A/N: It seems to me like nobody is really reading this. No reviews for any but the first of these series of stories, not even a "damn you write too much get a life" or a smiley face or anything. Almost makes me wonder if doing all this editing is worthwhile or not.

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"Lord Sesshoumaru! Lord Sesshoumaru!" a familiar voice called up to him from below, and Jaken looked down from Ah-Un's back as they coasted near the outlying farm-woods border of the village. Kagura was still in her true form carrying Sesshoumaru around on her back, and they all turned their heads to seek the source of the call.

"Royoukan? Why would he be here?" Jaken pondered out loud.

"I don't know," Sesshoumaru frowned, "but he seems upset. Let's go see."

Kagura swiftly descended, as did Ah-Un, and they landed before the giant hell-wolf, wondering what he had to say.

"Royoukan, what is it?" Jaken asked, and the wolf panted and gulped in air, licking his lips before he spoke.

"I had heard that the Southern Lord was making moves towards your territory, and when I drew close to tell you, I saw a great apparition near the village. Before I could draw near enough to join the battle, I saw it disperse, though I'm not sure what exactly happened, for I was far away and could not tell..." here he paused, peering at Kagura's true form, sniffing the air with his nose, "L-Lady Kagura? It was you!" he marvelled, "You were the giant bird I saw destroy that unnatural storm!"

Kagura began to laugh, and the group explained to Royoukan what had all happened, and he laughed after hearing this all too, and after having caught up with each other thusly, the hell-wolf then lowered his voice and returned to his original topic.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, I still must let you know this urgent news. A great many well known mercenaries have been seen moving towards the Southern Lands, bought by Zusaku's coffers at every large way-town and city. He's snapping up extra muscle left and right, hiring any reputable youkai willing to fight for riches and glory. And that's a lot of them. He's also offered a great reward for any youkai who can find him a way into the Nether, a sum of precious treasures worth over fifty thousand koku."

Jaken whistled at that number. Koku was a measure often used for tithes; it was roughly equal to one large barrel of rice, in modern times somewhere near fifty gallons; which in theory was chosen as the amount it would take to feed one person for one year. A landholding lesser official could become a Daimyou if his domain was worth ten thousand koku, according to the mandate of the shogunates of humans, if that tells you how much fifty thousand koku was.

"Over fifty thousand," Sesshoumaru murmured, both eyebrows furrowing in deep thought, "hmm, that's not going to bode well for any of us. Least of all You, Royoukan."

"Me, Lord Sesshoumaru?" Royoukan asked, suddenly uneasy as he shifted one paw, "wh-why me?"

"Are you not a wolf born of the depths of Hell, the darkest parts of the Nether?"

"Yeess," Royoukan answered slowly, warily.

"And can you not create within your throat a portal to the Netherworld, and choose to swallow your victim and send them straight there?"

"But of course, that's how I can spit out my...oh dear. I see what you mean," Royoukan said slowly, then gulped, "oh dear. I...I see..."

"Fear not, loyal wolf, you will be safe here," Sesshoumaru smirked, smelling the fear rising from the timid beast, "it wouldn't do to have Zusaku have his way with anything he wants."

"I hear he has given up just yesterday on sending more of his mages to study Gozu and Mezu, and seeks other means. But how do you suppose he means to escape from the Nether even if he can get in to begin with?" Royoukan pondered.

"He will of course have to deduce a means before he attempts to enter," Sesshoumaru huffed, "but it's not as if we're all the only ones to know how to pass through the veils between realms, and others have heard all the tales of our travels there yet. So, best to stay alert."

"Agreed," Royoukan said, then with a cringe, "I had not even realized until you said it...the danger I could have allowed-"

"Don't worry yourself. You came right here. All is well," Sesshoumaru said, and relieved, Royoukan tagged along with them for a while as they wandered on a wide patrol, leaving the miserable Inuyasha and Shippou at the village for a while to get the toxins out of their systems.

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"Lord Zusaku, the spy reports were correct. Both the hanyou and fox indeed suffered self-inflicted poison as part of a plot to help Lord Sesshoumaru's wife discover her true form. They are weak now, it being the hanyou's night of weakness. Sesshoumaru is further from the village than we are now, and the false alarm has passed so that they have relaxed their guard. Is it time for us to strike?"

