Chapter 6:

Attachment

"Why was I holding on to something that would never be mine? But isn't that what people do?"

-Bret Easton Ellis, Lunar Park

With Inuyasha less hostile now that he got his anger out by arguing with Sesshoumaru and then stuffing his face full of boar, the camp was relatively quiet. They needed to talk, but no one knew where to start. Shippou surprised everyone by slowly walking up to Ryura and looking him in the eyes. The Dragon Daiyoukai was still seated on the ground, so looking him in the eyes wasn't real hard to do for Shippou, especially not when Ryura lowered himself a bit to help the kit out.

"I know what you did on that island; I was there – the big pink bubble with eyes. What I don't know is what made you so evil. If you're friends with Sesshoumaru and truly that Ryura of the East, then what happened to make you like...how you were? How are we supposed to trust that you've change?" he asked, his voice as steady as he could make it. He was scared out of his mind, but for his pack, for his adopted mother, he wanted to make sure.

His words were ones every person of Inuyasha's pack wanted to ask, but for some reason were avoiding it. From the mouth of babes, after all.

Pain filled Ryura's eyes and he quickly looked away, deciding to stare into the fire instead of answer straight away. Silence descended on the camp once again, until Tsuyoshi cleared his throat.

"If you wish, my Lord, I will explain?" He asked softly.

Ryura looked from the fire to his newly named Steward. He shook his head, "No. It's my story. I'll tell it."

"Y-you don't have to, if it's painful..." Kagome said gently. Ryura answered her by giving her a small, pained smile.

"I do have to. Don't worry," he said with a sigh. He inhaled deeply and said one word, a name. "Ryuukotsusei."

"That gnarly looking bastard? What did he do?" Inuyasha asked gruffly. It seemed his slip up would go ignored for the sake of information. It wasn't like he lied, really. Ryuukotsusei was a bastard, born illegitimately to an unwed and unmated mother.

"He attacked my mother and father after they refused to help him wage war on the West. You see, Inuyasha," Ryura said the hanyou's name for the first time, "Your family and mine have had strong bonds throughout the centuries. The West and East have been allies and close friends since before our great-grandsire's time. Ryuukotsusei was a distant cousin of mine, but quite a bit older than I was."

"And he won, I take it?" Miroku asked next.

Ryura nodded slowly. "It was an ambush. Ryuukotsusei was angry, of course, but no one thought he would be angry enough to attack my family. He waited until my parents and I took our evening walk before I was put to bed. My parents had no time to react. We saw Ryuukotsusei coming, and my father and thought he only wanted to speak. No one was expecting him to shove his hand through my father's chest, and then rip out my mother's throat while she was in shock at seeing my father die."

"H-how old were you, when this happened?" It was Kagome's turn to ask a question. She was startled a bit when Ryura's blood red ruby-like eyes met her own.

"I was twenty-one summers." At his words Shippou allowed his head to fall until his chin touched his chest. The humans of the group looked confused. At twenty-one a person was fully grown, but his parents were still putting him to bed?

"Kit, tell them your age." Sesshoumaru said, speaking for the first time since they began talking about the former Lord and Lady of the East's deaths. He remembered the time well. Never had he seen his father so enraged. It was the first time he saw his mother's tears, as well.

Shippou stuttered while still looking down, "I'm close to being thirty-three summers. Y-youkai, Dragons most of all, age slower than humans. If he was twenty-one, he would...would have been about six in human terms."

Kagome gasped loudly as she swung her gaze to Ryura. He saw his parents die, and by someone from his family, no less!

Tsuyoshi sighed through his nose. His Lord had already explained this next part during their travels. He wouldn't allow him to repeat it again. Despite what he had done in the past, no one deserved to relive horrible parts of their lives such as this so many times in one day, much less force to speak of them aloud.

