InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Demon's Night ❯ One Step Beyond ( Chapter 8 )

Demon's Night

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Chapter Nine - One Step Beyond

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A/N: Hey, everyone. Just to quickly warn you, this isn't a happy chapter, so don't be too disappointed. Things will get better, I promise! BTW, if you haven't read the previous chapter in a long time, you might want to take a quick skim to remind yourself what's going on. Thanks! - D.V.

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“Oi, Sesshomaru!”

“Leave. Me. Alone.”

The guttural, pain-filled growl rumbled from the darkness in front of InuYasha, causing him to pause as he, unbelievably, felt a twinge of fear.

Furiously angry, but smart enough to remain cautious, InuYasha stood his ground and peered into the yawning mouth of the cave before him. It was deep, and pitch black, and within it dwelled a creature - the only living being - to have ever completely successfully snuffed out InuYasha's life.

“You hafta' come out sometime, Sesshomaru!” InuYasha called out, annoyed by the cold shiver running up his spine. “You'll go crazy if you stay in there too long - and besides, I still haven't decided if I'm gonna' kill your miko-thieving ass or not!”

A low, decidedly unstable laugh echoed back at him, and InuYasha couldn't help blanching at the disturbing sound. Sesshomaru never laughed. He raised his dark brows in surprise and shook his head, sighing.

“Then again, it's probably too late anyway,” he muttered to himself, moving to one side of the cave entrance and settling down on a flat rock to rest. Crossing his legs and arms, he tucked his hands into his long haori sleeves to protect them against the cold, and leaned his head back against the uneven rock wall.

Damn, but he was exhausted. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he really was.

Finding his way back to his father's resting place had been easy. Finding Sesshomaru's fur-wrapped body had not. His brother's remains had not been where he'd left them, and through his fury about what Sesshomaru had done to Kagome, InuYasha had felt a spark of hope. Hope that his brother really hadn't died, and had gotten up and walked away - but that faint hope had been dashed upon the grisly discovery of the older inu's torn and bloodied pelt.

Though he'd been set to revive Sesshomaru only to murder him, InuYasha had felt a surprising amount of pain at the sight of the otherworldly carrion birds fleeing the scene as he and a still-limping Kouga came upon them.

“Goddamn crows!” he had yelled, chasing them off fluttering and screeching with his transformed sword.

“Hell, Dog-shit, I hated his guts too, but didn't ya' even give him a proper burial?” Kouga said beside him, nose twitching and eyes watering at the hideous sight.

Clenching his teeth, InuYasha shoved Tetsusaiga into the ground and turned on the wolf demon. “I laid him inside the old man's ribcage and built a tomb of rocks around him, okay? I don't know how those fuckin' birds got to him, but it doesn't matter anyway.”

Walking forward towards the scattered remains, InuYasha determinedly began grabbing mounds of soiled white silk and dragging it together.

Meanwhile, Kouga stared at him. “Doesn't matter? He's...he's not even all there anymore, stupid! You can't...fuck, you can't still be thinking of tryin' to bring him back?”

InuYasha ignored him, looking around with stinging eyes to make sure not even a scrap of cloth had escaped.

“Dog-breath, he's dead! He's gone, you crazy fuckin' idiot!”

InuYasha stopped, trying to stave off the urge to be sick, and reached for the second sword at his waist with trembling hands.

“Stand back, Wolf. I don't know what's gonna' happen, but somehow the bastard's gonna' pay for what he did to Kagome!” Gnashing his teeth, a snarl rising from his throat, InuYasha lifted the Tensaiga high above his head and gave it a mighty slash downwards towards the body. Even as he did it, he knew it wouldn't work - the chains of death already bound Sesshomaru, the demon-imp death collectors had long since been and gone...but as the tip of the sword finished it's arc, there was a blinding flash of light, and a loud pulse, loud enough to shake the ground beneath their feet.

Temporarily blinded by the light, InuYasha blinked. When he could see again, he noticed everything had gone silent and still, including the wolf and the angry birds.

Looking down, he found himself blinking again, but this time in disbelief.

Sesshomaru was whole again, even his left arm returned, his clothing and hair as pristine as the white pelt pillowing his head.

