Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

SURVIVE	By : ajj77sunhawk Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 26393 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
- 5
OMG thanks dor all the support -you rock in spades.

Fluffy GC : coffeee- yummm. Llunge chomp! Chibi sunhawk Chomps mug, hand and arm holding coffee with enthusiasm. :D

jdbbrz : Thanks for continued support, Inu's parents come in much later – right now there is nothing know about them by anyone least of all Inu.

Caitriona : Sesshy promised in his teens, and got kids mainly cause he was curious and wanted to recreate a pack, didn't work the way he wanted – cause he kindda kept expecting it to be perfect without the daily effort. Still immature in that way I guess ;) The collar s dangerous – remember how it almost took over Inu? Thanks so much for your comments.

Princess Sin : Thanks, unfortunately I have to tell Caitriona and You, that the (*refuses to insult female puppies) have a way to go before the die horribly.

Inumimi1 & ArtistOfLight : Thanks :) will try to provide cherries. On Sesshy entering the City – sorry at this point it would have been disastrous – there are a few things that need to happen before they can confront the two.

Quittie : Err. Im guessing you havent read Strength? I think that is worse at the beginning or am I wrong? Maybe.. I dont know seriously which doo you think is worst angst wise?

Thanks to Ryotigergirl, river girl, usilang, DTDY, konekochan, sessinulover and Raven for your review really thank you for the motivation and support writing daily is HARD! :)

Read, review and enjoy

Chapter 4 : Tributes to the Demon Lord

Lord Sesshoumaru had initially wanted to sweep into the City of the West and destroy the collar. But the oldest most respected advisor in court Bakusen'O advised against it. If the Demon Lord of the West went to the human city himself to collect something as simple as this- it would seem strange, suspicious, and perhaps give the humans more information than was necessary. To not tip their hand and have the humans balk unnecessarily at handing over the collar, Bakusen'O advised that they should make it seem that they were asking for the Hanyou instead, and that the Demon Lord should NOT go himself to such a messy City. There was another more practical reason of course, the collar had been made specifically to destroy Lord Sesshoumaru's father, and it was highly likely if the Demon Lord with such close blood links to the Demon King came into close proximity to the collar - it may awaken and put all in close proximity to the Collar in danger. Destroying the collar – while in some ways a simple thing – needed to be done correctly – in order to contain any backlash that the collar's destruction may cause.

Seeing the wisdom in his advisors words, Sesshoumaru had to reevaluate his plans. Discussions late into the night were carried out with his council and a plan of action was crafted.

As soon as the cock crowed at dawn, Lord Sesshoumaru used the communication mirrors to summon Lady Kaede. The huge mirror clouded and after a few minutes Lady Kaede's weathered face appeared in the glass. The communications mirrors were old and common magic, almost every relatively well off family had them in the Demon and Seraphim lands. The mirrors were usually small and allowed individuals to see and talk to someone over great distances. Powered by magic, the larger the mirror the greater the amounts of magic required to power it. The largest of mirrors, like the one owned by Lord Sesshoumaru – could be used to teleport individuals from one point to another. To use the mirrors for teleportation, a great deal of planning and communication was required, spells had to be triggered at precisely the same second on both sides of the mirror – and ONLY the one who owned the mirror on the receiving side could open the gateway for some traveler to come though. This ensured that the mirrors could not be misused, and if the receiving side did not accept the traveler – the traveler – would die trapped in suddenly solid and common glass.

Lord Sesshoumaru nodded regally at the Old Priestess in the mirror, "Lady Kaede, As Lord of the West and the representative of the Voice of the Demon King, I have decided on the terms of the treaty that will stop the continued slaughter of humans armies by my guards."

The Lady blinked in surprise, "Oh my, Lord Sesshoumaru, why are we suddenly so formal?" She asked softly, they had in the last three months developed a unique level of respect for each other. They were both good leaders and were genuinely friendly. "Not that it does not fill me with relief to finally have some terms to negotiate with – negotiating with someone who truly wants or needs nothing from us has been frustrating."

Sesshoumaru's lips twisted in a half smile, he had been willing to accept the peace, without any concessions from the humans other than they DONT enter his lands again uninvited, but Lady Kaede had gently reprimanded him – saying that it was a matter of pride on both sides that – something be given to the Demons for the troubles the humans caused. Lord Sesshoumaru's liking for the old woman had bloomed at that second – he highly doubted that any other human would agree with the old Priestess sentiment. Her candor and pride, had been interesting and novel, drawing his respect. Her age giving her leave to speak to him in a manner that would have gotten anyone else killed instantly.

