The General
Chapter Twenty Six
I lie to ease the breaking.
"What do you want with me," Inuyasha said in a low tone. He yearned for a fight. The ice in his chest was cutting, cutting, cutting into him. "Why are you coming back for me now when you kept me in that blasted camp for days!?"
"Does your filthy blood affect your hearing? We have new orders to follow. You come with us without a fight and we'll set the children free." The attacker holding Rin grinned maliciously. "We'll even promise not to harm your other friends at the campsite."
Kasuhama and Inuyasha stiffened. He had been right, Inuyasha thought frantically; they had been there at the hot springs. Kagome and Sango, Miroku…and all the others…were they surrounded at this very moment, unable to detect these Shirabaku cronies' presences like they had not been able to? If the demons in black decided to attack, would any of them stand a chance?
"What are your orders?" Kasuhama asked. He struggled not to speak through clenched teeth. "What do you want with Inuyasha?"
"That is none of your concern, you disgusting traitor!"
Kasuhama's chest swelled forward. "Traitor? You are the traitor to our homelands!"
"We have no homelands to speak of!" Another attacker yelled.
A fiery argument blew up to the gray-covered sky, filled with ear-bleeding insults and resentment. It was surprising that any of them managed to keep their feet rooted to the ground. The loud voices struck at Inuyasha's head and the ice in his chest grew sharper and sharper as he stared into Rin's wide pleading eyes.
"Damn it…shut. The hell. UP!" Tendrils of youki and Tetsusaiga's own energy billowed out, smacking in the oxygen and smacking the angered Inu-Youkai into silence. Inuyasha kept Tetsusaiga's tip to the earth. "You want me? Fine. I don't give a damn why. But you will release Rin and Shippo first or you'll all end up like that poor bastard."
He pointed at the attacker he'd previously slashed in two. The living attackers' faces tightened in disgust and rage but Inuyasha knew they were heeding his warning.
"Do it," Inuyasha growled. "And I won't put up a fight."
"Inuyasha…" Kasuhama warned.
The attackers glanced at each other and came to a silent decision. "Hand over the sword first."
"No." Inuyasha sheathed Tetsusaiga and crossed his arms. "Believe me. It would be best if it stays with me."
The one holding Shippo, whose eyes were vaguely irritated from the kitsune's fire magic, lifted his upper lip in a sneer. "Then we don't have a deal." With Shippo's ponytail clenched tightly in a fist, the attacker lifted his other hand and arched his fingers. The fox's blood would stain his skin completely. He would not be satisfied with a simple kill. He swung…
"NO!"
Slick.
Silence.
Inuyasha halted mid step, attackers' arms wrapped all around his shoulders and elbows to keep him in place, and released a shuddering breath. Shippo fell to the ground.
The attacker who had held him was frozen in the same position, arm raised, fingers cocked. His eyes were wide. And with the cue of a strange snapping sound, blood spilled from his lips and he crumpled over himself, boneless. A large knife jutted from between his shoulder blades.
The attacker holding Rin stuttered, "What in the hell—"and then the rest was garbled in liquid and choking. Rin screamed when she too was dropped. The little girl crawled away backwards, staring in horror, as the attacker fingered another similar knife that had severed through his larynx. In great demonic speed, Kasuhama fled forward and grabbed Rin out of the way when the Inu-Youkai attacker fell and slowly bled out over the snow.
Inuyasha took the opportunity, as the rest of the attackers were held transfixed by the mysteriously murdered bodies, to pull himself free. Hands plucked at his clothing but he was able to deflect them. He gingerly picked Shippo up and held the kit under his chin. A thankful stream of breathing tickled his skin and Inuyasha was startled by his heavy weight of relief. He pulled out Tetsusaiga and held Shippo with his opposite hand. He wouldn't be putting the kit down this time. The remaining attackers, now seven, blinked themselves back to coherent thought.
"What—what did you do? How did you kill them!" One shouted.
They pulled out weapons from inside their clothing or the belts on their waists and glared at Inuyasha and Kasuhama.
"You will die for this, half-breed!"
"—you traitor!"
Kasuhama and Inuyasha, both with a child in one arm, readied themselves for the inevitable attacks. But a whooshing sound, almost like wind or a sigh, disrupted the air. Blurs of shadows and body-depth flitted before their vision and swarmed on the black-clad Shirabaku soldiers. There wasn't a single scream. The blurs solidified briefly into people shapes each time they paused to cut off a head or twisted a spine to break. One by one, the Shirabaku soldiers fell like their comrades before them. Boneless. And dead.
Another disruption of air and the blurs came to a stop.
Inuyasha growled and took a step forward, Tetsusaiga glinting. More soldiers! But Kasuhama was suddenly at his side with an arm stretched out in front of the hanyou's chest. "No," he breathed. "They are not with Shirabaku."
Inuyasha paused and looked over the five soldiers again. They peered at him with darkened amber eyes, faces open and unmasked. The symbol of the Inu-Youkai holding a flower in its mouth was indented on their chest plates. Kasuhama was right. They looked just like the banished soldiers in the clearing, but Inuyasha couldn't recognize them. "They're with you?"
Kasuhama nodded absently, looking astonished. A flicker of understanding knitted his brows. "Yes. But they are not banished."
"Then they're with the other bastard!" Inuyasha's face became shrouded with dark malice but Kasuhama would not allow him to take another step.
"Please Inuyasha! Let me handle this." Inuyasha glared forthrightly into Kasuhama's self-assured, but still astonished, expression and finally, painfully relented with a grunt. But he refused to sheath Tetsusaiga. As Kasuhama stepped forward, Inuyasha strained his senses to see if that other bastard general was anywhere near.
