InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Vengeance ❯ Chapter Seventeen: Determination ( Chapter 18 )

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's characters or stories. This story is for private entertainment purposes only.

Chapter Seventeen (Determination)

SesshouMaru contemplated the various scrolls and books that littered his study with a narrowed gaze. All the knowledge in the world was at his claw-tips, and nothing could explain what the strange miko had revealed to him the night before. His collection of literature was vast, collected over the face of both the human and youkai worlds. Started by his father centuries before, when a certain wandering flea youkai named Myoga had sparked the great lord's interest in knowledge, the scrolls, papers, and books with their leather bindings were a priceless collection of both artifacts and information.

SesshouMaru had inherited his father's thirst for knowledge---it was one of the few traits that the Taiyoukai appreciated. Others, like his father's weak love for the humans---in particular, one human--- he did not.

His father had been distracted by the knowledge he read in the pages of his human books and scrolls. His father had allowed the words to weaken his integrity and emotional detachment as a powerful youkai, cold contempt had turned into thoughtful contemplation, and that, among other things, had been the great inu lord's undoing.

SesshouMaru would never allow himself to repeat his father's mistakes. There had been a time, soon after his father's ignoble death, that he had firmly shut the door on the knowledge contained within these walls, harshly determining that it was the insidious ideas contained within that had chipped away at his father's icy armor and allowed the great inu to weaken and turn his favor to the inconsequentially piddling ningen around them. He would not allow that corrupted impiety to entangle him as it had his father.

It had taken him years to reverse the belief that it had been the knowledge itself that had corrupted his father's mind, turning the great lord against his own kind in favor of the weak ningen. Knowledge, itself, was just information. What you did with it was where the blame lay. And, as hard as it was for him to admit, his father had been weak, listening to the insidious ideologies of humanity, desiring to know more of their short, fiercely emotional existence. Their views were so limited by time. Their short life-spans gave them a strangely fascinating understanding of the world around them---so different from the unending centuries of existence that allowed youkai (at least the powerful youkai) to step back and view with an eye to the long-term. SesshouMaru would never be allured by the fierce, passionate struggles that plagued humanity's existence, he would not fall to the quest for understanding that consumed some of his youkai brethren. It was beneath him, as Taiyoukai of the West.

He could appreciate the work of a fine writer, the turn of phrase from a master lyricist , the twist of words into beauty or emotion by the strokes of a poet's passion...but he did not allow them to sway his determination or to cloud his thinking with nonsensical emotions. He could appreciate and value, but not embrace.

'I am distracting myself with trivia.'

The Lord dropped the scroll that had lain unseen in his hands as he stared at the shelves surrounding him. The thin paper rolled in upon itself on the tabletop with a faint crackle of aged edges. He was usually not so casual with the priceless artifacts in his collection, but he was inattentive, his thoughts dwelling on the miko.

He had marked her, he was certain of it. He had watched the poison of his crescent mark seep into her white skin. Normally, that would be enough. But the ningen girl was a miko, who could purify his mark from her neck, if she had had the proper training and knowledge taught to priestesses. He wanted his half-bastard brother to know, that he, SesshouMaru, had claimed InuYasha's wench as his own property. So he had ensured that his mark would remain permanent, by clenching the ends of the half-moon with his fanged bite.

But the girl's denial of the marking...her unleashing of miko power that had burned through his haori and interrupted the ritual---that was unexpected. He had underestimated the miko's powers, never believing that a mere ningen might have strength enough to wound him with a mere touch.

It made the girl all the more dangerous.

On one level, it intrigued him, making the inu youkai blood stir within him, wanting to dominate and defeat, overwhelm and overcome this audacious female. But she was only the means to an end---the end being the utter humiliation of his bastard half-brother. Taking and marking the girl were only the first blows to InuYasha's pride.

The girl was only a ningen, a pawn for him to play with. No matter the powers that lay untapped and hidden within her. The wild enigma of her potential had engaged his inquisitive mind---and still did---but he could spend years studying her, carefully peeling away the layers of her mystery, and still not solve it. What she had revealed to him last night had made him thirst for more knowledge. A girl from the future with strength enough to harm him...no matter how insignificantly...a girl that was the reincarnation of his brother's dead love...a girl who had brought the Shikon no Tama back into the existing world through her own body...

The possibilities for study and contemplation were endless.

But he would not be sucked in, like his father, by the desire to know more...and about a mere human. A pathetic, disgusting species not worth his time or acknowledgment.

