Inuyasha Morishima ran a hand through his hair and sighed as he walked into the apartment. Work had been long and tiresome. He'd begun working at his father's cloning company Three years previously, which is when he'd first 'received' Kikyou as a gift. The girl was beautiful, poised, and to him, perfect.

Although technically he was only fifteen years old mentally and Kikyou was eighteen and human, he had proposed to her on her eighteenth birthday.

She had accepted.

In a little under a month, they were to be married.

He smiled, lightly touching the ring box in his pocket. "Kikyou! Tadaima!"

Silence met his call.

He frowned, walking deeper into the house. A strange smell was tickling his nose. His eyes slowly widened as he reached the kitchen, where a tea kettle was hoarsely whistling. He stepped into the room and immediately fell backwards out of the room. He stared at the room, and took several steadying breaths. 'No...god no...' He squeezed his eyes shut and prayed that it was just a dream. A lie.

Anything but the truth.

However, when he opened them again, the scene hadn't changed.

Kikyou lay on the floor in front of the sink, a knife loosely in her relaxed grip. Blood pooled on the floor around her. Her face was splattered with it, and her hair lay in an ever widening pool of it. Her grey eyes stared lifelessly out at him. The blood was pouring from a rather large wound in her somach.

Tears pierced the hanyou's eyes and he pressed his hands over his mouth, backing away from the room. 'No...nonononono...' A dreadful realization hit him and he slowly stood, walking back into the room. On the kitchen table was a small scrap of paper with a not on it.

I'm Sorry...

He stared at the note, his heart throbbing. "K-Kikyou...why...why?" He picked up the note and slid into a chair, tears still dancing in his eyes.

His phone rang and he slowly pulled it out of his pocket. It was his brother. Slowly, he opened it, pressing his hand to his face. "Hello?" He asked softly.

"What's wrong?"

The hanyou began to shake. He pressed his hands to his face harder and tears began fall down his face. "K-Kikyou...she's..." He began to cry outright.

There was a silence on the other side of the line. "I'm calling father and the authorities. We'll be there soon."

The line went dead and He flipped his phone closed. He crossed his arms and pressed his face against them, crying without shame into them. 'Why...why?'

Inutaishou Morishima was dozing in his chair and was startled out of his sleep by the ringing of his phone. "Hmm? Whoizzit...?"

"Father, I just sensed a change in Inuyasha's youki. Something is wrong. It involves his fiancee."

The taiyoukai's eyes snapped open and he sat upright. "Get to his apartment now, I'll be over shortly."

Inutaishou hung up the phone and stood slowly. His face was noticeably pale as he snatched his coat from the hook beside the door and began pulling it on. A moment later, he slammed the door open, an action which caused his secretary to jump, startled and motion in the outside offices to freeze.

The taiyoukai turned towards his secretary, Kagura and took a steadying breath. "Cancel all appointments for the next three days. I have a family emergency to take care of." He said evenly, then gave a quick glance around the room. Naraku, his chief scientist was pacing at one of the phones, a scrap of paper clutched in his hands.

Kagura was already making phone calls.

Everyone else was presently scrambling to comply with the whirlwind they knew would be coming.

After all, 'Family Emergency' never meant anything good to a Morishima.

Especially when it was said in such a cold and dispassionate manner.

The taiyoukai swept towards the elevators, pulling his cell phone out and flipping it open without ceremony. "Kyoko-san...No, I'm afraid this is business. Send a few cars to Inuyasha's apartment. No, I don't know the details yet. Something involving his fiancee...yes." The elevator doors closed behind him, and he missed the stunned look on the scientists face.

Naraku stared after the man, his face pale. 'Something had happened to Kikyou? But she was supposed to finish the code today...She was leaving Inuyasha to be with me...' His eyes narrowed. 'The hanyou must have killed her...'

Of course, Inutaishou wasn't a mind-reader, so he had no idea of Naraku's rather misplaced interest in Inuyasha's fiancee. Instead, he got off the phone with Kyoko Mirimachi, then dialed up his driver, Touga Hoshimoto. Kyoko was the head of his security agency, which dealt directly with the human police, and Touga was a priest who could help in subduing Inuyasha, if it came to that.

