A/N: Hello my lovelies! I have returned! The school year's out, and I'm totally not panicking about the fact that one year from now I'll be graduated from high school! Definitely not panicking!
Anyway, here's the next chapter, much, much later than promised! But have no fear, for the next one is half done, and it's summer, so I have no excuses for not working on it until I leave for Disneyworld on the 11th!

Also, new line breaks, since doing the old ones manually apparently breaks the chapter. The language was "Fanfiction . net is a buttwipe", keller-... string of numbers I'm too lazy to type.

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Chapter Ten

The Sword of Their Father

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(-Azami-)

"Um... oops?"

I think the most impressive part of me accidentally King Arthur-ing the sword had to be the looks on the four demons' faces. Everybody looked so shocked. Not that I was much better, but I couldn't see my face, and therefore gained no amusement from my own stupefaction.

In less than a second, Sesshoumaru was towering right in front of me. I took a startled step back, ankle turning as it landed in an empty eye socket. Oh no. His eyes were focused on the sword as he said, "What are you? How did you draw the sword?"

Even in my state of 'oh-god-I'm-gonna-die', I couldn't help but notice the contempt when he referred to me. His eyes drifted to the Tessaiga, then back to me as they narrowed. I grimaced, holding the sword a little closer, a little tighter.

"Be quiet!" Inuyasha suddenly snapped toward his shoulder, where the tiny figure of Myouga could just barely be seen. Then to his brother, he shouted, "Sesshoumaru, leave her alone! She's not involved in this!"

Hate to break it to you, Sunshine, but I'm pretty sure this is the definition of 'involved', I thought with bitter resignation. Yes, I was involved. And I didn't have any leverage this time around.

Sesshoumaru turned to look at his brother. As though thinking aloud, he said, "For some unknown reason, I was unable to touch the sword. Thankfully, you were unable pull it out, either. It's obvious the girl must die."

"That is one seriously warped jump of logic!" I yelped incredulously.

"Azami, just give him the sword!" Inuyasha yelled.

I scoffed, "Yeah, I'm gonna give the powerful weapon to the demon who'll turn around and kill us with it!"

Inuyasha grit his teeth, fingernails biting into his palms. Sesshoumaru scoffed. "Your patience with this creature is astonishing. You protect her, indulge her... even seem to love her."

I resisted the urge to snort. Was he really that bad at reading the dynamic here? We hadn't even known each other for a full week! Besides that, Inuyasha only saw me as a jewel detector. But if that's what he thought, there might be a way to use it to our advantage. So I didn't correct him, and surprisingly enough, neither did Inuyasha.

"Certainly these feelings of mercy are not something I inherited from our great and terrible father," Sesshoumaru continued. "It must have been that human mother of yours, the one who caused our father to meet his end. Is it that which so endears you to them?" We both bristled—Inuyasha at the mention of his mother, and myself at the not-so-discreet slight at my species. Then something shifted in the air, something like when Sesshoumaru arrived before. "Fortunately, I have no such weakness when it comes to humans."

With that, the daiyoukai whirled around, fingers splayed in my direction. A green fog exploded from his palm, crawling across my skin like a hundred biting mosquitoes. A gasp of pain lined my lungs with the burning substance. I could feel something hot and heavy seep down over my shoulders, and I twisted my head to see the bone behind me melting over my shoulders.

Good gods, it hurt.

"Inuyasha!" I cried, hoping somehow the hanyou would be able to do something. A part of me knew he couldn't, but isn't there a part of all of us that hopes to be saved at the very last moment? I raised Tessaiga against the poison onslaught as I was forced to my knees, whimper escaping my throat. Finally, the melted bone slid itself over my face, and darkness enveloped me.

The end.

...

Kidding.

I blinked my eyes open to the color orange. Orange and red that wormed over a base of brown. My eyebrows scrunched. That didn't make any sense. Why...?

