Rise and Fall of the False God
CHAPTER 11
Large teeth tucked over his bottom lip the little rat had returned. He stood in the hallway, dripping wet, his clothes the same, they were the only clothes that his father had ever given him.
He blinked at the offensive slice of air that just a moment ago had thrown him back against the wall. Strange he thought working those two large teeth against that lip. Slowly he reached out a shaking hand, his rat like ears, which had been hidden in his mop of dirty blonde hair stretched out to the side some as his trembling digits stretched and touched the air there again.
For a moment, he had thought, maybe it was a figment of his imagination. After all, Master had never told him that the air could attack you, but then again, his master, his father, had never told him much. Then his small-clawed fingers touched the air and it sparked to life, it hurt.
A rat like squeak came from the boy and he scampered back against the doors opposite, holding his sore hand tight in the other. He looked behind him as he came in loud contact with the door across the hall, suddenly very grateful that they never give away the room across the hall when a member of the House of the Moon is staying here, because often times, when Sesshomaru-sama didn't wish to dirty his sleeping rooms with something vile and uncouth, he would take the creature to the room across the hall.
That was a smell that Rikuo had been trained to scent out, his master said that he had to learn it so that he knew when not to interrupt those within the rooms walls. The scent, he thought clicking his teeth together, they were so long that it caused him pain now, was one that often reminded him of the kitchen. It was a thick and strong scent, not smelling at all like the cinnamon that the cook used, but every bit as over powering as it.
It was a scent like… well… like that… he thought as he sniffed the air. The heavy musky and overpowering scent seemed to saturate the hallway. His large black eyes seemed to get impossibly larger as he sat there staring at the door. Oh, that was why! Now he understood and he slipped to his feet, he should assume, having much experience in dealing with tenants that were… doing this… that his mistress wouldn't like it much if she were interrupted while… doing this…
The little rat hanyou pulled himself to his feet, shaking off his mild injuries at the hand of the strange attacking air and headed down the hallway. There were only these two rooms on this floor, and only one set of stairs to get them there. The little rat plopped himself down at the top of the stairs and waited silently for them to finish so that he may show his mistress that he had done as she asked. He had taken a bath.
That had been scary. He wasn't sure that it was ever something that he ever wanted to do again. There was one bathhouse connected to the inn, and the two rooms behind him each had their own tubs within them. Rikuo had gone to the bathhouse… it was full of youkai, and they did not want him in the tubs with them. They said mean things and threatened to kill him.
"The lady of the House of the Moon ordered Rikuo to come and to bathe." The scared rat had said.
"Rrreally." He had nearly crawled out of his own skin when he had seen Asyanya, the Neko laying on the edge of the pool, her long claws circling the water as her tail flickered behind her. She was one of Lord Sesshomaru's favorite consorts here.
Most people couldn't stop talking about how beautiful she was, her large white ears standing off of her head and her white fluffy tail that danced behind her were only two of the aspects she was known for. She was most known for the way she could make a man scream, but that was something that Rikuo knew nothing about at all, or why a man, who was supposed to be strong, would want to scream. It was lost on him. "That is funny because… I was surrrre that therrre was no lady to the House of the Moon. That adventurrrous cad Sesshomarrru wouldn't settle."
"But he did!" Rikuo had called out. He hadn't really been, nor was he now, sure of where that strength had come from. "Her guard announced her as Lady Kagome of the House of the Moon!"
Her pretty white ears had come up through her snow-white hair, red eyes watching the rat intently. "Interrresting." She said as she came to her feet, he sleek figure rapped in nothing, but that didn't bother Rikuo, he froze simply because he was a rat in the sights of a stalking cat. She stalked over to him and then started past him, her foot coming back and kicking him, unceremoniously into the water. "Well, if this is trrrue, you worrrthless hanyou, you should take yourrr bath." She hissed at him before vanishing.
No sooner had he hit the water than had the rest of the youkai gotten out. Saying something about not being willing to bathe with something as crass as a hanyou.
And so ended adventures in bathing.
Sesshomaru sat and watched her sleep. She had been exhausted. He had been exhausted, but he could not afford to sleep right now, he was himself again, and he had things to tend to. She had long since rolled over, curling her slender body around one of a million silk covered pillows that had long since been so saturated by his scent that they would never smell of anything else.
As he slipped from the sheets, washing in the basin, because the bath water needed to be changed before he would go into it again, he once more lost himself debating the things that had happened. Now that he was himself again, he was once more asking himself what he had been thinking, but then thinking on it hard, and then glancing over his bare shoulder at her, he didn't regret it, only wondered what thoughts had brought him to this point.
Thinking about the promises he had made to her, he had never promised anything, even his first time, he never promised the woman anything, but this time he had. It had not been a promise in passion, he could have left her and found the albino neko if he had just wanted to rut, but he didn't, he had meant the words he had said.
He did not regret that he felt it, he didn't even regret having voiced it, but he didn't understand where the sudden need to do so had come from. It was more than likely her blood from his injecting the venom into her body.
Regardless, he had many things going through his head as he finally tore his eyes off of his sleeping mate and dressed in Maru's garb. He braided his hair and adhered the blade into it, lastly slipping the pendent around his neck and watching the mirror as he melted into the visage of another man.
No, he did not look like just any man, slender fingers touched the mirror and he sighed, he had become the man he had wished he had been. He looked like his mother, only a member of her clan. Had he been born there, he would have been free to feel, but he had not, he had been born to InuTaisho and his destiny had been carved.
"No need to debate it now." His now velveteen voice crooned softly as he turned from the mirror. He was on a mission; he was curious about something and he wanted to know the truth about it. So, he slipped from the bedchamber and closed the doors, making sure that Kyo's wards were still in place so that nothing inside of that room could be eavesdropped on, even without the barrier. They were there and he turned, walking to the main door of the room and pulling it open. He was not surprised when the little rat, who had been leaning against the outside of the door now that the barrier had gone down, fell into the room, scampering, trembling to his feet.
