Title – Of the Soul
Chapter Two – The Demon Lord (Undemonized)
He was human.
The Great Demon Lord of the Western Lands was human.
The heavy rain was a never ending waterfall drenching him until he finally knew what it was to be cold. Water droplets spilt over his forehead and rolled down his cheeks. His brows knitted together as he looked passed Rin into the bleary shower falling from the skies. The patter of rain droned in his ears, faint to his normally sensitive hearing. His nose could barely smell the mud.
Sesshoumaru felt for what had always been imprisoned within the fake human body, for what had always been harnessed and controlled, unable to slip out unless he called upon the true nature of his soul. He dug for what had always been contained just under the flesh, waiting for freedom. The transformation into his grand dog form never came. There was only nothingness where there had previously been his dormant demon soul.
Why did his soul not return when he called for it? His brown eyes opened just a bit more when he realized the answer a moment later.
Because I gave them a blood oath. It mattered not that it was a false act to him. All that mattered was that it was true to Kaitoukon and the unagi.
Their belief made it real. How could he have been so foolish? He had been soul-raped for his ignorance; he had been stripped of his very being by the wretched demons and left as little more than an insignificant part of humankind. A demon in a human's form without a demon's soul was little more indeed. The body was no longer a guise. There was now truly nothing but a human heart beating within it.
The absence of his soul was profound. Without it there was an empty void where his emotions had been, hidden though they were. Behind his mask of composure, where the flame of hatred had once burned… was nothing. Disgust and vengeance also disappeared into the black hole that took the place of his soul. Even those softer sentiments that he pushed away and refused to acknowledge – the compassion and the sympathy – were lost to the all-consuming numbness of feeling.
Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed at the small child, who was grinning a gap-toothed grin at him. His reaction was a reflex that had been branded into his mind like a habit. He was repulsed by his human appearance. He was repulsed by Rin. At least, he knew he was supposed to be repulsed. From the depths of hollowness, the true feeling never came. Imagination and the memory of the feeling, though, were adequate substitutes in the rift.
Even without his demon speed, he moved unusually fast. A callused hand – made rough from battle and sword handling – ripped the child up like a weed from the grass. He squeezed tightly to maintain his grip on the water-slicked skin of her neck. The pull of gravity was more formidable than what he had grown accustomed to, but the girl's weight was still insignificant. Her dark chocolate eyes grew to the size of grapefruits as her tiny hands came up to rest atop his.
"Sir?" she choked.
Although her perpetual buoyancy had proven that it indeed had an end, her reaction was unexpected. There was no fear in her eyes. There was only questioning, and even that seemed a mirage. It was as if she was waiting for him to do whatever he planned to do. She looked as if she would accept anything done to her by him. Her lack of fear increased his fathomed ire.
"This is your fault, human," he accused. Not with his usual calm, but with a vehemence that had never rolled off his tongue before.
Without a soul, Sesshoumaru had no worry of maintaining a perfectly disciplined, somber façade. He simply could not care to.
Rin said nothing. She didn't even attempt to. Even as his tightening grip threatened to crush her windpipe, she continued to stare at him without a touch of terror in her eyes. Even when his eyes smoked with a fury she had never before been the recipient of, she remained prepared for whatever fate he decided for her.
He thought he might have wanted to kill her. He should have. One firm squeeze was all it would take… yet the eagerness to kill had been amongst the emotions peeled away, as would be the satisfaction that always followed a kill.
I hesitated… His mind mulled over the notion, though detached from any possible distress that might have come with the realization. He quickly lost interest in the subject of his thoughts.
Sesshoumaru released the choking, red-faced child. She landed on her feet and, unprepared for her abrupt release, she slipped in the mud and fell back on her bottom. For a moment her bottom lip trembled. Tears welled in the ducts of her eyes. In the torrent of rain, it was impossible to tell if they fell.
She wiped at her eyes and was soon smiling up at him again.
"I'm sorry. What'd I do?" she asked. The innocence might have been heart-warming, but not to Sesshoumaru. Especially not a soulless Sesshoumaru.
His empty brown eyes stared at her. He didn't feel inclined to answer her childish inquiry – as he didn't feel anything, really. Still, he chose to answer her. His predicament was her fault… even if he was unable to feel that it was.
"I'm human," he growled at her over the storm.
As if the black clouds had heard his menacing voice, lightning chose that instance to crack. For a second the sky was a clash between purple and pink. In that same second, much like the sky, his eyes were a clash between gold and brown.