“Y-you did it!” Kouga belted out beside him, giving a disbelieving laugh.

InuYasha felt a moment's elation, but then he frowned. “No. It didn't work. He ain't breathin'. Fuck!” Throwing the Tensaiga away from him, InuYasha growled in frustration, and kicked the dust. The lack of impact only made him angrier, so, cursing, he kicked a stone, a scraggling tree, a carrion crow unwise enough to get close to him - and then, finally, the source of his rage. His brother.

Sides heaving from temper and exertion, InuYasha kicked Sesshomaru so hard the great demon's body rolled for several feet before coming to rest on its side.

“Sonuvabitch!” InuYasha curled his claws into his palms and felt them bite painfully into his flesh.

“You can say that again, Dog-shit,” Kouga murmured faintly behind him. “He's alive.”

Whipping around, though he felt like he was suddenly moving in slow motion, InuYasha glared at the body - until he saw what Kouga had seen.

Sesshomaru was...breathing.

-

“How be he tonight, InuYasha?”

Startled from his reverie, InuYasha leapt up from his rock, confronting Lady Kaede who had spoken. The old miko stood there quietly in the moonlight, her good eye watching him with a mixture of kindness and worry.

Taking a deep breath, InuYasha scratched the back of his head. “About the same, I guess. Still a few decades east of sane.”

Looking troubled, Kaede pulled a shawl closer around her stooped shoulders and carefully stepped over the rocky ground to sit on the same flat stone InuYasha had just vacated.

“Ye brothers condition concerns me, InuYasha.”

“Yeah? Well it concerns me too, ya' old hag. I'm gettin' tired of baby-sittin' him. I already had to miss the Miroku and Sango's wedding!”

Kaede sighed, shaking her head at his stubbornness. “Ye still do not understand, InuYasha. For Sesshomaru, who could only hate, love is particularly difficult.”

“Keh! That bastard doesn't love anybody - ya' hafta' have a heart, first,” InuYasha snapped, abruptly beginning a feral pacing.

Pointedly gnoring him, the old priestess went on. “His body was renewed, most likely because of the power of the location ye were in, but it had been too long for ye to completely summon his soul back into his body. That, and the bits that the carrion crows had taken, affected his mind greatly, I believe.”

“What? They didn't eat his brain, stupid,” InuYasha said bluntly.

Kaede gave him a quelling glare. “Nonetheless, parts of him were missing, and though they may not be seen physically, it shows in his spirit. Ye brother is incomplete, InuYasha, and nothing will ever make him the same as he was.”

“Aw, hell! Ya' mean he's gonna' be whacked-in-the-melon forever?”

Kaede shrugged, once again ignoring his rude comment. “As I said, I believe he shall always be one step into the beyond. However, time heals, InuYasha. As ye are both immortal, I reckon ye have plenty of time to find out.”

“Yeah, right, that's easy for you to - hey, wait. I'm immortal?”

“Aye, to my knowledge half-demons can live nearly forever - as long as ye don't die from massive wounds, first.”

InuYasha gave her a sharp, suspicious glance, a snarling smile lifting one side of his lips. “Ha, wishful thinking, old hag?”

The old priestess sniffed. “My name is Kaede.”

“Whatever. Oi!” InuYasha's eyes suddenly brightened. “This means I can meet Kagome after all!”

“Possibly. But please remember, it means that Sesshomaru will be able to see Kagome again as well.”

InuYasha growled his displeasure.

Kaede sighed again and stood. “Ye brother lies suffering in yon cave, InuYasha. He has died and returned and is not whole. He is not the same Sesshomaru ye once knew. Right now he is more beast than great demon.”

“Yeah? Well I don't give a flying fuck! I'm still gonna' make sure he pays for what he did to Kagome! I'm still gonna' kill the bastard!” InuYasha snarled.

“Mayhap killing him now would be a mercy, InuYasha,” Kaede said very quietly, and watched the hanyou's golden eyes widen in shock at her blunt words. “I am not condoning what Sesshomaru did, but perhaps - ” the miko gave a slight shrug. “All he knows now is confusion, all he feels now is pain - the sickening pain of being apart from Kagome, whom he considered his beloved, whom he died to protect, InuYasha. All he knows is that a part of him is missing, and he knows not how to get it back. Please take care to remember this, InuYasha, and have compassion for him, he who has never known compassion.”

