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The Great Trial	By : WinterDovane Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > InuYasha/Sessh?maru > InuYasha/Sessh?maru Views: 22203 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha and Co nor do I make any money from this fic.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
Chapter II: Humanity Sucks
To you that review: thanks so much! I take critiques very seriously; tell me if something doesn't make sense. Feel free to suggest plot points, fixing inconsistencies, character flaws, and anything else you'd like to see ^_^ I teach writing, but everyone makes basic editing errors. Fire: I have tried to break up paragraphs for easier reading. Vyberbites: Ty for reading, I'm a fan of yours :) Sorry about the retrospective, but this chapter begins in "real time." JS: It will get better, promise! It might just take a while. P.S. I'm not quite familiar with this uploading to this site, so please point out any places the margins or word processing may be off.
To you that read: humbly, thank-you. Just the fact that you give my fic a chance is heartening.
Disclaimer: Rumiko Takahashi , and not I, owns InuYasha and Co. – if I did, the ending would have turned out very different ;) I still don't make money for this fic; that would probably ruin it for me. Please read and enjoy.
Adrenaline caused by fear is one of the greatest motivators for human kind, this decided by a hanyou-turned human as he hot footed through the night.

Normally, he would make his way closer to the Slayers’ Village, the forest that bore his name, or, hell, a nice cave buried in a rock wall. One month, he even dug out a den three or four feet deep to hide in before the new moon and surrounded it with hidden pits filled with spiky, thorn bushes and sharp rocks; nothing funnier than watching a confused, hungry, and rabid demon trying to find a scent without seeing the prey. Poor bastard probably walked over his den five or six times in confusion and hunger, then set off the traps he’d dug out that made the toothy lizard wander off for an easier meal. It was one of his better strategic moves.

This night of the new moon, however, finds InuYasha doing the normal routine— making a good attempt at not being eaten. He found it interesting that when he was in hanyou form, the large majority of animalistic demons only attacked humans out of near-starvation, but when he actually turned human for One. Ficking. Night., every demon in a fifty mile radius was suddenly hungry enough to give chase.

Of course, he had crappier luck than most people (because, hey, how many people actually got stuck to a tree for fifty years and lost the love of their lives all in one foul swoop?), but sometimes he had to wonder if the fates were in cahoots to work against him.

It was the only logical conclusion. The events in his life fell in crazy-enough patterns to be someone’s idea of a cosmic joke: hey, since we’re gods and all and eternity is waaaay boring, why don’t we pick one individual, just one, and make his life a living hell for as long as we possibly can? That should be pretty entertaining for a few hundred years, right?

The inu hanyou did not have faith in in the religious beliefs of most humans since he personally witnessed (and helped or killed) some of the so-called “Gods” people worshipped, but he definitely believed in some higher power that manipulated his life in the path of most resistance... Which is probably why he is now in his weak form and scrambling through a dark, snow-covered forest planning a contingency in case some random demon would happen to show up when he should be sitting in a nice, warm hut having a conversation with Miroku and eating Sango’s tasty stew.

Fate, something he couldn’t fight with claws or fang.

Fate... It had been a good idea (at the time) to follow his nose this morning; the scent of rotting flesh had been too overpowering for the half demon to just ignore. He was supposed to have had enough time to check out the scent and be back on his way toward Sango and Miroku. The best plans never worked; he should have known better. Alone or with Kagome, his fights couldn’t just be easy the one day he needed it to be (Fate).

Of course, the small hamlet a mile back north-east just happened to have a wicked infestation of geji demons. The normal things are actually pretty harmless insects, ones his mother used to say were a sign of good favor. Demonic geji—different story; the mindless bastards were as long as his forearm with killer teeth and the instinct to procreate—rather to kill another living being and lay their eggs in the corpse.

Fifteen humans had vanished from the village by the time he got arrived (FATE), literally ten hours ago. The genji had multiplied and attacked. The screams had reached his ears long before he got close. The ensuing clusterfuck of screaming humans, running children, flying arrows, chopping axes, piles bloody gore and viscera hadn’t been his idea of a fight per say.

