The Broken House of Taisho

Chapter 3: A Separated Peace

"Sesshoumaru-sama, how are you?" Machi purred.

The dog demon frowned at their unwelcome visitor. "I have had better days," he replied.

"Ah yes, I'd heard." Machi walked over the foot of the hospital bed and looked down at the sleeping Midori. "Oh, the poor thing. I hope she isn't in much pain."

"Yeah, I'm sure," snapped Kagome. "Get out. You have no right to be here!"

The acid demoness smirked. "Really? How did you come to that particular conclusion?" She smiled seductively at Sesshoumaru. "It doesn't seem that your mate is very happy with you. This room reeks of disappointment and anger. Why don't I just stay and distract you from your troubles?"

The taiyoukai stepped forward. "Even if I am irritated with my mate, that is no business of yours, Machi," he said quietly. "This is a private hospital and a private room. There is no reason for your presence here."

Machi didn't stop smiling as she pulled a thick file from her bag and handed it over to the dog demon. "I believe this is all the reason I need."

Sesshoumaru flipped through the papers with his usual impassive expression. "Thank you," he murmured, finally looking up and holding the file out for her to take back, "but I know the details of Tenseiga's takeover of your company."

"Well then, you remember the contract I signed when we started this little merger of ours," she replied, not bothering to take back the file.

"Takeover. Not merger," growled Kagome. "Merger implies that we would want your name connected with ours in business."

Machi narrowed her eyes for a split second and then looked back at the silent taiyoukai. "The deal was that the entire process would take place over eighteen months. You bought my company and were able to do as you pleased with its resources, while I received my buy out package and went on my merry way. I only requested that I remain Gouken International's CEO for the entire eighteen months, of which we have about five months left to go."

Kagome rolled her eyes. It had been an unpleasant scene between her and Sesshoumaru the day he told her that Machi would be hanging about for a year and a half. But it was the only way that the viper would agree to the takeover. "What about it?" she said, sick of Machi's dramatic pauses.

"Well, essentially, that clause makes me an executive in your company," she said, smiling. "An executive heading up what will become a large portion of your research facility at Tenseiga Corp. What impacts you at the moment impacts me. So naturally, when I heard about this whole mess about the murders and then the mall shooting, I was concerned."

"Oh yes, naturally," echoed Kagome with a sneer. "Get to the point!"

Machi pulled out another file, this one much smaller than the first, and handed it over to the hanyou. "The board of directors for Tenseiga Corp shared my concern," she said quietly, not smiling anymore. "They are frightened that the humans will find out about us, something that could damage the company irreparably. They would lose all of their money, their entire investments into your company."

Sesshoumaru crossed his arms. "Tenseiga Corp will survive. The public will not discover the youkai population and even if they do, we are the largest medical provider in Asia. They need our products."

"Oh, always the optimist!" chirped the acid demoness. "But I'm afraid that the board of directors, despite my best efforts, believe that you and Kagome are a danger to the fabric of youkai society. Kagome's little stunt today proves that she cannot be trusted with our secrets. That file is a series of demands from the board, the most important being the immediate removal of the president of Tenseiga Corporation."

Kagome finally looked down at the papers in her claws. Indeed, the letter outlined the board's wishes that she be taken off the board and out of her position at the company. It cited that she was a threat to them, professionally and personally. They needed to separate themselves from Kagome, who was becoming the pariah of the media. Looking up at Sesshoumaru, the hanyou could not produce words.

Machi watched the desperation and despair cross her rival's face and grinned. "As head of the board, Sesshoumaru-sama, it is of course your decision to remove the president of the company. But be aware that if you don't comply with the board's wishes, they'll replace you too and Tenseiga Corporation will lose both of its founders. And that would be a shame."

"And who do they propose to replace me with?" said Sesshoumaru, his voice dangerously quiet. "Who will replace Kagome?"

"Ah, well, that's not entirely decided," she murmured seriously. "They want someone who can be trusted, of course. Someone who has the interests of the youkai society and the company at heart."

