join the monk. Sango sighed. Resigned, she followed Miroku, pausing only to wave goodbye to her friends and the girl who hid behind Kagome's legs.
The girl was still crying. Inuyasha watched her out of the corner of his eye and grunted.
It was bright in the mist with the sun so high overhead as Sesshoumaru approached the small, sturdy shrine. It had risen suddenly from the sloping ground beside the road, nestled in a dip between the trees. Slight depressions in the grass, nothing more than a gap in wildflowers and weeds, betrayed the faintest path to its closed door.
Energy crackled over the youkai's white skin and whiter hair where he stood before the little building, the power hissing as it snapped at his clothes and his hair.
Slowly, as though even so little movement was a struggle against the holy power that opposed him, the dog demon sniffed the air. Habit deadened his expression, but his eyes were piercing as he took the first step off the road, lifting his hand with its delicate claws towards the wooden door at the end of the little path.
Power snapped furiously at his hand, burning like acid in a way the air on the road had not. The demon removed his hand, regarding the shrine before him dully. More slowly than he had approached, his fingers closed around the long, straight blade thrust through the yellow sash at his waist.
He pulled twice, the first time loosening it but seeming to lose the strength he needed after that single tug, forced to try again. With the second attempt, the unsheathed blade came free, gleaming in the wet morning air. For a moment the point of the sword stilled, raised high towards the shrine that Sesshoumaru had not be able to touch, the steel flickering with the reflected light of the power that assaulted its master in bright sparks across his flesh.
Then the point fell, hitting and cutting into the earth with the force of its weight, the air still singing with the sound of its fall. Slowly but inescapably, the youkai bent his knees to the flashing of the holy barrier, sinking to the ground besides his weapon, fingers still locked upon its hilt. His head bent as if under great weight, white strands falling to touch the dirt.
He did not get up.
Sango frowned, watching the villagers' excited faces. They were furious and vengeful, only too willing to tell of the great priest who had saved them, sealing the child demon away forever. The priest was absent now, merely an unlikely traveler passing through. The story of satisfied revenge unfolded without him, gushing, happy until a man at the back snapped bitterly that they should have killed the girl. The others shifted uncomfortably, mumbling, "The monk said..." and "...would have been worse…"
Miroku listened attentively, but only asked, "The girl...?"
A wide man with the scarred cheek nodded fiercely. "Yes. It was a girl child. A very pretty little girl for a demon."
"A demon disguised as a child..." Miroku mused to himself too loudly, obviously for Sango's benefit.
"But the demon was ugly!" Another man protested, holding his ravaged arm to his chest. The men were quickly lost in an argument, tinged with horror, of the demon's true appearance when its child mask was gone.
Miroku nodded thoughtfully at it all while Shippou stared up at him, a little confused frown above his gold kitsune eyes. Sango snapped her teeth shut, closing and unclosing her fist in irritation.
"Houshi-sama..." Sango hissed, when the villagers had turned away to argue among themselves. Miroku glanced over, blinking wide eyes innocently.
When Sango glared, he made an incomprehensible but placating gesture with his cursed hand, turning his face back to the village men who were painting bigger and more terrible pictures of the sealed demon with every word. The argument died unexpectedly when someone exclaimed mysteriously, "Remember its tongue!" and the others quieted, murmuring in agreement.
Sango asked, "What about it's tongue?" but Miroku spoke over her, saying, "I would like to see the shrine where the demon is sealed."
In the midst of their ruined village and fresh graves, the men hesitated, their hands on their tools and their eyes on their neglected fields. Miroku smiled kindly, and the scarred man cleared his throat. "Of course, houshi-sama," he said. "I will take you while the others work."
Sango frowned, hefting her boomerang over her back, but said nothing, watching the villagers dispersed, their excitement muted. She felt little claws on her back and Shippou appeared on her shoulder. He met her eyes to share a secret glance, and then he too frowned at Miroku's back. Kirara mewed sympathetically from the crook of Sango's arm.
