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Forbidden

Chapter Thirteen: Weakness

As Nanami and Sesshoumaru reached the weathered docks, full of merchant barges big and small, new and old, Nanami glanced at Sesshoumaru suspiciously. -How does he know which ship to go to? I never said anything about a ship... If he was spying...- Nanami snarled to herself, knowing that she asked Maria to get the ship ready in secrecy. Then Nanami reached the conclusion that she must have spilled it to Ryuu when they were together. Sesshoumaru walked across the huge, water-worn planks toward a small oak ship with white sails and stacks of barrels on deck. He grabbed a plank and placed one end of it on the ship's rail. Then he turned, waiting for Nanami to get on. She eyed him darkly.

"Why should I get on a boat with you?"

"Then swim if you would like." He said indifferently and jumped on the boat.

Nanami clenched her fists and stormed onboard. -God, I hate him...-

Ryuu walked out of the galley, but backed down a step as soon as he saw Nanami. She looked at him with murderous eyes and let out a low, growl sounding curse. Ryuu cringed, even though he did not hear what she snarled at him, he had a pretty good idea. He gulped and sank back down into the galley. Maria greeted him and looked at him strangely.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Oh, nothing, it's just that if I breathe anywhere near your best friend, I'll be leaving this ship with one less appendage. Or maybe a limb... or my head... or all of the above." Ryuu dropped down onto the last step and pulled out a flask filled with sake. Maria, still wearing her green dress, looked at him like he was crazy.

"What are you talking about, Zhanna wouldn't hurt a fly."

"Hahaha... ha..heh... as far as you know. And that's not Zhanna. That's Nanami. And the first time we met, she slammed my head into a tree. I lost three teeth after being around her for about 35 seconds." Ryuu laughed nervously. Maria frowned and grabbed the flask from him.

"You drink too much..."

Ryuu grumbled and then went to raise the anchor from the water while Maria lit the candles in the galley.

Meanwhile on deck, Sesshoumaru began pulling the wooden plank on deck.

"If I see you or Ryuu anywhere near me, you will both serve as an anchor." Nanami hissed at Sesshoumaru, who looked up as if he was rudely interrupted and glanced at Nanami coldly. He stared at her while he slammed the plank on board. Nanami looked away as soon as the plank crashed with a loud thunk and scraping sound. He turned back towards the dock and heard dozens of thunking boots run toward the ship. He calmly sliced the rope that held the ship in dock and watched the boat pull away slowly.

Naraku stopped on the shore, with Vlad looking at him in confusion. -Why is he just standing there? They're leaving port!-

"Now." Naraku mumbled, seemingly to no one.

"Now? Now what?" Vlad questioned but Naraku just smiled a bloodthirsty smile.

Sesshoumaru turned to see Nanami standing on the opposite railing, her back to him. He frowned and tried to figure out what she was doing. Nanami was staring at the dark waves, trying to see where the bubbles and muffled shrieks were coming from. Then a small child popped out of the water, gasping for air and screaming for help. Nanami gasped as she realized the child was Rin. Without thinking anything through, she dove into the water. Nanami took hold of the child and looked at her. Rin smiled her usual toothy grin, but within a second it turned into a hoarse cackle and her face began to distort. Nanami frowned and let go of the thing that was morphing into a man in the water. it grabbed her by her wrists and pulled her underwater.

As soon as Sesshoumaru saw Nanami dive into the water, he prepared to sprint toward her, but he was stopped by two dozen soldiers aiming primitive shotguns at him.

"Don't move! Get off right now!" One yelled. Sesshoumaru turned and glared at the soldiers. -That peasant dares to command me?- He growled and in a split second sliced the soldiers' rifles in three pieces with his acid whip. They backed up a few steps, not knowing what happened. Vlad stood on the opposite dock, behind the soldiers, and he felt a cold sweat drown him. -Who the hell is this guy? And who is Zhanna for that matter?- He glanced at Naraku, who was simply smiling.

"Stop your worrying. Everything is going according to plan." He announced and began to walk toward the ship.

Nanami tried to break free from the demon's grasp, who turned out to be the Naraku double she faced in the forest months ago. She kicked him anywhere she could and pummeled his face with her one freed fist, but he just kept dragging her lower and lower... or so it seemed. Dark purple miasma floated upwards from the demon and began to form and underwater cloud, poisoning everything around it, including Nanami. She tried desperately to break free, she was running out of air, and the miasma seemed to speed up her shortness of breath and it weaken her like nothing she has ever felt before. The demon pulled her closer to him and slipped off the black gold ring off her finger. Nanami clutched her fist tightly so he wouldn't take it, but the miasma just strangled her and prevented her from doing anything too long. The last thing she heard before she lost consciousness was someone diving into the water.

