InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Chained ❯ Someone To Protect ( Chapter 64 )

A/N: I actually managed to get enough spare time to write another chapter and post it! ^_^ I’m not sure how, but I got it, so who am I to complain? ^_^

Anyway, I’m reaaaaaaaaaaaally tired at the moment, so if I trail off or just seem kinda of snappy, blame it on the lack of sleep I’ve been getting. ^_^

-Tryst/Punishment of the Inu - Lol, I’m glad you liked them. Hopefully what I’ve come up with for Sess will be believable for you though. ^_^

-McSlave44 - Lol, sorry bout that. ^_^ Still, it’s good to know that you’re enjoying the story that much! ^_^ Eh-heh. My imagination can’t be that bad, huh? Yeah. Right! Lol, believe me, this story comes from the light side of my imagination. Well, the lightest part anyway-- I don’t think any part of my imagination qualifies as “Light.” Believe me, it’s a very scary place. I don’t even want to go in there, I just coax little bits of it out so that I have enough to get ou the next chapter, and then slam the door and run away to hide again. It’s just not a safe place to be, believe me. ^_^ -- Lol, no need to apologize. I like fishing. I’m a complete and total wash-out at it, but I still like it. ^_^ -- Star Trek marathon huh? Lol, well, if I liked star trek, I’d probably be very excited (and jealous) at the moment. ^_^ Lol, but hopefully it can help keep you satisfied until the next chapter comes out. Oh wait, hang on, it’s prbably over by now, huh? >_<

-Leane5582 - Lol, well, you could go back and count them all if you want to find out... might take a while though. ^_^ -- NP. No need to thank me. I respond to everyone, so it’s not like your special or anything. Lol JK! No, seriously, I don’t mind doing it. You take the time to respond to my story, I should take the time to respond to you. Plus, it’s good to get your insight on the story and ideas as well. ^_^ -- Lol, I don’t know if I’ll give them shit on the way to the well-- After all, there’s still the big deciscion of if they can even get through the well now that Kags has no jewel shards, neh? ^_^ Lol, it’s funny that you should suggest Amaya’s invisibilty cloak. Its not exactly what I have in mind, but I’ve got something similar to that roaming around in my head, so... ^_^ -- Lol, don’t hurt yourself! Lots of people have already suggested that Mrs. Higurashi be mad and poor little Inu. Apparently some people like to see him angsty even more than I do. ^_^ Lol. -- Hm. Well, the cats live with my parents, but there are about four of them (two are my uncles) but I’m not sure what breeds they are exactly. I know that my two are a tabby-siamese cross (though the male also seems to be one part garbage disposal) so... ^_^ Lol, yep I do have ideas. And I think that face is supposed to be someone smiling, only with their eyes closed, where as this >_< would be angry or upset or something. It’s all based on the way our eyes turn when we’re upset I think, and the limited number of emoticons we can make with our keyboards. =^ . ^= (I think that’s supposed to be a cat, but I don’t know if I did it right, so...) -- Lol, well I’m actually more of an OCD person with ADD traits, but still... ^_^ Lol, you’re welcome! But believe me, it preserves my insanity just as much as it usurps your sanity to update so quickly. ^_^ You’re a bitch?... Well, okay... I’ll take your word on that. After all, if anyone would know, it would be you, wouldn’t it? ^_^... Hm. How old am I?... W-ell... what do you think? (And no, you’re not annoying me-- You have to get up pretty early in the morning to annoy me. At least over the interweb anyway. ^_^ I’m glad you liked that chapter title, though I can’t take all the credit for it-- I stole it from that one episode of Inuyasha “Kagome’s voice and Kikyo’s kiss.” and just switched the names. ^_~)