'It is a pity she is not even hanyou...'

Where had that revolting notion come from? SesshouMaru growled softly, angry at his own betraying thoughts. The girl was dangerous to his integrity and purity as an inu youkai and Lord of the Western Lands.

Golden eyes narrowed in chilly determination, the Lord stood up. 'Enough of this foolishness. I will not be drawn in like my father. I am Taiyoukai. I will do what I have determined to do...I will have my revenge.'

*~*~*~*~*

"Why does Kikyo always have to come around, anyway?" Shippo asked, anger tensing his little shoulders.

"Shhh." Miroku's whisper was anything but, and the silver-haired hanyou beside him turned and gave him a flat glare.

"None of this helps." Sango said, strangely irritable. Miroku raised a thin brow, his blue eyes studying the taijiya thoughtfully. She had busied herself polishing the sides of her Hiraikotsu with sharp, angry motions, ignoring the rest of them as they set up a temporary camp beside the valley's forest. InuYasha had sauntered from the forest moments after the white Soul Collectors had swept off the attack on the rest of them. His expression had been angry and sorrowing by turns. He had finally revealed to the rest of them what Kikyo had said---that Kagome was not with SesshouMaru any longer, but at Kaede's.

Sango crossed her arms in front of her, her stance defiant as she glared at the hanyou. InuYasha's lips thinned into a scowl as his attention was drawn back to her.

"Are we going to rescue Kagome or not?" She asked bitingly.

"And where should we go, Sango?" Miroku replied mildly. "Should we trust Kikyo? Who, by her own admission, planned Kagome's abduction with Naraku?"

The slayer ignored him, her anger only for the hanyou.

"Well?"

InuYasha growled low in his throat. Sango's nostrils flared in return as her brown eyes narrowed with steeled fury.

"Are you just going to sit here thinking about that damn corpse or are you going to get off your ass and go after Kagome?"

Miroku and Shippo blinked.

"Uh...Sango?" Miroku began tentatively.

Kirara mewed questioningly, tails twitching, but Sango refused to take her own angry gaze from InuYasha. Shippo let out a small, choked sound, and the neko turned instead to rub the small kitsune reassuringly, batting his nose with her twin tails to distract him.

InuYasha's fangs were clenched as red streaks flashed through his hotly amber eyes. "What the hell do you mean by that, bitch?"

The taijiya's katana was out of its sheath with a scrape of steel on wood, the sharp tip pointed at the hanyou's prayer-beaded neck.

"Don't you ever call me bitch." Pure steel, as sharp as her sword edge, laced the slayer's harsh command.

"Sango! InuYasha!" Shippo almost wailed in the sudden stillness. Tears sparkled in his unbelieving green eyes.

"Kirara, could you...um..." Miroku motioned his head toward the kitsune cub significantly, his blue eyes not leaving the furious pair. Kirara growled and transformed in a breath's moment, her fangs carefully gripping Shippo by his tail. Shippo's surprised yelp was cut off as the neko youkai took a bounding leap into the forest that darkened with coming dusk behind them.

As the neko and kitsune disappeared, InuYasha's hand slowly rose to the still blade that was an inch from his neck. Molten eyes held furious brown even as his claws curled over the sharp steel. A trickle of blood from the blade dribbled down his fingers even as he yanked it out of the taijiya's strong grip. He flung it furiously from him, and stood up, claws clenching in fury. Sango glowered, a flick of her wrist freeing a small dagger from her sleeve.

A staff, rings clambering discordantly, was thrust between them. Sango jerked defensively even as InuYasha growled.

"Just what are you two thinking?" Miroku cast his own incensed stare between the two warriors, who suddenly looked chagrined, and wouldn't meet the others' eyes. "Have you both lost your minds?"

"Sango, my beautiful one..." A faint smile accompanied the taijiya's reflexive glare. "What were you trying to prove? Why are you angry? None of this helps Kagome, you know."

"I'm tired of him just sitting there mooning after Kikyo when Kagome could be hurt or dead or...or..." A shudder went through the slight frame, and the dagger fell unheeded as her arms came up to hug her sides. The slayer bowed her head to hide the sudden flash of tears that sparkled in her brown eyes.

InuYasha's nostrils flared at the hint of the taijiya's tears, and he bowed his own head, claws clenching convulsively.

"Sango...InuYasha..." Miroku said almost helplessly.

"I will rescue Kagome. I have sworn it." InuYasha said bitterly, as he raised his head and stared at the slayer.

