Sero Hour

Note: Sorry this chapter is a little late, things in my life have not been going as planned. School and my social life (yes, it exists. Shut the fuck up, Tim.) come first. My cousin is in the hospital for a rare hert condition, and I have been scared shitless for his health. Also, me and my friends just haven't had enough time to make it to all our school's sporting events, homecoming, AND to have Halo and Soul Caliber 2 parties afterwards at my house, and STILL have time to write a fic. Here you go.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha! Rumiko, please don't sue! I only have (checks pockets) a penny, some pocket lint and a parking ticket!

Pressure Mounting

HOSPITAL LOCATED IN TOKYO MEDICAL DISTRICT

Sero was pissed. After he woke up, he couldn't remember many things aside from the outcome of his battle with the turd monster, and in his somewhat delierous state he even tried to argue with Miroku that green was a flavor. It was four days later now, and he had remembered many cruicial things, one of which was that he would not be let out of the hospital until he could feel his legs again. This was making him angry, because he could swear that he moved his big toe once. Another thing that irked him: Ashley thought he was angry at her for interrupting his battle and causing him to fall into the 800 meter Blast Pit (not that that would make him angry, nooooooooooooo). He was not angry with her for distracting him during his battle with the yellow demon, but he was angry that she came and endangered herself. Though, he was thankful to Sango for carrying him back, and was furious at that goddamn hippie for once again making him figure out another secret of Tetsusaiga the hard way. He threatened Miroku that if there were any more stupid secrets that he had to figure out, he would test out the tecnique on Miroku himself.

Currently, Sero could be found sitting up in his bed, cursing his injuries and mentally searching for scapegoats and reasons he had to shove Tetsusaiga down their throat. He was just thinking up ways to get Jinenji to build him a gun with a grenade launcher port and incendenary shells so he wouldn't have to bother with learning sword tecniques when Sesshoumaru walked into his room. "What?" Sero rudely snapped at his uncle's presence. Sesshoumaru's face remained unaffected, and he sighed mentally at how much his nephew reminded him of his brother.

"Sero, I've been thinking. It seems that wherever you go, you are bound to find trouble, and mostly it will come from Naraku's spawn and their hatred of your father. After your recent… accident… I decided that you could use a little training to better defend yourself." At Sesshoumaru's words, Sero began a low, steady growl that pretty much summed up his opinion on the matter. Sesshoumaru sighed and continued. "Your father had many friends, believe it or not, and most of them should still be alive. I know that Totousai and Kouga survived the Awakening, and are still around somewhere. Your training should not be too difficult if you get used to the idea of actually moving around instead of sitting in that tree of yours. Your training is to venture out into the wilderness, and locate Totousai and Kouga. That weird monk and his girlfriend already volunteered to accompany you, along with the daughter of Nobunaga."

Sero's growling had slowly gotten louder and more threatening throughout his unkle's speech. When Sesshoumaru stopped talking, so did the growling, which was kind of unsettling, but Sesshoumaru took this as a positive response, being the weirdo that he is. "Glad to see that you're so enthusiastic and excited about this. You'll leave in five days."

"Does that mean I can walk around now?" Sero asked with anticipation. Sesshoumaru merely rolled his eyes and got up to leave the room.

"Not until the nerves start responding and you can feel that you even have legs, you dolt." This left Sero with a look of major disapointment. "And stay away from the Blast Crater. I don't want your uncoordinated self falling in again," Sesshoumaru added as he left the room, leaving Sero to wonder if he should have a sniper scope and night vision on that gun of his while he was at it….

Over the next three days, Ashley would constantly show up to apologize for distracting Sero during his fight, and Sero would accept the apology and claim that it was unneeded. She would stay there and apologize for a half hour until her father pulled her out of the room, and each time she would reapear later, sorry as ever, as if she never apologized in the first place. "I swear, that girl's got A.D.D." Sero muttered to himself, as Ashley was drug out of his room for the fifth time that day. Sango would show up and talk about his father and mother. He liked these discussions for the most part, but they usually ended pretty sad, which Sero hated. In case you didn't notice, Sero was not toned into anyone's feelings, really, and hated mushy stuff. The hippie would visit now and then. Sero loved it when Miroku would show up. They would just joke around, insult each other, or talk about girls.

