Jaken just couldn't understand what was up with this odd woman, nor why his lord tolerates her behaviour with such little reaction. She could probably do whatever she wanted, and not ever get on the lord's bad side. Just what was up with this girl? Tell her one bad thing, she'll twist it into something good.

Tell her that she's going to die, she'll laugh and say "it's no big deal". Stab her in the stomach, she'll just smirk and taunt "what, is that all you got?" He had to wonder, he had to keep wondering what always kept this girl on the good side of life.

She was a demon, a monster that thrived on hunting and causing misery. A lion with the abilities of a volcano, and yet… She still manages to stay happy.

Why? Why was that? Why was she not like every other demon they had come across? Sleazy and arrogant demons that think they are all high and mighty? Why wasn't she like those bastards?

More to the point, why didn't Lord Sesshomaru kill her the first time they met? She had certainly caused a lot of disrespect, lots of confusion and more or less, annoyance. He wondered if it had to do with the fact that her personality made her so likeable, yet at the same time, she was also very detestable.

Seriously, what was up with this woman?

Miho: 221 years old.

The first time they had met the lioness, she had been trying to catch some fish with her hands and ultimately laughing at her struggles. She had spent the majority of the time clawing them out of the river, finally finding that catching them unscathed would be a impossible mission for her lack of talent.

At the time, Sesshomaru, a two-headed dragon and Jaken were doing nothing more than scouring the lands and checking that everything was in condition. The lord was the dog demon of the west, he couldn't afford to have his territory being threatened by a bunch of lowlife demons. Then, they heard her laughter.

"Jaken."

"Right, milord!"

The imp prepared his weapon, ready to burn whatever they come across—just in case they didn't want to have peace and instead, a battle. He wasn't going to have his lord fight a meaningless war. The nameless dragon did nothing but graze the lands, deciding that they would not move from this spot unless they were called upon by Sesshomaru.

It didn't take long for them to come across a stream, hiding out in the bushes and watching a woman trying to catch a few fishes here and there with her bare hands. At first, the dog demon mistook her for a human, but after careful thought and analysation of the area, he figured that she was actually a demon.

Despite that fact, she resembled a human very much and had almost little no details of demon attributes whatsoever. A half demon perhaps? She had red hair that only reached to her shoulder blades, having some rough and spiky features to it. She had two small neko ears on the top of her head, but Sesshomaru wasn't sure whether her hair was designed that way or if they were real.

She had pitch black eyes, there was nothing particularly special about them except for the life that seemed to burn in them—something he noticed that most humans possessed. Maybe she was a half demon after all. She was also short in height—at least, compared to him—and was probably around 165 cm or above.

As for her clothing, she wore a red hakama skirt, a white kosode that bared no sleeves and a black sleeveless coat with red insides. It seemed odd to wear such clothes, but it did fit with this day and age. She almost reminded him of that priestess that hung around with his half-breed brother before she died, Kikyo was it?

No matter, she was someone he didn't know nor seen in this area before and he intended to find out who she was. If she was no one of such importance or needed to be known, he'll decide whether to kill her or leave her alone.

Suddenly, she had pulled her hands from out of the water and looked in their direction with a wide smile on her face.

"You know there's no need to hide, I know you're out there. Come on out, will you?"

It didn't take much for him to confirm that she—at least—possessed demon qualities; there was no way for her to know they were there unless she did. She was definitely someone to watch out for in the future—someone to either kill for his safety, or have her as an ally. He preferred the latter, he had no time to deal with such trifles.

With those thoughts in mind, he stepped out from the trees and revealed his identity to the younger demon. She stared at him for a few seconds, her black eyes lighting up in an odd way that he couldn't comprehend before flicking her gaze to the toad-like demon.

"Hello there!" she greeted cheerfully. "I'm Miho, nice to meet you! What's your name?"

She bent down to Jaken, shaking his hand and completely catching him off guard. The imp nearly answered her in a relatively nice tone, but stopped when he realised what he was about to do—geez, this girl was affecting his personality, and he didn't know how!

"I'm uh… Wait! You can't fool me child!"

He pulled away harshly, but she just laughed in response and seemed not at all offended by his words. She was a strange person indeed, a bit too strange.

"Why you! How dare you laugh at me! Do not disrespect me! Or Lord Sesshomaru!"

"Lord Sesshomaru?" she asks.

She looks at the dog demon, narrowing her eyes and blinking a few times. She seemed to be thinking, like there was something she knew about him but just couldn't quite place it. What was up with her brain cells? Surely, she had heard of his existence?

"Oh! You're the Great Dog Demon of the west! Well, I'm pretty sure it's the west… It's the west right? Not the east?"

What is going through that brain of hers? Jaken deadpanned.

The dog demon's brow twitched, but he didn't say anything and opted to see what would happen next. The woman was weird, but there was definitely something about her that seemed oddly familiar—reminded him of a woman and a man he had met before his father had met his demise. Who was it?

"Well, whatever! I shall call you Maru-Maru from now on, Lord Sesshomaru! And you imp… Uh, what is your name?"

Suddenly, the dog demon was starting to regret letting this woman speak. He should've shut her up while he had the chance to—when her guard was down—but it seemed that she was on full alert now. Now, he must suffer the horror of this 'nickname' he had been given by the she-demon.

"It's Jaken… No, wait! You will not call my lord such a disrespectful name! What matter of creature are you, you deranged demon!"

She laughed, "Well, Kin-Kin, if you have to know, I'm a volcano lion!"

"Do not call me by such a wretched name, you wench!" Jaken hollered. "And a volcano lion? You cannot be of that species! They are ferocious creatures!"

Jaken is right. She is nothing of the sort.

