Thy Thralldom Come

by The Monday Child

Two sisters of royal blood are captured by the enemy. Their kingdom is no more. A cruel prince has taken them both for his own, tempting them into depths unexplored by good girls. Their choice is clear: lose themselves or lose their lives.

8. Better an Ignus Fatuus

Eight: Better an Ignus Fatuus

Inuyasha was torn between going straight to the slave's cell or first working out some of his extra aggression in the training room. Because what if she continued to turn him down and he was stuck with a raging erection again? He didn't really think it would take too much longer to bring her around, especially after having spent the night on her knees with her jaw wide open for a phantom cock, but she had surprised him so far and it wouldn't be out of character for her to continue to do so. Just the way her pink little mouth would twist in disgust when she was forced to meet his eyes got him hard. Why? He didn't know and didn't feel like examining it. All he knew was that he was desperate to be inside her and in his present condition didn't trust himself to remain as much a gentleman as he had been to her so far.

Maybe his lovely sister-in-law could help him out.

Kagura was sometimes half-crazy and sometimes almost normal. It all depended on how much opium she'd partaken of that particular day and what was going on in her brain. She hadn't always been like that, however. Years ago, back when she and Sesshomaru had first been married, she was beautiful and smart with a good heart, though outwardly selfish and spoiled as women of her station inevitably were. All the court had been vying for her hand due to those qualities and her father's recent ascent to a prominent position. Unfortunately for her, she possessed the very human trait of wanting what she knew she could never truly have, and so she was completely in love with Sesshomaru.

It hadn't taken her very long to realize that the crown prince was emotionally unavailable as well as a complete prude. After the first couple weeks of their marriage, she'd come looking for the other prince.

Inuyasha hadn't given Kagura much thought other than absentmindedly realizing she was built like a whore even though she dressed like a lady. So when she'd shown up to watch him practice his swordsmanship in the training room, wafting the scent of her arousal his way, he was shocked, but more than a little turned on.

"Wait outside the room, Sango," he'd told his shadow with a grin. "I'm about to get back at Sesshomaru for calling you a 'muscular insect'."

Ever since that first time, he'd been fucking his sister-in-law on a regular basis, even after she had started to drug herself into a never-ending dream, though it became more out of a fondness for her than anything else.

Present-day Inuyasha rapped on her door three times rapidly and then a pause before knocking again twice. Their secret code. Not that they ever needed it. Everyone knew, anyway, and it wasn't like she didn't do the exact same thing with every willing and able male in the palace anyway.

It took her a while to open the door, but when she did, she was completely naked. Inuyasha privately thanked himself for thinking up this option instead of just working out. Unlike a human, her body showed no signs of her drug abuse other than her perpetually shrunken pupils. Her breasts were still full and plump, her ass was still perfect, her skin was still smooth.

"I was wondering if you'd deign to pay me a visit while you were home," she drawled, closing the door behind him.

His hands were already all over her, squeezing her ass and drawing her close to him. "How could I ignore my favorite sister-in-law?"

She snorted. "You've been here for nearly two weeks and only just now came here. Save your lies for someone who will believe them."

Inuyasha sighed. So that's how it was going to be. Walking over to the bed, he sat down and slipped off his shoes. "Sorry. I got a couple new slaves and it's been hectic."

Kneeling before him so easily, so unlike one of his slaves, Kagura undid his breeches. "The Higurashi ones? How's that been going?"

He groaned as she took him in her mouth. Through slitted eyes, he saw the streaks of lipstick she was leaving on his cock, her dark head bobbing up and down. On a sudden impulse, he pulled her hair free of its bun. Waves. Just like hers, though not as relaxed, not as free.

"One is already broken. Happened before I bought her. The other is… She's a complete fucking nightmare." Kagura took him down her throat and he threaded his fingers through her hair, just barely keeping from calling out the slave's name. "A beautiful nightmare of a headache."

Her head drew up and she sucked the head of his cock before leaving it, a strand of spit connecting her lips to him. "You know about your marriage, correct? They're going to pick a girl for you if you don't hurry up and do it yourself."

Snorting at the reminder, he said, "Yeah, yeah, I fucking know already."

"So why don't you just pick Sango? I'm sure they'd allow it if it's you."

Inuyasha was honestly shocked at her suggestion. His shadow? "Sango's not of noble blood. Her people are servants and can never hold a rank like that because of their past crimes. Anyway, she's supposed to marry someone of her tribe and make more little slayers."

She raised one brow. "And are you okay with that?"

It wasn't like he hadn't thought it over already a ton of times. "Yeah. I mean, it'll be weird not seeing her and talking to her every day after her dismissal, but we always knew that was how it had to be."

Kagura smirked. "Does Sango know that's how you feel?"

Inuyasha ignored her. "How should I deal with my slave?"

A swift wind took him by surprise and pushed him on his back. Kagura straddled him, sinking down on his waiting cock and enveloping him in her always tight pussy.

"The nightmare one?"

He nodded, watching her work his pole with routine movements that still had enough skill to arouse. At least she didn't act like this was anything other than what it was.

"Flog her pussy."

His hands flew to her hips and he began to raise his own, suddenly unbearably close.

"But she's never been fucked before," he gasped. "Never even been touched before."

Now Kagura was feeling it as well. Cupping her generous breasts, she began to squeeze them together, putting on a little show for him, her red gaze clashing with his darkened golden one. Her fingers pinched and pulled at her nipples and her pussy tightened around him.

"Imagine how wet she'll get, Inuyasha. Her virgin pussy dripping for you, her glistening wet cherry so ready for your cock that she'll beg for it, beg you to stick it in her."

When he came, he was lost in that picture she painted for him, his mind so full of that image of Kagome, a helplessly bound slave with a pussy freshly pinkened by the flogger, wet and crying for him to relieve her, to satisfy her. For a second, it was so real that he could almost hear her voice telling him not that she hated him but that she wanted him.

Kagura disengaged herself from him and rolled over on her side, facing away from the half-demon. "There's a full basin in the bathing room. Clean yourself quickly and get out."

It was obvious she'd taken very little, if any, pleasure from their coupling. Why she'd done it at all remained a mystery to him. Maybe if he were a different sort of person in different circumstances then he'd take the time to figure out why, maybe even try talking to her, but with how violently emotional she could get, especially when she reeked of poppy as she did, he didn't even want to try anymore. So he just did as she commanded him to do and left as quickly as he'd come.

Tracking down Sango was easy enough as she was never far from him, even when he was with other women. Technically, she should be with him at all times, acting like a shadow as her title implied, but the rules were a little relaxed with the two of them. She knew that he hated feeling smothered like that and his parents knew that it also made him feel weak, so no one complained if they were briefly apart here and there.

Sango took one look at him and wrinkled her nose. "Kagura? Really?"

He shrugged. "We're about to go to the dungeon. I didn't want to get too worked up with her."

The two of them walked together, their steps matching. "You could have just come to me, you know." She said it teasingly, but he could hear the hurt behind her words.

"My genius sister-in-law gave me an idea. Go get the flogger and some ropes and meet me down there."

Sango did as ordered, her face questioning but her body obeying.

After telling the guard to turn off the observation orb, he descended to the slave's room, skin prickling with anticipation. For however short a time, he and his slave were going to be alone together.

Suddenly, he realized that fooling around with Kagura may not have been enough.

