Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

Sedition	By : BlackberryPatch Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > InuYasha/Sessh?maru > InuYasha/Sessh?maru Views: 5561 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha and no money is being made from this fan work.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
3 - Who Says You Can't Go Back

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Inuyasha did travel swiftly, the forest sweeping past him as he ran, feet barely touching the ground. Something was wrong... and the quicker he left, the quicker he could be back. Sesshomaru was going to need him; that conviction was deep in his gut. Though, he wondered what he hoped to find at his destination. If he found nothing good, that would make his trip a very quick one. The more he found in the way of survivors the more complicated that would make things and would most likely lengthen his stay considerably. But it seemed almost arrogant to hope that Miroku, Sango, Shippou, and Kaede were all well and whole. He pushed thought from his mind and ran.
The way was so familiar to him, and as he leapt from a tree to land on the ground beside the Boneeater's Well a strange sense of surreality filled him. He touched the rough wooden side of the Well, glanced down into its black depths, and felt old, as if he had lived the fullness of a lifetime in the past couple years.
He was caught up in his memories, but the too familiar sound of an arrow leaving the bow pulled him back to the present and he spun and ducked away from where he had been standing. He glanced back to see the arrowhead buried in the wood, the shaft still quivering from the force of the impact.
Inuyasha didn't stop to wonder who would be shooting at him; he darted into the cover of the forest, slipping between and behind trees, and up into the canopy, freezing as he opened his senses to the world, trying to find his pursuer.
Silence greeted him at first, then the soft scuff of a foot against a fallen leaf. The sound was tiny and followed by nothing else to betray location; whoever his attacker was, they were good, trained by the best.
It suddenly occurred to him that he was attempting to approach the survivors of a village of people whose profession was demonslaying. There were probably five people in that village who would recognize him. Maybe more; he had visited often enough before he and Sesshomaru had left, but that had still been close to six years ago. Plenty of time for plenty of new people, fleeing their own war torn towns, to come and to live under Sango's protection.
Whoever had shot at him was beneath the tree where he sat. No earthly sense had given the hunter away – Inuyasha was still and alert enough that he felt the faint trace of demonic energy in the armor the hunter wore. The hunter stilled, holding position beneath him but too far back for Inuyasha to see well enough to attack. Oh, this guy was very good, Inuyasha thought. They both waited.
As he'd hoped, his attacker wasn't quite as patient as he was. He caught sight of the bow as the hunter moved forward and he struck. Inuyasha dropped from the tree, reaching out to grab hold of the bow and pull it, and the attached human, toward him. The hunter yelped as Inuyasha released the bow and grabbed her arm instead, pulling her against him. She hissed in anger at being so captured and he felt her reach for a knife; he snared her free hand in his own and pulled her even more tightly against him as she struggled.
He waited again as she wore herself out fighting him. This close he could smell that she was indeed female, and quite young; maybe Rin's age. When she had tired herself out he said calmly, "I don't want to hurt you. My name is Inuyasha. Do you know it?"
She stiffened slightly, apparently debating whether or not to tell him the truth, or to even answer him at all. Finally, she nodded.
"Alright," he said. "I'm going to let you go. Okay?" He did so, stepping away from her as he released her arms. As he'd expected, her first act was to finish reaching for the knife and point it at him. He was far enough away that she couldn't cut him without throwing the knife, and he could see her acknowledgment of that as she regarded him. Her eyes ran over him, as if weighing him, against what standard he couldn't know but he hoped he came out well. He didn't want to hurt her; she reminded him a lot of Sango, particularly when they'd first met.
"What do you want?" the girl hissed, when Inuyasha didn't speak first.
"I've been gone a long time," he told her. "I came to see my friends, Miroku and Sango." Distantly he wondered if he'd been spending too much time with Sesshomaru lately; when had he gotten so patient?
She scoffed at him. "I am not leading you back to the village."
He laughed. "I don't really need you to. I think I know pretty well where it is. I just wanted to get you to stop trying to kill me before I had to hurt you."
