InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ War's Shadow ❯ Resolution ( Chapter 24 )

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

24 - Resolution

It was horrible to watch, and Rin now had a better understanding of why Sesshoumaru had tried to convince her to stay behind, to take shelter in Kameko's village or Inuyasha's. He had known how this would end, how all conflicts such as these ended, a massacre of one or both sides. But she felt rooted, driven to watch, as though even blinking would divert the whole of her attention from those her heart was focused on with such intensity. The force of will was a powerful thing. Something faint in her mind prompted her with that, and she could remember it as a saying her father used to always afirm, cheer during a dark time of poverty and war and disease.

Sesshoumaru...

He was still fighting Eizan. It was fierce and ugly; it had degenerated from a flurrying explosion of skill and strength to something deep-seated, grudging, malicious. Eizan was grasping and he seemed less steady now. Sesshoumaru had limited his options; each time Eizan tried to put the fight on more of an even keel by attempting to transform, he was knocked back into his human form by Sesshoumaru's sword. The new one with the old name.

Tenseiga. He had told her that he would keep that name for it. Mind, soul, intention. All those things that sometimes appeared to be questionable in Sesshoumaru himself were now reflected in the duality of his sword's nature. To save or destroy. It could be used for either at his discretion, equally adept at both, a whim casting the decision. It was just like him.

Inuyasha...

His was a fight that was more evenly matched, but there had been a fundamental change in Ryuujin, the result of Kagome's efforts. That clinging evil power was gone, only the strength of its wielder left behind. The two combatants were being given a wide berth on the field; the fight had moved away from them, as though giving them room to settle it between just themselves. And, as eerily focused as each of them appeared to be, they might as well have been the only ones out there. It looked like something they had practiced beforehand, perfect and mirror-like, symmetrical, as though fighting their own reflection, even though the difference in styles was obvious.

Kanaye...

He was distracted, and because of that he was starting to make her anxious. Crouched down on the field, surrounded by a raging conflict, hand clasped around Zadi's as though nothing else warranted his immediate attention. She wondered what that meant, and doubted it could be anything good. It was the focused intensity on the human woman that so unnerved Rin, disconcerting to say the least. Fingers folded into nervous fists as one of Eizan's people seemed to notice Kanaye's moment of inattention...or supposed inattention...because he released Zadi and, almost instantaneously, the oncoming youkai became another casualty to litter the field. I should know better by now, shouldn't I? she thought with amusement.

Furu...

Another explosion split the earth near the base of the hill, the reverberating sound rumbling under her feet, and she watched as the southern lord leapt free from a smoking cloud, the vaporized remains of one of his opponents left behind. Furu was casual about everything, Rin had come to realize. He was efficient, unruffled, vaguely amused, as though everyone around him was part of some unspoken joke that only he understood...and that same composure translated into his fighting style. He exemplified versatility...and he had an apparently unlimited arsenal of weapons that would appear out of nowhere; daggers, darts, a sword that would split and become two, and the source of the explosion itself...small, scary bombs. They looked innocent, almost decorative, carved with patterns that were filled with explosive material and then sealed with a bronze-colored coating. He had shown her one before he had gone off to join the fray...

"See this?" he'd asked, holding up one of the pretty little spheres.

"Yes," she'd replied, reaching out to inspect it more closely...and he had quickly folded his fingers over it, not allowing her hand to connect with it. "I'm showing you what they look like in case you find any unspent on the field later on. Don't touch them. They'll remove those curious fingers of yours and whatever else is attached to them."

Rin had quickly withdrawn her hand.

"How are they doing?" came Kagome's voice as she dropped to her knees next to Rin, attention already turned outward toward the sparring red-and-white blur of the battle's lone half-demon, who unleashed an explosive Kaze no Kizu in the direction of a waiting Kawahira.

"All right. It's difficult to tell sometimes which way it's going," Rin replied, and that was the truth. She was inexperienced in such things as battles, and so it all looked like a confusing, bloody melee. Her eyes flitted to the lightening eastern horizon, heart already anticipating its end. "And it's nearly morning..."

"I'm going," came a softly murmured voice, prompting both Rin and Kagome to glance upward as Sashe moved to stand beside them, amber eyes narrowed into a look Rin knew well, one that was fixed and solemn as it watched Sesshoumaru's fight with Eizan.

"He's forgiven you. He wouldn't want you to interfere. Sashe!" Rin called desperately as the young demon ignored her and leapt over the side, disappearing into the mix of battlers. Rin heaved a frustrated sigh, exchanging a look with Kagome.

"That kind of stubbornness is genetic," Kagome claimed with a confident nod.

"It's...what?" Rin asked, frowning at the unknown word.

"Nevermind," Kagome shook her head, smiling tensely at Rin before moving back to taking care of the injured.





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It felt like her hand had gone to sleep, her arm; and it traveled, a tingling feeling that made her shiver. It was a strange experience, mostly because Zadi had never absorbed youki without the intention of attack. It was always taken in and expelled, a weapon used without permission. It always made her feel too small for her own body, like a building pressure that took concentration, focus, to release in the form of an assault. But it was also addictive, that feeling of power, like untouchable immortality was just handed to her. She was energized, whole, capable of anything, and when she was around Kanaye, she always felt at the fringes of it, like some hungry child eyeing a nearly-ready dinner.

But now she watched his face, which seemed sincere and intent, his eyes focused downward on the fingers clasped in his as he offered it to her, and all weariness fell away. I am a leech, am I? I suppose you are right, she thought with amusement, but that feeling was building again, with no way to release it and so, fearful, she broke contact, pulling her fingers from his. She realized then that she was breathing quickly, chest tightening with...something...not painful, quite the opposite, but it unnerved her.

He seemed uncharacteristically subdued, quiet, without the slightest hint of a smirk, just blankly staring back at her as though she was something he could not place. He somehow appeared ridiculously young for someone as old as she knew he was.

"Did that bother you?" she questioned uncertainly.

Kanaye gave a faint shake of his head and broke eye contact, turning to shred an approaching enemy with a back-handed claw sweep. He glanced back at her, eyes falling to the gash that had been cut nearly from shoulder to shoulder during Eizan's brief attempt at vengeance. It was already working to heal itself...with youkai speed, and in a moment of thought he understood how it was that she had managed to survive that fall with him. He had experienced that same feeling with her then, and he wondered if she even realized what she had been doing, pulling from him what he used to heal his own body. Some mode of self-preservation? She was quite possibly the creepiest woman he had ever known.

He looked thoughtful as he rose to his feet, and Zadi followed suit, feeling renewed, like all of the energy she had expelled on Eizan's army had been returned and more. She inhaled a breath, calming that jittery feeling that wove its way through her veins, then blinked as the dented hilt of a sword was shoved into her hands, one that was taken from the body of the now-deceased soldier.

"You look jumpy. Watch where you're swinging that thing," he muttered warningly, attention already turning away to focus on more pressing matters.

"It's...a bit overwhelming," she agreed.

This time he did smirk at her as he turned to meet an oncoming opponent. "Human bodies aren't made for some things. Yours, on the other hand, has proved to be astonishing in more ways than it is polite to say."





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He made an easy tossing motion and another connected with an armored enemy, inciting a look of mixed confusion, surprise, and dismay. A thin smile of victory crossed his face as Furu leapt away from the resounding boom! that reduced Eizan's soldier to a smoking pile. The wind was picking up again and he began breathing through his mouth. What had been a pristine work of nature was now a corpse-littered graveyard. The smell was quickly approaching over-powering, but at least he wasn't going to have to worry about the clean-up.

He cast a look toward the embattled Sesshoumaru and Eizan. Quite the feral altercation from the looks of it. It was a bit disappointing that Sesshoumaru was monopolizing Eizan, but not surprising. Sesshoumaru had warned him only days earlier that Eizan was his to deal with, and Furu knew from long experience that no one had so singular a focus as did that dog. Inutaisho had recognized the single-mindedness in the boy from the time of his birth, had mentioned that he had been born shrieking for all he was worth, furious for being disturbed, and the moment he had been handed off and found a face to focus on, had gone instantly silent, intent, as though determined not to waste a moment mentally dissecting everything in his sphere of existence.

And he still excels at dissecting things, Furu thought, grimly humorous as he watched Sesshoumaru send Eizan sprawling back into the furrowed grass once more.

He turned, senses alert for nearby movement, to watch the battle from the viewpoint of a spectator. More of Eizan's people were on the ground than Sesshoumaru's. That was good, clearly...but whether it was good enough, he could not tell, since numbers had been on Eizan's side from the beginning. His eyes scanned the bodies, both down and clashing, searching for his own people. He was gratified to find no one he recognized in the former category, but then again, his people were made sturdier than any of the other youkai species on the field. It was simply more difficult to take them out of the fight because of that.

There was a swift movement approaching him from behind, but he waited, giving the impression of inattention before whirling and removing the sword arm that had been heading toward him. The soldier roared, an angry guttural sound and Furu stepped past him. "Do that again, and I'll take off the other arm," he warned absently, turning to watch daylight begin to gather toward the east. The lake was sprawled out, peaceful, serene, and that distracted him, because he knew Isamu was nearby somewhere, lurking, just waiting...

