Lone Scarlet Lily, Hidden in the World of Snow: Waiting for the spring.

Chapter 1: A Master's Farewell.

Things were different after my father died. The radical shift that spread like fire through the clan left some wary, but rarely did any speak out against it. After the corpses of those who did were found, their carcasses marred with claw marks of at least a dozen different demons, not many felt the urge to go against the usurper. It was not hard to figure out who had murdered our fellow clansmen, not when those in power used such methods to 'claw' themselves to power. Not when the same group that always accompanied the new head clansmen came into my master's abode with the signs of a struggle carved onto their flesh. Not even my master uttered such things as 'murder' in the safety of his home anymore. After all, no one was safe anymore. They knew it the moment my father's blood seeped into the floorboards of the living room. But, they were quite capable of ignoring such trifle things when it didn't affect them and their own.

Self-preservation is one of the few things that kept the clan together now. It always had, but now it had been given a different meaning by the newly appointed leader. It was cruel, and lonely. The result of which ended poorly for those that lived outside the snowy forest we called home. Now, we were effectively trapped with these murderers: unable to speak out… Unwilling to speak out. An uncanny quiet had broken over the small settlement after the scorching of our previous way of life died down. At the time, I was too young to understand what it meant. The fearful looks exchanged by those far older – and as I once believed – far wiser than me, spread their anxiety and fear onto me.

But what I once perceived as an ignorant silence turned out to be quite the opposite. All eyes were on the Igarashi* clan when they rid themselves of the opposition my father presented. Everyone silently calculated their gains and losses based on what they promised and offered the people of Kitabayashi*. Even the rightful ruler did nothing to take his position back when he came of age, settling for the important sounding rank the Igarashi gave him and the ease at which he lived. I thought that the people would see the grand words and promises of triumph and honour for what they were: foolish. However, by the time the strongest of the three clans set out from the settlement for the first raid they had all but ignored the warnings my father had sounded during his short reign.

Following the success and adrenaline of the first raid, there quickly came a second and a third. Soon, we were back to the old ways of the clans and thriving at the bloodshed that war provided the power-hungry with. Warriors were decorated and revered, and soon it became the 'duty' of the young to grow strong and take their place. A decade passed in this manner, and in the cold winter the repercussions of such reckless behaviour caught up to us.

"You seem a little stiff, Inoue*. Maybe you should unwind with me later on tonight? I'm sure that I can make it worth your while…" Itsuki Igarashi, the handsome black-haired and blue eyed man that currently lay in front of me, turned to look back at me as he spoke. A crude smile splayed over his lips as his eyes tried to meet mine, but I merely pressed harder into the deep wound of the heir. The man's muscles coiled and he writhed under my harsh touch, twisting himself back onto his stomach as the corner of my mouth twitching up into a satisfied smirk at the action. While good-looking and regarded as one of the strongest of his clan, set to inherit his father's stolen position… He also inherited his father's rotten personality.

Another raid had come back from the slaughter, and with it came a flood of adrenaline-filled demons who merely came to either retell their 'glorious' tales of conquest – which only contained the killing of a few unprepared and overwhelmed mortals, and what little glory that could be earned from such things disappeared like smoke with those details – or to make jabs at the Inoue clan due to the fact that I, an able-bodied Inoue demoness, would remain to waste time on learning medicine and other things they couldn't possibly understand. Most of the time, it was a mix of the two. And, most of the time they brought an audience to scrutinize my work on the minor injuries that would be healed in a mere day or two's rest. One such audience stood behind me, lining the back wall of my master's healing hut.

"Come on now, Itsuki! Why would you want to get involved with her? She's a pacifist, just like her father. That kind of cowardice rubs off!" Masuhiro Kitabayashi, the young man who was supposed to lead the village after he came of age and relieve my father of his duty, was one of the onlookers that crowded the room. He frequently followed after Itsuki, and many times I had mistook him for the man's shadow. He was strong, and surprisingly rather quiet and soft-spoken when not trying to impress his idol from the Igarashi.

