InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Prodigal Son ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

A/N: All rights for Inuyasha belong to Rumiko Takahashi, and this story makes no profit.



Once there lived a great dog demon, subduing the lands of the West by blood and blade; he was immense in size with a heart black as pitch masked in a shroud of white death. It was widely whispered among his conquered subjects the general had made a pact with the Master of Hell that in return for his soul for all eternity, he would have command of the terrible hell hounds for one thousand years.


He knew it was a trap but one he was more than willing to enter. Hakujoumaru never had any intention of keeping his end of the deal - for in his mind, not even gods could best his strength.


The Great General was a giant among youkai, his true form a massive dog with paws clawing gouges deep into the earth while his deep red eyes terrified all who were unlucky enough to see them - and live to tell the tale. Far and wide he brought destruction and death wherever he went - wrenching the land into his control with brute force.


Youkai and human alike ran screaming with terror at the sight of the great white dog leading a pack of otherworldly black hell hounds - they only promised death to those who dared stand in the way. Hakujoumaru stood on the edge of a great cliff surveying his conquered kingdom - scarred and heavy with the smell of sulfur and blood - a scent more delectable to him than those damned sickly sweet sakura blossoms, or even the heat of a ripe female.


It was the scent of power. His power. And no one would take it from him.


Hakujoumaru stood tall and regal, his white hair and fur rippling against the wind as numerous heads bowed before him in fear. There was an assortment of youkai who had come willingly to offer their obeisance and he sniffed them out one by one - looking for the mere whiff of deceit. Wolf. Falcon. Dragon. Boar. Dog....his gold eyes flicked down at the small pack of inuyoukai; a low ranking lord and his wife bowed low at his feet - but the daughter...now there was a treat. Long pewter hair sprinkled with white flowed down her back, and the thin kimono did little to hide her figure. Yes, she would do nicely, he thought.


The beat of her heart began to jump with a frantic pace when he stopped before her. "Rise," he commanded, his tone offering little choice.


With slight hesitation she rose slowly to stand before him, head low and ice blue eyes averted to the side. Hakujoumaru grabbed her chin, his claws digging into her smooth skin and sending a trickle of blood across his hand. Pulling her face up, his other hand came up to push back the thick hair framing her face. Her milky skin was fresh and flawless in youth, and the scent of her distress was strong, rolling off of her in waves. And it excited him. "What is your name?" he murmured.


The girl struggled for breath, wincing as his claws dug deeper. "K...Katsumi," she whispered, trembling under his harsh touch. He could smell her heat coming on. Perhaps...now that his lands were in order for the time being, it was time to focus on more domestic issues - such as securing his lineage. And Katsumi just happened to be in the right place at the right time to assist him in such matters.


Hakujoumaru cast a sidelong glance toward his guard. "Take her to my chambers, and make sure to bathe her first," he commanded, glancing back to see the look of terror spreading across her face. "Yes," he thought. "She will definitely do nicely."


Ice blue eyes widened and the sudden, fresh bitter tang of her fear filled the air between them. "Wh...No...please my lord..." she stammered, trying to shake her head and back away, but only succeeded in sinking those razor sharp claws deeper into her flesh; the red blood now covering her neck, staining her silken kimono.


Golden eyes narrowed at her impertinence; his claws sharply pulling her closer with a sudden yank. "You dare to reject one such as me?" Hakujoumaru hissed as his youki began to rise and push against her, forcing the girl's submission.


Katsumi swallowed hard and winced as he bore down over her, yet she managed to remain silent with pleading eyes. Her father, who was still bowed low on the ground, let out a slight cough. "My Lord...with all due respect....she does not wish..."


Hakujoumaru glanced down at the pewter-haired youkai, calmly shoving Katsumi with a small yelp off to the side and into the waiting arms of his guard. "She does not wish? Is that so?" he asked, not bothering to look in her direction. "Both of you. Stand up," he commanded to her father and mother.


Their panic was pitiful. No wonder they were here begging for his protection when they couldn't even stand without their knees trembling or hands shaking. Worthless.


With a sickening crack of his knuckles, Hakujoumaru held his claws up before the youkai - glittering like jewels in the harsh light of the sun. Those ice blue eyes opened wide in terror, and in the distance he heard Katsumi scream out as he beheaded her parents.


