Children of Tomorrow

Chapter Four

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Disclaimer: Blah, Blah, Blah. You all know it by now.

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Takara's keen nose brought the trio to a passage that split off into three tunnels.

"Does anyone else find this to be convenient?" (A/N: Then they all looked up and saw Clear Shadow grin nervously....)

"Probably a trap," Ashi replied, "Like somebody wants us to split up," (A/N: Again they looked up and Clear Shadow grinned nervously....)

"Well, if it's the only way to save Chiyumi-san then that is what we must do."

"You're actin' awfully calm," Inuyasha said, Miroku looked at him.

"Whatever are you talking about?" Inuyasha nudged him, "Stop that do you want to rescue her or not?" Inuyasha shrugged.

"Whatever. If anyone finds Yumi-chan then bring her back here and wait for the others. If you don't find her within an hour then turn back. And don't do anything stupid....Ashi," Ashi chose not to reply, instead her jogged down his chosen path.

"I would give you the same advice," Miroku said, "Don't let your temper flare. I don't think this is Naraku we're dealing with."

"Feh, just don't get yourself killed monk."

Inuyasha ran down an impossibly long corridor. Though it hardly affected him, he could feel an evil miasma emanating from every possible nook and cranny. Miroku, he knew, was probably having a harder time with the miasma, but this and every other logical thought was shoved out of his head when the corridor suddenly opened up into a large stone chamber. Inuyasha strode in, Tetsusaiga transformed and ready to kill whatever caused his sister's distress.

"Welcome Inuyasha," the hanyou looked up at the sound of his name. High above him, half hidden by shadows were two women. One was seated in a high-backed, throne-like chair, the other knelt next to the chair. Inuyasha did a double take when he realized who the second woman was.

"Chiyumi? What the hell are ya doin'?!"

"Do you like my pet Inuyasha?" the hanyou growled.

"Yumi-chan what're ya doin'?" he repeated. Chiyumi remained silent and did not even turn her attention his way. Her eyes are different, Inuyasha realized, They've lost their sparkle. It's like she's dead inside.

"She can't hear you, you know. She belongs to me and me alone. The only things she hears are my voice and my commands. And occasionally the sounds I make when she gives me pleasure. She's such a good pet you see," Inuyasha felt sick inside. Why? Chiyumi was strong enough to evade this sort of entrapment. And to be forced to...no, he couldn't bring himself to think of that. He was going to kill this bitch.

"Chiyumi-chan," she looked up at the demon's call, "I want you to fight him. And don't let up until he's dead. Understand? I want to see him in a pool of his own blood."

"Hai mistress," was the whispered reply. Chiyumi jumped down and for the first time Inuyasha got a good look at her and how changed she was. Her hair, previously done up into spiral pigtails that gave the appearance of a child and yet still managed to look way cool, now hung long and straight down her back. Instead of her barely there shirt and angle-cut skirt she wore the clothes of a slave, or brothel girl. That is, a top that barely contained her breasts and a long skirt that wasn't so much a skirt as it was a piece of cloth in the front and back held together by a piece of string. And her eyes, Inuyasha was correct in saying that they had lost their sparkle. Her eyes were unnaturally wide and blank and were completely empty. She was quite literally a shell of the live loving girl she had once been. This demon chick must be Hikori Inuyasha realized, She must've trapped Chiyumi somehow when Chiyumi tried to kill her. But how? Chiyumi unfurled her Shukusens with twin snaps and slashed out at her brother. Inuyasha almost didn't bring Tetsusaiga up in time to block. He had forgotten how gods-cursed fast his sister was.

"So what does she have on you, Yumi-chan?" Inuyasha demanded as he blocked her strikes, "Did you do this so she'd heal you? Is that it? You gave up your life for that?" he grabbed Chiyumi's arms, "That was it wasn't it? You agreed to this didn't you?" he spun her away from him and she hit the ground. She was back up quickly and in a move too quick to follow slashed through Inuyasha's precious fire-rat gi to meet with the flesh underneath. Inuyasha stepped back as some of his blood splashed onto Chiyumi's white clothes. She surged froward again and he grabbed her wrists, "I should break you right here and now," he snarled.

