InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Violation of Honor ❯ Chapter 3 - The Unfortunate Ones ( Chapter 3 )

Violation of Honor

By Rinseternalsoul

**Disclaimer: I do this for free. I'm not affiliated with Rumiko Takahashi's Inuyasha, and only write free fanfiction for my love of twisting her character's to my dark, demented will. May the smut live on.

A/N: Hello all! I am extremely happy to hear that everyone, so far, is enjoying Violation of Honor (so far so good! YAY!). I've enjoyed reading all of your reviews. Thank you very much. I especially would like to thank Risa and Chaos-n-Serenity for their sweet praise of my talents. You ladies are the best! Hugs to you both. And for all of you out there waiting to see what will happen next to our poor Sesshomaru.... Here is the next chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter 3 - The Unfortunate Ones

"Kagome-sama, do you think that Inuyasha-sama will ever ask you to be his wife?"

Kagome promptly choked on the heavy bread that she had just put inside of her mouth. Learning to bake bread was proving to be even more of a challenge to her than gathering the jewel shards had been. Some people's talents simply lay elsewhere.

"Ah... um... why do you ask that, Oichi?" Kagome stuttered through the irritation of tiny pieces of tasteless bread clogging her esophagus. She quickly picked up her cup of water and took a gulp, wishing for something stronger... like a grape soda.

Oichi looked away with a blush, but Kagome could detect the hint of a smile on her rosy cheeks. "Sometimes, when you aren't looking, I've seen him watching you. There's such sad... longing in his eyes."

Kagome felt her heart clench and took a deep calming breath. Things like this shouldn't bother her anymore. They shouldn't, but for some reason, they still did. Maybe it was because she had once hoped for the happy ending to her fairytale that would place them together, but time and old wounds were not easily ignored. Besides, Inuyasha longed for someone else. Someone that still lived, but was just as unattainable as she herself was to him.

"That's kind of a personal question, Oichi," Kagome replied with good natured surprise, not sure if she really wanted to discuss this with her young apprentice.

"You are most right, Kagome-sama. Please, forgive me," Oichi replied with embarrassment.

Kagome smiled and placed her hand over Oichi's. "It's alright, Oichi-chan. It's just a very long and painful story. I'm afraid that I must disappoint you, though, concerning Inuyasha's feelings toward me. You see, Inuyasha once loved a beautiful young priestess..."

"Lady Kikyo?" Oichi asked.

Kagome sat up a little straighter. "Well, looks like you already know the most of it. Suffice it to say, that Inuyasha cares so much for the both of us, that he would never wish to hurt the other so deeply as to choose between us." God. It sounded so chivalrous when put like that, but it wasn't really. Was it?

"You mean, that Inuyasha will not ever ask you to be his wife, because he doesn't want to hurt Lady Kikyo?" Oichi asked in surprise.

"Something like that. Personally, I think Kikyo would understand. Well, at least the 'old' Kikyo would understand. I'm not really sure about the one walking alive, but unalive today. No one really knows what goes on in her mind. Especially since it's so rare to see her at all since Nuraku's death. The last thing that she said to him was that she was giving life a chance. Sadly though, the life that she was seeking didn't include Inuyasha."

"How can you feel that way? Wouldn't you have been upset if he had chosen Lady Kikyo and she had accepted?"

Kagome considered that question before answering. Was she that good hearted, that she would let him go to see him happy? A small piece of her wanted to stomp her foot and shout 'No!', but the sensible part, that saw Inuyasha's pain, knew that she would. She would ignore her own pain, if it meant that he could find happiness. For all that he has done for her, and the world, she would have let him go. "I guess that I care about his happiness more than my own. That's what happens when you really love someone."

Oichi considered her words for a moment, but it was still so confusing. "I guess I don't understand why he will not take you instead, since Lady Kikyo avoids him?"

Kagome chuckled and flipped her hand through her hair with a careless manner that she really didn't feel. "Because, Oichi. I refuse to be the consolation prize."

