A/N: I realise now just how many factual and continuity errors there are in this fic, not sure if I should just tear it down and rewrite it from the start. Whilst I make up my mind, here is another (incorrect) chapter…

And sorry I was away so long, especially so to those who I promised an update to three months ago!

Chapter 7 – Father’s Gift

“I just don’t get it!” Sango said with a sigh, hanging her head as she dragged her feet back in the direction of Kaede’s hut. “This seems to be happening all the time lately!”

“Hm, it does seem rather suspicious, doesn’t it?” Miroku said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

“Suspicious?” Sango echoed, turning to face him. “I never said I was suspicious. I just think it’s odd that lately, every time Kagome says that she can sense the jewel, it turns out to be just another false alarm!”

“It’s more than odd,” Miroku replied, slowly shaking his head as he spoke. “Something just doesn’t seem right about the whole… Hey, is that Sesshomaru?”

“Oh no, what does he want?”

Sesshomaru pretended not to have heard the conversation between the demon-slayer and the monk, watching them blankly as they drew nearer. The only odd thing in his mind at that moment was the whereabouts of the others; only the fire-cat, the monk and the demon-slayer seemed to have returned from wherever it was that the reincarnated priestess had taken them under false pretences.

“Hello,” Miroku greeted Sesshomaru, stopping by his feet.

Sesshomaru gazed expressionlessly up at the monk, before shifting his eyes to the demon-slayer, who was visibly recoiling from him. As Sesshomaru met her eyes, she hurriedly forced a tight smile, bowing her head in polite greeting.

“Where is Inuyasha?” he asked, turning his attention back to the monk.

“He and Kagome stayed at–” Miroku began.

“If you came here looking for a fight, you’re going to have to get through me first, demon,” Sango interrupted, pushing Miroku aside and stepping up to Sesshomaru, one hand looping into the handle of her Hiraikotsu.

“I didn’t come here looking for a fight,” Sesshomaru assured her, a small part of him wondering how many more times he would have to utter those very words that day.

“Then what do you want with Inuyasha?” Sango demanded, tightening his grip on her Hiraikotsu.

“I have some information for him,” Sesshomaru smoothly replied.

“Unless you’ve come here to tell Inuyasha the whereabouts of the Shikon Jewel, I rather suspect that he won’t be too interested in listening to what you have to say, Sesshomaru,” Miroku pointed out.

“Actually, this is about the jewel,” Sesshomaru calmly replied.

“It is?” Sango yelped, releasing her weapon at last. “Do you know where it is?”

Sesshomaru slowly and purposefully ran his eyes over the demon-slayer, from her head to her feet, before locking his eyes onto hers again, his face tightening.

“I was only asking a question!” she hissed, grabbing her hand into the handle of her trusted weapon once more.

“Easy, Sango,” Miroku said softly, raising a hand in front of her to block her advance on Sesshomaru. “I suspect Sesshomaru will only talk to Inuyasha. Let’s just wait inside until Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippo have returned.”

“I guess being stubborn and unreasonable is a family trait,” Sango muttered as she slapped aside the bamboo flap that hung over the doorway of Kaede’s hut. “At least Inuyasha has the decency and good manners to at least answer a question…” she grumbled as she disappeared into the hut.

Miroku let out a small, nervous laugh as Sesshomaru turned his eyes to him.

“The search for the sacred jewel has been very hard on us all,” he explained. “But especially so for Sango. She lost her entire family when she was still just seventeen.”

“I can’t imagine how that would feel,” Sesshomaru replied, his tone coming out as quiet and emotionless as ever as he held back the sarcasm from his intended irony.

Miroku slowly nodded his head, but then paused, as an idea seemed to dawn on him.

“Say, Sesshomaru,” he began. “Didn’t you lose your family when you were about that age–”

“Perhaps you should wait inside too,” Sesshomaru interrupted him, turning his head to look back along the path the others would return on.

“Right,” Miroku replied with a nod.

Again he hesitated, eying Sesshomaru over before eventually following after Sango. Once Miroku was out of sight, Sesshomaru slowly moved his head back to rest it against the wall of the hut, basking in the warmth of the sun as he awaited his brother’s return. At his side, Rin was still sleeping, and had obviously begun to dream. She was balling her fists around the material of the empty left sleeve of his haori, occasionally letting out a quiet moan, her face creasing, telling Sesshomaru that the dream was most likely not a pleasant one; but the nature of her dreams did not concern him at that moment. The fact that the sleeve she clung to was empty concerned him.

