Four Seasons (Sesshomaru Fanfiction)

Winter: Chpt 16

16. Divine Justice

Akiko leapt and vanished, sword in hand, leaving Sesshomaru alone. The hot and piercing pain in his arm had now intensified, preventing him from moving.

How pathetic, he thought, and then, instinctively, he ripped the arrow from his arm. The pain doubled and he winced, throwing the arrow to the ground with malice. The familiar racing of his heart had returned, only this time it was stronger.

He didn't realize Akiko had come back until he heard her speaking, "I couldn't find them. I think they - why would you pull it out!?"

She rushed to his side, placing a hand over his own, and applied pressure to the bleeding wound.

"I have come to believe this is your wretched brother's doing," he spoke lowly, realizing he was slowly losing his composure to the pain.

"We both know that may very well be true, but that won't matter if you die in this human form." Her gaze was focused on his wound. Her answer surprised him.

This Sesshomaru, die?

"I could never die by his hands," he replied.

And most certainly not by a simple human made arrow.

Akiko finally looked up at him, frowning. "Well if we don't hide you and tend to this wound you might find yourself proven wrong."

"Hide?" He questioned. How dare she suggest that he stoop so low as to hide from the enemy?

But then he looked at her, his breathing heavy. There was no sign of amusement on her face. It was the most serious he had ever seen her. And strangely, also the most worried.

Soon after, he watched as her face lit up with realization, as if she had figured something out.

"Wait here," she commanded, "and keep pressing down on your wound."

A part of him wanted to do neither. He took orders from no one. And how lowly would it have been for him to actually bleed out and die from a simple arrow wound?

There was another part of him, though, that realized that Akiko seemed determined to aid him, without even questioning how he had gotten himself into such a situation. That part of him was also the part that knew that there was nothing he could do but accept the fact that he had been foolish enough to allow himself to have been caught in some strange woman's enchantment – to have been somehow turned into a human.

And so, reluctantly, he let himself slide down to the base of the tree, and she soon followed, kneeling before him, her eyes focused on the bloody hands covering the wound. She brought up her gaze, and those worry-filled golden eyes met with his just as she removed her hand and slowly stood up.

All she said was "I'll be back," before stepping away and leaving. And soon enough, he was left alone, sitting under a tree with nothing but the throbbing in his shoulder and the sound of his own labored breathing to keep him company. He stared off into the distance, still pondering how he could have allowed any of this to have happened.

But he knew exactly how and why it was all happening.

It was the result of a demon that he allowed to have grown cocky for far too long. Kyou's death, and that of anyone that had helped him, would surely be slow and painful. He would make sure of that.

Sesshomaru tried to picture the dragon demon but found himself unable to. He soon realized that the tall grass and the stream that he'd been staring at off in the distance had grown blurry. The sound of his own breathing had grown distant. His grip on his shoulder tightened as he fought against the inevitable. He could feel his consciousness slipping away, just as his own blood began to trickle down his hand. His eyes grew heavy, but still he resisted. He resisted up until the very moment that everything faded to black.