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Chapter 8: Recovery

Sesshoumaru watched his brother die with the same apparent stoicism he watched everything else. He was aware of Rin hiding behind him while at the same time doing her best to watch as events unfolded. It didn't seem right to Sesshoumaru, his brother's broken, human, body bleeding its life away as he watched. He had tried to kill his brother several times, but it had never really been personal. He had hated what the hanyou represented, but would never have deliberately tracked him only to kill him. Inuyasha was simply not worth his time, unless he had something Sesshoumaru wanted.

This past year or so, even that had changed. Since Inuyasha's transformations had started, Sesshoumaru had begun to recognize some of his father's reasoning and had given up on retrieving the Tetsusaiga. Honor was not something Sesshoumaru took lightly, and as long as Inuyasha was related to him, he would not tolerate him transforming into the mindless mock-youkai that surfaced when his youkai blood took control. The sword, he had decided, was best left in Inuyasha's hands right now, repulsive as the thought was. Besides, with the forging of Toukijin, he had a blade that could rival it.

Also, there was Naraku now. The hanyou was the only creature that had managed to insult him and still lived. He had used and attempted to trap Sesshoumaru and had twice taken what belonged to him in an attempt to draw him out. 'Now, he has taken another thing that does not belong to him,' Sesshoumaru thought as he watched Inuyasha struggle to breath. As much as the thought disgusted him, the hanyou was still his brother. The right to kill Inuyasha or to allow him to live was Sesshoumaru's alone.

He heard Inuyasha come awake and his short conversation with the woman he had rescued. His brother had fallen in love with this creature? That, he supposed, was why the hanyou had so stupidly charged into the battle he could not possibly win, especially when he was already wounded. Had it not been for his desperation, he may have lasted longer. He was going to die simply for the sake of one human woman, he though disgustedly. No doubt their father would have been proud.

He heard Inuyasha's heart and breathing stop and watched as the girl fell next to him. His brother's life did not belong to Naraku. Anger and frustration stirred him again and without realizing it he had put his hand on Tenseiga's hilt. "Stay back." he ordered the humans as they began to approach the couple.

He hesitated. Tenseiga's hilt felt cold and lifeless in his hand. Looking carefully, he realized he could not see the creatures from the next world around his brother. Tenseiga was not responding to him. Sesshoumaru had guessed that his sword would have been insistent on saving the life of his brother, but to his surprise he felt nothing.

Frustrated, he pulled the blade clear of its scabbard. The sword felt only like the piece of metal it appeared to be and the creatures from the next world remained hidden from him. His anger grew as he re-sheathed his sword. It was not enough, apparently, that Naraku had escaped again, now his own blade seemed to mock him and resist his control.

Inuyasha's friends watched as Sesshoumaru hesitated for a moment before drawing Tenseiga. Their confusion only grew when he glared at it briefly and returned it to its sheath.

Looking as if he would melt the next thing that approached him, Sesshoumaru stepped toward Kagome and Inuyasha. He could smell his dragon and Jaken approaching; it seemed they finally caught up to him. "Rin, go and meet Jaken," he said, pointing. He didn't want her here while he was confronting the humans.

He stopped next to Kagome and rolled her off of Inuyasha. Sango bristled when he touched her friend, but she didn't move. He hadn't made any move to harm them yet, but he did have a dangerous look in his eye. He coldly regarded his brother's body for a movement before, with a grace belying his handicap, he picked up Kagome from where she lay and placed her over his unarmored shoulder. At this, the monk and the exterminator refused to hold back their protests.

"Sesshoumaru, what do you think you are doing with her?!" Sango yelled, unslinging her boomerang and coming to stand between Sesshoumaru and the direction Rin had gone.

"I am taking her. If you don't want to be killed, human, I suggest you stand aside." Sesshoumaru had intended to let Inuyasha's companions live, but his patience was especially thin this morning.

"I won't let you have her," said Sango angrily. After the misfortunes of last night, she could not bear to see her friend back in the hands of another cold-blooded murderer.

"You cannot stop me," he said, his eyes narrowing threateningly.

"What could you possibly want from her?" asked Miroku taking a stance beside Sango, who was joined by Kirara and Shippou.

Sesshoumaru's scant patience was disappearing rapidly. "Naraku will come for her. When he does, I will kill him."

"You bastard, you would use Kagome as bait," Sango growled at him. "And what happens when you've finished with her? Disposal as you see fit?"

