"I really hate things with tentacles," Inuyasha eyed the storm drain, and its inhabitant, warily. "What is that, a kraken?"
Sesshomaru dropped to one knee and peered into the opening; they'd pried up a metal grate -- in the void below, black mist billowed and, occasionally, tentacles writhed into view.
"Hnnh." Sesshomaru's response indicated disgust more than a negative or affirmative response to Inuyasha's speculation.
"A very angry one, I'm guessing." Lacking an answer from his brother, Inuyasha replied to his own question. "It stinks of the sea; I'm betting it's none too happy to be in the sewer." He pulled Tessaiga -- deliberately not transforming it, because a beat up sword was arguably less obvious arm a bright and shiny one that was the size of a car bumper -- and reached down into the mist. His reach was just long enough that he was able to poke one of the tentacles with the tip of sword. The tentacle recoiled. A painfully loud screech made him pin his ears flat.
"And the point of that was?" Sesshomaru asked, acerbically. He stood back up.
Inuyasha squatted on his heels and shrugged. "I can smell Shippou. There is a connection between here and the hotel."
"Hnnh." Sesshomaru repeated.
"You think you could ..." Inuyasha made a clawing gesture with his hand.
"My poison claws would not be sufficient to incapacitate a demon of this size." Sesshomaru was silent, and perfectly still, for a moment. "Our best option may involve brute force."
"Well, I can do that," Inuyasha shrugged. Without further discussion he dropped through the opening, transformed Tessaiga, and started chopping at the tentacles. The kraken screamed in agony and rage and lashed out, flinging Inuyasha against the damp, slimy concrete walls of the drain with bruising force.
He recovered and ruthlessly hacked at the twitching, sucker-covered appendages, chopping bits and pieces off. The bigger sections twitched and thrashed. Inuyasha fought on, swearing under his breath, as he was covered in gore and slime and nasty foul-smelling water.
Five minutes later, the kraken was in pieces. "There." Inuyasha said, leaning on Tessaiga and catching his breath. "I thought that was going to be hard." He glanced up at Sesshomaru, who fastidiously picked his way around a quivering tentacle tip, walked past Inuyasha, and stopped at the base of a ladder leading up to a trap door. "You know, asshole, you could have helped."
"Why?"
Inuyasha bit back several profane responses to that. He settled on a reasonably polite, "Because I thought we were working together."
"Hnnnh." Sesshomaru gestured at the ladder. "After you, then."
Inuyasha gave Sesshomaru a suspicious look, then scrambled up to the trap door. He put a hand on it, intending to shove it open by pure force of effort. Power flared, hot and painful, like a ferocious electric shock. His last thought was that Sesshomaru had set him up -- again.
Then his brother's arms caught him, and then oblivion crashed over him.
-------------
"Willow, any chance you could pop out of here and get help from the other Slayers?" Angel asked. He was seated behind his desk; a single candle flickering in front of him cast what Xander thought were positively satanic shadows from below his strong features.
"Uh-uh. I can't teleport out," Willow shook her head, in response to Angel's question. In the dim light, the motion was barely visible. "The spell seems to be setting up too much interference. I've tried."
"Pretty nice show of fireworks when she did, too," Xander straddled a chair backwards in Angel's office. He was tired and he'd be a fool if he wasn't wigged by the fact that they were trapped and, likely, facing an attack from bad guys sooner or later. The Scoobies had gathered here -- himself and Willow, Dawn, Andrew, Faith, Buffy. Plus, for no reason that Xander could discern given this was a Scoobie meeting, Kagome and Shippou.
Everyone else -- young Slayers and one elf -- were out in the lobby. Buffy had put them to work sharpening weapons. It kept them busy and it kept weapons in their hands if they were attacked.
"How's the air holding up in here?" Kagome asked -- directing the question at Shippou.
The fox demon sniffed the air. "We're getting air from somewhere, but it doesn't smell like LA."
Well, Xander allowed charitably, the reason that the two were included in the meeting was that Buffy had asked them to come.
Buffy, apparently, was including Kagome on her short list of Really Competent People when it came to dealing with trouble. Xander wasn't sure what precisely Kagome had done to earn that distinction.
Well, he thought, the Naraku dude sounded like he'd been a major-league Big Bad and Kagome had helped kill him before she was Chosen. So maybe she had earned some respect.
Still.
