There will be some dirty stuff in this chapter so if you don't like that don't read. I also revised it after a rather negative response to the original version.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Inuyasha. Please don't sue me.

Chapter Six: The Real Reason

Edana brushed a stray strand of her overly long hair out of her face as she entered her room in the Southern Kingdom castle. She took in everything, noting her room had been cleaned in her week long absence, and a certain halberd was missing from the corner. She arched an eyebrow at the said corner before limping over to her pile of sleeping furs in the opposite corner. She glanced around the room she occupied. There were two piles of sleeping furs, in two opposite corners, the second shared by the missing halberd. Next to the door was a closet with her clothes. There was a large mirror on the right side wall, next to a desk she did paperwork on. Off to the left side was a small table and a door leading into her private bathroom, complete with her own hotspring.

She grimaced as she considered walking to the bathroom. Her grandfather had not been happy she was accompanying him to the Western Lands in the first place, less happy she had accepted the dinner with Sesshomaru, and furious she had pushed him away. He thought she should at least make herself useful and seduce him to their side or something along those lines. These three angers had combined, and her grandfather was a very unpleasant demon to be around when he was angry. She believed she now suffered no less then three cracked ribs, and had badly twisted her knee when he had thrown her against the wall. As per normal his careful beating left no outer mark. The only bruises were hidden under her clothing, except for one marring the pale skin of her right shoulder. She lay down on her furs laying on her right side, the one without any broken ribs. It did not take her long to fall asleep.

Bankotsu entered Miori's room, noting with faint surprise that she was home. After Naraku's defeat he was the only one of the Band of Seven to survive. He had hidden, only killing on occasion, until one day about four years ago he had stumbled upon Miori in the woods. He had threatened her, but she only laughed at him, inviting him to take a bath with her. She had stripped and slid into the hotspring he had found her at, and he joined her moments later. His eyebrow twitched faintly of the memory of what had occurred between him and Miori that day. Fox demons were very passionate and sensual creatures, a nature Miori had inherited (and what appeared to be the only thing aside from her looks) in full. Afterwards he had come to live with her, against her grandfather's will. She had taken many beatings on his account but had not backed down. It was the only thing she had ever stood up to him fully on.

It was not that Bankotsu had wanted Miori to be beaten. When he first discovered her grandfather was abusing her on his account, he had tried to leave. Miori had basically sat on him until he agreed to stay. Before he agreed to it, he had asked her for one reason he should stay. When asked why she did this she simply shrugged and said, "It's good to have a friend in this place." Something about her eyes right then had convinced him to stay. He knew Miori could handle herself, but there was something hidden deep in the shadows of her eyes that had caused his heart to ache for the young demoness. Now the two were occasional lovers, but more importantly to them, were incredibly close friends.

"Nice to see you again." Bankotsu looked at Miori sitting on her furs, holding her left side. It was then he saw the bruise adorning her shoulder.

"Shit Miori. Not again. You've just barely recovered from the last time!" He rushed towards her, examining her shoulder.

"Edana." She muttered at him grimacing slightly. He just snorted in disdain.

"You were Miori when I first met you four years ago. Just because that bastard forced you to change your name and appearance, doesn't mean I'm going to start calling you that." He tugged her hand from her side and as gently as he could, examined her side. He winced in sympathy as Miori tried and failed to suppress a small cry of pain as he discovered not three, but five broken ribs, all in one spot. Muttering obscenities at Roku under his breath he tugged at Miori's pants, a signal for her to take them off so he could further examine her. He had learned this was the only real way to discover the full extent of her injuries. Otherwise she just pretended to be in no pain whatsoever. Stubborn bitch.

Despite being accustomed to seeing Miori in various states of injury he was unable to contain the string of curses upon seeing her badly swollen knee, as well as the bruises marring her otherwise flawless legs and hips. Growling he pulled off her top as well, careful not to further injure her ribs to find more bruises. There were also long claw marks along her back.

"Bastard."

"He doesn't mean to."

"Bullshit he doesn't mean to!" Bankotsu jumped up and screamed, losing his temper for possibly the first time ever with the demoness. "You can't cause this kind of damage accidentally! What the hell did you ever do to him?" Overcome by a sudden wave of despair he sat on the bed next to Miori, and by instinct she pulled his head to her chest, murmuring soothing words and slowly rubbing his back with one hand in an attempt to calm him down.

