InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A House Divided ❯ By the Sea ( Chapter 2 )

"A fish can fall in love with a bird, but where will they build their nest?"

A House Divided

Chapter 1: By the Sea

Kiyoshi was not a smart man, but he knew if they didn't reach the Western Lands soon, his mate would die right there in his arms. It was cold, it was snowing, she was pregnant, and they were both wounded. The ground was slippery, the wind was howling, and the sky looked like a rainbow-not really rainbow because rainbows were red, orange, yellow, green, blue . . . some color that began with an "I" and violet. No, the sky wasn't any of those colors. It was black and gray and white and not sunny at all, but "rainbow" was the only word he knew to describe something that was more than one color.

Sorano's eyes were like rainbows-yellow rainbows. They were so pretty when they were open, but right now, they were closed. He didn't want her to die. He liked rainbows, and yellow was his favorite color. When someone died, they never opened their eyes again. They stopped breathing, and you couldn't hear their heartbeat anymore. It was like a nap you couldn't wake up from. That was what Haya had said. Haya was his sister. She was napping with their mother under a tree in the . . .

He frowned for a moment, trying to think of the word Sorano had used to describe the place at their castle with all the trees. It was like a garden, but instead of flowers, they grew trees. He thought it started with an "A." It was a long word that sounded even longer, and he always had problems saying it. An a-ar--

"Just say indoor forest," he remembered Sorano saying. She always tried to make hard things easy for him.

But his mother and sister were napping together in the indoor forest. His mother and father had killed each other, and then it was just Haya and him. His mother had a friend Kimi, who helped look after them, and she was nice to them. She was a hanyou, too, but instead of a hawk like Haya and him-or a dog like Sorano-Kimi was a wolf. She helped the human side of his family raise them. She owed a life debt to their mother, and this was how she was supposed to repay it-serving him and his sister until they died or released her from her debt.

Kimi was pretty, and she talked a lot, and she liked to laugh. She would always read to them before they went to sleep at night, and she was just as good as their own mother. Their mother had been gone a long time, and when she came back, Kimi was with her. Their father started yelling at their mother while he and his sister played behind a screen in the Great Hall. He could not see them, but they sounded very angry. His father was yelling about overstepping her bounds and something about the Western Lord and his mate.

His mother sounded as if she was sorry, and she offered Kimi as a c-conc--

"Just say `lover,'" he could hear Sorano say.

She told him he could have Kimi as a lover. His father laughed and said that wasn't nearly enough. Kiyoshi then began paying attention to the actions beyond the screen. His father suddenly stood up and rushed down from the raised platform where he had been sitting. His mother stumbled backwards as his father struck her. His mother then told Kimi to grab them from behind the screen and take them to their rooms. But Kimi didn't know where their rooms were because she'd never been in the castle before. Haya led the way, and they sat in their chambers until their mother appeared.

Haya and he sat on seat cushions in their outer chamber as the hanyou introduced herself and tried to convince them that nothing was wrong. Their mother and father had always fought, which was why she liked to go away and stay gone for a long time. They always shouted at one another, but he had never seen his father hit his mother. Mother was only human, after all, and humans were too weak to be hit by youkai. Mother had always told them to be careful with her because they were much stronger than she was.

It seemed like hours, but only a few minutes later, their mother appeared. She was covered in blood, and her clothes were torn. The dark blue of her robes gave way to the white and red skin underneath.

Haya and he ran to her side, and she shoved them away. There was a strange, glowing sword in her hand. Kimi pulled them away from her, keeping her hands on their shoulders, and they watched as their mother affixed a small slip of paper to the screen of their room.

"Your father is dead," she announced. She was breathing hard, and her eyes did not look like the eyes of their mother. "Kiyoshi, you are now the lord of the Northern Lands. Until you are old enough, I will rule in your place."

He blinked a few times not really understanding what she had said. Their father couldn't be dead. They'd been with him just a few minutes ago, and he was fine. He did want to know why his mother was all red, and what that sword was, though. It felt . . . wrong, and it was covered in blood. A dark rainbow of light shone around the blade.

He suddenly felt hot all over, and his head hurt. His forehead burned, and he reached up to make it stop hurting.

"Don't worry," his mother said. "It's your symbol of office, the shining star of the North." Her grey eyes kept shifting between the door and the three of them. "Haya, bow before your new lord and master."

His sister stared at him with wide eyes. They were both the same age, but she was taller, stronger, smarter. Mother had always said she would be the next ruler of their lands.

"Bow," she insisted more sternly.

