Chapter 4: Nakia's Heart
"So, our old man's a surgeon, huh?" Maruchi said raising a brow.
"Delicate work for an assassin," Inumaru murmured turning the newspaper he was reading to the next page.
They were all sitting on the couch, listening to their mother's conversation with their supposed father.
"Are you really going to fight him, Inumaru?" Nakia asked almost fearfully.
"What are you afraid of?" Maruchi asked catching a whiff of his twin's fear.
"Yes, Nakia, and there is nothing to be afraid of," Inumaru said trying to soothe his baby sister's fears.
"But he has way more experience than you do, Inu!" Nakia said shrilly.
"Nakia!" Maruchi hissed. "Shut up before someone walks in on us!"
Nakia stuck her tongue out at him and a moment later someone did walk in the room.
"Akio!" Maruchi cheered glad for a distraction. "What is that?"
Akio was carrying a clear container with something in it. "Oh this? It's a pinkie."
"It looks like a baby mouse," Maruchi said taking a closer look.
"Pinkies are baby mice," Akio explained.
"Oh! It's so cute!" Nakia said reaching into the container to pick it up. It barely had any fur and its eyes and ears were still closed. It only peeped when she cuddled it to her chest. "What a sweet mousie!"
Maruchi and Akio exchanged looks as they watched Nakia hold, cuddle and coo over the pinkie.
"How are you going to feed?" Nakia said with wide eyes looking up at her cousin.
"Err.." Akio grunted.
"Nakia, he is going to feed it to his python upstairs," Inumaru said not looking away from the paper.
"WHAT!" Nakia shrieked backing up and away from Akio. "Why? Why would you do that?"
"Snake's gotta eat," Maruchi said shrugging.
"You're going to feed this poor, defenseless, baby mouse to a damn snake?" Nakia demanded her eyes starting to well up with tears.
"Err, yes," Akio answered. "That's what they're bred for, Coz."
Nakia looked down at the warm little ball of life she was holding in her hand, and the tears slipped down her cheeks.
Saphira and Sesshoumaru, smelling the tears and sensing the tension, entered the room.
"What's going on?" Saphira demanded. "Nakia, honey, what's wrong?"
"They're going to feed this baby mouse to their dumb snake!" Nakia sobbed.
Saphira hugged her daughter while shooting a dirty look to the three boys.
Akio shrugged helplessly. "The snake has to eat something."
Nakia pulled away from Saphira and fled, with mouse in hand, into the kitchen.
"What were you thinking?" Saphira hissed fiercely. "You know how sensitive she is!"
"Cousin Saphy, if I had known I wouldn't have let her see," Akio said guiltily.
"Sweetie, I don't blame you," Saphira said giving her cousin a sympathetic look. "But they know better!" At the word 'they' she promptly shot both Inumaru and Maruchi looks that could kill somebody.
"Jeez, Mom, it's not like we did it on purpose," Maruchi grumbled.
Sesshoumaru watched this exchange with interest, but as they continued to argue he wandered back into the kitchen. His daughter was cowering at the table sobbing over a baby mouse.
He sighed at his misfortune.
"I..." hiccup, "...I know that..." hiccup, "...this is the way life is supposed to be," Nakia whispered tearfully. "But, it's-it's just a baby, it doesn't have any chance at all."
Sesshoumaru regarded his daughter, whom he knew next to nothing about, thoughtfully.
Before he could comment though, Nakia got up, brushed past him and back into the living room. She shoved the mouse in at Akio and then left through the front door.
Saphira only growled in frustration. "Feed the damn snake before she gets back."
She went into the hallway and started to put her coat on, but stopped when someone touched her shoulder. She looked up into Sesshoumaru's silent face. "What?"
"Let me go get her," he said reasonably.
"I don't think it's a good idea," Saphira said bluntly. "She's not like you or me. Her heart is very tender, and her soul is compassionate, something she probably inherited from my mother. But, that aside, I'm not going to let you go to her and tell her how she should be strong and how she shouldn't care about something as insignificant as a damn mouse."
"Whatever made you think I would do such a thing?" Sesshoumaru asked innocently raising his brows.
"Call it intuition," Saphira grumbled. "Fine, go, but if you screw around with her I'll gut you and hang your balls from the shrine rafters."
"When did you become so violent?" Sesshoumaru asked politely.
"When I had kids," Saphira growled. "Get out of here before I change my mind."
Sesshoumaru opened the door and closed it softly behind him. Nakia's scent waifed through, but it was mingled in with the smell nicotine and tobacco.
Nakia was sitting under the tree that Sesshoumaru was sure Inuyasha had been sealed to.
"You know those are bad for you," he said walking up behind her.
Her only response was to move away and take another drag.
"Don't know why you would all of a sudden," Nakia replied as blew the smoke out. "I'm sure you were there when I picked the habit up."
He had been.
Lurking on the edges of his children's lives he had watched as his fourteen year old daughter bullied a convenience store clerk into selling her her first pack.
"And if I was?" Sesshoumaru asked plucking the cigarette out of her mouth and tossing it to the ground.
