Vampire Hunter D Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Eternity ❯ Confrontations ( Chapter 4 )

A/N: Sorry for the humongous delay in updates… my boyfriend and I have been pretty sick these past two weeks. And last week was my birthday, yay! I'm not a teenager anymore… >_< Poopie… as Rikku from FFX-2 would say. Well, I tried to make this chapter longer as penance for the slowness of me. Enjoy at your own risk!

When the sun first peeked its head over the tree line and into his eyes, Sesshoumaru rolled on his side to avoid the harsh rays of first light. To his surprise, Chiyoko was right beside him, sleeping. He had thought she would retire in the woods… find a cave, maybe, to hide herself from the sun. But here she was, and the dawn was creeping up to them. Sesshoumaru decided that girl would be more useful in their search for Naraku if she weren't burned to death, so he roused her from her sleep. Well, he tried to, anyway. The girl must have been so exhausted from her battle yesterday that she slumbered very deeply, letting her body rest and heal. Sesshoumaru shoved her, he prodded her, her even tried yelling her name a few times, but she did not wake, and the sun kept rising. He was nearly, nearly panicked now, though his face remained an emotionless mask. Light was at her shoulder, and Sesshoumaru went to his last resort. He slapped her… hard.

Immediately Chiyoko's eyes flew open, and she struck out, scratching Sesshoumaru's neck with her sharp fingernails. The taiyoukai didn't react to the cut, he simply grabbed the girl bodily, flipped to the right and pushed her several feet away from the sunlight.

Fully awake now, Chiyoko sat up, seething. "What are you doing?" she yelled, dusting her backside off. "I was sleeping!"

Sesshoumaru was almost in shock. Was she an idiot? The sun had nearly burnt her to ashes, and he had saved her. He told her as much, and she just snorted.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, I am not going to turn to dust in the sunlight," Chiyoko said, and giggled. "See." She walked over to him and stretched a thin, graceful hand into the dawn. Sesshoumaru waited for her to catch fire, but nothing happened. He was completely at a loss.

"I am only half vampire… a dhampir, as is D. The light doesn't bother me unless I strain myself tremendously."

The lord nearly roared in rage. How had he not sensed it before? He was traveling with two hanyou? His eyes flashed red for a moment, but he cooled his anger. The vam-, no, the dhampir may have been half-breeds, but Sesshoumaru needed them to soundly defeat Naraku. So he would have to deal with this information in a calm manner. He would have to dismiss it as just another flaw… most full youkai also had flaws, didn't they? Sesshoumaru, ever arrogant, thought that perhaps he was the only one that did not.

"That is fortunate… I would not want to leave the two of you behind in our hunt," he said, smirking.

Chiyoko laughed at the taiyoukai for the second time that morning, but this laugh was not bright and cheerful. It held a tone of disdain, as did her words. "We'll see who gets left behind on this trek," she hissed, and disappeared into the woods to find D.

Sesshoumaru watched the retreating female's backside. Inside the black rubber of her outfit, it reminded him of a small, ripe cherry. He smiled mischievously. He might enjoy the hanyou's company after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chiyoko came to a small stream just west of where she had been sleeping. She needed to find D if they were going to track Yukio together with this Sesshoumaru…

And there he was! Just ahead in the stream stood D, his back to her. He had removed his hat, coat and shirt, and was gently washing his torso in the cool water. Chiyoko almost called out to interrupt him, but she stopped herself before the air could pass over her vocal chords. Instead, she watched as her partner swept the chilly liquid over his chest and arms in an effort to cleanse himself of their previous battles. Chiyoko had heard many people speak of emotions like lust, but until she had met D she wasn't quite sure what they meant.

Her lust, she felt, was a normal reaction given her circumstance. She fought side by side with this man, saving him from certain death just as surely as he saved her time and again. Every time they slew an enemy together, Chiyoko felt herself open up to D a bit more. She trusted him now, and that was more than she could say about anyone other than her parents, who were no longer around. These were the reasons Chiyoko felt justified in her attraction to her partner. It wasn't just because he had the body of a god, or dark eyes that made her knees weak. It wasn't just his silken voice that made her heart flutter or the waterfall of hair that was just now spilling down his bare shoulders and back. It was him, in his entirety, that had so impressed her.

