InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Love Thy Enemy ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

Love Thy Enemy

 

A lot of flashbacks and exposition in this chapter, but it fills in a lot of needed background.

 

Chapter 9

 

Inuyasha ducked under a rotting wooden beam as he walked through the alley, taking a shortcut. It had been a few years since he'd been here last, but it hadn't changed much. Exiting the alley, he looked up and down the street. Well, maybe it had changed a bit. The neighborhood hadn't been classy before, but now, it was an outright slum. Snorting, Inuyasha crossed the street and entered a four-story apartment complex.

 

The inside was a dull green paint on the halls, with a single door to the right with a plaque - “Landlord”. The interior was the same - dirty, but not overly filthy. Inuyasha shrugged. He wasn't going to be long, no need to check in. He headed towards the staircase and tripped to the floor.

 

“Son of a bitch!” the hanyou yelled, looking down at the loose floorboard. Same one as all those times before. He climbed to his feet and put a foot on the bottom of the stairs.

 

“I know that cursing.”

 

Inuyasha stopped and rolled his eyes, turning. The door opened, and an elderly woman in a white sweater and a dark blue skirt shuffled out, glaring at him with one grey eye - the other was covered with a black eye patch.

 

“Taisho, come crawling back have ye?” the woman smirked knowingly.

 

“What do you want Kaede?” Inuyasha said.

 

“Ye never paid ye last month's rent!” Kaede said. “Eight hundred, forty-three dollars and twenty-five cents.”

 

“Send me a bill.”

 

“I did, three times, and ye never sent them back.”

 

“Whatever. Can I check out the old place?”

 

“Eh?” Kaede frowned, turning inside her apartment. “Are ye two moving back after all?”

 

“No, just…two?” Inuyasha asked.

 

“Aye, that nice Kagome lass ye were so sweet on came by a few days ago,” Kaede called from inside. “I hadn't seen her two in years. How is she doing?”

 

“Um…she's alright,” Inuyasha muttered. Kaede emerged with the key.

 

“And last I saw ye, ye brother had conscripted ye. How that faring?” she asked, tossing the hanyou the key.

 

“Like hell,” Inuyasha caught the key. “I'm on leave for a week, I'm not moving back but I need a place to stay. How about it?”

 

“Ye'll pay the rent?”

 

“I got an army-issue credit card. You got any problem with the youkai government footing the bill?”

 

“None at all. Go on up, the apartment is just as ye left it.” Kaede smiled and retreated back into her room. Inuyasha grunted and marched up the stairs, ignoring the second floor doors and climbing to the third. There were five doors, two at either end of the hall, two on the left wall and one on the right. Inuyasha sighed and headed to the door at the end of the hall, lifting the key and sliding it into the lock. It clicked open, and the hanyou pushed open the door.

 

The apartment was dark, and Inuyasha turned the light on then looked around. Kaede had obviously maintained it. The floors were clean, sheets covered the furniture, the various odds and ends he had left behind had been packed into a handful of boxes. Inuyasha pulled the sheet off the sofa, bunching it up and tossing it aside before sitting down. He reached over to one of the boxes on the floor and picked it up, opening the lid. He reached over to the end table to turn on an old lamp, the same lamp on the table as before. Inside the box…the same cordless telephone, the same little red address book. He picked it up and blew off the thin layer of dust, coughing a bit, and opened it. Numbers and names he only vaguely remembered now.

 

“I haven't spoken to any of these guys since I left,” he realized, turning the page. Of course, that was no surprise, most of the youkai in the book had also been conscripted, and the humans were out of contact for him. Inuyasha tossed the book back into the box and pulled out the phone. He looked it over and dropped it back in, the phone lines had probably been disconnected anyway. Sighing, he stood up and moved into the kitchen/dining room combination.

 

More thin dust layers and sheets. Inuyasha reached over to flick the light switch, and the bulb blew out. The room remained in shadow as he examined the empty cupboards and countertops. Images superimposed themselves over reality in his mind's eye. He had put the microwave there, toaster in that corner. That self was for plates, that one for cups…

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

“It's not hard to keep a kitchen organized, you just group the dishes together properly.”

 

“I don't need you to organize my stuff for me, wench, I know where everything is and that's what matters.”

 

“Fine, I want a drink, where's the cups?”

 

“Um…there's a few up there, a few over there, I see one in the living room from here…”

 

“I rest my case, now shut up and help or get out of my kitchen.”

 

“Since when did it become yours?”

 

“Since I unpacked this morning.”

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

Bringing order to his life had been the first thing Kagome had done when she moved into Inuyasha's apartment. Some ways she had done it on purpose, in some ways she did it without realizing. Kagome had been the first stable thing in his life since his mother had died a little under a century ago. Before he met her, he mostly just drifted from place to place, job to job, no real concerns or plans for tomorrow. Even with tensions between the miko and the youkai tight, hanyou were still discriminated again, and Inuyasha had gotten used to the suspicion he may not wake up in the morning.

 

The turn of the century was still a dangerous time. The truce between miko and youkai set back in the sengoku jidai era was stable, but barely as it always had been. Izayoi took care of him by herself, relying on the money sent to them by Inuyasha's father to get by along with her own meagre job. Sesshomaru delivered the money on a monthly basis, which is how he had first gotten to know his elder half-brother.

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

“I don't need your charity, just leave!”

 

Inuyasha looked up from his book and stood, walking to the door. He peered through the crack at his mother glaring at a man with silver hair and fine clothing.