"After the Lord and Lady's death, Ryuukotsusei took Lord Ryura. He saw the potential power that lied deep within Lord Ryura, even when he was a child. My Lord Shoichi was on even ground with Lord Touga. My Lady Kasumi was nothing to brush off, either. She could hold her own for at least an hour against Lord Shoichi. You can imagine how powerful their offspring would be – especially with the swords gifted to him by Lord Shoichi, which Ryuukotsusei stole in order to train Lord Ryura with." He said then paused for a moment to let it sink in. "He treated Lord Ryura as if he were lower than a criminal and was very cruel to him. By the time Lord Touga sealed Ryuukotsusei away, it was too late for Lord Ryura. He would have to come out of the darkness on his own."

"After he was sealed, that's when I went out on my own. I found the others, my brothers, and we formed the Four War Gods after discovering spheres of power. Imitations of the Shikon no Tama," Ryura admitted. He felt his stomach turn having to even mention the spheres, but he had to for the sake of all listening.

"And then the events on Haroi Island took place," Miroku offered, and Ryura nodded.

"Honestly, you would think someone would be angry meeting the people that killed them, but..." Ryura trailed off to look at the fire merrily dancing away, despite the depressing atmosphere. "I want to thank you, each of you. If it weren't for you – well, I don't want to imagine what I would be doing right now."

He caught movement from the corner of his eye and looked up to see Kagome standing and walking over to an odd yellow bag that looked like it had seen way too much travel. Next to it, lying on silk-like bedding, was a box wrapped in blue silk. Oddly enough, the silk was the color of Ryura's hair. She picked up the box and walked over to him to sit seiza in front of him. The action caused him to sputter with panic. What was she doing!?

Sesshoumaru rose a brow at the action. She honestly had no idea what she was doing, he could tell by the look on her face. Didn't Inuyasha teach her anything?

"Here, these are yours," Kagome said, bringing everyone from their thoughts. They all watched as she unwrapped the box, fiddled with the latch, and opened the lid to reveal Fujinga and Raijinga. The swords gleamed in sharp contrast against the black silk padding they rested on.

Ryura looked from her face to the swords, then to Sesshoumaru. The Inu Daiyoukai shrugged one shoulder and nodded towards his swords. So, then the Shikon Miko was the ones his sword had chosen as a temporary master. Why?

He intended on asking, but his swords prevented it for now. Each thrummed with a pulse of power, greeting Ryura in a way only they could. He reached out with both clawed hands and carefully took a hold of the hilts of each sword. They began to rattle, shaking with what appeared to be excitement at being back in their proper master's hands, but Ryura quickly silenced them by pressing down on them with his youki. The swords greedily soaked up the white energy, feeding from it, an action they had not done in so many moon cycles. The thrived off their master's youki. It empowered them in a way nothing else could, not even the blood of their enemies.

The rest of Inuyasha's pack watched on with worry. Seeing Ryura with his large and deadly looking swords in his hands while Kagome knelt in front of him like a sacrificial lamb did nothing for their nerves. They were kept in place, however, by a firm glare from Sesshoumaru. The glare silently screamed, "Do not interrupt unless you wish to be forced to relocate your arms."

They watched as he lifted the swords in the air, and each of the hanyou's pack sucked in a breath. Was he really going to kill her, with all of them right there with the children? Shippou let out a soft whine he couldn't keep in, and Inuyasha quickly had him by the back of his haori and lifted him to sit on his fire-rat clad shoulder.

They exhaled in relief when Ryura sheathed the swords on his back, in the scabbards that had been empty until now. Now he looked like the Leader of the Four War Gods they remembered a little too well.

"Lady Kagome," he said, making her look up at him. "I cannot begin to thank you enough for returning my swords. They mean more to me than I can rightfully explain."

Ryura ignored her squeak of protest at being called Lady, and bowed his head, his hands planting firmly on his knees as he lowered himself in a bow as far as he could in his sitting position. He was low enough his forehead almost touched the now closed box that were once a home for his swords.

"Keh, I'm just happy they're gone. Fuckers wouldn't leave Kagome alone," Inuyasha grumbled from his spot opposite of Ryura and Kagome.

Ryura's head snapped up as his body leaned to the side a bit to see around Kagome until his eyes rested on Inuyasha, "What do you mean?" he asked. Miroku answered for him, considering the glares Inuyasha was receiving from Sesshoumaru and Kagome, who had looked over her shoulder.

