Alpha by Lyra
Toxic
Drabble Collection Alpha
CXXIV
Prompt From Priestess Skye’s Bi-Weekly Challenge
Toxic
With a suddenness that made Inuyasha nauseous, the world twisted. The figures of his father and Sesshomaru wavered, streaked across his sight, and dissipated. Without warning, there was a shift of colors and light that blurred all objects into indistinct outlines and then brought back black, clear and sharp.
Inuyasha breathed deeply, and did his best to ignore the laughter of Naraku behind him. It was not a very good effort; without the distraction of past events it took only thirty seconds for him to turn with a growl and attempt to drive his claws into his enemy. He encountered less resistance than if he had plunged his hands into mist.
“Bastard! Why can’t I – kill you!”
With a grunt of effort and a swift lunge, Inuyasha moved forward again, but Naraku only smiled, amused by Inuyasha’s persistence and ineffectiveness.
“You cannot do fleshly damage to things that have no flesh, idiot hanyou.”
His lip curled; absently, he rubbed the tips of his fingers together and looked up at Inuyasha with an expression of utter loathing.
“You, and that miko – you are responsible for my...current state. If it had happened to anyone else, I would be happy to see your attempts at continued vengeance frustrated; blame only yourself, Inuyasha!”
For a moment one of Naraku’s hands curled into a fist – but then he turned away, injecting amusement into his voice again, even in the face of Inuyasha’s sneer.
“We are moving on, Inuyasha. We are going forward. You have seen your brother offered all your dreams; now, you will see finally that he possesses a power so great that your strength will always be a mere shadow in comparison. You are weak, Inuyasha.”
For a moment, anger rushed like poison in Inuyasha’s veins, dark and compelling. For a moment it was difficult to decide what he hated more – the likely truth of that statement, or the one speaking -
But it was just a moment.
“Go to Hell! I killed you; if I’m weak, you’re less than nothing! Sesshomaru may be a bastard, he may even have taken Kagome – but I’d rather kill you once than be able to kill him a thousand times! At least he has an excuse for being the way he is – you – you -”
Having evoked such a wrathful reaction, Naraku took one step back.
“Temper, temper, Inuyasha.”
Around them, between them, a flare of darkness became shadow, and then dim blue light. Inuyasha’s anger was partially defused by the shift; there was no rush of color, and after a moment, he realized that they had come into the night.
There was nothing but trees around them, a quiet wood, but a pulsation of power reached out from the depths of the forest; familiar power, great and growing. Quickly, Inuyasha turned and began to run in the direction of that swelling youki.
It was Sesshomaru’s presence, wild in a way he had never felt - fully unleashed, his energy roaming senseless, without target or purpose.
As he ran, Naraku kept pace alongside him, gliding effortlessly, his robe and hair undisturbed by the wind of Inuyasha’s passage.
“You are approaching your brother in the midst of his training. There is only one individual who dares stand by him, to offer encouragement or advice; a mere servant, who fears what would happen if your brother was left alone. Do you feel the weight of Sesshomaru’s power, Inuyasha?”
Inuyasha said nothing, but he could feel the pressure, a steady thickening of the air; each of his movements was resisted, as if he were running through water. He took a hundred steps, and then another hundred – and then he was stuck, suddenly suspended in a flux of gold light like liquid, trapped like an insect in amber.
His mouth dropped open in surprise, and he struggled ineffectively. How – why was this happening? This was only a vision, wasn’t it? Not something...real?
Naraku laughed behind him, and the sound was caustic, but Inuyasha peered up and looked at Sesshomaru, standing silent with his eyes closed at the center of the maelstrom. A green and glowing aura clung to his skin; outside of that influence, his venomous dokkasou, glowing power looped and swam with the yellow brightness of the sun.
Utterly impressed, Inuyasha could only stare – and then it exploded. Sesshomaru’s eyes opened to show bloody blankness, the red-eyed stared of the onrushing Inu. Gold glow became a shock-wave that bent the trees back and sent wind whistling like a typhoon of fury. Slower, green toxin followed, and melted wood and leaves and stone and earth to nothing.
Inuyasha’s dreams of surpassing his brother’s power faded into a single breathless moment of awe – and then, surprising even himself, a feeling of washed-out sadness.
~~~
A/N: 800 words! Go Sesshomaru go! Oh there’s always a reason for everything...and...onward of course! One more chapter of Naraku and Inuyasha I think...possibly two, if I decide Naraku needs a second comeuppance....especially since I didn’t write in his first defeat. But onward!
Revisions complete! Only one more chapter to go...and then new!
Please Review!