InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Footprints in the Snow ❯ Part III ( Chapter 3 )

Author's Note: Thank you everyone for the support on this story. Thank you Feudal Association for honoring me with the “Best Drama” award. I am truly humbled. I have been meaning to write a third part to this fic for a while but somehow never got to it until now. I hope you all like it. I'm not sure yet, but I might write more, studying the brothers' relationship further by analyzing them through the key events in their lives. If anyone has any suggestions, don't hesitate to tell me. For now, please read and review part III.

 

Part III

 

Rarely ever did he bother to follow the affairs of humans, even those who dwelled in his own domain. There were many villages scattered throughout the west, and usually they kept to themselves. Once in a while they bickered or even skirmished, but Sesshomaru never intervened in those cases. Their wars were none of his concern, but if other demons dared to threaten or challenge his rule, they were quickly disposed of. This self-imposed isolation from his subjects made him both well respected and the subject of much wonder and fear. Humans whispered but they didn't do it within his long hearing range, so Sesshomaru didn't care enough to correct any misconceptions of himself.

However, one day on a cool autumn morning something reached his ears that forced him to stop on the edge of the forest and listen. There were several villages picking wild mushrooms and chattering amongst themselves. Sesshomaru remained concealed by the thick foliage but listened intently. He needed only three words to understand what had happened: princess, abomination, and death. Wordlessly, he turned to leave, his presence remaining completely unnoticed by the humans. They looked up when the sound of crushed dry leaves reached them, but dismissed it as nothing more than a wild animal and went back to work.

It would not take him long to reach the village where the human woman and hanyo dwelled. Sesshomaru mentally counted the years since he had last seem the boy and was surprised to discover that little over half a decade had passed. It was no wonder that he hadn't given either of them a second thought, but now it appeared that they could no longer be ignored. Assuming, of course, that when the humans spoke of death, they meant the mother and not the child. Briefly he entertained the possibility that it was the hanyo who met his demise. If the child was gone, no one would dare soil his father's name by mentioning the ill-conceived brat in conjunction with the great dog demon. Inuyasha would become a distant memory, as if he had never been born, and he, Sesshomaru, would once again be the only heir to their father's legacy.

But no matter how hard he tried, Sesshomaru could not wish him out of existence and even he had to recognize that the boy's death would not change the events that had already occurred. The undeniable fact was that Inutaisho had rutted with a human, that Inuyasha had been born, and that their father had lost his life defending his bastard child. No amount of denial could change that. Sesshomaru supposed that he should at least be grateful that the boy had absolutely no claim to the rule of the west. Aside from being a hanyo and illegitimate at that, Inuyasha was also second-born. Position was not an issue, but the boy could still do a fair amount of damage to the reputation of the family. Better if he really was dead.

Still the thought did not sit well with him, not out of any sympathy for the hanyo, but because if the boy was dead, it meant that something had killed him. Half-breeds were fairly well resistant to any illnesses or minor physical injury, so if he was dead, it was at either the hands of some demon or angry villagers. A child just over a decade in age could hardly be expected to defend himself. Sesshomaru wasn't even sure how the hanyo had developed. Humans and demons measured time in two completely different scales, after all. Whatever the case, he had made a promise on the day of Inuyasha's birth and their father's death that no harm would come to the child until he has strong enough to fight back, and he, Sesshomaru, would be the only architect of his brother's demise. For anyone else to take the life of a son of the great demon dog Inutaisho would have been yet another disgrace to their father's memory.

The sun had nearly set when he finally reached the edge of the village and saw that signs of the ongoing funeral were all around. This confirmed his suspicions that it was indeed the mother who perished. If it was Inuyasha, he doubted the humans would care. In the growing darkness, Sesshomaru could see the smoke and tongues of flame from the funeral pier at the shrine in the center of the village. Moving through the shadows, he slipped closer in time to hear a man who appeared to be the village's spiritual leader speaking of the deceased. When he mentioned something bout the fate of those who fraternize with demons, Sesshomaru decided it was a fitting time to make his presence known. Ignoring the gasps and whispers, he walked directly up to the man.

