Author: Nefertili
Fandom: Inuyasha
Rating: PG13
Pairing(s): Sesshoumaru/Kikyou, Sesshoumaru/OC
Genre(s): Romance, Angst, Adventure, AU
Warning(s): Battle scenes, betrayal, over-anger (if there is such a word), fluff... What more can I say?
Disclaimer: None of the characters, except perhaps some, are mine. They are owned by Rumiko Takahashi.
Summary: Kikyou, being saved from peril by Sesshoumaru, joins him in a quest against Naraku and one of his allies, who happened to share a past one-sided relationship with the Demon Lord. SesshKik!
A/N: Whew, it seems I could not type fast enough to keep all my readers satisfied. Well, here's the moment we've been all waiting for! The CONFRONTATION of the two inu brothers! MWAHAHAHAHA! Warning, warning: some cursing, a fluffy Sesshoumaru and an annoying Inuyasha coming up ahead!
...o0o...
They all stood, transfixed, for several minutes after Naraku and Kikumo had gone in the dark cloud. The torches faintly illuminating the chamber flickered for a moment, but they righted their flames as soon as the dark miasma had lifted.
Once all traces of the obscuring fog had gone, Sesshoumaru turned to face the figure of his younger brother. Inuyasha still had on the extreme emotions in his eyes when he saw the Demon Prince holding his old lover close. Now that their common enemy had gone, there was but a little, if there was any, reason left to stop the two brothers from fighting each other.
His features knotted in fury, Inuyasha lifted the Tessaiga and lunged at his half-brother, determined to make Sesshoumaru pay for his previous action.
Sesshoumaru, the Toukijin still at hand, immediately lifted his remaining sword and blocked the attack that would have split him in two. His lowly half-brother's reaction did not come as a surprise to him.
"How dare you lay your filthy HAND on her!" Inuyasha bellowed, the angry features on his face illuminated by the flashes of light emanating from the clashing of the Tessaiga and Toukijin.
"Kikyou deserves better than a two-timing half-breed as you, Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru calmly retorted, though his amber eyes were clearly seething at the nerve of his younger brother to come between him and his beloved. "Hasn't it penetrated your insignificant brain that you've hurt her enough?"
Further pushed to the edge by his older brother's words, Inuyasha let out an angry cry and the peals of metal against metal grew louder. Sparks of white light flew from their swords as Sesshoumaru gave a powerful shove and sent Inuyasha flying to the other side of the chamber. Though the dark wall cracked and several torches went a-tumbling down the cold floor, the half-demon, now motivated by jealousy and resentment, rose and sprinted back to the taiyoukai in a renewed attack.
The other living souls in the chamber could only recoil back in fear at the ferocity of the two dog brothers. Not even their fight over the Tessaiga had triggered such a release of emotion among them as it was now.
"Inuyasha never looked so angry before!" Shippou said, trembling as he cowered behind Miroku's back to shut out the dreadful fighting scene.
"If Kikyou-sama's involved, you should expect no less from him!" Miroku replied, pulling Sango with an untransformed Kirara on her shoulders behind a pillar to evade possible unintentional injuries made by the present battle of Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha.
"Kagome-chan!" Sango called out. The girl clad in a school uniform appeared not to hear her, however. Kagome was desperately calling to Inuyasha in a last-ditch attempt to make him return to his senses. But then, Sango was distracted by another hand - Miroku's to be exact - reaching out to grab a piece of booty behind her.
Just as the demon exterminator gave the mischievous monk yet another slap on the face, Kikyou, who was previously comforting Rin who was carrying a still unconscious Jaken in a corner, stood up and ran towards the battling figures of Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha at the far end of the chamber. She was horrified at the damage the siblings were causing because of her.
"Sesshoumaru! Inuyasha! Stop!" the Priestess called out to the brothers just as her reincarnation had done. Kagome followed Kikyou's suit and also ran to the other end of the room as they sought to put an order between the Demon Prince and his hanyou brother.
Unfortunately, Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha appeared to be too engrossed in fighting one another that they did not hear the cries of the two women. Each one was as desperate as the other to send his brother into oblivion.
