Yusuke and Xiaoyu were the most infuriating team tag ever, Sesshomaru decided. They complemented each other's strengths well and made up for each other weaknesses, making Sesshomaru unintentionally empathize with both of them in the missed and/or ineffective blows they inflicted upon each other.
While Sesshomaru was stronger than Xiaoyu to the point he could simply tank her blows, he wasn't fast enough to land a retaliation hit. With Yusuke, the stalemate between him and Xiaoyu was flipped. Yusuke was physically stronger than Sesshomaru, able to brush off his blows, but wasn't fast enough to hit cleanly him in return.
Hence the time loop struggle they were in now. The love birds attacked Sesshomaru relentlessly, not giving him a moment's breather. The majority of the great demon's focus was primarily on blocking Yusuke's punches, only brushing off a few of Xiaoyu's, which was increasingly harder as the intensity of his and Yusuke's blows increased.
Visible air-waves were generated in between Yusuke's and Sesshomaru's collided forearms, producing tremors that cracked the ground underneath.
'This is preposterous,' Sesshomaru mulled over, feeling Xiaoyu's mosquito bite blows pegging away at his back, his scathing glare locked on the fierce concentrated glare of his male adversary, 'There's no conceivable way for a mortal to have such strength.'
There was no conceivable way to have such a physique either, but here we were.
A feminine cry of might draw his half divided attention to his other far less significant opponent, catching in mid-flight above his head, angling her body in a complete circle and bringing her heel around toward Sesshomaru's head.
With a scoff, he bent down and felt the nigh refreshing breeze fabricated from her action rustle his hair, but had to shield his exposed face with the palm of his hand from the punt kick attempt of Yusuke though the force alone was enough to lift him off of the ground. Sesshomaru tried to fight against the force by adding his other hand, but by then it was too late.
His feet was already off of ground.
Spinning on her heels, Xiaoyu picked up enough momentum to coat herself in a mini tornado vortex. She stopped in a sideways pose, extending her arm toward the airborne Sesshomaru, channelling all of her body's momentum through her extended arm and into her palm. A hurricane-twister was cannoned out of her, ferociously ensnarling Sesshomaru within its midst and carrying him several feet away.
"How did ya like that?!" Yusuke roared, cupping his mouth with his hands as if it would carry his voice to the downed Sesshomaru, "There's always seconds, jerk!"
Sparing a sobered glance to his uncharacteristic quiet partner, he got an equally serious nod, prompting him to return the gesture. Muted understanding reached, the two raced forward, though Xiaoyu's charge was impeded by a tidal wave of misty dark purple fog that consumed everything in its path.
…Including Yusuke.
"I hope you like the taste my poison claws, mortal," Sesshomaru quipped coldly, lifting himself up from gouged up patch in the ground with grace, turning his head in sync with the materialization of Xiaoyu, "I see. Your reflexes are sharp and your speed is top notch to able to both react and manoeuvre around my poisonous fog. How impressive."
Xiaoyu faked to hit Sesshomaru, prompting him to raise his guard in defence before she backed off. He rose an eyebrow, but Xiaoyu only smirked, increasing his confusion until it suddenly hit him, not just her intentions, or the scent of his male opponent remaining very much tangible even within the midst of the cloud of poison, but his very adversary himself.
To say the wind was knocked out of Sesshomaru's sails would've been understating it by a million miles the instance Yusuke's shoulder ploughed into his solar plexus, carrying him several miles through the open terrain and into a forest. The colossal force contrived by Yusuke's bull tackle tore Sesshomaru's armour off and the high pace blew the bangs of his long hair into his face.
'Inconceivable!' Sesshomaru gaped internally, being driven through multiple trees as they were axed to the ground.
"Go, Yuu-chan!~" Xiaoyu cheered, following the carnage left by her boyfriend's charge blisteringly, using the fallen trees as makeshift skipping stones, bouncing off of them like a speedy feather, 'Man, Yuu-chan oughta think about going into the tree axing business. My man could make a fortune ploughing a pathway through every forest in Japan, China, and then some.'
She giggled at the thought of Yusuke roundhouse-kicking nine trees down in one, instead of shouting the conventional phrase to go with an axed down tree, it was him yelling "Strike!" in a bragging fashion.
"That's so Yuu-chan. He can be so darn unorthodox when he wants," She noted to herself, fondness within her hazel eyes as she left the forest just in time to see Yusuke spearing Sesshomaru off of the cliff. Fortunately, he built up enough momentum to carry them to the other side, destroying the edge of the cliff in the process, "Whoa."
The two combatants burrowed heavily alongside the ground after crashing into the cliff, finally stopping against a forcibly elevated pile of dirt and pebbles, "How'd you…?" Sesshomaru asked, struggling to knock Yusuke off of him.
XxX
"Drink it," The heavy raspy voice of a winged-haired old man echoed out in a chamber, arms crossed over his chest.
