InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Returning to the Path of Sesshoumaru's Eyes ❯ Tipping the Scales ( Chapter 8 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Tipping the Scales

She was smiling at him. Her long, white hair and regal composure affirmed in his mind who this was. Her liquid, stately voice commanded over the depths of the hellish atmosphere. “Hello son. It is good to see you again. How much you look like your father.”

Sesshoumaru glared daggers at the great former Demoness of the West. Inwardly, he bit off the urge to turn into the young Sesshoumaru that still greatly missed his mother. “This isn't a visit for small talk, mother. I need father's sword, and I need it now”.

Her perfect and queenly visage showed pure annoyance. “Stubborn; you are just like that wretched brother-in-law of yours. That is also a trait you have received from your father. Yet you are not as quick to act as your brother. Patience and using your stubbornness to stick to your path is a trait you have gain from me.” She laughed to herself. “Son, I have missed you.” She stood, her many robes swaying and swishing as she did so. She took in her son's presence one more moment, then motioned with her hand for him to come closer. “Why do you wish to have the very sword you sealed away- returned back to your possession?”

Sesshoumaru stepped forward and knelt before his mother, his hand on his knee. “Mother, with all due respect, I wish to follow in Father's footsteps. I feel as if I am ready for the Way of the Supreme Conquest. Please forgive me for disrupting your rest and honor my humble request.”

She seemed to contemplate his words. With a moment of deliberation, she then looked down at her son. “Sesshoumaru, I will give you Souunga- yet you will be unable to use it to its full potential until you find a way of regaining all of your strength. I will give you your arm also, yet it will not survive long if you return to the land of the living.”

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed. “If?”

His mother nodded with all seriousness. “You have made a dire mistake in coming here. For your hand has left the hilt of Tenseiga. You are now among the dead, unless you fight your way past the crater of this mountain.”

Sesshoumaru looked up to see nothing but streams of lava swirling above him. He grabbed his Tokijin, and pointed the tip of the weapon up. “I will not fail, Mother. Give me the Sounga, I will be freed from death!” His mother smirked, and reaching to the side she lifted up a solid wood trunk. Sesshoumaru stepped up to meet her, and sheathed his sword as she opened the trunk. Inside lay his arm and the disastorous sword, incased in purple silk. He placed his clawed hand around his detached arm, and bringing it up to meet the stump at his elbow, watching as they connected and surged together. He then picked up the sheathed Sounga, fastening it at his side.

“So the son has returned for me? How touching…” said the spirit of Souunga.

Sesshoumaru scowled. “I am not like my younger brother. You will obey ME, not the other way around”, he growled out while unsheathing the Tenseiga. A sword now in each hand, he crossed them in front of him, pointing the tips to the heavens. “Souunga, I command you to break through this Fuji-sama! Tenseiga, lift me towards the heavens!”

A blue glow pulsed through the Tenseiga as the purple waves thrashed about inside the active volcano. Slowly, hot magma rose through Sesshoumaru, yet he refused to let himself scream from the agonizing pain. The Sounga blasted through the top of the volcano, sending ashes high into the skies. Sesshoumaru braced the earth, then flung himself through to the other side of the volcano.

“I am lucky, for I have survived this trial. Now, onto the next.”

Sesshoumaru's mother watched all of this from the comfort of her throne. The glow of the lava lit her pale face even further, revealing her tired, dark eyes. “I have missed you son. This is the second time you have visited me in the afterlife. Yet you make it look as simple as child's play.” She smiled as he left her vision having one last thought.

“Hrm..I wonder- whatever happened to that young girl that was following my son?”

“Lady Rin! Fuji-sama is angry! Lady Rin!?”

Rin woke up with a start. Her door was pounding with fists of her two servants. “I bid you to enter, please!” she called out, wrapping the sheets around her. The young female servants rushed in. They both looked at Rin with terror in their eyes and pointed to the window.

Rin held the sheets up to her chest as she got up, and stumbled to the window. There, facing the east she could see a large cloud of ash billowing into the skies, and the wind carried the screams of victims from far away. Rin took a moment to calculate the situation before replying.

