InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Yume ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, Miroku, Sesshoumaru *sob*, or even Naraku. But when I win the lottery, I'll be making Takahashi-sensei an offer she can't refuse. Be nice to me, and I may let you have a turn!

AN: I will be short and sweet, because you all have been waiting so patiently for this chapter. All I have to say is this: I'm terribly, terribly sorry for the long, loooonnnnggg wait, and I hope this makes it up to you. I poured blood, sweat and tears into this chapter, ignored my bills, barked at my rambunctious children, and denied my husband his...well, husbandly rights over this chapter. I am wrung out after this, so I hope it survives your scrutiny. Please tell me what you think! Review me! (P.S.: I will post this on MM.org...just as soon as the site is back up, that is!)

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Previously:

"The Shikon no Tama seems to be forging a bond between itself and the Tessaiga," Kaede began

"Kagome has become a conduit between the jewel and the sword, as she is the only one to have a direct connection to both objects. Since the Shikon was shattered, it has been trying to repair itself-to repair itself it needs power, and the closest source of power to the shards you carry is the Tetsusaiga."

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Chapter 7

Sunlight filtered hazily through the canopy of leaves, spangling the forest floor with spots of buttery heat. Moisture hung heavily in the stillness of the midday air, and not even the barest hint of a breeze stirred to cool their bodies.

They had awoken early in the morning, none of them truly rested. They had all been too edgy with the knowledge that, the next day they would reach the home of Toutousai, to sleep in more than fitful dozes. If he was home, the sometimes wise, sometimes senile old sword smith could either shed a new light on the difficulties with Tetsusaiga...or confirm Kaede's theories. No one was certain they wanted the aged miko's ideas refuted. Too many unpleasant alternatives existed, and as they say, `better the devil you know'.

Breaking camp after a hasty breakfast, the group had quickly traversed the remaining distance to the volcano which housed the wizened old youkai. Their luck (what little remained of it) was with them, for he was in, starting when Inuyasha's shadow had fallen across the floor of the cave.

After a few standard insults and false starts from Inuyasha, Miroku had elected himself spokesperson for the group, cutting of the rest of the hanyou's `hello' harangue. The group quickly settled down onto the welcome chill of the stone floor, ranged in front of Toutousai in a semi-circle. The old man sat cross-legged on his huge stone anvil, elevated like a lord's dais, and silently listened to the monk's recitation of recent, troubling events.

When all had fallen silent for some minutes, the group began to shift restlessly. Kagome wondered if the sword smith had perhaps fallen asleep. She about jumped out of her skin when Toutousai's gravely voice rolled into the stillness of the air.

"Hnnnn," he began, white head bowed in concentration and arms crossed over his sunken chest, "I think your Kaede-dono is right."

Kagome felt her shoulders slump at Toutousai's agreement that the Shikon no Tama was the most likely cause of Inuyasha's difficulty controlling the fang's transformation. Beside her, Inuyasha released his fear and anxiety via an explosion of curses. Kagome's feelings of guilt increased.

"However, while Kagome is the connection between the Shikon no Tama and the Tetsusaiga, I don't think the sword is the only thing being drained of power," Toutousai stated.

"What do you mean?" Sango asked.

"Well, I think that, since the Tetsusaiga has been brought into the bond by Kagome's connection to the Shikon, everyone who has a link to the fang now has a link to the Shikon's power drain."

As the implication sank in, Kagome felt her eyes go wide with horror.

"You mean it's not just Tetsusaiga that is being drained of power, but Inuyasha as well?" the miko questioned, voice quavering slightly in apprehension. Toutousai nodded in confirmation.

"But, the two of you are not the only ones with a connection to the Tetsusaiga," he continued, voice heavy with portent.

Oh, God, Kagome thought, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, don't say it...please don't say it..., she pleaded silently, but knew it was coming anyway. After all, Murphy's Law made it a requirement.

"Who the hell else would have a connection to my sword?" Inuyasha demanded harshly, oblivious to Kagome's growing distress-and the obvious.

"Use your head, boy!" Toutousai snapped, swinging his hammer onto Inuyasha's unprotected head, "Who else do you think would be connected to your father's fang?"

Inuyasha's eyes showed continued confusion before Kagome whimpered slightly. Visions of an achingly beautiful demon, bathed in moonlight, topaz eyes intense with emotion rising in her mind.