Kagome felt like throwing up. "You," she choked. "You're going to replace us."

"Well, you know that in most companies, they don't divide the roles of president and CEO. The board has always felt that a single person could really unify the company, give it a clear direction," Machi said. "It was cute, really it was, when you two decided to share the weight of the company's work, but unfortunately, cute doesn't quite cut it with the board. So sorry, kids." She smiled wickedly at them.

"Leave now," said Sesshoumaru, his tone flat. "My mate and I will discuss what you have told us."

Machi gave him a little curtsey, clearly only in jest, but took back her files and went to the door. "Goodbye, Sesshoumaru-sama. Let me know what you decide." She opened the door and paused. "It will be so enjoyable working together again," she murmured, before slipping out.

Kagome clenched her fists, crumpling the file in her claws. "That whore," she spat. "Does she really think that she can get away with this?"

"I believe she can," murmured the taiyoukai. "Everything she said was true."

"Sesshoumaru!" the hanyou snapped. "You can't really be thinking of complying with her ludicrous demands, can you? She doesn't just want me out, she wants you out of the company too, just to spite us! If you suspend me as president, she'll find a way to get rid of you too!"

Midori shifted underneath the sheets, tossing her black and silver hair across the pillow. Sesshoumaru frowned at his daughter's obvious discomfort. "We cannot discuss this here," he said, going to the door.

"I won't leave her," the hanyou replied resolutely.

"Then we go to the roof," the taiyoukai said. "We will disturb no one but each other there and she will be only three floors below us. You said the drugs had rendered her unconscious for awhile yet."

Kagome hesitated a moment, but her ire against Machi won out, demanding that she scream out her frustrations. "Fine," she sulked, following her mate out of the room and to the roof accessible stairwell. Demonic endurance took them to the top in less than a minute and they broke out into the open air. Kagome took deep breaths, wondering when the hospital walls had become so oppressive.

The wind was strong, sending the hanyou's hair into a stream of red and black. Sesshoumaru, as was his custom on working days, had his hair tied back. Around them, skyscrapers were painted against the bluish atmosphere, dark and menacing with their glossy, tinted windows. Kagome thought of Inuyasha, leaping from one roof to the next, in days when humans would just rub their eyes and convince themselves that they were seeing things. Every once in awhile, Kagome would do it in the early morning hours, feeling the air whip around her. Now, she felt like she would never have that freedom again.

"You have to step down," said Sesshoumaru. "I do not want to remove you by force."

"So you've already decided, have you?" snapped Kagome, focusing again on her mate. "Why? Why are you giving into her? We can fight her! We can reason with the board of directors, tell them what's going on. They'll understand! They've been with us for ages!"

The white haired demon frowned. "They are old, doddering demons. They have no sense of faith or trust. They are schooled in the old ways, ways that you never ascribed to."

"Because they're stupid ways!" cried the hanyou. "How did you all survive before I came along? No trust, no loyalty?"

He crossed his arms, his metal one tapping its finger. "You do not understand, Kagome. We survived because we were strong and depended on no one. You are not the reason we live until today, my mate. Do not have such pride in yourself. It is misplaced."

She lifted her hands and shoved him, making him step back one pace in his surprise. "Stop it!" she screamed. "Stop justifying yourself! Stop justifying the fact that you're abandoning me!"

"Are you asking that I give up the company instead?" he snarled back.

"I'm asking you to be the Sesshoumaru that I fell in love with five hundred years ago!" she yelled. "The one that wouldn't take this crap from anyone! Least of all, Machi!"

Sesshoumaru took deep breaths. "What do you suggest? That I kill her? That is what the old Sesshoumaru would have done. You ask me everyday to be more human and when I am, you insist that I revert to my old behavior." He stepped closer to her, so that his warm breath flowed over her and shielded her from the wind. "This is about more than just my relationship with my mate, it is about our family that works here, the hundreds of employees we have that depend on us for their livelihood and the customers who would otherwise be without medicine and supplies. Do you ask that I abandon all of them to save your pride and humiliate Machi? I am not even convinced that that would stop her."

