A/N : Here's the next chapter, enjoy.
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Kirara could have headed to Miroku and Sango, but she knew there was nothing they could do about these youkai. Miroku no longer had his old powerful Kazaana, the Wind Tunnel, and nothing in Sango's repertoire would be powerful enough to take out all the Phoenixes there. Even her best poisons and strongest attacks weren't going to work against these air-fire taiyoukai. For even though the Ninja Guards were lesser than their Lord and their Battlemage, each one was still a powerful youkai in their own right, and there were twelve of them at least.
Kirara could have headed to Toutousai's forge, but sensed that Tetsusaiga, when being trapped by the Mage's barrier, already summoned them. Also, since the Toutousai and Myouga as a general rule were cowards, and Moumou herself would not be strong enough to take on the Phoenixes, they weren't much use to go fetch for battle anyways.
Kirara could have headed to get Jinenji, who would have been able to nullify the taijiya poison with an antidote; but though he was big and strong, Jinenji was also no match for these youkai and therefore it would do little help to fetch him.
Kirara did not go to any of these places. No, she went to the one place she knew a youkai of great power resided...
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"The firecat?" Sesshoumaru's Mother, Lady Mud Nose, raised both eyebrows as the feline landed before her, alone, with no rider, and a great sense of urgency about her as she stepped forward and bared her back, offering a ride.
"Wherever we are going, cat, I can take us faster," she said, then raising her hand with her fingers together and her palm up, she paused for a moment, "surely you understand me. If you allow me to see your mind, it will be much easier than to try and make sense of your noises."
Kirara took another step forward, compliantly pressing her head to Lady Mud Nose's hand, closing her eyes as the taiyoukai read her thoughts.
"Oh my," Lady Mud Nose gasped, pulling her hand away, and with a stormy scowl forming on her face, she lifted her dress and straddled the cat as she summoned her portal magic, "fly through, cat, and we shall be there in an instant."
Kirara leaped into the air as the portal formed and swiftly went through it, and in but the blink of an eye they were mere yards from where Zusaku's Mage guarded the barrier around her son...
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"WHO DARES INCUR THE WRATH OF THE ICE SORCERESS?!" her voice was LOUD, louder than any of them (save Sesshoumaru himself) had ever heard before, and the Mage sharply snapped his gaze to her as she and Kirara landed, pupils narrowing as she dismounted with a huff.
"Release them at once, or suffer," she snarled, her sclera red, but her pupils still gold, suspended halfway between her true form's colors and her human form's colors in a subtle display of powerful control.
"I fear not your wrath, Ice Sorceress, for you know the barrier which I have cast cannot be broken without killing them. It is not tied to any part of my soul, but rather theirs. You will not kill your own son, will you?" he smiled at her, the first sign of any kind of emotion they'd seen from him.
Snarling, her jyaki flared as she rasped out another threat.
"I grow impatient with your dawdling, foul bird. Dare you raise my ire, I shall make you miserable indeed."
"I think not. You have felt my magic with your own, and know that you cannot defeat this barrier, even if you kill me. Nor can the staff of the imp, nor the sword of the hanyou pierce it without killing them also. And if I do not remove the barrier, it will only fall when they are dead. Should you wish to kill me, you are capable, I am sure. But you should not wish to kill me, for then you damn your own son to Hell."
"Mother," Sesshoumaru finally whispered, "relent. You will win nothing by barking at him."
Her own words from so long ago echoed back at her, and something else too, something terrible and tragic in the uneven tumbling of his tone, the anguish in his voice.
"In truth," she hissed, "I do wish to kill you, wretched bird. Your powers would not save you, had you taken any captive save my own son."
"I know," the Mage agreed, and his voice was monotone again, and he even seemed to relax a bit, "but now that you will not attack, you pose no threat to this plan. So it will not be necessary for me to attack you either."
"Oh, but of course you wouldn't," she snapped in retort.
Her anger still seething, she held the Mage in her gaze for a minute yet; but his eyes went waxen and hazed, as if he were no longer seeing her own fierce glare boring holes into him. She gave him a contemptuous snort at last and huffed, turning her head to look at her son.
Though the barrier the Mage had put around him dulled most sensations, a Mother Knew Things. She could not smell much inside the barrier, but she could see the details clearly.