"We hit the village first, and take out the two who suffered the poison by their own hands. Then we hold them ransom," Zusaku chuckled darkly, his eyes alight with Phoenix fire burning in their orange-red depths, "and force Lord Sesshoumaru to surrender to spare their lives. We'll keep his mutt brother and that runt fox as hostages and make them open the Nether portal for us, so I may retrieve what we need."

The Battlemage nodded to confirm his orders, and he and his Lord Zusaku signalled to the hidden Ninja Guard, the special elite task force that went on secretive missions such as this, that they were to wait until after the two themselves had made their move.

Creeping swiftly but silently upon the resettled village, Zusaku and his Battlemage peeked from the darkness out at the house of the old miko Kaede, both having watched the events unfold just as the spy had said they would.

Zusaku had timed his decision carefully, not wanting to strike when the smoke was fully upon them despite that weakness, for the strength of the others and the knowledge that Sesshoumaru had been watching nearby made it less than ideal. No, now that they were relaxed, and retired to bed, and left the least guarded, with Sesshoumaru the furthest away he would be for the night...now was the proper time.

"As soon as I am inside, cast the barrier so that none can interfere," he said, then sprung out from the trees, aimed straight for the door of Kaede's house.

A barrier formed around the house and for just a few feet out in every direction, a perfect dome right around the entire building as the bold taiyoukai made his daring leap to invade the very core of their home village.

"Who-who are ye?" Kaede asked warily, and Shippou and Inuyasha looked up at her tone of voice, alerted despite their sickness by her pang of fear as she saw and felt the jyaki of this unfamiliar, but certainly very powerful youkai.

"Pleasure to meet you," he chuckled, as if he were about to introduce himself-but unexpectedly, he ducked and swung his fist wide, and caught Shippou in the jaw, and the fox yelped and tried to jump back; but Zusaku crushed one paw beneath his boot painfully and yanked Sou'unga off his back, then grabbed him by one shoulder and both tails and bodily threw him into Inuyasha.

"Your bow," he glared at the miko, and his eyes flashed, and the bow was set aflame, at which she swiftly dropped it, "is useless."

Not giving Inuyasha and Shippou time to recover, Zusaku yanked Shippou off the floor and bodily slammed him into the ground again, several times over while Kaede fell to her knees and began to weep, sensing the barrier outside and shocked at the sudden horrors unfolding here.

Kicking Inuyasha repeatedly, and then swinging his fists with rapid youkai speed, Zusaku brutally and swiftly, by merit of his surprise and their weakness, thoroughly trounced them both within mere minutes, kicking both of their swords to the other side of the room. Then, falling upon Shippou harshly for a few minutes more than Inuyasha, who presently as a human was subdued rather easily, Zusaku savagely did his utmost to obliterate the kitsune's ability to fight back, crushing bones, tearing his flesh, illiciting several screams of terror. When they were bloody and barely gasping for air, beaten and bruised rather badly, he turned and spat at the ground near Kaede, and fetching about her own house, he found a long coil of rope and tossed it to her.

"Tie them in tight knots, and if I find it to be any fisherman folly, I'll slit your throat and coat them in your blood, old woman. Mind that you don't dare bring them their swords. I'll test every knot you tie when you finish, wretch."

Kaede sobbed, but knowing that begging for mercy was useless with a cruelty such as he, she did, regretfully, as he bid, knowing that her own death would serve no purpose for he would but tie them himself if she did not.

They were unconscious as she did this evil, horrible task, and her spirit presently broken after this, the old woman shuddered and sat in the corner next to them and furthest from the swords, weeping.

All of this had taken less than ten minutes, and none of the humans in the village had awoken. Kirara, having had her nose significantly dulled by the proximity of the taijiya poison illusion for so long earlier, caught not even the faintest whiff of the youkai that disguised their scents as effectively as Shippou himself.

Thus it was that at first, Sesshoumaru also was not immediately alerted; Zusaku, his Battlemage, and his Ninja Guard all knew that they were dealing with the keen nose of the taiyoukai, but had learned from spying on many occasions over time.

Now, what they Hadn't known, because they of course didn't think to disguise things that rarely could be sensed, was that even with Their Own techniques, they hadn't fully removed the sensation of their jyaki spikes or the energy pull from their youketsu when they invoked powers.