Kagome began to shake. "I helped build this company and she's taking it away so easily! I can't let her, Sesshoumaru! Please, help me! I don't want her in my job, in my office, destroying what I have worked for!"

He closed his eyes briefly and when they opened again, she was frightened to see how icy they had become. "There is one more measure we must take in order to assure the survival of the company. You must move out of the house. We must announce our separation."

The hanyou choked and pulled back, holding her arms close to her chest. "No, no… The job is bad enough, now you want me to live without you at home too?" she murmured. Her voice soared to a grating volume. "Is this a joke!"

"I must separate myself from you in name only," he said. "You will not work for the company and you will not live at our home, but you will still be my mate and my wife. It will only be for a short time, until the dust has settled."

"This is all about image?" she snapped back. "Why can't you stand with me against this? Why can't you resist her, at least personally?"

Sesshoumaru stepped forward, bringing himself within touching distance again. "We cannot be connected in any way, or the media will condemn both of us. Even without Machi, that will be enough to destroy us."

"This is what she wants!" she screamed. A tear leaked out from the corner of her eye as she took a breath and looked at him. "Do you really think that being with me will destroy you? After all we've weathered together, this will be our undoing?"

When Sesshoumaru had no answer, she sank to her knees. "Sesshoumaru…"

He took her wrists in his hands and pulled her to feet and against his chest, pinning her to him with his grip. "No. We will fight her. I never said that we would not resist, but you are asking me to do it in a way that will defeat us before we begin. One of us must maintain our positions. It is the only way we will keep our power." He lowered his head, so that his lips were beside the warm shell of her ear. "She will never step foot in your office, I will make certain of that. And be assured that she will never step foot in mine either. You are my mate. I will have none but you."

She looked up at him with tears misting her vision. "Why do you think I'm worried about your fidelity?" she whispered.

"Because when it comes to Machi, you have always been concerned about it," he answered. Seeing her soft look, he scoffed. "Don't think too kindly of me for saying so. You should know that I think you rather idiotic for considering Machi a threat to our bed. Of all the females surrounding me, that one is the most repulsive to me, as you have known for five hundred years. I would rather have Kagura and you know how irritating I find her usually."

Kagome pulled back sharply. "You find me irritating too."

Sesshoumaru sighed in defeat, again dragging her back into his embrace. "An entirely different brand of irritating, I assure you," he said dryly. "You know why I keep you above all others."

"Actually, I don't really," said the hanyou, her voice muffled against his chest. The initial shock was over. She could even see his logic, although she still didn't approve of it. It would do no good to remove herself from the company presidency if she still had the ear of the company CEO at home. The board of directors, guided by Machi, would easily cite that as a reason for Sesshoumaru's removal. It was ludicrous, how easily they had been strong-armed into this precarious position. A clean break, at least from the public's point of view, would be the best weapon against the situation. It didn't make her happy, but it only mattered that Sesshoumaru wasn't truly rejecting her. "Why don't you tell me why you love me?"

He growled softly. "I am neither drunk nor near death. I have no reason to explain my feelings for you. I do not speak of them, something that you agreed to long ago. My actions speak for themselves. Have I not proved myself?"

"Yes," agreed Kagome, "but you're firing me and kicking me out of our house. I think I deserve a bit of sympathy here. Especially since I didn't throw any punches at you."

"When have you ever beaten me at a fair fight?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Rethinking it, he shrugged. "Although, if I have a choice between a fight and speaking of emotion, I will gladly take the fight."

The hanyou wiped away the tears. "You just said that I never beat you, so how would fighting you make me feel any better?" She laughed sadly as Sesshoumaru looked furious with himself. "Now spill it. Make me pleased to be your mate and not angry that you're picking the company over me."

Sesshoumaru ran his tongue along his sharp teeth, a nervous tic of his that Kagome rarely saw. "I am not angry at you," he said suddenly.

