Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

Forever Mine
By : Sessysama
Category: InuYasha > General
Views: 3853 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.
Chapter List
- 16
- 17
- 18
::grovels to the masses:: Um, how can I put this�.honestly. I got depressed and decided it was best not to write a depressing part of the story while depressed. Then school started and yeah�. But here it is! Thanks for being patient everyone. Remember to review!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sesshoumaru�s placid expression remained with frigid control as he raced over the blurred landscape. InuYasha had already explained the situation to him as they ran. Rin would be filled in later once she arrived. They both had agreed it would be faster for him to go on ahead, while she would follow on Ahun with Touya as protection.

To think that someone had the audacity to lay a hand on his pups. A human woman at that. What was Sakura doing? To be captured by humans! To let Seto be caught as well! He was allowed to leave because she was supposed to be protecting him. He knew there would be demons more powerful than either of them, but humans! It was completely disgraceful.

Sesshoumaru with held the growl working within his throat. And these humans, to dare think they would live after harming them. If any man had even touched Saraku, Sesshoumaru would make sure rip him open and let him die slowly in the crimson stained mud he belonged in.

The rage boiling and burning beneath his perfected façade only worked to increase his speed and he took no note in the fact he had lost InuYasha some time prior. It mattered not anyway, once he reached the village he would track the scent of InuYasha�s pups till he found them or his own.

By late afternoon, not yet time for dusk to hide the waning sun, Sesshoumaru had reached InuYasha�s village. Not finding the scent of any hanyou still present Sesshoumaru didn�t even bother stopping, but tracked the most recent paths and followed.

Worry was beginning to overtake his initial anger as the light fell deeper and the wind colder. What if he was too late and Saraku and Seto were human by now? Could Tenseiga restore youki to them? No, Tenseiga was a sword of healing, but a person could live healthily as a human. Saraku . . . Saraku would hate, despise, and condemn such a body. How could he be expected to name a human the heir to his lands? He couldn�t. He wouldn�t. Not even for his own child. No. He simply would have to make it.

Dusk completely shadowed the blanched wilderness when his nose caught an unmistakable scent: Rin. Not fooling his senses Sesshoumaru changed course to intercept the growing scent. It was Rin, but not. It was the way Rin smelled after being near someone for a long period of time, a subtle mixture her and the taint of another. But where it should have been his scent that was fused with hers it was that was InuYasha�s pups and several humans. There was no trace of his scent. The realization of this only spurred his already hastened pace.

A new scent quickly began over powering the others and only added to the confusion rampaging through his mind. Youki poison filtered into decaying flesh. More than that, it was the same as his own. Seto showed no tolerance to such poisons, but Saraku perhaps could have created it. But if that were true why could he not sense it anymore? Why only the forgotten traces in the rotting aftereffects? And why, if Saraku did create it, did he not smell her?

The answers came all to clear as his keen gaze caught sight of the downtrodden group approaching him. Shinryo, InuYasha�s eldest, carried the form of an injured person, and on the demon cat was a heavily wrapped figure between two of the humans. They would not be returning if it were not Saraku and Seto, but then why were they appearing so helpless?

When he finally reached them, the scene was one that made him thankful Rin had agreed to follow. He never wanted her to see what he was seeing at that moment. His son, barely recognizable and mostly human, was frost bitten and unconscious, slowly dying in the arms of his cousin. Part of his body carried the traces of poison, but it was faint and drowned out by the clothing and frigid conditions.

His daughter though . . . Saraku only known by Rin�s similar scent, was wrapped from head to toe, and reeked of poison, decay, and death. At his hip Tenseiga pulsed, beckoning its use, but Sesshoumaru remained still as his unearthly sight watched the otherworldly creatures binding his precious daughter�s soul.

Makoto was the first to break the silence, perhaps because she was the closest to Saraku, or of InuYasha�s children, to him. "Ojisama, please heal them now. There isn�t any time to waste."

