Path of the Heart : 3 : The Dragon and the Blade Chapter 4: Practice, an inuyasha fanfic

A/N:. Here I caught myself asking a few questions. What do Sesshoumaru's pajamas look like? How many pajamas does he have at his Mother's castle? I assume that's where most of his clothes get stored, as we never really saw him go anywhere else you'd call his "home" all this time. Although occasionally, I'm sure an outfit or two does wind up somewhere random. Sadly, the question of the look of the pajamas has an answer that is yet to be discovered, so we'll have to keep speculating on that one. I don't even know how many he has either. Probably like a bazillion! Not really. I just wanted to write that word XD

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

Before going to the outdoor practice area, they paused to change into the practice gear; as Sesshoumaru explained while they donned keikogi much like those used in martial arts dojos, these were imbued with a powerful magic crafted by his Mother, so that if he were to accidentally mortally wound the fox, the magic would kick in, thus giving him extra time to be healed by other magics adequately enough to avoid death. Shippou smiled, shifting the tricks he'd use to the sleeves of the practice outfit.

"Oh? I promise I won't take it easy on you then, Sesshoumaru," he snorted, and the taiyoukai, amused, readied himself to spar with the kitsune. He had neither of his swords nor his armor; he'd left those securely in the castle as he'd gone from pajamas to Shougi to the practice area without having bothered with his regular clothing between these all. Shippou, he presumed, just always put some tricks in every outfit he wore, pajamas included it seemed; that was rather wise of him, the dog thought, and wondered why he hadn't noticed this before now.

"I should think that if you've been taking it easy on me before, now would be the time to prove it," Sesshoumaru dared, flashing a grin.

They finished preparations and headed out to the wide open field now, and after taking up positions, the kitsune surveyed the area.

"You ready for this?" Shippou taunted, pulling out three leaves and straightening himself up, raising both of his tails high off the ground in a cocky stance.

Sesshoumaru smiled, drawing himself up straight as well, noticing that the fox's current posture was much like his own typical confident pose. He approved of the kitsune's flair, even if it was a little stupid for him to be so bold and brazenly leave himself open as if he were the kind of powerful to get away with it.

"Ready? I've been waiting, Shippou," Sesshoumaru smiled, deliberately leaving his hands loose at his sides.

Shippou smiled, tossed the leaves into the air, and vanished.

That was it. He simply disappeared, not only visually, but scent, sound, jyaki and youketsu were gone as well.

Oh, shit. Sesshoumaru hadn't expected that Shippou had learned to do THAT. He'd known the kitsune had honed his old Hidden Cloud Invisibility technique over the years, but he didn't think it had gotten This Good. Last time he'd toyed with the fox, he could still sense something...

Well, the dog thought with a smile, this might actually be some real fun after all. He grinned in anticipation of what might happen next.

Shippou had indeed honed many of his useful techniques over the years into powerful and refined battle tactics, and now he was about to deploy some of the best ones in a way he was sure would make the dog's head spin.

Silent as a professional youkai ninja, Shippou used his next trick to confound his opponent. A half dozen copies of him sprung out of thin air, each carrying a replica of his scent, his youketsu whirlpool, and his jyaki winds of demonic energy that scraped to form a WindScar. These were all things he knew Sesshoumaru could sense just as Inuyasha could, so he made sure to mix them all in there so each copy seemed just as real as he himself.

Yet Shippou actually stayed hidden, disguised with his enhanced Hidden Cloud, assessing the way all these things would progress so he knew when and how to strike.

Sesshoumaru was honestly a little impressed. He wasn't sure which of these copies was the real Shippou, or even if any of them were real at all, but the kitsune sure made some convincing replicas. Each one looked, sounded, smelled, acted, and Felt like Shippou. They even had their own jyaki winds forming WindScars and youketsu whirlpools, which made it very difficult to discern any particular one as fake compared to the rest. Each one made the same sounds with their footsteps, the same breathing noises appropriate to their exertions...every detail was perfect, down to each one having, he smirked, a slightly different tie of hair ribbon, no two were exactly alike...a vast improvement on the one detail that had given away the copies from the original before.