"I… don't wanna," A younger Yusuke uncharacteristically sniffed. Before him sat a glass of purple liquid letting out a sickly stream, a testament to how piping hoT it was.
He flinched from the sound of steel being crashed. He turned to find the old man's fist buried into the metallic flooring of the chamber.
"Drink it or else I'll cram my fist down your throat!"
"Aw man," Yusuke grumbled, picking up the glass, slowly bringing it to his lips. His face scrunched up in clear discomfort as he took an experimenting sniff knocking his head back. Forcing himself not to throw, Yusuke slowly assimilated the dangerous liquid whilst the old man only laughed.
XxX
'I'm gonna go back to the repressing that,' Yusuke mused with a scowl, "Bastard!" Roaring in anger, Yusuke let loose a barrage of devastating blows on Sesshomaru's face, getting a furry of missile punches exploded on his own in retaliation from the demon below him.
A continuous flow of tremors rocked the ground as though multiple elephants were stampeding in the area, causing dirt to waft through the air. Naturally, the ground couldn't take such pressure and cracked like glasses, burying the scarping fighters through a layer of the ground.
"Hey, Yuu-chan!"
The one-eyed Yusuke abruptly left leaped off of the one-eyed Sesshomaru at the call of Xiaoyu's voice. Truth be told, Yusuke was glad for the distraction having long since come to the conclusion by the time his left eye was closed up that their punch-up contest wasn't going to result in either of their victories.
Contrary to Yusuke's blackened left eye, Sesshomaru was swollen shut, cutting his depth perception completely in half. Despite the handicap, he was still able to ascertain the Dancing phoenix diving down on him, a palm extending outward. From said palm a tornado wave of condense wind shot forth, aiming for Sesshomaru.
"What!?" He dematerialized, leaving the unnaturally fabricated hurricane to further deepen the already cratered ground.
Yusuke rounded to Xiaoyu's side the moment the girl landed on the ground, taking away all the momentum to the damaged ground with her index finger, righting herself, "Thanks for the hand back there, babe."
"No problem," She said, smirking cheekily at Yusuke's damaged face. "I couldn't let him damage that pretty face of yours any further, y'know."
"Haha. You got jokes," Yusuke's deadpanned expression contrasted Xiaoyu's sunny one.
"I know," She needled, catching sight of a similar fuzzy tail flying forward, seemingly on its own accord, "Careful!"
"That's fluffy crap's a part of him!" Yusuke gaped, falling into a sideways stance, Sesshomaru's fur collar flying past him. Before the long-haired demon could draw it back in, Yusuke trapped it underneath his armpit, "Yowza. Talk about versatility, but oh well," He smirked, "Time to turn an asset into a liability."
A force corresponding to a magnetic pull yanked Sesshomaru half-way to his opponents before he was able to stabilize himself, engaging in quite frankly the strangest game of tug-of-war any of them have ever played, "What?" He mumbled, feeling his feet sliding to Yusuke, 'How can a mere mortal have such power?'
When his ears picked up the sound of a swift materialization right behind him, his eyes widened, "No."
"Ha-yah!" Xiaoyu exclaimed, launching another tornado palm wave at Sesshomaru, tipping the scales clearly in Yusuke's favour.
"Here's a knuckle sandwich for ya! Hope you got room for extras!" Yusuke shouted, readying his fist to knock Sesshomaru's block off, but in a brilliant show of both movability and innovation Sesshomaru's used his innate ability of flight to tilt his body in an upward angle, causing Yusuke's fist to sail past his hip, "Damn it!"
Sesshomaru slashed at Yusuke's back, but the warrior ducked, skilfully using his unsheathed spear to block the demon's claw, engraving a scar in it in the process, evoking a scowl from the demon lord.
Letting go of Sesshomaru's fur collar, Yusuke danced on his heels, sending his elbow firing, and Sesshomaru mimicked his action, their elbows colliding in a showy display of sheer power. The ground deepened once again.
As the two extremely prideful males battled for dominance, the mortal man couldn't stop a satisfied smirk from spreading across his disfigured countenance.
"You know, this is kinda fun," He said, emphasizing his point by pushing into Sesshomaru, getting the demon to push back just as forcefully, "Going at it tooth-and-nail that is. My adrenaline's practically in overdrive mode."
"I concur," Sesshomaru admitted, a smirk of his own sweeping across his own damaged visage, "This is the first time This-Sesshomaru has been pushed to such a degree before."
"Oh yeah?"
"Fool! Does This Sesshomaru look like the kind of demon would lie about such things?"
"Hey, you said it, not me, pal."
Scowling mildly, Sesshomaru momentarily surrendered the ascendancy in the see-saw contest to bring his other side into play, letting a claw fly toward Yusuke's face, who ducked, raising up and planting a knee into his torso, forcing the long-haired to gag.
"Nope!" Yusuke said before complimenting Sesshomaru in a patronizing manner, "Nice try, though."
