Once again, I don't own Inuyasha and co. though if anyone wants to give me an early christmas present...
soz that this took a while to get together, the next chapter should hopefully come soon(er.) keep thosr reveiws coming! ^_^
"…" – speech
'…' – thoughts
…- locations
*…* - noises/sounds
^+^+^+^+^+^ - time has passed (later…)
*$%#&* - various words that if I wrote them my sister would kill me and drag me to hell (like a certain undead miko)
This stuff may change in later chapters, if/when I get my keyboard fixed (it's a bit skew-whiff at the moment, when I want "I have to hit etc. You get the picture)
A Flash of silver: A meeting in the woods
The wind whipped past his face as Sesshoumaru leapt through the trees. After the incident with the miko he had realized that his brother's group where most likely going after the shards that the rouge demon had. Normally Sesshoumaru wouldn't object to someone killing off a rogue demon for him but tonight he needed to vent a little, As good as Jaken was in terms of a stress reliever (a.k.a. a football.) he just didn't match up to tearing someone or something limb from limb.
Soon his prey came into sight, unwisely it was heading towards him, probably mistaking him for some low-rank demon, he had concealed his aura after all.
"Who are you and what do you want from me?" the demon asked in a demanding voice.
Dropping his concealment Sesshoumaru stepped into glade and gave his opponent a good look.
The rogue was a snake demon, a natural trickster, liar and swindler. Sesshoumaru guessed the demon to be about his thirties in human years, probably around the seven-hundreds in yoke terms. His scales ranged from dark green at his chest to pale grey at his tail, he had some human armor on, (A/N think of what the people who tried to kidnap Kagome in the third episode wore) but no other obvious weapons. Not that he had any need of any human weapons, his fangs and claws would be enough for most lesser demons due to the fact that snake youki where poisonous, though this demon was aged for his species he also seemed quite powerful for his kind, probably the reason he had so many shards in his possession. 'At least the coward hasn't used the shards for borrowed power, though it would improve the fight.' Sesshoumaru mused. The creature wasn't as strong as he would have wished though it would suffice for now.
Feeling the large aura expanding around him the snake swallowed visibly, pride and a sense of grim bravado keeping him where he was. Sesshoumaru humored the creature, if only partially.
"Stop attacking my villages." Sesshoumaru said in an expressionless voice. At this point the snake had worked out who he was facing and rather than shrinking away he reached into his armor, got out his shards and promptly swallowed them. The effect was instantaneous to say the least. Each of his scales shimmered a moment and then turned an inky shade of black, each with a metallic sheen. His slit-like eyes, once black now where a burning shade of red and the most obvious of all the shards appeared on his forehead, their dark shine now stronger than ever. The now transformed demon gave himself a look over and then turned back to Sesshoumaru saying:
"I, Ilari of the southern snake-demons hereby challenge you, lord Sesshoumaru of the western lands, for lordship over the western lands." Sesshoumaru said nothing and merely drew Tokijin, the rasp of metal on metal sounding very loud in the near-silent clearing. Here was yet another fool who was using the borrowed strength of the shards in an attempt to overthrow his lands and take control. His predecessors hadn't succeeded and neither would he.
Though he would be a fun opponent to toy with.
Ilari wasted no time, running towards the stotic taiyouki with claws outstreched and fangs bared, fully intent on separating him limb from limb. almost casually Sesshoumaru sidestepped and raised Tokijin, deflecting the poison seeped claws with an easy grace.
Deciding to 'play' with his new toy for a while, sesshoumaru didn't attack; merely deflecting his opponents blows and sidestepping occasionally, barely moving from his original position. internally grinning (not that his face actually showed this) sesshoumaru watched with a twinkle in his eye, watching his reptilian opponent grow more and more frustrated and angry as his jewel-enhanced speed and strength had seemingly no effect over his calm opponent.
Deciding to oblige the now royally peeved-off snake sesshoumaru stepped up a gear, even if it was only because his opponent reminded him much too much of his idiot half-brother and, quite frankly, that annoyed him.
in all honest sesshoumaru had noticed the snake's strength and he was paying more attention than usual. probably due to the fact that for once he could face an opponent that wasn't completely incompetent, but the game was starting to wear thin and decided to end the deadly dance.
a swift parry, sidestep and swing of Tokijin later and Ilari, once of the southern snake demons, was kneeling in a pool of his own blood. his glassy eyes stared up at the demon lord a few feet away.
color slowly seeped back into the clearing as the sun rose, light glinting off the jet black shards in the fallen demon's forehead. Carefully avoiding the inky blood sesshoumaru knelt down and retrieved the shards, as mush as he had enjoyed sparring with the snake, he had no desire to fight against the fool a second time where he to regenerate as it had started proving tedious the first time.
rising, sesshoumaru felt a familiar and currently unwanted aura. Naraku, more accurately a deamon doll of Naraku. Great, just what he wanted at a time like this.
"Sesshoumaru, i believe you have something that belongs to me." the puppet said, naraku's oily voice sounding through the clearing.
"Naraku you bastard, wait till i get my hands on you" inuiyasha yelled, bursting through the undergrowth, promptly skidding to a stop and pointing to sesshoumaru "and what the hell are you doing with my stuck-up brother?"
The rest of the gang arriving seconds later, puffing and out of breath where witnesses to an odd but unfortunately not unfamiliar scene. inuyasha, his face as red as his fire-rat haori was yelling obscenities and (rather unusually) conspiracy theories involving sesshoumaru, naraku and an basket of leeks for a reason that nobody could quite fathom. meanwhile sesshoumaru was standing there, the familiar raised eyebrow in place, keeping a weary eye on naraku and ignoring everything his half-brother had to say.
it was at this opportune moment that naraku had had enough of their squabbles and launched his attack, shooting a mass of tentacles at the two brothers. sesshoumaru, having seen naraku's approach managed to gracefully jump back a few metres but inuyasha who had bee too preocupied yelling about his older brother barely missed the slithering mass of tentacles, stumbling back a bit befor drawing tetsaiga
"now that i have your attention..." naraku drawled "i believe you have something of mine, sesshoumaru."