Chapter 4: Complete Violation
"Nnnn…" Sango murmured as she stirred for the second time that day. Sitting up with a start, and crying out at the pounding of her head, the taijiya swore viciously at Tohyama and threw away the blanket. Standing and hurrying over to the door, she tried to wrench it open, and, finding it stuck fast, as she unconsciously knew it would be, only succeeding in pulling the muscle in her forearm.
Gripping her cranium in exasperation as the pain in her head roared through her shaking form, Sango crept back to the futon and plunked down on it, defeated. She glanced desperately around for a window to crawl through, but Tohyama had chosen the room wisely; an oil lamp directly above her head gave off the only light.
There was no sunlight to speak of, so, in other words, no window.
Sango let out a long sigh and let her eyes rove over the room, just incase there was something she might've missed—wait! Catching sight of something strange, Sango shot up and pushed aside a colorful curtain to the shoji behind. The door had been disguised as a wall, but Sango, having encountered these kind of doors before, had immediately recognized it when she saw a bit poking out from behind the curtain.
She smirked. Apparently Tohyama had not noticed this; it must have been a way out of the fortress had the original owners been under attack. She hurried out the shoji and down a long, dank corridor with gunk in the corners and mold hanging down from the ceiling. When she had been in the tunnel for a while (it had been going steadily downward, she noticed), she gave up hope that this went anywhere other than maybe a cave-in, and was about to turn back when she spotted a strange red-orange light from around the next corner.
Confident that she had reached the end, and that that funny light was the light of the sun setting—for she had lost track of time completely—she hurried forward and stopped short when she saw that she had been wrong. Oh, so wrong.
It was a small room, just as dank and disgusting as the corridor, and the walls were lined with chains to strap prisoners do. It was a torture chamber, filled with millions upon millions of three-inch tall candles made out of crimson wax.
And they were all lit. Every single candle in that tiny room was glowing with orange light.
Sango stepped cautiously forward, feeling very nervous. Though this was a room that had seemingly not been used, as there was not a speck of blood on the walls or floor, it still gave her the creeps more than any other torture chamber she had seen—and she had seen many; she had been held captive in these types of rooms many times when she had been traveling with Inuyasha and Kagome in their search for the jewel shards.
She thought to herself, I want to get out of here—now! Then, Sango noticed there was a door on the other side of the room that she had not noticed thanks to the glare of the candles. She, positive that this was the emergency exit, hurried forward and down another dank corridor exactly the same as the first one—she thanked the gods that there were no fork in her path, otherwise she would have been completely lost—but found, at the end, that her first thought had been quite right.
At the end of the tunnel, all there was were the signs of a cave-in: boulders littered the floor, and dirt dripped steadily down from the ceiling, signaling to Sango in that this tunnel could collapse again at any time, and, just in case, it might be best to get out of there, even if it meant going back to the odd place with all the candles, and then back to her room.
Groaning, Sango hurried past the room without a glance around—for fear that she might notice something she had not the first time… a decaying skeleton, perhaps—and back up to her room. The taijiya had just shut the door behind her when she heard footsteps approaching her room at a steady pace.
Thanking the gods for her good fortune, Sango made sure she swung the heavy curtain back into place before sitting down on her futon and trying to look depressed. There was the sound of something large sliding away from the shoji, and one second later it slid open, and Tohyama stepped in, holding a tray of food.
"Sango, I just now remembered that you never got your dinner." He smiled shallowly, and dropped the tray unceremoniously at her feet, where the miso soup splashed out over her legs, and rice littered the bedspread. "Here."
Sango sniffed at it, and turned away. "I wouldn't eat that even if I was starving," she said disdainfully, pushing it away and accidentally spilling more of it onto her futon.
Tohyama laughed and said, "It's not poisoned. Why would I poison the mother of my child before I'd even had the chance to bed her?"
Sango's head shot up and met his grinning green orbs, praying that she had misheard. "What?" she said sharply, suddenly short of breath. "What is this nonsense?"
"Hmm? Nonsense?" Tohyama cocked his head to the side innocently, crouched, and leaned forward till their noses were almost touching all in the time before Sango had the chance to scramble backwards. "I assure you, this is not nonsense."
Sango, fearing for what might become of her now that Tohyama had revealed his dastardly plans, slapped him hard enough to make his human form reel backward, and scurried to the back of the room, as if this would somehow protect her.
"Wretch," Tohyama seethed, rubbing his cheek. He stood again and went to the door, sliding it open with a decisive clack. He stepped through the doorframe and turned; his profile was painfully sharp against the dimming sunlight that filtered through the window opposite as he tossed this final comment over his shoulder: "Be prepared, Sango, I will come for you."
Sango paced back and forth frantically in the small room in which she was trapped, trying to convince herself that Tohyama had not said that she would be the mother of his children, and that he had instead said something utterly mundane.
"Don't worry, Sango," she said, faking cheer and laughing in a very shrill tone. "Your hearing has never been good." But her hearing had always been fine, and she knew this perfectly well.
An hour later, still wide-awake, she paused from her pacing and saw that she was shaking terribly. When Sango realized she could no longer hide from the truth, she plopped down on the futon, exhausted and afraid. "N-no," she stammered, possibly the most afraid she had ever been in her entire life. "I-I have to be brave. Sessh… Sesshoumaru will come for me—I mean, I'll get myself out of here!"
"Go to sleep!" she told herself. "You'll know what to do in the morning!" Not at all confident that that plan would solve her problem, she stood, extinguished the oil lamp, and crept under the covers, forcing her eyes shut.
But, no matter how hard she tried, they kept snapping open and bouncing across the room in another futile search for a hidden exit she might have missed from her earlier search. The taijiya turned over and buried her face in the covers, shutting off her eyes' access to the world. Soon, having nothing better to do, she did fall asleep.
She had no idea what a stupid thing to do that had been…
It was the strange light that woke Sango up.
The reddish glow bore into her closed orbs painfully, and she went to cover her eyes with her hand, but found that she could not move. It was then that her eyes snapped open in horror, and she saw that she was chained to the wall in the room she had discovered earlier; the candles were still lit, and it was that light that had woken her up.