She regarded him with superiority. "As if you could."
He smiled. "You're good, girl. But you've still got a few things to learn."
She watched him carefully; he watched the knife in her hand. When the point dropped he knew that she'd decided he wasn't an enemy. At least for the moment. "If you know the way to the village then lead on," she said lightly.
He grinned. "Sango trained you, didn't she? What's your name?"
She eyed him again for a long moment. "Taian," she said finally. "Now go. I have lost my way and need you to lead me back to the village."
Inuyasha laughed softly but turned and pushed through the forest, back toward the Well. He moved past it without stopping and went on toward Kaede's village. He could hear and smell it long before he could see it; when he did break through the last trees he could see that the village had changed a lot. There were more people, for one thing, and the entire village had been restructured with defense in mind, completely surrounded by a wall. Barely had the two of them emerged from the treeline before someone saw them and called out a warning. Taian gave a quick signal which quieted the alarmed cries, and Inuyasha looked at her, walking beside him now.
She caught him at it and regarded him evenly. "You did know the way to the village; you didn't have to search for it." She shrugged. "You are who you say you are or you are very, very crafty. Sango will decide, and I will remain close."
She didn't have to explain that she would remain close to kill him if he was lying, and Inuyasha was again impressed by her confidence – though arrogance might have been a better word for it.
They were not far from the village when a surprised and familiar voice cried out, "Inuyasha!"
He raised his face to the top of the wall and grinned. "Miroku!" he called back.
The monk waved them toward the gate and ducked down out of sight to make his way there as well. A murmur ran along the wall and through the people who still worked beyond it as Inuyasha moved past them. He was used to scrutiny, and these people had reason to be wary – everyone who moved beyond the wall of the town did so in groups with a guard. But there was something different here; some watched him pass with fear and wariness, but most smiled at him as he passed.
Miroku met them at the gate. He grinned and threw his arms around his friend. "Inuyasha," he murmured. "It is good to see you."
Inuyasha returned the embrace, something heavy leaving his chest. "You're alright," he breathed. He released Miroku and leaned back to look at him. "I saw the village. I was worried. Sango?" he asked unnecessarily; to find Miroku this buoyant ensured that she was equally as well.
Miroku smiled. "She is fine." The expression faded as his thoughts settled on their abandoned village. "We never really had too much trouble with the warlords or with individual demons, but..." Miroku ran a hand over his face. "Somehow this one demon gathered several others under his power and joined forces with one of the warlords. We only just managed to pull our defenses together in time." He motioned Inuyasha to follow him as he turned and made his way into the maze of streets that lay within the boundaries of the wall.
"Did Rin find you?" Miroku asked as they started walking.
Inuyasha smirked. "Yeah, she did."
"Good," Miroku sighed in relief. "I know she took the dragon with her, but I was a bit worried about having to explain that to Sesshomaru if something went wrong." He raised an eyebrow at Inuyasha. "It seems almost inconceivable to imagine otherwise, but he is well?"
Inuyasha smiled. "Yes. Though a little... put out by the mess we found when we got back." He looked around. "This is amazing, what you've done with the place."
"The village I'm sure you remember wasn't originally designed with defensive protection in mind." Miroku's gaze followed Inuyasha's with a kind of tired pride as he glanced around. "It wasn't long after you left that Sango started helping them add defenses." He smiled as he thought about his wife, but the expression was fleeting, replaced by weariness. "The warlords have been getting steadily worse. One gets overthrown by his neighbor, only to have three more spring up." He shook his head, but the pride was back in his voice as he continued, "Sango's really been amazing though. We've built an army of our own here; small, but growing."
"And more highly trained than most," Inuyasha added, his eyes flickering to Taian, who was following them at a discreet distance, her eyes scanning her surroundings but her attention fixed on Inuyasha.
Miroku smirked. "I see you have a fan."
The half demon snorted. "Bound to happen," he returned loudly, and lowered his voice to add, "She's really good, Miroku. How long has she been here?"
