InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Inutaisho Legacy ❯ The Answer ( Chapter 17 )

Once again only AFF gets my Yash stories. How are they doing here? All hail the new server and new home.

 

Mucho kudos to Inuskye for her continual support and exchange of ideas! Scenes come about, and mainly this chapter, due to her help.

 

Mucho kudos to Inugrrl for emailing me one of her lengthy reviews while the site was down! We were able to enjoy this and a few words on a date of importance and may prayers be offered to both sides.

 

Mucho kudos to Silvery Rin as well for reading this ahead of time through email.

 

AFF.net:

 

Havkgrl, Sal, Syko, Krystalyzd (my artist!), Simonkal of Inuy, Inugrrl, Inuskye, Silvery rin with the Butterfly Wings and others, thank you for keeping up with this story. I hope the events in this chapter will not disappoint.

 

 

Disclaimer: Penpaninu does not claim to own Inuyasha, nor is getting paid to write this. May own the character of Inutaro, but that's only cause Takahashi hasn't written Kagome and Inuyasha's furthering relationship. Which she SHOULD, by gods. How much money have we all put into her series and she hasn't even finalized if Inuyasha will let Kagome be with him?? Okay, I'm done ranting ^_^

 

“The Inutaisho Legacy” chapter seventeen

The Answer

 

Once the gates were open, Sesshomaru and Inuyasha strode forward. Side by side they marched away from the safety of the walls. For a brief moment, Inuyasha longed to look over his shoulder, but he thought better of it. He had to prepare his mind for confrontation. Seeing his mate's worry would add onto the sensation he already felt coursing through their link.

If Sesshomaru felt his own mate's concern wash over him, his face did not move to reveal it. Inuyasha laid his left hand to the sheath of his fang, thumb notching the blade loose. Sesshomaru's right hand crossed over his hip to touch Tokujin's hilt.

 

Inuyasha heard and felt the youkai troops form up behind them and his back felt slightly guarded. That was slightly better than going in feeling naked.

Takaharu stood at the head of his thirty youkai. His left hand was at the ready to his own blade, thumb tapping the leather impetuously. Both brothers didn't like the massive signature surrounding that blade.

 

`I wonder if there was any chance Totosai had any other evil apprentices in the past.' Inuyasha wondered. Sesshomaru's eyebrow twitched as the stupidly high swell of youki threatened to knock his own out. His half-brother stopped at his side, his face contorted with agony.

 

“Keep hold of yourself,” Sesshomaru murmured, as he and Inuyasha stood before the rows of his troops. “ It is a huge signature of evil, but we know darkness is a part of life.”

 

Inuyasha still frowned, holding one wide sleeve to his face. “Yeah, but it doesn't have to be over the top, Sesshomaru!”

Sesshomaru snorted and unsheathed Tokujin with one fluid movement. The blade seemed to grin, sucking in the air greedily. Inuyasha shivered, imagining the blade would be happy only when blood wet its edge, but his brother had a sane handle on the dark weapon.

 

And what was even stranger was that Takaharu's monstrous blade seemed to share the same sentiment. Inuyasha kept his face regal and stern, only letting a frown pinch his features, when the mountain inu unsheathed and regarded the brothers and their regiment with a toothy grin.

 

“Takaharu of the Northern Mountain Inu. This Lord of the Western Lands calls upon your act of treason, and hereby will enforce his punishment upon you. Those who have allied with Takaharu of the North condemn themselves to die with him.” Sesshomaru intoned, his gaze bored and chilled.

 

Inuyasha shook his head. “Or you can confess your crimes, and perhaps my brother will be lenient. But considering the insults your friend has heaped upon our families, it's all up to him.”

 

Sesshomaru held back a smirk at his brother's half arrogant and half polished words. Inuyasha was learning well. It was a good decision to name his son heir for the time being.

 

Takaharu laughed and tapped the tip of his thirsty blade against the bottom of his boot. His comrades rallied close behind him, lightened by his amusement. “I think not, halfling. Your brother should keep his eye on the prize, and remember what rules these courts. Kinda strange how no one attacked until he let you into his palace, isn't it? The lords of these realms don't take to letting half youkai into positions of power.”

