InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Want To Be Your Slave ❯ The Other Side of Compliance ( Chapter 24 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Lord Youko 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Hentai | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 02.28.2012 | Updated On: 02.28.2012 | Pages: 3 | Words: 7.0K | Visits: 1.4K | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Hentai | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 02.28.2012 | Updated On: 02.28.2012 | Pages: 3 | Words: 7.0K | Visits: 1.4K | Status: Work In Progress
A/N: Thank you for reviewing, folks!
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Chapter 24 – The Other Side of Compliance
…I tried running away from me
Convince me that I've grown,
But I can't change so unnaturally,
Demons they follow me
I quit running away from me…
Gaeten’s plan had worked perfectly so far. Inuyasha was left alone with Raia; the head of the servants was given instructions to keep an eye on him. The strong demoness was the only one Sesshoumaru trusted to diligently care for the hanyou child. Gaeten, who had known the loyal servant for years, knew there was nothing that could corrupt her against her lord. But the castle was huge and emergencies could come up at any time; it was the leader’s duty to ensure that everything went smoothly in the absence of the Lord.
It took little ingenuity to stage a disaster at the other end of the castle to have Raia rushing there as fast as possible, leaving the hanyou alone in a now desolate wing of the castle.
The room where they had been waiting was situated in Lord Sesshoumaru’s wing of the castle, a little ways from his chambers. It was a semi-casual room meant for both formal and informal guests to be entertained according to station. It was decorated beautifully with exquisite, unparalled works of artistic beauty; the casually placed items were meant to inspire awe and respect for the owner – a testament to the wealth and dignity to the prince of the Western Lands. Any guests lucky enough to have a glimpse of the place invariably left with a sense of wonder and a slight consternation – if these were the items that the prince deemed fit to have simply lying about, his true wealth must indeed be inconceivable.
But the items were as expensive as they were beautiful and as such, precious few servants had the permission to enter the room, Raia being one of them. And that was another reason why Sesshoumaru had chosen that room for Inuyasha to wait in; he knew no one would be foolish enough to loiter near his chambers when he was not around. Servants were clumsy and if anything broke – a vase, a rare piece of china - Sesshoumaru had been known to break something of the unfortunate servant in return. The demon Lord did not appreciate other people laying hands on his things without his permission. Therefore, there was less of a chance that the hanyou would get into any kind of trouble from any malicious staff.
The wise demoness had understood the honour being bestowed upon the hanyou by being allowed to be here without his master, and she knew the boy was no danger to anything there – she had never met a child, demon or human as subdued as this hanyou, and yet, at the same time, so full of life – Inuyasha, for all his submissiveness, did not have the broken, empty eyes of a slave. The sweet boy was the last person to be the cause of any mishap.
However, Jaken and his partner in crime had far too much at stake to worry about some artefacts in a room. If something broke, it could always be replaced and a minor punishment would be a small price to pay to be rid of the irritating hanyou. Besides, if luck was with them, they might even be able to do the kid in without damaging anything. After all, thought Gaeten smugly, the idiot was a puppet – Sesshoumaru-sama had turned him into nothing more than a toy. He would probably even die silently so as not to cause trouble to his killers.
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So, when the time came to put their plan in motion, Gaeten was prepared with a poison-tipped tanto. The poison was the deadliest he could find; Inuyasha would be dead before he even opened his mouth to cry out and they would be gone before Raia returned. The head of the servants would be held responsible for her ineptitude in keeping the boy safe, Sesshoumaru-sama would banish her from the castle, if not end her life then and there, and Gaeten could then slowly worm his way into the demon Lord’s good graces after disposing of the idiotic toad.
It stung his pride to think the demon Lord still ruled his mind and his thoughts. Since the day Sesshoumaru had awakened his true nature, he had yearned for the touch that had made him feel more complete than he ever had in his life. For the first time since he could remember, he had given up control and it had felt divine. Now it was like an addiction; he had to experience that feeling one more time, no matter what.
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Inuyasha stood alone in the balcony of the gorgeous room.
When Raia had led him into the room, she had gently warned him not to touch anything lest it broke or got damaged. Inuyasha had complied easily, more than content to simply look at the beautiful, most likely priceless items in the room. But the sun setting behind the trees surrounding the vast, beautiful gardens coloured them enticingly with the last sunlight of the day and Inuyasha found it more beautiful than any of the objects in the room.
The sunlight diluting gently in the early evening made a stark contrast to the violence about to be unleashed on the room. A slight, cold breeze was the only herald to the powerful tiger demon entering the room. Inuyasha, who had been looking out the small balcony with his back turned to the entrance of the room, spun around as a small shiver passed through him.
Gaeten stood, poised and calm in the doorway, his long thick plait of light brown hair reaching up to his knees, giving him a dignified, noble look. There was nothing in the suave demon’s expression that would indicate anything out of the ordinary but the killing ki surrounding the man had Inuyasha gasping with its intensity.
The tiger demon had decided that Jaken would better play his part by being the silent partner, keeping an eye out for trouble because the blustering toad was about as subtle as a squawking duck. Jaken, therefore, was positioned seemingly casually at the entrance of the wing, from where people were most likely to enter and he was alone with the brat, the only one to enjoy Inuyasha’s final moments of terror. He did not plan to make it easy for him, after the humiliation he had endured by having the brat witness Sesshoumaru-sama touching him.
Gaeten relished the look of shock and fear on the hanyou’s face as he smiled quietly, long, graceful almost feminine fingers caressing the hilt of the tanto gently. Inuyasha’s wide eyes stared at him, then the blade. Gaeten stared back, holding his gaze like a snake hypnotizing its prey. That innocent, hateful face would soon still forever.
“Inuyasha,” Gaeten spoke quietly, voice fluid and dark, “I have an…unpleasant duty I must perform.”
The smile on his lips did not match his words.
“But before that,” he continued. “I must thank you.”
Inuyasha was took a step back, a move that only served to excite the predetor. Gaeten licked his lips unconsciously as he stepped into the room. The soft evening breeze fluttered the silk drapes decorating the room and Gaeten voice seemed to be swallowed up till it was like a quiet drop of water in a still lake at midnight.
“It is thanks to you that I know who I am today.”
The smile on his faced widened.
“Sesshoumaru-sama taught me.”
He slid the tanto out of sheath with an unmistakable, chilling sound.
“And once you are gone, Sesshoumaru-sama will have someone more…worthy of his touch.”
The words were swallowed up by the silence of the room but they echoed in Inuyasha’s mind.
Not worthy, not good enough, good for nothing, worthless, worthless, worthless…..
For the first time, Inuyasha had a funny feeling inside him; a boiling, churning feeling as if there was something trapped inside, clawing to come out. The words seemed to light the fuse on a stack of dynamite and suddenly, there was rage welling inside him like a hot, unstoppable tide. He bowed his head, body shaking with the need to tear, to rend, to destroy something.
His breathing quickened; he didn’t like this feeling – this strange, uncomfortable feeling that something…something was wrong, he had to do something but he didn’t know what it was that he needed to do. The feeling of wanting to destroy, wanting to harm, was so foreign to the hanyou who’d seen a lifetime of slavery, that he didn’t recognize it at once. Inuyasha could feel his heart thundering in his chest and the room looked surreal – the quiet, peaceful evening, the gently silk, the demon in front of him, about to kill him…
“You’re not.”
Gaeten stopped short, frozen by the unexpected too loud words rasped by the boy in front of him.
“What did you say?” he asked softly.
“You’re not more worthy of him,” Inuyasha repeated, startled by his own voice. He felt like a spectator, hearing the words coming from his own mouth.
And suddenly, the poised, handsome face was twisted in a terrible scowl. The tiger demon’s hand tightened on the tanto.
“How dare you, you fucking brat?” Gaeten hissed. “You dare fucking back-answer me? Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to open your mouth in front of your betters?”