Oichi curled her nose, and considered Kagome's words. "But he's so handsome and brave. I would give anything for someone like that to love me."

Kagome sighed and put her bowl of stew down next to her discarded wedge of bread. She looked at Oichi, and tried to figure a way to explain her pride. "Sometimes in life, Oichi, the only thing that you have left is your self-respect. I could not respect myself by taking Inuyasha as my husband, knowing that he truly loved another more than me. I know that Inuyasha loves me, and I love him dearly, but I have lost so much. I refuse to lose my self-respect. I could not live a life with Inuyasha knowing that if he had a choice, he would rather have been with Kikyo.

"How could I face her, knowing that I took the only thing that she ever cared for away from her? How could I face myself, after seeing the look in his eyes, and the breathlessness in his voice, whenever we encounter his lost love in the forest? You see, sweetie, our love is deep and strong. I could never force Inuyasha to choose, and neither can Kikyo, because we care about him too much to cause him any more pain. And Inuyasha will never choose. He loves us both in a special way, and for the same reason, will not choose one over the other.

"He made a promise a long time ago to never let anything happen to Kikyo. He thinks that he failed her, and Inuyasha will spend the rest of his life living up to that promise and trying to make up for past mistakes. It's sad, really, that he would force his own suffering because of honor, but he and his family are nothing if not honorable. Well, Sesshomaru may be stretching it a little, but he takes good care of Rin, so I guess that makes him pretty honorable too."

"The demon lord, Inuyasha's brother?" Oichi prompted. She was fascinated with tales of Kagome-sama's exciting adventures and the interesting character's that she has met.

"Yep. That's the one, " Kagome nodded as if it were perfectly common to be the personal acquaintance of a fierce demon lord. "Sesshomaru is very dashing. Like Inuyasha, but in a more refined way. I can tell that he is very educated, and he is an awesome fighter. Watching his swordsmanship is like watching the most beautiful swan gliding over a still lake on a summer day. It's majestic. He's really something. He sure saved my butt a time or two," Kagome ended in a laugh.

"He sounds magnificent," Oichi sighed dreamily.

Kagome giggled at her young apprentice. Oichi had been around Inuyasha, Shippo and Kirara so much that she didn't hold many of the usual prejudices against youkai that most miko's held. She had also been introduced to Jeninji on a few trips to purchase herbs from his gardens. It stirred a sense of pride in Kagome that she was able to influence the young woman in such a positive way. If only there were more like her.

Most of the humans in their village were accepting of Inuyasha, Kirara, and Shippo, but were still wary of others. It was a safe way to be, considering there were some youkai who would just a soon kill them than look at them. She was a little more free in her trust than that, though. Having grown up in a society where you were considered innocent until proven guilty, it was hard to judge someone evil until they attacked you, and even then it could have been a misunderstanding. Her accepting attitude had gotten her into a pickle a time or two.

Her thoughts drifted back to Sesshomaru and she wondered how Rin was faring. It had been months since she had seen her young friend, or her sexy benefactor. For a complete snob, Sesshomaru sure was one hot piece of man flesh. Too bad guys like him were so stuck on themselves. That high-and-mighty arrogance tended to put a damper on the over-all package. What were looks when the guy acted like a complete jerk all the time? Some men were best admired from a distance.

It was at least five days before young Chisumi returned to her duties.

Sesshomaru watched through a slit in his eyes, as the girl made her way to him, carrying the wooden bucket holding his doom. She limped, and winced with what had to be pain from her lashing. Seeing it fueled his anger once again, and he hoped for a quick revenge upon the one responsible for beating her.

When she finally kneeled near his cell and looked pleadingly at him through the bars, Sesshomaru leaned as closely to her as he could, and accepted his fate.

He drank from the ladle.

The girls' relief was visible and the strong scent of her terror lessened considerably. She whispered a soft "Arigato", to which he replied with a slight nod.

Her visits became a part of his torture, as she was the only light in the dank pit of the dungeon, and somehow he found himself looking forward to her call. Unfortunately, her visit also reinforced his imprisonment, as she was the one to serve him the damnable drug.