“This is indeed a violent eruption. But we are at a safe distance.” Rin nodded to her words, assuring herself the estate would be fine. But in the corner of her eye she could see the maids shaking their heads.

“My Lady, we trust in your words yet- Fuji-sama's eruption is always a very terrible omen of the things to come. Last time many demons were awakened from their slumber and many were killed.”

Rin snorted, “Then what would you suggest? It is too cold of a winter for us to flee. We must stay and ride this out. I give the order for our defense to be amplified. But no more. You may go.” The maids hung their heads and left quickly.

Rin never took her eyes off of the volcano's plume.

“I have no reason to explain myself to the likes of you”, growled the lord of the west. Steel and fang clashed and teeth gnashed at the two brother's throats. “I have conquered what you have not- you mere half-demon!”

“I'll make you eat those words, you fluffy bastard!” cried out Inuyasha, “KAZE NO KIZU!!!” he screamed as he raised his arms over his head, his transformed Tessiaga over his head.

“Sit boy!”, and a loud thud was heard as Inuyasha ate dirt. She turned to Sesshoumaru, bow and arrow in hand. “You move one step towards your brother and I will purify you. Don't test me.”

Sesshoumaru took in this Kagome. Now in her mid-twenties, she no longer wore the schoolgirl outfit she could be so easily recognized by. Instead she wore a pair of the traditional dark blue hakama and a smaller, short sleeved light blue shirt. Even stranger, it had “Hime” in glitter written across…her chest. Her face was thinner, and her eyes were wiser. She had seen much death, destruction, and power in the last ten years. Her aim with the bow had gotten remarkably on target, and her body in top shape from fighting and bicycling all over Japan. Yet she still had a trace of longing in her eyes- Inuyasha still hadn't left her doppelganger Kikyo behind in his heart. “My brother is a fool.”

Sesshoumaru sheathed his sword. “What makes you think that I should heed what you say, miko?”, his eyes never leaving hers.

“Because you have listened to me before. When Souunga was sealed you heard me say to combine your Dragon Strike with Inuyasha's Backlash Wave and work together. And that is precisely what you must do again here.”

Sesshoumaru scoffed. “You have good memory. But that does not mean you are worth my time, so get to the point ningen.”

Kagome bit back the urge to sit Sesshoumaru since she couldn't anyways…but if there ever was a minute she wanted to, this would be it. “Stubborn asshole.” She lowered her bow but kept it taunt.

“Sesshomaru, I have heard Inuyasha's sword master Totosai say himself that you were the only one even possibly capable of wielding the Souunga. With that in mind, if you keep strictly towards your path I commend you in your actions, as you have become our strongest ally. Forgive Inuyasha, as he is temporarily blinded by jealously and anger. He has fought hard to become as strong as he is.”

Sesshoumaru understood what she was saying. All their battles thus far still weren't enough. They needed him. And Sesshoumaru wanted to rid of this vile half-demon Naraku himself. He had simply been a thorn in his side for too long. “I accept your offer.”

Inuyasha stood up growled with irritation. “Don't you understand, Kagome? He's forgotten how hard we worked to seal the sword away! I also regretted losing another item of my fathers', but I sealed it with the intent that humanity would never see its' destruction again!”

Kagome shook her head solemmny. “Humanity will see that kind of death and terror again, with or without that sword. We are doomed to it if we don't destroy Naraku.” She put her arrow and bow behind her back, and wringed her hands together.

“The last time I returned to my time Inuyasha, and my mother begged me not to return. The world is changing, becoming more and more dangerous. I know why we have to destroy Naraku even for my era- all demons will be absorbed into him and all demonic power will be gone as we know it. Including you, Inuyasha. Humans, alone in their existence will inherit all demonic evils and destroy everything in their path.

The demons were a counter-balance for humans in the battle for Good vs. Evil. When Modoriko fought to keep the demons at bay it was because the demons had multiplied, tipping the balance in favor of them. The Shikon Jewel was created to aid the humans in their battle, but also could aid the demons if they needed it in the event the scales were reversed again.”

Kagome's eyes brimmed with tears, her head hung low.