And her kill rate for vampires and assorted other nasties was phenomenal. Though she'd declined assistance from Slayer Central they'd kept track of her and she was very good.
Still.
And she was a witch. On top of being a Slayer.
Xander decided Buffy was probably right for including Kagome in this discussion. He didn't like it, but it was the right decision. Kagome had the street cred.
And where Kagome went, Shippou was going to follow. That much was obvious by the protective way the kitsune hovered close to her. He was a lot politer than Inuyasha but it was clear that Shippou was no less worried about her safety.
"Inuyasha will get us out," Kagome was saying with confidence. "Tessaiga should be able to cut through that barrier without a problem."
"If he was going to rescue us," Willow pointed out, "Wouldn't he have done so already?"
Shippou responded, "He might have run into trouble that's slowing him down."
Buffy snorted. "I'd hate to see what sort of trouble could delay Inuyasha from rescuing Kagome ..."
"... I'd hate to be that trouble ..." Shippou interjected, sotto voice.
"Heh," Buffy agreed. "I have to give him props for being loyal to his women. -- Aaaaanyway, Spike, when you swept the top floor, were you able to get out onto the roof?"
"No." Spike was leaning against the wall, arms folded. "As best I could tell, The barrier's only a few inches above the top of the building."
"Okay. I'm not going to assume that Rover's going to come to the rescue," Buffy nodded to the younger slayer, "Sorry, Kagome, but we don't know what's going on out there. -- Suggestions? I'm all out of ideas here, guys."
"Kill Sir Squid," Willow suggested, pointing down with a finger. "See if we can get out that way."
"I hate tentacles," Shippou stated. "I positively loath them. They give me the wiggins. Anyone have any other ideas?"
"He's joking," Kagome reached out and gave Shippou a shove. Xander watched that casual byplay with a raised eyebrow. He hadn't seen many demons and humans with that sort of a relationship -- it was a purely platonic friendship, but they were obviously quite comfortable with each other.
"I am not! I can trace my tentacle-phobia to early childhood trauma," Shippou replied, sniffing. "I am kidding about the better idea bit, however, because I don't see any other option than to try to escape through the sewers."
"That'll be bloody fun," Spike said, rolling his eyes.
"You have a very bizarre idea of 'fun'," Xander informed him.
------------------
He hurt.
Inuyasha woke to the realization that he was in pain, and he was being carried slung over somebody's bony shoulder. A clawed hand grasped his thigh, holding him in place.. When he opened his eyes the light flickering through a storm grate showed a knee-length fall of white hair down a man's back.
"Sesshomaru," he was shocked at how weak he sounded.
"Hnnh."
"Put me down."
"You are not able to walk." Sesshomaru's voice was cold and emotionless even for him. He continued down the storm drain.
"What ... what happened?"
"The trap door was warded. You have burned yourself badly." Sesshomaru's words prompted Inuyasha to look at down. He saw bone visible through tears in the ragged, oozing, cooked flesh on his right palm.
His hand curiously, didn't hurt. His arm was on fire, however, from the middle of the forearm to the shoulder.
He lost track of time. He might have screamed. When awareness next came, he was seated against a wall and Sesshomaru was fighting tentacles with his claws. That made him think of Naraku, and he said, "Come back from the dead, did you? We'll slay you again, you bastard."
Then he remembered this wasn't Naraku, it was just a random monster, and he felt embarrassed. He shook his head in an attempt to clear the fog out; the flare of pain from his arm when this motion jostled his wrist brought him to sudden and sharp awareness.
Sesshomaru said, in a conversational tone, as he finished off the attacking monster creature, "Inuyasha, are you aware that if you cut a starfish in pieces, each section becomes a new starfish?"
"Nggg." His throat was dry and there was a very foul taste in it.
"The same applies to kraken."
"Fuck. You ... learn ... something new ... every day."
Sesshomaru finished slaying the kraken -- presumably spawned from a piece of the original kraken -- then cut a hole to hell with Tenseiga and started tossing bits of sliced and diced squid through it. Inuyasha watched this for a moment then forced himself to his feet. He couldn't close his right hand. He awkwardly grasped Tessaiga's hilt with his left.
"You are not able to fight," Sesshomaru said, glancing back.
"You knew that trap door was warded," Inuyasha snapped at him, angry. And he could damn well fight, he thought, if Kagome needed rescuing. Anyway, he was rapidly feeling stronger; that was from adrenalin, probably. This fight was far from over. He could collapse later, after everything was over ... Hopefully, that collapse would be into Kagome's arms after he rescued her for the umpteenth time in their lives.
