InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Centre ❯ Demons don't play well with others ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter 8: Demons don't play well with others

Kagome was grateful Sango had come with her. She knew how to open doors and manipulate things in the facility Kagome would have taken ages to figure out. Not to mention she could pick any lock known to man.

"Let's see, that's bird youkai, bat youkai, cats…looks like we're up to F."

"F? Fox?" Kagome asked.

"Yep, although I think the Thunder brothers killed the last mated pair."

"Thunder brothers?"

"Hiten and Manten. The two bone-heads Kagura keeps as personal bodyguards and general bullies so she doesn't get her own hands dirty. Well, the door is locked. Something has to be in here. Shall we find out what?"

"After you," Kagome said, getting herself ready for whatever might spring out. Not all youkai were friendly. Sango opened the lock and pulled the door open.

It was a draw on who was more scared. The tiny demon or the two girls. Shippou took one look at Sango and burst into tears.

"He's so cute!" Kagome said, picking him up and cuddling him. The sobs turned into sniffles.

Thunk.

Another collar lay on the ground. Shippou looked up with pure adoration.

"I thought Naraku was keeping all the kids together," Sango said. Shippou started playing with his tail, blushing.

"I kind of got in a fight with the monkey triplets."

"You shouldn't fight," Kagome lectured. "Learn to work things out next time, ok? For now, we have to get everyone else free and find a way out."

"Ok!" Shippou agreed happily.

They went running down the hallway, Shippou clinging to Kagome's shoulder with a fierce look upon his tiny face. Had anyone seen it they would have burst out laughing. He was trying to look deadly. The only thing he was accomplishing was deadly cuteness.

"This…<huff> is the last one," Sango said, out of breath. She picked up the label and read it. "Uh, never mind. Maybe we should just skip this bunch." Kagome peaked over her shoulder.

"Wolf tribe? 138 members? Wow! That has to be more than half the youkai here!"

"They aren't all youkai. The wolf youkai keep regular wolves under them. They tend to have a loose sense of right and wrong."

"How so?" Kagome asked.

"They think whatever they do is right and everyone else is wrong."

"I'm sure if we just talk to them it'll be fine. After all, I can purify them if I have to."

"Why don't we just leave them?" Sango asked.

"Doesn't that make you as bad as them?" Kagome answered. Between her glare and Shippou's agreeing face, Sango had to listen.

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you."

Back in the sword room.

"SESSHOUMARU!" Inuyasha bellowed into the great hall. "Father left it to me! Not you! Get your filthy fucking paws away from it!"

Sesshoumaru snapped his jaws at Inuyasha, causing him to drop back as poison dripped from them. He transformed, a green whip lashing out at the hanyou.

"Inuyasha!" Miroku called out, catching him as he slid into the wall. Sesshoumaru turned to the sword, ignoring his bastard brother. He reached out, closing his clawed hand around the blade's hilt.

Rin watched in horror as energy crackled and an eerie lightening came from the sword, burning Sesshoumaru's hand. He released the hilt and looked down at his burning flesh in disgust. Then he turned to his brother.

"Why? I am the eldest. Father's sword should come to me," he snarled. His eyes were turning red again. Sesshoumaru was beyond pissed. Rin tried to get up from where she was, but her legs gave out. He was beyond all reason. There was nothing she could do besides pray Inuyasha didn't die.

"The only way you'll get Tetsusaiga is over my dead body!" Inuyasha shouted. Sesshoumaru grinned.

"That was the general idea."

Wolf Holding Cell

Kagome yelped when a strong arm snaked out from the darkness and pulled her in. Sango screamed, but was stopped by something.

"Foxfire!" Shippou yelled out and the room became illuminated. Afterwards Kagome wished she'd remained in the dark.

Hundreds of eyes were peering at her, less than friendly. A couple of wolves were looking at her in a rather hungry manner.

"Oi! What the hell is going on!" Someone demanded. The wolves parted and a youkai stepped forward. He wore better armor than the others, his long black hair in a pony tail and his blue demon eyes scanning the room sharply. Kagome could see a rather wolf-like tail draped behind him.

"That's Kouga, the prince of the tribe," Sango explained.

"Ginta, release her," Kouga ordered. He jumped over and sized Kagome up, pulling her chin up so he could examine her closely.

Hmm. Virgin. She's been around Inuyasha, that damn bastard. Miko. And what is that? Do I detect a hint of…yes, a woman with no mate, no intended. No one. Perfect.

"Ok boys, this one is mine. Sango, you are always welcome to stay, but if you hurt any of my men I'll have to decapitate you."

