Sesshomaru’s Concubine Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Sacrifice for family

He couldn’t stay here anymore.

Inuyasha poked at the stump where his arm had once been and regretted it the moment that he did. The pain was so intense that he puke up everything in his stomach until he was left dry-heaving on the floor of the hut.

He was so pathetic for being so weak to pain. He needed to be strong.

He needed to be stronger. Stronger than Sesshomaru, Stronger than anyone else alive or dead. But the pain was holding him back. The pain was always holding him back, if only he hadn’t allowed Miroku to convince him to leave the village for a few days then he would have been there when Kagome had returned.

But as Sesshomaru had always called him, he had been weak. The disappointment clawed at him from the inside at finding the well was still closed, keeping him from returning to the future to be with her or her to return to the past to be with him. He had left, needed to be away and he had lost her. It was worse than when he would see Kikyo’s soul collectors and go off to see her, knowing that Kagome would be there when he returned.

He knew that he had been hurting Kagome but had been unable to resist the song of her past life. This time was so much worse because he had left his self imposed watch on the well to be free from the pain of knowing that she wasn’t coming back for just a time.

He had ruined everything just like he always did.

Standing, Inuyasha left the hut and went into the darkness of the night, needing to find her, and be stronger for her than he ever had been.

oOo

Standing there, Nori was unsure if she was ready for what was about to happen. It had been a few days since she had talked with Rie and that had been the longer that they hadn’t talk together since they had been children.

But this was not about who had stolen who’s doll…even if Rie had stolen it. This was about her actions towards her new granddaughter and even if she still could not find fault in her actions towards the newborn, her best friend and son did. She was a mother and tried to see her actions through the eyes of a parent but when she thought of that child; she did not see family.

She saw a threat to her family.

That wasn’t what she wanted though. She had never seen Goro or any other half demon as a threat, yet with her own granddaughter all she saw was a threat. It should have felt wrong to see the child in that light but when she thought about it…she found the baby looked too much like another child that she knew.

A child that had wounded her beyond repair from the moment of that he had been conceived.

“You should just come in already, Nori. We aren’t mating yet so get in here before we do!” Hotaka demanded as he always did.

It had always been something that Nori had disliked about the male. He only ever had real patience for mating and battle, everything else was just too slow for him. She could see why Rie had been reluctant to mate with him all those centuries ago, after all a male without patience was just a child in the end.

But he was a good male just like hers had been.

Her handmaidens opened the doors and she entered to find Rie and Hotaka sitting there, waiting for her. Both were in a state of undress but then it was nothing new with Hotaka. Rie was rarely able to keep her clothes on when left alone in a room with her mate.

Rie would not look at her though.

Rie found the floor to be of more interest that in her oldest and best friend to which Nori could not blame her. How Nori wished that she knew how to make her friend forgive her but there was no answer. There was no words or action that could undo what she had done and she would not want something to undo her actions.

She lived for her son and family. Everything, even her own life was second to this unwavering truth that she lived by.

“I don’t regret my actions in the least, Rie.”

Her friend’s head snaked up and stared at her, but Nori met her friend’s stare head on.

There was fire and anger there in Rie’s eyes that told Nori of the pain that she had inflicted upon her best friend. But Nori would not lie to her best friend. “If this world was different and my family wasn’t in danger because of that child then I would regret my actions. But our world isn’t different and my family is in danger so I do not regret my actions toward the child; I do not regret taking action to ensure my family’s survival.”

She would not apology for her actions. She would take her own claws to her heart and dig. She would dig them into her chest over and over until she could rip out her heart with her claws if it meant that her family would survive.

You were going to kill your own blood…your mother and uncle raised you to be better.” Rie hissed suddenly.

She thought of her mother. The old demoness had lived by the law that family was everything and came before anything else.

Nori had had that belief hammered into her head from before she had learned to walk. “My son has seven children and a human priestess under his care. One of those children are a threat to him, his priestess and their other children. My son could…would not kill that child and save himself along with the rest of his family just like your father, Rie.”

She never saw Rie move from across the room but she did feel the stinging pain of a slap infused with holy power. It hurt but it did not hurt as much as the tears in Rie’s eyes.

“My father did the right thing!” Rie screeched at Nori.

“But he’s dead, his mate is dead, his sons are scattered and disconnected from each other. His only daughter? Mated herself to male that she hadn’t originally wanted for herself to take care of her infant brother that was the cause of all her family’s pain! Do you still think that your father did the right thing?”

The look in Rie’s eyes told Nori YES. Rie still believe that her father had done the right thing and nothing would ever change her mind on the matter.

