InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Spring Fever ❯ In Broad Daylight ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 5

 

In Broad Daylight

 

Tenseiga was having none of this, driving Sesshomaru to do what he did. He needed a few dull hours to find it, but the scent of his home could not hide from him at reasonably close proximity.

 

“My Lord, please, anything but this!” Jaken cried as they all mounted the stairs of the castle which his mother currently ruled, Rin and Kohaku astride Ah-Un.

 

“Jaken, silence yourself,” Sesshomaru ordered. If the toad thought is was bad, then he didn't know the half of it.

 

“Back for a visit so soon?”

 

Everyone looked up at the familiar female inugami daiy?kai who greeted them with inquiry. She had a smug look on her face, cool and implacable like her son's. He returned the look, but she seemed more capable of reading his expressions than others.

 

“I see. Come then.”

 

Sesshomaru found himself wondering what his companions were up to as he sat and waited for his mother to finish savoring her after-lunch tea. She truly hated being interrupted while she consumed anything, which was why he did it so often as a child. Any emotion other than an unreadable mask or exasperation that crossed her features had been a delight to invoke.

 

Finishing her little snack she finally regarded her son. “What is the occasion? Your dear little girl seems neither dead nor dying, so why pester me?”

 

“I am here to conjure a pact of pack,” he admitted, stomping out his flaming irritation. She stared at him, hands calmly in her lap, until her eyes widened and she barked a laugh. She waved her hand dismissively in the air, and called over a servant with a snap of her fingers to refill her cup. He smirked at her need for distraction. “It is amusing how you act as though you have a choice in the matter.”

 

A small smile remained on her petite mouth to cover the sneer. She may remain the head of the castle, and his mother, but he was the Lord, and she the subordinate. Those were just the facts, no matter how she hated them.

 

“You are to acknowledge Jaken and what he has to say, and nothing shall be done without the council's and his approval.”

 

“That little youkai?!” she demanded incredulously. Her hands were quite the opposite of calm now as her nails dug into the arms of the chair.

 

“Indeed, and I am not finished. Those who arrived with me today are not to be harmed nor abandoned, but housed here and treated as proper pack mates.”

 

“Absurd,” she scoffed from behind clenched teeth. “I may not have the hatred for humans that you once had, but my tolerance is no less limited.”

 

“Dare you to challenge me?” he asked. She regained control of her features, her eyes remaining as fiery as ever though. The last time she challenged her son she was bed ridden for a week. It was forgivable though, as everything he did was in accordance to the law of their species. The way to power was with power itself.

 

The silence stretched and grew taunt.

 

“Exactly what sort of treatment do you expect to come from the servants who still remember how your father faltered?” she finally asked, snapping the emptiness of the room to attention.

 

He gave the vaguest of smirks. “They know their fate would be worse than death.” And they did. “As would be yours for allowing it to happen.”

 

Her mouth twitched, eyes glaring. Sesshomaru found this debate to be somewhat amusing at seeing how flustered she was over the speed to her losing.

 

Forgetting her tea completely she leaned her forehead into the comfort of a palm and addressed him again. “How long will I be subject to this new whim of yours?”

 

“We shall see,” was his reply. And it was done.

 

“Lord Sesshomaru!” Rin greeted cheerily as she ran up to him. “This is a very nice place! There are great flowers here! Want to see?”

 

“No,” he replied, noticing two servants eying the children. When they noticed him noticing they bowed their heads quickly and scurried off.

 

Rin watched him for a moment. “You're leaving.”

 

He looked down at her, seeing her face solemn as it rarely was. She had easily guessed, and that was not expected. “Yes,” he replied. For some reason he wanted a different answer. “For now.”

 

Rin perked somewhat at the addition. “Then I will practice weaving flowers so Jaken looks nice when you come back!”

 

He gave her a nod and watched as she returned to Kohaku and Ah-Un. The missing member was currently at Sesshomaru's feet, staring tearfully up at him with huge yellow eyes. He didn't have to speak to ask a dreadful 'why,' it was clearly written on his face.

 

“Take care of them,” Sesshomaru ordered. “You are of equal rank with my mother until I return.”

 

The little demon's tears instantly vaporized and his chest swelled with pride. “Thank you my Lord!”

 

Sesshomaru gathered his youki into a ball around himself, and left the castle post haste. He could trust his comrades to be safe for at least a month there without his supervision, but a month was not the time span he needed to finish the exploration of his territory. In the form he was in now and unhindered by company, he could easily finish in a week.

 

Of course, by 'company' he was overlooking Tenseiga, which was absolutely intolerable of his sudden solitary decisions and wasn't afraid to share that fact.

 

The sun had cleared its zenith and began to sink by the time Sesshomaru acknowledged his building exasperation. As he tried to ignore the urgent actions of his sword he picked up a scent. Looking around, he frowned. He was nowhere near the border of the East, which met in the middle of the continent to create a direct division until the territories of the North and South were established. Sesshomaru had already patrolled that entire border and along the ocean coast, and was in the middle of his terrain, but still the scent was there, and it made Sesshomaru go red in the eyes.

 

Apparently, Lord Bashamon, ruler of the Eastern Lands, decided to invade.

 

As Sesshomaru abruptly changed direction to 'greet' his power rival the scent of burning and blood reached him. He shot over a lowly village, insignificant bodies littering the ground and aflame like the buildings. What was Bashamon thinking? He was here alone, and he was provoking Sesshomaru. Did he want to die?