"Should have stopped me then," she replied with a shrug pulling out another cigarette from the pack in her pocket.
"I don't know how you can stand the smell of those," he said wrinkling his nose in displeasure.
"Just lucky I guess," Nakia said with another shrug, then turned away from him. "See you later."
"Where are you going?" He almost demanded.
Nakia looked back at him with a toothy grin. "To find my next supplier."
God help him if his only daughter snuffed cocaine. "Excuse me?"
Nakia sighed. "It was a joke, old man."
Sesshoumaru frowned at letting his guard down so quickly.
"...we're not like you," Nakia was saying, but he had missed the beginning.
"What?"
"I said, 'don't hurt my brother, we're not like you'," Nakia said challenging him to question her again..
"Are you referring to the relationship I had with Inuyasha?" Sesshoumaru asked.
"Maybe," Nakia grinned reminding him of Saphira. "Maybe not."
She walked away and down the steps of the shrine. He wondered if he should follow her or not.
"She has to be alone sometimes," came a voice from behind, Sesshoumaru turned to see Maruchi regarding him carefully.
"Probably gets that from me," Sesshoumaru murmured.
"Hey! Are you ready to fight yet?" Inumaru's challenging voice bounced off the shrine buildings.
The boy reminded him instantly of Inuyasha and his loud obnoxious ways of running wildly into battle.
"Surely you don't intend on fighting me here?" Sesshoumaru asked letting his mask of boredom slip into place.
"Do you really think I'm an idiot?" Inumaru asked raising an eyebrow.
Sesshoumaru thought about mentioning Inuyasha, but decided against it.
"I have rented a dojo an the edge of town," Inumaru said walking up to the tall silver haired man that was his uncle. Tessaiga was casually tucked through the belt Inumaru was wearing, and hanging on his hip.
As Sesshoumaru looked down at his nephew he didn't see the image of Inuyasha, but instead the image of his own father.
"Who is coming to witness the fight?" Sesshoumaru asked turning away from his son and nephew.
"I am," pipped Maruchi.
"Me too!" Called Akio jogging from the house.
"I think Nakia said she was going to meet us there?" Maruchi said looking towards Inumaru for confirmation.
"Yeah," Inumaru said.
"I'm coming too," a women's voice said from behind them.
"Mom!" Maruchi whined. "You don't know anything about fighting.
Sesshoumaru began to snort at his son's comment.
"I don't think that's the issue here," Saphira said eying her former mate. "Besides, Maruchi, you're still a minor and need adult supervision."
Maruchi groaned but said nothing else.
"I'll drive," Akio volunteered. "You gonna follow us?"
Sesshoumaru nodded and turned toward the stairs to walk to where his car was parked, but realized that someone was at his elbow.
"Aren't you riding with the boys?" He asked.
Saphira sighed. "No, it'll just ruin all their prep talk on the way there."
They made their way down the stairs to the street where a beat up, old Mercedes Benz was sitting.
Saphira's jaw dropped as Sesshoumaru approached the car pulling out his keys.
"You're a surgeon and driving a 1983 Mercedes Benz? That car is an antique!" Saphira said almost afraid to pull the door handle to to open the door.
"Do you actually think I would drive my new car car down here, park it on the street and hope to return to it unharmed?" Sesshoumaru asked eying her.
Saphira sighed. "I guess you have a point."
She opened the door carefully and was surprised to not hear it creaking open. She settled down in the old leather seat and buckled her seat belt.
"Afraid of my driving?" Sesshoumaru asked grinning.
"If you drive like you fly we're all doomed," Saphira said darkly. Sesshoumaru only laughed and turned the ignition. The motor rumbled to life easily without a hitch.
"Did you replace the engine?" Saphira asked suspiciously.
"Yes I did," Sesshoumaru smiled pleased with himself and with Saphira for noticing. "I did it myself, with supervision of course."
Saphira rolled her eyes, she had never been one to get her hands dirty when she could just buy a new car, but she reflected that Sesshoumaru was one that liked to get down and dirty. Unlike the ancient hanyou, Naraku, who had others do his dirty work.
"You didn't come with me to tell me to go easy on him, did you?" Sesshoumaru asked interrupting her thoughts.
She laughed so hard that her eyes began to water.
"No...no," she breathed deeply trying to stop laughed. "I was going to tell you to take him out as fast as you could."
"Why is that?"
She looked at him, her face turning serious. "He is an expert swordsman, Sesshoumaru, nothing like Inuyasha. I didn't know the legends of Inutaisho, if I had I would probably be assuring you that Inumaru was surpassing even your father's legacy."
Sesshoumaru looked at her, contemplating whether or not Saphira was being serious. She seemed to be, and she, like her mother, was not one to exaggerate.
"There are the boys," Saphira pointed spotting their car passing them.
Sesshoumaru pulled out smoothly following the car full of rowdy boys.
"What sword will you fight with?" Saphira asked politely.
"Toukijin," he replied.
"Still have that sword, huh?" She said smiling, remember the incident when the sword's evil aura had overtaken her senses.
"When exactly do you plan on returning my father's sword to me?" Sesshoumaru asked turning on his blinker while waiting at a red light.