Time always seemed to slow to a stop with each kill from his hands. It was the moment he lived for - when the world went blissfully silent in shock; when the warm blood of his enemies trickled down his fingers; when ruby red blood hung weightlessly across the sky; when the surge of his youki thrummed under his skin; when the feeling of absolute power filled his chest. This was the moment. Hakujoumaru closed his eyes in bliss, letting it all wash over him.


Katsumi's hoarse screams continued to pierce the tense silence. And he smirked.


She would never know how delicious she smelled, in this moment. Hakujoumaru slowly walked over to her and placed his bloody claw against her lips, silencing her as the blood of her parents smeared across her lips - scarlet petals on a sea of ivory skin. His length grew heavy with anticipation of the night.


She would not disappoint him.



Soon there were twin pups, Seikan and Muhijimaru - begotten in a moonless night of pain and blood and screams.

Strong and healthy, as expected from the seed of Hakujoumaru; they looked nothing of their mother, with their white hair, golden eyes and indigo markings across their high cheekbones. The pair were inseperable and fearless as pups could be - and yet, much to their father's dismay, the twins still managed to crawl into bed with their mother each night. And Hakujoumaru would not tolerate such weakness in his sons.

When they were in their fourth winter, he decided it was time for them to begin their training and become youkai. Most in the court whispered it was too soon, that they were too young, but their father heeded no one but himself.



"But My Lord, they are not big enough yet to even hold a sword, much less train with grown youkai! They will be killed! Please, I beg you...you have already taken everything that has ever mattered to me, please don't take my sons away as well," Katsumi cried out towards his retreating figure.


Hakujoumaru paused in his step, his long silver hair swaying in the gentle summer breeze. "They are my sons, not yours - and my orders are final. Say your goodbyes tonight, for they depart at first light," he said, leaving her to sag and sob against the polished floor.


Seikan whimpered and crawled into his mother's lap, his tiny arms clinging tight around her shoulders. Katsumi wiped tears from her face and called out to Muhijimaru, who was standing at the door staring after their father. "Come here, my darling," she said, pulling him into her grasp. Mother and sons huddled together in the darkess. "Never forget me," she whispered in their little ears, stroking their soft hair, and memorizing their tiny fingers until the dreaded sun rose like a traitor in the sky - and the guards came to take them away.


"Never forget me," she called out as the pair looked back, never to see their mother again.


Many seasons passed and many things changed.


His sons were now grown youkai. Seikan had just fathered a strong male child in an arrangement with the daughter of his finest general - a powerful inuyoukai with poison in his claws thanks to his snake youkai mother. Katsumi had long since withered away in her grief, although he couldn't remember when, exactly. And Hakujoumaru's once terrified subjects were beginning to amass their courage against him, but it mattered not - for he still held control of the hell hounds, and he still ruled his lands with a cold heart and an absolute fist.


It had been five centuries since his pact with the Master of Hell, and Hakujoumaru felt himself invincible. Thousands of fierce youkai were at his command, and the Western lands cowered at his presence. He already had his eyes set on the lands of the East, and soon he would go to war once again.


On one particularly dreary day, the great Dog General was making his way through the dense forest towards the eastern encampments. It was on this journey that Hakujoumaru happened upon an old witch.




He probably would not have even noticed her had it not been for the horrendous smell she exuded. Such hags were not worthy of the energy to cast his eyes in her direction.


With steady strides he made his way through the forest; his mind far away on battle formations and strategies for subduing the weak. The Meidou-seki hung around his neck, the jewels giving off a slight ring as they rubbed together at his gait.


Of course he noticed her long before, the stench blanketed the forest. But she was old and harmless, her threadbare clothing hung in tatters from her bony frame as she sat on the side of the path, with enough sense to keep her eyes low.


"Hakujoumaru," she said, her withered and croaked voice breaking the quiet silence of the forest. "I've been waiting for you."

His steps slowed, but kept his eyes forward. "You presume to know me?"

The hag smirked and she shifted, sending more of her noxious odor wafting on the wind. "Ten summers come and gone, and the plague of the lands will be buried under graveyard soil, while silver twins fall under the raven sky, and a poisoned bloodline will scatter like blossoms upon the wind..." she said, as if in a trance. The air was silent and heavy as her words hung between them, each unmoving - the lowly witch and the mighty youkai.

Something stirred in his chest, and his gold eyes finally glanced down to see milky blind ones in return - staring through him. If he had been a lesser youkai,there might have been a moment of fear, of panic at those unseeing eyes that saw everything. But he was no such youkai.