Sesshoumaru shifted himself a bit more defensively, preparing for a good fight.

"Well, what are you waiting for, Shippou? You outnumber me now, why not attack?" he dared.

Shippou smiled, and his copies dashed forward. Two of them went straight for the dog, pulling out leaf illusions to create swords. Two of them sprung into the air to attack from above, unleashing two massive Spiked Smashing Tops, a serious upgrade to his old childhood weaponry. The other two dashed to the side to cut off the flank, releasing two Bladed Tornado Tops behind the dog, which would make it a lot more difficult than usual for him to leap away without getting sucked into the strong winds created by such tools.

Sesshoumaru smiled. This choice was obvious.

He dodged the Spiked Smashing Tops, moving further away from the Bladed Tornado Tops, and extending both arms with his claws outstretched, he plowed through the two head-on attackers, which vanished in puffs of blue smoke.

Shippou smiled. It was the obvious choice, which is why it was the stupid one.

The two copies that attacked from above now landed just behind the dog and attacked, and he whirled to dispose of them with graceful ease.

But this time, they didn't turn into smoke as the other two had. Instead, he swiped his claws through gooey, messy, slimy sticky rice that began to grow heavier and heavier, stickier and stickier...

Sesshoumaru snarled at the stuff which was already globbing up like some growing mass of white swamp-tar, and with some focus on his own jyaki, he dispelled it with a blast of his aura, flaring up a spike of magenta energy and then leaping into the air to get away from what remained of the goop.

"It won't be that easy to trap me, foxling," Sesshoumaru hissed, hoping none of it was left in his hair.

Shippou smiled, and the two Bladed Tornado Tops swept beneath the dog and spun him slightly sideways in mid-air. He was adjusting instantly, but for the half-second that he was destabilized, the fox found his opening, and struck.

He was still invisible, still masked so well that he was devoid of any scent or energy, so the hit was truly a great surprise to Sesshoumaru, who merely gasped and flipped a somersault in the general direction of The Fuck Away.

Looking down at the spot he'd been hit, Sesshoumaru raised both eyebrows in surprise. Blood was gushing from right below his ribcage, deep claw punctures gashing a line across his torso somewhere very close to the liver. Had he been human, the blow would have become fatal within hours after the fight due to bleedout alone, regardless of how the rest of the battle went.

As Sesshoumaru, the injury didn't amount to much more than a human suffering a bruise from being punched. But for the fox to have made such a heavy and precise connection...it was actually something of a feat in itself. And he still didn't know where the fox had vanished to...he couldn't even smell the residue of his own blood lingering on the kitsune's claws. Idly he realized in the back of his mind that the fox had hit him from the side where the wind current from his own Tornado Tops had carried him faster into his attack, he'd ridden the wind current right into that blow. Another sign of how truly clever he was...

"Well, well, so you Do have a few tricks up your sleeve, Shippou," Sesshoumaru smirked, then closed his eyes as he raised his nose to the air, "but let's see how long you can go undetected, hmm?"

Shippou knew this one. Sesshoumaru had begun to whirl and spread his own jyaki, heedlessly shifting his own demonic winds to search out Shippou's jyaki and scrape it against his own, in essence trying to use a WindScar to find Shippou, trying to force his way past the mask the kitsune had put over his own jyaki by brushing up along it harshly.

Now, what Sesshoumaru didn't know was that Shippou's HeartScar worked basically the same way as the WindScar. Oh, he had heard the name of the technique in passing, but he'd never actually paid attention to what it was. Assuming the name was merely the kitsune's way of emulating Inuyasha, he thought nothing of it's power or capability.

Now in the years since he'd first discovered the concept and begun to use the HeartScar, Shippou had certainly refined this technique into something he could use, not only with his fangs, but also with his claws and even a few choice illusion-weapons that could withstand the pressures long enough to make an attack through the turbulent energies.

