Disclaimer: I own Rhiodoru, Karameida, Zaniistar, Kishotaka, Niishi, Yuryu, Akaruihi, and Tsuyoihi. All other characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.


Caught!


"And just what do you think you're doing?"

Shippo froze, staring down at Naraku in complete and utter terror.

"I'm going to go to Niishi," an unfamiliar voice just as cold as Naraku's replied. "Things are getting out of hand."

Shippo, released from his immediate terror, silently scampered backwards away from the opening, trembling violently.

Naraku didn't see me! he told himself over and over, trying to calm his furiously beating heart. He doesn't know I'm here. He was talking to someone else.

He froze again as the voices continued, unaware that they were being overheard.

"Can't you control your pets, Yuryu?" Naraku asked, his voice becoming even icier. "You can't seem to get anything right."

There was tense silence. Shippo felt his curiosity ignite, overcoming his fear, and he crept back to the crack, peering down into the room.

It looked like some kind of study. Naraku was standing slightly to one side, almost directly underneath Shippo. The kitsune wrinkled his nose as the stench of Naraku and his miasma reached his sensitive nose. Another figure stood a couple paces away—this Yuryu person, no doubt.

The second demon was a spirit dragon! Shippo could recognize the particular reptilian scent of the dragons even through the overpowering odour of Naraku's miasma. The spirit dragon was concealed in a dark, hooded cloak, but Shippo could see the lower half of his face from his high vantage point, and the unhappy scowl that marred his expression.

"You aren't perfect yourself, Naraku," Yuryu replied finally, his voice hard, and, if possible, even colder than Naraku's. "You said collecting the jewel shards would be a simple matter, and now look. Sesshomaru and Inuyasha are locked in battle with the potential to go very wrong, and you have two humans and a spirit dragon wandering loose in the castle."

Shippo felt a surge of resentful anger. Didn't he count too?

"It's no matter," Naraku said smugly. "The demon slayer is being taken care of as we speak, the monk is about to be cut to shreds by my servant, and didn't you just say that one of your dragons was tailing that Zaniistar? I fail to see any problem."

Shippo's blood turned to ice. Sango, being 'taken care of'? Miroku, 'cut to shreds'? Even Zaniistar was in trouble? And there were other spirit dragons in the castle?

"Then why don't we have those jewel shards yet, Naraku?" the other demon demanded.

"That, Yuryu, would be your responsibility at this point. Niishi is the one controlling Inuyasha, and he's the one who's supposed to be getting the jewel shards from Kagome."

"And that, Naraku, is where I'm trying to go. Niishi's skills aren't all that she claimed, and she seems to be having some difficulty with Sesshomaru."

"That's because the fool doesn't even have the most basic grasp of battle strategy. Can't she use Inuyasha's knowledge to help her?"

"Of course not," Yuryu snapped impatiently. "The barrier is all-or-nothing. If she breaches it to look into his mind for even a moment, Inuyasha could break free and regain control."

"Oh yes, how silly of me to forget that," Naraku sneered. "It seems you're not all that you claimed either, dragon."

Shippo narrowed his eyes, intently staring down at the scene playing out below him. The silence in the room was filled with swirling anger. It seemed Naraku and his new ally weren't on the best of terms.

"Naraku, I honestly don't care what you do right now, but I'm going to—" He suddenly broke off.

Shippo's heart renewed it terrified pounding. Had the dragon sensed his mind?

Yuryu suddenly swore with such vileness that Shippo blanked. The dragon was moving towards the door so fast that he was almost gone before Naraku exploded after him.

"What's wrong?" Naraku demanded. "Where are you going?"

Yuryu paused only for the briefest of moments, his head whipping back towards Naraku. "You should have let me go, Naraku!" he shouted furiously. "Now look what's happened!"

"What's happened?" Naraku snarled back.

"Sesshomaru just killed Inuyasha!"

Silence. Shippo couldn't believe it. It wasn't true. Inuyasha wasn't dead. He couldn't be.

Naraku finally found his voice. "But—"

"Silence," Yuryu suddenly ordered, his head turning up, staring at the roof.

Shippo realized he was whimpering quietly as he tried to deny what the demon had said about Inuyasha.

"There's someone up there," Yuryu said with frightening softness. "A little someone eavesdropping on our conversation."

The two demons exchanged looks, and then both looked up, directly at Shippo's crack.

Then they both smiled; identical, deadly smiles.


: x ∙ x ∙ x ∙ X ∙ X ∙ X ∙ x ∙ x ∙ x :


Zaniistar's surprise nearly cost him everything.

It was only reflexes born from his training that saved him as he snapped his inner barriers closed against the other spirit dragon's attack.

They both froze for a moment, staring at each other, both too surprised to move. Zaniistar's hand was locked around the other dragon's throat, but not tight enough to choke him.

Then the other dragon attacked.

Gritting his teeth, Zaniistar felt as though his head was going to shatter as his opponent smashed repeatedly against his inner barriers. He felt a sudden flicker of fear flutter in his stomach as he recognized the particular aura of this dragon's mind. A Nosaki.

The attack was relentless. The Nosaki slammed again and again into Zaniistar's mind, like a catapult hurling boulders at a fortress wall. It was only a matter of time before the walls crumbled.

He had to end it quickly. If the battle dragged on, the Nosaki would be victorious for certain, and Zaniistar would be nothing more than a mindless, drooling husk of a person.

But how? Zaniistar couldn't attack the Nosaki's mind—he'd be destroyed instantly. But what other way was there to defeat the dragon? Not only was his own life hanging in the balance, but Inuyasha and the others as well. He couldn't lose this fight.

"Mother . . ."

Zaniistar ignored the voice whispering at him just beyond his inner barriers as it tried to distract him from the battle.