Shippou looked absolutely horrible, his body badly beaten, his face half unrecognizable, bandages wrapped all around him so much that he was more cloth than fur, tails soaked in blood that couldn't be scrubbed out with mere bandage rags. Sesshoumaru's hands and sleeves were stained with the fox's blood from washing so much off the wounds, smears of it here and there on his pants or lower shirt, a dusting of red at the tips of his bangs from wiping sweat off his brow with a bloodied hand and not being able to wash it off his hair afterwards. Flecks of blood from veins that had spurted at his touch dotted his kimono; this was still the one Shippou's apprentices had found for him those many moons ago right after he'd brought Kagura back to life. The dark spots of blood on the bright cherry blossoms looked positively like bad omens incarnate. The salty streaks down his face, though, hit her the hardest. He was Still crying. And from how bleary his expression was, stoic as it usually seemed, she could tell he hadn't stopped crying since he started, and she feared that had been a long time ago, for patching up the fox would have taken hours...and of course, she was right.
Her grief for her son caused an ironic sensation; it tempered her rage, for the grief was greater, but it fueled her rage, for someone dared to hurt Her Son. But the grief had prevailed over anger long enough for anger to be subdued; and now her sense was much more about her, the delay having given her time to think harder, and thus more wisely.
Kirara, having left when she did, wasn't entirely sure herself what had transpired, had only felt that she needed to race to get Lady Mud Nose. And Lady Mud Nose, having only read Kirara's mind and hopped onto her back, had not really been sure what she would face either, and wasn't exactly expecting this, so decided she would make use of the time she had to stand here thinking, and ask the others. It would do no good to be unaware, even if, she knew, even if recalling it while it was still in motion hurt that much more to say.
"What's happened here, Inuyasha? The cat came to fetch me, and I saw some visions through her eyes when I touched her head, but it's surely not the whole story, just a bit of what she saw in urgency to bring me here, the images of the bird entering the Meidou, and this barrier."
"They...we..." Inuyasha cringed, his ears flattening to his head, "they found out about this plan of ours, you see, a plan we had to make Kagura's true form reveal itself. And it worked, but like, we, we...we had to make her think me and Shippou were going to die, so we took some taijiya poison and it worked, you know, she learned her true form, but then everybody went home and Sesshoumaru and Kagura went off and me and Shippou, we were sick, from the poison, and he ambushed us and...I was...it was a new moon last night, I was just a human, and..."
"You," Lady Mud Nose snarled low, her voice almost as deep as her son's, "You FOOLS! You Deliberately Poisoned yourselves on the night you are the most vulnerable?!"
"We couldn't think of any other way to make it believable," Inuyasha whimpered, and his ears were very low and flat against his head, and a whine began to rise from his chest, a Dog Noise, and he cringed and shriveled under her fury.
"Mother," Sesshoumaru interrupted, "the plan was mine. I orchestrated my own demise. Don't blame Inuyasha. He does not scheme such things."
Caught off guard by his comment, she whirled and straight barked at him in Dog Noises, ones that Sesshoumaru understood Perfectly, and that Inuyasha understood Pretty Good, and the others understood by context. It was almost primal to have known that what she basically said at that moment was along the lines of "Un-fucking-believable, I know I raised you better than that, you NEVER let your guard down!" but well, you see, she Barked it out, because she was FURIOUS and Helpless and that was all she could do to let out the frustration, being a dog.
Sesshoumaru's shoulders dropped as his head hung lower, and he made no protest to her barking.
Still outraged, Lady Mud Nose turned back to Inuyasha with a scowl.
"You, Inuyasha, should have known better in your own gut. A hanyou should Never weaken themselves further during their time of weakness! You would never have come up with such elaborate plots, it's true, but You should have Known not to let yourself become weaker. Not for the sake of hurrying something that would have eventually happened anyways! You fools just about Almost deserve this," she said darkly, but at those words she heard herself, and stopped, and her jyaki settled and her rage toned down swiftly, and she hastened, "no, no, I didn't mean that, forget those flippant words. I have a cruel tongue, but that, I did not intend."
"No, I get it," Inuyasha said quietly, his eyes low, "we really messed up. This is the stupidest thing I ever let anyone talk me into, ever."
"Well, Kagura, you surely weren't in on this, as you were the one who had to be fooled into thinking they were dead. And so what is your true form, Wind Sorceress?"