"I could just prove it to you, Kin-Kin, but I'm hungry right now so you'll have to wait until later to learn whether I'm telling the truth or not!"

Finally, the dog demon spoke. "Why is that?"

"Well, I could show you and eat in my demon form… But food always tastes better in my humanoid form, so no!"

Is that her only reason? Or is she stalling for time?

"So, Maru-Maru, what are you doing out here? I thought the dog demon would be out and about, and—I don't know—ravaging human homes?"

Jaken said proudly, "Unlike mindless demons, Lord Sesshomaru does not partake in such useless actions."

"Ooooh!" she cheered. "How admirable! I'm just a lowly traveller that likes to annoy and prank people, demon and human alike!"

Is that truly something you should be saying aloud? Jaken thought.

"You are one foolish demon."

She tilted her head to the side, "Why's that, Kin-Kin?"

"I said do not call me by that name!" he shouted. "And as for why you are foolish, you are painstakingly acting as if the world is no danger to you, when clearly, milord could kill you with a twitch of his finger!"

"Kill me?" she questions. "Well, he could always try."

She sat down on the ground, picking up one of the fishes she managed to catch and started roasting it over a fire. Wait, fire? Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes, eyeing the finger the fire was sprouting out of—he had a bit of confirmation now. She was either a fire demon, or she was indeed telling the truth.

"It seems you may be telling the truth after all."

"Of course!" she told him. "I never lie unless necessary after all! Besides, if I lied, you would kill me and I rather not make any enemies!"

At least, not anymore than I already have…

She took a bite out of her roasted fish, crushing the bones with her fangs and swallowing it down her throat with little to no problems at all. There were many questions rising in the air from her weird answers, but Sesshomaru was sure of it, this Miho girl, was a demon, but what kind, was the question.

5 thousands servings of fish later…

"Ah! That was tasty! Man, am I full now!"

Jaken honestly couldn't believe the appetite of this woman, did she have no matters whatsoever? She did not bother to share her meal, nor did she bother to try and show some courtesy in the way she ate. She was chomping down on those fishes like they could be her last meal—which could be true, considering this was Lord Sesshomaru she was talking to—and ravaged like a wild animal.

"It is no surprise," he grumbled. "You had eaten thousands of fishes. You might as well have cleared the waters of any now!"

"Well, that's not my problem!" she stated. "So anyway, Maru-Maru, you wanted to see my demon form, no? I'll gladly show you now!"

Miho pushed herself onto her feet, dusting off her legs and clothes before starting to stretch her limbs out. The two waited for her transformation, but were suddenly surprised when bits of fire bursted out from her body. The black hues of her eyes spreaded out into her sclera, and her orbs were suddenly replaced with a blazing red colour. Leaving those things to be seen by the two, the rest of her body was engulfed by fire and covering her form.

A roar of ferociousness cut through the air like a knife, sending many creatures flying out of the area. Within seconds, something else had taken the girl's place and held a certain threatening feeling in the depths of her eyes. She had the body of a lion, but instead of having the usual blonde-orange fur, she had dark black fur with red marks spreaded across the body—it resembled that of cracks within a volcano.

She had a long black mane with red stripes, fire scaling at her feet, tail and man and her long tail was tinted with red at the end. The most prominent thing was the tattoo symbols on her shoulder blades; on the right was the moon and on the left, it was the sun. Both were in the colour of red. She was at least the size of an average rhino.

Haha, it seems that this not-so-ferocious woman is the ferocious beast. Volcano lion, Sesshomaru had not heard that term in years—they were very few of them in the world after all.

"You're… You're… Huge!" Jaken stated.

The lion demon seemed to smirk at the imp's words, and picked him up at the back of his clothing. She glanced at Sesshomaru, seemingly to be asking permission to play before bounding off when he nodded at her—he was starting to like the fact that she was a bit obedient towards him. Though, he did not understand why she didn't just talk instead of staring at him—perhaps she hadn't learned that yet?

"Oi! What do you think you are doing, you wretched woman! Put me down this instant, I am Jaken and I wield the staff of two heads! I will not hesitate to burn your head off!"

He kept an eye on her though, watching as she climbed up a tree and placed Jaken on one of the branches that she could reach. She jumped back down easily, making the tree wobble and causing the imp to hug the tree for his dear life.

"Why you! Put me down, you stupid lion! When I get down from here, I will roast you and eat you!"

Miho erupted a growl from her throat, but it seemed to be more out of amusement and trying to stifle her laughter. Sesshomaru could honestly understand why she would find the situation funny, since burning a volcano lion was practically impossible.

She transformed back into her humanoid form in a split second, her laughter being open to all while Jaken continued to shout at her. Sesshomaru did nothing of the occasion and only just watched what the she-demon would do next. She was very weird, and often reminded him of a human—not that he met very many.

"You act very human for a demon," he stated.

She grinned, "Well, is there anything wrong with that? I happen to like having human-like feelings. Besides, it's the way I grew up… I would go to hell first before abandoning what I believe in."

Interesting…

"Anyway, Kin-Kin!" she called. "Jump down, I promise to catch you!"

"What? No! Why would I do something so stupid?"

"Uh… Because I'm stupid?" she suggested. "I didn't realise demons had such a hard time trusting people… Ah well, just trust me, Kin-Kin! I never break my promises anyway!"

Wanting to see where this would lead to, Sesshomaru glanced up to Jaken and gave him one of his scary glares. Of course, that caused tears to rise in the corner of the imp's eyes, but he jumped either way and slammed his eyes shut. He was preparing to land on the ground and break a few bones, but surprisingly, he landed in something soft—arms.

He opened one of his eyes, connecting with pitch black eyes and noticing the large smile on the she-demon's face.

"See! I told you I would catch you!"