"I speak formally, Lady Kaede because this is a formal demand from the Demons to stop the war, if it is not given to us, we will continue the war – and will destroy at least one of your cities as a lesson to humans to better manage their populations – and to not wake sleeping Dog Demons.

Lady Kaede's eyes widened, she straightened and became serious. She nodded sharply and with a wave of her hand summoned other Priests into the communication room. If the Demons were serious about the demands – more than her had to hear the requests. "Demon Lord Sesshoumaru has his demands ready, you will listen and evaluate." She told her Priests that represented other City States into the room, each carried a small mirror. The Demons watched as the Priests chanted and the mirrors showed all the faces of the Leaders of the City States in the reflective surfaces. The High Priest or Priestess of the City States tended to be the second most powerful leader in that City State, the civil power of the City's army and Lord tended to balance and keep in check the power of the Temple. Sesshoumaru noted silently that it was a telling thing that the only Mirror that showed the face of the leader of the Temple of Light rather than the City's actual Lord was the City of the West.

Suddenly he actually wished that they would deny the tribute, destroying that City may actually be doing humans a favor as well.

With the other leaders there, Sesshoumaru withdrew slightly to be an imposing silent presence in their screens. Bakusen'O and Bankutso both came forward to act as his Voice and give them the terms.

Bakusen'O smiled almost gently, his face even more weathered then Lady Kaede's. Though he was in humanoid form, his skin was a rich brown and his skin bark-like. The tree Demon spoke "There is nothing really that human's can offer Demons, WE need nothing from you, except your obedience and corporation. To that end it has been decided that we will claim one thing from each of the Nine City States that is unique or of interest to us. We will only take one thing from each city, and what we decided to take will be non-negotiable."

"You will NOT take our children, our people will NOT be slaves." The Lord of the North West Mountain hold said firmly – he was a family man – and the people of his City were more like his children than citizens.

Bankotsu scowled, "My Lord we said we will take what we find to be unique or of interest – humans do not fall into this category. We give you our assurance we will NOT claim a full blooded human – no matter how powerful - as tribute from any of your City States, nor will we claim anything that is acknowledged and revered as important and essential to your City's health and survival. For instance we will not claim, the bow of Heaven from your Great Northern City nor the Gown of the Heavenly Maiden that breathes life to your desert fort."

Bakusen'O nodded almost encouragingly, "For the interest of expedience, let me inform you we are interested in particularly Demonic and Seraphic items. Shall we make the terms precise; each City is allowed to make one exception of an Item we cannot claim. You may, to make it more efficient, present items of value to our representatives. Our representative MAY or MAY NOT choose an item from what you have selected, what we claim will be of what we – not you - deem to have value. Our representatives will be at your Cities in exactly one week from today, we will travel to your Cities by air, but once we claim the item we will teleport back immediately. We do not wish for any incidents to occur in transport of the items to the demon Lands. Now are you agreeable or not?"

"What! This is supposed to be a peace negotiation.. your so called representative have to choose from what we.." Lady Kikyo began, only to be cut off when the ancient tree demon suddenly stared straight into her eyes. The deep mahogany eyes bore into Kikyo's very soul, and what he saw inside has his eyes hardening and his face growing stern. His words were smooth and as unbending as oak.

"Lady of the City of the West, you misunderstand, this is not a peace negotiation, this is Tribute that you are paying to the Demons for the inconvenience your reckless attack on our lands has caused. Consider it a lesson in humility. Our terms are reasonable and non-negotiable, if you find it unsatisfactory, we will go to our second – and to some – our preferred option. You have one chance to accept this offer, reject, betray or try to squirm out of your agreement, and we will instead level ONE of your cities – and make that the appropriate lesson. Unless it is another City that rejects the offer, the City of the West is most conveniently placed is it not?" The old tree stared the powerful Priestess down.

Finally her face pale, she turned and nodded sharply, "No need for blusterous threats, the City of the West accepts your terms." The other leaders all nodded and gave consent as well, Kaede wholly approved of her Lord who agreed and was one of the four Lords who invited the representative to stay in their City State a little longer to enhance human-demon relationships. She wondered about what it was that Lord Sesshoumaru really wanted – it could be seen as an obvious act to show the world that the humans had been defeated – but Lady Kaede did not underestimate Lord Sesshoumaru. What was it that he really wanted? She knew she would not be able to figure it, humans and demons saw the world differently after all.

In shorty order the negotiations came to a close and the mirrors only reflected their own faces once more.

