A/N: I don't feel like writing much here this time. It's kind of poetically appropriate that this is the chapter I post as I have just also experienced a deep loss which I am still in a state of numbness about. A person I had worked as a health care aide for the past six years just died. I can't say more, not just because I'm legally obligated to keep personal information private, but because I just really don't want to throw that all on here.
That being said, editing today was a distraction for me, and...I just don't know when you'll get the next chapter. Sorry about that in advance. You will get it eventually, it's already uploaded in raw text just not edited for understanding yet. I might edit a few more to get them ready for posting later if I feel up to it.
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The Mage had drawn out his torture for over three hours, and left Shippou coughing up blood from reopened wounds after all his thrashing, his still-broken ribs lacerating his lungs. Sesshoumaru held him like he would a child, drawing the kitsune literally curled up into his lap and holding him in both arms, the Mokomoko-sama wrapped around both of them and now so large and full of jyaki that it barely contained itself in the lower half of the barrier. The Mage assumed this was some dog youkai expression of defense, and thought nothing of it; he didn't know, as most didn't know, that it was actually a separate entity entirely.
Ah-Un had become anxious and shook and paced and snarled and flared and shot lightning into the sky; but the Mage had paid him no especial heed, not afraid of what he did not understand to be a much more lethal threat than he saw. And Ah-Un, too wise to kill the Mage who was the only one who could destroy the barrier, and too wise to incur more of his wrath, could do nothing save throw their tantrums and glare with darkness in their eyes at the Mage.
We should kill him, brother.
How I want to, brother.
I feel it in my very heart, brother.
I feel it in mine as well, brother.
Shall we kill him?
It is not time.
Would that we could destroy this barrier without ill effect...
When the time is right, brother, we will be the swiftest.
When the time is right, brother, we will be the cruelest.
When the time is right, brother, we will show no mercy.
When the time is right, brother, we will have no fear.
When the time is right, brother, this bird will die a thousand deaths.
When the time is right, brother, this bird will be reborn to die from our own claws again and again.
I wish the time were right now.
I wish it too, but that does not make it so.
We are resolved, then.
He is marked for death.
When the time is right?
When the time is right.
And in both hearts, Ah-Un felt Murderous Intent rise within him, and stirred his breast, and two hearts beat as one, and they decided.
Sesshoumaru had sobbed in terrible, wretched defeat for those hours also, trying his best to comfort his struggling friend, finding that his begging and pleading had done no good, that the Mage was deaf to his own cries, and oh, how that mage was right, how much more it hurt to watch his friend suffer than to have dealt with pain himself...for what could hurt more than a broken heart?
Satisfied that he'd broken the dog into a stupor of submission for at least a little while, and frustrated by the day's losses, and spent from exercising his energy, the Mage dozed off lightly against the tree. Even though he felt the glare of the two-headed beast upon him, he was arrogant, and knew there would be no attack, and so slept with even a cocky half-smile on his face under the snakelike gaze.
It is not time, Ah.
I lifted but one paw!
It is not time.
Just one step closer.
No, brother. Else you will tempt me as well.
He sleeps...
The barrier.
Yes, that damned barrier.
We should return to Lord Sesshoumaru's side.
Would that we could touch him.
Soon, brother.
Right after we kill the bird?
When the time is right, yes.
Good.
Ah-Un forcibly turned about, fighting the murderous intent with sheer willpower, and laid along the barrier to be by Sesshoumaru and Shippou.
Shippou was weak now, and made sounds that were primal, noises that Any Living Creature could understand, the noises of an animal suffering in distress. Sesshoumaru, more quietly, more softly, trying to be brave enough to comfort the fox now the torture had stopped, had stifled his own noises just enough to cradle Shippou, choking on his breaths in his throat.
"Shhh, shhh," his raspy voice was hoarse with emotions spent, "I'm sorry, it's all my fault, Shippou. I'm sorry..."
"Not...your...fault," Shippou managed to grit through his teeth, and let out a squeal of anguish as his clenched jaw came unhinged and more cries escaped him in pain, and his mind slipped into a lucid place, and he fell into whimpers again.
"Shippou...shhh, shhh, hush little fox..."