"Ridiculous," he scoffed.


Her lips spread apart in a wide smile, exposing her blackened and rotted teeth, and began to laugh. "There are more things in this world beyond your understanding, Hakujoumaru. We are all nothing but the playthings at the whims of the gods."


"And what would you know of that, human?" he sneered, turning to face her fully, the sound of his knuckles cracking breaking through the silence.

The witch laughed once again. "The Master of Hell sends his regards."

He narrowed his eyes, his patience at an end. "You are a blind old fool. Do not mistake this Hakujoumaru for one as well," he said, running his claws through her frail body. But instead of the tang of blood, a spray of thick black blood and writhing maggots spilled out of her flesh. A foul stench of rotten flesh filled the air, and hung on his clothes and in his hair. The old woman's shell of a body crumpled to the ground, her face up towards him and her eyes still seeing.


"Ten summers," the corpse said. "Remember, Hakujoumaru..."


Silver hair swished against silk as he turned away, heading deep into the forest and away from the stench of hell and death. Yet no matter how far he traveled or how many times he bathed, the scent of her black blood would never leave him, and stained his hands forever.



A very large rock came whizzing by, mere inches from Kagome's nose - landing with perfect accuracy against Totosai's forehead, stopping his tale mid-sentence.

"OW! Heeeyyyy, what was that for?" Totosai whined, rubbing the large knot on his head.

Sesshoumaru growled low and tossed up another rock in his hand. "You should learn to watch your tongue, old man. It will be the death of you one of these days," he said.

"Well, it's the truth of what happened, so there's no point in getting your fundoshi in a bunch over it," he retorted. InuYasha snorted loudly from his perch on the roof, and suddenly another rock nailed Totosai. "OWWW! Dammit! Stop throwing rocks, you miserable little shit! The girl asked me to tell her the story, so I am. If you don't like what's being told, then tell her yourself!" The swordsmith muttered something under his breath, whining slightly as he gingerly touched the growing lumps.

Kagome looked over at the pale demon, trying desperately not to think of Sesshoumaru attempting to pull his fundoshi out of a bunch - how would he reach around all that armor? She felt her lips trying to curve into a smile before deciding that painfully biting her tongue would help keep her head attached to her shoulders. Yet she couldn't help but wonder in fact, if he would tell her the story if she asked. Probably not, from the look on his face. She furrowed her brows as Sesshoumaru glared at the two of them, and then stood up and walked away into the shadows without a word. Why was he so upset?

"A poisoned bloodline will scatter like blossoms on the wind..."

Oh. Could that why he was upset? Kagome sighed at the sight of his retreating figure. I guess I wouldn't like people talking about my family like that either, she thought. The sounds of metal scraping against wood were the only sounds to be found in the dark of the night. She piled several more logs on the fire and glanced up at Totosai. "Say, how did you meet Seikan?" she asked.

Totosai looked up, scanning the area for flying projectiles. "Muhijimaru kidnapped me to make him the most powerful sword in the land, but I refused. He had no business possessing any sword of my capabilities, and so of course he was going to kill me. Seikan saved my life that day."


The twins had grown up fast away from their mother's kind embrace - and under the harsh tutelage of their sensei.

No shortcuts or guarantees were given to them; forced to fight for their lives each day against grown youkai. If they were weak, they would die. Hakujoumaru thought it fitting to test their limits, choosing to almost mortally wound them each time he entered their training sessions. His sons would receive no mercy from the outside world and it was best they learned to not know it now.

Seikan and Muhijimaru became very powerful very quickly, although their differences were beginning to show themselves. Muhijimaru was the more reckless of the two, following after his father in the zeal in which he slaughtered enemies and innocents alike; whereas Seikan was colder and controlled, preferring to conserve his energy where it was needed and making no mistakes - but no less ruthless than his father.

One day the pair was sent out by Hakujoumaru to quell a small uprising on the eastern border of their lands. The sky was heavy and dark with the coming storm, and thunder rumbled in the distance. Both ears perked up when the soft cries of a female carried on the wind, and upon investigation they found a young human girl sprawled out in a clearing, holding an injured ankle.

Her large brown eyes widened, and she shrieked in terror at the sight of the two demons as she tried to crawl away on her hands and knees through dried leaves.