"Kanou Taian," Miroku mused. "Her family threw her out and she heard about our open door policy." Inuyasha nodded, familiar with Sango's policy of taking under her wing and training any who could prove that they had a true desire to protect others. It gave a home to those displaced by destruction, and helped her fill the holes left by the destruction in her own life. Miroku continued, "That was just under two years ago." Inuyasha blinked in surprise, glancing at Miroku who nodded in confirmation. "Sango's quite proud of her; she's been the most apt pupil we've had."
Inuyasha nodded. "So... what about the others?"
Miroku walked in silence for a moment. "Kaede... passed away. It was several years ago, soon after you left I believe. Shippou is well. He spends most of his time with Kouga's pack, when he's not off by himself. I think Rin's leaving threw him; he forgets sometimes, and we do as well, that humans age rather differently than demons."
Inuyasha nodded. He would have to seek out Shippou separately then. "And Kohaku?"
Miroku stopped for a moment, and Inuyasha halted beside him. "Now there is a puzzle, probably best left for another discussion." He nodded to a group of people gathered around a low table on the ground. Sango was seated in the middle of the group at one edge of the table, gazing thoughtfully at a map that was spread before her, two men to either side of her apparently arguing some point shown on it. "Physically," Miroku finished their previous conversation, "Kohaku is well. Other than that it's hard to tell. But come, and I will introduce you to the rest of my family." He was grinning warmly now and as they approached Sango looked up. When her eyes settled on Miroku they lit with a soft joy and she smiled at him in return, and when they touched on Inuyasha they flew open in astonishment.
"Inuyasha!" she cried, standing and waving away the men concerned with the map on the table. She came to them, not waiting for them to finish coming to her, and threw her arms around Inuyasha. "It is so good to see you back again!" She pulled back to look up at him.
"It's good to see you too," he returned, smiling almost self consciously. It felt strange, to come back to this place and be welcomed so; coming home wasn't something he'd ever really done before. His eyes fell to the sling across her chest and the soft, round face that peered at him out of it. "And this is?"
Miroku threw his arm around his wife, reaching a hand down to tease the infant's nose. "Our daughter, Manami."
Inuyasha looked down into brown eyes that regarded him with a deep thoughtfulness, then Manami yawned and, turning to hide her face against her mother, promptly fell asleep. Inuyasha grinned. "She's beautiful." He looked up at the proud parents to see them exchanging a look of pure love.
Sango turned to him, taking his hand and pulling him toward her table. "You can meet Isamu later. First, I want news."
"Isamu?" he asked Miroku as he followed where Sango led.
"Our son," Miroku answered. "He'll be four soon; he's off with the other children."
It was the mention of the children that brought a certain thought into the fore of his mind and as Sango sat across from him and regarded him expectantly, Inuyasha began. "Sesshomaru and I just got back."
Already Sango interrupted. "But where were you?"
He paused. "It's hard to explain without seeing it. We went... further west than I ever thought there was to go. I mean... I guess I'd never really thought about anyplace other than here before. It was... amazing." His eyes were on faraway places, but he blinked and rested his gaze on the two seated across from him. "Coming home to this mess shook us up though." He reached into his kosode and pulled out the small twisted lock of hair and fur that Sesshomaru had given him. "There was a girl. Sesshomaru found what was left of her, and... put her spirit to rest."
Sango's hand covered the lock, her face empty of emotion. "We wondered what had happened to Yoko. And Chiyo." She touched the pale, soft fur. "Thank you."
He nodded. "Sesshomaru has a cousin from Russia and she's been trying to keep a lid on things while we've been gone, but apparently a couple of demons are making a play for Sesshomaru's position." He glanced between them. "I was hoping you could tell us more."
"About three years ago," Sango began, "we noticed an increase in demonic activity. At first it was very subtle; so subtle it might have started before we even noticed, though we noticed before anyone else did. The strange thing was, the increase wasn't the usual large but stupid kind of demons. The demons we were seeing were powerful, intelligent ones. They moved in and started sticking around. The usual stupid demons we ordinarily see so many of have been steadily decreasing in number since."