Sesshoumaru didn�t acknowledge his niece other than to unsheathe Tenseiga as he walked through the crunching snow to his son. Shinryo gently lowered Seto�s contorted body to the ground and Sesshoumaru released Tenseiga�s power in a single swing. Immediately the boy�s frozen limbs relaxed causing Seto�s body to fall deeper into the snow. The blackened skin that had succumbed to frostbite faded with the swelling till only his normal, slightly paled skin tone was left. The twisted and melted flesh around his neck smoothed with each growing breath he took. Finally Sesshoumaru looked down into the brown gaze coming from his confused son. With a tentative hand Seto sat up and took in his surroundings.

"Chichiue? Shinryo? Makoto?" His eyes flashed to attention as the terror of where he was filled him. "Saraku! Where is Saraku?!"

Shinryo turned to where Kirara stood. "She is �"

"Dead," Sesshoumaru interjected with such callous indifference that even the frozen winds seems to still at the words.

Everyone turned to Sesshoumaru except Seto, whose couldn�t bring himself to look at his father again. "Dead?" he repeated quietly. Sesshoumaru could see the grief and sadness swell within him as self-frustration seeped into his sullen eyes.

"But you can bring her back, right Ojisama?" Makoto asked with just a hint of worry in her voice.

"Not here. I need to see something before I revive her." Sesshoumaru�s eyes fell to his son still sitting in the cold snow. "Stand up, Seto."

The young boy silently did as he was ordered, and, once up, he took a tentative step towards his father. His face remained down as Sesshoumaru examined everything before him. The poison had traces of youki in it so he had been hard to tell for certain whether Seto was completely human or not.

"Look at me," Sesshoumaru commanded and was obeyed. The brown color that sullied Seto�s eyes disgusted Sesshoumaru. When his children were forced to change once a month it was different. They could not control that and it would fade when the day changed. If he could not find even the smallest trace of youki in Seto there would be no chance to return to his normal self.

Shame filled those human eyes as Sesshoumaru searched for a hint of demon in the boy. Saraku was dead and by his appearance, and reactions after being healed, it was obvious he had tried to save her. The question was from what.

Sesshoumaru�s hand lifted and pushed the stiff fabric haphazardly covering his son�s head. Clumps of varying-length black hair was scattered over his now healed head, though most was completely gone, leaving the exposed skin pale from cold. Though he had various garments, which looked to be put on him by another person, Seto shivered as the freezing winds swept between them. Though he didn�t move them, Sesshoumaru could also see Seto�s bare feet turning a slight red from the contact with the snow.

All the while his keen senses were scanning the young boy for even a glimmer of youki hidden in him. Seto�s scent was definitely different from Saraku�s, disregarding the decay and death. It had a slightly more feral tinge, one that would spike interest in those who whose senses were strong enough to differentiate. A scent that, if stronger, would warn away those weaker. A hint of demon. Inwardly the relief washed over him. In time, Seto should return to his normal hanyou self.

Carefully, Sesshoumaru removed his outer haori and draped it over the shaking shoulders of his son. In his human form the cold was surely affecting him worse than he let on. The boy�s dull brown eyes gazed up to him in shock, while a hint of something more flickered in the back of his expression. Thanks? Relief? Happiness?

"Ride on that," Sesshoumaru commanded, motioning with his head to Kirara. "You have no shoes, one of the others can go by foot."

If either Kenji or Tanshin objected to this they didn�t say anything. Kenji moved from his place in front of Saraku�s body and in silent acknowledgement helped Seto position himself. They swiftly crossed the blanche landscape. The wind swept up the restless snow and it passed their faces like forgotten ribbons dancing in the breeze.

The journey back was swift and silent. Seto was still in need of food, water, and warmth even if his body was healed. And Sesshoumaru was hasty to examine his daughter�s body more carefully. There was something there that had changed before her death, but the poison she reeked of was too strong even for his sense. He needed the clothing removed so he could see the extent of the damage to her body.