"Sesshoumaru," she whispered, not hearing the longing etched into the thread of sound as it hung in the air.

Inuyasha's head snapped around to stare at his miko in profound surprise before another string of curses spilled into the lull, colored by anger and loathing for his half-brother.

"Well, at least if we run across him, we know he's probably being drained of energy, too," Sango said, trying to point out a positive. "It should make it easier to defeat him."

Kagome staunchly ignored the painful squeeze her heart gave at the thought of Sesshoumaru injured-or dead!-at the hands of one of her friends. Actually, just the idea of him lying broken and bloodied caused her stomach to roil in sickness. It didn't matter that he would probably instigate violence.

With great effort, Kagome set these thoughts firmly from her mind. She would deal with them later. On to more pressing, and personally dangerous, matters.

"Ojii-san," Kagome's voice, tight with worry, broke through a particularly blue string of oaths (yes, Inuyasha was still swearing), "I've been meaning to ask. Is there another way to seal Inuyasha's demon blood while we search for the last Shikon shard?"

Toutousai's wrinkled brow knotted in thought, then he tilted his head back, pursed his lips and stared at the ceiling dripping with stalactites.

"There are only three ways I know of to seal Inutaisho's blood within Inuyasha's body-besides death," the old youkai tipped his gaze back down to the still-fuming hanyou, a look of almost amusement lighting his eyes.

He's almost enjoying this, thought Kagome indignantly, though she had to admit to herself Inuyasha didn't show the proper respect to his father's old friend, so perhaps Toutousai was entitled to a little fun watching the young man squirm. It would be funnier if we didn't have Naraku complicating matters by breathing down out necks, though.

"Well?" Inuyasha flared, fangs bared in frustration, "What are these ways? Tell us, old man!"

"No way, rude pup!" Toutousai huffed out, turning his head to the side and sticking his crooked nose in he air. He looked like a two-year-old refusing to eat his vegetables, not a demon who had probably seen well over four hundred years go by.

As Inuyasha lunged to his feet, twisting a clawed fist into the sword smith's collar, Kagome decided it was time to separate the children. She sighed in exasperation. When had her life regressed into that of a referee?

"Inuyasha," she said tiredly, suddenly weary of her friend's temper tantrums, "sit."

The young miko sighed in relief as Inuyasha's face was pulled down to meet the floor, releasing Toutousai from the hanyou's harsh grasp. Kagome's ears, however, burned with the force of vitriol spewing from her volatile friend's mouth.

Where did he learn those words? she thought with some wonder, eyes wide with Inuyasha's sudden and amazing creativity. She shook herself, But back to business.

"Ojii-san, can you please tell us what you know about sealing Inuyasha's blood?" she pleaded.

After a moment more of pouting (and one hard toe to the back of said hanyou's head), Toutousai returned his attention to the group. A rare, serious expression settled onto his wrinkled face.

"Well, there is the obvious method he has used up until now: the Tetsusaiga's seal. However, there are two other methods," he paused here, seeming to gauge his audience's reaction to what he would say next.

"The second method is to use sealing scrolls, but the complex magic required is difficult, and the ofuda would not last long before their magic was exhausted." Miroku was nodding his head in agreement.

"But houshi-sama, you could do it, if it became necessary?" Sango had turned to face Miroku, a look of hope in her eyes.

Never one to miss an opportunity, Miroku took both of Sango's hands in one of his and gazed deeply into her startled brown eyes. Radiating smooth polish, the holy man said, "Why, Sango, your faith in me is touching indeed."

The lovely demon exterminator's expression fell into familiar lines of exasperated boredom, reflecting her inner thoughts of `I should have guessed'.

"Houshi-sama?" Sango said sweetly, eyes closed and a small smile on her lips. One dark eyebrow began to twitch, and Kagome wondered anew how Miroku never stopped at that tell-tale sign of her best friend's ire.

"Yes, my lovely?"

"If your hand goes any farther south, my faith is not going to be the only thing touching you," she warned with saccharine, but deadly, intent.

Like the love-struck fool he is, Kagome watched as Miroku's indigo eyes lit up with wicked purpose. His mouth opened to deliver some no doubt highly suggestive retort when a fist crashed down onto the back of the hapless monk's head. Startled, Sango looked up to see Inuyasha, who had finally peeled himself off the cave floor, towering over the twitching man.