And so, when Zusaku had leaped towards the house, Kagura had felt a slight twinge, and her head swung almost around like an owl's on her bird neck as she looked back towards the village; but as they had walked on the ground for awhile with Royoukan, and there were trees in the way, she could not see it right now.

"Kagura?"

"I thought I felt...oh, it was nothing. You tricked me all night long, and the paranoia lingers," she said, but something about her tone was still uneasy, as if she couldn't quite shake the feeling anyways.

"Do you...want to go check?" Sesshoumaru asked her, himself feeling just a bit uneasy, though he knew not why.

"No, no, don't be silly. I'm just imagining things, those illusions were convincing, truly convincing enough to manifest my true form. It's just not worn off yet, that must be all it is," she insisted.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, I too feel unrest," Royoukan murmured, but then hastily, "though, I have just begun to think of what it means to be as a hell wolf when others seek a path to the Nether, so maybe I am just feeling paranoid also. Pay it no heed, my Lord."

Sesshoumaru paused, then, carefully, he looked at Jaken to see what he would say.

"I don't like when all of you clearly don't like what you're feeling," Jaken admitted, which was a rather valid statement.

Ah, something is Wrong.

Un, we must go.

"Ah-Un?" Sesshoumaru raised both eyebrows as the dragon suddenly headed up into the sky.

"The twin-head...I'll meet you there," Royoukan said, and Sesshoumaru hopped on Kagura's back as she flapped her wings and lifted off.

They reached the village in but a few minutes, but already felt an eerieness as they approached.

It was too quiet. Kaede's house looked dark and was almost too silent. There should be a lamp on and two sick brats...

"Wait," Sesshoumaru halted them all at the edge of the village, his hand hovering over his swords, "look around. We are being watched."

Not knowing what was going on behind the invisible soundproof barrier that cast the illusion of the darkened silent version of the same house, they all noticed what he noticed and then paused, surveying the area with bated breaths and alert eyes.

"Let's go down there and make sure Royoukan has cover," Kagura said, and Sesshoumaru nodded, and they all descended warily to meet up with the noble, but now frightened hell-wolf.

"This smells wrong," Royoukan whined, "Kaede's house carries no scent at all."

"It's a barrier," Sesshoumaru realized, then, drawing in a small gasp, "and that means..."

"Inuyasha and Shippou and Kaede are trapped inside!" Jaken squeaked, and Kagura and Royoukan made slight noises of displeasure and despair.

"This can't be good," Royoukan whined.

"We have to find a way to break the barrier," Kagura said.

"Don't be hasty. That's what they want," Sesshoumaru said evenly, his tone now that of the Commanding Warrior, "take a breath, and look around for eyes in the dark, feel around for your enemies. It's a trap alright, but we don't need to fall for it. Use your heads."

Calmed by his collected demeanor, they all strained their senses, and Kagura, flapping her wings slowly, felt a tiny scrape of her winds...

"There!" she cawed, and veering sharply to the side, she brought both wings together to release a powerful gust, and flushed out-

"Oh, sorry, Kirara!" Kagura hastily lessened the wind, and the cat flipped around in midair and easily landed on her feet, shaking her fur.

"She must have sensed something was wrong also," Sesshoumaru huffed, then frowned deeply, "well, we'd better not delay too long. Whoever they are, they're using strong concealment magic. Let's see how strong their barrier magic is though...Chief Minister Jaken, why not try out that new staff Bokuseno and Toutousai made for you?"

"Certainly, m'Lord," Jaken agreed, raising the new weapon in his hands. This had been created out of necessity, reforged from a branch of old Bokuseno and the essence of the broken Nintoujou, so that it retained most of the same properties; however, it had also been forged with an ample sample of Jaken's blood to tie the powers to his soul more fluidly, and had taken a somewhat different shape in the new wood. Now his staff had not two heads of two people; it was five heads of three dragons, all with their backs to each other, facing outwards in the pattern of star points at the top of the staff, mouths open, tails entwined like layers of rope further than halfway down, where it smoothed out a bit where the imp would usually grip it, and ended in a metal bulb that added counterweight and force to this side of it. It was called, for obvious reasons, Staff of Dragons. Two of the dragons were immediately identifiable as Sou'unga and Thanh Long, but the third was still a bit of a mystery to them all, and oddly the dragon souls of the swords seemed to have nothing to say on the matter either.