 

Inuyasha glazed his eyes and watched Sesshomaru out of the corner of his eye. He felt his insides go to ice with a deep unfathomable rage and understood why his half brother always looked so unperturbed. He kept it bottled inside until battle let it rage out with decisive direct attacks. And even those attacks looked controlled when they were weathered by vast amounts of emotions.

 

“Do we attack now?” Inuyasha hissed out of grit teeth. Sesshomaru snorted as he exhaled.

 

“Not yet, brother. Wait,” Sesshomaru murmured. He stood straight and tall and fixed Takaharu with his cold gaze. Takaharu, for all of his shortcomings, could be credited with a warrior's spirit. He did not back down. But neither did he apologize. He just stood there foolishly grinning as his lord addressed him.

 

“Takaharu of the North. Would your clan have you back, or shall I send them your head?” Sesshomaru asked conversationally. Takaharu laughed and Inuyasha mentally groaned. The mountain inu had signed his death sentence with that snicker of amusement.

“No, this Takaharu thinks he will take this Sesshomaru's human whore for his own. Youkai don't mix with humans,” Takaharu said evenly.

“You said to wait!” Inuyasha yelped when Sesshomaru snapped forward. Tokujin sliced through the air and shivered against the other blade. Takaharu laughed in Sesshomaru's carefully controlled expression.

 

Inuyasha sighed and wrenched his blade free, Tetsusaiga transforming into its large fang, and he charged Takaharu's assembled youkai. Inuyasha dimly heard Sesshomaru's troops charge in behind him as he engaged in combat with his brother's foes.

It all went hazy with the tedious motion of slice, sever, bludgeon, kick, punch and growl. Inuyasha heard screaming in the back of his mind as he tore through youkai traitor after traitor, his red robes stained a darker crimson with the gore and life-giving fluid of his foes. His heart thumped hard and loud in his chest, fueled by Kagome's support and prayers. Inuyasha was warmed and whirled through the battle faster than even Koga could have.

 

Inuyasha paused, taking the time to suck in air quickly. In the half dream of battle, he felt his lungs couldn't take it any more space than the movements allotted for killing and maiming. His throat eagerly inhaled oxygen and with it, the sharp acrid scent of blood and gore. Inutaisho's second son leaned, using Tetsusaiga for a cane, and surveyed the carnage. Sesshomaru's troops were cleaning up the rest of the traitors, feeding the grass and dirt with a spray of blood and other such fluids. Inuyasha was glad the alleged battle was about over.

The hanyou's golden eyes scanned the fields, looking for his brother. Sesshomaru was locked in heated combat with the upstart of the Northern Regions. Why hadn't his brother finished him off already? It couldn't be beyond Sesshomaru's skill. Inuyasha swung Tetsusaiga up over onto his shoulder, the blade facing up, and watched with a furrowed brow.

 

Sesshomaru exchanged blows with quiet concentration. Only one line of sweat trailing from his temple indicating the difficulty of the fight. Takaharu laughed wildly, his silver hair flying with his movements. Their blades kissed and sang a high keening steel song as they met and sparked. Inuyasha's ears twitched and laid flat on top of his hair, offset by the horrible volume of it. He watched until Sesshomaru was nicked in the side. Crimson welled under the white silk and stained his middle an ugly dark abomination. Sesshomaru went down, silent to the end. Tokujin hung limply from his hand.

 

“Sesshomaru-sama! Sesshomaru-sama!” the troops watching called. Inuyasha heard rather than saw their weapons slide free from sheathes once more, their boots treading close to the mountain inu. His mind hazed out once more and he leaped over the troops, howling Takaharu's name. Takaharu lazily turned his evil blade up and met Tetsusaiga's edge. Inuyasha came down hard, his bare feet imprinting in the grass.

“So it's the halfling who would face me now! Step on up, lordling's whelp, my blade thirsts for your end!” Takaharu laughed. Inuyasha winced as a blob of spit flew from the mountain inu's overzealous greeting and lodged in his eye.

 

Inuyasha flung his hair over his shoulder and smacked Tetsusaiga mightily against his opponent's blade. Takaharu sneered.

“That's right, halfling this, hanyou that, call me that, and hit me where it hurts!” Inuyasha snarled. “I'm still the son of Inutaisho and as such, you WILL get off of my family's lands!”

 

Sesshomaru watched through half-slit eyes and was proud.