"Filthy half-blood," Sesshoumaru said as a flash of pure energy came out of the blade of the Toukijin, targeted at his younger brother, "you were never of worth or worthy of anything; not even to call Kikyou by her own name!"
However, Inuyasha managed to deflect the attack by sending the Wound of the Wind against his older sibling. Kaze no Kizu had collided with the Toukijin blast, thus neutralizing the attack.
"You, a dog demon who doesn't even know love," Inuyasha retorted, his amber eyes flashing madly, "I will not allow you to use Kikyou for your own personal pleasures!"
At this sentence, a fearful expression appeared on Sesshoumaru's face. "You swine have failed to protect her when she was in grave danger. I cannot even forgive you for causing her so much pain in the past!" The new blast that emanated from his sword was enough to nearly send Inuyasha into a swoon when it hit him, but the hanyou remained stubbornly firm.
"Please, Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed out. The collision of the Wound of the Wind and Toukijin's energy had made ripples in the hard wooden floor. The girl tripped over one protruding piece of hardwood, and she let out a soft cry of pain as the wound Kikumo gave her began to sting at the impact.
"Sesshoumaru, don't!" Kikyou said in nearly her loudest. But the clang of the Tessaiga and the Toukijin was enough to drown her voice away.
In the far corner of the chamber, Rin had successfully jolted Sesshoumaru's retainer back into the world of the living, and they were watching the scene between their master and his half-brother in shock.
"Good heavens, Sesshoumaru-sama is really mad this time," Jaken muttered, observing the very viciousness of Sesshoumaru's attacks.
"Inuyasha-san saw Sesshoumaru-sama hugging Kikyou-sama," Rin hurriedly pressed on. "He doesn't seem to like it." Jaken nearly fainted again at this last piece of news. Lord Sesshoumaru was hugging the miko? Rin was probably just seeing things...
"There is only one step left for a common insect such as you to take," Sesshoumaru said in evenly measured tones. His Toukijin was beginning to glow a dangerous blue, as though to portray the very wrath of its wielder. "Death..."
Kagome looked worriedly at Kikyou. The Undead Priestess was no less troubled, and was now fitting one of her remaining arrows to her bow. What was she trying to do?
"What really brought you and Sesshoumaru to this...?" she implored the older miko.
"We'll get to that later, once these two have calmed down," Kikyou replied enigmatically. She did not expect the siblings' fight to go as far as them to terminate each other, but she felt that she had to do something now. Sesshoumaru hasn't the Tenseiga; he might not survive if Inuyasha really focused on his attacks. Though she still cares for her past lover enough to spare him from Sesshoumaru's fatal attacks, Kikyou knew that she will kill Inuyasha herself if he ended her beloved's life.
"I will be the one to finish this, brother," Inuyasha roared, as he readied himself for his final attack. "I should have done this from the very start!" He began to swing the Tessaiga to execute the Bakuryuuha at his older sibling, but he was not to do it so soon.
"NO!" came Kikyou's soul-twisting scream as her purity arrow flew past the flurry of light energies and find its target in the Tessaiga. In a bright light that outshone all the others, the arrow broke the transformation of the sword, and Inuyasha found himself clutching the battered-looking untransformed Tessaiga.
"Restrain him, Kagome!" Kikyou ordered her reincarnation. She added apathetically to herself, "That was one arrow not put into good use..."
As Kagome ran towards Inuyasha, Kikyou swiftly made her way to where Sesshoumaru stood still clutching a glowing Toukijin in his hand. Her hand gently cupped one of his cheeks, and it was all it took to cool down Sesshoumaru's raging temper. "That's better, Sesshoumaru."
Kagome, however, was having a hard time with Inuyasha. The silver-haired hanyou was struggling even as the girl got hold of his sword arm and was talking to him in a soothing tone.
"Get away from him, Kikyou!" Inuyasha was shouting, his fists hitting air as Kagome held him back. "He'll kill you just as he had killed countless youkai and humans in the past!"
Sesshoumaru took a step forward and once more brandished the Toukijin. Kikyou, however, soothingly held onto his arm, preventing him from making any further move.
"Let me end the wretchedness he has for a life, Kikyou," Sesshoumaru calmly told his beloved. She shook her head and looked up at him with insistent mahogany eyes.