Jaken swung the Staff of Dragons in the air and then brought it down, smashing the pommel into the ground, and the barrier around the house lit up with a scathing red glow. He spun the Staff in his hands and began to chant an ancient ritual spell; the mouth of the unknown dragon on this Staff which was neither the image of Sou'unga nor Thanh Long was aglow now with a red light also, and after a few more moments Jaken swung hard and struck with a resounding blow.

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Zusaku smiled, having helped himself to a cup of tea after checking Kaede's knots as he'd sworn to do, and then tossed the whole house about, deciding to kick both blades into the closet and shove all the heavy objects in front of it so that the old woman couldn't possibly get brave enough to be sneaky even if she wanted to-and not that she wanted to, for she was devastated by his brutality, to be sure.

The total amount of time it had taken for Sesshoumaru's detachment to strike after the barrier had been erected was about fourteen, fifteen minutes perhaps; just enough time, as Zusaku had predicted, for him to beat the hostages and prevent their escape or reclamation of their blades...smiling, he reached over and clasped one hostage in each hand, dragging their unconscious and bound forms off the floor and walking outside with them to greet his archenemy.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, how nice of you to join us," Zusaku smiled as he went outside, and Sesshoumaru almost choked on his own heart as he saw Inuyasha and Shippou, unconscious, bloody, beaten, tied up in his claws...

"Zusaku," he whispered, then, fierce rage boiling up inside him, he roared, "ZUSAKU!"

"I wouldn't be too hasty, Lord Sesshoumaru. I could kill them before you could strike," Zusaku laughed darkly, "Now which one do you want to use Tenseiga on this time, hmm? Shall it be your brother, or your pet fox? Maybe Both?"

"Put them Down," Sesshoumaru hissed, his hand shaking with rage as he rested it on Bakusaiga, prepared to draw.

"You're surrounded, and if you so much as take one more step towards me, you'll be delayed just long enough for me to finish them both off. And when I do, I'll burn their bodies so not even your blade can cure them. How does that sound, Lord Sesshoumaru? Are you willing to risk losing them forever, right here, right now?"

Sesshoumaru seethed, but he forced his hand away from his blade with utmost self control, fist clenched so tight he was digging his own claws into his palm and drawing his own blood.

"What," Sesshoumaru said icily, darkly, hissing between gritted teeth, "do you want?"

"Your surrender."

"Lord Sesshoumaru would never-"

"Jaken, shut up."

"But Lord Sesshou-"

"Royoukan, SHUT UP!" Sesshoumaru snarled, and they fell silent. Kagura was not even going to attempt to say it, though she felt it in her heart as the pangs in her chest rose rapidly and irregularly, intense, uncontrollable rage and regret and Fear.

"Just what do you mean, Surrender?" Sesshoumaru asked warily, and Zusaku actually laughed.

"You play facetiously with me, as if you know not the meaning of the word! But I will indulge you with details, if I must. You start by giving up your weapons and armor, and you let my mage bind you with a sealing spell, and you give me the secret of how to use this means to get into and out of the Nether. The hostages," he grinned darkly, dangling them in his claws for emphasis, "will be returned to your old nursemaid after the trip to the Nether is successful. Further than that, because I'm a good sport, I'll give you ample opportunity to try and escape afterwards, whilst I try to escort you to my Southern Fortress, and if you manage to break free once I have what I need, I'd say you held up a fair enough end of your bargain. Well, Lord Sesshoumaru, is it a deal?" he asked wickedly, eyes full of malicious fire.

Sesshoumaru snarled, his hands aching to draw his sword; but Zusaku was Fast, Very Fast, nearly as fast as Sesshoumaru himself. And he knew that the distance between them was enough that his odds of getting them free before Zusaku really did kill them...were virtually zero.

"Unfortunately for you," Sesshoumaru smirked as he realized something with a laugh at sheer irony, "your perfect plan has already gone awry. The sword which holds the technique necessary to travel to the Nether belongs to my brother, and as you can see, he's currently human. So until he returns to his hanyou self, it would appear that you're out of luck."