 

“Father is insistent you allow him to provide for you. Even if you are not his wife, the whelp is his son, and he will be done right by our family,” Sesshomaru answered coldly.

 

“The only thing I ever wanted from Toga Taisho was love, and he threw me on the street!” Izayoi shrieked. “His little indiscretions came back to him so now we're just another bill to be paid each month?”

 

“Yes, and nothing more. We are one of the most well respected youkai families in Japan. I would expect you to be grateful for us even associating with you.”

 

“The only thing I'm grateful for is your bastard father showing his true colors to me before I became nothing but his whore.”

 

“Are you so certain it was `before'?”

 

Izayoi gasped and swung her hand up. Sesshomaru caught her wrist before and glared at her.

 

“Mommy?” The two turned their heads as Inuyasha came out into the hall.

 

“Go back inside sweetie,” Izayoi ordered.

 

“So this is the whelp,” Sesshomaru sneered. “Pathetic hanyou rat.”

 

“That hanyou is your brother!” Izayoi scowled.

 

“I have a brother?” Inuyasha asked, tilting his head back to stare at Sesshomaru.

 

“Half-brother, and only half-youkai too,” Sesshomaru said. “And not worthy of even half of either of those honors.”

 

“What will it take to get rid of you before you scar him anymore?” Izayoi demanded. Sesshomaru turned his eyes towards her, and held up the envelope. Izayoi snatched it. “Now get out of my home.”

 

“With great pleasure.” Sesshomaru turned and marched out the door, closing it behind him.

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

Sesshomaru's monthly visits continued until his mother fell sick and died just after he had finished his education. He took to the road after the funeral, staying well away from his brother, father and the name Taisho. He took his mother's name, her belongings and ideals and moved across the country. It had worked, until the 1980's. Sesshomaru showed up on his doorstep once again like he had so many times decades ago. Toga had ordered his rogue hanyou son tracked down and brought to him.

 

That had been the first, and so far only time Inuyasha had met his father. Toga had told him in as many words, he was still his blood and he would honor that blood whether he wanted to or not. The taiyoukai had chosen about the most inopportune time to force this on Inuyasha, but in the end he had left little room for argument. Inuyasha's name was changed to Taisho, he was given standing and responsibility in the youkai hierarchy and was given funding from his father. He rejected the latter two, again walking away from the duties he was being forced to take up. Toga and Sesshomaru had done nothing for him, and he spent the better part of the next two and a half decades returning the favor.

 

It had been around that time, about four years ago, that he had met Kagome. She was one of a handful of people who didn't automatically pity or hate him for being hanyou. She saw him as him, foul mouth lousy work habits and all. And she helped him. She made him into a better person, bit by bit, and wormed her way under his skin until the night he kissed her while she helped him prepare for a meeting. It was after that she had moved in with him. And it was a mere two months later that the phone rang, and Inuyasha's family found him again.

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

“What do you want?” Inuyasha asked, crossing his arms. Sesshomaru sipped his coffee on the café table and took his time answering.

 

“You know what is happening in the youkai world, I hope,” he said.

 

“Yeah, something about a war stirring,” Inuyasha nodded. “What's that got to do with me?”

 

“Father and I are calling upon you to serve in the youkai military.”

 

“Like fuck,” Inuyasha snarled.

 

“I am afraid you have no choice in the matter. As you are royal blood, you must serve in some capacity. There is simply no other matter, it is youkai law.”

 

“Nice try, I'm living in a human city, youkai law doesn't apply to me,” Inuyasha said.

 

“Human laws only override youkai law when they are in direct conflict with each other,” Sesshomaru corrected. “And there is no human law which states you cannot be conscripted.”

 

“Conscripted? So you're forcing me to join?” Inuyasha asked in disbelief.

 

“Yes. Either you will serve, or we will imprison you. However…” Sesshomaru locked eyes with his half-brother. “I sincerely hope it will not come to that. We have not been close family to you, Inuyasha, due to reluctances on all parties involved. But if you will allow it, we can make it up to you. Fight for us, and we will give anything you desire within reason.”

 

“You still don't get it, there's not a thing I want from either you or the old man,” Inuyasha muttered.

 

“Then fight for us, and we will give you back something…your name,” Sesshomaru said. Inuyasha thought for a moment. A legal restriction had been placed on him once his father forced him to change his name to Taisho. If it was lifted, he could take his mother's name again…

 

“You'll do that?” Inuyasha asked.

 

“Yes. You may have dishonored us thus far, but honor us in battle and we will do the same,” Sesshomaru nodded.

 

“…alright. Just, let me tell Kagome.”

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

That night was his last night together with the miko. In another, more intimate way, it had been their first night together. He returned to their apartment to find she had received a conscription notice in the mail. The two of them begged the other for some sort of way out, but there was none. Under the laws of their respective sides, youkai and miko, they would either serve or be imprisoned. Realizing what it meant, Kagome had asked for one more night with him, and he obliged, taking her into the bed and showing her for the first and last time how much she meant to him.

 

The next morning she was gone, and the next time Inuyasha saw her was in the heat of battle. It was then their relationship turned from affection to a rivalry. She had bested him most of the time, although Inuyasha had also claimed his share of victories. His relationship with Sesshomaru had begun to improve slightly, his elder brother looking out for him as best his position would allow.

 

“I gave up everything…” Inuyasha thought bitterly. “They took my name, my privacy, my life, my girlfriend…and then they took my freedom in exchange for a promise that I could get it back someday.”

 

Standing and moving to the window, Inuyasha took a breath and parted a filthy curtain to stare over the city skyline. Now he remembered why he hated this damn war