Wow, I have other things I need to be doing, but this chapter wrote itself.

Chapter 21: More Answers

Sitting on the enormous sofa, Inuyasha stared at Sesshomaru and didn't bother to hide the fact that he was growling at him.

Hours earlier, he had arrived at the Taisho headquarters penthouse living space fully intent on getting answers from Sesshomaru. It was Sesshomaru that told him to go there and that they'd speak later, but the jerk seemed to have zero intent on talking. When he arrived, he tried talking with him, but Sesshomaru was helping Rin with her homework like nothing happened. And the girl didn't even need help. She'd do one problem without help, then look at Sesshomaru for what he supposed was a look of approval, but the old dog's face didn't change at all. Despite that, the girl would give a bright smile and move onto the next problem like his blank stare held all the answers in the world. Fine. Fine! He could get that homework was important, and besides, he knew the girl's bedtime was soon so he just grabbed dinner and took a shower to wash the blood off. But then, when he was ready again, Sesshomaru was sitting at a desk working with company files. When Inuyasha tried to talk to him, he was completely and utterly ignored.

So yes, here he was, sitting on the couch growling at Sesshomaru. And it was getting late, he had school tomorrow morning. The growling got louder.

"Must you act like an uncivilized animal?" Ha! He finally got him to talk.

"You're the ass that told me to come here to talk, so talk!"

For a moment, it looked like Sesshomaru was going to go back to silence, but then he questioned, "the name you were going to say before was Onigumo?"

Inuyasha nodded, "you know him?"

"He is the cause of father's sleep." What? WHAT?

"What?!" He didn't care if he woke Rin. "You -" he was too pissed for his words to even form right. He took a moment to just breath through the anger, but even then his words were laced with a growl. "You said father's condition might've been the result of recent increases in criminal activity around the company, but you didn't have details or even proof of a connection!"

"I said I was uncertain, I am not anymore."

Inuyasha walked over to Sesshomaru's desk and slammed his hands down on it. "You-" He growled. He felt out of control, like in the middle of the fight against Muso.

Sesshomaru sighed. "This is why I did not want to tell you little brother. You have too great a temper and your youkai is acting on it."

Sesshomaru wasn't wrong. He felt like he was drowning in anger, and while he was in fact angry, this felt worse. Like something was transforming his anger into blind rage, maybe bloodlust. "Hurts," he whispered, clutching his head.

It was then that Sesshomaru got up and walked around to Inuyasha. He snaked one arm around Inuyasha, rather like a hug, and pulled him close. The other went up and started gently rubbing Inuyasha's ears. He released a small amount of youki and covered Inuyasha in it. "Calm down. The fight still has you agitated and always using Tessaiga as a crutch would be foolish."

It was calming, and made him feel safe. It was not the first time Sesshomaru had done it. It was shortly after Sesshomaru exposed the youkai world to him, and shortly after their father's attack. He was training using his newfound strength and was weightlifting large barbells. The weight he grabbed was too heavy for him, and the barbell ended up landing on him, breaking his arm, and trapping him. His frustration, confusion, pain, anger, and sadness all combined and purple stripes appeared on his cheeks for the first time. Sesshomaru had grabbed him and pinned him down. The two brothers usually didn't get along great, being fire and ice, but in that moment, Sesshomaru just held him immobile and stroked his ears until he tired himself to sleep. During it, he swore he heard through the fog, "I understand."

For a few minutes, neither moved or said anything, but eventually Inuyasha's breathing became less labored and he felt more stable. Shit. That's been happening more frequently. "Sessh, please you have to talk to me." Without a word, he let go and Inuyasha noticed him going to the kitchen. He was confused, until he saw him grab a beer. It seemed like that was also becoming a more frequent occurrence. "What did you mean by using Tessaiga as a crutch?" They needed to start somewhere and that seemed like the simpler question.

After another large sip, he answered, "Tessaiga holds more than one seal. One, allows you to turn human. The other forces you to stay in hanyou form, rather than youkai."

"I have a youkai form?" That was news. "Why didn't you tell me? I told you Muso was trying to kill me, I coulda used that!"

"Perhaps. But it also could kill you."

Ok then, maybe not. "Why would it kill me?"

"You need to ask? You have felt the transformation start before. How has it felt?"

"... painful."

"Precisely. Turning into a youkai would chip away at your soul until nothing remained. It would be an unpleasant death. Whilst your hand grips the blade, the secondary seal is strengthened preventing the transformation."

"And if I were to transform fully?"

"You are not a pureblooded youkai. The transformation would be incomplete. You would be stronger, but your only instinct would be to kill. You would feel no fear, you would know no pain. You would simply fight until you died."

"Oh."

"It can be triggered when you are on the brink of death or with certain intense emotions. It is part of the reason father never told you the truth. Hanyou children of powerful youkai tend to have issues around puberty if their blood is not well sealed. When we released the first seal, the second was weakened as well. The first seal, however, strengthens the second so you are not likely to lose control in human form."

He didn't really know what a good response to that would be, but they still had the original discussion to finish. "And Onigumo? I'm calm. Tell me what you know."

Sesshomaru slouched, he actually slouched. "There are still details missing, but the coincidences are too great to ignore." Inuyasha took a seat back and the couch and looked at him expectantly. "A few months ago his fiance, Kikyo, died of mysterious circumstances."

"Kikyo… why's that familiar?"

"She is of relation to your female. They were the two strongest priestesses of their line, although Kikyo was older and an active level one fighter. Her death was blamed on a youkai grudge, but no details were confirmed."

