Chapter 9 Riding the Edge

Tenseiga's keen edge flashed in the ambient starlight of the moonless night as Sesshoumaru tilted its blade and watched the steely play of light over it.

I still do not understand why I was given this sword. He glanced at a peacefully sleeping Rin and his eyes softened just a little on her sweet face. He could certainly not deny, however, that he was glad he'd chosen to test it on the little human girl-child – she'd become less of a traveling companion and more of a daughter to him over the time they'd been together, as strange as that truth was when taken out and looked at in the light of day.

But for this sword Rin would still be dead and I... I would still be alone.

Sure there was Jaken – but Jaken didn't count. He was more annoyance and go-fer than anything else. He could only be glad that Rin reminded him of a young Kagome – that was why, after all, he'd allowed her to follow him originally. After she'd been revived by his testing of Tenseiga, he should have taken her to a human village and left her there to be raised amongst her own kind. But... he had so wanted to understand Kagome that he had allowed the little girl to stay with him so that he could study her and hopefully gain more of an insight into the older girl.

She could almost be... Kagome's pup, for she resembles her physically almost as much as in personality, and since the only way Kagome will ever have pups is through me, Rin would be... ours.

Our pup.

And this is all because of Tenseiga. The keen edge flashed again as he stared at it, and he smiled thinly. A sword that cannot cut anything of physical form. Only Chichi-ue would have thought of such a thing. He sighed lightly and slid the sword back into its sheath, then ran his fingers through his hair, brushing the lock back over his shoulder as he turned his gaze up to the stars.

Naraku was becoming quite desperate to find the last shards of the jewel as well as rid himself of his human heart so that he would no longer be vulnerable to Kikyou. It was something that he, himself, could understand; the desire to be rid of his heart so he would not be held back by his emotions. Would that it were so easy to be able to say that he did not have any feelings towards Kagome save for lust.

However, Naraku's schemes were pushing him more and more into direct conflict with he, Sesshoumaru, because Naraku was attempting, in his own fashion, to walk the same path as he had always done – the path of Supreme Conquest. And after all, there could be only one conqueror, not two. His lip curled up in contempt, then. As if a half-breed could ever defeat this one – even with the jewel.

The hanyou's weakness, however, was such that the only way he could even come close to that path was by using the jewel, because his own strength was far too meager to ever suffice. As far as Sesshoumaru was concerned, the only conquest that counted was done using your own strength and power, for if you used others or even an artifact such as the Shikon no Tama then the conquest wasn't really yours – it belonged to another, which in this case, was the jewel.

But because of the bastard's single-minded pursuit of the Shikon no Tama, he was beginning to leave himself vulnerable – just a little. Naraku was, truly, a brilliant strategist, even Sesshoumaru with all his prejudice could not deny that. He was the ultimate puppeteer, creating useful marionettes to carry out his will while yet leaving their master to hide away in safety. But birthing incarnations with their own wills and power was dangerous – they could and would turn on you the moment they thought they had a chance. Just look at Kagura's ploys to escape the hanyou's control.

He watched a falling star light up the sky idly as he thought about the female youkai that scented so much of the twisted spider. He knew that she wanted to be freed of Naraku's influence so she could then choose her own fate, but the truth was that she couldn't be. She could never truly be freed of the hanyou, because it was the hanyou that had birthed her with the assistance of the Shikon jewel and her life force was also his. If he died, Kagura would also. But he was completely aware that the wind witch had no idea that was the case, either, and that was why she wanted someone to kill her master so badly.

It was a bit of information that might just come in handy, if he held on to it and then used it when it would have the best effect. After all, why not use the incarnations he created to use against us, against him, instead? It would be the ultimate irony.

A disgruntled look crossed his face, then. If father had not handed Tessaiga to Inuyasha, I could have already destroyed the hanyou and would not be forced to scheme against him. As much as I despised those so-called Four War Gods, at least my opponent, weak as he was, used his own skills against me in open combat. Instead, the spider hides and manipulates others so that he will remain safe,he thought scathingly.