The thought of being held by Kagome as he slid into peaceful oblivion was pleasant. She always smelled so good, and made him feel so safe when she held him close.
A flicker of something crossed Sesshomaru's face. It wasn't deceit, but Inuyasha couldn't quite identify the emotion. "I did not suspect a ward of such power, and I did expect that you would be able to break the ward with Tessaiga. You would have prevented a great deal of pain if you had exercised more caution. Also, Kagome is far more likely to try to kill me than you. I merely did not wish to be the first person to emerge at the top of the ladder."
It was a bit of a long-winded explanation for Sesshomaru. Peevishly, Inuyasha said, "You still could have said something about trap door being warded."
"I will note, for future reference, that you lack common intelligence," Sesshomaru replied.
"Why the hell did you even bother to carry me away?" Inuyasha stared at his right hand for a moment longer. It was disgusting, and even seeing it turned his stomach -- if he'd pressed his hand to a barbeque grill for several minutes, he might have achieved a similar effect. He would heal, eventually. In the near term, however, he was crippled in a fight.
"I am not so much a fool as to waste an ally in the coming battles with the Unseelie over personal feelings." Sesshomaru's reply was short and to the point.
"Gee, and here I thought you might actually have feelings of brotherly love," Inuyasha yanked his shirt over his head then wrapped the cotton around his charred, oozing hand. His hand hurt, a bit, with a sense of dull aching pressure, but not nearly so much as he would have expected. His arm had lesser burns to the shoulder, however. Those were painful.
He couldn't get the t-shirt to stay. He was right-handed and it was just too awkward. He swore at it.
Sesshomaru stepped forward, suddenly, and caught Inuyasha's left wrist. "Allow me."
Inuyasha nearly bit him. He did snarl in response to the touch. "What the fuck do you think you're doing!"
"Bandaging that hand. If you will allow me to assist you."
"Why?"
Sesshomaru's eyes flicked up to Inuyasha's face. His face was impassive. "Seven centuries and you still have not figured out my motivations towards you, little brother. You are an idiot."
"What do you mean?" Inuyasha said, very stiffly. "You've made it clear to me that you resent the fact that I even exist. You've tried to kill me -- how many times? You drove me from Japan, from my home, because you could not bear the 'taint' of Amelia on Japan's soil."
"There is much you have yet to figure out, Inuyasha," Sesshomaru said, quietly. Too quietly, really, and when Inuyasha looked up from his hand, Sesshomaru's amber eyes -- the same amber as Inuyasha's own -- searched his face. "I do not hate you."
"Coulda fooled me." Inuyasha paused a beat. "What, do you think I'm not worthy enough to even hate? I can kick your ass if I wanted to."
Sesshomaru's response was firm. "I do not hate you because there is no need. Give me your hand."
Reluctantly -- very reluctantly -- Inuyasha held it out. It would take two hands to properly bandage his burns.
Belatedly, he remembered that Sesshomaru only had one arm himself. One sleeve of his t-shirt hung empty. It was easy to forget that; Sesshomaru was quite deft with his remaining hand. Inuyasha himself had removed that arm, many centuries before -- Sesshomaru had it coming, too, Inuyasha thought, with savage pride at that long ago fight.
His brother unwrapped the t-shirt, gripped it in his teeth, and used his claws to shred it into long strips. "Put your finger there," Sesshomaru said, firmly, holding the end of one of the strips to Inuyasha's wrist.
Neatly, with Inuyasha's assistance, he bound his hand up. Enough t-shirt material was left over so that Sesshomaru could knot it together into a rope; he reached up, dropped it around Inuyasha's neck, and said, "Keep that hand in a sling. Don't use it, or it will take much longer to heal."
"Yes, brother," Inuyasha said, voice mocking. "I'm so glad you care."
"Hnnh. If you are sufficiently recovered I believe our best course of action is to attempt to return to the trap door. It will be a bit of a fight, as there are many more monsters in our way, now. Can you wield Tessaiga in your left hand?"
"Yeah. I can fight."
"Let us go, then. This Sesshomaru grows tired of the atmosphere in this sewer."
"Stinks down here," Inuyasha agreed, wrinkling his nose. On that point, he certainly agreed with his brother.