"I am Owashi," Kagura said with a very weak smile, just barely finding the strength Lady Mud Nose sought in her daughter-in-law at this moment.
"Then be as you are, and show me," Lady Mud Nose said softly, "for then at least I see the fruits of their labors."
Kagura blinked tears from her eyes and summoned up her jyaki, transforming into the Great Eagle, and Lady Mud Nose smiled back at her just the tiniest bit. Truly, for a bird youkai, she was rather magnificent. Her son had chosen well.
Thinking of her son again, the momentary distractions not enough to tear a Mother's gaze from her son in distress, she saw that he had grown very silent, and only looked at the fox again, and the tears fell onto his knee and the end of his sleeve, and they were soaked by it. Her own heart ached for something to do about it, but there was nothing to be done that she could currently think of; now realizing that she had not let Inuyasha finish the story, she tore herself away from thoughts of grief and looked at the hanyou once more.
"Where you left off, Inuyasha," she huffed, and settling herself to perch on a boulder near him, "so you made this plan and took this poison and were ambushed. Then what?"
"Well, I, I don't know exactly until I woke up..." Inuyasha cringed, "the guy beat me unconscious, and he was holding me by the throat when I woke up. I'm not really sure..."
"Zusaku held Inuyasha and Shippou hostage and threatened to kill them if Lord Sesshoumaru didn't surrender," Royoukan offered meekly, "and at first he had erected a barrier around the old woman's house so that we could not sense what had happened. When Chief Minister Jaken destroyed that barrier, Zusaku already had hold of both of them in his claws, and swore that if he were attacked, he would burn them with fire so badly that Tenseiga could not save them from death. Then he kept breaking Shippou's bones...until Lord Sesshoumaru agreed to cast off his armor and swords, and be bound by the ensorcelled rope, and taken hostage, so that when Inuyasha awoke he would have nowhere to seek help. So then Inuyasha, seeing Lord Sesshoumaru, knew that he had been spared from death only by his surrender, and was bid to use the Meidou, else Zusaku would keep breaking bones, and eventually kill one of them, or two of them...all the while with the tilt of a madman, and insanity in his eyes," the hell-wolf shuddered as he spoke. "M'Lady, it was most awful and cruel. I've never seen such a crazed and powerful beastly bird."
Absorbing all of that, Lady Mud Nose looked at the others in turn, soberly realizing that they'd all witnessed this, well except for Kirara who had been the one creature with the thought to come get her.
"Royoukan," she whispered, lifting her hand, "let me see."
"Uh, m'Lady?" he blinked, and she stepped forward and placed her hand on his head.
"Your memories," she paused, "may I see them?"
"Of course, M'Lady," he agreed, sad but understanding.
She watched what Royoukan had seen from when they arrived, how they had been wary at first, how Jaken had broken that barrier-which had been very different from the one the Mage was using now-how Zusaku had carried Inuyasha and Shippou out of the shack like dead bodies, bales of straw; how he'd threatened to torch them to nothing and how he'd kept on breaking Shippou's bones even after her son had surrendered, until he had pleaded for it to stop, giving Zusaku the sign of weakness he'd been prying for. She watched the Phoenix strangle Inuyasha as he woke from the beating into his hanyou form, seeing what he'd looked like before his jyaki had healed him. She heard the bird's threats and watched as he leapt into the Meidou, having his Mage seal the Tetsusaiga until he signalled his return.
Her stomach grew foul with acid that she forced not to rise; watching what had happened made her want to be sick, but she had no time for it.
But, oddly, she also found herself with infinite time; there was no plan, and none to be made, at least not that she could tell at the time, and it seemed like the Phoenixes had finally outwitted her brilliant son because of his own stupid arrogant...
But oh, her stupid, arrogant, powerful son, crippled now, not by his enemy's power, but foiled by his own plans...
She looked over at him again and her face grew soft, unable to help it, but not sure what to say or do, she just looked. All the others grew silent as their gazes travelled that way and back again too; each caught up in their own thoughts, their own guilts, their own shames, and their own grief, none thinking they could do anything about it, at least not right now...
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More hours passed, and Sesshoumaru's thoughts were a haze; his mind had gone almost numb, sitting there looking at Shippou's unconscious body refusing to heal the way he thought it should be by now, but he figured that was due to the extent of the damage. And in seeing that extent, nothing but the smell of Shippou's blood in his nose, nothing but the taste of Shippou's blood in the air, nothing but the sting of salt in his eyes, Sesshoumaru felt overwhelmed by shame.
