A/N: I actually managed to get enough spare time to write another chapter and post it! I'm not sure how, but I got it, so who am I to complain?
Although, Inuyasha wasn't on last night so that was a little bit depressing...
-Daughter of Dark - Lol, well I don't know when you'll be reading this, but I look foreward to hearing your reviews on all the latest chapters.
-Bluer Sky - Thanks!
-Wish-full Thinker - Really?... Well okay. If you think of anything, let me know!
-Sexy Kat - Lol... Okay... Well I'm not sure what to say to the first part of you review, so I'm just gonna leave that alone for now. -- Lol, yeah. I have lots of personal experience with being a little... headstrong, and believe me, it'd probably take a lot more than months of imprisonment to get rid of it. -- That's fine. The whole music thing-- a lot of people are doing that now. It's always interesting to see what other people are listening too... although, half the time I never recognise any of the songs on their lists. Like right now, the only one's I've heard on yours are Shinjitsu no Shi and Come.
-Ania24 - Lol, well hopefully this will meet you expectations... I don't know if I like the way I had Sesshomaru react personally, but I really don't have the energy right now to think of anything else... so yeah, I'm being lazy, but hopefully it still works!
-Wolfygirl13 - Lol, so Venus and Pluto and all those other planets are safe now? I thought Sess would be a good leader... he just needed to get off the sugar! -- A closet huh? Doesn't it get kinda... cramped in there? Still, if it keeps you safe from the sugar-high insanity, then I'm not about to complain. Lol, yeah I think Rin and Inuyasha are going to get along just fine. -- Lol, yep things definitely seemed to have calmed down from their former chaos. And hopefully Sesshomaru's reaction is adequete to what you were expecting. As I explained to Ania, I don't know if I'm completely satisfied with it, but i'm too lazy to change it now, so hopefully it still works. -- And I'm glad you like it BTW!
-Lord Makura - Lol, I wonder if that would work on Sesshomaru...
-Jtmscola - Well that's fine. A lot of people are reviewing late lately and then apologizing for it (something I can't personally fathom since they technically don't have to be reviewing at all) but, as I said to them, it's fine. I don't mind if you don't review every chapter (that'd be asking a little much, neh?) just so long as you let me know you're here every once in a while. -- 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night, huh? Well, let me be the first to welcome you to the world of the insomniacs! Lol, I've been with the whole 4-5 hour thing before... not entirely pleasant if you've actually got to cope with stuff (which I imagine you do) but it can be helpful for making me a completely restless, hyper idiot. Not that I need help with that, but... Lol, anyway... -- Well, I don't know if he's a badass, but he's definitely not someone you want to mess with. At least, in my mind he's not. But I haven't actually written anything about him yet (really gotta work on that) so I guess that's the only place for him for now... -- Lol, yep, some of the old Inu is starting to shine through. Couldn't really bring it out when he only had Sesshomaru and Amaya because... well, let's face it, even if Sesshomaru is someone Inuyasha used to know, he's changed since Inuyasha knew him then, and our fav hanyou probably wouldn't be able to react normally to that. And he didn't really know Amaya... and Miroku was mostly unconscious... seems the only one he really had to help him get back was Kagome, doesn't it... So I guess it's a good thing I brought her back, neh? -- Hm. Now that's an interesting question. As far as I know, either pronounciation is correct. The noise (cause that's really all it is) is basically just used as a "statement" of dismisal. Now, whenever I hear him make a noise like that personally, it sounds more like a "huh" or something, but I can understand how that could get confusing since "huh" generally tends to mean a question. But basically it's the same thing. So, as far as my limited knowledge goes, Feh and Keh are basically different "words" used to describe/make the exact same noise and it really doesn't matter which one you use. I just used Keh because that's just the one I tend to favour for some reason, but I have used Feh before as well so... Did that help at all?
