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Disclaimer:
Lady: Nuh-uh, don’t own it! But I do own any character not recognizable from the manga or anime except Kana who belongs to Morwynn Nightwitch. I’m getting tired of saying that…
Inuyasha: I’m getting tired of hearing it.
Lady: Really? Then maybe I should keep saying it…
Lost is Lost
Taiyoukai Lady
Chapter 8 - The Youkai Stronghold
The Youkai Stronghold of the Western Lands was actually a giant mountain encircled by a large forest, the Fukai Mori. The stronghold, more commonly known as the West Fort, was a series of intricate tunnels that had been dug out by centipede youkai long ago. Inutaisho had fought and killed all of the centipedes during his campaign to rule the West and had decided to create his court there. However, at that time, the court had been mainly confined to the top of the mountain. During Sesshoumaru’s reign, many others had moved in, attracted by the idea of being protected by a youkai who could resurrect the dead, and now the mountain was a beehive of activity from top to bottom.
The tunnels were impossibly complicated, and even with the acute senses of youkai, one still sometimes found a dead body in some dark corner of the carved stone halls, the remains of a pour (and rather pathetic in Sesshoumaru’s opinion) soul that had lost its way and slowly died of dehydration and starvation, despite the long periods of time youkai could survive with neither water or food. But as rumor said there was great treasure to found there in the deepest tunnels, the fear of this frightening (and pathetic) fate was diminished, though the danger still remained.
The outside was an entirely different case. It looked exactly like an ordinary mountain, nothing fancy, certainly no glaringly obvious signs pointing to the many entrances.
The entrance could be anything really. There were records of youkai children falling through a large ‘rabbit’ hole and finding themselves in some forgotten part of the stronghold, and of hunters chasing game behind waterfalls, only to find all sort of rodents and the like feeding off bags of grain from the storeroom. The strangest was the tale of a young male who was playing hide-and-seek one day and hiding in a old oak tree, with a strange gaping hole in it, when suddenly the back disappeared and he fell through the side and landed right in the middle of the main hallway. They had never found that particular hole again.
Anzari smiled as she gazed up at the stronghold. Their group - Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo, Sango, Miroku, Kirara, Ashitaka, Yuya, Sesshoumaru, Kana, Yoko, Rin, and her - was standing in front of a large cave entrance near the foot of the giant mountain. This cave, though to the naked eye seemed normal, was actually the main entrance into the stronghold. The gateway would only allow youkai auras and specially marked human auras inside, such as Yoko and Rin. The humans of their group would have to hold onto a youkai to enter. Even Inuyasha, being a hanyou, would have to hold onto one of the full-blooded youkai.
She glanced around. Sango was holding onto Kirara and Kagome was holding Shippo. They would be fine. Rin and Yoko were marked, which meant they might as well have been youkai to the gateway. That left Miroku and Inuyasha. Yoko soon fixed that problem, by pulling Ashitaka over to Miroku - she wouldn’t touch the houshi unless needed and didn’t want a female to have the same fate she had before at the lecherous man’s hands - and pulling Inuyasha over to Yuya. The kitsune smiled at the hanyou, and Inuyasha’s scowl faltered slightly.
Sesshoumaru was waiting, Rin beside him, just before the gate, head turned slightly to see them. He nodded approvingly and stepped through the entrance of the cave and disappeared.
Anzari heard Kagome and Sango’s startled gasps. Shippo gaped in awe and Miroku murmured his surprise. The others just looked, used to such a spectacle. Anzari smiled encouragingly at the newcomers and stepped through the gateway herself, promptly disappearing from the outside. One by one, the rest followed.
As they stepped through, the group found themselves standing in the middle of a large plaza, seemingly outside. Anzari explained, “It’s just some advanced youjutsu. The weather mimics that of the weather outside. Only, when it’s pouring or there’s a blizzard out there, it’s only drizzling or snowing lightly in here.”
Sesshoumaru ignored the definition, “Hn. Kamui!”
