InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A New Sibling ❯ Battle After-Math... ( Chapter 17 )

I'm startin' on a new chapter now! Hurray!

Here's the quote of the chapter:

"The sun rose slowly, like a fiery fur-ball coughed up uneasily onto a sky-blue carpet by a giant unseen cat." - Michael McGarel.

Here's a movie quote:

"You wanna make a deal? How about this? You give me Neo, or we all die, right here, right now." - Trinity in Matrix Revolutions.

I actually haven't seen this movie, yet. My brother loaned the DVD to us, so I'm going to watch it soon. I hear it's not so good.

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*Western Citadel*

Suzuka stepped out of her chamber, walking toward Sesshoumaru's. She had spent a good portion of the night trying to find one of her spell scrolls or something that would rid Ayumu's body of the poison from Sesshoumaru's claws, but to no avail. She finally just ended up changing the bandages that were already soaked through. The intense boiling of Ayumu's flesh had started to slowly diminish, but was still pretty bad.

At her small knock, Suzuka was greeted by Kuzume at the door as she had expected. Kuzume showed her into the room, sitting by Sesshoumaru's futon where he lay motionless. Suzuka sat beside her and began to remove his bandages.

When they were completely off, she saw that Kuzume had healed him, yet he remained unconscious.

"It might be a while until his blood becomes accustomed to the poison that is trapped there. By healing his wounds for him, you have trapped it there."

Suzuka looked over at Kuzume who was just staring at the small scars on Sesshoumaru's back and side where the poison was started to burn a new whole.

"I couldn't stand to see it like that anymore. He was suffering."

She stood up and retrieved fresh bandages from her bag. She rewrapped the area on him that had started to bleed anew.

"I do not blame you, but Ayumu - to my knowledge - is a lot worse off than Sesshoumaru here. Her flesh still boils."

Suzuka stood to leave, but stopped when Kuzume looked up at her and spoke.

"What caused this hate between them, Suzuka? How did they get this way?"

She was near tears. The thought of someone always in hatred caused unease in her, especially since it was Sesshoumaru and his own twin.

"They have always been competitive, and I'm sure that your being here did not aide the matter much. There will be much turmoil in this castle when they regain consciousness, trust me."

That said, Suzuka turned and left back to her own chambers.

~*~

"Oi, Suzuka! Are you gonna spend all night just watchin' Ayumu `n' changin' her bandages?"

Suzuka gave a pointed glare at InuYasha who was standing in the open doorway. It was nearly dawn and she hadn't even meditated to keep up with the human sleep cycle like she usually did.

"Unlike humans and you, InuYasha, youkai such as myself do not need sleep except on few occasions. Ayumu's flesh continues to remain open-wounded, and until it starts to heal, I intend to stay here and bandage her."

"Whatever…not like it's me, wasting my life…"

Suzuka shot him a cold glare and he promptly exited the room.

~*~

"Hey, Suzuka? How is she?"

Kuzume stepped into the room, watching as Suzuka gave an audible sigh, and moved to lean her back against the wall.

"See for yourself…"

She reached over and quickly cut the blood-soaked bandages from Ayumu's stomach with a slight flick of her wrist. Kuzume walked over and the odor of rotting flesh and poison hit her nostrils, causing her to recoil and back into the far wall. The obtrusive aroma filled the room and Suzuka walked to the window, opening it to let in some fresh air. When some of the stench was gone, Kuzume walked back over to see that Ayumu's blood was continuously bubbling, turning red and greenish around the edges of the wound.

Kuzume took the bag off of her shoulder, retrieving fresh bandages to wrap Ayumu with. As she worked she looked up, finding Suzuka standing on the balcony, leaning against the banister, and staring into the rising sun.

Kuzume turned her attention back to wrapping Ayumu, and decided to fill the eerie silence. "Sesshoumaru seems to be rousing, but he remains on the edges of consciousness."

Suzuka turned around, closing the doors behind her, and bolting them shut. She took a deep breath, and picked Ayumu up.

"It would only be logical. Ayumu's poison targets the nervous system, while Sesshoumaru's targets the respiratory system." She stalked toward the door, looking back for a moment. "Follow me, quickly."

Suzuka ran out the open shoji door and down the hall just as horrendous crash came forth from the chamber. The hallway directly behind the two youkai women was filled with sawdust and wood splinters. They ran as fast as they could, toward the guest wing where the others were staying.

"What's going on?"

Miroku ran out of his room when he heard the crash, and was almost run down when Suzuka and Kuzume rushed by. He quickly followed them down the hall. They ran past each of the Inu-gangs' rooms, each one joining in to run down the hallway until they got to InuYasha's door.

InuYasha rushed out of his room and ran toward everyone else. Suzuka quickly jumped to the side and Kuzume rushed forward shoving InuYasha in the right direction, away from their pursuer.

"What the hell are you doing? Kagura is that way!"

"Shut up, InuYasha! We have to get everyone out and somewhere where we can have room to maneuver!"

Suzuka glanced at her, and realization dawned on her.

"We left Sesshoumaru!"

"I know, but we can just tur-"

Suzuka didn't give Kuzume time to finish her sentence before she gave a tremendous leap forward in front of everyone.

"Kami-sama, help me if you don't get me through this, Ayumu!"

She leapt to the left and through the wall after giving Kuzume instructions to get everyone out of the citadel and into the courtyard.

~*~

Suzuka came to a sudden stop when she reached Sesshoumaru's room. He must have heard the commotion, because he was up and leaning against the wall from his weakened state. She placed Ayumu on the futon, and went to help Sesshoumaru.

She got under his arm and - ignoring his resistance - forced his arm around her shoulders. His weight bore down on her; he was hardly standing, about to fall to his knees at any moment. She tried to make it back to his futon, and try to figure out a way to get both of them out.

"Get Ayumu out, Suzuka. I'll make it out…alive."

"That's what I'm worried about, you stubborn jerk," she joked, allowing him to push her towards Ayumu, still lying motionless on the futon. "But, take this to help you get out."

Suzuka handed him a spell scroll from her sleeve. When he touched it, it radiated an eerie white light, and he felt stronger, strong enough to at least make it out. She picked Ayumu back up, but accidentally caused the bandages to fall to her waist, exposing the boiling flesh.

Sesshoumaru ignored the reeking stink coming from Ayumu and simply nodded at Suzuka. She, of course, knew he meant that as a `Thank you' but was too proud to actually thank someone for their help, much less ask for it.

She leapt towards the wall and disappeared on her way to the courtyard. Sesshoumaru inhaled the lingering scent of Ayumu's rotten flesh, and the arriving scent of Kagura and Kanna. `It would seem as though I might have a battle ahead of me…' He took off, following the strong aroma of poison and rotten, infected skin.

~*~

"Where are they? Suzuka should have made it here by now!"

"Speak of the devil, and he shall appear."

Sango pointed to a second story wall where Suzuka dropped from nowhere. She landed hard on the ground, and almost dropped Ayumu, but managed to keep running towards them and keep everything in order.

Kuzume rushed forward in shock and anger. "Where is Sesshoumaru?!"

"Calm yourself, Kuzume. He took a spell scroll from me, and will join us shortly."

She still looked uneasy, but moved to watch to see when Sesshoumaru would appear in a doorway. But the way he appeared was not what she was expecting. In fact, it was as far from what she expected as he could get.

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Just to spite you all, I'm going to leave this HUMONGOUS cliffy! Bwahahahahahahahahah!!!!

Happy Reading,

Taiyoukai Suzuka of the Northern Lands