Hey again! I updated again! Whee! And I get to listen to pretty symphonic Inuyasha music while I'm at it! I hope you guys like this chapter. Oh, and in regards to Kagome and Sesshoumaru's behavior in ch. 8, there's no Sessh/Kag pairing. I hate those kinds of pairings in all honesty, but I do read them if they're well written. I myself would only really tolerate Sessh/San pairings or Sessh/OC pairings. But enough of that. On to the story. There's a surprise in it!


Ch. 9: Past Times

"Wow, Sesshoumaru, you cook soo much better than me," Kagome pouted childishly.

"I do not. You cook fine."

Sesshoumaru prodded at his food; he didn't really have an appetite at the moment.

"Don't be silly, you heard what I said about the restaurant…"

"And I thank you for that, but really all I need to do is keep your koibito from starving and liking it."

"Oh, well. It was worth a…hey, where are you going!"

Kagome's eyes trailed after Sesshoumaru, who had bolted straight up from the table and hurried off.

"What's wrong with him, Inu? He hasn't even eaten…"

Suddenly, a loud retching sound could be heard.

"I think it's safe to say my brother can't hold his liquor like he used to," Inuyasha scoffed. "Do you have any aspirin, Kags?"

"Oh, sure."

Kagome gave Inuyasha a couple of aspirins, which he then proceeded to take to his brother.

"Here, niichan. This should help," he said softly, holding out the medicine.

Sesshoumaru put his hand out, but before the pills even fell into his hand, his head was back over the toilet.

Eventually, he was able to take the aspirin.

"Thank you…"

"Yeah, whatever."

"So….how did it go? As…as me, I mean?" Sesshoumaru said as he flushed the toilet; however, he still knelt before it.

"Well, I liked it, but I think I freaked your assistant out. Just tell him you were piss drunk before. In a sense, it's not a lie…"

"Shut up!"

The elder brother shivered. His face was still green and he had a slick sheen of sweat covering his face and periodically dripping off his nose or chin to fall in the toilet.

"Hey, Sessh…you okay?"

"No, I'm not! I got a damn hangover the size of J. Lo's ass!"

Inuyasha sweatdropped. And I creeped Akamaru out? Jeez!

"No more American T.V. for you…"

"I'm in hell. There's two Inus," mumbled Sesshoumaru. He coughed violently, his stomach threatening to upheave once more. He barely noticed Inuyasha's hand touch his cheek.

"Damn! You're burning up!" Inuyasha gasped. "Good thing it's the weekend."

Inuyasha helped to lead his brother out, but the young man instantly turned around to go back to the bathroom.

"Inuyasha?"

Said teen turned to face his koishii.

"Yeah, Kagome?" he said tensely.

"Do you need any help with Sesshoumaru?"

"At the moment, he won't quit gettin' sick, so I'm at a loss…"

Suddenly, a loud ceramic "CRACK!" sounded from the bathroom.

When Inuyasha and Kagome arrived, they found Sesshoumaru with a bloody nose; he had passed out and conked himself on the U-bend of the toiled.

"…Let's get him into my room," Kagome ordered worriedly. "Maybe we can keep his fever from spiking."

Inuyasha nodded an affirmative. Together, they both dragged Sesshoumaru onto Kagome's bed and put a moist cloth on his head.

"I shouldn't have ever given him sake," she whispered softly. He must have still been sick…"

"Baby, don't blame yourself," Inuyasha said softly.

"Wow, you haven't called me that in a long time, but now you've been doing it lately, ne?" Kagome added playfully.

Soon enough, they were passionately kissing on the floor, seeing as the bed was occupied. They didn't notice Sesshoumaru begin to twist and turn in bed…


Dream Sequence

"Check it out, the Inu Taiyoukai of the West! They're here!"

Sesshoumaru grinned widely. He loved being "Sesshoumaru of the Western Lands," even if it was only in a game. In the World, it didn't matter what you did outside the game. He could be whomever he wanted. And his father was the prestigious Inu Youkai Blademaster, InuTaisho of the Western Sky.

They were both strong players, but Sesshoumaru was naïve and young. His father led him, fortunately, and taught him to love and respect the World.

Within the first year of being with his father, the both of them had been in several mysterious and questionable events—one of these was an event in which InuTaisho—also known as Touga Inu Taisho—received the Sou'unga, a sword of great and terrible destruction. Very soon after, Sesshoumaru received his Tenseiga, which was a sword of healing. It had saved his tail more than once when he'd been sure to die.

