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Silver Demons
by SkyFire (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
rabid_plotbunny)
Previous chapters: 1 | 2 | 3-4 | 5-6
Warnings: Eventual Sess/Seph (shonen-ai or yaoi, I haven't decided. We'll see when we get there. ^_^)
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII or InuYasha and no money is being made.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Chapter 7
His first indication that things weren't going to be quite that simple - of course they weren't. What had he been thinking? - came when the moment the monks were close enough, he was greeted not by words but by handfuls of papers being flung in his direction along with a shouted 'Demon, begone!'.
Stunned by the act - what did they think was going to happen, that he would plead for mercy if he somehow ended up with a papercut? - he just stood there motionless for a moment, watching smug looks spread across their faces with a sense of consternation. They really expected him to fall under a paper attack? What were they thinking?
The smugly superior looks stayed on the monks' faces right up until the papers fell from him to gracefully float to the ground. Their eyes widened in shock, then narrowed in determination even as they brandished their staves in his direction.
Sephiroth reached over and grabbed one of the papers that had become stuck between two plates of his shoulder guards, studied it for a moment, then held it up to them. "Would someone care to explain this?" he asked calmly.
Instead of a direct answer, he had to pick it out of the surprised murmuring that passed between them.
"...he touched it! How could.."
"...had no effect-!"
"...be a powerful demon..."
"...save us..."
"...so many sacred sutras..."
"...no ordinary demon. Daiyoukai?"
"...have to use..."
"So am I to believe that you think I am a demon - a real, living demon from hell - and that these papers would somehow defeat me?" He flicked the paper in their direction, barely holding back an amused huff when they leapt back in surprise, hands tightening on their weapons.
"It can read minds?" one of the monks almost-shrieked, eyes wide.
"Those are sacred sutras!" another of the monks said in a self-important voice. "They will hold any demon and burn them with their sacred power!"
"Really?" Sephiroth made a show of looking himself over, then met the other man's eyes with his own narrowed gaze. "They don't seem to have done anything to me. If they work on all demons, what does that tell you?"
"That you must be a really powerful demon, a daiyoukai! But no matter; you will not escape our combined spiritual power!"
Sephiroth stared. "And the fact that I might not be a demon at all never occurred to you...?"
The man glared. "Foul demon! You won't fool us with your trickery! Your disguise is worthless! Look around you, demon. Does anyone look even a little bit like you, with your towering height, your long silver hair, and your glowing eyes? All the mark of a demon!"
Sephiroth was forced to acknowledge the fact that no, no one here looked anything like him. Then again no one had ever looked anything like him. It still didn't mean anything. He was a demon because he was tall? Because he had a SOLDIER's Mako eyes? Ridiculous.
It was as he stood there, trying to come up with an argument that the hardheaded man would accept - a feat in itself - that their little altercation took the opportunity to escalate. He noticed movement out of the corner of one eye and turned just in time to see one of the other monks throw something to the ground at his feet. Whatever it was burst on impact, flooding the area with odd-colored smoke.
What the-? A smoke bomb? Did they expect it to hinder him? He was Sephiroth! A little smoke was hardly a deterrent!
"Is this supposed to hinder me in some-"
Then he knew.
The smoke swirled around them, having spread to cover them and the nearby houses completely, and they had no choice but to breathe it in. But while the monks didn't seem to have much difficulty, the same could not be said for him.
The strange smoke burned as he breathed; his nose, his throat, his lungs all filled with a million tiny pinpricks. That was more irritating than anything else, but that was not the end of it. It was easily all the worst things he had ever smelled in his life combined, multiplied a hundredfold. He gagged, eyes watering, unable to suppress the momentary weakness that sent him to one knee, cursing the finely-enhanced, extremely sensitive senses that left him susceptible to the stupidest attacks. The great Sephiroth, Shinra's Silver General and the Demon of Wutai, felled by a stink-bomb? He would never live it down.
Even as he thought that, a warning tingling in his limbs told him that it was in no way an ordinary stink-bomb. Already, he had lost feeling in the very tips of his fingers and he could feel the numbness creeping inward, moving up from his fingers, his toes even as a heavy wave of lethargy passed through him.
