InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ New Dawn ❯ Troubles of the Lords ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Sesshomaru or anyone from the hit anime/manga series “Inuyasha”. Rumiko Takahashi does. I do own all OC’s in this story.

Chapter Nine: The Troubles of the Lords

“You could find no trace of him?” said Augustus, his teeth grinding as he glared death at the subordinate.

“My apologies my lord, but we searched everywhere. There is no sign of the escaped demon within the city and without. Even given his demonic speed and the time that has past, we should have found him. I fear he has been discovered by the Rebellion.” The young man managed to say this without stuttering, though, terror had turned his insides to ice. The blonde lord did not tolerate failure and the subordinate feared for his life as he gave the dismal report.

“Incompetent fools!” shouted the outraged lord and he threw a glass of water at the unfortunate messenger. The glass bounced off the forearm he raised to defend himself and shattered against the floor. Water dripped from brown locks and slid down his pale blue uniform. “Get out my sight, wretch!” The man fled, grateful to have escaped with his life.

As soon as he was alone, Augustus fell back into his chair and sighed. “What a disaster this has turned out to be,” he muttered, rubbing his forehead.

The communication console beeped for his attention startling the lord from his thoughts. Reluctant, he moved toward the console and pushed the talk button. “This is Lord Augustus.”

The screen blinked to life and the lord blanched. The un-aging face of Katagai stared back him with his single, black eye. Claw marks poked out the top and bottom of the eye-patch on the left side of his face; a memento from a long ago battle with a demon.

Like everyone else who knew Katagai’s secret, Augustus had been wary of the un-aging lord, but Katagai had put their minds at ease long ago. He had explained to them that long he had been cursed with immortality by a demon. He would never be able to die and join his family in the netherworld; he would never know peace. He had decided then that he would not consider it a curse and instead used it to curse the demon and all his kind with his undying hatred.

Augustus would never have thought of immortality as a curse until he considered that while time stood still for him the rest of the world moved on. Friends and family would grow old and die leaving him alone. It truly was something to be pitied. However, immortality had not regenerated Katagai’s lost eye.

The gruesome sight of the disfigured left cheek, and the knowledge that Katagai was thousands of years old, made every noble, especially young ones like Augustus, frightened of confronting him. The fact that Katagai was calling on him now after he had just lost an ancient demon turned the blonde lord’s blood to ice. This wasn’t a coincidence.

“Good evening, Augustus,” said Katagai, his voice smooth and soft. That only served to make the lord tremble. This was not going to go well.

“Greetings, Katagai. What can I do for you?” asked Augustus, plastering a smile onto his face and trying to keep from stuttering.

“You can start by sending me all the information you have on your escaped demon,” said Katagai, his voice never changing.

Augustus silently cursed. Katagai’s informants hadn’t wasted any time in getting this latest development back to their master.

“Katagai–,” started the young lord but was cut off.

“Don’t try to tell me you have the situation well in hand. I know for a fact that the demon escaped and is most likely in the hands of the Rebellion,” Katagai said, his voice turning harsh and his black eyes snapping.

“Katagai!” protested Augustus. It was a lost cause but the young lord couldn’t just roll over to Katagai.

“He may be in my territories and I need to know what he looks like. I don’t want a mystery on my hands. I don’t want this demon walking about my streets just because I don’t know he is a fugitive! Now send me that information!”

Augustus conceded defeat and uploaded the files on his prisoner and sent them to the immortal lord. He then waited for Katagai to get done reviewing the documents. He saw Katagai look down as he began reading the information. Within moments Katagai’s expression changed. His face paled and his good eye widened. Augustus noticed beads of sweat appear on the dark lord’s forehead.

He didn’t have time to contemplate this further before Katagai shouted, “You let this monster live?”

“As a pure blood, I thought we could use him to undo his entire race. We were just beginning to run experiments when–,” started Augustus.

“Why did you feel it necessary to give him the linguist operation? What did it matter if he understood you are not?”

Now it was Augustus who was sweating as recoiled from the screen. “It is easier to control them if they understand you, particularly after they have been broken.” It seemed so logical yet Katagai was outraged he had done this. The young lord was now not only frightened but confused.

“Well, was he broken?” asked Katagai more quietly than before having regained his composure.

“It is hard to say, he stopped fighting back but when the blackout occurred he didn’t hesitate to escape.” Augustus noticed Katagai staring down at his computer screen. The immortal lord laid his head on his fist and a tiny smirk twisted his face. The blonde lord wondered what he was looking at.

“I know this demon,” Katagai said suddenly, startling Augustus.

“What?”

“I know this demon,” repeated the immortal lord, his left hand stroking his eye-patch. “You didn’t break him; he was just biding his time. I would very much enjoy seeing him broken, though.”

Augustus wondered at Katagai’s sudden change in attitude. ‘He knows this demon? How? In what way?’

“You said something about experiments?” asked Katagai, glancing back up at the communication screen.

“Yes,” replied Augustus, happy to talk about something other than the escape. “I was in the process of running experiments on the demon. Since he was an ancient demon, I believed he wouldn’t have any human DNA on him. After all, the eradication of all demons is what you and I desire, I wanted to make a type of weapon that would attack demons only without affecting humans. My scientists have been conducting these experiments for a while but all our test subjects have some human in them and the experiments always failed because of it. I was hoping that a pure blood could point out the DNA common in all demons but that didn’t exist in humans. At this time my scientists only have a few samples, not enough to run the complete experiment.”

A sinister smile now graced the immortal lord’s face and he began to laugh. “What an irony this shall be,” he said. “Sesshomaru, one of the most powerful demons of his time and now the most powerful demon of this time, shall become the doom of all demons. Yes, we most get our test subject back before he learns how to exist in this world.” Katagai began stroking his eye-patch again and whispered, “Yes, you must suffer, suffer like you never dreamed was possible. I will grant you unending pain, Lord Sesshomaru, not death.”

Augustus shuddered and was suddenly very glad he was not the focus of Katagai’s wrath. He even felt some pity for the demon that had become Katagai’s newest obsession, but it was very little.

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Yeah I know it’s short but I’m just glad I got it up at all.

My muse has been AWOL for a while now and this is only one of four projects I’m working on. That does not include what I do at random and not all of them are fanfics. Please do not ask me to abandon those other projects just so I can write this one because I will not do that. My original fictions have higher priority than a fanfic. However, I will try hard to update sooner, but I can make no promises. I am a senior in college after all.