"Quit flappin' your jaw, bouzu, and maybe we can hear the rest of what Toutousai has to say," was the only explanation Inuyasha gave for his quite uncharacteristic defense of Sango's virtue. If he was defending Sango's virtue, that is. It remained a matter entirely up to debate as the half-demon plowed on. "Well? What the hell is everyone staring at? Hurry up and finish, old man!"

This last was addressed to the old youkai, who hastily cleared his throat and goggled the group, a look of utter confusion on his face.

"What was I saying?" he asked, scratching his head. Inuyasha added a lump to it, muttering about `this should jog your memory, you senile old goat'. It did indeed seem to snap his memory back into place, for he resumed his list without hesitation.

"Ah! The third method," there appeared an almost diabolical gleam in the old demon's protuberant round eyes. "I understand you have already fallen victim to the third method, Inuyasha." He cackled gleefully while everyone glanced at each other nervously.

The same thought went through all present, `victim'? That did not sound good.

"What do you mean he's already had it used on him?" Kagome voiced the question for all.

Toutousai remained silent for several heartbeats, drawing out the tension and the torment-purposefully, no doubt. When it appeared Inuyasha was about to explode, Toutousai croaked out three devastating words.

"A miko's arrow."

The silence was absolute, broken only by the steady drip of water from timeless limestone formations. All eyes swung from Kagome to Inuyasha, who had a glazed look on his face. Slowly, his brows lowered into a scowl and Kagome could hear a deep growl resonating in his chest.

"No," he bit out shortly, shaking his head in adamant denial, "no way in hell am I getting my ass pinned to that damned tree-again!" He fixed his intense golden gaze on Kagome, emotions running so quickly through their depths she couldn't catch more than a hint, "And no way in hell am I making you do it." With that declaration, issued with an emotion-roughened voice, Inuyasha stalked out of the cave.

It would be like Kikyou all over again, Kagome understood the unspoken words-and the pain. No, this would be a last resort. In the meantime, Miroku could prepare his ofuda...just in case.

The group said their thanks and goodbyes to Toutousai and followed Inuyasha back into the forest.

Kagome sighed for perhaps the fourth time in ten minutes, absently pulling her collar away from her body in a repeatedly, hoping to create a breeze with the fanning motion. It didn't work very well, and the added exertion only caused another bead of perspiration to roll uncomfortably between her breasts.

She barely resisted the urge to yank the stifling tee shirt off over her head and away from her sticky skin, but restrained herself. Oddly, it wasn't the thought of Inuyasha's likely apoplexy should she give in to the almost overwhelming desire to cool her overheated body, nor even fear of Miroku's perverse habits which halted her hand.

No, it was the memory of him, and the knowledge that, if she felt the sultry heat of the day wafting over her bare skin, it would bring too many reminders of the way his hot breath had fanned her to the pinnacle of desire...last night.

Sighing once more, Kagome allowed her heat-drugged mind to sink into remembrance of the previous night's dream. In her preoccupation, she failed to notice how eerily silent the surrounding forest was.

* * *

The dream began in the same pattern as those of all that came before, with her greeting the Lord of the Western Lands. Tonight however, she did not turn away from his beautiful, stoic form to lead him into the forest-and Tetsusaiga. Instead she stood, rooted to the spot by the slumberous intensity of his golden eyes, feeling a delicious answering heat begin to curl low in her belly as his gaze raked over her slender form.

She was utterly transfixed by him, paralyzed by the force of her own growing desire and able only to stare mutely at the elegant hand he raised to brush against her cheek in a surprisingly soft caress redolent with longing. The raw passion in his gaze became muted, softened by something akin to reverent wonderment.

As she leaned into his touch, the dream derailed from the familiar track of past nights and spun wildly out of control.

With an almost inaudible sigh, Sesshoumaru gathered her gently to his chest and simply held her. Kagome could feel one clawed hand brushing through her ebony tresses, and she reveled in the almost painful tenderness of his touch, as if he feared she would shatter if he exerted any more force.

Unable to withstand the growing need to see his face, she lifted her head from his chest and pulled back enough to look up into his eyes. The demon prince appeared to be struggling with himself, caught between cool logic and raging desire, and the battle was evident upon his patrician features. Seeking to assuage some of his obvious distress, Kagome reached up to brush her delicate fingers against the pale planes of his cheek.