The laughter spread around the room, the former Kitabayashi heir's words earning him wolfish grins and slaps on the back. I could feel the many eyes of the demons and demonesses wait for a response, burning beady holes into my back. They must have been terribly disappointed by my silence, as I bit the inside of my cheek to prevent a sharp comment from rolling off my tongue. After one too many incidents of brazenly saying what I wanted, the scolding from Master Katashi was one I'd rather not relive. I was careful to not break the surface of my skin, however. Dealing with these bloodhounds was tiring enough without the scent of blood riling them up, and being white-tiger demons certainly meant they would smell it this close – they have before. My, how our forefathers would weep over their respective line's progression.

Healing had been a long-dying art in the village of the white-tiger demons, dubbed 'Kitabayashi village' after the clan that had settled in the pine forest and from their midst a leader was chosen by the three clans. The successors of which had all been descendants of the Kitabayashi clan until the Igarashi took over. Master Katashi had been the lone healer for over a century or so before I came along, and he doesn't hesitate to remind me of that fact every chance he can. The story of how he became a healer stemmed from some kind of vague revelation he had in the midst of battle – one that changes in every telling, so it's something to look forward to in each lecture.

The act of healing in most demon cultures is extremely rare, as the natural healing qualities most demons are born with negates any sort of necessity for the profession. After all, if they can't heal from it with time, they've most likely been dealt a fatal blow. Most of the time, Master Katashi and I are simply applying a poultice to help this natural healing process along, increasing the rate at which the body recovers . Nothing more is required from us, but Master Katashi sometimes speaks of a legend passed down from healer to healer about a time where weapons were used against the demon race which slowed, if not prevented, the body from healing on its own. As a result of this, the healers of the white-tiger clan continued through the ages, no matter how unnecessary their set of skills seemed for the nomadic war-mongering clan of demons.

To be honest, most of Master Katashi's reasoning seems to be based on more fiction than fact, but I don't necessarily find hearing them unpleasant. Quite the contrary, actually. However, I believe that the main reason behind the survival of healers in the clans are mostly due to the fact that the Great Demon markings* have not appeared on any northern white-tiger demons for centuries. None of our most recent ancestors have ever obtained that much strength, and once the markings appear on a demon the higher the chances of a Great Demon line forming. Regular demons can't even begin to match up to the strength of one who has received the mark of the Great Demon, and as the healing abilities rapidly progressed when the Mark made itself known the ancestors of the northern white-tiger clan must've used the existence of the healers as a way to combat the strength of rival Great Demons.

"I'm finished here." My words rang through the room before I realized I had started packing up the medicinal herbs and bandages I had taken out when he had arrived, "Perhaps now you can stop wasting my time in order to brag about your mediocre achievements, and find some fool who will congratulate you for all your meaningless words."

In mere seconds after the unintended words slipped through my clenched teeth, a pull on the sleeve of my light blue kimono had me stumbling forwards as Itsuki whipped around to face me. His own kimono sleeves hung limply around his waist and his muscular upper body remained bare as he backed me into the wall behind me. Figures shifted like shadows in the corner of my eyes as the heir's audience encircled us, waiting to see blood like the ravenous beasts they were. Red-stained fingers drifted from my kimono to my neck, wrapping around the soft flesh as he shoved me against the wall harshly.

"What did you say, snow woman*?" He snarled in my ear before straightening his back and towering over my form, pressing onto my neck with a controlled precision that limited my access to air whilst also pushing my chin up with the ridge of his thumb. Our blue eyes clashed: his smug and demanding, mine furious and bold.

Yes, he would've been quite attracted had he not been the beast that humans certainly had nightmares about. The rotten creature that made its home in the fringes of fearful minds, appearing as shadows in the minds of the paranoid whilst all the while being more dangerous than anything flickers of darkness could contain.

"Oh? I thought that the Igarashi clan boasted about their exceptional senses, perhaps they were wrong all along." My eyes narrowed at him as he lifted me up the wall, and a soft slap met my ear when the straw sole of my zōri* slipped off of my dangling feet and landed on the wooden flooring. I clenched my toes around the strap of the remaining zōri, trying to prevent it from running down my tabi* and falling to the floor next to the other half of the pair. But, as I did so, I forgot to bite my cheek again, "Perhaps the new heir will be just as useless at leading the clans like his father is."

