InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Man and the Monster ❯ Untainted ( Chapter 2 )

Untainted

 

“Jaken, take Rin and ride Ah-Un to a safe location far away from here,” Sesshomarou said suddenly, silencing the constant chattering of his companions.

“Lord Sesshomarou?” the toad-youkai asked uncertainly.

“It is not appropriate for a servant to question his lord, Jaken,” the taiyoukai remarked with a grim firmness, “do as you are instructed immediately.”

“Ay…” his servant replied.

“Lord Sesshomarou?” the twelve-year-old human companion questioned nervously. She received no response, as the Lord of the Western Lands turned his back to them and made his departure from them in characteristic grace of movement. Expressing annoyance in order to mask his confusion, Jaken urged her on and they mounted the two-headed beast that would lead them away from an unperceived threat.

 

“I could have killed them…all three of them,” came a low, snarling voice from the trees, “or four of them, if you count both heads of the lower beast.”

“I had not known you had sunk so deeply into savagery,” Sesshomarou stated flatly, “and I'm certain that you're in no position to be speaking of lower beasts.” The response he received was a chuckle, almost a snicker, which contained in it a malice almost palpable.

“I could kill them even now, airborne though they might be.”

“That you have such power in your present state is highly unlikely. Although this Sesshomarou was under the impression that you wouldn't be this articulate, either.”

“Fool that you are, you mistake my situation. You can see for yourself that I have the power.” With a loud noise, the object of Sesshomarou's attention revealed something rather out of the ordinary to the demon lord.

“How is it that you can wield that as you are now?”

“Tetsusaiga is a part of me, older brother, and it has shed its weaknesses just as I have myself.”

“You speak nonsense.”

“What I desire are resources. You have them and you will provide me with them. Or I will enjoy tearing you apart and bathing in your blood.”

“Even if what you wanted was of any consequence, this Sesshomarou will never be intimidated by the petty threats of a tainted hanyou,” the taiyoukai snorted, drawing Toukijin.

“Arrogant fool!” sneered the wicked creature. Sesshomarou braced for the impact of the massive sword as the burning red eyes drew nearer.

 

 

Inuyasha awoke with an odd sense of clumsiness and weight which were obscured only by the uncharacteristically powerful sting of a more familiar feeling of shame and self-loathing. As everything came into focus, he realized that he was in Kaede's hut, and Kagome was sitting next to him. “Inuyasha?” she said hopefully, her voice quieter than he was used to it being.

“What…what's…”

“You were gone for so long,” she explained, “so after a while, we decided to go looking for you. We saw a big flash of light, and followed it to where it had happened, and then we found you…”

“What—what's going on?!” Inuyasha demanded, looking at his hands in horror.

“That's what I would like to know,” Kagome said, bristling a little at the fact that he had left them all and gotten himself into trouble, “when we found you, you were out and there was a dead body near you. But it was…oh god, Inuyasha, it was so horrible…it barely looked human any more.”

“But…but what about me? Why am I…when did I?”

“You were human when we found you. What the heck happened, Inuyasha? Who was that person? Were you attacked by whatever it was that killed him?” Kagome asked, firing off all the questions she'd pent up while he had been unconscious.

“I think we all have some questions we'd like answered,” Miroku interrupted. They turned to look at him.

“Yes…of course,” the newly human Inuyasha murmured.

“I'll go get Sango and the others,” Kagome volunteered.

 

 

“I was going to either break the stone, or cut his hand off if I had to,” Inuyasha said softly, “Tetsusaiga hit the stone, and…and that's the last thing I can remember.”

“What an awful story!” Kagome remarked, “He just went around making villagers kill one another?”

“It seems the circumstances were a little more complex than just that,” Miroku mused, “but that is hardly the point. None of this explains how Anaxagoras met his particularly gruesome fate, or…”

“Or why I'm human.” Inuyasha sighed.

“Indeed.”

“What should we do?” Sango asked.

“I think you Kagome, Shippo, and Inuyasha should stay with Kaede,” Miroku volunteered helpfully, “and see if she can find any useful information on this stone or on Inuyasha's condition.”

“What about you?” Kagome asked.

“I want to go and look for that stone. See if it might still be where we found Inuyasha,” he answered.

“Good idea,” Sango agreed, “Kirara and I will accompany you. Her keen sense of smell should be of use to us.”

“I'll come too.” Inuyasha said.

“You are staying here.”

“The hell I am!” he roared, in the first characteristic flare of temper since his awakening.

“Don't be a fool,” Miroku scolded, “you're vulnerable right now, and you will stay here until we have a better idea of what happened.”

“To hell with you, monk!” came the reply, behind dark glaring eyes, “I say I'm coming and I'm coming!”

“Inuyasha!” Kagome snapped, “Don't make me say `it'!”

“You wouldn't,” he gulped.

“Wouldn't I?”

“I would be pretty cool to see what happens when you do it to a human,” Shippo observed with gleeful anticipation. This earned him a thump, but the argument was for all intents and purposes settled. Though invoking the threat and mentioning his present vulnerability had left Kagome with Inuyasha at the height of his pouting.

 

 

 

“Kaze no Kizu!”

Sesshomarou shielded himself with the blade born of evil—the Toukijin. It protected him from the powerful wave of youki, much to the irritation of the beast that had assaulted him with it.

“Quite an annoyance, that blade,” hissed the creature.

“It was forged of a fang powerful enough to shatter the Tetsusaiga,” the taiyoukai retorted, “did you really think that a simple Kaze no Kizu would be able to scratch it?”

“Only a blind fool wouldn't see that the Tetsusaiga that I wield is on an entirely different level from the blunt scrap metal forged of the fang of a youkai too weak to beat even that lump of stone, Ryukotsusei,” it growled.

“Insult the one who lowered himself to take part in your birth in the first place?” Sesshomarou said heatedly. With a swing of his sword, a burst of energy made its way at his opponent, with every intention of destroying him completely.

It illuminated the stripes across Inuyasha's cheeks, and as his mouth widened into a feral grin, his elongated fangs gleaned in the light.

“Bakouryuha!” He roared, deflecting the energy with the power of the Kaze no Kizu and sent a hoarde of bright blue whirlwhinds at the taiyoukai.

Sesshomarou was not prepared for this—Tetsusaiga had never been strong enough to reflect the Souryuha attack. Instinctively, he held out Toukijin for protection.

The sword forged of evil's fang, the fierce fighting diety, met the power of the Bakouryuha, and after a moment of resistance, shattered into a thousand pieces. Leaving its master vulnerable to the whirlwinds that threatened to consume him entirely.