Shippou smiled. Boy, is Sesshoumaru in for a big surprise. It's obvious that he isn't aware of the HeartScar's true power, or he wouldn't be so bold as to leave these huge gashes of scraping wind rippling all over his jyaki.

Shippou debated with himself. Should I be merciful?

Recalling, with a smile, that he'd vowed not to pull any punches, the kitsune drew out another six leaves and made another six copies, but this time they were doing something very different than before.

"BOLTS OF HEARTSCAR!" the copies all cried out, and threw what could be described as short javelins through the many scars of the scraping winds, which smashed through the jyaki and became screaming bolts of pure energy, each one like a miniature WindScar wrapped around a spearhead aimed straight for Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru's eyes grew wide as he narrowly dodged the first few, realizing he'd made a huge mistake. Uh-oh. This was NOT what I thought would happen! Shit!

As he'd dodged one of the bolts, another had been fired off to land right behind him, and he stepped back just in time to catch it in the shoulder. Roaring in pain and surprise, Sesshoumaru halted to reflexively reach his hand up to try and dislodge the object...

The copies threw more bolts, forcing Sesshoumaru to dodge again, clutching his injured shoulder as he fussed with a nine-inch javelin lodged in it, yanking it out after a few steps and tossing it to the side as he tried to gain some kind of altitude. It was a little difficult with all these energy bolts flying at him from above and all sides, every direction really, though he still wasn't too concerned, as he'd tuned down his own jyaki to reduce the number of scars they could pierce through.

Shippou smiled, funnelling his attacks ever so slighty to push the dog in one certain direction, then testing the method by pushing the other way. Yes, if he was just subtle enough, the dog didn't catch on to being 'herded' one way or the other, as long as it didn't stay consistent. He could use that...

Shippou made his next move decisive, smiling as he pulled out a leaf of his own and positioned himself on the field.

Sesshoumaru dodged another round of bolts, and just as he landed-

A fierce jolt of pain wracked him, and he spun away and leaped into the air before he had time to figure out what happened or how. Looking down at the blood that poured from his side, he realized the hilt of a short knife was now sticking out from between his last two ribs.

"Ow," he blinked, watching the wound gush blood even without pulling out the blade. "Shippou, you brat, that HURT!"

"It was supposed to!" all of the copies replied with a devilish grin, each showing a different cocky posture.

"Hn, indeed," Sesshoumaru snorted as he cracked his knuckles and his claws began to glow, "now it's your turn!"

First swiftly disposing of all the copies, Sesshoumaru began to show the fox why He was the Lord of the West, even long before he'd had anything besides his own claws to fight with.

Shippou tried using dozens more tricks, but almost every single one failed. The only thing he could do now was to attack directly by popping in and out of his Hidden Cloud, but even that wasn't working as well, because the dog was now catching on to the one subtle difference the fox wasn't avoiding. The pressure of the air between them just as he was about to strike alerted Sesshoumaru to his presence, and finally, after dodging seventeen attempted blows, the dog was able to deliver a passing scrape of his own.

Although it wasn't a solid blow, it was enough to make Shippou falter, and finally, he revealed himself.

"Well, looks like you Finally hit me," Shippou showed his scratched arm teasingly, though now he seemed to be very guarded and defensive, despite his haughty words. "I might just bleed to death now."

Sesshoumaru smirked, finally pulling the short blade out of his ribcage and tossing it to the side, raising one hand to show his claws only lightly flecked with the fox's blood.

"Actually, Shippou, I must admit that I'm amazed. You managed to get your claws covered in my blood, but I've only put a few scratches on you from a single successful attack. You weren't kidding. You have been taking it easy on me. But now, that being said...I know I don't have to take it so easy on you either," here he chuckled darkly as he leapt forward to attack boldly, nearly invisible with his speed now...

Shippou smiled. Sesshoumaru was more predictable than he thought he was.

And the fox ducked at the very last second, forming his hand into the shape of a dagger with all his sharp claws in a point as he dropped to one knee and drove his arm upward with all his might, his keen youkai eyes catching the dog's movements despite Sesshoumaru's great speed...