Inutaishou prayed that it didn't. "Touga-kun. Bring the car around. Yes, I know. I'm taking a few days off..." He listened to his friend speak about his recently graduated son and smiled a bit. "Married. Humph. And only a month ago, they were trying to kill each other. No, family emergency. Inuyasha's fiancee. I don't know. No, I don't think you should drive like a bat out of hell."

They said their goodbyes and he hung up the phone. He'd been friends with the Mirimachi's and Hoshimoto's for over a century, and each generation had someone working for him. Some he cared for more than others, as it was with Kyoko and Touga. The elevator reached the bottom floor of the high rise and he stepped out, finding Kyoko and Touga waiting with concerned expressions.

He gave a weak excuse for a smile.

They walked with him to the car and Kyoko split off, going and sitting next to the priest.

When the car began moving, he closed his eyes, resting his head back against the headrest. He had suspected something was wrong with Kikyou the day before, when she'd seemed to rush through her work and flee to the safety of her private car. He had asked her if she had something she needed to talk about and she'd shaken her head in that rather calm manner and said that it would all be resolved soon.

Her words now gave him a sinking feeling in his stomach.

What if Kikyou was unhappy with the prospect of marrying Inuyasha and he had been going to kill her? What if the boy's demon blood had taken over and he'd gone into a rage, killing those clone cops that were on their way there at that very moment. What if he...

He pinched the bridge of his nose. The what ifs were giving him a headache.

He had always been closer to his hanyou son than the full demon one. Probably because the boy's mother had died when both were old enough to remember her. Sesshoumaru didn't remember his mother, being only a year old when a band of rouge humans had murdered her.

The humans had quickly been punished by the judicial system. The magistrate had forfeited their trial and demanded their executions on the spot for murdering the woman.

Justice had been served for that death.

He had been sad, for he'd loved the demoness, but they hadn't been married long.

However, with Inuyasha's mother...

"Izayoi..." He closed his eyes slowly.

They had been married for eight years before she finally managed to conceive and carry a child to term. The resulting child was Inuyasha. She had nearly died in labor, suffering from hemorrhages.

They told him that she should not give birth again.

And yet, it was as if a switch had finally been turned on. Not six years later, the woman was pregnant once again. He'd worried and fretted, and then...he died.

She died in labor, and gave birth to a still born child.

A short time later, the room was bathed in the blood of the inept hospital attendants.

The enraged taiyoukai had been locked, by miko's, into the room for almost three days, until finally, the shield came down and two hesitant demon children walked in.

One was the now six year old hanyou, his hand protectively encased in eighteen year old Sesshoumaru's. Both boys walked towards the enraged demon and Inuyasha pulled his hand from Sesshoumaru's and threw his arms around his father's neck.

He'd almost killed his son, then.

But then, as he raised his claws to do so, soft sobs reached his ears and a brutal realization hit him in the face.

He was a father, still. He had a son that needed his guidance, that needed his love, as Sesshoumaru had all those years ago. Just like that, the blood lust had faded.

He knew what grief could do to a demon, and he worried that the passionate hanyou would probably fall victim to it, and the blood lust would consume him.

If he and the boy's brother couldn't ease the blood lust in the boy's veins, then he would have to do something he'd always prayed he would never have to do.

He would have to kill one of his sons.

Sesshoumaru found the door to Inuyasha's apartment was already open. Inuyasha's youki felt strange still, and the scent of blood filled the air. The youkai sniffed the air delicately, then moved towards the kitchen, where he suspected his brother was. He could hear sirens in the distance and knew his father had worked his magic, as usual.

He reached the doorway and looked dispassionately at the scene before him. Inuyasha sat at the table, a piece of paper clutched in his hands, his head lowered, face hidden by the thick white hair that was the trademark of a Morishima.

On the floor was his fiancee's lifeless body, surrounded by a pool of blood, her eyes staring blankly into nothing. The knife still stuck out of her stomach, one of her hands wrapped lightly around it. Rigor hadn't yet set in.