Kagome raised an eyebrow, sufficiently intrigued to forget her coquettish demands for sweet words. "What do you mean? About Midori? What happened in the mall?" She frowned and looked away, staring through the obsidian buildings to the horizon. "I don't blame you for being mad. I'm mad at myself. I was careless and our child could have died."

"It has been a very long time since you had to fight alone," said the taiyoukai, brushing back the hair that was flying into her face.

"I know how to fight alone and in groups. I was careless. Please don't make excuses for me." She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned into him. "I won't be caught like that again though. I swear that my children will be safe as long as I am alive to protect them."

Sesshoumaru rested his chin on his short mate's head and looked up at the sky with his cold golden eyes. A helicopter was there, in the distance, as a speck of black against the cloudless heavens. Probably just a news chopper, reporting on the traffic on the highway it was flying over, but it gave him a feeling that his lungs had been frozen in ice. "We should go back inside," he said, not wanting to alarm his mate. "The doctors may allow us to bring Midori home tonight."

"That would be nice," she murmured, pulling away, but slipping her hand into his. It was something that he only allowed in private.

"Yes," he agreed distractedly as they walked back to the stairwell. He let her go in first and turned to watch the helicopter as it moved farther away, disappearing into the west.

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"This is ridiculous! She can't do this!"

"That's what I said."

Washi raked his hands through his hair. "Mom, the company will sink without you."

Sesshoumaru scowled at his eldest son, but Kagome put a hand on his shoulder. "He didn't mean it like that, my mate," she said. "Washi, I know this is going to be difficult, but we both hope that it won't be for long. Soon enough, the board will come to its senses or the crisis will be over and I'll be back in my office. I promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Mom," said Rin, speaking for the first time since they had sat down in the living room. She cradled her chin in her hand. "What are you going to do?"

Kagome gave her mate an uneasy look. "Well, I've decided to move out actually, so that your father can protect the company without me being a distraction."

Daichi gripped the arms of his chair. "You're getting divorced?" he said, his eyes wide.

"No," said the taiyoukai. "Your mother has the media and public decrying her and soon enough, it will spread to the company and myself. It already has in some respects. I believe that the illusion of marital problems would ease the tension for the board of directors."

"Screw them!" snapped their son.

The hanyou frowned and went over to her child, hugging his shoulders as he scowled in a manner identical to his father. "It'll be easier this way. Don't worry, I still love your father and he loves me. Right, Sesshoumaru?" she said slowly, determined to get his help in allaying the children's fears.

The dog demon gave a curt, single nod. "I am sure our children are aware of it," he said in a clipped tone.

Kagome rolled her eyes but returned her attention to Daichi. Her second son had always needed the greatest amount of emotional support. She suspected that it had to do with the fact that Washi and Rin had already been through so much in their lives before Daichi was born, that he felt dwarfed by them. They had been strengthened by the war against the god so many centuries ago, but Daichi had been weakened by it, even if he hadn't been born yet. The eldest biological child, but the youngest of the three born in the Feudal Era. It was strange to her at times.

Rin waited for the discomfort of the moment to pass. "Where are you going then, Mom?" she asked.

"To the City," she said, speaking of their old home in the West. "It will be safe there. No one is allowed into the private preserve except the grounds and housekeepers. Remember that there are still people trying to kill us. They're mainly after me and your father, but I know they won't hesitate to kill any of you either."

"Which is why I would have you two moving back here for the time being," said Sesshoumaru, looking at Rin and Washi. "I can protect you all here."

The two eldest children looked at each other and shrugged. "I guess I am a bit rusty on my fighting skills," admitted Rin, trying to avoid her father's gaze.

He arched a white eyebrow. "Then we will work on that. All of us could do with more training." Looking between his three grown children, he frowned. "Actually, I would like for you to accompany your mother to the West, Washi."

The eagle demon stretched his wings a bit. "Um, alright. Why me? Don't you think I should be staying back here to help my PR department?"

"Yes, ideally that would be the situation," agreed Sesshoumaru, "and although none of my children are truly battle ready, I believe you are the most prepared if the need arises. I do not like to send your mother alone to the West, even if she does plan to take Tetsusaiga. I will inform your department that any major decisions must go through you first."

