Yeah yeah yeah, I know, its been like a year since ive added a chapter on here, and im going to admit that this chapter is probably going to suck.
But i tried lol. I really did. No flamers though okay?
I dont own Inuyasha or the other characters, however I own Kisai and the changed plot.
"Lying is a disreputable sort of thing, but sadly all too necessary to function in this world of ours."
"So started the final speech of Miroku the perverted monk." Sango's voice floated ominously over the flames of the crackling bonfire that separated the huntress from the infamous deviant. A terrified expression flitted across his face before he masked it with a look of wide-eyed innocence. He bent and scooped up the little childlike fox demon that was poking absently at the fire with a smoking twig.
"I am merely trying to teach poor Shippo here about the more uncouth ways of the world. The boy should be prepared should he not?" Squirming and thrashing to try and free himself from the tutelage that would surely pose a threat to his tiny life should Sango grow too irritated, the young demon squeaked out a reply.
"I can learn just fine on my own Miroku! Besides, I don't want to know all your dirty little secrets about what you do with women!" The ploy was devious, and revealed that the tiny fox was more intelligent than the confused monk had anticipated. He looked down at the struggling child in his arms before a rather large chunk of spit firewood struck him full force in the head. Reeling back from the crushing blow, Miroku let the struggling boy from his grasp.
Inuyasha howled with laughter and slapped his knee, while Kagome merely sighed softly and shook her head in pity. "See, now that's why I don't mess with human women! They're nothin' but trouble!" His cackling bout of laughter was cut off as a single ringing word shot into the night air.
"Sit!" Howling now in alarmed pain, Inuyasha was slammed face-first into the earth by the enchanted beads bound forever around his neck. Tilting her nose towards the night sky, the reincarnated priestess gave a disdainful sniff and looked away from her struggling protector.
"Oh come on Kagome, I didn't mean you! I don't even consider you human!"
"Sit boy!" Letting out a strangled yell of pain, the befuddled half breed looked up at the raven haired female out of the deepening imprint that his body was making into the dry soil.
"What was that for?! I was just sayin' that your weirder than regular hu-"
"SIT BOY!" Screeching a few octaves higher than the comfortable listening range allowed, Kagome sentenced the white haired male to digging out the hole….with his face.
"I would just give up Inuyasha, you're not making much headway there." Miroku advised from his prostate position on his back. Sango looked over at him with an ugly expression warping her typically lovely features.
"Oh? I wasn't aware you had even regained consciousness monk." The foreboding sound of her hand slapping against another chunk of firewood made his figure flinch slightly. This time it was Chippo's turn to laugh, thought his bubbling giggles degraded into yelps of pain as Inuyasha pinched his cheeks and pulled them to the sides. Having regained his composure, the half breed glared at the boy with irritation as he continued the torture.
"Owch, Inuyasha, stop it, that hurts!" Crying out in pain with large beads of tears forming in the corners of his eyes, Chippo dug at the clawed hands that held his face in a vice-like grip. Kagome, finally growing tired of all the late-night commotion, pinched Inuyasha's fluffy and extremely sensitive ear between her pointer finger and her thumb and stood, effectively dragging the yowling dog demon to where they had laid out blankets and sleeping bags for the night.
Sighing and rubbing his burning face, Chippo looked with mild loathing after the whimpering male before his expression became curious. "Sango…"
His voice was quiet and thoughtful, odd for the piping and energetic little furball. His tone froze Sango in her death stalk towards the still prone form of her adversary and occasional love interest. It even piqued Kirara's interest as she lifted her head from where she had napped through the earlier rough housing.
"What is it Chippo?" Voice gentle and calm, the huntress finished circling the fire to place herself between Miroku and Chippo, her attention momentarily diverted. Miroku, sensing her warmth, sat up slowly and looked into the fire, his hands placed safely on his crossed ankles.
"Have you noticed how Inuyasha and Kagome…" Trailing off shyly, he sighed, apparently trying to find a way to phrase his question right. Sango's expression softened and she took a breath to prompt him to finish when he blurted out the rest of his question. "…have been sleeping under the same blanket lately?"
"GAH!" Two loud thuds shook the ground as both Sango and Miroku slammed into the ground with comical force, stunned and flustered expressions painted over their faces.