"Please put the Toukijin away, Sesshoumaru," she said. "Let me handle this." Reluctantly, the Demon Lord returned the sword back to his waist and got in return a disarming smile from Kikyou that made his knees turn liquid. Jaken, Rin, Miroku, Sango and Shippou could only stare as the normally authoritarian Sesshoumaru, who would take no orders from anyone, submissively yielded to the will of the Priestess.
Kagome had had enough with Inuyasha. She decided to make use of a little charm that had always proven effective in matters like this. In a loud voice, she said, "Osuwari!" The hanyou was immediately sat on the broken floor, and for now he could only glare at Sesshoumaru, who gave him an equally cold face.
"We'll talk about this in a civilized manner," Kikyou said, and no one dared to counter her.
...o0o...
"So, that Demoness we encountered earlier is Kikumo, and that sword she was carrying was actually the Tenseiga?" Miroku queried of Kikyou. They had gotten out of Naraku's ruined castle and back into the dark woods beyond. If their memory for time did not fail them, it was probably about midnight by then. Now, clustered around a large fire, Inuyasha's company gathered to hear about the tidings of his half-brother's group, Kikyou among them.
Sesshoumaru was very disinclined with the idea of having to mingle with his half-brother's company, but Kikyou had requested that they settle the earlier dispute that nearly drove him and Inuyasha to the end of the world. And there was no longer any point in denying it: the Demon Lord would not have his hanyou brother rival him in his affections for the Priestess.
Therefore, though he refused to come within the inner circle that Kikyou and Rin shared with Kagome, Sango, Miroku and Shippou, Sesshoumaru was forced to sit with his back against a tree a few feet from the fire. Jaken also showed no inclination to remain with the others, but chose instead to loyally sit beside his master as Kikyou narrated to their less-liked companions the reasons why she joined the taiyoukai's party as well as who the Deer youkai really is.
She, however, skipped lightly over the details on how Kikumo managed to steal the Tenseiga from Sesshoumaru and about Kikumo's past relationship with Sesshoumaru for the sake of her lover's pride. Kikyou also chose not to tell them how the Demon Lord had tried to kill her for seeing him being hoodwinked by their female fiend, and how she had nearly killed the miko, for those events were a blow to Kikyou's own ego and emotions.
"Yes, and we ought to expect more from her now that she had also become your enemy," Kikyou nodded in the monk's direction.
"Our first encounter with her was bad enough," Sango remarked, running a hand over the wound on her cheek and eyeing Kagome's bandaged arm. Kikumo had done these injuries to them single-handedly. Well, she did get help from Naraku's saimyoushou to defend herself from Miroku, but she was already fatal to them alone.
"Feh, but she wasn't able to get Tessaiga from me unlike what she did to my half-brother, right?" Inuyasha's voice wafted out from beyond the outer circle of people gathered around the roaring flames. He sat on a rock with his back facing them, his arms crossed over his chest, and (though they could not see it) a pout on his face. He had not chosen to linger among the others just as Sesshoumaru and Jaken had done, and had meant the remark for his older brother.
Sesshoumaru, thanks to his sharpened sense of hearing, did not fail to hear this rather derogatory remark from Inuyasha, and he retorted unenthusiastically, "It's because she had no interest in that sword of yours that is rightfully mine. But if by chance she set her eyes on the Tessaiga, doom is your only path."
From his solitary rock, Inuyasha growled, and his hands stubbornly fingered the hilt of his sword. Sesshoumaru, himself, already had his hand on Toukijin's handle, and Jaken was muttering out of the corner of his mouth, "Go and slash him to pieces, Lord Sesshoumaru."
Kikyou, fortunately, had seen this silent exchange of threats, and had wisely chosen to end the fight before it even started.
"Sesshoumaru has a point, Inuyasha," Kikyou said, hoping to make the hanyou see amidst his apparent jealousy. "Naraku manipulated her into stealing the sword so he can set his plan of taking your brother's powers for his own into motion. The theft of the Tenseiga was part of his plan, and Kikumo is but his means of carrying it out."
"But is Kikumo just a mere victim of Naraku's manipulation or does she have her own plans against us?" Sango asked.
"I've been wondering about that too," Kagome said after a while of silence.