The thought of his severed left arm still aroused feelings of bitter hatred and an overwhelming desire for revenge in Sesshomaru. Not only had he lost his arm, but it had been Inuyasha who had cut it off. Inuyasha had cut off his arm, and he had done it with the Tetsusaiga, a sword that the miserable half-breed should never have even been allowed possession of in the first place. The memories of the whole affair were still sickeningly vivid in Sesshomaru’s mind, and they still haunted his dreams, much in the same way, he presumed, Rin’s dreams were haunted by bad memories from her own past.

“Here is what I have sought,” Sesshomaru said as he stopped by the old sword, which had been stabbed into a rock in the depths of his father’s own skeletal remains. “At last I shall take possession of the sacred sword. The lethal, legendary blade know to kill one hundred in one stroke: Tetsusaiga.”

Sesshomaru closed his fingers around the hilt of the sword, tightening his grip as he readied himself to pull the weapon free.

“They say it was forged of the fang from your father’s own mouth,” Jaken babbled on behind him. “Once you possess the blade Tetsusaiga, you possess his power as well.”

As Sesshomaru began to pull to release the sword, blue sparks began to sting his fingers, hindering his attempts to lift the sword. The pain and severity of the energy became so great Sesshomaru was forced to release the sword, lest the damage caused become severe and permanent. Jaken screamed behind him as he held up his hand, finding that it was surrounded by blue flames, a short-term side effect of the spell that had somehow managed to ward off his attempt to recover the sword.

“It’s not stuck, is it?” Jaken asked.

For a demon, Sesshomaru thought to himself, Jaken really was incredibly dense sometimes. His propensity to ask obvious questions was beyond infuriating; but Sesshomaru was far more concerned in the matter at hand than his servant’s irksome idiosyncrasies.

“Father has done his work well,” he said. “The blade is ensorcelled.”

“Sesshomaru!”

Sesshomaru turned his head to look up at the source of the voice, finding Inuyasha a short distance above him, his human female companion close by his side. Sesshomaru was surprised to see them – not because he had not been expecting them to follow him, but surprised that it had taken them so long to catch up with him. Then again, he reasoned, Inuyasha had no doubt been slowed down by the tiresome little wench that he was carting around with him.

Inuyasha leapt down to the ground, his body language once again betraying his inner thoughts before his words ever did.

“We’re not finished yet!” Inuyasha barked.

Inuyasha dove at Sesshomaru, slashing a hand at his face, but Sesshomaru dodged his blow with ease, causing Inuyasha to fall back.

“Now where’d he go?” Inuyasha muttered, looking around himself in confusion. “Huh?”

Inuyasha looked up, his eyes eventually locating Sesshomaru, who had leapt up onto a rib-bone to escape harm’s way.

“Be more respectful in father’s tomb,” Sesshomaru said coldly, his detest for the brother he had thought dead rising by the second.

“Look who’s talking, you’re the one who’s here robbing his grave, why not respect him by leaving?” Inuyasha replied.

Inuyasha had then conducted a barely audible conversation with the little flea demon perched on his shoulder. To Sesshomaru’s disdain, the flea had claimed that Inuyasha was the Tetsusaiga’s intended master, and that he alone had the power to remove it from the rock, and to wield it in battle.

“For all I care he can keep the rusty piece of junk!” Inuyasha concluded, after listening to the flea talk. “What I do mind though is all the other stuff! Good thing you’re in a grave, cause you’re gonna die!”

Inuyasha jumped up and swiped a hand at Sesshomaru in another direct challenge, but again Sesshomaru dodged his advance with ease.

“Now was that aimed at me?” Sesshomaru taunted him.

Inuyasha leapt towards Sesshomaru again, swiping at him with both hands, one after the other, repeatedly trying his hardest to hit his older brother. But still Sesshomaru dodged his every attack with very little effort. In sheer frustration, Inuyasha punched a fist squarely at Sesshomaru’s nose, missing him and punching his fist right through one of his father’s rib-bones, before falling onto his back.

“Damn,” Inuyasha cursed as he got up again.

Sesshomaru landed gracefully on his feet behind Inuyasha, eying his younger brother over in contempt.