The Mokomoko-sama flowed up and around the kitsune and the dog, swaddling them in it's warmth and it's comforting powers, lulling the kitsune to sleep and soothing the taiyoukai's aching heart until he stopped sobbing; but his tears remained, a reminder of the agony of his friends' suffering, and those would not go away no matter what Mokomoko-sama did.
Does Mokomoko-sama know what to do?
I think so, brother.
Will it die?
No, it's a pure blood creature, it can negate blood magic for it's own form.
But not for others.
Unfortunately not.
So even if it's blood had been used in this barrier spell, it still can't die from the barrier's destruction?
But neither can it prevent the barrier's power from affecting either of them.
So if Mokomoko-sama draws out as much of Lord Sesshoumaru's jyaki as possible...then what?
At some point, his body will be nearly drained of both jyaki and blood, so he will become the weaker of the two, and Shippou will be spared.
And Zusaku wants him alive. I see. The Mage will have to stop or face more wrath than just losing the guards.
Precisely.
But if they are both that badly weakened, and Shippou that badly injured-
Once the barrier is gone, Thanh Long will return.
This is true, brother. He is never far behind.
Mokomoko-sama will release it's stores as it always has when Lord Sesshoumaru calls upon it. That is it's symbiosis.
Do you think Mokomoko-sama can actually contain that much jyaki?
Do not underestimate Lord Fluff-Fluff.
I almost wanted to laugh right there, brother. Thank you.
You are most welcome, brother. It was the least I could do.
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Four hours passed; the Mage had no guards to wake him up now, and was too weary to arise within just one hour. But having slept for four hours and being battle-hardened and well trained, he awoke somewhat mentally refreshed and feeling well rested. But oh, his gut still roiled from that shochu, it fell into the pit of his stomach and...
And suddenly, it hit him, like a flash. His mind had been tired and absent before, when the hanyou brought him the alcohol...
"That hanyou brother of yours," the Mage said slowly, blinking as he moved away from the tree, affixing his eyes to Sesshoumaru as he spoke, who had not himself yet fallen asleep and now grew fearful as the Mage neared, "poisoned the shochu he gave us. He was in league with that black fox who sent the boar to steal my men. He was In League with them!" the Mage roared, and his wings flared wide, and his face contorted, and he slammed both fists into the barrier, "The halfbreed thinks he's so clever, does he? His Cleverness," the Mage seethed, "will cost this fox his Life this time!"
"No, no, no, no, please don't, please, stop-" Sesshoumaru's words tumbled uselessly as his eyes grew wide in fear, and the barrier crackled and sizzled, and flame rose from the outer edge of the barrier as the Mage cast phoenix fire upon it's surface with a diabolical laugh.
Shippou awoke with a scream, and Sesshoumaru tried so hard to hold him still, and begged the Mage to stop, and tried to channel his jyaki into Mokomoko-sama fast enough to weaken himself enough to fall under the barrier's spell instead...
But he, Sesshoumaru, was a powerful taiyoukai many years old, around a thousand. And Shippou, strong as he was, was a two-tailed fox, barely over a hundred, and injured as he was, and drained as he already had been, he was very, very weak now, near death. And the Mage was swiftly pushing him further, so close that Sesshoumaru knew, he would never be able to empty his own body of his energy into Mokomoko-sama in time.
"What do you want from me?!" Sesshoumaru demanded of the Mage, and cawing out a primal bird laugh, the Mage said nothing, until he had twice repeated it, "tell me, Mage, what do I have to do? What is it that you want? Tell me, and it's yours! Please, please just stop..."
"What I want is for you to suffer when I suffer. And Lord Zusaku did not implicitly forbid me from killing this fox. He serves no purpose but to torture you with his cries, and I grow loathe of your fool brother and foul friends playing obtuse tricks that make me look like some kind of third-rate hatchling. I am the Prime Battlemage of Lord Zusaku's Southern Empire! Those who think they can make a fool of me and get away with it shall have to be taught by example," he narrowed his eyes, "and that example shall be the look on your face when the fox dies in your arms, and there will be Nothing, NOTHING you can do about it! I'm stuck here watching you, and you'll be stuck there with a dead fox in your private little circle of Hell, just like I am!"
