The sweet smell of cherry blossoms fill the air. The wind begins to blow leaving a chill down her spine. When she turns she is warmly comforted by strong arms. His scent is calming, but this wont last long, he has to leave. She grabs his arm not wanting to leave, tears streaming down her cheeks. He smiles and kisses her softly. There's commotion filtering in. The sound of voices as he walks in the distance. She reaches out to him....
A school bell rings and everything fades.
Keiko starts to wake up as the bell finishes up its chime. She fell asleep through history again, maybe that's where the dream came from. She lifts her head to see where she left off in her textbook, The Feudal Era of Japan. She close the book and notice that everyone has left the room. It's 3:00pm about time to head home, she gathers her things and leaves.
Everyone is bustling around outside as they head to their clubs. Someone bumps into Keiko's arm causing her to drop her things. She bends down to pick them up but a foot stands in her way, she looks up to see Seizo staring at her. Seizo has always been the most popular girl in high school and once Keiko entered a couple years ago Seizo has been her worst enemy.
Keiko crosses her arms and sighs, "what do you want Seizo? Dont you have a freshman to torment?"
Seizo grins and flutters her hair with her hand, "And don't you have some boys to swoon over?"
Seizo had always been jealous of Keiko. She was an average girl yet all the guys adored Keiko. Seizo spends an hour every morning pretting herself up, yet the guys don't give her the light of day. Keiko pushes Seizo aside and starts to pick up all her papers scattered on the pavement. Seizo sees the opportunity and grabs a sheet from Keiko's hand. She stares at the paper and starts to laugh.
"And whose this?!?!?! HoHoHo!" she mocks Keiko.
"Give that back, its no one!" Keiko grabs the paper and tucks it away.
"So, you can have any man you want but yet the one you desire doesn't exist?" Seizo is shocked.
Keiko walks off not looking back, clutching her things tightly.
"You're Pathetic! What a loser!" Seizo screams out.
Keiko continues to walk, ignoring her cries. For some time Keiko has had dreams of a man, a man she thinks is just a part of her imagination. She stares at the sketch as she sits on some stairs. She sighs and tears up the drawing into pieces. A sudden wind picks up and Keiko smells something very familiar. She looks up and notices shes sitting in front of a shrine, she gets up and walks through the entrance. Inside the courtyard there is no one to be found, everyone seems to not be home.
"Hello?" Keiko yells, but is only replied with an echo.
Something catches her eye and she walks over to what seems like an old well, decaying and falling apart from age.
"Wow this must be hundreds of years old." Keiko whispers.
When peering down to look inside she feels a push on her back and she falls down, she covers her face screaming as she floats down and soon passes out from shock.
"I wish for money!" a bandit says, tossing a coin in his hand.
"Nah, wish for a woman." another says.
"Why would i wish for a woman when i can have money!" the first bandit argues.
A third bandit yawns as he lays down in the grass not too far off, "A woman is better than being with you two." he says.
The bandit closes his eyes, "I wish we had a young, beautiful woman!" and tosses the coin into the well.
Keiko slowly starts to wake up, moaning as her vision comes into view. A coin hits her in the back of her head, even though it is very small it still hurts. She gets up and throws the coin back, hitting the bandit in the head.
"Hey! What was that for? Hello?" She tries to see the top of the well.
The bandit looks down the well, not believing what he is seeing. "Hey! my wish came true!" he yells to his companions.
"Really? No way!" the third bandit gets up and runs over to the well so see for himself.
Keiko glares up from the bottom of the well, her arms crossed, "Can you get me out of here please?" she asks.
All three bandits look at each other and grin. Keiko raises an eyebrow, not sure what will happen. All of a sudden a net falls down and traps Keiko. She struggles as the net pulls her out of the well and onto the soft grass.
"Hey, what the hell! let me go!" Keiko kicks and screams as they drag her along.
The three bandits look at her and wonder, "Hmm, shes wearing weird clothes." one says.
"What are these?" another says poking at her skirt with a stick.
All three bandits laugh as they poke at her. Keiko begins to sweat wishing she had not gone through that well. Anger and fear starts to overcome her. Grinding her teeth she begins to growl, leaving the guys speechless. Everything starts to close in on Keiko, her eyes change into an amber color and her hair fades to a silver hue. A blue aura surrounds her as the bandits back off, she cuts through the net with her nails and leaps over the three men, they all stare mouths agape as she soars overhead. Once she lands she sprints off into the woods in a second, leaving the three bandits wondering what she was. They all look at each other and follow after her, weapons out.
Keiko ran for some time, not even out of breath. She looked back to make sure she wasn't being followed when...
"Ooof!" Keiko moaned.
She bumped into something, and bounced back onto the ground. She shook her head and was shocked when she saw this strange man in front of her. He had beautiful golden eyes and silver long hair. He was the man she had been dreaming of, down to the very detail in his clothing. She stares for sometime and he seems to be easily as schocked.
"Who are you?" he asks with a very deep voice.
"Um, I'm...uhh.." Keiko stumbled as the three bandits finally caught up to her.
They stop, panting and heaving from exhaustion. They look up to this strange man blocking their way, the woman they wished for sitting beside him.