But, he ripped the little bastards off the ones still alive and fighting, decimated groups of genji gathering to attack in a wave. Luckily (...fate), the majority of villagers lived after he brought out the blades of blood and the iron reaver in a more rapid succession than even he thought possible. Not able to stay long enough to do more than help them bury the dead, he told the villagers to keep their eyes opened and started out as the horizon started darkening into night... (F.A.T.E.)

Full night fell like clockwork; he was in mid-freaking-leap...and had one of the worst landings in history.

Since then, running. The forest floor is unforgiving with sharp rocks and roots that cut into the tough bottoms of his feet combined with the freezing grip of snow and ice; of course, the utter lack of moonlight just makes his flight a little more of a pain in the ass. He brings up a mental image of this particular section of woods, less than thirty miles from the site of his battle with Jakotsu from the Band of Seven. There were a few safe places not destroyed in that fight that he could only hope are still standing for tonight.

Rather than just scramble up a tree to get off the ground, the human is making a beeline straight for the rocky cliffside with hollowed out caverns; slowing or finding a tree to climb is out of the fricking question, not when the last new moon saw him up a tree with a rabid, four-foot long lizard climbing effortlessly after him.

Then, the human had escaped by a narrow margin, swinging off the branches and landing far enough away to not get gnawed on and hard enough to break an ankle (rock is harder to penetrate and gives him fewer directions to guard, helpful when the instinctual need to survive kept his human sense painfully alert), but adrenaline, adrenaline made him try the swing, throw the majority of his human strength into the momentum.

Adrenaline (or so Kagome’s “skewl” books called that infusion of energy to survive following intense fear or stress) kept him moving in this inferior form, and adrenaline kept him up until morning. If the human was honest with himself, he could just stop moving and wait for it. Might be better that way.

            Dammit, a branch fwacks him in the face, a rough sting to the cheek. Yeah, the scent of blood is also a good motivation. Keeps my ass moving so the hungry ones have to haul ass for dinner on the run.

Meanwhile...

In the Palace of the Western Lands, Lord Sesshomaru—the Inu no Taishou, he reminds himself after seeing the title still attached to his father’s name— has returned from his meeting with the Elder demons. He spent his first night back greeting his advisors and generals and catching up on the state of affairs during his absence.

There is always a great deal happening in a kingdom the size of the Western Lands. In one area (the north-north east) of his land alone were six smaller kingdoms with four to eight villages in each, all with an overlord to supervise local matters. Double that number in the southern and western areas. Mostly, his overseers did well enough keeping the masses of peasants appeased and safe; few of the lesser issues even crossed the Lord’s desk (except for monthly reports and accounts).

His head advisor, an elemental demon resembling Sesshomaru’s own two-legged form, was the first to meet him with hot sake and dinner. Yao Xin, master of Earth, Rock, and Metal, had served the ruling family of the Western lands for two generations or more as far as Sesshomaru knew. The elemental was several hundred years older than the lord himself and was once a private soldier in the far nothern lands before coming to the West and never gave up the habit of wearing ornate iron armor and underclothes from the late Zhao Dynasty.

Even though Yao Xin is several feet taller than Sesshomaru, he does not give the impression of looming and maintains a comical air when he must bend at the waist to go through any doorway. Nor does he get angry when children tug on his long pig-tail or two-foot long fu manchu.

The two spent several hours in the Lord’s private chamber reviewing the general condition of his kingdoms and lesser holdings under the management of other Shoguns; everything from trade to taxes to the state of the standing army to border patrols to demon attacks to spy reports on the every-present Northern raiders kept both demons up until late. The full reports had been neatly stacked on the Lord’s desk to await his attention.

However, after the business was concluded and the fifth or sixth gallon of sake finished, Sesshomaru finally started talking about his frequent visits upon InuYasha.

            “And so, my Lord, it has been how long since you last laid eyes upon your brother?” Yao Xin’s eyes, steely gray with flecks of lighter blue, stay calmly on his liege while one clawed hand held up their final cup of warm sake.