Her head snapped to the side, and she saw to her horror that she was naked, and that her hands were chained at the wrists to the stone, so she scrunched up her legs to her chest in an attempt to cover herself. Looking around fearfully, she watched Tohyama enter the room with a pleased smile on his face that grew only wider when he saw that she was awake.
"Sango," he said pleasantly, "I'm happy to see you're awake. You are quite a deep sleeper, you know… even when I stole into your room and picked you up to bring you here, you simply slept on in my arms."
"You bastard!" she screamed, fighting against her bonds. "Let me go!"
"Shh," he cooed, stepping toward her. "By any chance, did you think you were the only one to know about this chamber?" Her silence was his answer, and he laughed. "Why do you think I put you in that room? So I could deposit you here easily, of course. And I knew you would find the tunnel before too long, thinking it was a way out. Well, it was, Sango, I caused the cave-in."
He stepped toward her, and she hollered at him, "Stay away from me! Don't touch me!" As he grew closer, her cries grew more frenzied, until they were just one continuing, "NONONONONO!"
"Sango," Tohyama said sweetly, now close enough to touch as he slid his loose blue gi off his shoulders, "you will bear me a son."
Her screams echoed through the fortress that night.
I… have… to… leave…
When Sango next awoke, she, dressed in a simple white yukata, was lying on the futon back in her room, and there was a nurse bending over her. Early morning light slipped in from behind the doorframe, and the taijiya, ignoring the startled nurse, shot up into sitting position, hugging her body to herself and rocking back and forth, nearly beside herself with horror.
"Hello," said the woman, who happened to be an innocent human housewife. Sango looked at her numbly and the girl smiled. "You've been sick for near three weeks, you have. My, what a fever! Delirious too."
"F-fever?" the taijiya repeated slowly. When she looked around, and her eyes focused on the door hidden behind the curtain, she latched onto the nurse by the collar of her kimono and pleaded, "T-tell me I'm… I'm not…"
"You're…?" the nurse repeated, pushing Sango back. Soon her face brightened, and she said, "Oh, you mean if you're pregnant or not. Well," the human beamed, "I'm happy to say that you are!"
Sango reeled backwards and buried her face in her hands.
"Yes, you must be so excited. The young master is too." The nurse stood, and gathered her things. "Come and get me whenever you want, mistress. The young master employed me just after you got pregnant, as you fell ill right afterward, you poor dear. My name is Mikoto."
Sango didn't respond, though she did look up at the morning light coming through the door that Mikoto had just opened.
Morning, the taijiya thought dimly. It's morning. Isn't there something that pregnant women get… that has to do with morning? Immediately, she realized. Oh, gods… morning sickness. As soon as the thought had passed through her mind, she promptly vomited all over her bedcovers.
"Mistress!" squealed Mikoto, dropping her things and hurrying over. "Don't worry, mistress, it's only morning sickness."
Wiping her mouth off as her eyes blurred with tears, Sango allowed Mikoto to help her and scurried out from under the soiled blanket to go and collapse against the far wall. Oh, Sesshoumaru, she thought miserably. What will you say when you find out that I am pregnant with… pregnant with… She faltered, swallowed, and went on. With Tohyama's child?
When she thought of Sesshoumaru, she felt the desperate need to escape magnify to an even greater power. Looking at the open door, and then at Mikoto, sweetly fixing up her futon, Sango bolted without hesitation out into the hall as fast as her shaking legs could take her.
Sango hurried down the dark corridor lit only by the piercing shafts of golden sunlight streaming in through the tall, thin windows. Suddenly feeling sick again, Sango paused to bend over and vomit onto the fancy marble floor. Minutes later, spent, the taijiya stood and furiously wiped off her mouth. Damn, she thought miserably.
She looked up, and around. What can I do? But then she straightened up, and held herself high. Though she failed to stop the involuntary shaking of her shoulders, Sango thought to herself, Run. I must run.
And she did. Though she knew it was none too good for the child, did she really want to have Tohyama's child anyway? In any case, she raced down the corridor and slowed down at the corner, remembering what happened last time. After sidling up to the edge and discovering there was no one there, however, she relaxed and started down the hall.
Though she was cautious, it turned out that she had no need to be, for soon she began to hear a great commotion from the front of the fortress, and peeked out at the next window to see Tohyama, with all his appendages flapping about him, the heads that he had gained recently on the ends flopping hideously, doing battle with what must have started out as twenty men but had now been reduced to ten.
Thinking that this might be her only chance to get out, while Tohyama was distracted, she hurried away and when she eventually reached the entrance, she foolishly poked her head out, just to see what was going on. She saw that there were five now, and they were all battling furiously… but then one paused, and Sango saw to her horror that he was staring straight at her.
"He's taken a girl!" the soldier shouted.
Another followed his gaze and sent up a cry, "We must rescue her!"
Tohyama turned to her slowly and Kyo's face half-smiled. "Sango," he purred. One of his tentacles darted out and snatched her around the waist—very gently, now—and brought her over to the men, where he promptly tossed her into the crowd.
The five remaining hurried to catch her, and catch her they did—she landed securely in five sets of arms.
"Th-thanks," she mumbled, standing up and glaring at Tohyama.
"No matter," said one automatically before turning to his comrades and hissing, "What can we do? I don't want to chance attempting finishing this battle when we might all die and leave this girl to the monster!"
"Agreed," said the others.
"But I wish to defeat this monster," exclaimed one, and his friend nodded in agreement. "I will not abandon this fight!"
The one who had first spoken shot a quick glance at Tohyama, who was waiting patiently, a bemused smile placed on Kyo's handsome face. "Fine. Us three," he gestured to himself and two friends, "will go with her," he pointed to Sango, "and you two," he nodded in the direction of his fellows who wished to defeat Tohyama, "will stay here and finish this fight!"
Before Sango could plead with the valiant warriors who wanted to stay, one of the soldiers who were leaving grabbed her around the waist and began to drag her to the gates. But, before they managed to escape, Tohyama's voice cut through the air, and Sango stopped short, glaring at the demon with defiance in her eyes.
"Sango," Tohyama said lightly, having decided this ages before. "The child is to be called Nobuyuki."