Truly, he was cursed.

Through bloodloss and pain, time became nothing. The days blurred together, and no opportunity came to offer him a chance of escape.

His stomach rumbled, and he tried to focus on that familiar pain, hoping to distract himself, if only temporarily, from his slowly healing wounds. It seemed like an eternity since he had eaten anything substantial. Certainly since coming here. In the dungeon he was given a piece of hard bread each day and that was all. Asuza knew that he, as a youkai, did not eat human food, and she used the fact against him by depriving him of the nutrients that he needed. It all played into her plan of keeping him weak.

Chisumi brought the bread, and sometimes the child stole a sliver of cooked meat or cheese into the thick wedge. She thought to help stave off his starvation, and he did not bother to tell her that it would not help. He would eat it, though the nutrient value to him was very low, since it did help to push away the complaints from his empty stomach.

Evening was moving in, and Sesshomaru wondered briefly what day it was. How long had he been held in this fetid hole that he was chained to? Fall was moving in. Sesshomaru could feel the crisp chill in the air as it stealthily made its way through the old stone corridors. The frigid temperatures would only serve to make his cell that much more intolerable. He pulled his knees up to try and gather his body heat, but stopped when he heard the approach of heavy footsteps.

It was time for more depredation of his body and mind.

Sesshomaru groaned, as his captors once more released his arms from the accursed cuffs, sending them falling lifelessly to the floor.

The gross torture of his person was becoming an all too predictable occurrence. Once each evening he was released from the enchanted chains on the wall, and before the blood could return - with stinging force - to his hands, he was dragged from the cell and tossed into an underground pool of freezing water.

The short trip consisted of screaming pain from his wounds being dragged over the filthy, uneven, stones, before he was then shockingly introduced to the bone chilling temperatures of the natural mountain spring. The frigid water made his teeth chatter and his fingertips go numb... again, while it stung the newly opened wounds on his body that much more. On his hands and knees he crawled deeper, making sure to submerge his entire form. He drank greedily of the water, but the nearly desperate intake was so cold that it made his brain cry out in slicing pain.

The muffled shout of his guard warned that he had tallied too long, and Sesshomaru slowly stood to his shaky feet.

It had been like this every day. Asuza wanted him clean before he was brought to her. Oh, how he hated that devil's whore. She was killing him. Killing him slowly in the most twisted of ways.

She was fucking him to death.

By the great Kami above, he never thought to end it this way. Had it not been so painfully horrifying, he might have actually laughed at the ridiculousness of his situation.

Once he lathered the harsh lye soap all over his burning, sensitive skin, paying extra attention to his loins and cleft, he turned his groggy attention to his mane of thick white hair. Sesshomaru finally ducked once more in the frigid waters, quickly rinsing the lather from his body. The bath was the only thing that kept him going each day. As painful as it was to accomplish, it provided him the only serving of fresh, non-drugged water that he was allowed. It also helped to keep infection from setting in to the many wounds visited upon his body.

That reminded him of the gash on his buttock caused by the harlot's claw, which had been especially painful ever since the day before. He turned to inspect it closer, and wanted to sigh. It looked as if it were getting worse. Now there was a reddish-purple ring of spidery veins surrounding it and it looked swollen and inflamed. He had never had an infection before, but if he had to guess what it looked like, this would be the beginnings of it. Would that be his fate; to die a miserably shameful death, instead of on the battlefield, as was befitting a warrior of his station?

The odd position that it took for him to inspect his wound left him at a disadvantage, due the constantly muddled haze of his brain, he stumbled, almost falling, before managing to catch himself with a messy splash. Sesshomaru righted himself with wobbly effort, while casting a narrow eyed glare toward his laughing jailer.

Kami, how he hated that man.

It took three guards to shove and kick him up the seemingly endless spiraling staircase, and he was nearly breathless by the time they reached the top. His body, once powerfully strong, was failing him fast under such ill care.