 

The blade in Takaharu's hand howled and the inu smirked. His blows came faster, more quickly than Inuyasha would have anticipated and he was hard-pressed to meet each swipe. Half of the mountain inu's thrusts bit into Inuyasha's sides and legs. Darker crimson stained his robes and hakama, adding to the blood already clotted there from his opponents. It was hard to tell where the original fabric differed from the liquid saturated by Inuyasha's flesh, and from foe alike.

Inuyasha howled in pain as the blade seemed to hiss in response, pleased at the amount of blood it had leaked from the hanyou's battered form. He felt his heart thud erratically, stressed from the number of injuries he was receiving, and from the severe worry of his family bond. Kagome seemed to whisper a thousand concerns in his ears, his son squirming to get his attention through the link.

`Don't give up. Don't give up. You can't leave us.'

`Peh!'

 

Inuyasha's eyes felt bruised and his vision hazed. The battle stretched out and his muscles felt every slamming movement of steel against steel. Inuyasha could not even count surprise when the wicked blade slammed into his chest, the tip erupting through the back of his robes. Horrified screaming coursed through his link and Inuyasha's ears went out to shut out the screeching decibels. So did the rest of him as he fell back, Takaharu wresting his blade back out of him as he went.

Inuyasha thudded down onto the blood-drenched dirt, cradled by the land of his forebears. The ancestor spirits screamed and wailed highly through his half-vision and Inuyasha blinked, blood pouring out in steady waves. The grass drank it greedily.

 

“Inuyasha!” Sesshomaru's dry tongue sounded out his brother's name. He stood back up, flung the blood from Tokujin, and resheathed the dark blade. The ground shook as Takaharu leered over at him.

Then Sesshomaru let himself go.

 

The Lord of the Western Lands stepped forward, his body elongating and growing, his face pulling out to a dog's muzzle. His three limbs coursed with extra muscles, balancing his truer self as easily as if he had four. Sesshomaru-Beast howled and pawed the dirt as his sharp teeth showed in an eager grin.

Takaharu wiped his evil blade across the grievous wound tearing Inuyasha's chest open and faced him, unperturbed.

 

“That's right, let's see what you have,” Takaharu swore. He held his dark blade with one hand as if to anger his lord with his nonchalance. Sesshomaru was beyond rage as he stomped down on the mountain inu. Takaharu swung valiantly and took notches out of Sesshomaru's front paw, but Sesshomaru had the greater size, the greater strength and the greater conviction.

 

Much as Inuyasha had done to him years before, Sesshomaru flung himself down on Takaharu and grinned widely. His teeth shone polished as ready blades. Takaharu didn't have room or time to scream as Sesshomaru engulfed him into his mouth. The mountain inu's bones crunched in the greater Inu's teeth. And just as before, the moment passed quickly.

It was almost anti-climatic, Sesshomaru thought as he licked his huge muzzle with a long red tongue. He didn't diminish in size but stepped closer to the little form of his half brother. The large inu beast whimpered and opened his mouth. His tongue slid around Inuyasha and half-swept him into his jaws. Sesshomaru dimly heard the buzzing of his troops as they cleaned off blades and walked around his large paws. Sesshomaru growled low in his throat in response and bounded back inside his palace.

 

If Sesshomaru thought that the wailing that greeted him once he touched down inside the palace courtyard was riotous, he was in for more of a headache. As soon as he let his truer self lay dormant and shrank down to his man-like appearance, Kagome's screams and Inutaro's wails almost brought him to his knees from the sheer strength behind it. Sesshomaru winced around the large wound in his side and knelt down, bearing his half brother onto the courtyard dirt.

 

Inuyasha's hazed eyes opened and closed slowly. Kagome and Rin ran to his side, their mouths forming useless questions, crying, wailing. Sesshomaru wanted sweet oblivion to take his family's obvious pain away from his vision, but to lie down would be to die. And his brother already seemed to be in that boat.

“Inuyasha….Inuyasha! Look at me! Please!” Kagome went white to the edges of her lips, so afraid for her mate she was. Inutaro merely screamed and wailed insanely, the one word sounding like `Peep' echoing in his confusion. He squirmed wildly in his mother's arms, trying to reach his wounded papa. Rin took the child and tried to shush him, but she was as pale as Kagome. Looking down at her brother-in-law and seeing her mate's grave expression ensured that Inuyasha would not survive the hour.