The waning crescent moon had climbed high into the sky by the time the ragged group returned to InuYasha�s village. InuYasha himself must have sensed them coming for a fire had been prepared in his home, and boar meat crackled above the flames. Neither brother said anything, as Seto and Shinryo carried in the young girl�s body in. Kagome and Makoto went ahead and cleared off a place near the hearth since Sesshoumaru directed them to warm and disrobe Saraku�s body.

As her stiffened body absorbed the heat billowing of the flickering flames the smell of decay permeated the room. All but Kagome and Makoto left for Tanshin and Mokoto�s small three-room hut. Miroku and Sango were caring for Makoto and Tanshin�s three-year-old son while all the commotion with Saraku and Seto was being dealt with. Sesshoumaru let his demon gaze to fall on the young woman he had never met before, assuming her to be the one who informed them of his pups capture.

When Seto had changed into some of Tanshin�s clothing, and the soiled ones were placed outside, where the smell would not be so prominent, Sesshoumaru finally spoke up. "Seto. How were you captured by mere humans?" His voice betrayed nothing, either concern or contempt, for both feelings were too strong for him to show.

Seto�s brown eyes fell to the fire before him. "We were ambushed as we traveled. They had hidden downwind of us, so we did not sense them until we were close. Even with their numbers we would have been able to take care of them, except," his voiced wavered for a moment, but just a moment. "One of them was able to shoot purifying arrows. Saraku was hit in the shoulder. I was attacked with some kind of paralyzing drug. Saraku got hit with it too, I think, but she was able to move still. I ended up unable to walk.

"We managed to get away by letting a nearby river drag us, and Saraku got me out, but we were freezing and night was coming. We found a cave and tried to warm up. Saraku had been carrying me the whole way, and the arrow seemed to have been weakening her. At some point I had fallen asleep, and I think Saraku did too. That�s why the humans were able to get close enough to capture us. I remember getting hit by one of the purifying arrows before passing out. The next thing I remember is waking up in the snow as a human, with Saraku lying nearby. She was . . . she was like that."

That still left the question what happened between his memories, and how did they escape. Sesshoumaru�s gold eyes settled on the human woman. "Who are you to know of their capture?"

The woman looked away from them all as Shinryo placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "My name is Shiori. I was once a hanyou. My mother was human while my father was a bat demon. Two years ago I allowed Sora-sa . . . the miko who took them to make me human. I have been in her service ever since. Seto and Saraku were brought to the shrine and we allowed their demon blood to heal their wounds before starting the purification.

"Saraku woke up before the process could be completely though. She spoke with us, threatened us, but her body was mostly human by then. Her youki gathered in her demon eye, almost as if it knew what was happening. That was the only reason I can think that she was able to overcome the sedative being used."

It took considerable restraint for Sesshoumaru not to kill the woman for her involvement, but she was also the one who warned InuYasha. "You did not help her escape, though." Sesshoumaru commented coldly.

The woman shook her head. "I couldn�t. Many in the shrine still disliked the fact I was ever a hanyou. I took as much of the incense used to keep them asleep as I could, and I made sure no one knew Saraku had regained consciousness. All else I could do was try and find InuYasha."

"Why us?" Seto asked, confusion and guilt still firmly set in his brown eyes. "You must have watched her purify others, so why did you help us?"

Shiori shrunk into her shoulders causing Shinryo to bring his other hand to comfort her. "I had only ever had one person make me feel like it was okay to be a hanyou. That was InuYasha, all those years ago. I had forgotten that, but Saraku spoke so fiercely. She said she would not disgrace either of her parents by becoming fully anything. I had never thought of that. We she talked of being a hanyou I realized I had just been running away from everything by becoming human. I knew nothing could change my decision, but I wanted to help her. Especially when I found out she was related to InuYasha. She reminded of me of him."