"You filthy half-breed*! I'm gonna free the Inoue from your stench!" He growled, tightening his grip on my throat until he effectively prevented air from reaching my lungs. For an added measure, after he realized that I had seen his action coming and made sure to breathe deeply before he cut off oxygen and was not giving the reaction he wanted, he reeled his fist back and slammed it into my stomach.

What oxygen I had left heaved itself from my body in broken gasps, and he loosened his grip slightly to let the precious air escape before clamping down on my throat once more. My body shook, struggling to make my burning lungs draw in the oxygen it desired. My fingers twitched, instinct telling them to free my neck from the pressure, but I wrapped them around the sleeves of my kimono instead of Itsuki's wrists. With more effort than it was worth, my arms hung tense at my side as I refused the wretched beast and his pack from watching me scrabble at his fingers uselessly. There was no way I could overpower the white-tiger demon, being merely a snow demoness myself, and my pride refused to allow him the pleasure of seeing me struggle against his might.

Darkness crept into my vision, the splotches dancing in front of my eyes and blurring my sight until I had to clench the fabric of my kimono tightly in between my fingers to prevent myself from rubbing my eyes in an attempt to focus my vision once more. I ignored the sensation of my thundering heart and bursting lungs in favour of returning the cold glare Itsuki sent me, hoping that I somewhat looked threatening in my current state.

"Itsuki Igarashi, I believe you should think more carefully about the consequences of your actions. The death of a healer will not be overlooked by the elders, even if you're the son of Isamu."

The second the voice sounded in the room, the Igarashi heir released his grasp on me. Falling to the floor, my lungs gulped down fresh air as I wobbled to my feet – still determined to glare into the eyes of my would-be killer. But he had turned his attention to Master Katashi, easily displaying the smooth expanse of skin to me. The wound in between the third and fourth rib on his left side had already closed, a fading pink scar in the place of the bloody opening that had been there moments prior. All eyes were turned to Master Katashi, the ring of demons that had formed around me long forgot my existence in the presence of the elder demon and most could not meet his judging and wise eye. But Itsuki did. He placed his hand on his hip as he did so, and I could imagine the fanged smirk he sent Master Katashi's way as he looked down upon the man who contributed to the clan more than that cub could ever fathom.

My hand slid off the wall, no longer needing it to stand as my breathing evened out. But instead of returning to my side, my fingertips slowly crept their way up my body. Feigning the peculiar movement to be motivated by fixing my appearance, my fingers lingered on the bow of my black hakama*, smoothing the unwrinkled fabric as I glanced at the eyes of the demons in the room. All were still focused on the direction Master Katashi, who was hidden from my sight by the stature of Itsuki, those present wouldn't abandon their fixation while the silent conversation between heir and elder was ongoing. My fingers continued on their path upwards, brushing over the top of the black obi* that peaked out from under the hakama as I stealthily crossed my arms over my waist. There, hidden by my obi, my right hand traced the outline of the small hidden blade I had stuffed into the band of fabric. While it bulged slightly, the hakama managed to conceal it slightly more than the obi itself would: the fact that a folding fan had found its place on the right side of my body while the blade hid on my left side usually prevented most from finding out about the weapon. After all, an ice demon might just carry two fans with her during warm weather to keep cool.

It was winter now, and had been for a while… but the idiots this village comprised of failed to notice that fact. Unfortunately, Master Katashi wasn't one of those idiots. Before my fingers could even attempt to pull the small sheath from my obi – the intent being unsheathing the sharp blade and planting it firmly into the back of the disgraceful 'heir' and hopefully drive it into his heart from there – Master Katashi fluidly walked through the young demons and appeared before me.