InuYasha gnashed his fangs, his chest puffing up in outrage. “Compassion...! You know, I'm sorry I ever said anything to you about this, dammit! Kouga said there was a reason humans didn't know, and I shoulda' listened to him - wait! Hell, what the fuck am I sayin'?”

Kaede's wise smile was full of gentle reprimand. “Even Kagome felt compassion for a selfish, violent half-demon once upon a time, InuYasha.”

InuYasha went silent at last, and Kaede, satisfied she had made her point, heaved herself up from her seat and quietly made her way back through the forest to the village.

-

She was gone.

Sitting inside the cave, wrapped in his pelt, with his knees drawn to his chest and his arms draped over them, Sesshomaru tried once again to ignore the lingering stench of his own death in his sensitive nostrils, and listened to the maddening refrain in his head - 'she's gone'. Kagome was gone.

He knew she was gone, had known from the moment he'd woken from the peaceful, dead sleep that had claimed him. Yet, he couldn't stop repeating the knowledge in his head, and knew he wouldn't for some time - just as he also knew he was Sesshomaru, heir of the inu-no-taisho, lord of the western lands, and he shouldn't have been hiding in the dingy cave, or sitting in such a common, cowardly manner. To act as such was beneath him, and he knew it. He should have left InuYasha's side as soon as he'd awoken, should have gone to bathe, and surely not have allowed his irascable hanyou sibling to see how low he had come. To see how mad he, Sesshomaru had gone when he found he could no longer feel Kagome's presence, and had come to the conclusion that somehow she had died after he had, that his sacrifice had come to naught. Definitely not should he have allowed his wrathful half-brother to take him upon his back and carry him back to this loathsome village where Kagome's lingering scent was so strong it had brought him somewhat back to his senses, and finally to his feet and running to the questionable sanctuary of this cave where he now dwelled.

Listening to the night wind blowing the tree branches outside the cave entrance, Sesshomaru caught the scent of the crisp air temporarily surge through the cold, stagnant air around him. It calmed him, and made him raise his head to breathe it deeply in. The movement made his neck muscles seize up for a moment, and he realized how long it had been since he'd tried to look up.

It should have infuriated him, made him feel disgusted with himself - he was not a demon who bent his head to anyone - but instead he just felt exhausted.

The scritch-scratch of a claw near the cave entrance alerted him to InuYasha's presence again. One had to wonder if the boy did indeed have a flea infestation from the number of times Sesshomaru had heard him scratch himself.

“Hn.” Closing his eyes against a sudden absurd vision of his half-brother scratching his ear with his foot, Sesshomaru sighed and leaned heavily against the sharp rocks behind him. The hanyou would not leave the area for very long, and Sesshomaru often wondered what he was doing waiting so long to make an attack. Had he not vowed to do so...?

-

Kaede couldn't help but make a pained face as she hobbled across the wooden bridge towards her home. She was not near death, and did not plan to be for some time, but she was no longer as capable of traveling such long distances into the forest and back as she used to be.

This situation with InuYasha, Kagome, and Sesshomaru bothered her greatly. Sesshomaru should not be alive, but he was. It came as no surprise to her that the demon was hiding away. She did not think it was fear that drove him, but despair.

No, InuYasha did not know it, but he had already gained his revenge. Sesshomaru could not live in peace knowing Kagome was gone - and InuYasha had brought him back from the dead after she had left.

Kaede shook her head as she pushed through the cloth covering her hut's door. She was saddened to know she would not get to see what would happen once those three were reunited at last - but she did not envy the brothers' centuries-long wait.

-

“So...is that really how you feel?”

Sesshomaru frowned, casting his head towards the sound of InuYasha's barely perceptible voice. He was speaking very quietly, very slowly, which was quite unusual. It was fine to him, however - he was as reluctant to answer InuYasha's question as InuYasha had been to ask it.