Sesshoumaru disregarded the comparison as he was quiet sure Saraku resembled him more than his brother. He took a moment to clearly piece all the events described into place. There was still a very large hole in the story. How did Seto and Saraku end up out of the shrine and in that condition? Seto did not remember anything before waking, and Shiori left them in the shrine, yet somehow Saraku was deformed and harmed enough to lead to her � death.

After a moment of silence, the door to the small house slid open and Makoto walked in. "We have done as you asked, Ojisama. She is," Makoto took a deep breath before continuing, "ready for you to see."

Sesshoumaru could tell his niece had taken considerable effort to remain near Saraku�s body. He stood and turned to Makoto. "Rin should be arriving soon. Keep her here."

Makoto nodded and moved aside for Sesshoumaru to exit. Seto was about to get up when Sesshoumaru called back to him, "Stay here. I will go alone."

"Chichiue, I want to see her," Seto said, his voice almost pleading.

Sesshoumaru did not waver, though, not even giving his son a passing glance. "You will see her after I have revived her."

"Chichiue!"

"Seto," Sesshoumaru scolded, the merest hint of a growl filtering into his voice. "You will remain here." He would not allow either Seto or Rin to see the full extent of Saraku�s wounds. Too much guilt would form in his son, and far too many memories would surface in his mate.

Silently he walked to InuYasha�s home, the smell of decay growing with each step. Outside the house Kagome stood beside a pile of soiled clothing, most likely the garments that had been wrapped around Saraku. A small mask was over her face to keep her from being overwhelmed by the smell.

"If you do not want to examine these," Kagome motioned to the clothing, "then I will take them to be burned."

Sesshoumaru dismissed the clothing with a turn of his head. He was not concerned with what she had been dressed in, only what had happened to her body. The door to the house had been left open to help diminish the stench, but as he crossed the threshold, even he was surprised by the overwhelming odor permeating the room. There was no question what the smell was. Poison, and with the same scent that his own claws created.

On the floor next to the hearth lay the body of his daughter, a white cover concealed her entire body from view. Kneeling beside her, Sesshoumaru carefully pulled the sheet away from her head and folded it at her waist.

The damage was more severe than even he had expected. All of her skin was twisted and wrapped into itself as if it had been melted from the inside out. Little of her body was not blackened from cold or excessive burning. Pieces of her flesh were gone, ripped away recently for the areas underneath were clean of poison. The chunks must have been too attached to the clothing when they tried to undress her. Not a single strand of her black and white hair remained on her mutilated body.

If she did produce youki poison then her demon blood should have kept her from being effected by it. But if she were almost human when she created it, the body might have suffered as a human�s did. How, though, could she have sustained such an amount of youki, in a human form, to do that much damage? There would be only one way to answer all his questions.

Gently pulling the sheet up to cover her up to the shoulders, Sesshoumaru unsheathed Tenseiga. The flawless sword pulsed to life in his hand as the otherworldly sight came to his demon eyes. Shackled and bound, Saraku�s soul lay trapped in death and left to the fiends holding her. With a hatred and fury known only to his nearing mate, Sesshoumaru swung Tenseiga and ripped apart the chains binding her and the creatures that dared to taint her soul.

With each subsiding pulse Tenseiga gave Saraku�s body moved and healed. The wrinkled skin smoothed, and black restored to a fair tan. Stiffened and frozen muscles relaxed as her body drew in its first breath. Her lung tested themselves a few more times before he watched her eyes flutter with consciousness. But the brown gaze mirrored in both her eyes was not what he had expected. Not even on the night of the half moon did her gold eye leave her, yet now she lay with a damning earthy color in both eyes.

"Chichi�" Saraku�s words were cut short as her newly healed hand clasped over her mouth, two fingers reaching up to hold her nose closed. Her eyes began to water as nausea consumed her face. The smell of decay was too strong for her to handle.

Carefully, but hastily, Sesshoumaru lifted Saraku, sliding the hanging remains of the sheet to cover her backside as her free arm wrapped around his neck to help support herself. For a moment she felt like the innocent child she once was, clinging to him for protection and comfort. He hurried out of the house and heard her immediately take in a deep, freezing breath.