-elenacala - Np! That’s happened to me before, believe it or not. Damn power-outs are so annoying sometimes! -- Lol, well I don’t know if you know me, but you’re right, I’ve probably got something up my sleeve... I just wish I knew what the hell it was. ^_^ Lol, I’m glad you enjoy all the twists and turns, cause I gotta tell ya-- I love giving them! ^_^-- Lol, no, I’m not using her mind spells on you. I admit, I attempted it once, but... well, Amaya doesn’t much like being told what to do... and the end result wasn’t pretty... I think I might scar, actually... Lol ^_~

-Cynbad146 - Lol, well that’s fine, at least you managed to get on the train and keep up with it. ^_^ Now I get to hear from you! ^_^ Lol. Yeah, I admit that my chapters do tend to be shorter, but sometimes I manage to cover the same amount of content in one chapter that some people do with 7 pagers. Not that I’m saying my way is better, because I know that I drag stuff out in other places too, but still... it seems to work with this story for the most part, so... ^_^ -- Lol, yeah, believe me, that was a little awkward for me too, cause I hate getting Sesshomaru OOC, but for some reason i couldn’t get around it with this story. But still, if you consider the fact of how much Inuyasha had been through, he probably would have become much more reasonable than the arrogant, loud-mouthed idiot we all know and love. ^_^ -- I’m glad that you don’t think I waste words... that would be horrible... Wasting words that could be put to better use in some other part of a story... Lol, thanks for all the compliments, and for your vote! Believe me-- everyone wants Kags and Inu to have a happy ending. But your not entirely write about it being at my discretion, because, while I may make the ending decision, it’s all based on everything that I experience in the story-- what I write, and what you guys say to me. It all has an impact on the ending decision. So I guess you guys play a bigger part than you first thought, and I give you credit for, neh? ^_^ Lol, so I suppose that I should be the one thanking you! ^_^

-Snowfall - ^_^ It’s good to hear from you again! ^_^ (yay!) -- I agree with you, Inu usually in on some sort of guilt-trip. Maybe it’s cause he’s Inuyoukai and has been alone most of his life? After all, dogs are pack-animals (can’t point that out enough) and he’s always been shunned, so it makes sense he’d feel responsible for everyone that he ever lets get close to him. ^_^ Lol, and I’m glad you like Kaede and Amaya’s interactions. I don’t much like Kaede cause I have such a hard time writing her sometimes. Lol, but I still have fun with writing chapters with the two of them out-- I always enjoyed hearing her and Inuyasha have their little bickering matches on occasion, so... ^_^ -- Yep, Sesshomaru’s starting to get it through his head what his father was talking about, and is looking out for his little brother. ^_^ I’m glad you like Kag and Inu play fighting-- as far as I’m concerned, considering how many sticks she sends him chasing and all that, there should be a little more playfighting between them. ^_^ Lol. -- Hm. It probably seems to close because it was so horrible and so hard to recover from. I think I already explained a few things that happened to him, but I haven’t really gone into detail about it yet, have I? Hm. Maybe I need to do that sometime soon, neh? ^_^ -- I’m glad you liked my idea about pairing everyone off. I’m not sure where, but I read that most people who have been through a taumatizing situation like that might have been usually don’t want to spend time with a lot of people, or even some of the one’s very close to them-- just with one or two very close people to be given time to recover. Although that might not be accurate... -- Lol, yeah, Kagome started to ramble on a bit, didn’t she? Lol, I think I suprised a few people by Inuyasha not putting up a fight about going home, but when you think about it, it kinda makes sense now-- after all, there’s no jewel shards to collect. Her era is the safest place for her to be-- even for a short time. And he finally get to understand what it’s like having a family around-- he wouldn’t want to deprive Kagome of it. But no, I can’t see him letting her go alone either. I don’t think he’s quite that reckless yet. ^_^ -- You’re right about that. The apocalypse must be coming because Sesshomaru’s actually showing concern for his little brother, and Miroku didn’t grope Sango. Grab your provisions and run for cover everyone! -- Lol, I make people curious huh? I don’t know, it’s something that’s always been an apparently very natural and outstanding trait in me, so maybe I have the ability to pass it on to other people. Lol. Pavlovian? I don’t know. Let me know what Pavlovian is, and I’ll let you know if that’s the reason he’s responding that way. ^_^ -- Yeah, you have a point about him being over-protective of Inuyasha now... and going through the well would him would... definitely be an interesting experience. But then again, would he even be able to get through the well? They don’t have any jewel shards to give him now, after all... Still... Hm. A bazooka? Lol, well, I don’t know if I can picture a bazooka. It’s much too noisy and awkward for someone like Sesshomaru in my mind... he’s always used fast and deadly weapons-- like his whip and all that. Still, I guess what you’re saying. ^_^ Lol. -- EEP! You’ll flame me if I kill Amaya?... Uh-oh. Well I guess I better scratch that chapter out... ^_^ Lol. -- What kind of demon is he? Well, actually, I think I said he’s not a demon. Or a human. He’s something else. At least, I think he’s something else, unless I’ve got my species mixed up... Lol, but don’t worry, you probably didn’t miss anything, so far I don’t think I gave anything away as to what sort of creature he was. ^_^ -- Actually, no one accused me of stealing the mind-control, just the way I’d gone about blocking it out. They said it was just like Harry Potter’s Occulemency lessons. Lol. ^^_