His confusion must have shown in his silence, because InuYasha eventually elaborated.

“You-you really miss Kagome that badly? Is that...are you really sick because she's gone? Did you...love her?”

Sesshomaru blamed his recent experiences for what he allowed himself to vocally admit - and to InuYasha of all beings.

An answering growl rumbled forth from his tight throat, and he cursed himself for his lack of control.

InuYasha was quiet for a very long time before he said, “I miss her too - a lot. But...missing her didn't make me go insane. Missing her didn't make me sick from it. My heart hurts, but it ain't broken.”

Sesshomaru gave a short barking laugh that broke at the end.

“Yeah, an' I suppose that means yours is?” Sniffing slightly as if in doubt, InuYasha shifted in the darkness. “Since when do you have a heart, Sesshomaru?”

“Since...she...died.”

“Died?” Pausing as if in surprise at his verbal reply, the hanyou then ventured cautiously further into the cave.

Lost in his emotions and thoughts, Sesshomaru allowed it. He was too troubled to bother to chase the other inu away.

“Wait. You think Kagome is dead?”

Sesshomaru shot to his feet, his weakness from his inability to eat visible in the way he swayed and temporarily reached out a clawed hand to balance himself against the wall.

“Think?” he asked in a dangerous tone, impatiently tossing his head and trying to ignore the clumsy indignity and pain of accidentally stepping on his own hair.

“Kagome ain't dead, you dumb-ass!” InuYasha laughed, uncaring of the warning growl sounding from deep within Sesshomaru's throat.

Sesshomaru kept growling. It was nonsense, but he suddenly did not care for the hanyou's familiar use of her name.

“Hey! Didja' hear me, Sesshomaru? I said Kagome ain't - “

InuYasha's harsh voice was abruptly cut-off as Sesshomaru dashed forward, catching him by the throat and lifting him off the floor. All was silent except for the faint choking noises InuYasha made as Sesshomaru leaned in towards the hanyou's face, fangs shamelessly exposed, eyes bleeding red.

In a voice seething with rage, Sesshomaru snarled, “Do not use her name around me again, half-breed - do it, and you welcome your death a second time!”

InuYasha was slowly turning red, then purple, and it was suddenly the hardest thing Sesshomaru had ever done to open up his grip and drop the hanyou to the ground.

Coughing and hacking, InuYasha rubbed his throat as he fought for breath.

Sesshomaru watched on as the rage slowly drained from him, leaving in its place a curious emptiness. He saw InuYasha leap up, and wondered at his own sudden lack of response to the challenge in his half-brother's eyes.

“She isn't dead,” the hanyou growled hoarsely. “She just went back to her own time-period.”

Sesshomaru found himself grasping the foolish claim with disgusting ease.

“How?”

“Through the old Bone-Eater's well.”

“When?”

“Oh, about five-hundred years into the future, or so.”

“Hn. She may as well be dead, then,” Sesshomaru said disinterestedly, beginning to turn away in dismissal.

“Oh, fuck you! You may act like a cold bastard, but you can't tell me you don't care! Not after all this shit!” InuYasha raged, his face turning red again.

Sesshomaru arched a brow. “Oh? Is there a way to travel forward to be with her?”

InuYasha scowled, his ears twitching in annoyance. “Well, no.”

“Is there a way to make her recall her feelings for me?”

“Ya' mean if she really had any in the first place? No.”

Sesshomaru inclined his head mockingly. “Then you see this Sesshomaru's dilemma.”

“I know you love her!”

“In what way does this matter, now, InuYasha?”

“You're gonna' wait for her, right? Right?”

“Hn.”

“Fuck that! You died for her. You can't just suddenly decide to will yourself to death 'cause she ain't around right now!”

“You expect this Sesshomaru to wait?”

“Listen, I know it's freakin' unheard of, but yeah! Why the hell not? Half-a-millenia ain't nothin' for us!”

“'Us.'”

InuYasha snorted. “Yeah, like I'd leave her alone with the likes of you again.”

“You intend to be her guardian?”

“Intend, nothin'! I ain't just gonna' stand by and let you rape her again, ass!”

“Word your next sentence carefully, InuYasha.”