 

Tenseiga was oddly silent at Sesshomaru's side as he followed a fairly clear path of scorched terrain and diminished towns, his fury building and swirling with his youki, wanting release. And release it would have. Bashamon had taken his true form as he flew for-

 

Sesshomaru almost fell right out of his energy ball and into the canopy of the forest when realization hit him like a nasty, flying bug right in the face. ARGH! What was it with that forsaken village?! Bashamon could pluck it right from the earth and HAVE it! There were no substantial supplies of anything to claim, no important people to kill, just a hand full of bakas who decided to travel with an appropriate baka leader and a tainted Shikon no Tama!!

 

Oh...

 

Well, that answered something... He made sure to double check if he was indeed going as quickly as he could, and was displeased when he realized he was. Of course, going faster would only mean arriving three seconds sooner.

 

Sesshomaru recieved the scene of Bashamon, in the form of an insanely large black scaled dragon, banging his fists against and clawing at the surprisingly strong barrier which was erected over the last lodging remaining. The barrier quivered in pain with every blow, and Bashamon had his fists raised once more until Sesshomaru transformed in mid-flight and barreled into the lord.

 

It was not as satisfying as he had hoped to sink his deadly fangs under the scales of the dragon's neck, making Bashamon's shriek gargle in his throat as he landed on his back. Sesshomaru had miscalculated the bite. It was not high enough to prevent the Lord from cranking his head and spewing liquid fire at him.

 

Sesshomaru was forced to back off, and Bashamon regained his footing immediately. Something was different about the Eastern Lord. He could not breathe fire before, and his blood tasted different. That, and his appearance had changed. The dragon was nearly twice Sesshomaru's height now, mostly in the neck which was a disappointment. To attack the bastard's heart he would have to expose himself to the head, which was simply impossible to sever with those scales in the way. Said scales were now on end like the feathers of a bathing bird. Then there was that tail, which was barbed on the upper side. Sesshomaru was usually impervious to poison, but with enough stabs and scrapes from those spines and he would begin to waver.

 

Not that he didn't have enough of his own poison to fight back with.

 

Bashamon lowered his head, the customary position for fire spitting, and Sesshomaru leaped out of the way when the dragon's nostrils glowed with the flame to come. He moved only slightly to the side before lunging for the opening. He knew that Bashamon's neck and body were fixated while breathing the living magma, as all dragons are bound to do, so the only thing he had to worry about was the tail.

 

Mid jump though, something happened. Something very bad. The dragon moved his back legs, pivoted on the front, and greeted his opponent with a brilliant cloud of scorching light.

 

It required a considerable amount of energy for Sesshomaru to catch himself in the air and fall out of the way. Not his most graceful of moves, but at least his fur had not been lit like dry tinder.

 

The great inugame realized another miscalculation when a painful series of stabs lined the side of his rib cage and across his chest. He screamed angrily, voice squeaking at the end for the sudden flow of toxins in his right side. He flipped away, and if he had failed to grow back his arm not too long ago he would have fallen for the sudden loss of feeling in his right.

 

The dragon shook himself, laughing, scales glistening in the weakening sunlight and clattering with the gesture and sounding like an avalanche of crisp leaves. Sesshomaru bared his fangs at him, shaking his right leg to renew its liveliness. His saliva dripped over his mighty lower jaw and melting the ground it landed upon. Too bad it would run off of Bashamon's scales... To fight a dragon required many techniques, and since their last encounter it seemed Bashamon had gained more than Sesshomaru. Undoubtedly, not good.

 

Both Lords were taken aback at the swell of spiritual powers not too far away, and Bashamon was made to retreat as the arrow which bore them came streaking for his eye.

 

Now. Sesshomaru sprang forth, catching his enemy right were the jaw merged with the neck. This is where he needed to attack, where Bashamon was most vulnerable. His fangs tucked under scales, chipping them away from the tender flesh which held them, and he could smell the hot blood right beneath the skin. Something, however, had him securely grasped by the mouth, throat and chest, and flung him away.

 

Sesshomaru was thinking that the sunny world really did not need to spin as much as it was currently doing, because he had to concentrate. He felt his youki shift out from his control though, and the fall was made considerably longer when his body reverted to its humanoid form, the poisons suddenly flaring to life.

 

His bones jarred against his muscles when he landed, and if hitting the ground wasn't bad enough then he heard, and most certainly felt, the distinct crack of wood against his back, and for some mystifying and also very unneeded reason this wood seemed almost impossible to break. Good, let's try to do it with one's spine.

 

Sesshomaru's vision was flashing searing white warning lights, accompanied by ringing sirens, for the first time in centuries, his head reeling and front burning. As much as he hated to admit it, he couldn't handle a fully transformed daiy?kai's poison as well in his humanoid form as he could as a full-blown demon, and having been stabbed in the jaw, throat and chest just now certainly didn't improve his immunity. But kami if he wasn't in pain.

 

He suddenly regained control of his diaphragm and gave a choking inhale, blood trickling with air into his lungs from where it had pooled around his tongue. That was a new sensation. He didn't really like it. Aside from being incapable of breathing properly, he also didn't particularly fancy moving either no matter how much his mind demanded the performance, and transforming was a distant hope in and of itself. How dare this lesser Lord do this so quickly to him! And how? The Shikon no Tama was still under the monk's barrier. Oh, he was infuriated!

 

Despite his impeccable rage he was expecting a very heavy clawed foot to land on him at any given moment so as to reenact one of Inuyasha's infamous 'sits', only in the reversed position.

 

Instead, there was a soft pressure on his armored chest and upper arm, and a sudden falling sensation, and someone gave out a scream. He entertained a foggy thought that it was his, and most certainly hoped it wasn't.