The beast was not prepared for the sting of purification—even that of a dark miko still burned the yōki inside him as the Miko's arrow exploded against the acid he'd flung at her and sent them both flying. It whined as the boy asked him what he had expected when dealing with purity, all haughty disdain even as he tried to reason with the beast to wrest back control.
Sesshoumaru sneered at the childish thing as it snapped at him and refused to admit he hurt. Well. Now he understood what father meant about the nature of the beast being infantile and simple—even if he couldn't cage it yet.
As for the beast, it shook itself out like a wet dog after climbing free of the dent in the wall and ignored the boy. Now, he was set on the challenge. She was challenging for dominance it decided, and he refused to allow her to have it. He was the more powerful, the more intelligent—it was only right that she bare her neck to him. It didn't matter that they were both children, or that he had no interest in dominating the girl in any other way. It didn't even matter that the boy had been the one to start the fight. The challenge had been issued, and now he would not stop until she submitted.
And if she did not submit? Well…then she would die—as any Inu who issued a challenge, lost, and did not submit would die.
Sesshoumaru roared behind his bars, markings beginning to appear on cheeks clean of baby pudge at the thought of his beast killing Kagome. The beast stomped towards the girl, unbothered by that bolt of purple energy she was gathering—and paused when he heard the singing. He turned when the girl did, watching one of his alpha's sing to the girl, a song of strength and fearlessness, a song of encouragement.
The beast whined, confused—Sesshoumaru took his chance and pried at the bars of his beast's cage—and in that moment of confusion, the girl unleashed hell.
Or would have, if a shimmering pink dome hadn't dropped down around the girl so bright and clear and pureit hurt to look at. The beast and the boy watched as she was bombared by the darkness of her own soul, the black purple purity lashing at her back and shoulders as it rebounded off that solid wall of purification between her and the demons in the room she could burn to ash if the dome fell.
And the girl made not a sound.
The beast watched as her small shoulders shook, as she bowed her head and bared the back of her neck—not in submission, but to protect herself—to take the brunt of the dark magic against her own skin. She knows the burns will kill us, the boy said quietly, and so she takes them. Do you think still you are the more superior?
The beast did not like the wisdom in the boy's words, did not like the way the girl grew yet more quiet and still in her barrier as the dark magic searched and searched for a weakness in the dome protecting the citadel from herself. But, more than the knowledge of his own inferiority, he was loath to watch the girl suffer after the Alpha had encouraged her to fearlessness. This was strength, the beast thought.
And so, when the magic finally dissipated and the girl fell quiet and the dome faded—boy and beast were in agreement for the first time in the several short minutes that had passed since the beast had broken free. The sight of her, body broken, chest still, soul fading, set the beast and the boy to roaring—and the boy wrested control in that moment of weakness and pain, shoving the beast back into its cage even as his roar echoed through the shaken citadel and his knees buckled, forcing him to kneel before the dead.
o.O.o
Word Count - 678