-Ichigohime - Lol, you found me, huh? Well, I guess that means that you’ve been looking for me, otherwise you couldn’t have found me... so have you? Lol. This is actually only one of my whereabouts, but I don’t know if you’ll see the other one, so... ^_^ Lol, but I guess the bigger issue here now is-- now that you’ve found me, can you deal with what you’ve found? I should warn ya now, my writing ain’t as nice here as it is on the other site... ^_^

-silverwolf halfbeast - Lol, Arigato! ^_^ And I don’t hate her, necessarily. I dislike her. Kikyo I hate. Kagome I dislike. She’s just so whiny and useless (if her arrows didn’t have that damn aura around them, and their magic ability to change directions at the last second, she’d never hit anything) and she’s always sitting poor Inuyasha for no reason. I don’t like her because she’s domineering and bossy and I just all around don’t care for her character. Besides, who always wears a school uniform when travelling back in time to the feudal era? Surely she must have something more comfortable and suitable for what she’s doing. And why doesn’t she ever tell off Kouga as well as Inuyasha? She just sits Inuyasha, gets rid of Kouga, and then yells at Inuyasha. Damn annoying. So that’s why I don’t like her anyway. I think some other people who don’t like here will share those opinions, whereas others may just not like her cause they want Inu for themselves (yep, I have met a few of these people) so... Hope that clears things up for you.

Anyway, that’s about it... don’t have anything else to say right now... hopefully the next chapter will be up soon! ^_^

Warning -- There are mentions to conversations from the third movie in this! Nothing that’d ruin it for you, but it’d still give some... minor stuff away.   ~*~   Someone to Protect

Inuyasha sighed.

After meeting up with Sango and Miroku, he had convinced Kagome to split up with him-- she could go find Shippo and tell him they were going away for a little while, and he... well, he would attempt to convince Sesshomaru to let them go away for a little while.

He had tried using his nose to locate Sesshomaru, but, since this was his brother’s castle, his scent tended to be... well, everywhere, and it was very obscure and hard to tell which scents were fresh and which had been there for a while.

Eventually he was forced to go back to the human tradition of wandering the halls aimlessly and opening whatever doors might look promising.

He wasn’t exactly sure what he would tell Sesshomaru though, when he actually did find him, so he was a little relieved that he had the excess time to consider this.

Not that it helped, because, by the time he did finally find his brother, he had just gotten right back where he had started from in the first place...

Inuyasha cracked open another random and particularly elaborate and wide door, rather fascinated with the fact that, even after living here so long, he could still know so little about the castle, not really expecting to find anything of interest behind it, since this entire area seemed to consist of dark and abandoned rooms that had long been put out of use.

