234 years old.
She is an eccentric woman indeed, Jaken thought. Ah, that reminds me…
"M'lord, she will be returning to the western lands again. It has been three years since we have last saw her now."
Sesshomaru glanced from the corner of his eyes to the imp, causing the toad-like demon to 'shrink' in size and back away a little. Rin glanced between the two in confusion, wondering who they could be talking about.
"I see."
So, she'll be back to run amok again…
Rin was excited to know who this woman could be, she's only been interacting with men for the most part and she would like it if she had someone of her gender around. It was nice to be with Jaken and Sesshomaru, but it was not so fun when she couldn't do what girls like to do in their spare time.
"Lord Sesshomaru, Master Jaken," she called, "who is returning?"
The dog demon replied, "It is nothing, Rin. You will meet her soon."
She was upset that she wasn't going to receive an answer, but she decided to comply. If she was going to meet this mysterious woman anyway, there was no point in pressuring for more answers. She hoped she was nice!
"If you say so, m'lord."
"Kyah! It's been so long since I've been here!"
The redheaded woman cheered at the fresh air within the lands, her hands stretched above her head and a wide smile on her face. She leaned back, bending so far that her hands could reach the ground.
She made sure that her limbs were probably stretched so she wouldn't have an accident on her travels, she didn't want to see A-Un, Jaken and Sesshomaru as an injured woman; that would break her pride as a demon.
I wonder how they are doing…
She grinned.
No matter, I will go see them either way!
Staring down at the bottom of the cliff, she bounced off of the ground and scaled down the wall at impending speed—frankly, she was just falling. She landed on one of the branches with subtle ease, using it as a bounce board and pouncing off into the cover of the trees in search of the three.
In a few minutes, she managed to catch whiff of their scent and cheered at how quickly she found them. She must've been lucky to have them close by, she guessed fate was calling out to her after all.
Huh, what's that? Is that a… Human scent? Is he letting a human travel with him? Has Maru-Maru gone soft or something?
She landed on the ground, having smelt their scent end in the area and started searching for the dog demon. Oddly enough, not any of her friends were in sight and no matter how far she looked, she couldn't find anyone.
Funny, did I miscalculate something? It's not rare that I do that…
Or…
Maru-Maru's playing a game with me…
"Well then, I guess it's my turn to be 'it'!"
"Wrong," a voice whispered into her ear. "You're the one being chased."
She stiffened up, but was quick to jump before she could be grabbed by the dog demon and started setting out on her journey to the forest. Her laughter echoed in the forest, music to many ears and often mistaken for the sound of the lost souls.
Jaken, A-Un and Rin watched as their lord ran after the female, his face expressionless but there was something glinting in his eyes that suggested to Jaken that he was beginning to enjoy the game now. The two of them had disappeared into the forest, leaving the three to wait for him to come back.
"Master Jaken, is that the woman you said would be returning? She is very pretty."
The imp replied, "You are correct, Rin. She is Lady Miho. Sesshomaru and her go way back to 13 years ago, when they had first met. They now would meet every three to four years, and I dare say that they are rarely seen apart when they are together."
"Are they playing a game of chase?"
"Oh, yes!" he stated proudly. "They always play that game whenever they meet, I believe it's to test their skills and see how much they have improved. Lady Miho's speed rivals that of Lord Sesshomaru, maybe faster, but in strength, she holds not a candle to him!"
He placed his hands on his hips, his head up high and proudly showing how happy he was to know so much about their relationship. Of course, he could only grab bits and pieces here and there considering how little they interacted whenever the four of them—that's including A-Un—were together.
"Oh," the child mused. "Is she a demon?"
"Very much so," Jaken nodded his head accordingly, "she's a volcano lion demon; a rare species of demon that could only be found in certain parts of the world. She's practically the definition of immortal! But don't try to cut off her head, that is what would end up being her ultimate death."
The young girl awed at the information, finding it hard to believe that there was someone that could somewhat match with her lord's speed—sometimes he would be so fast that she couldn't really see where he was! No less, someone that could make the cold demon play a game of chase; it was a child's game after all.
Rin asks in interest, "If they're playing a game of chase, is Lord Sesshomaru always the chaser?"
"Normally so. Lady Miho loves to run away from fights as much as she can, unlike m'lord, who fights and dislikes running from an enemy. Of course, when they fight each other, they are somewhat of equal power."
"When do you think they will return?"
Jaken looked at the girl like she was an idiot, shaking his head and sighing at her foolish knowledge. He sat down on the ground, laying the staff in his lap and deciding to wait peacefully for their return.
"When the one being chased has lost the game, of course."
"Hehe, still so slow, Maru-Maru!"
