Kirara eventually reaches the backyard where she instantly recall her very first encounter with the Lord of the West. He was so hell bent to discover, who she was underneath the beige cloak that concealed her identity.
She peers down at her feet and notices that some of her blood splatters stain the fine wood. It was right there that she had almost permitted a youkai to cease a human's life.
The square hole in the floor captures her sights while she glances around to see if Sesshomaru plans to surface from the house at anytime.
She quietly tip toes over to the area when she thinks, 'Today's my last day here. I deserve to at least see what's under here.'
From the looks of it someone already had tampered with since it was unexpectedly unlocked after she pressed her weight on it. She jammed her sharp nails underneath the seam and lifted it with relative ease.
'It's completely pitch black dark down here.' She notes while she barely makes out a vertical ladder. She slowly climbs a little ways before she gently returns the top in its original position.
Kirara utilizes her pyrokinetic ability to create a flame so she can see where she going in such a dark passage.
The scent of flowers hit her nose when she wonders, 'What's exactly down here?'
Her curiosity becomes pique as she floats the rest of the way down and senses the soft surface of the earth's ground connect with her feet.
Another small ray of light graces her vision while the sound of water catches her ears, 'A waterfall?
Kirara surveys the layout that consists of a stream of water that cascade down in to a small circular pool of water. Purple tulips were strategically strum along the side of the pool water.
"Beautiful..." she softly mutters as she carefully avoids the lovely flowers that grows when she lay eyes on a full moon in the center of the pool.
As she treads closer to the water, Sesshomaru's scent and voice catches her, "You know they say curiosity kills the cat."
A smirk stretches across her face when she considers that he cracks a pun about cats.
"...and you should know that when you back a cat in the corner then their claws come out." Kirara sarcastically retorts as she continues to examine the foreign location.
"Anyway what is this place?" She inquisitively probes while she travels around the rim of the pool of water.
"It is none of your business. Now if you will so gladly depart then I won't have to kill you..." He bluntly replies to her question.
Kirara continues to stroll around except this time she bends down to study the purple colored tulips.
"I remember that this lady, who is a florist, says that any purple flower means royalty. I guess even you have to show your status in this world through flowers." She playfully assumes when she deeply inhales the scent of the flower in front of her.
Sesshomaru critically narrows his eyes in to carefully watch the cat youkai when he abruptly notices again that she no longer had raven black hair and red eyes but instead she had blonde hair and black eyes and her whiskers were completely gone.
'What is this woman? Is she really a youkai that can change her appearance?' He regards since he never witness such a feat before.
"I can see that you are curious about my sudden change of appearance." Kirara clearly states the obvious even if she did not look him in the eyes.
"You did enter inside of what I tend to consider as a private place for me to gather my thoughts. I think that you are obliged to answer my question." Sesshomaru demands while he advances a couple of steps forward.
"Nope, I can't do that." She speedily comments when she judges from his scent that he nearly hovers over to where she kneels in front of the tulips.
Kirara can tell that he was not use to the word no as a smirk materializes on her face after she cleverly supplies an answer to his question.
"Why not?" his tone verbalized annoyance when he asked. She desperately attempts to bite back her laughter but it emanates as she slowly stands to her feet.
"You should ask Rin-chan that question. It's up to her whether or no she wants to tell you or not but I have extended my stay on her for a little too long now." She coyly suggests follow by a sigh when she mentions, "I shall take my leave."
As was about to make her escape, she feels him grab one of her elbows and forces her to face him, "You like to play games then you can't leave this area until you tell me what you were doing down here?"
Sesshomaru hears her chuckle to herself while Kirara relishes the fact that she has him out of character with her behavior. "It's not like you to get so fussy over a stranger now is it?" She asks after she snatches her arm away from his grip.
He merely watches as she starts to climb up toward the surface of the earth, she briefly halts to look at him, and casually says, "Since you were such a gracious host, I should at least thank you for hospitality even though it was Rin-chan who let me in."