Sesshoumaru swam through the water, into the cloud of miasma that loomed deep below the ship. He swam through it easily, but nothing, and no one was in it. -They cannot take hold of her ring. I will not let Naraku get anymore power.- He thought, making it seem as if he only cared about Nanami's power. Not Nanami herself. Not finding anything in the miasma, Sesshoumaru swam back up toward the surface. He swam to the boat and climbed it's side and pulled himself over the railing.

Naraku's puppet held Nanami's limp body in his arms, salty water dripping from her long, undone hair. Some of the clips were still holding some hair in place on her crown, and Sesshoumaru's soaked jacket glued itself to her body. But most importantly, Sesshoumaru noticed that she no longer had the ring. On her finger was just a faint impression of the ring from never taking it off since childhood.

"Well, this is news. The great Lord Sesshoumaru is losing it. He couldn't even rescue a pathetic little girl from the sea. Much less notice that I was in the water long before she even got on the boat. Or that my master was a mere half a mile away from you. You're losing it, Sesshoumaru. You're getting weak...Pathetic..." The imposter proclaimed. Sesshoumaru's breath got heavier, and he closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were blood-red. The air around the ship got dense, and Sesshoumaru was starting to look more like a vicious killing machine than the simple soldier he resembled. Down below the deck, Ryuu glared from under the barred cover above the stairs, ready to attack. Maria hid under the stairs behind barrels of food and wine, holding both palms over her mouth, scared out of her wits.

"Oh, I seem to have struck a nerve... Short tempered like your half-breed brother. You two are more alike than you both fear." The imposter taunted. "And what's more... you're like your father, Sesshoumaru. You have a craving for weak, pitiful creatures... like that little brat that follows you like a tail... or this piece of pretty meat."

Sesshoumaru charged at the imposter, who jumped behind the barricade of soldiers. Sesshoumaru seemed to lose control and destroy anything in his path. He jumped the fifteen feet between the dock and the back of the ship and slashed the already frightened soldiers in half. Nothing seemed to stop him. He cut through the two dozen armed soldiers like they were nothing. Vlad stared in horror at the spectacle, disturbed and nerve-racked by the sight. He stared in horror as Sesshoumaru got closer and closer.

"The sword. Where is it?" Naraku demanded. Vlad snapped out of his horrified thoughts and took Nanami's sword from his belt and handed it reluctantly to Naraku. He had stolen it from the ship before the festival. -Like that stupid sword is going to do anything to that beast.- Vlad doubted Naraku's reasoning. He was even starting to doubt the deal he made with him.

Naraku's puppet just smirked at Sesshoumaru's rage and flashed him the ring. Sesshoumaru stopped his rampage, blood dripping from his claws and his mouth. He bared his fierce fangs and growled at the puppet, who smiled and threw the ring to the real Naraku. Then he kissed Nanami's lips, taunting Sesshoumaru.

"Mmm... delicious. " The puppet licked his lips and looked at the girl with lust in his eyes, knowing it would drive Sesshoumaru insane. And it did. Sesshoumaru lunged at the puppet with unseen speed and his claws tore through his flesh completely, his hand sticking out from the puppet's back, his heart in Sesshoumaru's claws. Sesshoumaru frowned. he had never seen a Naraku puppet with his heart within his body. Something was off...

The puppet coughed up blood and smiled weakly. "Too late, you mongrel." Sesshoumaru growled and grabbed his hand back, clutching the heart in his hand. Nanami dropped to the floor with a loud thud. Sesshoumaru glanced down at her, not even noticing that his attack had left his deep claw marks on her right shoulder. His burgundy eyes shot toward the real Naraku. He was holding the ring in his hand, admiring it's now dark stone. It turned to a dark blue, almost black color, like that of a severe storm over the sea, and swirled in the opposite direction. Vlad stood next to Naraku, glaring at Sesshoumaru with disturbed eyes. Like he was looking at an abomination. He had a shotgun in his hands, aimed at Sesshoumaru. His hands were shaking as the furious, red eyed demon, blood dripping from his claws and mouth, fangs bared, approached him. The veins in his arms seemed to pop out of his skin as he tensed his claws. Naraku just waited patiently for Sesshoumaru to reach him.

Down on the old dock, Nanami slowly regained consciousness, and as soon as her eyes opened, she clutched her shoulder in pain. She looked at her wound and saw claw marks. -Sesshoumaru- She growled and barely got on her knees, the miasma still poisoning her body. She repressed the shock and gasped as she saw countless bodies littering the docks, the shore and the sea around her. the water and sand were tinted red, and the smell of iron and the sea filled the air. Nanami gagged and looked around, until she found Sesshoumaru, looking like a wild beast, heading toward Vlad. She began to panic. -What is he doing?-

"Stay back, beast!" Vlad trembled.

