AN: This one's longer than ch. 8.. Why is it the more I try to edit and revise these things, the shorter they seem to be? Oh well. I'm shaky on this chapter too.. naturally. It starts off as the conclusion to the scene from the last chapter, which bugs me to no end, so yeah. Grr.
Chapter Nine - Battles, Arguments, and... Lechery?
"Eh-ehem."
Maina froze in place. Her eyes, now the size of saucers, looked up to see Inuyasha, still sitting in the same position, but awake and looking back at her. Her heartbeat quickened, but she refused to allow him to see her embarrassment, for she knew it would give her away. Sesshoumaru had always wanted their relationship to be a secret - that's why she'd had a private hut built for them, after all. She rose, quietly and coolly, and strode towards Inuyasha. She stopped before him, glancing over the at the monk to see if he had woken as well, but he still seemed to be asleep. She sat a foot or so before Inuyasha, keeping her head up in an aristocratic manner, perfectly imitating Sesshoumaru's characteristic look.
"I apologize, Inuyasha, I did not mean to wake you," she said, her voice just above a whisper.
"Don't bother apologizing, I was only half-sleeping anyway," he countered. "I have to watch out for him,ya know." Maina narrowed her eyes at him.
"He's not just going to jump up in the middle of the night and kill someone."
"I'm not worried about him killing someone. I'm worried about him killing everyone," he retorted.
"Sesshoumaru wouldn't do a thing like that. He's an honorable youkai; he would not attack the village that had generously taken him in to heal."
"Keh. You don't know him like I do," he muttered.
"I'm the only person who knows him at all!" she whispered harshly. Inuyasha quieted for a moment, just staring dumbly at her. 'Gods, she's touchy..' He shook his head slightly.
"Whatever. If he's so damned honorable, how come he tries to kill his only brother every chance he gets? He's just an arrogant bastard who can't accept that a hanyou with tainted blood might be worth anything..," he ranted quietly, crossing his arms defiantly across his chest. Maina frowned almost sadly.
"It's not like that..," she said, almost inaudibly, even to his ears. Inuyasha sighed.
"Look, it's plain to see that you care about the guy, though I can't imagine why," he began, a bit more gently, "and I hate to be the one to have to say this, but you're wasting your time on him. You're just begging to have your heart broken."
"And just what do you know about it? What gives you the right to preach to me?" she replied defensively.
"I know your situation better than you think," he said softly. She gave him a questioning look, but he returned to his cynical tone without further explanation. "Sesshoumaru's a heartless, selfish youkai who doesn't think twice about killing civilians, family, or anyone else. He will never return your feelings, no matter how much you try to get him to warm up to you. He's incapable of love, and that's all there is to it."
"How dare you say such a thing, you ignorant hanyou! I would hit you right now if I didn't think the sound would wake everyone up," she snarled.
"Why the hell are you defending him? You can't deny that he's cold and arrogant and.."
"On the outside, yes, but I know him better than that. I've known him since he was born. His father, your father, was a good friend of mine, and Miharu, his mother, she was like a sister to me! She brought him and Mai to visit my forest all the time; I practically watched him grow up! And you presume to know better than me?" Inuyasha stared at the goddess, dumbfounded and, for once, speechless. Did she really know all about his family? About his father? Inuyasha himself knew nothing save what Totosai and Myouga had told him, which, all-in-all, wasn't much. But Maina, she could probably tell him everything..
"Goodnight, Inuyasha," she said curtly. "I only came to check on Sesshoumaru's condition, and I've done that, so I'm returning to bed now." She rose to her feet gracefully, elegantly, and tossed a wisp of hair over her shoulder. "I suggest you get some sleep as well," she remarked haughtily. She quickly padded into the hallway, leaving Inuyasha alone in the silent darkness.
"Lady Maina! Are you all right?"
"I'm… fine..," she replied, though her eyes had begun to flutter. She started to sway, her legs threatening to collapse beneath her. The inu warrior gripped her arm to steady her.
"Have you been injured?" he asked with obvious panic.
"No… I'm just… a bit tired..," she murmured. In an instant, another inuyoukai stood before her. She was able to recognize the crescent moon on his forehead and the silver hair pulled back in a high ponytail just before her vision became blurry.
"Inu..taishou..," she whispered. He frowned.
"You've used up too much energy. You must take down some of your barriers," he said sternly. Her reserve strength rushed to her in a wave of anger.