As always, thoughts of Tessaiga brought on thoughts of his disdained brother, and for a moment he didn't react to the strong scent of the hanyou because he had just been thinking on him. That changed when the crimson fire rat-clad form of his half-brother stalked out from beneath the trees to confront him.

Speak of the devil... "What are you doing here, Inuyasha?" he asked, keeping his voice low so as not to wake Rin.

Inuyasha also glanced at the sleeping child, then shot a glower at Jaken. "Keh. I suggest we take this someplace else, bastard, because it is going to get loud and I don't wanna wake the kid up."

"For once you make sense, hanyou," he replied, ignoring the insult, before turning and leading the way out of his camp. They walked for some distance, eventually entering a large clearing with a slightly dilapidated hut in one corner of it, and he stopped and turned around to face the boy. He said nothing, waiting, knowing it would aggravate his brother.

He was right, although Inuyasha was already aggravated enough.

Drawing Tessaiga, he pointed it at his older sibling. "Now you're gonna tell me what's really going on between you and Kagome. After you're done, you're gonna disappear and not come near her ever again."

Not impressed with the sword pointed at him or his brother's loose speech, Sesshoumaru cocked a brow and simply continued staring at his brother. "As if this Sesshoumaru would ever do what a mere hanyou told him to. This one owes you nothing – not even explanations. If you wish to know, ask Kagome – perhaps she will feel like answering you."

"Damn you, bastard!" Inuyasha shouted as he transformed Tessaiga with just a thought and immediately attacked his brother. "You're gonna answer me this time! What the hell do you want with Kagome?"

Sesshoumaru held his place until the last second, only moving when the fang was beginning to arc down on his unprotected head; in a burst of light and graceful movement he unsheathed Tenseiga and caught his brother's blade on it. He brought his arm down and then around so that it was close to his chest with both swords spitting sparks from their contact, leaving his idiot sibling to struggle futilely to break through his guard.

"What'sa matter, Sesshoumaru?" he panted. "Tryin' to force yourself on Kagome and throwing temper tantrums because she doesn't want you? She knows who she belongs to!"

Just then, Kagome came running from inside the hut where she'd been trying to sleep; she heard Inuyasha's words and turned red with anger as her gaze narrowed dangerously. It was clear the hanyou would be paying for that assertion at some point.

Eyes darkening a little in pleasure at the idea, Sesshoumaru smirked as he flung his brother away from him. "Oh, how you wish that were so, Inuyasha." He shrugged as his brother ran at him again. "But saying it does not make it true. Kagome is not yours, nor will she ever be. Deal with it."

Once again the two blades met as Inuyasha's worsening temper caused his eyes to flash redly. "Fuck you, asshole! Kagome's human! You hate humans, so stay the fuck away!"

"I've had enough of your childish banter and vulgar speech, hanyou," Sesshoumaru returned coolly, once more flinging his brother's body away from him with disgust. "I have better things to do than waste time throwing insults at the likes of you." He turned, getting ready to slide Tenseiga back into its sheath, but twisted and brought his sword up as Tessaiga came at him again. He was slightly surprised at how fast his brother was now moving, but in the end it would avail him nothing.

"Shut up and fight me, you slobbering, one-armed freak! Don't turn your back on me!"

Sesshoumaru's gaze slid to the side where Kagome was still standing, wringing her hands worriedly as she stared at the two males fighting – over her, though she hadn't really grasped that yet. He could see the hurt and fear in her eyes as well as the anger, though it seemed that his brother either couldn't see it or didn't care. Either way, it was unacceptable to him.

"You amaze me, Inuyasha. You still wish to fight me knowing how much it will hurt Kagome. Do you care nothing for her at all?" he asked mockingly. "Pull your head out of the hole you have buried it in and learn to accept reality." With that, he shoved the hanyou away from him just a little and then reversed his sword, hitting his sibling in the head with the pommel and knocking him on his ass. As Inuyasha lay on the ground trying to focus his eyesight again, Sesshoumaru turned to lock gazes with the object of his obsession. He sniffed lightly as he took the opportunity to get a good whiff of her scent so that he could figure out why the hanyou and ookami hadn't noticed her mark.