The harsh laugh that escaped from Inuyasha’s throat almost had Gaeten stepping back in alarm.
“What’s so funny?” Gaeten demanded, peering closely at him, trying to see past his lowered bangs. He suddenly began to feel uneasy in the room, as though everything was closing in on him; the air seemed to be getting thicker.
But as Inuyasha stood stock still, Gaeten gathered his nerve and advanced. There was nothing to fear from this broken slave. He was a high level demon, a trained fighter. He could take this small slip of a boy with his hands tied behind his back. He was just letting his nerves get to him.
The killing ki in the air became sharper, more intense, as Gaeten raised the blade above his head and prepared to put it through Inuyasha’s lowered neck.
The tiger demon was too shocked to even cry out as five razor sharp claws slashed through his raised arm and the tanto thudded softly onto the carpeted floor.
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Jaken was getting impatient.
It had been over an hour now. The pompous tiger had said he would be out in a flash. What the hell was he doing in there? He’d been a supercilious ass in telling him to stay out of the way and these were the lethal skills he had been boasting so proudly about? How long did it take to kill a hanyou, anyway?
Jaken looked around the corridor he was supposed to be guarding. No one had passed by here throughout the time he had been here. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to go in and check on what was taking the idiot so long…
“JAKEN!!”
The toad demon almost jumped out of his skin at the cry that split the silence of the evening. It was a highpitched, terrified cry, coming from the room where Gaeten had gone.
Jaken turned towards the room and frowned. Was that really the self-assured, confident tiger demon who had gone in a while ago? It sounded like a female’s voice.
“JAKEN HELP ME!!”
Nope, definitely Gaeten. What had the idiot gotten into his time? Had he run into guards unexpectedly? How weak was he to not be able to take care of a few soldiers?
“What’s the matter?” he called out irritably, attempting to keep his voice down, unlike the idiot who was screaming at the top of his lungs. “Why are you making such a racket?”
There was a garbled scream from the room and the sounds of something crashing and falling. Jaken’s heart missed a beat. The stupid tiger was going to get them both killed along with the hanyou. It was a miracle no servants or guards had come here to check on what was going on.
He began walking as quickly as you could towards the room. He knew he would be no match for anyone who had Gaeten screaming in terror. The tiger demon may have been pompous and daft but he was strong. The only weapon he was carrying was a wooden staff that he had managed to lay his hands on in the servant’s quarters. It was a plain, bamboo staff – strong enough to hit someone with but no match for demon strength. He wasn’t stupid enough to think he could win a fight with it but maybe it would be enough to get the idiot demon out of there and make a run for it.
The moment he entered the room, his eyes were immediately drawn to the crumpled, horrified countenance of Gaeten sitting slumped against a wooden chest, shaking and backpeddiing fruitlessly, as if attempting to burrow into the wood at his back and disappear.
Gaeten’s eyes were wide with terror. “Jaken! That-the hanyou – he- demon –I..”
“Get yourself together,” Jaken ordered disgusted, eyes roving over his injured and bloody form. There were gashed on his hand and face and blood was trickling down from his forehead from a nasty wound on his head. “What happened to you?” he wondered.
Gaeten gulped, still breathing hard. “It was…Inuyasha. I was just - and he…” Gaeten trailed off, eyes searching the room nervously.
He had always thought he was a strong fighter, unflappable in the face of calamity but he had never met anyone with such an unrestrained youki. Inuyasha’s aura frightened him and fear was the thing that had turned the tides in many a battles; when it came to a match among two strong opponents, ultimately, the one who lost was the one who was afraid. Gaeten had tried to swallow his fear and fight for the sake of his pride but to his shame, he could not land a single blow. Sometime during their struggle, the tanto had been kicked to the far corner of the room and in his arrogance, he had not thought to bring another weapon. He had fought valiantly in the beginning with his claws and teeth but he could land no more than scratches on the hanyou. All he had to do was look into those cruel red eyes and his limbs turned to water.
Jaken’s eyebrows shot up in his head, staring bemusedly at the defeated tiger demon.. “Inuyasha did that?” he asked incredulously. He wondered if the tiger had hit his head a little too hard.
Gaeten nodded weakly. “Destroyed…everything…”
For the first time, Jaken looked around the room and froze at the sight. The room was completely ransacked. The curtains were shredded, the sofa was overturned and broken, the carpet was pulled off, the table had crashed against the wall and was lying in pieces.
“Where is he?” Jaken asked, fingers tightening around the staff in his hand. It was a rare break for them if the hanyou had indeed caused the destruction. They could then tell Sesshoumaru-sama that the boy had gone crazy and the two of them had only been trying to stop him…although he doubted Sesshoumaru-sama would buy the idiot’s story of the quiet slave being capable of doing all that.
Gaeten pointed a shaking finger at the top of a high wooden cupboard at the other end of the room. Jaken followed his gaze to alight upon a small red form crouching on it quietly. Inuyasha’s bangs were covering his eyes so Jaken could not tell what he was up to but something about him made the toad uneasy. He wondered uncomfortably if the tense, suffocating energy in the room was really coming from the tiger demon as he had originally assumed.
“Inuyasha,” he said authoritatively, stepping towards the boy. “Just what do you think you’re doing? I assume you realize you are going to be punished for this-“
He stopped midsentence when Inuyasha’s head snapped up, turning crazed red eyes at him. There were strange purple markings across his face and his claws were coated with blood.
“I-Inuyasha?” Jaken asked rather unsurely.
The hanyou remained stock still. It was a demon’s most base instincts to hide from a threat before it knew more about the new demon. Getting out of reach and remaining motionless attracted less attention and kept one alive in the wild. This toad…his gut told him he was an enemy although the hanyou Inuyasha had been too soft-hearted to ever think of him as such, even in his own mind. But the demon, let loose after such a long, long time, could feel all the hurt sadness caused to the hanyou’s tender heart and he knew this demon had to be destroyed. A lifetime of slavery had beaten any hint of aggression out of the hanyou; the demon had never thought he would be let free, never thought he would finally have control of this body which was as much his as it was the human and the hanyou’s. They were one; all three were a part of him but the enslaved hanyou had been forced to repress this side of him, to forget all about what it felt like to be angry and vengeful and alive…today, all those who had done that to the hanyou were going to die…a slow and painful death, feeling ten times the pain they had inflicted on a helpless child.
Jaken’s thoughts were whirling. He knew the rumours about hanyou having a dangerous demon side but looking at that quiet little slave, he would never have imagined in a million years that the boy was capable of so much as lifting a finger against anyone else. In fact, it had been one of the things that had annoyed him about Inuyasha so. He was the perfect slave – docile and submissive and innocent. No matter how much he wished to serve, no matter his dedication to Sesshoumaru-sama, he would never be able to match that child-like innocence.
On the positive side, once the demon Lord saw what the hanyou had done, it would be the end of the slave. The imperious prince would not want anything to do with a wild, untamed slave who, at the moment, seemed no more than an animal. Inuyasha would either be dead or out of the castle.
His attention switched back to he crouched figure on top of the cupboard as a low growl came from Inuyasha’s throat. The energy in the air tightened.
Jaken swallowed nervously. On the negative side, the hanyou might just kill him before Sesshoumaru-sama got here.
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On the top of a tower, at the far side of the castle -
“My Lord, don’t you think it’s been long enough-“
Raia shut her mouth when Sesshoumaru gave her a cool glance. The demoness was getting more and more fidgety with every passing moment. When the demon Lord had ordered her to pretend to leave Inuyasha alone with those monsters, she had almost protested. The prince was underestimating how dangerous the two of them were. There was no possible way Inuyasha would survive against them.
She had had her doubts about the toad since he had come here, though she was obligated as a servant of the house, to keep baseless opinions to herself. The toad demon’s oily, smooth talking ways didn’t fool her for a second; she’d had far too much experience with dealing with people of his type. But Jaken had done nothing she could fault him for. He carried out all his duties without once complaining and to the best of his ability. She had discreetly asked the others if he had caused any mischief and had found nothing.
