Love and Bacon Chapter 10: Bacon Loves Me Not :'(, an inuyasha fanfic

A/N:.So what do you think is going to happen now? Well, I won't keep you waiting. You'll see, you'll see!

?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?

"No, Rin, you Don't understand, I'm trying to tell you, it's not About wanting you to Please me! What you fail to realize-"

"What I Fail to Realize?! You've made your signals Clear! You never came here to talk to anyone else really, never stopped by to try and hang out with Miroku or Inuyasha, never once were you here Just to talk to Someone Else! And what about the kimonos? And the sandals? And the little clamshells of makeup that you brought me? If that wasn't meant for me to pretty myself up, then what Was it for?!"

"Well it Was for you to pretty yourself up, but only, because I thought, I thought-"

"You wanted me to learn how to be a Human Woman, right? You wanted me to grow up among Humans, to learn the ways of Women of My Kind, Yes?"

"Well yes but-"

"So where have I failed you? Where have I gone wrong? What have I done to garner your Disdain?!" she shrieked, growing frantic in her demands.

"You haven't failed me like that, you didn't, that is, what you did wrong was, well what I mean to say-"

"Rin," a familiar voice cut sharply across the way, and out of the treeline Kohaku stepped forth, kusarigama over his shoulder, armor fitting his form perfectly, eyes hard and cold as glacial ice, yet also hot and roiling as erupting magma, "you don't have to Justify yourself to any Youkai Dogs who don't understand the ways of Men. Kirara," he glanced at the cat on his shoulder with a slide of his gaze, "go and take Rin to settle herself down. Lourde Ses-shou-ma-ru and I, have to have a Talk."

"Uh, Koh...Kohaku?" Rin blinked over at him, and Sesshoumaru, even more startled, peered at him curiously also.

"It's not for you to hear what we say," Kohaku murmured seriously, "please Rin, go with Kirara."

Kirara hopped down and transformed into her larger form, and stunned into compliance by sheer lack of having any other reaction ready, Rin just nodded and hopped on, uncertain what was going through Kohaku's mind, but hoping that maybe, maybe he just felt so sorry for her that he would try to talk her beloved Lord Sesshoumaru into being reasonable about how Silly he was in regard to her Age...

"Okay, Kohaku. Thank you," she dipped her head gratefully, and Kirara took her off and back to the village swiftly.

Turning his glare towards the taiyoukai lord who was on his feet now, Kohaku hissed out a low statement as venomous as Sesshoumaru's own claws.

"You filthy Dog, how Dare you try to sully her virtue with your paws," he spat, shifting his stance.

"Wh-what?!" Sesshoumaru blinked, incredulous, "What are you Talking about, Kohaku? Rin is the one trying to convince Me to bed Her!"

"Oh the LIES! She's too Young for that yet, you foul youkai! How could you Plant those ideas in her head and then pretend she thought of it all herself! Just like Naraku did to me with the shard, you seep the thoughts into her mind so you can pretend it was her idea! Youkai! Your lack of Morals, the lack of Compassion-I used to think you had grown up, Sesshoumaru, but now I see that I was as sadly mistaken as poor Rin was."

"She didn't Tell You?" Sesshoumaru seemed stupefied, and more to himself, "How could you two have even talked after what you saw, and not have been Told what she feels?"

"Oh I was Told alright," Kohaku seethed, clutching the handle of his weapon more tightly as his other hand balled into a fist, "I was Told how you treated her, how you yelled at her that she could never hope to please someone as Perfect and Precious and Powerful as you, how she wasn't Woman Enough for you, how you dictate her fashion, buying her clothes that You think are pretty, giving her hair-ribbons that You choose..."

"Kohaku, you're taking this all the wrong way," Sesshoumaru said, taking a step forward as he tried to close in and Speak to him, "I didn't-"

"ENOUGH!" Kohaku snapped, and with his mind so too did his wrist snap, and Sesshoumaru gasped as he watched that weapon fly straight at him.