So he was a little surprised when his eyes almost instantly landed on the figure standing at the opposite side of the room, who happened to be no other than the one he had been searching for.

Sesshomaru stood by the window, backlit by the night sky, his demeanour seeming cold and rather contemplative from this distance. It was clear his brother had been thinking about something, or else he would not have sought out this desolate and abandoned room to get away from everyone.

Not that Sesshomaru ever needed to get away from everyone to think.

It was one of those weird things Inuyasha had always found fascinating about his brother-- the way he could just completely zone out and organize all his thoughts, while never missing a beat of what was happening in the world around him.

He had tried it a couple of times since coming here and had failed miserably.

Usually he just ended up drawing Amaya’s attention, since the sorceress still held the connection over his mind, though it had weakened greatly since the last time he saw her.

He wasn’t certain if this meant that he had gotten good enough to block her out, or if she was simply severing the connection. Either way it was a little unsettling.

He was used to always feeling her presence, however faintly, within his mind, even when she wasn’t communicating or listening to his thoughts, and it seemed fairly hollow now that she was leaving... It was a ridiculous notion, of course, but he couldn’t help but feel slightly lonely without her there...

Mentally shaking himself from his thoughts, he stepped into the room, closing the door as softly as he could behind him, not wanting to make any noise.

He didn’t know why, but somehow it seemed important to disturb the stillness and silence as little as possible in this room.

His brother didn’t look up when he entered-- didn’t do anything to acknowledge his presence-- and that made Inuyasha slightly concerned, because Sesshomaru usually gave at least some indication that he was aware that he was around...

‘Sesshomaru?’ Inuyasha asked softly, taking a tentative step forward, only to be stopped when his brother started speaking.

‘“Someone to protect.”’ The demon lord said slowly.

Inuyasha paused at his brother’s words and frowned. What the hell was Sesshomaru talking about? Had his brother, perhaps, finally let that little annoying imp he let trail after him everywhere finally get to him? Had the little gama finally driven his brother over the brink of insanity?

Deciding it would be best not to jump to any conclusions (especially not such illogical ones-- even if the toad could be annoying as all hell, he doubted Sesshomaru would ever let him drive him crazy) he watched his brother cautiously and asked the only question he could think of-- ‘Nani?’

Sesshomaru still didn’t make any sort of move to look back at his brother, just kept staring forward as he spoke. ‘Father asked me on the night you were born if I had someone I needed to protect.’ He said, his voice reverberating off the walls and drifting gently down to land on the hanyou’s ears. ‘At first I thought he was ridiculous and a fool for thinking such. What need would I, Sesshomaru, have of protecting someone?’ He turned to look over his shoulder at Inuyasha, the moonlight illuminating his pale features and highlighting his eyes a strange silvery colour. ‘I had no need to protect anyone or anything. Until you came.’

Inuyasha stared at his brother, unsure if that was supposed to be an insult or just a statement in general, waiting for his brother to continue.

As long as he had known Sesshomaru, the Inuyoukai had never seemed all that inclined to speak of their father in anything more than passing, yet Inuyasha found himself eager to know more. Not, necessarily, about the old Inu Taisho himself, but about his relationship with his brother... why it had all gone so wrong at the end... why Sesshomaru felt so bitter toward the Daiyoukai...

However, Sesshomaru seemed uninclined to speak more on the subject, turning slowly to look back at the window. Indeed, the next words out of his mouth were almost a complete change of subject from what they had been previously talking about.

‘If you plan on taking your miko wench to “her time” Inuyasha, then I shall not stop you.’ The youkai said, catching Inuyasha off guard. Shit. How the hell had Sesshomaru known that? He didn‘t have long to contemplate this as Sesshomaru almost immediately continued. ‘But know the dangers you put yourself and her into before you act in such a rash manner.’ The Daiyoukai looked over his shoulder at Inuyasha again. ‘Do you think you can protect her?’