The five soldiers tilted their heads forward at Kasuhama. The one in the front faintly smiled. "Kasuhama, sir. We are pleased to see that you live."
"Yes. I as well. Thank you," he flicked over their presences and half-consciously placed Rin on the ground, "for your rescuing."
"It was our pleasure."
"As well as our duty," another quipped. Inuyasha grumbled in the background.
"Duty?" Kasuhama asked. "Is that why you are here?"
A guarded expression came over the one in front. He nodded his head towards Rin and Inuyasha, Shippo still unconscious against his neck.
"They are not part of this war."
Kasuhama glanced back at the hanyou. "What do you mean? What were your orders?"
"I'm sorry, Kasuhama sir. We must return." The one in front flicked his hand forward and the four behind him became blurs again, speeding off to the treetops. But he remained, looking at Kasuhama with a softened expression…although he revealed nothing else.
"I'm sorry sir…to hear of your banishment." He frowned, determinedly. "But please rest easy. No one shall be harmed in this area." He bent his knees.
"Wait—What--!" Kasuhama tried to interject but the demon soldier jumped.
And was gone.
His head hurt.
Rin…
They were being attacked!
"Ah, Rin!" Shippo lunged upwards and slammed his aching forehead on the underside of something bone-hard. "Aaaah…" Shippo frantically covered his eyes, whimpering in pain. But he felt himself being moved and his body made an adrenaline-laced jerk, hands flailing.
"Stop sqirmin', runt! Rin's fine." Shippo froze at the sound of Inuyasha's voice and he blearily tried to focus on the hanyou's face. Inuyasha was holding him; one of his hands braced the back of Shippo's neck. Oh…He must have hit his head against Inuyasha's chin; Inuyasha was rubbing the affronted area with the knuckles of his opposite hand.
"Inuyasha?"
"Yeah, runt. You're safe."
"Shippo, are you alright? How are you feeling?" Shippo turned to the brightly worried voice.
"Kagome…!" He said; his excitement tinged with fatigue. She was completely focused on him. The far-off stare which had made up her expression for so long was thankfully gone. That's right. Inuyasha was alive. And no one had said anything. His eyebrows knitted together and he felt the fracture in his chest pulse with something akin to betrayal. "Why didn't you tell me, Kagome? Why didn't you tell me…!"
Kagome tried to see Shippo's face but Inuyasha moved the kit back to the space between his shoulder and neck, as though hiding him. "Tell you what, Shippo?"
Shippo made a sound of distress, trying to tell her, but Inuyasha again interrupted. He lowered his head, causing hair to spill over and shield Shippo from view. He made a sharp sound, canine-like. "Can it, runt. Everything's fine."
"But—"the kit said weakly.
"No. Let it go and get some rest. You were hit pretty hard." Inuyasha shifted Shippo into his suikan, covering him like it was a blanket. The clothing was knotted tight enough that it cocooned Shippo effectively without the needed assistance of Inuyasha's hand. Shippo tried to fidget but his headache had traveled inward, aching behind his eyelids. Although he felt strange in this position, for Inuyasha had never allowed him to even sit on his lap for longer than a few minutes, Shippo reluctantly closed his eyes.
Inuyasha crossed his arms beneath Shippo's form and glanced up. Everyone around the tree stared at him like his head had just spun in a complete circle. "What?" Inuyasha hissed.
"Nothing! Nothing!" Miroku held up placating hands. "We are just, uh…" Surprised! But he didn't continue with his sentence. He and the others tried to keep themselves from ogling further—at Inuyasha with a kit against his neck and a little human girl snuggled against his side. A surprising sight indeed.
"Inuyasha-san? Will Shippo be okay?" Rin hung her fingers on his sleeve.
"Yeah, kid. Don't cry about it. He's fine."
Rin sniffed and whispered, laying her forehead on his arm. "But…but it was my fault…"
Inuyasha sighed and patted the girl's head, once. But it was enough to shock everyone again. "What? It wasn't her fault!"
"Yes, yes! We agree!"
Inuyasha grunted and re-crossed his arms. "Feh. He was protecting you, Rin."
"Oh. Yeah." Rin wiped her eyes. "Shippo was really brave."
"Yeah," Inuyasha replied with a soft gruffness. He wrinkled his nose in disgust when everyone blinked owlishly at him again. "What!?"
"Nothing!"
Inuyasha shifted against the tree trunk, scowling. "Feh."
Kagome cautiously repositioned herself closer to Inuyasha but could only see a small patch of orange fur jutting from the red jacket. Worry gnawed at her. He'd seemed so upset. She had left him in the village without telling him exactly why…
Kasuhama walked over and Inuyasha acknowledged him silently. The demon man nodded. "All but a few are ready for travel. The two who cannot will need assistance but they assure me they will be able to handle a trip."
"It may be a long one. We got to lose them."
"Right. I agree. But it should be fine for them. They are accustomed to difficulty."
Miroku rose his hand lightly, "Excuse me, but what are you saying? Are you leaving, Inuyasha?"
"Yeah," Inuyasha grunted. "They know where we are."
"And they threatened us," Kasuhama added.
Inuyasha squarely met the monk's eyes. "It's not safe to stay here any longer. They'll send more as soon as they find out." The dead soldiers. Their murdered comrades.
"But where will we go?" Kagome asked.
"Not we. Me. And them." Inuyasha hooked a thumb at Kasuhama and the dog-demons behind him. "It's not safe for any of you too."