Muhijimaru let a smirk cross his face, catching his brother's eyes. "Want to have a little fun?" he chided as the wind began to pick up, blowing through his white hair and fur as as streak of lightning raced across the sky, glinting off of his sharp fangs.

Seikan never liked it when his brother looked like that. "What are you planning?" he asked, alreay knowing what his brother was thinking. Tales of youkai rutting with young mortal girls had spread through the ranks of soldiers seeking a pleasant distraction and interesting game, and his brother was never one to be left out of what others were doing.

There was no answer to his question as Muhijimaru stalked over to the girl who could not have seen no more than 15 winters, if that. A basket of berries and herbs lay scattered at the edge of the clearing, next to a large animal hole in the ground. She had obviously fallen, and was unable to return to safety of her village. Green grass stains covered the lower half of her plain yukata as the sharp scent of her terror filled the air.

His brother knelt down in front of her, his long silver hair pooling around his feet. "Are you lost, little girl?" he asked smoothly. His voice sent shivers of dread down Seikan's spine. This won't end well at all, he thought. He should be above this.

"Leave me alone, youkai!" she shouted, still trying desperately to scramble away.

Muhijimaru reached out and grabbed her injured ankle, giving it a rough squeeze. The girl screamed in pain. "Ah, don't be like that," he cooed, running a clawed hand up her leg and under the thin fabric. She squealed and squirmed against his unwanted touch.

Seikan closed his eyes and sighed. "Dammit Muhijimaru, if you're going to eat the human, then just get on with it."

"Oh, I will...eventually," his brother said, not bothering to look away from the girl and her distress.

With a loud rip, Muhijimaru tore the thin yukata away from the girl, exposing her young naked body to the cool air. Her arms flew up to cover herself, but his brother grabbed both of her arms and held them in one of his own massive hands high above her head. One clawed finger trailed down across tanned skin, stopping to linger at the thin patch of curls between her legs. Her eyes closed and the tears began to roll down her face. "Please, don't," she whimpered. Muhijimaru gave her a crooked smile, pushing her legs apart. Lighting tore across the sky as small drops of rain began to fall. "Hmm, I've never had a human woman before. I've always wondered what all of the fuss was about," he said, running his hand across the flat of her stomach.

"You can't be seriously considering this," Seikan muttered, his throat tightening in disgust and turning his nose into the clean scent of the coming storm. Thunder cracked in the distance, and the air was electric with tension and energy.

"Look, just because you have a nagging mate and a creepy little brat at home doesn't mean the rest of us can't have a little fun now and then," Muhijimaru said over the sobs of the girl as he situated her underneath him, his fingers starting to make quick work of his armor and layers of silk.

Seikan swallowed the distaste in his mouth and looked away. "I won't stay for this."

"Suit yourself."

Seikan wandered far away into the forest with a sinking nagging in his chest. He had not made it far when piercing screams carried over the thunder. Muhijimaru had always been brash, but when exactly had he become such a monster? Not that Seikan was innocent himself - far from it, as he did like a ripe young human for dinner now and again. But there was no sense in torturing it before hand, for the fear only made the meat tough and taste too gamey. There was no sport in this.

Finding shelter in an abandoned cave, he decided to settle in for some sleep since, knowing his brother, he would be waiting here for quite a while. The shelter was dark and damp, a yawning darkness full of whispers from the past in its depths. Seikan closed his eyes and slipped into sleep - and in the world between what is and what could be, dreams took over his mind.

Walking through dense fog that deprived him of his eyesight, he could smell nothing but the scent of the freshly fallen sakura blossoms that littered the ground - but there was a whiff of something deeper, more sensual above it. He followed his nose to the source, when suddenly the figure of a beautiful human woman with flowing raven hair emerged from the mist, draped in many layers of fine kimonos; her face upturned to the silver light of the full moon. His breath became labored, and his hands twitching at his side. The woman slowly turned to face him fully, walking toward him with sure steps. His heart beat faster and all he wanted - all he could think to do was reach out and run the back of his fingers against the smooth skin of her cheek and through her beautiful black hair.

She lifted both of her hands and gently cupped his face as she looked up at him with emotion flickering across her eyes - something he had never seen before. It was warm and kind, gentle and patient - an oasis away from thoughts of blood and screaming girls. He had no idea what it may be, but certainly wanted more. Was it desire? Lust? Surely not, for this was more than the gleam of wanton sex, as forbidden as it may be.

