InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodlust ❯ Battle Promises ( Chapter 7 )

Kagome stood by Sesshomaru's side, staring down from the castle walls at a rapidly approaching red and white blur. She shivered slightly, and Sesshomaru held her hand tightly. InuYasha stopped in front of the castle, and Kikyou got off his back. Kagome gasped.

"Sesshomaru! He doesn't have tetsusaiga!"

"The he's even stupider than I thought."

"No! Sesshomaru you don't understand! Tetsusaiga is a seal on his demon blood, without it he will transform to full youkai and stay that way…it will drive him insane."

"From the looks of him I'd say that had already happened."

Sesshomaru leapt down from the wall and landed gracefully in front of his brother and the dead miko. His voice was low, dangerous, and it sent shivers up Kagome's spine. If he had talked like that the first time she had seen him, she might have fallen in love with him then.

"Why are you here, InuYasha?"

He smirked.

"I was following the jewel. Stupid bitch ran away with it."

Kagome growled and jumped down by Sesshomaru, staring viciously at Kikyou. InuYasha looked at her in surprise, and then his eyes narrowed on the jewel around her neck.

"What did you do, Sesshomaru, kill the bitch and give the jewel to your sister? Didn't know you...had…"

His face hardened as he picked up Kagome's scent.

"How the hell did you become a demon, bitch?"

He growled and jumped at her, claws reaching, and she leapt backwards, Sesshomaru instantly between them. Toukijin flashed into his hand, and the point was balanced steadily against InuYasha's throat before he could draw his next breath.

"If you cannot address the Lady of the Western Lands with appropriate deference, you will not address her at all, half-breed. Go, or die."

InuYasha's growl deepened, and his eyes burned into Sesshomaru's cold gaze. Kagome felt the difference between now and other times he had transformed, the disregard for anything in his eyes, the utter and complete madness. His voice changed, left its moderately normal tones and sank at once to something more bestial.

"You bastard."

Sesshomaru's mouth curled, and he sliced his claws violently across InuYasha's chest, ignoring Toukijin completely. The poison in his claws rose to the surface and bubbled through them, burning the wounds.

"I am not the bastard, little brother."

InuYasha dove low under Toukijin's outstretched blade, and slashed at Sesshomaru, but even surprised the full demon was too fast, and he sprang to the side, using the sword to cut diagonally down InuYasha's back. The two brothers faced off, InuYasha flexing his claws, Sesshomaru standing coldly with Toukijin pointing directly at InuYasha's harshly panting form.

Kagome circled around Kikyou, the dead miko following her motions with an arrow.

"What did you do to InuYasha, Kikyou?"

She drew back her bow and smiled cruelly.

"It was simple enough. I told him I could work a spell that would allow him to keep his mind in his full demon form. He left the sword with the monk….but there was no spell. He'll be with me in hell soon enough."

Kagome's growl shook her frame, and she lashed out with her claws, tearing the string from Kikyou's bow and shredding the arrow.

"Time to give me back my soul, bitch. Go to hell by yourself."

Kikyou's eyes widened, staring hopelessly into Kagome's red vision, and she turned and ran.

*How did this reincarnation of mine become a demon?! I can't defeat a demon miko without my bow…*

Kagome reflected Kikyou's smile after her, and caught her easily, even her untrained demon speed more than a match for Kikyou. She dragged her back to where the brothers still fought, flashing claw and sword and golden youkai whip.

"InuYasha!"

He turned and snarled at the sound of his name coming from Kagome's lips, and roared in his madness when he saw that she held Kikyou. He crouched low to the ground, his fire-rat haori hanging from his body in shreds, and Kagome answered his snarl, before she pulled Kikyou apart. Her body crumbled to dry clay dust filling miko robes, as the souls that had kept her alive escaped. A hundred blue lights of captured souls exploded out of where she had stood, and Kagome felt the piece of her own soul that had kept Kikyou alive fall back into place inside her.

Kikyou's name burst from InuYasha's throat in a maddened, raw-voiced cry, and he shot his claws forward, locking them into Sesshomaru's previously unmarked body. InuYasha pressed Sesshomaru back against the castle wall, clenching his claws tighter in Sesshomaru's flesh, his brothers blood running down his arms and staining his chest. InuYasha stared straight into Sesshomaru's eyes, and ripped his claws through Sesshomaru's side.

