Summary: Our favourite prissy, icy inu-taiyoukai is confronted to an old acquaintance who might take him to reconsider his views about humans and his father's degradation
Title: I, Sesshomaru, Lord of the Western Lands
Genre: Action/Romance
Disclaimer: InuYasha characters, universe and story belong to Rumiko Takahashi and we're all grateful that she created them, because otherwise, we couldn't have so much fun borrowing them.
Arashirai, Haku and Kanako are my original creations. Please, don't steal them. If you want to use them in a fic, I would like you to ask me first. Or I'll send you hell. Thanks.
Rating: T, for violence and minor adult themes
Warnings: Some blood and severe injuries.
I have positively no idea of what exactly is Ah-Uh, so he'll be a celestial dragon-horse and, if you happen to know the proper denomination for the ... thing, just let me know.
hakama is a type of wide pants worn mainly by men in the feudal era
yukata is a kind of summer kimono that is traditionally made out of cotton and worn by farmers and common people in the feudal era.
Chapter 1. Dogs and Wolves
"Lord Sesshomaru! You have returned my great lord!"
An impressively short green toad-imp, perched on the croup of a two-headed celestial dragon-horse, was thoroughly expressing his gloat over what seemed to be a white dot at the very edge of his range of sight. His creaking voice carried very far across the meadows and, even though he was only a tiny outline in the distance, the lord in question still winced as the sound pierced his ears like the grinding of sharp claws over metal.
Jaken's voice was one of the main reasons he sometimes needed to part ways with his followers. He had often considered gutting the toad-imp when his constant blathering would become too much of a pestering nuisance ... but killing such a faithful, yet insufferable, creature for the soul motive of annoyance sounded somehow dishonourable, and he, Sesshomaru, granted great importance to honour.
He had also thought of simply leaving and never returning, but that would always put him under the impression that he was somehow backing away ... and the only word he could use to describe that kind of behaviour was cowardice. The last person to have pronounced that word in front of him – a foolish human war general – had ended up his pathetic life in very tiny pieces of flesh. A look of slight contentment briefly passed on his features at the recollection.
A cheerful giggle greeted his closer approach and its source ran quite clumsily between the scaled legs of a celestial dragon-horse who had had the time to get used to the little girl's erratic shifting and held perfectly still, which prevented her from being crushed. The dark haired child stopped her dishevelled race when she was four feet away from the tall slender dog-demon and welcomed him by pointing out the daisy chains with which she had adorned her hair, Ah-Un's mane and even Jacken's staff when he hadn't been looking. The two heads seemed strangely satisfied with their little floral crowns. The cold, ruthless, deadly taiyoukai indulged the corner of his lips to twitch at the sight of his protégé's excesses.
Rin's smile was the reason he kept coming back.
"Let us be going" he commanded softly and departed to lead the way, followed in his trail by a merry little girl, a grumbling toad-imp and a jaded dragon-horse.
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Hidden in the shade of the trees, a hooded figure let slip a snicker and murmured:
"Well, Sesshomaru. Since you refused to consider my offer, allow me to show you my gratitude."
As the baboon pelt fell over, it revealed a slender white haired demon, wearing white silk clothes underneath a dark grey armour and a clear cream fluffy fur draped over his right shoulder.
"No one denies a deal with Naraku" the demon said.
Yellow eyes gleamed with balefulness.
"Let us play a little..."
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Not really far from all of this, a young teenage girl, wearing dark blue hakama and an old and scruffy-looking yukata whose sleeves had been torn apart, was agitating a staff under the nose of a gigantic white wolf demon that didn't seem very impressed by the performance, if judging by his relaxed stance. The creature, which easily exceeded the size of a war horse at his withers, and was almost twice as long, if taking the tail into account, yawned widely, baring impressive fangs, and curled up back to sleep with a snort of contentment, its snow-white fur almost gleaming under the sunlight.
The girl kept swinging and slashing with her dark wooden staff under the strict and vigilant eye of the other demon in the area. A tall, black haired, pale skinned, red eyed okami-taiyoukai with wolf ears pointing out of her thick dark mane was glaring at the youth's attempts at wielding her weapon correctly. The demoness would sometimes growl a short order or a strict comment:
"Your wrists. More supple."
"You're out of balance."
"Widen the move."
"Lower your stance."
"What did I say about your wrists?"
