InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ 30 Shards of Jaken ❯ Old Grudge ( Chapter 27 )

Theme: Jealousy

 

Genre: Angst/Action

 

Rating: T

 

Word count: 1,271

 

Old Grudge

 

I'm questioning him for information on my bastard older brother. Perhaps I question him a little too hard, for Kagome yells “Sit!”, and the little imp jumps free from my claws when my face hits the ground.

 

“Not so rough, Inuyasha,” Kagome admonishes. “He's just a helpless little thing.”

 

My grunt is drowned out by the sound of the imp's loud squawks.

 

“Helpless?!” he cries. “I'll show you helpless, you wretched human filth!”

 

The imp dives across the ground for his staff, but I push his stupid toad face into the dirt with my foot just before he reaches it. He makes a few garbled noises, screaming into the earth, and I can't help but smile as he tries to spit soil out of his mouth.

 

“Let him up, Inuyasha,” Kagome says.

 

“Keh,” I say. “He's not worth it anyway.”

 

I remove my foot from the imp's head, and note with some pleasure the perfect foot-shaped indentation on the back of his skull.

 

He scrambles up with surprising speed, and grabs his staff, and I ready myself for an attack, but he decides to run away. Perhaps he's not as dumb as he looks.

 

“Just you wait, you stupid hanyou!” the imp cries. “My Lord Sesshomaru will tear you in two!”

 

“Let him try!” I yell back, but the imp already disappeared into the trees. “Little bastard,” I mutter.

 

Kagome comes over to me and touches my shoulder. I shrug her hand away.

 

“Hey,” she says. “Are you okay?”

 

“Yeah,” I tell her, but my voice is full of defensive anger.

 

“Don't worry,” she says. “We'll just have to find Sesshomaru some other way.”

 

“Keh, forget him,” I say, and start stalking off back to the village. One of my ears turns surreptitiously to the side, and I'm pleased to hear Kagome's footsteps following me within seconds. “That bastard may have made a deal with Naraku once, but Sesshomaru's clueless. He wouldn't know Naraku's whereabouts anyway.”

 

Kagome's silent for a while, but I can tell something's on her mind.

 

“You and Jaken sure don't get along,” she says.

 

Her statement makes me want to snort. “That imp hates me almost as much as my stupid brother does.”

 

“I don't see why he follows Sesshomaru around,” Kagome says thoughtfully. “Your brother doesn't seem to treat him very well.”

 

“Hah,” I laugh. “Maybe not, but Sesshomaru still treats Jaken better than he does anyone else. Jaken's the only creature he even allows in his presence. The imp probably considers it his highest honor. He worships the ground my brother walks on.”

 

And as Kagome and I march back to the village, my mind wanders.

 

Back to the first time I met Sesshomaru… and Jaken.

 

Not long before my mother died, she told me I had a half-brother. My only other living relative. She told me to go to him, to find him when she was gone. I didn't want to do it. What did I care for some stupid brother that I had never even met before? I knew I could make it on my own just fine. But it was my mother's last wish. It seemed to mean so much to her to know that I wouldn't be alone. I had to honor it.

 

It took weeks of searching and following useless leads. My brother seemed to move around a lot. When I finally tracked him down, he was much taller and more intimidating than I had ever pictured. He towered above me, wearing a fearsome, spiked armor, and there was a large white puff around his body that seemed to double his size. I barely reached past his knees. There was another youkai there beside him, a toadish imp of some sort, shorter than me, holding a ridiculously large staff in his arms. But even in front of this tiny creature, I had never felt so small in my life.

 

I told my brother who I was, but I think he knew from the moment he saw me. His eyes went straight to the red robe of the fire-rat I was wearing, and then they settled on my ears, squinting disdainfully all the while.

 

He said nothing as I told him my story. Didn't speak once. Just watched with hateful eyes as I recounted my mother's death and her wish that I should find him. Told him that she thought I shouldn't be alone. I tried to speak confidently, to show him that I was capable of taking care of myself. That I didn't need him, and most of all, that I wasn't afraid of him. But he must have seen through my lie.

 

When I finished speaking, he did something that startled me. Quick as a flash, he darted right next to me. His large, cold eyes peered down into mine, and his mouth was slightly bared, revealing sharp fangs. Suddenly his hands were on my head, holding me roughly. He grabbed my ears, one in each hand, and as I struggled against him and began cursing, he steadied me with a strength that I had never felt before, and when I saw the deadly look on his face, my mouth shut.

 

“Do you know what these are?” he said, breathing down on me, grasping my ears even tighter, twisting them so that I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out. I wasn't going to give that bastard the satisfaction.

 

“Lord Sesshomaru asked you a question, worthless whelp!” that asshole imp cried from behind him.

 

I called him something that made me glad Mama wasn't alive to hear it, but then instantly my brother lifted me up into the air. By my ears.

 

“These,” he said, holding onto them, ignoring my useless little kicks at his armored chest. My feet dangled pathetically above the ground. “These are a disgrace.”

 

And then he simply let go of me and I hit the cold earth hard. His servant imp chuckled uproariously, and then the little bastard stepped forward, brandishing his strange two-headed staff in my face.

 

“Do you want me to finish him off for you, milord?” the imp asked eagerly.

 

“No,” my brother said, already turning away. “A hanyou brat is not worth the effort.” He spat the word like poison.

 

“Come, Jaken,” he said, and walked away. The imp trailed after his heels like a pathetic little dog, but he looked back once to give me a dirty look and mouth the word hanyou tauntingly. My brother didn't look back at all.

 

And I was left on the cold, hard ground, panting hard. I reached up to my ears, and my hands came away with blood from where my brother's claws had dug in. Alone in unfamiliar territory, with night quickly coming on.

 

All of a sudden, Kagome taps me on the shoulder, and I snap out of my memories.

 

“I'm sorry I sat you, Inuyasha,” she says. “It's just Jaken's so small, and you were hurting him pretty bad. I just didn't think he deserved it. I mean, he hadn't done anything to you, and you were going after him like…”

 

“Like what?” I say, a bit too brashly.

 

“…like it was personal,” she finishes quietly.

 

She looks hurt. Perhaps a little scared even. I bite my lip and scowl.

 

“Forget it, Kagome,” is all I say, and it seems to be enough, for she drops the subject.

 

I don't tell her that it was personal. It's always been personal. Ever since Sesshomaru took that little bastard imp under his wing, and left me to die in the wilderness.

 

I can never forgive Jaken for that.