The Life of a Daiyoukai by Angelicatt

The evil that lurks

Title: The Life of a Daiyoukai

Chapter: 3: The evil that lurks  

Words: 1,850

Rating: K+

Prompt: Priestess Skye’s Seven Deadly Challenges #3 - Wrath

Summary:  Sesshoumaru vows vengeance for the deaths of his elders

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the mere sparks of imagination. Characters are property of Rumiko Takahashi, VIZ Media et al.

A/N: Warning: A couple gruesome death descriptions.

Sesshoumaru sat at his desk doing endless mind-numbing paperwork. It had been a few weeks since he had last been out on patrol and being stuck indoors during this turbulent monsoon season was doing nothing for his patience. Internally he was raging for an excuse, anything that would warrant him having to leave the shiro; the weather be damned.

They always said ‘be careful what you wish for’ because before he could sigh for the millionth time that day, one of his trusted spies appeared before him; staying only long enough to hand him a battered scroll before disappearing into the shadows once again. Unrolling it carefully, he sniffed cautiously and came up with the unmistakable smell of blood and bear. His golden eyes perused the shaky lines and he responded with a terrifying growl. Any servants or soldiers who were in a hundred yard radius of him shook in fear from the horrific sound.

‘Lord Sesshoumaru, by the time you get this scroll, I along with most, if not all of my generals and army will be dead; slaughtered by the hands of the biggest threat to our nation in over a millennium. We had no foresight into his plans to invade the Northern Lands or I would have evacuated more of my people in time. I fear the North may be completely lost but if you could see fit to avenge us by removing the scourge from existence, it would be most appreciated. Seek out Yōrōzoku, your former mentor, as his tribe was the last line of defense. May the Kami bless his dutiful attempt to protect land and kin.

You are your father’s son and I have faith that you will do what is needed to be done.

Respectfully,

Lord Takahiro, Daiyoukai of the Northern Lands’

There was no need to question who the ‘threat’ was. Naraku was a dreaded blight to both human and youkai existence and his evil tainted the land with such malice and hate, that only a miracle would save Japan from rotting from the inside out. Now he had the nerve to attack and murder one of the four daiyoukai lords. It would seem that the kumo hanyou planned to weaken his enemies by systematically removing the biggest threats one by one. The Northern Lord was elderly, had no heirs and was under the inclination that the roughness of his territory would deter anyone from trying to invade. Obviously he had been wrong. Naraku would pay dearly for his crimes and Sesshoumaru had every intention of being there when it happened.

Sesshoumaru was under no obligation to do anything; but Takahiro’s plea for him to seek out Yōrōzoku, the leader of Northern Wolf Tribe, a youkai who was both mentor and substitute father, in his youth, drove him to action. The Inu wasted no time before he turned into his orbed form and flew off in the direction of the northern boundaries. It would be entirely foolish of him to just traipse on in without any knowledge of his enemies’ whereabouts.

~*~*~*~

Within a couple hours he had traversed over three hundred miles of terrain, coming to set down on the invisible line that marked the three way intersection of the Northern, Eastern and Western Lands. The area was deserted; no signs of any battle and also no sign of any guards from any land either. It was clear that the enemy had them removed before they could alert the other lords and the recent rains had washed away any scents. The idea that he had been played irritated him and made his blood rush to his head.

He was so wrapped up in his anger, that he missed the approach of the wolves, until they were almost in reaching distance. Head spinning around, he made for his sword before a swirling tornado stopped in front of him, revealing the ookami prince, Kouga and the heir to the Northern Wolf tribe, Ayame.

The wolves bowed to him and when they stood up again, he saw the tear trails on the female’s face. It all made sense to him now, glancing around and noticing that there were white wolves mixed in with Kouga’s brown pack. She had escaped from the mountain top with some of her pack in search of help; heading directly to her betrothed in the East.

Kouga’s father was leader of the Eastern wolf tribe; but had in recent times left the running of the pack to his son. He had taken to spending his ‘retirement’ with the girl’s grandfather in the North, in the hopes that the two pups would eventually catch on and mate.

This knowledge left Sesshoumaru even more agitated than before. The youkai population was already in decline, as the humans continued to multiply like usagi. The deaths of two noble elders and now possibly a third, would throw the youkai hierarchy into chaos.

Kouga knew Lord Sesshoumaru well enough from youkai dealings between the Inu Lord and his father and from running across him in the multitude of scuffles between him and his baka inu-hanyou brother, InuYasha. Aside from the family resemblance, those two had nothing in common. The fact that he was standing here, in this spot, looking towards the North, meant that he was already aware of Naraku’s transgressions and intended to step into the fray. No one could deny that Lord Sesshoumaru was the fiercest and probably strongest youkai lord and that having him as an ally, was far better than being on his bad side. There was no need for any words.

