Disclaimer (small rant: I wonder why I have to remind myself to do this everytime)

Inuyasha (c) Rumiko Takahashi

Author's Note

Uuumm well, it's my forth input for this story. I had a hard time to think about how to put words into this chapter, but I managed it. When I was done, during re-edit and spelling and grammar checking, I realized 'hell! Where is the talking?!'. Urg, writing is so hard. I've also developed a "writer emo" in the process. All in all, here is my screwed up newest chapter. *sob*

Warning

Nothing? Actually there will be a bit of angst, but I guess it can't hurt someone. And character death (I know, I am a bad person, geez!)

Chapter 3

There was nothing but darkness surrounded the two beings chained together by blood color chains and shackles. On closer inspection, only one of the two was chained by shackles on its legs and neck, this one was now laying its head on its folded forelegs, eyes closed, its long ears flicked whenever the red liquid dropped from the watery orb-like structure in front of its back to the imaginery darkness ground practically just around them. The red liquid would flow here and there and then got absorbed into the numourous chains. One would wonder if that was the reason how these chains were dyed in the very same red colour of said liquid.

A stir from the other forced its eyes open to chance a glane behind. The black long scaly body of the other being curved inside the red liquid orb, trying to break through the unseen barrirer with its massive body to no avail. The orb would stretch to accommodate to how much bigger its prisoner would turn into with all the struggling and at one point, that same orb would suddenly gave a pulse and constricted with a god like speed, uncountable times successful nearly sqeezed the being trapped inside.

The four legs being, played witness to the same result time after time, snorted, deep blue pupil in red sclera narrowed into slids as it started standing up on all four, disturbing the chains on its legs and neck as red liquid continuously flew down from the floating watery orb above into the binding chains. Now turned to fully face the other, it crounched low as all massive paws dug into red liquid covered standing ground.

A mighty roar pierced through darkness as demonic aura in the shape of red whirlwind surrounded the chained being as the seemingly perpetual rumbles kept coming out from its maw, blood red eyes shined like two fierced living torches in dark, long chains flying around the orb until the thing fully got all covered.

The roar stopped suddenly and replaced by a snarl, at the same time, the orb pulsed as all chains pierced through it, cut the being inside into pieces until all chains unable to go further and chained around one thing floated in the middle of the orb.

Soun'ga.

Blood red eyes never left the sight of the sword, paid no attention to the regenerating flesh of the other being, now joined its body pieces together to regain its original figure. This, too, had happened time after time, so many that the two gave up counting.

As the other fully recovered body curled its long scaly being around Soun'ga, blocked all sight of the sword, the chained one turned its back on the orb, laid down on its forelegs again and closed its eyes.

Before the darkness surrounding them consumed over its consciousness, it saw a flash of white, magenta strips high cheekbone, and devilish smirking face.

Sighing in contentment, embraced the coming darkness, it let itself lost in the world of mind provided by the flash of red.

Come to me, Inuyasha.

He didn't know how long they'd been walking. Meadows, forests, mountains, seas, seemed like forever to him, though in reality, he also awared that was only half a day time at most. Without the accompany of humans, they moved with demonic speed now, albeit at a leisure paces. No rest. Obviously, youkai and hanyou had more endurance than human, that was why he always complained about humans being weak whenever Kagome complained about being tired back when they were hunting Naraku and gathering the Shikon shards. His back felt so light without the weight of Kagome. He could almost feel her breath near his ears, her hands on his shoulders, her scent... Kagome...

He shook his head as his ears flattened against his head. Kagome was with her family now, safe and sound... and happy... in her own era, without him. Something stung in his eyes and he fought it back. There was no way in the seven hells he was going to bawl out hoping for her being back to him now. It was just not working that way. Also, he could not disregard her best interest at being in where she was supposed to be. She was never belong to the era he was walking on.

But it hurted like a bitch...

"Release your hands, Inuyasha."

Sesshoumaru's voice cut through his internal miserable line of thought and brought himself back to their surrounding. He looked up on time to see the very near back of his brother, very near that with one more step and he would ram his head into Sesshoumaru. Now that was not something he would look into, not to mention all the spikes of that armor, and kami knew what kind of punishment would fall on his hanyou ass if the owner of that armor decided to have fun with him for daring to sully his all mighty person by touching him. Yuck. Well, looked at the mighty person himself all sprayed by blood of whatever thing before he came—

"Though, maybe that was a bit too late."