Reaching to draw his Tenseiga, not wishing to actually Hurt Kohaku but meaning to deflect the kusarigama, Sesshoumaru felt the air around him shift suddenly. A vacuous pressure slid beneath his sword-arm as the large hooked end of Kohaku's weapon sank into his side and then viciously ripped free, making him cry out in pain and surprise as the length of the blade gashed a wide wound that sprayed blood and exposed one rib, shredding the whole side of his carapace and ripping apart his sash, dragging off his cuisse. His armor fell to the ground with his swords, and reflexively, he leaped away, left arm instantly clutching his right side as it bled copiously.

"Kohaku," Sesshoumaru huffed, now eying the young man warily, sure he'd underestimated the taijiya's ferocity, but still not overly concerned at facing a Human Youngster, "you really don't understand what's been going on here, I'm telling you-"

"Silence," Kohaku snarled, "I don't want to hear it!" and thrusting his kusarigama again, he flicked it at the last moment, having anticipated that the dog would leap for his blades, and swatted them away as easily as a person might brush rice chaff from a table.

Sesshoumaru frowned and straightened up from his unsuccessful attempt to retrieve his swords, seeing that Kohaku was dead-set on fighting him, and if he didn't start taking him Seriously, his brother's prediction might grow uncomfortably close to coming true...

"You really want to fight me, Kohaku? Before you even hear me out, you want to pick this fight?"

"I've had enough of youkai lies and deception, enough of the excuses Rin gives you. I know what's going on, and I know you Dogs are all just the same, you think you're the Alpha, you think everyone else is Beneath you. But not This Time. Not with Rin. I can't expect a Dog to act like a Man of course, it's just not in your Nature. But I Can Train a Dog to Beg!" and with that, he slapped the taiyoukai's hand with the weighted end of the chain and yanked his wrist away from the swords he tried to grab yet again. Pulling back, he caught the weight and threw the blade once more, flicking Bakusaiga into the air and unclasping it from it's sheath, then whacking it again to shoot it off to the side and bury the blade deep into a tree, vibrating like a dart hitting a board.

"Hn," Sesshoumaru scowled at that insult. Clearly he wasn't going to be able to convince this boy of Anything until this fight was over, so he should probably try and make it swift and as painless as possi-

WHOA! Sesshoumaru narrowly ducked as the blade skiffed along his back, barely sparing his hair from being shaved off his head, whirling to try and parry the angle of the scythe with his bare fists, only now it retracted away from him to be ready to fly out again-

Yet where he anticipated the flight of the kusarigama once more, Sesshoumaru had fallen into Kohaku's subtle trap, and Kohaku darted forward, then zigged, zagged, zigged, Zigged Again, and was suddenly closing in with a cold, malevolent look on his face worthy of any wizened warrior.

Sesshoumaru wasn't Worried, only a little bit amazed at how sadly he'd truly underestimated Kohaku's speed and agility. He hadn't thought that humans were even Capable of such feats, not even most ninjas-

Kohaku slipped his kusarigama handle into the strappings on his back briefly and flicked his thumb, popping his wakizashi from the snug fit of the sheath to prepare it for a draw. Sesshoumaru saw this and shifted his stance to be a touch more defensive, not realizing that Kohaku had been deliberately misleading with that calculated feint.

Instead of drawing this blade with an inward sweep of his right arm as he closed in on the taiyoukai, who wasn't retreating from the advance, as he'd predicted-

-and why Should He? Sesshoumaru is so unaccustomed to Backing Away, and so confident in his ability to deal with a Simple Blade like he surely thinks my wakizashi is, that he fails to understand the Real Danger. HAH!

Lurking beneath that pretensive maneuver was a brilliant tactical mind. Kohaku took Every Advantage of just how well he knew this Particular Youkai, and rather than drawing the wakizashi with his right hand, he brought his right elbow wide, the Exact Opposite direction Sesshoumaru had thought he'd move that arm, and as the taiyoukai's eyes followed that motion with surprise and suspicion, Kohaku slipped the wakizashi out with his left hand, gripping it like a dagger, and with a twist of his wrist, he ducked low and left and twisted with catlike flexibility. His demon-bone blade sank in deep where the kusarigama had already exposed the ribcage, stabbing downwards from just under the armpit and driving near parallel to the length of the torso, most of the blade scraping along the inner curve of the ribs on the way down.