O\o/O

Tears of relief sprang to Kagome's eyes when she saw that awful dog come through the cell door. Her jaw hurt and her knees were aching and she was so cold and thirsty and she needed a chamber pot badly. The dog looked surprised when he saw her, and at first she thought it was because of her tears, that he finally felt like he had done something bad and realized he couldn't treat another thinking, feeling being that way.

"Oh shit, I forgot I left you like that."

With the barest of touches of his fingers to her collar, she was free, and she immediately collapsed to the ground, no longer held up by supernatural force. Her entire body hurt and she was so exhausted, so very tired, that even the bare rug felt like the most comfortable of beds to her.

Rough hands gave her unwanted touches all over her body and she tensed anew. It didn't occur to her that he was trying to warm her up and massage away her rigidity from kneeling all night. The bastard just wanted to touch her, to gain any satisfaction he could from her weakened body. Kagome hardly cared. She was too tired to fight. After an entire night spent on her knees, jaw held open so wide it hurt, tears and her own mucus falling into her mouth, she just wanted to be left alone to sleep and wait for her sister to get them out of this hell and back to Higurashi.

A sharp blow to her bottom made her yelp and she scrambled away from the pain. Shooting a glare and praying to the goddess that death would come at last to all dogs, she soon lost her anger to a wave of fear.

The dog was holding a whip. Smirking at her wide eyes, he nodded at Sango. "Tie her down." Turning back to Kagome, he said, "Make it easy on yourself and don't do anything stupid this time."

His words made her do the exact opposite of what he said and she was proud of how she made Sango curse under her breath. Tired though she was, Kagome fought. Maybe not as hard as she desperately could, but it was mostly out of principle this time. After all, she couldn't escape before Kikyo's unknown plan was put into action. She didn't want to ruin anything this time.

Once she was all tied up, this time in satin instead of that horrid rope from before, she allowed herself to relax. As much as she could, anyway. Lying prone on the floor, tied so that her legs were spread and her knees were up by her chest, she was humiliatingly exposed. Trying to calm herself down so that she would not struggle and hurt herself and panic, she told herself maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Nothing could be as bad as how he'd left her the entire night. Maybe they would just perform those acts on one another in front of her again and then she could take a nap or something.

Hells, she was so wrong.

With one light flick of his wrist, the ends of the whip went sailing straight between her legs to her most delicate parts and she screamed. It wasn't until after she'd finished screaming that she realized it didn't really hurt, not too much, anyway. It stung, but it wasn't terrible.

"You picked well, Sango. Nice and soft. Perfect for teasing. Perfect for my virgin here."

"I'm not yours!" Kagome yelled, wishing the dog was close enough so she could bite him again.

He raised a brow. "I literally have you tied up in my basement like a load of vegetables from market. You're as mine as it can get."

She didn't quite know how to respond to that, but was saved from verbally sparring with him by another flick of the whip between her legs. This time she only gasped. What the hell was he trying to accomplish with this nonsense?

"I'm not sure if I like this better than just taking you over my knee the old-fashioned way," he murmured mostly to himself before striking her again. "This is a beautiful view, but I think it would be fun to have you squirming in my lap." Five rapid hits to her very sensitive exposed parts had her on the verge of tears.

"Stop it! Why can't you just leave me alone?"

Dragging the thin strips of leather over her reddened skin and up along her stomach, he stopped just below her breasts, watching how she shivered. To her complete shame and horror, her nipples hardened at his approach and the touch of the leather, and she wasn't the only one who noticed. It wasn't her fault if it felt a little good. That's what he was trying to do. He was trying to make her weak and he knew exactly how to do it. But she wasn't going to give in. Her virginity was all she had left with which to spite him.

Dangling the whip above her breasts, the leather strips were nearly touching her yearning nipples and Kagome found her back arching without her consent in a bid for that small pleasure of stimulation. Just as she was about to make contact, Inuyasha raised his arm and brought the whip down on both her breasts hard, hard enough for her to cry out as though it were the first time she'd ever been hit. She was more surprised than hurt. Kagome cursed herself for being caught off-guard by something entirely predictable. The dog liked to hurt. He "bought" her in order to hurt her.

"I can't leave you alone," he admitted, following it up with another whack to her chest. "I like the way you play my game." Whack! She whimpered in pain. "I like the sounds you make." Again, he hit her and she tried to swallow any noise. "I like the way you smell." Another blow, and what was that he just said? "And I'm really gonna like fucking you."

His nose twitched and his arm paused halfway to striking her. Instead, he tossed the whip to Sango and knelt between her spread legs.

"That was fast," he smirked.

Kagome felt her face somehow redden further than the bright red she knew it had to be since he'd started in on her.

"I d-don't know what you're talking about. Release me and leave me here alone to rot!" Her voice was high and panicked instead of the commanding Kikyo-like tone she longed for. Him being so very close to her, right there as he was, right after he had said and done such indecent things to her, was making her feel very strange.

"That's not gonna work." He tapped his nose. "This can tell when you're lying to me."

Oh gods, she had forgotten what Kikyo had told her about demons being able to sense lies. But that didn't mean she had to tell him the truth. That for whatever reason she was having some of the same feelings she'd had when watching him and his guard together and that even though he was hurting her the way he was hurting her excited her almost the way she used to be excited when they received a traveler at court, but in a deeper and more physical way she'd never experienced before.

His face lowered and his loathsome golden eyes were fixated at the very hot place between her legs.

"Please leave me alone," she choked, her begging hardly more than a whisper.

"What kind of master would I be if I left a pussy as pretty and hungry as yours unfulfilled?"

Out of nowhere, the tip of his tongue ran along the bare flesh of the last sacred thing she possessed and a burning fire awakened inside of her, roaring to life and turning her blood into magma.

"Goddess!" She had called upon the supreme deity out loud and she wasn't sure why. A prayer for strength? Out of fear? But though she was bound and with the enemy that had destroyed her homeland, she felt neither weak nor frightened. All she felt was unbearably hot and tingly.

"Forget that, Kagome. Only I can give you what you want now." The breath from his words puffed against her sensitive skin and she felt muscles she didn't even know she had jump. "Say you want it, and I'll give it to you." His fingers traced the insides of her thighs and she couldn't even squeeze them together or kick out at him. She could only feel herself grow even wetter in her pussy and have those juices run down her bottom and to the dungeon floor, the sensation arousing her further.

When she did nothing but whimper, his fingers ventured higher and a single claw brushed against the center of her longing and came back dripping wet. Looking her in the eye, Inuyasha brought the finger dipped in the evidence of her worst betrayal yet to his mouth, making a sound of enjoyment at her taste. Kagome reacted to the sight as though his mouth was on her own body instead and moaned in a combination of dread and desire. Yes, she wanted him to do to her what he had done to Sango, only she wanted it to go on for longer and over and over and over again.

"Ask me to fuck you and I'll do it," he purred, crawling over her so they were nearly nose to nose. In this position, it would be especially easy…

Kagome tried to close her eyes and block him out but all that did was bring vivid images of herself in Sango's place beneath him as they were that night they had performed sex on each other in front of her.

He continued, "I'll make you feel so good. Then I'll take you out of this room and give you a place fit for a princess." She gasped at both the word and the feel of his lips brushing against her cheek. "You can have everything you want. You can spend every day with your sister and every night with me." His lips went to her jaw and she craned her neck, unsure of whether she was trying to get away or trying to get him to kiss her in more sensitive places. "Tell me, Kagome."

The heat of his body was overwhelming her and she couldn't think anymore between his nearness and her own insufferable torment. Why not? It wasn't as wrong if she wanted it, too. And then she could be with Kikyo again.

