Chapter 17
Sesshomaru stood gazing up at the falling sun reminiscing with a smirk the pure enjoyment he got out of watching his brother.
He watched inuyasha kill, maim, frighten, and steal.
He knew that such thoughts should not even pass through the mind of the invincible taiyoukai, but he couldn't help it.
He reveled in the thought that this was the same half demon that would die to save those same pathetic humans who tortured him day in and day out.
What wonders happen when you give a little more power to those obsessed by it.
It was funny really.
But the nonsense had to stop.
There was only one thing that sesshomaru wanted and only one way to get it.
Blood red curtains flew through the clouds away from the burning sun.
sesshomaru could feel the sun sucking every last morsel of energy from the earth before the darkness claimed it.
It was a battle that had been in the darkness' favor for the entire duration of the earth.
And this day was no different. Slowly the dark shadows lurked larger and the last bits of light shrank until they were swallowed up by the misshapen monster.
Dead to all the world.
Something was coming towards the cold youkai at an extremely rapid pace.
Reflexes on alert, sesshomaru reached up and deftly caught the glowing arrow as it reached towards his head.
The stoic youkai managed a grimace as the energy tried futilely to purify his hand. But the enery slowed down as sesshomaru gripped it harder, finally breaking the shaft.
He dropped the pieces onto the ground, a dead expression on his face, not even sparing a glance at his visitor. He knew who it was, he had been waiting for her for some time now.
"Sesshomaru!"
Her voice was strong and demanding. He turned slowly at his name and started to advance towards her, allowing her plenty of time to soak up his tall and deadly figure. His face held no emotion.
"Human, what do you want?"
He asked her as of she was wasting his time. Which in his mind she was, but he didn't care. As long as he got what he wanted, soon.
"I want to know why."
She said this half like it was obvious, and half like she expected him to kneel down and hold her hand as he explained every step in his intricate plan that probably involved her getting killed, or worse.
"I do not have to explain myself to you, insolent human."
His eyes narrowed.
"You will tell me. And I prefer before, rather than after I kill you."
His claws were at her throat the second she mouthed kill.
And then slowly he removed them and backed up a step. He needed her alive, or at least for the moment.
"You will do no such thing. It is better that you do not try the patience of this sesshomaru."
He gathered the reigns of his poison infested whips, and started moving them to get their momentum up. He wasn't going to hit her, unless she tried his patience some more and then he would only play with her. Her next statement crossed the line.
"What patience?!" She sneered. Her eyes were ablaze as her soul screamed revenge. This was the man who killed inuyasha. And since her love was never coming back to her, all the sweeter revenge will feel.
"This patience, wench."
She heard him say as his whips cracked down on her shield.
Smack, the shield glittered into visibility for a mere second before it fainted back into its theme of guarding blind.
Sesshomaru paused for a second before returning with three perfect strokes that would chop any normal youkai into pieces let alone a small human.
Her aura blocked them easily, just as he expected.
She advanced towards him, a small smirk gracing her lips. Her aura grew larger, almost swallowing him.
He backed up, bored.
He sensed other youkai advancing on the clearing, a snake and bear youkai first followed by others.
And one very familiar.
Inuyasha.
As his half brother's ripped red haori came into view he noticed that the miko's energy field shimmered in a dying light and then faded, and this time he knew that it was gone and never coming back.
Empires rose and fell in the space of time that lived in her eyes the moment she saw him.
Hot, sticky tears boiled up and threatened to fall as she looked at him and mouthed his name, without voice.
And finally the voice that did come out was not her own, it was someone else's.
"inuyasha."
It was a name whispered on the winds of fate itself. Where one had no feeling, no emotion left except sorrow.
But this time her words were without regret.
The demons of the night, and the shadows lurking in the mist advanced on her. Groaning and purring their assessment at such a prize addition to their meal for tonight.
Sesshomaru's whips were up in the sky again,
the miko's task was still unfinished.
Green lines cracked in the night, red blood staining their majestic glow as blood and youkai intestines drifted like paper over the uninterested group of two star-crossed lovers, one bound for hell and the other wishing she were there, if only she were with him.