Sesshoumaru roared and lashed out blindly, eyes shut against the pain as his energy whip flashed into action, instinct taking over to defend him. Yet Kohaku hadn't lingered to admire his work, he'd somersaulted and sprung off, vanishing for a few seconds before reappearing dozens of yards away, kusarigama in hand, guarding the tree he'd lodged Bakusaiga into.

Sesshoumaru grunted and groaned as he found he could hardly move his right arm, the hilt of the blade sticking up and butting against his own shoulder joint at the front, anything he did to move his arm or body would sway the sword. Yanking it out with an agonized hiss and a touch of a whine he couldn't suppress, Sesshoumaru was about to fling the blade aside, then thought better of it, and held it for his own weapon in his left hand instead. It wasn't Bakusaiga, but dammit, it was Something. And apparently Kohaku was a lot more serious than he'd thought, even as part of his mind idly realized that the taijiya had deliberately avoided aiming for his major organs.

"Kohaku, if you keep this up, I won't be able to take it easy on you anymore," Sesshoumaru warned, studying the hard glare in Kohaku's eyes.

"Good, I want you to use your power. Take your true form if you like. Come try to get back your Bakusaiga. Call it to you, Sesshoumaru. I know if Inuyasha can call Tetsusaiga, born of your Father's fang, then surely the blade born of your own body will rise to your summon. I couldn't Really stop you from getting your sword just by guarding it, could I?"

"You don't want me to use Bakusaiga on you, boy," Sesshoumaru huffed, a bit incredulous even given the condition he found himself in right now.

"I don't think you'd beat me even if you did," Kohaku snorted, lifting his chin, "Go on, try it, see how much it helps you. I'll still defeat you regardless, Uncouth Mongrel."

"Impudent little Brat," Sesshoumaru snarled, and eyes flashing with dangerous ire, he decided, Fine. If Kohaku wants to fight against a Real Sword, I will summon Bakusaiga after all. Of course he had no intention of unleashing it's real Power on the boy, but this...this was getting a little intense, and ridiculous, and maybe after he beat some sense into This Kid...

Kohaku had prodded for this, though, for just after he'd darted away while burying the wakizashi in Sesshoumaru's side, while the dog was distracted by pain and shock, he'd prepared a wonderful little surprise for the taiyoukai.

Finding his right side still in great pain, Sesshoumaru tossed the wakizashi away and raised his left hand, and Bakusaiga began to rattle and shake, pulling itself loose from the tree behind and just about a foot above Kohaku's head. Just as it was about to dislodge, Kohaku heard the distinct crack of the wood giving way, and he reached up and grasped the hilt just as it started to fly right towards Sesshoumaru.

Stunned, Sesshoumaru drew in a gasp and lowered his arm, darting away, but as he did so, Kohaku started to Laugh, and flipped around Bakusaiga in his hand and flung it like a shuriken towards the taiyoukai.

"You forgot your SWORD!"

"You devious cocky little son of a bitch!" Sesshoumaru growled as he watched it lodge into the dirt a few inches from where he'd been standing.

"That would be You, DOG! My mother was no four-legged whore!"

"What," Sesshoumaru snarled low, turning his head slightly as the tension in the air rose tenfold, "did you just call my Mother?"

"The same thing you called mine," Kohaku retorted icily, "Dare we repeat ourselves? I will if you will."

"Kohaku, if you press me hard, if you don't relent, if I slip and you die, there's no way to save you with Tenseiga."

"Well, if you don't relent, and I slip and you die, there will be no weilder of Tenseiga to save you either. I guess that makes us even."

"What?" Sesshoumaru stared at him now, a cold feeling sweeping across him, and they paused as the wind blew unnaturally chilly air across the field between them.