“If you love her so much, why did you do what you did to her?!” InuYasha asked in a furious shout. “Dammit, why did you rape her?!”

Sesshomaru tossed his troublesome hair over his shoulder and fixed him with a disdainful stare. “This Sesshomaru did not take her against her will.”

“Heh! That ain't what Kouga said!”

Eyes narrowed, Sesshomaru took a slight step forward. “Since when do you believe the word of a lowly wolf-demon?”

“Since he told me about the effect demons can have on humans on that night, asshole! You ain't foolin' anyone! Sure, you say you didn't rape her, but what else can you call it if you used some kind of power to seduce her, huh? She wanted me, not you!”

“Hn. She used to want you, brother.” Sesshomaru told him with a cold smirk. “I did try to influence her, but she remained unaffected.”

“That...then that means - “

“She wanted this Sesshomaru. She still did, even when we parted.”

InuYasha's face went nearly as pale as his hair and would have all-but disappeared if not for his vibrant eyes.

“Kagome loves me.”

Sesshomaru allowed the smirk to fall. He almost disputed InuYasha's comment, but some newfound patience for the hanyou's delusion held him back. Was this pity?

InuYasha looked over at him and seemed to shake himself. “Ain't you gonna' tell me how wrong I am?” he asked harshly.

Sesshomaru studied him silently for a long moment and then turned away, the steadily lengthening ends of his hair dragging the dirt floor.

“Oi, just spit it out, Sesshomaru!” InuYasha demanded.

Pausing, Sesshomaru looked slightly over his shoulder. In a very soft voice he said, “Need this Sesshomaru say anything at all?”

InuYasha frowned in puzzlement.

Sesshomaru sighed. “You are so certain you know the answer, InuYasha. What does it matter what this Sesshomaru assumes? You will believe what you wish.”

InuYasha was silent until Sesshomaru turned around and began walking away again. He glanced up, surprised, when he saw the demon lord making his way to the cave entrance.

“You goin' out?” he asked doubtfully.

Sesshomaru did not bother to stop and explain, but he was going to bathe. He held little hope of ever seeing the miko again, but knowing she was alive, somewhere...perhaps he would try living again. After all, as InuYasha had said, what was a few hundred years to likes of him?

Entering out into the night air, Sesshomaru instinctively sniffed his surroundings, and then sought out the moon.

The brightness of it made him wince, and consider going back inside. Then he realized how close he was to succumbing to his weakness. Hiding was not something he did. Why was the urge so strong? Did he fear death again?

The movement of his brother following behind made him move his feet again. He would have gathered his energy and flown away if he'd been able, but he was still too weak.

InuYasha was almost upon him when he took a step and stumbled upon his damnable hair again. Tired and aggravated, Sesshomaru grabbed the mass in his hand - the one that had finally been returned to him - and lifted the other, his claws crackling with a meager, but angry energy. In an unexpected fury, he prepared to cut the vexing length in two, only to have a hand grab his wrist before the sharp claws could descend.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

Panting, Sesshomaru stared at the green energy glowing at his fingertips and swallowed heavily as he came to his senses.

“Man, you're crazier than I thought if you were considering slicing all your hair off,” InuYasha told him, roughly throwing his hand down.

Eyes widening, Sesshomaru slowly let go of the thick sheaf of hair in his hand, watching it spill into the dirt. So it was true, after all.

He had gone mad.

-

Awhile later, back in the village, InuYasha explained what had happened to Miroku and Shippou who he had found standing outside Kaede's hut.

“I dunno' why it's suddenly growing so fast,” he told Miroku with a shrug.

“Perhaps it has something to do with the residual demonic energy after his initial death. With the trauma he has been through, I am not surprised at anything he is going through right now. His energies are most probably as twisted and tangled as his psyche,” Miroku offered sagely. “At the very least, I know that human hair continues to grow after death. Maybe it is the same for demons.”

“Hell, he wasn't dead that long!” InuYasha .

Miroku merely shrugged.

“Why doesn't he just cut it if it's so troublesome?” Shippou asked innocently.

InuYasha looked at him disbeleivingly.

“What?”