Before Sango could reply with a vicious oath, the warrior had dragged her out of the gates and hurried her away. As they were descending the hill the fortress was placed on, two piercing screams cut through the air, and the three men stopped short and turned back.
"Shuichi… Aritomo," murmured one, and squeezed his eyes shut—maybe to suppress tears?
Another shook his head and said sharply, "Come along."
After convincing the loyal three that she could travel perfectly well on her own, Sango set off alone, and, after one good day of traveling, was exhausted and would gladly welcome some company.
And company she did get.
Suddenly, a demon that stood eight foot tall leaped down from the trees overhead, and landed with a crash just a couple of feet in front of her with a cackle and a quick flash of its rather disgusting and yellowed teeth.
Having no weapon, and too tired to put up any fight, Sango darted to the left and dashed past the demon, praying that it was slow and stupid; that she could outrun it.
The taijiya ran for a hideously long time, barely a step ahead of the demon, before it gave up with a scream of anger. Once it had retreated, Sango stumbled on and, minutes later, reached a rice paddy, smiling an almost insanely relieved smile, only to collapse facedown in the water.
The farmers attending to it immediately rushed over to rouse her, and, after a good shaking, Sango woke with a start, mumbling about needing to get back to Sesshoumaru, and the Okkanai Village, which was what her village had been called before it had been mysteriously abandoned.
"Okkanai?" one of the farmers repeated, scratching his head and releasing Sango's thin shoulder. "Why, that's just over there!" He pointed to a hill just past the paddy, and with a cry of joy as she recognized it as the rise that separated her village from another, Sango set off at a stumbling run toward her home without even bothering to thank the men and women who had helped her.
When the taijiya crept over that hill, almost on her hands and knees with exhaustion, when her eyes landed on the home that she had left what seemed like years ago, she cried out and raced toward her home and bounded through the open space that served at the door with a cry of, "Sesshoumaru!"
But Sesshoumaru wasn't there. Rin, however, was sitting on the mat where Sango always slept, completely hunched over with her hands shielding her eyes. She was shaking, and the occasional sob would escape. The little girl did not look up when Sango arrived.
Sango, tiredness forgotten, knelt by Rin and pulled her into a bear hug with a whisper of, "Rin-chan!"
Rin was still for a second, before letting out a broken "Sango-sama!" and wrapping her little arms around the taijiya as best she could. "Oh, Sango-sama, master Jaken told Rin you were dead… and—and…"
"Hush, Rin-chan," Sango cooed, releasing the little girl and wiping away her tears. "I am here now." Just then, she noticed the deep bags under the little girl's eyes, and whispered, "Have you not slept?"
"Not in days, Sango-sama!" Rin admitted, blinking to keep her eyes open and leaning heavily against Sango. "And… and Sesshoumaru-sama hasn't returned from the forest… Rin has been so worried…" Sango was positive Rin meant to say more, but the little girl suddenly relaxed completely against the taijiya's form, and after a moment of panic, Sango realized she had simply fallen asleep.
Laying the girl down on the straw mat and dragging a blanket up around her shoulders securely, Sango left Rin asleep while she went out to the forest to find Sesshoumaru.
It's no use, Sesshoumaru thought sullenly as he sat in the tree overlooking the spot where Sango was taken. I've searched this entire forest for Tohyama's scent, but to no avail… I just hope she's alive… He sighed and both hands fisted in his robes, the claws shredding the material. Sango… why couldn't I have protected you?
Before he could berate himself more, an exhausted cry echoed from the woods: "Sesshoumaru!"
He immediately jumped down from the tree and sniffed the air. That scent—! he thought. Impossible! But… Just in case his nose was not fooling him, and his ears were not deceiving him, the taiyoukai dashed forward and within seconds had made it to where Sango stood, hands cupped over her mouth to make her shout louder.
The taijiya had been about to let loose another cry when Sesshoumaru barreled into her with enough strength to knock her over, and she was positive she would have, had not Sesshoumaru held her up.
"Sango," he murmured, and squeezed her tighter. "Oh, Sango—I… I thought…"
Though he had squeezed all the air out of her lungs and she could not talk, she responded by wrapping her arms around him and stubbornly blinking away tears.
Realizing that he was probably suffocating her, Sesshoumaru loosened his hold only to bury his face in her neck.
"Sesshoumaru," Sango sighed, and done what Rin had done with the taijiya minutes before; her exhausted body collapsed against her mate in a deep, deep sleep.
Sango slept for what seemed like days to Sesshoumaru, and what seemed like hours to Sango after she had woken up and discovered that she was still tired. Rin, who had woken up by the time Sesshoumaru barged in, hoisting Sango's limp form over his shoulder, deduced that Sango had slept for about twelve hours.
In any case, when Sango woke up, it was in the late afternoon of the following day, when the sun was just beginning to set. Rin had gone out to "play" with Jaken; in other words, she would chase him around the nearby field as he ran away from her, all the while screeching. Sango and Sesshoumaru had been left alone.
The taijiya, suddenly wide-awake, clambered over to Sesshoumaru and was going to boldly settle herself into his lap when, suddenly, he pushed her away roughly and demanded, "Why are you with child?"
Sango responded with a horrified "Oh…!" and then buried her face in her hands. "Oh, Sesshoumaru," she wept. "I would never have… you don't understand!" Glancing at his furious expression accompanied by sad eyes, she spluttered, "It—it was Tohyama…!"
The taiyoukai stood up and roared, "Tohyama did this to you?"
Sango looked away from him and mumbled, "Yes… I'm sosorry…"
He bent over then, and Sango thought it was to strike her, so she flinched instinctively, but instead of hitting her, Sesshoumaru gathered her up in his arms and howled, "I've failed you, Sango. I couldn't be there when you needed me most, and this is what's come of it!"
"Nine months passed so quickly," cooed Sango as she lay back on the futon, drenched in sweat from the effort of giving birth. Sesshoumaru sat next to her, a rather stony look on his face, and when the his mate glanced back at him and saw his expression, her eyes dimmed sadly for a moment before she turned back to her midwife and held her arms out expectantly.
The young woman serving as Sango's midwife hurriedly wrapped the newborn up and delivered him into Sango's arms without a word, eyes to the ground. That done, she stood, murmured, "My work here is done," and all but fled the room.