His brother said again in a statement like of speech. That was when he heard hissing and growling, and burning red eyes all around them from... He growled. Great, just great, they were surrounded. And he was not in the mood to fight anything now. He grithed his fangs and reached for Tetsusaiga, just as his hand contacted with the sword's hilt, pain shot through him and he winced. Removed his hand from Tetsusaiga to bring it into view, he frowed on his bloody palm, correction, his other hand was too, all bloody. And the cause of any wound on them was none other than his own claws. What the hell?

He did not realize when Sesshoumaru had turned to look at him. But he vaguely noticed his brother's eyes must be on his bloody hands for a while, then his gaze traveled up to his face, then those narrowed ambers stopped and stared straight into his eyes. For one small moment he thought he saw a flash of red on those all familiar cold narrow eyes, but it was so fast he thought maybe it was just his mind playing trick on him.

Before he knew what happened next, nothing but all flashing light green color all around, and then it was just him and his brother again, no hissing, no growling, no predatory red eyes, nothing else. Well, leave it to Sesshoumaru when it came to killing, quantity didn't matter at all, really.

Then suddenly Sesshoumaru was too close, too close that he could wrap his left arm around the hanyou waist and they airborned. Inuyasha eyes widened at the sudden contact, his heart was beating right on his ears. His thought all scattered like a broken mirror. And his eyes never left the older's.

It was like a moment of eternity until Sesshoumaru decided to break it, by a simple statement, "We're here."

Inuyasha blinked again. Now his brother was more than 10 miles away from him, and acted as if he had never holded a hanyou in his arm just some moment ago. "Where are w—", Inuyasha didn't have the chance to completely voice his question as he took in their surrounding, and he realized the question was no longer needed to ask. He knew this place, all too well.

But Sesshoumaru answered him anyway.

"This, was the first and last place I saw you before you let your heart fall in love with a human."

Blood.

He smelt blood.

Not the kind of blood that was still smearing his kimono. It was the very familiar scent of blood from his current only companion. Inuyasha's blood. He had smelt Inuyasha's blood numourous times until now, obviously, whenever they would be at each other's throat, more like whenever he felt like being at the other's throat, or whenever the hanyou got himself all bloody from his enemies, or recently, three days back... the day all their persue of Naraku came to an end.

And he couldn't help himself wanting to draw more of that scent with the way it so temped his being, now.

He thought back about the imposter, the one he'd run his left hand through its chest earlier, but kept himself steady away from the train of thought about why it had the appearance of Inuyasha in the first place, which he knew the reason all too well, but that was not something he wanted to give a consider at this moment. Their kind was the materialization of perfect illusion, and he found himself curious, about the limit of their perfection. He was dissappointed soon enough. In the end, imposter was imposter, and there was only one being walking in this living world had that scent of blood, and he would not be Sesshoumaru if he couldn't tell apart if it was Inuyasha's or not.

The hanyou would never be allowed to know how his very own hanyou's blood had so much effect in driving the older youkai's thirst into a frenzy level, that only by tasting the very same thing could ease it.

And he very awared that his control was slipping, by the reddening of his vision as the scent of Inuyasha's blood surrounding him, taunting him to just turn around, and the hanyou would be as good and proper handling to him with no interference of his human pack.

But the more rational mind of the demon was holding back, and it was doing a good job, by pointing out to that untamable raw instinc of his the reason as to why the hanyou was hurting himself. He knew, even before the hanyou showed himself in the forest, Inuyasha's aura was practically screaming 'miserable'. And the missing scent of the human miko was more than enough to be the reason for the hanyou's state of mind when he returned. Though, he noted, he hanyou did not appear to be mourning, that itself meaned the miko was not dead, yet, he grudgingly acknowledge this somewhat unpleasant information. So he could simply presume the miko was wherever the well ended up, somewhere with the disturbing scent of poluted air and numourous kind of chemical, and something else he could not point out for the strange kind of mixing scents emited from her person. One could not name what one did not have the knowledge of. In short, nothing about that particular miko ever stated that she belonged to the world he knew. And he was not interested in such world that had miko walking around exposed their legs for all to see. The ridiculous way of her attire had a way to annoy him to no end ever since the first time he saw her. But he summed it up to her, being human, and he disliked human, saved one.

The hanyou' scent of blood was getting thicker in the air. At this rate, even if the youkai successfully resfrained himself from pouncing on the hanyou, which he was beautifully doing well, other things in the area would. So, against his pleasure to fill his nostril with more scent of blood, he collected himself, though cleverly kept his back on the hanyou as he spoke for the first time since he'd lead the other away from that human village and his own forest.