"I…" she whispered shakily. He urged her on with an eager kiss to her throat. The sound of him undoing his belt made another rush of heat spark throughout her body and she whimpered. "I want—"

A knock to the door had her go entirely stiff and suddenly she was alone on the floor with a furious half-demon standing above her.

The spell was broken.

The dog nearly ripped the door off its hinges. "What the fuck do you want?" he growled.

The guard standing there was pale and shaky and it appeared as though it had taken everything in him to even make it this far.

"My deepest apologies, my lord, but your brother summons you with orders from the emperor himself."

Inuyasha glanced back at her and then at the whip in his shadow's hand. "Fuck," he hissed. "Fine. I'm going now." Already out of the room, he didn't look at Sango when he ordered her, "Leave her tied. We'll be back soon enough."

"No!" Kagome screeched. After a whole night of pain and then this new agony that had awakened her own demon inside her, she could not bear to be restricted again. "Don't you dare leave me bound again, you bastard!"

He turned and smirked at her. "Save some of that fire for later, princess. I'll be back so soon you'll barely have time to miss me."

Her scream of rage echoed in the empty room. Powered by pure fury, Kagome tugged at her bonds with a force that would have frightened her under normal circumstances. Without care for her own safety she kicked and punched and pulled and stretched, struggling to break free and scream the door down and find that bastard and pay him back for what he had done to her. By the time her sleepless night caught up with her and she was left limp and gasping, she lay on her stomach covered in sweat, entirely defeated and somehow even more securely tangled in the ropes than she had been at the start.

Deprived of her dignity, the dog's voice calling her "princess" resounded inside her head and she learned to hate until it hurt.

O\o/O

Inuyasha threw open the door to his brother's office so hard that the knob banged into the wooden wall covered in fine murals and tore a hole through it. Good. Let that asshole know what it was like for someone else to come in and ruin something he prized.

To the half-demon's immense disappointment, Sesshomaru didn't even flinch.

"As clumsy and uncoordinated as ever," he minced, flipping through some ancient tome. "I suppose your display of brute strength means I've gone and interrupted one of your whore-training sessions. How dreadful of me."

"What do you want, idiot? I've got a girl waiting for me. I know you don't know what that's like, but I'm in a fucking hurry."

"Father is dispatching you to the East. You're to leave at once."

Inuyasha felt his body go completely cold and then hot at the shock. "What? What the fuck for!?" Field assignments were never on such short notice and they were always delivered directly by his father. "I'm gonna go see the old man right now."

"I last saw Father a mere twenty minutes ago. Your mother had him blindfolded on a leash in some of her more risqué lingerie. Something tells me he does not want to be disturbed."

With a groan, he leaned back against the wall he'd just damaged. He could definitely understand not wanting to give out orders at a time like that, and it was unclear whether his mother or his father was the one in the lingerie, but why now? This was just the worst luck.

Inuyasha shrugged. "I ain't going. Do it yourself."

Both his brother and Sango showed surprise on their faces, which was extremely rare for the two of them.

"You were not supposed to find out the details of this mission until you met up with your unit in Higurashi lest listening ears turn into whispering lips, but there have been credible sightings of a group seen fleeing the castle ruins that contains the escaped queen and princess. We need someone we can trust directly involved in this, and it can be no one but you."

Though it stoked the flames of his ego to have his prick of a brother admit he was necessary, Inuyasha merely shrugged again.

"I told ya, I ain't going."

It seemed like the older demon was doing everything he could to avoid the indignity of rolling his eyes like the teenage girl he spent most of his time with.

"If you don't leave at once, I will order the entirety of your harem be sent to the worst brothels in the land where every petty thief and drug addict will get their hands on and in the prince's women."

The two siblings stared each other down long enough that Sango began to fidget uncomfortably. Should they begin to fight, she'd have to make sure it didn't go too far, and she was not looking forward to interrupting the emperor during his time with Izayoi. The emperor would understand, but the queen would not be fun to deal with after that.

"Keh. Fine. Whatever."

And that was that.

Inuyasha cursed under his breath on his way down to the dungeon. His shadow matched his steps, glancing at him worriedly.

"Why were you so reluctant to go back out in the field? You hate being here."

"Yeah, but how can I leave a slave at such a crucial point in her training? She was just about to give in. The idiot's so stubborn that if I leave now, she'll reset and I'll lose all the progress we've made."

Sango almost laughed aloud. "Do you honestly think there's been any progress?"

He snorted. "I know there's been. You didn't see what I saw in her eyes. She was going to tell me she wanted it but then that asshole ruined everything." Approaching the door, he said, "Grab some extra blankets from the other rooms. Nice ones. I won't allow her any heating, but she should get warmed up. And a jug of water, too."

Doing as he asked, she returned to find him still standing outside the door, staring pensively. "Are you going to try and woo her now?" she asked sarcastically.

"Shut up. I'm just going to let her sleep in the bed and have better meals and baths and stuff while I'm gone. She thinks I'm a monster right now. Usually the fear works for me but it's just making things worse this time."

Sango wasn't sure whether she was pleasantly surprised or disturbed by this change. It was true that normally the slaves gave in by now and that none of them were as rebellious as this particular one was, but there were other things he wasn't taking into consideration.

None of the other ones were from Higurashi.

Higurashi was a very…unique…place. An established kingdom like the others, it was nevertheless tiny, and rather than make any real alliances, they kept to themselves and warred with the remaining human tribes in the region, tribes which were left alone by the other kingdoms and viewed as made up of strange beast-like uncivilized creatures that should be kept away and left alone. Higurashi folk were interesting and mysterious to the more intellectual, but mostly everyone else thought of them as a bunch of inbred freaks. Their friendship with Hekigan, which had grown stronger with the arranged marriage of the crown prince, wasn't exactly helping that view.

But she had seen and experienced Higurashi and its people firsthand. Though she dared not admit it to anyone, they reminded her of her own people. Their lives were completely centered around fighting, to the point where even female children were taught to handle a weapon. Since little had been known about Higurashi beforehand and what was known came from the distant past as well as a source that she considered the peak of unreliability, this had made conquering them all the more difficult. While the Inu had officially declared victory when the queen had abandoned her own people, the people they sought to conquer refused to believe it and still fought in her name.

Even some no-name maid was going to pose more of a problem than anyone in Inu, and the sooner the prince understood that, the better.

Inuyasha reluctantly opened the door. Fuck, but he hated to leave when they had been so close. It was more than just starting her training over from scratch. Something about this girl just made him respond in ways he never had before. Maybe it was the fact that she was different because she was from Higurashi. Foreign and wild but with a beauty too pure for either her home or Inu. Or maybe it was the fact that she was completely crazy in a way that in turn drove him crazy. Whatever it was, she was different and he wasn't sure whether he liked it or hated it. He only knew that he wanted more.

Seeing her tied up on her stomach stirred something in him and he wondered if he could get away with leaving an hour late. But no, that glare she was giving him said it wouldn't be easy, not that he ever wanted it to be, and he'd have better luck seducing a fucking tiger.

Quickly, he untied her, cutting the expensive silk with an urgency he was surprised he felt. Once he was done, she sprang free, yanking the water jug from Sango and gulping it down. It would have been disgusting to watch if he were in his right mind, but as he had been infected by some of her crazy, Inuyasha found himself appreciating the sight of the water that escaped her lips running down her throat and breasts in thin rivulets that highlighted how flawless her skin remained even enslaved.

