September 26/30, 2003

(Author's Note: Once more Yajuumaru™ © belongs to Leloi and Yashira™© belongs to me. I want to thank Aile Anna for beta reading this and finding problems in text and for Lel for allowing me to use her pet Bishounen and making sure he was in character.)

Sister, Sister

By Yashira

Chapter 13

"Inuyasha? Is she really your sister?" Kagome's voice, with that sparkling quality of sweetness, still sounded a tad confused. She stared at Inuyasha, with huge brown eyes, as if expecting a multitude of angry curses to suddenly derail themselves from his tightly pursed lips. He'd met her on his way back from the well with this convoluted tale of Yashira being his full-blooded sister whose hanyou self was sealed up by an acorn talisman. It just seemed so impossible to believe that a miko could be a hanyou too. One would think the two powers would cancel out each other. "I just mean-"

"I don't know how it is either, except the nose doesn't lie." Even in the evening air, with the stars twinkling down, Kagome watched Inuyasha tap his nose to remind her of his canine scent. "And Sesshoumaru tried to kill her. I can't forget that, Kagome. He recognizes her as being my sister, as being our sister." There was a heaviness to his voice which spoke of Inuyasha's grudging acceptance of a woman he had wanted to continue to hate, but couldn't.

"It does explain why the two of you can sometimes get along so well, and then suddenly want to kill each other. Is your whole family like this? Do you have any more sisters or brothers we should know about?" Although she said the last as if to playfully tease a laugh from him, Inuyasha's frustrated groan warned her to watch her tongue.

"There was only me and Sesshomaru, until now, Kagome. I would know if I had any little brothers and sisters running around. It's the ones that came before - like her - that surprise me. She's older than I am." With another deep groan, Inuyasha stopped and crossed his arms, his hands hidden within the crimson red of his haori's sleeves. "Kagome, she also knew Kikyou. Remember that conversation at Kaede's hut before Miroku became ill?"

Kagome swallowed the startled gasp, which threaten to escape her at that reminder. That was right. Yashira knew Kikyou just like Inuyasha. Misunderstanding the reason Inuyasha had brought it up, Kagome blurted out her words without thinking. "But if you didn't know she was your sister, how would Kikyou know?"

"It's not really that." A trembling sigh wedged free from his mouth as he fixed Kagome with stern, golden eyes. "I just find it… as I found it then, surprising that they knew each other."

"Kikyou knows everyone," Kagome's voice tasted of bitterness at the remark and it brought Inuyasha's questioning gaze immediately upon her. Stuttering as if to fend off that deep searching look of his, Kagome started to talk fast. "It's just that she did so much and she traveled a lot so she knew people. Like that black miko, well… Anyway, if you really wanted answers, why don't you ask Myoga. Wouldn't he know more information about Yashira?"

"Ah, that's a good idea," Inuyasha was nodding, his expression turning thoughtful as he remembered how much that old and faithful coward should know. Although, with all the damage happening to the village lately, he wasn't sure when Myoga would be back. "But it figures. The one time, I need to talk to that flea, he's not here." Inuyasha dropped his arms to the side and simply shook his head again as his golden eyes drifted up to the sky, taking in the muted glitter above as if he was silently requesting a remote answer from the heavens themselves.

Thankfully, throwing Inuyasha off her case about Kikyou, Kagome reached out and pulled at his sleeve as if to further distract him. "Well, he'll have to show up eventually. We might as well head back and check up on Miroku again. He might be feeling up Sango's butt, but he still has this haggard look to him."

"Yeah, I still have to beat the shit out of him for being so stupid in taking so many hell wasps." Nodding, Inuyasha's head bobbing at least once, he allowed Kagome to pull him in the direction of the hut.

***

There was so much she needed to think over and make sense on, but with Yajuumaru's unspoken presence beside her, Yashira found it nearly impossible. What was she going to do with him? Even when Kikyou had been alive she had spent little time or no time in her friend's presence, preferring to disappear for long patches of self- induced solitude. Now, she couldn't even do that much for whichever way she went this tree-youkai would follow nonetheless. Correction. Half-tree youkai, he was also part wolf and… human. The last did little to reassure her nerves though. He was over ¾ youkai, which meant he was tainted in more ways than she was.