His own eyes reddened a little when he caught the strong scents of the kitsune and neko that traveled with her. So... they were muddling the scents, were they? No matter... he could take care of that.

Kagome almost fell over backwards as Sesshoumaru was suddenly standing right in front of her, so close she could feel his body heat. She swallowed and took a step back, only to watch as the wickedly beautiful youkai Lord matched her step back with one of his own forward.

"S-Sesshoumaru," she whispered out of a throat tight with an aching want. Every time she saw him it got worse, more and more painful to fight him off – and the longer this went on, the less she remembered of all her reasons to deny herself what she wanted so badly. "Why d-do you insist on fighting with your brother?" she asked after getting herself under some semblance of control.

Lifting a hand to her throat, he gently palmed it, allowing his musk to gather in his hand. Once it reached a potency that would be too strong to cover no matter what, he rubbed it lightly into her skin.

"It is not I that started this battle – he is the one that came looking for me. But he will never understand that he is no match for me, and so we will continue to fight - especially if he does not stop trying to scent mark you as his." His eyes flashed as he caught her start. "Yes, I can smell what he is trying to do. But it matters not. You are not his, you are mine."

Fighting back the tears that practically choked off her voice as Inuyasha finally came back to his feet and ran at them with Tessaiga at the ready, she whispered, "Osuwari," just loud enough for the beads to activate and force the now cursing hanyou to the ground. "Yameteoku,* Inuyasha. Yameteoku. *Let the matter drop."

"Fuck no!" he bellowed, fighting to lift his head from the crater he was in. "I won't stop until that bastard learns who you really belong to!"

"Osuwari!" she shouted, turning on him, anger pushing back the tears as frustration helped to stiffen her spine. "I don't belong to you, baka! I'm not Kikyou! I am Kagome, and only I can decide who I want to be with, not you," she added, her voice rapidly softening as she stared the angry hanyou in the eyes. "You chose Kikyou a long time ago, and that's fine. I accept that. But that means that we are just friends, Inuyasha, not anything else, and you can't own your friends. Don't forget that again."

By that time, however, Inuyasha had caught the scent of his brother's strengthened mark and his ability to think had disappeared immediately on realizing what that scent meant. So enraged that the kotodama couldn't hold him down, he shot to his feet with an angry howl.

"Do you even know what this bastard is doing, you stupid bitch? He's marking you as his!" he snarled, so angry he could barely see straight. "So why aren't ya yelling at him, huh?"

Kagome's face fell and a weary, tired tear ran down her cheek as her eyes closed. So much had happened since the beginning of this quest and she was so exhausted. But it was an emotional exhaustion – one that came from denying her heart. Somehow, over the months of the mission she'd managed to find something within the daiyoukai standing quietly and protectively in front of her that spoke to her heart. The heart that was almost fully his, now, no matter how badly she wished that it were not so.

It was a truth that broke her even more.

"I already knew that he had done that, Inuyasha," she finally said, her voice barely above a whisper though it may as well have been a shout, because the shocked hanyou heard every syllable. "But that's between he and I, not you." She opened her eyes again, pinning him with their intensity. "You have Kikyou. She is who you want, who you want to protect. I am free to find my own destiny and it doesn't matter if you like what I choose." Her words were direct, biting though her tone was so gentle, and every bit of fight drained from the hanyou for the moment as shock froze him and he watched in stunned dismay as the girl he'd spent so much time protecting looked up at his brother, who met her gaze with an oddly open one of his own.

"You don't own me, either, Sesshoumaru. I own myself, and while you may be my... weakness, my own particular brand of poison-" she gestured almost mockingly at his claws, another tear following the path of the first, "-I refuse to be owned like some worthless trinket that loses all value as soon as it's bought. You only think you want me because I've fought you, but if I were to give in you'd no longer want me and I'd be cast aside as just another useless human."