"How many arms do you want to lose this time, Sesshomaru?"

Sesshomaru ignored the draining pain in his abdomen and sped completely around InuYasha, turning to look at Kagome, and saw her standing over the pile of dust that had been the dead miko. She moved towards InuYasha, claws clenched in fists at her sides. He felt her miko boiling over, saw it in her eyes, and dodged another thrust of InuYasha's claws, leaping behind her barely in time to avoid the wave of power that poured off Kagome, and slammed InuYasha's back into the bloodstained castle wall. Her voice was cold and clear, and she gestured almost casually, flinging him away from the wall and across the clearing from the castle's gate. His body broke two trees completely in half, before he crashed into the third.

"You never got it, InuYasha. She lied to you, when I was willing to love you. And now she is dead. If you threaten myself or my mate again, I will let him kill you."

He stood slowly and snorted in contempt, rage still flickering in his pain glazed eyes.

"Your mate? No wonder his stench is all over you. You even look like him! Damned miko! Remember you still have my jewel. I won't forget it, bitch!"

He sprinted off into the surrounding woods, and the youkai faded out of Kagome's eyes. Sesshomaru looked nearly ready to run after him, and he growled at Kagome, the heat of battle still in his eyes.

"Why did you let him get away? He will come back, Kagome! We should have taken care of him while we had the chance!"

Kagome sighed, and stood close to him, inspecting his wounds. It was then he noticed she was crying, and came back to himself.

"I…I couldn't do it Sesshomaru. I did love him once...and…and he isn't InuYasha anymore. Kikyou told him she could take away the insanity that not having tetsusaiga would cause…so he left it behind to become full demon."

Sesshomaru ignored the fact that tetsusaiga was out there somewhere, just waiting for him to take it, and held out his arms for her. She stepped into them gratefully, and they stood together for a long while, Sesshomaru staring deep into the forest that surrounded his home.

*Where are you, InuYasha…*

Kagome looked up at him, and followed his gaze.

"He's going to come, Sess-chan…and before he does, I have to find a way to help him. Please, Sess-chan…I have to help him."

Hot jealous fingers squeezed tight around his heart, and dormant suspicion surfaced ,made him wonder if she was still in love with his bastard of a brother.

"Do you still love him, Kagome?"

Her eyes reddened, and her claws clenched in his torn haori, and he sensed that every word out of her mouth was ripped from her soul.

"No, Sesshomaru. He was under no influence when he told me he didn't care if I lived. I gave him four years of my life Sesshomaru, and I'm starting to wonder if I ever did love him…if I ever even knew him."

Sesshomaru sighed in relief, angry at himself for not trusting her…but he pulled his thoughts out of that direction before he got lost in memories. She pulled away from him, and touched the wounds on his body. His normally spotless haori was torn and stained with blood, both his and InuYasha's, and she peeled it gently away from the edges of his wounds. Her nose twitched at the blood-scent, and she dropped the shredded haori on the ground, a reflexive growl rising in her throat.

"Kagome?"

"It smells like him. I have to get away from his scent…its going to make me sick…and you're hurt, you need bandages."

"Shh my Kagome, the scent will fade, and I heal quickly. But did you know you are beautiful when you're angry?"

She blushed violently, and got behind him, pushing him into the castle.

"I don't care if you heal quickly or not, you're going to get bandaged, and you're going to rest."

He allowed her to push him through the castle to his chamber, and she ran in first to get Rin. The girl woke as Kagome lifted her, and she blinked sleepily, until she caught sight of Sesshomaru's battered and bloodstained body.

"Lord Sesshomaru is hurt! Who hurt Lord Sesshomaru!? Rin will get them for you, Lord Sesshomaru!"

The girl squirmed out of Kagome's hold and threw her arms around Sesshomaru's knees, and he picked her up with one arm.

"I will be fine, Rin. Kagome is going to take good care of me."

"'Kaasan takes care of Lord Sesshomaru! I will show you where the bandages are!"

Kagome pointed at the bed, before the girl dragged her off.

"You sit. Rest."

Sesshomaru was grateful Rin had awakened. He needed some time to come to terms with Kagome's desire to help his half-brother.