The sound of Chippo's insistent questioning floated a goodly ways off, reaching the hiding place of two glowing pairs of eyes, narrowed in anticipatory excitement. Naraku clenched his fist tightly around a thick leash, the leather creaking angrily under the strain. Thrashing and tugging on the end was a salivating and wild looking canine with wide red eyes and a jagged crescent moon just above its brow line. The beast was larger than any dog, standing almost as tall as a horse. The lines of its body seemed to crawl and writhe in the shaded moonlight, as if another creature were trapped beneath the skin, struggling to break free.
Jerking back on the leash sharply, Naraku caused the hound to yelp in pain, the muzzle ensnaring its snout constricting agonizingly tight, painting the frothy foam oozing from its jaws with dark blood. Panting heavily, the dog turned and paced back to its master's side, the speckled moonlight revealing an emaciated body bound in long, wiry muscles that flexed and relaxed below thin, dirty white fur that was missing in patches. Hip bones jutted out into the air below starkly showing rib bones and mountainous shoulder blades. The left front leg of the hound was the only pure white patch of fur, almost glowing in the soft celestial light.
Scowling at the health of his newfound pet, Naraku kicked in disgust at the creature he had bound into submission. Snarling savagely, the thing took a swipe at the baboon clad leg, faint shadows trailing after its dulled claws. In retribution to the weak attack, his fist tightened around the leash and a purple aura consumed the muzzle that chained the slavering jowls closed and prevented the beast from taking a chunk out of his flesh.
"If you had not resisted my rule so much and merely succumbed to the control of the shard, your health would not be in such a dire state. I had not thought that you would be so foolish as to risk death even when I promised you a reunion with your beloved Rin, Kisai." Nearly spitting the words at the trembling beast pacing at his side, he watched from behind the baboon skull as his secret weapon gushed blood from the gaps in her impressive line of fangs. Looking up as she regained her composure, the proud dog demon gave a snort and faced the hole she had literally chewed into the bushes to spy on her prey. Her crimson eyes glowed in gluttonous lust to dine on the flesh of simple humans.
"Release me fool creature. The male you seek is occupied, and I shall strike whilst they are distracted." Seeming to nearly chew on the words, the grating and vaguely feminine voice that emanated from Kisai''s restricted jaws was impatient and haughty. Resisting the urge to rip the last bit of life from her body, Naraku reached out and unclipped the latch that held the cursed muzzle to her head. Shaking her entire body as if trying to release moisture from the patchy coat, the female daiyokai licked at her bloody nose and turned to face her captor with a look of absolute loathing and contempt. Drawing her lips back over her dully gleaming fangs, she licked at them threateningly, and crouched low, hackles rising as her muscles bunched in preparation to shred the man standing before her. Naraku remained utterly emotionless as he simply raised his hand and clenched his fist tightly, a bright light shining between his fingers. Collapsing into agonized convulsions, bloody foam bubbled into the corners of her mouth as she lay twitching on her side.
"You are truly an idiotic little animal." Sighing this time, Naraku released his grip on the item that so controlled the woman's heart. Struggling to her feet, the female's chest heaved in an erratic pace as she staggered slightly trying to find her footing. Shaking her head slowly, she blinked blearily as she fought to return from the brink of death. "One truly can die from exposure to extreme pain. The heart cannot take it and will simply stop beating. You do as I say or I will kill you slowly, putting you through hell before I crush your soul with unbearable torture that you cannot even imagine."
The threat struck home as Kisai let her tail droop in submission, letting out a slight whimper. Nodding in gruff acknowledgement, his aura became almost smug as he gave a negligent wave of his hand, sending his attack hound out to ravage the unprepared group. Turning and pacing silently through the bushes, Kisia lowered her belly almost to the ground as she crept along, trying to keep her aura held tight against her body to avoid detection.
Whether it was the fact that she was terribly weak and ill, or the adrenaline from Kagome and Inuyasha's…activities had spiked her senses, as soon as Kisai got within twenty feet of the group's little campsite Kagome sat up with a piercing scream and pointed to where the transformed figure of the dog demon was camouflaged into the tall grass. Cursing fluently under her breath, Kisai abandoned stealth as her advantage of surprise was destroyed and charged directly at the couple beneath the sleeping bags. Her contract was for Inuyasha alone, and if she could get away with his death without wasting energy on others, than she would eagerly takes that chance, despite the blow to her ego.
