Flowers In The Snow

Chapter 5: Bait

Sesshoumaru stood at the foot of the hill leading to Nibori-sama's palace. How the place had changed in the last forty years. Once verdant, the lands around him were scorched with fire and soaked with blood. This scale of bloodshed reminded Sesshoumaru of the great battles in his father's time, when the tai-youkai fought amongst themselves for power and land. But that was all in the past, what misfortune had befallen Nibori-sama to bring him to this unhappy pass?

"Halt. Who goes there?"

Sesshoumaru looked up. Above him, on a parapet of the castle, stood two frightened looking Orochi guards. One had his arm in a sling.

"This Seshoumaru, Lord of the Western Lands, seeks audience with Nibori-sama, Lord of the South."

The guards looked taken aback. They had heard much of the power of the Lord of the Western Lands. In the South, his prowess and skill had reached near-legendary proportions. It was said he carried swords of life and death at his side, that he killed so fast you wouldn't even realize you were dead, that his palace was crafted by heavenly craftsmen so it was one of the marvels of Japan. And this Lord now stood in front of them, his silver hair blowing in the wind, his armour shining in the sun. The Orochi guards trembled when they saw the two swords by his side.

"N-Nibori-sama is not well, much misfortune has come to our lands. But we will ask Mahoumaru and Nissho-sama if you may have audience with them, for they rules as regent in these troubled times." The guard with his arm in a sling spoke rapidly and retreated within the castle, presumably to inform Mahoumaru and Nissho-sama of Sesshoumaru's presence.

"Mahoumaru?"

"Hai, Mahoumaru is Nibori-sama's faithful advisor. He is youkai of great wisdom and kindness and he arrived just when Nibori-sama began falling ill and the people rose against him. Were it not for Mahoumaru, we Orochi would have been decimated by plagues of humans and lesser youkai."

"Why does Nibori-sama have need of an advisor? Does not his son take his place when he is ill?"

The guard shook his head.

"Nissho-sama trusts Mahoumaru implicitly. In fact, it was he who persuaded his father to hand over governance to Mahoumaru."

Sesshoumaru frowned. Something wasn't right. He wondered if this Mahoumaru sought to weaken the Orochi clan from within and snatch control of the South in an internal coup. It wouldn't be unheard of, such intrigues. He would like to meet this Mahoumaru. From what he heard, he didn't trust him already.

"Mahoumaru and Nissho-sama will will meet with Sesshoumaru-sama in the grand hall." The other guard re-appeared. "Open the gates and let him pass!"

From somwhere within, a great grinding and crunching of levers could be heard. The large gates of the palace compound swung open and Sesshoumaru walked through. Ranks of Orochi guards lingered in the compound. Many were wounded in some way or another. It seemed they were getting ready for another battle, some of the Orochi were sharpening weapons on a whetstone, others were re-stringing bows. All of them had a tired look. As he passed by them, they stopped and stared at him, a look of awe on their faces.

The memory of the place still fresh in his mind, Sesshoumaru walked unhesitatingly in the direction of the great hall. It was evening and the braziers had been lit so that the great hall danced with shadows.

"Enter, Sesshoumaru-sama, Lord of the Western Lands." a thin voice broke through the gloom. It was a voice that he had never heard before.

The darkness was no hindrance to Sesshoumaru's vision, his youkai eyes could see perfectly well in the dark as well as the light. As he approached the main seats in the hall, he could make out two figures, one seated on the Lord's Chair, the other standing beside him. The seated figure was young and handsome, a teenage Orochi prince in ceremonial armour. No doubt this was Nibori-sama's son Nissho. The figure standing beside him was dressed in a soft grey cloak with a hood that covered his face. Sesshoumary felt at once that if he could see that face, he would not find it pleasing.

"Why have you come?" spoke the seated figure. The deep voice was a young Orochi voice.

"Nissho-sama," Sesshoumaru acknowledged him before speaking, "You have allowed blood to be shed too close my borders."

"Why should that be of concern to you?"

"This blood is massive. It is a war. All wars are of concern to me."

The figure standing by Nissho's side whispered something to him and Nissho-nodded.

"Mahoumaru, my trusted advisor, has advised me to ask for your aid in ending these wars. The humans and lesser youkai in the South have risen against our House, for apparently no reason. If they defeat us, they plan to continue their onslaught to the West. It is in your interests to help us."

Mahoumaru whispered into Nissho's ear again.

"Mahoumaru tells me that he respects you greatly, that he is humbled before you."