Images blazed through his mind as her skin alighted on his. Flashes of flowing white hair. Red fabric. Golden eyes. And...the ears of a pup? It made no sense. She was whispering something, yet he even his youkai hearing could not make it out. And so he leaned in closer and closer, until his ear was nearly touching her lips and the warmth of her breath carried into his mind. Yet no matter how close he got, her words were drowned out by the clang of swords and angry shouts. So he kept leaning closer...

A sudden, shrill scream pierced his brain and when he looked up the raven beauty was slowly fading away into the depths of the mist. Seikan reached out for her once again, the ache in his chest calling out for whatever it was she offered. She held out one delicate and tiny hand to him - and before she disappeared completely, he could hear her voice. "Never forget me," she whispered.

Seikan awoke with a start to the sound of pouring rain.


Thunder ripped across the sky and his heart thudded in his chest - the moment when life as he knew it tumbled under his feet, erasing all he had been and all he had ever wanted to be. The world had shifted in sleep - now it smelled different, it looked different - it was different. Something was calling to him, something he had never experienced, and it had filled the bottom of his empty heart with something more powerful than bloodshed and power. If only he knew what it was.


He closed his eyes, trying to remember her face, the sound of her voice once again.


"Never forget me."


The sound of heavy footsteps broke his reverie. Muhijimaru had impeccable timing, as always - strolling into the cave while licking his claws before letting out a loud, rippling belch from the depths of his gut. Normally this would have brought a smile to Seikan's face, but now...now all he could see was the face of that little girl and hear the ringing of those whispers in his ear...and his chest hurt and he didn't understand why.


Sesshoumaru waited among the tops of the trees, his golden eyes following them wordlessly as they passed underneath. Branch by branch he lept, keeping up with the last league of their journey home.


"Damn that kid is creepy," Muhijimaru muttered under his breath and running a clawed hand through his abundant hair. "He just stares at me all the time. Are you sure there's nothing wrong with him?" he asked, looking over at his brother.


Seikan closed his eyes in irritation. His brother still reeked of that girl's blood, and he wanted nothing more than to get to his quarters and forget any of this happened. "The pup looks up to you. He's curious, that is all."


"Yeah, but does he have to be so creepy about it?"


"My son is not creepy," he stated. "Sesshoumaru, come down here," Seikan called out, ignoring the rolling eyes of Muhijimaru.


A flutter of purple silk and their family's long silver hair landed with a stumble at their feet, the pup just managing to catch himself before toppling over. Large golden eyes stared up warily at the pair, knowing he had been unable to mask the severe injury to his right leg. Sesshoumaru's face covered with fresh bruises, and the scent of still bleeding injuries caught their noses.


Hakujoumaru had ordered his grandson sent into training incredibly early - even earlier than them; the top of his head barely reached his father hip. Seikan's chest tightened at the sight of his son's injuries, well aware their father must have visited the dojo while they were away - feeling the need to show no mercy to his progeny. "Did you behave?" Seikan asked with a sigh of irritation. Sesshoumaru was too young for those lessons yet. His son nodded solemly, and a familiar ache swept across his memory.


He was still no closer to understanding what it was, only knowing it made him restless, as if he wanted to jump out of his armor and skin...to fly as far as he could reach to get away from the sounds of his brother belching the remains of that girl, and the hardness already built around his son's face. But there was nothing he could do - for as strong as he was, he was still a prisoner to what was expected from the son of Hakujoumaru.


"What the hell is wrong with you? You've been in a damned mood ever since we headed back," Muhijimaru said, his brow furrowing in irritation, looking between young father and child.


Seikan closed his eyes and sighed once again before glancing down at his son. "I don't know," he said as their eyes met for a moment. Sesshoumaru broke their gaze and cast his eyes down towards his feet, and Seikan wished - just for a moment - that his son had not been born into this world, that he had been given a choice.


A sharp elbow jabbed him in the ribs. "Eh, you're probably just hungry. I told you to eat when we stopped."


Pushing his long bangs out of his eyes, the thought of tasting human flesh made the bile rise in his throat. "I don't eat human food," he said quietly, more to himself than anyone in particular. It felt...right...to finally say that - to have one small victory in how he chose to be, in who he wanted to be. And it was liberating.


Muhijimaru turned and stared at him in disbelief. "I certainly recall you liking the taste of human flesh, brother."


Seikan shrugged his shoulders and walked through the gate with a small smile on his face.