“You fight as though you are still a child,” Sesshomaru remarked.

“You shut-up!” Inuyasha barked.

Sesshomaru was not entirely sure if Inuyasha was talking to him or the chattering flea on his shoulder, but as the human girl began yelling at him to retrieve the Tetsusaiga, Inuyasha finally began to change his mind about the sword.

“Sesshomaru couldn’t pull it out,” the girl yelled. “If you can’t hit him in the body, hit him in the ego! Hurt his pride!”

Inuyasha laughed, turning to Sesshomaru.

“I get it!” he said. “I’ll do it! If only to see the look on your face!”

Inuyasha walked over to the sword as Sesshomaru watched on. Inuyasha jumped up onto the raised stone and grabbed the sword, smirking in a way that made Sesshomaru want to slap him over the face.

“This is gonna be more fun than I thought,” he said smugly.

Jaken burst out from under a pile of skulls that he had gotten trapped under – or chosen to hide under in his fear, Sesshomaru could not be sure which was the case – and gasped in alarm at the sight of Inuyasha grasping the Tetsusaiga.

“No!” Jaken wailed. “Inuyasha is immune to the spell that thwarted Lord Sesshomaru!”

Inuyasha began trying to remove the sword from the rock; but, much to Sesshomaru’s relief, Inuyasha was unable to pull the sword out either.

“Are you done?” Sesshomaru asked, hiding his relief behind a mask of cool. “I am.”

Sesshomaru charged at his younger half-brother, and continued to dominate him in battle. Wanting more than anything to simply get both Inuyasha and the human out of his way as soon as possible, Sesshomaru concentrated his efforts of downing Inuyasha, only ceasing his attack as the impossible transpired: the mortal girl somehow managed to remove the legendary Tetsusaiga from the rock, despite the fact that neither Inuyasha nor Sesshomaru himself had managed the task.

“It just… Came out,” she said.

Sesshomaru silently mused that the stupidity of the human race never failed to surprise him; but before he could give the matter too much thought, his ungrateful younger brother lunged at him again. Sesshomaru dashed out of Inuyasha’s way, stopping in front of the miserable, pitiful little human girl, who was still clutching onto his birthright.

“What are you, and how could you draw the sword?” he asked her darkly, his suspicions growing.

Surely this girl had some sort of demonic or spiritual powers to accomplish such a feat; after all, it would not be the first time Inuyasha had chosen a human woman with unique abilities as his mate.

“Sesshomaru!” Inuyasha yelled over to him. “Leave her alone! She’s not involved in this!”

“Inuyasha!” the girl wailed.

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes slightly at her, and she recoiled from him, grasping onto the hilt of the Tetsusaiga with renewed fervour.

“Step closer and I’ll cut you!” she warned.

In Sesshomaru’s mind, the girl’s threat was so insignificant it was not even worth humouring with so much as an expression of acknowledgement, and so he turned his head to look back over his shoulder at the half-breed, deciding that he would instead amuse himself by torturing his half-brother a little longer.

“For some unknown reason, I was unable to draw the Tetsusaiga,” he began smoothly. “Fortunately, you were unable to draw it either. It’s obvious that she must die.”

Of course in hindsight, Sesshomaru realised that attempting to kill the girl had been entirely the wrong thing to do. He had underestimated the effect it would have on Inuyasha (he was certain his brother had only just awoken from the spell, surely to love someone so deeply took time?) and he had forgotten the key principle of the phantom sword: it had been made to allow the bearer to protect others. Inuyasha’s pathetic sentimentality had allowed him to not only wield the sword, but also to use it effectively and to its fullest potential in battle. Even after transforming into his full demon form that day, Sesshomaru had been unable to defeat Inuyasha whilst he held the Tetsusaiga.

Being the shallow, one-dimensional simpleton that he was, Inuyasha would never understand the significance of cutting off Sesshomaru’s arm with a sword that had been forged from one of their own father’s fangs. After years of suppressing any feelings of bitter resentment when their father continually put the worthless half-breed ahead of his first son, Sesshomaru’s final insult had been to have one of his arms effectively bitten off by one of his dead father’s teeth.

But to Inuyasha, it was something amusing, and something to gloat about.

“Hey jackass, you lost something?” Inuyasha yelled.

The others turned to see Inuyasha running towards them, his arms raised above his head, his fingers gripped into Jaken’s robes. Jaken was screaming in fear as he was bounced up and down with every bound Inuyasha took.

