InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Broken Dreams ❯ Tetsusaiga ( Chapter 5 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Broken Dreams
 
Chapter 5
 
Tetsusaiga
 
Kagome blinked as the girl Rin nervously said her name. Rin…she knew that name. Wait.
 
“Are you the little girl who travels with Sesshomaru?” she called. Rin's jaw dropped, and she glared.
 
“I am not a little girl, I'm twelve!” she pouted. “And how do you know Lord Sesshomaru?” she demanded.
 
“Rin, where is he?” Kagome asked. Rin kept her arms crossed.
 
“Master Jaken said not to talk to nasty human women. They smell and lie to everyone,” she sniffed.
 
“Did he now?” A silky voice asked. Rin gasped and turned around as Sesshomaru stepped from the trees behind her. Rin obediently bowed, getting more water on her clothes.
 
“Lord Sesshomaru, I am sorry my lord, but I was merely catching a fish when this girl.”
 
“Be quiet, Rin.” Sesshomaru ordered. Rin did as she was told. “Stand and come out of the river. Your clothes are getting wet.” Rin nodded and walked onto the shore. Sesshomaru lashed out his youki whip and snapped it back with a flick of his wrist, several fish landing on the shore in its wake. Rin smiled at him and picked up the fish in her arms. “Go to Jaken and eat. I shall join you shortly,” Sesshomaru commanded. Rin nodded and ran into the trees. His ward appeased, Sesshomaru turned his attention to the other woman in his presence.
 
“So, your name is Kagome, correct?” he asked. Kagome nodded. “My brother's wench?”
 
“I was,” Kagome muttered.
 
“Kagome!” Kouga called, running beside her. “What's going on, you should have been back…” he stopped as he noticed the youkai on the other side of the river. “You! What do you want?” he snarled, cracking his knuckles.
 
“I have not come to fight, wolf, and do not intend to,” Sesshomaru said. “My servant was looking for her lunch, I was merely checking on her. My being here has nothing to do with you or your mate.” Kagome hung her head. He knew. Well of course he would know. Youkai mated to make sure all other youkai knew their mate was taken, after all. Still, the fewer people that knew about her fate, the better.
 
“Then leave now!” Kouga demanded.
 
“Wait,” Kagome said, lifting her head. “Kouga, could you take Shippo and go back camp? I want to talk to him.” Kouga growled, but bent over to her shoulder and let Shippo climb on his shoulder.
 
“You owe me for this,” he said in her ear. Kagome bit her lip. She knew exactly how Kouga would want his payment. The two youkai left, and Kagome turned her attention to the youkai that had leapt across the water to join her.
 
“Why do you wish to speak with me?” Sesshomaru asked. Kagome looked at him and summoned what little spirit she had left.
 
“Tetsusaiga,” she said simply. “Where is it?”
 
“Why do you wish to know?” Sesshomaru replied. Kagome gulped. His answer told her everything.
 
“It was not yours to take, and it was never been yours to have in the first place,” she growled. “You have no use for it; it cannot be wielded by a full youkai.”
 
“And you have no use for it, it cannot be wielded by a human, either,” Sesshomaru said, narrowing his eyes slightly. “You have even less of a claim over it then I do. It is my father's heirloom and my bastard brother's legacy. You are no relation to him.”
 
“You have even less then a claim on it then Naraku,” Kagome snorted. “You denounced your father and your brother. The sword was crafted by him for Inuyasha, you have no right to take it.”
 
“Inuyasha is dead,” Sesshomaru spat, causing Kagome to flinch. Even if she knew, it hurt to say the words. “As such, his possessions are passed to the next of kin, either his mate or son. Since he had neither, it passes to his closet living relative, me.”
 
“Shippo and I were more of a family to Inuyasha then you ever were,” Kagome cried. “You tried to kill him countless times. And for what, a sword that you knew you couldn't use?”
 
“My usage of the sword matters not,” Sesshomaru sniffed. “It is a matter of principal.”
 
