SURVIVE

Oops. All that typing got my angst meter stuck on low, I guess the last chappie it was rather angsty... this one is well different.

River girl I am filling that gap – always planned to - :)

Just to reassure you, NO character death – the title refers to something else...

Read, Review and Enjoy

Chapter 8 : The Hanyou and Death

Inuyasha sat tracking the movement of the sun in the small windows overhead. Without food to provide him the energy he needed...his body and the barriers in his mind was healing – but too slowly, much too slowly. Being slammed around in the battle to destroy the collar had broken bones in his jaw, his ribs, his collar and his fingers. His backbones had been bruised, and some internal organs damaged. Funnily enough there was some indication that the worst damage had actually been treated, so maybe there had been a nurse – and Inuyasha had hurt her. He could not remember – as mush as he tried he could not remember. Inuyasha's thoughts chased in his head as he sat in the quiet cell.

After a week, if he was the kind of person to acknowledge that he was bored, he would have been shouting his boredom to the world. But than, boredom did not hurt, it did not damage and it sure as hell did not kill (though it may have felt like it) and Inuyasha was content with that. He had a few more days left to live. He was constantly hungry and the areas that were healing hurt bad, but all in all, as his last days on the earth Inuyasha had to admit they were pretty good.

No one was whipping him, kicking him, or otherwise causing him new forms of pain. He got to see the sun for a few hours of the day, the stars at night and feel the breeze that came though the little window. The water that he drank sparing tasted of wind and rain, and he got rare visits from bugs, a few that he managed to catch and give himself a tiny boost of energy. He got to visit his sanctuary twice a day, and spend time there healing, comforting Yasha and feeling at real peace. The new found privacy of his thoughts he was truly grateful for, and though his new owner would be the cause of his death, Inuyahsa could feel nothing but acceptance of the inevitable.

He supposed his calmness made him weak, but he had learned a long time ago – that a lone trapped half breed - had two choices, become the monster and beast that his captors wanted him to be – or be something else. If he could fight, when he could fight – he fought with everything in him – he fought to win. But when battle was impossible, when all his choices were stripped from him – raging at his fate seemed to only bring his tormentors joy. So he chose the other path – to go within himself – accept and survive, make his surface a pool of peace, and hide deep in his depth, the emotions, dreams and life that would otherwise have been stolen from him. He did not wish for death, he would not ask for death, but neither would he beg or ask to be saved.

The one blight that spoiled his peace, was in the form of the pretty demon that made in a point to visit and rant and rave at Inuyahsa. At first he had been concerned that the Demon would touch him, but after a few days they realized that the Demon truly did not intend to come into the cell. Inuyasha could have shrugged off the Demons insults and taunts, but because it was coming from a Demon and because of the absence of the collar's energy acting as an added barrier – Yasha could not be totally shielded from the visits.

The Demon visited daily, and showed them delicious foods that he taunted them with, and made a show as he ate in front of the starving Hanyou. He offered to throw them scraps if they begged for it, and when the half breed did not respond in any way, he threw poisonous barbs against them. Their calmness, in face of Manten increasing aggression and ridicule, enraged the demon. The fact that they never said anything to him, let alone ask or begged him for food, fanned the embers of the Demon's hate even further. In the hollows of his mind Manten knew he would have been begging a long time ago! To him that the lowly Hanyou did not beg or get angry – was an indication of the unnaturalness of the Hanyou. Was further proof that the abomination was tricking them. The Hanyou's lack of reaction to his taunts drove Manten mad.

What Manten did not realize was that his dishonourable actions and his words, were more effective than even he could have hoped. For the first time in their lives, Yasha was shamed, his belief in his Demonic heritage almost utterly shattered. The dreams and hopes of the Demon aspect was mercilessly eroded by Manten's poison and all the other aspects could do was try to comfort their disillusioned and disheartened demon.

Inu and Inuyasha, were actually beginning to be glad that they would never have to face the Demon Lord. They both knew, that if the Demon Lord or even the General who had taken him out of the Temple, heaped similar scorn on them- it would be the final straw - Yasha would break. Everything bright and shiny about their Demon, all his hopes – would be stripped away – the same way it had been so cruelly stripped from them. And while they could bend and survive, their Demon could not. Their Yasha would break, and death was infinitely preferable to that.

Except for those visits, the pain, and the gnawing hunger; the time of solitude and isolation was good – and they, with a strange serenity awaited the coming of the moonless night.

Jinenji, was satisfied. Tremendously satisfied. His trip to the South Eastern city had been a great success. He had opened a new trade route with the city, that would be profitable to both the Demons and the humans, and he had taught them how to grow the medicinal plants in a more natural setting to ensure the soil maintained its productivity.

