InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Case of Double Personality ❯ Battle Scars ( Chapter 8 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

By: j0yrid3

Chapter VIII: BattleScars

Sesshoumaru followed Naraku's scent, leaping from tree to rock with unimaginable speed.

Unfortunately, the sight that caught his eyes was not Naraku, but Kagura.

“I've been waiting for you.” The wind user said.

The daiyoukai landed spectacularly right in front of her, his icy gaze piercing into her ruby eyes as he placed a hand on the hilt of his sword:

“Have you?” He said in a cold tone.

“I'm not here to fight you.” She said quickly.

“What reason is there for your presence then?” He asked, moving his clawed hand away from the sword.

She looked around cautiously, scanning the sky for any of Naraku's poisonous bugs as she answered in a low voice:

“The path you travel won't lead you to Naraku.”

“Have you come to tell me where he hides?” Sesshoumaru asked distrustfully.

“You know I can't do that!” She snapped. “I'm taking a big enough risk in giving you even this information!”

“Do not act like you're doing me a favor, when you are actually helping yourself.” He said calmly.

“I'm helping us both. We're on the same side.” Kagura replied softly.

“Hmph. You cannot be trusted. Naraku is a fool for letting you live.” The daiyoukai informed her.

Anger flashed through the youkai woman's eyes at the sound of his words and her hand gripped the fan tightly.

No, it was foolish, she could never win against Sesshoumaru, she thought, calming herself.

Maybe it was a bad idea to come and see him. Perhaps Inuyasha had a better shot of finding Naraku, since he had that miko with him. Then again, if Sesshoumaru was still traveling with that strange girl, she might come in handy as well.

“Is the miko still with you?” She asked.

“That is none of your concern.” The demon lord replied.

“Tell her to keep a lookout for strong purifying energy.” Kagura advised.

Sesshoumaru was losing his patience. Just who did this woman think he was?

He narrowed his eyes as the tips of his clawed fingers started to turn dangerously green with poison.

“Tell me where Naraku is.” He said calmly.

Kagura quickly took a feather out of hair and tossed it in the wind, thinking this would be a good time to make her exit.

The daiyoukai extended his hand in the feather's direction and a wave of poison hit Kagura's means of transportation, melting it. The wind user jumped off quickly, thus avoiding to turn into a pile of goo.

“Kagura.” He spoke, approaching her slowly and confidently. “You want to play games with me?”

She got up and started to back away from the demon lord as she thought of a way out of this. Running was no use as his speed was much superior to hers.

She turned pleading red eyes to his frozen golden ones, but that had no effect on him. He kept approaching her slowly, the tips of his claws still glowing green.

And in that moment of extreme peril, all Kagura could think about was how beautiful he was. Everything from the stripes on his face, to his golden eyes to the crescent moon on his forehead was perfect.

He kept coming closer as her back hit the bark of a tree and she realized it was a dead end.

His face was now millimeters away from hers as the hand with poison claws touched the skin of her neck. He didn't cut, nor did he release any poison, but it was a warning that he could.

Kagura was breathing hard and her whole body was trembling. If her chest would have held a heart it would be beating out of control right now, she thought.

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes, sensing something. He smelled fear on her, as it should be, but he also sensed something else. Something he had often sensed when near a woman, but never imagined sensing it on Kagura. It was the scent of arousal.

The daiyoukai knitted his brows, capturing Kagura's eyes with his golden gaze. He said nothing, just kept looking at her, trying to figure out what he had sensed.

She tried to pull away from his eyes, but found that she couldn't and just kept looking into them, mesmerized.

“So it is.” He said to himself, noticing her inner struggle.

She was an attractive woman and she had power, but still, the mere thought that she was born from Naraku was enough to ruin any good perception of her.

Right now, there was only one thing that he wanted from her.

“Tell me where the half-breed is.” He whispered in her ear, his poison claws moving down her neck.

It was getting really hot, Kagura thought. She had dreamed of having him close so many times, but this wasn't exactly what she had in mind. As pleasant as it was, she knew that if she didn't answer he would release his poison.

“He's in a place you cannot reach.” She said in a broken voice.

“I doubt the existence of such a place.” He spoke, in the most sensual voice she had ever heard from him. It made her practically purr and crazy thoughts kept going trough her mind:

“What if I do tell him where Naraku is? Maybe he could get in there and kill the bastard...Sesshoumaru did things that I thought impossible before, maybe...”

She was on the verge of cracking as a pack of Naraku's poisonous bees appeared over their heads.