Finally, he allowed his gaze to return to the deathly still hanyou. "Inuyasha."

The hanyou lifted his gaze and Sesshoumaru breathed an inward sigh of relief. Perfectly normal hanyou features. Golden eyes, no stripes on his cheeks, smaller fangs and claws. He hadn't transformed.

Inuyasha closed his eyes in shame and lowered his face. His ears could easily pick up the sound of sirens coming towards his apartment. "Where's dad?" He asked softly, his voice sounding thick with grief, with pain, but he was controlling it well.

"He's on his way." Sesshoumaru pulled out a chair at the table and sat down, his face serious.

To anyone else, this scene would probably look like something macabre out of film Noir. Yet, it felt strangely normal to the two brothers, who had helped restrain their father after his bloody display at the death of Inuyasha's human mother.

No, this wasn't strange.

Not five minutes later, the apartment was swarming with human cops, and less than a minute after that, Inutaishou Morishima strode in, waving away the detective that was harshly questioning his son with a mere flick of his hand.

He was too powerful for them to question and they knew it.

Idly, he watched as they lifted Kikyou's body onto the stretcher and zip her up in a body bag. He didn't cry or feel much remorse for the death of the priestess.

It was true, however, she was beyond good at her job, she was still replaceable. He knelt on the ground with a handful of cotton swabs and took samples of her D.N.A. from the knife, his face serious. He knew that one day, his son would request a clone of her, and he should have this ready for that time.

Finally, he turned to his distraught son as Sesshoumaru ushered the last of the police from the apartment. "Inuyasha."

Once again, the hanyou raised his eyes. Upon seeing his father, his grief welled up inside him and he slowly stood, awaiting whatever punishment he would receive.

He was shocked when it wasn't punishment that was given, but a warm, gentle embrace, and a gentle pat on the back.

"I'm proud of you, son, you controlled yourself well." With that, the great demon released his son and gestured for the genuinely confused boy to take a seat. "What happened?"

Inuyasha opened his mouth, but his throat was swollen from grief and he caught sight of the blood on the floor. A soft sob escaped him and he slowly slid to the floor, pressing the palms of his hands to his eyes.

Inutaishou frowned. He hadn't seen his son cry in almost one hundred and sixty years, when his mother had died. Tears were something that were impossible for full demons, and difficult even for hanyou. Yet...

Inuyasha began speaking through his tears. "I came home...I called, but she didn't answer..." He wrapped his arms around himself, replaying the events. "I...I had just bought the wedding bands...today..." He drug his sleeve across his running nose in a rather childish manner. "I could smell blood...I walked into the kitchen...and she was dead." He took a steadying breath. "There was a note on the table..." He handed it up to his father.

The great demon frowned deeply, reading the note and then his heart froze over towards the girl who his son had loved. "Suicide...?" He growled. "What reason did the witch have to kill herself! You took better care of her than you usually took care of yourself! What fucking reason did she have to kill herself!"

Inuyasha shook his head, hiding his face. "I can't live without her...Please...please, chichi-ue..."

The term startled Inutaishou and he looked down at his son. Slowly, he shook his head. "Not yet, Inuyasha. You don't understand everything about the clones yet. Her DNA can only do so much. Maybe when you're older...I'll make you another girl...but until then..."

The distraught boy looked up in shock. "But I controlled myself, didn't I! I didn't go crazy! I controlled my frustration! I controlled my rage! Why!"

His father rested a hand on his shoulder. "I know it hurts to loose someone you loved. But give it time. I will clone her, but it will take time to get a decent success. If she were just to be used as food, I wouldn't worry so much, but the chips for a companion have to be far more refined than for the other kinds. If we don't get her exactly right, there could be a malfunction, and it could fry her brain completely."

Inuyasha frowned deeply, his face saddening. Slowly, he nodded. "Okay, oyaji...you win." He gave a tortured smile. "But...I don't want to stay here for the time being. It has too many memories...that I'd rather forget..."

Inutaishou patted his son on the back gently. "It will be done."