He felt somewhat shamed, as he was escorted by others roaming freely around the palace halls. Through groups of soldiers and young children, Sesshomaru was paraded through in his pitiable state, dripping wet, completely nude, and unable to do a damn thing about it. It was with good fortune that the drug he was forced to consume twice daily effectively fogged his mind into not really caring all that much.

To hell with them all.

It was the utter dread of what lay ahead for him that filled his thoughts on the drunken journey. It was her evil eyes and her hated voice that caused his heart to carry an increasingly frantic beat. Already he could feel her compulsion taking its toll, invading his mind like a plague, and making his cock swell against his thigh.

The fact of it sickened him.

Today, upon entering the torture chamber, which Sesshomaru had un-affectionately labeled Asuza's personal sleeping quarters, he noticed two things that were different from the usual. First, Asuza had invited a playmate, and her playmate had a male friend that made himself known with a cocky smirk.

Iku, the dark shadow, was blessedly absent, and for that he was considerably grateful. The demon had become bold in his assured place by Asuza's side. More and more Sesshomaru was forced to endure Iku's large, callused, hands roaming his body, while Asuza took her pleasure from him each night. He wasn't sure how much better the situation would be with these two here to sully the air, but he had no choice in the matter.

But anything had to better than Iku touching him.

Desperately, he grasped for the last shred of self control left to him, but like the grains of fine white sand, it slipped through his fingers and was lost. She ruled this domain, and he was already feeling the further numbing of his mind by Asuza's magick.

"He will be a delicious morsel, my lady, and I am sure that your good mate will thoroughly enjoy the game, as well. My slave was once a famed youkai lord, you know," Asuza remarked airily with a wistful toss of her manicured hand. She called Sesshomaru to her and he could do nothing but walk to Asuza and kneel at her slipper-clad feet. She ran her hand through his still-damp hair and crooned. "You will be a good boy tonight, my pet, and show my guests how well versed you are in the art of passion. I have told them of your prowess, do not fail to live up to your Mistress' expectations."

"Yes, Mistress."

His answer stunned him. She had forced his tongue to answer! The witch had actually controlled his response to her command, and it infuriated him, but the drug and compulsion were just too strong, and he could not even accomplish the dropping of his fangs to show his rabid abhorrence.

"Splendid!" Asuza declared cheerfully with a clap of her hands, and the new youkai female smiled widely with eagerness. Her male, the one who had, until now, stood watching silently in the corner, came forward to stand by her side. Short, but thickly muscled, he had a shock of brilliant orange hair that he wore somewhat unkempt, hanging down to the middle of his back. Over his right eye there was a horrid scar, which appeared to have been burned there with some type of acid. He looked as if he had seen a battle or two.

The male then moved up and ran his long tapered fingers slowly, deliberately, over Sesshomaru's smooth neck and shoulder.

His skin crawled from the sensation and it left him feeling the need to shake the filth from his person.

"I know who you are, pretty boy," the unknown male whispered into his ear.

The male then laughed and Asuza joined him before he continued his crushing revelation, "The once all-powerful Lord Sesshomaru. Tsk. Tsk. Such a failure to your great father you must be." His cruel words hit a particularly sensitive spot of emotion for the tormented daiyoukai, crushing what remained of Sesshomaru's fading pride, and twisting his gut tight. He wondered, not for the first time since this began, what his great and terrible father would think of his firstborn son serving as a slave to a witch such as Asuza? How would the Inu no Taisho react to seeing his proud eldest reduced to perform such acts of sick degradation?

The deep gravelly voice of the unknown male further taunted him by saying. "And you call your brother pathetic? I should wonder what Inuyasha will say when he discovers his brother's pitiful fall from grace?" He then blew a disgusted breath of air in Sesshomaru's sensitive ear, pulled back, and gave him a foul sneer. "From what they say about the two of you, he will more than likely enjoy a hearty laugh."