Her words echoed loudly in the angrily vibrating air around the three, and she reached up a hand to wipe the tears from her face as she turned away with slumped shoulders to head back into the small hut.

Sesshoumaru, hooded eyes now burning with an anger to match Inuyasha's, reached for her and clasped his hand around her arm, halting her retreat. He ignored his brother's low growl and her own gasp and flinch as he did.

"You are not human, as I believe I've said before," he rapped out, his voice little more than a guttural growl. "You may have the form of one, but so do I, and I am as little human as you are. Hide your true form away behind what is little more than clothing as you will, but do not think that I am fooled the least bit by it. If you were human you would smell of death – and you do not. And I-" his fingers tightened around her arm as his eyes gained in intensity, "-will never cast you aside, for that would be as foolish as casting parts of myself away. What is more, you know all this already, you feel what we are inside and you can only lie to yourself for so long before these truths will force you to face them."

Tessaiga swung around to point at his throat and Sesshoumaru's eyes flickered as he glanced sideways at his brother.

"Let her go, Sesshoumaru," Inuyasha growled, the seeming calm in his voice belied by the raging turbulence of his eyes. "Kagome, go back inside the hut and we'll talk about this when the sadistic bastard here finally gets bored listening to his own voice and leaves." He pointedly ignored what he did not want to hear, his brother's assertions of her inhumanity too much for him to deal with at the present time.

"That is an amusing statement coming from you, half-breed," Sesshoumaru said with mockery evident in his voice. "Since it was you that sought this one out and demanded answers. It is not my concern if you do not like the answers you have received." He slowly let go of his hold on Kagome's arm, ignoring his half-brother's seething anger as he lost himself in her drowned eyes. Neither one even noticed when Inuyasha stepped back, staring in confusion as he finally looked at the two together and was stunned speechless at the sheer heat between them.

They continued to stare at each other and Inuyasha felt like an intruder, an interloper that was seeing something he wasn't supposed to but could never understand anyway. Dismay captured his breath in his chest and he stumbled as he tried to deny what he was seeing to himself.

It wasn't working too well.

the hell? Confusion swimming in eyes that were so close to the gold of his brother's and yet were also oddly flat, Inuyasha finally managed to croak out his demands. "It doesn't matter what you say, Sesshoumaru, she already said she doesn't belong to you." He refused to even consider the rest of what she'd said about wanting Sesshoumaru – it had to be that she was just tired from fighting with the overbred dog and was having a weak moment. He'd let her sleep in the next morning and once she'd managed to get some rest she'd be back in fighting trim in no time. "Go back to that simpering toad of yours and leave us alone." He tensed, ready for an attack from his brother, and without taking his gaze off him told Kagome to go back inside again.

Both ignored his words, gazes still locked together, but when he swung at his sibling in frustrated anger, he found himself slammed to the ground before he'd even seen his brother move.

In a low, vehement voice, Sesshoumaru took him to task over his carelessness towards Kagome's safety. "And yet again you endanger her without care, you useless mutt!" he snarled, his lip curling and a fang peeking out as his eyes drained of all warmth and became bleak and frigidly cold. "You never learn, do you, hanyou? Hate me as you will, but if you try to strike at me one more time while she is in the way, I will send you to join Chichi-ue and your useless mother in hell!"

He didn't move as arms came around him from behind, though his eyes lost some of their ice as Kagome's scent washed over him, calming the edges of his rage enough for him to grasp the fraying corners of his temper.

"Leave it, Sesshoumaru," she said softly, one hand coming up to rest on the arm he still had around his brother's throat as she touched him for the first time of her own accord. "The only time he loses his sense like this is when he's fighting with you."

After a few, frozen last moments of holding his brother around the throat, he dropped him and moved, and in the blink of an eye Kagome found herself being held on the other side of the clearing as Sesshoumaru continued to try to get a grip on his almost out-of-control rage.

