Hidden Treasures
“So how do we get out?”

With Yugumi’s death, all the youkai disbanded. They all decided to go back to the mountains and the forests. Sesshomaru said nothing to these youkai, although as each of them exited, they all bowed to their young Lord. Yugumi’s corpse remained in the same spot, no one tended to it, no one except for Megira mourned for him.

“You can’t leave yet!” Megira suddenly yelled out loud just as Sesshomaru was leading the gang out. The cowardly youkai looked all shaken up, and it seemed as though if he stay standing for another minute, he’ll faint on the spot.

“And why the hell not?” Inuyasha growled. His thigh, arms are all injured, and he knows himself that he can’t keep pretending he’s fine. To get out and get healed would be the best thing to do at the moment.

“The…”On seeing Inuyasha’s fierce expression, Megira took a few steps back and began to stutter again. “The doors… Yugumi-sama wanted the two of you to open…”

“What the hell are you talking about?!?” Inuyasha’s impatience has always been one of his weak points. “Like I freakin’ care about some stupid doors. Kagome, Miroku, let’s go.”

Kagome refused to move. “C’mon, Inuyasha, let’s hear him out.” She pleaded him with her misty, brown eyes. Without realizing it, Inuyasha could no longer feel his pains and sank slowly and deeply into those eyes. Inuyasha’s silence usually means yes. So Kagome turned to the shivering youkai and asked, “Where are the doors you want Inuyasha to open?”

“Not…not just Inuyasha-sama,” Megira stared at the ground nervously. He pointed to the two iron-clad doors at the sides of the cavern. “There are two, one for each of you.” It’s clear that the youkai is afraid to speak to Sesshomaru directly, although Sesshomaru has his back to everyone.

Inuyasha groaned a little. He turned sideways to look at his brother, Sesshomaru turned as well. Without a word between them, the two descended. Inuyasha went to the door on the right, while Sesshomaru walked toward the one on the left. Kirara carried Kagome and Miroku down as well; they approached Inuyasha while Haruko remained near the entrance with the two unconscious miko and Kaede.

“So how the fuck do we open these shit doors? And why should we?”

“Well, umm… I don’t know…” Megira looked as though he knew that he’s a dead youkai. Before Inuyasha have a chance to jump on him, he squealed out, “Yugumi-sama said something about fangs. That’s all I know, I swear!!!”

Inuyasha knocked him on the head heavily, the same way he hits Shippo. “Damn, bastard, making us waste our time. Let’s go already!!!”

“Wait, Inuyasha.” Kagome stopped him again and pointed to Sesshomaru. He’s standing less than six inches away from the iron door. He’s using his only hand, gently touching the key hole embedded in the center of the door.

Sesshomaru then touched his Tenseiga, and an idea occurred to him. With his back still facing Inuyasha, he thought out loud. “Our fangs, Tessaiga and Tenseiga, are the keys.”

Inuyasha didn’t reply. Kagome bent down to take a closer look at the keyhole, it was odd because there were no curves or indents, just a smooth, elongated hole. “I think he’s right, Inuyasha. The Tessaiga would probably fit, try it.”

Inuyasha growled again, he didn’t want to listen to his half-brother. But it was a command from Kagome. Might as well, He thought to himself, better not be a trap.

Inuyasha drew Tessaiga from its sheath and with a swing the mighty fang transformed. Impatiently Inuyasha slid the fang into the keyhole. On the other side of the cavern, Sesshomaru did the same with the Tenseiga. The fangs fit perfectly. At the same time, the two brothers turned their swords. A loud echo rang through the cavern, and the doors opened up. Inuyasha led Miroku, Kagome, and Kirara into the other side, while Sesshomaru calmly walked into his side.

“OH MY…!!!” Kagome couldn’t help but gasp in awe. The guys’ mouths were open so wild you could stuff oranges in them and they wouldn’t notice.