Finally, one day before he would leave for his training, Sero was allowed to stand. He was shaky at first, but the moment he realized he didn't have to stay any longer, he leapt out the window in an attempt to leave as quickly as possible, forgetting they were on the second floor and almost spent another day there. After recovering from his most 'recent' injury, he packed his stuff for the journey, which was really just the Tetsusaiga. They decided that they were going to see Totousai first, seeing as he was closer, and Miroku had a feeling that Totousai might have a present for Sero, seeing as he usually had one for Inuyasha.

The day came when they had to leave for the volcano in which Totousai resides, so Miroku, Sango, Sero, and Ashley bade everyone farewell and began their journey. Sero didn't see why they couldn't just fly the WoLf to Totousai's, but Sesshoumaru had confiscated the WoLf for that reason, and Sero was supposed to be training anyway. Besides, Ashley said that she never would have even dreamed of trying to land her precious ship on that dangerous terrain, and it would probably get ransacked by marauding demons anyway if left alone for too long. Sero still couldn't see why they didn't just fly, and Miroku wondered if Sero really was just some form of wood with organs and a face, mainly for the purpose of looking clueless. Sero didn't get that one either, but figured it was an insult and hit the damn hippie on the head as they walked. They weren't even a mile away from Tokyo, and already Miroku was half-dead. Oh yeah, this journey was looking up.

The path that they were to travel began in the forest, but was to slowly rise upward into a small wasteland maybe two miles from Totousai's cave. From there, they would have to scale a volcano and reach the top to where Totousai lived. That all was based on the idea that they could make it past the forest in which a deadly spider demon lived without being eaten alive. Fat chance of that. The trek to the spider's forest led them through a forest with very evenly spaced trees, as if every direction was a path or trail. Luckily, Sesshoumaru lent them somewhat of a map to follow, but even with that they had to argue with Sero about which direction went where. It was nearing the night of the first day, when they decided to set up camp. They had not seen a single demon or animal all day long, and all of them were quite bored.

They had made a campfire to cook some food, and were all sitting around it talking. It was unusually quiet conversation, however, because they noticed that one particularly loud voice was missing. Everyone looked to Sero, who never kept quiet, but who's mouth remained clasped shut at the moment. He was acting strange, sitting outside the light of the campfire, completely defeating the purpose of making it. Miroku wondered why Sero's hair did not reflect off the small amount of light that touched it when he had an idea. He looked up in the sky in search of the moon… there was none. Suddenly, Miroku reached out to Sero, grabbing his hair and pulling him into the light of the fire, despite his yells of protest. Black hair. Blue eyes. No ears.

Human.

When he saw the looks he was getting from the others, he gulped and began to stutter. "Well… uhhh… you see, this has a perfect explanation. You see, once upon a time, a miko came along and-"

"You transform on the new moon, don't you?" Sango blurted out.

Sero sneered. "I was just getting to that part! Jeez!"

"You transform just like your father, on the same day as your father." Miroku said.

"Now, that wouldn't make sense, now. Me being his son and all." Sero snapped before crossing his arms and looking away in a vagely familiar stance.

Sango began to laugh at this motion, and Sero shot her a questioning glare. "Your father would do that pose from time to time, but when he did it, he would say 'keh'."

"Keh…" Sero repeated. "I like it."

"You should get to sleep, humans need more sleep than youkai." Miroku said.

Sero looked at him silently for about five seconds, as if he was thinking. Suddenly, Sero got up and turned in the opposite direction while saying "Keh!" and stomping off to climb into a tree. Being the clumsy human that he is, however, it took him several tries to successfully scale the tree. However, he fell out of it once he got to the top, so he just settled down on the ground, found it uncomfortable, and repeated the process all over again until he finally managed to get into, and stay in, the tree.