Commander Kagura, had been most pleased with the deals he had made, and the plants he brought back had the healers almost jumping in excitement. He got a brief update that the collar had been destroyed – but was informed that they could give him no more details. He had not been present at the time of the collar's destruction and Lord Sesshoumaru had forbidden them from discussing the event or doing anything about it until he returned.

The gentle giant scratched his head, and shrugged, if his Lord Sesshoumaru had given a gag order on the event, he would be the last being to go against the will of the Lord.

Once the excitement of his arrival and delivery of the medicines died down, Jinenji felt distinctly uncomfortable. He was a healer to the core, and as he tried to sleep that night for a strange reason he began to feel a strange sense of disquiet and restlessness. He tried to shrug it off as his imagination, and forced himself to sleep. His sleep was far from peaceful, shadows and wraiths plagued his dreams.

In the morning he did a long and extensive search of the Demon Town attached to their Palace. Thinking that perhaps a plague or a sickness was about to break out he visited every healer, and walked down almost every street in their city. Of course he found many that needed his help – but not once did he find anything that could account for his internal turmoil and haunting dreams. He returned late into the night, and exhausted collapsed on to his bed. He hoped his tiredness would give him a dreamless night, his hopes were for naught. In spite of his exhaustion, the dreams got worse.

The next day, he was listless, and more than a little irritable (meaning that he had only 20 minutes to spare to listen to someone complain about unnecessary things instead of his usual hour.) He wondered if he himself was getting sick. So to clear his head, he went to the woods for a long walk. As usual, as he walked, sick and wounded animals of the forest came to him for assistance. Jinenji was happy to help, and for a time was distracted from his nagging worries.

The day soon turned to dusk, and darkness quietly swept across the land. Jinenji liked the quiet dark. His eyes accommodating the dark night, he made his way back to the palace. The closer he got to the palace however the deeper his sense of disquiet became. There was something – something in the air, it was like a sound just beyond his hearing, at shadow at the edge of his sight. A sudden sense of urgency caught the horse Hanyou off guard, and had him trotting faster towards the palace. He had made a terrible mistake– he was so used to the palace being a safe haven, he had failed to consider that the cause of his discontent was from within the Palace itself, and not from the surrounding areas.

He swept through the courts, the gardens and the halls, nothing was wrong, no one knew of a single thing wrong in the Palace – and yet Jinenji had a sense of impending doom... no it was not a sense of generalized doom it was something else... Jinenji came to a sudden halt in the middle of the walkway. He did not even notice the demons knocking into him as a result of his sudden stop. No - It was not a sense of doom, that he had been sensing.. rather it was death.

Death was at – no – in the Palace, and there was something wrong – unnatural about it!

Jinenji had sensed Death many times – birth and death – were both natural parts of life that a healer dealt with.

When his mother had died, death had come softly – gently and had been accepted as the next step of his mother's journey. It had been a peaceful passage. Sometimes death came for a fight, and he and death would struggle for the life of the sick or injured. More times than not – Jinenji won those battles, and Death respecting the fight was satisfied to retire and wait patiently for another day. Sometimes Death came in pity, the cool presence an act of mercy. And of course Death came to complete its duty, to honorably collect fallen warriors, and with the same sense of honour collect the villains. Death was inevitable, impartial, and Death came and Death left without regret. Collecting both the saints and the sinners when they died. Equally Death did not begrudge those that survived close encounters with Death, Death was happy to wait, and happy to bless the survivors - with the extended life, they had fought for and earned.

Jinenji knew Death, and this time he had not recognized Death immediately because Death felt unnatural – uncertain, almost as if Death – did not want to be there. The feeling sent shivers of fear up the Horse Hanyou's long spine.

Though he sensed Death – there were no clues to the direction Death reluctantly stalked the halls that night. Jinenji had to figure this out. No sure what else to do, he ran into back to the healers quarters – surely they would be some clues there. The healers he spoke to genuinely had no clue to what he was talking about, he was about to start running through the palace, when he finally noticed the small form of a badger nurse looking apprehensively at him. The nurse had bandages around her head, and her eyes were wide with stress. She was not the one death circled that night. The other healers moved away and Jinenji carefully approached the Badger.

"Little sister, what is it that concerns you so greatly? You need to recover, worry will not help you." He said gently.

To Jinenji's dismay, the nurse demon teared up, her lips began to tremble. "Don't be kind to me.." she whispered, "I failed Lord Sesshoumaru, I don't deserve your kindness."

"ummm.. a sweet little sister like you always deserves kindness, tell me how did you fail our Lord – maybe you are mistaken, and I can help." Jinenji said in an equally low voice.