A cold wind blew in off of the water and he caught sight of Inuyasha being put into a defensive posture by Kawahira. The wide blade of the halberd was moving at an admirable speed for so heavy a weapon, and Kawahira looked comfortable with it, at ease, as though it was merely an extension of his arm. Every move he made was smooth and practiced, while the hanyou appeared clumsier and unbalanced in comparison, but for their obvious differences in style and training, they were evenly matched. One would connect a blow, and then the other. One would avoid, and the other would do likewise. They were obviously frustrated, and the anger showed in their movements. It was as though they were fighting their own separate war, because they had wandered far from the others, nearly to the the lake's sandy shore.

Sesshoumaru could say what he liked about the hanyou, and Inuyasha might have his shortcomings brought on by his human blood, but Furu felt it was entirely possible that Kawahira had met his match.

More movement behind him, and he turned to meet it, but blinked in a measure of surprise to find Sashe with a cold, angry expression withdrawing a hand from the back of the unfortunate youkai that had been heading his way. She finished her work and allowed the body to fall, blinking several times before finally looking up at him, appearing voiceless.

"Didn't your Father tell you to stay behind?" he questioned of her. It was not an accusation, since whether or not she followed Kanaye's orders was her own business. She was certainly not the little girl he remembered her to be, and he recalled that day when he and Isamu had been conversing about Eizan and Sesshoumaru and her involvement, and he had been disturbed to hear of the relationship Eizan had formed with her. Now, however, he found himself with less of an ability to condemn Eizan...for that, at least.

"My Father likes to think that people fall to his whim just because he voices it," Sashe answered wryly, absently wiping the bloody hand on clothes that were already torn and filthy.

She appeared tired and distracted, and her sight kept falling over his shoulder until he turned to search out what she was watching, finding a clear view of Eizan in the distance, back turned to them, arms straining in an attempt to keep Tenseiga at bay. He cast another quick look at the girl. Ah, so is that what you're after? Well, that's a fight you need to stay out of.

Furu's ears detected a coming surge of Eizan's soldiers, heavy feet stomping through grass, gathering speed. He turned away for a moment, two of the shiny bombs materializing in hand within an eyeblink, and suddenly they were hurled at the oncoming group, obliterating them in a rumbling flash that filled the air with an acrid, smoky smell. That accomplished, he moved closer to Sashe, eyebrows rising as he calmly inquired, "Revenge?"

Her expression flickered, from blank to defiant to uncertain. "It's not revenge. It's..."

"Redemption?"

She said nothing to that, but her eyes averted and scanned the battlefield once more, and Furu nodded knowingly. "You're too young to let something like that eat you alive. Live as long as I have...as your father has...then you'll be able to decide for yourself which mistakes were made from simple stupidity, and which really do need to be corrected by your own hands."

"I'm not a child," she exhaled wearily, stormy amber eyes turning from their other focus to him.

"No, you're certainly not that anymore, now are you?" Furu agreed with a slow grin. "Which is why I'm not going to send you back. Let's clear some of that guilt now, shall we, Sashe?" he suggested, and she watched as he unsheathed his odd sword, slid it apart, and extended half of it to her. "I know any kid of Kanaye's has to be well-versed in how to use something that inflicts pain and damage."

She smiled faintly at that and hesitantly accepted the other half of the strange weapon, confirming the suspicion. "You are so right."





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The spent remnants of the attack scarred the ground, splitting a jagged line across the field. Embattled youkai halted their fighting in order to address the more pressing urgency that was an oncoming wave of expelled energy. Opponents separated, self-preservation taking over, before lunging in at each other again. Such were the hazards of fighting in a battle that contained two vengeful taiyoukai intent on being the one left when it was over.

Sesshoumaru was barely aware that he was sharing the field with anyone else, everything was turned inward, on the immediacy of his own movements and Eizan's. That last shot had nearly been a problem; Eizan had allowed himself to be struck full-on by another bone-shaking blow from Tenseiga. In exchange for forgoing any defensive action, he had been able to respond with his own attack and Sesshoumaru had barely turned in time, had felt the heated current slice right past his face, a jarring, violent displacement of energy that was absorbed mostly by the shoulder armor he wore...armor that had cracked, split, like a bone put under too much stress. He inhaled a breath, turning back to Eizan once more, the echoing clash of battle far away to his ears. Evil satisfaction crossed his face as he watched Eizan, who was breathing with ragged exhaustion. By now he surely knew better than to attempt another transformation. Sesshoumaru was keeping this battle on his terms, and the palpable rage and frustration emanating from Eizan said that he was being successful.

"You've stretched yourself too far this time, Eizan. You're starting to look your age," he addressed his adversary mockingly. And the man did, that was evident. Between his altercation with Kanaye and Sesshoumaru's repeated assaults with Tenseiga, Eizan was looking worn, beaten, ancient; he used a tattered sleeve to wipe some of the blood out of his eyes, blinking as though trying to regain focus.

"Whatever happens in this," Eizan hissed through broken lips, mean and mocking, "something as disgraceful as you will never be able to hold onto what you have. Your blood is weak and filthy. If you don't die here tonight, you'll be destroyed eventually...and by your own actions, your own descendants. All because of that wretched girl. There will be nothing left of you or anyone that came before. And that is how the almighty Sesshoumaru will end, dissolved into a pool of mixed-breeds. Your line will be consumed by humans. "

"Just as yours has been consumed by me?" Sesshoumaru queried coolly, unmoved by Eizan's prediction.

Face hardening at that declaration, Eizan's eyes flickered to Kawahira's battle with Inuyasha. Unlike himself and Sesshoumaru, who had halted their fight, those two were hacking away at each other, expressing their obvious aggression with weapons that repeatedly met, collided, and rebounded. "That battle is as good as over. Kawahira will kill him easily."

"He seems to be having a difficult time with that. But, for such a lazy hanyou, Inuyasha is inordinately difficult to destroy," Sesshoumaru replied, adjusting the grip on his sword's hilt. "If Kawahira does manage it, then I will kill him. But I like to finish what I start, and that would be you. What I find to be most amusing in all of this Eizan...your predictions included...is that at the end of this, the only thing left of you will be a half-demon girl, and so I will have the opportunity to watch as your line ends in a miasma of humanity. The problem with cursing another is that karma often reciprocates. Raise your sword."

Eizan took the warning, fingers tightening on his own weapon and heaving it up to shoulder level to block a sweeping blow that set off a ringing between the blades, as though the swords themselves were screaming at each other. Sesshoumaru did not relent, shoving him backward, and he remembered what being off-step inside the mountain had gotten him, so he overcorrected and instead of stepping away came back at Sesshoumaru with a swing that felt heavy and uncoordinated. He could feel it ending, time dwindling, sight obscured except for a face that was resolute and purposeful and murderous. Honesty won over ego, and he understood that this was not a fight he would win. He remembered the day he had fought him long ago, when Sesshoumaru had been not much more than an overconfident boy, seized by that recklessness that came from an adolescent need to prove himself. It was a fight that had never been finished, and could have been...it could have been ended on Eizan's terms, but he had wanted to preserve the tenuous peace with the boy's father. It seemed there had been no good decision that day, both would have proved fatal, apparently.

But Eizan's confidence in Kawahira remained unshakable, and he would take what he could get. Sesshoumaru lunged back in and Eizan made no move to block him, eyes falling on the back that was turned to him, finished with aiding that wretched woman and busily destroying his adversaries with an effortlessness that provoked Eizan's action before the thought could completely form.

Sesshoumaru was suspicious of the sudden lack of defense, as though Eizan had given in, mentally giving way in accordance with his body, which was breaking down from the fight, from being ill-equipped; but he could admit to some surprise when Eizan's arm swung out viciously, releasing his sword, and Sesshoumaru turned to watch as it shot toward Kanaye, who sensed it, turned smoothly to allow it to embed itself in the earth, and then cast a vicious glare in their direction. Sesshoumaru kicked Eizan's legs out from under him and drove him into the ground.

"You never would fight him face-to-face. Assassins and back-stabbing were all you could bring yourself to do. Was it because he humiliated you the last time?" Sesshoumaru asked with grim satisfaction, hand flat against Eizan's throat. "I would draw this out, Eizan, because I am enjoying this, but the sun is rising, and Isamu is going to destroy everything that's left."

Rapid steps approached then and Eizan flinched as two booted feet planted themselves next to his head, followed by a blade that was shoved into the earth beside his face, close enough to split the skin on one cheek.

"You dropped this," Kanaye rebuked venomously, then knelt to stare Eizan in the face. "Sashe will be returning home with me, healthy and sound. She'll forget you, just like the rest of us will. My brother should not have spared you all those years ago. I knew that you were greedy, grasping, a mere shadow of Eido who wanted to seem like more. Inutaisho is not here to intervene for you now, and one of the few things he did right is the boy who's about to kill you. But you always did have a problem understanding when someone was better than you are." He glanced at Sesshoumaru. "Finish him before I do."

Eizan glared hatefully up at the faces that loomed overhead, choking against the hand that was shoved against his throat, preventing any sort of speech. They were so smug and secure in their abilities, their superiority. He felt a burning rage, an all-consuming anger that after all of this, everything, they would be untouched by all he had tried to do. He subtly twisted his hand, loosening the sleeve until something small and spherical fell into his palm, something he had retrieved from where it had fallen on the ground, unused, and so carelessly left behind. He saw movement from Zadi, coming up behind Kanaye as though to watch the coming execution. She stared back at him with complete dispassion, blue eyes glittering with an emotionless light. The hand tightened around his throat, and there was a flash of a blade descending.