'All of this...was my fault. I knew Zusaku sought this. I even told them I knew that. And I went and made this stupid plan, just like Mother said, to hasten something that was bound to happen eventually anyways. How fucking stupid can I be? All this time thinking my brother was the halfwit, and here my bright idea gets us all defeated in the same fell move by an enemy. No wonder Shippou beats me at Shougi so easily. I can't believe I'm such a fool. But that's the problem, isn't it? I got Cocky. I didn't Believe that I was a Fool. Sesshoumaru,' he thought to himself scoldingly, 'you are, by far, the most ignorant, stupid, narcissistic, arrogant, cocky, uptight, brazen-'
"Ses...shou...ma...ru," Shippou's voice interrupted his thoughts, and Sesshoumaru leaned closer, instantly tending the fox, worried at once.
"Shippou, don't try to move. Your injuries are still serious. You haven't healed much. Shhh, go back to sleep."
"My...eyes..."
"Still swollen. Shhh. Shhhh. Rest. Being awake serves no purpose for you right now, Shippou."
"I...the pain..." Shippou whimpered, "Sesshou...maru..."
"Hush, hush," Sesshoumaru soothed, and sidled very close to the fox, using almost all of his Mokomoko-sama to nearly swaddle the kitsune as it wrapped around to cushion and support his entire body, "if you go to sleep, it will hurt a lot less."
"Hard to...sleep," Shippou whimpered more, his noises pitiful and heartwrenching.
Yet to the shock of everyone present, Sesshoumaru had a solution for getting the fox to sleep.
"Maa maa, ko shounen, nakanaide kudasai...genki da ima kodomo, onegai dame shinpai...jibun hikari, itsu anata..." with a lyrical acoustic softness nobody had ever heard, he began to sing an ancient childhood lullaby from a distant past, one forgotten to modern man.
Eased by the comfort of his friend's voice, too incoherent beyond that to question why Sesshoumaru would sing him a lullaby, Shippou settled once again and fell into another uneasy deep sleep, but now his body seemed to be starting to heal just a little bit, the wounds no longer trying to seep blood through the spaces between the stitches.
Sesshoumaru sang the whole song to Shippou softly, and when he was done, he fell silent again, seeing that the kitsune was asleep. Nobody among his friends or family knew what to say, and the Mage and Phoenixes didn't care one way or the other.
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At some point, Miroku and Sango brought Kaede to their house and fetched Kagome, explained everything to her and Kohaku and Rin, and by the time they did that the other villagers had all gathered nearby and heard, and their reactions surprised the taijiya and monk and mikos and miko-in-training.
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Rikichi asked through the window as they finished telling what they kmew, and they raised their eyebrows at his genuine offer-this didn't sound like he was offering just the 'babysitting' kind of help.
"Rikichi, we appreciate the offer, but-"
"Hey, listen, we've all been saved by our friends a dozen times or more before. None of us would be alive without all of you, and that means them too. If there's a way we can help, you say the word and we'll do whatever it takes," Rikichi affirmed, and several bold men behind him nodded their resolute agreement.
"Ye cannot defeat these ones, Rikichi," Kaede sniffed, her grief-tears spent but her soul and voice weary.
"Well, Lady Kaede, we don't have to Defeat them, to Thwart them," Rin said thoughtfully, "so let's try to come up with some ideas..."
"That's the spirit, Rin," Kagome agreed, though her own worries bled through her voice, she still smiled bravely at the girl.
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"Sou'unga, why have we not hastened to Shippou's side?"
%-That is a barrier I cannot pierce, for it is tied to their souls. If I were to attempt to destroy it, I would damage their soul essence, most likely kill them.%
"Is there nothing we can do besides?" Saya lamented.
%-Tetsusaiga is bound by the mage's spell, unable to leave the sheath which contains it's power. Tenseiga is near Bakusaiga, but neither has any power in this situation. Thanh Long cannot help heal the fox from the other side of the barrier.%
"But I thought that Tetsusaiga was itself the Barrier Breaking Sword," Saya huffed, distraught.
%-The barrier around Tetsusaiga will not allow it to unleash it's full power from the sheath. The other one can be broken, but to do so kills those inside it. Only the Mage can undo his spells safely.%
"What does Zusaku seek in the Nether, anyways?" Saya scowled, "and how is it that he can even traverse it? I thought normal youkai weren't able to do that."