"Boy, here, now." He growled softly, the rat hanyou obeyed and skittered into the room, Sesshomaru, or Maru, closed the door. Standing not more than a few feet away, the little rat, dressed in gray rags stared up at him, his large black eyes wide, his lip and nose trembling, little clawed hands fumbling nervously with his long tail. Sesshomaru thought, staring down at him, an attempt to figure out, what did she really see in him?
Sure, she had said that he could be useful, and even given a million reasons why, but this hanyou, why did it have to be this one? He could not see it.
The rat had not moved at all, simply staring at him, like caught in a cat's gaze, or a hawk's. He thought for a moment, trying not to grin, of Kyo and what he would have done with a hanyou like this one. He most likely would have eaten it. He's small, he thought stepping in closer to him, weak, he crossed his arms over his chest, those blue eyes focusing on the little beast standing there scared to death, jittery…
Sesshomaru knelt down closer to him, maybe he needed to be on Kagome's height level to fully understand, but that was too close and the scent wafted into his face and he smells bad. What does she see in him? He knelt there, still staring at the little rat, his eyes fixed on him, he looked, comforting enough, as if he were about to piss himself. Andto top it all off… he's a hanyou!
Kagome traveled with InuYasha forever thought, a hanyou would not bother her, but a rat hanyou is a bit less predictable or controllable than an Inu Hanyou.
Kagome, what are you getting us into?
He finally thought standing again.
"Rikuo is clean." Rikuo said finding his little tongue at last. Sesshomaru cast his eyes from Rikuo now, a startling image of Rin pulling herself from the stream informing Jakken, who had just called her a filthy human, that Rin was indeed clean. He sighed and came back to reality; reality was that this little rat hanyou was not Rin.
"That is a matter of opinion." Sesshomaru answered. Rikuo scowled slightly.
"Rikuo is clean!" He said again.
"Did you use water?" Sesshomaru said, his fingers coming under his nose, wishing he was still his pomp and arrogant self so that he would have thought to perfume them.
"Yes." He said softly.
"And soap?" He asked.
"Why would Rikuo do that?" The rat asked. "You eat soap…"
"What?" Sesshomaru asked slightly aghast.
"Soap. The water, with the meat in it…" He said.
"That is soup." Sesshomaru answered rolling his eyes away from the offensive creature.
"Rikuo used water." He said, reaffirming grounds they had already covered.
"I have something to show you Rikuo, and for this, you have to be as loyal to Lady Kagome as you say that you are." Maru said, still he wasn't sure that he was doing the right thing.
He sighed and turned back to the small rat, whose wide eyes still stared at him, unblinking. He seemed to be thinking for a moment, or maybe he didn't realize that Sesshomaru had wanted an answer. Now it seemed to dawn on him as he shook his head yes violently enough that his small brown ears fell out from under his hair.
"You can not tell a soul about this, not even Lady Kagome."
He nodded a little slower this time.
"Knowing will not make Kagome happy." Sesshomaru said. This had turned from a moment of trust to a test. He knew that he was loyal enough to Kagome to not tell someone else what he had seen here, but was he loyal enough to keep it from Kagome. Even if it would make her unhappy to know? Sesshomaru nodded now, he turned away from the boy and pulled the pendant off, turning back to face him.
"Se…Sess…Sesshomaru-sama!" The boy sputtered softly, realizing it seemed the complete and utter horror, that he, a rat hanyou, a dirty rat hanyou had clung unceremoniously to the leg of Lord Sesshomaru. Who everyone knew hated hanyou! He sat there staring at him, shaking for a few moments before collapsing and kowtowing to the floor.
"Get up boy." Sesshomaru said coldly. "Do not do that again when you see me." The boy nodded vigorously. "It would give away my disguise." Again the vigorous nodding. "Go and draw Lady Kagome her bath, she will need it and it would please her." Sesshomaru said, his eyes not yet focusing on the creature.
"Really!" He gasped. "Rikuo do…" And the little rat was gone, scampering into one of the wall spaces and vanishing leaving a clear trail of vile odor that even a human could follow.
Sesshomaru moved into the bedchamber, finding one of the incense pots and bringing it out he would light it to cleanse the room of the rats' taint. He took the single small black downy feather from his sleeve and walked out onto the porch.
"Come to me Kyo." He whispered into the breeze, blowing softly onto the black feather to send it flying home to its master. Kyo would be there within the hour; his speed by air was unrivaled. He moved back inside, sitting quietly, watching Kagome sleep. He could hear the hanyou's claws scrapping the floor as he ran too and from the room with the new buckets of water.
Sesshomaru himself had almost dozed off when the sudden animalistic squeal from the rat jarred him to consciousness.
Kyo had received the message from his Lord, his own black feather appearing before him, Sesshomaru's words traveling to him with it. He simply took to his wings. He had to come quickly before Sesshomaru faltered, his fatigue was clearly heard, even in the wind driven voice. Either he had been fighting or… well… something else, or as his wings carried him across the village and out into the night sky, he hoped for something else.
"All right Byyako, let's fly." He said softly as the wind whipped under his wings and his speed nearly tripled making what would be an all night trip become reduced to at the most, an hour. Kyo enjoyed the journey, almost wishing that his arrival was not so anticipated, he might have taken the long route, after dealing with the armies for days on end, the silence of the air was nice, the feel of the wind under his wings and ruffling through his feathers was relaxing.
But as Shidi's mouth came into view he knew that such things were done. He landed near the mouth of the cavern, his black wings folding in behind him; he hated this place, crass. Well most of it at least, and unfortunately you couldn't fly inside of the cave, no proper wind, and it would attract too much attention to make wind of his own. So instead he walked.