The moon ticked its way across the sky a memoir of long times past. Sesshomaru was getting agitated. He was waiting too long and the miko still hadn't returned her focus on her long forgotten battle.
He sent his whips up, no response. He cracked one across her left arm making a deep cut. He saw her cringe but her gaze never left inuyasha.
"This battle is between you and me, miko." He growled out at her. Still she seemed oblivious to the regal youkai whose anger was rising at her flitty disregard of his pride.
"Look at me, miko!" he snapped, raised his whips and bringing them down in another three anger induced strokes.
Crack, crack, crack.
Red blood appeared, a stark contrast to the white of the priestess' top, as the skin cried out in protest to the sharp torture it was enduring. Dark stains appeared on her right thigh and left calf.
Her legs seemed to wobble under her, but she gained control and turned, eyes slits, to face sesshomaru. She draws an arrow, aiming for him.
"This arrow is not meant for you."
Sesshomaru drew tenseiga, just as she releases the enflamed arrow at him.
Surprise sent kagome reeling back as the life giving tenseiga cut the soul sucking arrow in half. The only sound in the whole forest is tenseiga being put away and the two pieces of the arrow sailing past sesshomaru and landing with a thunk in the trunk of the tree directly behind him.
Sesshomaru's silver hair returned to its position behind his shoulders.
Silence reigned once again, and slowly a new sound emerged, quiet at first and then growing louder.
Sesshomaru squinted to see in the dying light, he first saw kagome, head thrown back eyes shut in pain, mouth open as if gasping for air.
And there it was silver fangs glittering their contrast to her dark raven hair as inuyasha smirked in amusement his hands tightened on her delicate throat, nails digging into her yielding flesh.
Over the small choking noises she was making sesshomaru noticed something. Her shining hands were rising from her sides towards inuyasha's arms.
Inuyasha, oblivious to danger, was grinning like a madman, ready to twist the subtle neck and end her misery and her life. Two words were all it took to stop the preoccupied duo.
"Don't move."
The grin left inuyasha's face and he loosened his grip on her throat.
Kagome's hands lost their glow and instead headed to her mouth as she coughed uncontrollably, shaking her petite form.
Allowing time for kagome to breath sesshomaru paused before reaching for tokijin and pointing the tip at her throat.
Kagome groaned inwardly as she found herself going from one death situation to another. Slowly she knelt down, admitting defeat, and bowing her head over the tip, allowing a steady trickle of blood to run down into her shirt further staining it.
Her hands made their way behind her back as she sighed outwardly. Her right hand brushed something, her quiver.
It had a hole on the bottom. Moving her finger up slowly she tried to make it look like she was not moving. She knew that she was failing at that but sesshomaru didn't seem to be paying attention.
Something cut her finger, an arrow. Finally some solutions were coming into her mind.
"Sesshomaru, I promised that I would fulfill my duty as the protector of the Scared Jewel,"
she pulled the arrow out slowly, feeling down the shaft. She looked up tokijin at sesshomaru's face.
"and I will honor that promise to the very end."
Arrow in her left hand and her right free, kagome brought her right hand to knock tokijin away from her neck, giving her room to bring the arrow up and smashing it into the man behind her.
"Inuyasha I'm sorry." was the last thing inuyasha heard before the arrow embedded itself into his stomach. And with an anguished cry kagome struck the but end of the arrow with her right hand, plunging it deeper into inuyasha as he fell, like a feather, to the ground, landing with a thunk. Kagome fell back on her legs waiting for sesshomaru's final blow.
After seconds that seemed like hours, kagome asked in a tired voice, "Sesshomaru, why haven't you killed me yet?" He was silent for a moment, it screamed in kagome's ears.
"Because miko,"
he said in an understanding voice as the sound of his sword being put away rang through the forest.
"that is what I wanted all along."
whew... z...z...z... i am so tired... i really wanted to finish this chapter tonight and now it is midnight.
a couple of anouncements: first i have my own webpage now, i will post where exactly i am on dp on that page. it is on my ff homepage please visit and/ or review it really makes my day, or night, depending on when read it. only about two chapters left for everyone to die... no i'm kidding it has a good end youll see. now i really need my sleep...