"Like father, like son." Miroku commented, before heading off to bed.

Ashley just sat there, taking it all in. "What just happened?"

THE NEXT MORNING

They all awoke to a happy hanyou, and prepared to set off once again. Today, they were nearer to the spider forest, and as such, there were youkai. Most just ignored them, but some attacked them. These were low-level youkai, and Sero could easily dispach them with his claws. Sango and Miroku, however, wished to practice, so after the first three youkai were killed by Sero, Miroku and Sango fought all the rest. "I thought I was supposed to be training." Sero said as they walked amoungst the corpses of dead youkai that fell victim to Sango's boomerang.

"Are you complaining?" Miroku asked.

"Not really. I just want to say that you are a hypocrite."

"You and your silly morals."

And soon, once again, the day came to an end. And so did the next. They awoke on the fourth morning to find that they were at the entrance of the spider forest, seeing as there was a line between the two forests. On the side they were currently on, there were open spaces in between the trees. In the spider forest, on the other side, there was a dense jungle, and you could practically see the eyes of carnivorous youkai staring at you from within the undergrowth.

With a deep breath, they set off into the spider forest, and headlong into any trap that awaited them. They met nothing at all during the day, and at night they could see glowing eyes just outside the campfire gloom, but the owners of these eyes never let themselves be seen. They spent two days treking through this jungle, and two nights sleeping in it, meeting nothing but plants and bugs, and the suspense was getting on Sero's nerves. Finally, on the afternoon of their third day treking through the forest, the plants and trees came to an abrupt end. It just stoped dead, all plant life destroyed and a desolate plain was ahead. They could see off in the distance, maybe two miles away, the volcano belonging to Totousai. After walking about a mile and a half, it began to get dark, so they set up camp in the middle of the plain, and decided to scale the mountain the next day.

The next morning, they set out towards the mountain, and hopefully to end this painfully dull journey and get on to their NEXT painfully boring journey. Sesshoumaru could really be an ass sometimes.

They soon found out why the sourrounding area is a wasteland. Rivers of molten lava flow freely about, making a maze of pathways to get to the volcano. Not only this, but there was also a lava maze to watch out for as you climbed the mountain. It was not very steep, but the gradual climb was hindered by periodical shakings of the volcano, as if it would erupt at any second. Finally, they reached their destination: the crater. This volcano was truly screwed up. The magma vents were on the bottom, so the crater never erupted, but that did not stop it from having a lake of superheated magma that you had to cross if you wanted to reach the cave that Totousai lived in. Luckily, there were large boulders placed across the lake that you could use as platforms to get across. Miroku and Sango went first, followed by Sero who carried Ashley on his back. Miroku slowly walked to the cave's entrance and saw an old man sitting at a table working on something that he could not see.

"Totousai!" he called, but the man did not answer. "TOTOUSAI!" he yelled this time. No response.

"Is that him?" Ashley whispered into Miroku's ear.

"I believe so." Miroku responded. "TO-TOU-SAI!!!" He literally screamed this time, letting the sound echo off the walls of the cave, causing everyone to hold their ears shut. The man did not acknowledge that anyone was there, but he did stick his finger into his ear, as if to clean it out.

"Enough of this bullshit!" Sero said, letting go of his ears and walking up to the man. Sero knocked him on the head, making the old man's face hit the table. The man slowly rose up out of his seat, and turned to face Sero. He was wearing rags, was extremely thin, and had a small beard and large, bulging eyes.

"Now, why'd you have to go and do that, you little punk?" asked the man. Miroku got his attention by waving and walking up to him. "And who might you be? You liik like a monk, but… are you a traveling salesman?"

"Ummmm… no. My name is-"

"A-HA! You are a traveling circus, and the thing with the weird ears is your star attraction!"

"Leave me and my ears out of this!"

"NO! We are not a circus, and I am not a salesman! My name is-"

"Your Sean Connory, aren't you?"