            Sesshomaru holds up his own dainty cup before regally swallowing the contents. He regards the elemental with emotionless eyes, “with the recent uprising, it has been more than three full cycles of the seasons since this Sesshomaru has seen his half-breed brother.”

            Xin raises one golden brow at the abrupt change in hid lord’s attitude. At one time, Yao Xin himself had been a young elemental serving under Sesshomaru’s grandfather, a terrifying despot that had been over-thrown by Touga, and he understands the need for the aristocracy to keep up appearances. However, he is also not a fool; he sits back with the raised brow and waits for the young lord to elucidate.

            A frown mars Sesshomaru’s features, “do not look at me with your smug insight, Yao Xin. That cur is a despicable, dishonorable stain—“

            Rolling eyes cuts off the Killing Perfectioin

“—oh, this again my lord?” The elemental grinned, “ ‘—a stain on my dignified father’s name’? Is that what you were to say?” The elemental braces an elbow on the table to cup his face in one hand as if in exasperation, “this old excuse is getting so tiresome.”

Anyone else would have dove for cover should the lord’s eyes narrow on them as such, since the last courtier that dared joke with the staunch lord found himself hanged by the neck with his own entrails above the palace gates, but Yao Xin merely looks up to grin, “come now, Sesshomaru. I am your closest advisor, and dare I say the only friend you have. In all these years, do you honestly think I am or have ever been fooled? Was I not here when your father returned you from the wilds? Fear not, I am well aware of your...distaste shall we call it.”

As anyone that knew anything about Inu Yokai, it was obvious dog demons were fiercely protective of kin, instinctually as well as traditionally. While not himself an inu, Yao Xin had been with the family long enough to know of the ritual exile. In all manner, the banished one was to be utterly despised by family whom shared a deep connection from birth (which is one reason why The Great Trial began generations ago, Yao Xin had been told by the previous Inu no Taisho, to assure that a strong member of the ruling class was not coddled or placed on the throne by some prejudiced family members).

Sesshomaru glances at the roaring fire, silent for quite some time as he considers whether or not to finally unburden himself. The end was drawing near at any rate; the demon lord closes his eyes and sighs.

“The Elders called for me. That is where I have been for the last fortnight.” The younger finds himself admitting. “The preliminary agreement was that InuYasha would only need to spend one hundred and fifty years considering he is a hanyou, and there is not way to be certain of his lifespan.”

At this, Xin straightens, “a hundred and fifty...? But, my lord, your brother is a little over two-hundred now! Should he not have already been returned?!”

A bitter bile rises up in Sesshomaru’s throat, but his expression does not change, “My brother spent fifty years pinned to a tree by a sacred arrow. The Elders decided to extend his trial to equate the original sentence... also, the situation involving half-demon Naraku, it seems, was an enemy of great interest to the council. They wished to see whether or not my younger brother would come out the victor but also what he would do in the aftermath of such a tedious battle.”

The elemental’s aura flares momentarily, but he merely gestures his lord to continue.

Sesshomaru relaxes an iota in his chair, still looking at the roaring flames. “Things may finally progress from here. The Elders will now recognize InuYasha as an heir to the West and worthy of our bloodline as well as a benefit to the Western Lands. Apparently his name has risen in their estimation since I last petitioned nearly a decade ago. Although I can not fathom why his destruction of Ryukotsusei and the demon Naraku as well as the seven—or is it eight now?—forms he has added to the Tetsuiaga were not enough to earn his rightful place long before now.” The low growling in his chest makes the young lord start; he hadn’t even realized he was growling in suppressed anger.

“How will you tell him, my lord?” Yao Xin asks carefully, suddenly sympathetic for both brothers—for their horrific pasts and the uncertain future. “Do you think he will come willingly home?”

“Did I?” Sesshomaru counters as the dawn slowly creeps up the horizion.

Yao Xin pauses a minute then lets out a deep belly laugh, ignoring the younger’s eyes narrowing in murder yet again. The image of a pup, less than three hundred years old, snarling like a rabid beast while wrapped in his father’s tails sends the advisor into another gale of mirth. The younger demon’s useless kicking and squirming, barking, fighting, and howling ended when the late Lord dumped Sesshomaru unceremoniously on the floor—then took him up by the scruff of the neck to give the boy a few good shakes. Alarmed at the time, Yao Xin had no way of knowing the series of barks, ruffs, and howls of the Alpha male were more instinctual to calming the pack or backing down a challenging pup. The dog demons from his land are solitary hunters and watching the two, he had no way of knowing they were actually communicating.