-xolovexinuyasha - Lol, I never once thought you were a lazy bum! I hate physical fitness tests too... Although I do think I can do push-ups... but I hate doing them. I suppose it's a girl thing-- having trouble tapping into our upper body strength or something like that. Still, best of luck to ya! -- Lol, yeah swimming is fun. But it's not the chlorine that gets to me... it's the instructors! Actually, I don't think our pools are using chlorine anymore... It's dangerous to some people with allergies to it or something... I think they've started replacing it with salt. Are they doing that in your pools? -- Lol, yeah, I know some authors don't update for like months. I've actually tried to pace myself before because I was updating too frequently, but it drives me nuts to not be updating for more than a few days in a row. That's the only reason I can tolerate not updating this story for a few days-- because I'm updating my other stories, so I'm somewhat satisfied. I don't know why it is... maybe it's a quirk of mine. Or maybe I just hate making people wait... or actually want to see this story finished. I've seen so many people start stories that have gotten me right in the thick of the plot and I have been loving ever minute of and then just... BLEARGH! Drives me up the fucking wall!... takes deep breath...lets it out... Okay, I'm better now. -- Anyway... Yeah, I know what Ghost in the Shell is, and I've actually seen a few episodes of it... but I kinda lost interest. It's just not my sort of anime. So I didn't really pay that much attention to the music they were playing. Although, I think at the beginning it played a song that they said had been translated from english into japanese, and that kinda caught my attention. Don't know what it was though... Lol, I think I understand why you found it funny now though... Techno music, heavy metal, and an all but WAFF chapter. -- Lol, exactly. People get waaaaaaaaaaay too worked up. It drives me nuts! Music is supposed to be for enjoyment, yet everyone goes berserk if you download their songs or something for free and they're not making as much money and... oh, poor little sob-story! People enjoy your music enough to download it! Fuck, isn't that the point of making music-- to let people enjoy it?... I don't know-- they're all insane! And coming from me, that's pretty bad. -- Woah, woah, wait, back up! You're going to drink another coke? oo Are you sure you can manage that? You don't want to hurt yourself you know! lol.
-RamblingPhilosopher - Lol, so all we had to do to give Inuyasha "enlightenment" was torture him and make him loose his memory! Why didn't we think of this sooner? Lol, and I agree-- Inuyasha's really a lot smarter than they portray him to be. And, despite the common beliefs of Sango, Miroku and Shippo, Kagome is not always right or justified in her arguments of her "sittings" of him. And really, who are they to talk? Lol, well I don't know how much of a barrier he's proved to be, but hopefully you'll still find it enjoyable! -- Urgh! I hate that! It get's so frustrating sometimes! Right now though, I've reached one of the highest points in one of my other stories-- one of the one's people have been looking foreward to forever--And I just want to shove all my other stories aside and work on it! I can't really do that, however, since I've got this other story I'm having a writers block with, and a whole bunch of others I've got to finish, and then this one... WOosh! Still, hopefully we'll both be able to get caught up soon, neh?
-Clouds of the Sky - Lol, if your not careful, you're gonna turn me arrogant! Superhero? Hm. Not the last time I checked. I just love writing. A lot. And... I don't know, I just can't resist it. I don't know if that makes me a superhero... but just to be on the safe side, please keep all kryptonite locked up and out of sight. -- Lol, yep, that is a great song. I don't think it's the greatest song ever, but I do like it!
-Punk Rock Miko2 - Well, I'll try to anyway...
-Black Betty - Lol, yep, Miroku and Sango... I'm trying to get a scene with just the two of them in there, but it's hard... my muses just don't want to write that, and it's pointless trying to convince them... (stubborn idiots!)... And don't worry, unless I get killed (or something extreme like that) I have no intentions of not updating.
-Inume-Blue - Awww... I like Naraku! He's a bit freaky and unbelievable at some points in the story, but he's still a cool villain! Oh you read that story too? It's a cool one, but I only just found it like last week so I have no idea about it's updating patterns... hopefully it won't make us wait too long though.
-angelwingz - EEP! Should I call the hospital? Lol, don't worry, I'm not gonna stop updating! Not unless something seriously serious happens and makes it impossible...
Anyway, that's about it... don't have anything else to say right now... hopefully the next chapter will be up soon!
Warning -- There are mentions to conversations from the third movie in this! Nothing that'd ruin it for you, but it'd still give some... minor stuff away.
Someone to Protect
Inuyasha sighed.
After meeting up with Sango and Miroku, he had convinced Kagome to split up with him-- she could go find Shippo and tell him they were going away for a little while, and he... well, he would attempt to convince Sesshomaru to let them go away for a little while.
He had tried using his nose to locate Sesshomaru, but, since this was his brother's castle, his scent tended to be... well, everywhere, and it was very obscure and hard to tell which scents were fresh and which had been there for a while.
Eventually he was forced to go back to the human tradition of wandering the halls aimlessly and opening whatever doors might look promising.