 

`This Sesshomaru has only seen one youkai this badly injured and…. and that was Father just before….' Sesshomaru thought. His tongue idly ran over reddened teeth and he spat out a bone fragment. But deeply he was sick with hurt for his brother.

 

Sesshomaru stepped up to Rin and his large hand settled on her shoulder. Rin felt her lord's lack of strength as he leaned against her slightly. She looked up and saw how the edges of her lord's mouth tightened. She could have overlooked that, she could have begun to seek hope as the youkai healers were summoned with a barked command. Then Sesshomaru had to speak up, and Rin's heart plummeted as hope fled the vicinity of the scene.

“Inuyasha. Brother, you were right. All these years, you should have come here to live. The land has received you as well as your son.” One lone tear fled the corner of his eye and coursed alone down his jaw. Rin closed her eyes and squeezed Inutaro closely. If her lord were to wax sentimental in public, it was all over. Inutaro seemed to agree with his aunt. He wailed and hit her in the ear.

 

Inuyasha howled in pain as Kagome clutched his sleeve with desperate fingers, crying loudly with a fear born of severe hysteria. She tried not to jar his obvious wounds or add to his pain, and she could only clutch his draping sleeve in her needy grasp when all she really wanted was to hold him close and cradle him away from his agony.

“Inuyasha, please, you promised me,” she sobbed.

`No I didn't, I asked my father to promise ME,' he thought. Inuyasha's eyes opened and he tried to smile. His mate looked such a mess with her nose running and her eyes reddened. But she never looked so beautiful to him. Inuyasha tried to raise one hand to caress her cheek, but the effort was too much. Kagome carefully traced his cheek with tender fingertips, hiccupping on her grief. Inuyasha's lips parted painfully and his eyes darted to Inutaro cradled by Rin, Sesshomaru leaning against her shoulder. His golden eyes, biological gift of their Lord Father, dimmed and seemed to go black.

 

“Please….” Inuyasha whispered to Sesshomaru. “Please…. protect…. please…”

Sesshomaru's eyes widened in concern when Inuyasha lay very still and the breath seemed to flee his body. His chest pressed hard, his lungs pumping harder. It seemed his body betrayed him and the air halted in his throat, nose and lungs instantly, choking him with their life.

And Inuyasha stopped breathing. Sesshomaru looked down at Tenseiga's blade, watching for a sign as Kagome hysterically called her mate's name again and again. But Father's other fang lay silent in his obi, mocking the situation.

 

It was a terrible moment. Kagome collapsed over Inuyasha, injuries unheeded NOW. She wept into the red of his fire rat's robes, tears mixing into the blood. Inutaro seemed to understand something was terribly wrong and he howled in terrible outrage.

Rin was crying, and Sesshomaru didn't know what to do. Sure, he knew he'd give his brother's body a good send-off, he'd foster Inuyasha's son at his court, and rule with a tighter iron fist over his lords. Kagome would always have his protection and she could live here if she chose to.

But how to comfort the women and child of his extended family? Sesshomaru was numb with lack of options.

 

“Rin…. Kagome…” Sesshomaru started to say. Kagome was beyond hearing him, her wailing a cacophony to the ears. Rin looked up at her lord, her eyes wet with tears.

“Please, my lord, she needs to be with him,” she begged. Sesshomaru's golden eyes moved and he nodded. The corners of his mouth pulled down into a petulant frown of sadness however. Rin noted the difference and hugged Inutaro close. The baby had exhausted his frantic efforts for escape and cried inconsolably against her shoulder.

Rin ran her palm over Inutaro's white fluffy hair softly.

 

“She does, but we need to take the body,” Sesshomaru murmured. Rin looked up at him with a fresh look of pain.

“How can you say that, my lord?” Tears squeezed from the corners of her eyes.

 

“Because he's gone. And we need to handle his affairs….” The rational tone Sesshomaru used was drowned out by Kagome's voice.

 

“No. It's not over yet.” She lifted her head, and her eyes were the saddest eyes Sesshomaru had seen in his long life. But her voice was filtered with the strength of a thousand. Sesshomaru watched in wonder as the mate of his brother held her middle with curved palms, as if to cradle something precious within. Rin gasped at Sesshomaru's side, a side distraction as his eyes narrowed at the pure force before him.

