AN: WARNING! Serious gore and death. No picnics and flowers.
Chapter 26: Hushed
I walked outside where a Jaken was waiting for me. I noticed Jaken look around me and gulp.
"So many, Lord Sesshomaru?" Jaken asked nervously. "I am not sure they can all fit."
"We'll be fine." I replied and Jaken nodded quickly.
"Yes, yes."
"Hurry up. At this rate, I'll be late for my meeting."
"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru!" Jaken quickly agreed before scurrying off towards the limo. I followed him and quickly beckoned for the others to follow, without looking back. I quickly squeezed my eyes closed, and took a deep breath. I opened my eyes again and pulled my face into the stiff, emotionless expression I always used. I knew that with my mask on, I could think and feel whatever I wanted, or didn't want, as the case might be.
I fought the urge to look back at the hospital, knowing that if I did, I would never be able to leave. Every demon instinct in my body screamed at me to turn around and return to Rin, my mate, while my mind calmly told me that I could do nothing for Rin by sitting with her. Shaking my head, I bit the inside of my lip hard enough to draw blood.
'By all the blood in my body, I will return. By the pain of my wound, I will return. By all my love for Rin, I will return. By my family's line, I will return.' I told myself, chanting the old demon oath my father had taught me, hoping it would calm my instincts.
"Lord?" Jaken asked as I approached the car. "Are you injured? I smell blood."
"It's none of your business." I snapped before opening the back door of the limo and ushering the others inside. When we were all seated, I nodded to Jaken and we were quickly on our way.
"Lord, I can sense someone. They're following us." Jaken called back after a moment. "Should I try to lose our tracker?"
"No. Slow down, I wouldn't want our guest to get lost." I replied, not bothering to elaborate. I knew that Kohaku wouldn't want Sango to know he was coming, and I wouldn't want to distract Sango with any new revelation, while she was still a liability to me with her injury. We drove in silence for the rest of the trip; everyone lost in his or her own thoughts, apparently. I briefly glanced around and wondered what the others were thinking, but quickly dismissed the thought. It was worthless to wonder about something I would never know. Besides, did I really care?
Jaken pulled into the parking lot at the base of Kanashimi Mountain. It was mostly used for hikers and other people who planed to spend time on the mountain, but today it was oddly deserted. There were plenty of other cars—so many, in fact, that Jaken was forced to park illegally—there were just no people.
"Holy crap." Inuyasha commented as we all got out of the car. "It's like that twilight zone episode where the guy is running around the deserted town, but it's only in his head."
"Twilight zone? What a dork." Shippo snickered, and Inuyasha growled threateningly.
"Now, Inuyasha…" Dr. Higurashi began, but Inuyasha was already ignoring her.
"Say that to my face, you punk kid."
"P-p-punk k-kid?! You over-grown jerk!" Shippo shouted, as he transformed into a large pink balloon and began to gnaw on Inuyasha's head. Punching Shippo in the face, Inuyasha waited till Shippo had turned back into his humanoid form before kicking Shippo in the rear.
"Could you two, at least, try and act like something resembling two mature adults?" I muttered, as I dismissed Jaken, with orders to return to the hospital and watch over Rin, while I was busy.
"Uh, did I miss something?" Ayame asked as she walked over with Kouga, Ginta and Hakkaku in tow. "I thought we were against the factions and Naraku, not each other."
"Who's Naraku?" Kouga asked, confused as ever
"Ginta." Ayame sighed and Ginta turned to re-explain the situation to Kouga.
"I'm glad you're on time." I said, as I turned to look at Ayame. "Are any others from your clan coming?"
"No. The leaders agreed to follow Kouga and my judgement."
"That's good." I nodded. "Come along. There's still a half-hour hike to the meeting area."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
'I hate Sesshomaru. I hate Sesshomaru. I hate Sesshomaru. I ha… oh, crap. I'm too damn tired to hate anyone.' I decided as I desperately tried to remain standing. Fortunately, I wasn't suffering the worst; the wolf-boy's two friends had been holding each other up for the past ten minutes and Sango looking like she was about to be sick.
"Where are we?" Kouga asked for the hundredth time that day, and I was forced to resist the urge to throttle him as his female companion explained to him, yet again, what was happening.
"How… much farther?" Miroku asked as he clung desperately to a tree, while trying to support Sango at the same time.
"We're here, you wimps." Sesshomaru snapped emotionlessly, as we entered a clearing. The clearing was huge and a large area had been covered in cobblestones so that there was a large circle. The circle was enormous, with, probably, a one hundred-foot radius. On the other side of the stone area, was a large group of perhaps a thousand men and women, half humans and half youkai. They were all wearing black robes and carried various weapons, ranging from bows and arrows, to swords, to guns. The faction members noticed our group fairly quickly and the clearing was soon silent.