"If she's indeed a powerful youkai, she certainly is capable of standing up to Naraku," Miroku added.
"Yes, I know," Kikyou said. A grim expression spread over her eyes as she said so. "But she's naive enough to choose not to. Naive...or simply a slave to her own emotions." Just like several people I know, Kikyou secretly added to herself.
Just then, Rin, who has been in silent contemplation for most of the time, spoke up.
"Do you really love Sesshoumaru-sama, Kikyou-sama?" she innocently asked of the miko, a hard-to-read expression glazing the young one's eyes.
Kikyou was slightly taken off guard by the little girl's question. Why was she asking that sort of thing? Kikyou glanced around her companions. All their eyes were on her, and her mahogany orbs met briefly with Sesshoumaru's serene amber and Inuyasha's impatient ones in the process. They were all anticipating what she had to say, and Kikyou knew that she only had one way out: confess the truth, for the sake of them all.
"Yes, I do, Rin," Kikyou said, not even stammering on the answer because she knew that she had made the right choice. She turned to face Sesshoumaru's direction, and she found him looking back at her. Though the expression on his face was impassive, Kikyou knew that his heart beat for her and her heart for him. "I do love Sesshoumaru."
The reaction among the others was mixed. Sango, Miroku, Shippou and especially Kagome, stared at her in obvious disbelief for a few moments before they nodded their heads in acceptance of the Priestess' words, but Inuyasha was understandably surprised and disappointed by what she said. Jaken, too, was in utter shock, constantly shifted his vision from his Lord to the miko. The expression on their faces was unreadable, but no one could doubt the sincerity in her words, or that Sesshoumaru didn't object or deny it.
Rin, previously serious and pensive, transformed back to her normal cheery self, her eyes once more assuming the childlike glow in them. She leaped up out of pure joy and flung her arms around Kikyou's waist.
"Rin knew you love him, Kikyou-sama!" the little girl said excitedly, looking up at Kikyou with a bright expression on her face. "Rin knew Kikumo-sama wasn't saying the truth. Rin didn't believe Kikumo-sama!"
Kikyou stared at Rin with confusion in her mahogany eyes as she uncertainly petted the child's hair pulled up in a ponytail. "What do you mean, Rin?" Did Kikumo attempt to poison Rin's mind during her brief abduction?
Rin hurriedly drew in her breath and said, "She said Kikyou-sama is a bad woman, and that you are only fooling Sesshoumaru-sama. She also said that you wanted to kill Inuyasha-san, but Rin will never believe her again!"
Kikyou silently cursed the Demoness. How dare she try to make Rin think badly of her! Well, she had just failed - again. Rin's trust is in Kikyou's hands, and never in that despicable Deer youkai's. Well, she had once wished to kill Inuyasha, but that was when she still did not know of Naraku's trickery. But she no longer wished to kill anything since she found love in Sesshoumaru, that is, except Naraku.
"What do you find in him, Kikyou?" Inuyasha nearly exclaimed, standing up and facing his past lover with misty amber eyes. "Can't you see him for who he was: a power-hungry demon who is incapable of real love?"
Sesshoumaru also stood up, nearly stepping on Jaken in the process. The nerve of that tainted half-breed to denounce him before Kikyou... Now that Kikyou had made it clear that she loved him, can't he accept the fact that she is no longer his concern?
"Watch your tongue, brother, or you will no longer have one," Sesshoumaru retorted, his amber eyes flashing angrily. "You, a weak hanyou, must not waste your time going after someone when it has been made clear that your efforts are fruitless." The lightning bolts of rivalry emanating from the two brothers became so dense that their very companions could feel their clashing energies.
"You have repeatedly criticized Dad's love for humanity and for my Mom!" Inuyasha immediately countered. "You have even claimed that you didn't inherit his heart for humans. Kikyou will never be happy in your presence!"
"Humans are weak, but Kikyou does not possess such an easily corrupted heart, and I love her for that," Sesshoumaru replied, sparing his beloved a rather tender look before hardening his features again at his brother. "You already have taken the Tessaiga when it should rightfully be in my hand, and you had gone so far as to deprive me of my left limb, but if you even think of taking Kikyou from me, I'll stop at nothing to lay your world into waste."