Muhijimaru felt the little brat's eyes on him. And it was annoying. He turned and looked down at him, seeing the injured leg he was trying so hard to disguise. With one hard kick, his foot connected with the knee, snapping it in two. Sesshoumaru cried out in pain, and Muhijimaru sneered at him. "You're weak, creep," he said, smacking the pup across the face and sending him sprawling into the trees.


Sesshoumaru lay dazed, his vision red with fresh blood running into his eyes, whimpering at his uncle's retreating back.



Kagome swallowed hard. "He...he raped her...and then ate her?" she asked in horror.

Totosai just grunted an affirmative as he held up the half-finished sheath and blew the remnants of filings away. InuYasha growled low from the top of the roof, clutching Tessaiga tighter against his chest. Her eyes flicked over to the forest with the eerie feeling she was still being watched by those ever silent eyes, wondering how many humans he had eaten.

Kagome leaned in close to Totosai and whispered, "Do you eat humans?" she asked, deciding information such as that was important to know if she wanted to continue sitting next to him.

He blinked, and then laughed at her again. "Eh? Humans? Nah, too stringy," he stated. Mou-Mou mooed in agreement.

"Oh," she said. "So, how did you wind up with them?"

"Wind up with who?"

She took a deep breath and let it out before jogging his memory. "Seikan and Muhijimaru. How did you meet up with them?"

"Oh, it was years later. Muhijimaru nearly killed me because I would't make him a sword."


Seikan sighed and peeled off his heavy armor, dropping it with a thud on the floor of his chambers. He desperately wanted nothing but sleep - sleep without dreams of a dark haired beauty, sleep without the nagging gnawing in his chest. He only wanted to lose himself in the sweet blackness of nothing and not wake up reaching out for the vision of a dream.

But those dreamless nights were years behind him.

Glancing up through the window, the sky was ablaze with stars in dark night of the new moon, and he stood transfixed at the quiet stillness of the universe despite the weariness seeping through his bones. Just like the stars above his dreams were so visible, were so close he thought he could almost reach out to touch them...almost. When he was younger, he would spend hours flying higher and higher, thinking if he was a little bit stronger one day he would be able to reach out and grab on to the edge of the crescent moon. But the thin and icy air always got the best of him, and he would spiral lazily back down to the earth determined to touch them one day.

Seikan's quiet reverie was shattered as a scream followed by a large blast sounded in the distance. It smelled of smoke and fire; the light shining in the distance near the craftsman's quarters. Without haste he grabbed his armor and flew out of the window towards the disturbance.

He found Muhijimaru, his clothes singed and smoking while the grass near the quarters burned with molten lava, holding the new sword smith by the throat several feet off the ground, and proceeding to shake him like a rag doll. "You will do as I command! There is no choice in this!" his brother shouted, his long hair rising along with his youki. The overly bulbous eyes of the smith widened ever more from their sockets as his long bony fingers scrabbled onto the strong wrist, begging and gasping for release.

"Muhijimaru. What is the problem here?" Seikan asked cooly.

"This bastard deems himself superior to me and has denied my request for a new sword. And then the bastard tried to burn me to a crisp!" he shouted. "You are just in time, brother; I was just ready to run my claws through his soft belly and see what he is truly made of."

The smith struggled harder under the iron grip of his twin, and when Seikan glanced over, he caught his pleading gaze and sighed once again. "Muhijimaru, that is our best sword smith. Just...put him down already." The last thing he needed to deal with tonight was an attempt at explaining to his father how the most prized swordmaker in all of Japan had been slaughtered for a whim of his brother's. Seikan really just wanted to go to sleep.

Muhijimaru's sharp gaze met his, and he dropped the youkai without ceremony against the floor with the sickening slap of flesh against stone. He turned to Seikan and narrowed his eyes. "Don't tell me you have a soft spot in your heart for that," he bit out, red tinging his eyes and his indigo markings growing jagged with fury and indignation.

"I have no soft spots for anything. He is simply our best sword smith and you would be a fool to kill him over such a trivial matter."

"Trivial?! This asshole denying my command is trivial? Perhaps we should find out just how trivial I can be!" Muhijimaru said as he suddenly sent his claws straight through the chest of the weapons master with a crunch of bone and spray of blood, sending blood against the wall. The moment hung in silence, seeming to drag out in eternal slow motion. The smith gasped for air in his now useless lungs, hanging against Muhijimaru's arm and staring at it slightly befuddled, as if he couldn't quite understand how it got there.

