(Revision)

Inu 1/2

Chapter 1

Strange Water: Sesshomaru makes a deal

A rarely seen smile crept across Sesshomaru's lips. In his hands he held two bamboo stalks full of liquid. The liquid inside sloshed against the sides ass he tilted them slightly.

Jaken waddled behind him, looking at the mess he'd left in his wake.

"What are we to do with the body, M'Lord?" he asked with only a little hesitation.

Sesshomaru glanced back at the bloody crumpled heap of what had been a demon foreigner.

His eyes faced forward again. "Leave it," he said without feeling or remorse. He tossed the bamboo stalks to a startled Jaken.

"Bwagh! Careful with those, M'Lord!!!" he cried as he scrambled to catch them, letting the two-headed staff clatter onto the rocky earth.

Sesshomaru kept walking as Jaken fumbled with his armload. "Stow those until they are needed."

Jaken hastily put them into a sack and hefted it onto his back, trying frantically to catch up to his master. He dared not say anything more to him. This was the best mood he'd been in in many years.

Sesshomaru smiled to himself for the 3rd time in an hour. He had to almost suppress a laugh as he looked down at the hand of his newly acquired left arm. He clenched his fist, relishing the feeling of his own claws digging into his palm. The foreign demon had been kind enough to "lend" him his arm before the rest of his body had been rent asunder.

The demon had been traveling, simply passing through, but had obviously been having a bad way of it, having had to scrounge for food and frequently hide from the somewhat savage and powerful demons of the region. He had started out with a sack full of the bamboo flasks, but the brunt of them had been lost or stolen before he could reach his destination.

Then, he had seen the girly-looking one armed demon and his squat toad-like companion and smiled at his luck. The two would be easy targets, he had reasoned and began to feel a bit lucky. They didn't even appear to be carrying any weapons except for a sword, which looked as if it had never touched another being, (being the Tensaiga, it really hadn't) and the two-headed staff the toady-thing was carrying didn't look that formidable unless it had some kind of magic powers or something (which it did, but...). He reasoned that being out in the middle of nowhere, as they were, at least one of the two demons would have some food or drink and decided to try and trick them into trading him some for his flasks of bamboo (and then conveniently stealing them back after they were unwary of him). If that failed, he could always use the flasks on the two demons and then run away. Trouble with that was that the labels, which were paper that had been stuck on with a bit of tree sap, had fallen off quite a long time ago in one of the more humid regions he'd been traveling through.

He had approached the demons and tried to make small talk with the larger one, at first, but was met only with an icy stare and a cold silence that had been enough to freeze the voice in his throat and make him rethink his plan. Still, after a bit of hesitation, he persisted and began to explain to him his situation and hard luck to them in broken Japanese.

"You see, I have been traveling for quite lot time now." Sesshomaru looked incredibly unfazed and unsympathetic. "I would be very much happy if sirs would be giving me some food or drink."

Sesshomaru's gaze had remained forward and the demon had begun to get nervous and coughed a little. "Of course, I can be paying you. I have something that may be of help to sirs." The demon slyly looked at Sesshomaru's arm. "I seeing you not without enemies. Maybe you be needing my help?"

Sesshomaru had flinched at that and Jaken had flown into a sputtering fit, complete with hopping erratically up and down. "What?!? Lord Sesshomaru doesn't need help from the likes of you! Shall I dispense with him, M'Lord?"

Sesshomaru nodded, as he had become slightly annoyed.

The foreign demon cut in quickly. "You do not wish to greatly shame your worst enemy before destroying him?"

"Shut your mouth!" Jaken had franticly cried. And with that he had, perhaps for the worse, added, "The half-breed shames himself!" He raised the two-headed staff, ready to bring it down on the other demon's head when all of a sudden, he no longer felt its weight.

"Eh?" he uttered and started to look up only to feel the unmistakable crack of the staff against his own skull. "M-M'Lord?..." he had asked in confusion. Sesshomaru hadn't acknowledged him but had simply withdrawn the staff.