He waited until she'd finished drinking to say, "I'll be going away for a while." Inuyasha waited for her to ask where or for how long, but she just continued to glare at his feet. "Are you mad because I left you tied up again? It was only for a little this time, and trust me, that's nothing compared to the blue balls you gave me."

Steady glaring.

"I'll probably be gone a long time." In reality, it would only be a day or two. He simply needed to confirm some things and interview witnesses as to the whereabouts of the royal women. If Hekigan was indeed helping them escape, as many theorized, then they were inviting war. The Inu had never intended to go after them, figuring they were doing a fine job of running themselves into the ground on their own, but it could be an interesting diversion for a time. "It's a very dangerous place and a very dangerous mission. Isn't there anything you want to tell me?"

For the love of the gods, he hoped she would offer herself to him upon his return. At least an apology. He'd been more than fair to her. It was ridiculous that she could tempt him even dirty and unbathed as she was with a terrible attitude, but he wasn't lying when he'd said he liked her, even if that wasn't how she'd taken what he was saying as he flogged her. That memory alone was going to make sleeping difficult while he was away.

Slowly, she nodded, raising her summer sky eyes until they met his. "I hope you die."

Inuyasha acted without thinking, blood instantly pounding in his veins until he could hear it.

"Bitch." The command echoed and there was a split second of horror on her face before the spell forced her mouth to open and her knees to bend. He grabbed her jaw hard enough to hurt and bruise, which was easy for someone as soft and untried as she was.

Leaning down close, until his lips brushed against her ear, he reveled in the feeling of her trembling. "If you bite down again, I will crush your bones and no medicine or magic will ever be able to fix you. You will be ugly and even more useless than you are already. Understand? So be a good girl."

Beyond irritated that she had turned a good chance into a punishment, Inuyasha undid his belt yet again and tugged himself from his trousers. All he wanted to do was spend a couple more weeks resting with his new slaves, yet he had to go back out into the nightmare land that had spawned this infuriating little bitch. The first contact of his cock with her mouth made his stomach jump. Whether his muscles remembered what had happened last time or he was just that eager to have her, he didn't know.

Twisting his clawed fingers in her greasy hair, he pushed away the slight disgust at touching such an unclean creature and thrust further into her mouth. The bitch choked but could do nothing about it. That this was not the first time he had violated her mouth, but that he had yet to make any headway where he really wanted to be only pushed him onward, and soon he was both shoving her face onto his cock as well as fucking her face. Inuyasha pushed so far that her nose was grinding into his pubis and he could feel each and every tear that raced down her face, could feel how her frantic puffs of breath moved his hairs.

The little vibrations from her whine of distress did him in and soon he was spraying down her throat. No sooner than he finished did she shove him away from her, eyes blazing with fury. Inuyasha laughed, still a little weak in the knees, and knelt down facing the girl. Cleaning himself off, he studied her out of the corner of his eye. Her cheeks were pink and wet with tears. His cum ran down her chin and neck. For a second, he was tempted to take her with him. But it was impossible. She was too damn crazy.

Grinning lazily, he reached out and tugged on one of her nipples. The first thing he was going to do when he got back would be explore her properly. There was still so much to do. Rubbing the little bud for good luck, he looked her in her blazing blue eyes, gratified he had forced her to make eye contact with him again.

"You shoulda swallowed. My cum's gonna be the only thing you'll get to eat until you tell the guards nicely that you miss me and will greet me at your most eager when I return. Tell them you will earn your keep and be a proper slave, and then you'll be treated like a princess."

Something in her expression shifted subtly and then he was covered in something wet. His nose caught on to it before his brain did, but when he finally fully realized what had happened, he shot to his feet in a rage.

The bitch spat his cum in his face.

Again, she fucking did it again. Inuyasha was beyond pissed off. Not only was he being forced to leave the only time he actually wanted to stay, but this idiot was rejecting any and every of his attempts at helping her. Maybe he should take her to a brothel and show her what her life would have been like if he hadn't bought her. Maybe then she'd be a little fucking grateful and not spit what she should have begged for in his fucking face.

Grabbing her by the collar, he heaved her up off the ground. Inuyasha realized he was choking her again, this time without any pleasure for him, and he did nothing but glare at her coldly.

"You're lucky I'm in a hurry, bi—" He almost said the word. He didn't want that this time. No, this time he was just going to leave her to suffer the consequences of her actions. Once he was done imbuing his will into the collar with his power, he dropped her to the hard ground. "No bed. No blankets. No fire. No food. Not until you tell the guards what I told you to say."

He left before she did something to make him do something he didn't want to do. The bitch had that effect on him.

"Was that really necessary, Inuyasha?" Sango whispered though they were well outside hearing distance of the slave's room. "It was so childish. To even deny her food?"

He shrugged. "I've gotta do something to keep her in line while I'm gone. Tell the guards what I said. I've got to bathe," he finished in a grumble.

O\o/O

Before Naraku was the most trusted advisor of the Emperor of Inu, Toga himself, he was just some throwaway ambassador. Born a half-demon, the only land safe for him was that of Inu, which at the time had recently enacted some more progressive policies due to the emperor taking a human queen and producing a half-breed offspring. Naraku's appointment to his post was entirely a political gesture to prove that they were truly reforming the system, and there was no real importance attached to it.

Being the ambassador to Higurashi was a joke position given mostly to second sons of important noblemen. It involved nothing more than the occasional letter and gift. But Naraku saw this as his chance. Weak and mostly human, the only thing he had to rely on was his craftiness. It was what had delivered him from the band of thieves he had been raised in, his mother being the group whore and himself little more than their dog to use and abuse as they saw fit, to making his fortune as a merchant. It bought him a noble wife, which gave him a title, and she continued to be his ticket into the kind of parties the commoner he had once been could not have even conceived of. Finally, his networking had paid off, and while being the ambassador to a backwoods people was hardly more than a ceremonial position with a fat paycheck, he was going to make sure it was going to be the most valuable position in the court before he was done with it.

"Lowborn though you are, I still cannot believe you are going to Higurashi." His wife spat the name of the tiny kingdom as though it were a curse.

Naraku sighed and directed one of his servants to pack his most ostentatious robes, the ones he thought were too much even for court. Primitive peoples were always impressed by gaudy things, having no real concept of elegance.

"Abi, my dear wife, I have already told you that this visit is an historic occasion. No demon ambassador has been to Higurashi since the treaty was signed by His Imperial Majesty."

She rolled her crimson eyes. "For a reason. Those savages blame us for everything wrong in the world. I heard they kill anyone demonic on sight." Her expression changed until she almost seemed to be smiling, which was ridiculous, as the woman never smiled. "Maybe I shouldn't protest your leaving at all."

Used to it, Naraku merely gathered the expensive gifts he intended to present to the queen and other notables. Normally, he would have a servant or slave take his things, but in the year he had been working on being allowed to visit Higurashi, it had been made abundantly clear that he would only be permitted to set foot inside the hermit nation's borders were he to come alone. They were right to be wary, since the Inu empire was as vast as it was vicious.

"Think of the parties you'll be invited to once it's known that your husband was the first man in history to complete a thorough ethnographic work on the people of Higurashi. Perhaps they will gain my trust and send an ambassador of their own to court." The more he thought about it, the more animated he became. "The exchange of extremely differentiating cultures is something rarely seen in a world as small and close as ours. Higurashi is unique in that it is the only sedentary community of isolationist—"

Abi was halfway out the door. "By all means, go and get yourself killed. Maybe then I can find myself a husband worthy of my blood."

