InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Pride (In the Name of Love) ❯ Chapter 64

Pride (In the Name of Love) 64 / ??
Written by Jezz-Ra
Warnings - Not all warnings apply to all chapters. Yaoi, Het, Rape, Lemon, Violence, Language, Torture, Angst, Incest, Dark (at times). It's a massive story, folks, it's got a little bit of everything.
Disclaimer - I don't own Inuyasha, don't make money off it. Wish I did.

Sidestories can be found under my author profile at any of my archive sites.
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// blah // indicates thoughts.

A/N - Oh, sweet bliss...a day off...three of them, in fact...god, my legs hurt so bad. I woke up with a nasty cramp in my calf two days ago and it didn't abate, standing around and running about all night made it worse. All my life is screaming physical agony and...misguided optimism, mentally. I *AM* an optimist, which is one of my biggest failings in life. ((That is a long story. Suffice it to say if I was less optimistic and more realistic, life wouldn't suck so bad half the time. I set myself up for disappointment.)) I'm just really... sorta happy about something that I shouldn't be, because it's not REAL...I had a dream that subtly changed my view of someone and...meh. LOL...On with the story, that's what you're here for, right?
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Toga's eyes slid open as his door opened and then shut. He growled, still feeling quite cranky, and his growl only intensified when he smelled the scent of cat. Of all the creatures he least wanted to be awaken by, Kanjiro ranked very near the top of the list.

A moment later an oil lamp flickered to life in the nekoyoukai's hands. Toga held his growl only out of a sense of bewildered surprise. It took him a moment to figure out that the flame was trembling so much because Kanjiro himself was quivering.

The nekoyoukai set the lamp down. In his other arm he had a long, tightly wrapped bundle, which he set down too. Toga was sitting up now, staring with hard amber eyes at his unexpected midnight visitor. Kanjiro was visibly shaking, his eyes wide. The scent of fear...no, blatant, bone-deep terror...hung heavy about him.

"What in blazes brings you here? Especially after this evening?"

Kanjiro sank into a chair, his voice cracking when he finally spoke, although it was obvious he was making an effort to calm down. Still, his words had the quiver of a broken plea. "Toga...help me, please..."

Toga's eyebrows shot up. The NERVE of this demon...but...still..."Why would I EVER want to help you?"

Kanjiro slid to his knees, bowing his head. "Please...I beg you. Help me or kill me, but do not turn me out. I...I am sorry for earlier. You must understand...I...there has never been any love between you and I, and your son and I have always been something of adversaries...but you know I would not so brashly and openly strike at you. I may hate you but I respect you."

Toga scowled, but said nothing. He had no idea what was going on here, but he could not deny the truth of Kanjiro's words. It had in fact been troubling him that the nekoyoukai had insulted him so direly. A veiled insult or threat was a simple matter of course, and an outright insult occurred on occasion. But never, never on the level of the meeting of earlier. "Tell me what the hell is going on. I still do not know why I should even consider helping you, but you have piqued my curiosity. Speak before I change my mind."

"My family..." Kanjiro finally looked up. "The slimy bastard has my family."

"Who?""This damned Jormandar thing your son brought upon us!" Kanjiro hissed. "He came to me and wanted to use me and my army and my resources to strike at YOU. And I refused him because I didn't want a war, with you least of all. The casualties would be too great on both sides, and even if I despise both you and your sons, I'm not fool enough to deny your power. So when I refused to aid him, he took my mate and our daughters hostage...he told me what to say to you and told me to find a way to kill you before this meeting is done. With this." Kanjiro kicked angrily at the wrapped bundle he had brought with him. "It's some damnable wicked blade. It affects the mind, attempted to take me over. I was able to get it away from me before things went too far."

Toga frowned. No, he didn't like Kanjiro any more than the neko liked him, but he was honorable. The fact that the neko's innocent family had been drug into this mess because of his family - intentional or not - did not sit well with him. He glanced at the wrapped bundle before nudging at the heavy cloth.

"What are you doing?!" Kanjiro hissed, recoiling from the bundle as if it had attempted to bite him.

"I want to see it." Toga carefully unwrapped the thing, then burst out into a surprised laugh when he saw it unveiled in its entirety. "My Sounga!"

"Your....this is YOUR sword?"

Toga grinned somewhat ferally as he lifted the hellish blade. It lashed out at him, but quickly was subdued, recognizing his familiar dominance. "I have no idea how that tricky bastard got hold of this...but Kanjiro, I can tell you this much. If he sent you to try to kill me with this, particularly...he had to have known you would fail. On the off-chance you managed to kill me, you would have been possessed by the blade and had no real mind to call your own anyways."

Kanjiro moaned brokenly. "Then my family is probably already....oh, Toga, you bastard, why did you bring this on us?!"

Toga growled. "I did not! Nor will I allow you to blame my Sesshoumaru. You would have done the same damn thing in his position...lashed out at an enemy intending to harm you. And even still, would YOU trade YOUR child to this fiend, even to prevent a war?"

"No...Ah, damn it all, he will kill me when he finds out I revealed all this to you....""If I walk out of this building alive, and I fully intend to, your life is forfeit regardless the moment he realizes you are not dead."

"Then HELP me! I'll...damn it, I don't know! I need to know if there's any chance...if my family is alive. If they are...save them and you can have whatever you want. My whole damn kingdom, if thats what it takes. But please..."