Kanaye's eyes fell to the subtle movement of Eizan's palm and snapped a warning as a claw grazed lazily across the outer covering of the bomb. Sesshoumaru's downward swing halted, and his instincts prevailed, attempting to move away from Eizan as the northern lord was completely obliterated by the self-inflicted detonation.




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Breathing heavily from exertion, Inuyasha's eyes flickered quickly toward Sesshoumaru's battle with Eizan when the explosion expelled outward, clawing fingers of heat and debris latching onto the wind. It stopped him for a moment and he nearly had his head removed from his shoulders for the distraction. He ducked out from under the swing and tripped himself up with his own momentum, rolling out of the way as Kawahira attempted to take advantage of his prone position. Getting back to his feet, Inuyasha blocked another swing with Tessaiga, inclining his head toward the battle.

"I think your old man just bit it."

Kawahira's expression did not so much as flicker. "And your brother with him, right?"

Inuyasha's fangs protruded in an evil grin. "I doubt it. That bastard is fucking invincible. But it's justice for your sister, huh?" He angled his neck out of the way as Ryuujin sliced right past the jugular.

Kawahira's amethyst eyes narrowed at the mention of Elif and he drew back a step. "What are you babbling about, hanyou?"

"Sesshoumaru intended to revive her. Didn't your dad tell you? All Eizan had to do was take her out of the mountain, and the heartless bastard left her. Nice, huh? Not that I think the north is any better off in your hands."

Inuyasha stepped back into a defensive posture with Tessaiga, as it and Ryuujin crossed at chest level. His feet dug into the sandy earth as Kawahira's weight advantage pushed him backward toward the gently lapping waves of the lake.

"How did she die?" Kawahira asked with measured calm.

"I wasn't there, but from what I've heard, she was killed by the same sort of attack you sent after me and Sesshoumaru. Eido was pretty miffed about being disturbed, and he took her out on his way to someone else. But it just shows who really was in charge of Ryuujin, and it wasn't you. His attack made yours look like playtime with a toy."

And that must have done something because suddenly Kawahira was hacking at him as though he was trying to fell a stubbornly-rooted tree. Inuyasha deflected them all, eyeing the sudden change in offense for a weakness to exploit, and he took what he found, giving Tessaiga a heavy swing that embedded part of the blade into Kawahira's shoulder, but instead of pushing back from the attack, Kawahira retaliated on his own, shoving a clawed hand through Inuyasha's stomach and instantly the hanyou recoiled, pulling backward, separating himself from Kawahira's damaging claws.

He bent to regain some air, lungs burning, looking up as Kawahira stretched the damaged arm as though to unkink a stiff muscle.

"Are you finished yet, half-breed?"

"Heh...," Inuyasha chuckled, righting himself again and getting another grip on Tessaiga's hilt. "Don't think so highly of yourself. I'm built as well as you are." He absently realized that his feet were wet, heels at the lake's edge, the sucking sand making stable footing less available. His hand wrapped itself firmly onto his sword and he searched for the collision in the youki that swirled around Kawahira. He found it almost as soon as he looked for it, rearing back with Tessaiga to release a Kaze no Kizu that swept across the beach, sending sand streaking through the air in explosive measure. Kawahira leapt clear of the anticipated attack, just as Inuyasha had expected. And as his adversary dropped down at him from above, he finished the job he had started with the shoulder and separated the entire arm from the body.

Something pained and angry tore from Kawahira's throat as he struck the beach, clearly astonished at the sudden turn of the battle, but he regained himself quickly and reached for the halberd that had fallen free of the arm. Shooting agony shot up his shoulder, into his neck, his brain. It was a loss of control. He wasn't sure how it had happened, but at some point the momentum had shifted...not just this battle, with everything. His father had left it all to him, a grudge he really didn't give a damn about. And, his earlier calm destroyed by a seething resentment, for being left with it all and for all the losses, he lunged once more at Inuyasha.




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She had been watching their battle when the explosion had happened, suddenly, inexplicably, obscuring them all from her sight. Furu was forced to react for her, reaching out with cool precision to disembowel the soldier that came up beside her. She was stunned for a moment, the echoes of the blast rumbling underneath her feet, and she cast a look back toward the hillside, certain that a human woman had been watching as carefully as she had been and was just as frozen. And, as much as she now detested Eizan, it had been strangely difficult to watch.

Sashe found her feet pulling her toward the fight, certain it was finished...that he was finished with it. She distantly registered Furu's call, mindlessly swung out with the sword in response, felt it connect with something. She stumbled over an inert object, a body maimed beyond recognition, and it wasn't one of Eizan's people. She breathed a quick apology to someone that was beyond hearing and kept moving, blinking against the slowly dissipating smoke. The blast had leveled everyone in the vicinity, a scorched crater was blown into the earth, and the smell of burned flesh was horrible, so she stopped breathing through her nose.

It was then that the rain began to fall, startling her, because she thought the night sky had been clearing. It started with a few droplets that quickly became a sheet of water, pouring down as though nature felt the need to cleanse itself after what had been done to this place and these people. And with that thought ringing in her skull, she found Sesshoumaru. He was pulling himself back up, white hair and clothes now smudged gray with grime and dirt, and she must have startled him because he reacted defensively at first, quickly reaching for the sword that had been dislodged from his hand.

"I'm on your side now, remember?" she reminded him quietly.

"Fortunately for you," Sesshoumaru muttered. His ears rung. He could smell burnt flesh and was pretty sure that was him. It felt as though his face had been melted, but he assumed that he was wrong in guessing that he had been completely disfigured, judging from the hesitant smile that was being aimed at him. He glanced upward as she was shadowed by someone he glared at through eyes that were red-rimmed and burning from being struck in the face by explosive material. "And you are careless," he accused.

"Didn't your old man teach you to run from something like that? That's carelessness," Furu answered with the mock reprimand, before adding his own perspective. "You fared a lot better than Eizan, though. At least all of your parts are in the right place, charred as they are."

"Die, Furu," came the gruff, sullen command.

"And Isamu complains about my bad manners?" the elder youkai chided as Sashe moved silently away. "I'm watching your back, my friend. You make an easy target when you're on your ass. But the battle is mostly over now. We're cleaning up the stragglers. The sun is about to rise, so it's time to move back."

Sesshoumaru got back to his feet, clutching Tenseiga loosely in one hand as he looked around. He found a lightening battle and a sea of bodies; eyes brushed across Sashe who was offering a hand to Zadi as Kanaye pulled himself back to his feet and began giving her an earful for being out there at all. Looking irritable beyond measure, Kanaye stalked toward Sesshoumaru with a heavy glare. "Eizan is debris, in case you were wondering," he pronounced without preamble before sliding a murderous look toward Furu. "Good idea, leaving those things around for any moron to grab."

"Would you like one then?" Furu inquired politely, extending an open palm that held one of the small, disastrous bombs.

"Only if you keep holding onto the other end," Kanaye snarled back. He returned his attention to Sesshoumaru then, and his expression changed to something more curious than angry. "Are you all right with that outcome?"

Sesshoumaru shook his head. "He's dead. It's the same result whether it was directly by my hand or not."

Kanaye grinned wickedly at that and Sesshoumaru marveled at his uncle's ability to switch moods faster than anyone he knew. "There's something rewarding in forcing someone to recognize their own ineptitude. He tried to take you with him because he knew he was about to die. It's so pathetic, it's nearly amusing."

Sesshoumaru stared, failing to see the humor, but Kanaye's dominant nature won out and he turned a furious look on Sashe. "And you...go back and wait with the others. I obviously didn't make that clear before I left." His eyes slid to Zadi, who was hovering just behind him and watching with a face that was smoke-streaked and scorched by the aftereffects of Eizan's chosen end. "Take her with you. I've got to go find my sword before Isamu shows up."

"I'm coming with you." The sentence was stated with a cool, steadfast defiance and Kanaye frowned at Zadi, who seemed intent on staring him down, blue eyes clear and unblinking.

He gave in first and cast a withered look at Sesshoumaru. "How do you stand this?" he sighed. "They're like an infestation." And as he turned away to stalk back toward Eizan's fortress, the rain halted as suddenly as it had begun.




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He had long since decided that when venting frustration, fighting without a weapon was more satisfying. It required more effort, more concentration, but it was far more rewarding to latch onto something vital and remove it from an opponent, to watch as their face changed from cocky to surprised to deceased within an eyeblink. But as Kanaye released his latest victim, allowing the body to drop into the grass like the useless piece of flesh it was, he cast a look back at the equally busy Zadi, feeling put off at being shadowed by this woman and her obsession.

She was fun to watch, at least, he decided. Graceful, confident...even if she was less than adequate with that weapon in his own estimation. But, then again, he was certain he'd had about seven hundred years worth of practice that she had not, and it made him wonder what she would be like at such an age. Would she be capable of reaching such an age? He could not think of anything that was more unnatural. A human living so long? But she had surpassed the human life expectancy three times by now and she was certainly stubborn enough to manage it...