"You are not afraid, are you?" Sesshoumaru said in a voice so deep and harsh, it seemed not his own. Naraku formed a cloud of miasma around him and began rising up in the air. Sesshoumaru snarled like a ferocious dog and lashed his whip at Naraku, slicing off only part of his body. Naraku laughed and glared at Sesshoumaru.

"I have what I want. there is nothing you can do to stop me. I'll make sure to drop by when you return home."

Sesshoumaru growled once more and aimed at Naraku's arm and sliced it off before he got too far. Nanami's sword plummeted to the ground and Naraku cursed in anger, but did not dare to come down with Sesshoumaru guarding it, so he just disappeared in a cloud of miasma. Sesshoumaru turned toward Vlad, who aimed at Sesshoumaru and prepared to shoot.

"No!!" Nanami screamed, trying to get up and run toward Sesshoumaru, but stopped when Vlad made a stupid mistake and pulled the trigger. The bullet missed Sesshoumaru by a hair, but it still drove him up a wall. He growled and grabbed the gun out of Vlad's hand and threw it on the ground. Vlad backed away by three steps, scared out of his mind, but not willing to show it. Nanami held on to her shoulder and neared the two men slowly, fearing for Vlad's life. even though he acted harshly and coldly today, Nanami still didn't want him dead. All the years she had known him, he was her friend, her protector, a shoulder to cry on. But ever since he met Sesshoumaru, he had changed. But Sesshoumaru had no care who he was. He sliced through him with his acid whip. Vlad let out a pained shout and dropped to the ground. The last thing he saw was a crying Nanami, blood trickling down her arm and fingers, the wind blowing stray hairs across her face. Then his eyes closed, his last breath escaped his body, and he collapsed onto the blood stained sand. Nanami put a hand over her mouth to silence a shocked gasp and closed her eyes. She opened them again to see Sesshoumaru, still with blood red eyes, staring at her. She let out a frightened gasp as she saw him. His face was so evil, eyes bloodthirsty, fangs of a monster, blood splattered all over him. She had seen his more demonic side before, but not to this extent, and not with this much death. He approached her, angry that she pitied the man that almost took her innocence and treated her like his property. As he got closer, Nanami backed away faster, and tears cascaded down her cheeks. Finally, she ran toward the ship that was returning back to the docks. The ship got closer to the dock and Maria peeked out from the galley to see if it was safe to come out, but as soon as she saw all the corpses, she screamed and ran back down below the deck. Nanami glanced back to see where Sesshoumaru was, only to find him back to normal, right behind her, with her sword in his hand.

"Stay away from me. You've done enough." She chocked out. -He's not the Sesshoumaru I knew. That's not him...- Sesshoumaru looked at her, not knowing what to think, much less what to do. He swallowed a lump in his throat when he saw what he had done to her shoulder. Nanami jumped onto the ship and rushed down to the galley. Sesshoumaru leapt onboard and looked around at all he had done. The coast looked like a massacre had taken place on it. Corpses lined the docks, stained the white sands and floated by in the water. Sesshoumaru did not even realize that he had done so much damage and taken so many lives. He slid down against the railing to the floor, looking at his hands, covered in blood of men who's lives he took, whose families he crippled, whose wives he widowed, whose children he left fatherless. -What have I done? How could I stoop so low to let the demon in me take over? How could I lose control?- Sesshoumaru now reminded himself of his own brother when he let his demonic power take over. He could not believe that he, who was always in control of himself, let something like this happen. He refused to admit it, but he got a feeling that maybe Naraku was right, he was getting weak. At least, he was weak when Nanami was around. Sesshoumaru looked at his hands again and growled. He stood up and leaned over the railing. Ryuu jumped the stairs down from the wheel, and stared at Sesshoumaru.

"What happened?" He asked quietly, without his usual playful tone.

Sesshoumaru glanced down at the waves again. He reached down into the water and washed off all the blood from his hands, arms, face, neck and chest. Ryuu didn't say anything for a while, until Sesshoumaru was done.

"There's some clean clothes in the captain's cabin. I'll be at the wheel if you need me." Ryuu mumbled and returned to his post. Sesshoumaru sighed and took off his shirt, drenched in blood. He threw it over board and walked into the cabin and shut the door.

Down in the galley, Nanami sat at a lone wooden table with two benches on either side while Maria cleansed her upper arm and shoulder. Nanami sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes, only to make way for more.