~But I am still a hanyou~ The words, mere slivers of thoughts pressing down on her conscious mind, were met with angry reprimands. While she wore her talisman she was human, end of story. It was all Inuyasha's fault for saying she wasn't accepting herself. Yes, she would blame her brother. Brother. The notion that she now had family was even harder to accept. For more than 50 years, she had wandered without that comforting seat to fall back on. It had always just been her and now… Now she had a brother and this – glancing over to Yajuumaru as he kept pace beside her – so called suitor.

In spite of the fact that her blue eyes traveled angrily over him at first, they seemed to calm as she stared at him. His long black hair was braided down his back and the slender, pointy ears - elf ears - were now round and humanish. His robe or yukata was like burnish gold with streaks of burgundy highlights while his tail –from his other form - was no longer visible. Yashira saw no talisman on his body, aside from the tooth he wore around his neck - a momento of his father's - to account to why he had such a control over his form. She could only guess it had something to do with his tree nature. Belatedly, she realized he wasn't too bad looking as a human. Yajuumaru glanced over at her, saw her thoughtful expression as she admired him, and a delightful smile grew across his lips. Although, it only served to confuse him even more when she frowned and jerked her face away.

Damn youkai. Yashira was still furious that he was so – so – stupid! He should have stayed home in that forest of his. What could someone like him know about this world? BAH! Follow her?! He just made the worse mistake of his life. Well, he'd figure it out soon enough. Then, when he did, he'd go his own way. He'll…

The thought, for some silly reason, forced her to look at him as if to reassure herself that he was still with her. What was wrong with her? She'd be happy with him gone. At least things would go back to normal. What could she do with him anyway? She was a miko and he was demon, and that was it! But her gaze went back to him, her eyes drifting over the well formed clothing he had conjured up to cover his muscular frame as if to soak up the memory that he had been there. It was with that look that Yashira found her usual brisk and cold demeanor nearly shattered. She'd built a wall, a very high and deliberate one, to keep people like him out, but somehow he'd managed to pull at a loose brick of her defence and now it was threatening to crumble down.

Pulling her head up and forcing herself to keep her gaze in front of her, Yashira's senses simply just reeled. ~NO! He's not important to me, I don't really know him~ But he followed her out of the forest, he came after her, saved her life from a half-brother who wished to kill her, didn't that mean something?! ~NO~ Why was he so damn stupid and stubborn? Yashira wasn't worth the time he took to protect and defend. She wasn't worth having as a companion, so why did he insist on being with her? It just irked her as much as it amazed Yashira that he still followed, meekly as a tamed kitten.

Fool. Yet she wasn't sure if she meant him or her. She had, afterall, allowed him to come - allowed him to follow. ~Did I feel… sorry for him?~ Even when she had washed and cleaned his wound Sesshoumaru had given him earlier, she had found herself drawn to his happy whistle as he let her tend to him. Something had to be wrong with her because she felt her internal balance thrown helter-skelter by him. Yashira had never been adored before. It didn't feel right.

"Will you stop smiling, you look like an idiot." Immediately, Yajuumaru's face reverted to that injured puppy dog look he'd given earlier, which made her regret saying it, but which in turn, only made her that more angrier. "Great, that's even worse." Grumbling angrily to herself, her fists tightened at her sides as she padded along the grasses as if she would scream bloody murder to the sky.

"What do you want me to do?" He sounded so forlorn that it made her feel as if she had just kicked a helpless kitten. "I'll do anything to make you happy."

Anything? What sort of naïve idiot had she been cursed with? You don't just say anything to anyone, she wanted to scream at him. Saying that gets you taken advantage of, do you want to be taken advantage of? But Yashira already knew that answer. As long as it was her, he didn't care. With a frustrated sigh, she stopped, turned and released her fists. "Look, if you hadn't noticed, I am happy. H A P P Y! HAPPY! Okay! I don't need some wannabe, macho man – youkai, in your case- thinking he could do stuff for me, because he can't!" Why couldn't this buffed up baffoon not realize that?

"If you were so happy," he began effortlessly as if he were stating something so simple she had over looked it, "Why are you so angry all the time?"

"ARGH!" She tossed her head, black hair swirling around her shoulders, as if she wanted to stamp her feet like a spoiled child not given her way. "Maybe if you would just shut up and stop asking all sorts of stupid questions-"

"I only ask so that I can-"

"If you say, you can better serve me, I'll Heaven Ascension Blast you right now." Blue light flickered to life in her hands, casting her body and face in an odd glow of a witch light. She looked at him as if she were holding up Kagome's flashlight to her face.