"But--"
"Kagome-chan," Kasuhama interrupted. "You do not want to be on an Inu-Youkai's list of prey. It would be best for the humans and the children to remain at the village, innocent of our whereabouts."
Prey? Kagome felt goose-bumps rise on her flesh. "But why are they after us?"
"Not us," this time Inuyasha growled. "Me." He didn't answer to their questioning eyes.
Kasuhama replied instead, "We do not know the reasoning. But you are all in danger—you, the human village—if Inuyasha and the rest of us remains in this territory. We will have to travel far, in a highly clever fashion, shielding and confusing our scent constantly. It will be difficult. And exhausting."
An obvious hint: humans and children would just slow them down. Kagome's stomach soured with apprehension. Prey. Hunted.
"Why can't just the hanyou go?" Kuma stated dryly. He lifted a brow to Inuyasha's bared fangs.
"You've all stayed here long enough," Inuyasha spat. Again, obvious: thanks to them, this danger was brought upon his territory. Only more danger would arrive if they remained. They'd overstayed their welcome.
Kuma derisively smirked. Nobody was hunting them, but he kept his remark quiet. Inuyasha fairly well knew already.
"So it is decided," Kasuhama said. "We will leave immediately." On cue, Inuyasha, Tomi, Kuma, and Yasuo stood.
The humans sat, startled. "But," Kagome rose up onto her knees, "don't you need supplies, I can go home and—"
"It'll slow us down," Inuyasha said.
"But how will we know if you're—"
"I'll be fine."
"But…but…" she grasped and grasped and could only come up with one drastically petty thing. "But how do you know they won't attack the village to find you?"
Inuyasha's lips were left parted open.
"You'll be fine," Kasuhama stated. Inuyasha stared at him pointedly. Kasuhama firmed his tone, "They will be fine. They are not part of this war."
The hanyou was clearly not pleased but he did not argue. Kagome, dejected, could not come up with any other reason to keep Inuyasha at her side—where she would know he was safe and whole, without a hole in his stomach, without a gash in his face; without a bite in his neck. Inuyasha…please don't go…
"Inuyasha." Hakkaku said. He and Ginta had wandered over to their group. The wolf boy, circles beneath his weary eyes, wrung his fingers together.
"What is it?"
"Uh…."
"Please," Ginta snapped with a surprising bite. "Please allow us to remain here. We…we cannot take Kouga back…not like this…" Courage having dwindled away, Ginta looked to the side.
Inuyasha considered them for a silent moment. "If you don't cause any trouble…"
"Never!" They replied in unison.
There was a small hint of fatigue in Inuyasha's voice, but it required a skilled ear to detect such hidden weariness. "You can stay at the village," he said to another reply of widened eyes and dropped mouths. "Until the mangy wolf can take his sorry ass back himself."
Cautionary smiles stretched the wolf boys' faces. "Thank you, Inuyasha!"
"We will protect the village for you when you are gone!"
"Oh yes, we promise!"
"Thank you so much for your kindness!"
Inuyasha nodded, exasperatedly. Features tight with half-minded pain, he touched a hand to his stomach. "Feh. Whatever."
"We will go with you, Lord Pup," Nagaharu said out of nowhere.
"What?"
The grave-robbing gang glanced at each other, firmed together. Nagaharu looked back at Inuyasha, content with his group's cohesive decision. "We will go with you, Lord Pup. To make sure you are safe."
"I don't need your damn protection!" The cutting in his chest; this time it didn't feel like cold anger. The sweetness of it made him feel off-balanced.
Nagaharu was not fazed. "We will go with you," he smiled. "It will put us all at ease."
Inuyasha didn't get it. But his human companions seemed to. They still felt the phantom undulations of the hanyou's corpse falling slowly to the snow-packed ground. It reverberated in their memories. "It would ease us," Miroku whispered, "if we were allowed to come as well." Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and even Rin, looked up at him meaningfully, heaviness in their faces.
Shippo shifted, as if in equal answer.
Inuyasha slowly shook his head. "Not this time," he said, low.
He turned to Nagaharu, "I want you to stay."
"But we could be of some assistance."
"If you want to assist me so badly, then stay here! And make sure everyone's safe." The difficulty of his words was keenly felt and it broke apart the grave-robbing gang's disagreements. Feeling the weight of his commanding plea, the weight of his uncharacteristic decision to leave the protection of his pack to others, Nagaharu, Gengo, Jinsei, and Fumina firmly bowed their heads.
"Yes."
"We will."
"Do not worry."
"They will be safe," Nagaharu stated. "We promise."
Inuyasha acknowledged the promise with difficulty. Their kind sincerity was too much to look at. It was too much to hear. Why did they want to help him? Why did they want to see him safe? He'd done nothing for them, he thought savagely. He turned away to shield his grimace; the expression came from within him but it was not only caused by the full-blooded demons' strange offerings.
Slices of pain cut through his stomach, touching deep, making his very spine ache. Worsening, his blood instinct knew. He kept his steps strong and secretive, although he could not refuse his hand from touching his abdomen.
"We are ready to depart, Inuyasha," Kasuhama said. Inuyasha made no show of hearing him.
Through the fog of pain, he noted the thrumming at his side. Tetsusaiga…
"Inuyasha?"
A terrible cold shudder ripped his innards apart, sped up his heartbeat, and tickled a heaviness up into the back of his head. Tetsusaiga. Inuyasha tasted metal in his throat and he released Tetsusaiga from its cradle.