Washi nodded. "What about Ito and the investigation? Have you heard anything?"

"The bullets that killed Sakura and Emiko were tipped with a paralyzing poison, engineered for use on youkai," said Sesshoumaru, who had had a long talk with Ito while Midori and Kagome were taken to the hospital. "They have no leads on possible suspects. We know that the assassins in the shopping center were human, but that does not mean that they do not have demon accomplices."

Rin sighed. "That doesn't really narrow down the list of who we can trust and who we can't, does it?" she murmured.

"No, it does not, which is why I am enacting a new rule for this family," said the taiyoukai. "None of us will be allowed personal contact with anyone who is not blood tied or honor bound to us. Any meetings with unknown clients will be cancelled for the time being and I am instituting a curfew of eleven o'clock on all nights."

"So, basically, only close friends and family?" asked Rin, her face scrunched up.

Sesshoumaru nodded. "If your mother or I have not met them several times, I do not want them to be in contact with anyone in this family. Of course, this includes most humans. It is for our safety."

Daichi stood up. "You can't restrict our comings and goings, Pop. I mean, I understand that you want to keep us safe, but don't you think you're taking it a bit far? How are we supposed to function at work? We meet dozens of new people everyday."

The taiyoukai turned a cold eye on his son, who was the last person he expected to protest. "I doubt you will have any trouble avoiding strangers at work, since you so adeptly avoid work in general."

"Sesshoumaru!" warned Kagome, glaring at him.

He looked back at his mate. "As our son and a resident of this household, he should listen to me. It could be a matter of his survival, especially since he has paid as much care to his fighting skills as his work responsibilities."

As Daichi began to close his hands into fists, Kagome stood up. "This is neither the time, nor the place to be talking about what you think our son needs to do in his life. He has a point, you know. It will damage the business that you so ardently are trying to save if you restrict their movements within the company." She lowered her voice. "You could have at least discussed this little 'rule' with me first!"

"It does not affect you. You will not be here," he countered. Looking back at his son, Sesshoumaru lifted his chin. "And you will adhere to my rules, Daichi."

"The hell I will!" snapped the younger dog demon. "I'm not like your other kids, Father. I'm not some golden child who will let myself get pushed around by you! I'm five hundred years old!"

"Then you should start acting like it!" retorted his father. "Your siblings recognize the importance of my rule!"

Daichi set his jaw. "Only because they have no lives outside of yours! Of course they bend to your will! What else have they known? When have they ever questioned their great father's words? I'm not them, Father! I don't have to please you to feel good about what I do in my life! I actually have my own thoughts!"

Rin and Washi stood as one, both glaring at their younger sibling with shock and anger. "I'm not mindless, Daichi!" said Rin, a rare sign of anger coming through. "I just know that Dad is right! We can't just go around talking and meeting with anybody when anybody could be trying to bump us off!"

"All he has ever done is hold you back, Rin!" yelled Daichi. "Why don't you think you're married? Is it because no human could be good enough for Sesshoumaru-sama's precious daughter? Or is it because you've come to believe that too?"

"Shut up!" seethed Washi as Rin sat back down, dumbstruck and on the verge of tears. "You have no right to judge her! She has done a hell of a lot more than you ever will!"

"Of course! That's what Father thinks, don't you, Father?" Daichi rounded again on Sesshoumaru. "I'm the worthless one, aren't I? The one that never amounted to anything. But that's only in your book! This is my life and I can do as I please!"

"You are under my roof!" roared the taiyoukai. "You should be an adult by now! Earn your keep and follow the rules that I set for the sake of our lives and you can do whatever you wish!"

Daichi spared a quick glance for his mother, who was standing beside him, pale and shaking. For a moment, guilt pervaded his heart, but anger won out. "You know," he said, looking back at Sesshoumaru, "I can do the same exact thing away from you too."