Inside the doors, beyond their wildest dreams, were filled with treasure. There are three walls not counting the wall with the door. Each wall was lined with shelves and stands. Near the wall to their right, was a shelf full of golden goblets, jade bowls, silver cups, jewelries, and valuable coins. On the shell to their left, hundreds of yards of beautiful silk were rolled up. The last wall, directly opposite from them, were weapon racks. Swords of different eras and styles, staffs, rods, and even tritons filled the stands.

“Sugoi!!!” Miroku couldn’t help but yelled out in delight. He untied his outer robe and spread it open on the ground like a picnic blanket. Then he rushed over to the jewelries and started to load them onto his robe. “Kagome-sama, Inuyasha, help me out here, I only have two hands.” Kagome rolled her eyes at the greedy Houshi.

“Oi, Miroku, what do you think you’re…” Inuyasha almost laughed at the Houshi.

“If you don’t stop now I guaranteed you you’ll have no hands left at all.” Sesshomaru somehow came over to their side. Everyone turned to look at him. Kagome looked over to the opposite side of the cavern, and found Sesshomaru’s door was closed. Sesshomaru didn’t take any of the treasures. But under his arms, he held a long roll of light blue silk with yellow daisy flower designs.

“Everything here belongs to me,” Inuyasha cut in, “if my friend wants to take them, who are you to stop him?” Inuyasha just said this to shut Sesshomaru up, but Miroku took this as a sign of consent, so once more he rushed over to unload the “goods”.

Inuyasha ignored the Houshi for the time being. He can feel his brother’s aura getting stronger. Inuyasha concentrated his senses on the person before him. But instead, Sesshomaru’s aura relaxed. “Perhaps…”

"Perhaps what?"

But Sesshomaru said no more. He walked out and started for the door on the platform where Yugumi and the rest last sat. The door’s key hole is different, and yet similar to the other two holes. Sesshomaru studied them intently.

“Inuyasha, what do you plan to do with them?” Kagome went to look at the jewelries and silk that Miroku has not yet loaded. Every single one of them glimmered and shined. Oh, I really hope we can keep these.

“Ahh…” Miroku moaned in frustration. “This is as much as I can carry.” The robe had no more space left. Miroku tied up everything and put them on Kirara. “Thank you, Kirara, I’ll make sure to make you golden rings for your feet when we go back.” The loyal cat mewed in content.

The treasure room still had many great items left. The weapons remained untouched. Something shiny caught Kagome’s eyes and she went over to check it out. It was a set of jewelries, a necklace, two bracelets, a ring, and two earrings. The design was deep blue water lilies; the main chains were white gold. Kagome gasped, she couldn’t help but run her fingers over them with care.

“Take them.”

“Nani?” Kagome turned to look at Inuyasha. The hanyou wouldn’t look straight into her eyes. “You mean… I can…”

“Keh, I won’t have any use for such girly stuff anyway.” Inuyasha yawned, pretending he’s bored. Kagome would look really good in them. C’mon, stop doubting me and just take them!

Kagome smiled. Gently she placed the jewels into an empty box on the shelf; Miroku has already emptied out its original contents. Inuyasha finally walked over and extended a hand. “Give it to me,” When Kagome turned to look at him with questioning eyes, he replied, “You don’t have pockets.” Not that he has any pockets either, but he shoved the box into his yukata anyways. “Done yet?” He asked Miroku.

“I just wish I brought a cart,” Miroku sighed in regret, “I only managed to grab half of the jewelries and some silk.”

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, and Kagome giggled. “Let’s go.”

As soon as they exited the room, the doors slammed back into place. They looked around and saw everything remained the same. Inuyasha walked over to Megira. “I thought Yugumi said he split the treasures among the lesser youkai? Then how come there are so many left?”

Megira shivered. “Yugumi-sama would never allow family treasure to fall into the hands of outsiders. He did give out treasures, but they were not genuine. And he said that to fool you.” Megira shivered again as he whispered out the word “fool”.

“Sonofabitch.” Inuyasha felt the urge the slap him. But Sesshomaru’s voice distracted him.

“Inuyasha, we have one more door to unlock.”