His eyes met mine before noting the position of my right hand and its proximity to my blade, before flickering back to my face with a look that aged him enough for me to catch a glimpse of his true age. Like a petulant child, as I often was in his presence, my hand smoothly encircled my arm as I crossed my arms over my chest and I turned my head away from the sight of him. The walls that had surrounded me for the past decade or so had suddenly interested me far too much to return his gaze at the moment, after all. The faded colour of the wood and the spirals of age the once living material had been keeping track of was surely riveting, it had only took me a few years to see that even dull and decrepit wood had a story I was more than willing to explore at that moment.

The motion managed to keep the guilt from showing on my face, as it provided me with the guise of innocence. But as Master Katashi's look had been one of a parent scolding a bad child, I knew I would forever pretend like the thought of killing the heir hadn't crossed my mind at that moment. And he would forever pretend like he didn't know that it did.

The scowl that contorted my face at being found out certainly wouldn't help him feign ignorance, though.

"That woman you've taken into your custody is a disgrace to Kitabayashi! My father might've tolerated that wretch's existence on your account, Master Katashi, but when I become head of the clan I will not be so lenient!" Itsuki barked out his words, jerking his head towards the others and alerting them to the fact that they were leaving. They obediently went for the door, passing the Igarashi heir as he remained, glaring hotly into the side of my head until I turned to coolly meet his gaze.

"I hope your tail gets stuck in the door on your way out, jerk."

Itsuki growled once more, murder flashing in his cold blue eyes as I imagined the numerous ways he was no doubt killing me in his mind right now. But, he let out a hiss through clenched teeth, and stormed out of Master Katashi's hut. I trailed him around the corner, seeing his striped tail disappear from my sight and unfortunately not get caught in the screen door.

"Inoue!" I winced at his tone, a sigh escaping through my lips – which he no doubt heard – and turned to face a glare that rivalled no other. After all, Master Katashi was the closest thing to family I had left. He had taken me in after my father died, even though he always complained about it. Sometimes I thought I caused him more trouble than anything has in his entire life… But he hasn't kicked me out yet, and he's never threatened to.

"…What do you want, old man?"

"Do you plan to get yourself killed after all this time?! It is certainly a shame that you haven't the wisdom to keep your head as well as your pride!" He reached down and picked up the shoe I had and shook his head at it, as if pitying the poor thing for its poor luck in being chosen as my footwear.

"What would you suggest I do? Reward them for their arrogance and ignorance in equal measure? Stoke an ego while waiting for it to undo them?" Master Katashi approached me with zōri in hand as I continued in his silence, "Bah, don't mock me with such notions! A demon with any shred of pride shouldn't concede to such animals! I do not care what they may believe will make their point, it only serves to prove mine!"

The old demon knelt down in front of me, and held out his hand for my foot.

"H-hey! I am capable of putting it back on myself, you know!" But, even as I said it, my foot lifted on its own and placed itself in Master Katashi's grasp. He held it gingerly, carefully slipping on the lost zōri (a valiant warrior in battle, too soon had he departed from my foot) before standing up once more and in a split second returned to 'lecture mode'.

"You nearly died because of that foolish pride, Nozomi! Several times!" Master Katashi retreated further into his hut, and retrieved a bow and quiver filled with arrows from its decorative place on the wall.

He had been a warrior long before he had been a healer, and his choice of weapon was that which he held in his hands. The long bow's handle was tattered beyond saving, and the recently replaced bowstring was only a testament to the long-lived nature of the weapon. In my time training under him, I had come to realize that Master Katashi thought many things were mandatory for those in the healing profession. One of the qualifications had apparently been archery and the elder Kitabayashi clansman had instructed me in this area for many years – although I was sure at this point most of what he taught me that he claimed was a healer's duty had really been because he personally wanted me to learn. I didn't mind, and the argument continued as we made our way out the back of the hut and trekked into the woods. Master Katashi had set up his own archery range far into the now snow-covered woods so that the white-tiger demons wouldn't find out that he had been training me.

He said it was because he didn't want the others to realize just how horribly they butchered the art of archery like they butchered most things, but part of me at least recognized the fact that he was concerned for me. While being a healer had in fact saved me from certain death years ago, additional attention might not be welcome if I wanted to live…

Which is why most arguments we had stemmed from the fact that I often forgot to hold my tongue.