His amber irises flared with sudden, golden fire, and with a low sound, he tangled his fist in the hair at the nape of her neck. Kagome had time to do little more than gasp before her head was roughly tugged back and Sesshoumaru's lips came crashing down on hers, mouth hungrily moving across hers in a dance of desperation. He seemed to almost be punishing her for the need he obviously felt-and punishing himself for giving in to it.

She could hear his groan when she parted her lips under his assault, willingly accepting his questing tongue into her mouth. Sighing with her own surrender, the young miko reveled in the taste and texture of him, meeting his experienced attack with her own heated response.

Shivers of want skated down her spine when his hands moved to gently cup her face, lean fingers splayed across her cheeks and under her chin so only the fingertips touched her sensitized skin. In a flash of insight, she realized he was afraid of hurting her with his sharp claws, and a tender smile curved her lips.

Sesshoumaru pulled back at the telltale movement of her lips, scowling lightly and silently demanding an explanation of her sudden humor. Kagome simply brightened her smile, even going so far as to wink-wink!-at the youkai prince in teasing response to his stern expression. As she registered the almost undetectable widening of his topaz eyes at her playfulness, no doubt surprised she was not reduced to a mass of quivering fear in the face of his obvious displeasure, the young woman couldn't resist tweaking his royal attitude just a bit more.

Raising herself onto her toes, using Sesshoumaru's broad shoulders for support, Kagome managed to get their faces almost level. Locking eyes with the great demon lord, brown meshing with antique gold, she slowly brought her lips to within a hair's breadth of his firm ones...and paused.

When she could feel the vibrations of a low rumble emanating from Sesshoumaru's chest, Kagome closed the remaining distance between them by bringing her tongue out to slowly, languorously, trace the sculpted line of his bottom lip. Once. Twice. Before she could make a third pass, the banked fire in his eyes flared to raging life once more.

Without warning, he renewed his assault on Kagome's senses, catching her lithe form high against his body and drinking of her lips as if his very life depended upon it. He slanted his lips across her soft ones over and over, now crushing them with almost brutal intensity, now nipping and licking with soft strokes of his tongue. Kagome sighed into his mouth, completely overcome and boneless with the passion he stirred in her.

When she could feel herself trembling with unquenched ardor, the taiyoukai swept his arm under her legs and lifted her against his chest, cradling her there so he could continue to plunder her lips as he moved. He strode over to a promising spot, an old weeping cherry tree, branches bending to brush the mossy carpet. The flowers in full bloom clothed the swaying tendrils of the tree in pale, perfumed pink.

Sesshoumaru pushed some branches aside and ducked into the shelter of the tree, the curtain dropping closed behind them, screening the lovers within a sweetly scented bower of cherry blossoms and silver splashes of moonlight. The shadows of the night played across the planes of his noble face in interesting combinations, and the dimness of the space made it difficult for Kagome to clearly see his expression. His eyes, however, burned brightly gold, mesmerizing in their intensity. The young priestess shivered in anticipation.

She almost missed it, and she could have ben wrong, but Kagome thought she caught a flash of sharp white teeth at her revealing reaction to his proximity. Then she had no thought in her mind except how difficult it was becoming to breathe, for Sesshoumaru had dropped the arm under her knees, allowing her body to dangle fully against his. One arm was clamped firmly around her back, and Kagome could feel the tensile strength in his muscles as he used them to press her firmly against his hard length.

She noted, with a mixture of confusion and joy, that his armor was missing. The only thing separating their bodies was smooth, heavy silk and the thin cotton of her own attire. Another glimmer of strong, white teeth came and went in the darkness, deliciously predatory and promising. All the breath was stolen from the young woman's lungs as she was slowly, tortuously slipped down the length of her lover's body.

By the time her feet touched the ground, Kagome had a breathtakingly accurate mental image of each ridge and plane of Sesshoumaru's leanly muscled body. Her fingers itched to verify her visualization with hot, hard reality. Indeed, it seemed that was what he intended, for he had not moved. He simply stood before her, elegant and infuriatingly beautiful, waiting with seemingly infinite patience for her to choose the next step in their dance.

Kagome's heart softened as she realized this proud creature was actually giving her the choice to

either continue or halt their passionate exploration. Sesshoumaru, prince and taiyoukai, was giving her, lowly human Kagome, power over him, even if in such a small way. Relief and joy bubbled up inside her, and something broke free in her chest. It was that sense of rightness she always felt upon seeing his handsome face and the warm glow in his topaz eyes in her dreams.