"You Heard Me Clearly, I'm sure of it," Kohaku responded, and languidly reaching over his shoulder towards his kusarigama, he smirked and left his hand hovering there for a long four seconds, and then taunted, "what, you don't know how Battles work, Sesshoumaru? Or are you just Afraid to come and attack me? You've not put one scratch on me yet. I thought I was going to get at least a good workout from you."

"I don't Want to Hurt You," Sesshoumaru growled softly, reminding himself just as much as telling Kohaku, "or did you think you were this lucky without my holding back?"

"Then stop holding back," Kohaku snapped, "and fight me like I'm the man who just ripped your side wide open."

"Well if that's my only option," Sesshoumaru snarled and raised his left arm again, "you're leaving me with little choice."

Kohaku smiled as he saw the taiyoukai lift his hand, and smiled wider as Bakusaiga flew to it. Sesshoumaru thought it was because he was crazy.

Kohaku was not crazy Insane though, he was crazy Intelligent. When Bakusaiga's hilt slapped into his hand, he grasped it with enough force to burst a scent bead that had been strategically planted while Kohaku had handled the blade, and Sesshoumaru was instantly engulfed in a thick purple cloud of the most volatile combination of strong odors he'd ever smelled in his whole life.

Kohaku quickly slipped on his mask and started spinning his kusarigama on it's chain over his head, keeping a bit of a wind draft around him to whisk the fog away from getting into his eyes, for though it wasn't blinding, it could sting a bit, even though he had grown accustomed.

Sesshoumaru felt SICK, Instantly, and he groaned and dropped to one knee, feeling a gurgle in his gut as bile rose to his mouth.

"Oh you little bastard," Sesshoumaru groaned as he couldn't help it anymore, and he vomited, and then he remembered, THEN he Remembered that the last thing in his stomach was Bacon, and though all of the actual Meat had digested, a lot of the Grease had lingered, and that made his vomit slimy and horrid and he threw up again, and then there was the smell of vomit in with the scent that already invaded his nose-

A sharp noise at his side made his throat clench shut forcefully as survival instinct gripped him in pure reflex, and he narrowly dodged the kusarigama that flew, again, as if to count coup on him by chopping off his hair.

Oooohhhh. OOOHHHHH THAT LITTLE BASTARD! KOHAKU WANTS TO CUT OFF MY HAIR! Oooohhhh but this SSmmmmEEeeeLLLL oooohhhhh FFFFFUUUUUCCCKKKKK...

Realizing that the scent was following him because it had been burst with his hand, Sesshoumaru let out a swift exhale to try and push enough of the scent away from his nose and bolted for the stream, literally turning tail and running to the nearest source of fresh water, intent on scrubbing it off his hand so that this vile odor-

"You're fast, but not fast enough!" Kohaku laughed as his chain caught both ankles of the panic-stricken dog, and Sesshoumaru fell facefirst into a heavy belly-flop, smacking the ground HARD with the force of his own momentum.

"NNNNnnnnnn," Sesshoumaru noised and felt more blood gushing out of his side as one of the injured ribs caved and cracked at this blow. But feeling a tug at the chain around his ankles already, he flared his jyaki and pushed wildly with his demonic winds trying to shove away the end of the chain as he yanked one foot loose from the hold, not yet realizing he'd done so by pulling it free of the boot, and the soft rattle of the same length of chain retracting warned him that he had to move, NOW.

Pushing with his left arm heavily to force himself off the ground, Sesshoumaru sucked in a deep breath after the wind had been knocked out of him, and whimpered when he caught that scent again, which immediately induced the urge to vomit again. But he was a strong taiyoukai, and his instincts rose and gave him a surge of adrenaline that usurped the gagging reflex long enough for him to leap away. He still didn't want to run around with this vile stench clogging his nose by way of his hand-oh that Clever little Bastard, he had to give credit where it was due but the little conniving son of a-

Snapped out of distracting thoughts by the keen focus of a whizzing blade cutting off his retreat, by reflexive instinct alone, Sesshoumaru now halted just in time to avoid getting clipped, stuck his left hand out, grabbed hold of the chain, and yanked hard, hoping to throw the taijiya off his feet long enough to get away and wash that stench off his hand.