They all glanced up as Sesshoumaru's three companions entered the clearing. Ignoring the words and battle-ready postures of Inuyasha's companions he calmly walked over and deposited Kagome on the dragon's back, freeing his hand. "Yes," he said in delayed answer to Sango's question.

Sango would have lunged for him had Miroku not trapped her with his staff from behind and held her back. "Sesshoumaru," he began. "Please, reconsider. You don't need her to find Naraku. Let her go, please."

"No," he answered firmly. Naraku had foolishly dropped his weakness into Sesshoumaru's hands, and he was not about to surrender it.

Releasing Sango, Miroku slowly approached Sesshoumaru, who's dark expression almost deterred the monk from his purpose. "In that case, I would ask that you please keep her safe. She is very important."

If Rin had not been there, Sesshoumaru would have killed the human standing before him. "You have no right to ask anything of me," he said, the implication clear to both.

Miroku laid his only card on the table. "In exchange for the Tetsusaiga."

Sesshoumaru turned, apparently considering, though his blank mask was impossible to read. "Rin," he said finally. The little girl scuttled up to his side.

"Hold onto this for me. Be careful with it." He nodded to Miroku who handed the sword to the little girl. Miroku dropped his head, knowing that this was the best promise he would get from the demon lord. If nothing else, Sesshoumaru would respect this bargain.

Sesshoumaru turned and began to leave, his companions falling in behind him. As he reached the end of the clearing he stopped, but did not turn to face them. "Houshi," he said evenly. "You will see to my brother?"

Startled, Miroku looked up at Sesshoumaru's tall form. "Yes, I will."

Without another word, Sesshoumaru melted into the forest with their friend.

Their first day back in pursuit had been slow. Sesshoumaru was not overly bothered by this; Naraku would come to him, eventually, if he wanted the woman so badly. All the same, the demon lord was not in a good mood. He was still smouldering at Naraku's most recent affront to his pride and dignity. The hanyou had even had the nerve to try and harm Rin, a fact which angered him more than her kidnaping had. Then, even his own sword seemed to mock him and doubt his authority with its refusal to submit to him.

And then there was Inuyasha's woman. She was lying asleep on the ground near the dragon with Rin sitting near her. He had started a fire for the humans' benefits and stopped for the night. As much as he loathed the delay, he could not overlook the woman's health as long as he hoped to use her. She hadn't woken since they had left Inuyasha's friends.

She looked small and pitiful lying there like that, still wearing her tattered bloodstained uniform and chained around the wrist. He wasn't sure what Naraku thought was so important that she was worth all this trouble for. Or what his brother had thought worth dying for, for that matter. But she did have some power, as she had shown in the cell and the several times they had fought. He had considered the force that Naraku unleashed on the battlefield, and had surmised that he had somehow harnessed the girl's powers in attempt to destroy his brother and him. Why it had purified his brother and left him unharmed remained a mystery.

He could hear her heartbeat and breathing begin to speed up. She was close to waking. He was not looking forward to this confrontation, but it was necessary that she know her place. Though from what he had seen of her before, it seemed unlikely that she would submit peacefully to staying with him. She had always stubbornly stood up to him, he thought as he came up gracefully beside her, motioning for Rin to go to the opposite end of the clearing near Jaken.

He watched as her eyes slowly fluttered open. Momentarily they flashed in pain and she curled in on herself. Sesshoumaru frowned, but as suddenly as she had tensed she relaxed again, letting go a sigh of defeat. "He's dead, isn't he?" Her voice sounded calm but hollow.

He was somewhat surprised. He hadn't expected her to react like this. "Yes."

She still didn't cry, nor did she make any motion to sit up or move at all. He knew she was conscious, but she was so still it was as if she were willing her body to stop breathing.

"Sit up," he commanded while pulling her up firmly by the shoulders. She did not fight his grip, and although she kept herself upright, it was much like posing a doll. When she finally opened her eyes she stared unwaveringly into the demon lord's golden ones. Sesshoumaru was taken aback by the intensity in her stare. It held unspeakable amounts of pain, loss, and hatred. He had never expected to see such intensity in a human's eyes, and for a brief moment wondered what she was capable of in this state. At any rate, he realized, she was still for the moment.

"Give me your arms." He watched as her eyes flashed briefly, and wondered if it was a flare of fear, anger, or something else. In any case, she wasn't moving.