He had to get out of there.
He got his legs under him, ready to jump straight up and fly away to a - hopefully - friendlier village, looked up just in time to meet a monk's descending staff with his face.
oOo
When the smoke cleared under the urging of a warm breeze a few minutes later, it was to find the group of monks gathered around the fallen body of the silver-haired man. Rope reinforced with their strongest sutras bound his wrists and ankles, and a smudge of the same substance the smoke was made from under his nose ensured that he would not be waking any time soon, even though the bruise from the blow that had knocked him unconscious was already all but gone.
"Definitely a demon," one of them said. "Only someone with a nose far better than human would be that susceptible to the demon-slayers' smoke."
"I wonder what kind of demon he is," another said.
"He might be a dog," said the monk who had thrown down the smoke-bomb. "When he held off the sutras, I remembered that the hanyou Inuyasha has silver hair. He's part dog demon."
"That would explain the sensitive nose," said the one who had spoken with Sephiroth, the one who apparently led their group. He thought a moment, then his eyes widened. "Do you realize what we have done?" he said, a fanatically smug grin growing on his face.
"Captured a demon...?"
"Think about it! How many demons have you heard of that have silver hair?"
Murmurs rose as the others spoke together. "Ah... There's Inuyasha... uh..."
"I've heard of two," the leader said. "The hanyou Inuyasha is the most widely recognized. But there are rumors that there is another. A tall demon with long silver hair and a gaze that promises death to any who sees it. A filthy dog demon who calls himself the Lord of the Western Lands." He looked to their captive with a self-satisfied smirk. "We," he said, "have captured the daiyoukai Sesshoumaru."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Chapter 8
It was a typical enough day in the Western Lands. The sun was shining, the air filled with the smell of warm greenery, a gentle breeze blowing just enough to take away the worst of the heat while not being strong enough to chill.
The two-headed dragon Ah-Un grazed contentedly on one side of a clearing in one of the Lands' many forests, one head lifting every now and then to cast a watchful look around.
The human girl Rin moved through the clearing, skipping from one patch of wild flowers to the next apparently at random, her bouquet of picked flowers growing only slowly; she picked only the best, most perfect blossoms to present to her Lord upon his return. She sang as she worked; as always it was a song about how patiently she waited for his return.
Jaken spent his time squawking at Rin to sit still, to be quiet, and 'stop picking all those silly flowers!' and staring off into the woods where Lord Sesshoumaru had disappeared, once again leaving them behind.
The imp watched and waited loyally - he wasn't moping! - for his master's return, for any glimpse of white among the trees that would tell him that their waiting was at an end. What was taking him so long; shouldn't he have been back by now? Had something happened to him? Bah! What could possibly happen? He was the great Lord Sesshoumaru, the most powerful daiyoukai in the land - no, in the world! - and undefeatable! Except for that once when the filthy hanyou Inuyasha cut off his left arm. Oh, and when that vile Naraku almost absorbed him and he'd been rescued by his half-brother. How dare the half-breed breathe the same air as his Lord! His aid had not been needed! Lord Sesshoumaru was just waiting until that filth Naraku let down his guard before destroying him and Inuyasha blundered in and messed up his Lord's perfect plan! Right? And even if his Lord had needed aid, it would be him, his most loyal retainer Jaken, who would provide it! Oh, Lord Sesshoumaru, where are you?
Jaken was so caught up in his mental drama that he failed to notice Ah-Un's huff of welcome and Rin's quiet greetings, only noticing that someone had entered the clearing from the direction they had arrived when he turned and almost ran beak-first into a pair of shin-guards.
"Jaken," came the voice from above.
Jaken jumped back with a surprised squawk, staff moving into position to torch whoever had crept up behind him, conveniently ignoring the fact that they had done no such thing. Then he recognized the demon before him as Mori, one of the higher-ranking of Sesshoumaru's personal guards. Not that their lord was incapable of defending himself in his own home, far from it, but tradition was tradition. As far as he knew, though, they never left the palace. Moved with the others in the seasonal migration between the summer and winter palaces, yes, but wander out into the wilds? Unheard of!