Sesshoumaru didn't know how the fox knew exactly when and how to time it just so perfectly that it was too late for even him to dodge, but it worked. He had no time to stop it or turn away as the fox's claws drove deep through his torso, right between the other two injuries, and just narrowly nicked across the side of his spine before Shippou's hand pierced through his back. Sesshoumaru was so stunned that he just slumped, his body having gone so far that the kitsune's entire hand up to the wrist was now sticking out of his back. His shoulder fell into the fox's own shoulder, one knee hitting the ground hard as he felt breathless, shocked.

Well, that wasn't even such a devastating blow to a youkai like Sesshoumaru-or at least, it wasn't something that would kill him or even count him out of a fight...but it sure surprised the everliving fuck out of a dog who was so used to being damn near invincible that he couldn't even fathom this kind of beating coming from a little fox.

Shippou snickered as he drew out his hand carefully, speaking while he did so.

"You know, a real enemy of yours would take advantage of your stunned inaction right now and ripped out some kind of organ while they had the chance, just to make it hurt a lot more, but I think as your friend I've done more than a fair amount of damage for one day. You wanna call it a match, or are you looking for more pain?"

Sesshoumaru coughed and took a step back, spitting up some blood that was bubbling up from internal injuries.

"Shippou, you really meant it," he said, still stunned as the keikogi began healing him, "You actually know how to Fight, you little brat!"

"Well, if we weren't friends, you'd have found a way to kill me already. Even without your armor or swords, I'm not stupid enough to think I'd win in a REAL REAL fight. You didn't even try to poison me or use your energy whip thing, and I'd have never had a chance against your true form. But don't underestimate the powers of illusion!" he said as he laughed, an admonishment Sesshoumaru would be sure to heed in the future.

"Indeed, you've proven that much for sure," the dog clutched at his aching gut, invoking his own healing powers to speed up the process a bit with a wince, "but now at least I know I won't have to worry about saving you from small fry."

"Never a problem. I was eating small fry for breakfast when I still had one tail."

"I'm starting to realize this. Did you predict my moves?"

"Way more easily than I thought I should have," Shippou admitted, "I think this thing between us, whether your swords are near you or not, is having a huge effect on all these things we're doing. Suddenly you can kick my ass at Shougi and I can..."

"Kick my ass?" Sesshoumaru smirked, teasingly but not about to undermine the kitsune's accomplishment, for accomplishment it really was.

"I mean, I'm not complaining," Shippou smiled devilishly.

"If you two are quite finished with your morning exercise," Sesshoumaru's Mother called from an overlooking balcony above the grounds where they'd begun their fight, just outside the doors of the area they'd changed clothes, "I have found a few things of interest. Some more is surely yet to be discovered, but come see what I've found so far."

So they dutifully returned inside and after both of them went to the rooms to return to their normal clothes and weapons and such, they met in the foyer of the lobby of the library's secret back library where all the most dangerous and secret things were kept; and there on a large desk were skewed a few things Sesshoumaru's Mother had gathered together for her research.

"In reading the ancient Chinese texts, I came across something very interesting," she began, shuffling the scrolls and pages about until she located the right one, "here, about Thanh Long's connection to the Nether. All of the Great Five Dieties have a Nether form, a Heavenly form, and an Earthly form. Of the five, only Thanh Long retains the same form in both Heaven and Hell, and often manifests the same on Earth, as a large blue or blue-green dragon. The Diety of the West, Byakkou the White Tiger, is also the White Dragon, and the Qilin. Genbu, the Black Tortoise Snake, the Black Bull, is also the Black Dragon. Suzaku, the Red, is both a Red Dragon and a Phoenix. And the Yellow Dragon, He of the Sun, The Bear and the Many-Faced Man, also does not keep his form so pure. Only Seiryuu, Thanh Long, chooses to remain in his most primal form, that of the Blue. His connection between Heaven, Earth, and Hell makes him special. Now, there were always Other Dragons, you see," she said as she went to her other documents, pulling out a thick leatherbound volume, but as she did Shippou interrupted sheepishly.