Sesshoumaru returned her glare and picked up her right hand from where it lay on her knee and pulled it in front of her. She held it there as he pulled his hand back and watched as unflinchingly as Rin had as he brought his claws down across her manacle, slicing it into several clean pieces. Sesshoumaru was becoming increasingly confused by her attitude; did she truly have no fear of him, or had she simply given up? He was prompted to believe the latter as he had to return her hand to her lap and raised the other one. The girl seemed so unresponsive. He severed the second manacle, but this time the girl answered with a reflexive yelp of pain.

He pulled her arm to him, knowing that he could not have been so sloppy as to cut her, yet he knew he had cut through something other than just the manacle. A bandage had torn away when he sliced, taking much of the scab with it. A clean, deliberate gash had begun to dribble blood again as he held her hand.

"He bled you." He said it as a statement rather than a question. He felt the girl shiver as the breeze and Sesshoumaru's light touch tickled her exposed arm. When he looked up again the fear was more dominant in her eyes now, though her distant look forced him to suspect it was in memory of her time with Naraku rather than a response to himself. He pressed the remainder of the cloth bandage to her cut and held it tightly with his hand. Perhaps that was how Naraku had been able to harness the miko's powers.

Her skin was cool to the touch, probably an after effect of the blood loss and poison. She looked so pale with the moon shining behind her, as if she were made of the soft skin of eggshells. Sesshoumaru couldn't prevent the fleeting thought that if he barely twitched his claws he could shatter her.

Kagome glanced down at the striped wrist of the hand that was gripping her in much the same fashion it would the hilt of a sword. At the moment, it almost seemed funny to her, the cold-blood killer's hand was so out of place. She looked up at his face, but he was apparently focused on her arm, thinking deeply. "Rin is alright?" she ventured.

Sesshoumaru looked up at her, his eyes scrutinizing. "She is fine." He waited.

Kagome's shoulders fell a little, but she managed to keep her eyes up. "Sesshoumaru. . ." she sighed. 'Here it comes,' he thought.

"Please. . .explain to me what happened to Inuyasha." She could not keep the pleading out of her voice this time.

She had surprised him again, though his impassive mass remained firmly in place. He wondered if she cared about her own condition at all. He thought about ignoring her, but decided to answer. She was, for the most part, being cooperative. "He foolishly used the bakuryuuha. Naraku returned the force of the blow to all that were present on the battlefield. It tore him apart."

She looked at him in confusion, "But not you?"

"It is not within Naraku's power to kill me," he told her as he had Miroku. He hoped that she recognized that he had no intention of going into greater detail. In truth, he was still unsure of why Tenseiga had succeeded while Tenseiga had failed. Fortunately, she focused elsewhere.

"He was human. . .?"

It was a moment before he spoke, carefully phrasing his response. "Naraku sent out a powerful wave of purification," he wasn't sure why, but he was reluctant to tell her this. Though he was almost certain that this girl was the source of that holy power, he wasn't sure what the knowledge of that would do to her. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he hoped she would not ask about it.

"But not you." She cast her eyes downward in dejection and confusion.

Sesshoumaru felt a flash of anger. "It is fortunate for you, human, that Naraku could never succeed in killing me."

Her head snapped up and she returned an angry glare of her own. "Why did you save me Sesshoumaru? Certainly not out of love for your brother. Why am I here? Why didn't you leave me with Sango and Miroku?" Her voice was rising as her anger fed itself. "Why did you take me!?" She could not endure that Inuyasha had died for her, and now, despite of all of his efforts she was back in the hands of one of their most dangerous enemies.

His hand, still around her wrist, tightened its grip in response to her outburst. "Be silent." She whimpered in response to the pain of her wrist and Sesshoumaru automatically lessened the pressure. 'This woman sounds like Rin when she is frightened,' he thought fleetingly.

She looked up and Sesshoumaru caught her eye. "Listen carefully," he said coldly. "It is not required of me to explain myself, so you will take what you are given. You will stay with me until Naraku is defeated. He has come for you before, he will do it again. I will destroy him when he does." He watched her rage smoulder in her eyes but she remained silent. "You will do as I say and cooperate, or I will make life unpleasant for you."

"You expect me to so readily agree to cooperate with someone who has tried to kill me so many times," she spat out.

"I wasn't giving you a choice," he said glaring coldly at her.

She held her angry face a moment more, before it shattered and she attempted to curl in on herself with a little sob. She failed, however, since Sesshoumaru still had a grasp on her arm.