 

Kagome's eyes bled tears slowly, but her gaze was a mask of grim determination. “Rise, Inuyasha, let your body knit itself together, and use the air around you.”

The mingled voices of a thousand men, women, children and youkai commanded thus and Kagome shone with a force brighter than the sun and stronger than love. Sesshomaru took his hand from Rin's shoulder and shielded his golden eyes winced from the pain of sheer strength greater than his own.

 

And the power of the pure Shikon Jewel burst from Kagome, lashing into Inuyasha's fallen form, sharper than any sword.

`So that's where the Jewel went,' Sesshomaru had time to idly think. Light gleamed from Inuyasha's eyes and parted mouth, and his body reared back on the shoulders as the lungs sucked air in sharply.

 

“Oh please…oh please…. oh please…” Rin pleaded under her breath as all watched Inuyasha's bloodied claws digging into the dirt desperately as his lungs struggled to take in air and take out air with the right amount of strength. Too much and he could rupture his own form. Tears fell down from Kagome's eyes down onto Inuyasha's face as he darted wild golden eyes at his grief-stricken family.

 

“Kagome! What…” he gasped, his chest seizing hard for air. He winced and clawed his torn robe's folds, fingers twisting as he tried merely to live. Kagome closed her eyes and tilted her chin to the sky. The light poured out of Kagome and over the courtyard. All jumped, feeling rejuvenated, refreshed as all wounds, from the most severe to the smallest abrasion, vanished. The youkai troops filing in were swept back from the wave, and rose. They were partially singed from the purifying blast, but stood completely healed. The pure white light fell back over Sesshomaru and his mate and he held his arm over Rin in a quick protective gesture. His torn clothes smoked with the slight tinge of the purification but his side wound sewed itself up.

The last of the power leaked out of the Jewel's avatar, and the orb itself vanished. Kagome collapsed in exhaustion, falling hard against her mate's side. Inuyasha wearily rolled on his elbow and cradled her against him. Inutaro crowed loudly, his face wet with indignant tears.

 

“You are healed….” The timbre of a thousand faded and Kagome blinked happily, joy shining forth from her wet eyes. “Inuyasha…. Inuyasha!”

Inuyasha watched in amazement as his wife clung to him with a ferocity that overwhelmed him. He held her close and smoothed his hands over her hair.

“Kagome…” he whispered softly. Kagome sobbed with joy.

 

“Brother….” Sesshomaru finally chose to speak. “Are you well?” He himself certainly felt well. His left stump was tingling, why in fact…. before he could think to investigate, the stump itched and burned and the most severe pain sprouted from the area. But another limb sprouted as well, claws twisting from the wide torn sleeve as the arm stretched free. Sesshomaru gaped openly at the new appendage, the new hand opening to reveal itself to his astonished gaze. At his side, Rin clasped her middle with one arm, her eyes as wide as her lord's.

She parted her lips to speak at the wondrous warmth spreading throughout her, but she had only to turn to see Sesshomaru's left arm and she cried out with happiness. Kagome's smile was weary but jubilant as she settled against her living mate.

 

The healers ran out to the courtyard to witness the riotous weeping of a joyous family. They scratched their heads in confusion, seeing the contorted expressions of triumph, and the youkai troops across the courtyard shrugging off apparent wounds, holding their hands to the sky.

“Well, if they didn't need us, why did they send for us?” the high healer huffed. The others shrugged and followed her back inside.

 

* * * *

 

Sesshomaru, Rin, Inuyasha and Kagome knelt around a small table in a private dining room. They were freshly washed, their nonexistent wounds looked after, and changed in yukatas. Rin and Kagome were radiant, smiling and laughing. Inuyasha held Inutaro in his lap and played with him lightly. Sesshomaru's lips even curved ever slightly upward.

“How did you know, Kagome? How did you know to do that?” Rin asked for the third time that evening. Kagome leaned against Inuyasha's shoulder, sighing.

 

“I didn't, Rin, otherwise that would have been my first suggestion to use for you. It had to come out on its own, I guess.” Kagome said.

Sesshomaru's left hand held Rin's underneath the table. He cleared his throat and all turned to him to see what he would say about the subject.

 

“I don't think the actual Jewel went into you, Kagome. You must have held a vast amount of it inside you when the Jewel itself purified, and left this realm. And now all of it has been used and no one can touch it again,” Sesshomaru suggested. Kagome nodded seriously, her eyes reflective.

