InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ And all else will fade ❯ Conundrum ( Chapter 7 )

A/N: A big thanks to those who've reviewed so far! I hope you continue to enjoy this!

 

Sesshoumaru

 

“The fool.”

 

The words that escaped my mouth were not of my accord, but bearing more semblance to the provocation of an unknown, external entity. There was nothing in the greenery around me that suggested the use of those words, though a distant scent on the wind seemed faintly familiar…

 

“Lord Sesshoumaru? Why have we stopped? I say, Lord Sesshoumaru?!!! Lord--”

 

I sighed inwardly at the reedy voice reiterating the increasing annoying phrase. I had understood Jaken perfectly the first time- his waste of voice and words when aware of that fact- an act that reeked of inefficiency- irritated me.

 

I despised inefficiency.

 

A single finger of mine twitched almost imperceptibly, my mind rigorously contemplating the idea of handing Jaken a well-deserved punishment. However, before I could reach a conclusion, the scent in the air, which had provoked such an unexpected reaction from me, grew strong enough to be familiar.

 

Inu Yasha.

 

“The fool,” I said, more forcefully this time. My sharp eyes caught the sight of an aurora of light suddenly coming to life in the distance, exactly where I could trace the foul stench of my half-brother and his human friends. I unsheathed Tokijin in one fluid movement, bracing myself, tuning my senses. I could hear the shifting of the soil as Jaken shuffled nervously behind me and the soft breathing as Rin slept on Ahn. I focused on Inu Yasha's scent, locating him in my mind. I needed to know what he was up to this time, what more he could've caused wrong.

 

Suddenly, the rancid odour of blood mingled with Inu Yasha's scent drove me into action. I leapt into the foliage, my sprint becoming an inhumanly fast-paced dance as I dodged, or destroyed the trees in my way to where I could smell Inu Yasha.

 

Soon, I was there- a wide clearing thick with the smell of blood, and grief. I saw my unworthy half-brother sprawled on the ground, his back torn open, blood gushing out like a gory fountain. A demon stood over him, dripping claws still extended, a twisted grin on his face. The human girl stood paralysed, eyes flitting in every direction- an extension of the feeling her trapped, pathetic mind was suffering, no doubt- before she finally caught sight of me, screamed, and fainted.

 

Weak creature.

 

My eyes appraised Inu Yasha again, feeling a distinct sense of disappointment, nothing more. Then they shifted to the cause of my brother's demise leering at me, apparently feeling a sense of accomplishment and self-confidence which it did not deserve. Inu Yasha's foolhardy antics were going to get him killed one way or the other- his downfall had been imminent and inevitable right from the time of his birth.

 

Suddenly my ears caught the fluid stretching of strong muscles- the demon had apparently got too confident. Tokijin flashed once- then twice- and soon the demon lay on the ground in two parts, the muscles in his legs still bunched together in preparation to leap.

 

“Sess- Sesshoumaru.”

 

I didn't need to turn to see who it was- the demon slayer. And I didn't bother. Sliding my sword back into the sheath, my eyes once more roamed quietly over the two corpses on the ground, once again feeling vague disappointment. This was the half-demon's destiny- to end a miserable life with a miserable death- but I had expected more from him. Expected him to show that he did descend from my father, even if partly. But now, he would forever remain a blemish in our great name.

 

I turned to leave.

 

A sudden, strong pulsing by my side drew my attention. The Tensaiga demanded to be unsheathed at once, its pulsing reverberating throughout my soul. Curious, I took it out. Inu Yasha.

 

This possibility hadn't occurred to me before, admittedly, but I did not regret that. Inu Yasha's existence does not affect me in anyway, but the Tensaiga demanded that I restore him at once. Interesting.

 

I stood over my half-brother's corpse, the Tensaiga held high, shifting my soul's eyes to that of the sword's, viewing the body from a spiritual angle. The messengers of the dead were already there, the normally-invisible, tiny goblin-like creatures scampering over his face, chuckling merrily as they prepared to take away Inu Yasha forever into the lands of the dead.