He looked upward at the fortress that hovered overhead, tearing at the sky with those spired towers. His ears faintly registered Zadi muttering some frustration as the youkai she was battling simply refused to die, and so he turned and clawed the head from the man's shoulders, giving her a mean look for breaking his concentration. He had scoured the battlefield and had not seen Shoujiro, so he assumed that the youkai had been one of the group that had been driven back to rely on the protection of the fortress, thanks to Furu's unrelenting warriors. He disliked this situation, since they knew the layout of the fortress and, save for the dungeon and a small portion of the bottom floor, he did not. Although...

"Are you coming in?" he questioned of Zadi, turning to eye her with a look that said he was hoping for a negative answer, despite the fact that months of living here meant she probably knew the place like the back of her hand.

"Yes," she answered succintly, moving past him to give the heavy doors a good shove that sent them creaking open. An eerie silence met their entry, but he could smell them...

"You're going to so much trouble for one sword," she whispered to him with open exasperation.

"I like the sword," he snapped back, turning to eye her. "It belonged to my father. I don't like to use it, but I've been forced to rely on it for reasons you should understand. Where's the armory in this place?"

"The armory?"

"If they're going to hole up somewhere like the vermin that they are, then they're going to do it where weapons are most easily at their disposal," he answered reasonably, stalking into the foyer as though he owned the place. It was like a tomb, empty and silent, and he supposed that that was fitting considering the fact that the majority of its former inhabitants were sprawled out on the field, many in more than one piece. His shoes echoed off the glossy floor, and he didn't care if anyone heard him. In fact, he hoped they would and that they would come running because it would save him some time.

"It's this way," Zadi claimed quietly, and he turned to follow her, his eyes focused on the back of her head as they wended their way past a ridiculous number of rooms that contained lots of things, expensive things, pointless things, and it made him grateful for the simplicity he had been taught to live in. Father wouldn't have lived amidst this bunch of junk. Overcompensating, Eizan?

She opened another door, this one smooth and soundless, obviously used often, but the inside was pitch dark. He could make out clean-swept, narrow wooden steps and his sense of smell told him that this route had indeed been traveled, often and repeatedly, by more people than he could differentiate. Not surprising, considering the state of affairs outside, but instinct told him to take the lead and so a heavy hand dropped across her shoulder, halting her forward momentum and dragging her backward so that he could step in first. It was an instinct that ended up serving her well, because a whistling sound shot out of the darkness and he felt the familiar thump of metal inserting itself into flesh, fangs gritting together at the intrusion.

"You are the luckiest bitch I know," he choked out the laugh, shaking his head at her good fortune as he added, "If I were you, I'd keep low. I'll be right back."

"Kanaye?" she questioned, blinded by the darkness, but able to see enough to register a large shadow disappearing, evaporating into pitch black. There were more of the whistling sounds, these thunking into solid wood, and she recognized them as arrows. Quickly, those stopped and the sounds of a violent struggle began...an agonized screech, things connecting, breaking, snapping, a satisfied insult from a familiar voice, and then...complete silence.

There was some movement then, doors opening and shutting with resounding bangs, and she was certain he was hoping to draw out any stragglers. She became highly aware of the door at her back and kept her face angled enough so that she would be able to see if it started to swing back open, hand curved gracefully around the weapon in her hand. And then it started again, the sound of a cacophonous altercation, making her feel useless for being essentially trapped and blinded, unable to help. She blinked into the pitch darkness, her ears assigning names to the sounds that met them; doors being ripped off hinges and broken, metal clanging against stone walls, fists connecting, and the constant undercurrent of vocalized frustration, pain, surprise, rude vocabulary...

There was a flash of vague light that was quickly excised, and she turned fully toward the door, pulling the sword up into a defensive posture. Her eyes caught the movement of another shadow, one that stopped, as though surprised to see her, and then she she was knocked off of her feet, knees connecting with the narrow steps, unable to right herself until she hit some sort of flat landing, grateful that she had managed to keep a hand on her weapon. She recalled those moments on the battlefield with Kanaye, when she had felt so suddenly invincible, untouchable, and that feeling was long gone now. Zadi felt a rushing displacement of air and moved instinctively, listening as a fist broke into the rocky wall next to her face. She could see the youki, the barest tendrils of it, not enough to use as this person, either knowingly or not, was relying on physical strength, instead.

Heart pounding, she swung into the darkness with the blade, feeling it connect with nothing save empty air and then she was grasped by the shoulders and crushed into the wall, expelling air from her lungs with the hard impact. Angry at being caught at such a disadvantage, she thrust the sword outward again, this time registering that telling sensation of metal slipping into flesh and the accompanying growl of rage. She jerked the weapon free, feeling that the moment was fleeting, and she swung at what she hoped was something close to the head, but there was another angry exclamation, this one familiar. The sword's momentum was halted completely, as though grasped, then a wet, gurgling sound followed, and one shadow was very abruptly replaced by another larger one.

"As amusing as it is, watching you swing that thing like a blind woman, I'm in a hurry," Kanaye's voice came out of the darkness, rough and agitated.

A hand clasped itself around her wrist and she felt herself being unceremoniously dragged back up the stairs, stumbling most of the way and acquiring a fresh set of bruises. "I didn't find the bastard that has my sword," he complained as he charged his way up to the first floor, throwing the door open with a bang that would have announced his arrival to the dead. She felt him release her arm, and breathing rapidly, she moved to stand beside him...exhaling a horrified exclamation when she noticed a feather-tipped arrow protruding from his chest, right through the heart, and Zadi realized she would never adjust to being around someone who could simply absorb an injury that would have been instantly fatal to her.

"Is that...all right?" she found herself asking, and he glanced at her, wearing a distracted frown that quickly turned to displeasure.

"Does it bother you?" he asked with dry sarcasm, and she blinked as he grasped the embedded arrow and wrenched it free with an expression of resentful discomfort. He then handed it to her, the familiar sneer returning. "There."

"You make me nervous," she muttered, tossing the arrow to the floor and hurrying to catch up with him as he surged back the way they had come, head swiveling as though trying to gauge the place for hidden adversaries. He went to the stairs and began taking them three at a time, quickly leaving her behind, and her thoughts turned to Ashitera, who was not far away...

"I'm going to get Ashitera," she told him and at that he stopped and whirled on the step, eyeing her seriously.

"You're going to haul that brat into that mess?" he asked, gesturing toward the outside. "She's better off where she is. Now hurry before I..." She watched his face alter into something feral and furious as he launched himself back down the stairs, and Zadi's head turned to follow him, lighting on a painfully young-looking youkai who had just entered the castle, a very familiar sword clutched in his hand, and a look of pure, unadulterated terror crossing his features as he was leveled off of his feet by a dog youkai that was twice his size.

It was over almost as soon as it began and Zadi watched as Kanaye pulled the weapon from Shoujiro's limp hand. Fastidiously wiping it clean with great care, eyeing it as though to make certain it was in the same condition in which he had relinquished it, he cast a highly pleased look up at her, ignoring the deceased form that was sprawled at his feet. "Wasn't that convenient of him?"





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She heard another loud booming sound and it made her heart jump. Zadi-san had said not to look out the window, but Ashitera lifted her head from her careful work to watch as a flash from outside met her vision, briefly streaking the sky a brilliant white before the dark captured it again. For a moment she tried to imagine that they were just large fireflies, lighting on and off, but then the fears began to press in.

Fire? she wondered warily. Her eyes fell downward to the markings on the floor. She counted inside her head. Three times she had written his name, and she marked the rest of the final character for good measure. There was another loud noise from outside, and this time she put her hands over her ears to block it from reaching them. She sniffed carefully and was sure she smelled smoke.

This was very much like last time, she thought. It had been so quiet and Ashihei-sama had been working, but then he had come. She looked back down at the name, sounding the characters out in her mind.

Ses-shou-ma-ru.

And she remembered Ashihei-sama's command to go to her room, to wait there for him...and he had come for her, so she wondered if that was what she should do now. Zadi-san had said to wait for someone to come, but there had been no fire then, no smoke.

Ashihei-sama cannot come for me, her mind prompted then and she felt very sad at that. She cast an anxious glance toward the closed door, ears listening to the raucous commotion from outside. She wondered if she could remember how to find her room at this place. It had been a long time ago, but...

Carefully, as though someone was bound to magically appear and scold her, she crept toward the door, reaching on tiptoe to open it, but when she did, she was greeted by a hall that was silent. Her mama would have said it was filled with ghosts because no place is ever empty. She wondered which ghosts were watching her, good or bad, and if they were telling someone that she was misbehaving. Or maybe she was doing what she was supposed to do after all?

"He'll come find me if I go," she whispered to the ghosts, thinking again of that night when it had been so hot and so confusing and Ashihei-sama had appeared. She had just as much faith that her new guardian would find her, but how would he know to look in Zadi-san's room? He would not, she decided firmly, and with that certainty in mind, she hurried down the hallway, searching for something familiar.