"Uh, I just realized something. I don't know what a Qilin is," he blushed a bit, "when you mentioned Byakkou, you said that word..."

"A dragon-horse," Sesshoumaru's Mother waved dismissively, "a breed somewhat related to that one who rests outside, in fact, but with just one head and with horns and hooves. A Chinese creature originally," she added as she thumbed the pages of her book. "Ah, here it is!"

Despite having been just talked about, Ah and Un were actually asleep right now in the stables far from the others, knowing that they would need rest for the journey ahead; so Ah, Unfortunately, was not there to snort in amusement at her use of his name.

"Long ago," she began as she found her page, "there were many dragons, of many levels of power, and many types of dragons of all the realms of this world and the next, Heavenly dragons, Nether dragons, earthly dragons, water dragons, moon dragons, sun dragons, all sorts of many magical dragons everywhere. And they went about the many stars and found themselves many places to exist; but here was especially attractive to many of the most powerful, for here there were Worshippers, and Worshippers gave them Power, and Acclaim. So many of these dragons set up an Empire in Ancient China, and one of these was Qing Long, father of and often mistaken for the same dragon as Thanh Long. Qing Long was the one who showed mankind how to fish and farm, how to hunt and why men should marry women rather than leaving off the tasks of fatherhood. He was the one who gave them their first writing system and taught them to make offerings to the dieties that would protect them. Qing Long, of course, stayed in China," Sesshoumaru's Mother continued, "but Thanh Long came here and was known as Seiryuu, and as they are much the same and with just about the same powers, it was not significant to either father or son to correct anyone on which was which or if they were the same dragon. But Thanh Long had a different purpose in mind, and like his father before him and most dragons of his kin, he could turn his form into that of a human and walk among the earthly people, and he did so for a time, and he saw much suffering and death and despair and unfairness. Much like the Buddha himself, Thanh Long sought to undo strife by bringing enlightenment. But those he tried to teach were often unable to learn from him, for his ways were those of a wise old dragon, and they but foolish mortals, could not comprehend his vastness of profundity. So Thanh Long went in search of other ways to understand how to communicate with humans, and he lived a vicarious life of being a human for a long time. And during this long time, he was many things-a musician, an artist, a poet, a scribe, a philosopher, a daimyou, an architect, a farmer, a beggar, a thief, a warrior...he was a child, an an old man, but most often he took the form of a young man in these days when he chose to be human. It was when he chose to be a warrior that he came upon Sou'unga, and had their terrible battle. And it was after this battle they were both imprisoned, Thanh Long in the Crystal, and Sou'unga in the chokuto that to this day holds his soul."

"Does that book say who imprisoned them, or how?" Shippou asked after she had paused, and here she sighed.

"No, this book continues to elaborate on the details of the dragons themselves, but not their imprisonment. I have to decipher the magic on these scrolls before their secrets will reveal themselves in plain form to divine who first imprisoned them both," she huffed, unrolling an old scroll that glowed with a strange faint glow and had lines of ink moving across it, changing so much that to call it a mix of symbols would have been inaccurate; the ink flowed in patterns that looked like they changed from one symbol to another, but so fast that one would be unable to study the page on the whole at any given time, like a bunch of ants marching across the page indefinitely.

"Say," Shippou frowned after a moment, peering closer at the scroll, "I think I know what kind of magic this is."

"Oh?" Sesshoumaru's Mother and Sesshoumaru himself both peered at the kitsune, intrigued that he should know something she herself didn't.

"These are very high level illusions," Shippou murmured, "made with magic like the kyuubi use for the Almighty Sutras they have."

"Almighty Sutras?" Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow.

"Sutras that can have any spell on them the caster wants the moment they use it, because the symbols change at their will. And when they aren't in use, they sort of look like this, with the ink just moving around waiting to be activated. The secret here is actually that the illusion itself can be encrypted, and if it's hiding a sacred text or something like that, if you don't decode the proper way to dispel it, you'll get a false read or it might even destroy itself entirely."

