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And You, My Brother	By : Arianawray Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > InuYasha/Sessh?maru > InuYasha/Sessh?maru Views: 15027 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 16
- 17
- 18
Chapter XVII: At the length truth will out
"I don't think we can keep strengthening the barrier much longer," Miroku sounded worried. Darkness had fallen on their fifth day of holding the apparition captive, and they were preparing to take turns keeping vigil until dawn, as they had for four nights.
"What will happen when it dissolves?" Sango asked. "The thing was quick and strong enough to shove Inuyasha into the well – what if it attacks us?"
"I don't think it was under instructions to attack anyone else, although I can't be certain," Miroku replied. "We are faced with a few possibilities once the barrier comes down. It may return to its master if it can still access portals that will lead it back to him, or wander loose, or may disintegrate into nothing if its master has cut it off for good."
"Is there a way to destroy it?" Kohaku asked from the corner of the hut where he sat with Rin.
"I suppose we can find some way to do that, although it seems cruel to end its existence when it may do no further harm on its own," Kaede said.
"We do not know what harm it may cause if left loose. I think we will have to destroy it. It isn't real, anyway," Sango said, although she looked sorry for it.
"It has some kind of life of its own, artificial or not," Miroku said. "In many ways, Kagura was an artificial life form too, but she had feelings."
"That's why it's so hard to coldly terminate it," Kaede sighed.
Kirara landed outside the hut just then. She had healed in the course of two days, and could fly again. She transformed into her smaller shape, walked into the hut and mewed.
"No sign of Shippo?" Sango asked, stroking the cat.
"Mew."
"I hope he's all right. If Kirara hasn't been able to spot him nearby, he's either found Sesshomaru by now, or…" her voice trailed off as she considered the alternatives. The kitsune's scrawled note lay in one corner of the hut, near Inuyasha's small bundle of belongings.
They sat quietly through the evening, eating a quick meal by the light of the pit fire. As late evening turned to night proper, Kaede, Miroku and Kohaku lay down to sleep so that they could be awakened in turn to keep an eye on the barrier. Rin did not wish to sleep yet as she was not required to keep watch, so she sat beside Sango in a companionable silence, while Kirara dozed on Sango's lap.
Just as Rin's eyes started to feel heavy-lidded in the early hours of the morning, Kirara jumped out of Sango's lap, pricking up her ears and twin tails.
"I think I sense…" Sango began, tapping Rin on the shoulder and walking over to the door to look out into the night, just as Sesshomaru blew into the village in a starlit streak of white cloud, silk and streaming hair.
In the faint moonlight, Sango could make out Jaken clinging to one end of the mokomoko. Shippo, to her astonishment, was perched on Sesshomaru's shoulder, holding on to his breastplate trim.
"Shippo-chan!" Sango cried, as the kitsune hopped to the ground.
"Sesshomaru-sama! Shippo!" Rin exclaimed.
The others awoke with a start at their cries, to be greeted by the kitsune tearing towards the hut and throwing himself into Sango's arms in the doorway. "I – I'm sorry I ran off without telling you, but we needed to find S – Sesshomaru fast!" he broke down in tears again, having held them in for hours so as not to annoy the taiyoukai.
Sesshomaru looked as purposeful as they had ever seen him look when he strode into the hut, glanced at the apparition in the barrier, and asked them: "Has that thing given you any useful information yet?"
"I'm afraid not," Miroku admitted. "Its language abilities and understanding are very limited. But Kohaku overheard a lizard youkai mentioning that he had detected a hint of lizard demon on a warlock he encountered some weeks ago."
"That ties in with my own investigations," Sesshomaru said. "But we need a name. Tell me what it has told you so far."
Miroku and Kaede gave the taiyoukai a quick rundown of the fragmented answers the apparition had given them, their guesses that the warlock had specifically targeted Inuyasha, and how the information and speculation so far amounted to nothing useful that would help them find their friend.
"How did he come to be close enough to the well to get pushed in?" Sesshomaru asked.
"I believe it told him that its master could open the well for him," Miroku said hesitantly, glancing at Shippo for confirmation. In the firelight, he thought he saw Sesshomaru's face darken a shade, and hastily added: "I am sure that Inuyasha had no intention of jumping into the well – he was merely keeping an eye on the apparition."
Sesshomaru looked at him with yet another unreadable expression – probably the hundredth variation on inscrutability Miroku had seen on his face since first setting eyes on him – before turning his attention to the apparition.