"I am not interested in what he thinks" Sesshoumaru answered, in his usual manner.

The grey-clad figure twitched, in annoyance.

"Where is your father, Nissho-sama? I did not come to speak with the Prince, much less the Prince's advisor. I come to speak to Nibori-Sama, Lord of the Southern Lands."

The young Orochi looked irritated at Sesshoumaru's reminder that he was not the Lord.

"My father is gravely ill. No one may see him."

Sesshoumaru became aware of an oppressive atmosphere and a horridly familiar smell. As fast as it came to him, it dissipated.

"Then I will not aid you. I have no business here." Sesshoumaru turned. "It is strange that your troubles started when Mahoumaru became your advisor."

A high squeal stopped Sesshoumaru in his tracks.

"Sessshoumaru-ssssama..." the grey cloaked figure spoke in a high, clear, voice. "Perhapsss meeting with Nibori-sama will put your mind at rest. I am innossssent of what you accuse me of. I have the welfare of the Orochi at heart. You ssssee, Nibori-sama conjured me up himself to act as his servant. I am his creation, I respond to his will."

Sesshoumaru turned and looked directly at the grey-clad figure. It removed its cloak and, staring at Sesshoumaru, was the face of ...Nibori-sama.

"I and Nibori-sama are alike. When he felt he was growing weak and feeble, he conjured me up to preserve his vitality and thoughts in a spectre that could move around freely and without harm. He himself is bed-ridden and weak. Go to sssseee for yourself."

Nissho stood. "Sesshoumaru-sama, much as I dislike your arrogance, I trust Mahoumaru when he says that we need your help to overcome this harship we face. For eight years we have been fighting onslaught after onslaught of lesser youkai and humans. Our lands are wasted, our rivers run dry, our fields are empty. Come to speak with father, you are our only hope."

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed. Nissho's tone sounded sincere but his words were too much like rehearsed flattery. Sesshoumaru was wary of false flattery, he had received too much of it in his life. Still, Nibori-sama had always been peaceful and noble, and a great friend of his father's. If what Nissho said was true...

"I will see Nibori-sama before I decide."

Furthermore, he wanted to know Mahoumaru's true nature... how could Nibori-sama have conjured such a terrible spectre? It certainly had his face, but not his aura at all. There was something dreadful and familiar about Mahoumaru's jyaki...but with the overwhelming amount of jyaki in the air from the massive amount of bloodshed around the palace, even Sesshoumaru's keen senses could not distinguish what it was about Mahoumaru's jyaki that was so disturbing.

"Thissss way," Mahoumaru replaced the hood of his cloak and together with Nissho-sama, exited the grand hall through a side door. Sesshoumaru followed in silence.

They passed through numerous passageways and gardens before arriving at a sumptuous chamber. Nissho drew back the screen door.

"Chichiue, Sesshoumaru-sama, Lord of the Western Lands has come to see you."

"Show him in," came a weak voice.

Sesshoumaru entered the chamber. Before him, lying on a grand raised futon, was the prone figure of Nibori-sama. Although weakened and thin, the tai-youkai's aura was still strong and peaceful. Sesshoumaru was satisfied that this was Nibori-sama in the flesh.

"Sesshoumaru-sama....son of Inutaisho. You haven't changed at all, life has been good to you."

"Greetings, Nibori-sama. How long have you been ill?" Sesshoumaru asked.

"For too long, Sesshoumaru-sama." Nibori-sama cleared his throat, "I do not know what this malady is. It comes and goes, like fits. Sometimes it lasts for days and I lose all awareness of things around me and my son tells me I was close to death. But at other times I am all right for weeks on end."

"Fits?"

"Hai, it feels like my body resists my own will. Something rots it from within. No doctor, youkai or human, can cure me. To think, I, a Tai-youkai, would be reduced to this...bed-ridden and weak like an old ningen man!"

Sesshoumaru pitited the pathetic form of the once-proud tai-youkai before him. "Let's not waste time, you know what brought me here."

Nibori-sama grimaced.

"I am sorry so much blood has been spilt near your borders. My Orochi, they are beseiged often by foes. We cannot seem to stop them, they attack for no reason. For centuries we have lived in peace with them...now, they turn against us."

"Do not work yourself up, chichiue." Nissho-sama said gently.

"Yesss, my lord. I am here to do your will." Mahoumaru said gently. Sesshoumaru eyed him with distaste...that familiar, unplaceable jyaki emanating from him was stronger now that they were all in the same room.