He knew the way to the inn well enough; he didn't need to even look up at the city to know his way there. Once he arrived at the inn, he moved inside, the first thing that he noticed was that the ugly, vile rat wasn't present, a fact, that while he didn't mind not having to deal with the sniveling vermin, he thought was odd.
He did so hope the old rat was not dead, he himself had called dibs on killing the rat when the time came that he was no longer useful. He paid no mind to those that were in the room, his eyes only once glancing over the contents of the lobby, only one familiar face, but she did not speak to him, and he not to her. The cat would keep her distance because she was wise.
Kyo moved to the stairs, starting up them when he was passed by the small rat hanyou he had seen from time to time.
"Mistress Kagome is sleeping." He said to the bird. Kyo canted his head, stopping in his tracks, debating for a moment if it was that he had ever heard the small vermin speak before. He decided that he hadn't and started up the stairs again. "Dona Kyo, Mistress Kagome is sleeping." He said again.
Kyo stopped, his large wings flexing, causing the rat to start to shake immediately as soon as his orange eyes landed on him. For Kyo the rat was little more than a midnight snack, it certainly did have some gall addressing him by name and title. But then the thought came, his head canting slightly, a bird like trill coming from him.
"Mistress…?" Kyo asked.
"… Kagome is sleeping." The rat finished for him. Kyo hissed slightly. He wasn't stupid, and certainly wouldn't tolerate being treated as such by a lowly rat hanyou. The rat squeaked and started to run in the direction that he was heading when her first encountered Kyo. Kyo started up the stairs again when he heard the rat stop, but Kyo paid it no mind until it ran up between his feet. Bold.
"Maru! Maru! Maru! Maru-sama!" The rat squeaked. Now, now, Kyo certainly couldn't abide this creature disturbing his lord, and thusly a clawed hand flashed out, lifting the rat up by the tail so that he dangled before his face. "MARU-SAMAAAA!"
"Let. It. Go." The voice came as no less than an utter demand as Kyo glanced up at the source of the velvety voice to see Maru standing at the end of the hall, a single sai in hand. Kyo had to play the part, while he knew that Sesshomaru would have no less that him to obey, Maru himself deserved no such respect.
"And if I refuse." The bird chattered at him, his beak clicking threateningly at the shaking rat in his talons.
"Lady Kagome would have you plucked and served for her dinner." Maru said, his eyes emotionless, the second sai now being drawn. Sesshomaru had learned the part well, but Kyo was never one to simply give in.
"Somehow I doubt that." Kyo said, a grin twisting onto his beak.
"Do you? Would you care to test such a theory Dona Kyo, I don't think that you should." Maru said. Kyo decided he had taken it far enough and simply released the rat from that height; the rat hit his hands and feet on the ground and bolted for Maru, its stinky little figure clinging to his leg. Kyo alone saw the look of complete disgust wash over his face.
This amused him enough to walk by Maru without any further argument.
Sesshomaru closed the doors behind them and saw Kyo putting up a few extra guards. He turned back and pulled the pendent from his neck. Looking at Kyo with a grin.
"You are wretched." He laughed, referring of course to the way Kyo had treated him.
"No worse to you than I ever was to your guards. I have to keep them on their toes." Kyo chuckled. "Sake?"
"Please." Sesshomaru said softly as Kyo drew the bottle from inside his satchel. He poured it into two small ceramic cups and handed one to Sesshomaru. Both of them grinned and raised the cups slightly before taking down the sake like one would a shot of Jack Daniels. The burn felt good as it tore down Sesshomaru's throat and then spread gently through his stomach.
"Now Sesshomaru-sama." Kyo said sitting in the largest chair in the room, one that had actually been put here for him. Sesshomaru himself had never been seated in that chair. "You seem much more together."
"Yes." Sesshomaru answered, memories of the night and day's activities flowed through his mind causing a slight grin to tug at the corners of his normally motionless mouth.
"This is good. Is it for the reason that I think, or have you called me here on the seventh day to kill the wench." Kyo asked. Before he could stop it a low rumbling growl came from Sesshomaru's throat, erupting in a deeper and more vicious one that he had ever tossed in Kyo's direction.
Though he expected to get struck for it, Kyo just laughed.
"Ah! Well than, that causes for another drink, because This Kyo never thought he would live to see the day that his Sesshomaru-sama would take a mate!" He laughed pouring them each another sake. Sesshomaru realized that yet another skillful trap had been laid, and again he had fallen into it, taking the cup in his hands he would raise it to Kyo. "What shall we drink too?"
"InuTaisho." Sesshomaru said smiling slightly. "And to understanding."
Sesshomaru knew that he saw a flash of emotion trail across the old bird's eyes. His own felt as if they would fill, but instead he forced the tears away. They tapped glasses and tossed back the sake.
"I saw him." Sesshomaru said, "When I was sealed."
"Of course you did. Did you believe that he had left you?" Kyo said gently, he leaned forward a tri clawed digit resting against Sesshomaru's leg. "He might have died Sesshomaru, but your ancestors are always with you, he would not abandon that for any human, or hanyou, or youkai."
Sesshomaru simply nodded. He didn't have any words that he could use to express to Kyo the understanding and realization that last night's events had brought about for him, it was like an entirely new man had surfaced and he wasn't sure what to do with him.
"Well, while this is the best news this old bird has had in a while." Kyo said smiling and sitting back. "What is it that you needed Lord Sesshomaru?"
"I need for you to go and prepare Setsujin." He said softly. "Kagome and I will be bringing back many hanyou to join the fight."
"What?" Kyo said, canting his head in a bird like way that almost made Sesshomaru laugh.