She quickly ducked her head as a hand came flying to her face, a slicing wind passing by her head and chopping down one of the trees ahead. Her face paled at the sight, making her snap her head behind her with an irk mark on her head—she was pissed off now, was she trying to kill her?
"Hey! Be careful, I could've died there!"
Vaguely, she had noticed that one of his arms were missing—but she decided not to comment since that might make him mad and who knows what could happen to her if he gets mad. She never did like it when he loses his temper…
He simply replied, "I knew you would dodge."
"And what if I didn't? Dumb dog!"
She suddenly came face to face with a tree trunk, completely knocking the brain cells out of her head and causing her to momentarily stop in her path. She rubbed her poor nose, the pain thriving on her face and suddenly feeling a bit regretful for not paying attention to her surroundings.
Perhaps, watching Sesshomaru chase after her wasn't a good idea…
"Ow…"
She felt his hand land on her head, knowing that she had been 'caught' by the dog demon—not that she was going to have any of it. Though damn, her nose did hurt; like someone just chopped it off!
"You cheated…" she mumbled. "Cheater! Cheater! Maru-Maru's a cheater! Besides, the tree trunk got in my way!"
"You could have dodged it," was all he said.
"Nah-ah!"
She shook her head, holding her nose and trying to reduce the pain a little. Though, all she seemed to be doing was making it worse—she was sure that it was a bit red by now; just how hard did she hit that tree?
It must be made of rocks or something!
"You are a demon, accept your losses like one."
She puffed up her cheeks, breathing in heavily but reluctantly nodding her head at him anyway. It wasn't like this was the first time she had lost—considering that she was always the one being chased, she couldn't really win any of the games. She had a sneaking suspicion that that's how Sesshomaru liked it to be.
"Dumb dog," she grumbled. "You always win, this isn't fair! How come I'm never 'it'?"
He did not reply straight away, shifting his gaze away from her and staring down the pathway in which his companions' scents are coming from. He was quite used to her whining, managing to win these games easily by doing tricks such as these—it was much faster, and almost quite amusing in the way she would whine at her loss.
"That is enough. You can complain on our walk back."
"Oh, I will! I will make sure of it!"
"Ah, look Master Jaken! They're back!"
The young girl jumped off of the rock, a happy smile on her face as she ran to her lord and new 'lady'. Jaken and A-Un was quick to scurry to their location, the two-headed dragon quickly snuggling their heads against the female and causing a joyful laughter to escape Miho's lips.
"Aw, A-Un! I missed you too!"
She hugged both of their heads, petting the top affectionately before turning to the imp with a wide smile on her face. The toad-like demon stiffened in his spot, knowing what was to come next and started to run away—despite the fact that he already knew it would be useless trying to do so.
"Kin-Kin! It's good to see you again!"
Before Jaken could get away, he was grabbed by the small of his wrist and pulled into a hug that choked him to a near death state. Behind the scenes, Sesshomaru had walked to a tree and taken a seat. Reunions with Miho took forever, she liked to prolong things as long as possible and did the stupidest things.
To add, it was always amusing to watch her interact with people she hadn't seen for quite a while. It wasn't that it was funny, but more to the point that she was very sincere and acted very human-like. It was comical in some way, yet in others, it wasn't. Confusing in his mind, but he didn't mind.
Miho was a confusing person, there was no point in trying to understand her ridiculous thoughts.
"Um…"
Noticing the new voice, the demon loosened her grip on the toad-like demon—who had gone unconscious now—and turned her head to the owner of the voice. She spotted a young girl with long dark hair and bright brown eyes.
Aw, she's so cute!
"Oh, hello there! I'm Miho, what's your name, little girl?"
"I'm Rin, it's very nice to meet you, Lady Miho!"
The demon tilted her head to the side, "Lady?... Hey, Maru-Maru, am I a lady?"
"As far as I'm aware, no."
"What? That's mean! But you're technically not wrong," she said with a grin. "Anyway, I'll call you Rin-Rin from now on, OK Rin?"
The girl asks, "Is it a nickname, like Kin-Kin for Master Jaken and… Maru-Maru for Lord Sesshomaru?"
"Yep! I give everyone who are my friends a nickname! Only A-Un doesn't have one, since I named him!"
"And Lord Sesshomaru allows you to call him that?" Rin asks. "And what about Master Jaken? He doesn't like it when anyone calls him anything demeaning."
"Oh well…"
Miho gave her the thumbs up, winking at her and a wide grin on her face. She seemed like she was undisturbed by everything in the world, it was hard to believe that she had done any training at all in the three years she was gone. Sometimes, Sesshomaru wondered if he made a mistake by letting her live.
"I honestly have no idea! I'm just super duper lucky!... Although, there are times when Maru-Maru growls at me when he gets annoyed. So I try to not call him by his nickname as much as I possibly can!"
An eccentric woman indeed.