Kagome held the girl gently, rubbing her back and slowly rocking her to sleep. Ever since Ayame-chan had finally stopped crying, Inuyasha had been pacing the clearing restlessly. It was annoying, but at least he had stopped complaining about the noise.
Now he paused in front of the trees, staring out into the woods, legs spread and hips thrust out in an eminently masculine pose. "I'm hungry," he declared.
Kagome ignored him.
Inuyasha's ear twitched towards her, hesitating when she offered neither rebuke nor compliance, stroking the girl's soft hair. "Kagome – "
"Inuyasha..." she said sweetly, "SIT." Instantly, the prayer beads around Inuyasha's neck took on a ferocious weight, wrenching his neck to the dirt.
"Aw, FUCK." The ground was unpleasantly hard and rocky, bluntly realigning his spine with the impact. The child in Kagome's lap blinked with awestruck eyes at the dog demon suddenly lodged in the earth.
He peeked through his bangs when Kagome's shoes appeared beside his head, then two little feet as Kagome put the girl in front of him. "Watch Ayame-chan, Inuyasha," she said. "I'm going to get water for cup ramen."
She waited while struggled to his feet, the girl at her side watching him eerily with solemn eyes. "Inuyasha," Kagome said patiently.
"What?!" he demanded, flinging his hands up in defense and watching the child out of the corner of his eye.
Kagome tapped her foot against the ground, her lips pursed. Finally, she said, "Be NICE," and stalked off into the trees to the stream that ran nearby.
Glaring, Inuyasha settled against the tree, steaming with fury, his arms folded tightly across his chest. He eyed the girl standing quietly in front of him with her small hands demurely clasped. "Well?" he snapped. "Whadda you want?"
He expected her to cry, but she gave him a hesitant, frightened smile, biting her lip adorably. Inuyasha whipped his head away defiantly. The girl's face fell. She forced back a sniffle. Inuyasha glanced back, grunted, glanced away again. Stiffly, he unfolded one arm, muttering, "Well? You coming or not?"
Smiling, Ayame clambered onto Inuyasha's lap, burying her face in his musty old robes. Inuyasha's nose twitched, and he frowned at an unexpected, dangerous scent. The expression softened when she murmured his name in her sleep, his eyelids drifting shut to join her.
"You see, Sango," Miroku was saying as they picked their way up the hill behind the farmer, "as soon as we heard about this youkai, I started thinking. What was a 'small youkai'? It would have to be more than simple lack of size. Kageromaru was 'small', but he certainly didn't appear benign enough to confuse anyone."
Their guide glanced back at the monk skeptically. Shippou pressed against Sango's cheek, arguing, "But they told us how it did it. It was pretending to be a little girl."
Miroku held up a hand, dismissing Shippou's protest. "I remember, Shippou, but Sango thinks I've been acting suspiciously. I'm hoping to explain myself."
Sango glanced at the anxious kitsune on her shoulder. "Shippou's right. You're talking about solving a riddle, but we already know the answer."
Miroku nodded patiently. "Yes, yes. The point is I'm not sure the girl they caught is actually- "
"The shrine is down that way past the fallen tree, houshi-sama," the farmer said suddenly, pointing to a fork in the road just ahead, no more than a trail of cleared dirt through the woods.
Miroku started to step towards the shady road between the trees, but Sango stepped on his foot hard. "Ow, Sango!"
"I want Kirara to transfom before we go any further, and that needs some explanation." Sango addressed the farmer who had stopped warily before them. "Excuse me, sir?" She opened her arms and Kirara leapt forward, surrounded by flame. "This is my friend, Kirara, who aids and protects me. She is a youkai, but she won't harm you."
The village man had jumped back, startled and frightened at the explosion of flame, but his expression turned confused when the fire cleared, leaving only a swaying kitten on the road. Sango blinked. "Kirara?"