"Oh? Is That So?" Zusaku said with a deep, dark, challenging voice, and Sesshoumaru instantly cringed, wishing he could take it back. He'd said the wrong thing for sure now, and as the Phoenix taiyoukai shifted, two wings fluttering on his back, Sesshoumaru hastened to speak to him again, to stall just long enough to think of something-

"You could never weild his sword, it won't respond to evil. Only a hanyou can grasp the sword without resistance-try it if you don't trust what I'm saying," Sesshoumaru insisted, slowly moving his own hands away from his sides with deliberate motions, "I promise, you can't get what you want by taking his sword."

Zusaku frowned, sniffing the air; his nose was nowhere near as good as a dog's, of course, but far superior to that of a human, and of the occupation of a warrior, he could smell the fear that Sesshoumaru was trying to suppress, and the fear from the others behind him. This of course made the Phoenix smile with an almost demented look of triumph.

"Ah, so I see you have chosen to be wise. So you accept my terms?"

Foul Phoenixes should shut their beaks!

Dive into a rock headfirst!

"They," Sesshoumaru gestured to the others behind him, "are Not part of this bargain of yours, Zusaku. You let them go free."

"Well, They, can decide for themselves," Zusaku laughed, "whether to stay and watch, or flee, or even fight. They are none of my concern. I fear them not," he cackled, and with a flick of one wing, at his side appeared his Battlemage instantly, who had been there for a few minutes but had been using both his magic and his barriers to move unseen to stand just behind his Lord until cued.

"My Lord, the seal is prepared. Will the dog surrender?"

"Well, Sesshoumaru, what will it be?" Zusaku demanded, clutching Inuyasha and Shippou tighter, "I grow impatient, be quick to answer."

"Swear that no harm will befall-"

"You're in no position to negotiate," Zusaku snarled, and with a motion too swift to anticipate or stop, he dropped Inuyasha to the ground and used that hand to twist Shippou's arm and snap his elbow, waking him into a screaming fit as he struggled weakly, which very quickly devolved into a whimper.

Unseen by anyone else, friends included, Kirara had crept slowly about until she had hidden herself behind Ah-Un's larger size and now reverted to her kitten form, and stalking low beneath the grass, she bounded off to find help...

"You were saying?" Zusaku sneered, and his eyes grew crazed with madness; and Sesshoumaru bit back on rage, and pride, and felt tears want to well up in his eyes-but now he had to be Brave, Fearless, and so the tears did not show, and though he trembled, and his voice echoed his passion, he did Not Cry.

"Stop," he said hoarsely, "Zusaku, I've decided," he said heavily, slowly taking his swords out of his sash.

Zusaku flicked one wing, the opposite of when his Mage had appeared, and four of his Ninja Guards appeared at their flanks, eying the other youkai who now also eyed them as Sesshoumaru stepped forward, carefully placing the swords on the ground between them.

"No, not between us, Sesshoumaru. You take me for a fool," he scowled, twisting and breaking Shippou's wrist, "Throw them, with force, so they land far behind me."

Sesshoumaru snarled as the fox shrieked, but angrily, he picked up the swords again and whipped them purposefully just past the Phoenix's head, and from the force of his throw they landed a few dozen yards behind Zusaku, clattering to the ground.

"Is that sufficient, or will you have me fetch them again to amuse yourself?"

"Tempting," Zusaku chuckled darkly, "perhaps later. For now it is acceptable. Take off the armor too. Drop it over there, to the left, by that, that wooden cart. Yes, right there. Mage!" Zusaku grinned, his next words spoken in a whimsical, almost sing-song voice, "Seize him."

The four Ninja Guards swiftly put themselves between Sesshoumaru and the others, not moving to attack but guarding with aggressive, clear intentions. They would kill without second thought, and formed a wall between Zusaku and Sesshoumaru, and Sesshoumaru's allies.

The Battlemage cautiously but swiftly neared Sesshoumaru, whose low growl was the only protest offered; two glowing rope bands were twined around his wrists and throat, then tied together, and where they were tied together, the Battlemage wrapped the powerful seal, so that it bound Sesshoumaru's true form from use and disrupted his jyaki, rendering him frighteningly nearly harmless in but a few seconds.