He wasn't exactly sure what he would tell Sesshomaru though, when he actually did find him, so he was a little relieved that he had the excess time to consider this.
Not that it helped, because, by the time he did finally find his brother, he had just gotten right back where he had started from in the first place...
Inuyasha cracked open another random and particularly elaborate and wide door, rather fascinated with the fact that, even after living here so long, he could still know so little about the castle, not really expecting to find anything of interest behind it, since this entire area seemed to consist of dark and abandoned rooms that had long been put out of use.
So he was a little surprised when his eyes almost instantly landed on the figure standing at the opposite side of the room, who happened to be no other than the one he had been searching for.
Sesshomaru stood by the window, backlit by the night sky, his demeanour seeming cold and rather contemplative from this distance. It was clear his brother had been thinking about something, or else he would not have sought out this desolate and abandoned room to get away from everyone.
Not that Sesshomaru ever needed to get away from everyone to think.
It was one of those weird things Inuyasha had always found fascinating about his brother-- the way he could just completely zone out and organize all his thoughts, while never missing a beat of what was happening in the world around him.
He had tried it a couple of times since coming here and had failed miserably.
Usually he just ended up drawing Amaya's attention, since the sorceress still held the connection over his mind, though it had weakened greatly since the last time he saw her.
He wasn't certain if this meant that he had gotten good enough to block her out, or if she was simply severing the connection. Either way it was a little unsettling.
He was used to always feeling her presence, however faintly, within his mind, even when she wasn't communicating or listening to his thoughts, and it seemed fairly hollow now that she was leaving... It was a ridiculous notion, of course, but he couldn't help but feel slightly lonely without her there...
Mentally shaking himself from his thoughts, he stepped into the room, closing the door as softly as he could behind him, not wanting to make any noise.
He didn't know why, but somehow it seemed important to disturb the stillness and silence as little as possible in this room.
His brother didn't look up when he entered-- didn't do anything to acknowledge his presence-- and that made Inuyasha slightly concerned, because Sesshomaru usually gave at least some indication that he was aware that he was around...
'Sesshomaru?' Inuyasha asked softly, taking a tentative step forward, only to be stopped when his brother started speaking.
'"Someone to protect."' The demon lord said slowly.
Inuyasha paused at his brother's words and frowned. What the hell was Sesshomaru talking about? Had his brother, perhaps, finally let that little annoying imp he let trail after him everywhere finally get to him? Had the little gama finally driven his brother over the brink of insanity?
Deciding it would be best not to jump to any conclusions (especially not such illogical ones-- even if the toad could be annoying as all hell, he doubted Sesshomaru would ever let him drive him crazy) he watched his brother cautiously and asked the only question he could think of-- 'Nani?'
Sesshomaru still didn't make any sort of move to look back at his brother, just kept staring forward as he spoke. 'Father asked me on the night you were born if I had someone I needed to protect.' He said, his voice reverberating off the walls and drifting gently down to land on the hanyou's ears. 'At first I thought he was ridiculous and a fool for thinking such. What need would I, Sesshomaru, have of protecting someone?' He turned to look over his shoulder at Inuyasha, the moonlight illuminating his pale features and highlighting his eyes a strange silvery colour. 'I had no need to protect anyone or anything. Until you came.'
Inuyasha stared at his brother, unsure if that was supposed to be an insult or just a statement in general, waiting for his brother to continue.
As long as he had known Sesshomaru, the Inuyoukai had never seemed all that inclined to speak of their father in anything more than passing, yet Inuyasha found himself eager to know more. Not, necessarily, about the old Inu Taisho himself, but about his relationship with his brother... why it had all gone so wrong at the end... why Sesshomaru felt so bitter toward the Daiyoukai...
However, Sesshomaru seemed uninclined to speak more on the subject, turning slowly to look back at the window. Indeed, the next words out of his mouth were almost a complete change of subject from what they had been previously talking about.
'If you plan on taking your miko wench to "her time" Inuyasha, then I shall not stop you.' The youkai said, catching Inuyasha off guard. Shit. How the hell had Sesshomaru known that? He didn't have long to contemplate this as Sesshomaru almost immediately continued. 'But know the dangers you put yourself and her into before you act in such a rash manner.' The Daiyoukai looked over his shoulder at Inuyasha again. 'Do you think you can protect her?'