"Kirara!" Shippou cried, leaping from Sango's shoulder and running to his friend. He faltered before he reached her, looking a little green.
Sango swept the both of them up in her arms. "Shippou? Kirara?"
"Oh dear," Miroku said, putting a hand to his head, not surprised at all.
Sango turned to him. "Is this what you sensed earlier, Houshi-sama?"
Miroku nodded. "Hakureizan..."
The scarred man from the village cleared his throat. "Well, of course youkai can't come here. It was a great monk that was here, like we told you. This wasn't the first demon he ever sealed away, you can be sure. There was this horse... "
"Miroku," Sango asked quietly, "Do you think this is like Hakureizan in all ways? Has Naraku found another buddha?"
Miroku shook his head. "No, I don't think so. There's nothing here to draw him. Besides, the aura is so much smaller. The people here were just lucky to have been saved by a very powerful holy man..."
Miroku trailed off, fingers twitching, grimacing at the barrier that punished impure thoughts as surely as Hakureizan had. Oh, tragedy! he thought, his eyes on the curve of Sango's thighs.
"Houshi-sama?" Sango asked, oblivious.
The monk wiped his face clean of expression, bursting into a false smile. "Shippou, Kirara," he beamed, taking the small youkai from Sango's arms, and walked out of the shrine's oppressive aura, breathing a deep sigh of relief. "Please go back and make sure Kagome and Inuyasha are alright! We can handle this from here!"
Woozy, the demon cat transformed, provoking a loud cry of surprise from their village guide, lifting the little kitsune gently in her teeth before leaping into the sky. Miroku bowed to the scarred man that had guided them. "Thank you for showing us the way. I wish to learn what I can from a seal of such power, but I may spend quite some time there. Please go back and continue rebuilding your home."
The villager stared at them in shock, but he departed at Miroku's pleading, leaving Sango alone with the monk on the forest road. When he had gone, she repeated incredulously, " 'Kagome and Inuyasha are alright'? Why?"
"Do you remember what Kagome said when she saw the destruction here? I had suspected that the 'small youkai' was really hiding itself as a child, but it wasn't until Kagome mentioned the resemblance between this village and Ayame-chan's..."
Sango's heart grew tight. "You think Ayame-chan...?" She turned her eyes to the misty road. "But then what did they seal in the shrine?"
Miroku stared ahead, closing his right hand tighly around the rosary seal. "Exactly."
She turned to him suddenly, her eyes grown round and black. "But Kagome...!"
The monk's smile was strained. "Inuyasha stayed with her. I trust his senses." He snorted. "His nose anyway."
Sango sighed. "And I trust yours."
"My nose?" He tapped it slyly with one finger of his cursed hand. Sango stared at the purple cloth that hid the monk's own personal doom.
"Hoshi-sama..." she protested, and he smiled kindly.
"I know," he said and walked on.
Kagome walked to the clearing where she had left Inuyasha and the little girl, humming softly to herself, a twenty-first century song her friends had loved the last time she'd had a chance to go home. She paused at the edge of the trees, watching the child and the half-demon sleeping against an aging oak.
Then, horrified, she watched as Ayame-chan's eyes opened a bright, angry crimson. A sinuous, snaking tongue the sick gray of corpses and lined with tiny teeth slipped from her child's mouth and circled Inuyasha's neck while the hanyou slept, oblivious.
Kagome didn't scream.
It was not long before Sango and Miroku saw the shrine, a small building at the side of the road. It was old and weathered, but well-built or well-cared for or both because it showed no signs of decay.
They didn't speak, Sango carrying a silent frown, alert to all changes in the surrounding forest except for those of her companion beside her. For his part, Miroku mourned, stealing painful peeks at Sango's pretty backside, sighing to himself. Ah, Sango-chan... I should not travel with beautiful things.
Clearing his throat, he said aloud, "I suspected Ayame-chan, but are there two?"