Inuyasha gave a slight “hmph”. But so far today, everything has been fine with his half-brother, so he gave Sesshomaru some credit and rushed over immediately.

As he approached Sesshomaru pointed to the keyhole. Around it, almost invisible, were words. The characters were ancient Japanese Kanji, so Inuyasha couldn’t understand any, considering the fact he only had a few years of education when his mother was still alive.

Sesshomaru knew about Inuyasha’s lack of educations, so he translated for him. “It says 'When two bloods runs as one, when two hearts beats as one, when two destinies are fulfilled as one, the key shall be found.'”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Inuyasha scratched his ear. He didn’t like looking stupid, especially in front of his half-brother. But some things can’t be helped.

“I’m not sure either.” When Inuyasha wanted to fetch Megira, Sesshomaru stopped him, “I doubt he knows anything about it either. But if you look carefully at the key hole, you’d find that it’s twice the size of my fang.”

“So…you mean…”

“If separately our fangs opened two separate doors, together, they’d probably be able to open this one.” Sesshomaru didn’t wait for Inuyasha for respond. Instead he slid Tenseiga into the keyhole, leaving just enough space for Tessaiga. The form of the hole not only allowed the two swords to fit perfectly, but the handles were taken care of too.

“Well, they do fit.”

But when the two brothers tried to the turn the swords, they wouldn’t budge. Then they switched the position, but still no progress.

Inuyasha, being the impatient hanyou he is, tried to knock down the door with pure force. But he almost broke his shoulder.

“It won’t work,” Sesshomaru put the Tenseiga back into its sheath and walked away. “The puzzle needs to be solved first.”

“Well, we can’t just stay here forever and solve this damn thing.” Inuyasha did the same as Sesshomaru. “It’s probably just more treasures.”

He leaped to where everyone was waiting for him, and cheered. “The stuff Miroku took should be enough to last us for long time. Let’s go back, I’m getting hungry.”

“Hai, Inuyasha.” Kagome nodded, the rest gave no objections. “Demo, Inuyasha, how are we going to get back?”

“Sesshomaru and Jaken opened up a portal somewhere up in the spiral tunnel, we can get back through that.” Miroku lifted up the two miko girls and Kaede onto Kirara.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. He had enough of Sesshomaru’s help today to last him a lifetime. Somehow his brother’s new found helpfulness disturbed him. “Then let’s go.”

Sesshomaru suddenly came from behind, and without saying anything, he led everyone out of the cavern. They can still hear Megira sobbing inside, but decided to leave him in there.

“Sessho…maru..sama!!!” A squeaky voicerang through the tunnel as the group slowly ascended. They as stopped walking and saw Jaken running toward them, gasping for air, but yelling out for Sesshomaru at the same time. “Jaken is here!!!”

Haruko almost laughed. The toad was in pieces. He fainted as he finally reached Sesshomaru’s feet. Although Sesshomaru tried to hide it, he was obviously embarrassed by his servant’s inability. In anger he stepped over Jaken and walked on without even looking back.

“You can’t do that!” Sesshomaru stopped at Haruko’s sudden outburst. “Just because he’s your servant doesn’t give you the right to trample all over him.” The miko in training has been quiet during the entire battle. Her opinion of Sesshomaru changed at least a dozen times during the day; from adoration to disgust to admiration of his combat abilities and calmness. And now it’s back to disgust. She went over and picked up the fainted Jaken. Although she felt no concern for the ugly toad, she just wanted to shove it in Sesshomaru’s face.

Sesshomaru studied Haruko in silence, his expression never changed. Finally, “We’re wasting time.”

Everyone continued to walk, except for Inuyasha and Haruko. Kagome turned to ask, “Hayaku, why are you two stopping?”

“Odd,” Inuyasha whispered, “Normally Sesshomaru would’ve sliced her to pieces, just for talking to him.” He shook his head in confusion, then went to Haruko and took Jaken from her. “If he wakes up and sees himself in a human’s arms, he’s burn you to pieces. Let’s move!”

Kagome smiled at Haruko to snap her out of shock. I thought he’d at least tell me it’s none of my business.

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