Old Dogs by Lilies for Mary

Prelude

A/N: Just be aware that I will update slowly. Fan fiction, unfortunately, is not on the top of my list of things-to-do, though I do enjoy writing it when a good story grips my fancy.

Be aware: This won't be your common S x K.

I am inserting this story where Inuyasha receives the meidou, but before Sesshomaru gets his arm back (though I will make mention of these things, and Sesshomaru will have two arms in this). This is an insert, not a continuation.

o o o o o o o o o o

Old Dogs: Prelude

The autumn air rushed crisp and clean into her heaving lungs as her loafers pounded the pavement at a frantic pace. The gentle tone of the school bell floated over the midtown streets, allowing Kagome to know exactly how late she was going to be as she rounded the corner and prepared her exhausted legs for the final three block sprint to class. Kagome rarely envied Inuyasha, mostly because it wasn't in her nature to envy anyone, but there were times she wished for his inhuman speed.

Mentally reciting the newest batch of geometry formulas she'd crammed mercilessly into her tired brain just a scant hour prior, Kagome was totally unaware of anyone surrounding her. Which would explain why she collided at full speed with a hapless pedestrian on that final turn. She bounced harmlessly off of his chest landing on the pavement in a graceless tangle of limbs and textbooks.

"Oo-ooow," Kagome whined as she sat forward. That would definitely leave a bruise! Scowling, she began to berate the man, who hadn't even lost his balance when she bombarded him. Fault was a secondary consideration at this point, as her morning had already been thoroughly spoiled by tardiness and a scuffed backside.

"Hey! Why don't you watch where you're – "

Suddenly, school bells and math tests were the furthest thing from her mind. Standing in front of her, complete with his dragon scale armor and voluminous moko–moko was none other than Sesshomaru. For a brief second, Kagome felt the icy fingers of fear grip her heart as a thousand questions presented themselves at once. If Sesshomaru was able to pass through the well, who else could? Sesshomaru was, at least for now, no longer an enemy, but what about Naraku? And why hadn't Inuyasha stopped him? More importantly, why did Sesshomaru seek her out once coming here?

"Sesshomaru?" Kagome gasped at last. "How were you able to get through the well?" Sesshomaru didn't answer, but continued to stand in front of her with an expression she determined was his version of shock. Kagome took a quick mental stock of the number of people nearby. Considering it was a weekday morning, it was thankfully quiet. Still, she couldn't let Sesshomaru stand in the middle of a Tokyo street. Someone was bound to question him, and then what? The ensuing visions of bloodshed and gore made her shudder. Maybe she could get him back to the shrine without too much fuss. She could always pass of his dress as theatrics and his markings as makeup or tattoos.

Rolling to her feet, Kagome rushed to pick up her books while trying to explain to Sesshomaru the precarious situation he had stumbled into. "Sesshomaru," she began, "you can't stay here! I know that Inuyasha never told you about the well, but things are different here than where you're from." Kagome straitened and turned towards him. He was still standing stock-still. The wind tousled his hair about his face, but for all intents and purposes, he may as well have been made of stone. Only the slight flaring of his nostrils betrayed the illusion.

"You can see me?" He said finally. Kagome blinked, somewhat shocked.

"Of course I can see you!" She exclaimed in a shrill tone. Sesshomaru winced, and then she noticed them...the faint creases that lined his eyes. He was older than when she last saw him. Now that she was looking, his armor and kimono looked slightly different as well, and he had two swords tucked into his yellow belt, when she was quite sure that he had abandoned Tokijin after it was broken.

Kagome glanced nervously around. An old woman was glaring at her warily from the bus stop, clutching her purse close to her side and a young child led her mother past the pair of them. No one noticed Sesshomaru, though she was receiving a few queer expressions.

Kagome swung her head back in Sesshomaru's direction, now her eyes were wide with shock.

"Sesshomaru?" But he was gone, vanished as though he had never been there in the first place. Kagome's arms were trembling.