Shippou screamed more, and cried, and bawled, and Sesshoumaru felt a feeling like nothing he'd felt before, and it swallowed him in misery and grief, and it ate up his soul and devoured his mind, and it clenched his throat and his heart into two tight fists. And it shut out his words, and his mind felt as if it would go numb, and he could not think, and he could not Breathe, and he could not See...
Shippou drew in a ragged gasp after a long scream, and let out a short cry, and then, the one eye flying wide open, he sought...
"Father," Shippou whispered, and Sesshoumaru's eyes were full of tears as the kitsune stared right into his own eyes, his own soul.
"Your Father isn't here, Shippou," Sesshoumaru whispered.
"He is," Shippou whispered, "right...on the other side..."
"The only youkai out there are the Mage who's doing this, and Ah-Un."
"There," Shippou whispered, lifting his hand, pointing in the opposite direction of the Mage, and above Ah-Un's back, and smiled, "See?"
"Shippou..." Sesshoumaru looked back, then felt a new flood of tears as he returned his gaze to Shippou's eyes, "I don't see him."
His soul is selfless,
His heart purified.
How noble he has truly become!
How grand for us to be his friends!
"Sesshou...maru," Shippou gasped as another wave of pain wracked his body, "I can't..."
"No, you'll make it through this, I-"
"Liar," Shippou called him out on it, and Sesshoumaru choked on his own words and felt something cold settle in his gut.
His praises will be sung!
His triumphs will be told!
His tale in every tongue!
His actions brave and bold!
"Shippou, you can't ask me to-"
"I'm not...asking," Shippou coughed, and blood spattered out from his mouth, "I'm holding...you...to a...promise. Re...member?"
Sesshoumaru whimpered, and Shippou spasmed and let out another shriek, and convulsed for a few moments before fighting himself long enough to speak again, pulling up his reserves of strength for one more word.
His grace will be lauded!
His glory will be applauded!
His magnificence will be realized!
His wisdom will be idealized!
His sacrifices will be a lesson!
His name will become a blessing!
"Mercy," he breathed, and Sesshoumaru felt a tearing inside of him such as nothing he had ever felt before.
"Damnable nogitsune," he hissed, and the fox willed his body still enough, long enough, for Sesshoumaru to pull him into a tight embrace, injuries be damned, and whispered into his ear softly, hand moving towards the back of his neck, "I love you, Shippou. I'm sorry."
And Shippou sighed, his spirit feeling comfort.
Ah and Un had been chanting silently in each mind now, but at these last lines, they opened both mouths and noised aloud.
His might will be forever known!
His strength will be forever shown!
His truth will herald a bright new day!
HE IS NEVER DEAD WHO HAS PASSED AWAY!
And Sesshoumaru snapped his neck with one swift move.
Ah-Un trumpeted out the low, soulful, resounding chant in Dragon Tongue, keening at the very end afterwards.
The red energy of the spell flared and swirled, and the Mage pulled his claws away from the barrier and began to laugh hysterically, standing there cackling like a maniac at the prisoner within.
And Sesshoumaru, suddenly, felt Nothing. And Nothing became his heart, and Emptiness became his mind, and Void became his soul, and he sat still and clutched the dead fox in his embrace, unmoving, tears falling from his eyes, feeling...Nothing.
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Of course, the Mage didn't know Dragon Tongue, and only laughed more at himself as the reactions didn't even make Sesshoumaru blink. But only a few miles away, one certain Dragon lifted his head sharply, then gasped.
"The chant! Oh no!" Koryuu flapped both wings in agitation, forgetting how large they'd grown, "This is bad! We have to go!"
"I knew I had a bad feeling," Inuyasha huffed, "wait, what chant?"
"Ah-Un is reciting the Death Chant in Dragon Tongue!" Koryuu wailed, and Inuyasha, Koryuu, Lady Mud Nose, Kagura, Jaken, Kirara, Kagome, Royoukan, and-
"Sou'unga?" They all watched the sword fly out from the building, careening to the side a little ways from them, then, drawing from Saya's sheath, it plunged into the ground, opened a small burrow into the Netherworld, and vanished.