Miroku gave him an open mouthed- clueless stare for a minute and a half before slaping himself in the face and declaring defeat.

"NOW I know who you are!" Totousai exclaimed. Miroku looked up at him with amazement. Totousai pointed at Tetsusaiga. "You have my sword, so therefore you must be the son of Inuyasha… what's his name… Steve, Stan, Sybill… SERO!"

Miroku was once again amazed by Totousai. Not only did he have no idea who Miroku and Sango were, but he could probably tell you Sero's favorite color. "My name is Miroku, and this is Sango. You knew us, because we were the ones that traveled with Inuyasha."

Totousai satred at him thoughtfully for a minute before slapping his fist onto the palm of his hand. "I got it!"

"You got what?"

"Huh?"

"You just said you got something. Now what was it?"

"What do you mean? And just who ARE you?"

"AAAARRRGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Miroku yelled as loud as he could while clutching his forehead in rage. Just talking to Totousai was giving him a migrane. Sango tried to explain who they were, but Totousai just nodded and stared at her breasts, which earned him quite a few lumps on the head. Ashley tried to explain who she was, but she was given the same stupidity treatment. Finally, Sero told Totousai who Miroku, Sango, and Ashley were, and suddenly his ears were open to anything the three of them had to say.

"Oh, Sero, I have something for you." Totousai said as he headed over to his workbench, pulling out a sword sheath. "This is a new sheath made for Tetsisaiga. Both sheathes have protective barriers around them, but the old one's is probably wearing off by now, so here's a new one." He said, handing Sero the sheath. Sero took it gratiously, but you could have heard him mumble something along the lines of 'WOW! A SHEATH! WHOOOPIEEE!'

"That reminds me." Miroku said. Recently we met a person with a zambatou that could block Tetsusaiga and not break. The man who weilds it is named 'Ghost.'"

"Ah, yes," Totousai said. "I made that sword for him. It is called Akujin, and it is made to be unbreakable, but it weighs somewhere around two hundred pounds. I made it for him because he killed the spider demon in the spider forest for me."

"WHAT?!?!" Sero yelled. "That bastard almost killed me with that sword, and you MADE IT FOR HIM!"

"Stop whining and grow up."

"This. Guy. Is. Bullshit." Sero said in a perfect monotone. Suddenly, however, Miroku tensed up.

"Sero, do you sense that?" he asked.

"No, but I can smell it. And it smells like shit. Naraku."

They all rose to their feet quickly and ran to the mouth of the cave. Overhead, they could see something slowly drifting down towards them. It resembled an angel. It was wearing a liquidy, silver armor, and held a blue sword that glistened and shined like water. It's face was covered by an ivory mask in the shape of a mourning face. It had two wings: one was covered in white feathers, and he other in red and black scales. It hovered silently over the magma lake outside of the cave.

It spoke not a word as it pointed to Sero and made a cutting motion with it's sword. When Totousai reached the mouth of the cave and saw the creature, he looked at miroku and said "friend of yours?"

"Oh yeah, we just thought we'd invite him over to your place for tea and biscuts." Miroku's words driped of sarcasm.

"He doesn't seem like a very friendly fellow." Totousai's stupidity could dry up a sea of sarcasm, however, and his words made sure Miroku's evaporated quickly, leaving Miroku dumbfounded and generally pissed off.

Sero walked up to the lake, and jumped from platform to platform until he reached the two middle platforms. The new youkai landed on the newt platform, and their gazes radiated of hatred. The next moment, the enemy youkai had leapt into the air, flying directlly towards Sero, who drew Tetsusaiga with a smirk, and let loose a battle cry that would begin one of the bloodiest battles he had ever been a part of: "KAZE NO KIZU!"

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hey, lookie, a cliffhanger! Well, not really. You kind of know what's coming, but the current battle will not be a short one, and I think it's about time to get this story moving along, so I'll speed things up here and there if you'd like, or do you like the pace I'm going at? Whatever, you know I'll just end up doing whatever the hell I feel like, but R+R ANYWAY!