Watching him there in the shallow water gave Chiyoko a sense of peace she hadn't felt in a while. The hypnotic motions of his body calmed her mind, and she was having trouble remembering why she had come in the first place. Her previous intention finally arose in her brain, and a noise halfway between a grunt and a gasp escaped her lips. In the stream, she could see D tense slightly, though he did not turn around. She used that precious second of indecision to press her back against a wide tree trunk, effectively shielding her from his view. What would he think if he knew she had been there watching him bathe? He would look down on her. D didn't trifle himself with base emotions like lust.

And perhaps it was a good thing D had not been distracted by her presence, because at that moment, the demon Yukio chose to make his presence felt. He was little more than a green blur as he slammed into D, knocking him back. D was quick to recover, though, and tossed the demon from him. His curved sword was too far away for him to reach, and Chiyoko refused to let her partner lose this battle because of her timidity. With steeled nerves, she stepped from behind the tree, her silver swords already drawn.

"Yukio!" she cried out, attempting to distract the demon. It did not work. Yukio sprang at D again, striking the unarmed dhampir squarely in the shoulder with his clawed hands. The scent of D's blood wafted to her sensitive nose, and Chiyoko growled. No one hurt her partner and got away with it.

D was rolling toward his sword now, and Chiyoko was flying at Yukio. The demon caught sight of her and ducked, sending her past her intended mark, and she swung her blades wildly, trying to hit him. It was no use; he was out of her reach. Yukio rushed D again, just as he was about to grasp his sword. Claws connected a second time with D's injured shoulder, and he howled in pain, his fangs elongating. Now, he was pissed.

Like black lightning, D was on top of Yukio, fangs bared. "You should not have come back, demon," he hissed.

Yukio only smiled. "You should not have followed me, hanyou." With a burst of power, Yukio threw D backward into the water, then charged him. From seemingly nowhere, the demon unsheathed a deadly-looking blade and prepared to slam it home in D's heart. Chiyoko, horrified, could do nothing but watch as the man she so greatly admired was about to meet his end.

From the corner of her eye, Chiyoko saw a flash of yellow. She gasped, startled, and watched as Yukio's eyes went wide in shock. On the shore opposite Chiyoko was Sesshoumaru, and flowing from his fingers was a bright light that somehow looked solidified. She had no time to contemplate what it might be, because Yukio fell apart at that moment. He literally fell apart.

His body had been sliced in two by Sesshoumaru's weapon, and his upper and lower halves disjoined with a sickening ripping sound.

None of the three survivors moved for a while. Chiyoko stared from D to Sesshoumaru and back again.

She hated to keep comparing someone so obviously impure to the celestial, but Sesshoumaru looked like an angel of death to Chiyoko. His teeth, normally so human looking, were elongated into razor sharp fangs. His white hair swirled around him wildly, and his golden eyes were sparkling with a dangerous energy Chiyoko was only grateful he had not unleashed on her. And with such impeccable timing, she thought with a barely concealed smirk, he must have been sent by God.

But why was he there in the first place? She had thought she and D were out of earshot… even her earshot. Perhaps she was wrong about that, but she had to know why he had come. So she asked.

No sooner than the word 'why' had escaped Chiyoko's mouth, Sesshoumaru turned his feral gaze upon her. He watched as she cowered slightly, and it excited him to no end. She was not as hard as she would like him to believe.

Fangs bared in an evil half-smile, Sesshoumaru made his way into the stream to the injured D. He sniffed the air and knelt down in the water, his eyes never leaving Chiyoko's.

"I smelled blood, and being a naturally curious inuyoukai, I was drawn to it's source… and that happened to be a pair of hanyou unsuccessfully trying to kill that pitiful incarnation," he said, gesturing with a clawed finger to the two halves of Yukio.