Sango narrowed her eyes in confusion, and wondered, What was the matter with her? Pushing that question aside, she looked down at her son and her eyes widened to plate-like proportions as she removed some of the blankets. "He… he—" she stammered, holding him up before her gently, "he's green."
And he was. The little boy, who had not let loose one cry since the time of his birth, was a strange, almost sickly shade of green. He had piercing red eyes that glared back at anything that seemed to catch them, and maroon stripes on his cheeks that darkened at the end, along with very long and pointed ears.
Sango shook her head to rid herself of negative thoughts, and focused on her child, bringing it to her breast. She would do anything in order to keep her mind off who the father was…
Soon she glanced at Sesshoumaru, who had not cracked a smile the entire time, no less said even one word. Now he stared down at his stepson with what might have been taken for revulsion, and droned, "What shall we call him?"
"His father," Sango said quietly, cradling the newborn babe in her arms and ignoring the initial twinge of disgust she felt when she mentioned the wicked demon, "said he was to be called… Nobuyuki."
Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed when he heard that, but he wisely chose not to say anything.
Sango had decided from before the child was born that she would not tell Nobuyuki of his real father until he was twelve years old. Unfortunately, Nobuyuki was quite a lot like Tohyama, and the taijiya saw him in her son every day, and it pained her to look at him. Though he could not change shape, Nobuyuki held the same cruelty in his eyes, and had since he was tiny.
Thanks to that, and the rest of the similarities, Sango, along with Sesshoumaru, who had been avoiding the child from the start, began to spend lots of time in the wood, leaving Nobuyuki with Rin, now a capable nine year old, and the aging Jaken.
Every evening, Sango and Sesshoumaru would return for dinner, until finally, when Nobuyuki was two and a half years old, both he and Rin—not to mention Sesshoumaru—noticed that Sango was getting big with child, a child by Sesshoumaru this time.
Nobuyuki was not a talkative child, in fact, he was very sullen, but when the taijiya began to show, he shot up and let out a shout of, "No!"
Sango dropped her chopsticks from where she had been eating dinner, startled, and asked, "Nobuyuki-chan, what's wrong?"
He exclaimed with a glare, "No baby!"
Rin had been the one to explain where babies came from to a cranky Nobuyuki one sunny afternoon the previous week.
Just as Sango opened her mouth to respond, Sesshoumaru cut in with, "The sun is setting." Sango's eyes widened and her head snapped toward the open door without a sound. Inclining her head toward it, a feeble Jaken crawled out of the back room and shut it.
Nobuyuki had glanced around then, confused as to why they had changed the subject when suddenly the sun dropped below the horizon and he grabbed his head, curling up on the floor as the night of the new moon began.
Tohyama's son was not like other hanyou children, though he was treated the same. Had his secret gotten out, the boy would have never been able to leave the house. You see, when it was the evening of the new moon, instead of changing into a human, like Inuyasha and all the others, he transformed into a horrible, violent monster.
Sango hurried and picked her son up, taking him to the back room to muffle his cries. He writhed in her arms and she rocked him back and forth, the fact that he was Tohyama's son forgotten, whispering, "It's okay. It will pass. Shh, now." All that mattered now was that her son was in pain, and she wanted to end it as quickly as possible.
And it did. When Sango opened her eyes again, she held in her arms a black creature with four elongated, spider-like legs, huge purple eyes… there was nothing human about it.
Nobuyuki glanced up at her with his sad now lavender eyes, and then promptly struck at her viciously. She instinctively let him go so her hands could fly to her bleeding shoulder and face, and he scurried to the back of the room to hide himself behind a chest.
Sango crept toward her son, a pitiful expression on her face, and held out a hand toward him. "Nobuyuki," she crooned, wiping a smear of blood out of her eye. "Come here. I'm not going to hurt you."
He did not come forward, though it was not as if he could not understand her. He understood everything perfectly, as his hanyou self was raging inside the monster. He roared something indistinguishable, and buried further into the dark crawlspace between the chest and the wall.
Looking back on it, Sango thought that night would never end. But that was always how she felt on the night of the new moon when she had to soothe Nobuyuki. But it was not so with her daughter, Sayuri, as she simply became a human girl…
Sayuri was born when Nobuyuki was three years old. She was a beautiful, pale-skinned child with almost no markings whatsoever—had she not had pointed ears and a small navy blue crescent on her forehead, she could have easily passed for a human. As a young girl, she was bright, funny, imaginative—but only to the people who bothered to get to know her properly. To the villagers who shunned her and brushed her off, Sayuri was cold—almost cruelly so.
It was not her nature to act that way, and Sango always thought she picked it up from Nobuyuki.
Nobuyuki did not take to his sister too well at the start. He would watch as his mother gently cared for her, and as she bestowed more attention upon the baby girl than she ever had upon the poor boy.
This made him very angry, and confused. As far as he knew, he was just as much Sango and Sesshoumaru's child as she was, so why didn't he get as much attention? Perhaps if Sango had not neglected the boy so much for the first four years of his life, he might've have turned out quite… differently.
But he was not lavished upon.
Before Sayuri's birth, Sango would spend all day in the woods with Sesshoumaru, but now she spent all day in the hut, playing with Sayuri while Nobuyuki sulked in a corner. Even Sesshoumaru was starting to visit the woods less and less.
But when Nobuyuki turned four, when Sango caught him crying in his room, everything changed. Suddenly, instead of spending literally every waking moment with Sayuri, she slowly began to adjust to caring for her son as well. And though he never would have admitted it, Nobuyuki was quite enjoying it.
It had been a sunny morning when Sango had heard the muffled sobs.
"Sayuri!" she had been cooing, her young daughter cradled in her arms. Tapping her daughter's nose and beaming when she let out a squeal of delight, Sango gently set Sayuri down on the futon, needing water.
As Sango made to leave the hut, she heard, very soft, muffled crying, and immediately turned to the closed door of the back room, where the sounds were coming from. She panicked, thinking something was the matter with Rin, and hurried to the room. It never occurred to her that it might be her son.
Sango all but threw the door open, and stopped short when she saw her green-skinned son curled up in a corner, his back shaking with the force of his sobs. After a moment's hesitation, she hurried to him and wrapped her arms around his trembling form.