 

“Either way, we were truly blessed,” Rin commented sagely. She squeezed Sesshomaru's claws tenderly, blushing as she looked down under his intense gaze. Kagome smiled knowingly. Everybody's problem had come out just right.

 

“Did your soldiers find Takaharu's blade?” Inuyasha quietly asked after a moment. Tetsusaiga had been retrieved after the celebration in the courtyard and laid on the tatami mats beside his knee. Inutaro reached down and patted the shiny scabbard, babbling quietly to himself. Inuyasha squeezed him close and kissed the top of his head.

 

Sesshomaru nodded, his eyes warm as Rin massaged his new hand under the table. “The work was obviously the mark of Totosai's tutelage. As we have seen before with Tokujin,” here his right hand patted the hilt of the sword lying on the floor beside the table, “One learning his sword art can misuse it for power.”

Inuyasha brooded briefly on that. Then Inutaro reached up over his head to pull on his father's chin, forcing an outraged smile from Inuyasha. Kagome smiled and rubbed her son's little leg. He kicked it idly and giggled.

 

“I was surprised the Jewel was able to do more than heal Inuyasha! Sesshomaru….” Kagome said. “I'm glad to see it gave you back your arm.”

 

Inuyasha shrugged in his yukata, glad that he was able to get the filthy and torn fire rat's robe off of him and into the wash. It was being re-stitched once again and Inuyasha was adamant that it be so. His father had given his mother that robe for him, and he would keep it as long as he could. It had served him over two hundred years and was as much a part of him as Kagome and Inutaro were.

Sesshomaru raised his left arm and almost smiled at the stripes covering the pale flesh. “As is this Sesshomaru, Kagome Woman.”

 

“Yeah, and here I did a good job on that arm,” Inuyasha teased. Sesshomaru flashed him a sharp look but relaxed. Only Rin could tell the difference, and when her lord's left hand went back under the table and took her hand, she almost melted.

 

The family dined and conversed into the night. When Inutaro lay snoring in Inuyasha's lap, the two couples conceded to call it an evening well spent. Inuyasha cradled Inutaro to his shoulder and held his hand out to Kagome. She took it within her own and dipped a bow to Sesshomaru and Rin.

 

Sesshomaru briefly inclined his head in a half bow, favoring Kagome and his brother. Then he swept his left arm around Rin, liking how flexible he remembered himself to be. Rin laughed and went half-carried down the hall to the royal chambers. Sesshomaru ignored his guards who bowed at his approach and strode into the bedchamber. The door was slid shut behind them and only then did Sesshomaru let Rin down.

 

Rin smiled and slid her hands to his obi. She took his weapons and Sesshomaru merely stood, Tokujin and Tenseiga carefully cradled in his mate's gentle arms. He showed his trust in her handling his blades and Rin's heart was warmed as she placed them on the elaborate weapon stand.

As Rin turned, she bumped face first into Sessomaru's chest. He gripped her elbows with both hands and pulled her up for a kiss. Rin laughingly conceded and twined her arms around his neck. It was several heated minutes before Sesshomaru pulled back. The stripes on his cheek seemed to shine in the candlelight. Rin's heart quickened.

 

“If this Sesshomaru were completely healed… it is safe to guess my lady has been as well?” Sesshomaru murmured. His eyes were warmer than the fire in the chamber's hearth. Rin lovingly traced his cheek's markings with her fingertips. When her feet touched the floor again, she held both of her lord's hands in hers and nuzzled the palms. Sesshomaru watched her, his heart thumping hard.

 

“It is, my lord…” Rin murmured. She kissed the left palm and smiled up into his stern but warm countenance. Sesshomaru lifted her with both hands and carried her to the bed. Two yukatas littered the floor as they went. Laughter filled the bedchamber.

 

End for now

I've seen one person die and the last moments were some of the scariest things I've seen. The chest heaves and the lungs try to work, but the breath leaks away like that (snaps fingers) there is no more air to breathe. And the last of the soul departs like a rock thrown from a sling. Or so I thought. Descriptions for that are in this chapter obviously.

Like it? Hate it? Please review! The story isn't finished yet, rest assured.

 

Most sincerely yours, penpaninu finished 2/16/06