And she was gone.

Naraku willed away the tenseness in his jaw. No man alive would have the bitch but him, and she best watch herself lest he grow tired of her and replace her with something less annoying. The darkness of his own thoughts appalled him. What was happening? Just stress. It was all just stress. He had risen out of the depths of squalor and criminality and had washed away all that remained of that world—or had he? No, he wasn't like them. They were gone. Dead and gone.

Beyond peeved that his bitch wife had stirred memories he preferred to pretend never happened, Naraku started for his carriage. It was a long ride to Higurashi, and he needed to compose himself. This was the chance of a lifetime. Being the man to draw out the famously isolationist people would win him fame and the regard of all. Then he wouldn't just be the token half-demon appointed merely for his race. He would have contributed something none of those haughty full-bloods could ever hope to achieve, and he will have done it without any violence or coercion. A hero. He would be a hero.

The last letter he had received from the royal scribe, dictated by the queen herself, was cold but interested in the possible wealth that an alliance with the Inu rather than a mere truce would bring to the kingdom. In her words, she "did not want her daughter to be merely a jailer, but a true Queen". The way he had written of Inu's human queen Izayoi and how she was the true power in the empire had interested the Higurashi ruler, he could tell. If after his visit here he could somehow gain an audience with Izayoi, she would be his greatest help. He left Inu with high hopes.

Higurashi was much less fascinating and much dirtier than he had been anticipating.

When he arrived in the entirely human kingdom, there was not even so much as a wagon to meet him. The "castle" was his destination and the only real structure in the area, with tiny thatch-roofed cottages clustered around it. And that was it. That was Higurashi. Sure, there was the market square and its collection of businesses, but it was nothing exciting. All in all, it was like a regular little backwoods village…from around five-hundred years ago, give or take.

The streets were deserted, but he could clearly see the faces peering from the glassless windows of the dirt-covered peasant homes. There was no malice, no fear, but no curiosity either. They were not dazzled by his shining robes or bejeweled trunks that he begrudgingly carried himself. If anything, it seemed like they were waiting. Waiting for him to leave.

Women in red and white robes guarded the main entrance to the castle, bows drawn and arrows strung, again waiting. Waiting for him to give them a reason to shoot him dead so they could go back to their comfortable isolation.

Naraku smiled. "I bring gifts for the queen of Higurashi's palace guards from His Imperial Majesty Emperor Toga himself, as well as Empress Inukimi and Queen Izayoi." Slowly, carefully, he opened the largest trunk and allowed the guards to gaze on the rare berries sacred to their gods that only grew once every other year in Higurashi but year-round in the greenhouses of Inu. The women gasped at what must seem to them a miracle, withdrawing their bows and bowing their heads in thanks for the gift. Still, when they met his eyes again, their expressions were hard and blank.

"You may pay tribute to the Queen in person this once, foreigner." The doors opened from inside and he was greeted with the sight of women almost identical to the ones that were guarding the castle gates. "She is in the throne room, but will not wait for long."

The identical long black ponytails and haughty delicate sniffs were the only signs that the women taking him to see the queen were actually women. Many tales had been told of the beauties of Higurashi, and even more of the freakish beast-women of Higurashi, and he was vaguely disappointed that they were just regular ugly human women. Where were their fearsome powers to turn men to dust with a simple look?

Inside the castle was another story entirely from the outside.

Marble were the floors and walls, with wooden ceilings covered in murals of gloriously beautiful women standing triumphant upon heaps of their enemies' bodies. And the statues! The statues that lined the hall were of a kind of woman unknown even in the pleasure palaces of Inu, the expensive ones you could not even enter without a title, the ones that boasted the most exotic beauties in the world. These ideal women were subtly different from one another but alike enough that they could be sisters. At first, he gaped at them, thinking them real and thinking them shameless exhibitionists, but it became obvious as they walked on, the two guards giving him impatient glances over their shoulders, that they were truly inanimate works of great skill. Higurashi did not possess the refined elegance and cutting-edge technology of the Inu empire, but there was beauty even in such a place as this, and it made Naraku feel just that much more hopeful. Maybe his task would not be as daunting as everyone seemed to think. Just because their culture was different didn't mean they were entirely uncultured…

In contrast, the throne room was plain.

Once those gold-inlaid double doors were opened, the beauty stopped. Nothing but gray stone and a rough wooden chair with a high back. Was that supposed to be the throne? It was the only structure in the room.

In it sat one of the most intimidating women he had ever seen.

The queen of Higurashi was young, but any human age would seem young when compared to the ruler of Inu. An added surprise was that she was also heavily pregnant. The pronounced state of her femininity in no way made him feel safer, for she sat holding a sword in both hands, its point on the floor, but the tenseness of her defined muscles communicated that she was both ready and willing to slice him apart with it in seconds should he give her the slightest reason. Such fierceness detracted some from her beauty, but not enough for him not to notice it.

Naraku didn't get to where he was by being rash, and so instead of taking offense at all of the many offenses he'd suffered thus far, he fell to his knees, bowing his head to the floor.

"O great queen! May you live a hundred years and a hundred more!" That was nothing to anyone of demonic descent, but quite a common praise among humans. "Your servant Naraku greets you most humbly. I thank the gods, but more than them, I thank you for allowing one such as I to pay you tribute personally and witness the grandness of Higurashi with my own unworthy eyes."

There was a long silence during which he continued to stay on the floor, playing it safe.

"What have you in the trunks?"

Right to the tribute, of course. Primitive peoples were very concentrated on material things. Not that more advanced societies weren't, but they at least would greet a person and carry on some sort of conversation until they were finished with the formalities their respective stations required before he offered the tribute himself.

Still on his knees, he opened the largest trunk and revealed the gift for the barbarian queen that he had commissioned over a year ago and had been waiting on ever since.

The queen showed her breeding by now gasping as her guards had done at their own gifts, but her eyes still shone with a greedy kind of light. While it was well-known that the queens of Higurashi were more than proficient with their swords, they also trained with a wide variety of other weapons and learned a special form hand to hand combat, techniques known only to them and the upper classes of their priestesses. Even though they were perfectly capable of turning mere men, and especially demons, into ash just with their evil intent alone, they tended to save that as their last resort since, since, as many learned demons speculated, it drained them of their energy to a dangerous degree. Whether it took minutes or hours or days for them to "recharge", he didn't know. What he did know was that the queens were the most powerful of them all and could seemingly dust demons all day and hardly break a sweat.

This queen in particular was frighteningly powerful and her mere aura crashed against his and made him dizzy. Now he was beginning to regret his gift of throwing knives with black diamond tips. Ever since the queen had first mentioned this was her preferred instrument in taking down a threat, he had known what would most impress her.

Moving with an ease and grace he had never seen in a pregnant woman, whether human or demon, she suddenly stood before him, sword in hand but now with a lax grip.

"Welcome to Higurashi, Naraku. I am glad of your friendship."

He grabbed her extended hand and pulled himself up, struck by the uncommon-by-its-very-common-nature gesture.

"Thank you, Queen…" He did not know her name.

Her grip tightened on his hand and she pulled him closer, looking at his face closely, inspecting him.

"Your eyes are rather ruddy. I've never seen such a shade…in humans."

He blanched. That was one detail he had failed to disclose in his letters. Not being entirely human was something more than looked down upon in Higurashi. Anyone even suspected of fraternizing with demons was killed in a very public execution by the queen herself. So, using his pathetically weak demonic aura and entirely human features to his advantage not for the first time, Naraku simply left out that he was a half-demon and let her assume what she would.