Kohaku, however, was not thrown off his feet, but rather kicked into this pull and actually flung himself even faster than usual with the force of the youkai's tug, and Sesshoumaru's eyes widened in horror as he realized, too late, that at some point Kohaku had retrieved the youkai bone wakizashi. This time, he slashed from the low right in an upper-left sweep, and drew a long bloody gash along Sesshoumaru's arm as the youkai let go of the chain and leaped back.

"What's the matter, Lourde Sesshoumaru, can't fight without a blade? I can wait for you to summon Bakusaiga again," Kohaku jeered, "or do you want to borrow mine instead?"

Narrowing his eyes at that taunt, Sesshoumaru realized that he'd now have the same problem with Bakusaiga that he had with his hand, the scent would be all over it.

But then again, if he wanted to wash that scent off his hand-

No, it's a trap!

But that scent is all over Bakusaiga now, and it's bad enough on my hand, it will intensify with-

Eying the taijiya warily, Sesshoumaru just barely shifted his left hand, and about five seconds later, Bakusaiga was in it again, though it made Kohaku chuckle to realize that now he did not see the rise and fall of the dog's panting, he was holding his breath.

"I'm surprised you haven't used your immense jyaki to heal yourself yet. You're staining your perfect white clothes and fluff with the blood."

Sesshoumaru snarled and furled his upper lip, eye twitching, the Dog in him peeking through now at that daring taunt. In truth, healing himself like he'd done a few times before was not as easy as it looked, and a few punctures that cut cleanly between bones in his arm were not as bad as huge holes in his side going from beneath his arm to almost his hip. It had taken a lot more out of him to heal than others realized, mostly because the battle had ended swiftly after Bakusaiga-HEY WAIT!

"You Brat," Sesshoumaru seethed, "one of the only times I've ever had to do that was in the battle with Magatsuhi, while I was trying to save YOUR life! Now you mock me because I won't try to kill you, and you think that if I truly wanted you dead, that you'd have a chance?!"

"I don't want you dead either," Kohaku muttered, "which is why I plunged my blade along your ribs instead of through to pierce your heart, why I've aimed for the ends of your hair instead of the middle of your throat, why I used the vomit beads instead of the worst ones."

"There's Worse than That?!" Sesshoumaru caught himself yelping, his face growing slightly more pale as he took a subconscious step back.

Pausing to deliberately look at the foot that had moved, fully silently pointing out that he'd seen that, Kohaku's gaze lifted with a slow and malicious grin as he spoke in a sweet and devilish tone.

"The Worst ones would twist your guts so bad it would come out Both Ends."

"Now you're just trying to scare me," Sesshoumaru muttered, but he didn't sound convinced that he was right about that, and Kohaku smiled more.

"Well now that we've established that we both still don't want to kill each other, and you have your Bakusaiga, shall we continue?"

"Kohaku, why are you fighting me?" Sesshoumaru whined, struggling to take shallow breaths as the strong odor that clung to Bakusaiga and his hand still tried to infiltrate his senses and heave his guts.

"Because of how you've been behaving towards Rin, don't act like you're so ignorant!" Kohaku snapped, shifting his footing-

"You don't understand, it's all been Her Idea, this whole time, she's been trying to-"

"You Really, REALLY expect Me to think that Rin, at HER AGE, would be that Senseless that she doesn't realize she's too young for that?!"

"But it's True, she thinks she's in love with me and so she's trying to impress-"

"LIAR! You haven't heard all her secret thoughts!" Kohaku snarled, and without further warning, he flicked his wrist and drew his kusarigama back to his hand with an angry flash of danger in his eyes, "And to think I used to Respect you!"

Ouch. That wound hurt almost as much as the physical ones, though Sesshoumaru realized idly that at Some Point, the truth Would come out, and then Kohaku would feel really awful for all of this-

"You're just not Listening," Sesshoumaru sighed, knowing nothing he could say would abate the taijiya's misplaced wrath of misunderstanding.

