Brother to the Rescue
They all turned around to look, but Sango and Miroku already knew who the voice belong to. The sun was just rising above the horizon. The sunlight shone upon the figure.

Miroku squints his eyes in order to see the figure clearly. The person stands tall next to the Goshinboku. Although he’s covered in fur, one can see he’s rather slim.

“Sesshomaru.” Sango whispered. “What are you doing here?”

Haruko looked at the man whom Sango addressed as Sesshomaru. Not exactly a pleasant name. He has long, silvery hair, with long, beautiful bangs. His eyes are yellow, a blue moon engraved in the center of his forehead. On either sides of is cheeks are two stripes of red, much like claw marks. His ears are pointy, like Inuyasha’s dog ears, only they’re not covered in fur. Haruko gasped softly. How can a man look so beautiful? She quickly lowered at head at the thought and blushed.

Unfortunately Sesshomaru heard her gasp and turned his attention toward her. “I see you’ve collected another miko to go along your pointless… quest. She seems too young and inexperienced for any good.” His words were cold, and he said them without any consideration to her feelings.

Haruko looked at up the man, who did not seem much older than Miroku. She already dislikes him. “Who do you think you are?”

Before she said anything more, another figure came from behind him. As the figure came closer, Haruko recognized it as a little girl. She ran up to the man, panting and giggling at the same time. “Jaken-sama can’t catch me!” She said happily. The little girl circled around Sesshomaru several times before finally stopping on his right side. The girl looked up at the man, didn’t seem to notice the three human and the injured youkai at all.

“Sesshomaru-sama, Jaken-sama can’t find any breakfast. What will we eat?” She barely reached the man’s thigh. Her voice is innocent and sweet. Haruko had first thought of her as the man’s little sister. But the respectful title she gave him must mean something else. No matter who he was, he disrespected her, and their conversation was not finished.

“You still haven’t answered my question.” Haruko pursued. “Who are you?”

“How dare you speak in such a disrespectable tone to Sesshomaru-sama?” Another short figure came from behind the trees. His voice is squeaky, and sounds very tired. When the figure came closer, Haruko saw its face. It was the exact contrast of Sesshomaru. This…toad thing is short and ugly, carrying a stick with an old man and a woman’s head.

Not waiting for a reply, the toad youkai turned to the man. “Sesshomaru-sama, why are we here?”

Sesshomaru turned to glare at the toad from the corner of his eye. “I don’t know what you’re doing here, Jaken, since I specifically told you to watch Rin. And as for my purpose, it’s not your place to ask.” His voice remained cold. Although he only whispered his words, everyone can see just how much fear he sent into the toad youkai. Jaken shivered and withdrew a little. When Sesshomaru’s attention averted from him, Jaken turned to glare at the girl, whose name is presumably “Rin”.

“Inuyasha’s not here, Sesshomaru.” Miroku looked directly into Sesshomaru’s eyes. “I’m afraid we lost your brother.”

“Brother?!” Haruko exclaimed aloud without meaning to. “But he’s a human.” She pointed at Sesshomaru.

“Human?!” Jaken almost screamed. “How dare you call the great Sesshomaru-sama a human? You should be punished!” At that he raised his staff and aimed the old man’s head at Haruko’s direction.

Flames shot out of the old man’s mouth. Without hesitation Kirara transformed and pounced on Jaken. The staff was knocked out of Jaken’s hand and the flame went into a different direction… toward the captured youkai. They all watched helplessly as the youkai screamed painfully and eventually was burnt into a crisp.

“No!” Sango screamed, “We needed him! Now we’ll never find Inuyasha or Kagome-chan!” The angry Sango took out her frustration on Jaken. She picked up her Hiraikotsu and threw it at the toad youkai. Jaken did not have time to dodge it. But before the flying bone could reach him, three green flashes of light appeared like whips and encircled the Hiraikotsu, stopping it in its tracks. With a fling of his hand, Sesshomaru sent the Hiraikotsu back at Sango. Miroku jumped in the way and blocked the counter-attack with his staff. The Hiraikotsu dropped to the ground, the poisonous acid from Sesshomaru’s nails were starting to melt the Hiraikotsu. Only then did Haruko realize the three lightning-like whips were Sesshomaru’s extracted claws.

“So you are a youkai!” Haruko exclaimed once more. At that a sense of disgust surfaced in her heart. Sesshomaru raised his right hand in amusement, showing off five long claws, glowing green.

Jaken is off by the side, looking at up Sesshomaru adoringly, tears are swelling up his already ugly toad eyes. “Sesshomaru-sama… saved this lowly Jaken!”

Sesshomaru did not seem to hear him, although he most likely did. Instead he turned to Sango. “He was no use to you anyway. I can help you find my little Halfling brother.”

“Question is: what would you get out of it?” Miroku stood in front of the girls, finally acting like a real man.

Sesshomaru frowned. “Do you want my help or not?”

Miroku hesitated for a while. His past experiences with Sesshomaru told him that this Inuyoukai is not one to be messing with. And he never cared much for Inuyasha’s safety. “Give me one reason why I should trust you.”

Sesshomaru did not answer immediately. Instead Rin ran toward Miroku with another giggle and replied. “My birthday is coming!”