"It was Shippou!" Saya shrieked, "Shippou was killed, Sou'unga sensed his spirit die!" as they stared over at the sheath.
They bolted, reaching the place of the barrier within mere minutes. But it was already too late to have prevented anything...
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Shippou walked over to his Father, almost without even thinking about it, as if it were just natural to walk over to him, standing tall now.
"It's good to see you again, my son," his Father smiled, and Shippou smiled back.
"You too, Father."
"But it will not be for long. You have to take this," his Father pressed something into his hands, and Shippou blinked.
"What's this?"
"The last bit of my houshi-no-tama, and a beacon to Heaven, just outside of which we now meet," his Father smiled and began to fade into a vision, "but you must go to the Nether now, Seven Treasures, for your mighty sword awaits you there. Guard the Gate from the Phoenix, with dragons and brothers. I have no time to explain more. Follow your heart."
And Shippou felt himself falling, falling into darkness, but surrounded by his Father's blue light, he had no fear...
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Sou'unga veered this way and that, and that way and this, and sniffed, and paused, and tilted his body, and rose up to touch the Very Middle of the Very Top, and flicked out his tail, and caught the fox's soul; and the fox's soul took the form of his body, and Sou'unga's tail the form of the hilt of the chokuto, and Sou'unga himself smiled and became the blade once more.
"You came...to greet me at my death?" Shippou raised both eyebrows, confused.
"No, silly kitsune. You are Ikiryou, a living soul outside your body. Your houshi-no-tama melded with my own soul. You are not, as we say, Really Dead. You hold power here, My Power. We must find our brother swords. Thanh Long courses the Heavens for a way to prevent Zusaku from bringing his plans to fruition. Tetsusaiga is still bound, we must free him."
"Isn't Tetsusaiga right there next to that Mage?"
"Not in this realm, where his soul rests. Come, Shippou, I know the where we should find him at," Sou'unga pulsed, and Shippou went where the Nine-Eyed Nether Dragon soul would take them, trusting his guidance...
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"You...you, you FILTHY ROTTEN-"
The Mage began to chuckle darkly at Inuyasha and cut him off before he could continue.
"But I wasn't the one who killed him, hanyou. Your very own brother snapped his neck."
"YOU MOTHERFU-"
"Inuyasha!" Kagome grabbed his sleeve, "if you kill him..."
"-FUCKEERRRRR!" Inuyasha screamed in rage and snarled at the youkai, but halted by his wife's sense, he staved off his urge to attack, just barely, and stood growling in fury, feeling his jyaki rise. Without Tetsusaiga at his side, he realized, he was dangerously close to...
"I speak only the truth," the Mage taunted, "ask him yourself if you don't believe me."
"You were going to kill Shippou anyway, I don't need to ask," Inuyasha cut him off with a low mutter of heavy rage, "you're still the one who killed Shippou, no matter what you think about my brother's act of mercy."
That word jarred Sesshoumaru slightly, just slightly, out of his stupor, but not in a way anybody knew what to expect. He'd been still as a statue for these scarce five minutes it had been, five minutes that had felt like both an eternity and a blink, and slowly, at hearing his brother's words finally filter through his ears to his consciousness, he slowly pulled himself barely away from the kitsune, pausing to look at the body still held, mostly, in his embrace.
He sniffed as a few fast tears fell from his cheeks, then moved his hand up behind Shippou's head and lifted his own chin a bit, and kissed the fox's forehead, and then tucked Shippou under his chin for a moment; and then, after another breath, he took the Mokomoko-sama from his shoulder, and laid Shippou upon it, and stood slowly, looking down at his dead friend.
"You see? He does not deny it," the Mage crowed, as if that were something to be triumphant about. He hadn't even thought about the fact that Mokomoko-sama was now detached from the dog's body, for his mind was elsewhere in his triumphant crowing.
"You're going to regret every second of every last thing you've done," Inuyasha snarled, his eyes starting to flicker red.
"Indeed, he will," Lady Mud Nose stepped forward, and with a subtle gesture, gently placing her hand on Inuyasha's shoulder, "but we shall reserve for his Lord an even greater punishment."