And Gaeten. Raia didn’t know what had happened to him but the tiger demon had changed almost overnight one day. There were whispered rumours that he’d gotten on Sesshoumaru’s bad side but Raia did not have the nerve to ask him. He’d become taciturn and rude instead of the once poised and aloof person he’d been. The past few days, he’d been quiet and brooding but Raia had not thought anything of it. That he would try to harm Inuyasha had never even crossed her mind; so far as she knew, the tiger demon had never even spoken to the boy.
Therefore, when Sesshoumaru-sama had told her he and Jaken planned to kill the hanyou slave, she had been surprised, to say the least. She had thought the demon Lord was unaware of the toad’s resentment against the hanyou. But using the child as bait to catch the two in the act seemed to her like going a bit too far. He had even given orders to all the servants and guards to stay clear of his wing of the castle, regardless of what they heard.
“Inuyasha,” Sesshoumaru spoke suddenly and she snapped out of her musings, “Is stronger than he looks.”
Raia hoped that the disbelieving look she was giving him was enough to get him to explain. But the demon prince didn’t even bother to tell her what he could see happening in the room below. It was too far for Raia to be able to see – which meant Jaken and Gaeten would not be able to see them either – but the taiyoukai was able to see everything clearly. For once, she cursed the demon Lord’s ability to keep his face unreadable. She was reasonably sure he wouldn’t just stand there and watch Inuyasha be hurt but she did not trust his definition of hurt. She did not want to see the hanyou beaten half to death because of any strange ideas the warrior prince might have of pain making him stronger; the hanyou had seen far too much pain in his young life; any more would break him instead of making him stronger.
So, she watched the Sesshoumaru’s face for any indication of what was going on down there, but to no avail. It was as pointless as trying to look into the balcony so far below that was nothing more than a black dot to her.
When Sesshoumaru had learned of the two demons’ idiotic plan, his first thought had been to snap both their necks. Did they really think the Lord and Lady of the castle were stupid enough to leave the castle unprotected by going away together, leaving the protection of the castle to a mere servant? And they would never have ruled for so long if they remained unaware of crude assassination attempts being planned in the castle. His mother had found it particularly amusing and had been gracious enough to suggest several interesting ways of punishing the two. He had almost taken her up on a couple of them but then he had felt the change in Inuyasha’s aura when Jaken had taunted him after he thought they were alone. It was a pure, demonic aura laced with the kind of fury he had not thought Inuyasha capable of. As fast as it had appeared, it was gone but it got the demon Lord curious as to just what the puppy was capable of.
So he had allowed the attack to go as planned. The boy’s demon would appear only if he felt threatened, and if there was no other way for him to save himself. If Inuyasha was unable to handle them, it would take him less than a heartbeat to step in and slaughter the two.
But it didn’t look like it would be required. It seemed the demon half of the hanyou was as ferocious as the human half was meek; Gaeten had been reduced to screams and whimpers under the hanyou’s sharp little claws…and it seemed Jaken was about to meet the same fate. He wanted to be there when the annoying toad got what was coming to him.
Next to him, Raia took an involuntary step back as a small smile graced Lord Sesshoumaru’s face. Half intrigued and half frightened, she had to place a steadying hand on the ledge nearby to prevent falling down the precarious slope. If she slipped, it would be a steep fall down several stories that would doubtlessly be the end of her.
She gave a small gasp and had to bring the other hand to grip the ledge as well, as, in a flurry of white silk, Sesshoumaru gracefully leapt down the tower and disappeared.
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“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGH!!”
Jaken and Gaeten both fell back with a cry, four violent red slashes across Gaeten’s chest. Jaken only barely managed to hold up his staff in time to avoid taking the blow which would have sliced him in half, like it had the staff.
When Jaken finally saw what had had Gaeten screaming in terror all this time, he had attempted to turn tail and escape as fast as he could. He had almost made it to the door but then the hanyou had landed right in front of him, claws raised, and Jaken had scurried back inside. He had quickly realized that Gaeten and he needed to work together if they had any hope of surviving. The prideful tiger demon had not been any more thrilled at the idea than he had been but they both preferred it to being sliced into ribbons by the hanyou. They thanked their stars that Inuyasha was still young and had not yet developed all his powers or they might not have survived the attacks.
Gaeten began to curse softly although he had long since lost the spirit and pride needed to cuss out an opponent during a fight. They had decided one of them needed to distract the hanyou while the other took him down, and since Jaken was the only one with a weapon, though now a weapon half the length it used to be, Gaeten was stuck with the role of the bait.
With Inuyasha’s attention focused on the demon in front of him, Jaken slowly moved back, behind Inuyasha and raised the bamboo above the hanyou’s head and brought it back down, ready to knock him out in one strike.
But the staff never met its mark. Inuyasha had launched himself forward onto Gaeten and Jaken’s swing crashed into the floor, instead of Inuyasha’s head. Jaken looked up, frustrated at the blood dripping from Gaeten’s face.
“Why you little piece of crap-“ he muttered under his breath, advancing on Inuyasha.
Then the hanyou’s head snapped back and ruby red eyes glared straight at him. Even as the terrified servant stared, Inuyasha bared his fangs and snarled.
Jaken clutched the staff in his hand and whimpered, reading his death in Inuyasha’s blood-hungry eyes.
“Sesshoumaru-sama!”
Gaeten’s desperate cry made him turn his eyes to the fallen tiger demon who now had a look of desperate joy on his face, like a drowning man that had spied a life raft. Jaken followed his gaze and turned terrified eyes on the demon Lord standing motionless in the doorway.
“Sesshoumaru-sama!” he gasped, “Sesshoumaru-sama, help me please, please…”
But the demon Lord may as well have been made out of stone. Cold golden eyes watched with detached amusement as the little hanyou, who had so far been afraid to even raise his eyes to Jaken lashed out violently, fangs bared in a dreadful snarl.
“Sesshoumaru-sama!” Jaken gasped, “H-he’s – he’s gone crazy, my Lord. He was- we were…he began to destroy…the room – and Raia fled and we tried to stop him but he…he –“
“Jaken.”
The toad shut his momentarily forgetting his injuries and the hanyou he was barely managing to keep at arms’ length. It didn’t help that Inuyasha’s arms were longer than Jaken’s.
Hearing the single word spoken in the deep, quiet voice, Inuyasha also stopped, taking stock of the newcomer. He tried to judge how powerful he was by his youki but it was pointless. His youki told him he was even weaker than the tiger demon but at the same time, there was not a hint of fear on anxiety in him. A demon’s youki would react immediately to any threat; the only way this demon would be unafraid of him was if he was sure of being superior in strength.
And he had memories of this one, memories of safety and comfort and awe – this demon had not done anything bad to hanyou Inuyasha. Inuyasha had been taken care of; he had no hurt associated with him, only acceptance and surrender. He could feel it, feel how completely the hanyou had submitted to this demon, from the depths of his soul. Such submission could not be forced; it had to be given, and it rankled the demon that the hanyou had given up his pride, his life, his everything for this man. So, even as he knew his vengeance would not have to involve the destruction of this youkai, he felt the resentment building within him towards the person Inuyasha had given his body and soul to. But he would wait; wait and see just what this strange, fearless, self-assured demon was all about.
As Inuyasha stilled, so did Jaken, turning hope-filled eyes at his master. The blood flowing from his fresh wounds almost did not register as Jaken waited for Sesshoumaru-sama to pass judgement.
“I believe,” Sesshoumaru said at last, staring Jaken down with piercing, lowlidded eyes. “It is not the hanyou that needs to learn his lesson.”
Jaken felt his heart stutter in his chest. “Wh-what…but we…that is-“
Sesshoumaru glanced once to the far end of the room where the poisoned knife had been knocked during the scuffle. “If that tanto had met its mark, did you imagine you would be allowed to hold on to your worthless lives?”