Kasuhama and the other Inu-Youkai immediately tensed. Purple stripes highlighted Inuyasha's red-ravaged eyes which looked off into a dangerously familiar direction.
"Not again," Yasuo whispered. It was almost like a moan.
"What? What is it?" Rin flinched when Kagome pulled her tightly to her side.
The Youkai were sniffing the air but there was no confirmation of a scent. Nonetheless, Kasuhama neared Inuyasha, whose hand trembled around his sword's hilt, a trembling not caused by weakness. The giant fang hummed and thrashed with energy. In a sense of aching, crystalline edges etched out across the metallic sides, encompassing the surface at the same tempo as Inuyasha's lips which reared back to reveal elongating incisors.
"Inuyasha." It was a question, an assurance, a promise all in one.
Inuyasha's thick throat seized with his swallow. Where?
With one arm, he lifted Tetsusaiga up. We will help you.
Kasuhama determinedly readied his stance. It will not happen again.
Inuyasha swung down, swung with all his might. It was off-balanced because of Shippo against his chest but this did not retract from the savagery. It trembled in his eyes, shook in his graveling howl, and ripped out into the land before him. Diamonds jutted out. They flew with startling silence out into the space which had already been broken once by Tetsusaiga.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Contact into wood.
Whoosh. Quiet.
The demon soldiers, who had diamond knives fly precariously over their heads, slowly rose from their hunched positions.
The scent finally came.
The aura.
The confirmation of what they had already believed.
Inuyasha didn't howl again. He clipped Tetsusaiga up, head held high, and swung. Thunk. Thunk. Took a step. Swung once more. Thunk. Thunk.
Clang.
The final sound reverberated not only in the air but down Inuyasha's nerve-endings in paining twists. Suddenly, Tetsusaiga violently shone…and reverted. He stared at the rusty, chipped sword, sourness twisting his torso. Cutting, cutting, cutting.
He didn't need to hear the crunching footsteps or the audible gasps, he'd known of the arrival long before. His secretive heart made one terrible squeeze, and if it had a voice—he wondered if it would be screaming. And then…
An echoing boom resounded in the depths of him, and the cold snapped out—snapped out and filled him and shut him down in calculating calmness. It was so sudden, so vicious, and so complete that it momentarily frightened him. The fear was soon gone.
Inuyasha looked into the distance.
"Sesshomaru," he said. Dead. Cold. Indifferent. Similar. Or perhaps…exactly the same. "How dare you show your face here."
For those under the tree, the sound of his monotone was almost more shocking than the calm slide of Sesshomaru's appearance from the snowy mist. It was so simple that it made Kagome's heart shift, disgusted. He just walked back in, unannounced, in the same fashion as before, and even through the same entrance. It was so simple, it seemed…mocking! Kagome felt Rin move and tugged her back, a little more fiercely than she intended.
How dare he? How dare he!
"Inuyasha," Sesshomaru said. Monotone. Or it was meant to be. It held the hints of the same cadence of Inuyasha's voice, but then…it lacked something. It nearly sounded more animated than the hanyou's. Kagome knitted her brows.
"I see Tetsusaiga continues to refuse you."
Inuyasha didn't twitch in frustration or growl or spat out a curse. He stood, a kitsune tucked against his collarbone whose warmth felt so very far away from him. He answered smoothly, "You blocked my attack with Tenseiga."
The Sword of Healing hovered above the ground in Sesshomaru's fist. Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed. "I did."
"It doesn't want me to kill you." An edge, a small bitterness, but that was sadly all.
"So it seems." A hint of curiosity, of warm confusion.
The brothers regarded each other for a time, in silence. It was a silence that only Sesshomaru seemed to observe with any kind of emotion. He looked over Inuyasha's stance, a furrow in his brows which could have been translated into an expression of perplexity. Like he couldn't recognize the hanyou-man.
Inuyasha broke it. "What are you doing here, Sesshomaru? For a second try?" His eyes, still shaded red, peered darkly through his bangs. "I won't let you hurt anyone here."
"We will not either!" The unwelcomed interjection caused a brief flash of ire in Sesshomaru's gaze. Inuyasha's ears only flicked. Kasuhama stood directly beside Inuyasha, fists tight. Slowly, Tomi and Yasuo joined him. The humans grasped their weapons and the other full-blooded demons shifted, showing their agreement, glaring at the Daiyoukai lord. There was trepidation in the dog-demon soldiers' eyes from the ground, but Sesshomaru could recognize their steely decision. They'd once shown it to him on the battlefield…when they vowed to him and obeyed his leadership. When they had accepted him as their Alpha.
The beast within him howled in betrayal, although…there was mourning in its tone. Sesshomaru kept himself rooted to the ground, ignoring the shivering heat on his brow. "You choose to protect the half-breed."
"Yes," Kasuhama replied firmly.
Strange, Sesshomaru thought. Inuyasha didn't seem to notice what was going on around him. The hanyou simply stared at him, eyes cold and emotionless, surrounded by new allies. The fox-demon trembled inside his suikan and hid his face. Even the human wench he traveled with, who still clung to Rin, showed more ferocious anger than Inuyasha. Very strange indeed.
Surprisingly, Inuyasha put away his weapon and walked through the protective barrier of the Inu-Youkai soldiers. They blinked at him, unsure.
"Answer my question," he commanded.
A command, spoken through a Youki-transformed face. Unyielding golden eyes. A strong, set jaw. Warrior clothing and a powerful sword at his side. In an intensely subtle way, the beast within Sesshomaru, although still burning, twisted in acknowledgment of something awe-inspiring from the hanyou. He looked like…
Sesshomaru viciously tossed the image away. Not again. Ridiculous. He put Tenseiga away. "I am not here for a fight."
