Promising Actions

A/N: I'm sure you all know that I do not own InuYasha. I only own Saeka. She's mine, so nobody can take her! Anyhoo, here's the next chapter.

InuYasha was staring gloomily into the fire. He wasn't sure whether to feel bad about what his brother was going through, or elated. He'd never gotten along with Sesshomaru that well, but InuYasha supposed that even Sesshomaru didn't deserve to suffer like this. If anyone did, it was Naraku.

InuYasha turned his gaze to the unconscious form of Sesshomaru lying several feet off. Myoga had instructed that Sesshomaru not be moved. From their vantage point, it seemed like the demon was merely asleep.

" InuYasha." Miroku's voice awoke him, as though from a bad dream.

" Yeah?"

" Are you at all concerned about Sesshomaru? I mean, after all, he is your brother."

" I guess so."

" You don't really care for him all that much."

" Not really. But I guess you're right, he is my brother."

Miroku raised an eyebrow. InuYasha never openly admitted that Sesshomaru was his brother. Miroku was surprised that even Sesshomaru admitted it. He'd heard him do so before, but never InuYasha.

InuYasha looked up suddenly and then leaped to his feet. Jaken stirred fitfully several feet away. He glanced up ad gasped.

" It's Kagome, Sango and Rin!" InuYasha yelled. " They've brought someone with them."

Indeed, Kirara landed and the three girls plus a new unknown one jumped off. Kirara growled and transformed into cute Kirara. The foreign girl bowed to InuYasha. He could see from the strange white whip-like tendrils growing out of her head and hanging delicately behind her, ending in a tiny curl that she was a demon, or a half-human at least. He eyed her suspiciously.

" Are you Saeka?" he grumbled. She nodded.

" Yes and you are related to this Sesshomaru. I can tell by your white hair and scent. Where is the stricken one?" She said with a tilt of her head, her words proving her blood was that of at least a half-demon.

InuYasha gestured to Sesshomaru a few feet away. Jaken was standing close by, staring down at him worriedly. He jumped and aimed the staff at Saeka as she approached. She brushed him aside and knelt down.

" Hmm." She said. Rin came closer and stopped beside her.

" Is he okay?" she asked shakily.

" I don't know. He has a particularly dangerous strain. I'm probably never going to find out how he contracted it in the first place, but what I do know is that there's a chance I arrived too late and that his system has already begun permanent shut-down."

She reached through her pack. Rin was crying again.

" He's going to die!" she yelled pitifully.

" Maybe, maybe not. If he doesn't die, the worst that could happen, short of a miracle anyway is that he'll lose some of his power due to brain damage from lack of energy for so long and he could forget some of his memory, but other than that, he'll probably be fine."

She removed a vial of red liquid. She then pulled out what looked to Kagome who was watching from several feet away, very much like a syringe. She dipped the needle into the vial and filled it with the red liquid. She carefully took hold of Sesshomaru's right arm and exposed the wrist. She placed the needle against the skin and slowly injected the liquid into his system while Rin watched from behind covered eyes. Saeka noticed this. " Relax, child. Rin, right? I can never remember names. Be calm, I have done this many, many times, far too many to count. I know exactly what I'm doing."

She emptied the syringe and slid it out of his wrist. She set his hand back on the ground and stood up. She took the needle out of the syringe and placed it in her pocket. "I'll need to dispose of it later. I'll need to get a more sterile needle for the second dose in a few hours." She said, more to herself than anyone. Rin watched her leave and sighed. Lord Sesshomaru, she thought. Please don't die. Please let the medicine work.

Across the clearing, InuYasha was observing with obvious curiosity. Saeka had worked remarkably fast. He wondered whether the medicine would actually work on Sesshomaru. Once again, InuYasha was torn between caring or not whether his brother recovered or died in a seemingly endless sleep.

Saeka sat down a ways away and pulled a notebook out of her pack. She started scribbling something down in it. It was a crudely made book, just reeds flattened, dried and sewn together to make a book. After awhile, she set it down, lay down on the ground and fell asleep. Kagome was the only one awake by now. She had seen Saeka writing something in her logbook. She had to admit, she was curious as to what the girl had written. Carefully, so as not to wake the others, she got up, crossed the clearing and lifted the book from the ground and away from Saeka. She took a seat and opened it. It was filled with entries from past healings dating back several weeks since the journal she held replaced a previous one. Kagome wondered how many the girl had written over the years. She was obviously a healing demon, so she'd clearly been alive for hundreds of years, if not at least decades. Kagome scanned the pages of Saeka's neat handwriting:

Dear Journal,

Today, using my white magic and the powers I inherited as a demon of

healing, I was able to restore a young human boy to life after he'd been devoured by a giant, flesh-eating scorpion demon. His mother and father were distraught, which was to be expected, but the boy, surprisingly was virtually unhurt, save for the death. I used special spells woven from the ancient Charter to repair the damage and bribe the spirits to allow safe return to his parent's arms. The boy's name was Hiku. He said he's going to pay me back someday. I hope I never see him again.