The young girl tilted her head as her brows drew down in bewilderment, her seven year old mind uncomprehending of the meaning of his statement.
"But you are… Lord Sesshoumaru. He looks different, but is still him," she said as if she were talking to herself, trying to understand.
She couldn't understand. It was as if she had never realized that he was demon. Or that she was human and that there was a difference between the two. It was like she had never learned that people and demons were seemingly unable to coexist peacefully.
And therein was the problem, he realized. As an orphan, she had no one to teach her to fear demons. She had abusive men to teach her to fear people. Around Jaken and himself, the company of demons was ordinary and completely natural to her. For a moment, Sesshoumaru allowed himself to wonder if she thought of them as mortals such as herself, or if she thought of herself as an immortal such as them. The thought was soon gone, banished from his uncaring mind.
He regarded the child for a moment with unseeing eyes, though still perceiving as her short attention span had already drifted away from contemplation to the mud under her feet. However, before she could bend down and start playing with it, Sesshoumaru turned. His wet hair and drenched attire flung water with the movement.
"Come, Rin," he commanded. His placid tone had returned.
"O'tay!" she said cheerily.
Though the idea of playing with the mud was forgotten, that didn't stop her from playing in it. She obediently followed behind him, jumping and leaving deep impressions of her feet in the muck. When she tried to pull them out, it created a strong suction against her feet.
Sesshoumaru's pace slowed only for a moment as he waited for a slurping sound to tell him that she had freed herself from the mud. He didn't slow again.
The unagi had his soul.
He wanted it back.
Immediately.
Away from the pouring storm, flight was smoother for their large wings without the added weight of water to bog them down. The clouds were dark still, but moving away towards the lands that they had come from. Kaitoukon grinned, his black, slimy lips pulling wide to reveal rows of deadly fangs dripping with poison and saliva.
His wings slowed their flapping as his enormous body straightened. He hovered in place as he flipped his tail up, uncurling it and tossing the foggy blue form of a burly dog into the air. Before the soul could dart back to its rightful body, Kaitoukon unhinged his jaw and opened his mouth to its widest extent. His wings propelled him upward at the demon soul and he devoured it whole.
A bright red light surrounded his form completely. It shot upwards, turning his very body into the same red light that sped into the sky. It ricocheted back as if it had hit an invisible barrier and crashed back down to the grasslands below, exploding into a gargantuan form.
The shape radiated a red glow. The solid color rose to stand on four thick legs - legs that supported an even larger mass. As the light dulled, the demon began to growl, baring its elongated fangs and long, rounded snout. A white pelt rose from its underbelly and encircled its slimy, moss green shoulder, winding to mid back. Extending from just behind the shoulder blades were the same great wings, if not now greater. A round, monstrous tail whipped behind it dangerously, testing before it finally plopped onto the ground. It threw its head up and roared, a pink split tongue protruding from its mouth as it released a sound somewhere between a hideous bellow and a hiss.
With a feral grin, the mammoth body flapped its wings and rose from the ground, racing into the sky to catch up to its fellow eel demons.
Under the shelter of copious treetops, they were shielded from the onslaught of rain. A few lone droplets trickled through the dense leaves and rolled down the thick limbs, sprinkling the grass with moisture.
Sesshoumaru moved swiftly between trees, searching for the level path. Without his keen sense of smell, he had to rely on his eyes. Eyes that had a poor vision he was unaccustomed to having. He imaged that his inability to find the path should have frustrated him, but it didn't. He felt nothing except a tingling at the base of his spine that was trying to make his body tremble with cold. Movement kept the shiver from consuming him.
His saturated kimono, made filthy with dark bloodstains and such, was heavy. The armor around his waist was heavy too. The spiked shoulder adornment made his back hunch under the weight. Any air of regality or grace was gone from his posture. He was just a soulless human stumbling over fallen tree trunks and avoiding thick patches of weeds. His situation might have been humiliating… had he been able to feel anything. However, his predicament was no less degrading.
Carrying the extra weight was a burden that he didn't need now. Not when he was trying to move as fast as humanly possible. He unbuckled the lower body armor and discarded it thoughtlessly behind him. Immediately his legs began working faster without the cumbersome metal restricting them. The shoulder spikes clunked to the ground a moment later. Sesshoumaru kept his pelt and the belt that held his swords.
Behind him, Rin wriggled through small openings in the brush that only a child her size could fit through. She struggled to climb over the same fallen logs that Sesshoumaru's long legs eased over and she had gotten a foot caught in weeds on more than one occasion. She endured it all with a smile and followed him with a bounce in her step.