"We need them Kyo." He said sighing, as if defeated, this had not been an easy choice for the noble Lord, he had taken a lot of thought on this. Toiled over it for hours the night before while Kagome slept soundly. "We have maybe a hundred human demon hunters, and less than two hundred youkai forces left." He sighed. "No more youkai are going to go against Rimiku. Including the Eastern Lands we have maybe three hundred. It won't be enough to take down the armies that you and I trained Kyo."
The bird nodded solemnly as if this had too been on his mind.
"But hanyou milord?"
"Yes." He said nodding. "InuYasha, as much as I hate to say it, showed the strength of spirit that a fighting hanyou can have. And all it took for that was time, and Kagome's understanding. If we were to… gain the trust of the hanyou… somehow… we could harness that energy."
"They fall easier than our forces do." Kyo said.
"Yes, but they outnumber ours three to one." He said. "Especially in these times."
"True. It shall be done Sesshomaru-sama." Kyo said nodding. "Before I go, I want you to rest."
"No, you go, and I will rest. I will place the guards up as soon as you go, and go to sleep, I will need you by Kagome's side, I fear that Shidi is becoming a place of much unrest and that much of it will soon be aimed at Kagome. I also want you, to… spread the word that it was Kagome who killed me." He said.
"But Sesshomaru-sama!" He said coming to his feet. "That will cause only more problems for your mate!"
"No. A human with the strength to kill Sesshomaru." Sesshomaru said, he rose and placed a hand on Kyo's arm. "They will think twice before they try to take her on. What human has the power to kill a TaiYoukai?"
"You are right of course Sesshomaru. But guard her well." Kyo said gently.
"I will. You go now, I will sleep." Sesshomaru moved over and took down the guards and allowed Kyo to leave before going into the room. Still dressed as Maru he leaned against the bedroom door and slid down it, arms crossed over his knees, he would sleep there, so that none could enter the room without his knowing. He let his youki travel like mist over the floor of the room, leaving the green smoke hanging in the air, but not enough of it to disturb or harm Kagome, if any should disturb that green mist, it would wake him instantly. Only then, did he allow himself to finally fall asleep.
She had been watching him for almost an hour now, just watching him sleep. She thought for sure that her eyes on him would wake him, but it hadn't, he must've been tired. She heard movement out in the main room and thought that it might be Rikuo running around.
She sighed deeply, finally stepping off the edge of the bed into the green mist that she knew would rouse him. His eyes shot open as soon as her foot touched the floor and he focused on her, a slight smile taking those lips.
"Morning." She said smiling at him. "Sleep well?"
"As good as can be expected." He said. He pulled himself to his feet and moved aside. "I had Rikuo fill your bath so you can wash." Sesshomaru said softly. "And you might want to do something about him."
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"He said that he took a bath, but he still smells horrendous." Sesshomaru answered softly.
"Alright, I will give him a bath when I am done, could you go and get clothes for him?" She asked smiling at him. Sesshomaru nodded; stepping forward he took her face into his clawed hands his thumbnail running softly over her cheek.
She was relieved, from the way he had just been talking to her; it was like nothing had happened last night, and the idea that he would dismiss such a thing was real in her mind and very scary. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, closing her eyes and forcing herself to remember that this red haired inu was in fact Sesshomaru.
She sighed deeply and smiled at him, her eyes sparkling. "I am so sore."
"A hot bath will help Kagome." He said softly, pressing his lips against the hollow of her neck, she rolled her head to the side a little and allowed him to do it.
"I know." She answered, sighing again. "But for now love, I am so needing of a bath!"
"Alright." Sesshomaru relinquished his hold on her and slipped out of the room to get something suitable for the rat boy to wear.
"But Mistress! Rikuo did. Rikuo promises Rikuo did!" He had hated the bath in the bathhouse. When he got out and put his clothes on they had stuck to him, and he had been uncomfortable for him to wear.
And, he could smell them… the water made his clothes stinky! This was the logical explanation of course because he couldn't smell them before he took a bath!
"Rikuo…" Kagome said patiently watching the shaking heap of rat. "Trust me, when we are done nothing will be stinky."
"Rikuo trusts!" He whimpered, rubbing his little hands over his face and twisting his whiskers in his fingers. "Rikuo does not like water."
"You will." She said softly. She was patient with Rikuo, even Rikuo thought she was going to hit him, father had always smacked him when he told him no. But she didn't, she simply sat next to the tub, running her fingers through the water she had just gotten out of. He needed a reason not to take a bath!
"Rikuo will make Mistress' tub yucky." He said, his wide black eyes looking up at her.
"I have already bathed. It can be cleaned." She said softly, a smile creeping onto her lips.
"Maru!" He said. Yes, that was it. "Maru won't want yucky tub."
"Maru can go to the bath house." She said softly. He was running out of excuses, so instead he just sighed defeated and whimpered. "Come on now Rikuo, in you go."
Numbly he slipped out of his big shirt and let it fall down next to him, being naked didn't bother him really, at least it didn't stink any more, the stink was on the shirt. He padded softly over to the tub and looked once more imploringly at Kagome as if a youngster sentenced to death row. She smiled at him, which made him feel a little better.
"Does clean Rikuo make Mistress happy?" He asked, he had to know, if she just wanted it, and it wouldn't make her happy, he might try running away, because he only wanted her to be happy… even if it meant… another bath.
"Yes." She answered nodding to back up her choice. Damn he thought softly and chattered is sore overgrown teeth together. His hand resting on the edge of the tub, he pulled himself over the edge, the water was hotter than it was in the bathhouse. He squeaked and jumped out of it. "Slowly Rikuo, Maru, can I have my bag?"