It took several minutes, but finally his tense form relaxed and he inhaled deeply, allowing his anger to slip away as he exhaled.

"He only lives because of you," he said finally. "But I meant what I said. I have lost all patience with the brat and if he endangers you again, in any way, I will come take you from him and you will travel by my side," he finished warningly. "I am no longer willing to indulge you in this matter."

"Let me remind you that it isn't your decision," she returned, sounding weary again. "I make my own choices, and I travel with Inuyasha because it's necessary. You should go now, Sesshoumaru. I think there's been enough said tonight."

"Do not make me resort to force, Kagome. I do not wish to force you to my side, but better that than letting you be killed because Inuyasha is a fool." He turned away to head back to his camp. "And tell the neko and kitsune that it will do them no good to try to muddle the scents any longer. You are marked as mine and they cannot hide that, no matter what they try."

Numbed by the confrontation and bombarded by so many different emotions, Kagome watched as the trees swallowed him, all sense of his presence fading as he vanished.

The air in the clearing turned sullen and heavy as she turned away from where he'd disappeared and she trudged back to the hut, all the while ignoring the snarling, cursing voice of her hanyou companion as she did. This fight had just been a preview of what was going to come, she knew, because Inuyasha would never stop fighting with his brother – and especially not over something so important to them both.

So now he knows that Sesshoumaru has marked me. But I bet the only reason he didn't go completely insane is because I'd told him that he doesn't own me anymore than Inuyasha does. If he were ever to realize the truth of how I feel for his brother...

Red wrath would rain down on the entire world.

She shivered.

Because it was only a matter of time until she could no longer fight her need for the daiyoukai, and then hell would come to earth at Inuyasha's urging.

~oOo~

Morning dawned sullen and cool with overcast skies and a complete lack of sun, and Kagome sighed tiredly and turned over in her sleeping bag to stare at the mat-covered door. Inuyasha had refused to come inside at all, snarling that she stank of his brother and he didn't feel like gagging all night.

With Miroku, Sango, Kirara, and Shippo all gone off to Mushin's temple there was no one else around to help break the tension and she sighed and sat up, wrapping her arms around her knees; she pulled them almost defensively to her chest as she stared blankly at the wall through fatigue-dulled blue eyes. She could only be glad that the rest of her companions were due back this same day.

Ever since she'd been taken by Akago and he'd tried to find the darkness in her heart, she'd been steadily weakening even further towards the daiyoukai's advances. She could only surmise that all Akago's digging around inside her had weakened her defenses – not that they weren't already weak enough when it came to Sesshoumaru, anyway.

I guess I'm just lucky that Akago, and thereby Naraku, didn't realize the truth of what that darkness really was, thinking it was all about Inuyasha. I don't want them to find out about Sesshoumaru. She wasn't sure why, but it just seemed safer for some reason to let them keep thinking that Inuyasha was her weakness.

Of course, she didn't know about Sesshoumaru's little visit with Kagura and what he'd deliberately let her know, or she would have realized it was a futile exercise to try to hide her connection to the daiyoukai.

A rustling sound came from just outside the door and then the matting was flung back and Inuyasha stuck his head in. He scowled at her when he found her already awake. "Keh! Don't just sit around, bitch, we've got shit to do, and we can't sit around twiddling our thumbs while you moon over Sesshoumaru!"

"Osuwari!"

A yelp was cut off as the hanyou hit the wooden step and then crashed though it, and Kagome sniffed loftily and turned to pick up her sleeping bag so she could fold it and put it away. Ignoring the cursing hanyou, she slung her bag over her shoulder and stepped right on him as she left the hut, a nice bounce in her step as she did.

She trudged across the meadow towards the small stream at the far edge of it, her eyes unable to miss the disturbed ground from last night's fight with Sesshoumaru. Determined not to think about him, she blithely ignored all traces of his presence and proceeded to kneel down at the water's edge so that she could wash up and brush her teeth.