"Ah!" she yelped, suddenly yanked back by her hair.
The hostile branch was stubborn and refused to give up the lock of hair that it had caught as she passed. Rin made a fist around the lock and pulled on it, but the knot remained.
Sesshoumaru paused, watching impassively as the child wrestled with the inanimate limb. She finally tugged her hair free, leaving it disarray. Well, more so than usual. A warm smile greeted his gaze when she turned to him. The warmth didn't quite reach him, especially through his drenched kimono. His skin was chilled, but he ignored the unusual sensation.
Rin sniffed and wiped a wet, checkered sleeve over her nose. Rain did humans no good. Rain only served to make them ill, as had happened before when the child insisted on playing in it. The memory seemed distant to him, floating on the surface of his thoughts, just out of his mental grasp. He didn't try to delve for the recollection.
"Your clothes are wet," he noted, monotone.
"Uh huh," she nodded. "And dirty!" she added proudly.
He continued as if he hadn't heard her.
"We will find a place to build a fire and dry them."
"Can we go fishing too?" Rin asked hopefully.
Usually a mental curl of the lip was his response, but this time it slipped out onto his visage. He gave her no vocal answer and turned away. She understood his silent consent.
Rin giggled cheerfully and bounded after him.
"I smell demon," Inuyasha growled, glaring skyward.
Hints of sunlight were only just beginning to break through the gray storm clouds, which had finally relented on their downpour.
Inuyasha turned to Kagome, who was sloshing her bike along through the glass with a sleeping fox demon in the basket. "Are there any shards?"
"I didn't sense anything earlier, but…" she frowned. She stopped to concentrate, expounding her senses in a further radius, feeling for any remnants of the jewel nearby. After a moment, she shook her head. "Still nothing."
"Hn," he practically groaned.
His hand, which had instinctively gone to the hilt of Tetsusaiga when the scent reached his nose, didn't fall back to his side. His grip tightened around it. Kagome found the gesture still slightly unnerving after all of their traveling together, knowing that he could sense a danger that she couldn't see.
"What is it?" Miroku asked. When he saw the half demon's white knuckles, his grip around his staff grew firmer.
"Help me!" A voice shouted through the trees.
Branches cracked. Leaves crunched. Loud pants and terrified mewling drifted through the trees. Another scream resounded through the woods as someone burst through a thick brush, his arms brought up in front of his face. A few thin twigs were sure to scratch at his limbs for invading the thicket.
"Please, help me!" the man cried again. He whisked himself behind Kagome's bike as if it were a shield, grabbing hold of the wheel and sliding onto his knees. The bike toppled down after him, along with a fully awake and shrieking Shippou.
Kagome instantly gathered up the poor fox child in her arms and knelt beside the man, putting a calm, reassuring hand on his shoulder. He scooted away from the touch as his body trembled with the terror of whatever it was he had seen. His eyes were wide with horror.
"What? What is it?" she asked gently, though there was a touch of urgency to her voice.
"You should be more care-" Shippou began, but silenced when a gentle, yet firm, hand covered his mouth.
"It's after me! Please don't let it get me!"
Tears were rolling down his cheeks. Kagome absently wondered if he knew that he was crying.
Tetsusaiga rang with the clear sound of an unsheathed sword. The rusted piece of junk had transformed into the magnificent fang, both smooth and deadly. Miroku followed his lead and held his staff at the ready.
"What's after you?" Kagome persisted.
A large shadow flew up from the trees like a dolphin leaping out of water. It was enormous. The long, winding body flew over the forest with a speed something its size shouldn't possess, its gigantic wings gliding through the air. The silhouette dove back into the maze of trees only to dart back out a moment later, hissing angrily.
The already terrified man screamed again, louder. Even Kagome let out a surprised squeak and shrunk away from the massive shadow. It certainly wasn't making any friendly noises.
The serpentine shadow flapped its massive wings and rose into the darkened sky, spreading its wings grandly. The shadow curved then and snapped its wings back to dive. Its mouth opened wide, revealing narrow, yet incredibly sharp fangs. As it raced toward them, its shadow faded to reveal contour and color. Eyes, placed on either side of the head, were black, elongated pinpricks against yellow sclera. Its nose was flat, with two slits serving as nostrils. A large fin sprouted from the middle of its forehead and continued down its spine, running all the way to the end of its tail.