Almost immediately, another inuyoukai appeared from seemingly nowhere. The youkai, a handsome young man, knelt in front of Sesshoumaru, merely saying, “My Daimyo. You called?”
Sesshoumaru didn’t answer, instead merely watched the emotions flickering across Anzari’s face, as did Ashitaka and Yuya, both were grinning. After a long moment of silence, the youkai lifted his head in confusion and immediately caught the sight of the yasha who was doing quite a good impression of a fish.
“Kamui…” Anzari whispered.
Something flickered in the back of Kamui’s mind as he tried to remember why the voice seemed so familiar. His eyes widened, “M-my Lady… my Lady… Lady Anzari!” he jumped up in excitement, forgetting that his Lord watched.
Anzari squealed and clapped her hands as she remembered. “Kamui!” She rushed over and hugged the male who hugged back with equal excitement. Yuya giggled as she watched the scene.
Ashitaka, however, was watching Sesshoumaru. Though the Taiyoukai had face of stone, Ashitaka easily deciphered the emotions hidden there. A slight tightening of the jaw, an invisible narrowing of the eyes, all of these almost imperceptible motions told the youkai who had spent his life with Sesshoumaru something.
‘He’s happy,’ Ashitaka discerned. ‘But he’s also unhappy. He’s slightly confused too. And… he’s holding back on something. Well, that’s not hard to guess.’ Ashitaka rolled his eyes at his own last thought. It was only due to the fact he was already mated that he didn’t start fantasizing about Anzari himself. In truth, he was slightly impressed by the Taiyoukai’s restraint. Tonight, there would be many bed-warming offers from various youkai for the silver-haired beauty.
Kana observed from the back of the group. Yoko had already slipped off to the stronghold’s infirmary. She, she had whispered to Kana, had no intention of getting caught up in the mob that would soon appear when Anzari was recognized. Kana would’ve liked to follow her as she usually did, but her desire to make sure her sister stayed safe was stronger. She didn’t trust Sesshoumaru or Inuyasha to protect her when they had failed so miserably before.
The male, Kamui, had already started to lead Anzari away from the group, towards a large gateway before them. The gateway led to the marketplace, where, at this time of day, there would be the most people. He was obviously planning to announce the return of Anzari to the people now. Kana let them go. Kamui, she trusted. It was Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha she needed to keep an eye on.
The Taiyoukai just watched the two go for a few moments, before following at a leisurely pace. Rin had already run ahead, skipping after Anzari and Kamui with Shippo. The others just shrugged and started walking as well, leaving Kana to bring up the rear with Ashitaka.
The two walked slowly, falling further back from the rest of the group.
“You know what happened, don’t you?” Ashitaka’s quiet voice broke through Kana’s musings. “That day. You were the one to take their bodies away, weren’t you?”
Kana nodded, “Yes, it was me.”
“What happened to her?” he pressed.
She was silent for a long while. As they came to the gateway, she gazed inside, an unreadable expression in her violet eyes. Inside the marketplace, people were swarming to the center, and there was air of excitement, of relief, of ecstasy. Inuyasha and his friends had been caught up in the middle, swept along with the wave of youkai. Both of them watched Sesshoumaru, off to the side, as he did nothing, and then turned and stalked away.
Kana’s eyes swiveled back to the silver-white head of her sister. “There are… many ways to lose your innocence, Ashitaka-san.”
Yuya watched Anzari in the center of the whirlpool of youkai with a heavy heart. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t shake the feeling that some integral, something vital, had been taken away. Had been lost.
Before, Anzari had never been able to keep face of stone on for long, unlike Sesshoumaru who could keep it on for ages without end. She was also so open, so trusting with pieces of her heart. She had been content to take dangerous risks that always got her scolded fiercely by Yuya, excited to discover new things, travel to new realms. As she grew, the inquisitive side had never left, the childish purity in her eyes never fading, even on the day she disappeared.
So what had happened on that battlefield?
