InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Difference Between Time and Distance: A Sesshoumaru Tale ❯ The First Sighting ( Chapter 5 )

“What the hell is going on?” the rough voice thundered through the small shack.

 

Kagome was near tears. The girl she barely knew, Ayame, was laying half-dead in the feudal era. The young miko didn't even want to think on the matter. She could face off demons, tend to the bloodiest of wounds, and then argue down the most stubborn hanyou in Japan—all in one hour—but this…

 

`What am I supposed to do?'

 

Kagome received no answer, only the garble of her companion's voices and the harsh thunder of the raging storm only a few feet away. Not only was Kagome alone in the knowledge of the wells odd behavior, but that was supposed to be her area of expertise.

 

Staring down at the sickly looking form of her acquaintance, Kagome was truly overwhelmed. Ayame was unconscious, that much was obvious, but why was another matter. The young women wouldn't wake up. Kaede had brewed all matter of concoctions and tonics, but to no avail, Ayame remained catatonic.

 

Miroku, in his serious mood, allowing some of his knowledge seep out, began to release theories. “Could it be that this girl has holy powers as well, Lady Kagome?”

 

Kagome shook her head vigorously, blinking back tears, “N-no, we would sense that, wouldn't we?”

 

Miroku nodded solemnly, turning his eyes to the floor to bring up another idea to the odd occurrence.

 

“And she is completely human…” whispered Sango, slightly bemused.

 

“Yeah,” Kagome replied, there aren't many Youkai in my time anyway… at least that I've met…”

 

InuYasha exploded, “Well what the fuck is she!? She got through the damn well!”

 

Miroku plowed on unfazed, “That's what were trying to figure out, InuYasha.” The monk said patiently, “We've established that she is human… And she doesn't have a jewel shard, right Kagome?”

 

“Mm hm,” Kagome nodded, eyes focused on the bedridden figure from the present, “I would have sensed it.”

 

Sango spoke up again, forcing herself to be heard over InuYasha's paranoid—and rightly so—grumbling, “Maybe this is something beyond our perceived senses… maybe we just need to wait, figure it out from her side of the tale.”

 

Kagome nodded, letting her body sag, “Good idea Sango. Let's just rest until she wakes up, hopefully soon.”

 

The hut finally settled down, but though they were supposed to be resting, every being in the small building laid awake, apprehension building upon them, like a noose being drawn.

 

 

 

`It's here, isn't it?'

 

`Yes, finally…'

 

`Finally!'

 

`Finally!'

 

`What do we do now?'

 

`We find them.'

 

`We find them!'

 

`Find them! Find them!'

 

`Can we truly defeat them?'

 

`Of course.'

 

`Of course! Of course!'

 

`Bid you time, let them settle down… they will grow lax.'

 

`Naraku is gone.'

 

`It is our turn now.'

 

`We will rise!'

 

`Rise! Rise!'

 

`We will rule.'

 

`Everything will be ours.'

 

`Everything…”

 

`Hee hee! Everything! Everything!'

 

`The canines will be exterminated!'

 

`We will finally scour the land of them.'

 

`And all will be ours.'

 

`Ours! Ours! Ha ha!'

 

`Yes… all will be ours…'

 

 

Sesshoumaru bridged the ridge, finally reaching his destination. The horizon had finally cleared, letting a weak, but luminous light peak through the angry clouds. If it hadn't been for his self trained façade, Sesshoumaru might have smiled.

 

Instead he frowned. Though his senses were now immersed in the smell of wet soil and soggy earth, the stench of the humans would soon reach him. He almost deigned to wrinkle his nose, but chose to glower instead.

 

`He's down there.'

 

`Finally, a fight.'

 

`I can not believe I am doing this.'

 

`Whatever relieves the boredom.'

 

`He is not that tough.'

 

`Don't lie to yourself.'

 

Sesshoumaru took a step down the hill, readying his claws in fierce anticipation.

 

`I'll enjoy this.'

 

 

“InuYasha! Wake up!”