It looks like… an eel. Kagome decided uncertainly.
She could see the determination in its hideous, yellow eyes. It was intent on killing.
"It takes souls!" the man cried. "Don't let it get me!"
"We won't," Kagome assured him.
She glanced back at the eel demon. There was a dull, blue light surrounding its body. None of the demons that she had ever encountered before had glowed. She took it as a bad sign.
Inuyasha leapt into the air above the eel demon, his sword drawn back at his side. For the past two days he had been in a foul mood, which she guessed had something to do with their latest argument concerning school, tests and returning home to take that those tests. A defensive Shippou had ended up biting Inuyasha on his hindquarters and the only reason the small fox demon was still alive was due to the subjugation beads and the many angry SIT! commands it had responded to.
In his sour mood, he apparently didn't feel like toying with the demon. With one violent swing, the blade sliced up the jaw and out through the skull. There was a blur of silver and red as Tetsusaiga was brought back down for a second swing, this time slicing through the back of its head where its neck presumably connected. A geyser of blood gushed from the decapitated eel demon's body.
Kagome looked away. She had seen the horrible sight so many times, both the same and similar losses of other appendages, but each time it made her stomach churn. She fought down the bile that had risen to the base of her throat.
The blue luminescence had begun to move forward out of the body as if it were trying to escape. As the body slammed into the ground below, the blue… thing vanished like dissipating fog. She wanted to know what that glow was, but first she had to get the awful image of the demon's slaughter from her mind's eye. It was her very own private movie, rewinding and playing repeatedly. Kagome tried to concentrate on the blue light.
"Inuyasha?" she asked timidly.
Tetsuseiga had returned to its powerless state and was again sheathed in its scabbard, yet the half demon still stood rigid. His ears flattened back, which wasn't a good sign.
"What?" he snarled.
"Did you…" Kagome struggled to find a word to describe what she had seen. It was like glowing smoke, but what was it? She gave up on putting words to it. "Did you see that?"
"See the demon with the big teeth flying at me? Oh no, I completely missed it," Inuyasha snapped wryly.
"Not that!" Kagome huffed and stood. She stomped her foot back and threw her hand out in the direction of the dead carcass behind her. Its tail still twitched, but gradually the sporadic, after-death movement ceased. "It was glowing blue!"
The man, still quaking with unforgotten fear, rose along with her. Kagome patted his back comfortingly, but she didn't miss the what-the-hell-are-you-babbling-about? look from Inuyasha.
I'll take that as a "no", she thought with a mental sigh.
"Are you alright?" she asked the man. He must have been from a nearby village.
He tried to speak, but his voice chose that moment to fail him, and so he nodded instead. He then moved to Inuyasha, whose lips twisted to the side in annoyance, and shook his clawed hand.
"Thank you," said the man. Inuyasha snatched his hand away, so the man changed tactics and bowed to him instead. "You saved my life. I can't thank you enough!"
"Well you can start thanking us by telling us what those things were," said Inuyasha, gesturing to the mossy-green body.
"Unagi."
"Unagi are not common in this area. In fact, their territory is far outside this region in the mountains," said Miroku.
"My people used to tell many stories of the demons massacring villages, but- but we had never actually seen one," he said, his trembling lips bumbling over his words. He went on as if he didn't notice his stuttering. "And th-then today an entire group of them fly down on the village and begin devouring the people's souls–"
"Woah! Devouring souls?" Kagome repeated incredulously.
He nodded. "Yes. Their bodies drop to the ground… and then there's this blue ghost flying around in its place. It pulled the souls out of the villagers and… and ate them. And then there was this big dog demon leading them."
As the man spaced his arms far apart to illustrate the hugeness of the demon, Inuyasha's head snapped up. Miroku shared a similar look of recognition, though he seemed more uncertain.
"I knew I'd caught Sesshoumaru's scent around here," the half demon muttered.
"Do not be so hasty as to jump to conclusions, Inuyasha. Sesshoumaru may be heartless, but he is also someone who seems to prefer his own company. Why would he use other demons to attack a village when he could have easily done it himself?" Miroku questioned, putting logic into the situation despite his unwillingness to.
Inuyasha would have none of it. "Because he can! Maybe he didn't wanna waste his energy, but I sure as hell don't know of any other dog demons."
"What did the demon look like? The dog demon?" Kagome asked as she hugged Shippou closer to her chest.
The man closed his eyes tightly and shook his head. "Please, I just wish to return to my village. I must know if my siblings got away…"
"Well then, we'll go with you," she said. She tried to smile, but she could only get the corners of her mouth to lift.