The anger was so sharp and so true that it pierced, for one split second, through the haze in his mind. Sesshomaru managed a growl, and immediately Asuza increased her control. It all but engulfed him, causing his back to arch and his body to scream out in pain, and for a moment, he thought that he might escape tonight's servitude by passing out.

The blessed darkness was not to be his, however, as Asuza refused to allow him such a reprieve. Her compulsion kept him teetering between the edges of reality and the misty plains of his drug induced delirium. A short, deep sound, shook some awareness back into him when he recognized it as coming from his own throat. He hated to show them his suffering, but the drug stabbed at his well-practiced facade of stoicism, leaving him nearly helpless in its grasp.

Between Asuza's compulsion and the drug that they were forcing him to drink, there seemed to be no hope for him to escape this wretched existence.

Sesshomaru was beginning to accept that he might never be free.

The anonymous female began petting his body, running her long wet tongue slowly over his puckered male nipples. With one hand she explored the muscles of his hard chest and arms, and with the other, she curled cold fingers around his throbbing cock. He sucked in a sharp breath, which caused a deep throaty sound of laughter to vibrate from her long slender throat. He noticed that with her pale yellow hair pulled high atop her head, the fragile main artery was visible to tease him.

If only he could invoke his fangs and rip it out.

She stroked him, and by the Gods, it felt so good, but the knowledge only made him want to vomit his week-old bread. He arched his hips and pressed himself against her palm and felt her smile against the bare skin of his hip. Sesshomaru's breathing was becoming harder, as the female continued playing his body with expert grace, and lost in the moment, he actually debased himself further by groaning at the warm pleasure of her gripping palm.

Horrified, he opened his golden eyes - now darkened to a deep amber hue by passion and hatred - and found Asuza spread out upon her bed and enjoying the performance. The witch was rubbing her breast and pulling at her thick, tawny nipple, while she watched his reaction to the female's touch. The sight of her made his lips curl into a disgusted sneer.

The whore using his body pulled away, and then she lowered her back onto the thick fur lying over the cold stone floor. She placed her ankles apart and called him to her, and Sesshomaru braced himself for the vile act that he was, once more, forced to perform. He used his long elegant fingers to slip between her folds, and open her, before taking her in his mouth. Her taste flooded him and she moaned after a sharp intake of breath.

This was the part that he hated most. Being forced to put his mouth on the loathsome woman-flesh of these insolent whore's made him want to retch and cut his own tongue out.

Her juices continued to fill his mouth and her scent consumed his senses. She tasted of fresh leaves, and smelled much the same. While that was perfectly delightful out in nature, it left a rather bitter taste on his tongue, causing Sesshomaru to wrinkle his brow. Still, no matter how distasteful the circumstance, he had little hope to save himself from the abuse, as Asuza's compulsion only urged him on.

Sesshomaru sucked the puckered nub into his mouth, and bit down gently, just before plunging two fingers deep into her core. She screamed out and bucked wildly against his face and hand, allowing her climax to consume her. Sesshomaru pulled away and sat up with his knees beneath him and legs slightly parted to watch her as she shook with tiny after-tremors.

It was a truly disturbing sight.

Woefully, there would be no reprieve. The male companion to the spent female on the furs came up behind him with a glass vial. Sesshomaru watched him curiously from the corner of his eye, but could form no voice to question his intentions. The male poured an ample amount of the liquid into his cupped hand and then began rubbing the slick oil over his palms before lowering his hands and lewdly stroking his swollen shaft until it, too, was coated well.

Sesshomaru assumed the male now intended to rut with his mate, but Asuza's next command only served to confuse him more.

"Fuck her slave, and fuck her well."

He grit his teeth as he struggled to recover some semblance of control, yet it was a fruitless battle and extremely short lived. No matter how it disgusted him, Sesshomaru could not stop his body from moving up to slide between her outstretched legs. He stiffened slightly, as he felt the males rough hands rubbing over his back, but the push to fuck the bitch beneath him overbalanced all other thoughts.

He plunged in with one long, hard, stroke. The female moaned in delight when she was stretched full of him, until he withdrew, only to plunge in deeply yet again.