Their companions could only stare with amazement. Was this silver-haired demon boldly challenging Inuyasha the same Sesshoumaru they had known?
"Please, calm down, you two," Kikyou's voice drove them from their personal musings. She then focused her eyes on Inuyasha, determined to get an answer from him. "Inuyasha, I have made my choice, and you now is also your time. You love Kagome, do you not?"
At this statement, Inuyasha's eyes widened and uneasiness began to overwhelm his being. "Well...you see... I... Well, I..." His amber orbs met Kagome's dark eyes, and the modern girl immediately averted her gaze from him.
"Come on, Inuyasha, just admit it," Shippou whispered inside Miroku's ear.
"At least they're quarreling over more important things than swords now," Miroku whispered back.
"Well, Inuyasha?" came Kagome's voice. The half-demon uncertainly shifted his line of sight from Kikyou's serene features to Kagome's rather gloomy outlook. What a crucial choice he should make...
Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed and his hand once more grasped the handle of the Toukijin. Just he say the wrong name, and his head would be lopped off his unwanted body in an instant.
"Well...yes, I do... I do love Kagome," finally came out of Inuyasha's mouth.
"Then I guess that settles it?" Kikyou said cheerfully, a twinkle coming to her eyes. "You love my reincarnation; I love your brother. We are all happy with it."
Inuyasha gaped at Kikyou. He was not at all happy with the Priestess falling for his detested half-brother.
"You must understand by now, Inuyasha," Kikyou continued in a mellower tone, "that you are unhappy because you could not decide whom you should love...that if you really care for me and my reincarnation, you would fully give your heart to Kagome and let go of me."
"How true she is," Sango muttered under her breath, directing the remark to the monk sitting beside her. Miroku smiled guiltily, but made no comment.
After a few moments of silence, Kikyou stood up and made her way to Sesshoumaru. Sparing a look at a still dumbfounded Inuyasha over her shoulders, she said, "Think about what I said, Inuyasha."
Miroku and Sango also stood up.
"I guess we could sleep now, right?" Sango remarked with a big smile as they retreated to their own part of the camp where they would sleep for the night.
"'Night to all of you!" Miroku said after a big yawn, leaving behind Kagome with Inuyasha. They looked at each other uncertainly, and they could not help but turn red in the face.
Content with what had come to pass, Kikyou slipped her arm around Sesshoumaru's only arm and they went behind a large tree, leaving her reincarnation and his brother to talk all by themselves. Rin sat herself beside a wide-eyed figure of Jaken who was still staring where their master and his now apparent lover had gone.
"Aren't they so sweet, Jaken-sama?" Rin said cheerfully to herself, amazed at the toady retainer's disbelief. What could probably be happier than Sesshoumaru-sama being together with Kikyou-sama? "See, Rin was right after all..."
...o0o...
"I suppose one worry is lifted off your shoulders, then?" Kikyou asked Sesshoumaru softly. The Demon Prince smiled as she untied the cord that pulled her hair back in a loose ponytail, letting the long raven locks cascade down her shoulders like a river of black.
"Indeed, and I thank you for that," he replied tenderly. He then slipped his arm around her waist, gently grasping her right hand to motivate her to rest her weight against him as he sat down against the tree. This, she did, and gradually sat herself on his extended left leg as she rested her head against his soft pelt. Kikyou then placed her other hand over his, and Sesshoumaru let his cheek rest on her forehead as he nuzzled her gently.
"What matters is we're together for now," she whispered, closing her eyes as he kissed her forehead and affectionately squeezed her hand.
For now...
...o0o...
"You never told me you intended to absorb him," came Kikumo's voice. There was no mistaking the annoyance in the alto tone.
"Why would you care?" Naraku hissed back, though he was secretly amused at the Deer Demoness' words. "You hated him, don't you?"
"And for that, I wish that all traces of his power vanquished," Kikumo replied after hesitating a bit. "And not metamorphose and live on in a being like you."
Naraku's lips smirked and an evil shine began to glaze his dark eyes.
'Worry not, my dear, for the burden you have placed upon yourself is close to being lifted...'
...o0o...
Okay, we are going to go fast now. I am also rushing, and I intend to finish this fic about three or four chapters from now. I have to get back to school in June, ya know. ;)