That look made Nori feel so tired and hollow that she could not stop herself from falling to her knees. This had been her best friend since childhood and now she was losing that friendship that had kept her strong after all the hardships that struck her in her long life. She hadn’t felt this alone ever.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not.”

“I am sorry. I’m sorry that all of this has hurt you. But You know that my family’s s-”

“Survival comes above everything.” Rie said it as if it was an accusation of a great crime. “Your family has always thought that. They wouldn’t think twice of killing off one or two individuals for the rest of your family; your own father was a casualty of such thinking and I’m thankful that your cousin does not carry such ideas within his head.”

“My cousin is a child.”

Your cousin is 500 years old and he is older than your own son by two hundred years. He is also the ruler that I serve under; so mind your tongue, Nori.” Hotaka ordered.

Those were the only words that the lord of hell had spoken and Nori’s cheeks flushed as she realized the error that she had made. Hotaka would not allow another insult to her cousin and she would not blame him if he ended her life right then and there if she was so unwise as to do it again.

But still she would press. “My uncle had 200 hundred children and now only ten of them are still alive including the ruler. This would not have happened if my uncle’s children had followed the way of our family.”

“Or they could all be there. They followed what they thought would be the right thing to do for your family-”

“And now my bloodline is in danger of dying out. Those children are a part of restoring my family and they will come to see family as I do one day if the gods are kind.” Nori looked at her friend and wished that the pain that she felt would fade quickly with time. “I’m still sorry that I have hurt you and I’m sorry that I cannot make you understand.”

She turned and walked out, feeling more alone than she could ever remember. It hurt to be so alone but she would not allow pain to stop her from what needed to be done for the good of her family.

oOo

“I wonder if you were too harsh.”

“I wasn’t.”

“But what if you were?”

“I wasn’t. Nori is still controlled by her family’s ideas and views after all this time…I was giving her a dose of reality.”

Hotaka stared at his mate, seeing the pain that was there in Rie’s eyes. He knew that his mate saw Nori as her best friend and the sister that she had never gotten from her parents. It was likely a wound that would not heal if he didn’t do something to stop it from poisoning her.

“You would stay mad at her forever.”

“We’re immortal…staying mad at her forever is a very real possibility, thank you.” Rie snapped at him before getting up.

He knew what she was trying to do in that moment. His little mate was trying to distance herself from his logic and reason so that she could keep the anger, and pain burning inside of her. She had done it in the past or at least had tried to do so but he refused to allow that bullshit to happen every time.

“We lived with families that loved us for who we are and not what we bring to the family.” He wrapped his arms around her waist. He held her struggling form against himself and kissed her neck before he continued. “We were loved and she wasn’t…not in the sense that she was a person.”

“So what? That means that she is allow to harm infants because of what they are? That is never going to be something that I can forgive, Hotaka.”

“You don’t have to forgive, just understand.”

“Understand what? That her family is twisted and never truly respected any member beyond the head of the family? The head of the family was always the only one that was never thought to be disposable!”

There was such sadness in his mate’s voice despite the outrage that laced her words that he wished that he could just take it all away for her. For he knew that she wasn’t truly angry with Nori but the poison that filled their friend’s mind since childhood. It was hard to look pass a veil and see the truth behind it when you have been told over and over to the veil wasn’t even real to begin with.

It was wrong but all members of that family but the head had been raised with the knowledge that they should die for the family without another thought. He had met others in Nori’s family beside their ruler. Many of them when they had lived seemed to be cold and almost emotionless as if that was the only way that they could survive the fact that they were only pawns for their family’s needs.

It made Hotaka sick when he thought of how the humans in the realm did must the same with their daughters.

He hoped that he would never ever be forced into a position that forced him to mate one of his daughters to a stranger. All of his children deserved lives filled with happiness.

“You are right about her family, my love. But that just meets that we have to try and help cleanse her of the poison that fills her.”

The pain that filled Rie’s eyes clawed at him from the inside out. He never wanted to see her in such pain.

“We’ll figure it out…just a little at a time.”

oOo

“They are becoming useless, mother!” Takashi growled into the black mirror before him.

His mother stared back at him, utterly unamused by him and he knew it but could careless about her feelings on the matter. As always his mother was dressed more like a prostitute than a lady of high breeding, and standing with how she only wore a few layers and how she had the kimono so loose around her neck that some of her breasts were visible if one desired to look.

“The spies? Really, boy…they should be working just fine.” His mother dismissed before taking a puff of her pipe.

The dismissal burned as it always had but he persisted as he knew he needed to do. Or his mother would ignore him and he needed aid with his spies.

He could not understand why they were not working as they had before but it almost seemed that they had been weakened and were becoming defiant to his commands as well as his past orders. But then he did not understand everything in involving the damned creatures since they were not his by design.