“Aside from the night Father brought me home, Yao Xin,” the lord sighs again, and his advisor makes quite an effort to calm himself (discreetly wiping a tear from the corner of his eye). “This will be a difficult undertaking.”

The advisor merely props his cheek up in one hand, “my lord, you have an aptitude for understatement.”

Finally, Xin leaves his lord to the desk stacked high with reports and waves a cheery farewell. Sleep alludes him as memories of his days in the wild rear like spirits of the dead. To distract himself, Sesshomaru itemizes duties among catching up on work before planning on how to deal with InuYasha.

There are stacks upon stacks of rice paper reports in front of him, ranging from furthest to closest, that had been waiting for him upon his return from roaming the borders of the Western Lands. Reading the first one, over two-years old, the report describes a rogue half-demon defending villages in his jurisdiction, not only from demon attacks but raiders and natural disasters as well. Everything in the description very obviously points toward his younger brother:

*“Clad in red, golden-eyed, half-Inu with dog ears and a wicked fang for a sword. He is a merciless hunter, fast and furious. His attacks are mighty but have not yet hurt an innocent. He has returned to the lesser kingdom of Shinshou for three straight nights. At first, we believed him to be an attacking monster; we attacked him with the tools at our disposal. However, he was not swayed and slayed the monster that has already killed three of the village children and four grown men. We assume he is a soldier of our Lord and extend our gratitude for his majesty’s aid.”

*”Last eve a vicious demon or unrelenting hunger attacked milord’s village in the eastern end of the Kingdom, a village named Arisu. The demon has lurked in the outskirts for more than three full moons and did not enter the village until thus. The men tried to fend off the bakemono with shovels and spears but were not match. Only then, another demon twenty hands high with teeth longer than a man’s forearm attacked the women; the demon we had tried to kill saved our women. He was a white-haired half-blood with red robes and demon-fang. We thank our Lord for sending his warrior to save the lives of his people and vassals…”

*”Night of the half-moon, the moth demon that has continually attacked several villages in the South-West was felled by a half-Shiro Inu demon. The warrior demon sustained grievous injuries from the battle, yet he would not allow the village healers to tend his wounds. Nor would the Lord’s soldier take sustenance or reward from the village coffers...”

*”Official Report: Kazue Nao, First Administrator, Second Rank: My gracious and kind sovereign, many thanks for milord’s insight in sending a defender of the realm to his highness’ northern kingdom. The red-robed savior, a half-demon Shiro Inu, appeared for the last two moons to defend this small fiefdom from the many demons haunting the surrounding woods. The village has been under constant attack for six full moons; not until the lord’s servant arrived have the villagers had any sense of peace. Hired warriors have fled the onslaught, male villagers have been carried off, and the supply of milord’s men have been exhausted. Yet, the massive fang of this single warrior has taken out over one hundred demons with one blow. He is a stately warrior if not younger than expected. Your people send their gratitude for your mercy and protection…”

            Obviously, it can be no other. But, as the Lord reads each and discards it in another pile, he is intensely disturbed that each report states the half-demon had been silent and mostly driven away or simply left after saving countless human and demon lives in the Western Lands. It seems InuYasha either defends the lands of their father out of boredom or duty. Nevertheless, his brother could have stayed in the human village rather than travel to defend the realm. InuYasha chose, he chose, the way of the honorable ruler.

Excellent my brother; perhaps this Sesshomaru has trained him for the good after all Perhaps he has learned. Yet, this kind of treatment is unbefitting, unacceptable. Eventually, this Lord will sink in order to personally visit these inconsequential little villages that have scorned him. They will pay for his pain... For now, I will wait no longer. The time to acknowledge his strength and prowess is long overdue. The Great Trial ends tonight. (Yeah, I thought about stopping here, but that would be really mean of me... :)

The Lord pushes away from his ornate desk with flutters of scrolls falling in the swish of his robes. From the set of his jaw, apparently the Lord makes a decision he should have made years ago. I will bring him here before his next birthday, for it is time my little brother came home. The council has had their way all these years, and this Sesshomaru will no longer abide their cruelty. Wait another two full moons? Absurd.