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The sky shifted dizzyingly overhead, starlight streaking by in a circular motion that made his head spin...and then came the impact: face to dirt, bone-shuddering and not for the first time. Kagome's efforts at the mountain had certainly done something; the jyaki was gone, but that did not change the fact that Ryuujin still had enough power on its own, with Eido or not. But Inuyasha did not take the time to regain his bearings, could not, his instincts told him, and so he lurched unsteadily back to his feet, one red sleeve nearly detached, hanging, and blocked Kawahira from removing his head along with the sleeve. He shoved off of Ryuujin, legs wet and dripping from the last time he had been hurtled into the water. Feet landed in the sticky sand, toes digging in, waiting...

And Kawahira did it again, rearing back with the halberd and unleashing a dark, current-like streak that made the hair on his arms stand on end. Inuyasha quickly reciprocated with a Kaze no Kizu that met the darker attack, collided in an explosion that would have been pretty if close proximity to it was not so likely to be fatal, and this time both combatants were thrown backward, away from each other, separated by the wrath of their own attacks.

More whirling sky. Inuyasha's back struck the sand, imprinting a hanyou-sized shadow into the earth. He dug in and stood once more, breathing like a drowning man, and Kawahira appeared to be faring no better. Both appeared willing to call a temporary halt, exhaustion taking a toll, and Inuyasha gritted his teeth in frustration. Bakuryuuha would finish all of this...but Kawahira was too quick. He had speed very reminiscent of Sesshoumaru's, which hindered concentration. He was sending off attacks within an instant, in the amount of time it took Inuyasha to open and close his eyes against the drops of water the wind kept sending into his face, always after some physical assault that would put Inuyasha off-balance, and he knew it was because Kawahira was trying to avoid Bakuryuuha.

A heavy wind swept in off of the lake, spraying him with water again, and he fought the urge to look out over the rest of the battle, to see how it had fared, because Kawahira always waited for those moments of inattention. The guy had switched to using his left arm now that the right was removed, useless, an obvious necessity, and the shoreline was streaked by blood from the amputated appendage. Kawahira seemed to be less steady as time went on. However...

Inuyasha was having his own problems; whatever damage Kawahira had done to him was taking a toll as well. And so, he recognized that trying to destroy each other was not working. They were evenly matched. Kawahira with the greater raw strength and speed...but a weapon that possessed attacks he was still learning. Inuyasha gifted with less thanks to half the youkai blood...but with a sword he knew like the back of his hand. He bent, hands on knees, resting for a second but watching Kawahira with the same sort of evil glare that was being given to him in turn. He could see that the sky was lightening, the faintest hints of orange evident in his peripheral vision.

Kawahira straightened up and gripped onto Ryuujin once more. Inuyasha mirrored the movement...the water pulled away from his feet, retreating from the shoreline, and Inuyasha became eerily focused. If I can't destroy him...then I'll just settle for disabling him. He waited, something in his brain recognizing the sudden eerie silence that had just descended all around them as a warning, but Kawahira chose then to come at him again, hurtling across the beachy landscape, intent on him, a rushing blur. Inuyasha recognized it as another oncoming physical attack, and so he tried to judge what Kawahira was aiming for...and whether or not his body could afford the hit.

Decisions in such situations were made in less than an eyeblink, but during the moment itself they felt like they took an age; where one waits to see if his decision was indeed a good one. And Inuyasha waited for that moment, blinking as Kawahira's blade connected with him. He turned some, limiting the damage so the halberd only slid past his left side, another dissection of cloth, while he focused in on taking advantage of Kawahira's nearness, ignoring the feel of slicing skin, honing in on the leg that was dug in, within reach. He detransformed Tessaiga so as to be able to maneuver with a smaller blade, reaching and jerking it violently across the back of Kawahira's knee, severing muscle, tendons, and things vital for one to be able to stand up straight at all.

A ragged oath came from Kawahira, who immediately collapsed, the leg unable to support his weight and Inuyasha jumped backward out of reach, stinging from the undefended wound. His opponent was bent awkwardly in the sand, kneeling, seething, eyes dark and murderous.

"Wanna keep fighting?" Inuyasha asked, pushing himself unsteadily back to his feet, heaving in air like it was in limited supply. Kawahira said nothing, did not even blink, and Inuyasha nodded. "That's what I thought." An eerie feeling seized him then, and he looked to the battlefield where the remnants of the fight was wrapping up...then felt a rushing displacement of air from the opposite direction of the wind, as though something was being sucked away. He turned to look out at the lake...and froze completely in awe.





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"What...is that...?"

Rin looked up from the wounded arm she was treating when she heard Kagome's nervous question. Eyes swept out to the brightening east, to the lake...but the lake was no longer there, just a stretch of sand that looked like a soaked desert, and in the distance, pulled back and looming as though waiting for a signal, was a wall of water, like an unfurled wave, massive and suspended by some unseen force. It seemed to be turning, like a halted tornado, whirling skyward.

"That is Isamu," came Sesshoumaru's displeased voice, suddenly beside her, and he was followed by the others, one right after the other, materializing back on the hillside as though they knew what was coming. Furu and Sashe...his youkai soldiers...some of the western youkai...then Zadi with Kanaye, who reappeared, sword in hand, looking grimly satisfied.

Kagome's attention was focused outward, on Inuyasha who appeared to be intently watching the looming wall of water. His back was to them, silvery-white hair streaming out behind him in the gathering wind, and Kawahira was down on his knees just steps away, likewise turned, appearing calmly expectant.

"Inuyasha...," Kagome murmured nervously, wondering why he was not returning, fingers folding anxiously.

"What the hell is he doing?" Kanaye questioned curiously.

"He's being nice," Sesshoumaru said distastefully, watching as Inuyasha's fascination with the looming lake broke and the hanyou turned to his adversary, said something, and then extended a hand only to have it nearly ripped off for his trouble. Kawahira was not in the mood to accept charity, it seemed. "He managed to incapacitate Kawahira."

Kagome watched tensely, heart lurching along with the water as it suddenly gave way, poured down, churning across the lake bed like a tsunami. That spurred Inuyasha into action. He seemed to say something else to Kawahira and then leapt out of the way, disappearing into the tangle of trees that lined the valley. Kagome exhaled a pent breath, waited only a few moments, and then suddenly he was there, descending to join them, all intent golden eyes and breathless and blood-soaked. She fought the urge to sit him for the near heart attack he had given her, instead settling for gripping the hand that finished resheathing the Tessaiga.

Sesshoumaru turned away from the fussing words of the miko, eyeing Rin as she moved forward to watch the catastrophe. The gigantic wave gained momentum, consuming the immobile Kawahira...the bodies that lay strewn on the field...the remnants of Eizan's army that had been too foolish to get to higher ground, but it didn't stop there, kept rushing forward on its course. Her attention diverted to the fortress that loomed in the distance, mostly empty, abandoned, except for one... And she whirled back to face Sesshoumaru, white-faced and horrified.

"Is he going to destroy the fortress? Ashitera is there!"

In a sequence that was almost too quick to perceive, Sesshoumaru exchanged a pointed look with Kanaye and then evaporated into the trees. Zadi moved to follow him and was quickly given a not-so-polite push backward by Kanaye who moved to loom in front of her as though having fully anticipated the attempt, blocking her way, and appearing deathly serious.

"Kanaye!" Zadi snapped angrily.

"Yes?" he asked calmly, giving her another harder shove backward when she attempted to move past him again.

"I know where she is! I can help him find her!" And already it was eating at her, the decision to follow his intuition and leave her in the safety of that wretched castle. So many people had taken some measure of responsibility for her, and she had been the one left behind.

"He'll find her. Calm down, you shrill witch," Kanaye barked, eyeing each of the tense women in turn, threatening and unapologetic. "Normally, I don't like to hit human women because you break so damned easily...but I'm about to make a happy exception for whoever tries to do what she just did." He pointed a rude finger directly in Zadi's face. "And if you try any of that youki voodoo shit, I'm going to start with you."






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He could feel it looming at his back, and so he wasted little time destroying the faceless being that had the misfortune of blocking his path when he entered the ancient, massive fortress. Mind turning with where she could be...the options were endless, really...he pulled memories of the layout of this place from his head, from previous visits, when there had been a tenuous, restless peace, with his father, with himself. Sesshoumaru decided on the second floor, and so leapt up to the next level, bypassing the staircase entirely, the oncoming roar growing louder and louder.

The bottom floor was formal, the second floor held private rooms, rooms inhabited by people that were now dead. It had a haunted feeling to it, empty, abandoned, and he wondered if his side had actually succeeded in decimating so many, because there was no other sound in this place except that of his own breathing and the echo of his feet on the floor. He caught her scent then, turned, went down a different hallway, thinking that, of everything, this would hurt Rin the most. He had his victory in hand, he had what he wanted...and now he wanted to make sure she had the same thing which would require that girl, whole and healthy, at the end of this.

It was not his own attachment, he reasoned. His life would remain unchanged, however this ended...and then he stopped, instinct pulling him into a room that smelled like Zadi, must have been hers while she was here. It was neatly kept, as though no one really inhabited it at all, but she was ingrained here despite all of that, and the hanyou girl...she had lingered here as well, but the room was empty now. He barked her name, wondering if she was hidden, but was certain that his nose was correct in identifying the scent as a faded one. She had moved on...or had been moved.