"You and Miroku can go with him. I'm going after that bastard brother of mine."
"Inuyasha! We don't know for sure if it was him. And you know he's just going to try and take the Tetsusaiga from you. For all we know this could just be some plan of his," said Kagome.
Her mind searched for more reasons, making them ready at the tip of her tongue to argue. Call it women's intuition, but the situation didn't feel at all like Sesshoumaru had played a part in it. Okay, sure, the bit about the dog demon was a little… coincidental, but that didn't mean it was him. She didn't want Inuyasha to go after his brother. It was pointless.
"And he always jumps out at me. This time I wanna be the one that jumps out at him," he spat, turning on his heel. "The demons are gone. If they come back, Miroku has his wind tunnel."
Inuyasha took off, his feet racing at a speed that still awed her.
"And don't even think about sitting me!" he called back at her. Leaves rustled as he leapt lightly onto a tree branch, followed by more quiet rustling.
The idea hadn't come to mind until he mentioned, but even then Kagome chose not to activate the hindering spell. Facing his brother was something he felt that he had to do, she just didn't want him to do something stupid like he always did. She didn't want them fighting to no end. And she didn't want Inuyasha to get hurt. She gently set Shippou down on the ground in front of the monk.
"Miroku? Will you two go with him back to the village? I'm going to follow Inuyasha."
The conviction in her voice stopped his automatic disagreement. He sighed. "I suppose there is no way for me to dissuade you. I will await your arrival at the village, then."
Kagome picked up her fallen bicycle and readjusted the backpack on her shoulders. After wiping the seat of the water that had splashed onto it, she pedaled as fast as her legs would allow. For some reason, it was important that she went with him to confront his brother. She had plenty of time to contemplate the reasons as she pedaled over the slick grass… but her mind kept returning to the same one. She had to make sure Inuyasha fought with his head, rather than with his testosterone.
Author's Note – I'm rather pleased with myself, even if I did have to include a lot of the typical Inuyasha gang in this chapter to get where I want to go. *happy grin* I might have to make a small detour in my original plans, but golly gee that's just how it goes sometimes. Hopefully I'll keep the story around four chapters. Also, just as a small note: Sango has not yet joined the group (even though the proper timeline says that she has) in case anyone was wondering about her absence.
Oh, I am taking picture requests for this chapter too. :)
Thank You's – Mucho thanks to my absolutely wonderful reviewers! I don't believe I've ever had such praiseworthy, completely flattering and otherwise inspirational comments to get me writing faster.
Deadly Tears – You make me smile. Not only were you my first reviewer, but all of your praise just went straight to my head. Oh, I also completed your picture request. When I have access to a scanner (which I hope will be soon), I'll let ya know!
Kitty Kagome – Don't worry, its not over yet! I still have to try to fix what I did to poor Sess. Hmm, I wonder if it can be fixed.
Pixie – I find Sess/Rin stories to be rather cute… if done properly, but their "friendship" is far cuter. Besides, after K-Chan told me that Sesshoumaru's reincarnation ends up with the daughter of Rin and [insert scary music here] Kohaku, I couldn't bring myself to write a love story. Ah well.
WildfireDreams – I knew something was going to request a picture of his reflection, which is gonna take me some time to get around to. I need to find a position I'm comfortable drawing him in, be it looking into his reflection or just the reflection… but I will get it done, honey, since you were so kind as to review!
anhimals – Well… did ya like how this chapter played out? Tee hee.
Sylvyr Elf – Why thank you! Thank you bundles. And when I first thought about turning Sesshoumaru human, I was like 'Ugh, how many people have done that before me?' I'm pleased to know that it is more original than I originally thought, and incredibly happy to know that you liked how it was done!
Wyrsa – Thank you kindly, darling. I was in a frenzy the other day looking for the tape that had the Rin episode on it, but then I realized I must have taped over it. I am deeply saddened, but reading over your review again cheers me right up. *big grin*
Vorsith – Your review flatters me, really. I had my doubts as to whether or not I could keep everyone in character when I put them into these situations, and I'm happy to know that you think I've done my job successfully! And Rin strikes me as a child who would just as quickly say Sesshoumaru's hair looks prettier if it were to go back to silver from the black. Ahh, I love Rin. And I love you too for reviewing.
K-Chan – You are my wonderful beta-reader. I love you the most, especially when you rape my stories. I should have some one-shotters for you soon.