Chapter 26
Hey, I just get right to the action this time (aside from the disclaimer: I don't own Sesshoumaru, Rin, Jaken, Kouga, Kouga's pals, Ayume, Shippou, Sango, Miroku, Kaede, Kikyo, or anyone else on Inuyasha!). Haha, thought I'd forget to mention I don't own Inuyasha, didn't you!? Wait a second…::smacks head::
Shine: Pronounced Shi Neh, means, "Die."
Heats thudded, blood rushing through ears, roaring like the crashing foam of waterfalls as the two stood, glaring at each other: one with cold, silent fury; one with red, glowing rage shining through his eyes.
Both stood, still as statues; silent as stone, each waiting for the other to make the first move, each waiting for the chance to draw first blood…
"Sesshoumaru! Inuyasha! Knock it off, Inuyasha didn't do…" She started, but was cut off as Sesshoumaru bounded forward: Inuyasha's eyes had shifted towards his mate's voice, and that brief distraction was exactly what his half-brother had been waiting for.
Caught off guard, Inuyasha was only able to raise the Tessaiga in a partial block, deflecting the eviscerating stroke that Sesshoumaru had intended, but still putting a good-sized slash in the arm of his red haori. Not bothering to contemplate what should be done next, he swung Tetsuaiga around, inscribing a semicircle in the air, at the youkai currently flying by him, momentum from his stroke still carrying him forward.
Toukijin blocked Tetsuaiga, and both swords sang as metal clashed with a resounding ring; quick as lightning, both combatants yanked their swords away from the other and stabbed again, sword deflecting sword and another protesting cry of the metal sounding before the first had dissipated.
Kagome watched numbly as the fight raged on, swords flashing in glittering arcs, light playing madly upon the swords as each sought to find flesh to cleave. It was only a matter of time before one of them lost their patience and…
"KAZE NO KIZU!" Inuyasha roared, leaping back from the fray and unleashing the Wound of the Wind upon a grounded Sesshoumaru, only to be amazed as the Toukijin sliced right through it—with obvious difficulty, but it had cut the Kaze no Kizu!
"My turn," Sesshoumaru breathed as he swung the Toukijin once more, and a bolt of crackling blue energy raced towards the airborne figure of Inuyasha.
"KUSO!" He cried, swinging the Tetsuaiga down into a defensive position, holding it steady against the barrage of the Toukijin's attack; energy spilled to both sides, crackling bolts of energy shooting to Inuyasha's sides as he placed his death grip on the hilt, then swung the sword and flung the whole damn thing into the forest.
'Great. Just great. I was hoping the Toukijin wasn't a match for the Tetsuaiga, but guess I was wrong…CHIKUSHO! I could do the Bakuryuuha, but I don't want to kill the bastard, I just want to…'
His thought process stopped dead in its tracks as he realized what he'd just thought: he didn't want to kill Sesshoumaru. Had said demon given him a moment's rest, Inuyasha would have hit himself in the head with his Tetsuaiga: why, of all times, had his lack of desire to kill his brother chosen to surface NOW!? The ONE TIME where he might need to kill his brother in self-defense, and he didn't want to!
Unfortunately for Inuyasha, and fortunately for the Tetsuaiga/his skull, his brother didn't give him time to do his job for him: leaping airborne, he cleared the Tetsuaiga and kicked his younger half-brother straight in the jaw; foot ground against tooth as Inuyasha began to spiral backwards, and injury was added to injury as the Toukijin was swung again, finding its mark on Inuyasha's exposed back and sending him hurtling into a tree, full-force.
Moving with speed greater than he had ever shown before, Sesshoumaru flew forward and jammed the Toukijin straight into Inuyasha's back, sending a river of blood down his back and front alike as it painted the front of the tree red. Ripping the sword mercilessly out of his back, Sesshoumaru prepared to deliver the fatal strike to Inuyasha's exposed chest.