They were interrupted by a knock on the door, and Guzo, a snake demon from beyond the territories and currently enslaved by Roku, entered the room carrying clean cloths, hot water, bandages, medicinal herbs, and everything else needed to care for Miori. He had seen her limp in that morning and gotten the supplies ready when he saw Bankotsu return. Guzo, as well as everyone else in the castle knew he was the only one Miori would let care for her injuries properly.

"Thank you Guzo." Miori smiled slowly and sadly at the demon, trying to hide as much of her naked body behind Bankotsu as possible, "You may leave us now." Guzo bowed to his young mistress and exited closing the door behind him. Bankotsu grabbed the supplies and began to work on Miori's injuries. Soaking a cloth in the water he began to clean the wounds on her back. Despite the fact he was as gentle as he knew how to be Miori was hard put not to scream. The damn water burned! She relaxed as he sprinkled herbs on the wounds, and then wrapped them and her broken ribs in some of the bandages. After this he put some more clothes in the water and laid them on Miori's knee in an attempt to reduce the swelling. Cold water, or preferably ice would have been better, but there was barely any of this in the warmer southern territory. He waited for a moment before pulling off the cloth and wrapping her knee tightly in more bandages. He sighed looking at the bruises still adorning her body. He could do nothing about those, and they'd discovered that Miori could not heal herself.

Miori wrapped a blanket over her naked body, too lazy to dress herself and laid back on the bed indicating Bankotsu should join her. He lay next to her, pulling her deep into his embrace, one hand holding her to him, the other idly playing with her hair.

"So what happened?"

"I went to the Western Territory?"

"I know that. And Roku insists on keeping you locked up like a prisoner for reasons unknown to any sane person. But he got you for that before you left. You still went. It must have been something else."

She squirmed guiltily in his embrace for a moment, avoiding his gaze then muttered so softly he could barely hear "Fluffy asked me to eat dinner with him."

"And…?"

"I accepted. I really wanted to see him." Bankotsu waited knowing there was more. "And then…I told him I didn't need him anymore. That any friendship we had ever had was gone. And I just walked away." She was crying into his chest at this point. "Grampa was really mad. He said if I insisted on talking to Fluffy I should convince him to work for him or something. But I can't do that to him, and he wouldn't listen to anyone else anyway, and I don't want Grampa to hurt Fluffy like he does me and the only thing I could think of was to cut off any ties with him." She was almost speaking too fast for him to understand her, and was sobbing into his chest at this point. He rubbed her back soothing her.

Bankotsu sat with Miori until she had cried herself out, and fell asleep on his chest. He hated to admit it, but he had a soft spot for the girl. A smile from her could brighten his day, when she was sad his heart ached for her, and he cared for her with a tenderness he had never shown anyone else. It was lucky that they had no feelings towards each other besides a deep friendship and a little lust. Otherwise he might have felt obligated to kill Sesshomaru out of sheer jealousy and he was not sure that was a fight he would win. With that thought in mind he rolled over, letting go of Miori, and fell asleep.

It was a few hours later when Miori awoke to find herself alone in her bed, most of her bruises gone, her back and knee almost totally healed, and the pain in her ribs greatly diminished. She reached an arm around the bed expecting Bankotsu to be laying nearby only to find the sheets empty and cold. Without opening her eyes she sniffed the surrounding air and smelled him in the direction of her bathroom. She pulled all the sheets tighter around her naked body and considered for the briefest moment going back to bed but as she moved her sore body quite rationally told her that a hot bath would be greatly appreciated right now. Groaning good naturedly she rolled out of bed only to land on her knees next to it. Wincing she dragged herself up and began to walk in the direction of the bathroom more asleep then awake and her eyes barely open. She had forgotten that Bankotsu was in the bathroom was slightly nonplussed to find her friend entirely naked washing himself off with a cloth in the bathroom.

"Kotsu? What are you doing in here?" She tilted her head to the side and watched him out of half opened eyes. It was then she noticed his nakedness and it struck something deep inside the girl. Her eyes narrowed to slits that were glowing just the slightest hint of red and her breath caught and quickened in her chest. Bankotsu saw it and smirked, dropping the cloth and walking over to his friend. Without speaking he drew her close to his body and kissed her.