%-He is a Phoenix. They have the power of rebirth, and thus a powerful Phoenix who can control his jyaki can visit the realm of death without succumbing to it's call. Had I struck him when he first arrived, he would have risen from his own ash with ire. My powers would not prevent his resurrection. It seems that he seeks the Key that created the Box, the Box which even I cannot open.%
"That sounds terrible," Saya groaned, "are we doomed, Sou'unga?"
Sou'unga paused for a long minute before he answered.
%-It is not yet time to give up hope, Saya.%
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Lady Nud Nose scowled at the Mage for about the hundredth time, but for the ninety-ninth, he ignored her, having stopped acknowledging her the minute he was assured she wasn't going to risk it while he was the only one who knew how to safely remove the barrier around her son.
Ah-Un, with a chuff, had deigned to go by the other side of the barrier, laying with his flank a mere inch away from the reddish glow and worriedly peering from as close as he could get to the fox. Surprisingly, none of the Phoenixes had so much as twitched at that decision. They were perfectly confident that their Lord's plan would come to fruition and had no concern over what might happen right now, it seemed.
Jaken, for his part, had gone to stand next to Lady Mud Nose, who was sitting still on the boulder, Inuyasha to one side of her, and Kagura across from them, and Royoukan next to her. They were all loosely in almost a half circle, each one stealing occasional glances over to the barrier where Sesshoumaru and Shippou were still captive, none knowing what to do about the situation, all wishing somebody did.
Sesshoumaru was still crying, even now. His eyes hadn't dried all the way through the day and now into the night. Nor did he try to make it stop, too ashamed to care anymore, too hurt in his heart to hide it anymore. All he wanted right now was to make sure that Shippou wouldn't succumb to these injuries, the wounds which had taken Zusaku but minutes to inflict, minutes in which he could have easily killed the fox along with Inuyasha and the whole village if he'd wanted to, minutes which Sesshoumaru hadn't been paying attention, minutes he'd wasted...
He's blaming himself for everything.
It's not his fault, Un.
Ah, that's not how he sees it.
Zusaku would have plotted and struck at any time he felt convenient.
But this plan of Lord Sesshoumaru's is what made it convenient.
But that doesn't mean it's his Fault.
But he will always believe it to be, whether it is or not.
How truly you tell it, brother.
How badly I wish it were a lie, brother.
He has been crying for the whole day without stopping since he knelt by Shippou's side.
The tears spill from his heart, for his eyes are empty with grief.
Your words are profound, for his gaze does seem as of the void.
Thanh Long cannot heal Shippou from the other side of the barrier.
This was deliberately so. Zusaku and the Mage knew the power of the sword.
Why is Shippou not healing as fast as he usually does?
The taijiya poison is not the only thing affecting him.
Do you think the barrier is causing this?
It is not tied to the soul of the Mage, so it must be drawing on their power rather than his.
This would explain a lot about why he has remained so weak.
It would affect the one with the most magical energy the most, naturally.
At least Lord Sesshoumaru was able to tend his wounds.
I was surprised that he sang that old melody.
I was surprised that he sang.
You remember that tune, don't you, brother?
It was one that we heard long ago, but yes, I do, brother.
The dragons paused, neither wanting to ask the question that was on both their minds, but finally one did.
Do you think the Key truly calls Zusaku?
He seems to know enough about it.
He says he already has the Box.
Do you think the Box has told him where to find the Key?
It would have sensed that he can traverse the Nether without succumbing to death.
Do the others even know how to truly kill such a Phoenix?
The trick, brother, is not in the killing, it's in keeping him dead.
That's what I mean, brother. Do they know how?
I'm not sure. Has it ever come up before?
I don't believe so.
If Zusaku has the Box, and now seeks the Key...
If he finds it, we may be doomed.
Lose not your faith, brother. We have faced great odds before.
None like these. Sou'unga was at least contained in the chokuto when we faced him.
Both dragon heads fell slightly and looked woefully at Shippou, his body still badly damaged.
Zusaku beat him almost to death. Ten times as bad as he beat Inuyasha.
He felt that Shippou was the only threat in the room.
He must have heard tell that Shippou weilded Sou'unga.
Speaking of Sou'unga, why didn't it attack?