He nodded to her, slowly working himself into the water. This was what he lugged water around for all day, a nice hot bath… what was so nice about it. It stung the lashes on his back, that wasn't nice it hurt! He looked over a little nervous when Maru walked into the room, he bit his lip now, he should tell his mistress what Maru told him… he should! She wouldn't be happy if she didn't know, but he said she wouldn't be happy if he told any one. He glanced over to Kagome and sighed…
"Mistress?" He said softly. She turned to look at him, his little hand touching her cheek where a tear was falling. "Rikuo is sorry."
"Why are you sorry sweetie?" She asked gently.
"Because Rikuo made mistress cry." He answered. He didn't know if he had, but Maru hadn't done anything, so it must've been Rikuo's fault. Or so the rat's logic went.
"No, you didn't. It is all right. Now wash up and I will. Be right back." She said standing and walking to Maru before turning back to him. "Stay in the tub. I'll be right back."
"Did you see him?" She asked Sesshomaru closing the door behind her.
"Yes." He said slightly confused.
"He looks horrible." She exclaimed as she walked past him, taking her bag from him and pulling out the first aid kit from it. "He looks like he was lashed."
"He probably has been caned." Sesshomaru answered thoughtfully.
"Caned!" Kagome cried out.
"What are you so worked up about?" Sesshomaru answered. What did he mean what was she so worked up about, obviously she was upset because she just found this poor little hanyou who was being caned by his father that treated him more like a slave than a son! "Caning is common punishment."
"That is ridiculous, there is no excuse for hitting a child with a cane!" Kagome gasped. She was astonished with Sesshomaru. "Would you have caned Rin?"
"If she were my child, I should say so." Sesshomaru responded.
"You are wretched!" She growled.
"He is bleeding again, why don't you go and tend to him." Sesshomaru snapped at her. She glared at him, turned on her heal and walked into the other room. How dare he? Who did he think he was? How could he allow such abuse in his presence? It was times like these when she remembered why she had hated him, and she had hated him once.
Rikuo was sitting in the tub as if broken. He seemed to be very unhappy.
"Here sweets, let me help you." She said softly, she pulled off the haori she was wearing, leaving her only in the undershirt and walked over, kneeling next to the tub. She took some of her herb scented shampoo and put it in her hands. "This should be relaxing."
She started to massage it into his scalp and hair. There were a few points where he hissed, he had been without bathing so long that he had, just a couple of scabbed over wounds on his scalp. She started down the back of his head when suddenly he jerked away and shook his head.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Soup in Rikuo's ear." The boy said sticking a little finger into a large ear that she hadn't noticed before now.
"Soup?" She asked. "Oh! You mean soap!"
He nodded, chittering slightly to himself. She smiled and finished washing him up. She used her healing abilities to fix the wounds on his back and then brushed out his hair. Unfortunately he didn't have youkai hair, and it looked as if the hanyou's hair had never been brushed once, if a day in his life. She used considerable amounts of conditioner and ended up having to cut a lot of the dreaded snarls out of his hair.
The poor little rat was in tears by the time she finished with his hair, too much pulling and working at it, it just had annoyed him to no end. She finally pulled a large towel from the rack and wrapped the boy up in it. She carried him out, like she used to do to Sota when he was little and settled him on her lap, rocking with him and humming until he fell asleep.
Holding him while he was sleeping, grinding his own teeth together, made her miss home and how she used to sleep with Sota on her lap when watching T.V. or when mother was working. It made her miss her mother, and how she used to come in and take Sota, putting the boy to bed before curling Kagome up in her lap until she fell asleep.
She remembered how it was, that even though she missed her father, they never really suffered for it. She suffered horribly at the thought of being without him, and yet, her mother made every time they had together special. She wondered, running her fingers through the rat's hair, tickling over his large ears, if her father would have understood what had happened to her, and how it was that it all came to be.
Would he have liked InuYasha, or would he have liked Sesshomaru?
"Kagome-sama." The velvety voice she had come to acquaint with the safety that Maru provided would sound. "I brought the boy's clothes."
She felt the little rat start to life in her lap and looked down, he was staring intently at Sesshomaru.
"Thank you Maru." She said softly. She took the clothes and then looked to Rikuo. "Here, let us to the bath chamber…" She said seeing the horror wash over his face. "…no no no, not to bathe, to dress. Come now."
She said standing and walking, and Rikuo of course, complied.
Sesshomaru had set up a fitting for Kagome with the tailor, Mandrigoro; he was a finicky old kitsune with a mouth that tended to run on it's own, without any intervention from his brain or common since. Sesshomaru sighed gently watching Kagome walking away with the rat boy. She would indeed make a good mother some day, a thought, that, without his mental consent brought a smile to his pale lips.
He had of course, been completely aghast when he walked in and she was sitting in Kyo's large chair, her feet tucked up under her and the little rat sleeping in her lap. It was, in a word, improper for the mistress to be codling a slave in such a manner. But, he reminded himself, she wasn't your typical mistress, and she certainly didn't consider the little rat a slave as much as a wayward child that she had to tend to.
"There, he looks good." She said smiling. The little rat wore a black haori that was trimmed with gold and black hakuma. "We will have to have him fitted after me, the hole for his tail is wrong."
Sesshomaru nodded. Mandrigoro wouldn't have it, he would have the child removed in pieces from his shop, but he was sure that he would listen to what Kagome said. Tentatively, and then, by the morning, everyone who went to his shop would know that she was spoiling her little rat hanyou that called her mistress. All of this in mind, he simply nodded to her and turned, walking toward the door.
"Mandrigoro is expecting you." Sesshomaru said gently.
"Of course he is." She said smiling before kneeling before Rikuo. "Rikuo, I want you to do something very important for me."
"Anything!" He squeaked, his nose twitching with excitement.
"First, take this." She said, she handed him what appeared to be a salt lick. "I use it to keep from getting dehydrated when traveling, but for you, it will be good to trim your teeth back."