Inuyasha stared at his brother a moment.

His first inclination was to make some brash comment or noise (somewhere along the lines of “keh”) and blow his brother’s statement off, but he knew that this was a far too serious matter to do something as stupid as that, and so refrained. He didn’t much like doing that anymore anyway.

Sesshomaru had taught him a lot of things while being here, and one of the most important of them was to always listen to what another was saying, even if it seemed like utter and complete nonsense.

As his brother put it, “the truth can more often be learned from what is not said than from what is, and how much of that truth is gleaned depends very much upon the one who is hearing it.”

It sounded a little strange to him at the time, but the longer he thought about it, the more “truth” he could see was behind it, and the more he began to take it to heart.

‘I don’t know.’ Inuyasha said after a moment of silence. ‘I don’t know if I can protect any of them. But she has a right to see her family, and she’ll go after them whether I come or not. The lease I can do is try and get her there safely.’

Sesshomaru stared at him a moment, and then looked away again.

More silence filled the room, floating in a not-quite awkward way around them, before Inuyasha finally decided that, with his brother’s permission in place, it would be best if he went and prepared to leave before Sesshomaru changed his mind.

He reached toward the door, then paused, looked back at his brother and frowned.

‘Don’t you want to know where we’re going?’ He asked softly. Then again, considering he knew that they were leaving in the first place, it wouldn’t surprise him if Sesshomaru had somehow already found out everything about the well and Kagome’s ability to travel.

‘I would be more concerned with your knowing where you are going then with mine.’ The elder of them said, then turned toward Inuyasha. ‘I have no interest in learning the location of a place where they would dress their women in clothes like they had your miko in.’ He said.

Inuyasha blinked then rolled his eyes.

He wasn’t going to argue with his brother on that fact.

Kagome’s clothes were something that would raise more than a few eyebrows, even in demon society.

The last person he had met to wear clothes that were scantier than hers was Yura, but female demons like that tended to be slight exhibitionists by nature, so it hardly caught his attention. He was too busy trying to stop her from strangling the life out of him with her hair to pay much attention to how she was dressed anyway.

But even her clothes weren’t as bad as some of the clothes he had seen in Kagome’s time.

He could just imagine how someone like his brother would react to that... okay, well, no he couldn’t, but it would likely at least internally shock, if not disgust his brother.

Opening the door, Inuyasha cast one last glance back at the other youkai, before wandering out into the hall.

He shut the door just as softly behind him and then walked off, frowning slightly and watching the floor disappear beneath his feet as he walked and considered several unrelated topics in his mind at once.

He supposed that, to get to the well, it would be best to ask for the uma-youkai’s help, since they could travel at breakneck speeds... then again, first he’d likely have to learn the language they spoke... unless of course they could understand Japanese...

And how exactly had his brother known what their intentions were before they had even breathed a word of it to anyone else? Had he somehow been spying on him when he agreed to take Kagome there, or when he was telling Sango and Miroku?

And what had their father meant when he asked Sesshomaru a question like “Do you have someone to protect?”

Inuyasha paused at this, his frowned deepening as a matching one moved up to crease his forehead.

He didn’t know any of the story behind what Sesshomaru had just told him, only that the night he had been born was the same night their father died... but that didn’t really help with anything... Unless, of course...

‘Did father mean me when he asked Sesshomaru that?’ ~*~  

Glossary (In Order of Appearance)

Gama - Toad

Nani - What

Inuyoukai - Dog-Demon

Inu Taisho/Inu no Taisho - This would be Inu and Sess’s father. It’s actually a title, not his name, and I think it means either Dog General, or Lord of the Dogs

Daiyoukai/Taiyoukai (not sure which spelling is correct) - Great Demon

Miko - Priestess

Youkai - Demon

Yura - C’mon, I know you remember her. Yura of the demon hair... she was like the second enemy Inu and Kagome ever fought together!

Umayoukai - Horse-youkai