"Ah, kyuubi magic, I see now," Sesshoumaru's Mother pursed her lips thoughtfully, running her fingers along the scroll. Then, with a bright look, she whirled around and grabbed another leatherbound book off the shelf, flipping through the pages until slowing right near the middle, then pausing, she turned one page at a time slowly, until she found what she was looking for.

"Kippou, can you read this?"

"Uh, I think...mostly," Shippou nodded as he looked over the page indicated, "except for this part here, I don't know enough Chinese to read that note."

"You can?"

"Sure," Shippou nodded, "except for the Chinese part right here. Why do you look so surprised?"

"Because that book is enchanted," she smiled, "and only a very powerful mage can read those words."

"Oh," Shippou blinked, then blushed, then smiled, all in the span of one breath, "well, I Am a rather powerful mage, you know."

"Indeed," Sesshoumaru's Mother winked, "even stronger than my own son, in that regard at least."

Sesshoumaru snorted. And had his mother not said that, Shippou would have missed the fact that Sesshoumaru hadn't been able to read that.

"It's inherent in kitsunes to have strong magic. It makes up for our other weaknesses," Shippou said gracefully, looking at Sesshoumaru even though he tried to make it sound like he was answering his mother's statement.

Sesshoumaru snorted again, a different tone this time, slightly rolling his eyes. Sesshoumaru's Mother took back the book from the kitsune and turned a few more pages, then presented him the book again.

"This spell, along with the previous, should be sufficient to decode the means to dispel this enchantment, without harming the seal in the meantime. Do you concur?" she asked, and slightly surprised, Shippou blinked at her.

"Uh, do I...concur?" he paused to study the spell for a long minute, then slowly flipped back to the previous spell, then frowned and looked back and forth between the two for a few minutes yet.

Finally, debating with himself on how delicately he should answer her, he formed a reply.

"You must be kidding. That wouldn't work at all. You can't balance those two spells into each other; the jyaki would be out of tune, and you'd cause a dissention in the harmony of the energies. You'd disrupt the final flowing motion with a torrid one and displace the spell into a rift. It would be like creating a yin-yang windscar within the spells themselves. You couldn't do it if you tried."

"My, you really are adept," she marvelled, taking the book back into her hands. "I really thought I had you with that question," she added.

Slightly offended for no particular reason except her sudden need to keep testing him, Shippou retorted before catching his tongue.

"Lady, I'm a Senior Kitsune at the Youjuijitsu Academy. Everyone else at my station has three tails or more. I've beaten a five-tailed instructor on a combat exam and I'm the youngest to have trained this fast since the First Twinborn, who was the Only Fox to have been born with two tails, ever. Oh and By the Way, I'm the one who got Dragged into this by Tenseiga! Do you really, really have to keep Testing Me?!"

Sesshoumaru raised his eyebrows. Sesshoumaru's Mother smiled. Shippou gulped, suddenly aware of what he'd just said and how quiet it was now.

"You called me a Lady," she giggled, and the fox grew nervous at her casual response, and her son grew amused by it.

"I, uh, what I meant to say was-"

"You are anxious to find what will actually be useful. Unfortunately, I know these books well and even despite myself, there is nothing that will easily decode this illusion in the manner of which you speak. Without knowing the cipher, the specific unlocking spell eludes even me."

Ooohhh. She was testing me because she's in Protective Mother Mode. Duuhh. She's pretty upset under all that casual chatty humor...

"So what is this scroll supposed to be, anyways? Do you know what kinds of secrets it supposedly holds?" Shippou asked then.

"As the story has it, this tells how Sou'unga and Thanh Long were bound to the Crystal and chokuto, by whom and with what kind of power. If we knew that, we would have a much better idea of Sou'unga's weaknesses. If he plots against you, it's best to know what works against him."

"Indeed," Sesshoumaru murmured, "but what if we don't have the ability to weild whatever kind of power was able to do this?"

"It doesn't matter. We will find other ways to defeat him," Sesshoumaru's Mother said reassuringly, pausing to peer at him closely now, "my, you really are very troubled, my son. These nightmares rob you of all of your rest."