"How can you ask me that? We're outnumbered! I can't leave all of you unprotected, I'd rather die myself!" she cried, struggling against the grip of the warrior at her side.
"If you maintain all of the barriers for much longer, you will deplete your energy and all of them will fall. Divert your energy to keeping up the highest priority barriers. Discard the rest," he said coldly.
"I can't..," she replied limply, already beginning to feel faint again.
"Do it, Lady Maina. Protect Sesshoumaru and my generals. We must stay organized or the panther youkai will overwhelm us!" he yelled, his strong voice becoming ragged. A tear escaping her eye, she nodded in understanding. Finally shaking free of the warrior's supporting grip, she raised her already glowing hands above her. Every inu warrior on the battlefield was bathed in the light of her power for a brief second before it disappeared, leaving only Sesshoumaru, the generals, and Inutaishou protected by it. She lowered her hands.
"It is done," she whispered.
"You left my barrier up," Inutaishou stated.
"You are their leader.."
"I'll protect myself - I command you take it down and put the energy toward the others," he snarled.
"Fine," she replied, a sad smile crossing her tired face. Inutaishou nodded his head just once before rushing into battle again, the warrior standing beside her following. Maina found a sheltered spot on the edge of the field and sat down. She smirked as she watched Inutaishou fearlessly slicing his claws through the panther youkai.
'He's so gullible,' she thought. 'I didn't even raise my hands to remove his barrier, and he believed nonetheless that I had..'
Concentrating all her energy on the inuyoukai still under her protection, she watched with satisfaction the way they mowed down the panthers, invincible to their counterattacks, barking out orders to the lower ranking warriors as they went. There were many panthers left to defeat, but there were also many dead on the ground, and that was enough to bring a true smile to her face.
Suddenly, a pained howl rent her momentary calm away. It took her only seconds to find its source, but long minutes to look away from it. A warrior, in his large inu form, howled in pain as blood gushed from a huge hole in his side. His grey fur was soaked with it, as were the offending panther youkai nearby. He shrank to his humanoid form as Maina looked on in horror, finally falling dead on the battlefield. The inu army had its first casualty of the Great War.
Maina bit into her bottom lip until she tasted blood, tears streaming down her face. She clenched her eyes tightly shut, forcing herself to concentrate on upholding her remaining barriers. She had to protect Inutaishou and Sesshoumaru, above all else, or the lands would fall. She had to protect the generals, or the army would lose organization as well as their upper hand. The rest were foot soldiers, she told herself. They were prepared to die if need be..
She clamped her hands over her ears as another dying inu's cries rang out from the midst of the battle. She could not listen, she could not let herself think about the deaths occurring right in front of her. She couldn't protect all of them - she had to protect only the most vital warriors. Even as more and more members of the already decimated inuyoukai tribe fell dead by the claws of the panthers, she had to hold on to her focus. Even if all but a handful of the inu were left alive, they could not let the panthers win…
"You baka, you have to eat something!"
"This Sesshoumaru does not need food."
Maina blinked sleepily as the echoing argument invaded her dreams.
"Eat it or I'll shove it down your throat!"
"Try it and we shall both be missing an arm."
The images of her dreams momentarily forgotten, chased away by the waking world, she rolled over on her side and pulled her blanket over her head. She should have known it would only be a matter of time before the two brothers started bickering..
"Don't forget how you lost that arm! You should be happy I haven't decided to kill you in your sleep yet!"
"Even in sleep, I doubt that you could kill me."
"Ugh, can't they quarrel a little more quietly?" she groaned, pressing her hands over her ears and closing her eyes tightly.
"You bastard!"
"My parents were mated. You are the bastard." Suddenly, a resounding crash shook the little hut.
"Damnit, what the hell just happened?" she heard Inuyasha say.
"MAINA!" Sesshoumaru called angrily.
'What the..' She reluctantly tossed the blanket off and crawled groggily out of her bed, the only one in the room that hadn't been rolled up and put away yet. She briefly wondered why no one had woken her earlier, but shrugged off the thought. She smoothed her hair with one hand as she unsteadily made her way into the main room.
She walked in to see Sesshoumaru sitting up in his bed, a tray of untouched food resting on his lap - and Inuyasha lying flat on the floor next to him.
"What's going on?" she asked with a yawn.