As she leapt over the flames and the scrambling bodies of a raven haired female and a male smelling of an overdose of testosterone, she felt rather than heard the snarling roar of a large feline demon. Clenching her jaw tight closed to keep an agonized scream from escaping her already ravaged lungs, Kirara's fangs carved into her flank. The impact of the flame heeled cat demon threw her skidding to the side, just a few feet short of her target.
Swearing fluently in the guttural language of the mainland demons, Kisai clawed her way to her feet, already feeling her energy burst of adrenaline fading, and the pain and weakness of her condition setting in like weights slowly settling on her limbs. Panting heavily and now facing off against the entire roused group, weapons drawn and powers building in defensive stances. Staring down the guarded forces, the weakened demoness took a terrified step back as the cold clamps of fear settled in around her heart, freezing her joints and shortening her already wheezing breath.
"Attack! Do not back down or there will be no doubt that you will die!" Howling in rage at the faltering steps of his enslaved assassin, Naraku materialized out of the shadows of the fire to throw his purple clad fist at the trembling Kisai. A glowing indigo collar whipped around the pale and diseased looking throat of the hound, causing her to rear back on her hind legs, clawed front paws thrashing in the air as she howled in sheer agony and soul tearing anguish. The depth of that pain fueled the dark slivers that sped through the air towards the huddled group who stood stunned, looking between the master and hound that had attacked them out of the blue.
"Wind tunnel!" Ripping the protective beads and cloth from the palm of his hand, Miroku was the first to pull himself out of the stunned paralysis that had seemed to grip them all. The shards of darkness incarnate faded and warped as they were sucked into the black hole that was the monk's curse and favorite weapon. His savior reaction snapped the others from their gawking poses and threw them into action.
"Hiraikotsu!" Sango shouted and hefted the enormous boomerang at the dirty white trembling lupine demon. Kisia was digging desperately at her neck with her rear leg, trying in the ultimate futile gesture to tug the searing collar off over her head. Sunk into a world where here was only a never ending pain where even deaths cold embrace could not reach, the echoing snap of her breaking ribs barely registered in her inflamed brain.
Inuyasha, of course, had drawn his Tetsusaiga and charged directly for the ranting and raving Naraku. His attention diverted to saving his own skin from the roaring half-breed, the false demon released his hold on the collar that was strangling Kisai, allowing her a short breath and a brief moment of clarity. She straightened on all fours and looked with calm benevolence at the humans chattering in alarm and scrambling around, their shadows lengthening as they dashed before the dying fire.
In that one moment of pain free thought she realized the peril that she was in. Her body was close to shutting down entirely, her ribs were shattered from the unprotected strike of the enormous boomerang, and the oversized cat was carrying the monk with holy papers clasped in his fist. Her crimson eyes widened as the papers flew at her like heat seeking projectiles. She had only enough time to bow her head and brace for impact as the papers struck her fragile body like blessed nukes.
The written incantations burst into green flames as soon as they touched her flinching and shuddering skin, causing a screeching cry of torment and torture to tear its way through the other cries and shouts of battle. Everyone seemed to freeze in mid-movement and turn towards the sound of a dying animal. Miroku even faltered in his merciless attack, but Kirara's instincts told her that the killing blow was near, and such an opportunity would not be passed up by the feral side of the demon. Landing hard on the ground in front of the transformed demoness whose head was thrown towards the sky in supplication, begging the mother moon to finally end her pain.
Legs bunching like iron springs, Kirara launched herself at the exposed throat of the wolf demon so hard that Miroku was thrown off her back. Saber tooth lined maw gaping wide, the bear-trap powered jaw snapped shut around Kisai's vulnerable and soft trachea. The agonizing cry trailed off into a gurgling sigh as a fountain of blood gushed from the parted fangs of the transformed woman. Jerking her furred head away from the punctured throat, Kirara's face was soaked in dark blood as blood burst from the gaping and ragged hole she tore into Kisai's throat. As her fluttering heart raced with pain and the realization that she was bleeding out, her neck fountained the tacky fluid, betrayed by the very body that needed that very life force.