With a sinking feeling, Jaken and Gaeten both realized that they had made a terrible, terrible mistake. The demon Lord knew…about their attempt to kill Inuyasha, about everything.
“M-my L-lord,” Gaeten stammered, “W-we didn’t – didn’t realize you…”
Sesshoumaru raised one elegant eyebrow. “You did not realize that you were not as discreet as you thought you were?”
Gaeten shut his mouth and looked away. The contempt in Sesshoumaru’s eyes struck him like a physical blow.
“The House of the Moon would have fallen years ago if vermin like you could get away with murder.”
“Please, please d-don’t do this, my Lord,” Jaken rasped, staring at his last hope in despair. The cold look in Sesshoumaru-sama’s eyes told him that the demon Lord didn’t have any intention at all of saving either of them and that he and Gaeten were very, very screwed. “My Lord, I am loyal…please, I beg of you. One chance…I beg of you to give me one chance…please…”
“A loyal servant would respect his master’s wishes,” Sesshoumaru reminded him lightly. “In your envy, you sought to harm an innocent child who has done you no harm.”
Jaken felt sweat break out on his brow. The slashes on his body hurt less than the realization that his Master, his Sesshoumaru-sama was here, and he did nothing. So far, he had been fighting tooth and nail to stay alive till the demon prince got here because he had been sure Sesshoumaru-sama would stop the hanyou from hurting the two of them further, even if later, they were punished.
“W-we made a mistake…we shouldn’t have – I deeply regret what we –“
“It is not the act you regret,” Sesshoumaru cut in, “You merely regret that you were caught.”
Golden eyes that seemed lighter, crueller than usual, shifted from the toad demon to the tiger.
“You.”
Gaeten froze, flinching at Sesshoumaru-sama’s severe tone. He tried to look away but the molten golden gaze made it impossible. Gaeten stared helplessly into the demon Lord’s pitiless eyes.
“Did you forget what happened the last time you tried to lay a hand on what was mine?” A cold smile touched Sesshoumaru’s lips. “Or was the humiliation not enough for a whore like you?”
Gaeten’s face burned at the reminder, and at the stinging truth in his words. A whore…was that what he was? Maybe he was right; a true warrior would have been appalled and would have craved nothing more than revenge but all he had wished for since that day was Sesshoumaru-sama’s hands on him again. A whore…Yes, yes he must be…
“You were given a second chance,” Sesshoumaru told him quietly. “You were given a chance to change your ways.”
Gaeten was not aware that he was whinging. Somewhere in his mind, he knew he should have been begging for forgiveness, begging for his life but the words just would not form. All that he could think of was that he had blown his chance. It did not look like he would ever be touched by the prince again.
“Gaeten.”
The tiger demon opened his eyes to look up at him, unaware that he had closed them. Humiliated, piteous tears gathered in his eyes even as he looked up into Sesshoumaru’s disinterested ones.
“A pet that has disobeyed its master is punished-”
Was he....did the demon Lord just address him as a pet? Gaeten’s heart sped up as he searched the demon Lord’s eyes for any hint of compassion.
Then Sesshoumaru’s gaze swept over him derisively, the look one would give to a pile of dirt.
“-but a rabid dog needs to be put down.”
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By the time Raia managed to get to the room, running the length of the castle, the room in which she had left Inuyasha was unrecognizable. The furniture was smashed and upturned, drapes, pillows, cushions were slashed to bits and the carpet and walls were stained with blood.
The two dishevelled figures, that could only be Jaken and Gaeten, were huddled in one corner of the room, cowering from, it seemed, Inuyasha. The hanyou stood stock still, his back turned to her and Sesshoumaru, making no move- only the low, warning growl coming from his throat was a sign that this was not the sweet hanyou they knew.
Even Riai felt a shiver of fear in her heart at the fierce youki crackling from the hanyou. She was secretly thankful that its ire was not directed towards her; she was not certain she would survive it. It was the kind of raw, unrestrained energy one rarely came in contact with. In all her years, there were only perhaps a couple of occasions when Raia had witnessed a demon gone wild and even then, none as strong as this one – the deeper a demon was buried, the stronger it would come out. That was why demons preferred slaves that were broken; if a slave’s true nature was only suppressed instead of broken, it would come out sooner or later and destroy everything in its wake.
Gaeten and Jaken seemed to have received a very painful taste of it, if the fear in their youki was anything to go by. The blood on Inuyasha’s claws was testament to the fact that it was he that had wreaked havoc on the room, and on the two demons trembling in fear.
Raia looked anxiously from the child to the demon Lord.
“My Lord,” she began urgently, still panting from her wild dash from the top of the tower to this room. “He needs to be reined in…should I bring in guards with a sedative…” It would be the sensible thing to do to have it shot while it was still wary of the presence of the new demon.
It was common practice to control unruly demons with a sedative dart. It usually required a trained team of demons to do the job because controlling a demon gone wild required effort, skill and perfect co-ordination between the team members. If the demon in question could not or did not wish to be killed, it took a strong sedative, usually made from some sort of poison, to bring it out of its trance. It was in a wild demon’s nature to fight and keep on fighting till it died, so it was not possible to do what a demon would normally do to subdue another– fight and defeat. Defeat implied having the sense to surrender when one knew the battle was lost; but a demon like this one would disregard pain, bloodloss and injuries and would not stop till it got itself killed.
“No,” Sesshoumaru said softly, not turning his eyes away from the small demon and its prey. “Let him be. The demon has been subdued for far too long…this time, let him be.”
It took a great deal of his willpower to mask his own aura and watch the scene play out. If he didn’t demon Inuyasha would promptly turn his attention to the most powerful source of youki in the room and attack, viewing him as a threat to its dominance. He wanted to watch the end of this little drama before he and demon Inuyasha faced off. But his own youki was very tempted to assert its dominance, to teach this puppy he had claimed that demon or not, he was still owned. It was not often that any of his pets provided any sort of challenge to his authority; he was curious to see how his little hanyou would react to knowing what he had done.
Raia was startled. The first thought she had had when she entered the room was that whoever had done all this was going to be in very, very deep trouble. When she had seen it was Inuyasha, she had prayed the demon Lord would not be too hard on him. Now, however, it seemed as though the demon Lord was, if anything, pleased by the state of things.
“But the room – aren’t you…?”
When Sesshoumaru glanced at her, his eyes held nothing other than amusement. “I believe it is a fitting price for the entertainment.”
Raia turned towards him in despair. “B-but…Gaeten and Jaken…they will-“
The demon prince smiled coldly and it suddenly occurred to Raia that Sesshoumaru-sama was really enjoying this. He would coolly stand there and watch the two get killed.
“S-Sesshoumaru-sama,” Gaeten whimpered, attempting to straighten up but he could no longer feel his limbs and he slumped down awkwardly. “P-please, please take- take…” he swallowed nervously and tried again. “Save me, p-please, please?”
For a moment, Raia forgot about the gravity of the situation and stared at him. If she hadn’t seen it herself, she would not have believed in a million years that Gaeten could beg, sounding like a small child. It wasn’t that he was a wimp; everyone knew he had gone into and faced down formidable foes on the battle field, never giving up his pride in the face of death. But here he was, looking at the prince with tears beginning to gather in his eyes, and Raia wondered what exactly had transpired between the two.
“M-my Lord,” Raia stammered, very aware that it was not her place to speak, but unable to help herself. “A-are you really going to- to…let them die this way?”
It was one thing to execute traitors or wrongdoers as punishment but this was different. Inuyasha’s attacks were not strong enough to kill them; the demons would die by inches, most likely from bloodloss. It seemed barbaric to watch it happen.
Sesshoumaru turned slowly towards her,
“What have they done to deserve better?”
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A/N: Cliffy! ^.^ I know a lot of you were waiting for Jaken to get his ass kicked…well here it is. But what say, people? Should they die by Inu-chan’s hands? Or should Sesshy step in and save the worthless bastards?
