Chapter 20: The Protection Of Honor, Or The Protection Of Lives
Disclaimer: I have no claim over anything to do with the "Inuyasha" manga or anime. This includes the anime series, and the movies. This story is for entertainment only, and no copyright infringement is intended in any case. Copyright over "Inuyasha" belongs to the creator Rumiko Takahashi.
Your eyes go wide, and you let out a small gasp, barely audible over the rush of the ocean waves.
"Sesshomaru..." You cry, letting your voice fade in the wind, hardly above a whisper, you are in too much shock to see him here, of all places.
He doesn't even look at you though, and if he does, you can't notice, he is looking straight past you, to his father, and still approaching him. The distance between you and him is greatly decreasing. And now, for the very first time it seems, the look radiating off of Sesshomaru's face burning, you feel that you actually fear Sesshomaru. You feel terrified of him, and you don't like this feeling at all.
"My Lord, please! Lady Izayoi needs you! She calls for you! Please come!" You cry out to Lord Inu No Taisho, but his head still hangs, looking out over the vast body of water. You know that he heard you, even though he does not acknowledge it.
Having said what you needed to say, you retreat away, knowing that that would be what Sesshomaru's wants out of you. You walk, quickly though, to the edge of the forest, but you stop, you hide behind a thick oak, and look to see what it is that Sesshomaru wants from his father.
Sesshomaru's P.O.V.:
You walk up to your father and stop several paces behind him, watching him as he looks out to the sea. Akaria left you alone with him, but you know that she is still close; you can smell her, hiding behind a tree, carefully listening to you and your father. You don't care, though; you have some words to speak to your father.
"Father, do you insist on going?" You ask him.
"Do you intend to stop me, Sesshomaru?"
"I will not stand in your way. However, before you go, you must entrust the sword, Sou'unga and Tetsusaiga, to me." You tell him.
"And if I refuse? Will you kill me? Your own father?"
You can not respond to this. Would you really kill your own father? You have longed to be able to defeat him, to prove that you are his better in combat, but this still leaves you thinking. However, your father continues speaking to you, still never looking back at you.
"Do you desire power so much? Why do you seek power, my son?"
You know the answer to these questions, you have thought for many a night about this answer, and you are ready to tell it to him. "The path I walk is the way of supreme conquest, and it is power that will reveal the way for me."
"Supreme conquest." He replies, almost as though he is deep in thought at your own response. "Tell me, Sesshomaru. Have you someone to protect?"
You don't know what to make of this question, or the reason as to why he is asking it. "Protect?" You question him. You hardly need to think on this question, though. "The answer is no. I, Sesshomaru, have no need of such." You say with a small hint of finality in your voice.
He does not respond to you, but you suddenly feel a great pool of demon energy being consumed by your father. You can feel all his demon blood centering towards him. It is nearly overwhelming you, as you can feel him transform.
He assumes his true demon form, a colossal silver dog demon, as he lets out an earth shattering roar; you look up onto his form, where you can still see the glitter of shining blood, standing out against the silver of the moon, and his sleek fur.
He quickly bounds away from you, towards the palace, where you know that he will go to his human mate, the one due to give birth to his bastard child.
You look off over to the spot that he once was standing shortly ago, still pondering his unusual question. "Why would I have any reason to waste my time protecting someone? Ridiculous." You turn your back to the ocean, prepared to leave this site, where you can smell blood and carnage from the direction of the palace, mixing into the scent of your own father's demon blood. But it is the smell of human blood as well as demon blood. There are more humans at the palace than there should be, you can feel it, as well as smell it.
Your P.O.V.:
You listened and heard all that Sesshomaru had to say to his father. You are astonished that Sesshomaru feels this way. You know that he has an utter dislike of humans, or anything that isn't pure demon for that matter, but you never knew that he could be so heartless to any living being. And frankly, it has you angry at him.
You feel a sudden rush of wind as Lord Inu No Taisho bounds away and into the forest, towards the palace, leaving a trail of blood behind him, but he does not seem to care. You look back towards the ocean again and see that Sesshomaru is walking along the shore, to where, you do not know, but you do know that it isn't the palace, and that has you frustrated with him.
You walk up to him, and he takes a side glance to you, a look that says that he knows that you were watching, listening to the conversation a short while ago. You don't care what look he is giving you now though. "Ridiculous, is it?" You ask him, anger pulsing through your words.
He stops walking and looks over to you, over his shoulder, his eyes glinting. "What is it that you could possibly want?" He asks you.