"Outside of isolated incidents," Miroku broke in, "these demons have left the human settlements that we've seen mostly alone. That's probably more due to the increasingly chaotic situation on the human side than any peaceful desires from them. We've had more interaction than most because of, well..." he smirked at Taian, who was listening so unobtrusively Inuyasha had forgotten she was there, "the confrontational nature of our business."
Sango smiled at him; the expression was rather predatory. "I have patrols conducting periodic sweeps of all the immediately surrounding areas, and less frequent ones working further out. It's given us a pretty good map of what's going on in our vicinity."
Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at her, surprised. "Would you know where to find a specific demon?"
She shrugged. "If they had recently done something obtrusive within the patrols' area. But I think I know what you're thinking, and we haven't been able to reliably find anyone who seems to be in charge." She gestured absently to the map that lay abandoned on the table. "We've documented three separate demons who all appear to be in some level of control of a group of others, but keeping track of them is a different matter."
Inuyasha nodded. "Ros said that there were three lieutenants, and then one who was in charge. She said he was called Idachi."
Sango frowned. "I don't doubt that her ability to get information about demons is better than mine." She shook her head. "Whoever is leading this rabble is good. I haven't been able to get any information on him and he has not been sighted by any of my patrols." She cocked her head at Inuyasha, a glint in her eyes. "I don't suppose I could pick this Ros' brain on the subject?"
Inuyasha smirked at the mental image. "She wouldn't stand a chance against you," he affirmed, his opinion completely biased. He had noticed the slight tightening of Miroku's eyes at Sango's offer and continued, "Here's the way I see it – I want to get back as quickly as possible but we need to continue to share what information there is in order to build a better picture. I was hoping you could lend me someone to take with me for a few days."
Sango frowned thoughtfully. "Actually there's only one person who could work for that. She knows everything that I know about the incursions, she's a superbly competent fighter, and she had a habit of sticking her nose in everything." She turned to lock eyes with Taian, the girl's eye opening wide as she realized that Sango was talking about her.
"You want me to go with this demon, to meet other demons, and give them our information?" She sounded skeptical, but underneath it Inuyasha could sense a thrill of excitement.
Sango frowned at the girl. "Inuyasha is half human."
"Well, and there's Rin. She's completely human." Inuyasha tried to hide his amusement.
Taian leveled a sardonic glare at him. "Very well," she conceded as if it were a great burden.
Inuyasha grinned. "Good. We can leave in the morning."
Sango regarded the girl reprovingly. "Taian was scheduled for late watch tonight; she won't be sleeping anyway, so you can leave after dinner." She turned to Inuyasha and smiled. "So, first you have some time to spend with us. Tell us about your adventures in the west."
He smiled, and did so.
-----
When Sesshomaru left the library it was late into the night. He passed by Rin's room but when he paused he did not sense her within. Following her scent led him to the roof and he paused by the doorway to watch as she executed a simple kata by the light of the moon. His lip quirked in quiet amusement to find her here; she had not disobeyed anything he had said to her – Aa Un lay to one side of the large flat expanse.
She was focused on her task and did not notice him until she had finished; her eyes flared with pleasure when she saw him. "Lord Sesshomaru," she greeted him, walking to stand near him in the moonlight.
Sesshomaru stepped away from the door to meet her. "Sango taught you that," he observed.
She nodded. "Sango taught me many things."
"I recognize the style, though I have not seen you perform it before."
Rin grinned. "When Lord Sesshomaru is present there is no need for Rin to perform any such thing."
He cocked his head, looking at her. "Tonight I have not gone anywhere."
Her grin faded. "I... felt..." She paused. She finished finally, "restless."
Sesshomaru nodded. They stood for a moment in silence under the moonlight. He reached out and touched her hair. "I have done you a disservice, Rin."