 

In a swift, sweeping motion, I brought the sword down over Inu Yasha, obliterating the messengers, banishing them back to their netherworld. At that precise moment, Inu Yasha took in a gasping breath as life trickled back into his body. The fatal wound on his back slowly closed back together, the blood seeping back in, and the bones snapping back into place, like time itself was reversing. The eyes fluttered open, the dim golden orbs brightening with renewed life.

 

He frowned. “Sesshoumaru? What are you doing here?” he said, his voice barely a whisper.

 

The question did not call for an useful answer, so I remained quiet and sheathed the Tensaiga while Inu Yasha got up to his feet, finally noticing the unconscious human girl. “Kagome?” he cried out, his voice infinitely stronger and more panicked. “Kagome!” He turned fiercely to face me. “What did you do to her?”

 

“He did not do anything.” A quiet voice- that of the demon-slayer- echoed throughout the clearing. Inu Yasha turned slowly to face her, disbelieving. “He saved you,” the demon-slayer continued, in that detachment that always occurred when the happening events were too much to bear for a human. “Sesshoumaru saved your life.”

 

Inu Yasha's mouth closed and opened like that of a goldfish; I felt disgusted. Had he spent so much time around humans that even their traits had etched their vile selves onto his soul? To flounder in disbelief when the facts are presented clearly before you was a fatal flaw for any demon- be it a frog, or a dog youkai.

 

“Inu- Inu Yasha…” The waking voice of the girl snapped him out of his reverie; immediately he was by her side, helping her, asking of her well-being, touching her… the sense of revulsion reached a crescendo, and I found myself searching for the reason I saved him.

 

It was no secret that I did not take affectionately to my hanyou brother. In many ways, he did not deserve to be part of my father's great line, nor did he deserve the honour of wielding the Tetsusaiga. His half-demon nature, impulsiveness, density and tendency to take after humans made him vulnerable, to the point of utter … humanness.

 

And yet, even I could not deny that he had progressed by a considerably large amount in recent times, even with the fallibility of humans surrounding him and seemingly helping him.

 

Maybe there was more to Inu Yasha than I had initially assumed.

 

The girl leaned tiredly against Inu Yasha's chest, still weak, while he stroked her dark hair, whispering soothing words. A flicker of amusement now replaced the revulsion within me. He had always claimed to love the priestess Kikyo… now he loved this human girl… if he really were that fickle… Wait. Why did the girl smell partly of Kikyo?

 

I did not have time to ponder the question, for suddenly I felt an evil rise up like mist all around the clearing. The fox-demon squealed and the cat growled. The demon-slayer tensed, while the girl and Inu Yasha pulled away from each other, the latter's ears perked to full extent, fingers resting on the handle of the Tetsusaiga.

 

In an instant, with the grace of a falling tree, the surrounding woods erupted into life- unimaginably hideous monsters springing out of dormancy- woken up, no doubt, by Inu Yasha and his friends' antics. The air was soon thick with the flash of claws, the reek of demon breath and their growls. Inu Yasha and I brought up the Tetsusaiga and the Tokijin, rivalling brothers united for a common cause.

 

The battle ensued.

 

Tetsusaiga and Tokijin flashed in tandem, their strokes trailing with demon blood. The demon slayer's boomerang weapon often cut through the chaos with blood-soaked precision, and many of the vile creatures disappeared beneath illusory fox magic, arrows and fire-cat claws. But that did not seem to be enough.

 

The stream of demons seemed never-ending.

 

I knew it was too dangerous to do any fancy gallivanting with the swords like the Windscar and such; there was not enough space. There had to be another way to get rid of the infidels…

 

The foul breath of another demon behind me drew me out of my pondering. With a quick twist, up and about, my claws tore it to shreds. Only to have a dozen more come out of the woods. This sort of battling was futile; it did not lead anyone anywhere- a useless, and inefficient exertion of energy.

 

My eyes narrowed.