“We have to defeat Naraku and destroy the Shikon Jewel, ending this battle for once and for all. Or we will all become our own worst enemies.”

Sesshoumaru's stance relaxed. This miko knew what was ahead, and was prepared for her own death. She was indeed strong. He spoke, “We must all be prepared to fight as if we will die. You, or someone you know will be dead. This balance this miko speaks of is true, and if we succeed in killing Naraku who has absorbed and slain many demons…then we must expect casualties on our side.”

Kagome's head lifted up, her gaze puzzled. Beside his cruel exterior, inwards lay a quick brain that saw right through the situation. She was surprised. “Now if we could only get Inuyasha to do the same”, she mused.

Rin always heard buzzing. The servants, Jaken's squawking, papers rustling, the wind moving through the branches of the trees…all of the sounds were deafening from one season to the next. Winter came, then the spring. She watched as the cherry blossoms opened up to receive the warmth of the sun that came from the summer. Then, they were dying, falling from the branches at every wind back to the earth to become nothing more than dust. Her birthday passed with no word from Sesshoumaru. Now, even Jaken believed the Lord of the West to be dead. The castle's inhabitants mourned him, yet Rin still wore her brightly colored kimono in an outlandish display of protest. Often she would stare at the blossoms as they fell, and the servants said the blossoms were making her crazy with grief.

No one had believed Rin's pleas that Sesshoumaru actually sired a son. Aikou-Akan had miscarried early enough to satisfy most of the staff, and the rest were silenced or had disappeared. Now, the staff assumed she was insane and Aikou-Akan ruled the castle. Rin couldn't stand it. Maybe she was insane? Maybe she did not know what had really happened. She didn't know. All she knew was that Sesshoumaru was still out there, somewhere.

Aikou-Akan waltzed into the room where Damasu slept. Wasting no time, she untied her obi and slid her kimono off her shoulders. “Why hello, darling.”

He stiffened. Had he been distracted a second more, the maid wouldn't have gotten out in time. However, he was not off the hook yet. The smell of their deed was still present on his skin, and the beads of sweat on his skin not yet dried.

Yet Aikou-Akan was mistaken in thinking his stiffness was because he was worried about being caught by Sesshoumaru. She stepped forward, and promptly sat in his lap, rubbing against him. She moaned, kissing him and then soothingly whispering, “There is no need to worry, my Damasu- Sesshoumaru is most certaintly dead. We have our own castle as well.” She smiled as she saw his erection growing harder, “Yes…we have this entire castle at our disposal…”

Damasu knew that Aikou-Akan trusted him and saw nothing in their way. “Incompetentfool for a demonness.”

Rin played with the scales, attempting to find objects of the same weight. She had tried air and water, feathers and salt, incense and roots. Nothing worked. She did notice one trend though. As she placed an object on the scale, it dipped down lower before leveling back up. “Interesting,” she grimly mused. “Interesting that everything must descend into further darkness, before turning back into one's favor.

Her mind was brought back to a year ago…when Sesshoumaru had entrusted her with his greatest secret…

She took small, shy steps to him, and sat under the tree nearest him. There, she watched him while the sun traveled through the sky. When he was done, she got up and bowed in respect whilst holding out her gift. He stepped forward and eyed her slender, bowed form. After a long moment, he took the crown, and threw it up in the air and struck it with his poison claw. Rin looked up with alarm as the petals floated down on them. “My Lord?”

He was looking down at her with his stoic expression, yet there was something in his eyes trying to say more. “Rin, you don't need to create these for me anymore. You never had to. I always feel you.”

“Is there anything I can do to please my Lord?”

Sesshoumaru leaned forward when the flowers gave them momentary cover from the rest of the world. Rin leaned forward to hear him whisper his confession, and smiled.

Rin was brought back to present day by a clap of thunder. She gasped, almost jumping out of her skin. Settling back down, she pursed her lips together tersely and returned to her previous thoughts about the scale. In other words…everything must become worse before getting any better.

And so, I have received yet another omen.”

AN: Hey everyone. The next chapter is the halfway point of the story. I'm very excited to write it and start the second half. There will be a brief reunion of sorts.