Sango slapped an arm across his path, jolting him to stop. With her other arm, she brought Hiraikotsu to the ready, muscles bunching as she manipulated the boomerang's great weight. "Houshi-sama!" she warned, her face hard.
Miroku blinked at her, but her eyes were on the earth before the shrine. He turned, startled to see the pale figure crouched there, still and silent like a staue in white marble.
Sango's eyes darted to Miroku, confused. "Isn't that...?"
Miroku shook his head; he had no answers for her. "Inuyasha's brother, Sesshoumaru. For what possible reason...?" He gripped his staff with white knuckles. "Sango!" he protested because she had begun walking towards the demon.
She did not get far before Sesshoumaru stiffened, lashing out at her with the great blade Toukajin. The movement was unexpectedly sluggish, the slash of the blade doing little more than dislodging stones and clumps of dirt.
"Sango!" Miroku cried, distressed. She jumped back, unhurt, her expression thoughtful.
As they looked on, the dog demon rose to his feet, visibly immaculate. And yet there was a lingering sloth about his motion that made Miroku ache for the ease of grace that Inuyasha's brother usually possessed. Sesshoumaru turned his pale face towards them, his yellow eyes narrowing.
"You travel with the hanyou," he said, the venom in his voice a more deadly insult that the word itself could ever be.
Miroku cast a confused glance at Sango, surprised that Sesshoumaru had spoken as if he had not been aware of them until after he attacked, but Sango was focused on the threat, her hands gripping the straps on the giant boomerang, ready to throw or to block. Miroku also lifted his staff, the rings chiming faintly as he brought his other hand to rest on the prayer beads around his right wrist.
Is he trying to free the demon? he wondered.
Sesshoumaru held his head back arrogantly, as though his height did not already allow him to look down on all but a very small sliver of humanity. He regarded them coldly for a moment, then spoke. "Monk, are you able to open this door?"
"Why should we help you free the demon child?" Sango demanded.
Something ran through the demon's face, the slightest frown marring his brow before he answered, his voice rumbling slowly from his chest. "Demon child?"
Inuyasha woke when the arrow struck the tree trunk above his head, bits of dust and bark falling into his hair. He shook his head, clearing the dirt from his eyes, looking up, shocked to see Kagome standing over her backpack, another arrow notched and aimed.
"Kagome, what the hell?!" he cried.
"Inuyasha!" she said, her face tight, her eyes on his chest. Something laughed, low and hoarse from his lap. Inuyasha dropped his eyes, gaping at the long, knife-like tongue winding itself around his neck and Ayame's suddenly ruby eyes.
"Shit!" he said, throwing a hand to his neck and cursing when the youkai's tongue tightened, biting into his palm. He swung at the thing crouched against his chest. Its eyes widened seeing the sharp claws aiming for its back.
The youkai dodged back, the tongue whipping away from Inuyasha's neck. She cackled. "You should have slept through it, Inuyasha. I would have taken your body while you still lived. Now you will experience the pain of death!"
"Inuyasha! Are you alright?" Kagome called anxiously from across the clearing.
He wiped a sleeve across a nick on his cheek, annoyed by the pain in his hand. "Stay back, Kagome!" he shouted, keeping an eye on the false child between them and the gray tongue waving slowly back and forth.
Inuyasha frowned as something occurred to him. The youkai said it wanted my body? "Hey, bastard youkai! Are you possessing that girl? Cause, if you are, I'm going to knock you out!"
"Possession?" Kagome repeated, surprised. "Inuyasha, this is probably the demon that attacked the village!"
Inuyasha cracked his knuckles, his smile feral. "Yeah, I couldn't smell it before, but now the stink is the same."
"What about Sango and Miroku?"
"Who cares! I don't need 'em to take on something like this!" Inuyasha snapped, indignant. Kagome glared, a thin layer of anger over worry. Inuyasha wrinkled his nose in disgust, saying to the youkai, "Oi, that child is dead isn't it? Just like the rest of the village."