He had glanced up, and his eyes had sparkled with another onslaught of tears when he saw who was bending over him. Nobuyuki had immediately pushed her away with a choked sob, and it was then, when Sango fell backwards on her behind, that the taijiya seemed to finally realize that she had done everything wrong.
Despite the fact that he was Tohyama's son, and despite the fact that she saw him in her son every time she looked at him, that didn't mean that it was Nobuyuki's fault that she had been raped. The hanyou was completely innocent, and it was only when she saw his mask fall away that she woke up to that fact.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, and crept up to him again, gathering the young boy into her arms without any hesitation.
He froze for a moment, before turning to her and allowing his hands to fist in her kimono with a broken hiss of, "Why, mother?"
A couple minutes later, he pushed her away so he could wipe away his tears and put back on his mask of silence and stoniness. He then stood, and from then on, it seemed to an onlooker that things were the same as they always had been, but anyone bothering to look hard enough could see that Nobuyuki's cold crimson eyes held a certain warmth now—when he was looking at Sango, at least.
Unfortunately, when Sango began to warm up to Nobuyuki, Sesshoumaru did not approve.
"Sango," he called to her one day, stepping into the front room of the hut from where he had been silently watching Rin and Sayuri in the other room.
"Yes, Sesshoumaru?" she had responded sweetly, sidling up to him and wrapping her arms around his neck. "What is it? Is something the matter?"
Before dipping down to kiss her, Sesshoumaru glanced around and saw that Rin, now thirteen, was still playing with Sayuri in the back room obediently, and only Nobuyuki was in the room with the taiyoukai and his mate, but he was reading. Dragging Sango into a shadowy corner of the room, Sesshoumaru did kiss her, but that was certainly not what he had come to talk about.
"What's happened?" he asked her, gently removing her hands from his neck. "Why do you love him suddenly?"
"Love him?" Sango repeated, confused. "Love who?" She followed Sesshoumaru's gaze to the innocent Nobuyuki, and frowned. "He's my son," she answered simply. If asked this question the year before, she would have been utterly astounded.
"He is Tohyama's son."
"Yes, but he is my son too!"
"Yes, your son—by a rapist!" he hissed angrily, clawed hands in fists at his sides.
Sango squeezed her eyes shut to suppress her annoyance, and snapped, "N—" Sango caught herself just in time, for had she used her son's name, he would have undoubtedly looked up and listened in, "—he does not know that!"
"Does that matter, Sango?" Sesshoumaru shot back.
"He is innocent!"
"How can you even stand to look at him?"
That question caught her off guard, and she paused before answering. "I… I couldn't," she said finally. "For the first three years of his life, I spent all my days in the woods, as do you! But then I realized that… that it wasn't fair to him! I shunned him as the rest of the world shuns him even now—I shunned him as Inuyasha was shunned as a child!"
Sesshoumaru snorted at the mention of Inuyasha's name, but didn't say anything further.
For one long week, Sango was too angry with Sesshoumaru to even talk with him, spending all her time with her children and Rin.
"That man!" she fumed one afternoon as she put Sayuri down for her nap. Rin, beside her, shrugged sympathetically but didn't say anything; she was far too loyal to say anything negative about the man who had once resurrected her.
When the taijiya realized this, she turned to Rin with a sad smile on her face, and said, "Oh, Rin-chan, I'm sorry. I know you can't go against Sesshoumaru. But… it's just… how can he be so cruel?"
"Well," Rin hesitated, "it's just that… Nobuyuki is your child by another person, Sango-san. Sesshoumaru-sama feels… jealous?"
Sango grumbled an answer, kissed Sayuri on the forehead, and went back to the front room, where Nobuyuki was glowering at his stepfather, having been told somewhat of what was going on by Rin.
The sight of Sesshoumaru sitting calmly on the floor shocked Sango, as he would usually be in the woods thinking this time of day. Snorting angrily but otherwise ignoring him, Sango began to stalk past the taiyoukai, to attend to Nobuyuki. But, before she could reach her son, a clawed hand darted out and grabbed her wrist.
Sango turned to Sesshoumaru, and tried to pull out of his hold, but it was no use, for he tugged his mate to him one second later and all but dragged her out of the hut.
Once outside, the fact that winter was approaching hit Sango full in the face, and she shivered. Dutifully, Sesshoumaru wrapped his arms around her, but she pulled away, more angry with him than she was cold. "What do you want?" she snapped.
He heaved a long sigh. "I… I apologize," he said after a moment's pause. "I suppose you are right. The green hanyou," Sango shot him a glare and he corrected himself, "I mean, Nobuyuki… is innocent. He does not know of his father's crimes."
Sango looked him up and down for a moment, her cinnamon orbs narrowed, before she conceded, "Fine."
"That's it?" Sesshoumaru said, surprised. "Just… fine?"
"What did you expect?" Sango asked hotly. " 'Oh, I forgive you, Sesshoumaru! I love you!' Hmm? Well? Is that what you want me to say?"
"No," Sesshoumaru snarled. "I just thought perhaps a simple 'I accept your apology,' would be nice."
"It's not that easy!" the taijiya snapped, taking a step toward the annoyed taiyoukai before her. He stood tall, and she jabbed a finger at his chest. "You think I'll just jump right back into your arms after you've been so cruel to my child?"
Sesshoumaru almost said, 'Tohyama's child,' but he stopped himself just in time, and instead remarked, "I haven't been cruel to him."
"Not outright!" Sango shot back, hands on her hips in frustration. "But you are always in the woods! Do you know what effect that has on him? Ever since he was born, you've practically lived in the woods! And I'm guilty of that too! But then I came to my senses and realized that my son needed me! And I'm currently waiting for you to come to that realization too!"
"He's not my son!"
The moment after he said it, Sesshoumaru wished with all his heart that he had not. But it was too late, and Sango clapped a hand over her mouth, spun around, and made her way back to the hut. The taiyoukai couldn't tell if she was fuming or crying, but personally, he hoped she was angry, for he couldn't stand it when she cried.
