Chapter 2
Artifacts
Tokyo was always busy, always running at a fast pace. Trains and buses carrying passengers where they needed to go, restaurants full of hungry people: the city never seemed to take a break. Sitting in his office, Sesshomaru found himself missing the simpler life for the thousandth time. The city was loud, there were too many people, and there were too many smells.
Walking to the back of the museum, he entered the armor and swords' room: his favorite room. In the far-left corner, his breastplate rested on its stand, looking worn from battle. Sesshomaru walked over to it and started to polish the piece, humming to himself as he did so. In the case next to his armor were two swords. Their sheathes seemed simple. One handle looked battered and in need of repair while the other handle looked as though no hand had ever touched it. Tessaiga and Tenseiga - his brother's sword and his own. The swords representing earth and heaven.
Once finished polishing the breastplate, he opened the sword case and took the Tenseiga. As he moved to unsheathe it, a voice reached his ears, "Mr. Tanaka?" 'Yes,' he thought, he had hired the Higurashi woman last week. 'She's early.'
"In the back," he called to her. After a moment, she appeared in the doorway. A few seconds of silence passed. "Ms. Higurashi, it is rude to stare," Sesshomaru said as he began to polish his most prized possession.
'Rude to stare?' The words took a minute to sink in. "Oh! Sorry, Mr. Tanaka!" Kagome said, bowing her apologies. She took note of the only three pieces in the room that seemed to receive care and wondered why he didn't polish the rest of the armor and weapons. Deciding she would ask about that at another time, Kagome cleared her throat and then spoke. "What would you like for me to do today?" Her voice was hopeful. This was her third day working at the museum, and so far, all she had done was sit at the front desk waiting to greet the visitors who never came.
"Greet visitors as they enter, please." Kagome's shoulders dropped.
"I could label some pieces? You know, I grew up living on the grounds of a shrine. You have a holy artifacts gallery; I could be useful!" She didn't want to plead, but manning the desk was not what she had in mind when she took the job. And so far, no one had visited the museum.
The holy artifacts were safely kept near the front of the museum. Being a demon, the pieces in that room caused slight tickling across his skin. He was too powerful of a demon for the artifacts to have any effect on him, but he still rather to not enter that room. He had noticed upon their first meeting that shaking the woman's hand had tickled. 'She must have dormant holy powers,' Sesshomaru mused. Perhaps making her responsible for that gallery wouldn't be such a bad idea. "Very well. The holy artifacts room is yours to maintain. Please study the items in the room. There is a small library upstairs that will have the books you need to do so." He paused, thinking. "Some of the pieces have had nothing published about them. For those, you may ask me." Nodding to himself, he felt that was all that needed to be said and looked back to the sword pulsing in his hand.
"If there aren't any publications on them, how do you know about the pieces?"
'Right,' he forgot for a second that generally people were unaware of demonkind. The few people he had contact with were the later generations of his friends. The memories of how he became friends with humans alluded him; they always had. "My family has owned this museum since it opened. Before then, they were the collectors of the pieces." His family being him.
Thank you for reading! Sorry it took so long to publish the second chapter; finals and papers prevented me from posting. However, the third chapter is almost finished and will be posted next week! Again, thank you everyone for the comments, they made my day!