"Violence wouldn't be the answer." He shrugged his shoulders as if he thought her fancy light show was a trick to amuse children, but he knew from experience how painful it would feel to be hit with it. She had, without remorse, blasted several trees when she believed he was in them.

"DAMN IT! You're driving me crazy."

"Look I'm only saying what I think, Yashira." There, he had said her name, and the fact that he had done it shown in his face like a blazing beacon to all. It seemed to make him feel familiar to her, to gain some closer level, by being able to say her name. "Yashira, I-"

"Don't you dare use my name." Leaves! She was grasping at leaves! If she let him use her name, who knew what else she would eventually let him do. "Don't you-" Midway between cursing him and screaming, Yashira suddenly stopped and turned silently to the side as if something or someone had called her. ~Impossible, no, he wouldn't dare….~ But there it was, that speckle of corruption, that sensation that she and Yajuumaru were not alone and that- Abruptly Yashira turned about, her gaze troubled and filled with apprehension as she stated flatly, "Leave me."

And almost as instantly as it was said, Yajuumaru's words were a flat denial. "No. Something is wrong, what is it?"

Couldn't he feel it? No, and that sent a flood of relief through her guts. He wasn't a houshi, there was no way for him to sense another youkai. But he could smell? But no, they were upwind of their new company. Yajuumaru would not know. "You don't know what's good for you."

"I know who is good for me." His green eyes narrowed on her, his lips quivering, as he crossed his arms together – much the same way as he watched her do when she was upset with him. "I will not leave you."

He didn't understand; how could he? Yajuumaru didn't have her senses and couldn't know that Naraku was here. Nor could he know just what Naraku was – what he was capable of. "Yajuumaru," she tried something else, perhaps appealing to his naïve loyalty might work because she could see that he was already responding warmly by the use of his name on her lips. This might work. "You misunderstand me. I think it's late and I'm tired. I only wish for you to find my-" And here she struggled, for she could not yet bring the word 'brother' to bear, "… if you could ask if Inuyasha will let us stay with Kaede?"

"Is that what you wish?" He was too innocent to think of falsehood in the one he adored nor had he been initiated to treachery, but soon he would know. It would be one mistake, but it would be impossible to rectify and correct later. She would make sure of it.

"Yes, it is. I will wait for you here." Searching out a clean spot of grass, she made to sit down.

He drew close and reached out to her as his hot-blooded hands enveloped her icy-cold ones. "This I will do for you, beloved." Fondly slipping a hand free, Yajuumaru raised it to her face as if he meant it as a loaded threat to cup her pale cheek with it. Instead, he simply grazed her cheek with his splayed fingers tips, as if it had been his intention all along to only tuck in a loose strand of her black hair behind her ear, before pulling away from Yashira. "I will not be long."

There had been something in his touch that sent an uneasy spasm retching through her nerves. For a moment Yashira had been sure he could see the falsehood, the lie to send him away as clear in her eyes as if it had been day, but then he pulled away without so much as a complaint. He was too innocent. It was both a curse and a blessing and his mistake. Waiting until he had gone, she turned her head towards the shadow which detached itself from the woodland to her right and beckoned her new company out.

"You aren't, by chance, developing feelings for that tree youkai, are you Yashira?" The oily, thick voice which spoke confirmed her suspicions. It was indeed Naraku.

Glancing sharply at him, her blue eyes narrowing to icy slits at his words, she tossed her head and spat angrily, "Are you mad? He INSISTS on following me everywhere. I don't really have much of a choice with him." Hopefully, her words and her tone would stick. She didn't want to give Naraku any more leverage over her by making Yajuumaru her weakness. A small voice inside her mind screamed that it was not so, that no demon would ever get close to her, but she found her heart trembling within her aching bosom. She could not deny that she was afraid for Yajuumaru.

Naraku drew close to her as his dark gaze and flowing hair, freed momentarily of the baboon skin, glistened ominously in the shine from the starlight above. "Good, but you realize, you're drifting away from Inuyasha and his friends. How can you get within their good graces, and then steal their shards if you're going the wrong way?" His voice was oily, like lubricated grease, and it oozed fake congeniality from every pore. It seemed as if he was asking something, perhaps on another level, at the same time.