His eyes turned wide, reminded Sesshomaru suddenly of the day that he had asked Rin what happened to her. The way she had just lit up, like that one small action was enough to make the girl's entire life well lived. He guarded a smile and turned his eyes from them. The little rat clasped the salt lick in his hands and started to chew on it immediately. His teeth undoubtedly hurt, he had kept a rat demon in his dungeon once for almost six months, and it had died because its teeth grew so long that they had bored through his own skull.
"Second, I want you to gather as many hanyou as you can." The boy nodded. "Tell them to meet you someplace." He nodded again. "Then take myself and Maru to meet them." The boy's eyes went wide and he canted his head. "We are going to offer them a job." She said seeing the boy's concern, which seemed only to fall upon Maru, as if his mistress could not possibly do any such wrong as to setup the Hanyou for the fall, maybe someday he and the rat needed to discourse on how his mistress killed her lord Sesshomaru… but then again, that was the past, it didn't matter now, the boy needn't ever know what had happened that faithful night.
Within moments the boy was gone.
"You are too kind to him." Sesshomaru said gently.
"Oh? I don't think so." Kagome replied. "He is a child, he deserves to be pampered." She smiled gently at him. Sesshomaru sighed irritably and looked hard at her.
"He is a servant."
"He is a child!" She growled at him, her eyes narrowing.
"All I am saying is that you have to be careful of the way people perceive you. You don't want them to think you are some deranged human that takes young hanyou to your bed, because that is the way they will perceive such affections." He said.
"And that is why I have you." She said to him, turning from him and snapping open her fan.
"Hmm?" He said, a little confused.
"To defend my honor Maru," She hissed. "Now we go." With that she wisped out of the room and he followed. He was going to beat her… no, he wouldn't, but hell, it sounded good in his own mind.
The new Mistress of the West, the fox demon thought. This was something else; she had taken Sesshomaru as a mate and killed him moments after it was done! She must be part Oni Youkai he thought, yes, a Black Widow no doubt. He had always thought that Lord Sesshomaru was more intelligent than to fall for a spider like that! It was well known that no female spider should be trusted unless you had a death wish. Yes that must be it. So what should he be expecting?
Something with numerous legs maybe? No no, she never would have fooled Lord Sesshomaru if she had looked like a spider. He had a taste for pure beauty, yes, that was what he liked so much about Asyanya, the albino neko was her pure beauty, even though there was nothing pure about her, she was a prostitute after all, but she was so good at making people forget that.
"Sir." A voice called from the door. Could it be? Could it be her? He was so eager to meet this woman. His nose sniffed but it was just a human.
"Out!" He called shrilly from the back room. "Out! Out! Out! I do not fit the likes of a human." He said as he came around the corner, he was about to eat her for being in his shop when he stopped dead. What was this? This human was wearing the colors of the House of the Moon? A human? These were not servants' clothes, and the one that claimed he was the personal attendant of the Lady of the West was with her.
"What… What is the meaning of this!" Mandrigoro exclaimed, he felt the fine hairs of his white tipped red tail start to bristle. "You said you would bring me the Lady of the West and instead you bring me a Human Wench? Out! Both of you! Get out!"
"Bite your tongue Tailor." The woman uttered, she snapped her fan open and placed it before her face, flicking it softly. Mandrigoro did indeed do just that. Where had she gotten that fan! He knew that fan well; it was the bright red fan with the House of the Moon's blossom on it that had been made for Lady Saiuri.
Could it truly be that this human had mated and killed the Great Taiyoukai Sesshomaru? A low growl came from the member of the Lotus Clan that called himself Maru, but the old fox was sure that he knew all of those from the House of the Lotus and none of them were named as such. For now he did not question. "This Kagome is indeed the Lady of the West and Mistress to the House of the Moon. Now, should you continue in this way the House of the Moon might just have to take its business elsewhere."
Mandrigoro stopped again his line of thoughts… that wasn't good. He wouldn't like that much would he? The House of the Moon made him an unfathomable amount of money. He should reconsider fitting this woman, but he by no means had to enjoy it. So it was said that she held the heir, he needed to add extra fabric to her clothing than, and what was she wearing! That was all wrong, if she were a pregnant lady of the House, she should be home, not here, she should be resting and dressed in loose fitting kimono and living her life in hot baths!
"Well than, of course I apologize." He said, a slight sneer touching his upper lip, he felt it raise slightly in distain and immediately put a cap on it, holding the lip down. The woman glared at him, he knew she had seen it, but what did she expect she was human. Vile, crass and filthy and in his shop. He took his red tail into his claws, combing it with his long nails before walking over to her, he stalked around her, looking her over. "No, no no no! This will not do at all!" He hissed softly. She jumped as if his sudden verbalization had caught him off guard and shocked her.
"What exactly will not do?" she asked haughtily.
"This!" He said, his slender hands, tipped in long claws waved at the air aimlessly. "What are you wearing!" He hissed some. "Certainly you can't be wanting of the attention such garments bring to you? No, no, you would think a fool made such attire."
He stalked off into the back room.
"It is a travesty!" He continued from there. He was speaking loudly, but honestly didn't care if she heard him or not, it was more like he were talking to the ghosts of several ancestors past! "To put the emblem and colors of the noble House of the Moon on such an atrocious article of clothing!" He walked out to see her looking at her outfit.
"What is wrong with this?" She asked.
"Did you make it yourself?" He snapped, crossing his arms over his slender chest.
"Well no… a friend made…" She started.
"Human made! No wonder." And with that he turned back into the back room. Human made! What gall this girl had, he couldn't believe the dishonor she was doing her mate's house wearing something as roughly made as that. He grabbed his ribbon, which he finally found, in the last place he would have looked for it, in the drawer that it was supposed to be in!