Inuyasha tilted his head in a curious manner while everyone around him blew up in rage.
"Not here for a fight? Give me a break, you bastard!"
"What was your reasoning last time!"
"You have no right to be here!"
"You get the hell out before we skewer you through the gut!"
Inuyasha still maintained cool eye contact with Sesshomaru. At the last sentence, something flickered. Something severe and wild. But it was only a flicker. His fascination was the only thing keeping Sesshomaru from retaliating at the cumbersome group of misfits. He was here for a purpose and he would meet to its end. No matter his itching, itching, itching, burning desire to quiet them…
"Very well. I shall show you." Blurred, Sesshomaru sped closer and his hand whipped out and sliced through the air. A second passed and then Inuyasha's freshly healed cheek split open. Blood squirted out, gaining everyone's attention, before slowing to a warm, continuous trickle. Inuyasha didn't flinch. Didn't growl. Didn't curse. His eyes darkened when he touched a finger to the wound. The kit whimpered his name.
Tetsusaiga and Tenseiga immediately started to jingle in their sheaths. Sesshomaru could feel the hum travel up his nerve endings.
Right as everyone found their voices, Sesshomaru gripped Inuyasha's chin harshly. He stared into those golden, red-tinged, depths and challenged the hanyou. It was queer to see him bored instead of enraged but Sesshomaru could detect, if he was not manifesting it on his own, the rumbling of the severe and wild "something" beneath the deadness of those eyes. Slowly, Sesshomaru pressed his lightly thrumming fingertips into Inuyasha's wound. He could feel it, the demon could tell; Inuyasha's eye scrunched up and his lips parted open. A minute passed and Sesshomaru slid his fingers away, dragging blood and fingerprints over flawlessly closed skin.
Inuyasha touched his face again, inspected the healing, and then curtly wiped it with his sleeve. He didn't seem as impressed as everyone behind him. Never once did he break eye contact with his older brother.
"We are at an impasse," the Daiyoukai said in a low tone, meant for his ears alone. "It will not allow me to kill you either."
"Hn," Inuyasha answered. "Then I guess we do it the good old fashioned way. Without the old man's interference."
Interference. Yes. That was a good word for his father's actions.
Inuyasha's words, implying an intense battle with tooth and claw, met Sesshomaru's ears languidly and then unexpectedly tore something asunder within him. On one hand, the beast paced and scratched and yearned for the traditional match, without the need of furnished metal. A battle beneath the swollen moon. It would be so perfect. Claws diving into flesh, teeth sinking into muscle….blood pouring into his mouth…
He mentally jerked. But no—there was another side. Because the image of slashing Inuyasha's face transformed into the despised wailing baby with pink ears and he could hear the despised, exhausted voice whispering "brother, brother" and the despised memory resurfaced with fire, ash, and a burning certainty that his father….would be displeased…
Jerking and twisting beneath his calm façade, fighting against an unaccustomed disorientation, Sesshomaru brusquely shook his head.
"In due time," he said, surprised himself at the smoothness he heard.
Flickering wildness. A tight swallow. "Fine then," but still a bored voice. Inuyasha inclined his head, "But tell me this: why did you order more of your soldiers to come here…to my territory?"
Yes, he could smell them, all the lingering scents of his own command…and those who were not. Immediately, Sesshomaru had to clamp down on a snarl. White hair falling like snow to the ground. A scroll with a revealed secret: The accursed hanyou born still lives. Shirabaku.
His voice was dark. It caused alarm to bloom in everyone except the accursed hanyou he spoke to. "And what of you, Inuyasha? Why are you working with my enemy? What are you plotting with that blasted bastard Shirabaku!" The burn took his hand and Sesshomaru discovered it wrapped around Inuyasha's throat, lifting him up in the air.
"Inuyasha!"
The hanyou didn't struggle. With one hand clutching Sesshomaru's fist, Inuyasha pulled Shippo out of his clothing and quickly tossed the kit to the side. A soldier caught Shippo with a gasp and hurriedly carried him towards Kasuhama and the others. Sesshomaru watched it all on his peripherals and was stunned half-mindedly by the great desire he had to catch the fox, crack him, and pounce on the soldier and him both when they got away. He wanted it. Actually…wanted it and that alone was strange. There was no reasoning for it—he just wanted. To see red and hear cracking.
It was all wrong.
Worsening, his instincts whispered.
"L-Lord Sesshomaru!" Jakken had finally caught up. He could hear the toad hobbling forward.
"Master Jakken!" Rin cried. She struggled away from Kagome and went to her little feet. He could see her, could see she was well, and the sight stilled his fingers from squeezing like they wanted to.
"Rin!" The toad cried. "Wha-what is happening here?"
Rin glanced away from Jakken, ignoring his question. Bravery dawned in her worried eyes and she straightened her petite arms determinedly. "Lord Sesshomaru! P-please….please put Inuyasha-san down!"
"Rin," someone whispered. More than one may have made the astonished admission. Perhaps him as well, Sesshomaru couldn't tell past the pounding in his ears.
"Please, Lord Sesshomaru! Please! Inuyasha-san wa-was very nice to me and he….he talked to me and helped me feel better when I had bad dreams and…He was good, Lord Sesshomaru!" Tears welled up and made tracks on her fiercely pleading face. "He did what you wanted so please don't punish him anymore!"