"Perhaps it understands images better than it does words," Sesshomaru suggested. "Words appear to have got you nowhere, so let us try something else."
"Such as?" Miroku asked.
"Kohaku's confirmation of what I found to be traces of a lizard youkai's involvement gives me an idea. I assume that it can see as well in the dark as I can? Ask it to look around at all of us and indicate which of us dresses most like its master."
Kaede asked the child-being, as she plucked at her own sleeve: "Does your master wear clothing over his body? Like what we wear?"
"Yes," it said, looking at the sleeve she fingered.
"Which clothing here looks something like your master's?"
It pointed to Miroku.
"Ask it if it has ever seen its master without his clothes," Sesshomaru prompted Kaede.
"Does your master take off the clothes sometimes?" Kaede made a motion with her arms to mimic the removal of clothing.
"Yes," came the answer.
"Good," was Sesshomaru's unexpected comment. "Houshi, please remove your robes."
"Wh-what?" Miroku stammered, while Sango's mouth fell open.
"Please oblige me," Sesshomaru insisted. "Rin, go outside and wait with Jaken."
"Yes, Sesshomaru-sama!" the girl said obediently, doing exactly as instructed.
"Now, houshi, please remove your robes. The only people in the hut now are either male, to whom your body should be no mystery, or elderly enough to have seen it all. And the last is your wife, so please disrobe."
Miroku looked too stunned to move for a moment, but when the taiyoukai glared at him, he began peeling off his robes and its underlayers, until he stood in his loincloth. "Y-you don't need me to remove this as well, do you?" he asked, gesturing to the strip of fabric that was now the only thing protecting his modesty.
"Probably not, unless I do not get the answers I need." Sesshomaru's reply was of no comfort to the monk. "Miko, please ask it if it has seen any marks on its master's body that are not on the houshi's, and where the marks may be."
Kaede asked: "Look at this man now. When your master removes his clothes, do you see any markings on his body that this man does not have?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
The apparition pointed to Miroku's chest.
Sesshomaru then said: "Give me something to write on and with."
Before Sango could run for the blank sutra sheets and inkbrush in the corner, Shippo snatched up the crayons and drawing paper that Kagome had given him, and presented them to Sesshomaru. The taiyoukai stared curiously at the peculiar materials, but selected the black crayon anyway and began drawing a series of symbols on the paper, spacing them well apart.
One was a wavy line with a dot at the end; another was a line that split into two at one end; the third was three parallel lines; the fourth was a circle that did not close but whose curved line veered inwards into the circle until it intersected the base.
"Does the mark on your master's body look like any of these?" Sesshomaru addressed the apparition directly.
"Yes," the child-being replied, and pointed to the line that split into two at one end – the forked shape.
"Good," Sesshomaru said. "I believe I know whom we are dealing with now. The dragon, lizard and snake clans fell into disarray after Inuyasha slew Ryukotsusei, when there was no more hope that their leader could be returned to life, and they began fighting among themselves for power in the far west, and in the eastern waters. The mark the apparition pointed to belongs to one of the factions involved in that power struggle, whose most prominent member was a youkai of mixed dragon and lizard ancestry. The dragon clans and their relations often brand or tattoo their animals and other non-demon subordinates with their marks to indicate ownership, and if the warlock has this mark, then I know who his master is. To find him, however, we shall have to ask the right parties."
"May Sango and I go with you?" Miroku asked, as he pulled his robes back on. "We want to help get Inuyasha back – I may be able to counter the warlock's spells while you go for the demon. Kirara can fly again, so we won't slow you down."
"Yes, if you wish. But before we leave, we must see to this being. The barrier looks as if it will disperse soon. As it was capable of pushing Inuyasha into the well, I will not leave it here to cause possible harm to the miko and the young ones. Take the barrier down now," Sesshomaru instructed. "We shall deal with it quickly before we go."
As Sesshomaru drew the Tenseiga, Kaede and Miroku dispersed the barrier, and the apparition stood free of it for a second. But in the next few moments, it grew fainter, then began to break up on the spot into disjointed patches of colour. "Home?" it asked, but it faded further.
A minute later, it had disintegrated into nothing.
"Its master must have cut loose all its connections to him when it didn't return," Kaede said sadly, when no trace of the child-being remained. "It can have no real life without him; perhaps he designed it to fall apart once he could no longer control it. It looks like our barrier was the only thing keeping it in existence."
Sesshomaru sheathed the Tenseiga, which he had not had to use after all. The shades of Kagura's final seconds of life echoed in the disintegration of the child-being, and it sobered them all for a while, before the pressing matter of recovering Inuyasha from the warlock and the reptile demon pushed them back into motion.