 

Kagome shook the dozing hanyou. Though it pained her to wake him up when he barely got enough sleep as it was, she was desperate.

 

He got u p fast enough anyway, jumping up, limbs quivering as he sensed what his miko had.

 

“That bastard! Why the hell is he here?!”

 

By this time the rest of the hut was rousing from their fitful sleep as well, blinking drowsily at the soft sunlight penetrating the shacks entrance.

 

“What is the matter, InuYasha?” Miroku asked blearily.

 

“Fuck!”

 

Kagome answered for him, her voice in a hurried whisper, “Sesshoumaru is here!”

 

“InuYasha's brother?” Asked Sango, hastily readying herself fro battle, “why would he be here?”

 

“Half-brother,” InuYasha corrected, “And how the fuck should I know? He probably just wants to get his ass kicked again! Maybe I'll take his other arm this time!”

 

Kagome grabbed the angry hanyou's arm with slight hesitation as he made to challenge his brother, “He helped us defeat Naraku…”

 

“So? I can still kick his ass!”

 

“InuYasha…”

 

“Okay, I'll just let him slay all the villagers and eat everybody alive!”

 

Miroku cut in, “That doesn't make any sense, he'd have to eat them fir-”

 

“Fine! Go get yourself hurt! But don't come crawling back to me because you were too stupid to use your brain!” Kagome burst out.

 

InuYasha's ears flattened, “Kagome…”

 

The whole hut silenced though as voice sliced through their thoughts from the outside.

 

“Come out, little brother, or are you too fearful to face me?”

 

“Oh, that does it!” InuYasha muttered, stomping out of the hut, Tetsuaiga in hand, “Yeah right, you bastard! I could kick your ass any day!”

 

Sesshoumaru stood outside the garden, looking out of place in the scrawny. Somehow Kagome had never pictured him coming to such a place, even to challenge InuYasha.

 

“Have you forgotten InuYasha? We have things to settle. Or is your little hanyou brain not smart enough to remember that.”

InuYasha snarled, “Fuck you! I'm smarter than you any day! And a lot stronger too! Why don't you say that to my Tetsuaiga?”

 

“I am sure I couldn't need too. Anyways, I don't need a sword to fight; Tokigin is a mere accessory to me, not a part of my body.”

 

“Too bad for you,” InuYasha sniggered as the brother's youki's clashed, “I guess that's why you wanted it so bad. Your sword sucks.”

 

With a thin swish of air Sesshoumaru leaped for the taunting hanyou, “Shut up! Half breed! You are too weak to even faze me!”

 

InuYasha snarled again as their swords clashed. Tetsuaiga's and Tokigin's raw power grasped a hold of them mortals around them, trying to pull them into the fierce battle as well.

 

Kagome stood to the side, watching from a safe distance. Though she was wracked with obvious concern, another notion came upon her.

 

`They're not really fighting.'

 

It was true. Through all their proclaimed hate, this battle was just a sparring match compared to their previous fights.

 

In fact, if the group hadn't kept in mind how destructive the brothers could be (shown by poor trees that got in their way) they might have even enjoyed the fight.

 

There wasn't even any blood spilled. Well, at least not yet.

 

 

Ayame felt as though she was coming out of a fog. Her body felt so heavy, sound felt so far away. It was as if a thick layer so steel wool was wrapped around her senses.

 

`Where am I?'

 

Slowly, so very slowly, Ayame felt herself be put back together again. Suddenly she could smell—herbs and smoke?—and taste, which left her with that gunk-like feeling that plagued her on her worst of mornings.

 

Her skin was being chafed against, a rough blanket that wrapped around her and held her down.

 

Then Ayame opened her eyes.

 

Her memories came rushing back. A vertigo pursued her as dizziness set in, and Ayame could thank Kami that she was not standing at the moment. She relived the torment of that horrid well. The feeling of herself being ripped apart, traveling down a raging river the wrong way.

 

She would never forget, though she wished she could.