“Mother if they were working ‘just fine’ then I would not seek to bother you with such trivial things.”

It was then that he felt the cold burn of his mother’s eyes on his skin as if she was about to punish him for being a bad boy. “But you have seen to bother me…and demand that I aid you with the figures.”

He said nothing for a moment just stared at his mother, who now was watching him like a hawk. His body stood frozen as her black gaze sharpened on him; his heart felt constricted within his chest like his mother had plunged her hand into his chest to crush his heart.

He could almost feel her long black claws graze the skin of his heart.

It was then that he felt something warm run down his legs but still he could not look away from his mother. Her gaze held him as her prisoner.

“Tell me what is wrong with your little figures, boy before I come through this mirror and punish you in person for being such a bad son.”

Takashi’s throat closed with fear but still he forced the words out without giving away the terror that he felt. “They don’t report things that needed to be reported to me immediately like they had been until a little while ago. It’s frustrating and it’s dangerous for me to not know everything right now since I am in the enemy’s lands. Sesshomaru already has allies that may be hard to overcome if I do not stay on top of their plans at all times.”

“Sesshomaru? As in Lord Sesshomaru, your sister’s mate? I thought you two were allies thanks to the mating between him and Sakura…Has she been pupped yet?”

A cold sweat broke out on Takashi’s pale skin at his mother’s words. He had taken pains to keep Sakura’s death from her and wanted to keep it a secret for a time longer.

It was then that the doors to his chambers opened and Sesshomaru’s bitch mother, lady Nori moved to enter. He noticed that she looked like a bride in the blue and green kakeshita. It looked good with the silver of her hair but while he would like to fuck her, she would not be something that he would keep for long.

She was no different to him then the little servant that laid dead on the floor just a few steps from him.

He glanced at the mirror to see that his mother was gone, something that he was quite happy for. “How may I help you, lady Nori?”

“You can bathe and get the smell of piss off you to begin then we can talk about the female owed to you.” She informed him as she walked farther into his chambers.

The nerve of the bitch made him want to teach her a lesson but now was not the time. “I’ll bathe after we talk with about my new female.”

OoOo

The night was dark and cold but still she walked the path with the fresh meat in her basket. Mikoto and Yoshie were both asleep and warm in their bed with their little brother, Keiichi beside them. They’re smiles brought her comfort when there felt to be so little of it as of late.

Mikoto and Yoshie had been in tears just a few days before because of what they had seen. They still had nightmares from seeing Inuyasha claw his arm off; how she wished that she knew how to help them overcome the nightmares of the sight that they had seen.

But all she could do was sing them to sleep and stay by their side until nothing could wake them from the land of dreams.

She would have stayed by their sides and have Miroku go bring the meat to lady Kaede but he had felt the walk would do her good. She didn’t think it would but she could not help but feel more relaxed by the cold night air that filled her lungs.

Miroku had been right that she needed time to relax, calm down and walk away from the troubles that plagued for just a moment. A hard kick from inside have her touching the growing life inside her belly.

She was so happy to be have another child, it was wonderful to have a new life growing inside of her but Sango found herself plagued with thoughts of Kagome. 5 years have gone by and for the last 2 years, no one had truly dared to say Kagome’s name.

Last, she had heard by Miroku was that Kagome had had a baby girl with more on the way.

It was good news but bad at the same time. It was different for Kagome than it was for her. She loved Miroku and felt every child that they had was a product of that love but she knew that Kagome couldn’t feel the same.

Sango had no doubt in her mind that Kagome loved every child that she had with Sesshomaru but that Kagome never chose Sesshomaru as the father of her children. Kagome had loved Inuyasha so much all those years and that it pained Kagome to have another man’s child again, and again that Sango didn’t know if she could do the same.

“Sango, what are you doing out here at this time of night?” Lady Kaede asked as she walked towards her.

“Kirara hunted a nice, big boar today since she and Kohaku are back for a few days. I thought the meat would be good for you and Inuyasha…how is Inuyasha?” Sango asked as she showed lady Kaede the meat in her basket.

Lady Kaede took a pack of the meat and opened the cloth packing to see nice marbled meat in the light of the moon. Sango felt pride at what Kirara had done and that Kohaku was making his way in the world. She knew that he was still haunted by what he had done but was happy that he was doing good in the penance that he sought out for himself.

“He’s been sleeping the last days as you know…I wish that we had some of Kagome’s medicine right now. His wound is not faring as well as I like and his fever isn’t going down either.”

Lady Kaede’s hut came into view and Sango hoped that all would be well in the days to come.