Her eyes flew open wide. "No." She spoke quickly; there was no need to think before replying to his statement.
Sesshomaru regarded her, golden eyes resting thoughtfully on her. "It is so. I have never desired to keep you or take you anywhere you do not wish to be. Indeed you have shown that you are well capable of taking yourself wherever you desire. But, when you chose to follow me, I should have done better to see that you received the things you needed."
"All Rin needs is Lord Sesshomaru." Her voice was strong but she looked at him with the first traces of fear.
He shook his head. "I have taken you out of the world you knew and brought you into a world that is wholly beyond you. It should have been I who saw that you needed to learn to defend yourself instead of both of us trusting in my presence to defend you."
The fear had pushed forward into her face and she could not keep from saying, "Do not send me back to learn it!"
Golden eyes watched her. "Why? Were you mistreated?"
She shook her head and when she spoke her voice was barely a whisper. "Because... because Lord Sesshomaru was not in that place." She reached out, tentatively, and touched his hand. "Rin doesn't want to be anywhere that Lord Sesshomaru is not." She took his hand in both of hers and simply held it.
Sesshomaru wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer, sighing softly. "I will not send you anywhere. But... you are not a child anymore, Rin. In many ways you are older than you seem, for you have seen beyond the end of life and you have found commonplace what most mortals would tremble before. But in other ways you are younger than your years. You have shunned the human world, but you are still human." He rested his chin on the top of her head, which tucked neatly there, so different from the small girl she had once been. "Most human girls are married before they reach an age such as yours."
She listened thoughtfully, but curled her lip at the last. "Lord Sesshomaru would not make Rin get married." The words were a statement but she phrased them as a question that he answered readily.
"No." He leaned back to look at her and touched a finger to the corner of her mouth. "Especially not when Rin still speaks of herself so childishly." She regarded him with solemn eyes, and he added, repeating, "I will not send you anywhere, nor bind you to anything you do not want. But Rin..." He paused. "I will be here for you, as long as you live and much longer. You will not lose me. Is there nothing else in life that you want?"
She watched his face for a moment, then turned to look out over the moonlit land. The fear of being sent away was gone, and other emotions played now over her face. "I... will think about it."
He pulled her close again and kissed the top of her head.
She smiled. "Goodnight Lord Sesshomaru."
"Goodnight Rin."
-----
Kohaku joined then for dinner, and Inuyasha saw what Miroku had been talking about. There was an otherworldly and detached calm to the boy; young man, really – he was older than Rin. He was affectionate with Sango but distant with everyone else and often sat staring into space for long periods of time. The others in the village gave him a certain space but did not seem unduly disturbed by his habit of mentally absenting himself in the middle of a conversation. Kohaku seemed surprised to see Inuyasha and Inuyasha went to sit beside him where he sat a bit separated from the others.
Kohaku looked up at him, his freckled face breaking into a grin, and for a moment he was just a boy again, not a man bearing the invisible weight of a mystical object. "Inuyasha, I am glad you have returned."
Inuyasha grinned back at him. "Good to see you, too." He narrowed his eyes for a moment and asked seriously, "How are you doing?"
Kohaku watched him for a long moment, his eyes going distant, and Inuyasha wondered if Kohaku had passed into one of his spells of unresponsiveness in the middle of their conversation. But finally Kohaku answered. "I speak the words, and I smile, and people believe that I am... here." His eyes focused on Inuyasha. "I give you a more honest answer than I've ever given Sango, but then I..." Something flared in his eyes suddenly and he reached out and snatched Inuyasha's arm. His finger closed almost painfully around the half demon's wrist and he observed in a detached voice, "I feel you are caught up in the fate of the jewel as much as I am."
Inuyasha stilled. "How?"
"The priestess of the jewel. She defied her calling when she intended to give you the jewel, and she has mocked the universe, disregarding the proper flow of time."
Inuyasha felt a chill run over his skin. "Kikyou is dead and Kagome went home, to her own time, to stay there."