Kagome was not foolish enough to believe that the real Sesshoumaru felt anything other than contempt for her (at best), but she could not deny her own heart. Real or not, she loved this dream reflection of the great youkai lord, and she would not hold back anything with him-not her heart, not her soul, not her body.

As the young priestess from the future moved her hands to slip softly under the collar of his white haori, sliding the silk over his broad shoulders, she kissed each inch of exposed skin as it was revealed, slowly working her way down his chest. Just as she reached the waistband of his hakama, Sesshoumaru hissed in warning, grabbed her shoulders and hauled her mouth back up to his, burning her with another kiss of fierce possession.

Kagome smirked openly at the evidence of his impatience and finely held control, and pressed herself against him fully. Before she knew what had happened, her back was pillowed against a soft cushion of moss, the lichen silky against her bare skin. She had a scant instant to feel a breeze brush tantalizing fingers across her flesh before Sesshoumaru settled his weight carefully over her. Reveling in the feel of his skin pressed hotly to hers, flames seemed to leap to life wherever they touched.

As the great Western Lord brought his lips down to hers in earnest passion, Kagome marveled anew at how much she loved this powerful man, so cold and ruthless outside, yet possessing an unexpected and completely magnetic warmth within. The miko sensed the wound in his heart, longed to heal it, and said the only thing she could think of at the time to help.

"I love you, Sesshoumaru," she whispered, voice husky with suppressed emotion.

A look of complete surprise crossed the youkai prince's elegant features and a blaze of unknown emotion flared briefly in his eyes before Kagome cut off any possible spoken response with her mouth.

As the two flowed through the steps of a dance as timeless as the tide, the young miko spared enough thought for one brief moment of relief that the real Western Lord would never know how she felt. Just this-exchanging imaginary heated looks and unreal drugging kisses, moving together in primal rhythm-this was enough, even if it was only a dream.

Just as they reached that mysterious, brilliant pinnacle of sensation they had both been straining for, urging each other toward, Kagome felt herself briefly wrenched out of space and time, tossed away from Sesshoumaru's impassioned and gentle embrace.

She wanted to scream in frustrated denial.

When her disorientation cleared, the young miko found herself in the center of the familiar ring of cherry trees, a rusty katana buried upright in the earth. She groaned inwardly, knowing what was coming.

Prepared to feel the now-familiar pull on her limbs as if some outside force was manipulating her through the motions of the dream, she was a few seconds behind the action when she realized she still retained control over her body. Whipping her head to the side to stare at Sesshoumaru, she noticed he appeared slightly surprised, as well. He also appeared to be grimacing.

Kagome was wondering what could be on the taiyoukai's mind when movement from Inuyasha caught her attention again. All of the miko's muscles tensed as she mentally prepared to withstand the fatal onslaught of her best friend's deadly claws. No matter how many times she experienced this sequence of events, no matter that it was an illusion of some sort, the pain always seemed real-at least while she was within the grip of the dream.

Almost numbly, Kagome turned her back on Inuyasha, gazing into Sesshoumaru's face with a soft expression, radiant and focused on her newfound love for his dream self. What she saw in the always-stoic lord's countenance, though, was a completely unprecedented and frighteningly intense mixture of horror and animal rage.

My God, Kagome thought, shocked, he's terrified...for me.

Warmth bubbled up in her chest in waves of joy at this evidence of her dream lover's feeling for her. In her bemusement, she reached out to lay a delicate hand against his cheek, gently holding it there against his pale skin. Their eyes connected, and for a timeless instant Kagome could have sworn that it was not her ethereally elegant and uncharacteristic fantasy of Sesshoumaru, but the real Taiyoukai of the Western Lands-cold, ruthlessly intelligent and treacherously powerful-staring out at her from eyes glowing like amber coals. The moment was broken when he snarled at Inuyasha and, true to the complete break from the normal routine of the dream, flashed past her to lash out at the still-expressionless hanyou.

As Kagome screamed, a confounding amalgamation of relief and horror boiling inside, she felt strong arms wrap around her in a comforting embrace, turning her face into a strong, broad chest to prevent her from taking in anything of the carnage he had wreaked in her defense other than a brief glimpse of dark, glossy-black blood.