*Insanity…just the sort of thing the little fool would get himself into. If I'd known it was going to drive him crazy, I would have tried harder to get the damn sword from him.*

Kagome had changed many things for the demon Lord, but his feelings about InuYasha were not one of them, unless she had made him hate his brother more. It was then he remembered one of the first things Kagome had said to him when he found her alone.

*You could have hurt us, but you didn't…*

He remembered the first time he had seen her traveling with InuYasha, when she pulled tetsusaiga out of the stone and it saved her life. She had intrigued him then, she had always intrigued him, the fiery human girl with the uncontrollable miko power. Not so human, now or then…but that didn't matter. He knew. It wasn't tetsusaiga that kept him coming after his brother, when he could so easily have killed him and had done with it. No, it was the scent of the girl, the sound of her voice, the brush of her miko against his youkai, some strange seduction of the soul. He knew part of it had been the spell, pushing them together…but the rest…the rest had been love.

*I did not fall for her in five days, I fell for her in five minutes….the first five minutes I saw her. What a comedown for the Taiyoukai of the West…*

He could almost see his father laughing in his grave, and scowled. Kagome walked in then, her arms piled high with bandages, and set them next to him on the bed. She was surprised that he was doing what he she had told him…he might love her, but he didn't take orders from her.

"Sess-chan, I need you to hold your arm out so I can bandage you."

"Huh…?"

"Your arm, Sess-chan, hold out your arm."

"Oh…here…"

She noticed the glazed look on his face, and began wrapping the bandages around the deep gashes in his torso.

"Sess-chan? What's wrong?"

"I love you…"

She blinked, and he looked up quickly, actually noticing her for the first time since she had come into the room.

"Oh…no that isn't what is wrong, nothing is wrong, I was thinking about when I saw you, and the sword, and…Oh Damn!"

He growled at himself, and she giggled.

"My my, aren't we awkward."

He glared at her, but that only made her giggle more, releasing some of the tension that had built up in the battle, and he turned his eyes heavenward. He tried to pick up what was left of his dignity, and caught her hands when she tied off the bandage.

"I'm being serious, Kagome. I was thinking about what you said when I found you, that I'd never really hurt any of you. And it wasn't that I didn't want to kill InuYasha - because I do - it was because of you. For the same reason I didn't go after him today. It was because I loved you."

She stared at him with soft eyes, and tugged her hands away gently so she could continue tending his wounds, a gentle smile pooling on her lips.

"I was human, then, Sesshomaru, and you did not know anything to the contrary. Are you telling me you loved a human?"

"Yes."

The admission startled her, and the serious expression in his eyes convinced her that he wasn't speaking just to comfort her. His eyes took on a far away look, and his claws clenched around the bedcovers.

"There was only one human I ever truly hated, my Kagome. InuYasha's mother…and not for being his mother, if that's what you're thinking. To the rest of the species, I have been…indifferent, because of her."

The questions piled up behind her lips, but she could see in his eyes that he didn't want to talk about it, so she pushed them away. He turned sad eyes on her, and she knelt between his legs, laying her head on his knee.

"Why do you love me, my Kagome?"

She shook her head slowly.

"I don't know, Sess-chan….but maybe it is better that there is no reason. Reasons can change."

He nodded and stood, pulling her to her feet.

"I will help you, Kagome. If you really want to try to help InuYasha….you do not need to search alone."

To his surprise, she continued to shake her head, and her voice came out muffled, a choked whisper.

"I can't help him, Sesshomaru. Only tetsusaiga could help him, but he is too far gone to listen. The scars in my heart are too deep for me to search for a cure that doesn't exist, a cure for a madness that is his own fault."

He held her shoulders in his hands, forcing her to look into his face.

"Don't cry for him any more, my Kagome. He chose this. He chose death over life, decay over beauty. That cannot be unchosen. He will have another chance in another lifetime."

She nodded, and he pulled on a fresh haori.

"If I am bandaged enough to be getting along with, I suggest we go find Rin."

Her eyes twinkled slightly, and she peeked up at him.

"The great demon lord showing affection for a mere human? Second time today…"

He glared at her, and walked out of the room.

"You are not human, and she is my daughter."

"Daughter?"

"You are my mate, and her Okaasan. That makes me her father."

Kagome blinked, surprised.

"Well. I suppose that is true…but she's still human, and it is still affection."

He growled, and she laughed.