It felt like an audible crack. All of a sudden, the burning eased and Sesshomaru was uncertain about how he had wound up in this position, with Inuyasha up and dangling in his hold. Something foul climbed up his throat and it took everything in him to swallow it back down. Her words echoed like…like Inuyasha's last words had echoed, in the place where howls secretly originated within him. It's so sad. Please don't punish him anymore.
It dawned on him in a horrible fashion. And it was horribly displeasing. He'd lost control. Again.
Inuyasha grunted and caught his attention. The cold deadness remained but there also seemed to be exasperation in the hanyou's knitted brows. "So you thought it too, huh? Damn it. I'm not working for anybody. Why would I work for a bastard who knocked me out and kept me as a prisoner? I'm not part of your stupid war." When Sesshomaru yet put him down, Inuyasha's eyes filled completely with red. And he growled.
I do not lie.
Another inaudible crack. Sesshomaru momentarily could not register what he saw. How did the hanyou know the language of the homeland? How did the hanyou know how to convince him? The beast within him was stilled and…for one, brief, complete moment…was utterly satisfied. Good, it seemed to purr; the pup knows the blood language. He does not lie.
How?
Sesshomaru felt his fingers loosen and Inuyasha falling to his feet. With aching increments, Sesshomaru pushed away what had transpired and forced himself to consider Inuyasha's words. He could understand if Inuyasha did conspire with Shirabaku since no love was lost between them as brothers. It would be a keen way of trying to destroy him. But Sesshomaru also understood that Inuyasha was certainly not smart enough for such a ploy. And he was increasingly preoccupied with Naraku and the jewel shards. He would not willingly become entangled in a homeland he'd never shown previous interest in and threaten his focus on his main task.
And he had said the unbreakable words, in a language which did not allow falsehood: He does not lie.
Sesshomaru knew all this. But still, the image of white hair falling to the floor…He scowled.
He'd lost control. Again.
It was unacceptable.
"Oi," Inuyasha bit out. Sesshomaru lifted his eyes. The hanyou had been standing there the whole while, arms crossed, sword sheathed. No attempt at attacking. A feeling of familiarity came into Sesshomaru, a feeling from a dream he'd had. If he said the boy's name, would it sound foreign?
"Did you come here just for that? 'Cuz if you still don't believe me, I can take you to where Shirababa's cronies bloody attacked me. You know…" Inuyasha tilted his head again and the deadness gleamed. "Where your damn soldiers killed them."
Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed.
I'm not part of your stupid war.
More words echoed.
From an occasion so similar to this one: "How dare you, half-breed. You are interfering with my business once again. My attempts to show you your place must not be penetrating that thick skull of yours."
"Shut the hell up, Sesshomaru. You're the one forcing me into your business!"
From within stone walls: "Understand this. My reasoning is mine alone. The hanyou is not part of this war."
"You are mistaken once more, Lord Sesshomaru. He has been part of this war since the very beginning."
"As I thought," Sesshomaru drawled, to no one in particular. Inuyasha regarded him in sufferable silence. You certainly are my "burden to bear" Inuyasha. He nodded his head in grim understanding.
"It seems I was too late."
Inuyasha observed his brother. And felt wrong. Wrong all over. Here he was, standing so close, staring so challengingly into the Daiyoukai's eyes and it was so simply done. It was like when he spouted fevered nonsense to the Daiyoukai when he was unconscious in Kaede's hut. Doing a dangerous thing, something he thought could never be done, and he was getting away with it.
And he didn't care.
His self was chilled and confident. Not the kind of brash arrogance he had to secretly grapple with to keep a hold of. He didn't care, and because of that, he felt very, very certain. And wrong all over. He supposed it was akin to doing a dangerous, terrible thing, knowing you're meant to feel guilty…and not. Feeling wrong but in an off-handed way, not enough to care.
You won't get to me any longer, his clandestine heart whimpered. Unable to be understood by his conscious mind, the human within Inuyasha grasped his longing—to be accepted—and hunched over it, shielding it away. The demon pawed over to the human and circled around his form, tail embracing, one paw resting on the top of his bowed head. Its golden eyes looked out; lost in a cold unknown land. We can't let you get to me anymore.
Inuyasha felt a deep inclination to sigh out of nowhere. He observed Sesshomaru's unprotected neck, the surprisingly tanned hue covering a beating thread of life that he could easily swipe at. Would he succeed? Maybe. Probably not. His stomach tightened and the pain sliced again. But he wanted to hurt this person. I want to kill him! Myouga: You don't, Lord Inuyasha. Deep down, beneath all that pain he's caused you…you don't. He wanted to hurt this person just as bad.
"Too late for what," he asked, the words coming out like silk.
Sesshomaru looked at him with that peculiar expression again. He didn't know what it was or what it meant but he really…just didn't give a damn.
The Daiyoukai tilted his head back in that regal way of his and spoke for more than just Inuyasha to hear. Beneath the supposed impassivity of his tone, there was a deep anger and severity. "The Royal Board of Elders has learned of your existence, Inuyasha. They demand for your pelt."
Inuyasha didn't see the importance but apparently the Inu-Youkai about him did.
"What?" Yasuo gasped.
"Are you serious?" Kasuhama said. "You must be lying."
"I do not," Sesshomaru replied. His eyes narrowed on Inuyasha."I have been commanded to exterminate you before continuing on in this war."
Gasping. "Of course…"
"We will not let you!"
"There is no need for this."
"Do not dare lay a finger on him again, Sesshomaru!"