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Chapter 24 – The Other Side of Compliance
…I tried running away from me
Convince me that I've grown,
But I can't change so unnaturally,
Demons they follow me
I quit running away from me…
-‘Demons’ lyrics by Avenged Sevenfold
Jaken was trembling with anticipation by the time the royal family was out of the castle. Finally, at long last, his dream of getting rid of the hanyou was about to come true.Gaeten’s plan had worked perfectly so far. Inuyasha was left alone with Raia; the head of the servants was given instructions to keep an eye on him. The strong demoness was the only one Sesshoumaru trusted to diligently care for the hanyou child. Gaeten, who had known the loyal servant for years, knew there was nothing that could corrupt her against her lord. But the castle was huge and emergencies could come up at any time; it was the leader’s duty to ensure that everything went smoothly in the absence of the Lord.
It took little ingenuity to stage a disaster at the other end of the castle to have Raia rushing there as fast as possible, leaving the hanyou alone in a now desolate wing of the castle.
The room where they had been waiting was situated in Lord Sesshoumaru’s wing of the castle, a little ways from his chambers. It was a semi-casual room meant for both formal and informal guests to be entertained according to station. It was decorated beautifully with exquisite, unparalled works of artistic beauty; the casually placed items were meant to inspire awe and respect for the owner – a testament to the wealth and dignity to the prince of the Western Lands. Any guests lucky enough to have a glimpse of the place invariably left with a sense of wonder and a slight consternation – if these were the items that the prince deemed fit to have simply lying about, his true wealth must indeed be inconceivable.
But the items were as expensive as they were beautiful and as such, precious few servants had the permission to enter the room, Raia being one of them. And that was another reason why Sesshoumaru had chosen that room for Inuyasha to wait in; he knew no one would be foolish enough to loiter near his chambers when he was not around. Servants were clumsy and if anything broke – a vase, a rare piece of china - Sesshoumaru had been known to break something of the unfortunate servant in return. The demon Lord did not appreciate other people laying hands on his things without his permission. Therefore, there was less of a chance that the hanyou would get into any kind of trouble from any malicious staff.
The wise demoness had understood the honour being bestowed upon the hanyou by being allowed to be here without his master, and she knew the boy was no danger to anything there – she had never met a child, demon or human as subdued as this hanyou, and yet, at the same time, so full of life – Inuyasha, for all his submissiveness, did not have the broken, empty eyes of a slave. The sweet boy was the last person to be the cause of any mishap.
However, Jaken and his partner in crime had far too much at stake to worry about some artefacts in a room. If something broke, it could always be replaced and a minor punishment would be a small price to pay to be rid of the irritating hanyou. Besides, if luck was with them, they might even be able to do the kid in without damaging anything. After all, thought Gaeten smugly, the idiot was a puppet – Sesshoumaru-sama had turned him into nothing more than a toy. He would probably even die silently so as not to cause trouble to his killers.
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So, when the time came to put their plan in motion, Gaeten was prepared with a poison-tipped tanto. The poison was the deadliest he could find; Inuyasha would be dead before he even opened his mouth to cry out and they would be gone before Raia returned. The head of the servants would be held responsible for her ineptitude in keeping the boy safe, Sesshoumaru-sama would banish her from the castle, if not end her life then and there, and Gaeten could then slowly worm his way into the demon Lord’s good graces after disposing of the idiotic toad.
It stung his pride to think the demon Lord still ruled his mind and his thoughts. Since the day Sesshoumaru had awakened his true nature, he had yearned for the touch that had made him feel more complete than he ever had in his life. For the first time since he could remember, he had given up control and it had felt divine. Now it was like an addiction; he had to experience that feeling one more time, no matter what.
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Inuyasha stood alone in the balcony of the gorgeous room.
When Raia had led him into the room, she had gently warned him not to touch anything lest it broke or got damaged. Inuyasha had complied easily, more than content to simply look at the beautiful, most likely priceless items in the room. But the sun setting behind the trees surrounding the vast, beautiful gardens coloured them enticingly with the last sunlight of the day and Inuyasha found it more beautiful than any of the objects in the room.
The sunlight diluting gently in the early evening made a stark contrast to the violence about to be unleashed on the room. A slight, cold breeze was the only herald to the powerful tiger demon entering the room. Inuyasha, who had been looking out the small balcony with his back turned to the entrance of the room, spun around as a small shiver passed through him.
Gaeten stood, poised and calm in the doorway, his long thick plait of light brown hair reaching up to his knees, giving him a dignified, noble look. There was nothing in the suave demon’s expression that would indicate anything out of the ordinary but the killing ki surrounding the man had Inuyasha gasping with its intensity.
The tiger demon had decided that Jaken would better play his part by being the silent partner, keeping an eye out for trouble because the blustering toad was about as subtle as a squawking duck. Jaken, therefore, was positioned seemingly casually at the entrance of the wing, from where people were most likely to enter and he was alone with the brat, the only one to enjoy Inuyasha’s final moments of terror. He did not plan to make it easy for him, after the humiliation he had endured by having the brat witness Sesshoumaru-sama touching him.
Gaeten relished the look of shock and fear on the hanyou’s face as he smiled quietly, long, graceful almost feminine fingers caressing the hilt of the tanto gently. Inuyasha’s wide eyes stared at him, then the blade. Gaeten stared back, holding his gaze like a snake hypnotizing its prey. That innocent, hateful face would soon still forever.
“Inuyasha,” Gaeten spoke quietly, voice fluid and dark, “I have an…unpleasant duty I must perform.”
The smile on his lips did not match his words.
“But before that,” he continued. “I must thank you.”
Inuyasha was took a step back, a move that only served to excite the predetor. Gaeten licked his lips unconsciously as he stepped into the room. The soft evening breeze fluttered the silk drapes decorating the room and Gaeten voice seemed to be swallowed up till it was like a quiet drop of water in a still lake at midnight.
“It is thanks to you that I know who I am today.”
The smile on his faced widened.
“Sesshoumaru-sama taught me.”
He slid the tanto out of sheath with an unmistakable, chilling sound.
“And once you are gone, Sesshoumaru-sama will have someone more…worthy of his touch.”
The words were swallowed up by the silence of the room but they echoed in Inuyasha’s mind.
Not worthy, not good enough, good for nothing, worthless, worthless, worthless…..
For the first time, Inuyasha had a funny feeling inside him; a boiling, churning feeling as if there was something trapped inside, clawing to come out. The words seemed to light the fuse on a stack of dynamite and suddenly, there was rage welling inside him like a hot, unstoppable tide. He bowed his head, body shaking with the need to tear, to rend, to destroy something.
His breathing quickened; he didn’t like this feeling – this strange, uncomfortable feeling that something…something was wrong, he had to do something but he didn’t know what it was that he needed to do. The feeling of wanting to destroy, wanting to harm, was so foreign to the hanyou who’d seen a lifetime of slavery, that he didn’t recognize it at once. Inuyasha could feel his heart thundering in his chest and the room looked surreal – the quiet, peaceful evening, the gently silk, the demon in front of him, about to kill him…
“You’re not.”
Gaeten stopped short, frozen by the unexpected too loud words rasped by the boy in front of him.
“What did you say?” he asked softly.
“You’re not more worthy of him,” Inuyasha repeated, startled by his own voice. He felt like a spectator, hearing the words coming from his own mouth.
And suddenly, the poised, handsome face was twisted in a terrible scowl. The tiger demon’s hand tightened on the tanto.
“How dare you, you fucking brat?” Gaeten hissed. “You dare fucking back-answer me? Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to open your mouth in front of your betters?”
The harsh laugh that escaped from Inuyasha’s throat almost had Gaeten stepping back in alarm.