"I know," was the whispered reply. Chiyumi's golden eyes went from normal to possessed and back again as her brain fought to break whatever spell she was under, "If I had time I would explain the real reason behind this and you wouldn't be disappointed with me. As it is please listen carefully to my instructions."

"What?"

"Lie down and make yourself bleed."

"Nani?!"

"She said she wanted to see you in a pool of your own blood right?" Inuyasha looked at her, she had managed to take control, for a time at least, "Please trust me aniki. Aishteru," Inuyasha looked at her an nodded.

"Better strike me once more to make it convincin'," Chiyumi nodded and leaped back. Suddenly she sneezed and her eyes returned to their possessed state. Inuyasha braced himself, luckily he moved a slight bit at the last moment and the Shukusen missed it's original target and hit his shoulder instead. He stepped back and placed a hand over the wound, he fell first to his knees then face down on the cold stone floor, a pool of red, red blood quickly forming around him.

"Excellent," Hikori said, "There are more coming. I want you to take care of them as well."

"Hai, mistress..."

Ashi was beginning to get pretty damn sick of the corridor he was running down by the time he entered the large stone arena. The first thing he saw upon entering was probably not something he had expected. Inuyasha. Face down. In a pool of blood. Ashi ran over.

"What happened to you?" Inuyasha cracked open an eye.

"Same thing that'll happen to you if you don't move it!" he hissed.

"Huh?" Ashi looked up just in time to duck the whirling blade that came his way. The Shukusen went past his head, whirled around and went back to it's mistress who caught it, spun it around, and snapped it shut, "Chiyumi? What the hell?" Chiyumi didn't reply, instead she flew at the smaller boy and slashed her fan downward. Ashi instinctively raised his hands and realized what a mistake that was when the fans's delicate edge tore a huge gash in both his arms. Before he could react to the pain Chiyumi slashed him across the chest. He jumped backwards to avoid a hit to the neck and fell to one knee, wincing.

"What're ya doin' Chiyumi?" he asked as she surged forward again. Ashi managed to dodge the first two cuts but the third and fourth hit, spill more of his blood on Chiyumi's now slightly pink clothes, "I don't understand aneki, what did I do to make you hate me so much?" Chiyumi paused at the word 'aneki'.

"You silly half breeds just don't get it do you?" Hikori called, "Chiyumi-chan is mine. Only my voice will reach her," Ashi looked up at her for a moment and in that split second Chiyumi struck forward with a deadly stop-thrust. The Shukusen hit it's mark perfectly as Ashi whipped his head around.

"I get it now," he whispered as blood began to pour out the corner of his mouth. He stepped forw as Chiyumi yanked her fan back and wrapped his arms around her mid-section. She accepted his weight and he buried his face on the smooth skin of her stomach, "I understand aneki. She healed your wound but that's not the real reason why you're doing this is it? Miroku is coming too. Are you gonna kill him?" he began sliding down her body, "Go....gomen na...nasai. I didn't really mean any of the mean things I've said to you. I don't think you're a stupid girl. And...the truth is...the truth is that I do care. Just like...just like you look at me like an otouto...I look at you like my aneki. And...and...I want...you to be..." he hit the floor and closed his eyes, though he was still smiling, "Want you to be....ureshii..." a single tear rolled down Chiyumi's cheek, the only sign that she had heard his voice as Miroku rushed into the scene.

"Oh Chiyumi,"it emerged as a breathy whisper but carried more emotion than anything he could have shouted.

"Oh the monk," Hikori said gleefully, "I was so hoping you'd show up. We know all about you don't we Chiyumi-chan? About how he only wanted to get into your kimono and how he left you for that boomerang girl once he had taken what he wanted from you," Chiyumi turned cold eyes upon him.

