Chapter Thirty-Seven
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
After he'd recovered, though he still had the occasional chuckle that got loose, he brought up the other part of the discussion that had intrigued him. "So this Sesshoumaru guy was like Loki? You're just ants beneath my feet but I'll take the world and rule you anyways?"
She shook her head, trying not to think of Sesshoumaru's reaction to the comparison. "No, he would have despised Loki from what I've heard about him. Using power that's not yours proves you are weak. Sesshoumaru rejected his father's legacy to follow the path of Supreme Conquest, an old dō, or way of life,that proposes the hardest person to beat is yourself. Therefore, to be able to conquer the world, you must first conquer yourself. Sesshoumaru spent his life wandering, looking for strong opponents to battle, searching for the limits of his power."
"Hunh. We wouldn't have gotten along. I had this lesson pounded into my head, and I'm going to pound it into yours. A legacy is something to be taken care of, no matter your feelings about the one leaving it. Those who work for you are your responsibility, no matter if the stocks are up or down."
She shivered at the thought of wise-cracking Tony meeting a malevolent Sesshoumaru... she vividly remembered the scent of Dokkasou and being entombed in acid melted bone. "I know my responsibilities to my family, otou-san."
He frowned slightly at her return to formality. "I know, you're almost too responsible. I want you to start living a little. Have fun, make friends, get tickets for driving too fast... do something teenagerish. Except the sex thing, be old-fashioned and responsible there."
"Tou-san!" She flushed a deep red.
He laughed at her. "Do you think Sesshoumaru ever succeeded in his quest?"
She curled her legs under her. "I hope he changed his goal. His father tried to teach him that power is nothing without something to protect. Sesshoumaru had a little human girl that followed him; I think he was learning that lesson from her. I hope he did. He despised his brother for so many years... all because Sesshoumaru blamed Inuyasha for stealing his chance to defeat their father."
"I thought you didn't have that much contact with Sesshoumaru?"
"Most I learned from Myouga on the anniversary of the General's death. He told me a lot about the whole family. According to him, the Great General was the most respected warrior of his time until he took a human wife, a fifth-rank princess of Setsuna. He wrote her a tanka... an old poetry form... that read, 'My sword can cut flesh, kill indiscriminately, lay waste to armies. But I have a sharper blade; honed to perfection by you.'
"Sesshoumaru probably never paid much attention his father's poetry, and even if he did," she grinned mischievously, "he was terrible at solving puzzles. It took almost a century for him to figure out where Tessaiga was hidden simply because the directions were hidden in a riddle.
.
.
.
A tanka for Izayoi, because I love writing poetry.
Dō- loosely, a way of life, i.e. Cha-dō, the way of tea, Ken-dō, the way of the sword. It encompasses not only the rules for the way, but the philosophy behind it and how its believers should interact with and perceive the world.
Sesshoumaru did turn his back on his father's legacy. When the other youkai asked him to take his father's place as the Inu no Tashio and lead them to battle, he refused. Of course, being of contrary disposition, he then went after the Panther Divas alone.