“Where is the child?” he could have sensed Inuyasha without any trouble if it wasn't for the stench of burning flesh.

“You are not welcome here, demon,” the man tried to put up a strong front but fear was etched clearly in his eyes.

“Nor do I wish to be here,” Sesshomaru replied coolly, “but I ask you again: where is the boy? Speak, before you are thrown into the flames along with her.”

“He is forbidden from entering this sacred place,” the monk insisted. “After all the grief he caused this poor woman. She died of a broken heart, and it is that monstrosity's fault.”

“Ridiculous,” Sesshomaru scoffed. “She died for the same reason that all humans die; because you are weak and mortal.”

In a flash, his hand was on the man's throat, poisoned claws dancing along the flesh. The man nearly screamed, thinking that the demon would fulfill his promise of burning him alive, but Sesshomaru simply tossed him aside and began to move away from the shrine, leaving behind a group of bewildered villagers.

When he got far enough away, it wasn't hard to catch Inuyasha's scent emanating from the very edge of the other side of the village. In the dim light of the torches, he caught sight of a figure clad in red resting at the base of a tree several yards away from the last row of houses. The boy sat with his legs tucked close to his chest, idly poking at the ground with a stick he found. He froze, sniffed the air, and looked up at Sesshomaru, who was only a few feet away. Golden eyes filled with sadness flashed a look of confusion for a split second, but the demon lord saw no trace of tears in them.

“I remember you,” the hanyo frowned a bit, neither terribly surprised nor afraid of the demon's presence. In fact, Sesshomaru couldn't see or hear any emotion coming from the child at all.

“You do not weep,” he observed with a small measure of approval. A son of Inutaisho did not blubber like an infant.

“The village elder said he'd beat me within an inch of my life if I so much as sniffed,” Inuyasha looked at the ground. “Besides, it's not like it'd help. Won't bring her back.”

“No, it will not,” the demon agreed. “Neither is the grief necessary. For humans, death is a part of life. It is neither good nor bad. It is simply the way of things.”

“Yeah, but I still miss her,” the hanyo's golden eyes were cast longingly towards the shrine.

Sesshomaru opened his mouth to tell him that it was pointless but then decided against it. He had to remind himself that Inuyasha was only a child, and in the human world, the loss of a parent was a cause for grief. Even he, Sesshomaru, grieved over his father's death, though it was more the manner in which he died rather than the accrual parting. They sat in silence for a few more moments, until the hanyo sighed, once again shifting his gaze towards the smoke spewing from the center of the village.

“I can't stand it,” the eleven-year-old muttered, and Sesshomaru had to wonder what exactly he meant. “The smell from the funeral pier. I can't stand it.”

“That is understandable,” there was no sympathy in the demon's matter-of-fact tone. “Your senses are more acute than those of a mere human.”

“It's not that,” Inuyasha shook his head, strands of his white mane sticking to his cheeks before he quickly flicked them away. “If it was, I'd put up with it. That's my mother they're sending to the spirit world. I don't know. For some reason that scent makes me feel sad... and afraid.”

“This is foolish,” Sesshomaru said flatly. “It is only a ceremony. Your mother's spirit departed this world long before it began. There is no reason to believe that it is the fire that is taking her away from you.”

“I just…,” he bit his lip for a moment, not quite sure how to explain what he was feeling. “Fire always made me think of death.”

Sesshomaru turned the thought over in his mind. At the time of Inuyasha's birth, his mother's palace was burning down around them. Their father was consumed by the flames, even after he defeated Takemaru, and even if Inuyasha couldn't explicitly remember the event, the scent of the smoke had forever become intertwined with tragedy in his mind.

“What will you do now?” the demon asked not out of any real concern.