Kohaku released him just as suddenly as he'd reached for Inuyasha in the first place. He blinked and shook his head. He smiled, crookedly, his eyes on Sango as she came toward them. "I can usually pretend that I am simply myself again, though around you it seems more difficult." He got up and moved away from Inuyasha, going to Sango and hugging her casually with one arm before moving past her.
Sango turned worried eyes to Inuyasha. "What did he say to you?" she asked quietly.
Inuyasha shook his head wordlessly.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "I know," she confided, her voice a bit harsh. "He thinks I don't, but I know how hard he's trying, and how difficult it it for him."
Inuyasha touched her shoulder and she leaned into him for a moment as he hugged her. She sighed. "I thought, when we defeated Naraku, that everything would be easier after that."
Inuyasha just held her for a moment. "Kohaku's gonna be okay," he told her. "He's trying so hard for you, you know."
She glared at him. "I'll love him anyway, it doesn't matter!"
Inuyasha shrugged. "He's your brother; he'll figure it out eventually. Just give him more time."
Sango smiled sadly. "I hope so." She shook off the melancholy of the subject and her smile turned mischievous, if a bit forced, as she turned back to Inuyasha. "Taian is ready to go whenever you are."
He knew her grin was at the girl's arrogance, about to be tested against a wider world. "Then let's go."
-----
After Rin left, Sesshomaru stood looking out at the sky for a long moment. Though the night sky looked peaceful he could feel the strands of the demon magic that were twisted angrily through the land. A shadow moved beside him. "Ros," he greeted.
She stepped out from the doorway behind him to look out herself over the softly lit countryside. "My lord. I am quite rested and ready to answer any questions you might have about the current situation."
Sesshomaru sighed in annoyance. "I suppose we must. What did you do to my ward spell? I assume it was you."
She winced and sighed. "Yes, I would be the one who tampered with it. I managed to convince the ward that I was someone it should be reporting to; I can describe the exact process in more detail if you'd like. I felt it was necessary to gain the advantage over our adversary. I was correct – with the recognition of the ward spell as the proper ruler I was able to use my other abilities to track and locate the demon."
Sesshomaru growled softly, both annoyed and impressed. "How were you planning on fixing it?"
She blinked at him. "When I leave the protected area of the ward my influence will fade. As you feed the spell, it will forget me."
He frowned. "No. Something you've done has changed the nature of the watch spell."
It was Ros' turn to frown. "That can't be."
Sesshomaru ground his teeth in annoyance. "It is so, so do not tell me it cannot be. Inuyasha could feel the watch spell; I do not begrudge him, but it means that something has changed the nature of the spell and I want to know what it is." He glared at Ros, and was surprised to find her grinning.
"Has it really been so long since my father's sister ruled beside her lord in this land?" Ros' grin spread. "I realize that Inuyasha's mother was human, but... I thought if you had not observed the spell in action then it surely would have been explained to you."
He clenched his fist. "Speak plainly."
She sensed his mood and nodded. "The watch spell recognizes no difference between the lord and his chosen mate," she told him succinctly.
Sesshomaru could only stare at her for a long moment. "Mate," he said, finally.
Ros raised an eyebrow. "You are not...? I thought..."
He turned away and waved a hand dismissively toward her. "There are... specific obligations attached to that particular word that we have not discussed."
Ros was quiet for a moment, before she offered, "The spell is particularly subtly drawn. It recognizes things that are true despite words that have or have not been spoken."
Sesshomaru looked out into the darkness for a long moment, before he changed the subject. "I have been informed that Eikoseisui is quite possibly behind these difficulties."
Ros' lip curled as she took in the information. "Raidennotaisho is powerful, ruthless. No one speaks of him carelessly but I have heard he prefers his son as heir. Eikoseisui does not have his sister's intelligence, nor her strength, but he and his father bond over their shared blood lust." She shook her head. "Eikoseisui is like his father and Raidennotaishi is insatiable. I remember when he took the southern island – I believe it is known as Kuyi to the humans – from Grisha. Grisha was both powerful and watchful, but Raidennotaisho destroyed him without much thought." She shook her head again, her expression worried. "Raidennotaisho will see his son take power, though without his father he will not keep it."