'I really wish I had more time to figure out what this place mean to him.' she thinks to herself while she advances up the ladder, pushes the hatch upward and crawls out.
"Ms. Kirara," Rin's voice speaks up as Kirara closes the wooden plank back in to place, "I thought you had left without even a goodbye!"
The little brunette haired girl was at the level of her knees and notices she was almost on the verge of a breakdown in a fit of tears.
'She really does get attached to someone doesn't she?' She notes to herself while she wraps her arms around the girl and embraces her. Rin instinctively clutches on to her like a newborn baby would cling to its mother's thumb.
Kirara rubs the little girl's hair as she did the other night at the dinner table before she asserts to her, "I do have enough good sense to thank a new friend of mines!"
"After all if it was not for you, I would have starve to death!" She happily proclaims while she silently considers, '...and you would have been eaten alive.'
"It's no problem at all! Do you really have to leave right now?" Rin inquires about the woman's departure time.
"My other friends are probably outside right now so I can continue doing my job. Would you like to meet them?" Kirara suggests when a familiar scent hit her nose after she rises to her feet along with Rin.
She idly extends one of her hands out toward the brunette girl, who gladly accepts it without any hesitation or fear.
The wood softly creaks, which instantly signals to her that Sesshomaru finally makes his way back to the surface of the earth.
"It's about time that neko left the house!" The toad name Jaken declares while he was hot on his Lord's tail and retorts, "She has a rather snappy mouth!"
They curiously stand back and carefully watch as Kirara introduces Rin to her loyal followers.
"Well Rin, this is where we must part our ways."
"I look forward to when we can see each other again and on a better occasion." She claims while she diverts her attention toward Sesshomaru and returns it back to Rin.
"Do you promise?" Rin hopefully proposes as she hastily extends her pinkie finger toward the woman in front of her.
Kirara gently loops her pinkie within the little girl's and positively assures, "I do. Now run on back to Fluffy before he gets angry."
"See you later, Ms. Kirara!" Rin loudly broadcasts before she finally retreats back to the confinements of Lord Sesshomaru's vacation home.
"My lady, we exterminated at least ten youkais from this area and picked up enough food for the next town over."
"Where is your cloak?" One of her men curiously asks her before she abruptly points over one of her shoulders toward Sesshomaru.
"He sliced it into shreds because of a little misunderstanding. Do any of you have a spare?" Kirara loudly poses to her company of eight males.
One of them eventually produces a cloak that was similar to her old one and hastily hands it to her.
"See you guys later!" She cheerfully shouts as she eagerly waves goodbye to them but particularly toward Rin.
Kirara silently reveled at the fact that she at least had the satisfaction of getting under the Lord of the West's skin.
As the group travel towards the border of the village, which was their initial assign rendezvous spot. "Anybody received any word on who our next target is?"
"My lady, the agency has issued us our next mission while we were in the city." One of her many male travelers relayed the message on to the group while they settle on to the forest floor to plot out their next move.
"Did recon say anything else about the youkais we are suppose to chase this time?" Kirara probes after she plops down on a flat rock that just so happens to sit higher than her other companions.
"Recon said that that there were several threats from the towns that this group has hit. Items such as priceless artifacts was thrown away nothing of mere value was accepted." One of them reports to Kirara.
"So what was it that they wanted? Obviously, they either want one of the following two things: if it is not money then it is human bodies." Kirara renders her opinion about the situation.
"Very perceptive of you as always my lady! Instead of money there were mountains of slaughtered bodies piled on top of each other. No one really knew about the dead bodies until after a couple of days when the stench finally gave it away."
"How long will it take for a ordinary traveler to get to the destination?" Kirara curiously inquires to the one that presently reports the information directly to her.
"Based on the map's scale, it will probably take four to five days without being hassled by random forest ayakashis." The man estimates after he analyzes the map.