"Now, where was I?" Zusaku smiled, looking up and down the newly captured dog who stood glaring defiance before him, "Ah, yes. You see, it was a long time ago that the Nether hosted the Key, and the Key begot the Box, and since it was not the other way around, it was the Box that had to enter our realm. Do you know how hard it is," Zusaku sighed, "to ride over the damp on a cool day, with tired wings, and to say then to yourself, 'I have the Box which cometh out from the Key, and the Key bids me, but alas, I have no way to reach it.' And then it was so, and now it is then. You must understand, Sesshoumaru, it unlocks...It UnLockksss," and he hissed like a snake, mania high, "the very Esssenccce of the Inversssse, the Very Middle of the Very Top. It's right there, Sesshoumaru, right there...and I mean to have it. So we shall await your brother returning to his hanyou form, we shall, if we must, and since we shall, it must be that we must."

"This guy is a bonafide nutcase," Kagura whispered in horror to Jaken, who shuddered and began to sweat, truly growing terrified.

"Zusaku has always been a little crazy, but lately he has these incoherent rants that go...beyond what's usual. Some say he's been touched, not with madness, but the riddles and eccentricities like prophets of old. His closest, strongest followers are very much fanatics."

Brother Un...do they know of what he speaks?

It seems they are unaware, Ah.

This is very bad.

But what can we do?

Right now? I don't know.

We seek opportunity.

It is all we can do at the moment. Anything else would be foolhardy.

Unfortunately, I have to agree.

Shippou, having been somewhat fluttering in and out of consciousness briefly, made a small moan, and Zusaku made a devious face as he eyed the fox with the predatory gaze of a fierce raptor.

"That this little two-tail could be that fox I've heard rumors about...I'm not sure I see it. He was a trifle to deal with, and look at him now, helpless, groaning in pain, too injured to wake up and fight. If I'd have wanted them dead, Sesshoumaru, the whole village would have been laid to waste. I was even so kind as to not disturb the neighbors," here he cackled, "those taijiya still can't sense through my Mage's spiritual negation barrier. It makes us hard to detect for humans with holy powers, you see? My Mage is the most skilled of all the lands. Certainly his own prowess must far surpass this scrawny little thing," he shook Shippou again, "who didn't even put up a decent fight."

"Only because you didn't play fair!" Kagura snapped, blurting it out before thinking.

"Play? Fair? Oh, she is a Novel creature, isn't she? Lord Sesshoumaru, you've been surrounding yourself with optimism lately...it seems to have dulled your senses, your perspective. You used to be so careful," Zusaku rambled, but then, his grin malicious, he repeated, "Play fair, she said, Sesshoumaru. This is your wife, yes? She thinks your Enemies Play Fair?"

Zusaku laughed and made another swift motion much like the first, only this time he broke the kitsune's shoulder, and Shippou, his body badly beaten already, now suffering more breaks in a desperate state of unconsciousness as his body struggled to recuperate, shrieked and whimpered out just one thing.

"PAPA!" tears fell from his eyes, a heavy breath wracked his body, and he swiftly blacked out again, shutting out pain with unconciousness.

Now at this point, though they'd all tried to be brave and fearless, the others behind Sesshoumaru could no longer hold back the tears that sprung to their eyes at the kitsune's shriek. They all felt themselves crying a bit, even Ah and Un; save for Sesshoumaru, who bit back on his tears so fiercely he felt as if he were slicing his heart in two and cutting out the emotions, making the ache go to a distant place...

"Zusaku, Stop," Sesshoumaru nearly faltered, for now it almost sounded like he was begging, "I already surrendered, you shall have what you want at daybreak. There's no need...to keep hurting him like that."

"No Need, to be sure. But what if it amuses me? What if I like the noise he makes? Like the noise of prey right before you feel it's blood run down your talons, like the crunch of squeezing so the bones can fit in your gullet...you chewers, you make bone noise all the time, you dogs always dig them out of fresh shallow graves and gnaw the ends of the knees. Ah, the kne-"

"Zusaku, please, don't," Sesshoumaru whispered, and Zusaku caught himself just as his hand hovered over the fox's knee.

"And why not?"

"Because...because I beg it of you," Sesshoumaru didn't know what else to say.

But Zusaku was immensely satisfied with that, and relented, smiling now.