"Lord Zusaku won't succumb to the likes of you," the Mage laughed, sounding truly incredulous.
And the moment of rage curbed from a fight, those who had run to the hill now knew not what to do, but watch with broken hearts and tears as Sesshoumaru stood there, looking down at the dead fox, his own face hollow, and void, and pale...as if he himself wore a mask of the dead, as if his own soul had left with the kitsune's last breath...
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"You are she," Thanh Long whispered, finally finding the soul he sought. Plans had changed when he'd felt Shippou near death, and his search for other things was abandoned now as he looked at the soul before him.
"Me? But I am merely a humble fox," she said meekly, and he shook his head.
"No, you are the one. Your husband just went to give your son what was left of his houshi-no-tama, and that means you who were two as one, who made Shippou in living form, you are the one. Your houshi-no-tama can track theirs, as they were once joined and one in your last life."
"If it is for my son, then it is yours," she said, and her love turned into a light, and the light was absorbed into Thanh's spirit, and he sped off to return to his sword-form, for though he could not reach Sesshoumaru through the barrier, he knew he should be near, a sense bode him to make haste...
Not sure how Sesshoumaru could manage to use his power to revive Shippou if he couldn't get through the barrier, nevertheless, on faith and hope, Thanh Long returned his full spirit to the blade of Tenseiga and waited...
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Sesshoumaru damned himself a thousand times. He knew it was Mercy. But in the very second just after he'd done it, right when he couldn't take it back, it had felt awful, like Betrayal, like Murder.
Shippou lay in a bloody, disheveled mess, his injuries having never healed. His face wore a peaceful look, but his body looked mangled, his fur soaked in blood, his skin covered in bruises...
The Mokomoko-sama began to feed on the blood that was left in his body, and one tiny patch of fur gained a cream-colored dusting at the ends, unnoticed by any but Sesshoumaru himself.
He blinked. Then he slowly turned his ghastly gaze to meet the eyes of his friends, and the void in his eyes seared them to their hearts.
"Mother," he had looked at all of them in turn, but finally settled his gaze at long last on her, and in a quiet voice, "it was a promise. I had no choice. He held me to a vow...I had to keep my promise."
"I know, my son," she whispered back, and when she did, his eyes filled with another emotion she could scarce identify.
"He went to his Father," Sesshoumaru whispered, and she felt something Hurt right then, and her heart was pierced at his words, and a tear fell from her face swiftly as she watched her son cry.
"Yes, my son."
"If he went to Heaven," Sesshoumaru was barely breathing now, "if he is at peace, with his Father, Tenseiga won't call him back."
And there it was. Having spoken those words, Sesshoumaru fell silent again, looking down at the kitsune, and now his Mother understood.
And the others, knowing not what to say, also fell silent, minds numb with the realization, the creeping sensation...
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Review on the story if you'd like to. Don't feel obligated to comment on my author's note, that's just my own mind rambling. None of you knew anyone in my life, it won't make you a bad person to talk about just my story. Spoiler alert-you already know Shippou's not staying dead, right? I hope that was obvious.
This "fourth season" is probably the very most unfavorite of my renditions of post-Inuyasha rewrites wherein Yashahime never happened and I continue to expound upon Sesshoumaru and Shippou's growth as characters, and I'm sorry you have to bear with the least fruitful of my writings, but this was a point wherein I had to make a sort of pivot in order to explain and include things that become relevant later, including the events transpiring the way in which they have to solidify certain factors of import. In doing this I had to string these concepts together in a sort of "How will I explain this later if I don't explain This Now?" form, asking myself how to get these obstacles out of the way led to this fic, so while it's very drawn out and technical and even sort of annoying and it has a lot of depressing low points, and sometimes comes off as a bit haphazard, if you just bear with this one the rest after it get better. Sorry about that but this is how I have to trudge through writer's block myself and I apologize in advance for the suffering of it. Sometime a long way in the future once each of these seasons series is posted I plan on maybe compiling them into a full volume and doing some more serious continuity editing and fixing all the flaws and maybe cropping some clutter. If anybody cares by that point.