It was another week before Sango properly forgave her mate, though she might have that day had he not been so foolish and careless with his words…
On the day that her anger finally died, she was walking absently in the woods while Nobuyuki, Sayuri and Jaken were asleep, Rin was out gathering herbs for their dinner that evening, and, of course, Sesshoumaru was off sulking in the trees. She had not suspected that he would jump down in front of her without any warning, pull her to him like he had on that day a week before, and kiss her soundly on the lips.
She had been about to pull away, but when his lips descended on hers, all struggling ceased, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. When they broke apart for need for air, she, red in the face and feeling weak for succumbing to the kiss, looked away and mumbled, "Don't think I've forgiven you."
Sesshoumaru shook his head, and suppressed a sigh. "Yes," he said simply, by way of a response.
She snuck a glance at him and thought of how tender he could be. Those thoughts were immediately replaced with how cold he could be, to Nobuyuki in particular. But then she bit her lip, and admitted that she didn't want this fight to continue for any longer.
Suddenly, Sango felt that she knew how Kagome and Inuyasha had felt when they bickered, and her eyes dimmed at the thought of her old friends. Noticing this, Sesshoumaru reached for her instinctively, but she waved his hand away, thinking of Miroku. There was a long, excruciating silence for Sesshoumaru before Sango got a hold of herself and spoke.
"But… maybe… I will forgive you," Sango said softly as Sesshoumaru eyed her carefully, "if you are kinder to Nobuyuki."
Sesshoumaru stiffened for a second, and then relaxed, knowing he had only one choice, and that was to do what she wanted. "If you wish it, Sango," he said finally, avoiding her gaze and thinking of the green hanyou asleep back in the hut.
She smiled, and the taiyoukai waited expectantly for her to throw her arms around him, as she would have done not two weeks ago. But this time she did not; rather, she just walked back the way she had come, leaving Sesshoumaru by himself.
After a pause, he raced after her, and she, preoccupied by her old friends, guessed at the reason why he had chased her. "You're wondering why I didn't hug you," she said, stopping.
Sesshoumaru didn't respond, and she laughed then, knowing that she had been correct. "Well," she said, brightening a little and turning her thoughts to her son, "it's not that simple." Though she was referring to the extent of her anger, she went on to say, "But if you swear to me that you will make an effort with Nobuyuki, perhaps…"
The taiyoukai nodded reluctantly, and she turned back to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and standing on the tips of her toes to bestow a chaste kiss upon the pleased demon.
Unfortunately, neither of them realized that it was too late, that the gap between Nobuyuki and his stepfather was too wide to cross, and that it would only get wider as the years went on.
"Look, nii-sama!" Sayuri bubbled happily, pointing a pudgy finger at a shooting star flashing across the sky. "Make a wish! Make a wish!" The three-year-old's silver hair bounced on her shoulders, and she attached herself to her six-year-old half-brother's leg.
Shaking his leg to remove her, Nobuyuki grunted, and crossed his arms over his chest. The green hanyou then closed his eyes and made a request: to have some peace and quiet. Since Sayuri learned to talk, and to walk as well, she had been following him around non-stop with endless cries of "Nii-sama! Nii-sama!" It had gotten annoying.
"Wanna know what my wish was?" piped up Sayuri.
"No, and don't tell, stupid!" Nobuyuki snapped at her. "Or else it won't come true!"
The little girl made a small, upset sound, and then sat down on the ground, looking at the dirt with her big amber eyes. "Sorry," she whimpered through oncoming tears at Nobuyuki's anger.
The boy watched his sister for a long time before squatting down next to her and rather roughly brushing away her tears. "Don't cry," he told her softly, ruffling her hair in a brother-like way, the first show of affection he had bestowed upon her in a long time and more proof that he was not completely cold.
Sayuri smiled at him through her slowing tears and stood up, once more grabbing Nobuyuki's knees and holding to them fast. He groaned and muttered darkly under his breath, but allowed her to stay, not wanting to see his little sister cry.
A couple of weeks later, Nobuyuki snuck out of the hut where his mother, half-sister and possibly stepfather slept, past the hut where Rin and Jaken were sleeping, and out of their little, rundown village. The sun was just coming up, and by that light, he could see the plateau rising up that separated the Okkanai village from the Mujitsu village.
He had always admired the hill from afar, and the hanyou had decided that today would finally be the day that he would go up there; sure, he had gone up there before, but that was just to run up and down it so he could get to Mujitsu Village to request some food for his family when no one else could do it.
In the dawn light, he crawled up to the top, and sat looking over his home with a satisfied look on his face. After many minutes of sitting in the crisp morning air, his eyes began to droop closed, and he chided himself over not having the patience to wait until he was properly rested.
Some while later, after he had slumped forward in a doze, a female voice cut through the air, startling and waking him: "Be strong," the anonymous girl said, and he heard the soft sound of her footsteps approaching. "Grow stronger than those tears, little boy!"
Nobuyuki whirled around angrily, and took in the girl's gasp as she saw the color of his skin. "I'm not crying!" he snapped at her.
"Oh," she said after a long pause, stepping backward and tripping over a rock and landing on her backside in the grass in her haste. "I-I'm sorry. I thought—"
Nobuyuki stared at her with a scrutinizing eye, and snorted disdainfully. He stood up and took a step toward her. She scrambled back, emitting a small squeak. His eyes hardened at this and he told her flatly, "Don't be scared. I'm not going to bite you."
The girl nodded, obviously older than him by about one year, and asked, "You're that boy who sometimes comes to our village, right?"
The hanyou nodded, and deduced that she must have been about seven years old, with long black hair, large, earnest emerald eyes and a worn, pale green kimono with a pink design of flowers at the hem, and nothing more. His nose wrinkled, and he deduced that she was pretty.
She crawled toward him on her hands and knees until she was right next to him, and surprised him with her bravery. Usually, villagers would have been running by now. "My name," she said at last, when she was comfortable, "is Tsumura Mio."
It was a good thing that Nobuyuki had not been brought up hating humans, as Sesshoumaru had; after all, how could he, with a human mother? But even though the boy had been told that humans were not to be hated, after living his whole life in fear of the humans and their torches and stones, he was very wary of this Tsumura Mio.
"Hello," he said hesitantly, "I'm Nobuyuki."