"I will allow you to speak," Sesshomaru said without turning toward the demon. "But you WILL be brief." It had been a command, not a mere suggestion and the demon nodded once, having still not fully comprehended the situation and danger he was in.

"I have with me," he had begun, "two flasks of strange liquid. It transform who it touch into something else. I give to you... for food and drink, yes?"

Sesshomaru was quiet for a minute. The demon smiled to himself and quickly went over a plan to steal the flasks back. To the right person, they would fetch a king's ransom. He let out a tiny, "fuh.""

"Hf." Sesshomaru had deigned to glance at the fellow, eying him archly. He shut his eyes and produced an ultimatum. "You will give them to me," he had said, turning and dropping the staff into Jakens waiting hands.

Sesshomaru held up his right hand, the claws gleaming perfectly in the light. "And I will allow you to live," he had said in his calm, matter-of-fact way of speaking.

The little demon had chuckled, belaying his doubt that the one armed demon could come within a hair's breadth of him and had quickly and self-assuredly retorted with, "But sir only be having one arm. Maybe it is I who should be dealing the threats, yes?"

The demon looked at Sesshomaru smugly and had time enough to blink before he felt the searing pain at his left shoulder. For a moment, he didn't understand until he had seen Sesshomaru sliding his arm under the sleeve of his kimono. He watched in amazement as it pulsed to life and Sesshomaru tried out his new appendage.

"I believe you were saying something about my arm?"

The demon stared in disbelief and clutched at his shoulder. He had begun to tremble and falter and had begun to fumble with the bag on his back clumsily producing from it two flasks. Real fear crept into his brain as he realized what a mistake he had made.

"H-h-here," he said holding one of the flasks out in his trembling hand, hoping it would placate the demon before him--the one he had sorely misjudged. The other flask sat next to him on the ground.

"T-take it. Is yours. Let me go. I give you no more trouble. Please."

Sesshomaru knew that had been true enough, he certainly wouldn't be giving him anymore trouble, but he wouldn't kill him just yet.

Sesshomaru took the first flask from the hands of the demon and uncorked it, sniffing it delicately as the little maimed demon cowered before him. His hand good hand pressed futilely against the still gushing wound that had been an arm.

Sesshomaru's eyes had hardened and he had turned to the demon with a calm expression on his face. "Take me for a fool, would you?" he asked in a voice that marked his disinterest and unsurprise.

The wounded one had shaken his head vigorously. "Never!" he had cried and shortly after had begun to ask for mercy.

Sesshomaru had been unmoved and lifted the cask above the demon's head. "Inside this cask," he had said in his eerily calm way of speaking, "is mere water..." He had slowly tilted the bamboo flask and let the water run out, much like his patience had been doing. The demon before him had whined and sniveled and his voice had become more high pitched. Sesshomaru had begun a little speech about how little demons shouldn't toy with others so superior to them when quite suddenly, his eyes went surprisingly wide (at least, for Sesshomaru) as he realized the change in the demon. He had tilted the flask up almost immediately, not wanting to waste anymore of the liquid he had just deemed valuable.

He had stared at it for a minute at a loss for words but reason soon found him and he had corked the flask again. A sly smile had begun to set itself onto his face as he had thought about the fun he could have with such a lovely elixir. The thought of his "brother dearest" being the end of such a trick as this made him all the more happy. Such a satisfyingly shameful and humiliating end would bring him no end of pleasure.

The noticeably smaller demon had still been cowering and quivering in a trembling mass. "For your truly exquisite gift, I thank you." The demon had looked up in surprise. "But," Sesshomaru had added. "Your sniveling offends my ears." And with a swipe of his new hand he had severed the demon into several pieces. The irony of having killed someone with their own claws had not been lost on him and he smirked soon after bending down to retrieve the rest of his prize and had enjoyed a thoroughly nice daydream about killing his half-breed brother.