“You want to hear principal?” Kagome hissed. “I'll give you principal, you heartless son of a bitch. You're Inuyasha's brother. I know that means shit to you, but it means something big to everyone else. You're his flesh and blood. You're his elder, and I know that he must have loved you when he was young, but why, I can't even imagine. You refuse to let a woman honor his memory by refusing to let her have the weapon he used to save her life countless time, and you dishonor my life by telling me I don't have a claim of that same weapon. So if you have once single ounce of respect for the man who has even saved your life on occasion, you'll let me have that sword.” Sesshomaru stared at her for a moment before looking way.
 
“You dishonor him yourself by mating the wolf,” Sesshomaru pointed out.
 
“I know, so can you let me try and make it up to him?” Kagome pleaded. Sesshomaru looked her in the face for a minute, and reached down his waist. Kagome looked down at his belt. Three swords were clipped there. Sesshomaru unclipped one of them and tossed it to her feet. Kagome knelt down and withdrew the sword to look at it. Like some sort of shining beacon, the Tetsusaiga slid out of the wood.
 
“It took a long time to convince Totosai to craft a sheath capable of tampering Tetsusaiga's power enough to allow me to touch it,” Sesshomaru said. “However, you were correct; I still cannot wield the sword itself, only it's sheath.” Kagome nodded and stood, clutching the rusty sword to her chest.
 
“Thank you,” she whispered. She was silent for a moment. “When you found it, was he…”
 
“He had been there for some time,” Sesshomaru answered. “He was as good as dead, nothing could have saved him. I left him. This Sesshomaru would not lower himself to strike a cripple, even a crippled hanyou.”
 
“He was alive when you found him?” Kagome asked.
 
“His wounds were unquestioningly fatal, do not get your hopes up.” Sesshomaru explained. “I smelt the wolf nearby, it must have been shortly after the assumed fight. He could not move at all, and could barely breathe. Attempting to save him would have proved futile.”
 
“So you just left him?” Kagome asked bitterly. “You have the Tenseiga, you could have saved his life.”
 
“I could have, but would not.” Sesshomaru said. “He should not have been allowed to exist in the first place, death was a deserved fate.” Kagome's nostril's flared, and drew back her hand and slapped him across the face as the last word left his mouth. Sesshomaru allowed the mask of ice to slip out of place as he stared at her in shock. No human had ever dared to strike him, especially not a woman. He regained his composure and glared at Kagome, cracking his knuckled.
 
“Do you want me to kill you?” he growled, clenched a claw.
 
“Yes,” Kagome said. For the second time in less then a minute, Sesshomaru was shocked. This time, he kept that a secret.
 
“I have never known a human to wish for death,” Sesshomaru murmured. “Why do you?”
 
“Because I am dead,” Kagome said, her shoulders sagging. “I'm as good as dead. Do you know what I have? Kouga and Naraku. That's it. Kouga took my family, my innocence, and Inuyasha from me. Now I have nothing but him. What do I have to live for once Naraku is killed?” Sesshomaru listened to her words with his usual impassive stare. When she finished, she looked him in the eye and waited for his reaction.
 
“I am not going to kill you,” Sesshomaru said. That said, he turned and leapt across the river again and began to leave.
 
“Why not?” Kagome called.
 
“Because I have no reason to. As you said yourself; you're already dead,” Sesshomaru answered, walking into the forest. Kagome watched him, then headed back to camp, carefully slipping Tetsusaiga into the leg of her hakama. When she got back to camp, she was met by Kouga's embrace.
 
“Did he hurt you?” the wolf asked.
 
“No,” Kagome said. “I didn't get any fish while I was there. Do you think you could get some?” Kouga nodded.
 
“Okay, consider it done,” he said, running into the woods. Kagome made sure he was gone, then walked over to her bag and pulled out the sheath of Tetsusaiga. She felt the others watching her, but didn't pay attention to them. She pulled out Tetsusaiga and ignored the gasps of her friends. She slid the sword into its wooden hold and just looked at it for a moment. Tetsusaiga and its sheath. Three years ago, the sword and its sheath were separated upon the death of their owner. And now, they were reunited. A sword with the power to slay one hundred youkai in a single swing. A sword that would never be used again.
 
Kagome tried not to think about Sesshomaru's words. Hope, she had learned, was meaningless. Hope only brought sadness when that hope went unfulfilled. She tried to focus on the task at hand of cooking lunch. As she had learned in the past three years, thinking about the past does nothing. The past can't be changed, no matter how much you wish you could.