That day, Sesshoumaru had come back, clothes soaked with blood and rain, creating a strange patterned work of art. It was Inuyasha and Inutaisho who had accosted him at the forest edge. Later, she and Ashitaka had arrived, but hadn’t done anything to change the sight of the normally pristine figure of Sesshoumaru sobbing on the ground, Inuyasha next to him, and Inutaisho standing guard, a heavy-hearted look on his face. Instead, Yuya had just collapsed, clutching Ashitaka as she cried, the wolf-youkai holding her in a comforting embrace, soothing them both as they shared their tears.
It wasn’t until a week after that Sesshoumaru would even speak, and even then, he refused to say exactly what happened. Only the three that had been there knew whatever events had unfolded on that day. Sesshoumaru, already slightly aloof, grew ever more distant, throwing himself into both desk work and battle with a cold fervor that chilled Yuya just to watch. The people had been upset, some even going as far as to blame Sesshoumaru, but when the remnant of ingredients to a powerful and dangerous youjutsu had been found in Kaoru’s old room, the blame had immediately shifted to pity.
Sesshoumaru had hated it.
A day after that battle, Inutaisho had died fighting a dragon, and Inuyasha had run away after hearing the rumors that his beloved aniki had kill his surrogate sister-mother figure. Yuya had practically been able to see the change in Sesshoumaru, from the deaths and disappearances, from the rumors and falsely placed blame, and from the thought that someone had been able to control him to hurt the one he cared about most. She could’ve put her ear next to his chest and heard the ice slowly encase his heart.
She and Ashitaka had tried to get the youkai out of his half-dead state, but that hadn’t happened until Sesshoumaru had picked up an ugly servant from a tribe of toad youkai. Then, he’d found that little girl, and his heart started to melt a little more.
But it seemed that that ice had only transferred itself to another’s heart.
Anzari was becoming the epitome of stone, unfeeling, uncaring. Oh she wasn’t yet, but the starting changes were palpable, and if left unchecked, that was what would happen. Yuya knew it, and she could tell Kana and Ashitaka, even Sesshoumaru, knew it too.
Inuyasha wiped some sweat off his forehead as he leaned against a tree in a secluded garden he’d escaped too. Of course now he was pretty much lost but at least it was quiet.
It was quite obvious really. Anzari might have acted perfectly normal after that night, but compared the cherished memories Inuyasha had, it might well have been two completely different youkai.
‘Inuyasha! Come here, Inuyasha! I have something for you!’
Two…
‘Are you alright, Inuyasha?’
Completely…
‘Don’t you dare do that again! Do you have any idea how worried I was?’
Different…
‘No, not that way, this way. Try again. C’mon, you can do it!’
Youkai…
‘Your brother and I love you very much, Inuyasha… so don’t get hurt, ok?’
Inuyasha shook his head violently, dislodging the thoughts that had begun to creep into the silence. Leaning against the trunk of a willow, its drooping branches hiding him, Inuyasha slid down onto the ground and stared up at green canopy above him.
Did she think she fooled him? Kagome and the others didn’t know any better, but she should’ve known he’d see the changes. She wasn’t stone yet. He could still read her. Hell, even Yoko could tell!
Like a climbing vine of ivy, the ice was slowly rising up the wall of Anzari’s newly built fortress.
Was it possible, Sesshoumaru wondered, for one to hate someone, yet love them at the same time? Was it possible to want to hold someone in your arms for the rest of eternity, yet want to slap then and scream at them at the same time?
Evidently, it was.
As Sesshoumaru watched the whirlwind in the center of the marketplace, he couldn't help but think of the saying his mother used to say.
'Destroying something is easy. Healing something is not.'
Thank you to all the people who reviewed. As FFNet doesn't want us to put review replies in our chapter, I'll reply to any questions through the review reply system they set up instead.
The next chapter is chapter 9… The Border Skirmish.
Sesshoumaru is going on a patrol of his land's borders and Anzari, in whim, decides take Ashitaka’s place and go with him. Along the way, they confront each other and begin on the long path towards healing their lost relationship. But just as they do, something unexpected happens, and they realize not all is what it seems.
Clickie?
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