"So Chichi-ue, where to today?" he asked with more than a little excitement in his tone.

"Today, my koinu, we are facing a new corrupted area: Dog-Dancing Forbidden Holy Ground," InuTaisho replied, his two tails flicking in amusement as his son fumed.

"Dad, I'm not a koinu!"

"You are too; you're my koinu," InuTaisho said, ruffling Sesshoumaru's hair.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just go. Maybe we'll see…her…"

He referred, of course, the angelic girl who'd bestowed their swords to them. It was true, he still kept his level 99 Rare sword Toukijin at his hip, but he still yearned to test his "Heavenly Life Fang" out. Just once, he wanted to use it of his own volition…

After a few moments of walking through Dog-Dancing Forbidden Holy Ground's dungeon, Sesshoumaru was perplexed. Never was an area so bad looking.

"Uh…Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Why's the area like this? It's beyond screwy…"

"The area's corrupted, Sesshoumaru. CC Corp sent me down to fix it because I'm the best of the best…"

"But Izayoi used to say that you were just a throwaway admin at the bottom of CC Corp's payroll…"

InuTaisho could practically feel the stab to his ego. Even in death, his second wife mocked him.

"Ai! Well…I may be a throwaway admin, but I like what I do and I'm good at it!" InuTaisho finally managed to croak. "And I really am the best! Thy did name me after the sky…"

"So? They named me after the dirt, and that's because we earned it through regular player ways."

"I…oh, never mind…When did you become so cynical?"

Both of them entered the dungeon. After several minutes of navigation, they reached the Gott Statue. Only this was strange. The statue was of a girl in chains—the very girl that the Inu Youkai often searched for.

"Wait," InuTaisho growled. "This is not right…where's the Data Bug that is the core of the corrupted area's virus?"

Suddenly, the area began to melt away until only the Inu Taiyoukai were left.

They were standing on exposed data. A bit of white noise ran through the screen.

"Dad, this is starting to freak even me out," Sesshoumaru said. His elfish ears tweaked spasmodically.

And then, an enormous dragon emerged from nowhere, forming from corrupted strands of data. Patches of glowing green covered it like deranged armor. It was built rather like a brachiosaur, but with an extremely long neck outbalancing very short, stubby legs.

"Aghh!" Sesshoumaru cried, surprised at the monster's sudden appearance. He unsheathed the Toukijin and slashed at it in seconds.

There was no recoil. The dragon merely growled in what could have been amusement. Sesshoumaru nearly dropped the Toukijin. It couldn't be. An undefeatable monster…but he was used to winning all the time, in both worlds…

"Daddy, I'm scared of this thing," he whispered, stepping back.

"Don't be," InuTaisho assured him with steely yellow eyes. "It's only a game. I won't let you be hurt…"

So saying, he drew the Sou'unga and began to swirl the aura of it over his head. A reddish serpentine of an aura dragon curled around the blade of the Sou'unga. Its red eyes bored holes into the opposing dragon as it prepared to be launched. The other dragon's eyes of black nothingness awaited the attack.

"GOKURYUHAA!" yelled Sesshoumaru's father, letting the massive energy his sword had accumulated roll off the blade. It hit the dragon squarely in the chest, but the creature hardly flinched.

"What the hell!" InuTaisho snarled. "My Gokuryuhaa has never failed…"

"Chikuso!" Sesshoumaru muttered. He sped to the dragon, leaving after images in his wake, and buried the Toukijin to its hilt in the enormous dragon's eye. It roared as he twisted the sword ninety degrees and pulled it out. Its roars were like music to his demonic bloodlust.

"No! Sesshoumaru, pull back!" he heard his father say.

"Wha…?" he said, smiling at his prowess.

Suddenly the dragon lunged, quicker than Sesshoumaru, and its jaws closed on the young Inu Youkai's left arm, severing it completely.

The smile hand not quite left his face as this happened. Then it began to recede into a contorted look of absolute pain.

IIEEYAAGHHHH!


That's it. Now again with the clues for the passwords. Come on, guys, it's not so tough! Don't you want some credit?

Sesshoumaru: Think a little more specific on "what he is" (wink, wink!) and remember what he likes.

Inuyasha: I can't really give anymore here, or I'll give it away, but think Lilo and Stitch.

If no one figures it out soon, I'll be forced to give up the answer. Remember, the answers both contain ten letters. Oops, no wait. Inuyasha's has eleven letters. And just for the record, Blademaster has already been guessed and neither one has that as a password.