Sesshoumaru sighed, finally dropping his indifferent facade-there was nobody to posture for here, it was just his Mother and Shippou.

"Yes, it's true. I really wish I could have one night of peace," he huffed, blowing the bangs from his face as he turned to glance to the side, and the other two youkai almost thought they saw a tear hovering there at the edge of his eyelid, but they didn't see clearly enough.

"I could conjure up a sleeping spell for you," she offered, but he shook his head at that.

"What, so the unrest lasts longer and I struggle to wake up? No, but thank you."

"I could make it dreamless," she said.

"If they're not ordinary dreams, Mother, then ordinary sleeping spells won't prevent them," he said quietly.

"Hmm, quite right," she agreed, darkly displeased with herself for being absent-minded about that sort of thing.

"Could you...override the nightmares with a dream spell of your own?" Shippou asked suddenly, and they both paused to look at him.

Sesshoumaru's Mother glanced at her son. Sesshoumaru looked at his Mother. After a long minute, Sesshoumaru tilted his head slightly and shrugged one shoulder.

"I'll try anything once," he said, and despite trying to pass it off as calm, his Mother and Shippou could both sense his mixed emotions, the unease but the faint pulse of hope that made him accept the attempt...

"And what shall it be, my son? A frolic with your wife? A hunt in the forest? What would you like to dream about tonight?"

Sesshoumaru gave her a sideways look; he wasn't sure if he should be creeped out or not at the thought that tonight, his Mother would be constructing a dream for him to experience, and her first thought was to make a mock-up of him mating with his wife.

"Don't make sex dreams for me, Mother. That would be weird," he huffed, shaking his head at her, "it's bad enough you've walked in several times, it's worse that you talk about it, and if you create it for a dream for me...just don't," he shuddered, and she chuckled slightly at him as he spoke.

"Oh, alright. But I want Grandchildren already."

"I've been working on that," he insisted, "I don't need your help in that department, trust me."

"So what will it be, then, my son?"

"Something...something peaceful," he shrugged, honestly at a bit of a loss, "I don't know. Nothing strange or complicated, just peaceful. I'm sure you'll come up with a suitable scene," he said trustingly.

"Then wear yourself out as much as you can, Sesshoumaru, out in the grounds today, and I'll craft you a dream spell for tonight. We shall see if it works. In the meantime, I'll continue to research, and I'm stealing your fox to help me," she declared, and Shippou squeaked and then scratched the back of his head, flicking both tails.

"Well, I guess I've been recruited," the kitsune let out a nervous laugh, "uhm, where do I start?"

"Look through these three volumes and see if you find anything useful. These mostly detail the different Nether creatures and observations made through the Meidou-seki, but it may behoove us to study a bit more closely when dealing with a Nether dragon, yes?"

"Uh, sure," Shippou agreed, then glancing at Sesshoumaru, who made to leave, he spoke hastily, "hey, wait, Sesshoumaru..."

Sesshoumaru paused, waiting.

"I need you to find me something when you're on your run or whatever," he said, "a special type of flower that only blooms at night, a gold moon flower, and it has to be whole, with the root and everything. Do you know where to find one of those?"

"I'm sure I can do that," Sesshoumaru nodded, then headed out, taking his Mother's advice and transforming into his true form once outside to go for a long run along the edges of her territory, which was vast and would probably take him all day and into the early night hours to encircle fully, even in his youkai form at a hasty run.

Ah, look at that. He's going for a run.

We have missed something, Un.

He must have had another nightmare.

We missed more than that. These creatures rarely ask us to attend their conversations.

Ah, this is very true.

Un, shall we hunt?

Ah, yes, I'm hungry as well.

"A whole gold moon flower?" Sesshoumaru's Mother asked after a few minutes, having spent those minutes trying to imagine why he needed it.

Shippou just smiled at her mischievously and gave her a coy look.

"You'll see. Trust me," and he deliberately put his nose to the books she'd handed him so as to drop the subject; which tactic was effective but only because she deigned not to prod further at the time. Some surprises, she figured, were Worth being Surprises.