“Instead of sending your slave to do all your dirty work Sesshomaru, why not come out and face me yourself?” Inuyasha spat, throwing Jaken at the wall of Kaede’s hut.

Jaken’s body bounced off the wall and fell to the ground, where he landed on Rin’s legs, awakening her with a start. She gripped onto the empty left sleeve of Sesshomaru’s haori, pulling herself out from under Jaken’s fallen body, staring down at his crumpled form with wide eyes of surprise and fear. The ruckus created by Inuyasha drew his two friends out of the hut once more.

“Inuyasha, your brother said he knows where the Shikon Jewel is,” Sango said to Inuyasha.

“Oh yeah?” Inuyasha snorted, folding his arms as he eyed Sesshomaru over critically. “Why would he know where it is, he doesn’t even care about it! And besides, like he’d go to all the trouble of coming out here to tell us where it is. Do me a favour Sesshomaru, stop hiding behind the frog and the little girl and come out and fight me like a real demon!”

Sesshomaru started to stand, but Rin tightened her hold of his sleeve, attempting to hold him down. He turned his head sharply to her, finding her close to tears.

“Release me Rin,” he said softly.

Rin blinked at him several times, her eyebrows drawing together anxiously. She eventually did as he asked, but her reluctance was evident. Turning to Inuyasha, Sesshomaru began to reach his hand into the folds of his haori to retrieve the jewel, but stopped at the sound of a desperate scream that emanated from the direction Inuyasha had just returned from.

“Wait!” Kagome yelled, racing towards them on her bike.

Shippo let out a series of little cries of shock and fear as he was bounced about in the basket of Kagome’s bike as she carelessly sped over every bump and imperfection in the ground.

“Ka…Go…Me!” Shippo wailed as he tried his best to maintain his grip on the top rim of the basket.

“Do you mind, Kagome?” Inuyasha sneered at her as she skidded to a halt a short distance from the group, the abruptness of her stop sending Shippo somersaulting out of the basket.

“Oof!” Miroku groaned as he caught Shippo awkwardly before the little fox fell to the ground.

“I’m kinda busy here?” Inuyasha added as Kagome stepped off of her bike and started towards them.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” he snapped irritably. “I’m cleaning up our little jackass problem!”

Inuyasha pointed at Sesshomaru, upon which Kagome turned to him, looking first at Sesshomaru, then down at Rin, who was standing a short way behind him, gripping at her kimono as tears welled up in her eyes.

“Inuyasha, you can’t fight Sesshomaru in front of the little girl!” she concluded, turning back to Inuyasha.

“Oh yeah?” Inuyasha grunted. “I’m sure she’s seen worse, she’s been living with Sesshomaru for long enough!”

“Inuyasha!”

“Spare me!”

“Sit boy!”

Inuyasha just had enough time to let out a short cry of despair before his face collided sharply with the ground. Sesshomaru silently reminded himself to learn the exact properties of those strange beads Inuyasha wore; surely if the girl could use them to torture Inuyasha, Sesshomaru could do so too.

“Kagome, Sesshomaru said he knows where the sacred jewel is,” Sango told Kagome.

Kagome turned sharply to Sesshomaru, her face paling.

“He’s probably lying!” Inuyasha growled from his position on the ground, his hands twitching as he tried to fight the effects of the spell.

Jaken skipped over to Inuyasha, grinning to himself before placing the pointed end of the Staff of Skulls on top of Inuyasha’s head and pushing his face back down into the dirt.

“Hey! Geddoffa me!” Inuyasha yelled, his voice muffled in the ground.

Sesshomaru glanced over his shoulder at Rin, who gulped hard as she met his eyes, her tears disappearing back into her eyes as if by magic as she tried her best to look brave; but the scent of fear was so strong on her, Sesshomaru felt sure that even a human would be able to smell it. He turned back to the group around him, eying each of them in turn. He looked first at Shippo, then Miroku, then Sango, then Inuyasha and then finally Kagome.

“You,” he said, pointing a finger at Sango’s face.

“Me?” she echoed, crossing her eyes to focus on the claw mere inches from the tip of her nose.

“You are a human woman with some degree of sense and reasonable skills of self-defence,” Sesshomaru continued. “You will look after Rin until I return.”