His sister pouted, but did as their mother said, tipping her red-brown head slightly forward.

"You too," she commanded, waving the sword in Kimi's face, just above his head.

The yellow-haired female released her hold on his shoulders, walked around to face him then dropped to her knees.

A lot of shouting could be heard coming from the other side of the screen. He could hear their feet pounding against the floorboards and see their dark shadows looming in the hallway.

"What's happening?" Haya asked, her green eyes growing impossibly wider.

"We're at war," his mother explained.

"War?" the young hatchling repeated.

"Your brother is the new ruler of the Northern Lands, but there are some people that don't want that. They think they can take over by just killing us."

Both Haya and he swallowed hard. They were just over six years old; they weren't ready to die.

"But we won't let them," their mother insisted. "We will stay here until reinforcements arrive."

"Re-rein--"

"Just say help."

"Help," his mother said. "Your father has declared war on the humans in his territories, and now my family will help us."

"Family?" he repeated.

"Yes." Her eyes remained fixed on the loud pounding just outside the screen. Every time something hit it, a bright light would shoot out, and Kimi, Haya and he had to cover their eyes. "You have several uncles, aunts and cousins you've never met. And your grandfather, of course, my father."

He'd thought his mother was too old to have a father.

"Kimi, if they break through this barrier, you are to defend them with your life."

The hanyou seemed to hesitate, then she nodded. When the strange light around the screen finally faded, she helped their mother fight against their father's men. She made plants grow out of the floor. Some stabbed the men. Some strangled them, and others formed leafy, green cages around them.

Eventually, they escaped.

But their mother still died.

The sword that she used was not meant to be held by human hands. It was a demonic sword one of his mother's uncles had commissioned. He was a priest, and he believed the only way to fight evil was with a greater evil. The sword was forged by a youkai named Kaijinbo. He had forged the sword for his mother's uncle in exchange for his safety. The blade fed off the hatred of its holder and the blood of his enemies. It was called Hakaisha-the destroyer. And that is what it did. First, his father, then his mother and finally, Haya. His father died on its blade. The wounds his father gave his mother coupled with the pa-para--

"Just say `leech.'"

The wounds his father gave his mother coupled with the leech-like nature of the sword eventually killed her. When Haya grew older, and the Lord of the East tried to conquer their territories, she picked up their mother's sword with a few, simple swings. She did not want to use the sword, but they did not want to lose their lands, either. Ever since their father's death, one tribe of demons or another would always come after them. Their attacks were random, and with Kimi's help, they always failed. But the Eastern Lord sent an entire army, and even she was not strong enough to fight them all. Their human relatives had a few demons bound to their service, but they were low-level youkai, no match for the taiyoukai of the East. As a last ditch effort, they decided to use Hakaisha. Several of their uncles tried to use the sword, but having no mystic powers, Hakaisha made quick work of them, and only a pile of bones remained were they had stood.

Their mother's mother, their grandmother, had been a witch, their grandfather told them. She was used to trafficking with dark forces and bending them to get her own way. Her daughter was not as gifted with magicks, but her soul was as black as any demon's. His grandfather said that his mate sold both her soul and that of their daughter's in exchange for power to rival that of a youkai's. That power came in the form of a tattoo on their mother's forehead-a cross. That same cross adorned the forehead of one of his mother's uncles. He traveled the lands, battling both human and youkai alike to make himself stronger and to test his abilities.

When all was said and done, that uncle became a mercenary who went on to found the Shi-Shi--

"Just say `Seven Men Army.'"

His name was Bankotsu.

The mark allowed both he and his mother to battle with youkai on their level. Coupled with the skills her father and brothers had taught her, his mother was one of the most powerful humans on the island . . . even though she was female.

Haya, being hanyou, used her demon nature to control the blade and her human heart to decide on the targets. It did not eat away at her soul as it did their mother, and it did not kill her as it did their uncles. They won that war because of her, but their human relatives soon grew to fear her. Before the Eastern Lord attacked them, their relatives had controlled every aspect of their lives. His family wanted to rule over all of Hokkaido, and with him as the rightful heir to the demon lord of the Northern Lands, they had that.

Because he, his sister and Kimi didn't know anything about ruling a land, his grandfather did everything for him. Sorano said that meant he wasn't really the lord, at all. He was just a puppet, she'd said.

But after Haya used Hakaisha to defeat the East, no one was so quick to tell them what to do. Sorano said it was because they were afraid of them, now. She wasn't there when all this had happened, but he told her all about it. He told Sorano everything. She was his mate, and mates were supposed to share everything.