"It is not foolish pride! Death does not scare me-!" I spoke to his back, as he was leading me through the woods, weaving his way through the pine trees with ease and barely leaving any tracks in the snow. However, I didn't leave any tracks in my wake. I never left tracks in the snow.

"IT SHOULD!"

His raised voice was unexpected, and as he turned back to face me in the time it took me to blink at the loudest I had ever heard him speak. Birds called out a warning in the trees before they fled the area, startled by the sound. Then it was quiet, and the blue eyes frequently passed down in the white-tiger clan evaluated one another carefully. I didn't move, afraid to break Master Katashi out of whatever he was seeing as his eyes grew unfocused and stared off into the distance. Afraid to draw his attention to myself, I remained as still as a sculpture, the wind that trickled through the forest didn't even rustle my clothes or move a hair on my head.

Before too much time passed, he returned to the present. He turned on his heel and fumed silently as I trailed behind, placing a generous amount of distance between us. Not one word had been spoken as we reached the targets, and I moved out of habit as I retrieved the bow and quiver from his hands and got in position.

Taking slow deep breaths, I took aim at the target. The one that was high up on the park of the pine tree that when I had first seen it I thought it was impossible to hit the bullseye from the ground. How naïve I was. Notching an arrow to the bow, I pulled the string back and lined up the shot. I breathed in. Then I let my breath escape my body and released the arrow.

Thunk.

It hit its mark. As did all the others, until the quiver was empty.

But Master Katashi did not seem ready to speak yet, and climbing the tree to retrieve the arrows to continue practicing would certainly draw him out of the daze he currently found himself in. So, without pausing in the motion of drawing an arrow from the empty quiver, I materialized my own arrow. Bringing it to the bow, the crystalline ice shone in the cloud-covered sunlight that peered into the woods. Despite being made completely out of ice, it was a perfect copy of the arrows I had been firing before. My breath clouded the air as I continued, aim unhindered by the different material. It wasn't until every target had multiple arrows clustered around the center when a voice spoke out, breaking the uneasy silence.

"It should scare you, Nozomi."

He came closer, and I lowered the bow that had served him in many battles as he did so. The ice arrow I had been holding turned to snow at my command, as did the arrows embedded into the targets. In doing so, the chilly air warmed, and my breath was no longer visible. Master Katashi's still was, the puff of cloud appearing every now and then as he spoke, the cold air of winter drawing a tint of red to his wrinkled cheeks. With a curious eye, I glanced towards the sky and idly noted its darkening tint.

"And right now I know you think nothing of what eventually will claim us all. For now, that's alright. When I was your age nothing fazed me – if you can believe I was anything but old. Nothing scared me." He ripped a strip of cloth from his kimono's sleeve, absently plucking at the frayed ends that resulted before stooping to enclose a handful of snow in the fabric before continuing.

"Your father is dead. Much too soon: a meaningless death cut it shamefully short. Right now death is nothing but the final destination to all life… And I know that eventually your anger and rage will lessen as you begin to understand what death means. What that loss feels like. Your anger will turn to grief, and I know that when that happens it will be the most painful thing for you. And before you come up with some sort of smart comment, I lost my wife and newborn when I was very young. For years, all I could see was this burning red that consumed the whole world in its blaze. Eventually, the rage subsided and I cleared my mind, requesting to study under the healer. I wanted to find myself underneath the scent of all that blood."

The snow had melted in his makeshift pouch, and as the water dripped from his hands he glanced at it as if he had forgotten it was there. He unravelled it, shaking the excess water and snow from the cloth before he gently tilted my head upwards and started carefully washing my neck. The action reminded me of the earlier… disagreement… with Itsuki, and the blood-stained hands he had touched me with. Shifting my head slightly, I did find the skin to be slightly sticky, and glancing down to my kimono sleeve I could see the red stain had smudged itself into a glorious mess. It wasn't too big of a problem, as a short wave of the demonic energy of demons could typically rid one of such things, on clothes or skin alike. However, the smell of what I then recognized as the iron of human blood greeted my senses and I wrinkled my nose at the scent.