"Your arrogance will be your undoing, mortal," Sesshomaru declared, ducking in swift evasion of Xiaoyu's roundhouse kick as the girl sailed over his head, parrying a powerful punt kick Yusuke attempted to deliver to his chest and distancing himself from the two, tactically of course.
"You're one to talk about arrogance, dude," Yusuke retorted with a snicker, "You've got the biggest stick up your ass between us."
"There is but nothing that resembles arrogance when your power is as great as mine," Sesshomaru riposted smoothly, earning himself a roll of the eyes from Xiaoyu.
"Then I guess the same applies to us," Yusuke said, no traces of jest evident on his countenance as he flanked Sesshomaru's left. Xiaoyu nodded, flanking the demon lord's other side.
"You think each of your demonstrations counts as equivalence to This Sesshomaru's?" He scoffed, blocking the airborne kick of Xiaoyu and the mid-section blow of Yusuke in one smooth go, stabilizing them there whilst his demonic energy channelled furiously through his body, "Don't make me laugh," A pillar of light erupted from Sesshomaru, blowing the featherweight Xiaoyu away.
Sesshomaru ensnarled the heavyweight's throat in a vice-lock grip, his eyes widening to a demented degree, "It's about time you learn your place," He pulled his other arm back, his clenched fist in particular glowing brightly in sync with the streaks of lightning encircling Yusuke's hand.
"Screw… you!" Yusuke managed to choke out. Simultaneously, Yusuke's palm met the front of Sesshomaru's face and the demon lord's fist greeted the lightning lord's cheek none too lightly, resulting in a vortex of lightning and the momentum of Sesshomaru's punch knocking the combatants away from each other.
While Yusuke was able to experience the not-so-pleasant flight through a series of trees, Sesshomaru's flight was halted by the palm that impacted into his spine from Yusuke's partner, forcing a batch of blood from his mouth. A windy force contrived from the petite pigtailed girl's palm carried him to the sky, perfect setup for an elegant roundhouse kick Xiaoyu leapfrogged up to deliver him with.
Naturally, being gifted with the ability to control one's movements in the groundless air itself, Sesshomaru easily righted himself, then parried Xiaoyu's leg away with his elbow. The pain he saw scrunch up on her face was the most satisfying thing yet.
"Fool. You don't logically assume you yourself could damage This Sesshomaru in such a way without your male companion? You've been a non-factor in this fight the whole time," Sesshomaru said, smirking at the very presentable opportunity to hit the nimble girl, "And now in you're in my domain without a means to defend yourself. How pitiful."
"Maybe so, but I couldn't just sit back and let a meanie like you hurt my Yuu-chan!" Xiaoyu declared with tenacity, defensively pushing out a bucket load of her Ki out of her body in a rapid rotation, essentially engulfing her in a breezy dome of immense wind powerful enough to blast Sesshomaru back down to ground level.
"Ugh!" Grunting as he righted himself, Sesshomaru landed on the damaged ground with elegance similar to Xiaoyu, "I see. So you had an ace-in-the-hole for such an unfavourable plight to come to fruition," He surveyed Xiaoyu's elegant landing with a calculating gaze, "How very ingenious."
"Why, thank you," Xiaoyu replied very unthankfully, adjusting herself in a sideways stance, "That means sooo much coming from the rudest guy on the planet."
"Heh, implying This Sesshomaru would speak to another as though they were equals," He countered, smirking with the impish look that was quickly becoming his shtick on his face at Xiaoyu's disbelieving face, "You, mortal, should your place."
Xiaoyu couldn't for the life of her wrap her head around Sesshomaru's self-importance. The thought that anyone would consider everyone else so far beneath them that they were justified treating the vast majority like dirt on the end of their footwear was revolting to her.
"That's not what I meant, you big jerk!" Xiaoyu ranted, conjoining her balled hands in the centre of her chest and placing her thighs together, bristling in anger, "I just meant you should try being respectful to people to receive the same gesture."
"And why would I do that?" Sesshomaru asked, raising an eyebrow, "If This Sesshomaru wants respect he demands it. Not waits for it."
"Respect is a mutual thing, pal," Xiaoyu said, grimacing at Sesshomaru's ideology, "You must first give others respect if you yourself want 'em to respect ya. That's how bonds are formed. How else will you gain any friends? People don't like to be around jerks who treat 'em like crap, y'know?"
Sesshomaru scoffed. He knew this conversation was descending into sappy emotional trash territory the moment the foolishly naïve mortal mentioned superior beings like himself should equally respect lesser beings, like her, "Such nonsense you speak," A shadow darkened his glaring eyes, "As if This Sesshomaru would desire the very human connections that brought his father to his demise. Such worthless connections are nothing but a hindrance."
'He must be implying his father died protecting Inuyasha's mother,' Xiaoyu rationalized, and given Sesshomaru's contempt for his own flesh and blood her rationalization of his overall hatred for her species made a whole heap of sense.
Inuyasha never hinted to even having an older brother within the time span they've known him, and that alone made Xiaoyu think that much like Yusuke's family, there was bad blood between Sesshomaru's and Inuyasha's family.