"No!" Naraku screamed in fury, clenching his hands as they clawed towards the crumpled form of his one shot at finally destroying his sworn enemy. As the blood ran like a river from the wide open arteries severed in the Kisai's neck, the corrupted shard had been removed from her failing body. A soft white glow surrounded her twitching form as she was released from the binding that the shard had bolted to her very soul. Within five seconds, she had faded back to her humanoid form, the front of her outlandish outfit soaked through with her own life blood. Naraku turned on his heel and fled, abandoning not only the husk of a body that was the only remains of the once proud dog demon, but the precious shard of the Jewel of Four Souls.
The huddled group stared after the dematerialized shadow of the corrupted half demon, the embers of the dying campfire barely illuminating the darkness around them enough to cast even the faintest of shadows across the body of the deceased. One by one, the group turned away from the bloody and grisly sight, packed their things, and moved on to a different campsite.
The next morning, flies had found the corpse and gathered on it like a gluttonous buffet of sanguinary glee. The stench struck Sesshomaru's nose from miles away, and he nearly gagged as he walked serenely along the path that he and his followers trailed along. He clapped his hand over his mouth and nose, his eyes watering as bile burned his throat. He managed to choke down his revulsion and regain his composure. By this time Rin had noticed something was wrong, and was staring up at him with her wide dark eyes full of concern.
"Lord Se-?" Sesshomaru cut off her concerned inquiry with a curt wave of his hand before he turned towards where the offensive smell was crawling its way sluggishly through the trees, drug along by a stiff breeze. Without paying any mind to the insistent whining of Jaken, Sesshomaru disappeared into the woods, seemingly lost in the stench that filled his incredibly sharp nose.
"Sesshomaru! Lord Sesshomaru! Where are you going?" Hopping after his leader until the edge of the trail they were following, Jaken groaned and beat the end of his staff against the hard packed dirt in exasperation. "There he goes again. Leaving us behind without the slightest hint as to where he is going or when he is going to be back!"
Rin merely looked after her beloved fluffy master, eyes distant and her hand resting on her steed's neck lightly. She ran her palm along the scaled neck until it reached one of Ah-Un's three heads. She whispered something into its ear and the demon snorted and began to sniff the ground, apparently picking up some kind of scent. One of the free heads looked back at Rin and nodded. The girl smiled in response, the expression looking like sunlight breaking through the oppressing crowd of a thunderstorm.
"Well then lets go! Its about time that we figure out what he does when he leaves us like this. That and this way, we can help if he gets into a fight or something!" With her childish mind, she never once considered that maybe she would be a hindrance in any kind of altercation, but this day would hold no dangers for the loyal little child.
Sesshomaru finally reached the source of the stench, his eyes darting from place to place as he read the signs of a fight, the smells lingering in the grass and the air revealing that his least favorite half-breed brother was in the fight, and the one man he swore to destroy for attacking Rin was once there as well. The smoky aftertaste of dead campfire smoke in the air did nothing to mask the rank malodor of death and decay that permeated every breath. His eyes were almost permanently fogged with the tears of half swallowed vomit before he spotted the sunken face of the full blooded female demon that he had met not more than five days ago.
Shock halted the progression of regurgitation up his slender gullet, his eyes widening in surprise. The sunken and shriveled body had not been treated well by the creatures of the night, but the resemblance was still there. Even though her death was hours ago, he could see the death imps still trying to pry her soul away from the anchor of a body that lay before him like a humanoid raisin. He could tell that even in her last moments of life, she had been near death because of emaciation and exhaustion.
He stood over the body for a few moments, watching the imps before they looked up and saw him, screaming in terror, and fled into the mists of the death world. Drawing the Tenseiga, he swept his blade over the limp body. After sheathing his sword, he gave a hearty blink. He stared at his hand, which had given life back to the very annoyance that he had tried to destroy of his own free will, not a week before. He couldn't think of a single reason behind reviving the woman who had pretty much spat into his face with her stubborn ego and insulting condescending attitude.
Yet there he was, standing over the slowly rejuvenating woman. Giving a soft snort of irritation, the highest form of emotion he had shown in ages, he knelt down at her side, rolling the girl onto her side so the clotted blood could slough off onto the ground as her body healed itself.