"And I have never seen a woman monarch govern on her own," he replied, perhaps somewhat too sharply. "It seems we are both experiencing new things."

She just smiled without showing her teeth and he felt the greatest pain he had ever experienced in his life before. It was like his entire body was being split open in a thousand long, deep cuts and then the insides set on fire and slashed simultaneously. It was a great struggle not to cry out or change his expression, but he mostly succeeded. He'd had decades of practice. After an eternity, which could only have been a second or two, it was over. He was still there, still in the throne room, still holding the hand of the woman who had just tried to turn him to ash. What these monsters called "purifying". All it did was turn him human for a little while, not like there was much of a difference when it came to him.

He smiled back in the same manner.

"You'll forgive me for not joining you for dinner this evening," she said, as though she had not just tried to kill him. "My general and I have matters of war to attend to." Vaguely, she gestured over her shoulder to the man who stood to the side of her throne, not even having a seat of his own provided for him.

Naraku nodded at the general, who only continued to stare at his queen with complete and utter worship. What a pathetic, useless, emasculated rat of a human being. The prick would be better off dead. Quickly, he banished the flash of dark thought that had intruded. Where the hell had that come from?

The two of them went off without another look back at him and he was left there with his only remaining trunk, that little deposit of clothing and other essentials.

"You are truly not a demon?" a small voice came from behind the throne.

He turned and saw a child rise up from a silk cushion that he had not been able to see where he had been standing before.

Naraku smiled at the girl. "No, just another boring ambassador." That last part was at least true.

She frowned. "I should like very much to see one. Kaede said all people outside Higurashi are demons."

"Not all, but humans and demons mingle together in other countries." Not always as equals, but it was more or less the same everywhere.

"Come," she said, grabbing him by the wrist with more authority than anyone else ever had, "you will eat with me in the nursery."

The nursery was an appropriately pink and white room with little murals of happy-faced ducks and bears and cats dancing around the top near the ceiling. Naraku sat crammed in a white wooden seat intended for someone much younger and more feminine, knees up near his chest, balancing a tiny teacup on a tiny dish with some cake and fruit.

"Your room is very, um, pretty," he said, taking a sip of tea. Gods above, this was the strangest day of his life.

"It's not mine," she said nonchalantly, pulling the grapes off the bunch one by one and arranging them on her dish in a neat spiral. "It's my sister's."

"Your sister?" How many children did this young queen have?

"She isn't born yet, but Mother is very excited. She says this baby is going to be special." Rather than expressing sorrow at the seeming favoritism paid to a child who had not yet even taken its first breath, her face glowed. "I know her true name already. Not even Father and Kaede know."

"And what is her name?"

Her gaze turned sharp. "You are not family or Kaede. You're just a foreigner. You can never know."

So much for that. Even the children of Higurashi were fierce, he was beginning to realize. To his surprise, he found that he did not care much. The girl was refreshingly mature, and though she was quiet and rather abrupt, he could already see that she was going to be a great beauty.

"I am sorry I did not bring a gift for you, Princess, but I did not know of you. Come and sit on my lap and we can try and figure out a present."

She eyed him warily and scooted closer to him but made no move to sit on his lap. "I am not a princess. I am a Queen-in-training."

To him, that was just splitting hairs, but he ignored all that in favor of watching her large liquid mocha eyes. "And what would you like most in this world, little queen-in-training?"

Never looking away, she held his gaze. "To be Queen. And to see my sister."

That was difficult. He had been hoping she'd say a kitten or something, something he would be able to give her and thereby win her favor, and maybe even see the serious child smile.

"Those things will happen soon enough, little one. Is there nothing else you want?"

She shook her head, firm, and continued to eat her grapes.

Later that night when the priestess guards escorted him to his joke of a chamber, the spider came to him for the first time.

"Naraku…" the whisper came from the darkness just when he had almost found his way to a dream. For a minute, it sounded like one of them, the band of thieves that had shaped him, made him. But that was impossible. They were dead. He had seen it with his own eyes.

"Hello?" he whispered back, knowing it was absurd and this was all just another nightmare. Still, something about this time was different. He had never felt so cold the other times.

It had been a long while since his minimal demonic powers were restored, and he could more or less see in the dark of the little room. Dangling in front of his face on a shimmering silver string of web was a spider, darker than the darkness that pervaded the room.

"Hello, Naraku," it said, the voice echoing in the stone room.

"Gods above," he muttered to himself. "I'm going crazy."

"You're far from crazy, son of a whore. It's the Higurashis that are crazy."

His human mother had died with the rest of the gang she had pledged her allegiance to over her son. How long had it been since he had last thought of her? Decades?

The spider continued. "I know all about you, Naraku Onigumo. You, your mother, the band of seven and what they did to you—"

"Stop it!"

"—how when your mother was too used up they made you their group whore—"

"Stop it!"

"—and how sometimes you didn't object as fiercely as you were able."

The shame of it all, his greatest shame, the pain that had driven him to commit horrible deeds and eventually achieve great things, was all back.

"Yes, you'd do anything if it would save you from another beating. Even take it in the ass from that Jakotsu while Bankotsu fucked your little face."

"Enough!" he hissed, face in his hands. He couldn't wake up. Why couldn't he wake up?

"You told them you could never get enough, remember?"

"What do you want?" Something oppressive was blanketing him, smothering him. A force as ancient as it was evil with a will someone like him could never hope to go up against. What was this hidden monster of Higurashi? None of the records mentioned this.

"I want the same thing they did, Naraku. I want to be inside you."

"Leave me alone," he whimpered, his body aching with phantom hurts, ghosts of the pain that had been inflicted upon him when he was still young. "This isn't happening. You're not real. None of this is real!" He'd wake up any minute now and Abi would scream at him for thrashing in the bed and he'd go to breakfast and—

There was a faint tickle on his chin and he knew, too scared to open his eyes and look, that the spider was there. He could not move. He could not stop what was happening. Just like back then. Just like when they hurt him back then. The spider continued its journey and made its way inside his mouth, taking the eerie supernatural blackness in the room with it. Weak. He had always been so weak.

But that was all over now.

The spider told him things, secret things that before he had not acknowledged even in the privacy of his own thoughts. Like how he hated Abi and the children she bore him, too, if they were even his. How he hated demons and humans both. How he hated Higurashi and their queen's accursed blood and craved to destroy it all. And his desire for the child queen of Higurashi, who was the perfect partner for one destined for great things such as himself.

"Separately, Naraku," came the voice, this time from inside his head, "we are weak. But together we are the strongest force on this earth."

And he knew it was true.

The spider kept him busy the entire night through, but by the time the sun rose over the walls of Higurashi, everything was ready.

Barbarian tribes that the queen had been fighting her pathetic "wars" with had cooperated and unified for the first time in their history, thanks to a newly charismatic foreigner who took it upon himself to give them inside information to destroy their hated enemy. He watched it all from afar, leisurely reclining on a branch in the forests that bordered the fighting, his heart warming at each spill of Higurashi blood on the battlefield. This was just the beginning, but it was a beautiful beginning.

The queen was in the midst of it all, and just like that, he knew her name. Midoriko. The bitch. Just like Tsukiyomi. They even looked so much alike. All the joy in his heart at seeing the bloodshed fled and left nothing but a great pain.

