"Of all the things that didn't happen," Ryoga snarled. "That didn't happen the most."
His newfound archrival, demon lord Naraku, looked utterly skeptical. The mockery of it all. Ryoga had suffered beyond words, beyond emotions, and beyond human comprehension.
"Who are you?" Sesshomaru interrupted. "And where have you taken the swine belonging to Rin?" (It had started raining...hot water. Somehow.)
(...And Sesshomaru and Jaken had momentarily looked away just as he'd transformed.)
Ryoga was really a fortunate indivdual, despite his whining. People who found out about his secret never hated him, and the people who would have hated him never found out about his secret.
Sesshomaru was in Akane's company in this one.
Rin was staring at Ryoga with wide, awestruck eyes.
She knew.
Oh.
"Do not involve yourself in things that do not concern you, Sesshomaru," Naraku said. "I have business only with this...man."
Naraku, unlike Sesshomaru and Jaken, had not looked away, it seemed.
Oh.
At least he didn't hate Ryoga for being a pig.
"I despise you, swine, though your being one is the least of your defects."
"Leave us," Sesshomaru said. "You are in the way. Cease this downpour that you have created."
Oh, wonderful. Naraku could make it rain hot water. Ryoga's despair level peaked.
Other warriors would have brandished their weapons. Sesshomaru did not. He just stood there in the light hot water drizzle like a boss, his fancy robe fluttering in the wind.
"We shall finish what we started," Naraku said. "I shall teach you a lesson about meddling in things you do not understand, complicating matters with ones such as Kikyo."
Ryoga gritted his teeth.
"FOR THE LAST TIME, I AM NOT THAT LADY'S LOVER."
Sesshomaru blatantly stared at Ryoga. His mouth wasn't hanging open like Jaken, he wasn't giggling like Rin, his face wasn't twitching in anger like Naraku. But he was staring. At Ryoga.
Who had done what few had ever done in Sesshomaru's life: surprised him.
Ryoga allowed himself to feel a little proud of that. From the days he'd spent traveling as Rin's pet, he knew this was the equivalent of the sky falling down and Mount Fuji erupting. He had accomplished a feat.
"You lie," Naraku said, ruining the moment.
Inuyasha still didn't know what the hell to think about the encounter he'd had with Sesshomaru, Jaken, and Rin the previous night.
It...
...was super weird?
Why had Sesshomaru let Rin adopt a little piglet?
Why was he letting her search for the little piglet?
And WHY was Kagome insisting that the little piglet was that idiot Ryoga?
They were all playing a massive joke on him. A prank. Ganging up on him behind his back.
Well, this wasn't funny. When did Kagome and Sesshomaru team up to prank him? They barely crossed paths, and when they did, the conversations they had were invariably hostile or indifferent. He could count on his fingers the number of positive interactions he'd had with his older brother, who had tried killing him not even a few months ago.
"You know," Kagome said into his ear. "I'm not playing a prank on you with Sesshomaru."
He gave her a quizzical look. How had she...
"You were talking out loud."
He was about to respond, but a deafening explosion shook the hills and woods and a tall dark cloud rose into the sky, sending all the birds fluttering away and a few deer racing past them.
"FOR THE LAST TIME, I AM NOT THAT LADY'S LOVER," bellowed a very familiar voice.
He and Kagome exchanged a look.
"You think...?" he asked.
"Yep."
Why wouldn't that idiot just go home and leave them all alone?
A/N: Yeah...Ryoga causing yet more chaos, upsetting the delicate ecosystem of Inuyasha verse, bringing Ranma verse chaos into the picture...
Tell me what you think. :)