The Lord of the West curls his upper lip up to reveal the gleam of razor-sharp fangs, his memory of the last time he had seen the half-breed sends unanticipated shocks of pain through him—ones he had been forced to lock away in the darkest recesses of his mind. Long ago, the feelings of anger, fear, and pain on his half-brother’s account had been ruthlessly stomped out when the council had reminded him of his duty as the eldest son of the late Inu no Taishou. However, now that the young one was finally taking up the mantle of their family, to protect those in the Western Lands, this Sesshomaru can finally breathe, untainted with false malice…

“Jaken.” The demon lord gives himself a mental pat on the back; his tone does not betray the awakening pain in his chest. It will not do for the toad to se
e him with any unfamiliar expressions or emotions.

“Ai, milord!” The short, squat amphibian bows low as he came to the doorway. “What might I do to please my lord Sesshomaru this night?” The toad, when away from the nomadic existence of constant fear, is actually (and almost unbelievably) far more composed in the castle of the great lord; his many responsibilities to Rin and lesser workings of the household take much of the excess energy and leave him with a somewhat dignified air. Of course, had this former-ruler of his own toady people prove as excessively annoying all the time, Sesshomaru would have dispatched with him long ago (and probably gained a certain amount of satisfaction from the act). The squalking tone and the screeching yells along would have made the Inu Lord’s ears bleed if that horrific noise was constant. Luckily for the Lord and the toad, the squalk is only an instinctual reaction to fear and predators.

“I have need of you…My half-brother will be returning home and preparations must be completed quickly. The time has come.”

Back with humanity sucking.... and sucking quite a bit:

Dirty, disheveled, and freezing his manly buns off, the said Hanyou has finally ended up in a cave, ironically not far from his brother’s palace. Not that he had ever stopped in for tea or a chat or to talk about the emerging art forms or something equally as snooty. Instead, here he is in a makeshift shelter shivering and soaking wet from a refreshing sprint through snow, and now the cold air is starting to freeze the fire rat robes still on his body.

The meager fire in front of him does little to ease his trembling or the stiff cold that settles into every joint. He can barely move with the penetrating cold, and paranoia about being found hovers on the edges of his consciousness that keeps him from building up the fire to a tolerable level. He doesn’t dare venture outside to hunt small game to eat. Hell, he isn’t really sure of the last time he did eat (was it a week or so ago when he stopped by Sango and Miroku’s? No, damn, the nights were still warm then; it must have been summer…? Last summer? Eh, what is time to him anyway?). But, InuYasha is no stranger to starvation—even during his human night. Most of his younger years are filled with days and weeks of hunger, of gnawing at tree limbs to try and assuage the pains in his little, cramping belly. He would survive it, wait out the night, and find something edible in the morning when various things wouldn’t try to eat him instead.

A violent tremor suddenly rocks him, makes him hold tighter to himself and rub his numbing arms in an attempt for warmth. Humans can freeze...to death. Tetsuaiga won’t help me if I die like this; I should get up to generate heat…But, the hanyou-turned-human literally and figuratively cannot make himself stand. His force of will, his desire to live, had been dangerously waning in the last five years. If someone that needs him was out in that snow, if someone that wanted him begs him to live, then that would be enough to give him the necessary strength. The only one that could have forced him to stand right then was Kagome: Kagome in trouble, Kagome needing him, Kagome making him defend humans, Kagome making him want to keep moving forward…

But there is no Kagome anymore. No one to protect. No one to call out for him. No one to make him stand and put one foot in front of the other... No one to make him speak.

Without Kagome, the human InuYasha finds no reason to get up—even as his meager fire goes out. Tetsuaiga hums in the darkness, but he cannot hear.