"Luckily for us, neither one of us is ordinary, if we don't make the trip within three days then I will have to call the mission off! You all now that I don't want that to happen since I have established a good track record. So you all better keep up!" Kirara comments before she stand to her feet and dashes in the direction of their next destination.
Her companions exchange blank looks with each other before they realize that they better trail behind their leader so they won't be left behind and miss out on all the action.
1111
Back at Lord Sesshomaru's vacation home,
Rin patiently waits alongside Jaken before Lord Sesshomaru finally emerges from his vacation quarters, "Where's Ah-Uh?"
"I arranged for them to met us at our intended checkpoint area before we left the village, but don't worry about that little girl." Jaken answers her question after being poke in the arm for the answer.
"That was quite nice of you Lord Jaken." Rin kindly thanks the green toad creature to the side of her when Sesshomaru leisurely venture toward the exit of his gate. The arrival of that woman along with two cases of youkais that randomly appears in his home made it completely unsafe for Rin to stay there any longer.
The same scent that belonged to that woman hits his nose while they travel down what he assumed was the exact same road she had used in order to exit the village.
'She knew something was here but what was her purpose?' he ponders to himself once they made their way to their checkpoint to pick up Ah-Un for Rin.
1111
A few days later...
Kirara unexpectedly halts a few miles away from their target destination when she suddenly inquires, "Are you sure this is the right location?"
A brief pause followed since her men attempted to catch their breathes since they ran day in and day out with a small break to sleep. "I am sure my lady." one of her men responds to her question.
She casually strolls around until she cautiously nears a trail while she carefully monitors that there no youkais within a four-mile radius around their current location.
'Are those track marks?'
Kirara bends down to observe the tracks, notices black residue that holds the distinct scent of gunpowder within the bed of the tracks, and calculates 'The tracks led in to the town.'
"Is everything alright my lady?" an older man with silver hair approaches her after he studies the expression of confusion present on her face.
"I found what looks and smells like gunpowder in the tire tracks but the only way tire marks would make such a deep imprint like this is if...it totes something very heavy." Kirara divulges what she discovers to her group.
"Do you think they could have been carrying firearms or fireworks?" the silver haired man suggests to her before she rotates around, steps over the bushes and makes her way back to the group.
"My lady...we are all ready to go." one of them reports while they all stand to their feet to show that indeed they were ready to move out.
Kirara scans the face of the men before her and could not help but to wonder as in how in Kami's forsaken name did she ever amass such loyal companions with her bad luck.
"Keep on your toes with this one!" She forewarns them before she explains why, "I found some tire marks with gunpowder residue on the trail a couple of steps over. These youkais may have some fireworks or firepower as an excuse to invade the town."
"Do you plan to enter first, my lady, or do we have the honor this time?" The silver haired man poses to Kirara as she scans the faces of her men again.
She merely removes her cloak from around her body, neatly folds it and diligently hands it to the silver haired man before she speedily disappears from within their sights.
'It seems as if it has a normal setting but those tracks lead all the way there.' Kirara thinks to herself after she realizes that the tire tracks lead all the way to what appears to be an inn.
'There's something off about this village...'
The streets were vacant of any type of human activity: no vendors selling their products, no children playing or running around and not even neighbors having conversations.
'It seems as if I have been spotted.'
She feels intense eyes hone in on her every move while she snaps her head left and then right but still there was nothing within her sights.
'I guess since no one is home I should let myself in.' Kirara assumes before halts in the middle of her stride when her nose picks up on something new, 'I am picking up an unfamiliar scent…could it be…'
"Which one of you want to handle this one?" a voice from the shadows speaks while they watch Kirara search through the abandoned houses.
"I had the last one!" One of them quickly responded in a bored tone.
"I'll do it, this time." One of them agrees since they did not want to have a commotion over something so simple as to who has to kill the woman.
"What do you think big brother?" another voice inquires toward another body that was present.
"Just get the job done with little to no noise." The voice sounded absolute when it spoke to the other voices.