With demonic speed Sesshoumaru arrived at Makoto�s home, and he forced the door open with his foot. Even though it was barely a moment she was exposed to the frigid air, without any clothing but a single sheet haphazardly wrapped around her body, Saraku shivered in his hold. He did not bother to let those sitting around the small fire to see the fragile girl in his arm. Immediately he carried he to one of the empty rooms, and from the look of the sparse furnishings, it appeared to be their son�s room.

Even though they were alone and she was well, Saraku�s arms did not leave from around his neck. They tightened and her face buried itself into the fur on his shoulder as the memories began to resurface in her mind.

"Is he human?" was the first thing she asked.

Sesshoumaru gently let her feet lower to the ground and placed his hand on her back. Her once silken hair was gone and her dared not touch her bald head and force her to acknowledge this just yet. He knew she understood her own condition, as she repeatedly moved her head to adjust for the human ears at the sides of her face.

"His youki will recover in time. The process was not completed on him."

But what of her, now that she was alive and healed he could smell the unusual change in her scent. It was not completely human, but neither was it like Seto�s. And if both her eyes were brown it did not hold much hope.

Muffled laughter touched his ear as her hands grasped his shoulders. "I made it. Thank the gods, I made it in time."

They stood there for a moment as Saraku calmed herself. Next came the questions he knew she would ask. "I died?"

"You did. After Shinryo and the others found you and your brother."

"What am I, now?" she asked with emotionless wonder. She was prepared for any answer he would give.

"I am not yet certain what has happened to you. You are not human, but neither is your youki building as Seto�s is. Something has changed."

She was not shocked by is assessment, but her reply left him momentarily silent in contemplation. "I know. I felt it happening."

For the first time since she woke, Sesshoumaru pushed his daughter away, so as to look at her human face. "What did you feel?"

"Pain. And power. The pain fed the power and let me fight back, but it was destroying me. My mind fogged and all I could think was to find Seto. When I found him, after I killed that bitch who did this, I could move anymore. I couldn�t even make myself stand to get out of the shrine. It simply hurt too much."

Sesshoumaru�s serious demeanor returned to his face. "You did not get Seto and you out of the shrine? Are you absolutely sure of that?"

Saraku took a moment to think through the haze of memories but nodded nonetheless. "I remember falling after attempting to pick him up. I could not support his weight. The last thing I know I did was sit on the shrine floor holding Seto."

And the first thing Seto remembers is waking outside in the snow. Some one had to have moved them from the shrine, but if it was someone from the shrine then why were they not killed?

"Wait here, Makoto will come with clothing."

Saraku nodded and he could see her eyes fall. Her hand twitched as she held the cover against her. She had not felt her hair, he realized. Without a word Sesshoumaru left the room to find Makoto waiting with a plain blue and white kimono. He directed her in with a nod and returned to the others in the main room. Rin had arrived, he could smell, and, by the sound of it, was being informed what had happened from Shiori and Seto.

Rin sat behind Seto, a protective embrace smothering the boy, though, he did nothing to remove her. A small piece of black cloth was wrapped around his head to hide his lost hair. Touya sat silently in a corner of the room. They stopped speaking as Rin looked up to him with a tired, aged expression that belied her youthful face. "What will become of her?"

"I do not know for certain," he replied evenly. He leaned against the wall but did not lose the proper posture. "It will take time before I can understand the change in her scent. She is not human, but neither is she merely a purified hanyou as Seto is."

He looked to his son with the same serious expression he showed Saraku. "Are you absolutely certain when you awoke you were outside?"

"Yes, Chichiue. I remember being in snow and near a small stream. I followed the stream north, so I am sure it was outside."

"What did Saraku remember last?" Rin asked, sensing the confusion in him.

Sesshoumaru closed his eyes as he thought. "She said she collapsed inside the shrine. Someone would have had to have removed them."