"Because I've heard all I need to hear!" and Kohaku lunged at him suddenly, so Sesshoumaru leaped back, and then dodged the toss of the chain, and flipped around to avoid the blade, and spun opposite swiftly to unwind the catch on his ankle, and swatted the kusarigama away as he made it, finally, to the edge of the stream. Knowing the taijiya wouldn't just give him time to scrub the smell off, Sesshoumaru crashed into the water to blast a cone of it into the air, and whirred in a rapid spin to run his hand and the hilt of Bakusaiga through it, by sheer force and a little bit of jyaki and effort he managed to get a good portion of it off himself, enough so the stench was bearable.

Yet in that time Kohaku had caught up to him-the speed at which he moved was like a youkai, Sesshoumaru realized, his skills, his weapon, his armor, his talents...he had truly sadly underestimated Kohaku all along. This deadly opponent he'd thought of as a mere boy all this time...

Fucking Hell, this little half-pint full of fury is actually kicking my ass. Damn, Kohaku. Kinda proud of your skill. Wish I was watching you use it on somebody else though! Uuuggghhh this SMELL is still Lingering...

The kusarigama whistled towards him, and Sesshoumaru narrowly ducked and slipped to the left, favoring looking towards and guarding his already exposed right. This was also exactly what Kohaku had expected as he'd leered slightly right with his blade, and now snapping his wrist, he sent his scythe slashing across just in front of Sesshoumaru's nose, and yanked hard, hooking the dog's left shoulder like a fisherman with a trout.

"DAMMIIIITTTT!" Sesshoumaru roared and forced his aching right arm up to yank the massive blade out as the sheer weight of it sank it's sharp edge deeper before he clutched the end and pulled hard, and he felt his left arm starting to tingle from the blood loss already, pouring out of a large artery that fed those muscles...

The sickle snapped back to it's owner's hand with ease, and a dark chuckle left Kohaku's lips as he saw the taiyoukai's body start to tremble, watched the leech-symbiote shrink as it pumped reserves of blood into it's host to stabilize his body as his white clothes were now growing as red as his brother's.

"Your worm is getting tiny, Lourde Sesshoumaru. Soon even that reserve will be gone, and you'll have no choice but to expend the energy that it takes to heal. You still haven't managed to give me a single wound. Don't tell me you've lost your edge even after you gained Bakusaiga..."

"Because I don't want to Kill You," Sesshoumaru snarled, tightening his grip on Bakusaiga as he felt his injuries taking their toll.

"You know very well how to Injure without Killing, don't pretend I can't tell the difference!" Kohaku snarled, whipping his kusarigama at the taiyoukai again.

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes and parried the kusarigama with Bakusaiga, then blocked the wakizashi with it easily, but now Kohaku leaned his full strength into pressing against the blade with all his weight, trying to strain against the dog's injured muscles-

Sesshoumaru brought his right hand up lightning fast, expecting to be able to knock him out, but Kohaku had already anticipated this before the dog had even thought of it, had studied all the memories of battles in his mind for all day and had known just how long he'd wait to be sure he could strike, and moved a half-second faster than the two breaths he Always Waited-

Gasping at the sheer surprise of Kohaku's ability to anticipate and dodge him at a range so close it should have been literally impossible, the dog was left staring down at his right hand in shock when the crack of the flat of the kusarigama against the side of his ear made him yelp and leap away, but of course Kohaku had planned That Too, and snapped the blade to the other side to thwack the other ear too. Now both eardrums were burst, and Sesshoumaru felt woozy and couldn't hear anything, and his head started to spin as his sword fell from his hand...

Clutching his ears with both hands, Sesshoumaru roared and shut his eyes, feeling his jyaki start to surge, feeling his energy pooling in that youketsu vortex and drawing itself up to the surface, his fangs starting to grow, his face starting to sprout fur-

Kohaku smiled, flipping the handle so the larger end of his blade was downwards now and throwing the fundo weight at the end of the chain with an expert twist, and it shot past Sesshoumaru while he couldn't hear and had shut his eyes, and Kohaku flicked his wrist to bat it against the taiyoukai, and it wrapped itself around him swiftly like a whip or a snake.