Her nose registered Sesshoumaru's woodsy scent and her muscles relaxed instantly, but her mind was screaming still. The strain of too many new, emotionally intense events proved to be beyond her capacity, and she felt normal, dreamless sleep reach out to take the pain, illusory as it was, away.

Even as she was fading from the dream realm, though, her mind registered one more thought. As Sesshoumaru had lashed out at Inuyasha to protect her, he had snarled: "No one touches what is mine!"

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Stalking through the trees without his usual wraith-like stealth, Sesshoumaru slashed viciously at the obstructing underbrush, effectively clearing it from his path. The demon lord was not in a good mood. No-no, that wasn't entirely accurate. He was irate. Incensed. Infuriated even.

Ensnared and inflamed, he thought sourly, by a human female. From a dream.

He snorted while that small bit of truth sank into his rage- and ardor-hazed brain.

Lo, how the mighty have fallen.

Halting his progress briefly, Sesshoumaru turned to slowly gaze at the forest behind him. The path he had taken from the point where he had left his companions behind (only because Rin was an unwanted irritant to his already volatile state, not because he desired to protect the annoying human child from his barely-leashed temper) was clearly marked. A line of leveled vegetation lay behind him, all either severed cleanly or still hissing and melting in the remnants of his caustic poison. If he would have been prone to facial expression, the taiyoukai surely would have winced at the obvious display of his lack of even the most basic emotional control.

As if last night's dream did not prove that clearly enough, he berated himself.

Honestly, he was an adult demon now, more than half-grown into his full powers, and he had behaved like the veriest base-born swine with that...woman. He had surrendered to the smoldering look in her eyes without more than a token protest and rutted with her like an untried youth.

Well, he corrected himself with no small amount of pride, I certainly showed more finesse than some callow stripling if her response was any indication.

As he sank back into memory of the heated interlude from the previous night's dream, he could still feel her tiny hands smoothing over the heated flesh of his body in a ghostly caress, picture how she had looked under him, writhing in joyous abandon, hear her cries of passion ringing in his ears...

It took but a bare second to realize it was not a result of his suddenly overactive imagination that caused him to hear the woman's voice again. He actually could hear the thin thread of an unmistakably feminine scream.

Sesshoumaru scented the air, searching for clues on whether or not there was anything of interest up ahead that would justify his sudden need to engage his claws, reflexes, and (hopefully) wits in pitched, heated battle. After turning in several directions with no change in the general scent of the forest, the demon prince began to relax, believing the sound he had heard was no more than some foolish village wench being despoiled or some such nonsense.

Just as he pivoted on his heel to return to the clearing where he had deposited Rin and Jaken, the wind shifted direction and a new scent was carried to him on the wind. It slid along the breeze to tickle his senses, and recognition bloomed in his mind. He knew these smells-very well indeed, for he had made it his business to always be alert for them. Combined, the scents triggered a myriad of repressed emotion within him; contempt, jealousy (though he would never admit to it), the vicious need for blood... and some soft, gentle feeling he had never known before he began to dream of a powerful, beautiful miko.

The fine hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and a low growl swelled in his chest. Adrenaline began to trickle through his veins, and his muscles tensed in preparation for a much-anticipated battle.

Pinning down the direction of the battlefield, Sesshoumaru launched his lean, hard-muscled body into the air and disappeared toward the sound of fighting in a blur of white. A fierce, feral grin graced his elegant features as he faded into the dimness of the forest. He was looking forward to some exercise.

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TT: *ducks sharp objects* Wait! Wait! I didn't leave it there, really! Just click the button. I'm not THAT evil, not that I wasn't considering waiting a few days to post the rest, but I braved Sess's threats of violence for the sake of fangirls and boys everywhere...

Sess: *standing over TT's shoulder, growling slightly in annoyance* Do not malign the honor of this Sesshoumaru, wench. It is enough that you forced me to perform such indecent actions-with a human-in this tragedy you call a chapter.

TT: *looks skeptical* Oh, come on! Like I had to `force' you to perform with Kagome. Come on, the girl is gorgeous, and obviously head over heels for you. Why, I bet she'd even be your willing love slave, you constipated canine!

Sess: Did that disgraceful display of shameless pandering to the fangirls even have any relevance to the plot of this tragedy?

TT: *gasps and looks hurt* Of course it does! How could you even ask that?

Sess: Well then, what is it?

TT: What is what?

Sess: The relevance to the plot?

TT: .......

Sess: *smirks* I rest my case.