“Dog-demons don't just cut their hair, Shippou. It's almost a freakin' taboo - especially to those of Sesshomaru's status. Cuttin' his hair would be like declarin' himself powerless to his enemies - and Kami knows he needs all the help he can get right now.”

“Oh.” Shippou blinked. He pursed his lips in thought, and then jumped up, snapping his fingers. “What if I gave him my hair tie? You think it'd help?”

Miroku smiled at the kit. “That is a very kind offer, Shippou-chan, but I do not think - “

InuYasha suddenly straightened up. “Wait, I think you may just have somethin' there, kid! Thanks for the idea!” Ruffling Shippou's hair, InuYasha got up and dashed off.

“Uh, you're welcome?” Shippou grunted, trying to fix his hair.

-

In the end, all InuYasha had to do was find Sango. As a demon hunter, Sango knew a lot of the traditions of their kind, and she also knew that it wasn't a done thing for one male to handle another's hair. When InuYasha asked her, she readily agreed, and together they went to coax Sesshomaru from the pond near the village's edge. What really surprised InuYasha was his brother's acceptance of his suggestion.

Sesshomaru had been in a sort of daze when when they'd arrived, and even InuYasha had winced at the red welts gracing his brothers skin from where he'd scrubbed too harshly.

Sango had blushed despite being a recently wedded woman, and turned away in embarrassment when Sesshomaru had risen to his feet and waded out.

The demon sat indifferently and allowed Sango to dry his his hair with a length of cloth she'd brought with her from the village. InuYasha snorted when Sesshomaru refused to don his 'soiled' clothing, and threw his haori across the other males lap - for Sango's sake, he told himself.

“Whaddya' think?” InuYasha asked after Sango backed off a long time later, and bowed respectfully to the demon lord.

Sesshomaru looked into the clear pond he sat before and turned his head slightly, but said nothing.

“You kinda' look like father with your hair like that,” InuYasha muttered reluctantly.

Sesshomaru continued to look at his reflection impassively. “It will do,” he finally said of the thick top-knot and seemingly-endless flowing tail of his hair caught with gleaming black-and- gold hair-sticks.

Sango met InuYasha's eyes with her troubled ones and gave a helpless nod before gathering Sesshomaru's clothing. She made some comment about seeing them laundered, and then silently left.

Sitting there in the moonlight, his marble-white back exposed and vulnerable, Sesshomaru was an easy target. Anger and resentment tempted InuYasha, and he found his hand gripping the tetsusaiga with painful force.

“You would not have gone to all this trouble if you were going to send this Sesshomaru back to our father, InuYasha,” Sesshomaru startled him by saying.

InuYasha's eyes narrowed as prepared to tell Sesshomaru just how wrong he was, but then one of his words caught his attention and distracted him.

“Father? You've seen him?”

Sesshomaru nodded absently, and InuYasha paced around to sink down on his haunches a safe-distance away from his older brother. He clenched his claws and gripped the green, sweet-smelling grass in-between his fingers.

“So...you remember what death was like?”

Sesshomaru profile was so still, InuYasha thought he might not respond, but then -

“I remember the darkness. It was silent - soothing. Father was there, but only as a shade. He did not speak, but somehow...I knew what he was thinking. There were others, but this Sesshomaru cannot remember.”

Swallowing hard, InuYasha glanced down at the grass prickling his hands. “Do you miss it?”

Sesshomaru turned his head to look at him. “There was no pain.”

InuYasha's eyebrows drew together. “That's no answer.”

The great-demon took forever to reply. “Being able to breathe is preferable to the stillness.”

“You felt like you were suffocating that whole time?” InuYasha asked, disturbed by the idea.

“No...but being able to draw air helps to remind one they are alive.”

InuYasha looked down once again. “So...you don't want to kill me for bringing you back?”

“That is a foolish question, InuYasha. There was never a time this Sesshomaru did not wish to kill you.”

Eyes flashing upwards once more, InuYasha felt his temper rise until he saw Sesshomaru looking back at him, something like laughter in his eyes.

“Un-freakin-believable,” InuYasha muttered, then stood up from his crouched position and crossed his arms against a sudden chill. “Who are you, huh? Cuz' you definitely ain't Sesshomaru.”