She grinned at him, and pulled him down so he was sitting next to her. "Well, Nobu-chan," she said, surprising him with the nickname, "isn't this hill nice? I come up here every day!"
From that moment on, a friendship began to take form, however hesitant it was on Nobuyuki's side. And that friendship bloomed, at least, until one evening, a couple of months later.
"I should get back to my house," Nobuyuki said hurriedly to Mio as the sun began to set on that night where there would be no moon. They had been playing all day and he had lost complete track of the time.
"No, Nobu-chan!" Mio protested. It surprised the green hanyou, as she was usually fine with him going home before dark on nights such as this. When she saw his expression, she hesitantly explained, "Well, you see, I broke some plates today, and I really don't want to face my mother!"
Nobuyuki shook his head, half in sympathy and half in humour. Mio seemed as if she could never do anything right, not that it particularly bothered him. "But," he said mildly, albeit a little desperately, "I really have to get back."
After a pause, Mio totally ignored her friend and grabbed Nobuyuki, tugging him after her and toward the center of the plateau at the top of the hill from where he had been edging slowly toward Okkanai village. Refusing to let go even as he struggled—and she was a strong girl—she insisted, "Let's stay out after dark! Come on, Nobu-chan, it'll be really fun!"
Unfortunately, just as Nobuyuki finally tugged out of her hold, the sun disappeared over the horizon and the hanyou clutched at his head, letting out a miserable groan as he changed into the monstrous creature that only his family had seen before then.
Mio's eyes went wide as she saw the transformation, and her hands flew momentarily to her mouth before she turned on her heel and ran away with a terrified scream of, "AHHHHHHH!"
When Nobuyuki turned twelve, and Sango told him who his real father was, he exploded at her, screaming and throwing his fists around. It was the first sign of the hanyou's true temper. The strange thing was, when he was happy, or just in a normal mood, Nobuyuki was fine, almost pleasant, but when he got properly angry, nothing could stop him.
Even though since Sango and Sesshoumaru's talk eight years before, Sesshoumaru had been making a certain effort to get along with his stepson, Nobuyuki had never warmed to him, and this only made the rift ever wider; so wide, in fact, that Nobuyuki could not even bear to look at the taiyoukai, no less talk to him. When he heard the news of Tohyama's existence, he was thrilled to bits, but also absolutely furious.
He stalked off after he had calmed down a bit, leaving his tired mother to sit down and bang her head against the wall in exasperation and frustration. The green hanyou, muttering things like, "I can't believe they didn't tell me," and, "I bet my real father was much stronger than that weakling my mother is mated to," dashed off to the hill between Okkanai and Mujitsu, a place he always went to think.
It was also the place he first met Tsumura Mio, and the place where she had seen his other form, and run away, screaming. Since then, Nobuyuki had done his best to distance himself from her, but, it seemed that over the years Mio had fallen inexplicably in love with the boy, and was constantly trying to close the gap between them with her love, unaware of the fact that she was only even making it wider.
When he arrived at the top, all was quiet, and Nobuyuki observed with satisfaction that he was the only one there. At least, that's what he was led to believe for the first few minutes before there was a deafening cry of "Nobu-chan!" and he was tackled from behind.
They landed in a heap of arms and legs in the grass, with Mio's arms wrapped securely around Nobuyuki's middle, and his arms on her shoulders, ready to push her away. And push her away he did. With a grunt, he threw her off him, and into the grass.
Standing and brushing himself off, he greeted her with a simple, "Mio."
The thirteen-year-old stood and crossed her arms over her chest, a pout placed on her pink lips. "Nobu-chan," she chided, wagging a finger at him, "it's not nice to push someone—especially a girl."
"I came up here to think, Mio," he said pointedly, wandering over to where the hill began its steady downward slope to Okkanai village.
"Well, think, then!" she exclaimed cutely, pulling him down into a sitting position on the ground as she leaned against his back. "I won't bother you."
Knowing this was as good as it was going to get, Nobuyuki sighed and humoured the girl a little longer.
Another three years passed, and Nobuyuki's anger at his mother for refusing to tell him of his real father before dissipated and then disappeared altogether, but his resentment for Sesshoumaru never left him.
Nobuyuki watched as his mother aged, and his stepfather did not. There was a definite difference, though, it had to be said, Sango aged well.
Nobuyuki watched as his sister grew into a capable twelve-year-old, and as Jaken began to wither away, and as Rin, now twenty-four, finally decided to leave her foster father, foster mother, and their children for a regular life in Mujitsu village, just a couple minutes away.
When Sayuri did turn twelve, on the day of her birthday, Sango announced with a grin that they were all about to meet their aunt. Nobuyuki and Sayuri were both confused by this. What aunt? Before that day, an aunt had never been mentioned.
Amused by her childrens' confusion, and slightly annoyed by her mate's reaction (for Sesshoumaru was none too pleased about seeing this mysterious aunt), Sango told them that she would arrive later that day, and that they had to be patient.
You see, the week before, Sango had gotten a letter from Kagome—she hadn't seen the girl in many, many years, and letters weren't all that frequent either. All the taijiya knew of her friends was that Inuyasha had become her mate shortly after the friends parted ways, and that the young miko had had a child.
The most recent letter proposed a visit, and an overjoyed Sango had immediately sent a letter—along with a crudely drawn map—back, saying that Kagome should come to the taijiya's home instead, that Sayuri's birthday would be the perfect time, and that the miko should bring her own child.
When Sango saw Kagome, whom she hadn't seen in sixteen years, standing in the doorway of her home, the overjoyed greeting she had carefully prepared died in her throat.
Kagome was to be thirty-one this year, a year younger than Sango, but she looked to be about forty. She had grown chubby; the usually loose gi that miko's was tight on her once slim frame. Sango told herself that Kagome had never recovered from her pregnancy, though ten years was an awfully long time, and Sango knew she was lying to herself.
The miko's face was deeply lined with the cruelty of premature aging, and her blue-grey eyes, once so bright and full of life, were now cloudy with a deep sadness that looked out of place on the once bubbly Kagome's face. That sadness had rooted itself three years ago, on the day of the death of the so-called invincible Inuyasha.
Kagome had sent a letter two weeks after that held her grim account of the incident.