Dear Journal,

This time, I was called to a demon-slayer's village to eradicate a terrible plague that afflicted the people. It was like a mixture of measles from the other era and a type of virus caused by eating foul poultry. I tried to explain to the people after I had finished that to eat uncooked meat was not safe, but they drove me out without so much as a thanks. As a response, I assumed my true demonic form and obliterated the village, sparing only one small child who is studying to be my apprentice and stays with my grandmother. Her name is Kirila. I do hope she can master the art of healing before the time runs out on me. Even as I write, my true self I keep harbored is growing stronger. Just because I'm a demon of healing doesn't mean I'm harmless.

Dear Journal,

This was the worst one yet. I was called to drive an evil spirit from the body of a tiny girl named Tsukiko. She threw such a fit when she saw me, that I'm not perfectly convinced she was even stricken at all. I gave her what was actually just a colored stick of sugar cane and told the family to just let her suck on it, giving her only water to drink for the next hour. I only did this because she was simply throwing a tantrum, she wasn't sick at all. The family gave me only what I asked for, a little money and one small fish. Then I went on my way. I stopped at my grandmother's to check up on Kirila. But she remembered me only in my true form and was scared stiff, so grandmother told me to give it some time and to leave for a while.

Kagome flipped through the various pages, casting a wary eye on the sleeping Saeka now and then. But the girl never stirred. She came upon several entries filled with gruesomely accurate details of different healings done by Saeka. A few of them even included illustrations so detailed, that she made faces of disgust and turned the page as quickly and quietly as she could. Finally, she came to the pages that Saeka had just written in, the one sure to include information on Sesshomaru's illness. Her eyes widened as she read the entries in these pages, far in the back, signaling the book's impending retirement.

Dear Journal,

I feel like I'm dying. Part of me continues to expire whenever I heal someone deathly ill. Yesterday, I was summoned to a castle in the hills where the Lady was about to have her first child. Now, midwifery never was and never will be my calling, so I let the Lady's personal maids deal with that. But when the child arrived silent, and the lady began panicking, I was forced to reassure her that sometimes, perfectly healthy babies emerge silent as a tomb. It isn't always a bad thing when the child does not cry. Sure as the day is long, when I checked the baby for a pulse and healthy blood, it seems she brought a fine healthy girl into the world. It's funny, the lady named the girl after me. Unfortunately, the lady began experiencing problems and found she couldn't breathe. I managed to get my healing water out in time to save her, but she'd slipped into another reality from brain damage. The lord of the castle was very angry indeed. He called me a witch and had me banished after taking away my instruments. He also gave his daughter, the girl named Saeka to an old couple living far to the west. Now and then, I check up on the girl I saved. She has grown into a happy, healthy young woman, about to have her own first child. I can sense she will not need my services, for she has indeed heard of me, and our 'coincidental names'. As for me, I am glad that at least she is happy.

Dear Journal,

This is terrible. I assumed my true form for an hour, hour and a half and what happens? A stupid little boy sees and runs and tells the villagers that 'a great deadly dragon is on the loose'. Criminy! Can I go nowhere without getting driven out? And to make matters worse, I fell for one of those bear clamps. I'm lucky my foot wasn't cut off. Those things hurt. I'm in too much pain to write much now. Till later.

Dear Journal,

I was sitting in my cave today when a large demon cat appeared with three riders and the flea, Myoga. A little girl and her companions informed me of a sick demon and the little girl gave me a strand of his hair. I was surprised. From the texture of the hair, I can tell that this demon is quite young for a youkai, but it's pure white, to the core. When I tested the hair, I found that he has a direct strain of one of my more deadly cases. It's distantly related to Ebola and gradually vanishes as mankind progresses, so humans will never have to worry about this strain infecting anyone. But the truth be told, I don't like what the sickness has done to this demon. It seems from the stage of illness that he's had it in his system for quite some time now, dormant until recently. I'd say it broke through its dormancy just about a week ago and he only started feeling the effects a few days later. I feel sick, myself, because I might lose this one. The little girl, Rin seems scared to death that he'll die. I wonder if he's her brother or something? She acts like he was her father, but this girl is pure human, so that can't be the case. But I don't want to lose this demon. Something is telling me that it is crucial he survives, or something bad will happen. Besides, he and his friends might be the only ones who can help me.

Kagome gasped and dropped the book. She snatched it up again and placed it by the girl as she slept on. Kagome got to her feet and shakily made her way over to the dying fire, unable to forget what she'd just read. So Sesshomaru's illness is worse than she thought. Kagome thought to herself. I wonder how InuYasha will react to this?

She turned over and tried to slip into sleep.

Meanwhile, Saeka stared out of the corner of her eye where Kagome had been moments before, reading the possible death certificate of the demon.

A/N: How was this? I keep getting reviews from people saying they like the story. I owe this whole thing to Kinkatia and I HIGHLY recommend her amazing stories. In fact, it's because of my good friend Kinkatia that these stories even got off the ground. There was a whole other, very weak plot I had in mind before this which probably would have happened if I hadn't had some great inspiration. Thank you Kinkatia!