Three months of training had made Yuka careless. She was hurrying home with Ayumi at her side, both of them giggling as they took the shortcut from the bar.
"We could stop here, save your poor grandmother the trauma." Ayumi's warm hands were perfect against Yuka's freezing cheeks, the clouds they created were perfect puffs of mist and vapor.
But something was wrong.
Yuka pulled away from her friend, reaching for the dagger she kept on her leg. She tried to channel Sango, and tried to remember her teachings. Her eyes scanned the building tops, searching for movement of any kind.
Nothing.
But the air was too still. She couldn't trust it, "let's keep moving."
She changed course completely, dragging the intoxicated girl behind her.
There was a crunching of footsteps, but they weren't oming from behind. Without another moment she shoved Ayumi ahead of her, "run."
Heavy footfalls and whispered commands surrounded them like mist and Yuna realized that they wouldn't escape.
"Poison Powder!" She nor Yuna had a mask, but what other choice did she have? They'd progressed to fighting the young fox demon with their daggers, but even he was too much for her to handle with Rin at her side.
Ayumi stumbled, choking on the powder, but there was no time for mortal weakness.
What was a little poison dust in the face of your life.
She tried to tug the girl forward, but it was as if she could no longer move. Sango had warned her how the powder worked. Now that it had entered her lungs, it was shutting her body down one organ at a time.
Rule number two, don't throw the poison powder without a mask, it's meant to stun demons. To humans it will be lethal.
Ayumi was gasping at her side, clawing at her throat as Yuka pulled her dagger from its holder.
Dozens of demons seemed to appear from thin air and panic seized her heart. "Stay back! If you don't," she fumbled for a threat, "if you don't then I'll kill you all."
Her brain couldn't seem to connect to her body. Her stance was wrong and her hands were shaking and she knew she was going to die here, but she wouldn't die docile. She'd die talking shit.
It was the least she could do.
They were so close to the hotel where Sango and Sesshomaru were living and she did all she could do.
She screamed. Yuka screamed her head off until she heard a familiar voice.
"Koibito Swing!" Power surged around her, tearing the concrete to rubble and disintegrating the demons before her, "Yuka, what on earth are you doing?" Sango choked on the lingering smell of the powder, fanning the area before her face.
"We were going home and then these guys attacked us." Her voice quivered as she turned to find Ayumi. She had to help her.
Someone lifted Ayumi from behind her and she threw her dagger at them. No one was going to lay a finger on the girl.
"Watch where you're aiming this pitiful, aluminum trash." Sesshomaru stood behind the dust, expression twisted in a dangerous way. He pulled the dagger from his shoulder and launched it into the brick wall of the building beside them.
It shattered.
Sesshomaru grabbed her by the arm, hopping onto the roof of someone's home while Sango readied herself to fight. She held her sword before her, wind whirling around the blade.
She spun on the tips of her toes, gaining momentum and dancing to some unforeseen beat, "Lover's Cyclone!" Wind wrapped around her like ribbons, tugging signs from posts and shredding whatever got itself sucked into her vortex.
It was at that moment that Yuka found that she wasn't powerful in the least. Watching Sango dance and swing and destroy the monsters that had driven her into a panic made her realize that she was nothing in comparison.
"Please don't let me die." Ayumi's whispered words shattered Yuka's heart. Already her childhood friend was turning blue.
Yuka pulled her into her lap, clutching her hands as she gasped against the power of the poison.
"Interesting move, yome, but I don't think this human is breathing." Yuka glanced up at Sesshomaru, his attention was on Sango, but he knelt before them, his hand on her friend's neck.
"Bring her here." Sesshomaru wrenched the girl from Yuka's grip and did as he was asked. Ayumi, however. was going grey. Her hand was twitching at her side as she stared listlessly into the starless night.
Yuka followed in his footsteps, tumbling into some garbage bags before trying to get close to her friend.
