The first scene in this chapter is disturbing.
The second scene is mercy fluff.
OoOoOoOoO
"Well, shit." Said Inuyasha as a dozen scaly bastards came tumbling down the mountainside. Crashing and breaking, hissing and screaming - dying. Victims of his wind scar. "That was easy."
"Inu...yasha," Miroku coughed behind his borrowed poison mask, "coming in fast -"
Inuyasha breathed around the suffocating stench of sulfur and focused ahead on the brimstone jags littered with busted carcasses.
A ghastly aura washed over them, jaki so oppressive all gripped their weapons for emotional support.
Inuyasha saw it first - three figures slicing through the wind like a blade.
It arrived first in a raging blaze, as if the earth split open and released the fires of hell. It appeared human. Pretty, like a prince with long, blonde hair, but all knew better. Next to him two dragons made landing, their leathery wings folding neatly under their arms. They favored brutes with their heavy limbs and skulls, more formidable than the wyrms blasted minutes before.
Something blinked when it shouldn't have.
"Inuyasha…"
"Yeah," he muttered to Sango, "that's some weird shit right there."
Tessaiga trembled in Inuyasha's grasp. It was not the sword but its wielder shaking with anticipation and fear.
The humanoid, more beautiful than any man had a right to be, wore a frown seeing the bodies of his slain comrades. He turned to their red-clad killer as a foul breeze rippled his kimono and hair. "Oh, no." He mumbled, his piercing blue eyes regarding the murder weapon with queenly disdain.
"What will we do with this, Ryukasai-sama?" Hissed one crony.
"Declare war, I suppose." Was his Lord's airy reply. He stared down his nose at Inuyasha - who seemed to shudder -
Because from Ryukasai's shoulders it too locked eyes with his gold.
Inuyasha's blood congealed. What he saw was terrible enough to make his worst nightmares look like sweet dreams; what he saw conspired to destroy his confidence - and sanity - with just a glance.
Serpent-like with brilliant, golden scales, a dragon writhed on Ryukasai's shoulders. It adorned his neck the same way another species of Daiyoukai carried his fur, but as great as Sesshomaru as was, Inuyasha knew his brother didn't have the capability to manifest his youki into a sentient being.
Oh, man. This is… this could be bad, Inuyasha fret, his ears drooping a fraction.
"Thank you for coming all this way, curdog. So kind of you. Very kind." Ryukasai's voice was best described as a feathery timbre. "But I have some grievances. You see, I have killed no dogs," he paused to scan the small lot. "...or humans, and yet here we are standing amongst my dead."
Inuyasha would keep his stubborn nerve. Two furry appendages snapped forward with Tessaiga. "We sure are. And you're next, ya bastard."
"Monstrous. I am no bastard."
"Keh! For all the noise you're causin' up here - yeah you are," Inuyasha pointed a claw, "a dragon bastard, that's you."
"That's funny! From what I've heard it is you who is the bastard. Inuyasha the cur," Ryukasai sneered, "the result of your father's wandering pecker."
That broke up Ryukasai's entourage. Their laughter was an unsettling cacophony of clicks and hiss.
Inuyasha suppressed a growl. He should be used to it by now, but that smart. "Oi. Earlier you said something about war. You want war? I'll kill ya myself."
Ryukasai waved a gesture and his escorts sprang offside to watch from a high vantage point.
"I would love to see that, really I would." Ryukasai's stare began to percolate behind a cyan screen, animating the living ornament on his shoulders. Slithering around his torso, the wyrm's whiskered muzzle hovered over his crown, eyes glowing.
Ryukasai snapped his fingers and ignited an ember so hot it distorted his hand.
Here we go.
"You guys get back," Inuyasha warned his friends, "this might get ugly."
"Bring your ruckus, curdog," Ryukasai crooned in a clotted, chuckling voice, "and do take your time dying. Shoutings of agony are like vespers to me."
"Kaze no kizu!" As if Inuyasha needed invitation.
High in the crags there were low whistles of reverence as the technique tore across the earth in route to Ryukasai - who made no attempt to evade as the blast engulfed him.
"Got him!" Miroku shouted flying high with Sango on Kirara's back.
"Cocky bastard," said Inuyasha, "there's no way he'd survive a direct hit from my -"
A massive inferno roared, churning - raging higher and higher until it completely consumed the wind scar. The flames cleared, revealing a grinning Ryukasai without a scratch on him.
"Shit!" Inuyasha narrowly avoided a secession of fireballs. He dodged another round, his blade prepped to counter strike when he was hit square in his chest.
"Inuyasha!"
The impact sent him flying, swearing all the way into a jagged edge that would've snapped those less hardy in half. Quick to his feet, Inuyasha spat out blood and ran back into hell's kitchen.