Sou'unga cannot by himself stop a Phoenix from rising from it's ashes, brother.
Oh, that's right, brother.
Besides that, he could not have unleashed a power strong enough to kill him even temporarily, for Inuyasha and Kaede were nearby and would have also been destroyed if he had used something like Gokuryuuha.
And to merely stab into Zusaku would have only made the Phoenix more angry, and had Shippou remained conscious to fight...
I see, I see. At first it seemed callous, but it was in fact merciful.
Zusaku would have killed Shippou outright if Sou'unga had struck a non-lethal blow.
Sou'unga is wise to these ways, having spent so long in madness himself.
Yes, he must have sensed the consequences would be severe if he attacked.
Is all hope lost, brother?
A long pause followed that question.
Have hope, brother. All is not lost just yet.
"He's blaming himself for everything," Jaken finally spoke quietly, the awkward silence making the tension more unbearable.
"It's not his fault, Jaken," Inuyasha replied, his voice equally quiet, his ears low.
"That's not how he sees it," Kagura sniffed, her own emotions barely repressed.
"Zusaku would have plotted and struck at the opportune time, no matter when it was," Jaken huffed, crossing his arms.
"Yet the plan my son made is what created that opportune time," Lady Mud Nose scowled.
"That doesn't mean it's His Fault," Inuyasha scowled right back, about fed up with her saying That.
"But he will always believe it is, no matter the truth," Royoukan said gently, curbing the hanyou's irate reaction.
"Well, that's the truth," Inuyasha sighed.
"I wish it wasn't," Royoukan replied softly.
A small pause followed as they all glanced over at Sesshoumaru, who had adjusted while he'd been tending Shippou, so that now what they saw was mostly his back, slightly angled to the side, just enough to see a bit of the profile of his face, just enough to see the one streak of still-falling tears as they left his cheek.
"Tenseiga can't help him heal Shippou through that barrier," Inuyasha murmured, not wanting to point out that his mighty brother was crying.
"Of course that was deliberate. Those foul birds knew the sword held that power," Lady Mud Nose frowned.
"Why isn't Shippou healing as fast as normal?" Kagura asked, her voice very worried.
"That taijiya poison we inhaled probably has a lot to do with it. Sango gave him some premade stuff, so if there was something in there that stops youkai from healing, he breathed it in. My transformation cleared my system, and while I was human it had a lot less effect on me than it would on a youkai, that's how it was made."
"That's not the only thing," Lady Mud Nose said darkly, "I did indeed feel the Mage's spells with my own senses, and he has tied the barrier to both of their souls. Since Kippou himself is a mage, the barrier energy would easier draw from him than from my son, who also is bound by the ensorcelled rope. This would also slow his healing."
"At least Lord Sesshoumaru was able to tend his wounds," Royoukan said, worry apparent as he looked over their heads at his Lord once more.
"Zusaku...beat him a lot worse than me," Inuyasha cringed at the faint but furious recollection, "a lot worse."
"You were human in that moment, and did not pose a threat to him," Jaken said, trying to reassure the hanyou, "he saw Shippou as the only one who could possibly do him any harm."
"He must have realized Shippou was the weilder of Sou'unga," Kagura murmured, then with a frown, "but then, why was Sou'unga so quiet? As I recall, Sou'unga can levitate and move itself to a degree..."
"Zusaku is a Phoenix," Lady Mud Nose sniffed, "and phoenixes have a bad habit of being reborn from their own ashes. If you can even manage to kill them in the first place, they come back with a vengeance. With humans so close, Sou'unga would not have been able to unleash any of his full potential without killing them. With a phoenix for an opponent, Sou'unga would have only made it worse if he'd stabbed through the foul youkai's body, probably not killing him, and making him wroth even if he did. Can you imagine how much worse the fox would have been beaten if he had remained conscious enough to put up a fight?"
"So it was an act of...of mercy," Inuyasha mumbled, his face growing soft, "I see. Sou'unga must have sensed Zusaku was a powerful phoenix and known what would happen if he tried anything. I thought maybe he was just callous...but that choice probably spared Shippou's life."
"Yes, indeed," Jaken nodded somberly, and they all fell silent for a pause, before Royoukan finally spoke.
"Are we doomed?" he whispered.
"Nonsense, wolf," Lady Mud Nose chided him, but even she didn't sound too convinced of her own attempt at conviction...
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