"How did you conjure Mahoumaru?" Sesshoumaru asked Nibori-sama point blank.

"A passing witch possessed a powerful magic kagami capable of distilling the soul. My fits were getting worse and I did not trust myself to heal properly again so I accepted her offer to keep my mind and will alive in a spectral form. She performed a spell...it was cheap, it cost me two hundred pieces of silver."

"A youkai should not trust in human witchery." Sesshoumaru stated.

Nibori-sama closed his eyes and sighed, "Have you ever felt true desperation, Sesshoumaru-sama? If you had felt as desperate as I did, you would have turned to anyone for help."

"Nissho-sama! Mahoumaru!" shouts came from outside. "We are being attacked again!

"Chikuso!" Nissho-sama cursed. "Our Orochi have not healed properly from the last onslaught!"

"Mahoumaru, Nissho-sama...please deal with it." Nibori-sama said tiredly. "See if Sesshoumaru-sama will help this time."

Sesshoumaru followed Mahoumaru and Nissho to the walls of the palace. He felt more and more uncomfortable about something. There seemed a logical explanation for everything, and yet, everything seemed wrong.

"Look, here they come!"

A wave of lesser youkai hit the palace, spitting shouki and fire at the Orochi. Arrows and spears flew. The Orochi attacked with their youkai venom, spitting it high into the air. Sesshoumaru observed Nissho-sama take down five lesser youkai with one blow of his sword. Mahoumaru stood in the shadows, calling instructions to the other Orochi. Many Orochi were unfortunate to get snapped up in the jaws of the flying youkai...

Nissho-sama's blows began to look desperate, and yet, the youkai came. "Sesshoumaru! It is fortunate you arrived today! This is the most terrible onslaught yet!" the young Orochi prince shouted.

Sesshoumaru's toukijin blade was already in his hand. Again and again he cut at the lesser youkai, but their number was amazing. Powerful as toukijin was, its strength wasn't against numbers...for that he would need his brother's sword Tessaiga which could take down a hundred at a blow. Still, he used Toukijin to great effect, slaying the youkai systematically and swiftly. More than once he had to stop his campaign against the youkai attacking him simply to free Nissho from some impossible predicament.

Nissho gasped as Sesshoumaru's sword force killed a youkai about to snap off his head. As it was, Nissho's hair was still in the mouth of the dead youkai. He realised that were it not for Sesshoumaru's aid, this would have been his last battle. Never had they faced an onsalught like this! It seemed the lesser youkai had been saving up all their numbers for today! He owed Sesshoumaru his life.

To his side, Nissho called his Orochi guards to his aid, "They are attacking Sesshoumaru-sama, stop your fights and help him!"

Yes, there was no doubt about it, the lesser youkai had found their target. They appeared to be attacking him. Sesshoumaru switched attacks, surrrounding himself with the green energy of his poison whip.

With the Orochi helping him, the fight seemed to be going better, till the agonized screams began. One by one, the Orochi guards dropped their weapons and clutched their heads. Blood began pouring from their eyes, ears and noses and they collapsed like flies around him.

Nissho stared in horror at his men. "Mahoumaru! What is happening?"

But Mahoumaru did not answer the young prince as he stood to one side, hands raised as if in prayer, a strange chanting coming from him. The sheer volume of lesser youkai was beginning to tire Sesshoumaru-sama out...he gasped and fell to his knees as one of the lesser youkai took a bite at his shoulder...

"Mahoumaru!" Nissho yelled again. Mahoumaru's evil jyaki was growing...

Sesshoumaru needed no further evidence that Mahoumaru was the cause of all the troubles of the South. It was clear that his chanting was responsible for the grisly deaths of the Orochi guards, and the increased attacks by the youkai. With a turn, he plunged his poison whip into Mahoumaru's chest. Mahoumaru let out a wail and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"What are you doing!" Nissho-sama sprang at Sesshoumaru and tried to restrain his arm. "You have killed our advisor!"

Their attention was distracted by a joyous shout to the left: "They are fleeing West! We've won, that's where they go to die!" a surviving Orochi guard cried.

Sesshoumaru watched as the lesser youkai flew towards the West, many of their number dropping dead of wounds along the way. Those that did not die would die soon. In a flash, Sesshoumaru recalled the battlefield that he had seen with Rin, Jaken and Ah-Un.

It was not a battlefield at all, it was a graveyard.

It was a graveyard that was piled with thousands of bodies near his Western border so that it would give off that terrible stench of blood.

It was bait that would attract any youkai with a sensitive nose.