"If you don't mind, we'll take the girl back." a bandit pants.
Keiko flinches not looking at them, expecting some confrontation.
The man grins, staring down at Keiko,"What would you want with a demon? I'm surprised she hasn't killed you already."
The three bandits look at each other in question, "We should be careful, look at his eyes, hes one of those masquerading demons!" a bandit whispers.
Keiko looks up at this man, "A demon?" she thought to herself.
The man steps in front of Keiko, his hand on the hilt of his sword. "I suggest you leave if its a fight you want."
The third bandit steps up and pulls out his sword, the other two back away. "I wont give up a woman to some demon!"
The strange man chuckles, "Okay then!"
He leaps forward pulling out his sword. The bandit's head is cut clean, blood spewing everywhere and all over Keiko. The head rolls to the two bandits. The body twitches for a couple seconds, then falls down lifeless. The two men cry out and run off as fast as they can, leaving the body of their fallen friend. The strange man cleans his sword and returns it to his waist. Keiko stares, not sure what just happened. Blood trickled down her face as she realizes where she is. The man walks up to her staring.
"Do you want to get cleaned up?" he asks
Keiko seems out of it, "Huh?"
He smiled then gave her his hand. "That blood will attract lesser demons soon. There's a hot spring not too far from here if you want to wash up." Keiko takes his hand and follows him down into the woods.
As they walk to this hot spring Keiko kept wondering who this man was and why he saved her, how did she get here? These questions start to eat away at her and she stops.
"Who are you? Why did you save me?" she asks.
He stops and turns to Keiko, "My name is Sesshomaru, i am a demon lord. I saved your life because you are also a demon with blood as strong as mine."
Keiko looked up at him clenching her fists. "How did i become a demon? i have always been human!" She then looked at Sesshomaru's clothes and noticed the time she was in. "It must be the well..." she said.
"So, you are from Tokyo then, you came through the bone eaters well." Sesshomaru says.
"Bone eaters well?" Keiko asks.
"You have some connection to this time, that's the only reason you went through the well, you must be a reincarnation of a demon that's the only explanation."
Keiko stared off, taking this all in. "Anyways, the hot spring isn't too far off, lets go." Sesshomaru begins walking again.
When they reached the hot spring Keiko's eyes beamed, it was a beautiful setting! She walks up to the water and sighs, the water is a perfect temperature.
"You can be on that side, i'll be on this side." Sesshomaru points.
In the middle of the pool is a large rock separating the two sides, giving them privacy. Sesshomaru begins to strip, putting his clothes near a tree. Keiko blushes and turns around, trying not to look. When she hears him enter the water she relaxes and starts to take off her shirt when she remembers that Sesshomaru is behind her.
"I wont look." he said, leaning on the rock. "Just get naked already and clean up, you smell of human."
Keiko quickly strips off her uniform and tip toes to the water, making sure that Sesshomaru kept his eyes closed, then jumps in.
"Ahhh" she croons as she submerges in the water. The blood turns red as it washes off her skin.
Keiko starts to wash out her hair and face, "Whats next, where we heading to?" she asks.
"I have a small castle beyond this forest, you can stay there if you like or go home to the well."
Keiko thinks about returning home, but then thinks about this days events and school and changes her mind. Sesshomaru begins to get out of the water, not caring that Keiko may see. She turns her head and blushes.
"Dont tell me you're that shy." Sesshomaru turns to Keiko, she looks at him and notices that his left arm is missing.
"What happened to your arm?" she points and the stub that was Sesshomaru's left arm.
He looks at it and sighs, "A defeat in battle with my half human brother." Sesshomaru groans.
He begins to dress and hands Keiko a kimono, "Wear this, your clothes smell and you'll get better clothes when we get to my castle." Keiko takes the kimono and they continue on their way.
After about 5 minutes Keiko begins to get cold. It has gotten dark already and the wind has picked up, causing goose bumps to rise on her arms and her nipples to show. Sesshomaru looks at her and notices.
"We'll be there soon, just past these trees, i will have Jaken bring you to a room. Rin will have dinner ready after that."
Keiko begins to shiver when she saw the castle behind the trees. It was a fairly small castle but big for a home. A small toad demon greets them as they enter the castle, this must be Jaken.
"Can you please suite Keiko-san with a room Jaken?" Sesshomaru asks.
"Yes lord Sesshomaru, this way." Keiko follows after Jaken down the hallway to a small spacious room.
The room is near the garden, giving off the smell of wild flowers. A small mat is placed in the middle with blankets and a head rest, a dresser near the wall with a mirrors not too far and some out fits are placed aside.
"These are lord Sesshomaru's old clothes, dinner will be served shortly." Jaken bows and walks out, closing the door behind him.
Keiko sorts through the clothes picking out a lovely kimono with cherry blossom pattern on it. she pulls up a Kakama and ties the himo tightly up on her waist. She looks at herself in the mirror and notices how shes changed, she can barely recognize herself. She ties her hair up with a comb on the dresser and wonders how these turn of events happened to her. A knock on the door interrupts her and she turns to open the door.