"You wished to see this Sesshoumaru?" I asked softly approaching my mother from behind. She did not turn to me. Rather, she remained focused on a scroll on her dainty hands. I glared at her back. I did not have time to waste.
"I hear he has taken a mate…you're brother," she says after some time. She puts away the scroll and reaches for another one, barely making a sound and refusing to look at me.
"Half-brother," I sneered. The half-breed…
"It makes no difference. Tell me. How does a half-breed with no extraordinary talent manage to obtain a mate as well as Tetsuaiga before a full-fledged Taiyoukai?" she goes on her her bell-chime voice. I can hear the condescending tone in her voice. My own youki rises to her taunt.
"Do not compare this Sesshoumaru to that half-breed," I command and turn to leave. I had had enough.
"He is more like The Great Dog Lord than I thought. He resembles the Dog General in his youth in every possible way. If it weren't for the human blood in his veins, a fool could mistake the half-breed for the Dog General," she goes on. With a simple bound, I was out of her realm and miles away.
She had only called me to speak about him. It seems as though the half-breed would haunt me wherever I went.
Damn him and his mate for slaying the half-breed, Naraku. Word had quickly got out that it was not I who had ended him, but the half-breed. This left many to talk about him and a bad taste in my mouth. Even Rin would prattle on about him.
Mother was right. The half-breed deeply resembled ChiChi-ue.
~:~
With a final stroke, I sat back to admire my handiwork.
I had taken it upon myself to ensure that I received a thorough education in everything I would need to become a successful Taiyoukai and please Father. I had just finished reading records on many different battle styles that my father kept in his study. I had even prepared a report for father on what I had learned and observed. Standing proudly, I sniffed him out and went to him.
"Father? I have prepared something to prove my readiness for the position as Taiyoukai. I would like for you to read it," I say and bow. I keep my eyes to the ground and wait for him to say something. I hear not a sound. I look up to see my father's expansive back and armor. He seems to be watching something in the distance, focusing deeply. "Father?"
"Do not waste my time with such foolishness. Can you not find a better use of your time?" father spoke in a cold tone. His booming voice weighed down on me as if it alone weighed more than a mountain. I watched him walk away suddenly feeling insignificant. He paid me no mind as I watched his back with a stern face. I turned, hearing someone approaching. From behind me, my mother gave me a cold look that seemed to say, 'Do not waste your time.'
~:~
I started to notice changes in Father.
It was more than just physical changes. I often smelled the scent of a human on him, but only one. He would walk with a sort of stride that left me confused. Father was a proud Taiyoukai due to his strength, but he seemed to draw his pride from another source.
I also noticed the wall of ice and stone surrounding him seemed to deteriorate. Although he seemed to act much more cordially with other pack members, he still remained distant from mother…and even me. I chose to question him on it one night.
"Are you proud of yourself?" I heard my mother's voice sneer.
"It does not concern you," Father replied. I stopped mid-stride. What were they speaking about?
"There are names for youkai such as yourself. Do you feel no shame? She is a human."
"She is not your concern."
Though Father spoke in an even tone, I could tell his anger was boiling under the surface. My muscles tensed just in case mother would need me.
"No. She is yours. I do not see the attraction. She is a weak human who will die before you even blink! And while you mourn, I will feel no remorse for you."
I felt a wave of my father's youki rise up then. I couldn't move from the sheer power alone. My eyes widened. I stepped away before feeling the castle shake and hearing a loud crash. I could smell Father's scent vanishing. He had transformed and he had left. It would be months before I found out my father had mated a human.
~:~
It was the night of the new moon.
Father had just left his battle with Ryukotsei. I could smell the blood from miles out. I approached him on the beach. He seemed to be waiting for me. He had never appeared more foolish. He would risk his life for a human. She would only die within the century. The half-breed he sired would not live to see fifty. I felt disgust, hate, and frustration at seeing him. He still believed to be right and justified in this ridiculous quest.
"Have you someone to protect?"
Those five words would haunt me for the rest of my life.
~:~
"Sesshoumaru, I beg of you…please," the human wench my father had mated pleaded to me while on her knees. Shortly after my father's departure into the underworld, she had seeked me out with a request. I glared my coldest glare at her with disgust in my eyes.
"Leave. Do not try my patience human. I owe you nothing," I spat and turned from her. She looked thin and dirty. She reeked and smelled absolutely miserable.
"Sesshoumaru, you don't have to do it for me. But, he is family. He is your brother," she said softly. I was at her throat in a second. I allowed my youki to rise up and my eyes bleed red.
"Do not relate this Sesshoumaru to that abomination you harbor," I hiss and drop her. I can hear the sound of the infant half-breed's wails before she pulled him to her bosom and cooed to him.
"If you will not do it for me or him, do it for your father. I only wish for him to be safe. I will not live long enough for him."
"You should have considered that before you mated a youkai," I spat and took to the skies. I could not stand the scent of the half-breed. He smelled too much like Father.
~:~
I had learned that the half-breed had been sealed to a tree by a miko a few centuries later. I did not bat an eye.
~:~
"Where is it Toutousai?" I snarl and press the man further into the cave wall. I had had enough of his foolishness. "Where is Tetsuaiga?"
"I do not have it. Myouga was to take care of it. What do you care? You have Tenseiga," he rasped. Growling loudly, I tossed him aside and left his volcanic den. I had already seeked the worthless flea out, but he refused to tell me anything worthwhile. I had already questioned my mother, but she denied knowing.
"My Lord, perhaps Inuyasha would know something?" Jaken suggested with extreme humility in his tone. My brother was sealed away…or dead. One or the other. "I have heard that the seal was broken."
I did not like feeling desperate. I doubted the half-breed knew anything. But, he had gotten close to Myouga. Perhaps the flea had let something slip?
~:~
I felt my blood boil.
Father had left Tetsuaiga in the half-breed's care. He had entrusted the all powerful swords to a child. Even in death, he mocked me. I could not touch it due to my demonic blood. But a human could not wield it. Only a half-breed could wield the sword.
The half-breed wielded it as a toy. Using its powers to defend a human wench. He protected the miko. I grit my teeth, feeling my youki rise. I hope she purifies him.
~:~
"You do not hate him. Far from it actually. You cannot hate him for he is family to you," my mother says to me with a taunting tone from her throne.
"He is no family of this Sesshoumaru," I hiss and glare at her.
"You tell yourself these words, hoping them to be true. But, time cannot change. I hear he has pups as well and that his mate is an incredibly powerful miko. He is either extremely clever or foolish to mate the enemy. Tell me. Is it true that he resembles The Great Dog General?"
I kept quiet for some time, only glaring. I turned and prepared to leave. "Yes."
"I find it amusing that the similarities between them are far greater than those between you and the Dog Lord-despite blood," mother's taunting voice says. I can hear her pealing laughter as I soared away from her domain. I banished all thoughts of our conversation as I neared the half-breed village. I was due to visit Rin.
~:~
Moi-Moi: I think that Sesshoumaru wasn't always cold and calculating. I think after years of neglect he became hardened. If I was in his place, I would hate Inuyasha too. My father who didn't even know him risked his life and gave his his most prized possession? I'd be pissed. It's as if everything's going right for Inuyasha yet Sesshoumaru is neglected by everyone except Rin and Jaken. But, maybe they're all he needs. : )