I flinched up into a sitting position, scrambling away from angry red fingers. Fire. That was a lot of fire. All around me the hungry, gaseous beast climbed the walls, devouring the wood and tapestries of the once extravagant building. But I couldn't feel the heat. The acrid smell of smoke reached my nose, but pushed no further, keeping the choking substance from my lungs.

"How...?" I muttered aloud, not sure whether to be scared or curious. ...Curious it was. Knowing what I was about to do would likely get me burned, I stuck a finger into a particularly nasty looking flame. Nothing?

Okay, that is so cool. Literally!

Suddenly, a figure rushed into the burning room, the rattling of his heavy armor heard before he was seen. It was a man, tall, imposing, and something more, as though something in his very existence exuded an aura of dominance. A cloak of white fur increased the man's already impressive stature, spiked pauldrons adorned the man's shoulders, and three swords hung from sheaths placed in different spots on his person. One hung from his back, while the other two hung from his waist. Most shocking was his uncanny resemblance to the two inu-youkai I had just left. Long silver-white hair was tied high on his head, and jagged purple stripes broke the tanned color of his cheeks. His gold eyes were wide with such unbridled panic that it made my heart clench.

Just who was this guy?

"IZAYOI!" the man shouted at the top of his lungs and I flinched, the deepness of his voice shocking to the core. A sudden high-pitched wail rang through the room, one that could only have been made by a baby. Oh, gods, there's a kid in here?!

I jumped through the blaze between me and the man (a part of me freaking out at how I'd just walked through fire), then twisted my head around in search of the endangered child. "Do you see him?!"

He didn't answer, but his eyes searched the room frantically, finally lighting upon a fallen magenta curtain. He flung the fabric away, not caring that it landed in a nearby swath of fire. I froze. Blood stained the pale pink fabric of the ebony-haired woman's kimono, and in her lifeless arms was a screaming infant. The child already had a full head of hair, but even in the reddened light there was a purple hue to his skin that marked him as a newborn.

The man yanked one of the swords around his waist from its hilt.

"What are you doing?!" I shrieked and threw out a hand to stop him.

His arm moved straight through mine as though I were a ghost.

I stared at my hand, stopped breathing. How in the name of...?! Without making the conscious decision to push my new intangibility to the back of my mind, I looked down at the dead woman. Except she wasn't so dead anymore. She blinked up at him, relief, joy, and worry mingling in her deep brown eyes. He helped her to her feet, wrapping a red piece of fabric around her head and shoulders.

I gawked at the pair. "How are you alive?!" No response. "Hello?" I waved a hand in front of their faces. Still nothing. They couldn't touch me. They couldn't see me. How am I supposed to figure out what's going on if no one can even hear me?!

"I will take you to the netherworld with me..." A new voice, harsh and clouded with anger and pain entered the room. All three of us whirled around to face the newcomer, a man deep crimson armor. Blood trickled down a face that might have been handsome, were it not marred with an expression of hatred.

The first man growled, the action reminding me of a certain hanyou, and drew the sword on his back. To the woman, Izayoi, he said, "Go. Live a long life."

"But-" the woman began to argue.

"Go," he repeated, with more force this time. Izayoi nodded, tears welling in her eyes. Just as she turned to leave, the man murmured, "Inuyasha."

I started at the name. Inuyasha? The baby? My eyes looked to the small newborn. I neared the mother, grateful she seemed oblivious to my existence; I knew what moms were like when strangers got near their babies when they're already unsettled. Sure enough, when I peered over the woman's protective embrace, cradled in her arms and swaddled in a blanket was a the white-haired baby had a set of tiny dog ears. His eyes were squeezed shut, but I had no doubt that if he opened his eyes, they'd be bright amber.

Then it dawned on me. I was seeing the past.

"What?" snapped the stranger.

"The infant... His name is Inuyasha."

And because the universe has terrible timing, that was when the world began to ripple. A sharp tug pulled at my solar plexus, yanking me away from the scene. Once again I was returned to the suffocating darkness, but this time I could feel a foreign strength pulsating through my limbs.