“What’s so funny?” Gaeten demanded, peering closely at him, trying to see past his lowered bangs. He suddenly began to feel uneasy in the room, as though everything was closing in on him; the air seemed to be getting thicker.
But as Inuyasha stood stock still, Gaeten gathered his nerve and advanced. There was nothing to fear from this broken slave. He was a high level demon, a trained fighter. He could take this small slip of a boy with his hands tied behind his back. He was just letting his nerves get to him.
The killing ki in the air became sharper, more intense, as Gaeten raised the blade above his head and prepared to put it through Inuyasha’s lowered neck.
The tiger demon was too shocked to even cry out as five razor sharp claws slashed through his raised arm and the tanto thudded softly onto the carpeted floor.
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Jaken was getting impatient.
It had been over an hour now. The pompous tiger had said he would be out in a flash. What the hell was he doing in there? He’d been a supercilious ass in telling him to stay out of the way and these were the lethal skills he had been boasting so proudly about? How long did it take to kill a hanyou, anyway?
Jaken looked around the corridor he was supposed to be guarding. No one had passed by here throughout the time he had been here. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to go in and check on what was taking the idiot so long…
“JAKEN!!”
The toad demon almost jumped out of his skin at the cry that split the silence of the evening. It was a highpitched, terrified cry, coming from the room where Gaeten had gone.
Jaken turned towards the room and frowned. Was that really the self-assured, confident tiger demon who had gone in a while ago? It sounded like a female’s voice.
“JAKEN HELP ME!!”
Nope, definitely Gaeten. What had the idiot gotten into his time? Had he run into guards unexpectedly? How weak was he to not be able to take care of a few soldiers?
“What’s the matter?” he called out irritably, attempting to keep his voice down, unlike the idiot who was screaming at the top of his lungs. “Why are you making such a racket?”
There was a garbled scream from the room and the sounds of something crashing and falling. Jaken’s heart missed a beat. The stupid tiger was going to get them both killed along with the hanyou. It was a miracle no servants or guards had come here to check on what was going on.
He began walking as quickly as you could towards the room. He knew he would be no match for anyone who had Gaeten screaming in terror. The tiger demon may have been pompous and daft but he was strong. The only weapon he was carrying was a wooden staff that he had managed to lay his hands on in the servant’s quarters. It was a plain, bamboo staff – strong enough to hit someone with but no match for demon strength. He wasn’t stupid enough to think he could win a fight with it but maybe it would be enough to get the idiot demon out of there and make a run for it.
The moment he entered the room, his eyes were immediately drawn to the crumpled, horrified countenance of Gaeten sitting slumped against a wooden chest, shaking and backpeddiing fruitlessly, as if attempting to burrow into the wood at his back and disappear.
Gaeten’s eyes were wide with terror. “Jaken! That-the hanyou – he- demon –I..”
“Get yourself together,” Jaken ordered disgusted, eyes roving over his injured and bloody form. There were gashed on his hand and face and blood was trickling down from his forehead from a nasty wound on his head. “What happened to you?” he wondered.
Gaeten gulped, still breathing hard. “It was…Inuyasha. I was just - and he…” Gaeten trailed off, eyes searching the room nervously.
He had always thought he was a strong fighter, unflappable in the face of calamity but he had never met anyone with such an unrestrained youki. Inuyasha’s aura frightened him and fear was the thing that had turned the tides in many a battles; when it came to a match among two strong opponents, ultimately, the one who lost was the one who was afraid. Gaeten had tried to swallow his fear and fight for the sake of his pride but to his shame, he could not land a single blow. Sometime during their struggle, the tanto had been kicked to the far corner of the room and in his arrogance, he had not thought to bring another weapon. He had fought valiantly in the beginning with his claws and teeth but he could land no more than scratches on the hanyou. All he had to do was look into those cruel red eyes and his limbs turned to water.
Jaken’s eyebrows shot up in his head, staring bemusedly at the defeated tiger demon.. “Inuyasha did that?” he asked incredulously. He wondered if the tiger had hit his head a little too hard.
Gaeten nodded weakly. “Destroyed…everything…”
For the first time, Jaken looked around the room and froze at the sight. The room was completely ransacked. The curtains were shredded, the sofa was overturned and broken, the carpet was pulled off, the table had crashed against the wall and was lying in pieces.
“Where is he?” Jaken asked, fingers tightening around the staff in his hand. It was a rare break for them if the hanyou had indeed caused the destruction. They could then tell Sesshoumaru-sama that the boy had gone crazy and the two of them had only been trying to stop him…although he doubted Sesshoumaru-sama would buy the idiot’s story of the quiet slave being capable of doing all that.
Gaeten pointed a shaking finger at the top of a high wooden cupboard at the other end of the room. Jaken followed his gaze to alight upon a small red form crouching on it quietly. Inuyasha’s bangs were covering his eyes so Jaken could not tell what he was up to but something about him made the toad uneasy. He wondered uncomfortably if the tense, suffocating energy in the room was really coming from the tiger demon as he had originally assumed.
“Inuyasha,” he said authoritatively, stepping towards the boy. “Just what do you think you’re doing? I assume you realize you are going to be punished for this-“
He stopped midsentence when Inuyasha’s head snapped up, turning crazed red eyes at him. There were strange purple markings across his face and his claws were coated with blood.
“I-Inuyasha?” Jaken asked rather unsurely.
The hanyou remained stock still. It was a demon’s most base instincts to hide from a threat before it knew more about the new demon. Getting out of reach and remaining motionless attracted less attention and kept one alive in the wild. This toad…his gut told him he was an enemy although the hanyou Inuyasha had been too soft-hearted to ever think of him as such, even in his own mind. But the demon, let loose after such a long, long time, could feel all the hurt sadness caused to the hanyou’s tender heart and he knew this demon had to be destroyed. A lifetime of slavery had beaten any hint of aggression out of the hanyou; the demon had never thought he would be let free, never thought he would finally have control of this body which was as much his as it was the human and the hanyou’s. They were one; all three were a part of him but the enslaved hanyou had been forced to repress this side of him, to forget all about what it felt like to be angry and vengeful and alive…today, all those who had done that to the hanyou were going to die…a slow and painful death, feeling ten times the pain they had inflicted on a helpless child.
Jaken’s thoughts were whirling. He knew the rumours about hanyou having a dangerous demon side but looking at that quiet little slave, he would never have imagined in a million years that the boy was capable of so much as lifting a finger against anyone else. In fact, it had been one of the things that had annoyed him about Inuyasha so. He was the perfect slave – docile and submissive and innocent. No matter how much he wished to serve, no matter his dedication to Sesshoumaru-sama, he would never be able to match that child-like innocence.
On the positive side, once the demon Lord saw what the hanyou had done, it would be the end of the slave. The imperious prince would not want anything to do with a wild, untamed slave who, at the moment, seemed no more than an animal. Inuyasha would either be dead or out of the castle.
His attention switched back to he crouched figure on top of the cupboard as a low growl came from Inuyasha’s throat. The energy in the air tightened.
Jaken swallowed nervously. On the negative side, the hanyou might just kill him before Sesshoumaru-sama got here.
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On the top of a tower, at the far side of the castle -
“My Lord, don’t you think it’s been long enough-“
Raia shut her mouth when Sesshoumaru gave her a cool glance. The demoness was getting more and more fidgety with every passing moment. When the demon Lord had ordered her to pretend to leave Inuyasha alone with those monsters, she had almost protested. The prince was underestimating how dangerous the two of them were. There was no possible way Inuyasha would survive against them.
She had had her doubts about the toad since he had come here, though she was obligated as a servant of the house, to keep baseless opinions to herself. The toad demon’s oily, smooth talking ways didn’t fool her for a second; she’d had far too much experience with dealing with people of his type. But Jaken had done nothing she could fault him for. He carried out all his duties without once complaining and to the best of his ability. She had discreetly asked the others if he had caused any mischief and had found nothing.