'Why can't everybody just get along?' She thought with a wistful sigh. Families were meant to be there for one another, not at each other's throats like rabid wolverines.
"Why do you look sad?" Sesshomaru demanded, eliciting a gasp from Xiaoyu, "Do you pity this Sesshomaru?"
"Yeah, I do," Xiaoyu admitted without shame, a glare of defiance in her eyes as Sesshomaru's anger spiked, "It's just too bad you won't understand why," She materialized before Sesshomaru in a rapid burst of speed, repelling him back with a palm thrust, "Brother."
"How dare you," Sesshomaru seethed, accelerating forward and lunging a roundhouse claw swipe at her, putting her on the defence, "You will pay for your insolence, you and your lover. Both of you can have your worthless connection in the afterlife," He continued swiping air as a consequence to Xiaoyu backpedalling away.
"Na-Na. You're never gonna give us our penance going at a snail-pace you know," Xiaoyu teased, goading Sesshomaru on.
"You," Sesshomaru growled with emphasis, because a demon lord of his station did not yell, as tempting as it was. He glared and accentuated his words with a throaty tone, but didn't shout.
…Even when his other opponent sprung out of the bushes the instance his initial target led him to them and smacked him across the jaw, driving him back with enough to fabricate air waves around his form. He just grunted loudly with grit teeth of frustration.
'So that was her plan,' He realized whilst his sailed through the air, 'How clever.'
"Took ya long enough," Yusuke said with a mild crabby glare of his own, though Xiaoyu only innocently folded her arms behind her back and grinned at his slightly irritated face, "What the heck were you two discussing anyway?"
"You know, stuff."
"What kind of stuff?"
"Stuff-Stuff."
"Rightttttt," Yusuke drawled out in a slothful fashion, "I see where this is going," Absolutely nowhere. With that realized, he blistered forward, prompting Xiaoyu to grin victoriously before following after him.
An illuminating lime-hued glow caught the sights of the two lovebirds in between Sesshomaru's fingers, promptly getting Xiaoyu to hesitate. Yusuke, however, was not the kind of man who hesitated once his mind was made up, and pressed onwards, though he was forced to reconsider his approach once the glow extended outward, materializing into a lengthy whip.
"Whoa!" Yusuke made a bee-line to the side, though the whip managed to tear into his side, opening up a fresh wound, "Crap, that stings!"
"Uh, Yuu-chan!" Yusuke followed the sight which had warranted Xiaoyu's worry, only to crack a smirk to see the whip pull an entire tree from its root as though it was a metal pipe and swing it at them with ferocity.
"Someone's getting desperate now," He said, leapfrogging skyward to meet the upcoming tree half-way, never noticing the approaching flurry tail until it was too late. By then he had torn through the tree like butter with a simple flying kick, but his boastful celebrations were cut short by his partner's scream, "Xiaoyu-chan!"
Imprisoned within the strangely comfortable walls of Sesshomaru's arm tail, Xiaoyu was wheeled in to the demon himself.
"Damn it! So that was his intention all along!" Yusuke realized with a scowl, clenching his fist angrily, "Let her go, asshole!"
"Know your place mortal," Sesshomaru said, flinging the girl into the abyss.
"Yuu-chan!" Her screams were all that was left.
"Xiaoyu-chan!" Yusuke shouted, rounding on the smug-faced Sesshomaru with a glare, his Ki flying through the roof, "Bastard!" He dematerialized and rematerialized before Sesshomaru could even blink, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him up.
"How did you-!" Sesshomaru gagged, 'His speed superseded mine. What is this mortal?'
"Need to borrow your flight ability for a sec," He said with a tone that left no room for argument and plunged head first into the abyss with enough momentum to carry them to other side of the cliff, right where he could see Xiaoyu clinging tenaciously to the side.
"Hang on tight babe! I'm here!" Yusuke nailed Sesshomaru into the rocky surface with so much potency he initiated an upheaval, engraving a scar running from the pancaked demon all the way to the top as an humongous boulder-sized piece of rock was gouged from the ground.
Yusuke caught Xiaoyu in his arm, using Sesshomaru as leverage to soar to the sky as though the great demon was a great trampoline, adjusting his girlfriend in his arms as he landed on the thoroughly wrecked Cliffside.
"Boy! That was scary!" Yusuke exclaimed, nuzzling happily into Xiaoyu's understandably paled cheek, "You okay, babe?"
"Am now," Xiaoyu wheezed, leaning into Yusuke whilst her boyfriend placed her down on her feet, "Thought I was a goner there. Thanks for the save."
"Hey, don't sweat it," Yusuke grinned, "Couldn't let my baby mama kick the bucket down below, now could I?"
"Guess not," She sheepishly slid her tongue out of her grinning lips, rubbing the back of her head, "That would've been one awkward conversation to have with Shippo-chan and I'm glad you won't have to."