A familiar though muffled voice reached my ears. "I'm gonna slit your stomach, take out your guts, and put 'em in a bowl!"

With the might I could muster, a straightened my knees as through thrusting myself from the bottom of a swimming pool. My head burst through the surface of the still liquidy bone goo. I coughed, my stomach turning violently. "That was the trippiest dream ever."

My eyes met with the shocked golden eyes of Inuyasha. A relieved smile broke my grossed-out expression. I didn't think I'd ever be that relieved to see the boy, but the universe never does cease to amaze. Detangling myself from the muck, I half-tripped, half-ran to the hanyou's side. His eyes were still the size of dinner plates as I pressed the hilt of the sword into his hands.

"You're really gonna want that."

He just blinked. "Um... How are you still alive?"

I grinned and pointed at the sword. "Like I said: you're going to want that."

"It protected you?" Sesshoumaru hissed. The fact that the sword protected a mere human was a personal affront to the high and mighty daiyoukai. The temptation to smirk at him was strong, but then I saw the look on his face. A cold fury blazed in his eyes as the skulls at his feet began to shake as though a small earthquake raged beneath them.

Myouga waggled two arms toward the demon, oblivious to his growing anger. "It's true! The poison from Sesshoumaru's claws is lethal! Without Tessaiga, she really would've died!"

"Thanks for the reminder," I said dully, scowling at the flea.

Myouga stuttered, "I-I only mean now you should try it on Sesshoumaru!"

"Hm. Big words for such small vermin," Sesshoumaru's monotone voice took on a more guttural tone and his eyes flashed red. And like any person exposed to the fantasy genre, I knew that a change in eye color was never a good sign.

The air around the daiyoukai began to spin, and the faster it went the more skulls it picked up from the ground, until finally Sesshoumaru was surrounded in a cyclone of wind and bone.

Just what was he doing? Theories and questions spun around in my head as fast as the mini-tornado Sesshoumaru had created. So distracted was I by my thoughts, when a single skull peeled itself from the storm and flew straight for my head all I managed to do was stare in shock. Inuyasha, thankfully, was paying more attention, and his arm flew out to intercept the projectile. The skull shattered upon contact with his arm and—get this—he didn't even flinch. That was when my legs finally worked and I made Inuyasha my meat shield.

By that I mean I cowered behind him, jaw clenched in frustration. I mean, what else could I do? I was an unarmed, squishy human up against demons. What I wouldn't give for a bow and arrows right now.

I peeked over the hanyou's shoulder. A faint pink aura glowed around the daiyoukai's outline, and his mouth began to split into a wolf-like visage. Already pointed canines elongated from his mouth, the rest of his teeth slowly following. Muscles bulged and bones shifted and groaned, until finally in a burst of bright light, a humanoid figure was no longer standing with us. Instead, a massive, drooling hound had taken its place.

A strangled sound escaped my throat. "That's so cheating."

"Now we know his real form. And now that I'm using this..." Even from behind, I could tell Inuyasha was smirking. Sesshoumaru advanced slowly, two of his steps sending Inuyasha and I running backwards. "I'd say this fight's finished before it even starts!"

He swung the old katana back and forth confidently. Sesshoumaru cringed back, letting out a string of barks that reverberated in my chest. I'm just gonna get out of the way... I thought to myself, putting myself in reverse. The Inu no Taisho's vine-covered spine was almost directly behind me now, and I decided to use the positioning to my advantage. It was almost as if the vines grew to be climbed on, reminding me of the climbing nets in playgrounds.

"You go and hide—" Inuyasha started to say, then cut off when he saw I was no longer behind him.

"Way ahead of you!" I shouted back down to him, already two and a half vertebrae up.