His mind was preoccupied with his carnal task, and completely unfocused on anything other than pleasing the woman, but the sudden -and wholly inappropriate - probing of something warm and hard against the puckered entrance of his backside, shook Sesshomaru roughly from the trance. In a motion so fast as to have hardly been seen by the eyes, Sesshomaru turned his head to find the male attempting to guide a fat glistening cock into his dark passage.

It startled Sesshomaru momentarily, to see a male so intent and panting with eagerness to orchestrate his rape.

The shock did not last, and the rage came next, causing another split second breech in Asuza's hold over his mind.

He would not suffer that humiliation. He would die first.

Without remorse, Sesshomaru reached up, and with his own claw, sliced a deep wound across his neck. The pain was blindingly severe, and he began to gurgle on the flood of blood. He could hear his pounding heart begin to slow, while his hard cock grew soft in the, now, screaming bitch lying beneath him. As her mate cursed his existence, and the furious screech of Asuza joined the unexpected chaos, Sesshomaru fell hard to the floor.

He was free at last.

Yet freedom was not his to take.

His Mistress would not allow it.

With a chant and a burning red glow that spread from the amulet worn around her neck, the fatal wound began to close.

Hours later he awoke to find himself shackled and chained to a whipping post. He stretched his neck with the oddest urge to weep for this tragic turn of events. And he was sure that he had never wept in his life.

The newly mended flesh on his throat itched and burned, but currently nothing could compare to the blazing pain of his abused wrists. He shifted, and tried to put some of his weight on his legs, giving his wrists a small reprieve.

"You ruined everything, you know."

Wearily Sesshomaru managed to lift his head. Asuza was pacing restlessly on the veranda above the Palace Square. She looked less than pleased with his rebellion and by the look of the stocky, slobbering, boar youkai holding the whip behind him, she intended to take it out on his hide.

Perhaps things could, indeed, get worse.

"You will pay slave, for your act of defiance. An act that cost me a much needed alliance."

Sesshomaru spat on the ground at his feet, refusing to give her the satisfaction of seeing his rising dread. He was already near death from the loss of blood and wounds that she had previously inflicted. How would he survive a lashing? Perhaps he would not.

"Fifty lashes. And don't hold back." To Sesshomaru she said, "Don't think that you can escape your punishment through death, miserable dog. I can, and will, force you to endure each and every lash."

The first ripping of flesh took his breath away.

His eyes glistened with unshed tears as the biting pain came at him again and he clenched his eyes closed tightly. Soon his back was nothing more than a mass of bloody pulp. By the forty-third searing strike, Sesshomaru actually considered begging for relief. Be it death, or degradation, anything would be better than another blow.

As quickly as the thought entered his mind he stifled it.

He would not beg.

Let them do to him as they would, but he would absolutely, positively, never, ever, beg.

Another crack of the whip scalded his damaged backside, and he shouted out helplessly from the pain of it. His fists were clenched so tightly that his claws were slicing into his palms. He could barely breathe, and by the forty-eighth splitting blow, his feet gave way and his wrists snatched painfully against the chains.

Once the dreaded - yet oddly yearned for - final resounding snap echoed loudly in the otherwise silent courtyard, Sesshomaru was released from Asuza's evil control, and thankfully dropped into unconsciousness.

It was three days later that his consciousness began to stir.

He did not wish to awaken. The pain was too great. The burn of it was unlike anything that he had ever experienced. Losing his arm was nothing compared to this. At least that had been a clean smooth cut.

"It is getting better," a small voice whispered beside him.

Ever so slowly he turned his head and peeled his eyes open just enough to see her. Chisumi was kneeling beside the bars and watching him.

"I thought they had killed you," she said sadly.

He couldn't fathom why she would care, but thoughts of Rin's compassionate nature reminded him that not all humans were vile, selfish creatures.