Chiyoko nearly scoffed at the demon, but when she realized he had a point, she tried to stifle the defiance that rose within her. That was, until Sesshoumaru made the mistake of personally attacking her dhampir partner.

With all the grace he possessed, Sesshoumaru stood and swirled around, turning his back on the two lesser demons. "You should be more careful, hanyou," he said to D, voice low, "a pathetic half-breed like yourself can die quite easily in these woods."

It took no more than those words to set Chiyoko's blood boiling. How dare this sauntering pretty-boy insult one of the greatest warriors Chiyoko had ever known? With all the speed she could muster, she launched herself at Sesshoumaru's back, swords forgotten in her rage. Her eyes flashed to red as she reached out for his long, white hair. She would feel much better when this false angel was missing a chunk of his gossamer strands… and perhaps his remaining arm.

But revenge was not to be hers. Sesshoumaru was prepared for the temperamental reaction of the half-vampire just as he would have been prepared to face his brother in a similar situation. He sidestepped just enough so that Chiyoko went flying past him. As she did so he grabbed her left wrist and slammed her face-first into the ground, growling a very clear warning to the writhing girl. This would be the first and last time she underestimated the taiyoukai of the West.

It would also be the last time the taiyoukai underestimated D. Sesshoumaru had not even registered his movement until it was too late, and the dhampir had a very, very sharp claw lodged partially in the great lord's throat. With a hiss, Sesshoumaru released Chiyoko's wrist. She lay there momentarily, still stunned from her fall, and D took this opportunity to whisper a threat into the demon's ear. "Perhaps you are stronger, more agile, and more cunning than we two dhampir… but if you so much as look at that girl in the wrong way again, I will not hesitate to bring the wrath of every god in the heavens down upon you." With that, he released Sesshoumaru, pulling his bloodied claw from his neck.

The great inuyoukai touched the small cut gently and looked at his fingers. His blood coated them scarlet, and he smiled. It had been so long since anyone had been able to injure him he had started to think that perhaps his blood no longer flowed in his veins. Pity he'd been wrong. But Sesshoumaru was also joyful at this confrontation. He had wanted to find a partner who was nearly his equal in power… and he had found him at last. With his smile still in place, he turned to face D.

"I will not say I am sorry for how I reacted to such an attack on my person… however… I am sorry for underestimating you, D," he said, smile fading slowly. "As for you, Chiyoko… do not try to avenge your partner for an errant comment ever again. I would hate to die, even at the hands of one as powerful as he." And then he was gone, flying high over the trees and into the sky.

Chiyoko watched him go, her eyes still blazing red hate for the man that had bested her. And then she let her eyes wander from the sky to D. He was standing behind her, clutching his injured shoulder. Blood ran down his arm and chest, and some had pooled in the hollow of his collarbone. Chiyoko winced in sympathy, then turned herself around.

"Thank you… for saving me…" she managed to say before D waved his hand at her in dismissal.

"No, I should be thanking you. If I hadn't been…shaken from my thoughts…by you watching me," he said with a wide grin, "Yukio would have connected with more than just my shoulder."

Chiyoko nodded, accepting his thanks. "Still… I thank you for pulling Sesshoumaru off of me. It was stupid… what I did. I should try and control my temper from now on, huh?" she asked, her now brown eyes searching D's. Long black lashes covered his sable orbs for a moment, then they were visible once more as D spoke.

"Protecting those you care for is never stupid, Chiyoko. I would have and did do the same for you, so let us agree to keep our dispositions as they are."

Chiyoko cracked a genuine, full-blown, tooth-bearing smile, and D felt a tingle shoot up his spine. This girl, this warrior… she was becoming one of the most important things in his life, and it was just hitting him now, after all these months. He felt his own mouth quirk into a grin. This moment of happiness was a long time coming, and D relished it. It was clear to him now that he wanted her. He wanted to protect her, to guard her from all the pain she'd known so early in her life. He wanted to hold her to him, to stroke her hair, to kiss her lips. But he did none of these just then. He only stood and smiled at the girl he was slowly but surely growing to love.