In his shock at the fact that the inuyoukai had left his post in the palace to find them, Jaken responded with his typical polite, cool, calm, and unshakable diplomacy. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"Where is Lord Sesshoumaru?" came the question in reply, the demon scenting the air in search of his missing Lord.
"Don't answer a question with a question, you insolent dog! Now why are you here?"
The guardsman all but ignored him. "Where is Lord Sesshoumaru?" he asked again.
"He left a little while ago," Rin said simply, coming up to them. "He will come back soon."
The guard's relief was almost tangible. "I knew it couldn't be true," he said.
"Knew that what what couldn't be true?" Jaken demanded.
In response, the guardsman reached into a pouch and pulled out a letter. It was written on fine enough paper by human standards, though it was nothing compared to true youkai craftsmanship, and addressed simply enough 'To the Demons of the Western Lands'. There was a faint bloody smudge on one corner and the seal was broken.
"This letter was delivered early this morning," the guardsman said, a trace of anger adding bite to his words. "It was attached to an arrow and shot into one of the palace doors, nicking the arm of one of the guards. My superior, the head of Lord Sesshoumaru's personal guard, opened the letter then sent me out here to find him."
"In My Lord's absence, I handle the affairs of his lands," Jaken said, snatching the letter from the other demon's clawed hand. He opened it then started to read, even as his mouth kept right on going. "He knows that I will take very good care of everything until he retur-WHAT?"
Buggy eyes wide, Jaken read the letter again, the Staff of Two Heads falling unnoticed to the grassy ground. "This is impossible!" he shrieked, flailing. "How could My Lord have been captured, and by mere humans! Oh, My Lord, how could this have happened? I'll bet it was the fault of that Inuyasha again! Oh, why couldn't your illustrious father have settled for your utter perfection instead of going out and siring that disgraceful mongrel? Now you've been captured by monks and it's up to me to save you!" He ignored the way Rin's eyes grew big at the news of Sesshoumaru's apparent capture, as well as the way she started theatrically screaming in dismay, hands at her cheeks. "Don't worry, Lord Sesshoumaru! I, your most loyal servant Jaken, will save y-urk!"
Even as Jaken faceplanted in the grass, a rock thudding down beside him, the others turned to see Lord Sesshoumaru walk out of the forest, as cool, calm, and immaculate as always.
"Rin, stop it," he said simply.
She stopped screaming instantly. "Yes, My Lord!" she said with a smile, then went back to picking flowers, reassured that her Lord was in no danger.
Sesshoumaru walked over to Jaken and Mori, then took the hastily-retrieved letter when the guardsman offered it.
Ignoring the way Jaken was now blubbering all over his boots, Sesshoumaru read the monks' letter. One snowy brow rose slightly in intrigue and curiosity as he read about his capture by them in one of his own border towns, miles away from their current position, and their ultimatum.
Ridiculous.
As if he would give the Western Lands, the lands that his family had ruled for generation upon generation, over to the governance of a pack of mud-crawling ningen. Neither would any demon worth the title give up that land to save their ruler. If it came to that, it would only prove that the current leader was too weak to rule, and another would then rise up to take his place.
No human would ever rule the Western Lands. Not while even a single demon remained alive to claim them.
It was odd, though; these monks seemed certain that they had managed to capture him, the great Lord Sesshoumaru. Obviously, they had not. So who-
Those who knew him best would notice the slight narrowing of golden eyes, the minute tightening of his lips that was all that revealed his irritation at the fact that he would once again have to go and save his family's reputation from the uncouth blotch on the family tree that was his half-brother Inuyasha.
How dare the miserable mongrel allow himself to be captured by humans!
oOo
Miles away, a certain hanyou sneezed.
Rubbing his nose in irritation, he looked up as Miroku walked up to him. Their group had stopped in a village to resupply and see if there were any rumors about any jewel shards in the area. He hated wasting perfect traveling weather, but aimless wandering hadn't done them much good so far....
"Inuyasha," the monk said simply. "I heard a rumor you might find interesting. It's about a temple in a nearby village and your brother Sesshoumaru."
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