Thunk.

All eyes widened as the collar from around Kouga's neck dropped. Kagome grinned and pulled herself out of his grasp.

"You're welcome," she said and reached over to the one named Ginta.

Thunk.

The wolf looked down at the fallen collar in amazement, then up at his savior. Tears welled up in his eyes and he jumped on her, hugging her waist enthusiastically.

"Nee-san!" he wailed. Kagome patted his back, trying to pull away.

"Uh, yeah. You can let go now. LET GO ALREADY! I HAVE TO BREATH!"

Kouga watched as she went around the room, uncollaring everyone, his mind working furiously. Inuyasha had, no doubt, already smelled her. That sweet intoxicating scent of the perfect mate. She was approaching the time to choose a mate. Inuyasha had probably thought, in his arrogance and stupidity, that because HE had smelled it HE was the perfect one for her. Damn ignorant hanyous. Well he didn't have her yet and Kouga wasn't going to let this one go without a fight.

A roar vibrated the building and some of the wolves whimpered. A dog demon was very pissed, but this time for a totally different reason. Kouga smirked.

"Now what has Sesshoumaru found?" Sango asked.

"I hope it was Naraku," Kagome said, then almost hit herself for wishing evil upon another person….not matter how bad that person was. Naraku deserved to pay for his crimes, yes, but did anyone really deserve to be torn to shreds by an angry youkai?

Well, maybe she'd make an exception for him.

"Sounds to me like Dog boy 1 found Dog boy 2," Kouga said offhandedly.

"How can Sesshoumaru be loose? Kagome hasn't uncollared him yet."

"What's going on?" Kagome asked. "Who is Sesshoumaru?"

"The most powerful youkai here. Sesshoumaru is a full blooded dog demon, as powerful as they come and the last of his kind. He's also Inuyasha's half brother. Sesshoumaru only hates one thing more than he hates humans. Hanyous."

Kagome's face turned ash white. Inuyasha was fighting his brother? She wanted him out alive, not dead! Before Sango or Kouga could stop her she fled the room, trying desperately to figure out where the roars were coming from. She couldn't let him die! Inuyasha could NOT DIE!

And back to the sibling rivalry.

Sesshoumaru roared again, hitting the barrier. Miroku had broken out into a sweat straining to hold it against the powerful demon as Inuyasha lay bleeding and unconscious. Golden eyes fluttered open and he coughed.

"Inuyasha, don't move," he said. "Recover your strength while I hold him off and Lady Rin tries to talk some sense into him."

Rin? Inuyasha looked up and saw the small woman clad in only a t-shirt crawling her way to the huge dog demon, trying to get his attention. It was like a sparrow calling to a hurricane. And the hurricane wasn't watching where his feet were going. She was in danger of being easily crushed.

"INUYASHA! Where are you?!" he heard from above. Inuyasha strained to look up and saw Kagome, three floors up looking down from a whole Sesshoumaru had punched into the wall.

All Kagome saw was blood. A lot of blood. Miroku was holding up some sort of spiritual barrier over a red clad figure covered in blood. Then she saw the silver hair. Inuyasha!

"Sesshoumaru-sama, stop! Look at me, Sesshoumaru-sama!" a small voice called out between the huge dog demon's roars. Kagome looked across the room and nearly stopped breathing.

Rin was half laying on some sort of small platform with a sword sticking out of it, her wrists and side bleeding from several wounds. She seemed to be trying to get to the dog demon, but the blood loss was making her too weak. Kagome took one look at the slash marks on Rin's leg and another look at the dog demon's claws. She knew he had done that. He had hurt Rin. And now he was trying to hurt Inuyasha.

Kagome's protective instinct kicked in and she launched herself from where she stood. In her anger she forgot to realize she was three floors up.

"KAGOME!" Inuyasha shouted and pushed away from Miroku whose concentration broke, dropping the barrier.

Sesshoumaru lunged at his chance to bite off his brother's head. Pissed at the reaction Inuyasha spun faster than he'd ever moved in his entire life and slashed his brother across the nose. Without stopping he rushed to catch Kagome as she fell.

"Stupid bitch," he huffed, dropping to a knee with her in his arms.

Sesshoumaru was more than unhappy about the new tattoo his nose had received and lunged at Inuyasha again. Inuyasha flung Kagome away as he jumped to avoid the huge paw coming down where he'd been seconds earlier.

Kagome groaned and she picked herself up. What the hell had possessed her to jump three stories down?