“Shit!” She thought desperately. “Now what? I can't tell him, or Naraku will kill me and I can't keep quiet or Sesshoumaru will kill me...”

Sesshoumaru had observed the bees as well, but he wasn't going to let Kagura go. Why should he care about her fait?

A light bulb went on in Kagura's mind as she addressed the demon lord:

“Naraku seems to fear your miko. He has sent the Shichinintai.”

Sesshoumaru quickly searched her for any signs of a lie in her and he found none.

“How many of them still live?” He asked quickly.

“Three. Jakotsu, who you've met, Renkotsu, a fire user and their leader, Bankotsu.”

“The strongest three will not be easy opponents.” He thought with anger, letting her go and taking off with speed.

Kagura sighed with relief, watching him disappear. Her words had the desired effect, but she couldn't help but wonder why Sesshoumaru cared so much as to save her. Maybe it was because the Miko was with that little girl.

The demon lord probably feared that the Shichinintai would slaughter Rin and that's why he took off so quickly, Kagura reassured herself.

“Oh well, since I still have my life I could say this was a great encounter.” She thought with a smile, taking a feather out of her hair.

ooooOOoooo

Midoriko returned to the place she had left Rin and Ah-Un at the same time with Sesshoumaru, who looked landed elegantly near the dragon.

For a brief moment, she thought she saw something akin to relief on his face when he saw her. The impression only lasted for a second as he knitted his brows approaching her.

“You reek of Shichinintai.” He informed her.

“Your nose is as keen as ever.” She replied, ignoring his scrutinizing gaze.

Sesshoumaru wondered idly which one of the Band of Seven she had fought.

He had killed one of them, a poison user, Mukotsu, and had fought two others: Jakotsu and Suikotsu.

His poisoned hand had pierced through Jakotsu's stomach and his sword had impaled Suikotsu. Were they normal humans, they would have been dead. Unfortunately, zombies do not die so easily, he thought bitterly.

“I assume you defeated him, since you're still alive.” Sesshoumaru spoke.

“Well you're wrong.” She cut him off sharply; annoyed that she had to be reminded of her failure.

He decided to ignore her insolence, as he was more interested in finding out what had happened.

“How come you are not hurt in any way?” He wanted to know.

“I don't know. Maybe you should ask him.” She replied and turned away to retrieve her bow and arrows from behind Ah-Un.

So the one who had been defeated was her and her enemy had spared her life. Why?

Kagura said they were instructed by Naraku to kill the Miko, why would he not obey his master's orders? He should be satisfied that she wasn't hurt, but the nagging question bothered him greatly, it was like a thorn that wouldn't come out: why?

Midoriko was now officially pissed. It wasn't enough that she had lost the fight with Bankotsu, now this demon wanted details about her humiliation.

Well he wasn't going to get them from her. Thinking of that, she retreated to a corner of her mind, giving the other presence a little nudge.

Kumiko woke up and took over, analyzing the recent events. Midoriko had fought wonderfully, why she would perceive that as a humiliation was above her powers of understanding.

I mean, sure, Bankotsu did win, but he admitted it himself that she was a tough opponent.

And he didn't hurt her, that was kind of cute. “Not bad, Midoriko, not bad.” She smiled to herself, observing the memory of Bankotsu.

He wasn't the tallest of men, actually he was about her height, but he was still handsome. Long dark hair, dark blue eyes, well built, what more could you want?

Of course, there was that little problem about the corrupted Shikon shard in his neck and the fact that he was dead.

“You just can't find good men anymore...” Kumiko thought with a sigh.

“Good morning, Miko-sama!” She heard Rin's cheerful voice.

“Good morning Rin-chan, did you sleep well?” She asked the bubbly little girl.

“Yup! Rin dreamed of you and Sesshoumaru-sama!” She chirped.

Kumiko came up with a serious case of blush as she tried to look away from Sesshoumaru's amused eyes.

“Jaken. Take Rin with you and go find human food.” He instructed his servant, after properly waking him up with a kick.

“Rin will bring some food back for Miko-sama! Would you like that?” she asked Kumiko.

“I'd love that.” She answered honestly.

“What kind of food do you like? Rin likes melons. Do you like melons?” The little girl wanted to know.

Before Kumiko could answer, Jaken dragged the little girl away mumbling something about “silly human”.

Sesshoumaru seemed carved in stone as he leaned against a tree, watching the sunrise. To his surprise, the girl sat down next to him, yawning heavily:

“Don't you ever sleep?”

“I rarely require it.” He answered in a superior tone.

