Disclaimer: DONT OWN IT

"How long until you claim her?" A clearly impatient feminine voice rang out, bringing the male back from his trance of thoughts.

"I will when it is right. She is not ready to awaken. Let her enjoy what she can of her mortal life, before the time of reckoning is upon us", he sighed in deep melancholy, knowing full well what was in store for the young woman, and he would stall the task that the fates bestowed upon her, by any means necessary.


It was dusk, the sky was cerulean blue, not yet lit with the lights of stars. Camp was being made, and the others went to attend to the small campfire, while Kagome's attentions were dragged into another direction. Kagome watched, as Inuyasha and Sesshomaru went at it again, one sided verbal sparring, then the fight ensued promptly two minutes after. Wasn't this getting tedious for anyone but herself? Inwardly, she groaned, life in the feudal era was just one sequence of battles after another, with the few moments of happiness she could spend with her friends, or in a hot spring.

Speaking of hot springs, she was owed a nice bath, after a long day of travelling. "Inuyasha, I'm heading off to the hot spring" Kagome called.

"Wench, don't you care about what happens!" Inuyasha growled in frustration

"Not really, it always ends the same anyways, see you when you're done" with that Kagome walked off hiding a smirk, not noticing the elder brother's raised eyebrow at the young miko's conclusiveness.

With the hanyou distracted in shock at the miko's speech, Sesshomaru took the time granted to send a blow to Inuyasha, consequently, landing the hanyou twenty-yards away into a tree.

"So weak, you are unworthy of this Sesshomaru's time" Sesshomaru spoke with great apathy, a perfectly trained façade. Sesshoumaru turned on heel, and disappeared into the myriad of woods, as if a vapor, while the angry Inuyasha began to scream a string of profanities, slumped at bottom of a tree.

While Sesshomaru walked amongst the canopy of trees, his thoughts kept being directed back to one source, Kagome, the one who plagued his mind every spare moment. She had always been the puzzle piece that never fit into Sesshomaru's philosophy of humans. Kagome was compassionate, duteous, just and fair, loyal, courageous, unyielding, and protective. This irked him beyond no belief that a human could manage to exemplify every characteristic that he deemed an honorable being. Humans had no honor, they were worse than even those of his own kind. Yes, he had very low opinions of demons also, but he was not going to proclaim that he hated himself, and demons seemed at least in some to be honorable, not the full of avarice and cowardice of humans. Sesshomaru had seen the great sins of humankind in situation after situation, fathers who would sell daughters to the local brothel to pay off gambling debts, mothers who would beat their children within an inch of their lives, men who would rape women for a pathetic attempt at control, and those humans who would kill demon pups only in hatred of their race. That one thoroughly disgusted him, he would never sink to such vile depths as to harm a human child. Rin, had been the first to show him the capacity of one human to surmount the rest in honorability, and with this Sesshomaru thought was the exception to every rule, but to count another amongst Rin had to mean something else. Something he was not so sure of yet, but he would find out.

"Perhaps" he thought "A series of tests would be in order to determine her true worthiness, and the end result, to finally banish her from my thoughts forever." Sesshomaru smirked at the thought of breaking her soul through his small tortures, as he picked up the scent of rain, trailing to the hot springs.

"First test, miko, the unyielding will, I doubt you will survive it"


Sorry it's so short, the next chapter will be longer. This is my first fanfiction, so people please review, so at least I'll know if I'm doing okay, or not, but don't shoot me off my soap box with flames. Also, yes I know my grammar is poor, which is sad considering I'm in college, but hey no one cares unless it's an English class, oh wait I'm a Creative Writing minor. I suppose this is going to kick me in the ass later.