"I have someone I must talk to first. It will not take long." She remained seated, allowing him to draw in, so that he stood towering above her like a menacing specter. With the amount of games he had played against her, even while she was supposedly allied with him, to bolt or run would reveal her treachery to Naraku and leave her open. With Yajuumaru tagging along after her, he would be at risk and she could not afford to place him in that sort of danger. Grimacing internally, she wished for the thousandth time that he'd stayed home. "You know Naraku," and the words just poured out as if someone had turned on a switch and forgotten to shut it, "If you're not careful, I could just seal you. Your methods were counter productive to me the last few days. If you hadn't tried to kill me at the same time with Inuyasha, I may have had your shards." She wanted to accuse him of blabbing out secrets as well, but that was another can of words she couldn't open yet. "Where is Necoa, by the way?"

"Oh, don't worry about that one. She won't be bothering you or the others any time soon." The way Naraku said it, left a foul reek in the air. It was as if he had lifted up his tail and sprayed the area.

"What does that mean?" But did she really want to know? This was Naraku she reminded herself. Naraku liked to screw with people's minds. He was beyond dangerous; he was mentally unbalanced. It was something she was coming to understand only too late.

"Why are you so worried? She was one of my scions, and now she's no more. Easy come, easy go. About my shards…" Leaning forward, his fingers reaching up for her pale cheeks, and though Yashira forced her gaze to remain calm, her insides were reeling with the disgust at his defiling touch.

"You'll get them," she whispered quietly. Cursing her voice at the same time for sounding so frail, Yashira kept her blue pupils fastened on Naraku's as if to show she wasn't afraid of him. While she had no love for that cat youkai, the way Necoa must have suffered to be pulled into Naraku, grated on Yashira's nerves. Even though her duration at Naraku's hideaway had been brief, she'd seen him absorb at lease one youkai, so she knew how cruel and barbaric it was. No one, not even an enemy, should have had to be put through that. It made Yashira wonder how she had ever become trapped in Naraku's foul game. ~I need the shards from Kagome, and then I'll be free. Or will I?~ She was beginning to suspect that those that worked with Naraku were never free. "I just have to-"

"See Mikada," he finished for Yashira, his lips smug as he stared unrelentingly back at her, "Oh, I know about her, but it can wait."

He said it so effortlessly, that she hadn't realized just what he had said at first. Then it dawned on her and in a voice so clouded with shock, she simply blurted out, "What did you say?" No one knew about her, no one! Even now, as she visibly lost part of her cold demeanor, it was evident that he had found a hole in her defence in which to attack through.

"Oh, let me say it again then. I think Mikada can wait. Oh, don't be so surprised that I know so much about you, Yashira. You were a side hobby of mine." He dropped down to sit himself with her, and seemed amused that she flinched and visibly scowled at him. "Don't be like that Yashira. Did I not save your life that time? Don't you owe me this favour?"

But he had raised the scepter of suspicion in her now. He KNEW of Mikada? If he had known about that ancient miko, what else did he know about? "You set me up," her words were soft, quiet, but they were laden with deep-rooted accusation. Those men who had chased after her that night she had met Naraku had been during that time of the month for her. A night she could not change to youkai even if she so wished. "Just how much do you know about me?"

"You think too much Yashira," There was an amused chuckling lilt to his voice, but the eyes had darkened significantly into a semblance of an irritated frown. It seemed that the unspoken test he had wanted to spring on her had been met with displeasure for the sharp nails of his fingers now dug into her cheeks as if he meant to tear her lips away. "Maybe it was a mistake to let you know what I know, but I do not like failures and you girl, were planning on running away with that new youkai of yours. Just like Kikyou was going to betray me with Inuyasha. Brother and sister, the two of you are thorns I'm better off without." Vines shot out from beneath his baboon skin and with a violent fury they latched onto her wrists with undeniable speed. Rudely shoved to the ground, Yashira felt the blood die in her veins as his grip cut her too deep. "While I do not like the fact that you have human blood in you, you are still youkai… enough for me to absorb. I can always pick and choose what I want to keep later."

"What are you doing?!" Stunned that she was reduced to a useless trundled up mass on the grassy ground with nothing by the stars over head as her witnesses, she screamed and lashed out at Naraku like a madwoman. Blue light flared out of her hands like miniature fireworks, but with no direction, all it offered was a blue glow to light up the brutish face of Naraku's venomous sneer. If she couldn't aim, her power was useless. "Get off me!

But he did not speak as he lowered his face and his jumbled mass of limbs upon her wildly thrashing body. He only smirked back as a reply.