"They will not let me help you," she softly continued, before looking behind her to see if she was being watched at the moment, "... but I got this for you." Chisumi pushed a hunk of bread through the bars, before reaching in the folds of her sleeves to pull out a wrapped hunk of rare meat the size of her small fist. "Here, take it. It will help you heal." She reached through the bars and placed the meat in the palm of his hand lying closest to her. He closed his fingers around it, and marveled that even the tiny movement of his hand caused his entire body to flash with pain.

Sesshomaru watched the girl, as she pulled the familiar wooden ladle from the bucket, and for once, he didn't care that it was drugged. He gladly accepted the cool drink, which washed down his parched throat bringing a small degree of relief. From the angle that he lay on the floor, much of it ran down his face and neck, so she dipped out another portion, and generously gave him more. As much as he hated the idea of being drugged, he knew that it would numb some of the pain from the lashing. He was willing to do just about anything to ease that pain.

"I have to go now," Chisumi regretfully told the poor beaten youkai. She wanted to stay with him for awhile longer, but she dared not linger, for fear of being whipped herself. He was in terrible shape, and it was a wonder that he still lived at all. It had been four days since his public beating in the courtyard. Reluctantly, Chisumi could still see it in her mind. There was so much blood. It was horrible, and she was sure that the memory would give her nightmares for years to come.

He had been lying unconscious on the floor of his cell since then. The only shift in his position the whole four days was not from him, but the men who came in to force the drug down his throat. They even chopped off his long graceful ivory claws while he slept.

It was evil the way they treated him. She wasn't sure what he had done to end up here, but nothing could be so bad as to deserve the torture that he was subjected to daily. Each day he had more wounds than the last, and they bleed freely, with no care given to them at all. They were barely closed before new ones were added. For her own sanity, she dared not imagine what he was forced to endure. Of course, the things done to him before the beating were gentle compared to that. Now he was barely recognizable through the dried-caked blood and open oozing flesh.

Even the look of his eyes had changed. Where there was once bold arrogance, now there was nothing. He seemed empty.

Her heart went out to him.

It was sad that she couldn't help him more, but what could she do? She was just a slave now too. Her father was killed and there was no one to help her. Wistfully she remembered a time of wearing fine silk clothing and endless days of laughter spent running through her families' gardens.

Those days were gone for her. She went from being a princess to being a slave in less than two days.

Her sisters were killed. Her mother raped and beheaded. Her brother died trying to protect her. She was alone, and had she not been so young and healthy, she might have been killed too. Someone saw a use for her, and that was the only reason she was not dead too. Sometimes, she wished they had just killed her, and saved her from this frightening, painful life of servitude.

With one last look and a bow of her head, Chisumi stood to her feet and scurried away from the broken youkai lying on the filthy floor of his cell. Her own painful experience of the whip stung her memory and made her scars itch and burn. She couldn't live through that again. She just couldn't. It still hurt so badly.

Sesshomaru slowly, and with great care, pulled his hand to his mouth and sniffed at the meat given to him by the strange human girl. It was undercooked venison. The girl could not know how much, even that small portion, of blood would help him. Though not enough to regain his strength, it may be enough to kick his healing capabilities back into working order.

His wounds were so severe now, that it would take a much greater portion to heal completely, but at the moment, he was simply grateful for what he had. With a tortured groan, he pushed himself up, then brought the treasured portion to his mouth, and noticed immediately the infraction to his claws. Obviously Asuza wanted to make sure that he would not attempt to cut his own throat again. Pity that.

The first bite was like heaven and he savored the treat by chewing it as long as possible before swallowing. Each bite was taken with relish, but all too soon it was completely gone. With a sigh he lifted the bread and took a bite. He would need all of the help he could get.

Once the last bite was taken, Sesshomaru rolled from his side onto his stomach and went back to sleep. In sleep, he could escape. In sleep, he was free.

A/N: Doesn't it make you want to rush in there with a sub-machine Uzi, kill the bad guys, save Sesshomaru, and take him home to heal, cuddle, and hold? It makes a person really sick to think of the hardships endured by slaves in the past. I'm so glad that I'm a modern day woman.