Blood covered the room. In one corner sat Shinsei, the healer's eyes wide with disbelief. In another corner huddled Inuyasha, blood covering the boy's claws and face.

And in the center of the room lay one of the servants. Dead.

His throat had been slashed to ribbons but that, as far as Sesshomaru could tell, was only minor damage. The rest of his body . . .

The rest of his body was sick to even look at. Deep gouges ran along the male's abdomen and down to his groin region. It also appeared that his heart had been ripped out. Sesshomaru felt nauseated just looking at the servant's body.

"What the hell happened in here?" Kouga breathed from behind him.

"Isn't it obvious? My brother got a hold of the servant."

"I see that," came the retort. "The thing is . . ."

"The servant was the one."

Sesshomaru turned his attention to Shinsei the moment the healer had spoken, one eyebrow raised in question. The servant was the one?

'What? What did this servant do?'

'What do you think the servant did,' a little voice whispered. 'He's the one who allowed the wolf's father and whoever else near Inuyasha. Look at him. You'll see.'

Frowning in annoyance, he quickly turned his gaze from the healer back to Inuyasha then to the servant. As he did so, he noticed what he had not before when he first stepped into the room. The wild-eyed look Inuyasha bore, the shocked healer, the type of injuries the dead servant possessed, the somewhat damaged sleeve to Inuyasha's haori . . . and the trembling form of his brother.

'So he's extracted part of his revenge. Good.'

A closer inspection, however, told him that his brother needed more than revenge. The boy was on the verge of hysterics, something unusual for him. Inuyasha needed to calm down and soon, before another drastic event took place. Carefully, he crept towards Inuyasha, glancing at Shinsei one more time.

"Inuyasha . . ."

At first, the hanyou paid no attention to him. Instead, he sat there, with his back against the wall and rubbing his hands together in a nervous fashion.

"Inuyasha . . ."

Again, no reply from the boy. For a moment, Sesshomaru believed the boy to be in too much shock to even form a reply. He'd opened his mouth to say his brother's name once more when Inuyasha finally spoke up.

"He . . . came after me again . . . he's . . ."

"He's dead," Sesshomaru affirmed, kneeling in front of his brother.

"I didn't mean to . . . he just . . . I . . ."

By now, Inuyasha's shock had worn off some. Pain afflicted his golden eyes as he began to babble about things that were irrelevant. Tentatively, Sesshomaru reached over and grasped Inuyasha by his arms. When the boy didn't react violently to him, he pulled the hanyou up. He knew he had to get Inuyasha out of the room and somewhere else, so the boy wouldn't have to see the servant's dead body and be forced to relive those horrific events from long ago.

As he led his half-sibling out of the room, Sesshomaru made sure that Inuyasha could not see the servant or the damage that had been done. The last thing he wanted was for Inuyasha to feel guilty for killing someone who had harmed him.

'His fever will clear up some . . . but there are more who need to be punished. And I won't rest until they are. They shall pay for the insult to me, my brother, and my family. This Sesshomaru swears it.'

Added March 30, 2009.

There's something about this story that I need to address.

It is completed, kids. If it was not complete, it would be listed in my dockets section on my bio page. Please do not leave reviews begging me to update it. It's not going to happen. The story has ended the way I wanted it to and I'm happy with how it ended. I know you guys love it. I can tell by the number of reviews it's received and the number of people who have put it on their list of favourites.

Now, many of you may disagree with me that it's not completed, that more could be done. I might be inclined to agree if I had intended to go further than what I did. I did not intend to go further, however. That leaves me satisfied with the end results.

Which leads me to this: many of you claim it's not completed. That more can and should be done. My question to you is: Why don't you write a piece inspired by the ending of this story? I'm not saying it a snotty tone or anything. I'm very serious about this. Many of you have accounts. Some of you are authors as well. You may not feel you can write something to do this piece justice, but how will you know if you don't try?

With all of that said, I appreciate how much everyone has enjoyed this story. I truly do. However, if people keep insisting that I update a story I've listed as complete and that I'm happy with how it's ended, I will delete it. This is the only warning I'm going to give, too. No amount of begging will get me to change my mind, either, so please don't even try.

If you wish to respond to this note, please use the send a private message feature, and I will reply accordingly. Again, this message will be deleted within one day so trying to reply will be futile.

Thank you for reading this story, and have a wonderful day.