She began to sob, "I..I..I.. can't.. I cannot tell you. Lord Sesshoumaru said it was a secret, and Lord Manten said.. that because I .. had failed.. it is not... not .. my concern. He has forbidden me from.." she could not continue as she cried in ernest.

Discombobulated, by her tears, and not wanting to make her say more than she could, Jinenji wanted to call someone to look after her, and was about to leave, when the sense of Death grew stronger. It was an anomalous feeling, for the first time in his 800 years as a healer, he felt as if Death was on his side, urging him on.

He hesitated for a second, than he gathered his will, and faced the little badger again. "Little sister, I believe you have not failed yet, please tell me."

"No! No! Lord Manten ordered me to tell no one – not even the other healers – he is in charge!" the Badger cried miserably – she wanted t o tell – needed to tell, but she had been ordered...

Jinenji took a deep breath, he was not used to doing this – had never done this in fact, but under the circumstances he had no choice. Steeling himself he said firmly – well firmly for Jinenji anyway - "Little sister, Lord Manten is not in charge of the healers in the Palace, I think I am the one really in charge of all of the Healers. Lord Sesshoumaru has mentioned that right? You heard him?" The hanyou was really, really glad when the little nurse nodded, he was not sure what he would have done if she was unaware of his conferred status.

"Good, ummm.. since I am in charge her, I am - well, ummm... I am errr.. o..o..ordering you, to tell me please! If you don't mind, of course." Jinenji managed to choke out, feeling like an absolute heel for being so harsh with the little nurse.

The nurse's eyes went wide for a second and than the words began pouring out, "Lord Sesshoumaru, asked me to care for the Hanyou, that had the collar. He had been hurt badly in many places when the collar had been broken – and Lord Sesshoumaru placed him in a room in the South East turret tower, so that he would not be disturbed. There was also something wrong with his mental barriers – so Lord Sesshoumaru wanted a healer like me who was low in mental power to look after him, and he wanted to make sure that he was kept away from other with mental power to give his mind a chance to heal. The whole time I looked after him, he did not wake up, but he was really sweet. And then, I had an accident and fell down the stairs, I don't really remember what happened, but Lord Manten said that the Hanyou must have attacked me. I told Lord Manten I didn't think so, but Lord Manten did not believe me, and he ordered me to keep silent – as I had failed Lord Sesshoumaru and the matter does not concern me... I know that is true.. but.. but .. no other healer seems to be looking after the Hanyou, and I have been so worried." Tears tracked down the nurses face, she really did not know what to do.

Jinenji, patted the nurses hands, it was all he could do not to run, but he was too much of a healer to leave the nurse so distressed, "It is going to be alright little nurse, I will look into this matter personally." He bowed to her, and felt the preternatural urgings of Death to hurry. As soon as he turned a corner, the Horse Hanyou galloped towards the South East turret. His heart in his throat as he wondered what he would find.

He raced up the narrow turret stairs, and saw a door heavily reinforced, locked and bolted. The usually gentle horse, braced himself and slammed against the door. It shuddered but did not give. He turned, focused his demonic energy, braced himself with his hands, with both feet he back kicked against the heavy door with both feet. The hinges gave as the door crumpled in the middle. Jinenji pushed the door open and beheld a sight he had never expected to see in the Palace of the Demon Lord of the West.

A black haired human, bruised, battered and leaking puss and blood from old unhealed wounds, lay chained slumped against the wall. His ribs and bones jutted out, a testament to the humans' advanced state of starvation. His breathing was weak and shallow, and the shadow of Death hovered over the human.

Jinenji roared a challenge and stumbled forward, he would not let death take the human. Than it seemed to him, the shadow looked up, and nodded, acknowledging Jinenji as a worthy adversary, only this time the challenge was unnecessary. The shadow waved Jinenji, to go to the human, to care for the human. Death had come to do its duty, but it was clear – Death did not want to be forced to collect this soul. Death really did not want to be there.

Nodding, accepting and unquestioning of the unique position Death was taking, Jinenji was already pulling out herbs from his bag as he crouched next to the inert human. Jinenji was not sure how long he crouched next to the huamn, doing his best to stabilize the human's condition. He only knew that he finally was successful, when he felt the soft brush of death as it passed by him, and Death with a sense of repose left the South East turret.

Satisfied that Death no longer had a duty there that night.

-tbc-

okay – okay sorry to disappoint everyone – but Sesshy is not riding in on shining amour to save the day – at least not yet – I hope that this is an acceptable alternative. Please, please tell me what you think of the new twists in the story. See, see the title refers to Jinenji as much or more than – Inuyasha, what did you think – and did you need the upfront warning?

Oh and yes it is still a Sesshy Inu story :P