Sesshomaru sighed. "So, he is reckless to try his hand here, but not so much as I had first thought. Though he is currently ignorant of it, Raidennotaisho will back his son's play." Ros continued to look worried, and Sesshomaru said softly, "I thank you for what you have done, but I will fight this battle myself. It is none of yours. You have other responsibilities."
She nodded, but didn't move. They stood in silence for a long while, both thinking. The dawn was gray on the horizon before Ros said, "Radomir."
Sesshomaru turned to her, eyebrow raised.
"You are right, I have other responsibilities and I will go, but I will leave Radomir with you. While he usually assists Captain Gamayun, he has been assisting me on this trip and I will leave him to assist you as well. He can tell you what we have done already to find these churls."
Sesshomaru shook his head. "You are always giving me things I do not require."
Ros smiled. "You have given me the two most important things in my life, one of them being that life. It would be ungracious of me not to give you something in return." She paused. "And if I do not leave someone, Jaken will insist he stay."
Sesshomaru laughed softly. "So."
A strong demonic aura's sudden presence in the air made both of them look up. Sesshomaru sighed. "I think it is time you gathered your people."
Ros nodded and left.
Sesshomaru strode to the edge of the roof and glared down at the ground far below. He called the air around him and descended to the bottom of the mountain.
The aura he sensed was somewhat familiar, though again no one he had heard from in quite a long while. Dawn was breaking full but he saw no one in the early light. Sight mattered little though; he could smell her. "Nanshoku," he called. "You cannot hide from me."
She stepped out from behind a tree as if it was merely the next step in the way she had been walking, not hiding there at all. She was tall, dark complexioned, and fierce of expression. He knew her as the ruler of a group of islands south of his own land and it wasn't much of a stretch to imagine that a similar rumor to the one Yudokuna has told him had brought her here.
"Rumor would appear to be false," she said, her voice dark with hidden emotion. Her nose wrinkled as a scent caught her attention.
He was silent, only raising an eyebrow at her in response. She paced slowly before him, eyeing him up and down, until he lost his patience. "One can hardly believe that such an insubstantial thing as a rumor would have drawn such a powerful lady away from the lands of her deserved rule."
She smirked under the goad, but the response didn't come from her.
"Insubstantial though it may be, rumor also provides a certain light to a life lived in too much certitude." A form dropped out of the tree where it had been perched, brushing back long, silver-blue hair as it walked toward the pair.
"Hotaru," Nanshoku sneered. "Are you the one whom I've heard has tried for the Western Lands as his very own? Could it be that you've given up on your wandering?"
Hotaru swept her a bow, repeating the motion, with a beat more of a pause and a touch more of depth, to Sesshomaru. "Fair lady, such could not be further from the truth. And I had heard that you were the one to be wary of. See how amusing rumors can be?"
Sesshomaru regarded the pair of them silently. He was grateful for Hotaru's appearance; he had more trust for this particular demon than he did for most of his kind, and he hadn't the patience to deal with Nanshoku today. The knowledge that Raidennotaisho's attention was inevitably drawn to him made it hard for him to care about playing games with smaller fish.
Small fish or not, the game stepped up as the breeze brought a familiar scent to his nose.
Nanshoku's head shot up, her gaze drawn toward the forest. "There is a human coming this way." Her eyes flashed with desire.
"You will not feed on my lands." Sesshomaru's voice was hard, and though his eyes were fixed on Nanshoku he could tell that Hotaru had also turned to him at the tone. She had come here to see if he was weak enough that she could expand her own territory in his direction and letting her have a snack would only encourage her to stay.
She was looking at him, a challenge in her eyes, when the young woman stepped out of the trees, Inuyasha only a few steps behind her.
-----
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Sedition