"Release your hand, Inuyasha.", but he noted, by the gathering of whatever smart, or foolish enough to surround them, that he'd waste too long to warn the hanyou. Not that it did any different to the outcome. "Though, maybe that was a bit too late."

He heard the hanyou growled right behind his back. Momentarily tense by the closeness of their physical, albelt there was a bit of space separating them, but at this close and the hanyou's blood was still in the air, very thick. He did not know what possessed him to turn around and face to face with the hanyou, but it was a very big mistake he found himself too willingly to commit. Because it took all his being to resfrain himself from driving his fangs clean through the hanyou's throat to rescue his tongue from the burning starvation this torturous being was doing to him.

He eyed the hanyou's hands, which was the cause for everything that happened inside his being and invited the living things that had no controling over their thirst for blood in this area to them. Forced his eyes away from the fresh liquid still pouring out from the hanyou's hands, he let himself bath in the momentarily of pleasure to linger his vision on the joint of the hanyou shoulder and neck for a while, the point where he was so much in desire of just biting down and sucked all the hanyou's life essense off of him. A notion he noted to himself that he would do, this time, without fail, without interference. By the time his gaze locked with the hanyou's. Anger boiled up inside him. The hanyou had all the cautions when he stood facing the youkai in his forest. But as they went, somewhere along the way, the hanyou had dropped all his guard around the youkai, the very same youkai that could kill him at any moment if he was so desire his dead. Did the hanyou really think Sesshoumaru no longer want him dead? Or he thought Sesshoumaru was unable to kill him by now? Just because the youkai turned his back to him did not mean he was given the pleasure to look somewhere else.

The youkai vision turned red before he could rein control over his emotions, and he quickly hardened his thought, successfully hiding his feelings from the watching eyes of the outside world, created a distraction away from the hanyou, whom no doubt had more than enough time to notice whatever small change in his person, as his whip lashed out around them hitting every living beings except the hanyou, for this sole creature was the only thing he had his eyes fixed on.

Inuyasha, what have you done to me.

The next thing he was awared of himself, that he'd had the hanyou by his waist as he brought them to the air and shot through the woods they were standing just a moment ago, to the only place he had in mind for so long, with long discarded memories, a futile attemp, and a broken promise.

"We're here."

He informed the hanyou once they landed on the ground. Immediately he released Inuyasha and put a safe distance between them. That, proved to be a pointless act, but it would provide himself, or the hanyou, enough time to act had the youkai really stooped so slow as to lose his control over himself.

Like the very sire of his own, centires ago.

He heard the hanyou started inquiring of their wherabout, but the question was never fully asked. So the hanyou did remember this place, after all. But the please sensation about this small piece of acknowledgement from the hanyou part did not strong enough to ease the unknown bitterness mixed with intense anger slowly raised up from deep within the taiyoukai.

"This, was the first and last place I saw you before you let your heart fall in love with a human."

150 years ago.

All residents in the village stood watching the castle was burning down into nothing. The old castle which housed the fallen princess, who sullied herself and her clan by giving birth to the demon's child. She, who had been resided in this castle ever since the death of the demon father of the bastard child, was feared, disgusted, hatred. Because she was still holding the power over them, her status as a princess remained unchange, until this day, when she stopped breathing.

An old woman stood leaning on her cane, supported by a young girl at her side, watched the burning castle as her eyes distant. "It was the same as 50 years ago...", her aged voice start. "Setsuna no Takemaru-sama had order to burn down the castle... where the princess was in labor... to end both her life and the child.", she stopped and coughed in her wrinked palm, the girl beside her rubbed her back in a soothing manner to lessen her pain. "But both the princess and the child were alive and well... enough to come here. None other had, except for those who was sent away right on the time the demon came for those two.". She looked up to the sky, "Setsuna no Takemaru-sama, this time there is no doubt both the princess and the child will die."

One of the middle man stood near snorted, "They are just an old woman and a child now. And no demon came to rescue them. No doubt it's the end for the princess and the demon's child."

The villagers started cheering around, finally they were dead. No more demon's woman and demon's child in their mist.

The sound of wood hit the the ground loud enough for everyone to stop their celebration and turned into one old man stood till, eyes locking on the hungry fire still devouring the castle as he started speaking in a comander tone. "Do not let your guard down. Even if it's a child, it's still not any normal, but a demon's child. Unless we see it corspe as good as a dead one then we can find our peace."