Sesshomaru reached his hand around behind his back, taking a gentle but firm hold of Rin’s upper arm, he dragged her forwards.

“Stay with the demon-slayer for now, Rin,” he ordered.

“Yes my Lord!” she squeaked, hurrying over to Sango’s side as Sesshomaru released her.

“And you, priestess,” he said, turning to point his finger at Kagome. “You will come with me.”

“Over my dead body!” Inuyasha snarled, pushing himself up into a squat.

“Sit!” Kagome hissed.

Inuyasha let out an even shorter cry of alarm, his closer proximity to the ground making his fall much shorter. Sesshomaru stepped over his brother’s head, walking along a small pathway through the village. He did not bother to check that the girl was following him, he could smell and hear her well enough without looking at her to confirm her presence. He was not really sure where he wanted to take her, and so he decided to just keep walking until she suggested otherwise; which she did do, and sooner than he expected her to.

“You have the Shikon Jewel,” she said.

Sesshomaru stopped walking, keeping his back turned to her.

“That is correct,” he confirmed.

“And you’ve come here to give it to Inuyasha?” she asked.

“You are the keeper of the jewel, are you not?”

“Well yeah, I guess so.”

“Then you should have it.”

Sesshomaru plucked the jewel from his haori, turning to face the girl. He held the jewel out towards her, but she raised one hand in a halting motion, shaking her head.

“The jewel has caused so much pain,” she whispered as she eyed the little pink gemstone. “Everyone who comes in contact with it ends up getting hurt–”

“Rather like how you are hurting my ears right now,” Sesshomaru interrupted her. “Do you want the jewel or not?”

Kagome looked up at Sesshomaru, her mouth slightly open and her expression suggesting hurt at his abrupt dismissal of her feelings.

“Didn’t you hear what I just said?” she asked him hoarsely.

“I don’t care what you just said,” he flatly replied. “Just take the jewel. If you do not take it, I will throw it away, and you will find yourself facing another demon just like Naraku. Is that what you want?”

“I don’t know what I want, okay?” Kagome snapped, her face shifting as her patience thinned. “But a little bit of compassion sure wouldn’t go amiss right now!”

Sesshomaru remained silent, his hand still held out towards her, the jewel still clutched between his thumb and forefinger.

“Obviously, I don’t want to have to face another demon like Naraku,” she began slowly, her voice calmer. “But at the same time, I don’t really know what I should do with the jewel.”

“What you do with the jewel is not my concern,” Sesshomaru pointed out.

Kagome opened her mouth to protest, but promptly closed it again, frowning thoughtfully as her mind began to process something. She frowned up at Sesshomaru for a moment, studying him carefully before turning to look over her shoulder at the others far behind them.

“You came all the way over here to take the jewel back to me?” she asked, turning back to him.

“Yes,” he answered. “And I even indulged your ridiculous human needs by coming over here now, away from my younger brother. Quite frankly, human, your lack of gratitude is both offensive and irritating.”

Kagome gasped, moving a hand over her mouth.

“How did you know I didn’t want Inuyasha to see the jewel?” she asked.

Sesshomaru remained silent and motionless, staring unblinkingly at her. In his own opinion, he had already gone well above and beyond the realms of pity by offering her the opportunity to receive the jewel without Inuyasha’s knowledge, and he was not about to enter into an emotional debate about the whole affair.

“I have wasted enough of my time here,” Sesshomaru said gruffly, opening his fingers and allowing the jewel to fall to the ground.

Kagome stared at him in disbelief as he walked past her, heading back towards the others. Behind him, he heard her bend down to retrieve the jewel. He could sense that she was displeased with his response, but her emotions were not his concern.

“Jaken,” he said as he rejoined the group. “Fetch Ah-Un.”

“Aye, my Lord!” Jaken squawked, before hurrying off to retrieve the fourth member of their entourage.

“Rin, we are leaving now,” he told Rin, before turning his back on her and starting back along the path towards the forest.

“Hold it right there, Sesshomaru!”

Sesshomaru shifted his eyes to one side, slightly taken aback to see that he was on the receiving end of a direct challenge; and something deep inside of him sensed that things were about to go from bad to worse.

Next Chapter: Who is challenging Sesshomaru and why? (Like y’all don’t already know…) The answer, more action, more flashbacks and more Jaken torture next time! Chapter 8 – Father’s Curse.