"Ha!" the youkai mocked, his voice twisting away from the girl's, deeper and hoarse. "The bodies of the dead hide my presence, but humans are weak. Prepare yourself, Hanyou!"
It leapt forward, deadly tongue snapping before it. "Feh," Inuyasha said lazily, drawing Tessaiga.
"The child in this shrine is not a youkai," Sesshoumaru said.
Sango shifted her grip on Hiraikotsu. "That's a holy seal! If it weren't a youkai, it would just leave!"
Sesshoumaru said nothing, watching them with narrowed eyes, undaunted.
Miroku cleared his throat. "You're not exactly an ally to us, Sesshoumaru," he began reasonably. "Suddenly you want us to open this door for you? Why don't you just smash it in?"
Unexpectedly, the youkai's eyes dropped to the hand on the hilt of his sword, for a moment the arrogance wavered and he seemed perplexed. "I... cannot open it." The voice that usually struck with such power at whomever it addressed was strangely hesitant.
Sango straightened, the battle stance falling away. "I will open the door," she said.
"Sango!" Miroku protested, feeling that his vocabulary recently had shrunk to that single exclamation.
"But if that's a youkai in there, I'm taking it out," Sango warned, gripping Hiraikotsu tightly, betraying the fear she felt before the powerful and beautiful youkai. "And I'll take you out too if it hurst us or anybody – you can't barely move, can you? This holy power... it's like the sacred mountain that hid Naraku."
She began walking slowly forward, circling the dog demon cautiously in a wide berth, ignoring the monk behind her gone white and holding his staff like he was about to snap it in half. She tried the door, momentary surprise sweeping away the fear. "Miroku, this door is locked. Maybe there isn't a youkai in here!"
Sesshoumaru watched with a strange impassiveness, his interest in her actions hidden behind a dispassionate mask. There was no sound from inside the shrine.
Miroku stepped closer, anxious, shuddering when Sesshourmaru returned his stare effortlessly. "Can you open it, Sango?" But I hope the holy seal stays in place or it's us against the Lord of the Western lands.
"Hiraikotsu!" Sango cried, swinging the bone boomerang at the wooden door. The door shattered under the force. Miroku felt the holy power waver but hold, letting out a terrified breath he hadn't known he was holding.
"There's a girl," Sango called back to him, peering into the dim interior of the shrine. "She's asleep. Doesn't feel like a youkai."
The girl on the floor shifted, big brown eyes blinking slowly. "Sesshoumaru-sama?"
Sango blinked at that, surprised. "What?"
Miroku saw her start, calling worriedly, "Sango?"
Sango stepped back, and the little girl came out of the shrine, yawning, her small hands stretching towards the sun. "Sesshoumaru-sama! You rescued Rin!"
"Amazing..." Sango murmured.
"Indeed, that is the human girl that travels with Sesshoumaru," Miroku said. "I wonder what happened here?"
Sesshoumaru watched the girl beaming up at him and said nothing, but there was an air of satisfaction about his movement as he turned to leave. Rin followed or tried to follow, after a few steps wincing and hopping forward on one foot. In a little voice, she whispered, "Ow."
Sesshoumaru turned to stare at her. Softly, he asked, "What is wrong with your foot, Rin?"
Rin sniffed, her eyes starting to tear up. "I'm sorry, Sesshoumaru-sama... I didn't mean to fall..."
There was a moment in which Sesshoumaru stared at her dumbly, a moment in which all manner of expression would have been flitting across Inuyasha's face, but here it was as if time had stopped because nothing changed. Sparks of power ran over the dog demon's flesh, picking viciously at his youki and demanding attention. Miroku watched, rapt, and remembering the state in which they had discovered Sesshoumaru here, collapsed under the weight of the barrier.