"While I will always wish you no pain, I hope you do find someone who makes you fear death. Makes you fear that loss. No matter how long demons live, we die eventually. We are not eternal, try as we might." He sighed, stepping back and carefully placing the reddened piece of green cloth on a nearby target before facing me once more, "But that is neither here nor there. Don't misunderstand me, Nozomi. I'm not saying that you shouldn't want revenge, that you shouldn't crave it…. But you were given a rare gift. I think it would be a great shame if you wasted it on the likes of the demons who murdered your father."

I took in his words, trying my best to understand what he was trying to teach me with this lecture… But I found myself only understanding the last part. It seemed as if he didn't mean for me to understand all of it right now either, but I knew he wanted to leave me some sort of puzzle to figure out after he left.

Not for the land of the dead, mind you. The land of the living. The lives of humans. He had been planning his departure long before he decided to look after me, that much was clear. I had never really taken him to have this… fascination with humans, but I never thought he would be serious about taking me on as an apprentice either. Although, the latter was probably due to the inane practices he instructed me on in the beginning. I mean, who could possibly understand the thought process behind having an apprentice healer balancing thick books on their head for hours at a time? Now that I think about it, it was probably payback for all the trouble he knew I would cause him…

That clever old man…

"I'll ask you one more time, Nozomi. And I will never ask you again. Will you come with me to the human's world? Will you not come with me and experience something… different? Something that, at its core, might not be as murky and self-serving as what we have witnessed in this place? In our very home?"

Master Katashi had asked me this occasionally leading up to his departure today. He wanted to travel through the villages of humans, and live in their world. It seemed like a fool's dream, but if anyone had the chance to pull such a thing off, it would be him. The human-like form of a white-tiger demon didn't seem too far off from that of a human after all. The pointed human ears, white and black striped tail, and the stunning blue eyes could be easily hidden by a hat and loose pants. If Master Katashi paraded around in a monk's garbs, few humans would ever question the demon healer. It would be easier for a demon such as myself to live undetected by humans, since I lacked the tail or animal-like appearance that identified most as demons.

Well, not aging would eventually become a problem… But Master Katashi wanted to travel, so he probably wouldn't stay in any one village for too long. He'd be okay, even without me.

"…I think that you'll be disappointed with what you find, Master Katashi. You think too highly of the humans."

"Perhaps, Nozomi." He gave me a wistful smile at the answer I had given many times before, "But I think I will be more disappointed if I don't find that out for myself."

A heartbeat of silence passed, and as returning to the village soon crossed my mind, my thoughts drifted towards the Igarashi heir and his father. My fingers twitched over the blade hidden in my obi.

"…I think I'm going to end up disappointing you very soon."

The admittance of my planned revenge disappointing my teacher stung, just like a knife pressed silently into my beating heart. I refused to meet his eye and fiddled with the tightly-wound string that was fixed onto Master Katashi's bow. He chuckled softly, and my eyes immediately lifted to view the source of the strange sound.

"My dear, you couldn't disappoint me even if you tried." A large smile spread itself across his face as he spoke, a softness that rarely showed itself was now freely pulling at his lips. He looked like a large weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.

…If I hadn't known any better, I would've mistaken Master Katashi for the young demon he still acted like. I guess he might've been young. Once. A very, very long time ago.

With that, Master Katashi turned to leave with nothing other than what he had on him. He didn't even glance back at the bow that remained in my hands.

But of course, I couldn't just let him have the last word. He had already reached the edge of the practice range, passing by the largest of the targets – the one I had started with years ago – on his way out of the forest.

"You be careful out there, old man! Make sure those bones don't rot too soon. You're not nearly old enough for that, yet!"

I saw him shake his head before disappearing from my sight. It was a strange feeling, one that lasted long after I retrieved the arrows and returned to Master Katashi's my hut. It hung heavy over my heart for quite some time as I simply stood in the empty building for a while, unable to do anything but bask in the stillness that now consumed the hut.

Master Katashi was gone, and now only one thing kept me in the village of Kitabayashi: and it was hardly a thought a 'pacifist' should have.