"Wh-y…" Kisai's voice was raspy and raw as she tried to speak, her voice box not yet completely healed. Sesshomaru grunted in acknowledgement that he was listening, though his expression was one of utter disinterest. The crimson eyed woman blinked rapidly, as if her vision was still dark and spotty, and tried once more to voice her gasping question. "Why…di-id you br…bring me back?"
"I wish I knew that myself" Sesshomaru thought to himself before he grunted and rolled her onto her back with an offhand shove of his clawed hand. The woman whimpered and a strange jolt ran through the full blooded Yokai, as if he felt bad for causing her pain. But of course that was impossibility. Sesshomaru felt bad for no demon, and cared only marginally for Rin herself. He sighed silently and looked off towards the woods, delving into his thoughts, trying to pick at the seeming offhand way he had saved her miserable life.
"You-" His snide remark froze in his throat as he looked down at her, only to catch his eye on a sparkling shard buried in blood soaked grass. A smirk spread over his lips and he reached down and plucked the shard from the turf with a deft pinch of his clawed fingers. There was his reason. If he had not saved her and rolled her over, the shard would not have fallen from her body and directly into his possession. "I merely wanted the shard that you possessed. Nothing more. I could not care less should you die here, or a hundred years from now. "
The woman closed her eyes and she seemed to deflate, and for a moment he wondered that if she truly had passed on already. However, her chest rose once more and she half opened her hazy orbs. The pale lips parted to speak when a familiar voice echoed over the expanse between the tree line and the huddled duo.
"Loooord Sesshomaruuuu!" Rin cried, waving her arm high over her head as she and Ah-Un lumbered across the plain with Jaken scrambling along behind them. He cursed silently under his breath as he realized that Rin was the one that the demoness stirring at his feet was seeking, and that Rin would naturally want to take in the injured yokai and nurse her back to health.
At the sound of the child's voice, something snapped within Kisai's mind and her eyes snapped open, but soon closed, trying to contain the bubbling excitement that swelled within her chest. She did not even have to see the child that galloped towards them on something heavy enough to cause the earth to shake with each thundering step. The lusty wail of the baby that echoed across the ocean and resonated in her heart when Rin was first born was matched by this loving cry of innocent greeting. She must find a way to stay close to Rin, for it was apparent now that she was the follower of the man who had somehow brought her back from the edge of the death world.
Standing slowly, Sesshomaru turned a deadly glare onto the smiling and giggling form of his ward, causing even Ah-Un to shudder and slow to a crawling walk. He spoke a few sharp words to the child, and she replied in a wheedling and sweet tone. Neither noticed the transformation that followed suit as Sesshomaru continued to reprimand the little girl for following him unheeded into dangerous territory. By the time that he had reached the point that if there had been an attack, there would have been no way for him to protect her, there was nothing but a shaggy, white, pony sized dog standing behind the demon dog lord.
Rin, of course, following the natural course of all little girls, spotted the dog and immediately went into a fit of ecstasy. "Oh Lord Sesshomaru! You got me a PUPPY!" She squealed and threw herself off her demon steed's back and sprinted full force into the furry shoulder of the now healthy looking dog demon. Her skin no longer seemed to crawl, and instead the dog was healthy, if a bit too plump, and panted in canine laughter. Sesshomaru stared at the gleeful child in utter disbelief for a long moment as the child cooed and petted the long and floppy ears of the female that had just a moment ago been too weak to speak.
He tried multiple times to speak, each time to no avail. He simply could not find the words to express to Rin the level of wrong this entire situation expressed to him. Finally, the look of happiness that she shot towards him every few moments melted the resistance he held and he nodded once. Screaming once more in elation, she crawled onto the back of the dog, seeming to adopt the furrier transportation over the scaly demon. The dog grunted slightly under the weight and looked up at Sesshomaru reproachfully as if it was somehow his fault.
"Don't look at me. This was your doing, and seeing as the child has chosen you, you will stay. But if you hurt her, I'll have it known that you will wish you had been dead long ago." He said it with such lacking emotion that Kisai had no choice but to accept it as truth. A low wag of her tail was her acceptance of the contract they had just struck up.