And suddenly, Sesshoumaru realized, this was no Ordinary Chain, for as soon as it had settled around him, he felt his jyaki scatter, disrupted by some kind of passive enchantment on this metal that made it not only impervious to his usual ability to melt it with acids, as he tried to in reflex and found was futile, but also stopped him from straining it with his jyaki to break it. Even as he thrashed and strained against it, both arms strapped tight to his chest with his elbows up tight, since he'd been clutching his aching ringing ears, the chain was tight on his injuries and pressed and strained his injured ribs enough to make him whimper...

"Oh, what's the matter? Have you grown too weakened to defend against the resistive properties of my weapon? Weren't you able to sense it this whole time until now, or were you just that Cocky? Hmmm, I forgot, you might not even be able to hear me, I think I got Both eardrums," Kohaku said with a chuckle as he saw the effects on the dog's equilibrium as he staggered and barely caught himself, panting and blinking now.

And, he was right. Sesshoumaru didn't hear that taunt, his ears were ringing and whooshing horribly, his head felt foggy, his stomach was weak, his body ached, and his balance, once his eardrums were burst, had become almost nonexistent. He couldn't take a step without feeling like he was falling, in fact, even though he was standing, it almost felt like he was falling...

Sesshoumaru sank to one knee slowly, panting hard with ragged breath as he watched the taijiya saunter over to him now, focus faltering as he began to see double and his world tipped sideways...shit, I'm really, really messed up right now...

In the most daring taunt of his life, Kohaku stood a mere foot away from Sesshoumaru, lifted the kusarigama blade up under his chin, and forced his head up to lock eyes with him.

"You want it to stop, Dog? Beg," he demanded coldly, his eyes near as dark as when he'd been under Naraku's control, only now, rather than the deadness of unfeeling mindless silence, there was the fire of turbulent loud emotions behind it, none of them Good Ones.

Sesshoumaru hadn't Heard the words, but this close and with a thousand years of life experience, his lip-reading wasn't so bad he didn't know what had been said to him, and staring up at the taijiya, feeling the weakness of his body, feeling the crushing shame of this defeat, he let out a plaintive whine as his instincts shifted into a Dog Response. He had been beaten, outwitted, outmatched by a Human, had tried to run away and failed to escape, and in his own Dog Nature, he no longer felt himself the Alpha here...

?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?

If you find that unrealistic, you weren't paying attention to the skills Kohaku demonstrated throughout the series, especially when at just eleven years old he was slicing and dicing and stacking and hackey-sacking wood blocks with his smaller kusarigama like a circus professional. That's motherfuckin' Robin graduated into Batman now, okay? He's Batman. He's BATMAN. Right now he feels Righteous Fury over a Woman he Loves and feels like this Idol has Betrayed their Trust so...there you have it. You think Kohaku Couldn't do this, I feel bad for your low opinion of him, that kid has survived Hell and then some, duked it out with the best of the best and survived. If you disagree that badly, write me an angry review about it, eh? I'll read your opinion :)

PS : On that note, you'll notice if you paid Very Close Attention, Lord Sesshoumaru himself doesn't tend to have a solid "long-battle" strategy, as he doesn't often find himself engaging in a fight that tests his skills beyond finding an opening and making a kill strike. When he can't do that, I would assume, is when he's at his greatest disadvantage in any fight, and in this particular situation, well...you can see where there's just enough logic in that to find the nuances and crack that armor open. If you must argue the point with me, please do so with a review, I'd love to hear your critique! };P

"..."

"Yes?"

"No."

"What?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Not even that. I said NO."

"How's your artwork coming along?"

"...Almost."

"Me too."

"I knew that. And I Said No."

"I don't even get a Hint?"

"No."

"This is bad."

"...You will see."

"Oh shit."