And Gaeten. Raia didn’t know what had happened to him but the tiger demon had changed almost overnight one day. There were whispered rumours that he’d gotten on Sesshoumaru’s bad side but Raia did not have the nerve to ask him. He’d become taciturn and rude instead of the once poised and aloof person he’d been. The past few days, he’d been quiet and brooding but Raia had not thought anything of it. That he would try to harm Inuyasha had never even crossed her mind; so far as she knew, the tiger demon had never even spoken to the boy.
Therefore, when Sesshoumaru-sama had told her he and Jaken planned to kill the hanyou slave, she had been surprised, to say the least. She had thought the demon Lord was unaware of the toad’s resentment against the hanyou. But using the child as bait to catch the two in the act seemed to her like going a bit too far. He had even given orders to all the servants and guards to stay clear of his wing of the castle, regardless of what they heard.
“Inuyasha,” Sesshoumaru spoke suddenly and she snapped out of her musings, “Is stronger than he looks.”
Raia hoped that the disbelieving look she was giving him was enough to get him to explain. But the demon prince didn’t even bother to tell her what he could see happening in the room below. It was too far for Raia to be able to see – which meant Jaken and Gaeten would not be able to see them either – but the taiyoukai was able to see everything clearly. For once, she cursed the demon Lord’s ability to keep his face unreadable. She was reasonably sure he wouldn’t just stand there and watch Inuyasha be hurt but she did not trust his definition of hurt. She did not want to see the hanyou beaten half to death because of any strange ideas the warrior prince might have of pain making him stronger; the hanyou had seen far too much pain in his young life; any more would break him instead of making him stronger.
So, she watched the Sesshoumaru’s face for any indication of what was going on down there, but to no avail. It was as pointless as trying to look into the balcony so far below that was nothing more than a black dot to her.
When Sesshoumaru had learned of the two demons’ idiotic plan, his first thought had been to snap both their necks. Did they really think the Lord and Lady of the castle were stupid enough to leave the castle unprotected by going away together, leaving the protection of the castle to a mere servant? And they would never have ruled for so long if they remained unaware of crude assassination attempts being planned in the castle. His mother had found it particularly amusing and had been gracious enough to suggest several interesting ways of punishing the two. He had almost taken her up on a couple of them but then he had felt the change in Inuyasha’s aura when Jaken had taunted him after he thought they were alone. It was a pure, demonic aura laced with the kind of fury he had not thought Inuyasha capable of. As fast as it had appeared, it was gone but it got the demon Lord curious as to just what the puppy was capable of.
So he had allowed the attack to go as planned. The boy’s demon would appear only if he felt threatened, and if there was no other way for him to save himself. If Inuyasha was unable to handle them, it would take him less than a heartbeat to step in and slaughter the two.
But it didn’t look like it would be required. It seemed the demon half of the hanyou was as ferocious as the human half was meek; Gaeten had been reduced to screams and whimpers under the hanyou’s sharp little claws…and it seemed Jaken was about to meet the same fate. He wanted to be there when the annoying toad got what was coming to him.
Next to him, Raia took an involuntary step back as a small smile graced Lord Sesshoumaru’s face. Half intrigued and half frightened, she had to place a steadying hand on the ledge nearby to prevent falling down the precarious slope. If she slipped, it would be a steep fall down several stories that would doubtlessly be the end of her.
She gave a small gasp and had to bring the other hand to grip the ledge as well, as, in a flurry of white silk, Sesshoumaru gracefully leapt down the tower and disappeared.
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“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGH!!”
Jaken and Gaeten both fell back with a cry, four violent red slashes across Gaeten’s chest. Jaken only barely managed to hold up his staff in time to avoid taking the blow which would have sliced him in half, like it had the staff.
When Jaken finally saw what had had Gaeten screaming in terror all this time, he had attempted to turn tail and escape as fast as he could. He had almost made it to the door but then the hanyou had landed right in front of him, claws raised, and Jaken had scurried back inside. He had quickly realized that Gaeten and he needed to work together if they had any hope of surviving. The prideful tiger demon had not been any more thrilled at the idea than he had been but they both preferred it to being sliced into ribbons by the hanyou. They thanked their stars that Inuyasha was still young and had not yet developed all his powers or they might not have survived the attacks.
Gaeten began to curse softly although he had long since lost the spirit and pride needed to cuss out an opponent during a fight. They had decided one of them needed to distract the hanyou while the other took him down, and since Jaken was the only one with a weapon, though now a weapon half the length it used to be, Gaeten was stuck with the role of the bait.
With Inuyasha’s attention focused on the demon in front of him, Jaken slowly moved back, behind Inuyasha and raised the bamboo above the hanyou’s head and brought it back down, ready to knock him out in one strike.
But the staff never met its mark. Inuyasha had launched himself forward onto Gaeten and Jaken’s swing crashed into the floor, instead of Inuyasha’s head. Jaken looked up, frustrated at the blood dripping from Gaeten’s face.
“Why you little piece of crap-“ he muttered under his breath, advancing on Inuyasha.
Then the hanyou’s head snapped back and ruby red eyes glared straight at him. Even as the terrified servant stared, Inuyasha bared his fangs and snarled.
Jaken clutched the staff in his hand and whimpered, reading his death in Inuyasha’s blood-hungry eyes.
“Sesshoumaru-sama!”
Gaeten’s desperate cry made him turn his eyes to the fallen tiger demon who now had a look of desperate joy on his face, like a drowning man that had spied a life raft. Jaken followed his gaze and turned terrified eyes on the demon Lord standing motionless in the doorway.
“Sesshoumaru-sama!” he gasped, “Sesshoumaru-sama, help me please, please…”
But the demon Lord may as well have been made out of stone. Cold golden eyes watched with detached amusement as the little hanyou, who had so far been afraid to even raise his eyes to Jaken lashed out violently, fangs bared in a dreadful snarl.
“Sesshoumaru-sama!” Jaken gasped, “H-he’s – he’s gone crazy, my Lord. He was- we were…he began to destroy…the room – and Raia fled and we tried to stop him but he…he –“
“Jaken.”
The toad shut his momentarily forgetting his injuries and the hanyou he was barely managing to keep at arms’ length. It didn’t help that Inuyasha’s arms were longer than Jaken’s.
Hearing the single word spoken in the deep, quiet voice, Inuyasha also stopped, taking stock of the newcomer. He tried to judge how powerful he was by his youki but it was pointless. His youki told him he was even weaker than the tiger demon but at the same time, there was not a hint of fear on anxiety in him. A demon’s youki would react immediately to any threat; the only way this demon would be unafraid of him was if he was sure of being superior in strength.
And he had memories of this one, memories of safety and comfort and awe – this demon had not done anything bad to hanyou Inuyasha. Inuyasha had been taken care of; he had no hurt associated with him, only acceptance and surrender. He could feel it, feel how completely the hanyou had submitted to this demon, from the depths of his soul. Such submission could not be forced; it had to be given, and it rankled the demon that the hanyou had given up his pride, his life, his everything for this man. So, even as he knew his vengeance would not have to involve the destruction of this youkai, he felt the resentment building within him towards the person Inuyasha had given his body and soul to. But he would wait; wait and see just what this strange, fearless, self-assured demon was all about.
As Inuyasha stilled, so did Jaken, turning hope-filled eyes at his master. The blood flowing from his fresh wounds almost did not register as Jaken waited for Sesshoumaru-sama to pass judgement.
“I believe,” Sesshoumaru said at last, staring Jaken down with piercing, lowlidded eyes. “It is not the hanyou that needs to learn his lesson.”
Jaken felt his heart stutter in his chest. “Wh-what…but we…that is-“
Sesshoumaru glanced once to the far end of the room where the poisoned knife had been knocked during the scuffle. “If that tanto had met its mark, did you imagine you would be allowed to hold on to your worthless lives?”
With a sinking feeling, Jaken and Gaeten both realized that they had made a terrible, terrible mistake. The demon Lord knew…about their attempt to kill Inuyasha, about everything.