Ayame was aware of Lord Sesshoumaru’s relationship with her grandfather, as the elder often spoke of the ‘pup’ fondly, when recalling tales of the Inu’s youth. If the daiyoukai was here, it could only be because he was planning on heading to the Northern mountains. She had once thought him cold and callous; but that was before seeing him with his human ward. He obviously held a great amount of respect for her grandfather, if he was willing to put himself at risk for her people; that plus he loved a fight and Naraku had been on his personal radar for quite some time. At this rate, she knew that she wouldn’t be surprised to see InuYasha and his pack show up, seeing as how Kagome could always sense the kumo hanyou’s destruction.

~*~*~*~

Sesshoumaru turned away from the wolves, formed his youki cloud and took off for the hills. He had a niggling sensation of a powerful aura heading towards him; but he had no patience to see who it was.  If they were as great as he thought it was, they would come to him. He looked back a few times, to see the shard-powered whirlwind following behind him, with the other wolves half a mile back. The ookami prince would have to give up his prized boon soon, whether forced by Naraku or peacefully over to Kagome.

Kouga had clearly given up on his claim of making the miko his mate, and moved on to one of his own kind. The Inu smirked at this, remembering how the girl had no desire to be the ookami’s ‘woman’ and had also moved on from her adolescent infatuation with the baka hanyou, leaving her totally unspoken for. Not that he was interested of course – she was nothing but an oddity to him.

The closer he got to the wolf den, the thicker the coppery stench of blood permeated the air. It was mixed with enough miasma to take down an entire army; but Sesshoumaru was immune to most poisons and Naraku’s dokugiri was no match for the mighty lord. It would, however deter the wolves from approaching, and they all whined and howled at the barrier that kept them apart from their loved ones.

There was only one being who possessed the ability to defuse the poisoned air and as if by sheer power of thought; a shimmering reishi-charged arrow flew across the sky stopping when it connected with a tree in the middle of the den’s outskirts; before a flash of red jumped across the treetops below him.

InuYasha had arrived.

~*~*~*~

The inu-hanyou and his pack landed not far from the embedded arrow. Kagome’s well aimed projectile had dispersed the majority of the miasma; while her continued presence neutralized the rest. She looked up and over to Sesshoumaru as he alighted from his cloud. He seemed to be quite centered on finding something or rather someone. Once the wolves caught up to the inu-tachi, they all followed the daiyoukai; Ayame holding onto Kouga for moral support, too troubled by what she would see.

At the entrance of the main cave, the stench of death became too much for the kitsune and he was held back by the taijiya and neko, while the others continued forward. All around them lay the dismembered bodies of the white wolf clan. Ayame and Kagome fought the encroaching tears bravely; while InuYasha, Kouga and Sesshoumaru growled in disgust. Miroku held his head down in silent prayer to the Kami for the dearly departed souls. As the lesser wolves ran in search of survivors, the daiyoukai continued to make his way to Yōrōzoku’s abode. He didn’t need to see what his ears heard in Ayame’s heart wrenching scream or Kouga’s death howl, as they raced to their fallen kin.

Kouga’s father, Kenta had been pulled apart limb by limb, leaving only his torso intact; his head lay not too far from the final resting place of Yōrō-sama’s body; a hole left where his stomach used to be. It had been a complete massacre, not a one had been spared, not a female or pup survived to tell the horrid tale. The remnants of Naraku’s evil were everywhere you looked, touched, walked and smelled.

 ~*~*~*~

Sesshoumaru turned around and headed back outdoors, overwhelmed by the devastation behind him. His control was so close to snapping, eyes bleeding red and claws and fangs elongating. Kagome felt the Inu’s wrathful aura and ran to his side, she couldn’t let him transform; he would tear down the entire mountain on top of them. Not knowing what else to do, she wrapped her arms around him from behind and rested her head against his back; tears streaming down her face and falling onto the silken haori.

He stilled immediately when he felt her arms embrace him; but it was the sound of her crying that stopped the transformation. Her aura was full of sadness and angst and an emotion that she didn’t show often - fear. She was afraid for him. He didn’t try to move her, choosing instead to just put his hand on her arm, as a sign that all was well.

They stayed in the same position until the rest of the group emerged from the cave. No one commented on the strangeness of the pair, there was too much pain, suffering and anger amongst them to worry about anything else.

Naraku had just made the biggest mistake of his ill-gotten life. There would be hell to pay.