"What is wrong with human made clothing?" She asked. He had offended her. Hmm he should apologize for that, but it was just such a stupid question.
"Absolutely nothing milady…" He said gently, suddenly feeling as if he were talking to a child. "That is of course if you have no sense of fashion or want for beauty at all. Humans are incapable of such understanding of colors and seams in order to make something worthy of bearing the name of the House of the Moon or its emblems upon it!"
"Your running commentary on humans is starting to grind at my nerves." The woman said. "I am Lady Miko Kagome of the House of the Moon and I will be treated with the due respect of my title."
"A title earned in blood!" The tailor hissed. Instantly he regretted the words. Before he had even finished forming them his hands were coming to his mouth. The guard flashed forward, a sai in hand, Mandrigoro moved back and out of his way with the agility of a fox, landing gently and silently upon his cutting counter.
"Kill him!" The Lady cried out. The tears pouring down her face. "Maru! How dare he! Kill him now!"
"Please! Let us not be too harsh!" The fox cried out, he dodged the dog skillfully once more, he thanked his stars that her guard was not a neko, which might have the speed to contend with him. "I meant no harm, please milady, not another word, not another word!" She simply stood watching him. He hissed as the dog tipped one of his racks of clothing down and dodged behind another one.
"Enough!" Kagome cried out, Maru stopped and Mandrigoro breathed a sigh of relief. "This is your last chance, guard your tongue fox, or Maru will remove it."
"My apologies, I simply mourn for the loss of the great Sesshomaru." Mandrigoro stammered. "I forgot myself for a moment."
"Let's see it does not happen again. Because we both know you only mourn his purse!" She commanded starkly.
He moved about now. Taking her measurements, and cutting with close care of her temper again when he didn't ask to touch her before taking her lengths. Surely, she couldn't expect him to bow down before her! She was a human, the mere fact that she still stood in his walls she should be thankful for! He discussed with her several different methods with which she might change the look of it, she looked like a warrior, not a House Lady.
"No!" She said finally. "I want a Haori, I want a Hakuma, I want an overskirt, I want the two obi's! I am not spending the next nine months bare foot and pregnant! I am going to fix what my mate screwed up!"
He thought that he saw Maru flinch when she said those words. Curiouser and curiouser.
"Certainly you can not think that a human such as yourself could rule the lands better than his Lord Sesshomaru?" He gasped. She was atrocious! She made him ill just having her there! How dare she presume any such thing?
"Certainly I can't expect that a fox such as yourself could understand what I plan." She said.
"I understand that you human are quite insane!" He hissed. Forgetting himself? No, but he couldn't abide such talk! That a human would be better than a youkai… never!
"I understand now." She said. He narrowed his eyes at her.
"Somehow I doubt that human." He growled.
"I do! You are compensating for a diminutive phallus through demeaning lexicology!" She sputtered out. At first he didn't understand what she had said… it was only then that he got it.
"You…" He growled.
"I suggest that you detour from this line of questioning kitsune or I will have to order your imminent demise. Stop telling This Kagome how to be the Lady of the House of the Moon, and start doing your job. Make my clothing!" She growled. This time the fox knew he had crossed the line. He nodded softly, taking her measurements and vanishing into the back. He was too afraid to argue when she ordered fittings for the creature she called Maru, that had all of the same fitting sizes as Lord Sesshomaru as well… curiouser and curiouser still.
And even when she ordered he make clothing for the crass little rat hanyou that joined her later he still opted to remain silent.
"Mistress Kagome." The large eagle said walking into Mandrigoro's Shoppe. Kagome nearly laughed outright when the look of horrific reorganization came over the kitsune's face. "I hope this old fox isn't giving you too much trouble."
"No." She said softly, "No more than could be expected from the likes of him." She said, her fan up between her and the kitsune. "You will have the attire ready shortly and sent to my rooms as soon as it is." She ordered walking out. She was ready to kill the fox, or have him killed, but Sesshomaru confided in her that he liked the tailor, though for the life of her she couldn't understand why.
Well, she supposed, he most likely isn't as crass to him! She huffed some and swept past Kyo and over to where Rikuo was standing outside waiting for her. "Have you done as I asked?" She asked softly.
The little rat nodded his head emphatically, causing his hair to flop into his eyes and his ears to flop out from under his hair. She giggled, he was just so damned cute, and a smile spread ear to ear on his face when she smiled, as if it lit up his whole life that she would grace him with a smile. He reminded her too of little Rin, and she glanced at Sesshomaru over her shoulder. She wondered if he had noticed, no doubt he had.
"Good, now take me to them." She said softly. The little rat nodded again and started running off toward a bad section of town, he stopped about ten yards away and looked at them. She glanced again at Sesshomaru and was suddenly glad to have him and Kyo with her. She then straightened herself out and walked down to what was called the Pit Cage. She didn't understand why, but she followed anyway.
The rat lead them through several allies and back roads Kagome wouldn't have even known were there, and finally though a small hole in the wall.
"I will return to the hotel and check on things." Kyo said, acknowledging that he would not fit in the space. She nodded, a little less at ease with one less guard there. She looked over at Sesshomaru and nodded, opening her fan and holding it defensively, she slipped inside. Maru ducked in right behind her.
There were almost twenty young hanyou; the eldest seemed to be about eighteen, an Inu Hanyou, like InuYasha, his black ears folded back against his head, showing brightly against the bluish gray hair. He was dressed in gray and brown rags, and unlike InuYasha, he had a long black tail that flowed behind him, reminding her of a wolf's tail or a German Shepard's.
The youngest was a small neko hanyou that was seated in the Inu's lap. He was the Inu's opposite, gray ears standing through black hair, and a little gray tail banded in black at the end.