"Why don't you burn?" Ryukasai was genuinely surprised.
"Don't worry about it, fairy," Inuyasha snarled, his katana transforming into a starry night, "I'm ending this now." With both claws gripping his legendary fang, Inuyasha roared with his chest:
"Meido Zangetsuha!"
Ryukasai narrowed at the parade of crescent-shaped portals coming his way. It was in his best interest to evade this attack, and none, not even his goons saw him move. One second he was there, the next he was in the air launching another fireball.
Inuyasha tried to dodge -
"Uh-uh," Ryukasai tuned, "immolate."
Thunder clapped. A white flash.
The orb detonated and blitz Inuyasha fifty yards back. He landed with a thud, dropping Tessaiga, his hands flying to the hot, sticky wet coating his face. The world murmured over the ringing in his skull, over the frantic voices calling his name, over Ryukasai's grandiloquent laughter, the clicking dragons -
He laid stunned for a tick, but it felt like he'd been away for a month. Despite his hands no longer holding his face, still, the world seemed to hide, and Inuyasha was sure he had blinked, was sure the sun had been high in the sky -
A harrowing soundtrack, pure nightmare fuel. Inuyasha's screams would forever torment Miroku and Sango. There was carnage where eyes should be, gore instead of an ear -
Horror paralyzed the monk and the slayer.
Gaping, they could only watch his distressing hysterics. Inuyasha, helplessly blind now, hyperventilated as his fingers trailed down destruction. He found burnt strands, a hairy flap, dipped a claw in something spongy behind his skin. Only crushed sockets, one with a loose eye in it, the other missing.
Ruined.
He screamed again.
A moment robbed him of all which made him Inuyoukai, but somehow gameness remained. Fumbling for his birthright, he cursed Ryukasai, enraged, frustrated, until his expletives were little more than heart-rending fits of despair. Ruined.
"Inuyasha, hold on we're coming -"
"'Fuckin' stay back!" Sango stopped Kirara just as that cruel laughter started again. Inuyasha had yelled to his left... his comrades soared to his right.
"You don't get to tell me that!" She yelled.
"We'd walk through fire with you." Miroku declared.
Such dependable friends. Inuyasha believed him with every fibre of his being, but he didn't want to be followed into hell. He stilled and hung his head, his fringe covering the raw cavity, part of him folding open, oozing. Ryukasai was getting closer, death was a possibility.
But for them, his beloved, death just wouldn't do.
"Listen to me and listen good." Spirits plummeted. His voice was low and grave. "Get my brother. You find that bastard and you tell him there's a world of fuck coming."
Cold panic thundered in Sango's chest. "We will, all of us."
"Yes. All. You can't honestly expect us to leav -"
"Find him!" Inuyasha bleat, his voice cracking, still searching for his blade. "Just… find him."
"We're not leaving you." Someone said. Inuyasha couldn't tell.
Finally, he grazed Tessaiga's furry hilt and snatched it up. He was tired now, cold in spite of his life spilling down his neck. "The least a cripple can do is hope to be his friend's alibi."
"Inuyasha." Sango pled, her throat thickening watching him stand on unsteady legs.
"Sesshomaru's hard to track down… go west."
"Please reconsider." Begged the monk.
"Until you find the dogs..." His voice hollowed feeling Ryukasai getting closer. "And when you see Kagome tell her… tell her I love her and I'll see her when she gets there."
"Th-ere?" There was a knot in Miroku's throat. Inuyasha was the epitome of selfless. The sharp end of Tessaiga dragged as he staggered in the direction of Ryukasai's voice.
"But tell her to take her time. No rush."
Sango began to cry.
"Tell her for me, 'kay?"
"I'll tell -"
"Now I understand," Ryukasai interjected, "Your clothing, it's made of fire rat, isn't it?"
"For your lives, please, just fucking leave." Inuyasha could only imagine what he looked like. They didn't need to see this.
With leaden hearts, Miroku and Sango flew away, heading west in route to the Kingdom of Dogs.
"How commendable of you, hanyou." Ryukasai didn't have to dodge the barrage of diamonds Inuyasha sent. It was a pathetic attempt, he had no hope of hitting his target. "But since I cannot burn you the traditional way…"
Fly away, fly away as fast as you can.
"You're gonna regret crossing me, the dogs too." Inuyasha quietly vowed taking a knee. He could taste iron, and he shivered. This was it. Not seeing was a blessing, he was spared from Ryukasai's face.
Kagome's floated in the pitch black. It calmed him. She would remember him as she always had, remember his eyes, that shade of amber she said she loved, velvet ears she loved to stroke even though he hated it.
And as Inuyasha shuffled through his memories, Ryukasai lift his serpent's muzzle with a claw, their eyes gleaming with the same flare.