None of that took very long and by the time she once more neared the hut, Inuyasha was standing up again. He turned away from her, refusing to meet her eyes, and said, "Let's go, wench. We have a ways to go to reach the rendezvous with Miroku and Sango, and I don't wanna waste any time and get there late."

No more words were spoken as the two headed out, Inuyasha walking ahead of her so he didn't have to speak to her.

He was having a really hard time controlling himself with his damned brother's scent all over Kagome. His only means of keeping control so that he didn't lose it and hurt the girl was to stay ahead of her so that he didn't have to keep smelling Sesshoumaru.

"I wish some sunlight would come through," Kagome said in a low tone, speaking more to herself than anything.

"Forget it, wench, this'll burn off by noon. We're close to the beach now and this stuff will just dissipate as the day warms up," he said stiffly, still refusing to look at her.

She sighed, then glanced through her bangs at her friend. He was actually taking the whole thing better than she'd thought, but again, it was only because he didn't realize that she had such feelings for his brother. They were so close to love now that it wouldn't take much to push her over the edge into it, and it would be a true freefall – there wouldn't be anything waiting at the bottom to catch her, because while Sesshoumaru seemed to want her she wasn't fool enough to think that his cold little heart had warmed just for her.

Still, the distance her friend was treating her with hurt – it wasn't like she'd asked for any of this.

She knew better than to say anything, though, because Inuyasha was never rational when his brother was brought into the conversation and she didn't want to make things worse than they already were.

The silence remained unbroken as they trudged along near the shore, only the sound of the waves and the lonely cry of an albatross through the fog keeping her company through her dark, heavy thoughts.

~oOo~

Go and play your flute in the other world.

Sesshoumaru's hand clenched around the flute he held, despite the pain from his burned hand from wielding Tessaiga against the multitude of youkai that Sara-sama had allowed inside her. After a moment he placed it into the pile of dust that was all that was left of the human hime who had invited those youkai in and then stood and walked away, not even looking back once at his brother or his companions.

That whole episode had given him so much to think about, and he didn't dare look at Kagome in the state he was in.

While he would never have held any kind of deeper feelings for the girl, he couldn't hide from the fact that he had felt one emotion towards her – pity. And that pity for her plight had turned very quickly to compassion. It wasn't something that was familiar to him, though, and he was greatly unnerved by it.

If some human female had come to him claiming to hold feelings for him before, he would have killed her for daring to sully him with something so pathetic even inside her own mind.

And while he'd certainly felt contempt during all that had happened, it was more towards the youkai who had used her feelings to attack him than it was at her.

It was, of course, Kagome's doing. As he drowned in her more and more he was losing his usual cool aloofness towards others, and he didn't like where that was taking him.

He stopped and stared down at his still painfully burned hand with a bitter grimace. And still Tessaiga refuses me. For all that it claims to be a sword that is made to defend humans, it accepts Inuyasha even when he abrogates his sworn word to protect Kagome and runs off, leaving her in danger. He clenched his hand and then let it fall as an intense itch swept through it, proof that his healing abilities had already begun to fix the damage to his flesh.

Am I becoming as weak as I named Chichi-ue?

That question echoed endlessly inside his mind and he continued on towards Ah-Uhn and Rin with his youki flaring wildly around him, a state that gave away his inner turmoil.

Is it some weakness that is hidden within Inuyoukai, remaining locked inside until a certain age?

On the other hand, he hadn't missed Kagome's shock at his actions – nor her almost unwilling approbation. She wanted to free that hime from the filth that had infested her. But as much as he wished he could say that he had only done it to manipulate Kagome's emotions, he could not. He wasn't one for lying to himself once he'd been forced to actually see the truth, no matter how unpalatable that truth was.

It seems that my heart isn't as dead as I thought it was. After his father had turned his back on his mate and eldest son to take a human hime and sire a child on her, he had sworn to be heartless, icy, and dangerous. Sworn to hate humans forever. Until now he'd kept that promise, too.