To which the brown haired girl simply nodded and tried to fulfil her instructor's expectations. When it became obvious that the human was simply too exhausted to swing her staff correctly, the gigantic white wolf cracked an eye open and exhaled a deep growl:
"Sister, Kana is not as resistant as we are. Please, allow her to rest."
"Very well. Kanako, end of practice."
The youth sighed with apparent relief and leaned on her staff with a smirk.
"I am becoming quite good at that, am I not, Arashirai-san?"
The tall wolf demoness studied her student with a critical eye:
"You made progresses. But your wrists are too tensed. The way of the bojutsu is not about strength but flexibility and speed. Yet you keep forgetting it."
"I'm sorry."
"Apologies are not the appropriate answer. I value actions, not words."
The teen was about to make a disagreeable comment about how the wolf demoness would sometimes discourse over the different martial ways, but she finally decided to cautiously keep her mouth shut. Instead, she bowed deeply to her teacher:
"I'll remember your advices. Thank you for your help."
The taiyoukai was about to answer, when she suddenly froze dead and turned her head to face the wind, that had been blowing from the north since the morning. Her nose twitched and the white wolf stood up and looked around them, his ears moving nervously back and forth.
"Sister?" he growled.
"I smell something."
"Danger?" he posted himself between the scent carried by the breeze and the human youth.
The wolf demoness did not get the time to answer.
A silver white blur emerged from the bushes on the other side of the clearing. In the time necessary for an acorn to fall from an oak, the apparition had rushed at them, his claws glowing acid green, in a swift swipe of his fingers, a pale yellow glowing whip slashed through the air, and he vanished between the trees, a raging mad okami-taiyoukai on his heels.
Half bisected by the energy whip, the human girl looked down with complete astonishment at the huge crimson stripe now grimly ornamenting her yukata. She winced at the surge of pain that suddenly took over her senses and collapsed on the ground.
The white wolf dashed to her side and anxiously nuzzled the bloodied body.
Kanako half-opened an already almost blank eye and managed to breathe out a desperate whisper:
"Haku... help..."
Her eye closed and the wolf began to lick the wound, but the loosened clothing rendered the task uneasy. Despondent, he couldn't repress the anguished howl he let loose.
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A long sharp howl resonated in the not-so-far vicinity and Rin snapped her eyes shut at the distressed cry that brought back vivid memories she didn't want think about anymore.
Fear, run, pants, howls, fall, growls, fear, pain, fear. And dark.
Oblivious to the little girl's terrified state, Jacken rushed to his lord's feet and asked very cautiously:
"My lord, what was that?"
"A wolf."
Disgust was clearly audible in the taiyoukai's voice and Jacken moved a little bit backwards, unwilling to risk a knock from the somewhat volatile demon lord. But before the toad-imp had the time to really worry about being stepped on, Sesshomaru granted a quick look at Rin and began heading promptly towards the direction the howl had abruptly ended. A stench of youki in the area swamped his nostrils. He almost instantly turned back to his followers, just in time to see the jaws of a gigantic white wolf demon close upon Rin, lift her and flee away. The scent of her blood reached him and the inu-taiyoukai briefly wondered how the wolf had been able to come so close unnoticed when he wasn't even downwind.
He, Sesshomaru, hadn't sensed his approach.
Puzzled, it took him a whole second to throw himself after the insanely fast creature.
Jacken hadn't even had the time to react.
But he did react when an ivory blade, as sharp as a razor, lightly pressed against his neck. A sudden calm overwhelmed him and he turned slowly to look at the very angry and very red irises glaring at him.
"Where is he?"
"Who?" Jacken replied slowly, trying to hide his dread, looking discretely in the direction his lord had flown and praying for a quick return.
Following the line of his look, the demoness abruptly left, brushing past the grass at an incredible speed. The okami-taiyoukai hadn't smelled the stench of the filthy demon that had attacked them, but the area was swamped by the scent of human blood, and she was aware that the smell of fresh blood covered everything. She hadn't even been able to get a real idea of the toad-imp's stink.
When she realized she was heading to the clearing where they had been attacked, the clearing where Haku had howled to call her just before she had lost visual trace of the white blur, she understood that she had been lured away for the enemy to attack her pack members while they were left unprotected. Her red irises, rimmed with black began to glow menacingly.
A trap.
Everything had been a trap.
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So here it is. I do hope you enjoyed it and I will probably write down the next chapter shortly.
As english isn't my mothertongue, please, be nice: if you spot a mistake, warn me about it in a review and I'll make any correction necessary
Claywind