"Father . . ."

The Nosaki would try everything to find a weakness in his mind, a crack he could squeeze through to get at his opponent's unprotected inner self. Zaniistar realized at that moment that this wasn't a very powerful Nosaki—or not a well-trained one—since he wasn't dead yet, and he should be.

"Help me, please . . ."

Zaniistar ignored the voice, clenching his teeth as the Nosaki's merciless attacks, now combined with tantalizing whispers just beyond his range of hearing, pummeled his mind. He forced himself not to try to listen to those deceptively innocent murmurs the Nosaki was creating.

He was losing. He knew it. He could feel his mind weakening, his inner barriers starting to crack, but he didn't know what to do to save himself. He couldn't use mind lock like Inuyasha had to save himself—he had no idea how.

"My love . . ."

Karameida. She would never know what had happened to him—

With an inward gasp, Zaniistar aimed a mental slash at the Nosaki's mind just in time to stop the dragon from slipping into his mind and tearing him apart. Zaniistar snapped his inner barriers tightly closed again, pushing Karameida from his thoughts. That had been too close!

How could he have let that happen! Fear prickled under his skin. He was weakening, that's how it had happened. His time was almost up. He could feel fatigue pushing at the outer edges of his consciousness.

His last chance. It would have to be something drastic, dangerous, unexpected. Something . . .

Something Inuyasha would do.

A plan formed in Zaniistar's mind, something so risky it was terrifying to even contemplate doing.

He carefully focused his mind on his physical body. His muscles were quivering. His hand had almost lost its grip on the Nosaki's throat—the other dragon was gripping his wrist to keep them connected.

Spirit dragons fought with their minds, pitting psychic strength, intelligence, and experience against one another. They never fought physically.

So the Nosaki would never expect it.

A sudden agonizing blow from the Nosaki's mind forced a gasp out of Zaniistar, and he almost broke, barely managing to hold his barriers together. One more blow, and he was finished.

Zaniistar didn't give the Nosaki a chance to attack again.

Flinging open his inner barriers, he threw everything he had left at the Nosaki's startled mind.

And at the same time, he reestablished his connection with his body.

Before either of them realized what had happened, Zaniistar's dagger was buried up to the hilt in the Nosaki's chest.

They both stared at the dagger for a long moment.

Then the Nosaki gave a gurgling sigh and toppled over backwards, dead before he hit the ground.

Zaniistar stared, disbelieving. Time seemed to stop, the world seemed to stop, as he stared incredulously down at the body of a living person, who was now dead by his hand.

When he'd fallen, the dragon's hood had fallen back, revealing fiery red hair splashed like a bloody halo around his head. His crimson eyes were open, staring sightlessly upwards, his expression locked in surprise.

Zaniistar knew the dragon. The thought seemed to sink into his mind much slower than normal, like everything is his head was wallowed in sludge. He knew this dragon. They were the same age; they had had lessons together decades ago. This dragon and his twin brother, Akaruihi and Tsuyoihi, he knew them. He and his brother had left to explore the world about twenty years ago, and they had never returned. They had been assumed dead, and Zaniistar had missed Akaruihi in particular.

But they—or one of them—had been alive all along, but now he was dead and Zaniistar had killed him. He had killed a childhood friend. The twins were identical—he didn't know which one he had just fought and murdered. Was the body at his feet Akaruihi, quiet and smart, friends with everyone he'd ever met? Or was it Tsuyoihi, strong and bold, outgoing and popular? Zaniistar looked down at his hands, imagining he would see them dripping with blood, but they were surprising clean. He looked back at the dragon.

It's amazing what the mind will notice sometimes. Suddenly, the whole scene was etched in his mind, frozen forever in his memory. The individual planks of woods on the floor, the folds of the dragon's cloak, the shadow cast by the hilt of the dagger Sango had given him after they had been attacked by Naraku's demons in the forest. She had seemed so shocked to discover he was unarmed, and had pressed the dagger on him, saying it was 'just in case'.

Just in case. He had never imaged that a mere hour or so later he would plunging it into the heart of a fellow dragon, his friend, his kin.

He was murderer now. The thought was so horrifying his mind couldn't even begin to grasp the significance.

A scream shattered the silence.

Zaniistar jerked, his head whipping around. The scream had come from outside. Kagome!

Zaniistar shook himself, pushing away his guilt and remorse, locking it in the back of his mind to be dealt with later. Right now he had a job to do, and he couldn't afford to waste any more time.

He took a couple steps forward, then stopped, looking back at the hilt of the dagger, still embedded in the dragon's still chest. He stomach twisted sickeningly.

He reluctantly moved back to stand beside the dragon. Swallowing hard, he gingerly tugged the dagger out, staring with horror-filled eyes as slow, thickened drops of blood ran down the blade, dripping off the tip and plopping on the dragon's chest.

Swallowing his stomach, he hastily wiped the blade clean on a corner of the Nosaki's cloak, then took off in a trot down the hall, forcing himself not to look back.

Doors flashed by as he ran. Closer, closer. Niishi was near. He suddenly stopped, eyeing a large, opulent door. Trusting that Niishi, in her conceit, would have picked the most lavish and luxurious room, he flung open the door with a loud crash.

With a startled gasp, Niishi whirled around from the window she had been looking out, her face pale and stunned.

Then she smiled horribly, her face twisted with a vile mix of loathing and glee. "Ha, you bastard son of whore! You're already too late!"


: x ∙ To Be Continued ∙ x :


A/N:

Akaruihi (ah-ka-roo-ee-hee) means "bright flame". Tsuyoihi (tsoo-yo-ee-hee) means "strong flame".


Chapter 30 – Forsaken Hearts