"Perhaps two weeks after the events on Haroi Island, Lady Kagome went to bathe. She went by herself, when she normally goes with Sango but due to a...misunderstanding." He was interrupted by a snort from Sango, "More like I was worried you were going to go into pervert mode when your 'cursed' hand started twitching like a maniac."

Miroku's cheeks were stained with a blush and he cleared his throat, "Anyway. When she was returning, she screamed. Inuyasha and Sango ran off to find her – I was tied up in a heated discussion with Kirara-," he was interrupted again, this time by Kagome. "No. He was literally tied up with Kirara watching him."

Kagome giggled at Miroku's pained grunt. Why must the Kami punish him so!

"Anyway. When they found her, your swords were sticking from the earth, hilts crossed – even though we thought them to be destroyed during your fight with Inuyasha. Inuyasha attempted to be rid of them time and time again, but your swords would always find their way back to Lady Kagome when she was alone. As a last resort, Inuyasha attempted to destroy them," he was not going to be interrupted again! He didn't pay attention to Ryura's growl and kept on talking, "but as you can see, it did not work. We took them to Totosai, and by this time a barrier had formed around them possibly due to Inuyasha's rough treatment. He explained they had chosen Lady Kagome as a temporary master until a new one could be found. He gifted her the box and silk to make it easier on her to carry them – they are extremely heavy and Lady Kagome is such a fragile thing."

No! He wouldn't be interrupted! He pulled out a ofuda and slapped it on Inuyasha's forehead before the hanyou could finish opening his mouth. With a crack of blue holy energy snapping from the ofuda Inuyasha went as still as a boulder, golden eyes settled on Miroku with a glare. Off to the side, Miroku heard the water Dragon Tsuyoshi snort, trying to keep a laugh from escaping. Miroku just ignored that.

"We attempted to aid her in finding a new master who would not abuse their power, but in the end, when Lord Sesshoumaru could not even touch them, she decided to keep them with her, for as long as it took. She has been caring for the swords until now." Miroku nodded, happy with himself. He kept himself from being interrupted quite nicely, if he had any say in the matter.

Ryura had by now straightened himself and was no longer bowing before Kagome. His arms were crossed and he had a thoughtful look on his face. His swords had done such a thing? He knew they were sentient, but that seemed a bit extreme. He threw a glancing glare back at his swords, one they responded to with an innocent pulse of energy, as if they were children being scolded and saying, "I didn't mean to do it, it just happened."

Yeah, right.

Kagome moved to rise to her feet, and was half way to standing but was stopped by Ryura suddenly reaching out and taking ahold of her wrist. Startled, she looked down at him, her blue eyes staring at him as if he grew a second head.

"I apologize for their behavior. It was very unbecoming of them and was an unneeded hindrance to you and your pack," he said then quickly let go of her.

"Damn right it was!" Inuyasha yelled, having been freed from his paralyzed state. The ofuda was quickly slapped back on his forehead, before Sesshoumaru could rip Inuyasha's tongue out of his mouth. The Inu Daiyoukai looked like he was seriously considering it, and probably would have, if Rin hadn't fallen asleep against Ah-Un while Miroku was talking.

"Inuyasha, sit boy." Kagome said for added effect. He slammed into the ground despite the ofuda. It only meant he would be face down in the dirt until Miroku felt like rolling him over and releasing him.

She hugged the now oddly light box against her chest, and gave Ryura a smile. "It's alright. They ended up growing on me. I'll actually miss them," she said with a soft laugh.

Before Ryura could ask what she meant, Kagome had already turned and was wrapping the box back in the blue silk that reflected his hair color. He hn'd much like Sesshoumaru would and folded his arms once more over his chest. They 'grew' on her? Behind him, his swords rumbled in their sheaths as if saying, "I have no idea what she could possibly mean!"

Time ticked by slowly as Ryura went on to explain how he had returned to the living. When he mentioned Touga, Inuyasha's father, had become a Kami, everyone was easily able to see Inuyasha swell with pride.

He too, like Sesshoumaru, was the son of a God.