There were others, elemental hanyou, animal hanyou… it was mind-boggling.
"Rikuo couldn't get them all." Rikuo whispered.
"This isn't all of them?" Kagome whispered. "How many more…"
"Hundreds." The black-eared inu hanyou spoke. "All you have to do is go to the Shidi Pits. What is this Rat? A set up?" He growled, the little kitten stared up at Kagome with wide trusting eyes of a cat like lime green.
"Don't call him that!" Kagome snapped. Forgetting for a moment that hanyou calling each other by the derogatory names for hanyou might be like black people in America calling each other 'nigga'. The hanyou's light brown eyes cut across to rest on Kagome's chocolate orbs.
"N…no." Rikuo said, he puffed his chest up and stood in front of Kagome and Maru, who had just drawn his weapons. "N..no… she is… good." He chattered.
"She is." The little neko hanyou said.
"Hush Seto." The inu hanyou growled and the little kitten's ears fell.
"But she is!" He exclaimed.
"Who are you?" He asked her.
"I am the Lady Miko Kagome." She said. "Lady of the House…"
"You are Kagome!" He said standing, those black ears swiveling forward, his tail swooshing from side to side as if acting on it's own mind, which knowing dogs, it was. "The Kagome! InuYasha's Kagome?"
"Hai." She said, a little shocked that he knew her.
"But, you were, he said you… vanished… that you weren't coming back!" he gasped.
"You know InuYasha?" She was mind-boggled again. Her eyes wide staring at him, she hadn't met anyone thus far that had known him and liked him.
"Hell yah! He's the only reason I am still drawing breath! If not for him, I would still be fighting in the Pits as an owned dog! Not a free one!" He came forward, placing the kitten down and hugging her.
She was shocked; no one had done that since she started donning Sesshomaru's colors. "I can't believe I finally get to meet you!"
"Hush." She said when Maru growled, raising her hand to him in a promise to explain later. "Tell me, how did you know my friend?"
"Well, he came here a few months back, right before he died." The inu said, his black ears turning back against his head as he talked to her. "He attacked the Pits. Said that there was no way he would let human and youkai scum think that they could own the hanyou. He wind scarred the place and it pretty much fell apart.
After that, they needed men to work, gain money so they could rebuild. I told them I would fight any fight they wanted me too and all the money they could keep, but that before I fought a single one, I had to be set free. They did it. So, it is because of InuYasha that I am free. I am just sad I never got to thank him for it."
Kagome didn't look at him while he talked about InuYasha, she was going to cry, and didn't want anyone to see her. But she couldn't hide from them, instead she just watched as the little Neko that he called Seto and Rikuo ran off together.
"What is your name?" She asked.
"Aradi Genrou." He answered softly.
"Genrou?" She said smiling. "That is pretty."
"Are you ok?" He asked, stepping closer, then stopping when Maru growled at him.
"I will be fine, I just miss him horribly." She said smiling at Genrou. "I wanted to offer you all an opportunity. Once in a life time." She said softly, getting louder as she spoke.
"I mated to Lord Sesshomaru before his death." A nervous bustle came over the room. "I do not share his points of view children, please, listen to me…" But the mention of Sesshomaru's name had been enough to send the room into frenzy.
"SHUT UP!" Genrou growled and the place went instantly silent. "Shut up and listen to her!"
"I do not share his ideals when it comes to the hanyou, how could I, I traveled with InuYasha." She said. The rest of them settled and were looking at her again. "But now we face Rimiku, and the forces that were left to me by my mate are not enough to win back our home and we need your help."
"Sounds like you sing a good song mlady, but how can we trrrust that you will not betrrray us? How do we know that you won't use us as fodder?" An older neko hanyou piped up.
"We will be making a home at the House of the Moon, a place where any woman, human, hanyou or youkai can bring an unwanted child. Hanyou children are everywhere, and no one wants them, no one wants to raise them, and then the youkai use the fact that you have all be raised by the streets as an excuse to kill you. This will keep that from happening, to show the youkai that you can be useful members of society, to show them that you are no better and no worse than they themselves are!" Kagome said, spilling her heart to these hanyou, she could feel Sesshomaru's eyes on her back, she hadn't told him about this because she knew he would fight her if she did.
"Please, help me win my home back so I can make it your home too. Don't you want a home?"
"I do." Genrou said.
"Me too." Replied Seto, and slowly, one by one the hanyou started to agree with her. She did cry then, finally she felt as if she had done it, as though she had honestly done something that would make some form of difference, she glanced back at Maru and he grinned at her, and her heart soared, he wasn't angry at her for doing this. He smiled at her.
"All of you need to do this. Find as many Hanyou to go as you can and go to the small town about four days walk from here to the west. The name of the village is Kudrano and a woman named Sango runs it. There you will meet with the rest of the armies, they have been prepared for your arrival. Be safe and swift."
They agreed and all of them filed out, other than Rikuo, Seto and Genrou.
"Rik…" Genrou said. "Can you take Seto back to where you are staying?"
Rikuo looked to Kagome, he was sleeping in her rooms. She nodded, of course she would let that adorable kitten stay, and then they ran off together.
"Lady Kagome." Genrou said, stepping in closer to her. "If you really want to find more Hanyou, than you would have to go to the Pits when they open at sundown tonight."
"What are the Pits?" She asked him, she had been wondering it since he mentioned it earlier.
"Fighting rings. You'll see." Genrou said softly.
"We have to do some training milady." Maru said. "Lord Sesshomaru's dojo should be adequate for it."
"Is there a place there where Genrou could bath and change his clothing?" She asked softly. Maru nodded and she smiled. "Come Genrou, lets get you put together shall we?"
"Um, I guess." He muttered softly, and followed her loyally, his tail still wagging some, despite the fact he wore his ears down against his head.