Then Sesshoumaru tensed, wrenching his sword from the earth and returning it to its place through his yellow sash. His hand at his side, its energy spent, he bent his knees, slowly sinking to the ground before Rin. He put his arm around the girl, holding her to his chest, but while Sango waited for him to rise, he remained there, head bowed, his eyes shut.
Sango lifted her hands to her face, lips parting. "Miroku..." she whispered, horrified. "I don't think he can get up."
"Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin pleaded, her dark eyes wide. "Sesshoumaru-sama!"
Distressed, Sango started forward, but Miroku grabbed her arm. "No, Sango. He'll cut you down if you get close. He's like an animal."
Sango stopped, stricken, but her expression hardened and she started forward again. "Sango – " Miroku said, worried, watching as Sango stopped a few yards away from the bent youkai lord.
Sango crouched down, putting on a smile for the frightened girl held by Sesshoumaru's arm. "Rin-chan, it will be okay," Sango promised, "but I need your help. Can you help me help Sesshoumaru?"
Rin nodded, teary eyed. Sango put her hands above her head, palms up and pushing towards the sky like she was lifting something about her head. "He just needs a little help, Rin-chan. Push with me, okay?"
Rin put her tiny hands on Sesshoumaru's armor and pushed. "Sesshoumaru-sama, it's not time to sleep. Wake up, Sesshoumaru-sama!" Under Rin's insistent attention, the dazed youkai began to stand, rising almost imperceptibly. "Sesshoumaru-sama!" Rin cried, sparing an arm to rub at her tears.
Together, Rin and Sango worked to coax the Lord of the Western Lands into some semblance of verticality. Sango backed up slowly, gesturing Rin forward with her hands, smiling and speaking encouragement to the little girl that Sesshoumaru tolerated so mysteriously.
Miroku looked on, stunned beyond speech.
"That's it, Rin-chan," Sango praised. "Just follow me, okay?"
Gradually, they moved away from the seal.
Inuyasha flung up his arm, blocking a strike with the Tessaiga and crowing his superiority. The demon hissed, its form growing more demonic, gray flesh bulging from beneath it's small child-sized yukata.
Red eyes snapped to Kagome, and again the tongue lashed out, circling a tree felled early in the battle and flinging it towards the teenaged girl.
"Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted, terrified but blocked by the snickering demon.
Kirara batted the log aside, landing softly beside Kagome. "Kagome, are you alright?" Shippou asked from the demon cat's back.
Kagome smiled weakly. "Thank you, Shippou-chan, Kirara-chan."
"What is that?" Shippou asked, startled and staring at the thing between Kagome and Inuyasha.
Kagome clenched her fists, glaring at the demon's back. "It's a youkai that possesses the bodies of the dead. It's the same youkai that attacked those villages, pretending to be a child."
"But it can't be!" Shippou protested. "Miroku and Sango went to see where that demon is sealed! A priest caught it days ago!"
"What?" Kagome and Inuyasha cried together. The demon laughed.
"Don't forget your opponent!" it warned, and Inuyasha jumped back, dodging the tongue's deadly blades.
"Inuyasha, finish it!" Kagome shouted.
Inuyasha leapt away from the demon, grimacing with disgust. He sheathed Tessaiga. "I can't! It's stealing some kid's body. She at least deserves a proper burial."
Kagome was taken aback. "Inuyasha..." she said sadly.
"Stupidity!" the demon roared. "I'll feast on your soul right before I make your body mine!" It attacked, throwing its body across the clearing towards the half-demon.
Suddenly its eyes went wide, Kagome's purifying arrow protruding from it's back. The gray, demonic tongue shriveled, falling to the ground as dust. The partially decayed body of a child hit the ground at Inuyasha's feet.
Gripping her bow, Kagome pulled back in revulsion and Shippou hid his face in Kirara's fur. "Feh," Inuyasha said.
Jaken paced at Ah-Un's side impatiently. The two-headed dragon snorted, raising its heads, suddenly alert. Jaken looked up to see two humans of Inuyasha's traveling company inexplicably leading his master out of the mist.