She nodded thoughtfully, but then, remembering something, asked him quickly:

”What do you know about the Shichinintai?”

“They were mercenaries and their skill was too great for their own good. Many Daimyo finally decided they were too dangerous, thus they ambushed them and cut off their heads.” He said calmly as if talking about the weather.

“So that's why the Shikon shard was in his neck...” She thought aloud.

“Tell me what happened.” He said quickly, finally letting out what bothered him.

She yawned again and turned sleepy eyes to the impatient daiyoukai.

“They had a fight, she fought bravely but her purifying powers had little effect on him.”

Another yawn interrupted her story.

“Of course they had little effect, the bastard's human.” He thought.

“Anyway, he made her drop the sword, but then he just stood there. She's really fearless, she even asked him to get it over with and kill her, which wasn't actually very nice since then he would have killed me too...”

“Get to the point.” He interrupted her.

“As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, he said “not today” and just walked away. Even when she said that she would take his Shikon shard the next time they met, the only thing he replied was that he's looking forward to it.” She said thoughtfully.

The demon lord seemed to be giving her story a lot of thought. Why did the leader of the Band of Seven ignore one of Naraku's commands?

“If you ask me, I think he liked her.” She said simply.

“I did not request your opinion.” He said coldly.

“Hmph, liked her...” Of all the reasons...

What a foolish thing to do. Then it struck him: foolish yes, and also very human. It was in their blood to give in to their every impulse.

He pretended not to notice that the girl knitted her brows and glared at him angrily. As this seemed to have no effect what so ever on the stoic demon, she got up and walked away and he could have sworn he heard a “Hmph.”

“Why that...It's no wonder Midoriko hates demons. Just what makes him think that he's above everyone else?”

Instead of cooling down, her anger kept growing, Sesshoumaru noticed. Interesting

Humans had such weird behavior.

Shortly after the incident, Rin literally dropped in, jumping from Ah-Un's back while he was still in the air.

Thankfully he was about to land, so she didn't jump from high up.

“Rin. Refrain from doing that.” He said firmly.

A human child was such a fragile thing.

ooooOOoooo

“Welcome back, Bankotsu-no-oo-aniki!” Jakotsu greeted his leader.

Bankotsu rejoined his comrades, looking more satisfied than ever. He picked up his Banryuu, looking ready for anything that the world might throw at him.

“Kohaku came by. Naraku's got another job for us.” Jakotsu informed him.

“Oh yeah? That's good news. It's good to take a break from seeing Inuyasha's ugly face every damn day.”

“He's not ugly! He's got the cutest doggy ears and that long silver hair and...oh! The beautiful color of his eyes...” Jakotsu thought aloud.

“Jakotsu! I don't care about your taste in men, to me he's ugly like hell. Just tell me who Naraku wants us to kill.” He said quickly.

“Some miko.” Jakotsu answered.

Bankotsu's eyes snapped toward Jakotsu as he heard his comrade's reply. He was ready for anything the world might have to throw at him, except this.

“She's supposed to wear armor and fight with a sword. Oh! He also said she had golden hair and we'll recognize her easily.” Jakotsu continued

Bankotsu's expression darkened with every word Jakotsu said.

There was no doubt now that the woman that he had fought in the forest was the one Naraku wanted them to kill. Great. Just great. He had finally found a woman with some spine, that happened to be easy on the eyes as well, and now he had to kill her. Talk about the irony of fate...

“But Bankotsu-no-oo-aniki...I don't wanna go chasing after some woman...I want Inuyasha!” Jakotsu complained loudly.

“Where's Renkotsu?” Bankotsu asked, noticing his absence for the first time.

“He went after Kouga.” Jakotsu replied miserably.

“Hey, Jakotsu, don't be upset, you can go after Inuyasha. I'll take care of the woman.” Bankotsu spoke quickly.

For the first time in his life, he was glad Jakotsu liked men.

“Really? You're the best, Bankotsu-no-oo-aniki!” His comrade exclaimed happily.

“Oh! Wait! Kohaku said she's with Sesshoumaru! That guy gives me the creeps...” Jakotsu remembered aloud.

“What's she doing with him?” Bankotsu asked in a louder tone than he had intended.

“Don't know. He didn't say.” Jakotsu replied absently.

Why would a Miko travel with a demon? Unless they were...

“Just my luck.” Bankotsu thought. “Well, Naraku does want Sesshoumaru out of the way as well...I'll grant his wish.”

A/N:

Dictionary:

Daimyo: Warlord

Ah, the plot thickens... :)