"Blood boil." He told it.
The Dragon snapped to Inuyasha and coiled around his chest. Tessaiga fell, transforming into its dull state one last time. There was a pulse of youki, and throughout his body there was a terrible heat, his blood rushing and bellowing as it bore a surge of boiling hot from his crown down to his toes. Inuyasha hollered high, frying his voice, tearing his throat to shreds.
"What a savory sound, your suffering." Ryukasai took a step back. There was gargling, and reddish-brown gunk burbled out his mouth, out his sockets, out every orifice.
Shock set in. No more screams, only moaning.
Ryukasai recalled his dragon. "It's fascinating how quickly the tongue can be rendered to a bubbling grease. Look at you, sheer degradation."
Inuyasha convulsed on the ground, choking on his own cooking fluids. Kagome's face disappeared, and he was alone with agony in the dark, the stench of pork, a crackling sound - skin shrunk and spilt, dripping with fat. It was then his nerves died and set him free on his back, arms curling at his sides until stiff at the elbows.
OoOoOoOoOoO
"Can I play with it?"
"... play?"
"What's with that look?" Kagome crossed her arms. "You were all in mine last night, so let me play in yours."
Sesshomaru regarded her as he sat down on the edge of her bed. "I will allow this, but you should know I wasn't playing."
Kagome didn't care. She hopped on her bed, letting out a happy little squeal as she did. Behind him, she sat up on her knees and slid his fur from his shoulders, pulling his hair off his neck.
With nary a split end in sight, she started at the bottom and worked her way up. To Sesshomaru it felt like foraging. She was everywhere. It wasn't unpleasant, her hands reverently sifting through his hair, but it was amusing.
Clearly, she was delighted to be in there.
"It's just like fresh water." Sesshomaru heard a dreamy sigh and glanced over his shoulder. His hair hung from her arms like she bared the most sacred of silk. He held his questions watching her joggle it around, letting it stream from her fingers and onto her lap. But it was when she gathered it and sniffed...
"Careful. That's mighty inu of you."
"You smell like oak after a storm." She said, now in his scalp and making a real mess.
He almost told her she smelled good enough to eat, but the feel of her fingernails was heaven. His eyes rolled back, lids easing shut as she grazed that spot.
Kagome had wondered about this, and she could hardly believe it was happening, but indeed, Sesshomaru was a true dog, one who had a penchant for a good strich. And since conditions were choice, she explored, trailing over the point of an ear, rounding and scratching behind it.
That was definitely a shudder. She smiled with this new found knowledge. Her hands slid forward, over his forehead, smoothing back silver. Blunt nails dragged, down, down to that erogenous place, making him murmur something soft and breathy.
"What was that?" She asked.
"Do that again."
"You're just like a real dog."
There was a delay. "I am a real -"
"Now who could've done this?"
Hands stopped, eyes sprang open. Someone was pissed off downstairs.
"I think that's gramps." Kagome climbed off her bed and opened the door.
"Look - empty! The whole box!"
"I will buy more. " Mrs. Higurashi tried to console him.
"What in the world…" Kagome gave Sesshomaru a look.
"No, that's the line. He's in here breathing for free, using all the hot water, eating all the food - eating all the good donuts - no, no, don't you 'oh, gramps me.' I would love a donut but I can't because all my Krispy Kremes are gone!"
"You didn't," Kagome giggled high and bright, "you ate my grandpa's secret donuts?"
"What's so secret about the top cupboard?" No remorse whatsoever.
"You ate the entire dozen."
"I did."
She laughed again.
"Seriously, you might want to take it easy on the sugar. Come to think of it we should probably get you a toothbrush while we're out shopping today."
"How long will you be?"
"Oh, not long. We'll be back by this afternoon. And when you're in some normal clothes we can go out and… well, I don't know. We'll figure something out."
"Kagome," her mother called, "are you ready?"
"Just a sec!" She turned to Sesshomaru. "It might be a good idea to stay out of my grandpa's way."
A few minutes later, outside Sesshomaru heard car doors slam shut. And once again he was left to entertain himself. He'd managed. Since he was alone in her room for the first time he decided masking the remains of his brother's scent would be an excellent way to bide his time.
A short chapter, but eh, the plot is moving at least. The second scene was added purely for mind bleach. I honestly hated writing what happened to Inuyasha, every keystroke in fact. Anything relating to being burned alive gives me the creeps.
On Ryukasai, yeah he's a real bastard, and finally we know what quivered on his shoulders all those chapters ago. Ishiyaya told Kagome lots of demons carry their youki in similar ways, so… why not a whole ass dragon?
Anyway, thanks for reading. The next chapter will be longer and not as grim.