"That's not true," Miroku reply as he blocked one of Chiyumi's attacks with his staff, "It isn't. I haven't done anything to Sango except for an innocent grope or two...or five..."

"Not true you say? So you're a liar as well as a kimono chaser?"

"I would never lie to you Chiyumi!" Chiyumi paused in her attacks, frozen by the emotion in his voice. She seemed suddenly worried, unsure of herself. Miroku stepped towards her and she stepped back, "When you left the first time I was so saddened. It felt like my heart had been ripped out through my chest," he took another step towards her and she leaned away from him, clutching her Shukusen tightly. When he took a third step towards her she made a move to stab him, but stopped short. A mere millimeter rested between her blood-soaked fan and Miroku's chest, "You feel it too. I know you do."

"Chiyumi kill him! Kill him now!"

"When I saw you again nearly two months ago I was so happy I nearly burst," he moved closer and embraced her gently, "I remember everything about that night, because after you went to sleep I just laid there holding you. Taking in every detail that I could because how was I to know that this wasn't the last time I would see you?" Chiyumi buried her face in the monk's soft robes, "I still remember the way you taste when I kiss you. I still feel the softness of your hair, the warmth of your skin. Even you scent still haunts my memory. I love the way you smell did you know? You smell of everything wild and free. You are the forest and all the creatures within it."

"Miroku-kun..."

"I don't care if you bear my child or not. I could die a happy man just knowing that I held your heart as you hold mine. From now on, no matter what I refuse to leave your side. I'll be with you ever."

"For all eternity?"

"Not even death would part us," Chiyumi looked into the face of the man who was always so gentle with her. Her eyes brimmed with tears as the emptiness left them and their golden depths returned to normal.

"Miroku-kun there's something you should know..."

"No! I won't have it. I WON'T!!" Chiyumi turned around, she had forgotten Hikori, and narrowed her eyes.

"You don't have power over me anymore Hikori," Chiyumi said sweetly, "That means I can kill you now. For everything that you've done...for my happiness...my dignity..." she paused and looked at Hikori with the coldest eyes ever, "But most of all for my child. You will pay, and pay dearly," Hikori stood there, stunned then began laughing.

"Filthy little hanyou!" she spat, "You might have broken free of my spell but you still could never hope to defeat me. Never."

"Never is a long time Hikori-chan," Chiyumi hurled a Shukusen at the demon. She knew Hikori would expect this, but what Hikori didn't expect was that Chiyumi had rolled over to the forgotten Tetsusaiga and in the same stop-thrust that brought Ashi down plunged the sword through Hikori's chest. The very large sword cut clean through the demon, causing much of the same wound that Hikori's minion had inflicted on Chiyumi. Only Chiyumi had something the other demon didn't....

Long ago when she was just a pup. She had begged her eldest brother to teach her something. She wanted to learn how to do the attack where he focused his ki into an energy whip. He had refused at first, saying that a hanyou could never hope to achieve such a noble attack, but Chiyumi was his favorite sibling and very persistent besides. Sesshoumaru, the hater of hanyous and humans everywhere gave in to the pleading of his baby sister.

It was this attack that Chiyumi now used in a modified version. The whip wormed several tendrils into the wound Tetsusaiga made and ripped outwards. Hikori fell to the ground in several pieces, spewing out poisons gasses the entire time.

"You shouldn't take people for your sick little sex games Hikori-chan, it isn't fucking nice."

"Hanyou no baka," Hikori's head spat, "This isn't over."

"Oh no. It's over. Trust me," Hikori let out one last giggle.

"Maybe, but I'll be taking you with me when I explode," Chiyumi's eyes widened, she grabbed her Shukusens and thrust them into Miroku's arms.

"Hold these."

"Nani?"

"She's right. She'll explode and if we're not gone we're all dead," she grabbed Ashi and cradled him gently in her arms, "Get up Inuyasha-kun. I didn't hurt you that badly," Inuyasha stood up with a wince.

"Only 'cause I moved at the last minute," Chiyumi glared.

"Fine whatever. Grab your stupid sword and move."