Soon after the defeat of the East, someone made Haya sick, Kimi had said. They put something in her body that made her heart stop beating. She died, and they planted her in the . . . indoor forest beside their mother.

After Haya died, his grandfather wanted him to mate with a human that lived in his household. She was one of his adopted daughters, he'd said. Her name was Miki. The girl was pretty, but she was young-younger than him. He was twenty-one, and she was only twelve. His grandfather said she could bear him heirs, though. He tried to take the girl, but she was afraid of him, and that made him afraid of her. She didn't like his wings, and whenever he came near her, she would shrink away. He didn't really mind, though; he didn't love her.

Kimi had always told Haya and him stories about her parents, and how they had died because they couldn't be with each other.

Kiyoshi sniffed. He would not have died without Miki, but he would die without Sorano.

He pulled the bloody female closer to him, wrapping his wings more tightly about her, shielding her from the wind and the snow, trying to hold in what little heat their bodies had left. It was so cold. He was so cold. His body ached, and she was cold.

Those people had hurt them with their nails and their crosses and hammers and books and water. He didn't know that water could burn. He also didn't know what they'd done to Sorano. They'd separated the two of them, and he didn't see her again until they did to her what they'd done to him.

His ankles and wrists still burned and ached from where the spikes had been, and they were still bleeding. But, what was worse was the pain between his thighs. They'd taken something from him, touched him where only his mate should.

They'd tied him to a table, bound him with painful scrolls and stripped him. He knew that was wrong. You weren't supposed to take your clothes off in front of strangers.

They said words that made his head hurt and his ears bleed. He'd cried. He knew men weren't supposed to cry, but it had hurt so bad . . . and they'd taken Sorano from him.

That made Sorano angry. He remembered how she'd yelled and screamed and kicked at them as they'd pulled her away from him.

She wasn't strong that day. She was only human, and she'd needed him to protect her.

But he didn't. He couldn't even protect himself.

Those people cut him, and he bled, wetness covering him from his hips to his mid-thigh. They had come to the Southern Lands to get help, but instead they'd hurt them.

They hung her beside him, and she was bloody. But it wasn't like her regular blood. It smelled as if she were in heat, but he knew that couldn't be. Females only went into heat once a year, and Sorano's heat was over. She shouldn't have smelled that way.

But he could hear her cursing beside him. He knew she was angry. Very angry. She didn't answer when he'd spoken to her. She was scary when she got that way. Even scarier than her father. And everyone knew about Lord Sesshoumaru's temper.

It meant that things would die.

And when the sun set, and her powers returned, they did. All the men and women in the big building. All the villagers in the town. Anything and everything that got in her way. She'd even hurt him . . . just a little, though.

She was much stronger than he was, but right now she was very weak. She was always that way after a transformation.

Kiyoshi shuddered. They were so far from where they needed to be . . .

His steps faltered, and he fell to his knees, the jagged rocks ripping through the heavy silk of his hakama, the wet snow further chilling his flesh as his blood and that of his mate's coated the ground. Up ahead, through the blowing snow, he could see several dark figures approaching them, and he could hear a stream flowing somewhere nearby.

Kiyoshi wept. Sorano's father was right, and so was his. He was a moron-a weak moron who could not protect his mate.

As the figures came closer and shouting filled the air, he looked down at her still features and realized that there was nowhere on this earth they could be together . . .

8 8 8

In the castle of the Western Lord, Sesshoumaru stirred from his rest, the crescent moon upon his forehead alerting him to a new danger. He gently dislodged himself from his mate's embrace, slid to the edge of the bed, pulled back the curtain on its railing and set his bare feet down on the floor. His head hurt, and his knees felt too weak to stand.

Feeling the absence of his warmth and sensing his distress, Rin awoke. "What is it, Sesshoumaru?"

When she was greeted with silence, she crawled up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. He seemed to start at her touch.

"Sesshoumaru?" she said softly. "What's wrong?"

He turned his head slightly to the side, turning to face her. "Our eldest is dying."

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Author's Notes:

Kiyoshi means "quiet."

Sorano means "of the sky."

Haya means "quick, light."

Miki means "beautiful tree."

And if you'll recall, Kimi means "she who is without equal," and Zinan means "second son."

I hope my little revision helped clear up some confusion some of you readers had. Sorano is, indeed, Sesshoumaru's daughter, and Kiyoshi is the son of Yori and the Northern Lord. More details on them and their ordeals will come later.

Thanks for reading and reviewing, and I hope I didn't disappoint,

theMaven :)