 

Soon Ayame was able to focus, and she was back again, staring at a rough brown ceiling. It looked as tough it was a bunch of twigs tied in bunches then fastened on a wooden frame, though Ayame couldn't be sure.

 

It did, though, allow the noise from the outside to filter in. the sounds disturbed her.

 

Clangs of metal permeated by vague insults in a second language. On voice was as cold as the hottest of fire, and the other as burning as the most freezing of temperatures. They were so similar, yet so different. Ayame had to see.

 

Her body felt so weighed down. It wouldn't listen to her commands. Ayame's legs jerked in odd ways, and her arms wouldn't support her. After much struggle though, she finally lifted herself up.

 

Slowly making her way to the flap of a doorway, Ayame supported herself with a trembling grip on the shorn wood of the wall.

 

Then, with fingers so weak, so weak they shivered with the exerted energy, Ayame lifted the flap, and peered outside.

 

 

 

Finally, the tension in Sesshoumaru's shoulders relaxed. With every strike against his brother the Youkai was able to relieve just a little bit of his pent up tension.

 

The sparks of the metal on metal, the slapping of insults, this was what Sesshoumaru missed in true opponents. He would never admit that InuYasha could—sometimes—be a worthy foe, but it was true.

 

The hanyou had surpassed his ugly reputation, and brought down the most threatening of enemies.

 

If he wasn't tainted with human blood, Sesshoumaru might have respected him.

 

As a full blooded youkai, the annoying hanyou would have lived up to his father's name. He could have been great and powerful, he could have conquered the rest of Japan.

 

`It is a big if though,' Sesshoumaru thought as he sidestepped one of InuYasha's wild blows, `he is still just a mere hanyou.'

 

As the fight moved on, Sesshoumaru started feeling a dull boredom beat into him. While InuYasha was nice practice, neither one of them were fighting to their full potential. Both of them were treating this as a mere duel, not a fight to the death.

 

Determined to fix this, Sesshoumaru lunged, claws intent on ripping open his brothers shoulder.

 

It was nothing really. A slight breeze, a whiff of something foreign, but it made him turn. Sesshoumaru almost immediately lost interest in the fight—a rare occurrence for him indeed—and caught her gaze.

 

She was so strange looking. If the youkai hadn't known better, he would have thought her a demon. Her hair was a light brown, floating about her in a tangled frizzy wildness. Her skin was pale, whiter than a fish's underbelly, which was another odd feature.

 

What struck him though…

 

`Her eyes… what color are they?'

 

They shifted between blue and green, something Sesshoumaru had not seen in a mortal, though all his long years.

 

It did not surpass him though; the purple bruises under eyes, the way her sunken cheeks made her high cheek bones stand out, the way she sagged against the waterlogged doorframe.

 

And she stared right back at him. Though odd eyes, wider than most women he had met as well, were tired, they also registered shock. Whether it was at his appearance or her surroundings, Sesshoumaru was unsure, but it was the same either way.

 

It was as though she had never set eyes on the place.

 

InuYasha's group must have noticed his preoccupation, for they turned to stare at the same spot as he.

 

“Ayame!” The miko called out, a tremendous amount of relief—and fear—filtering into her voice.

 

The girl—`Ayame'—shifted her gaze to the other girl, and even more fatigue seemed to appear in her wavering orbs.

 

“Kagome…” She said weakly, her voice think with an unknown accent.

 

Sesshoumaru had had enough.

 

“I see you are still to weak InuYasha, adding another weakling to your entourage?” He cast a disdainful glance in her direction, “she doesn't look like she could walk, much less fight. I think I will take my leave.”

 

“I don't think so, you bastard!” InuYasha made to lung at his brothers prone form, nut Sesshoumaru was gone before he could land the blow.

 

“Feh! Coward! He's worse than that mangy wolf!”

 

“InuYasha!” The hanyou turned his attention to Kagome, who was supporting her weakened friend. InuYasha growled, then hurried to help the girl inside.

 

Before they could ask her any questions, the girl had fallen asleep once again.