At that moment, Midoriko fell to her knees, hands clutching her abdomen. Naraku smirked. Both of the child's wishes would be fulfilled in one fell swoop. As her husband the general busied himself with cutting down the tribesmen, lost in his bloodlust and blind to anything but the combat he himself was engaged in, Midoriko cried out in rage, not pain, as the birthing time came upon her. Attuned to her mistress, a grizzled old priestess shot arrows at the warriors that tried to take advantage of the opportunity. She ran to her side, and Midoriko slashed at the calves of anyone who came near them. The two of them conferred for a minute before the queen of Higurashi shooed her attendant away. Was the bitch going to bring her child into this world herself, alone and surrounded by hostile forces on the battlefield? Face grim, the old woman did as bid and returned to her station, still defending her queen when she could.

Midoriko cried out until her face turned red, gasping for air. Her eyes rose, up and up, until their gazes clashed. But that was impossible. He was well hidden by the foliage and a great distance away. There was no way she could possibly know he was there. But he was certain that she did. She could see him and she knew that he was the one who had done this. She had known from the moment they'd touched hands, maybe even from the moment he began to write her. Lips twisted in a sneer, she reached inside the pack on her back, and by the moment he recognized the black blade flying towards him, it was too late. Her gaze had held him, paralyzed him. The blade struck his heart, and again he felt that power they called purification, and a part of him wanted to cry out to her that it was too late and he was sorry and to forgive him for his betrayal and he could never love another woman or allow a single thing to live while she was dead and gone…

The wound would serve a purpose, he supposed.

His dragons were waiting where he left them, just outside the Higurashi boundary. They seemed surprised to see him, since his original visit was supposed to last a week, which in itself would have been laughably short despite his hopes it would lay the groundwork for a relationship with the isolationist kingdom. All his belongings were packed and ready to go. Briefly, he entertained grabbing the queen-to-be and throwing her across the back of the dragon, taking her with him to Inu, where she would be his chief wife once he slayed Abi and bear him acceptable children. But no, the spider was saying he had to wait for that, and that the waiting would make things all the richer.

Acting and drama had never been among his talents, but everything had changed now. When he charged into the throne room where the emperor was holding court with his queen, he was nothing if not believable.

"Most revered lord emperor!" he cried, out of breath. Naraku collapsed to the floor just inches inside the room. The entire court stared at him, murmuring behind their rapidly twitching fans. He could feel Abi's glare from somewhere in the room. Queen Izayoi gasped, taking in his blood-stained clothes and the knife that was instantly recognizable as the unique gift he had made for Midoriko stuck in his chest, the tip still wedged in his heart.

"Is that the ambassador to Higurashi?" Toga removed his ball gag to ask his wife.

"I believe so, my love. Did he not leave us just yesterday?"

"Naraku, what in the world happened?"

"Higurashi, First One." He struggled to get to his knees. "They are more than barbarians, my lord. I must tell you… I must…"

The emperor glared at his courtiers and various favor-currying nobles. "Get out."

For men like him, things were just that easy. The people obeyed, and in the room remained only the three of them. Naraku would have preferred it if that bitch Izayoi, who was far too perceptive for her own good however much she liked to hide behind her sex-fueled persona, was gone as well, but he'd take what he could get.

"Naraku, we must get you some medical attention," Izayoi said, violet eyes filled with genuine worry. "You're hurt, and with your demonic powers being as subtle as they are, you won't—"

"Higurashi is planning to wage a war on Inu!" Interrupting the queen was a great risk, but he couldn't stand to hear that whore go on for another second longer.

Toga quirked a brow. "Higurashi? Are they so isolated they do not know of how foolish that would be? It's nothing but a swift and brutal suicide that they are inviting."

"But my lord, they are unifying with other human kingdoms and the human tribes and conspiring to subdue demons until they are nothing more than cattle while taking our lands and technology for themselves."

At this, the emperor laughed. "And what makes them think they can even approach something close to that?"

"The jewel of destruction, my lord. The Shikon no Tama."

Izayoi's face drained of color and the emperor lost all expression.

"Are you positive?" he asked, face grave, eyes hard.

Naraku nodded. "I earned the queen's trust and she told me herself. Convinced I was a human, she tried to get me to swear my allegiance and conspire with her, but I refused, and she tried to kill me." He hung his head in feigned shame. "I panicked, sire, and I struck her dead. My greatest apologies. I should have thought to bring her here to interview, but I was frightened of her purification powers and did not want to bring the bearer of the jewel into the palace."

"You did fine, Naraku." He turned to Izayoi. "I knew the jewel was held in Higurashi, but the queen Hitomiko swore a blood oath to me that they kept it only to purify it and keep it out of both demonic and human hands. Since it was created by them, I allowed them to keep it. The terms of the treaty were that we both keep to ourselves and they would never use the jewel." He cursed. "If I had known they would betray me this way, I would have destroyed it myself."

Izayoi patted his hand. "Don't be so hard on yourself, my love. The jewel is indestructible, and we all know no demon or bad human can resist its call. Everyone believed Higurashi the safest place for it."

"To think that one of the queens whose sole purpose it was to protect the jewel and keep it out of the hands of all who sought it out would turn and attempt to use it like this." He shook his head. "Well, it does sound like a very human thing to do. Thank you for the information, Naraku. I fear the war we have avoided for ages has found a way to begin."

Naraku had not known the jewel was real before the spider had whispered to him the certainty of its existence. Some believed the ancient texts, some didn't. All that was known of the jewel was that it was born of the bloody tears of the first queen of Higurashi and used to defeat the demons that she warred with. A face he had never seen before flashed in his mind, and his pierced heart ached with pain as it sang out for Tsukiyomi. When she died, it was guarded by the new queen in a location known only to her, and that was how it continued for generations, passed down in secret from mother to daughter.

"I have a plan, my king," he began. "The queen trusted me, and I learned things during my brief time in Higurashi. I know how we can defeat them."

And that was how Naraku the Spider became the emperor of Inu's most trusted advisor.

O\o/O

Inuyasha was tired, pissed off, and horny.

For days now, he had been traveling the outer lands, the ones not yet under complete Inu control but only because he had not yet begun to make subjects of them. Though soon they would be, and they knew that, which was why the majority of them had sworn their allegiance to them. For days now, he had been following the intelligence trail orchestrated by that smug fuck Naraku, and it had gotten him nothing. A bunch of ignorant peasants who wanted more rice and were willing to make up stories to try and get it. As if. His blood boiled just remembering the parasites who thought they could trick him with their lies just because he was a half-demon.

"If this asshole's the same as the rest of 'em, we're going back to the palace tonight," he grumbled to Sango.

"You still want to go back?" It was the first time he had ever been eager to leave the field. Sango had thought that his obsession with the slave would fade as soon as he was out doing what he loved again, but the young prince just seemed to be getting grumpier and grumpier.

"Keh! The longer I stay away, the more stubborn she'll get." His eyes were bright and hard as they knocked on the door of the next informant on their list. "I was so close…"

She rolled her eyes at his back. "Sure you were."

The door opened to reveal an old woman, dirty and poor like the rest of the peasants they'd been seeing the past few days. "Where's my payment?" she barked.

Inuyasha shoved the door open and sniffed, a look of disgust on his face. No traps, but fuck, this joint smelled exactly like fucking Higurashi. Disgusting.

"You'll get it if you have anything worth paying you for."

She sneered at him. "Have it your way, half-breed."

Sango wanted to slap the woman for daring to speak to the prince of the Inu like that, but Inuyasha was insisting on being treated like a common person for this particular mission. Usually, he liked to flaunt his status and make those that dared speak harshly to him beg for their lives and work themselves into hysterics before he "pardoned" them. The shadow wasn't sure why he was doing this now, but she suspected it had something to do with his newest slaves, and that alone made her mad about it.