Miori shuddered in desire and dropped the blankets she had been holding, using one hand to pull Bankotsu's head further down, and the other lazily tracing his spine with her claws. It had been a long time since they had made love, and part of Miori began to scream and cheer as Bankotsu reached down and lifted her into the air wrapping his arms under her ass as her slender legs came up to encircle his waist. Pulling away for air, Bankotsu carried Miori to her bed and laid her down, stopping for a moment to admire her. Her long silver hair tumbled around her, her cheeks were flushed, her chest rising and falling with every breath she took, and her lips ruby red from his kisses. He straddled Miori's waist, placing his hands next to her head. She grinned mischievously up at him and rolled her body upwards, grinding her hips against his. He groaned in defeat and rolled onto the bed pulling her over him. She sat next to him leaning her upper body over his chest and kissed him deeply.

"I won't be able to do much to help out. I'm still injured and helpless remember." She leaned forward to whisper in his ear once she broke the kiss. He looked at her in shock for a moment and she giggled laying next to him, entangling one leg with his. She ran one hand down his chest and over his ass down to his leg then up again causing the man to shudder in delight. Deciding he couldn't let her have all the fun he bent over her breast to kiss and nibble at her nipples, first the right then the left. Miori let out a soft moan in response and arched her body upwards at him. Smirking he began to move his kisses lower, making sure he covered every inch of her flat stomach. She squirmed, sighing contentedly under his ministrations.

Finally he reached that area between her thighs. He buried his face in her and inhaled the odor of her arousal. Miori lazily lifted one leg over his shoulder, allowing him better access to that one spot that could make her come almost immediately. He smirked at her, knowing that he would enjoy the experience to come.

Sesshomaru dug through the piles of stuff on his desk looking for something, anything, that he could sign the paper in front of him with. He was not having much luck, and it was shortening his already frayed temper. He was almost ready to tear the desk apart when he heard low laughter from the doorway of his study. He looked up glaring, only to find Inuyasha in the doorway. His half-brother walked over to him, and somehow managed to find a writing utensil on his desk, and handed it to the irritable taiyoukai. Sesshomaru commenced to signing the accursed piece of parchment, when he was interrupted by Inuyasha's voice.

"She smelled different." Sesshomaru glanced up, knowing what Inuyasha was talking about, but not wanting to discuss it. Miori, or Edana, had not been seen the day after her supper with Sesshomaru and had left late the next night. Sighing at the stare he was receiving from his hanyou brother he chose to respond.

"I didn't notice."

"I did. She doesn't smell like the rain and roses anymore. She smelled like ashes and tears and blood. I don't understand how you didn't notice."

"Maybe I didn't care."

"You and I both know that's a lie. I wonder why she left. It was weird that she was here for so short a time, and that she didn't even say goodbye."

"Roku said she was sick and had to go home."

Sesshomaru glanced up when Inuyasha didn't respond. The hanyou was staring off into the distance a frown gracing his features. He almost celebrated his brother's silence, but he noted the disturbed look in his brother's eyes. Growling inwardly he threw the pen at Inuyasha.

"What's wrong?" Inuyasha picked up the pen and threw it back at his brother, thinking for a moment.

"I don't like Roku. He's a strong demon, and I respect that. He seems unwontedly cruel though. Have you heard the stories about how he mistreats all his servants, and anyone in his territory?"

"I have. I have never seen any proof of them though."

"I was just thinking…do you think he's mistreating Miori?" Sesshomaru jumped at the possibility, staring shocked at his brother. Not only had he actually thought on his own, what he said could be true.

"What would make you say that?"

"What else could cause such a huge change in her? Surely finding out she's the Southern heir wouldn't do it."

"You may be right."

Miori lay on her back, watching the patterns of the shadows of leaves on her ceiling. Bankotsu lay beside her, sleeping soundly. Thank Kami for that. After the exertions they had just gone through she should be sleeping as well, but chose not to. Miori's passionate nature was much more difficult to sate, and talented lover that Kotsu was, he was only human. He didn't have the stamina to keep up with her. Instead she lay thinking. Somehow, it felt wrong to her to be making love to Kotsu while her heart was longing for Fluffy. However she shrugged and sighed. There was nothing she could do about it. Damn life sucked sometimes.