"Ah, Sesshomaru. You're never at all late, so I was beginning to think you would never come." A tall man smiled coldly, as he walked a few feet from the rest of the group. He was almost Sesshomaru's height, and he had long black hair, which was pulled into a ponytail. His nose seemed to have been broken once, but it had healed well, so it was almost impossible to tell. Oddly enough, the way he presented himself made, for no logical reason, my skin crawl.
"Narkau." Sesshomaru sniffed. "You look that different from our last meeting."
"I know I do. You see, I knew a lovely plastic surgeon; he fixed my nose wonderfully."
"That's good to know. Perhaps I'll break it again." Sesshomaru threatened.
"No need to rush into violence. There's the rest of eternity for death. Oh, and don't worry about privacy. A few of my mikos and priests have set up a barrier by now. Only those who are aware of the existence of demons can enter this area now. All the others will only see a deep, dark pit."
"Ingenious." Sesshomaru replied, his voice strained and curt.
"Isn't it though? Oh, Jakotsu! Bankotsu! Come here, will you?" Naraku beckoned two figures from the crowd. They walked forward and Naraku pointed out the male nurse to them. "Look; Suikotsu is here."
"Hi ya, Sui!" A man in a strange dress grinned as he waved at the male nurse. The man, who had confronted Kagome and me in the parking garage, simply nodded in greeting. Suddenly, it was as if the cross-dresser was staring at me. I blinked and wondered if he had noticed me, but turned around, just in case someone was standing behind me. I looked back and the cross-dresser and, quickly turning, the cross-dresser wrapped his arms around the other man's neck, squealing like a five-year-old girl. "OH! Is that Inuyasha? Oh, Ban, you're so lucky! He's gorgeous! Oh, but so is his brother! But I prefer Inuyasha. You were fortunate, Ban."
'Yep. He noticed me.' I thought, as I tried to stop twitching.
"Hn." The other man—I assumed he was Ban—just shrugged, before wrapping his arm around the cross-dresser's waist. "I like you better, Ja. Hey, Sui, come over here! It's been a while since Ja and I last saw you."
"I… I can't." Sui shrugged. "I can't come to your side. I don't remember too much about it."
"You don't remember?" Ja frowned. "That's funny. I remember everything. Have you forgotten anything, Ban?"
"No. It can't be the spell."
"Perhaps," Naraku interrupted as he snapped his fingers and three captives were dragged forward, "Perhaps, he only needs a reminder."
I looked down at the captives and realized that they were all hanyou. The first was a small, petite girl, who was a half-bat demon, and the second was a lumbering teenaged boy, who smelt like a half-horse demon. The third was the rarest. She was in her twenties and she smelt like there were traces of cat demon and horse demon blood in her lineage.
Quickly reaching out, Naraku sliced off the heads of the first two captives without a second's warning. The third hanyou shrieked and tried to push herself away from the spurting blood and the scent of death. I glanced over at the others and saw that Kagome had turned away from the sight with her hand covering her mouth, while Miroku and Sango both looked horrified. The wolf demons and the older wind demon looked a little disgusted with Naraku. The younger wind demon backed into her sister and quickly turned away to hide her face from the blood. As the older wind demon bent down to comfort her sister, I saw that the older sister's eyes seemed to burn with a mild hatred, as she clutched the younger wind demon to her chest. Only Sesshomaru remained impassive as he watched Suikotsu.
"Do you remember?" Ja asked, as he walked forward to the two dead bodies and knelt next to the girl's torso. He smeared his fingers in the blood that was still spraying from the decapitated Hankyu's body and smirked at Suikotsu. Putting his fingers to his lips, Ja slowly licked his fingers clean, before standing up. "You used to love the taste."
"I… I never…" Suikotsu began, as the blood rushed from his own face.
"Another reminder perhaps?" Naraku asked, as he sliced off the head of the third captive. I placed a hand on Kagome's shoulder and tried to comfort her as she clutched her ears and shook her head. I bit my lip, feeling guilty for bringing her along. Logically, there was no reason for her to be there, but I had felt compelled to bring her anyway, oddly enough.
I could smell Miroku's repressed vomiting and I could even hear one of the wolves gagging.
"Is… that what I did?"
"All the time." Ban nodded. "You loved it, Sui. It was what you lived for."
"I lived for this? I needed that carnage?" I heard Suikotsu whisper, as his hand inched towards his throated. "I was… that sort of monster?"
"We all were." Ja agreed.
"I was sick." Suikotsu snapped, as he clawed at his throat and began to pull out a small sliver of glass.
"Sui!" Ja screamed, as he lunged at the nurse. "No!"
I watched as Ja reached forward and his hand meet only bones. There was a split-second of silence as the rest of Suikotsu's flesh disintegrated and the bones collapsed into a pile, with a piece of glass inches from it. Falling to his knees, Ja ran his fingers over the bones.
"Sui?" He whispered. Ban walked forward, silently processing the information. Looking up at his 'friend', Ja drew in a ragged breath and bit his lip. "He's dead. Why did he do it?"
"He must have thought we were monsters." Ban shrugged as he knelt next to Ja and began to pick up his friend's bones. "He must have seen past our disguise."