A harsh growl from Sesshoumaru had me whipping my head around in time to see the white dog demon launch himself in my direction. I scrambled upward. The world seemed to shudder as the daiyoukai's paws slammed into the vertebra below me. I kept climbing. Another bang rang through the skeleton and I flinched. Keep climbing. Keep climbing. Another sound. And another. Finally, I couldn't keep myself from looking.

Holy carp I was high up.

Oh, and the entire base of the skeleton was cloaked in a giant, familiar green cloud. There was that.

"Inuyasha, you need to get out of there!" I yelled from my diaphragm, remembering all of those singing tips Ayumi had tried to ingrain in my skull. The sound echoed a little in the massive space, and I hoped he heard me.

And then I resumed my climb.

A tiny dot of light caught my eye. Was I almost out? I really hoped I was out now.

Sure enough, I had reached the point where the skeleton's neck met the base of its jaw. I clawed my way over the edge, panting, and looked back down into the depths of the skeleton's belly. The cloud was worse now, a solid mass of green. I grit my teeth. Wasn't there anything I could do to help?

Suddenly the skeleton shook, and somehow I could tell that it wasn't coming from the base. I ran from the Inu no Taisho's mouth just as Sesshoumaru let out a roar. There was a gaping hole in the Inu no Taisho's shoulder armor where the two brothers had broken out. Sesshoumaru stood on one side of the hole, his eye blinking as though there were something in it, and Inuyasha on the other, the side closest to me.

"Oh ho!" Myouga's stereotypical old man laugh burst from the bush in front of me. "Do you see the power of Tessaiga? You're giving Sesshoumaru what-for, I hope!"

Inuyasha glared at the flea. "Where've you been?! This thing's about as useful as a walking stick!"

"Oh... my mistake." The flea youkai stood there with his arms crossed a moment, then darted off faster than my eyes could follow.

"Coward!" I growled under my breath. Sesshoumaru started forward. "Inuyasha!"

"I see 'im!" Inuyasha responded, dodging the massive paw easily.

Weird. Sesshoumaru seemed slower than before. Inuyasha was easily dodging Sesshoumaru's blows and even making blows of his own, whereas before, Sesshoumaru had tossed him about like a rag doll. Almost as if he'd... That was it! He'd traded all his speed and accuracy for brute strength! Changing forms changed his skill set, and that was his mistake. He wouldn't have time to react to attacks from more than one place; he'd have to prioritize.

And certainly I was less of a threat than Inuyasha.

I was sick of playing the spectator. I gathered my arsenal—an armful of skulls—and while Inuyasha was busy battering the daiyoukai over the head I ran around to the other side.

Then I let a skull fly.

The bone bullet bounced off Sesshoumaru's bum. The demon whirled around with a growl, but didn't have time to react before Inuyasha made a harmless slash across his foreleg. It continued like that—me staying at a distance chucking skulls and Inuyasha pulling Sesshoumaru's attention back with stronger blows—right up until the demon got fed up. And he didn't focus on who I thought he would've.

Sesshoumaru's tail swooped my legs out from beneath me and in my infinite wisdom, I had been standing on the edge. Backwards I went, arms flailing uselessly at my sides. Then an arm wrapped around my waist and I slammed into a familiar red-clad body.

"What the hell were you thinkin'?!" Inuyasha shouted. The hanyou was just barely clinging to the armor, Tessaiga's handle balanced precariously between his palm and the armor, while his claws dug into the aged metal.

"I was trying to help!"

"You're gonna get yourself killed!"

"What, I'm just supposed to sit back and relax while you fight?"

"No, you're supposed to let me protect you!"

The air rushed from my lungs at the boy's brazen exclamation. I didn't have any time to question whether I'd heard what I thought I had. Suddenly, Sesshoumaru was right on top of us. Inuyasha grunted as he yanked both our weights out of the way and onto a solid ground. Armor. Whatever. As he did, he clipped the daiyoukai's paw with his sword.

Inuyasha finally put me down behind one of the armor spikes. He ordered, "Stay here."