Sesshomaru looks outwardly calm, Miroku thought as he took his old place behind Sango on Kirara. But even I can feel his tension – whoever has taken Inuyasha will have hell to pay.
Jaken, who had not entered the hut at all, clung to the mokomoko again as Sesshomaru took flight, calling for Ah-Un. The dragon met them above the forest behind the village, and the taiyoukai mounted it in the air. Kirara flew just behind and beside the two-headed beast as they proceeded north, towards one edge of the lizard youkai territory, an area of caves and cliffs by the coast.
** *** **
The tokage youkai called Kimidori by his friends for the pale green of his scales knew the coming day would be a bad one when the eel he caught for his nighttime meal turned out to have flesh that was already half-corrupted by parasites and disease. It was an ill omen, he thought. But he went through his usual superstitious rituals to persuade the gods to look elsewhere for their amusement, and spare him from mischief.
At break of day, as he prepared to rest in his cave, he thought all would be well. For the night was over, nothing else too bad had happened (apart from the stone that landed on his head after some idiotic, juvenile bat youkai dropped it on him just for the fun of it), and once he lay down to rest for the daylight hours, surely all the bad vibes would go away.
That, at least, was what he hoped – until the fluffy white taiyoukai came crashing into the cave at dawn, all blazing temper and flying fur, claws spitting poison, pinning him by the throat to the wall of rock at the back of his den with one hand.
"Where is that damnable traitor Kinrin?" the inu taiyoukai demanded with a ferocious snarl that told the lizard demon he would tolerate no waffling.
Kimidori had fervently hoped never to see this demon again, after an exceedingly unpleasant encounter two years ago, but here he was, right in his face, every inch as mean as before.
"Kinrin?" he squeaked as the claws threatened to discharge into his bloodstream venom it might take a century to clear from his body, if ever. "I haven't set eyes on him in a year – I haven't even detected his scent in a year! And I certainly stopped meeting him after the dragons turned on him!"
The pale hand now lifted him off his feet, and he clutched the taiyoukai's arm desperately, panicking as he got the distinct feeling that he would be decapitated as a result of his neck's inability to support the entire weight of his body. Decapitation was a real pain in the… well, a real pain in the neck. Reattaching one's head wasn't always an easy business, even for a reasonably strong demon like himself, and sometimes it refused to go back on right.
"He turned against your clan to seek power with the dragons, then he betrayed the dragons by attempting to steal power through sorcery, yet you still shield him?" the dog demon growled, tightening his grip on his throat. "Unless you want my poisons slowly eating you up from inside for the next few hundred years, I would suggest that you tell me at once where he is."
"Sesshomaru, I swear I do not know where he is. I used to be close to him, but he is no longer my friend!"
One claw released a single drop of poison into his neck, and the lizard youkai squealed. He looked wildly around for help and noticed, for the first time, two humans at the entrance of the cave, quietly observing the scene. Well, they were obviously not going to help him; in fact, it looked like they were with the dog demon, which was odd, because he loathed humans, didn't he? Maybe they were his pets….
"Tell me where he is," came the demand again. "Or I will make things even more unpleasant for you."
"I don't know where he is, but I know someone who might!" Kimidori hastily confessed in a high-pitched squeak. "There's a young one we call Shiro, whose father associated closely with Kinrin before the dragons attacked him. He may know. I'll take you to him, but you have to promise not to hurt the young one and his family."
"I promise nothing," Sesshomaru growled. "But I do not harm innocents without very good cause. Take me to him now."
"His family lives just a few caves away from mine."
"Move."
Kimidori, with Sesshomaru and the humans on his heels, made his way along the shoreline to another cave. Despite his accurately saying that it was "just a few caves away", it was at quite a distance, because most of the other depressions in the rock face that they passed were too shallow or crumbled to make decent youkai or even animal dens, and did not qualify as proper caves. These lizards were well spaced out, one individual or family group from the other; small wonder no one had come to Kimidori's aid when Sesshomaru attacked him.
The lizard demon stopped outside one of the deeper caves and called for the young one named Shiro.
"Kimidori?" came a voice from the depths of the den. A child lizard demon with whitish scales and pale hair peered out, and finally emerged with his mother hovering protectively behind him, looking suspiciously at the non-reptilian individuals standing behind their neighbour.
"Shiro," Kimidori said, gingerly fingering the spot into which Sesshomaru had injected a drop of poison. "This demon is looking for Kinrin. Do you know where he is?"
