Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to InuYasha or Ranma 1/2.
Sesshomaru could feel Naraku's child growing rapidly inside his belly. Normally, this would result in the expansion of the pregnant person's waistline, but Sesshomaru refused to give even an inch to the spawn.
He may have stopped trying to claw it out of his body, but this didn't mean he had accepted it.
Never.
He would never accept being Naraku's mate. Never share with the filthy spider a pup.
He forced his body to remain in shape through sheer willpower alone. His belly remained flat and taut through the constant force of youki he kept directing its way.
The process was a nuisance and slowly leeching him from his energy, but Sesshomaru had gone through much worse before. Sacrificing a bit of youki to remain in shape was nothing, if it meant he did not have to play along with this farce of a pregnancy.
Even so, the spawn continued to grow. And with Sesshomaru refusing to give it the room to expand, something else had to give way instead. That something turned out to be Sesshomaru's innards.
It was Jaken who first noticed that Sesshomaru had stopped hunting for prey altogether.
"M'lord? You have not been eating for weeks," the servant croaked out worriedly.
Sesshomaru brushed the concern aside with a scoff. "I have more important things to attend to. I must perfect the Meido Zangetsuha."
The Meido Zangetsuha had been a convenient excuse to keep his companions from inquiring further after his health.
He knew that refusing food would not stop the spawn from growing. Felt it seeking out alternative forms of nourishment, and latching onto his ample streams of youki instead.
"That is what you get for refusing to take care of yourself," Naraku chided him inside his mind.
Shut up!
"You have fallen into the habit of repeating yourself, little mate." Naraku chuckled softly. "I had thought you to be more eloquent than that."
Sesshomaru gritted his teeth and forced himself to ignore the spider's taunts. The incessant chatter continued on in his mind for what felt like an eternity, but like the pattern of a clockwork, Naraku grew bored with him and retreated from his mind in two hours.
Two hours.
His rants always lasted exactly two hours.
And the spider hanyou called him predictable.
Sesshomaru shook his head.
He would never be a mother. Even if he miraculously did not hate the pup, he still had his own mother to look to as proof of how unsuitable motherhood would be for him.
Everyone always said Sesshomaru took more after the demoness in both appearance and character compared to the Inu no Taisho, and Sesshomaru could not disagree with that assessment. Sporting a kind of grace and beauty that was almost otherworldly, a cold and aloof character, and a stubborness unmatched — he was the spitting image of his mother. Even his wanderlust was a trait he inherited from his mother's free-spirited nature.
Speaking of his mother...
Where had she moved her palace to this time?
tbc...