"Yeah," Yusuke agreed, his low echoing tone exuding malevolence. Wildly, he ripped his staff off of his back before extending it upwards, "That's one conversation that won't be becoming to fruition, and I'm gonna make sure it doesn't by ending this fight."
Xiaoyu gasped, placing her hands to her mouth, "You're gonna use that move?" His signature move he only used on seldom occasions and often as a last resort, but if the illumination of his brown eyes now bathed in an azure glow was only indication now was that time. A streak of lightning danced around his body before a spherical orb of crystalized lightning formed on the tip of his spear.
"Since when did ya need an object to orchestra your best attack?" She asked, watching the orb flying off to the sky and roofing it apart, "I thought you could do it with just your finger?"
"Still can but this makes it way easier," Yusuke explained as Xiaoyu looked over his shoulder to observe the phoenix come alive, materializing into a blob before rocketing to the clouds into a blue pillar of blinding light.
As if to signal the acceptance of his entry fee, a thunderous sound echoed out voluminously and the clouds were illuminated in the same glow as Yusuke.
"Pretty sure this thing was made to usher the Big bird off his ass, just going by the shtick of the dude I nabbed it from," Yusuke continued as though the escalating thunderstorms weren't getting increasingly louder from above the heavens.
"Right, that makes sense," Xiaoyu nodded, pointing over to the forest woods, "I'm gonna go take cover now. Don't wanna get caught up in the radius of the explosion now."
"Good thinking," He said and Xiaoyu took off after a quick peck on Yusuke's cheek. Lingering on his girlfriend's soft lips against his calloused face, Yusuke began his mantra; brash, vulgar, and demanding, "Hey! Great ass-kicking beast from the sky! Hear my blah, blah, blah, and drag your ass from the couch!"
"Mortal," Sesshomaru murmured out wrathfully, putting a smirk on Yusuke's face as he floated into view, glaring at him with bloodshot red eyes, "I do not know what you are preparing but it ends here."
"You're right about one thing, the curtain's closing in on one of us," A voluminous chirpy screech of a giant bird eclipsed the entire terrain, promptly getting Sesshomaru to tilt his head up where his eyes widened in horror, "Though that one of us isn't going to be me."
"How did you-?" Come into contact with an ancient beast few had the raw manipulation of lightning to wield. He could see the creature's head poking out of the clouds, which it parted with its gigantic wings as though they were curtains, and for the first time in a very long time Sesshomaru felt fear; true shaking fear in his very bones.
"Did I neglect to mention I'm a Lightning Lord?" Yusuke teased, loving every minute of the horrified look of anger Sesshomaru sent his way, "Love to stay and chat about it honestly, but I've got a kid waiting for his parents back at the crib. You know how it is. Little guy's probably missing us, so, I'll just leave ya to get acquainted with the big guy. Sesshomaru, meet your maker. Sky Phoenix," He grinned savagely, "Meet your bitch. Enjoy."
With a simple tug of his spear gripped hand, Yusuke set his mighty bird of prey on Sesshomaru, and within those brief milliseconds, Sesshomaru's entire surroundings slowed to an agonizingly torturous period. Never in his wildest dreams did he ever expect to be on the receiving end of the One Divine Beasts of Legend resting in the realm above the clouds.
He didn't even see the emblem anywhere on the 'mortal' within their fight to signify his contact to its godly services. He could assume the Sky Phoenix's emblem was on Yusuke's back, but the warrior never once shown the demon lord his back.
There was only one move he could do to ensure his survival in the blast of the phoenix and he did that with gusto just as the Sky Phoenix nailed his windy form, carrying him to the very depths of the almost bottomless ravine.
The calm before the storm period ensued.
Then everything went to hell.
An enormous DBZ-like explosion occurred, illuminating the entirety of the ravine as the gigantic wall of lightning shot upward, stretching to the sky, and rocking the terrain in its entirety. The upheaval split huge statue-sized portions of either cliffs off, including the part Yusuke was currently on, evoking a slow avalanche.
Seeing Yusuke immobilized from a combination of fatigue and severe energy exhaustion, Xiaoyu sprang into action, materializing at his side and swinging his free arm over her shoulder. She ran the now tilted over fallen patch of earth and bounced off of the top, allowing her momentum to carry them to the safety of a tree.
"Thanks," Yusuke croaked as Xiaoyu held his stiff body up. He could barely feel his fingers let alone his spear in his grasp. He had to double check to be sure he was holding on to it, but thankfully he was, "Darn. Crap still leaves me fried even after being juiced up."
"I thought it looked stronger," Xiaoyu said, observing the finishing touches of the landslide as a massive cloud of dust wafted from underneath. It was an utter wreck, almost like a bulldozer had scooped two lengthy long portions of rock from both cliffs, cutting off any and all access from them, "But I guess that's a given considering the guys you fought to avenge Shippo-chan's father."
"Right," The myriad of floating sparkles assembled on his back to recreate his phoenix insignia and his immobility soon left him, leaving him still very wary, "Still only suffices as a last resort though."