"Sooner or later," Saphira answered vaguely.
Sesshoumaru's sigh sounded familiar, but Saphira busied herself looking out the window. The flow of traffic slowed down, and the space between cars began to close, Saphira rolled her window down. Then she began pushing the buttons on the dash board, smiling when she found the switch to the sun roof.
"You've cut your hair," Sesshoumaru commented.
It was true, Saphira's hair no longer reached down to her knees. Instead it was in a short bob cut and the ends were curling. She had actually gotten it because some famous celebrity over in the States had divorced her husband and had come out the relationship with a new do and a new man.
"And?" Saphira asked turning and raising her brows at him.
"It looks good," he said turning his gaze back to the road. After a few more minutes they came to the outskirts of town, and followed the boys into a parking lot that belonged to an older gym. A limousine was sitting in the parking lot and as they pulled in Nakia stepped out looking like movie star. She was actually decently covered, dressed in black leather with the big sunglasses to go with the look.
She turned her head away from them to take one last drag off her cigarette before flicking the butt to the ground. Saphira, who was busy inspecting the building, didn't seem to notice. Sesshoumaru, however, did see and frowned in disapproval. As she approached her brothers, cousin, and parents she had not one whiff of tobacco on her. It was like the smell that Sesshoumaru knew had been there not five seconds before had vanished.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road!" Maruchi exclaimed walking with his brother and cousin towards the door. As he neared Nakia he put an arm around her sniffing the air delicately before smiling at her. Sesshoumaru watched them suspiciously as he got his sword from the trunk of the car and followed them into the gym.
As he entered the building behind everyone else, he was surprised to find no one waiting for them at the reception desk. Instead the boys lead the way down the hall into a large room where humans played basket ball. Saphira, the twins and Akio seated themselves in the bleachers. Sesshoumaru walked to the opposite side of the court before turning to face his opponent.
He pulled Toukijin out with a sing of metal.
Inumaru pulled Tessaiga from its sheath silently.
In an unspoken agreement they began to attack.
For a moment Sesshoumaru saw Inuyasha flying towards him in an unplanned, wild attack. But as soon as Inumaru swung at his knees with Tessaiga, Sesshoumaru knew that there was no relation between Inumaru's fighting and Inuyasha's.
Inumaru launched a frenzy of attack backing off when Sesshoumaru summoned his poison whip. Inumaru pulled Tessaiga's sheath to block the sickly green whip. As soon as the whip wrapped around the sheath, Inumaru jerked it backwards pulling Sesshoumaru forward. While he was trying to regain his balance, Inumaru began an onslaught of attacks, beating against Toukijin with Tessaiga. Sesshoumaru quickly regained his footing sending Inumaru running with a wave of dark energy from Toukijin.
Although the energy had sent Inumaru on the defense, he quickly summoned "kazu no kizu".
Saphira gasped. "The attack that kill a hundred demons!"
Nakia looked at her mother startled. "What?"
"That attack, kazu no kizu, can kill a hundred demons with one swing," Saphira explained in quiet awe. She knew that it had taken Inuyasha a long while to figure out the secret attack. Sesshoumaru was even more surprised, he was so caught off guard that he was almost hit by the blast.
"Shit it's going straight for the wall!" Maruchi shouted moving quickly to absorb the wall of energy. He put his hands together and then pulled them apart revealing a bright blue light. He grinned as he caught Sesshoumaru's surprised glance. Maruchi pulled his hands farther apart and then threw the purifying energy at kazu no kiza's energy wave. The blast was instantly purified.
Inumaru moved to take advantage of Sesshoumaru's distracted attention, but before he could swing the sword of destruction a whip, sickly green, wrapped itself around the sword preventing him from swinging.
"Enough, Inumaru," Nakia said, almost lazily. "He has proven himself worthy for the moment, although I believe I will reserve judgment."
Inumaru grinned a toothy grin at his baby sister. "If you insist."
The whip faded away and Inumaru sheathed his weapon.
"Jesus, Inumaru you almost destroyed the place," Akio grinned jumping down from the bleachers and running to his cousin's side.
"Not on purpose," Inumaru grinned.
Sesshoumaru was slowly sheathing his own weapon when his former mate and children approached him.
"You both have purifying powers?" He asked raising his brows.
Nakia grinned and Maruchi nodded.
"Do both of you possess the ability to form the whip?" He questioned.
"Just me," Nakia said proudly.
Sesshoumaru turned his surprised eyes towards her. "Can you demonstrate?"
"Sure."
"Not here," Saphira said exasperated. "Go outside and damage the trees."
They all made their way outside and away from the building.
Nakia held her hand out and away from her body as she summoned the whip. As she pulled it across the air in front of her she rose to stand on her tip toes. She then spun making the air sizzle with the crack of her whip.
Sesshoumaru could have sworn that she was copying something he done in his youth, but she had never seen him in the Feudal Era. There was no doubt in his mind that his children would far surpass him in skill and talent. The urge to be a part of their lives was stronger than ever. And as he looked back at Saphira, who was smiling smugly, he hoped there would be more children like Nakia and Maruchi.