Inuyasha stared at his brother a moment.
His first inclination was to make some brash comment or noise (somewhere along the lines of "keh") and blow his brother's statement off, but he knew that this was a far too serious matter to do something as stupid as that, and so refrained. He didn't much like doing that anymore anyway.
Sesshomaru had taught him a lot of things while being here, and one of the most important of them was to always listen to what another was saying, even if it seemed like utter and complete nonsense.
As his brother put it, "the truth can more often be learned from what is not said than from what is, and how much of that truth is gleaned depends very much upon the one who is hearing it."
It sounded a little strange to him at the time, but the longer he thought about it, the more "truth" he could see was behind it, and the more he began to take it to heart.
'I don't know.' Inuyasha said after a moment of silence. 'I don't know if I can protect any of them. But she has a right to see her family, and she'll go after them whether I come or not. The lease I can do is try and get her there safely.'
Sesshomaru stared at him a moment, and then looked away again.
More silence filled the room, floating in a not-quite awkward way around them, before Inuyasha finally decided that, with his brother's permission in place, it would be best if he went and prepared to leave before Sesshomaru changed his mind.
He reached toward the door, then paused, looked back at his brother and frowned.
'Don't you want to know where we're going?' He asked softly. Then again, considering he knew that they were leaving in the first place, it wouldn't surprise him if Sesshomaru had somehow already found out everything about the well and Kagome's ability to travel.
'I would be more concerned with your knowing where you are going then with mine.' The elder of them said, then turned toward Inuyasha. 'I have no interest in learning the location of a place where they would dress their women in clothes like they had your miko in.' He said.
Inuyasha blinked then rolled his eyes.
He wasn't going to argue with his brother on that fact.
Kagome's clothes were something that would raise more than a few eyebrows, even in demon society.
The last person he had met to wear clothes that were scantier than hers was Yura, but female demons like that tended to be slight exhibitionists by nature, so it hardly caught his attention. He was too busy trying to stop her from strangling the life out of him with her hair to pay much attention to how she was dressed anyway.
But even her clothes weren't as bad as some of the clothes he had seen in Kagome's time.
He could just imagine how someone like his brother would react to that... okay, well, no he couldn't, but it would likely at least internally shock, if not disgust his brother.
Opening the door, Inuyasha cast one last glance back at the other youkai, before wandering out into the hall.
He shut the door just as softly behind him and then walked off, frowning slightly and watching the floor disappear beneath his feet as he walked and considered several unrelated topics in his mind at once.
He supposed that, to get to the well, it would be best to ask for the uma-youkai's help, since they could travel at breakneck speeds... then again, first he'd likely have to learn the language they spoke... unless of course they could understand Japanese...
And how exactly had his brother known what their intentions were before they had even breathed a word of it to anyone else? Had he somehow been spying on him when he agreed to take Kagome there, or when he was telling Sango and Miroku?
And what had their father meant when he asked Sesshomaru a question like "Do you have someone to protect?"
Inuyasha paused at this, his frowned deepening as a matching one moved up to crease his forehead.
He didn't know any of the story behind what Sesshomaru had just told him, only that the night he had been born was the same night their father died... but that didn't really help with anything... Unless, of course...
'Did father mean me when he asked Sesshomaru that?'
Glossary (In Order of Appearance)
Gama - Toad
Nani - What
Inuyoukai - Dog-Demon
Inu Taisho/Inu no Taisho - This would be Inu and Sess's father. It's actually a title, not his name, and I think it means either Dog General, or Lord of the Dogs
Daiyoukai/Taiyoukai (not sure which spelling is correct) - Great Demon
Miko - Priestess
Youkai - Demon
Yura - C'mon, I know you remember her. Yura of the demon hair... she was like the second enemy Inu and Kagome ever fought together!
Umayoukai - Horse-youkai
SPECIAL THANKS AND LOTS OF POCKY FOR: -- Daughter of Dark, Bluer Sky, Wish-full Thinker, Sexy Kat , Ania24, Wolfygirl13, Lord Makura, Jtmscola, xolovexinuyasha, RamblingPhilosopher, Clouds of the Sky, Punk Rock Miko2, Black Betty, Inume-Blue, angelwingz
CMoC - Numb - Linkin Park, AMV: Breaking the Habit - I don't know who the author of this AMV is, but the song is by Linkin Park too... And yep, that's all I'm listening to at the moment.