"He died for me, and it was all for nothing." Her small body quivered as she was unable to hold back her anguish at losing Inuyasha. "Because of me, everything is gone."

Something stirred him as he watched her, huddled and shaking, still covered with the injuries Naraku had inflicted upon her. Her hair fell over her face in black waves crested with red firelight. She looked so broken and helpless. "Because of you," he answered cleanly, "Rin was safe." He grudgingly acknowledged her ability to fight against Naraku, even while she was being held captive. The fact that she had spent so much of herself trying to protect the little girl had invoked his curiosity. She was brave, for a human. Her crying was softer now but she was still shaking like mad. He released her arm; the pressure had once again stopped the bleeding and she pulled her arm into her chest and cradled it.

He frowned. Seeing her injured was like seeing Rin get hurt. He had found lately that Rin's safety and well being had a place in his priorities. Resurrecting the little girl had been no more than a whim, a response to Tenseiga's urging, and at first he had only allowed her to follow him out of curiosity. To his surprise, she managed to stay with him, never complaining, but always looking up at him with pure trust and devotion. He had not expected her to show such endurance, but she followed him from one danger to another, completely taking it for granted that he would protect her. As he became accustomed to her, he began to think of her as belonging with him, and as long as she was there at his discretion, he would allow no harm would come to her. Now, necessity had put this woman under his care as well.

As he thought, he felt Tenseiga struggling to make itself acknowledged at his side. He glanced down in annoyance at the sword which so stubbornly had refused his control earlier that day. Sesshoumaru resented being a tool, and he couldn't help but feel the sword was toying with him. However, whenever the sword had suggested its use, he had found it prudent to heed its prompts.

Kagome heard the ring as a sword left its sheath and looked up from where she was huddled. Sesshoumaru stood over her, holding Tenseiga and looking very displeased. She flinched as he brought the blade down in a glowing blue arc, but to her surprise it swept gracefully down next to her and then swooshed back up only to come back down on the other side. She looked up in question at Sesshoumaru, who abruptly sheathed his weapon.

Sesshoumaru only regarded her a moment before turning sharply and walking to the other end of the camp. "Go to sleep," he commanded.

Kagome, glancing down in confusion, looked down and discovered the cuts and scratches from her ordeal had all healed. She fingered her skin tentatively, testing to see if they were really gone. When she looked up, Sesshoumaru was coolly staring away from her, looking up at the night sky.

Rin had noticed that Sesshoumaru was apparently finished talking to Kagome, and crept back to her side. Cautiously, the little girl curled up to the miko's side. Her small body was so comforting and warm. Kagome wished that Sango or even Miroku were here to comfort her; Inuyasha was gone and she was trapped and confused. She wanted to cry some more, but she was so tired, and she sincerely did not want to worry Rin. She put her arms around the girl and fell asleep with Rin clutched close to her body.

Sesshoumaru finally spared a glance at the sleeping pair, both of their faces cast heavily with shadow as their bodies slumped out of the reach of the fire's light. He had never used Tenseiga on someone alive before, though he had tried before in an attempt to restore his arm. He could not understand why the sword had chosen this time to come out of its dormancy. Why would it heal the miko, but not care about saving his brother? He wondered if he would really have saved Inuyasha if Tenseiga had complied.

He also wondered if the miko realized she had glowed whitish-pink when he used Tenseiga.



Yay!! Another chapter! And my computer science project is finished! Anyone want any polynomials divided?

Ok, responses. Sorry to everyone who didn't want the Kagome/Inuyasha thing to end, but the only way to write a Sess/Kag fic in my opinion is over his dead body. Let's face it, the Inuyasha we all know would never give up on Kagome: this is the guy who's still stalking a chick who's been dead for 50 years, after all. Though I did get rather attached to him in this story, so eventually I may do a traditional pairing story, just not this time around.

That being said, it's sess/kag from here on out, although Sango and Miroku will still be around to a lesser extent. Yeah, I know they're not exactly falling all over each other in this chapter, but these things don't happen overnight. It will come, trust me. (Ha!)

Thanks for all the feedback, and keep it up! I'm still tweaking the next chapter, trying to decide which of the many possible cliffhangers I'm going to leave you with (heh heh heh), so if you review, I'll do my best to be kind and get the chapter up quickly. (Kind? Huh?) Why does my inner-monolog type in parentheses? Oh well.

Hate it, love it, let me know. Criticism makes me feel loved.

-Aiwendil