Miroku looked up, seeing the mist part ahead of them where the forest road rejoined the road that passed the village. "Nearly there," he said and Sango nodded.
Abruptly, a rock struck his head and he threw up his hands, ducking a rain of stones. A high-pitched voice screeched at him in fury, "How dare you attack Sesshoumaru-sama! What have you done to Lord Sesshoumaru, disgusting human?!"
Miroku whirled, dazed, one hand on his bruised head and the other on his staff. "What?" Sango asked, dumbfounded.
Rin gripped Sesshoumaru's sleeve anxiously. "Jaken-sama..."
The toad leapt at them with deadly intent while Miroku gaped, only to be flung back in a shower of sparks from the holy barrier still in place. Behind them, unnoticed, Sesshoumaru's eyes opened, blinking away the dullness from his yellow eyes.
Jaken leapt up from his fall, slamming the end of his strange staff into the ground. Miroku blanched, remembering the flood of fire that the staff could produce. "Staff of heads!" Jaken screamed.
Sango and Miroku tensed, waiting for the worst, and Jaken smiled. Before the staff had a chance to belch forth its flame, a white form batted the toad demon away like so much dandelion fluff. Delighted, Rin squealed in admiration, "Sesshoumaru-sama!"
Reanimated and returned to his power, the dog demon glowered down at his servant, the toad gone slack-jawed with mortification. "Sess-sesshoumaru-sama!" Jaken stuttered, pressing his face into the dirt.
"Jaken... shut up."
"Of course! Absolutely, Seshoumaru-sama!"
Sesshoumaru turned his head sharply, frowning at the demon hunter and the monk tensed behind him. "Humans..."
Sango jumped back, her hand again going to Hiraikotsu, her face stricken. Miroku dropped his staff to the crook of his arm, bringing his cursed hand between himself and the demon dog.
Rin tugged at Sesshoumaru's sleeve. The youkai turned his emotionless face to hers, addressing the humans behind him, "...this Sesshoumaru is grateful."
Miroku gaped. Sango fumbled, nearly dropped the boomerang she'd been about to throw. "No... no way."
But Sesshoumaru had already turned, walking away into the mist. From the dragon's back, Rin waved frantically to Sango. "Goodbye, nee-chan! Goodbye!"
As the youkai and his companions vanished into the trees, Sango felt Miroku's hand on her should. "Sango," he said, his voice wavering, his smile absurd, "I... admire your bravery."
Sango laughed helplessly, holding up her shaking hands before her face. "I almost got us killed didn't I?"
Miroku nodded solemnly, his fingers digging into her shoulder with left over tension. "Yes. Yes, you did."
They returned to the clearing beside the village to see Inuyasha standing in front of a fresh grave, his outer robed discarded and his sleeves rolled up, his arms dirty with earth.
"Miroku," Kagome said, beside the half-demon, "could you pray?"
Sango sighed tiredly. "So Ayame-chan – "
Inuyasha grunted, concealing anger. "Yeah, some bastard youkai was possessing a dead girl's body. As if I would go easier on a kid."
Shippou spoke up indignantly from the ground by Inuyasha's leg. "No, you're MEANER to kids!"
"Shut up, you brat!" Inuyasha snapped, tackling the kitsune boy as he tried to flee.
"Waaah, why do I have to get beat up by stupid smelly Inuyasha?" Shippou cried.
Kagome did her best to ignore them, eyebrow twitching as she and Sango stood with Miroku, praying over the grave with proper solemnity. "May your soul find peace, Ayame-chan," Miroku said.
"What happened in the village?" Kagome asked.
Miroku paled. Kagome blinked in confusion, and even Inuyasha looked up from torturing Shippou. "Huh?" he said.
Sango clapped her hands together, laughing nervously. "You're never going to believe any of it," she warned, "but it was adorable."