Sesshomaru didn't answer at all this time, and InuYasha was wise enough not to push him to. He had the feeling Sesshomaru didn't know himself.

-

Over the next several days, Sesshomaru surprised eveyone by lingering outside the cave for longer periods of time. The villagers were still pretty much terrified at having him in their midst, but he moved through the paths and roads as if not even noticing their existence.

To InuYasha the annoying behavior was normal, and he felt a little relieved by witnessing it. One thing that was out of the norm, though, was the fact that Sesshomaru persisted in bathing at least twice a day.

Following his brother in case there was trouble had become a habit, and InuYasha was quickly getting tired of waiting for the demon to finish his obsessive cleansing. Sesshomaru never seemed satisfied until he took off a layer or three of skin, and it creeped InuYasha out. He definitely wasn't all there, and even Rin, who'd practically attached herself to Sesshomaru's leg after he'd finally deigned to see her, had noticed, and started keeping her distance.

“What d'you keep takin' so many damn baths for? I swear, you bathe more often than Kagome ever did!” InuYasha finally complained loudly one evening from his relaxed perch in a tree not far from where his brother was bathing - if you could call it that. It looked more like torture to him...

-

Ignoring the rage of pain at the mention of her name, Sesshomaru paused in the waist-deep water and turned to look up at his sibling.

“What? Oh...sorry, I said her name again, didn't I?” InuYasha said, shifting on his branch, not really sounding sorry at all.

“It is not that. Are your hanyou senses so weak that you cannot smell it, InuYasha?”

Chest puffing up, InuYasha crossed his arms over his chest and lifted a brow. “What d'ya mean? Smell what?”

Sesshomaru gave a slight shrug, listlessly staring at the lightning-bugs weaving around the tall grass near the edge of the pond.

InuYasha gave a few exaggerated sniffs over his shoulder. “I don't smell anything - except that massacre of a meal Sango is preparing that she thinks is dinner. Man, I don't envy that damn monk one bit.”

Sesshomaru shook his head slowly, eyes strangely unfocused, the heavy, wet tail of his hair swinging gently against his back as he turned and began to wade out, feeling strangely heavy. He made his way to his clothes hanging on a branch nearby, and slowly dressed.

“I do not understand...the stench...it makes my stomach churn. I cannot bear to eat, it is so prevalent,” he said quietly, unable to believe InuYasha could not sense it.

InuYasha leapt down from his tree, and approached cautiously. He narrowed his eyes, a dawning suspicion lighting them. Since when did Sesshomaru say 'I'?

“What are you talkin' about, Sesshomaru? What stench?”

Sesshomaru looked back at him with dull eyes. “It is me. I reek of death. Can you truly not smell it?”

-

Taken back entirely, InuYasha could only watch as Sesshomaru slowly walked away, his steps frighteningly unsure. The fragile reassurance that his brother was gradually returning to normal was broken in two - this behavior definitely wasn't normal. And while not eating wouldn't kill Sesshomaru, it certainly couldn't be helping.

InuYasha sighed. He'd been hoping he could return Sesshomaru to the West, soon, and get the plaguing messages from the ever-more frantic Jakken off his back, but that didn't look like it was gonna' happen anytime soon, now.

Grinding his teeth against the tangle of emotions and worries, InuYasha gave himself a shake and headed back to the village, trying to tell himself he wasn't regretting dragging Sesshomaru back from the dead - or letting Kagome go back home so quickly. He wasn't sure even he could endure five-hundred years of this...

-

To Be Continued...

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Author's Note #2: Apparently people are starting to think I'm the devil for not updating for so long, so here it is! Sorry, I guess time just got away from me, and on top of that, although I knew where this fic was going from the beginning, I had to wait for everything to just come to me, and luckily it finally did. I do have every intention of finishing this fic, so don't worry. To those of you who just found this, please let me tell you I am aware that InuYasha cannot use the black pearl over and over again. I hope you'll understand my fudging the canon a little for the sake of the story. Thanks for reading, everyone, and special thanks to those of you who have been more than patient. I appreciate it.

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