Sesshoumaru growled a warning, but Inuyasha continued his nonchalant advance. "Yeah, 'roar roar' to you too, buddy. Let's get this over with."

Inuyasha held Tessaiga out in front of him, then stopped and looked at it strangely. Sesshoumaru took the opening and launched his entire body at Inuyasha, left paw first. Just when it seemed Inuyasha would be pinned beneath the sharp white claws, Inuyasha threw himself into the air.

The Tessaiga ripped through Sesshoumaru's arm in a burst of golden light, stopping only when Inuyasha pulled back from the slash at the daiyoukai's shoulder. Sesshoumaru collapsed to the ground, nothing short of dumbfoundment on his face. Where the daiyoukai's left leg had been there was nothing but a gushing river of blood.

I'm not going to lie. I turned and vomited all over an innocent little bush.

The sword in Inuyasha's hands was no longer a beaten old katana, but a large, curved blade. 'Forged from a fang of Inuyasha's father'... Myouga's words rang in my head. However the fang was altered into a sword, the process left its original form plain as day.

Inuyasha said something to his brother, but I couldn't hear exactly what from the distance I was at. But then he shouted, "Maybe I'm not so worthless then, huh!?"

Sesshoumaru lunged and Inuyasha quickly retaliated. Seconds later, only one brother was left standing on the Inu no Taisho's shoulder. Inuyasha watched his brother plummet downward with a look of disbelief, as though he could hardly believe that he'd really won. Suddenly a ball of white light shot upward from the ground in off into the wormhole in the sky, Team Rocket style.

"M-Milord!" the kappa cried, which was the first time I actually noticed his presence since our little brawl. He scrambled after Sesshoumaru, crying not to be left behind.

Inuyasha flicked the blood from the sword, then plunged it into the armor beneath him and sunk into a crouch. Moving out of instinct, I found myself joining the hanyou. He glanced at me from the corner of his eye, and for the first time I realised both his eyes were there. So instead of congratulating him or asking if he was okay like a normal person, I gaped.

"Wh- how- Your eye's okay!"

"You just noticed?" He laughed tiredly. His attention shifted back to the sword. "I guess it wasn't so worthless after all."

"I told you so! If you'd have just listened earlier-" Myouga had suddenly appeared on Inuyasha's shoulder. I glared at the flea while Inuyasha rolled his eyes and went to squash him. Myouga caught the hanyou's finger, pointing to the two skeletal birds perched nearby. Leaning up against one was a sheath for the Tessaiga. "Ah, wait! I d-didn't run, I was getting us a ride!"

"Convenient excuse," I smirked, making the flea sweat. "And I suppose you just darted off right when things got serious because it seemed like the best time, right? Confusion and all..."

Myouga's face was the epitome of guilt. "Forgive me! If I knew you'd make a comeback, I'd never have left!"

"Myouga..." Inuyasha beamed at the flea... and then proceeded to flatten him between two fingers. You know what, screw respecting elders, he deserved it. As the flea fluttered to the ground, Inuyasha got to his feet, me following suit.

"C'mon, let's go," he said, and it was softer than he had spoken to me before. I nodded.

Riding the skeletal birds wasn't nearly so freaky now, not after all the junk that had happened in the tomb. I wondered at that moment, would I ever get used to this? Was this to be my life now? Fighting demons for hours on end, having weird-ass dreams and then flying off as though I hadn't almost died after? If I wanted to stay sane, I guess it was. My hand tightened around a rib of the bird and a tiny, giddy laugh bubbled in my throat. We're alive, though. It means we have a chance, at least. So just... keep focusing on that.

We're alive.

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On another note, did you guys know that Kyoukai no Rinne has an anime now? It's only got ten episodes aired, but it's so pretty. Seriously, it's like Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha had a baby show. My only pet peeve is that Sakura (the lead female) is very passive. I'm tempted to write something by episode with a more fiery character... anyway, tell me what you guys think!