"Everyone! Grab your weapons!"

The loud shout shook me from my stupor, and I slowly made my way to the front door and slid it open. Peering outside, I could see a handful of white-tiger demons and demonesses running into the center of the village, making such a ruckus that soon everyone had gone to see what was going on about.

Masuhiro Kitabayashi stood at the center, panting loudly and out of breath. Itsuki went up to him, asking what had happened presumably. Masuhiro wasn't quiet about his answer.

"A priestess is coming!"

No one reacted, unsure why Masuhiro was acting like this was the end of the world. The northern white-tiger clans had faced more than enough priestesses and monks to warrant panic at such words.

"And… She's already single-handedly killed everyone stationed at the edge of the forest!"

This… this caused a panic. There was always a group of no less than thirty white-tiger demons guarding the entrance into the forest: a way to dissuade other demons from settling in the area and so that humans avoid crossing by the forest on their travels.

For a priestess to single-handedly defeat all of them…

I pressed my back up against the wall, taking deep breaths in order to calm my thundering heart and shaking hands.

I could only hope that this priestess didn't see Master Katashi on his way out.

* PLEASE NOTE *

*Igarashi clan: a clan of white-tiger demons that settled down with two other clans and started to from a village. They recently took power for themselves. Igarashi translates to: "Fifty storms".

*Kitabayashi clan: the clan of white-tiger demons that founded a village. Power has been kept in the family for generations, but recently the Igarashi have taken their power for themselves while the Kitabayashi heir was not of age to inherit the position. Kitabayashi translates to "North forest"

*Kitabayashi is also the name for the village the clan founded in the forests in the northern regions.

*Inoue clan: a clan of white-tiger demons that settled down with two other clans and started to form a village. The task to guide the clans of white-tiger demons fell to them when the Kitabayashi heir had not yet come of age. They have recently fell out of favour with the other clans due to the death of Hayate Inoue and the Igarashi clan's rise to power. Nozomi belongs this clan.

*Great Demon markings: the marks a demon receives when they ascend the ranks of a regular demon into one of great strength and skill. This process usually takes centuries upon centuries, as many years of battle and surviving as a regular demon in this harsh world are required. Even then, the mark is not guaranteed. Demons with these markings frequently pass their strength onto their offspring, and as a result some demons are born with the markings.

*snow woman: Nozomi's a yuki-onna, translated into a "snow woman" or "snow demon". As the name implies, most of her abilities deal with snow and cold.

*zōri: a type of footwear, similar to a flip-flop. I have no idea if this is plural or singular, so...

*tabi: ankle-high socks where the fabric creates a separation between the big toe and the other toes. I have no idea if this is plural or singular, so...

*half-breed: demons whose parents are of two different species of demon. Half-breeds only take after one of their parent's breed, and are generally regarded as 'impure' by demons and are regarded as a weaker type of demon. Unlike half-demons (human/demon), half-breeds are full demon (albeit of two different breeds: demon1/demon2) and do not share the 'weakness' of turning human each month. Half-breeds cannot change what type of demon they are (i.e. turning from their mother's breed into their father's, or vice-versa).

*hakama: a type of traditional Japanese clothing, they are tied at the waist and fall to the ankles. It is worn over a kimono.

*obi: a type of 'sash' used in traditional Japanese dress.

O

-Disclaimer-

I do not own the InuYasha movies, manga, or anime. The only thing I own are my characters and the fanfic!

O

So, here's this. This is a thing now. Cool.

Aaaaaaanyway,

You can find the reference that I'm using for Nozomi's clothing and whatnot on my DeviantArt profile under the same name (TheEmberWoods). Or you can search my username and probably find it that way as well (I tagged it... And I think that's how that works).

Next time on the LSL, an Inuyasha fanfic...

What in the literal world of Japan is going on?!

What is Nozomi's 'rare gift'?

Who are these people?

Who is the priestess?

HOW DOES THIS GET TO SESSHOMARU?!

You'll have to tune in next chapter to maybe find out... :3

Thanks for reading, Fireflies!

-Love, Ember ;3