The roar grew louder, thunderous. His eyes fell to the floor, where a fire lay spent and cold and blinked at the characters that were scrawled across the boards, thin streaks made by childish fingers, likely in a fit of boredom as she waited for someone to retrieve her. He read his name and the care that had been put into writing it exactly as he had shown her. And then there was the collision...violent and shuddering, cacophonous, water to rock, and water always won. Whether it was moments or centuries, water wore down its opponents, either through strength or patience and Isamu had both of those. There was the riotous sound of breaking stone, shattering timber, and the floor shifted underfoot.

He left the room, time dwindling heavily. This place would disintegrate and what would not crumble would sink. An eerie cracking sound echoed around him, and he looked down to find his feet covered in water; water that had seeped upward, through the very cracks in the floor and continued to come, pouring through as the floor began to give way, and so he chose a direction and hurtled down the corridor, eyes and ears alert, but he heard nothing save the effects of Isamu's destructive assault.

In his mind, something compared this to the night Ashihei was killed. Grabbing the girl, trying to escape, but this time the enemy was water rather than fire and a vengeful youkai lord. Legs sloshed through a corridor that was now shin-deep in the invading lake, and his senses told him that it was all about to give way, he could feel it growing, building, and the fortress itself weakening each time he put a foot down. Churning lake water began seeping under the cracks of closed doors, through the seams, pouring out of rooms from open windows. The place was being submerged. It was an unbearable stress on the building. But he was stubborn, and not at all liking the idea of going back to Rin, empty-handed, and facing that...

Ah, Sesshoumaru...you can kill anyone that crosses you without so much as flinching, but a human woman's disappointment is unthinkable? Strange, indeed.

And then everything shifted, tilted, disintegrated. His feet lost hold of the floor...or maybe it was more that the floor gave way and was no longer there to aid in stability. Furnishings and scrolls and miscellaneous items that had belonged to the inhabitants of this place joined the melee, washing into the conglomerating, frothing mixture, like a soup being stirred. The walls gave way and he gritted his teeth as they gave way on him, pushing him downward while the sucking, turbulent current did the rest. He was dragged under, further, further, until he recognized the remnants of the first floor, floating bodies, submerged and lifeless, but none small enough to be hers.

Everything was washed a blue-green, dreamlike and tempestuous at once, and he shoved out from under the broken wall, surging upward. Perhaps the third floor, if that was not gone as well, but he found to his frustration that the way through was blocked, which left the best option to be exiting somewhere on the bottom floor and finding another way to the top floor from the outside. As he debated with himself, his lungs started that burn that told him he would have to leave and come back, and that made him angry for a reason he could not name. Irritated, he lashed out with a poisonous claw attack, feeling the sizzle of water being heated against his fingers, striking the fallen stone in an attempt to break through. But the attack did not have the same force underwater where movements were slowed and weighted, and so he withdrew Tenseiga, preparing to blow it all away if need be...but it became uneccessary.

He felt that familiar presence, sensed it as everything around him began to fall silent, a fortress accepting its end. He turned his head and watched as Isamu surged gracefully up to meet him, a limp, childish body clutched within his pale, slimy hands. Sesshoumaru re-sheathed Tenseiga and extended his arms to accept the girl, glaring spitefully back at Isamu's calm, knowing smile.

"Such effort for something that doesn't belong to you, Sesshoumaru-sama," came the watery voice, sounding amused, and Sesshoumaru resented the inability to reply in kind.

Feeling that growing pressure from lack of air, Sesshoumaru searched out the way he had come in, wending his way past fallen chunks of rock and timber, Ashitera's dark hair waving languidly in his face, blocking his sight, and he squeezed out through what was left of the front door, shooting upward and breaking the surface to find dawn greeting him full-on, an orange glare that made him squint his eyes against the intensity. He swam back toward what was now the shore, the higher land that had surrounded the fortress, casting a look back to find that only the tops of the battlements emerged from the water, a scant testament to a fallen lord.

The girl was completely senseless, limp, draped over his arm like a broken doll, but her heart thumped lazily against one hand, slow and methodical. He cast a look around him, wondering if Rin was watching and if she was as panic-stricken as he assumed she most probably was. He reached the shore which was now jagged and abrupt, and so he had to push Ashitera up ahead of him and then climb out, feeling sodden and heavy. A few quick slaps on the back forced her to expel the water she'd inhaled until she sucked in the most pathetic, ragged breath he had ever heard, coughing and choking. As though startled, she jolted awake, tiny claws puncturing into his neck like a scared kitten that had been chased up a tree, gasping for air like breathing was a new concept and suddenly necessary.

He purposefully took his time, hoping the girl would shake off some of the terror before he handed her off to Rin, and he was not disappointed in her. The grip on him did not lessen, in fact she managed to capture two handfuls of his hair for good measure, and then she made an effort to shake herself, very Inuyasha-like, working to rid herself of the excess water but only managing to soak him even more.

"You're all wet," she finally sniffed in a hoarse voice, as though that was the reason she was having to suffer through being so thoroughly drenched.

"As are you," he countered calmly, now satisfied enough to start taking the hillside in long leaps that quickly brought him back to the top, immersing himself into treecover. He brushed through heavy limbs, orienting himself to hone in on where the others were situated.

"You said you don't like to swim," Ashitera murmured then, as though it was a puzzle she could not quite piece together, and he felt her head drop back to his shoulder, the hands released his hair, as though suddenly happy to let him expend all the energy for both of them.

"Sometimes it's necessary," he answered wryly, stepping over a moldy, felled tree.

"There was a bad dream...," she said then, sounding confused, remembering the fear but not what had provoked it, and he watched out of the corner of his eye as her hand lifted and grasped at an over-hanging tree branch, pulling one of the leaves free, and creating yet another shower of water as the limb swayed back and forth from the abuse.

"You're awake now, so it doesn't matter," he offered reasonably. She began to speak again, but he heard the others, began seeing movement up ahead and gratefully interrupted her, distracted her. "There are people waiting for you."

She lifted her head to stare him in the face at that, practically nose-to-nose, wide eyes blinking at him with happy mischief as she proudly claimed, "I waited for you."





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She had seen them all off, making an effort to thank each of Furu's people personally, since it had been they who had made such an effort to help her leave that accursed place. And after waving the last of them off, she exhaled a cleansing breath, turning to look out at the few lingering signs that anything other than a lake had ever existed here. Sashe was still amazed by it all. Isamu had physically moved the lake, thrust it down into the valley and submerged a place she was grateful never to have to look at again. Aimless and tired and seeking solitude, she quietly moved away from the others, steps pacing to a heavy-limbed tree. She sat down, back nestled against the abrasive bark, watching the water that shimmered in the early morning sun. How something so peaceful and soothing could so easily overwhelm such a dark place was beyond her. But she was grateful...to Isamu for doing it, to Furu for understanding her, to her father for the rescue that required no apology, to Sesshoumaru for behaving as though nothing had changed at all, simple exasperation and the triumph of being proved right...

"Tell me you're not giving that bastard any more thought. He doesn't deserve it."

Sashe jumped at the voice, surprised that he had been able to get so close without her even noticing. She turned and watched without comment as Furu lowered himself beside her, glaring outward at the brightening horizon. When she said nothing to him, he spoke again. "You said good-bye to everyone else. I felt neglected."

"I thought you were already gone," she said quickly, apologetically. "I didn't see you."

She watched his profile, caught the subtle lifting of the lips that told her he had been teasing her. He was so rough-looking, wild, brown hair hanging carelessly over massive shoulders, dark eyes scouring the distance for several moments before turning on her and she could not help but return the smile with a small one of her own. There was something about him that put her intensely at ease. Perhaps it was because nothing seemed to anger him, not even Kanaye's spitefulness which had been intermixed with his own way of expressing gratitude...pure scorn. And she had been pleased to see that Furu seemed to understand that.

"You can do better, you know," he murmured then, low and hypnotic.

She blinked at that. "You mean Eizan? Oh, I sincerely hope so."

"Yes, Eizan. He always was a slimy little toad. I remember when I was a kid and he would drop those offers of friendship, the ones that would always come with a price attached. He used to drive my mother to distraction; I inherited my territory from her, you know. She despised him. She always had good instincts about people, too. Well, for the most part. She always liked your Father. That I cannot even begin to explain," he said in a tone that did indeed sound at a loss for words.

"I don't intend to give him another thought," Sashe said fervently.

"Good, because there are others."

"Others?" she questioned, not understanding, but she saw the mouth curve upward even more into a full grin.

"I am completely alone, you realize," he offered to her with boyish charm. "And I am just as powerful as he is...was. Actually, more so, my ego would like to add."

She glanced away from him, looking out at the remnants of Eizan's home. "That doesn't matter to me so much as..."

"So much as what?" came the curious question. "I'm better-looking than he was, too."

And this time she laughed, a sudden expression of mirth that made her worry she might offend him, but there was something horribly amusing to her about having escaped the "affections" of one youkai lord only to have another offering his own. But she did not take him seriously. Furu was known for having an easy sense of humor and she found it just as likely that he was mocking her for her predicament.

He held out his hands at the sound of her laughter, and she looked at the long fingers that were coated nearly bronze from all of the bombs he had hurled during the battle. The confident tone did not fade as he added, "All right, maybe not better-looking, but I'm not exactly a source for nightmares, either."