For reasons he could never quite remember or understand, Seikan let loose a loud growl and went instinctively into a fighting stance, his hand resting against the hilt of his blade.

Muhijimaru's eyes widened, and he pulled out his hand of the smith's chest with a sickening wet slide before letting him crumple to the ground in a heap. "You would dare fight me over this?" he hissed out, flicking the blood from his hand before resting it on his own blade. "You've become weak, brother."

Seikan said nothing, yet refused to back down. He was tired of the the anger and the rage.

His brother charged him with a roar.

Muhijimaru had never possessed the fighting discipline Seikan had - for Muhijimaru training had always been a way to achieve more, to gather more power, to be considered worthy enough to carry their father's blood in his veins. But for Seikan...fighting was only a way to forget - to forget the whispers of fuzzy memories of their mother, to forget the restlessness inside, to forget the itch in his chest that made him want to walk away forever. And Seikan's pain was more vast than Muhijimaru's ambition.

Seikan went after his brother's weakness immediately - his lack of speed. They had trained against each other their entire lives, and each knew the other's flaws. With several quick strokes, Seikan pinned his brother to the ground, his claws latched onto a thick chunk of silver hair. "Go to bed, Muhijimaru. This fight is over," he said,releasing him, and standing - turning his back to his brother.

Without warning, Muhijimaru struck him from behind, sending his face smashing into the wall and shattering his fangs against the stone. Seikan sat dazed, fascinated by the blood pooling in front of him on the floor. Slowly, in what seemed an eternity, he managed to focus his thoughts, standing up to defend himself, to retaliate...only to discover his brother had already walked away.

He blinked heavily, his brain pounding with the force of the blow when he registered the youkai's groans from the floor beside him. Blood flowed across the floor in heavy dark rivers; the smith's arms were trembling as he tried to find purchase in the slippery liquid of his life. Seikan shook the haze away, leaning down to offer his hand. "Grab hold, I will take you to help," he said. The old man looked up at him in surprise. "It's all right, I won't hurt you," Seikan said, his hand still extended. "What's your name?"

"Uh...Totosai...," he said in daze, still staring blankly at the proffered hand while his lungs wheezed out air.

Seikan grabbed onto Totosai's hard arms, hauling him up on wobbling feet. He lost his balance and fell against his chest. "Come on, let's go," he said.

"Wait!" the smith shouted, wrenching out of his grasp and sliding back down to the floor. His bony hand scrabbling through the pools of blood as if searching for something.

"What are you doing? You need to see a healer," Seikan said, feeling unsteady on his feet.

Totosai's hand picked up the remnants of shattered fangs from the floor. "I...I will pay you back for saving my life," he panted as he shoved them deep into the folds of his kimono.

"My teeth will grow back, you realize."

"I...know...swo..rd...fang...," Totosai finally lost consciousness, slumping face first down onto the bloody floor. Seikan sighed once again before picking up the scrawny sword smith and making his way toward to healer's hut.

"That was the beginning of the rift between the brothers, and it only got worse from there," Totosai murmured in the light of the fire. "Muhijimaru followed the path of his father with zeal, but when Seikan began to question things, well, you can imagine what sorts of battles the two of them had over differing opinions," he said, stopping to dig his finger deep into his ear once again, before pulling it out to examine it in detail.

She sighed to herself, and crinkled her nose at the sight. "I think I can imagine the fights," she said, her eyes flicking from InuYasha's outline on the roof over to the strong youki of Sesshoumaru just past the shadows of the forest, fear running down her spine at the memory of a pungent poison filling her lungs.

Totosai looked over at her and paused in his ear digging. "No, you haven't seen anything of the likes. These two brats here have nothing on their uncles." Dual snarls cut through the silence, and the sound of a flying projectile whizzed through the air - but Totosai was faster than he looked, knocking it back towards the forest where it emerged with his partially finished sheath. "Dammit," he shouted. "I told you to stop throwing rocks!"

Kagome covered her mouth, trying to hide the giggles that threatened to spill out. "How could it be worse than these two?" she asked.

"Well, what kind of battles do you think would require the forging of a sword that could return souls to life?"

Her breath caught in her throat, and an vision of Izayoi's face filled her mind. "Oh," she whispered.

"That's an understatement," he said.