There was a uproar scorched from the crowd as the oldman finished talking. All men in the village started gathering farming tools, hunting weapons, anything they found that can kill a living being. It was until near evening in the same day that the fire retreated, leaving in its wake the ashes of what was left behind.

That was when the hunt began.

Run.

And don't look back.

That was the last thing she had told him. And he did just that. It never came into his mind how long he had been running, but everything screamed at him to run, away from the castle, the village, the humans. His being was numbed from the scratching of forest ground and sharp tree braches as he shot himself as fast as his small legs could do, he could not see what ahead for everything appeared to be all blur around him.

All the while blocking this voice kept telling him something in his head. But it was so fainted even if he strained to listen, he could not point out exactly what was it saying. Just an eerie sound that inflicted intense pain through his person and only by blocking it did he feel better.

"Mama..."

He whimpered. He felt something was very wrong with her today. She had hold him for a long while since yesterday as she sang him to sleep. And her lullaby was still continuing by the time he woke up. She petted his head, rubbed his ears in a way it felt so good, whispered to him how she loved him and how she was sorry. He had asked why her tears were falling out. She kept singing as she buried her face in his neck, until she was too tired to continue. She laid back and looked at him, her hold on him loosing. "I want you to live.", she said with a sad smile, "even without me."

"No, Mama. I don't want to live without you!", he whimpered. Unknown fear spiked his heart as something was stinging his eyes, seeing her like this, this was so wrong...

"My time is up... my dearest Inuyasha.", she petted his ears again, those appendages had flattened against his crown to block away anymore of her nonsense to make him live alone. No, he wanted her always with him!

"You are gonna abandon me?", he sobbed.

She looked at him with a pain emotion cleared in her eyes, tears kept flowing out, she used all what was left in her to pull him in for the last embrace she could offer, "I wish it never comes into this... forgive me.". A faint sound of commotion reached her failing ears as the smell of smoke hit her nostril. She could as well feel Inuyasha was tense in her arms. "Even if this body failed me, my soul will always be with you. Even it pained me to see you live through all this hardship, my eyes will always watch you. You will live, Inuyasha. Live and be happy.", she whispered through his silver tress. Knowing he could hear her very clear even if her voice sound so soft and faint.

"Mama? Mama?", fear kept raising in the small child as he called and tried to struggle out of her embrace. He needed to see her face, he needed to see her smile, he needed to hear her telling him that everything will be okay again.

Suddenly she released him. "Run. Inuyasha. Away from here. And don't look back."

"No! Mama! I want to be with you!", he cried. No, this was not happening to him!

He could not hear the familiar thumping sound from her chest.

He could not hear the air that was supposed to come in and out from her nose.

He could feel her skin was getting colder.

He could feel the heat in the air as fire surround them.

"MAMA!"

The fire raged in great anger as one red clad living escaped its grab as everything else was turned into ash.

Mama love you, my dearest Inuyasha.

Hear my voice, Inuyasha.

A faint eerie sound in the dark. Red eyes opened to look up into red liquid orb floating above its head.

Abandon your humanity and hear my voice.

It called again as silent in darkness was the only answer returned.

Inuyasha...

To be continued.

Author rant (again)

Ok so. In this chapter I mentioned again what had happened in the last chapter. Mainly someone who looked like our favorite hanyou Inuyasha. I hope I will get the identity of this one in the next chapter. Though, I wonder if anyone who has been reading my story had already figured it out.

And a bit looking back at the past of Inuyasha when he lost his mother. This idea came to me when I was wondering about Inuyasha's upbringing. From what I read from both the manga and anime, the princess Izayoi (her name was not official given in the manga, but only in the Movie 3, she was called "Izayoi" by the Inu no Taisho when he came for her) had passed away when he was very small, the only scene readers/viewers ever saw them being together was when Inuyasha looked like 6 years old. It was quite impossible for a child, agreeing that he was NOT a normal human child (but half of himself is of human), and he had been living in a castle with his mother, got ignored, looked down upon, amongst humans, BUT he was never taught how to fight at that point. So if he was being alone all by himself, and had come into pretty strong by the time he first met Kikyo, there must be something 'helped' him along the way.

And yea, by that theory I worked this up *cry*

Anyway, thank you for reading. Until next time.

Review reply

Many thanks for mangafan and thewolf74 for your reviews. Your very first reviews encourage and give me more than enough motivation to continue this story. I hope you will keep enjoying the story (as I am).