"I can see that," Xiaoyu grinned, trying to lull Yusuke's strain with gentle strokes of her head supplied to his arm, "Do you think he survived that?"
"Hmm," Just before he could extend his senses, a fairly large phantom orb submerged from the wreckage below, immediately taking to the skies with its tail between its legs. A closer observation would reveal an abnormally sized dog shrouded in the glow, "Think that answers your question m'dear."
"You think that's his real form?" Xiaoyu tilted her head, "Do demons have true forms?"
"Probably," Yusuke struggled to even shrug, "We know Dog-breath can't evolve like that otherwise he would've pulled it from his arsenal to beat us."
"I'm guessing it's something only fledged-demons are blessed with, like their ability of flight," Xiaoyu said, understanding Inuyasha's desire to make himself a whole demon, "Boy, full-fledged demons are blessed with a lot of privileges, huh? Supersizing themselves and flying."
"And I bet we're only touching the tip of the iceberg of what full-blooded demons can do."
"No wonder Inuyasha wants to be a full-fledged demon so much. He's basically handicapped."
"Yeah that sucks. I honestly feel for the guy," Yusuke admitted, contemplating Sesshomaru's very likely survival even after withstanding the impact of the Lightning Lord's signature attack, "Man, to survive a head on collision of the Big Cheese among birds," He whistled, "He's something else. I take back what I said about the dude before, his arrogance is justified."
"Aw, c'mon Yuu-chan."
"What?"
"That meanie had a right stick up his butt."
"Wouldn't you if you could tank a beast of an attack like that?"
"Guess so."
"Thank you."
"Well, we better get back now. I think we've lingered around here enough don't you? Our baby must be worried sick about us."
"Sure. About to pass out anyway."
XxX
Survival of the Fittest
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FIVE
Princess in a Castle
The little kitsune child under Yusuke and Xiaoyu's care was undoubtedly racked with worry, even after hearing the somewhat reassuring tale one of the Three Divine Beasts of Legend from old man Myoga, the one his stepfather had a contact with.
After all, he had never heard of them and Myoga could understand why.
The legendary beasts were nigh untameable. Even demons struggled even a portion of their magnificent power, let alone humans. The fact that a human even had the emblem of the lightning phoenix on his back as proof to his contact granting him its services was a rarity in of itself.
Shippo had hoped Myoga would be able to convince Inuyasha to assist his parents in their endeavour against Sesshomaru, but he only returned with Kagome and bluntly told the young demon he would be more of an liability to them an asset, and while Shippo admired Inuyasha's integrity, he still couldn't help but feel annoyed by his refusal to aid Yusuke and Xiaoyu in their fight against Sesshomaru.
"Oh man," Shippo fretted beside Kagome, consistently twiddling his thumbs.
"Would ya quit worrying?" Kagome admonished him in a playful manner, stroking his hair, "I'm sure your folks will be fine! They're tough, y' know? You saw as well as I did what your mom did to the hair-hussy the other day."
"Kagome's right, kid," Inuyasha added, sat in a boyish crossed-position completely contrary to Kagome who was sat on her knees in a girlish manner, "Your old man's tougher than steel," He smirked, extending a thumb at himself, "Heh, he beat me after all."
"Right, 'cuz you're really so high up on the food chain, Inuyasha," Shippo replied sarcastically, promptly wiping the smug look from Inuyasha's face.
"You know, if your old man couldn't manipulate lightning so well, I'd clobber ya over your little head for that one brat," Inuyasha threatened, but Shippo only stuck his tongue out at him.
"Well, at least you know your place," One of the devils of the current topic at hand vocalized in a tone which suggested he was completely exhausted, causing Shippo's eyes to widen in relief.
"See! I told you so they'd be okay!" Kagome bragged just as the entrance curtain was swept aside, giving way for a thoroughly braised faced Yusuke supported by a merely dirtied Xiaoyu.
"Mom! Dad!" Shippo sang happily, practically flying over on to Yusuke's battered face. Usually, he would've caught him, but currently, he was too tired to even lift his arms, so he merely allowed his adoptive son to snuggle against his cheek.
"Hi ya, Shippie. Did you miss us?" Xiaoyu warmly teased.
Shippo glanced over to his mother, happily relieved to see her in relatively good shape as he gave her a hum of confirmation. His father, on the other, hand… Well, his horribly swollen cheek and blackened eye spoke for themselves.
"Oh no, your face," Shippo said sadly, cupping Yusuke's swollen cheeks.
Yusuke, feeling touched by Shippo's concern, offered him a reassuring a smile, "I'll live and heal, scamp. Trust me. What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger, you know."
"Wow, bastard," Inuyasha needled, no actual semblance of malice or contempt in his words as he stood, moving over to better observe Yusuke's beaten face, "Looks like Sesshomaru ran your mug dry, eh?" He grinned toothily, promptly getting a returned one from Yusuke.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome complained.