Toga frowned as he thought. Getting to the eastern lands and into Kanjiro's castle would be a brutally impossible task, given the circumstances. An inuyoukai would CERTAINLY set off every alarm the neko had in place. Especially him. He needed someone fast but stealthy, unexpected... "I will help you, Kanjiro, if there is any help to be had. In return, I do not want your lands or your wealth or even your subservience. A treaty of peace and a proper alliance will be sufficient repayment. Excuse me, I must go borrow one of Shirizu's messengers."

"Thank you...and...I am sorry."

Toga nodded and headed swiftly out the door. He explained rapidly to a rather sleepy Shirizu that he needed to borrow her fastest messenger.

"But...Toga...who are you contacting? My swiftest birds have no substance and cannot carry a note, they are only meant for speaking between me and my people.""My chief advisor. He is a raven youkai of...exceptional talent. If he cannot speak your bird's tongue, he can retrieve a message from its mind."

"Very well. Speak your message, then...." Shirizu held out her palm and a small bird with vibrant blue and purple feathers, shimmering and translucent, appeared. Toga relayed his message to the bird, and soon it was winging swiftly out the window and across the sky, vanishing from sight almost immediately.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Hmm..." Sairex looked deep in thought. He also had a fiendishly curious look in his eyes that Miroku had already learned to be wary of.

"What are you thinking?""How much do you know about dis vind tunnel of yours?"

Miroku resisted the sudden urge to grip his wrist, though he wasn't sure if it would be to protect him from the raven or the raven from him. "I know all I need to. Why?"

"Vhat is on da other zide?"

Miroku gaped at Sairex and he DID grip his wrist then, fingering his protective beads. "I do not know. Oblivion, I suppose...and I am not about to let you find out."

Sairex pouted slightly. "I vould be careful..."

Miroku narrowed his eyes. "No. There is no damn way I am letting you look in my wind tunnel!"

Sairex pasted an innocent look on his face. "Look in? I vas rather tinking I'd take a little visit..."

"I am not letting you go in my wind tunnel! Are you CRAZY?!"

"Zome vould zay I am..."

"Look, Sairex, I know you are curious and I know you have a million and a half tricks, but...I can't let you do this. Do you think I could ever live with myself if you were wrong? If I sucked you in and you were lost in the void forever, obliterated and rendered into nothing but a memory?""If I can prove to you I have a zafe vay of examining it vould you let me? A vay vith no permanant risk at all? If I can figure out exactly vhat makes it vork, vhy it is as it is...perhaps zometing can be done about it."

"Well..." Miroku frowned deeply. He was mortified at the thought of Sairex gleefully leaping into the void, hating the thought more than he hated the tunnel itself...but if Sairex proved he had a truly safe way to examine it...maybe it would be different. MAYBE.

Miroku did not hold out much hope that anything short of the death - again- of Naraku would remove the void from his palm. He was resigned to it, and to the inevitably fatal end it would involve for him. It was a cancerous, devouring disease. He would die within a couple years, at best...ripped apart and consumed as the void tore free and swallowed him. As did his father and his father before him. But to risk Sairex? "Sairex, I can't let you....I can't lose you like that."

The raven frowned. "And vhat, exactly, makes you tink dat I vill be able to take it vhen da damn ting eats you?"

"On some level, Sairex, you are already resigned to my mortality. You already know that I will be in your life only for a short while. Wind tunnel or not. I would fall prey to age even if nothing unnatural occurred to shorten my lifespan. I am subject to human frailties. If I am with you all the rest of my life, it will only be but a blink in the span of yours."

Sairex winced at the calm way Miroku accepted his own impending doom. "Vell...I intend to do vhat I can to extend dat. You're too damn vise for your own good, I tink. No human zhould be quite so avare of deir own mortality...Anyvay, I have a problem vith da divine plan and vhatnot. I vill likely attempt to meddle."

"With what? My mortality?" Miroku arched an eyebrow.

Sairex didn't answer, staring somewhat moodily towards the window. He didn't LIKE thinking about how true what Miroku had said was. Oh, he had known from the start that theirs was, from his point of view, a relationship doomed to end in pain...but that didn't mean he was one to casually accept it.

Both of them were distracted by the sudden appearance of a tiny ghostlike bird. It landed on Sairex's hand and chirped to him. Sairex arched an eyebrow musingly.

"Well. You don't see that every day." Miroku cocked a half-grin. "Can you understand it?""Zomevhat. Birds have a...general language of zorts, but its not very zpecific. Zimple message, however...Toga needs me as fast as I can manage. I zuppose I'll be back vhen I can."

Miroku nodded, then slid forward and wrapped his arms around Sairex in a tight hug. "Don't be gone too long, alright? I'll miss you.""Don't get into too much trouble vhile I'm gone. Vhen I come back I ztill intend to examine dat ting in your hand."

The monk sighed and leaned in to give his lover a brief but intimate kiss. "And I'll only let you if you can prove you will be safe. Hurry back."

Sairex smiled and waved before hopping out the window. Miroku hated when he did that - even though a split second later he saw a small, familiar black form flying off, his mind still wanted to make the connection of what usually happened with humanoids that leapt from high windows and inevitably hit the ground.

The monk sighed and then smiled slightly as he headed off down the hall. He truly was touched by his lover's determination to save him from death itself. // If only he was here to save me from Inuyasha when he finds out Naraku is back...I suppose I best tell him and get it over with. //