A slither of nauseating stinging bit his stomach. But Inuyasha shrugged, ignoring the brave little threats behind him. "So you actually have a good reason this time. What's stopping you?"
"Inuyasha!"
That peculiar expression. Was he displeased about something? "You do not seem concerned that you have a death mark on your head…"Sesshomaru said.
It seemed like a question so Inuyasha answered with another nonchalant shrug. Talking like this, not really caring, feeling wrong all over, it really was like…maybe stealing and not feeling guilty about it. "What," he sighed wryly, "this isn't the first time someone's wanted me dead. I guess being killed once…really…takes the edge off…"
His intestines really hurt. But it was satisfying to see a little tick develop in Sesshomaru's left temple; it thumped minutely but it was there. There was a long silence, awkward perhaps, where they just stared at each other.
Finally, Kasuhama spoke up, "What is stopping you, Sesshomaru? You could have easily ended it already. Fling your sword from you and do it. Isn't that why you're here?"
Eyes shot at Kasuhama, fearful and confused.
Inuyasha lifted a brow. Sesshomaru was clenching his teeth now; the jaw line was bulging. He'd never seen that before. Damn interesting. His stomach continued to ache, his organs and spine remembering well. He would not allow Sesshomaru to kill him again, yet Inuyasha still stood there, confident and challenging. What are you waiting for?
"I…" the Youkai-man spoke thickly, anger constricting his throat, "do not answer to the likes of a banished dog."
Growling, from the soldiers all around them. Loyalty towards Kasuhama prompted their bravery…but admittedly, so did the half-breed who stood so broad-shouldered and so obdurate in front of this threat. Once again.
Inuyasha, irritated with the sound, waved his hand. The growling immediately ceased. Sesshomaru quirked a brow and his youki pulsated, causing his eyes to gleam. Banished dogs. That was all they were!
"Not an answer, Sesshomaru," Inuyasha said.
Fabric ruffled, snow crunched and slicked, and Sesshomaru glared swiftly at the human monk who now stood. He recognized the man from when he questioned this Sesshomaru after ending one of Inuyasha's first tirades of demonic, Tetsusaiga-less, bloodlust. Insufferable. After a moment of heart-beating quiet, the monk spoke, the look in his eyes the same as that day. Insufferable suspicion and understanding.
"He's warning us," he said. "You're warning us that you're not the only one this…Royal Board has sent out to kill Inuyasha."
All the looks of being stunned, having heard an answer they hadn't expected. Yet Inuyasha remained stone-faced.
"What a load of shit," Kuma growled.
"That can't be true," Sango said in agreement. Kirara hissed beside her. "After all you've done…tch—I don't believe you!"
Something was sparking in Sesshomaru's eyes. Just beneath the surface. Sparking and burning and it were easy to see. Inuyasha gazed at it and his mouth twisted deliciously into a condemnatory sneer. His face did it without his command. He enjoyed, without joy, the feel of its stretching. He enjoyed, without joy, the sight of Sesshomaru's discontent.
"It is true!" A bark of laughter without humor. Inuyasha turned to the side, ruffling the back of his hair. He could feel Sesshomaru's aura darken, certainly not appreciating the scorn. "You actually came here to warn me. HA!...OH! And!—you even sent your own soldiers here to make sure Shirababa and his cronies didn't get to me first. Wow…" He shook his head.
A thunderclap hit his stomach, hit his head, and a long torrent of memories whirled up, seized together, and resounded in a steely-edged chord that demanded retribution. Inuyasha cracked his neck, his fingers curling into a fist. "That is so…
TOUCHING!"
Winding with the momentum of good-old traditional payback, Inuyasha caught Sesshomaru off-guard and sunk his fist into the pit of his relaxed abs. A soft whoosh of breath sung in Inuyasha's ears. Not losing time, he pulled back and cracked his knuckles up beneath Sesshomaru's jawbone, twisting his head up and back with a hellishly-sweet wrench. Inuyasha then jabbed the same place he'd punched with his elbow. Just for old times' sake.
Sesshomaru doubled over, touching his affronted torso with his only palm. He seethed through his teeth and glared at Inuyasha from beneath tousled hair. Inuyasha walked backwards, hopped a bit actually, and had to nearly bite his tongue so as not to stick it out at him. But soon the sick humor was absorbed into coldness and darkness and metallic pressure. It rose into the back of his throat and Inuyasha wasn't sure if it was a want to yell…or to sob. He glared back, glared so fiercely his temples throbbed.
"Don't make me laugh," he hissed darkly. "You want me…
Come and get me."
The taunting shivered into Sesshomaru's belly and rekindled the deep, festering inferno which had plagued him since the last time he'd been in this accursed clearing. No—he realized with a jolt—before that even: in the human village when he woke up to the scent of medicine, warmth, comfort…and Inuyasha's sleeping face. Sitting next to him. Within a human hut. And with a pained look on his sweating, sleeping face that only grew more pained when the fire bit at Sesshomaru and he attacked the hanyou without any preamble. Without any plan. Without any purpose.
Just to hurt him.
So hot and itching and…painful—it'd tempted him already to do things he hadn't previously mulled over. Unacceptable. Unlike him. Like when he'd killed Inuyasha.
No!
No…he had wanted that.
But the beast didn't.
Even now, although it wanted to attack something, rip something apart, and was goaded by Inuyasha's taunting, it only wanted to hurt him…just a little bit. But the thought of stealing the pup's life again made his stomach unexpectedly clench and weigh down. Two images roiled around in his mind's eye: his father…a damnable look of acceptance…his father…sad, golden eyes…
Brother, brother, brother…
I will make you hurt!
