Chapter 6:

Family Ties Mean Nothing to Youkia

His mother stood by the bank of the river, watching him play in the water.

He turned and smiled at her; a small boy of about six. Small for a demon child, but tough as nails. His big brother Sesshoumaru had a deep bite in his hand, in-flicted by tiny fangs, protesting having to come inside out of the rain. The child loved the rain. He would just sit outside and stare up the raindrops falling strait down at his face. The maids absolutely hated it; they were overwhelmed by the amount of small, mud-stained kimonos that they were flooded with.

The boys mother smiled, unbeknownst to the pair it would be the last time she ever would. She got up, and straitened her flowing blue kimono.

The boys mother beckoned for them to leave, so the child began his clumsy climb up the bank. He had just about reached the top when his mother shoved him back down. He landed painfully in the water, and looked up to protest such treatment, when his mother's sword flashed in the midday sun, coming down in a broad arch, barely missing its target; a demon, by the smell of it; dressed in the skin of a white baboon. The sword ripped through the side, drawing blood which quickly stained the pale fur. The creature laughed.

Laughed; at one of the most powerful demons alive; laughed; like she was nothing compared to him. His mother leaped back from this strange demon, eyes blazing red. Bringing her sword up to an offensive position, she charged; and as she did so, the baboon seemed to change. He seemed less like a baboon and more like a black hole, sucking his mother in. The child thought this was just an illusion. You're ok, right, mother? the boy thought. But when the darkness vanished, the only demon there was the white baboon.

The child choked on a cry; and didn't, couldn't, do anything as the demon approached him. "Your mother was stupid, child. What shall you do?"

The child snarled, then savagely bit the hand that was approaching his face.

The demon snatched his hand back; and lashed out with his other, catching the across the side of the face, sending him crashing into deeper water.

"You're not worth wasting space with, little Inu brat." he said icily, kicking the boy in the face again, knocking him deeper into the river. This time the water was well over his head. He had almost drowned once before, he had been rescued by his mother. Were was she now? She was gonna save him right?

Mother, Sessy's in trouble! Help! he thought, pitifully; his head kept getting dunked underwater by the swift current that ran down the middle of the river.

"Mother.." he choked. "Mother! M..."

******

"Mother!" Sesshyo shouted, sitting up in bed so quickly that he nearly passed out. He laid back down quickly, glancing around the room, trying to figure out where he was. Lets see... before he was at some village, in a... house was it?

That's right. A house, and there was and old human woman. She hurt him, touching his wound, he had stifled a cry when she did that, but she still heard him; he had blushed with embarrassment through his pain. She would think he was weak if he screamed. He would think himself weak if he screamed.

But she just smiled. "It's alright to show emotion, young one. I won't tell anyone if you whimper a bit." But he didn't anyway. Then there was Sia; he remembered fire, and Sia telling those 'ignorant humans' to 'get their asses in gear' so they could leave. Then he couldn't remember anything until... of course, how stupid.

They were at the Daimaiyo Den, also known as Shinriaka Castle. Unlike all the other clan dens; which were built into mountains, or deep underground;

Star Castle was an ancient stone fortress, built by a human army from the East. It was supposedly impenetrable, or at least the guy he talked to when he was moving the Southern Court from the underground cavern of Oonishi, had told him that. The castle itself was constructed of stone, with walls sixty feet high, and five feet thick. It had five one-hundred foot towers on each point of its pentagon shape, making it look like a star from the air. Inside were two hundred rooms, and a mile of secret rooms and passageways. Outside the castle was surrounded by moat with a twenty foot deep trench, the bank on the castle-side was covered in logs with one end stuck in the ground and the other end sticking strait out with the end sharpened to a point. Beyond this was a wooden room, like a wall, five and a half feet high,five feet wide, with a two thousand foot circumference, totally enclosed except for a eight inch wide slot that ran its entire length. This was known as the Archery Wall; archers stood inside the wall and could shoot enemies without putting themselves at much risk. Also, topping the Archery Wall were two foot long steel spikes, for impaling any one who tried to climb over. The Wall could be reached by an underground tunnel leading from the castle. And finally, fifty feet in front of the Archery Wall, was a stone wall, sixty feet high, surrounding the entire castle area. This wall had a walkway on top for lookouts and turrets for even more archers, so if by some freak chance an enemy got past the perimeter wall he would have archers shooting at him from both sides. Pretty dang effective, if you asked Sesshyo.

Sesshyo slowly got up and put on a dark blue kimono; it was the same color as the eyes of the more outspoken of the two girls Sia had rescued. Yes, they were here. Sia had taken them hoping he could drop them at the next village; but when they arrived, it had been burned into the dust of ruin, and even Sia wasn't so cold hearted as to just leave them there. So now they were scurrying around the courtyard, much to the disgust of his court members. Sesshyo smiled painfully. As long as he was here they would keep their claws off the two girls.

And was just how Sesshyo wanted it.