Shiro shrank back against his mother at once, and the female demon gripped his shoulders tightly from behind. "We want nothing to do with that creature," she hissed.
Sesshomaru took in the emotions radiating from her and the young lizard, and said quietly: "I am looking for Kinrin to save someone he has abducted, and to prevent him from harming others. Your neighbour tells me that your mate once associated with him. I need to know where he has hidden himself so that I can stop him from hurting anyone else."
"Yes, my mate used to associate with him," the female replied bitterly. "Until he started… touching… my son."
Sesshomaru didn't move a hair or change his expression, yet it seemed to Miroku and Sango that he somehow flinched at those words.
"Go on," the taiyoukai said grimly.
"I didn't know what was happening until after the dragons turned on Kinrin – and that was well done of them. My mate continued to meet with him as he recovered from his injuries. He always took Shiro along, until one day Shiro ran away from us. I found him and finally got the whole story about the obscene things Kinrin had tried to do to him, even while bedridden from dragon wounds. I told my father, who confronted my mate. But my mate refused to keep Shiro safe, saying that it would be good for him to be in the employ of a demon who could be very powerful again. My father was enraged. He fought my mate and killed him. We have lived here for nearly a year now, and we hope that filthy creature never finds us."
"You are not well protected here," Sesshomaru said. "These caves are too far from one another. If Kinrin returns to power, he would have no trouble locating your son. You did not know when I confronted Kimidori in his den, did you? Who would know if someone entered yours?"
"My father is often here, although he is away at this time. Besides, no one here would betray us to Kinrin."
"Kimidori was quick to lead me to you as a possible source of information about Kinrin, so I would not be too confident about your security. I want to prevent similar things from happening to other young ones, and possibly worse disasters for entire demon clans, so tell me where he is in order that I may stop him."
Shiro, still pressing against his mother, finally spoke up in a soft voice: "Try the caves further inland."
"How far inland?" Sesshomaru asked.
"There's a network of caverns in the Black Mist Mountain, directly west of here. That was where my father used to take me to see Kinrin when he was recovering from his injuries. He used to rest in one cave, and a human sorcerer he worked with would do spells in another den near it. But I don't know if they are still there. That's all I know."
"That is enough," Sesshomaru said. "I will do all I can to ensure that he never harms anyone again. Kimidori, if you know what is good for you, and do not wish to repeat the experience of two years ago, I would suggest that you keep watch over Shiro whenever his grandfather is not here. I do not care if you have to sleep on the cliff edge to do that."
"But –"
Sesshomaru shot him a killer glare, and Kimidori caved in at once. "All right, all right – just please don't rip off my head again."
The taiyoukai turned away without giving him an assurance or answer, leaving Miroku and Sango to follow and wonder what had happened two years ago to make Sesshomaru rip off Kimidori's head, and how he had reattached it – or perhaps regrown it? Could lizard youkai do that?
But this was not the time to ask Sesshomaru to satisfy their curiosity about old spats or lizard youkai biology, for he looked as grim as death, and the monk and taijiya too were worried about what Inuyasha could have suffered over the last five days.
** *** **
Sesshomaru cursed himself for what must have been the hundredth time since he had rushed towards the sound of the kitsune's cries of terror in the forest, recognising his scent at once and knowing immediately that something bad must have happened to make him venture into a strange place alone, so far from his friends.
He had known, even before Shippo told him, that it had to do with Inuyasha. For if it had been some other urgent matter, it would have been Inuyasha himself who would have come to find him, not the kit.
He cursed himself for not heeding his instincts when he had felt uneasy about Inuyasha days ago. So what if he had been mistaken, and Inuyasha had been safe and well, and grown even more disgusted with him for stalking him like an obsessed lover? That should not have stopped him from checking on him. The important thing was to ensure his safety and protect him, and he had failed to do that.
The Black Mist Mountain was visible in the distance, and Ah-Un sped towards it with the fire neko in tow, but to Sesshomaru, it seemed a million miles away.
Be strong, he thought, willing courage to Inuyasha. There are not many things I would give my life to defend, but they are all precious to me – our father's legacy; my honour; Rin; and you, my brother. You, Inuyasha, may even be the most precious of all – yet I may have lost you.
How little he knew Inuyasha, to ignore so strong a sense of unease, misreading genuine danger for something less. He would never allow that to happen again once he recovered the lad. If he recovered him.
- 16
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- 18
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And You, My Brother