Inuyasha shrugged. “Hadn't thought that far ahead,” he admitted. “Probably go live in the forest or something. It's not like they'll let me stay here, even if I wanted to.”

“Don't be absurd,” Sesshomaru sneered. “You wouldn't last a day on your own.”

“So? Better than hang around this place. Besides, I can take care of myself. I'm half-demon, you know,” the boy declared proudly.

One perfectly sculpted silver brow lifted over the demon lord's golden eye. “However confident you may feel about your abilities, the truth is that are only half-demon and still a child at that. Therefore I do not permit you to leave.”

For the first time in the evening, he saw anger flash across the hanyo's face. Inuyasha was instantly on his feet, momentarily forgetting his sorrow. He had grown since their last meeting, Sesshomaru noticed, but he was still very small, the tips of his canine ears not even reaching the demon's hip. His hands were balled into tight firsts at his sides, and the demon was amused that the hanyo actually tried to look menacing.

“What do you care what happens to me, anyway?” Inuyasha demanded angrily.

“I do not,” Sesshomaru admitted, “but our father would have, and I will not let you taint his memory by getting killed by some second-rate demon.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Sesshomaru knew he'd made a terrible mistake and from a glance at the wide-eyed Inuyasha, he saw that his hopes that the boy hadn't heard him were lost. The hanyo stared at the tall demon with a mixture of wonder and amazement, but Sesshomaru couldn't begin to guess what he was thinking. The two watched each other for one moment that was almost as long as the night of their father's death felt to Sesshomaru. Surprisingly it was Inuyasha who spoke first.

“You're... you're Sesshomaru. You're my brother.”

A low growl rose in the back of the demon lord's throat. “Not by choice,” he retorted, cursing himself for speaking without thought earlier.

“But that means,” Inuyasha's golden orbs lit up with hope, as if he hadn't heard his brother's reply, “you can take me away from this place! Is that why you're here? Am I gonna come and live with you now?”

Sesshomaru, who tried never to be surprised by anything, was for once caught of guard. The thought of taking the boy into his own custody never once crossed his mind in over a decade. Not because Inuyasha's mother had been alive and able to care for him, but because he felt no responsibility towards his half-brother. That had not changed, even with the woman's death.

“You are not to come with me,” Sesshomaru replied. “You shall remain here in the village.”

“No!” instantly there was fear in the boy's voice. Inuyasha ran to his brother and grabbed at the white cloth of his pant leg. “Please! I won't bother you, I promise. Don't leave me here!”

There were so many things he could have said; that there was no place for child amidst the violence that passed through his life, that he lacked the knowledge of how to take care of him, that Inuyasha needed to learn of society and he wouldn't be able to if he was following him around. Instead Sesshomaru chose the harsh truth.

“You do not belong in my world.”

He instantly felt the small hands let go of him and watch as Inuyasha took a step back, a look of utter disbelief on his face. For the first time in the night, the hanyo's eyes welled up with tears, but Sesshomaru could tell it was from rage rather than sorrow. He looked down at the child and calmly waited for his fury to erupt.

“Everyone always told me that!” the boy shouted. “Only my mother ever loved me! Only she took care of me! I am not going back there!”

“You are,” his brother replied unfazed. With a whirl, he turned his back to the hanyo, facing the village once more. “I will speak to them. They will not dare to lay a finger on you.”

With that he began back towards the human dwellings, leaving his brother behind, Sesshomaru could feel Inuyasha glaring daggers into his back but continued to ignore him. No, a hanyo didn't belong in the world of demons, and he knew full well that humans were no more accepting. Half-breeds had no place anywhere, further proof that none were meant to exist. Inuyasha would just have to learn that the hard way. Sesshomaru was not his savior. Yes, they were brothers, but they were also enemies.

“I'll never forgive you for this, Sesshomaru! Never!” shouted the hanyo.

Never, the demon lord mused. At least he understands that much.