Sesshoumaru knew now, that it was bait meant for him. The pain in his shoulder was incredible. The jyaki from the bite of the lesser youkai was more terrible than he had imagined possible, it was infused with some foul jyaki of a higher order. Gripping his shoulder, he raised his head only to see a cloud of smoke re-form itself into the body of Mahoumaru.

"Too late!" a high voice shrieked in the air above Sesshoumaru and Nissho-sama. "I have succeeded! You are within our power!"

Nissho-sama stood in front of Sesshoumaru, sword in hand.

"Mahoumaru! You traitor!" The young Orochi prince screamed in frustration. "Father trusted you! I trusted you!"

The grey clad figure hung suspended in the air. Sesshoumaru tried to raise his sword arm but the fight with the youkai had weakened him too much. Humiliated and furious, he struggled to his feet. Mahoumaru was chanting again and hordes of youkai appeared from thin air.

"It was you! You conjured them!" Nissho screamed in bitter realisation as he raised his sword and prepared to defend Sesshoumaru with his own life, he owed it to Sesshoumaru who minutes ago, had saved his.

A trick. All a trick. There was a bitter anger in Sesshoumaru's mouth.

To his horror, Nissho suddenly collapsed at his feet, an arrow through his chest.

"Chichiue..."

A few feet from Nissho's dying form, Nibori-sama emerged from the palace, his eyes blank, a bow in his hand.

"Chichiue..."

Nissho's dying face was something Sesshoumaru would find hard to forget. But there was something else here now...some new treachery...What evil had possessed Nibori-sama to make him kill his only son? Now the place began to stink of a familiar evil jyaki, and it came from Nibori-sama.

Mahoumaru floated over to join Nibori-sama.

"Sesshoumaru..." Nibori-sama spoke in an unfamiliar and raspy voice. "You have come exactly where we wanted you too come. We knew that no cordial invitation nor plea of help would bring you here. Such is your cleverness that any direct invitation to you would rouse your suspicion. Such is your pride that the only thing that would bring you forth is a threat to your lands. So we set an elaborate trap to lure you here, a terrible conflict, seemingly close to your borders, but nothing to do with you...how could you resist?" Nibori-sama laughed with that disgusting raspy voice. "Now that you are here, we can do business."

"Business?" The tai-youkai sneered. If there was one thing Sesshoumaru hated more in the world than being used, it was being tricked. "Nibori-sama, you are possessed by some evil spirit...do you kill your own son simply to do business with me?"

A little white figure appeared behind Nibori-sama.

Kanna.

Naraku's most faithful attachment walked forth, her magic mirror held aloft in her hands. In ten years, she hadn't aged at all, but that was not unusual for a detachment with no true life of her own. Sesshoumaru knew he had been right about the familiar jyaki...It had been Naraku. It was always Naraku.

"Business," repeated Nibori-sama slyly.

"A trade," Mahoumaru said. His grey cloaked form swirled about him, concealing nothingness. The darkness within had no face now, it did not resemble Nibori-sama any more, this was his true form...illusion and nothingness.

"See." Kanna whispered.

Sesshoumaru looked into the kagami. Rin's face stared out at him, her face was tear-stained but she looked unharmed. He couldn't make out what was behind her, it was too dark. Slowly, the mirror image pulled away from her so more was revealed of her body. Her wrists were fastened by iron chains above her head as she hung pitifully in some stone room. Her cream kimono was shredded and torn revealing much of her milk-white flesh. Sesshoumaru's vision flooded with red.

"Your little Rin isn't so little anymore, is she, Sesshoumaru? We haven't harmed her yet." Nibori-sama rasped, "We are prepared to be fair."

"Give us Tensssseiga." Mahoumaru urged. "That'sssss all we want."

Sesshoumaru put his hand protectively on his father's old sword.

He had been tricked.

He was caught in an impasse.

They probably wanted Tenseiga for reviving Naraku, which would be catastrophic. He couldn't let that happen...but then, Rin might die today. However, there was still a chance he could defeat these three in front of him...Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed, he couldn't afford to lose this one. Yet, they had weakened him significantly by the earlier youkai attacks, they knew they had the upper hand...what if he failed to defeat them?

They had Rin...if any of them got away alive, they would probably kill her... Sesshoumaru's knuckles crackled with energy, readying for his attack... But still he hesitated. If he lost, Rin might die today. And they would take Tenseiga from him anyway.

For the first time in his life, Sesshoumaru doubted himself.

Rin might die today.

"KAZE NO KIZUUUUUUUU!"