He walked away, towards the front door with tensed shoulders and his tail wrapped around his shoulder. As he put his hand on the door, Sesshoumaru spoke, softly but able to be heard by everyone. "If you leave, do not expect any support from us. I will not protect you."

His son barely waited until his father had fallen silent when he pulled open the door and walked out, slamming it behind him. There was a deathly silence as the echoes of the door finished reverberating. Rin began to cry noiselessly into her hands while Washi stared at the floor.

"Why?" choked Kagome. "Why did you do that to him? You just sent our son out into a world that wants to kill him!"

Sesshoumaru looked defeated for a moment before glaring at her. "What was said has been building for years. It was at its breaking point."

"And it broke us!" cried the hanyou. "He has no food! No clothes! No money! How can you do that to him? He is our child!"

"He is no longer a child! That is the problem!" he snapped. Seeing Kagome recoil, he looked away, up at the corner of the walls and ceiling. "Pack your things, Kagome. You and Washi will be leaving in the morning. We will not speak of it further. Washi, you and your sister should go to your apartments and get your things. Don't leave one another's sight."

The eagle child nodded. "What about Satu? Is she coming?"

"Yes," said Kagome quietly. "Your father must take care of Midori." A tear slipped from the corner of her eye. Two children with her, two children with Sesshoumaru, leaving one to fend for himself. She couldn't bear to think on it.

Sesshoumaru looked at his mate and took a deep, silent breath. "Go, Washi. The way should be clear," he said, his hint that Daichi was gone lost on no one.

Washi pulled his sister to her feet. Her tears had stopped flowing, but she still looked shocked. Of all the children, Rin had been closest to Daichi. She had helped take care of him as a baby and although she and Washi were like twins, Daichi was still her little brother and she would always consider him as in need of her care. To hear that he thought such horrible things about her… it was traumatic to say the least. "Come on, Rin-chan," said the eagle demon, leading her out.

After they disappeared, Kagome met her mate's gaze with hollow eyes. "I should pack," she said, repeating his earlier words.

"Kagome." He paused and made sure she was paying attention. "He must grow up sometime."

Keeping her deadened stare, she shook her head. "It wasn't meant to be that moment. He was right, you know. You have to accept that he is different from our other children."

"He is my only blood son," argued the taiyoukai, "yet he acts like a changeling, as if he did not grow up in my household."

Kagome laughed, but one that sent a chill down the spine of even the great dog demon. "He is your son," she said, still smiling sardonically. "No one would question that. You are so alike."

Sesshoumaru frowned. "He is lazy and disobedient. How is he anything like me?"

"If you can't see it," she said, her eyes cold, "then perhaps it was time for him to leave us." She turned and moved towards the stairs, but paused with her back towards him. "If the illusion of marital issues would help our problems get solved, imagine what real issues will do."

"It was not my intention to cause problems between the two of us, Kagome," he said, his frown deepening.

She lowered her head, her hair spilling forward over her shoulders. "I should pack. Then I'm going to sleep. Goodnight."

He watched his mate vanish up the stairs and into their bedroom. The lock turned and Sesshoumaru sat down on the couch. He wasn't allowed in tonight. He often did not sleep at all, but when Kagome turned the deadbolt, he knew he wasn't even welcome. Never mind that he could destroy the door in one strike, it was the principle of the thing.

At the same time, he couldn't blame her in the least. Even he, the terrible and cold dog lord, felt the weight of guilt on his heart. Daichi was his son. 'Is', he corrected himself. 'He is my son.'

He had seen many demons disown their children over the centuries. There was a rash of it during the Boxer Rebellion in China a century before, when many demons were dying in fires and on the ends of peasants' pitchforks. The younger generations had insisted that the Japanese contingent help their youkai brothers, but the older ones, marred by eons of competition with Chinese demons, refused. Sesshoumaru had been lucky. Washi and Rin had been in a nasty scrape with some Chinese youkai in the late 1700s and Daichi just didn't care. The great taiyoukai had been able to watch as other families disintegrated while his own had stood firm. After many unsuccessful attempts at helping the others, Kagome had watched with him, murmuring how happy she was with her family that would never abandon one another.