The woman said that they had been fighting a demon with vicious, spear-like fingers and she, heavy with child—a child that later miscarried—had been screaming and drawing so much attention to herself that the demon had gone for her. Inuyasha had dove for her, and successfully blocked the claw; he had not counted for another knife-like hand to fly for his heart at the speed of sound.
Sango had fought bitterly with Sesshoumaru in the weeks that had followed. She had wanted so desperately to go and comfort her friend, against the taiyoukai's will. He said that it would only cause her more pain, so eventually Sango gave up and instead cried into Sesshoumaru's breastplate over the great hanyou's death. That, of course, pleased her mate to no end.
"The years have been kind to you, Sango-chan," came a weary voice, breaking Sango out of her thoughts to see Kagome examining the taijiya's frozen smile. "I see you've noticed that age hasn't taken tome kindly." She heaved a bitter sigh. "I feel so old."
Before replying, Sango wondered if Kagome regretted not staying in her time, and cutting all links with Inuyasha. "You're thirty!" Sango protested a moment later.
Unfortunately, Kagome took Sango's pause to think as hesitation, and narrowed her tired eyes.
"Kagome-chan," Sango said hurriedly, to change the subject, "where's Shigure-kun? I want to meet him!"
Kagome stiffened, and Sango hoped nothing had happened to Kagome's only son of ten years, who had been seven when his father died. Sango had been told about him in a cheerful letter nine years prior.
"Shigure-chan is dead," Kagome said with a tremor in her tone. "Killed returning from the rice paddy, by a cowardly demon that fled when I approached to see what had happened."
Before Sango had time even to react, at the most unfortunate of timing, her two children stepped in from where they had been waiting with Sesshoumaru in the back room; Sayuri first, and a sulking Nobuyuki second.
When Sango's daughter first appeared, Kagome's hand flew to her mouth and tears filled her eyes. At that time Sango wondered if the harsh and lonely life had made Kagome even more sensitive, and the taijiya thought once more whether Kagome might regret ever had anything to do with the Inuyasha and the feudal era.
Sayuri went to greet her aunt, but Kagome had already come to her, and was tenderly touching the twelve-year-old's long silver hair.
However uncomfortable Sayuri might have felt, it was only magnified by Kagome reaching down and touching the small, navy crescent on the hanyou's forehead. But then Kagome seemed to wake up, and hurriedly stepped away, leaving the startled Sayuri to rush to her mother.
But then fifteen-year-old Nobuyuki entered, slouching, eyes to the floor, his dark fringe hiding his narrowed crimson eyes from view.
At that moment, Sango could read her friend's thoughts as easily as if she'd spoken them aloud…
Green.
"This is good, Sango," Kagome said, even though she was just picking at her food. "Thank you."
"You… you're welcome," Sango responded, and leaned thoughtlessly against her mate, momentarily forgetting the pain that this would cause her friend and how annoyed Nobuyuki would be by this.
Recently, any physical contact between Sango and Sesshoumaru had really irked the young hanyou—even if it was just that Sango fell against Sesshoumaru after tripping over a stone, or if she gave him a thank-you hug after returning with food for dinner. Nobuyuki would glare at Sesshoumaru and his mother viciously—he seemed to have it in his head that Sango and Tohyama had originally been happily together, and then she left him for some mundane and unimportant purpose.
Sango wanted to convince him otherwise, but no matter what she said, Nobuyuki wouldn't listen, and he was getting angry more and more often—sometimes seemingly without cause. It worried his mother, who wanted only the best for her son.
Watching Sango lean on Sesshoumaru so lovingly made Nobuyuki snort and hack at his food as if it were an enemy. Kagome, however, didn't make a sound and looked away. Though there was really no outward change in Kagome's appearance, her eyes shone too brightly—a brightness that suggested oncoming tears—but she hurriedly blinked them away and went back to simply staring at her food, shooting the occasional glance at Nobuyuki, somehow knowing—perhaps by his appearance—that he was not Sesshoumaru's child. "So," she said hesitantly, "how—"
Before she could go on, Nobuyuki shot up, accidentally knocking over his tray of food over and shocking his onlookers. "Shut up!" he roared, bringing his foot down hard, feeling a clay mug shatter beneath his feet and feeling a somewhat muted pain as sharp fragments cut into his foot.
"Nobuyuki!" Sango exclaimed, following suit by standing too, very shocked that his temper had erupted during what seemed like an uneventful dinner and seeming to forget how she had been acting a moment before. "What's wrong?'
"Stop pretending to have 'nice conversation' when you are really so jealous!" Nobuyuki snapped at Kagome, who was so startled that she dropped her unused chopsticks. He turned to his mother and Sesshoumaru beside her and—for seeing Sango lean against Sesshoumaru had been the final straw—bellowed at them, "Mother! How can you be in love with this weak cur? What on earth possessed you to abandon my father and have relations with," he jerked his head savagely at the taiyoukai, "him?"
Sesshoumaru stood up angrily, but Sango threw out an arm to stop him advancing on the green hanyou. "You don't understand!" the taijiya exclaimed unhappily. "Nobuyuki, Tohyama raped me—"
Kagome let out a mighty gasp and shrieked, "He is Tohyama's son?"
Sayuri stood up and too and was about to verbally attack her half-brother for being so cruel, when suddenly Nobuyuki clamped his hands over his pointed ears and dashed into the back room, returned a moment later with a selection of clothes in his hands.
"N-Nobuyuki," Sango stammered as her son made his way to the door, "wh-where are you going with those clothes?"
"To be with my real father!" the hanyou snapped, and disappeared out the door.
"Nobuyuki!" Sango exclaimed, horrified. She wrenched the curtain that served as the door to the hut open and stuck her head out, hollering her son's name once more. But he was already gone.
Creeping back inside with a defeated, choked sob, Sango crumpled in Sesshoumaru's open arms, now wishing sorely that she had led her son to believe that the taiyoukai was his true father, no matter how much they resented each other.
Sesshoumaru immediately wrapped his hand around her in comfort, and fought the small, wicked smirk that kept trying to creep up onto his unlined face. Kagome watched him carefully, and when he noticed, the arms around Sango tightened and his expression told Kagome not to ask questions.
Fin
Don't miss the epilogue!