"Shit. Kagome never mentioned something like that." He blinked. "A few months…?"

"Two days before father was attacked." Shit. "Onigumo is supposed to know nothing of the youkai world, however, it is very easy to overlook that expectation given the circumstances. We should assume that he knows we are youkai, although I am not certain how he could have come across that information. Youkai do not tend to talk to humans."

"The bomb was laced with spiritual energy… you think it was hers? Like a leftover charged weapon or something?"

"Indeed, however, the bomb was just a distraction. Father has fully recovered from the spiritual attack."

A growl ripped through the room. And the couch, it would never recover from the tears. In a deadly voice, Inuyasha spoke, "what do you mean recovered?"

Sesshomaru looked passively at the sofa he would need to replace. "I do not mean he is conscious. About a week ago, the doctors confirmed the trace spiritual energy was gone."

"Then why's he still asleep?" He was only fractionally calmer knowing his brother hadn't failed to tell him their father woke up.

"His soul is missing."

"What?" Now it was just confusion. How does one just lose their soul… except by transforming into a pureblooded youkai apparently?

"A mystery. However, it is merely missing, and has not yet crossed the veil, evidenced that his body is still breathing on its own. In other words, it has likely been stolen. The incompetent doctors missed the problem until the spiritual energy finally faded."

"How? Can… Can it be recovered? And how does this relate back to Onigumo?"

"In theory, yes. That is the only reason Onigumo still lives. He holds fathers soul."

"How do you know… and why?"

"He has been after the company, I can only imagine there is something he's after. As for how, you becoming the crimson vigilante proved useful." Inuyasha gave him a funny look. He didn't see how. Sesshomaru returned to the desk he was working at before and grabbed a folder, which he handed to Inuyasha. "Look. The activity related to him was organized in the beginning: theft of files, trying to hack into our systems, break ins, attacking our employees. The list is long." Sesshomaru gave the barest of smiles to Inuyasha, but it wasn't a happy smile, it was malicious.

Inuyasha felt a shiver go down his spine at that look, "what?"

"Then you started interfering," he answered.

"Heh?"

"His attacks since have been purposeless, without direction. He has merely been doing anything to draw you out and he is not being careful with his information either. He is studying you. Most likely, he will eventually move to harm you, or perhaps corrupt you into what he wants."

"Heh?!" Dammit I'm being used as bait! "Wait, you said not to talk to Kagome, that it could put her in danger, but everyone knows she's my girlfriend! You're putting her at risk, probably mother too!"

"Hmm, unlikely, but if it eases your mind, they're both under heavy surveillance and protection by myself."

"Protection? Like those damn wimpy wolves?" That protection was crap! "And that still doesn't answer why they wouldn't go after my loved ones!"

"They went easy on you, to test you for me. However, you losing control to your youkai and attacking Koga was unintended. It is lucky he was able to get the Tessaiga into your hand before passing out."

Did he? "But I had been in human form?"

"You had been in hanyou form not five minutes prior. The seal does get tired and it is not impossible to transform from human. Jinenji apparently did mere minutes after you left him at the hospital due to his life being in danger. Fortunately they had gotten him into a private room by then in preparation to remove it intentionally."

"Fine, you better be right bastard. But, why would it matter if I interacted with Kagome if he already knows?"

"Because, Onigumo posted a reward for drawing out and fighting the crimson vigilante. Who knows who was watching the fight? The reward was posted on both human and youkai channels. Your identity as Inuyasha was not."

"But Muso knew my human form, and not my hanyou, he was confused by my hair not being black."

"Muso was an exception. I intercepted a communication to him directly from Onigumo. There was a link between the two, and not the mere bounty. I am still investigating that connection. In fact, I had been hunting him in Chiba until you called, apparently a false lead, possibly intentionally. But he was not targeting you, you merely interfered yourself."

"You still knew there was a serious target on my back, a literal bounty, and didn't tell me!"

Sesshomaru sighed. Twice in one day! The world is ending. "I'm sorry. I had been keeping an eye on you some, but you were not supposed to go after Muso."

Inuyasha sputtered. "You- you're sorry?" Yep, the world ended.

"I did not expect things to get so out of hand. I told you, confirming the connection was only a recent thing. I was not even aware of the bounty until recently. It was given to humans first and I do not tend to pay attention to their criminal underground. I only discovered it when it reached the ears of youkai."

Now Inuyasha sighed and scratched at his ears, "Everything's a mess. So what do we do?"

Sesshomaru took the last sip of his beer, "I will continue to monitor information about father's soul. Until then, we wait for Onigumo to make his next move."

AN: Hopefully everything made sense.

This stuff has been mentioned a few times, but just in case anything hasn't been made clear for moving forward: I am taking some liberties with his youkai transformation- yes it can be triggered by emotion, not just his life being in danger when he drops the Tessaiga. Also, in this AU, most youkai tend to care less about human affairs, outside of perhaps business, so the societies are really two loosely connected worlds. And they really don't care to talk to the spiritualists. Thus, it really wouldn't be too hard for youkai to figure out that the Inu no Taisho is President Taisho and that his sons are named Sesshomaru and Inuyasha in both societies. It's not a well kept secret, but most youkai don't really care. It's just the ones in their employ that really know. Plus, Inuyasha is not yet well known in youkai circles due to his only recent appearance. And of course, due to the spiritualists, youkai aren't likely to attack a human in broad daylight in the middle of a city, well, minus Muso.

Let me know if anything doesn't make total sense. I've tried to make sure nothing contradicts, but this story got a bit more complicated than I originally planned. And longer. Till next time!