Brother, brother…
I'm going to make you hurt like you did to me!
Brother…
There are some things that you don't do.
A ripping, roaring clap of flame overtook Sesshomaru, coagulating all of those images and sounds, some real, some dream, into a long burning demand—to make it ease. His mind made one last thought—damn it, not again—before he felt his body moving, felt Inuyasha's muscled form fall brutally beneath him, felt a sound tear from his throat like a scream rather than a war-cry…
But as soon as Sesshomaru felt that familiar bend of esophagus, the beast fought out through the haze of flame and howled. No, it cried in the language of moonbeams and loyal blood-ties, do not punish!
Please don't punish him anymore!
The heat was still there, like the heat in the dreamland he suffered in seemingly every night, and it needed easing. His throat constricted from something rising and from the sight of something he wanted to swallow: the drying blood on Inuyasha's cheek. It still stained his fingers. The scent of it even lingered beneath his claws still from when he killed the pup. There were weapons pointed at him, clawed hands pulling at his clothes, but Sesshomaru was frozen and transfixed and disgusted by his conflicting wants to hurt the pup, bite the pulse in his neck, and release him…with an apology.
Worsening.
Instincts fighting against an unnatural fever, Sesshomaru somehow managed to release Inuyasha's neck. The hanyou coughed, staring at him with those intensely dead eyes. There seemed to be a message in them. It was acceptance, Sesshomaru recognized with sickening displeasure; the hanyou pup wasn't surprised by the attack. Like he was saying, I told you so. I knew it all along.
"You going to kill me again?" Inuyasha rasped, monotone. "You going to follow your orders like a good little puppy and take back my pelt like they want? You keep hesitating. Nothing could stop you before. Just do it. Get it over with so you can get back to playing war."
He'd repeated Kasuhama's words: Do it. Do it.
And he looked so disinterested.
The heat was receding into shivers and mild tinges of unfamiliar nausea, but it allowed lucidity to return to Sesshomaru. Breathing deeply, more and more correctness flowed into him, settling his stomach and lessening the throbs in his head. Sesshomaru glared down at Inuyasha, registering his demands. An inexplicable negation tensed his will. Intolerable half-breed. Banished dogs. Insufferable humans. Demanding Elders! Commanding him. Taunting him. Questioning his actions. Unacceptable.
Unacceptable!
"I did not come here for a fight, Inuyasha," he said, haughty. He straightened, but yet rose, and shook off the hands holding him back. "And I do not take orders from anyone."
Briefly, so very, very briefly, there was another flicker in those golden depths so like his own. Sesshomaru couldn't tell what the emotion was…but it seemed like a breaking. The certainty cracking. But it was, again, quickly diminished.
"Then why are you here?"
"That's a damn good question," Tomi growled. He had claws to Sesshomaru's throat. "Enlighten us."
More commands, from one of his own soldiers. Or who had been his soldier, he corrected himself. Sesshomaru narrowed his gaze on them and stood, dragging Inuyasha up by his collar. When they were back on their feet, Kasuhama and Yasuo ripped Sesshomaru's fingers away and criss-crossed their arms across Inuyasha's chest in a protective manner. He huffed through his nose. The hanyou pup had gained their favor so quickly. How?
But it was unimportant at the moment. The Royal Board of Elders had made this his mission. He shall be your burden to bear. Had threatened him. And yet still had hired their own hunters to do the task of ridding the "accursed hanyou born" for them. This was what he had expected.
But they were not just hunters.
They'd hired the very people who'd revealed Inuyasha's existence. Shirabaku. His enemy. Their enemy! Who they were warring with.
Oh, but that war was over for now. A new battle had begun.
And it all settled around this golden-eyed pup before him, whom he'd worked so meticulously to keep secret. Who stared at him, with uncharacteristic nothingness in those golden eyes.
Inuyasha had claimed that it was this Sesshomaru's fault for why he was entangled in the homeland's business. Not so, Sesshomaru admitted. He was now a "dire consequence". He was now part of this war.
Inuyasha had sealed his fate the moment he'd made his decision to pull his brother out of the snow.
"Your life is not theirs to take," Sesshomaru finally said. Matter-of-fact.
Growling. Clanking weapons. Inuyasha just blinked—I told you so. I knew it all along.
It's so sad.
Sesshomaru frowned from the remembrance and tossed it away. He'd come here for a purpose. And he would see to it. He pushed some of the soldiers down, sending them to the snow. It was to make a point that he wanted to be released and have his personal space back. He ignored their snarls, disinterested. "I heard your planning to disembark from this territory. This is best. I can no longer allow Rin to remain here."
Some of the soldiers' faces twisted up in confusion. They still didn't know about his connection with the human girl. He had done well to keep that a secret as well. It seemed Inuyasha had not given the information either. He, again, tossed away a nip of surprised satisfaction.
"So," Inuyasha drawled. "Take her. It's about time you got her out of my hair."
"I cannot take her. It is not safe."
There was a beat of silence.
Sesshomaru stifled an urge to sigh. Fools. Must he explain everything?
"You are wise in leaving this place. But you are not knowledgeable about the Elders who hunt you." Inuyasha eyes narrowed at Sesshomaru's slowly spoken words. Flickering.
"Only I can make certain they will not find you."
Many in the clearing unabashedly dropped their mouths in utter shock, a look they'd made a lot that day.
Inuyasha just cracked his claws again into a fist. "Oh wow," he seethed between elongated teeth.
"That is a load of shit."