When Daichi had been born, Sesshoumaru could barely move from his crib. It was his son. His son. A blood heir was the most important thing a mate could give her male in that time and place. Looking down at the little copy of himself, minus only the crescent upon his forehead, Sesshoumaru had known that Daichi would be a credit to his kingdom. How could any son of his be anything else?

He wondered what went wrong.

"Dad?"

Sesshoumaru looked up to the top of the stairs to see Midori, her arm in her sling and her hair tussled. "You should be in bed. The doctor would not be pleased to see you walking about."

She nodded and glanced back over her shoulder. "Yeah, but I think something's wrong with Mom. She's crying. It woke me up." Looking back at her father, she caught the flash of emotion run through his eyes. "What happened? Did you two fight?"

"In a manner of speaking," he said.

The girl began to walk down the stairs and Sesshoumaru made no move to stop her. If a bullet wound didn't prevent her from moving around, he certainly couldn't. "It wasn't about me, was it?" she asked as she reached the bottom. "Because Mom was really trying to protect me. I don't blame her at all!"

"I know." He glanced up at the second floor landing and listened for a moment. Kagome was crying very hard. It was surprising that he hadn't noticed. The scent of salt was rolling down the stairway. "Your brother left the house. He and I had the argument. Your mother is angry at me for that reason."

Midori sighed heavily and sat down on the bottom step, cradling her injured arm. "It was Daichi?"

Sesshoumaru nodded. "Washi will be returning soon with your sister and their belongings. Your mother and Washi will be leaving tomorrow with Satu. You and Rin will remain with me."

The girl didn't seem surprised, just nodded once in agreement. Of all the children, Midori was most like her father, with her cold calculations of logic. Kagome would sometimes joke that at least the girl had gotten some emotional capacity mixed in too or she would have gone crazy. "I don't understand how you guys survived back then," she murmured, "when everyone was trying to kill the family, not just some nut jobs."

"It was different," replied the taiyoukai. "We knew our enemies and if a new one arrived, we soon would discover all we needed to know about him with our spies. Death by sword was not murder then, it was protection of your home and family."

"Did you kill a lot of people, Dad?" she asked, tracing circles on the steps with her finger.

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow. "Yes. Many. I was a demon lord. It was permitted and I freely exercised that right. I do not regret it. Nor do I hide my past."

"Well then, why can't you kill these people? To protect us?"

"Eventually, I may have to," he admitted, "but you know the laws of this land. I cannot spill blood without reasonable cause. Not even the demon authorities would accept a vigilante mission to find your attackers and kill them. You see what sort of trouble your mother may be in for just allowing those two assassins to kill themselves."

"She couldn't have stopped them. It was so sudden," she said, knitting her brow.

The dog demon nodded. "I am well aware of that, but it remains that there are two dead bodies while you and your mother survived. They were the ones with the firearms after all."

Midori leaned her head against the cool wood banister. "I suppose. I just wish it would be over. I don't want Mom to be frightened anymore." She yawned, barely able to cover her mouth with her hand.

Sesshoumaru walked forward and scooped up his daughter easily. "It is time for you to go to bed. We will talk more in the morning." He carried her upstairs as she leaned drowsily against his shoulder. By the time he covered her with her comforter, she was asleep. As he returned to the first floor, he could still hear Kagome crying.

He suddenly felt very tired. Turning off the living room lights, he laid down on the couch, bunching a couple pillows underneath his head. Thirty minutes ticked by but his eyes were still open, staring at the white vaulted ceiling. The crying had stopped, but the smell of salt still wafted through the air. All the great taiyoukai could do was stare into the shadows and wait for sunrise.

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A/N: Aw, yeah, I know – they've had a really, really bad day. Don't worry about it. That's all I have to say about that. If there's any glaring mistakes in here, please point them out. School is burning me out right now and I only did some mediocre editing – I just can't stress over it anymore. Anyway… thanks for the reviews! I appreciate them all and will continue to reply personally.