 

With a strong and graceful leap, I perched onto a particularly large-branched tree, observing the battle. The secret to winning a battle, I remembered my father saying, was not strength alone, but a planned strategy. It had not been an easy road for him to becoming the Lord of the Western Lands- many others, stronger than he had rivalled my father. It pays to know your enemy well, for however strong he may be, there would always be a weak spot- normally the source of his energy. Strategically exploiting that particular weakness had been what had lead to my father's success over his stronger rivals.

 

The source…

 

It made sense. Feed poison to the heart of the creature and all of it dies. Not all of the demons here could have woken up at once; it went against the laws of nature. No, there was something else, possibly controlling them- the source. And the source was never too far away from the battle…

 

“I have to use it!” Inu Yasha's voice once more broke into my thoughts. I glanced to the battle scene to see him pressed by the ever increasing demons against the tree, his sword held high. “I have to use the Windscar!” he yelled desperately, still using the Tetsusaiga to bat away the demons. “There's no other way!”

 

The fool. That was something he should not be doing, in this situation. The girl seemed to understand that as well, for she shouted back, “Not the Windscar, Inu Yasha! There's not enough space! You could end up killing us all!”

 

“I won't,” Inu Yasha insisted, holding the sword in a vertical stance in front of him, back still pressed against the tree. “There's no other choice.”

 

The tree… A tingle ran through my spine. The tree was undoubtedly strange, pulsing black light, its gnarled branches almost alive, swaying in the non-existent wind. That was it! The tree- it was the source; within its rotten centre was nestled a mind- so evil that it was almost tangible.

 

A tiny ghost of a smile gracing my lips, I held the Tokijin ahead of me. Soon, I was in the air, leaping with deadly precision toward the tree. Inu Yasha caught sight of me and his eyes widened, while he unconsciously moved away from my leap's destination. The idiot obviously thought I was leaping to kill him.

 

When only inches away from the tree, I brought down the Tokijin in a downward, slashing motion, reducing the tree to splinters. An ethereal, horrifying scream sounded from within, a whine building up into the tortured screams of a thousand prisoners- the death throes of the tree. Then, as abruptly as it had started, it ended, the silence more ringing than the scream. As if on cue, the surrounding demons froze in mid-fight, disintegrating into ashes, blown away for ever by the wind- their remains scattered in a million directions as a sign of their miserable dishonourable death.

 

Inu Yasha and his companions froze as well, blinking, staring at me as if they had never seen me before. “The tree was the source of the evil,” I said simply, turning to leave. Jaken couldn't be trusted to be alone and quiet for long.

 

“It must have been a part of the Soul Eater…” the demon slayer mused.

 

“Wait, Sesshoumaru!” Inu Yasha called suddenly. I turned, inwardly impatient.

 

“Why did you save me?” he asked, with genuine curiosity. I almost smiled then. Had the animosity between us reached the level where he couldn't believe that his brother had saved his life? It was not something I regretted, of course, but it did surprise me.

 

“There was no reason to provoke me into doing otherwise,” I said simply.

 

Inu Yasha's amber eyes widened even more. Then, unexpectedly, he smiled- an expression alien to my brother when he was around me. “Thanks… brother.”

 

I nodded coldly, hiding my surprise at his use of the word `brother.' “Hopefully that would induce you into using your mental abilities for once.” Then, as an afterthought, I added, “Brother.”

 

With that, I was gone, weaving my way quickly through the dense forest, following the scent of Jaken and Rin to the place where they had stopped, all the time berating myself for giving away even a sliver of emotion. For any demon, emotion equalled vulnerability- one of Inu Yasha's greatest flaws.

 

And, perhaps, his greatest strength.

 

Rin's delighted call greeted me as soon as I landed smoothly in the clearing where they were waiting. “Lord Sesshoumaru!” Jaken called too, though with less enthusiasm. “Has your business concluded?”

 

“Yes,” I said shortly. I looked to the distance, contemplating on the conundrum of the usefulness of one's emotions- a weakness and a strength; a vulnerability and a shield; a shortcoming and a key to disaster.

 

“Yes…” I continued. “Concluded very well, indeed.”