Everyone sweat dropped, except for Sesshomaru.

“Uh… happy birthday?” Miroku looked at the little girl with curiosity. What’s with this kid?

“It’s my birthday present to Rin.” Suddenly Sesshomaru started talking. His voice sounded different, as though he was a little embarrassed. “I asked her what she wanted, and she asked me to help out ‘that nice onee-san from last time’. I presume she meant Inuyasha’s woman.”

Sango and Miroku looked amused… very amused. They weren’t able to say anything for quite a while. Their stares obviously made Sesshomaru uncomfortable, for the Inuyoukai growled loudly and his stares just turned deadlier.

“Why are we still standing here?” Haruko suddenly blurted. “We should to find Inuyasha and Kagome-sama.” She glared at Sesshomaru. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the situation. Obviously this Sesshomaru is the legitimate elder son of a daiyoukai, and Inuyasha was the hanyou bastard son. Sesshomaru and Inuyasha must hate each other a lot. And I bet Inuyasha always got picked on by this arrogant youkai. The situation reminded her more and more about her father. He was like Inuyasha, outcaste of the youkai clan, finally killed by hanyou hunting youkai. But as much as she’d like to take out her anger on Sesshomaru, she knew they needed him to find her new friends.

Sango is still not able to pick up her Hiraikotsu, she hissed at Sesshomaru, “I can’t get into a fight now that my weapon is damaged. I’ll stay here and watch Shippo. Also in case Inuyasha and Kagome-chan comes back by themselves.”

Miroku became very sad and disappointed. But knew they had to get things done quickly, with the time difference and all. “Can we take Kirara?”

“Go ahead,” Sango sighed.

Haruko stayed next to Miroku and Kirara, and tried to stay as far from Sesshomaru as possible. She gripped her bow tightly and climbed onto Kirara. Miroku followed suit, although he was careful not to touch her, in case he gets hurt before the real fight starts.

“Let’s go then, we have no time to waste.” Miroku urged Sesshomaru.

Instead of heading out, Sesshomaru turned and walked toward Sango. “Watch Rin.”

Sango looked up at him in surprise. So this girl must be his weakness. Who would’ve guessed? “Uh… of course.” Rin giggled again and ran to hug Sango. She turned only to say goodbye to Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru nodded and turned to Sango once again. “I’ll fix your weapon when I get back.”“Uh… okay…” Sango is now permanently in shock. When Sesshomaru finally turned around, she made eye contact with Miroku and said without sound: “What’s with him?”

Miroku grinned and signaled back: “Guess he got girl problems.” Sango rolled her eyes, although she agreed with the Houshi inwardly. She looked down at the girl in her arms, still hugging her, thanking her for taking her in for the moment. This girl must be very special.

“Jaken.” Sesshomaru called out. The toad jumped onto his feet in a flash and ran to stand behind his master. “Open another portal.”

Jaken simply nodded. He then ran to face the Goshinboku and raised his staff, with the woman’s head facing the tree. Then he started to chant a spell.

“The Goshinboku?” Miroku asked.

“It’s a time tree, is it not? It can open portals to another time.” Sesshomaru replied.

“But the place will remain the same. When Inuyasha and I went into the other side, it was in a cavern of a mountain.”

“That’s why Jaken is using his staff.” Sesshomaru is now getting impatient with the questions. “The same staff was used to open the portal to my father’s grave. The rest of you weren’t there back then. It can take us to another dimension.”

Miroku simply nodded, not wanting to press the youkai’s patience levels. But the one who’s most confused is Haruko. As though Naraku and Kikyo’s appearance weren’t enough, this Sesshomaru character jumps out, and along with him, a long history that Haruko is required to learn.

But she did pick up something Miroku overlooked. “What do you mean ‘us’?”

Sesshomaru looked at her again. “You can’t deal with the situation without me.” Aside from the fact that he’s a youkai, his arrogance is another thing that irritated Haruko. At least now I know where Inuyasha gets his attitude from.

Jaken suddenly stopped chanting and lowered his staff. A loud boom sounded and wind gusted all around them. Out of nowhere a black swirling portal appeared in front of the Goshinboku, much larger than the one before.

“I made this one extra large so we can have more time inside, Sesshomaru-sama.” Jaken said proudly, obviously very content with his achievement.

Sesshomaru ignored him and turned to Miroku and Sango. “This portal will last for three days at most. When it closes, we’ll have no way back, because there’s no time tree on the other side. But since time moves differently, three days here are the time it takes to eat three meals over in there. We need to get this mission done as quickly as possible.”

“Why can’t the toad stay here and reopen the portal again when it closes?” Haruko hissed. Jaken flinched on the words “the toad”.

“Because we’ll need all the help we can get over there. Now no more questions, we’re wasting time.” At that Sesshomaru grabbed Jaken by his collar and threw Jaken head first into the portal. Jaken’s scream eventually faded. Next he jumped in as well.

Miroku patted Kirara, signling her to fly in after Sesshomaru. As the same time he turned his head to smile at Sango to reassure her. “We’ll be back in time for dinner… probably three days later.” His voice faded into the swirling portal as well.

Sango’s heart just fell. You’d better come back… bouzo.

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