"My God... Who did this to you?" Maria asked as she looked at the claw mark in shock. "What happened, anyway? Who is that man?"

"He killed Vlad. And the whole army. He did this." Nanami whispered.

"Zhanna? Tell me... who are you?" Maria asked quietly while she bandaged Nanami's arm. Nanami looked up at Maria, not knowing if she should explain herself to her longtime friend. She sighed and closed her eyes.

"My name is not Zhanna. It's Nanami. Well... it's not my real name, but it's the only one I can remember." Nanami opened her eyes. "I am not like you... I am immortal, but I have a responsibility that was entrusted to me by an ancient brotherhood. I was not born here, in this nation, like I led you to believe. I was born in Siberia to a warlord and a Rumanian queen. My father was allied to a Japanese demon general. And when I turned 8, my father took me with him on one of his visits to Japan. Then he had an urgent call to war back home, so he left with the demon general to the frontlines, while I stayed back in Japan... For nine years. That man that came on the boat with me is the demon general's son. Well, one of them. We had a big fight when his father died, he thought I killed him, so I left back home. But with no memory of him. Two hundred years later, I came back because I fled from this city, remember? I refused to go to war against my own people? That's when this whole mess, this whole hunt for what I guard, started." Nanami decided to leave it at that. There was much, much more that happened to her, but she wasn't laying out all her life on the table for her friend of 5 years. Maria leaned back in her seat, forgetting that there was no back to it, and caught herself before she fell to the floor.

"So... the whole story about you being just a merchant's daughter from a small town, accidently appointed as admiral by a psychotic general is not true?"

"No..."

"I don't know what to say..."

"You don't have to say anything. I lied to almost everyone. I had to."

"That's why you're so distant all the time."

"You do not know what I have been through... And I pray you never have to... Please... let's talk about something else."

Maria looked at Nanami's teary eyes for a while. Then finished bandaging her arm. She stood up and cleaned up the table.

"Alright. It'll heal, but I'm sure that's gonna leave a scar." Maria sighed then fidgeted with her fingers.

"Is... is Ryuu... you know, that dangerous?" She asked nervously. Nanami thought for a moment, then shook her head.

"Not nearly."

"Are you?"

Nanami looked up at Maria in confusion. "I would never do such a cruel thing." She said quietly and walked out of the galley back onto the deck. She walked over to the railing and out her hands over her face, trying to stop herself from crying. -What kind of monster is he? How could he be so cruel?-

"It's not his fault." Ryuu said quietly, hoping he could make Nanami understand. She whirled around and glared at him. Then she closed her eyes and turned away, opening them when she faced the ocean.

"You're not a demon. That's why you don't understand. When we are desperate to protect our self or someone important to us, or if someone gets really deep under our skin, our demonic side tends to take over and do anything it pleases. That rarely happens to Sesshoumaru, he knows how to control himself, but when it does..." Ryuu explained.

"You are not helping. That will not make me forgive him...Do you think the soldiers' families are going to forgive him?" Nanami refused to be lenient with Sesshoumaru. "As soon as we reach the shores, none of you will ever see me again. Especially him. He has done enough to me ever since we met. I have had enough. I hate him more than anyone else on this earth."

"You really mean it, huh?" Ryuu asked, actually surprised he asked that. -Of course she means it, idiot. Why else would she still be fighting with him?-

"Yes. He's the one person besides Naraku who I would never forgive... You can go and tell him that. Today was the last time he spoke or even saw me."

"You should tell him yourself. He wouldn't listen to me."

"That's his problem." Nanami mumbled and left back to the galley where she fell asleep on a small, old cot in a dark room behind the galley.

Ryuu ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "Yeah..." Then he took a deep breath and walked into the captain's cabin. Sesshoumaru was wearing new, clean clothes, and was sitting on the floor, resting his head against the wall next to the door. The room's walls were stacked with oak shelves bursting with scrolls and parchments. There was one cot under the glass window on the right side, and a large desk with a massive map spread out on top.

Ryuu sat down on the desk and looked at Sesshoumaru. He sighed and prepared to deliver him the news. Sesshoumaru took his hands off his temples and opened his eyes.

"I heard. I do not need you to deliver me what she said when she screamed it out behind this door."

"Right. So... what do you want to do?"

"Nothing. I should have never chased after her. It was foolish of me. I will return to my life, she will return to hers. Simple as that." Sesshoumaru stood up and took a flask of sake from the table. He hated sake. Yet he opened the flask and took a long gulp of it. Frowning from the strong smell and taste. "Like father, like son... chasing after something he cannot have."