"Kagome?" Rin asked gently, touching her shoulder. Kagome gasped, pulling up to Rin and holding her close. Tears began to fall down her face. Rin laughed, coughing a little as she did. "Dude, don't worry. I look ten times worse than it really is. Kag, you have to do something for me."

"Anything! Don't worry, I'll purify him in a sec-"

"NO! Whatever you do, Kagome, don't purify Sesshoumaru-sama. I….just….need to get….him….back under control." Kagome looked down at her in shock. "Hell hath no wrath like Sesshoumaru-sama against his brother. You need to balance the scale."

"Balance the scale?" Kagome asked.

"Get the sword. Tetsusaiga. Their father wanted Inuyasha to have it. The other one is Sesshoumaru-sama's. They have always wanted to kill each other. The only way to prevent that is to make it impossible for one to be more powerful than the other."

"But Hanyous are not as powerful as youkai," Kagome said. She winced as Inuyasha hit a wall, leaving a large and bloody indentation the size of a small crater. Still he rose and faced Sesshoumaru.

"That sword…is more than what it seems. There is a barrier around it. I am too weak, Kag. You have to remove it. Don't worry about Sesshoumaru-sama. He cannot touch you if you hold that sword." Kagome looked uncertain. The rusty blade looked like the most dangerous thing it could do was give you tetanus. "Trust me," Rin said.

Kagome nodded and laid Rin down gently, climbing onto the platform.

Sesshoumaru noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. Rin was lying there, bleeding while some other girl was reaching a hand out to the sword. Just what the hell did she think she was doing?

Kagome expected resistance. Hell, she at least expected an initial shock of the barrier. Her fingers only grasped the hilt and closed around it. There was a small click and the sword fell out of the indentation in the platform as if nothing had been holding it at all.

The two dog demons stood there and stared at her in wonderment.

"Rin…there wasn't any barrier. Rin? RIN!" Kagome screamed as the girl feinted.

There was a blur of white so fast no one saw what it was until Sesshoumaru was simply there, holding Rin. Her blood quickly began to stain his white fur. He let out a vicious snarl, looking up at Kagome. Kagome had never in her life been afraid of a youkai until now. Murder was written in his eyes.

"Kagome, MOVE!" Inuyasha called out, grabbing her at a full sprint and pushing off the floor to fly into the air. He stopped at the ledge she'd originally jumped from, setting her down by Miroku who was being tended by a less than sympathetic Sango.

"But Rin-"

"Will be fine. Let's get out of here," Inuyasha ordered. She looked down. Sesshoumaru and Rin were gone. So was the other sword.

"Where's Rin? She needs medical attention!" Inuyasha winced in pain as the struggling girl elbowed a particularly deep wound. She was screaming for her friend at the top of her lungs. There was only one way to get her out of here quickly.

Kagome's cries were cut off abruptly as a fist connected with her stomach. The air quickly left her lungs and she slumped over, unconscious.

"Was that necessary?" Sango asked.

"Shut up wench. Grab the monk, we're bustin outta here."

"Inuyasha, if you had more than half a brain cell you'd realize carrying two unconscious people is a lot harder than one!"

"Feh," he answered, his vision becoming a bit blurry.

"You pass out on me and I'm leaving your ass!" Sango said, shaking him back into reality.

"I'm fine!" he snapped, picking up Kagome and Miroku.

"I swear those will be the last words you utter on your deathbed," Sango muttered.

Outside

Sesshoumaru set Rin down in the open field. Grass. It had been a long time since he'd seen grass. Smelled grass. Hell, smelled anything besides blood and death.

Rin was dead. Her skin was too pale, her wounds had stopped bleeding and her extremities were starting to get the purple coloration the dead had.

"Sesshoumaru-sama!" Jaken called out, coming to a stop by the human girl. "Rin?" The small woman was not going to answer back. A tear actually fell down the toady man's cheek. "Rin…"

"Jaken," Sesshoumaru said.

"Y-yes?"

"Stand back," he ordered. Sesshoumaru looked at the sword in his hands, grasped the hilt and pulled the blade out. Unlike its twin there was no rust, no tarnish upon the eerie blade. A tingle went up his arm and the sword answered the call, a small heartbeat vibrating from it. Sesshoumaru looked down at the broken body of his ward.

Death creatures were already wrapping their chains around her, intent on taking her onward. They froze when his golden eyes narrowed, focusing on them. Their gaze shifted to the sword in his claw. Fear was evident in their little faces.

Sesshoumaru raised the blade above his head and slashed down with all the force he could.