Alpha by Lyra

K: Keck

Drabble Collection Alpha

LXXXVII

Prompt From The Alphabet Challenge

K: Keck: to retch; to feel disgust

The air was hot and still. At Sesshomaru’s feet lay six groaning guardsmen. The sword in his hands was slick with gore, but he was unmoving, tightly gripping the hilt.

Only a single opponent was still standing, facing him; a female Inu, the lieutenant who had been left in charge of the small garrison that guarded the shiro in the Inu no Taisho’s absence. She had already been wounded in the thigh and in her right arm; she appeared to hold her sword with difficulty, but steadied it with her off hand and did not flinch as Sesshomaru came at her once again.

His voice younger, but still recognizable, Sesshomaru spoke as his sword drew sparks from his opponent’s weapon. If Inuyasha had not known better, he would have sworn he heard something faintly teasing in his brother’s tones.

“You should yield, Yuugao. You are outmatched.”

She came at him with a swift and sudden flurry of blows, making it obvious that the weakness in her right arm had been mostly feigned.

“Your mother has forbidden it, young Lord. I am instructed to bring out the fullness of your power. Do you feel I have done that?”

Sesshomaru only growled in response this time, all his attention on parrying the movement of her sword. Minutes passed; there was no sound but breath and the clang of steel on steel. As time passed, Yuugao showed obvious signs of being pressed, and again began to favor her right hand, wielding her blade two-handed.

Opposite her exhausted stance, Sesshomaru presented a different picture entirely. There was red at the corner of his eyes, gold light flowing from the edges of his movements. With a snarl and sudden lunge, he brought his sword down in a vicious movement that caught her sword full on and shattered it into a dozen pieces.

While Yuugao was still staring at her sword in shock, Sesshomaru’s blade came back along its path – but there was nothing to deflect it.

There was a stiff, hot silence broken only by the spurting sound of blood, and with a terrible feeling of understanding that he could not put aside, Inuyasha saw exactly what had happened. It had happened to him, too; it was the thing he lived in constant fear of.

His brother had pushed the Inu too far. He was full youkai, but he was young, his power unsteady and enormous, not yet tied to the firm control that would become so terrifying as he grew older. For a moment, Sesshomaru was still, as the glow faded from his movements and the red from eyes. It was then – only then – that he saw what he had done...and regretted it.

Infinitely.

A howl escaped him; twin streams of tears ran down his face. Aimlessly, hopelessly, he reached out toward her body, but then he let out another cry, and turned away, and retched.

Yuugao’s body had slumped where she was standing, but her sightless eyes stared at him from across the courtyard, her head especially odd-looking where the stump of her neck seemed to blend into his mother’s white-and-red slipper.

Inuyasha looked on in horror as Sesshomaru’s mother moved her foot almost idly, and kicked Yuugao’s head away from her slipper; he backed away a full three steps as it rolled near him and turned to his own mother, spoke in pleading tones.

“Mother – mother, enough now, mother, I understand – I-”

But Inuyasha’s mother spoke to him in a voice utterly cold.

“No. No. You do not understand. You, my son, possess your father’s stubborn nature in its entirety, and this, I know, is not enough to make clear to you the truth. There is more yet. Watch!”

Reluctant, Inuyasha turned back, and steeled himself for more horrors. Having rid herself of the obstacle impeding her way, Sesshomaru’s mother was quick to go to the side of her son...but it was not to offer comfort.

Even Inuyasha no longer suspected that.

“Mother, why is she doing it? Why is she being so terrible to him? He’s her son!”

Faintly, elegantly, Inuyasha’s mother shrugged.

“Perhaps that is the reason. Who can say?”

~~~

A/N: 700 words...and anyone who doesn’t feel bad for Sesshomaru now is just heartless...which says something about his mother. [evil expletives-provoking witch that she is!] And, actually about Inuyasha. Who is finally getting it...although...I mean...like I said – a hammer to the head, this is! On another note...this chapter is dedicated to Smittee; only proper, as it is the longest Alphabet Challenge chapter yet! :D

Revisions complete! Onward!

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