'Was that really Sesshomaru?' she thought incredulously. 'It must have been him. He spoke to me. But if that was him, then that was his present self, not the Sesshomaru I know from the feudal era.' Suddenly, Kagome's head felt like it was whirling, and she sank to her knees. Everything around her seemed unnaturally vivid. The pavement was prickly and uneven against her knees, the wind whistled past her ears, sending a shiver down her spine. Kagome knelt on the pavement for several seconds, attempting to rectify the theories of quantum physics as she attempted to process the revelation that just occurred.

A light hand rested on her shoulder, making her jump to her feet in a sudden leap. She whirled around, only to find the old woman from the bus stop retreating from her with a frightened expression.

"Are-" the woman stuttered, trying to regain her composure, "are you alright, young lady?" Her concern sounded genuine, though she kept a healthy distance from the odd teenage girl.

Kagome raised her hand to the back of her head, laughing nervously. "Eh he," she coughed out. "Sure, yeah. Um, I just must be studying too hard, eh he." Kagome gave a wide, unenthusiastic smile. The old woman nodded slowly, not convinced, and returned to the bench to wait for the bus.

Kagome bent to retrieve her books from the ground for a second time, glancing around in the most inconspicuous way she could manage, but she did not catch a glimpse of Sesshomaru anywhere among the sparsely populated city streets. 'Well,' she decided, 'he's gone now.' Kagome rose to her feet, her legs a little unsteady, but no worse for wear, and hurried to make it for roll call, however futile it might be.

Sesshomaru watched her go. A sudden bout of nostalgia gripped him, reminding him of days gone by when he would roam the vast forests and valleys unhindered by sprawling human settlements belching smog and ash into the air. When he was young and reckless and his whip would bend into his enemies for the slightest abrasion of his character. When he would teach his son the secret paths through the mountains known only to creatures of myth and spirit. Sesshomaru's eyes smiled and he remembered.

"Enough," he berated himself, just before nostalgia turned to sour sadness, and he remembered things he preferred not to. Sesshomaru turned on his heel, and proceeded on his route, determined to attend to the lands under his care. His heavy boots clicked along the street as he walked leisurely towards downtown Tokyo.

Even though yokai had faded into myth, it did not mean that they ceased to exist. Instead, as mankind built up their pillars of science and reason, the line between the worlds of men and magic solidified and strengthened. Some yokai pulled into the deepest forests and highest mountains, preferring the unobtrusive purity of nature, while others lived among men without ever being noticed, not as humans, but in realms that overlapped the world of men like fine rice paper. In some parts of the cites, there were doors to abandoned houses that lead to the homes of well – to – do yokai nobility, and in the marketplace, there were just as many yokai vendors as human, though no man could see them. And still there were the mononoke, born of human suffering. These would never cease to be, not so long as mankind knew despair and sadness.

Humans still irritated him, in the way a mound of destructive red ants might irritate a farmer, but they were less irritating when they weren't in his way, brandishing swords and spears as though they could hope to defeat him. Indeed, they would be better off swatting at flies, for all the effect such weapons had on him; though modern humans, with their bombs and guns, were not something to be easily scoffed at. Still, yokai had the advantage of magic and the ability to shift between the stationary world of men and the realm of yokai, where concepts of physics and spatial reality were merely suggestive.

And mythical creatures had that final, most effective shield of disbelief to safeguard their secrets. Most humans were so affected by their modern lives that it was rare to need more than the most basic of magics to hide one's presence. Sesshomaru had been surprised when Kagome saw him. Usually, only small children, the grievously inebriated or insane could pierce the barrier of the physical world and actually see a yokai. Though, he should have known better. She was his brother's woman, after all, and had seen her fair share of the unimaginable.

'I never realized so much time had passed,' he thought. 'I should pay her home a visit and see if I can't spook Inuyasha. It has been a long time since I've gotten a rise out of that indignant boy.' The thought of his brother's angry scowl brought a cruel smile to Sesshomaru's face, and he imagined winking in and out of planes as his brother brandished his sword like an elaborate baseball bat. 'The boy has no class with weapons,' he thought soberly.