“M-my L-lord,” Gaeten stammered, “W-we didn’t – didn’t realize you…”
Sesshoumaru raised one elegant eyebrow. “You did not realize that you were not as discreet as you thought you were?”
Gaeten shut his mouth and looked away. The contempt in Sesshoumaru’s eyes struck him like a physical blow.
“The House of the Moon would have fallen years ago if vermin like you could get away with murder.”
“Please, please d-don’t do this, my Lord,” Jaken rasped, staring at his last hope in despair. The cold look in Sesshoumaru-sama’s eyes told him that the demon Lord didn’t have any intention at all of saving either of them and that he and Gaeten were very, very screwed. “My Lord, I am loyal…please, I beg of you. One chance…I beg of you to give me one chance…please…”
“A loyal servant would respect his master’s wishes,” Sesshoumaru reminded him lightly. “In your envy, you sought to harm an innocent child who has done you no harm.”
Jaken felt sweat break out on his brow. The slashes on his body hurt less than the realization that his Master, his Sesshoumaru-sama was here, and he did nothing. So far, he had been fighting tooth and nail to stay alive till the demon prince got here because he had been sure Sesshoumaru-sama would stop the hanyou from hurting the two of them further, even if later, they were punished.
“W-we made a mistake…we shouldn’t have – I deeply regret what we –“
“It is not the act you regret,” Sesshoumaru cut in, “You merely regret that you were caught.”
Golden eyes that seemed lighter, crueller than usual, shifted from the toad demon to the tiger.
“You.”
Gaeten froze, flinching at Sesshoumaru-sama’s severe tone. He tried to look away but the molten golden gaze made it impossible. Gaeten stared helplessly into the demon Lord’s pitiless eyes.
“Did you forget what happened the last time you tried to lay a hand on what was mine?” A cold smile touched Sesshoumaru’s lips. “Or was the humiliation not enough for a whore like you?”
Gaeten’s face burned at the reminder, and at the stinging truth in his words. A whore…was that what he was? Maybe he was right; a true warrior would have been appalled and would have craved nothing more than revenge but all he had wished for since that day was Sesshoumaru-sama’s hands on him again. A whore…Yes, yes he must be…
“You were given a second chance,” Sesshoumaru told him quietly. “You were given a chance to change your ways.”
Gaeten was not aware that he was whinging. Somewhere in his mind, he knew he should have been begging for forgiveness, begging for his life but the words just would not form. All that he could think of was that he had blown his chance. It did not look like he would ever be touched by the prince again.
“Gaeten.”
The tiger demon opened his eyes to look up at him, unaware that he had closed them. Humiliated, piteous tears gathered in his eyes even as he looked up into Sesshoumaru’s disinterested ones.
“A pet that has disobeyed its master is punished-”
Was he....did the demon Lord just address him as a pet? Gaeten’s heart sped up as he searched the demon Lord’s eyes for any hint of compassion.
Then Sesshoumaru’s gaze swept over him derisively, the look one would give to a pile of dirt.
“-but a rabid dog needs to be put down.”
__________________________________________________________ _________________
By the time Raia managed to get to the room, running the length of the castle, the room in which she had left Inuyasha was unrecognizable. The furniture was smashed and upturned, drapes, pillows, cushions were slashed to bits and the carpet and walls were stained with blood.
The two dishevelled figures, that could only be Jaken and Gaeten, were huddled in one corner of the room, cowering from, it seemed, Inuyasha. The hanyou stood stock still, his back turned to her and Sesshoumaru, making no move- only the low, warning growl coming from his throat was a sign that this was not the sweet hanyou they knew.
Even Riai felt a shiver of fear in her heart at the fierce youki crackling from the hanyou. She was secretly thankful that its ire was not directed towards her; she was not certain she would survive it. It was the kind of raw, unrestrained energy one rarely came in contact with. In all her years, there were only perhaps a couple of occasions when Raia had witnessed a demon gone wild and even then, none as strong as this one – the deeper a demon was buried, the stronger it would come out. That was why demons preferred slaves that were broken; if a slave’s true nature was only suppressed instead of broken, it would come out sooner or later and destroy everything in its wake.
Gaeten and Jaken seemed to have received a very painful taste of it, if the fear in their youki was anything to go by. The blood on Inuyasha’s claws was testament to the fact that it was he that had wreaked havoc on the room, and on the two demons trembling in fear.
Raia looked anxiously from the child to the demon Lord.
“My Lord,” she began urgently, still panting from her wild dash from the top of the tower to this room. “He needs to be reined in…should I bring in guards with a sedative…” It would be the sensible thing to do to have it shot while it was still wary of the presence of the new demon.
It was common practice to control unruly demons with a sedative dart. It usually required a trained team of demons to do the job because controlling a demon gone wild required effort, skill and perfect co-ordination between the team members. If the demon in question could not or did not wish to be killed, it took a strong sedative, usually made from some sort of poison, to bring it out of its trance. It was in a wild demon’s nature to fight and keep on fighting till it died, so it was not possible to do what a demon would normally do to subdue another– fight and defeat. Defeat implied having the sense to surrender when one knew the battle was lost; but a demon like this one would disregard pain, bloodloss and injuries and would not stop till it got itself killed.
“No,” Sesshoumaru said softly, not turning his eyes away from the small demon and its prey. “Let him be. The demon has been subdued for far too long…this time, let him be.”
It took a great deal of his willpower to mask his own aura and watch the scene play out. If he didn’t demon Inuyasha would promptly turn his attention to the most powerful source of youki in the room and attack, viewing him as a threat to its dominance. He wanted to watch the end of this little drama before he and demon Inuyasha faced off. But his own youki was very tempted to assert its dominance, to teach this puppy he had claimed that demon or not, he was still owned. It was not often that any of his pets provided any sort of challenge to his authority; he was curious to see how his little hanyou would react to knowing what he had done.
Raia was startled. The first thought she had had when she entered the room was that whoever had done all this was going to be in very, very deep trouble. When she had seen it was Inuyasha, she had prayed the demon Lord would not be too hard on him. Now, however, it seemed as though the demon Lord was, if anything, pleased by the state of things.
“But the room – aren’t you…?”
When Sesshoumaru glanced at her, his eyes held nothing other than amusement. “I believe it is a fitting price for the entertainment.”
Raia turned towards him in despair. “B-but…Gaeten and Jaken…they will-“
The demon prince smiled coldly and it suddenly occurred to Raia that Sesshoumaru-sama was really enjoying this. He would coolly stand there and watch the two get killed.
“S-Sesshoumaru-sama,” Gaeten whimpered, attempting to straighten up but he could no longer feel his limbs and he slumped down awkwardly. “P-please, please take- take…” he swallowed nervously and tried again. “Save me, p-please, please?”
For a moment, Raia forgot about the gravity of the situation and stared at him. If she hadn’t seen it herself, she would not have believed in a million years that Gaeten could beg, sounding like a small child. It wasn’t that he was a wimp; everyone knew he had gone into and faced down formidable foes on the battle field, never giving up his pride in the face of death. But here he was, looking at the prince with tears beginning to gather in his eyes, and Raia wondered what exactly had transpired between the two.
“M-my Lord,” Raia stammered, very aware that it was not her place to speak, but unable to help herself. “A-are you really going to- to…let them die this way?”
It was one thing to execute traitors or wrongdoers as punishment but this was different. Inuyasha’s attacks were not strong enough to kill them; the demons would die by inches, most likely from bloodloss. It seemed barbaric to watch it happen.
Sesshoumaru turned slowly towards her,
“What have they done to deserve better?”
________________________________________________________ ___________________
A/N: Cliffy! ^.^ I know a lot of you were waiting for Jaken to get his ass kicked…well here it is. But what say, people? Should they die by Inu-chan’s hands? Or should Sesshy step in and save the worthless bastards?
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