Sesshomaru watches, snuck in too fast for the preoccupied, very human little brother of his to notice. He sits back on his heels, face in shadow above the human’s dark head… But there is no malice, no disdain in his visage or stance, no desire to attack, not even a twinge to go for the cursed sword at his hip. Rather, Sesshomaru’s expression is oddly sad and tender while his chest aches once again in that familiar sensation akin to pain. The cold disdain that has always been his political cover falls in the shadows. Amber eyes soften ever so much as he looks upon the beautiful creature before him, one that had suffered far too long in the dark.

Long years of watching InuYasha’s growth, for the major part of his adolescence, has caused the agony behind his mask of cold silence and solitude. His brother’s plight has slowly torn away at the Lord for the better part of two hundred years. Tonight, however, something about InuYasha’s pain is so very different. So very familiar to Sesshomaru’s own past. Some part of his psyche, his instincts, flare, as if knowing the precipice on which InuYasha stands on this night: a point every exiled one must come to is deciding whether or not the lonely life’s journey is worth continuing.

As members of the royal family, Sesshomaru had no choice but to allow his brother to suffer the Great Trial, a ritual to breed the strongest, most adept warriors of the Western Land InuYokai. As was done to Sesshomaru and their great lord father before them, Sesshomaru sent Lady Izayoi and his infant brother leave the palace of their father. Later, after his step-mother’s death, he was forced to abandon InuYasha to survive in the wilds, to become a warrior of strength, skill, and strategic stealth…or die. As an added incentive to the trial, a scent marker was stamped upon the child, combining with its natural scent, before his exile; the scent would cause other demons and humans to subtly cause adverse reactions: humans would fear and hate (and thus desire to destroy) and demons would become overly-aggressive. only a member of the child’s family could have direct contact with the exiled one and only to train and test the child’s growing skills in battle.

Of course, Sesshomaru has spent years fighting the council’s decision to force his brother through the trial. His arguments were logical: as the first-born and Alpha male, Sesshomaru’s own trial should fulfill the required sacrifice for their family. As the only two remaining of their father’s bloodline, a second sacrifice would not be necessary. He was Lord of the Western Lands, InuYasha would be his advisor, his second-in-command, and would need actual training that could not be found in the wilds! Sesshomaru even used the argument that his half-demon brother would suffer twice the ostracization and discrimination of most exiled Inus, no one outside his immediate domain would treat InuYasha with any sort of kindness or respect for his status…

All his arguments, all his appeals, were for naught. InuYasha remained banished…and Sesshomaru had silently despaired as they fought time and time again. He was able to sneak in a few moments here and there, in the sordid past, to care for the little half-breed; he slaughtered numerous hordes of demons chasing the child InuYasha (out of the boy’s sight, of course) through his younger years, sometimes leaving meat close to the boy’s range. With Sou’ung, their father’s third sword, he had merely reacted out of instinct by shoving InuYasha safely out of blast range. The Alpha male response and his own suppressed need to see his brother survive The Great Trial, were the greatest of the demon Lord’s own trial. Even when the hanyou was sealed to the God Tree, Sesshomaru found himself seeking his brother out to smell the comforting musk of family—not even recoiling at the tainted scent marker. But, Sesshomaru found himself suppressing his own scent or staying downwind when Inuyasha was cognizant and free.

It had been a long two hundred years alone.

The demon lord shakes his head in the here and now. He has been gone too long fighting invaders; he has let InuYasha roam alone too long—he realizes this just by glancing at the dulled quality to InuYasha’s once firey eyes. After the defeat of Naraku and disappearance of the miko, Sesshomaru should have taken his brother in immediately and explained The Great Trial, Elder be damned. The last five years should have been spent earning his brother’s trust and integrating him into the role he was born for… The Trial had officially ended just before InuYasha had been sealed, and with the complications of the Miko, Naraku, and the Jewel of Four Souls, the council had merely taken advantage of the situation, but to his own fault, there not been time or the right opportunity to seize his little brother up.

However, why in the four hells had it been a good idea to leave the boy with the humans after the fight when he needed to recuperate from nearly-fatal wounds…? The demon lord sighs just as the fire goes out.
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The Great Trial