Blood streamed down Inuyasha front and back, coughing brought up flecks of it as chest and back alike burned, yet still he attempted to rise. Sesshoumaru smirked, seeming as if his face were about to crack from this small show of emotion, and swung the sword in an earthward rush, growling,
"Shine."
Acting with the strength given by pain-induced fury ringing his brain bloody, Inuyasha kicked the sword to one side. The killing stroke went wide, cutting a chasm in the ground as Inuyasha coiled his back muscles and sprung; launching himself feet-first from the ground at Sesshoumaru's chest, his maneuver was well-placed on an unprepared opponent.
Sesshoumaru tumbled backwards, rear end making contact with the ground as the full weight of an angry hanyou compressed his ribcage, and began smashing it as he leapt gracefully off and twisted midair to land behind his brother. Advantage seized, upper hand gained, he grinned as the sword pulsed in his hand, blade staining a dark red even as he watched.
The red Tetsuaiga was no longer used for merely breaking barriers: it was used for battle.
Thrusting the sword downwards from heavens above to come to rest on the ground less than ten feet from Sesshoumaru's head, the ground veritably exploded as azure energy burst forth from crimson blade, connecting dead-on with its target.
The target swung his sword behind his head, driving it into the earth betwixt his head and the attack; using the same support, he threw himself off the ground, using Toukijin as a pole vault, and watched impassively as the tree soaked in Inuyasha's blood took the full brunt of the Kaze no Kizu and burst asunder.
Sword met sword again as Sesshoumaru thrust his sword down once more; swords screamed that same high-pitched ring as blades collided, power sparked from each as anger-infused visage met cold emptiness. Wind swirled around Tetsuaiga; jaki surmounted the edges of Toukijin, and bolts of power decimated the ground upon which they stood.
"It's funny, brother," Inuyasha hissed, spitting the last word as if it left a bitter taste in his mouth. "It seems the Great Lord Sesshoumaru, apple of his father's eye, powerful, mighty, has finally met an equal."
No change arose in Sesshoumaru's visage, but the aura of anger that had henceforth gone unnoticed arose once more with a vengeance as the sting of Inuyasha's words hit home.
"And you know who the equal is?" Inuyasha grinned, winds wrapping around the Tetsuaiga, spinning in a cyclonic frenzy around the blade as it sought to overpower the reek of jaki seeping from the Toukijin. "His no good…"
Groans of straining metal could be heard from both Tetsuaiga and Toukijin as both masters called upon every ounce of their youkai might to shatter the other's blade.
"Half-breed…"
Toukijin took on a crimson glow, as if sensing Sesshoumaru's growing rage, barely contained beneath his calm exterior.
"HANYOU BROTHER!" Inuyasha roared, the combined might of he and Tetsuaiga's fury shoving the Toukijin back, leaving Inuyasha free to slash his brother's chest with the Sankon Tessou, but catching a returning strike of his brother's poison claws in retaliation.
Red lines, tinted with the green of his brother's poison, lay across Inuyasha's cheek; red lines rimmed with his own youki lay across his brother's chest. Inuyasha was injured far worse than Sesshoumaru, but he couldn't help but grin as he saw the claw-marks stretching across his brother's chest.
He was his brother's equal; a hanyou, said to be pitied, weak, gifted only with a sword, was his youkai brother's equal.
Hey, an entire chapter devoted to a fight scene…I'm surprised I could keep it up for so long ^_^. I'd write some more, but I feel that this is a good place to sign off for tonight and finish up the rest tomorrow. Well, as always, please review, and if you have any ideas/threats/want something translated into Japanese/fight scene requests/romance scene requests/poetry requests/death wishes (er…scratch that last one…) just let me know in your review and I'll do anything I can to help! Oh, btw: with this chapter I've broken another 10,000 word mark, the 40,000 word mark! Only 10,000 more to go until I hit 50,000! ^_^