"Yes, yes, you do, don't you? That satisfies me, Sesshoumaru. Yes, you dogs, you were made to beg," he cackled, "as shall I make your dear brother here, if he makes to strike. He will learn it swift, as he did just before you arrived. Yes, dogs. How is it that you were given these rights to the Nether, when you have no wings? Surely your flight is but a paltry sensation, nothing like the lift of feathers. You levitate and call it flight! It's as two different things, a horse and a donkey, not to be confused. Dogs! And you with the Nether swords. Pity I can't use them myself, I seem to recall the tale of those who tried. Yes, pity. And you shall pity them all the more, when he tries defying me. Oh don't be sad, Sesshoumaru. I cannot kill him when I need him," Zusaku laughed, and the Mage flicked one wing at him, and he paused before he nodded sagely, continuing his rambling sort of spilling of all his thoughts, "Mage tells me that the hanyou will revert at dawn, which swift is upon us now. Humans arise near dawn for their fields, and I find them boring. We will go to this place or that, and in that place or this, your brother will use the sword, and I shall find my Key," he chortled, and they marched in prisoner formation, Zusaku carrying both unconscious hostages in his claws as if they were mere pillows, all the way out of the village for the next perhaps twenty minutes at a brisk pace until far enough away that they wouldn't be immediately noticed by any of the awakening humans.

The sun began to lighten the sky just before it would crest over the mountain, and Zusaku felt the jyaki stir near his hand...

Adjusting briefly to grip the hanyou by the throat as he transformed, Zusaku flared his own jyaki strongly to suppress the effect Inuyasha's own energy could have on him, bracing for the influx of the power spike.

And Zusaku, unlike most adversaries, never bothered to restrain himself just because he felt his enemy was not worthy. He was not above just crushing someone else to pieces; he rather enjoyed it sometimes, and so when his claws closed tighter and tighter, suffocating Inuyasha as his jyaki began to heal him, he was not concerned about whether or not he would start to crush his windpipe. A hanyou would heal from that before he died, Zusaku was sure of that. It was harder than that to kill a taiyoukai's son, even a hanyou one.

Inuyasha gasped and thrashed and tried futilely to free himself, but with Tetsusaiga far away in the hut and their energy shielded somewhat by the barrier Zusaku's Battlemage was using to disguise their youkai presence, and his own jyaki not enough to break free, and his mind whirling with waking up from unconsciousness to being immediately strangled...

His jyaki began to just barely tinge his eyes red, and Zusaku smiled, loosening his grip just enough to catch the effect while it would reverse itself swiftly, and still holding firm enough that Inuyasha couldn't get away, he stared into Inuyasha's eyes and spoke.

"Hanyou, your brother has surrendered to me in order to spare your wretched life, and that of your pitiful fox friend. But I am not above killing one of the three of you if you don't cooperate. I must go to the Nether and find what seeks me, and when I return, your fox friend will be released. Do you see Sesshoumaru over there, being a good dog? He begged for me to stop snapping the fox's bones. I will do the same to each of you in turn until you fulfill my demand, mutt dog. Best you make it quick."

Inuyasha somberly absorbed all of this as the Phoenix spoke, his eyes roving around as the fuzz in his mind began to clear. By the time the bird had paused to await his answer, Inuyasha understood, grimly, that he really had no actual choice in this one.

"I can't do it without my sword," he admitted quietly, forcing himself to lower his hands in a sign of less resistance, then putting them out palms open to his side as he dangled there by the youkai's grip on his neck, "I know that sounds suspicious as all hell but it's true."

"I knew it already, hanyou. Run and fetch your sword, and be quick about it. I threw it in your grandmother's closet. If you try to sneak the kitsune his sword, I'll kill the old bag of bones, and then I'll crunch her old bones into a bag."

Inuyasha gulped, remembering the few minutes he'd been awake for the Phoenix's excruciating, brutal beating...and he was a warrior, and he could take it in his hanyou form, but as a human he knew he'd have been dead if this crazy bird had wanted to kill him, and as his mind went through a few swift flashbacks of those agonizing minutes, he knew Kaede would die a terrible death if he did try anything sneaky this time.

Not bothering to correct the bird on Kaede not being his grandmother, Inuyasha whispered his sincere vow.

"I won't try anything funny," Inuyasha swore, and Zusaku believed him, and smiled, and dropped him.

"Run," he said, and Inuyasha grit his teeth and ran.

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Well, there you have it, review if you'd like to.