I convinced myself that I had no heart and so I had no need to feel remorse or guilt no matter what I did. But it seems that Kagome is like a mirror – she strips away all the lies and half-truths you have bound yourself in and makes you face yourself as you truly are.

His mind went back to the fight with Sou'unga, when his half-brother had surprised him with his will to keep fighting despite the odds and his weariness – and his reasons for doing so. "When a human has something to protect, they don't ever give up!" He'd wanted so badly to scoff – but then, when that devil sword had started to send a burst of deadly energy towards Kagome he'd immediately reacted, striking out with his whip and directing the blow at himself, instead. The finishing blow, too – the energy from Tessaiga and Tenseiga showcased his blind denials for exactly what they were as they'd raced towards that evil weapon. He'd once again denied protecting anything, and yet he'd still attacked Sou'unga, adding Tenseiga's might to Tessaiga's so that the hell blade would be cast back into the other world – and very far away from Kagome.

Despite all my denials, I have been protecting her since the moment I chose her – which was, he smiled ironically, the moment I met her. And no more can I deny that I have protected Rin just as fiercely. I am even taking vengeance on Naraku on her behalf, not just because he tried to control me with a shard of that jewel.

Again he came to a stop and stared at the trunk of a large tree that reminded him of the Goshinboku that grew in Inuyasha's forest. He followed its great trunk upwards with his eyes blindly as its upper branches disappeared into the thick mist, still lost in his disturbed and confusing thoughts.

Is it really so bad to protect that which is yours? He couldn't deny that he only felt stronger when he was fighting to protect Rin and Kagome. His swords clanked together softly as he shifted, and Tenseiga, seeming to understand his turmoil, pulsed gently as his hand brushed against it. It fell silent again as he stepped around the tree and continued on towards his waiting companions.

Kagome... she was so much more than even he had known in the beginning. Seen through Tenseiga's light she was pure energy in a humanoid shell that did little to truly hide her from those who could see past that shell. But despite the fact that she had tremendous power, she didn't really know how to call it at will. That didn't seem to matter to her, though; she had more courage and determination than he'd ever seen in anyone, either youkai or human. She never faltered, never gave up, and he would give anything he owned and more besides to have that graceful spirit near to him always.

She does not even flinch in the face of death. How many can say the same? Me? But then... I have never feared death, for I have not found any being with enough power to actually kill me. It seems that the path to Supreme Conquest is merely a dead end for me, since I am already at the pinnacle of power and have no need to prove myself any longer.

It was a strange realization, but true nonetheless. All these years, everything he had done was all to show his sire that he was worthy. That he was the worthy son, and that it had been his mistake to turn his back on his heir to acknowledge a half-breed weakling. And that despite his father's death. He smiled without amusement at that. He'd been wasting his time for two hundred years trying to prove himself to someone who couldn't even see it anyway.

He was forced from his thoughts momentarily as Rin and Ah-Uhn came into sight and Jaken came running forward with his typical questions.

"Where have you been, Sesshoumaru-sama?"

Where have I been...?

"Nowhere," he said with finality after a moment as he turned to lead them away. I have been nowhere and everywhere all at once.

And just faintly, almost too faint for him to hear, a flute played a lonely, haunting air as he led the little child he now saw as his own up the narrow pathway to the top of the ravine. Just as they reached it, the sun broke through the tattered clouds and began burning away the melancholy stillness of the morning's fog.

But inside Sesshoumaru, the realizations that he'd come to continued to batter at him and the confusion and angst was only being fed by what he could feel of Kagome's own emotions. Would he return to his former freedom from feelings if he repudiated the girl? His entire soul pulsed with pain at the thought, almost bringing him to his knees, and he threw it aside. It is already too late for me...

It seems I am doomed if I do, and doomed if I do not.

He tilted his head down and nodded in silent surrender as his eyes fell closed.

So be it.

~oOo~

yameteoku-let the matter drop