Sesshomaru stretched out his youki as he neared the closest subway. He descended the stairs at a calm pace, even as the humans rushed through him in a great sea of nameless faces and droning chatter that made his chest rumble and his ears twitch. Subways always gave Sesshomaru, mighty yokai though he may be, an awful feeling of claustrophobia. The cement steps were wet, slick with water and decomposition. Fluorescent lights bathed the tiles a sickly green, stained brown in spots where pipes had leaked out into the station floor. The damp stench of mildew permeated his nostrils, until all he could smell was dank earth and the stench of rotting garbage and rodent habitation.

Today, Sesshomaru went to visit Kodomokuno, an old yamainu that resided in the city's subway system. Sesshomaru never could understand why the old man preferred stagnant tunnels to the open forest, but a petition for his audience, especially from a subject who had served him and his family faithfully in the past, was not to be ignored. Kodomokuno rarely requested anything, and since he was making his rounds in Tokyo, dispatching of bloodthirsty, irreverent yokai that threatened the general population, he saw no harm in seeing the old dog, instead of insisting Kodomokuno come to his palace.

The last train rumbled away from him, swallowed by the darkness. In the opposite direction, two yellow orbs appeared, hovering over where the track would be. The pitch of the tunnel obscured the shape, though the form rolled and morphed in the darkness, as though it had no real form at all. There was a rumbling in the walls, like an approaching train, but the orbs did not throw off a light, as headlights would. They floated forward towards the station at a leisurely pace.

"Greetings, Kodomokuno," Sesshomaru announced to the darkness. The air grew still and silent, even the dust stilled in its place, held by an unseen force. The orbs blinked slowly, languid, at him. They approached the illuminated station lights, and a body grew out of the darkness. A large dog emerged, about the width and berth of a subway car. His shaggy, auburn mane was matted and crisscrossed with scars from innumerable battles. His great maw made up nearly half of his face. The orbs - his glowing eyes - lolled about with lazy interest. This was Kodomokuno, who bowed his massive head low, touching the tracks with his chin, and lowered his eyes in reverence.

"My Lord," he spoke reverently, "I am honored that you would grace this lowly fiend with your presence." Kodomokuno's voice was deep and soft and reverberated from every area, so that it seemed the very walls spoke.

"Not at all," Sesshomaru replied, nonplussed. "Tell me then, old dog, why you have summoned me." The dog's eyes shifted left and right, his nose twitched.

"My lord," Kodomokuno spoke at length. "I have heard rumors. Rumors that there is someone who would move against you."

"Oh?" This piqued Sesshomaru's interest. He had not received a challenge to his lordship in nearly four centuries. His power among yokai was, simply, unmatchable. He had grown painfully bored with the lack of stimulation. "Tell me then, Kodomokuno, who would be so foolish?"

'Nothing like a good coop to liven up a century,' he added mentally.

"I had overheard the conversations of some mononoke that deigned to trespass on my territory. I know not his name," Kodomokuno sighed, rolling his head to the side in supplication. "I only know he will strike soon, when the moon is dark. "

"Indeed," Sesshomaru said. The Lord of the Dogs was no fool; he took any threat to his kingdom seriously. His father had been foolish enough to dismiss Ryuukotsusei uprising until the dragon had amassed an army. Sesshomaru would not be so complacent in his position. Still, he had heard nothing, and his networks were extensive. This move may be headed by a lower yokai, a simple matter. "Is that all you can tell me, Kodomokuno?"

"Only an enigmatic riddle, my lord," Kodomokuno replied. "'The key is in the heart of the Inugami.' I am afraid I could not make sense of it, and the vagrants caught wind of me and vanished before I could apprehend them for you, o mighty lord."

Sesshomaru's lips drew into a tight frown. He despised riddles. "Indeed," he said, sobered. "Your loyalty is appreciated, Kodomokuno. Thank you for bringing this to my attention."

"Of course, my lord," the old dog said, again bowing low. "Now I shall take my leave." Sesshomaru nodded, and with that, Kodomokuno melted back into the dark tunnel and the air moved again. There was another rumble, and headlights appeared on the track. A train roared into the station, squealing to a halt before him and opened its doors. The passengers disembarked, moving past him with unseeing eyes as they hurried to their destinations.

Sesshomaru disappeared into the crowd like smoke on the wind.