The week passed quickly, trusted demons were sent to the nine City States, Bankotsu himself was sent to the Cit of the West, they all arrived in their cities on the same appointed day. Tributes were teleported into the courtyard of the City of the west. A huge Glyph in the courtyard, prepared for the arrival of the collar. As arranged the Tribute from he City of the West would come last, Lord Sesshoumaru was amused that the items being presented as tribute were actually interesting and of worth.

The Desert Fort was the first to send tribute, a pink rose quartz crystal, twice the size of an ostrich egg, flawless in quality and design. As a power focus for those who resonated with the crystal it would be invaluable.

Bakusen'O had gone to the South West City, and had predictably reclaimed a sheath made from his tree bark in tree form that had been accidentally found by a woodcutter two hundred years ago and stored rather ingloriously in the human Lord's stable. Bakusen'O was a little insulted that the humans had not seen how magnificent his sheath was. In truth other then the high quality of the wood there really was nothing magical or even overly artistic about the sheath. The humans had been rather amused by the tribute item, and the South West City was now taking effort to create a better alliance with the Demons.

The Southern City's tribute was a two headed 'finding staff', that could also breathe fire. A demonic weapon they had claimed from a previous battle.

The South Eastern City state was a poor agricultural city, that was in no way war like and had very little to offer. Jinenji, who had wanted to be a representative, had been sent there as it was the least dangerous of all the City States. Sesshoumaru came close to laughing when the tribute from them was in retrospect unsurprising. Three huge cartfuls of what seemed to be weeds were teleported though. Jinenji, had insisted it was 'treasure' and had requested leave to stay in the City for a few weeks to negotiate further trade of the rare plants. Sesshoumaru had given his permission, well aware that to the Horse Hanyou the medicinal herbs were indeed worth their weight in gold.

The Eastern City renowned for their weaving gave tribute of a chest containing three pieces of clothing. Each outfit was unique and possessed special properties.

The North Eastern City's Tribute did make the Demon Lord laugh -evilly, it was a book. Almost waist high, the book's cover contained Seraphic feathers that had been freely donated. When humans opened the book they saw nothing except scribbles in a language they could not read. But Sesshoumaru saw differently it was a book made by a really powerful human, who had been privileged to live with the Seraphim royal family centuries ago. The book contained exquisite detailed childhood paintings and stories of a certain powerful Seraphim prince, that Sesshoumaru would bet had no idea of the books' existence. Their next encounter was going to be.. 'interesting.'

Sango, a kangaroo demoness serving Sesshoumaru had gone to The Great Northern City's as tribute she had taken two items, well technically she had taken one and the other had followed. The Great Northern City had offered her an unhatched Dragon's Egg. The Egg had been with the city for almost 70 years, the baby Dragon should have hatched decades ago, but seemed reluctant to be born. The human Lord rather candidly admitted, he was offering the tribute of the Egg as he hoped the Demons would be able to help the baby dragon be born as all the human effort had failed. Sango saw little value in it, but agreed as for all the kingdom's wealth there was nothing truly unique they were interested in. Kilala a two tailed demon cat – that had been the Egg's sitter for the best part of the last 70's years, followed to keep an eye on her 'egg.' Sesshoumaru had been rather skeptical about the offering, Sango carefully placed the egg in his hands for inspection. Everyone except Sesshoumaru flinched when with a loud crack, the egg in Sesshoumaru's hands split open and a two headed baby dragon blinked at his chosen Lord. A smile slowly crossing his face, Sesshoumaru petted the two heads, his children would have a new playmate and protector – the two tailed cat purred around his boots – no they would have two.

The North Western Mountain hold, was another city that had very little of interest to offer. They had offered what they could diamonds and precious gems that took a great deal of time and effort to mine, and were the City's precious source of income. The Demon Representative chose to ignore the offerings – and instead requested an exquisite crystal statue of a human, demon and Seraphim holding a globe as tribute. The crystal statue was crafted by the Lord's Sister and they were more than happy to surrender it as tribute. Sesshoumaru agreed that the unique piece of art was tribute enough.

With all potential distractions settled, the courtyard was cleared for the main event. They waited for Bankotsu to bring the collar to the Demon Lord for its destruction.

-tbc-

lol okay this was a NaNoWriMo word count- writing trick. I'll admit I did kindda extend the chapter by talking about the gifts – it was fun though and – also consider this a breather before the story gets – err... hmmm... no clues – update REAl real soon.

Hmm any suggestion and ideas?
- 3
- 4
- 5
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

SURVIVE