Researching for hours yielded very few notes of worth, and less that was especially noteworthy; by the time it neared nightfall, they'd only managed to scrape together a few more details that might be helpful overall, and nothing that would decode the encrypted scroll or dispel the wicked nightmare curse.

When Sesshoumaru returned about two hours after nightfall, slightly panting and carrying gently in one hand the whole rooted gold moon flower in full bloom, Shippou accepted it reverently, and glancing about, he stuck it in the drinking cup he'd been drinking his water from.

Sesshoumaru would not ask what the flower was for; Shippou simply set it to the side in the window for it to continue to get moonlight, and that was just that.

"Now, my son, I have had the servants prepare a great feast for us; you go and gorge yourself until you are about to burst, and wash up, and dress in the most comfortable pajamas you have, and then I shall cast the dream spell, and pray that for tonight, while you are in My Keep and as you are My Son, perhaps My Magics will be strong enough to stave off your foe."

Sesshoumaru tried not to look doubtful as he nodded and quietly again went to do as his Mother suggested.

As his Mother and Shippou paused to watch him walk away, she spoke softly to the kitsune, almost absently as if to herself, but very clearly deigning to let the fox in on her thoughts.

"He's far too docile in this for my liking. I am used to my son being defiant with me. When he is not, it means he doubts himself, otherwise he would do as he wished and leave off to pursue a means of attack."

"I know. It's not like him to just agree with everyone and go along with all their plans, unless he's very troubled."

"He is indeed very troubled. I don't like it."

"I don't either," Shippou huffed, then paused before asking his next question. "Should I...try to sleep when he does tonight?"

"Hmm," she thought about that for a moment, "not yet, kitsune. I first want to test my spell unhindered by other factors. Then we'll see what happens after we discern that. Having cast my own spell, I will know upon viewing it should something go awry, even the smallest bit."

"Fair," Shippou agreed, and hesitant, he worked up the nerve to ask her one more question. "Uhm, by the way...I've been meaning to ask..."

"Yes?"

"What's your actual Name? I've never heard anybody say it," he said sheepishly, blushing deep red as he admitted that after all these years he still didn't know.

She smiled at him darkly then, a wide grin on her face.

"That's true, you've never heard it," she agreed, then sauntered ahead of him towards the banquet hall without another word.

Shippou saw what she did there, and grinning to himself, he accepted the challenge with fiendish delight.

The feast really was marvelous; every kind of meat and sweet known to man was there, or at least it seemed like it, with the endless supply of more than their fill of anything they could have asked for. Ah-Un even moseyed in and wiped his paws politely before sidling up to the table and sampling the buffet. Sesshoumaru's Mother paused to watch as the dragon had sauntered in; but after he wiped his paws, of course, she realized he was being a polite houseguest and said nothing untoward about his presence.

Once they'd all eaten, Sesshoumaru went to bathe, his body language suggesting he desired no immediate company; wherefore Shippou instead accompanied his Mother to her study to continue their research and be in close proximity to the scrying crystal ball she would use to view the dream she had crafted for her son. Ah-Un, not bothering to seek direction from the others, went directly to Sesshoumaru's room, deciding to await the dog there, rather than outside the bath.

And so about two hours later, when Sesshoumaru presented himself at his Mother's study to allow her to cast her spell, she did so with a bit of a wave and bid him hurry to his room before it took hold; and he laid in his bed and fell asleep swiftly, and soon he began to dream...

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

The only real note I have for this is that I diverged my story from actual mythology in separating Qing Long from Thanh Long from Seiryuu. But, that's relevant to the story, and what's a story without some artistic liberty? Lots of the things I will be writing about these kinds of references will have a strong Basis in the actual mythology however, while some will be more or less based on the canon-mythos, well, you'll see as it goes along. If you care to research it yourself, you know where Google is. But I DO try to make it all "find a way to fit" so to speak, and I figured, well, it's definitely Plausible the way I presented it anyhow. Feel free to leave a review if you've got any comments or questions :)