"Just get on with it, you old hag."

"I was gathering mushrooms in the Higurashi forests. They don't guard the outermost borders, and the kind I sell are plentiful there, and no other merchants will dare tread on Higurashi ground, so I have it all to myself." She seemed pleased just thinking of her cleverness. "Findings were scarce ever since they started those wars with the Inu, and it was taking longer than usual to fill my baskets. I had gotten turned around and lingered past my usual time, and it was dusk. I was beginning to panic, but then I saw the two of them."

"Two?" Inuyasha's tone revealed his interest. All the other informants had mentioned a grand group of courtiers like it was some kind of parade and shit, but this was different.

The old woman's eyes shone, lost in the memory. "She was beautiful. The most beautiful woman I've ever seen!" Shaking her head a little, she was all business again. "They were dressed for travel, but there was no mistaking who they were. The queen was there, not able to conceal such glowing beauty even in a hooded cloak, and she was accompanied by one of their priestesses. I heard them say something about Hekigan." Her hand burrowed into one of her many pockets and she produced a richly ornamented hair comb. "She dropped this."

Carefully, Inuyasha inspected it, sniffing and finding it to smell exactly how the castle had smelled. The old bitch might be telling the truth.

Gesturing to Sango, he said, "Give her the rice."

The slayer grabbed the bag out of her pack and placed it in the smiling woman's arms. She held it like it was a newborn baby.

"Thank you for the information," the shadow told her since she knew her prince wouldn't. "The rest of your reward will come shortly."

Inuyasha was beaming as they left the house, waving the hair comb in the air. "Fucking finally! It's been almost a week. I was about to say fuck it and just make shit up so I could go home."

"I wouldn't rejoice just yet. The old woman said Hekigan might be involved in this. That means war."

The half-demon turned serious again. "Shit. Well, it was coming anyway. We should still wait on some more solid information than a hair comb, but it's enough to take back to the palace. For now." His tone made it clear that he was not looking forward to doing his job again anytime soon.

Instead of sitting inside the coach with her, Inuyasha drove it himself, even though every child in Inu knew dragons could drive themselves, urging them on so they would arrive at the palace in the clouds all the sooner. Sango sighed. She hadn't gotten to use Hiraikotsu even once on their trip. Her muscles were aching from lack of use. Maybe she should make another visit home and see how the eunuch guards were faring in their training. The pretty one who had accused her of smelling like whale vomit was probably dead by now unless Kohaku had intervened.

Inuyasha was so eager to visit his slave that he almost paid a visit to the dungeon before giving his report, and had Sango not glared at him until he did what he was supposed to do, he would have broken all protocol and earned them both a severe reprimand from Sesshomaru. The debriefing was quick, which was a great blessing.

"I don't like this," Sango confessed to him as they made their way to the dungeon.

"What?" His mind was not all there, she could tell. He was elsewhere. With her.

"What this is doing to you, Inuyasha." She tugged on his sleeve and they stopped walking. "Please. I know you're stressed because of the arranged marriage and you want to fulfill every one of your fantasies with these last slaves, but it's taking you over. You're acting strange."

Inuyasha frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You never want to be at the palace. I never thought I'd see the day where you tried to turn down a field assignment just so you could get your rocks off."

He crossed his arms. It wasn't like he didn't realize he was acting different, but things were different now. There were no assurances he would be allowed to continue his lifestyle, and he wanted to enjoy his time while his time was still his own.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Get rid of her," she answered without hesitation. Sango flinched internally. She didn't want to be that girl, sounding jealous, especially when she knew Inuyasha had never truly been hers and never would be, but she just couldn't help it.

He laughed. "No way! I'm sorry for worrying you, Sango, but I'm not going to just dump her like that. Not after everything. With all the money I spent, I'm not letting her go until she pays me back with pleasure all of the gold I used to buy her. Plus she's a package deal with her sister, and Kikyo is a fucking natural." Her obedience was wooden and eerie, but maybe it would be a nice contrast to her rebel of a sister.

"Fine. Then promise me you'll work twice as hard to break her." She just wanted this game over with. "I'm so tired of this."

Inuyasha's eyes darkened to a rich honey color and he growled, attention already fixed on the girl behind the dungeon door. "Believe me, as soon as we get down there, she's going to be in a world of pain."

There was a strange feeling pervading the dungeon when they arrived. It took Inuyasha a moment or two to pinpoint it, but then he realized: it was quiet. No screaming or banging from the slave who had done nothing but that since he'd first laid eyes on her. And no guards, either. Even the observation room had been empty, orbs off. He'd speak to them later. There had been trouble with them in the past taking group lunches and breaks when they were supposed to only go one at a time, and since he had been gone, they had most likely returned to that bad habit.

When he opened the door to her cell, he was horrified.

Kagome was crumpled in a ball on the floor, skin tinged blue. She was so small he'd almost tripped over her when attempting to cross the threshold. Her little hands were curled into fists, but he could see how they were bruised and the nails bloodied from where she'd banged and scratched at the door.

"Fuck fuck fuck," he hissed, crouching down and shaking her. "Kagome? Kagome, are you all right? What the fuck happened!?"

Her head lolled from side to side but she was unresponsive.

Gathering her in his arms, he turned to Sango. "What do I do?"

She had never seen him so helpless. "I-I don't know." His games had never caused a person real harm before. Of course it would have to happen with this one. "She looks dehydrated. I don't think she had anything to drink or eat the entire time we were gone." The prince's cruel last words to the slave flashed through her mind.

He wasn't listening to her. "She's so cold. Fuck, she's so cold. I have to get her warm."

He was walking, and his shadow scurried to follow, but not even she could keep up when he broke into a demonic run. Sango had never really realized how he had always slowed himself down so that they would be able to walk side by side. Soon, she lost track of them, but she knew where he had been headed.

Inuyasha tucked the deprived slave into his own bed, where not even she had ever lain, and grabbed a passing servant by the collar to light a fire in the hearth he had never before used.

Sango didn't want to say it, but she did. "…Is she still breathing?"

Her prince looked at her with wide fearful eyes. "Not much. Get Mother's personal doctor and try and track down the guards." His expression turned fierce. "Whoever did this to her is going to pay with their life."

Sango scurried to find a servant to fulfill his orders, wondering if Inuyasha would realize that he himself had been the one to do this to the girl.

Note: OH BOY, HAS IT BEEN A YEAR! As you've probably noticed, I am just all over the place rn. This chapter was really hard to write (thus the lack of details) and more than that it was hard to find time to write it. It's been weird getting used to not having any time to myself since I'm always at work and when I'm at home I'm doing chores and stuff. Not being able to do my own thing has been driving me crazy. I'm super sorry about the flop of a Christmas shot week. I was feeling really down and just stressed and so when my friend, who I hadn't seen in months, invited me out, I dropped everything and just went with her. And then I couldn't even finish the promised Christmas one shot because I was suddenly informed that I would be cleaning/decorating the house for Christmas and then the day before told I would be cooking for TEN TO FIFTEEN people when before I thought it was just going to be six. So I was just going crazy. I'm hoping things calm down soon and I'm able to work more on these stories. I actually have an idea for a new story that I'm really excited about and want to try but I feel like maybe I've already got too much going on lol. BUT THE TEMPTATION THO. We'll see. Anyway, thanks for reading and you guys are super great as always.