"You say that the protection of others is ridiculous. I want to tell you that I disagree. And what do you think is so much more important than the protection of lives?" You ask him back.
"The protection of my honor is far more valuable to me than the lives of any foolish, pathetic human mortals."
Your jaw drops, then quickly closes again as you regain your composure. He is really more cold and heartless than you ever really cared to think. You storm up to him, and raise your hand, prepared to slap him, but in a repeat of the last time you attempted a maneuver like this to him, he catches your wrist before you strike. But this time, it is not a playful, teasing grip; it is painful, angered, and cruel.
You can feel the pain surging through your whole body. You grimace, but you remain silent, you do not want to show any weakness to him at this moment. He brings his face close to yours, you are looking him dead in the eye, him the same to you. You still feel that fear of him and his anger, but you do not let it show as he continues his tight grip on your wrist, but you look at him, with a look just as emotionless as his.
"Damn you." You say softly through gritted teeth, the pain really taking a toll on you, your body wincing slightly from the never ceasing agony. But you regain enough energy, driven from your burning anger. "Damn you! How can you say such a thing?!"
"My honor is far more important." He repeats as he brings his face even closer to yours. He brings his lips to your ear, where you can feel his warm breath on your skin, his breath much warmer than his heart. "And you would do well to remember that, wench."
Your eyes go wide and glassy again, you so desire to scream, yell at him, do something to him to give him pain, in hopes that your own pain will go away. Nothing would give you more release than to hurt him the way he is hurting you at this precise moment, but you don't. And although you hate to admit it, you can't. You are not that weak and you know it, you will not succumb to these cruel emotions that Sesshomaru has already allowed himself to surrender to. You've taken pride in being strong your entire life, and that will not change, especially not today, and especially not in front of Sesshomaru. But this is the first time that he has called you a wench since you first met him, and at that time, you didn't know him. This time, it hurts a thousand times worse.
He moves away from your face and tightens his grip on your wrist even further, you don't know how much more pressure your right wrist can take, but you never learn the answer as he throws you harshly over to his side, by your wrist no less, as though you are nothing but a simple object not worth his time, and you land on your back on the wet shore sand with a hard thud. You wince at the pain, but you sit up and look to see that Sesshomaru is far away from you now, disappearing into the deep, dark forest. And walking far away from the palace as well.
You look over to his vanishing form, fuming at him, cursing at him. Your body cringing in disgust of him, as well as the pain of what he just did to you. You grab your wrist and hold it tight, gritting your teeth, you never imagined it would hurt this much.
But you hear the sounds of a loud explosion from over near the palace, you can see the remnants of debris flying over the trees and you remember that Izayoi is still in the palace and that you just sent Inu No Taisho towards it as well.
You forget about all your pains, anger, and disgust and you jump up and immediately use your supernatural speed to take the same path that Lord Inu No Taisho just took, you can see a fine trail of red blood gleaming slightly against the snow, and you know that you have to hurry. You have to make it there, where so many people that you care about are. You leap off of tree trunks and tree branches, using them to accurately heighten your velocity, then when you see that the depths of the forest are lightening, you run on the snow and find your way onto a cliff, overlooking the palace, or really, what is left of the palace.
You come to a stop at the tip of the cliff, looking over what you see below you. The once beautiful, grand, regal palace is now coated with a blanket of flames, encroaching every inch of it, the red, yellow, and orange gleaming against your emerald eyes. You see bodies strewn across the ground surrounding the palace; you can smell the blood and sweat radiating off their dead bodies, their once beating hearts as silent now as the air. But these are the bodies of humans, and even further, humans that you have never seen or met before. You are perplexed as to what they are doing there all of a sudden, and lying motionless on the ground, blood seeping into the snow covered grass.
"No." You whisper, closing your eyes, shaking your head slightly, as though this is some twisted fantasy that you have to escape from. But when you open your eyes, and see that the only change is the pattern of the flames and the rhythm of swords faintly clashing, you know that this is no fantasy, this is very real, and you are standing just above it. You remember, though, that Izayoi, Kisa, Lord Inu No Taisho, and possibly a baby are still somewhere down there, and it is your obligation to go down there and assist them in whatever way you can. You swallow whatever fears you could possibly have and jump down from the cliff, toward the scene of the vile massacre, to help protect those you care for in the midst of this bloodbath, towards the lives of those you are willing to protect. The very same lives that Sesshomaru so easily shunned.