Sango's small hands tightened on her arms, white-knuckling with her tension. Her words were slow and harsh. "Then stop crying after that...that...woman," Brown eyes flashed as she again raised her head and stared back at the hanyou with barely controlled rage, "and get to it!"

"What the hell do you know about it?!" InuYasha's slight leash over his anger broke and his shout echoed through the trees.

"You ask that of me?" Sango spat. "When you know that Naraku has my brother's life in his hands? You of all people should know that I understand pain and sacrifice! How can you stand there and accuse me of not knowing what it is to have one you loved betray you!"

InuYasha's shoulders slumped and he bowed his head again. "Sango...I..."

"You wouldn't let me end it!" The cry of pained loss and frustration welled out of the taijiya's lips like the wail of a lonely wind. The accusation rang in the air between the two warriors, and Miroku almost lost his grip on his staff in shock. He knew nothing of what had passed between the two of them that day when Sango had tried to take Kohaku's life, and end the cycle of bloodied control Naraku had over him. That day, Sango had thought that her brother had escaped Naraku, and she had rejoiced in his return to her. She, who had always been so close to her family, had lost them all at Kohaku's hand and by Naraku's evil. But Naraku could not pass up the chance to insinuate the boy back into the group of friends with a terrible plot to have Kohaku kill Kagome, whose growing miko powers he feared. Realizing that Kohaku was still enslaved by Naraku, and would continue to be controlled by the dark hanyou, Sango had been prepared to take her brother's life, and her own.

And yet InuYasha had stopped her.

"He didn't kill Kagome." InuYasha said softly. "He could have, but he didn't."

Sango's eyes clenched, fighting back tears. "He is still in Naraku's hands! And Kagome..."

"Sango." InuYasha paused, uncertain.

"We need to rescue Kagome. She...you...all of you...are all I have left." Sango fell to her knees, her hands tightening in the dirt on either side of her as if she could hold onto the very earth as her anchor.

Miroku laid a wrapped hand on the taijiya's tense shoulder. "Sango. We all understand." He said quietly. Sango refused to look at him.

"I...don't know if I can trust Kikyo." InuYasha bit out the words, a harsh admission to the heart-torn hanyou. He turned away from them to stare at the darkened woods where Shippo and Kirara had disappeared. Shoulders straightening, he came to a decision. "I will go to the Western Lands, to see if Kagome is there, and will rescue her. Miroku will come with me. You, Sango, will go to the village, to Lady Kaede, and see if Kikyo spoke the truth. Kirara is faster, and if Kagome is at Kaede's, then you can send for us."

"No."

InuYasha whipped around, staring angrily at the slayer. "What?!"

Sango raised her head, eyes coldly determined. "Miroku will go with Kirara. Kagome may be hurt and needing his assistance. I will go with you to the Western Lands. I will not allow Kagome to be hurt by Naraku's plotting, like Kohaku was---and is."

"Sango..." Miroku's hand tightened on her shoulder with objection. The taijiya swatted the houshi's hand away, not looking at him or the flash of hurt in his deeply blue eyes at her rejection of his comfort and protection. Standing, the demon slayer picked up her fallen dagger in a graceful motion and carefully slid it back up her black sleeve. She straightened and stared defiantly at them both.

InuYasha's eyes closed as a deep, impatient sigh tumbled out of his chest. Exasperation stalked his steps as he sauntered over to Sango's discarded katana and picked it up---by the hilt this time. He stared intently at the shining steel before striding back over to the taijiya.

Tense silence filled the clearing, broken only by the whisper of wind through leaves.

"Here." InuYasha offered the blade back to the determined girl.

Sango tentatively extended her hand, and then took the hilt with a firm grip, her fingers brushing the hanyou's claws. Mutual understanding, or, at least, mutual respect flashed between them.

Sango nodded once, sharply, accepting the hanyou's unspoken acquiescence.

"Well, hell." Miroku's sorrowful voice had them both turning to look at him.

The houshi's expression was mournful. "How come I always have to be sent away from the beautiful women? How come I have to spend the next few days with a whining kid and a fire-spitting neko?"

Sango's blush and InuYasha's bark of laughter broke the silent tension, just as the monk had desired. "Miroku, you hentai!" InuYasha slapped the houshi on his back, making him stagger under the blow. Miroku allowed a lop-sided grin to break over his mouth, but his eyes were sad a he looked at the smiling, head-shaking taijiya.