******

Sesshyo had come down from his room in the tower a few minutes ago; and was now sitting cross-legged in the courtyard polishing Hyokama. He glanced at the two human children. Sesshyo could tell from a glance they couldn't have come from around here. The older girl, shy little Mika had pale blue eyes and red hair; and the younger, but more courageous Katsumi had green eyes and yellow hair. Sesshyo actually found himself curious at this--well, more curious than he usually was. He never seen a person with yellow hair; he had once thought he saw one on a journey to the eastern lands, but he had just figured it was an illusion. Weird. He stood up and walked toward the girls. Mika immediately hid behind Katsumi, who just stood there, green eyes peering questionably at the young demon lord who had just strolled up to her.

He stared at her for a second, then remembering that humans didn't like just being stared at for no reason, spoke. "Katsumi, right? How old are you? Six?"

She frowned. "I'm ten. and Mika's eleven."

Ten? she was awful small to be ten. She smiled challengingly.

"And how old are you?" she asked Sesshyo.

"Sixty-one." Katsumi's jaw dropped ever so slightly. That obviously was not the answer she had expected. "You're old. Older than my dad." she said.

Sesshyo frowned, annoyed at being compared to her dad; he was just a child by demon standards. "And your dad is...?"

"A general." she chirped.

"A general? General Who? And under whose flag?"

"General Striffe. Under the flag of the Imperial Army."

Sesshyo took a step back. General Striffe? He was second only to the Japanese Emperor! "What?" Sesshyo said stupidly.

"You heard me, it'd be kinda hard not to with those ears."

For being so polite sometimes, this girl certainly could have a smart mouth.

Sensing that she had said the wrong thing; after all, Sesshyo was the one that kept them from being ripped apart by the hungry teeth of demons; she quickly said: "But they're cute ears!" Sesshyo's eyes narrowed as he glared venomously at the girl. "This close." he said icily, holding his index finger and thumb out to show her how close. A cold voice sounded from the other side of the courtyard.

"It's not very good for your public image, being pushed around by a little human girl like that, Lord Sesshyo." said a scarred Dog demon by the name of Sark. His icy smiled signed this comment as a challenge. Sesshyo stepped toward him, snarling. "I didn't ask you, Sark." Sark advanced toward the white-haired Inu, his black hair pulled up in a ponytail whipped behind him in the wind.

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

"Back off, Sark." Sia snapped, appearing from nowhere. Normally, Sesshyo could've kicked Sark's butt from here to high-heaven; but he could still smell fresh blood on Sesshyo, and obviously Sark could to. He snarled at both the Dog

Youkai, then turned and motioned for Sesshyo to come with him.

******

"How are you feeling?" Sia asked the boy walking along beside him on the top of the castle's Archery Bridge that ran along the top of the wall.

"Fine."

"Are you sure."

Sesshyo whirled. "Cut the crap, Sia. What is it?"

"While you were out; you know, unconscious;"

"I know what it means." Sesshyo snapped.

"...more scouts came in from the Northern Border. The blood-demons, it seems, have amassed a substantial army..."

"How substantial?" Sesshyo cut in.

Sia hesitated. "Almost three times the size of ours."

Sesshyo cursed, then snarled. He paced the wall a few minutes, then returned to Sia with two letters. "Have our fastest messenger take these to my brothers."

he ordered. "What for?" Sia asked. Sesshyo frowned grimly. "We're gonna need their help."

******

The messenger left that evening and returned two days later. Sesshyo's condition hadn't improved; but it hadn't got worse either; though Sia thought Sesshyo was in worse shape than he let on. The messenger dashed into the dining hall right as the occupants where getting up to leave.

"Lord Sesshyo!" he squeaked, dashing over and handing the letters over to said demon. Sesshyo unsheathed a claw and ripped the seal on the letters. He glanced over both of them quickly, the color fading from his already pale face.

The letters slipped from his hand and fluttered to the floor. His pained expression made him look a thousand years older. His flag-like tail lay dejectedly on the stone floor, and his ears drooped almost to the side of his head.

"What?" Sia asked.

Sesshyo's expression turned from one of sadness to one of true cold fury, an expression Sia had never seen on his face in fifty-five years. He slammed his left hand down onto the table hard enough to split the wood; the glass he had been holding in that hand shattered into a thousand pieces. Sia could see blood dripping from the shards of glass which were no doubt imbedded in his hand. His squeezed shut eyes snapped open; a violent light purple, with just a tinch of gold near his pupil, blood-red starting to blaze around the edge of the iris. He glared up at his friend. "Those dammed worthless mutts aren't going to help. We have to do this on our own."

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Five days between updates... :(. I guess that's not too bad, but it would've been done sooner, but I got grounded for telling my brother to shut up cuz he was harassing me. Tragic that my dad (AKA Grand Tyrant of the Underworld) was in the same room. Sigh. I'll try harder...

Emme: thank you! that's so nice of you!

Notes: You might have noticed Sia is talking better this chapter. See, when he talks to human he has to talk in human language; but when he talks to other demons he talks in wolf-tougue, 'cause obviously other dog demons can understand him...

Ummm.... what else? Oh yeah, from the chapter before 'Hyokazie' means 'fire wind' (I think...), and 'Daimaiyo' means 'clan', though I'm not sure if I spelled it right; to many vowels I think... Um, help me out here! Anything else confusing you? Tell me and I'll try and clear it up. ;)

5/27/03 Happy birthday to my cousin Blake! (14)