Sango forced Yuka out of the way, listening for even the lightest of thuds. Her body reeked with the heavy scent of poison. Once again Yuka had disobeyed her and this time it was going to cost her.
"What happened?" Sango ordered Sesshomaru to lay the girl down and call for Kagome. Kagome knew things about this time that she didn't and her mind was going blank.
Compressions.
"Yuka, get her heart beating. Don't stop. Tell me what happened?"
Yuka told her about the panic and about the chase, but Sango brushed over it, "but how would she have been poisoned." Her voice was nearly a growl.
"I threw my poison powder. I'd hoped that-,"
Sango flared to life, angry and guilty and lost. How many times had she warned them against inhaling poison powder? How many times had she scolded Yuka in particular about not using her weapons safely. She was always so worried about running off to do something separate and all the while she didn't know the basics.
Once inhaled there wasn't much anyone could do to slow the spread. It was meant to stun massive beasts and she feared that not even Kagome could do anything to face it. Sango was supposed to be their teacher, but she'd trusted someone irresponsible and now lives were on the line.
If Ayumi died, it would be Sango's fault.
Quickly, Sango knelt before Yuka, turning the girl's head to the side so that the bubbles could flow onto the concrete. She began to shake and tremble, and Sango found that there was nothing she could do. She needed Kagome.
Sesshomaru skidded to a stop in front of the body, but by the time he'd arrived bloody foam was bubbling out of her bluish lips, her eyes had gone unfocused, and the twitching had subsided.
They all knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the girl had died.
Kagome tried to pull Yuka away, to convince her to let go, but Yuka couldn't stop. Tears were blinding her and her arms were aching, but Ayumi couldn't die. She couldn't die because Yuka was careless. She couldn't die because they'd made a bad choice.
"I can't let her die." The words were being screamed from somewhere behind her and they echoed in her head, "she begged me not to let her die."
Someone's iron grip encircled her wrists and tugged her away.
She'd broken several of her ribs and she still wasn't waking up. Kagome's kind eyes were sad and Sango's were filled with pity, but Sesshomaru's…
If those women had not been there he'd have killed her and she knew that more certainly than she knew anything else.
The EMT pulled her back farther, trying to restrain her as she cried for her friend to be returned to her.
And then she was on a couch in a hotel. Time seemed to be jumping, skipping through moments she couldn't bear to relive.
It wasn't until Kagome sat beside her and handed her an obituary that her memories seemed to crash into one another.
Each memory was like glass and each piece cut her deeper. It was her own fault that Ayumi was dead. Not only had she poisoned her, but she'd broken her ribs.
"I can't go." Her decision was all but made, but a familiar voice commanded her otherwise.
"You will go. And when you return you will choose your weapon and I will kill you. Do you know what you've done?"
She didn't need this from him. It was her friend- her girlfriend that had been killed. He had no right to threaten her.
"Sango has endured losing her village, her family, and her life in a better time, and she's blamed herself for every misfortune that's befallen her. My slayer doesn't want to live because you're too stupid to follow basic directions. Another life lost because of her." He lifted her from the couch by her collar, walking her to the window.
"I'm not going to fight you." She struggled against his grip, "I don't want to fight."
He opened the glass and dangled her from the window.
"Then you'll die now. It doesn't matter to me." His hair seemed to be fueled by his hatred and his expression was feral. He'd never bared his fangs at her before and she realized, panicked, that it was because he was never truly angry with her.
"Sesshomaru, stop." Kagome was tugging on his arm, "you can't kill her." She flipped backwards, into the couch.
"Stay out of this priestess. I don't want to have to kill you too." His hands glowed a deadly green and the front of her shirt began to melt. The acid that touched her skin felt like a white hot poker to the chest.
"Maru, let her go." Sango sounded tired, like she'd been crying for too long.