"Hey, it's alright," Yusuke assured his fellow schoolmate, not fazed by Inuyasha's snide remark, "Dog-breath has a point. I didn't have the same untouchability of milady here."
"Oh stop," Xiaoyu insisted, humbly brushing off Yusuke's compliment. She was well aware of her own impact in the fight wasn't much at all, "You did most of the work. I only really offered ya support."
"Naw. You're downplaying your own contribution, honey," Yusuke said with a sheepish grin on his face, "Honestly, I doubt I could have beaten the dude without ya."
"This seems familiar," Shippo pointed out with a sheepish smile of his own.
Xiaoyu removed one hand from around Yusuke's hip to rub the back of her head in a similar manner, sticking out her tongue, "Yeah I guess it is."
"Ahem." Myoga coughed, drawing everyone's attention to him. With a couple of an unnaturally high springs for a flea, the powerless demon with a vast library of knowledge landed on Yusuke's shoulder, "I must congratulate you both on your commendable millstone of vanquishing lord Sesshomaru, but I must enquiry, did you utilize that technique to defeat him?"
"Oh yeah!" Shippo beamed, scanning Yusuke's back, "Hmm. The phoenix-thingy's still on your back?"
"Yeah I did," Yusuke admitted blandly, "Sorta had to, otherwise he would've beaten us into the ground, I'm sure. And it usually returns minutes after ensuing carnage," He shrugged very slothfully, "Just the way its work."
"Oh I see," Shippo said, drawing his head from behind his father.
"Was thee able to vanquish lord Sesshomaru entirety or will he live to fight another?" Kaede asked.
"It's the latter unfortunately," Yusuke confirmed, "Just before the big bird struck him he transformed himself into a big-ass dog," He lifted his eyebrow, "Can all demons supersize themselves or is something only exclusive to full-fledged demons?"
Myoga sighed, "Yes, what you and milady most likely saw was lord Sesshomaru in his true, undisguised form. While his physique isn't as incomparable as his father's, it is still quite a sight to behold."
"Figured as much," Yusuke admitted, managing to rub his chin with his index finger before he sent a teasing smirk Inuyasha's way. Inuyasha, getting the implications, turned away from him with his arms crossed, "Jeez Dog-breath. With all these bonuses working in a true demon's favour, it's a no-brainer why you're hating on 'em so much."
"Yes, lord Inuyasha's current form is his only one, combining features from both his mother and his father's truest forms to produce one very unique manifestation if I do say so myself," Myoga eloquently explained as prompted, trying to compliment his lord's son as much as possible.
"Yeah-Yeah, I get it bastard. I'm a walking-talking freak of nature," Inuyasha said flippantly, eliciting sympathetic from the schoolgirls even if he was being highly sarcastic.
"Oh c'mon Inuyasha," Xiaoyu tried, "Don't be so hard on yourself. At least you have your daddy's sword with ya."
Everyone with the exception of Yusuke stared at her with wide eyes of curiosity, though it was obviously the accused one who played spokesman for the rest of the group, "The hell do ya know that?"
"Your nasty bro kinda blurted it out to us in the middle of our fight," Xiaoyu grinned sheepishly, eliciting a roll of the eyes from Inuyasha.
"Feh. Figures he would say that just to stroke his ego," The golden eyed half-demon said.
"So where is his dad's sword, Xiaoyu?" Kagome asked, elevating herself and cocking her neck sideways, peering at Inuyasha inquisitively.
The half-breed felt insecure from the girl's intense stare and covered himself up, though his protest was ignored entirely by her, "Hey."
"I don't see it anywhere on him."
"Because it's in his eye," Yusuke clarified blandly, promptly initiating several blinks, mostly from Shippo, Inuyasha and Kagome.
"Then how are we going to get it out if it's in there dad?" Shippo asked.
"The old fashioned way, I guess."
"Eh?"
"Pup, come here."
"My gut-feeling tells me I'm gonna regret this, but what do ya want?" Inuyasha asked, sauntering over to Yusuke only to feel a blinding pain sear through his body directly from his right pupil, effectively cutting his depth depiction in half as Shippo covered his eyes, Kagome gasped, and Kaede merely lifted her eyes.
"Yuu-chan!" Xiaoyu complained whilst Yusuke pulled out his fingers from Inuyasha's eyeball, a black pearl now on the ends of them, "Did you have to be so… brutal about it."
"Ow, fuck!" Inuyasha yelled, holding his bloody emptied organ, "What the fuck!? You just ripped out my eye!"
"Can't ya just like… regenerate missing body parts or something?" Yusuke deadpanned.
"That's beside the point!"
"How so?"
"You didn't know that!"
"Who's to say I never?"
"Okay, genius. Then tell me. How did'ya know I could regenerate body parts without me ever telling ya I could."
"Meh. Watched a lot of TV."
"The fuck's TV?!"
"Never mind," Yusuke tossed Inuyasha the black pearl he purged from his eyeball.
"Damn it all!" Inuyasha caught it despite raving furiously, "So what now, huh?"
