You and Me After All
Chapter 40: Reminder
Rinnosuke flinched at the reminder. Then, the golden eyes that looked so similar to Sesshōmaru's flared angrily.
"No," he snapped. "I refuse to believe a daiyōkai of your caliber is so easily defeated by something so obscure. As I have told you many times before, it should have no bearing on any actions you take."
"No bearing, you said?" Sesshōmaru repeated. His eyes flashed bright gold even if his voice was devoid of tone. "I have defiled a woman and destroyed her future. She was supposed to marry my half-brother tomorrow."
Grim silence returned, filling the space between them as they stared at each other. His cousin usually had an open countenance, yet at this moment, he was opaque.
"If such a thing had happened to Seirin," Sesshōmaru continued. "As the head of the clan, I would have hunted the filth down, sliced off his cock, and shoved it so far down his throat it would come out the other end. And you would have been by my side, handing me the knife. But, the miko does not have any kin who is strong enough to avenge her honour. Thus, here I am — still alive, and there she is — trapped in this situation."
Rinnosuke's face crumpled into a grimace. "Sesshōmaru. Help me understand why this happened in the first place," he pleaded. "There must have been something." He began to pace. "There are all kinds of weeds and pollens that could cause one to lose control of his beast or cause temporary madness and hallucinations. It could be something an enemy planted to get you in trouble. A trap of some sort."
He stopped to stare at Sesshōmaru. "Did you notice anything before it happened? Any strange plants around, unusual scents?"
"No, there was nothing —" Sesshōmaru began to reply. But before he said more, his cousin made a slashing motion with an arm as if to silence him.
"Oh. But what do you know about plants and their usages?" Rinnosuke complained. "When we were children, you were never interested in studying potions and poisons, even though they are deeply entrenched in our inuyōkai culture. They could be right before your nose, yet you did not recognize them."
Sesshōmaru could not deny he had no passion for the study of botany, despite the wide range of substances their clan used as weapons for millennia. The poison that ran in Rinnosuke's and Seirin's body also coursed through his veins after all, and it gave him his first weapon: his whip. Nevertheless, botany did not stir his blood the same way as the feel of a katana in his hand. And the accomplishment he felt at the success of crafting a poison paled in comparison to the execution of a perfect sword technique.
Still, he was not completely oblivious.
"There was no outside influence," Sesshōmaru insisted. What good would it do to determine the cause when it would not change the result? At this point, any explanation from his side sounded like an excuse.
Because, no matter the cause, it all came to the same conclusion: he was not strong enough to stop the beast.
"Alright. Then, let me ask you this," Rinnosuke said. "What happened just before you attacked her?"
Sesshōmaru waited in silence for a long time before he admitted: "I do not remember."