"She's the reason-,"
"I'm the reason." Sango interjected, "I was her teacher and I gave her a weapon that she wasn't ready for. It's my fault, again. I made the same mistake, again. Now please, let her go. I can't be responsible for anymore death."
He snarled in frustration and launched Yuka into the glass coffee table, stepping over her as he moved towards his bedroom. He felt out of control, like any moment something within him would snap.
"You can't try to kill everyone that you don't like and no one else is responsible for your weak girlfriend's fucked up mental health." Her anger was coursing through her, masquerading itself as courage. It was always about Sango, Sango, Sango. The bitter words that left her mouth tasted like acid and she didn't mean it. She hated to be responsible for the the pain her teacher was feeling, but she couldn't bear the responsibility of another fuck up. Not right now.
Her girlfriend was dead and it was her own fault. Wasn't that enough to deal with? Now he wanted to make it worse?
He raised his hand against her and flung a neon whip in her direction. Her last thought was that of disbelief.
She waited for the pain, but all she got was the sound of a whip wrapping around its target. Sango stood before her, shining, crackling whip wrapped around her arm.
Her skin seemed to sizzle, but Sango did not relent.
"Leave her be Sesshomaru. She's hurting."
The whip dissipated almost immediately and the door slammed so hard behind him that she feared he'd tear the hotel down.
XxXxXxXxXx
When Sango finally approached Sesshomaru neither wanted to speak to the other.
Sango had gotten Yuka patched up and sent on her way and now she was standing before him with her hands on her hips.
He noticed, entirely against his will, that there were magenta stains just below her eyes.
"You can't kill everyone who hurts me. Did you even consider how she must feel?"
He didn't want to acknowledge the crocodile tears, for the moment he just wanted to be angry. That woman had hurt his slayer and then he was made out to be a villain for trying to protect her.
The anger he felt made it hard to be rational. All he really knew was that he wanted to hunt that irresponsible child and bathe in her blood, but, apparently, that was inappropriate. It wasn't the human way, but he wasn't human, no matter how much Sango tried to pretend that he could be.
"Sesshomaru, you can't just ignore me."
Au Contraire.
"Maru, please." She was so tired of fighting. The longer things went on the more she knew she didn't want to do it anymore, "I just," she was shaking, but she needed him to understand, "I'm not asking you to be human. I love you and all your eccentricities, but you can't just hurt people who make you angry." When he didn't look at her she continued, "your purpose isn't to tear down the people who get in my way."
"That's where you're wrong." He still wouldn't look at her, if he did he'd apologize and he hadn't done anything wrong. She'd gotten in his way and chastised him for trying to rid her of her problems, "my name means destruction of life, not mercy for the undeserving. I was born to be a killer, raised to destroy everything in my path. If you aren't alright with that then-,"
She grabbed his cheeks, forcing him to face her, "I could never love a monster. If you were destined to be a murderer, like you insist you are, Yuka and Kagome would be dead. I still remember the man who killed whoever got in his way. You were once willing to cut down your own servant." He flinched as he remembered Jaken. He'd searched, when he arrived here, but the little imp seemed to have met the sharp end of someone's sword. "You're already so far from who your father molded you into. Your ability to be kind and thoughtful has surpassed anything that I expected of you and you're getting better every day." Her lips were comforting and he found himself pulling her into his lap.
"You're a real sap, y'know." He hated to admit that he needed to be reassured, to be reminded that he wasn't a monster. Sometimes the lines blurred and his heart ached to be at peace, but other times he couldn't see beyond his anger and instead of grieving he fueled the fire until he couldn't come back down.
If he could let go of the voice that screamed in his ears that weakness would be his end, he could admit that he wasn't angry.
He was sad for Sango, sad that so many horrible things seemed to follow her. The tears tickled his cheeks, but he found that letting go felt so much better than the guilt of killing another helpless human.
"Thank you, yome."
A.N./ sorry for the delay! I was moving today and my room is still a mess. As an apology I will post chapter 17 sometime today :)