"Ojisama," Shinryo called. "When we found them there was a demon. He ran off once we arrived, but I doubt it was because he was scared of us. I could tell just by his scent that he was powerful. But he didn�t seem hostile at all."

So a random demon rescued them? The pieces simply did not add up no matter what reason Sesshoumaru used. Why would a demon help two near dead, for all appearances, humans? He needed to see this place for himself. Perhaps he might be able to find something that would make sense of this.

"Rin," Sesshoumaru�s voice filled the uneasy silence with demanding. "When Saraku is rested, find out what exactly happened after the woman left. I am going."

"I understand," Rin replied, and before anyone could object he was gone. Saraku said she had killed the woman who did that to them, but if they thought one life was enough he would teach them what disgracing his children meant.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The cat demon had taken great effort to suppress his youki when the Lord of the Western Lands appeared. Seeing that other hanyou had recognized the two made sense, but to think that those were the hanyou pups of Sesshoumaru. It at least explained that if a hanyou could be mistaken for a demon it would be one with a heritage like Sesshoumaru�s. He had heard that the human mate the Western Lord had taken had weakened him. The demon would not believe that until he saw it. Especially considering the woman�s ability.

He had almost left once he saw Sesshoumaru. The woman as dead, he could tell by the scent, and knowing who she was had given him his answer. But when the boy�s injuries suddenly healed because of a sword. The demon couldn�t resist following. These two just lead to the most interesting people it seemed.

He had to keep a large distance from the village they were taken too, and the demon was surprised when Sesshoumaru left only a few hours later. Cautiously, he neared the village, being weary to always stay downwind of it. It was not until the next morning that he finally caught sight of something he couldn�t believe.

From the house that most of the people taking care of the boy had been in came a human woman. She was dressed in a pale blue and white kimono and around her head was a gray shawl. Her brown eyes were soft and calm, and her skin smooth and fair to look upon. Yet, he knew that was the woman he had rescued. Her scent, though lost of the poison and decay, was most definitely the same, and in no way human.

He followed the woman as she left the village and headed toward a small, nearby lake. This woman was a complete mystery to the demon. She had a presence about her that screamed power, even when it was obvious to him how quickly he could break her. He slipped through the foliage high in the treetops and closed in on the woman.

She removed the shawl from her head to reveal the bare scalp that seemed to mar an unnervingly gentle beauty about her. She leaned over the frozen surface and stared down at the distorted image reflected back at her. Even risking the wind trailing his scent and one of the hanyou coming from the village, the cat demon moved upwind so as to get a better view of her face.

His crimson, feline eyes locked onto the woman�s dull brown ones. Pain. Pain etched so clearly into her eyes, as she gazed at her own reflection, that he couldn�t understand how she was not crying. Any other woman would have been in tears with as much suffering she showed, yet she was still. Silent.

The deafening crack of bone against ice shattered the peacefulness of the forest. Her fist slammed against the ice, slowly breaking the surface until her bruised flesh ripped down and into the water below.

He watched with unfading attention as she slowly pulled her shaking hand from the water and covered her face with it. Water mixed blood, which seeped out of cuts caused by the breaking ice, and fell down her cheeks in crimson streaks. Still, she did not cry.

You can only, cry in blood.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
For everyone who would like I am going to start a little mailing list type thingy. Simply put updates are hard with all the shit going on and such, as you all I am sure have noticed. So what I have thought to help you all out and make it easy for you to know when I actually do update without checking all the time is anyone who wishes leave their e-mail address in a review as well as whatever stories of mine you want to be notified of. Then when I update I will send out a mass e-mail to everyone to inform you. This can be for Forever Mine or What�s In a Name, or my Naruto fics if you happen to read them as well, just tell me which ones. I know FF.net has this pretty much already, but only for those with accounts, and aff.net does not have this so it may help those people.
- 16
- 17
- 18
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Forever Mine	By : Sessysama Category: InuYasha > General Views: 3853 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Forever Mine