"When exactly did you place a barrier on me, Maina?" Sesshoumaru demanded, forsaking formality as he glared daggers at her. Images of the battlefield rushed back to her, memories of putting up her barriers around Sesshoumaru and the other warriors.. She shook her head, knowing these were just the bumbling thoughts of a mind not entirely awake.
"What are you talking about?" she said finally, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"Inuyasha attempted to hit me, but his fist went through me, which, as you can see, threw him off balance."
"So that's what that noise was, huh?" she asked with an amused smile at Inuyasha.
"Answer my question," Sesshoumaru commanded in a threatening voice. "When did you put a barrier on me?"
"I don't remember..," she trailed, absentmindedly tapping her lips as she tried to recall more recent memories. Sesshoumaru maintained an impatient stare. "Oh!" she cried suddenly. "I remember now! I put the barrier on you during the battle yesterday!" Sesshoumaru raised a questioning eyebrow.
"It was.. When you were killed," she said, a bit shakily.
"You put a barrier around a corpse?" Inuyasha interjected.
"From what I'd seen of him, I didn't think it would be below Naraku to desecrate a corpse, especially that of his enemy," she explained. "I guess I forgot about it.. I wasn't exactly expecting you to come back to life, after all.." Sesshoumaru's face softened minutely.
"This Sesshoumaru does not need protection," he stated, regaining his high tone. "Remove it." She nodded as waves of deja vu passed through her. Kneeling next to him, she placed her hands on his shoulders. For a moment, his entire body glowed a soft blue, but then the light began to collect in her hands and was completely gone in just a few seconds' time. She casually removed her hands.
"There," she said matter-of-factly. Sesshoumaru only nodded in acknowledgement as Inuyasha finally made a move to get off the floor.
"Did Kaede change your bandage this morning?" Maina asked offhandedly.
"She looked at it, but said that it could wait, as it is no longer bleeding a very great deal."
"But it is still bleeding?"
"Only when I move." He moved aside his haori, revealing a moderately bloody part of his bandage.
"Not bad, considering it happened just yesterday," the goddess replied pleasantly. "When did she suggest changing it?"
"Whenever you woke up," he said simply.
"I see. Did you threaten her, or is she still being cautious because of yesterday's little incident?" she asked him accusingly.
"It was more of a growl than a threat," Inuyasha commented.
"I did nothing to her. She simply wished for Maina to do it this time," Sesshoumaru snapped at him. Maina smirked.
"Fine, I'll change the bandage, but after that you have to eat your meal, alright? I'll just go and get the supplies..," she said, rising to her feet and heading for the small storeroom opposite the room she'd slept in. A quick glance around found everything she needed conveniently stored together. She returned to find Inuyasha near the door of the hut, talking quietly to the monk, who had just come in.
"What do you mean you can't? You've never passed up an opportunity before, from what I've seen. And just think how powerful they'd be if she agreed..," Inuyasha was saying quietly, a mischievous grin on his face.
"You do have a point," Miroku confessed, a sly half-smile forming as he spoke. Maina decided to ignore them after this, as it was obviously a private conversation. Besides, she had to actively listen to hear it, as she didn't have the keen hearing of an inuyoukai. Casually she kneeled beside Sesshoumaru, slipped the open haori from his shoulders, and began to remove the long bandage strip that was wrapped around his midsection. The taiyoukai held his long hair out of the way for her. Discarding the old bandage, she took a clean rag, wadded it the way Kaede had showed her, and treated one side of it with the antiseptic. She'd almost finished cleaning the wound on his stomach when Miroku came up behind her.
"You're doing a pretty good job for a novice," he began, "and I should know - I've seen more than my fair share of healing treatments since I teamed up with Inuyasha."
"Oh, thank you, houshi-sama, but I'm only cleaning it. It's pretty simple," she replied.
"I'm sure that with some more practice you could become a skilled healer," he continued, sitting next to her. "You've got all the time in the world to learn, after all. I'm surprised you didn't know anything about it already, actually."
"I'm accustomed to preventing wounds, not healing them," she said with a friendly smile.
"Children tend to get hurt a lot - scraping their knees and such in playing.. Do you have any children, Lady Maina?"
"No, houshi-sama, I have no children. You see, I.."
"I know, I know, finding the right partner is a daunting task, now matter how much time you have to do it," Miroku interrupted, "but I'm sure you'd make a wonderful mother." Maina paused in her work and looked at him.