"No, you're certainly not that," she agreed with evident amusement, eyes falling to a sudden and thorough inspection of the blades of grass that separated them.

"And I'm probably your best shot, really. I doubt your father would see the need to hunt me down and destroy me."

"You're overconfident there, Furu-sama," she admonished sincerely.

"I can at least take him down with me."

She laughed again at that, the sound seeming strange to her own ears, listening as he continued to tick off what made him a better choice than the ill-fated relationship she'd tried to carve out with Eizan.

"...and Isamu would get off my back. He's in everyone's business but his own. Now that Sesshoumaru seems so intent on that human girl, he's started focusing the whole of his manic obsession on me. He's just doing it so he can try to attach me to someone in that pack of granddaughters he has. I swear to you, he's like some old woman, a busybody." He cast a look in her direction, curious and searching. "Well?"

She shook her head faintly, more at the strangeness of it all than in negativity. "Are you being serious?" she asked with amusement.

"Do you think I'm joking?" came the equally cryptic response.

"I...don't know...," she said uncertainly. "I'm going back to my mother's for a while. It'll be good to escape for a little bit, have some freedom. But it will be just as nice to come back to a friend."

"Friendship is where it all starts, Sashe. And no matter what comes of it, it never has to be more complex than that. Relationships become burdened when you place too much on them. Simplicity is always best," he said with a confident nod, and she could not help but agree with him.





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Zadi supposed she must have been making it obvious that she was looking for him. It was difficult to appear nonchalant when her head was practically swiveling off of her shoulders in an attempt to spot him. But Kanaye was nowhere to be found, had disappeared. She had already said her good-byes to everyone else, and she was mindful of the rising sun, the slow spread of daylight, and if she hurried it was possible to make it home by the following night. But this was a farewell she could not forgo; it was so necessary...

"This used to drive my mother crazy," came a quiet voice next to her, and she turned around to find Sashe watching her with a faintly knowing expression. "It was one of his quirks she could not deal with. He would leave and we would know it was to settle some fight or stir up trouble...and he wouldn't come back for days. She would worry, and the longer he was gone the more certain she would be that he'd been killed. Mother always thought he was doing it to be prideful."

"And why would he do it?" Zadi questioned, feeling odd at being given these insights into Kanaye.

Sashe gave a subtle shrug of her shoulders. "I don't know. He's a complicated man, Zadi; difficult to love. Moody, vindictive, frustrating. That's why few manage it and my mother failed."

"Are you warning me away from him?"

"I hope not," Sashe answered sincerely. "He's the most miserable person I've ever known and he revels in it. It's hard to live with, harder to watch. Why do you think he's alone? We left him, not the other way around."

They left him...strange, since I want more than anything to stay with him and cannot. She laughed lightly at the peculiarity of the situation. "Would it scare you to hear that I like him as he is?"

"I'll admit it's strange. The two of you don't go together at all, and yet...," Sashe shook her head, uncertain of what to make of this bizarre relationship that had been formed in her absence. "Why don't you go find him? We never did."

Zadi blinked at that. Of course she could find him, and say good-bye. But as she turned to do just that, something occurred to her and she asked it for a reason not even she understood. "Sashe...your mother. Does she still...?"

"If you're asking if you'll have to deal with a vengeful mate, the answer is no. She won't return to him, but she would want him to be happy. If you can manage that, she'd be nothing more than grateful." Sashe grinned then, watching how restless Zadi appeared to be, as though the very act of standing still was bothersome. "Go find him. He'll mock you for it, but he'll appreciate it in his own way."

And that was all Zadi needed to hear. Her feet followed their own path as she turned and left the others, that inner sense reaching, waiting, and then she saw it like the faintest beginnings of a web of silvery threads that grew stronger as she wended her way past the trees. Searching, yearning...he was like an addiction, an unhealthy one, she was certain, but there was not the least bit of hesitation as she came to an incline and began climbing it, fingers digging into crumbling earth, finding leverage on roots and rocks and anything her fingers could grasp. Her toes dug in, then slipped when the soil would give way, but she clambered and grasped, all the while feeling that same warmth in her hand. For a few moments on that battlefield, she had seen the reemergence of the selfless Kanaye and she wanted to find him again before their time was up and their ties were severed. The faint glow of day grew at her back as she reached level ground once more, pulled herself up, and continued on.

She didn't understand. Why was he so singularly important to her? They could not be more different and she was certain that the depth of his feelings in no way mirrored hers, but it didn't matter. She didn't understand him and she didn't have to. Her feet picked up speed, brushing through the choked forest, following that omnipresent trail, leading her to him. Her shoes sloshed through a gently-flowing stream, through muck and mud, over dead trees that had fallen and laid there to rot. She was beginning to feel tired and filthy, worn inside and out, wanting nothing more than...

...to escape, to hide for a while, recover what had been expended...

And she found him. Feet met sand and then water, and she looked out over this remnant of the lake to spot him seated cross-legged on a mossy, emerged outcropping of rocks. His eyes were closed, but they opened and he turned to watch her arrival. She stared silently back for a moment before her eyes fell to the dark water, judged its depth, and stepped in. Vines tugged at her ankles, but soon she was beyond her height and forced into a swim that ended when her out-reaching hand brushed slimy stone. It was worn nearly smooth and she looked upward, wondering how best to tackle the climb. The first attempt met with a slip that sent her back into the water with a resounding splash, but she surfaced again, determined.

"Kanaye..."

No answer. And so she dug into the tiny crevices she could find, bruising fingertips, kicking off her boots and allowing them to sink so that her toes could find better footing. She stretched and clawed her way to the top, sliding and breathless, but she managed it and drew herself up to his level. He turned to look at her as she rested on hands and knees for a moment, regaining air, and then spoke in that familiar condescending tone.

"You are a clingy female, aren't you?"

Exhaling a heavy breath, she got back to her feet and moved toward him, sitting down beside him and looking out at what he had been watching. On one side, there was water for a distance that was capped only by a mountain range...on the other side, a carpeting of wind-swept trees for as far as her vision could determine. Everything was becoming orange-lit with the gathering sun to the east, while the west seemed to be working to absorb the light.

"You disappeared," she said softly, hearing the note of complaint in her voice.

"I wasn't aware that there was someone I needed to answer to," came the smooth answer.

She sighed and shook her head at him, but said nothing, instead reaching out to brush his hair over one shoulder. She then began tugging at the neckline of his haori until one shoulder was exposed and his head turned to watch her, smirk sliding firmly into place.

"Now is hardly the time, woman," he drawled with suggestive humor.

Her face became flushed at that, but she kept working it off of him, pulled his arm free until he was exposed to the morning light, perfectly formed except for the raw, oozing wound that had been carved into the skin thanks to the arrow and a clawed streak down the backside of one shoulder. "You're very fortunate that your kind doesn't scar easily, considering how much trouble loves to find you," she scolded, untying the long, dark sash at her waist and moving closer.

"You don't seem to scar, either, strangely. Go find a mirror," he offered, eyes falling to the quickly-disappearing wound Eizan had inflicted and then watching with interest as she wrapped the silky material around the open injury, over the shredded shoulder, moving his arm in various directions until she rested on her knees behind him and began working from that angle.

"You do remember I am a youkai, right? That will be repaired and closed up by tomorrow." He shook his head faintly, but didn't order her to stop. He held up the purpled fingers from his crushed hand, wriggling them slightly. "I'm already starting to get the use of these back. This is pointle---" he stopped speaking when her head fell forward to rest on his back, long strands of wet hair clinging to his skin. He blinked at the sudden change in mood. "What is it?"

"You make me sad," Zadi whispered, feeling her eyes begin to burn. Why was she being so emotional? She didn't know, but she felt crushed, weary, upset, anxious. Of course this wasn't necessary, but it excused her close proximity, and it allowed her to put off the inevitable. Her fingers settled on his leg and she closed her eyes, listening to the water lashing at the shore and the feeling of air being drawn in and out of his lungs, a rapid heartbeat.

"I've never been known as a bringer of joy," he answered. "You became too entangled with me. My expectations have never gone beyond the moment."

"And this moment?"

"This moment I have a weepy female attached to my back for reasons I do not even pretend to understand."

She opened her eyes, listening to the unbidden sigh that escaped her. "I'm leaving."

"I expected you would," he said sensibly, posture still stick-straight. "This was all supposed to end when I got Sashe back. You are to return to your village, find someone insane enough to marry you, and grow old, remember?"

"That's not what I want," she murmured unhappily. "Who would have thought that being sent to kill you would cause me this much confusion?"

"Be grateful for the confusion. Being sent to kill me is generally fatal," he informed her, and then fell quiet for a moment before saying in a voice that was so nonchalant it sounded awkward. "No one is forcing you to leave. It's your own decision."

"They need me at home," she revealed, sounding torn and vaguely resentful.

"Conceited little bitch, aren't you?"

He felt her body shake with laughter at that, a mirthful sound that apparently prompted her to wrap her arms around his neck from behind, and he turned his head to find her face inches from his own, eyes tearful. "Stop being so sentimental. I should pitch you over the side for distracting me."

"I'm relieved you got her back," Zadi said, forcing a smile and purposefully changing the subject.

"I expect her mother to be very unhappy with me."

"Why?"