"You go inside and grab what's yours," Yusuke deadpanned.
"Okay. How do I do that?"
Thankfully, now that any and all danger had quelled, Mr Exposition was right there to fill in the blanks, "The staff, milord!" Myoga hurried, bouncing up and down on Yusuke's shoulder, getting Kagome, Inuyasha and Shippo to turn their heads to Kaede where the staff resided, "It was forged specifically to unlock your father's tomb. If the elder laughs, that means the tomb will open."
"What?" Inuyasha asked, venturing to the two-headed staff, "You mean this weird piece of junk?
"Where did that thing come from?" Yusuke asked with a bizarre expression on his face.
"Oh!~" Kagome brightened. Now was her chance to take her schoolmates on the exposition tour, and she would not let them down, "Well, Inuyasha's nasty older brother got his little toad servant to interrogate him to spill the location of their father's tomb with an lady that took the appearance of his mother."
"How did that work out?" Yusuke asked, grinning suspiciously as he gauged Inuyasha's reaction for confirmation, but the half-breed shrugged dismissively.
"Not well in his favour, I'll tell ya that much," Kagome shrugged, "She was trapped in a nasty ogre's grip, but after Inuyasha freed her she took us... somewhere through DBZ-like teleportation means, and made me think I was bound by chains when really I wasn't."
"On some Naruto-crap?"
"Pretty much."
"After Kagome got me free from the bitch's illusory bullshit, I made short work outta her, eviscerating the bitch easily," Inuyasha said, continuing from where Kagome left off, "The other guy didn't take any effort to eviscerate either."
"Then why did your brother have the toad-guy in his employment if he couldn't put up much of a fight?" Xiaoyu wondered.
"He just likes getting his ass kissed."
That was all that needed to be said.
"Ah. I see." The less Xiaoyu remembered of Sesshomaru's self-importance the better.
"The Unmother had gently compelled lord Inuyasha to reveal the tomb's location with a motherly persistence," Myoga said, filling in the blanks, promptly causing Yusuke to grin teasingly at Inuyasha at the confession that he was persuaded to reveal something by a mother's touch.
"Yeah, I didn't know what I was mumbling on about," Inuyasha's expression dried up substantially, his bored gaze held on the black pearl once sequestered in his now damaged eyeball, "'Till now, obviously," He glanced forward, mockingly thanking the culprit, "Thanks for that, buddy. Really means a lot."
"You're welcome Mama's boy."
"What the fuck did ya just call me!?"
"You heard me."
"I ain't a mama's boy, damn it!"
"And they were getting along so well too," Kagome sighed, shaking her head.
Xiaoyu carefully slid her hands from Yusuke's sides, causing his shoulders to droop as he maintained his balance by parking his hands on his knees. Surprisingly, Inuyasha was one of the first ones to gaze at Yusuke with concern in his eyes, besides Shippo who was plucked from his shoulders by his shoulders by his mother, "Nothing wrong with being a mama's boy," She smiled, presenting Shippo beside her bosom, "Right Shippie?"
"Yeah!" He agreed without thinking, then realized the implications, "Wait! I'm not a mama's boy, mom!"
"Yes you are!" Xiaoyu stubbornly persisted, lovingly snuggling against his cheek, effectively embarrassing him.
"Aw."
Inuyasha couldn't bring himself to argue against Xiaoyu's declaration while hearing Yusuke's noticeable deep wheezes he tried to keep indistinct by holding them in for as long as possible. He was terribly exhausted, "Hey, bastard," He said, hesitating toward him, promptly causing Kagome to stare at him in a disbelieving manner, "You gonna be okay?"
'Inuyasha,' Kagome mused.
Letting out three deep breaths in quick succession, Yusuke lifted up his head, struggling to even do that much, "Sure," He murmured, dropping to his knees, his remaining words fading out like a flickering candle, his eyelids drooping shut, "Just... gimme... a sec..." Then all the pain vanished, his consciousness fading into hibernation, leaving his body to collapse face first on the wooden floor.
"Dad/Urameshi-san!"
Feeling Shippo reaching out for his father, Xiaoyu bent down next to him. His little hands immediately tugged at his arm, but no matter how many times he pushed Yusuke wouldn't wake from his slumber.
"Don't worry, Shippie. Your daddy's only resting," Xiaoyu comforted, combing her hand through his hair, "Summoning the big bird already takes a lot out of him. That, combined with all the effort he had exerted creaming Sesshomaru's butt has left him really fatigued. Don't worry, though. A couple of days of recuperation should fix him right up."
"That damn bastard," Inuyasha said wryly, "Really doesn't know how to hold back, does he?"
"Not when he's out for revenge he doesn't," Xiaoyu retorted, and Inuyasha nodded, leaving it at that.
Shippo nodded, his worried gaze never leaving Yusuke's slumbering form, "Okay."
"So now all we gotta do is wait until Urameshi-san recovers."
"And continue searching for the jewel shards."
"Right. Better us than some nasty ambiguous demon."