"Thank you, but.."
"Please don't think of me as being too forward, my Lady, but I must ask you something," he said, gazing into her eyes with a sincere kind of sadness.
"What is it?" she asked, blinking naively.
"You see, a curse was placed on my family by Naraku, which created a kazaana in the right hand of every male in our line. Eventually, if Naraku is not defeated, my kazaana will suck me in," he explained, holding out his hand, bound by prayer beads. "I am the last of my line, Lady Maina, so I desperately need an heir to carry on my bloodline if we fail to defeat Naraku."
"Are you.. Asking me to bear you a son?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, my Lady, that is what I am asking," the monk replied solemnly.
"Hou.. Um, Miroku..," she began. To her surprise and Miroku's, she was interrupted by a quiet but menacing growl emanating from Sesshoumaru's throat. Miroku's eyes grew wide and he began to lean away from him.
"If you so much as touch her," he snarled low, "I will rip you apart before that kazaana of yours has any chance to suck you in." Miroku wore a look of pure fear - he knew better than to underestimate Sesshoumaru - and realized then that perhaps he hadn't really given this enough thought. He certainly hadn't expected the taiyoukai to be possessive of the goddess.. Just what kind of 'allies' were they, he wondered?
Unbeknownst to the unfortunate monk, Inuyasha was still standing by the door, stifling a laugh. Apparently his assumptions had been right..
"Will you stop growling at everyone?" she scolded him. Miroku almost gasped aloud - Sesshoumaru was angry, and she was reprimanding him? How fortunate that she was immortal..
"Miroku," she said in a surprisingly amused tone, "I was trying to tell you - I can't bear you any children. Beings like myself do not reproduce the way mortals do. We may have physical bodies like yours, but they do not function in the same way. In fact, I have never heard of a god reproducing at all - as I told you at dinner, we simply come into being on the earthly plane, no parents, no birthing."
"Oh, I see..," Miroku replied, still keeping a wary eye on the taiyoukai, who seemed to have calmed down a bit, but was maintaining his death glare. "B-but please, Lady Maina, I really was only kidding. I ask every woman that, just ask Kagome and Sango!" he said with a nervous laugh. "I really had no intention of.."
"It's okay, I understand," she said with a laugh, "but you really should learn some tact, don't you think?" She pointed to Sesshoumaru with her thumb. "You don't want to make someone like him mad, now do you?"
"Heh, absolutely right, Lady Maina," he said with a forced smile, still glancing warily at the bedridden taiyoukai, who had all of a sudden returned to his usual emotionless expression. "I apologize if I.. Disrespected you, Lord Sesshoumaru..," he said apprehensively.
"You have not disrespected me," he replied coolly. "I was merely watching out for the well-being of my ally, whom you were ignobly attempting to sway with your pity story."
"That's very decent of you, Sesshoumaru, but I think I can dissuade lechers on my own," Maina said with a clever smile. "And besides," she continued, placing a placating hand on his arm, "he was only joking, after all."
"I'll be going now, I think, so that you can return to the bandaging." Miroku hopped up and quickly made his way past the suspiciously satisfied-looking hanyou and out of the hut, still wearing a nervous smile, as he could feel Sesshoumaru's eyes still on him.
He stopped just outside the hut and leaned against the wall. 'What just happened in there? First he's growling and threatening my life, and then he claims to simply be protecting her from smooth-talking lechers?.. He acts as if I were making a pass on his wife or something!'
AN: Yay, I love the latter part of this chapter. (grins stupidly) I love inopportune Miroku moments, don't you? Not to say I'm exactly thrilled with the way it came out, but compared to some other scenes I've kind of flubbed up, this one, I think, is pretty good. It's amusing, if nothing else.. The dream sequence for this chapter was a bit tough, since I was trying to convey the entire war in a short flashback.. heh. I think that one worked out well, too, though. It's like a blue moon in the world of my writings. But hey, some feedback other than my own self-bashing might be nice. Any takers? Hmm?
You know these worthless humans never review anything.. even on the rare occasion that it has been well written.
Yeah, tell me about it... Hey!
Did you not say yourself how rare good writing is for you?
...I didn't mean it that way, exactly..
Stop being such a pity case. Would you be happier if I slew those who leave no reviews?
...Maybe. Try it and see. (grins)