"Because she is Lien. There needs to be no reason. If the sun sets inconveniently, the responsibility is mine," he murmured with bitter humor. "This is probably enough to bring her out of hiding."

"You want to see her again so badly?"

He hesitated, the humor fleeing his face, and he became serious. He said nothing to that and she withdrew her hands from around him, breaking the fond embrace, suddenly experiencing guilt as she remembered that she loved another woman's husband, a terrible gut-wrenching feeling, even if that woman had tossed him aside. No, she should not love him. It was such a disaster, had been from the beginning, and she was thrilled that it had happened at all.

"I will miss you," she admitted with all the sincerity she could summon.

And still he was silent. She draped the loose haori back around his shoulders and rose from her knees, but he stopped her, turning to grasp onto her forearm, clawed hand encircling it firmly. She stared back at him but he would not look her in the eye, his head turned resolutely toward the forest. "I have a long memory," he finally said in an odd voice. "I don't make a very good friend, but you're free to keep what's there."

Her throat locked up, and she didn't think she could form words, so she nodded and he let go of her arm. His ears followed the splashing of her re-entry into the water, listened to the steps that pulled her out of sight, and Kanaye turned to watch the rest of the sunrise alone.





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It was astonishing...to think of the madness this place had seen only hours ago, and now it was submerged, watery, peaceful. Rin opened her eyes against the brightening sun; she was so tired...and so relieved to have it finally finished, and with an outcome she would not regret. Her hands tightened around the warm little body that was sprawled across her, head tucked into her neck, as though to avoid the sunlight that had brought Rin back to wakefulness. Ashitera's hair was barely damp now, and she was wrapped in a pelt, dark, soft, and furred, that Furu had extended to her before taking his leave. Ashitera looked like an overgrown squirrel, sleepy and clingy, a deathgrip on a handful of Rin's hair, as though determined not to be separated. And she seemed completely untouched by the night before, her terrifying ordeal, the loss of her family. Rin didn't know whether to be sad or grateful for that.

Across from her, his back to the newly-made lake, Inuyasha had his head bowed, but his ears twitched periodically at sounds and so she knew he was still mostly aware, but was immobilized for Kagome who was obviously lost to sleep. The silence was pervasive, nearly eerie, especially now with the Westerm "army" having ingratiated themselves with Sesshoumaru until he had threatened them with additional violence if they did not depart. Rin's head turned, searching him out, and found him standing still not far away, face emotionless as he listened to whatever it was Sashe was saying to him.

She watched them for a long while, becoming drowsy again as the day grew warmer. Zadi had come to say her good-byes earlier, and the woman had seemed weighted and sad. She had not wanted to wake Ashitera, had simply rested a fond hand on the girl's sleeping head as she had explained to Rin why she was leaving the child behind. Rin, in turn, had explained that Sesshoumaru did not approve of the idea of the little girl remaining with them and Zadi had simply smiled at that and said that, even so, she was confident he would do what was best, whatever that turned out to be.

"What's that about?" a low voice murmured suspiciously, and she was startled, turning to find Kanaye leaning casually against the tree next to her, sight fixated on the conversation his daughter was having with Sesshoumaru.

"I don't know," Rin said honestly, and she supposed that now that the good-byes were at hand, she owed him something. "Kanaye..."

"Save it."

"But..."

"You're welcome. Shut up."

And she blinked as he stepped past her and moved toward Sashe and Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha's head coming up to watch and Kagome rousing with him. The hanyou's ears flicked in expectation, listening as Kagome yawned quietly and sat up, blearily focusing in on the few people that remained. The place was caught in a stranglehold of silence, without even the chirp of birds. She turned to watch Inuyasha's face, and he glanced warmly at her in response.

"My mother is probably worried sick," she said regretfully, thoughts falling back to the people she had left at home. Mama...Ji-chan...Souta... "I've never been gone this long before."

"You should have gone home a long time ago," he muttered gruffly, ears twitching as his eyes left her face and settled once more on the conversing demons not so far away. But he was as ready for it as she was, to return to normalcy. He'd be happy to be the victim of Shippou's pranks, old Kaede's scolding, Kenji's ear-pulling, whatever, as long as he could go home. And the first thing he would do was get Sango to cook some of that rice stuff she was good at...and then take Kagome home to her Mom. Steak... His stomach began rumbling in appreciative anticipation. And he'd sleep, he thought, body registering every new ache it had accumulated over the past few days. Damn...for years, if he could manage it...

"It all worked out, didn't it?" Kagome prodded in a cheerful "I-told-you-so!" voice, hand wrapping firmly around his arm. "And we've got a lot to talk about, you know."

"Yep, we do," he agreed absently, thoughts already turning, hearing tuning in to that other heartbeat, the one he was finally able to hear. "I wonder if it's a boy..."

"What's wrong with a girl?" she asked defensively, her head coming up with the challenge.

He seemed taken aback by that, wondering what in his words had prompted that kind of reaction. "Nothing's wrong with a girl...," he stuttered quickly.

"Sesshoumaru referred to her as a 'she'," Kagome revealed archly, eyebrows rising as though daring him to say anything about it.

Feeling a very near osuwari! in his future, Inuyasha abandoned the argument, ears flattening as he muttered sullenly, "Know-it-all bastard..."




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Sesshoumaru was only half-listening to Sashe at this point. He was finished and already focusing on other things. His eyes moved from Sashe's face to the hanyou girl that was clasped in Rin's arms. That is something that certainly needs a resolution. And then his head turned, eyeing Inuyasha and the miko, welded together side-by-side on the ground...disgusting...and it was difficult not to notice the venomous look the hanyou was sending his way. What is he worked up about now?

"We're leaving, Sashe," Kanaye's gruff voice broke into his thoughts. "Say what you need to and let's go."

Sesshoumaru's attention turned back to her at that, found that she was giving him a careful glance in return. "I've already said it, although...there is one thing..."

"Yes?" Sesshoumaru inquired impassively, arms folding of their own accord. She was just like her mother, that sensitive nature that hated tempers to flare in her direction, and that was why he had allowed her to pin him down for this last conversation, all apologies, and explanations, and recounts of events that took place on her end. He did not care; she worried far too much over unimportant things and not nearly enough over what did matter. But he was willing to let her have her say, since she apparently had some desperate need to fling all of these words at him. He could not make it clear enough that it had all been settled, was over the moment he had let her pass back through his ranks.

She focused on him with sad eyes and asked the one question that had been left to reverberate inside of her head. "If you and I had met on that battlefield...would you really have killed me?"

He eyed her for so long that her nerves began to rise and so he decided to put her out of her misery. "No," he finally admitted, "but I wouldn't have gone easy on you." His gaze flickered to the looming Kanaye then, who appeared bored and restless. "And you are leaving prematurely. We have something to settle."

"Is that so?" Kanaye asked, mulling over the events of the day before. It all comes back to that dense human girl, doesn't it? "I suppose you're right. And there is the matter of precisely what took place in my house while you were there and I was not."

"That wasn't what I was referring to, but use whatever motivation you need," Sesshoumaru replied, unruffled.

"Get in line!" Inuyasha barked then, and Sesshoumaru looked up to find the hanyou stalking toward them, having apparently snapped free of the miko's invisible leash, snarling out of a face that was dark and angry. "I still owe you for kidnapping Kagome, Sesshoumaru."

"It's not kidnapping if the individual is willing to go, idiot boy," Sesshoumaru answered with words that were delicately-stated and yet dripped with menacing intent. "I saw to the miko's welfare. If anything, you should be expressing gratitude, but, as usual, you are incapable of forming words that require more than two syllables." His voice lowered then and Inuyasha stopped just out of arm's reach, looking pained and tired...and more than ready to start something anew. "And shall I remind you of exactly why it was that Rin was left with Kanaye to begin with?"

Sashe found herself caught between the rising tempers, listening to the snapped words and voiced threats before interrupting them. So similar and they do not even see it. "You do realize that you're all even, then?" she asked carefully.

An abrupt silence met that statement; grudges and gratitude being weighed, judging whether to proceed or relent. And, she was thankful to see, weariness won out over ego, and the tension abated.

"Go home, Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru suddenly ordered coolly, eyebrows rising.

"Gladly," Inuyasha growled back, already turning away. "Damn, I'm sick of your face."

"Sashe, let's go," Kanaye repeated, sounding beaten and bored with it all. He exchanged an unreadable look with Sesshoumaru before turning to mutter something to the half-demon in passing, a comment that provoked Inuyasha into barking a stream of rude words at his departing back.

Inuyasha then glanced back at Sesshoumaru as Kagome came to join them, smirking for all he was worth as he added what he knew would be the equivalent of rubbing salt into an open wound. "And you're welcome for all the help, Sesshoumaru."

"My patience is dwindling, brat," came the frosty warning.

Wanting to preserve the tenuous truce, Rin quickly broke in to finish her good-byes, promising Kagome to come see her soon, but she could not help the sigh that escaped her as the specks that were Sashe and Kanaye vanished into the distance, and then Inuyasha and Kagome in the opposite direction.

"You would think after all that we've been through together, the separation would have at least been civil," Rin said wryly of the split and departed group, shaking her head.

Sesshoumaru glanced at her, the confrontation fading from his eyes as he answered, "That was as civil as it gets."